Leviticus 21:7
They shall not take to wife a harlot or a vile prostitute, nor one that has been put away from her husband: because they are consecrated to their God,
Open Leviticus 21:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Scortum et vile prostibulum non ducent uxorem, nec eam quæ repudiata est a marito : quia consecrati sunt Deo suo,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- γυναῖκα πόρνην καὶ βεβηλωμένην οὐ λήμψονται, καὶ γυναῖκα ἐκβεβλημένην ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς. ἅγιός ἐστιν τῷ κυρίῳ θεῷ αὐτοῦ,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אִשָּׁ֨ה זֹנָ֤ה וַחֲלָלָה֙ לֹ֣א יִקָּ֔חוּ וְאִשָּׁ֛ה גְּרוּשָׁ֥ה מֵאִישָׁ֖הּ לֹ֣א יִקָּ֑חוּ כִּֽי קָדֹ֥שׁ ה֖וּא לֵאלֹהָֽיו
Haydock's commentary
Vile, (ver. 14,) defiled, (sordidam). Hebrew chalala, "a profane woman," (Pagnin) or one of ill-fame; as captives, inn-keepers, are generally esteemed. Zone, means a common prostitute. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 3.) None of these fit matches for the priests.
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
The Apostolic Constitutions Book VI, Sec. III. The Heresies Attacked by the Apostles
XVII. We have already said, that a bishop, a presbyter, and a deacon, when they are constituted, must be but once married, whether their wives be alive or whether they be dead; and that it is not lawful for them, if they are unmarried when they are ordained, to be married afterwards; or if they be then married, to marry a second time, but to be content with that wife which they had when they came to ordination. We also appoint that the ministers, and singers, and readers, and porters, shall be only once married. But if they entered into the clergy before they were married, we permit them to marry, if they have an inclination thereto, lest they sin and incur punishment. But we do not permit any one of the clergy to take to wife either a courtesan, or a servant, or a widow, or one that is divorced, as also the law says. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus
5. What the true effect of baptism is, and what is the real grace conveyed by water hallowed in Christ, I will presently tell you; meantime I will deal with this argument as it deserves. ‘An ill knot,’ says the common proverb, ‘requires but an ill wedge to split it.’ The text quoted by the objector, “a bishop must be the husband of one wife,” admits of quite another explanation. The apostle came of the Jews and the primitive Christian church was gathered out of the remnants of Israel. Paul knew that the Law allowed men to have children by several wives, and was aware that the example of the patriarchs had made polygamy familiar to the people. Even the very priests might at their own discretion enjoy the same license. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it 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).