Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Elisha causes the iron of an axe submerged in water to float to the wood, as if to its handle: then, verse 8, he reveals the secret counsels of the king of Syria to the king of Israel. Next, verse 14, he blinds the Syrian soldiers sent to capture him, and leads them to the king of Israel, and forbids them to be struck, indeed commands that they be refreshed with food. Finally, verse 24, the king of Syria besieges Samaria, and reduces it to extreme famine. Wherefore the king of Israel demands Elisha's death, but Elisha orders the door to be closed against the king's messengers.
Vulgate Text: 4 Kings 6:1-33
1. Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha: Behold, the place where we dwell before you is too narrow for us. 2. Let us go to the Jordan, and let each one take from the forest a beam, that we may build ourselves a place there to dwell. He said: Go. 3. And one of them said: Come, then, you too with your servants. He answered: I will come. 4. And he went with them. And when they had come to the Jordan, they were cutting wood. 5. But it happened that when one was felling timber, the iron of the axe fell into the water; and he cried out and said: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, and I had borrowed it. 6. But the man of God said: Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. He then cut a piece of wood, and threw it in there; and the iron floated, 7. and he said: Take it up. He stretched out his hand, and took it.
8. Now the king of Syria was fighting against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying: In such and such a place let us lay an ambush. 9. So the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying: Beware that you do not pass through that place, because the Syrians are in ambush there. 10. So the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God had told him, and occupied it in advance, and guarded himself there not just once or twice. 11. And the heart of the king of Syria was troubled over this matter; and having summoned his servants, he said: Why do you not tell me who is my betrayer to the king of Israel? 12. And one of his servants said: Not at all, my lord king, but Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, reveals to the king of Israel all the words that you speak in your private chamber. 13. And he said to them: Go and see where he is, that I may send and capture him. And they reported to him, saying: Behold, he is in Dothan. 14. He sent there horses, and chariots, and the strength of his army: who, coming by night, surrounded the city. 15. And the servant of the man of God, rising at dawn and going out, saw the army around the city, and horses, and chariots; and he reported to him, saying: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, what shall we do? 16. But he answered: Do not fear; for there are more with us than with them. 17. And when Elisha had prayed, he said: Lord, open the eyes of this one, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and fiery chariots, surrounding Elisha. 18. But the enemies came down to him; and Elisha prayed to the Lord, saying: Strike, I beseech You, this people with blindness. And the Lord struck them, that they might not see, according to the word of Elisha. 19. And Elisha said to them: This is not the way, nor is this the city; follow me, and I will show you the man whom you seek. He led them therefore into Samaria; 20. and when they had entered into Samaria, Elisha said: Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw that they were in the midst of Samaria. 21. And the king of Israel said to Elisha, when he had seen them: Shall I strike them down, my father? 22. But he said: You shall not strike them; for you did not capture them with your sword and your bow, that you should strike them: but set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23. And a great feast was set before them, and they ate and drank, and he dismissed them, and they went to their master, and the raiders of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. 24. But it happened after this, Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and it was besieged so long that an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a quarter of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 26. And as the king of Israel was passing along the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord king. 27. He said: The Lord does not save you; whence can I save you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress? And the king said to her: What is the matter? She answered: 28. This woman said to me: Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. 29. So we cooked my son, and ate him. And I said to her the next day: Give your son that we may eat him. But she hid her son. 30. When the king heard this, he tore his garments, and as he was passing along the wall, all the people saw the sackcloth which he wore next to his flesh underneath. 31. And the king said: May God do this to me, and add more, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand upon him today. 32. Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. He sent a man ahead; and before the messenger came, Elisha said to the elders: Do you know that this son of a murderer has sent to cut off my head? See therefore, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and do not let him enter: for behold, the sound of his master's feet is behind him. 33. While he was still speaking to them, the messenger appeared who was coming to him. And he said: Behold, so great is this evil from the Lord; what more shall I hope for from the Lord?
Verse 1: The Sons of the Prophets Said to Elisha
for they did not have houses, but used huts. Therefore they humbly asked that great prophet to go with them as they cut wood for building them. And they lived in such great poverty that they could not even afford to own an axe."
And St. Jerome, letter 4 to Rusticus: "The sons of the prophets, he says, whom we read of as monks in the Old Testament, built themselves little huts near the streams of the Jordan, and abandoning the crowds of the cities, lived on porridge and wild herbs." Monks and hermits after Christ did exactly the same, in the time of St. Anthony, St. Basil, St. Jerome: whence near the Jordan they built themselves little huts and hovels, as is clear from the Lives of the Fathers. Hence also St. Jerome himself through St. Paula built five monasteries, to which he summoned the Roman nobility, and he himself presided over one of them. Wherefore Francisco Suarez, tome 3 On Religion, book 3, chapter 1, numbers 6 and following, from St. Ignatius, Jerome, Ambrose, and Damascene, teaches that these sons, that is, disciples of the prophets were a type and prelude of the Religious of the New Testament, and like them cultivated chastity, poverty, and obedience, but without a vow.
Verse 5: Alas, My Lord
5. ALAS, ALAS, ALAS, MY LORD. Tropologically, Eucherius: "Rightly, he says, he who had lost the iron cried out: Alas, alas, alas, my Lord, and I had borrowed this very thing. For the elect have this characteristic: if at any time their knowledge is furtively stolen from them by the fault of vainglory, they quickly return to their heart, and whatever they find in themselves condemnable before the eyes of the strict Judge, they pursue with tears. Weeping, they carefully examine not only what they have wrongly committed, but also, from the gift received, what good things they ought to have rendered."
Verse 6: The Man of God Said: Where Did It Fall
6. AND THE MAN OF GOD (Elisha, God's servant) SAID: WHERE DID IT FALL? AND HE SHOWED HIM THE PLACE; SO HE CUT A PIECE OF WOOD AND THREW IT IN THERE, AND THE IRON FLOATED. St. Benedict did the very same thing for a certain poor Goth, who, as St. Gregory says, Dialogues 2, chapter 6, "came to the place (to the lake into which the iron had fallen from the scythe), took the handle from the Goth's hand, and threw it into the lake: and immediately the iron came back from the deep, and entered the handle. He immediately returned the tool to the Goth, saying: Here, work, and do not be sad."
You will ask whether this was a true miracle. Vallesius asserts it was, Sacred Philosophy chapter 37, saying God removed the heaviness from the iron and gave it lightness, so that floating up from the bottom it was carried to the surface. But I say this was not a miracle properly so called, which must exceed all the power of nature and natural causes, so that it can be wrought by God alone. For all these things were done by an Angel, who took the wood cut by Elisha and adapted as a handle, carried it to the bottom of the water, inserted it into the iron, raised it to the surface, and sustained the axe floating there, until the woodcutter took hold of it. So Abulensis.
Allegorically, Tertullian, in his book Against the Jews, chapter 13, understands by the waters of the Jordan, baptism: by the wood, the cross of Christ; by the iron, the hard hearts of sinners. "What, he says, is more manifest than this Sacrament of the wood? That the hardness of this age, sunk in the depth of error, is freed by the wood of Christ, that is, by His passion in baptism; so that what had perished long ago through wood in Adam, might be restored through the wood of Christ." So also St. Ambrose, book 2 On the Sacraments, chapter 2: "Behold, he says, another kind of baptism. Why? Because every man before baptism is pressed down and submerged like iron. When he has been baptized, he is raised up not like iron, but like the already lighter form of fruitful wood." And shortly after: "You see therefore that in the cross of Christ the weakness of all men is lifted up."
And Theodoret, Question 19: "This, he says, prefigured the dispensation of our Savior; for just as the wood indeed, which is very light, was submerged, while what is very heavy, namely the iron, floated; so the descent of the divine nature caused the human nature to ascend."
St. Augustine, sermon 210 On the Seasons, by the river understands the flowing pleasures and lusts, from which Elisha, that is, Christ through the wood of the cross, frees us who are submerged. "That axe, he says, lay in the deep, because the human race had fallen into the abyss of all crimes by an unhappy ruin, as it is written: I am stuck in the mire of the deep. And again: I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest has drowned me. For that river, where the axe fell, signifies the fleeting and fugitive pleasure, descending into the abyss, or the luxury of this world. For a river takes its name from flowing. And because all sinners, clinging to transitory pleasures, are said to flow, therefore that axe lay oppressed in the river and in the mire." He proceeds then to Elisha, that is, Christ the Savior: "But Elisha coming cast in the wood, and the iron floated. What is it to cast in wood, and bring the iron to the surface, but to ascend the gibbet of the cross, and raise the human race from the depth of hell, and free it from the mire of all sins through the mystery of the cross? And after the iron floated, the Prophet put forth his hand, and received it, and it returned to the useful service of its master. So also it was done for us, most beloved brothers, who had fallen from the hand of the Lord by our pride; through the wood of the cross we deserved to return again to the hand or to the power of the Lord. And therefore let us labor as much as we can, with His help, lest we fall again from the hand of the Lord by our pride."
St. Irenaeus, moreover, book 5, chapter 17, by the iron understands the firm Word of God, which through the tree (by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil forbidden by God, Genesis 3) we had negligently lost, and could not find, but through the tree of the cross of Christ we received again. "That the axe is like the Word of God, he says, John the Baptist teaches, saying: For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees," Matthew 3.
Tropologically, Angelomus: "Iron in a handle, he says, is the gift of understanding in the heart; to cut wood with it is to rebuke those acting wickedly; which sometimes, when things are done carelessly, when the fall into vainglory in that same accepted knowledge is not avoided, the iron is lost in the water, because from careless work understanding is made foolish. Which understanding we know is given precisely so that it may be restored before the eyes of the Giver through good action. Whence rightly he who had lost the iron cried out: Alas, alas, alas, my Lord, and I had borrowed this very thing." Eucherius has the same in the same words, and nearly so does Rupert.
Anagogically, Bede: Just as Elisha brought the iron submerged in the waters back to the handle, so Christ recalled His body, submerged in the waters of passion and death, back to life. He will do the same for us in the general resurrection of all. For our body, like iron, is hard, heavy, cold, rusty, and prone to fall into the abyss; but Christ will insert into this iron the contrary gifts of the glorified body, and will, as it were, ignite it, that it may be bright, agile, light, subtle, impassible, glorious.
Verse 12: One of His Servants Said
12. And one of his servants said. Abulensis thinks this was Naaman, whom Elisha had cured of leprosy; but it seems incredible that Naaman would have betrayed Elisha, who had been so beneficial to him, to the king, as Abulensis himself admits at the beginning of chapter 8.
ELISHA THE PROPHET WHO IS IN ISRAEL REVEALS TO THE KING OF ISRAEL ALL THE WORDS THAT YOU SPEAK IN YOUR PRIVATE CHAMBER. For the spirit of prophecy consists in knowing secrets, absent and remote things, as well as in predicting the future. For both require the same power, namely divine help and revelation.
Verse 16: Do Not Fear: More Are With Us Than With Them
16. DO NOT FEAR: FOR THERE ARE MORE WITH US THAN WITH THEM. "More," namely Angels, who fight for God and His saints like innumerable and most powerful heavenly armies, on account of which He is called "God of Sabaoth, that is, of armies," according to Psalm 33: "The Angel of the Lord shall encamp (in Hebrew חנה chone, that is, shall set up camp) around those who fear Him." Thus of Jacob fleeing Esau it is said, Genesis 32:1: "And the Angels of God met him, and when he had seen them, he said: These are the camps of God." Thus the Angels fought for Moses and the Hebrews against the camp of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, Exodus 14. Whence St. Ambrose, sermon 4 On Elisha: "The divine fear, he says, drives out from us the terror of the enemy. And these are our weapons, with which the Savior has equipped us: prayer, mercy, and fasting. For fasting protects better than a wall; mercy frees more easily than plunder; prayer wounds more distantly than an arrow. For an arrow only strikes the adversary who is close at hand, but prayer wounds an enemy even at a greater distance." And shortly after: "Wonderful thing! Holiness deserves more defenders from heaven than wickedness has brought attackers on earth." He adds the reason: "For one must know that adversaries are conquered more by merits than by military force, and are overcome not so much by valor as by holiness; just as Elisha overcame his enemies not by arms, but conquered them by prayer."
Verse 17: The Lord Opened the Eyes of the Servant
17. AND THE LORD OPENED THE EYES OF THE SERVANT. "It is not surprising, says St. Ambrose, in his sermon On Elisha, if prayer opened eyes to see the armies; it is not surprising, I say, if he inserts new eyes who deserves new auxiliaries. Or why should he not produce the keenness of vision who had marshalled the armies of Angels? Why, I say, should he not wipe away with his prayer the dullness of the eyes, who by his merits had penetrated the darkness of clouds? Necessarily therefore St. Elisha by this deed gave security to his fearful servant, to whom he had already restored clarity."
AND BEHOLD, THE MOUNTAIN WAS FULL OF HORSES AND FIERY CHARIOTS, SURROUNDING ELISHA. The Angels formed these horses and chariots in the appearance of fire from the air, clouds, and rays of the sun, fittingly transparent to display the color of fire, in order to represent to Elisha their heavenly nature and fiery swiftness, strength, force, and efficacy, as they had represented to Elijah at his rapture. For Elisha was the successor and heir of Elijah's spirit; in him therefore that divine promise was fulfilled: "I will be to him, says the Lord, a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst thereof," Zechariah 2:5. See what was said there.
St. Ambrose gives the reason, sermon 2 On Elisha: "What wonder, he says, if he deserves help from heaven whose mind is always in heaven, as the Apostle says: But our conversation is in heaven. Therefore if our conversation is in heaven, the conversation of the heavenly ones can also be with us, that is, that we who live the life, rightly deserve the fellowship of Angels. There is therefore among those who live holy lives a certain kinship, union, and fellowship among themselves, and it matters not whether they remain in heaven or on earth; whether their appearance is angelic or human, provided the same life or holiness is in them. For way of life connects those whom the element separates, and although they are divided by different bodies, they are joined by the same actions. And therefore it happens that saints, clinging to one another by a certain fellowship, do not depart from each other, and now Angels come to earth, now men are translated to heavenly things, and those whose life is common, with better progress, begin to have even the elements of living in common."
Verse 18: Strike This People With Blindness
18. STRIKE, I BESEECH YOU, THIS PEOPLE WITH BLINDNESS. The Septuagint has aorasia, that is, non-seeing, so that seeing they might not see, nor take notice. Hence the Syrians struck by this saw Elisha and the city, but did not recognize or notice them. With a similar blindness and non-seeing the citizens of Sodom were struck when they invaded Lot's house, Genesis 19. Hear St. Ambrose, in his sermon On Elisha: "Then therefore Elisha prayed, and struck the whole hostile army with blindness. It is not surprising if he brought blindness upon the adversaries, who had bestowed clarity upon his servant; and if he takes away sight from the enemies, who grants vision to his minister. Where are those who say that human arms can do more than the prayers of the saints? Behold, one prayer of Elisha wounded the whole army, and by the merits of the prophet the entire number of enemies was captured."
by the merits of the prophet the entire number of enemies was captured. What bands of kings, what throng of soldiers ever achieved such a victory, that they so overthrew the enemies that none of them fell? This is the true, this the bloodless victory, where the adversary is so conquered that none of the conquerors is harmed."
Verse 19: This Is Not the Way, Nor the City
19. AND ELISHA SAID TO THEM: THIS IS NOT THE WAY, NOR IS THIS THE CITY. Abulensis thinks Elisha here told an officious lie. For the Syrians saw the city of Dothan in which, or near which, Elisha whom they were seeking was then living: but Elisha seems to deny this by saying: "Nor is this the city" which you seek. Lyra excuses Elisha, saying he spoke not of the city of Dothan, where he was then living, but of Samaria where he had his house and fixed his residence, as is clear from verse 32. For Elisha does not here respond to the questions of the Syrians, since they had asked nothing, but to their intention, as if to say: You are seeking Elisha, O Syrians! Come with me, I will show you the way to Samaria, where he dwells, and there I will show him to you and cause you to recognize him whom you now indeed have before you, but whom, struck with non-seeing, you do not recognize. For he did not wish to be recognized by them in Dothan, but in Samaria, so that he might lead them to the king and entertain them at a feast. In these words therefore there was no lie, but only a concealment of the truth, which is lawful and often necessary; for if he had revealed the truth and said: "I am Elisha whom you seek," he could not have handed them over to the king of Israel, nor shown his power over them as well as his beneficence. And if the Syrians asked Elisha: Which is the way to Dothan, where Elisha is? as some think, and Elisha's response suggests, Elisha was not bound to respond to the intention of his enemies, but to his own, namely that this was not Samaria his homeland, where they would recognize Elisha whom they were seeking, as I have said.
Verse 22: You Shall Not Strike Them
22. YOU SHALL NOT STRIKE THEM, that is, you shall not kill the Syrians whom I have brought to you: "For if they are killed, says Theodoret, the greatness of the miracle will not be known; but if they return to him who sent them, he too will learn the power of our God."
BUT SET BREAD AND WATER BEFORE THEM, THAT THEY MAY EAT AND DRINK. Elisha did not want the Syrians, although enemies, to be killed by the king of Israel, but to be treated kindly and generously, so that he might overcome them with charity and make friends out of enemies, so that henceforth they would not invade or plunder the land of Israel; which they did, conquered by Elisha, both by his power and more by his love. See St. Chrysostom (or whoever the author is: for the elegance of style suggests he was a Latin, not a Greek writer), homily On Elisha and the Detection of the Syrians' Ambush, tome 1, where among other things he says of the Syrians: "They marvel and are astounded that for them, instead of death, sustenance is prepared; instead of destruction, food; a banquet instead of punishment." And further: "The most holy prophet then becomes glorious among his own, and more glorious among foreigners. He displays to his own signs of virtues, and to foreigners he displays causes for glory. He first taught that enemies should be cherished, he first taught that enemies should be spared, he taught that banquets should be set before adversaries instead of punishment." Then he teaches that Elisha was a type of Christ; whence he adds: "O Lord Christ, prefigured both as new in old examples and as old in new ones! Most holy Elisha closes sight and opens it; he makes blind and illumines; he takes away vision and bestows it; he takes it from pursuers and gives it to followers: he makes strangers blind, and makes those enclosed in the city see. Those who had come to capture the prophet are blinded; and those who had already been captured receive their sight. The truth of both is fulfilled, so that both a figure of Christ and an example of the future people might be shown; so that from strangers they might become His own, from enemies friends, and from foes His own people. Elisha dismisses these armies to their own: he dismisses, I say, as many preachers as he had enemies, as many reporters of virtues as there were men among the enemy." Finally he concludes, saying: what was lacking at that time was afterwards completed through the Apostles at Pentecost and thereafter, as Scripture says, Psalm 18: "Their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world."
Verse 23: The Raiders of Syria Came No More Into Israel
23. AND THE RAIDERS OF SYRIA CAME NO MORE INTO ISRAEL, that is, during Elisha's lifetime, or for a long time; for that they came again afterwards is clear from what follows. This was the fruit of Elisha's kindness toward the Syrian raiders, as I have already said. So St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On Elisha.
Verse 25: An Ass's Head Was Sold for Eighty Pieces of Silver
25. UNTIL AN ASS'S HEAD WAS SOLD FOR EIGHTY PIECES OF SILVER, that is, 80 shekels, namely 80 Brabantine florins, or 80 francs. For a piece of silver was a shekel, although some think it was only half a shekel, and thus 80 pieces of silver would be 40 francs. Some understand by "head of an ass" the whole ass, as a synecdoche, in which the head signifies the whole body or animal, as when we say: What does that person's head want, or that insane head? That is, that person. More simply, others understand only the head of the ass; for this argues that the famine was enormous, and an ass has a large head in proportion to its body compared to other animals. Thus when Hannibal besieged Casilinum, a single mouse was sold for two hundred denarii, as Valerius Maximus attests, book 7, chapter 6.
AND A QUARTER OF A KAB OF DOVE'S DUNG FOR FIVE PIECES OF SILVER. A kab or choenix was the measure of a day's sustenance, containing four pounds and five ounces, as I said at the end of the Pentateuch: a quarter of a kab therefore was a pound and an ounce, about thirteen ounces. Lyra, Hugh, and Dionysius by "dung" understand grains of wheat, which are found in the crop or stomach of doves. But others simply take dung as it sounds. Whence Josephus and Theodoret hold that this dove dung served as salt; for it has a sharp and caustic power, as Galen attests. More plainly, others hold that dove dung served as food, both because it is made from grains and other purer foods, and because it is moister and consists of more wholesome substances; whence it is edible for humans. Pliny adds, book 29, chapter 6, that dove dung in vinegar is effective for curing fistulas, white spots, and scars, and book 30, chapter 4, for soothing throat roughness and dripping. Moreover, it renders purer the pearls which are celebrated against cardiac and melancholic complaints, and by whose innate dryness the excess humors of bodies are consumed. For so writes Franciscus Ruaeus in his book On Gems, chapter 13. Near the Vosges in Lorraine there is a mountain, a stream rich in pearls; but they are not very splendid: yet it is remarkable that what is lacking in them by their natural formation is repaired by doves; which having swallowed them, return them at last purer along with their droppings, says Serarius, himself a Lorrainer.
Verse 27: The Lord Does Not Save You
27. HE SAID: THE LORD DOES NOT SAVE YOU; WHENCE CAN I SAVE YOU? FROM THE THRESHING FLOOR OR FROM THE WINEPRESS? That is, as Vatablus translates: Since the Lord does not bring you help, whence could I bring you help? From the granary or from the winepress? As if to say: Since the Lord has sent this famine upon the whole city, unless He Himself helps you in it, I cannot help you: because I have no grain in the granary, nor wine in the winepress, as if to say: I myself lack bread and wine for sustenance. Whence the Chaldean translates: unless the Lord saves you, whence shall I save you? Hence also the Royal edition in the Vulgate reads thus: No, may the Lord save you, as if to say: Not I, but the Lord save you and feed you, because I do not have food to give you.
Otherwise Josephus, Abulensis, and Sanchez: The king, they say, angered by the famine and by the importunate petition of the woman, responded indignantly: "May God not save you," as if to say: May God afflict you. Thus the pagans when angry, cursing, used to say: "May the gods destroy you! May the gods do you harm!" Whence Vatablus also translates thus: May you perish! Why do you seek food from me, when you know I lack all food?
Verse 29: We Cooked My Son, and Ate Him
29. SO WE COOKED MY SON, AND ATE HIM. This was a barbarous feast which extreme famine extorted from a mother, so that, forgetting herself as a mother, she became the slayer and devourer of her son. A similar thing happened at the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, as Josephus attests; and in these recent years, when Sweden was devastating Germany, many, driven by famine, devoured human flesh. God permitted the Samaritans to be driven to these extremes, first, to punish their schism and idolatry; secondly, so that His deliverance of them might be more illustrious, as well as the prophecy of Elisha who promised it. Thus God permits men sometimes to reach the very threshold of death, so that they may invoke God more fervently, and God, hearing them, may receive greater thanksgiving and praise from them. Wherefore in naturally desperate situations one must hope most in God, who is accustomed to help in such cases according to the saying: "God from the machine." Hear St. Augustine, sermon 211 On the Seasons: "She turned into food the one whom God had fashioned for consolation. But after they had come to the funereal feast, one woman exhorts the other: Receive, she says, receive, wretched mother, into your bowels the son recently begotten from your bowels; be the tomb of your child, be the inn of his body; be, so to speak, his monument; let the eaten infant return within you for a little while, who through famine could no longer live; let the womb now receive eaten him whom the birth had brought forth alive; let the dead one seek again the dwelling whence he had recently come forth alive."
Verse 30: All the People Saw the Sackcloth
30. AND ALL THE PEOPLE SAW THE SACKCLOTH WHICH THE KING WORE NEXT TO HIS FLESH UNDERNEATH. This king, although impious and an idolater, judged that God should be appeased with penance and sackcloth: he was therefore more pious than our heretics, who caring for their skin, reject hairshirts, and attribute them to superstition. See here how ancient the use of sackcloth in penance is. Thus the king of Nineveh with his whole people clothed himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes, Jonah 3:6. And thus by doing penance he escaped the destruction threatened by God through Jonah. Thus the Arian king put on a hairshirt, and with it and prayers appeased God, as Salvian attests, book 7. Moreover, the use of sackcloth is far more ancient: for the first person recorded as using it is the Patriarch Jacob, hearing that his son Joseph had been devoured by a beast, Genesis chapter 37, verse 34, where I have said much about the use of sackcloth.
Verse 31: May God Do This to Me
31. AND THE KING SAID: MAY GOD DO THIS TO ME, AND ADD MORE, IF THE HEAD OF ELISHA THE SON OF SHAPHAT SHALL STAND UPON HIM TODAY, as if to say: Today I will cut off Elisha's head, because he persuaded us to endure this siege in Samaria, promising God's help in lifting it, while in it we suffer extreme famine and are in despair: for without him we would have come to terms in time with the king of Syria besieging us, and thus would have escaped this famine, which Elisha sees and ignores, and does not strive to avert with his prayers. So Theodoret.
Verse 32: This Son of a Murderer Has Sent to Cut Off My Head
32. DO YOU KNOW THAT THIS SON OF A MURDERER HAS SENT (namely Joram king of Israel, who is the "son" of Ahab the "murderer," for Ahab killed Naboth) TO CUT OFF MY HEAD, as if to say: Joram takes after and imitates his father; for just as his father Ahab killed Naboth, so he wishes to kill me, just as he himself killed his six brothers, as is said in 2 Chronicles 21:3 and following.
SEE THEREFORE, WHEN THE MESSENGER COMES, SHUT THE DOOR, AND DO NOT LET HIM ENTER. FOR BEHOLD, THE SOUND OF HIS MASTER'S FEET IS BEHIND HIM, as if to say: The king himself immediately follows the messenger he sent to kill me, repenting of his command and revoking it. So Josephus, as if to say: Do not fear to resist the king's messenger, because the king will immediately recall him; for he follows him so quickly that one can hear the sound of his hurrying feet. From this it is clear that Elisha had persuaded the king not to surrender Samaria to the Syrians, but to hope for help and support from the Lord. This king was Joram the son of Ahab, who succeeded him; for his deeds are described here up to chapter 8, verse 24, where his death is narrated. Therefore Joram in a precipitate rage had sent a messenger to kill Elisha; but when the anger shortly subsided, he came to himself and repented; wherefore fearing
lest the messenger should kill Elisha, as he had ordered, he immediately followed after the messenger, hastening to prevent the killing. For he knew that Elisha was a prophet, a holy man and benefactor of Samaria, and he had often experienced his oracles to be faithful and most true: so that about this matter also, about lifting the siege I mean, he could scarcely doubt. So explicitly Josephus, Theodoret, and Abulensis.