Leviticus 19:14
Thou shalt not speak evil of the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind: but thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, because I am the Lord.
Open Leviticus 19:14 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non maledices surdo, nec coram cæco pones offendiculum : sed timebis Dominum Deum tuum, quia ego sum Dominus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐ κακῶς ἐρεῖς κωφόν, καὶ ἀπέναντι τυφλοῦ οὐ προσθήσεις σκάνδαλον· καὶ φοβηθήσῃ Κύριον τὸν θεόν σου· ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹא תְקַלֵּ֣ל חֵרֵ֔שׁ וְלִפְנֵ֣י עִוֵּ֔ר לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן מִכְשֹׁ֑ל וְיָרֵ֥אתָ מֵּאֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Deaf. The word Kophos, used by the Septuagint, means also the dumb, as these defects are generally found in the same person. Nothing can be more base, than to attack those who are unable to defend themselves. Solon forbids anyone "to speak ill of the dead," though he may receive an injury from his children. Those who undermine and ruin the reputation of the absent, are no less to be condemned.
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.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How those are to be admonished who do bad things secretly and good things openly, and those who do contrariwise
What means then its being enjoined both that our work is so to be done as not to be seen, and yet that it should be seen, but that the things we do are to be hidden, lest we ourselves should be praised, and yet to be shewn, that we may increase the praise of our heavenly Father? For, when the Lord forbade us to do our righteousness before men, He straightway added, To be seen of them. And again, when He enjoined that our good works were to be seen of men, He forthwith subjoined, That they may glorify your Father which is in heaven ( Matth. v. 16 ). In what manner, then, they are to be seen, and in what manner they are not to be seen, He shewed in the end of His injunctions, to the effect that the mind of the worker should not seek for his work to be seen on his own account, and yet that on account of the glory of the heavenly Father he should not conceal it. …