Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 21
The pious Josaphat is succeeded by his impious son Joram, who slays his brothers and some of the princes. Wherefore Elias sends him a letter from paradise, in which he announces to him a grievous disease and death, and a calamity for the whole kingdom; all of which came to pass in fact.
1. And Josaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David: and Joram his son reigned in his stead.
2. He had brothers, the sons of Josaphat, Azarias, and Jahiel, and Zacharias, and Azarias, and Michael, and Saphatias, all these the sons of Josaphat king of Juda.
3. And their father gave them many gifts of silver, and gold, and pensions, with most strong cities in Juda: but the kingdom he gave to Joram, because he was the firstborn.
4. And Joram rose up over the kingdom of his father: and when he had established himself, he slew all his brethren with the sword, and some of the princes of Israel.
5. Joram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
6. And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Achab had done: for the daughter of Achab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
7. But the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant which he had made with him: and because he had promised to give a lamp to him, and to his sons for ever.
8. In those days Edom revolted from being subject to Juda, and made themselves a king.
9. And when Joram was gone over with his princes, and all his horsemen that were with him, he arose in the night, and smote Edom, who had surrounded him, and all the captains of his cavalry.
10. Nevertheless Edom revolted from being under the dominion of Juda unto this day: at that time also Lobna revolted from being under his hand. For he had forsaken the Lord the God of his fathers:
11. moreover he made also high places in the cities of Juda, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to fornicate, and Juda to transgress.
12. And there were brought him letters from Elias the prophet, in which it was written: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Josaphat thy father, and in the ways of Asa king of Juda,
13. but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to fornicate, following the fornication of the house of Achab, and moreover hast slain thy brethren, the house of thy father, men better than thyself:
14. behold the Lord will strike thee with a great plague, with thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance;
15. and thou shalt be sick of a grievous disease of thy bowels, till thy bowels come out by degrees day by day.
16. So the Lord stirred up against Joram the spirit of the Philistines, and the Arabians, who border upon the Ethiopians,
17. and they came up into the land of Juda, and wasted it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, moreover his sons also, and his wives: and there was no son left him but Joachaz, who was the youngest.
18. And besides all this the Lord struck him with an incurable disease of the bowels.
19. And as day followed day, and the spaces of times rolled on, the course of two years was run out: and so, consumed by a long wasting sickness, so that he voided also his bowels, he lost at the same time his sickness and his life. And he died of a most grievous disease, and the people made no funeral for him according to the manner of burning, as they had done for his ancestors.
20. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked not uprightly, and they buried him in the city of David: but not in the sepulchre of the kings.
Verse 4. He slew all his brethren with the sword, and some of the princes—perhaps because they themselves opposed his new religion and idolatry. Which if it is so, they in truth died as martyrs.
magnificently and splendidly. See Psalm CXXXI, 17.
Verse 10. Nevertheless Edom revolted.—Idumea, that is, shook off the yoke of the impious Joram king of Juda; and then was fulfilled the prophecy of Jacob, Genesis XXVII, 40, foretelling that Esau should shake off the yoke of Jacob, that is, that the Idumeans should shake off the yoke of the Jews.
At that time also Lobna revolted.—It was an ancient city in the tribe of Juda; as if to say: Not only the foreign Idumeans, but also the subject people of Lobna, rebelled against the impious Joram, though their king. Hear Adrichomius in the Description of the tribe of Juda, no. 176: “Lebna, which is also Lobna and Labana, a strong and fortified city of the Levites, situated not far from Lachis, had in ancient times a king; who being slain, Josue stormed it also. After the state of the Jews came to the monarchy, on account of the impiety of king Joram son of Josaphat Lebna revolted from him; at length it was besieged by Sennacherib king of the Assyrians. Now it is a village in the region of Eleutheropolis, called Lobna, of which Isaias writes, as Jerome the author says. Some place this in the tribe of Dan.”
the spirit of Elias had settled upon him. Others, as Emmanuel Sa, think that Elias wrote this letter before his rapture, and gave it to Eliseus or to some such person, to hand it to king Joram after his rapture. But others commonly hold that Elias sent this letter from paradise, or the place in which he dwells after his rapture with Enoch, either by an Angel clothed in human form, or by Eliseus or another prophet, or a faithful man, to king Joram. So, as at the Transfiguration of Christ Elias appeared with Moses to Peter, James, and John, so here the same appeared to some man, and gave him the letter written by himself to be carried to Joram. So the Hebrews in Seder Olam, chapter XVII, Lyranus, Serarius, Sanchez, Bellarmine, and Salianus, who hold that this letter was given by Elias in the ninth year after his rapture; for his rapture was in the nineteenth year of Josaphat, who then reigned six years more, that is, to the year 25; but this letter was given in the third or fourth year of Joram, namely when he alone, his father Josaphat being dead, was reigning. He wrote moreover from paradise, that he might the more strike the impious Joram and convert him, and to show how great care he and the Saints, even after this life, have of men, especially of the faithful. Genebrard thinks the same, book I of the Chronology, and Joseph Acosta, book III On the Last Times.
Verse 12. And there were brought him letters from Elias the prophet.—Thou wilt ask: What letters, of what sort, when, and how were these written and sent by Elias from paradise? Note that Elias had long since been taken up from the earth in a fiery chariot into heaven. For in the time of Josaphat, who was the father of this Joram, Eliseus flourished and prophesied, who succeeded Elias already taken up, as is clear from 4 Kings III, 11. For what Cajetan thinks, that this was another Elias, different from the Thesbite, has no appearance of probability, and is said without foundation. Such also is what Vatablus says, that by Elias here Eliseus is understood, because chapter VII, Aben Ezra and Peter Figueirus on chapter IV of Malachias, Thomas Malvenda, book IX On Antichrist, chapter II. Moreover in this letter Elias gravely rebukes Joram that he had fallen away from God and from the religion of his father Josaphat, and that he had slain his brothers like a parricide, and threatens him with a threefold plague: first, the public plundering of the goods both of the king himself and of the kingdom and people, and the carrying off of his wives and sons, which the Philistines, Arabians, and Ethiopians soon inflicted, as is said in verse 16. Second, a grievous disease and a long wasting of two years, so that he should void his bowels, and so in pains and stench breathe out his unhappy soul, verse 18. Third, that he should lack the honour of a royal sepulchre. This third punishment Elias does not express, but it followed from the two former, and from his infamous life and death, as is clear from verse 19.
Verse 17. Except Joachaz.—This is he who, with the name inverted, is called Ochozias. For he alone, the survivor of Joram’s sons, succeeded his father in the kingdom, as is clear from the following chapter.
Verse 19. And the people made no funeral for him according to the manner of burning, as they had done for his ancestors—by burning, not the king’s corpse (for that was buried in the sepulchre of David and Solomon, or in one erected for the purpose in the manner of a magnificent mausoleum), but beside the corpse precious spices and ointments; and this “with great pomp” was done to his grandfather Asa, chapter XVI, verse 14. See what I said on Jeremias, chapter XXXIV, verse 8.