Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Elijah brings upon Israel drought and barrenness. Whence by God's command he hides himself in the brook Cherith, and is fed by ravens. Then, at verse 10, in Zarephath, he multiplies the widow's flour in the jar and the oil in the cruse. Finally, at verse 17, he recalls her dead son to life by stretching himself upon him.
Vulgate Text: 3 Kings 17:1-24
1. And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab: As the Lord God of Israel lives, in whose sight I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years, except according to my word. 2. And the word of the Lord came to him, saying: 3. Depart from here, and go eastward, and hide yourself in the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan, 4. and there you shall drink from the brook: and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 5. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord: and when he had gone, he sat by the brook Cherith which is opposite the Jordan. 6. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and likewise bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7. But after some days the brook dried up: for it had not rained upon the earth. 8. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying: 9. Arise and go to Zarephath of the Sidonians, and dwell there: for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed you. 10. He arose and went to Zarephath. And when he had come to the gate of the city, there appeared to him a widow woman gathering sticks, and he called to her and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11. And as she was going to fetch it, he called after her saying: Bring me also, I pray, a morsel of bread in your hand. 12. She answered: As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread except as much as a handful of flour can hold in a jar, and a little oil in a cruse: behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and make it for myself and my son, that we may eat and die. 13. And Elijah said to her: Do not fear, but go and do as you have said: but first make me a little cake baked under the ashes from that flour, and bring it to me: and for yourself and your son you shall make afterwards. 14. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: the jar of flour shall not fail, nor shall the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day when the Lord shall give rain upon the face of the earth. 15. She went and did according to the word of Elijah: and he ate, and she, and her household: and from that day, 16. the jar of flour did not fail, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken by the hand of Elijah. 17. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his illness was very severe, so that no breath remained in him. 18. And she said to Elijah: What have I to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sins to remembrance, and to kill my son? 19. And Elijah said to her: Give me your son. And he took him from her bosom, and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him upon his own bed. 20. And he cried to the Lord and said: O Lord my God, have You also afflicted the widow with whom I am sustained, so as to kill her son? 21. And he stretched himself out and measured himself upon the child three times, and cried to the Lord and said: O Lord my God, let the soul of this child, I pray, return into his body. 22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah: and the soul of the child returned into him, and he revived. 23. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the lower house, and gave him to his mother, and said to her: See, your son lives. 24. And the woman said to Elijah: Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.
Verse 1: Elijah the Tishbite Said to Ahab
1. AND ELIJAH THE TISHBITE, OF THE INHABITANTS OF GILEAD, SAID TO AHAB. — You will ask first, why God raised up Elijah and sent him to Ahab? I answer, to restrain and extinguish his and Jezebel's ardor in propagating idolatry, and to preserve Israel in the true faith and religion of the one God, and therefore He armed him with admirable zeal and spirit of fortitude, so that he alone might oppose the tyrants, the priests, and all the idolaters. So when Pharaoh was oppressing the faithful Hebrews, God raised up Moses to oppose him and to lead the people out of his servitude. So to Jeroboam setting up calves as gods He opposed Ahijah the prophet; to Manasseh, Isaiah; to Antiochus, the Maccabees. So to the nearly Arian world He opposed the one Athanasius, the Atlas of the Orthodox faith; to the Pelagians, St. Augustine; to the Nestorians, St. Cyril; to the Iconoclasts, St. John Damascene; to the Albigensians, St. Dominic; to the Lutherans and Calvinists, St. Ignatius and the like. Elijah therefore was (what St. Bernard writes to Pope Eugene at the end of book IV of On Consideration) "the form of justice, the mirror of sanctity, the exemplar of piety, the champion of truth, the defender of the faith, the teacher of Israel, the master of the foolish, the refuge of the oppressed, the advocate of the poor, the judge of widows, the eye of the blind, the tongue of the mute, the avenger of crimes, the terror of the wicked, the glory of the good, the rod of the powerful, the hammer of tyrants, the father of kings, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the prophet of the Most High, the precursor of Christ, the Anointed of the Lord, the God of Ahab, the terror of the Baalites, the thunderbolt against idolaters."
You will ask secondly, what does "Elijah" signify? I answer, Elijah in Hebrew is called אליהו Eliahu, that is, "God of the Lord," or rather "my God is the Lord," says Pagninus. Or as if to say, Elia hu, that is, "God Himself is mighty." For El is a name of God inasmuch as He is strong and mighty to overcome all things: ia is an abbreviation of Jehovah; hu means "He Himself." For the office of Elijah was to show Ahab and Israel that not Baal, but the God of Israel was the true God, strong, and the omnipotent Lord of all. So St. Jerome, Angelomus, and others. Whence the Hebrews think Elijah's name was taken from that acclamation of the people to Elijah: "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" chapter XVIII, verse 39; for they hand down in the Great Genesis, chapter XXVII, that he was previously called Laberscyth. Hence St. Jerome on Micah chapter V: "Elijah," he says, "means the same as 'the Lord is God.'" Hear St. Isidore, book VII of the Origins, chapter VIII: "Elijah is interpreted 'the Lord is God.' He is therefore so called by a presage of the future. For when he was contending in the priesthood with four hundred priests of Baal, and the name of the Lord was invoked, fire descended from heaven upon the holocaust. When all the people saw this, they fell on their faces and said: The Lord, He is God. From this cause therefore he first received such a name, because through him the people afterwards came to know the Lord God: it is also interpreted 'the strong Lord,' either because he slew those same priests, or because he endured the hostility of Ahab."
Again, "Elijah" means the same as "the strong one of the Lord," says St. Jerome, or "the God of the Lord," says Pagninus, because just as Moses was appointed by the Lord as God to Pharaoh, Exodus VII, 1, so Elijah was appointed by the same as God to Ahab and Jezebel: for just as Moses, inflicting ten plagues, heavenly and earthly, upon Pharaoh, compelled him to release the Hebrews, so also Elijah moved all the elements by stupendous miracles, as if he were their God and Lord, by which he struck Ahab and the Baalites, indeed killed them.
St. Ambrose gives another tropological reason in book I On Cain, chapter II, where he adorns Elijah with these praises:
"A victor over passions," he says, "captured by no allurements, who had covered over this entire bodily dwelling with the purity of heavenly conduct, governing the mind, subjecting the flesh and chastising it with a kind of royal authority, he was called by the name of God, to whose likeness he had formed himself by the abundance of perfect virtue, and therefore we do not read about him as about others, that he died by failing." For he who is pure and holy from every vice is most like God. Hear St. Dionysius, last epistle to St. John the Evangelist, Question X: "Whoever are men of devotion, they are drawn away from every pleasure of bodily things; free from all evils and impelled by the love of God, they cherish peace and sanctity of all good things; and from this life they make the beginning of the future, when among men they imitate the life of angels with all tranquility of soul, worthy of the appellation of God's name, with kindness and other virtues," etc. Again, to Elijah belongs the fortitude of God, which Isaiah depicts in chapter XXV, verse 4, saying: "You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his tribulation, a hope from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the mighty is like a storm beating against a wall. As heat in thirst, You will humble the tumult of strangers, and as by heat under a scorching cloud You will make the offspring of the mighty to wither." For with a similar fortitude Elijah overthrew Ahab, Jezebel, and the Baalites, according to that of Sirach XLVIII, 2: "Those who provoked him (Elijah) with their envy became few; for they could not endure the commandments of the Lord." And shortly after: "Who cast down kings to destruction, and easily broke their power, and the glorious from their bed."
Furthermore, Bede and Angelomus on book IV Kings chapter XXIII, and indeed St. Chrysostom, homily 3 On Elijah, assert that Elijah is said as if from ἥλιον, that is 'sun,' because he was the sun of Israel and was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot, and hence the poets imagine the sun being carried in a fiery chariot, which because Phaethon the son of the sun did not know how to steer, he burned himself and the world; on which more in book IV, chapter II. These things are said by allusion: for it is certain that Elijah is a Hebrew name, not Greek. In a similar way Gregory of Nazianzus derives the Hebrew name Pascha from the Greek πάσχω, that is 'I suffer,' because Christ suffered at Pascha.
You will ask thirdly, what were the outstanding virtues and gifts of Elijah, by which he overcame idolatry? I answer, his first gift was innocence, austerity, and sanctity of life. Hear St. Isidore, in his book On the Birth and Death of the Prophets, chapter XXXV: "Elijah," he says, "was a great priest and prophet, a dweller in solitude, full of faith, supreme in devotion, strong in labors, skillful in industry, endowed with excellent genius, upright in the exercise of discipline, assiduous in holy meditation, and fearless in the face of death."
The second gift of Elijah was solitude and contemplation. For withdrawing to Carmel he devoted himself to prayer and contemplation, and there he gathered Elisha and other disciples as the founder of the monastic and eremitic life. Whence the Carmelites profess that they received their name and institute from Elijah on Mount Carmel, on which more in chapter XVIII.
The third was his freedom of speaking and reproving, by which among other things he said to the face of king Ahab and Jezebel that they were sold under sin, and that God would cut off all their offspring, and that the dogs would lick the blood of Jezebel, chapter XXI, 20.
The fourth was his unconquered patience and fortitude of soul, by which he generously sustained and overcame all the persecutions of kings and idolaters, and indeed killed all the priests of Baal, chapter XVIII.
The fifth was his zeal for God's honor and worship, which impelled him to undertake every battle with the king and the Baalites; whence he himself said to God: "With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, etc., they have killed Your prophets with the sword, I alone am left, and they seek my life," chapter XIX, verse 14. Hence Elijah is called by some an Angel; and the Angel says of John the Baptist that he will go before Christ "in the spirit and power of Elijah," Luke I. Hence Elijah was taken up, so that he might precede Christ to judgment, and fight against Antichrist, by whom he will therefore be killed, and will be crowned with martyrdom in Jerusalem; but on the third day in the sight of all the people he will gloriously rise from death and ascend into heaven, as I said at Apocalypse XI, 3. Finally see the praises of Elijah in Sirach chapter XLVIII, 1: "Elijah arose," he says, "like fire, and his word burned like a torch." See what was said there. For Elijah was entirely fiery and thunderous.
Hence allegorically Elijah was a type of Christ, who truly was "Elijah," that is, "the Lord God." For Christ, like Elijah, had great battles about the faith of the Messiah with the Scribes and Pharisees, and endured continual persecutions from them, and finally the death of the cross, but on the third day He rose gloriously from it, and on the 40th day He ascended into heaven. So Angelomus, Eucherius, Rupert, and others.
Finally Elijah was the leader and chief of the other prophets: and for this reason together with Moses the lawgiver he appeared in the transfiguration of Christ, and bore witness to Him in the name of all the prophets that He was the true Messiah foretold by them, Matthew XVII.
THE TISHBITE, — originating from Tishbe or Thesbe, a village, situated in the tribe of Gad between Jabba and Sharon, says Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land. Hence St. Epiphanius, Dorotheus, Isidore, Metaphrastes, and others in the Life of Elijah teach that Elijah was born in Tishbe, which borders on Arabia. Hear St. Epiphanius: "Elijah was from Tishbe on the mainland of Arabia: and he dwelt in Gilead, because Tishbe had houses consecrated and assigned to the priests." But more clearly Metaphrastes says: "Elijah," he says, "was called by the priests (of Jerusalem, namely, to whom his father Sobachus had gone to consult about a vision) the Tishbite, because there was a house which had fallen by lot to the priests in which he lived, exercising virtue from his youth, and making his soul fiery through the fire-breathing grace of the Holy Spirit."
Therefore Abulensis, Hugo, and Lyranus err in thinking that Elijah originated from the city of Thebez, in which Abimelech the son of Gideon fell, Judges IX, 50. For Thebez was in the tribe of Ephraim near Shechem, but Tishbe the homeland of Elijah was across the Jordan in Gilead, namely in the tribe of Gad. Wherefore Elijah seems to have been a Gadite, and from his birth to have drawn manly, strong, and military spirits. For such were the Gadites according to that of Genesis XLIX, 19: "Gad, girt (for this is what Gad means in Hebrew), shall fight before him, and he himself shall gird himself for the return."
Furthermore, Tishbite in Hebrew means the same as 'capturing' or 'converting,' say Angelomus and others. For Elijah captured and turned the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, as Malachi says in chapter IV, verse 6. Concerning the birth and upbringing of Elijah, Dorotheus writes in his Life: "When Elijah was about to be born, his father Sabacha saw him being greeted by white-clad angels, and wrapped in fire as if in swaddling clothes, and fed with a flame of fire as if with food; and going to Jerusalem, he reported this matter, and it was said to him by an oracle that he should not fear; for the boy about to be born would dwell in light, and what he said would have firm authority, and he would judge Israel by sword and fire." St. Epiphanius and Metaphrastes have the same in the Life of Elijah. Hence the Fathers agree that Elijah cultivated perpetual virginity, namely St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian and to Eustochium On the Guarding of Virginity, Ambrose, book I On Virginity. St. Chrysostom asserts the same in his book On Virginity, volume V; St. Ephrem in more than one place: beautifully in Paraenesis I, volume II, fol. 90, he says: "The best gift of the monk is virginity, carrying him on a chariot to heaven with Elijah;" and fol. 91: "Elijah, covering you with his goatskin, will introduce you into the heavens."
That Elisha and the other disciples of Elijah were also virgins or celibate, there is no doubt: indeed that many of them, killed by Jezebel for the true religion of God, attained the crown of martyrdom, is sufficiently clear from chapter XVIII, verse 13.
Furthermore, Elijah does not seem to have been a priest, say Abulensis, Sanchez, and others, because he did not originate from Levi but from Gad: whence Scripture nowhere calls him a priest, as it calls Jeremiah and Zechariah the father of John the Baptist. However, St. Epiphanius, St. Isidore, and others call him a priest and born of Levi, because the Levites and priests, since they did not have their own possession, were scattered through all the tribes, to instruct them in the faith and worship of God. Therefore Elijah could have been born a Levite in the tribe of Gad.
Finally the Hebrews think that Elijah is Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron, but they err, as I showed at Numbers XXV.
OF THE INHABITANTS OF GILEAD. — Elijah migrated from his homeland Tishbe to the neighboring Gilead. Why? I answer first, because the Gileadites at that time had very corrupt morals, being idolaters and murderers. Elijah therefore went to them, so that through himself and his disciples he might call them back to better ways. This is clear from the prophet Hosea, who prophesied under king Uzziah shortly after Elijah, and in chapter VI, verse 8, says thus: "Gilead, a city of those who work idols, undermined with blood. And like the jaws of robbers, accomplices of the priests, killing those going on the way from Shechem." See what was said there.
Again, Gilead was fertile in resin, opobalsamum, and other aromatics, from which plasters and medicines are made for curing diseases and wounds. Hence it represents the Prophets, who as spiritual physicians cure the wounds and ailments of souls. This is what Jeremiah says in chapter VIII, verse 22: "Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why then is the wound of the daughter of my people not healed?" Where the Chaldean Paraphrase translates: I desired the teaching of Elijah the prophet, who was from Gilead, whose words were medicines. Elijah therefore and Elisha, as in Carmel, Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal, so also sojourned in Gilead, to lead the inhabitants to the true worship of God, so that "where sin abounded, grace might abound," Romans chapter V, 20; and therefore in these places he established colleges of disciples, who are consequently called "sons of the prophets": whence to them pertains that verse of Canticles IV, 1: "Your hair is like flocks of goats that ascend from Mount Gilead." For this reason Elijah, about to be taken up into heaven, visited these colleges in Bethel, Jericho, Gilgal, etc., IV Kings II, to bid farewell to his disciples and to confirm them in pursuing the harsh pursuit of the eremitic and cenobitic life. So Abulensis.
AS THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL LIVES, IN WHOSE SIGHT I STAND, THERE SHALL NOT BE DEW OR RAIN THESE YEARS, EXCEPT ACCORDING TO MY WORD. — There is no doubt that Elijah, burning with zeal, first warned king Ahab about abandoning the worship of Baal and worshipping the true God: but when he turned a deaf ear, Elijah went from words to blows, and struck the whole land with barrenness, so that Ahab and the idolaters might learn that not Baal, as they thought, but the true God gives rain, harvest, and the other goods of the earth, and therefore they should invoke Him, not Baal, to obtain these things. He says therefore: "The Lord lives," that is, I swear by the life of God, that there will be no rain to make the land fruitful, except at my good pleasure, namely when I by my prayers shall open heaven for rain, just as now I have closed it by my prayers: for James teaches that Elijah obtained all these things from God by prayer, in his epistle chapter V, verse 17: "Elijah," he says, "was a man subject to like passions as we are: and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain upon the earth, and it did not rain for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit."
IN WHOSE SIGHT I STAND. — The Septuagint has: before whom I stood; the Chaldean: before whom I minister; that is, I always have God present in my mind, and I strive to love, praise, and revere Him, and to please Him in all things, and therefore I have invoked and do invoke Him, that He may grant me this power of stopping and releasing rains, to overthrow the worship of Baal, as in fact He has granted. For Elijah would not have sworn it would be so, unless God had granted this to him and had made him, as it were, the Lord of the air. Whence Eucherius exclaims: "Great is the force of prophetic dignity: the speech is human, the effect is divine. A man speaks on earth, and the heavenly powers obey his command. One word of the prophet shook all creation, and marvelously sounding from the ground it shook the air and the sky; the order of human ministry was disturbed, and the harmony of the elements established from the ages wasted away, when moisture was denied to the dry and cold to the hot: but the elements gladly accept their punishment, provided it may profit either the salvation of men or the honor of the Creator."
THERE SHALL NOT BE DEW OR RAIN THESE YEARS. — In Hebrew 'if' means the same as 'not.' The author of On the Marvels of Scripture gives the reason, book II, chapter XV: "So that," he says, "those who had exasperated God by evils on earth might be deprived of the clemency of heaven and the convenience of the air."
EXCEPT ACCORDING TO MY WORD, — so that there would be no rain unless when I should bring it by my words and prayers. In a homiletic way, St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On Elijah, says that from a rigid zeal for avenging idolatry, he did not want it left to God (whom he knew to be merciful and easily moved by prayers to give pardon and rain), but reserved to himself; since he had already resolved in his mind not to give pardon or rain to the idolaters. Wherefore he wearied God with prayers for so long until He granted it to him; and having obtained this, he firmly and severely decreed: I swear by God that it shall not rain except when I wish: and I shall not wish until the priests of Baal are killed and the worship of Baal is overthrown, as is clear from chapter XVIII, verse 41. So St. Chrysostom, who in homily 2, graphically depicting this, says: "When the most holy prophet Elijah saw the people in transgression, and perceived that Baal and the groves were worshipped by the sacrilegious while the Lord was despised; and when all the people had devoted themselves to images and groves while despising the Creator; moved by zeal for God, he sentenced the land of Judah to drought and barrenness of rain. Then suddenly the earth gasps, the sky dries up, all thirst, the springs dry up, all moisture sinks to the depths, abandoning the upper parts, the air burns, the clear skies torture, tranquility is a punishment, the nights are sweltering, the days are parched, the crops are scorched, the trees sicken, etc.; the whole creation bears witness to the wrath of God."
Verse 3: Hide Yourself in the Brook Cherith
3. HIDE YOURSELF IN THE BROOK CHERITH. — For king Ahab will seek you as the author of the barrenness, and if he finds you, he will kill you. Flee therefore and hide, lest the cause of the drought be turned upon your head. The brook Cherith descends from the mountains of Ephraim near the city of Phalesus, whence along it there were many caves and caverns, in which Elijah could hide himself. Here therefore he lay hidden for the three years of the drought, fed by ravens. Whence in his memory St. Helena built a church there, according to Nicephorus, book VIII, chapter XXX. Cherith in Hebrew means the same as cutting off, cutting down, because here Elijah cut off the earth's shoots and crops by the drought he had brought about. Whence St. Chrysostom, in the homily On Peter and Elijah, says that Elijah brought a fiery heat and as it were a fever upon the earth: "Scarcely," he says, "had his word gone forth, when suddenly the air is changed, the sky becomes bronze, and so his word settled on the bowels of the earth like a fever. And immediately everything dried up, everything bristled with filth and desolation, the grasses dried up, the plants together with the trees both fruitful and barren."
Menander the pagan historian mentions this barrenness and famine, according to Josephus, book VIII, chapter VII, but defectively and imperfectly, in the manner of pagans when they speak of Jewish affairs. For he says that this famine lasted only one year, whereas St. James, chapter V, 17, asserts that it lasted three years and six months. This famine seems to have been only in Israel, for Elijah was punishing its idolatry. Wherefore when it is said at Luke IV, 25, that it was "in all the land," take it appropriately, namely in all the land subject to king Ahab, and contaminated by the sins of his idolatry.
Verse 4: I Have Commanded the Ravens to Feed You
4. And I have commanded the ravens, — that is, as one commanding I have ordained and implanted this instinct in them, that they should bring you bread. So Cajetan.
Verse 6: The Ravens Brought Him Bread and Meat
6. AND THE RAVENS BROUGHT HIM BREAD AND MEAT IN THE MORNING, AND LIKEWISE BREAD AND MEAT IN THE EVENING. — The raven is a voracious, inhuman, malicious bird; therefore God used it to feed Elijah, to show that He commands all animals, and can change and direct their nature wherever He pleases, and that all creatures, at God's command, serve and obey the saints, such as Elijah was. So ravens brought daily half a loaf of bread to St. Paul the first hermit, and a whole loaf when St. Anthony arrived. Whence St. Paul, turning to him, said: "See, the Lord has sent us dinner, truly gracious, truly merciful. For sixty years I have received daily a fragment of half a loaf of bread; now at your arrival Christ has doubled the ration for His soldiers." So St. Jerome in the Life of St. Paul.
St. Benedict, moreover, commanded the raven that was accustomed to come to him at the hour of dinner and take food from his hand, to carry away a loaf of bread laced with poison, sent to him by the envious Florentius, and to transport it to a place where it could be found by no one: and the raven, obeying, did this very thing, as St. Gregory reports in book II of the Dialogues, chapter VIII. The descendants of this raven still survive, and are continually fed by the Benedictines on Monte Cassino.
Furthermore, the literal reason that God used ravens rather than other birds was that ravens love solitary places, and especially brooks, because they are of a very dry and hot nature. Whence Proverbs XXX, 17 says: "The eye that mocks a father, etc., let the ravens of the brook dig it out." God therefore used ravens, as the birds most readily available, to feed Elijah in the brook Cherith, so that from the raven he might receive food, and from the brook drink in such a universal drought. For water suffices for drinking, and is the most natural drink, which all the ancients before Noah used.
Tropologically, see here and revere the marvelous providence of God for His faithful: for at God's instigation the ravens brought bread and meat to Elijah twice daily, namely in the morning for lunch and in the evening for supper. Now the angels prepared these breads and meats, and therefore they were better and tastier than ours, which are prepared by bakers and cooks, according to that of Psalm LXXVII, 23: "Man ate the bread of angels." Then they gave them to the ravens to carry to Elijah, and restrained them from touching them, and impelled them to carry them untouched to Elijah. For as we read in the Life of St. Onuphrius, God and the angels have a singular care for hermits, such as Elijah was, because they have abandoned everything and are abandoned by all, according to that: "To You the poor man is left, You will be a helper to the orphan," Psalm IX, verse 14. Wherefore St. Basil, homily 8 Against the Rich and Avaricious: "Carmel," he says, "a lofty and desert mountain, had Elijah, for whom hope in God was his provision and food; and though he lived so, yet he was not destroyed by famine, but the most rapacious of birds, the ravens, brought him food, and those who were accustomed to invade others' food served the most just man: forgetting their nature, they obeyed the Lord's command in bringing him bread and meat."
And meat. — God therefore sent not only breads necessary for life, but also meats as a delicacy for Elijah's table. Abulensis asks what Elijah ate on fast days, when it is not permitted to eat meat; and he answers that he ate whatever the ravens brought: for God, by sending meat to Elijah, by that very act dispensed with the fast for him, and wished him to eat it and enjoy His so generous gift, lest He should seem to have sent it in vain.
Allegorically St. Prosper, book II On Predictions and Promises, chapter XXVIII: "The bread of Elijah," he says, "is the body of Christ, which the Jews like ravens ministered to the nations, preparing flesh cooked on the wood of the cross for the nations, and like ravens crying with one raucous voice to Pilate: Crucify, crucify Him."
Otherwise St. Augustine, sermon 101 On the Season, where he allegorically applies all the deeds of Elijah to Christ and the Church: "Blessed Elijah," he says, "bore the type of the Lord and Savior. For just as Elijah suffered persecution from the Jews, so also our true Elijah the Lord was rejected and despised by the Jews themselves. Elijah left his own people, and Christ abandoned the Synagogue. Elijah went into the desert, and Christ came into the world. Elijah was fed in the desert with the ravens ministering to him, and Christ is refreshed in the desert of this world by the faith of the nations. For those ravens which ministered to blessed Elijah at the Lord's command prefigured the people of the nations. Therefore also of the Church of the nations it is said in the Song of Songs: 'I am black, but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem.' Whence black? 'Behold in iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother bore me.' Whence beautiful? 'You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.'"
And shortly after: "Truly the Church of the nations was similar to ravens, when she despised the living Lord, and before receiving grace, ministered to idols as if to dead carcasses."
Symbolically, the author of the Marvels of Sacred Scripture, attributed to St. Augustine, book II, chapter XVII: "The prophet is commanded," he says, "to be served by ravens, so that the bird might seem to purge the fault it had committed on earth during the flood, by becoming the faithful minister of Elijah, it that had been negligent and deceitful before Noah. Furthermore, in this ministry it is also shown how, if man had not sinned, he would now make use of the services even of unproductive animals. But from where that raven brought those meats and breads, let Him who assigned such an office see to it. In this however it should be noted that the ravens received these things from the industry of some men, knowing or unknowing, who prepared cooked breads and whatever meats in whatever manner."
Verse 9: Go to Zarephath of the Sidonians
9. GO TO ZAREPHATH OF THE SIDONIANS. — This city was situated between Tyre and Sidon on the public road, not far from the seashore and from the Eleutherus river, two miles distant from Sidon. It was called Zarephath, that is 'smelting place,' from צרף tsaraph, that is 'to smelt,' because there were smelting workshops for vessels of bronze, iron, and other metals.
God therefore commands Elijah to go outside the borders of Israel and the dominion of Ahab his persecutor, into the territory of the Sidonians, so that there under a pagan king he might live safely and quietly. Hence allegorically Elijah signifies Christ, who suffering persecution from the Jews, transferred His Gospel to the nations, as Christ Himself explains, Luke IV, 25.
Hear the author of the Marvels of Sacred Scripture, book II, chapter XVIII: "Therefore the prophet is sent to be fed at Zarephath of the Sidonians, so that through him the good and faithful widow might be nourished. Nor should anyone be troubled that the land of the Sidonians had suffered this same plague equally with Israel, since from there Jezebel, the persecutor of the prophets and the cause of all vengeance and crime, drew her paternal origin as the daughter of the king of the Sidonians."
FOR I HAVE COMMANDED A WOMAN THERE. — "I have commanded," that is, I have ordained, disposed, provided: for God had not properly commanded the widow, since He had not spoken to her; indeed the widow denied to Elijah when he asked for a morsel of bread that she had one, at verse 12. If however anyone maintains that God had revealed to the widow the arrival of Elijah and commanded her to receive and feed him in the manner that Elijah would request, I will not object. This woman was a pagan, being a Sidonian, but religious and devout, says St. Chrysostom, homily 3 On Elijah, and Abulensis, Question XXIV.
Verse 12: I Am Gathering Two Sticks
12. AND I AM GATHERING TWO STICKS, THAT I MAY MAKE (COOK) IT FOR MYSELF AND MY SON, THAT WE MAY EAT AND DIE, — that is, after this small amount we shall have eaten, we shall die of hunger, because we have nothing else to eat.
Allegorically St. Augustine, sermon 101 On the Season, notes that the "two sticks" signify the cross of Christ; for in it there are two pieces of wood, namely one upright, the other crosswise. "Therefore," says Augustine, "she was gathering two sticks, because in the type of Elijah she was receiving Christ. She wanted to gather two sticks, because she desired to know the mystery of the cross. For the cross of the Lord and Savior is fitted from two pieces of wood; therefore that widow was gathering two sticks, because the Church was going to believe in Him who hung on two pieces of wood. Therefore that widow said: I am gathering two sticks that I may make food for myself and my son, and we shall eat and die. It is true, most beloved brothers, no one will deserve to believe in Christ crucified unless he dies to this world: for whoever wishes to eat the body of Christ worthily, it is necessary that he die to the past and live for the future."
AND FOR MY SON, — so also the Chaldean; for this is in Hebrew לבני libni. But the Septuagint, reading with different vowel points לבני lebanai, translate 'for my sons'; they indicate therefore that she had several sons, from whom she took bread to give to Elijah. All the greater was her virtue. So Eucherius.
Verse 13: First Make Me a Little Cake
13. BUT FIRST MAKE ME A LITTLE CAKE BAKED UNDER THE ASHES FROM THAT FLOUR, — which is cooked quickly and hastily under the ashes, so that it might immediately relieve the present and pressing hunger of Elijah. So Abraham cooked cakes under the ashes for the hastening angels, Genesis XVIII, 6.
Mystically Eucherius says: "The cake baked under ashes," he says, "is the satisfaction of penitents, according to that of Psalm CI: Because I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping; for by these satisfactions the Lord exhorts us to feed Him."
MAKE FOR ME FIRST. — St. Prosper gives the reason, part II of Predictions, chapter XXIX: "So that mercy," he says, "may occupy the first place, which Scripture testifies goes before the face of God; for from Him comes all abundance." So St. Louis, king of France, before he himself dined, gave a dinner to a hundred poor people.
Verse 15: She Did According to the Word of Elijah
15. SHE WENT AND DID ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF ELIJAH. — Marvelous was the faith, obedience, and generosity of this widow, that she gave the little flour necessary for her life to Elijah who had brought about this famine. Whence Eucherius exclaims: "O magnificent spirit of the woman, O immutable resolve of mind, O deed truly venerable through the ages! He asks for a drink, and she immediately offers it: and what perhaps kings already lacked, what the rich did not have, this the widow dispensed from her abundance. She feeds with bread, she who was about to die the next day with her son, and does not deny that she has it; but confesses simply, and does not fear to reveal the truth, and lays the whole case open not so much to one who asks as to one who in a sense demands: the quantity of her food and the number of her household, so that she wishes to have not so much a guest as a judge." And below: "There was at that time a spectacle most gratifying to angels and men, that among the nations in a profane land a widow woman was even then a daughter of Abraham, much more hospitable than the patriarch himself, much more humane than the father of faith. Abraham was indeed hospitable, and held by a great affection toward strangers; but he was truly wealthy, he was rich." And shortly after: "By her eagerness for hospitality she despised the whole force of natural affection, anxious neither for herself nor for her little ones: nothing called her back from her mind's resolve, neither the weakness of her sex, nor the maternal bowels of tenderness toward her children: she killed the offices of nature within herself for the sake of hospitality, and the devout spirit of the mother toward the guest became the cruel tomb of her children."
Verse 16: The Jar of Flour Did Not Fail
16. AND FROM THAT DAY THE JAR OF FLOUR DID NOT FAIL, AND THE CRUSE OF OIL WAS NOT DIMINISHED, — not by rarefaction, but by a continuous addition of new flour and oil, says Abulensis. Whence from then on the widow with her son was sustained, and indeed Elijah himself, as is clear from verse 20. The faith and sanctity of Elijah merited this, as did the obedience and almsgiving of the widow, by which she had given to Elijah the little flour she had. So St. Prosper, book II On Predictions and Promises, chapter XXIX, whom hear: "So the soul lends to God, so while giving in necessity, it consults its own salvation. So the soul is filled which, when the body fails, loving the Lord who chastises, guards the fidelity of one bed with chaste love, fortified by the sacrament of wheat and the anointing of oil, securely awaiting the welcome rain, when the Lord shall say to her: Well done, good servant, because in a little you have been faithful, enter into the joy of your Lord."
Hear also Eucherius admiring the generosity and virtue of this widow, and rewarding her with this eulogy: "Therefore the hand of the widow became an everlasting winepress, and a mill pouring forth continually. But why do I speak of the woman's hand? By the word of the prophet the whole house of the widow became a storehouse for the pious. There was no dew, no rain, no spring breeze, no warm suns, no needed shower, no plow, no farmer, no tenant, but in all and through all the word of the prophet amply supplied the widow." The widow who fed him, Elijah fed.
Hear St. Jerome, epistle 10 to Furia: "Let us remember the widow of Zarephath, who preferred the hunger of Elijah to her own and her children's safety, so that about to die that very night with her son she would leave behind a surviving guest, preferring to lose her life rather than her almsgiving; and in a handful of flour she sowed for herself and prepared a harvest of the Lord. Flour is sown, and an abundance of oil is born: in Judah there is a scarcity of wheat, for the grain of wheat had died there, and in the widow of the nations streams of oil were flowing." In a similar way St. Euthymius (whose sanctity became renowned throughout the whole world under the Emperor Justinian), when flour was running out in the monastery, multiplied it, saying: "Be of good courage: for as much as you have shared with the needy, the Lord will bestow upon us double. For I hope that just as formerly the jar of flour did not fail, so now it will not fail in the least." So Eustachius in his Life, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 564. In a similar way Symas the Anchorite, after the example of Elijah, multiplied grain and oil in two barrels for the poor, as Theodoret reports in the Religious History, XIV, whom hear: "He cared for guests and the poor with such a cheerful spirit that he opened his doors to all who came. For he is said to have had two barrels: one of grain and the other of oil. From these he always supplied all who were in need: and he always had them full of the blessing that was given to the widow of Zarephath and had been poured into these barrels. For the Lord Himself pours out all riches upon all who invoke Him: and just as He commanded her jar and her drop of oil to overflow, providing handfuls of seeds of hospitality, so also He exhibited to this admirable man a supply that equally corresponded to his spirit of generosity."
St. John the Almsgiver, Archbishop of Alexandria, often did similar things, according to Leontius in his Life. Whence his maxim was: "The more I give to the poor, the more and greater things I always receive from God." Whence St. Basil in his homily On Almsgiving compares him to a well or fountain, which the more water it pours out, the more boiling water it admits and receives. See St. Chrysostom in the homily entitled: That almsgiving is the most profitable of all arts.
Allegorically, the jar of flour signified the bread of the Eucharist, which is eaten daily by the faithful, yet is never consumed or fails. So Lanfranc, Alger, and others writing against Berengarius.
WHICH HE HAD SPOKEN BY THE HAND OF ELIJAH, — that is, through Elijah: for the hand is the instrument of instruments; whence it denotes the instrumental cause; for such was Elijah in relation to God.
Verse 17: The Son of the Woman Fell Sick
17. THE SON OF THE WOMAN, THE MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE, FELL SICK, — namely of the widow already mentioned: for with her husband dead she was the sole head of the household. God permitted or sent this illness to the boy for this purpose, that being dead he might be raised by Elijah; and thus the faith and virtue of Elijah might shine forth before Ahab and the Baalites. So Eucherius and others. Hear St. Augustine to Simplicianus, Question V: "It was not for the purpose of doing harm that He caused her son to die, but for the purpose of displaying a miracle to the glory of His name, by which He might commend so great a prophet both to those then living and to posterity. Just as the Lord says that Lazarus had not died unto death, but that God might be glorified in His Son; and therefore the consequences prove it, and also the very confidence by which Elijah believed that this had not happened so that his hostess might be afflicted with bitter grief, but rather that it happened so that God might more magnificently show the widow what kind of servant of God she had received."
Some think that this son of the widow raised by Elijah was the prophet Jonah. "The Hebrews hand down," says St. Jerome in the preface to Jonah, "that this is the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah the prophet raised from the dead, his mother afterwards saying to him: Now I know that you are a man of God, and the word of God in your mouth is truth; and for this reason the boy too was so named. For 'Amathi' in our language means truth, and from the fact that Elijah spoke the truth, he who was raised is called the son of truth." So he says, indeed reciting not approving. For Jonah was a Hebrew, but this son was a Sidonian. See what was said in the preface to Jonah.
Verse 18: You Have Come to Bring My Sins to Remembrance
18. YOU HAVE COME TO ME TO BRING MY SINS TO REMEMBRANCE, AND TO KILL MY SON, — that is, have you come to me, O Elijah, as a minister of Elohim, that is, of God the supreme judge and avenger, so that at your entrance I am punished with the death of my son? For she saw Elijah as a minister of God punishing crimes and criminals, as when he brought barrenness and famine upon all Israel for the worship of Baal. For there is a natural kind of antipathy between sanctity and iniquity, and between the holy and the wicked, so that one prevailing excludes the other and as it were destroys it. So the severe sanctity and holy severity of Elijah seemed here to crush all the iniquity of the widow's family, and in punishment for it to kill the widow's son. Theodoret notes the humility and spirit of penance in this widow, that she ascribed the death of her son to her own sins; and therefore she merited that he be raised. Hear Theodoret here, Question LII: "The words of the widow," he says, "are worthy of admiration: by your light, she says, my sins which were hidden have been laid open. She did not say: you have been a bad omen to me; your arrival has brought me evils; but rather she attributed what had happened to her own sins. So much did the prophet's teaching profit her:" as if out of humility she grieved that she had received the prophet unworthily in her house.
Verse 21: He Stretched Himself upon the Child
21. AND HE STRETCHED HIMSELF OUT AND MEASURED HIMSELF UPON THE CHILD. — In Hebrew יתמודד iitmoded, that is, he measured himself (for it is of the Hitpael conjugation, which denotes a reflexive action of the agent upon himself), he measured himself upon the child and made himself equal to the child, namely by placing his mouth to the child's mouth, his hands to his hands, his chest to his chest, his legs to his legs, his feet to his feet, and making himself as equal as possible by contraction. Whence the Chaldean translates, he compressed himself upon the child; the Septuagint, he breathed upon the child three times; Vatablus, he lay upon the child.
You will ask, why did Elijah do this? I answer: There were various reasons. The first is ethical and emotional, to show his extraordinary love for the widow and her son, and hence his grief at his death. For those whom we love most, we embrace and clasp tightly, nor do we allow ourselves to be torn from them, as if we wished to breathe into them our strength, spirit, and life. So St. Ambrose, in the Funeral Oration on the death of his brother Satyrus, recalls that he did the same for him: "It availed me nothing," he says, "to have caught his last breaths, nothing to have breathed my own breath into the dying man."
The second, physical cause was, says Abulensis, that by this lying upon the child and breathing upon him, Elijah wished to warm his body, which was cold from death, and thus dispose it for receiving the soul and life, just as a mother disposes the body of the embryo in the womb, so that God may then infuse a rational soul into it once it has been warmed and disposed; for this is the work of God alone, while the mother's work is to dispose the matter. So a hen warms eggs by sitting on them, so that they may then be formed into chicks and animated.
The third is symbolic, to show how arduous and difficult a thing it was to raise the dead from death to life. Whence Elisha did the same, imitating Elijah his master, IV Kings IV, 34. Again, so that it might be clear how great was the difference between the miracles of Elijah and those of Christ: for Elijah raised the dead with labor, exertion, and sweat; but Christ most easily by mere command and word, as the Lord of death and life.
The fourth is theological, that by the touch of his holy body he might commend the child's corpse to God, says Serarius. For the bodies of the saints are not only alive but also life-giving; so much so that the body of Elisha, already dead, once raised a dead man who had been killed by robbers, who having been cast into the tomb of Elisha, when he touched his sacred bones, revived by divine power, as is narrated in IV Kings XIII, 20. Abulensis gives another and more proximate reason: Elijah, he says, lay upon the child three times: for the first time he lay upon him praying to God to raise him: but when he saw this was not happening, lying upon the child a second time, he prayed more fervently. But when even then the child did not rise, lying upon him a third time he prayed most ardently, and thus at last he obtained life for the child. Elisha did the same. It is fitting for us to imitate and do the same. For God in difficult matters wishes to be asked more often and more ardently, so that we may wrest it from Him by fervent prayers, armed as it were and inflamed with zeal. For the matter deserves this, and thus our devotion, virtue, and merit grow. And this is the fruit of perseverance and of persevering prayer, one that intensifies and burns.
The fifth is mathematical; for in order that a larger body may be equalized to a smaller one, it must embrace it, and in turn the smaller must subject itself to the larger. This is evident in a smaller circle enclosed within a larger one. For the smaller subjects itself to the larger: whence the larger embraces it and proportionally equalizes it to itself, because each has the same center and revolves around it, so that no diametrical line can be drawn from the larger circle to the center unless it first cuts through and passes through the intermediate smaller circle. Wherefore no part in the larger circle can be designated to which a similar and proportionally equal part in the smaller does not correspond. Wherefore we are taught that in order for inferiors to be united to superiors, and as it were equalized, it is necessary that superiors incline themselves to inferiors through love and embrace them; while inferiors submit and subject themselves to superiors with due obedience and subordination. These therefore are the two sublime virtues that level, equalize, and unite all things, namely charity and humility. Just as Elijah embracing the child with charity, and the child naturally submitting himself to Elijah, made himself as it were equal to him, and thus from him received soul, spirit, and life.
St. Prosper gives the allegorical and chief reason, part II of Predictions, chapter XXXI, namely that Elijah by his gesture represented the mystery of the Incarnation, by which the Son of God measured His divinity and as it were equalized it to our human nature, which He assumed, so that through it He might give life to us who were dead in sin. "Elijah, and after him Elisha," says Prosper, "to raise the dead child, covered him with youthful limbs. And the Lord Jesus emptied Himself taking the form of a servant: He fitted Himself, small, to that small one, to make this body of our lowliness conformed to the body of His glory. Lying upon him He kindled the cold one beneath Him with His heat: similarly our Savior and Lord kindled the world, from whose heat there is now no one who can hide. He breathed three times upon the one lying there, so that a triple confession might be poured into the believer: so the dead was raised, while the ungodly was justified from perpetual death."
Whence the Chaldean translates, he compressed himself upon the child; the Septuagint, he breathed three times upon the child. For just as a hen sits upon eggs, and spreads herself entirely over them, and as it were measures herself to them, to warm and give them life: so also the divinity of Christ spread itself over our entire humanity, and as it were measured itself and made itself equal to it, to warm it when cold, to animate it when lifeless, to give life to it when dead: for every member of man and every power of the soul through sin was spiritually dead, cold, dry, and lifeless; wherefore the divinity, lying upon each one, breathed into them and inspired the spirit of grace and spiritual life. Elijah lay upon the child three times and measured himself to him by compressing himself, because Christ three times compressed Himself and measured Himself to human nature: namely first in the womb; second, in the manger; third, on the cross: and thus He gave life to the dead human race, and breathed into it the spirit of charity, poverty, and patience, "and offering prayers with a loud cry and tears, He was heard because of His reverence." So Lyranus, Angelomus, Eucherius, Salianus.
Hear St. Augustine, sermon 201 On the Season: "The son of the widow lay dead, because the son of the Church, that is the people of the nations, was dead with many sins and crimes. With Elijah praying, the widow's son is raised; with Christ coming, the son of the Church, that is the Christian people, is brought back from the prison of death; Elijah bows down in prayer, and the widow's son is given life; and Christ falls prostrate in His passion, and the Christian people are raised." And after some things: "For that he bows down three times shows the mystery of the Trinity. For the widow's son, that is the people of the nations, was not raised by the Father alone without the Son, nor by the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit; but the whole Trinity raised him. Finally this is also demonstrated in the sacrament of Baptism, when the old man is immersed a third time, so that the new man may deserve to rise." This therefore is the abbreviated word, concerning which the Apostle says, Romans IX, 28: "So that what was not contained in heaven might be contained in a manger," says St. Cyprian, book II Against the Jews, chapter III, namely the Word as an infant, a wise child, God nursing.
The tropological reason was to show that a zealous man burning with charity, who labors to convert souls dead in vices and concupiscences, must through great compassion, commiseration, and zeal as it were equalize and measure himself to them, so as to breathe the spirit of life into them when they are cold and torpid: for the sinner is like a dead and cold corpse: wherefore great and frequent ardor of the preacher, confessor, and admonisher is needed, to breathe into him the warmth of penance and devotion, by which he may dispose himself to receive the life of grace from God. For so fire first warms cold wood before it can ignite it, and a hen warms eggs for a long time before they are animated. So Paul did, saying: "I became weak to the weak, that I might win the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all," I Corinthians IX, 22. And: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?" II Corinthians XI, 29. And: "My little children, whom I am in labor with again, until Christ be formed in you," Galatians IV, 19.
The anagogical reason was to signify that Christ in the resurrection would measure and as it were equalize us to His glory and glorious body, according to that: "He will reform the body of our lowliness, made conformable to the body of His glory," Philippians III, 21.
Verse 22: The Soul of the Child Returned
22. AND THE SOUL OF THE CHILD RETURNED INTO HIM. — "Returned," namely from limbo. Hence the immortality of the human soul is evident. This child is the first from the beginning of the world to be raised from death to life, for we read of no one raised before him. So Cajetan. Finally, the upper room, or the place in which Elijah raised this child from death, is still shown, says Adrichomius, in Zarephath.