Proverbs 13:12
Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul: desire when it cometh is a tree of life.
Open Proverbs 13:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Spes quæ differtur affligit animam ; lignum vitæ desiderium veniens.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- κρείσσων ἐναρχομένοις βοηθῶν καρδίᾳ τοῦ ἐπαγγελλομένου καὶ εἰς ἐλπίδα ἄγοντος· δένδρον γὰρ ζωῆς ἐπιθυμία ἀγαθή.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- תּוֹחֶ֣לֶת מְ֭מֻשָּׁכָה מַחֲלָה לֵ֑ב וְעֵ֥ץ חַ֝יִּ֗ים תַּאֲוָ֥ה בָאָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Hope. Septuagint, "(the just shews mercy and lends) better is he who begins heartily to assist, than he who promises and leads to hope. For a bad (Grabe substitutes good) desire is a tree of life."
Soul. Protestants, "maketh the heart sick." (Haydock)
The pain increases in proportion to our eager desire. Calvin maintains, that the souls of the blessed are not yet in heaven, but hope: and of course he would establish a sort of purgatory for them. (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
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book III
Sin autem malum est generatio, in malo blasphemi dicant fuisse Dominum qui fuit particeps generationis, in malo Virginera quæ genuit. Hei mihi! quot et quanta mala! Dei voluntatera maledictis incessunt, et mysterium creationis, dum invehuntur in generationera. Et hinc “Docesin” fingit Cassianus; hinc etiam Marcioni, et Valentino quoque est corpus animale; quoniam homo, inquiunt, operam dans veneri, “assimilatus est jumentis.” Atqui profecto, cum libidine vere insaniens, aliena inire voluerit, tunc revera, qui talis est, efferatur: “Equi in feminas furentes facti sunt, unusquisque hinniebat ad uxorem proximi sui.” Quod si dicat serpentera, a brutis animantibus accepta consilii sui ratione, Adamo persuasisse ut cum Eva coire consentiret, tanquam alioqui, ut quidam existimant, protoplasti hac natura usuri non fuissent: rursus vituperatur creatio, ut quæ rationis expertium animantium natura …