The Motif Searcher: one word across the Douay, the Latin, the Greek and the Hebrew.

Judges 5:23

Curse ye the land of Meroz, said the angel of the Lord: curse the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to help his most valiant men.

Challoner: MerozWhere this land of Meroz was, which is here laid under a curse, we cannot find: nor is there mention of it anywhere else in holy writ. In the spiritual sense, they are cursed who refuse to assist the people of God in their warfare against their spiritual enemies.

Open Judges 5:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →

The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Maledicite terræ Meroz, dixit angelus Domini : maledicite habitatoribus ejus, quia non venerunt ad auxilium Domini, in adjutorium fortissimorum ejus.
Septuagint (Swete): Καταρᾶσθε Μηρώζ, εἶπεν ἄγγελος Κυρίου, καταρᾶσθε· ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κατοικῶν αὐτήν· ὅτι οὐκ ἤλθοσαν εἰς βοήθειαν Κυρίου, εἰς βοήθειαν ἐν δυνατοῖς.
Hebrew (WLC): א֣וֹרוּ מֵר֗וֹז אָמַר֙ מַלְאַ֣ךְ יְהוָ֔ה אֹ֥רוּ אָר֖וֹר יֹשְׁבֶ֑יהָ כִּ֤י לֹֽא בָ֨אוּ֙ לְעֶזְרַ֣ת יְהוָ֔ה לְעֶזְרַ֥ת יְהוָ֖ה בַּגִּבּוֹרִֽים

Haydock's commentary

Meroz. Where this land of Meroz was, which is here laid under a curse, we cannot find: nor is there mention of it any where else in holy writ. In the spiritual sense, they are cursed who refuse to assist the people of God in their warfare against their spiritual enemies. (Challoner)

Eusebius seems to have thought that Merom, a body of water, and the village of Meroz (Haydock) were the same place, 12 miles from Sebaste. The inhabitants were surely under an obligation of assisting their brethren; and these, it appears, lived in the vicinity, and neglected their duty. Septuagint Alexandrian reads Mazor. Some stars are styled Mazzaroth, Job xxxviii. 32.

Angel, Michael; or the high priest, or Barac, Debbora, &c. See chap. ii. 1. (Calmet)

Protestants, "Curse ye Meroz, (said the angel of the Lord) curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof."

To help. Protestants, "to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Septuagint, "our helper is the Lord in the mighty warriors." He assists their endeavours, which would otherwise prove unsuccessful. (Haydock)

The Jews thin that Barac cursed Meroz, the star or the angel of the Chanaanites, who protected Sisara. (Chaldean) See Serarius, q. 15. Others say that he was an ally of that general, who was excommunicated by Barac, at the sound of 400 trumpets. But these opinions only deserve contempt. (Calmet)

Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.