Synopsis of the Chapter
A prophet threatens the altar of Jeroboam with destruction and ruin through King Josiah. Jeroboam orders him seized, but his hand withers, which the prophet restores to him when he begs for pardon. The prophet, eating with another prophet in Bethel against God's command, is killed by a lion while returning home.
Verse 1: A Man of God Came from Judah ¶
1. AND BEHOLD, A MAN OF GOD (a prophet sent by God to chastise and suppress the nascent idolatry of Jeroboam) CAME FROM JUDAH (from Judea) BY THE WORD (by the inspiration and command) OF THE LORD TO BETHEL. — This prophet is called "Jadon" by Josephus; "Jaddo" by Saint Jerome, 2 Paralipomenon 10; "Addo" by Hugo, Lyranus, Dionysius, Serarius, and Sanchez, who is said in 2 Paralipomenon 9:29 to have written the deeds of Solomon in the vision which he had against Jeroboam. But since our prophet here was killed by a lion immediately after his vision and prophecy against Jeroboam, he does not seem to have had the time and life to write the deeds of Solomon, as Addo had, who moreover wrote the deeds of Abijah, the son and successor of Rehoboam, as is clear from 2 Paralipomenon 13:22; therefore he could not be the one spoken of in this chapter, since he was killed at the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam. Saint Jerome and the Gloss on Zechariah chapter 1, verse 1 add that this Addo was the grandfather of the prophet Zechariah, who is named there. But more than four hundred years elapsed between this Addo and this Zechariah. It is more likely what Epiphanius says in the Lives of the Prophets, near the beginning, that this prophet was "Joam" (whom Theodoret and Glycas call "Joel"), who there describes his life from this chapter 13. Finally, Tertullian, in the book On Fasting against the Psychics, chapter 16, calls him "Shemaiah." So also Clement of Alexandria, book 1 of the Stromata, chapter 1, calls him "Shemaiah," son of Amama.
Verse 2: O Altar, Altar ¶
2. O ALTAR, ALTAR, THUS SAYS THE LORD: BEHOLD, A SON SHALL BE BORN TO THE HOUSE OF DAVID, JOSIAH BY NAME, AND HE SHALL SACRIFICE (slay) UPON YOU THE PRIESTS OF THE HIGH PLACES. — This prophecy about King Josiah was uttered three hundred years before his birth, and at the same time his name was given, namely that he would be called "Josiah," that is "salvation of God," because he, overthrowing the idols, brought the faith of the true God and His salvation to all. So Isaiah, chapter 45, verse 1, published the name of Cyrus two hundred years before him, and prophesied many illustrious things about him, which the Jews afterwards showing to Cyrus, obtained from him their liberation from Babylon, as Josephus testifies.
Verse 3: This Shall Be the Sign ¶
3. THIS SHALL BE THE SIGN THAT THE LORD HAS SPOKEN: BEHOLD, THE ALTAR SHALL BE SPLIT. — The prophet gave this sign not under Josiah, but at this very time when Jeroboam was stretching out his hand against him, as is said in verse 5.
Verse 4: His Hand Withered ¶
4. AND HIS HAND WITHERED. — Hear Saint Chrysostom, in his homily on the words of Isaiah: "Christ," he says, "when He Himself was struck in the face with blows, did nothing harsher to the servant who had struck Him: but when Jeroboam with outstretched hand tried to seize the prophet by whom he was being rebuked, his hand withered. By these things He teaches you to bear with meekness those things that are inflicted upon yourself; but to avenge with great vehemence those things that are inflicted upon the Lord."
Verse 6: The King's Hand Was Restored ¶
6. AND THE KING'S HAND WAS RESTORED TO HIM. — Saint Ambrose gives the reason, book 2 On Virgins, at the end: "He begged pardon," he says, "and immediately his hand, which had withered through sacrilege, was healed through devotion. So quick an example of both divine mercy and indignation was displayed, that from one sacrificing his right hand was suddenly taken away, while to one repenting pardon was given."
Moreover, this prophet performed three remarkable miracles: first, he split the altar, so that Jeroboam might see it being torn apart and broken by God as something hateful to Him; second, his hand stretched out against the prophet became rigid; third, it was healed through the prayers of the prophet. And yet Jeroboam the heresiarch did not repent of his heresy and idolatry, but remained obstinate and hardened in it. Therefore his blindness, hardness, and malice were remarkable.
Verse 9: You Shall Not Eat Bread ¶
9. YOU SHALL NOT EAT BREAD, NOR DRINK WATER, NOR RETURN BY THE WAY YOU CAME. — God had commanded this to the prophet as a sign of detestation of idolatry, so that by the very act he might show that the Bethelite idolaters were so detestable and, as it were, excommunicated by God, that He willed the faithful to have no communion with them of food or drink, nor even of the road. He therefore commanded him to take another road on his return, as though the road to Bethel was polluted and accursed because of its idols, and not to be revisited in any way. So strictly did God forbid him to eat in Bethel that, if he had been cast into prison by Jeroboam, he should rather have died of hunger than accept food offered by the Bethelites. This was a figure of ecclesiastical censure and excommunication, by which the Church forbids communicating and sharing food with the excommunicated, so that they, excluded from the company of the good, may be confounded and repent. So Saint Cyprian, epistle 75; Lucifer of Cagliari, book On Not Associating with Heretics; and from them Rupert, book 5, chapter 6, and Abulensis here, Question 8; wherefore this is not a harm to them but a benefit, as it was to Jeroboam himself, of whom Josephus says: "The king, marveling at the man's self-restraint, began to be all the more anxious about himself, from what he had seen and heard, auguring an unhappy outcome for his affairs."
Verse 11: A Certain Old Prophet Dwelt in Bethel ¶
11. NOW A CERTAIN OLD PROPHET DWELT IN BETHEL. — The Chaldean says: a false prophet named Michal, etc. Josephus also calls him a false prophet. So also Saint Gregory, Rupert, Angelomus, Eucherius, Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, Cajetan, and others. Hence some think he was an idolater and a prophet of the devil. Abulensis, however, thinks he was faithful but evil and impious. But the following narrative refutes this and shows that he was faithful and a prophet of God, not a false prophet, because, as Theodoret says, "God through him
could persuade as He did," and that he had foretold to the man of God what would happen, and that he believed those things which had been predicted about Josiah, and that he commanded his sons that when he had died they should bury him with his body." All of which shows that he was faithful and pious. He is therefore called by Saint Gregory, Rupert, and the others already cited a false prophet, that is, a lying prophet, because he lied in saying that an angel had revealed to him that God wished him to share a meal with him. Saint Augustine, about to be cited, agrees with Theodoret, as do Saint Jerome, Serarius, Torniellus, Salianus, and others. But the first view which I stated is by far the more true (1).
Verse 18: An Angel Spoke to Me ¶
18. AN ANGEL SPOKE TO ME BY THE WORD (command) OF THE LORD, SAYING: BRING HIM BACK WITH YOU TO YOUR HOUSE, THAT HE MAY EAT BREAD. — This prophet lies in order to bring the other prophet to dinner. For he saw him weary from the journey, hungry and thirsty, yet unwilling to eat or drink in Bethel, but returning fasting: therefore moved by compassion and the zeal of hospitality, he invites the man of God to his lodging, and through a lie virtually compels him. So sometimes worldly people deceive religious men who abstain from meat and wine, so that they eat meats dissolved and hidden under vegetables. When I was in Belgium, there was a certain hermit called John the Simple on account of his simplicity, who coming to a monastery dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, refused wine offered by the steward, saying that he professed perpetual abstinence from wine. Whereupon the steward, deceiving him, said: We will therefore give you the milk of our Blessed Virgin; and he ordered another sweeter wine to be set before him: Drink, he said, the milk provided for you by the Blessed Virgin instead of the wine which you refuse. When the hermit tasted it, he was greatly cheered and said: Would that we had such milk in our hermitage, since we do not drink wine.
But this prophet's hospitality was untimely and imprudent; for it brought death upon the other prophet; but he himself was unaware of this: therefore he sinned only venially; and his lie was merely officious, not pernicious.
Moreover, God permitted this in order to confirm the truth of His prophecy by the death of the disobedient prophet who took food in Bethel against His command, so that from it Jeroboam might recognize that he had been a true prophet sent by God and that the threats made against him would truly come to pass.
Verse 19: He Deceived Him and Brought Him Back ¶
19. HE DECEIVED HIM AND BROUGHT HIM BACK WITH HIM; SO HE ATE BREAD IN HIS HOUSE. — The prophet sinned here because he too easily and rashly believed another prophet who lied that God had revoked His command given to him about not eating in Bethel: for he should have more carefully examined the man and his oracle which was contrary to his own. For since God Himself had clearly commanded him not to eat in Bethel, he should not have believed another prophet saying that God had revoked this command. For he could and should have thought: God cannot lie; this man can lie and deceive: why then, abandoning my God, should I believe a lying man? Why should I embrace the uncertain and doubtful in place of the certain? For it is certain to me that God absolutely forbade me to eat in Bethel: therefore this man saying the contrary was decreed by God is certainly suspect of fraud and lying. For, as Abulensis notes, God foresees and thinks ahead about all things that can supervene upon His commands. Therefore in His commands one must not use interpretation and equity (epikeia): it is otherwise with the commands of men, who cannot foresee all future things, and therefore admit of equity.
Moreover, this sin of his was only venial, because he believed the prophet to be truthful, not lying. Hence for his sin he was indeed killed by the lion; but his body was preserved whole and untouched by the lion as that of a holy man. So Saint Augustine, about to be cited, Eucherius, Angelomus, Cajetan, Salianus, Serarius, and others.
AND WHILE THEY SAT AT THE TABLE, THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO THE PROPHET WHO HAD BROUGHT HIM BACK. — The prophet sinning at the table through disobedience, and eating against the Lord's command, is likewise punished at the table, and receives the sentence of death from God, and that from his host, namely from the prophet who had seduced and invited him, "so that he might truly receive the punishment from the same place where he had negligently admitted the fault," says Saint Gregory, and after him Eucherius and Angelomus.
Verse 24: A Lion Found Him and Killed Him ¶
24. AND WHEN HE HAD DEPARTED, A LION FOUND HIM ON THE WAY AND KILLED HIM — that is, suffocated him, or slew him with a bite; but did not devour him, and preserved his body whole: thus the prophet was punished by God, so that Jeroboam might recognize from this punishment that he had been a true prophet. For he had said among other things that God had commanded him not to eat in Bethel, to show how much He hated Bethel. Note: God here punishes only a venial sin with death, because He Himself is the supreme Lord of the life and death of all; it is otherwise with a prince and judge, who must punish sins proportionally according to their merit, grave sins gravely, and light sins lightly. Hence human law cannot punish venial sins with death.
Note: Josephus, whom the Gloss and Abulensis follow, consider this prophet to have invited the other prophet with evil intent, to make him a liar or to destroy him. Hear the Gloss: "This false prophet was the chief of the priests and was greatly esteemed by the king as a diviner; but fearing lest through the word of the man of God the king might withdraw from the worship of idols and kill him as a sorcerer, he contrived to deceive the man of God, acting quite craftily so that while he transgressed God's command, he would incur His wrath; as afterwards happened, when he believed man rather than God; and through this it was shown that the prophet was not from God." So God punished Moses for the venial sin of unbelief with death in the desert, Numbers 20. So the wife of Lot, because she looked back, which was only a venial sin, was struck dead and turned into a pillar of salt, Genesis 19. So Cassian, Conference 7, chapter 25, and Saint Thomas, Third Part, Question 8, article 2, reply 3.
Morally, Saint Chrysostom, on Psalm 4: "Just as," he says, "a dog or any beast which a man has tamed with kindnesses and made obedient to himself in all things, if he disguises his face to look like a stranger, or changes or darkens his own with soot, or with mud, or with an unnatural color, the domestic dog barks at him and bites at him no less, or the tamed lion tears him, than if he were a stranger. So," says Chrysostom, "because this prophet had defiled his face with the soot of disobedience, the lion did not recognize him as its master, and therefore killed him as a stranger. Far otherwise did the lions behave with Daniel, though they were hungry in the pit, because they found in him the kind of appearance and face they were commanded to venerate and adore: for he had not defiled or changed his face with the soot of sin, as this prophet, who sprinkled upon his previously pure and shining countenance the dung or mud of disobedience."
Again, Saint Jerome, book 2 Against Jovinian: "He who," he says, "had performed miracles while fasting, when he had dined, immediately paid the penalty of his satiety." Finally, to Saint Bridget, book 5, Revelation, Interrogation 14, Question 1, who asked why sometimes the just die a bad death and the unjust a good death, Christ answered: "Sometimes a sorrowful end befalls the just for their greater merit, so that those who were always attentive to virtues throughout their lives may fly freely to heaven through a contemptible death;" and He adduces the example of this prophet killed by the lion.
AND THE DONKEY STOOD BESIDE HIM, AND THE LION STOOD BESIDE THE CORPSE — as the guardian of the corpse of the holy man, as well as of his donkey: therefore the predator became the guardian of its prey. Here therefore God showed the holiness of the prophet: for, as Theodoret says, "He honored him after death, because He made the killer (the lion) his guardian: honoring him on the one hand as a prophet; but punishing him on the other as a transgressor, and terrifying those who are now alive, that they should not despise even the small commandments of God." Theodoret continues, and after him Procopius, to show from this passage how great a care God has for the bodies of the saints, that He even appoints lions as their guardians. The lion therefore, which had been the executioner of the living man, became the defender of the dead one, so that he who was seen to have been slain for disobedience might be believed to have been saved through repentance. So Lyranus; for repenting of his fault, he patiently accepted the death sent by God.
Hear Saint Augustine, book On the Care of the Dead, chapter 7: "For thus far did the Lord wish to chastise His servant, who had not through his own obstinacy scorned to fulfill His command, but believed he was obeying when deceived by another's fallacy, when in fact he was not obeying. For it must not be thought that he was killed by the bite of a beast so that his soul would then be snatched away to the punishment of hell; since the very lion that had killed him guarded his body, with the donkey also unharmed, standing fearlessly in the presence of that savage beast beside the bier of its master. By which wonderful sign it appears that the man of God was restrained temporally even unto death rather than punished after death."
Hear also Saint Gregory, book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 24: "The lion stood beside the donkey, and did not eat from the corpse. From which it is shown that the sin of disobedience was forgiven in death itself, because the same lion which had presumed to kill the living man did not presume to touch the slain. For he who had the boldness to kill did not receive permission to eat from the corpse of the slain: because he who had been guilty in life, his disobedience having been punished, was now just through death. The lion therefore which had previously killed the life of the sinner, afterwards guarded the corpse of the just man."
Eucherius and Angelomus transcribed the same passage from Saint Gregory, and they add the moral lesson that no one should esteem himself for any virtue, even if he has accomplished something bravely: for this prophet was allowed to fall and be killed, who gloried in having despised and rebuked King Jeroboam. Cassian, Conference 7, chapter 26, recounts a similar example of a holy hermit struck by God with a lethal illness for a light fault, and yet working many miracles.
Verse 29: The Prophet Took Up the Corpse ¶
29. SO THE PROPHET TOOK UP THE CORPSE OF THE MAN OF GOD — to bury him honorably and mourn him according to custom, especially because he himself had been the cause of his death through his lie. Whence from what follows it is clear that this prophet was faithful and pious, who had led the other prophet astray through misplaced hospitality. Therefore Josephus, book 8 of the Antiquities, chapter 3, greatly diverges and errs from the narrative of Sacred Scripture, when he says that this false prophet confirmed King Jeroboam in idolatry when the king was terrified by the threats and miracles of the prophet and willing to repent of his idols, and that he disparaged and refuted the miracles of the prophet before him. "For he said," Josephus reports, "that his hand had grown numb from fatigue while he was bringing offerings to the altar, and that afterwards after resting it had recovered its former strength. Also that the altar, being still of recent construction, had collapsed because it could not bear the weight of so many and such great victims. Finally he reports the death of the seer, that he was killed by a lion: implying that there was nothing divine either in his life or in his words. By these words he persuaded the king, and cast his mind, now totally turned away from God and from just and pious works, into the utmost impiety. For so much did he afterwards rage against all right and justice that he sought nothing other than how to surpass himself daily with new crimes." But these things are foreign to the narrative of Sacred Scripture in what follows and virtually contrary to it.
AND HE RETURNED AND BROUGHT IT INTO THE CITY OF THE OLD PROPHET — that is, into his own city, namely Bethel, as is clear from verse 22; for he was the "old prophet" who had seduced him by his lie, and therefore buried and mourned him after he was killed by the lion.
Verse 31: When I Am Dead ¶
31. WHEN I AM DEAD, BURY ME IN THE TOMB IN WHICH THE MAN OF GOD (the prophet killed by the lion) IS BURIED. — He gave this command for this purpose, lest his bones should be burned by Josiah: for Josiah dug up the tombs of all the others, who were idolaters, and burned their bones in Bethel, except the tomb of the prophet who had thundered here against Jeroboam and had predicted that Josiah would overthrow his idols and idolaters, as is clear from 4 Kings chapter 23; therefore he wished his own bones also to be buried in his tomb, so that his bones would be preserved intact.
Verse 33: Whoever Wished Became a Priest ¶
33. WHOEVER WISHED FILLED HIS HAND (with oil and sacrificial victims, that is, by having his hands anointed by another priest and being consecrated, and by offering with his own hand the victims customarily offered at a consecration. Whence it follows: and by this rite) HE BECAME A PRIEST OF THE HIGH PLACES — that is, of the calves which were erected and worshipped on the high mountain of Bethel. For Jeroboam expelled the Levites and Aaronic priests, who accordingly with the rest of the faithful Israelites who detested the idols of Jeroboam they fled to Jerusalem to Rehoboam, and strengthened his kingdom, as is said in 2 Paralipomenon 11:13.
Verse 34: The House of Jeroboam Sinned ¶
34. AND FOR THIS REASON THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM SINNED (a great sin of idolatry, because he erected golden calves and compelled the entire people to worship them), AND (therefore) WAS OVERTHROWN AND WIPED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH — as if utterly razed from the earth, so that no one from it remained alive, as is clear from the following chapter, verse 10.
Note here that the true cause of the destruction and ruin of families, even royal ones such as that of Jeroboam, is idolatry, heresy, and the other crimes that follow from it; and this is shown throughout this entire book and the fourth book following, through the examples of all the kings of Israel who followed Jeroboam both in the idolatry of the calves and in the kingdom. Where their remarkable blindness is evident, since although they heard these threats of God and actually saw them fulfilled in Jeroboam and their other predecessors, they themselves, as if demented, followed their idolatry; and therefore they too, together with their families, were cut off by God.