Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
To Ahaziah who is sick and consulting Beelzebub about his health through messengers, Elijah through the same messengers announces death: then, at verse 9, he burns with heavenly fire two captains of fifty sent by him to seize him, along with their 50 soldiers; but to the third who supplicates him he shows mercy, and goes with him to Ahaziah, and threatens him with death. Therefore Ahaziah dies, and his brother Joram succeeds him.
Vulgate Text: 4 Kings 1:1-18
1. Now Moab transgressed against Israel after Ahab died. 2. And Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper chamber, which he had in Samaria, and was sick; and he sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this illness of mine. 3. But the Angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them: Is there no God in Israel, that you go to consult Beelzebub the god of Ekron? 4. Therefore thus says the Lord: From the bed upon which you have gone up, you shall not come down, but you shall surely die. And Elijah departed. 5. And the messengers returned to Ahaziah. And he said to them: Why have you returned? 6. And they answered him: A man met us, and said to us: Go, and return to the king who sent you, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to consult Beelzebub the god of Ekron? Therefore from the bed upon which you have gone up, you shall not come down, but you shall surely die. 7. And he said to them: What was the appearance and dress of the man who met you and spoke these words? 8. And they said: A hairy man, girded with a leather belt about his loins. And he said: It is Elijah the Tishbite. 9. And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty who were under him. And he went up to him; and as he sat on the top of the mountain, he said: Man of God, the king commands you to come down. 10. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty: If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and devour you and your fifty. And fire came down from heaven and devoured him and the fifty who were with him. 11. And again he sent to him another captain of fifty, and fifty with him. And he spoke to him: Man of God, thus says the king: Make haste, come down. 12. Elijah answered and said: If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and devour you and your fifty. And fire came down from heaven and devoured him and his fifty. 13. Again he sent a third captain of fifty, and the fifty who were with him. And when he had come, he bowed his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said: Man of God, do not despise my life, and the lives of your servants who are with me. 14. Behold, fire came down from heaven and devoured the first two captains of fifty and the fifties who were with them; but now I beseech you to have mercy on my life. 15. And the Angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah, saying: Go down with him, do not be afraid. So he arose and went down with him to the king, 16. and he said to him: Thus says the Lord: Because you sent messengers to consult Beelzebub the god of Ekron, as if there were no God in Israel from whom you could inquire a word, therefore from the bed upon which you have gone up, you shall not come down, but you shall surely die. 17. So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken, and Joram his brother reigned in his place, in the second year of Joram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah: for he had no son. 18. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Verse 1: Moab Transgressed Against Israel
1. NOW MOAB TRANSGRESSED AGAINST ISRAEL, that is against Ahaziah son of Ahab, who was reigning in Israel, that is, as the Chaldean renders it, the Moabites rebelled against Israel. For when they saw that Ahab had been slain in battle, and his army scattered, and Ahaziah a young man, they took courage, and rebelled against him to whom they had hitherto been subject, refusing tribute, and set up their own king: just as at the same time the Edomites, subdued by David, rebelled against Joram king of Judah, as we shall hear in chapter VIII. So says Abulensis.
Verse 2: Ahaziah Fell through the Lattice
2. AND AHAZIAH FELL (son of Ahab, king of Israel) THROUGH THE LATTICE OF HIS UPPER CHAMBER, that is through the latticed and netted windows of the upper story, says Pagninus, Vatablus, and others. Or he calls the "upper chamber" a terrace or roof, which in Palestine was flat, so that one could walk, dine, and sleep upon it. Moreover this roof was surrounded on all sides by a parapet or wall, lest anyone should inadvertently fall from it, according to the law of Deuteronomy XXII, 8. This wall was latticed and trellised, and from it, when the lattice gave way or broke, Ahaziah fell. So says Sanchez.
Tropologically, Eucherius says: "Ahaziah, king of Samaria, who separated himself from the house of David and fell through the lattice, seems to signify this: that heretics and schismatics, even if they seem to ascend some citadel of good action, because they nevertheless lack the framework of the unity of the Church, as if with open and not solid defenses at their sides, they always fall back into the weakness of vices, while deprived of divine help they perish in the pride of their obstinacy."
CONSULT BEELZEBUB THE GOD OF EKRON. The Septuagint has: consult Baal the fly, god of Ekron. Josephus has: consult the oracle of Myodes (for that was the name of the god): μυῖα means fly, whence Myodes is the god of flies, who was invoked to drive away flies, which abounded among the Ekronites because of the moist and warm soil, from the proximity of the sea. The same deity was called Jupiter Myodes, as Pausanias attests, book V, and Pliny, book XXIX, chapter VI, where he calls Myodes "Achor," perhaps because he was worshipped in Ekron, as is stated here. In a similar way the god Smintheus was worshipped, to drive away mice, for the Cretans call mice Sminthae; and Parnopius to drive away parnopae, that is gnats, or as others will have it, locusts, as Pausanias attests in the Attica. For the pagans appointed gods over all things, and so worshipped Fever, Cloacina, Fear, and Pallor as divinities, as St. Augustine attests, book IV of The City of God, chapters XVI and XXIII. Thus Beelzebub in Hebrew means the same as Baal or Beel and Bel זבוב Zebub, that is fly, or Baal Fly, as the Septuagint translates; for this idol was fashioned in the likeness of a fly, says Nazianzen, book II Against Julian, and Theodoret, Question III. Hence Philastrius also numbers among the heresies the "Myolatrae," that is fly-worshippers, or "Muscaccaronitae," heresy 13. See what was said on Matthew X, 25.
To this add that some agree with Serarius that Beelzebub or Myodes, that is the god of the fly, was a god of lust, or some goddess, on account of the shamelessness and lust that is noted in flies; whence Lucian in his Encomium of the Fly relates that there was once a beautiful prostitute named Fly. Moreover all the gods (demons) can be called flies on account of their multitude, insolence, shamelessness, biting nature, filth, and stench: whence in this century a demon in the form of a large fly or hornet, flying into one who had abandoned the orthodox faith and professed Anabaptism, immediately as if possessing him, made him skilled in Sacred Scripture, and deprived him of this skill if he returned from Anabaptism to the faith, as eyewitnesses report. Again, demons are called after the fly because, as Lucian says in his book On Sacrifices, they gape after the blood of victims like flies. Add that into the seers of the pagans, demons sometimes flew in like flies to deliver oracles; just as the Roman Ritual relates that the demon sometimes approaches to besiege the possessed. Hence therefore among the Jews, since he was despised and detestable, the prince of demons is called Beelzebub, Matthew chapter X. He is the prince of demons, Matthew XII, as the most lustful, most shameless, most contemptible of all, says Serarius; or because Myodes was Jupiter ἀπόμυιος, as I said; and Jupiter is the first and chief of all the gods.
Tropologically, those who worship Beelzebub, that is the god fly or god of flies, are the shameless, the lustful, the insolent, the restless, the quarrelsome. Hear St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Moralia, chapter XXV, explaining the fourth plague of Egypt, which was flies, Exodus VIII, 21: "Egypt, which bears the image of this world, is struck with flies. For the fly is a most insolent and restless creature. In which, what else is signified but the insolent cares of carnal desires? Whence it is said elsewhere: Dying flies destroy the sweetness of the ointment; because superfluous thoughts, which continually arise and perish in a mind that thinks carnal things, destroy that sweetness which each person possesses inwardly through the spirit; since they do not permit one to enjoy its integrity. Egypt therefore is struck with flies; because the hearts of those who love an earthly life, while they are smitten by the restlessness of their desires, are pressed down to the depths by the tumults of carnal thoughts, and are not raised up to the desire of inner rest. Whence when the work of piety brings truth to the heart, it first drives out from it the heat of carnal thoughts, and afterward marvelously arranges in it the gifts of virtues." I have said more about the symbolism of flies on Ecclesiastes X, 1, on the words: "Dying flies destroy the sweetness of the ointment."
Verse 4: You Shall Surely Die
4. THEREFORE (because, that is, having abandoned God you consulted Beelzebub) etc., YOU SHALL SURELY DIE. Elijah threatens Ahaziah with death for having consulted the demon; let those who consult diviners and magicians take note of this; for God will punish them with eternal death and often with temporal death as well. For thus Saul was slain in battle because he had consulted the Witch of Endor, 1 Kings XXVIII, 16. Thus Ahab was pierced by an arrow because he had inquired about the outcome of war from the false prophets of Baal, in the last chapter of 3 Kings. For this consultation is a grave sin and very injurious to God; because through it the foreknowledge of the future and divination is taken away from His divinity, to which it properly belongs, and is handed over to the devil. Whence God shows how keenly He feels this insult against Himself, when He punishes it so severely.
Verse 8: A Hairy Man Girded with a Leather Belt
8. A HAIRY MAN AND GIRDED WITH A LEATHER BELT. For Elijah went about unshorn, with a long beard and hair, in a rough and hairy garment, namely a sheepskin cloak, that is wrapped in an untrimmed sheep or goat skin, and girded with a leather belt, that is with an untreated hide, still hairy and shaggy, like a hermit who despises the world and loves poverty and ancient simplicity. See Cassian, book I of the Institutes, chapter I. Rabbi Eliezer in chapter XXXI fabulously claims that this belt of Elisha was made from the skin of that ram which Abraham sacrificed in place of Isaac, Genesis XXII.
Verse 9: Man of God, the King Commands You
9. MAN OF GOD, (he calls him thus ironically, as if to say: O Elijah, you who call and boast yourself a man of God) THE KING COMMANDS YOU TO COME DOWN from the top of Mount Carmel to us, so that we may lead you as a captive to King Ahaziah, to whom you foretold death, so that you may give an account of this fatal oracle, and pay the penalty. And so this captain of fifty sinned first by impiety, because he consented to the impiety of Ahaziah who wished to punish Elijah, and was his agent. Second, by pride, because imperiously and haughtily, as if executing a royal command, he ordered him to come down; and therefore by Elijah, or rather by God, he was struck down by heavenly fire and perished.
Verse 10: Let Fire Come Down from Heaven
10. AND ELIJAH ANSWERED AND SAID TO THE CAPTAIN OF FIFTY: IF I AM A MAN OF GOD, LET FIRE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN AND DEVOUR YOU AND YOUR FIFTY. Elijah makes the ironic title given to him a serious one, and turns it back upon the head of the speaker through serious retribution. Whence note: for "of God" the Hebrew has Elohim, which word signifies God as judge and avenger, as if to say: If I am the minister of Elohim, that is of the supreme judge and avenger, as you ironically said, let Elohim Himself defend me, as His minister, and punish your insolence and violence by which you wish to seize me, His minister, and drag me unwilling to the king. For this violence redounds upon God Himself, who is my master and Lord. Therefore Elijah avenged this insult to himself, or rather to God, with a vehement spirit calling down fire from heaven. He will do the same at the end of the world when, together with Enoch, he battles against the Antichrist and his followers; whence Apocalypse XI, 5, it is said of both: "And if anyone wishes to harm them, fire shall come forth from their mouth (at their command), and shall devour their enemies," and Sirach chapter XLVIII, verse 1: "Elijah the prophet arose like fire, and his word burned like a torch," and verse 3: "He brought down fire from heaven three times." See what was said there.
Symbolically, St. Ambrose, in his book On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, IX, compares with Elijah the priest who consecrates the Eucharist. For just as Elijah consumed the captain of fifty with his men by heavenly fire, so the priest, by the divine power of the words of Christ, consumes the substance of bread and wine, and converts it into the body of Christ: for, as Lanfranc says Against Berengar: "If the word of Elijah was powerful enough to bring down fire from heaven, shall the word of Christ not have the power to change the species of the elements?"
Verse 11: Make Haste, Come Down
11. MAKE HASTE, COME DOWN. This second captain of fifty was more impudent than the first; both because having heard of his punishment he did not come to his senses, and because he increased the impudence by adding: make haste; and therefore he was punished with the same penalty and consumed by heavenly fire.
Verse 14: I Beseech You to Have Mercy on My Life
14. I BESEECH YOU TO HAVE MERCY ON MY LIFE. This third captain, terrified by the punishment of the two preceding ones and made wiser, becomes a suppliant to Elijah: whence he does not dare to demand or say that he should come down, but asks for mercy, namely that he would spare him and tell him what he needs to do: that is, what he should report to the king. Therefore Elijah not only spared him, but also, at the Angel's admonition, voluntarily joined himself as a companion to go to the king.
Verse 17: Joram His Brother Reigned in His Place
17. JORAM HIS BROTHER REIGNED (in Israel) IN HIS PLACE, IN THE SECOND YEAR OF JORAM SON OF JEHOSHAPHAT KING OF JUDAH, who, that is, was reigning in Jerusalem together with his father Jehoshaphat who was still alive, but had gone with Ahab to fight against the Syrians, and was therefore absent, concerning which see chapter III, verse 1. For when Ahab was slain in battle, his son Ahaziah immediately succeeded him in the kingdom, and when he died of his illness in the first year of his reign, his brother Joram succeeded.