Questions on Kings and Chronicles 1 part 4/11

And that you have despised the Lord, doing evil before him. You scorned my laws, you did not suppose that I oversee the deeds of men;

you luxuriated to excess in my good gifts, you kicked against me who had given them.

You struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and took his wife for yourself as a wife, and killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. The one who had shown himself so well disposed toward you, you handed over to the enemy, and for a brief pleasure you have trampled upon two laws.

And now the sword shall not depart from your house forever.

For that former deed was of a most violent desire that had wrought a stupor upon the reasoning faculty;

but this latter deed has the very consent of reason itself, which ought, after the unjust murder, to have mourned and lamented, not consented to an unlawful marriage.

Then he threatens grievous punishments, which displayed all the more brilliantly the glory of the admirable king.

For the God-sent afflictions drove out that disease, and restored his former health.

For it was precisely for this reason that the physician of souls brought these afflictions upon him.

And he added to the threats, that: You did it in secret;

but I will do this thing before all this people. You wished, he says, to escape notice, you contrived to conceal the murder;

but I will make your sin manifest to all.

For he recognized the one speaking through him, and cried out;

I have sinned against the Lord. But immediately the prophet, having received the confession of sin, and taking courage in the loving-kindness of God, added:

for indeed both the adulterer and the murderer were put to death according to the law;

but the confession of sin dissolved the sentence of death.

And God, like a most wise physician, subjected him to manifold forms of discipline;

for this too the narrative teaches.

For the prophet, having said, "You shall surely not die," added:

Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly provoked the Lord to anger among his adversaries. Aquila translated this more clearly: "By provoking, you have provoked the enemies of the Lord." For, being stripped of the divine protection, he caused the foreigners to prevail, and to think proudly against the God of all.

First, however, God struck the child born of adultery.

Now Uriah appears to have descended from the foreigners, but to have become a proselyte;

for the God of all called him a Hittite;

and he showed that he overlooks no one who is wronged, but even if the one wronged is a foreigner, while the wrongdoer is a Hebrew, he comes to the defense of the former, and punishes the one doing wrong.

...God? He was destined to be a living proof of the transgression, and a reproach to the pious king.

What does "Jedidiah" signify in translation? Aquila translated it "for the Lord's sake";

while Symmachus translated it "set apart for a king."

One must recall what things they had dared against Israel.

For they used to gouge out their right eyes;

and the prophets also teach of their other acts of cruelty.

They therefore paid a penalty equal to what they had dared to do.

Why in the world did he call Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, prudent, when he made use of such counsels? In like manner Moses also said the serpent was the most prudent of all the beasts of the earth.

Accordingly, one must know that divine Scripture is not everywhere accustomed to use the term "prudent" in the sense of praise.

For they are wise, it says, to do evil. — And God, it says, chose the foolish things of the world, that he might shame the wise. And Solomon was wiser than all the wise men of Egypt; yet the wise men of Egypt were impious.

Here divine Scripture did not praise the counsel of Jonadab, but rather his wits, as being aptly disposed to discern what was to be done.

But he did not use his natural gift as he ought;

rather he collaborated with Amnon's licentiousness, and had a share in the transgression that was dared.

For if you saw, it says, a thief, you ran with him, and you cast your lot with adulterers. As for the "coat reaching to the ankles," Aquila translated it "fruited," meaning one having fruit-patterns woven into it;

but people nowadays call it "plumaric."

Josephus, however, describes it as reaching down to the ankles. The affair concerning Tamar, moreover, is a kind of beginning and root of the calamities of the royal house.

For the king was grieved when he learned of the transgression;

but being tenderly disposed toward Amnon as toward a firstborn son, he did not exact justice for the wicked deed.

But her brother by the same mother, who was besides self-willed and bold, at first concealed his anger, but when two years had passed, having invited his brothers to the shearing of the sheep, he killed Amnon.

Then he fled to his grandfather on his mother's side.

For Maacah his mother was the daughter of Talmai, who reigned over Geshur.

The king mourned exceedingly for both, both the one who had slain and the one who had been slain.

When three years had passed, and his wrath had been quenched by time, the general contrived something of this sort.

Having fashioned a drama capable of drawing the king to pity, he suggested it to a certain wise woman.

She, coming to the king in accordance with the general's instructions, said that she was a widow, and had borne only two sons;

and these, having grown to manhood, fell into a grievous quarrel, and from the quarrel a fight was born;

and since no one was willing to settle it, the one, struck by the other, met the end of his life.

But those who had been unwilling to settle that quarrel have now gathered together and demand that the other son be handed over to them.

"If this should happen, I shall go on lamenting not only my widowhood but also my childlessness;

the last spark of my family will be utterly quenched, and my husband's memory will be given over to oblivion;"

By these words she was hinting at the king, who had neither punished Amnon nor dispelled Absalom's despondency,

and who, though the matter had become beyond remedy, went on being angry to no purpose.

But when the king had nevertheless been won over by these words, and was promising to give the general orders to restrain the kinsmen's impulse, the woman again used words of persuasion, charming the king's hearing.

And when the king had sworn:

"As the Lord lives," he said, "not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground," the woman immediately added that it was not possible for her own son to escape slaughter unless the king's son first returned from his exile.

"For that," she said, "will be the precedent for this case."

"...the kinsmen, having as their reasonable pretext the flight of the king's own son —"

"Why has such a thing been reckoned against the people of the Lord — that, because the king let this word pass, he restrains himself from bringing back the one banished from him, on the ground that 'your son is dead'? How can you," she says, "free my son from slaughter without bringing back your own son?" Then she works upon his feelings concerning the dead son, saying: "Your son is dead, and, like water poured out upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again, no soul shall hope for him."

"You cannot," she says, "raise that one up again; why then are you hastening to destroy this one too, so that, bereft of both, you should live out your life?" Thus, having introduced her word concerning Absalom, she seems again to be speaking about her own suffering;

so that she might not appear to have said these things on purpose;

"And now, concerning that for which I have come to speak this word to the king — the people will see me, and your maidservant will say: 'Let your maidservant now speak a word to my lord the king, that perhaps the king may perform the word of his handmaid;'

for the king will listen, and will deliver me from the hand of the man who seeks to destroy me and my son together, out of the inheritance of the Lord."

"Let, then, the word of my lord the king be as a sacrifice;

for as an angel of the Lord, so also is my lord the king, in discerning good and evil;

and the Lord your God will be with you." When these things had been said by the woman, the king understood the plot underlying the drama, and asked the woman whether she had used these words at Joab's suggestion.

And she confessed that Joab had suggested each of these things;

"In order," she says, "that he might turn about the face of this matter, your servant Joab did this thing. It was not possible," she says, "to entreat you directly;

hence he suggested that I should employ this circuitous manner of speech, so that, seeing your own case in the feigned suffering, you might apply to yourself the remedy which you were about to apply to me;

and that you might grant to your own son that same help which you promised to bestow upon my child.

Yielding to these words, the king ordered Absalom to return, but forbade that he be seen by him;

but afterward he granted this too, having accepted Joab's entreaty.

But when four years had passed, having prepared his usurpation beforehand by the graciousness of his words, he went off to Hebron under the pretext of a sacrifice;

and there he seized his father's kingdom;

and he even plotted the murder of his father.

Learning this, the king left the capital, considering that even flight, undertaken at the right moment, was the best strategy.

A multitude of shield-bearers and spearmen also followed him.

Ittai the Gittite also followed with six hundred picked men, having but lately left his own homeland, and having become a proselyte together with his subjects.

The king attempted to persuade this man to turn back, lest, having but just settled among them, he should again become an exile;

"For why," he says, "do you go with us? Turn back and remain with the king, since you are a foreigner, and since you have but just removed from your own house;

you arrived but yesterday, and shall I today set you moving to go with us?

But I will go wherever I may go." "It is necessity," he says, "that compels me to remove, but it is not right that you, who have only just arrived, should endure this hardship with us."

For even while being pursued and warred against by his most abominable son, he called him neither a patricide nor a fratricide, but "king";

and though himself in need of help, he was concerned for the safety of the proselyte;

"Turn back," he says, "and take your brothers back with you, and the Lord will deal with you in mercy and truth." But the more care the king showed for him, the greater the goodwill he in turn displayed.

This was recorded beforehand as a teaching, that we might learn that it is not right to keep company with friends only while they prosper, and to abandon them when they fall into misfortune.

Why in the world did he forbid the priests and the ark to follow him? Being both pious and a prophet, he knew what the ark had suffered when it was taken to aid transgressors of the law.

For those men were slain;

while it, the ark, was captured by the spear and given over to the Philistines.

Having learned this lesson, he said to Zadok the priest: "Take the ark of God back into the city, and let it remain in its place.

If I find favor before the Lord, He will bring me back, and I shall see it and its glory;

but if He should say to me, 'I have no delight in you,' behold, here I am — let Him do to me what is pleasing in His sight." "I cannot," he says, "carry my accuser about with me."

From within I hear the law speaking:

"You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder" — but I have trampled both these laws underfoot.

When the Lawgiver shall cleanse the eye of my soul, then shall I be able to see its beauty;

These things the divine man said with tears, clothed in the garb of mourning;

for he had covered his head, and walked going barefoot;

and the army shared in his mourning.

Thus fleeing, he learned of Ahithophel's betrayal;

For he says: "O my God, frustrate now the counsel of Ahithophel." For "frustrate," Aquila rendered "make foolish," meaning: "show him to be foolish and senseless."

The word "Ros" signifies "the summit."

Some do not approve of Hushai's lie.

But it is fitting to examine the intention behind both good deeds and their opposites.

For judging in this way, we shall find that even truth itself can stand accused.

"For Herod," it is said, "on account of his oaths and those reclining at table with him, killed John." But no one is so foolish as to praise the truthfulness that resulted in murder.

For it would have been better not to have sworn at all;

but since he had sworn, falsehood would have been preferable to murder.

So here too, then, the dissimulation occurred not for gain of money, nor for the harm of others, but out of zeal for a prophet and for a pious king.

I have often said that the prophets did not know all things;

and this man too made use of persuasive words.

In addition to these things, he also brought gifts, thereby displaying his own goodwill.

But afterward, having also received Mephibosheth's account, he divided the property between the two of them, yet again deemed him worthy of the same care.

And when the famine occurred, and the Gibeonites asked for seven of Saul's kinsmen, he did not hand over Mephibosheth, but fulfilled the covenant he had made with Jonathan.

I do not look at the strap, but at the one who wields the scourge.

I ascribe my calamities to my own transgressions.

I do not lay hold of the rod, lest I provoke the one who strikes with it.

‘But if even now this Benjaminite acts thus, let him alone, let him curse — for the Lord has told him to, that he may look upon my humiliation, and the Lord will repay me with good in return for his curse this day.’ This man, he means, is of Saul’s kindred, bearing toward me an enmity of long standing.

And it is likely that some might say that, having found an opportunity, he laid bare his hidden enmity.

And to what he had foretold, he adds its fulfillment:

‘But I bear even those who rave in drunkenness and those who thirst for murder, that by this I may appease the divine wrath.’

These, then, are the words this godly man spoke.

One must know that neither Amnon's unlawful union, nor Absalom's fratricide, nor the madness that arose against his father, belong to divine operation.

Rather, the household, stripped of divine Providence, resembled a rudderless vessel, and received the towering waves of the wicked demons.

And finding someone who delighted in their own practices, they lay it bare, and speak things fitted to those who listen.

But he paid the penalty at once for that unholy and wicked counsel.

And since he had armed the son against the father, he in turn armed his own hands against himself.

And casting the noose about his neck with those very hands, he met a thrice-wretched end.

And fearing betrayal, he took his own punishment by his own hand.

Divine Scripture has taught that God worked together with Hushai.

For it says, ‘The Lord commanded to frustrate the good counsel of Ahithophel’ — meaning, the counsel that was advantageous to the usurpation.

‘Behold, he was in travail with iniquity, he conceived trouble, and brought forth lawlessness.’

‘He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and he will fall into the ditch that he made.’ QUESTION.

What is the meaning of, ‘And now the land will be taken away from us, ten thousand strong’? The commander prevented the king, who wished to take part in the engagement, both fearing that he might come to some harm (for it was likely the enemy would advance against him alone), and being anxious lest, even should he win, he might pity the tyrant.

They said, then, ‘If we are defeated and flee, we have life as sufficient consolation;’

‘but if anything should happen to you, the calamity will extend to us all.’

‘For you alone outweigh all of us by ten thousand times ten thousand.’

For this is the sense that Symmachus rendered.

But upon that accursed man he exacted a fitting penalty.

For as he was riding through the forest, he caused him to come under a tree that had two branches inclined, grown crosswise, not far apart from one another.

As the mule passed beneath it, his head was caught fast between the branches, and he was left hanging entirely suspended;

and the rustling of the leaves drove the mule on.

And he remained hanging there, becoming a most pleasing sight to the pious, and displaying the verdict of Providence, which governs all things.

One of the other soldiers, having seen this, did not dare to strike him the blow;

for he feared the king's command.

But Joab, leaving him, thrust his darts into that most abominable heart.

Then, having taken him down and cast him into the nearby ravine, he ordered all the people to stone him, so that his punishment became his tomb.

Why in the world did the writer say earlier that he had three sons and one daughter,

yet now has stated the opposite, that he built a pillar for himself, as one who had no son, contriving through it a memorial for himself? Both statements are true:

for it is likely both that he did father children, and that those children died.

Josephus, however, said that he did this because children could not preserve his memory for long, whereas a monument would keep it more securely.

A proof of this is also the mourning that took place over Saul.

But here nature also produced greater grief.

Moreover, as a pious man, he lamented one who could no longer be healed through repentance.

For indeed, after death, the wound of sin is incurable.

Why in the world did he promise the generalship to Amasa, though Joab had endured many labors and dangers on his behalf? He had continued always to hate Joab's rashness.

Yet he tolerated him, both because of the goodwill he bore him, and because he was wary lest Joab should plot some rash act against him.

But having regarded Amasa —

for this man too happened to be his nephew —

whom, having been appointed general of the whole army by the tyrant, he wrote to, promising to hand over to him Joab's command.

When Joab learned of this, and received the barb of envy, and was stung by what had been reported, he brought slaughter upon him, feigning goodwill and friendship.

For this reason those of the other tribes said that they had ten shares in the king.

For the tribe of Benjamin was joined to Judah.

And they added that they also possess the seniority of the birthright, both because of Reuben, as the firstborn by nature, and because of Joseph, as one who obtained this portion through his virtue.

For the law also expressly forbade this.

But he did not give them to another, lest even this should become an occasion for tyranny;

and besides, such a union was not even marriage at all.

‘For while her husband lives, she is called an adulteress if she becomes another man's,’ as the divine Apostle says.

But even if the law also permitted a man who came to hate his wife to give her a bill of divorce,

yet here it was not hatred that separated them, but the son's unlawful union.

For this reason he moved them to another house, providing them with every care.

How is one to understand, ‘Has what the faithful of Israel established come to an end?’ Sheba, having usurped power, then fled and took refuge in the city of Abel;

and this is a city of Palestine, now called Abela.

When the commander, then, had drawn up the army for a siege, that most wise woman reminded him of the divine laws.

For the divine law commanded that one first make use of an embassy of peace, and only then array oneself against those who refuse it.

‘Has what the faithful of Israel established come to an end?’ — that is, one must not transgress what has been laid down by the laws.

‘But I am one of the peaceable, one of the pillars of Israel;’

‘yet you seek to put to death a city, even a mother-city of Israel.’

‘Since you,’ she says, ‘did not, according to the divine law, make use of an embassy —’

‘I inform you that the city has no warlike aim, but reaches out for peace.’

Having heard these words, the commander said that he desired neither war nor siege.

but that they should be willing only to seize the man who had used tyranny against the king.

Having learned, then, the cause of the siege, that most wise woman persuaded the leaders of the city not to expose the city to the peril of war, but to remember the king's piety and good government, and his valor in wars, and how through his labors they enjoyed firm peace.

Having used these words, she threw the head of the tyrant into the camp, and so dissolved the siege.

What is the meaning of "upon the brickwork," and "against the mighty men"? I think that what is called a plinthion is what by the pagan writers is named a plaision [a hollow square formation].

This is a kind of military formation having a square shape. Just as, then, the one now called among the Romans the "magister" has been entrusted with the command of the infantry about the king — I mean the shield-bearers and the spearmen —

so Benaiah commanded the king's bodyguard, while the rest of the army was under the general Joab.

And this man, being a priest, resided within the palace, attending upon the divine ark, and offering the royal sacrifices as priest.

Why, when Saul had slain the Gibeonites, was the people chastised after his death? The whole people had made the covenant with the Gibeonites;

and Eleazar the priest and Joshua the prophet also shared in the oaths.

It was necessary, then, that the descendants of those who had sworn should not violate the treaties that had been made, but should even persuade the king, when he transgressed the law, to keep the oath.

For this reason, even after his death, they endured the chastisement of famine.

just as indeed at that time also, when forty years had already passed, he bound fast the birth-pangs of the clouds;

and he wrapped the land in the affliction of barrenness;

and he punished its inhabitants with famine.

But the king, not knowing the cause of the God-sent plague, inquired of the righteous Judge.

Learning, then, that he was being called to account for the unjust slaying of the Gibeonites, he made the very ones who had been wronged his judges.

but they pride themselves greatly upon their forefathers, and are unwilling to perceive that virtue is far more illustrious than ancestral nobility;

and, according to the divine Apostle, the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, will judge the transgressor of the law who has the letter and circumcision.

So then, just as the Israelites who had sinned at that time needed the good favor of the Canaanites;

And in addition to this it must also be noted that Saul, acting out of zeal, slew the Gibeonites along with the other Canaanites.

For this the divine Scripture teaches:

"For the Gibeonites," it says, "were not of the sons of Israel, because they were of the remnant of the Amorites;"

"and the sons of Israel had sworn to them that they would not destroy them;"

...that the transgression might become an advantage;

The Gibeonites, however, asked for seven men of Saul's kindred, equal in number to the days by which time completes its cycle;

"For we have," they said, "neither silver nor gold with Saul and with his house;"

"nor is it ours to put any man in all Israel to death."

"The man who consumed us and persecuted us, and who devised to utterly destroy us — we will exterminate him, that he may not be established within any border of Israel."

"And let seven men of his sons be given to us, that we may make atonement for them to the Lord at the hill of Saul, as chosen ones to the Lord." The metropolis, then, of the Gibeonites was called Gibeon;

and this name, when translated into the Greek tongue, means "hill."

In that very place, then, they impaled the men who had been delivered to them, the place in which he had dared those unlawful slaughters.

For the word "exēliasan" ["exposed to the sun"], Aquila rendered as "anepēxan" ["they impaled"].

These were two illegitimate sons of Saul, and five of his grandsons.

And afterward the pious king deemed these also worthy of burial.

and by his eagerness he overcame the weakness of his body.

But having endured much toil in the combat (for he was the champion of the battle-line), he became exhausted, unable to bear the toil.

And though in danger of being slain by the champion of the Philistines, he was saved beyond expectation, Abishai having shielded him and slain that mightiest of enemies.

From this, then, one may learn that they called "giants" those who had larger bodies.

For this man too was a descendant of giants, as the historian has taught.

And the army, having learned of the king's peril, swore that they would no longer permit him to take part in combat.

For it was both just and expedient to yield to old age, and, remaining within, to direct the army.

And the historian also mentioned other giants, whom those of that time so named on account of their strength and bodily size, and not, as some have claimed, because they were impious, nor because they had lived a long time.

And it is in harmony with the seventeenth Psalm;

or rather it is the very same psalm, with a few changes of words.

And I, having already interpreted this one along with the other psalms, considered it superfluous to compose a second interpretation.

And it also contains a prophecy concerning Christ the Savior:

"For you delivered me," it says, "from the people; you appointed me as a light of the nations."

"A people whom I did not know served me;"

"And fair is the psalm of Israel:"

"The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me, and his word is upon my tongue."

"The God of Jacob said it was he who spoke in me." But if indeed the Spirit of the Lord spoke in him, and the God of Jacob was pleased to speak in him, then he is indeed a prophet, and a very great prophet;

since God made known to him the unclear and hidden things of his wisdom.

How much, however, that chastisement profited him, the narrative teaches.

For having learned by experience how many calamities desire brings about, he longed for cold water, and remembered that water in Bethlehem.

they were eager, though the king had not commanded it, to fetch the water.

And having passed through the midst of the enemy's army, they drew up the water, and swiftly returned, none of the Philistines having attempted to attack them.

For they feared the exceeding boldness of these men.

But the king, best in all things, would not consent to partake of that longed-for water;

but by pious reasoning he mastered his desire;

for he called it the blood of the men who had brought it;

since, having preferred the king's service to their own safety, they had recklessly broken through the enemy's battle-line, and were saved beyond all expectation.

Whence he poured it out as a libation to God who had saved them;

to such a height of wisdom did that chastisement bring him.

How is it to be understood: "This one was renowned among the three, glorious above the two, and was a commander to them, yet he did not attain to the three"? He praised both the strength and the courage of the three.

And he said that Abishai was greater than the other two, but inferior to the first.

For that one slew nine hundred men in battle array, but this one six hundred.

And he was first of the three, not in deed, but in rank.

One must also know this, that Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a nephew of the king;

for Scripture called him a descendant of Jesse, being the son of Jehoiada, who was son of Jesse.

And having often spoken of this man's valor, he added that "he was more glorious than the three, but did not attain to the three." For though he fell short of the strength of the three, he was glorious, in that he had been entrusted with the guard of the king;

For he abandoned the pious king and took the field alongside the impious tyrant, the father-slaying son, who thirsted for the blood of a father who was pious and a prophet, and who had received the appointment to the kingship from the God of all.

yet him who had become the source of countless blessings to them, who had broken the boldness of the foreign nations, who had delivered Amalek to utter destruction, who had subdued and enslaved the Idumeans, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and both peoples of Syria, and compelled them to pay tribute, and who had enjoyed the grace of prophecy—not only to abandon him, but even to array himself against him, to do the work of enemies, and to conspire with a bloodstained, impious, and lawless son.