Commentaria in IV Regum
Chapter 4. Synopsis of the Chapter
Eliseus multiplies the oil of a poor widow, chapter iv, verse 8 [sic: verse 1]. He obtains a son for the Sunamitess, his barren hostess, and recalls him to life when dead, chapter iv, verse 38 [sic]. He sweetens a pot of most bitter colocynths by throwing in meal, chapter iv, verse 42 [sic]. He multiplies loaves by miracle so that they suffice for a hundred men.
1. Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him. 2. And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she answered: I thy handmaid have nothing in my house but a little oil, to anoint me. 3. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours empty vessels not a few. 4. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within, thou and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all these vessels; and when they are full, take them away. 5. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons: they brought her the vessels and she poured in. 6. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son: Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have none. And the oil stood. 7. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said: Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy sons live of the rest. 8. And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat bread: and as he passed often that way, he turned into her house to eat bread. 9. And she said to her husband: I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us. 10. Let us therefore make him a little chamber, and put a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that when he cometh to us, he may abide there. 11. Now there was a day when he came, and turned into the chamber, and rested there. 12. And he said to Giezi his servant: Call this Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood before him, 13. He said to his servant: Say to her: Behold thou hast carefully served us in all things, what wilt thou that I do for thee? Hast thou any business, and wilt thou that I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people. 14. And he said: What then will she have me do for her? Giezi said: Ask not: for she hath no son, and her husband is old. 15. Then he bade him call her: and when she was called, and stood at the door, 16. He said to her: At this time, and at this same hour, if life be in company, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie to thy handmaid. 17. And the woman conceived, and bore a son in the time, and at the same hour that Eliseus had said. 18. And the child grew. And on a certain day when he went out to his father to the reapers, 19. He said to his father: My head aches, my head aches. And he said to a servant: Take him, and carry him to his mother. 20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, she set him on her knees till noon, and then he died. 21. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door; and went out, 22. And called her husband, and said: Send with me, I beseech thee, one of the servants, and an ass, that I may run to the man of God, and return. 23. And he said to her: What is the cause why thou goest to him? to-day is not the Calends, nor the Sabbath. And she answered: I will go. 24. And she saddled an ass, and commanded the servant: Drive, and make haste, make no delay in going; and do this which I bid thee. 25. So she went forward, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess. 26. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And she answered: Well. 27. And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold of his feet, and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone, for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. 28. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me? 29. Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go: If any man meet thee, salute him not; and if any man salute thee, answer him not; and lay my staff upon the face of the child. 30. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose therefore, and followed her. 31. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen. 32. Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed: 33. And going in he shut the door upon himself and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. 34. And he went up, and lay upon the child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon him, and the flesh of the child grew warm. 35. Then he returned, and walked in the house once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. 36. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called, went in to him. And he said: Take up thy son. 37. She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out. 38. And Eliseus returned to Galgal. And there was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him: and he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. 39. And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs: and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds, and filled his mantle, and coming back he shred them into the pot of pottage: for he knew not what it was. 40. So they poured it out for their companions to eat: and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out, saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could not eat of it. 41. But he said: Bring meal. And when they had brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for the people, that they may eat; and there was now no bitterness in the pot. 42. And a certain man came from Baalsalisa, bringing to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat. 43. And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? Again he said: Give to the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left. 44. So he set it before them: and they ate, and there was left according to the word
1. NOW A CERTAIN WOMAN.—Josephus, book IX, chapter iii, whom the Hebrews follow, Theodoret, Lyra, Abulensis and others, asserts that this woman was the wife of Abdias, steward of Achab, 3 Kings xviii, 3, and that she obtained this benefit and miracle of the multiplied oil from Eliseus on account of the merits and alms of her husband, who in the persecution of Jezabel had hidden and fed a hundred prophets of the Lord. For God repays liberality with liberality, and is supremely merciful to the merciful, according to that: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy,” Matthew v.
AND BEHOLD THE CREDITOR IS COME.—The Hebrews relate that this creditor was Joram king of Israel, who had given Abdias money, which he spent in secretly feeding the hundred prophets, and that it was therefore now being demanded back from his wife by the king. But Abulensis refutes this, Question IV.
TO TAKE AWAY MY TWO SONS TO SERVE HIM.—The Hebrews were accustomed to sell their sons or to carry them off as slaves for the debts of their parents, as is plain from Matthew xviii, 25, and Isaias l, 1. The Romans did the same of old, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus testifies, book II, and the Athenians, as Plutarch testifies in his Solon: indeed the Christians also, as is plain from law 2, On fathers who have sold their sons, book IV of the Code, title 43. That this also happened in his own time St. Ambrose bitterly complains of and laments, in his book On Job, chapter vii.
BUT A LITTLE OIL, TO ANOINT ME.—So also the Septuagint, it is, except a flask of oil. Our version and the Septuagint add: to anoint me, that is, with which I can be anointed but once, to signify that the vessel is small and the oil little. For the use of oil is properly for anointing, which among the Hebrews was customary and frequent. Others, with Sanchez, read: to anoint me, namely presently after my death, which threatens me through hunger. For it was the custom with the Hebrews, as with the Gentiles, to anoint the dead before burial.
3. GO, BORROW OF ALL THY NEIGHBOURS EMPTY VESSELS NOT A FEW.—For I will bring it about that all shall be filled with oil; and the more empty ones thou shalt bring, the more full of oil thou shalt receive. Tropologically it is signified that we must be emptied of earthly desires, that God may fill us with the oil of His grace. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 6 On the Ascension: “Whence is there so great a want of spiritual grace in some, when in others so great an abundance overflows? Surely the distributor of grace is neither niggardly nor needy; but where empty vessels are lacking, the oil must needs stand. The love of the world thrusts itself in on every side with its consolations, or rather desolations, watches the approaches; it rushes in through the windows, it occupies the mind; but not the mind of him who said: My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God, and was delighted. A holy delight turns away from the soul preoccupied with worldly desires: nor can the true be mingled with the vain, the eternal with the perishable, the spiritual with the bodily, the highest with the lowest, so that thou mayest equally relish the things that are above and those that are upon the earth.”
St. Gregory, however, homily 3 on Ezechiel, takes by the oil the doctrine which is poured by teachers into the empty minds of men. “For while,” he says, “from the mouth of one teacher the empty minds of many hear a little of the love of the Godhead, by overflowing grace they are filled to the top with the ointment of divine love. Even now the hearts of many, which were before empty little vessels, are full of the ointment of the spirit, which seemed to be poured in only from the scantiness of the oil.” Whence St. Augustine, sermon 206 On the Seasons, teaches that the apostolic man must seek “empty vessels,” that is, men needing instruction, into whom he may pour the oil of doctrine: for so it will grow with the growing number of men.
4. AND SHUT THY DOOR,—both that no one coming in may disturb or delay and stop thy pouring of the oil into the vessels; and that this miracle and benefit may be secret, and that thou mayest see God alone working it, and no man cooperating with Him; and that thou alone mayest enjoy the oil, lest anyone ask or take away something of it. Mystically St. Augustine says that each one should give alms with the door shut, that is, for the love of God alone, not that he may be praised by men, but that he may deserve to find grace with God. For he who gives alms for human praise gives it with the door open, because it lies open to all. But he who has done good works for eternal life alone and for the remission of sins, even if he does it publicly, has done it with the door shut; because in that alms he seeks not what is seen, but what is not seen: for human praise is seen, eternal reward is not seen.
5. THEY BROUGHT HER THE VESSELS AND SHE POURED IN;—so the oil grew in the pouring. For Angels continually supplied and poured in oil after oil into the flask, until all the vessels were filled, which done the oil stood, the Angel withdrawing. Another [says Augustine]: “By oil, he says, mercy is understood. Therefore the debt of that widow had grown for this reason, that by sinning she had lost the oil of mercy. Consider, brethren: the oil failed and the debt grew. The oil grew, and the debt perished. Covetousness had grown, and charity perished; charity returns, and iniquity perishes. But on the coming of Eliseus, Christ the Lord, the widow, that is the Church, by the increase of the oil, that is the gift of grace and mercy, or the fatness of charity, is freed from the debt of sins.”
8. AND ELISEUS PASSED BY SUNAM: NOW THERE WAS A GREAT WOMAN THERE,—both in wealth and fame, namely wealthy, honoured, renowned; and in uprightness and piety. Whence the Chaldee translates, there was a woman there who feared sin. Rabbi Solomon fables that this Sunamitess was the sister of Abisag the Sunamitess, who was given to the aged David as wife, to warm him, 3 Kings i: for from the death of David to Eliseus more than 80 years had flowed by. Wherefore this woman would have had to exceed the hundredth year of her age.
9. I PERCEIVE THAT THIS IS A HOLY MAN OF GOD.—She perceived it from the modesty, abstinence, gravity, speech, assiduous prayer and other heroic virtues of Eliseus. Wherefore Rabbi Solomon fables that she knew it from the fact that on the table which she had so often spread for Eliseus no fly ever settled, nor did anything unclean cling.
10. LET US THEREFORE MAKE HIM A LITTLE CHAMBER,—the Hebrew and Chaldee, a little chamber of wall; of wall, that is, of a wall and solid construction, and not of light planks: or, as Vatablus, of wall, that is, enclosed and fenced in by a wall, and set apart from the other parts of the house, that Eliseus might dwell there alone in quiet and secrecy, and pray and meditate.
AND A STOOL AND A CANDLESTICK,—namely nothing but what is strictly necessary: for she knew that Eliseus, a lover of poverty, would not admit cushions, tapestries and other ornaments as superfluous.
13. I DWELL IN THE MIDST OF MY OWN PEOPLE,—as if to say: I live peacefully among my fellow citizens and neighbours, I love all, and am loved by all: wherefore I have no quarrel with anyone, that for it I should have to implore the help of the king or prince; nay, if I needed it, my fellow citizens would help me, and intercede with the king for me: for I am known and dear to all.
16. AT THIS TIME (that is, in the coming year about this same time) THOU SHALT HAVE A SON IN THY WOMB.
DO NOT LIE TO THY HANDMAID.—“To lie,” not formally: for she knew that Eliseus, a holy man, would not wish to deceive her and speak against his mind, so as falsely to promise her a son; but materially, as if to say: Would that thy word may come to pass true, not false, in fact! would that thy word be not merely a kindly wish, but also an effective prophecy, that in truth in the following year a son may be born to me!