LIBER PARALIPOMENON I

• 629D

VERS. 4.-- Noe. (RAB. in Paral., tom. III.) That Noe is the tenth 630Dfrom Adam is shown both in Genesis and in Paralipomenon, and fittingly the tenth, because he is perfect. Whence, 631ANoe was a just man and perfect in his generations, etc. (Gen. VI.) He begot Sem, Cham and Japheth, through whom after the flood the offspring of men is spread abroad anew.

VERS. 5.-- The sons of Japheth. (HIER.) These possessed the land in Asia, from Amanus and Taurus, the mountains of Syria Cheles and of Cilicia, as far as the river Thanais. In Europe, as far as Gadara, leaving names to places and to peoples, of which very many were afterwards changed, while the rest remain.

Thubal. (RAB.) The Iberians, who are also the Spaniards, from whom Celtiberia, though some suspect the Italians.

Mosoch. (ID.) The Cappadocians, whence their city is called Masacha to this day. But the Seventy translators judge the Gapthorim to be Cappadocians.

631BVERS. 7.-- But the sons. (GREG.) From these were divided the islands of the nations, the tongues, the kindreds and the peoples. From the Ionians, that is the Greeks, are born the Elisaeans, who are also the Aeolians. Whence that tongue is called in Greek Aeolic.

Tharsis. (RAB.) Josephus judges these to be the Cilicians, whence their metropolis also is called Tharsis, glorious by Paul the apostle (Act. XXII).

Cethim. (ID.) From whom the Cithaeans, otherwise the Cithians, from whom a city of Cyprus is called Cithia, otherwise Cithium, to this day.

Dodanim. (ID.) The Rhodians, for so the LXX translated. Let us read the books of Varro on antiquities, and those of Sinnius Capito, and the Greek Phlegon and the rest, and we shall see that almost all the islands 631Cand the shores of the whole world, and the maritime lands, are occupied by Greek settlers: who from Amanus and Taurus possess all the seaboard as far as the British ocean.

VERS. 8.-- Phut. (ID.) The Libyans, from whom also a river of Mauretania is called Phut, and the region Phutensis. Now many writers, Greek as well as Latin, are witnesses of this thing. But why in one part of the clime the ancient name of Libya remains, and the rest of the land is called Africa, it is not for this time to discuss.

VERS. 9.-- Saba. (ID.) From whom the Sabaeans, it is now interpreted Saba Arabia, whence in Psalm LXXI, where we have: Kings of the Arabians and of Saba; in the Hebrew it stands: Kings of Saba and Saba, the first through Schin, the second through Samech.

631DVERS. 10.-- He began to be mighty in the earth. Because he was the first to seize an unwonted tyranny. He was a strong hunter before the Lord, because he turned men away from the worship of God. Whence Josephus: But he made them lifted up unto the injury and contempt of God. Nemrod, the son of Cham, the son of Noe, who, since he was over-bold and most strong of hand, urged men to ascribe their happiness not to God, but to their own strength. Thus he called men back from the fear of God, that he might set his hope in his own strength. And therefore they thought that God was threatening a flood. Whence they urged that a tower be built which the water could not climb. But the multitude was ready to obey Nemrod, accounting it a heavy servitude to obey 632AGod. Now Nemrod reigned in Babylon and in Areth. This is Edessa and Macha which is Nisibis and in Chalamne, which was called Seleucia from king Seleucus, or which is now called Thesiphon.

VERS. 11.-- And Mesraim begot. (RAB.) Excepting the Laabim, from whom the Libyans were named, who before were the Phutaeans, and the Castium, who afterwards were called Philisthiim, whom we corruptly call Palestinians. The other nations are unknown to us, because, overthrown in the Ethiopic war, they passed into forgetfulness of their former names. And they possessed the land from Gaza as far as the furthest borders of Egypt.

VERS. 14.-- The Gergezaean, the Hevaean. He founded the town Archas over against Tripolis at the roots of Libanus, not far from which was another city by the name of 632BSim, which, overthrown by the varying issue of wars, kept for the place only its former name.

VERS. 16.-- The Aradian also. From whom the Aradians, who possessed the island Aradus, parted by a narrow strait from the Phoenician shore.

And the Samarean. From whom the city Samaria of Syria Cheles, which now also is called, both by the Syrians and by the Hebrews, as it was before among the ancients.

The Hamathaean. (RAB.) From whom the city Emath. The Macedonians, who after Alexander reigned in the East, named it Epiphania. Others think that Antioch was so called. Others, not truly consulting their own opinion with a plausible word, think that Emaus, the first stage from Antioch for those journeying to Edessa, is so called, and that the same was Emath among the ancients.

632CVERS. 17.-- The sons of Sem, etc. These hold the parts of Asia from the Euphrates as far as the Indian ocean. And there is Aelam, from whom the princes of Persia.

Hus and Hul. Or Us, the founder of Trachonitis and of Damascus, held the chief place between Palestine and Coelesyria, from whom the land of Hus, of which Job was; whence, according to the LXX, there was a man in the region of Ausitis by the name of Job, as it were of Husitis.

VERS. 19.-- Phaley. [Vulg. 1 Par. 1:19 Phaleg] (RAB.) By a certain prophecy. For Phaleg is division, because in his days the tongues were divided in Babylon. And Philo relates, in the book of Questions upon Genesis, that from the three sons of Noe, while he himself was yet living, there were born thirteen thousand men and a hundred, besides women and little ones, having leaders over them. The sons of Sem, Jectan as leader; the sons of 632DCham, Nemroth; the sons of Japhet, Suphene. But after the death of Noe the leaders came together with their companies into the plain of Sennaar, that they might there build a tower. And while they were building, God divided their tongues, and changed their features, and no man knew his brother, nor heard the tongue of his neighbour. But when the masters sought stones, the servants brought water, and when those sought water, these brought straw. And so, their design frustrated, they ceased to build and were scattered over the face of the earth.

VERS. 20.-- And Jectan. (HIERON.) The later names of these nations I have not been able to find, but down to the present, because they are far from us, either they are called as at the first, or those that have been changed are unknown; 633Aand they possessed, from the river Cofene, all that region of India which is called Hieria.

VERS. 24.-- Sem, Ar. (RAB.) As in the beginning he set ten generations from Adam as far as Noe; so from Sem as far as Abram, not without the mystery of a sacrament.

VERS. 29.-- The firstborn. (HIERON., Quaest. in Paral., tom. III.) Twelve sons are born to Ismael: the firstborn Nabaioth, from whom the whole region from the Euphrates as far as the Red Sea is called Nabaiothena: which is a part of Arabia. For their families and towns and villages, and their small forts and tribes, are celebrated by the name of these, from one of them, Cedar in the desert: and Duma another region, and Thebaram toward the South, and Cedema toward the Eastern quarter.

633BVERS. 32.-- Of Cetura. (RAB.) As it were, the joined one, whence the Hebrews suspect her to be Agar, who, when Sara was dead, passed over from a concubine into a wife, lest the old man should be charged with having wantoned in a new marriage.

(ID.) And the sons of Caetura, according to the historians of the Hebrews, occupied Troconitis, others Traconitis, and Arabia: which is now called Eidormo, as far as the borders of the Red Sea.

Assurim. Some contend that the Syrians were named from Assurim, and that the regions of India were occupied by very many of the sons of Abraham by Cetura.

VERS. 33.-- Epher. (RAB.) He is said to have led an army against Libya, and to have settled there as victor, and that his posterity named Africa from his name.

VERS. 36.-- Thamna. It is asked: since Thamna is read in 633CGenesis to be the concubine of Eliphaz, of the race of the Horrhaeans, who dwelt among the Idumaeans in the land of Seir, and bore him Amalec, how is she numbered among the sons, when in what follows the same Thamna is read to be the sister of Lotam the son of Seir, who is also Edom? But Seir in Hebrew is called hairy, who was shaggy after the manner of a hide. And Edom in Hebrew is red or tawny. From this, therefore, that he sold his birthright for red food, he was called Edom. But the Hebrews resolve it thus. They say that Thamna was the concubine of Eliphaz, and bore him Amalec, but that she was brought up by him as a daughter among his sons.

VERS. 40.-- Aliam, [Vulg. 1 Par. 1:40 Alian] who is of the race of the Horrhaeans. In Genesis is written Aluham, that is, exalted. But in Paralipomenon Alian, that is, cast out, signifying 633Dthat the Horrhaeans were exalted before Edom took their land, but afterwards cast out.

Sephi. (HIERON.) That is, one-footed. In Genesis Sepho, that is, two-footed; yet both through the letter schin. And he is called two-footed because with the process of time, through the multitude of his offspring, he had greater efficacy than at the first.

VERS. 41.-- Hamran. [Vulg. 1 Par. 1:41 Hamram] In Paralipomenon Hamram, that is, reddened, foul or swollen. In Genesis Amdan, that is, desirable; but both are names of one man.

VERS. 42.-- Jacan. (RAB.) Jacan the son of Aser, of the race of the Horraeans, is named in Genesis Acan, that is, the troubler. In Paralipomenon Jacan, that is, the troubled. 634AFor names are changed by varying events, that varied mysteries may be signified.

VERS. 43.-- Denaba. The city of Hala the son of Beor, king of Edom, after whom Jobab reigned. Yet there is to this day a village Denaba, at the eighth milestone from Areopolis, for those journeying to Armon, and another Denaba above mount Phegor, at the seventh stone from Jebus. Jerome, on Jesbii.

VERS. 44.-- Jobab the son of Zarae, whom they suspect to be Job. But the Hebrews assert that he was begotten of the stock of Nachor; while Philo, in the book of Questions upon Genesis, relates that he lived in these times and took to wife Dina, the daughter of Jacob: and he says that before the contest of his temptation she bore him seven sons and three daughters, who were destroyed 634Bin the temptation. But when he was healed the Lord restored to him all things double, and again the wife bore seven sons and the aforesaid three daughters, whose names were the same as those of the former, that is, Eliphaz, Armoe, Diasath, Philasia, Dipharceluth, Thelon, and of the daughters Meru, Lizath, Zeli.

Bosra, etc. Which is Bosor, a city in the desert beyond the Jordan in the tribe of Ruben. Another city of Esau in the mountains of Idumea is also called Bosor, of which it is said: His garments are tawny from Rosor

VERS. 45.-- Of the Themanites. Theman, a region that drew its name from Theman the son of Eliphaz. There is to this day a village Theman, distant five miles from the city Petra, and where a garrison of Roman soldiers has its seat, from which place was Eliphaz king of the Themanites: one 634Cof the sons of Ismael also was called Theman. And it is to be known that every southern region is called Theman in Hebrew.

VERS. 46.-- Madian, a city so called from the least of the sons of Abraham and of Cetura. And it is beyond Arabia in the desert of the Saracens, over against the east of the Red Sea, whence they are called Madianites, and the region Madianaean. The daughters of the father-in-law of Moses are also called daughters of Madian; but this is another city, of the same name with it, near Armon and Areopolis, whose ruins are still shown.

VERS. 48.-- Rohoboth. It is a city beside the river where the king of Edom was, and to this day there is a garrison in the region of Gabalena, and a great village which is so called.

634DVERS. 50.-- Of Matred the daughter, etc. Two mothers are here numbered, to signify a mystery, that the goldsmith should have begotten the stewardess, and the stewardess the loving-kindness of the Lord, because out of depth of understanding is born eloquent speech, which deserves to beget a clean faith, the grace of God, in the hearts of hearers.

VERS. 51.-- Dukes, etc. It is to be noted that he first spoke of kings in Edom, afterwards of dukes, though they were before: of whom he names certain mothers, as Oolibama and Thamna.

Duke Aliha. [Vulg. 1 Par. 1:51 dux Alva] Alva is read in Genesis, whose interpretation is a lifting up; in Paralipomenon Aliha, that is, upon her.

• 635A

Achar who troubled Israel. (HIERON., Quaest. in Paral., tom. III.) Achar, who is also called Achan in Josue, that is, a lurking serpent, Achar, troubled, etc., as far as that is, they were destroyed by the multitude of their sins.

VERS. 9.-- Calubi, that is, my dog, who is also Caleb, that is, dog, one of the spies. Hesron also and Jephone are the same, whence Caleb is read as the son of Hesron, and sometimes as the son of Jephone.

VERS. 13.-- And Isai begot. In the book of Kings Isai is said to have eight sons, in Paralipomenon not more than seven. But the Hebrews say that Nathan the prophet was the son of Sama (or Sammaa, or Simmaa) the son of Isai, whom he brought up in the place of a son and nourished, numbered among his sons. Among the sons of Isai also Nathan 635Bwas brought to Samuel, who is also Jonatham, who slew the lion. And it is to be known that where he is called a prophet, Nathan is written, not Jonathan

VERS. 17.-- Jether. In Kings, Jethra the Israelite; but the quality of merits makes the diversity of the names; for Jethra is interpreted a remnant, but Jether a small remnant, and the remnant is joined with the Israelites, the small remnant with the Ismaelites.

VERS. 19.-- Ephrata. (HIERON.) This is Maria the sister of Moses, the mother of Hur, the father of Huri, the grandfather of Beseleel. And Hur is he who with Aaron held up the hands of Moses while Josue fought.

VERS. 22.-- Jair. He was judge after Thola and judged Israel two and twenty years, having thirty sons, princes of thirty cities, which from him 635Cwere named, as is read in the book of Judges.

VERS. 25.-- They were born. Thus far the writer of the history has woven the generation of the two sons of Hesron, of the two later ones, that is, of Aram and Calubi, of whom he narrated before; because he wished in some manner to make known the royal and the priestly dignity. But now he returns to the genealogy of the firstborn, that is, of Jerameel.

VERS. 26.-- Onam. He took his name from Onam the son of Juda, but they differ, because the son of Juda is written through Num, the son of Jerameel through Mem

VERS. 34.-- Sesan. The Hebrews say that he is Elimelech, the husband of Noemi, the father of Mahalom and Cheliom, and therefore the writer in what follows intimates that Sesan had not sons, but daughters, because his two sons 635Ddied without children.

VERS. 43.-- Hebron. A city in which David reigned seven years before he reigned in Jerusalem. It signifies that these places took their names from the posterity of Caleb, who received Hebron and its suburbs for his lot.

VERS. 50.-- These were the sons. He recapitulates the generation of Caleb by Ephrata, which he left aside before, when he related that Hur was begotten of Ephrata, that is, of Maria the sister of Moses.

VERS. 52.-- Cariathiarim, which is also Cariathabal, that is, the city of woods, one of the cities of the Gabaonites, at the ninth milestone for those going from Helia to Diospolis, in the tribe of Juda.

636AVERS. 54.-- Bethlehem; the city of David, in the tribe of Juda, in which the Lord was born, at the seventh milestone from Elia toward the southern quarter, beside the way that leads to Hebron, where the sepulchre of Jesse and of David is shown, and about a thousand paces off the tower of Ader, that is, the tower of the flock, in a certain prophecy signifying beforehand the shepherds made privy to the Lord's nativity.

Who divided the half of the resting places [Vulg. 1 Par. 2:52 videbat, "who saw"] (HIERON., ubi supra ), that is, he received the lots of Madian beside the sepulchres of the patriarchs which are in Cariatharbe, and his sons were the Jethrites, etc. The Seraites and the Esthaolites drew their names from places, which are Sarrai and Esthaol, where Samson is buried. For a resting place is called a sepulchre. Others understand the half of the resting place to be the half of the time 636Bin which the children of Israel began to possess the land of promise, namely from that time in which Moses gave the land of Galaad beyond the Jordan to Ruben and Gad and to the half tribe of Manasse, until the rest of the tribes received their lots. In the middle of this time they say that Sobal died, and thus saw the half of the resting places, that is, came to the middle of that time.

But mystically Sobal, that is, vain oldness, or a bar for carrying. He signifies the Jews, who of old were called the people of God and first received the law of the letter, who bore the books of the law and of the prophets, but did not understand the mystery of the incarnation of Christ. Whence they saw the half of the resting places, that is, the history. But he possesses the fulness of the resting places, 636Cwho after good works rejoices greatly in eternal rest. Or he sees the half of rest, who after the labour of the present life has rest of soul. But then he shall see the perfection of the resting places, when both in soul and in body he shall fully enjoy the perfection of rest

VERS. 55.-- Of them that dwelt. (ID.) The Hebrews hand down that Jabes was a most skilled teacher of the law, in whose sight sat the sons of Cineus, who are also Jobab, the kinsmen of Moses. The scribes therefore are called singing and resounding, because they were assiduously engaged in the speaking of the law of God: and the history of the kings relates that they dwelt also in tents. Jabes signifies Christ, the true master of the saints who sing praises to God. For Jabes is interpreted drying up, and Christ has dried up the flow of carnal desires in his faithful. 636DThe Cinaeans, that is, possession or possessors, are all the elect of whom it is said: My inheritance is Israel, and whose possession is the Lord. Rechab is interpreted charioteer or ascending. And these came of the heat of the father of the house of Rechab, because, kindled by the Father of lights with the grace of the Spirit, they ascend into the heavens by the chariot of the virtues, of whom it is said: Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. VIII).

VERS. 1.-- But David. He returns to unfold the progeny of David, which he left aside before, when, enumerating the offspring of Amram the son of Hesron, he came to Isai and to his sons, of whom David was the last.

637AThe Jezraelitess. (RAB.) Jezrael is a city in which Naboth dwelt, whom Jezabel slew.

Daniel. (ID.) Daniel, who in the book of Kings is Cheleab, that is, avenging his father, because according to the Hebrews, disputing with Miphiboseth about questions of the law, he appeared the victor and was seen to avenge his father in him, lest a warlike man should be mocked in disputing by a weak man.

VERS. 3.-- Of Egla his wife. (HIERON.) It is asked why this Egla alone is called the wife of David; but this is Michol, who among many is alone called wife, because he took her first to wife in his youth, who is said to have died in childbirth. But Egla is interpreted a heifer, which signifies the Synagogue, which took up the yoke of the law, but by wantoning corrupted it, whence, Ephraim is a heifer taught to love treading out the corn. Her our 637BDavid received, when he joined her to himself in the testament that was given. She died in childbirth, because when the Word of God appeared in the flesh and preached the Gospel, whereas by faith she ought to have begotten an offspring of good works, being scandalized at his passion she drew upon herself eternal death

VERS. 4.-- In Hebron where he reigned, etc. What is to be taken by the reign of David in Hebron or in Jerusalem, we touched upon in expounding the book of Kings. It is written in what follows: All the time in which David reigned, forty years; he reigned in Hebron seven years, in Jerusalem three and thirty, whence it is asked why in the sum forty years and six months are not numbered; but the Hebrews say that 637CDavid fled from Absalon his son for six months, and that these were deservedly shut out from the total of his reign. They say also that for six months in Hebron he laboured under an infirmity of body, and that therefore they are not rightly reckoned in the reign. For they say that he reigned in Hebron from that time when, the Amalecites being conquered, he sent of their spoils to the elders of Juda, namely to those who were at Hebron and to others.

VERS 9.-- All these the sons of David, etc. Because all the sons of Christ look for the eternal palm, but the sons of the concubines are excepted, who by name did not deserve to be numbered among the rest. For Jews, heretics or schismatics cannot have fellowship of this society: for the glory of the heavenly kingdom looks for sons of David of a noble marriage only. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman (Gen. XXI).

637DVERS. 15.-- And the sons of Josias. (RAB.) Four sons of Josias are read here, etc., as far as who likewise was carried over to the Chaldeans.

VERS. 17.-- Asir, Salathiel, Melchiram, Phadaia, Senneser, etc. But these are the names of one man, as the Hebrews will have it, he is Phadaia the father of Zorobabel and of Semei. Whence in Esdras and in Matthew Zorobabel is written Salathiel. And Phadaia is interpreted redeemed of the Lord, Asir imprisoned, Salathiel the shrub of the Lord; all which agree with the holy teachers, by whose office the people of the Church is begotten, who, chastised by divers afflictions and redeemed through the grace of the Lord, bring forth the buds of the virtues both in themselves and in their subjects.

638AVERS. 18.-- Senneser. He is Selbasar, to whom Cyrus counted out the vessels of the house of the Lord, as is said in Esdras. Now Senneser is one formed, Sesbasar one afflicted, which things befit the keepers of the vessels of God, that is, of the holy souls to whom Christ, whom Cyrus signified in his name and in the release, to whom it is said: Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance (Psal. II), and who loosed the captivity of the human race, counted out the holy souls to be kept, which are the numbered vessels of the Lord, because the Lord knoweth who are his (II Tim. II).

VERS. 1.-- The sons of Juda. How Phares and Hesron and the three that follow are said to be the sons of Juda, when 638Belsewhere we read Phares and Zaram to be the sons of Juda, and Hesron the son of Phares; but the Hebrews assert that, the names being changed, the same sons of Juda, whom Scripture elsewhere names by other names, are here set down. For they say that Phares, who is interpreted division, has here his own proper name. But that Hesron is Zaram, though Hesron is interpreted a court, Zaram a rising. That Charmi also is Heber, for Charmi is interpreted my vineyard, Her watching. And Ur they say to be Onam, though Ur is interpreted the left hand, Onam a murmuring, and Sobal to be Sela, the least of the sons of Juda whom Sue bore to him. And Sobal is interpreted an ear of corn, or vain oldness. Sela sent, or his shadow.

VERS. 3.-- Asalelphuni. (RAB.) They suspect her 638Cto be the mother of Samson, begotten of the stock of Juda, whose husband was Manue of the tribe of Dan, who is also read in the book of Judges to be of Sara.

VERS. 4.-- Gedor and Ezer. (ID.) They are places possessed by the sons of Ur; but it is a wonder that Ur is here called the father of Bethlehem, when above Salma was called his father, unless perhaps he here calls a forefather a father, because Hur was the father of Salma who was the father of Bethlehem.

VERS. 9.-- And Jabes was. (ID.) The order seems confused, because, the sons of Halaa and Naara being numbered, he suddenly brings in the kindred of Arahel the son of Aram, and thereupon narrates of Jabes; but the Hebrews say that Assur of Halaa begot Etam, and he Cos. And Cos begot Soboba, and Soboba Jabes, who was a teacher of the scribes. Between Cos and Jabes are inserted the kindreds 638Dof Aharehel (or Aharahel, otherwise Aral), because he is Obab the son of Aran, that is, of Jetro the kinsman of Moses. And because Jabes taught them; they are inserted in his progeny as though begotten of his forefathers.

And the mother, the Synagogue of whom Christ was born, who bore him in sorrow, because she grieved at his coming through unbelief, whence the Jews, envying, said: If we let him alone so, all will believe in him (Joan. XI).

VERS. 10.-- He called upon. This befits Christ, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world; of whom it is said: Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, [Vulg. Jo. 1:29 peccatum mundi, singular] etc. (Joan. I). Him God blessed with a multiplication of sons, whom through the water of baptism the most holy 639AChurch brings forth (I Cor. I). He enlarged his borders, because he gave him the inheritance of all nations, and extended his possession unto the ends of the earth. With whom was the hand of the Lord, because the power of the Godhead wrought mighty works and miracles through him. He also is the power of God and wisdom, through whom the Father founded all things that are in the heavens and on earth, whom the malice of the Jews could not hurt, who said of himself: The prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything. Through him also his members are blessed, that is, the Church, to whom it is said by Isaias: Enlarge the place of thy tent, etc. (Isa. LIV). With him is the hand of the Lord, because in her the Son of God works, who is the arm and the right hand of the Father. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against him, [Vulg. Mt. 16:18 adversus eam, "against her," of the Church] nor shall the devil have dominion over him, because power 639Bis given to him over all the strength of the enemy

VERS. 11.-- And Caleb the brother. (RAB.) We read above that Caleb was the son of Hesron, whose brothers were Ram and Jerameel. The Hebrews say therefore that Ram, the brother of Caleb, is here called Sua. And Ram is interpreted lofty, Sua lowly, which befits the Jewish people, because it was lofty in the worship of the one God and in the power of the kingdom; but because it would not receive the Son of God, it was made lowly and vile, so that the first become the last.

VERS. 12.--(ID.) Recha. Some think that David is called by the name of Recha. For Recha is tender. Whence David says of himself: I am tender and an anointed king (II Reg. III). [Vulg. 2 Rg. 3:39 Ego autem adhuc delicatus, et unctus rex] He also is said to be as it were a tender 639Clittle worm of the wood. And therefore they are called the men of Recha, because they were noted here for the sake of setting forth the genealogy of David.

VERS. 13.-- And Saraia begot. Of Saraia it is said that Joab came forth, who according to the interpretation of the name is called the father of the valley of craftsmen, because of his sons were the architects who built the house of the Lord. And the craftsmen who dwell in the valley may be called teachers of the law, whom knowledge doth not puff up, but charity edifieth (I Cor. VIII), [Vulg. 1 Cor. 8:1 Scientia inflat, caritas vero aedificat, with no negative] whom modesty and humility exalt, as Gamaliel and Paul his disciple (Act. V, XXII).

VERS. 17.-- Ezra. (RAB-HIERON.). The Hebrews say that Ezra, who is interpreted a helper, is Amram the father of Moses and Aaron; that Jether, that is, help, 639Dis Aaron; and that Mered, who rebels, is Moses. And that Epher or Opher, that is, dust, was Heldad. And Jalon and Meldath, who were two of the seventy elders whom Moses received from God for the help of ruling the people: for they hand down that Moses, after the law was received, persuaded his father in the wilderness to put away his mother, because she was his own friend, for she was the daughter of Levi, after which Amram took another, of whom he had Heldath and Meldath.

And he begot Maria. (ID.) They would have Sammai to be understood as Moses, etc., as far as because he governed the people in the wilderness, and by his doctrine governs them daily.

VERS. 18.-- Of the daughter of Pharao. (ID.) He calls the mother of Moses the daughter of Pharao, who also according to the propriety 640Aof the name is called the daughter of the Lord, because, namely, she had a good will in the nourishing of the boy, and she is said to have been received by Amared, that is, by Moses, because, her idols being left, she was converted to the worship of God.

VERS. 21.-- Her the father. (ID.) He returns to the progeny of Phares of which David sprang, that he might end the progeny of Juda, of which the royal tribe arose in David. For they hand down that he was Elimelech the husband of Noemi, in whose time, because of the transgressors of the law, the sun stood still, that on seeing the miracle they might be converted to the Lord; and because they despised this, the famine grew strong, and he who seemed the first in the tribe of Juda, driven by want, was cast out of his country with his wife and his sons, and died in his sojourning together with his sons.

VERS. 22.-- Secure and Burning. (ID.) That Mahalon 640Band Chelion, who are here called Secure and Burning, were in Moab, because they took Moabite wives, whence in the Hebrew they are called not princes, but husbands, as the teachers of that tongue hand down.

Who returned into, etc. Noemi and Ruth, who returned into Bethlehem when the plenty of bread was heard of.

VERS. 23.-- Potters dwelling. By the potters who labour in plantations and hedges we understand teachers, who form and compose the vessels of the Lord, for to fashion we call to compose, whence we call the composers of clay potters. These plant and dress the vineyard of the Lord with doctrine, and by exhorting and praying they fortify it. These abide with the king in their works, because, remaining in the faith of Christ, whatsoever they say, whatsoever they do, they do to the glory of God.

640CVERS. 28.-- They dwelt in, etc. The progeny of Ruth, which is said to have dwelt in those very hedges and plantations, when this plantation came to the royal dignity and to the defence of the people.

And they abode there. In Genesis six are written, but here Sober is passed over: because there is no progeny from him. But certain names are changed for their own reasons. For in Genesis Gemuel, that is, the mother of God; here Hamuel, that is, reading with God. A certain one is called in Genesis Echa, but here Jarib, that is, contending, because from him came forth Zambri, who, fornicating with a Madianite woman, was slain by Phinees the priest. Jacim in Genesis, that is, preparation; but here he is named Zara, that is, a rising.

And all the kindred not, etc. Because Simeon had not 640Dso great an offspring as Juda; whence in Josue it is said: Simeon by his kindreds received an inheritance in the midst of the children of Juda.

These cities, etc. Because Sicelech and Bersabee, which belonged to Juda and were seized by Simeon, returned by David into the former inheritance of Juda.

VERS. 38.-- These are they that were named. The stock of Simeon and their acts being described, it is mystically signified that the holy teachers, that is, the princes of the Church, providing pastures for the flocks of Christ, set out into Gador or Gader, which is interpreted his hedge. This is the Church, which is the defence of the faithful: there are pastures as far as the East of the valley, that is, the incarnation of the Word, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant 641A(Philip. I.) In him are found pastures. For he himself says: By me if any man enter in, he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures (Joan. X), [Vulg. Jo. 10:9 salvabitur, "he shall be saved," which Migne's text does not print] namely the virtues. In him a land most wide and quiet, that is, the copious grace of the Holy Spirit; in which they of the stock of Cham had dwelt before, which signifies that the multitude of the nations left their idols and flowed together to the worship of the one God. These therefore came, whom we described above by name, in the days of Ezechias king of Juda, that is, at the coming of Christ. For Christ himself is the power of God, whom Ezechias, namely the strength of the Lord, signifies.

They smote the tents: he smites by faith the tents of the wicked and the dwellers among the wicked, when, denying all impiety and worldly desires, he is washed by the baptism of Christ from the filth of sins, 641Bafterwards studying to live soberly, justly and piously in this world, that what is written may come to pass: And it shall be in the place where it was before said: You are not my people: there they shall be called the sons of God (Osee. I).

VERS. 42.-- Five hundred men. The Fathers of the New Testament, who went into mount Seir and smote the remnants of the Amalecites, because, trampling down the pride of this world, they press down the deformity of the vices; these are said to be four, because, truly instructed in the evangelical doctrine, they fitly wage spiritual war against the demons; and, the remnants of the Amalecites being smitten, they dwelt there, because, the demons being driven out, they set virtues in the place of the vices, the possession of which makes a man blessed unto this day, which can always be said unto the end of the world, because the Church 641Cremains unto the end of the world, in which daily the ancient enemy is triumphed over.

VERS. 1.-- But when he violated, etc. (RAB.) Therefore the birthright was taken away from Ruben, because he slept with Bala, the concubine of his father, and it was given to Joseph the younger son, whose progeny is multiplied and exceeds the power of the kingdom among the ten tribes.

But mystically it signifies the ruin of the former people, who as the firstborn ought to have received the priesthood and the kingdom; but because it defiled the bed of its father, that is, the body of Christ, in which was the fulness of the Godhead, it hanged him upon the cross and slew him: the dignity of the firstborn was carried over to the spiritual Joseph, that is, to Christ and to the Church's 641Dpeople; to whom the Father: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech, etc. (Psal. CIX.)

VERS. 10.-- Against the Agarenes. (HIERON. in Paral. ) It is likely that Agar was Cetura, since in what follows he says that the Rubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasse fought with the Agarenes, and that the Ituraeans, the Naphaeans and Nodab, the sons of Ismael, furnished help to Israel. And Nodab is, as it seems, he who in Genesis is called Cedma, that is, of the ancients, or going before.

VERS. 26.-- And he stirred up. It is to be noted that in Kings it is said that Phul king of the Assyrians received from Manahem the son of Gaddi, king of Israel, a thousand talents of silver 642A(IV Reg. XV), that he might be a help to him and might establish his kingdom, not that he carried him over to the Assyrians, but that Teglathphalnasar king of Assur, in the days of Phacee king of Israel, took Ahion, and Abel the house of Maacha, and Ianoe and Cedes and Asor and Galaad and Galilee and all the land of Nephthali, and carried them over to the Assyrians. Lastly he relates that Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, besieging Osee the son of Ela, king of Israel, took Samaria in three years, and carried Israel over to the Assyrians and placed them in Ahila and in Abor, beside the river Gozam, in the cities of the Medes. Whence it is asked: how are we to say in Paralipomenon that Phul and Theglathphalnasar, kings of the Assyrians, carried over Ruben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasse into Ahilam and Abor and Aram and the river Gozan; when Malachim 642Brelates that Salmanasar did this, who carried Israel over to the Assyrians and placed them in the aforesaid places? But the former kings of the Assyrians are said to have done this, because they began with the nation of the Assyrians what the same nation completed in their descendants. Aram, which Paralipomenon mentions, Malachim passes over. The Hebrews affirm it to be Rages, a city of the Medes.

VERS. 6.-- The sons of Levi, Gerson, etc. Johanan. The other sons of Levi being passed over, who likewise were priests in the house of the Lord, Johanan is specially praised, because he manfully withstood king Ozias when he wished to sacrifice by himself: and by constancy of mind and by zeal for the law he fulfilled the office of a priest.

642CVERS. 15.-- And Josedec. (HIERON. Quaest. Hebr. in Paral. ) They say that Josedec is Esdras the priest, etc., as far as but that Esdras is a priest, a just and glorious man.

VERS. 28.-- Abia. He, as the Hebrews hand down, being appointed judge, took gifts, which Joel, who is also Vas seni, his elder son, knowing, did not correct: therefore each of them is said to have sinned, according to the Hebrew. Whence: It came to pass when Samuel was grown old, he made his sons judges over Israel, and so forth.

VERS. 31.-- These are they whom he appointed, by anticipation he touched beforehand upon the offices of the singers of David, who sang praises to the Lord with musical instruments, while he was narrating their genealogy; but in its own place he will show how they did it.

642DVERS. 44.-- Ethan the son. Ethan, one of the three singers, who before David sounded out the praise of God upon cymbals. And it is to be noted that, as there were three sons of Levi, Caath, Gerson and Merari, so there were three singers: Eman of Caath, Asaph of Gerson; Ethan of Merari. But mystically they signify the holy teachers, who, imbued with the faith of the holy Trinity, according to the dispensation of the true David announce the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world.

VERS. 48.-- The Levites who. Because the whole ecclesiastical order, according to the tradition of the apostles, and they who hold the primacy, carry on the whole ministry in the Church of God; whence: That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself 643Ain the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, etc. (I Tim. III).

VERS. 49.-- Aaron. He signifies Christ, and his sons the people of the Church, to whom it is said: You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, etc. (I Petr. II), whom the high priest taught to offer upon the altar of faith the holocaust of good works and the incense of prayer; and that he should pray for Israel, that is, for the state of the Church, according to the precepts of the law given by Moses. And he repeats the genealogy of Aaron as far as Achimaas, which seems to have been done for his praise, because he was more faithful to David in all things.

VERS. 8.-- All these, the sons of Bechor. Wherever in 643Bthe law it is written: All these the sons of this man or of that, it is either for the excellence of their merits, or for the worsening of their merits, so that they are said to be the sons of him whose imitators they were.

VERS. 14.-- And his concubine. She is said to have been the daughter of the son of Balam, who, famine compelling, was led for sale into Egypt by her father; by Manasse, who was set over the granaries, provisions having been given to her father, she was mercifully taken into marriage.

VERS. 15.-- Happhim, etc., these two names are said to be of the first son of Machir, but the second to be Salphaad, and their sister Maachan, whom Hesron took to wife when he was sixty years old, who bore him a son Segub, as was said above.

VERS. 18.-- But his sister Reginae. The sister 643Cof Ulam the son of Phares, the son of Machir, as was said before; some hand down that she was the mother of Jesus the son of Nave, who is called a comely man, for the mark of his virtue and of his princedom. Others say Debora the wife of Lapidoth, the prophetess.

VERS. 20.-- And the sons of Ephraim. The Hebrews tell as a fable that the sons of Ephraim, a multitude being gathered while their father yet lived, attempted to return to the land of promise, and were slain in Geth of the Philistines, whence the other tribes are led through the desert, lest they should see the bones of their brethren, and in the psalm it is said: The sons of Ephrem were turned back in the day of battle (Psal. LXXVII).

643DVERS. 6.-- Who were carried over into Manahath. When for the crime against the wife of the Levite they fell by the sword and only six hundred remained.

VERS. 7.-- And Naaman and Achia: they were princes, but subjected themselves to Gera. Whence it is said in the singular: He carried them over, from whom came forth the progeny of Gera who was the father of Semei.

VERS. 2.-- Nathinaei. (HIERON., Quaest. in Paral., tom. III.) A gift, or those serving in humility. These are the Gabaonites whom Josue granted their lives, and appointed to the service of the temple, that they might carry water and wood (Josue IX).

VERS. 11.-- Of Helcias the son of Mosoliam, etc. [Vulg. 1 Par 9:11 filii Mosollam] This was 644Athe great priest who found Deuteronomy in the temple of the Lord in the time of Josias, and he is said to have been the father of Jeremias the prophet.

VERS. 16.-- Idithun. (HIERON.) The singer of David, namely. For at the king's gate toward the east there kept watch, of the sons of Levi, the singers by their courses, and they came together by turns to sing psalms with David, because, before the temple was built, the ark of the covenant was in the palace, and there the keepers of the house served.

VERS. 19.-- And Sellum the son of Core. The first Cora is written with Aleph, and sounds Cora, the second with He, and sounds Core. Cora is interpreted crying out, Core bald. This is he who in Numbers stirred up sedition against Moses (Num. XVI).

The keepers of the porches. (HIERON.) Because they kept 644Bthe outer door of the tabernacle. But their fathers, who are written below and who have titles in the Psalter, kept the inner door and were singers.

VERS. 20.-- And Phinees. The grandson of Aaron, who was still living, as the Hebrews hand down, and appointed the courses of the ministers. And there are twenty-four courses which David appointed for the ministry of the tabernacle. Whence in the Gospel: Zacharias of the course of Abia (Luc. I).

VERS. 26.-- To these four Levites, etc. (RAB.) Who these four Levites were, to whom the whole number of the porters had been entrusted, is shown when it is said: And of Hosa, that is, of the sons of Merari, Semri the chief, etc., as it is had in Chapter XXVI. The four chiefs of the porters are the holy teachers, who by the four Gospels, keeping the door of faith, open it to believers and 644Cshut it against blasphemers, to whom with Peter the keys have been committed (Matth. XVI). These keep the doors by the four winds, because through the four quarters of the world they call the nations to the faith, and watchfully guard the Church.

VERS. 28.-- Of their kindred there were also a minister over the vessels. (ID.) [Vulg. 1 Par 9:28 super vasa ministerii, "over the vessels of the ministry"] Mystically they are ordained from the company of the holy preachers, who keep an ever-watchful guard over the vessels of the Lord, that is, the souls of the faithful (in whom the will of God is daily ministered). Under their keeping are the fine flour, the wine and the oil, whereby the sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord are made, and the grace of the Holy Spirit is delivered by a spiritual anointing. They themselves in the Church 644Dcompound the incense of prayers and the spices of the virtues, and render acceptable wine in the sight of the Lord.

VERS. 31.-- And Mathathias, a Levite, the firstborn of Sellum the Corite, was set over the things that were fried in the frying-pan. Because Christ is the author of the heavenly sacraments, where daily bread and wine are offered in memory of his passion, and the head of all who crucify their own flesh after his example, and deliver it to suffering for his name.

VERS. 32.-- There were loaves of proposition. Two and two were baked apart before the sabbath, according to Josephus, and on the sabbath morning were set upon the table, of which we have spoken more fully in Leviticus.

VERS. 34.-- The heads of the Levites by their families. It is fitting that the more a man is set over the rest, 645Athe more devout he should be in the divine offices. He keeps well the headship of the ministry who is zealous to abide in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, that he may flee the tumults of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, and have the quiet of mind in the contemplation of God, saying with the Psalmist: I rejoiced in the things that were said to me.

VERS. 35.-- Jahiel, who in Kings is Ahiel, father of Cis the father of Saul, and is interpreted my father is God. [Vulg. 1 Par 9:35 Jehiel] Jahiel, eloquent of God, perhaps according to the difference of merits. And it is to be noted that among the sons of Jahiel, Cis and Ner are called brothers and are so, and in Kings it is thus had; but in what follows it is said that Ner begot Cis, not that he begot him, but that he brought him up.

VERS. 39.-- Abinadab. He, as in Kings, is related to have been slain with his father, he is called Abinadab and is interpreted 645BAbinadab, my father is a vow, Abinadab, my people is a vow.

Esbaal. The husband of fire, this is Isboseth, that is, a man of confusion.

VERS. 40.-- Meribbaal. Striving against a husband, this is Miphiboseth, who is interpreted from the mouth, ignominy.

VERS. 1.-- Philisthiim, etc. (RAB.) Many things being passed over which the history relates in the book of Samuel concerning Samuel and Saul, he records the fall of Saul and of his household. Hinting mystically that it is not needful to describe the life of one whose impious manner of living deserved to receive a swift end, and figuratively he shows the end of the kingdom of the Jews and of the old priesthood. He passed over to David, 645Cwhose deeds and the ordering of whose kingdom he weaves together, who holds the type of the true David, possessing the kingdom of heaven and of earth. While he is at hand the Philisthiim after their manner fight against Israel and conquer, because, as grace drew near, the gentiles, as before, were assailing the chastity of the Israelite faith, showing now evil works, now the worship of idolatry, as Balaam taught Balaac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat and to commit fornication.

And the men fled. They who seemed strong in the contemplation of God, while they incautiously follow the works and the teaching of the gentiles; and secular learning has helped not a little the ruin of heretics also. Whence a certain one says: The philosophers, patriarchs of the heretics, have stained the purity of the Church with perverse doctrine.

645DVERS. 2.-- And when they had drawn near. The gentiles rushed in from every side upon the kingdom of Juda and its sons, and corrupted the priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, the sons, that is, and seducers of that kingdom, and the heretics also they forbade, that they should not simply preach or worship the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Abinadab. That we should not praise with worthy confession the Father who adopted us to himself by a spiritual gift, which the slaying signifies, Abinadab, that is, of my willing father.

Melchisua. That we should not believe salvation to come in the kingdom of Christ. For Melchisua is interpreted my king is salvation. The philosopher who seduced Arius slew, as it were, Melchisua: he who seduced Macedonius, Jonathan; he who seduced Manichaeus, 646AAbinadab. Because the master of corruption taught this one to deny the omnipotence of the true King, Christ, that one to detract from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the other to blaspheme the goodness of the most high Father.

VERS. 4.-- And Saul said to, etc. The Hebrews say that this was Doeg the Idumaean, who, seeing that Saul was dead, and fearing David, killed himself. But the young man (because he brought Saul's diadem and bracelet to David) was the son of Doeg, and Doeg himself was the young man with whom Saul was seeking his father's asses.

To his armour-bearer. (BEDA in cap. 28 l. I Reg.) The teachers of the law. For as the arms and the arrows of the Philisthiim, etc., as far as that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the pasch.

But his armour-bearer would not. It is not to be doubted that among 646Bthe reprobate teachers of the law there were some who would not pervert the edge of the word to the slaying of their hearers, and that nevertheless those same hearers, who had received things rightly said by their masters, by despising or by blaspheming turned them to their own destruction: and that, their death being seen, that is, their obstinacy in sinning, the ministers of the word themselves also, grown worse with the times, made the testimonies of the law, which they had feared to interpret ill, an occasion of ruin to themselves. Heretics too, bloodied with the darts of their own sins, when they drag the divine words into an argument for their error, turn their own arms against their own breast, about to die. Any catholic also, when he defiles with the contagion of pride, of vainglory, of the love of money, or of any vice whatsoever, the art which he learned for the common profit, pierces himself with his own sword, because that whereby he ought to have been defended from the enemy 646Crushes upon him.

VERS. 5.-- And when his armour-bearer had seen this. The unlearned, ignorant of the medicines of true humility and of the laver of baptism, seeing in Judaea their own masters overcome in spiritual contest, and no small multitude, nearest to their hearing, driven from the ancient seat of constancy while the adversary pursued, troubled by the ruin of their elders, lost the works of the virtues and the defences of spiritual knowledge which they had had. And the sins of the gentiles came, and by a perverse habitation corrupted all the pursuits of the virtues for the unbelieving Jews. The unclean spirits came, and seized upon the hearts which the constancy of faith had forsaken. The nations came, and by believing made their own the once most excellent pursuits of the Jews. Whence: The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding 646Dthe fruit thereof (Matth. XXI).

VERS. 10.-- And the head. (RAB. in Paral. ) The Philistines fastened the head of Saul in the temple of Dagon, etc., as far as for there is another Bethsan in Judges and in Josue, which is interpreted the house of security.

VERS. 11.-- And when the men of Jabes had heard this. (ID., ibid.) The men, that is, of the Church, etc., as far as this is the city which Saul, at the first auspices of his reign, delivered from the siege of the enemy.

VERS. 12.-- Let him seek the oak in Jabes, and they fasted seven days, etc. [Vulg. 1 Par 10:12 quercum, quae erat in Jabes, "the oak which was in Jabes"] That they may come to rest. For after the six ages of this world in which we labour in the flesh, there follows the seventh, of the rest of souls.

Mystically, over the blindness of the Jews carnally 647Aobserving the sabbath, their fellow tribesmen, that is the faithful, grieve continually, and as it were fast seven days. But when the mystery of the eighth day of the resurrection has been received, both shall rejoice in a perpetual festival.

Morally, however, holy men detest the death of the impious, and consign their examples to the burial of oblivion. They fast seven days, that is, they lead in continence all the time of this life, which rolls round in the septenary number of days, and they abstain from every evil, lest they die in like manner.

VERS. 3.-- The elders. (RAB.) The prophets and the apostles run together to Christ with equal devotion, whence: The princes of the people came together in one with the God of Abraham 647B(Psal. II) [Vulg. Ps 2:2 principes convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum, "against the Lord"].

VERS. 5.-- And they said. Setting the blind and the lame and the lepers upon the walls in contempt of the king, and saying that the blind and the lame had kept him out.

Mystically, David casting the Jebusite out of Jerusalem signifies Christ driving the demons from the hearts of the faithful, and setting his own dwelling in the same place. For Jebusaeus is interpreted trodden down, Jerusalem the vision of peace. Whence also he says to his disciples: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents, etc. (Luc. X). Well therefore is it written in Kings, that when the blind and the lame who hated his soul had been cast out, David took the citadel of Sion, and called it his own city, because, while Christ drives the malign spirits and the throng of vices out of the soul, enlightening it with wisdom, it is deservedly 647Ccalled the citadel of Sion, that is, of contemplation, and the vision of peace, of which it is rightly said in Psalm LXXV: God is known in Judaea, and his name is great in Israel. And his place is made in peace.

VERS. 8.-- And Joab built the rest of the city. For by the diligence of the soldier he fortified the city. Josephus, however, says that David fortified the upper city, and by joining the citadel to it made one body, and surrounded the whole with a wall. And that he set Jacob over the work of the walls, drove out the Jebusites and called it Jerosolyma. For Jero in Hebrew is a fortification. Christ too first preached the Gospel in Judaea, And strengthened the church with the fortification of his faith. Joab, who built the rest of the city, signifies the apostles and apostolic men who after 647Dthe ascension of the Lord converted very many of the gentiles; whence: We are God's helpers, God's fields. [Vulg. 1 Cor 3:9 Dei agricultura estis, "ye are God's husbandry"]

VERS. 11.-- Jesbaam. (HIERON.) Josephus names him Eusebius, and they say he was the son of Achimeas, who, frequently breaking into the enemy's line, ceased not until he had slain eight hundred. Others understand this to be David, because Jesbaan is interpreted sitting in the people. But Ahamoni, most wise, whence in Kings it is written: Sitting in the chair, most wise (II Reg. XXIII). But there he is compared to a little worm of wood, because wisdom was diminished in him because of the sin which he had committed against Urias. Whence there he slew eight hundred at one onset, but here three hundred, for on account of the sin his fame was made less.

VERS. 12.-- 648AThe Ahohite. Ahohi, as the Hebrews hand down, was the brother of Isai the father of David, whose son was Eleazar, who was the mightiest among the three, whom Josephus says to be Eusebius the son of Achimeas, and Eleazar the son of Addi, and Semeia the son of Heli

(GREG. hom. 34. in Evang.) It is to be pondered with the utmost care, etc., as far as rigid against himself, he abstained even from things lawful.

VERS. 21.-- Nevertheless unto the three first. Here it appears that Abisai was chief among the three that followed. But he did not attain to the three first, Jesbaam, Eleazar and Semmaa.

But mystically it is signified that no one of the saints, though he be eminent in virtues, attains to equality with the power of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Since, 648Bwho among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? etc. (Psal. LXXXVIII.)

VERS. 22.-- Ariel Moab, that is, lions, as it is said in Kings, namely, most valiant men in the kingdom of Moab, like lions.

He slew a lion. The Hebrew judges this lion to be Joab, who was slain in the house of the Lord holding the horns of the altar. For the altar is called a cistern, because as the water of a cistern cleanses, so the sanctuary of God expiates the sins of men.

(RAB.) Whom the book of Kings, etc., as far as and he wrested away the spear which he was not rightly holding.

In the time of snow. Whereby can be signified the grace of Christ, which shone forth to the world, and the coldness of charity, whereby men grow cold. But Banaias, who is interpreted builder 648CLord, signifies Christ, of whom it is said: The Lord that buildeth up Jerusalem, etc. (Psal., CXLVI.) He wrought many works, who says: My Father worketh until now, and I work (Joan. V). He is of Cabseel, that is, of the congregation of the Lord, because to him belongs the whole company of the saints — he who, coming down from heaven and made man, slaying by his own death the lion, that is, the devil, who possessed the world grown numb with the cold of its unbelief, plunged him into hell. He, overcoming by the rod of the cross the Egyptian, that is, Antichrist, blackest with sins, that is, abusing the five senses of the body unto crimes, condemned him, guilty by his own wickedness, with perpetual power. In the days of snow, because by death he expiated sin. Whence: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow 648D(Psal. L).

VERS. 24.-- Among the three. Abisai and Sobochai and Jonathan, to whom he was equal in strength, who was over the thirty, as the Hebrew affirms.

VERS. 12.-- These also came. Thus far he has enumerated the mighty men of David who helped him that he might reign over Israel.

Who were most valiant, etc. According to the letter it signifies that they were nimble and strenuous in every kind of warfare. But mystically it describes the soldiers of Christ as not sluggish but zealous, in prosperity and in adversity, on the right hand and on the left.

649AVERS. 8.-- Swift. (RAB.) He says it for keenness of sense or for agility of body. But mystically, they who profess the warfare of Christ ought not to be little ones in sense, but to provide good things, not only before God, but also before all men

VERS. 14.-- The last, etc. Here they signify the teachers of the Jews and of the gentiles, of whom Paul, of the tribe of Benjamin, says: Peter, James and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave me the right hands, and of the fellowship of Barnabas, etc. (Gal. XI.) [Vulg. Gal 2:9 Jacobus, et Cephas, et Joannes … dextras dederunt mihi, "James, and Cephas, and John"] These, coming to Christ, were tried in all things. Whence (Matth. XVI): But whom do you say that I am? Peter answered for all: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. To whom the Lord: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. And elsewhere: Receive ye the Holy 649BSpirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them (Joan. XX).

VERS. 15.-- They passed over the Jordan. The Jordan, in which Christ was baptized, signifies baptism: this the teachers cross in the first month, when it is wont to overflow above, because, when the Lord appeared in the flesh and consecrated the acceptable year, after he had consecrated baptism by his own baptism, they spread it abroad through the whole world by preaching and by baptizing.

And they put to flight all that dwelt (RAB.). Because by the preaching of the Gospel they put to flight the Jews, whom the Eastern quarter signifies on account of the rising of the knowledge of the law, or the gentiles, in whom natural prudence goes down, while they ascribe the worship of God to idols. Whence: Thou hast given me my enemies downward, and hast destroyed them that hated me 649C(Psal. XVII) [Vulg. Ps 17:41 dorsum, "the back"].

VERS. 19.-- Moreover of Manasses. These, namely, the seven princes who came from Manasses, signify the first teachers of the Church coming from Judaea, who, enlightened by the sevenfold Spirit, help our David against the robbers, that is, the heretics or the malign spirits, who cease not to snatch from the Church and to lead captive whom they can; whence: But thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph in Christ Jesus (II Cor. I).

VERS. 22.-- The army of God. Which, namely, went out of Egypt, that is, six hundred thousand, so the Hebrews expound it. But mystically, in the army of our David the number of the faithful grows daily, until they be completed who are predestined to life eternal.

649DVERS. 23.-- That they might transfer. Because the holy teachers greatly desire that the worship of the old law be transferred into the spiritual understanding of the Gospel, and that all things be made new.

VERS. 27.-- Joiada also, a prince of the stock of Aaron, etc. [Vulg. 1 Par 12:27 Jojoda] The Hebrews hand down that this was Phinees the son of Eleazar, in comparison with whom Sadoc is called a boy, as being less in age and in merit.

VERS. 32.-- Of the sons also of Issachar, men, etc. They hand down that the teachers of the law were in the tribe of Issachar, who taught the several times of the ceremonies to be observed, and prescribed what Israel ought to do. These signify the teachers of the Church, to whose precepts their subjects give obedience.

650AVERS. 35.-- Twenty, etc. (RAB.) The apostles, namely, and apostolic men come together to our David and are spiritually joined to him, and others as well from the Jews as from the gentiles, striving with one heart and with equal desire that David may be made king, and that they themselves may be the kingdom of Christ.

VERS. 39.-- Three days. At all times, namely, holding the faith of the Trinity, and receiving what the first teachers, that is, the apostles, had prepared as nourishment out of Holy Scripture, and giving thanks for the bestowal of all good things.

VERS. 1.-- And he took counsel. With the apostles, the evangelists, who carried over the faith of the incarnation from the Jews to the salvation of the gentiles. For this is to carry over to himself the ark of the Lord from the hill of Cariathiarim 650B(which is in Juda, and is interpreted the city of woods ): namely, to bring the faith of the Lord from the eminence of the Scriptures set among the Jews, where the shady darkness of figures abounds; to the understanding of the gentile people, where the Church is founded.

VERS. 3.-- For not. (RAB.) Because the Old Testament is interpreted, that people could not open the spiritual sense which lay hidden, as it has now been revealed to the apostles and prophets, namely, that the gentiles are co-heirs and fellow partakers of the promise of the Lord.

VERS. 5.-- From Sihor. Sihor is a river of Egypt, which, as they report, is derived from the Nile, and is interpreted a new and turbid firmament, whence: What now wilt thou in the way of Egypt, that thou mayest drink turbid water (Jerem. 650CVII)? Cariathiarim. A city of Damascus, which in Amos is Emathabal, that is, Emath the great, which is now called Epiphania. But by Sihor and Emath he comprehends the whole land of promise. By Sihor, a brook, namely, or a torrent, he signifies the southern part of Egypt. By Emath the northern. Cariatharim, which elsewhere is Cariathabaal, a city of forests, one of the cities of the Gabaonites in the tribe of Juda, at the ninth milestone from Helia as one goes to Diospolis, of which was Urias the prophet, whom Joachim slew in Jerusalem, according to Jeremias. The son also of Sobal is called Cariathiarim, as is shown above

VERS. 6.-- Every man. The nobler elect. But the number of these men is comprised in Kings, where it is read: And David gathered together all the chosen men 650Dout of Israel, thirty thousand (II Reg. VI).

VERS. 9.-- And when they had come, etc. (RAB. ex Hieron.) They came to the threshing-floor of Chidon, etc., as far as as though he should say: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. VI).

VERS. 11.-- Because the Lord had divided Oza. (HIERON.) The Hebrews hand down that Abinadab the priest had commanded his sons Oza and Haio to carry the ark upon their shoulders according to the precept of the law. But because they did not carry it, nor gave it to the Caathites to be carried, the Lord struck Oza, and divided him.

The division of Oza. It is handed down that his arm and shoulder had withered, where the ark of the Lord was to have been carried, and that in the place of it a certain division was made.

651AVERS. 17.-- In the house of Obededom. (HIERON.) Because he too was a Levite. But when the cause for which Oza was struck was known, David commanded the ark to be carried on the Levites' own shoulders, as appears in what follows. It is to be noted how greatly he offends who receives the body of the Lord unworthily, if a devout priest perished who laid hold of the ark, the figure of the Lord's body, with less veneration than he owed.

Allegorically, however, David signifies Christ, the ark the Church. which Christ wills to bring into his own city, whence: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel (Matth. XV.) And elsewhere: Blindness in part has happened in Israel, etc. (Rom. XI).

651BVERS. 3.-- David also took, etc. (RAB.) The many wives of David signify the many nations which are joined to Christ by faith. The concubines, the churches of the heretics, which glory in the title of the Christian name. But because they follow Christ for the sake of carnal gain, they are called not wives, but concubines. Now, if kings have many wives, it is a crime, because the figures have passed away.

VERS. 8.-- And hearing. When the grace of the Gospel had been noised abroad and the kingdom of Christ everywhere preached, the nations rose up on every side, contradicting the Gospel of peace.

VERS. 15.-- In the top of the pear trees. (RAB.) But in the Hebrew, of the weeping ones, that is, of the idols, he bids them come, etc., as far as whom the Holy Spirit directs by forewarning.

651CVERS. 16.-- From Gabaon as far as Gazera. Christ strikes those who stand upon the hill of pride, and crushes the hedge of hardness, dividing their obstinacy that he alone may bear rule in the world, whence there follows: And the name of David was spread abroad in all regions, and the Lord, etc.

VERS. 2.-- Then David said: It is unlawful, etc. (RAB.) Christ wills not that the unworthy discharge the ecclesiastical office, but the learned in knowledge and the approved in honesty of manners bear the ark of God, that is, the Church, on the shoulders of pious labour, and exult, whence: Do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry (II Tim. IV).

VERS. 3.-- And he gathered together all Israel. Not 651Donly David, but also all the prophets in the Church of Christ, by words and by deeds, gave place to the incarnation, that he might the sooner be received when he came, having been prophesied of beforehand.

VERS. 12.-- Be sanctified with your brethren. The ministers of the New Testament ought to be clean in life and in doctrine, to whom it is said: Be ye holy, for I am holy (Levit. XIX). Who ought, by the words of right faith and by the example of their work, to commend to the faithful the incarnation of Christ and the redemption of the human race, etc.

VERS. 16.-- With nables, to wit, etc. Nablum in Hebrew, Psalterium in Greek, laudatorium in Latin. The psaltery has a swollen belly in its upper parts, so that the threads of the strings, bound fast and skilfully struck, 652Amay render a most sweet melody. To this the cithara seems contrary, which holds in its lowest part what the psaltery holds in its head. The psaltery with ten strings is the Church with the Decalogue of the law. Opposed to this is the cithara, which is composed of twenty-four strings after the manner of the letter delta (as the most skilled hand down), and is roused by the fingers into diverse modes. This signifies the Church, which with the doctrines of the twenty-four elders has a threefold form after the manner of the letter delta, and signifies the faith of the holy Trinity. But by the hands of the apostles and evangelists it is figuratively roused into the diverse measures of the Old and the New Testament, one way in the letter, another way in the sense.

With lyres. The lyre is so called, ἀπὸ τοῦ λύριν, that is, from the variety of voices, because it makes diverse sounds. This signifies the Church 652B, which in the variety of diverse disciplines, historically, allegorically, tropologically, and by anagogy, utters a sweet sound, yet departs not from the simplicity of the symphony. But cymbals struck one against another make a sound, whence: Praise him on well-sounding cymbals, etc. (Psal. CL). The well-sounding cymbals are our lips, which, struck one against another, render the sweet harmony of the human voice.

VERS. 21.-- They sang for the octave, etc. (HIERON.) They signified, namely, in the day of judgment the coming of the Lord, in which, the week of the world being ended, he will come to judgment. Whence the sixth psalm, which is sung with the trembling of judgment, is marked beforehand with such a title. And this number contains great mysteries. Eight souls entered into the ark of Noe, and, the world perishing, 652Cwere saved. David was the eighth son of Jesse, whom the Lord chose. On the eighth day circumcision purifies. On the eighth day, that is, the Lord's day, Christ rose again.

VERS. 24.-- And Sebenias and Josaphat, etc. These seven priests sounding with trumpets before the ark, holy preachers, are full of the sevenfold Spirit of grace, who preach the Gospel in the Church of Christ, and preach the mystery of the incarnation to their hearers.

They sounded. The trumpet is made one way for gathering the people, another way for leading them forth, another for victory, another for pursuing enemies, another for the shutting up of cities, etc. But the customary trumpet, among those skilled in such matters, is formed in this way, that it be blown at the narrow head through three brazen pipes, as through four brazen voice-conduits which through a brazen base produce fourfold voices, 652Dso that they may put forth a most vehement bellowing: which signify the Gospel, divinely inspired by the threefold confession of the three persons, at the narrow head, that is, in the nativity of Christ, through four brazen voice-conduits, that is, through the four evangelists; and on a brazen, that is, a stable foundation of faith and of work, to send forth into the world a most vehement voice, as it were the voice of a gathering trumpet.

VERS. 27.-- But David. Christ makes manifest the example of his incarnation and of his passion, before hidden from the Jews; for wood [lignum; read linum, "flax"] sprung from the earth, coming by manifold labour to the whiteness of a garment, shows the truth of human flesh triumphing amid the scourges, and this is: David was in an ephod. [Vulg. 1 Par 15:27 David autem etiam indutus erat ephod lineo, "and David also was clothed with a linen ephod"]

653A(GREG., lib. XXVII Moral., cap. 27). It is pleasing to behold how great the gifts of the virtues, etc., as far as such as I show myself outwardly, despising myself, such do I regard myself inwardly.

VERS. 29.-- Michol the daughter of Saul. (RAB.) While all were exulting and resounding with hymns at the entrance of the ark, etc., as far as she despises David thus humbled: because, when at the last the Jews believe, certain men follow Christ in profession and Antichrist in work: to whom it agrees that Michol, who for the figuring of the instability of carnal men is interpreted all water, is called not the wife of David, but the daughter of Saul. For they who serve Christ only in outward show are not crowned with him, but are damned with the persecutors whom they have imitated.

653BVERS. 1.-- They brought therefore. (RAB. in Paral., tom. III.) The ark is set in the midst of the tabernacle which David had pitched for it, that is, the faith of the Church is preached, goes forward, and is engrafted in the hearts of the faithful, whom God foreordained to life eternal.

VERS. 2.-- He blessed the people. Christ commends also the devotion of the Church, to the Father, he who also at the right hand of the Father intercedes for us, and as the true David blesses, and feeds them with the nourishments of the saving mystery.

VERS. 3.-- And he divided. The faithful receive these gifts when, being many, one bread and one body in Christ, chastising the wantonness of their flesh and subjecting it to servitude, they seethe it with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and make the fruits of good works, most fat with the oil of mercy, 653Cto boil with compassion for their neighbour. But on the contrary the daughter of Saul, having entered the king's chamber in vain, does not bear fruit, because they who receive the word of God only as far as the ear die without the offspring of good work.

Fried with oil. Flesh most clean, namely, from the salt of sin, roasted for the cause of human salvation in the frying-pan of the cross, full of the oil of charity. For God so loved the world, as to give the only-begotten Son, who suffered out of charity.

VERS. 7.-- In that day. Because Christ established the order of the teachers on the summit of ecclesiastical dignity. For Asaph is interpreted gathering. Asaph therefore and his brethren are the apostles and apostolic men appointed for the gathering of the faithful, of whom it is said: Thou shalt appoint them princes over all the earth. 653DBut the manner of praise which David himself composed, the writer of the history has inserted, saying: Give praise to the Lord, etc.

VERS. 8.-- Give praise, etc. Alleluia is set as a title before this psalm, and according to Jerome it is of the neuter gender. Allelu, praise ye: ia signifies the invisible God, which is one of the ten names of God, as Jerome hands down in his epistle to Marcella.

VERS. 36.-- And let all say. (RAB.) The gentile, namely, who was as yet unbelieving when this man sang, who nevertheless was led by the power of prophecy to say, out of love for all men, Amen amen, that is, so be it, so be it, as today Amen is answered to those who pray, that the devout intent of the priests and the sound 654Adevotion of the people may agree together in prayers, according to that: Amen, amen, I say to you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning every thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them, etc. (Matth. XVIII.) [Vulg. Mt 18:19 Iterum dico vobis, "Again I say to you"]

VERS. 39.-- In the high place. Some say that the tabernacle of God, after the children of Israel had entered into the land of Chanaan, was first in Sylo, then in Nobe, afterwards in Gabaon, and at last in Sion. Others, that there was a place in Jerusalem called Gabaon, and that David set the tabernacle and the ark there. For Gabaon is interpreted a hill. And they judge that the place was called a high place for the dignity of the divine worship. But in the book of Places we read that Gabaon is the metropolis of the Hevites in the tribe of Benjamin, and there is now shown a village of the same name at the fourth milestone from Bethlehem toward the west, beside 654BRhama and Rhamon, where Solomon, when victims had been offered, merited the divine oracle. And it was set apart for the Levites.

That he might bless. (HIERON.) That he might have leisure for the begetting of sons. Others take the blessing by antiphrasis; and the house, as Michol the daughter of Saul, whom David rebuked, because she despised him dancing before the ark of the Lord.

VERS. 2.-- And Nathan said. (RAB., ubi supra. ) It is plain that the spirit of prophecy does not always irradiate the minds of the prophets; whence Eliseus: Let her alone, for her mind is in bitterness, and the Lord hath hid it from me, etc. [Vulg. 4 Rg 4:27 Dimitte illam : anima enim ejus in amaritudine est, "Let her alone: for her soul is in bitterness"] Which happens by divine dispensation, that they who receive the Spirit may find what was of God, and they who lose it, 654Cwhat is of themselves.

VERS. 4.-- Thou shalt not build. Because thou art a man of blood. For he ought to be clean in himself who wills to correct the things of others, that he may flee earthly desires, and see the more clearly what is to be fled, the more truly he himself turns aside from these by knowledge and by life. A hand that holds mud would not be able to wipe away the filth cast upon it. And this, according to the sequence of the ancient translation, is well said to David, labouring at outward wars, by way of signification and by the divine voice: Thou shalt not build me a temple, because thou art a man of blood. He builds the temple of the Lord who gives himself to the correcting of his neighbours' minds. We are the temple of God, who are established unto true life out of his indwelling, whence: For the temple of God is holy, which you are (I Cor. III). A man of blood 654Dbuilds [aedificat; read non aedificat, "does not build"] the temple of God. For he who still lies among carnal things must needs blush to instruct the minds of his neighbours.

VERS. 9.-- Nor the children. (RAB.) Foreign enemies at intervals of time, as of old first peace, then war. Yet there are found there longer times of peace than Solomon had. For under Aod there were eighty years of peace. Far be it, therefore, that these things be understood of Solomon.

VERS. 11.-- And when thou shalt have fulfilled. But Solomon began to reign while his father reigned, which befell none of those kings, so that it appears that he is not the one whom that prophecy foreshows. But Christ, the true peaceable one, truly reigned after the death of David.

655AVERS. 12.-- He shall build a house, that is, the Church: the house of David, because of the temple of God made of men, not of stones, where the people may dwell for ever with God and in God, and God with the people. Therefore, since according to the Septuagint it was said by Nathan: And the Lord will declare to thee that thou shalt build him a house, afterwards it is said by David: Because thou, God of Israel, hast revealed to the ear of thy servant, saying: I will build thee a house (II Reg. VII). For this house we also build by living well, and God by helping, whence: Unless the Lord build the house, etc. (Psal. CXXVI.)

And his throne. It can be taken hyperbolically of the son of Isai. But indeed Christ, born of the seed of David, has been exalted above all principality and power and might, to whom the Father gave a name which is above every 655Bname, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, etc. (Philip. II.)

VERS. 1.-- And the daughters. (RAB.) Lesser cities belonging to the mother city, etc., as far as and the flesh is compelled to serve the spirit.

VERS. 3.-- Adarezer. Who is interpreted seemly help; king of Soba, which is interpreted burnt or turning, signifies the vices of the gentile world kindled by natural fervour: against which Christ fights and conquers with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephes. VI).

VERS. 4.-- And he hamstrung. Christ hamstrings the proud height of the world's human wisdom that fights against him; yet what he finds convenient and fitted 655Cfor preaching, he reserves to himself.

VERS. 6.-- In Damascus. Damascus, a noble city of Phoenicia, is interpreted a cup of blood. Syria, lofty or moist. For the gentile world, formerly flowing with lust and proud in spirit, thirsted for human blood: now cleansed by the baptism of Christ, exalted by the advance of virtues, it desires the cup of his blood.

VERS. 7.-- Quivers. The teachings of the gentiles in which the liberal disciplines are contained, which Christ took away from the gentile world and turned to the service of the Church: for they avail for the overthrow of error and the confirmation of truth.

VERS. 8.-- Solomon. Because therefore our king is peaceable, he turned the oldness of speech, out of the lowliness of the overthrown 655Dgentile world, to the cleansing grace of baptism and to the firmament of faith, through the preaching of holy teaching, unto the use of the Church. For Tebath is interpreted a little one cometh, and Chun beauty. For he who acknowledges himself a little one is made fair and comely in the beauty of virtues.

VERS. 12.-- In the valley of the Saltpits. In Kings it is thus written: David made himself a name when he returned after Syria was taken, in the valley of the Saltpits, eighteen thousand being slain (II Reg. VIII), because, namely, he raised for himself a triumphal arch: he also made himself a name, because, when Syria of Damascus and Syna Sobal had been conquered, he is said to have raised the other.

Ten and eight thousand. But in certain codices it is found that David slew not twenty and eight thousand in the valley of the Saltpits 656A, which came about by the fault of the scribes. But Joab laid low twelve thousand, as is written in the title of the fifty-seventh psalm. But here Abisai is reported to have slain eighteen, yet for the sake of the royal dignity the victory has been ascribed to David. And because Christ, by the strictness of his examination, extinguishes in those who think perversely of him the folly of immoderate savour, whence: He that turneth his own tongue, falleth into evil (Prov. XVII). [Vulg. Prov. 17:20 qui vertit linguam incidet in malum, without suam and in the future, "shall fall into evil"]

VERS. 16.-- Achimelech. That is, my brother a king: who in Kings is Abimelech, that is, my father a king, instructs the priests of the Church, that they who by the order of dignity hold a father's place, may through humility be reckoned brothers, and may not lord it over the clergy.

VERS. 17.-- Phelethi. (HIERON.) Admirable ones, or givers of life, 656Bwhom some say were the seventy judges, after the manner of those whom Moses, at the Lord's bidding, chose in the desert. Others say that the Cerethites were appointed to this, that they should punish the guilty, but the Phelethites that they should defend the innocent.

Moreover. The sons of David are the faithful of Christ, whom holy Church bears to him, who are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood (I Petr. II).

The first at the hand. Because by good works they merit for themselves the kingdom of heaven, so much the nearer to God as they are the holier.

VERS. 1.-- Ammon. (RAB.) Who is interpreted, etc., as far as whose countenance is upon them that do evil 656C(Psal. XXXIII.) [Vulg. Ps. 33:17 Vultus autem Domini super facientes mala, "But the countenance of the Lord is upon them that do evil"]

VERS. 1.-- He gathered together. (RAB.) Joab began the war, David finished it. For Christ wages war when the order of the preachers of faith opposes the mighty of the world, but the end of the contest and the triumph is referred to Christ, who worketh in us to will and to accomplish (Philip. II). [Vulg. Phil. 2:13 qui operatur in vobis et velle, et perficere, "who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish"] Who fitted to himself the crown which he took from the devil, namely the faithful, who surround him as it were a crown, whence: Thou shalt bless the crown of the year of thy goodness (Deut. VII).

VERS. 2.-- A crown, etc. (HIERON.) Because by melting it down he purified it according to the law. But the Hebrews hand down (because it was unlawful for a Jewish man to take anything of gold or silver from idols, since the law 656Dforbids idolatry) that Ethai the Hethite (who had come to David from the Philistines) snatched the crown from the head of Melchon, so that it might be lawful for a Jew to take from a man's hand what it was not lawful to take from an idol's head.

War. (RAB.) It is to be noted that in Paralipomenon three wars of David are chiefly read of, etc., as far as whence: In God we shall do mightily, etc. (Psal. LIX).

VERS. 5.-- Another war. (ID.) In the book of Kings thus: The third was in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus the son of Saltus, an embroiderer, a Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gethite, etc. (II Reg. XXI). Gob, etc., as far as but the Hebrews judge Araphan the mother of the giants to be Orpha the daughter-in-law of Noemi.

• 657A

VERS. 5.-- And there was found, etc. (RAB.) In the book of Kings thus. That there were found of Israel eighty thousand valiant men and of Juda fifty thousand fighting men. [Vulg. 2 Reg. 24:9 octingenta millia virorum fortium … quingenta millia pugnatorum, "eight hundred thousand … five hundred thousand"] But the Hebrews assert that this number was found by Joab, but that the writer would not show more than is written in Samuel and in the book of Kings, in which only those who survived the slaughter are contained.

VERS. 7.-- And he struck. He speaks of the death which first came by reason of sin: this raged among the people, because often for the evil of the flock the life of the shepherd offends. David, lifted up with swelling, sinned by numbering the people, and the people received the punishment, because according to the merits of the peoples the hearts of the rulers are disposed. But the just 657Bjudge, by the chastisement of those very men, corrected the vice of the sinner, on whose account he had sinned. But because, growing proud by his own will, he was not free from the fault, he received the vengeance of the fault; for so that which struck the people bodily laid the ruler low with grief of heart.

I have sinned exceedingly, etc. In the book of Kings thus, etc., as far as bound to do this, David offended God.

VERS. 13.-- And he said. If he should choose famine, he would seem to act against others: because, having much corn, he would not suffer want along with the rest. If he should choose to be conquered by his enemies for three months, having about him the most valiant men, he would fear nothing, though the army lay under slaughter. He chose therefore a suffering common to himself and to the rest, in which the fear should be equal for all.

657CVERS. 14.-- Seventy thousand men. (RAB.) For the heads of the people and the elders were numbered. But the Hebrews affirm that so many thousands were slain out of the whole people as the thousands by which the number written in Paralipomenon exceeds the number which is in Kings. For they say that in Paralipomenon both those who had remained and those who were slain were numbered: but in Kings only the living.

VERS. 18.-- And that he should build an altar to the Lord God in the floor of Ornam the Jebusite. (RAB.) Well, when David wished to appease the Lord, is he bidden to build an altar in the ark of Areuna or Ornam, because God is not appeased by man unless in the ark of the heart, through the light of right faith and of true love, he set up for him an altar of humility, in which he may offer 657Dthe sacrifice of praise.

VERS. 25.-- David therefore gave to Ornam for the place six hundred sicles of gold of most just weight, and built there an altar to the Lord, etc. In Kings thus, etc., as far as which afterward Solomon built, and its courts.

VERS. 2.-- That they should be gathered together. (RAB.) Out of the Church Christ chose the craftsmen of his house, who should hew and polish the rude manners of men, that in the spiritual building they might come together to one another through the diverse joinings of faith and of charity. Whence: For this cause have I hewed by the prophets, and I have slain them by the words of my mouth (Osee VI)

658AVERS. 3.-- Iron. He ordered the firmness of faith by sacred teachings, that they who enter into the Church might be pierced through with the goads of fear, and so be knit to one another through the faith of love and of fellowship. Whence: Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear (Psal. CXVIII). And elsewhere: Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose participation thereof, etc. (Ibid. CXXII).

Of brass. The sounding lessons and spiritual songs which the holy Fathers prepared for the instruction of the Church for Christ the true peaceable one.

VERS. 4.-- Timber also. Men renowned for virtues, whom they trained up for an example or inserted in their writings.

The Sidonians and Tyrians. Because through the preachers, who were chosen out of the gentiles, such men came to the knowledge of the Church.

658BVERS. 5.-- He is a little child and delicate. In the time of the Old Testament the knowledge of the incarnation of Christ was obscure: small also was the number of the faithful, who are the members of Christ.

He prepared the charges. Moses prepared the charges of the house of the Lord, saying: O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God ask of thee? but that thou fear the Lord thy God, that thou walk in his ways, etc., and other like things. [Vulg. Deut. 10:12 Et nunc Israel, quid Dominus Deus tuus petit a te, nisi ut timeas Dominum Deum tuum, et ambules in viis ejus, "And now, Israel … and that thou walk in his ways"]

VERS. 8.-- Much. It signifies that the Jews, because of the carnal observance of the law and their bloody works, could not prepare a spiritual building for the Lord; or because they had hands polluted with the blood of Christ and of the prophets, whence: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee 658C(Matth. XXIII).

VERS. 14.-- A hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver. (RAB.) The Fathers of the Old Testament inserted in their writings depth of meaning and comeliness of speech.

Of talents. The talent surpasses the other weights: and it signifies both the greatness and the perfection of the thing.

VERS. 15.-- Workmen, stonecutters, and masons, etc. (RAB.) The preachers, who are called stonecutters, masons, and workers in wood, and by many other names, because according to the quality of the hearers the teaching of the preachers is shaped. For the wise are to be taught in one way, the unwise in another, the proud in one way, the humble in another.

VERS. 17.-- David also commanded all the princes 658Dof Israel that they should help Solomon, etc. It signifies that the law and the prophets teach with firm authority, where they who bear rule in the Church by holiness and virtue may help the true Solomon in his building, by teaching, that is, and by working; whence: Adore ye the Lord in his holy court (Psal. XVIII).

A sanctuary to the Lord God, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord may be brought in, and the vessels consecrated to the Lord into the house which is built, etc.-- The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom (Sap. VII). In this house the ark rests, that is, the faith of the incarnation of Christ.

VERS. 1.-- David therefore, etc. After the completion 659Aof the Old Testament there followed the incarnation of the Saviour, of whose kingdom there shall be no end, whence: When the fulness of time came, God sent his Son (Gal. IV).

And they were numbered. They who discharge the ministry of the Lord ought to keep the faith of the holy Trinity and the fulfilling of the commandments. Whence: There were found thirty-eight thousand men. For whosoever with sound faith and right work serves God unto the end, shall come both to the grace of the resurrection and to the eternal beatitude which are signified in the octonary.

Twenty-four. Because the true ministers of light ought to be instant, and not to turn aside from the way of justice. For in twenty-four hours the whole world is lighted through its circuit, and the shadow of darkness is driven away. Whence the seventy-two disciples sent to preach, because 659Bthe faith of the holy Trinity with the works of light suffices unto justice: for thrice twenty and four times three make seventy-two, by which number the diversity of tongues and the series of the books of either Testament is comprehended.

Of the overseers. Because no one ought to desire the dignity of this order, save he who is zealous for perfection and for teaching. For by the senary number the world was made, and man was created on the sixth day, on which he was also redeemed.

(RAB.) Because the law and the prophets, etc., as far as and let him patiently bear all things, bitter and angry at his own sins.

VERS. 25.-- For David said: The Lord God hath given rest, etc. (ID.) While the children of Israel were in the desert, etc., as far as but the Gospel stable and 659Cfixed.

VERS. 28.-- And they shall be under the hand of the sons of Aaron, for the service of the house, etc. That the lesser may learn to obey the greater, and the greater, helped by the lesser, may be able the more worthily to fulfil their office: as is done in the Church today.

In the chambers and in the place of purification. Bedchambers or cells in which the Levites and priests dwell. These also, the ministers of the true temple, ought diligently to watch the entrance, to let in the worthy, but to drive back the unworthy.

VERS. 29.-- For the seething fine flour, and for the parching, etc. The ears, namely, of the firstfruits, which were parched and whose grains were eaten, which they commonly call grancas; in certain codices it is read: For the seething fine flour. In others for the seething, only: but 659Din the Hebrew it is read, for the roasting. [Vulg. 1 Par. 23:29 et ad similae sacrificium … et ad torrendum, "and for the sacrifice of fine flour … and for the roasting"]

VERS. 2.-- And executed the priestly office. (RAB.) It is possible through Eleazar the elder son of Aaron, etc., as far as because the children of the desolate are many more than of her that hath a husband.

VERS. 4.-- By families sixteen. The octonary is doubled. In the law carnal circumcision is celebrated on the eighth day, but in the Gospel the circumcision of hearts in the present, and of bodies in the future.

VERS. 6.-- And he described. (RAB.) The order of preachers, etc., as far as and is deservedly reckoned by the name of justice.

660AVERS. 7.-- Now the lot came out. If any think that God is to be consulted by lots in necessity after the example of the apostles, let them see that the apostles did this when the number of the brethren had been gathered, and had first poured forth prayers to God.

The first Joiarib, the second, etc. David distributed the Levitical tribe and the priestly order into twenty-four lots, showing that the Church fully has the priestly and the royal dignity and perfectly keeps the teaching both of the law and of the Gospel, or the perfection of work, which is commended in the senary, and the brightness of evangelical preaching, which is figured in the quaternary. For four times six make twenty-four.

VERS. 1.-- David therefore and the chief officers of the army set apart for the ministry, etc. (RAB.) Because the true 660BDavid our king and Lord, etc., as far as and overleaps all covetousness of earthly things, he worthily pays his praises

VERS. 7.-- All the teachers. These are they who today expound the canons of the divine books with an evangelical understanding, for four times seventy-two make two hundred and eighty. [ducenta octoginta; read ducenta octoginta octo, "two hundred and eighty-eight" — four times seventy-two, and the reading of 1 Par. 25:7] But that the books of the Old and the New Testament are seventy-two is not to be doubted. Whence whosoever discharges a divine office, being intent upon the four principal virtues, let him apply himself to evangelical teaching, and according to its rule let him aim to shape whatsoever he shall have learned or taught.

VERS. 2.-- Of Meselemia. (RAB.) Who is interpreted 660Cthe Lord rendering, and signifies the order of the apostles and of the first teachers, to whom the eastern gate, that is, the primitive Church, is entrusted, to whom the promises of the ancient Fathers were rendered.

Of Zacharias. Who is interpreted the memory of the Lord, and signifies the teachers of the gentiles, because they were ordained to preach by the first preachers. Whence while the apostles were praying and fasting, the Holy Ghost said: Separate me both Paul and Barnabas (Act. III). [Vulg. Act. 13:2 Ministrantibus autem illis Domino, et jejunantibus, dixit illis Spiritus Sanctus : Segregate mihi Saulum et Barnabam, "And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them: Separate me Saul and Barnabas"]

VERS. 4.-- Obededom. Red: they who were begotten in servitude, and, drenched with the redness of the blood of Christ, held their guilt in the open; rightly are they brought back to their former grade through the condescension of the masters, whence Paul: I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain all (I Cor. IX). [Vulg. 1 Cor. 9:19 omnium me servum feci, ut plures lucrifacerem, "that I might gain the more"]

660DVERS. 15.-- To the south. (RAB.) The southern gate signifies the Jewish people, enlightened by the law and the prophets, near to the receiving of the warmth of faith and of the light of wisdom.

VERS. 16.-- To the west, near the gate, etc. By the western region the end of the world is signified, in which shall be the persecution of Antichrist: and iniquity shall abound, and the charity of many shall grow cold (Matth. XXIV). [Vulg. Matth. 24:12 Et quoniam abundavit iniquitas, refrigescet caritas multorum, "And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold" — the first verb perfect, not future] The doorkeepers of this gate are the teachers of that time, who strengthen the Church by teaching and by exhorting: whence Sephim is interpreted humble or of the plain, and Hosa divining. For the Church shall be humbled in the persecution, and in the field of wantonness shall be dissolute. But raised up in the action of the perfect, which is foresignified by divine 661Awords, whence: The words are shut up until the appointed time (Dan. XII).

VERS. 17.-- Six Levites, and to the north four a day, etc. The senary signifies the good work of the ministries of God, the quaternary the evangelical teaching and the fulness of the principal virtues.

Two and two. He says that the doorkeepers are two and two in the little cells and in the way, because whether in the cells of their heart they bear their own care, or in the way expound outwardly the word of God, they should altogether keep the two precepts of charity and the rule of either Testament.

VERS. 24.-- The sons of Moses, etc. Who were chiefly honoured by David according to Josephus, and had been set over the treasures, signifies the teachers from among the Jews, to whom the adornment of the Church, that is, the beauty 661Bof the soul, is entrusted.

VERS. 25.-- His brethren also, Eliezer. He shows that the gifts of the princes are the treasures of the saints, for the things which they offered to the enemies, they gave into the furnishing of the temple. For whosoever, labouring well, acquires anything of virtue or of good work, let him ascribe the good to God, not to himself. Whence: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory (Psal. CXIII).

VERS. 29.-- And over the Isaarites was Chonenias, etc. These are they who in the Church humbly and obediently receive with devout mind the things which they hear from their masters, and they who cannot with the tongue, show the teaching of the virtues by doing.

VERS. 30.-- To Israel beyond the Jordan westward, etc. The Israelites who beyond the Jordan 661Creceived a possession signify those who, content with a middle state, do not seek the citadel of virtues by passing over the turbulence of this world, but yet do not neglect to exercise the commandments of God in work. But because no one does these things save by the gift of God, he is said to be set over them, Asabias, that is the Lord doing, so that they may say with the prophet: All our works thou hast wrought in us (Psal. XXVI). [Vulg. Isa. 26:12 omnia enim opera nostra operatus es nobis, "for all our works thou hast wrought for us" — and the words are Isaias', not the psalm's]

VERS. 31.-- And the prince of the Hebronites was Jeria, according to their families and kindreds. In Hebrun David began to reign, which signifies those who, having lived well, make a beginning, and prepare a kingdom for David in his own life. Over the Hebronites Jerias, fearing the Lord, is prince, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psal. CX). But Hebron is interpreted a marriage: for he that 661Dfeareth, advanceth that he may love, and cast fear out of doors (I Joan. IV).

VERS. 24.-- It was not put in the records. (RAB.) Because, wrath supervening, the number was disturbed, nor were they distributed into the ministries according to it.

VERS. 25.-- Over the treasures, etc. (ID.) The treasure of Christ is knowledge, the wisdom of virtue, out of these he honours those who serve him. Over these is set Azmoth, who is interpreted strong in death, for the teaching of a man is discerned through patience; whence: Better is the patient man than the valiant (Prov. XVI). Azmoth also the son of Adiel, who is interpreted my father God. For whatsoever of virtues the saints have, they ascribe to God.

662AAnd of these treasures. For he is deservedly set over the treasures of the true Solomon in the cities, villages, and towers, who by faith and by work sets forth the dignity of the name of Jonathan and of his father Ozias. For Jonathan is the house of God, and Ozias the fortitude of the Lord. For he who by the gift of God receives the light of knowledge, and bravely keeps in work the rightness of faith, not undeservedly receives the care of the churches of God.

VERS. 26.-- Ezri the son of Chelub. Ezri, helped by the Lord; Semeias, hearing the Lord; Zabdias, fruit vehement or abounding. For he who hears the commandments of the Lord, helped by the aid of his mercy, gathers an abundant fruit of good work unto life eternal.

VERS. 28.-- The oliveyards and the figyards, which were in the plains, etc. In these are olives and figs, and they signify 662Bthe assemblies of the saints, who have the oil of mercy in the breast, and the sweetness of meekness in mortality. Which virtues are in the plains, which are in the open and at hand for all, and seek for their hearers not the accepting of persons, but the rightness of good will.

Balanam the Gederite. Balanam, who is interpreted having grace, is set over the oliveyards and the figyards. For out of the grace of God is given the abundance of good works. But Joas, who is interpreted hoping or the strength of the Lord, keeps the storehouses of oil, because no one comes to the reward save he who through strength of mind stretches by the confidence of hope toward the heavenly kingdom.

VERS. 29.-- Saphat. Who is interpreted I have judged, the son of Abdi, that is, of the father of grace, signifies the apostles 662Cset over the other teachers by the choice of the Lord, to whom it is said: You also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matth. XIX).

VERS. 30.-- And over the camels Ubil the Ismaelite, and over the asses Jadias. These animals are misshapen and unclean, and they signify the gentiles distorted by sin and unclean with lust, but coming into the kingdom of our David they have as masters Ubil and Jadias, who, despising philosophy and the empty deceit of the world, chose the simplicity of the Gospel, as humble and despised, whence: If any man among you seem to be wise, let him become a fool (I Cor. III).

VERS. 32.-- Jonathan. (RAB.) When Jonathan was, etc., as far as whence: Upon whom shall my spirit rest, but upon the humble and quiet, and him that trembleth at 662Dmy words? [Vulg. Isa. 66:2 ad quem autem respiciam, nisi ad pauperculum, et contritum spiritu, et trementem sermones meos?, "but to whom shall I have respect, but to the poor little one, and the contrite of spirit, and him that trembleth at my words?"]

Achitophel (II Reg. XVI). Who afterwards, depraved by covetousness, treated with Absalon of the slaying of David, and is interpreted my brother falling, or rushing in, or treating. This is Judas Scarioth, who among the apostles was familiar with the Lord, but afterwards, corrupted by avarice, by treating with the Jews of his death, earned the ruin of everlasting death, who also, according to the book of Kings, hanged himself with a halter. By Achitophel also the Jews can be signified, who by the prerogative of the Fathers were once most dear, and by the converse of God most renowned: but afterwards, making a counsel of death against Christ, were destroyed by the Romans in their own house, as Achitophel was, that is, in Jerusalem.

663AVERS. 33.-- Chusai. That is, an Ethiopian and faithful to David, betokens in all things the gentiles, of whom it is said: A people which I knew not hath served me, at the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me (Psal. XVII).

VERS. 34.-- After Achitophel was Joiada. Judas prevaricating, the twelfth place did not remain empty: but there succeeded Matthias, knowing the grace of God, humble and faithful: who kept humbly the grace which he received by the gift of God. For Joiada is interpreted knowing or acknowledging; Banaias, the builder of the Lord. For him whom the grace of God chose unto an apostle, the acknowledging of sound faith made firm in that very dignity. Abiathar, who for a time is among the counsellors of David, but in the election turned aside from the Lord with Joab against Solomon, signifies those who, corrupted by covetousness, do not keep the grade of their dignity, 663Bwhich they received from the Lord. For these, if they will not have remained in the prison of penance according to the fear of Achitophel, are to be punished for ever by the true Solomon.

Joab. That is, enemy, betokens those from whose person it is said: I was directed unto all thy commandments, I have hated every way of iniquity (Psal. CXVIII), to whom it is said elsewhere: Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matth. V). For Joab is interpreted the same father.

VERS. 1.-- With the eunuchs and all the mighty and most valiant men in the army at Jerusalem. (RAB.) The law forbids the Israelites to be cut, and foreigners are not wont to be admitted to the secrets of counsel. But they hand down that in this place 663Cthose are called eunuchs who, being strangers to the actions of the world, were free for prayer and for reading: and had wives not for the cause of lust, but for the receiving of offspring: whom Josephus calls Essenes.

VERS. 11.-- And David gave. David the Psalmist, and the other Fathers of the Old Testament, designated by figures and by riddles all the things which the true peaceable one was to do in the Church: how all nations had through the faith of baptism an entrance into the Church, what the state of the Church should be in time to come, what the perfection of the saints and the reward in the heavenly kingdom to be rendered to each according to his merits, through the diverse cells and chambers, because in the kingdom of God there are many mansions.

VERS. 17.-- And little lions. (RAB.) Neither in Exodus in the construction of the tabernacle, etc., as far as we have touched upon.

663D(ID.) The Hebrews hand down that the pattern of the temple and of the vessels 664Ashown to Moses on the mount came to Jesus, then to the judges and to Heli and to Samuel and to David, at last to Solomon. Or, the hand of the Lord is the Son, by whose gift David and the other saints received whatsoever they brought forth concerning the structure of the holy Church.

VERS. 6.-- They promised therefore, etc. (RAB.) He who shall have learned to rule well himself and others, etc., as far as he builds upon it wood, hay, stubble, he shall suffer loss.

VERS. 10.-- And he blessed the Lord, etc. Because the congregation of the faithful, admonished by the writings of the prophets, and stirred up by the sayings and examples of the holy Fathers, should sing praises and hymns to God, offering up the victims of pious confession and the 664Bfruitful works of holy conversation.

VERS. 22.-- And they ate and drank before, etc. (RAB.) This is the joy of the saints and their intent, that by the works of virtues they may guard themselves from the hunger to come, and may feast, and exult in the sight of God.

They anointed Solomon the son a second time, etc. Because Christ is celebrated by all the faithful, with sound faith and pious confession, in the royal and at once the pontifical dignity. Solomon is interpreted peaceable, Sadoc just. But Christ is our peace, who made both one, he is the just Lord and loveth justice: the Judge of the living and of the dead (Ephes. II), him every faithful man anoints first as king and priest, when in the profession of baptism he confesses the true king and priest. And he anoints a second time when by teaching and by working 664Che preaches the same to others, whence: Thy name is as oil poured out (Cant. I).

VERS. 28.-- And he died in a good old age, and full of days and riches and glory, etc. It signifies that he ended the present life with abundance of virtues and with works of light, worthy of the rest to come and of the glory of the heavenly kingdom. Abraham likewise died in a good old age and of a perfect age and full of days. Isaac was gathered to his people full of days. Joseph died in a good old age, the hundred and ten years of his life being completed, and was embalmed with spices. Moses died at a hundred and twenty years, whose eye was not dim, nor were his teeth moved. But bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half of 664Dtheir days (Psal. LIV). Who seem to themselves to lead their days in good things, and in a moment go down to hell (Job XXI). [Vulg. Job 21:13 Ducunt in bonis dies suos, et in puncto ad inferna descendunt, "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell" — without qui sibi videntur]