Joshua 2:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Douay-RheimsHebrew (Masoretic text)

And they said to her: We shall be blameless of this oath, which thou hast made us swear,
Douay-Rheims

וַיֹּאמְר֥וּ אֵלֶ֖יהָ הָאֲנָשִׁ֑ים נְקִיִּ֣ם אֲנַ֔חְנוּ מִשְּׁבֻעָתֵ֥ךְ הַזֶּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר הִשְׁבַּעְתָּֽנוּ׃
Hebrew (Masoretic text)

The Church Fathers on this verse

One Church Father comments on this verse

Cyprian of Carthage

3rd centuryChurch Father

This metaphor illustrates that everyone destined for life and deliverance from the world’s devastation must be united within one dwelling, the Church. If any individual who has received grace within the Church chooses to step outside, meaning if they turn away and abandon it, that person alone bears the responsibility for their own ruin.

Cross references

Passages read together with this verse.

Num 30:2And he said to the princes of the tribes of the children of Israel: This is the word that the Lord hath commanded:
2 Sam 21:7And the king spared Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
2 Sam 21:1And there was a famine in the days of David for three years successively: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slow the Gabaonites.
2 Sam 21:2Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda:)
Lev 19:11You shall not steal. You shall not lie: neither shall any man deceive his neighbour.
Lev 19:12Thou shalt not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of thy God. I am the Lord.
Gen 24:3That I may make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that thou take not a wife for my son, of the daughters of the Chanaanites, among whom I dwell:
Gen 24:8But if the woman will not follow thee, thou shalt not be bound by the oath: only bring not my son back thither again.