Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 16
1. And in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Baasa king of Israel came up against Juda, and built a wall round Rama, that none might safely go out or come in of the kingdom of Asa. 2. Then Asa brought forth silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, and out of the king’s treasures, and sent to Benadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying: 3. There is a league between me and thee, and my father also and thy father were in amity; wherefore I have sent thee silver and gold, that breaking the league which thou hast with Baasa king of Israel, thou mayest make him depart from me. 4. And when Benadad had understood this, he sent the captains of his armies to the cities of Israel: and they smote Ahion, and Dan, and Abelmaim, and all the walled cities of Nephtali. 5. And when Baasa heard this, he left off building Rama, and intermitted his work. 6. And Asa the king took all Juda, and they took away the stones from Rama, and the timber which Baasa had prepared for the building, and he built with them Gabaa and Maspha. 7. At that time Hanani the prophet came to Asa king of Juda, and said to him: Because thou hast had confidence in the king of Syria, and not in the Lord thy God, therefore the army of the king of Syria hath escaped out of thy hand. 8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans much more numerous, with chariots and horsemen, and an exceeding great multitude: and when thou didst believe in the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand? 9. For the eyes of the Lord behold all the earth, and give strength to those who with a perfect heart trust in him. Thou hast done foolishly, and for this cause from this time wars shall rise against thee. 10. And Asa being angry with the seer, commanded him to be put in the stocks: for he was greatly enraged at this, and he put to death very many of the people at that time. 11. Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel. 12. And Asa was sick in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, of a most violent pain in his feet, and yet in his illness he sought not the Lord, but rather trusted in the skill of physicians. 13. And he slept with his fathers; and died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14. And they buried him in his sepulchre, which he had digged for himself in the city of David: and they laid him upon his bed, full of sweet spices and ointments of the perfumers’ art, and they burnt them over him with exceeding great pomp.
Verse 1. In the thirty-sixth year of his (Asa’s) reign Baasa came up.—Thou wilt say: Baasa was already dead ten years, namely in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, as is clear from 3 Kings XVI, 8; for in the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Amri was reigning in Israel, 3 Kings XVI, 22.
I answer first, with Cajetan, John Lucidus, and Adrichomius in the Chronicle, that the years of Asa are reckoned in two ways: first from the beginning of his reign; second from that memorable war and Ethiopian victory. Hence the thirty-six years of the reign of Asa are twenty-six of the same, from the Ethiopian war, in which Ela the son of Baasa is said to have succeeded the dying Baasa, 3 Kings XVI, 8. But this is to disturb the whole chronology of Holy Scripture: for in the same way the years of the following kings, namely Zambri, Amri, Achab, who reigned with Asa, etc., would have to be reckoned from the Ethiopian war, which no one would say. Others, John Annius with his pseudo-Philo, and Melchior Canus, book XI On Places, chapter V, in reply to the twelfth argument, say that a mistake has crept in here, and that for 36 we should read 26, or rather 16. Nor is this to be wondered at, because this matter does not concern faith or good morals. But all the Codices, Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin, constantly have 36, not 26. Now to say that there is a mistake in all the Codices is to say that there is a mistake in Scripture, which God forbid. Third, others say that these 36 years are years of the life of Asa, not of his reign. But this is opposed by the express words: “In the thirty-sixth year of his reign,” not of his life; whence Abulensis answers that another solution is to be sought here, which he himself professes not to know. Fourth, and more truly, thou mayest say that these 36 years are of the reign of Juda; wherefore they are to be reckoned from the first year of Roboam, who was the first king of Juda, when Israel, that is the ten tribes, made Jeroboam king over themselves. For then a new era was made, and many began to count years from this notable schism. For then the kingdom of Juda was instituted, as also the kingdom of Israel; whence here the years of the kings of Israel are everywhere reckoned according to the years of the kings of Juda who reigned at the same time. Therefore, Roboam, the first king of Juda, reigned 17 years, then Abia three years, and finally Asa sixteen; add all these, and thou shalt have the 36 which we seek. Wherefore this thirty-sixth year of the kingdom of Juda was precisely the sixteenth of the reign of Asa. Thou wilt object: These 36 years are called not years of the kingdom of Juda, but of the reign of Asa. I answer: the kingdom of Asa is the same as the kingdom of Juda, for Asa had no other kingdom than Juda. Wherefore when thou reckonest the years of the kingdom of Juda, thou reckonest the years of Asa, who ruled it, and whose kingdom it was. So Seder Olam, or the Chronicle of the Hebrews, Tornielli, Salianus, and Azor, vol. I Moral Institutions, book VI, chapter LV, question III. So Absalom is said in the fortieth year to have asked leave of David to go to Hebron, 2 Kings XV, 7, not indeed in the fortieth year of David (for his thirtieth only was then running), but the fortieth from the institution of the kingdom in Israel, namely the first year of king Saul, when he was publicly anointed by Samuel, who preceded the kingdom of David by ten years. For the beginning of a kingdom is a notable mark from which chronology is drawn.
Built a wall round Rama, (which was in the passes on the border of the kingdom of Juda, so that) none might safely go out or come in of the kingdom of Asa.
Verse 7. Therefore the army of the king of Syria hath escaped—as if to say: If thou hadst trusted in God and invoked his help, and not that of Benadad king of Syria, thou wouldst have conquered him, as the perpetual enemy of Juda, as well as Baasa king of Israel, as thou didst conquer Zara king of Ethiopia, who invaded Judea with a much more numerous army.
Verse 10. He put to death very many of the people—who grieved that the innocence of the prophet Hanani was unjustly afflicted by Asa in prison, and therefore accused his tyranny the more freely.
Verse 12. Of a most violent pain in his feet.—In Hebrew and Greek is added, up to the top: for when the humour and pain of the gout invade the head, it is most violent, and brings swift death. Whence Pagninus renders, his sickness was even to the crown of the head.
But rather trusted in the skill of physicians.—Procopius and Theodoret, question XLV, note that “physicians” is here taken either for enchanters and magical impostors, or for true physicians. If in the former sense, it is clear why he sinned. As Pliny teaches, book XXX, chapter II, that Magic and Medicine are almost always joined together; and book XXIX, chapter I: “What,” he says, “is more fertile in poisons, or whence more snares for wills? Nay, adulteries too, etc., than from medicine?” And so among the Latins medicines are sometimes taken for poisons, as among the Greeks pharmaka, Nonius witnessing; let the same Pliny also be seen, book XXVI, chapter IV. If in the latter sense, he could sin in two ways; first, by placing too great hope in them, passing over the help of the Lord God. For on that account Cedrenus and Suidas report that Solomon’s book on remedies was taken away by Ezechias, because the people, without invoking and neglecting God, sought from it the healing of their ills; second, by perversely seeking their help, that is, before appeasing God and seeking help from him, as Ecclesiasticus XXXVIII, verse 9 and following explains, and as Innocent III commands, in the chapter Cum infirmitas, On Penances and Remissions. So Serarius.
Verse 14. Full of sweet spices and ointments of harlots —in Greek myrepsikois, that is, of perfumers; whence Serarius suspects that for “of harlots” should be read “of perfumers.” But all the Hebrew and Latin copies have “of harlots”: “of harlots,” then, is the same as most sweet, and, as Vatablus renders, most delicate; with which harlots make use of perfumes, to cover and conceal the stench of the body, and especially of the breath, which, worn out with debauchery, they exhale like putrid corpses, according to the saying:
Posthumus, he does not smell well who always smells well.
The word “of harlots” notes that here there were excessive delights of odours and spices, and excessive luxury and pomp; whence he adds, saying: “with exceeding great pomp.”
And they burnt them over him—to show to the dead king civil honour and respect, and to drive off from him the stench and putrefaction. For they did not burn the corpse itself with the spices, as Vatablus will have it, but burnt the spices beside the corpse, as Sanchez shows at length.
The Hebrews, according to St. Jerome in the Traditions, note that these spices, and also garments, were burnt over, or at, his tomb, and that for the sake of reverence and honour; as in Virgil, Aeneid VI: “Heaped up, the gifts of frankincense are burned”; and in Pliny, book XIII, chapter I, Homer and others. So at the death of Aristobulus, drowned by himself, Herod also used ointments and many spices, according to Josephus, and at the funeral of Herod himself Archelaus, according to the same. That Asa himself, while still living, filled his sepulchre with ointments, Azarias, book III, last chapter, fol. 183, and certain other Rabbis write. Nay, that ointments were wont to be offered by the faithful at the sepulchres of the martyrs, St. Paulinus teaches, Natal 6 of St. Felix, where he thus sings:
That the hanging lamps may shake their trembling flames, let these pour nard upon the martyr’s tomb, and bring back the perfumed ointments to the pious sepulchre.
Prudentius testifies the same, hymn XI on Hippolytus, saying:
They fix kisses pressed upon the shining metal; they pour out balsams, they bathe their faces with tears.
And St. Gregory, book VII, indiction I, epistle 53, writing to Secundinus: “Aloes,” he says, “incense, storax, and balsam, to be offered to the bodies of the holy martyrs, we have sent, the bearer of these presents carrying them.”