Leviticus 6:3
Or shall find a thing lost, and denying it, shall also swear falsely, or shall do any other of the many things, wherein men are wont to sin:
Open Leviticus 6:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- sive rem perditam invenerit, et inficians insuper pejeraverit, et quodlibet aliud ex pluribus fecerit, in quibus solent peccare homines,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἢ εὗρεν ἀπωλίαν καὶ ψεύσηται περὶ αὐτῆς, καὶ ὀμόσῃ ἀδίκως περὶ ἑνὸς ἀπὸ πάντων ὧν ἐὰν ποιήσῃ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὥστε ἁμαρτεῖν ἐν τούτοις·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Leviticus 5:22
- אֽוֹ מָצָ֧א אֲבֵדָ֛ה וְכִ֥חֶשׁ בָּ֖הּ וְנִשְׁבַּ֣ע עַל שָׁ֑קֶר עַל אַחַ֗ת מִכֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה הָאָדָ֖ם לַחֲטֹ֥א בָהֵֽנָּה
Haydock's commentary
Lost. We acquire no title to the thing by finding it. The Roman law, as well as divines, condemn those who appropriate the thing found to their own use, as guilty of theft, whether they knew to whom it belonged or not; and Plato greatly commends the law of Solon, "Take not what thou didst not put down," a rule which the Dyrbeans and the people of Biblos rigorously observed. We may, however, take up what is lost, (Calmet) and endeavour to find the owner, who must indemnify us for our trouble; and, if we never find him, we are directed to give the price to the poor, for the owner's welfare. (Haydock)
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 Augustine A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, The Old Law Also Given by God
And it is for this reason that God made the old testament, because it pleased God to veil the heavenly promises in earthly promises, as if established in reward, until the fulness of time; and to give to a people which longed for earthly blessings, and therefore had a hard heart, a law, which, although spiritual, was yet written on tables of stone. Because, with the exception of the sacraments of the old books, which were only enjoined for the sake of their significance (although in them also, since they are to be spiritually understood, the law is rightly called spiritual), the other matters certainly which pertain to piety and to good living must not be referred by any interpretation to some significancy, but are to be done absolutely as they are spoken. …