Proverbs 18:22
He that hath found a good wife, hath found a good thing, and shall receive a pleasure from the Lord. He that driveth away a good wife, driveth away a good thing: but he that keepeth an adulteress, is foolish and wicked.
Open Proverbs 18:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Qui invenit mulierem bonam invenit bonum, et hauriet jucunditatem a Domino. Qui expellit mulierem bonam expellit bonum ; qui autem tenet adulteram stultus est et impius.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὃς εὗρεν γυναῖκα ἀγαθὴν εὗρεν χάριτας, ἔλαβεν δὲ παρὰ θεοῦ ἱλαρότητα· (22a) ὃς ἐκβάλλει γυναῖκα ἀγαθὴν ἐκβάλλει τὰ ἀγαθά, ὁ δὲ κατέχων μοιχαλίδα ἄφρων καὶ ἀσεβής.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מָצָ֣א אִ֭שָּׁה מָ֣צָא ט֑וֹב וַיָּ֥פֶק רָ֝צ֗וֹן מֵיְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Good wife. Good is not in Hebrew, but should be understood, as it is expressed in the Complutensian (Calmet) and Alexandrian Septuagint. (Haydock)
He that, &c., occurs not in Hebrew, Sixtus V, &c. But it is found in Septuagint and Arabic. The Syriac omits the last sentence.
Wicked. St. Augustine had frequently asserted that a divorce was only of counsel: but this he retracted, when he reflected on this text. (Retractions i. 19.)
The Hebrews, Athenians, and Romans, followed the same practice with adulteresses. (Selden, Ux. iii. 16.; Dem. in Neæram, &c.)
Hermas (past. i. 4.) prescribes that the penitent shall be received again, but not often. In case of divorce, the fathers still permit not a second marriage, that the parties may be reconciled. They enjoin the husband to put away only such as are incorrigible. (St. Augustine, Adul. ii. 3.) (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
The Apostolic Constitutions Book VI, Sec. III. The Heresies Attacked by the Apostles
XIV . On whose account also we, who are now assembled in one place, Peter and Andrew ; James and John , sons of Zebedee; Philip and Bartholomew ; Thomas and Matthew ; James the son of Alphæus, and Lebbæus who is surnamed Thaddæus ; and Simon the Canaanite, and Matthias , who instead of Judas was numbered with us; and James the brother of the Lord and bishop of Jerusalem, and Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, the chosen vessel, having all met together, have written to you this Catholic doctrine for the confirmation of you, to whom the oversight of the universal Church is committed: wherein we declare unto you, that there is only one God Almighty, besides whom there is no other, and that you must worship and adore Him alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the most holy Spirit; that you are to make use of the sacred Scriptures, the law, and the prophets; to honour your parents; to avoid …
St Basil The Letters, To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons
IX. The sentence of the Lord that it is unlawful to withdraw from wedlock, save on account of fornication, applies, according to the argument, to men and women alike. Custom, however, does not so obtain. Yet, in relation with women, very strict expressions are to be found; as, for instance, the words of the apostle “He which is joined to a harlot is one body” and of Jeremiah, If a wife “become another man’s shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted?” And again, “He that hath an adulteress is a fool and impious.” Yet custom ordains that men who commit adultery and are in fornication be retained by their wives. …
St Basil The Letters, To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons
XXI. If a man living with a wife is not satisfied with his marriage and falls into fornication, I account him a fornicator, and prolong his period of punishment. Nevertheless, we have no canon subjecting him to the charge of adultery, if the sin be committed against an unmarried woman. For the adulteress, it is said, “being polluted shall be polluted,” and she shall not return to her husband: and “He that keepeth an adulteress is a fool and impious.” He, however, who has committed fornication is not to be cut off from the society of his own wife. So the wife will receive the husband on his return from fornication, but the husband will expel the polluted woman from his house. The argument here is not easy, but the custom has so obtained.