Ishodad of Merv — Commentary on Scripture

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…

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.

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