Yesterday in the Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Reading I read the following, (from First Kings):

[bible] Tuesday, Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Please,
let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you."
"Go back!" Elijah answered. "Have I done anything to you?" [/bible]

Year after year I've read this and been perplexed by Elijah's response.
Sometimes I forget to look at other resources; so I looked at the DR translation.

19:16. And thou shalt anoint [...] Eliseus, the son of Saphat, of
Abelmeula, thou shalt anoint to be prophet [...].

19:20. And he forthwith left the oxen, and run after Elias,
and said: Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my
mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said to him:
Go, and return back: for that which was my part, I have
done to thee.

Now it makes sense! Elijah discharged his commission from God and was done. The new translations are supposed to be clearer, but there are several places where they can be very obscure instead.

I am glad you did the research on that

I never knew that either
Thank you

Thinking of obscure verses, I always wondered what Jesus meant by "if salt loses its savor". How can salt not be salt? I always thought. But, a very good priest explained this in a homily at a KC function a few weeks ago. He said that Jesus was talking about using too much or too little salt. If one uses too much it spoils the dish and if one does not use enough the dish will be too bland. That made a lot of sense to me.

St. Augustine explained it in another way. Salt was the preservative in the ancient world which had no refrigeration. You wanted to keep food from spoiling, you "salted" it. Salt pork (bacon) is about the last of these we have, salt cod being about done for as a product.

let's go back to the context of this statement by Jesus. He's telling the apostles their job description. It is their job not only to baptize and bring forth to new birth the children of God, but to "preserve" them in grace to the end, for he who perseverses will be saved. Thus he tells them that you are the salt of the earth because it is their job as shepherds to guide the sheep to the end, to "preserve" them for heaven. If they do not do this, they are good for nothing anymore but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. What is this but to be the subject of gossip and derision and wagging tongues. This is in contrast to the last beatitude which immediately preceeds this, which is Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake.

So He is saying that there are two ways to be persecuted and reviled. One for doing His will, and one for not doing his will. It's only a blessing when it is untrue.

Well, I think both interpretations have merit. The one I cited being more useful for laypeople than for clergy, as Augustine seems to be addressing. Besides, I was only addressing the "salt losing its savor" not the rest of the passage.

Excellent posts..........and think of the one that says 'the mother of many laguishes' and being a true Catholic i don't know the verse, and is that the way you spell languish?
anyway...........think of women who use bc and how many children they truly have.
i've learned with time that every Bible verse is true, even if we can't understand it yet.
So i guess i'm a Protestant/ Catholic! Big Smilie!
Best!motsfo

The verse you partially cited is Jer. 15:9: She who bore seven has languished; she has swooned away.

If you take note of the context, it is one of those in which God is describing how he has punished the people of Israel for once again turning away from him. The verse is talking about how a woman who had had seven children has lost them to war and famine in punishment for the sins of Israel. It has nothing to do with women being worn out by giving birth to several children.