Commentaria in IV Regum
You will ask, second, with what rite did they worship the Sun by horses? First, the Scholastic Historian and others think that the Jews by these horses and chariot represented the chariot and fiery horses by which Elias, as it were the Sun, was snatched up into heaven, as we heard in chapter 2. So Eucherius and Angelomus, who also add: “The Greeks, hearing from the Israelites that Elias was translated into heaven by a fiery chariot and fiery horses, or certainly seeing this very thing among other things painted on a wall, believed, deceived by the likeness of the name, that here the passage of the Sun through the heavens was designated; and they changed a miracle divinely wrought by God into an argument of error, devised by human folly. The Jews themselves imitated them, and were careful not to appear less foolish than the most foolish of the Gentiles in anything.” Second, better Rabbi Solomon: At earliest dawn, he says, they led the horses to meet the rising Sun, to salute him and show him reverence. Abulensis carps at this, but unjustly; for Xenophon testifies that the horses of Cyrus came forth before sunrise to meet him in the pomp of the sacrifice, whose words I shall presently recite. So the Romans also saluted the rising Sun, whom St. Leo rebukes, sermon on the Epiphany, and Plato and Plutarch testify that Socrates was wont to do the same, from which Plutarch asserts the proverb was born: “More adore the rising Sun than the setting.” Hence some think that these horses of the Sun were those on which were carried those who saluted and worshipped the rising Sun.
Third, Abulensis would have these horses, painted or carved, to have been hung with a chariot before the statue of the Sun, or the statue placed on a chariot drawn by horses.
Fourth, they slew and sacrificed the living horses themselves to the Sun. Herodotus gives the reason, book 1, that they wished to immolate to the swiftest of the gods the swiftest also of all mortal creatures. Hear Xenophon, book 8, where he describes the triumphal procession of Cyrus out of captured Babylon: “When the gates of the palace were opened, first were led to Jupiter himself four most beautiful bulls, and to certain other gods whom the Magi had chosen. After the oxen came horses, to be a sacrifice to the Sun. After these a white chariot was led out, having a golden yoke, crowned, sacred to Jupiter. After this the chariot of the Sun was led out, white and crowned likewise like the former. After this also a third chariot was led out, whose horses were covered with scarlet cloths, and after it men followed, who carried fire in a great hearth.” Hence Cyrus in Persian is the same as Sun, says Plutarch in his Artaxerxes. So Philostratus in his Heroica writes that Palamedes commanded the Greeks to sacrifice a white horse to the rising Sun.
This worship of the Sun as a god the Jews therefore drew from the neighbouring nations. Further, that these horses were living is clear from the fact that Josias is said to have taken them away, not burned them; but the chariot of the Sun he burned, not took away; for if the horses had been painted or carved of wood, brass or gold, he would certainly have burned them with the chariot. Further, these horses of the Sun were “by the chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch.” “Nathanmelech” in Hebrew is the same as the gift of the king. This eunuch was so called, therefore, to signify how much they made of being a worshipper and charioteer of the Sun. For though he was only the groom of these horses and master of the stable, yet he was called by an august name: Nathan-melech, that is, gift of the king. The Septuagint render it, by the treasury of Nathan the king’s eunuch. Others render: From the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch; and so explain: from the chamber or chariot of the Sun, who is called Nathan-melech, that is, the king who gives; for the Sun is the king who gives all things; the same is a eunuch, that is, beardless, as being ever a youth, strong and agile. Hence they also wished the keeper of this image of the Sun to be a eunuch, that is, beardless; because such is the Sun. So Villalpandus, book 3, ch. 32, on Ezechiel 41, p. 221. Further, an “exedra” was a place, v. 3, a chamber in which are seats, so that there may be a sitting together of men, such as there were many near the temple for priests, Levites and others.
Tropologically, Josias teaches us that we ought to subdue and destroy the idols and the horses of the Sun, that is, the unbridled impulses of the soul.
Allegorically and anagogically, Josias represents Christ, who on the day of judgment will destroy all impiety; for he will suffer nothing defiled to enter heaven. So Angelomus.
13. ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MOUNT OF OFFENCE,—that is, of the Mount of Olives, which, from the idols and shrines erected on it by Solomon, was called “of offence.” For idols and the worship of idols are the supreme injury and offence to God. Whence it is presently added:
AND CHAMOS THE OFFENCE (that is, the idol offending God) OF MOAB.—Hence an idol is called in Scripture an “offence.” So Eucherius and Angelomus.
14. AND FILLED THEIR PLACES WITH DEAD MEN’S BONES.—For by this a place sacred to idols was profaned, defiled, and made vile, unclean and horrible, especially among the Jews, who contracted legal uncleanness by the touch of bones and corpses. So the Gentiles also shuddered at unburied bones and corpses. Hear Virgil, Aeneid 6:
Besides, the lifeless body of your friend lies there, alas! you know it not, and pollutes the whole fleet with death.
15. MOREOVER THE ALTAR THAT WAS AT BETHEL, AND THE HIGH PLACE THAT WAS MADE BY JEROBOAM (namely the shrine in which he had placed his idols, the golden calves, that they might be worshipped by all Israel) HE DESTROYED.—For although Bethel was in Israel, not in Juda where Josias reigned, yet, the Israelites having been already carried away from Israel into Assyria by Salmanasar, and their king and kingdom overthrown, the land of Israel seemed to return to its former lord, namely to the family of David and Josias king of Juda; especially because God had foretold and promised three hundred years before that Josias would do this at Bethel, 3 Kings chapter 13, v. 2, and by this very fact had given Josias the right and power to do it, indeed had ordained and commanded that he do it.
17. WHAT IS THAT MONUMENT WHICH I SEE?—The “monument” was the sepulchre of the prophet who prophesied against Jeroboam and the golden calves set up at Bethel, and foretold this overthrow of them to be made by Josias. It is called a “monument” because it was marked with some sign, so that Josias might know that there was buried a prophet, a worshipper of the true God, and might therefore spare it. What this sign was Scripture does not explain. Rabbi Solomon fables that from the bones of the prophet there grew up herbs pleasing to the sight, fragrant in smell, wholesome in use, by which Josias gathered that those bones were of a holy man and prophet. Others better suspect it was the sign of the cross, or the name Jehova, or something similar.
20. AND HE SLEW ALL THE PRIESTS OF THE HIGH PLACES THAT WERE THERE UPON THE ALTARS.—For when the Assyrians went away, laying Samaria waste, many Israelite fugitives and exiles returned to their homes, and there, as before, worshipped their idols in the high places; and therefore appointed priests to sacrifice to them, whom Josias, zealous for the honour of God, accordingly slew, and sacrificed and consecrated like victims to divine justice on those very altars.