Commentaria in III Regum
32. AND HE MADE A TRENCH FOR WATER, OF THE BREADTH OF TWO FURROWS, ROUND ABOUT THE ALTAR,—namely as it were of two furrows, or of two spaces that could be ploughed. In the Hebrew it is signified that the trench was so large as to hold two seahs. For it has, according to beth, that is a bag or measure of two seahs of seed, as if to say: He made a channel or little area dug round the altar so large as to hold a bag containing two seahs, that is two measures of seed. So Vatablus. Some therefore wrongly explain thus, as if to say: He made a channel as large as that in which two seahs are sown. For so this channel would have been greater than the bed of the Tiber or the Rhine. For the seah is a Hebrew measure holding as much as the modius among the Romans. Now a modius, when sown, fills a whole field. Moreover the Hebrews call beth a bag or any vessel which contains seed or anything else.
Elias did this, and poured out so much water round the altar, lest anyone should think that he had hidden fire under the altar, and that therefore the fire called down by him from heaven had not descended from heaven, but had been hidden by him in the ground, and from there had risen to the altar in its usual way. Hear St. Chrysostom, in the homily On Peter and Elias, which Surius recites from Metaphrastes, on the 4th of August: “Attend to what I am about to say, for I have seen it myself. In the altars of idols there are certain openings in the lower part of the altar, and a dark pit; and the artificers of error go down into that pit, and from the openings blow fire to complete the sacrifice, so that many, deceived, think that fire to be heavenly. Lest, then, Elias also should come under suspicion of having contrived something of the kind himself, he poured out water, that this water might show that there were no openings beneath the altar; for where water finds an opening, it does not stand there, but must flow away through the openings themselves.”
Rabbi Solomon fables that Elias, since he could not fill so large a channel with the water brought in the pitcher, caused part of the water poured out by him from the pitcher to touch his hands, and so by a new miracle abundant waters flowed from the hands of Elias as from two fountains, which filled the whole channel; and therefore in 4 Kings 3:11 it is said by Eliseus that water was poured on the hands of Elias.
38. THEN THE FIRE OF THE LORD FELL, AND CONSUMED THE HOLOCAUST,—as the food of God. For victims are as it were the food of God. Josephus writes, book 8 of the Antiquities, chapter 13, that this place, consumed by the fire of God, remained until his own times. See what was said on Isaias 64:2, on those words: “The waters would burn with fire.”
39. AND WHEN ALL THE PEOPLE SAW THIS, THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES, AND SAID: THE LORD HE IS GOD, THE LORD HE IS GOD.—In Hebrew, Jehovah he is Elohim, Jehovah he is Elohim, as if to say: Jehovah, who first made known this His name to Moses, Exodus 6, he is the only and true Elohim, that is God, and the Deity governing all things, ruling heaven and earth, from whom therefore we and other men ought to expect and ask all sustenance and every good; for Elohim signifies God as having providence over all things, and ruling, judging and avenging all things. Hence the Hebrews say that the name of Elias was taken from this, or, as it is called in Hebrew, Eliahu, who before was called Jaberscuah. For Eliahu is the same as Eli hu, that is, the strong God Himself. Now El is an abbreviation of Elohim, Ia is contracted from Jehovah, hu is he himself. So the name Machabi, that is Machabee, taken by Judas and his brethren, is from Mi camocha baelim Jehovah, that is, Who is like unto thee among the strong, O Lord? For this the Machabees bore, as the badge and emblem of their battle and victory, placing no hope in their own strength, but all in God. For Elias, by God’s help, proved stronger than Achab, Jezabel and the Baalites, not only passively, by bravely enduring their persecutions, but actively, by slaying them all.
So St. Lidwina, who in very many and most bitter sicknesses for 30 years and more was a wonderful mirror of patience, received this name as an omen of her future wisdom. For Lidwina in Flemish is the same as broad patience, as her Life has at the beginning in Surius, tome 7, on the 4th of April. So Mars is called in Greek Ares, because he has a nature that is unbroken, unconquered and unchangeable, says Plato in the Cratylus. Whence Virgil, alluding to this etymology, calls the Latins “unbroken by adverse Mars.” So Agamemnon, says Plato, received this name from the endurance of the labours which he was to suffer; for besieging Troy ten years he suffered many things. Whence he is called Agamemnon, as if “agastos menon,” that is, remaining long in the siege of Troy. So Elias, the divine athlete, is the same as the strong one of the Lord, or the strong Lord, in him and in his works.
Benjamin notes in his Itinerary that in Carmel the cave of Elias is still seen, and traces of the destroyed altar, whose site was circular, with a diameter of nearly four cubits.
namely in all 850, as I said at verse 19, all of whom Elias, at God’s command, as he himself says in verse 36, ordered to be slain; because they were the chiefs, teachers and authors of idolatry, and therefore blasphemers against God, whom God by Moses had commanded to be put to death: so Abulensis and others. Hear the Author of the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book 2: “For Elias was under that law which says in Leviticus 24: Thou shalt not suffer a blasphemer to live. No man worships an idol unless he has shown himself a blasphemer of God. And therefore he who slew the worshippers of idolatry purged from the earth blasphemers and sacrilegious men. Anger, used as a remedy, for what it is fitting, the Lord does not condemn at all: Moses, the meekest of all men, condemning the idolatry of the calf, armed the hands of the Levites in the slaughter of their brethren. Phinees, using just anger against those who fornicated publicly, as was fitting, at once slew both. Samuel with just anger dragged forth the king of Amalec and slew him. So anger is often the minister of good actions. But Elias the zealot, with just and wise indignation, for the benefit of all Israel, brought it about that the four hundred and fifty priests of baseness, and the four hundred of the sacred groves who ate at Jezabel’s table, should be punished with death.”
AND ELIAS BROUGHT THEM DOWN TO THE TORRENT CISON (where Barac struck down Sisara with his forces, Judges 4:7), AND KILLED THEM THERE,—lest the holy land should be polluted with their wicked blood, or their corpses infect the air, he therefore rolled them into the “torrent Cison,” and buried them not in the earth but in running waters.
41. AND ELIAS SAID TO ACHAB: GO UP, EAT AND DRINK: FOR THERE IS A SOUND OF ABUNDANCE OF RAIN,—as if to say: Now just vengeance has been wrought on the impious idolaters for their injuries to God: therefore God, now as it were appeased, desires to be reconciled with Israel, and to restore the rain and fruitfulness denied to it. Wherefore God has now revealed to me that rain will soon come, nay I see it as it were coming, and I seem to myself to hear the sound of wind or thunder, which is wont to precede great rain: for as yet no sign of rain appeared in the air, as is plain from what follows: “Go up” therefore, O Achab, “eat, drink,” and rejoice at so glad a message of rain and fertility, which I bring thee.
42. AND ELIAS WENT UP TO THE TOP OF CARMEL, AND CASTING HIMSELF DOWN UPON THE EARTH, PUT HIS FACE BETWEEN HIS KNEES,—that he might pray more attentively and ardently to God for the rain promised by Him, that He might at once grant it. For this posture signified the humility and attention of Elias praying, and the mercy of God implored with the whole affection: for in this posture the embryo is in its mother’s womb, and in it, as it were silently showing its misery, implores God’s mercy to bring it forth into the light. Hear St. Isidore, book 11 of the Origins, chapter 1: “The knees (genua) are the joinings of the thighs and the legs, and are called genua because in the womb they are placed opposite the cheeks (genae); for they cleave to each other, and are the indicators of tears and of mercy to the eyes: for genua are named from genae. Finally they say that man is formed and engendered folded up, so that the knees are upward, by which the eyes are formed, that they may become hollow and hidden. A close cheek presses his knees: hence it is that men, when they prostrate themselves on their knees, at once weep. For nature willed to detain them in the mother’s womb, where they sat as in darkness before they came to the light.” Aristotle said the same, book 7 On the History of Animals, chapter 7: “Man, rolled up into himself, is so carried that he has his nose between his knees, his ears outside the knees.” Moreover Abulensis gathers hence that Elias, from this time at which on Mount Carmel he consumed the holocaust with fire from heaven, and laid the Baalites low, fixed his dwelling thenceforth in the same place, in memory of so great a benefit and miracle, and that to him flocked thither several religious men, who gave themselves wholly to God, to prayer, and to divine things and praises. These were imitated after Christ by those who religiously worshipped God on the same mountain; and thence arose the ancient and holy religion and family of the Carmelites. Hence also Nicephorus, book 8, chapter 3, asserts that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, built a church to the prophet Elias on Carmel. Indeed that in the time of Elias and Eliseus there was an oratory or synagogue on Carmel, to which on feast days the people came together both for prayer and to hear Elias, Eliseus and similar preachers, is sufficiently signified in 4 Kings 4:23; and Lyranus, Abulensis and others teach this there. Moreover the Carmelites still celebrate the solemn feast of Elias on the 20th of July, on which day Elias is entered in the Roman Martyrology. See Suarez, book 2 On Religion, chapter 10.