Commentaria in III Regum
34. AND A CERTAIN MAN BENT A BOW, SHOOTING AN ARROW AT A VENTURE, AND BY CHANCE STRUCK THE KING OF ISRAEL.—This was a chance event with respect to the Syrian soldier shooting the arrow from the bow, but with respect to God it was not chance, but a destined blow: for God by the Angels directed this arrow so that it should strike no other than the impious Achab. So Julian the Apostate, like a new Achab, restoring the worship of idols, was struck by a heavenly dart, says Nazianzen, oration 2 against Julian, in the Persian war, and fell in the year of the Lord 363, pierced namely by St. Mercurius the Martyr, as Damascene teaches from Helladius, oration 4 On Images, Nicephorus, book 10, chapter 35, and others; and therefore, raging and gnashing, filling his hand with his own blood and casting it into the air: “Thou hast conquered, Galilean,” he said (so he called Christ in contempt), as Theodoret testifies, book 3, chapter 20. Moreover Julian was slain on the same day on which in the preceding year he had slain the saints John and Paul, the chief officers of Constantia the daughter of Constantine the Great, and crowned them with martyrdom, namely on the 26th of June, as Baronius carefully notes.
BETWEEN THE LUNGS AND THE STOMACH.—In Hebrew beyn hadebakim uveyn hassiryon, which the Rabbis translate, between the joints and the breastplate; the Chaldee, between the joints of the cuirass; our Vulgate, in 2 Paralipomenon 18:33, translates, between the neck and the shoulders. Both are true, says Abulensis; for this hooked arrow entered between the neck and the shoulders of Achab, but came out between his stomach and lungs: here, therefore, the exit of the arrow, in Paralipomenon its entrance, is related.
38. AND THEY WASHED HIS CHARIOT IN THE POOL OF SAMARIA (Josephus wrongly has Jezare or Jezael), AND THE DOGS LICKED HIS BLOOD, AND THEY WASHED HIS REINS, ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD.—For “reins” the Hebrew has zonoth, which the Septuagint and Josephus translate, harlots. Harlots, they say, were washed in his blood. Josephus, however, says: Harlots afterwards were bathed from that fountain, because they purge the night by the stream when they wash themselves in the morning, says Serarius from Procopius and Theodoret. The Chaldees and Rabbis translate arms, and add that these were carried back into the armoury which was in Jezrael; and there the dogs licked the blood sticking to them, and so the oracle of Elias was fulfilled exactly.
But our Vulgate translates best, “reins.” For it concerns here the chariot and its reins stained with the blood of Achab, and therefore washed in the pool of Samaria; whence the dogs licked it there. And so the prophecy of Elias was fulfilled not in all points, but in part; but in all points it was fulfilled in the slaughter of Ochozias the son of Achab, as I said in chapter 21, verse 19.
39. THE HOUSE OF IVORY.—How houses are made of ivory I said on Amos 3, on that: “The houses of ivory shall perish.”
42. HIS MOTHER’S NAME WAS AZUBA.—In the books of Kings the mother of the kings is named, for the education of children depends on the mother, either for good or for evil; and as the mother is, so is the offspring. So the Spartans were brave in wars and labours, because they had mothers who, by the instruction of Lycurgus, accustomed themselves and their children to labours and hardness. Whence Gorgo the wife of Leonidas, when someone said to her: “You Spartan women alone rule your husbands,” answered: “Because we alone also bear men.” So Plutarch in the Apophthegms. A clearer example is in St. Wenceslaus duke of Bohemia, and his brother Boleslaus; for the former, piously brought up by his pious grandmother Ludmilla, became pious and holy: the latter, impiously nurtured by his impious mother Dabronucia, turned out impious and a fratricide: for, to seize the kingdom, he slew St. Wenceslaus, but made him a Martyr, as the Life of St. Wenceslaus has, which Surius recounts from Aeneas Sylvius on the 28th of September. This is what the Apostle says: “For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also; and So the Machabean mother, St. Symphorosa, St. Felicitas, three mothers and heroines, were leaders to their seven sons toward martyrdom.
44. NEVERTHELESS HE TOOK NOT AWAY THE HIGH PLACES.—You will say: In 2 Paralipomenon 17:6 it is said that he took them away. I answer: He did not take them away at the beginning of his reign, lest he should stir up sedition of the people against himself; but in the course of it, when he had sufficiently established his kingdom. Whence in Paralipomenon it is added: “when his heart had taken courage.” Or he took them away, but not so that they did not spring up again from the people’s too great inclination to them, as is hinted in 2 Paralipomenon 20:33. Finally Lyranus and others answer that Josaphat removed the “high places” erected to idols, but permitted the high places dedicated to the true God. This answer is the plainer and the truer. For when Scripture had said in 2 Paralipomenon 17:6 that Josaphat took away “the high places and the groves,” namely idolatrous ones, afterwards in chapter 20:33 it adds: “Nevertheless the high places,” namely those dedicated to the true God, but forbidden by Him, “he took not away.”
46. NOW THE REST OF THE WORDS (that is of the things and deeds; it is a metonymy frequent in these books) OF JOSAPHAT, etc., ARE THEY NOT WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE WORDS OF THE DAYS OF THE KINGS OF JUDA?—Namely in the Chronicles and Diaries in which the words, that is the deeds, of the kings of Juda were described day by day.
Very many heroic deeds of Josaphat are passed over here for the sake of brevity, of which some are recounted in 2 Paralipomenon 17:2, where the zeal of Josaphat in propagating the worship of God and in instructing the people is celebrated, and glory therefore is given him as a reward by God. Again in the same book, chapter 19, it is related that he reformed the tribunals in Juda, and appointed as Judges Levites and other pious and incorruptible men. Besides, chapter 20 recounts the notable victory which he obtained by his piety and prayer from God against Ammon and Moab, where among other things, in verse 12, praying he says: “In us indeed is not so great strength, that we can resist this multitude which cometh violently upon us. But as we know not what to do, we have only this remaining, that we turn our eyes to thee.” Wherefore God raised up the prophet Jahaziel, who says in verse 17: “Stand with confidence, and you shall see the help of the Lord over you.” Trusting, therefore, he went before the camp, but so that he sent before him singers praising God and singing together: “Praise ye the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever.” And when these had begun to sing, God turned the ambushes of the enemies against themselves, so that they attacked one another and cut each other down with mutual slaughter. Whence they all perished to a man, and Josaphat came up with his men to strip the spoils from them.
48. NOR WAS THERE THEN A KING APPOINTED IN EDOM,—because Idumea, subdued by David, was ruled by his Prefects; but soon, under Joram the son of Josaphat, “Edom revolted from being under Juda, and made themselves a king,” as is said in 4 Kings 8:20.
49. TO SAIL INTO OPHIR,—Where Ophir is, I said in chapter 9, verse 28.
THEY WERE BROKEN IN PIECES IN ASIONGABER,—because they were allied and joined to the fleet of the impious king of Israel, namely Ochozias the son of Achab, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon 20:37. Whence Ochozias, seeing his ships broken, asked of Josaphat that his servants should go with the servants of Josaphat in his ships; but Josaphat would not, as follows; namely because he feared the same or a worse vengeance of God on account of his alliance with the impious Ochozias.
51. AND JOSAPHAT SLEPT WITH HIS FATHERS, AND WAS BURIED WITH THEM IN THE CITY OF DAVID,—namely Sion; yet a mausoleum was erected to him in the valley, which was thence called Josaphat; which is situated between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, where the universal judgment will take place, as I said from Bede and others on Joel 3:9.
Here ends the third book of Kings, which embraces the history of the kings of Juda for 126 years. For Solomon reigned 40 years, Roboam 17, Abia 3, Asa 41, Josaphat 25; add these all together, you will have 126 years. Finally, as to the synchronism with the history of the Gentiles, Eusebius in the Chronicle, Genebrard, Salian and others relate this. In the time of Josaphat there reigned in Israel Achab and his son Ochozias, in Assyria Orphratanes, in Lacedaemon Archelaus, at Athens Mechades, at Corinth Agelas; among the Latins Capetus Sylvius, and Tiberinus Sylvius, who gave the river Tiber its name, when it had previously been called Albula; and Agrippa Silvius; in Egypt Nepher, Cheras, Amenophis, Osochor, Spinaces.