Commentaria in IV Regum
2. AND HE REIGNED TWO AND FIFTY YEARS.—In the time of Azarias lived Sardanapalus, whom the Gentile historians place as the last king of the Assyrians, and say that, being effeminate, he was besieged in Ninive by Arbaces, the governor of Media, and there burned himself with the royal treasure. Wherefore Arbaces made himself king of the Medes about the tenth year of Azarias, when Proca Silvius reigned among the Latins, Agemon among the Corinthians, and the lawgiver Lycurgus among the Spartans. So Eusebius, Diodorus, Justin, Ptolemy, Strabo, and from them Tornielli, Salianus, Gordon, Sanctius and others.
But shortly afterwards Ninive and its kingdom were restored; for, as we shall presently hear, shortly afterwards under the same Azarias reigned Phul king of the Assyrians, to whom succeeded Theglathphalasar, then Salmanasar, then Sennacherib, then Asarhaddon, under whom, on account of the Assyrians slain a little before by an Angel while besieging Ezechias and Jerusalem, Ben Merodach the Babylonian raised his head and made himself king of Babylon, who was the grandfather of Nabuchodonosor, the first monarch of Babylon. For all these kings just named are called kings of the Assyrians, not of the Babylonians, nor before Baladan is any one in Scripture named king of Babylon.
It seems, therefore, that Phul the Assyrian, with Arbaces the governor, divided the empire of Sardanapalus, so that Arbaces ruled Media and Persia, but Phul Assyria and Babylonia: so, from the Metasthenes of Annius, Genebrard, Tornielli, Samerius, Gordon, Salianus and others.
With this chronology agrees the time of the prophet Jonas, who, as we heard in the preceding chapter, v. 25, prophesied under Jeroboam, whose contemporary was Azarias. Jonas, therefore, sent by God, rebuked the luxury and licentiousness of Sardanapalus and the Ninivites. Sardanapalus repented with the Ninivites, but not long after, relapsing into their wonted vices, they were besieged and laid waste by Arbaces the Mede, as I said on Jonas.
5. AND THE LORD STRUCK THE KING (Azarias) AND HE WAS A LEPER,—namely because he usurped the office of the high priest, by burning incense upon the altar of incense, which was in the Holy Place, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon 26:16, on which see more there.
8. IN THE THIRTY-EIGHTH YEAR OF AZARIAS KING OF JUDA, ZACHARIAS THE SON OF JEROBOAM REIGNED OVER ISRAEL.—He was the great-grandson of Jehu; hence the royal line of Jehu ended in Zacharias, as in the fourth generation, as God had promised him, chapter 10, v. 30. “In the thirty-eighth year of Azarias,” namely from the time when he began to reign with his father Amasias; for from the time when Azarias reigned alone after his father this was the 26th or 27th year. If, therefore, you count the 38 years of Azarias from the 18th year of Amasias his father, in which he took him as partner in the kingdom, this 38th year of Azarias will be the 41st of Jeroboam king of Israel, who began to reign alone in the 15th year of Amasias, father of Azarias. For this 41st year was the last of Jeroboam; hence at his death his son Zacharias succeeded him for six months. But because Azarias after his father Amasias reigned alone 52 years, which are here separately noted: for in v. 13 the 39th year of Azarias is numbered, and v. 23, the 50th, and v. 27, the 52nd and last, so that thus a consequent and certain chronology of the times is woven through the years of the kings of Juda: hence we shall better say with Richard of St. Victor, Lyranus, Abulensis and others that Jeroboam king of Israel died in the twenty-seventh year of Azarias king of Juda: and that from then for eleven years, namely up to the 38th year of Azarias, there was an interregnum and the kingdom of Israel lacked a king; because Zacharias the son of Jeroboam, either on account of tender age, or the rebellion of his subjects, or some other cause, could not prevail and obtain his father’s kingdom. The reason is that the 41 years of Jeroboam are to be reckoned from the fifteenth year of Amasias, so that Jeroboam reigned fourteen years with Amasias, who reigned 29 years; wherefore he must have reigned the remaining 27 years (for Jeroboam reigned 41 years) with Azarias the son of Amasias, so that he died in the twenty-seventh year of Azarias, and then his son Zacharias succeeded him. Therefore when it is said here of any of the kings of Juda that he reigned so many years, understand alone after his father; because the chronology is here woven through the kings of Juda, which otherwise would be uncertain and ambiguous; but elsewhere, when it is said: in such a year such a king reigned, especially in Israel, it may be understood not of reigning but of co-reigning, in which he reigned not alone but with his father.
AND MANAHEM WENT UP FROM THERSA,—which he was besieging in the name of his king Zacharias, says Josephus, and Sellum, who had slain king Zacharias, having been slain in Samaria, he seized the sovereignty; and when he had returned to Thersa, and the Thersites would not admit him as king, he raged against them, and most of all against the Thapsites, ripping up the women with child in it, as is said in v. 16.
16. AND THE BORDERS THEREOF FROM THERSA,—for the territory of the city of Thapsa reached as far as Thersa, says Vatablus.
AND RIPPED THEM UP,—that is, cut open the women with child to take out the unborn child, says Abulensis. Great was this cruelty and barbarity.
In the reign of Azarias began the Olympiads, but in what year of his reign this took place the chronologers differ.
19. PHUL KING OF THE ASSYRIANS CAME.—So Eusebius, De Praeparatione, book 3, and in his chronicle, places the beginning of the Olympiads in the 50th year of Azarias, and consequently the beginning of the city of Rome, since Romulus founded it in the fourth or fifth year of Achaz: for the beginning of the Olympiads precedes the beginning of Rome by 23 years, as all historians and chronologers agree. Now add two years of Azarias (for he reigned 52 years) and sixteen of his son Joathan, and five of Achaz, and you will have the 23 years we seek.
Others think the Olympiads began in the fourth or fifth year of Azarias; Serarius in the 47th year of the same; Pererius, book 11 on Daniel, about the eighth year of Achaz. Tornielli, Salianus and others in the 29th year of Azarias, or rather the first year of Joatham, because he succeeded his father Azarias. For this difference of a few years is slight in so great a gap of ancient times. According to the chronological table which I prefixed to the Pentateuch, the Olympiads began in the fortieth year of Azarias; but Rome was founded in the tenth or eleventh year of Joatham. Further, before the Olympiads there is nothing certain among the profane Greek and Latin historians, but all is uncertain and confused; hence they themselves call this age the mythical, that is, fabulous: but after them, and likewise after the founding of Rome, all things began to be assigned to their own years reckoned from thence, as Eusebius testifies, book 10 of the Praeparatio, ch. 3, and Censorinus, book 10 De die natali, ch. 21. Now an Olympiad was a space of four years.