Ishodad of Merv

In his own words on 1 Kings

• 1 Kings 1:1

  There are different opinions about this coldness in David's body. Some say, "[That was] due to the fact that he was a child of old age, [who was born] after all his brothers, so that, as the body of his father had already become cold with age, so he also, while getting old, grew weak and cold." But we actually see that in all generations the children born from old parents are often stronger than those who were generated in youth. Others say, "[That coldness] derived from his extremely old age, and from his prolonged fast and the mortifying of the flesh and the abstinence that he had imposed on himself as a penitence for his sin." However, "Caleb was eighty-five years old and still possessed the vigor of youth," as he himself declared. And, among other things, David was not so old, as at that time he was only seventy. Others say, "He had become cold as a consequence of his numerous toils and wars." But the true reason is that taught by the School: "It was because of the fright [caused by] the vision of the angel, who appeared to him in a terrifying manner, that his body withered and grew cold as a consequence of his fear, as is attested in the book of the Chronicles as well." And this is what Daniel says too: "At the sight of you my bowels were turned within me, and so how could I continue to live?" Therefore the same happens to David: after he saw the angel holding his sword, who entered Jerusalem to destroy it, the warmth fled and the coldness reigned over his body.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:1

• 1 Kings 1:2

  [The king] could get no warmth from blankets, because blankets cannot provide warmth by themselves; if you put them on stones or corpses, they certainly cannot warm them; but when there is heat emanating from the inside of our body, then they are useful and are an aid for us, because they imprison the heat, which comes from the inside of our bodies and warms us up again. Therefore blankets were useless for David, so that it was prescribed by the wise men and the physicians that a young virgin was brought to him—and that was a real novelty—because heat and humidity are prevalent in the female sex, and especially in virgins. Indeed, she refreshed him through the humidity of her body and warmed him up with the heat of her blood, since it was evident that he suffered from both these distresses: coldness and dryness.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:2

• 1 Kings 1:4

  But he "did not know her," that is, he did not get close to her, not because he was by now devoid of concupiscence but because he restrained the movements of concupiscence, fearing that it might be believed that he, who had many women, had asked for that girl out of lust. He paid for his inordinate desire for Bathsheba through his restraint toward this girl and inflicted this punishment on himself: indeed, the sin with Bathsheba remained fixed in his memory until his death.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:4

• 1 Kings 1:30

  In the first place, he appoints Solomon as king, even though he had many sons, in order to confound the fools, who believed that nature is more valuable than a virtuous spirit before God. In the second place, he did this because he feared that he, a just man, might be mocked after his death, and Solomon and his mother might be treated with contempt—he as a bastard and she as an adulteress. This is what Bathsheba meant when she said, "My son Solomon and I will be counted offenders," that is, "If my son is not appointed as king, it will be believed that we are excluded from the kingdom, because we have sinned in this affair of the adultery, and consequently we will be condemned to contempt and cursing as impure persons for the rest of our lives."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:30

• 1 Kings 1:33

  [David] orders them to bring [Solomon] down to Šiloha, where the tabernacle was, not far from the spring of water, which is called Šiloha. Šiloha is a Hebrew name, which is given because the water of the spring gushes out straight up and on and off; indeed, it does not gush out regularly and all the time. And the same can be said about the Nile: since, at different intervals, it suddenly becomes full and then overflows, it is called Gihon, because its waters spread out.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:33

• 1 Kings 1:33

  [David] orders [Zadok, Nathan and Benaiah] to make "Solomon ride [his] mule," because this animal was highly valued among the Hebrews, just like the white donkey among the Romans. The Jews, in fact, did not possess mules, since they were not allowed to "breed their animals with another kind," but mules were bought at very high prices from the Gentiles.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 1:33

• 1 Kings 2:5-6

  [David] orders Solomon to punish [Joab], not out of viciousness or hatred for him but because he knew that he was wicked and that, if he had acted with hostility against him who was a mature man, he would act even worse against a young man, so that the kingdom would become unstable, and the house would not be firmly established. Therefore he entrusts his son with the revenge against him who had offended him, in order that, after the killing of that evil man by the hand of the new king, he might be feared by everyone, and no revolt might ever occur.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 2:5-6

• 1 Kings 2:28

  Joab runs to the tent for two reasons: first of all, in order to escape his death, if possible; second, because he imagined that, if he were killed in that place, the tent of God would become polluted as a consequence of his death, and the people would rise up against Solomon, so that, since he had not been able to harm him during his life, he conspired to cause a rebellion at his death. This can be compared with what the demons who entered the swine did in order that the owners of the herd might become enraged and might kill our Lord; but it did not happen as they had planned. That is why Solomon, in the same manner, acting in accordance with the commandment of the law, "Take him, who has sinned, from my altar for execution," forcing Joab to get out so that the innocent blood which he had shed without reason was avenged.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 2:28

• 1 Kings 3:1

  Some wonder why Solomon made alliances with the Gentiles through marriages without being blamed, even though [the Law] forbade [the Hebrews] mixing with them. The reason for that prohibition was "lest" [the Scripture says], "[their daughters] might make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods." And this is what happened to Solomon as well. However, we also see others who married daughters of the Gentiles, but since they were not seduced to follow their paganism, they were filled with praises: for instance, Mahlon, Chilion and Boaz. With regard to Solomon, since he thought he would avert his people from war and establish a house for the Lord through his connections with the foreign kings, for this reason he married their daughters, and not out of lust; therefore he was not blamed for this. But after he fell into the error of their idolatry—that is, he did not correct [his women] from their error—he was blamed by God.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 3:1

• 1 Kings 3:4

  Since the Law forbade praying or sacrificing outside Jerusalem, why did Solomon offer one thousand whole burnt offerings on the altar of Gibeon? Because the tabernacle was in Gibeon, as is attested in the book of Chronicles, and therefore, out of veneration for the ancient residence, [Solomon] went there every year to offer his burnt offerings.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 3:4

• 1 Kings 4:32

  Of his three thousand proverbs a single book is left, while all the others perished during the captivity. And of his one thousand and five songs we still possess a single one, that is the Song of Songs.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 4:32

• 1 Kings 5:7

  This Hiram had been converted to [the worship of] God through his relationships with David, and "he rejoiced greatly, when he heard" that a house would be built for the Lord. He asks to be supplied with bread and oil in exchange for the wood that he delivers because the Tyrians and the Sidonians, as it appears, did not sow or harvest since their commerce was exclusively maritime.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 5:7

• 1 Kings 6:2

  The house that Solomon built for the [Lord] was sixty cubits long," that is, the double of the tabernacle. It is extremely likely that it included two rooms, an interior and an exterior. The interior was twenty cubits long, while the exterior was forty cubits. [The house] was built on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, which David had bought together with the garden. David had prepared the materials for the construction of the house, as the book of Chronicles reports.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 6:2

• 1 Kings 6:5

  Against the sides of the house he made side chambers, that is, some porticos like those built around a basilica, one on the other, in three levels. He did this, in the first place, because the portico was narrow and could not been divided into separate parts; secondly, in order that they might work as a support to the house so that it did not collapse.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 6:5

• 1 Kings 7:2

  "The House of the Forest of the Lebanon" does not mean that this house was built in a forest or in Lebanon, as is sometimes asserted, but that [Solomon] built a huge house where weapons were gathered in large quantity, just as the Forest of Lebanon [abounds] in trees.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 7:2

• 1 Kings 7:21

  [The Scripture] calls the [pillar] on the south "Jachin," indicating through it the humility of the priesthood; while the one on the north, called "Boaz," signifies the power of kingship. It is possible that in Hebrew the two pillars indicate the two powers. The capitals at their top symbolize the power that is due to priests and kings and the weights of government, which are imposed on them. The sculptures, the lily work and the garlands of flowers signify the brightness and dignity of priesthood and kingship.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 7:21

• 1 Kings 7:25

  [The sea] is set on the oxen in order not to be defiled by the ground. The oxen allude to the perfect structure of the created world, because it was prescribed in the Law that this animal should be offered in sacrifice; at the same time, the nourishment of human beings reaches its maturity through the strength of the ox. Their number of twelve refers to the constant revolution of an entire year which is accomplished in twelve months. Through their division into groups of three, which are set toward each cardinal point, [the Scripture] alludes to the four seasons. Finally, "the interior of the house" is called "the space under the sea." The water contained in the sea was used for the washing of the victims. It is possible that small ships and other objects, which are connected to the sea, were on it, and for this reason it was called "the sea."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 7:25

• 1 Kings 8:9

  The words "there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone" does not mean that the author did not know that there were also the jar [containing the manna], the staff [of Aaron], and so forth. He simply wants to signify all the rest by mentioning the most important part, because he writes for the Jews who already knew the other objects.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 8:9

• 1 Kings 8:14

  While the king prayed and blessed the people, he stood on a pillar of bronze whose height was five cubits and whose width was two cubits. He climbed it by means of a flight of steps. All the kings stood on it when they needed to speak to the people. This is why [the Scripture] says, "And when she looked up, Jehoash stood on the pillar, according to the royal custom."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 8:14

• 1 Kings 8:37

  [The Scripture] defines them as diseases deriving from changes in the weather. Blight [occurs when] wheat does not grow. Therefore [we read] these words: "Pharaoh saw ears blighted by a burning wind." Mildew derives from excessive heat and constant bad weather and descends on wheat in the form of drops like rain. One who ignores it calls it "dew," but it burns and dries up wheat when it falls on it.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 8:37

• 1 Kings 8:38

  The words "knowing the rebellion of their own heart," mean that, when they are saved, they will know that God had previously turned away from them and had crushed them by misfortunes because they had sinned and acted rebelliously.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 8:38

• 1 Kings 9:3

  How can God say that he will always be in this temple when he threatens to destroy the house? The gifts of God are without second thoughts, as far as it depends on him, but our wickedness turns them away from us. In fact, he does not simply give gifts but gives them in order that we may repent. That is why he says in Jeremiah, "And if I shall pronounce a decree on a nation and kingdom, to rebuild and to plant it, and they do evil before me, so as not to listen to my voice, then I will repent of the good that I spoke of, to do it to them."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 9:3

• 1 Kings 10:5

  The words "the attendance of the servants [and their clothing]." It seems that Solomon, in his wisdom, had divided into classes all his servants, that is, all the craftsmen that did their duty, so that they might be identifiable from their clothing and uniforms which [indicated] the different classes of the bakers, the cooks, the cupbearers. Everyone was recognizable from his gear.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 10:5

• 1 Kings 11:3

  The words "the wives turned away his heart" do not mean that Solomon himself apostatized and worshiped the idols but that he gave [his wives] freedom to worship their idols without preventing them or converting them, as his father David [had done]. Therefore, since "man and wife become one flesh," and the Scripture usually attributes to them both the action of one because of their union … this is why [Solomon] is justly rebuked for allowing his wives to adore [the idols]. Silence, as they say, expresses consent. Other commentators assert that [Solomon] worships the idols but is not punished, even though he deserved it, thanks to his father and all his merits and toil in building the house.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 11:3

• 1 Kings 11:31-32

  Here God's mercy is absolutely evident. Even though he knew how wicked Jeroboam was, [God] appoints him king in order to show that, as far as it depends on him, his gifts are never denied but showered on everyone. Humans themselves, however, refuse them deliberately.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 11:31

• 1 Kings 11:36

  The words "so that David may always have a lamp" refer to that small part of the kingdom which was like the sun in the abundance of its light: "Your throne will be like the sun before me." Moreover, as we light many firebrands from a lamp, so a large number [of kings] will descend from the royal lineage of David "until he, to whom kingship belongs, comes."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 11:36

• 1 Kings 12:30

  "The people went before the other [god] as far as Dan." In order to worship the calf, the crowd walks in procession before it. Dan is the city that is now called Panias. When Israel took possession of the promised land, the children of Dan moved to take hold of that town and called it Dan. Two springs originated from there: Yor and Dan.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 12:30

• 1 Kings 13:11

  Some authors assert that [the old prophet] was not an impostor but invited [the true prophet] to eat out of human sympathy in order to refresh and thank him for admonishing Jeroboam. And that is why God did not harm him as a consequence of this. According to others, he was a false prophet because, if he had been a true prophet, as others maintained, he would have not seduced a true prophet, and his children would not have served in a house of idols; therefore it was in order to seduce him that he went to meet the prophet.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 13:11

• 1 Kings 13:24-28

  Through the words "a lion killed him" [the Scripture] shows that [the lion] strangled and killed him according to God's command. And through the sentence "it did not eat him," it shows that [the animal] was not urged by hunger but acted in compliance with God's order. And this was done in order that Jeroboam and his priests might understand that, if this had happened to the prophet just because he had eaten, something extremely more serious would happen to those who made offerings to the idols.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 13:24-28

• 1 Kings 14:13

  [The Scripture] calls "something pleasing" the fact that [Jeroboam] sent his wife to the prophet of God and not to the impostors and diviners. We must constantly admire the mercy of God, who increases many times over every good [action] performed by mortals and then returns it to them. This is quite evident from what he did for that father of the error of the calves and protector of the iniquity of Baal, namely, Ahab. Because of his fast of one day, and the night in which he slept in sackcloth, punishment was averted from his house and his kingdom for three years in order to show [God's] mercy and exhort sinners to repentance.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 14:13

• 1 Kings 14:24

  "There was also prostitution in the land." [The Scripture] does not refer to the mere [prostitution] of bodies, nor to that of the soul, which is idolatry, but to that [prostitution] spread by demons among the Gentiles in order to corrupt God's creature and work, namely, humanity. And this [form of prostitution] did not exist among the people. It is in this regard that the Fathers warned the children of the church, "[to abstain] from prostitution, from anything that has been strangled and from blood." This is a first form of that prostitution: before being united in marriage according to the law, the virgins had intercourse with the priests of the demons. A second form took place when in the course of one or two years the virgins devoted themselves to prostitution for the satisfaction of Satan and later became property of men, that is, they sat along the roads and sold their bodies.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 14:24

• 1 Kings 15:14

  "High places" refers to the altars that had been erected for the true God. This means that sacrifices were offered to God in any place, just like Solomon offered a thousand holocausts to God in Gibeon. Therefore the words "the high places were not taken away [by Asa]" mean that they did not worship or sacrifice before a single altar according to the commandment of God, that is, in Jerusalem, as is prescribed by the Law. [The Scripture] does not speak here about the altars [consecrated] to idols but about those consecrated to the true God.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 15:14

• 1 Kings 16:7

  "… In being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it." This does not mean that Elah killed Jeroboam, but that Baasha, father of Elah, killed the son of Jeroboam. And he is not threatened with evils by the prophet because he killed him but because he does not fear the punishment which was performed by his hands as a consequence of Nadab's sins. And since he is at the moment imitating the evil actions of that one, he will undergo the same punishment as well.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 16:7

• 1 Kings 16:34

  Jericho remained in ruins as a sign and memory of the power of God and the victory of the people of Israel. But the insolent Ahab decided to refute the words of Joshua and said, "As the words of his master Moses, who said, 'The sky over your head shall be bronze and the earth under you iron'3 did not happen, so the words of his disciple will not happen." However, when [the city] was re-established at the cost of Abiram's death, his firstborn, the people feared God and showed him that he was not allowed to rebuild the city, so he stopped. But, a bit later, he attributed all these events to chance and resumed his work by setting the gates of the city. Then Segub, his youngest son, died. For this reason Elijah burned with zeal and stopped heaven for three and a half years.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 16:7

• 1 Kings 17:6

  It is taught: When the priests, his brothers, saw that he had escaped the anger of Ahab, they saved for him a part of the food and bread reserved [to them], and a raven brought it to him through divine intervention.The Schools say, A raven stole the [food] from houses, inns, markets and peasants, since it is an impudent, wild and merciless bird by nature. It has no natural love for its young and does not feed them, but another bird adopts them and feeds them. Through this [the Scripture] shows that animals of such a nature performed what God ordered them to do and provided for the necessities of the prophet, whereas the children of Israel, even though they were endowed with reason, did not want to observe the law of God. At the same time, the fact that [Elijah] was nourished by ravens, and then that the "wadi dried up," occurred through the mercy of God in order to induce the prophet to pity and compassion toward the people, so that his spirit might relent and he might pray God to send rain. But when, in spite of this, his anger against the people was not appeased, [God] ordered him to go among the nations, in order to show him that the plague of famine has spread among them as well, and that he had at least to show compassion for the nations, if he could show any for the people; but [this happened] also because there was nobody among the people who was worthy of receiving Elijah. Other [authors] say, The bread and the food were made from the elements every day through an angelic operation, just like the manna had been made from air and the quails from the sea, and just like the half cake was brought to Paul the anchorite, and the bunch of dates was brought by a lion to the anchorite of the desert of Sodom. But [the food was not brought to Elijah] by an angel, as it was to John, nor by a man, as Daniel received it by Habakkuk, but by a raven, in order to show that there is nothing impure in the creation of God—just as God gave to Samson water to drink from the jaw of a donkey23—and in order to signify, at the same time, the abrogation of the prescriptions of the Law. According to other authors, the angels were disguised as ravens.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 17:6

• 1 Kings 17:13

  "[First] make me a [little] cake." He certainly did not make this request because he was hungry but to teach the widow that, through the mediation of the priests, some of the first fruits of her crops had to be offered to God. In the same manner Elijah said to the wife of the prophet, "Bring me a full vessel."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 17:13

• 1 Kings 18:25

  [Elijah] ordered [the prophets of Baal] to sacrifice first, in order that they might not have any excuse [by saying], "If we had sacrificed first, [Baal] would have accepted our sacrifice, but now he is angry with us, because we have sacrificed last." They planned to set the fire secretly, according to their custom, but were prevented by divine power at this time.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 18:25

• 1 Kings 18:29

  [Elijah and the prophets of Baal] had agreed to fix a specific time and deadline [by saying], "We will stay until this hour, and he whose sacrifice is not accepted will die." Otherwise they might have said, "Today [our sacrifice] was not accepted, but it will be accepted tomorrow."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 18:29

• 1 Kings 19:3

  Somebody may ask why Elijah, who did not fear Ahab's authority, was frightened and fled when Jezebel sent him the message. We answer: The providence of God is directed by him and proceeds toward us in two different ways: either by means of benefits or corrections. This is evident from many events. When [Elijah] stopped the heavens, and tortured the Jews through a famine, and killed the prophets of Baal and made the fire come down on the fifty and fifty, he did not tremble before the king because [God's] providence assisted him. But when he slightly turned away from him, he could not resist before Jezebel's threats. The same thing happened to David. He was brave and warlike when the army of Israel was frightened by Goliath, and he killed Goliath, because he was supported by divine providence. But when he was tested through divine desertion, even though the generals of his army surrounded him, he was afraid of the other Philistine.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 19:2

• 1 Kings 19:21

  "He slaughtered the oxen." He did that not [as a sacrifice] to God, because Elisha was not a priest, but he killed them for a banquet which he offered to his people. From now on, he was lifted above earthly things and did not make use of anything that belonged to this world.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 19:21

• 1 Kings 21:2

  What Ahab said to Naboth, that is, that he would have given him the price of his vineyard or [another vineyard], was a lie. But Naboth did not sell his inheritance, first of all because he knew that [Ahab] would not have given him another vineyard in exchange and would not have kept his promise; second, because the Law forbade that an inheritance could be sold from one person to another; third, because the inheritance of the promised land, which they had received through the mediation of Joshua, was for them as precious as the kingdom of heaven is for us, and Naboth did not want to be deprived of that divine gift.

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 21:2

• 1 Kings 22:21-22

  The "spirit" who "came forward and stood [before the Lord]" is an angel and not an evil spirit, namely, Satan, as certain [authors] suggest. In fact, why would an evil spirit stand before the Lord? On the contrary, this spirit is Michael, the leader of the people. It is he who says in his zeal, "I will entice him," that is, "Allow me to leave and abandon the prophets of lies, instead of hindering them, as I have done many times, in order to stop and prevent their false prophecies. As a consequence, the destiny of Ahab will be according to what justice requires, because he will obey [his false prophets] with all his heart, if I do not prevent this."

  BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 KINGS 22:20