Micheas 7:5
Believe not a friend, and trust not in a prince: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that sleepeth in thy bosom.
Open Micheas 7:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Nolite credere amico, et nolite confidere in duce : ab ea quæ dormit in sinu tuo custodi claustra oris tui.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- μὴ καταπιστεύετε ἐν φίλοις, καὶ μὴ ἐλπίζετε ἐπὶ ἡγουμένοις, ἀπὸ τῆς συνκοίτου σου φύλαξαι τοῦ ἀναθέσθαι τι αὐτῇ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אַל תַּאֲמִ֣ינוּ בְרֵ֔עַ אַֽל תִּבְטְח֖וּ בְּאַלּ֑וּף מִשֹּׁכֶ֣בֶת חֵיקֶ֔ךָ שְׁמֹ֖ר פִּתְחֵי פִֽיךָ
Haydock's commentary
Bosom. In times of general distress, even domestics are not trusted; because all are solicitous for themselves, even to the prejudice of others. (Worthington)
Before the ruin of Israel civil wars raged, 4 Kings xv. Our Saviour alludes to this passage, Matthew x. 35., Luke xii. 52., and xxi. 16. People will rise up to oppress true believers; and these must abandon their nearest relations, when they prove an obstacle to salvation. Thus is the moral, and the other the literal sense. (Calmet)
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 John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew X. 34
For indeed among the Jews also something of the kind took place. That is, there were prophets, and false prophets, and the people was divided, and families were in dissension; and some believed the one, and some the other. Wherefore the prophet admonishes, saying, “Trust ye not in friends, have not hope in guides; yea, even of her that lieth in thy bosom beware, in respect of communicating aught to her:” and, “A man’s enemies are the men that are in his own house.”
St Jerome Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus, The object of Origen's letter, of which he translates only a part, is not to shew the falsification of his writings but to vituperate the Bishops who condemned him
“Why need I speak of the language in which the prophets constantly threaten and reprove the pastors, elders, the priests and the princes? These things you can of yourselves without my aid draw out from the Holy Scriptures, and you may clearly see that it may well be the present time of which it is said ‘Trust not in your friends, and do not hope in princes,’ and that the prophecy is now gaining its fulfilment, ‘The leaders of my people have not known me; my sons are fools and not wise: they are wise to do evil, but know not to do good.’ We ought to pity them, not to hate them, to pray for them, not to curse them. For we have been created for blessing, not for cursing. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XXXV. Of prayer to be offered within the chamber and with the door shut
Before all things however we ought most carefully to observe the Evangelic precept, which tells us to enter into our chamber and shut the door and pray to our Father, which may be fulfilled by us as follows: We pray within our chamber, when removing our hearts inwardly from the din of all thoughts and anxieties, we disclose our prayers in secret and in closest intercourse to the Lord. We pray with closed doors when with closed lips and complete silence we pray to the searcher not of words but of hearts. We pray in secret when from the heart and fervent mind we disclose our petitions to God alone, so that no hostile powers are even able to discover the character of our petition. …
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).