Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: 3 Kings
Ver. 31. Captains of, or mounted "on chariots." There would hardly be so many general officers over the chariots alone. The same number of kings had been in a former engagement, and they had been replaced by these captains, chap. xx. 24. (Calmet) --- Only. Not that the Syrians were to avoid hurting any body else, as they could not thus come at the king; (Salien) and we find one shot an arrow at the army of Israel; (ver. 34.; Haydock) but the main onset was to be directed against Achab, either to kill or to take him prisoner. (Menochius)
Ver. 32. Cried out. Paralipomenon add, to the Lord, and he helped him, and turned them away from him. The Jews (in Seder. Olam xvii.) acknowledge the same thing; and thus it was known that Josaphat was not the king of Israel, who would rather have invoked Baal. (Menochius) --- Perhaps he also declared the truth, and who he was, when he saw the Syrians surround him, crying, This is the king of Israel! (2 Paralipomenon xviii. 31.) (Tirinus)
Ver. 34. Stomach. Paralipomenon, between the neck and the shoulders. The arrow went in at the lungs, and came out at the shoulders, as it was shot from a lower ground. (Menochius) --- Some explain the Hebrew, "between the joints and the coat of mail." Protestants, "joints of the harness." Septuagint, "between the lungs and the thorax." (Haydock) --- Syriac, "between the juncture of the coat of mail," where it is connected with the armour of the thighs. (Grotius) --- God directed the random shot. (Salien) (Worthington) --- Hand. It was deemed unbecoming for the king to touch the reins. (Diodorus, Sic. xvii.; Brisson iii. p. 383.)
Ver. 35. Evening. Achab had only retired to the hinder ranks, while Josaphat, by his valour, maintained the day, till the death of the former put an end to the war.
Ver. 38. Of Samaria. Josephus says, of Jezara, (Jezrahel) conformably to the prediction. But God had relented in that particular, on Achab's repentance; (Calmet; Chap. xxi. 24, 29.) unless it regarded his son Joram. (Haydock) (Salien) --- Reins. Hebrew zonoth, may also signify "arms," (Munster) and "harlots." (Septuagint) Some suspect that such were painted on the chariot. Josephus intimates, with the Septuagint, that "harlots bathed in the blood," (Antiquities viii. 15.) which would tend to the greater contempt of Achab. (Menochius) --- Spoken, respecting dogs licking up Achab's blood. No mention had been made of the chariot. God was thus pleased to shew how easily he could have executed the sentence in all its rigour.
Ver. 39. Of ivory. The palace was greatly adorned with it, (see Amos iii. 15., and Psalm xliv. 9.; Calmet) like the throne of Solomon, chap. x. 18. Pliny (xvi. 43.) speaks of bedsteads and vehicles of ivory, in the same sense. (Tirinus)
Ver. 44. He took not away, &c. He left some of the high places, viz., those in which they worshipped the true God: but took away all others, 2 Paralipomenon xvii. 6; (Challoner) and even those also, before the end of his reign; (Calmet) as they were contrary to the law. (Menochius) --- Others think that the passage in Paralipomenon is incorrect; ula being substituted for vaud. He took away the high places, (chap. xix. 3.) and the groves. (Grotius) (Capell.) --- We know that such remained in the days of Joas; and Josaphat is not ranked among the irreproachable kings, Ecclesiasticus xlix. 5. (Calmet) --- He attempted perhaps to remove those places, but was prevented by the people. (Menochius) See chap. xv. 14.
Ver. 45. Israel. The five subsequent verses are omitted in the Roman Septuagint.
Ver. 47. Effeminate. Men addicted to unnatural lust, chap. xiv. 24., and xv. 12.
Ver. 48. Edom. Hebrew and Chaldean, "but a deputy king," or viceroy; (Tirinus) so that the kings of Juda might equip fleets at Asiongaber, as the country of Idumea was subject to them ever since the time of David, 2 Paralipomenon viii. 17. Under Ochozias, the son of Josaphat, the kings of Edom became independent, 4 Kings viii. 20. (Calmet) --- Hitherto they had paid tribute. (Menochius)
Ver. 49. Made. Hebrew incorrectly reads hasar, "ten," instead of hasa, "made;" (Calmet) which the Protestants follow, "made ships of Tharshish, to go to Ophir." (Haydock) See chap. ix. 26., and 28.
Ver. 50. Would not. He had been reprehended before for admitting such a partner: and therefore would have no more to do with him. (Challoner) --- They had formerly joined in equipping such a fleet, (2 Paralipomenon xx. 36., and 37.; Calmet) and it had been dashed to pieces in the very port. (Haydock)
Ver. 52. Years, not complete; as the first is comprized in the reign of Achab, and the last in that of Joram, 4 Kings iii. 1. (Usher, the year of the world 3108.) --- Yet, his very short reign was memorable for many disasters; the revolt of the dependant king of Moab, the ruin of his navy, &c., that he might thus be reclaimed from his evil ways. (Salien, the year before Christ 915.) --- Houbigant allows this king two full years; and rejects the notion of his being associated by his father, as he does on other similar occasions, where the Scripture is silent. He makes Ochozias commence in the 19th, and end in the 22d of Josaphat, and not in the second of Joram, 4 Kings i. 17. The Hebrew and Greek copies vary. (Haydock)
Bible Text & Cross-references:
Achab believing his false prophets, rather than Micheas, is slain in Ramoth-Galaad. Ochozias succeedeth him. Good king Josaphat dieth, and his son Joram succeedeth him.
1 And there passed three years without war between Syria and Israel.
2 And *in the third year, Josaphat, king of Juda, came down to the king of Israel.
3 (And the king of Israel said to his servants: Know ye not that Ramoth-Galaad is ours, and we neglect to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?)
4 And he said to Josaphat: Wilt thou come with me to battle to Ramoth-Galaad?
5 And Josaphat said to the king of Israel: As I am, so art thou: my people and thy people are one: and my horsemen are thy horsemen. And Josaphat said to the king of Israel: Inquire, I beseech thee, this day the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and he said to them: Shall I go to Ramoth-Galaad to fight, or shall I forbear? They answered: Go up, and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.
7 And Josaphat said: Is there not here some prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire by him?
8 And the king of Israel said to Josaphat: There is one man left, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; Micheas, the son of Jemla: but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good to me, but evil. And Josaphat said: Speak not so, O king.
9 Then the king of Israel called an eunuch, and said to him: Make haste, and bring hither Micheas, the son of Jemla.
10 Then the king of Israel, and Josaphat, king of Juda, sat each on his throne, clothed with royal robes, in a court, by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them.
11 And Sedecias, the son of Chanaana, made himself horns of iron, and said: Thus saith the Lord: With these shalt thou push Syria, till thou destroy it.