LIBER PARALIPOMENON II

• 663D

VERS. 1.-- Solomon therefore was strengthened, etc. (RAB.) When in death he triumphed over him who had the empire of death, and won for himself the kingdom of all. Whence: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth (Matth. XXVIII).

VERS. 3.-- Gabaon, etc., Which was the mother city 664Dof the Hevites, and it fell to the lot of Benjamin, and was set apart for the Levites. It is a wonder therefore that Josephus says that Solomon came to Hebron to sacrifice upon the brazen altar which Moses had made: unless perhaps he meant Hebron itself to be understood as the high place of Gabaon, on the ground that he reigned there first. For Gabaon is interpreted loftiness, or a cousin's hill.

665AVERS. 10.-- Give me wisdom, etc. Not gold, not riches, not earthly glory does he ask of God, but that he may know how to rule and to judge the people of God. If the ruler of bodies chose this, much more ought the rulers of souls to choose this, that they may show to the people of God the entrance unto faith and the going forth unto hope.

VERS. 13.-- From the high place, etc. It signifies the ark, in which were the tables of the Testament. For above it is written: But the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of holocausts, were at that same season in the high places of Gabaon, [Vulg. 1 Par. 21:29 ea tempestate erat in excelso Gabaon, "at that season was in the high place of Gabaon" — singular verb, singular high place] etc. (I Paral. XXI). And the ark of the Lord, after David brought it into his own house, remained in that same place until the temple should be built.

And twelve thousand horsemen. This number signifies the time 665Bof grace, in which the apostolic teaching forms the people of the New Testament. And rightly are the chariots and horsemen of Solomon numbered by the number of forty or of twelve: because through either testament holy men, learned in the sacred letters, are fitted for the sitting of God, whom he himself, the highest charioteer, governs at his own beck.

VERS. 17.-- For six hundred pieces of silver. Because by preaching, the testament of the teachers, men are brought through preachers into the use of the true Solomon, unto the knowing of the truth of the faith. Six hundred therefore, that is, sixty times ten, signify the perfection of evangelical doctrine, in which the perfection of the law wholly consists: especially since our Redeemer, having suffered on the sixth day, fulfilled all the things that were written of him in the law and the prophets; 665Cwhence he says. It is consummated. And bowing his head, he sent forth his spirit (Joan. XIX) [Vulg. Joan. 19:30 tradidit spiritum, "gave up his spirit"; emisit spiritum is the wording of Matth. 27:50].

A hundred and fifty. Which are thrice fifty, and, on account of Pentecost and the jubilee, manifestly signify the distinction of the Old Testament and of the threefold Scripture, because it is said: All things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms concerning me (Luc. XXIV).

VERS. 1.-- Solomon determined to build a house, etc. (BED., quaest. in lib. Reg., tom. II.) The house which Solomon built, etc., as far as who make themselves ready, by believing, by working, by teaching others, for the building of God.

Solomon. Both by his name and by his most peaceable reign he 665Dsignifies him, etc., as far as and of the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 8.-- And they shall be servants. (RAB.) My apostles and first teachers, etc., as far as and therefore they stormed it the more subtly.

VERS. 14.-- The son of a woman. He shows him to be of the offspring of Salomith; of the tribe of Dan, of whom it is read in the book of Numbers. The Hebrews hand down that his father was a Hebrew, of the stock of Oliab, of the tribe of Dan, who wrought with Beseleel in the wilderness. But as to his calling him a Tyrian, the Hebrews say that this came about by the translating. For Zocri in their tongue is interpreted a singing of psalms. For Chyros, which they call Zor, sounds sometimes narrowness, sometimes a forming.

666AWho knoweth how to work in gold and in silver. In all these things the spiritual Hiram knows how to work, that the adornment of the house of God may shine with worthy comeliness before the eyes of men, and by the odour of good repute may become acceptable to God.

VERS. 16.-- But we, etc. (RAB.) It signifies that the Gentiles, the report of the Gospel having been heard, sends diverse persons through faith unto baptism. Yet it belongs to the true peaceable one alone, by absolving sins through the sacraments of baptism, to unite them to the unity of the Church, of whom it is said: Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth (Matth. III) [Vulg. Joan. 1:33 videris, singular, "thou shalt see"].

VERS. 17.-- He numbered therefore, etc. There were workmen of the house of the Lord of the children of Israel, etc. (RAB.) as far as, by living rightly and by teaching, they 666Bbuild up the Church of Christ.

Three thousand and six hundred. In Paralipomenon, in place of the three thousand three hundred overseers who are numbered in Kings, three thousand six hundred are written, for the perfection of exalted men. For in the number six God completed the adornment of the world: and because Holy Scripture teaches the faith of the Trinity and the works of justice, rightly are three thousand six hundred reported to have been.

VERS. 1.-- In the floor of Ornan. (RAB.) The Church is signified by the threshing-floor, etc., as far as but when Christ looked upon her, she found in herself both the place and the name of peace.

VERS. 2.-- In the second month, etc. That is, in May, namely soon after the pasch, that the people, consecrated by the mystic 666Csolemnity, might worthily set about the mystic work.

In the fourth year of his reign. After the dispensation of the divine incarnation had been fulfilled, which is written in the four Gospels, the Spirit having been sent from heaven, the Church was builded. The things which we expounded in the books of Kings, in Paralipomenon we touch upon briefly.

The length of the house signifies the long patience of the Church. The breadth, the charity wherewith she loves even her enemies, until she rejoice in God with friends alone. But the height, the hope of the life to come and of the recompense, because she despises all things adverse: until she see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. It is to be noted that the thirty cubits of height which are read in Kings reached not to the roof of the temple, but as far as the lower upper chamber. 666DFor here, that the height was of a hundred and twenty cubits. Others thirty to the middle upper chamber, and others to the third, then as far as the topmost roof of the temple shall be numbered, others thirty, and so the whole height of the house is completed in a hundred and twenty cubits: by which number of men the primitive Church in Jerusalem received the grace of the Holy Spirit. For fifteen, which consists of seven and eight, signifies the life to come, which now is passed in the rest of souls and shall be perfected in the resurrection of bodies: but fifteen drawn out into a triangle, that is, numbered with all its parts, becomes a hundred and twenty, by which is designated the blessedness to come of the elect. And rightly is the third upper chamber of the house completed by this number, 667Awhich after the labours of the present, after the rest of souls, is fulfilled in the resurrection in the full glory of felicity.

VERS. 4.-- But the porch, etc. That is, the temple itself which was before the doors of the oracle: for the distinction of the fabric was threefold: that is, the porch before the temple: and the temple itself in which were the altar of incense, the table of proposition, and the candlestick of light: and the oracle, that is, the Holy of holies, where the ark of the testament and the cherubim were set behind the veil. But the porch before the temple bears the figure of the ancient faithful. But the temple itself, of those who came into the world after the incarnation of the Lord. And the inner house, the joys of the kingdom of heaven given to both.

667BIt is to be noted therefore that the walls of the house were made of precious stones, covered with planks of cypress or of cedar, clothed with plates of gold. Whence in Kings: And all the house was clothed with cedar, etc. [Vulg. 3 Reg. 6:18 Et cedro omnis domus intrinsecus vestiebatur, "within"] The stones of the wall or of the pavement and the planks and the gold signify the life of the saints in the Church. The living stones are the saints, joined into one rule by the strength of faith. The planks also of cedar or of cypress are the saints, knit to one another in the same faith by the breadth of divers virtues according to the giving of the Holy Spirit. The plates of gold are the saints having the charity that surpasseth knowledge, and rejoicing together with one another in its most pleasing brightness.

VERS. 6.-- He paved also the floor, etc. As the breadth of the wall rising on high, and reaching to the 667Cpanelled ceilings, signify the advances of the virtues by which the saints come to heaven, or the choirs of the saints succeeding one another through divers times: so the evenness of the pavement, their concordant humility, wherein, set in this life, they live together in the charity of fellowship. The pavement laid with precious marble with much comeliness, and the marble covered with planks of fir, because the life of the just must first be fortified in the heart by the firmness of faith: afterward adorned in work by the breadth of the virtues. For what does the comeliness of the marble profit when the planks are laid over it, unless it show forth something mystical? but it signifies that the amplitude of good works is to be propped by the strength of faith. But the fir, high and lasting, shows the mind of the elect despising the lowest things, cleaving to the heavenly, and excelling in the virtue of patience. The plates of gold 667Dlaid upon the marble over the planks of fir are the breadth of charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned, which, as gold before other metals, so shines before the other virtues in the temple of God.

VERS. 7.-- The posts and the walls, etc. He covered them, when, the Lord himself opening the entrance of faith, he shows to all who enter the Church with what truth it shines again. The door of the temple is Christ, through whom one comes to the Father, who says: I am the door, etc. (Joan. X.) In Kings it is written thus: The oracle had twenty cubits of length, and twenty of breadth and twenty of height (III Reg. III). The Holy of holies is called the oracle, because there by divine and angelic speech secret things are revealed to men. Whence: The oracle in hidden places that is, 668Ait was made in the inner house, because in the country above the vision and the address of the angels and the presence of God himself shall be revealed. In that he says twenty cubits of height, he signifies the wall of cedar which parts the oracle from the outer building.

He graved cherubim. This house has, as is read in Kings, carvings standing out, since the saints do not do the works of the virtues in secret, but set forth an example to all.

VERS. 8.-- He made also the house, etc. The oracle where the ark was had twenty cubits in length, in breadth, in height, that is, foursquare: because in the country above, where the saints see the king in his beauty, the charity alone of the divine and heavenly grace shines through all. Whence in what follows: With plates of gold 668Bhe covered it (III Reg. VI), that is, he filled the walls of the city above with the grace of charity.

With six hundred talents, etc. In the talents, the perfection of weight, which expresses the perfection of charity, as the perfection of the six by which the hundred is multiplied, so that six hundred are made.

VERS. 9.-- But the nails also. (RAB.) By the number fifty the remission of sins, etc., as far as who, coming to the more perfect things, says of the nails of perfection: But for me it is good to adhere to God (Psal. LXXII).

The upper chambers also. As the Holy of holies, where the ark was, signifies the inward life of the saints in the sight of the Redeemer, whence: Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men (Psal. XXX). So the upper chambers on high the same life, that 668Cis, to be in heaven and not in this world, whence: Seek the things that are above (Col. III), where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

VERS. 10.-- He made also. (RAB.) This is read more fully in Kings, etc., as far as to be rewarded with the penny of the everlasting kingdom.

VERS. 11.-- So that the wing. One wing of a cherub was of five cubits, etc., because the angels keep with unwearied devotion the law of God written in five books, namely by loving God out of all their strength, and their neighbours as themselves. And the fulness of the law is charity (Rom. XIII) [Vulg. Rom. 13:10 Plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio, "the fulness therefore of the law is love"]. Neighbours also to one another are the angelic spirits and the elect among men. Whence each wing of the cherub is of the same measure: because with the same devotion wherewith they love one another in God, they desire also 668Dour fellowship, of us who ascend to them. Alike therefore do the wings fill up ten cubits, when in the twofold showing of charity the angels are gladdened by the presence of their Maker.

VERS. 12.-- They touched the wall. [Vulg. 2 Par. 3:12 tangebat parietem, singular, "it touched the wall"] They touch both walls equally with their wings, because they have with them, as possessors of the heavenly hall, the Jews and the Gentiles: not that there is there a distinction of place between the two peoples, but because the festivity of the inward blessedness is the greater from the fellowship of a brotherhood made one in God. They stretch out therefore their wings to either wall: because they stir up to the praise of the Creator the just of both peoples rejoicing in the heavenly country. They stretch out wings covered with gold to the walls of the oracle, even as they have their faces turned toward 669Athe outer house: because the angels, as they keep their own innocence, so rejoice over the blessedness of the saints, that they bring help to those whom they still behold upon earth, until they lead them into the heavenly country. For all are ministering spirits, sent unto ministry, for the sake of them who receive the inheritance of salvation (Hebr. I) [Vulg. Hebr. 1:14 Nonne omnes sunt … qui haereditatem capient salutis?, a question, and future "shall receive"]. With their outer wings this one touches the one wall, that one the other: because the Old Testament written for the ancient people, the New for us who came to the faith after the incarnation of the Lord, and we are rightly compared to the second wall, that is, to the northern, we who after the colds and the darkness of idolatry have known the light of truth.

His wing. They stretch out their wings toward one another over the ark, when they refer to the praise of the Saviour every good thing 669Bwhich they had received. They stretch out their other wings to the walls of the oracle, when they rejoice to see the saints with them, and touch them as it were with the tips of their wings, whom they exult to have been imitators of their purity in this life.

And their faces turned. Because for the sake of us who still stand without, but are made safe by hope, the divine books were composed, whose writers, now reigning with the Lord, bear the care of our salvation, and make intercession for us with God.

VERS. 14.-- He made also. (RAB.) This is set down before in Kings, etc., as far as and the truth of the Gospel and the entrance of the kingdom is opened by the Truth itself.

And he wove in. The cherubim are woven in with these four colours, when in all the things that we do devoutly we are protected by angelic guards from the envenomed 669Cdarts of the demons, and use unceasingly the multitude of knowledge, ever looking back to the divine oracles, lest we stray from the path of the virtues.

VERS. 15.-- Before the doors also of the temple two pillars. They stood in the porch before the doors of the temple, and adorned the entrance of the temple with their comeliness on either side. The door of the temple is the Lord, who says: No man cometh to the Father, but by me, etc. (Joan. XIV). The pillars stand about the door on either side, when the ministers of the word show to both peoples the entry of the kingdom of heaven, that whosoever shall have come to the faith of the Gospel from the light of the knowledge of the law or from the error of heathendom, may have them ready who may show him the way of salvation by word and by example. In Kings it is read of these pillars: 669DWho when he was come to king Solomon, wrought all his work, and he cast two pillars of brass, etc. (III Reg. VII.)

Thirty and five. This number signifies the perfection of the masters. For the number seven multiplied by five, or five by seven, yield thirty-five. But five expresses the law, and seven, on account of the sevenfold Spirit resting upon the flower of the root of Jesse, the Gospel; whence in one place the Lord is related to have fed five thousand men with five loaves, and in another four thousand men with seven loaves. The pillars therefore of thirty-five cubits signify that the teachers of the Gospel have 670Aperfect knowledge of the two Testaments, whence: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God (Marc. IV). And elsewhere: He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luc. XXIV).

As it were little chains. (RAB.) The manifold weaving of the chains and of the net, according to Kings the spreading ( sic ), suggests the manifold persons of the elect, who, when by faithfully hearkening and by obeying they cleave to the words of the preachers, as it were nets and little chains laid upon the heads of the pillars, offer to them that behold the marvel of their own knitting together.

VERS. 16.-- Upon the heads of the pillars. The heads of the pillars, that is, the topmost part, are the hearts of the teachers, by whose thoughts devoted to God, as the members by the head, so all their works and words are directed.

670BPomegranates. With one rind without they enclose many seeds within, whence they signify the Church, because by the defence of the one faith she encloses innumerable troops of the elect, or the life and manners of every just man, who fence about with the firm guard of faith and of humility the many marks of thoughts and of virtues, lest perhaps they flow away. And fitly were the heads of the pillars encircled round about with pomegranates, because the holy teachers call back to memory the life of the faithful of former times; and by their examples they confirm their own discourses also on every side, lest, if they should live or teach otherwise than their rule holds, they should err.

VERS. 17.-- The same pillars also. Therefore were two pillars made, and so disposed, that they may teach that the entrance of the heavenly kingdom is, in prosperous things and in adverse, to be 670Cheld before our eyes. But it is to be noted that the porch of the temple is also called the vestibule, and that what we read, between the vestibule and the altar, ought to be understood, between the porch and the altar. The second pillar signifies the preachers who were sent to the Gentiles to preach. Or the right pillar signifies those who prophesied that the Lord would come in the flesh. But the second, those who bear witness that he has already come and has redeemed the world by his own blood. Both pillars are reckoned under a like name, when the one is called firmness and the other in strength, so that one fortitude, of faith and of work, may be shown to be in all teachers, and the teachers of our own time may be silently marked, who wish to be seen and to be called pillars of the house of God, since in themselves, of a firm faith for despising the pomps of the world, for desiring the invisible good things, they 670Dhave nothing of strength for correcting, nor of diligence for understanding, the errors of those over whom they are set.

VERS. 1.-- He made also, etc. (RAB.) The altar of holocaust signifies those who consecrate their body and their soul to God by the fire of love: whose perseverance in good work the length of the altar expresses, the breadth their amplitude in the love of God and of the neighbour, the height sets forth their hope in the awaiting of the visitation.

Of twenty cubits. The number twenty signifies the great perfection of unwearied long-suffering and of sincere love, which is bestowed on us through the keeping of either Testament. For four times five 671Aare twenty, and five are the books of the law, and four the Gospels. But when by the enlightening of grace we come to the understanding and the keeping of the law, we make up the number twenty; and the same number is made in the length and in the breadth of the altar, when the hearts of the elect, with either Testament teaching them, keep the perseverance of a work of this kind even in persecutions, and the cheerfulness of love even toward those who persecute

And of ten cubits. In the number ten is signified the hope of the heavenly rewards. Whence they who labour in the vineyard of the father of the household are rewarded with a penny. Whence the altar, which signifies the elect, is raised to ten cubits for the signifying of their perpetual life.

VERS. 2.-- The sea also. (RAB.) The saving laver, 671Betc., as far as and ought to hope for a common crown of justice from the Lord.

It had five cubits. Because whatever we offend in by sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, is all loosed in baptism. But the remission of past sins does not suffice, unless each thereafter apply himself to good works. Otherwise the devil who had gone out returns the more manifoldly, and the last things of the man become worse than the first. Whence he hears:

A line of thirty cubits. That is, the discipline of the heavenly precepts, whereby we are bound back from our own wills, whence: A threefold cord is hardly broken (Eccle. IV); because the keeping of the commandments of God in the hearts of the saints, made firm by faith, by hope and by love of the recompense above, can by no adversity be 671Cdissolved.

VERS. 3.-- And of ten cubits. (RAB.) A carving beneath the brim, etc., as far as with how great unhappiness the reprobate perished for their crimes.

VERS. 4.-- The hinder parts. Because with what reward the preachers shall be endowed for ever has been disposed by the judgment of God, but is as yet hidden from us, from whom this cannot be hidden, that every one who receives baptism unto salvation ought to have faith, hope, and charity; nor without these three virtues is he able to work, or to enter unto salvation, whence in Kings it is said: And the thickness of the laver of three inches (III Reg. VII). The thickness of the laver is the firmness of virtue. Of three inches, because by the strength of faith, of hope and of love the receiving of baptism is fortified.

671DVERS. 5.-- But the breadth. The thickness which Josephus said to be of four fingers, showing what was the greatness of a palm. And these things signify the same. For whosoever by faith, by hope, and by charity works the works of justice according to the doctrine of the four Gospels, receives also the reward of eternal life.

Three thousand measures. The thousand signifies perfection, because ten makes a solid square. For ten times ten make a hundred, which is as it were a square figure, but flat: but that it may rise into height and be made solid, multiply a hundred by ten, and a thousand is made. By which number is signified the stable and unconquerable and as it were foursquare conscience of the just. For whichever way you turn a square, it will stand. So 672Athe mind of the elect is bent by no temptation from the state of rectitude. The sea holds three thousand measures; when the sacrament of baptism, given in the faith of the Trinity, confers upon those washed in it the remission of all sins

VERS. 6.-- He made also lavers. In Kings thus: He made also ten lavers of brass. One laver held forty bates. And it was of four cubits. He set also the several lavers upon the several ten bases, etc. The apostles and apostolic men, who are signified by the oxen bearing the sea, are expressed also by the bases made ready for bearing the lavers, even as the lavers themselves signify baptism, which the sea prefigured. For the priests washed in them all the things which they were to offer in holocausts. And the holocaust of the Lord may be understood as the whole multitude of the faithful: which is baptized by him 672Bin water and in fire. As therefore the priests who are washed in the sea signify those who through baptism are made partakers of the high priest: so the holocausts express the same men, when after the washing of baptism they are filled with spiritual grace. For the victim is washed in the laver, when the faithful one is poured over with the water of baptism. It is offered in holocaust, when through the imposition of the bishop's hand he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 8.-- And he set five. On either side of the temple the bases of the lavers were set, that to either people the grace of the sacred font might be marked out as to be laid open. And there are five on either side, that, as in the exposition of the sea which we have already said to be five cubits high, it might be typically shown that all the things he had offended in through the five senses of the body are to be remitted through the laver 672Cof baptism. As therefore in the one sea set upon twelve oxen the unity of baptism is expressed, which was to be preached by the apostles in the whole world: so also through the two ranks of lavers it is mystically shown, that the heathen world together with Jewry was to be begotten through the wave of baptism into one fellowship of faith.

Golden candlesticks. The divine oracles, which bring forth the light of wisdom, whence: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light, etc. (Psal. CXVIII). Hence Solomon says: Because the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light (Prov. VI). Twice five are the candlesticks, because five are the volumes of the lawgiver, in which also the whole series of the Old Testament comprehends the five ages of the world. Five are set on the right and five on the left: when after the incarnation of the Lord the same Scripture 672Dis committed to either people; or is shown to be full of evangelical figures, which once was thought to be understood according to the letter alone.

And the tables also. (RAB.) These tables, etc., as far as whose works, like saving breasts, set before us for examples of life.

VERS. 9.-- He made also a court. (RAB.) The court of the priests in the church, etc., as far as we have set forth more fully in the book of Kings according to Bede.

And a great basilica. Which was outside the court of the priests, into which all the people flowed together to pray or to hear the word. This in the Church signifies the life and manners of the carnal, to whom it is said: 673AI could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, etc.

And a basilica. Rightly are the carnal signified by the great basilica, because much greater in the Church is the number of such as these than of the perfect. But by as much as they excel in number, by so much do they fall short in merit. Whence this great basilica, though it holds very many, admits them not to the office of the altar, not even into the court of the priests itself, because the carnal and the weak, even if for the merit of a chaste faith and of piety they belong to the lot of the elect, are yet far from those who say: I dare not speak of any of those things which Christ does not work through me, unto the obedience of the Gentiles by word and by deeds.

And the doors in the basilica. These signify that the entrance of faith 673Bis prepared by the word of preaching, that they who come may learn how through the faith of Christ or through the saving sacraments they ought to enter the Church of God, and, after they have entered, how religiously they ought to live.

VERS. 11.-- And Hiram made. The caldrons take up the sacred ashes, when the faithful with devout mind go back over the examples and the sacraments of the Lord's passion for their own keeping, or diligently look upon the end of the just, who, their great contests having been wrought out, rejoice without end over the prize received, that, the virtues of their elders being considered, they too may be made great; whence: Whose end of conversation beholding, behold ye also their faith. [Vulg. Hebr. 13:7 quorum intuentes exitum conversationis, imitamini fidem, "imitate their faith"]

And the fleshhooks. The fleshhooks signify the preachers who refresh the souls of the faithful with the word of God, comparing to spiritual men 673Cspiritual things, but ministering to the carnal the milk of simple doctrine: but they who will know the sacraments of Christ summarily and take them up for imitation, are filled, as carnal men, with the saving victim; and because it belongs to teachers to divide to each what is fitting, rightly are fleshhooks made for the priests, wherewith they may set in order the flesh of the victims as is meet, and bring some things to clean men, and leave others to be consumed by the fires of the altar; for some things are revealed to our lowliness for refreshment, some lie open only to the knowledge of the Holy Spirit; some things in Paralipomenon which were expounded in Kings we pass over, some we have not found expounded, and we are unwilling to exceed the custom of our own littleness. For nowhere have we expounded anything of ourselves.

673DAnd the vials. The vials signify the broader and opener discourse of holy doctrine, which bestows a draught of wisdom on them that devoutly thirst, and grants through the ministries of the preachers a fitting refreshment to them that devoutly labour, that they may be able to come to the fountain of eternal life, drinking whereof they shall not thirst for ever.

VERS. 17.-- In the clay ground. The clay ground of which the moulds were made for casting the vessels signifies Holy Scripture (of which we receive the rule of living well). For as clay hardened by fire displays the form of the Lord's vessel, how great and of what sort they ought to be made; so Scripture shows us the rule of justice which we are to follow, and the examples of the saints, who unconquered in the fire of tribulation stood firm in all things, that we 674Amay desire to be precious vessels in the house of the Lord. And the brass melted by fire enters the moulds of clay, that it may be able to be made a vessel fit for the heavenly ministries; when we ourselves, wholesomely humbled and softened by the flame of divine charity or of human adversity, enter by working well the way of the Fathers, that by running well we may come to their rewards. For it is not always necessary that we be straitened by the rules of working well, but when the good work is completed, the palm of the blessed recompense is to be hoped for. Because not always were the vessels kept shut up in the moulds of clay: when they had come to perfection, the enclosures of the moulds being broken, they were brought forth into the light, and were disposed in the temple to the Lord each in its own place. Not that the works of the saints shall perish, but when they shall have received the crown of justice, the offices 674Bof laborious working shall cease.

In the region of the Jordan. In which Christ was baptized, who, dipped in the waves of the waters, turned the element for us into the washing away of sins. And because every baptism of the faithful, whereby we are consecrated to the Lord, is celebrated after the example of that baptism, rightly were the vessels of the house of the Lord made in the region of the Jordan. For we cannot otherwise be made vessels of election, unless, looking to his baptism, we take pains to be washed in the life-giving river. But it is to be noted that he says the vessels were made not only in the region of the Jordan, but in the plain country thereof, signifying the multiplication of the faithful, which was to be not only in Judea, but in the breadth of the nations; whence: The fields shall rejoice, and all things that are in them (Psal. XCV). And elsewhere: We have heard of it in Ephrata, 674Cwe have found it in the fields of the wood (Ibid. CXXXI). The king therefore poured out the vessels of the house of the Lord in the plain country of the Jordan, because the Lord filled the whole breadth of the world with the baptism of salvation, out of which he might make vessels of mercy.

VERS. 18.-- And Solomon made. He dictated what Hiram completed in the very work. But allegorically our Redeemer prepares the adornment of the Church in the holy preachers and in all the faithful, and works the works of the virtues, who says: Nothing can you do without me (Joan. XV); and elsewhere: For every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, etc. (Jac. I.)

VERS. 19.-- The golden altar. The hearts of the perfect, shining with the light of inward charity and of chastity, whose loftiness the place of the altar also signifies. For it stood 674Dbefore the door of the holy of holies, as we read in the making of the tabernacle, in which not the blood of victims nor libations, but only incense was burned, the upper part whereof, ascending, covered the ark, and filled the oracle with the odour of sweetness. In which are figured the saints, who, while, the desires of temporal things being neglected, they seek with their whole intent the things of heaven, are as it were set within beside the oracle: nor far removed from the veil by which the temple and the holy of holies are parted; because in body only do they dwell on earth, but in their whole mind they are in heaven. And from this altar the smoke of the incense ascends within the holy of holies where the ark is laid up; that the prayers of the saints, kindled by the flame of charity, may come to heaven, 675Awhere Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. For on this altar not the blood of victims but only incense is burned, because such men have not works of flesh and of blood which they might slay to the Lord upon the altar of the heart, but they offer the vows of tears and of prayers for the desire of the kingdom of heaven.

VERS. 21.-- And the tongs, etc. The tongs for the use of the altar were made of brass. But these also, by which the lamps were cleansed, signify the interpretation of the spiritual sense through the offices of the teachers. For carrying over the very words of the sacred utterance from the history into allegory, from the shadow into the truth, they multiply as it were the light of knowledge in the Church, being set upon the mystic candlestick.

VERS. 22.-- And he graved the doors. These are the teachers and 675Bthe priests, who by instructing, by baptizing, by communicating the mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord, open to us the first thresholds of the Church.

And so all was completed. When the true peaceable one on the last day glorifies all the elect with the immortality of the resurrection. But as long as the state of this world is carried on, Solomon does indeed the work of the house of the Lord, but does not complete it: because the Lord inspires and helps the hearts of the elect that they may work good things, yet to none does he grant to be without sin, which he reserves for the faithful in the time to come. But he completes the whole work of his temple and renders it fit for the dedication, when he leads the elect, carried over out of this life, to the everlasting kingdom: whence in seven years it is built, and in the eighth, being finished, it is dedicated. For in seven days all time is rolled round, and the eighth is 675Cthe day of judgment and of resurrection, to which agrees that which follows.

VERS. 1.-- Solomon therefore brought in all the things, etc. (RAB.) This is done when Christ, etc., as far as but many mansions in her for the receiving of all whom, fearing and loving him, the Lord blesseth, the little with the greater. [Vulg. Psal. 113:21 Benedixit omnibus qui timent Dominum, pusillis cum majoribus, "He hath blessed all that fear the Lord"]

VERS. 9.-- And of the bars. (ID.) It is to be noted that, etc., as far as by so much the less do they see the inward joys.

VERS. 10.-- And there was nothing else. He shows generally that in the floor [area; read arca, "the ark"] there was nothing contrary to the law of the Lord comprised in the two tables; but that those things only were laid up there which according to the commandments of the law were typically made for the worship 675Dof the one God and for the commending of our faith, that the shadow of things to come might in all things afford testimony to the truth to come, and, when that appeared in the world, might receive its end. And there was in the ark, according to Paul, a golden urn holding manna, because in the man Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. There was also the virgin [virgo; read virga, "rod"] of Aaron, which, having been cut down, had flowered anew: because all power of judging is with him, whose judgment in the lowliness of the passion seemed to have been taken away. There was also the tables of the testament, because in him are all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge hidden. There clung to it also the bars by which it was carried, because the teachers who once laboured in the word of Christ now rejoice together in the present vision of the glory 676Aof Christ. Whence: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. I) [Vulg. Phil. 1:23 desiderium habens dissolvi, "having a desire to be dissolved"].

VERS. 12.-- Clothed in fine linen. By the stoles of fine linen is designated the white chastity of bodily cleanness: with this are clothed all who stand by at the service of God, and who sound out his praises with mouth, with manners, and with act. For the cymbals signify the confession of the mouth, the psalteries mortality, the harps the mortification of the flesh, and the strenuousness of good action, being furnished with twenty-four strings, that is, with prophetic and apostolic doctrines.

The priests. Or rather the teachers, expressed by the hundred and the twenty, because the lawgiver completed with this number the sum of his years, and on the day of Pentecost the believers received in the same number the grace of the Paraclete Spirit.

676BVERS. 13.-- Therefore when all. (RAB.) All the priests and Levites, etc., as far as they lost the ministry of the true priesthood.

VERS. 14.-- For he had filled. Because the mysteries which lay hid under the veil were opened through the coming of Christ to them that believed and worthily received. But to the rest, unwilling to come to the faith, the former blindness remained. Whence: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, etc. (Matth. XIII.)

VERS. 1.-- In the darkness. Whence Job: A cloud is his hiding place (Job. XXII). And the Psalmist: Darkness under his feet: and he made darkness his hiding place (Psal. XVII). The hiding place of the Lord is Holy Scripture: which under 676Cparables and figures bears the heavenly sacraments. Whence: I will confess to thee, O Lord, father of heaven and earth, for that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones (Matth. XI) [Vulg. Matth. 11:25 Confiteor tibi, Pater, Domine caeli et terrae, quia abscondisti, present "I confess", and "Father, Lord of heaven and earth"].

VERS. 5.-- He dedicated. (RAB.) Christ cleansed it with his own blood, and sanctified it with spiritual grace, and multiplied it with the diverse gifts of the virtues. And the children of Israel dedicate it, because every faithful man, according to the gift bestowed on him by God, turns and advances his neighbours by word and by example to better and more perfect things.

VERS. 7.-- He sanctified. Because Christ perfects in the Church those things which in the law could not be perfected because of its weakness. For she is the court of the house 676Dof the Lord, through whom the entrance lies open into the heavenly Jerusalem: because therefore holocausts and sacrifices could not be offered on the altar of the Old Testament; because all things were done there figuratively, our king and priest raised up a new altar of faith in the Church, upon which they daily offer fat holocausts and sacrifices acceptable to God. Whence The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me, and there is the way, etc.

VERS. 8.-- He made therefore. (RAB.) I do not think that this is to be understood otherwise, etc., as far as in the rest of souls to come, in the perceiving of the truth itself in reality.

VERS. 10.-- Therefore on the day, etc. That is, after the eighth day of the solemnity of the scenopegia: as is contained in Kings. And it signifies that after the end of that life, and after 677Athe sabbath-rest of holy souls, wherein before the judgment they rest; in the eighth age, that is, on the day of the resurrection, the saints shall receive immortal bodies, and are to be placed in the heavenly mansions according to the qualities of their merits, where they may ever rejoice, praising God in all the good things which the Father has conferred in Christ upon the Christian people.

VERS. 1.-- And when twenty were ended, etc., Hiram had given, etc. (RAB. in Paral. ex Hieron.) He had given them back, namely, because when Solomon had given them they did not please. him. Therefore Solomon appointed them to his own uses.

VERS. 5.-- Bethoron. (RAB.) It is a city, as far as which Jesus pursued the enemy kings in the tribe 677Bof Ephraim, etc., as far as and the other Bethoron the lower, given to the Levites for a possession.

VERS.--6.-- And all. Ezer, namely, and Mageddo and Gazer and Mello, all which show forth the comeliness of the Church: because the true Solomon in the pleasantness of his kingdom prepared them for himself unto praise and gladness. And Mello is interpreted a fulfilling; Ezer separated and sanctified; Mageddo his upper chamber; Gazer a cutting off or a division; Bethoron the house of mountains; Balaath ascending. And holy Church is the city of the living God, where the will of God is daily fulfilled, and, separated from every error of the unbelieving, she is sanctified by faith and by good work. There is the refreshment of the virtues. She herself discerns the clean and the unclean, and vice from virtue: and she is the house of mountains, that is, the habitation 677Cof the saints, and by the fruit of justice as a flourishing palm she goeth up from virtue to virtue, that she may see the God of gods in Sion (Psal. LXXXIII) [Vulg. Psal. 83:8 ibunt de virtute in virtutem: videbitur Deus deorum in Sion, "they shall go … the God of gods shall be seen"]. Solomon fortified all his villages, because Christ so fortifies the assemblies of his faithful with the protection of his grace, that they may be able to withstand their spiritual enemies.

In Libanus. (HIERON.) In the temple, namely, which was clothed with the comeliness of cedars, whence Zacharias: Open thy gates, O Libanus (Zach. XI); or in the royal buildings which had been made of the woods of Libanus.

VERS. 10.-- Two hundred and fifty. The hundred, which in the reckoning of the fingers passes over from the left hand into the right, signifies eternal life. But the fifty signifies the remission of sins, and eternal rest, and the grace of the Holy Spirit: because in the psalm of the same 677Dnumber penance, confession, and the remission of sins is described; and through the jubilee the rest to come. But through Pentecost, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, the sevenfold grace is expressed.

Who taught. Because out of either people he chose rulers of the Church, who, enlightened by spiritual grace and fully taught, might teach by their own example the remission of sins, and the life of eternal salvation, and the perpetual blessedness that is to be sought after.

VERS. 12.-- Holocausts. (RAB.) A holocaust is called a thing wholly burnt, this is consumed upon the altar, when in the heart of each of the elect who has vowed his whole self, namely in flesh and in heart, to God, a good work is kindled by the burning fire of charity.

678AVERS. 14.--According to the fitness of each season he disposes all things in the Church, that each order, having discharged its own office, may worthily minister

VERS. 17.-- In Asiongaber. It is said to be an island not far from Ahila in the Red Sea, where the fleet of Josaphat perished.

(RAB.) The fleet which Solomon made, etc., as far as they find through the grace of the Holy Spirit, and, ascribing divine things to wisdom and to counsel, they attribute him

VERS. 18.-- In Ophir. The name of the province Ophir, called from one of the later descendants of Heber, from whose stock those that came, Josephus relates, dwelt from the river Cophene as far as the region of India which is called Geria.

678BVERS. 1.-- The queen also. (RAB. in Paral., tom. III.) The queen of the south, who was stirred up from the uttermost ends and came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, prefigured the Church of the gentiles that was to come to Christ: who, clothed about with variety in a gilded vesture, forgetting her people and the house of her father, was of a barbarian nation, not in mind, because she desired to become a fellow-citizen of the saints, whence: The queen of the south shall rise up unto judgment with this generation (Matth. XII).

VERS. 3.-- Which after she had seen, etc. These things agree with the Church, who, when the miracles of Christ had been heard, was stirred up to seek him. But after she came to him through baptism and faith, having considered the testimonies of Scripture, she acknowledged the presence of the Godhead, and what she had heard of him before seemed little to her in 678Ccomparison with the grace received. Whence also, marvelling, she breaks forth into his praise, saying: Blessed are thy men, etc.

VERS. 12.-- Of the woods. Christ sets precious woods, that is, holy teachers, whose greenness of faith never withers, nor do the leaves of their words fall away, but they render the fruit of good works in their seasons: he sets them for the fortification of the house of the Lord and of the royal house, that is, for the strengthening of the Church, and that, fenced about on every side by their doctrines and examples, she may not feel ruin. These are said to have been fashioned as harps and lyres for praising the Lord, because all things whatsoever they shall do shall prosper, and they proclaim the praise of the Lord in prosperity and in adversity with heart and mouth and work, and do all things unto the glory of God, and all the day and the night they cease not to praise the name of the Lord.

678DVERS. 13.-- Six hundred. The senary multiplied by the senary makes sixty. The centenary also, drawn out six times, yields a hundred and six. The denary signifies the perfection of the commandments, the centenary the recompense of eternal blessedness. For the king desires our perfection, that he may have those to whom he may render a perfect wage, whence: Be ye perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments (Matth. V, XIX). And after a little. If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all things that thou hast, etc., and every one that shall leave house, etc., shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting.

And all the kings of Arabia. Divers nations and traders and all the kings of Arabia 679Aand the satraps of the lands offer to Solomon gold and silver: because every nation and every person, striving as they are able, offers to our peaceable one the gift of right faith, purity of understanding, the fulness of holy confession, the splendour of eloquence, whence: The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer a gift, etc. And all kings shall adore him, all nations shall serve him (Psal. LXXI).

VERS. 15.-- He made therefore. Because the fathers of both Testaments, perfect in teaching and in working, whatsoever they taught by word they proved by work.

Golden spears. This is the armour of God, wherewith we resist against the wiles of the devil: this the holy preachers have, who guard the house of God, and keep watch at its door, lest the ancient enemy should enter in, whence: The bed of Solomon sixty 679Bvaliant men encompass (Prov. III).

VERS. 16.-- Three hundred also. It signifies perfect faith in the confession of the holy Trinity. Fitly do the guardians of the house of God bear golden spears and shields: because the preachers, who are the guardians of the Church, shining with the brightness of wisdom, pierce their enemies through with the javelins of words, and with the shield of faith quench the most wicked fiery darts.

Six little arms also. [Vulg. 2Par 9:18 Sex quoque gradus … et brachiola duo altrinsecus, "six steps … and two little arms on either side"] In the senary is the perfection of good works. For in six days God made the world, and the senary is the first perfect number. And by good and perfect works there is an ascent to heaven.

A golden footstool. The saints, shining with the splendour of virtues, in whom God dwells. There may also be noted 679Cby the footstool those who are weak in the body of Christ, as penitents, or those who shall be converted last, namely toward the end of the world, who nevertheless are golden, baked and proved by the fire of the tribulations of that time.

Standing beside the little arms: but also other twelve little lions, etc. Because the holy Fathers, whatsoever of good they did in the Gospel, ascribed it not to themselves but to God, whence: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory (Psal. CXIII).

The little arms, etc., in Kings thus: And two hands on this side and on that holding the seat (III Reg. X). These are the consolations of divine grace, which carry the Church forward to the heavenly kingdom. Or this is designated by the binary, 679Dbecause in both Testaments this above all is commended, that nothing of good can be perfected except by divine help. Whence: Without me you can do nothing (Joan. V).

VERS. 19.-- Six steps. Because by teaching and by example they strive, lest the labour of the unwise should waver in working, but should stoutly keep uprightness in the advance of the virtues.

There was not such a throne, etc. Because of the Church it is written: Strength and beauty are her clothing, etc. (III Reg. X.) And: Many daughters have gathered together riches: thou hast surpassed them all (Prov. XXXI).

VERS. 20.-- All things also. The souls of the saints, which serve the will of God, shining with the splendour of wisdom and of charity, contain the drink of living water, 680Awhich becomes in them a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting (Joan. IV).

Silver. The word of God is not in speech, but in power, as in the preaching of the Gospel; not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the spirit and of power.

VERS. 21.-- For the ships of the king went to Tharsis, etc. (RAB.) Christ sends into the world the apostles, the teachers of the Gospel, whom he chose from among the Jews, together with the preachers chosen from among the gentiles, of a threefold confession but of one faith, that in them that believe they may bring to him the gold of wisdom, the silver of eloquence, and the ivory of chastity. But the ape is a clever animal, and given to imitating man, and can signify the philosophers, who sometimes change the meanings of true wisdom, 680Band expound the acts of the moral life in their disciplines. The peacock, which displays its praised feathers, signifies those who for the praises of men make a show of the appearances of divers virtues; but being instructed by the teaching of the preachers they learn to do good with a view to God alone, and are fitted for the delights of the eternal king.

VERS. 25.-- Forty. The quadragenary signifies the times of the ancient law. For Moses, being about to receive the law, fasted forty days, and the people instructed by him went about the desert for forty years. But the senary signifies the present time, in which the apostolic teaching nourishes the people of the New Testament. Rightly therefore are the horses of Solomon placed in the stables numbered by the quadragenary, because through the hardness of the old law the insolence of the former 680Cpeople was restrained. But the duodenary signifies the present time, in which the apostolic authority nourishes the people of the gentiles with the teaching of the New Testament.

In Jerusalem. In the vision of peace. The distance of places shows the distinction of affections. For they who are in the cities of the chariots signify those who are instructed in the divers disciplines of the church by spiritual masters. But others, already instructed, being fitted for the use of the heavenly king, are worthy to have his presence. Whence: The chariot of God with ten thousands, etc. (Psal. LXXVI.) And elsewhere: Ascending upon thy horses, and thy cavalry is health (Rabac. III). [Vulg. Hab 3:8 et quadrigae tuae salvatio, "and thy chariots salvation"]

Of the Philistines. Of them that fall doubly. For Philitshiim is interpreted a double ruin. This comes to pass when, through the remission of sins, the grace of power overflows from its beginning in the 680DJordan of baptism even from the conversion of all nations to the faith of Christ, so that where there was a flowing away of carnal desires, there the seed of virtues may be established; and where the idolatry and the shameful converse of the peoples was a double ruin, there through the confession of right faith and the worship of piety the life of the faithful may rise to the heavenly kingdom. For his power reaches even to the borders of Egypt, that is, to the darkened minds of unbelievers, which he fills with the light of faith; whence: Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down, etc.

VERS. 27.-- And so great an abundance. The true Solomon affords in the Church an abundance of silver as of stones, when he turns the senseless hearts of the gentiles, which stones they worshipped in place of God, to the understanding of the true God, to the meditation of the law, 681Aand to the preaching of the Gospel. Of whom it is said: They that make them become like unto them, etc. (Psal. CXIII). And elsewhere: God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matth. III). He affords also a multitude of cedars as of sycamores, because the barrenness of the gentiles, who would not raise themselves on high, he advanced to the fruitfulness of good works and of virtues.

VERS. 27.-- And of cedars. The cedar is by nature incorruptible, pleasant in odour, bright in appearance, which, being kindled, by its brightness puts serpents to flight and destroys them.

But the rest. Which he did after he transgressed the law of God, when foreign wives drew him even to idolatry: many indeed, like Solomon, begin well and end ill, and no man ought to be called blessed before his death and his last funeral rites.

• 681B

VERS. 8.-- He forsook the counsel of the old men, etc. (HIERON.) The Hebrews say that these were Banaias the son of Joiada and Jahihel the son of Achamoni, who is also called Chilla: whose counsel being forsaken, Roboam began to treat with young men, that is, with Aduram, who in what follows is said to have been stoned, and with such as he. But we often call a man young not in age, but in mind. For Roboam was young not in age, but in understanding: who began to reign in the forty-first year of his age.

VERS. 13.-- And the king answered, etc. He signifies here the evil rulers in the Church, who, given over to earthly desires, neglect the care of their subjects, and rejoice in the multitude of those who are obsequious to them. And Roboam is interpreted the breadth of the people. These are they who enter the broad 681Cway which leads to death, not the narrow, which leads to life; and, forsaking the counsel of the fathers whose words and deeds tend to the height of perfection, they choose to obey the counsel of young men, who burden them with praises and flatteries, who are blind and leaders of the blind, etc., whence: Woe to thee, O land, whose king is a child, etc. (Eccl. X.)

VERS. 21.-- He loved, etc. Now he had eighteen wives joined to him by law, and thirty concubines. And there were born to him eighteen sons, and sixty daughters.

VERS. 2.-- And in the fifth year of the reign of Roboam he went up. (RAB.) Evil rulers through their negligence provoke 681Dthe prince of darkness into the Church, who carries off the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king, when he withdraws the knowledge of the Scriptures and the works of the virtues from the incautious and the slothful.

VERS. 9.-- Sesac the king. The fine linen of haircloth, or the joy of haircloth. Fine linen indeed signifies subtlety: haircloth, which is made of the hairs of goats, sins. In the fine linen of haircloth, therefore, is the craftiness of diabolical fraud in the persuasion to sin. Sesac carries off the riches of Jerusalem, when the devil, who craftily deceives and rejoices in the multitude of sinners, despoils churchmen of spiritual knowledge and of the work of virtue: and those who seemed comely in the Church, being despoiled, he plunges with himself into the abyss of perdition.

The shields. Solomon made golden shields, and delivered them to the keepers 682Aof his house, when Christ committed spiritual knowledge through the two Testaments to the teachers of the Church for the protection of the people. This the ancient enemy through carelessness draws back again. For when they are intent upon earthly things, and care less for the heavenly, he leaves them stripped of their former office and of knowledge, as men despoiled of their riches in their own house. But such men, when they see themselves deprived of spiritual understanding, seek by eloquence an abundance of words, the sonorousness whereof they set against their enemies on behalf of their subjects as though it were the firmness of brazen shields. But by how much brass is baser than gold, by so much is eloquence inferior to the fruit of true wisdom. Whence: Where there are very many words, there is frequently want (Prov. XIV).

VERS. 15.-- Of Semeias. Who above reproved Roboam and the sons 682Bof Juda for their sins.

Addo. Who is also Abdo, this is he who was sent by the Lord into Samaria to reprove Jeroboam for the altar which he had made, who was slain on the way, because, seduced by a false prophet against the commandment of the Lord, he ate there.

VERS. 4.-- Semeron. (RAB. ex Hieron.) It is a city which Jesus took, the king of it being slain, which they say is now called Sebaste, a town of Palestine, where the relics of John the Baptist were laid. But we read in Kings that Amri king of Israel bought the mountain Semeron from a certain Semer, and built a city on the top of it, which from the name of its lord, namely Semer, he called Semeron.

682CVERS. 19.-- Bethel. (RAB.) A city at the next milestone from Elia, on the right hand as men go to Neopolis, which formerly was called Luza, that is Amigdalon, and it fell to the lot of Benjamin beside Bethan and Hai, which Jesus stormed, the king of it being slain.

Ephron. It is a city in the tribe of Juda. Whence also a very large village to the north is to this day called Ephrea, at the twentieth milestone from Elia.

VERS. 20.-- In the days. Not of Jeroboam, in whose twentieth year, according to the book of Kings, Asa the son of Abia reigned over Juda and Jerusalem, but of Abia, who, Bethel being received, kept the idols for Israel unto a stumbling-block, as the Hebrews assert.

VERS. 2.-- He went out, etc. When Azarias had reigned ten 682Dyears, Zareas king of Ethiopia moved his camp against him with an exceeding great army, leading ninety thousand foot indeed, and ten thousand horse, and three hundred chariots. The camp being pitched against him, when Asa had seen the multitude of the Ethiopians, he begged victory of God with a great cry, and that he himself might destroy so many thousands of men. For he said that trust was to be placed in no other than in him who was able to show even a few stronger than many, and to make the weak prevail over the strongest.

VERS. 15.-- And Azarias, etc. Azarias the prophet, meeting them, commanded that they should stay the step of their journey a little from the way, and then he began to say to them 683Athat that victory had been granted them by God, for that they had kept themselves just and holy, and had done all things by the will of God. And he said that they, remaining in his commandments, would prevail over their enemies, and would have by divine power happiness and prosperity; but forsaking religion, would come into the contrary, and that a time would come in which no true prophet would be found among that people, nor priest, for which cause both the cities were to be overthrown, and the nation to be scattered over all the earth, and that they would have a miserable and needy life.

VERS. 14.-- With spices, etc.--This is the vain boasting of fame, which philosophers or poets bestow after the death of their kings, or even false Christians upon their dying 683Bmasters, and these things they cast into the fire: because all those things are shown to be liable to the fires of hell, which they have here brought forth without profit and without the edification of the brethren.

They burnt over him, etc. Note that for kings, as the Hebrews hand down, burnings of precious garments together with spices were made for reverence' sake. Whence elsewhere: According to the burnings of thy forefathers shall they do to thee. For it was the custom among the ancients that the precious ornaments of kings should be burned upon a pyre after their death in place of funeral rites, but without the bodies.

VERS. 3.-- He walked in the ways of David, etc. (RAB.) He shows that he was an executor of the divine commandments, as David was, before he sinned against the wife 683Cof Urias, the satisfaction for which sin gained him an everlasting memory.

VERS. 5.-- All Juda gave gifts to Josaphat. Here he signifies the faithful of the gentiles, who, forsaking the error of their fathers, come together to Christ, washed by baptism and anointed with chrism, receiving from Christ the Christian name and royal dignity. Whence: You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, etc. (I Petr. II.) For in the time of Josaphat, the dowry of the Lord, or he who is a dowry, or he who is endowed, and because the Church of the gentiles, purchased by the blood of Christ, given by the pledge of the Holy Spirit, merited the fellowship of the heavenly Bridegroom and the society of the kingdom. To whom infinite riches have been made when divers nations believe, and in the acquisition of divers virtues.

683DVERS. 10.-- Therefore there was a fear, etc. For the virtues which are wrought in the Church, the boldness of the gentiles is taken away, and they are stirred up to bring to Christ the gifts of faith and the tribute of good work, and of pious confession, and the flocks of simplicity.

VERS. 2.-- And he went down, etc. These are the heresiarchs who lead the crowd of the lost through the by-ways of errors, and plunge them into the precipice of death. Josaphat was joined to Achab by affinity, and went down to him into Samaria to his help against his enemies: and he signifies those who from among catholics incline themselves to the friendship of heretics: who, although they depart not from the path of right faith, nevertheless do not shun the fellowship and communion 684Aof them that err. Against whom it is said: A man that is a heretic, after the first and second correction, avoid (Tit. III). Whence Josaphat is reproved by Jehu the seer, the son of Anani, that prophet namely who had rebuked Asa, because he had given help to the impious, and was joined in friendship with those who hate the Lord.

(GREG., lib. II Moral., cap. 15, tom. I.) The throne of the Lord, the angelic powers, etc., as far as and by so much the more hardly would he be found unto punishment, by how much the more securely he was living in guilt.

VERS. 10.-- Every cause that shall come to you, etc. (AUG., lib. IV de Civ., cap. 3.) Justice being removed, what are kingdoms but great robberies? because even robberies themselves, what are they but little kingdoms?

684BVERS. 1.-- Of the Ammonites. He signifies the Idumaeans, but the writer of the history chose rather to note what was being done by the name of their associates, than to publish abroad the impiety of the shameless.

VERS. 2.-- From these places, etc. He signifies those places which are beyond the Sea of Salt, which is otherwise named the Asphaltite lake or the Dead Sea.

Engaddi. It is called so to this day, a very large village of the Jews beside the Dead Sea, whence comes balsam: which Solomon calls the vineyards of Engaddi.

VERS. 16.-- For they shall go up by the ascent named Sis, etc. (RAB. in Paral., ex Hieron.) Which is also Jeruel according to the Hebrews. For they say that Sis, etc., as far as a terror was struck into the strangers on every side.

Mystically, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Idumaeans signify the pagans, 684Cthe Jews, and the heretics, who stir up war against the faithful without cause, and strive to take away the Christian religion. But Josaphat, that is, the people of Christ, attacks them not with bodily arms, but with spiritual, seeking the help from above with the inmost devotion of the heart.

VERS. 25.-- Josaphat therefore came, etc. The holy teachers with the crowd of the faithful gather from the spoils of their enemies whatsoever in Physics, Ethics and Logic they have believed to be profitable in reading and in writing and in teaching, and turn it, through faith in the holy Trinity, to the use of the whole Church, so that what those men possessed unjustly and unprofitably, the faithful, possessing it profitably, may possess unto the salvation of souls.

VERS. 26.-- The valley of blessing. The humility of the Church, 684Dwhere praises are worthily rendered to God. And he who, instructed in the teaching of the four Gospels, comes through the faith of baptism to the unity of the Church, praising there duly and conversing worthily with God, shall enter into the vision of perpetual peace with everlasting praise and gladness.

VERS. 2.-- All these, the sons of Josaphat, etc. (RAB.) Imitators of his works, while their brother Joram was ever slipping into worse things, whence Joram himself is read to have slain them together with the princes of Israel.

VERS. 14.-- Behold the Lord will strike thee, etc. By the Philistines and the Arabians who laid waste his land, and plundered the substance and the sons and likewise the wives of Joram, who is interpreted, Who is high: who from 685Aa religious father turned aside to perfidy, and made the sons of Juda to commit fornication: he signifies those who, imbued with faith and regenerated by baptism, forsake the truth of faith, following the error of heretics, and perverting others with themselves. Whence Elias, that is, the prophetic word, refutes them: because all the authority of the divine books reproves such men, and deservedly rebukes them for their perversity with the gravest protestations.

VERS. 20.-- And he reigned eight years, etc. Concerning Joram, that he reigned eight years and lived forty; but that his son Ochozias, when he had begun to reign, was forty-two years old, and if this is so, he begot a son two years before his father himself was born. But the Hebrews say of Joram, who is described to have lived forty years and to have reigned eight years, 685Bthat he lived forty years and reigned twenty and eight. For the eight years which are attributed to him in the kingdom are those in which he reigned before he slew his brethren, while he still lived innocently. But the remaining twenty years, in which he reigned afterwards, are for this reason not numbered, because he lived in sickness and tribulation: and therefore they are attributed to his son, who is reported according to the book of Kings to be not more than twenty-two years old, lest the years remaining over from the sum of the numbers should make an error in the reckoning of the times.

VERS. 6.-- Azarias the son of Joram, etc. [Vulg. 2Par 22:6 Ochozias filius Joram, "Ochozias the son of Joram"] (RAB., ex Hieron.) Who above is Ochozias, that is, laying hold of the Lord: but Azarias, the help of the Lord. And therefore 685Caccording to the Hebrews his name is changed for the better: because according to the commandment of the Lord he visited the sick man.

VERS. 7.-- Against Jehu, etc. Jehu signifies the sovereignty of the gentiles, which Christ destined against the sacrilegious city, which slew the prophets and the Lord of the prophets, and persecuted the apostles; that he might punish it with a worthy vengeance, and destroy the shrine of the priests after the coming of Christ, and overthrow the temple: and cast down the impious synagogue, thirsting for their blood, from the height of the kingdom as another Jezabel, and slay its own rulers.

VERS. 10.-- For indeed Athalia, etc. Athalia, who endeavoured to extinguish the seed of David and to blot out the royal stock, signifies the impiety of the Synagogue, which through the wickedness of its mind lies in wait for the seed of Christ, raging with implacable 685Dhatred, which once seemed to reign when, being a thing of time, she observed the ceremonies of the law. Athalia is interpreted the temporal one of the Lord, but by the strenuousness of Josabeth (who is interpreted the fulness of the Lord, that is, of the Church in which are the true delights) Joas is preserved, who is interpreted the memory of the Lord, that is, Christ, in whom is the memory of the name of the Lord: lest he should be slain in the saints through the cruelty of her that raged, but should be nourished in the house of Joiada the high priest, who is interpreted the beloved of the Lord, that is, Christ, of whom the Father saith: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matth. XVII). Whose house is the Church, where, abiding in the faith of the elect, he daily makes increase of his body, that in the time of judgment he may lift up the sceptre of the kingdom and his power against those who were pressing him down.

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VERS. 13.-- Upon the step. (RAB.) The pillar, namely, and the base, which Solomon had prepared and set in the midst of the basilica, having five cubits of length, and five of breadth, and three in height.

VERS. 16.-- And Joiada made a covenant. Joiada is interpreted knowing the Lord, or loving him: because he taught the sons of Israel to know the Lord. He made a covenant therefore between the Lord and the people and the king, that they should obey the Lord, namely, and his law. He made one also between the king and the people, that the people should deal faithfully toward the king, and the king should rule the people justly according to the teaching of the priests and Levites, whose office it was to make known the commandments of the Lord.

686BVERS. 4.-- After which it pleased Joas, etc. (RAB.) King Joas reproves the priests, etc., as far as lest through the negligence of teachers the multitude of hearers should perish.

VERS. 7.-- And her sons, etc. Not that she then had sons, because, Ochozias being dead, in that he had had no son, Athalia endeavoured to slay all the royal seed, but he calls her sons the priests of the idols, who had despoiled the temple, and had adorned their idols out of its ornaments, for often imitators are called sons.

VERS. 12.-- But they hired, etc. This the apostles do, when through the disciples subject to them they scattered the seeds of the divine word throughout the world, that they might set over their hearers workmen fit for the will of God: whereof some fashion timbers, when they prepare themselves and those obedient to them 686Cas fruitful timbers in the house of God. Others made the roofs sound, when they built up again those things which had been broken by heresy or by schisms. Others hew stones, when they stoutly rebuke the hard of heart and the unbelieving. Others work the metals of iron and of brass, when they demand from each one the strength of faith and the confession of catholic truth, that the house of God may be filled, according to that word. To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ (Ephes. IV).

VERS. 14.-- The remaining part of the money, etc. That seems contrary which is read in the book of Kings: But there were not made of the same money the water-pots of the temple and the flesh-hooks (IV Reg. XII). But it is not said here that of that same money which was offered by the people in the temple of the Lord for the repairing of the house of God there were made 686Dthe sacred vessels for the ministry of the temple and for holocausts, but of the remaining part of the money, that is, of that which had been contributed by other donations. For it could come to pass that moneys offered at divers times should furnish the material for divers workmanships, just as one teaching is that by which the untaught are imbued unto faith, and another that by which the perfect are instructed unto fulness.

VERS. 18.-- And there was wrath. (RAB., ex Hieron.) The Hebrews hand down that the princes of Juda adored the king as God, and that he willingly received it: whence he offended the Lord exceedingly, and suddenly experienced the wrath which he deserved. For this fault also Herod is read in the Acts of the apostles to have been struck by an angel.

VERS. 25.-- Of Zacharias the son of Joiada, etc. (RAB.) The Lord in the Gospel, making mention of Zacharias slain between the temple and 687Athe altar, etc., as far as which they call Siloe, pointing to the red rocks they think them to be polluted with the blood of Zacharias.

VERS. 26.-- And they lay in wait, etc. The Hebrews assert that the Ammonites and the Moabites lay in wait for king Joas because of the unjust slaying of Zacharias, to aggravate the malice of the Israelites, who would not avenge the priest of God, whom the sons of strangers avenged.

VERS. 11.-- Into the valley of Salt, etc. (RAB.) Where salt was made, either from the hay of the brackish ground, which in many places is cut and dried and burned, or from the salt waters of wells heated and brought by boiling to the firmness of salt. Or otherwise, where Joab also is read to have slain twelve thousand of the Idumaeans. But for the valley of Salt 687Bthe old edition set Gemel, as though it were the name of the region.

VERS. 16.-- I know, saith he, that the Lord hath thought, etc. Who wills that no man perish, but condemns by a just judgment him who perseveres in sin. Therefore Amasias perished for this cause, that being admonished by the prophet to do penance, he obeyed not, but remained so unto the end.

VERS. 18.-- The thistle which, etc. He hints at this likeness: that Amasias, sprung of a most noble birth, coming of the stock of David, on account of the foulness of idolatry passing his life so and made vile, considers not his own measure, but lifts himself up beyond measure with the arrogance of pride.

VERS. 21.-- Bethsames. (RAB.) In Kings Bethsames is called a town of Juda: because it belongs to the kingdom of Juda, that is, to the two tribes over which the house of 687CDavid ruled; but according to the situation of the places it belongs to the tribe of Benjamin.

VERS. 24.-- And with Obededom, etc. Because he took away not only the vessels which he found in the house of God, but also those which the doorkeepers and the guards of the temple watched over. But in Kings it is read that David chose from the sons of Obededom seventy-two to minister in the house of God, and for the guard of the temple.

VERS. 27.-- Who after he departed. From the time that he heard not the counsel of the prophet, nor would be converted to the Lord, a conspiracy was prepared and deferred, until it should come to its consummation.

VERS. 3.-- Ozias when he had begun to reign. Who is also 687DAzarias. Ozias is interpreted the strength of the Lord. Azarias, the help of the Lord, because as long as he did rightly, aided by divine help he waged very many wars happily, and triumphed over his enemies. But before he attempted unlawful things through pride, being struck with leprosy he darkened the dignity of his name and of his honour, shut out from the people until the day of his death.

VERS. 9.-- Upon the gate of the valley. (RAB.) This is the gate of Ephraim, etc., as far as but concerning this gate and the other gates of Jerusalem we have spoken abundantly in Esdras, following Bede.

VERS. 16.-- But when he was strengthened, etc. Ozias was at the first just, and did what was right in the sight of the Lord: whence he both conquered his enemies, and had many prophets in his reign. Hence, as long as Zacharias the priest, surnamed the understanding, lived, Ozias pleased God, serving in the temple with 688Aall reverence. But after Zacharias died, wishing to offer the gifts by himself, he invaded the dignity of the priesthood not so much piously as boldly, nor did he obey the Levites and the priests who cried out against him: whence he was struck with leprosy in the forehead, which the priest covered with a plate of gold, which in Ezechiel the Lord commands to be signed with the impress of the letter Thau.

And having entered the temple of the Lord, because, clothed in the priestly stole, at the approach of a solemn festival he entered into the temple to the golden altar, about to offer incense, according to Josephus. Whence before the city, in the place which is called Eroge, the middle part of the mountain toward the west was rent, and going forward by its own rolling for four stadia it stood still against the eastern mountain, so that it closed the ways and overwhelmed the royal cities. The Hebrews will have it 688Bthat this happened in the twenty-fifth year of Ozias, whose remaining years are twenty-seven.

Ozias reigned fifty-two years, at which time Amulcus among the Latins and Agamestor among the Athenians were ruling, and when he was dead Isaias saw the vision, as he himself testifies, namely at that time in which Romulus the founder of the Roman empire was born.

VERS. 23.-- In the field of the royal sepulchres. Not in the royal burial-places, not in the city of David. For heretics and schismatics are unworthy of the society and communion of the holy Church, nor is their memory held among catholics: because, stained with errors and squalid with vices, they are separated from their fellowship.

VERS. 1.-- Joatham was five and twenty years old, 688Cetc. At the beginning and at the end he numbers the years of Joatham, because as he began with justice, so he persevered unto the end. Whence the times of his life are proclaimed as worthy of praise.

VERS. 3.-- He himself built the gate, etc. Which in the Acts of the apostles is called Beautiful, and which according to the Hebrews and by them is called even to this day the gate of Joatham (because he himself built it).

Ophel. It was a tower not far from the temple, of wonderful height. Whence also it received the name Ophel, that is, of darkness or of cloud. But where it is written in Micheas: And the tower of the flock, cloudy, of the daughter of Sion (Mich. IV, 8): in the Hebrew it has, the tower Ophel. The tower Ophel signifies the eminence of Scripture, which, founded upon history, buries the head of its spiritual sense among the clouds, while it hides the greatness of knowledge 688Dfrom the eyes of men. Whence: He made darkness his covert (Psal. XVII). Joatham, whose life is praised, signifies Christ, of whom it is said: Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised (Ibid., XLVII), etc. For Joatham is interpreted consummated or perfect, and the Apostle says of Christ: And being consummated, he became to all that obey him the cause of eternal salvation, etc. (Hebr. V). He himself built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and wrought the mystery of his incarnation with wonderful power, who says of himself: I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved (Joan. X). This gate was called high, of which the Psalmist says: The Lord is high above all nations (Psal. CXII), etc.

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VERS. 3.-- In the valley of Benennom. (RAB.) This is the valley of Benennom, etc., as far as for all of them that commit adultery, their hearts are as an oven.

VERS. 3.-- In that same year, etc. (RAB.) Not otherwise would he imitate David his father, who from infancy, being given to God, magnified the worship of God in the beginning of his reign.

But morally he admonishes the rulers of the Church, that they be not slothful in the office committed to them, but do all things diligently.

Mystically Ezechias, who not only performed the work of God strenuously by himself or by his own men, but rather stirred up others by messengers to a like zeal, signifies Christ, 689Bwhich the interpretation of his name also testifies. For Ezechias is laying hold of the Lord, or the strength of the Lord. But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, who washed away by his blood all the transgressions of the fathers which had been under the law, and plainly restored the worship of piety in the Church. He himself sent legates to call together the nations unto the faith. First the prophets, then the apostles, and their successors: he appointed the pasch to be celebrated in the second month; because, the shadow of the law ceasing, he taught that the true pasch was to be kept, of which Paul says: For Christ our pasch is sacrificed (I Cor. V).

VERS. 6.-- Our fathers have sinned, etc. (HIERON., quaest. in Paral., tom. III.) This is written fully, etc., as far as and they adored toward the rising of the sun.

689CVERS. 1.-- He sent also, etc. (HIERON.) When he had publicly sent messengers to all Israel, he sent secretly to Manasses and Ephraim, to those whom he knew could be converted by letters. For they were the prouder because of the royal dignity which was in the house of Ephraim.

VERS. 1.-- They broke the images, etc. After the coming of the Saviour, not only in Jerusalem and in Juda, but in all the nations of the world idolatry was destroyed, and the pride of the devil fell. And as the number of the faithful increases, the worship of demons decreases, until at the end of the world the last death be overwhelmed, and the Lord alone shall reign in that day.

689DVERS. 4.-- They stopped up all the fountains. For those fighting against pagans and heretics, diligent caution must be used, and the mysteries must be veiled, whence: Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast pearls before swine.

VERS. 5.-- He built. (RAB. in Paral. ) Christ built the Church which is the city of God, etc., as far as and he appointed teachers, the leaders of spiritual wars.

VERS. 12.-- And he did penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers. (RAB.) The penance of Manasses being heard, no man ought to despair of the mercy of God, but rather to presume of pardon through penance.

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VERS. 5.-- The bones moreover. (RAB.) Therefore he burned the priests upon the altars of the idols, that he might show that the sacrifices of those men were deadly, who not only offered victims of cattle to demons, but delivered up even themselves to idolatry. Here he signifies all those who, made over to the service of the devil, have ended a sacrilegious life in time, as men to be consumed with eternal torments according to the desert of each.

VERS. 22.-- To Olda the prophetess, etc. (HIERON.) Olda was the wife of Sellum the uncle of the father of Jeremias, and the father of Ananeel. She dwelt in the second. It was a place of Jerusalem outside the wall of the city and the outer wall, which was called the second: of which mention is made in the prophet Sophonias.

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VERS. 1.-- And Josias made in Jerusalem, etc. (RAB.) We are admonished to purge first the ground of our heart from all vices, and so to celebrate the pasch to the Lord, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (I Cor. V). But mystically Josias, that is, the strength of the Lord, signifies Christ, of whom it is read: The Lord strong and mighty: the Lord mighty in battle (Psal. XXIII). Josias is also interpreted the salvation of the Lord, and Christ saves his people from their sins (Matth. I). He it is who with the zeal of God cleanses the land of Juda and Jerusalem from all uncleannesses, who said through the prophet: The zeal of thy house hath eaten 690Cme (Psal. LXVIII). Of whom elsewhere: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor (Matth. III). He celebrates the true phase in the eighteenth year of his reign: because in the eighth age, the general resurrection being granted, he leads his saints with the perfection of good works to the penny of eternal blessedness, all scandals having first been cast out of his kingdom.

VERS. 3.-- Put the ark in the sanctuary of the temple, which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. The Hebrews hand down that the ark was carried out of the temple in the time of Achaz, when idols had been put by him in the temple, and that it was brought over into the house of Sellum the husband of Olda, the uncle of Jeremias. For it could not be together with the idols.

690DVERS. 18.-- There was no Phase like to this, etc. Because, the figures being taken away in the day of judgment, the saints shall pass from death to life, from corruption to glory, and in the sight of their Creator in the heavenly Jerusalem they shall rejoice for ever: because the God of gods shall be seen in Sion, because he hath made his mercy wonderful in the fortified city.

VERS. 21.-- To which God commanded me to go in haste. Because from the words of Jeremias and of the other prophets he was able to know the will of the Lord, by which judgment was to be passed upon a sinful people. Whence Rabsaces also said of Sennacherib king of the Assyrians: The Lord commanded me to go up to the land (Psal. LXXXIII), because the prophets had foretold that he would go up, which was by no means hidden from him

VERS. 22.-- In the field of Mageddo. The slaying of Josias, 691Awho was slain by Pharao Nechao in Mageddo, signifies the persecution of the ancient enemy against the preachers, whom he strives to deliver to death and to take away from the Church, that he may the more easily invade and scatter the whole people. For Pharao is interpreted scattering, Nechao striking, Mageddo of temptation. For the devil is permitted to rise up against the saints: and he contends with all his strength for this, that by tempting and striking the flock of God he may first take them away by scattering them, by whose comfort others fight against the enemy.

VERS. 4.-- And he appointed. Nechao appointed Joakim king, and laid a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver: because the devil demanded the weight of service from the people of the lost, 691Bthat both in understanding and in speech they might be ready for his obedience.

And he turned. It is to be noted that of the same Joakim the son of Josias it is thus written in Kings: Joakim slept with his fathers, and Joachin his son reigned in his stead (IV Reg. XXIV). Josephus however says: When the king of Babylon had entered the city, he by no means kept faith, but slew the strongest young men and those comely in beauty together with king Joakim, whom he commanded to be cast forth unburied before the wall. But his son Joachin he appointed king of the whole province. And those who were set in dignities, to the number of three thousand, he led into Babylon, among whom was Ezechiel, still a boy. This end therefore had Joakim the king, who lived ten and thirty years, and reigned 691Celeven years. But the successor of the kingdom of Joakim, a king by name Ononimus, reigned three months and ten days. And it is to be known that when once a man has made himself over to any vice, he will be liable to many masters. Whence Joakim, whom Pharao before compelled to pay tribute to himself, him Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon compels to serve three years. Nabuchodonosor signifies the same one that Pharao does; the prince, namely, of confusion and the ruler of these darknesses. And when the devil has compelled anyone to pay him the tribute of sin, he brings him wholly 692Ainto his own dominion, and exacts full service, by persuasion, namely, by delight, by consent, and by thought too, by speech, and by work.

(HIERON., quaest. in Paral., tom. III.) It is to be known that the name of this Joachin, etc., as far as being corrupted by the examples of their superiors they go with them into the prey of the devil.

VERS. 10.-- But the king. Sedecias signifies those who undertake the rule among the people of God: for Sedecias is interpreted the just one of the Lord. For they receive the seat of justice for the exercising of the works of justice, they receive the dignity of honour and of office, chiefly because they deserve to be called sons of Josias, that is, of the salvation of the Lord, through the grace of baptism and the anointing of chrism: but degenerating they slip back into the foulness of vices, and turn those 692Bsubject to them [se; read sibi, "to them"] to impiety, and keep not the faith which they had promised to God, nor observe the covenants of peace with men. Such men the divine law daily, and the miracles of the prophets and of the apostles, admonish to withdraw from their sins and to return to the Lord through penance: but once hardened, they despise the words of salvation, whence God, being angered, sends against them the king of the Chaldeans, that is, the devil with his satellites, that is, the spiritual wickednesses, who, sparing no age, yielding to no dignity, carry over into Babylon, that is, into confusion, whomsoever they take; and they burn the house of the Lord, because they compel the faithful, who are the temple of God, to blaspheme. They destroy the walls of Jerusalem, when they cast down the watches of the shepherds, they burn the towers, when they burn up the prelates through unlawful desires 692C: they demolish everything precious, when they reduce to nothing those who applaud themselves upon the prerogative of virtue and of knowledge.

The end of the book of Paralipomenon is like to the beginning of the book of Esdras the priest: whence what we have expounded there, there is no need to repeat here. Concerning Cyrus also, how he signifies Christ, and what things are said of him, and what things are referred to him, we have expounded in Isaias.

(RAB. ex Beda.) Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem in seven years, etc., as far as namely, and of the city of God from which they had been cast out, they receive.