Leviticus 21:9
If the daughter of a priest be taken in whoredom, and dishonour the name of her father, she shall be burnt with fire.
Open Leviticus 21:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sacerdotis filia si deprehensa fuerit in stupro, et violaverit nomen patris sui, flammis exuretur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ θυγάτηρ ἀνθρώπου ἱερέως ἐὰν βεβηλωθῇ τοῦ ἐκπορνεῦσαι, τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῆς αὐτὴ βεβηλοῖ. ἐπὶ πυρὸς κατακαυθήσεται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וּבַת֙ אִ֣ישׁ כֹּהֵ֔ן כִּ֥י תֵחֵ֖ל לִזְנ֑וֹת אֶת אָבִ֨יהָ֙ הִ֣יא מְחַלֶּ֔לֶת בָּאֵ֖שׁ תִּשָּׂרֵֽף
Haydock's commentary
Fire. Provided she be betrothed, and still in her father's house; so that the infamy fall upon him. (Jonathan)
For if she be with her husband, she must undergo the usual punishment of stoning. Other young women received no corporal punishment for simple fornication: the man was bound to marry them, if the father consented; and, at any rate, he was forced to give them a dowry, Exodus xxii. 16. (Calmet)
But if the woman pretended falsely that they were virgins, they were stoned, Deuteronomy xxii. 20.
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
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XXIII. On Marriage
Now that the Scripture counsels marriage, and allows no release from the union, is expressly contained in the law, “Thou shalt not put away thy wife, except for the cause of fornication;” and it regards as fornication, the marriage of those separated while the other is alive. Not to deck and adorn herself beyond what is becoming, renders a wife free of calumnious suspicion, while she devotes herself assiduously to prayers and supplications; avoiding frequent departures from the house, and shutting herself up as far as possible from the view of all not related to her, and deeming housekeeping of more consequence than impertinent trifling. “He that taketh a woman that has been put away,” it is said, “committeth adultery; and if one puts away his wife, he makes her an adulteress,” that is, compels her to commit adultery. …
St John Chrysostom Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood, Book VI
11. For this very cause God accuses the Israelites more vehemently, and shows that they were worthy of greater chastisement, because they sinned after so many honors had come to them from Him, saying in one place: “But you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities,” and again, “and I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites;” and before the times of the prophets, wishing to show that sins receive sorer punishment by far when they occur in the case of the Priest than in the case of the laity, He enjoins as great a sacrifice to be offered for the Priest as for the whole people, and this amounts to a proof on his part, that the wounds of the Priesthood need more assistance, that is, as great as those of all the people together, and they would not have needed a greater, except they were worse; and they …