Ephrem the Syrian — Commentary on Scripture

2 Kings 3:15

The Scripture mentions a musical instrument that produces sounds, or a harp, as the Hebrew says, so that, thanks to the sound of its music, all the soldiers might be assembled around it and might understand when they were summoned to destroy their enemies, and there might be evident testimonies of [Elisha’s] words. In this way, when the miracle occurred, they could not attribute it to Baal or the idols they worshiped. Indeed, there were numerous idolaters in the army.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 3:15

2 Kings 3:16

“The harpist played, and the water flowed to the bed of the streams.” Through this figure the voice of Christ is conveniently foreshadowed, because he kept the harp of the spirit on the cross. Indeed, our Lord cried twice and gave up his spirit with a loud voice. And immediately the pagan centurion gave glory to the Lord, and in this manner the conversion of the Gentiles was clearly highlighted. After the Christ had brought to perfection on the wood of the cross the new glory of our Savior, the sources were immediately opened and rivers of living water flowed on the nations of the Gentiles, who are symbolized by the “wadi,” as Jesus had said before his passion: “Let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” In this way the word of the prophet might be fulfilled: He who has played the harp will play for the Gentiles in the name of the Lord.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 3:16

2 Kings 3:22-23

“The kings fought together and killed one another.” After the water had come and the armies of Jehoshaphat and his allied kings had drunk their fill, the Moabites, who had seen that the water was red, said this. But they were wrong, because the color of the water had become red on account of the coming of the sun that oppressed them. When they saw the stream flow, they did not think that water was actually flowing in it, because rain had not fallen in all those days. Consequently they took for granted that no source of water could exist in that dried and scorched region. Therefore they thought that the gods of their homeland had caused the kings and their armies to attack and destroy one another. Indeed, they were easily inclined to religious dissensions. They believed that what they saw flowing in the stream was the blood from the carnage of battle.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 3:25

2 Kings 3:24

When the Moabites came to plunder the camp, they convinced themselves that its ruins had been abandoned by their guards. Instead, Jehoshaphat and the kings with him suddenly rose up with drawn swords when they realized that their enemies were approaching and almost upon them. But the Moabites did not persist in their attack. They turned around and ran away because they had come unarmed. They had not come to fight, but to plunder. Therefore they scattered the army of their enemies by simply turning their weapons against them. Then they destroyed and laid waste the land bordering [the Moabites]. And finally, like an overflowing stream, they rushed in to attack Moab, cutting down their trees according to Elisha’s order, stopping up the flowing springs, destroying the villages, and demolishing all their houses until they brought down their walls. They surrounded and demolished their fortresses, that is, knocked down the walls and scattered the rubble of the demolition.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 3:23

2 Kings 3:26-27

People imitate those who do good deeds, therefore, not out of love for these good deeds but because of their usefulness. For Balaam also flattered [God], in that he had seven altars built because he had heard concerning these ancient ones that, with regard to the sacrifices they had offered to him, their prayers were accepted. The king of Moab took note of Jephthah. But, because it was his firstborn and a human being rather than an animal that he killed, God took pity on him, since it was in affliction that he did it and not through love. In the case of Jephthah, if it had been one of his servants who had been first to encounter him, he would have killed him. But, in order that people would not engage in the sacrifice of their fellow human beings, he caused his own daughter to meet him, so that others would be afraid, lest they offer human beings by vow to God.

COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 10.3

2 Kings 3:26-27

Therefore Mesha, who had lost all his hope in his armies, made an about-face to ask the gods for help, because he had seen that no human being could help him. Certain wise men of his country said to him that it was necessary to implore the mercy of the God of Israel by means of an extraordinary sacrifice, for exactly the same reason which Abraham, the father of the Israelites, had made his offering, which had been quite pleasing to God, according to the tradition that is generally renowned among the Canaanites. But the power and the strength of God had already been recognized by all with great admiration for what he had done before all the Moabites. Indeed, no one but him had made the water flow on his people in the desert of Edom, and they had never heard of or known another God who granted his worshipers greater benefits. Therefore the king, who could not deny the miracle that he had seen with his own eyes, did not want to be deprived of sufficient aid in the difficulties that encircled him. He was confirmed [in his hope] and abandoned the worship of idols by taking refuge in the p…

Therefore Mesha, who had lost all his hope in his armies, made an about-face to ask the gods for help, because he had seen that no human being could help him. Certain wise men of his country said to him that it was necessary to implore the mercy of the God of Israel by means of an extraordinary sacrifice, for exactly the same reason which Abraham, the father of the Israelites, had made his offering, which had been quite pleasing to God, according to the tradition that is generally renowned among the Canaanites. But the power and the strength of God had already been recognized by all with great admiration for what he had done before all the Moabites. Indeed, no one but him had made the water flow on his people in the desert of Edom, and they had never heard of or known another God who granted his worshipers greater benefits. Therefore the king, who could not deny the miracle that he had seen with his own eyes, did not want to be deprived of sufficient aid in the difficulties that encircled him. He was confirmed [in his hope] and abandoned the worship of idols by taking refuge in the powerful God who had created a new sea in the desert. Therefore he was invited by the word of the wise men and nobles of Moab to make a great sacrifice and to offer his firstborn child, the pillar of his house and the hope of his kingdom, on the city walls, before the armies that besieged him. He wanted the Hebrew to see the sacrifice he was about to make to the God of Abraham according to the teaching of Abraham.And then the wrath against the Israelites increased, because the calamities, which the Scripture accurately relates after these events, happened to them again. They had seen how God protected them, and the abundance of water that he had made miraculously flow for them and the retreat of their enemies before them. Nevertheless, they persisted in their dishonor, and their hearts were still attached to their calf.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 3:25-27

2 Kings 4:1

It is said that this woman was the wife of Obadiah, the treasurer of Ahab and a secret disciple of Elijah, who had taken one hundred prophets away from the rage of Jezebel and had fed them when they were hungry. It seems that in this affair he was entrusted with the gold of the royal house, but after his death his wife was left with a huge debt to be paid to his masters. But since she could not pay, and the taxmen of the king pressed her and wanted to sell her children, the mother implored Elisha, because she knew he was the father of orphans and the defender of widows, and she thought he would have not drawn back his hands [when asked to help] the sons of a righteous man who had served his companions the prophets. Among other things, the taxmen of the king, who had lent money to Obadiah, in justice, according to the law of the Hebrews, had moved against his children; and this is what our Lord suggested to us in the parable of the creditor king who ordered the children to be sold for the debt of their father, even though he was still alive and only needed some time to pay his debt.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:1

2 Kings 4:2-7

Here the Scripture relates the other miracle that Elisha performed in order to help the widow. He made flow into the vessels an amount of oil sufficient to pay the debt of her husband and abundantly multiplied it for the nourishment of her children.From the symbolic point of view three aspects must be observed here: first of all it is said that the widow filled the vessels of her neighbors with an oil that gushed out in her house thanks to a gift of God, because the holy church resembles the widow. In fact, she was not abandoned when her husband ascended to heaven, but she filled the hearts of the Gentiles with the oil of the knowledge of salvation which has multiplied and become abundant in her house thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Gentiles, who were separated before, after being filled with that fat oil, glorified with their lips of cheerfulness that God whom they had ignored before. In the second place, the widow asked for empty vessels and filled with oil those that her children brought to her, both small and large vessels. This signifies the saints who h…

Here the Scripture relates the other miracle that Elisha performed in order to help the widow. He made flow into the vessels an amount of oil sufficient to pay the debt of her husband and abundantly multiplied it for the nourishment of her children.From the symbolic point of view three aspects must be observed here: first of all it is said that the widow filled the vessels of her neighbors with an oil that gushed out in her house thanks to a gift of God, because the holy church resembles the widow. In fact, she was not abandoned when her husband ascended to heaven, but she filled the hearts of the Gentiles with the oil of the knowledge of salvation which has multiplied and become abundant in her house thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Gentiles, who were separated before, after being filled with that fat oil, glorified with their lips of cheerfulness that God whom they had ignored before.
In the second place, the widow asked for empty vessels and filled with oil those that her children brought to her, both small and large vessels. This signifies the saints who have rejected any worldly passion and are filled with the fat of the holy ointment and the oil of happiness. So their mother, that is, the grace of God gives oil to each of them, both to the great and the little. For God gives his gifts as he likes, so that everything may be ours, as the apostle says: “We must grow up in Christ according to his gift.” But those who are weighed down by their intemperance, drunkenness and worldly interests, those who, as the apostle says, walk in the vanity of their spirit and are obscured in their intelligence, those who have lost their hope and have given themselves to the practice of every sort of paganism and covetousness are deprived of this grace. In fact, they do not desire this oil, and if they desire it, they prepare no vessel to be filled with it.
In the third place, the rest of the oil, which the dead husband had left to his widow, signifies the mercy that [Christ] had shown to the saints while he lived on earth. Solomon says that he who associates himself with the Lord has mercy for the poor, and [the Lord] will reward him according to his works.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:3

2 Kings 4:8-10

It happened, in the next days, that Elisha arrived at Shunem and passed it. After the ascension of Elijah, Elisha took his place and was appointed as the chief and prefect of the children of the prophets. Duty to his calling obligated him to visit their lodgings in Bethel and Jericho, as well as those along the Jordan. In fact, since the straight line of his route compelled him to pass through the village of Shunem, now and then he made a detour to the house of the Shunammite, because she was an admirable woman. And she, after hearing the words of her fellow citizens about him and seeing him in her house, understood the advantages of his stay at her place. Therefore she asked her husband to build a high room, solitary and separated from the rest of the people of the house. Indeed, she said that it was not proper for a holy prophet to live in an impure place. She called him holy because of his virginity.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:8

2 Kings 4:16

Elisha said to the Shunammite woman, “At this season, in due time, you shall embrace a son.” He wanted to pay his debt for her service and pious assistance to him. Since she was blessed with the goods of the Law but was deprived of children, even though the Law also promised children to those who observed it, she ardently desired to have an heir for those goods. So Elisha promised the Shunammite woman this blessing, even though she had not asked for it.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:16

2 Kings 4:17-29

“The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her,” but after a few years, the child died. His mother placed the corpse on the bed of the prophet in the high room of her house and then rushed to meet him, blessed him and knelt down at his feet, not in order to make a request but to rebuke him. She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead your servant?’ ” [“Why did you take me and throw me into the pangs of Eve, when I was free of them, and why did you make death, against which I had risen and for which I had no consideration, reign over me? Indeed, thanks to my unlucky sterility I had been away from those two evils. Because of my fear of death I had not asked you for children, and because of the mockeries of the pagans, among whom I live, I did not desire them. So I have said to you: Do not ask that children be given to me.”]5From her lips she gave reproaches, while with her hands she implored him and, catching hold of his feet, besieged him. She swore she would not leave him until he had given her his grace and h…

“The woman conceived and bore a son at that season, in due time, as Elisha had declared to her,” but after a few years, the child died. His mother placed the corpse on the bed of the prophet in the high room of her house and then rushed to meet him, blessed him and knelt down at his feet, not in order to make a request but to rebuke him. She said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not mislead your servant?’ ” [“Why did you take me and throw me into the pangs of Eve, when I was free of them, and why did you make death, against which I had risen and for which I had no consideration, reign over me? Indeed, thanks to my unlucky sterility I had been away from those two evils. Because of my fear of death I had not asked you for children, and because of the mockeries of the pagans, among whom I live, I did not desire them. So I have said to you: Do not ask that children be given to me.”]5From her lips she gave reproaches, while with her hands she implored him and, catching hold of his feet, besieged him. She swore she would not leave him until he had given her his grace and had brought back to life her son, which death had grasped. So Elisha was profoundly touched by the words of the woman. [Because he did not suffer so much for the death of the child as for the mockeries he would have been obliged to bear on the part of the prophets of Baal.]
When he saw her suffering and anguish, he immediately sent his disciple, entrusting him with his staff, and told him to lay it on the dead child and to inform him about the results of his ministry. He wanted the resurrection of the dead to happen by means of the staff of the master and the hands of the disciple, if his servant was sufficient for the miracle. If that were not sufficient, he would blame himself, because he had outraged with his laziness the coat of arms of the house of Moses.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:17

2 Kings 4:30-37

“Then the mother of the child said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you.’ ” Now, since Elisha had stayed at home and had sent his disciple, the mother of the [dead] child pressed him to aid her personally. Elisha had mercy on her grief, which was great, and set out to accompany her to the village of Shunem. Gehazi, his disciple, had laid the staff on the child at the time fixed by his master but had not raised him; that is, the resurrection of the dead child had not followed the application of the staff, because Gehazi was a covetous man and was not worthy of being mentioned. Elisha did not raise the child by the mere imposition of the staff either but raised him one hour later by adding certain ceremonies to the imposition of the staff. And in that manner he accomplished the type of the Providence of the Word of God, who came to raise Adam after he had been condemned to death. For he knew that the staff of the prophet represented the wood of the cross. In fact, the salvation of the world was not in the Law, which is only the shadow and the figu…

“Then the mother of the child said, ‘As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you.’ ” Now, since Elisha had stayed at home and had sent his disciple, the mother of the [dead] child pressed him to aid her personally. Elisha had mercy on her grief, which was great, and set out to accompany her to the village of Shunem. Gehazi, his disciple, had laid the staff on the child at the time fixed by his master but had not raised him; that is, the resurrection of the dead child had not followed the application of the staff, because Gehazi was a covetous man and was not worthy of being mentioned. Elisha did not raise the child by the mere imposition of the staff either but raised him one hour later by adding certain ceremonies to the imposition of the staff. And in that manner he accomplished the type of the Providence of the Word of God, who came to raise Adam after he had been condemned to death. For he knew that the staff of the prophet represented the wood of the cross. In fact, the salvation of the world was not in the Law, which is only the shadow and the figure of the goods to come, and the dead child was not raised by the application of the staff. Therefore, when the prophet set out to accomplish the resurrection, he diminished his size, lowered his height and adjusted himself to the dimension of the child.Immediately [the child’s] dead flesh became warm. In this figure the incarnation of the only One was represented, as well as the beginning of our salvation, because it was necessary that the Son of God “was made a little lower than the angels” in order to be included in a womb of flesh and to be incarnated, so that he might give life to the flesh through the Spirit. With regard to the fact that the prophet walked back and forth in the house of the dead child, it prefigures the times in which Jesus Christ entered and went out of the houses of humankind and lived with them. Finally the prophet came back and adjusted himself again to the size of the child, and his body covered his body; at that time the dead child was resurrected. Our Lord accomplished this figure and brought it to perfection, when, still alive, he adjusted his holy limbs to the cross. And after his death he again adjusted his dead body in the tomb to the size of the dead Adam. And so God, through his great love for us, after we had died for our sins, brought us back to life with Christ. By his grace he saved us and raised us from the dead with him and made us sit with him in heaven through Jesus Christ, as the divine Paul says.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:30-35

2 Kings 4:38-40

This was the starving steward of the prophets who was forced by the lack of food to go through the fields in order to gather some herbs. And since he could not find the herbs he knew, he gathered those that he did not know and were not edible. And since it is written that he gathered wild colocynths, some say that he gathered colocynths, others those [herbs] that are called the source of bitterness: with their inside parts, physicians make an effective and purifying medicine. Others say that perhaps their name comes from the term used by farmers: squirting cucumbers, which have a very bitter taste and resemble a vine. In fact, the Scripture calls a vine that plant that the steward found and from which he gathered colocynths.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:39

2 Kings 4:40-41

Elisha corrects the nature of the cooked foods with some flour and gives them a new taste. Our Lord did the same according to the [divine] economy, so that he might be imitated, as he said for our exhortation, with the result that we might walk the path of the righteous and the pious, and might rejoice because of the great reward he promised us and might heal the diseases and the anguish and the tribulations that constantly surround us from the beginning of our life. The father of our race, Adam, gathered those [bitter] fruits as a consequence of his sin and proposed and offered them to us in the hour in which he heard [these words] from his Creator: “The ground is cursed because of you; it will bring forth thorns and thistles for you. You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:41

2 Kings 4:42-44

Here two miracles are proposed, which Elisha performed while he was among his disciples. He accomplished the first when he caused death to leave the pot, where, as they said, it had hidden. He performed the second when he nourished one hundred prophets with a little bit of bread. In both miracles he prefigures him who multiplies twice some barley loaves and nourishes with them “about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 4:38

2 Kings 5:1

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram.” Some rely on these words to say that he was the one who had killed Ahab by striking him with an arrow shot by his own hand, when there was war between [Israel] and Aram. This favor was granted him by the Lord as a reward for killing the persecutor of the prophets and for enfeebling the power of Jezebel, [Ahab’s] wife, and for restraining her cruelty. And thanks to him the disciples of Elijah had relief too, those whom the fear of Ahab and Jezebel had forced to flee into the desert and take refuge in some caves. And they had returned to their abodes, as the Scripture mentions below. But all these theories are groundless, except for what they say about the persecution of the prophets, which is undoubtedly correct. It is true, nevertheless, what Obadiah says to Elijah: “Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave and provided them with…

“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram.” Some rely on these words to say that he was the one who had killed Ahab by striking him with an arrow shot by his own hand, when there was war between [Israel] and Aram. This favor was granted him by the Lord as a reward for killing the persecutor of the prophets and for enfeebling the power of Jezebel, [Ahab’s] wife, and for restraining her cruelty. And thanks to him the disciples of Elijah had relief too, those whom the fear of Ahab and Jezebel had forced to flee into the desert and take refuge in some caves. And they had returned to their abodes, as the Scripture mentions below. But all these theories are groundless, except for what they say about the persecution of the prophets, which is undoubtedly correct. It is true, nevertheless, what Obadiah says to Elijah: “Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave and provided them with bread and water?”

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5:1

2 Kings 5:8-12

Naaman was suffering from leprosy, and when he heard that a prophet who lived under the command of Jehoram, king of Israel, could cure him, he left and proceeded to the country of the healer and went to the house of Elisha, because he had learned that he was the prophet who could aid him in his distress and that he had to ask him to be healed. But Elisha did not go out to meet him or speak to him. He informed him through a messenger: If he wanted to be healed, he had to wash his body in the Jordan seven times. Now a question rises: Why did Elisha prevent Naaman from seeing him and did not allow him to come into his house? In the first place, because he had served Ben-hadad in his wars. In fact, the prophet knew that the king of Aram had killed many children of Israel, and how Naaman had destroyed their lands and how his hands were stained with innocent blood, for he was the commander of the army and had received full authority over the Arameans. In the second place, because he was stopped by the corruption of leprosy. Elisha knew that the Law prescribed that no leper could be approac…

Naaman was suffering from leprosy, and when he heard that a prophet who lived under the command of Jehoram, king of Israel, could cure him, he left and proceeded to the country of the healer and went to the house of Elisha, because he had learned that he was the prophet who could aid him in his distress and that he had to ask him to be healed. But Elisha did not go out to meet him or speak to him. He informed him through a messenger: If he wanted to be healed, he had to wash his body in the Jordan seven times. Now a question rises: Why did Elisha prevent Naaman from seeing him and did not allow him to come into his house? In the first place, because he had served Ben-hadad in his wars. In fact, the prophet knew that the king of Aram had killed many children of Israel, and how Naaman had destroyed their lands and how his hands were stained with innocent blood, for he was the commander of the army and had received full authority over the Arameans. In the second place, because he was stopped by the corruption of leprosy. Elisha knew that the Law prescribed that no leper could be approached or touched.Naaman, as a consequence, was enraged. Blaming and accusing Elisha, he left [saying] that he would have never thought to come to a prophet just in order to see him act mysteriously and that he certainly did not expect such words. He believed that his healing would be accomplished through a simple imposition of the hands. So he blamed Elisha and said, “Why did he not come out to meet a man of power who had come to his house? And why did he prevent me from seeing him, and why did he not judge me worthy of speaking to him? And why did he not heal me with the remedy he uses and which is easy and effortless for me? On the contrary, he sends me to the Jordan, as though that river may really purify me; but are not the rivers of my land, the Amana and the Pharpar, sufficient for such purification?”
It is not surprising that he had such thoughts and rebelled, the man who had heard with his own ears and compared the words of the prophet. A man who had made his career in the army could not have access to the mystery hidden in that unusual healing.
Therefore Naaman was sent to the Jordan as to the remedy capable to heal a human being. Indeed, sin is the leprosy of the soul, which is not perceived by the senses, but intelligence has the proof of it, and human nature must be delivered from this disease by Christ’s power which is hidden in baptism. It was necessary that Naaman, in order to be purified from two diseases, that of the soul and that of the body, might represent in his own person the purification of all the nations through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5:10-11

2 Kings 5:14-16

After Naaman had been persuaded by the prophet and had washed seven times in the Jordan, he eventually acknowledged his error. He was astonished, and a deep bewilderment took him when he realized that he had been delivered from his filthiness. And he thanked God for his healing and testified that the Lord of the universe, in his profound care for him, had conceded him that extraordinary power by simply using water. He also proclaimed that his healing could not have derived from the water of the river but had been caused by Elisha’s command. That is why he offered royal presents, but the prophet did not accept them and was not persuaded by the donor, even though he had pressed him many times. For that magnificently and very clearly prefigured the mystery of the healing, which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord through the intercession of the apostles. And this had been promised in advance to those masters by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”Since all diseases are a sort of bondage, the prophet…

After Naaman had been persuaded by the prophet and had washed seven times in the Jordan, he eventually acknowledged his error. He was astonished, and a deep bewilderment took him when he realized that he had been delivered from his filthiness. And he thanked God for his healing and testified that the Lord of the universe, in his profound care for him, had conceded him that extraordinary power by simply using water. He also proclaimed that his healing could not have derived from the water of the river but had been caused by Elisha’s command. That is why he offered royal presents, but the prophet did not accept them and was not persuaded by the donor, even though he had pressed him many times. For that magnificently and very clearly prefigured the mystery of the healing, which is freely granted to all nations of the earth by our Lord through the intercession of the apostles. And this had been promised in advance to those masters by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”Since all diseases are a sort of bondage, the prophet necessarily fixed the healing at the seventh bath, in parallel with the fact that the Law, too, orders and promises freedom for the slave at the seventh year.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5:15

2 Kings 5:17

Naaman the Aramean asked for some dust from the promised land in order to cause the shame of Israel, as I think, so that they might be ashamed that a stranger believed that even the dust of their land was filled with God, while the Hebrews did not even believe that God dwells in the prophets.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5:17

2 Kings 5:21-22

Gehazi was a covetous man to the bottom of his heart. He had pretended to reject his hidden greed but saw, through the betrayal of his mouth, what his soul was trying to hide.

ON THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS 5:21