Commentaria in III Regum
…that they may in fact carry out the just vengeance on the Baalites which thou, O Elias, so desirest. Whence in the praises of Elias it is said in Ecclesiasticus 48:8: “Who anointest kings to penance,” that is to punishment and vengeance of the impious, that they may be avengers of divine worship. “Thou shalt anoint a king,” that is, thou shalt designate a king, thou shalt confer the kingdom on him. It is a catachresis: for since kings were made by anointing, hence to anoint is to make a king. For Hazael was not anointed by Elias, but designated king by Eliseus, whom Elias sent to him: but Jehu was anointed king of Israel by a servant of Eliseus, a disciple, as is plain from 4 Kings 9:6 and following. So Elias carried out these commands of God through Eliseus, whom for this reason he substituted for himself at God’s command. So we do not read that Eliseus was anointed, but he was designated a prophet by the mantle cast upon him by Elias, verse 19. So Theodoret, Rabanus, Dionysius, Abulensis, Salian.
Sanchez, however, takes “thou shalt anoint” properly, and judges that all these three were anointed by Elias, though Scripture does not relate that this was done. For Elias seems to have returned by God’s command through the desert to Damascus, which was a longer and more desolate way, in order to anoint Hazael there king; for although Hazael was afterwards anointed again by another, nothing prevents his having first been anointed by Elias. So David and Saul were anointed twice. This opinion is probable, and takes this verse properly according to the letter.
WHO IS OF ABELMEULA.—This city was in the tribe of Manasses on this side of the Jordan. Eliseus was therefore of the tribe of Manasses, as Elias of the tribe of Gad. So St. Jerome, Salian, Adrichomius and others; although St. Epiphanius and Isidore, in the Life of Eliseus, say that he was sprung from the tribe of Ruben, and add that at the birth of Eliseus one of the golden calves which Jeroboam cast lowed, and that its lowing was heard at Jerusalem, and from it a certain prudent Priest conjectured that on that day someone was born who would be the destruction of all graven things and idols.
17. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT WHOSOEVER SHALL ESCAPE THE SWORD OF HAZAEL, SHALL BE SLAIN BY JEHU.—How Hazael and Jehu slew idolaters we shall hear in what follows.
AND WHOSOEVER SHALL ESCAPE THE SWORD OF JEHU, SHALL BE SLAIN BY ELISEUS,—not with a bodily sword, but a spiritual one, namely the sword of the tongue, with which he sharply rebukes them and threatens present and eternal death, say Angelomus, Rabanus and Hugh. More plainly you may take this of the sword and bodily death; for with it Hazael and Jehu slew idolaters, to whom Eliseus is here compared. For Eliseus slew 42 boys, children of idolaters, who insulted him and said: “Go up, thou bald head,” 4 Kings 2, and it is likely that, like his master Elias, according to this oracle he slew several other idolaters, though Scripture does not mention it. So Abulensis, Lyranus, Cajetan, Sanchez and others.
BAAL.—God opposes seven thousand to that which Elias had said in verse 14: “I alone am left,” as if to say: Thou art deceived, Elias, thou art not alone. Behold Eliseus is joined to thee: behold seven thousand men worshippers of God, whom “I will leave.” In Hebrew hish’arti, that is I will cause to remain, I will reserve, I will guard, that they be not slain by Jezabel, or perverted, and led over to the worship of Baal.
AND EVERY MOUTH THAT HATH NOT WORSHIPPED HIM, KISSING THE HANDS,—repeat “I will leave,” that is I will guard and preserve in life. The sense of the whole verse is, as if to say: And I will guard seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee before Baal, nor adored him by kissing the hand: for this was a twofold kind of adoration, genuflection and kissing of the hand. Kissing the hands, in Hebrew kissing him, namely Baal, so as to salute and adore him with this kiss as their God and Lord. Our Vulgate translates, “kissing the hands,” to note the rite and manner of adoring, which was to kiss the hand of the idol, or one’s own hand with that rite and gesture as if kissing the hand of the idol, as being far away or placed at a distance. Job hints at this rite, chapter 31, verse 26: “If I beheld the sun when it shined, and the moon going in brightness, and my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with my mouth.” Outsiders also mention this custom: Pliny, book 28, chapter 2: “In adoring we bring the right hand to the lips.” Minucius in the Octavius: “Caecilius, having seen the image of Serapis, as the superstitious crowd is wont to do, put his hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss upon his lips.”
19. HE FOUND ELISEUS THE SON OF SAPHAT PLOWING WITH TWELVE YOKE OF OXEN.—Eliseus was therefore a wealthy farmer, as one who had twelve yoke of oxen, and cultivated with them a huge field. For that these oxen were his own is plain from the last verse, where he himself killed a yoke of oxen for the feast with which he bade farewell to his family.
AND HIMSELF WAS ONE OF THEM THAT WERE PLOWING WITH THE TWELVE YOKE OF OXEN.—For each yoke of oxen, or pair of oxen, had its own driver and plowman; wherefore there were here twelve yoke of oxen, and likewise twelve plowmen, of whom one was Eliseus.
HE CAST HIS MANTLE UPON HIM,—to call him to follow him, and make him his companion and a sharer in his institute, as now a mantle, or the garment of the same Religion, is given to novices in Religion. In like manner of old a bridegroom, taking a bride to himself, covered her with his mantle. Whence that of Ruth seeking marriage with Booz, chapter 3, verse 9: “Spread thy cloak over thy handmaid;” and that of Ezechiel 16:8: “I spread my garment over thee.” By this ceremony, therefore, Eliseus was appointed the companion and successor of the prophet Elias, and his heart was wholly changed by God, and from a layman he was made a Religious, from a farmer a Prophet, from an unlearned man taught of God. Whence he at once left the oxen, his house, his parents, and followed Elias. Sanchez adds that he was anointed by Elias; for God had commanded this, verse 16. The anointing, he says, made Eliseus a Prophet (for it was customary for these to be anointed); but the mantle made him the companion and monk of Elias.
20. FOR THAT WHICH WAS MY PART, I HAVE DONE TO THEE,—as if to say: I touched thee only with the mantle; but God touched thy heart, and made it from carnal spiritual and heavenly, that thou mayest leave all things, and follow me readily, and fight as I do against idolaters.
21. HE TOOK A YOKE OF OXEN AND KILLED THEM, AND BOILED THEIR FLESH WITH THE PLOUGH OF THE OXEN, AND GAVE TO THE PEOPLE, AND THEY ATE.—Eliseus, because he was in haste and eager to follow Elias at once, therefore used the plough for wood to cook the flesh of the oxen. He gave us therefore a type and example to follow God’s vocation at once, resolutely and constantly, as Cajetan and Abulensis note. For he celebrated a banquet with which he bade farewell to his family, to show that he left oxen, plough, field and all things, and gladly followed Elias. Hence Abulensis gathers that he was a young man and unmarried, that is without wife and celibate: otherwise he would have asked of Elias leave to greet his wife and children as well as his father and mother. Again, Eliseus, says Abulensis, wished nothing to remain to him in the world, that free and unencumbered he might pass wholly to the Lord: therefore he consumed the plough and oxen, in which matter he gave an example to Religious to do the same. Hence also St. Ignatius, in the epistle to the Philadelphians, asserts that Eliseus was celibate and a virgin: indeed Eliseus, by the instinct of God calling, was already above all earthly desire. For, as St. Cyprian says, treatise On the Lord’s Prayer, on that: “Thy kingdom come: He who has already renounced the world is greater than its honours and kingdom; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms;” nay God Himself, “because in Him we are to reign.” And St. Ambrose, book 6 On the Sacraments, chapter 5: “If God reigns in us, the adversary cannot have a place. Let not guilt reign, sin does not reign; but virtue reigns, chastity reigns, devotion reigns.”