4 Kings 1:2
And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper chamber which he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ceciditque Ochozias per cancellos cœnaculi sui, quod habebat in Samaria, et ægrotavit : misitque nuntios, dicens ad eos : Ite, consulite Beelzebub deum Accaron, utrum vivere queam de infirmitate mea hac.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἔπεσεν Ὀχοζείας διὰ τοῦ δικτυωτοῦ τοῦ ἐν τῷ ὑπερῴῳ αὐτοῦ τῷ ἐν Σαμαρείᾳ, καὶ ἠρρώστησεν· καὶ ἀπέστειλεν ἀγγέλους καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς Δεῦτε καὶ ἐπιζητήσατε ἐν τῷ Βάαλ μυῖαν θεὸν Ἀκκαρών, εἰ ζήσομαι ἐκ τῆς ἀρρωστίας μου ταύτης· καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν ἐπερωτῆσαι δι᾽ αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּפֹּ֨ל אֲחַזְיָ֜ה בְּעַ֣ד הַשְּׂבָכָ֗ה בַּעֲלִיָּת֛וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר בְּשֹׁמְר֖וֹן וַיָּ֑חַל וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח מַלְאָכִ֔ים וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵהֶם֙ לְכ֣וּ דִרְשׁ֗וּ בְּבַ֤עַל זְבוּב֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י עֶקְר֔וֹן אִם אֶחְיֶ֖ה מֵחֳלִ֥י זֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Lattices, by a skylight, (Haydock) or trap-door, designed to give light to the room below, into which the king fell. The roofs are generally flat in the East, and covered with earth mixed with straw, with the light at the top, to prevent the excessive heats.
Of. Hebrew, &c., "into." (Calmet)
If the lattices be understood to mean the rails, which were ordered to be placed round the roof, (Deuteronomy xxii. 8.) Ochozias might fall into the street. (Menochius)
Josephus thinks he fell from the staircase. At any rate, he was much hurt, (Haydock) and thus was made to feel the indignation of God. (Tirinus)
God. Septuagint, "Baal, the god-fly;" (Calmet) the Jupiter of the Greeks, or their chief god; and the prince of devils, Matthew xii.
Accaron. Hence Pliny ([Natural History?] viii. 29.) styles the god Achor, (Tirinus) and Myiodis, (B. xxxvi.) which is the name given to him by Josephus, ix. 2. (Haydock)
He was supposed to free the people of the country from being infested with flies; or the many victims offered up to him, drew those insects together. (Vatable)
Grotius supposes that the Phœnicians styled their god, Beelsemen, (Bálssomin) "God of heaven;" and that the Hebrews called him, Bálzobub, "god of flies," out of contempt. But perhaps he is too favourable to the idolaters. (Du Hamel)
Selden is convinced that Ochozias gives the idol its real name. Scaliger rather thinks that Balzobéim, "the lord of victims," was the original title. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter I. Of the Monk's Girdle
As we are going to speak of the customs and rules of the monasteries, how by God’s grace can we better begin than with the actual dress of the monks, for we shall then be able to expound in due course their interior life when we have set their outward man before your eyes. A monk, then, as a soldier of Christ ever ready for battle, ought always to walk with his loins girded. For in this fashion, too, the authority of Holy Scripture shows that they walked who in the Old Testament started the original of this life, I mean Elijah and Elisha; and, moreover, we know that the leaders and authors of the New Testament, viz., John, Peter, and Paul, and the others of the same rank, walked in the same manner. …