Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should be changed. Hath he said then, and will he not do? hath he spoken, and will he not fulfill?
Open Numbers 23:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- non est Deus quasi homo, ut mentiatur, nec ut filius hominis, ut mutetur. Dixit ergo, et non faciet ? locutus est, et non implebit ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ θεὸς διαρτηθῆναι, οὐδὲ ὡς υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἀπειληθῆναι· αὐτὸς εἴπας οὐχὶ ποιήσει; λαλήσει, καὶ οὐχὶ ἐμμενεῖ;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹ֣א אִ֥ישׁ אֵל֙ וִֽיכַזֵּ֔ב וּבֶן אָדָ֖ם וְיִתְנֶחָ֑ם הַה֤וּא אָמַר֙ וְלֹ֣א יַעֲשֶׂ֔ה וְדִבֶּ֖ר וְלֹ֥א יְקִימֶֽנָּה
Haydock's commentary
Changed. Hebrew, "repent." Septuagint, "to be overawed by threats." Origen, "to be terrified." In the book of Judith, (viii. 15,) it is said, For God will not threaten like man, nor be inflamed to anger, like the son of man. (Calmet)
Do. Will he suffer me to curse Israel, after he has once given me a decided prohibition? (Menochius)
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 Irenaeus Fragments from the Lost Writings of, XXIV
“God is not as a man.” He thus shows that all men are indeed guilty of falsehood, inasmuch as they change from one thing to another ( μεταφερόμενοι ); but such is not the case with God, for He always continues true, perfecting whatever He wishes.
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, That the Jews would fasten Christ to the cross
In Isaiah: “I have spread out my hands all day to a people disobedient and contradicting me, who walk in ways that are not good, but after their own sins.” Also in Jeremiah: “Come, let us cast the tree into His bread, and let us blot out His life from the earth.” Also in Deuteronomy: “And Thy life shall be hanging (in doubt) before Thine eyes; and Thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt not trust to Thy life.” Also in the twenty-first Psalm: “They tore my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones. And they gazed upon me, and saw me, and divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast a lot. But Thou, O Lord, remove not Thy help far from me; attend unto my help. Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only one from the paw of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns. …
Lactantius The Divine Institutes, Chap. XLVI. It is proved from the prophets that the passion and death of Christ had been foretold
And the prophets had predicted that all these things would thus come to pass. Isaiah thus speaks: “I am not rebellious, nor do I oppose: I gave my back to the scourge, and my cheeks to the hand: I turned not away my face from the foulness of spitting.” The same prophet says respecting His silence: “I was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” David also, in the xxxivth Psalm: “The abjects were gathered together against me, and they knew me not: they were scattered, yet felt no remorse: they tempted me, and gnashed upon me with their teeth.” The same also says respecting food and drink in the lxviiith Psalm: “They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also respecting the cross of Christ: “And they pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones: they themselves have loo …
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter V. The various blasphemies uttered by the Arians against Christ are cited. Before these are replied to, the orthodox are admonished to beware of the captious arguments of philosophers, forasmuch as in these especially did the heretics put their trust
40. Furthermore, the Arians deny that in Godhead He is One with the Father. Let them annul the Gospel, then, and silence the voice of Christ. For Christ Himself has said: “I and the Father are one.” It is not I who say this: Christ has said it. Is He a deceiver, that He should lie? Is He unrighteous, that He should claim to be what He never was? But of these matters we will deal severally, at greater length, in their proper place.
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter XII. Further objections to the Godhead of the Son are met by the same answer--to wit, that they may equally be urged against the Father also. The Father, then, being in no way confined by time, place, or anything else created, no such limitation is to be imposed upon the Son, Whose marvellous generation is not only of the Father, but of the Virgin also, and therefore, since in His generation of the Father no distinction of sex, or the like, was involved, neither was it in His generation of the Virgin
76. Seeing, then, that we find not the customary order prevailing, be content, Arian, to believe in a miraculous generation of the Son. Be content, I say, and if you believe me not, at least have respect unto the voice of God saying, “To whom have ye esteemed Me to be like?” and again: “God is not like a man that He should repent.” If, indeed, God works mysteriously, seeing that He doth not work any work, or fashion anything, or bring it to completion, by labor of hands, or in any course of days, “for He spake, and they were made; He gave the word and they were created,” why should we not believe that He Whom we acknowledge as a Creator, mysteriously working, discerning it in His works, also begat His Son in a mysterious manner? Surely it is fitting that He should be regarded as having begotten the Son in a special and mysterious way. …