Commentaria in IV Regum
11. The Rest of the Common People Nabuzardan Carried Away
GENERAL OF THE ARMY.—The Septuagint render it archimagirus, that is, chief of the cooks; the Hebrew, chief of the slaughterers; the Chaldee, master of the slayers; whence St. Gregory mystically understands by him gluttony, which overthrows the temple of our soul. Hear him, Pastoral Care, part 3, admonition 20: “The chief of the cooks destroyed the walls of Jerusalem. For the chief of the cooks is the belly, on which great care is spent in service from the cooks, that it may itself be pleasantly filled with food. But the walls of Jerusalem are the virtues of the soul, raised to the desire of heavenly peace. The chief of the cooks therefore throws down the walls of Jerusalem; because while the belly is stretched by gluttony, the virtues of the soul are destroyed by luxury.” Hence Abbot Poemen in the Lives of the Fathers: “Unless,” he says, “Nabuzardan the chief of the cooks had come, the temple of God would not have burned; that is, unless the desire of gluttony had crept in, the soul would not have been consumed by lust.” Angelomus, however, understands by “Nabuzardan” the devil, who is busy plundering all the goods of the faithful.
14. LADLES,—not “fleshhooks,” but ladles, that is, lids of pots, called trulla, says Abulensis, from trudere, because it thrusts, that is, shuts the pot, so that trulla is as it were trusilis: for our version joins “ladles” with pots. For in the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint no word answers to ladles.
But the ancient authors understand by trulla a vessel for pouring water. So Nonius Marcellus: “Trulleum,” he says, “is that with which the hands are washed.” Titinius in the Setina: “Wisdom,” he says, “steers the ship, a pilot, though unable; the cook, when the great cauldron boils, calms it with a little trua.” Varro, book 4: “Trulla,” he says, “is so called from the likeness of the trua, which, being large, this one, being small, is as a trulla. Hence the Greeks say truble, we trulla. A trulla is that from which they pour water out of the kitchen into the basin. The trua, because the water flies over (travolat), is called from the same.” Varro therefore thinks trulla is so called from travolare, but Nonius Marcellus from terere, as if terula. Isidore, however, from trudere. Hear him, Origines, book 19, ch. 8: “The name trulla was made because it thrusts and thrusts down, that is, it shuts in stones with lime or mortar.”
The allegory and tropology here is easy and fitting. For Jerusalem is the Church, and likewise the faithful soul contemplating God through faith; the idols are created and vain things, which it seeks against the law of God, for example the idol of the avaricious is gold, of the luxurious lust, of the proud honour. Nabuchodonosor is the devil, who, having taken Jerusalem, that is, the soul, blinds its king Sedecias, that is, the mind (for Sedecias in Hebrew is the same as the justice of God, which the mind ought to think of, fear and imitate); then he despoils it of all graces and goods, and burns up the temple, that is, all fear and worship of God, and then, making it captive, deprives it of its liberty, and leads it bound to Babylon, that is, into the extreme confusion of all things, such as is in a soul subject to its desires, especially when it is cast into hell. But before that happens, Cyrus, that is Christ, frees many from this captivity. So Angelomus and Eucherius.
27. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE SEVEN AND THIRTIETH YEAR OF THE CAPTIVITY OF JOACHIN.—Joachin was therefore in the Babylonian prison as long as Nabuchodonosor survived, for 37 years: but when he died, Evilmerodach, succeeding his father, freed and exalted Joachin. I gave the cause on Jeremias 52, near the end of the chapter,
SYNCHRONISM OF THE KINGS OF JUDA, THE PROPHETS, AND THE KINGS AND HEROES OF THE GENTILES.
Contemporary with Solomon were Nathan the prophet, Hiram king of Tyre, Hesiod, and Homer, of the Greeks.
Contemporary with Roboam were Ahias the prophet, Jeroboam the first king of Israel, and Laosthenes king of the Assyrians.
Contemporary with Asa were Jehu the prophet, Baasa king of Israel, and Ophrateus king of the Assyrians.
In the time of Josaphat flourished Elias the prophet, who was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot.
Under Joram Eliseus prophesied for sixty-six years, and died under king Amasias.
Under Joas lived Joiada the high priest, and his son Zacharias the martyr. In Israel reigned in succession Jehu, who cut off the house of Achab, Joachaz and Joas.
The brother of king Amasias was Amos, the father of the prophet Isaias. Isaias therefore had king Joas for grandfather, and Amasias for uncle: at this time Lycurgus gave laws to the Spartans.
In the time of Azarias or Ozias, Isaias began to prophesy, and prophesied for sixty years under the kings Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, Ezechias and Manasses; there prophesied then also Osee, Joel, Amos, Jonas and Abdias. About the 40th year of Azarias the Olympiads began to be reckoned, or the years of king Iphitus, who instituted them. The Olympiads precede the founding of Rome by 23 years. Wherefore about the tenth year of Joatham Rome was founded by Romulus, who first reigned in it 36 years. To him succeeded Numa Pompilius for 44 years; to him Tullus Hostilius for 32 years; to him Ancus Martius for 25 years; to him Tarquinius Priscus for 38 years; to him Servius Tullius for 44 years; to him Tarquinius Superbus for 25 years.
Under Joatham prophesied Nahum and Micheas. About the same time Sardanapalus, besieged in Ninive by Arbaces the governor of Media, burned himself with the palace and all his treasure. Wherefore Arbaces made himself king of the Medes; but Baladan, who was called by another name Nabonassar, occupied Babylonia, from whom was established the Nabonassarean Era, which begins from the 13th year of Joatham.
Under Achaz Damascus was taken by the Assyrians, and Theglathphalasar their king carried half of the ten tribes of Israel away into Assyria.
Contemporary with Ezechias were Merodach the son of Baladan, or of Nabonassar the first king of Babylon, and Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, who carried Israel, that is the remnants of the ten tribes, and among them Tobias, into Assyria. Likewise his son Sennacherib, who, besieging Jerusalem, was put to flight by an Angel, 185 thousand being slain.
Then also flourished the Erythraean Sibyl, as St. Augustine testifies, De Civitate Dei, book 18, ch. 23. Manasses sawed asunder with a wooden saw the prophet Isaias, his kinsman. Then flourished among the Lydians Gyges, who, Candaules having been slain, obtained the kingdom: his great-grandson was Croesus, whom Cyrus conquered in battle and subjugated. Then also in Egypt reigned Psammetichus, whose son Nechao overcame and slew Josias. Then also was illustrious Thales of Miletus, one of the seven wise men of Greece, and successively the other six wise men. Under Manasses also, at Rome reigned Numa Pompilius, and the Samian Sibyl flourished. Then likewise many think that the history of Judith happened.
Under Josias Jeremias began to prophesy, and in the time of Joakim, Joachin and Sedecias prophesied for 45 years, and at length in Egypt was overwhelmed with stones by the Jews and fell a martyr. Under the same prophesied Baruch, Sophonias and the prophetess Holda. At Rome reigned Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Martius. There flourished Aristomenes, the tyrant Phalaris, the lawgiver Zeleucus, Terpander the musician, Sappho and Stesichorus the poets. In the fourth year of Joakim Nabuchodonosor began to reign, who transferred the monarchy from the Assyrians to the Chaldeans, and overthrew Jerusalem with the temple and led the Jews away to Babylon, and subjugated Egypt, and slew Pharao Nechao, who was the last of the Pharaos, as I said on Jeremias 44:30.
Under Joachin and Sedecias Ezechiel prophesied in Babylon for 22 years, to whom succeeded Daniel, who lived and prophesied to his hundredth year. See what was said in the prefaces to Jeremias, Ezechiel and Daniel.
At this time in Media reigned Cyaxares, to whom succeeded his son Astyages, and to him his grandson by his daughter, Cyrus, who with Darius the Mede, his uncle, took Babylon, and transferred the monarchy from the Chaldeans to the Persians, and sent the Jews back, freed from Babylon, into Judea.
Then also flourished Draco, lawgiver of the Athenians, and Solon, Epimenides the philosopher, who, as Laertius testifies, erected at Athens an altar “to the Unknown God,” of which Paul speaks, Acts 17. So also Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Anacharsis the philosopher, Arion the musician, Aesop the author of fables, the Cumaean Sibyl, who offered to Tarquin king of the Romans nine books of oracles at the price of 300 gold pieces, and when he refused it, the Sibyl burned a great part of them and for the few remaining exacted and obtained as much, as Pliny, Solinus, Gellius, Servius and others narrate. This is from Eusebius, Tornielli, Gordon, Salianus and the other chronologers.
Hear St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, book 18, ch. 25: “While Sedecias reigned among the Hebrews, and Tarquinius Priscus, who had succeeded Ancus Martius, among the Romans, the people of the Jews was led captive to Babylon, Jerusalem being overthrown, and that temple built by Solomon. At that time Pittacus of Mitylene is said to have been one of the seven wise men: and the five others, who are counted as seven, being added to Thales, whom we mentioned above, and to this Pittacus, Eusebius writes that they were at the time when the captive people of God was held in Babylonia. These are Solon the Athenian, Chilon the Lacedaemonian, Periander the Corinthian, Cleobulus of Lindus, Bias of Priene. At that time of the Jewish captivity there were also illustrious Anaximander, and Anaximenes, and Xenophanes the physicists. Then also Pythagoras, from whom they began to be called philosophers.”