Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged

Volume I · B

Back

2 Sam. xxii. 41. and Ps. xvii. 41. Ps. cxviii. 3. Ps. lxviii. 24. 1 Kings xii. 10. Exek. ix. 11. Ps. lxv. 11. Prov. x. 13.BACK, Dorsum. Thou hast shewn me the Backs of mine Enemies, thou hast put them to flight before me: Inimicos meos dedisti mihi dorsum. Bow down their Backs: Dorsum eorum semper incurva. Overwhelm them with burthens, reduce them to servitude: Posuisti tribulationes in dorso nostro. Thou hast loaded us like beasts of burden, thou hast overwhelmed us with evils. I will shew them the Back and not the face in the day of their destruction, says the Lord in Jerem. xviii. 17. And Sinners have ploughed upon my back: Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt, the Hebrew, araverunt. My little finger is heavier than my Father’s loins, said Rehoboam imprudently to the Israelites: I have more power and authority than he ever had. The rod is upon the back of him that wanteth understanding; the idle and the foolish deserve to be punished with scourgings. Ezekiel saw in Spirit a Man, or an Angel, carrying an inkhorn upon his back, or rather, upon his loins according to the Hebrew. In the same sense we are to understand what Rehoboam said of his little finger’s being greater than his Father’s back or loins.

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Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Back,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/b/back/.

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