Commentaria in IV Regum
The Fourth Book of Kings
The Hebrews join this book to the third and make one book with it. But the Latins more aptly divide them, and begin the fourth here. For here begins the decline of the kingdom of Juda, which under Solomon and the other kings until now had been strong, spacious and wealthy. Now in the first book of Kings we heard the deeds of Heli, Samuel and Saul over 80 years; in the second book the deeds of King David over 40 years; in the third book the deeds of Solomon, Roboam, Abias, Asa and Josaphat, over 126 years; but now in this fourth book we shall hear the deeds of Joram, Ochozias, Athalia, Joas, Amasias, Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, Ezechias, Manasses, Amon, Josias, Joachaz, Joakim, Joachin and Sedecias, over 304 years, who descended in succession in an unbroken line from David; and of those who reigned in Israel, or over the ten tribes: Ochozias son of Achab, Joram, Jehu, Joachaz, Joas, Jeroboam, Zacharias, Sellum, Manahem, Phaceia, Phacee and Osee, under whom the kingdom of Israel came to an end in the sixth year of Ezechias, when its whole people was carried off by Salmanasar into Assyria, as we shall hear in chapter xviii, 40. But the kingdom of Juda came to an end in the last year of Sedecias, when its people was carried off by Nabuchodonosor into the Babylonian captivity, as we shall hear in the last chapter.
Chapter 1. Synopsis of the Chapter
To Ochozias, who is sick and sends messengers to consult Beelzebub about his recovery, Elias announces death through the same messengers; in verse 9 he consumes with fire from heaven two captains of fifty sent by him to seize him, together with their 50 soldiers; but the third, who pleads with him, he spares, and goes with him to Ochozias and threatens him with death. So Ochozias dies, and his brother Joram succeeds him.
1. And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Achab. 2. And Ochozias fell down through the lattice of his upper chamber, which he had in Samaria, and was sick; and he sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron, whether I can recover of this my illness. 3. And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and thou shalt say to them: Is there not a God in Israel, that you go to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron? 4. Therefore thus saith the Lord: From the bed on which thou art gone up thou shalt not come down, but shalt surely die. And Elias went away. 5. And the messengers returned to Ochozias. And he said to them: Why are you come back? 6. But they answered him: A man met us, and said to us: Go back to the king that sent you, and you shall say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Is it because there was not a God in Israel that thou sendest to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron? Therefore from the bed on which thou art gone up thou shalt not come down, but shalt surely die. 7. And he said to them: What was the form and dress of the man, who met you, and spoke these words? 8. But they said: He was a hairy man, and girt about the loins with a leathern girdle. And he said: It is Elias the Thesbite. 9. And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty that were under him. And he went up to him, as he sat on the top of a hill, and said: Man of God, the king hath commanded that thou come down. 10. And Elias answering, said to the captain of fifty: If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and the fifty that were with him. 11. And again he sent to him another captain of fifty, and the fifty that were with him. And he spoke to him: Man of God, thus saith the king: Make haste, come down. 12. Elias answering, said: If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. 13. And again he sent a third captain of fifty, and the fifty that were with him. And when he was come, he fell upon his knees before Elias, and besought him, and said: Man of God, despise not my life, and the lives of thy servants who are with me. 14. Behold fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two first captains of fifty, and the fifties that were with them; but now I beseech thee that thou have mercy on my life. 15. And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, saying: Go down with him, and fear not. So he arose, and went down with him to the king, 16. And said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast sent messengers to consult Beelzebub the god of Accaron, as if there were not a God in Israel, of whom thou mightest inquire the word, therefore from the bed on which thou art gone up thou shalt not come down, but shalt surely die. 17. So he died according to the word of the Lord, which Elias spoke, and Joram his brother reigned in his stead, in the second year of Joram the son of Josaphat king of Juda: for he had no son. 18. Now the rest of the acts of Ochozias, which he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
1. AND MOAB REBELLED AGAINST ISRAEL—that is, against Ochozias the son of Achab, who reigned in Israel. As the Chaldee version has it, the Moabites rebelled against Israel. For when they saw Achab slain in battle, and his army scattered, and Ochozias a young man, they took courage, and rebelled against him to whom they had hitherto been subject, refusing tribute and setting up a king of their own; just as about the same time the Idumeans, who had been subdued by David, rebelled against Joram king of Juda, as we shall hear in chapter viii. So Abulensis.
2. AND OCHOZIAS (son of Achab, king of Israel) FELL DOWN THROUGH THE LATTICE OF HIS UPPER CHAMBER—that is, through the latticed and trellised windows of the floor, say Pagninus, Vatablus and others. Or he calls the “upper chamber” the roof-terrace, or roof, which in Palestine was flat, so that men could walk on it, dine and sleep. Moreover this roof was enclosed all round by a parapet or wall, lest anyone should fall from it unawares, according to the law of Deuteronomy xxii, 8. This wall was of latticework, and it was through this, when the lattices gave way or broke, that Ochozias fell. So Sanchez.
Tropologically, Eucherius says: “Ochozias, king of Samaria, who separated himself from the house of David, and fell through the lattice, seems to signify this: that heretics or schismatics, even if they seem to climb to some height of good action, yet because they have not the framework of the Church’s unity, being as it were without solid supports at the sides, always slip back to the weak places of vices, and, deprived of divine help, perish in the pride of their obstinacy.”
CONSULT BEELZEBUB THE GOD OF ACCARON. The Septuagint reads, consult Baal Muia, the god of Accaron. Josephus reads, consult the oracle of Myodes (for that was the god’s name): myia is a fly, whence Myodes is the god of flies, who was invoked, that is, to drive away the flies with which the Accaronites abounded because of their damp and hot soil, from the nearness of the sea. The same was called Jupiter Apomyios, as Pausanias testifies, book V, and Pliny, book XXIX, chapter vi, where he calls him Myodes Accaron, perhaps because he was worshipped in Accaron, as is said here. In like manner the god Smintheus was worshipped to drive away mice (for the Cretans call these sminthae), and Parnopius to drive away parnopes, that is gnats, or, as others will have it, locusts, as Pausanias testifies in his Attica. For the Gentiles set gods over all things, and so worshipped Fever, Cloacina, Fear and Pallor as divinities, as St. Augustine testifies, book IV of the City of God, chapters xvi and xxiii. So Beelzebub in Hebrew is the same as Baal or Beel and Bel, plus Zebub, that is, fly, or Baal Fly, as the Septuagint translate it; for this idol was fashioned in the likeness of a fly, says Nazianzen, book II Against Julian, and Theodoret, Question VI. Hence Philastrius also reckons among the heresies the “Myolatrae,” that is, worshippers of the fly, or “Fly-Accaronites.” See what was said on Matthew x, 25. To which add that some, with Serarius, think that Beelzebub or Myodes, that is, the God Fly, was a god or goddess of lust, on account of the shamelessness and lust which is noted in flies; whence Lucian in his Praise of the Fly relates that there were once harlots who were called flies. Moreover all the gods (that is, demons) may be called flies on account of their multitude, insolence, shamelessness, biting, filth and stench; whence in this age a demon in the form of a great fly or hornet, flying upon a man who, having abandoned the orthodox faith, professed Anabaptism, at once possessed him, as it were, and made him learned in Holy Scripture, and deprived him of this learning if he returned from Anabaptism to the faith, as eyewitnesses relate. Again, demons are called “flies” because, as Lucian says in his book On Sacrifices, “like flies they gape at the blood of the victims.” Add that demons sometimes flew like flies upon the soothsayers of the Gentiles, that they might utter oracles; just as the Roman Ritual teaches that he sometimes approaches to beset the possessed. Hence among the Jews he who was contemptible and detestable is called Beelzebub, Matthew x, and the prince of the demons himself, Matthew xii, as the most lustful, most shameless and most contemptible of all, says Serarius; or because Jupiter Apomyios was Myodes, as I have said; and Jupiter is the first and chief of all the gods.
Tropologically, they worship Beelzebub, that is, the god Fly or of flies, who are shameless, luxurious, insolent, restless and quarrelsome. Hear St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, chapter xxv, explaining the fourth plague of Egypt, which was that of flies, Exodus viii, 21: “Egypt, which bears the likeness of this world, is smitten with flies. For the fly is an exceedingly insolent and restless creature. By it what else is signified but the insolent cares of carnal desires? Whence it is said elsewhere: Dying flies spoil the sweetness of ointment; because superfluous thoughts, which constantly arise and die away in a mind thinking of carnal things, destroy the sweetness by which each one is inwardly in the spirit; since they do not allow him to enjoy its integrity. Egypt, therefore, is smitten with flies; because the hearts of those who love earthly life, while they are struck by the restlessness of their desires, are pressed down to the lowest things by crowds of carnal thoughts, and are not raised to the desire of inward rest. Whence when truth comes to the heart with the help of piety, it first casts out of it the tumult of carnal thoughts, and afterwards sets in it the wonderful gifts of virtues.” More on the symbolism of flies I have said on Ecclesiastes x, 1, on the words: “Dying flies spoil the sweetness of ointment.”
4. WHEREFORE (that is, because, having forsaken God, thou hast consulted Beelzebub) etc., THOU SHALT SURELY DIE.—Elias threatens death to Ochozias for having consulted a demon; let those note it who consult diviners and magicians; for God will punish these with eternal death and often with temporal. So Saul was slain in battle because he had consulted the Pythoness, 1 Kings xxviii, 16. So Achab was pierced by an arrow because he had inquired of the false prophets of Baal about the outcome of the war, book III of Kings, last chapter. For this consultation is a grave crime, and a great injury to God; because by it foreknowledge of the future and divination, which are proper to His divinity, are taken away from Him and handed over to the devil. Whence God shows how sharply He feels this insult to Himself, when He chastises it so severely.
8. A HAIRY MAN, AND GIRT ABOUT THE LOINS WITH A LEATHERN GIRDLE.—For Elias went about unshorn, with long beard and hair, in rough and hairy clothing, namely a melote, or a sheepskin or goatskin with the hair on, and girt with a leathern girdle, that is, with hide not dressed, but still hairy and shaggy, like a hermit despising the world, and a lover of the simplicity of ancient poverty. See Cassian, book I of the Institutes, chapter i. Rabbi Eliezer, chapter xxxi, fables that this girdle of Elias was made from the skin of that ram which Abraham sacrificed in place of Isaac, Genesis xxii.
9. MAN OF GOD (he calls him so ironically, as if to say: O Elias, who callest thyself and boastest to be a man of God), THE KING HATH COMMANDED THAT THOU COME DOWN—from the top of Mount Carmel to us, that we may lead thee down as a captive to King Ochozias, to whom thou hast foretold death, that thou mayest give account of this deadly oracle and pay the penalty. So this captain of fifty sinned, first, by impiety, because he consented to the impiety of Ochozias, who wished to punish Elias, and was his minister. Second, by arrogance, because he imperiously and proudly, as the executor of a royal command, ordered him to come down; and therefore he was struck by fire from heaven by Elias, or rather by God, and perished.
10. AND ELIAS ANSWERING, SAID TO THE CAPTAIN OF FIFTY: IF I BE A MAN OF GOD, LET FIRE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN, AND CONSUME THEE AND THY FIFTY.—Elias makes the ironical title given him a serious one, and turns it back upon the head of the speaker by a serious vengeance. Whence note: where we have “of God” the Hebrew is Elohim, which word signifies God as judge and avenger, as if to say: If I am the minister of Elohim, that is, of the supreme judge and avenger, as thou hast ironically said, let Elohim Himself defend me as His minister, and punish thy insolence and violence in wishing to seize me, His minister, and drag me unwilling to the king. For this violence redounds upon God Himself, who is my master and Lord. Wherefore Elias avenged this injury to himself, or rather to God, calling down fire from heaven with vehement spirit. The same he will do at the end of the world, when he fights with Enoch against Antichrist and his followers; whence Apocalypse xi, 5, it is said of both: “And if any man will hurt them, fire shall come out of their mouths (at their command), and shall devour their enemies,” and Ecclesiasticus xlviii, 1: “Elias the prophet stood up, as a fire, and his word burned like a torch,” and verse 3: “He brought down fire from heaven thrice.” See what was said there.
Symbolically, St. Ambrose, in his book On those who are initiated into the mysteries, chapter ix, compares with Elias the priest consecrating the Eucharist. For as Elias consumed the captain of fifty with his men by fire from heaven, so the priest, by the divine power of Christ’s words, consumes the substance of bread and wine, and changes it into the body of Christ: for, as Lanfranc says Against Berengarius: “If the word of Elias was so powerful as to bring down fire from heaven, shall the word of Christ not be powerful to change the species of the elements?”
11. MAKE HASTE, COME DOWN.—This second captain of fifty was more shameless than the former; both because, having heard of his punishment, he did not repent, and because he increased the shamelessness by adding: make haste; and therefore, struck with the same punishment, he was consumed by fire from heaven.
14. I BESEECH THEE THAT THOU HAVE MERCY ON MY LIFE.—This third captain, terrified by the punishment of the two before and made wiser, becomes a suppliant to Elias: whence he does not dare to ask or say that he should come down, but asks mercy, that is, that he spare him, and say what is to be done by him: namely, what he ought to report to the king. Wherefore Elias not only spared him, but, the Angel advising it, of his own accord joined himself as his companion to the king.
17. AND JORAM HIS BROTHER REIGNED (in Israel) IN HIS STEAD, IN THE SECOND YEAR OF JORAM THE SON OF JOSAPHAT KING OF JUDA,—who, namely, while his father Josaphat was still living, but was going with Achab to battle against the Syrians, and was therefore absent, reigned in Jerusalem; of whom chapter iii, verse 1. For when Achab was slain in war, his son Ochozias at once succeeded him in the kingdom, and when he died of sickness in the first year of his reign, his brother Joram succeeded.