Osee 12:1
Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.
Open Osee 12:1 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ephraim pascit ventum, et sequitur æstum ; tota die mendacium et vastitatem multiplicat : et fœdus cum Assyriis iniit, et oleum in Ægyptum ferebat.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁ δὲ Ἐφράιμ πονηρὸν πνεῦμα, ἐδίωξεν καύσωνα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν· κενὰ καὶ μάταια ἐπλήθυνεν καὶ διαθήκην μετὰ Ἀσσυρίων διέθετο, καὶ ἔλαιον εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐνεπορεύετο.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Osee 12:2
- אֶפְרַ֜יִם רֹעֶ֥ה ר֨וּחַ֙ וְרֹדֵ֣ף קָדִ֔ים כָּל הַיּ֕וֹם כָּזָ֥ב וָשֹׁ֖ד יַרְבֶּ֑ה וּבְרִית֙ עִם אַשּׁ֣וּר יִכְרֹ֔תוּ וְשֶׁ֖מֶן לְמִצְרַ֥יִם יוּבָֽל
Haydock's commentary
On. Literally, the wind. (Haydock)
To trust in men is no less vain. (Worthington)
Septuagint, "Ephraim is an evil spirit," &c.
Heat. Hebrew, "eastern or burning wind." (Haydock)
Manahem attempted to engage Egypt on his side, but he was frustrated in his hopes, (4 Kings xv.; St. Jerome) as Osee was likewise; to which king the sense conducts us better, chap. xiii. 15.
Oil. That of Palestine was very excellent, Ezechiel xxvii. 17.
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 Book IV, Chapter II
3. I remember, too, that when I decided to compete for a theatrical prize, a soothsayer demanded of me what I would give him to win; but I, detesting and abominating such foul mysteries, answered, “That if the garland were of imperishable gold, I would not suffer a fly to be destroyed to secure it for me.” For he was to slay certain living creatures in his sacrifices, and by those honours to invite the devils to give me their support. But this ill thing I also refused, not out of a pure love for Thee, O God of my heart; for I knew not how to love Thee, knowing not how to conceive aught beyond corporeal brightness. And doth not a soul, sighing after such-like fictions, commit fornication against Thee, trust in false things, and nourish the wind? But I would not, forsooth, have sacrifices offered to devils on my behalf, though I myself was offering sacrifices to them by that superstition. …