1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

Presents commentary in a tabular format for ease of reading.Click to learn more.





II Chronicles 16:14 And they buried him in his own sepulchre, which he had made for himself in the city of David: and they laid him on his bed, full of spices and odoriferous ointments, which were made by the art of the perfumers, and they burnt them over him with very great pomp.

Sepulchre. Hebrew, "sepulchres," as there were many separate apartments in the same cavern. (Calmet) --- Asa had prepared one cell, as David and Solomon had done. (Menochius) (Tirinus) --- Odoriferous (mertriciis.) Such as harlots delight in, (Proverbs 7:16,) to entice the sensual. (Du Hamel) --- Hebrew zenim, may be derived from zana, fornicari. It denotes a mixture of perfumes. (Menochius) --- But here the Vulgate read zunim. (Du Hamel) --- Hebrew and Septuagint, "they laid him on a bed, and filled it with aromatical spices, and with various sorts of perfumers' ointments, and they made him a very great funeral, or (Haydock) burning." (Protestants) --- It is not clear whether the body was placed on a bed of state, and these perfumes were used to remove every disagreeable smell, or the body itself was rather consumed along with them, a practice which seems to have become more common since the days of Asa, Jeremias 34:5., 1 Kings 31:12., and Amos 6:10. Joram was deprived of this honour, 2 Paralipomenon 21:19. (Calmet) --- Sanctius adduces many examples, to prove that the spices were burnt only near the body; (Tirinus) and the Hebrews generally preferred to inter the corpse. Corpora condere quam cremare รจ more Aegyptio. (Tacitus, Hist. v.)