Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Azariah reigns in Judah, his son Jotham succeeds him. In Israel there reign successively Jeroboam, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and last Hoshea. For Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of the Assyrians, invade Israel and transfer part of it to Assyria.
Vulgate Text: 4 Kings 15:1-38
1. In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. 2. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. 3. And he did what was pleasing before the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done. 4. Nevertheless the high places were not demolished: the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 5. And the Lord struck the king, and he was a leper until the day of his death, and he dwelt in a separate house apart: and Jotham the king's son governed the palace and judged the people of the land. 6. And the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 7. And Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his ancestors in the city of David, and Jotham his son reigned in his place. 8. In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months; 9. and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 10. And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him: and struck him publicly and killed him, and reigned in his place. 11. And the rest of the acts of Zechariah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 12. This is the word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying: Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it was. 13. Shallum the son of Jabesh reigned in the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah: and he reigned one month in Samaria. 14. And Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah: and he came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him and reigned in his place. 15. And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy by which he laid snares, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 16. Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it, and its borders from Tirzah; for they would not open to him: and he killed all the pregnant women and ripped them open. 17. In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi reigned over Israel ten years in Samaria. 18. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin all his days. 19. Pul the king of the Assyrians came into the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him and strengthen his kingdom. 20. And Menahem levied the money on Israel, on all the mighty and wealthy men, to give the king of the Assyrians fifty shekels of silver per person: and the king of the Assyrians returned and did not remain in the land. 21. And the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 22. And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place. 23. In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem reigned over Israel in Samaria two years; 24. and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25. And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria in the tower of the king's house, beside Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites, and killed him, and reigned in his place. 26. And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 27. In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty years. 28. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord: he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 29. In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali: and he carried them away to Assyria. 30. And Hoshea the son of Elah conspired and laid snares against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him and killed him: and he reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. 31. And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 32. In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign. 33. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 34. And he did what was pleasing before the Lord: according to all that Uzziah his father had done, he did. 35. Nevertheless the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places: he himself built the highest gate of the house of the Lord. 36. And the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 37. In those days the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah. 38. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the City of David his father, and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.
Verse 1: In the Twenty-seventh Year of Jeroboam King of Israel, Azariah the Son of Amaziah King of Judah Began to Reign
1. In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, AZARIAH the son of Amaziah KING OF JUDAH BEGAN TO REIGN. This Azariah was also called by another name, Uzziah. For Azariah in Hebrew means the same as "help of God"; Uzziah, the same as "strength of God"; and where there is the help of God, there is strength. For God is most strong and most powerful. Whence in 2 Chronicles 26:7, it is said of him: "And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabs, and against the Ammonites," etc. From this passage Francisco Ribera, commenting on Amos chapter 1, verse 1, thinks there was an interregnum of thirteen years between Amaziah and Azariah, because Azariah was only three years old when his father Amaziah died. He proves this from the fact that in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, as was said in the preceding chapter, verse 23, Jeroboam began to reign, and in his twenty-seventh year, as is said here, Azariah began to reign. But Amaziah reigned twenty-nine years. Therefore his twenty-ninth year was the fourteenth of Jeroboam. Therefore the kingdom of Judah was vacant from the fourteenth year of Jeroboam to the twenty-seventh, that is, for a space of thirteen years. But I reply that this twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam is the twenty-seventh year from the time when Jeroboam began to reign together with his father Joash; for of the reign in which he alone reigned after his father, this was only the fourteenth year, in which Amaziah, dying in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, left Azariah his son as successor. That this is so is clear from 2 Chronicles 25:25, where Amaziah, after the death of Joash, is said to have lived fifteen years. He therefore died at the end of the fourteenth year and the beginning of the fifteenth of Jeroboam, who immediately succeeded his father Joash. So Salianus, Cajetan, and others. For interregna must be avoided here, lest the continuous series of chronology be disturbed and rendered uncertain and doubtful. Hence Eusebius, Josephus, and others everywhere immediately attach and connect the reign and years of Azariah to the reign and years of Amaziah.
Verse 2: He Reigned Fifty-Two Years
2. AND HE REIGNED FIFTY-TWO YEARS. In the time of Azariah there lived Sardanapalus, whom the pagan historians place as the last king of the Assyrians, and say that, being effeminate, he was besieged in Nineveh by Arbaces the prefect of Media, and there burned himself together with the royal treasure. Therefore Arbaces made himself king of Media around the tenth year of Azariah, when among the Latins Proca Silvius was reigning, among the Corinthians Agemon, and among the Spartans the lawgiver Lycurgus. So Eusebius, Diodorus, Justin, Ptolemy, Strabo, and from them Torniellus, Salianus, Gordonus, Samerius, and others.
But shortly afterward Nineveh and its kingdom were restored; for, as we shall soon hear, shortly afterward under the same Azariah there reigned Pul king of the Assyrians, whom Tiglath-pileser succeeded, then Shalmaneser, then Sennacherib, then Esarhaddon, under whom, because of the Assyrians recently slain by an Angel while besieging Hezekiah and Jerusalem, Ben-Merodach the Babylonian raised his head and made himself king of Babylon, who was the grandfather of Nebuchadnezzar the first monarch of the Babylonians. For all these kings just named are called kings of the Assyrians, not of the Babylonians, nor before Baladan is anyone in Scripture called king of Babylon.
It seems therefore that Pul the Assyrian divided the empire of Sardanapalus with Arbaces the prefect, so that Arbaces would rule Media and Persia, while Pul would rule Assyria and Babylon: so from the Metasthenes of Annius, Genebrardus, Torniellus, Samerius, Gordonus, Salianus, and others.
With this chronology agrees the time of the prophecy of Jonah, who, as we heard in the preceding chapter, verse 25, prophesied under Jeroboam, with whom Azariah was contemporary. Jonah therefore, sent by God, rebuked the luxury and extravagance of Sardanapalus and the Ninevites. Sardanapalus repented along with the Ninevites, but not long afterward, relapsing into their customary vices, they were besieged and devastated by Arbaces the Mede, as I said in my commentary on Jonah.
Verse 5: And the Lord Struck the King (Azariah) and he was a Leper, Because Namely he Usurped the Office of
5. AND THE LORD STRUCK THE KING (Azariah) AND HE WAS A LEPER, because namely he usurped the office of the High Priest by burning incense upon the altar of incense, which was in the Holy Place, as is said in 2 Chronicles 26:16, about which more is said there.
Verse 8: In the Thirty-eighth Year of Azariah King of Judah, Zechariah the Son of Jeroboam Reigned Over Israel
8. IN THE THIRTY-EIGHTH YEAR OF AZARIAH KING OF JUDAH, ZECHARIAH THE SON OF JEROBOAM REIGNED OVER ISRAEL. He was the great-grandson of Jehu; hence the royal line of Jehu ended with Zechariah, as in the fourth generation, as God had promised him, chapter 10, verse 30: "In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah," namely from the time when he began to reign together with his father Amaziah; for from the time when Azariah reigned alone after his father, this was the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year. If therefore you count the thirty-eighth year of Azariah from the eighteenth year of his father Amaziah, when he took him as co-ruler, this thirty-eighth year of Azariah will be the forty-first of Jeroboam king of Israel, since he began to reign alone in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, Azariah's father. For this forty-first year was the last of Jeroboam: hence, at his death, his son Zechariah succeeded him for six months. But since Azariah alone reigned fifty-two years after his father Amaziah, which are individually recorded here: for in verse 37, the thirty-ninth year of Azariah is numbered, and in verse 23, the fiftieth year, and in verse 27, the fifty-second and last year, so that a consistent and certain chronology of times may be woven together through the years of the kings of Judah; hence we shall say more correctly with Richard of St. Victor, Lyra, Abulensis, and others that Jeroboam king of Israel died in the twenty-seventh year of Azariah king of Judah: then for eleven years, namely until the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, there was an interregnum, and the kingdom of Israel was without a king; because Zechariah the son of Jeroboam, either because of his tender age, or because of a rebellion of his subjects, or for some other reason, could not prevail and obtain his father's kingdom. The reason is that the forty-one years of Jeroboam are to be computed from the fifteenth year of Amaziah, so that with Amaziah, who reigned twenty-nine years, Jeroboam would have reigned fourteen years; therefore the remaining twenty-seven years (for Jeroboam reigned forty-one years) he must have reigned with Azariah the son of Amaziah, so that he died in the twenty-seventh year of Azariah, and then his son Zechariah succeeded him. And so when it says here of some king of Judah that he reigned so many years, understand that it means alone after his father; because the chronology here is woven through the kings of Judah, which would otherwise be uncertain and ambiguous; but elsewhere, when it says "in such a year such a king reigned," especially in Israel, it can be taken not of sole reign but of co-reign, namely that he reigned not alone but with his father.
Note: Under Azariah the counting of Olympiads began, but in which year of his reign this happened the chronologists disagree. Eusebius, in book III of his Preparation and in his chronicle, places the beginning of the Olympiads in the fiftieth year of Azariah, and consequently the beginning of the city of Rome when Romulus founded it in the fourth or fifth year of Ahaz: for the beginning of the Olympiads precedes the beginning of Rome by twenty-three years, as all historians and chronologists agree. Now add two years of Azariah (for he reigned fifty-two years) and sixteen of his son Jotham, and five of Ahaz, and you will have the twenty-three years we seek.
Others think the Olympiads began in the fourth or fifth year of Azariah; Serarius in the forty-seventh. Pererius, in book XI on Daniel, around the eighth year of Ahaz. Torniellus, Salianus, and others in the fifty-second year of Azariah, or rather in the first year of Jotham, because he succeeded his father Azariah. For this difference of a few years is small in so great an interval of ancient times. According to the chronological table which I prefixed to the Pentateuch, the Olympiads began in the fortieth year of Azariah; and Rome was founded in the tenth or eleventh year of Jotham, about whom see verse 33.
Moreover, before the Olympiads nothing is certain among the Greek and Latin pagan historians, but everything is uncertain and confused: hence they call this age mythikon, that is, fabulous: but after them, just as after the founding of Rome, everything began to be assigned to its proper years calculated thence, as Eusebius attests, book X of his Preparation, chapter 3, and Censorinus, in his book On the Birthday, chapter 21. An Olympiad was a space of four years, which elapsed between two Olympic Games, which were celebrated in honor of Olympian Jupiter with the concourse of all Greece, every fourth year, at Pisa and Elis, in memory of the intercalary day, at the beginning of summer or the summer solstice, from the eleventh to the sixteenth of the moon, as Livy, Censorinus, and others attest.
Hear Solinus the Polyhistor, chapter 11: "The Olympic contest (which formerly Hercules, victorious in every kind of contest, had established in honor of his maternal great-grandfather Pelops) had long since been discontinued; Iphitus of Elis restored it in the year 408 after the destruction of Troy. Rome was then founded, at the beginning of the seventh Olympiad, in the year 433 after the destruction of Troy." The same write Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Eratosthenes as cited by Clement of Alexandria, and from these others.
AND MENAHEM WENT UP FROM TIRZAH, which he was besieging in the name of his king Zechariah, says Josephus, and having killed Shallum in Samaria, who had killed Zechariah the king, he seized the kingdom, and when he returned to Tirzah, and the people of Tirzah would not receive him as king, he raged against them, and especially against the people of Tiphsah, ripping open the pregnant women there, as is said in verse 16.
Verse 16: And its Borders from Tirzah, for the Territory of the City of Tiphsah Extended as Far as Tirzah
16. AND ITS BORDERS FROM TIRZAH, for the territory of the city of Tiphsah extended as far as Tirzah, says Vatablus.
AND HE RIPPED THEM OPEN, that is, he cut open the pregnant women to bring out the fetus, says Abulensis. This was great cruelty and barbarity.
Verse 19: Pul the King of the Assyrians Came
19. PUL THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS CAME. This is "Pul," who is called by another name "Belochus," who together with Arbaces the Mede besieged Sardanapalus in Nineveh for two years, and forced him to build a very high pyre in the palace, and throw himself onto it together with his wives and sons, and ten thousand myriad pieces of gold and one hundred thousand myriad pieces of silver, and burn himself alive. The fire lasted fifteen days. In this the monarchy of the Assyrians came to an end, which from Belus to Sardanapalus had stood for one thousand three hundred years. Moreover Pul divided the monarchy with Arbaces, and kept for himself Assyria and Babylon; to Arbaces he granted Media and Persia. Now Pul in Hebrew means the same as "bean," says Pagninus, just as at Rome the Fabii were surnamed from faba (bean), among whom Fabius Maximus, the liberator of Rome and subduer of Hannibal, was preeminent. Scaliger notes that the names of the kings of the Assyrians and Babylonians are some simple, such as Pul, Assar, Tiglath; others compound, as Tiglath-pileser is composed of three elements: namely Tiglath, Pul, and Assar. Shalmaneser is composed of Salman and Assar, and Esarhaddon is formed from Assar and Haddon. Nebuchadnezzar from Nebo, who was the god of the Babylonians, Chad, and Netser. See what was said on Isaiah 46:1.
AND MENAHEM GAVE PUL A THOUSAND TALENTS OF SILVER, THAT HE MIGHT BE HIS HELP, against the rebels of Tirzah, Tiphsah, etc., as was said in verse 14. This was the occasion why Tiglath-pileser, the successor of Pul, invaded Israel and carried it away to Assyria, as will be said in verse 29. Pul therefore was called to help was called by Menahem, not by the people of Tirzah, as Josephus writes.
Verse 29: Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria Came
29. IN THE DAYS OF PEKAH THERE CAME TIGLATH-PILESER KING OF ASSYRIA. He was the son of Pul, of whom verse 19, and therefore was called Pul-Assar, or Tiglath-Pul-Assar. Behold, he devastated Israel and carried away five tribes from it to Assyria, namely the inhabitants of "Gilead," that is, the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; and of "Galilee," namely the Zebulunites and Naphtalites, of whom Isaiah speaks, chapter 9, verse 1, since shortly before, having been called to help by Ahaz king of Judah against Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel, he had come to Damascus and killed those kings, as is said in the following chapter, verses 6 and 7, but then also oppressed Ahaz himself, by whom he had been called, and plundered his territory, 2 Chronicles 28:8.
This very thing Isaiah had shortly before predicted to Ahaz himself, in Isaiah 7:17. This therefore was the first captivity of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes. Hence fittingly Tiglath-pileser in Hebrew (to which the Assyrian and Chaldean languages are related) means the same as "wonderful captivity of binding," says Pagninus in his Hebrew Names.
Verse 30: And he Reigned in his Place (that Is, Hoshea in Place of Pekah) in the Twentieth Year of Jotham the Son of Uzziah
30. AND HE REIGNED IN HIS PLACE (that is, Hoshea in place of Pekah) IN THE TWENTIETH YEAR OF JOTHAM THE SON OF UZZIAH. You will say: Jotham reigned only sixteen years, as is said in verse 33; what then is this twentieth year of his? I reply: It was the twentieth from the time when Jotham began to reign with his father Azariah: for he, struck by God with leprosy and therefore separated from the company of men, permitted Jotham his son to govern the kingdom, as was said in verse 5. So Cajetan and others. You will say: Hoshea could not have reigned with Jotham; for Pekah, whom Hoshea succeeded, survived Jotham by three years, as is clear from verse 27 here compared with verse 1 of the following chapter. I reply that Hoshea began to reign and to invade the kingdom of Pekah while Jotham was still alive, and finally, after Jotham's death, after some years completely overcame him and killed him in the fourth year of Ahaz king of Judah, and then alone reigned fully. So Cajetan. Secondly, and better, the Hebrews in the Seder Olam, Abulensis, Genebrardus, Torniellus, Salianus explain it thus: "in the twentieth year of Jotham," that is, which would have been the twentieth year of Jotham reigning alone after his father, if he had still been alive, who had died four years before. This was therefore the twentieth year from the time Jotham began to reign; but since he reigned only sixteen years, in reality this was the fourth year of Ahaz, who succeeded Jotham; but Scripture preferred to name Jotham rather than Ahaz, because it had not yet made mention of Ahaz. Moreover, Scripture counts the years of Hoshea in two ways: first, from this fourth year of Ahaz, as is done here; secondly, from the twelfth year of Ahaz, as is done in 4 Kings chapter 17, verse 1. The reason is that in the first eight years Hoshea was not a peaceful king, but was still struggling with the family of Pekah, or rather a servant of the Assyrians than a king, or impeded from the kingdom for other reasons. And so from the fourth year of Ahaz he reigned more precariously than with full authority. So Abulensis, Serarius, Salianus and others already cited. Finally, this twentieth year was both the ending year of Pekah's reign (for he reigned twenty years) and the beginning year of Jotham's. For Jotham, if he had lived to that year, would have begun his twentieth year of reign; for he began to reign in the second year of Pekah, as follows.
Verse 32: In the Second Year of Pekah, Etc., Jotham the Son of Uzziah King of Judah Began to Reign; for Pekah
32. In the second year of Pekah, etc., JOTHAM THE SON OF UZZIAH KING OF JUDAH BEGAN TO REIGN; for Pekah began to reign in the fifty-second and last year of Uzziah: therefore this was the first year of Pekah's reign; the second was when, Uzziah having died, Jotham succeeded him, and reigned sixteen years: therefore in the seventeenth year of Pekah, when Jotham died, his son Ahaz succeeded him, as is said in the following chapter, verse 1; because namely the last year of Jotham was not complete but only half, so that the seventeenth year of Pekah was simultaneously the last of the dying Jotham and of Ahaz succeeding him. Therefore one year added or subtracted in chronology makes no difference; because half years are sometimes counted and sometimes not.
Moreover, "Jotham," says the Author of the Incomplete Work, homily 1 on Matthew, is interpreted as perfect or lord, immaculate. And truly this Jotham was perfect, and in comparison with the kings who preceded him, an immaculate lord; because he did what was pleasing to God, and no reproach of him is read in the scripture of the kings. He reigned sixteen years -- uprightly and piously; hence he is praised above others by Scripture and by Josephus. In the time of Jotham, Isaiah and Micah prophesied, as is clear from their title. In the eleventh year of Jotham, Romulus, being eighteen years of age, laid the foundations of the city of Rome on the twenty-first day of April (whence this day was thenceforth celebrated annually as the birthday of Rome), namely on the Palilia, that is, the feast of Pales, the goddess of shepherds, who was worshipped by them on that day for the successful birth of livestock. Hence it was called the Palilia or Parilia. This was done in the third year of the sixth Olympiad, as Varro holds; or the fourth, as Cato holds, and following him Cicero, Pliny, Tacitus, Gellius, Censorinus, Eusebius, St. Augustine, Orosius, and Cardinal Baronius. Therefore the Olympiads precede Rome by twenty-three years, as I said: for the six Olympiads already mentioned make up that many years; for each contains four years. By this computation the beginning of the Olympiads is to be assigned to the fortieth year of Azariah, as I said, and by the same calculation Rome was founded in the year 731 before the birth of Christ.
Others, because they assign the beginning of the Olympiads a little later, consequently assign the building of Rome a little later as well. Hence Torniellus and Salianus, because they combine the beginning of the Olympiads with the first year of Jotham, combine the beginning of Rome with the eighth or ninth year of Ahaz. But in a matter so ancient, after so many centuries, this difference of time is small.
Here is that verse of Propertius: A festival day it was for the city; the fathers called it the Palilia. This was the first day the walls began to stand.
Hence also St. Jerome, in chapter 1 of Isaiah, had completed the following works and erected the royal throne there in the fourth year of Ahaz. So also St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter 22: "Whom (Hezekiah)," he says, "it is established to have been a most excellent and most pious king, having reigned in the times of Romulus." says that Hezekiah began to reign in the twelfth year of Romulus: therefore the first year of Romulus falls in the fourth year of Ahaz, since he himself, having laid Rome's foundations in the eleventh year of Jotham, completed the building over the following seven or eight years.