Proverbs 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the crib is empty: but where there is much corn, there the strength of the ox is manifest.
Open Proverbs 14:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ubi non sunt boves, præsepe vacuum est ; ubi autem plurimæ segetes, ibi manifesta est fortitudo bovis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὗ μή εἰσιν βόες, φάτναι καθαραί· οὗ δὲ πολλὰ γενήματα, φανερὰ βοὸς ἰσχύς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- בְּאֵ֣ין אֲ֭לָפִים אֵב֣וּס בָּ֑ר וְרָב תְּ֝בוּא֗וֹת בְּכֹ֣חַ שֽׁוֹר
Haydock's commentary
Empty. As the land has not been cultivated. (Haydock)
Strength, or number of oxen. (Calmet)
"The virtue of the preachers is manifested where there are many converted to produce fruit." (St. Gregory vii. ep. viii.)
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 Gregory the Great Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, To Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria
Our common son, the bearer of these presents, when he brought the letters of your Holiness found me sick, and has left me sick; whence it has ensued that the scanty water of my brief epistle has been hardly able to exude to the large fountain of your Blessedness. But it was a heavenly boon that, while in a state of bodily pain, I received the letter of your Holiness to lift me up with joy for the instruction of the heretics of the city of Alexandria, and the concord of the faithful, to such an extent that the very joy of my mind moderated the severity of my suffering. And indeed we rejoice with new exultation to hear of your good doings, though at the same time we by no means suppose that it is a new thing for you to act thus perfectly. …
St Gregory the Great Book XIII. In the Sixth Indiction, and the Thirteenth Year from his Ordination, To Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria
Moreover in my joy for your health I have this additional cause for exultation, that I have learnt how through your mouth the enemies of the Church are decreased in number, and the flocks of the Lord multiplied. For through the ploughshare of your tongue heavenly corn increases daily, and is multiplied in the garners on high; so that in you we rejoice that what is written is fulfilled, Where there is much increase, there is manifest the strength of the oxen ( Prov. xiv. 4 ). Whence we gather plainly that the more you bring back fugitives to the service of Almighty God, the more merit you have with Him. And by how much the more merit you receive, the more fully can you obtain what you ask for. …