II. /t >i
LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON. N. J.
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COMMENTARY
ON THE
HOLT SCKIPTTJEES:
CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS.
BY
JOHN PETER 'lANGE, D.I).,
» CONNECTION WITH 1 NUMBER OF EMINENT EUROPEAN DIVINES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND EDITED. WITS ADDITIONS,
BY
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.,
IN CONNECTION WITH AMERICAN SCHOLARS OF VARIOUS EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS.
VOL. VL OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTAINING THE FIRST AND SECOND
BOOKS OF KINGS.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
1899
THE BOOKS
o»
THE KINGS.
KAEL OHR. W. f/bXHR, D. D.,
MINISTERIAL COUNSELLOR AT CARLSRUHE.
TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED.
BOOK I.
BY
EDWIN HARWOOD, D. D.,
MOTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, CO It*.
BOOK II.
BY
Rev. W. G. SUMNER,
TBOPESSOR IN YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN, CONH.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
trows
hinting and bookbinding company,
NEW YORK.
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
The Commentary on the Books of the Kings, published in 1868, was prepared by
the Rev. Dr. Babe, of Carlsruhe, who has been long favorably known as the learned
author of the Symbolism of Mosaic Worship {Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus,
Heidelberg, 1837-'39, 2 vols., now undergoing a thorough revision), a Commentary
on Colossians, a treatise on the Temple of Solomon (1848), and other works.
The translation from the German, with additions, was executed by the Rev. Dr.
Habwood, of New Haven, Conn., who assumed the First Book, and by the Rev.
~W. G. Sumner, Professor in Tale College, who is responsible for the last chapter
of the First, and the whole of the Second Book. The textual revision and origi-
nal grammatical notes on the First Book must be credited to the Rev. Dr. Fred-
eric Gardiner, Professor in the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn.
In regard to the principles by which he has been governed in his work, Dr.
Bahr says, in his preface : —
" In accordance with the wisely-chosen aim and plan of the Bibi.e-Work of which
this volume forms a part, I have taken especial pains to maintain a strict discrimina
tion between the three sections into which the expository matter is divided. In the
first section, the Exegetical and Critical, I have collected all which seemed essential
to the explanation of the original text, and to the determination, both of the senst
of the words and of their grammatical connection .... As a matter of course, botl
the other sections are based on the Exegetical. Nothing can properly be made the
subject of theological discussion or homiletical treatment which does not rest on a
firm exegetical foundation. I have, therefore, omitted from the Homiletical section
all which, however edifying it might be, in itself considered, had no foundation in
the text when this was correctly understood. I have taken the liberty of giving to
the second division of the exposition [Doctrinal and -Ethical], a wider, though mon
exact, title than that which it bears in the other volumes of the Bible-Work
The specific, and, in fact, exclusive contents of the historical books is history, not
doctrine or dogma; and this history is, moreover, soteriological, that is, it is the
history of the redemptive plan of God ; the history of the divine revelation, pur-
pose, and providence ; the history of the kingdom of God "
PREFACE.
Hence Dr. Bahr gives to this section the title : Eeilsgeschichtliche und Ethischt
Grundgedanken, i.e. : Chief Points (in the section of text last preceding) which
bear upon the Development of OooVs Plan of Salvation, or have Ethical Import-
ance. In consequence of the impossibility of embodying this idea completely in a
concise and convenient English title, the translators, while fully appreciating and
coinciding in the author's intention, have retained the title which is used for the
corresponding section of the other volumes, only substituting Historical for
Doctrinal.
In regard to the Chronology, Dr. Bahr continues : —
" I have adopted a somewhat different method from any yet followed in the
treatment of this subject. I start from certain dates which are generally accepted;
and which may be fixed with the greatest certainty, and then, by grouping the
biblical data into periods which are comprised between these fixed dates, I seek to
solve this difficult problem (See Pt. IL pp. 86, 180, 283)."
Professor Sumner has added a brief Appendix on this subject, together with
a Chronological Table of the period covered by the Books of the Kings. In Part
II. pp. 161, 174, 189, 220, 237, 284 will be found a series of notes on contem-
poraneous history, so far as it illustrates the references in the text. These notea
are based on the results of the latest Assyrian and Egyptian researches.
PHILIP SCHAFF.
New York, Bible House, April, lSfti.
THE
BOOKS OF THE KINGS,
INTRODUCTION
§ i.
NAME, DATE OF COMPOSITION, AND AUTHOR.
The name D'3^D , which belongs to our books in the Canon of the Old Testament, desig-
nates (if not imposed by the author himself), briefly and appropriately, the distinguishing
contents of this historical work, in contrast with other writings belonging to the same class, the
D'Jl^'NI D'X'SJ , i. «., prophetas priores. It contains, not so much the history of the theocracy in
general, whereto " the succession of the kings serves only as the visible thread " (Huveruick),
as the history of the Israditish monarchy from its ripest bloom on to its destruction, in so far
as this history constitutes generally an independent portion of the history of the people
Israel. The division of our work into two books is not original — it occurs first in the
Septuagint. There it is regarded as an immediate continuation of the book ^XIDL" (Samuel),
which precedes it in the Canon, and is itself divided into two books, and these four are then
designated as Books of the Kings (JiaatXciuv a. /?. y. <S.), (comp. Origen in Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. vi.
25). This is retained in the Vulgate (comp. Hieron. prolog, galeat.), and came thence, through
the printer Dan. Bomberg, in Venice, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, into the
editions of the Hebrew Bible. This entire division and designation is just as arbitrary as it
is defective. How unfit it is, is t<hown especially in our own work, the first book of which
does not conclude with a paragraph founded in the history itself, but breaks off with a brief
account of the reign of king Ahaziah.
The date of its composition is furnished from the conclusion of the work itself, where it ia
stated that king Jehoiachin was carried away to Babylon in the year 599 b. c, and was held
there a prisoner for thirty-seven years — to the year 562 — and obtained his freedom from Evil-
merodach, the successor of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv. 27-30). The composition, conse-
quently, cannot be set down before the year 562. But it does not admit of supposition that
it took place after the return from the Babylonish exile in the year 536 ; for the author con-
cludes with the deliverance of Jehoiachin as a joyful, hopeful event, and does not utter a sylla-
ble about the still more important and joyous matter — the return of the whole people — which
is first mentioned in Ezra i. The composition, therefore, is to be assigned to the period
between 562 and 536, i. e., during the second half of the exile. But we cannot determine
whether it was during the brief reign (two years) of Evil-merodach, or after Jehoiachin's death.
In the Bible itself there is no intimation about the person of the author. The Jewish tra-
dition names Jeremiah. The Talmud says (Bdba bathra,/. xv. 1) : Jeremias scripsit libritm suum
et librum regum et threnoe. Some of the older theologians, and Havernick also, have agreed
1
2 THIS BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
with this statement ; but it is refuted alone from the duration of Jeremiah's life. He began
his career as prophet (Jer. i. 2) in the thirteenth year of the reign of king Josiah, and must
have been then at least from twenty to twenty-two years old; but since now our books could
not have been written before the year 5G2, he must have composed them when he was at least
from eighty-six to eighty-eight years old, which appears all the more incredible since the
composition presupposes the employing and the arranging of different older written sources
To this must be added that Jeremiah, after the destruction of Jerusalem, went to Egypt
(Jer. xliii. 6), and there spent the last years of his life in continuous, grievous conflicts Tt
cannot, however, be denied, that in the places especially where the author does not report
directly from written sources of information, but inserts his own remarks, an in 2 Kings xvii.
sq., his mode of thinking and of expression resembles that of Jeremiah, from which,
however, nothing more can be concluded than that the author had been entrusted with the
writings of this prophet — was, perhaps, his scholar. Blcek suggests, indeed, Baruch, who
apparently had charge of collecting and editing the book of Jeremiah, and added to it
the 52d chapter, which is consonant with 2 Kings xxv. But in that case, since Baruch went
to Egypt with Jeremiah (see on the place), we must suppose that our history was composed
there, which is, in the highest degree, improbable. It can scarcely be doubted, rather, that
the author wrote in Babylon. If this be not, with some, susceptible of proof, owing to 1 Kings
v. 4, where Palestine is described as lying on the other side of the Euphrates, it is, neverthe-
less, so much the more certain that the author did not write his work for the little band
which fled to Egypt, and was there fallen into idolatry and discord, but for the kernel of
the whole people then in exile (see below, § 5). While Jeremiah announces the ruin of his
corrupted fellow-countrymen in Egypt (Jer. xliv. 11 sq.), our author concludes with the de-
liverance of Jehoiachin promising a better day, and gives, at the same time, details which
could have been known only to a contemporary living in the exile; but not then to one who
was in distant Egypt. There is an absence of all reference to Egyptian situations and rela-
tions, which assuredly would not have been the case had the author and his readers lived in
Egypt. After all, we must give up the attempt to designate any particular person as the
author. He must have stood high in reputation, anyhow, as is conclusive from the reception
of his work into the Canon.
[The prevailing opinion amongst the English seems to be, after Calmet, in favor of Ezra.
See Bp. Patrick, Home, &c. I except Prideaux. — E. H.]
§ 2.
SOURCES.
The author himself states the sources of his historical work, extending over a peiiod ot
453 years, viz. :
1) noSt? 'IT! 1?P 1 Kings xi. 41.
2) mirp '^D^ D^n njOT 1SD 1 Kings xiv. 29 ; xv. 7, 22 ; xxii. 46 ; 2 Kings viii. 23 ; xil ,
' 20 ; xiv. 18 ; xv. 6,' 15, 36 ; xvi. 19 ; xx. 20 ; xxi. 17, 25 ; xxiii. 28 : xxiv. 5.
3) ^N-lt:" 'Z^oS D^n n33 13D 1 Kings xiv. 19 ; xv. 31 ; xvi. 5, 14, 20, 27 ; xxii. 39 ;
2 Kings i. 18 • x. 34 ; xiii. 8, 12 ; xiv. 28 ; xv. 11, 15, 21, 26, 31.
Besides these three documentary sources, none else is cited in our books. And since the
author refers only to the first, and not to the second or third, for the history of Solomon, and
for the history of the kings of Judah only to the second, and for the history of the kings of
Israel only to the third, it follows that each one of them was an independent, separate work.
The reference is always made with the formula : " The rest of the acts of the king . . . and
whut he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah (of
Israel)? " Thence it follows still farther, that the three documents contained more than the
author has incorporated into his work, and were more complete ; and that not only were they
in existence at the time our books were composed, but they were in the hands, if not of all.
§ 2. SOURCES. 3
of many, nevertheless, and were circulated generally. For if they were only submitted to hit
inspection, he could not have appealed to them and referred his readers to them. In many
respects it is well to bear this in mind.
We obtain now a completer explanation of these documents themselves, through compari-
son with the citations in the Chronicles, which refers to its own sources with a similar formula.
A whole series of paragraphs in our books is repeated word for word in the Chronicles. In
this case there is no reference to one of our three documents, but to the writings of given
individuals, aa their source. So, first of all, with the history of Solomon, in which the follow-
ing sections are consonant with each other, viz. : 2 Chron. vi. 1^40 with 1 Kings viii. 12-50;
2 Chron. vii. 7-22 with 1 Kings viii. 64 — ix. 9 ; 2 Chron. viii. 2 to the 10th ver. and ver. 17
with 1 Kings ix. 17-23, and ver. 26 ; 2 Chron. ix. 1-28 with 1 Kings x. 1-28, etc. Here the
Chronicles does not, like our author, refer to " the book of the history of Solomon," but to the
" >~i2r] of Nathan the prophet, and nx?3J of the [prophet] Ahijah the Shilonite, and the niin
of Iddo the Seer " (2 Chron. ix. 29). Consequently the book of the " acts " of Solomon must
either have consisted of these three prophetic writings, or at least must have contained essen-
tial portions of them. So also in respect of our second document, the book of the " acts " of the
kings of Judah. The account of Rehoboam in 2 Chron. x. 1-19 is fully consonant with that
in 1 Kings xii. 1-19, that also in 2 Chron. xi. 1-4 with that in 1 Kings xii. 20-24, that still
farther in 2 Chron. xii. 13 sq. with that in 1 Kings xiv. 21 sq. ; but the source is not, as in
1 Kings xiv. 29, called the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah, but •' njl of
Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the Seer " (2 Chron. xii. 15). In the history of king
Abijam, the very much abbreviated account in 1 Kings xv. 1-8 refers for what is more ex-
tended, to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. The Chronicles, on the other
hand, which gives the more extended narrative, refers to the " L'TO of the prophet Iddo "
(2 Chron. xiii. 22). Such, too, is the case in the history of the kings Uzziah and Manasseh.
Our author, in both instances, appeals to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah
(2 Kings xv. 6 ; xxi. 17), (but) the chronicler, in the case of the former, to the "3712 of Isaiah
the prophet the son of Amoz " (2 Chron. xxvi. 22), and in that of the latter to the " 'Tin '"QT "
(2 Chron. xxxiii. 18, 19). From all these references, it follows plainly that the book of the
kings of Judah consisted of the historical writings of different prophets or seers. Still more
decisively and unanswerably do the following plares confirm this. In the history of king
Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings xxii. 2-35 coincides with 2 Chron. xviii. 2-34. As usual, our author
here refers to the book of the kings of Judah ; but the chronicler to the ,_m of Jehu the son
of Hanani, ^XTJ" VSfO "iSD"^V r6yh ~iV.'x> *'•'•, which are inserted, received into, etc. (2 Chron.
xx. 34). So also for the history of Hezekiah, our author appeals again simply to the book oi
the kings of Judah (2 Kings xx. 20) ; but the chronicler to the |ifn of Isaiah, the son of Amoz,
12D"?y of the kings of Judah (2 Chron. xxxii. 32). Hence it happens that the purely
historical sections in Isaiah, chapters xxxvi. to xxxix., and in Jeremiah, chapter Hi., are
reproduced in 2 Kings xviii. 30 to xx. 19, and in xxiv. 18 to xxv. 30, since they were certainly
regarded as having come froni the prophets. But our author, at least in the history of I
Hezekiah, refers, not to the book of the prophet Isaiah, but to the book of the kings of Judah |
(2 Kings xx. 20). — After all, if the three documents forming the foundation of our books were
not the production of one author, but each of them was made up of the writings of different,
and, in fact, prophetic authors, who had recorded the history of their own times, they were
historical compilations (comp. Bleek, Einleitung in, das Alte Testament, sec. 157 sq. ; Bertheau, Die
Buclwr der Chron. Einl., § 3).
That prophets generally were the historians of the Israelitish people, is universally acknow-
ledged (Knobel, Der Propliet. der Hebr., i. s. 58 sq.), and has its reason in the nature and destiny
of this nation. " In order to recognize Jehovah in the directing of His people, and to explain
and gather up all the particular facts in the connection of the theocratic guidance, the Spirit
of God was the subjective condition. The history was not to be estimated as an aggregate of
facts to be gathered by inquiry, and to be set forthwith talent, but as a revelation of Jehovah
THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
in continuous acts, to understand which, properly, the Spirit of God seemed essential as
Organ, just as much as for the comprehension of particular, immediate signs, facts (Geschichte\
and oracles of Jehovah" (Winer, R.-W.-B., i. s. 413, Not. 2). The secular historian does not
know Hebrew antiquity. The historical books of the Old Testament carry the collective
name in the Canon D'X'SJ , and are distinguished from the books strictly prophetical only in
this, that the adjective D^IC'XI , priores, is applied to them, and to the latter D'jnnN ,
posteriore.a. But if in any age history would have been written by prophets, this most certainly
would have happened when prophecy was in the period of its bloom, and this was in the
time of the monarchy (comp. Bleek). The prophets did not write the history of Israel as
private persons, but as servants of Jehovah, as " men of God." They are the historiographers
of the kingdom of God, of the theocracy, and their narrative has for the people of God an
official character, which imparts to their historical, not less than to their strictly prophetical
writings, authority and value in the judgment of the people. Were it not so, our author and
the chronicler could not have appealed to them so constantly.
If the three documentary sources of our books consisted, as has been stated above, of seve-
ral prophetical isolated pieces, the question then arises, when and by whom were the latter
collected and combined into each of the three D'HSD . In the lack of all specific accounts,
this admits only of a conjectural reply. If it were the business of the prophets to write the
history of Israel as God's people, and to exhibit in it the threads of divine guidance and reve-
lation, it must, of necessity, have occurred to them that their narrative would not only be
continued always, but, also, that the historical material already in hand would be preserved
and secured for future generations. This may have been attended to in the smaller pro-
phetical circles, especially in the so-called schools of the prophets. It is hence highly improba-
ble that, as Keil pretends, "just before the fall of the kingdom of Judah," the isolated pieces
which had been composed within the period of some centuries, which were scattered about
here and there, should have been collected and made up into one whole ; for the time imme-
diately preceding the fall of the kingdom was a time of utter disorder, which was least of all
fit for such an undertaking, apart from the consideration that the kingdom of Israel perished
130 years sooner, and its history was contained in a special work (Sammelwerk), viz., in the
third documentary source. More can be said for the supposition that the compilation was
not completed at once, in a given time, but gradually, and that the latter isolated pieces were
added to the earlier, which would have been entirely natural and easily done. Since our
author, as we have remarked above, carefully distinguishes the three documents in his cita-
tions, adduces each one separately, and never, in any one of the thirty-four places, confounds
the second with the third, we are justified in the opinion that in his day, the three document-
ary sources were distinct works. In the time of the chronicler the second and third may
have been formed into one whole, since he frequently refers to the book of the kings of Judah
and Israel (2 Chron. xvi. 11; xxv. 26; xxviii. 26; xxxii. 32; xxvii. 7; xxxv. 27; xxxvi. 8);
once, also, simply to the book of the Kings (2 Chron. xxiv. 27). We cannot deduce anything
from this with entire certainty, however, for the Chronicles, although it often names prophet-
ical individual works, does not, in this respect, observe the accuracy of our books, as, e. g.,
when in the case of Jehoshaphat and Manasseh, kings of Judah, it refers to the " book of the
kings of Israel " (2 Chron. xx. 34; xxxiii. 18), where we must assume either an exchange
or an omission of the words " and Judah."
Our author, in his use of the three documents, does not give a uniformly continuous
extract from them. Sometimes, indeed, in accordance with the special design of his work
(see below, § 5), he quotes entire sections literally, as is clear from sections in Jeremiah,
Isaiah, and Chronicles, which are duplicates of each other. Sometimes he abbreviates them
very much, as, e. <j., is shown by a comparison of 1 Kings xv. 1-8 with 2 Chron. xiii. 1-23.
If he have not prepared the historical material furnished him in an independent way, special
remarks, insertions, and transitions may, nevertheless, have originated with him. But it is
very hazardous to attempt to determine this accurately. Of one section only, viz., 2 Kings
*~vii. 7-23, can we claim with certainty that it is the author's own.
§ 2. SOURCES.
The sections upon the life and activity of the two great prophets, Elijah and Elisha, form
no small portion of our books. In these we miss the usual appeal to one of the three docu-
mentary sources. Those which relate to Elijah bear certainly an unmistakably peculial
mark (comp., e. g., 1 Kings xvii. with the preceding chapter) ; but it does not at all follow
that they belong to another than the third document, for this, like the other two, was a col-
lection ot isolated pieces of different authors. For since those two prophets were felt so
powerfully in the history of the monarchy, and they exerted generally, upon the develop-
ment of the Old Testament theocracy, an influence vastly greater than that of many a king, a
narrative devoted to them would scarcely have been wanting in the compilation. Besides, we
cannot conceive why our author, who usually adduces his sources so carefully, and refers to
them even in the most insignificant portions of the history of the kings, should have been
silent, in the most weighty history of the two prophets, as to whether he had derived the same
from another source than that he was constantly making use of (comp. Bleek, a. a. 0., s. 371).
If then of any one portion of our books, of th is it is certain and self-evident, that it is the pro-
duction of a prophet. If prophets have written the history of the kings, how much more
their own !
What has thus far been submitted respecting the documentary sources of our books, differs
more or less from the view now current. Almost universally, by the cited D^iaD are under-
stood " public annual registers " or " annals," which were kept by some royal official, and de-
posited in the state archives. Besides these chief sources, the author (it is thought) has used
others still, viz., prophetic writings. According to Delitzsch (in Dreehsler, Der Proph. Jesaja,
ii. 2, s. 253, and Commentar fiber den Proph. Jesaja, s. ix.), the historical composition was both
annalistic and prophetic. " The aims of the two are distinct. The aim of the prophetic is
to exhibit the inner divine connections of the outward event which the annalistic registers."
. . . . " With David began the official writing of annals, which resulted in those histori-
cal works out of which the authors of the book of the Kings and of the Chronicles have
chiefly, if not immediately, drawn. We behold David as the supreme chief of the kingdom,
exercising the highest authority on all sides, and we find several offices created wholly by
him. Under these is included that of the T3TO , i. <'-, as the Septuagint, frequently explain-
ing, translates, i-nuvrmaToypatyoi;. or (2 Sam. viii. 16) i~\ run viro/ivquaruv (Uwron., genuinely
Roman, a commentariis). . . . The T3TO was required to keep the annals of the kingdom.
His office is different from that of the iSiD or chancellor. It was the duty of the "isiD (chan-
cellor) to issue the public documents, and of the V3TO (recorder) to preserve them and to in-
corporate them into the proper connection of the history of the kingdom. Throughout the
ancient East both offices existed generally. Reference to the annals begins at 1 Chron. xxvii.
24 with the D'D'n n:n of David, and is continued in nbVj' 'r13!I \BD 1 Kings xi. 41. . . . If
we regard the state annals as a completed work, it falls naturally into four portions. The first
two treated of the history of the kingdom in its unity, the last two were annals of the kings
of Judah and of Israel — the history of the dissevered kingdom. The original of the state
archives was destroyed doubtless when the Chakheans burned Jerusalem. But excerpted
copies of it were preserved, and the histories of the reign of David and of Solomon, rich
especially in annalistic particulars in the historical books in our possession, show that dili-
gence was devoted conspicuously to the circulation of copies of the annals of these sovereigns,
and that they probably appeared in separate tractates." Ewald also (Oesch. Israels, iii.
8. 180, 338) maintains that amongst the highest royal functionaries named in 2 Sam. viii. 16, and
1 Kings iv. 3, the V2ro was " he whose business it was to record all weighty incidents con-
cerning the royal house and kingdom, and who, at the close of a reign, gave publicly a
resume of the history of it." He was also " court-historiographer." David created this " court-
office," and it was never afterwards " given up." Besides the "public annals" prescribed by
David, there were also in the kingdom of Israel "numerous and continuous prophetico-
historical summaries," which were fused subsequently into one work, which again was "per-
haps retouched and partially enlarged, yet much more sensibly abbreviated." Our author is
THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
the " latest elaborator," and " the fifth." We remark, against these very plausible assump-
tion, the following :
(a) There is not a single passage of the Old Testament to show that the "V3TD was th«
writer of the court and kingdom records ; that he drew up " protocolled " and " original "
archives that were deposited among the " state archives." He never appears the least
in the light of a historiographer or annalist when mentioned, or when his function is
alluded to, but as a civil officer (comp. 2 Kings xviii. 18, 37 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8 : comp. Winer,
R.- W.-B., ii. «. 309). Thenius justly remarks, on 1 Kings iv. 3, the maskir " received his name
from his office as /irr/uuv, whose duty it was to bring to the king's remembrance the state
affairs to be settled, and about which he was consulted." Had David " newly " founded the
office of a court and state scribe. David's own history would have been the first to have been
written by this official ; but 1 Chron. xxix. 29 says of this very history, that it is " written "
'IPT-'P °f Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad
the seer." Neither could " the book of the acts of Solomon " (1 Kings xi. 41) have been
written by the maskir, for the Chronicles, that has so many parallel sections with this history (see
above), says that these acts were written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the nX'2J of
Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the nitn of Iddo the seer" (2 Chron. ix. 29). If the office of
maskir existed at all in the kingdom of Judah under the kings of David's house, there is not
the least trace of it in the separated kingdom of Israel. Here the dynasty was changed nine
times, and each was completely cut off by the new ruler. Was then the history of each king
written by the maskir of his successor (granting that there was such an official), and preserved
among the state archives? Would, for instance, a Jehu, who so unmercifully destroyed the
whole house of Ahab (2 Kings x. 11-14) have the history of that house written by a royal
official, or have preserved the already-existing annals among the archives of his kingdom?
Would a Jezebel have suffered the court-historian tn have written yearly accounts of all her
shameful acts? Lastly, the assertion that the "HID had to prepare the public documents, and
the T3TO to preserve them, is a pure invention, without any support from a single passage.
(!)) That there was a D'p'H ^21 'ap of the Medeo-Persian kings (Esth. x. 2), even suppos-
ing that archives drawn up by a court-scribe were meant, can never prove that the office of
a court-scribe was instituted by David 600 years before, and that this office continued with-
out interruption from that time on in both kingdoms during their separation. But even
suppose that there were such archives kept in Israel as well as in Judah, and deposited in the
archive-building, yet it must be considered that our author wrote in the latter half of the
Babylonian captivity, consequently at a time when the residences of Samaria and Jerusalem
had been for a long while destroyed, and when also, as is admitted, the annals that had been
preserved in the archive-building no longer existed. The supposition that the Assyrians
and Chaldeans kept the archives of conquered dynasties in their capitals, and allowed those
exiles who had acquired the favor of the conqueror to make use of them (Stahelin, EM. irti,
Alte Testament, s. 129), is as unfounded as it is arbitrary. At the destruction of Jerusalem.
not only the royal palace, but also " all the great houses were burned " (2 Kings xxv. 9)
And how could our author refer his readers to writings that either did not exist then, or at
least were not within the range of all? But the assertion that excerpted -extracts from the
originals of the state archives had been preserved, rests on the presupposition that " the
annals of each dynasty were made public when it became extinct," — a presupposition which is
again without the shadow of support, and which, though helping out a difficulty, is a purely
arbitrary notion.
(c) Least of all can the contents of the book of Kings be adduced to prove that the
"archives of the kingdom" were the principal authorities for it. The history of the reigns
ot each of the nineteen kings of Israel begins with the expression : " He did that which was
evil in the sight of the Lord." The same expression occurs with regard to twelve of the
twenty kings of Judah, and it expresses the general character of their rule. It is even told
at length how deeply even the greatest and most glorious king, Solomon, fell. The " sin of
§ 2. SOURCES
Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin," is represented as the source of all the evils of the king-
dom ; the conspiracies and murders of a Baasha, a Shallum, a Menahem ; the wicked deede
of an Ahab, a Jezebel, and Manasseh, are told unsparingly; and, finally, the chronicler says
of king Jchoiakim of Judah : " his abominations which he did, and that which was found in
him, behold they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah" (2 Chron. xxxvi.
8). How can we then suppose that all this and much more like it was protocolled by the
" court-historiographer " with the knowledge and in the service of the king ; that it was re-
corded in official archives of the kingdom, and then made public ? No court-officials could
have written books of such contents, none but free-souled prophets who were perfectly inde-
pendent of the court. Ewald adduces, as unmistakable " remains " of the official archives {a. a.
0., s. 182), the sections that refer to Solomon's officers, over his household, and his buildings.
But we cannot perceive why these sections only should have been written by a court-official.
A man who stood so near Solomon as the prophet Nathan, who, according to 2 Chron. ix. 29,
wrote a history of that king, could and must know well what officials and how many he had,
how he managed his kingdom and court, and how the temple and palace built by him were
constructed. The accounts of the building of the tabernacle are much fuller than those of the
temple, and yet are certainly not written by secular officials. There is, in fact, nothing in these
books that a X'^: may not have known and written ; and it is indeed astonishing that, not-
withstanding all this, people should still insist on the supposed "archives of the kingdom,"
and obstinately object to the prophetic origin of the three documentary sources.
(d) Because there is so much matter that could not possibly have been in the official
annals, they have been driven to a wholly unfounded supposition, viz., that the author used
other authorities also, which are not named. But this is disproved by the fact that the three
authorities used were not official annals at all. The author refers to the sources whence he
drew his facts about thirty times, and he refers to them even when he wrote of those kings that
only reigned a short time ; but he does not once quote any other work. Now, as the greater
part of the contents of our books could not possibly have been taken from court-annals, it
would be inexplicable that the author should never have named his other authorities. The
conclusion that, because everything could not have been found in the archives, the author
drew from other sources, is therefore false. We should be much more justified in the inverse
conclusion, that because everything may have been contained in the historico-prophetical
works of Samuel (and the author only quotes these), they alone, and not such as he never
names, were his authorities.
Thenius has put forward a view regarding the sources of the books of the Kings (Comm.
fiber die Burlier da- Konige, Einleit.%Z) which differs from the view we have just discussed, and
also from our own. He asserts that there are three " different component parts : " namely, the
" properly historical," the " traditional," and these passages that were "really written by the
elaborator." There were, he thinks, two different sources of the historical parts, and,infact, "a
larger work," which fell into two halves according to the two kingdoms, and " when the official
yearly records of both kingdoms were used, may have been principally composed of what was
written regarding the influence of the prophets that had so much weight in public affairs;
written partly by the prophets themselves, and partly by others of their time, or recorded
soon after." There was then an " extract from this larger work," which he supposes our autnor
to have " found," and to which the " summary accounts contained in our books," and the
invariable form of quotation, belong. The traditional portions are in part separate "descrip-
tions drawn from tradition," and in part are peculiarly " a book composed by and for the
prophets— a sort of prophet-mirror, the chief design of which was to impress on the
pupils of the prophets the necessity for the most implicit obedience' to the divine exhorta-
tions." Whilst all the sections that enter into detail are taken from the first-named " larger
work," the narratives of the prophets, as the history of Elijah and Elisha, were taken from
the " prophet-mirror." Thenius has tried to determine precisely to which of these diilerent
component parts the separate sections and verses of our books belong. Against this view we
idvance the following :
8 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
(a) The author's own statements refute the supposition that one larger work forming a wholl
in itself, was his chief authority. The chronicler who wrote much later, refers indeed often to
the " book of the acts of the kings of Judah uiul Israel ; " but our author does not do so in one
of the thirty-four passages where he quotes his authorities, but he always either names the
book of the kings of Judah or that of the kings of Israel. Thus he had two separate, independent
books before him, for the very nature of the case required that the history of the two separated
kingdoms should be separately designated. But even granted that the three QH2D , so accurately
distinguished from each other, were only one larger work, we should then have to ask when it
was written, what author wrote it, and from what sources it was derived. As in 2 Kings
xxiv. 5 only the book of the Kings of Judah is quoted, the former could not have been written'
till after the time of Jehoiakim ; but against this there are the above-mentioned references made
by the chronicler to the separate writings of earlier prophets and seers. The author of the
" larger work " (whoever he might have been) is supposed to have used the " official yearly
records of both kingdoms ; " but the grand question is, whether there were any such records,
and particularly in the kingdom of Israel. But if the three DH3D are taken to mean the
larger work, the official yearly records cannot be meant at the same time ; thus no reference
can have been made to them.
(b) That our author should have used an extract from the larger work as well as the work
itself, is an extraordinary assertion, which no one thought of making till now. He certainly
needed no such extract, as, being in possession of the larger work, he could have made an
extract himself, and could get nothing from any such, made by another, that was not to be
found in the work itself. But if he had, as proved, two separate DHDD before him, the book
of the kings of Judah and that of the kings of Israel, there must have been two extracts, one
having been made in each kingdom, and this no one can or will accept. The attempt to de-
termine accurately what belongs to the larger work, what was taken from the extract, and
what was the author's own, is, to say the least, very adventurous, and rests alone upon a
purely subjective judgment, i. e., is more or less arbitrary. Why, for instance, should not
the brief summary statements made in 1 Kings xv. about some kings, be taken from the ex-
tended authority cited, wThich is also quoted in every case, but bs borrowed from the sup-
posed extract ? Why should the sentence in 1 Kings xiv. 21, " in the city which the Lord
did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there," not belong to the authority
used, but have been inserted by the author himself? Why should the same be the case
with chap. xv. 4, 5 ?
(c) The distinction between " truly historical " and "traditional " component parts, each
of which is said to have its peculiar sources, is founded on the presupposition that every
account in which a miracle, or the fulfilment of a prophecy, in fact anything out of the ordi-
nary course of history, is recorded, cannot be historical, but is " legendary." But those narra-
tives are so closely connected with such as are admitted to be " truly historical," that they can
only be forcibly separated from the context and laid to a separate " traditional " document-
ary source. Why, for instance, should the sections 1 Kings x. 1-13 and xi. 1-13 not be his-
torical, but the first be derived from a written and the latter from oral tradition ? Why -
should 1 Kings xx. 1-34 belong to the supposed larger historical work, and vers. 35 to 43, on
the contrary, to the so-called prophet-mirror; in the same way 2 Kings iii. 4-27 to the former,
and 2 Kings vi. 24-vii. 20 to the latter? Why should everything in the great section
2 Kings xviii. 13-xx. 19 (Isai. xxxvi. 39) be historical, and only the midway verses of 2 Kings
xix. 35-37 (Isai. xxxvii. 36-38) have been taken from another and a traditional source ?
(d) There is nowhere the slightest trace in the Bible of a particular book that was used
as " a prophet-mirror." If the author cites one of his three authorities in writing of kings of
whom there was but little to say (1 Kings xvi. 15; 2 Kings xv. 13), he wTould certainly not
have omitted to give his authority, if he had one, in the important and deeply-interesting
history of the great prophets. Apart from this, too, the supposition of such " a book, com
piled for pupils of the prophets," is contrary to the sense and spirit of Hebrew antiquity. The
old prophets felt themselves indeed called on to record the history of Jehovah's people ; but
§ 3. UNITY AND INDEPENDENCE. 9
it never entered their minds to compile a book of instruction or examples for their pupils, in
order to lead them to " the most implicit obedience." Modern times, indeed, require instruc-
tion for the performance of the spiritual office, &c. ; but antiquity had no such books. If tha
three documentary sources were, as we have proved, collections made from writings that were
contemporary with or made soon after the CX'^J who lived during the events, all the
sections that are said to belong to the supposed prophet-mirror might easily have been drawn
from them.
§3.
UNITY AND INDEPENDENCE.
If any book of the Old Testament forms a complete and independent whole, the books of
Kings, which afterwards and erroneously were divided into two books, are such, notwith
standing their character as compilations. This is apparent in their beginning and conclusion
which are the limits of a certain period of the Old Testament history. They begin with the
reign of the most glorious king, for whom the building of the temple was reserved, and they
end with the ruin of the whole kingdom, and the destruction of that temple. It is plain
from 1 Kings vi. 1 that a former period of the history of Israel terminates with the building
of the temple, and a new one begins : " In the four hundred and eightieth year after the
children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign
over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, he began to build the house
of the Lord." Why a new period began with the building of the temple by Solomon, is
shown in the following passages: 2 Sam. vii. 8-1(5; 1 Kings v. 3, 4 ; 1 Chron. xvii. 7-12;
xxii. 8-11. The period from the exodus from Egypt to Solomon was the time of wan-
dering (of the "Tabernacle"), of war, and of disturbance; even David was the "man of war."
With Solomon, the "man of quiet and peace," the period of full and quiet possession of the
promised land, and the period marked by Jehovah's " house," began. With Solomon, also,
the "house" of David, i. e., David's dynasty, to whom the kingdom was promised forever,
first really began (2 Sam vii. 13 ; 1 Chron. xvii. 14). This period continues then till the ruin
of David's house, which is also the ruin of Jehovah's house, and with this our books conclude
(2 Kings xxv).
The unity and independence of these books is shown, not only in their style, but in their
contents also. Even De Wette confesses (EM., s. 239): "a certain unity is manifest in
matter, style, and manner of exposition, from beginning to end; " and Thenius says (a. a. 0.,
s. 1) : " There are remarks scattered up and down the whole that are all written in one
spirit, and are found in no other historical book, as in the books of the Kings (cer-
tainly not in the books of Samuel)." A peculiar style and method of historical writings
prevails, and such as we find nowhere else. The time of the beginning of each reign
and its duration are first stated in the history of each king, then his general character i9
given, next an account, more or less full, of his acts, after that the date of his death and
burial, and finally mention is made of the authorities used. Some forms of expression are
indeed employed (in the extracts) which do not belong to the time of their composition, but
to a later perioa (Stahelin, Krit. Untersuch, s. 150 sq.) ; but they only prove "that the author
not only often quoted his authorities, but used them with some freedom " (Thenius).
The arbitrary designation of the books of Samuel as the first and second books of the
Kings by the Sept. and the Vulgate (see § 1) may have occasioned the assertion of recent
critics, like Eichhorn and Jahn, that both works are by the same author, and properly belong
together. Ewald goes still farther ; according to him, the books of Judges, Ruth, Samuel,
and Kings, are, in their present form, one connected whole, by one author, whom he asserts was
the last of five consecutive elaborators on the existing authorities. But all that distinguishes
our books from the other historical ones of the Old Testament so clearly, applies to tie books
of Samuel also. Here all the chronological data that are so carefully repeated with each king,
in our books, are completely wanting, as are also the usual expressions descriptive of char-
10 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
acter and mission. The narrative is much more minute, simply strung together without
always preserving chronological order ; as, for instance, the entire section 2 Sam. xxi.-xxiv,
which is a sequel to David's history. The first two chapters of our books have been espe-
cially adduced, as an unmistakable continuation of 2 Sam. xx. 26, and showing the same
author's style of narration. These chapters, however, are inseparably and closely connected
with the three following ; they form the indispensable introduction to Solomon's accession,
and are, on the other hand, separated from 2 Sam. xx. 26 by the supplement in 2 Sam. xxL-
xxiv. But the similarity of the style is easily explained by the consideration that they were
all derived from a common source (1 Chron. xxix. 29). The similarity of some narratives anc
modes of expression has also been alleged ; but it is difficult to perceive what likeness Ewald
can find between Abiathar's banishment (1 Kings ii. 26) and the rejection of Eli's housa
(1 Sam. ii. 35) ; between the elevation of Jehu to be king (2 Kings ix. sq.) and that of Saul
(1 Sam. ix. sq.). It is just so with 1 Kings iv. 1-6, and 2 Sam. viii. 15 to 18 ; there the chief
officers of Solomon are given, and here those of David also ; but neither the offices them-
selves, their order, nor the persons, are the same. Neither do the following passages:
1 Kings ii. 11 comp. with 2 Sam. v. 5, and 1 Kings ii. 4; v. 17 to 19; viii. 18, 25 comp. with
2 Sam. vii. 12-16, prove the identity of the author ; they only show, what is already clear, that
our author knew the books of Samuel, which were written before his time. Least of all should
the phraseology in 1 Sam. xxv. 22 and 1 Kings xiv. 16 ; xvi. 11 ; xxi. 21 ; 2 Kings ix, 8 be
adduced as proof that the author is the same. It is very natural " that an Israelite who
was no doubt intimately acquainted with the documents of his people, should often involun-
tarily use expressions from memory " (Thenius).
§4.
CREDIBILITY.
The question of the credibility of these books concerns not so much themselves as the
authorities from which they were compiled. But as these were, as § 2 shows, composed by
prophets who were contemporaries of the events described, they are at least as much to be re
lied on as the pretended annals written by court-historiographers, and therefore accredited.
The constant citation of the original documents presupposes that they were accounted regular
historical authorities, not only by the author himself, but also by his readers, and the whole
people ; in fact, by reference to them he guards against every suspicion of relating fiction or
doubtful facts. That he carefully and conscientiously chose his matter, is shown especially
by all those sections which are parallel with others in Isaiah, Jeremiah, or the Chronicles,
though not borrowed from them, but taken from the common source now no longer extant.
The accuracy of the dates, which is the basis of historical writing, is evidence of the credi-
bility of the narrative. But besides this there are many precise, genealogical, geographical,
and statistical remarks, as well as numerous characteristic traits of individuals, which could
not be fictitious, and bear the unmistakable impress of truth. An historical book would
scarcely have been placed in the Canon and among the D'fOSJ, if it had not been universally
esteemed as the true history after the original documents were lost.
While Eichhorn (Einl. §486) recognized the "perfect credibility" of our books, recent
critics have only partially and conditionally admitted it. They assert that these books con-
tain " myths " as well as authentic information (De Wette) ; stories, therefore, which are only
the clothing of religious ideas and doctrines, and having no real historical foundation : or
else they say that whole sections, especially those relating to the lives and deeds of the proph-
ets, have a " fabulous character " (Thenius) ; that they are not without historical foundation
and substance indeed, but yet are more or less colored and embellished. No books, however,
are more free than these, from myths. They do not deal with a prehistoric time, but with a com-
paratively late historical period, and their design is to give history, and nothing but history,
not religious ideas or doctrines in the dress of fictitious history. The history they relate is
indeed, in its nature as a part of the history of God's people, of a religious kind, but is not on
§ 5. OBJECT AND CHARACTER. 11
that account fiction, but is history in the truest and fullest sense of the word. The idea of
mythical ingredients has very rightly been abandoned of late, but a fabulous character haa
been the more insisted on. Proceeding from negative- dogmatic presuppositions, they endeavoi
to prove, as already remarked above, § 2, that every miracle and every prophecy belongs to
the province of fable. But miracles form (comp. for instance 1 Kings xviii.) the very central
point of this history, which is indisputably true in all other respects, and admitted to be
such ; they must therefore fall or stand along with it. In fact, what is stated to be fabulous
in these books is so interwoven with what is admitted as historical, that they can only be
arbitrarily separated ; and every attempt to decide where history ceases and fable begins,
appears arbitrary and vain. To set forth the miraculous in the history of the old covenant
as unhistorieal, is to deny that there was a divine revelation in it; it is rooted in the election
of Israel, from among all people of the earth, to be a peculiar people (Ex. six. 3-6), i. e., the
guardians of the knowledge of the one God and His revelations. This election is, as Mar-
tensen aptly terms it (Dogmatic, s. 363), the " fundamental miracle which no criticism can
explain away," because it is a world-historical fact. The prophets stood alone in Israel, as
Israel did among all nations of the earth ; all their great and extraordinary deeds and announce-
ments were inseparably connected with their peculiar vocation. They themselves were a
greater miracle than all the miracles they performed, as Christ was himself the greatest mira-
cle, and all his wonderful deeds were rooted in the miracle of His own person and mission.
Neither were the deeds of the prophets mere wonderful sights caused by divine power, but
" signs " (nix), that pointed to higher things, and real evidences of the mi of Jehovah,
working through the prophets. That which has been adduced against passages in our books,
which do not harmonize with, or which are in direct contradiction with, each other, and tell
against its complete credibility, does not amount to much. We refer, also, in this respect, to
the commentary upon the passages in question.
§5.
OBJECT AND CHARACTER.
As the book was written during the second half of the captivity, and the prophetic
writer himself was living among the exiles (§ 1), it is plain that the work must bear the
stamp of such extraordinary times and especially refer to them. It was not the author's
object to write a historical work that should enrich the Hebrew literature ; but he had rather a
peculiar object in view, and one that bore upon the times he lived in. No time was so fitting
as that of the captivity, to hold before the captive and deeply-humbled people the mirror of
their history from the most prosperous period of the kingdom under Solomon to its fall.
Such a history would necessarily show them the ways by which their God led them, as well
as their great guilt and their fall ; and also convince them that the only way to deliverance and
freedom, was that sincere penitence and conversion to the Lord their God, and firm adherence
to the broken covenant and the promises therewith connected. It was the object of the author
to awaken and strengthen this conviction. Now the three prophetico-historical collections
that he used, were accessible also to others, otherwise he could not have referred his readers to
them so constantly. But it seems, from the formula with which he does so, that they were
very minute and voluminous, which must have made their general circulation in the time of
the captivity very difficult, or almost impossible. Hence the author undertook to make
extracts from them, choosing those events that served the object he had in view. It is very
clear that such an historical work was much needed at that particular time.
The style of the history exactly corresponds with the design. The work is anything but a
Btring of historical facts without any plan; on the contrary, the author proceeds from a fixed
principle, to which he adheres to the end, through the choice as well as arrangement of the
historical matter, and so firmly, that his work bears the character of a pragmatic historical com-
position more than any other historical book of Scripture. This principle is the fundamental
idea of the entire old covenant — the election of Israel from all nations to be a peculiar people
12 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
(Ex. six. 3-6) ; the fundamental law of this election, i. e., the covenant, declares : " I am the Lord
thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt (i. e., made thee an independent
people). Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jeal-
ous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me ; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me
and keep my commandments " (Ex. xx. 2-6). This supreme commandment of the covenant
lies at the root of the author's historical view and representation. According as the historical
facts are directly or indirectly connected with it, he relates them more or less in detail ; what
is utterly disconnected with it he passes over entirely. To him idolatry and image-worship are
the sin of all sins, because they destroyed what alone made Israel a peculiar and independent
people, chosen from among all nations, and also destroyed its world-historical destiny. All
evil, even the ruin of the entire kingdom, was the natural consequence of contempt and trans-
gression of that chief and fundamental law, as, inversely, all good and every blessing followed
adherence to the same. The author himself alludes to this fundamental idea in the long
reflections which he makes after the ruin of the kingdom, 2 Kings xvii. 7 sq., and it appears
here and there throughout the whole work. David is a pattern for all the kings of God's
people, not because he was morally free from blame, but because he held to this fundamental
law in every situation, and never departed from it one iota ; the promise was therefore given
him : " Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee ; thy throne
shall be established forever " (2 Sam. vii. 16 ; comp. 1 Kings viii. 25 ; ix. 5 ; xi. 36, 39 ; 2
Kings viii. 19). This is the reason also that he is so often alluded to in the words : " as his
father David," or " he walked in the ways of his father David " (1 Kings iii. 3, 14 ; ix. 4 ; xi.
1, 6, 33, 38 ; xi v. 8 ; xv. 5, 11 ; 2 Kings xiv. 3 ; xvi. 2 ; xviii. 3 ; xxii. 2), or : " for David thy
lather's sake" (1 Kings xi. 12, 13, 32, 34; xv. 3 ; 2 Kings viii. 19; xix. 34 ; xx. 6). David,
when dying, exhorts his successor with the most impressive words, above all, to hold fast to
the fundamental law (1 Kings ii. 3 sq.). But when Solomon permitted idolatrous worship in
the latter part of his reign, the kingdom was rent from him, " because he had not kept Jeho-
vah's covenant" (1 Kings xi. 9-13). Disregard of the covenant was the cause of the partition
of the kingdom, and, in so far, the germ of its destruction. From the time of the partition,
the account of every single king of Judah and of Israel begins with the general character-
istic : " He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord " (1 Kings xv. 11 ; xxii. 43 ; 2
Kings xii 3; xiv. 3; xv. 3, 34; xviii. 3; xxii. 2), or: "He did that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord " (1 Kings xv. 26, 34 ; xvi. 19, 25, 30 ; xxii. 53 ; 2 Kings iii. 2 ; viii. 18,
27 ; xiii. 2, 11 ; xiv. 24 ; xv. 9, 18, 24, 28 ; xvi. 2 ; xvii. 2 ; xxi. 2, 20 ; xxiii. 32, 37 ; xxiv.
9, 19). This does not say whether a king lived morally and virtuously, but whether he kept
the covenant and first fundamental commandment faithfully ; that was the chief thing, and
determined the character of his whole reign. The author applies this unfailing test to the
conduct of all the kings, as well as of the whole people (1 Kings xiv. 22 ; 2 Kings xvii. 7,
19). But there is something more. That the kingdom should always remember its duty, not
to swerve to the right or left from the fundamental law (Deut. xvii. 19, 20), the prophetic insti-
tution came into being, the mission of which was to watch over the keeping of the covenant,
to warn against all manner of apostasy, and whensoever it appeared, to exhort, to threaten,
and promise. The history of the activity of the prophets is therefore intimately connected
with that of the kings, and is, in fact, a part which serves to complete the same. The author
could not then avoid bringing the history of the most influential prophets into his history
of the kings ; had he not done so he would have been guilty of a great omission. And when
he, though himself of the tribe of Judah, principally describes, after the captivity, the history
of the kingdom of Israel, the reason is no doubt this: that tha kingdom, from the beginning
of its existence, had completely broken the chief covenant-commandment, and persisted in sc
doing ; and therefore that the contest for it and for theocracy generally was carried on by the
prophets principally, until the entire people of the ten tribes was undone forever
§ G. REVIEW OF CONTENTS 13
After all, it remains unquestionably certain that these books bear throughout a specific
Israelitish-religious character, or, as it is generally termed, a theocratic character. This does
not imply that this is owing only to the author's views and style ; it lies rather in the nature
of the history itself. Oehler very truly says (in Herzog's Real-Enc. xvii. s. 247) : " The idea of the
people of God is, in its very nature, supernatural, this view alone gives the key to the Israel-
itish history which, if not regarded in the light of divine election and guidance, as it demands,
remains a riddle, a ' dark riddle ' (comp. what Rosenkranz says in Hegel's Life, s. 49, about
the latter's view of the Jewish history : ' it revolted him, and yet fascinated him, tormenting
him all his life like a dark enigma')." Later historical writers have (many of them) made it
their business to take the so-called purely historical point of view in the history of the kings
of Israel : that is, to ignore all special providence in it, or rather to regard it as the religious
coloring of the author's mind, and to set it forth, like that of every other ancient nation, in a
purely secular light. They trace the fundamental idea of divine election sometimes to ego-
ism, sometimes to the accidentally monotheistic character of the writer, or to the religious
genius of the Semitic race, and reduce all special divine influence to priest-rule and priest-
craft. What the history represents as great and well-pleasing to God, is insignificant and
blameworthy, and what it views as sinful and perverse, is delineated as humanly great and
noble: in fact, this history is looked at through the glass of modern political ideas. Their
writings take no account whatsoever of a " divine economy," but rather turn it more or less into
a thorough caricature. We shall give some examples of this in explanations of particular pas-
sages and sections. There are no historical sources regarding the Israelitish monarchy except
those of the Bible ; we cannot, therefore, compare the facts narrated, with the statements of
any other author, who might take a different point of view from our author. To correct the
only extant historical source, and to change the facts therein given into totally different ones,
according to private judgment and pleasure, is not to write but to make history. He who can-
not accept the principle on which this history of the kings is written, or rejects it beforehand
as erroneous, can no more write such a history than the most learned Chinaman could write
that of Germany ; he should, consequently, leave it alone.
§6.
EEVIEW OF CONTENTS.
The history of the Israelitish monarchy, from its highest splendor on to its destruction, as
it forms the contents of our books, has three periods. The first embraces the time of the undi-
vided kingdom under Solomon; the second, which is distributed into three epochs, embraces
the time of the divided kingdom down to the fall of the kingdom of Israel ; the third embraces
the time of the kingdom of Judah down to the Babylonish captivity.
FIRST PERIOD.
THE KINGDOM UNDER SOLOMON.
First Section. — Solomon's elevation to the throne.
A. Adonijah's effort to obtain possession of the kingdom: Solomon's ascension to the
throne (I., i.).
B. David's last words and death (I., ii. 1-12).
C. Solomon's dealings with his opponents (I., ii. 13^46).
Second Section. — The beginning of Solomon's reign.
A. His marriage ; solemn sacrifice and vision ; first judicial decision (I., iii. 1-28).
B. His officers and court-establishment; his high spiritual culture, I., iv. 1-34).
Third Section. — Solomon's buildings.
A. Solomon's negotiations with Hiram about the building of the temple (I., vi !5 32)
B. The building of the temple (I., vi).
14 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
C. The building of the palace, and the manufacture of the vessels, &c, of the temple
(L, vii.).
D. The dedication of the temple (I., viii).
E. Sundry statements referring to Solomon's buildings and ships (L, is.).
Fourth Section. — Solomon's glory and magnificence.
A. The visit of the queen of Sheba (I., x. 1-13).
B. The wealth, splendor, and power of Solomon's kingdom (I., x. 14-29).
Fifth Section. — Solomon's fall and end.
A. Unfaithfulness towards Jehovah and its punishment (L, xi. 1-18).
B. Solomon's adversaries and his death (I., xi. 14-43).
SECOND PERIOD.
THE KINGDOM DIVIDED INTO JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
FIRST EPOCH.
Of the division of the kingdom down to the reign of Ahab.
First Section. — The disruption of the kingdom.
A. The renunciation of the house of David by the ten tribes (I., xii. 1-24).
B. The founding of the kingdom of Israel by Jeroboam (I., xii. 25-33).
Second Section. — Jeroboam's reign in Israel.
A. Warning to Jeroboam by a prophet, and the disobedience and end of the latter (L
xiii. 1-32).
B. The prophecy of Abijah against the house and kingdom of Jeroboam ; the death of
the latter (I., xiv. 1-20).
Third Section. — The kingdom in Judah under Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa.
A Rehoboam's reign (I., xiv. 21-31).
B. Abijam's and Asa's reign (I., xv. 1-24).
Fourth Section. — The kingdom in brael under Nadab and Ahab.
A Nadab's and Baasha's reign (I., xv. 25 to xvi. 7).
B. Ela's, Zimri's, and Ahab's reign (I., xvi. 8-24).
SECOND EPOCH.
From Ahab to Jehu.
First Section. — The prophet Elijah during Ahab's reign.
A Elijah before Ahab at the brook Cherith and at Zarephath (I., xvii.).
B. Elijah upon Mount Carmel (I., xviii.).
C. Elijah in the wilderness and upon Horeb; his successor (I., xix.).
Second Section. — The acts of Ahab.
A. Ahab's victory over the Syrians (L, xx.).
B. Ahab's procedure against Naboth (I., xxi.).
C. Ahab's expedition, undertaken along with Jehoshaphat, against the Syrians, and hie
death (I., xxi. 1^0).
Third Section. — The kingdom under Jehoshaphat in Judah, and under Ahaziah and Joram
in Israel.
A Jehoshaphat's and Ahaziah's reign (I., xxii. 41-11. 1).
B. Elijah's departure and Elisha's first appearance (II., ii.).
C. Joram's reign and his expedition against the Moabites (II., iiL).
Fourth Section. — Elisha's prophetic acts.
A. Elisha with the widow in debt, with the Shunammite, and with the " sons of the
prophets " during the dearth (II., iv.).
§ 1. LITERATURE. 16
B. The healing of Naaman, Gehazi's punishment, and the recovery of a lost axe (TJ.,
v.-vi. 7).
C. Elisha during the Syrian invasion, and at the siege of Samaria (II., vi. 8-vii.).
D. Elisha's authority with the king, and his sojourn in Damascus (H., viii. 1-15).
Fifth Section. — The kingdom under Jehoram and Ahaziah in Judah, and Jehu's elevation
to be king of Israel.
A. Jehoram's and Ahaziah's reign in Judah (II., viii. 16-29).
B. Jehu's elevation to be king in Israel (LI., ix.).
THIRD EPOCH.
From Jehu to the destruction of the kingdom of Israel.
First Section. — The kingdom under Jehu in Israel, and under Athaliah and Jehoash it
Judah.
A. Jehu's reign (II., x.).
B. The reign of queen Athaliah and its overthrow (II., xi.).
C. The reign of Jehoash (II., xii.).
Second Section. — The kingdom under Jehoahaz, Jehoash, and Jeroboam II. in Israel, and
under Amaziah in Judah.
A. The reign of the kings Jehoahaz and Joash (II., xiii.).
B. The reign of Amaziah in Judah, and of Jeroboam II. in Israel (II., xiv.).
Third Section. — The kingdom under Azariah (Uzziah) and Jotham in Judah, and under
Zachariah and Hosea in Israel.
A. The reign of the kings Azariah and Jotham in Judah, and of the kings Zachariah,
Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah in Israel (II., xv.).
B. The reign of Ahaz in Judah (II., xvi.).
C. The fall of the kingdom Israel under Hosea (TJ., xvii.).
THIRD PERIOD.
THE KINGDOM IN JUDAH AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OP THE KINGDOM ISRAEL.
First Section. — The kingdom under Hezekiah.
A. Hezekiah's reign : oppression by Sennacherib and deliverance from it (II., xviii., xix.).
B. Hezekiah's sickness and recovery : his reception of the Babylonish embassy, and hii
end (H., xx.).
Second Section. — The kingdom under Manasseh, Anion, and Josiah.
A. The reign of Manasseh and of Amon (n., xxi.).
B. The reign of Josiah, the discovery of the book of the law, and restoration of the
prescribed worship of God (H., xxii. 23-30).
Third Section.
A. The reign of the kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah (H., xxiii.
31-xxv. 7).
B. The fall of the kingdom of Judah : release of Jehoiachin from prison (H., xxv. 8 -30).
§7.
LITERATURE.
Passing over commentaries and expositions extending over the entire Old Testament (for
• list, see De Wette, Introduction to the O. Test, and the Biblewerk), we confine ourselves to
notices of those works which concern themselves especially with our books. On the whole,
the literature in question is not so extensive as that of many other and less weighty books, as
e. g., The Song of Solomon. For a number of centuries no work could be adduced which
was specially devoted to 0'ir books.
16 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.
I. Exegetical treatises. Ephraeni Syr. (t 378) : Explanatio in I. et II. regnorum {Opp. omr
Roinoe 1737. Tom. I). — Theodoreti (t 457) : Qucestiones in libros III. et IV. regnorum {Opp. omn
ed. Noesselt. Haloe 17G9. Tom. I). — J. Bugenhagen : annotationes in libr. Reg. Basil. 1525. •
Seb. Leonhard : biro/ivf/fiara in libr. Reg. Erfurd 1G06. — Piscator : Comment, in duos libr.
Regum. Herborn 1611. — Seb. Schmidt : in libr. Regum annotationes. Argentor 1697. — A,
condensed collection of expositions up to the close of the seventeenth century may be found
in Poole's (t 1679) Synopsis Critieorum aliorumque scripdura, sacrce interpretum et commenta-
torum. Francof. ad. M. 1694. — K. Fr. Keil: Commcntar iiber die Biicher der Kbnige. Moskau
1846. — O. Theuius: Die Biicher der Kbnige. Leipzig 1849 (9. LieJ 'erung des Kurzgcfassten Exeget.
Handbuchs turn A. T.). — K. Fr. Keil : Biblischer Commentar uber die proplietisclien Geschichts-
bueher des A. T. Dritter Band ; die Biicher der Kbnige. Leipzig 1864. — Einleitung in die Biicher
der Kbnige. Leipzig, Halle 1861 (translation with remarks thrown in by Adolf v. Schlusser).
H. Historical treatises. J. J. Hess: Oeschichte David's und Salomons, und: Geschichte der
Kbnige Judo's und Israel's nach der Trennung des Reichs. 2 B'dnde, Zurich 1787. — Niemeyer:
Charakteristik der Bibel, 4 ter u. 5 ter Theil, 5 Aufl. Halle 1795. — Leo : Vorlesungen iiber die
jiidische Geschichte 1825 (withdrawn by the author.). — Bertheau : Zur Geschichte der Isracliten,
Gottingen 1842. — Menzel : Staats-und Religionsgeschichte der Kbnigreiche Israel und Juda. Ber-
lin 1853. — Ewald : Geschichte David's und der Kbnighcrrschaft in Israel. 2 Ausg., Gottingen
(the third volume of the history of the people Israel to the time of Christ). — Eisenlohr : Das
Yolk Israel unter der Herrschqft der Kbnige. 2 Theil., Leipzig 1856. — Schlier: Die Kbnige in
Israel. Ein Handbiichlein zur heiligen Geschichte, Stuttgart 1859. — M. Duncker: Geschichte des
Alterthums. Erster Band. 2 Aufl., Berlin 1855. — Hasse: Geschichte des Alten Bundes, Leipzig
1863. — Weber: Das Volk Israel in der alttestamentlichen Zeit,~Le\ipzig 1867. — To these must be
added special articles in Winer: Bibliscltes Realwbrterbuch, 3 Aufl., Leipzig 1847, and inHerzog:
Real-Encyclopadie, Gotha 1854-1864. Conip. particularly the article in vol. xvii. pp. 245-305:
" the people of God," by Oehler.
HI. Homiletic treatises. Only upon the history of the prophets Elijah and Elisha are there
sermons and devotional dissertations, which are cited below in the appropriate place. Not-
withstanding the rich material of our books in ancient as well as in recent times, there are
fewer homiletical treatises, whether of the whole or only of particular sections, than upon any
other books of the Bible. We must rest content here with referring to the works which em-
brace the entire Bible, and have interpreted it more or less practically and devotionally.
Cramer: Summarien und biblische Auslegung, 1627, 2 Aufl., Wolfcnbuttel 1681, Fol. — L. Osian-
der : Deutsche Bibel Luthers mit einer kurzen, jedoch griindlichen Erklarung, herausgegeben von
D. Forster, Stuttgart 1600, Fol. — Wiirtembergische Summarien und Auslegungen der ganzen
Heil. Schrift. Das Alte Testament, zuerst bearbeitet -eon J. K. Zeller, Stuttgart 1677 ; afterwards
" diligently revised and enriched with many useful remarks by the theological faculty of the
University of Tubingen, Leipzig 1709. 4. (The new " Summarien oder Grundliche Auslegung
der Schriften des A. T. ii. Band," by Finkh, Stuttgart 1801-4, are far inferior to the older). —
Berlenburger Bibel, anderer Theil, 1728, Fol. — A. Kyburz : Historien-Bet-und Bilderbibel, 2ter
Theil, Augsburg 1739. 8. — Joachim Lange: Biblisch Historisches Licht und Recht, d. i. richtigt
und erbauliche Erklarung der sdmmtlichm historischen Biicher des A. T., Halle u. Leipzig 1734,
Fol. — Chr. M. Pfafl* : Biblia, b. i.die game lleilige Schrift mit Summarien ■und Anmerk., Tubing.
Fol. (8 Ausg. Speyer 1767). — Starke: Synopsis Bibliotheca; exeget. in V. T., zweiter Theil, anden
verbesserte Auflage, Leipzig 1745. 4. — G. F. Seiler: Des grbssern bibl. Erbauungsbuches Alten Tes-
taments dritter Theil, Erlangen 1791. 4. — Ricbter : Erkldrte Hausbibel. Altes Testament, zweiter
Band, Barmen 1835. 8. — Lisco : Das Alte Testament mit Erkldrungen u. s. w. Erster Band, die
historischen Biicher, Berlin 1844. 8. — O. Von Gerlach : Das Alte Testament mit Einleitungen und
erklarenden Anmerkungen, zweiter Band, Berlin 1846. 8 (5 Aufl. 1867). — (Calwer) Ilandbuch
der Bibelerkliiruvg fur Schule und Earn, Erster Band, das Alte Testament enthaltend, Calw und
Stuttgart 1849. 8.
[The remarks of our author respecting the small number of commentaries and treatises
upon the Books of the Kings are truo, conspicuously of English theological literature. What
§ 7. LITERATURE. 17
we have is of the most meagre description. In fact, there is nothing to be named ; we have
no special exposition of our books in the English language. Our clergy and laity, who have
depended upon English authors, have been compelled to use Patrick, Lowth, and Whitby, or
Thomas Scott, or D'Oyly and Mant, or Adam Clarke, and the rest. These works, as is well
known, are utterly deficient in critical acumen, and the amount of information they convey is
insignificant. Whatsoever may be the merits or demerits of this work, it will certainly meet
a need that has been long felt.
The reader can moreover consult Bp. Horsley's "Notes on the Kings," and for the histor-
ical review, Dean Stanley's History of the Jewish Church, and Prof. F. W. Newman's Hebrew
Monarchy. Dean Prideaux's work, embracing the period from the declension of the kingdoms
of Israel and Judah to the time of our Lord, notwithstanding its faulty construction, remains
an abiding monument of genuine erudition.
In Bishop Hall's " Contemplations " the reader will find much that is valuable, and of great
spiritual practical insight. It is rich in homiletical suggestions, and can be read with profit
in connection with the sacred text. Many sermons, too, have been published, which illustrate
particular sections of the Books of the Kings, as, e. g., on the temple (chap, vi.), and its conse-
cration (chap, viii.), and on the disobedient prophet (chap, xiii.), and on Elijah (chap. xvii. sq.),
&c, some of which will be referred to under the texts in their order.
For particular items: Dr. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (Boston, 1860-1863, enlarged
by Hackett and Abbott, in 4 vols. 1870), or an abridgment by Mr. S. Bamurn, may be used (sea
especially art. " Temple," by Ferguson). For the temple in respect of comparative architecture,
&c, see K. O. Miiller, Archaeology of Ancient Art, &c, translated by John Leitch. London, A.
Fullarton & Co., 1847. Also, Solomon's Temple, &c, by T. O. Paine, a minister of the New-
Jerusalem Church. Boston, 1861.— E. H.j
2
FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
FIRST PERIOD, (1015 TO 975 B.C.)
THE KINGDOM UNDER SOLOMON.*
(Chapters I. — IL)
FIRST SECTION.
Solomon's accession to the throne.
Chap. L, IX
*
k. — Adonijah's attempt to teize the kingdom for himtelf; Solomon,» elevation to the tkron*.
Chap. L 1-63.
1 Now king David was old and stricken in years ; ' and they covered him
2 with clothes," but he gat no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let
there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin [virgin damsel] ; * and let
her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy 4 bosom,
3 that my * lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel through-
out all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a [the '] Shunammite, and brought
4 her to the king. And the damsel wfts very fair, and cherished the king, and
ministered to him : but the king knew her not.
5 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king :
and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.
6 And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou
done so ? and he also was a very goodly man ; and his mother bare him after
7 Absalom. And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar
8 the priest : and they following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,"and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and
9 the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. And Ado-
nijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by
En-rogel [the well of Rogel], and called all his brethren the king's sons, and all
4O the men of Judah the king's servants: but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah,
and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not.
11 Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon, saying,
Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David
12 our lord knoweth it not ? Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee
counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon.
• [I am Indebted to my Wend, Frederic Gardiner, D. D., Professor in the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn.
for the accompanying textual revision and original grammatical notes. — E. H.l
2C
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
13 Go and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Didst not thou, my
lord, O king, swear unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly [That7] Solomon
thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne ? why then doth
14 Adonijah reign? e Behold, while thou yet talkest therewith the king, I also
will come in after thee, and confirm * thy words.
15 And Bath-sheba went in unto the king into the chamber: and the king- was
16 very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king. And Bath-
sheba bowed, and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said, What
17 wouldest thou ? And she said unto him, My lord, thou swarest by the Lord [Je-
hovah] thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall
18 reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. Aud now, behold, Adonijah
19 reigneth ; and now [thou.10], my lord the king, thou knowest it not : And he hath
, slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of
the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host : but Solomon
20 thy servant hath he not called. And thou," my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel
are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my
21 lord the king after him. Otherwise [But] it shall come to pass, when my Vord
the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted 1J
22 offenders. And, lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also
23 came in. And they told the king, saying, Behold Nathan the prophet [has
come]. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the
24 king with his face to the ground. And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou
25 said,13 Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? For
he is gone down this day, and hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in
abundance, and hath called all the king's sons, and the captains of the host, and
Abiathar the priest ; and, behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God
26 save king Adonijah [let king Adonijah live]. But me, even me thy servant, and
Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon,
27 hath he not called. Is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not
shewed it " unto thy servant 15 who should sit on the throne of my lord the king
after him ?
28 Then king David answered and said, Call me Bath-sheba. And she came
29 into the king's presence, and stood before the king. And the king sware, and
30 said, As the Lord [Jehovah] liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all dis-
tress, even as I sware unto thee by the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, saying,
Assuredly [That 16J Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon
31 my throne in my stead ; even so will I certainly " do this day. Then Bath-sheba
bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to the king, and said, Let
my lord king David live for ever.
32 And king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, aud Nathan the prophet,
33 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. The king
also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord,18 and cause Solo-
34 mon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon ; " And
let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel :
and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon [let king Solo-
35 mon live]. Then ye shall come up after him, that lie may [and lie shall] come
and sit upon my throne; for [and] he shall be king in my stead: and I have
30 appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen : the Lord [Jehovah] God of my
37 lord the king say so too [so spake'0]. As the Lord [Jehovah] hath been with
my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater
than the throne of my lord king David.
38 So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada, aud the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solo-
39 mon to ride upon king David's mule, and brought him to Gihon.'1 And Zadok
the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon.
And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon
40 [Let king Solomon live]. And all the people came up after him, and the people
CHAPTER I. 1-53. 21
piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the
sound of them.
41 And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it, as they had
made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he
42 said, Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar ? And while he
yet spake, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came : and Adonijah
said unto him," Come in ; for thou art a valiant man, and bringest good tid-
43 ings. And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Verily our lord king
44 David hath made Solomon king. And the king hath sent with him Zadok
the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the
Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the
45 king's mule: and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him
king in Gihon : " and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city
46 rang again. This is the noise that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on
47 the throne of the kingdom. And moreover the king's servants came to bless oui
lord king David, saying, [Thy "] God make the name of Solomon better than thy
name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself
48 upon the bed. And also thus said the king, Blessed be the Lord [Jehovah] God of
Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it.
49 And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up," and
50 went every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose,
51 and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon,
saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon : for, lo, he hath caught hold on
the horns of the altar, saying, Let king20 Solomon swear unto me to [this2'] day
5'2 that he will not slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon said, If he will
shew himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth : but
53 if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. So king Solomon sent, and
they brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king
Solomon : and Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1.— [D'p52 X3 always connected with JpT (Gen. xviii. 11 ; xxiv. 1; Josh. xiii. 1 bis. xxiii. 1, 2) exactly corre-
sponds to the phrase in A. V.
2 Ver. 1.— [DHJ3 bed-clothes (cf. 1 Sam. xix. 18), not garments.
* Ver. 2.— [The translation of oHVJ in vers. 8 and 4 may well stand here also.
* Ver. 2.— In place of the suffix v| the Sept. has avrov and the Vulg. suo, which Thenius prefers to the reading ot
the text. — Bahr.
6 Ver. 2.— [The Alex. Sept.. Syr., and Vulg., read our.
* Ver. 3.— [The definite article should be expressed as in ver. 15.
> Ver. 13.— [The particle '3 , as is recognized in all the V V., can hardly give the emphasis of the Eng. assuredly.
> Ver. 14.— [Many MSS. and VV. prefix and.
' Ver. 14.— LT/IS/rriN 'nX?p not complete, fill out, but, as in A. V., confirm; Chald. Q?j?K , Sept. irAijpwcrio. The
phrase is used of the fulfilment of divine utterances. Cf. ii. 27; viii. 15, 24.
10 Ver. IS.— All the VV. and 200 MSS. [and the early editions] read HJJXl instead of i"IFI5?l [, as the connection!
requires. — Bahr.
11 Ver. 20.— Instead of oTlNI the Chaldee [Syr. and Vulg.], and some [many] MSS. have iTJJH, which Thenius
considers right. On the other hand, Maurer remarks that the pronoun stands here first, just as in Gen. xlix. S, with
emphasis, instead of the suffix. — Bahr.
13 Ver. 21. — [Counted is implied by the connection, but not expressed in the Hbr.
13 Ver. 24.— [rODS HHIX, the question is indicated only by the tone.
14 Ver. 27.— [The pronoun it is better omitted, as in the Hbr. and all VV.
" Ver. 27.— The k'ri has T13JJ, also nearly all the translations have the singular; but the reading of the text U
preferred. — Bahr. [It is that of many MSS]
'* Ver. 30.— [See note ver. 13.
" Ver. 80.— [Hbr. and VV. omit certainly.
18 Ver. 33.— [DS'jis In tne !>'• is rightly rendered by the sing, as referring to David— not to David and Solomou.
'' Ver. 33.— [The Cbildee and Syr. read Siloa; Ar»bic, fountain of Siloa.
*> Ver. 36.— [The words say to too at the end of this ver. In the A. V. should be omitted ; HliV IDS' [3 is to U
taken historically, not optatively. Three MSS. followed by the Syr. and Arab, read nCJ?' for 1DX\
»' Ver. 88.— FThe Chalri Syr., and Arab., make the same change here as in ver. 83.
22
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
*' Ver. 42. — [The words unto him are unnecessary; not contained In the Hbr nor the VV.
•» Ver. 45.— [As. in vers. 83 and 38.
« Ier- II-- ££? k,'iib ["PiP'ti ls Plainly preferable to the k'ri D\-6h — Bihr [and is followed by the Syrlmel
" Ver. 49— [The Vatican (not Alex.) Sept. omits and rose up. *
•• Ver. 51.— [The Vatican (not Alex.) Sept. omits king.
*' Ver. 61.— [Instead of DV3 some MSS. read DVil, which has been followed apparently by the A. V.— F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Now king David was old, to. Vers.
1-4 introduce the entire narration following, the
central point and chief object of which is Solomon's
ascension to the throne. Adonijah's endeavor ti
usurp the throne was the reason why this event
took place before the death of David. Adonijah
proceeded to carry out his purpose when David
was old and infirm, and apparently near his end.
The author begins, consequently, with the descrip-
tion of David's condition, and is reminded particu-
larly of Abishag, his waiting-maid, because Adoni-
jah, after the misadventure of his enterprise,
sought her for a wife in order to gain the throne
by means of her, and so wrought his destruction
(chap. ii. 13 sq.). The 1 at the beginning has no
connection with anything preceding ; least of all
does it connect our books with the books of
Samuel (see Introduction, § 3). Nor is it mechanic-
ally retained from a passage of the life of David
inserted here (Keil) ; but it stands, as elsewhere
so often at the beginning of a book (Jos. i. 1 ;
Judges i. 1 ; 2 Sam. i. 1 ; Ruth i. 1 ; Esth. i. 1 ;
Ezra i. 1 ; Ezek. i. 1 ; Jon. i. 1), where the first
verse forms the antecedent to the second. — When
David was old and infirm, his servants said unto
him. David was then seventy years of age (comp.
chap. ii. 11, with 2 Sam. v. 4, 5): that his natural
warmth then failed him, was not ex nimio mulierum
usu (Le Clerc), but was the result of the " extraor-
dinary cares and conflicts of his earlier life "
(Ewald).
Vers. 2-4. Wherefore his servants said
unto him, &c. Josephus expressly names them
physicians (Ant. vii. 14, 3), comp. Gen. 1. 2. The
remedy which one of them, in the name of the
rest, advised when the " clothes " (Qnj3 as in
1 Sam. xix. 13 ; Numb. iv. 6) were of no use, was
known in ancient times. "Without skill in internal
remedies, men sought to warm, by means of living
vigorous bodies, those whose vital powers, were
chilled and enfeebled. Galen (Method. Medic.
8, 7) says: " Ex iis vera, quae extrinsecus applican-
ts, boni habitus puellus una sit accumbans, ut sem-
per abdomen ejus contingat. Bacon (Hist. Vit. et Nee.) :
Neque negligenda sunt /omenta ex corporibus • ivia.
According to Bartholinus (De Morb. BM. 9), a
Jewish physician advised the Emperor Frederic
Barbarossa to allow young and strong boys to lie
upon his breast (comp. Trusen, Sitten, Gtbr. and
Krankh. der Hebraxr, s. 257 sq.). This was not
designed here for the gratification of bodily pas-
sion, by means of a " concubine," as Winer calls
Abishag. but before all, for service and assistance,
such as was deemed most effective after the un-
availing application of the usual remedies to the
aged man confined to his bed. The physicians
expressly state tin-, and it. agrees with the' words:
and let her stand be/ore the king, i. e., let her serve
aim (Gen. xli. 16 ; Deut. i. 38), and be his attendant,
"... let her wait upon, help him: let her lie in his
bosom [not thy, see textual note] that he maj
become warm. If by these last words they maj
have presupposed that he would " know " her,
they do not state it as the design, as, moreover,
pT\2 33C' must not be understood necessarily
onlv of cohabitation (comp. chap. iii. 20 ; Ruth iy.
16). They sought a beautiful maiden "because
she was destined for the king" (Thenius), and
they found such at Shunem, a city of the tribe Is-
sachar, in the plain of Jezreel, at the foot of the so
called little Hermon (Jos. xix. 18; 1 Sam. xxviii. 4)
The text states expressly that the king did not know
her: she was, therefore, not his concubine, buS
his waiting-maid and attendant. In a wholly per-
verse way Josephus, and after him J. D. Jlichaelis,
adduces impotency, in consequence of old age aud
weakness, as the reason why he did not know
her. In that case the remark would be super-
fluous (Thenius). It serves, however, " to make
it clear how it was that Adonijah could seek
Abishag for his wife," chap. ii. 17 (Keil), and go
to Bath-sheba for her intercession with Solomon.
Older interpreters have maintained that she was
the actual wife of David, or at least his concubine,
and that the relation also, according to the
morality of the. time, was unobjectionable. But
ueither here nor in the second chapter is she so
named. Amongst the people she may have well
passed for such, since Adonijah, through alliance
with her, wished to facilitate his way to die throne
(see on chap. ii. 13).*
Vers. 5-6. Then Adorujah the son of Hag-
gith, &c. Of the sons of David born at Hebron,
Adonijah was the fourth (2 Sam. iii. 2-4). The
first, Amnon, and the third, Absalom, were already
dead, and the second also, Chilean, of whom
nothing more is said, had doubtless died much
earlier. As the eldest living son, Adonijah believed
that lie had claims to the throne. Besides this,
his beautiful person came into the account, as
with Absalom, by which, because it was valued
in a ruler (1 Sam. ix. 2; 2 Sam. xiv. 25; xvi. 7 ;
Ezek. xxviii. 12), he hoped for the favorable re-
gard of the people, ^■^|^, ver. 6 cannot, with
some, be translated: "and he was born unto him
after Absalom," but only, as in Gen. xvi. 1 : " and
she had borne him after Absalom," i. e., after the
latter had been borne of Maacah. The alteration of
the text into "pi — " he had begotten him after Ab
salom " (Thenius), is wholly unnecessary. The suc-
cession to the throne in Israel was certainly hered-
itary; but no law required that the eldest son, at
the time, should be the heir-apparent. From vers.
* [The allegorical interpretation of Jerome makes tht
9hunammite damsel the ever-virgin wisdom of God so ex
tolled by Solomon (mpientia quat numquam iienexeM
EpUt. § 2; ad Xepotianum, chap. fv. ; Opera, i. p. 28S).
Bnt in another passage Jerome understands the story liter
ally, and enumerates this relation among the sins and iro
perfections of David, which would not be allowed under til*
gospel dispensation {contra Jovin. L i- chap, xxiv., torn, i
274).-P. S.]
CHAPTER I. 1-53.
23
i7 and 20, a? also from 2 Chron. xi. 22, it is clear
that it was regarded as the right of the reigning
king to determine who amongst his sons should
succeed him. He could transmit the kingdom to his
first-born or to his eldest son, but he was not obliged
(2 Chron. xxi. 3) thereto. Adonijah was not at all
first-born, but only the fourth son. He himself
does not tako his age into the account, and appeals,
in chap. ii. 13 sq., not to this, but to the voice of
the people who had shown themselves favorably
disposed towards him. David's designation of
Solomon as his successor, has its reason in the
promise in 2 Sam. vii. 12-16; xii. 2-1 sq. ; 1 Chron.
xxii. 9, 10 ; he regarded him as the one who, ac-
cording to the prescript touching a king in Deut.
xvii. 15, was chosen by Jehovah. Of a formal
"right" to the throne, possessed by Adonijah,
which he thought to " assure " himself of (Thenius),
there can be no discussion. That he knew well
the will of his father, by virtue of which Solomon
was to be his successor, is clear from the circum-
stance that he invited all his brothers, and the
men who were employed in the royal service, to a
feast prepared by him. Solomon only, and the
more confidential friends of David, were not in-
vited. His design was to render null the purpose
of his father, and to possess himself of the throne,
by conspiracy and force, in opposition to his wish.
His undertaking was a formal usurpation, and
like that of Absalom, to which the whole narrative
manifestly points. Upon this account also the
text says: "he exalted himself" i. e., he over-
exalted himself — made himself somewhat that did
not become him (XL"J used here as in Prov. xxx.
32 ; Numb. xvi. 3), with this result, that his
father left him to his will (VD'D means from his,
Adonijah's days, and is not, with Seb. Schmidt, to
be understood first of his attempt at royal
sovereignty). The moral infirmity of the royal
father, coupled now with bodily weakness, in-
duced Adonijah to enter upon his guilty enter-
prise. Just as Absalom had done (2 Sam. xv. 1),
he provided himself with what, according to
1 Sam. viii. 11, is designated as the first " royal
prerogative," chariots, riders, and body-guardsmen,
i. e., a brilliant court, in order thereby to impose
upon the multitude.
Vers. 7-10. And he conferred with Joab,
&c. Through the commander-in-chief, Adonijah
hopes to win over the army, and through the
high-priest, to secure also the priesthood. Not the
conviction " that he had right on his side "
(Thenius), induced both men to enter into his
plans. Joab had observed that he was sunken in
the good graces of David (chap. ii. 5), and conse-
quently could not hope for much for himself from
Solomon ; but from Adonijah he could hope, espe-
cially if made king by his assistance. Abiathar
seems to have felt himself set aside by David for
Zadok, which priest was at the tabernacle with
the ark of the covenant at Zion (see on vers. 33
and 39), and to have feared that the high-priestly
family of Eleazar, to which Zadok belonged,
would supplant his own, viz. : the family of
Ithamar. Upon Benaiah, comp. 2 Sam. viii. 18 and
xxiii. 20 sq. ; upon Nathan, see 2 Sam. vii. and xii.
Shimei is mentioned in chap. iv. 18 : Josephus
names Rei b \avidov <pi?.oc. Doubtless these latter
filled high offices. That they were the only sur-
viving brothers of David (Ewald), has nothing pro-
bable to rest upon. Upon the heroes of David,
comp. 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 sq., and 1 Chron. xi. 10 sq.
Adonijah, like Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 8, 12), pre-
pared a great feast, which was ostensibly also
sacrificial, in order to impart to the transaction a
religious coloring. The well, i. e., the sources of
Eogel (Jos. xv. 7 ; xviii. 16), lay, according to
2 Sam. xvii. 11, southeasterly from Jerusalem, in
the loveliest, most fruitful plain ; according to
Josephus, in (SaaiAitiu irapaSeioL) ; according to
Schulz (Jems., s. 79), "even now a place of recre-
ation for the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Thenius
derives the name Zoheleth from pnT , to crawl —
a rock which one must climb with difficulty. This
place was in every respect suited for a public fes-
tivity. (Comp. Robinson. Palestine, vol. i. p. 333
Boston, 1868.)
Vers. 11-14. Wherefore Nathan spake unto
Bath-sheba, &c. According to the custom pre-
vailing anciently in the East, on the occasion of
the forcible seizure of the throne, of murdering
the dethroned ruler, or the opposing pretenders tc
the crown, with all their nearest relations (Judg.
ix. 5; 1 Kings xv. 29; 2 Kings x. 6, 13; xi. 1), in
the event of the success of Adonijah's undertak-
ing, there was very much to fear for the life both
of Solomon and of his mother. That David knew
nothing of the plans of Adonijah, and that Nathan
was first informed of them only at the moment of
their execution, shows how secretly the affair had
been managed. This would have been unneces-
sary had Adonijah a recognized right to the
throne, and had his own conscience been right
in the premises. David, moreover, would not have
been so very much surprised at his undertaking.
The prophet Nathan also deemed it his duty to pre-
vent, as far as possible, a repetition of the history
of Absalom. With great wisdom and prudence,
he addressed himself to the mother of Solomon,
who was especially beloved of David, begging her
to apply to the king, with whom rested the right
to designate his successor, to represent to him the
mortal peril which threatened both her son and
herself, and to remind him of his promise to her.
When David's mind should first, by this means,
become aroused, than he (the prophet) would, in
the name of Jehovah, appear before the king, and
place before him his given word (1 Chron.
xxviii. 5), in order to incite him to immediate
action. " When David first promised Bath-sheba,
upon his oath, that her son Solomon should be-
come king, is not known. Obviously it was after
the promise he had received in 2 Sam. vii."
I Eeil l.
Vers. 15-27. And Bath-sheba went in unto
the king, &e. The statement that king David
was old, &c. (ver. 1), explains the words : " into
the chamber" (ver. 15), and means he was so feeble
that he could not leave his sick-room, and needed
constant attention. — From ver. 20, comp. 27, it ia
most explicit, once more, that no one entertained
the thought that Adonijah, as the eldest surviving
son of the king, had a right to the succession ; but
that the right to decide whether of his sons should
be king, remained rather with the king, and that
his decision was anxiously waited for. — I and my
son Solomon shall be counted offenders, i. e.,
we shall be treated as traitors and offenders guilty
of death. After these words Bath-sheba retired, and
Nathan, informed in the meanwhile, went unto the
24
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
king-. "While the former addressed her statement to
the king directly, as a mother, the latter, as proph-
et, begins with a question in which, upon the one
side, a slight reproach was conveyed that David
should not have put a stop sooner to the design
of Adonijah, and have exposed his own friends to
great danger, and on the other side it expressed
the confidence that the king would hold to his
oath, and carry it out forthwith. — Under "the
captains of the host," ver. 25, the servants of the
king (the mighty men) in ver. 10 are included.
Kings used to be saluted by the people with the
salutation, Live the king ! (1 Sam. x. 24 ; 2 Sam vvi
16; 2 Kings xi. 12; 2 Chron. xxiii. 31.) The order
of names in ver. 26 contains a climax in which
Sol,, inuii, as the highest personage, is named last.
Nathan's words are anything else than the expres-
sion of wounded vanity — they simply exhibit
Adonijah's hostile sentiment towards the friends
of the king, and also the fate in store for them
should Adonijah become sovereign.
Vers. 2S-38. Then king David answered,
Ac. The quick and firm resolution of David shows
how strong he was yet in mind and will, notwith-
standing all his bodily weakness. He repeats his
oath, not, however, employing merely the usual for-
mula, as Jehovah liveth! but adding most signifi-
cantly, who hath redeemed my soul out of all distress,
i. e., to the God who has been true to me, and deliver-
ed me wonderfully out of so many and great dangers,
will 1 also remain true unto the end. His oath,
coming from deep emotion, is likewise a praise and
thanksgiving unto Jehovah. Had Adonijah an
actual formal right to the throne, such an oath
would have been the greatest sin, in so far as David,
while appealing to the divine mercy and grace,
..ould have knowingly trodden under foot the
right of his son. The added D^ , ver. 31, exhibits
the vivacity of the thought. Amongst the Persian
kings it appears to have been customary (Dan. iii.
9; v. 10; vi. 22; Neh. ii. 3).
Ters. 33-37. The king also said unto them,
Take with you the servants of your lord,
Ae. As no one but the king himself dared ride
his mule, the command to let Solomon " ride •'
thereon was an actual declaration that he was
king (Esth. vi. 8, 9). Gihon is a place near Jeru-
salem, on the west side, with a spring of water
(2 Chron. xxxii. 30 ; xxxiii. 14). The valley here
situated bears still this name (Robinson, Palest.,
vol. i., p. 346). It was proper for the anointing to
take place at a spot where a large assemblage
could be gathered, and whence a solemn entrance
into the city, which had no open public square, could
be made. Gihon, moreover, was considerably dis-
tant from the rock Zoheleth, which was on the
southeasterly side of Jerusalem, where Adonijah
had gathered together his adherents, so that a colli-
sion would be avoided. According to the account
of the rabbins, kings were anointed only at places
abounding in water, and upon that account also
much frequented. But they erroneously identify
Gihon with Siloam, which spring lies southeast of
Junsalem. Tlienius prefers the reading jiynj to |in3,
beca we the tabernacle was there, from which,
according to ver. 39, Zadok took the " horn of oil.''
But tho three hours' distance of Gibeou from Jeru-
salem is conclusive agaitst this. Besides, by ^nN ,
in ver. 39, we are not to understand the taber
nacle of the covenant, but the tent erected by Da
vid upon Zion for the ark of the covenant (2 Sam
vi. 17; 1 Chron. xv. 1; xvi. 1). David express!}
gave order for the anointing of Solomon, so thai
nothing appertaining to the investiture of the king
should be wanting. The supposition that anointing
took place only with those kings " who were not
free from exceptions, or who had no historic
right to the throne " (Winer and Grotius, after the
rabbins), is unfounded, for David, who here ordered
the anointing, regarded Solomon in no respect as
an exceptional successor. From the fact that he
wished this done not simply by the high-priest,
but also by the prophet, we learn the high siguifi-
1 cance he attributed to the prophetic office in Israel.
j He says purposely, ruler over Israel and over Judah.
. He had himself, for some time, been ruler only over
j Judah : then he had conquered Epnraim, which
I named itself Israel, and had united it again with
j Judah. The old disunion had again exhibited
itself on the revolt of Absalom (2 Sam. six. 40 sq.);
I hence, with Adonijah's like undertaking in view.
• he deemed it necessary to declare expressly thai
j Solomon should be ruler over Israel and Judah.
Beuaiah, as the person upon whom the execution
of. the order devolved, answered David, and de-
clared himself ready to carry it out, — not, as
Thenius supposes, to flatter the paternal vanity,
but, in the conviction that the king's command waa
in conformity with the will of Jehovah, he wished
that the divine blessing might rest upon the gov-
ernment of Solomon.
Ver. 38. So Zadok the priest, &c. By the
Cherethites and Pelethites we must understand the
royal body-guard (Josephus, ou/iaroipi'/.aKec). On
the other hand, the modern interpreters are not
agreed whether both expressions are to be undei
stood ethnographically or appellatively. They
who urge the former, appeal to 1 Sam. xxx. 14,
and hold TT13 for the designation of the parent-
stem of the Philistines, which had migrated from
Crete, and that 'HPS , too, is the same with TlC'i'B .
David, who for a long while had remained amongst
the Philistines, had collected his body-guard
from amongst foreigners and not from his own
people, and afterwards the appellative remained
(Movers, Hitzig, Bertheau, Ewald). Others derive
TP3 from ma , and t6d from the Arabic, cog-
nate with D?S , &c, understanding by the former,
lictors, the royal executioners of the punishment
of death, and by the latter, runners who, like the
ayyapm of the Persians, had to carry commands to
remote places (2 Chron. xxx. 6). We hold to this
latter view, along with Gesenius, Keil, and
Thenius, for although the plural form '_ instead of
D'_ for appellations is certainly unusual, we can-
not perceive why two designations should be em-
ployed side by side, for one and the same people.
(We do not say Britons and Englishmen.) So,
then, later the royal body-guard were called
D^Vini H3PI (comp. 2 Kings xi. 4 si].), i. e., execu
tioners and runners. And last of all, it is highly
improbable that David, who was perpetually a\
war with the Philistines, would have selected hu
body-guards from them. — The horn of oil out of
the tabernacle (ver. 39). T) e " oil of holy oiat>
CHAPTER I. 1-53.
2i
ment " (Ex. xxx. 23 sq.) was preserved in the
tabernacle in which the ark of the covenant was
kept (1 Cliron. sv. 1). The pouring of this oil upon
the head symbolized the communication of the
Spirit (mi)" of Jehovah (1 Sam. xvi. 13). By
anointing, the royal office with which Solomon
was to be invested was set forth as essentially
theocratic. The king of Israel was, upon this ac-
count, absolutely the anointed of the Lord (1 Sam.
ii. 10, 35; xxiv. 1). The taking of the horn from
the " tabernacle " does not force us to the conclu-
sion that the act of anointing took place before or at
it and at the same time, also at Gibeon, as Thenius
maintains. The great joy and jubilation of the
people shows that they knew nothing of Adonijah's
right to the throne, but that they rather accepted
David's decision, who alone had the right to de-
cide. They saw in Solomon's elevation a victory
over the unauthorized usurper. Flutes were used
at festivals, especially at the feast of tabernacles
(Isai. v. 12; xxx. 29; Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s. 123).
Ver. 40. The earth rent. So according to the
Chald., which explains y£3FI by njJT • The Sept.
has vxiae< the Vulg. insonuit. Thenius reads
ypnn , the earth was struck = quaked, which
seems unnecessary.
Vers. 41-48. And Adonijah .... heard it,
&c. While the assembled guests heard the noise
and the cry in the city, the experienced soldier
Joab caught the sound of the trumpets especially,
and concluded, from this warlike token, nothing
good. Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, who here,
as in 2 Sam. xv. 36 and xvii. 17 appears as the
bringer of news, was probably left behind in the
city "designedly to observe what was going on.
Although scarcely himself a witness of what trans-
pired in the royal palace, he could, nevertheless,
as Solomon had already made his entrance, be
well informed by eye and ear witnesses. Joab
named him a valiant man, i. e., a person whose re-
port could be trusted. The innL,i!l at the end of
ver. 47, as David was lying upon his bed, certainly
cannot mean that he fell upon his knees; still less
is a thankful bow in return to those who were
congratulating him meant (Thenius). The king
bowed himself with his body as far as he could, be-
fore his Lord and God, and spake : Blessed, &c. The
DM at the beginning of ver. 48 does not indicate a
new, different action, but simply states that besides
his bowing, he spake also the words which follow.
Vers. 49-53. And all the guests .... were
afraid, &c. The panic which forthwith seized
Adonijah and his followers, shows that their con-
science was not upright ic their undertaking, i. e.,
that they themselves were not convinced of the
righteousness of Adonijah's claims, otherwise they
would, with Joab at their head, have made a stand,
and not scattered at once. To save his life, which
he, as a usurper of the throne, believed he had
forfeited, Adonijah fled to the altar, which stood
before the tabernacle upon Zion (chap. iii. 15 ;
2 Sam. vi. 17). Be laid hold of the horns of the
altar, as did Joab afterwards (chap. ii. 28), and ap-
pealed thereby to the pardoning power and grace
of Jehovah (comp. upon the significance of the act,
my Symbolik des Mos. Cult., i. s. 473 sq.) This
asylum was ordained originally for unintentional
man-slayers (Exod. xxi. 12 sq); but later on it ap-
pears to have been made use of by persons who
feared punishment by death. Solomon regarded
Adonijah's flight to the horns of tho altar as a
confession of his guilt and repentance, and he
exercised an act of clemency which could only
produce the most favorable impression upon the
people. Yet he adds a warning in the words :
Go to thine house, i. e., not : Do not come into my
presence (2 Sam. xiv. 24), but: Keep thyself quiet,
live as a private person, then not the least harm
shall befall thee.
HISTOKICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The entire first chapter turns upon the eleva-
tion of Solomon to the throne, which is narrated so
circumstantially with its immediate occasion and
all the attending circumstances, because, as has
already been shown in the Introduction, § 3, it
constitutes in the highest degree a weighty mo-
ment in the development of the history of the Old
Testament theocracy. With it begins the period
of a blooming of the kingdom of Israel which it
never had before, and which never came again.
Solomon thereby became elevated to the type of a
great, mighty, wise, and prosperous kiug, which
he passes" for even to this day in the Orient. The
prophets even depict the glory and happiness of
the Messianic kingdom with expressions which
are borrowed from the description of the kingdom
of Israel under Solomon. (Comp. Mich. iv. 4, and
Zach. iii. 10, with 1 Kings v. 5.) He is, according
to his name, the prince of peace, mit' cfo^'/i', and
the beloved of God (2 Sam. xii. 25), designations
which by the prophets and in the New Testament
are applied, in like manner, to the Messiah the son
of David in the most eminent sense (Is. ix. 5, 6;
Eph. i. 6 ; ii. 14 ; Col. i. 13). The reception of
" The Song of Solomon " into the Old Testament
canon shows that to the Jewish synagogue the
typical relation was not unknown, and in the
Christian Church it has always been maintained.
2. The brief introductory narrative, vers. 1-4,
has been found in many respects very scandalous.
This has arisen from the wholly false presupposi-
tion that it treats of the gratification of the lust-
fulness of a worn-out old man by means of a con-
cubine. But of this the text declares so little, that
it rather states explicitly, David did not know Abi-
shag. The means which the physicians — not he
himself — selected to restore to him his lost natural
warmth, were, if not unheard of, at least morally
questionable, yea, from a Christian point of view,
decidedly objectionable. That they did not hesi-
tate to recommend it, has indeed its ground, not
in conscious immorality and frivolity, but in the
perverted views prevalent throughout the entire
ancient Orient upon the relation of the sexes, or
in the deeply-rooted lack of chastity, which even
the stern lawgiver Moses was not able to put an
end to. Hence polygamy was not only permitted,
but it was regarded by kings as somewhat belong-
ing to their royal estate, and it never occurred tr
any one to object to them upon that account
• [The translators, after some hesitation, have adoptee
the aDove as fl caption. It is not a translation of the an
tiior's heading. He has it. " heilsgachichtliche" which ex-
presses the conception of the historical process of healing
or salvation. It is a term for which we hav- no available
equivalent in Knglish, although the thougul embodied bj
the word is clear enough.]
26
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
(Comp. 2 Sam. v. 13 ; 1 Kings xi. 3 ; 2 Chron. xi.
21; Judges viii. 30.) Th's explains the reason why
David did not reject the medical advice, and why
the matter did not cause any scandal among the
people, why even Bath-sheba herself did not feel
aggrieved (ver. 15). Whatsoever the narrative has
which is repulsive to us, does not adhere to a par-
ticular person nor to this particular instance, but
to the general lack of conjugal chastity in the Old
Testament.
3. Adonijah's undertaking, in which there is so
unmistakably a reference to Absalom's, is to be
understood throughout as blameworthy. He knew
that the decision upon the succession to the throne
depended upon hi6 father, and that he had already
selected Solomon. He knew also the tragical end
of Absalom's attempt. Nevertheless, he would
not be warned by it, but set himself up in the way
of self over-estimation, making boast of his beau-
tiful figure. King will he be at any cost. He
makes his preparations without his father's con-
gent, takes advantage of his infirmity and weak-
ness, and secretly enters into combinations with
the most influential men who belonged, more
or less, to the class of malcontents. He allows
himself to become impatient through his lust
for ruling, and to rush into a measure in every re-
spect premature. Upon the first intelligence, nev-
ertheless, of Solomon's accession, a shameful panic
seizes him. All courage to risk the least thing for
his cause fails him. The whole crowd of his fol-
lowers scatters like dust, and he himself, in a cow-
ardly way, seeks to save only his life. He anx-
iously flies to a place of refuge, clings to it, calls
himself Solomon's " servant," and salutes him as
king. But, scarcely is the danger past, he breaks
his pledged word to behave quietly, and starts
anew in secret machinations to reach his goal. He
flatters the mother of Solomon with hypocritical
humility, and seeks to move the heart of the wife
(see on chap. ii. 13 sq.). Rightly does Ewald say
of him : " A man who, according to all the known
features of our memorial of him, has much that
resembles Absalom, fine form, airy, and ambitious
of power, yet inwardly scarcely fit for governing ;
of an obdurate mind, and yet afraid to venture
upon open battle. That he was no proper sov-
ereign for such a kingdom as Israel then was,
must be obvious to intelligent men."
4. Nathan here, as always (2 Sam. vii., xii.), ap-
pears right genuinely as prophet. When there is an
attempt to bring to completion human self-willed
beginnings over-against the counsel and will of God,
where the safety and well-being of the chosen peo-
ple were at stake, then it was the calling of the
prophet to interfere, counselling and reminding,
warning and punishing. It was not so much per-
sonal friendship for David, and love for his pupil
Solomon, as rather, and before all, the known will
of Jehovah, which had determined that the latter
should be king, that induced him to take the step
which would have had the most disastrous conse-
quences for himself, yea, might have cost him his
life, had Adonijah become king. It was not Za-
dok, nor Benaiah, nor any of the other friends of
David, who brought to nought the ill-starred en-
terprise. But the same prophet, through whom the
great promise had been made to David in respect
of the succession, by the providence of God,
averted also that which in'erfered with the fulfil-
ment of the promise. And without his prompt,
spirited interference there would have been for
Israel no Solomon-era, no glorious age of the the-
ocratic house. He proceeded in the matter with
great wisdom aud circumspection. First he allows
the mother of Solomon to prepare the way, con
ciliating the infirm and feeble king, then he enter!
before him himself, with all deference indeed, nev-
ertheless at the same time earnestly reminding and
slightly reproving him, and calls upon him as a
man and servant of God to fulfil the promise he
had given unto the Lord.
5. The conduct of David, when he learns wha>
is going on, corresponds fully with the divine will
and with his great calling as the founder of the
theocratic kingdom, and of the new dynasty which
is to sit forever upon the throne of Israel. He does
not stagger irresolutely hither and thither, like a
sick, feeble old man without any will of his own, but,
as if he were still the strong hero, the undismayed,
determined, energetic man, such as in his best
years he had so often shown himself amid dangers
and in critical situations, he raises himself from
his sick-bed, swears to observe his word, issues
his orders, and puts them into immediate execi ■
tion. This resolution and firmness could not have
proceeded possibly from their opposite, from an
inward infirmity, i. e., from compliance with the
supplication of a wife, nor from dislike of Adoni-
jah, whom he had never interfered with (ver. 6),
but had heretofore always indulged too much. It
is to be explained only by his faith in the promise
of Jehovah, by his firm certainty and assurance
that Solomon was appointed by Jehovah to be his
successor, and that through him as well his own
"house," as the house of Jehovah, which it was
permitted himself no longer to take care of, should
be built up (2 Sam. vii. 11-13). Upon this account
also the Epistle to the Hebrews mentions him
expressly in the list of the men who have held
the faith and obtained the promise (chap, xu
32). How could he have sworn by Him who had
"redeemed his soul out of all distress," and
then, in deep humility, have praised and glorified
Him, had he been conscious of any injustice to-
wards Adonijah, and had not, in the prosperous
issue of his commands, beheld a gracious guidance
of the God of Israel ? It is clear that under such
a man as Adonijah, who was lacking in all the
qualities requisite for the head of the theocracy,
the kingdom never would have reached the bloom
which it reached under Solomon. It would have
been the greatest misfortune for Israel had he as-
cended the throne, while, viewed apart from the
promise, the high and extraordinary endowment
of Solomon was a clear indication of Providence
that he alone of all his brothers was fitted to pre-
serve, indeed to increase, what Divid had acquired
with indescribable toil and great conflict, under
the visible assistance of God. David did not de-
prive Adonijah of what rightly belonged to him,
lie only did not bestow upon him what he craved
in his foolish arrogance and ambition, to the det-
riment of the kingdom.
G. Of Solomon himself we learn here only this
one thing, that he iustantly allowed Adonijah tu
go free, who, by his (light to a place of refuge,
w;is selif-coiivieted of guilt, and, according to the
ei i -loin in such cases, feared punishment by death.
His first act as king was significantly an act of
magnanimity and grace, which appears all the
more worthy of admiration when we remember
CHAPTER I. 1-53.
27
"that Adonijah, had ho won, would certainly have
destroyed his brother and all his chief support-
ers " (Ewald), as both Nathan and Bath-sheba
undoubtedly expected (vors. 12, 21).
7. The new historic criticism sees " in our nar-
rative, distinctly, the fully natural machinery of
human actions " (Thenius), a " court-cabal," the
" astute manager " of which is Nathan (Koster).
" Bath-sheba sought to secure the crown for her
son Solomon, although, after Absalom's death, it
devolved upon the fourth son of David, Adonijah,
whom Hagith had borne to him. One of the two
priests at the ark of the covenant, Zadok, sup-
ported Bath-sheba's designs, just as Nathan the
prophet Both could expect from the
young Solomon a greater complaisance towards
priestly influence than from the more independent
Adonijah, especially if they helped the young man,
against right, to the throne. It was characteristic
of Bath-sheba to induce David to swear by Jeho-
vah that Solomon, instead of Adonijah, should be
his successor. But Adonijah was resolved not to
allow himself to be robbed of his good right
through an intrigue of the harem. . . As Da-
vid was sinking upon his death-bed, Adonijah be-
lieved that he must anticipate his enemies," &c.
(Duncker, Geschichte des Alterthums, i. s. 385). No-
thing is more certain than that the biblical author
did not look upon the matter in such light. This
whole exposition is a distinct example of the mode
of treating biblical history already described in
the Introduction, § 5. It abandons the stand-
point of the narrator, arranges the history man-
fashion, and then, as is the case here, perverts it
into its opposite. The divine promise becomes a
fine-spun harem intrigue, the "great prophet," as
Ewald also calls him, becomes the intriguing man-
ager of a court-cabal, the true priest is reduced
to the level of a self-seeker, the firm believing
king, the man after God's heart, the play-ball of a
woman and of a court-party, the greatest and wis-
est king of Israel Is a throne-robber, and on the
other hand the airy, incapable, deceitful, and cow-
ardly usurper Adonijah becomes a martyr of the
right and the unfortunate victim of impure machi-
nations. This entire perverted interpretation rests
upon the presupposition, already sufficiently proved
groundless, that Adonijah was "the rightful heir,"
and falls to pieces with it.
8. ["It is true that Adonijah was David's eld-
est son now remaining, and therefore might seem
to challenge the justest title to the crown ; but the
kingdom of Israel, in so late an erection, had not
yet known the right of succession. God himself,
that had ordained the government, was as yet the
immediate elector ; He fetched Saul from among
the stuff, and David from the sheep-fold, and has
now appointed Solomon from the ferule to the
sceptre." — Bp. Hall, Contemplations, Bk. xvii., Con-
templation i. — E. H]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-4. Weakness and infirmity in old age are :
(a) the universal human lot to which we must all
consider ourselves appointed (Ps. xc. 10) ; (b) they
should loosen the bands which hold us to the tem-
poral and perishable, and ripen us for eternity (2
Cor. iv. 17 sq.). — Wurt. Summ. They who, through
many a cross, and sorrow, and anxiety, expend
their bodily powers, should be all the more pa-
tient, and console themselves here with the exam-
ple of David, and know that among the saints ol
God, also, feebleness of body is found. — We may,
and should, follow advice for the relief of our dis-
tress and the preservation of our life, in so far as
it does not militate against the commands of God ;
for the Lord says, "it is better," &c. (Matt, xviii.
8). — Old and sick people should, and it is expected
of them as a work well pleasing to God that they
bear this with a willing heart, with patience, self-
denial, and sacrificing love. — Vers. 5-10. Adoni-
jah's attempt to obtain the crown : (a) the ground
upon which it rests (upon self-assertion, pride, lust
of power, ver. 5, but God resisteth the proud, and
a haughty spirit goeth before a fall : iipon outward
qualities, age, and beautiful person, ver. 6, but 1
Sam. xvi. 7; Ps. cxlvii. 10, 11); (b) the means
which he employed (he seeks to impose upon the
people by chariots and horsemen, but Ps. xx. 8 ;
he conspires with false and faithless men, but they
forsake him in the hour of danger, ver. 49 ; Ps. ci
6, 7 ; he prepares for appearance' sake a religious
festival, ver. 9, but 2 Mos. xx. 7). — Ver. 5. The ef-
fort after high things (Rom. xii. 16). — How many
a person thinks : I will become a great personage,
a man of authority and influence, and then scru-
ples at nothing in order to attain his goal. But
that which is written in 1 Cor. vii. 20, 24 applies to
the individual as well as to entire classes. — Wurt.
Summ. : Let no one attempt to take an office against
God and His will ; " and no man taketh this honor
unto himself but he that is called of God " (Heb.
v. 4). — Ver. 6. The father who allows his son to
go on in his pride and in worldly or sinful conduct,
and shuts his eyes, not to trouble him, must ex-
pect that the son will trouble him and embitter the
evening of his life. It is the right and duty of
every father to speak to his son about his conduct
even when he is no longer a child, and to ask,
Why dost thou so? A perverted parental love
is self-punished, Prov. xxix. 17 ; Sir. xxx. 9. — Ver.
7. Hign personages always find people for the exe-
cution of their sinful plans, who, from subservi-
ency or desire of reward, from ambition or revenge,
will act as counsellors and agents; but they have
their reward, and for the most part end with ter-
ror.— Ver. 8. With those who are meditating trea-
son and destruction we should never make common
cause (Prov. xxiv. 21, 22). — Vers. 9, 10. Seil^r: He
who will not abide his time until God himself shall
elevate him, will fall even when he attempts to
rise. He who gives the crowd wherewith to eat
and to drink, who prepares for them festivities and
pleasures (panem et circenses), makes himself popu-
lar and beloved for the moment; but all who al-
low themselves to be gained in such way, to-day
shout Hosanna I and to-morrow, Crucify ! By not
inviting Solomon, Adonijah betrayed his plans,
and himself gave the occasion for their frustration
(Ps. lxix. 23 ; Rom. xi. 9). It is a rule of the
divine world-government that the cause of God,
through that whereby its enemies seek to thwart
and hinder it, is only so much the more pro-
moted.
Vers. 11-27. Nathan, the type of a true prophet:
(a) through his watchfulness and fidelity (Ezek.
xxxiii. 7), he is not silent when it was his duty to
open his mouth (Is. lvt 10); (b) through his wis-
dom and gentleness (Matt. x. 16) ; (c) through his
2S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
earnestness and courage (Matt. x. 28 ; see Histor.
and Ethical). How grand is this Nathan, how re-
proving to all who sleep when they should be
wakeful, who are dumb when they should coun-
sel, who flatter when they should warn. — Ver. 11.
It is a solemn duty not to conceal what can prove
an injury and evil to an individual or to a commu-
nity, but to erpose it at the right time and in the
right place, so that the injury may be averted. —
Ter. 12. What Nathan here says to Bath-sheba,
Christ and his apostles, in an infinitely higher sense,
say to us all, especially to every father and to every
mother. He who has come into the world to de-
liver and to save our souls, cries, Come unto me,
£c. (Matt. xi. 28, 29), and the apostle advises the
jailor, who asks in terror and alarm, What shall I
do to be saved ? i. e., delivered, Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, so shall thou and thy house be de-
livered. How many take kindly the good advice
of a wise man, for themselves and for their child-
-en, in their earthly and outward affairs, but who
wish to hear nothing of the best advice which
shall bring blessedness to their souls. — Ter. 14.
The purity of the counsel is confirmed by the ac-
companying result. — Vers. 15-21. Bath-sheba be-
fore the king. She reminds him of his duty (a)
towards God, before whom he had sworn (what
one has vowed before God, according to God's
will, one must hold to under all circumstances ; of
this one must remind kings and princes) ; (6) to-
wards the people whose well-being and whose
woe were in his keeping (the great responsibility
if him towards whom all eyes are directed) ; (c)
towards the wife and son whose happiness and
life were at stake (woe to the father through whose
guilt wife and children, after his death, fall into
contempt and wretchedness). — Vers. 22-27. As
Nathan does not hold back from the fulfilment of
nis holy calling through consideration of the dan-
ger threatening his life, and of the illness of the
king, so 'David is deterred in nothing when it was
said, Behold the prophet! from listening to the
man of God, though his word, like a two-edged
sword, may pierce through his soul. To have a
Nathan by one's side, who refers at the right time
and in the right way to the will of God, is the
choicest blessing for a prince. " He who fears God
lays hold of such a friend" (Eccles. vi. 16). — The
ministers of God and the preachers of His word
should not indeed mingle in worldly business and
political affairs, but their calling always requires
them to testify against uproar and sedition, for
he who resisteth the powers, resisteth the ordi-
nance of God (Rom. xiii. 2). — With questions
which lead to a knowledge of self, he who has
the care of souls often accomplishes more than by
direct reproaches and disciplinary speeches.
Vers. 28-37. David's decision: (a) His oath
(vers. 29, 30) is an evidence of his firm faith in the
divine promise; (b) his command is a living proof
of the truth of the word, Is. xl. 31, and Ps. xcii.
15 sq. (see Histor. and Ethical). — Ver. 30 sq. The
word of a prince must stand firm and not be
broken. Happy for the king who, under all cir-
cumstances, observes what he has promised. Fi-
delity in high places meets with fidelity from those
below. — Ver. 36. Where the government is in firm
bands there is found also a willing, joyous obedi-
»nce. Upon God's blessing all is founded. With-
out God's Amen our Amen avr ils nothing. Loyal
sub ects know that they can wish for nothing
greater and better for their prince and ruler than
that God, at all times, may be with him. — Vers.
38-40. The typical in Solomon's elevation to the
sovereignty : (a) He is established in spite of all
machinations against him (Ps. ii. 2; Heb. v. 5);
(b) he is anointed with oil from the sanctuary (Is.
lxi. 1 ; Luke iv. IS) ; (c) he makes his entry aa
prince of peace amid the jubilee and praise of the
people (Zach. ix. 9; Matt. xxi. 1 sq.). — Starke:
My Christian I reflect here upon the trumpet-
sounding and the jubilee-shout, when the heavenly
Solomon shall take possession of his kingdom
(Rev. xi. 16), and see to it that thou also mayest
be amongst those who have part in this joy.
Vers. 41^,9. The frustration of the schemes
of Adonijah (Job v. 12): (a) The intelligence he
obtains ; (b) the effect produced by this intelli-
gence. To an evil conscience (Joab) the trumpets
which announce victory and joy are judgment-
trumpets, which sound forth, Thou art weighed and
found wanting. The same message in which Da-
vid expresses himself, Blessed be, Ac, ver. 48,
works terror and alarm in Adonijah and his party.
So still ever sounds the " good message " that the
true Prince of peace, Christ, has won the victory,
and is seated at the right hand of God, which to
some is for thanksgiving and praise, so that they
support themselves upon it, but to others it is a
stone of stumbling, so that they fall and are con-
founded (Is. viii. 14; Luke ii. 34). — In the intoxi-
cation of sinful pleasure and of God-forgetting,
frivolous jubilation, the holy God sends, often-
times, the thunder and lightning of his judgment,
so that the besotted and maddened may thereby
be rendered sober and made to experience that
there is an holy God in heaven who will not allow
himself to be mocked. When Adonijah held a
great festivity he had plenty of friends ; but when
the messenger came with evil tidings, no one, not
even the bold Joab, stood by him ; they all forsook
him (Eccles. vi. 10-12). — Vers. 50-53. Adonijah
covered himself with shame (Prov. xi. 2) : (a) He
was afraid of Solomon (he who does not fear the
Lord, must at last become afraid of men). How
miserable the contrast between the young, haughty
Adonijah and the aged, feeble, but faithful-hearted
and humble David; (b) he flies to the horns of
the altar and begs for mercy: (he who said, I
will be king, calls himself Solomon's servant. Os-
tentation and boasting, as a rule, end in cowardice
and cringing. He can bring down him who is
proud (Dan. iv. 34). In the old covenant the horns
of the altar were the places of lefuge for those
who had forfeited life and sought grace ; in the
new covenant God has directed us to a horn of
salvation (Luke i. 69), the cross of the Lord, which
all must seize and hold fast to who seek forgive-
ness and grace, and wish to pass from death unto
life. That is the only and true asylum ; he who
flees thither avails himself of the word of the
great Prince of peace, Go in peace, thy faith
hath saved thee. The most beautiful prerogative
of the crown is to do mercy for judgment ; but
mercy must never be for a covering of iniquity.
Hence by the side of the word : Thy sins are for
given thee 1 stands the other word : Sin no more.
Kings and princes do well when, after Solomon's
example, they begin their reign with an act of
grace.
[Bp. Hall. " Outward happiness and friend-
ship are not known until our last act. In the "n-
CHAPTER 11. 1-12. 29
potency of either our revenge or recompense it
will easily appear who loved us for ourselves, who
for their own ends." Suitable for ver. 7.
Bp. Hall, for ver. 41. " No doubt at this feast
there was many a health drunken to Adonijah,
many a confident boast of their prospering desiga
many a scorn of the despised faction of Solomon ■
and now, for their last dish (ver. 49) is served up
astonishment, and fearful expectation of a just
revenge. — E. H.]
B. — David's last words to Solomon, and his death.
Chapter II. 1-12.
1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die ; and he charged
2 Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth : be thou strong there-
3 fore, and shew thyself a man ; and keep the charge of the Lord [Jehovah] thy
God', to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and
His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that
thou mayest prosper ' in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest
4 thyself: that the Lord [Jehovah] may continue [confirm]2 His word which he
spake concerning me, saying, If thy children [sons] 3 take heed to their way, to
walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,' there shall
5 not fail thee (said he) 6 a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover thou knowest
also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and [even] 6 what he did to the two
captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the
son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the
blood of war' upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were
6 on his feet. Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go
7 down to the grave in peace. But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the
Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table : for so they came to
« me when I fled because of [before] 8 Absalom thy brother. And, behold, thou
hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite [a son of the Jamimte] of
Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to
Mahanaim : but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by
9 the Lord [Jehovah], saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now
therefore hold him not guiltless : for thou art a wise man, and knowest what
thou oughtest to do unto^him ; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave
with blood. . . ...
10 So [And] David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
11 And the davs that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years
reio-ned he i'n Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father ; and his kingdom
was established greatly.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
i Ver. 8.-[The Heb. ^SfeW bears equally well the sense prosper or do wisely; cf. Josh. 1. 7. The W. generally
vlopt the former.
> Ver 4— [Confirm is the proper sense of D'i?' as in all the VT.
> Ver. 4,-[It is better here to preserve the masculine form as in all the VV., the reference being undoubtedly U
the line upontjje throne.^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^^ ^ nnd also vm all their smll,
• Ver.4.-[De Eossi rejects as spurious the word TtM^., which is wanting in Kennicotfs MS. 170, and In th.
Vnlg. and Arab. .
• Ver. 6.— [Many MSS., the Syr. and Arab., express the conjunction If «!.■
7 Ver. 5.— [The Sept. have here " innocent blood "-«V» iiaov.
» Ver. 7.— [Heb. Ijfet? •
9 ver 8 -[Heb ^OTrp.son of the Jaminite, t. «., of the descendants of Jamin, a eon of Simeon (Num. ixvi. 18)
theVV. the Sept. and Vulg. have appreciated the distinction ; Chald., Sir., and Arab, agree witn tne a. v. r.o.j
30
THE FIRST BOOK UF THE KINGS.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Now the days of David, &e. The
Chronicles omit the history of Adonijah, but nar-
rate instead, that David ordered a solemn act of
homage of the entire people, in the persons of
thtir representatives, towards Solomon when he
"was anointed "a second time" (1 Chron. xxiii. 1
sq., and xxix. 20-25). Such also was the case
with Said (1 Sam. xi. 12-15), and with David him-
self (2 Sam. v. 1-3 ; 1 Chron. xi. 1-3). Solomon's
first anointing was rather impromptu, called for
by the pressure of circumstances, upon which
account it was proper that it should be fol-
lowed by another done with all solemnity before
the whole people. It took place also before that
which is narrated in the section to be considered.
The words, " a second time," show that the first
anointing was well known to the chronicler. His
narrative, besides, does not " rest upon liberty
with the history " (Thenius), but is a filling-out of
our own, with which it agrees very well.
Vers. 2— t. I go the way, &c. The form of ex-
pression reminds one of Josh, xxiii. 14 ; 1 Sam. iv.
9; but especially of Josh. i. 7. The exhortation:
Be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man !
does not mean : be consoled on account of my de-
parture, bear it manfully; but it refers to what
follows — be strong and brave in the " charge " of
Jehovah, in the fulfilment of His prescripts. The
expression : niiT TVfOWQ DW does not convey
the sense : consider what Jehovah wills to have
considered, %. e., His laws (for then the following
would be pleonastic), but rather custodies custo-
diam Jehovae, keep the charge which thou art
bound to Jehovah, to accomplish ; be a true watch-
man in the service of Jehovah and for Him (comp.
1 Chron. xxiii. 32 ; xii. 29 ; Numb. iii. 6-8, 38). This
charge is fulfilled in walking in the ways of God —
in observing His various commandments. The ex-
pressions which here, as elsewhere, so frequently
standing side by side, denote the latter (Deut. v.
28; viii. 11; Ps. cxviii. 5 sq.), do not admit of
sharply-drawn distinctions ; but they " denote to-
gether the totality of the law upon its different
sides and relations to men " (Keil). — ^afn does
not mean exactly " to have good fortune " (Ge-
senius, De Wette, and others), but to be skilful,
wise. He who in all things stands upon the com-
mandments of God, and governs himself there-
after, is and carries himself wisely. What he does,
will and must have a prosperous issue, and come
to a right conclusion (Deut. xxix. 8; Jer. Hi.
15 sq.) ; xxiii. 5 ; Prov. xvii. 8 ; 2 Kings xviii.
'<)■ — In ver. 4 the positive promise in 2 Sam.
vii. 11 sq. is expressed in negative form, as also in
:hap. viii. 25; ix. 5; Jer. xxxiii. 17. The m3,"Xi'
'does not denote a completely unbroken sueces-
iion, but only the opposite of a break forever "
(Hengstenberg). Thy house and seed shall never
be exterminated, what catastrophies soever may
happen.
Vers. 5, 6. The charge which David delivers in
rers 5-9. were not, according to Ewald and
Eisenlohr, originally made by him ; but were first,
ai some subsequent time, put into his mouth in
order to exp ain and justify Solomon's severity
to Joab and to Shimei (chap. ii. 28 sq ). Thil
supposition is as unnecessary as arbitrary — Upon
the double murder of which Joab was guilty,
comp. 2 Sam. iii. 27 sq., and xx. 8 sq. The first
threw a false suspicion upon David (2 Sam. in.
37); the second was coupled with scorn and
defiance of the royal authority (2 Sam. xx. 11);
hence what he has done to me (to my injury). —
□ "" , ver. 5, literally, he shed "blood of war" in
peace, i. e., he furnished an unheard of example
when he killed Abner and Amasa, not as foes, in
open, honorable warfare, but murderously de-
stroyed the inoffensive. Instead of the second
''blood of war," Thenius, after the Sept.(«Iuo adirrv),
reads <pj DT , which makes good sense, certainly,
but is unnecessary. — Girdle and shoes are not here
introduced as " especial parts of oriental costume "
(Thenius, Keil); nor is it thereby said, " from the
girdle of his loins, to the latchet of his shoes," i t ,
over and over (Ewald); but girdle and shoes litre
are rather the marks of the warrior, as in Isai. v.
27 and Eph. vt 14 sq., for the sword is fastened
to the girdle (2 Sam. xx. 8), and the shoes serve
for marching, and provided with both, one enters
upon battle. David also means to say : Joab
has soiled with murder and blood the insignia of
his rank and dignity as a soldier and general
issimo, and covered his office with shame and dis-
grace.— According to thy wisdom. " David
does not wish Solomon to invent a pretext for
taking Joab's life ; but he exhorts him to observe
wisely the right moment and occasion, when Joab
shall furnish a reason, to hold him to account also
for his blood-guiltiness, so that no murmuring shall
arise among the people ; but every one can see the
justice of the punishment " (Starke). — In peace,
i. e., so unpunished as if he had done only good,
and committed no crime worthy of death.
Vers. 7-9. Barzillai. Comp. 2 Sam. xvii. 27
sq.- At thy table, i. e., not "that they shall
have the privilege of eating with the king at the
royal table itself" (Keil); but they shall receive
their necessary food from the court, like the royal
servants (Dan. i. 5). The recollection of the noble
service of Barzillai leads to the mention of the
crime of Shimei, committed on the same occasion
(2 Sam. xvi. 5 sq., and xix. 21). — tjtsj; (ver. 8) does
not mean under thy power (Starke), but near thee.
Bahurim, where Shimei dwelt (2 Sam. xvi. 5), was a
village in the neighborhood of Jerusalem (Joseph.
Ant. 7, 9, 7), about one and a-half hours' (five miles
and a quarter) distant from it. David does not say
simply, he cursed me ; but emphatically, he cursed
me with a curse, and adds the epithet, JVitDJ ,
whieh, according to Thenius, because the primary
signification of J~C3 is, to be exhausted, sick,
means " heinous " in the sense of ' horrendus. Ac-
cording to Kimchi and Gesenius, the primary signi-
fication is, to be powerful, strong, and for this the
remaining passages, where the word occurs, decide
(Mich. ii. 10; Job vi. 25; xvi. 3; Vuigate, Male-
dictio pessima). — For thou art a wise man, and
knowest, i. e.. I leave to thy discretion the how
and when of the punishment. An atria el/.oy,c
(Josephus). will not be wanting. With blood,
the opposite of the " in peace " in ver. 6, inas-
much as he has deserved it.
Vers. 10, 11. In the city of David, i. e.. in
Mount Zion, in which, -aves that sf.rved a:, burial
CHAPTER II. 1-12.
31
vaults were constructed (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii.
». 736). According to Thenius the entrance into
these vaults was on the east, in the vale Tyropoeon,
in a sloping declivity of the mountain, opposite
the spring Siloam. The later kings also were
buried here (1 Kings xi. 43 ; xiv. 31 ; xv. 8, &c).
The still so-called kings' graves are different, and
are situated on the opposite side, to the north of
the Damascus gate (Robinson, Palestine, vol. i.
p. 240 and 357 sq.). David had, without doubt,
prepared these burial-places for himself and his
successors. In what high estimation his tomb
was held is clear from the circumstance that it
was known even during the time of Christ (Acts ii.
29). According to 2 Sam. v. 5, six months were
added to the seven years. Ter. 12 is the transi-
tion to the next section, where it is told how
Solomon's administration was strengthened.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. In the last words of David to Solomon, it is
not so much the father speaking to his son, as the
king of Israel, the head of the theocratic kingdom,
to his successor upon the throne. From this
stand-point we must view alike the general and
the special portions of the whole discourse. The
calling of a kiug of Israel consisted especially in
this: to preserve the "kingdom of Jehovah"
(1 Chron. xxviii. 5 ; xxix. 23) ; to be not the repre-
sentative, but the servant of Jehovah, the true
and proper king, also to observe " all the words of
the Law, and all the ordinances of Jehovah "
(Deut. xvii. 14-20); but, before all, that supreme
and chief command, Exod. xx. 3-6, to observe com-
pletely the covenant which Jehovah had made with
His chosen people. With this high calling David's
soul was completely filled ; and as he had con-
tinually "done what was right in the ej'es of
Jehovah, and had not turned aside from anything
■5hat had been enjoined upon him all his life long "
(1 Kings xv. 5), so, also, in the last moments of
his life, it was his greatest solicitude that his suc-
cessor upon the throne should stand upon "the
charge of Jehovah" (ver. 3), i. e., should take care
that the law of Moses, with all its particular pre-
scripts, in their entire circumference, should be
maintained. This he earnestly and solemnly sets
forth as the foundation of a prosperous and bl
reign, and as the condition of the fulfilment of the
promise made to him in respect of the continuance
of his "house" (2 Sam. vii.). So David appears
here, yet once more, in his grand historical signi-
ficance, namely, as the type of a theocratic king,
by which the conduct of all subsequent kings is
measured (chap. Hi. 3, 6, 14; ix. 4; x. 4-6; xi.
33-38; xiv. 8; xv. 5-11; 2 Kings xiv. 3; xvi. 2;
xviii. 3; xxii. 2). The throne of David is Israel's
model throne ; no king of Israel has left behind
him such a testament as David here.
2. It is worthy of re/nark, that the man who
reigned forty years, and whose life as ruler was
bo rich in experience, should, amongst the counsels
he imparted to his successor, have placed this in
the fore front; " be thou strong, therefore, and show
thyself a man .' " He knew what belongs to the
office of ruler. Moral weaknesses, swaying hither
and thither like a reed moved by the wind ; un-
seasonable pliability is a greater defect in a ruler
than if he be overtaken by this or that particular
sin in private 'ife. Rightly says the Scripture,
Woe to the land whose king is a child (instead of a
man), Eccles. x. 16. Firmness and manliness, how-
ever, are not the fruit of caprice, and of an un-
broken heart. It is through grace that the heart
is made strong (Heb. xiii. 9).
3. Tlie special directions, which refer to indi-
vidual persons, David likewise communicates, not
as a private man, but as king of Israel. Joab's
double murder had gone fully unpunished. At the
time of its commission David was not in a condi-
tion to be able to punish him ; but he felt the full
weight of the deed, and in his horror of it uttered an
imprecation of Joab (2 Sam. iii. 29). In the eyes of
the people, nevertheless, the non-punishment must
have been regarded as an insult against law and
righteousness, the charge of which devolved upon
the king. " It was a stain upon his reign not yet
blotted out. Even upon his death-bed he cannot
think otherwise than that it is his duty, as that of
the supreme judge, to deliver to his successor a
definite direction about it" (Hess, Gesch. David's, ii.
s. 220). It lay upon his conscience, and he de-
sired that this stain somehow (" do according to
thy wisdom." ver. 1) should be removed. More-
over, Joab's participation in Adonijah's revolt
must have appeared as dangerous for the throne
of Solomon. As the punishment of Joab was to
him a matter of conscience, so also was Barzillai's
compensation. What Barzillai had done, he had
(lorn- lor him as king, as the anointed of Jehovah.
Such fidelity and devotion to the legitimate reigning
house (Kimigthum) in a time of great and almost uni-
versal falling away, ought to be publicly requited,
and to be recognized in honorable remembrance
after the death of the king. This compensation
musl serve, no less than the righteous punishment
of Joab, to the firm establishment of the throne of
Solomon. In direct contrast with the action of Bar-
zillai was that of SMmei. He did not curse David
as a private person, but he cursed him with the
heaviest curse as the "anointed of Jehovah," and
therein Jehovah himself directly. For blasphemy
against the king was on tbe same level with blas-
phemy against God (2 Kings xxi. 10). Both were
punished with death (Lev. xxiv. 14 sq.; Exod.
xxii. 27 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 9), hence also Abishai thought
that Shimei should be put to death (2 Sam. xix.
22). But David wished on the day when God had
shown him a great mercy, to show mercy himself,
and upon that account spared his life. But "it
was no small matter to allow the miscreant to
spend his life near him (no banishment was talked
of). And to permit him to spend his days quietly
under the following reign (which had never been
promised him), would have been a kindness that
might have been greatly abused as a precedent
of unpunished crimes " (Hess). In fact, Shimei
was a dangerous man, and capable of repeating
what he had done to David. As for the rest, Da-
vid left Solomon to choose the manner and time
of his punishment, only he was not to go unpun-
ished.
4. Davi<Vs conduct on his dying-bed- has fre-
quently been regarded as a great reproach to him.
The latest (secular) history passes the following
judgment upon it : " If David's life and deeds had
not sufficiently shown his mind, these last words
of the dying man would leave no doubt about his
charai ter. . . . We must turn away from sucl
blood-thirsty desire lor revenge which, though in-
nate with tl»' Semick race . i. uniti 1 hen t 'th a
32
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
concealment of purpose and malice that are pecu-
liar to David. His vengeance, even out of the
grave itself, determines to strike, through the
hand of his son, an insignificant man, to whom he
(David) had once promised forgiveness when he
hunself was in a strait. Forgetting all the ser-
vices and victories he owed to Joab, David deter-
mines, in order to gratify a long-cherished ill-feel-
ing, to have a man, to whom he owed his kingdom
and whom he himself had not ventured to touch,
murdered by his son, ostensibly for two acts which
Joab did, if not with David's consent, yet by no
means against his will ; the fruits of which David
had willingly accepted, and which acts he had not
made the slightest efforts to punish " (Duncker,
Gesch. des Alterthums, i. s. 386). In this view it
is entirely overlooked that David did not then
speak as a private man, but as a theocratic king,
and this judgment of him is quite false, no regard
being paid to the time and the circumstances. The
rough, false assassin Joab, who finally conspires
with Adonijah, is made to appear as a man of high
merit, and the blasphemer aud traitor Shimei, as
an insignificant, unfairly-treated man, while Da-
vid, who departs life without one crime on his
conscience as king, and who desires to fulfil the
demands of justice as well as of gratitude, is said
to have displayed the whole of his wicked aud
malicious character at the last. " Nothing but an
uncritical confusion, which wished to behold in
David a saint and a complete model of virtue
(which the Scriptures nowhere assert him to be),
could call forth, as contrast, the degradation of the
king, which is as one-sided as unpsychological "
(Winer, if.- W.-B., i s. 258). [Yes ! but our au-
thor forgets that David had sworn to Shimei, Thou
shall not die! (2 Sam. six. 23) ; and " the king" it
was (i. e., David as king) that "swore unto him."
Clearly David's act of grace to Shimei was an act of
royal right, royal clemency, and nothing but sophis-
try can justify his dying charge to Solomon not to
let the unfortunate man die in peace. — E. H.] When
Bunsen's Bibel-werk says : " The vengeance of Da-
vid can never be justified from the Christian point
of view," it is quite overlooked that that point
of view is not the fitting one here. David be-
longed to the Old Testament economy, to the time
of the law, not the gospel, and his conduct must
be judged in the light of the former. It is an
anachronism to measure Old Testament persons
by the standard of the sermon on the mount.
Besides, the same apostle who exhorts the believ-
ers as follows : Dearly beloved, avenge not your-
selves, immediately after, speaking of authorities —
, ind David speaks as such here — tells them that
they are " ministers of God, revengers to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Rom. xii. 19;
xiii. 4|. In the kingdom of God in which the law
of earthly punishments prevailed, such a crime
(like that of Joab and Shimei) could not remain
unpunished. He, too, who, when He was reviled,
reviled not again; who, when He suffered, threat-
ened not (1 Peter ii. 23), announced in a parable
the final judgment of His enemies: "But those
mine enemies, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring hither, and slay them before me "
(Luke xix. 27 : v. Gerlach). We scarcely find as
many instances of personal love to a foe, gener-
osity and goodness, in the life of any Old Testa-
ment hero, as in David's. It is evident that the
author ol our books does not relate the commis-
sions objected to, to vilify David at the last, at
Duncker does, but on the contrary he tells them,
to his honor, to show how entirely king of Israel
David was, even on his dying-bed.
5. Chronicles (I., xxix. 28) relates the death cf
David with the addition that " he died in a good c^d
age, full of days, riches, and honor." We see hew
much he was honored even in death, from the fact
that his weapons were preserved as relics in the
sanctuary (2 Kings xi. 10). Compare the eulogy in
Ecclesiasticus, chap, xlvii. 2-11. For the character
of the great, and indeed greatest, king of Israel,
though now so often unjustly judged, by whose
name the expected Messiah was designated by the
prophets (Ezekiel xxxiv. 23 ; xxxvii. 24 ; Hos. iii. 5),
comp. Niemeyer, Charaklistik der Bibel, iv. s. 107-
358, and Ewald, Gesch. Isr., iii. s. 250-257, which
says, with regard to the " last (poetical) words "
of David (2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7) : " No prince, especially
one who did not inherit the kingdom, could close
his life with more blessed divine peace, or a more
assured and cheerful view into the future."
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-9. David's last words to Solomon (a)
with regard to the kingdom generally (vers. 1— i),
(ft) respecting some individuals (vers. 5-9 ; see
Historical and Ethical). — Ver. 2. Various as are
the paths of men from their birth, yet they all,
kings as well as beggars, rich and poor, go the
way to the grave (Ecclesiasticus xl. 1-3). And yet
so many live as if they had not to travel that road
(Ps. xxxix. 5, 6; xc. 11, 12). — The passing nature
and vanity of the world, with its allurements and
splendor, is a strong exhortation and warning from
God to hold fast to the word that lives forever,
and shall not pass even when heaven and earth
pass away (1 Peter i. 24, 20 ; 1 John ii. 17 ; Luke
xxi. 33). — Be firm and be a man 1 What is requi-
site to be one ? how shall one become one ? of
what use? (Heb. xiii. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 5-8; xvi. 13).
— Ver. 3. The last and best will of a father to his
son: (a) Trust in God's protection of yourself and
all whom God has confided to your care ; (ft) walk
in His ways ; let Him lead and guide you, He will
do it well (Prov. xxiii. 26; Ps. xxxv. 5); (c) keep
His ways and ordinances (Eccles. xii. 13 ; Ps. i. 1-6;
Tob. iv. 6). Such an inheritance is greater and
better than all the gold and land he might leave
you. — True prudence and wisdom are not born of
human thought and much knowledge, but are the
fruit of the fear of God, and of walking in His
ways and commandments (Ps. cxi. 10 ; Job xxviii.
28). — God-fearing parents are more anxious about
their children keeping close to God and His word,
than about leaving them temporal goods. — Ver. 4.
The promises of God only proceed from His grace,
not our merit ; but their fulfilment is always coupled
with conditions, which we have to perform if we
would enjoy them (Heb. xi. 6 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8). — Vers.
5-9. We cannot go the way of all the world in
peace, as long as we have anything remaining on
our conscience, or any debt to justice and grateful
love to cancel. We should forgive our enemies
from our hearts, as we desire the Lord to forgive
us, and especially on our dying-beds. But au-
thority was instituted to "do justice; to prevent
and punish wickedness;" it commits a sin and
has a crime to answer for so long as it does not da
CHAPTER II. 13-16.
33
this (Rom. xiii. 4; Gen. ix. 6). — Ter. 6. Gray hairs,
u found in the way of righteousness, are a crown
of glory (Prov. xvi. 31), adorned with which a man
may go the way of all flesh in peace and comfort ;
but an old sinner, whom even gray hairs have not
brought to repentance, goes down to the grave
without solace or peace. — Ver. 7. A noble heart
does not forget what was done for him in times
of trouble especially, and thinks of it even in the
hour of death. The world is ungrateful. A bless-
ing rests on deeds of faithfulness and self-sacri-
ficing disinterested love, and it descends to children
and children's children. — Vers. S, 9. A curse rests
on those who curse the " powers " which are God's
ministers, instead of praying for them, and they are
made, sooner or later, to feel the curse (1 Peter ii. 17,
6). The Lord prayed for those who cursed Him ; but
when they did not repent and become converted,
divine judgment came down on them. No doubt
a wicked man often goes a long tim* -.nnunished
for his deeds, but divine justice d ,<js not fail to
overtake him finally, ere he is avare. — It requires
wisdom to punish; a prematuie ill-judged chas-
tisement does more harm than good.
Vers. 10-12. David's death : (a) He slept with
his fathers (Stakke : The death of believers is a
sleep, and being gathered to their fathers, whe
also still live with God, and await the coming res-
urrection to eternal life, Isai. xxvi. 19); (b) they rest
in the grave. (Rest is good to those who have
borne the burden and heat of the day forty years
long — that rest which God has promised to those
who strive after eternal life with patient continu-
ing in good works. Rom. ii. 7 ; Isai. lvii. 2). — Da-
vid's grave is a pledge that the memory of the just
is blessed (Prov. xl. 7 ; Acts ii. 29), and that the
blessing of the father builds the children's houses
(ver. 12 ; Ecclesiasticus iii. 11).
C. — Solomon's course with the opposers of his accession to the throne.
Chap. II. 13-16..
13 And Adonijah the son of Haggitb came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solo-
14 mon.1 And she said, Comest thou peaceably ? And he said, Peaceably. He
15 said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said," Say on. And
he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their
faces on me, that I should reign : howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is
16 become my brother's: for it was his from the Lord [Jehovah]. And now I ask
17 one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on. And he said,
Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that
18 he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. And Bath-sheba said, Well ; I
will speak for thee unto the king.
19 Bath-sheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adoni-
jah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat
down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother ; and she
20 sat on his right hand. Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee ; I pray
thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother ; for I
21 will not say thee nay. And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given
22 to Adonijah thy brother to wife. And king Solomon answered and said unto
his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah ?
ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and
23 for s Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then king Solomon
sware by the Lord [Jehovah], saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Ado-
24 nijah hath not spoken this word 'against his own life. Now therefore, as the
Lord [Jehovah] liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of
David my father, and who hath made me a house, as he promised, Adonijah
25 shall be put to death this day. And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah
the son of Jehoiada ; and he fell upon him that he died.
And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto
thine own fields ; for thou art worthy of death : but I will not at this time ' put
thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] God before Da-
vid my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was
afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord [Je-
hovah] ; that he might fulfil the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake
concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he
turned not after Absalom.6 And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LordJJe-
29 hovah], and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told king Solo-
mon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord [Jehovah] ; and, behold,
26
21
28
di THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KIXUS.
he is by the altar.8 Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying,
30 Go, fall upon him.' And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the Lord [Jehovah],
and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay ; 8 but I
will die here. And Benaiah brought the kiug word again, savins;, Thus said
31 Joab, and thus he answered me. And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said,
and fall upon him, and bury him ; that thou mayest take away ' the innocent
32 [omit] blood, which Joab shed [without cause], from me, and from the house of
my father. And the Lord [Jehovah] shall return his blood '" upon his own head,
who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with
the sword, [and] my father David not knowing thereof [knew it not11], to wit,
33 Aimer the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether,
captain of the host of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head
of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever : but upon David, and upon his
seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from
34 the Lord [Jehovah]. So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him,
and slew him : and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
35 And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host : "
and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.13
36 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an
house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither.
37 For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook
Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall
38 be upon thine own head.14 And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good :
as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt iu
39 Jerusalem many days. And it came to pass at the end of three years, that
two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of
40 Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in Gath. And
Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his ser-
41 vants : and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath. And it was told
Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.
42 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make
thee to swear by the Lord [Jehovah], and protested unto thee, saying, Know for
a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou
shalt surely die ? '6 and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord [Jehovah], and the command-
44 ment that I have charged thee with ? The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou
knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to
David my father ; therefore the Lord [Jehovah] shall return thy wickedness upon
4i> thine own head : and king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David
46 shall be established before the Lord [Jehovah] for ever. So the king commanded
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died.
And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.18
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
I Ver. 13. — [The Sept. adds Ka\ jrpocrcKviojcrei' aurij (Al. avrrfv). .
a Ver. 14. — [Two MSS. and some editions (followed by the Sept., Vulg., and Syriac) add i? = to him.
' Ver. 22. — [All the W. here give a sense which seems based on the supposition that p before Abiathar and before
Joab is pleonastic ; but for this there is no authority. Thus the Vulg. : " it haliet Abiathar" etc. Sept. : icai aurw 'Aptaflap
k.t.A. Similarly Syr. and Arab. The Chald. : u nonne in conmlio fuerunt ille et Abiatluir" etc.
• Ver. 26. — [The Sept.. without authority, alters the place of the conjunction so as to read diojp Qavarov el crv eV rp
fJM'P? rairrn, Kai oxj Bavaruicrto ere.
• Ver. 28. — [The Vulg., Sept.. (Vatican) and Syr. curiously substitute here the name of Solomon for that of Absalom.
Tho Ar3b. attempts to reconcile both by translating "neither did he love Solomon."
• Ver. 29.— -[The Sept. add "And kin? (Alex, omit Toing) Solomon sent to Joab. saying. What has been done to the#
that thou ha>t ded to the altar? And .Joab said, Because I was afraid of thee, and 1 lied to the Lord."
7 Ver. 29.— [The Sept. add ■■and bury him." See ver. 31. ,
» Ver. 30— [One MS., followed by the Sept., Vulg., and Syr., adds SVS after N7.
• Ver. 31.— [The Sept. add cnj/xepoi- and translate DJIl accurately "without cause." The Chald gives both senses.
The Vatican Sept. omits the name -if Joab.
» Ver. 82.— [Sept. = the blood of his iniquity.
II Ver. 32. — [There is no reaBon for omitting the conjunction and changing the preterite of the Tiebr. which are pre
served in the Sept. and the chald.
CHAPTER II. 13-40.
35
11 Ver. 35. — [The Sept. add na\ rj 0a<riA€ia icaTiypfloOro iv 'IepoviraAiju. (7/". ver. 46.
*3 Ver. 85. — [The Sept. aitd Kdi SaAujfian' nibs AauiS etJaoaAei/ffci' eTri 'Iapa>]A «ai 'Iocfia iv 'Iepouo-aATflp.. (Thus far Alex
•QlitS) (Cai €6tuxe xvpio; (pponjffti' Tu £aAutp.uji- «cai <TO(2>iav itoAAjH' (T-ioopa leal jrAaToy KapSta; .us i| u^m-"S 17 tfapa TT)»
PaAnj.jar (See iv. 29.) Then follows the lirst verse "t" chap, iii. much alt- red. and a lung interpolation winch may he thut
translated: "And the wisdom of Solomon was increased greatly above the wisdom of all the ancients and above all the
wise men of Egypt (see iv. SO), and he (iii. 1) took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the , iiy of David, until he
had made an end of building his own house and the bouse of the Lord in the first place, and the wall of Jerusalem round
about : in seven years he made and finished them." V. 15 follows then. . . " And Solomon made the Sea and the bases
and the great lavers aud the pillars and the fountain of the court and the brazen sea. And he built the citadel and
battlements upon it. he divided the city of David. So Pharaoh's daughter went up fro-n the city of David into her own
house which he built for her. Then he built the citadel. And three times in the year Solomon offered whole burnt-offer-
ings and peace-offerings upon the altar which he built to the Lord, and he offered incense before the Lord, and finished the
house. And these icere the chiefs (v. 16) which were set over the works of Solomon : three thousand and six hun Ired
rulers of the people that wrought in the work. And he built Asshur and Magdo and Gezer (ix. 15. 17. IS) and Beth-
horon the upper and Ballath. Besides his building the house of the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem round about, aftei
these he built these cities." Then follows, with some variations, ii. S. y, which form the junction again with ver. 36.
14 Ver. 37. — [The Sept. add *cai itipxiaev airrbv 6 £a<nAti>s iv ttj rjp.epu ixeivfj. tjf. vers. 4'2, 43.
16 Ver. 42. — [The Vatican Sept. omits the rest of ver. 4j. The last clause i3 sometimes pointed. "The word is good
I have heard."
16 Ver. 46. — [Here follows in the Sept. a passage made up of extracts from chap. iv. and containing about one-fourth
of that chapter, most of which is omitted from its place. — F. G-]
EXEGET1CAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 13. And Adonijah . . to Bath-Sheba,
4c. What Adonijah really aimed at in his peti-
tion to Bath-Sheba is made apparent in ver. 22.
He did not care about the fair Abishag, but about
the kingdom, which he hoped to acquire through
possession of her. In the ancient East, after a
king died, or his kingdom passed from him,
the harem fell to the new ruler. On the other
hand, also, he who took to himself the king's
wives, was regarded as having taken to himself
the rights of the king. The claim to the posses-
sion of the women of the harem was understood to
mean the claim to the throne. It was so also
with the Persians (Herodot. iii. 68 ; Justin x. 2 :
occiso Cyro Aspasiam pellicem ejus rex ArUixerxes
in matrimonium acceperat. Hanc patmn ee,l, re
sibi, sicuti regnum Darius postulaverat). When Ab-
salom went, according to Ahithophel's advice,
into the king's harem and to his concubines in
the sight of all the people, it was a public, practi-
cal announcement that he had assumed the king's
rights (2 Sam. xvi. 20-23 ; comp. xii. 11). When,
therefore, Adonijah demanded Abishag for his
wife, ostensibly from love to her, it was a secret
claim to the throne; for Abishag was looked on by
the nation as David's last wife, although he had not
known her. He did not venture to make his request
personally to Solomon, but, as Grotius says : aggre-
ditur mulierem, ut regnandi ignaram, ita amorihus
facilem. He plays, before Bath-Sheba, the part of
an humble saint who has been set aside — who ia
resigned to God's will, thus softening her woman's
heart. His assertion that all Israel wished him
for their king, if not exactly a lie. showed great
self-deception and boasting. He very wisely and
prudently says, instead of: through thy interces-
sion my brother became king (chap. i. 17) — the
kingdom is turned about, and it was his from the
Lord, which he of course did not believe, because
he wished himself to be king. Bath-Sheba may
have thought that a discontented subject might be
satisfied by granting his request, and the kingdom
made thus more secure to her son.
Vers. 19-21. Bath-Sheba therefore went unto
king Solomon, &c, ver. 19. Solomon received
his mother as nT33 (chap. xv. 13). The queen-
inother was in great honor; and therefore the name
of the k.ng's mo' -<t is always expressly given in
the account of the commencement of a new king's
re'ijn (chap. xiv. 21 ■ xv. 2, Ac). The ND3 offered
her was not literally a throne, but only a particu-
lar seat of honor. The seat at the right hand waa
the one of highest distinction (Ps. ex. 1 ; Joseph.,
Ant,, 1. vi.-xi. 9). Bath-Sheba calls her petition a
small one, because she thought it was only about
a love-affair, and did not thiuk of its political re-
sults.
Vers. 22-25. And King Solomon answered,
&c. Solomon instantly detected the intrigue. He
says, in asking Abishag for Adonijah. you indirectly
request the kingdom for him too. He is my elder
brother, and thinks that the kingdom belongs to
him on that account; if he gets Abishag as wife,
he will be further strengthened in his imaginary
claims, and his entire party will have a firm foot-
ing. The 171 beginning the concluding statement
in ver. 22, cannot be understood otherwise than
the preceding i"> . and the i? in the following words
must consequently mean the same. The meaning
is this then : Iu asking the kingdom for him. thou
askest it at the same time for Abiathar and Joab ;
they who have joined themselves to him, would
reign with and through him ; but they are well
known to be my enemies. It follows, then, that
both are included in Adonijah'splan. We cannot,
therefore, translate like the Sept. : /cai aiira 'ASiaHiin
Km avrtj 'Iud/3 eraiipoc, or with the Vulg. : et habei
Abiathwr et Joab ; there is therefore no reason to
strike out, with Thenius, the ? before Abiathar and
Joab. Solomon's anger, which appears in ver.
23, was the more natural, because Adonijah had
dared to gain over and abuse the queen-mother.
The oath, which means : may God punish me con-
tinually if Adonijah be not, Ac, is a usual one
(Ruth i. 17; lSam.xiv.44; xx.13; Jerxxii.5). —
The words of ver. 24 : and who hath made me
an house, are not to be understood, with Keil and
others, as if Solomon had then had issue (his mar-
riage did not occur till afterwards, chap. iii. 1) ; the
meaning is this rather : Adonijah demands
Abishag to wife, to found a dynasty through his
union with her; but Jehovah has determined that
David's dynasty and line of kings shall come
from me (2 Sam. vii. 11 sq.). — The execution of
Adouijah was performed by Benafah. as captain
of the Cherethites and Pelethitea (chap. i. 38).
"P3 does not mean exactly with " his own hand "
(Thenius), but only that Benaiah was charged with
the execution. Comp. vers. 34—16. Capital pun-
ishment was executed in Egypt, and also in Baby-
36
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Ion, by the king's guard, the captain of which was
therefore called DTOD (31) "1L", Gen. xxxvii. 36;
2 Kings xxr. S ; Dan. ii. 14.
Vers. 26-27. And unto Abiathar the priest,
&o. The proceedings now commenced against
Abiathar and Joab, were no doubt caused by the
share both had taken in the new plans of Adoni-
jah to usurp the kingdom. — Anathoth. a priests'
town in the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. xxi. 18;
1 Chron. vi. 45), about one hour and a quarter's
distance northeast of Jerusalem (Robinson, Pales-
tine, vol. i. p. 437-8). Abiathar had possessions
there. — To strike out the l before DV3 with
Thenius (according to the Sept.), and place it
before Np , is unnecessary : the meaning remains
the same. — Bearing the Ark, on the occa-
sion of David's flight from Absalom (2 Sam. xv.
24). That Abiathar and Zadok went with David
then, bearing the ark of the covenant, showed
great veneration and fidelity, upon their part,
to him. Of course they did not carry the ark
themselves ; but it was borne by the levites,
whose office it was to do so (Num. iv. 15 ; 1 Chron.
xvi. 15), and who did it at their command. It is
therefore quite unnecessary to read, with Thenius,
IIDS instead of |nx ■ — It does not follow from
the banishment of Abiathar, that every king has
the right to set up and depose a high-priest at
pleasure. This case was a peculiar one. A high-
priest who had repeatedly conspired against the
anointed of Jehovah, had thereby become incapable
of filling his office, and, strictly speaking, deserved
death. — S^Op is an addition of the narrator, not
the intention of Solomon ; it is the Iva tt?i?;p<j8>/ of
the Sew Testament. The divine threatenings upou
Eli's house, from which Abiathar was (through
Ithamar) descended, were now fulfilled ; for when
Saul slew the priests, Abiathar alone, of all his
house, escaped (1 Sam. xxii. 20). With his deposi-
tion the hereditary high-priesthood passed over to
Eleazar's house, to which Zadok belonged (Numb.
xxv. 13 ; 1 Chron. xxiv. 5-6).
Vers. 2S-35. Then tidings came to Joab, &c.
The parenthesis means that Joab, who was for-
merly such a decided enemy of Absalom, who pro-
mised much more than his brother, had twice con-
spired with the pretender, Adonijah, and now
feared for his own life, as he heard of his death,
and of Abiathar's punishment. All old trans-
lations, except the Chaldee, have Solomon in-
stead of "Absalom," and Ewald and Thenius
declare the former to bo the right reading; this,
however, is not sustained by any Hebrew MS.,
and would, besides, make the sentence superfluous ;
for when Joab was on Adonijah's side, it follows
of course that he was not on that of Solomon. — If
Joab, who had been unpunished for his share in
the first conspiracy, had felt free from all share in
the BecoDd, he would not have fled to a place of
refuge (chap. i. 50). — The Sept. adds, before
Solomon's words, ver. 29: "What has happened
to thee, that thou hast fled to the altar ? And
Joab said : I was afraid of thee, and have fled to
Lord." Surely this is only a gloss ; but it explains
the passage. When Joab saw that Benaiah did
not venture to kill him at the altar, he defied him,
either because he hoped that Solomon would not
dare to give the order, or that if he did, he (Sol-
omon) would be guilty of desecrating the al-
tar. But according" to the law (Ex. xxi. 14;
Dent. xix. 11-13), the altar was only an asylum
for those who had killed unwittingly, and Joab
was no such person. He had sinned grievously
against Israel and Judah by a double assassination
(ver. 32), and yet had gone hitherto unpunished.
This guilt could not rest upon David and his
house, if the kingdom was to continue in his line
(ver. 33). Not to add the utmost disgrace to the
punishment (chap. xiv. 11 ; 2 Kings ix. 35; Jer. vii.
33; xxii. 19), and in consideration of his military
achievements, Solomon commanded that Joab
should be buried with his fathers in the wilderness
of Judah, which was not far from Bethlehem, near
Tekoa, and was a rocky district containing some
towns (Josh. xv. 61 ; Judges i. 16).
Vers. 36-46. And the king sent and called
for Shimei, &c, ver. 36. As Adonijah and his
faction had made such repeated efforts to seize
the helm of state, Solomon deemed it needful to
keep a watch on all suspected persons. Now the
restless Shimei was the principal of these; he
was a close adherent of the house of Saul, and
a bitter foe of David's house. Solomon, therefore,
in order to keep him in sight, and test his obedience,
ordered him to settle in Jerusalem, and to leave it
only under penalty of death. The brook Kidro» is
scarcely named as the exact limit of his confinement
(Ewald); but Shimei was not to cross it, because,
in doing so, he went towards Bahurim, in his
native district, where he had most influence
(2 Sam. xix. 16 sq.). — Thy blood, &c. — the usual
mode of the death sentence, Levit. xx. 9-16. —
Shimei declared he was satisfied to observe the
king's command, for he knew right well that
according to the ideas of that time, no king, not
even Solomon, need feel himself bound by the
promise of his predecessor (2 Sam. xix. 23), (Ewald,
Gesrh. 1st., iii. s. 271). — The Philistine king Achish,
of Gath (Josh. xiii. 3 ; 1 Sam. v. 8), may be the
same who is mentioned in 1 Sam. xxi. 11 ; xxvii.
2 ; he must have certainly attained a great age;
if so, Shimei, then, in spite of his solemn vow,
not only left Jerusalem for his native place, not
distant, but even went into the far-off land of the
Philistines, thus giving proof of his disobedience
and obstinacy. Solomon now reproaches him with
his old crime, and says to him : thy measure is
full ; the Lord has turned thy curse into a bless-
ing, as David hoped (2 Sam. xvi. 12). — The Vul-
gate, Thenius, Bunsen, and others place the con-
cluding sentence of ver. 46 at the commencement
of chap. iii. : " and when the kingdom was estab-
lished in the hand of Solomon, he made affinity,"
&c. ; it seems, however, to refer back to ver. 12,
and in the manner of Semitic histories, as Keil re-
marks, concludes the whole section of Solomon's
throne-ascension. Thus the kingdom was estab-
lished in the hand of Solomon, i. e., under him.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. Tlie repeated attempt of Adonijah, to gain the
throne throws real light on his character. Though
his enterprise came to a lamentable and disgrace-
ful end, he immediately began to concoct new
plans in spite of the favor and the warnirg he had
r ived. As he once sought to obtain hii purpose
by collecting chariots, horsemen, and xolJiers,
CHAPTER II. 13-16.
37
through making fortified places, in short, by grand
»nd showy preparations, he now pursued the op-
posite plan of fawning and artifice. He steals
(done to Bath-sheha, placing his hopes on wo-
man's influence. When she is astonished at his
visit, he utters the most peaceful sentiments, acts
as one deeply disappointed, but now humbly and
piously resigned to God's will, and as an unhappy
lover. If anything deserves the name of a " ha-
rem intrigue," through which, according to Dirac-
ker, Solomon came to the throne (see above), it
is Adonijah's device. He could not have shown
more clearly that he was not the chosen of Jehovah
(Deut. xvii. 15). What would have become of
the kingdom which David had at last brought
to tranqudlity and its proper position, if a man like
Adonijah had succeeded him ?
2. Adonijah and his faction show the truth of
what is often found, namely, that revolutionary
men are not discouraged by the failure of their
plans, and even disgraceful defeat, but they al-
ways brood over the means of attaining their am-
bitious views and gratifying their thirst for power.
Pardon and forbearance do not change them, but
|euerally harden and embolden them. If they do
not succeed by open force, they choose deceitful
ways, notwithstanding all the promises they may
cave given ; and they feign submission until they
think their opportunity has arrived. Every one,
However, to whom God has confided the govern-
ment, should hear the words of David to Solomon
(chap. ii. 2) : " be thou strong, therefore, and show
thyself a man I " for weakness is, in this respect, sin
against God and man. The old Wurtemburg sum-
maries say : "let authorities learn from Solomon to
punish such crimes severely, if they wish to have
a happy, peaceful, and lasting reign. If they wink
at such things, God's anger and punishments come
down on them, on their land and people."
3. Solomon's treatment of his foes, has often
been called great cruelty, or at least extreme se-
verity. "Solomon," says Duncker, "began his
reign with bloody deeds. . . . He first prom-
ised Adonijah he should be spared, theu had him
slain by Benaiah. Joab fled to the sanctuary and
caught hold of tho horns of the altar. Benaiah
trembled' to stain the altar with blood, but Solo-
mon tells him to go and stab him there ! . . .
Benaiah also killed Shimei at Solomon's com-
mand." In reading this imperfect and detestable
view of the circumstances, we must remember
that there is not to be found in the forty years of
Solomon's reign, one single trace of baroarous tyr-
anny or cruelty, such as are here said to have
characterized him, though these qualities rather
strengthen than otherwise with age. We cannot
judge Solomon any more than David in the light
of the sermon on the mount, but should recollect
what the time aid circumstances were. The vital
point was to esl ablish the kingdom, and in order
to avert the dangers that threatened it, " every
firm and sagacious ruler had to act so, for the
artificial means now used in similar cases, for in-
stance, imprisonment for life, were wholly un-
known " (Ewald). As to Adonijah, the whole
East knew but one punishment for such plans as
he cherished, viz., death. Had his enterprise
succeeded he would doubtless (see above, on chap.
i. 11) haye destroyed Solomon and his principal
adherents, in accordance with the usual practice
hitherto. Solomon, on tho contrary, did not fol- 1
low this custom, but showed forgiveness and gen
erosity; in fact, he avoided all persecution of
Adonijah's partisans. Only when Adonijah, con-
trary to his word, and notwithstanding his humble
homage (chap. i. 51), again appeared as pretender
to the throne, and sought to reach his end by de-
ceit and hypocrisy, did he order the affixed pun-
ishment. He had allowed Abiathar, too, to go un-
punished at first, which scarcely any other eastern
priuce would have done. But when the repeated
attempt of Adonijah to seize the kingdom was dis-
covered, Abiathar could no longer be passed over.
Yet instead of inflicting death on him. he deprived
him of his influential office, and let him live at lib-
erty on his estate, on account of his former good
behavior. Here was no severity, but gratitude,
kindness, and generosity. Joab was the most
formidable opponent, because of his positiou at
the head of the entire army, and his well-known
military roughness and unscrupulousness ; he was
also unpunished after Adonijah's first attempt, and
the last was certainly not planned without his con-
sent, but more likely, as some suppose, originated
by him. The fact that he instantly fled to the
horns of the altar, on hearing of Adonijah's death,
shows that he knew himself to have deserved
death. Besides this, the gmUt of a double murder
rested on him, and should be washed out. " When
this was superadded," says Ewald (s. 271), "Sol-
omon did not venture to show him any further
grace," and adds in the note with great truth : " A
superficial observer alone can charge Solomon with
needless cruelty here." Finally, with regard to
Shimei, nothing was more natural than that Solo-
mon, in the circumstances attending the beginning
of his reign, should have kept especial guard over
such a restless, suspected person, who one day
cursed the king, calling him a bloody man, and the
next fawned upon and flattered him, and who be-
sides was not without partisans (2 Sam. xvi. 7, comp.
withxix. 16-20). Shimei was himself quite content,
with his confinement to Jerusalem, and Solomon let
him live there " many days " (ver. 38), placing his
fate in his own hand. After three years (not be-
fore), (ver. 39), when Shimei broke his solemn prom-
ise, what his king had threatened him with upon
oath came upon him. " Surely, every one must
at that time have seen in such fatal oblivion of the
oath which the old arch-traitor had sworn against
David, a divine sign, that that old sin still rested
on him and that he must be punished ; otherwise
he would not have acted with such defiance of God
and with such madness. Solomon had him also
executed, evidently not out of revenge nor any
other passion, but from the belief that the last of
those who had sinned greatly against David, should
fall under divine Providence" (Ewald, s. 272).
How weak and forgetful of his word would the
king hare seemed to all the people if he had let
Shimei now go free, particularly with the notions
then entertained about a kingl (Prov. xvi. 12-15:
xx. 2, 26). It is worthy of remark that the settle-
ment of Shimei at Jerusalem was coincident with
Solomon's elevation to the throne ; that his pm ish
ment did not at once follow that of Adonijah and
Joab, but was three years later. We cannot there-
fore possibly reckon this among the " bloody
deeds " with which Solomon is said to have begm)
his reign. The union of mildness and firmness,
generosity and official justice, in the conduct of the
young sovereign, must have deeply impressed the
38
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
people, have increased his authority, and estab-
lished his rule.
4. Tlie establishment of Solomon's kingdom (ver.
46) is the result of all that chapters i. and ii. re-
late, and is therefore expressly stated again at
their close. Our author evidently does this, not
only from purely historical, but also from religious
and theocratic grounds. In fact, throughout the
whole of the genuine Old Testament history of
Solomon's succession to the throne, the guiding
hand of the living God is made apparent, far
above the ferment of human passions and inclina-
tions. He knows how to fulfil his threatenings,
and to lead the way which each chooses for him-
self, to a goal where he shall find retribution of
his deeds (Job xxxiv. 11).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 13-25. Adonijah's repeated attempt to
gain the throne : (a) Wherein this attempt con-
sisted (vers. 13-18); (b) how it ended (vers. 19-25).
— Vers. 13-18. Adonijah before Bath-sheba: (a)
The feigned sentiment, in which he comes (vers. 13-
15); (b) the request he brings (vers. 16, 17); (c)
the answer he receives (ver. 18). — Ver. 13. Ambi-
tious and power-loving people do not scruple to
reach the ends which they cannot obtain by open
force, by moans that are mortifying to their pride ;
when they can no longer demand, they beg. — Those
are least to be trusted who have proved themselves
enemies, and suddenly appear.with tokens of peace.
Joab met Amasa with the words : Peace be to thee I
and while kissing him, ran him through the body
(2 Sam. xx. 9). Judas betrayed the Lord with a
greeting and a kiss (Luke xxii. 48). — Ver. 15. Ado-
nijah's boast and hypocrisy: (a) He boasts, like
most rebels, of haying all the people on his side,
but his few adherents were some faithless men,
who were won over by good eating and drinking,
and who would desert him with the first change of
the wind (chap. i. 41, 49). (A) He speaks and acts
as a pious man, who humbles himself under God's
hand (Job i. 21), while he resists His will in his
heart, and seeks to overthrow His purpose (Matt,
vii. 21; Prov. xii. 22).— Ver. 16 sq. The most rre-
sumptuous character is often hid under the mask of
unassuming deportment. — Ver. 17. He who has an
honest and just request to make seeks no rounda-
bout ways, but goes openly and courageously with
it to the person who can grant it. The serpent ad-
dresses the woman first, in order to gain the man,
in paradise (Gen. iii I. 6; 1 Tim. ii. 14). — Ver. 18.
Bath-sheba's consen to Adonijah's request shows
want of sagacity, experience, and knowledge of hu-
man nature, but at the same time shows that her
heart was free from revenge and bitterness, and was
willing to serve even one who had caused her
great anxiety and sorrow (chap. i. 21). — Kind and
unsuspicious persons are apt to yield to their first
feelings and impressions rather than reflect calmly
and deliberately ; it is therefore the more needful
for them to guard against being led away by flat-
tering speeches into promises and actions that
may greatly injure themselves and others. — We
ought not to refuse to intercede for others, but to
take great care not to 'I" ii for the unworthy, thus
injuring those who are deserving. — Those who are
h'^h iii favor with the powerful are often used, with-
u'-t their wish or knowledge, for unworthy ends.
Vers. 19-25. Bath-sheba before the king: (a)
How she was received by him (vers. 19, 20), bu'
(b) was refused her petition (vers. 22-24). —Ver
19. Solomon, when on the throne, did not torget
what he owed his mother. How often do childrer
forget their parents and nearest relations, and
even become ashamed of them, when they attain
to great riches and honor ; but no position or rank
dispenses with our observance of the fourth com-
mandment, the first with proiu'se (Ephes. vi. 2;
Prov. xix. 26). — Ver. 21. Starke: Even pious
Christians are often ignorant of what they ask
(Rom. viii. 26), and are therefore often unheard
(Matt. xx. 22). — Ver. 22. Kings and princes should
not grant even an apparently small petition, that
interferes witli the welfare of the kingdom and
people committed to their charge. Seeming se-
verity is in such cases sacred duty. — Hall: Con-
siderations arising from personal relationship must
be laid aside in the official acts of rulers.
Ver. 25. Punishment of Adonijah, how far it
was (a) according to law, (6) just and deserved.
Vers. 26-46. Solomon's treatment of his ene-
mies (see Historical). — Vers. 26. 27. Ecclesiastical
office can be no protection from just punishment
of crime (see Luke xii. 47 ; 1 Cor. ix. 27). — Former
fidelity cannot efface later treachery. It is most
lamentable that a man who was faithful in times
of trouble should end his career as a sinner (1
Cor. x. 12). — [Bp. Hall: No man held so close to
David, . . . yet now is he called to reckon
for his old sins, and must repay blood to Amasa
and Abner. — E. H.] When circumstances permit,
mildness and forgiveness should go hand in hand
with justice. — Children should not forget kindness
shown to their parents, but look on it as done to
themselves; this is fulfilling the fourth command-
ment.— The promises of God are yea and amen
but so are also His threatenings, which are ofter.
executed when men have forgotten them.
Vers. 28-34. The terrible end of Joab : (a) He
dies conscious of his guilt, without peace and par-
don; (A) even in the very jaws of death he is
defiant, rough, and proud ; (c) he does not leave
the world like a hero, but like a criminal. How
differently David dies I (ver. 2). — Ver. 28. An evil
conscience can put to flight a hero who never
yielded to the enemy in a single bloody field. —
Starke : It is thus the wicked act when they get
into danger; though they never before cared
about God and His children, they will seek their
protection then. — Ver. 30. What good is there in
dying in a sacred place if one has not a sanctified
heart and pure conscience? Prov. iii. 21-26. — Ver.
31 sq. Starke: God has no sanctuary or city of
refuge for an intentional murderer (Ex. xxi. 14). —
Lange : If a ruler leaves shed blood unavenged,
the guilt attaches to himself; through just revenge
it is averted. — Ver. 33. Only that throne stands
firm upon which justice, without respect of per-
sons, is exercised (Prov. xxv. 5).
Vrrs. 36—16. Shimei's fate plainly proves the
truth of the word Job xxxiv. 11; Ps. cxli. 10;
Prov. v. 22. — Ver. 39. Avarice, i. e., oovetousness,
i* the root of all evil. The loss of two servants
led Shimei to disobedience, even to forget his oath
and to risk his life. [Ver. 40 sq. Bp. Hall: "Oov-
etousness. and presumption of impunity, are the
destruction of many a soul: Shimei seeks his ser-
vants and loses himself." — E. II.] — Vers. 41 sq
Divine justice at length overtakes those whos*
CHAPTER IH. 1-28. 39
crimes have long been unpunished, and when they
least expect it. — Those also who have cursed the
anointed of the Lord, the eternal king of God's
realm, and who have shot their poisoned shafts U
Him, shall hereafter say to the mountains : Fall ci
us 1 and to the hills : cover us 1 (Luke xxiii. 30).
SECOND SECTION.
THE BEGINNING OF SOLOMON'S REIGN.
Chap. LTI.-V. 14
A. — Solomon's marriage, solemn sacrifice and prayer ; first judicial decision.
Chap. HL 1-28.
1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's
daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of
building his own house, and the house of the Lord [Jehovah], and the wall
2 [walls] of Jerusalem round about, Only the people sacrificed in high places,
because there was no house built unto the name of the Lord [Jehovah], until
3 those days. And Solomon loved the Lord [Jehovah], walking in the statutes
4 of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. And
the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there ; for that teas the great high place :
a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.
5 In Gibeon the Lord [Jehovah] appeared to Solomon in a dream by night :
6 and God1 said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast
shewed unto thv servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked
before thee in "truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with
thee ; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him
1 a son to sit on his throne, as it is this'day. And now, O Lord [Jehovah] my
God, thou hast made thv servant king instead of David my father: and I
8 am but a little child : 3 I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant
is in the midst of thv people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot
9 be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an under-
standing heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad :
10 for who" is able to judge this thv so great a people? And the speech pleased
11 the Lord," that Solomon had 'asked this thing. And God said unto him,
Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life ;
neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies;
12 but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold I have
done according to thy words : Mo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding
heart; so that there" was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall
13 any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not
asked, both riches, and honor : so that there shall not be any among the kings like
14 unto thee all thv days.' And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes
and my commandments, as thy lather David did walk, then I will lengthen thy
15 days. And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to
Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah],8 and
offered up burnt-offerings, and offered [made] ' peace-offerings, and made a feast
to all his servants.
16 Then came there two women that were harlots,' unto the king, and stood
17 before him. And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell ic
*u
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
18
one house ; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came tc
pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also :
and we -were together ; ' there teas no stranger with us in the house, save we two in
the house. And this woman's child [son] '" died in the night ; because she overlaid
it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine hand-
maid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child [son] 10 in my bosom.
And when I rose in the morning to give my child [son] '" suck, behold, it was dead :
but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I
did bear. And the other woman said, Nay ; but the living is my son, and the
dead is thy son. And " this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living
is my son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, The one
saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead : and the other saith,
24 Nay ; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said,
25 Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king
said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the
other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for
her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living
child, and iu no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor
27 thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her " the living
28 child, and in no wise slay it : she is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard
of the judgment which the king had judged ; and they feared the king : for they
saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.
19
20
21
22
23
26
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 5.— [The Sept. and Chald. here repeat Lord ; the Syr. follows the Hbr. in reading God; while the Vulg, and
Arab, avoid repeating the divine name.
3 Ver. 7. — [Some MSS., followed by the Sept. and Vulg., prefix the conjunction 1 .
3 Ver. 10.— [Many MSS. read IT) IT instead of 'J1X. and are followed by the Chaldee.
* Ver. 12.— [Many MSS. and editions, followed by the Vulg., have "^"1213 in the plural.
* Ver. 13. — [The Sept put this clause in the past tense : ios ov yiyovey avrip o^ioios trot, iv /SaaiAevcri, the Vat. ending the
clause here ; but the Alex., by retaining the last words of the Hbr.. 7ra<ras Tas rj^;pas <rou, makes nonsense.
9 Ver. 15. — [The Sept. add ef iiwr.
7 Ver. 15. — [The Hbr. ^'V'lis the same before " peace-offerings " and before "feast," and is quite different from the-
^-1
I before "burnt-offerings." The distinction is accurately preserved by the Sept. and the Vulg.
8 Ver. 16.— [This translation is sustained here, as in Josh. ii. 1. by all the VV. except the Chald., anl is undoubtedly
the invariable and distinctly-marked sense of the frequent Hbr. word. The Chald. renders inn-keepers. The author'*
objection to the sense of harlots seems insufficient.
9 Ver. IS. — [Many MSS., followed by the Sept. and Vulg., prefix the conjuction 1 .
10 Ver. 19. — [It is better to retain throughout the passage the same rendering of the same Hbr. word.
II Ver. 22. — [One MS., followed by the Vat., Sept.. and Arab., omits the second clause of ver. 22.
18 Ver. 27. — [The Sept. remove any possible obscuritv by paraphrasing, l-Givc the child to her that said, Give
her," kc.-F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And Solomon made affinity. After
the rule of Solomon was established by the re-
moval of his enemies from within (chap. ii. 46), he
Bought to make it outwardly strong, also, by a
family alliance with the king of Egypt. After
David's great victories over the surrounding na-
tions, and especially after the Philistines were
rendered powerless, Egypt was the nearest and
most powerful neighbor of the kingdom of Israel.
As the latter had increased so much in extent and
power, the king of Egypt may also have desired
an alliance with the king of Israel (Ewald, Gesch.
Isr., iii. s. 279) ; but such an alliance secured Solo-
mon against other nations, and was even productive
of an enlargement of his territory (chap. ix. 16).
The Pharaoh named here " belonged certainly, fol-
lowing the synchronism, to the 21st Tanaitic
dynasty, and may have been its last king, Psusen-
nes or Psusennos, who reigned thirty-five years "
(Winer, R- W.-B., ii. s. 363).— This marriage with
an Egyptian was not contrary to the law, since it
only prohibited union with the daughters of the
Canaanite tribes (Ex. xxxiv. 11-16 ; Deut. vii. 1-3).
The supposition of some rabbins, that the Egyptian
had become a proselyte, is unnecessary ; it is cer-
tain, besides, that Egyptian worship was not in-
troduced by her into Jerusalem ; and even later no
trace of it is found (chap. xi. 4-7). — By the city of
David we are to understand the ancient and
fortified Jerusalem, the citadel of David — the
upper city. The dwelling for the queen was but
temporary ; when the new palace was built she
inhabited it (chap. ix. 24). — "He made," says
Josephus, " the walls wider and firmer than they
had been." David had only fortified the upper
city (2 Sam. v. 7, 9).
Vers. 2-4. Only the people sacrificed in high
places, &c. Vers. 2 and 3 do not pronounce a
judgment in general upon the condition of public
worship in the beginning of Solomon's reign (Keil).
but form an introduction to verses 4-15. The
connection is this : when the rule of So'omon wa»
CHAPTER III. 1-28.
41
established from within by the extirpation of his
foes, and outwardly by an alliance with Pharaoh,
Solomon held a great festival for all Israel (2 Chron.
i. 2, 3), not only to implore Jehovah's further aid to
his successful government, but also in gratitude for
the past. But as Jehovah's house was not yet
built, and as the people, for want of a central
sanctuary, still sacrificed ou high places here
and there. Solomon followed this custom, but
chose the greatest, i. e., the most important height,
that at Gibeon, where the ancient tabernacle and
the altar of burnt-offering stood. Vers. 2 and;;
serve then to explain how it was that Solomon,
who loved Jehovah, and, like David, kept the law,
celebrated his great inauguration-festival on a
high place, [bishop Horsley remarks on ver. 3:
This is not mentioned as a circumstance of blame
either in the people or in the king. For had they
not sacrificed ani 1 burnt incense on high places, they
could not have sacrificed or burnt incense at all.
And it appears by the sequel that the sacrifice at
Gibeon was acceptable. — E.H.] — The highplaces are
very ofteu used in these books in the same sense ;
butnot always. That n03 does not mean " barred
entrance," and then "sacred forest" grove (The-
nius, Bottcher), is easy to see from Mic. iii. 12,
where it is synonymous with in , mountain ;
oomp. Mic. i. 3, 4; Jer. xxvi. 18, with Amos iv. 1.
where nijOJ stands for rnn3 • The fundamental
meaning is and must be: height, high place. Among
all ancient nations, heights and mountains were
naturally chosen as the fit places for offering-up to
the Deity who dwells on high, far above earth.
But as all prayer to and worship of the Godhead
took the form of sacrifice, for which an altar was
requisite, J"I103 became the expression for high
places upon which altars were erected. By de-
grees, however, the use of the term became more
extended, so that places of sacrifices, even if not
on high places, but in towns, and even in valleys,
were also called "high places " (2 Kings xvli. 9;
Jer. vii. 31; xxxii. 35). In heathen worship, be-
sides the altars for sacrifices, they had many
dwellings for the Divinity, not regular temples,
but cells, chapels, tents, in which the image of the
Deity stood, and these also were named 11103
(Ezek. xvi. 16); hence the expressions niQ3n TO
(1 Kings xiii. 32 ; 2 Kings xvii. 29), and niD3 DJ3
^1 Kings xi. 7; xiv. 23). Because the worship at
the high places so easily became entangled with
idolatry, the Mosaic law commanded that sacri-
fices should only be offered at Jehovah's dwelling-
place — the tabernacle (Levit. xvii. 3). For the
unquiet times of the Judges, however, this pre-
script could not be obeyed ; and as the patriarchs
sacrificed on high places before the law was
given (Gen. xii. 8), their example was followed :
even Samuel did this (1 Sam. ix. 12 sq.)\ Thus it
happened that this more convenient practice took
deep root, and it was not until much later that it
was found possible to abolish it (2 Kings xxiii.
4-23); it was always, however, an abnormity,
though unavoidable, so long as an house for
Jehovah's name, i. e., a central sanctuary, was
wanting (for this last expression see below on
chap. vi.). — A thousand burnt-offerings. In the
entire ancienc world, the greatest number of
animals possible were collected for sacrifice at
great festivals (see below on chap. viii. 62). The
feast must have at least lasted more than one day
The passage we are considering has sery unfairly
been selected to prove that the king himself sacri-
ficed, i. e., exercised priestly functions. Even the
great number of animals offered contradicts this ;
so does chap. vi. 2 ; where king Solomon is said ti
have built the house of the Lord and made win-
dows, 4c, no more means that he performed masons'
and carpenters' work than that he himself offered
the animals in sacrifice.
Vers, a- 10. The Lord appeared to Solomon,
&c. The expression HN13 does not mean that
Solomou saw Jehovah in any bodily form, but
that Jehovah revealed himself to him. If the
reading here and in ver. 10 be not niir , but D^iipX
is to be subjoined to it; the last more general
term serves to designate the words which Solomon
understood to be really divine communications. For
it is evident that the word niiT does not specifically
belong to the appearing, as Thenius thinks, from
examination of the parallel passage in 2 Chron. i.
7, where D'il^X HS03 occurs. — Solomon grounds
(ver. 6) his request that Jehovah would grant him
the gifts needful for a sovereign, upon the mercy
shown his father David, to whom God had per-
formed His promises, and raised up his son to sit
upon the throne of Israel. He humbly calls himself
a little child, not only as if he were just twelve years
old, as some rabbins say, but because his youth was
unfitted for the great and arduous task laid on
him. Solomon died after a reign of forty years,
and was named before (chap. xi. 4) JpT, which
makes him, as is also the general opinion, twenty
years old at least. — Going out and coming in is,
like Deut. xxxi. 2 ; 1 Sam. xviii. 13, 16; 2 Sam. iii.
25 ; Ps. exxi. 8, descriptive of the entire manner
of life. The conclusion, from ver. 8, clearly refers
to Gen. xxxii. 13 ; xiii. 16.— The yob* witn 3^ (like
Job xii. 3; xxxiv. 10; Prov. xv. 32, the seat of
thought and knowledge, ver. 9), as is to be seen
from OSti'O J"bi."^ (ver. 12), must be connected
with the following I3'3C*ij i and is not t0 t>e trans-
lated, as Luther has it, obedient heart; or as the
Vulgate, cor docile. A right sentence depends
upon the hearing, that is, the trial of the parties,
and for this, understanding and judgment are most
requisite for the judge (comp. 2 Sam. xiv. 17).
Vor. 7 refers to ruling, but ver. 9 to judging : the
two conjoined fom tho kingly office (1 Sam. viii.
6, 20 ; 2 Sam. xv. 4. Artemid. Oneir., ii. 14 :
Kuivetv to apxetv eXeyov ol Tza'/utoi).
Vers. 11-15. And God said, &c. Instead of
the life of thine enemies (ver. "1), vei 13 reads
"1133 ; it is, therefore, mditary glory, victory which
is meant. DSE*0 ybti*i> does not mean : " to ex-
ercise divine right " (Keil), but : to dispense jus-
tice.— Behold it was a dream, not that he only
knew on awaking that it was but a dream ; and
not that he remembered distinctly on awaking
what he had dreamed (Seb. Schmidt), but: " that
it was more than a dream (an ordinary one) —
something really divine; of this he beoimc- v.
42
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
■convinced on awaking, that immediately after his
return to the capital, he went to the place -there
the sacred ark stood, and worshipped the Lord
anew with many sacrifices and thanksgiving-offer-
ings. The thank-offerings were for this extraor-
dinary proof of divine favor " (Hess). The sequel
showed that it was not a mere dream.
Ver. 16. Then came there two women, &c
This story is meant to show, by one instance, that
Solomon had really received what he had prayed
for, and what God had promised him (Theodoret :
eTrtArizat rr/v tov .3aa/7.fwc eftovXi/vn ooipiav).
Thenius counts the whole among those passages
which the writer gave from oral tradition ; but we
must not overlook the fact that he did not take it,
like other narratives, from the " book of the Acts
of Solomon " (chap. xi. 41). [The writer of the
Book of the Kings refers only at the end of Solo-
mon's reign to the book of the Acts of Solomon,
and not at each step in his career. — E. H.] — The
rabbins derive nijf from ft] , to feed, nourish ; and
explain it thus with the Chaldee, here as in Josh,
ii. 1, by ;p"IJ12 , i- e., hostesses, evidently to avoid
Borne offence. On this account, it can scarcely
allude to harlots, because they, as Calmet remarks,
seldom have many children, and if they have,
do not usually care much about providing for
them. As nj? is generally spoken of intercourse
which is extra-matrimonial, or adulterous, so this
passage refers to " those who have had children,
being unmarried " (Gerlach).
V"ers. 17-2S. And the one woman said, &c.
She alleges that the other can persist so obstinate-
ly in her denial, because there was no one else
in the house. The latter probably took the child
away to avoid the just and heavy reproach of
having killed her own child, and the consequent
disgrace she would incur. This is at least more
probable than that she wished to continue nursing
for her health's sake (Thenius), or that she thought
to inherit something in the future from the child
(Hess) ; or, finally, that she intended to sell it
afterwards for her support (Le Clerc). — In ver.
21, at first the time given is the morning, in a
general way ; but next, the expression is the same
as clara luce (Vulgate), or, " as it was becoming
brighter and brighter "(Thenius). D'Dni (ver. 26) is
the New Testament a-xlayxya (2 Cor. vi. 12 ; vii. 15).
Comp. Gen. xlhi. 30. Luther: "for her motherly
heart yearned upon her son." The words :
neither mine nor thine, kc, do not only show want
of maternal love, but also envy and dislike of her
j accuser. — They feared. Comp. Luke iv. 36 ; viii. 25.
The sentence made a deep impression ; DTl^N is
here the same as in Ps. Lxviii. 16: lxv. 10.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. Solomon's marriage with a daughter of
Pharaoh was, strictly speaking, a political alliance ;
But it has, nevertheless, also significance in the
history of redemption. The great and mighty
king of the land, which for Israel had been ''the
l.ouse of bondage" in which it had eaten "the
bread of affliction" (Exod. xx. 2; Deut. xvi 3),
gives now to the king of this once despised and
oppressed people, his daughter in marriage, and
must, in the providence of God, contribute to the
strengthening of the Israelitish throne, and to the
increase of the power and glory of the Israelitish
kingdom. Thus was this marriage a witness for
the divine beneficence in the deliverance from
Egypt, to the goal of which Israel had come in
the reign of Solomon — the period of the richest
bloom of the kingdom. It was likewise a divine
seal upon the independence of the people, which
had begun with the exodus from Egypt, and now
had reached its completeness. [We beg leave to
dissent from the position here taken by our author.
(Comp. Exeget. on ver. 1). Solomon's alliance with
the Egyptian princess for political purposes was
after the fashion of worldly princes, and in direct
hostility with the theocratic spirit. Egypt was
quite as much an " abomination " as " Canaan,"
and we are surprised that our author should apolo-
gize for Solomon in the matter. — E. H.]
2. That sacrificing and burning of incense in high
places was forbidden in the Mosaic law rests, not
upon the grounds of outward regulation, but was
a natural, necessary consequence of the Mosaic
fundamental principles. Jehovah is one, and be-
side him there is no God. He has chosen Israel,
out of all the peoples of the earth, to be His people ;
lit- Las made a covenant with them, and as a sign
and pledge of this covenant will He dwell in the
midst of His people. As He himself is one only,
so also is and can His dwelling-place be only one.
This is the place where He " meets " His people,
i. e., exercises the covenant relation (Exod. xxix.
■12 sq.). The concentration of the Jehovah-cultus
is connected as inseparably with monotheism, as
is the worship in high places, i. e., in any favorite
spot, with polytheism. From the Mosaic stand-
point, the worship in high places appeared as an
ignoring, yea, as a denial, of the dwelling of
Jehovah in the midst of His people, and, conse-
quently, of the election and of the covenant of
Jehovah, whereof it was the witness and pledge
( ■■/'. Josh. xxii.). If the law in question could not
1 le carried out in times of unrest and of convulsion,
nevertheless, as soon as the period of the undis-
turbed possession of Canaan was entered upon, it
would remain the business of every truly theo-
cratic king, as the servant of Jehovah, to put an
end, as far as possible, to worship in high places.
Hence, also, was David, after he had won for
Israel victory over all enemies, most earnest to
erect an enduring central sanctuary, for which the
old tabernacle, especially since the removal of
the ark of the covenant from it, was no longer
serviceable. Since this, however, was denied him,
he laid the charge of it upon Solomon, his son and
successor, and made the building of a " house of
Jehovah" the first and most pressing duty of his
reign (1 Chron. xxviii. 2 sq.). After the building of
the temple, sacrificing in high places should have
disappeared totally ; but it forever kept emerging,
even under kings who in other respects adhered
firmly to the worship of Jehovah. Nevertheless,
it is constantly spoken of as a defect or an abnor
mitv (1 Kings xv. 14; xxii. 44; 2 Kings xii. 4; xiv
4; XV. 4, 35; xxi. 3).
3. The divine revelation which Solomon re
ceived, came, as in so many other instances botl
in the Old and also even in the New Testament
through the medium of a dream. In itself the
dream is, according to the Scripture, something
wholly idle and vain (Ecclos. v. 6; Job xx. 8; Is
CHAPTER in. 1-2S.
Vc
xxix. 7. 8) ; in so far, however, as man is then re-
moved entire.y from the sensible and outward
world, and is in the condition of a pure psychical
intuition, he can, more than in the natural, wakeful
condition, become a more receptive soil for divine
influences and communications. Hence, in Ecclesi-
asticus xxxi. (xxxiv.) 2 sq., while the nothingness of
dreams is taught, yet in ver. 6 this statement fol-
lows: kav ui, -; .' --"i1 [sc. ~a kvinrVLa] a~o-
cTti/ti iv i-i<7^o—/i, uij fi<jc etc avTQ r/tr Kapdiav gov.
Dreams of the latter description are placed, i 3e-
quently, on a level with prophecy and visions,
which are the operation of the rm of Jehovah
(Joel iii. 1). But these invariably presuppose a cer-
tain spiritual temper upon the part of the dreamer.
" The prophetic dream of the night, as a rule, is con-
nected with the moral reflections and presentiments
of the day " (Lange, on Gen. xx. 3). A soul directed
towards God and divine things in its wakeful slate,
is peculiarly fitted, in the stillness of the night, in
its involuntary expressions, i. e., in its dreams, to
receive purely spiritual, inwardly divine influences.
Such was the case with Solomon. Ili.s dream
shows what then agitated and filled his sold, and
that the festivity he then held was not an empty
political ceremony, but resulted from an actual re-
ligious need. An Adonijah, at his least at tin-
spring Rogel (chap. i. 9-25), would never have
been able to dream so. If ever dream contained
nothing chimerical (visionary), it was Solomon's
dream at Gibeon. [Bp. Hall, beautifully : " Solo-
mon worships God by day : God appears to Solo-
mon by night. Well may we look to enjoy God
when we have served him. — E. H.]
4. The prayer of Solomon unites in itself all
that belongs to a true prayer. It affords evidence
especially of the genuine theocratic spirit in which
this son of David had been educated, and was now
entering upon his royal office. He recognises the
greatness of the task to be the king of the people
which Jehovah has chosen from among all peoples
of the earth, and his first and greatest anxiety is
to comply with this demand. He feels that he,
especially in his youth and inexperience, cannot do
this of his own strength, and he prays for enlight-
enment from on high, not so much for himself as
for the sake of the people. It is not his own merit
which gives him courage for this prayer, but
he rests it upon the divine grace and mercy which
his father had so richly experienced. His words
are not many, but the few he utters are the ex-
pression of a living, child-like faith, as simple and
substantial as it is inward and true.
5. The history of the two women " is genuinely
Oriental, in which we must dismiss from our minds
wholly, our forms of justice and processes of proof :
since an accurate, striking flash, which solves the
difficulty, in living, immediate insight with one
stroke, as with the sharpness of a sword, is far loftier
than a regular consideration and balancing of the
grounds advanced, for and against. Therefore, this
wisdom, as belonging to the period, to the land, and
to the whole people, must be ooked upon as a high
gift of God, as, indeed, it act ^ally was " (Gerlach).
Examples of similar judicial decision are not want-
ing in antiquity. Grotius observes : Non dissimih
iUud Ariopliarnis regis Thracum, qui de tribus filios
« Cimmeriorum regis dicentibus ewnx pro JUio habuit,
qui jussus cadaver patris jandis noluerat, inct
l>we historic, est apud Siculum Diodorum. Another
instance " is adduced by Robertson from an Indian
book. A woman in bathing left her child or. tha
bank of a pond. A female demon wh) was pass-
ing by carried it off. Both appear before th«
goddess with their claims. She commands that
each shall seize an arm and a leg and pull at it.
The mother of the child is recognised by her re-
fusal " (Philippson). Solomon demonstrated his
capacity as judge in the case in hand, in so far
especially that, in the absence of witnesses and of
outward means of proof, he knew how to bring
the secret truth to light in such way as to con-
vince the contestants themselves. The words of
Prov. xvi. 10 are here confirmed. While Niemeyer,
in the judgment of Solomon, recognises, if not
" God's wisdom," at least " rapid decision, pres-
ence of mind, and an accurate insight into human
nature," other theologians of the illuminati-
period, have seen nothing more than "the pro-
ceeding of an Oriental despot, a fancy which would
not do much to subserve the interests of a Euro-
pean prince " (G. L. Bauer i-n Keil on the place).
He who judges so unwisely, only shows in the
act, that in like or similar circumstances he would
scarcely have reached so wise a judgment as Solo-
mon's. Little as Solomon's procedure may corre-
spond to otir present notions of the administration
of justice, formally considered, nevertheless that
which for all time remains the chief point was
not wanting, ver. 12 — the divine gift of bringing
to light the secret, inward fact, and of awakening
the sleeping conscience, so that falsehood and mis-
representation vanish, and the truth comes forth.
Without this gift all forms and rules of investi-
gation avail nothing; yea, as experience has so
often shown, they serve to pervert the conscience
and to conceal the truth.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Ver. 1. Cramer: Although marriage with per-
sons of unlike faith be allowed, and is in itself no
sin (1 Cor. vii. 14), it is, nevertheless, better that
one avoid it, because the unbelieving perverts the
believer more frequently than the believer converts
the unbeliever. — Starke : God has the hearts of all
men in His hands, and can bring it to pass that
they who have been inimical to us, and have despis-
ed us, shall hold us in great honor (Prov. xvi. 7 ;
Gen. xxxi. 24). — As soon as Solomon sa>v his exist-
ence secured, he proceeded to matrimony. — Ver.
2— I, Solomon's Sacrificial Festivity: (a) When he
celebrated it (at the beginning of his reign to re-
turn thanks for the past assistance of God, and to
implore its continuance) ; (b) where he kept it (upon
the high place at Gibeon, because no temple was
built as yet: the place of prayer in the Old and in
the New Testament). — Though God dwell not in
temples built by human hands, yet it is needful
for each congregation to have an house, where with
one mouth it praises the name of the Lord. Where
this need is not felt, there is a defect in faith and
love for the Lord. — Ver. 3. He loved the Lord.
This is the best and greatest thing that can be
said of a man. So, every one who loves the world,
has not in him the love of the Father : this is only
where God is loved above all things, His word ob-
served, and His commandments fulfilled with joy
and delight (1 John ii. 5, 15; v. 3). Happy is he
who, to the question of the Lord : Lovest thou me 1
44
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
can return the answer of Peter (John xxi. 17).
Because Solomon loved the Lord he honored also
his father, and walked in his ways. The want of
filial piety in our day comes from want of love to
the Lord. — Ver. 4. If we should begin our daily
work with the sacrifice of our prayer, how much
more our life's calling, and every weighty under-
taking upon which our own and the well-being of
other men depends (God grant it, He who can
help, Ac).
Vers. 5-15. The Prayer of Solomon: (a) Its
contents (ver. 6-9) ; (6) its answer (ver. 10-14). —
Ver. 5. Starke: Those who love God (ver. 3),
God loves in return, and reveals himself to them
(John xiv. 21). — Hall: The night cannot be
otherwise than holy to him whom the previous
day has been holy. — In our dreams we often speak
and act in such way that we must be frightened,
upon awaking, at how much that is impure and cor-
rupt is still within us. Upon this account we
should pray in the evening : Ah 1 may my soul in
sleeping also do that which is good, or, if I dream,
be it from thee, so that my senses even in sleep
may acquire love for thee, Ac. (Ps. lxiii. 7). — [One
is here reminded of Bp. Ken's beautiful evening
hymn : " Glory to thee, my God, this night." —
E. H] — A dream like Solomon's does not happen
when the day just past has been spent in revel
and riot, in gross or in refined sin. — Lisco: What
happened here in dream, Christ commands in
" Our Father." — Starke : God well knew what
Solomon needed; but he bid him ask, (1) to show
how negligent men are in praying for what is
spiritual ; (2) that he would only bestow His gifts
in the ordinance of prayer ; (3) that great person-
ages might have an example of what they should
ask of God, above all others. Ask what I shall give
thee : (a) a test- word, for as man wishes and
prays, so does he show-of whose spirit he is the
child (Ps. cxxxix. 23) ; (6) a word of warning, for
we not only may, but we should also ask for all
which we have most at heart (Ps. xxxvii. 4). —
Ver. 6-10. When is our prayer pleasing to God?
(a) When we pray in the feeling of our weakness
and helplessness, and in confidence in the mercy
of God and His promises; (6) when before all
things we ask for spiritual blessings and gifts
(Matt. vi. 33; Eph. i. 3). — The true wisdom for
which we have to ask God (James i. 5), does not
consist in manifold and great knowledge, but in
the understanding of what is good and bad (Job
xxviii. 28 ; James hi. 17 ; Eph. v. 17), and is a
fruit of the renewal of our mind (Rom. xii. 2). — A
ruler who does not ask God for an obedient heart
for himself, can and ought not to hope for or expect
that his people will yield him a submissive heart. —
Youth, which as a rule places freedom in lawless-
ness, needs before all things to ask God daily for an
obedient heart. — Vers. 8, 9. Pfaff: Subjects are
not simply creatures of the authorities, nor are they
designed for the exercise of their pleasures and
the splendor of their position (Holeit); but they
are God's people, and as such, are to be governed
and judged.
Ver. 11-14. The granting of Solomon's prayei
teaches and assures us : (a) That God grauts more
than they request, over and above praying and
understanding, to those who call upon him with
earnestness, and for spiritual gifts (Eph. iii. 20 ;
Matt. vL 33) ; (b) that God gives to him upon whom
He confers an office, that is, to one who does not
rush into an office or calling, but is called thereto
by God, the necessary understanding, if he humbly
seek it. — Where there is wisdom, there comes,
indeed, also gold and silver (Prov. iii. 16 sg ), but
not the reverse. — Ver. 15. Hall: A heart col-
scious in itself of the living evidences of a special
grace of God, cannot forbear feeling that it should
be authenticated through outward signs, and espe-
cially through munificence.
Vers. 16-28: Lisco: Solomon's Wise Judg-
ment: (a) The question in dispute (vers. 16-22);
(b) the decision (vers. 23-28). — Vers. 17-22. Such
sin brings together, but it unites only for a short
time ; for it produces discord, wrangling, and
controversy. Abiding peace dwells only in the
house where the God of peace binds hearts to-
gether.— He who takes from the heart of a mother
her child, or estranges or deprives her, will not
escape the righteous tribunal of the judge to whom
the mother (das muUerherz) calls and appeals. — •
Litigation is generally associated with envy, false-
hood, and unrighteousness, hence the Lord says,
be read}', &c. (Matt. v. 25 ; Luke xii. 58). — Ver. 26.
If an immoral woman be merciful for the son of
her body, and cannot forget her little child (kind-
leiiis), how much more should every Christian
mother be ready to offer, when necessary, the
heaviest sacrifice to deliver her child from moral
ruin. — Seiler: If in the hearts of sinners the love
of father and mother be so strong, how strong must
the fatherly love of God be (Isai. xlix. 15) ? — Envy
hardens all human feeling, and makes one hard
and heartless. — Ver. 27. When a child, apparently
given over to death, is restored to its parents by
divine providence, so much the more must their
chief solicitude be to educate and bring it up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. — Not power
and force, not great pomp, and pride, and tyranny,
but wisdom and righteousness, give to the govern-
ment authority, and call forth genuine fear and
the voluntary obedience of the people. — If it were
given to a Soiomon to bring to disgrace lying and
misrepresentation, by judicial wisdom and know-
ledge of the human heart, and to deliver a righteous
judgment, how much less shall liars and hypocrites
stand up under the tribunal of Him who could
say, A greater than Solomon is here ! who, without
needing witnesses aud judicial examination, will
bring to light what is hidden in darkness (1 Cor.
iv. 5), and before whose judgment-seat we must
all appear (2 Cor. v. 10).
CHAPTER IV. 1-34.
B. — Solomon's officers, household, and his high intellectual culture.
Chap. IT. 1-34 (IT. 1 ; T. 14).
1, 2 So king Solomon was king over all Israel. And these icere the princes
3 which he had ; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest.' Elihoreph and Ahiah, the
4 sons3 of Shisha, scribes ; Jehoshapliat the son of Ahilud, the recorder. And
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host: and Zadok and Abiathar were
5 the priests; and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers: and
6 Zabud the son of Nathan zcas principal officer, and the king's friend : 3 and
Ahishar teas over the household : and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the
tribute.
7 And Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for
8 the king and his household : each man his month in a year made provision. And
9 these are their names : The son of Hur, in mount Ephraim : The son of Dekar, in
10 Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Betb-shemesh, and Elon 4-beth-hanan : The son of
11 Hesed, in Aruboth ; to him pertained Sochoh, and all the land of Hepher : The
son of Abinadab, in all the region [highlands b] of Dor; which had Taphath the
12 daughter of Solomon to wife : Baana the son of Ahilud ; to him pertained Taa-
nach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel,
from Bethshean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam
1 3 [Jokmeam] : The son of Geber, in Bamoth-gilead ; to him pertained the towns of
Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead ; ' to him also pertained the region
of Argob, which is in Bashan, threescore great cities with walls and brazen bars :
14, 15 Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim : Ahimaaz was in Naphtali ; he
lfi also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon to wife: Baanah the son of Hushai
17 was in Asher and in' Aloth : 8 Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar:
18, 1 9 Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin : Geber the son of Uri was in the country
of Gilead, in the country of Sihon king of the Amorites, and of Og king of
20 Bashan ; and he was the only officer which was in the land. " Judah and Israel
were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking
and making merry.
21 And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river " unto the land of
the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt : they brought presents, and
22 served Solomon all the days of his life. And Solomon's provision for one day
was thirty measures [cor] of tine flour, and threescore measures [cor] of meal.
23 Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, be-
24 sides harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer," and fatted fowl. For he had
dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah,
over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round
25 about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and
26 under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. And
Solomon bad forty " thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve
27 thousand horsemen [saddle-horses]. And those officers provided victual for
king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, every man
28 in his month: they lacked nothing. Bailey also and straw for the horses and
dromedaries [coursers ,3] brought they unto the place where the officers were,
every man according to his charge.
29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and
30 largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon's
wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the
31 wisdom of E<?ypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite,
and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol : and " his fame was in
82 all nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs : and his songs
33 were a thousand and five.'5 And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that it
Vl. Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also
±6
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
34 of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came
of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which
had heard of his wisdom.16
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 2.— [Our author translates jHSH " war der hochste " for reasons given in the Exeg. Com. Keil also takes the
»aine view of the word. On the other hand, all the ancient V V. (the Vat. Sept., however, omits the word) give the usual
rendering, priest; so also Luther, and the A. V. The question really turns upon which of the names, Azariah or Zadok,
the word is to be placed in apposition with. By the Masoretic punctuation, by the Chald., and by the Sept., (6 iepevs in
the nominative), it is placed in apposition with Azariah, which, according to ver. 4, cannot be correct, if the translation
priest be retained. Hence the adoption of the other sense by our author and Keil. But by the Vulg. (sactrdotis in the
Gen.), by the Syr., and the A.V., it is placed in apposition with Zadok, and the difficulty is thus removed, while the
ordinary sense of the word is retained. In this way, too, the absence of the 1 before Elihoreph is accounted for. The
sense will then be, Azariah (the son of Zadok the priest) was one of the scribes with Elihoreph and Ahiah.
» Ver. 8. — [Three MSS., followed by the Sept., write )3 in the singular, thus making Ahiah only the son of Shisha.
1 Ver. 5. — [Here again we have the same question of translation as in ver. 2, but diflerently solved in the A. V. The
Heb. expression TpftH HU1 |H3 jHJ'p TOM is rendered by the author as well as by Keil, in the same way as in the
A.V. It is urged that JH3 cannot be in apposition with Nathan because it is without the article (see Nordheimer'i
Heb. Gr., § 816). Admitting that the Heb. usage requires JPG to be regarded as a predicate, it is further urged that it
cannot mean priest, because Zadok and Abiathar were " the priests." They certainly were the high-priests ; but Zabud
also may have been a priest. The Chald., Syr., and Vulg., all retain the sense of priest, and there seems no sufficient
reason for rejecting it. " Zabud, the son of Nathan, was a priest, and the king's friend." Twelve MSS. and the Syr.,
for TOt read TOT -
4 Ver. 9. — [Eleven MSS., followed by the Vulg., prefix the conjunction 1 to JV^ ; the Sept. supply its place by eio*,
and so our author translates. The Arab, uses the relative, " Elon which is in Beth-hanan." The locality is quite
unknown.
* Ver. 11. — [Here, as in Josh. xi. 2 ; xii. 23, it is better to preserve the force of the Heb. J"lS3 , as in the author's ver-
sion. The Vulg., Syr., Sept., and Arab, make it a part of the proper name.
• Ver. 13. — [The Vat. (not Alex.) Sept omits the previous clause, and in each case, after th« mention of the officer
and his district, adds els.
7 Ver. 16.— [The Vulg., Sept., Syr., and Arab, make the preposition part of the name, and read Baaloth. This cannot
be right. See Exeg. Com.
8 Ver. 17. — [The Vat. Sept. omits ver. 17 here, and gives it afterwards instead of the last clause of ver. 19. It alst
omits verses 20-26 (ef. chap. iii.). This whole list of proper names is variously modified in the VV.
9 Ver. 20. — [Most printed editions of the Heb. begin chap. v. at this point; so our author, and hence his note. — F. G.j
The Sept., the Vulg., and Luther [also the A. V. and Walton's Polyglot] reckon chap. v. 1-14 as belonging to chap, iv., and
begin chap. v. with its 15th verse. — Bahr.
10 Ver. 21. — [There is here no preposition in the Heb., although it is supplied in the parallel place, 2 Chron. ix. 26,
D^nCvS 1*™1X^V1 • The Chald. has made up the deficiency by translating " from the river Euphrates unto the land of
the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt , " but the Vulg- (ajtwmhie terrm Philisthium usque ad terminem JEgypti)^
Syr., and Arab, reduce Solomon's empire to nothing. The Alex. Sept. has otto toD jroTajioO yijs dAAo0i'Acuv *ai «w? bpiov
'AiyujrTou. .
" Ver. 28.— [7S_XD Vulg., cervi; Sept. (Alex.), e\a<f>oi. *3V Vulg., caprice ; Sept. (Alex.), SopKaSa. "TOTT Vulg
bubali ; Sept. (Alex.) omits. On ^3V &• Rosenmuller's Bochart IUerozoicoroy ii. 808.
>s Ver. 26.— The parallel place 2 Chron. ix. 25 shows, that not CJOTX but flt^HX should be read, with which also
Chron. x. 26 and 2 Chron. i. 14 accord. — Bahr. [The author accordingly rightly translates " four thousand ; " but there is no
variation in the MSS. nor in the VV.
18 Ver. 28.— [Heb. C3"l , a superior kind of horse to the chariot-horses just mentioned. None of the VV. sustain
the translation dromedaries, Keil translates "runners."
14 Ver. 81. — [The Vat. Sept. omits this clause.
»» Ver. 32.— [Sept. : Ave thousand.
ia Ver. 34.— [The Vat. Sept. here adds iii. 1, and continues: totc d^£rj Qapaio fiauiXevs 'AiyuVrov, teal irpoKaTeXdfifTi
T$|y Ta.$ep, xat efcrrvpurcv av-rqv real Toy Xavai'tTrje rbv KaTOixovvra iv Mepya/3 • Kal iSmxev avTa<; Papain aTrocrToAds BvyarpA
AVTOu yvvaiKi inAminui', xal 2aAu>p.u>f <ilieo66p.7jo"ie Ti)f Ta£4p. — F, Q.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. So king Solomon was, Ac. According
to Tlienins, the section from chap. iv. 1 to 28 is
borrowed from two different sources, and the con-
tents of both are so woven together that the proper
connection is now lost. Chap. iv. 2—19 may belong
lo the older and purely historical source: chap. iv.
1 and 20 to the later traditional one, as may also
vers. 21, 24, 25, 2G. "Vers. 22, 23, 27, 28 (probably
in the following order: vers. 27, 28, 22, 2?,) con-
tain the continuation of the account of the func-
(i jnanes (taken from the more ancient source)."
It is true that a perfect accordance is obtained
by this arrangement of the text, which is partly
founded on the Septuagint; but the question is
whether the text, as it lies before us. is so dis-
connected as to require such a forced alteration of
Style. We must presi^nose the author possessed
(.1 enough understanding not to take what he found
in good order, in his documentary sources, tear i
apart, weave it together, and render the whole
without connection. In chaps, i.-iii. he related how
Solomon's kingdom became established and re
spected; in chap. iv. he tells how it was censti
tuted, and in what a well-ordered and flourishing
CHAPTER IV. 1-34.
condition it was. Then he proceeds with the words
of ver. 1 : So king Solomon was king over all Is-
rael, i. e., with the rule of Solomon over all Israel,
such was its estate. Now comes the account of
the regular government and management of the
entire realm, by the various civil officers of differ-
ent degrees (vers. 2-19); then the court establish-
ment, which represented the prosperous state of the
kingdom (22-28); and lastly, that of the extraor-
dinary acquirements of the king himself (29-34).
The first section is very naturally followed (ver. 20)
bv remarks on the great population and prosperous
condition of the kingdom ; and this leads to the
further remark (ver. 21) that Solomon's dominion
not only extended over the populous nation of Is-
rael, but over the neighboring tribes, that were
brought under tribute. His court establishment
was equally brilliant, and it (vers. 22-28) corres-
ponded with his extended sovereignty (ver. 24),
and with the peacefulness which his subjects en-
joyed (ver. 25). There is no want of connection in
such a narrative.
Ver. 2. And these were the princes, the dig-
nitaries (comp. the double list of those under David,
2 Sam. viii. 16-18, and ibid. xx. 23-26, where they
are not, however, named D'lfeTl), and there are two
more here. The order of the offices is different in
each of the three lists, so that we cannot therefrom
form an opinion of their rank. It is characteristic
that the military officers are named first in both of
David's lists, and the civil offices are first in Solo-
mon's. The Jewish expounders, the Vulgate, Lu-
ther, and Thenius, take ;niin in ver. 2 to be in the
genitive case : " Azariah, the son of Zadok the high
priest; Elihoreph and Ahiah the sons of Shisha,
were scribes." But against this view are the ac-
cents (silluk with sophpasuk), according to which,
a new sentence begins with Elihoreph ; also " the
omission of the copula 1 before Elihoreph, which
was absolutely necessary, if Azariah had been
joined in the same office with the brothers Eliho-
reph and Ahiah " (Keil) ; finally, the son of the high-
priest Zadok is named Ahimaaz in 2 Sam. xv. 27 ;
xviii. 27 ; and 1 Chron. vi. 8, 9, and then his son
Azariah |3 must therefore certainly be translated
here by : grandson. This, however, is not suitable
here, because son is used six times consecutively
in the following verses, so that we cannot under-
stand why the writer does not say the son of
Ahimaaz.' It was scarcely possible either for a
grandson of the priest Zadok to have been old
enough then to stand at the head of tne body of
high dignitaries. All things considered, jrQil must
here be understood like T3t13n , ver. 3, as predi-
cate-nominative, according to the opinions of Pisca-
tor, Le Clerc, Keil, and others. We may not trans-
late like Ewald and Bunsen : " Azariah, the son
of Zadok, was the high-priest," for according to
ver. 4. Zadok himself, and also Abiathar, were ;
but there never were three high-priests at the same
time. We are rather compelled, on the contrary,
to take p's in the sense it beare m 2 Sam. viii. 18,
and xx. 26, where it signifies a secular office. The
Chron. (i. 18, 17) gives instead of D^rp in the first
place -l^en ~fb D'KWn, that is, the first at the
king's side, those whom we now nt me ministers,
or privy counsellors. The word ir. ver. 5 must
necessardy have this meaning: where it stand*
without the article, Zabud was pS If now Aza
riah is introduced in ver. 2 as jrpn , wholly analo-
gous to the way in which the high priest, con-
trasted with the other priests, is absolutely ]rpn
(Exod. xxix. 30; Lev. xxi. 21; 1 Kings i. 8, 38;
2 Kings xi. 9, 15, etc.), so is he designated as the
first or chief of the secular D'OHB , "P°n which
account he stands first in the list of the great office
bearers. " Among the trusted privy counsellors of
the king, he held die first place " (Keil). It is not
necessarv to suppose that Zadok, whose son he was,
was the" high-priest, for this name occurs very
often (2 Kings xv. 33; Neh. iii. 4-29; xiii. 13; xi.
11), as well as the name Azariah (1 Chron. v. 36-
li> ; u 39; 2 Kings xv. 30, &c).
Vers. 3-6. Elihoreph . . . were scribes, Ac.
"13D means generally any one whose business it
was to write or to count. The DnSD, as the
highest civil officers, had, no doubt, the care of all
clerkly as well as financial matters ; two are there-
fore specified.— For the office of the T3TD see
Introduc. % 2. It is plain that he was not the
" highest minister of state," as Winer thinks, be-
cause he is not the first, but the third in the list.
As the copula is wanting before Josaphat, we can-
not conclude, with Thenius, that he was above the
D'n&Oi t0 whom Azariah must in that case also
have belonged. — Shisha must be the same as Shav.
sha in 1 Chron. xviii. 16, and Seriah in 2 Sam. xviii.
7. The office of the father under David, passed to
his two sons under Solomon.— For Benaiah see
chap. ii. 35.— Ewald thinks the words: And Zadok
and Abiathar (were) the priests a mere unnecessary
repetition of Sam. xx. 25, because, according to
chap. ii. 26 and 35. Solomon deposed Abiathar and
put Zadok in his place. However, there is no suf-
ficient ground for this view. Abiathar is again in-
troduced as a priest here, either " because he had
officiated in the beginning of Solomon's reign"
(Philippson), or because, as Grotius remarks, though
he was no longer re yet he was nomine high-priest,
and though the apx'l was taken from him the Upa-
triri i, nevertheless remained to him (Theodoret). Itv
is highly improbable that Solomon afterwards par-
doned and restored him to office (Le Clerc).— Aza-
riah and Zabud (ver. 5) were not the sons of the
prophet Nathan (Thenius), but of the son of David,
mentioned in 2 Sam. v. 14, therefore Solomon's
nephews (Keil). The former had the officials enu-
merated in vers. 7-19 under him, the latter is des-
ignated as Tj^sn njn \rB ■ Ewald looks on this
in a very modern way, and thinks it was a "spe-
cial house-priest" of "the king's, "who was lus pe-
culiar minister in spiritual affairs." However, there
is no more mention of a priest here than in 2 Sam.
viii. 18; njTI explains jrp, and both words form
too-other one couception; Zabud was a "privy
counsellor, i, e., friend of the king's" (Keil). la-
ther's translation : the son of Nathan, the prie*', L»
48
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS
quite false. Abiathar (ver. 6) was not " minister
of the king's household " (Keil), but " master of the
palace and household " (Thenius), chap, xviii. 3 ;
2 Kings xviii. 18; Isai. xxii. 15. This office did
not exist under David ; but was required by the
larger and more splendid court of Solomon. Ado-
niram is the same as 2 Sam. xx. 24 and 1 Kings
xii. 18, where he is called Adoram. He was not
tithe-master (Luther), but overseer of the hirelings
that had to overlook the public works, for DD no-
where means vectigal or impost. Ewald and The-
nius think the addition of the Sept. : ical 'Eha{i vwc
Za<p itrl rye; narpiac, original, but it is easy to see
that it is a gloss.
Ver. 7. Solomon had twelve officers. The
wholly general expression W3H1 (from 2VJ to
place, t. e., people in office), is made clearer by the
word: the provided for, &c. Hence they were not
r/jf uovec nai OTparnyol (Josephus), neither " court
cooks " (Winer), but " chief rent-receivers " (Rosen-
muller) ; whether they were regular chiefs or gov-
ernors of provinces, the providing for the king be-
ing only a part of their office (Thenius), is uncertain.
Probably their districts were not arranged with
reference to the lands of the tribes, but to the fer-
tility of the soil. Tlieir number, twelve, has no re-
lation to the twelve tribes, but to the twelve months
of the year, in each of which one of them had to
supply his quota. The list of the districts in vers. 8
to 19 is perhaps made with reference to the time of
delivery, and makes no account of the geographical
position. — The proper names of five of the twelve
officials are not given, but only their fathers' names.
It is uncertain whether they bore those names with
the prefix of Ben, as the Vulgate supposes (Benhur,
Bendecar, &c). Beu-abinadab (ver. 11) is scarcely
a proper name. As these men have no further
historical importance, it matters little about their
names. Two sons-in-law of Solomon being among
them, only shows that the list gives us a view of
the civil offices during the middle period of his reign.
Vers. 8-22. The son of Hur, in mount Eph-
raim. We give here only what is most necessary
about the situations and nature of particular dis-
tricts. Thenius. on this place, speaks at length of
both. (1) Mount Ephraim, in Central Palestine,
one of the most cultivated districts of all Palestine
(Winer, B.-W.-B., s. v.). (2) ilakaz (ver. 9) is named
only here, but mast belong, like Shaalbim, Beth-
ehemesh and Eton, to the tribe of Dan (south of
Ephraim and west of Judah). (3) Aruboth (ver.
Kit also does not appear elsewhere, probably a place
in (lie tribe of Judah, to which Sochoh in the south
must also have belonged (Josh. xv._48). Ilepher
cannot be the town Gath-Hepher in Zebulon, but
only a southern district, probably west of Sochoh,
where a Canaanitish king had reigned before (Josh,
xii. 17). (4) Dor(ver. 11), a town on the Mediterra-
nean, nine Roman miles north of Ctesarea (Josh.
xvii. 111. Naphat (i. e., heights) Dor is the hilly
Btretch of country towards the south of the town,
and to this Thenius reckons the whole very fertile
pasture-plain of Sharon to Joppa. (5) Megiddo,
and dose to it, in a southeasterly direction, Tuanach
(ver. 12); two towns, that lie on the slope of the
Carmel mountains, ■■>< the edge of the plain of Jez-
reel in the tribe of Ifanasseh Beth-shean, on a
straight line, easl of Megiddo, where the plain
of .1 >/i "I ceases and that of the Jordan meadows
oegins. Zartauah lav near in a southerly direction,
and Abel-meholah still more soutl the latter wai
the birth-place of the prophe't Ehsha. Jokneam,
according to 1 Chron. vi. 53, a levite town, the situ-
ation of which is doubtful, perhaps it jvas the same
as Kibzaim (Josh. xxi. 22). The district must then
have included the whole land of the tribe of Ma-
nasseh on this side (west of) Jordan. (6) Ramoth-
gilead (ver. 13). a town of the levites beyond Jor-
dan, in the tribe of Gad, which stretched northwards
along the tribe of Manasseh, and southwards along
that of Reuben (Josh. xxi. 38 ; Deut. iv. 43). Upon
Din of Jair, comp. Numb, xxxii. 41 ; Deut. iii. 14;
Josh. xiii. 30. Our passage says as plainly as pos
sible that they were ir. the land of Gilead, but th«
country of Aryob was in the land of Bashan. The
sixty fortified cities that belonged to the last can
therefore not be identical with j-pin (Keil), as Bashan
is always made quite dh-.tinet from Gilead (Deut. iii
10; Josh. xii. 5; xiii. 11; xvh. 1; 2 Kings x. 33;
Mic. vii. 14), the translation : the " towns of Jair '
is not correct either, " because : rpn here does not
mean to live, and the German: living in a given
place does not signify vita but mansio " (Casscl. zu
Bicht., iii. 4). The land of Bashan with Argob lay
northeast of that of Gilead. The brazen bars mean
that the gates of the cities were protected with
brass. (7) Mahanaim (ver. 14), a town beyond Jor-
dan (2 Sam. xvii. 24-27), on the borders of the tribe
of Gad and the further portion of Manasseh on the
Jabbok (Josh. xxi. 38). We have no further infor-
mation about this district of Abinadab. (8) Naph-
tali (ver. 15), the region of the tribe of this name,
was quite in the north of Palestine, on this side
Jordan, west of Asher's inheritance and bordering,
on its south, the tribe of Zebulon. (9) Asher's
(vet 16) inheritance lay along the coast of the
Meanerranean, northward of the tribe of Issachar
(Deut. xxxiii. 24 sq.). 2 in nii'W must certainly be
understood as in "lt."N3 (Luther), but Aloth, like
Bealoth, is a quite unknown name, for the latter
cannot be Bealoth in Judah (Josh. xv. 24). Thti
nius boldly conjectures 11V l"6j?D ~\]1 to the road
leading to Tyre. (10) Issachar (ver. 17); its coun-
try lay on this side Jordan, between Zebulon on
the north and Manasseh on the south (Josh. xix.
17 sq.). (11) Benjamin (ver. 18); its inheritance
was between Ephraim on the north and Judah on
the south, and eastof Dan (Josh, xviii. 11 sq.). (12)
Gilead (ver. 19) is used here for all the east- Jordan
lands in general, but it could oidy apply to that
part which remained overafter taking out the sixth
and seventh districts, that is, the southern. The
kingdom of Sihon originally extended from the
river Jabbok in Mauasseh to the river Arnon,
which empties itself into the Dead Sea (Numb,
xxi. 24), and passed ovei uu the tribes of Gad and
Reuben. Bashan lay northeast of Sihon (Numb.
xxi. 33). The addition : an officer, &c, means : lust
although this district was perhaps the largest
(probably because of the barrenness of the soil), it
had only one officer. Ewald would insert rniiV
after j'~)N3, which is very incorrect, because in-
stead of twelve officers, according to ver. 7, there
would have been thirteen. The expression in vor.
20: as tli- smul. irhich is by the sea, clearly refers tc
the promise in Gen. xxii. 17: xxxii. 12 For eat
CHAPTER IV. 1-34.
49
iiigand drinking, <£c., comp. 1 Sam. xxx. 16; Prov.
v. 17. One must either add 1J? before ]'-ix (chap.
v. 1) like the parallel passage in 2 Chron. ix. 26, or
bear in mind the 3 from the preceding passage, as
Keil does. Presents, a mild expression for tribute,
as in 2 Sam. viii. 2-6 ; 2 Kings xvii. 3— t.
Vers. 22-25. And Solomon's provision, &e.
Ver. 22. 13 (called "ipn before) is the largest
measure, and contains, according to Josephus, ten
attic medimni [medimnus = nearly twelve gallons.
— E. H.] which Bockh reckons at 19857.7 Paris
cubic inches; however, it seems from exact calcu-
lations made by Thenius (in the Stud. u. Kritik.
1846, s. 73 sq.), that Josephus is wrong,* and that
the measures only contained 10143 Paris cubic
inches According to this, the 30 + 60 measures
•of meal make 171 bushels, from which 28,000
pounds of bread were baked. " If we allow two
pounds of bread to each person, Solomon's court
must have contained 14,000 people" (others com-
pute them at only 10,000), a number which does
not seem too great for the middle period of this
reign. Let us think, for instance, of the great ha-
rem, the numerous servants, the body-guard, &c,
and consider besides, that the families of all the
court officials belonged to it, and that there were
only payments in provisions. " If we take the
flesh of a slaughtered ox to weigh 600 (according
to the calculation of those who understood the mat-
ter), that of a cow 400, and that of a sheep 70
pounds," the total consumption of meat would be
21,000 pounds, that is, one and a half pounds for
each person ; and " this is not reckoning the game
and fowl for the king's table." There are similar
accounts of expenditure at other oriental courts.
"According to an ancient author (Athen. Deipn., iv.
10,, Alexander found on a column at Persepolis a
placard containing an account of the daily con-
sumption at the court of Cyrus ; from this list we
give the following: 1,000 bushels of wheat of dif-
ferent qualities, the same of barley-meal, 400 sheep,
300 lambs, 100 oxen, 30 horses, 30 deer, 400 fat
geese, 100 goslings, 300 pigeons, 600 small birds
of various kinds, 3,750 gallons of wine, 75 gallons
of fresh milk, and the same of sour milk. Besides
this, there was a quantity of maize, that was gath-
ered in single rations for the cattle
Tavernier reckons the number of sheep daily con-
sumed in the seraglio of the Sultan, in his time, at
500, besides a number of fowls, and an immense
quantity of butter and rice " (Philippson ; comp. Ro-
senmuller, A. u. N. Alorgenland, iii. s. 166). For
"IIOIT (comp. Deut. xiv. 5) see Winer, i?.- W.-B., i.
s. 494. D'"lin3 only occurs here, and is variously
interpreted ; Kimchi thinks it means capons ; Ge-
senius, geese; Thenius, guinea-hens: and Ewald,
swans. The splendor of the court is accounted
for by vers. 24 and 25. The extent of Solomon's
dominion is defined according to the two towns
named in vers. 24 and 25. Tiphsah, i. e., Thapsanis,
was " a large and populous town on the west bank
of the Euphrates; it was a place where armies
crossed over that river, and a place for landing ami
shipping wares coming from or going to Babylon
on the Euphrates " (Winer, ii. s. 612). While this
town was the extreme northeasterly point, Gaza in
the Philistines' land, about three miles (nine and a
• Sel below, rbap v. ver. 7.
half or ten Eng.) from the Mediterranean, formed
the extreme southwesterly one. It does not neces-
sarily follow, from the expression: all the region
(land) beyond the river [i. e., west], that our author
dwelt on the east side of the Euphrates and wrote
there (see Intrnd. § 1), as is to be learned from
Ezra iv. 10 sq. ; the expression belonged to the
time of banishment, but was retained after the re-
turn, and, as it seems, without regard to its geo-
graphical signification, just for instance as the
expression Gallia transalpine. Living tinder the
vine and fig tree (2 Kings xviii. 31) describes the
happy and blissful state of peace, but was not,
however, taken from the description of Messiah's
reign (Mic. iv. 4; Zach. iii. 10) (Ewald), but on the
contrary was woven into the latter. From Dan to
Beersheba, boundaries of Palestine north and east
(Judges xx. 1; 1 Sam. iii. 20; 2 Sam. iii. 10).
Vers. 26-28. And Solomon had 40,000 stalls
of horses, &c. In ver. 26 the description of the
court appointments, which had been interrupted by
the remarks in vers. 24 and 25, is continued nilX
:\
are horse-stalls, stables, mangers (Bochart: loculi
in stabulis distincti). According to chap. x. 26, Sol-
omon had 1,400 chariots; each of these was, as
the representations on Egyptian and Assyrian mon-
uments show, drawn by two horses, making 2,800
of these; the remaining 1,200 were reserves, for if
one fell it was usual to attach a third horse (Xeno-
phon, Cyrop., vi. 1-27). D't-'HS does not mean
riders here, but saddle-horses in contrast with har-
nessed horses, as in 2 Sam. i. 6; Ezek. xxvii. 14.
The opinion that Israel lived in peace (ver. 25) be-
cause Solomon had made great warlike prepara-
tions (ver. 26) with which he protected his kingdom
(Thenius, Keil), is quite a wrong one ; the question
is not of war here, but to what the ni"IN refers,
namely, the maintaining of harness- and saddle-
horses, and the expenses of the court. In ver. 27,
therefore, it is again said that the twelve officers
who had to provide for the sustenance of all the
persons in the court, had also to provide for this
great number of horses ; ver. 28 then gives the kind
of provision the latter received, namely, barley
and straw. Oats were not cultivated in the East,
therefore barley was the usual food for horses; the
poorer classes alone used it for bread also (Judges
vii. 13, and Cassel on the place. Comp. Winer, I. s.
410). For L"2"l see Esther viii. 10, 14. The coursers
served to carry " the king's orders to the different
districts " (Thenius). To DBhTiT "IK'S the Sept.,
Vulgate, and Thenius supply as subject: the king,
which is certainly false, for if' Solomon sometimes
changed his residence, he did not travel about with
16.000 horses (ver. 26). According to chap. x. 26,
the horses were placed in different towns, into
which the barley and straw were brought, as Keii
says : " where they (barley and straw) should be,
according as the horses were distributed about."
Vers. 29-30. And God gave Solomon wis-
dom, &c. Hitherto the narrative treats of the
organs by means of which the order and happy
condition of Solomon's kingdom was conditioned,
but now it turns to the head of the realm, the king
himself, and remarks that in him which particularly
distinguished him and qualified him tol-e the ruler,
namely, the wisdom he had received from God.
" While rtO'n denotes more the entire spiritual c^n-
50
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
dition, njlLn designates sharpness of insight, but
in 3^ 2m the ingenium capax is set forth " (The-
nius), the talent to take up and comprehend all, even
the most diversified objects of knowledge. Hence
the addition : as the sand -which is by the sea,
which is a figurative description of an innumerable
multitude (chap. iv. 20; Gen. xli. 49; xxxii. 13;
Ps cxxxix. IS). Luther's translation, a comforted
heart, is wrong. — All the sons of the east, that
is, not only those Arabians distinguished for their
skill in proverbs, but all the tribes living to the
east of Palestine (also the northeast), who were
famous in any branch of knowledge (Jer. xlix. 28 ;
Gen. xxix. 1 ; Numb, xxiii. 7 ; Job i. 3). Opposite
these, in the west, was Egypt, the wisdom of which
was almost proverbial in the ancient world (Isai.
xix. 11; Acts vii. 22; Joseph., Antiq., viii. 2-5;
Herodot., ii. 160). There were no other lands dis-
tinguished for wisdom in Solomon's time; the Greek
learning only commenced 400 years later.
Ter. 31. The sons of Mahol, not the poets
(Luther), for pinD means as appell. dance, round
dance (Ps. xxx. 12 ; cxlix. 3) ; but here it is a pro-
per name. It must remain uncertain whether these
four men were celebrated persons of more ancient
time, or whether they were contemporaries of Solo-
mon ; we have no further information about them.
Ethan and Heman, named in 1 Chron. xv. 17 and
19 among the musicians appointed by David, but
it is scarcely to be supposed that the wisest men
of the time were among them. The headings of
Ps. lxxxviii. and lxxxix. are more likely to refer to
our Heman and Ethan, as they are there called
Ezrahites. All four names are close together 1
Chron. ii. 6: "the sons of Zerah (the sons of Ju-
dah); Zimri, and Ethan, and Calcol, and Dara;"
Grotius and Le Clerc believed them to be iden-
tical with these; as also Movers and Bertheau,
more recently; but even if jmi is the same as
jm , and Ezrach the same as Serach, the difficulty
still remains that Chalcol and Darda are here named
sons of Mahol, and that there is nowhere else any
Intimation of the wisdom of Zerach's sons. The
rabbinical book Seder Olara (ed. Meyer, p. 52 sg.\
alone says of them: "these were prophets that
prophesied in Egypt."
Ver. 32. And he spake three thousand prov-
erbs, &c. Prov. i. 1-6 explains what proverbs are
and what their use is. He spake is as much as:
he originated them. The fixed number, 3,000, cer-
tainly shows that they were written down and col-
lected, possibly only in part, or possibly not at all,
by himself. Unfortunately, the greater number of
these proverbs are lost; for if we admit that all
those in the biblical book of Proverbs were com-
posed by Solomon, yet there are only 915 verses in
".he book, and these are not all proverbs. There
remains still less of the thousand and five songs.
It is doubtful if Canticles be one of those. The
lxxiid and exxviith Psalms have Solomon's name
at the beginning, and there is no real reason to
doubt .1 ic genuineness of the heading; many think
he Brae the author of the exxxiid Psalm; Ewald
thinks he wrote only the iid Psalm.
Ver. ■';.':. He spake of trees, &e. His wisdom
was not only in spiritual, religious, and social mat-
tors, and displayed in doctrine and poetry, but in
natural things, the I ntire kingdoms of plants and
»uimals. Josephus is wrong ir_ sayii'.g that he de-
rived his proverbs (parables) from all these iLingS-
The cedar is the largest, most beautiful, and useful
of trees, and the hyssop the smallest and most in-
significant plant. The hyssop which grows on the
wall is a particular kind of wall-moss (Thenius),
the other hyssop is a stem-formed plant, that grows
to one or two feet high (comp. Winer, R.-W.-B., s.v.).
i The many kinds of beasts mean the whole animal
kingdom, divided according to the manner of mo-
tion: four-footed (nOn3), flying, creeping, and swim-
ming (Gen. vi. 20; vii. 8). This passage can scarcely
mean that Solomon also wrote works on all plants
and animals, but only that he understood these sub-
jects and could " speak " of them. We need not
suppose that such works, because they may have
had no significance for God's kingdom, should not
also have been preserved.
Ver. 34. There came of all people, Sic. The
greatness and extent of Solomon's fame for wisdom
are shown by the fact that he not only continued to
be the type and model of all wisdom to his own peo-
ple ; but is so regarded in the East, even at the
present day. The Koran (Sur. xxvii. 17) praises
him as knowing the languages of men and demons,
of birds and ants ; these all, it says, he could hold
intercourse with. The Turks still possess a work
of seventy folio volumes, which is called the book
of Suleiman, i. e., Solomon. The whole of the wis-
dom and secret learning of the East is connected
with his name. — From all kings, certainly means,
as Thenius maintains, that they sent ambassadors,
who did him homage, or received more certain in-
formation about him ; comp. the narrative, chap. x.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. To represent Solomon's kingdom in its great-
ness and in its prosperous, well-ordered condition,
is the plain design of this entire section, and upon
this account the lists of officers, &c, which in them-
selves are dry, acquire a higher, historical (heilsge-
schichtliche) signification. The period of the judges
was the time of pubiie crudeness in which there was
an absence of order, and of organic unity of the
kingdom. The age of David was that of continuous
wars and battles, in which indeed victory over all
enemies at last came, and with it at the same time
the beginning of a well-ordered condition ; but not
complete peace for the kingdom. This first came
with Solomon's reign (1 Chron. xxii. 8, 9). The
reign of Solomon is the result of all preceding con-
flicts and divine teachings. It is the kingdom of i
Israel in its highest maturity. To represent it aa
such, it needed the authentication which our sec- !
tion supplies, and which in like manner in the
whole history of the kings does not occur again.
At this highest reach this kingdom was, upon the
one side, the fulfilment of the divine promise (Gen.
xxii. 17, and Kxod. iii. 17*/. ; cf. with chap. iv. 20,
ami chap. v. 5), and, upon the other side moreover,
it was itself a promise, an historical prophecy, a
ami ruv fie/Mvruv. As the whole Old Testament
economy in its sensuousness and outwardness points
beyond itself, to the New Testament in its spiritu-
ality and inwardness, so especially is Solomon's
kingdom the type of the Messiah's. What the
former is Kara adpKa, the latter is Kara m-evua.
For the delineation of tho latter, the prophets bor-
rowed words from the delineation of the former ir
CHAPTER IV. 1-34.
51
our section here (Mich. iv. 4; Zach. iii. 10. Cf.
above, on chap. i.).
2. The great expensiveness of Solomon's household
is brought into the closest connection with the hap-
piness, the prosperity and peace of the whole peo-
ple (chap. iv. 20, and v. 5). It is hence an entire
perversion when recent writers sever one passage
from the connection, and cite that expensiveness
among the tilings with which the people under Sol-
omon were burdened, and which by and by had ex-
cited dissatisfaction and restlessness (Ewald, Gesch.
Isr., iii. s. 376; Duncker, Gesch. dts Alterfkums, i. s.
389). In absolute states, namely, in the ancient ori-
ental, the king is the nation in person. The splendor
of the royal household represents the splendor of
the entire people. Far from being a sign of the
oppression of the people, it shows rather their hap-
piness and prosperity. The account does not say:
the king lived in luxury while the people were
poor and felt oppressed, but : as the people, so the
king, and as the king, so the people; both were
satisfied and enjoyed prosperity and peace.
3. The delineation of Solomon's wisdom follows
immediately the delineation of the outward and
material well-being of the kingdom, and shows in
this connection that as Solomon was the repre-
sentative of this well-being, so also from him, in
consequence of special divine endowment, a rich,
higher spiritual life, such as hitherto had not been,
proceeded, and poured itself like a stream over the
whole land (Eccles. xlvii. 14 sq.). " All may be
ready in a given time and people," says Eisenlohr
(das Volk Isr., ii. s. 110), "for a spiritual elevation
and living action, but one only has the mind and
the power for it. Hence we cannot set sufficiently
high the influence of the creative personality of
the highly-gifted king Solomon." And Ewald ob-
serves ( Gesch. Isr., iii. s. 350), " so there was for
the people in this noble time a new age also for
Bcience, poetry, and literature, whose rich fruits
sontinued long after the sensuous wealth and
superabundance which this time brought, together
with the powers of the nation, had melted away."
It was just this high condition of spiritual culture
which procured for the king, and indirectly for the
people, great authority, and which attracted men
from all neighboring lands to hear this " wisdom."
But also in the connection in which the material and
the spiritual well-being of the people are brought
together, there is a reference to the truth that for
the glory of a king there must be something more
than greatness, power, wealth, quiet, or " eating and
drinking and amusements," and that where there
is not spiritual culture and a higher life, where,
for the furtherance of material interests, spiritual
interests are thrust aside or neglected, the thought
of a glorious condition cannot be entertained.
Solomon himself says (Prov. iii. 13, 14): "Happy
is the man that find'eth wisdom, and the man that
getteth understanding. For the merchandise of
it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the
gain thereof than fine gold."
4. The wisdom of the East and of Egypt is not
so much below that of Solomon in its outward cir-
cumference (extensive), as in its most inward, char-
acteristic being (intensive). While the former,
in its deepest ground, rests upon the identification
of the world with God, and at last discharges itself
in pantheism, and, in consequence, is deprived al-
most wholly of the ethical element, this proceeds
from the principle which is expressed in the
words which form the title of Solomon's proverbs :
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of know-
ledge : but fools despise wisdom and instruction '■
(Prov. i. 7; cf. with chap. is. 10). "The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; and the
knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Comp
Umbreit, Commentar uber die Spr. Sal. Einleit., s
1-65.) It rests upon the knowledge of the one
God of heaven and earth, who hath chosen Israel
and made with them a covenant, i. e., has revealed
himself to them through His word, viz., " the Law."
Consequently it is essentially monotheistic, ethical,
and, therefore, practical. It does not exclude the
knowledge of nature, for which Solomon was also
renowned (ver. 13); but the latter is only true and
right when it rests upon the former, and is perme-
ated by it. In so far the wisdom of Solomon stood
unrivalled throughout the whole of the ancient
Orient, and was like an oasis in the desert to which
meu from all the neighboring countries made pil-
grimages, a radiating light which attracted all in-
voluntarily who loved light rather than darkness.
" Only forth from the soil of the spirit watered by
the spring of religious faith can the tree of wisdom
grow strong, and spread out its branches into all
regions of life" (Umbreit, a. a. 0., s. 5). But as
Solomon's kingdom refers generally to that of the
Messiah (see above), so especially does Solomon's
wisdom (monotheistic-legal) point to the wisdom of
Him who is greater than Solomon (xii. 42), who is
the light of the world, and to whom all kings both
from the West and the East shall come, and upon
whom all the heathen shall call (Ps. Ixxii. 10, 11
Isai. lx. 1-3).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Chap. iv. The Kingdom of Solomon a type of
the Messiah's (1) in its greatness and extent; (2) in
its prosperity and peace ; (3) in his wisdom and
knowledge. — Chap. iv. 1 to chap. v. 1. Wt'RT.
Summ. : Fortunate is the government where all
goes orderly. Their eyes shall look around after
the faithful in the land, and pious subjects are
loved and esteemed; but false people and liars,
and those of a perverse heart, who have proud
ways and haughtiness, and who calumniate others
secretly and maliciously, it will not have nor endure
about it, but will clear away and destroy after the
example of David (Ps. ex.). — A well-ordered state
constitution is the condition of the growth and
prosperity of every kingdom ; but all ordinances
aud institutions avail nothing when requisite and
proper persons are wanting for their administra-
tion and execution. To select such, and to entrust
them with different administrative offices, is the
first and most difficult task of a ruler. Happy the
prince to whom God grants the grace to find the
right persons, who can counsel him and deserve his
confidence (Eccles. x. 2-5). — Starke: As a court,
where it is beset with flatterers, backbiters, carous-
el s, Ac, generally goes down, so also it prospers, on
the other hand, when pious servants are there —
Chap. iv. 20. Starke: Not the multitude of a people
causes a scarcity in the land, but the wickedness
an. I avarice of men. — Food and drink and amuse
limit are a gift of God (Eccles. iii. 13), when used
in the fear of God (Eccles. xi. 9) and with thanks-
giving (1 Cor. x. 31 ; Col. iii. 17); but they become
sin when, in the gift, the giver is forgotten, the
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
belly made a god of, and serves the lust of the
flesh. Chap. iv. 21. — Cramer: The kingdom of
Christ is still far greater. He rules from one end
of the sea to the other, from the rising of the sun
unto the going down thereof (Zaeh. ix. 10). All
kings shall call upon Him : all the heathen shall
serve Him (Ps. lxxii. 8-10).
[E. HARWOon: Chap. iv. vers. 4-5. Comp.
1 Chron. xxii. 7-10. David, the man of action;
Solomon, the man of rest. The man of active life
usually las more conspicuous virtues and more
conspicuous faults than the man of rest. David
proposed to build the house — the man of action
was the founder: Solomon carried the plans of
his father into execution. David was the founder :
Solomon the builder.]
Chap. iv. 22. — As, by divine providence and
ordering, there are always different conditions, high
and low, rich and poor, so their manner of life can-
not be the same, but must he conformable to the rank
and position which lias been assigned to every one
by God. The household of a prince who stands at
the head of a great and distinguished people ought
not, indeed, give to the people the bad example of
extravagant show, luxury, and riot; but it must, in
abundance and splendor, surpass every private
establishment, and ought not to appear needy and
impoverished. Ver. 24, 25 (chap. iv. ver. 20). The
Blessings of Peace. (1) Wherein they consist; (2)
to what they oblige. Peace nourishes: disturbance
consumes. Only in peace, not in war, does a
nation attain to well-being, therefore should we
offer prayer and supplication for kings and all in
authority, &c. (1 Tim. ii. 2). Happy the land
where goodness and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other
(Ps. lxxxv. 10). May the eternal God grant us,
during our life, an heart ever joyous, and give us
noble peace ! It must be regarded as an unspeak-
able blessing of God when, under the protection
of a wise and righteous government, every one in
the nation, even the least, can remain in the undis-
turbed possession of his property, and can enjoy the
fruits of his industry in the bosom of his family.
Ver. 29-34. The Wisdom of Solomon. (1) Its
origin, ver. 29 (Prov. ii. 6; Dan. ii. 21, 6); (2) its
greatness (ver. 30 sq.) ; (3) its result (ver. 34). —
Ver. 29. Not every one receives from God an equal
measure of spiritual endowment ; but every one is
obliged, with the gift he has received, to dispose of
it faithfully, and not to allow it to be fallow (Luke
xii. 48; Matt. xxv. 14-29). In the possession of
high spiritual endowment and of much knowledge,
man is in danger of over-estimating himself, of be-
coming proud and haughty, hence the highly-
gifted Solomon himself says : " Trust in the Lord "
&c. (Prov. iii. 5, 6). Not to elevate one's self
above others, but in order to serve them, does God
bestow special gifts of the Spirit (1 Peter iv. 10). —
Ver. 30. Heathen wisdom, great as it may be in
earthly things, understands nothing of divine,
heavenly things, and is therefore far below the
wisdom whose beginning is the fear of the personal,
living God, who has revealed himself in His word.
This wisdom alone yields true, good, and abiding
fruit (Jas. iii. 15, 17). — Ver. 32. All those who
have received special gifts of spirit and understand-
ing, act inexcusably and sin grievously when, in-
stead of giving God the honor, and of appiying
theiu to the good of their fellow-men, they pro-
mote, by doctrine and treatise, forgetfnlness of
God and unbelief, and the love of the world, and
the lusts of the flesh, or gross or retined immorality
(Ecclos. xii. 9; Jer. ix. 23, 24). The glory which is
obtained in the world through bad books, is sham6
and disgrace before Him who demands account of
every idle word. — Ver. 33. Starke: Far better
would it befit lords and princes to find their en-
joyment in study rather than to seek satisfaction
in dramas, plays, and in immoderate drinking. A
man may be able to speak of all possible things,
and, at the same time, be without wisdom, for this
does not consist in varied knowledge and wide-
spread acquirements, but in recognition of the truth
which purifies the heart and sanctifies the will. Ob-
servation and investigation of nature is only of
the right kind, and fraught with blessing, when it
leads to the confession of Ps. civ. 24 ; xcii. 6, 7. —
Mark what the man who was wiser than all the
men of his generation declares as the final result
of all his wisdom and research : It is all vanity I
Fear God, and keep His commandments (Eocles.
i. 2 ; xii. 8, 13). — Ver. 34. To Solomon came from
all nations people to hearken unto his wisdom;
but to Him who is greater than Solomon, the wise
men of to-day will not listen (1 Cor. i. 19-21). —
How many travel over land and sea to seek gold
and silver, but stir neither hand nor foot to find
the wisdom and knowledge of the truth, which
lie close at hand, and are better than gold and sil-
ver (Prov. viii. 11; xxiv. 14; Job xxviii. 18). It
is not enough for a wise prince that his people eat,
drink, and make merry, and dwell in safety, each
one beneath his own vine and fig-tree (chap. iv. 20 ;
v. 5) ; but he aims likewise at this, that spiritual
education, science, and recognition of the truth
should be extended and fostered, for this brings
more consideration than power or wealth.
CHAPTER V. 1-18. 53
THIRD SECTION.
Solomon's buildings.
(Chap. T. [V. 15]-IX. 28.)
A. — Treaty with Hiram in regard to the building of the Temple.
Chap. V. 1-18. [15-32].
I And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon ; ' for he had heard
that they had anointed him king in the room of his father : for Hiram was ever
2, 3 a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how
that David my father could not build a house unto the name of the Lord his
God, for the wars * which were about him on every side, until the Lord put
4 them under the soles of his 3 feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me
5 rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor ovil occurrent. And,
behold, I purpose ' to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the
Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy
6 throne in thy room, he shall build a [the] house unto my name. Now therefore
command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon ; and my servants
shall be with thy servants : and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants ac-
cording to all that thou shalt appoint : for thou knowest that there is not among
us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
7 And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he re-
joiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the Lord ' [Jehovah] this day, which hath
8 given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon,
saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for : and I will do
9 all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My
servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea ; and I will convey
them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause
them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt
10 accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solo-
11 mon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire. And Solomon gave
Hiram twenty thousand measures [cor] of wheat for food to his household, and
twenty measures [cor'] of pure oil : thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.
12 And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was peace
between Hiram and Solomon ; and they two made a league together.
13 And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty
14 thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by
courses : a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home : and Adoni-
15 ram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that
16 bare burdens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains ; besides the
chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work, three thousand and three '
17* hundred, which ruled over the people that wrought in the work. And the
king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed
18 stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's
builders did hew them, and the stonesquarers : so they prepared timber and
stones to build the house.
54
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. — [The Vat. Sept, by omitting the first part of this clause, makes an extraordinary statement: ica't aWrriJv-
Xtpd/l £aa"iAevs Tlipov Tout TTaiiay OUTOU xpicrai Toy iu.W/Auji' aCTi Aavi6 (C. T. A. .
8 Ver. 8. — [The A. V. has here exactly preserved the incongruity of the Heb. of an abstract noun HOPPD , tear, fol
lowed by the personal pronoun DJ1N . The Chald. avoids the difficulty by reading N2~lp s"Qy DTP ]0 = those making
war. It has been suggested that the Heb. might have read originally nDfPEn *L"}/'.
3 Ver. 3. — The k'tib "pj~l is here decidedly to be preferred to the k'ri vJH .— Bahr. [It is also the reading of roan,
M8S., editions, and VV.
1 Ver. 5.— [nij37 "ION 1DX , followed by the infinitive, expresses purpose. Cf. Ex. ii. 14; 2 Sam. xxi. 16.
8 Ter. T. — [The Sept. here read ©cos, not Kupios. Cf. the parallel place 2 Chron. ii. 11, ?N~lw" Tf?X iTiiT .]
* Ver. 11. — [The Sept. enormously multiply this by writing ko.1 cIkoo-i \i\td&as fialS cAatov, so also the Heb. In tha
parallel place. 2 Chron. ii. 9. The Syr. and Arab, still ten times more, by making it twenty thousand cor.
' Ver. 16.— [Cf. 2 Chrou. ii. IT, hlXD &&.
h Ver. 17. — [The Vat. Sept. omits ver. 17 and the first half of 13. Both recensions of the Sept, add to ver. 18, rpem
rrr/.—F. G]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-6. And Hiram king of Tyre, &c. After
the general description of Solomon's government
in the preceding section, the narrative now pro-
ceeds to give an account of his great and impor-
tant undertaking, the building of the Temple
(comp. the parallel account, 2 Chron. ii.). Hiram
is called ElTn in ver. 7 and 19, and D"nn in Chron.,
and Ktpufior twice in Josephus. It is uncertain
whether of these be the original form. According
to 2 Chron. ii. 2, and the present passage also, this
Hiram was the same as he who had sent David
wood to build his house (2 Sam. v. 11). and it is
unnecessary, on the ground of the unreliable chro-
nology of Josephus, to reckon him to be the son of
that Hiram (having his father's name) as Le Clerc,
Thenius, and others do (Antiq., vih. 31 ; comp.
Contr. Apion., i. 18). If, according to Josephus,
the beginning of the building of the Temple, which
took place in the fourth year of Solomon's reign,
occurred in the eleventh year of Hiram, it follows
that the latter must have reigned several years
contemporaneously with David, and may very well
have reigned twenty years more, simultaneously
with Solomon (chap. ix. 10 sq.). — The purpose of
his embassy to Solomon was to congratulate him
on his accession. (The Syriac adds ins Tp3,1 ,
which Thenius, without reason, deems original).
It was evidence that he desired Solomon to con-
tinue in the same friendly relations to him as
David had maintained ; and it was the easier for
Solomon to make that request to him, mentioned
in ver. 6. On vers. 7-9, comp. 2 Sam. viii. 13, and
1 Chron. xxii. 7-11. According to Ewald and
Thenius, nOfTO , ver 3. is equivalent to enemies
(surrounding him); but in Ps. cix. 3, 23D is also
found with the double accusative : they compassed
me about also with words of hatred. Upon atl'P
nin' , see on chap, vi— jji yjg , i. e., an unhappy
event, as, for instance, rebellion, famine, plague,
or other suffering. It appears, from ver. G, that
the part of Lebanon where the best cedars for
building grew, belonged to Phoenicia ; it was on
the northweste-n part of the mountain range
(Robinson, Pnkst, vol. iii. pp. 588-594). The
Sidonians are not the inhabitants of the city of
Sidon simply, but of the entire district to which
that part of Lebanon belonged. They knew how
to hew and prepare wood for building, for they
were skilled in ship-building beyond all other
nations, and built their own houses also of wood
(Schnaase, Gesch. der bildenden Kiinste, i. s. 249).
We see from ver. 8 and chap. vii. 13, that SolomoD
desired cypress-wood, and a Phoenician artisan
besides (comp. 2 Chron. ii. 7, 13).
Vers. 7-8. And it came to pass when Hiram
heard the words of Solomon, Ac. " The king of
Tyre must have been very desirous of remaining on
good terms with Israel, because the land of Israel
was a granary for Phoenicia, and the friendship of
the former was very important to the Phoenician
commercial interests" (Keil). The chronicler adds
to mir (2 Chron. ii. 12), the God of Israel that
made heaven and earth. It does not follow, how-
evbi, as older commentators say, that Hiram ac-
knowledged this God as the only true God, or had
become a proselyte. Polytheism is not exclusive •
it allows each nation to retain its divinity, and re-
cognizes his power, when it thinks it perceives his
workings or his agency and benefactions, without
rejecting the specifically national gods. When Hi-
ram, therefore, names Solomon D^n , because he is
about to build a temple to Jehovah, it is evident
that the idea of wisdom (chap. v. 7), essentially
includes that of religion (fear of God). Cypress
is, indeed, inferior to cedar ; but is also fitted for
buildirg, because "it is not eaten by worms, and
is almost imperishable, as well as very light "
(Winer). According to 2 Chron. ii. lfi, the wood
for building was sent down on rafts (on the Medi-
terranean) to Joppa (i. e., Jaffa, coast-town on the
borders of the tribe of Dan. Josh. xix. 46). Thence
it was conveyed overland to Jerusalem, which is
situated southeast thereof.
Vers. 9-13. And thou shalt .... in giving
food, Ac. Every year, as long as Hiram furnished
building-materials and workmen, he received, for
the sustenance of his court, 20,000 * (cor) measures
* The cor OS . Kopo?) equals the homer, and the homei
was ten times the bath. 20,00l> curs = 200,000 ba'hs. This,
at a rough calculation, amounts to 260,000 hushels = between '
Wane! 90.000 barrels. In liquids, again, 20 eors =200 hatha,
This would amount to about 1,666 or 1,670 gallons of oil.
The computation must be in the rough for obvious reason*.
CHAPTER V. 1-18.
55
of wheat, i. «., by Thenius' reckoning, 38,250 Dres-
den bushels, from Solomon ; also 20 (cor) measures
of oil, )'. e., 100 casks, the cask containing 6
buckets. Pure oil is the finest, not going, after
the usual fashion, through the press, but is obtained
by pounding olives not quite ripo in a mortar (my
Symbolik des Mas. Cult., i. s. 419). The chronicler
does not mention this delivery to the court of
Hiram ; but he gives, in 2 Chron. ii. 10, the re-
ward of the laborers promised in our 6th verse:
" I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut
timber, 20,000 (cor) measures of beaten wheat, and
20,000 (cor) measures of barley, and 20,000 baths
of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil." The narra-
tive here concerns a different thing, and no ono
has a rig-lit, as Thenius, to turn the 20 (cor) mea-
sures of the finest oil, destined for the court, into
20,000 of ordinary quality, and to suppose, with
Bertheau, that the quantity of wine and oil is
added by the chronicler according to his own
whim. " Because the quantity ol the wheat which
Solomon gave Hiram for the use of the court was
as large as that which he delivered for the Sido-
uiau hewers of wood, it does not follow that wo
are justified iu identifying the two accounts"
(Keil). Besides, as Bertheau remarks, it appears
that the account in the Chronicles does not, like our
own, speak of an annual, but only of one delivery.
The one account, as often happens, supplements
the other. The addition, ver. 12, means: Solomon,
by virtue of the wisdom he had received from
God, came to the conclusion that it would be well
to accept Hiram's propositions, and to enter into
terms of friendship with him. Keil also thinks
that the verse refers to the wise use he made of
the working capacities of his subjects, which is re-
ferred in in the following verses, and that this
verse, therefore, leads on to them.
Vers. 1 3-15. And king Solomon raised a levy.
PJJ'1 , strictly adscendere fecit, to take out, to take
away (Ps. cii. 25). All Israel does not mean here
the whole territory, but, as often elsewhere, the
people (chap. i. 20; viii. 65; xii. 16, 20; xiv.
13). In ver. 13 it is expressly said that these
30.000 men were (born) Israelites. Of these,
10,000 were always one month iu service, and free
the two following, when they cultivated their fields
and took care of their houses. For Adoniram, see
chap. iv. 6. — Besides these 30,000 men, who were
not sufficient, there were (ver. 15) 70,000 that bore
burdens, and 80,000 hewers in the mountains.
3Vn is, " according to all Versions, to be understood
of stone-cutters alone, not of wood-cutters (tJese
nius, Ewald). for the (easier) working in wood was
sufficiently provided for by the changing 30,000 la-
borers " (Thenius). The "in3 can be understood only
of Lebanon, from the context, and not, as Bertheau
thinks, of the stone-quarries of the mountains.
The 70+80,000 = 150,000 men (2 Chron. ii. 18)
were not changed, but were in constant service :
they were not Israelites, but, on the contrary;
O'TJ (as the parallel passage alluded to expressly
says), i. e., strangers in the land of Israel; those
as may be seen bv reference to Smith's Dictionary, Amer.
edition. N. Y., 1ST0, vol. iv., article Weights and Mea-
sures. The reader can find some strange etymologies in the
animadversions of Petavius upon Epiphanius' tractate on
WoiphtB and Measures. Epipb., Opera, edit. G. Dindorf.
telpsic, 1S63, vol. iv. p. 95.— E. H.
of the Canaanites that remained when their land
was conquered, and who were made servants
(Judg. i. 27 to 30; Josh. xvi. 10). In contradis-
tiuctioa to these 30,000 Israelites, they are named,
in chap. ix. 21, 13J) DD, i- e., servants (2 Chron.
viii. 7-9). The assertion of Ewald and Distel that
these- 150,000 servants were of the "people of
Israel," and only "came later when the several
uuildings became enlarged," is utterly erroneous. —
The total number of these workmen is great, but
not surprising when we consider those times, when
there was no machinery, and everything had to
be done by the human hand. According to Pliny
(.Hist Nat., xxxvi. 12), 360,000 men had to work
twenty years long at one pyramid (comp. Caliuet
on the place).
Ver. 16. Beside the chief, &c. Thenius.
"literally tho chief of the overseers, and hence the
usual expression, overseer: but there are no sub-
altern overseers mentioned. How great, then,
must the number of these have been, when the
chief overseers numbered several thousands ? The
n?D^L'v D'SVJH as a description of the substantivo
(Vatablus: principes, quiprafecti erant) is properly
connected therewith by the Stat, construct, (comp.
Ewald, § 287 b); so, the chiefs not reckoned, those
who were appointed by (or for) Solomon, and who
oversaw the works." — Chron. gives, instead of the
number 3,300 (chap. ii. 17), 3.600, which Thenius
thinks the right one, and he would have the text
altered accordingly ; but Ewald, on the other hand,
declares our number to be correct, and that of
Chron. wrong. But both numbers are right, as
J. H. Michaelis has proved ; the difference comes
from the different division of the offices of super-
intendence. In chap. ix. 23, 550 D'SSSn "~l"' are
named; these, with the 3,300, make 3,850. The
parallel passage of Chron. (chap. viii. 10) mentions
only 250, which, added to the 3,600, gives the
same number, 3,850. This coincidence cannot be
chance; the number 550 evidently contains the
250, and the 300, by which the 3,600 exceed the
3,300 : 250 of the whole number of overseers were,
as appears from the context in 2 Chron. viii. 10,
native Israelites ; but 300 were foreigners. The
chronicler, however, no doubt includes the latter
among the subaltern overseers (3, 300+ 300=3, 600),
because they were not on the same footing with
the Israelitish overseers.
Vers. 17-18. And the king commanded. The
great stones should be J-ii^p"" i not "weighty"
(Thenius), for that is, of course, understood, nor
" precious " (Keil), for why should the value of
these stones be especially insisted on ? but glorious,
splendid, fine stones (Ps. xxxvi. 8 ; xlv. 9 ; Esth. L
4). It is plainly said here, as in 2 Chron. iii. 3,
that these stones were for the foundation of tho
building, and not, therefore, for the " consolidation
of the Temple structure " (Thenius). Of the latter
kind, which Josephus {Arch., 15, 11, 3) so minutely
describes, the Bible-text makes no mention. The
JV13 ^X are nothing else than the splendid great
stones, which were shaped after being hewn out
of the quarry. Vulgate : ut tollerent lapides ijrandes,
lapides pretiosos, in fundamentum templi et ijtiadra-
rent eos. — The Giblites, ver. 18, are the inhabitants
of ^33 (Josh. xiii. 5), a Phoenician town near tha'
50
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
part of Lebanon, where the largest cedars were
found; i. e., the Byblos of the Greeks. [The
Engl. Vor. has simply for this word, " stone-sq tar-
ers." — E. H.] It appears, from Ezek. xxvii. 9,
that the Giblites were remarkable for their tech-
nical skill in ship-bui'ding especially. Thenius
reads OiSajsi , and translates : " they wreathed the
stones— put a border round them." Robinson
stated (Palest.) that he had found stones carved in
that manner. Bottcher rightly names these con-
jectures " ill-founded." Comp. what Keil, on the
passage, says against them.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. Solomon's undertaking to build a " house " to
the name of Jelwvah was not an arbitrary, self-de-
vised act, nor was it prompted solely through the
wish and will of his father David, but rested upon
a divine decision (v. 5), and, as already shown in the
Introduction, § 3, has its inward, necessary reason
in the development of the Old Testament theocracy.
The assertion that "the thought to build a magniti-
cent temple to Jehovah in Jerusalem proceeded from
the sight of the temple-service of the Phoenicians
and Philistines, and of their ostentatious cultus "
(Duncker, Gesch. des Alt., i. s. 397), is entirely with-
out foundation and contradicts all historical re-
cords. When Stephen, in his discourse before the
Sanhedrin, says: "Solomon built him an house.
But the Most High dwelleth not in temples made
with hands," Ac. (Acts vii. 47), he does not mean in
any way to blame Solomon's undertaking, or to say,
as Lechler supposes (in his Bibelwerk on the place),
the tabernacle was set up at God's will and com-
mand ; but the design of building a temple and the
completion of it is only a human design and a
human performance. For that the Most High
cannot be shut up within a house, Solomon him-
self expressly declared at the consecration of the
Temple (1 Kings viii. 27). Stephen was opposing
rather, from the stand-point of the New Testament.
the stiff-necked, Jewish authorities, who, when
the promised Messiah appeared, and the New-
Covenant was introduced along with Him, rejected
the same, and clung with tenacious unbelief to the
outward sign of the Old Covenant, to the Temple
as the permanent central-point of all divine revela-
tion. The accusation, he would say. that this Jesus
of Nazareth would destroy this holy place, was in
so far correct, as that He certainly had taken away
the Old Covenant, and with it had abolished its
sign and pledge (John ii. 19). For the day of the
New Covenant, the temple at Jerusalem has lost
all significance. For the dwelling of God in the
midst of His people conditioned through natural
desalt, has become transferred into a dwelling in
the midst of the people who are believers in Christ,
to whom the apostle appeals: Ye a^e the temple
of the living God, in you is fulfilled, in truth, the
word spoken once by God unto Israel : I will dwell
in them, and waU in them, and will be their God,
and they shall be my people (2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph.
ii. 21; 1 rel " * 5) To cling now to the Old
Testament temple oi..it by human hands, and to
reject the living temple of the living God. Stephen
pronounces as a striving against the Holy Ghost
(A;ts vii fill.
2. It is one of those significant divine providence*
in which the history of Israel is so rich, that as
in the development of the " sacred history " the
time had come for " the house of the Lord " (or for
for Jehovah), in the land which alone possessed
those means and agencies for the execution of the
undertaking in which Israel was wanting, a king
ruled who entertained a friendly sentiment to-
wards David and Solomon, and was prepared
gladly for every assistance, so that even heathen
nations, whether friendly or conquered, took part
in the building of the house for the God of Israel,
and so contributed indirectly to the glorifying of .
God. It was a setting forth in act of the word:
'• The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is "
(Ps. xxiv. 1); "For the kingdom is the Lord's, and
He is governor among the nations " (Ps. xxii. 28),
and "all the heathen shall serve Him " (Ps. lxxii
11). And as Solomon's kingdom, as the most com-
plete outward kingdom of peace, is frequently,
with the prophets, a type of the Messiah's king-
dom (see above, Historical and Ethical on chap, iv.),
so do they behold, in the participation by the hea-
then in the building of the temple, a type and
prophecy that the Messiah " shall build the tem-
ple of the Lord . . . and that they who are
far off shall come and build in the temple of the
Lord," &c. (Zech. vi. 12-15).
3. " In the very time of their highest earthly
sjilendor the people of God, in respect of worldly
art, pursuit, and skill, were inferior to the neigh
boring Phoenicians" (Gerlach). Solomon had no
one amongst his people who could execute a work
of art such as the temple was to be (v. 6). As to
individual men (1 Cor. vii. 7), so also to nations,
God has distributed divers gifts, powers, and des-
tiny. It was not the office of Israel to exercise
the arts, but to be the bearer of divine revelation,
and to communicate the knowledge of the One liv-
ing and Jfi-holy God to all nations. To this ind
God has chosen this people out of all peoples ; and
their entire mode of life and occupation, yea, their
whole development and history, are closely con
nected with it. To the achievement of this its des
tiny must even other nations serve, with the espe-
cial gifts and powers conferred upon them. High as
the Phoenicians stood above Israel at that time in
technical and artistic accomplishments (cf Duncker,
a. a. 0., s. 317-320), so nevertheless did Israel, not-
withstanding all its sins and errors, excel the Phoe-
nicians in the knowledge of the truth. Distin-
guished as Phoenicia was for its art and commerce,
its religion was the most depraved, and its worship
most crude (Duncker, s. 155 sq.).
[4. The genius of the Jewish people never
achieved anything eminent in plastic art. Skill in
architecture, and in sculpture, and in painting,
seems to have been denied them. Their religion
forbade it, and the hereditary feeling of the race
was one of aversion to all arts of the " graver," to
images and forms cut in stones or upon stone, and
so in their want of appreciation of beauty of form
they were unable to conceive of grand structures ;
and when Solomon's great buildings were under-
taken, the skilled workmen and the artists con-
nected with the work were foreigners. Dr. Pri
dcaux quotes Josephus to this effect {Antiq., Bk
18. c. 7): " When Vitellius governor of Syria wad
going to pass tlnough Juda-a with a Roman army
t.i make war against the Arabians, the chief of
the Jews met him. and earnestly eutteated hiua te
CHAPTER V. 1-18.
0«
lead his army another way ; for they could not
bear the sight of those images which were in the
ensigns under which they marched, they were so
abominated by them. The ensigns therefore, for
the sake of those images in them, were abomina-
tions to the Jews; and by reason of the desola-
tions which were wrought under them by the
Roman armies in conquered countries, they were
called desolating abominations, or abominations
of desolation, and they were never more so than
when under them the Roman armies besieged and
destroyed Jerusalem." Poetic feeling, the power
of song, belonged to the race ; and these, under
God, have impressed themselves upon the heart
of the nations, so that to this day the '"songs of
Zion " arc sung in temples which the Jewish peo-
ple never could have built. — E. H.j
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-5. Solomon's purpose to build a house
to the Lord. |1) The motive. Vers. 3-5. Not
ambition, the love of glory, the love of pomp, but
the divine will, and the charge of his father. In
every weighty undertaking one must examine and
bo assured that it do not proceed from selfish mo-
lives, but is the good, acceptable, and perfect will
of God (Rom. xii. 2). (2) The time, rest, and peace
(ver. 4). A time of peace is the time for building
in general, but especially for building houses of
God, which are a memorial of thanksgiving for
the blessings of peace and prosperity. (3) The
request for assistance, ver. 6. In important un-
dertakings which are agreeable to the will of God,
and propose His honor, we may and should not
hesitate to trust iu Him who directs men's hearts,
like the water-brooks, to ask others for aid and
assistance. — Vers. 1-2. True friends whom parents
have gained, are an invaluable legacy for the chil-
dren, for whom the latter cannot be sufficiently
thankful (Eccles. xxx. 4). To a God-fearing man
like David, if he have many enemies, yet there will
never be wanting those who love him his life long,
and who prize and honor him after his death, even
in his children. — Ver. 3. With every son it should
be his earnest business, and likewise pleasure, to
fulfil the will of his father, and to complete the
good work which he had begun, but could not
carry out. — Ver. 4. When God has granted rest
and peace, health and happiness, prosperity and
blessing, an opportunity is thus at hand to do
something for His great name.— Ver. 5. If it can-
not come into the mind of every one to build a
house of wood and stone unto the Lord, neverthe-
less, every one to whom God has given wife and
children is in condition to vow and to build a
house unto the Lord out of living stones. I and my
house will serve the Lord (Josh. xxiv. 15). — Ver. 5.
RlnitKE: One man needs another; on thisacconnt
cue should always serve and be amiable towards
auoiuer, ministering to his good (1 Pet. iv. 10). —
The superfluity of one must minister to the need
ot the others, in order that hereafter, also, the su-
perfluity of the latter may serve for the wants of
the former (2 Cor. viii. 14). — Israel knew not how
to plan great buildings, especially works of art. but
they did know how to serve the living God. Bet-
ter to live without art than without God in the
world.
Vers. 21-25. The heathen king Hiram: (1)
His rejoicing over Solomon and his undertaking
(2) his praise of the God of Israel ; (3) his willing
ness to help. How far stands this heathen above
so many who call themselves Christians! — Ver. 6.
Wi p.t. Sf.MM : When we see that it goes well with
our neighbor, we should not envy him such pros-
perity, but rather rejoice with him and wish him
good-luck. Since Hiram, although a heathen king,
has done this, how much more does it befit Chris-
tians to act thus towards each other? It proves a
noble heart when a man, free from envy and jeal-
ousy, sincerely praises and thanks God for the
gifts and blessings which He grants to others. —
Starke : AVhen God wishes well to a nation He
bestows upon it godly rulers ; but when He wills
to chastise it he removes them. Hiram praises
God that He bestows upon another people a wise
monarch ; how much more should that people it-
self thank God siuce He bestowed upon it a wise,
viz., a pious king? — Ver. 9. How pleasing it is
when the assistance of those who can help is not
wrung from them, but offered in friendship, and they
are ready and heart-willing to do what lies in their
power (2 Cor. ix. 7).— Wurt. Summ. : No house,
even though it be the church and temple of God,
should be built to the hurt and oppression of one's
fellow-creatures. — Ver. 12. The league between
Solomon and Hiram: (1) Its object : a good, God-
pleasing work begun in the service of God. Like
kings and nations, evon so individual men should
unite only for such purposes. (2) The conditions
of the league : each gave to the other according to
his desire; neither sought to overreach the other:
the compact was based upon honesty and fairness,
not upon cunning and selfishness : only upon such
compacts does the blessing of God rest, for unjust
possessions do not prosper.
Vers. 13-18. The workmen at the temple-
building: (1) Israelites. Solomon acted not like
unto Pharaoh (Ex. ii. 23), he laid no insupporta-
ble burdens upon his people, but permits va-
riety in the work, and Israel itself undertakes it
without murmurs or complaints. How high do
these Israelites stand above so many Christian
communities, who constantly object or murmur
when they are about to undertake any labor for
their temple, or must needs bring a sacrifice
of money or time. (2) Heathen (Ps. xxii. 29 ; vide
Historical ant/ Ethical). Jew and heathen to-
gether must build the temple of God, according to
divine decree — a prophetic anticipation of fact as
set forth Eph. ii. 14, 10-22: iii. 4-6.— Seiler: The
preparations of Solomon must naturally re-
mind us of the far greater preparations and arrange-
ments which God has made for the building of the
spiritual temple of the New Testament. How many
thousand faithful laborers, how many wise and good
men, has he placed in every known part of the
world ; how has he furnished them with wisdom
and many other gifts of the Spirit, so that the great
work of the glorious building may be completed I
. . . 0 Godl do thou still prosper thy work !
Help the faithful workers in thy Church, that they
may enlighten many men to thy glorification, &c. —
RicilTER: Well for us if we serve the true SolomoD
in the preparations for His eternal temple. But
still better is it if wo are ourselves prepared as
living stones to shine forever in the living temple
(1 Pet, ii. 45).
58 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
B. — The accomplishment of the luilding of the Temple.
Chap. VI. 1-38.
1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth1 year after the child-
ren of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's
reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that 3 he began to
2 build the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the house which king Solomon
built for the Lord [Jehovah] the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the
3 breadth thereof twenty cubits' and the height thereof thirty cubits. And the
porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof,
4 according to the breadth of the house ; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof
before the house. And for the house he made windows of narrow lights [with
fixed lattices *].
5 And against the wall of the house he built chambers * round about, against
the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle : and
6 he made chambers round about. The nethermost chamber was five cubits
broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits
broad : for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round
7 about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house. And
the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was
brought thither: " so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of
8 iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle'
chamber teas in the right side of the house : and they went up with winding
9 stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third. So he built
the house, and finished it ; and covered the house with beams and boards of
10 cedar. And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high : and
they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
11/ 12 And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to Solomon, saying, Concerning
this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and exe-
cute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them ; then will I
13 perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father : And I will
dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
14, 15 So Solomon built the house, and finished it. And he built the walls of the
house within with boards of cedar, both [from] the floor of the house, and [unto]
the walls " of the ceiling : and he covered them on the inside with wood, and cov-
16 ered the floor of the house with planks of fir. And he built twenty cubits on the
sides of the house, both [from] the floor and [unto] the walls with boards of
cedar : he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most
17 holy place. And the house, that is, the temple before 10 it, was forty cubits long.
18 And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers : all
19 was cedar; there was no stone seen." And the oracle he prepared in the house
20 within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the ora-
cle in the forepart teas twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and
twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold ; and so
21 covered the altar which was of cedar [overlaid the altar with cedar.13] So Solo-
mon overlaid the house within with pure gold : and he made a partition by the
22 chains of gold before the oracle ; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole
house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house : also the whole
altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.13
23 And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits
24 high. And five cubits teas the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other
wing of the cherub : from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost
25 part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub rows ten cubits: both
26 tht cherubims n; re <>t' one measure and one size [form]. The height of the on*
CHAPTER VI. 1-38. 59
27 cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub. And he set the
cherubims within the inner house : and they stretched forth the wings of the
cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the
other cherub touched the other wall ; and their wings touched one another in
28, 29 the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. And he
carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims
30 and palm trees and open flowers, within and without.14 And the floor of the
house he overlaid with gold, within and without.14
31 And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree : the lintel and
32 side-posts were a fifth part of the wall. The two doors also were of olive tree ; and
he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers,
and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the
33 palm trees.'6 So also made he for the door of the temple posts of olive tree, a
34 fourth part of the wall. And the two doors were of fir tree : the two leaves of
the one door were folding, and the two leaves " of the other door were folding.
35 And he carved thereon cherubims and palm trees and open flowers : and cov-
ered [overlaid] them with gold fitted upon the carved work.
36 And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, and a row of
cedar beams.
37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord [Jehovah]
38 laid, in the month Zif: and in the eleventh year, in the month Bui, which is the
eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and accord-
ing to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. — [The Sept. here read fortieth instead of eightieth— for which there is no authority whatever. In the com-
parison of this date with Acts xiii. 20 it is to be remembered that the best critical editors, following the M8S. X , A, B, C,
etc., adopt the reading which places the words koX fxera ravra after, instead of before, the clause *i* tTt<ny Terpaxoa'on
cat rr€vrrjKoma, bo that the passage has no longer any chronological bearing upon the statement of the text
2 Ver. 1. — [The Vat. Sept. hore interposes the omitted verses 37, IS of the last chapter, and immediately subjoins
verses 87, 88 of the present chapter. In the former verses both recensions have transformed ^2i builder*, into *22t
MM
3 Ver. 2.— [The missing ITQK cubit it supplied in five MSS., the Sept, and Vulg. The Vat Sept. changes the last
dimension to25instead of 80 cubits. The Alex, follows the Heb., which must be right, since all the dimensions are
exactly double those of the tabernacle, the proportions being carefully preserved.
• Ver. 4. — [D'DUN D'Spt? 'J 9P1 ■ The VV. have been much at a loss in translating this expression. The Obuld,
Vulg. (fenestras obliquaa), and Syr., apparently intended to convey the idea of windows like those in the thick wall of a
Gothic structure, or the loop-holes of a fortification, narrow on the outside and spreading within. Such may be the sense
of the A. V. But the meaning given in the Exeg. Com. must be the true one. D'DpC' means only beams, cross-plecea J
and D'Dt3Ki from DpX, to shut close, means closed, and so fixed.
• Ver. 5.— For the k'tib JJiV' the k'rl has in each case JPS' i which Is doubtless right, since the word has here
another than the usual sense (Thenius).— BShr. [Keil considers that the mate, form denotes the whole wing of these stories ;
the/asm. the single story of this wing.
« Ver. 7.-[l"03J J?DD nO^B1 |3K was built of "all unviolated stones of the quarry." Keil.
» Ver. 8.— In place of njj'nn must necessarily be read (c/. ver. 6) rOFirWili as Ezek. xli. 7 stands, and the Tax
gum and the Sept. have read (Bottchor, Ewald, Mere., Thenius).— BShr. [There is no various reading of the Heb. MSS.. and
the construction indicated by the text as it stands Is sufficiently clear: the lower tier of chambers being easily provided for
by doors, nothing is said of the entrance to them ; but there \v;is a winding stairway from the ground, with a door at its
foot leading to the middle chambers, and thence to the third story. Ezek. xli. 7 can hardly be considered as bearing on
the point in question.
• Ver. 11.— [The Vat. Sept. omits here verses 11-14.
9 Ver. 15.— The true reading, according to 2 Chron. iii. 7, is here as in ver. 16 fillip [beams] not JTlVp [walls] (The-
nius, Keil).— Bahr. [Accordingly our author translates by Balken, supported in this by the Sept The emendation of the text
(for which there is no manuscript authority) is required by the author's conception of the construction of the 7D'n as SO
cubits high in the interior. AgainBt this is the fact that the height of the cedar wainscoting in ver. 16 is expressly said
to have been 20 cubltd, and yet no stone was seen (ver. IS). If now a chamber above is supposed, no emendation is neces-
aary here, and verseB 16 and IS become consistent. The wainscoting was carried up 20 cubits to where the ceiling met
the walls, and above this the " walls of the ceiling" or of the room above were left bare. A space of two cubits is thus
left for the windows, and access to the " upper room " may have been had from the porch. 2 Chron. iii. 1 does not decide
this point. In ver. 16 the words " from the celling," are to be supplied from the previous verse. In any case the A. V. n
Qertainly wrong in covering ihejtoor (which was of fir, ver. 15) with cedar.
»• Ver. 1".— The '03^ at the end of ver. 17 is to be understood either adverbially, before (De Wettej, or adjectiviallj
60
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
anterior (Ewald, Keil), unless with Thenius, upon the authority of the Sept., we suppose that "VTl has falien out
" That is the (6o-called) Heehal before the Debir." Upon the figures npon the cedar, ver. 18 sq., see on ver. 29. In vei
19 TjirO is hence to be understood that the Debir was between the Heehal and the side structure. The difficult words
"V^il *JD7T i ver. 20, Thenius will have removed from the text peremptorily, as a gloss placed here from ver. IT
although they are in all MSS. and ancient VV, Keil explains ^JS? , with Kimchi, for the noun D^JD? , occurring alst
in ver. 29=the inner, inward- With I^D i the same gold is designated which in Ex. xxv. 11 sq. is called IlilC , anu
Ul 2 Chron. iii. 8 31D (Vulg.: puristimum). — Bahr.
11 Ver. 18.— [The Vat. Sept. omits ver. 18.
» Ver. 20.— pee Exeg. com.
ls Ver. 22. — [Tl»e Sept. omit the last claUBe of this verse, and throughout this whole description omit many clauses
and modify others.
14 Ver. 29.— [That is in the Holy of Holies, and in the holy place, as the author notes in his translation.
15 Ver. 82. — [The author, In his translation, adds : " and over the open flowers." The Vulg. has et cetera.- -F. G-]
■6 Ver. 84.— Instead of D'VPp muat here necessarily be read, with the Sept., D'JOXi which stands immediately
before. — Bahr.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
The account of Solomon's temple, before us,
together with the continuation in chap. vii. 13-51,
is the oldest, and, at the same time, the most com-
plete in our possession. Hence all knowledge of
this world-historical building must adhere to it
and found itself upon it. Next to it is the parallel
account in 2 Chron. iii., iv., which agrees with it in
all essential particulars, and, as indeed the most
recent criticism acknowledges, comes from an
ancient source, perhaps from the same with our
own here. Although significantly briefer, it gives,
nevertheless, some supplementary details the ac-
curacy of which is undoubted, and which deserve
all consideration. In addition to these two histor-
ical accounts, there is also the delineation in " vi-
sion " of the prophet Ezekiel (chap. xl. sq.), which
indeed is very explicit in respect of the ground-
plan and its measurement. In an earlier period
this delineation was regarded as an essential com-
pletion and explanation of the historical accounts ;
later this was abandoned, because the prophet
himself repeatedly explains it as " a vision " (chap.
xl. 2 ; xliii. 2, 3) ; but most recently it has again
been claimed that " it is a description which, upon
the whole, differs only slightly and immaterially
from the temple before the exile " (Thenius). And
the reason assigned is twofold : the one is the
style of the description, "thoroughly jejune, de-
ficient in all taste, giving single measurements even
to the width of the doors and the strength of the
walls," — the other is the object of it, which was,
according to chap, xliii. 10, 11, that "the temple
(then destroyed) should be rebuilt according to
Ezekiel's model." To this, however, it must be
objected, (a) That the statement of the numbers and
the measure of the foundation, extending itself to
the minutest particulars, instead of taking away
from the description the character of a vision,
rather confirms it. The exact measuring off and
bounding according to definite numbers and mea-
surements is, as has been fully shown in my Sym-
bolik des Mosaischen Kultus (i. s. 127 sq.), the first
requisite for every space and structure which has
an higher, divine destination, and imparts thereto
the impress of the divine. Hence, in the descrip-
tion of all holy places and buildings mentioned in
Bcripture, the measurement and numbers are so
carefully given, and especially in the visions which
concern the one divine edifice, ever first a heavenly
being, a " man with a measuring-chain appears,
who measures off everything" (Ezek. xl. 3, 5;
xlvii. 3 ; Zech. ii. 5 ; Rev. xi. 1 ; xxi. 15). The more
the measuring goes into detail, so much the mora
is the whole pronounced to be out and out divine.
(b) In general it contradicts the being and natux*
of a vision to be nothing more than a pure build-
ing-description or an architectonic direction. But
here, it must be added that it contains phasea
which do not admit of execution in reality, as, e. g.,
the great stream flowing from the temple empty-
ing itself into the Dead Sea (Ezek. xlvii. 1-12). If
the purpose of the entire delineation had been to
serve as a building-direction for the reconstruction
of the temple after the return from the captivity,
it would be inexplicable that it should have been
disregarded as well by Zerubbabel as later by
Herod, (c) As little as the delineation is purely
historical, just as little also is it, as many have
supposed, a mere picture of the fancy. Rather,
" as Ezekiel elsewhere loves the finishing out of
long allegories (see chap. xvi. 23), so also we have
here a very extended symbolical representation
prophetically delivered by him " (Havernick, Com-
mentar, s. 623; cf. Umbreit, Commentar, s. 257).
Certainly it rests upon an historical basis, yet not
upon the temple as originally built by Solomon,
but upon it after many additions and alterations,
as it existed just before the captivity. Yet it is
and must remain a vision, and, as such, it has an
ideal character, from which every effort to sepa-
rate with certainty the historical basis is futile
(comp. Winer, R.- W.-B., ii s. 570). It is abun-
dantly clear that in the inquiry upon the temple
of Solomon, only the most cautious use of Ezekiel's
description should be made, and in no case is a
votum decessivum due it.
Besides the biblical accounts, we have from
antiquity only that of Josephus (Antiq. viii. 3), of
which, however, Le Clerc properly says : templum
cedificat, quale animo conceperat, non quale legerat a
Salomone condilum. As he is not wholly trust-
worthy about the transactions of his own time, he
is still less in matters of antiquity ; particularly
" when he enters upon special descriptions, and
claims to communicate detailed incidents, and mea-
surements of heights and size, we are fully justi-
fied in doubting the accuracy of his statements "
(Robinson's Palestine, voL i. p. 277). In no in-
stance does he deserve confidence when he does
not agree with the biblical accounts, and that
which he adds, as, e. g., the levelling of Moriah and
the surroundijg it with a wall, he did not derive
from good ancient sources. Just as untrustworthy
are the statements of the later rabbins (comp. TaX-
mudischen Traktat Middoth, i. e., Measure, Mai-
monides, Jak. Jehuda Leo, and others), since they
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
61
almost exclusively refer to the temple of Herod,
which was very different from that of Solomon,
and mingle both together, as also with that of
Ezekiel.
The Christian literature respecting our temple
is not insignificant. The older essays, from the
middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the eigh-
teenth century, like those of Villalpando, Lun-
dius, B. Lamy, and others, embrace the Ezekilian
and Herodian temples, without distinguishing
Sharply what belongs to the one or to the other.
From the designs adduced by them, executed in
Greco-Roman style, it is clear that their results
are totally untenable. While, up to a given time,
men believed that they must represent the temple
to have been as grand and splendid as possible, in
the period of the " illumination " (Avfklaruny), they
fell into the opposite extreme, and made it as
small, unsightly, and insignificant as possible
(J. D. Michaelis, Jahn, and others). But subse-
quently there has been a return to the historical,
biblical account, and a simple adherence to it
(Warnekrcs, Bauer, and others). The treatise
composed by Hirt, simply in the interests of
archaeology and art-history (Der Tempel Salomo's
mit drei Kupfertafeln, Berlin, 1S09), gave occasion
to later and more exact researches, in pure archae-
ological and historico-aasthetic interests. Here-
upon followed the Inquiries by J. Fr. Von Meyer
(Bibeldeutungen, 1812, and Blatter fiir hbhere Wahr-
heit, IX. and XI.) ; Stieglitz ( Geschichte der Baukunst.
Nurnberg, 1S27); Gruneisen (Revision d. jungsten
Forschungen iib. den Salom. Tempel. Kunstbl.
1831); Kopp (Der Tempel Salomo's, Stuttgart,
1839, mit Abbild.); Keil (Der Tempel Salomo's.
Dorpat, 1839) ; Kugler (Eunstgesch., Berlin, 1841) ;
Schnaase (Antiq. Bemerk. iiber den Salom. Tempel
in der Gesch. der bild. Kilnste I.. Diisseld. 1843) ;
Romberg and Steeger ( Gesch. der Baukunst. Leip-
zig, 1844) ; Merz (Bemerk. iiber den Tempel Salomo's.
Kunstbl. 1S44) ; my treatise : Der Salom. Tempel mit
Berucksidht. seines Verhaltn. zur heil. Architektur
uberhaupt. Karlsruhe, 1848) ; Thenius (das vor-
exilische Jerusalem u. dessen Tempel, mit Abbild., im
Commentar zu den Biichern der Konige. Leipzig,
1849); Winer (R.-W.-B. Tempel zu Jerusalem.
Leipzig, 1 848) ; Ewald (die heiligen und konig-
lichen Bauten Salomo's in der Gesch. Israels III.
Gottingen, 1853); Unruh (das alte Jerusalem und
seine Bauwerke. Langensalza, 1861) ; Merz (Tempel
zu Jerusalem in Herzogs R. Encyclopddie XV.
Gotha, 1862).
[For the archaeology and topography of the sub-
ject, see also Robinson's Palestine, vol. i. p. 280-
300. Barclay, J. T., The City of the Great King.
Philadelphia, 1858. Walter Merriam Editor, The
Recovery of Jerusalem, &c, by Capt. Wilson, R. E.,
and Capt. Warren, R. E. New York, Appleton &
Co., 1871. Part I. iii-viii. and xii., also Part U.
— E. H.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass in the four hun-
dred and eightieth year, &c. This chronological
statement, the first which occurs in Scripture for
the determination of an entire period, has given
much occupation to the older chronologists, be-
cause it does not agree with the statements of the
rook of the Judges and with Acts xiii. 20. The
Septuagint also has 440 instead of 480. If on«
add together the chronological figures of the book
of the Judges, the result is, for the period of the
judges alone 410 years, to which must be added
65 for Moses and Joshua, 60 for Saul and David,
and 4 for Solomon, so that there are 539 years in
all. According to Acts xiii., the period of the
judges embraced about 450 years ; 65 for Moses
and Joshua, 40 for Saul (ver. 21), 40 for David, and
4 for Solomon reckoned in, would give in all 599
years. Still farther, Josephus, when he speaks
of the building of the temple (Antiq. viii. 3, 1\
instead of 480 gives 592 years; and in two
other places (Antiq. xx. 10 ; Contra Apion. ii. 2)
612 years. Most recently Lepsius and Bunsen
have used the Egyptian and Assyrian chronology
against the number 480, and have sought to prove
at length, that it is to be reduced to some three
hundred and odd years. Finally, Bertheau and
Bottcher maintain, with reference to 1 Chron. vi.
35 sq., where the generations of the high-priests
from Aaron to Ahimaz, a contemporary of David,
are given, the number 480 is the sum-total of
twelve generations, 40 years to the generation
(40x12=480); consequently there is no chrono-
logically exact, but rather a probable, round num-
ber. Uncertain and doubtful, all things considered,
as the statement of the text may seem, we must
nevertheless, with Ewald (Gesch. Israels, ii. s. 462
sq.), Winer (R.-W.-B. ii. s. 327), Thenius (Commen-
tar, s. 56-58), and Rbsch (das Datum des Tempelbauei
im Ersten Buehe der Konige. Studien u. Kritiken,\&SZ,
iv. s. 712-742) adhere to it because, (a) the precision
of the statement is a voucher for its accuracy.
Not only is the whole number of the years given,
but also the year of the reign of the king, even the
month itself; and since after the captivity the
months had other names, in order that the month
itself might not be mistaken for any other, to the
name Zif (if) it is expressly added. " which is the
second month." In all Scripture there is no chro-
nological statement more carefully prepared ; and
hence, if any one can claim authority, it is this.
It is unnecessary, therefore, to correct it by others
more or less vaguely and generally acknowledged,
but we are justified, on the contrary, in consider-
ing it as the standard for the rest. This holds es-
pecially (b) in reference to the chronological figures
of the period of the judges, which are not critic-
ally and historically above all suspicion, and can-
not be added together simply, but must be under-
stood as contemporaneous in part, and standing
side by side, even if it be not demonstrably clear
in how far, and with what particular numbers,
this must be done. Compare the different attempts
at a proof by Keil (Dorptische Beitruge, ii. s. 303 sq.,
and on Judges iii. 7), Tiele (Chronologic des A. T.
s. 84), Werner (Rudelbach's Zeitschrift, 1844, iii. and
1845, i.), and Cassel (Das Buck der Richter im Bi-
belwerk, Einl. s. xvi.). (c) The number 450 (Acta
xiii. 20) is not given as chronologically precise, but
only as approximate (uc), and nothing can be de-
termined by it.* The numbers of the period of
the judges appear simply to be added together in it,
and the 40 years of Eli also (1 Sam. iv. 18) are
computed with it. (d) The statements of Josephus
can all the less be taken into account, since he
contradicts himself, and gives at one time 592, and
* [See on this verse Lachmann's text on the authoritj 0#
A, B, C, which removes the chronological difficulty. Qf
Textual and Grammatical on ver. 1. — E. H-l
62
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
at the other 612. The first number, adopted also
by the Chinese Jews, rests doubtless upon the rab-
binic notion that in the 480 years those only are
to be reckoned in which Israel was under Israel-
itish judges, and that those on the other hand are
to be thrown out (amounting in all to 111), when
the nation was subject to foreign heathen rulers —
480 + 111=591. This conception of the matter is
destitute of all proof. The reason for the number
612 is unknown, (e) The calling in question of
the number 480 upon the ground of the Egyptian
or of the Assyrian chronology, proceeds upon the
assumption that *h:s chronology is assured, which,
it is known,. i3 by no means the case, and which
can only be restored through a series of combina-
tions and of unproved hypotheses. How feebly
the definite statement of our text can be attacked
by it, has been thoroughly and completely shown
by Rosch on the place. (/) The reading of the
Sept. (440 instead of 480) is not supported by any
ancient version or MS., and rests either upon the
confounding of the sign 3=80 with O=40, or upon
some peculiar and even arbitrary reckoning, (g)
The view that 480 is the product of 12 x40, is in-
admissible, because in that event the four years
of Solomon's reign are not in the estimate, and
must be added to the 480 years, while in fact they
are included within them. Had the reckoning been
made according to generations, the author would
have written 484. Apart from this, twelve gene-
rations are supplied us from 1 Chron. vi. only when
Aaron himself, who, according to Exod. vii. 7 ;
Numb, xxxiii. 38 sq., was eighty-three years old at
the time of the departure from Egypt, is taken
into the account. Besides, there is no proof that
in the computation of long periods of time human
age is regularly set down at forty years. As Mo-
ses was 120 years, Aaron 123, Joshua 110, Eli 98,
&c, and generally, a great age was then usual,
the average of human life must certainly be placed
higher than at forty years. Comp. Thenius.
Ver. 2. And the house which king Solomon,
4c. The place where the temple was built, was,
according to 2 Chron. iii. 1, Mount .Moriah (comp.
2 Sam. xxiv. 18 sq.), which our author presupposes
as sufficiently known. [The uneven rock of Mo-
riah had to be levelled, and the inequalities filled by
immense substructions of " great stones," " costly
stones," " hewed stones." Stanley, Jewish Church.
— E. H.] In vers. 2-10 the measurement and sin-
gle portions of the structure are given The mea-
surements are determined according to the cubit,
and indeed the older (2 Chron. iii. 3), which The-
nius reckons at one foot six inches Rhenish, and
one foot four inches Paris, measure [= 1 foot six
inches Eng. measure]. Here, and in all the subse-
quent statements, they refer to the interior spaces.
The component parts of the structure are the
house, the porch, and the "chambers round about"
(Umbau). The first is th« building proper, to
which both others are attached as additional and
subsidiary. The whole was situated according to
the points of the compass. The front, or entrance-
Bide, was towards the east, the rear wall was to-
wards the west, the two sides towards the south
and norlh (1 Kings vii. 39; Ezek. viii. 16), which
also was the position of the tabernacle (Ex. xxvi.
18 sq. ; xxxvi. 33 sq.). The main building, the
ho'ise (JV3n), was built of thick stone walls (vers.
8, 7 and had within two compartments : the front
is called in ver. 3 " the temple of the house "
(JY3n ^D'HJt an(i the rear, in ver. 5, "the oracle"
("I'Tin)- The word ~>yn comes from the Arabic,
to be large, high (2 Chron. iii. 5), hence the front
compartment was " the great house " (ijnan JV3il)
in contradistinction with the rear, which was the
shorter half, and also lower. The Tulg., after Je-
rome, translates the word V3^ by oraculum, i. «.,
oraculi sedes, and the Lex. Cyritti explains the Safiip
of the Sept. by xPWaTl(!T^P"n>- It is, however,
not derived from ~\21 = to speak, but from 13T
in its primary signification = to adjoin, to follow
after (comp. Dietrich in Gesen.), and signifies, also,
simply the compartment in the rear, following upon
the large room. The windows which the house
had (ver. 4), were certainly placed high, where it
overtopped the " chambers round about " (Umbau)
with their three stories. How many windows
there were, whether upon all the four sides of the
house, or only upon three, or only upon the two
length-walls, we do not gather from the text. The
designs of Thenius and Keil place them all around
the house, with the exception of the facade, where
the porch was. Nor is the size of the windows
given, but it is added D'OOX D'SpL", »'• «-, not
" wide within, narrow without " (Luther, after the
Chald.), but " windows with closed beams, i. e.,
windows the lattice of which could not be opened
and shut at pleasure as in ordinary dwelling-
houses, 2 Kings xiii. 17; Dan. vi. 11 " (Keil). The
lattice consisted of strong cross-pieces, and not of
wiekerwork. The window-opening may have been
certainly, according to the account of the Chaldec
and of the rabbins, inasmuch as the walls were
very thick, wider on the inside than on the out-
side, as is the case in the windows of Egyptiar.
buildings, and answers for the purposes of admit-
ting light and air. and of letting off smoke, onlj
there is nothing of it in the words of the text.
Vers. 3— i. And the porch before the temple
of the house, Ac. As the word DP1N comes from
^X i '■ «•! to go before, it signifies also a projection :
but we are not, as in 1 Kings vii. 6, where D'llSJCT
(pillars) is expressly added, to represent it as a
portico or a colonnade. It stretched across the
entire facade of the house, and its length was
equal to the breadth of the house, viz., 20 cubits.
Its breadth, i. e., its depth, measured 10 cubits.
The text does not mention the height, but 2 Chron.
iii. 4 gives it at 120 cubits, which is certainly in-
correct ; for, as Thenius properly remarks, (1) " a
structure of this sort could not have been desig-
nated as an D^X i but must have been called a
^IJO (tower); (2) the chimney -like proportions.
20, 10, 120, are not only inconsistent with (the no-
tion of) the pylon of a temple, but are also stati-
cally impossible. [If it were but 10 cubits (IE
feet) deep, it seems impossible that it could have
been 120 cubits (180 feet) high: and the theory
of Mr. Ferguson that the height refers to a " super
structure on the temple," would make the tenpl»
itself a very grotesque building. See the art,
however, on the Temple in Smith's Dictionary o)
the Bible, vol. iv. New York, 1870.— E. H.] From
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
63
tnese considerations we cannot, with justice, sup-
pose the chronicler to be guilty of arbitrary exag-
geration, but we must rather suspect the text of
corruption, which is all the more probable, since
the verse in question bears even elsewhere marks
of corruption." According to v. Meyer's probable
sonjecture, instead of D'IB'i'l HSD, we should
read: D'X'T JTION, i- «•, 20 cubits (in Ezek. xlii.
16 also, whether the reading be JTON or JVNS is
uncertain). The latter is adopted by the Syr., the
Arab., and the Sept. (Cod. Alexand.). Thenius
and Bertheau maintain, on the other hand, that as
the house was 30 cubits high, the sign 5=30 was
originally in the text, but that through the oblite-
ration of the upper portion of the letter it became
3=20. And certainly, in behalf of the supposi-
tion that it was 30 cubits high, we may urge, in
part, the absence of any statement of the height
in our text, which is the more easily explicable if
the height ot the " porch " and of the temple were
the same, and, in part, the circumstance that the
side-building was 20 cubits high on the outside,
consequently the " porch " would not have been
especially distinctive or prominent had it been of
the same height (Keil). That the " porch " had
thick stone enclosure-walls with a wide entrance
(Thenius), cannot be concluded from the obscure
passage of Ezek. xli. 26 ; still less is the view es-
tablished that each side-wall had a window. To
me it seems that the '• porch " had only side-walls
and a ceiling, but to have been entirely open in
front, so that windows were unnecessary. The
extremely inadequate description of the "porch,"
contrasted with the very careful description of the
house and of both its compartments, can only be
founded in the fact that it did not belong especially,
or as an integral part, to the sanctuary, but was
only a subordinate addition thereto.
Ver. 5. And against the wall of the house
he built, &c. The word jAi^ comes from j)^
sternere, to spread or strew something for a bed,
and means literally stratum, a bed (Ps. lxiii. 6;
Job xvii. 13). Symmachus renders it by Kara-
arpufia. So this building was very properly called,
because it spread itself out against the lower half
of the house 30 cubits high, and, as it were, lay
upon it. jw is gen. com. and stands as collective
masculine in vers. 5 and 10, of the whole of the
side-structure (" chambers "), but it is feminine in
ver. 6, when the single, or three stories of the
same, one over the other, are mentioned (see Gesen.
on the word). The J"IN before JliTp is scarcely the
sign of the accus., " reaching to the walls " (Keil),
but a preposition, and defines more particularly
the preceding -pp — ?)}, as indeed both preposi-
tions elsewhere are synonymous (comp. Ps. iv. 7
with lxvii. 2). If it can mean simply " in connec-
tion with the walls " (Thenius), then the statement
is that (Umbau) " the chambers round about "
were affixed to the waDs. It went round the en-
tire house, so that the two side-walls of the porch
above stood free, and caused the latter to appear all
the more distinctive. The three stories one above
the other of this side-structure (ver. 5), had each
lilDV. •'■ e., literally "ribs" [joists, so Bp. Hors-
ley ot the plac« — E. H.], which can mean nothing
else than that they were "divided by partitions
into distinct compartments " (Merz). It comes to
the same thing when Keil, who rejects " ribs " as
the meaning, translates nevertheless " side-cham
bers." According to Ezek. xli. 6, where, however,
the reading is not entirely certain, the number of
these chambers was 33: according to Josephus,
with whom the moderns agree, there were 30 —
viz., 12 upon each side-wall of the house, and 6
upon the rear-wall. — Ver. 6 states how the entire
side-structure ("chambers round about") were
built into the chief-structure, the house itself.
The wall of the latter had, upon the outside, rests
(nijTUD, literally contractions, lessenings ["for
he placed stays with retractions against the
house." Bp. Horsley. — E. H.]). It was thickest at
the ground, and kept this thickness to the height
of five cubits ; then succeeded a rest (like a settle),
which was one cubit broad. Then again, after an
elevation of five cubits, there was another rest, one
cubit broad ; there was also another rest of like
height and breadth. Upon these rests the ends of
the beams, which served for the ceiling of each
story, were laid, and had in them their support-
The outer wall of the side-structure had no rests,
but was built perpendicularly ; hence, as our verse
states, the uppermost story was one cubit broader
(deeper) than the middle, and the middle again was
one cubit broader than the lowermost. The wall
also of the house must have been very thick below
— at least four cubits, for its thickness above the
side-structure, bearing in mind the rests, amounted
certainly to one cubit. Thenius and Keil place tho
thickness at six cubits, but this seems unnecessary.
The reason given for this mode of construction
is, " that the beams should not be fastened into the walls
of the house," i. e., that the large, costly stones
should remain whole and uninjured (nobc'). that
no holes should be cut into them for the purpose
of inserting the ends of the ceiling-beams. Ver.
7, which is a parenthesis, refers to this, and means
that " all the stone-work had been so prepared in
advance, that in the actual putting up of the build-
ing, stone-cutting was no longer necessary " (The-
nius). According to ver. 8, the entire side-struc-
ture had but one door, which was placed on the
south side : whether in the middle (Thenius) or at
the foremost apartment near the porch (Ewald,
Merz) is uncertain; probably the latter. That a
door within the house opened into the side-struc-
ture, has been erroneously concluded from Ezek.
xli. 5. The walls of the house were nowhere
broken through, and certainly the historical ac-
count knows nothing of such a door. The wind-
ing stairway obviously was within the side-struc-
ture. The word JOT in ver. 8, and in Ezek. xli. 5,
9, 11, is like jflV' in vers. 5 and 10, in the singular,
and stands collectively for the whole of the side-
chambers. — The text says nothing of the perpen-
dicular outside wall of the side-structure. The-
nius appeals to Ezek. xli. 9 for the supposition that
this was a stone-wall five cubits thick. In that
case it would have been as thick as the side-cham-
bers of the lower story were broad (ver. 6) : and
why should the wall of these have been so thick 1
Then, too, the ceiling-beams of these chambers
would, of necessity, have been inserted into tiles'*
walls, which is inconsistent with ver. '. HeDc*
64
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS
it seems to me much more probable that this ex-
terior wall, as indeed the entire side-structure,
which was only subordinate in any event, was
built of cedar. — The text does not state the pur-
pose or design of these "chambers round about."
They served for the preservation of temple uten-
sils and temple stores (Keil), perhaps also of con-
secrated gifts (Ewald) ; but they were scarcely
" expensively furnished bedrooms " (Thenius).
Vers. 9-10. And so he built the house, Ac.
In roofing, the building of the house was ended.
But we must not, as many formerly, and even
Hirt himself now, fancy a gable-roof. The silence
of the text respecting its form allows us to presup-
pose that it was, as with all oriental buildings, a
flat roof furnished with a parapet (comp. Deut.
xxii. 8). J£33=1 is not, with Merz, to be understood
of the wainscoting, but, with Keil, of the roofing,
for the account of the former begins first at ver.
15. D'33 are not planks, as the word for the most
part is translated, but beams, as such were cer-
tainly indispensable for roofing. rh"lb> are scarcely
"hewn cedar-timbers " (Thenius), but boards which
were laid upon the beams. The 0^1X3 refer to
both the preceding. "Without doubt this cedar
covering was overlaid with firm flooring, perhaps
even with stone slabs. Thenius very unnecessa-
rily wishes D'aS to be read for D'nj , and then
suggests " a flat roof vaulting " but in the ancient
Orient there were never any arched roofs. In ver.
10 JJivn is again collective, for, according to it,
not the whole side-structure, but each of its three
stories, was five cubits high inside. The men-
tion of the side-structure here is in reference to
the roofing. While ver. 9 speaks of the roof-
ing of the house, ver. 10 states how it is re-
lated to that of the side-structure. Therefore the
height is again mentioned, with the observation,
" and he fastened the house with timber of cedar."
If Solomon be the subject with the preceding p>l
(Thenius), or JAi^ (Keil), the sense is : the roofing
of the three stories (five cubits high each) of the
side-structure was done with cedar timbers, which,
with their ends, lay upon the rests of the walls of
the temple, and likewise united the side-structure
with the house, thus making it a complete whole.
Entirely false is the translation : he covered the
house with cedar-wood (Gesenius), as if the stone-
walls were overlaid, upon the inside, with cedar,
of which there is nowhere the slightest trace.
That the roof of the side-structure, moreover, was
horizontal, level, like that of the house itself,
scarcely requires mention.
Vers. 11-19. And the word of the Lord
came to Solomon, &c. The interruption of the
description of the temple, by these verses, shows
plainly that what is therein stated took place dur-
ing the progress of the building. From chap. ix.
2, comp. with iii. 5, it is clear that we have to think
not of a revelation of Jehovah, but of a divine
promise communicated through a prophet (per-
haps Nathan), such as happened to David (2 Sam.
vii. 12 sq. and 1 Chron. xxii. 10), to which refer-
ence is made in ver. 12. Solomon thereby obtained
the promise that Jehovah, as He had formerly
dwelt amon j the people in a " tabernacle," for the
sign and pledge of the covenant established with
Israel, would dwell in the house about to be built,
and that the covenant-relation also should con-
tinue, if the king upon his part should keep the
covenant, and walk in the ordinances of Jeho-
vah. Such a promise necessarily encouraged and
strengthened Solomon in his great and difficult
undertaking, as it reminded and urged him to the
performance of his sacred obligations.
Vers. 14-19. So Solomon built the house, 4c
Ver. 14 resumes the description of the building,
which had been interrupted by vers. 11-13, and
which from ver. 15 is applied to its interior. The
overlaying of walls with wood, which again was
covered with metal, and gold in particular, is an
old Oriental custom, extending from Phoenicia to Ju-
dea (comp. Muller, Archaeology, translated by John
Leitch, p. 214 sq. ; Schnaase, Gesch. der bild. Kiinste,
i. s. 160; Weiss, Kostumkunde, i. s. 365). The
covering with gold was not mere gilding, but con-
sisted of thin gold plates (Symb. des Mos. Kultus, i. s.
60). According to 2 Chron. iii. 6, the walls also were
adorned with precious stones, which is credible
enough since these were expressly named amongst
the objects which Solomon obtained in abundance
from Ophir (chap. x. 11), and it was the custom in
the Orient to make use of them in buildings and
utensils (comp. the same, s. 280, 294, 297).— Ver.
16 says explicitly and distinctly that the main
space was separated from the Debir by a cedar
wall ; hence surely it is an error upon the part of
Thenius when, by an appeal to Ezek. xli. 3, he
supposes, in place of this wall, a stone-wall two
cubits thick covered with wood and gold. Even
in the tabernacle of the covenant it was not a
plank- wall (Ex. xxvi. 15), but a curtain merely
(ver. 33) which separated its two divisions from
each other. Even the massively-constructed
Herodian temple had no such wall, of which be-
sides, the Rabbins, according to Josephus (Bell.
Jud. i., 5, 6, 5), knew nothing (Lightfoot, Descrip.
temp. Hieros., chap. xv. 1). The cedar wall, for
the rest, since it reached from the ground to the
beams of the ceiling, must have been thirty cubits
high. The addition "pn EHpS5 to "V3li> shows
the design of the latter, and proves that the
VT1 does not mean oraculum or locutorium, for
had it this signification, its object would havo
been denoted by the word itself, and no explana-
tory addition would have been necessary. — Ac-
cording to vers. 16-20 the two divisions of the
house were of the following dimensions : the
room at the farthest end took off from the entire
length of the building (which was 60 cubits),
twenty, and from its height (30 cubits), twenty.
It was also, as is expressly stated in ver. 20,
twenty cubits long, broad, and high, and conse-
quently was a complete cube in shape. The front
compartment was forty cubits long, twenty broad,
and thirty high. For since its breadth and height
are not given here (ver. 17), it must have had the
breadth and height of the house mentioned above
(ver. 2), otherwise, as in the case of the rear com-
partment, it would have been expressly noticed.
That the front compartment was not only longer,
but higher also, larger generally than the rear, its
name even proves ^o\"] (see above on ver. 2). It
is hence decidedly incorrect when Kurtz and Mere
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
64
suppose that the front compartment was only
twenty cubits high, that over the entire house
there was an upp^i room ten cubits high fitted up
for the conservatioi of the reliques of the taber-
nacle of the coveua tit, and that this room is desig-
nated by what 2 Chron. iii. 9 names nvbjjn, and
which the Sept. renders by to v-epCmv. The
following considerations make against this view:
(1) How could one have reached this supposed
upper chamber ? Not from the side-structure, for
the ceiling of its uppermost story did not reach
to the floor of the supposed " upper room :" the
thick walls of the house, moreover, had no door
above the level of the side-structure. Just as little
could one have reached it from the interior of the
house, for in neither compartment was there a
stairway which led thither : there was no opening
in the ceiling. (2) The windows of the house
(ver. 4) were above the side-structure, which (the
ceilings of the three stories being taken into the
account) was certainly eighteen cubits high: there
remained, therefore, the house being thirty cubits
high, but twelve cubits for the windows. If now
from these twelve cubits, ten are allowed for the
upper room, what space remains for the windows,
which certainly were not very small, and which
were necessary to admit light and air into the
house ? (3) From the extremely abrupt words of
the Chronicles, " And the alioth he covered with
gold," it follows only that alioth (upper chambers)
were somewhere, but not where they were ; and
since the Chronicles in its abbreviated description
says nothing of the entire side-structure with its
stories and chambers, we have at least as much
right, with Griineisen. to suppose the alioth to be
the chambers of the side-structure, as an upper
room extending the length of the whole building,
and which is nowhere else mentioned. The rel-
iques of the tabernacle could easily have been
preserved in the several chambers of the side-
structure. [For the other view, see Art. Temple,
above cited. But our author seems to me to have
fully disposed of this doubtful matter. It would
seem impossible from our author's reasoning that
there should have been a large upper chamber
over the " holy place." — E. H.] If now we must,
according to all the accounts, regard the front
compartment as thirty cubits high, the question
still remains respecting its relation to the rear,
which was but twenty cubits high. Stieglitz and
Griineisen are of the opinion that the rear com-
partment, viewed externally, was ten cubits lower
than the front, which was the case also with
Egyptian temples [and like the chancel in the so-
called Gothic church.— E. H.]. But ver. 2 con-
flicts with this : it gives the height of the entire
house at thirty cubits, and does not limit it to the
front compartment. Apart from all other consid-
erations, we cannot appeal to the adytum of the
Egyptian temples, because it was not connected
with the fore-temple, but was separated from it
by chambers and passages, and was an indepen-
dent structure (Miiller, Archaeology, p. 190 sg.;
Leitch (Germ*_i edit.) s. 258 ; Schnaase, Gesch.
der bild. Eiinste, i. s. 392). Wo miiPt certainly as-
sume that there was a room over the rear com-
partment ten cubits high. Bottcher thinks this
was open in front and only having chains hanging
as its partition (ver. 21); in itself, "very improba-
Me " this (Winer), and besides it is against ver.
16, according to which the cedar wall before the
holy of holies went from the floor to the beams of
the ceiling. Besides, ver. 20 does not say that tha
cedar wall was only twenty cubits high, but onl)
brings into prominence the fact that on all its sides
the holy of holies measured twenty cubits. As
the room in question was inaccessible, Ewald
rightly observes that it " had been left apparently
entirely empty." It had no especial design, and
was what it was simply that the holy of holies
might be a perfect cube. Upon this point more
will be remarked farther on, in respect of the sig-
nificance of the temple. For particular words on
vers. 17-20, see above, Textual and Gram.
Vers. 20-22. And covered the altar, Ac.
And he overlaid the altar with cedar. Thus only
should we translate the concluding words of tha
20th verse, and not, with Le Clerc, J. D. Michaelis,
and others — he overlaid the altar of cedar, namely,
with gold like the rest. Apart from the fact that
rOTO is without the article, and not in the con-
struct, the " gold '' is first mentioned in the con-
cluding words of the 22d verse. There the altar is
more specifically referred to by T3if) - X"X ,
which cannot mean " which belonged to the De-
bir," in the sense that it stood within it; for the
holy of holies was designed only as the receptacle
of the ark of the covenant (ver. 19), and never had
an altar. The altar of incense in the holy place is
meant. Its position was " in front of the curtain "
('JS^i) (Exod. xl. 26), i. e., "before the ark of the
testimony " (Exod. xl. 5), and therewith also " be-
fore Jehovah" (Lev. xvi. 12, 18), enthroned above
the ark. It stood also in special relation to
the Debir. If now this altar were " overlaid "'
with cedar, we are shut up to the supposition that
" the body of it was of stone " (Keil). But this
was the peculiar, distinguishing feature of the altar
of burnt-offering, which was required to be com-
posed of earth or of stones (Exod. xx. 24, 25), and
the framo of which, consequently, was filled with
the same material (comp. Symbol, des Mos. Kult, i.
s. 481, 4S8). The much smaller altar of incense
was a simple frame with a covering, which was
wanting in the altar of burnt-offering (Exod. xxx.
1-3). In distinction with the latter, it is named in
Ezek. xli. 22, "the altar of wood." The body of
it could not have been of stone. These difficulties
disappear only through the translation of the Sept.:
Kal kno'njot dvoiacriipLov nedpov It read also b'V5!
instead of e]X'l, which Thenius holds to be genu-
ine. In that case the absence of the article in
n3TO is explained, as well also as the concluding
observation in ver. 22 : And the whole altar [of
cedar] before the Debir, he overlaid with gold.
The words in ver. 21 are obscure and difficult
"l3y\ (and he made a partition) by the chains
of gold before the oracle (Debir). Thenius is of
opinion that the subject here, viz., rmsrvnN ia
omitted, and then translates, " he hung the cur-
tain before the Debir with gold chains." This
curtain was before the door of the latter, and was
hung in such a manner that it could be moved
this way and that, " by means of golden chainlets
each Tv-ovid«d with an end-ring, UDOn a round stiok
56
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ipon which these rings were made to siide." But
this mysterious chain-work, as Winer names it,
is by no means " forever explained and done
with," by this suggestion. For, according to it,
the chief thing in the text, the mention of the cur-
tain, is wanting. But no MS. nor any ancient ver-
sion names this supposed missing object. And if
any one wish to insert it, then must the words
" and he overlaid it with gold " refer to the cur-
tain; and this is impossible. Besides, the text
says only " with chains," and does not know any-
thing either of end-rings or of round sticks, both
of which are essential, and far more necessary
than the " chainlet " for the sliding, this way and
that, of the curtain. With De Wette, Gesenius,
Ewald, and Merz, -QJ?' is to be translated, he
bolied, as in Chaldaic N"UJ? means a bolt, and for
DrV"l2 , »'■ «•, bolt (Exod. xxvi. 26), the Chaldee has
Till?. But then the question is, what was bolted ?
According to Calmet and others, it was only the
door of the Debir, which had two leaves. But in
that case it would have been necessary to take
away the chains on the day of Atonement — a thing
nowhere hinted at, and in itself highly improba-
ble. Obviously the bolting chains were not a
movable but a fixed contrivance running across
the entire wall. They held together the parts of
the wall made of cedar, like the bolts on the
planks of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi. 26), and
likewise represented the Debir as a barred, closed
room. A further argument for this : mpim
comes from pm , which means to bind, to chain
together, and in Arabic to shut up, and the ex-
pression ]isv the concealed, the closed, is used by
Ezek. (vii. 22) of the holy of holies. The suppo-
sition of v. Meyer and Gruneisen, that there was
in the cedar wall an opening above the door,
which like the capitals of the two brazen columns
was covered (chap. vii. 15 sq. ; 2 Chron. iii. 16)
with a net or lattice-work, is just as untenable as
that the chains served the purpose of decoration
only (Jahn). — In ver. 22 all that had been said
hitherto about the gilding, [done with thin plates
and not with gold-leaf. — E. H.] is again brought
together and emphasized. It is by no means de-
clared by the expression " the whole house," that
the interior of the porch was gilt (Thenius ) : it
refers only to the holy place and to the holy of
holies, since the porch is explicitly distinguished
from the house (Keil).
Vers. 23-28. — And within the oracle (Debir)
he made two chambers, &c. The reason why
olive-wood was used in the construction of these
figures was owing to its firmness and durability.
In Greece it was employed to make images of the
gods (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s. 172). The ety-
mology of the word 21-13 is to this day so vari-
ously stated, that nothing reliable can be gathered
from it respecting the form and shape of the
cherubim. From Exod. xxv. 18 sq. and xxxvii. 7
$q., we gather only thus much — that the cheru-
bim over the ark had two wings, and that their
/aces were opposite each other and directed to-
wards the ark. Nor do we learn anything more
from our text and from 2 Chron. iii. 10-13. It is
only said that each was ten cubits high, and that
each of the wings measured five cubits; that they
itood apon their feet, and that their faces were
turned towards the house, i. e., towards the large
compartment, and also how that those upon thi
ark of the covenant could have had but one face.
Ezekiel, on the other hand, in his vision of the
throne of God and of the temple, gives something
more definite. According to the first and tenth
chapters the cherubim were ni'rt , *■ «., £<•>", living
creatures (not O^pcc, wild beasts) with four wings
and four faces. On the right side the faces were
those of a man and of a lion, on the left those of
a bull and of an eagle. The human element
seems to have preponderated in their form (ver. 5).
But according to chap. xli. 18, the cherubim rep-
resented upon the walls and doors of the temple,
between palm-trees, had but two faces, the one of
a man and the other of a lion. The former were
on the right side and the latter on the left. The
apocalyptic vision of the throne, Rev. iv. 7, in
which the four types of creatures composing the
cherub are separated and stand round the throne,
having six wings each, rests upon that of Ezekiel.
From everything we have, it appears that the
cherub was not a simple but a complex or celiac.'
tive being ; and when he has now one, then twa
then again four faces, or two, or four, or six
wings ; when, too, the four types of which he is
composed are separated side by side, so we gather
still farther that he had no unalterable, fixed form,
but that one element or another was prominent
or subordinate according to circumstances. In
fact, one element might even disappear without
any change in the fundamental idea attaching to
the cherub. This has been questioned warmly by
Riehm recently (De Natura et notione symbolica
Cheruborum. Basil, 1864). He maintains that be-
fore the exile the cherub had a fixed form, viz.,
that of a man standing upright, with wings. The
later description in Ezekiel's vision is a departure
from this characteristic and original form, and, for
the sake of the " throne, chariot " moving towards
the four quarters of the world, gives to the cheru-
bim with it four faces, yet not four component
parts. The three faces added to the original one
hu man face by Ezekiel are borrowed from the
grandest and strongest of creatures whether living
on the earth or in the air. He was induced to do
this probably by the Babylonian grouping to-
gether of animals which he had learned during
the captivity. We remark against this : If any
person, on the one hand, knew well enough the
forms of the cherubim both in the tabernacle and
in the temple, and would, on the other hand, ad-
here firmly to ancestral institutions and to priestly
traditions, that person was Ezekiel, the son of a
priest. How is it possible that this prophet, who was
emphatically warned by the sight of the " images
of the Chaldeans," doubtless mythological (Ezek.
xxiii. 14), portrayed on the walls, should himself
have been induced, by means of these, to alter
completely the sacred cherub-form, and to have
made to it arbitrary and self-appointed additions?
Umbreit (Hesekiel, s. xii.) rightly says: " So far as
the form of the cherubim is concerned, the prophet
has certainly copied the original type of the tem-
ple, the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle
floating in his imagination, with conscientious
fidelity; but in particular instances he has en-
riched the idea by the addition of more complete
features, without changing anything essentially."
The assertion that he gives to the cherub not a
fourfold composition but only four faces, is a mis-
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
67
take, for he gives to him the feet of a bull, the
wings of an eagle, and the hands of a man (Ezek.
1. 6-9) ; and in the passage chap. x. 14, which, in-
deed, in a critical respect is not free from suspi-
cion, the word 3V13 stands for bull, so that many
interpreters think that the bull is the prevailing
element in the composition of the cherub. Besides,
in ever}' living creature the face is the chief thing,
by which in fact it is recognized ; and when Eze-
kiel gives to the cherub four faces, he signifies
thereby that those four types of being unite there-
in. To delineate cherubim is consequently a haz-
ardous business, because the form is not fixed ;
nor as yet is there anything perfectly satisfactory.
The latest, by Thenius (tab. 3, fig. 7), is borrowed,
almost painfully, from Egyptian sculptures. It is
remarkable that the archaeologists are forever
finding the original of the cherub in Egypt, while
neither the sphinx nor any other Egyptian com-
plex creature presents the four types united in the
cherub. On the other hand, Asiatic, and particu-
larly Assyrian, images, exhibit all four together
(comp. Neumann, die Stiftshiilte, s. 68 sq.). Never-
theless the cherub is not a copy of these, but is
the pure and specific product of Hebrew contem-
plation. Upon this, more, farther on. — The words
of ver. 24 state that the four horizontally out-
stretched wings took in the entire breadth of the
Debir (twenty cubits) ; that they also touched on
the right and left, the north and south wall, and
each other in the centre, while it presupposes that
they (i. e., the wings) stood close to each other at
the shoulder-blades. Under the outspread wings
the ark of the covenant was placed, as chap. viii.
6 plainly says; and it is hence an error when
Ewald asserts that the cover of the ark was re-
newed, and in place of the old cherubim, those
massive wooden and gilt were fastened upon it — a
thing impossible, for they stood 10 cubits apart
(ver. 27), while the ark was 3$ cubits long (Exod.
xxv. 10).
Vers. 29-30. — And he carved all the walls
of the house, &c. Comp. ver. 18. Keil and others
understand by nV?pD " basso-relievo," Vulgate
cozlaturoz eminentes, which, however, cannot be es-
tablished by the word itself. For although Jj^p
means to set in motion, to sling (1 Sam. xvii. 40 ;
xxv. 29 ; Jer. x. 18), this signification is not availa-
ble here. But it becomes clear through the fol-
lowing 'nviS from nnB to break open, to open,
then to furrow, to plough (Is. xxviii. 24) ; D'nWS
in Exod. xxviii. 11 ; xxxix. 6, is used for the work
of the graver in stone, and in Exod. xxviii.
36 ; xxxix. 30 of engraving in metal. The
figures, moreover, were not in basso relievo,
but were sunken. 1 Kings vii. 31 cannot avail,
for with reference to the figures upon the flat sur-
face of the "bases," it is said in ver. 36 nriD'"l.
and this agrees with jjjjp , which means in Arabic,
loco dimovit. Most of the figurative representa-
tions upon the old Egyptian monuments were
wrought after this fashion (Thenius). The forms
of the cherubim upon the walls were different
from the colossal figures under which the ark in
the Deb:- rested. According to Ezek. xli. 19, "a
lion-face was towards a palm-tree upon one side,
and a man's face towards the palm-tree on the
other side," so that there was always a cherub
between two palm-trees. These had not four
faces, but assuredly the wings of the eagle and
the feet of the bull were not wanting. We are not
to think of palm-branches (Ewald), nor of palm-
leaves (Luther), but of palm-trees, such as we see
upon ancient coins, and such sb Titus caused to be
struck off, out of the booty from Jerusalem, with
the inscription Judceacapta (Lamy, de Tabernaculo,
p. 783 ; Winer, R- W.-B., i. s. 252). We may, with
the Arabic version, understand by "open flowers,"
lilies, for these certainly belonged to the emblems
of the sanctuary (chap. vii. 19, 22, 26). Ver. 18
names, besides the flowers, D'PpS also, which is
regarded generally as synonymous with nyj3£ , 2
Kings iv. 39, and is translated " coloquinths'' (i. e.,
wild or spring gerkins which burst at the touch)
We should then understand by it: "egg-shaped
decorations like that of our architectonics." (The-
nius, Keil). But the intimate connection with
graven figures in the highest degree significant,
such as cherubim, palm-trees, and lilies, makes
against a wholly meaningless, empty decoration, a
thing not known to oriental sacred architecture
Add to this that in another passage the JIVpE are
described as deadly, a fruit so dangerous and
unwholesome would have suggested just the oppo-
site of that which was represented by the other
symbolical figures. If it were employed simply on
account of its egg-shape, why these " coloquinths,"
since they were not alone round, why not eggs sim-
ply ? The stem Jjps does not mean simply to burst,
but also circumire, in hiphil conglomerare, circuma-
gere, and nj)pD involucrum, glomus, globus, so also
WpD glomus, fasciculus convolutus vel colligatus (Bux-
torf, Lex. Chald. et Talm., p. 1790). In its intimate
connection with D'W ,-1Jt3S > will D'JJpS be takeD
to mean flower-bundles, i. e., buds ; and so the trans-
lation is, budding and blown flowers (flower-work)
Possibly this flower-work had the form of wreaths,
only we can scarcely, with Thenius, translate
,-llt3B=" festoons, garlands of flowers." Whether
the three kinds of graven figures were distributed
in single panels, and such panels were in two or
three rows, one over the other, after the analogy
of Egyptian temples, must be left undecided, owing
to the silence of the text. — Thenius wishes the
" without " of vers. 29 and 30 to be understood of
the porch; but nothing has been said of. the porch
from ver 3, and it would have been necessary
therefore to designate it by a word. According
to ver. 20 D'jaks can be referred only to the De-
bir, and not to the interior of the whole house,
consequently by fixri? the large compartment
must be meant.
Vers. 31-35. And for the entering of the
oracle, &c. The rabbins, whom many interpret-
ers, even to v. Meyer and Stier, follow, translate
the difficult words fPBJBQ ThVXD ^Kil : " the lin-
tel (entablature) of the (or with the) posts, a pen
tagon." The sense would then be : the lintel of
the doors supported two posts abutting one against
68
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
the other, at an angle which, with it, formed a
triangle, and together with the door, a pentagon.
[Thus :
E. H.]
But this is decisively contradicted by that which fol-
lows in ver. 33 of the door of the larger compart-
ment, the corresponding JVJJX1 nXD , which cannot
possibly be translated " out or of a four-cornered,
t. e., a square," but only " out of a fourth." Besides
this, a pentagonal door is without an example in
the ancient East. Bottcher and Thenius translate,
" the entrance-wall with posts of a fifth thickness."
But this is founded upon the wholly erroneous
supposition that the wall before the holy of holies
was two cubits thick (see above, on ver. 16); of
which two cubits, then, the door-posts must have
taken in a fifth. Suppose that p'X here means
the entrance-wall, still JVtSJDn can never be trans-
lated " fifth thickness." " It is in the highest de-
gree surprising that when the thickness of the
entrance-wall door-posts is stated, nothing is said
of the size of the doors themselves " (Keil). Man-
ifestly the text states just this, but still does not
say that from each wall there were five cubits to
the door : for the doors midway, there were ten
cubits remaining (Lightfoot), but the entrance to
the Debir took in, with the posts, a fifth of the
wall, i. e., was four cubits broad.* The entrance to
the chief compartment, on the other hand (ver. 33),
measured one fourth of the wall, was consequently
five cubits broad, and larger than that which
opened into the Debir, which was appropriate
enough for the main entrance. The height of the
two entrances is not given. According to ver. 34
the two wings of the door of entrance into the
holy place were folding leaves, i. e., either they were
longitudinally like leaves bound together, which
could be so folded that it would not be necessary
always to open the whole door-wing (Thenius) ;
or the two leaves were the upper and lower halves
of each door-wing (Keil, Mertz, Ewald) ; probably
the latter. — From the words of ver. 32 : " and
spread gold upon the cherubim," as well as " fitted
upon the carved work " (ver. 35), Thenius con-
cludes that the figures only, both upon the doors
and also the wails of the temple, were over-
laid, so that "they must have contrasted splen-
didly with the brown-red cedar." But this con-
tradicts vers. 20, 30, and especially ver. 22, where
Dn- IV 's expressly added to the " whole house,"
which does not say merely that such gold-over-
* [Mr. T O. Paine {Solomon's Temple, kc, Roston, Geo.
Phlnnoy, l^t'-l) makes the " posts, the floor-posts," to he
meruit, and sayB that they were one-flfth of twenty cubits,
the width of the wall. Each door-post was, according to this
author, six feet wide. Bp. Patrick says: "u fifth" . . .
"may I"' nnderatood to signify that they held the proportion
nf a fifth part <>f the d"Ors" (on the place). But OUT author'e
axpcaltlon is the Letter — E. II.]
laying was partial throughout the house, but that
the interior was completely so overlaid. The very
floor, upon which no figures were carved, was over-
laid with gold ; surely the walls and doors were not
partially so only. The problematical addition in
both verses renders conspicuous the fact that the
overlaying with gold did not cover up the figures
carved upon the wood, but that it was impressed
upon all the elevations and the depressions alike,
and that they could be distinctly seen (Keil). — The
Chronicles mentions, besides the doors (2 Chron
iii. 7), the veil also (iii. 14), the presence of which
is not to be doubted (after Ewald), since the object
of it was not to divide the two compartments, but
rather to cover the ark with the throne (Exod. xL
3, 21), and was an essential feature of the sanc-
tuary. If even the Herodian temple, which did
not contain the ark of the covenant, had never-
theless " the veil of the covering " (Exod. xxxix.
34; xxxv. 12; Matt, xxvii. 51), how much less
would Solomon have dispensed with it. The non-
mention of it in the account now before us has no
more significance than when, in the following
verses, the inner court alone is described, and the
fact of the " outer " court is entirely passed by.
Vers. 3G-3S. And he built the inner court,
&c. This designation presupposes a larger court,
which is mentioned expressly in the Chronicles (2
Chron. iv. 9), and, in distinction from that of "the
priests," is described as " the great court." The
inner court is called, in Jer. xxxvi. 10, the " higher,"
because it lay somewhat above the level of the
court intended for the people. The statements
about the structure of both are singularly meagre.
No one doubts that they were square-shaped
(comp. Exod. xxvii. 9 sq. ; Ez. xl. 47). The words,
" three rows of hewed stones," &c, can refer only to
the enclosing walls. There were three rows of
squared stones, one over the other, and a layer of
cedar. flfTO are certainly not beams properly,
but planks, thick boards, for of what use would
beams have been here? The opinion that up-
right cedar beams, restiug upon the uppermost row
of stones, formed a low palisade, is erroneous
(Merz). The people in the outer court, by such an
arrangement, would have been deprived of a view
of the sanctuary and of the holy offices in the
inner court. It was manifestly but a low enclo-
sure, over which those outside of it could look (2
Chron. vii. 3). The outer court doubtless had stouo
walls surrounding it because, according to 2 Chron.
iv. 9, doors overlaid with brass led into it. Our
account mentions nothing of cells or chambers in
the forecourt spoken of in 2 Kings xxiii. 1 1 ; Jer.
xxxv. 2; xxxvi. 10. But perhaps Solomon built
some of them ; at least they were, according to 1
Chron. xxviii. 12, originally intended. — We can
but offer conjectures about the dimensions of the
courts. " Following the analogy of the taberna-
cle, by doubling the spaces we may estimate the
court of the priests at 200 cubits long from east to
west, and 100 cubits wide from north to south. . .
The outer or great court must have been at least
as large " (Keil). In the temple of Ezekiel, whose
measurements and definitions, especially in the
matter of the courts, are to be regarded as leasl
of all purely historical, both of them are perfect
squares (Ezek. xlii. 15-20; Thenius).— The very
carefully stated length of time for the building of
the u-iuple, given in vers. 37, 3S, was reasonably
CHAPTER VI. 1-38
69
short. ai_d shows with what zeal the work was car-
ried on, especially when we consider that, accord-
ing to Pliny (Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 12), all Asia was
200 years building the temple of Diana at Ephe-
sus. As the month Zif was the second, and the
month Bui the eighth, the time occupied in the
building was about seven and a half years. Whether
in this tli© time also is to be reckoned for the
substructions* which Josephus mentions, and also
for the cutting of the wood, and the hewing of the
stones, is an idle question. If now we cast a
glance over the whole of the description of the tem-
ple, full and explicit as it is in details, it is not
Bufficient to enable us to delineate a complete,
well-assured drawing of it, because, as Winer very
properly remarks, many points which must be
clear in a drawing are passed over without a word,
and others remain more or less uncertain. This is
especially true in respect of outward forms and
architectural style, which, in a drawing, are mat-
ters of supreme importance. Upon this point
scarcely anything more can be said than that the
building ou the whole was " rectilinear, and of
box-form " (Merz). It is certain that the builders,
artists, and workmen who executed it, were all
Phoenicians (chap. v. 6 ; vii. 14), whence it follows
that the style of the building, in so far as the pre-
served ground-plan and design of the tabernacle
was not required by Solomon, was Phoenician.
But since all adequate descriptions of Phoenician
buildings, and all memorials, such as are still ex-
tant in Egypt, are wanting, we know nothing of
the distinguishing peculiarity of Phoenician archi-
tecture, which certainly, since the material em-
ployed was chiefly wood, must have differed es-
sentially from the much later Graeeo-Roman, and
especially from the Egyptian, which made use
exclusively of hard stone (Schnaase, Gesch. der
Hid, Kunste, i. s. 238, 249). The older drawings,
therefore, in GrEeco-Roman style, by Villalpand,
Lundy, Ac, as also the later, in Egyptian style,
by Hirt and Kopp, are wholly unsatisfactory.
Had Solomon wished to build in the Egyptian
style, he would not have summoned Phoenician
workmen, but Egyptian, whom he could have
easily procured from his royal father-in-law. The
most recent drawings by Thenius and Keil (bibl.
Arclmologie) rest upon a careful study of the text,
and are therefore much to be preferred to all the
earlier ones ; but even they, from the considera-
tions already adduced, cannot lay claim in all re-
spects to truth. Strong but not unfounded is the
view of Romberg and Steger (Gesch. der Baukunst,
i. s. 26): "It is just as easy to portray a living
man from a tolerably well preserved skeleton, as
to succeed in copying a building which shall cor-
respond to its reality, when but few and uncertain
remains of its style of architecture are in our pos-
session." Many as are the gaps of the biblical
account in respect of architecture, it nevertheless
contains all which can contribute to the knowl-
edge of the religious ideas upon which the temple
was founded; it serves also to our understanding of
its significance, and this is the chief concern here.
THE SOTEEIO-HISTOEICAL SIGNIFICANCE OP
THE TEMPLE.
1. The unusually careful chronological date
about the building of the temple (vers. 1 and 37,
(• Upon these Bibstructions, see Robinson and "The Ke-
•o»ery of Jerusalem," as above.— E. H.]
38) manifestly places it high above the series of
ordinary events, and proclaims it as an especially
weighty, epoch-making occurrence in the theo-
cratic history (Heilsgeschichte). Comp. Introd. § 3.
This would not have been the case if an architec-
tonic work, or a building giving evidence of powe!
and wealth simply, were concerned. It is its
thoroughly religious character which causes it to
appear as such a momentous transaction, and for
the sake of which it is so circumstantially de-
scribed. The product of theocratic ideas, it is
likewise the expression of them. If the entire
cultus were no idle ceremony, still less could th«
structure, where this cultus became concentrated,
be an empty, meaningless piece of architectural
splendor. All the ancients so foimded, arranged,
and adorned their temples that they were the ex-
pression and the representation of their specific
religious contemplation (comp. Symb. des Mos. KulL,
i. s. 91 sq.). The temple of Solomon would have
been an exception to all the sacred buildings of
high antiquity, had it not been the expression of
the specifically Israelitish, Old Testameut ideas of
religion. Weighty as an inquiry iuto its outward
material may be, the need of investigation and in
formation respecting its religious meaning is much
greater.
2. 77ie significance of the temple as a whole and in
general is sufficiently stated by the builder himself
in the discourse delivered at its solemn consecra-
tion, and in the longer prayer connected with it
(chap. viii. 10-53).
(a) Solomon begins the discourse with the
words, "I have built thee an house to dwell
in (721), a settled place for thee to abide in for-
ever " (1 Kings viii. 13 ; 2 Chron. vi. 2). The
first and most general destination of the temple
was, to be a dwelling-place of Jehovah. But that
this dwelling was not in the remotest degree
connected with the heathenish superstition, that
God stood in need of a shelter, like a man, and
could be confined within a given space, the words
which soon follow demonstrate (ver. 27): "be-
hold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee : how much less this house that 1
have builded." The dwelling of Jehovah with or
in the midst of Israel is rather the immediate re-
sult of the choice of them to be His peculiar and
covenant people, and in a measure coincides with
it. As, according to the Hebrew use of speech in
general, dwelling with any one is as much as to be
bound to, to be in fellowship with (comp. e. g. Ps.
i. 1 ; v. 5 ; cxx. 5), and even the marriage relation
is expressed by " dwelling with " (Gen. xxx. 20 ;
Ezra x. 2, 10; Neh. xiii. 23, 27), so also Jehovah's
dwelling with Israel denotes His connection and
fellowship with this people, and stands in the
closest relation to the " covenant." Comp. Exod.
xxix. 45, 46 : " And they shall know that I am the
Lord their God that brought them forth out of the
land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them."
Lev. xxvi. 12 sq. : "And I will walk among yon,
and will be your God, and ye shall be my people."
So also Ezek. xxxvii. 27. Immediately upon the
"election," and the conclusion of the covenant,
follows the command, Exod. xxv. 8: "And let
them make me a sanctuary; that I nay dweJ
among them." But inasmuch as the Old Testa-
ment covenant relation moves iu the sphere of
bodily, visible forms, so also is Jehovah's dwelling
70
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
local, visible, and requires consequently a dwell-
\ng-place, which can be a tent as well as a temple.
As little as Jehovah, by the choice of Israel from
among all peoples, has ceased to be the God of the
wtiole earth (Exod. xix. 5), just so little has He,
by His dwelling-place in the midst of His people,
ceased to be everywhere in heaven and upon
earth. This dwelling-place does not contain Him ;
He is not banished to a particular place, but in
the place where Israel dwells there He is, and
dwells also in their midst, for " He has not chosen
the people for the sake of the dwelling-place, but
the dwelling-place for the sake of the people "
(2 Maccab. v. 19). So His dwelling-place is the
visible sign and pledge of the covenant relation. The
" dwelling-house " is, as such, the house of the cov-
enant. To this first signification of the house an-
other immediately attaches itself. The dwelling
of Jehovah in a specific place, includes within it-
self the conception of witnessing, and of reveal-
ing himself, in so far as God, where He makes
and declares himself to be known, is and re-
mains, and so dwells. Hence the conceptions of
dwelling and of revealing himself coincide. Jacob
named the place where a revelation was made to
him the house of God, though there was no house
or dwelliug-place there. Subsequently he built an
altar and called the place Beth-el, for " there had
God revealed himself to him" (Gen. xxviii. 12-
19 ; xxxv. 7). By nj'3C' from pE> to dwell, the
Rabbins, as is known, express the highest form of
revelation. Christ says of him to whom He and
the Father reveal themselves, we will " make our
abode with him " (John xiv. 21-23). The place of
the dwelling of Jehovah is eo ipso the place of
divine attestation and revelation, the place where He
will speak with Israel, and declare himself to
him (Exod. xxix. 42 sg.): in the innermost portion
of the dwelling, hence, is the testimonial of the cov-
enant nnj?n , which means simply the witness, and
the dwelling itself consequently is named "the
dwelling (tent) of the testimony " (Numb. ix. 15 ;
xvii. 23 ; xviii. 2).
(6) Solomon repeatedly refers to the design
of the house, according to the word of Jeho-
vah Himself — " that my name might be therein,"
&c, " my name shall be there " (1 Kings viii. 16,
29 ; comp. 2 Chron. vi. 5 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 27). In
other places it is expressed thus : " to put my
name there forever" (1 Kings ix. 3 ; 2 Kings
xxi. 7 ; comp. 1 Kings xi. 36 ; xiv. 21 ; 2 Kings
xxi. 4), or " that my name may dwell there "
(Deut. xii. 11 ; xiv. 23; xvi. 11 ; xxvi. 2 ; Neh. i.
9), or in an abbreviated form, " to (for the) name
of Jehovah" (1 Kings viii. 17-20, 48; Hi. 2; v.
17, 19 ; 2 Sam. vii. 13 ; 1 Chron. xxii. 7, 19 ;
xxviii 3, &c). That the " name of Jehovah " has
the i<ame sense here aa in Exod. xxiii. 21, " for my
namo is iu him " — the angel who leads Israel, that
the formula does not say simply that the house is
built >o the glory of God, or that here God will be
called upon and honored, scarcely needs mention.
The name of God is God himself in 80 far as He
makes himself known, declares and reveals him-
self £"it in His relation to Israel, Jehovah de-
clares himself essentially as the One who is holy
and who will make holy ; that no may be known
as such, is the aim and object of the covenant, the
sign and pledge of which is His dwelling in the
midst of Isnel (1'lxod. xxix. 43-46 ; Liv. xi. 45).
The name of Jehovah is hence essentially th*
" name of Sis holiness " (Le^. xx. 3 ; Pa. xxxiii. 21 ;
ciii. 1 ; cv. 3 ; cvi. 47 ; cxlv. 21 ; Is. lvii. 15 ; Ezelo
xxxix. 7, 25), and that the house was t^ be buiU
to this name, David announced solemnly :efori
all Israel (1 Chron. xxix. 16), "to build to thee ao
house for thy holy name." With this end in view,
the' house is called in the Psalms " the temple of
thy holiness " (Ps. v. 8 ; lxxix. 1 ; cxxxviii. 2) ; ita
two divisions are named simply " holy " and " holy
of holies" (Exod. xxvi. 33; 1 Kings viii. 6, 8), and
the whole, usually, DHpIO (Exod. xxv. 8 ; Lev. xij
4 ; Ps. lxxiv. 7 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 10; Isa. Ixiii. 18,
Ezek. viii. 6 ; ix. 6, &c.) — all of which presupposes
that He who is and dwells here, is before all
things and essentially, holy. So then the house
of the dwelling is not so much in general the
dwelling-place of the divine witnessing and reve-
lation, as of the divine holiness revealing itself in
particular. It is an abode of holiness and of sancti-
fication. Here will Jehovah be known and un-
derstood by Israel as the Holy One and as Sanoti-
fier, and thereby will be hallowed (Exod. xxix. 4i-
46 ; Liv. xx. 3, 7 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 26-28).
(c) In his prayer Solomon says, " hearken thou
to the supplication of thy servant and of thy peo-
ple Israel when they shall pray toward this place:
and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place (1 Kings
viii. 30). So also in the following verses "heaven
thy dwelling-place " is placed repeatedly over-
against " this house " (comp. vers. 34, 39, 43, 49).
This parallelizing of the temple and of heaven ex-
tends through the whole Scripture. Both are
named alike, so that often we can scarcely decide
whether the temple or heaven be meant. TQf
stands for the temple in 1 Kings viii. 13 ; 2 Chron.
vi. 2: for heaven in Isai. Ixiii. 15. r\2V> J13D is
applied to the temple in 1 Kings viii. 13; Exod.
xv. 17, to heaven in 1 Kings viii. 30, 39, 43, 49;
2 Chron. vi. 30, 33; Ps. xxxiii. 14. p5JO=temple
in Ps. lxxvi. 9 ; =: heaven in 2 Chron. xxx. 27 ;
Deut. xxvi. 15 ; Jer. xxv. 30 ; Ps. lxviii. 6. ^yn BHp
= temple in Ps. v. 8 ; lxxix. 1 ; cxxxviii. 2 : =
heaven in Mich. i. 2 sq. ; Hab. ii. 20; Ps. xi. 4;
(cii. 20; xviii. 7; Isai. lvii. 15). The Epistle to
the Hebrews (chap. ix. 24) names the sanctuary
" made with hands," " the figure (antitype) of the
true," viz., of heaven, and the whole comparison
between the high-priesthood of Christ aud the
Levitical is based upon this antitypical relation
between heaven aud the earthly, Old Testament
sanctuary (chap. iv. 14 ; vi. 19, 20 ; viii. 1, 2 ; x.
21), so that v. Gerlach on the place says, with pro-
priety, " the earthly sanctuary is also an image of
heaven itself." When Solomon also at first desig
nates the house he had built as " a settled place "
(for thee to abide in), and then declares heaven to
be the peculiar "place of thy dwelling," he re-
gards the temple itself as a heavenly dwelling-place.
As Jacob named the place where God had de-
clared and revealed himself to him, " the house of
God" and the " gates of heaven " (Gen. xxviii. 17;
so the place where Jehovah dwells and is en
throned must needs appear as a counterpart of
heaven. Not, however, as if the temple were a
copy of the visible heaven, it is rather a symboli-
cal representation which, by its symbols, po.nts to
the peculiar and true dwelling-place of God
CHAPTER VI. 1-3S.
71
heaven itself. The Jewish theology takes cogni-
zance of an upper and a lower dwelling (pCTS)
of God, and lays down this proposition : " The
house of the sanctuary whicli is below (|OC)
is built after the house of the sanctuary which
is above (pyo) " (comp. the places in Schott-
gen, Bor. Bebr., p. 1213). The apocalyptic ciap/i) ro'u
iteov //era tuv avdpu-uv, which are His people and
whose God He is, comes down from heaven, and
has the cube form (four-square) of the holy of
holies of the temple (Rev. xxi. 3, 16).
(d) The widely-spread notion that the temple
(tabernacle) is on the whole and generally "a rep-
resentation of the theocracy of the kingdom of God
in Israel" (Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Keil, and others)
is decidedly erroneous. The " house of dwelling
for Jehovah" is like heaven, before all, a place (1
Kings viii. 13, 29, 35) ; but the theocracy, the king-
dom of God, is not a place, but a divine-human
relation. The dwelling of Jehovah in a house, in
the midst of Israel, is, indeed, the outward Bign
and pledge of this relation, but not a figurative
representation of it, and the conception of "the
dwelling of Jehovah," which expresses the funda-
mental idea of the temple, is in itself in no way
identical with the theocracy or the kingdom of
God. While temple and heaven have the same
names, which would not be possible were there
no parallel relation between them, temple and
kingdom of God, or theocracy, have no one name
in common. The very definite expression in Heb.
ix. 24 comes especially into notice here : according
to it the earthly sanctuary made by hands is by
-no means a "copy of the kingdom of God," but
is the antitype of the true sanctuary, i. e., of
heaven. Just as little as Christ, the high-priest,
by His ascension went into the New Testament
kingdom of God, but into heaven itself, there to
appear before God for us, even so little did the Le-
vitical high-priest, on the day of atonement, go
into the kingdom of God, the theocracy, but into
the earthly sanctuary, which represented the
dwelling-place of God in heaven. There is no
propriety in the appeal to the pattern of the tab-
ernacle whicli was shown to Moses " on the mount "
(Exod. xxv. 9, 40), as if it were heavenly indeed,
but not a figure of heaven itself. For this pattern
was itself only JVJ3n (vrrddeiyfia and onia tuv
inovpaviuv, Heb. viii. 5), and showed to Moses how
he must make and arrange the earthly sanctuary
(to aytov noo/itud); Heb. ix. 1) in order that it might
be a figure of the okt/vt/ y a7.n$T}vfi ov xctpoxoiyroc,
i. e., of heaven, Heb. ix. 11, 24). Christ did not
enter into the " pattern " of the tabernacle, but
into that which this pattern itself represented
(comp. Delitzsch, Comm. zum Bebr. Br., s. 327, 336-
338).
3. The significance of the temple in detail depends
necessarily upon its significance in general, which
is more fully defined and carried out by means of
it. Here especially, above everything else, the
ground-plan, i. e., the formal arrangement, is brought
into consideration. This is like that of the taber-
nacle, the place of winch was occupied by the tem-
ple, yet in so far forth modified and enlarged as
the differenee between the " house " and the " tent "
carried with it. The component parts singly are
us follows.
ia) Tin- house, by its strongly enclosed walls, is
represented as a whole, complete and independ
ent in itself: and this must be well considered,
This whole in the interior is divided into a front
and rear compartment, which are not separated by
a stone wall equally strong, but only by a board
partition, and they are thereby designated as di-
visions of the one " dwelling." Tht object and
meaning of these two divisions, as well as their
relation to each other, are shown by their names.
The whole house is called [."npD, the front division
"holy," the rear division " holy of holies." Con-
sequently the one dwelling of Jehovah, which es-
sentially is the place of revelation and attestation
of the holy and sanctifying God of Israel, has, as
such, two divisions, which, since each bears the
impress of the whole, cannot be two diverse dwell
ings, one by the other ; but only divisions distinct
from each other by way of grade. Divine revela-
tion, in its nature and being, is a matter of degree
— it is gradual, progressive. God is everywhere
and always, but He does not make himself known
everywhere and always, in the same manner. The
heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool
(Matt. v. 34); He has revealed himself of old
through His servants the prophets, but at last
through His Son — the brightness of His glory
(Heb. i. 1 sq.). But especially is the revelation
and attestation of the divine holiness over-against
human depravity, gradual, in so far as the greater
spread and extension of gin demands a higher at-
testation and confirmation of divine holiness, i. e.,
of the sanctifying power of God atoning for sin.
Since now the dwelling of Jehovah amongst His
people was especially the dwelling-place of a self-
revealing holiness, and the entire cultus which
was there concentrated had for its object and aim
the sanetification of the nation (see above, 2. b), so
by means of its two distinct compartments did it
present itself as a complete holy dwelling-place
which was fitted to bring to and to keep in the
consciousness of the people both the sinfulness of
man and the holiness of God. The act of expia-
tion and of purifying to be consummated in the
front compartment, concerned the particular trans-
gressions of individual persons; the act to be con-
summated in the rear and nobler compartment, on
the other hand, concerned the entire nation, and
the transgressions during the entire year. Ordi-
nary priests could attend to the former, the high-
priest alone could perform the latter (Lev. i-v. and
xvi.). — From all this it is clear to satisfaction how
untenable the position of recent writers is when,
with Hengstenberg, they understand the two com-
partments as two distinct dwelling-places, namely,
the holy place as the "abode of the people," and
the holy of holies as " the dwelling-place of God,"
and then explain this " combined dwelling-place "
as a figurative representation of the communion
and fellowship of God with His people, and so
that the "entire sanctuary is a symbol of the
kingdom of God under the old covenant." Noth-
ing can be more clearly and distinctly stated than
that the whole house is one dwelling-place— the
dwelling-place of Jehovah. Jehovah dwells in-
deed amongst His people, but of a dwelling, aide
by side, of God and the people under one roof,
there is nowhere a syllable. As the whole house,
so also each compartment, the holy place and the
holy of holies, are called "the dwelling-place,"
but not the former as the dwelling-place of the
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
people and the latter the dwelling-place of God.
Further, in 1 Kings vi. 5, the holy place, in contra-
distinction with the holy of holies, is called ?yn .
If now the holy place were the abode of the peo-
ple over-against the abode of God, the entire sanc-
tuary, comprehending both compartments, could
not be called n\T ^O'n , or simply p^n , as in 1
T ; - -■ T ••
Sam. i. 9 ; iii. 3 ; 2 Kings xxiv. 13 ; 2 Chrou. iii.
17; Ps. v. 8; still less could this expression be used
of heaven, which is specially the abode of God and
not of the people (Ps. xi. 4 ; xviii. 7 ; xxix. 9 ;
Mich. i. 2 ; Hab. ii. 20).
(b) The porch and the side-structure (Umbau)
with tlie stories are, as has been already shown,
structures in front and by the sides of the house,
which are recognized as such in that, unlike the
house, they did not serve for the performance of
any religious office. They do not therefore belong
essentially to the ground-plan of the sanctuary,
consequently are wanting in the tabernacle, and
have no further religious significance than that
they give to what was hitherto a " tent," the char-
acter of a " house," and indeed of a great, firm,
and strong house, of a palace, in fact. Porches
were never used for tents, but only in the case of
large, conspicuous buildings like palaces, as, e. g.,
Solomon's (1 Kings vii. 6 sq.). If now the house
of a human sovereign had its porch, much less
should one be missing in the house of Jehovah,
the God-King, to distinguish it rightly as an "0<n ,
i. e., a king's palace (Prov. xxx. 28 ; Is. xxxix, 7).
We observe the same in respect of the side-struc-
ture, which, as is expressly remarked, was not to
be included within the house, the main building,
did not belong, as an integrating part, to the dwell-
ing of Jehovah, but which served only for purely
external purposes, the preservation of the vessels,
&c. But like the porch in front, it served, around
the sides of the house, which rose above it, to im-
part the appearance of a grand, richly surrounded,
«.nd lasting building — an po'H .
(c) Tlie fore courts constituted the second essen-
tial element of the entire sanctuary. " The dwell-
ing of Jehovah " is, as observed above, the place
where He " meets" the people, attests himself
unto them, speaks with them, has intercourse with
them. It is called, consequently, also "IJJiO'PnN
(Exoi xxix. 42, 44; xxvii. 21; xl. 22), or "|jnD
Bimply (Lam. ii. 6 ; Ps. lxxiv. 3), i. e., the tent of
assembly, the " tabernacle of the congregation "
(not the time of assembling). The dwelling of Je-
hovah in a given place makes also a space neces-
sary for the people to meet their Lord and God.
Hence tlie command : " thou shalt make the court
of the tabernacle " (Exod. xxvii. 9 ; Sept. : nal
Koii^oeic av7.T)v ttj annvrl). The fore court moreover
was not a dwelling-place of the people in contrast
with that of Jehovah, but only a court, i. e., a fixed
space around the dwelling, " an enclosed gathering-
place for the people drawing nigh to their God "
(Merz). As Jehovah had one dwelling-place only,
the people could meet Him only here, and only
here attend to the covenant relation with Him.
All offices in connection with the covenant could
be performed, hence, only here, not in other favor-
ite spots, not jpon the so-called " heights " (high
places) (Numb. xvii. 1-9). And in order that this
might be the case with the entire people, it was or-
dered that all Israelites, certainly three times in
the year, should appear before the dwelling of Je
hovah (Exod. xxiii. 17; Deut. xvi. 16). This and
nothing more is the object and significance of the
fore court. Hengstenberg is altogether wrong in
maintaining that " the house or dwelling of the
people was properly the holy place," that they
occupied this, "their peculiar dwelling, only
through the medium of their representatives and
middle-men, the priests, and that some actual place
of their own, over and above this ideal place, was
necessary. This the fore court was." Keil, too, is
in error when he explains the fore court as " an
image of the dwelling of Israel in the kingdom of
their God." The holy place was, as already no-
ticed, a compartment in the dwelling-place of Je-
hovah, tlie forepart thereof, but not the dwelling
of the people, and the fore court was not a dwelling-
place at all, neither of the people nor of Jehovah,
was never named such, but was only the assem-
bling-place outside of Jehovah's dwelling, a mere
"court" by way of distinction, and in contrast with
" the house." In that the temple had twc ore'
courts instead of one originally designed, s nc
proof of an alteration of the ground-plan, bjl I
only an enlargement of it, which had its reason La
this : that great buildings, especially royal palaces
in the Orient, were distinguished from ordinary
houses by more forecourts (comp. 1 Kings vii. 1-
12, and Symb. des Mos. Kult, i. s. 241 sq.). Thencr
it happened especially that, near the tabernacle
of the testimony, which stood in the centre of the
Israelitish camp, was appointed the place for the
priestly tribe (Numb. ii. and iii.). This continued
a fixed custom when the " camp " ceased to exist;
it was the tribe especially, which stood "nigh
unto " Jehovah, which effected the intercourse be-
tween Him and the people (Exod. xix. 22 ; Ezek.
xlii. 13 ; Numb. xvi. 5). A fixed limit to the ap-
pointed space was judicious, and even necessary,
since by the ordinances of David individual wor-
ship had greatly increased, and this greatly ex-
panded worship was confined to this one place ;
by these means it became possible to observe cor-
rectly the ordinance, and duly to watch over the
appointed performance of the holy services.
4. The significance of the form and measurement!
of the temple, which stand in the closest relation to
the ground-plan, requires us to conclude therefrom
that they can be explained neither upon the grounds
of outward need and propriety, nor of architect-
onic beauty. If the portion which constitutes the
core and centre of the entire structure, the pecu-
liar dwelling of Jehovah, the holy of holies, have
the form of a perfect cube, as ver. 20 expressly
states, a form characteristic not only of the taber-
nacle, but also of Ezekiel's temple, and of the
apocalyptic ounvh tov &eov (Ezek. xli. 4 ; Rev. xxi
16), a form which appears neither necessary nor
convenient, nor architecturally beautiful, while at
the same time it was unmistakably intentional and
not accidental, it must certainly have some mean-
ing. And if the form of one and that the most
important division of the building were significant,
it is inconsequent and wilful to explain the equally
striking forms and measurements of the remaining
compartments as devoid of meaning. To this we
must add that, although the forms and measure-
ments of a Louse, especially of a palace, are noJ
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
73
those of a tent, Solomon nevertheless adhered as
far as possible to the forms and measurements of
the tabernacle, not only in respect of the holy of
holies, but also of the other portions of the temple ;
and he felt himself obliged thereto, while he sim-
ply doubled them — a sufficient proof that they were
to him corresponding, necessary as well as signifi-
cant for the sanctuary. Besides, in the descriptiou
of nearly all buildings and spaces which, in a nar-
rower or wider sense, were God's dwelling-places,
when apparently weightier matters are passed over,
the measure and disposition, according to size and
number, are presented, and oftentimes when one
least expects it, as, e. g., in the visions of Ezekiel
and of the apocalyptic seer, as we have already
noticed. Vitringa rightly explains the measuring
of a space or of a building as the yvupto/ta, that it
is na-niKTypinv rnv ■Deov. This especially follows
from Rev. xi. 1, 2, where the seer holds a measur-
ing-rod, and is commanded: "measure the temple
of God, and the altar, and them that worship
therein ; but the court which is without the tem-
ple leave out, and measure it not ; for it is given
unto the Gentiles," &c. That which is not meas-
ured is uugodly and profane. — If we turn now to
particular forms and measurements of the temple,
we find them like those of the tabernacle and of
the temple of Ezekiel.
(a) The form of the square, which is adhered to
with palpable rigor, and dominates everything. It
is the form of the forecourts, of the house in whole
and in its parts, also of both altars. Nowhere is
there the form of the triangle (pyramidal) or of
the pentagon, nowhere the form of the circle or
of the half-circle. Even the porch and the side-
structure with its flat roof preserve this square
form. In Ezekiel it is given even to the great cir-
cuit around the temple, and to the holy city and
its domain (Ezek. xlviii. 8-35); so also in John,
in respect of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. xxi.).
From this it follows indisputably that the square
was considered as the appropriate form of every
dwelling-place of Jehovah, and generally of every
sacred space and place, whether tent or house,
altar or city. It is well to bear in mind, also, that
this square appears always to have been adjusted
(oriented) to the points of the compass, and thereby
(inasmuch as this constant arrangement was
neither necessary nor especially convenient), re-
ferred to the proper and original dwelling- and
revelation-place of Jehovah, while the square
shape of the earthly dwelling corresponded with
" the four corners of heaven " — the upper dwell-
ing (Jer. xlix. 36 ; Matt. xxiv. 31 ; corap. Zech. ii.
10 ; vi. 5 ; Ps. xix. 6 ; Job ix. 9). In conformity
with this view, the space which had the throne in
the midst thereof and was the highest place of
Jehovah — dwelling and self-revealing, the holy of
holies — had the most complete form of the square ;
it was a cube. The holy place, on the other
hand, was not a cube but an extended square, but
its length was not wilfully or indefinitely ar-
ranged ; it was double that of the holy of holies,
Bince it served as vestibule to this latter and with
it formed the entire dwelling. The square, as the
ground-form of the temple, has often been ex-
plained as the symbol of regularity, and especially
of firmness and immobility, appeal being made to
Buidas, who says : Terpaywog ■ ivarodijg edpainr
(Grotius, Vilringa, Havernick). This is contra-
dicted from the consideration that not only the
temple, but the tabernacle also, the movable,
wandering sanctuary, had a similar form. It ia
impossible that the latter, the direct opposite of
the former, should set forth the distinguishing
characteristics of the tabernacle over against those
of the temple; the movable can never be the sign
of immobility and permanence. Still less can we
adopt the view of Kurtz and Keil, who regard
the square as " the symbolical form or signature
of the kingdom of God," and its adjustment to
the four points of the compass as an intimation
that this kingdom was designed to comprehend
and include within itself the entire world. The
"dwelling of Jehovah," which is square in its
ground-form, is not the kingdom of God itself, but
a plan to which the form is given which corre-
sponds with heaven, the" peculiar dwelling-place
of God, with its " four corners." Supposing,
moreover, that the temple were " an image of the
kingdom of God under the old covenant," this
covenant was designed only to embrace the people
Israel and not the entire world. This is the scope
of the new covenant. Witsius. to whom one ap-
peals besides, rightly remarks that the atrium sig-
nifies separationem Israelitaruvi a reliquis gentibus.
It is impossible that the same symbol should sig-
nify opposites — the separation of one nation from
all others, and also the comprehending of all na-
tions.
(6) In measurements the number ten dominates.
It marks the entire building, as well as its parts,
be it simply ten or its half, be it doubled or tre-
bled. This was the case with the tabernacle ; but
since the temple, as house or palace, necessarily
required larger dimensions than the tent, so in
place of a simple ten the double-ten or twenty was
employed, and this is the clearest proof of pur-
pose in respect of the number ten. The dwelling
instead of ten cubits is twenty wide, and instead
of thrice ten cubits long is thrice twenty. The
holy of holies measures twice ten cubits upon all
sides, the holy place twice ten cubits doubled in
length, and as the great apartment, three times
ten cubits in height. The porch is twice ten cu-
bits broad and ten deep. The side-structure, »'. e.,
each of its three stories, is in height half ten, that
is, five, and is thereby designated as something
merely subordinate. The cherubim in the holy of
holies are ten cubits high, each of the wings
measures five cubits, " so that there were ten cu-
bits from the end of one wing to that of the other "
(ver. 24). The high altar in the forecourt is ten
cubits high, and twice ten cubits long and broad (2
Chron. iv. 1) : " the bases " [gestuhle, seats] which
belong to it are ten (1 Kings vii. 27). The brazen
sea is ten cubits wide and five high (1 Kings vii.
23). In the holy place are ten candlesticks and also
ten tables, five on the right hand and five on the
left (2 Chron. iv. 7, 8). In the holy of holies the
" ten words " (Exod. xxxiv. 28 ; Dent. iv. 13), which
are named absolutely " the witness " and " the cov-
enant," and which form the root and heart of the
sanctuary, are preserved in the ark (Exod. xxv.
16, 21; xxxiv. 28). Since the dwelling of Jeho-
vah amongst His people is the result, as also the
sign and pledge of the covenant (see above, 1, a)
without doubt the number in the covenant [ten
commandments] dominates the number of the
dwelling-place. That the covenant consists of
ten words has its reason, not, as Grotius supposes,
in the ten fingers of tho hands (to be able to count
74
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
them more easily), but in the significance of the
number ten, which comprises all the cardinal num-
bers and completes them, so that thereby the cov-
enant is designated as a perfect whole, comprising
all the chief words or commandments of God. —
Besides ten, the number three is everywhere con-
spicuous in the building. It is divided into three
sacred spaces (Beiligungs-stdtte), which differ from
each other by way of degree — forecourt, holy place,
holy of holies, with three expiatory objects which
are related to each other, the altar of burnt-offer-
ing, the altar of incense, and the kapporeth (mercy-
seat). The dwelling itself is measured and divided
according to the number three; three times the
doubled ten, i. e., three times its width, is the
measure of its length — the holy of holies being
one-third, and the holy place two-thirds. The lat-
ter, as the large compartment, is three times ten
cubits high, and has three articles of furniture —
candlesticks, the altar of incense, and the table
for shewbread. The forecourt also has three kinds
of articles for use, viz., the altar of burnt-offering,
the stools, and the brazen sea. The side-structure,
finally, has three stories. The reason for this prom-
inence of the number three is not to be sought for
directly in the divine Trinity, for the revelation of
the Trinity belongs to the New Testament. But
in the Old Testament, the number three is the
signature of every true unit complete in itself,
and so, closely resembles ten, with which it is here
frequently connected. What happens thrice is the
genuine once : what is divided into three is a true
unity. The one dwelling, by its division into three
parts, is designated as one complete whole, and
the three kinds of articles of use which are in the
three parts, or in one of them, again form a com-
plete whole, and belong under it to the one or the
other relation. While the number ten gives the
impress of finishing and completing to multiplicity,
the number three is the signature of perfect unity,
and thus also of the divine being. (Comp. Syntb.
des Mos. Kuli., \. s. 175 sq.).
5. The significance of the building material,
since the choice and use of it is determined by
necessity, convenience, greater or lesser artistic
skill, and other outward conditions, is not imme-
diate and direct, but must be recognized in so far
as the material employed in any structure im-
parts to it a certain definite character. In the
tabernacle, wood was employed ; its ceilings were
of leather and hair, it had woven hangings such
as the nature of a " tent " required. But when
the period of the tent was passed, and in the place
of a movable, wandering dwelling, a firm, im-
movable dwelling, a "house," was to be built, in
the construction of it everything must be excluded
which could be a reminder of a mere tent. In
the place of wooden walls consisting of planks ar-
ranged side by side, there were thick stone walls ;
in place of the ceilings and hangings and the like,
there were beams, wainseotings, and doors. The
stones which were used for the walls were not
dried or burned, such as were used in ordinary
houses, but large, sound, costly stones, cine-
shaped (chap. v. 31), such as were used in palo -?s
only (comp. Winer, R.- W.-B., i. s. 466) — and ."e-
hovah's dwelling should be a palace. The wood
was in the highest degree durable, and not liable
*/> decay and corruption, which with the Hebrews
was a sign of impurity, and were, therefore, es-
peciaXy appropriate for the sanctuary, the patten
of the heavenly. The three kinds of wood, cedar
cypress, and olive, before others have the quality
of durability and hardness (comp. Winer, i. s. 215,
238 ; ii. s. 172). Cypress, the least valuable
(Ezek. xxvii. 5, and Havernick on the place), waa
used for the floor, the more valuable cedar waa
used for the beams and wainseotings, the olive,
the noblest and firmest, was used for the en-
trances, and in such way that the entrance to the
holy place had only door-posts, that into the holy
of holies, in addition to such posts, doors also. In
the gold, more than in stone and wood, there is a
more direct reference to the significance of the
building. It was used exclusively only in the in-
terior of the dwelling. In the forecourt there waa
no gold : repeatedly and as emphatically as possi-
ble it is stated that " the whole house " was over-
laid with gold (vers. 21, 22). The vessels of the
dwelling were wholly either of gold or covered
with it, while those of the forecourt were all of
brass. The interior of the dwelling also waa
golden. This was not for the sake of mere osten-
tatious parade, for this gilding could not be seen
from the outside. The people were not allowed
to enter within the dwelling, tliis was the preroga-
tive of the priests ; but into the darkened yet
wholly golden holy of holies, the high-priest alone
could enter once a year. That in the ancient East
a symbolical use was made of the noble metals,
and especially of gold, is a well-known fact (comp.
Symbol, des Mos. Kult., i. s. 272, 282, 295). In
the primitive documents of the persic light reli-
gion, " golden " stands for heavenly, divine. To
the Hebrews, also, gold is the image of the high-
est light, of the light of the sun and the heavens
(Job xxxvii. 21, 22). The apocalyptic ckiivt) tov
ocoii which descends from heaven, is of "pure
gold " (Rev. xxi. 18, 21). God " dwelleth in light "
(1 Tim. vi. 16 ; comp. Ps. civ. 2) is equivalent in
meaning to God dwelleth in heaven ; and if now
His earthly dwelling were all golden, it is thereby
designated as a heaven- and light-dwelling. The
conception of purity in the moral sense of the
word is associated likewise with gold (Job xxiii.
10 ; ilal. iii. 3) ; the golden dwelling is hence also
a pure, i. e.. holy, sanctuary (Ps. xxiv. 3, 4).
6. The significance of the carvings is explained
at once by their form. Upon all the walls of the
dwelling, and even upon the doors, there are three
kinds of carved figures which are always asso-
ciated together — cherubim, palms, and flowers.
Diverse as they may seem, one and the same reli-
gious idea nevertheless lies at the bottom of them,
namely, the idea of life, which is ouly expressed in
them in differing ways.
(a) The cherubim are not actual, but, as is evi-
dent from their component parts, imaginary be-
ings, and this requires no further proof that they
are significant. A Jewish proverb says of their
composition, " four are the highest things in the
world : the lion amongst the wild b&asts, the bull
amongst cattle, the eagle amongst birds, the man
is over all, but God is supreme." (Comp. Spencer,
De Leg. Hebr. Rit, ii. p. 242 ; Schottgen, Bar. Bebr.,
p. 1108.) God, on the other hand, is common to
these four, and the life uniting them, which they
have not of themselves, but from Him who is the
source of all life, the Creator, and hence standa
and is enthroned above them all. Creaturely be-
ing reaches its highest stage in those which lava
an anima, and amongst these animated creat uu
CHAPTER VI. 1-33.
with souls, the four above named agaiu are the
nighest and most complete, the most living as it
were. By their combination in the cherub, he ap-
pears as anima aniinantium, as the complex and
representative of the highest creattirely life.
Upon this account, and this alone, could Ezekiel
name the cherubim absolutely ni'nn , i- e., the
living beings (Ezek. i. 5, 13, 15, 19, 22). He em-
ploys, in fact, the collective -singular n»nn , i. e.,
the living, to denote the unit-life of the four (chap.
x. 14, 15, 17, 20. " This is the living creature that
I saw under the God of Israel, by the river of
Chebar;" comp. chap. i. 20, 21.) So, also, John
names the four ™ fua over-against God to £uvti
elc Tobg aiuvac, to whom, as such, they ascribe
praise, honor, and thanks, because He has made
all things, and all things are and have been created
by His will (Rev. iv. 9-11). In so far as all crea-
turely life is individualized in them, they are the
most direct, immediate evidences of the creative
power and glory, the definite, highest praise
thereof, and they surround the throne of God. In
the fact that they are represented upon all the
walls of the house, does it first rightly acquire the
character of the dwelling of Jehovah, and espe-
cially that of a life-residence testifying to His power
and glory. Hence it is apparent how unsatisfac-
tory the view of Riehm is, that the cherubim are
merely witnesses of the divine presence, and that
they have no other purpose beyond that of over-
shadowing or covering holy places and things.
Certainly this latter was not their design upon the
walls of the dwelling, and if they did nothing
more than bear witness to the presence of God,
how could Ezekiel have ever named them simply
" the living creatures ? " The underlying idea of
the cherub is specifically wholly Israelitish, and is
rooted in the cardinal dogma of God, the creator of
all things, which separates it sharply from all
other pre-christian religions. This idea is com-
pletely destroyed, if, with Riehm, we tear apart
Ihe four types which together constitute the
sherub, and make the cherub simply a man with
wings, and regard the bull and the lion as an ar-
bitrary addition upon the part of Ezekiel, occa-
sioned by his observation of the Babylonian-
heathen combinations of beasts.
(b) Tlie palms to the right and left of the cheru-
bim have a relation to vegetable life, like that of
the cherubim to auimal life. The palm-tree unites
in itself whatsoever there is of great and glorious
in the vegetable kingdom. The tree, first of all,
surpasses all other plants; but amongst trees there
is none so lofty and towering, none of such beau-
tiful majestic growth, so constantly in its verdure,
casting, by its luxuriant foliage, such deep shad-
ows,— while its fruit is said to be the food of the
blessed in Paradise, — as the palm. Its attributes
are so manifold, that men used to number them by
the days in the year. Linnaeus named the palms
"the princes of the vegetable kingdom," and
Humboldt " the noblest of plants to which the na-
tions have accorded the meed of beauty." The
land, moreover, in which Jehovah had His dwell-
ing, the land of promise, was the true and proper
habitat of the palm. Hence, subsequently, the
palm, as the symbol of Palestine, appears upon
coins (comp. Celsius, Bierobotanicon, ii. p. 111-579;
tmy treatise, Der Salom. Temp., s. 120 sq.). The
^w required that at the feast of tabernacles
branches of palm-trees should be at the booths
(Lev. xxiii. 40). They are the known symbols of
salvation, of joy, of peace after victory (Rev. vii
9; 1 Maccab. xiii. 51; 2 Mace. x. 7 ; John xii. 13).
(c) The flower-work finally, in its connection with
the significant representations of cherubim and of
palm-trees, can by no means be regarded as desti-
tute of meaning, as a mere affair of ornamentation.
High antiquity knows nothing in general of
empty decorations, like our so-called egg fillet*
and arabesques. In the ancient temples in par-
ticular, there were no kinds of forms which had
not a religious meaning. From that time down to
our own, flowers and blossoms have been the
usual symbols of life-fulness, and in all language?
the age of the greatest life-fulness has bsen called
its bloom. So then by the flower-work, as by the
cherubim and the palm-trees, by which on all
sides the dwelling of'Jehovah was decorated, wai
it designated as an abode of life. It should not
be left out of mind here, that the Israelitish reli-
gion did not conceive of "life," after the heathen
natural religions, as physical, but essentially aa
moral. The Creator of the world, who as such is
the source of all life, and is the absolutely living,
is to it also the all-holy (Is xliii. 15), who dwells
in the midst of Israel to sanctify the people and
by them to be hallowed (Exod. xxix. 43-46 ; Ezek.
xxxvii. 26-2S). All true divine life is in its nature
an holy life, and hence the symbols of life in the
sanctuary are eo ipso symbols of an holy life. The
cherubim are not merely upon the walls of the
dwelling, but above all in the holy of holies, they
form the throne of the "holy One of Israel," and
they are inseparable from the kapporeth (Exod.
xxv. 19), i. e., from the article of furniture where
the highest and most embracing expiatory or
sanctification rite is consummated. In the apoca-
lyptic vision, the four living beings stand around
the throne, and day and night they say, " Holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty " (Rev. iv. 8), like
the seraphim in Isai. vi. 2 sq. As the righteous
who lead an holy life are compared generally with
trees which perpetually flourish and bring forth
fruit (Ps. i. 3 ; Jer. xvii. 8 ; Isa. lxi. 3), so es-
pecially with palm-trees, with an unmistakable
reference to the palms " which are planted in the
house of the Lord" (Ps. xcii. 12-15; comp. Ezek.
xlvii. 12 ; Rev. xxii. 2 ; Ps. lii. 8). So also are
blossoms and flowers, especially lilies, symbols of
righteousness and holiness (Eccl. xxxix. 13). So
also the plate worn upon the forehead of the high-
priest, with the inscription, " Holiness unto the
Lord," was called simply fV, i- e., flower (Exod.
xxviii. 36). The budding of Aaron's rod was the
sign of an holy estate (Numb. xvii. 10). The
crown of life (Rev. ii. 10) is likewise the crown of
righteousness (2 Tim. iv. 8). If now the three
kinds of figures are represented upon the gold
with which the dwelling was overlaid, the two
conceptions of light and life, the correlatives of
the conception of revelation (Ps. xxxvi. 9; John i.
4; viii. 12), are symbolically united. But the
conception of revelation recurs with that of the
dwelling (see above, under 2. a). The seat of the
dwelling and of revelatior is necessarily, in its na-
ture, a seat of light and liie.
(d) The statues of the cherubim in the holy cf
holies were not in the tabernacle and we are au
thorized to suppose that the reason of this is to b«
76
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
found in the relation of the temple to the taber-
nacle. Their design is stated in 1 Kings viii. 6, 7 :
" And the priests brought in the ark of the cov-
enant of the Lord uuto his place, into the oracle of
the house, to the most holy place, even under the
wings of the cherubims. For the cherubims
spread forth their two wings over the place of the
ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the
staves thereof above." It is also remarked in 2
Chron. iii. 13: "and they stood on their feet,"
which would have been in the highest degree su-
perfluous, if it were not meant by this expression
that they were firm and immovable, like D'llBJh
i. e., pillars. The ark of the covenant with the kap-
poreth and the cherubim then placed there, like
its "slaves," — the evidences of mobility and trans-
port show, — was a movable, wandering throne,
just as the entire dwelling was a transportable
tent. As the peculiar original pledge of the cov-
enant, it was not, when the house was built,
made anew, but it was taken from the tent and
lodged within the house, that it might forever
have its abiding-place and cease to be transport-
able. To this end it was placed under the fixed,
immovable cherubim, whose wings completely cov-
ered it, covering the "staves," the very witnesses
of its movableness, and with it one entire whole
was formed. As the cherubim in general, in their
being and meauiug, belonged to the throne (see
above), so the firm fixing of the throne was repre-
sented by means of the permanent, large cheru-
bim-statues. It is entirely wide of the mark to
explain, as Thenius does, on the pretended analogy
of cherubim with the guardian griffins and dragons
of heathen religions, our cherubim in the holy of
holies, as the watchmen and guardians of the throne
of Jehovah. For, apart from every other consid-
eration, nothing is more contradictory to the Is-
raelitish idea of God than that Jehovah stands in
need of guardians of His throne. The cherubim in-
deed are the supporters and vehicle of His throne,
but never as the watchmen thereof (comp. Ezek. i.
and x.) ; they belong rather to the throne itself, and
are, as such, witnesses and representatives of the
glory of God, but they do not guard Him. "When
in our text here, we think especially of their wings
spread over the holy of holies (from wall to wall),
and that with them they overshadow the ark,
the reason for this is in the fact that He who is
here enthroned in His glory (1133) is invisible, or
rather is unapproachable and removed, for He
dwells in an unapproachable splendor ; no man
can "see " Him and live (1 Tim. vi. 16; Lev. xvi.
2 ; Judg. xiii. 23). But it does not follow from
this, as Riehm would have it, that the design of
the cherubim consisted only m veiling and cover-
ing the present God, and that their significance
was like that of the "enwrapping" clouds (Ps.
xcvii. 2; xviii. 11, 12; Exod. xix. 9, 16 ; xxiv.16);
for the cherubim upon the walls between the
palm-trees had nothing to cover or veil. This was
only their special duty in the holy of holies, by
the throne. When it is expressly added that they
did not turn their faces like those already upon
the kapporeth, and towards it, but towards the
house, i. e., tTwards the holy place, we can find a
reason for it in their special functions: as the
heralds, messengers of that which is not to be ap-
proached, they should direct their gaze towards
the outer world
7. To show the significance of the temple in .t|
relation to the history of redemption, the quest on
presents itself finally: as to the manner in which H
was related to the temples of heathen antiquity, whetiiet
it was more or less a copy, or an original. K. 0.
Muller (Archceologie der K., i. s. 372, Eng. trans, p.
276) remarks strikingly of the heathen temple that
it was " at first nothing more than the place where
an image, the object of worship, could be securely
set up and protected." Every place enclosing the
image of a god, if only set oft' with stakes, was
called a temple (Servius defines templum by locus,
palis aut hastis clausus, modo sit sacer). Without
the image of the divinity, heathen antiquity could
not conceive of a temple. Half in wonder and
half in derision, Tacitus exclaims over the temple
at Jerusalem (Hist., 5. 9), Nulla intus Deum effigies,
vacua sedes et inania arcana! and Spencer (De Leg.
Hebr. Bit, iii. 5, 6) rightly says : Seculi fide receptum
erat, templa a^oava Numine el religions vacua et plant
nulla esse. A temple was not first built, and then
an image of the god made to erect within it, but
a temple was built for the already existing image,
which then became, in a proper sense, the house
or dwelling of the represented deity. Forth from
the image the heathen temple proceeds. This is
its principle. And as the gods of heathenism are
nothing more than cosmical powers, their temples
in plan and contrivance refer only to cosmical re-
lations (see examples in Der Salomonisrlie Tempel, s.
276 sq. and Symb. des Jfos. Kult, i. s. 97 .s<;.). But
the principle of the Israelitish temple is the re-
verse, in so far as the chief and great command-
ment of the religion declares: "Thou shalt not
make unto thyself any graven image," &c. The
erection of a " dwelling of Jehovah " did not pro-
ceed from any need of enclosing and preserving an
image of God, but only from out the covenant of
Jehovah with His chosen people (see above, under
2. a). The tables of the law, which are called sim-
ply " the covenant " (1 Kings viii. 20), and as the
proclamation of the covenant were preserved in
the ark, represented, first of all, this invisible cove-
nant relation. Hence this ark was the central
point of the covenant. There was concentrated
the indwelling of Jehovah; there, too, was His
throne. But since Jehovah dwelt within Israel to
sanctify the people and by them to be hallowed
(Exod. xxix. 43 sq. ; Ezek. xxxvii. 26 sq.), His
dwelling-place was essentially a sarctuary, and
forth from this its supreme and final design, its
entire plan, division, and arrangement proceeded
(see above, under 2, b, and 3, a). The entire temple
rests, consequently, upon ethico-religious ideas,
which are specifically Israelitish, and which do not
recur in any other of the ancient religions. It is
as unique as the Israelitish religion itself; its ori-
ginal is the tabernacle, from which it differs only
because there is necessarily some difference be-
tween an house and a tent. Its originality out-
wardly is shown in the fact that no ancient people
possessed a temple like it in plan, arrangement,
and contrivance. Men still refer to the Egyptian
temples, only these are " aggregates which admit of
indefinite increase " (K. 0. Muller, Archce., s. 257,
Eng. trans, p. 191), and the common feature of
their arrangement was that "they were not com-
pleted, but were constantly undergoing enlarge-
ment," and " they had no given measurements."
The " single portions are in themselves finished,
and can last, but other portions can be added, and
CHAPTER VI. 1-38.
n
others yet again. The band which holds these
single, different parts together is slight " (Schnaase,
Gesch. der bild. Kiinste, i. s. 393, 424). Quite the re-
Terse holds in respect of the dwelling of Jehovah,
the plan of which is in the highest degree simple —
an house consisting of two divisions surrounded
by a court. An indefinite extension is just as im-
possible as a contraction, without the destruction
of the whole, and precisely in this respect the Is-
raelitish sanctuary is more like all other ancient
temples than those of Egypt. Besides this, the
Btyle of architecture in the Egyptian temples, to
which the truncated pyramidal form essentially be-
longs, is entirely diverse in that of Solomon, as
also the stone ceilings and pillars, while on the
other hand they do not have wooden wainscotings
and overlaying of metals. As Solomon availed
himself of Phoenician workmen, occasion has been
found to institute a comparison with Phoenician
temples (Schnaase, s. 238). But the accounts re-
specting these temples are so scanty and general,
that the attempt has been made, upon the suppo-
sition that the temple of Solomon was a copy of
the Phoenician, to fill out and complete the defect-
ive descriptions of them from the scriptural delin-
eation of our temple (comp. Vatke, Relig. des Alt.
Test., s. 323 sq. ; Miiller, Archaeol, Eng. trans, p. 214).
The little that we know of the Phoenician temples
of a later date, does not exhibit the remotest like-
ness to that of Solomon (comp. my treatise, s. 250
sq.). In this matter modern criticism pursues a
very partisan course. It is compelled to acknowl-
edge that each ancient people had their own pe-
culiar religious ideas, which were expressed in
their sacred structures, but that the people Israel
alone built their only temple, not according to
what was peculiar to themselves, but according to
foreign, heathenish ideas. Originality is conceded
to all other temples rather than to the temple of
Solomon.
[The justness of our author's observations here
is indisputable. We cannot reconstruct the tem-
ple as we can reconstruct any building, essential
features of which are remaining. Doubtless as its
architect was a Phoenician, it bore the impress of
the Phoenician genius. The "originality" of the
temple was in its arrangements and its design and
its significance; but in its outward form, as it
struck the eye of the beholder, we fancy it must
have had Phoenician features. The Jews were
singularly deficient in their conceptions of beauty
of form. The cherubim may be cited in proof;
and the temple, architecturally, probably was left
to the Phoenician artist under the conditions which
the exigencies of the building itself required. The
reader may consult Dean Stanley, Jewish Church,
second series, New York, Chas. Scribner & Co.,
1870, p. 225-236. There is no evidence, however,
that it suggested in the least degree an Egvptian
temple.— E. H.]
8. The typical significance of the temple, which,
like that of the tabernacle, is distinctly expressed
in the New Testament, rests upon those symbol-
ical features which they have in common. Both
are "a dwelling of Jehovah," and in this respect
the place of the revelation and presence of the holy
and sanctifying God, an abode of light and life, forth
from which all well-being for Israel proceeds.
But the entire Old Testament economy, especially
its cultus, bears the impress of the bodily and of
the outward, an", consequently of the imperfect,
and in this the dwelling of Jehovah necessarilj
participates. As the people Israel, the people of
Jehovah, is limited by natural descent ('lapa^)
Kara oapua, 1 Cor. x. 18), so the dwelling of JehO'
vah therein is conditioned by the corporeal and
outward, especially in the way of the local and
the visible. But therefore, as imperfect, it looks
forward to the perfect which is to come, and
hence upon this account is called a ckio. ruv fieX-
?.6vruv or ruv ervovpaviuv (Heb. viii. 5 ; x. 1). The
perfect first appeared, when the time was fulfilled,
in Him who was the cuua in contrast with the
BKig., i. e., in Christ (Col. ii. 11). What the dwell-
ing typifies, that He is, in reality and truth. In
Him " dwells " the whole fulness of the Godhead,
aufiariKuc (Col. ii. 9). He is the t-oyoc, the true
revelation of God, and in Him is life and light : He
dwelt among us (iampiuae), and we beheld His
glory, (<MJa, i. «., 1133) full of grace and truth
(John i. 1, 4, 14). He named himself the " tem-
ple " of God (John ii. 19), and the chief complaint
against Him was, that "He said, I can destroy
the temple of God, and build it again in three
days" (Matt. xxvi. 61). With this real temple
came consequently the end of the merely typical,
outward, and local temple. With Him, the dwell-
ing of God hitherto amongst the 'loparj'k Kara
oapKa ceased, and proceeding from Him, who with
one sacrifice "hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified" (Heb. x. 14), the true "abode" of
God now is here (John xiv. 23). Through Him
indeed God dwells now in the collective believers
in Him, in the congregation, which is His body,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. i.
23 ; Col. ii. 9, 10). Now is the declaration, " I will
dwell in their midst," realized, for the first time,
in its full truth. The congregation which is filled
by Him, is the true temple of the living God, the
habitation of God in the spirit (2 Cor. vi. 16 ; 1
Cor. iii. 16; Eph. ii. 21, 22; 1 Pet. ii. 5). But if
Christ appear also as the antitype of details even
of the sanctuary, such as the veil before the holy
of holies (Heb. x. 20), and the "throne of grace"
(Rom. iii. 25), the ground of this is not, as the old
typology supposed, in the circumstance that these
objects were immediate types of Christ, but in
that through these, truths and divine-human re-
lations were signified, which, like " the dwelling "
itself, first in Christ and through Him reached its
full realization (comp. my treatise : Der Salom.
Tempel, s. 81 sq.). In so far now, in the New Tes-
tament economy, as the congregation of the faith-
ful is itself the dwelling of God, it no more needs
a temple ; and if Christendom still build houses of
God, it is not with the notion that God dwells
within them. The Christian church-building is
not a temple, but the congregation-house, nnd
God's house only in this respect. It is not, how
ever, only that, protected from wind and weather
men can "worship God undisturbed, but that th«
faithful may assemble as one body, and exercise
their fellowship as members of the body of Christ,
and build themselves up as individual stones into
a spiritual house, in Jesus Christ the chief corner-
stone. Thence it follows that it is a great per-
version to regard the temple of Solomon as the
model for a Christian church, and to plan on«
like it. It was not the design of this temple tc
gather the congregation within itself. They stood
Fn the forecourt. The church, on the other hand
78
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
embraces them in, and must have the arrangement
and contrivance which corresponds with the being
and the needs of the congregation as the commu-
nion of the faithful.
[If we keep in mind the various portions of the
temple — porch, holy place, holy of holies, and the
side-structure — it would seem that the vision of
the completed so-called Gothic-Church, must have
dawned upon the mind of some cloistered architect
after he had familiarized his mind with the constit-
uent parts and divisions of the temple. Each lias
a porch : the nave corresponds with the holy place,
the aisles with the side-structure, the sanctuary
and choir with the holy of holies. In the temple,
partition walls separated these portions from each
other; in the Christian church-building, all parti-
tion walls disappear, and the parts are connected
by the use of the pointed arch, and other devices
of architectural skill. — E. H.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1 and 38. "Why was the time for the
building of the temple so exactly specified? (1)
Because it was a most important event for Israel.
It points to the final aim of the leading out of
Egypt, the land of bondage. The time of the
wandering, of unrest, and of battle, is over. Israel
is in possession of the whole of the promised land ;
the time of the kingdom of peace is come. The
temple is a memorial of the truth and mercy of
God, who ever fulfils His promises, albeit after
many long years (Ex. iii. 17), supplies all wants,
and governs all things excellently. The word of
the Lord is sure. After long wandering, after
many a cross, many a tribulation and trouble,
comes the promised time of peace ; the Lord helps
His people, even as he preserves every single be-
ing unto his heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. iv. IS).
(2) Because it is a world-historical event. The
temple of Solomon is the first and only one, in the
whole ancient world, which was erected to the
one, true, and living God. Darkness covers the
earth and gross darkness the people (Is. lx. 2).
Heathendom had here and there greater temples,
but they were the abodes of darkness ; this tem-
ple is the abode of light and life ; from it, light
breaks forth over all nations (Is. ii. 3 ; Jer. iii. 17 ;
Mic. iv. 2). What avails the greatest, most glo-
rious temple, if darkness instead of light proceeds
fqom it, and, amid all the prayers and praises, the
Knowledge of the living God is wanting ?
Ver. 2. The exceeding glory and pomp of the
temple. (1) The idea, to which it bore witness.
No house, no palace in Israel compared, for splen-
dor and glory, with the house of God. Everything
in the shape of costly material and treasure
which the age permitted, all toil and all art, were
lavished upon it. To the Most High were given
the noblest and dearest of men's possessions.
How many princes, how many nations, how many
cities, build gorgeous palaces, and adorn with gold
and all treasures the buildings designed to minis-
ter to the pride of the eyes, the lust of the flesh,
and to a haughty manner of life, but yet have no
money, no sacrifice, for the temples which either
are entirely wanting, or are poor and miserable in
appearance I (2) The purpose which it served.
Its magnificence was no empty, dead show, to
dazzle and intoxicate the senses; everything was
full of meaning, and referred to higher, divine
things ; it was not meant to render sensual man
still more sensual, but to draw him nearer to th«
supersensuous, and thus to elevate him. Empty
parade is unseemly for any house of God ; rather
must everything which wealth and art can accom-
plish serve to raise the heart and mind to God, so
that each one shall say: This is none other but
the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven
(Gen. xxviii. 17)1— The temple of Solomon shows
what the house of God should ever be: (a) a
place of testimony: the testimony or word of
God forms its heart and centre ; (6) a sanctuary,
where we hallow God, and he sanctifies us
through Christ (Heb. x. 14; Sacrament); (c) an
heavenly place where, far from all worldly cares,
peace and rest reign, and all are united in prayer,
in the praise and glory of God (see Historical and
Ethical).— (2) The dwelling of God in the midst of
his people (a) in the old, (6) in the new covenant
(2 Cor. vi. 16). — The temple of God a prophecy of
Christ and of His church (see Historical and Eth-
ical), or, the typical and the true temple of God
(1 Pet. ii. 5). The former is built by men's hands,
the latter out of living stones, whose foundation
and corner-stone is Christ; there were brought
gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him
that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the
conscience (Heb. ix. 9, 10) ; here are offered
spiritual sacrifices, pleasing to God through
Christ ; the former is an house of external sanc-
tity and purity, the latter an indwelling of God
in the soul, a temple of the Holy Ghost, who pu-
rities the conscience from dead works; there God
speaks through the law, here through the gospel.
— Vers. 11-13. Osiantjer: We ever need, especially
in high affairs, divine consolation and help, so
that thereby we may be animated to more ac-
tivity in the performance of our duties. He who
has begun and undertaken a work according to
the will of God, and for His glory, may rest as-
sured of divine support, may build upon God's
promises, and will not suffer himself to shrink
from, or tire of, the obstacles which meet him by
the way (Matt. xxiv. 13). — Ver. 13. I will not
leave my people : a glorious word of consolation,
but also a solemn word of warning. — Ver. 14.
Starke : "When the word of God is received with
faith, it gives new strength to the heart, and urges
us on to all goodness (Jas. i. 21). — Vers. 15-22.
All the adorning of the house was within; there
was the light and the brightness of gold, there
also the symbols of life. Ye are the temple of
God (1 Cor. iii. 17). The adorning of the faith.
ful shall not be outward, but inward; the "hid-
den man of the heart" is manifest only to the
Lord, and not to the eyes of the world ; the gold
of faith, and the life hidden with Christ in God, is
the glory of the man. — Vers. 23-2S. Starke :
To make and set up symbols is not, in itself, idol
atry, nor against the first commandment, and im-
ages are also allowable in churches, if they are
not made objects of worship. If, indeed, in the
holy of holies, the greatest and noblest carvings
are placed, we cannot, in the wish to see all works
of art removed from the churches, and merely
seats and benches remaining, appeal to Scripture,
and least of all to the man to whom God g»Te i
wise and understanding heart (chap. hi. 12).
CHAPTER VII. 1-51.
0. — The accomplishment of the building of the palace, and the preparation of the ve»»elt
of the temple.
Chapter VII. 1-51.
1 Bat ' Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all
2 his house. He built also the house of the forest of Lebanon ; the length thereof
was a hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height
thereof thirty cubits, upon four * rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon
3 the pillars. And it loas covered with cedar above upon the beams [side cham-
4 bers '], that lay on forty-five pillars, fifteen [i. e., chambers] in a row. And there
were windows [beams '] in three rows, and light [front b] was against light [front]
5 in three ranks. And all the doors6 and posts were square with the windows
6 [beams 3] : and light [front] was against light [front] in three ranks. And he
made a porch of pillars ; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth
thereof thirty cubits : and the porch was before them : and the other pillars
7 and the thick beam [threshold7] were before them. Then he made a porch fo •
the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment : and it loas cov-
ered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other [from the floor to the
8 floor "]. And his house where he dwelt had another court within the porch,
which was of the like work. Solomon made also a house for Pharaoh's daugh-
9 ter, whom he had taken to wife, like unto this porch. All these were of costly
stones, according to the measures of hewed stones, sawed with saws, within and
without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside toward
10 [from the outside even to'] the great court. And the foundation was of costly
11 stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits, And
12 above were costly stones, after the measures of hewed stones, and cedars. And
the great court round about was with three rows of hewed stones, and a row of
cedar beams, both for the inner court of the house of the Lord [Jehovah], and
for the porch of the house.
13, 14 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's
son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass:
and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all
works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.
1 5 For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece ; 10 and a line of
16 twelve cubits did compass either '° of them about. And he made two chapiters
of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars : the height of the one chapi-
IV ter icas five cubits," and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits: and
nets of checker work [lace-work], and wreaths of chain-work, for the chapiters
which were upon the top of the pillars ; seven " for the one chapiter, and 6even "
18 for the other chapiter. And he made the pillars [pomegranates "], and two rows
round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top
with pomegranates [top of the pillars] : and so did he for the other chapiter.
19 And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars were of lily-work in the
20 porch, four cubits. And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates1*
also above, over against the belly which was by the network: and the pome-
21 granates were two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter. And
he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple : and he set up the right pillar,
and called the name thereof Jachin : and he set up the left pillar, and called the
22 name thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily-work : so was the
work of the pillars finished.
83 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other [from
lip to lip] : it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line
24 of thirty cubits did compass it round about. And under the brim of it round
about there were knops " compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round
80 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE EXS'GS
25 about : the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast. It stood upon twelve
oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and
three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east : and the sea
26 was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward. And it was an
handbreadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup,
with " flowers of lilies : it contained two " thousand baths.
27 And he made ten bases of brass : four " cubits was the length of one base,
28 and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three " cubits the height of it. And
the work of the bases was on this manner : they had borders [panels "], and
29 the borders [panels] were between the ledges : and on the borders [panels] that
were between the ledges icere lions, oxen, and cherubims : and upon the ledges
there was a base above : " and beneath the lions and oxen were certain additions
30 made of thin work [were wreaths of hanging work '"]. And every base had four
brazen wheels, and plates [axletrees] of brass : and the four corners thereof
had undersetters [four feet thereof had shoulders] : under the laver were under-
31 setters [the shoulders] molten, at the side of every addition [wreath]. And the
mouth of it 31 within the chapiter and above was a cubit : " but the mouth
thereof was round after the work of the base, a cubit and a half: " and also
upon the mouth of it were gravings with their borders [panels], foursquare, not
32 round. And under the borders [panels] were four wheels;3' and the axletrees
[holders] of the wheels were joined to [were in the base] the base : and the height of
33 a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit. And the work of the wheels teas like the
work of a chariot wheel : their axletrees, and their naves, and their felloes, and
34 their spokes, were all molten. And there were four undersetters [shoulders] to
the four corners of one base : and the undersetters [shoulders] icere of the very
35 base itself. And in the top of the base was there a round compass of half a
cubit high : " and on the top of the base " the ledges [holders] thereof and the
36 borders [panels] thereof icere of the same. For [And] on the plates of the ledgea
[holders] thereof, and on the borders [panels] thereof, he graved cherubims, lions,
and palm-trees, according to the proportion [room] of every one, and additions
37 [wreaths] round about. After this manner he made the ten bases : all of them
38 had one casting, one measure, and one size [form]. Then made he ten lavers of
brass: one laver contained forty baths : and every laver was tour cubits : " and
39 upon every one of the ten bases one laver. And he put five bases on the right
side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on
40 the right side of the house eastward over against the south. And Hiram made
the lavers [pots28], and the shovels, and the basins.
So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he made king" Solomon
41 for the house of the Lord [Jehovah]: the two pillars, and the tioo bowls of the
chapiters that were on the top of the two pillars ; and the two networks, to cover
42 the two bowls of the chapiters which icere upon the top of the pillars ; and four
hundred pomegranates for the two networks, even two rows of pomegranates for
one network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that icere upon the30 pil-
43, 44 lars ; and the ten bases, and ten lavers on the bases ; and one sea, and twelve
45 oxen under the sea ; and the pots, and the shovels, and the basins : and all these "
vessels, which Hiram made to king Solomon for the house of the Lord [Jehovah],
40 were of bright [burnished3''] brass. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them,
47 in the clay ground [compact soil] between Succoth and Zarthan. And Solomon
left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many : neither was
the weight of the brass found out.
48 And Solomon made all the vessels that pertained unto the house of the Lord
[Jehovah] : the altar of gold, and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbrcad
49 was, and the candlesticks of pure gold, five on the right side, and five on the
left, before the oracle, with the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs of gold,
50 and the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the i-eusers
©/'pure gold ; and the hinges o/'gold, both for the doors of the inner hons% the
51 most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple. So was
ended all the work that kins' Solomon made for the house of the Lord [\Jeho%ahJ
CHAPTER VII. 1-51. 81
And Solomon brought in the things which David his father 1 ad dedicated; even
the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the
house of the Lord [Jehovah].
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1.— [The twelve verses at the beginning fire transferred to the end of this chapter in the Sept
3 Ver. 2.— [The Sept read three rows; the Arab, in ver. 3, sixty pillar a.
3 Ver. 8.— [So the author translates njPVi and so also Keil. This translation is undoubtedly correct; but the TV,
*re In much confusion over these architectural detailB.
« Ver. 4.— [So the author correctly translates D^SpE? supported by the Sept., and adds in parenthesis] i. «., over each
■of the three rows of chambers roof-beams were laid.
* Ver. 4.—/. €., so that the chambers stood over against one another, via-d-via.— Bahr. [The Heb. word HTHD occur*
only here, and is of very doubtful signification. None of the old versions give the meaning window, nor can that sense
be derived with any certainty from the etymology -root !"lTn. Our author concurs with Keil in giving the meaning u
aspectua or propped ua, ll view to or from'" (Keil). The English expression "front to front" conveys the idea
* Ver. 5. — Viz., of the chambers. — Bahr.
7 Ver. 6.— [So our author translates, Scftwelle, following the Chald. XHSlpD-
* Ver. 7.— [yp*lf5n""iy VyT^J^P.' This expression has much puzzled expositors. Notwithstanding the explanation
of the author and of Keil, the best sense seems to be the simplest and most literal, from the floor to the floor, i. a., from
the floor on one side all over the walls, ceiling, and opposite walls, to the floor on the other side.
9 Ver. 9. — [So the author and Keil. sustained by all the VV.
10 Ver. 15.— [Lit the height of one pillar, . . . compass the other. The A. V. expresses the sense. 2 Chron. lit
15 gives the height as 35 cubits — a manifest error. Cf. 2 Kings xxv. 17; Jer. lii. 21.
11 Ver. 16.— [There is here no Yar. lect., so that the height given in 2 Kings xxv. 17— three cubits— must have been
an error of transcription, as indeed sufficiently appears from Jer. lii. 22.
11 Ver. 17.— [The Sept. have t<Z iirtQenari, doubtless from reading rD^E? instead of njHC'*
13 Ver. IS.— Instead of D^TlOyH [pillars], must be read D^JVZnn [pomegranates] here, just as afterwards D^IEfUl
- T • » ■ * T
Is transposed for D^llTSVn , as also some MSS. have it and as the connection absolutely demands. — Bahr. [So also the
Sept., while the Chald. and Syr. follow the text as we now have it
13 Ver. 20. — [The words in italics in the A. V. are unnecessary. Our author translates thus:] And the chapiters upon
the two pillars were also above, close (i. e.. Immediately) on the belly (belly-like swelling) which was beyond (i. e.,
behind) the net-work, and the two hundred pomegranates in two rows round about (as on the one so) on the second
chapiter. — Bahr.
14 Ver. 24. — [D^pD here (as in vi. IS), is an architectural ornament in the form of the wild gourd, which bursts open
on ripening. 2 Chron. iv. 3 has D*1p3 mOT ■, the likeness of cattle. This is evidently an error.
16 Ver. 26.— [Our author translates: in the form of a lily-flower. The Heb. is open to either interpretation, and the
reasons for preferring this are given in the Exeg. Com.
16 Ver. 26.— [2 Chron. Iv. 5 has D^DpN ntvIT j thus adding one-half to the contents, and this number Is adopted by
Josephus. The VV. retain here the number 2000, but the Alex. Sept (the Vat Sept. omits the verse) makes them 2000
X<>€(«, thus giving a capacity as much too small for a hemisphere of the given dimensions as the Ileb. measure is too large.
17 Ver. 27.— [The Sept." make the length five, and the height six cubits; thus making all the dimensions unlike.
18 Ver. 2S.— [The Heb. ni~13DO from 1JD to enclose, admits either this sense or that of the A. V., but both the con-
nection and the amount of ornament upon the panels require the former.
19 Ver. 29.— [Our author translates "and upon the ledges as well above as below," which certainly gives an Intelligible
sense, but it is at least doubtful if the Heb. will bear it, and certainly it is entirely forbidden by the masoretic punctuation,
"131 nnroi ?WO |3 E^Ptrn^'yi- The Chald. renders J3 as a noun NJ133i a base. Our author rejects this,
which is however adopted by Keil, and lias been followed by the A. V. Above the ledges was a base or rest for the laver
described afterwards.
30 Ver. 29.— [T1V0 nLMVft HI v • The author's translation, given in the brackets, unquestionably expresses the true
sense.
21 Ver. 31. — [/. «., of the laver; or as our author Interprets, of the base.
33 Ver. 31.— [/. e., was a cubit within the edge— there was a cubit on each side of the opening of the basin. The author
expresses it :J from the opening outwards was a cubit.
23 Ver. 81.— In diameter.
34 Ver. 32.— So that the whole base could be seen, and nothing of its panels was covered by the wheels.
35 Ver. 35. — /. e.j the cover of the base was arched.
36 Ver. 35. — /. «., of this arched upper part
37 Ver. 38.— In diameter at the top.
38 Ver. 40.— Instead of ni1s3n [lavers] it is necessary to read here HWDr] [pots] according to ver. 45; 2 Chron.
tv. 11 ; 2 Kings xxv. 14; Jer. lii. 18.— Bahr. [Add, such is the reading also of many MSS. and editions, and apparently
•f the Sept and Vulg., although 1133 sometimes bears so nearly the same meaning (1 Sam. ii. 14) that the inference Is
not certain. .
29 Ver. 40.— [Many MSS. have Tj^H in the nom. So also the Syr. and Arab.
*> Ver. 42.— Upon the two pillars. Instead of *33 is here to be read with the Sept ^tt*— Bahr. [But man* MSS.
with the Syr. and Vulg. read here L'\ST7j/ upon the top of, and there is no MS. authority for the Sept reading.
6
82
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KIN tS.
si v<r 15.— That the k'ri H^XH deserves the preference over the k'tib PrlKH requires no pronC— Bahr. [II is als«
the readier "f uianv MSS. and the W. , . . , .. ■ , - .,
S3 Vcr. 45. — [The Sept., before " burnished brass," inserts «u oi <r™Aot Teo-o-apaKoera <cai oktw Toy oixou tou patriAe**
Kai TOU OIKOV KVfiLOV. — F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ter. 1. But Solomon was building his own
house, &c. Ver. 1 forms a heading to the section
concluding at ver. 12. The palace consisted of sev-
eral buildings following upon one another, all of
which, i. e., his "whole" house, Solomon finished in
thirteen years ; but he only required seven years
to complete the temple, because, perhaps, there
were more buildings in the former, or fewer work-
men were employed on them. The place where the
palace was built cannot be, according to Ewald, the
so-called Ophel, i. e., the continuation of the tem-
ple-mount (Moriah), which diminished gradually as
it stretched towards the south, but Mount Zion,
which was divided from Moriah by the valley of
Tyropaeon. It is clear from 2 Kings xi. 19, that
the way from the temple led immediately " down "
to the palace. When Josephus says (Antiq., 8, 5,
2), that the palace stood opposite to the temple
(avrmpvc), it could only have been built on the
northeast side of Zion. The palace of the Asmo-
neans stood there too, from which a bridge led over
the valley to the temple on Moriah (see Keil or.
the place). As to the entire building, the dim in-
timations of the text do not give us a perfect idea
of it. The descriptions of Josephus and those of
the Rabbins, especially Judah Leo, contradict the
text in many points, and are only arbitrary, un-
founded additions. The earlier interpreters of the
text could throw no light on it, and archaeologists
have hitherto been altogether silent, or have at-
tempted no exact description. Thenius alone has
succeeded in throwing the greatest light on the
subject. The most recent description by Unruh
(das Alte Jerusalem utid seine Bauvjerke, s. 95 sg.)
is deserving of no notice.
[In this matter, Ewald (Gesch. iii. s. 339) ex-
presses himself with some hesitation. He says
that the palace was built probably upon the south-
erly continuation of the temple-mount, usually
called Ophel, i. e., hill, hillock, or knob. In the
recently published work, The Recovery of Jerusa-
lem, the same view is urged upon pp. 222-3, and
also upon p. 240 sq. The English and American
explorers would seem at least to favor this suppo-
sition, and in the work just referred to, on p. 233
there is a plan showing approximately the rock on
Mount Moriah, and there the palace is placed to
the south of the temple, with the Tyropaaon on one
side, and the vale of Kedron on the other, — this
being quite remote from the position assigned the
palace by our author. Nor do I think that our
author's reasons for supposing it to have been
built upon the northeast corner of Mount Zion suf-
ficent to overthrow the general opinion. — E. H.]
Ver. 2. He built also the house of the forest
of Lebanon, &c. This was the first of the various
buildings composing the palace, therefore by no
means a separate summer residence apart on
Mount Lebanon (Dathe, Michaelis, and others). It
was only given the name of Lebanon on account
of the multitude of cedars standing alongside of
each other. According to 1 Kings x. 16 sq., and
Isai. xxii. 8, it seems to have served chiefly, if not
altogether, as an armory ; the Arabic says, " A
house for his weapons." The space, 100 cubita
long and 50 broad, enclosed, as appears ver. 9, a
thick stone wall thirty cubits high, but prcbably
only upon three sides, as we shall presently show.
The expression Upon four rows of cedar pillars
is to be connected with words at the beginning :
he built. The four rows of pillars stood along the
surrounding wall, thus forming a peristyle which
enclosed a court-yard. The expression -no says
this plainly ; for it cannot be understood differ-
ently, here, from vers. 4, 18, 20, 24; chap. vi. 36;
Ezek. xlvi. .3, where it everywhere means a row
enclosing and running round a space. The text does
not at all justify Keil's supposition " that four
rows of pillars stood on the longest sides of the
building, but divided, so that but two rows wera
on each side ; " there is no mention of the longest
sides in the text. Weiss' view is just as incorrect
(Kostiim-kunde, i. s. 357), that is, that there was
a row on each of the four sides of the building,
four rows of pillars standing together. The num-
ber of the pillars is not given, but they could not
have been few, as their appearance was that of a
forest. It is not necessary, however, to suppose,
with Thenius, that there were 400. They must
have stood close together, and could not have been
very thick, for the breadth of the peristyle did
not exceed ten cubits, and enough room must
have been left to pass comfortably between the
pillars. The Vulgate translates explanatorily : qua-
tuor deambulacra inter columnas cedrinas. — Beams
of cedar were placed on the rows of pillars, and
formed the foundation for the three-storied su-
perstructure of cedar-wood, which rested against
the stone wall, and was probably so joined to it
that the beams which formed at the same time
the ceiling of the lower part and the floor of the
upper part of the building were inserted in it.
Each of the three stories had JlivX, •'■ c. (chap. vi.
5, 8 ; Ezek. xli. 6) side-chambers. The numbers,
forty-five, fifteen each row, have been supposed
to refer to the immediately preceding D'llQV by
nearly all the commentators, who have been mis-
led by the masoretic punctuation ; but they were
quite wrong. It is impossible that the pillars on
which the three-storied structure rested, could
only have numbered forty-five, divided into three
rows. They could not have supported a struc-
ture 100 cubits long and 50 broad. Neither could
the building have been named " forest of Leba-
non " from forty-five scattered pillars. Thenius,
with whom Keil agrees, rightly refers the numbers
to the n'jrafn as the principal matter, which is fi-r-
ther defined by the DHIDVn^V, and translated,
"and the chambers, forty-five in number, which
were built upon the pillars, fifteen in each course
had also coverings of cedar-wood." But if thfl
forty-five rooms were so divided that each of the
three surrounding rows of the story had fifteen,
we are obliged to admit that the stories only cov-
ered three sides of the square space, since forty-
five cannot be so divided HfcO four parts as to
make twice as many rooms oi 'he two long side*
CHAPTER VII. 1-51.
S3
of 100 cubits as on the two other sides of fifty cu-
bits. On the other hand, the fifteen rooms of
each of the three rows are very naturally and
simply divided, if we imagine six on each long
side and three on the rear side. In that case,
either the colonnade and the three-storied struc-
ture that rested on it would not have continued
over the front short side of the wall that sur-
rounded the square space, and it must have been
provided only with entrance-gates, or else this
wall only enclosed three sides of the square, so
that the building stood quite open in the front.
The last is not admissible, because ver. 12 says
that the whole palace was surrounded by a great
court, which had a stone wall running around it,
and also doubtless doors that could be shut. — The
text itself says of the side-chambers, and light
was against light in three ranks. The word
ntno occurs only here, and does not mean the
same as ]i?n windows, but aspectus, prospectus.
Towards the interior of the building the chambers
stood open (Sept. : nal x^Pa £nl x&po-v Tpiaaog), so
that the view from each of the chambers in the
rows over one another opened on the opposite one.
This rather resembled a gallery, which was di-
vided off by board partitions into single chambers.
[Like boxes at the theatre.] The doors, which led
from one room to another, were square (ver. 5) ;
where rillTSm is subjoined, we must either trans-
late, with the posts, or, what seems better, read as
Thenius rilTntSm , which also suits the repeated
" light against light." The entrances, as well as the
front openings which stood opposite each other,
were square ; so says the Sept. : to. -dvpuuara ml
ai x&ixu Tcrpayuvoi. By C|pt_" we are to think, af-
ter the D'Bpt' in ver. 4, of the beams over the
openings and doors. There is nothing decisive
about the height of the rooms. Of the height of
thirty cubits for the whole edifice, eight may have
been for the colonnade, eighteen for the three sto-
ries, and four for the different ceilings (Then, and
Keil). The entire arrangement of the building is
still frequently met with in the East ; a court sur-
rounded by colonnade and galleries (Winer, R.-
W.-B., i. s. 466). Since, as already remarked, costly
armor and weapons were preserved or displayed
here, the inner space was used no doubt for assem-
blies of warriors, for the body-guard, 4c.
Vers. 6-7. And he made a porch of pillars,
Ac. Vers. 6 and 7 contain the account of the sec-
ond building that belonged to the entire palace.
It stood inward from the armory, and had two
divisions, viz., the porch of pillars and the throne
or hall of judgment. The measures, 60 cubits
long and thirty broad, are generally thought to
belong only to the porch of pillars, and older com-
mentators have believed, from analogy with chap,
vi. 3, that because fifty cubits are the measure of
the breadth of the armory, the length was to be
understood as the breadth, and the breadth as the
depth, as in the temple-porch; so that the porch
of pillars must have immediately adjoined the ar-
mory. B; t the name D71N contradicts this ; its
etymology does not signify (see on chap. vi. 3) an
adjoined rear part; but can only mean a fore-build-
ing. Besides, the porch of pillars itself had again
i porch, so that it cannot have been immediately
joined to the armory. The fifty cubits are to b9
wholly understood of the length. So we may de-
scribe the porch of pillars as " a colonnade," run
ning from the front to the rear, " probably roofed
in, but open at the sides (Porticus), and leading to
the porch of judgment" (Thenius, Keil). But the
width of thirty cubits does not suit the length of
fifty cubits, if it was only a passage to a building ;
it suits an independent structure alone. The ar-
mory, that was not in the least like a passage, re-
sembled the fore-space of the temple, and other
buildings; it was twice as long as it was broad.
How, then, could a building, the breadth of which
was three-fifths of its length, be a mere passage ?
If the porch of pillars were only a passage to the
hall of judgment, it is inexplicable why the text
gives only the size of the subordinate part, and
says not a word about those of the main portion.
All this forces us to the conclusion that the
measure is that of the whole building, including,
therefore, both divisions, the porch of pillars and
porch of judgment. The latter must have beeL,
then, the rear division, in winch, like the debir of
Jehovah's house, the throne described (chap. x.
18, sq.) stood; the former the front, a building of
pillars in fact, where they who were admitted to
the king's audience assembled, or over whom he
sat in judgment. This view explains why the
porch of pilars had also a fore-porch and an en-
trance-space, such as a mere passage never has,
but which is appropriate only to buildings. This
fore-porch was no doubt an entrance-space, the
roof of which was supported by two or four
pillars, as the Targumists explain the word yj,
a threshold space, a "perron with steps" (Keil).
If both divisions of the building are called D?1N,
it is because it was the entrance building of the
king's peculiar residence. The concluding words
of ver. 7 : covered with cedar from one side of
the floor to the other, can mean only this : that
the floor of the porch of pillars, as well as the
floor of the porch of judgment, was covered with
cedar. Keil explains : " from the lower floor to
the upper, in so far, namely, over the porch of
judgment as there were rooms built;" the floor
of the latter being the ceiling of the hall of judg-
ment. The existence of an upper structure is
not, however, hinted at, and how could the text,
instead of simply saying from the floor to the
ceiling, speak of a floor without saying of what it
was the floor. The Vulgate translates: a pavi-
mento usque ad summitatem ; the reading must have
been different therefore, and as the Syriac has
it thus also. Thenius supposes that instead of
JJplpn it originally stood HVlipn in the text,
which is to be understood, as in chap. vi. 15 and
16, of the beams of the roof. In this case the
words might bear the meaning, which seems very
admissible, that the porch walls were lined with
cedar from the floor to the roof-beams.
Ver. 8. And his house where he dwelt, &c.
Solomon's dwelling-house and that of his wife
were indeed separate houses, but formed together
the third building in connection with the palace.
This building had another court with -n the pot -h,
i. e., behind the porch of judgment. Both dwell-
ings were like unto this work, that is, they had
walls of cedar-wood like the porch of judgment,
and were splendidly and gorgeously made. Tbf
84
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
queen's house was behind that of the king, ac-
cording to the universal Eastern custom (Winer,
R.- W.-B., L s. 468) ; it is not only here, but also in
chap. ix. 24, expressly said, that it was built for
Pharaoh's daughter, not therefore for a harem
{Thenius). The 700 wives and 300 concubines
afterwards mentioned (chap. xi. 3) could scarcely
have lived in the queen's own house. Thenius
gives the reason why the king's and queen's dwell-
ings are uot more accurately described: " because
in most cases there was only access to the porch
of judgment, and because audience of the king,
even in the court of his residence, had probably
become very difficult to obtain in Solomon's reign."
But the reason was more likely that, whilst the
armory and the porches of pillars and of judg-
ment were uncommon buildings, the dwelling-
house did not differ from ordinary dwellings in its
architecture and furnishing, except in being more
costly. It required, therefore, no minute descrip-
tion.
Vers. 9-12. All these were of costly stones,
Ac. What vers. 9 and 10 state, must be taken to
refer to all three buildings that formed the palace.
[Mr. T. O. Paiue is of opinion that vers. 9-12
"are concerning the temple again — because the
pillars are stone. In the house of the king they
are cedar, ver. 2." But this writer, after much
pains-taking labor, does not satisfy. — E. H.]
They could have been no mere wooden erections,
but had walls of square stones, cut inside and out-
side (see on chap. v. 31) even unto the coping,
i. e., " to the corner-stones on which the beams
of the roof rested " (Keil). The Sept. has iuc
tuv yelauv, but yeiaov is the roof projection. The-
nius thinks this was "the pinnacle-like protec-
tion of the Hat roofs; " this edge, however, is no-
where called niri20, but npVO (Dent. xxii. 8).
The words: on the outside toward the great
court, mean, according to Thenius, "from the out-
side (front) to the great (rear) court." But this
pro cannot mean something entirely different
from the immediately preceding word. An "out-
er " court presupposes an "inner" one (chap. vi.
36), but not a rear one, and the inner could never
be called " great," in distinction from the outer
one. The great court was evidently that which
surrounded all the palace buildings (Ewald) ; and
we must suppose that there was such an one even
if not named here. All the buildings were formed
of square stones from top to bottom, and the same
even used outside too, even to the outer great
court. Even the foundations, which were not
seen outside, were made of these larger stones
(ver. 10). Lastly (ver. 11), it is added that this
great court had the same surrounding as the inner
temple court, namely, three rows of stones and
one of cedar (see on chap. vi. 36). Keil and Le
Clerc think the porch of the house to be (ver. 12)
the "columned- and throne-hall" of the palace,
which had the same surrounding as the great
court had. The text, however, mentions, besides
the latter, only one court of the dwelling (ver. 8),
but says nothing about a third court around that
porch. The words immediately preceding suggest
scarcely anything else than the porch of Jehovah's
house; but as this had no court, the meaning
must be, as with the court, which was within or
nefote the porch. [So Bp. Horsley, after Houbi-
Ifaut, suggests that perhaps for "1XIT>1> we should
read "ixnfD , like the inner court. — E. H.] Cal-
met only finds the similarity there in ut pariela
mixtam lapidibus cedrum exhibereni.
Vers. 13-14. And the king .... and
fetched Hiram. Ver. 13. Comp 2 Chron. ii. 13.
According to this, Hiram was the son of a Tyrian,
and of an Israelitish woman from the neighboring
Dan, in the tribe of Naphtali, uot, as the Rabbins
say, an adopted son. His skill is described in the
same words as that of Bezaleel in Ex. xxxi. 3 sq.,
only the addition, " filled with the spirit of God "
is wanting. The art of casting brass is very an
cient ; the making of this metal, which " has a
peculiar red color and strong lustre, and is of con
siderable hardness" (Rosenmuller, Alterthumsk.,
IV., i. s. 156), was much earlier understood thaD
that of iron (Winer, R.- W.-B., ii. s. 90). In what
now follows we have only a description of the ves-
sels that were added to those of the tabernacle ; the
others are merely named. The Chronicles alone
mention the altar of burnt-offering (II. iv. 1).
Vers. 15-20. And he cast two pillars of brass.
Vers. 15-22. Comp. 2 Chron. iii. 15-17; iv. 12 sq.;
2 Kings xxv. 17 ; Jer. Iii. 21 sq. Each of these pil-
lars,* i. e., the shafts, was eighteen cubits high and
twelve in circumference, was four fingers thick,
and hollow within (Jer. In. 21). As the Chroni-
cles alone, differently from all other passages,
gives thirty-five cubits as the height, this num-
ber is "evidently formed by changing the sign
tV = 18, into rf? = 35" (Keil). [The conjecture
of Abarbinel, that the chronicler gives the sum-
total of the height of the two pillars, is gravely
adopted by Bp. Patrick on the place. — E. H.]
The chapiters were cast separately, and then
placed on the shafts ; each of the former was five
cubits high (ver. 16), and had, as 2 Chron. iv. 12
relates, an upper and lower part, rnni some-
times denotes the entire capital (ver. 16), some-
times the upper (ver. 19) and sometimes the lower
part (vers. 17, 18, 20). The upper part was lily-
work (vers. 19, 22), i. e., in the form of a full-blown
lily-cup. As ICTt? means only lily, Thenius has
no grounds for supposing it to be the lotus, be-
cause there were pillar capitals in Egyptian build-
ings which had the form of the lotus-flower. The
lotus-flower does not once occur in the entire Old
Testament, but the lily very often, for it was com-
mon in Palestine, and grows without cultivation
(Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s :'8). The molten sea had
also the same form (ver. 26). The four cubits
(ver. 19) are not the measure of the diameter of
the lily-work (Thenius), but of its height, which
was much more important for the form of the en-
tire capital, than the diameter, which was easily
discoverable from the given circumference of the
pillar. [Bp. Horsley takes the view which The-
nius has adopted. He translates, " and the chap-
iters that were upon the top of the pillars (were)
in a socket (D17N2) of the shape of a lily of four
cubits," and adds, the four cubits are to be under-
stood, I think, of the general breadth of the lily,
&c. — E. II.] And it is the more impossible to
doubt that this upper part of the capital was the
• If we should follow K. O. Mflller's phraseology and
that of other writers upon ancient art. we should u?l' th«
word "columns" here instead of " pillars." Ardueotoflt
Ac, p. 265-268.— E. II
CHAPTER VII. 1-51.
S3
largest and principal part, as ver. 22 expressly re-
peats at the close of the whole description: '"and
upon the top of the pillars was lily-work." Some
think it should be three instead of four cubits high
as in ver. 19, but they have no grounds but the
uncertain passage 2 Kings xxv. 17, where there
was very probably a change of n = 5 into J = 3.
The lower part of the capital, which was only one
cubit, is not very clearly described. It was made
of checker or net-work (ver. 17), pomegranates
(ver. 18), and a belly (ver. 20). Instead of the
last (;D3) in vers. 41, 42; and in 2 Chron. iv. 12,
13, fijij occurs, i. e., arch, swelling (see Gesenius,
W. B., an ^3). This arching was "135??, i- «., on the
other side of the net-work (ver. 20), therefore not
on it or over it, but behind or under it. In so far
as the net-work lay over or upon it, it could, as
seen from outside, be described as lying beyond
it (Keil). The net-work consisted of seven wires
(D v'13) ; it was chain-work, the wires being
plaited like a chain, woven crosswise together,
thus forming a lattice-work or net. It is not that
they hung down like chains (Gesenius). Possibly
the text in ver. 17 may not be wholly above sus-
picion, but Thenius undertakes a daring and un-
justifiable critical operation when he blots out
chain-%vork, chiefly because the Sept. does, and
reads n33'J' for n{Q«' twice, and then translates :
" and he made two lattices or trellis-wires to cover
the capitals that (were) on the tops of the pillars,
one for one and one for the other capital." Lastly,
the pomegranates, of which there were 200, 100 in
a row (ver. 20), were, no doubt, in a row above,
and a row below the net-work, and thus served
for a border to the latter. According to Jer. lii.
23, 96 of the 100 pomegranates were iWFf\ ,
which means neither " open to the air," i. e., un-
covered (Boucher, Thenius), nor dependentia (Vul-
gate), or "hanging free" (Ewald), but only
"windwards" (Hitzig), i. e., turned to the four
quarters of the heavens, as nYl in Ezek. xlii. 16-
18 (comp. xxxvii. 9); four pomegranates marked
the places where each two quarters of the heavens
met. The text says nothing of pedestals for the
pillars ; but it would scarcely have passed over so
important a part of the pillars had they existed.
Ver. 2 1 . And he set up the pillars, &c. There
have been, and still are to this day, two opinions
in sharp contrast one with the other as to the pre-
cise place where the two pillars were erected.
According to one, they supported the roof of the
porch, which stood quite open at the front (see
Meyer, Merz), or the projection of the entrance
leading to 't (Ewald, Thenius); according to the
other, the; stood alone, before the porch, and
without supporting anything (Stieglitz, Kugler,
Schnaase, Winer, Keil). After repeated investi-
gation of the subject, I find it impossible to sub-
scribe to either opinion. Against the first there
are the following objections: (a) The pillars were
brazen, and begin the list of all the metal articles,
which were first finished by the peculiarly skilful
trtisan Hiram, after the building of the temple
was completed (chap. vi. 14, 37, 38). If they had
been designed to bear up the roof of the porch or
the projection of its entrance, they could not have
been vessels, but necessary integral parts of the
building ; but as this was " finished " withou'
them, and as supporting pillars of brass are nevei
found in stone and wooden buildings; these pil-
lars, which were works of art, could not have had
an architectural but only a monumental character,
and this is shown by the names attached to them.
Stieglitz truly says: "It was their separate posi-
tion alone which gave these pillars the impres-
sive aspect they were designed to wear, and the
significant dignity with which they increased the
grandeur of the whole, while they shed light upon
its purpose." (b) The entire height of the pillars
was (with their capitals) twenty-three cubits; but
that of the porch was either twenty or thirty cu-
bits (see on chap. vi. 3). In the first case the pil-
lars must have been too high, in the latter too
low, to bear up the porch-roof; for even if they
had pedestals, these could not have been seveD
cubits high, (c) As the text does not mention any
portal to the porch, still less does it say anything
of any " projection " over the same, which wa>
borne up by the pillars (Thenius), or of any "beam''
joining the pillars above, on which there was an-
other structur ■, or '' decoration " (Ewald). The
appeal to Amos ix 1 : '' Smite the lintel of the
door, that the posts may shake," is quite out of
place, for D'BD never mean the projections of
buildings, but the thresholds (Judges xix. 27; 2
Kings xii. 10; Isa. vi. 4). Neither can anything
be proved from Ezekiel's vision (chap. xl. 48), foi
the two pillars are not once named in it. The
Sept. indeed mentions a fiekatipov kit' a/ipoTipw
tuv gtvIuv, in ver. 20, but this was quite gra-
tuitous ; they do not translate ver. 20 at all, but
give a completely different one, a mere gloss, of
which the Hebrew text does not contain a word.
We must conclude, then, that they stood separ-
ately. But in respect now of the other opin-
ion, that they were placed in front of the porch,
the D^X3 in ver. 19 contradicts that, as does also
tbvb in ver. 21. However we may understand
ver. 19, which is certainly obscure, D71N3 cannot
be translated, " in that manner, or according to
the porch " (Keil), which would be equivalent to
d5"ISO > which Raschi accepts, and which means
" that the lily-work was on the pillar-capitals as
well as on the porch." Now there is not one
word about the lily-work on the porch. Still less
can D^X3 mean D^Xn 'JBJi but only in the
porch. Further, DPJO cannot be translated: "be-
fore the porch " (Luther), or " at the porch" (Keil),
i. e., in front, but only, for the porch. As the
molten sea and the bases were for the outer court,
the golden altar, candlestick, and shewbread for
the house, so the two pillars were for the porch,
and stood in it as the former stood in the court and
the house. The Sept. give in ver. 15: ml t^u
vevae rove 5vo gtv^ovc ru a\")iau rov oinov, and trans-
late, ver. 21: nal eornae rovq ariXovc rov alXap roi
vaov. With this 2 Chron. iii. 13, 17 fully agrees
it says he made ;V3n \)si? two pillars, . . . and
placed the pillars $OVin ,J3"^y. For if they werc
in the porch, they must have stood immediately
before the house, that is, before the principal com.
86
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
partment. But it Bays nowhere that he placed
them before the porch. If the latter were thirty
cubits high, as most think, the pillars could have
etood free inside, as their monumental character
required.
Vers. 21-22. And called the name thereof,
Ac. Thenius justly remarks : " There can be noth-
ing mere improbable than that pillars standing
at the entrance to God's house should have been
named after the donor, or their architect (Gese-
nius) ; and it is impossible to understand the asser-
tion,' ' that they were no doubt named at their erec-
tion and dedication, after men much liked at that
time, perhaps some of Solomon's young sons '
(Ewald)." But Thenius' own assertion does not
seem less improbable; namely, that "the pillars,
which apparently bore up the entire building of
the temple (?) had the characters fja \>y , «'• e., He
(the Lord) founds (or : may He found) with strength,
engraved, or formed in the casting, and that the
people read these words, which should be taken
together (?), separately, and . . . gave them as
names to the pillars." Aside from every other con-
sideration, it is not, he had inscribed TJQ fy on the
two pillars; but: he called the name of the one at
the right py , and called the name of the one at
the left jya; so these were two distinct "names,"
and not a sentence of connected words. TVe have
no reason to change jyi to |JQ; pa1 means rather:
statuit, fundavit, and is used about the founding and
establishing of the kingdom, the throne, and the
sanctuary (1 Kings vi. 19; Ezra iii. 3; 2 Sam. vii.
12; 2 Chron. xvii. 6). fJQ is composed of ]y ,
strength, power, firmness (Gen. xlix. 3), and ia ,
«'. e., in Him, Jehovah. The name means exactly
the same as in Isai. xlv. 24, TV • • • niiT3, a
thought often occurring in the Old Testament (Ps.
xxviii. 7, 8; xlvi. 2; lxii. (7) 8; lxxxvi. 6; cxl. 7;
Isai. xlix. 5 ; Jer. xvi. 19). The first name denotes
the founding and establishing of the central sanc-
tuary, in contrast with the tabernacle ; the second
denotes the firmness and stability of the same.
Simonis (Onom., s. 430, 460): Stabiliet templum, in
illo (Domino) robur.
Vers. 23-26. And he made a molten sea,
&c. Comp. 2 Chron. iv. 2-5. The name D' only
means the great quantity of water that the vessel
contained. Latini qusmodi vasa appellant locus
(Castel.). The 10 cubits denote the diameter, 30
the circumference, not certainly the mathematical
proportion, but very near it, for we must reckon 9
cubits and rather more than half a cubit for the di-
ameter, for 30 cubits of circumference. The 5
cubits are for the depth of the vessel, which was
not cylindrical, as some old pictures represent, but,
according to ver. 26, was shaped like a lily, with
an edge curved outwards, and widening out consid-
erably lower down. It could only hold 2,000 baths
of water (ver. 26) with a form like that, as Thenius
(Stud.u. Kritiken, 1846, I.) has proved. Chronicles,
on the contrary, gives 3,000 baths (2 Chron. iv. 5),
but this is a confusion of the signs a and 3 (Keil);
it is also a mistake of the pen when ver. 3 gives
D'lpE instead of D'VPS • Tlie latter does not mean
coloquinths, but flower-buds (see above, on chap,
vi 29). I'h" two rows must have been pretty close
together, under the edge of the vessel The posi-
tion of the 12 oxen is remarked especially, but
nothing said of their size or height. Theniui
thinks they must have been as high as the vessel
at least; this would make the whole vessel 10 cu«
bits high. It is impossible to say whether the feet
of these oxen rested on the floor of the court, as on
a brazen plate (Keil), or whether they stood in a ba-
sin. As the priests had only to wash their hands
and feet, the vessel was provided (so the rabbinical
traditions say) with faucets for letting out the wa-
ter. It is very improbable that the water came
from the mouths of the oxen, as many suppose.
Vers. 27-39. And he made ten bases of, Ac.
The description of these vessels, vers. 27-39, is in-
volved in much more obscurity than that of the
two brazen pillars. All the pains which the latest
commentators have spent upon it have not cleared
it up fully, because the text (under consideration)
is no longer the original one ; the old translations
are widely different from it, and do not agree to-
gether. The insertions also which we have ad-
mitted into our translation, following now The-
nius, and now Keil, do not claim to have solved the
exegetical riddle. Above all, it is necessary to real-
ize what the object of these vessels was. 2 Chron.
iv. 6 says that the priests " washed such things as
they offered for the burnt-offering," i. e., those parts
of the sacrificial animal which were placed on the
altar to be burnt, as ordered in Lev. i. 9 (comp.
Ezek. xl. 38). Hence it appears that the basin
which held the water for washing was the chief
thing in that complicated vessel, and all the other
parts only made for the sake of that one part. The
altar of burnt-offering of the temple was 10 cubits
high (2 Chron. iv. 1) ; a step for the priests to stand
on, when performing their functions, was much
more needed in this altar than in that of the taber-
nacle, which was only 3 cubits high (Ex. xxvii. 1-
5). Now, in order to perform the washing of the
parts for sacrifice at the altar itself, without descend-
ing, the basins must, on the one hand, have stood
high, and higher than the altar-step, and on the other,
have been movable also, so that they could have
easily been brought backwards and forwards, filled
or emptied. So we see that a wheelwork was
needed for the high basins or lavers. The basins,
bases, and wheelwork were then the component
parts of the vessel. The basins (lavers), being the
simplest part, are the least explicitly described in
ver. 38. The word -|i>a occurs oftenest, for the
basins of the tabernacle (Ex. xxx. 18, 28; xxxi. 9,
&c.) ; these were not cylindrical, as is well known,
but shaped more like a kettle ; and nowhere else
is a vessel described which has the form of a pot
or jug. It appears from Zach. xii. 6, that a fire-
basin (pan) was of a flatter shape than a kettle,
and had at least the form of a cooking-pot, as Zul-
lig thinks (die Cherubimwagen, s. 79, 94). The meas-
ure 4 cubits can only be understood, like ver. 31,
to apply to the diameter (Thenius), and not to the
depth. Thenius reckons the 40 baths at 12 eimer
and 16 kannen, Dresden measure. [Without a pa-
rade of decimals, in the rough as one may say, tin
Dresden kanne is about one quart ( + ). Seventy-twt
kannen are one eimer, i. e., seventy-two quarts.
72 x 12=864 quarts. To these must be added 16
quarts, and the whole amount is 880 quarts or 220
gallons. If however any one wishes to work out the
sum, it may be well to add that 1 kanne = 0.93'
CHAPTER VII. 1-51.
87
liter, and 1 liter — 1.0567 quart (wine-measure). —
E. H.] In respect of the second main part of the
vessel, the base njlDD > so much is certain, that it
was a four-cornered box, which consisted of strong
edge-bands on the top and on the bottom, along
the sides, as well as at the corners: into which the
walls (or panels) were introduced, and were held
by these edge-bands as in a frame. Figures were
engraved on these walls (panels, J"li~l3D£): lions,
oxen, and cherubim (according to Josephus, dis-
tributed in three different fields). The box had
also 4 feet niDUS (ver. 30), at the 4 corners, no
doubt ; with which it stood upon the axle-trees of
the wheelwork. It is very difficult to form an
adequate and just view of the 4 undersetters,
112113, which are named in ver. 30 with the feet,
and in ver. 34 with the wheelwork ; they must
have projected certainly from the feet, but it is un-
certain in what manner they were connected with
the box, and what they bore — whether indeed they
bore anything. The box seems to have been open
at the bottom, but it had an arched covering at the
top (ver. 35) with a round ornament, a crown mi"l3
(ver. 31) on which the basin was placed. But the
nature of the hands or holders J"liT and their rela-
tion to the arched cover and the crown, is obscure.
They must have been rather broad, as the figures
were engraved upon them as well as on the cover
(vers. 35, 36). It is equally difficult to say where
and how the borders mentioned in vers. 29, 30, and
36, nvb, were put on. According to ver. 29 they
were "nio itb'JTO, by which Thenius, appealing
to the nijjSpD in ver. 31, and nnS'l in ver. 36,
understands "work of cutting in, i. e., sunken
work; " but if the text meant this, why did it not
make use of the identical expressions ? The spe-
cific word must denote something specific; it re-
mains only to take the usual translation, " hanging
work " (Vulgate : deptndentia), " which certainly
does not mean festoons hanging free, and waving
in the air " (Keil) ; "pin means a declivity (hang-
ing) in a local sense (comp. Josh. vii. 5 ; x. 11 ; Jer.
xlviii. 5). According to ver. 29 the borders were
on the edge-frames above as well as under the carved
work upon the side walls of the box or chest, for
[3 cannot be here, as Keil has it, a substantive,
"and upon the ledges there was a base above."
but only an adverb (De Wette, Thenius, and oth-
ers), as in ver. 18. But we cannot with certainty
ascertain the meaning of " at the side of every ad-
dition " (wreath) at the end of ver. 30. [Bp. Hors-
ley, "at the side of every addition." Rather "each
over-against a compound figure." The shoulder-
pieces (instead of "undersetters") went just so far
down within the base as to be on a level with the
compound figures on the outside." — E. H.] The
"additions (wreaths) round about" in ver. 36 are
the same as mentioned in ver. 29. The third main
part, i. e., the wheels, differed so far from wheels of
ordinary vehicles that their axle-trees were not im-
mediately under the box or chest, but under its
feet, so that the edges moved completely under
the box, and the carved work on its aides was not
hid by the wheels (ver. 32). But it is impossible tc
determine the relation of the hands or holders of
the wheels to the feet of the box and to the shoul-
der-pieces (ver. 30). The description of the wheels
begun in ver. 30 is continued in vers. 32, 33, 34;
but ver. 31 treats of the upper part of the box
which is further described in vers. 35 and 36;
strictly speaking, therefore, ver. 31 should stand
immediately before vers. 35 and 36, or else vers.
31, 35, and 36 immediately before ver. 30. Fortu-
nately the whole of the difficult section from vers.
27-39 does not treat of a main integral part of the
temple, and not even of one of the principal ves-
sels, but only of one that is subordinate and sec-
ondary. Its description, therefore, obscure as it
is, may be regarded as sufficient, at least as far a«
concerns its purpose. The best drawings that have
been made of this vessel are those of Thenius
(Commentar, taf. HI., fig. 4), and Keil (Arch:' oh-
gie, I., taf. 2, fig. 4) ; and the most defective of all,
whether ancient or modern, that of Unruh (das Altt
Jerusalem, Fig. 11).
Vers. 40—17. And Hiram made the lavers,
&c. Ver. 40. The first part of this verse forms a
kind of independent section, for the lavers, shov-
els, and basins did not belong to the bases, but
were, like the latter, utensils of the altar of burnt-
offering. The lavers were for carrying away wa-
ter, &c, the shovels for removing the ashes, the
basins for catching the blood that spouted from the
sacrifice (Ex. xxvii. 3 ; Numb. iv. 14). It is re-
markable that the text never names the chief ves-
sel of all, the altar of burnt-offering; for it was
made anew at the same time (2 Chron. iv. 1), and
upon a larger scale. Perhaps it was not made by
Hiram, who only executed the more artistic brass-
castings, among which this altar could not be reck-
oned. The words, and so Hiram made an end
of doing all the work, ftc, begin the general
list of all the vessels Hiram had made, the brass,
from ver. 40 to 47, and the golden, from ver. 43
to 5 1. The former were all of bright brass (tDlbp),
i. e., it was polished after the casting, so that it
shone like gold (see above, on ver. 13), but it was
no actual aurichalcum (Vulgate) ; Josephus says,
Xa^.Koc rifv avyyv bfioioc XPVG<i> Kat T° K-dXXoc. The
region between Suecoth and Zarthan is mentioned
as the place where the brass works were cast in
the clay, i. e., in moulds of potters' earth. Suecoth
(Judg. viii. 5 ; Josh. xiii. 27) lay beyond Jordan, not
on the south side of Jabbok (Keil), but rather noi th-
wards, for it could not possibly have been very far
from Zarthan, which chap. iv. 12 places near Beth-
shean, on this side Jordan. Consequently the foun-
dry must have been on this side too; Burkhardt
says (Reise, II. s. 593) that the " soil is all marl,
and the further shore has no hollows whatever."
Comparison of both places shows that they lay di-
agonally opposite, and there was no larger ground
suitable for the brass foundry in this side of the val-
ley above (or below) Zarthan (Keil). The quantity
of brass was so great (comp. 1 Chron. xviii. 8), that
it was not necessary to weigh it out carefully for
■ ach distinct vessel; and the weight of each can-
not therefore be ascertained. |-|3S1 , ver. 47, does
not mean : he laid them down, but he let <nem lie,
i. e., he did not weigh them, as the following verses
show.
Vers. 48-51. And Solomon made all th«
ss
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
vessels ... of gold. We are not to conclude
from the subject, "Solomon," that Hiram made
only the brazen vessels (Thenius). As Hiram also
knew how to work in gold (2 Chron. ii. 13), it is far
more likely that Solomon intrusted him also with
the goldsmith's work. The golden vessels are evi-
dently only named, and not described, because they
were made like those of the tabernacle (comp. Ex.
xxx. 1 sq. ; xxv. 23 to 40), only upon a larger scale.
The addition in 2 Chron. iv. 8 : "he made also ten
tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the
right side and five on the left," is declared to be
an error by modern interpreters; but we might
just as reasonably strike out the account of the
altar of burnt-ofiering, which is not given in our
text. The account is so definite that it cannot be
a pure invention; besides, soon after, in ver. 19,
the plural nibrDCTI occurs, and it is said also in 1
-hron. xxviii. 16: "And (David gave to Solomon)
oy weight . . . gold for the tables of shew-
bread, for every table." Now when 2 Chron. xxix.
18 mentions but one table, this is no contradiction
(Thenius); for it says in 2 Chron. xiii. 11 : "and
we burn, i. e., light, the golden candlestick every
evening;" and yet, according to our text, there
were 10 candlesticks. One asks, Why 10 tables ?
but we, on the other hand, ask, Why 10 candle-
sticks, if only one were lighted? There is no
ground for the opinion that the rest of the tables
served for the purpose of resting the candlesticks
upon them; for then there must have been 11 of
them, and instead of being called tables of shew-
bread (1 Chron. xxviii. 16) they must have been
called tables of the candlesticks. — Which David
had dedicated (ver. 51). According to 2 Sam.
viii. 7-12; 1 Chron. xviii. 7-11, David had taken
a quantity of brass, silver, and gold from the con-
quered Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines,
and Amalekites. which treasures he dedicated to
sacred purposes. 1 Chron. xxii. 14, 16 also alludes
to the great store of these metals. Immense as
was the quantity of brass and gold needed for the
'*mple, the supply was not exhausted. The rest
consisted partly of unwrought gold and silver,
oartly of vessels, and was preserved in the sanc-
mary itself. Probably some of the side-chambers
terved as a treasury.*
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The king's house was the second large ouild-
lig that Solomon undertook. "After the c-'imple-
Won of the sacred building ... he began the
building of an house which should shed lustre on
the second power in Israel, the kingdom which
was then approaching its culminating point "
(Ewald). Chap. ix. 1 and 10 accords with our
passage, in placing the two buildings near to-
gether. The section from ver. 1-12 is therefore
no addition, interrupting the description of the
temple building, but is purposely assigned that
place; and the description of the vessels, ver. 14
-50, is i sequel to that of the temple, and forms
the transition to chap. viii. To Israel the mon-
• If the leader wish to investigate this subject any fur-
ther, he can and some strange fancies, and occasionally good
S esses, in Mr. T. O. I'alne's Salomon's Temple, <ftc.', Bos-
i, 1861, ot cliap. vll.
archy had become a necessary institution, and
stood so little in opposition to divine rule, that it
rather served to sustain the latter; the king not
being an absolute sovereign, and, as in other East-
ern states, God's vicegerent, but a servant of Je-
hovah, who had to execute His orders and to
maintain the law (= covenant). Like the theoc-
racy, the monarchy also had reached its highest
point through David ; and Solomon represents thia
culminating point. When, therefore, a spacious,
splendid house was built for an abiding dwelling-
place, a sign and monument of Jehovah's might
and truth, instead of the tabernacle hitherto used,
it was fitting that it should be a house correspond-
ing with the greatness and prosperity of the king-
dom. Therefore the building, which was a token
and pledge of the theocracy, was followed by one
which represented the kingdom ; and both stood,
according to their signification, on two opposite
neighboring hills. [We must repeat our doubts of
the author's topography here. See above, Exeget
on ver. 1.— E. H.]
2. The plan and arrangement of the king's house
quite accord with the conception Israel had of the
calling of the monarchy. When the people de-
sired a king, they said to Samuel, "that our king
may judge us, and fight our battles " (1 Sam. viii.
20). The first or foremost of the three buildings
which together formed the royal palace, namely
the armory, set forth the mission of the king
against his enemies ; and it represented his pro-
tecting war-strength ; the next building, the porch
of pillars and the porch of the throne, or of judg-
ment, signified the vocation of the king in respect
of his subjects, viz., judging and ruling (see above
on chap. iii. 9 ; 1 Sam. viii. 5, 6 ; 2 Sam. xv. 4) ; it
represented the royal elevation and majesty;
lastly, the third and innermost building was the
real dwelling-house, where the king lived with his
consort ; a private house which he had an equal
right with any of his subjects to possess. The
plan of the palace thus was very simple, and fol-
lows so clearly from the nature of the relations,
that we need not seek for the model of it any-
where. Least of all should we be likely to find
such in Egypt, although Thenius does not doubt
that " Solomon built the royal residence after
Egyptian models," and then refers us to the pal-
aces at Medinat-Abu, Luxor, and Carnac. Just the
main feature in the one we have been considering,
i. e., the three parts forming a completely united
whole, is wanting in these Egyptian buildings,
which besides were entirely of stone, and conse-
quently quite differently constructed. Where i9
there anything in Egypt that in the least approxi-
mates to the house of the forest of Lebanon, with
its numerous wooden pillars and galleries ? Solo-
mon's palace, as well as the temple, belonged en-
tirely to the architecture of anterior Asia, but the
fundamental idea upon which its plan and inte-
rior arrangement rested, was essentially and spe-
cifically Israelitish.
3. Tlie calling of Hiram from Tyre to finish all
the temple-vessels, was occasioned by the want of
distinguished artists in Israel (see above on chap.
v. No. 3). As Hiram's mother was an Israelite,
which is expressly mentioned, we may well sup-
pose that he was not unacquainted with the God
whom his mother worshipped, and therefore was
belter able than all other Tyrian artists to enter
into the right spirit and meaning of the works
CHAPTER VII. 1-51.
89
which Solomon intrusted to him. But besides
this, the sending for Hiram is important, inasmuch
as it shows that Solomon desired to have real
works of art, and that he so little despised art as
the handmaid of religion, that he even sent for a
heathen and foreign artisan. In his "wisdom"
he regarded the command, Thou shalt not make to
thyself any graven image, not as the prohibition
of every species of- religious sculpture. In this re-
spect he rises far above the Pharisaism of Jose-
phus, who accounts the images of the oxen sup-
porting the molten sea, and the lions near his
throne, as much breaches of the law as the peopling
of his harem with foreign women (Joseph., Antiq.
8, 7, 5). Modern spiritualism, which rejects all
plastic art in the service of the church, by an ap-
peal to a false interpretation of our Lord's words
in John iv. 24, is a lapse into the narrow-minded
Jewish Pharisaism.
[The service of art in the Christian Church, and
its employment by Christians in behalf of the in-
terests of religion, is always recognized except in
periods of intense reforming life, when an icono-
clastic spirit is apt to develop itself. The men
who " denuded " the churches in the sixteenth
and in the seventeenth centuries, regarded "orna-
ments " as snares to the conscience, and as the
foster-nurses of superstitions. The principle laid
down and developed by Neander is the true one,
viz., that the design of the Christian religion,
which is to promote holiness of life, should be
kept constantly in view; and that the beautiful
should be observed and employed subordinately to
this design. When the beautiful becomes, or tends
to become, supreme in worship and in Christian
art, then it becomes unlawful.
Solomon, in the luxuriance of his nature, un-
doubtedly was exceptional in his taste for orna-
ment; and, in this respect, he did not represent
the genius either of Judaism or of the Hebrew
race. And the tradition as being against him, was
true to the instincts of the race. — E. EL]
4. The well-defined difference of the materials of
the vessels used in Solomon's temple next strikes us.
Those made for the interior of the building were
all of gold ; all those outside of it, of brass. The
design of this is apparent. Gold (see Historical,
Ac, on chap. vi. No. 5), by virtue of its surpassing
splendor, is the celestial metal, and was therefore
fitted for the typical heavenly dwelling, where all
is gold. Brass (see Exeget. and Crit. remarks on
rer. 13) most resembles gold in color and brillian-
cy, but stands in the same relation to it that iron
does to silver (Isai. lx. 17); it approaches nearest
to gold, and is fitted, not indeed for the building
itself, but for its approaches, tho porch and the
outer court. There were, then, no new vessels
unknown in the tabernacle ; but the two pillars,
Jaehin and Boaz, were new. There was the old
ark of the covenant in the holy of holies (chap,
viii. 3), the altar, candlestick, and table in the holy
place, the altar of burnt-offering (brazen altar) in
the outer court (2 Chron. iv. 1) ; the molten sea in-
stead of the laver (Ex. xxx. 18), and the lavers in-
stead of the basins, which it is to be presupposed
from Lev. i. 13 were used. The increased size of
Bome of these vessels, such as the altar of burnt-
offering and the brazen sea, as well as the multi-
plication of others, such as the candlestick, the
table, and the "bases," was called for in part by
the increased size of the sanctuary, and the rela-
tion of the house (palace) to the tent, and in part
by the extension of the central-cultus.
5. The two pillars Jaehin and Boaz were nc
more an innovation than the erection of a house
instead of a tent; they owed their existence to the
conditions that distinguished a new period of the
theocracy. This we learn from their suggestive
names. Jaehin refers to the fact that Jehovah's
dwelling-place, hitherto movable and moving,
was now firmly fixed in the midst of His people ;
Boaz tells of the power, strength, and durability
of the house. Both were monuments of Jehovah's
covenant with His people, monuments of the sav-
ing might, grace, and faithfulness of the God of
Israel, who at last crowned the deliverance from
Egypt, by dwelling and reigning ever in a sure
house in the midst of His people. It stands to
reason that such pillars could not have been placed
before the tent ; they could only stand before the
house, where they belonged to the porch, for it
was the latter that gave to the dwelling-place the
appearance of a house and a palace, in distinction
from that of a tent. They were formed in accord-
ance with their signification, being not of wood,
not slender and slight, but of brass, thick and
strong, which gave the impression of firmness and
durability. The crown (capital), which is the
principal characteristic of every pillar, consisted
mainly, as did the brazen sea, of an open lily-cup.
The Hebrew named the lily simply " the white,"
("JT"' from CTt^i to be white;) it is, therefore, a
natural symbol of purity and of holiness to him.
The priests, as the " holy ones " (Ex. iii. 27 sq.),
were dressed in white (Num. xvi. 7), and the high-
priest, the holiest of the holy, wore, on the great
day of atonement, white garments, instead of hia
usual many-colored ones; and these white robes
were called "holy garments" (Lev. xvi. 4, 32).
Inasmuch as " holiness " was the characteristic
and fundamental idea of the Israelitish religion,
the " white," i. e., the lily, seems to have been
their religious Mower, as the lotus was the well-
known sacred flower of the Indian and Egyptian
religions. Besides this, the lily is nowhere more
indigenous than in Palestine (Matt. vi. 28 ; Winer,
JR.- W.-B., ii. s. 28), and it may therefore be named
the flower of the promised land, as the palm was
its tree (see above, llistor. and Ethical, in chap.
vi. Xo. 6, b). If the capitals of the pillars were
thus always and everywhere decorated with carv-
ings of flowers, no more characteristic and suitable
one could be chosen for the capitals before the
"holy temple" (Ps. v. 7; lxxix. 1; exxxviii. 2)
than the lily. The pomegranates on the capital,
and which were also on the high-priest's robe, are
no less characteristic (Ex. xxviii. 33 sq.). As the
apple is the figure generally of the word (Prov. xxf.
11), so the pomegranate, the noblest and finest of
all apples, is the symbol of the noblest, most
precious word, that of Jehovah, which is essentially
law (= covenant). Just as this law is a complex
unity, consisting of a number of single commands,
that delight the heart and are sweeter than honey
(Ps. xix. 9, 11), so the pomegranate encloses a
number of preaious, delicious, and refreshing seeds.
The Chaldee paraphrast renders the words (Eccles.
iv. 13, thus: "Thy youths are filled with (divine)
laws, like pomegranates,'' and vi. 11: "if they are
full of good works (t. e., of the Bw) like pome
cranates." The Gemara also uses the expression
90
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
" Full of the commandments (of God) as a pome-
granate " (comp. Symbol, des Mos. Kult, ii. s. 122
sq.). Now the union of this symbol with the lily
is very natural, for the law was the revealed sa-
cred will of Jehovah, and the covenant, which was
identical with it, was a covenant of holiness. The
symbol, therefore, bore the seal of the same num-
ber as the law and covenant, i. e., ten. Each row
of pomegranates consisted of ten times ten ; they
were adjusted to the different quarters of the
heavens, exactly as the typical heavenly dwelling
was, the kernel and centre of the same being the
law laid up in the ark. Tlie nets, or net-work,
connected with the significant synibols of the lily
and pomegranate, cannot be viewed as mere orna-
ments, used only " for graceful and suitable fast-
enings of the pomegranates " (Thenius). The num-
ber seven engraved on them (the symbolical num-
ber of the covenant-relation and of sanctification)
{Symb. des Mos. Kult., i. s. 193) shows the con-
trary. But their signification cannot be exactly
known, through utter want of analogous objects to
judge from. The later critics have declared these
pillars to have been only imitations of heathen
symbols, but this is a very uncritical and super-
ficial view. It borders ou the ridiculous to look
on them as phallus-figures, or to compare them
with the phallus 180 feet high in the temple of the
Syrian goddess at Hierapolis (Lucian., de dea Syr.,
28 sq.). It is also quite wrong to compare them
with the two columns of the Phoenician Herakles,
or Saturn, who bears up or sustains the world, like
Jehovah, and yet lives and moves eternally (Movers,
Bel. der Phbniz., s. 292 sq.) ; for these pillars were,
the one of gold and the other of emerald (Herodot.,
2, 44) ; they were but an ell high, were square,
anvil-shaped, and stood, like all idols, in the inte-
rior of the temple. It is not less astonishing to
find these almost disproportionately thick, brazen
pillars, taken for an imitation of the Egyptian
6tone obelisks (Stieglitz, Gesch. der Baukunst, s.
136), and to hear it asserted that "they originally
represented, as needles (!) the power and force of
the sun's rays." (Br. Bauer, Reliq. des A. T, ii. s.
92.) Why should the religion of Israel alone abso-
lutely have had no peculiar symbols, but have bor-
rowed all from the natural religions that stood so
far beneath it ?
6. The molten sea was "for the priests to wash
in " (2 Chron. iv. 6), i. ?., " their hands and feet,
when they went into the sanctuary or went up to
the altar also, to offer incense before Jehovah"
(Exod. xxx. 19 sq.), in fact before any of their
priestly functions. It was, therefore, peculiarly
the priests' vessel. Its form, that of an open lily-
cup, corresponded to its purpose. If all budding
and blossoming signified holiness and priesthood
(Num. xvi. 7, comp. with xvii. 20, 23 ; Ps. xcii. 14),
the Mower named the "white," i. e., the lily, must
have been pre-eminently the priestly one. The
fo-ehead-plate of the high-priest, his insignia of
office, was named j«y , flower, and the head-cover-
ing of the ordinary priests njQJD, cognate with
{P3J flower-cup (Ex. xxviii. 36, 40). The form of
the lily-cup showed every one that the vessel was
a priestly vessel ; the flower-buds also that adorned
the edge like a wreath, showed the same. The
measure of the se*a was according to the number
dominant throughout the whole sanctuary, i. e., the
number ten (see above, Histor. and Ethic, on chap
vi. No. iv. b) ; it was ten cubits broad, five deep,
and there were ten flower-buds to every cubit of
the wreath. The molten sea, as a priest's vessel,
stood beside, on twelve young oxen. The ox 1p3 ii
•t t
not only the chief animal for sacrifice, but was the
sacrificial animal of the priests, in distinction from
that of all who were not priests. The law ordered
a young ox to be the sacrifice for the high-prieBt
and his house, and for the whole priesthood (comp.
Lev. iv. 3 sq. with vers. 23, 27, 32, and xvi. 11,
with ver. 15; Ex. xxix. 10 sq. ; Num. viii. 8); it
was specially the priests' animal. The twelve
oxen, therefore, stood in the same relation to the
molten sea, as the twelve lions to the king's throne
(1 Kings x. 20), the lions being the royal animal.
It is plain that the number twelve was not chosen
merely for the sake of " symmetry " (Thenius), but
had reference, like the twelve loaves on the table
of shewbread, to the twelve tribes of Israel, and is
moreover confirmed by the fact that they were
placed just like the twelve tribes in camp, viz., three
each to a quarter of the heavens (Num. ii. 2-31).
The twelve beasts, then, were the symbol of the
whole nation, not in its general, but in the peculiar
characteristic imparted to it when it was chosen
from all nations, as "a kingdom of priests, a holy
nation " (Ex xix. 6). As Israel stood in relation
to all peoples as a priestly nation, so one tribe
stood as the priest-tribe in relation to the whole
nation ; the special priesthood of the tribe rested
upon the universal priesthood of the nation, and
was, as it were, borne by it. The whole carved-
work of the molten sea was rooted finally in this
great idea. Here, also, instead of explaining Is-
raelitish symbols by Israelitish ideas, just as with
the brazen pillars, the effort has been made to look
around for heathen models, and such an one has
been found in the egg-shaped stone giant-vessel
of thirty feet in circumference, having four handles,
and ornamented with an ox, which stood at Ama-
thus in Cyprus; it is also asserted that the twelve
oxen were symbols of Time and the twelve months
(Vatke, Bibl. Theol, s. 324, 336: Winer, R.-W.-B.,
ii. s. 68, n). We need scarcely say that that vessel
belonged completely to nature-religion ; the ma-
terial (stone), the shape (that of an egg), the four
handles (elements), the bull (generation); every-
thing, in fact, denotes the fundamental dogmas of
nature-religion ; nothing but the blindest prejudice
and utter want of critical capacity could discover
— where the difference in outward form as well as
in significance is so great — a likeness with the
brazen sea, the purpose of which the biblical ac-
count itself states so clearly and definitely.
7. The ten lavers on the movable bases wert
united to the brazen sea (2 Chron. iv. 6), for as the
latter served for the purification of the priests at
their functions, so the former were for the wash-
ing of the sacrifices brought to the altar for burn-
ing. They were, therefore, only placed there for
sacrificial service, the chief vessel of which was
the altar of burnt-offering, and they stood in an
inseparable though subordinate relation to it. As
they were not independent, then, we need not seek
any further signification for them, more than for
the other lesser vessels, the pots, shovels, bowls.
But if they were only useful articles, why does the
text dwell so much at length on them, and de
scribe them so exactly and carefully, while if
CHAPTER Vr. 1-51.
91
never once mentions the chief one, the altar itself?
The altar of sacrifice seems to have been origin-
ally of earth, of unhewn stones (Ex. xx. 24 sq.) ; it
bad, therefore, only one covering, which gave it
a de^nite shape, ir the tabernacle as well as in
the ten pie (Ex. xxvii. 1-8). Solomon neither
cuild nor would alter anything in respect of this
law-appointed and significant simplicity ; how-
ever, in order indirectly to impress upon this chief
article of use the character of the glorious house
of Jehovah, he made the vessels inseparably con-
nected with it, and forming with it one whole, the
more splendid and artistic, and decorated them
with all the emblems which were the significant
temple-insignia : cherubim, palms, and flowers.
Be did not adorn them on their own account,
therefore, but rather for the sake of the altar,
which they were to beautify. All these figures
belonged properly to the interior of the sanctuary
(see above, Histor. and Ethic, on chap. vi. No. G).
and they were placed here, on the vessels of the
altar of sacrifice, to point to the interior of the
sanctuary, and signified the intimate relation in
which the outer court, and especially the altar for
sacrifice, stood to it. When lions and oxen are
particularly mentioned as next the cherubims,
these are not to be understood as new figures, but
only as single component parts of the cherub ; as
in Rev. iv. 6, 7, where all four are presented apart
from each other. One may look in vain for a
heathen parallel to these bases and lavers. " The
whole arrangement, so full of meaning, appears
quite peculiar to the Israelitish temple, for nothing
of the kind is found anywhere else, either on Egyp-
tian or Assyrian monuments " (Thenius).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-12. Solomon first builds the house of
the Lord, then begins to build his own house. We
must first render to God what is of God, and when
this has been truly done, then to Caesar what is
Caesar's (Matt. xxii. 21). He who strives first after
the kingdom of God, will likewise succeed in what
he undertakes for his personal and temporal wel-
fare (Matt. vi. 33). — The building of the house for
the king followed immediately upon the building
of the temple ; they belong together. Altar and
throne stand and fall together, even as we have
the two commandments : Fear God, honor the king
(1 Pet. ii. 17; Prov. xxiv. 21). In the kingdom
where religion and Christianity are cherished and
highly honored, there royalty is most secure; a
God-fearing people is the best, nay, the only sup-
port of the throne. — Kings and princes cannot, on
account of their high position, choose to live in
ordinary houses, or yet in poor hovels ; it is simply
folly to reproach them when they build castles for
themselves. The building of palaces then becomes
sinful and blamable only when they are built for
the gratification of ostentation and insolence, or at
the expense of a poor and oppressed people. — Be-
fore his dwelling-house Solomon placed the courti
of the throne and of justice, and before these th«
armory, for it is the high and noble privilege of
royalty to administer judgment and justice within
the kingdom to all the nation (1 Chron. xviii. 14;
Ps. lxxxix. 14), and from without, to protect it by
force of arms from all its enemies. [Accommodate
and apply these remarks to the State, or nation, the
body politic — to its public buildings and the rest,
as well as to the reverence for law needed upon th«
part of the people, and they will be found useful
for our American people to consider. — E. H.]
Vers. 13-14. A wise prince, in the furtherance
of his enterprises which aim at the honor of God,
and the good of the nation, looks around for the
best instruments, and in order to obtain them, seeks
them wherever he can find them : for Prov. xxvi. 10.
— He who has learned anything thoroughly, and
brought it to perfection in its especial province,
must be sought out and held in esteem, whatsoever
be his position or country. — Art is one of the no-
blest and best gifts which God has bestowed upon
man ; therefore, above all, it should be applied to
the glorification of God, and not merely to the sat-
isfaction and pleasure of the world. To scorn and
reject art, in the service of the Church, is to reject
Him who has given it. — Ter. 15 sq. As in the
typical temple the implements were not all the
same, but of very varied kinds, each one of which,
gold and brass, primary and secondary or auxiliary,
had its peculiar place and purpose, so it is also in
the true and real temple of God, in the Church of
the Lord (2 Tim. ii. 20). Thus, varied as are the
gifts, the calling, and the position of each individual
in it, so each one must regard himself as an instru-
ment of the Lord, remaining in that calling wherein
he is called, and serving all the others with the
gift which he has received (1 Pet. iv. 10; 1 Cor.
xii. 28-31). — What signification have the holy ves-
sels of the temple for the Church of the Lord,
which is the true temple of God (Eph. ii. 20 sq.) ?
(1) The pillars, Jachin and Boaz, in the porch, are,
as it were, the superscription over the temple, and
declare its strong foundation and its permanence ;
the Lord declares both to His Church : Upon this
rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it (Matt. xvi. 18). Great,
noble promise! (2) The brazen sea and the vases
in the porch are there, that the priests may purify
themselves, and the sacrifices which they bring
there. The Church of the Lord is that holy priest-
hood which offers spiritual sacrifices, &c. (1 Pet. ii.
5). Those who wish to perform such Bervice the
prophet summons: Wash ye, 4c. (Is. i. 16), and
the apostle : I beseech you, Ac. (Rom. xii. 1). (3)
The altar, the candlesticks, and the table stand in
the building itself, which is a type of heaven,
and show that for them who offer themselves pure
and holy sacrifices, a divine light and life are
prepared before the throne of God, and no other
sacrifice is rendered except the incense of prayer,
of praise, and worship of God (Ps. xvi. 11- Rev.
v. 3-14).
92 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
B. — The Consecration of the Temple.
Chap. VTIL 1-66.
1 ' Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the
tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in
Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord [Je-
2 hovah] out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel
assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanirn,
3 which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests
4 took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and
the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that icere in the
5 tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up. Aud king Solo-
mon, and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with
him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor num-
6 bered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the
Lord [Jehovah] unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy
7 place, even under the wings of the cherubims. For the cherubims spread forth
their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and
8 the staves3 thereof above. And they drew out4 the staves, that the ends of the
staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen
9 without: and there they are unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save
the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord [Jeho-
vah] made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the
10 land of Egypt. And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy
11 place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord [Jehovah], so that the priests
could not stand to minister because of the cloud : for the glory of the Lord
[Jehovah] had [omit had *] filled the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. Then spake
12 Solomon, The Lord [Jehovah] said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
13 I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in
for ever."
14 And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of
15 Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood; and he said, Blessed be the
Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel,' which spake with his mouth unto David my
16 father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought
forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of
Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein ; ' but I chose David
17 to be over my people Israel. And it was in the heart of David my father to
18 build an house for the name of the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel. And the
Lord [Jehovah] said unto David my father, Whereas it was * in thine heart to
19 build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was' in thine heart. Never
theless, thou shalt not build the house ; but thy son that shall come forth out of
20 thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name. And the Lord [Jehovah]
hath performed [established10] his word that he spake, and I am risen up [estab-
lished 10J in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the
Lord [Jehovah] promised, and have built an house for the name of the Lord
21 [Jehovah] God of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the
covenant of the Lord [Jehovah], which he made with our fathers, when he
brought them out of the land of Egypt.
22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord [Jehovah] in the presence
of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
23 And he said, Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven
above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy ser-
24. vants" that walk before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy
servant David my father that thou promisedst [spakest to '*] him : thou spakest
CHAPTER Till. 1-66. 93
also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day,
25 Therefore now, Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my
father that thou promisedst [spakest to12] him, saying, There shall not fail thee
a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel ; so that thy children [sons] take
heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
26 And now, O 13 God of Israel, let thy word,14 I pray thee, be verified, which thou
27 spakest unto thy servant David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the
earth? behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how
28 much less this house that I have builded ? Yet have thou respect unto the
prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord [Jehovah] my God, to
hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee
29 to-day: that thine eyes maybe open toward this house night and day, even
toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou
mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.
30 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel,
when they shall pray toward this place : and hear thou in 15 heaven thy dwell-
31 ing-place : and when thou hearest, forgive. If any man trespass against his neigh-
bour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come
32 before thine altar in this house : then hear thou in ie heaven, and do, and judge
thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring " his way upon his head ; and
33 justifying the righteous, to give" him according to his righteousness. When
thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned
against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray,
34 and make supplication unto thee in this house : then hear thou in heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which
35 thou gavest unto their lathers. When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain,
because they have sinned against thee ; if they pray toward this place, and con-
36 fess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afiiictest them: then hear thou
in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou
teach them [when thou teachest them (by affliction)] the good way wherein they
should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people
37 for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blast-
ing, mildew,18 locust, or if there be caterpillar [if there be consuming locust "] ;
if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities ; whatsoever plague,
38 whatsoever sickness there be ; what prayer and supplication soever be made by
any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of
39 his own heart,20 and spread forth his hands toward this house : then hear thou
in heaven thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man accord-
ing to his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even thou only, knowest
40 the hearts of all the children of men;) that they may fear thee all the days that
41 they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. Moreover, concerning
a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for
42 thy name's sake ; " (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong
hand, and of thy stretched-out arm ;) when he shall come and pray toward
43 this house ; "hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that
the stranger calleth to thee for : that all people of the earth may know thy name,
to fear thee, as do thy people Israel ; and that they may know that this house,
44 which I have builded, is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle
against their enemy,'" whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto
the Lord [Jehovah] toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toxoard the
45 house that I have built for thy name : then hear thou in heaven their prayer
46 and their supplication, and maintain their cause.2* If they sin against thee, (for
there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them
to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy,
47 far or near ; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were
carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them
that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely,
48 we have committed wickedness; and so return unto thee with all their heart,
94 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away cap
tive, and pray unto thee toward their laud, which thou gavest unto their fathers
49 the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name
then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling-place.
50 and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee,
and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and
o-ive them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may
51 have compassion on them: for they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which
52 thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron: that
thine eyes may be open " unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the
supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for
53 unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the
earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy ser-
vant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord [Jehovah] God."
54 And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this
prayer and supplication unto the Lord [Jehovah], he arose from before the altar
of the Lord [Jehovah], from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to
55 heaven. And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud
56 voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord [Jehovah], that hath given rest unto his peo-
ple Israel, according to all that he promised : there hath not failed one word of
all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
57 The Lord [Jehovah] our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let hiin
58 not leave us, nor torsake us: that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk
in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judg-
59 ments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith
I have made supplication before the Lord [Jehovah], be nigh unto the Lord
[Jehovah] our God day and night, that he maintain the cause " of his servant,
60 and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require : " that
all the people of the earth may know that the Lord [Jehovah] is God, and that
61 there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord [Jehovah]
our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
62 And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord [Je-
63 hovabl. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered
unto the Lord [Jehovah], two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and
twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated
64 the house of the Lord [Jehovah]. The same day did the king hallow the mid-
dle of the court that was before the house of the Lord [Jehovah] : for there he
offered burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings :
because the brazen altar that was before the Lord [Jehovah] was too little to
receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offer-
65 ings. And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great
congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before
the 'Lord [Jehovah] our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days
66 On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and
went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the
Lord [Jehovah] had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
J Ver. 1.— [On the apocopated future ^flp' In connection with TN , see Ewald, Krit. Gramm., § 238 b., p. 598 in 7th
id The Vat. Sept. prefaces this chapter with the statement "and it came to pass when Solomon had made an end of
building the house of the Lord ami his own house, after twenty years, then," 4c; and omits the middle part or this verw
and nearly all of ver. 2, etc. The Alex. Sept. follows the Heb.
• Ver. 1.— [The renderings of the Heb. K'tM In the A. V. are various. Besides a few irrelevant translations, it f
rendered by ciiptnin, chief, governor, prince, and ruler— prince being the most common. There Is also some variation
In the Sept. translation of the word, but it is usually rendered apx^v.
•Ver. 7.— [For staves the Sepl. substitute holy tilings.
4 Ver 8 — {Luther, followed by our author, here translates " And the Btaves were so long that, etc., thus leaving onl
CHAPTER VIII. 1-66.
95
!he evidence of design in the arrangement ; they adopt the intransitive sense of the verb OTS'l , as has also been done
by the Vulg. and Syr. The sense of prolonging, extending, which is given by Keil, and adopted by the A. V., is at lenst
is usual, and seems better suited to the connection. The skives, at the utmost, could have been but 10 cubits long, the
depth of the holy of holies in the tabernacle. The author however assumes that the length of the ark, and consequently
the direction of the staves, was north and south, in which case the staves could not in any way have been seen from outside
the vail.
* Ver. 11. — [There is no occasion here for the pluperfect, nor is it expressed in any of those VV. which admit of the
distinction.
• Ver. 13.-[The Val. Sept. omits vers. 12 and 13, the Alex, following the Heb.
7 Ver. 15.— [The Sept. here add o-ij^epoi', and instead of unto read concerning David.
8 Ver. 16.— -[The Vat. (not Alex.) Sept. here supplies from 2 Ohron. vi. 6 the clause «ai efcAcfVp '" 'Upovo-aXnn tiv<*
»b bvoy.a ijlov e<«£. Our author omits the name Israel at the end of the verse.
9 Ver. IS.— [Luther, followed by the author, uses here the present tense; the VV., following the Heb., have, like the
A. V., ttie past.
'" Ver. 20. — [It seems better, if possible, to render the Heb. verb Q^p in both these clauses by the same English
word, though with differing shades of meaning. The Sept. has avio-rrtae . . . avear^v ; the author has bin bestittigi,
Luther, like the A. V., varies the word.
1 ' Ver. 23.— [The Sept. put this in the singular.
■» Vers. 24, 25.— [The Heb. "1T7 , being the verb in all these clauses, there is no occasion to change the English word.
» Ver. 26.— [Many MSS., followed by the Sept., Vulg., Syr., and Arab., prefix HliT .
>< Ver. 26.— Even allowing that the k'tib ^'"ITl points to 2 Sam. vii. 28, yet nevertheless the k'ri ^"IST appearl
according to 2 Chron. vi. 17 and i. 9 to be the true reading.— Bahr. [It is also the reading of many MSS., followed by the
Sept., Syr., and Arab. .
16 Ver. 30— [D'DE'ITvS T^U' DIpD'PX the proposition is the same as in the previous clause, toward this plaoe.
The expression is a pregnant one=hear thou the prayer which is offered toward heaven, &c.
18 Ver. 82. — [On MS., followed by the Sept., Chald., Syr., and Arab., reads from heaven — "$rVlD j and so in vers.
Si, 86, 39, 48, 45, 49, according to 2 Chron. vi. 22, 28, 25. But see last remark.
17 Ver. 32.— [The Heb. fiJI? is the 6ame in both clauses, and is rendered alike by the Chald. and Sept., which the
English idiom scarcely admits.
18 Ver. 87.— Withering of the grain through a hot wind.— Bahr. [Such is the sense of tip"!1 wherever it occurs, as
here, in connection with pSIt;', viz., Deut. xxviii. 22; 2 Chron. vi. 28; Amos vl. 9; Hag. li. 17.
19 Ver. 37. — [TDn appears to be merely an epithet of ri3"!X ■ Cf. Deut. xxviii. 88.
38 Ver. 38.— [132^ yjj . Qf. 2 Chron. vi. 29, 13X3OT )])}} .
31 Ver. 41.— [The Vat. Sept. omits the latter half of ver. 41 and the parenthesis of ver. 42.
33 Ver. 43. — [Many MSS. and editions, followed by the Sept., prefix the conjunction here as In vers. 86, 89, 45, <feo.
38 Ver. 44— [Some MSS. and the VV. read V3'X in the plural.
28 Ver. 45.— [The phrase DDETD H^'V always means the support of the righteous cause; with the suffix of the
personal pronoun here and ver. 49 it assumes that the warfare to which they hail been sent was righteous.
38 Ver. 52. — [The Sept. supplement this frequent expression by adding "and thine eare."
38 Ver. 53. — [The Chald., Vulg-, and Syr. here follow the masoretic punctuation of HliT *JTX and, like the A. V.,
translate Lord God. The Sept. have, according to the Vat, xiipte *vpte, which is followed by Luther, while the Alex, omits
the expression altogether. Our author translates Herr Jehovah. The Sept. make a considerable addition at the end of the
verse.
37 Ver. 59.— [See note on ver. 45.
88 Ver. 59. — [The words at t/te matter shall require not being in the Heb. are better omitted. — F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AJTD CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-7. Then Solomon assembled, Ac. The
section 2 Chron. v. 2 to vi. 42, which is for the most
part like it, may be compared with this whole chap-
ter. The little word fx time denotes, like ver. 12
(comp. Josh. x. 12; Ex. xv. 1), the point of time
which immediately follows what is above related,
and means, what indeed the context infers, namely,
that as soon as all the vessels were finished (chap.
vii. 51), Solomon proceeded to dedicate the temple.
In accordance with the great importance of the
temple-building to the whole theocracy, he called
together the elders, i. «., the presiding officers of
communities, and also the heads of the tribes and
the families, that the entire people might thereby
be represented. The solemnity took place at tlie
feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh
month. The usual interpretation of D^nXH , month
of the flowing rivers (rainy season), is more accept-
able than that of Thenius, gift (fruit) month, or
that of Bottcher, suspension of the equinox. This
a.onth was called Tisri in our writer's time and
later ; upon this account he expressly says that
Ethanim was the seventh. The feast of taberna-
cles occurred on the 15th of this month (Levit.
xxiii. 34); it was the greatest and best observed
of all the three yearly festivals, and was especially
called "the feast" by the Jews (Symb. des Mos.
Kult. ii. s. 656). Solomon therefore very fitly sol-
emnized the dedication of the temple at the time
of this feast. Although the text gives here only
the month and the day, and not the year, it is of
course to be understood that it was the first feast
of tabernacles that occurred after the comple-
tion of the temple in the eighth month (chap. vi.
38); consequently it fell in the following year.
The opinion that the dedication took place in the
seventh month of the same year, in the eighth
month of which the temple was finished (Ewald),
needs no refutation. The assertion of Thenius,
with which Keil also now agrees, appears more
probable. He thinks that the temple was not dedi-
cated until twenty years from the commencement
of the building, i. e., thirteen years after its com-
pletion ; because the divine answer to the dedica-
tion prayer, according to chap. ix. 1-10, did not
96
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
oome till tl.e temple of Jehovah and the king's
house were both finished (chap. vi. 38, and vii. 1),
and in the Sept. chap. is. begins with these words :
" And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished
the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's
House [after twenty years), he assembled, &c. ; " but
the passage, chap. is. 1, certainly does not say that
the dedication did not take place for twenty years,
or that Jehovah immediately thereafter appeared
to Solomon ; it speaks not only of the completion of
both those buildings, but of all the others besides,
which Solomon had begun (chap. ix. 19), so that we
must in that case place the dedication much later
than twenty years (see below, on chap. ix. 1). As to
the words of the Sept., they are unmistakably a
gloss from chap. ix. 1 and 10, inserted here, and such
as is found nowhere else, either in a MS. or in any
other ancient translation, and therefore can never
be regarded as the original text. When we con-
aider how very desirous David was to build an
house unto the Lord, that when he was not per-
mitted to do so, he pressed the task as a solemn
duty upon his son, that Solomon then, as soon as
he had established his throne, began the building
and continued it with great zeal ; it seems utterly
incredible that he should have left the finished
building thirteen years unused, and delayed its
dedication until the twenty-fourth year of his reign.
The weightiest reasons alone could have induced
him to do so, but we hear nothing of any such.
Even if we suppose the vessels not to have been
finished as soon as the building, but to have been
commenced after its completion, still it could not
have taken thirteen years to make them ; and there
was no reason why the dedication of the temple
should have been put off until the palace was fin-
ished, the latter requiring no solemn dedication,
while the speedy dedication of the central sanc-
tuary was an urgent necessity if the restoration of
the unity of worship, commanded by the law, was
to be established.
To bring up the ark of the covenant of the
Lord. In the march through the wilderness, the
ark was covered with some cloths, and carried by
the levites (Numb. iv. 5, 15), but on special occa-
sions, the priests themselves carried it, as here
and in Josh. iii. 6 ; vi. 6. Not only the ark, but
the tabernacle, which had hitherto stood at Gibeon
(2 Chron. i. 3, 4), with all its vessels, was brought
out from Zion into the temple. While the priests
carried the ark, the levites (ver. 4) carried the other
things pertaining to the tent, all of which were
doubtless preserved in the rooms of the side-struc-
ture. When the procession reached the temple
(ver. 5), the ark was laid down in the outer court
before the entrance to the holy place, and a great
and solemn sacrifice offered ; then the priests bore
the ark to its appointed place. For vers. 6 and 1
see above, on chap. vi. 23 sq.
Vers. 8-9. And they drew out the staves,
that the ends, &c. Ver. 8, which has had the
most various interpretations put upon it, is nothing
but a parenthesis following the concluding words
of the preceding verse, explaining how it happened
that the great cherubim-statues, with their wings
stretched across the entire width of the sanctuary
(chap. vi. 27), not only overshadowed the ark itself,
but even its staves. As it says in Ex. xxv. 15, the
staves were never to be removed, but were to be-
long inseparably to the ark. If the cherubim-
statues then were to overshadow the ark. they
should also cover the staves inseparably united ix
it. Now as the ark lay lengthwise north and
south in the holy of holies, and the wings of the
clierubim-statues stretched from the southern to
the northern wall of the holy of holies, the stavep
which they overshadowed with their wings must
have been placed north and south, i. e.. on the
longer sides of the ark, as Josephus (Ant. iii. 6, 5)
expressly states. Therefore, their heads or ends
could be seen from the sanctuary (great space) only
close before the holy of holies (Debir). The reason
why the staves were so long (131 N' is to be under-
stood as intransitive, as Keil remarks; as in Ex. xx.
12 ; Deut. v. 16 ; xxv. 15, and not to be translated:
they made the staves long, as Kimchi and Thenius
make it, for thus ns should stand before D,T13n)
was in consequence of the weight of the ark, which
must have been considerable, because the stone
tables of the law were inside of the ark ; and it
was carried by more than four, perhaps by eight
priests, who did not touch it, as was commanded
in Numb. iv. 15. And as the holy of holies was
only intended for the ark of the covenant (chap,
vi. 1 9), and the latter was only two and a half cu-
bits long, with its long staves inseparable from it,
it took up nearly the whole space. The oldest in-
terpretation of our verse was borrowed from the
Rabbins; it says that the staves were drawn so
far forward that their ends touched the veil of the
most holy place, and caused visible protrusions on
the outside ; but this is disproved by the fact that
the staves were placed on the longest side of the
ark, and pointed south and north, not east and
west, consequently could not have touched the
curtain. Thenius, with whom Merz and Bertheau
agree, explains the simple sentence in ver. 8 " by
optical laws : when a person at the entrance of the
holy place (lie makes tyiprriO mean that) could
have seen through the open door the ends of the
staves of the ark which was in the middle of the
holy of holies, these staves must have been, ac-
cording to the laws of perspective, seven cubits
long." This highly ingenious explanation rests, as
Keil justly remarks, on ill-founded suppositions,
comp. ,B6ttcher Aehrenl. ii. s. 69. The words
V3in 'OS'py cannot be translated: "from the
great space before the debir," but mean, from the
sanctuary, " when a person stood close before the
dark holy of holies " (Ewald), or " near the most
holy " (Merz). It is certain that the writer of these
books had not the remotest thought about the laws
of optics and perspective. The addition, and then
they are unto this day, means: though the ark now
had its fixed resting-place, the staves were left,
according to the command Ex. xxv. 15, in order to
signify that it was the same ark, which dated from
the time when Israel was chosen to be a covenant
people. The expression " unto this day," also oc-
curring, chap, ix. 21; xii. 19; 2 Kings viii. 22,
shows that the writer drew from a manuscript
written before the destruction of the temple, and
did not deem it necessary to deviate from its words,
Ver. 9. There was nothing in the ark, &c.
Ver. 9 returns to the ark itself, and emphasizes
the fact that it was brought into the holy of ho>
lies (ver. 6) because it preserved the original docu
ment of the covenant which God made with Israel,
which consisted of the "ten commandn_entl that
CHAPTER VIII. 1-66.
97
the Lord spake unto them " (Deut. x. 4). By virtue
of this document, the ark was the pledge of the
covenant relation ; and at the same time was the
fundamental condition of the religious and politi-
cal life of Israel; it naturally formed the heart and
central point of the sanctuary or dwelling-place
of Jehovah in the midst of His chosen people
(compare Symb. des Mos. Kull, i. s. 3S3 sq.) : " there
would have been no temple without the ark of the
covenant, that alone made it a sanctuary " (Heng-
stenberg). According to Hebr. ix. 4, the ark con-
tained, besides the tables of the law, the golden
pot with manna (Ex. xvi. 33), and Aaron's rod
(Numb. xvii. 25). The endeavor has been made to
reconcile this passage with the one under consid-
eration, by the supposition that those two addi-
tional objects were no longer in the ark in Solo-
mon's time, having only been there when Moses
lived, the latter period being the one in the mind
of the writer to the Hebrews (Ebrard, Moll, and
others). But the passages quoted only say they
were laid " before Jehovah " or "before the tes-
timony;" not in the ark. The Jewish tradition
alone renders it in (Schottgen, hor. Hebr. p. 973),
and this tradition, with which the reader of this
epistle may have been familiar, was probably in
the writer's mind, for he was not desirous of giving
an exact archasological description (comp. Tholuck
and Bleek on Heb. ix. 4). V. Meyer's opinion,
which Lisco also adopts, that the manna and rod
were not in the ark any longer because " the direct
theocracy, with its spiritual sceptre, and its bless-
ings, had departed, and the people had an earthly
king who was now to guide and watch over them,"
is in the highest degree erroneous. Ilorcb is not
the highest summit of the mountains of Sinai, but
a general name for the mountain-range of which
Sinai is only a part: comp. Thenius on the place.
Vers. 10-13. And it came to pass, when the
priests were come out of the holy place, Ac.
Ex. xl. 34, 35, is almost the same as vers. 10 and
11; " then a cloud covered the tent of the congre-
gation, and the glory of the Lord filled the taber-
nacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the
tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode
thereon (pt.") and the glory of the Lord filled the
tabernacle." It is plain that the author meant,
what once happened at the dedication of the taber-
nacle took place again at the dedication of the
house. Tlie cloud, not a cloud (Luther), but that,
in and with which, as once at the tabernacle, the
glory of the Lord came down, though naturally
not the same cloud as at that time. What ver. 10
says of the cloud, ver. 11 says of the glory of the
Lord ; it filled the house, not only the most holy
place, but the whole dwelling, so that the priests
were prevented for a moment from performing
their functions in the sanctuary. We cannot pos-
sibly conceive this to have been the cloud of smoke
"which, rising from the burning offerings on the
altar, veiled the glory of the Lord " (Bertheau on
2 Chron. v. 14) ; for in this case the priests them-
selves would have been prevented from officiating.
Nor can we, on account of the nirp—liaD, think as
T
Thenius, of the " bright and streaming cloud "
which the Rabbins name rDpB'i for Solomon
could not have said, on beholding it: Jehovah
dwells PDIJQ; this word denoting, as Thenius
himself rightly says, "exactly the black dark-
ness ; " and he takes an unwarrantable liberty
when, as the Chaldee, he reads DXITS for it. It
is admitted that the " darkness must refer to the
cloud " just also as that which in Ex. xix. 9 is
named pi' is called ~>S1]} in Ex. xx. 21; and in
Deut. iv. 11; v. 9; Ps. xcvii. 2, both words are
conjoined as synonymes. Keil, too, thinks the py
is the shekinah, for he says : " the glory of the
Lord, which is like a consuming fire, manifested
itself in the cloud." But this also is contradicted
by the words of Solomon, that the Lord dwells in
the (thick) darkness ; the text has not a syllable
about a fiery appearance ; and certainly a consum-
ing fire cannot be thought of here, where the sub-
ject is the gracious presence of the Lord. Abar-
banel indeed thinks that the fire of the cloud burst
forth from it, after Solomon's prayer, and consumed
the burnt-offering, 2 Chron. vii. 1 ; but it expressly
says in this passage, that fire came " from heaven "
(and therefore not out of the cloud). Keil further
remarks: "This wonderful manifestation of the
divine glory only took place at the dedication;
afterwards, the cloud was visible in the holy of
holies only on the great day of atonement, when
the high-priest entered there " (Lev. xvi. 2). This,
however, is quite contrary to the rabbinical be-
lief, which was that the shekinah hung constantly
above the ark of the covenant; and it also pre-
supposes that the wonderful manifestation was
regularly repeated on that solemnity of atonement,
although neither the text nor the Jewish tradition
mentions such a thing ; and this would have no
analogy with God's miracles, which never recur
regularly on a particular day. Our text only men-
tions a dark cloud, which, as it filled the whole house,
must necessarily have only been a passing phe-
nomenon ; it served to show that the Lord, as once
in the tent, would now henceforth dwell in the
house built for Him. nin^-IU^ stands, as Solo-
mon's phrase in ver. 12 shows, for Jehovah him-
self, and is the standing Old Testament designation
of the being (majesty) of God [like the 66^a of the
New Testament. — E. H.], raised absolutely above
all that is creaturely, yet stooping (pE*, Ex. xl. 35),
i. e., concentrating himself, in order to manifest and
assert himself, either blessing and saving as here,
or punishing and destroying, as for instance, in Ps.
xviii. T/ie Lord said. Because there is no passage
showing that the Lord spoke those words, The-
nius translates ION "the Lord proposeth to dwell
in the thick darkness: or, He has made known
that He will dwell in the thick darkness;" but
just because the Lord had said so, Solomon beheld
in the cloud a sign that he had come down to dwell
in the temple (pt;'); he remembered the plain dec-
laration Ex. xix. 9 ; Levit. xvi. 2. " Overpowered
by that sublime moment, and filled with joy that he
was counted worthy of the favor of being allowed
to build a house for the Lord, he utters the joyful
words " (Bertheau) : 'JVJ2 nJ3 , surely 1 I have
built; for which Chron. gives TC32 'JX: I, yea, I
have built. For the words in ver. 13, an house to
dwell in, a settled place, see on chap. vi. 2, a, Histori-
cal and Ethical. D'tJPIJJ is similar to Josh. iv. T;
98
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Job xii. 24 ; 1 Kings i. 3 1 (comp. Hengstenberg,
Christol. ii. ». 432 sq.). According to 2 Chron. v.
12 sq., songs of praise, accompanied by harps and
psalteries, burst forth, as the priests came out of
the sanctuary.
Vers. 14-21. And the king turned his face,
&.C. Solomon had spoken the words of vers. 12
and 1 3 with his face turned to the temple ; but he
now turned towards the people who were in the
outer court, and who listened standing, i. e., with
proper reverence, to the following discourse. This
is a solemn declaration (vers. 15-21) that the tem-
ple was undertaken and finished according to Je-
hovah's word and will. The course of thought is,
compared with 2 Chron. vi. 4-11, as follows: "so
long as Israel, after the departure from Egypt,
wandered about, and had not come into posses-
sion of the promised land, Jehovah had chosen no
abiding dwelling-place, His habitation was mov-
able— a tent. But after He had chosen David to
be king, and brought His people by him to the full
and quiet possession of the promised land, it was
fitting that He, as well as the nation, should have
an abiding dwelling-place. Jerusalem being the
city of David, and the central point of the king-
dom promised to him ' for ever,' Jehovah had
chosen this very city for His ' everlasting ' habita-
tion. It was, however, forbidden to my father, Da-
vid, to execute His purpose, namely, to build an
house to the name of the Lord, instead of the tent;
according to divine direction, He deputed this
work to me, whom Jehovah had already confirmed
as his successor. I then, specially commissioned
and empowered to do so, have built this house,
and brought into it the ark of the covenant, the
pledge of the divine gracious presence ; and the
cloud that has just now filled the house, as once
it did the tent, is the sign that Jehovah will dwell
here." The promise, the fulfilment of which Solo-
mon refers to in this discourse, is that of 2 Sam.
vii. 4-16, comp. with 1 Chron. xxii. 6-11 and xxviii.
2—7. For the expression: that my name shall be
there, the pregnant meaning of which we may
gather from its constant repetition (vers. 16, 17,
18, 19, comp. 29, 43, 44), see above, on chap. vi.
Histor. and Ethical, 2, 6. It is worthy of notice
that at the beginning and the conclusion of the
address (vers. 16 and 21), the building of the tem-
ple is placed in relation to the deliverance from
Egypt. Comp. above on chap. vi. 1.
Vers. 22-26. And Solomon stood before the
altar of the Lord. 2 Chron. vi. 13 mentions that
Solomon had a brazen scaffold (~IV3) made, which
he mounted, and then knelt down to pray (comp.
v. 54); as the text says nothing of its form, we
will not decide whether it had, as Thenius thinks,
a square support, and a rounded edge. Certainly
it was a species of pulpit, not behind, but before
the altar of burnt-offering. It does not follow from
"IJJ , that Solomon again turned his face to the tem-
ple (Thenius) : it means before, opposite ; the peo-
ple therefore, could not have stood behind him,
which must have happened, had he turned his back
to them. The spreading out the hands is a sign
of praying, just as our folding of the hands is (Ex.
ix. 29, 31 ; Ps. xliv. 21 ; cxliii. 6; Isai. i. 15; lxv.
!, Ac). Modern criticism has pronounced the dedi-
cation prayer in its given form, vers. 23-61, to be
unauthentic. De Wette and Stahelin place I he
time of its composition in the period of the exile.
Ewald admits that it is, "notwithstanding it»
length, a very fine discourse ; but belonging, in
the style of thought, rather to the seventh than
the eleventh or tenth century," and thinks that
it was most probably composed by the first of
the so-called elaborators of Deuteronomy. Ac-
cording to Thenius, there is a sketch in the prayei
to be held as historical, though it be brief; but
it contains considerable interpolations, as vers.
44-51; and the frequent coincidence with pas-
sages in Deut. and Josh., as well as "the style,
which is so often diffuse, verbose, and watery (I),
denote a more recent working up." "We remark,
on the other hand : that the text containing the
prayer, in Chron., perfectly coincides with that in
Kings, except in a few particulars ; but this proves
that it was not taken from the latter, but that both
accounts were derived from a common source. So
much then is certain, that our writer did not invent
the prayer, but found it in the original which he
drew from, and gave it again — as the similar text
of Chron. shows — unaltered. The only question
then is, of what date was the common original ?
Chap. xi. 41 names as such the "book of the acti
of Solomon," and the chronicler, " the book of Na-
than the prophet " (2 Chron. ix. 29). The latter,
however, cannot certainly belong to the seventh
century, still less to the time of the captivity ; it
evidently was written, as Bleek justly remarks,
" in view of the state of things, when the temple,
the city of Jerusalem, and David's kingdom still
existed." As to the "thoughts," Thenius admits
that the verses 27, 28, 41-43, 58, 60, "are fully
worthy of a Solomon," and this without being able
to prove that the others are unworthy of them ;
they are, on the contrary, in fit connection and per-
fect harmony with them (for the so-called interpo-
lations of the vers. 44-51, see below, on the place).
Vi'e can only conclude that this prayer was of later
composition, because of its harmony with some
passages of Deut. and Lev., if these books also
belong to a later period ; and this is unproved.
But with equal propriety, inversely, we may con-
clude from the prayer, that these books were
in existence in the time of Solomon, and were
known to him as the pupil of a prophet. Finally,
if the style and composition of the prayer, because
they are verbose and watery, prove later working
up, this objection rests on purely subjective taste ;
and we have just as good a right to hold, as Ewald
does, that it is, " in spite of its length, a very fina
discourse." It is incredible besides, that a dis
course, holding so important a place in Old Testa-
ment history, should have been composed later,
and falsely put into the mouth of the great king;
we must believe, on the contrary, that if ever a
speech were written down and preserved carefully,
it was that one.
Vers. 23-26. Lord God of Israel, &c. Vers.
23-26, form the introduction to the prayer which
is united to the speech, vers. 15-21, and gives
praise and thanks to God for having already ful-
filled the promise made to David (vers. 23, 24) h)
so far as the house (2 Sam. vii. 5-16) was con
cernsd, uniting with it the request that the Lord
would further fulfil it, with regard to the house,
i. e., the race of David, and their sitting upon the
throne of Israel (vers. 25, 26). The address, there
is no God like Tltee, &c., means : not the mere is no
god among all those in heaven and earth like Thefc,
but, nothing is like to Thee, who art in hea ei
CHAPTER VIII. 1-66.
99
above and on earth below. Jehovah, the God
of Israel, is not compared here with other gods,
but on the contrary, is described as the only true
God (comp. Beut. iv. 39; Josh. ii. 11; 2 Sam. vii.
22; xxii. 32). He had shown himself such espe-
cially by His keeping of the covenant, by His
mercy (Deut. vii. 9 ; Dan. ix. 4), and by the fulfil-
ment of His gracious promise, run D1'3 ver. 24
as in chap. iii. 6. The house, as it now stands, is
a witness to His faithfulness to the covenant. The-
nius remarks on ver. 26: The urgency of the pe-
tition is shown by its concise repetition.
Vers. 27-30. But will God indeed, 4c. The
prayer passes, at ver. 27, to its chief object, the
temple, with which all the rest of it is occupied.
'3 at the beginning is used here as in 1 Sam. xxix.
8; 1 Kings xi. 22; 2 Kings viii. 13 ; Jer. xxiii. 18,
" merely as an impressive introduction to the inter-
rogatory sentence that leads to the real prayer "
(Thenius), and is not, therefore, a mere confirming
particle, as Keil, who connects our verse with ver.
26 instead of with vers. 28-30, repeatedly asserts.
The petition in ver. 26: that God would indeed
keep the house (dynasty) of David on the throne,
was not founded on the fact that the heaven of
heavens could not contain Him, still less that tem-
ple. On the contrary, the entire contents of the
following prayer are, that God would hear all the
prayers that should be offered in this place ; hence
Solomon very naturally begins with the thought,
can the infinite, unconfined Deity really have His
dwelling here? The expression, the heaven and
heaven of heavens, can have nothing to do with
the different heavens taught by Jewish theology
(Schbttgen, hor. hebr. p. 719), but is the description
of the heavens in their all-embracing extent, as
Deut. x. 14; Ps. cxv. 16. This is the connection
of vers. 27 and 28: Thou art the infinite God whom
no house built by man can contain, but I beseech
Thee to show thyself here, as a God who answers
prayer. In ver. 28 Solomon prays that God would
hear his present prayer, and in vers. 29 and 30
that He would also in the future always hear the
prayers of the king and people in this place. The
different expressions for prayer in the verses 28-
30 are not very different in their meaning, and are
placed near together here, to describe every kind
of prayer. The words, that thine eyes may be open
(ver. 29), do not mean that God was besought to
watch over the building, and take it under His al-
mighty protection, but always to see, when any
one prayed there, and to hear his prayer, to turn
His eyes and ears toward the house (comp. Ps.
xxxiv. 16). For the placing of the temple and
heaven (ver. 30) in antithesis, which is done indeed
through the entire prayer, see above, on chap. vi.
Eistor. and Ethic. 2 c. The prayer for forgiveness
is joined to the prayer for hearing, at the conclu-
sion, as also in vers. 34, 36, 39, 50, because man,
who is full of sin and guilt, can only hope for the
acceptance of his prayer when his sins are for-
given ; every answer to prayer rests on the sin-
pardoning grace of God.
Vers. 31-32. If any man trespass against, Ac.
The prayer that God may hear in general is now
followed, from ver. 31 on, by prayers for particular
cases, of which there are seven altogether; which
IB no more remarkable than that the Lord's prayer,
Matt. vi. 9 sq., also contains the sacred number
seven, the number of the covenant (Symb. des Mos.
Kult. i. s. 193). The first of the seven prayers (vers.
31, 32) concerns the observation of the oath as sa-
cred, namely, in cases like those of Ex. xxii. 7-10
and Lev. v. 21-24. For -|L"N flN it is QX in 2
Chron. vi. 22 ; it means : the case happening, thai
= wi.en (Keil). rps N31 cannot be translated,
T T T
and the oath comes, as the article is wanting to
n^N ; all the old translations give : comes and
swears. Before the altar, i. e., the place of divine
witness and presence (Ex. xx. 24). Thou bringest
his deed upon his head, i. e., thou punishest him for
his false oath (Ezek. ix. 10). We receive no an-
swer from the commentators to the question, why
is the prayer with respect to the oath placed fore-
most in the seven petitions? Perhaps the reason
is as follows : The temple, which is constantly and
impressively exalted in the chapter we are" con-
sidering, was built to the name of Jehovah, .vl.ich
should be deemed holy ; but the oath was nothing
more than the calling upon the sacred name ; t. e.,
the name of that God who had made himself known
as a holy God, and who does not allow the misuse
of his name to go unpunished (according to Eccle-
siasticus xxiii. 9, bpaoc is equivalent to bvo/iaoia
roil ay'tov, comp. ver. 11: 6 bpvi'uv Kal bvofiaCurv)'
they swore by the name of God, is an oath-form in
Levit. xix. 12; Deut. vi. 13; x. 20; Isai. xlviii. 1;
Jerem. xii. 16 ; xliv. 26. The false oath was a con-
temptuous use of the name to which the house was
built ; but it was the chief requirement from him
who stood in the holy place, that he should not
swear falsely, Ps. xxiv. 3, 4. The command to
keep the name of God holy, stands also first among
the commandments of the fundamental law (Ex.
xx. 7), and it is the first of the seven petitions in
the Lord's prayer : hallowed be Thv name (Matt,
vi. 9).
Vers. 33-34. When thy people Israel be
smitten down, &c. The second petition concerns
the case of captives, who had, through their guilt,
merited overthrow, and were led away by their
conquerors; and beseeches Jehovah for the return
of the people to their native land. To be taken
away from the land of promise, to be separated
from communion with the covenant people, in
whose midst Jehovah dwelt, and to live among
heathens, was the greatest of all misfortunes to an
Israelite, and it was very natural to pray against it.
And confess thy name must be connected with lit.",
if they, feeling their guilt, acknowledge Thee God,
dwelling and manifesting thyself here; it is not
then the same as: praise Jehovah (Gesenius, Wi-
ner). It is unnecessary to seek a direct association
of ideas between this second and the first petition.
Thenius says: "The internal welfare of the state
was secured by fidelity and faith arising from fear
of God, but that welfare could be in peril from
without." Nor is there here a direct reference to
Lev. xxvi. 17 and Deut. xxviii. 25, as Keil asserts.
Vers. 35-40. When heaven is shut up, &c.
The third petition (vers. 35, 36), and the fourth
(vers. 37—40), concern divine judgment? by mean?
of long-continued drought and land-plagues. As
the rain, on which the fertility of the soil, and
therefore all outward prosperity, depended in the
East, was a sign of divine blessing (Ezek. xxxiv.
26 sq.), so drought was a sign of curse and punish-
ment (Lev. xxvi 3, 19 ; Deut. xxviii. 15, 23 ; xi
100
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KlAtro.
17; Am. xlvii. ; Hagg. i. 11). The meaning of ver.
3G is : when the people were brought into the right
way again, by the merited chastisement, then lie
oeseeches God to hear their supplication, and to
forgive their sin and to send rain again. In ver.
37 there are coincidences with Lev. xxvi. 25 ; Dent,
xxviii. 22 ; but hunger, plague, blasting, and mil-
dew are elsewhere mentioned as divine chastise-
ments (Am. iv. 9, 10; Jerem. xiv. 12; xxiv. 10;
Ezek. vi. 12; xiv. 21). p'Dn is in apposition (ac-
cording to Keil), to describe the plague of locusts
(Deut. xxviii. 38) ; Thenius thinks the copula be-
fore it, which the chronicler and the old translations
give, is wanting, and that a worse kind of locust
is meant (Joel i. 4; Ps. lxxviii. 46). VIJJu' pN3
is literally : in the land of his gates, which, how-
ever, gives no sense ; it is clear that ]'~IN3 must
be read (as Bertheau has it), and VIVB* be supplied
with 3, as is clear from Deut. xxviii. 52: "thou
slv.lt be besieged in all thy gates, in thy whole
land." Thenius unnecessarily reads, according to
the Sept. (f v jua rm> ttoIew avrdv) J"inN3 instead of
i«-|S3 • The words say — when the enemy is in his
land, yea, even besieging his well-protected towns.
The wasting of the land by locusts was similar
to the wasting by hostile armies, that invaded
the land like locusts (Jud. vi. 5). Which shall
know every man, &c. (ver. 38), i. e., when each one
should seethe connection "between his sin and
the plague inflicted on him by God, and allow it
to work out his chastisement" (Bertheau). Ac-
cording to his ways (ver. 39), i. e., by the repentant
heart, shown in all his conduct. Whether this re-
pentance is really felt, He alone, who "searches
the hearts " of the children of men, can know (Jer.
xvii. 10). The reason of the hearing of prayer is
given in ver. 40 : continuance in godly fear (comp.
Deut. iv. 10).
Vers. 41-43. Moreover concerning a stranger,
Ac. The fifth petition (vers. 41-43) ranks with the
lormer ones : but not only those belonging to tin-
people Israel, who may call upon Thee here, hear
also every stranger who does so; that all people of
the earth, &c. In the law (Deut. xv. 14-16) it was
provided that a stranger, sojourning among the Is-
raelites, might sacrifice with them ; Solomon goes
further, and declares that the great deeds of God
in Israel, the seal and crown of which was the tem-
ple as a fixed dwelling-place of Jehovah, were to
work out the salvation not only of Israel, but the
conversion of all the nations of the earth. To reach
that end may God hear every stranger who comes
to this house and calls upon Him for His name's
sake (i. e., because he had heard of the might and
greatness displayed on Israel, ver. 42). The ex-
pressions in ver. 42 refer essentially to the wonder-
ful exodus from Egypt (Deut. iv. 34; v. 15; Ex.
vi 6), which had reached its climax in the building
of the temple (see above, on chap. vi. 1). The
words in ver. 43 : that they may know that this house
. . . is called by thy name (?]J N"lpj), are a
formula that occurs as here and in Jer. vii. 10, 11,
14; xxv. 29, about the temple, and about the people
Israel in Deut. xxviii. 10; Isai. iv. 1; lxiii. 19;
Jer. xiv. 9; xv. 16; 2 Chron. vii. 14; and is inti-
mately related to the expression, to lay the name
of Jehovah upon (•>]}) a thing or person (Numb. vi.
27 ; Deut. xii. 5 ; xvi. 6 ; 1 Kings xi. 36, &c). The
latter was thus marked as one to whom God re-
veals himself (names himself), ;'. e., manifests and
communicates himself, so that he stands in unioD
and communion with Him (Am. ix. 12, comp. Heng
stenberg, Christologie, iii. s. 231 sq). Through the
hearing of the prayers which the heathen offered
here to Israel's God, they as well as Israel were
to experience that His " name " was there (ver. 16),
i. e., that He manifested and proved himself there
to be God. The usual translation of the expres-
sion, that this house is called by Thy name, oi
bears Thy name, is therefore quite wrong. What
good would it have done the heathen to know that
the house Solomon built was called by Jehovah's
name ? But the following is equally erroneous :
"that Thy name has been invoked upon this tem-
ple (at its dedication), i. e., that this temple has
been dedicated under effective invocation of Thy
continued help " (Thenius); it was not that the hea-
thens were to know that the temple had been sol-
emnly consecrated, but that the God who dwelt
there would hear their as well as Israel's prayer,
and that hence He is the only true God (chap,
xviii. 37 ; Ps. lxv. 3).
Vers. 44-50. If thy people go out, &c. The
sixth petition (vers. 44, 45), and the seventh (vers.
46-50), relate to the conceivable cases, in which
the people cannot pray at Jehovah's house, because
they are far from it. The first case is, when the
people should be whithersoever Jelwvah should send
them, i. f., in war, according to Jehovah's appoint-
ment and approbation ; they were then to pray to-
wards the city in which the temple was. The
other case is, if having grievously sinned against
Jehovah, and in consequence, being vanquished
and led away captive to another land, they were
then to repent, and direct their prayers towards
the country, the city, and the house where Jeho-
vah dwelt. The outward turning was the sign of
the inward turning to the God of Israel, who as
such has His dwelling-place in the temple, and is
a real confession to this God, who never leaves
His people, if they do not forsake Him. Maintain
their cause, ver. 45 (comp. Ps. ix. 5; Deut. x. 18).
This presupposes that the war is a just one. The
three expressions for sinning are scarcely to be
distinguished with precision from each other, as
Keil thinks, but are only meant to include every
conceivable kind of sin. Thenius asserts that the
verses 44-51 are a "section added later, perhaps
by the elaborator," for such a petition, which be-
longs properly to vers. 33, 34, cannot follow ver.
43 ; the custom of turning towards Jerusalem is
first mentioned in writings subsequent to the ex-
ile (Dan. vi. 11; Ezra iv. 58), and the last petition,
vers. 46-51, was occasioned by the Babylonian cap-
tivity, just also as the formula of the confession
of sin, ver. 47, belonged to a later period (Dan. ix.
5 ; Ps. cvi. 6). On the other hand, both petitions
are exactly in the right place; the five previous
ones refer to cases in which prayer is offered at
the temple itself; the last two to cases where the
praying people cannot come to the temple. They
therefore follow quite naturally; besides this, the
case in ver. 44 is evidently quite different from
that in ver. 33 sq., for in the latter there is an
armed invasion by the enemy, in which some ar6
taken prisoners ; and in the former (ver. 4-4) thf
people go out to battle under the divine order
CHAPTER VIII. 1-66.
101
Turning towards the temple was a very natural
custom, and mentioned not only in vers. 44 and
48, but in ver. 38, before, and also in Ps. v. 8 ;
xxviii. 2. As the temple, being Jehovah's dwell-
ing, was a pattern of the heavens, His real dwell-
ing-place, it followed that as men stretched out
their hands to heaven, so they stretched them (o-
irards the temple in prayer ; it is, at any rate, im-
possible to prove that this custom came in first
after the captivity. The carrying away conquered
nations was "a fundamental maxim of despots
which prevailed in the ancient orient" (Winer,
*?.- W.-B., i. s. 357, and the writings quoted there);
when therefore Solomon, in counting up the mis-
fortunes and straits in which Israel could fall,
thinks lastly of this most grievous case, it is less
surprising that he should rather than that he should
not have mentioned it, especially since it was re-
peatedly threatened in the law (Lev. xxvi. 33 ;
Dent, xxviii. 25, 36, 64; iv. 27). The petition is
quite general, and there is not the slightest allu-
sion to any particular captivity. The confession
in ver. 47 is by no means of a kind that could have
only been made in exile (comp. Numb. xiv. 40 ; 1
Sam. vii. 6; Ps. li. 6; xxxii. 5), and we might, in-
versely, with more justice maintain that the Jews
in exile appropriated this most expressive word
for the deepest guilt, from the royal prayer (Keil).
There are exactly seven petitions, thus giving the
prayer the seal of this significant number; and
the last two cannot have been added later, for
they contain nothing foreign to the other ones,
but on the contrary are very suitable to the former
petitions, and in perfect harmony with the imme-
diately preceding one (comp. Bertheau on 2 Chrou.
vi. 39).
Vers. 51-54. For they be thy people, &c.
Vers. 51-52 form the conclusion of the prayer, as
vers. 23-26, the beginning, to which this conclusion
points back. He confidently gives his reason for
hoping for the acceptance of the whole prayer ;
which reason is the election of Israel out of all
nations, to be a peculiar and covenant people.
With ver. 51 comp. Dent. iv. 20. The iron furnace
is not = a furnace of iron, but the furnace in
which the iron is melted, winch requires the great-
est heat, therefore = glowing furnace. The deliv-
erance from Egypt is here also looked on as a
pledge for deliverance from every future distress,
how great soever. The beginning of the prayer,
vers. 28, 29, is taken up again in ver. 52; its close
connection with ver. 51 through nVH? has this
sense ; that it follows from their election to be a
peculiar people, that Jehovah would also listen, in
future, to their prayers. Ver. 53 (comp. Lev. xx.
24, 26) is no mere repetition of ver. 51 (Theuius),
but rests upon a broader ground, derived from the
destiny of the nation itself. The peculiar people
is that which was set apart for Jehovah's service
from among all nations (Numb. viii. 14; xvi. 9), the
holy people, the royal priesthood (Ex. xix. 5, 6).
The prayer has quite a different ending in 2 Chron.
vi. 41, 42 ; this, Thenius thinks the original one,
which was not discovered by our author. That
ending, however, must not be preferred to that in
our books, and put in place of the latter ; because
it agrees word for word with Ps. cxxxii. 8-10, re-
ferring to a period after the captivity, and is evi-
dently taktn from that psalm, not the latter from
Chronicles, or from some source common to both.
Peculiarities of the language also point to a rela-
tively late period of composition (see Bertheau on
the place). This ending in Chron. appears to have
been chosen to form a connecting link with what is
related immediately afterwards (2 Chron. vii. 1-3),
but which is not in our text.
Vers. 54-61. And it was so, that when Solo»
mon had made an end of praying all this
prayer. Ac. As the dedication-prayer was preceded
by an address of greeting to the people (vers. 14-
21), so also it was followed by a concluding speech
and blessing, which Solomon gave, again standing
(iOJJ'l). He next praises God for having given
rest to His people Israel (ver. 56) ; for the conse-
crated temple, that had been filled with the glory
of the Lord (vers. 10-11), was a firm, immovable
habitation, and therefore the practical evidence
that the people had now fully come into their prom-
ised rest (Deut. xii. 9-10), (see above, on chap. vi.
1) ; Solomon, the builder of the temple, was for this
reason named the " man of rest " (1 Chron. xxii. 9).
Tlie good word is that which promises blessing (Jer.
xxxiii. 14), as pronounced in Lev. xxxvi. 3 sq., and
Deut. xxviii. 1 sq. The expression there hath not
failed as = fulfilled, often occurs (Josh. xxi. 45;
xxii:.. 14; 2 Kings x. 10). The praise of Jehovah,
ver. 56, forms the introduction to vers. 57-61,
which are also blessings and exhortations. In ver.
58, Solomon wishes for the people, that God might,
as heretofore, continue to be with them ; in ver.
59, that He would, in answer to the prayer just
spoken, grant them continued help against their
enemies. The object of the first wisfc is stated in
ver. 58, that of the second in ver. 60. Nigh, mean-
ing that He should always remember these words,
and fulfil them. Day and night, i. e., as each day
should require, Ex. v. 13 ; xvi. 4. With ver. 60
comp. ver. 43. The D7EJ', ver. 61, does not mean:
in friendship with God (Gesenius), nor submissive
(de Wette), nor uprightly (Luther), but: entirely, un-
dividedly (comp. chap. xi. 4, 6). The entire con-
cluding discourse (vers. 54-61) is missing in Chron-
icles, as we remarked ; and this concluding portion
being an integral part of the dedication-solemnity,
the fact is by no means satisfactorily accounted for
by saying: that "it is only a recapitulation of the
preceding lengthy prayer" (Keil). On. the other
hand, Chron. informs us that immediately after the
prayer was ended, fire fell from heaven, which con-
sumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and
that the glory of the Lord filled the house (2 Chron.
vii. 1 sq.). There is no apparent reason why our
author, who is otherwise so minute in his account,
should quite pass over this remarkable and wonder-
ful occurrence, if it had been related in his origi-
nal. Chronicles contradicts itself, inasmuch as it
makes the filling of the house with the glory of the
Lord follow upon the prayer, while chap. v. 14, as
in our account, ver. 10 sq., makes it precede the
prayer, which indeed the entire contents of the
prayer presuppose. No one will believe that the
glory of the Lord left the house during the prayer,
and afterwards filled it again. If therefore the
chronicler has in any place borrowed from later
tradition founded on Lev. ix. 24, it must have been
here.
Vers. 62-66. And the king, and all Israel
with him, offered sacrifice, &c. In accordance
with the design of the festival, by far the greater
102
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
number of sacrifices were thanksgiving, or peace-
offerings, of which the fat only was burnt, and the
rest used for food (Lev. vii. 11 sq. ; Deut. xii. 7).
The number of animals, in which the Chron. and
all the old translations agree, was very large, so that
some have tried to prove that it was exaggerated.
Thenius reckons that " as it took seven days to offer
these sacrifices (allowing twelve complete hours to
the sacrificial day), about five oxen and twenty-four
sheep must have been slaughtered and offered
every minute." This calculation, plausible as it
seems, is disproved when we consider what the
exact circumstances were here ; as Keil on the
place has thoroughly done. It was not the king
alone who sacrificed, but " all Israel with him ; "
there were sacrificial feasts, during fourteen days,
for the great assemblage of all the people from Ha-
moth (the northern boundary of Palestine, Numb,
xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 8) to the river of Egypt (the pres-
ent el Arisen on the southern frontier, Josh. xv.
4), and whom we may compute at 100,000 men.
Certainly the priests could not possibly have killed
so many animals for sacrifice in the time stated,
but according to the law it was the business of
those offering the sacrifices themselves ; the priests
only had to sprinkle the blood on the altar. This
they could easily do.for their number then amounted
to at least some thousands, as we can judge from
the number of levites (1 Chron. xxiii. 3). With re-
gard to the great number of the sacrifices, it is also
expressly remarked in ver. 64, that as they could
not all be offered on the brazen altar, Solomon (for
this purpose) hallowed the middle of the court, i. e.,
consecrated it as a place of sacrifice by erecting
subsidiary altars. How extraordinarily great the
number of sacrifices at that kind of festival was,
even in later times, we learn from an account of
Josephus (Bell. Jud. vi. 9, 3), namely, that at a pass-
over-feast at Jerusalem, in Nero's time, the priests
counted no less than 256,000 sacrifices that were
slaughtered and consumed. We are to understand
besides the thank-offerings, by the bund-offerings
and meat-offerings (ver. 64), the daily morning and
evening sacrifices of the law (Numb, xxviii. 3). The
time and length of the festivity given in vers. 65
and 66 are more plainly expressed in the parallel
passage in 2 Chron. vii. 8-10: "Solomon kept
the feast (jnriTIX, i- «•, the feast of the taber-
nacles, see on ver. 2) at the same time as temple-
dedication, seven days, . . . and on the eighth
day they made rnXJJ (as the law commanded, Lev.
xxiii. 36); for they kept the dedication of the
altar (in which that of the temple was included)
seven days, and the feast (of tabernacles) seven
days. And on the three and twentieth day of
the seventh month he sent the people away."
This places the feast of the tabernacles, which ac-
cording to the law began on the 15th of the seventh
month, after the dedication ; and when our text says
therefore seven days and seven days, even fourteen
days (ver. 65), it can only mean that the dedication
and the feast lasted altogethoi fourteen days; con-
sequently the first immediately preceded the latter,
and did not occupy from the 1st to the 7th day
(Thenius), but from the eighth to the fourteenth.
That the dedication lasted "fourteen days" is still
more out of the question (v. Gerlach). The two
narratives do not, however, perfectly agree, for ver.
66 says that Solomon sent the people away on the
tighth day (of the feast), i. e., on the 22d of the
month, while 2 Chron. vii. 10 makes it the 23d
Yet this is no real contradiction, but only a vagut
form of speech about a known thing. Solomon
sent the people away on the 8th day, i. «., in the
afternoon or evening, of the Azereth of the feast of
tabernacles ; so that they began their journey home
on the following morning, i. e., on the 23d of the
month (Keil). Whether the feast of atonement
(Lev. xxiii. 27), which fell on the 10th of the seventh
month, was kept, and how, remains uncertain. Old
commentators say that the dedication rendered it
unusually solemn ; others that, as it was a fast day,
its observance was for that time omitted. Tents
(ver. 66) is here like 2 Sam. xx. 1 ; Judges vii. 8
used for home, and David is named instead of Sol-
omon (which the chronicler adds), because he was
the originator of the temple-building, and through
him Solomon was enabled to undertake it.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The dedication of the temple is one of the mosl
important of the facts of the Old Testament his
tory, inasmuch as with it and through it, the
" house " which Solomon built, first became what
it was destined for— the dwelling-place of Jehovah,
and all that the idea of dwelling comprises in it
(see above, on chap. vi.). The theocratic kingdom,
and that of Solomon in particular, then reached its
highest glory. For this reason the feast did not
last only one day, but, like the great feasts that
were devoted to the remembrance of the equally
important facts in the theocratic history (the pass-
over and tabernacles), continued seven days. This
is why both narratives give such minute accounts
of it, and show, by their agreement, that the com-
mon source from which they drew had treated th6
subject with the same minuteness. V. Gerlach
justly remarks that: "the solemn event recounted
here crowned the work of the establishment of
God's kingdom in Israel, which was begun by
Samuel and continued by David."
2. In respect of the act of dedication, it next
strikes us that the king stands at the head of the
whole ceremony, though it was an essentially re-
ligious one. He ordains a special festival, calls all
the people to it, and conducts the whole solemnity.
He is the author of everything from beginning to
end — speech, prayer, and blessing. The priests and
levites indeed are also busied in it, but they only
perform their usual services, and the high-priest is
not even named, still less mentioned as the chief
actor on the occasion, performing the dedication.
It has been said in explanation, that Solomon stood
at this moment, like Moses, Samuel, and David, as
a direct and divine ambassador, as king, priest,
and prophet (von Gerlach), or that he had taken
on himself, as an absolute temporal ruler, the func-
tions of a priest and prophet (Ewald, Eisenlohr,
Menzel, and others). Both suppositions are, to say
the least, unnecessary. The position Solomon took
here is thoroughly justified by the nature of the
theocratic kingdom, which was not designed to re-
move or displace the divine rule, but rather to exalt
and execute it. The theocratic king did not take
the place of the God-king, Jehovah, but was his
" servant," and as such, Solomon repeatedly desig-
nates himself here (vers. 25, 28, 29, 52, 59). What
the whole people were to Jehovah, by virtue of the
covenant (Ex. xix. 6), was summed up in their king
CHAPTER VHI. 1-66.
103
and true of him as an individual. The priesthood
was not at th^. head of the kingdom, which was not
«n hierarchy, but a theocracy ; theirs was a separate
institution, which it was the duty of the king to
maintain, as well" as all other institutions of the
Jaw (covenant). He would therefore have acted
contrary to Jehovah's law, and have sinned (comp.
2 Chron. xxvi. 16 sq.), had he taken on himself the
offices which belonged by law to the priests. Solo-
mon therefore let the priests perform their services
at the dedication, as the law prescribed, and he was
not guilty of the shadow of usurpation of the
priestly office. But the act of dedication of the
"house of Jehovah" built by him through divine
commission, which act bore such high importance
to the realm and people, and began a new epoch in
theocratic history, belonged rightly to his mission as
a theocratic king. No one else had the right, be-
cause no one else had the same theocratic position
and duties. And as the theocratic kingdom reached
its culminating point with Solomon, the theocratic
kingdom also attained in him its full significance.
It would be quite perverse to attempt to ground or
to defend the modern imperial papalism (CAsaro-
papismus), or the so-called liturgical rights of the
sovereign, by the precedent of Solomon's conduct.
The Old Testament theocratic kingdom was essen-
tially different from the monarchy of these of mod-
ern times.
3. The act of dedication began by carrying the
ark of the covenant in solemn procession, with the
king at the head, into the temple, and depositing it
in " its place," the holy of holies, while numerous
sacrifices were offered. The ark of the covenant
was the root and kernel of the whole sanctuary ;
it contained the moral law, at once the original
document and pledge of the covenant, through
which, and in consequence of which, Jehovah was
willing to " dwell " in the midst of his chosen peo-
ple ; the Kaporeth upon which Jehovah was en-
throned was therefore inseparably united with it
{Ex. xxv. 22), so that the entire sanctuary only be-
came through this throne what it was intended to
be — the dwelling-place of Jehovah. On this sub-
ject Witsius says (Miscell. sacr. p. 439) of the area
foederis : Qiuz sanctissimum fuit totius tahernacidi
Ket/ift.iov, quceque veluti cor tortus religionis lsraditi-
coz primwm omnium formata est Exod. xxv. 10, et cui
ne deesset habitationis locus, ipsum tabernaculum dein
et superbum illud templum conditum fuit. Exod. xxvi.
33 et xl. 21 ; 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. By the placing of
the ark of the covenant in the temple, it first be-
came the house of Jehovah, and hence its solemn
introduction into it. While everything else with-
in it was made new (chap, vii.), the same ark of the
covenant was kept, and only changed its place. It
could never grow old, for it was the witness of the
past victorious divine guidance, as well as the
pledge of Jehovah's faithfulness and might. With
it, all the historical facts bound up with it became
associated with the temple ; it was the historical
tie between the old and new sanctuary, between
the two periods of the tent and the house (see
Introd. § 3), making the latter the immediate sequel
to the former.
4. The filling of the house with Jehovah's glory,
made manifest to the senses by the cloud, is in har-
mony with the spirit of the Old Testament econ-
omy, inasmuch as it bore, compared with the New
Testament economy, a bodily form, and in it the
entire human-divine relation, as it comes to its ex-
pression in a cultus, assumed shapes perceptible to
the senses. As Jehovah, in the old covenant,
chose a visible dwelling amongst his people, in to-
ken of their election, so also He verified His pres-
ence in this dwelling in a way cognizant to the
senses, that is, through the cloud, which is the me-
dium and sign of His manifestation, not only here,
but all through the Old Testament (Ex. xvi. 10;
xx. 21; xxiv. 15, 16; xxxiv. 5; xl. 34; Lev. xvi.
2 ; Numb. xi. 25 ; xii. 5 ; Isai. vi. 3, 4 ; Ezek. i. 4,
28; x. 3, 4; Ps. xviii. 10-12). But the cloud is
not so well suited for this purpose, because it ex-
ists far above, in heaven, which is Jehovah's pecu-
liar dwelling (Prov. viii. 28 ; Ps. lxxxix. 7 ; Job
xxxv. 5), and is also, as it were, His chariot (Ps.
civ. 3) ; but rather because, as its name 6hows, its
nature is to conceal and veil, so that cloud and
darkness are synonymous words. "py, cloud,
named from the covering of the heavens " (Gese-
nius); ?B"I5J, "thick darkness," comes from f\"\]l,
drop down dew (Deut. xxxiii. 28), and means lit-
erally cloud-night; ay from ay?, to darken, some-
times means thick darkness, sometimes cloud (Ex.
xix. 9; Ps. xviii. 12; Job xxxvi. 29; xxxvii. 11,
16). The cloud is, on account of its darkness, the
mode of manifestation of Jehovah and of His glory,
and the throne on which His presence was con-
centrated within the dwelling stood in the back
part, which was perfectly dark. Even the high-
priest, when he entered once a year into this dark
place, covered the throne besides with a cloud of
incense, " that he died not " (Lev. xvi. 2, 13). When
Moses prayed, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory I
he received the answer : Thou canst not see my
face, for there shall no man see me and live ; but
Jehovah then came down in the cloud to manifest
himself to him (Ex. xxxiii. 18, 20; xxxiv. 5 sq.).
Nebuld, says an old commentator, deus se et reprae-
sentabat et velabat. The cloud is then, on one
hand, the heaven-descended sign of the presence
of the self-manifesting God ; on the other hand, it
declares that God in His being, spiritually and
ethically, is so far above, and different from all
other beings, that man, in his sinful and mortal
nature, cannot comprehend Him nor endure the
sight of Him. Gorres rightly says (Mythenge-
schichte II. s. 507) : " It is the distinguishing char-
acteristic of the genius of the Mosaic fundamental
view, that it veils the Deity far off from the teme-
rity of the exploring reason, just as it chastely
and abstemiously forbids polluting Him with the
sensuous dreams of the imagination." The God
of the Old Testament manifests Himself to man
through word and deed, yet ever remains at infin-
ite distance above him, so that when he strives to
overstep the creature-limits of his nature he must
perish. Quemadmodum, says Abarbanel (in Bux-
torf, hist, areas foed., cap. 11), lucem solis propter
summura ejus splendorem et claritatem oculus humanus
non potest videre, quamvis causa sit, ut res videantur ;
et sihomo proprius etfixe eumintueri velit, oculisejus
percutiuntur et hebetantur, ut nee illud amplius videre
queat, qziod alias videre potuii : sic non pioiest mteU
lectus humanus apprehendere deum secundum veru
latem suam, et si terminum suum egrediatur, ip-
prehensio ejus confunditur aut moritur (cf. 1 Timothy
vi. 16).
5. The dedication prayer, which belongs to the
finest pieces of the Old Testament, received a high
104
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
significance through the fact that the person who
offered it, did so in his highest official character
and rank, as king and head of the theocracy, and
in view of the whole people, on an occasion (see
above on chap. vi. 1) which formed an epoch in the
theocracy. This, then, is not the prayer of a private
person, upon a private matter, but one offered in
the name of the whole nation, and about a subject
which formed the central point of its worship, and
therefore touched its highest interests. It did not
spring from individual religious views, but from
the religious consciousness of the whole commu-
nity, and may therefore be regarded as a public
and solemn confession of faith, inasmuch as it
brings to light the chief and fundamental truths
of the Old Testament religion which peculiarly
distinguished it from all others. There is not a
prayer to be compared with this in all pre-Chris-
tian antiquity. Had we nothing belonging to Jew-
ish antiquity but this prayer, it would alone suffice
to attest the depth, the purity, and the truth of
the Israelitish knowledge of God and of salvation,
over against the religious ideas of all other
peoples.
6. Prominent beyond all else in this prayer are the
expressions respecting the being of God, especially in
Bis relations to the temple. At the beginning (ver. 23)
God is addressed as He with whom nothing can be
compared, whether in heaven or on earth ; as the
Being who is above and beyond the world, and
therefore the only God ; and it is emphatically con-
fessed (ver. 27) that no house built by man can
contain Him in His infinitude and omnipresence.
This was the most decisive refutation of all an-
thropomorphistic representations of God, such as
heathenism made in its temples (see above), and
which it might seek to associate with Jehovah's
dwelling, now no longer a movable tent, but an
abiding house. At the same time, this infinite,
only God is most explicitly praised as Israel's God,
». «., as the God who had chosen Israel out of all
peoples to be His inheritance, had shown Himself
to them in word and deed, and entered into a co-
venant with them, as a pledge of which He took
up His dwelling in their midst. This confession
of a personal, living God presents the strongest
contrast to every pantheistic representation of the
being of God, such as the higher wisdom of hea-
thendom, identifying God and the world, imagined,
and of which, most unjustly, the effort has been
made to discover a soupcon in Solomja's words in
ver. 27. The Israelitish idea of God ktows noth-
ing of a contradiction between the supernal, infi-
nite, and absolute being of God, and His entering
into creaturely, finite, and limited being. Just
because He is infinite and unsearchable, He can
communicate with the finite ; and because He is
everywhere, He can be peculiarly present in one
place, centring His presence, and displaying His
glory (absolute sublimity). Heaven is His throne,
and earth His footstool, therefore no house built
by man can be His permanent place of rest (Isai.
Ixvi. 1); but as He dwells in heaven, so He can
dwell on earth; " for thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy :
I dwell in the high and holy place, with him [also]
that is of a contrite and humble spirit " (Isai. lvii.
15). "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of hea-
vens is the Lord's, the earth also, with all that
therein is. Only the Lord had a delight of thy
fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after
them, even you above all people" (Deut. x. 14
«</.). " For Him nothing is too great and nothing
too small, nothing is too high and nothing too low,
that He cannot set His name there" (vers. 16, 29,
chap. xi. 36; xiv. 11), i. e., manifest Himself at
and through it, without ceasing to fill heaven and
earth. To confess and pray to Him as such a
God means to " confess His name " (vers. 35, 41, 43).
His covenant relation to Israel, and the consequent
dwelling in the midst of that people, are not at all
inconsistent with his infinitude and unsearchable-
ness, but rather were the means by which He
could be known as the one, true, and living God.
The expression touching the infinite grandeur of
God's being is followed by this: "who keepest
covenant and mercy with Thy servants that," &c.
The God, with whom nothing in heaven or earth
could be compared, has manifested and revealed
Himself to Israel as a moral being; the covenant
which He has made with them is of a purely ethi-
cal nature, for it is the law (Ex. xxxiv. 28 ; Deut.
iv. 13), the revealed will of God, and rests on the
grace of election; it is a covenant of grace. He
who gave the law, and will have it kept, is also
mercifui •'nd gracious, long-suffering and abundant
in goodness <ind truth (Ex. xxxiv. 6). The knowl-
edge of this gives the key -tone to the whole prayer;
all trust and hope of an answer is rooted in it.
But heathenism, which in its deepest grounds is
nature-religion, knows nothing of this ; the God
of Israel is the only absolute holy one, and there-
fore the alone true.
7. Tlie general substance of the prayer is that Je-
hovah might liear all those who should call on Him
here for help or deliverance from any need. But
the answer is not expected by any mere outward
coming or turning to the place of His presence,
but by the knowledge, that all distress is caused by
the turning away from Jehovah and His laws, that is,
by sin. Answer, with regard to deliverance, must
rest therefore upon forgiveness of sins, which has
again as its prerequisite repentance and return,
i. e., conversion to Jehovah. This is why the pe-
tition : forgive the sin ! (vers. 30, 34, 36, 39, 50) is
repeated in the several prayers for deliverance from
a state of suffering. Universal sinfulness is not only
expressly asserted (ver. 46), but the living con-
sciousness of it is interwoven with the whole prayer.
This is the more characteristic, as it was not a
penitential ceremony at which the prayer was of-
fered, but a j iyful thanksgiving-festival, and it
was offered by a king who was the wisest of his
time, and had reached the summit of power and
prosperity (chap. v. 1, 11). From this we see how
firmly that consciousness was rooted in the people
Israel, and how inseparably it was united with
all their religious views. Such a thing is found in
no other nation of the ancient world, because none
of them knew the God whose name is Holy (Isai.
lvii. 15), i. e., who had revealed Himself to Hi3
people as the Holy one, and whose covenant with
them bore this inscription : Ye shall be holy for I
am holy (Levit. xi. 44). When God is known as
the absolutely Holy, and the sanctifier, man ap-
pears in contrast as a sinner, and the more liv-
ing the knowledge, the more living is the con-
sciousness of sinfulness. No man can confess the
name of God, which is the name of holiness, who
does not know himself to be a sinner; acknowl-
edging his sin he gives God, the Holy One, glory
Hence min (ver- 33) means just an much, to cod
CHAPTER VIII. 1-66.
105
fess his sin to Jehovah, as to give him praise (Ps.
xxxii. 5 ; liv. 8).
8. Much as it is insisted on through the whole
prayer, and its acceptance grounded in the fact, that
Jehovah is the God of Israel, and has chosen that
people from all nations of the earth (rer. 51-53), yet
the purpose of this election, namely " that all people
of the earth may know Jehovah's name," and " fear
Him as do His people Israel " (ver. 43), is also very
clearly set forth. The prayer that Jehovah may
ever hear the strangers also, who come from dis-
tant lands and do not belong to His people, when
they call upon Him here ; this prayer, we say, re-
ceives peculiar importance when Solomon, in his
blessing at the end of the whole festivity, alludes
once more to the grand end designed : " that all
the people of the earth may know that the Lord is
God, and that there is none else " (ver. 60). It is
therefore hoped of the Temple, the central sanc-
tuary of the one true God, that the knowledge and
worship of this God should spread forth from it
among all nations of the earth ; and it is very re-
markable, that what the prophets declared no less
distinctly afterwards, was pronounced here so
explicitly, at the dedication of the Temple (cf.
Isai. ii. 3; lvi. 7; Ix. 2 sq. ; Jer. iii. 17; Mic.
iv. 2 sq. ; Zech. viii. 20 sq.). Thus the prophet-
ical element, that element which formed so es-
sential and important a part of Old-Testament
religion, is not absent from the prayer. The com-
mon talk of vulgar rationalism, about Jehovah
being only a God of the Jews and of their land,
appears in all its emptiness and folly when con-
trasted with the official (to a certain degree) ac-
knowledgment of Israel's world-wide mission, and
which acknowledgment was made on a most so-
lemn occasion.
9. In its form and breadth, the prayer of Sol-
omon is a genuine public or common prayer ; it
wears a completely objective character; the views,
wishes, and wants of individuals, as expressed,
for instance, in the prayer of chap. iii. 6-9, are
here left quite in the back-ground, while the com-
mon wants of the whole people occupy the fore-
ground. Solomon, as the head and representative
of the whole nation, does not pray from his own
faith and consciousness, but from those of the
collected nation. First, praise and thanksgiving ;
then follow the various petitions and intercessory
prayers; lastly, an appeal to the grace hitherto
vouchsafed, for a pledge of acceptance and the
promised succor. Both the language and modes
of expression have the genuine ring of prayer.
God is not preached to nor addressed nor taught,
but prayed to. A firm trusting faith, a holy moral
earnestness, unfeigned humility, and great simpli-
city breathe through the whole, while with these
there is united a fervor which shows the deepest
emotion ; in short we feel that this prayer was not
composed among the soft cushions of the palace,
but on the knees. In this respect it may be re-
garded, at the present day, as a model of a general
church-prayer. This seems to have been more or
less the case in earlier times ; as for example, the
so-called Litany, with its intercessions and re-
sponses,— Hear us, 0 Lord God ! has the ring of
our dedication prayer (vers. 32, 34, 36, 39, 43,
45, 49).
10. In the concluding speech following the prayer
Bolomon desires for the people the help of God,
that they may accomplish the world-wide design
of their mission — the spreading of the knowledge
of the one true God among all nations. He
founds the hope that Jehovah will assist him, on
the fulfilment of all the promises, already expe-
rienced, made to the people, of which the building
of the Temple as a firm dwelling of Jehovah had
given practical witness ; he therefore begins the
benediction with praise of the divine faithfulness;
but he limits the attainment of their mission to
the condition that they should persevere in keep-
ing God's laws. Thenius remarks forcibly on this
subject : " How seemly and truly edifying it is
that God's help is specially implored for the pur-
poses of ordinary life (ver. 58), and that the wish
that men may find an answer to prayers for tempo-
ral aid (ver. 59), has for its end increased knowledge
of the one true God (ver. 60)."
11. The great seven days' feast of the sacrifices
connected with the dedication of the Temple is not
to be looked on as a mere thanksgiving feast. The
D'OT"' which were brought in such unusual num-
bers, and formed tho principal sacrifices, were by
no means only thank and praise offerings, but also
vow-offerings. The peculiar and characteristic
mark of this kind of sacrifice, which distinguished
it from the others, and in which their ritual culmi-
nated, was the sacrificial meals, in which the whole
family of the sacrificers, even man-servants and
maid-servants — the whole house, took part (Lev. vii.
15 si/. ; Deut. xii. 17 sq.) ; it was a common meal.
As eating at one table is a sign of communion and
united feeling (Matt. viii. 11 ; Gal. ii. 12 ; Gen. xliii.
32), so the sacrificial meal was the sign of religious
unity of those who eat, among each other as well
as with the Deity, to whom the sacrifice belonged,
and at whose table it was eaten in common (cf. 1
Cor. x. 18 sq., and in general Symbolik des Mos.
Kultus, xi. s. 373 sq.). When therefore the king,
and with him the whole people, held sacrificial
meals during seven days, at the Temple-dedica-
tion, they celebrated and sealed, in doing so, both
their union with Jehovah and with each other ;
thus the dedication of the Temple, the central point
of all religious life in Israel, became also a covenant-
festival.
HOMILETICAl AND PRACTICAL.
The dedication of the Temple, (a) The bringing
in the Ark of the Covenant to the Holy of Holies,
vers. 1-13. (b) The speech, prayer, and benediction
of the King, vers. 14-61. (c) Great sacrificial so-
lemnity of the entire people, vers. 62-66.
Vers. 1-9. The solemn procession to the new
Temple, (a) Its aim and signification (it was the
Ark of the Covenant, because in it was the Law —
i. e., the covenant, the very Soul of the Sanctuary,
vide Historical and Critical, 3). We have in the
new covenant not only the Law but the GospeL
which is everlasting, 1 Pet. i. 25. Where His
Word is, there the Lord dwells and is enthroned ;
it is the soul of every house of God, and indeed
gives it its consecration ; without it, every church
is dead and empty, whatsoever may be the prayers
and praises offered therein ; hence at the conse-
cration of a ^.zurch it is customary to bring it in
in solemn procession. (6) The members of the pro-
cession (the King at its head, the heads of tribes,
the princes, the priests and Levites, the entire
106
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
people ; all gathered round the ark, in which was
the Law, i. «., the covenant, and by this march,
solemnly and significantly recognizes the word of
the Lord ; no one, be his position high or low, is
ashamed of this public acknowledgment. Nothing
can be nobler than to see a whole nation, from the
highest to the lowest, gathered in unity round its
holiest possession). — What, from an evangelical
standpoint, must we think of public processions,
with a religious object (Prozessionen) ? — Wurt.
Bib. : The consecration of a church is a praise-
worthy custom. But it should not be done with
holy water, but with the word of God, with prayer,
and with thanksgiving. — Pfaff. Bib. : All men,
especially those of highest rank, ought to show
themselves zealous in God's service, and enlighten
others by their example. — The priests bear the ark,
and bring it to its place. To be bearers of the Di-
vine word, and to set up the mercy-seat in the
House of God, as Paul points out, Rom. iii. 24 sq.,
is truly the office and the glory of God's servants,
Mai. ii. 7. — Cramer : Christ, the true Ark of the
Covenant, is the end and fulfilling of the Law. My
God I may I, as in an ark, preserve and guard thy
law 1 Ps. xL 9. — Ter. 6 sq. The word of the Lord
is under divine protection, the angels are its guard-
ians and watchers ; it can neither be destroyed by
human power, nor is it aided or protected by men.
Vers. 10-13. The glory of the Lord filled the
House, (a) What this means; (6) in what manner
it befell (v. Historical and Critical, 4). — It is impos-
sible that mortal, sinful man should see or compre-
hend the Holy and Infinite One (1 Tim. vi. 16).
We see through a glass, darkly (1 Cor. xiii. 12). 1
can experience his merciful Presence ; but pre-
sumption and folly it is to wish to sound the depths
of His Being, Job. xxxviii ; Ex. ii. 33, 20. — Starke :
0 soul, who finding thyself tempted, and as if in
darkness and gloom, mournest that God is far from
thee : ah I mark this for thy comfort, God abides
with thee in darkness, and is thy light, Ps. xxiii. 4:
xxvii. 1 ; Is. lvii. 15. — The eye of faith beholds in
the darkness the glory of the Lord, in the night of
the Cross the Light of the World, through the dim
Teil of the flesh the Only begotten Son of God, full
of mercy and grace.
Vers. 14-21. The Speech of Solomon to the as-
sembled people. He solemnly announces, (a) that
the building of the temple was of the gracious will
and counsel of God, vers. 15, 16 (with it the lead-
ing of Israel out of Egypt is come to its end,
reached its final aim; the House in place of the
tent is the crowning act of God to Israel, a clear
spoken testimony to his might and truth ; there-
fore Solomon begins his speech: Blessed be, Sec);
(b) that God had called him to the performance of
his decrees, vers. 17-21. (He announces the mercy
of God, in that he allows him to undertake the work
whose completion was denied to his father. He
who understands a great, holy work must be as-
sured of this — that he is not actuated by ambition,
by passion for glory, or by vanity, but that he is
called therc^-, by God, and that it is his sacred
duty.) Ver. 14. After every completed work per-
mitted thee by the Lord, be it great or small, let it
be thy first care to give Him the honor, and to de-
clare His praise. — Ver. 15. I have spoken it and
performed it, said the Lord (Ezek. xxxvii. 14).
What man speaks and promises, now he cannot
porform, again he will not perform. Hence Ps.
cxviii. 8 —Ver. 16. The choice of God is no blind
preference of one and prejudice against another,
but aims at the salvation of both. As from
amongst all nations he chose Israel for its salva-
tion, so out of all the tribes of Israel he chose the
City of David for the blessing of the whole king-
dom.— Vers. 17, 18. How many individuals as well
as whole congregations have the means and the
power wherewith to build a church, to repair a
ruinous one, or to enlarge one which has become
too small ; but nothing can be further from their
mind. — He who purposes to do a good work, but ia
hindered therein, not by his own fault but by di-
vine decree, he has yet " well done," God regards
his intention as the deed itself. — V. 19. God some-
times, in His inscrutable but all-wise councils, de-
nies to His own people the fulfilment of their
dearest wishes, whose object may even be the
glory of His name, in order to try their faith, and
exercise their submission and self-denial. — V. 20
The fairest prerogative of him whom God has
placed upon a throne is, that he has power to work
for the glory of God's name, and to watch over the
extension of the divine kingdom amongst his people.
Every son who succeeds to the inheritance of his
father should feel obliged, first of all, to take up
the good work whose completion was denied to
his father, and perfect it with love and zeal.
Vers. 22-53. The dedicatory prayer of Solomon.
(a) the exordium, vers. 23-26; (6) the prayer, vers.
27-50 ; (c) the conclusion, vers. 51-53. — The prayer
of Solomon a witness to his faith (he confesses
the living, holy, and one God, before all the peo-
ple) , to his love (he bears His people upon His
heart, and makes intercession for them); to his hope
(he hopes that all nations will come to a knowledge
of the true God). From Solomon we may learn how
we ought to pray : in true reverence and humiliation
before God, with earnestness and zeal, with ua-
doubting confidence that we shall be heard. — What
an elevating spectacle, a king upon his knees, pray-
ing aloud, in the presence of his whole people, and in
their behalf 1 Although the highest of them all, he
is not ashamed to declare himself a servant of God,
and to fall down upon his knees ; although the wisest
of them all (chap. v. 11), he prays as a testimony
that a wisdom which can no longer pray is folly ; al-
though the mightiest of all (chap. v. 1), he confesses
that nothing is done by his power alone, but that
the Lord is the King Eternal ; therefore it is, that
he does not merely rule over his subjects, but as
an upright king supplicates and prays for them
likewise. — Ver. 22 (cf. ver. 54). Solomon stands be-
fore the altar, bows the knee, stretches out his
hands, the people stand around, the worshippers
turn their faces towards the sanctuary (vers. 38, 44,
48). Outward forms, for the worship and service
of God, are not to be rejected when they are the
natural unbidden outflow of inward feeling. (The
Lord himself and his apostles prayed upon their
knees, Luke xxii. 41 ; Eph. iii. 14. No one is so
exalted that he ought not to bow his knee and
clasp his hands.) They (outward forms) are worth-
less when they are regarded as meritorious, and
man puts his trust in them (Luke xviii. 11, sq.)
They are sinful and blameworthy if they are per-
formed merely for appearance's sake, or to deceive
men (Matt. vi. 5, 16). The Lord knows the hearts of
all men (ver. 39) ; one cannot serve the living God
with dead works (Heb. ix. 14).
Vers. 23-26. The introductory prayer, (a) The
invocation, vers. 23, 24. (Solomon calls upon the
CHAPTER HI!. 1-66.
107
infinite God of heaven and of earth as the God
of Israel, not because he was only the God of
that nation, but because he had revealed himself
to it, had spoken to it, and with it had made a
covenant of mercy and grace, and had kept this
covenant. In the new covenant we no longer
call upon God as the God of Israel, but as the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. i. 3), be-
cause he has revealed himself to us through
Christ, and through Christ alone do we find in
Him the true God, the God of grace and mercy.
Thus He wills that we should call upon Him.)
(6) The supplication joined to this, vers. 25, 26. (Let
thy promise be fulfilled. It is fulfilled, for God has
sent that son of David whose kingdom shall have
no end, Luke i. 32 sq. ; Is. be. 7. In the new cove-
nant we pray that God will prove true the word
which He has spoken to us, through this Son of
David. — Ver. 25. Covenant and mercy are no couch
of repose for old men, but the working energy
which keeps the path of God, and walks in His
way. — Ver. 24. Starke : Word and deed, promise
and fulfilment, with God go hand in hand.)
Vers. 27-30. What does Solomon declare concern-
ing the destination of the house which he had built
unto the Lord ? (a) But will God indeed, ic, ver. 27.
God dwells not, &c, Acts xvii. 24 ; Is. lxvi. 1. He
is everywhere, in the heaven above as in the earth
beneath, in lonely, secret chambers as in grandest
temples, Ps. exxxix. 7 sq. ; Jer. xxiii. 23 sq. But
he has said : (6) My name shall be, ver. 29. Where
His people dwells there will He also dwell, and will
declare Himself to them as the God who is holy,
and will be sanctified ; not for His own sake, but
for that of His people, has He a temple in their
midst, Ex. ii. 20, 24; xxvii. 43. Here is His word
of revelation, here His mercy-seat. Therefore, (c)
He wills that here prayer shall be made unto him,
and here He will listen to those who pray. Ver. 30.
Every prayer offered to Him here is a confession of
Him, of His name. — Ver. 27. Although the heaven
of heavens cannot contain the Unmeasurable and
Infinite One, and no building, how great and noble
soever, can suffice for Him, yet, in His mercy, He
will make his dwelling-place (John xiv. 23) in the
heart of that man who loves him and keeps his
word, and it will truly become a temple of God (1
Cor. hi. 16); He will dwell with those who are of
an humble spirit (Is. lvii. 15 ; Ps. cxiii. 5, 6). — Ver.
29. The eye of God looks upon every house where
His name is honored, where all with one mind raise
heart and hand to Him, and call upon His name (Ps.
exxi. 4) . To every church the saying is applicable :
My name shall be there : the object of every church
is to be a dwelling-place of divine revelation, t. e.,
if the revealed Word of God, in which, upon the
strength of that Word, worship, praise, and prayer
shall be offered to the name of the Lord. — Ver. 30.
The houses of God, above all else, must be houses
of prayer (Is. lvi. 7); they are desecrated if devo-
ted merely to worldly purposes of any kind what-
soever instead of being used for prayer and sup-
plication.— The hearing of prayer does not indeed
depend upon the place where it is offered (John iv.
20 sq.), but prayer should have an appointed place,
where we can present ourselves, even as God wills
that together with one voice we humbly exalt His
Dame (Rom. xv. 6 ; Ps. xxxiv. 4). Where two or
three are gathered together in His name He is in
their midst ; how much more will He be where a
whole congregation is assembled to call upon Him.
Vers. 31-50. The seven petitions of the prayei
teach us, (a) in all necessity of body and soul to
turn to the Lord who alone can help, and call upon
Him with earnestness and zeal (Ps. 1. 15; xci. 14,
15); (6) in all our straits to recognize the whole-
some discipline of an holy and just God, who will
show us the good way in which we must walk (Ps.
xciv. 12; Heb. xii. 5 sq.); (c) to confess our sins
and to implore forgiveness, in order that we may be
heard (Ps. xxxii. 1, 6, 7) ; (d) not only for ourselves
but also for others, in their time of need, should we
pray and supplicate, even as the king does here
for all individual men and for his entire people. —
Vers. 31, 32. First Petition. We may and must call
upon God to help the innocent man to his rights
(Ps. xxvi. 1), and, even here in this world, to reward
the evil man according to his deserts. — Starke: It
is allowable for a pious man to entreat God to ad-
minister his just cause; yet must he not wish evil
to his neighbor in mere human vindictiveness (Ps.
cix. 1 sq.). The oath is a prayer, a solemn invo-
cation of God in testimony of the trutli ; the false
oath is not merely a lie but an insolent mockery of
God, and God will not be mocked (Gal. vi. 7 ; Ex.
xx. 7). — Bear in mind when thou swearest that
thou art standing before the altar, i. e., before the
judgment-seat of the Holy and Just God, who can
condemn body and soul to hell. — Where the oath
is no longer held sacred there the nation and the
State go to ruin (Zech. viii. 16 sq.). — Vers. 33, 34.
Second Petition. A victorious enemy is the whip
and scourge with which the Lord chastises a na-
tion, so that it may awake out of sleep, confess its
sins, turn unto Him, and learn anew its forgotten
prayers and supplications. — To those who are taken
captive in war, and far from fatherland must
dwell beneath a foreign yoke, appUes the word of the
Lord, Luke xiii. 2. Therefore they who are pros-
pering in their native country must pray for them,
believing in the words of Ps. cxlvi. 7. — Vers. 35, 36.
Third Petition. — Inasmuch as fruitful seasons,
instead of leading to repentance, as being proofs
of God's goodness, so often tend to create pride,
haughtiness, and light-mindedness, therefore the
Lord sometimes shuts up His heavens. But then
we should murmur not against him, but against our
own sins (Lam. iii. 39), and confess that all human
care and toil for obtaining food out of the earth
is in vain if He give not rain out of heaven, and
fruitful seasons. — Starke : Fine weather is not
brought about by the means of processions, but by
true repentance and heartfelt prayer, Lev. xxvi. 3, 4.
— When God humbles us, He thus directs us to the
good way (Ps. cxix. 67 ; Deut. v. 8, ii. 3). — Vers. 37-
40. Fourth Petition. Divine judgments and means
of discipline are very various in their kind, their
degree, and their duration. God in his wisdom
and justice metes out to a whole people, as to
each individual man, such measure of suffering
as is needed for its salvation, for He knows the
hearts of all the children of men, and He tries no
man beyond his power of endurance; He hearkens
to him who calls upon Him in distress (2 Sam. xxii.
7 ; Ps. xxxiv. 18 ; Is. xxvi. 16). — Distress teaches us
how to pray, but often only so long as it is
present with us. God looks upon our heart, and
knows whether our prayer is a mere passing emo-
tion, or whether we have truly turned to Him
How entirely different would our prayers often
sound if we reflected that we are addressing Him
who knows our heart, with its most secret and
103
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
mysterious thoughts, expectations, and wishes.
The effect of an answer to our prayers must be
that we fear the Lord, and walk in His ways, not
only in the time of need and trouble, but at all
times, as long as we live. It is a priceless thing
that the heart remains constant. — Ver. 41—43. Fifth
Petition. Even as Solomon bore witness that
the house which he had built could not encompass
Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain,
so likewise he testified that the covenant made by
God with Israel did not exclude all other nations
from salvation, but rather aimed at leading all men
to a knowledge of the truth. If a Solomon prayed
for the attainment of this object, how much more
does it become us to pray for the conversion of the
heathen, and do our utmost that the people who
sit in darkuess and in the shadow of death may
come to Him, a light set by God before all nations
to lighten the heathen ( Luke ii. 31, sq.). He
who desires to know nothing of missions to the
heathen fails to know the God who wills that
help should be given to all men, and that all should
come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. ii. 4). —
Solomon hoped that the heathen, when they heard
the great deeds which the Lord did in Israel, would
turn to that God; how much stronger becomes
this hope when the infinitely greater scheme of
salvation in Christ Jesus is declared to them ! But
how shall they hear without a preacher ? How shall
they preach if they are not sent? (Rom. x. 14 sq.). —
The acknowledgment of the name of God necessa-
rily causes the fear of God. If an individual, or
an entire nation, be wanting in the latter, they will
also lack a true knowledge of God, let them boast
as they will of enlightenment and enlightened re-
ligious ideas. — Vers. 44, 45. Sixth Petition. A
people who undertake war should, above all, be sure
that it is under the guidance of God. That alone
is a just war which is undertaken with God's
help, and in the cause of God, of truth, and of
justice. — A host going forth to battle should re-
member this: Nothing can be done in our own
strength, we are soon quite ruined I ( Ps. xxxiii. 16
sq.) and thereupon we should pray and entreat the
Lord, from whom alone proceeds victory (Prov.
21, 31; Ps. cxlvii. 10 sq.). — Vers. 46-50. Seventh
Petition. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin
is a reproach to any people ( Prov. xiv. 34 ). Thus
the people Israel is a living example for all
times, as a warning and as an admonition ( 1 Cor.
x. 11). — The Lord has patience with each person,
as also with whole peoples and governments, for
He knows "there is no man who is not sinful."
But when the riches of his goodness, patience,
and long-suffering are despised, and a nation given
over to hardness of heart and impenitence (Rom.
ii. 4 sq.), He casts it away from before His face,
and wipes it out as a man wipeth a dish (2 Kings
xxi. 13), so that it ceases to be a people and a king-
dom. The world's history is the world's final
doom. The wrath of God towards all ungodly
conduct of men is not a mere biblical form of
Bpeech, but a fearful truth, which he who hearkens
not will learn by experience. — The saying: There
is no man who sinneth not, must not be misused
to apologize for sin as a natural weakness; it
should rather warn and exhort us that we must
not give the reins to that will which lieth even
at the door, but rule over it (Gen. i. 4, 7); for he
who committeth sin is the slave of siu (John
viii. 34). — The confession : We have sinned, Ac,
must come from the depths of ihe heart, and
must be in connection with the conversion of
the whole soul to the Lord ; for he alone can
obtain forgiveness of all his sins in whose spirit
there is no guile (Ps. xxxii. 2). But how often,
in days of fasting and humiliation, is this confes-
sion made only with the lips I How, then, can a
man hope for mercy and forgiveness through the
hearingof prayer ? — The Lord who guides the hearts
of men as water-courses can bestow upon our
enemies a forgiving and merciful heart, even as
Israel experienced. For this, and not for the de-
struction of our enemies, we ought to pray. — Vers.
51-53. In the midst of our cries and prayers we
should remember how dearly the Lord has purchased
us for His own, by the blood of His son (Rom. viii.
32 ; 1 Cor. vi. 20 ; Rev. v. 9). The grace of God
in Christ is the foundation of our assurance that
the Lord will deliver us from all tribulation and
sorrow, and will lead us to his heavenly kingdom.
For this do we close our prayers with the words :
For the sake of thine eternal love. — Starke: God
does not leave his people in the furnace of misery,
but always guides them forth from it (Job iii. 22).—
Our prayers, from beginning to end, must be ground-
ed on the divine promises (2 Sam. vii. 25).
Vers. 54-61. Solomon's final address to the
people contains a psalm of praise (ver. 56), a wish
for a blessing (vers. 57-60), and a warning (ver.
61). — Ver. 5<j. It is a gift of God, for which
we must thank and praise him, if we can lead a
quiet and peaceful life, in all godliness and honesty
(1 Tim. ii. 2). — The rest which God promises to
his people and has granted unto them, under Sol-
omon the peaceful prince, was merely a temporal
one. But we have this good saying : There re-
maineth a rest for the people of God (Heb. iv. 9).
This word will not fail if we do not harden our
hearts, if we hear his voice, and strive assiduously
to attain to that rest, where God shall wipe away,
&c. (Rev. xxi. 4). — Vers. 57, 58. The aid and bless-
ing of God have no other object than to turn thy
heart to Him, that thou mayest walk in His way
He only forsakes those who have forsaken Him
(Ps. ix. 11).— All keeping of the commandments,
all mere morality, without submission of the heart
to God, is worthless — a mere shell without the
kernel. — Vers. 59, 60. The words which rise out
of the depths of the heart to God reach Him and
abide with Him; He forgets them not (Rev. viii.
3, 4). — That the Lord is God, and none other, seems
nowhere more conspicuous than in the choosing
and leading of the people Israel, in which He
has revealed Himself in His might and glory, in
His holiness and justice, His faithfulness and
mercy (Ps. cxlv. 3-12). No better proof of the ex-
istence of a one living God than the history of
Israel.
Ver. 61. The best and greatest wish which
a king can form for his people, a father for
his children, a pastor for his flock, is: May your
heart be righteous, i. e., whole and undivided be-
fore the Lord our God. He who elects to side with
Him must do so wholly and entirely; all "halting
between two opinions " is an abomination to Him ;
the lukewarm He will " spue out of His mouth."
Be thou on the Lord's side, and He will be with
thee.
Vers. 62-66. The temple-dedication, a thanks-
giving feast (ver. 62), a covenant feast (ver.
65, vide Historical and Ethical, 11), a feast of greaJ
CHAPTER IX. 1-28
109
gladness (ver. 66).— WiJRT. Summ. : For great bene-
fits men should offer great thanksgivings, and
indeed should prove their gratitude by promoting
the true service of God, and by benevolence to
the poor and needy (Ps. 1. 14). — At public thanks-
giving-feasts there should be not only banquets,
but prince and people, high and low, rich and
poor should bow unto the Lord, to serve him with
one accord and steadfastly. — "Ver. 63. So they
dedicated, Ac. Pfaff: This was indeed a holy
temple-consecration. 0 I how entirely otherwise
are those of to-day constituted in general, which
should be abolished or reformed rather than
praised, on account of the sinful abuse which haa
gained the upper hand. Ver. 66. Even as Solo-
mon blessed his people, even so his people blessed
their king. The prince alone who prays for his
people can expect them to pray for hin. Well for
that land where prince and people wish well to
each other, and make supplication for each other, for
there mercy and truth are met together; righteous-
ness and peace shall kiss each other (Ps. lxxxv. 10).
When a man has rendered unto God what is of
God, he can go forth to his daily labor with joy
and gladness. To praise and thank God makes
the heart glad and willing to work.
F. — Variout matters connected with the accounts of Solomon's architectural worles.
(Chap. IX. 1-28.)
1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house
of the Lord [Jehovah], and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he
2 was pleased to do, that the Lord [Jehovah] appeared to Solomon the second time,
3 as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. Ami the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him,
I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: '
I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever ;
4 and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk
before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness,
to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes
5 and my judgments ; then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel
forever, as I promised [spake] to J David thy father, saying, There shall not fail
6 thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all [altogether3] turn
from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments
and my statues which I* have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and
1 worship them ; then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given
them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my
8 sight ; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people : and at *
this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and
shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and
9 to this house ? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord [Jehovah]
their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have
taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them : there-
fore hath the Lord [Jehovah] brought upon them all this evil.6
10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the
11 two houses, the house of the Lord [Jehovah], ami the king's house, (Now Hiram
the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and fir-trees, and with
gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty
12 cities in the land of Galilee. And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities
13 which Solomon had given him ; and they pleased him not. And he said, What
cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the
14 land of Cabul ' unto this day. And Hiram sent to the king six-score talents o(
gold.
15 eAnd this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build
the house of the Lord [Jehovah], and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of
16 Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. For Pharaoh king of Egypt
had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites
17 that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's
18 wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horoii the nether, and Baalath, and
19 Tadmor* in the wilderness, in the land, and all the cities of store that Solomon
had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and 10 that which Solo-
mon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his
20 dominion. And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites
no
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
21 Hivites, and Jebusites, which icere not of the children of Israel, their childreL
that were left after them in the laud, whom the children of Israel also were not
able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bond service
22 unto this day." But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen:
but they icere men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and
23 rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen. These were the chief of the officers that
were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the peo-
ple that wrought in the work.
!?4 But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house
which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.
25 And three times in a year did Solomon oft'er burnt-offerings and peace-offer-
ings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord [Jehovah], and he burnt incense
upon the altar that was before the Lord [Jehovah]. So he finished the house.
26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships12 in Ezion-geber, which is beside
27 Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in
the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants
28 of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four 1S
hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 8.— [The Sept. here insert, " I have done to thee according to all thy prayer."
• Ver. 5.— [Many MSS. replace the preposition ?JJ by ?X , and certainly, u* the former is the true reading, It li
used in the sense of the latter, as is frequently the case, c/. GeseniuB, s. v. A. 4.
' Ver. 6.— [The Heb. is here in the usual intensive form f/DCI7) 3iU\ which is preserved In all the versions, while the
English expression implies the slightest dereliction instead of complete apostasy.
* Ver. 6. — [The Sept. put Moses instead of the personal pronoun as the nominative.
s Ver. 8.— [The words at and which are not in the Heb. The latter is given In the Heb. of 2Chr. vil. 21, and supplied
here by the Chald. All the other versions give house in the noin. and omit the relative. The Syr., followed by the Arab.,
has "this house shall be destroyed." Vulg. "shall be for an example."
8 Ver. 9. — [According to the Sept. the time of this vision is determined as after the completion of the palace by the
addition to this verse. " Then Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David into his house which
he had built for himself in these days."
7 Ver. 13. — [The Sept. say he called them optoi*— coast, boundary, omitting the name Cabul altogether. They doubtless
read 7133— border for P133 •
■ Ver. 15. — [Vers. 15-25 are transposed by the Vat. Sept. from their place here and inserted after x. 22.
9 Ver. 18. — Thek'thiblDn is decidedly to be preferred to the k'rl 1D1H . [In connection with this and with the
author's remarks on this name in the Exeg. Com. the following facts are to be borne In mind: the reading of the kYiiJ^fl
is found in many MSS. instead of the present k'thib lEl") an<* In OQr Pr'nted editions a spaoeis left in the text for the
missing "i while the vowel points are those of Tadmor. All the versions, except the Sept., give either Tadmor or its
equivalent Palmyra ; the Sept. gives according to the Alex. ©ep/idfl, which shows that the -j was before them, or according
to the Vat. in x. 22 'Ie0epnd0. Keil, who adopts this rendering, explains the words "in the land" (which the author
considers an insuperable difficulty) by the remark of Tremellius in rtffiw Salomonls et Intraflnea a Deo designates, connect-
ing the word with " built " in ver. 17. The expression in 2 Chr. viil. 4, Is simply " Tadmor in the wilderness ; " but the
previous verse has recorded his succe&sful attack upon Hamath-zobah, and it is thus Implied that Tadmor was in that re-
gion.
i° Ver. 19.— [Many MSS., followed by the Chald. and Vulg., Insert "all."
>> Ver. 21.— [Until all the buildings were finished.
13 Ver. 26. — [The Sept., Chald., and Arab., both here and In ver. 27, have thip in the singular.
13 Ver. 28.— [The Vat. (not Alex.) Sept. reads a hundred and twenty, while 2 Chr. viil. 18 has four hundred and
fifty.— F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-2. And it came to pass when Solo-
mon had finished, Ac. Cf. 2 Chron. vii. 11-22.
Solomon built, besides the temple and the palace, a
number of other buildings, of which mention is
made in vers. 15 and 19. Chron. says: all that he
desired to build, for All which he was pleased to
do; pB>n cannot, therefore, mean, as Thenius
thinks, " pleasure-buildings," as distinguished
from necessary and useful ones, but rather from
the words of vers. 19, " in all the lands of his
dominions," must signify public works which he
had undertaken for the benefit of the latter, as for
instance (according to Ewald), aqueducts, reser-
voirs, &.c. It is very distinctly stated here, thai
the divine appearance of ver. 2 took place after
the completion of the temple and palace, as well
as several other buildings. But because the divine
address, ver. 3 sq., refers to the prayer at the
temple-dedication, some have concluded, as we
have already mentioned in our remarks on chap
viii. 1, that the appearance immediately followed
the dedication ; and that the latter, accordingly,
occurred thirteen years after the completion of the
temple. But there is no reason whatsoever foi
such a conclusion. The dedication had been per-
formed in a spirit and manner that could hav«
CHAPTER IX. 1-28.
Ill
given no cause for such a sharp warning and
severe threatening as are found in vers. 6-9 ; and
yet this threatening seems to be the principal
thing in the divine discourse. It is very possible
that it was occasioned by circumstances of a later
date. The meaning in this ease would be : I have
indeed heard thy prayer at the dedication of the
temple, and will do that for which thou hast be-
sought me ; but take warning. If ye turn away
from me I will destroy Israel, Ac. In like manner
Seb. Schmidt: quod Deus distulerit hanc apparitio-
nem usque ad tempus, quo Salomonis peccatum ap-
propinquabat, ut non diu antequam fierei eum serio
moneret. If this view be rejected we must think,
with Keil (in the Commentary of 1846), that the
writer wished to say all that he had to remark
concerning Solomon's different buildings, in the
same place in our chapter, and " that he made the
transition-formula, ,ver. 1, at the same time the
heading of the following section, in which not only
is the divine appearance mentioned, but an account
also is given of Solomon's undertakings after he
had finished all the buildings."
Vers. 3-9. And the Lord said unto him, Ac.
We may conclude from the words : " as at Gibeon,"
that it took place, as then, in a dream (chap. iii. 5).
/ have hallowed this house . . . my, ic, i. «., I
have appointed it by my glory (chap. viii. 10, 11 ;
Ex. xxix. 43 : '1332) to be the place where I re-
veal my holiness (rf. Histor. and Ethic. 2, on chap.
vi). The parallel passage in 2 Chron. vii. 12, says:
I have chosen this place to myself for a house of
sacrifice ; which means that, as Jehovah was
known and honored as the Holy One, through
sacrifice, so sacrifice was also His appointed means
of atonement and sanctification for the sacrificer.
The house was essentially a place of sanctification.
Our author evidently left out what the Chron.
adds in vers. 13 and 14, because it is partly con-
tained in ver. 3. For vers. 4 and 5 see on chap.
ii. 4, and viii. 25. When David is here, as in chap,
iii. 14, held up to Solomon as a model in keeping
Jehovah's commandments, it is not because David
never broke a divine law, or never sinned, but be-
cause he kept inviolate the first and chief com-
mandment upon which the existence of Israel de-
pended (Ex. xx. 2-5); because in every situation
in which he was placed, in prosperity and adver-
sity; amongst his compatriots or in banishment
among the heathen, he remained loyal to Jehovah,
and never discovered the slightest leaning to idol-
atry. The threat, vers. 6-9, is the same as in Lev.
xxvi. 14; Dent. viii. 19; xxviii. 15, 37; Josh,
xxiii. 16, and is therefore not one that was made
for the first time after the captivity, as some have
said. Thenius rightly remarks that the style and
living force of the address are proofs that " we
have an ancient utterance before us here." pt^D ,
ver. 7, is a proverb which every one has in his
mouth, a proverb of universal truth ; every one
will adduce Israel as a terrible example, and will
mock them (Isai. xiv. 4; Mic. ii. 4). Thenius and
Bertheau, by reference to Mic. iii. 12 ; Jer. xxvi.
18; Ps. lxxix. 1, read instead of JVPV, in
vers. 8, Q«j; , t. e., ruins, and this certainly facili-
tates the translation of the word very much. But
no MS. nor old translation reads it thus ; and
Ch'xm. says expressly: " this house which is
high " (2 Chron. vii. 21) ; we must, therefore, adhere
to the text-reading. It cannot, however, be trans
lated : and " this house, exalted as it may be, who
soever passes by the same, shall," &c. (De Wette,
von Meyer, and others), but only as Keil has it :
" this house shall stand high, i. e. stand high in its
destruction, a conspicuous example, a warning to
all passers by." The Vulgate translates, more-
over, directly: et d.omus hoic erit in exemplum ; but
the Sept., more in the sense of the Chronicles : nal
6 oikoc ovroc 6 i'}J>7]?i6c, Trdc 6 6ta7ropev6fxevoe
CKari/oerai. But we must supply what is under-
stood, namely, that the house is destroyed. Keil
thinks there is an allusion to Deut. xxiv. 1 9 ; xxviii.
1, in Ji'Sy . Vers. 8 and 9 mean that what was
threatened in the law in Deut. xxix. 23-26, shall
be fulfilled. p-mJ does not denote a scornful
hissing, but, as the connection with DU'' requires, a
hissing of terror. Cf. Jer. xix. 8 ; xlix. 17.
Ver. 1 0. And it came to passat the end of twen-
ty years. In vers. 2-9 the author has given an
account which concerns the temple, the most im-
portant of all Solomon's buildings. From ver.
10 on, he gives further information respecting
them ; how Solomon was enabled to undertake his
many and, in part, expensive buildings ; that is to
say, through his treaty with Hiram, vers. 11-14;
and also by the levy which he raised, vers. 15-
25 ; and finally by the voyage to Ophir, which
brought him gold, vers. 26-28 (Keil). — The seven
years of the temple-building (chap. vi. 38), and the
thirteen years of the palace-building (chap. vii. 1),
are included in the twenty years of ver. 10.
There is no historical connection between the sec-
tion vers. 10-14, and that in vers. 1-9. The head-
ing in ver. 1 is therefore repeated on account of
the following collective remarks on the different
buildings.
Vers. 11-14. Now Hiram the king of Tyre,
&c. The section in vers. 11-14 is easily seen to be
an excerpt, which has gaps not to be filled with
perfect certainty. According to chap. v. 1-6, Solo-
mon had made a compact with Hiram, by the
terms of which he was to indemnify him by the
delivery of certain natural productions; no allusion
is made here to any further recompense in the
way of territory, nor to any payment of gold
which Solomon had obtained from Hiram. It
is plain, therefore, that the twenty cities were an
equivalent for the 120 talents of gold mentioned in
ver. 14. Probably Hiram had at first agreed tc
the proposition; but upon a closer inspection he
was not pleased with these towns, though he had
to abide by his agreement. This is the only ex-
planation of the fact that no answer from Solomon
to the question in ver. 13 is recorded. As we
may conclude, from the account of their joint enter-
prise in ver. 26 sq., that the friendly relations of
the two kings continued, it is probable that Solo-
mon satisfied him in some other way.
The land ^jn is not the later pro vince of Galilee
in its whole extent, but only the northern part of it,
originally belonging to Naphthali; it was called
dHjH ^3 , district or country of the heathen
(Isai. viii. 23; 1 Mace. v. 15). Solomon fixed upon
it as an equivalent because it bordered on the ter
112
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ritory of Tyre, and, as its Dame shows, was Dot so
much inhabited by Israelites as by heathens (cf. 2
Sam. xxiv. 7). — The'nN is not, as iu chap, u 32,
an expression of intimacy, but is a prince's title (1
Mace. x. IS ; xi. 30). The designation ^33 ,
which Hiram gave the land of the twenty cities, is
also given to a place or district in the tribe of
Asher (Josh. xix. 17), and is derived from ?33 ,
tincire, to chain, to close ; thus describing the dis-
trict as closed (but not pawned, as some allege),
by virtue of its geographical position. This is
much more natural than the explanation, accord-
ing to which ^133 is from ^3113 , i. e-, sicut id,
quod evanuii tanquam nihil (Maurer, Gesenius), or
formed by 3 and ^Q=p3 (Thenius), and meaning
" As nothiDg." How could Hiram give the dis-
trict a permanent name, which contained rather a
mockery of himself than of the land ? The asser-
tion of Josephus (Antiq. 8, 5, 3), that Xa'Aajiuv
means ovk apcaaov in Phoenician, is utterly with-
out foundation. We have no need to seek the
reason of the name in Hiram's exclamation:
"What cities are these," &c. ; the second sentence
of ver. 13 is quite independent of the first. In
order to reconcile the conflicting assertion in 2
Chron viii 2 (that Hiram gave cities to Solomon,
who peopled them with Israelites), with the pas-
sage under consideration, it is generally supposed
that Solomon had, in the first place, given up
twenty cities to Hiram, but as they did not please
Hiram, took them back again (Keil). But ]J"I3
cannot, in itself, mean to give back, and our pas-
sage also, which is the fullest, would in this case
be quite silent about what it intends to state,
namely, that Hiram had received an equivalent.
Our passage cannot, at any rate, be disproved by
the short, abrupt assertion of Chron. The ques-
tion may be asked, too, if these cities were the
same as in Kings. Perhaps later tradition, which
Chron. follows, changed the circumstances so, be-
cause people could not believe that Solomon
should have given up Israelitishland to Tyre, con-
trary to the law, Lev. xxv. 23 (cf. Bertheau on 2
Chron. viii. 1).
Vers. 15-19. And this is the reason of the
levy, which, &c. It was chiefly through Hiram's
aid that Solomon was enabled to undertake his
buildings, but it was also a great assistance to
liim that he could use the Canaanites that were
left in the land to perform this tribute labor. It
seems from Judges ix. G and 2 Kings xii. 21, that
{WDn does not mean merely a wall of earth (fill-
ing up), but a building (JV3) or a collection of
buildings that serve to fortify a place, i. e., fortifi-
cations, rampart, citadeL David had made such
for Zion (2 Sam. v. 9), and Solomon renewed it, cf.
chap. xi. 21; 2 Chron. xxxii. 5. "It can only
have been where Zion rises highest, and con-
sequently most needs fortification " (Thenius).
Tlie walls of Jerusalem do not here mean the walls
of Zion, the upper city, but those of the lower city
(see on chap. iii. 1), so that the temple mountain
was included. Hazoc, a town in the tribe of Naph-
thali. formerly a Canaanitish royal city, was not
far from the nc"theru frontier of Palestine, and
was therefore " built," i. e., fortified by Solomon,
Josh. xix. 36 ; 2 Kings x* 29. Megiddo (cf. on
chap. iv. 12) lay in an impo:tant military position,
for it formed an entrance to the plain of Jezreel
and the Jordan (meadows) valley, thus being the
way from the sea-coast to central «nd north Pales-
tine. Gezer, also once a Canaanrtish royal city,
between Beth-horon and the Mediterranean sea ; it
lay in the southerly portion of the tribe of Eph-
raim (Josh. xvi. 3). What Hazor was to the north
and Megiddo to the central part of Palestine, Gezer
and the lower Beth-horon were to the south; an
army could much more easily penetrate to the
capital from those places, than from the mountains
of Judah (cf. Thenius on the place). Ver. 16 is a
parenthesis, and tells how Gezer came into Solo-
mon's possession. Probably, it was the capital of
a district that extended to the coast, into which
Pharaoh entered from the sea. The great import-
ance of the situation of this place made its posses-
sion very valuable to Solomon. Whether the town
was built again immediately after it was destroy-
ed, or not until Solomon's time, is uncertain; at
any rate, he fortified it. Baalath is a town in the
tribe of Dan (Josh. xix. 44), according to Josephus
(Antiq. viii. 6, 1), not far from Beth-horon and Gezer ;
it has been wrongly asserted to be identical with
Baal-gad at Hermon (Josh. xi. 17), because the
directly following -|£n is = to TDTB according
to 2 Chron. viii. 4, and the later denotes the large
and rich city of Palmyra, situated between Damas-
cus and the Euphrates (Keil). But the connection
of "ICO with Baalath, Gezer, and Beth-horon indis-
putably denotes a southern city, especially as the
more northern fortresses, Hazor and Megiddo, were
named before. ~IOT is also named as a southern
place iu Ezek. xlvii. 19 ; xlviii. 28. The addition
" Ik the wilderness, in the land" can only mean, in
the wilderness that lay in Palestine, which is the
wilderness of Judah; it is therefore unwarrant-
able to add D1X , i- e., Syria, after )'1N3 as some
have done. Thus Thamar was the most southern
fortress, and "commanded the passes which led
to the most frequented routes from Edom to Jeru-
salem " (Thenius). A fortified city was very neces-
sary and important in this very place, and it is in-
explicable that Solomon should have left the south
without any fortress, and yet have fortified the
distant city of Palmyra, beyond the confines of
Palestine. As in all doubtful cases, so here the
statement of the books of the Kings merits the pre-
ference over that of the Chron., which has given
occasion to the Wri. Besides, iDin occurs no-
where else, and it is much more probable that
IDO has been changed into the famous "IDIR
t t : "
than the reverse. The account of the fortresses
that protected the land is followed (ver. 19) by an
account of the buildings required for storage of
victuals and materials of war. The cities of store
were not depots of merchandise (Ewald), but ma-
gazines of produce of the soil reserved for times
of need (2 Chron. xvii. 12; xxxii. 28). For the
cities for chariots and horsemen see chap. x. 26.
Vers. 20-23. And all the people that were
left, &c Ver. 20 refers back to ver. 15, ard
after it has been stated for what purpose Solomon
raisod the levy, it n ;w informs us whom it in-
CHAPTER IX. 1-28.
113
eluded. Upon ~3JTDD . »• «■, slave-service, see
chap. v. 13. V13J?i ver. 22, means chiefly, officials
of the war-department ; V~)V chief officers of the
army ; and VC'^l" royal adjutants and life-guards-
men. Gesenius, De Wette, and others translate the
latter: cluxriot warriors, or chariot-driver, be-
cause there were always three of them standing
in one chariot; this, however, does not admit
or proof, and Tpia-aTnc, as the Sept. usually
renders it, does not mean chariot warriors. In
every place where the word occurs in our books (2
Kings vii. 2; xvii. 19; xv. 25; ix. 25) it denotes
the royal staff; in 2 Kings x. 25, the D'i'l and
Q'ii'^L" are the king's body-guard ; and in 2 Sam.
xxiii. 8 (1 Chron. x. 11) still less is there reference
to chariot warriors. The old glossaries explain
Tpiordrac, tovc rrapa %upa rob pam'Aiuc. The
reasou of the name cannot be given with certitude.
For the 550 superintendents of the work see above
on chap. v. 16.
Ver. 24. But Pharaoh's daughter came up.
The two facts recorded in vers. 24 and 25 are by
no means irrelevant and disconnected, as they
appear ; but plainly refer back to chap. iii. 1-4.
They mean that the wants which were felt in the
beginning of Solomon's reign ceased with the
completion of all the buildings (vers. 1 and 10);
the king's consort took possession of the part of
the royal palace that was for her use ; and Solo-
mon no longer sacrificed on the heights, but always
in the temple he had built. 7]X , ver. 24, is here
the same as in Gen. xxvii. 30; Jud. vii. 19. It
does not follow, because Solomon built Millo im-
mediately after his consort repaired to her dwell-
ing, that the former was to be a " protection to
the harem" (Thenius), for there is no proof that
the '■house of Pharaoh's daughter" was the
harem, and Millo was evidently intended to pro-
tect the upper city.
Ver. 25. And three times in a year did
Solomon offer, that is, on the three chief festivals,
when the whole people assembled at the sanc-
tuary (Ex. xxiii. 17; xxxiv. 23). These were not
ordinary sacrifices, but were especially solemn offi-
cial ones, which the king, as head of the theocracy,
offered. The words njrp *}ib Tl"N 1FIN TBjJiTj
have been very differently understood. Stier
translates like v. Meyer, " and he burnt of it what
was fitting," which is wrong, because "that was
before Jehovah " never means, what was fitting.
Maurer's interpretation is very far-fetched : et
adoicbat apud eum (sc. Java) id, quad coram Jova
erat (sc. suffimenturn). Ewald renders it: "he
burnt incense alone there, where one stands be-
fore Jahve, i. e., in the holy place." But what
does burning incense alone mean? Thenius as-
serts -iC'N to be a false "insertion," and translates:
he bi ought with him (i. e., himself) offerings of in-
cense before the Lord (i. e., upon the altar of in-
cense in the sanctuary). mx is supposed to
mean: "he, without the mediation of another," so
that " wo have here an evidence that Solomon, at
least, exercised in person the functions of the
high-priest." But we cannot so easily throw
"1l''N out of the text; and inx never means: he
himself in his own person : so that the supposed
" evidence " falls to the ground. Finally, Keil
translates, because TDpn is not prater, but infin.
absol. : " and, indeed, setting fire to (the sacrifice)
at the (altar), which was before the Lord ; " but
TDpn always means " to burn incense " when it
stands as here, without an object; besides, the
sentence evidently means more than the immedi-
ately preceding one, which speaks of burnt-offer-
ings, in the case of which burning is of course
implied. It is certainly true that J"|X here, as well
as immediately after in ver. 26, and so often else-
where, means " with, by," and the suffix l must
be referred to the preceding l"QTO ; but it is in-
correct to make the clause "which was befure
Jehovah," mean the altar of incense which was so
described in Lev. xvi. 12, 18, and thus to conclude
that Solomon burnt incense "in the sanctuary."
As 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 shows, the priests alone might
do this, even in later times; the kings were
strictly prohibited. If an exception had be^n
made in the case of Solomon, it could not ha\e
been noticed only casually and vaguely. Tha>
clause by no means exclusively indicates the altar of
incense, but, as chap. viii. 64 shows, the " brazen
altar," too, and this it is which is meant here. Ac-
cording to Num. xv. 1-12 a meat-ofl'ering was offer-
ed with every burnt and peace offering ; and for the
former incense was essential, according to Lev. ii.
1, 2, which was wholly burnt (ver. 16). "In-
cense," therefore, was not only " offered " on the
altar of incense in the sanctuary, but also on the
altar of burnt-offering, and mbp in Ps. cxli. 2 is
synonymous with nrOO ■ This passage, then,
says nothing remarkable respecting Solomon, but
only that he presented his meat-ofl'ering three
times a year, as well as his burnt and peace offer-
ing. The parallel passage of Chron. therefore does
not mention the latter expressly, and only says :
"Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings unto the
Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built
before the porch . . . three times in the year " (2
Chron. viii 12, 13). The concluding sentence
IVBiTnX dW'1 does not mean: " thus the house
was finished " (Luther), for this was not done by
sacrifice and incense, neither does D?C' mean
finished, but, to make perfect, whole. The house
Solomon had built only became all it was designed
to be, i. e., ri3? IVa!? , a house of sacrifice (2
Chron. vii. 12), a central sanctuary, in that he pre-
sented now all the offerings on the festivals which
were appointed to be celebrated by the whole
people (Lev. xxiii. 14; Deut. xxvi. 16); cf. 2
Chron. viii. 1 6. Bottcher : he brought the temple,
as God's house and place of prayer, to its full
meaning.
Vers. 26-28. And king Solomon made a
navy of ships. This is told here because Solo-
mon received through these ships the large amount
of gold which he required, partly for his splendid
buildings, and partly to carry on his expensive
works. Ezion-geber, a sea-port of Edom, situated
on the Elanitic arm of the Arabian gulf, Num
xxxiii. 35 ; L)eut. ii. 8. Elatli is the modern Aka.
114
THE FiRST book of the kings.
ball on the eastern bay of the same gulf, and was
incorporated with tlie Israelitish kingdom by
David, 2 Sam. viii. 14. Both cities were of the
highest importance in a commercial view (c/.
Winer, R.-W.-B. I., s. 313, 361). The Phoenician
sailors were accounted the most skilful, and were
known even in distant lands (Winer II., s. 406).
Upon the fleet which sailed from Ezion-geber
Chron. gives (viii. 18): ''and Hiram sent him by
the hands of his servants, ships ; " and as there
was no way of conveyance by land, nor means of
shipping from Africa, this must only mean (as
Keil remarks) "that Hiram gave the ships for
this voyage (to Ophir), i. e., he ordered his people
at Ezion-geber to build them, and sent all the
requisite material not forthcoming at that place."
For the situation of Ophir see on chap. x. 22.
Instead of 420 talents of gold, Chron. gives 450 ;
this is, no doubt, only a change of the ciphers 3
(20) and : (50).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. This section now be/ore vs doses the ac-
count of Solomon's buildings, which account em-
braces the largest portion of the history of this
reign. Never would the narrative have dwelt so
long upon them, had all these building-undertak-
ings stood outside of all relation to the theocratic
kingdom. None of all the kings of Israel "built"
so much as Solomon, who is described for that
reason, in the history of Israel, as the king of
peace, the peace-prince. His buildings were no
pleasure and luxury structures, but were designed
to further the greatness, power, and splendor of
the kingdom, while at the same time they gave evi-
dence thereof. First he built the house of Jehovah,
which formed the heart and centre of the whole
theocracy; then the palace, i. e., the house,
"which was to shed glory on the second power in
Israel, the kingdom which was then reaching its
highest summit" (Ewald); then he fortified the
house by Millo, and surrounded Jerusalem, the
capital, with walls ; furthermore he made fortresses
and store-cities throughout the whole country, in
north, middle, and south Palestine; and, finally,
he himself began ship-building, so as to bring his
kingdom into communication with rich and distant
countries. All this, however, he conducted so as
to cause no injury to his own kingdom, but rather
po as to bring it to a height of prosperity that it
Lever before or afterwards attained. The time of
the Dii>"'' and with that of the "building" in its
widest sense, came on rrcrt" ; h'3 building enter-
prises were the natural result of the stage of
development at which the kingdom was ; he built
(0 fcuild up the kingdom, thus fulfilling his mission
3i the history of the theocracy.
2. The appearance with which Solomon was
favored after the completion of his many grand
edifices, as the text clearly and positively says
(see Exegetical upon ver. 1 sq.), is expressly
placed in relation to and contrasted with that
which he had in the beginning of his reign, at
i ,n (chap. iii. 6). The Lord had given him
not only what he had asked for. but also riches.
dignity, and fame. Up bad succeeded in all that
he had undertaken ; not only did he himself stand
at the summit of fortune, but his people had never
before reaches such a great and prosperous state,
being blessed with peace and quiet without, anc
with prosperity and comfort within (chap. iv. 20;
v. 4 sij. ; viii. 66). Then came the second appear-
ing, which contained with the remembrance of the
prayer answered at the dedication of the temple,
and the promise of blessing in the future, a threat-
ening and warning very wholesome, and even
necessary now for Solomon himself, who, though
hitherto loyal and faithful to the Lord, was open
to the temptation to fall away, as the after-history
shows, and whose heart the searcherof hearts knew
better than he did himself (cf. chap. viii. 39). But
it was also needed (the discourse ceases to con-
cern Solomon alone after ver. 6) by that ever-
restless, fickle people which in the enjoyment of
the greatest happiness were in danger of forget-
ting their Lord and God, and of relapsing into the
idolatrous worship which was more agreeable to
the flesh. Hence it appears, too, that the words
in vers. 6-9 are the chief part of the divine dis-
course, and not an addition invented by the author
of these books, after the destruction of the temple,
as Ewald and Eisenlohr assert.
3. The divine threatening was literally fulfilled.
No people in the world ever became such a " pro-
verb." Singular as it stands in the world-history
in its election, it is equally so in its rejection and
ruin. It has remained, to the present day, the
living witness of the saving love and grace of
God on the one hand, and, on the other, of
holiness, truth, and retributive justice. By its
story it preaches to all nations the eternal truth
which the prophet Azariah proclaimed to king
Asa: "If ye forsake him, He will forsake you"
(2 Chron. xv. 2). When, in consequence of their
complete departure from God, the temple built by
Solomon was destroyed, Israel ceased to be an
independent kingdom, and the people were banish-
ed ; and when, after the second temple was built,
they rejected David's great Son, their promised,
true, and eternal king, in Whom all nations of the
earth were to be blessed, this temple was destroy-
ed never to be rebuilt, and the people were
scattered through all the world, ceasing forever to
be an independent kingdom and nation, every-
where despised, reviled, and persecuted.
4. The various building-enterprises of Solomon,
as well as the arrangements more or less connect-
ed with them, were practical evidence that tho
Lord had given him in unusual measure the wis-
dom for ruling and skill in affairs which he had
implored in the beginning of his reign (chap. iii.
7-91. He knew how to procure the material, in
part costly, which was requisite for his buildings,
as well also the requisite architects and builders,
by a compact (favorable to himself) with his
Tvrian neighbor ; and repaid him for the quantity
of gold he supplied him with without heaping
oppressive debts on his people, but by surrender-
ing a district of little value near the Tyrian frontier,
and almost altogether inhabited by strangers to
Israel. He made use of the descendants of the
subjugated Canaanites who were left in the land,
to execute those public works which were de-
signed to protect the country and further its
material prosperity ; thus sparing his own people,
who, like every other free people, had no slavish
work, but performed only military service. He
built a separate palace for his consort, Pharaoh's
daughter, and by this means secured the favor of
his powerful neighbors, the Egypt :ans. That th»
CHAPTER IX 1-28.
115
leinple he had built might become and remain the
centra' place of worship, and thus a bond of unity
and communion for the entire people, he himself,
as head and representative of the theocracy,
offered solemn sacrifices on the three great yearly
festivals, when all the tribes met. In order not
only to meet the expenses of his many and costly
buildings, but also to teach commerce to his peo-
ple, who had hitherto almost entirely lived by
agriculture, he managed to engage the sea-faring
and skilled Phoenicians to build a common fleet,
which opened the way to other seas and lands for
them, and was the source of great riches to his
own kingdom.
HOMILETICAL AND PEACTICAX.
Vers. 1-9. The second appearance of Jehovah
to Solomon : (a) the point of time at which it
occurred, vers. 1, 2 (seeHistor. and Ethic); (b) the
object which it had, vers. 3-9 (Promise and warn-
ing).— In the divine address to Solomon the good-
ness and the severity of God are shown (Rom. xi.
22): his goodness in the establishment of His
promises (vers. 3-5), his severity in the chastise-
ment of backsliding (vers. 6-9). — Vers. 3, Wurt.
Sujim. : A most powerful thing is a devout, hum-
ble, and believing prayer, for thereby man be-
seeches God to grant him his desire (John xvi. 23).
— To every house where the name of God is truly
honored applies the divine saying : Mine eyes and
my heart shall dwell there forever. — Vers. 6-9.
Because men endure uninterrupted prosperity with
much greater difficulty than they do crosses and
afflictions, therefore, when the}' are at the summit
of their wishes, and their hearts' desire, it is most
necessary that the grave importance of God and
of eternity should be held up before them, so that
they may not fall into security, and forget to work-
out their own salvation with fear and trembling;
for what availeth it a man, tc. (Matth. xvi. 26).
He who thinketh he standeth, let him take heed
lest he fall (1 Cor. x. 12). — The more abundantly
God displays his mercy and love towards an indi-
vidual or towards a nation, so much the more fear-
ful will be the righteous sentence if the riches of
His mercy are despised. — In happy and prosperous
days forget not that the Lord tells us : Watch and
pray, lest ye enter into temptation. — How many
men, how many families, how many nations bless-
ed in every respect, have come to a fearful and
shameful end 1 Askest thou: Wherefore is this?
the only reply is: Because they have forsaken the
Lord their God ; for what a man sows that shall
he also reap. — Let him who will not recognize a
divine justice turn to the twice-destroyed temple
of Jerusalem, and to the world-scattered people
who have become a by-word amongst all nations.
Vers. 10-14. The demeanor of Solomon and
Hiram towards each other, (a) Friends and neigh-
bors should be of one mind, and mutually ready to
help each other. (6) Let not him who has kindly
aided thee with his substance be long awaiting
the proofs of thy gratitude, and render to him
more rather than less even if he need it not.
(c) Regard not so much the gift which thou re-
ceivest as the disposition of the giver, remember-
ing always : it is more blessed to give than to re-
ceive.— From the heathen Hiram many Christiana
may learn, even where real cause for dissatisfac-
tion and just claims exist, to state the dispropor-
tion between gifts and recompenses with friendly
words, and in a kindly manner. — Friends, who
through long years have aided each other, must
not be estranged, even when one thinks himself
injured by the other, but must strive to come to a
thorough understanding and agreement.
Vers. 15-23. The plans and arrangements of
Solomon for the benefit and protection of the land,
(a) First he built the house of the Lord, forth from
which would come all salvation for Israel : then
he built the store-houses for times of need and
famine, and as protection against the enemies of
the kingdom. A wise prince cares alike for the
religious and spiritual, and for the material and
temporal well-being of his people, and in times of
peace does his utmost to provide against every
danger which may assail the land, either from
without or within. For this a nation can never be
grateful enough, and should uphold him with
readiness and might, instead of murmuring and
complaining, as is often the case. (6) Solomon's
plan was. in his undertakings to spare his nation
all servile labor, as far as possible. Therefore,
for all compulsory service he employed the con-
quered enemy, who, as such, were slaves. A wise
prince will never impose burdensome taxes or
heavy labor upon his people, and reigns much
more willingly over freemen than over slaves;
but a good and loyal people does not make free-
dom a pretext for villany, and ever follows the
king's call for arms when the defence of " Father-
land " is concerned. For Israel can no more say
with truth — The Lord is my rock, my fortress,
and m_v deliverer (Ps. xviii. 3), if all the nation
does not aid in its defences and fortifications. —
In the kingdom of the true and eternal prince of
peace bondage will cease, and all men shall ob-
tain the freedom of the children of God. — Ver.
25. Solomon sets a good example before all
the people; he not only builds the temple, but
also frequents it regularly. It is as much the duty
of the highest as of the lowest to hear the word
of God, to pray, and to celebrate the Sacrament.
— Ver. 26 sq. A wise government seeks not only to
preserve existing prosperity, but also to discover
new sources thereof. — Many there are who travel
over land and sea to seek gold, and to become
rich, and forget that the Lord hath said: I counsel
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayestbe rich (Rev. iii. 18). Expeditions into far
countries must serve not only to obtain gold and
treasure, but also to carry thither the treasure
which neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal
(Matth. vi. 19 sq.) — Commerce may become a rich
blessing for a nation, but a greedy thirst for gold
often leads to extreme luxury and neglect of God,
as is many times exemplified in the history of
Israel.
116 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
FOURTH SECTION.
THE FAME AND THE MAGNIFICENCE OF SOLOMON.
(Chapter X.)
A. — Tlie Visit of the Queen of Sheba.
Chap. X. 1-13.
1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning ' the
9 name of the Lord [Jehovah], she came to prove him with hard questions. And
she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and
very much gold, and precious stones : and when she was come to 3 Solomon, she
3 communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all
her questions: there was not any thing [a question3] hid from the king, which
4 he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all4 Solomon's wisdom,
5 and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of
his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their6 apparel, and his
cupbearers, and his ascent" by which he went up unto the house of the Lord
6 [Jehovah] ; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a
true report' that I heard in mine own land of thy acts' and of thy wisdom.
V Howbeit I believed not the words,' until I came, and mine eyes had seen it ;
and behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
8 the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men,8 happy are these thy servants,
9 which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the
Lord [Jehovah] thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of
Israel : because the Lord [Jehovah] loved Israel forever, therefore made he thee
10 king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king an hundred and
twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones : there
came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave
11 to king Solomon. And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir,
brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug9 trees, and precious stones.
12 And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord [Je-
hovah], and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there
3 came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day. And king Solomon
gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that
which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty.'0 So she turned and went to her
own country, she and her servants.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. [The Sept. and Syr. render this very difficult expression, n<|]-]> DBO TOPC* yDEiHIX (®ee Exeg.
Com.), "heard the name of Solomon and the name of the Lord,'1 and the Aran, the same except in retaining fame in thf
first clause.
2 Ver. '2. [Many MSS. editions, and the Vulg. and Syr., insert king before Solomon.
3 Ver. 8. [There seems no sufficient reason for varying the translation of l^n occurring twice in such close prox
T T
imity. The same variation is observed in the Chald. and Syr., but the Sept. have Aoyos in both cases.
* Ver. 4. [Several MSS. followed by the Arab, omit "all."
6 Wr. 5. [The Sept., quite without authority, put the pronoun in the singular as referring to Solomon's apparel.
• Ver. 5. [All the ancient versions render " the burnt-offerings which he offered" (see Exeg. Com.) and must there-
»ore have read ID *i?V instead of )TU^ , but without reason. See Exeg. Com.
7 Vers, fi, 7. [The Ileb. for report andaeto, ver. 6, and words, ver. 7, is the same "111 , D^Xl and this sameness is
preserved in Uie Sept, although hardly possible in English.
> V*er. 9 [The Sept. curiously enough render "happy are the icotneft." .
9 Ver. 11. [Almug Is not a translation, but only a putting into English letters of the Heb. D^DpN • Thever-
lions render: — Vulg ihyina; Sept. nt\tx-rird (Alex. an-eAe'KTrra); Arab, colored wood, i. e. that ktr.d of wood naturally
painted with various colors. The sense as now generally understood is sandal-wood. See Exeg. Com.
10 Ver. 18. [Lit. gave her wfrom the hand of king Solomon.— F. G.]
CHAPTER X. 1-13
117
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-?.. And when the queen of Sheba.
Cf. 2 Chron, ix. 1-12. The name of Solomon
became famous far and near, through the trading
ships that were mentioned in chap. ix. 26 sq.
A proof is here given. X3!i' i Sheba, is a country in
Arabia Felix (not to be confounded with X3D , i. e.,
Meroe in Ethiopia, as Josephus has it), on the Red
Sea, rich in spices, frankincense, gold, and precious
stones (Jer. vi. 20 ; Ezek. xxvii. 22; Isai. be. 6; Ps.
lxxii. 15). " The Sabfeans, whose capital city was
Sheba, had become, through their extensive com-
merce, the richest nation among the Arabians "
(Winer, it.- W.-B. II. s. 405 ; Duncker, Gesch. des
Alterth. I. s. 140 sq.). The Queen of this coun-
try, who visited Solomon, was certainly the reign-
ing one; according to Claudian in Eutrop. i. 132.
the Sabsans were generally governed by queens,
but this has no historical foundation. Whether
she were widowed or unmarried is, like her name,
uncertain. Her fame spread with and through that
of Solomon, who was the beau-ideal of a king
throughout the East, for even the Koran mentions
her visit to Solomon (Stir. 27), and there are many
legends about it among the Arabians and Abyssin-
ians. The former name her Balkis, and the latter
Maqueda, and even say that she had a son by Sol-
omon, named Menihelek (or Melimelek),* who was
the ancestor of the Abyssinian kings (comp. Winer).
These fables of after-times need no refutation.
The words nirp D'."^ i which are wanting in Chron.,
are by no means unsuitable or superfluous (Mo-
vers) ; they exist in all the old translations, but
have been very differently understood. Propter
nomen Jth. (Le Clerc) is least like it; neither is De
Wette right: to Jehovah's honor; nor this, "the
fame of what Solomon had become by Jehovah's fa-
vor " (Gesenius) ; nor, the fame "that Solomon had
acquired through the glory of his God " (Ewald) ;
nor yet, "which he had attained, by Jehovah glo-
rifying himself so in him " (Weil). The expression
involuntarily reminds us of the niiT Dt."!' chap. iii.
2; v. 17, 19; viii. 17, IS, 19, 20, 44, 48; 2 Sam.
vii. 13. The house built to Jehovah's name was
the first and principal reason of Solomon's fame ;^
and -was what the Queen had chiefly heard of, in
which she had seen, like Hiram, an evidence of
wisdom. This she desired to prove for herself.
To prove him with hard questions. To
clothe wisdom in the form of proverbs, which were
often dark and enigmatical on account of their bre-
vity, is a primitive custom of the East, especially
among the Arabians, who are very rich in proverbs ;
the collection of the Meidani, for instance, which
contains 6,000 proverbs, and the Makami of the
Hariri show this. Chap. iv. 32 says that 3,000 are
by Solomon: and those in his name, that are now
extant, include many that are enigmatical. We do
not mean enigmas in the sense of those that used
to be propounded at meals or otherwise {cf. Ro-
ienmuller A. u. N. Morgenland with Judges xiv.
12); the Queen did not want any trial of skill in
enigmas with Solomon, but wished to propound
* See the srracefm acconot of the lesends, in Stanley's
Jewish Clew ~h, Second Strlea, p. 259-262.— E. II.
important and difficult questions to him. Sclomon
did not fail in a single answer (Tin ver. 3 is solv-
ing riddles in Jud. xiv. 19, and interpreting dreams
in Gen. xli. 24; Dan. v. 12).
Vers. 4-8. And when the Queen had seen
all Solomon's wisdom. Solomon's wisdom was
shown, not only in his answers and discourses
(ver. 3), but in all his arrangements, in the whole
constitution of the court, and manner of his govern-
ment; whithersoever the Queen looked, she beheld
evidence of his wonderful gifts and powers of
thought. The "house " is not the Temple, but the
royal palace, as the following words concerning the
court-appointments show. " Tlie meal of his table"
is the royal table, the splendor of which is espe-
cially described. The sitting of his servants, and the
attendance of his ministers, means "the civil officers
who sat at the royal table, and the servants, among
whom were the " cup-bearers." in attendance upon
them (Bertheau). These three descriptions have
nothing to do with localities, with the ministers'
seats, the place where the servants stood, nor the
preparations for the cup-bearing (Weil) ; nor the
order of the offices, and the rooms of the lower
servants (Thenius); for the parallel passage in 2
Chron. ix. 4 shows that VpCJS are persons. It ie
more doubtful how we are to understand the fol-
lowing words \fwff\ i &c- ; Chron. has ifV^J? m"
stead. All the translations give for both passages :
" and the burnt-offerings, which he offered in Je-
hovah's house ; " this would mean the solemn and
magnificent rites of the Temple worship. But it
would not agree with the description just preceding,
of the royal table and court appointments, the ser-
vants and cup-bearers; and above all, the splendid
Temple building would have deserved mention : it
would be necessary, too. to alter the text in both
places ; and lri?5Jl should be read, yet we have
no grounds for doing this. If this were the right
reading, the Chronicler, who was so partial to the
details concerning the worship, would not have
taken in'?!? instead. Most modern translators
(Keil, Winer, Ewald), therefore, give ascent for
ijvV; meaning the particidar ascent of steps
that led from the palace to the Temple ; and i"6j?
Ezek. xl. 26 has the same signification. This ascent
of steps belonged to the palace, and very likely
struck the eye, as it is here expressly mentioned ;
it also appears from 2 Kings xvi. 18 that the king
had a peculiar entrance of that kind to the Temple.
The concluding words of ver. 5 are literally, and
there was no more breath in her ; as the breath
goes in terror (Josh. ii. 11 ; v. 1), so it also goes in
cases of extreme astonishment.
Vers. 9. 10. Blessed be the Lord thy God.
We cannot conclude from these words that the
Queen had formally confessed the One God of Is-
rael, but rather that it meant what we have already
remarked of a similar expression of Hiram, chap,
v. 7. What she saw and heard excited her wonder
to such a degree, that it seemed to her directly im-
parted by the God Solomon adored, and for whom
she became filled with reverence. The presents
which the Queen, according to custom, made, con'
sisted of those articles in which her land most
US
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
abounded, and for which it was most famous. The
spices were principally the famous Arabian balm,
which was largely exported ; according to Joseplius
(Ant 8, 6. 6) the balm-shrub was introduced into
Palestine bv the Queen of Sheba (Winer, R.- W.-B.
L s. 132).
Vers. 11-13. And the navy also of Hiram,
Sec. The mention of the costly presents leads the
author to the remark, vers. 11 and 12, which may
be regarded as a parenthesis, that such articles of
luxury were introduced in abundance into Jeru-
salem by commerce ; and the (fragrant) spices re-
minded him of the equally great quantities of san-
dal-wood that Solomon received through Hiram's
ships. This wood, which is indigenous to India,
" was highly prized throughout the East for its fra-
grance, aud partly was carved into images, partly
used for tine utensils, and partly used for incense-
burning" ("Winer, II. s. 379). IVDO (ver. 12) only
occurs here, and its meaning is not quite cer-
tain. The root "IJJD means, to support, make sure.
Thenius calls it ''supports of the resting," i. e.,
seats made by Solomon on the walls of a palace or
Temple room ; but we do not find the slightest
mention of such a Temple room anywhere. As
Chron. has J"li?DD (from p^D, to prepare the way,
Ps. lxviii. ; v.) instead of our word, Bertheau
thinks that "|j;D like "jyv is to advance, so that
both expressions really denote the same thing ; i.
e.. the " way of entrance, ascent." Jarchi gives
IJJDO by HDV1 & «•, wainscoting on the floor
(tessellated pavements) ; and this seems the best.
The translation, steps with banisters (Keil), has no
authority. "ii-)3 and ")2J must be striuged instru-
ments with sounding-boards ; they are mentioned
together in Ps. lxxi. 22; cviii. 3; cL 3; we know
nothing certain of their natures. Which Solomon
gave her of his royal bounty (ver. 13), i. e., besides
the things he presented her with according to the
custom of kings, he gave her everything else she
desired. We can scarcely think this included, as
the other translators think, any literary produc-
tions. It is very doubtful whether the Ethiopian
Christians "concluded rightly from these words
that their Queen had a son by Solomon " (Ber-
theau).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The section before us does not, by any means,
contain a story accidentally and arbitrarily inserted
here, which, however beautiful it may be, might be
left out without doing harm, because it does not
bear upon the history of the Israelite kings. How
high the significance which has always been at-
tached to the event recorded is, is shown by the
fact that the remembrance of it has been preserved
outside of Palestine for thousands of years, and that
two ancient peoples, the Arabians and Abvssiniaus,
revered the Queen of Sheba as the mother of their
line of kings; the Abyssinian tradition making the
Bon she bore to Solomon the founder of the ancient
Ethiopian kingdom. And when the Lord, from
out '.lie treasure of the Old Testament history,
;hoo«es this narrative, and presents it for the
shaming of his contemporaries, this presupposes
that it was known to and specially esteemed by all
jlMer nations It is, therefore, something more
than an ordinary visit of royal etiquette. Sabse»
was reckoned to be the richest, most highly favored
and glorious land in the ancient world, and there-
fore was given the unique name of "The Happy."
Agatharchides names the Sabasat a vivoc iravroiat
Kvpmv etoai/ioviac.. Now when the ^ •■"en came
with a splendid retinue to visit this distant land,
and from no political design, but merely to see and
hear the famous king ; and when she, the sovereign
of the most fortunate country in the world, declared
that what she had seen and heard exceeded all her
expectations ; this surely was the greatest homage
Solomon could have met, homage that no king had
ever yet received ; and the result was that Solomon
was regarded as the ideal of a wise, great, and
happy king, throughout the Eastern world. The
visit of the Queen of Sheba marks, then, the splendor
and climax of the Old Testament Kingdom, and
marks an essential moment in the history of the
covenant as well as of Solomon. This story is
therefore in its right place, following, as it does,
the account of the great and glorious works Solo-
mon made for his country and which acquired for
him so much fame.
2. The context explains the kind of " wisdom " that
the Queen sought and found in Solomon. It was not
much learning; neither were the "riddles" that
Solomon solved metaphysical problems, nor mere
conversation and play of wit. Besides the answers
he gave to her questions, his works, appoint-
ments, and arrangements convinced the Queen of
his great wisdom, in which she recognized the
working of a peculiar power and grace imparted
by God. It was also a practical or life-wisdom,
such as Solomon himself describes, "a tree of life
to them that lay hold upon her, length of days is
in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and
honor. The merchandise of it is better than the
merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine
gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the
things thou canst desire are not to be compared
unto her," Prov. iii. 14-18. But this wisdom rests
upon the foundation of the knowledge and fear of
God (comp. ver. 1 and Prov. ii. 4-6), and the whole
reign of Solomon is the result of the same (see
Historical and Ethical on chap. iv. 29). " 0 ! happy
time, when mighty princes visited each other in the
midst of their lands, made tranquil by a holy fear
of God, so to vie with each other in wisdom and
what is still better, the search after wisdom "
(Ewald).
3. When the Lord says in Matt. xii. 42 and Luke
xi. 81: "The Queen of the south shall rise up in
the judgment with this generation and shall con-
demn it ; for she came from the uttermost part of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and be-
hold a greater than Solomon is here," he recog-
nizes the prophetical and typical meaning of our
narrative, as is the case generally with the king
dom of Solomon. It is said in the prophetical
descriptions of the peaceful kingdom of Messiah,
" the Kings of Sheba and Seba (Meroe) shall offer
gifts; yea, all kings shall fall down before him;
all nations shall serve him " (Ps. lxxii. 10, 11) ; and
" all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring
gold and incense, and they shall show forth the
praises of the Lord" (Isai. lx. 6). The Queen of
Sheba, who came from far, out of the happiest
country of the world, to Solomon, brought him
presents, and received all she wished from him, is
a type of the kings who with their people shall
CHAPTER X. 1-13.
11*
?™<ie from far and near to the everlasting Prince
of peace, the King of kings, and shall do him hom-
age. Her visit is an historical prophecy of the true
and eternal kingdom of peace. It is just this pro-
phetical and typical character of the story that
gives such emphasis to our Lord's reproof of the
hardened Israelites of His time.
HOHTLETICAL AND PKACTICAL.
Vers. 1-13. The queen of Sheba comes to Solo-
mon, (a) She comes in order to hear the wisdom of
Solomon (ft) She finds more than she expected, (c)
She worships and praises the Lord for what she has
seen and heard, (d) She returns home in peace, with
rich gifts.- — Solomon receiving the Queen of Sheba
a type of Christ (Matt. xxii. 42). (a) He did not re-
ject her who sought him, but raised her up (John
vi. 37). (6) He solved her questions, and showed
her his glory (John i. 9, 14; xxii. 46: vi. 6S). (c)He
accepted her gifts, and gave her much more in re-
turn, even all that she desired and requested.
(Johns. 11, 28; xvi. 24; iv. 13 sq.). Vers. 1-3.
The Queen of Sheba had everything that pertains
to temporal prosperity and good fortune, higli rank,
power and honor, health and wealth; but all these
satisfied not her soul; she sought the solution of
the enigma of life, and when she heard of Solomon,
and of the name of the Lord, she spared no expense
or trouble, neither regarded the scorn and con-
tempt of the world, in order to satisfy the longing
of her soul for the word of life. She said not :
I am rich, and have an abundance, and need noth-
ing; but she felt that she still ueeded the highest
and the best. How superior is this heathen wo-
man to so many Christians, who hunger and thirst
after all possible things, but never after a
knowledge of truth and wisdom, after the
word of life. We do not need to journey
to Jerusalem, to find him who is greater than
Solomon, for he has promised : " I am with
you forever, until the end of the world," and can
be found everywhere, if men seek him earnestly. —
God is not without a witness in the midst of the
heathen, whereby they may feel and recognize Him,
foi He wills that all men shall be aided to come to
a knowledge of the truth. The same God who
gave Solomon the wise heart for which he prayed,
revealed to the inquiring spirit of the heathen
queen what she most desired. — Ver. 3. One re-
ceives with readiness and alacrity the soul which
longs after the truth of God; such souls faithfully
apply the same, they do not weary — and the coun-
sel of God unto salvation is not withheld from
them (Acts xx. 27, and James v. 19-20).
Vers. 4—9. The acknowledgment of the Queen
of Sheba, when she beheld the works of Solomon,
(a) It is true ... I would not believe it until I,
&c, vers. 6, 7 (John x. 35, 38; xiv. 11). (ft) Thy
wisdom has exceeded, &c., ver. 7 (John vi. 68 sq.).
(c) Happy are thy men, &c, ver. 8 (Luke x. 23). (rf)
Praised be the Lord, &c., ver. 9 (Eph. i. 3). — Ver.
4. Words must be followed by works ; the behold-
ing with her own eyes, and her very own experi-
ence, must be added to the rumors she has heard.
Nathaniel, when he heard of Jesus, the Messiah,
spoke doubtingly at first: Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? But when he came and
taw he joyfully exclaimed: Thou art the Son of
God, thou art the King of Israel (John i. 45—49).
— Ver. 5. Great palaces, brilliant arrangements,
Ac, are objects worthy of real admiration if they
are not evidently mere works to gratify the lust of
the eye and the pride of life, but rather proofs of
wisdom, of spiritual elevation, and of love of art.
— Ver. 7. As in order to form a just conception
of visible things we must see them with our own
eyes — so also with invisible and divine things :
rightly to recognize them as such, we must feel
and taste their strength in our own hearts, and not
merely hear of them from others (1 Pet. ii. 3; Pa.
xxxiv. 9|. — Ver. 8. Not because of their fine clothes,
of their high position, of their splendid possessions,
did the Queen regard the people and the servants
of Solomon as blessed and happy, but because
they could always listen to his wisdom. How
much the more are those to be esteemed blessed,
who, sitting at His feet, who Himself contains all
the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, can
hear the word of everlasting life from His mouth
(Luke x. 23 sq). Ver. 9. It is proof of a good
and noble heart, when a man gives thanks to Goa
for the gifts which he bestows upon other men.
Cramer: Upon the land which God will bless He
bestows good and wise rulers ; but if He will to
punish a country, he does the opposite (Is. iii. 4;
Ec. x. 16, 17). If the Queen, in God's gift of a
Solomon to Israel, recognized a singular proof of
God's love to this nation, and exclaimed : Blessed
be, &c, how can we thank and praise God enough for
the love which sent his only begotten Son into the
world, to save us from utter darkness, and to place
us in the kingdom of His dear Son (Cor. i. 13;
Eph. i. 3). — Osiander: Rulers are given their high
position by God, not simply to enjoy the pleas-
ures of life, and to see good days, but to administer
justice to their subjects, and care for their tempo-
ral and eternal welfare.
Vers. 10-13. The interchange of gifts between
the Queen and Solomon, (a) The Queen is not
content with words of praise and thanks ; she tes-
tifies her gratitude by means of great and roya.
gifts. Of what avail is all mere verbal thanks and
praise, if the life be devoid of lovely deeds, and of
cheerful gifts, for the acknowledgment of God's
kingdom ? (6) Solomon needed not the gifts ; he
had more than she could give him (vers. 11, 12);
he gave her all that heart could desire. What are
all our gifts in comparison with those which we
receive from the Lord, — those which are immeas-
urably beyond what we ask and seek (Eph. iii.
20), and where it is more blessed to give than to
receive (Acts xx. 35)?' Vers. 11, 12. As God be-
stows various gifts upon individual men, so He also
blesses different countries with varied products,
not that nations should covet and contest the same,
but that they should serve and mutually benefit
each other. — Ver. 13. With a treasure incompar-
able in value to gold and jewels, the Queen joy-
fully went her way, like the Eunuch of Ethiopia.
How many are there who return from far jour-
neys into distant lands, rich in gold and substance,
but poor in faith and knowledge of the truth. They
have lost more than they have won; the Queen
gained more than she lost. — The generation of th«i
present day in comparison with the Queen of
Sheba; its satiety and indifference, its unbelief
and its guilt (Matt. xii. 42).
120 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
14
16
B. — The Wealth, Splendor, and Power of Solomon's Kingdom.
Chap. X. 14-29 (2 Cheon. IX 13-28).
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred
threescore and six talents of gold, beside that he had of the merchantmen,'
and of the traflick of the spice [omit spice] merchants, and of all the kings of
Arabia," and of the governors of the country.
16 And king Solomon made two hundred targets [i. e. large shields] of beaten
17 wold; six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. And he made three
hundred shields of beaten gold; three pound [manehs 3] of gold went to one
shield : and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
18 Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the
19 best gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round be-
hind : and there were stays [arms *] on either side on the place of the seat, and
20 two lions stood beside the stays [arms]. And twelve lions stood there on the
one side and on the other upon the six steps : there was not the like made in any
kingdom.
21 And all king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of
the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure6 gold ; none were_ of silver :
22 it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king had at
sea a navy8 of^Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the
23 navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.' So
king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
24 And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had
25 put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver,
and v.ssels of gold, and garments, and armor," and spices, horses, and mules,
a rate year by year.
26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen : and he had a thou-
sand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he be-
27 stowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem. And the king
made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the syca-
more [mulberry 10] trees that are in the vale, for abundance.
28 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn [a troop ] :
29 the kind's merchants received the"linen yarn [troop] at a price. And a chariot
came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse
for an hundred and fifty : and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the
kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
' Ver. 15. [D'nnn »BbKD, on the meaning of this difficult expression, see Exeg. Com. The versions render as fol-
lows : Vnlg., the meVwho were over the tribute ; Sept., the tribute of those subject; Chald, the wages of the artisans;
Syr., siinplv from the artisans; and so the Arab. .._«_„«- ,-L— .. , • §
» Ver. 15. [The ancient versions generally sustain this rendering. The Chald. alone has KHiapW '3?0 t"ig» of
auxiliary or allied nations." which must be wrong. The Heb. word 31$ Is used Ex. sii. 83, Neh. xiii. 8, generally of
"a mixed multitude " of aliens attaching themselves to the Israelites; and Jer. xxv. 24, specifically of the mixed races
i! Arabia Deserta. Hence in the parallel place 2 Chron. ix. 14 we have 3TJJ.
• Ver. IT. [The Maneh=100 shekels. » _■._■_»_
« Ver. 19. [The Ileb. FliT undoubtedly means arms, and is so rendered by the Syr. The Chald. and Arab, give tne
sense of the A. V., while the Vulg. and Sept. render literally, hands.
• Ver. 21. [The English version gives without doubt the true sense ; so the Vulg., Chald, and Syr. The word "TOO
Is the part. /«««. from "13 D to shut, close, and hence the Sept. version xpwV ovyxtKhw^a..
• Ver. 22. [The Sept. and Chald. adopt the single instead of the collective meaning of '38 and render " a ship."
' Ver 22, [Tne other ancient versions (except that the Syr. and Arab, has elephants Instead of l™^> co^ur J» ™
tense of these words given >« the English version; but the Vat. Sept. has instead *.««» Topeviw «<" ireAwirmi., st.nei
•nt and graved. The Vat. Sept. also here inserts the passage omitted in Chap. ix.
> Ver, 25. [The Sept. render ptl'3 (=armourj by ora/en)!-, oil of myrrh.
CHAPTER X. 14-29.
12J
» Ver. 26. [The Vat. Sept. omits the first clause of ver. 26, and both recensions add to the verse the first part of lv.
H. Also instead "f 1,400 chsiriots they read 4,000 (Alex. 40,000) mares.
10 Ver. 27. [D'?Dp*J*=<rv»c6/Aopos, avKamvos, the mulberry-tree, now rare, but anciently very common in the low-
lands of Palestine.
11 Ver. 28. [On the meaning of HlpD , here translated " linen yarn," see Exeg. Com. The Sept. and Vulg. hare
taken it as a proper fame. — F. G.] " : '
EXEGETICAL AKD CRITICAL.
Vers. 14-15. Now the weight of gold,
&o. The 666 talents have been very differently
computed. According to Ex. xxxviii. 25 there are
3,000 shekels in one talent, but Thenius reckons
the shekel at 10 Thalers, so that the whole sum
would amount to " nearly 20 millions of Thalers in
gold." Keil, who had formerly reckoned it at 1,900,-
875 Marks, calculates it now at ''over 17 millions
of Thalers." which plainly is too high. According
to this, the golden crown which David took from
the head of the Ammonite king, and which
weighed a talent, not reckoning the precious
stones in it (2 Sam. xii. 'SO), must have weighed
834 Dresden pounds, and a talent was about
30,000 Thalers, which is simply impossible. We
prefer to reckon the talent at 2,618 Thalers* at
present, as Winer (R.-W.-B. II. s. 562) and
Bunsen (Bihehoerk I. Bird. s. 377) think; this makes
666 talents equal to 1.743.588 Thalers, a still
considerable sum. We cannot see why the num-
ber 666 should be an " invented" one, in which
tradition betrays itself (Thenius). There is, in any
event, no allusion in Rev. xiii. 18 to this passage,
and this number has no particular signification any-
where else. It only expresses the simple sum of
the various receipts. In one year, i. e. , per annos
sinyuhs (Vulgate); this suits our calculation very
well, but not the 20,000,000 Thalers [or $15,000,"-
000]. Keil, without any reason, doubts the cor-
rectness of this translation, in which all old trans-
lators have agreed ; for if, as he supposes, the
freight of the Opliir fleet, which returned only
once in three years, brought the 666 talents, it
must mean in every third year. The 666 talents
were the regular yearly income ; but we must not
necessarily suppose, with Thenius, that they were
" the income of taxes laid on the Israelites them-
selves;" for there is no mention anywhere made
ol a yearly income tax. Ver. 15 tells of other
less defined additions to the regular revenue. The
Sept. renders the difficult expression D'inn 't'JX
by (;t<jp<r) r£ni(p6pbni tuv v-noTeTayfiivuv; it appears
also to have read differently. Thenius therefore
conjectures it to be DTPH 'SMVD, and trans-
lates: " from the contributions of the subjugated ;"
but in opposition to this, Bertheau remarks rightly,
" D'mn occurs nowhere else, and t;"Jj; (Zv/iia) can
scarcely mean a tribute laid on the conquered
lands in David's time, and as such raised by Solo-
mon." The expression is generally understood
to mean travelling tradespeople, and as D^DI ,
i. e., merchants, follows, the latter "merchants"
must mean "the pedlers or inferior shop-keepers"
(Keil). But this distinction is destitute of proof. The
* If we reckon the Thaler at 75 cents, 10 Thalers, of
course, are $7.50, and 20 millions of ThalerB are §15,000,000.
Anil taking the author's estimate of values, (. e., supposing
the talent to be equal to 2,618 Thalers, the 666 talents in the
text Fonld be equal to $1.306.691.— E. H.
word "im is never used for trading ; DHnn in Num.
xiv. 6 (xiii. 16, 17) means the men that Moses sent
out to view and report upon the land. The Vulgate
translates the parallel passage in 2 Chron. ix. 14.
legati diversarum gentium. So also Bertheau, " the
ambassadors " by whom the presents of other kings
were brought. It is impossible to ascertain the
exact income Solomon received from the traffic of
the mercliants; but there could scarcely have been
a regular commercial tax (Thenius), and custom
duties are still less to be supposed. The kings
31>'n are not " kings of the mixed tribes " (Ked),
but could only have been Arabian tributary kings,
who were subject to Solomon; probably they be-
longed to the desert Arabia, or at least to a part of
it, which joined the Israelitish territory (Thenius).
Cf. Jer. xxv. 20; Ezek. xxx. 5. The governors are
no doubt the same as those mentioned in chap. iv.
7-1 9. The revenue-sources named in ver. 15 were
plainly not gold, but in various kinds of produce.
Vers. 16, 17. And king Solomon made two
hundred targets, &c. njy is the large square
shield, rounded down upon its length, covering the
whole body. It was usually made of wood covered
with leather, but these were overlaid with gold.
pD is a smaller shield, either quite round or oval,
also of wood or leather covered with gold. The
latter was Bin"* , i- «•, not : mixed with another
metal, nor pure; but: stretched, hammered broad.
The word shekel is left out in giving the weight,
as often happens (Gen. x. 16; xxiv. 22; xxxvii
28). The 600 shekels for each large shield should
come to 523* Thalers [$392-3]. If a talent is reck-
oned at 3,000 shekels, and the talent be equal to
2,618 Thalers [see note above], the 3 pounds for
each smaller shield would be 261^ Thalers, as 3
pounds are=300 shekels, according to 2 Chron. ix.
16. This calculation appears far more probable
than that 17i pounds of gold, worth 6,000 Thalers,
were used for each shield (Thenius) ; or that the
gold-plating of a large shield did not weigh quite
9 pounds, and that of a small one nearly 4J pounds
(Keil). These shields were borne, as chap. xiv. 27
tells us, by the body-guard ; but were used prob-
ably only on special occasions, for they were
more for show than for ordinary use, and served
also to adorn the house of the forest of Lebanou
(for which see above in chap. vii. 2). Golden
shields are also mentioned in 1 Mace. vi. 39, and
were used also by the Carthaginians (Plin. Hist.
Nat., xxxv. 4).
Vers. 18-20. Moreover, the lung made a
great throne, Ac. The throne was not entirely
made of ivory, any more than the palaces men
tioned in chap. xxii. 39 j Ps xiv. 9 ; Amos hi. 15,
but was only inlaid with it, decorated. The wood
of which it was made was overlaid with gold, and
between, ivory was inserted. 2 Chron. ix. 17 gives
linu , pure, for pio , i. c, purified. Round if
hind can scarcely be that " i" had an arched o>
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
122
^^Sy^JSK£&%^ISS and but little ivory. KeQ now admits
Most "probably the lions as well as the
Se itself to which they belonged were made of
W overlaid with gold as images of gods were
j„ fTo. t ^ to i There was not a "lion on
e^Tof the annA the throne (Ewald), but on
each side of it 6>\S) i *e twelve others stood on
the six steps leading to the throne, each one facing
anoter The remark, there was not the like made
Z has reference to the artistic merit of the work
as well a* its costliness; the statues were at least
as large as life. " On the ancient Assyrian monu
! he once held the far-fetched idea that
Jehoshaphat brought the ships built at Ezion-geber
.cross the isthmus of Suez, transported also ov-r
land tt sail thence to Spain. The ships wuth which
he Phcen icians used to go to the distant Tharshish
were very large and strong, perhaps the largest
Trading vessels ; and as large ships now that go far
are named after the lands they sail to, for instance
Eas "indtamen, Greenlanders, so in Solomon's time
or ha of our author, the Phoenicians called large
trad ng vessels Tharshish ships; it had become a
regula? name, as the following passages show :
■ p'i xlviii. 8. Taking everything into
me^^re are representatio^ofhighc^u-s witt ^ ^^^Xcan regard &eformala: ships
arms and backs, also such, the backs of which were | „__„v:3, „ nhrnn. ix. 211 as only a
supported bv figures of animals (cf. Layard, Nt-
3 T^V^but none of these chairs are like
that o : Solomon. Later ages only can produce
more splendid thrones. Cf. Rosenmuller Alia
und^ues Mainland, III. s. 176 sq." (keil).
Ver 21 And aU king Solomon's drinking
vessels &c The account of the great quantity
ol gold and 'silver in Solomon's time does not ap-
pear in the least exaggerated when we compare
C of other ancient -iters about the amoiui
wLT"toLTarshish'(2 Chrom ix. 21) as only a mis-
,ken intlrStation of the expression : Tharslnsh
rleet^a mistake that is easily accounted for, as a
the time Chronicles was written the voyages of
Tvrians as well as of Israelites to Ophir and
Tharshish had long ceased, and the geographical
position of both pUcea was ^rgotten by the Jew
(Keil) Though the passage under considera-
Soes not ^expressly whither the Thaxshiah
^mtlt hte'o^f donation But much
t hose o other aucieiit «n«..» « „„0i„a nnhir must have been us uwuu«»«u- -. — .
precious metal in the ancient East. Sardanapalus ^ must ^ ^.^ q{ pphu- which
For instance, had, when Nineveh was besieged 50 basbeen^ ^ jg ^ , (c/ W.ner
ints of gold ten times as much silver and 3,000
alents Si been previously divided by him among
.,;= <„ns (Ktesias by Athemeus, xn. p. 52J). JNO
le s than (7 70 talents of gold were used for the
statues ud vessels of the Temple of Bel in Baby-
lon Miiuter, lid. der Babyl, i 51, where the pas-
Zes of the ancients that refer to it are given)
Afexander's pillage of Ecbatana was valued at
120,000 talents of gold (D.odor. &«£**$;
Cvrus' pillage was 34,000 pounds of gold and 500
000 po ds'of silver, besides an immense number
„f golden vessels (Pliny, to*. Nat. xxvu. 3, cf.
Symbol. desMos. Knit. 1.8. 259 s9-)-
Ver. 22. For tile king had at sea a navy
ic. winn . the ancient Phoeni
of Tharshish, ic. E^ann
T,rt..Q«n< on the far side of the
can emporium, Taitessus, on uie i
oiUars of Hercules in south-western Spain it is
described us lying in a district which was rich in
' t i nation has been much disputed but
hTabove „,av be taken as the correct account see
he opinions in Winer, R.-W.-B. II. f. 603). cy
Ezek.xxxviu.13; Jer.x.9; Isai. xx.u. 10.) That,
tooww.wna 'J-«"<*s not here denote ship3
„i»j to Tharsliisli, is evident from the passage 1
Kings xxii. 48, '•Jehoshaphat made ships of Hiar-
ShUn to go to'Ophir lor gold (f e., to feteh gold)
but tiie/went not, for the ships were broken a
E-zion-eeber (i. e., on the Arabian gulf). wneie
^ver we may look for Ophir, it waacertainy no
1U spai* as every one knows, but in the East, that
8 in the opposite direction. The ships that Solo-
'„;',, , ,,„, had built (chap. ix. 28) in Ezion-
gTer were also desti 1 to go to Ophir ttierefore
-ould not possibly have been intended for a voyage
jea) because the way around South Ala was
then unknown. The productions, too which w.
22 tells us the Tharshish slops broug^showbe
yond dispute that
lm<5 been written aoout mv ^.«"« . * - -nr-
has been greatly, and is still, ^P^c^~e
p . IV'-B. II. s. 183 sg. : Herzog, Real- EncyU. on uie
Ird) This much, however, has been settled by
ever> tnree yo , thg clue, lmport]
S*h- Save been plentiful in Ophir, is
notfonnd on the Indian coast, but is met with, nrst,
lh nf Cashmere South Arabia, on the con-
tra rv was f med tor its abundance of gold, and
Asa Minor imported its gold ch.efiy then* . 1^
p«3n , rendered peacocks by all the old trans
lations, seem even more than the Q'Bp , »". e, apes,
to point to India, for *ey originally came from
th/ve tOken, Natur,j^ch.ikr Vogel,s.Qlo); the ivory
too which is in other places simply expressed by
W reminds us of India. But as Ophir certainly
cannot mean India, we decide, with Ewald and
i
in since peone mauc »"j»d^" -, , , •„_+
and besides the gold of Ophir brought apes, pea-
i 1, imvi e Indian products and articles
cocks, and ivory, i. e., ™"° i" thpre was
Arato and that Indian product, reached Ophn,
CHAPTER X. 14-29.
123
opposite coast of Ethiopia. Though there was a
' species of tailed ape " in Ethiopia, there were no
peacocks and' no sandal-wood. Thenius very un-
necessarily supposes that the same writer who
wrote chap. ix. 27 sq. could not have written this pas-
sage, because each passage speaks of the voyage
to Ophir in a different manner ; whence again the
compilatory character of our books must follow.
The first account is of the first voyage, and the
second account of the later and more extended one.
Vers. 23-27. So king Solomon exceeded,
&c. From vers. 23-29, by way of conclusion,
everything that was to be said of the glory of
Solomon is summed up, and at the same time some
things not yet mentioned are added. For vers.
23-24 cf. chap. iv. 29-34. According to the uni-
versal custom in the East all, who came to see and
hear Solomon brought him presents, and this was
repeated " year by year," so highly had he risen
everywhere in consideration. For ver. 26 cf.
chap. iv. 26, and chap. ix. 19. In ver. 27 silver
only is mentioned and not gold (which the Sept.
unjustifiably adds here from 2 Chron. i. 15), be-
cause enough had been said already about gold.
The great quantity of silver does not necessarily
show that there was a silver trade with Tharshish
which was rich in that metal, for there was a great
deal of silver in Asia : Sardanapalus in Nineveh
(see above on ver. 21), rich as he was in gold, had
ten times as much silver, which he certainly did
not get from Spain. The cedar-wood which
came from Lebanon was as plentiful there in Je-
rusalem as common building timber, which was
taken from sycamores (Isai. ix. 10), which did not
grow on high mountains but very often in the low-
lands of Palestine (Winer, R- W.-B. II s. 62 sq.),
and were therefore cheap and easy to be had. The
mode of expression is hyperbolical and Oriental,
and cannot be taken literally any more than chap.
iv. 20.
Vers. 28, 29. And Solomon had horses
brought, &c. Verses 28 and 29 contain supple-
mentary remarks to the account given in ver. 26
of Solomon's war-forces, explaining how he ac-
quired the latter, namely, by sending special mer-
chants to trade with Egypt, which was famous for
its breed of horses, and was the country of " horses
and chariots " (Ex. xiv. 6 sq. ; xv. 1 ; 2 Kings
xviii. 24; Isai. xxxi. 1 ; Jer. xlvi. 2, 4; Deut. xvii.
16). nipD, which occurs twice in ver. 28, is diffi-
cult ; but it can only mean collection, collexio, mul-
titude (Gen. i. 9, 10; Ex. vii. 19; Jer. iii. 17). If
we adhere to the masoretic punctuation we must
render it as Gesenius does : " And a number of royal
merchants fetched a number of the same (horses)
for money;" the passage would thus contain "a
kind of play on the word," which would be here
without design or meaning. The Sept. and the Vul-
Ijate regard nipD as denoting locality, and connect
it with D'lVDD ; the departure of horses from
Egypt and from Coa (Ik Qskovc de Coa) ; but neither
the Bible nor any ancient translator mentions a
country or town named Coa or Cawe, and yet as a
place of trade it could not have been insignificant
or unknown. Thenius arbitrarily and incorrectly
changes the first nipO m'o yipno ; Thekoa, some
miles from Jerusalem, was not a trading town but
a small place situated on a height and inhabited by
thepherds (Winer, ». 606). The translation "re-
mainder " (or surplusage) (Ewald) is no better than
that given by some Rabbins, woven texture. The
second nipD can have no other meaning than that
of the first ; it means " collection " each time, i. e.,
collection of horses, and the passage becomes quite
clear, if, leaving the masoretic punctuation, we join
the first nlp!2 to the preceding words, making one
sentence of them: "Concerning the bringing of
horses out of Egypt, and their collection, the mer-
chants of the king made a collection of them for a
certain price." This shows that the horses were
not brought up one by one, but in droves each time.
When 600 shekels were given for a chariot and
150 for a horse, the first price of course included
that of the harness for two horses belonging to the
chariot, and also that of a reserved horse (see above
on chap. iv. 26). The single horses at 150 shekels
must have been riding-horses. We cannot tell the
exact amount of this price in our money, as the
value of the shekel is not fixed. If, like Winer and
others, we compute it at 26 silver groschen, 150
shekels would be equal to 130 Thlr. [$97.50] ; Keil
agrees with this, but formerly thought, with others,
that it only amounted to 65 or 66 Thlr.; Thenius
gives it at 100 Thlr. The traders were ca'led " king's
merchants," not because they had to give an account
of their dealings to the king (Bertheau) but " be-
cause they traded for the king" (Keil); as such
they were respected, and distant kings employed
them in procuring horses. The Hittites are not the
same as those named in chap. ix. 20, but were an
independent tribe, probably in the neighborhood of
Syria, as 2 Kings vii. 6 mentions them as in alliance
with the Syrians.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1 . In the section before us the delineation of Sol-
omon's glory reaches its climax. No other king's
reign is treated at such length in our books as that
of Solomon, which alone occupies 1 1 chapters. But
this whole historical representation has the same end
in view that this section, referring to the promise,
chap. iii. 13. expresses in the words: " King Solo-
mon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches
and for wisdom," i. e., all conceivable greatness,
might, riches, dignity, fame, and splendor were united
to such a degree in Solomon (which never happened
to any king before or after), that he was looked on as
the very ideal of a king throughout the East ; and his
" glory " became proverbial (Matt. vi. 29 ; Luke xii.
26). The reason that this glory, which here reaches
its highest point, is depicted just before the account
of his deep fall (chap, xi.), is to be found in the theo-
cratic view of the historian, and is, in an historico
redemptive relation, of high significance. In the
divine economy the Old-Testament kingdom was
destined to reach its culminating point in David's
son ; but as the old covenant moved generally in
the form and covering of bodiliness, visibility, and
outwardness, described as mzfif by the New Tes-
tament; so the glory of the Old-Testament king-
dom was a visible and external one; its highest
point was determined by riches, power, fame,
dignity, and splendor. Corresponding with the
kingdom of Israel Kara na/ma, it can be but a glory
Karii capita, i. e., a visible, external, and therefore
temporal and perishable, which, like the old cove-
nant, pointed beyond itself, to an invisible, spiritual,
and therefore imperishable, eternal glory. The
same Old Testament king, under whom the king
124
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KLNG3.
dom reached its greatest degree of glory, prepared
the way for its gradual decline, and no one preached
more powerfully the vanity and nothingness of all
temporal splendor than he when proclaiming, it is
all vanity (Eccles. i. 2)1 In complete contrast
with the Old-Testament glory of Solomon we see
the New-Testament glory of the son of David, in
the most eminent sense, the true Prince of peace,
who had not where to lay his head, and was
crowned with praise and honor, not through riches,
power, dignity, or splendor, but by the suffering of
death ; who became perfect through self-abnegation
and obedience unto the death on the cross, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of Majesty ;
Whose Kingdom is everlasting and his glory imper-
ishable (Heb. ii. 9 ; v. 9 ; viii. 1 ; xii. 2 ; Luke i. 33).
2. Among the things related to show the splendor
of Solomon's reign, special mention is made of the
throne as the symbol of royal majesty, and at the
same time the centre or seat of this glory ; and it
is expressly added that there was not the like in
any kingdom, whicli no doubt refers principally to
the lions. The number of these lions, twelve, has
reference, indisputably, to the number of the tribes
of Israel above which the king was elevated and
over which he reigned, and for that reason the lions
stood below him on the steps of the throne. Ewald
gives the following as the reason for this symbol,
" indisputably because the lion was the standard
of Judah." This, however, does not appear to be
so from Gen. xlix. 9, nor from Isai. xxix. 1 and
Ezek. xix. 2 ; and besides, all the twelve tribes could
not be ranged under the particular banner of the
tribe of Judah. Thenius thinks that the two lions
next the throne were " rather the guardians of it,"
and the twelve others on the steps represented
"the power of the twelve tribes united in one
throne." But the lion is never mentioned as " keep-
ing watch," and moreover, the signification of those
beside the throne could not differ from that of those
before and below it. All nations have, from time
immemorial, regarded the lion as the king of beasts
(cf. the numerous passages of the ancients on this
subject, in Bochart, Hieroz. I. ii. 1), and is therefore
a fitting symbol of monarchy, which consists in
"reigning and ruling" (see above on chap. iii. 9).
The lion "is the strongest among beasts" (Prov.
xxx. 30, 31), and his roaring announces the coming
of judgment (Am. iii. 8; i. 2; Rev. x. 3). The two
lions at the right and left of the king as he sat on
the throne, denote his twofold office of governing
and judging. If, then, the entire people are sym-
bolized by the twelve lions, the meaning must be
that Israel was the royal people among nations ;
just as the twelve oxen that bare up the mol-
ten sea signified that Israel was the nation of
priests (see above in chap. vii. 25). The people
chosen by God from among all people are a nation
of kings and priests (Ex. xix. 6; Rev. i. 6; v. 10);
just as it culminates, as a priestly nation, in the
high-priest, so it does also,as aroyalone.in its king.
Here we think involuntarily of the throne of Him
who is both lamb and lion (Rev. v. 5, 6), who is
the Prince of earthly kings, and has made us kings
and priests to His Father, God (Rev. i. 6 ; v. 6 ; vii.
10, 17). His people number twelve times twelve
thousand (=144,000), and these are represented
by the twice twelve of the elders who stand before
his throne (Rev. iv. 4, 10 ; vii. 4; xiv. 1).
HOMILETICAi AND PRACTICAL.
Ver. 14. (a) The glory of Solomon. Wherein it lay
(Power, dominion, pomp, splendor, glory, and honor
everything that men wish or desire in this world-
all these we see before us in the life of this one
man. But the glory of man is as the grass of the
field, which fades and withers ; truly, the lilies of
the field exceed it in glory, for even. &e. — and
Soiomon himself confessed: All is vanity; I have
seen all the works, &c, Eccles. i. 2 ; ii. 11;
Ps. xlix. 17, 18. The world passes away, &c).
(b) Its significance for us (that we should seek after
that other and imperishable glory, prepared for us
by him who is greater than Solomon, Jno. xvii.
24. Scarcely one of many thousands can attain to
the glory of Solomon, but to the glory of God we
are all called, 1 Thess. ii. 12; if our life be hidden
with Christ in God, then " shall we when Christ,"
Ac, Col. iii. 3, 4. Therefore shall we rejoice in the
hope of future glory, and not only so, but in tribu-
lations also (Rom. v. 2, 3) for our "light affliction,
which is but for a moment," &c, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18).
— Power and dominion, (a) The responsibility in-
volved therein ("to whom much is given, of him
shall much be required, and to whom men," ic,
Luke xii. 48; singular endowments bring with
them singular requirements — authority is power
given for the use and benefit of inferiors — wealth
is bestowed upon the rich that they may relieve
necessity according to their means), (b) The perils
connected with it (pride and haughtiness, forget-
fulness of God, and unbelief), Ps. lxii. 11; Iii. 9;
1 Tim. vi. 9 ; Matt. xvi. 26. Therefore envy not
the rich and powerful, for they are exposed to
many temptations. But godliness with content-
ment, Ac, 1 Tim. vi. 6. Wurt. Summ. : Devout
Christiana may have and hold gold and silver, lands
and possessions, cattle, in short everything, and
with a good conscience, if only they do not misuse
them by idle pomp or for the oppression of their
fellow-creatures; for they are gifts and favors of
God, which he lends them. The silver and the gold
is mine, saith the Lord of hosts (Haggai ii. 8 ; Ps. 1.
i 0). The throne of Solomon, stately and magnificent
as it was, is long since crumbled to dust, but His
Throne, before whose judgment-seat we must all
appear, eDdures to all eternity. — The man to whom
God has given great wealth and high position in
the world may indeed dwell in splendor; but
every man sins whose expenses exceed his income,
or are greater than his position in the world re-
quires. Golden vessels are not necessaries of life
nor do they conduce to greater happiness or con
tent than do earthen and wooden ones. It is the
duty and right of a prince to bring an armed force
to the defence of the country against her enemies,
but prince and people must ever remember what
the mighty Solomon himself says: The horse is
prepared against the day of battle, but safety is o<
the Lord (Prov. xxi. 31; cf. Ps. xxxiii. 18-19; I*
xxxi. 1).
CHAPTER XI. 1-13. 121
FIFTH SECTION.
SOLOMON'S PALL AND END.
Chap. XX
A. — The unfaithfulness towards the Lord and its punishment.
Chap. XL 1-13.
J But king Solomon loved ' many strange [i. e. foreign] women, together with
the daughter of Pharaoh," women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zi-
2 donians, and Hittites ; of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the
children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto
you : for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods : Solomon
3 clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and
4 three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it came
to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other
gods3 : and his heart was not perfect with the Lord [Jehovah] his God, as was
5 the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after' Ashtoreth the o-oddess
6 of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And
Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah], and went not fully after
7 the Lord [Jehovah], as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high
place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem,
8 and for Moleeh, the abomination of the children of Amnion. And likewise did
he for all his strange [*• «. foreign] wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed
unto their gods.
9 And the Lord [Jehovah] was angry with Solomon, because his heart was
tinned from the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, which had appeared unto him
10 twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go
after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord [Jehovah] commanded.
11 Wherefore the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done
of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have
commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to
12 thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's
13 sake : but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit, I will not rend
away all the kingdom ; but will give one tribe " to thy son for David my ser-
vant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. — [The Sept renders here ^c «f>iAovunjs, which is not borne out by the character of Solomon, as is pointed out
In the Exeg. Com. Immediately alter this the Vat. Sept. introduces ver. 3, transposed from its place, but omits its last
slause altogether.
2 Ver. 1. — [All the ancient versions class Pharaoh's daughter among the " strange wives,1' which sense onr author, as
llso Keil rejects. See Exeg. Com.
3 Ver. 4. — [The Vat. Sept. omits the middle clause of ver. 4, and mixes together vers. 6-S, omitting much of them.
* Ver. 5. — [Notwithstanding the arguments in the Exeg. Com. against the personal idolatry of Solomon, it is to be
remembered that the phrase D^IHX D^rpN "HPIX Tpil , to go after other gods (vers. 4, 5, 10) is one already
established as far back as the Pentateuch as an expression of idolatry.
• Ver. 13. — [For one tribe tho Sept. have trKyfrnpov iv, which is, however, probably to be understood in the same
126
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
EXEQET1CAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-2. But king Solomon loved, &c.
With these words a new and very essential part
of the history of Solomon begins; they do not
break the thread of the story abruptly, but stand
in a connection with the preceding, to be well
considered. Our writer evidently had in his mind
the command given to kings in Dent. xvii. in which,
"■;.".). 16 and 17, it is said: "but he shall not multiply
horses to himself, nor cause the people to return
to Egypt, to the end that lie should multiply horses
.... neither shall he multiply wives to himself,
that his heart turn not away; neither shall he
greatly multiply to himself silver and gold." The
great riches in silver and gold were mentioned in
the preceding section, chap. x. 14-29, and also,
finally tin number of horses brought out of
Egypt ana mention of the many strange wives
immediately follows. If there were danger of
tnruing away from the strict and serious religion
of Jehovah connected with the enormous riches,
the luxury and splendor of the court, this was much
more the case with the large harem. Solomon did
not withstand this last danger ; what was foreseen
iu the laws for the kings happened: "his heart
was turned away." What we learn from the con-
nection of these two sections is very important:
namely, that it was not vulgar, coarse sensuality
that gave rise to such a large harem, but the rea-
son was rather, that as Solomon grew in riches,
esteem, and power, excelling all other kings in
these (chap. x. 23), he wished also to surpass
them in what, according to Eastern ideas, even in
the present day, especially belonged to the court
and splendor of a great monarch; that is, the
largest possible harem. But this was the occasion of
his fall. It is therefore very arbitrary of the Sept.
to describe 3DN ver. 1 by tjv tpthoyiwawc nal eAafit
ywaiKa( aXAorpiac, aud quite wide of the mark in
Thenius, who, explaining this for the original
reading, says that Solomon was an "enervated
slave to his senses." Were this the case, traces of
it would have been apparent earlier; but we do
not hear, respecting Solomon, the slightest intima-
tion of any previous sexual irregularity ; he did
not succumb to the influence of his many wives
until he had become advanced in years (ver. 4), and
had reached the summit of his prosperity and
pover. For his marriage with the Egyptian, see
above on chap. iii. 1 ; she did not rank among the
other strange women, i. e., those whom it was for-
bidden in the law to marry, as ver. 2 expressly
remarks (rf. Ex. xxxiv. 16; Deut. vii. 3, 4; Josh,
xxiii. 12). It was only through them that strange
worship, the Asiatic, was introduced into the
land ; but there is not the slightest trace of Egyp-
tian worship. The Moabites dwelt east of the
Dead Sea, the Ammonites were north of them, and
the Edomites south; but the Zidonians and Hit-
tites lived north of Palestine, where Phoenician
worship previiled. Of. Deut xxiii. 4; Ezra ix.
12; Neh. xii' 23.
Ver. 3. And he had seven hundred wives,
tc Ver. 3. nil'." means princesses, women of
Ihe first rank ; not those who received rank by
entrance into the harem, but those who were of
noble families. The great number of these wo-
olen, with all of whom it was not possible for
Solonrm (now elderly) to hold sexual intercourse.
but especially their high rank, shows tne reason
they were maintained; seven hundred from th«
noblest princely houses of foreign nations served
to add the greatest splendor to the court. Many
think it probable that the majority of these wives,
although they all were in subjection .-> him, served
rather as singers and dancers to amuse the old
aud feeble king (Stollberg, Lisco). The opinion is
entirely wrong, that (according to Eccle. iv. 8)
Solomon was " guided by a theological idea, and
intended to furnish a symbolical representation of
the kingdom of Christ, and his dominion over all
nations" (Evgl. Kirch. -Zdtg. 1862, s. 691). The
numbers 700 and 300 may be only " round, i. e.,
approximate " ones (Keil), but are not therefore
necessarily exaggerated or false. Eccles. vi. 8
has been quoted in opposition to them : " sixty are
the queens, and eighty are the concubines, and in-
numerable are the virgins," and iu order to recon-
cile the two passages, the supposition is thrown
out, that 60 and 80 were the number in the court
at one time, and 700 and 300 the number of all
the women at the court during Solomon's reign
(Ewald, Keil). This Thenius, with some reason,
declares to be a "subterfuge;" but when he as
serts that the statement in the Canticles is " his-
torically founded," and on the other hand, regards
our own statement " as an evidence of the legend-
ary character of the entire section," we answer
that Canticles is not historical but is poetic, and
cannot be adduced as testimony against our his-
torical books. Finally, the supposition to which
Keil inclines, that there may be errors in the
numeral-letters (t."=300 instead of 3 = S0), rest3
evidently in the consideration that the numbers
700 aud 300 appear too large. But this difficulty
ceases when we compare our own with other ac-
counts of the harems of Eastern rulers. Curtius
relates (III. iii. 24) that Darius Codomanus, on his
expedition against Alexander, carried 300 peilices
with him. Public accounts state that the harem
of the present Turkish Sultan contains 1,300 wo-
men. The Augsb. Attg. Zeitung of 1862, No. 181,
says "that the mother of the Taiping, emperor in
Nankin, is the head of her son's harem, a great
establishment containing 3,000 women," whom the
same " lady " has to keep in order. Magelhaus
gives the same number, and adds that the emperor
had never seen some of them iu his life. " The
travellers of the seventeenth century reported the
number of the wives of the Great Mogul to have
been 1,000 " (Philippson). In Malcom's history
of Persia it is stated that king Kosros had 5,000
horses, 1,200 elephants, and 12,000 wives; this
may be greatly exaggerated, but shows the notions
that were entertained about the state which a
great ruler should maintain. Of. also other in-
stances in Rosenmuller, Altes mid Neues Morgen-
land, III. s. 181. The evident intention of the
narrator is, not to picture these rulers as brutal
sensualists, but, on the contrary, to add to tlieil
fame. An immense harem is held in the East to be
as requisite to a splendid court as a large stud.
Ver. 4. For it came to pass when Solomon
was old, after other gods, &c. By old
age is not meant the time "when the flesh obtain-
ed mastery over the spirit " (Keil) — sensuality nevei
first begins with old age — but the time when, in
consequence of luxury and indulgence, the energy
of spirit and heart deserted him, and a relaxing
took possession of him more and more. Then first
CHAPTER XI. 1-13.
121
it happened that the many foreign, well-condition-
ed women succeeded in turning away Solomon's
heart, i. e., in reducing his tone, making him in-
different towards the strict and exclusive religion
of Jehovah, and milder and more indulgent towards
the worship of their gods, yea, so to insnare him
that lie favored the latter by the building of altars
to idols. Wihen the text adds, and his heart
was not (any longer) perfect (QX'=complete) with
Hie Lord his God, it says thereby as clearly, as
positively, that he did not completely fall away
from Jehovah's service, but that lie permitted the
idolatrous worship of his wives besides. The
formula, he did evil in the sight of the Lord,
is used in speaking of every one who broke the
commandment in Ex. xx. 3, 4, because this is the
first and supremest will of God. To avoid any
misunderstanding, ver. 6 repeats, he went not Jully
(SjO sc. J1377 , as in Num. xiv. 24; xxxii. 11,
12: Deut. i. 36) after the Lord (Jehovah). It is
therefore difficult to conceive why it is so often
asserted that Solomon formally departed from Je-
hovah, and became an idolater (Thenius, Duncker,
Menzel, and others). All the kings of Judah or of
Israel who were idolatrous are said to have served
(131?) strange gods (cf. chap. xvi. 31 ; xxii. 54 ; 2
Kings xvi. 3 ; xxi. 2-6 ; xxi. 20-22), but this expres-
sion is never applied to Solomon either here or else-
where. Chronicles is never silent in respect of the
kings in Judah, when any one of them served
idols (2 Chron. xxviii. 2, 3 ; xxxii. 2 sq. ; xxxiii.
22 ; xxxvi. 8), yet it says nothing of Solomon in
this respect; but this is inconceivable, were it
true that he had wholly forsaken Jehovah, and
turned to idolatry. Jesus Sirach complains indeed
(chap, xlvii. 12-23) that the great Solomon suc-
cumbed to the influence of his wives, but does not
say a word of his idolatry. All the Jewish tradi-
tions, the Talmud, and the Rabbins (Ghemara
Schabb. lvi. 2) know nothing of the idolatry of
Solomon. Had he himself, as well as his wives,
formally worshipped idols, he would have fallen
far deeper than Jeroboam, who only made images
to represent Jehovah ; and his sin would have
been far greater than " the sin of Jeroboam,"
which is so often alluded to in these books, while
there is no mention of the idolatry Solomon is
accused of. The statement of the unreliable Jo-
sephus (Antiq. viii. 7, 5) about Solomon's idol-wor-
ship is just as much to be credited as his statemeut
that he was ninety-four years of age. and that he
broke the law of Moses in placing twelve oxen
around the molten sea, and the twelve lions near
the throne. We cannot even admit that Solomon
held idolatrous worship along with Jehovah's wor-
ship (Winer), nor that his fall "consisted in a syn-
retistic mixture of Jehovah-worship and idol-wor-
ship " (Keil), for in so doing he would have placed
Jehovah on a level with idols, whereas the very
nature of Jehovah's service is the sole and exclu-
sive worship of Him. The D?G> ... X? and JO
N?D vers. 4 and 6 does not say : he served Jeho-
vah and the idols both, but: he was no longer
wholly and completely with Jehovah ; and this is
made clear in that lie allowed his strange wives to
ebserve idolatrous service in the city which the
Lord had chosen to put His name there, and even
went so far as to favor it by the building of
" high-places" (ver. 36; chap. viii. 16 ; xiv. 21 ; 3
Chrou. vi. 6). So Hess (Gesch. Salomo's, s. 43K).
and recently Vilmar (Pastoral-theol. Blatter, 1861, s
179j; Ewald also (Gesch. hr. III. s. 378 sq.) says:
" there is no evidence from ancient documents
that Solomon ever left the religion of Jahve, even
in his extreme old age, or sacrificed with his owe
hands to heathen deities ; but, on the contrary, all
historical evidences of his times are against the
idea. Besides, we find it is expressly mentioned
that he sacrificed upon the altar of Jahve, built by
him, three times a year (according to the order of
the three great festivals; with the greatest solem-
nity, as befitted a king such as he was " (chap. ix.
25 1. Of. below on ver. 9 sq.
Vers. 5-S. Solomon went after Ashtoreth,
&c. The Tp'l , &c, ver. 5, means that he served
these gods, personally, no more than "Oj' in ver.
7 which follows, means that he built, with his own
hands, high-places for the heathen gods; but he al-
lowed it, permitted it to be done. Ver. 8 adds ex-
pressly, " and likewise did he (i. e., he built high-
places, ver. 7) for all his strange wives, which burnt
incense and sacrificed unto their gods.'' This plainly
shows that he did not build the heights for him-
self and his people, and that he did not burn in-
cense, nor sacrifice on them, but that his strange
wives did. He allowed public worship to all,,
whatsoever divinities they might adore, but did
not himself renounce Jehovah-worship. Diestel
(in Ilerzog's Real-Encyklop. XIII. s. 337) grants
that Solomon did not wholly go over into idolatry,
but thinks that there is as little question that
there was more than mere tolerance. The religious
consciousness of the Israelite could not (he
thinks) get rid of the idea that certain peculiar
powers ruled other nations, dependent indeed
upon Jehovah, and a limited service devoted to
these foreign inferior gods did not consequently
annul the service of the all-ruling Jehovah. This
artificial view, in which Niemeyer joins, is contra-
dicted decisively by the fact that the so-called
" inferior gods " are mentioned as Vj3B> , abomina-
tion (vers. 5, 7), rDjhn abomination (2 Kings
xxiii. 13), D^an vanity (Jer. ii. 5) and whhi .
stercora (Deut. xxix. 17), which would not have-
been possible had " the greatest sympathies " ex-
isted "in Israel" for these gods as really "superior
beings." We need not stop to refute the frivolous
assertion of Menzel (Stoat- und ReL- Gescltichte der
Konigreicke Israel und Juda, s. 142), that our au-
thor, who was devoted to Jehovah's service, pre-
ferred to place the king in an unfavorable light
rather than to let it be known how long the strange
worship had existed among the people, and in which
they took part. For the divinities named in vers.
5 and 7, cf. Movers, Relig. der Phonizier, s. 560-584,
002-608 ;' Keil. bibl. Archdologie I. s. 442 sq. ; Winer,
R.-W.-B. under the appropriate names. Ashtoreth
is the highest of the Phoenician (Sidouian) and Sy-
rian female deities, and a personification of the
feminine principle in nature. Her form is differ-
ently represented, sometimes with a bull's or wo-
man's head with horns (crescents), sometimes as a
fish (symbol of the watery element). She was
specially adored by women; her worship, which is
not exactly known, was most probably associated
12S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
with indecency. Cf. especially Cassel, in the Bibel-
werk, on Judges ii. 13. Milcom is said to be the
chief god of the Ammonites, in ver. 33, and 2 Kings
xxiii. 13; 2 Sam. xii. 30; Jerem. xlix. 1, 3: there is
no accurate description of his nature or worship.
As Moloch is immediately after (ver. 7) said to be
the god of the Ammonites, and the two names
(D3^!3 and "po) are closely related to each other, it
is very reasonable to suppose they were different
names for the same divinity. The translations also
confuse them ; the Sept., vers. 5 and 7, gives
Mf/.jwu, the Vulg. gives Moloch twice; but in 2
Kings xxiii. 13 the former renders Milchom by
MoAox, and the latter by Melchom. Thenius there-
fore reads D37D1 in ver. 7 instead of "pDl , hut
there is no reason for doing so. Keil and Ewald
agree with Movers in holding Milchom and Moloch
to be different deities, partly because of the differ-
ent names, and partly because 2 Kings xxiii. 10
and 13 mention that they had different places of
sacrifice, and that Moloch was always named in
connection with sacrifices of children. Winer, how-
ever, justly remarks that each, though not essen-
tially different, had different attributes, and had
therefore various altar-places in one and the same
town. As for the rest, Molech or Moloch was the
divinity which was known and adored throughout
Anterior Asia, whose image, according to the Rab-
bins, was made of brass, with the head of an ox
and human arms, in which the children offered
were laid. Movers thinks he was the same in part
as Saturn or Chronos, and in part the same as Baal
the sun-god (cf. s. 322 sq.). There were certainly
do child-sacrifices at Jerusalem in Solomon's time ;
they were first offered under Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 3).
Chemosh or Chamosh was the war-and-fire-god, ac-
cording to Movers ; Num. xxi. 9, Jerem. xlviii. 46
call the Moabites the people of Chemosh. That
this was the divinity to whom the Moabite king of-
fered his son, 2 Kings hi. 27, is only a matter of
conjecture. At any rate, the character of the lat-
ter deity seems very similar to that of Milchom or
Molech of the Ammonites, as it (the former) appears,
in Judges xi. 24, to be the god of the Ammonites ; cf.
Cassel on this passage. We have no exact accounts
of them. For the "heights," see above on chap,
iii. 4; for the places where they were built, see on
2 Kings xxiii. 13.
Vers. 9-13. And the Lord was angry. Solo-
mon, by his conduct, excited the extremest divine
displeasure, and deserved punishment the more, as
he had been so richly blessed in every respect by
Jehovah, and had even been ea' nestly and emphati-
cally warned in a peculiar vifjion against leaning
towards other gods (chap. iii. 5 sq. ; ix. 1 sq.). The
announcement of the subsequent chastisement did
not follow in another direct revelation, but was no
doubt conveyed by a prophet, who, as Nathan was
no longer living, must have been Ahijah the Shilo-
nite (ver. 29). It is well worthy of notice that, in this
announcement, the oppression of the people by com-
pulsory labor, and taxes, or despotism, is not given
as the reason of the dividing cf the kingdom by Je-
hovah, and of limiting Solomo 's dynasty to dominion
over one tribe ; but only the sm against Jehovah, the
" going after other gods." It was just the same in
Ahijah's address to Jeroboam, vers. 29-39. For
one tribe (ver. 13) see on vers. 31, 32. For David's
sake, i e., on account of the promise given, for
his i-nehanging fidelity to Jehovah (2 Sam. xvii. 12
sq.). Cf. that on chap. viii. 15 sq. We are no"
told what impression the prophecy mado on
Solomon, but we may just for this reason conclude
that it was not such as Nathan's discourse made on
David (2 Sam. xii. 1 3).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The turn which, with the events described in
the section before us, the reign of Solomon takes,
is of the weightiest moment, because it exercised
the most wide-spread and lasting influence upon
the whole history of Israel : for its immediate re-
sult was the rending of the kingdom, which was
the beginning of the end. "The happiness to be
the most favored people on the earth under a wise
king — this happiness which Israel could, as it were,
be shown from afar for a brief space, was itself the
source of its wretchedness. Wisdom as well aa
wealth and power were intrusted to a sinful man,
who could not keep himself erect upon this dizzy
height. Hence this kingdom of peace and of pros-
perity should be, even in its fall, both a warning ex-
ample and also a type of the kingdom which, through
another, was to bring the blessings of salvation to
men which Solomon's reign signified in earthly
symbols " (Ton Gerlach). " Just in the period of
the highest perfection of the worldly kingdom, the
insufficiency thereof to satisfy the higher expecta-
tions and hopes, the complete faultiness cleaving
to it. and the incapacity to meet the deepest
needs of the spirit by sensuous splendor and earth-
ly exhibition of power, must, for the first time,
have dawned upon the consciousness " (Eisenlohr,
das Volk Isr. II. s. 119).
2. The change which overlook Solomon in his ex-
treme old age would be an insoluble psychological
riddle if it consisted in his abandonment of the
service of Jehovah, and his yielding to the idol-
worship practised by his wives. It is impossible
that a man who had been brought up in the fear of
Jehovah, and had declarod this to be the beginning
of all wisdom, who up to the fulness of his age
had an unclouded and undisturbed knowledge of
the one living God, as is shown in the discourse
and prayer at the dedication of the temple (chap,
viii.), that a man who shone forth upon all sides
as light amid the darkness, and throughout the
whole Orient was regarded as a living symbol of
wisdom (chap. iv. 30; ix. 24), should in his still
riper age have fallen into a most gross superstition,
and abandoned himself to the crudest, most sense-
less, and immoral of all forms of worship, namely,
that of the Canaanites and the peoples of anterior
A sin. We look in vain through all Scripture for an
example in the remotest degree like it. Recog-
nizing this, those critics of late, who think that
idolatry is actually charged upon Solomon in our
text, have adopted the notion, either that the ac-
counts respecting his wisdom and his knowledge
of God are false, that in fact he had always before
this been given over to idolatry (Gramberg, Vatke,
and others) — a view striking all history in the face,
and hence needing no refutation — or inversely,
that our account about Solomon's idolatry is inac-
curate, and rests first upon the later "deuterouo
mistic elaborators of the history " who misunder-
stood and represented the facts falsely (Ewald,
Eisenlohr, and others), an assumption which is vio-
lent and arbitrary, but which, to be sure, is ths
most convenient way of solving the problem. By
CHAPTER XI. 1-13.
129
the correct interpretation of the text, according to
which Solomon did not himself practise idolatry,
but allowed his wives the exercise of public idol-
worship, indeed favored it, the difficulty disappears.
It is not indeed an unusual psychological phenome-
non that a man highly gifted, standing upon a lofty
eminence of knowledge and wisdom, decided in his
moral and religious principles, should lose, in his
old age, in consequence of varions influences and
relations, and of some especial fortunes of his life,
the energy of his spirit and will, or, without aban-
doning precisely his past convictions, should re-
sign them in respect of decisiveness and exclusive-
ness, so that towards what he had once regarded
as error and had zealously combated it as such, he
becomes tolerant and, as it were, indifferent, especi-
ally when he hopes thereby to attain ends other-
wise pursued by him, as this was the case with
Solomon, as we shall see. who therefore furnishes
a warning and instructive example in history.
3. The formal allowance and patronage of differ-
ent idolatries, especially in the place where the cen-
tral Jehovah-sanctuary of the whole people stood,
was, upon the part of the king, an actual equaliza-
tion of the same with the Jehovah- worship ; an of-
ficial declaration of the equal authorization of idol-
worship with the service of the one. true, living
God who is the God of Israel. But thereby the first
and supreme command of the Israelitish law, i. e.,
of the Covenant (Exod. xx. 2), was directly trans-
gressed, and indeed set aside. The people Israel
were chosen by God to be the upholders of the
knowledge of the one God, and thereby to act for
the healing of all nations. To this end it was ne-
cessary that as a people they should " be separated "
from all peoples (Lev. xx. 24 ; 1 Kings viii. 53) :
participation in the election and in the covenant
was made continual through obedience upon the
part of the people, and also through race-deri-
vation. Jehovah's kingdom and the people's
hence coincide, the religion with the nation, and
they stand and fall together. Permission, recep-
tion, and introduction of any heathen religion or of
different idolatrous worships was not merely an as-
sault upon the religious conviction of individuals.
but was also an undermining of the national being
inseparably connected therewith. The exclusive-
ness of the Jehovah-cultus was for the people, in
their peculiar life, an absolute necessity. To set
aside or remove it was to threaten the existence
of this peculiar estate, and to deny its world-his-
torical distinction. If Solomon himself neither of-
fered inceuse nor sacrificed unto idols, he did yet
nothing less than attack the foundations of the
kingdom; he brought into the unity of the Israeli-
tish public life the germ of dissolution, and threat-
ened to destroy the covenant and God's plan of
salvation. To this extent his conduct and under-
taking must be characterized as a real falling
away.
4. The text gives only, as the immediate occasion
of this falling away of Solomon, his love for his many
foreign wives. We have already remarked, in re-
spect of these high-bred dames from all the neigh-
boring countries, that reference was had to the
splendor of the court rather than to the gratification
of a common, ungovernable lust. From their youth
accustomed to their sensuous, more or less uu-
chaste worship, they were more reluctant to aban-
don it as the earnest and severe Jehovah-cultus
could not please them. What was more natural
«
than the effort to induce the king, advancing in
years, that he would permit them to observe their
own native religious rites, and would make the
regulations necessary therefor, by means of which
his kingdom might become a sort of assembly-
place for all religions, and acquire additional splen-
dor and glory? This indeed they succeeded in,
but not in the way of gross sensuality. — Niemeyer
remarks with great pertinence (Charakleristik dtr
Bib. IV. s. 487) : " We do not find that Solomon
gave the strength of his youth to women, and went
the way which destroys kings (Prov. xxxi. 3). But
even because he did not indulge so much in sensu-
al enjoyment, the more refined voluptuousness be-
came for him the more dangerous : that adhesion of
the spirit, that secret enravishment of heart which,
unobserved, breaks up the entire independence of
the man, and, before he is aware of it, makes him the
helpless slave of the woman. It begins far more
innocently than that which we call crime, properly
speaking, but it leaves behind it usually more mel-
ancholy ruins in the soul than the other. In like
manner also, Yilmar observes (s. ISO), it is not so
much coarse sensuality as rather 'psychical bond-
age to the female sex ' which wrought the fall of
Solomon " Psychical polygamy dissipates, pulls
to pieces, and wastes irresistibly the core of the
human soul. ... At a certain stage of " culture,
in the intercourse between a man and womar.
coarse sensuality by no means prevails, but the
psychical pleasure in the woman, and the psychi-
cal abandonment to the woman, the desire of the
eye, and the desire of the eye for the sex as such,
and not for an individual woman." The surround-
ings or relations were singularly fitted to awaken
that kind of spiritual condition and to impart nour-
ishment to it. The long peace, broken neither by
war nor other calamity, the great wealth, the ex-
tensive trade, the abundance, by these means, of all
objects of luxury possible, the voluptuous court-
life in consequence, everything conspired to bring
about a relaxation ; and this was the soil upon
which the numerous strange women could carry
out their nature without hindrance. It is very
probable that Solomon allowed himself to lie gov-
erned by the political considerations " to give to
the strangers Hocking to Jerusalem an opportunity
for the exercise of their own worship, and make
his residence the desirable centre for the commer-
cial peoples of Anterior Asia " (Bertheau, Zur Gesch.
der Israel, s. 323). Like the crowded, brilliant
harem itself, so the secured freedom of worship
must needs increase the authority and glory of the
great king. But always his polygamy is and must
remain the first and chief cause of his downfall; this,
as Ewald remarks (Gesch. Isr. III. «. 215) strikingly,
concerning David's adultery, is the " inexhaustible
source of evils without number. . . . Here is con-
cealed an inextricable coil of the direst evils, of
which scarcely is one put out of the way, when
two, three others start up, and each is enough to
destroy the peace of an entire kingdom." So long as
this evil, " which the whole ancient world did not
sufficiently regard as an evil," remained, " the king-
dom in Israel was therewith exposed to the same
convulsions to which all polygamous kingdoms are
to this day exposed: and consequently, in his
earliest bloom we see arise in Israel the germ of
its destruction, which sooner or later can combine
with other causes of dissolution. The evils in the
house of David introduced by Amnon, Absalom, and
130
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Adonijah . . . all hang together with the lundamen-
tal evil once brought out; many evils also amongst
his successors are fastened to the same thread."
Although Mosaism even in the history of creation
represents Monogamy as the original relation or-
dained by God Himself, nevertheless polygamy
was so deeply rooted in the habits of all peo-
ples, that the strict law-giver was not able to up-
root it, but sought, by various limitations, to make
it difficult (Deut. xxi. 15 sq. ; Exod. xxi. 9 sq. Cf.
■Winer, K.-\\.-B. II. s. 662). It was expressly for-
bidden to a king to have many wives (Deut. xvii.
17), because the dangers which inhered in polyga-
my were doubly great, and could become danger-
ous for the whole realm, as Solomon's example
conspicuously shows. The temptation was espe-
cially great with kings, because a large harem, ac-
cording to the custom then prevalent, belonged to
a royal state. It is, nevertheless, and remains a
shadow resting upon the Old Covenant, and under
it the sanctity of marriage was not properly under-
stood and secured. Christendom was the first to
make holy the band of matrimony. Without taking
away the subordination of the woman, which is
grounded in nature (Lev. iii. 16), it has given to
her her rightful place (Gal. iii. 28), and thereby, in
that it represents the relation of Christ to His
Church as the examplar of marriage, it sets forth,
as a principle, monogamy as the only form and
order of the sexual relation (Eph. v. 22-33).
5. What now, in recent times, has been set
forth as the proximate and co-operating cause or
as the chief cause of the fall of Solomon, appears,
upon closer examination, untenable. They who
are of the opinion that Solomon indeed did not
abandon the worship of Jehovah, but worshipped,
besides Jehovah, heathen deities also, suppose that
he reached this syncretism in the way of compara-
tive reflection. Thus Niemeyer remarks (s. 403):
" He knew well enough that these wooden and
brazen images are nothing, but in them he paid
honor to the spirits to whom the Highest, the Un-
attainable, the Unknowable had intrusted the
tulership of the world. The more assuredly that
this idea is derived from an oriental source, the
more probable is it that Solomon believed that he
could find therein the solution of his doubt whether
the Creator of the world occupied Himself with
what was insignificant, and with the destiny of
each particular people." The love for his foreign
wives brought him to the pass of "denying his
convictions, which had been becoming enfeebled."
Von Gerlach expresses himself to the same effect:
" It is worthy of note that in respect of Solomon's
wisdom, his knowledge of nature is expressly cele-
brated, and that this wisdom is compared with and
placed above that of the Orient and of Egypt (chap,
iv. 30 sq.). ... It is easy to perceive that he made
an attempt to blend the traditional world-know-
ledge of the East with the knowledge of the re-
vealed God ; that he allowed a certain independ-
ence to the powers of creation which he had repre-
sented in the figures of the Cherubim in the temple
standing far below Jehovah, as His servants, and
first tolerated the worship of them, and then in a
certaiu degree himself took part therein." This
whole conception rests upon the erroneous presup-
position that Solomon had actually burnt incense
and had sacrificed to idols (besides to Jehovah),
and it disappears with it. The historical text
knows nothing at all of Solomon's beinj; misled to
idolatry by his own reflection and by the olendmg
of his wisdom with that of the East : it knows no
other reason for his toleration of idolatrv than t jat
his strange wives " turned away his heart." Lastly,
neither in the historical books nor in the writings
attributed to Solomon is there the slightest trace of
the thought that idols were real living creative-
powers, and subordinate deities serving Jehovah
It is a question whether such a view of the rela-
tion of Jehovah to gods of the heathen ever ob-
tained in Israel. Certainly this was not the case
in Solomon's time, and the later prophets had no
occasion to resist this opinion. — Ewald has set
forth another view (as above, s. xiii. 368, 379 sq.).
He finds the reason in the direction begun in Solo-
mon's kingdom, and so full of results to the whole
history of Israel in the " violence " which cleaved
to the kingdom naturally, by virtue of which ho
sought to make everything depend upon himself
and to extend his power to every phase of life — it
fact, in political absolutism. The kingdom of Is
rael, under Solomon, felt the strongest tendency to
become a thorough kingdom of the word; but in
sucli a kingdom the toleration of different ieligions
is inevitable. But as this toleration was as yet
strange, "so the sheer royal authority introduced
the innovation," which to many of strict senti-
ments was abhorrent. This view has less even in
its favor than the preceding. It rests upon an
entirely false modern political view of monarchy
in general, and of the Israelitish in particular.
That which the only historical source in our pos-
session gives as the chief occasion of Solomon's
turning is set wholly aside, and in its place some-
thing is advanced, of which not a word is said.
Neither the announcement of the punishment (vers.
9-12), nor the prophecy of Ahijah to Jeroboam (ver.
31 sq.), gives in the remotest degree, as the ground
of the division of the kingdom, " violence," i. e., ex-
cess of the royal authority, but only Solomon's want
of fidelity to Jehovah occasioned through his wives.
A world-kingdom, to convert Israel into which,
Solomon is supposed to have had the tendency, is
established only by means of military conquests, as
the history of the world shows. Thus the great
Roman power began, yet it ceased with the free-
dom of all (kinds of) worship. Solomon was " a
man of rest " and of peace (1 Chron. xxii. 9), who
did not extend the limits of the kingdom, but
sought to keep and hold those only as they were
under David. He meditated no world-power, and
least of all to bring it to pass by the toleration of
all religions.
6. Tlic announcement of the divine punishment
gives, what is well to notice, as the ground there-
of, not any sinful passion or any immoral act, not
even the possession of many wives or unbridled
lust, but only that Solomon had permitted and
favored idolatrous worship, and in this had not ob-
served the covenant and the commands of Jehovah.
David sinned grievously in the matter of Bath-
sheba, but his procedure was still simply the im-
moral act of an individual in relation with an indi-
vidual. Solomon's deed, . n the other hand, con-
cerned the foundations of the theocracy. It was
the setting aside and the destruction of the divine
law upon which the whole kingdom, the existence
of Israel as a people distinct from all heathen peo-
ples, its world-historical destiny, rested. For i
king of Israel, whose calling consisted, espec'allj
in this, to be a servant of Jehovah, the true kuj
CHAPTER XI. 1-13.
1.31
of Israel, and as such before all things to maintain
thoroughly the Covenant, there could be no heavier
announcement. In the case of Solomon, moreover,
Jehovah had vouchsafed to him special revelations,
had answered all his prayers, and had made him
the most favored, the richest, and most fortunate
king of that time. From the theocratic point of
view, the punishment itself, the division of the
kingdom and the limitation of the dynasty of Solo-
mon to the tribes Judah and Benjamin, appears
even merciful, for in reality Solomon had rendered
himself completely unworthy of the theocratic
kingdom. For the rest, the punishment corre-
sponded with the offence in so far as it brought to
fruit and maturity the germ of the destruction
of the kingdom which Solomon by his conduct
had planted and tended. And it is true here also
that what a man soweth that shall he reap. Solo-
mon, befooled by his wives, believed that he could
become still greater by transgression of the Cove-
nant, and that he would make his kingdom more
conspicuous and glorious; but this same transgres-
sion laid the foundation of irreparable breach and
final ruin. From the modern liberalistie point of
view Solomon's act has been judged differently.
So Ewald says (s. 380): "In that he allowed his
wives to sacrifice to their deities was the best evi-
dence of a general toleration of religion in his
kingdom that he could furnish. In fact the act, a
legal toleration of different religions in that early
age of the wise Solomon was attempted — a tolera-
tion which the true religion must allow as soon as
it recognizes its own being, and against which in
our land to-day, this side the Niemen, the Jesuits
alone are condemned to work. Certainly at that
time the religion of Jahve was something too weak
to stand alone by itself without any outward pro-
tection. ... If only Solomon's rule had not be-
come gradually distasteful to -the popular feeling
for other causes, who knows what might have
been established in this age for the continuance of
the new wisdom ! " After his usual fashion, Eisen-
lohr has adopted this view (s. 115). With Solo-
mon, says he, " we see in place of the purely hos-
tile posture towards heathenism a friendly approx-
imation, in many respects even a formal blending,
and iudeed this took shape in a very natural way.
In a great kingdom consisting of diverse nationali-
ties, room must be allowed for the most diverse
forms of religion. . . . Every genuine, sound type
of religion (religiositat), in so far as its element is
freedom, the right of individual contemplation and
elevation above stiff outward forms in the region
of the spirit, carries within itself the germ for
the scattering of every exclusive kind." That
th'.s way of viewing the subject is in direct contra-
diction with the biblical, scarcely needs mention.
Were general religious toleration a work of wis-
dom, and the furtherance of true religion as soon
as it recognizes its own being, Solomon, by his
tolerance of the wild, immodest, and shameful As-
tarte-and-Moloch cultus, instead of the " wrath "
of Jehovah and the punishment of the limitation of
his kingdom to one tribe only, would have merited
praise only, and the broader extension of his king-
dom ; and all the great prophets, an Elijah, Ehsha,
Jeremiah, Hosea, &c, who opposed the toleration of
every idolatrous cultus, and were zealous for the
exclusiveness of the Jehovah-cultus, should be
;ousidered as the " Jesuits " of the old world, who
.3id uot know the nature of true religion. Solomon
would have then erred only in investing the re-
ligion of Israel with too much power, and in his
zeal for progress, in anticipating general religious
freedom. With incomparably more right, Vilmur
lias rendered an opposite judgment is. 179 sq.)
"We have here before us a type of the authori-
zation of all forms of religion within a definite,
limited divine sphere of life. . . . Solomon's ideal
here is to let each man be saved d safacon . . . the
beginning of the (unlimited) "authorization of indi-
viduality"— this proposition is thoroughly subver-
sive, belonging, in this form, to the last decades, in
virtue of which church-bodies, States, peoples come
to an end."
For the rest we need not look for New-Testa-
ment views in the Old Testament, nor for Old Testa-
ment views in the New. They are distinct econo-
mies. Christianity is not like the Mosaic, condi-
tioned by bodily descent and bound up in a given
race, and does not impose the obligation forcibly
to suppress any other religion within its jurisdic-
tion. It knows no other instrument uf its continu-
ance and of its spread than that of the Word, and
of the conviction thereby wrought. But if no peo-
ple can be without religion, and if this have the
most decisive, profound influence upon the spirit-
ual and moral formation of the people, then the
political power cannot be indifferent in respect of
all religions, and cannot simply consider them of
equal authority in any relation. Of the Solomonic
prototype there remains thus much for all times
and peoples, that the introduction and authoriza-
tion of all, even the most diverse religions and
forms of worship within a nation, does not make
the same strong, but weak, and carries with
it the danger of its national and political division
and destruction ; for religious indifferentism is the
death of all true patriotism, and is more destruc-
tive of a people than religious fanaticism.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-13. Solomon's fall. The beginning, vers.
1—4; the progress, vers. 5—8 ; the end, vers. 9-13. —
M. Fr. Roo.S: Here we see plainly how a godly
man may gradually fail into sin. He first allows
himself too mucli liberty. He ventures into dan-
ger, and then perishes therein. . . . He who scorns
danger, who by marriage and by a wilful intrusion
upon certain positions exposes himself to it, or who
even ventures in his daily course too much into the
world, under the pretext of liberty ; he who indulges
in the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life instead of enjoying with gratitude and
moderation the gifts of God, such an one becomes
the slave of sin, and falls under the wrath of God.
The heart is first inclined, then wauders upon evil
paths, and at last does openly what is displeasing
to the Lord. At first we permit in others, through
complaisance, sin, which we could and should have
checked, and thus we actually assist ourselves to
sin. Still we preserve our appearance of wisdom
and godliness, and will not have it supposed that
we have entirely deserted the Lord. But he whose
heart is uot wholly with the Lord his God, follows
him not at all ; he who follows him not wholly, fol-
lows him not at all; for "a man cannot serve twc
Masters." Vers. 1-8. The example given by the
Bible in the case of Solomon. 1. What it teaches,
(a) That for the sinful human heart, a constant out-
ward prosperity is allied to spiritual dangers ; foi
132
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
what profiteth, &c, Matt. xvi. 26. Thus it is that
trial and sorrow are often blessings for time and
eternity, Heb. xii. 6-12. (6) That the most abundant
knowledge, the highest education and wisdom are no
protection against moral and religious short-com-
ings. "Wine and women make foolish the wise man
(Ecclesiasticus xix. 2). No wise man commits a
little folly, says an old proverb. Therefore, trust
in the Lord, &c. (Prov. iii. 5-7). How it warns us.
(a) Watch. If a Solomon can fall, a Solomon brought
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, aud
walking in the ways of God in old age, a Solo-
mon, the wisest man of his time I how necessary is
it for us all to watch. Without watching, the
greatest wisdom may become foolishness, and the
highest spiritual condition may end in the wrath
and judgments of God. (b) Pray. In the great
prosperity and delight of this life, Solomon forgot
prayer, as he had so well practised it in earlier
years (chaps, iii. and viii.). His wives did not elevate
his heart, they debased it. Prayer alone holds watch,
and is therefore most necessary in prosperity and
success (Ps. lxxvi. 2; cxxxix. 23 sq.). — "Let him
who stands take heed," Sec. (1 Cor. x. 12). (a) Sol-
omon did stand in the living knowledge of God, in
faith, and in humility (chap. iii. 6 ; viii. 23), but (b) he
looked not well to himself, he did not observe that
the thorns of wealth and the pride of life were
choking the good seeds in his heart, therefore he
fell, broke his covenant with God, and was under
the just judgment of God. Vers. 1-4. Christian
marriage in contradistinction to pre-Christian mar-
riage (see Hist, and Ethic. 4) vs. Denial of the
existence of marriage as a divine ordinance (Mark
x. 6-9) is the source of the greatest and weight-
iest evils. Solomon sinned in this wise : That,
contrary to the Law, he not only took to him-
self many wives, but foreign, i. e., heathen wives.
— Osiander: Not without danger is it that a
man takes a wife who is not of his own religion
(1 Cor. vii. 16). — Lust of the eyes and the pride of
life drowse the soul and cripple the will, gradually
and imperceptibly influence the heart, so that it
loses all sense of holy and earnest things, and all
pleasure therein, aud becomes stupid and indiffer-
ent to everything divine and noble. — A prince
who allows himself to be advised and led by wo-
men in the affairs of his government, instead of
guiding himself by the unchangeable law of
God, destroys the prosperity of himself and his
kingdom. Confidential intercourse and intimacy
with those who know nothing of the living God,
and of his word, but rather resist Him — those who
well know how to flatter — this is a most perilous
position for a God-fearing heart (Eccles. vii. 27). —
Ver. 4. Even as in youth exuberance of life and
Btrength opens the door to temptation, so likewise
does the weakness of old age. But an old erav-
1 haired sinner is much more abominable in the sighl
I of the Lord than a youth. Therefore, pray ever:
Forsake me not in my old age, &c. (Ps. lxxi. 9, 18)
— There is no object worthier of compassion than
the man who, having served the Lord, and kept
the faith from his youth up, when old age has
brought him near to his everlasting rest, turns his
back \ipon it, and thus renders useless all his
earlier struggles with sin and the world. — Vilmar:
The sole condition under which, amid his natural
weakness, an old man can maintain his spiri'.cal
strength, and guard his honor, is this: that "his
heart is purely fixed upon God; " this condition
failing, let a man's whole life be influenced by the
opinions of others ; influenced by such opinions
without sharing them, yet still without combat-
ing them, then complete wantonness will take pos-
session of his old age.
Vers. 5-8. Although Solomon did not himself
practise idolatry, he permitted and encouraged it
in others ; but the receiver is as bad as the thief.
That is the curse resting upon sin, that the
very means by which men seek to raise them-
selves in the world's estimation become the
very means for their destruction. By perverted
compliance and long toleration, Solomon brought
ruin and destruction upon himself' and his people
for centuries to come. All indulgence which is
grounded upon indifference to truth, or founded upon
lukewarmness, is not virtue but a heavy sin be-
fore God, how much soever it may resemble free-
dom and enlightenment. In a well-ordered Church
and State establishment neither bigotry nor super-
stition should have equal rights with faith and
truth. Where the gate is opened to them, or
where they are patronized instead of being resist-
ed, then both people and kingdom are going to
meet their ruin (see Ethical 6). Vers. 9-13. The
punishment that fell upon Solomon shows us (a)
the holiness and righteousness of God (Ps. cxlv. 17 ;
v. 5 ; Jerem. xvii. 10 ; Luke xii. 47). (b) His faithful-
ness and mercy (vers. 12, 13). He knows how to
punish, so that His gracious promises remain firm (2
Tim. ii. 13 ; Rom. iii. 3). — God makes known to us
His judgments through His Word, so that we may
have time to repent and to turn unto Him (Ezek.
xxxiii. 2). — If judgment fell especially upon Solo-
mon, notwithstanding the fact that the Lord ap-
peared to him twice in a dream, and he was hon-
ored with distinguished grace, what judgment must
we expect, to whom He has appeared tenderly in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
&c. (1 Cor. i. 30; Heb. ii. 3 ; x. 29).— God knows how,
in the proper time, to belittle him who abandonf
and forsakes the Lord and His cause, in order t«
become great and distinguished in the eyes »f th«
world 'Dan. iv. 34X
CHAPTER XI 14-43. 13&
Solomon's Adversaries and Death.
B.— Chapter XI. 14-43.
14 And the Lord [Jehovah] stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad ' the
15 Edomite : he was of the king's seed in Edom. For it came to pass, when David
was5 in [with, <• «• at war with] Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up
16 to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in Edom; (for six months did
Joab remain there with all Israel [*. e., the host], until he had cut off every male in
17 Edom:) that Hadad fled, he and certain3 Edomites of his father's servants
18 with him, to go into Egypt : Hadad being yet a little child. And they arose out
of Midian, and came to Paran : and they took men with them out of Paran, and
they came to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt ; which gave him a house, and
19 appointed him victuals, and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in
the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the
20 sister of Tahpenes the queen. Ami the sister of Tahpenes bare him Genubath
his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house : and Genubath was in Pba-
21 raoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh. And when Hadad heard in Egypt
that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead,
Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.
22 Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what hast thou lacked with me, that, behold,
thou seekest to go to thine own country ? And he answered, Nothing : howbeit,
let me go in any wise.
23 And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah, which
24 fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah: and he gathered men unto him, and
became captain over a band, when David slew them of Zobah: and they went to
25 Damascus, and dwelt therein, and reigned in Damascus. And he was an adver-
sary to Israel all the days of Solomon,4 beside the mischief that Hadad did: and
he abliorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.
26 And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon's servant,
whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand
27 against the king. And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the
king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the city of David his
28 father. And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor: and Solomon seeing
the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge
29 of the house of Joseph. And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went
out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way;
and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the
30 field6: and Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in
31 twelve pieces : and he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the
Lord [Jehovah], the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the
32 hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee : (but he shall have one 6 tribe
for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have
33 chosen out of all the tribes of Israel :) because that they have forsaken me, and
have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians,' Chemosh the god of
the Moabites, and Milcom e the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walk-
ed in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes
34 and my judgments, as did David his father. Howbeit, I will not take the
whole kingdom out of his hand : but I will make him prince all the days of his
life for David my servant's sake, whom I chose, because he kept my command-
35 ments and my statutes : but I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and
36 will give it unto thee, even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe,
that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city
37 which I have chosen me to put my name there. And I will take thee, and thou
shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.
3b And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt
134
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my
commandments, as David my servant did ; that I will be with thee, and build
39 thee a sure house, as I built for David," and will give Israel unto thee. And I
40 will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever. Solomon sought there-
fore 10 to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, unto Shi-
shak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
41 And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are
42 they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon ? And the time that Solo-
43 mon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel loas forty years. And Solomon slept
with his" fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father : and Rehoboam
his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 14.— [This name is variously written in the printed Heb. text lin and "HN ; in some MSS. and in the 8y..
It Is uniformly written "l"in. The Sept. has 'ASfp, and the Vulg. Hadad. The Ohald. follows the variations of the Hebrew.
After the mention of his name the Vat. Sept. subjoins a summary of vers. 23-25, omitted in their place.
3 Ver. IS.— Instead of nVn3 the Sept., Syr., and Arab, read J113n2 (when David had slain the Edomites), which
Manrerand Thenius consider right. But according to 1 Chron. xx. 5; Gen. xiv. 9 [add Num. xx. 18], the reading of the
text is not to be peremptorily rejected.
8 Ver. 17. — [The Sept., in curious contradiction to vers. 15, 16, has here "all the Edomites," &c.
• Ver. 2ft. — [The Vat. Sept. here resumes tlie course of the Heb. narrative, but gives quite a different sense: *' this to
the evil which Hadad did : he abhorred Israel mid reigned in Edom." On the true rendering of the verse see Exeg. Com.
In regard to the last word, three MSS., followed by the Sept., Syr., and Arab., have DIN for D"IS : but, as pointed out in
the Exeg. Com., the true reading must necessarily be that of the text. Our author in his translation, in opposition to his
own exegesis, follows the Sept.
• Ver. 29.— [ I he Sept. renders or replaces the last clause by " and he took him aside from the way."
• Ver. 32.— [The Sept. has Soo (rK^irrpa— two tribes. So also ver. 36.
' Ver. 33.— [Instead of the peculiar form J'JIV many MSS. read D'jnV.
8 Ver. 83.— [The Sept. has evidently understood in D3pO the final D as a pronominal suffix, and so translate " their
king, the stumbling-block of the children of Amnion." Throughout this verse the Sept. puts the verbs in th» singular as
having Solomon for their nominative.
3 Ver. 88.— [The Vat. Sept. omits the clause "and will give Israel unto thee."
10 Ver. 40.— [HD^' Cp^l = but Solomon sought. The word "therefore" of the ancient version is not neces-
sary, and connects the attempt of Solomon quite too distinctly with the communication of Ahijah, which may have been
known to him (see Exeg. Com.) or may not. The true connection of ver. 40 is with ver. 26, vers. 27-89 being parentheti-
cal.—F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 14. And the Lord stirred up an adver-
sary unto Solomon, &c. It is clear and beyond
dispute that the whole section, from vers. 14-40,
which treats of the different adversaries that God
raised up against Solomon, is intimately connected
with the immediately preceding account of his fall,
and of the impending and threatened division of the
kingdom. The latter was not to occur till after
Solomon's death; but the presages of it were al-
ready appearing. The peace of the kingdom hither-
to undisturbed was endangered from that time on,
both by internal and by external adversaries. The
two external ones, Hadad and Rezon, had, indeed,
always been foes to Israel and Solomon, but they
had never ventured to show their animosity in open
deed, inasmuch as the kingdom had become pow-
erful and respected under Solomon. But Solomon,
in permitting the idolatrous worship, gave great dis-
latiafaction to all the faithful servants of Jehovah,
and with his own hands he shook the foundations
of the kingdom. Other measures also, more or less
connected with the former, caused him to lose, more
and more, the esteem and confidence of his sub-
jects ; and then the long pent-up hatred of his old
foes began to show itself more; their courage grew,
*nd though they did not proceed to formal attack
or to open rebellion (of which our narrative says
nothing) Solomon had occasion to fear them more
than ever before ; the tranquillity and peace of his
kingdom was endangered, and the time of pros-
perity past. Every one will admit that this is what
the author meant to convey. But recent criticism
reckons him a " later worker-up of Deuteron-
omy," and accuses him of a shifting of the his-
torical facts. According to Ewald (Gesch. Isr.
III. s. 274-281), uproar and rebellion did not first
break out towards the end of Solomon's reign, but
immediately after the death of David and of his
formidable army-chief, Joab, in the beginning of
the reign of the young and inexperienced king,
both in the south (Edom) aud in the north (Syria),
as depicted by Solomon himself in the second
Psalm With the divine courage and the admoni
tion supported by prophetic assurance, which this
Psalm expresses, together with wonderful firmness
of spirit, Solomon met the storm of rebellion, and
deprived his foes of their chief weapon of attack
by his alliance with Egypt. Against the northern
insurgents he himself marched, and stormed Ha-
math. Thus were the ragings of the people stilled,
and in a brief space he became master of the situa-
tion. This view has been reiterated in several
books (r/. for instance Eisenlohr, das Volte Isr
II. s. 41 and 57 ; Duncker, Gesch. des Alt. I. s. 387),
and has been accepted as a matter of course; al-
though there are the strongest reasons for reject-
ing it. (a) Our historical book says repeatedly
how, and that the kingdom of Solomon became
CHAPTER XI. 14-43.
135
established (chap. ii. 12 and 46), without making
the remotest allusion to rebellion having broken
out in the lauds David had conquered, and being
put down by Solomon ; yet this would especially
have tended" to establish his throne and increase
the esteem in which he was held. Even in the
chapter we are considering, no mention is made of
actual rebellion, but only of adversaries ; therefore
to say there were certainly such, is not writing
history, but making history. (J) The rebellion of
whole nations which, like Edom, lived far off, could
have been put down only by force of arms, and
Dot by " reproof " or " strength of mind ;" but the
history says nothing of Solomon's inarching into
Edom. He went indeed to Hamath, but not to
conquer it, only to " fortify " it (p;n cf. 2 Chron.
xi. 11, 12 ; xxvi. 9), as the short notice stands in
12 Chron. viii. 3, in the middle of the details of the
different city-buildings. In fact we do not hear
of a single warlike enterprise of Solomon's ; he
was, as his name denotes, the king of peace, the
"man of rest," in distinction from David, the man
of war (1 Chron. xxii. 9) ; and his reign was dis-
tinguished by works of peace (building, commerce,
intellectual culture), above that of all other kings.
(c)The 2d Psalm does not contain a history, and
our narrative cannot be completed, much lees con-
tradicted or corrected by it. It is a mere unproven
hypothesis that this psalm was composed by Solo-
mon, and that the rebellion alluded to in it took
place during his reign, not in the last years of it,
but in the first. What is here said of Hadad and
Rezon certainly occurred at an earlier period, but
is repeated. " because its influence only began to
be felt in the latter part of Solomon's reign, and
should have guarded him from over-security from
the beginning " (Keil).
Vers. 14-22. Hadad, the Edomite. He is
called Ahad [the English version does not distin-
guish] in ver. 17. A Hadad is mentioned among
the Edomite kings as early as Gen. xxxvi. 35 ;
who evidently belonged to an earlier period. It is
quite uncertain whether our Hadad was the grand-
son of the last king of Edom, whom 1 Chron. i. 50
wrongly calls Hadad instead of Hadar (Gen. xxxvi.
39) (Ewald, Thenius). Details of his former for-
tunes are no doubt designed to show how firmly he
clung to his native land, and therefore how much
more he was to be dreaded. For David's war with
the Edomites cf. 2 Sam. viii. 13 sq. " The slain,
whom Joab came out to bury, cannot be the Isra-
elites who fell in the battle of the valley of salt,
but those killed on the invasion of the country by
the Edomites, and who lay yet unburied. After
performing this act Joab defeated the Edomites in
the valley of salt, and dwelt six months in Edom,
till he had extirpated all the males (i. e., all those
capable of bearing arms that fell into his hands,
and especially those of royal blood ") (Keil). Mi-
dian, ver. 18, cannot certainly be the town Madian
mentioned by Arabian geographers, bn„ a district;
it is not very well defined, but it must have been
between Edom and the desert, south-west of Pales-
tine, Paran (Num. xiii. 3, 27; x. 12); the road
from Egypt still leads across the latter, through
Aila to Mecca. The people whom the followers
of Hadad took from Paran with them, were to lead
the way across the desert. The Pharaoh who en-
tertained the fugitives with such friendliness, and
act only supported Hadad himself, but gave land
to those with him, could scarcely be Solomon's
father-in-law, but his predecessor. His consort is
here named nT33n , the Queen-mother's usual
appellation (chap. xv. 13 ; 2 Chron. xv. 16); but it
does not always necessarily mean that ; and con
sequently we are not obliged to accept Hitzig's
and Thenius' reading of n?i"13D , i. e., the elder.
The weaning of a child (ver. 20) usually took place
the second or third year (2 Mace. vii. 27), and was
observed as a family feast (Gen. xxi. 8). Genubath
was thus adopted among the royal children, and
brought up with them (Winer, B.-W.-B., I. s. 657).
Hadad's petition (ver. 21) was not so much because
he had now no longer any fear for his life, but be-
cause he, as a royal prince, hoped to ascend the
throne, and free his land from the Israelitish yoke ;
this was the only reason why he is named an ad-
versary. Pharaoh's question, ver. 22, contains the
counsel to remain where he was, where he was
well off, rather than undertake a dangerous and
uncertain enterprise. This advice of his near rela-
tive was well meant, and did not spring from the
policy of seeking to acquire or keep Solomon's
friendship. Hadad, however, remained firm in his
resolve ; we are not told of his actual departure,
but it is to be understood; so that the Sept. addi-
tion, Kai avtarpeipev * Adep etc t/jv yr/v avroi\ consid-
ered as original by Thenius, is unnecessary. It
appears from chap. ix. 26 sq.; x. 11, that Hadad
was not able to carry out his plans at once, but
the fire smouldered under the ashes, and threat-
ened to break out as soon as Solomon began to be
less respected. Ewald continues Hadad's history
further. He says the Egyptian king received him
in so friendly a manner, " evidently intending to
make use of him in the future against the growing
power of Israel." Genubath must have " acted an
important part in Asia, later, or he would other-
wise not have been named at all." When the
feeling of the Egyptian court changed towards Is-
rael's kings, " an evasive answer was returned
to the Idumsean prince ; he would "not be de-
tained, however, but fled secretly to his ancestral
mountains, was there acknowledged by many of
his people as king, and caused Solomon much
perplexity, though he was never completely vic-
to-ious." Every one who can read may see that
there is not a single word of all this in the text,
and yet Eisenlohr has blindly followed the writer
{I. c, a. 58 1. Cf. also on chap. xxii. 48.
Vers. 23-25. And God stirred him up. . . .
Rezon . . . the son of Eliadah, &c. Ver. 23.
2 Sam. viii. 3sq. mentions that David smote Hada-
dezer. king of Zobah, in Syria, whereupon Rezon
forsook his master, gathered together an army
from the remains of the Syrian host, and pro-
ceeded later to Damascus, settled there, and
usurped the chief power. This may have occurred
in David's time, or in the beginning of Solomon's
reign. It is nowhere said that he rebelled on
Solomon's accession, and was conquered by him,
and there is nothing to show "that he was at
least twenty or thirty years older than Solomon "
(Ewald). It is not impossible that he survived
Solomon, for had he died sooner it could not be,
as in ver. 25, that " he was an adversary to Is-
rael all the days of Solomon." He did not under-
take any enterprise against the powerful king, but
as he had always entertained hostile feelings to
him, he now became a more dangerous and open
130
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tnemT, as the power and fame of Solomon were
declining. The words Tin 1B>S njnrrnsi are
difficult, but can be translated only as many old
translators give them, and among the recent ones,
De Wette, Gesenius, Keil, Philippson ; and " be-
side the mischief that Hadad (did)." J1N1 is as
in ver. 1 and Ex. i. 14. We are not told what the
mischief that Hadad did really was; the writer
only means that Rezon's enmity was added to that
of Hadad. This view, which suits the context,
relieves the following sentence of all difficulty:
" and he (Rezon) abhorred Israel, and reigned over
Syria." Whilst Hadad agitated the south, Rezon
rebelled from Solomon in the north, and took the
supreme power. The Sept. translates as if it
read nXT instead of riNl aud DIN instead of
D"1N: Avry r/KaKia rjv kiroinoev 'Aonp. nal , . .
k/JaaiAevoe h yrj 'ESufi, i. e., this is the mischief
which Hadad did; he abhorred Israel and was
king in Edom. Thenius asserts that this was the
original text. But in this case the whole sen-
tence could not be here, where the question is
about the second adversary, Rezon, but should
have followed ver. 22. It is incomparably less
probable that it was there passed over by the
oversight of a copyist (Thenius), and inserted
here, than that the Sept. misunderstood the
J1N1 i &e-> an(l translated wrongly as it so often
does, and was then -obliged to change DIN to DTN
because it did not suit Hadad. The Sept. has
arbitrarily mixed the two accounts of the adver-
saries together (it puts vers. 23 and 24 into ver.
14), so that we should be very foolish to follow it
in this case. Ewald translates, " as for the mis-
chief which Hadad did, he was hostile to Israel
and reigned over Edom;" but then the sentence
should be back of ver. 22 and not here. It is not
right to change DIN into DIN , because the two
foregoing verses absolutely require that Rezon
should be considered as subject to j'p>l . Cf.
Keil on the place.
Vers. 26, 27. Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Hadad and Rezon were dangerous " adversaries "
to Solomon, but Jeroboam, though a subject and
servant of Solomon, lifted up his hand against the
king, i. e., he actually rebelled. His personal cir-
cumstances are given more at length because of
his vastly greater importance. Zereda is not Zar-
ihan, as Keil thinks (chap. vii. 46); the latter is
uot in Ephraim ; but Zereda is Zerira in the rnoun-
*«in8 of Ephraim (cf. Thenius on chap. xii. 2). The
„^uuu half of ver. 27 says, like chap. ix. 15: "to
build Millo and the walls of Jerusalem;" there is.
therefore, no question here of stopping " a gap
in the city of David " (Luther), but of the closing
up of a ravine (Vulgate, vorago) in the city, which
was done by walls. By y-is is meant the once
very deep ravine of what was subsequently the
Tyropceon, which separated Zion from Moriah ami
Ophel. This ravine became part of the interior of
the city through these walls, and was made inac-
cessible to enemies (Thenius). The words, he
.xxf' him ruler over all the charge of Vie houseof Jo-
ttph, are not in contradiction with chap. ix. 22 ;
for slave levy is not spoken of here ("i2JJ"DD)i
:,*<* that of the Israelites ( ^N"IK>;"!>3D DO) chap.
v. 13, who worked alternately. It is not, there-
fore, necessary to suppose that the "house of Jo-
seph" i. e., the Ephraimites (Josh. xvii. 17) were
obliged to work at Millo, as a punishment for their
rebellion under Sheba (2 Sam. xx.). But the
Ephraimites, who had an old and irrepressible
jealousy of Judah, submitted very reluctantly tc
labor in the king's citadel and the royal city of
Judah; their compulsory work increased their
dislike to hatred, so that it was easy to fan the
flame of insurrection among them.
Ver. 29. And it came to pass at that time,
i. e., not at the time Jeroboam made the insurrec-
tion, but — taken with ver. 28 — the time when he
entered upon the office of superintendent over all
the Ephraimite levy ; therefore, before he lifted his
hand against the king, and proceeded to acts, but
still he was brooding over insurrection. The no-
tion that vers. 29-39 is a section taken from an-
other source and inserted here (Thenius) is, to say
the least, unnecessary ; it contains an explanatory
and needful account, which is closely connected
with ver. 28. Jeroboam's banishment from Jeru-
salem was probably the occasion for preparations
of rebellion. The prophet Ahijah was of the same
tribe as Jeroboam, for Shiloh was in the tribe of
Ephraim, north of Bethel, south of Lebonah (Jud.
xxi. 19), and was the seat of the tabernacle fiom
Joshua to Eli (Josh, xviii. 1 ; 1 Sam. xxi. 3). They
no doubt knew each other well. The Sept. adds
to the words in the way (for explanation): /ml
aT7£OT7/G£V OVTOV £K T7JC 66ov.
Vers. 30-39. Ahijah caught the new gar-
ment. riD^b' (for n^pi."') is "probably similar
to the Arabian burnou ; a large square piece of
cloth, thrown over the shoulders and almost cov-
ering the whole person in the daytime, and used
at night for a coverlet " (Keil). Hess wrongly
imagines it to have been a " new mantle which
Jeroboam had on;" and Ewald thinks it was his
" new and splendid official uniform." It was tho
prophet's own cloak, as ver. 30 plainly says. The
prophet himself explains the meaning of this sym-
bolic act. Le Clerc says that the repetition of the
word new shows that the prophet did what he did,
non teniere. Thenius thinks the new garment de-
noted the young and powerful kingdom ; but both
these explanations are strained. A new garment
is one that is whole and complete, integer, without
a rent or hole ; the kingdom was hitherto with-
out split or division, but was now to be torn
and divided, jnp is usually applied to tearing
the garments in sign of mourning (Gen. xxxvii.
29; xliv. 13; 2 Sam. xiii. 21; 2 Kings xviii. 37),
i. e., of inward rending. Now when the prophet
tore tho cloak into twelve pieces, and gave Jero-
boam only ten pieces instead of eleven, we must
of course infer that neither Benjamin nor Judah
alone was meant here, or in ver. 13, by " one
tribe," but both together (cf. chap. xii. 20 and 21 ,
2 Chron. xi. 3 ; xii. 23). Little Benjamin, over
against Judah, came scarcely into consideration ;
and as, besides, the capital of the kingdom (Jeru-
salem) lay on the borders of both tribes, they
might very well be reckoned as one. If, as Keil
says, the number ten represents the total sum
hero, in distinction to the one part (all Israel fell
away from the house of David, only a single por-
tion remained to it), the proyhet would have tori
CHAPTER XI. 14-43.
137
off only one small piece. For ver. 32 see above
on vers. 12, 13; and for ver. 33 see on vers. 5-8.
The plural in ver. 33 is remarkable (all transla-
tions, except the Chaldee, have the singular, which
we expect here); perhaps it only means our vague
word "one;" it is plain, however, that Israelites
had already abandoned themselves to the licensed
heathen worship. In the words in ver. 36, that
David may have a light always before me, " light "
is not a symbol of prosperity (Keil), and 1'J cer-
tainly does not mean breaking forth afresh (Hit-
zig\ but it means simply the continuance of his
race, as in chap. xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19; 2 Chron.
xxi. 7. As a house (dwelling) is dark (uninhabit-
able) without a light, so also is a house (family,
race) without posterity ; this is why we speak of
the dying out of a race, at the present day, as its
extinction. The same expression, ver. 37 : and
thou shalt reign according to all, &c, is used in 2
Sam. iii. 21, about David; it does not mean pro
lubitu tuo imperabis Israelitis (Dathe), but, thou
shalt have the dominion thou now strivest for, &c,
&.C. Ver. 38. Jeroboam's dominion then was con-
nected with the condition upon which all dominion
in Israel was based.
Vers. 40-42. Solomon sought therefore to
kill Jeroboam. The immediate connection of
these words with Ahijah's address can scarcely
mean otherwise than this: that Solomon heard of
it, and sought to get Jeroboam out of the way by
some means. Jeroboam could but know of this,
and he lifted up his hand against the king, i. e., he
proceeded to actual rebellion (vers. 26, 27). But
not succeeding, he fled to Egypt. The king then
reigning was not, of course, Solomon's father-in-
law, nor Sesostris, as older commentators think, but
was probably Seconchis or Sesonchusis, the first
king of the twenty-second dynasty (<•/. Winer, R.-
W.-B. s. v. Sishak). The reception he gave Jero-
boam shows his feeling towards Solomon. Chap.
xiv. 21 sq. speaks of his open hostility to the king-
dom of Judah.
Ver. 43. Solomon slept with his fathers, at
about sixty years of age, as he very early suc-
ceeded to the throne (chap. iii. 7). Josephus thinks
he was eighty or even ninety-four years old, but
this is quite wrong, and was caused, probably, by
confusion of the ciphers. All copies and transla-
tions give forty. Our author gives, in a general
way, the "book of the acts of Solomon," as the origi-
nal source of his history; but 2 Chron. ix. 29
names, with more exactness, the " book ( >-Qi )
of Nathan the prophet, the prophecy of Ahijah the
Shilonite, and the visions of Iddo the seer against
Jeroboam." But it does not follow that these
three writings are only extracts from one histo-
rical one (Bertheau), but it certainly does appear
that each one wrote down his own experience.
When Solomon fell away, and Ahijah appeared,
Nathan must have been dead. Cf the Introduc-
tion, § 2. Rehoboam was not a son of the first and
real consort of Solomon, the Egyptian princess
(chap. iii. 1; ix. 24; vii. 8), but the son of the Na-
amah the Ammonitess (chap. xiv. 21, 31). He
appears to have been the only living son, as no
children, especially sons, of Solomon are named
(though he had so many wives), except the two
daughters mentioned, chap. iv. 11 and 15; and nc
brothers disputed the succession of Rehohoam,
which was the case with Solomon. For his age
at his accession see on chap. xiv. 21.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The appearance of the various adversaries oi
Solomon seems to have been a special act of divim
retributive justice; God is named as the direct
agent. He is said not only to have perm:tted
them, but to have "stirred them up," called tnem
to it. The word D'pi"1 means, as here, the stir-
ring up of enemies and rebels, also of deliverers,
helpers, prophets (Jud. ii. 18; Deut. xviii. 15, 18;
1 Sam. ii. 35 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23 ; Jer. xxix. 15),
where there is no allusion to mere permission. It
is not indeed the absolutely Holy One who ex-
cites hatred, enmity, and revenge in one man to-
wards another, for he tempts no man to evil
(Jam. i. 13) ; but the Almighty Ruler of the world
can use the hatred that He sees in the hearts of
sinful men, to fulfil, without their knov-^edge or
wish, the purposes of His retributive justice and
the chastisements of His love ; and iu so far, the
stirring up is no passive permission, but the act of
God. Thus Nathan announces to David, after his
grievous sin, this word of the Lord, " behold I will
raise up evil against thee out of thine own house "
(2 Sam. xii. 11), and David himself says of Shimei
who was cursing him, " so let him curse, because
the Lord hath said unto him " (2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11).
The Assyrian is, without knowing it, the rod of
His anger in the hand of Jehovah (Isai. x. 1, 5),
and Solomon's adversaries also served for instru-
ments of divine justice. This expression of stir-
ring up shows clearly that the appearance of the
adversaries did not take place, as recent commen-
tators say, in the beginning of Solomon's reign, for
up to that time Solomon had given no occasion for
any act of retribution or discipline. Though he did
not lose his throne through them, during his life-
time ; yet it was very humiliating to him, whose
power and splendor had been a spectacle to the
world, and whose wisdom people of all nations had
come to hear (chap. iv. 14; x. 24), to be obliged to
fear these men, who were far inferior to him, and
whom he had once despised.
2. Wliile Hadad and Rezon did not affect mate-
rially the destiny of Israel, the third opponent of
Solomon was of vastly greater significance. Jero-
boam does not disappear, like them, without leaving
a trace in the history of the kingdom. His en-
trance on the scene was felt profoundly for centu-
ries; the breach and partition of the kingdom
take place with and through him ; a partition
which was no temporary one, but lasted about
three hundred years, and ended with the dissolu-
tion of the kingdom. In this respect he is one of
the most important of the characters in the history
of Israel. Witsius, in reference to his whole ca-
reer says (Decaphylon, p. 307) : vir sagax, inquietus
et dominandi avidus atque ab ineunte cetate iis eru-
ditus artibus, quibus ingenia ad m,agnm fortxmw cut-
turn incitantur. Here where he is first mentioned
the question properly arises, how it came to pasa
that he lifted up his hand against the King. The
text certainly says nothing explicit about it, but
gives some distinct clues. It says, first of all, he
was an Ephraimite, thus being a member of the
largest, most powerful, and warlike tribe, that had
always vied with Judah forpre-emme- je; aud that
138
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
even when David had subdued them, never re-
nounced their deeply rooted jealousy and love of
independence and dominion over the other tribes
(2 Sam. ii. 9; xx. 21). After the division of the
kingdom, Ephraim stood at the head of the ten
tribes, so that the kingdom of the ten was called
Ephraim (Hos. iv. 17 ; v. 9 ; xii. 1 sq. ; Isai. vii. 2).
Dislike of the supremacy of Judah was in the very
blood of so young and powerful a man as Jero-
boam, and it needed not much to excite thoughts
of rebellion and independence in him. The fact
that Solomon employed the Ephraimites not so
much in the matter of levy-works as in building
Millo, and in stopping up the ravine which served
to fortify the city of David and to secure the su-
preoiacy of Judah, was calculated to increase the
ancient jealousy and dislike to Judah, and to ex-
cite discontent and disgust. Recognizing the dis-
tinguished ability of young Jeroboam, Solomon
made him overseer of his own people ; thus feed-
ing the ambition of this man who was born to rule.
He now first became conscious of his powers, and
soon acquired the confidence of his already discon-
tented tribe by his prudence and energy, so that
he could hope to succeed in placing himself at
their head, and lifting his hand against the Judah-
King. Perhaps he also perceived that the splen-
dor of Solomon had lost its ground through the
influence of his wives, the open introduction of
idol-worship side by side with that of Jehovah,
and the luxurious court life, and that his rule gave
great dissatisfaction to the most worthy of the
people. When we consider all this we readily
conceive that a man like the Ephraimite, Jero-
boam, should, without being especially influenced
by any one, think of breaking loose from Solo-
mon's rule. The later critics have therefore no
grounds for asserting that "the prophet Ahijah,
who appeared at the head of a (discontented) fac-
tion," induced Jeroboam to rebel against the king
(Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 544). Theuius is quite
right when he says, " Ahijah did not incite Jero-
boam, but he knew the thoughts he cherished,
and when Ahijah addressed him he was about
taking steps to realize these thoughts, as ver. 37
says: the prophet then appeared, for he saw that
the deed would infallibly follow the resolve in this
case, and recognized in Jeroboam a capable man,
knowing also the promise of success under condi-
tion of continuance in a God-fearing mind. This
relation is quite in the spirit of prophecy, and is
totally different from an intentional and forcible
introduction." The text says distinctly that Ahi-
jah met Jeroboam when the latter "went out of
Jerusalem " (ver. 29) to lift up his hand against
the king.
3. The prophet Ahijah stands in, a relation to So-
lomon and Jeroboam analogous with that of Samuel
to Saul and David (1 Sam. xv. 16). "As Saul's
sentence of rejection was accompanied by the
calling of David, so the prophetical announcement
to Solomon was accompanied by the prophecy to
Jeroboam " (v. Gerlach). Ahijah opened to him
the same divine decision which he had first made
known to Solomon (cf. vers. 11-13). In doing so
he emphasizes two things particularly, aud these
are worthy of notice ; the first is, that Solomon
was to romain king of all Israel to the end of his
lif6, and the division of the kingdom was to take
place under his son (ver. 31 sq.) ; the second, that
Jeroboam only received dominion over the ten
tribes, on the presupposition and condition that
he would walk in all the commandments of Jeho-
vah, as David did, and not sin like Solomon (ver.
37 sq.). It is added also that David's seed was to
be humbled, but not forever (ver. 39). We should
not overlook the circumstance that the prophet
met Jeroboam on the way as he came out of Jeru-
salem, and was proceeding to carry out his inten-
tions, and that the prophet took him aside (as the
Sept. at least has it) so that they " two were alone
in the field " (ver. 29). Ahijah's communication
was, therefore, not intended for the public, but was
confidential, thus intimating to Jeroboam that he
ought not to proceed to rebellion at once, but keep
quiet, and wait till it might please the Lord to
bring about circumstances to fulfil the purpose
He had announced. The prophet, so far from
counselling him to rebellion, warned him rather,
and recommended patience as long as Solomon
lived. But when Jeroboam, nevertheless, lifted
up his hand against the king, he committed an in-
excusable, sinful deed on his own responsibility,
and anticipated divine providence. His conduct
was just the opposite of David's, who, though
anointed to be king, and persecuted by Saul, en-
dured every wrong, never revenged himself on the
king, though the latter was often in his power,
even mourned his death, and had the Amalekite
who killed him executed as a traitor (2 Sam i. 11-
16). He believed that the Lord knew the right
hour to fulfil his promise. It cannot, therefore,
be accounted a crime in Solomon to strive to kill
a man whom he had raised from nothing, and who
then rebelled against him. From all this it ap-
pears that it is quite erroneous to account for Je-
roboam's appearance by saying that " the ancient
prophetical estate wished, by the forcible intro-
duction of a new royal house, to stand directly
under the Lord and above the human monarchy ;"
so that the kingdom of the ten tribes was " the
birth of this prophet-power," and the latter "a
retarded error " (Ewald). And it is equally untrue
that the rebellion of the ten tribes was " an enter-
prise which the prophet had encouraged, to bring
back the old national constitution, and restore the
consideration in which his class was held in Sam-
uel's time, when he, their founder and represent-
ative, deposed a king who disobeyed him, and
raised up another in his place " (Menzel, I. c. s.
152). When will men cease to compare the old
prophets with modern demagogues and ambitious
priests I
4. The symbolic procedure of the rending the gar
ment into twelve pieces preceded the prophecy del.
vered by the prophet. It could not, therefore, have
been intended to make that prophecy clear, but
rather inversely, the prophecy explained the trans-
action. This was the case not only here, but
the prophets generally performed a preliminary
symbolic action which represented the substance
of the meaning of the solemn prophecy which fol-
lowed ; and they performed this act on the impulse
of the divine spirit, just as they proclaimed the
word following in their divine commission. Of.
Isai. xx. 2 sq.; Jer. xiii. 1 sq. ; xix. 1 sq. ; xxxv. 2
sq. ; xliii. 9 sq. ; Ezek. iv. 1 sq. ; v. I sq. ; xii. 3 sq. ;
xxiv. 2 6v;.; xxxvii. 15 sq. ; 2 Kings xiii. 15 sq.
From these passages we see that the performance
of such actions was as much a part of the prophetic
calling and office as the proclamation of the word.
All rovelation of God is in the way of act as wel'
CHAPTER XI. 14r-43.
139
as of word : God's deeds as well as His words are
signs that testify of Him. His acts are also, as it
were, speech, i. e., a revealing of Himself. The
speaking of God is a sign-language, and therefore
a symbol-language. The entire cultus has, hence,
symbolic form as the real expression of the divine-
human relation. When the prophets, therefore,
appeared as such, i. e., as " men of God," as medi-
ators and instruments of divine revelation, they
did not communicate it in words only, but in solemn
acts, which were signs ; and thus they proved
themselves the servants of God, speaking in His
language. Their prophetic acts, as well as their
prophetic words, were announcements and revela-
tions of the divine purpose. When they antici-
pate their words by an act commanded by God,
this act is not to be viewed as a mere image, ac-
cording to their own pleasure, but it represents the
future which they had to reveal as a fact, as it
were, a present deed of God, and therefore as
something which would assuredly happen. The
action, then, was an assurance and pledge of the
fulfilment of the prophecy ; and it was entirely
natural that it should precede the word explaining
. and interpreting it. Besides, every thought which
is embodied in a deed produces a much greater
and more lasting impression than if only expressed
in words. Of Christ, in whom all that is prophetic
culminates, the disciple says (Luke xxiv. 19):
" which was a prophet mighty in deed and word,"
thus proving that not words only, but actions also
belong to the essence of the calling of the prophet.
The people concluded from his deeds that " a great
prophet is risen up among us " (Luke vii. 16). His
prophetic deeds were "signs" (John vi. 26; xx.
20). not mere evidences of power, but of divine
authority ; and they spoke of divine things as
loudly and, if possible, more loudly than His words.
He himself says, " Though ye believe not me, be-
lieve the works " (John x. 38) ; "the works that I
do in my Father's name they bear witness of me "
(John x. 25).
5. The rending of the ten tribes appears, in the
prophet's prediction here as in vers. 1 1-13, to be a
punishment ordained and determined by Jehovah for
Solomon's falling away, not, therefore, as an event
merely permitted by God but designed ; and there-
fore announced beforehand. The question arises, in
what relation did this partition, determined on by
Jehovah, stand to His plans regarding Israel con-
sidered as one people composed of twelve tribes ?
The whole nation was His inheritance, for He had
called them from among all nations to be a divine
kingdom (Ex. xix. 5, 6), i. e., a theocracy. The
one God, Jehovah, was, as the true King and Lord
of that people, so also the root and principle of their
unity — the bond binding together all the tribes
into one whole. The human monarchy afterwards
established by the desire of the people did not
destroy the theocracy but served rather to sustain
and preserve it (see above). But it was not now
absolutely necessary that all the tribes should
have one head ; in fact they might each have had
a head, had they only acknowledged Jehovah as
the one true king of all Israel, and held fast to the
covenant, i. e., the law of God. " It was not con-
trary to the Mosaic constitution for Jehovah to
weaken — not destroy — a royal house that had
turned to idolatry ; to rend away some tribes from
it, and to place them under the government of ano-
ther king It was rather the fittest thing to be
done ; for otherwise the principles that lay in the
very nature of the constitution — namely, that dis
aster should follow idolatry, and prosperity th«
fear of God, would have been violated. One of
these two things must (according to these princi-
ples) have come upon David's house after a lapse
into idolatry, viz. either expulsion from the throne
(which could not be on account of the promise of
perpetual succession), or weakening such as was
foretold by Jehovah, .... a falling away of
some tribes" (Hess, Von dem Reiche Gottes, I. s.
301). As Jehovah had heretofore governed hia
people by one king (David and Solomon) he could
also do it by two without destroying the theocratic
principle. The new kingdom is offered to Joro-
boam and continuance is promised to his dynasty
on the express condition that he should, " like
David," faithfully adhere to the law; with the ex-
planation, nevertheless (ver. 39), that the humilia-
tion of the house of David would be but tempo-
rary. Thus it is indicated that the promise of the
everlasting kingdom would not be realized in Jero-
boam's race, " but in that of David " (Oehler). The
prediction of Ahijah does not imply a partition of
the theocracy or of Israel, but only of the human
monarchy under two kings. The double nature of
the kingdom was not the cause of the permanence
of the division, nor of the commencement of the
destruction of the kingdom ; these were the results
of the continued falling away from the supreme
commandment of the theocratic law on the part of
the ten tribes.
6. There are no accounts of Solomon's end, nor of
his life and acts from the time of his lapse till hia
death ; all is reduced to the notice that he sought
to kill Jeroboam, and that he died and was buried.
This is the more remarkable as the life and acts of
this king are more minutely narrated than those of
any succeeding one, and that the last days and
end of David in particular are recorded with such
evident care both in our books and in the Chron-
icles. Had Solomon ended his life like David, who
with joyous heart blessed the Lord to the last
(1 Chron. xxix. 10 sq.), and charged his son and
successor most emphatically to remain faithful to
Jehovah (chap. ii. 1 sq.), and been anxious that the
prosperity of the kingdom should endure on the
basis of the covenant with Jehovah (2 Sam. xxiii.
1 53.), such a circumstance would not have been
passed over. We must therefore conclude, from
the entire silence of the history, that Solomon did
not die as David died, that he remained in the
state of mind into which he had fallen in his later
age. The question whether Solomon was finally
converted and saved was formerly discussed ex-
tensively (Buddeus, Hist. Eccl., II. p. 237 sq.), but we
see no occasion to introduce it here. Both Hess
and Niemeyer have endeavored to ascertain from
Ecclesiastes what Solomon's state of mind was in
his last days ; but apart from the mistaken pre-
supposition that this treatise was composed by
Solomon, no one could prove his conversion from
it; and Niemeyer concludes his character-sketch
with these words : " the cheerful peace of his soul
was gone. Gloomy was his retrospect of life, and
gloomy was his view of the near and of the distant
future." It is worthy of remark, that while Sol-
omon (Suleiman) is held in high honor in the East
at the present day, his memory is far less revered
among the Jews than that of David, which could
not have been the case had his reign ended a»
140
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
gloriously as it began. Bertheau justly remarks
that Solomon "did more towards undermining the
distinctive peculiarity of his people than any other
king." We are not, however, to seek the cause
of this simply in his making a people who were
adapted to agriculture, commercial, and in his
splendid buildings, his harem, and his court, all
hitherto unknown in Israel, but the real specific
reason was that by the introduction and the toler-
ation of foreign idolatrous forms of worship he
undermined the religion of his people, forth from
which religion Mowed all the characteristics which
distinguished them over against all other peoples ;
that was the worm at the root of the kingdom and
the national life.
[7. It is extremely difficult to give a portrai-
ture of Solomon which can harmonize at once both
the demand for historic truth and the general es-
timation which tradition assigns to him. The
story is extraordinary. David the father of the
wise king founded and consolidated the kingdom.
His life was stormy and checkered. His character
was romantic and chivalric and generous. He
showed himself capable both of great self-sacrifice
and of revolting criminality and treachery. He
was tender and he was brave. His soul rested
upon the covenant-keeping Jehovah, yet he dared
to violate all the duties of the decalogue which
concern man's dealings with his brother man. So-
lomon did not inherit the personal traits of his
father. He was not warlike ; he was a man of
peace. He sought wisdom, and he sought it from
Jehovah. He desired to administer his government
according to the law and will of God. He had
fine talent for observation. He was a naturalist
of rare attainments. He knew much of the earth ;
he knew much of men. He was a man of under-
standing, expressing his thoughts and observa-
tions in proverbs. He was splendid in his tastes.
He sought wealth by commerce and by trade with
heathen nations. He made Israel a kingdom of
this world ; at the same time, he built the temple,
lavishing upon it untold sums of money, and aim-
ing to make it, according to Eastern conceptions,
splendid in all respects. Certainly at its dedica-
tion he is one of the most imposing and majestic
figures in all history. But by degrees, enervated
by luxury, by pleasure, by plenty, he lost the
strength of his convictions. He became wise in
this world. The law of Jehovah lost its hold upon
his conscience. He began to justify idolatry.
" He that built a temple to the living God for him-
self and Israel, in Sion, built a temple to Chemosh
in the Mount of Scandal for his mistresses of
Moab, in the very face of God's house. No hill
about Jerusalem was free from a chapel of devils :
each of his dames had their puppets, their altars,
their incense; because Solomon feeds them in
their superstition, he draws the sin home to him-
self, and is branded for what he should have for-
bidden."— Bp. Hall. And by degrees the splendor
passed away, and darkness and weariness, and
hopelessness, and an iguoble old age came on.
He forsook the noble path of his yo ith, and his
glory was lost. See Stanley, Jeioish Church,
second series, Lect. xxviii., and F. D. Maurice,
77(e Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament,
Sermon on the Wise King. The sun of his life
roBe in all splendor, and shone brilliantly, to go
oown at last amid the heavy darkness of impend-
ing storm and night. The people lost their sense
of the exclusive sovereignty of Jehovah ; their
burdens were heavy — and the brief glory of Israel
as a kingdom of this world passed away forever
— E. H.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 14—10. Solomon's enemies. 1. They are
roused against him by God, so that he may know
and confess what heart-suffering it brings to for-
sake the fear of the Lord his God (Jer. ii. 19).
Cramer : So marvellously does God bring it
about, that he who will not fear him, must needs
fear his fellow-men. Once the man of rest, and
the Prince of Peace (chap. v. 4), now he is pressed
sore by enemies from the north, from the south,
and from his midst ; they are the scourges with
which the Lord chastises him. When foes and
opponents rise against thee, and cause thee care
and anguish, then think : The Lord has summoned
them on account of thy sins, and unfaithfulness.
The hostility of men is a sermon of repentance
from thy God to thee. 2. They were in God's
hand, and could do no more than he permits;
they rebelled, but they were powerless to take
from Solomon the throne and kingdom during his
lifetime. The Lord commands our foes: So far
shalt thou go, and no further. — J. Heermann: If
thou speakest the word, they soon become friends :
they must needs lay down arms and defences, and.
stir no finger. — P. Gerhardt: If I am beloved of
God, and have the llead for my friend, what can
troops of foes and opposers do to me ? For he
can humble the proud (Dan. iv. 35). Formerly all
kings did homage to Solomon, and brought him
gifts, and journeyed from all countries to see and
to hear him ; his power was as great as his king-
dom. But now his power and might are abased
before those who hitherto ranked far below him,
whom he had regarded as the least of his slaves
and vassals. Humiliation coming through weak
and inferior means is much more bitter than the
same humiliation through strong and powerful
means ; the latter we can ascribe to men, but in
the former we must recognize the will and power
of God.
Vers. 14-22. The fate of Hadad is recounted
to us not so much on his account as on our own,
in order that we may learn to regard the ways of
God with man, and order our own ways by Him,
who is ever mercy and wisdom (Ps. xxv. 10). If
God brought back the heathen Hadad by myste-
rious ways to his native land, how much more will
he lead those who keep his covenant and testimo-
ny to the true native land, and to the eternal rest,
how dark and inscrutable soever may be the ways
by which he leads them. Ter. 21. Let me go
into mine own country. The power of love of
country. Not ubi bene, ibi patria, but ubi patria,
ibi bene. Yet must we not in the earthly coun-
try forget the heavenly " Fatherland." Vers. 23-
25. Though vanquished and cast down, tyranny and
ambition do not forget ; they think perpetually of
vengeance, and seek to satisfy it, now by rough
means now by subtle ones, whenever an oppor-
tunity offers. Therefore, warns the apostle so
earnestly (Rom. xii. 10) against those secret and
mighty motives in the natural heart of man.
Vers. 20-2S. God is wont to chastise the re
hellion of princes against his will, by means of thd
rehellion of their own subjects ; as Solomon raiseo*
CHAPTER XI. 14-43.
141
his hand against Jehovah, so did his servant Jero-
boam against him. Destruction from above unites
with ruin from below. Whatever Solomon under-
took after his fall, was deprived of God's blessing.
By the building of MUlo he intended still further
to strengthen his dominion over all his enemies,
and to render impregnable his dwelling-place, but
this very building was the cause why his throne
began to totter, and why he lost the greater part
of his kingdom. Here applies Ps. cxxvii. 1. It
was by divine decree that Solomon himself, with-
out his own will or knowledge, should raise from
the dust to high places the very man appointed
by God to abase him, and to dismember his king-
dom. Conspiracies and rebellions are chiefly led
by those who have to complain least of injustice
or oppression, but have been pampered and fa-
vored until ambition incites them to suppress
every feeling of gratitude (John xiii. 18).
Vers. 29-39. cf. above vers. 9-13. The pre-
diction of the prophet Ahijah announces 1. the
division of the kingdom as a consequence of the
going astray to the worship of strange gods (vers.
31-33); 2. the preservation of the kingdom of Ju-
dah on account of the promise given to David
(vers. 34, 36, 39) ; 3. the choice made of Jeroboam,
on condition of inflexible fidelity to Jehovah and
to his law (vers. 37, 38). Ver. 31. All the world
must confess, upon beholding the abasement of the
house of David and the elevation of Jeroboam, that
the Most High has power over the kingdoms
of men, and bestows them upon whom he will
(Dan. iv. 29; 1 Sam. ii. 7, 8; Luke i. 52). Ver.
36. Even in the midst of his just anger the Lord
is merciful, and the inconstancy of man can never
shake His fidelity. The fulfilment of 2 Sam. vii.
14, 15, is seen in Solomon's history. The house
of David remained a light " forever," until that
Son of David came who is the light of the world,
which lighteth all men who come into the world
(Joh. i. 9; Rom. xv. 12).
Vers. 40-43. These three truths are nowhere
more powerfully exemplified than in the life ot
Solomon: "What availeth it a man, Ac, (Matt
xvi. 26); Vanity of vanities, &c. (Eccl. i. 2\
and The world passeth away, &c. (1 John ii.
17; cf. 1 Peter i. 24). Ver. 40. Roos : Sin ob-
scures the soul. He who turns aside from God
departs from wisdom ; and let those who, instead
of bowing and submitting with resignation to the
chastisements of God, haughtily strive against
them, contemplate the fate of Jeroboam, who,
doubtless, stirred up the plot against Solomon,
since he afterwards eagerly abetted the desertion
of the ten Tribes. Even as Solomon, when he
sought to slay Jeroboam, must have felt that in
vain he resisted the divine decrees, and was
powerless to hinder them, so likewise Jeroboam,
compelled to fly to Egypt, must have become con-
scious that in vain he strove rashly and insolent-
ly to anticipate the execution of the divine decrees
We must even make bitter expiation when we
haughtily resist and oppose the Lord, or when we
strive to hasten his designs, or to appoint time and
place for their fulfilment. The life of Solomon
closes with the words : Therefore Solomon sought
to kill Jeroboam. Instead of seeking forgiveness
from Him who forgiveth much, and himself grant-
ing forgiveness, he is thinking of murder and ven-
geance. How great and noble the contrast be-
tween this and the Figure of Him who in the face
of death upon the cross cried: Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Let us
strive to become like unto his image, and that our
last thought in life may be of love and reconcilia-
tion, and not of revenge and hatred. Solomon
possessed the fairest and noblest crown that mor-
tal can wear, yet it was perishable, not enduring
beyond death and the grave. The Lord promises
an immortal crown to those who love and follow
Him. Be faithful unto death, then He will give
thee the crown of life; blessed is he who undu-
reth unto the end.
142 THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
SECOND PERIOD. (975 TO 722 B. C.)
THE DIVIDED MONARCHY IN JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
(1 Kings XH— 2 Kings XVH.)
FIRST EPOCH.
FROM THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM UNTIL THE REIGN OF AHAb,
(1 Kings XIL-XVI. 34.)
FIRST SECTION.
THE DIVISION OP THE KINGDOM.
(1 Kings XH.)
A. — The renunciation of the house of David oy the ten tribe*.
Chap. XH. 1-24 (2 Chron. X.-XI. 4.)
1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem : for all Israel were come to Shechem to
2 make him king. And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
who was yet in Egypt, heard of it,' (for he was fled from the presence of king
3 Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt ;3) that they sent and called him.
And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Reho-
4 boam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous : now therefore make thou
the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us;
5 lighter, and we will serve thee. And he said unto them, Depart yet for three
days, then come again to me. And the people departed.
6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men that stood before Solomon
his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer
1 this people ? And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto
this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good
8 words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. But he forsook the
counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the
9 younsc men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him: and
he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who
have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us
CHAPTER XII. 1-24. 14--
10 lighter? And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him,
saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy
father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us ; thus shalt thou
11 say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. And
now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your
yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with
scorpions.5
12 So Jeroboam4 and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the
13 king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. And the king
answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave
14 him ; and spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father
made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised
15 you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king
hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the Lord [Jehovah], that he
might perform his saying, which the Lord [Jehovah] spake by Ahijah the Shilon-
16 ite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. So when all Israel saw that the king heark-
ened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have
we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your6 tents,
O Israel : now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their
17 tents. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah,
18 Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram,* who was
over the tribute ; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he, died. There-
fore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jeru-
19 salem. So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.
20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again,
that theyT sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all
Israel : there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah'
21 only. And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house
of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and fourscore* thousand chosen
men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring theking-
22 dom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God" came
23 unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solo-
mon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to
24 the remnant of the people, saying, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], Ye shall not
go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel : return every
man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to
the word of the Lord [Jehovah], and returned to depart, according to the word
of the Lord [Jehovah].10
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 2.— [It is better to omit the italicized words of it, which are not in the Heb. and which must refer to the Ao
oembly at Shechem, whereas what Jeroboam heard of was the death of Solomon, as is expressed in the Vulg. See the
Exeg. Com. The Vat. Sept. omits here the whole of ver. 2 and the greater part of ver. 8, having given the substance ol
them (with some addition) at xi. 43. The Alex. Sept. follows the Heb. Our author, in his translation, has omitted the
part of ver. 2 enclosed in brackets, evidently bv an inadvertence.
' Ver. 2.— Instead of Q'-|VD3 2Z"\ must ^e re"d' witn " '"D1'"n- x- 2> D'lVGO 2G'5l See tne comment. [The text
may be preserved without chance (for which the Vulg. is the only authority) by considering the statement that Jero-
boam dwelt in Egypt as merely the completion of the statement of his flight : he had fled to Egypt and remained there.
The change was proposed by Dathe, but is rejected by Maurer and by Keil.
• Ver. 11.— Q'3"| pj>, scorpions, flagelli genua globulU plumbets cum aculeis incurvis munitum, a scorpit slmilitudtnt
dictum (Gesen. The*. 11, 1062).
4 Ver. 12. — [The Sept. omits here the significant mention of Jeroboam.
' Ver. 16.— [The Heb., Sept., Chald. and Syr. have the pronoun in the singular, thy tents. In the next clanBe the
8ept. translates vvv 0o<r*ce t'ov oIkoi- gov, Aavtfi.l
• Ver. IS. — [The Sept., Syr., and Arab, read Adoniram.
7 Ver. 20. — [The Sept. here inserts "and Benjamin."
a Ver. 21.— [The Vat. (not Alex.) Sept. reduces this number to 120,000. .
• Ver. 22.— [Many MSS. followed by the Sept., Vulg., Chald., and Syr. read here f^-(> instead of Q\-pN .]
10 Ver. 24. — [The Vat. (not Alex.) Sept. here inserts a passage quite equal in length to the whole chapter, containing
many particula-s whose utterly nnhistorical character may be seen from the opening statement that Rehoboam was sir
teen years old at his accession and reigned twelve years. Cf. chap. xiv. 21. — F. G.]
144
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And Rehoboam went to Shechem.
The city of Shechem was about eighteen hours'
distance north of Jerusalem, and lay at the foot of
Mount Gerizim, in the mountain range of Ephraim
(Judg. ix. 7). It is often mentioned in the his-
tory of the Patriarchs (Gen. xii. 6; xxxiii. 18;
xxxiv. 1; xxxvii. 12), and Joshua "had intended
it to be a free Levite city. He likewise gathered
all the tribes together there, and held that impor-
tant diet in which all the people pledged them-
selves to the observance of Jehovah's covenant
(Josh. xx. 7 ; xxiv. 1, 25). In the time of the
Judges, Abimelech made Shechem the capital of
his kingdom (Judg. ix.) ; he destroyed it, indeed,
but it was soon rebuilt, and continued to be one
of the chief cities of the northern part Chap,
xii. 1 gives us the reason why Rehoboam left Je-
rusalem, where he had been made king, and went
to Shechem ; for all Israel were come to Shechem.
By ^XTJ" ^3 we are not to understand all the
twelve tribes (Ewald), but only ten, as vers. 12,
18, and 20 clearly show; under David even
those tribes had claimed the name of the entire
people (2 Sam. ii. 9, 10, 17, 28). K3 is not
the imperfect but the pluperfect, for the ten tribes
did not go to Shechem because the king was there
but just the reverse : because (^3) they had gone
to Shechem, the king went thither. He therefore
did not call them together there, but they, i. e.,
their elders, judges, and representatives, had as-
sembled in this old Ephraimitic capital, as they
had once doue in Joshua's time (Josh. xxiv. 1 ; cf. 2
Sam. v. 1, 3), and this induced the king to jour-
ney to Shechem. Their design in meeting was
to make him king, i. e., to recognize him as king, as
Judah had done, though he had already ascended
the throne ; to pay him homage, on the condition,
however, that he would agree to their wishes and
demands. This was why they did not assemble
in Jerusalem, as they were in reality bound to do,
and as they had done to David when they went
to Hebron, the place of David's residence, to do
him homage (2 Sam. v. 1 sq.), but in Shechem.
It was a " a significant hint, if Rehoboam had
properly understood it " (Ewald). It is very im-
probable that they summoned him to their assem-
bly, as they did Jeroboam ; he seems to have gone
unsummoned with his whole retinue (vers. 6. 8).
That the 10 tribes had assembled " to assert
their ancient right of choice " (Gramberg) is an en-
tire mistake. For there is no mention anywhere
of such a right ; and the text does not say they
went to Shechem to choose a king, but to make
him — Rehoboam — king, i. e., to confirm him as
such.
Vers. 2-3. And it came to pass, when Jer-
oboam . . . heard of it, &c. Ver. 2. If we retain
the reading D,_IV:'p3 DP^T1 2-"'l we must, like
Maurer, take ver. 2 to be properly the antecedent
sentence, and begin the conclusion with 1S3,S1 , ver.
3, and translate like De Wetto: "When Jfoboam
heard of it (he was still in Egypt, whither he had
Med from Solomon the king, and Jeroboam dwelt in
Egypt, and they sent and called him), then Jerobo
am and the whole assembly rami', and they spake
to Rehoboam." \part from the crude form of this
sentence, the words following "he was still in
Plgypt," namely, " and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt,"
appear to be quite superfluous ; we must in this case
supply, after he had returned from Egypt, before
" then Jeroboam came ; " and, finally, it would fol-
low that the people assembled at Shechem sent
messengers thence to Egypt to bring back Jero-
boam, which is not to be supposed, because the
journey there and back required several weeks,
and " all Israel " would have been compelled to
wait during this time, without accomplishing any-
thing, in Shechem, for Jeroboam's arrival. But all
these difficulties fall away if we read, like 2 Chron.
x. 2, D'lVQD DJ,'3T 3t:''l , i- e., and Jeroboam re-
turned from Egypt. According to this, the case
was simply so : On the news of Solomon's death
Jeroboam returned from Egypt to his tribe-land
Ephraim, and, we are to imply, to his native place
Zereda (chap. xi. 26), or, as the Sept. says, Sarira,
which could not have been very far distant from
Shechem. They sent thither for him ; he came,
and took the lead in the negotiations which those
assembled at Shechem made with Rehoboam. The
Vulgate also translates ver. 2: At vero Jeroboam,
cum adhuc esset in JEgypto profugics a facie regii So-
lomonis, audita morte ejus reversus est de jEgypto.
Miseruntque et vocaverunt eum ; venit ergo Jeroboam
et, etc. The [Vatican] Sept., which places this verse
in chap. xi. 43, translates : KarevOiivet ml ipxs-ai
Etc r-qv ttuXcv avrov etc Tip yqv Eapipa rijv ev bpei
'Etppai/i. It is easy to see what thoughts those
who composed this Assembly were revolving
when, before Rehoboam's arrival, they called the
man who had lifted up his hand against Solomon,
and was just returned from Egypt, and made him
their leader and speech-maker to Rehoboam. Re-
hoboam having come to them, instead of they to
him at Jerusalem, only made them bolder. From
the long sentence which the Sept. places after ver.
24 we can glean nothing certain regarding Jeroboam
and his conduct after he returned from Egypt;
everything is mixed together and the different per-
sonages confused ; for instance, Jeroboam is con-
founded with Hadad the Edomite, and the prophet
Ahijah with the prophet Semaiah; Jeroboam's mo-
ther is called yvvi/ n&pvq, &c. Keil is right in de-
nying all historical value to this sentence, out of
which Thenius strives to complete the story.
Vers. 4-5. Thy father made our yoke griev-
ous, &c. Ver. 4. The word ~>y does not mean
every kind of heavy load, but the yoke laid on the
neck of beasts designed for labor (Numb. xix. 2 ;
Deut. xxi. 3 ; 1 Sam. vi. 7) ; it is the yoke of labor,
and, as such, the symbol of servile work (Deut
xxviii. 48; Lev. xxvi. 13; Jer. xxvii. 8, 11); it is,
for this reason, parallel with m'njj here. The
grievance, therefore, is nothing — it is well to no-
tice this — but the levy-work for Solomon's public
buildings, and we see this plainly enough by vers.
1 1 and 14, where Rehoboam's answer is recorded.
That the complaint was well founded, that Solo-
mon had really exacted too heavy servile work
from his people, as the Egyptian king once did in
Moses' time (Ex. xi. 1, 23), is generally taken for
granted, although the complaint comes from the
mouths of a number of people who were excited
with thoughts of secession, and who were jealous
of Judah. At their head stood a man, too, who
had already tried to raise an insurrection, aud had
CHAPTER XII. 1-24.
145
not renounced his ambitious plans In exile. Com-
plaint from the mouths of such cannot be taken as
testimony, nor can it ever weigh under such cir-
cumstances, except joined to other and purely his-
torical evidence. We have none such, however.
Solomon was not the first to adopt the measure of
a conscription for working at the public buildings
as well as for war-service. This was customary
throughout the ancient East. Everywhere, from
Egypt to Babylon, the immense buildings were
raised, not by paid workmen, but by conscriptions.
There were, for instance, the 360,000 men who
worked twenty years atone pyramid (see above on
chap. v. 13). Even David had, among his five
chief officers, one who was specially " over the
tribute " (2 Sam. xx. 21). which was then a stand-
ing regulation. We find the tribute brought into
system in Solomon's time, and the people were, as
contrasted with conquered foreigners, treated with
gentle consideration (chaps, v. 13 sq. ; ix. 20
sq.). Nowhere is the voice of complaint heard
about it, and our author is far from representing
Solomon's conduct as hard and blameworthy, but
rather relates it to his praise. As the tribute-work
was distributed by turns amongst "all Israel,"
Ephraim or the ten trices received no more pro-
portionately than the two remaining tribes, and
there is not the most indirect allusion anywhere
that Solomon exacted more from the Ephraimites
than from the others. For this reason, the com-
plaint of the ''yoke" being "grievous," which
they alone make, seems to be only a welcome ex-
cuse suggested to them by their former superin-
tendent Jeroboam. The real motive came to light
later (ver. 16). If we cannot admit the complaint
of too hard tribute-work to be well founded, still
less have we any right to add other things to the
complaint of which it makes no mention. The
grievous yoke and heavy service are not generally
taken to mean, as the plain expressions do, the tri-
bute-work alone, but all burdens laid on the
people, i. e., the taxes and produce which they had
to pay and deliver ; not their powers of labor
alone, but their "capacity of paying taxes," are
thought to have been too much tested by Solo-
mon (De Wette, Ewald, Eisenlohr). "Discon-
tent grew with the oppression of the people by
ever new burdens and tributes, that were quite
contrary to the original freedom of the communi-
ty " (Diestel) ; the monarchy had become " a despo-
tism, a sultanate " (Duncker), and the speakers for
the people had therefore laid before Rehoboaiu
'' the terms of capitulation, which were to lighten
the universal oppression under which Israel had
sighed since Solomon's reign began " (Winer,
S.- W.-B. JX s. 3 1 1). This view, almost universal-
ly current, stands in direct contradiction with the
historical evidence. As to the taxes and deliv-
eries, they are not once mentioned in the com-
plaint, as we have already said ; neither is the
poverty or other misery resulting from them once
named anywhere. It is difficult to conceive how
any one can appeal to such places as chap, x 25
(De Wette), for there is no mention there of what
the people brought, but of the presents which
strangers brought the king. Ewald himself admits
that there is no evidence that there was an income
tax, and it by no means appears, as Winer sup-
poses, from chap. x. 15, that "custom duties " had
been introduced. There is still less historical
proof of the universal oppression of the people un-
der Solomon. All that our author relates, from
chap. ii. to x., is to show the unwonted prosperity
and splendor of Solomon's kingdom ; its immense
wealth, its peaceful condition, and its thriving com-
merce are described in the strongest terms, and
just by those passages which have been quoted to
prove the heaviness of the taxation and the sup-
posed oppression, is it specially manifest how happy
and peaceful the people were under Solomon's reign
(chap. iv. 20; iv. 25; cf. viii. 66), so that the pro-
phets took the kingdom of Solomon as a type of the
-Messiah's (see above). Evi : after chap, xi., in
which Solomon's fall is recorded, there is nothing to
show that Israel " sighed " under universal oppres-
sion ; and when the people as well as king became
degenerate in the latter part of his reign, it was
rather in consequence of too great prosperity and
luxury than of great burdens and poverty. Final-
ly, Solomon is threatened, in both addresses of the
prophet Ahijah (chap. xi. 11 and 31 sq.), with the
partition of his kingdom, not because he had op-
pressed the people with servile labor and heavy
taxations, but solely because he had suffered his
strange wives to persuade him to introduce idola-
trous forms of worship. It would have been a just
and well-founded complaint had they alleged that
Solomon had broken the supreme command in the
fundamental law of Israel by the toleration of
idol-worship, and had thus undermined the strength
of the kingdom. But the complainants are wholly
silent on this, and the sequel shows how little they
or their speaker Jeroboam cared for the observ-
ance of that fundamental law.
Vers. 6-14. Rehoboam consulted, &c. Ver.
6. The D'Jpf are not old people, but the elders
(senators) who constituted the administration-col-
lege of Solomon [or council] (chap. iv. 2-6). Reho-
boam had retained them as such, but had not, as
Thenius thinks, " placed them on the retired list,"
for in that case he would uothave taken them with
him to Shechem, and he certainly would not have
heard their counsel before that of the young men.
The expression, that stood before Solomon, shows
that they were in immediate attendance on the
king. In their advice, vers. 7, Qi»n stands next to
DV^'n'^S , and ~i2]l at the beginning, over against
D'-QV at the conclusion; and as 1357 is strengthen-
ed by the immediately following DrH3yi , we have
no right to weaken it, and to take it in another
sense from □'"iQy that stands opposite to it at the
conclusion ; this is generally done, and 1211 is
translated "complaisant," but D'lQV , on the con-
trary, is translated " subject." The elders not only
advised the king to compromise, but that he should
"stive" the people at least "this day," and as-
sured him that the people would then be bis
"servants" "for ever;" they proposed that he
should for the present moment reverse the exist-
ing relation : the king was to be " servant " and
yield to the will of the people, in the expectation
that the people would afterwards be his " ser-
vants." We can easily imagine that such a pro-
posal (which would not perhaps have succeeded)
was not very agreeable to the rash and imperious
young king, in whose veins Ammonite blood flowed
(chap. xiv. 21). The word "\y , ver. 8, is used for
146
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
a child at amy age from its birth (Ex. ii. 3, 6, 7) to
youth ; D,_6' are not, therefore, real counsellors,
like the ffOpTi but young people who were in at-
tendance upon the king (" stood before him"). The
words, that were grown up with him, show that
Rehoboam was himself still 1^ (cf. 2 Chron. xiii.
7). The proverbial expression ver. 10. my little
finger, &c, means, I am much mightier than Solo-
mon ; his power was as the little finger to the body,
compared with mine; if my father had power to
compel you, I have still more. From this general
way of speaking they proceed in ver. 11 to allude
to the particular grievance of the forced labor.
The yoke and whips belong together, and are the
signs of laboring servants (Ecelesiasticus xxx.
26 or xxxiii. 27). The king was to use instead of the
whips for servants the thorn-whip used for crimi-
mals alone, and which was called scorpio by the
Romans (Isiilor. Origg. v. 27, 18: Virga. si est
aculeata, scorpio vocatur, quia arcuato vulnere in
corpus infigitur). The meaning is, my father used
ordinary means to keep you at work, but I will do
it with extraordinary aud severer means. The
answer says as little of taxes as the complaint itself ;
it only refers to the enforced work, and it does not
even admit that Solomon exacted too much, but it
is only now proposed to do so. The pleasure with
which Rehoboam accepted this advice is very in-
dicative of his disposition.
Vers. 15-17. The cause was from the Lord.
Ver. 15. Inasmuch as the inconceivably foolish and
perverse resolve of Rehoboam carried with it the ir-
remediable division of the people and kingdom, the
verse asserts it to be a course of things (H3D from
212\ from Jehovah; not that Rehoboam was forced
unwillingly to speak so, but in the same sense in
which it is said of Pharaoh (Ex. xiv. 4; Rom. ix. 17)
and of Judas (Matt. xxvi. 25). Witsius (Deeaphyl.
i. 3) says : Ipso. Rehabeami stolida imprudentia consi-
lio Dei inservivit, ut quodoxcidit etiam rnerito acciditse
utdetur. We find here an application of the proverb :
Quern Deus vult perdere, prius dementai. Every case
of a hardened heart is a righteous judgment of God.
Vers. 16-17. What portion have we, &c.
Ver. 16. This was the old Ephraimite watchword
of rebellion, of which Sheba availed himself
agaiust the house of David (2 Sam. xx. 1). The
first member of the sentence means this, What con-
cern have we about David and his house, when the
question is who shall be king over us? We have
no fellowship with each other (Deut. x. 9). Neither
have we inheritance in the son of Jesse is not equal to
we can hope for and expect nothing from him ;
but, we do not belong to him, as Judah, by race-
derivation. In the "son of Jesse" there is an
allusion to David's humbler descent, just as in the
New Testament to ifte "carpenter's son " (Matt,
xiii 55). To your tents. 0 Israel! is a proverbial
call which originated in the time of the march
through the wilderness, where the camp was
arrauged according to the tribes. Let every one
return to his tribe and his home, without acknowl-
edging Rehoboam. Now see to thine own house, i.e.,
see how you can reign over your own tribe in the
future; you have no right to us any more. In this
whole cry " the deeply rooted dislike to David's
royal house is strongly expressed, and we can
perceive a more potent cause for the partition than
the alleged oppression of Solomon " (Keil). V< ".
17 means that only those individuals belonging to
the ten tribes remained under Rehoboam who
were settled in Judah or had gone to settle there
(2 Chron. xi. 3). The verse does not mean, then:
"the tribe of Judah chose Rehoboam, who waa
one of them, to be king " (Ewald) ; for Judah had
already acknowledged him such before he went to
Shechem.
Vers. 18-19. Adoram, who was over the
tribute, &e. Ver. 18. No doubt the same who i?
called Adoniram in the list of Solomon's chief of-
ficers (chap iv. 6), as also the Sept., Syr., and Arab,
call him in this passage. Thenius thinks he was
the son of Adoram, the chief of the tribute officers,
who is mentioned in the lists of David's officials
(2 Sam. xx. 24). If he was identical with this
person he must certainly have been about eighty
years of age, since David could not have given the
office in question to quite a young man, and
Solomon reigned forty years. It is evident that
Rehoboam sent him to treat with the rebels, and
to appease them, as Josephus expressly says. Ai
the question was about lightening the tribute
work, the chief officer over the tribute seems to
have been selected by Rehoboam as the fittest
person to mediate; probably Adoram was one of
the "elders" who gave the advice to \*ield. But
the people were highly incensed at the sight ot
this officer, and instead of listening to him, in
their rage they stoned him. Bertheau has no
grounds for his supposition that he came with :in
armed force (however small) to force the rebels
to submission. For: unto this day, see on chap.
viii. 8 ; ix. 21.
Vers. 20-21. And it came to pass when all
Israel heard, Ac. Ver. 20 closes the narrative,
vers. 1-19, and is also the connecting link with
the following vers. 21-24. The independence of
the ten tribes had been achieved by their represen-
tatives in Shechem, who now returned to their
different tribe-territories (end of ver. 16), and an-
nounced to "all Israel" what had happened, es-
pecially also the part that Jeroboam, just arrived
from Egypt, had acted there. The latter, no doubt,
also returned to his native place after the event.
But when a king was to be chosen for the rebels
he was called back and made king. This exasper-
ated Rehoboam to make war on Israel. We can-
not be surprised at the number he brought into
the field, as the tribe of Judah alone had 500,000
men of war in the 'ensus that David took
(2 Sam. xxiv. 9).
Vers. 22-24. But the word of the Lord came,
&c. Ver. 22. The prophet Shemaiah did not belong
to the tribe of Ephraim, like Ahijah (chap. xi. 29),
but doubtless to Judah, and from the present pas-
sage as well as from 2 Chron. xii. 5, it seems that
he must have lived in Jerusalem. As here, so also
he had great influence through his preaching,
when king Shishak came from Egypt to war against
Rehoboam ; he also wrote a history of Rehoboam
(2 Chron. xii. 5-8, 15). The thing is from me, ver.
24. This prophet of Judah, as well as the Ephra-
imite prophet, declares the separation of the
ten tribes to be a divine dispensation, which,
humiliating and painful as it was to the house o[
David and Judah, might not be opposed by force
of arms; for the separated tiibes were still
" brethren." Thus he recognizes a higher bond oi
union in spite of al1 separation, and wishes that
CHAPTER XII. 1-24.
U1
nnion held intact. The king and army follow his
Bdvice ; they probably saw that a war with the
numerically greater and just now bitterly excited
ten tribes would bring them into a worse condition
Btill.
HISTORICAL AXD ETHICAL.
1. The rebellion of the ten tribes against David's
house, and tlie consequent partition of thekingdom, was
the most important and pregnant event in the his-
tory of Israel since it became an independent
State. The divisions that took place in the time of
the judges were only temporary, but this lasted
for hundreds of years, and only terminated with
the fall of both the separated kingdoms. An event
that formed such an epoch, and had such a marked
influence on sacred history, cannot possibly be
traced to one fact alone, or to the defiant and
thoughtless answer of Rehoboam ; it must have
been produced by deeper and more general causes,
lying in the character of the people and in the
mutual relation of the tribes. The tribe of Judah
and the double one of Joseph (Ephraim and Ma-
nasseh, Josh. xvii. 17), whose progenitors were
especially favored in the blessing (Gen. xlix. 8-12,
22-25i, were from the beginning the most numer-
ous, and therefore the most powerfut,~of all the
twelve tribes. Judah numbered seventy-six thou-
sand and five hundred before the entrance into
Canaan ; the double tribe of Joseph numbered
eight.y-five thousand and two hundred men (Numb.
xxvi. 22, 23, 34, 37); this tribe claimed the largest
territory at the division of the land (Josh. xvii. 14
sq. ; 1 Chron. v. 1) on account of its number,
and because it had inherited Reuben's birth-right.
Bui the " sceptre " was promised to Judah, and
the leaders in the march through the desert as
well as in the conquest of Canaan headed that
tribe (1 Chron. v. 2 ; Numb. ii. 3 ; x. 14 ; Judg. i. 2 ;
xx. 18); both tribes were warlike (Jud. i. 4,
10 ; viii. 1 sq. ; xii. 1 .5}. ; Ps. lxxviii. 9). In con-
sequence of these relations, each tribe regarded
itself as equal in powers with the other tribes, but
also as evenly matched with each other. But
added to this there was a difference in the charac-
ter and pursuits of the tribes ; whilst Judah was
the leader and head of the theocracy and the cove-
nant, therefore of higher religious life (Gen. xlix.
10; Ps. lx. 9; lxxviii. 67 sq. ; cxiv. 1, 2), Ephraim
represented the nature-side of the people's life;
and the consciousness of natural, material strength
and earthly abundance appears with it in the
foreground (Gen. xlix. 22 sq. ; Deut. xxxiii. 13;
Ps. lxxviii. 9 sq.). There was, therefore, in the
latter more receptivity for nature-religion, and a
tendency to independence of any other tribe, and
especially of one not entirely its equal. There was,
then, the germ of a dualism very early in the
nation, and this germ grew more and more in the
distracted times of the Judges, asserting itself
sometimes with more, sometimes with less energy.
After Saul's death the two chief tribes formally
separated under different kings (2 Sam. ii. 4-11);
ehis, however, only lasted seven years and a half,
after which the revolted tribes went over to the
king of Jul1 -h, i. e., David (2 Sam. v. 1 sq.).
But the more, the power and authority of Judah
increased under D -id and Solomon, so much the
more did the old ealousy and love of independ-
mce grow in Ephraim : the tribute-labors, and
especially the structures which served to strength-
en the dominant authority of Judah which Solomoi.
had achieved by Ephraimites, were calculated
especially to increase those feelings. Jeroboam's
attempt to raise an insurrection miscarried, but
the desire for independence was not extinguished
thereby. It broke out again the more violently after
Solomon's death, as there was hope of getting rid
of Rebohoam more easily, who did not in the least
resemble his father. The great event of the par-
tition of the kingdom had its roots in a primitive
characteristic of the tribe, which characteristic had
existed over four hundred years, and now broke
out at last with violence, creating a double State.
Rehoboam's answer was only the spark which fell
into the powder magazine. Th* recent historical
criticism admits the agency of the Ephraimite cha-
racter in the revolt, but finds the especial and
chief cause in the essential nature of the kingdom.
Ewald is of this opinion (Gesch. des V. Isr. III. s.
393 sq.). The monarchy had, in its very nature,
a tendency to extend its power further and fur-
ther, and to restrict every other power in the
nation more and more, or else to absorb it. It
reached a very high stage in Solomon's time, but it
was ever growing, and it made more and more
severe exactions upon the people in labor and tax-
ation. A further strengthening and one-sided
growth of the monarchy was held by the best men
in Israel to be ruinous and dangerous to the ancient
freedom of the people. There might have been,
indeed, a way of reconciling the claims of the
monarchy and of the nation without a revolution
i. e., " having what is now called a constitutiot
drawn up, which, when well devised, is the safe
guard of the best modern Christian nations." Bui
there was no such remedy at hand ; the heads ot
the tribes only assembled when a new king was
to be declared. All the best of the people, and
particularly the prophets, had agreed that the
government could not continue as it was at the
close of Solomon's life. As the prophets had
founded the kingdom, and advanced it so much by
the elevation of David's house over that of Saul,
they now expected furtherance by another change
of dynasty; impressed by their counsel, it was
forthwith achieved in consequence of the voice of
the people and the folly of Rehoboam, Ac, &C.
This whole mode of explanation, already adopted
here and there, rests on the utterly unproved sup-
position that Solomon's government constantly
grew more absolute and despotic, till, at last, it
seriously threatened the liberty of the people. We
have not the slightest historical proof of this.
Where is it said that Soloman oppressed his peo-
ple, in. every way, by taxation and tribute-labor?
Where is it said that the prophets believed the
liberties of the people to be threatened, and that
they announced this publicly? How happens it
that Solomon, who advanced his realm to a degree
of prosperity it never before and never again
enjoyed, is made to be a despot and oppressor?
Just when the text has been treating exclusively
of the tribute to the splendid court, it says : " Judah
and Israel were many, as the sana which is by the
sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making
merry," &c. ; " Judah dwelt safely, every man
under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan to
Beer-Sheba. all the days of Solomon'' (chap. iv. 20
25). That he demanded too much of this tribute
labor, which was customarv among all ancient
L4S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
nations, and had been exacted before his time,
there is no other evidence than the complaint of
the angry revolutionary assembly of Ephraimites
at Shechem, and this cannot be regarded as im-
partial and historical testimony. So little did Solo-
mon interfere with the liberty of his people, that
there was an unprecedented commerce with all
the neighboring nations in his reign ; he even
allowed freedom of worship — allowed too much
rather than too little liberty. This and not
despotism was what the prophets apprehended
danger from. There is not in the whole history of
Solomon a single act that can be called despotic
or tyrannical, like those of later kings, for instance,
Ahab or Jehu ; and yet the former is said to have
ruled with such intolerable severity that the pro-
phets and the best among the people were com-
pelled to think of a change of government. Of all
kingdoms, that of Israel should be the last to be
judged from a modern political point of view.
The theocratic constitution was not revoked when
the human monarchy began: Jehovah continued
to be the true king of Israel, and the human king
was the ''servant of Jehovah;'' as such he had to
do Jehovah's will, not his own. There was, there-
fore, no such thing as absolutism, which we are
told clung to this monarchy by virtue of its nature.
But we cannot comprehend how any should think
that the best remedy against the supposed despot-
ism of Solomon would have been a representstive
government, after the pattern of the constitutions
of our nineteenth century.
2. The revolt of the ten tribes from the house of
David (ver. 19) is often represented as justifiable.
J. D. Miehuelis (Mos. Redd I. § 55) saw nothing
more in it than a new capitulation of a people still
free ; De Wette (BeitriXge I. s. 129) went further, and
asserted that. ■• according to 1 Kings x i i . , these
tribes were fully justified in what they did; they
demanded lair concessions, and there is only Reho-
boam's folly to be blamed." Duncker says (Gesch.
lies AIL s. 402), "the Israelites remembered their
right to choose and anoint the king." But we find
nothing said anywhere of such a national right:
the law for kings (Deut. xvii. 14 sq.) says noth-
ing of it; it recognizes no conditions of election;
and the history mentions no king except Jeroboam
(ver. 20), either in Judah or Israel, who was elected
by the free choice of the people. The monarchy
was hereditary in Judah, and continued in David's
house till the dissolution of the kingdom ; in Israel,
also, the son succeeded the father, or usurpers
arose who gained the throne by force ; but the peo-
ple never once chose the king. In the present
instance, Ephraim with its confederates had no
right, certainly, to reject a king who was such by
birth, and to choose another by themselves alone,
without Judah. Ephraim had solemnly acknowl-
edged the brotherhood of all the twelve tribes,
End had willingly submitted to David (2 Sam. v. 1
sq.) ; and all the tribes had acknowledged Solo-
mon to be, in right of being David's son, the true
king of " Judah and Israel" (chap. iv. 20; v. 5). At
the great festival of the dedication they had all
gathered around Sol unon, who aunounced to them
the divine promise that David's house should never
want a man t.. sit upon the throne of David (chap,
viii. 1, 21. 25); they united together in a solemn
bond. I')' ;i common thanksgiving sacrifice to
Jehovah at tin- temple, which was the central
point as it were, of the kingdom, and this bond
joined them all together as well as with David's
house; as the king blessed them, so, also, they
blessed him (chap vi. 32-68). Solomon's son
was therefore the rightful heir of the throne for all
the tribes, and none had a right to revolt from him.
Even granted that Solomon had given his subjects
cause of complaint, by exacting too much tribute-
labor in the latter part of his reign, yet this did not
justify any one of the tribes in breaking the bond
of national union, and severing themselves frotc
the hereditary dynasty, especially, too, as Reho
boam had not as yet shown in acts what his gov
ernment would be. The revolt of the ten tribe*
was not brought about first by his foolish wilfu'
answer, but the latter " only offered them a wislied-
for opportunity to carry out their already purposed
revolt" (Keil). Hence they did not want to treat,
but gave free vent to their hatred, and murdered
the innocent ambassador of the king. The division
can therefore be regarded as nothing else than a
revolutionary act, which cannot by any means be
excused, much less justified. A right of resistance
lies only in eases where the chief ruler arbitrarily
violates the fundamental law upon which the ma-
terial and also the spiritual and moral existence of
a people rests. But the rebellion is then the act
of the government itself, and not of the subjects.
But single grievances, even if real, can never justify
revolt from lawful authority (especially when only
brought forward by a part of the nation) or form
sufficient ground for rebellion and deeds of vio-
lence {cf. Rothe, Tkeol. Ethik III. s. 977 sq.).
Solomon had certainly attacked and undermined
the fundamental law of Israel, by permitting and
favoring idolatry, but the ten tribes made no com-
plaint of this, but solely of the alleged excess of
tribute-labor, which Judah and Benjamin shared
with them, but which they did not bring forward
as a grievance.
3. That Rehoboam returned an ansiver to the peo-
ple, viith which the storm that had threatened the
house of David burst forth, is emphatically said
(ver. 15) to have been from the Lord; and the
prophecy of Ahijah (chap. xi. 11 and 31) was
thereby fulfilled. At the same time the prophet
Shemaiah warns them not to make war on the
seceders, saying, " this thing is from the Lord."
This does not justify the conduct of the ten
tribes any more than that of Rehoboam, but in-
timates indeed that the partition of the king-
dom determined on in the counsels of God hap-
pened in such a way as to make it evident that it
was the fault of Rehoboam. According to the word
of Ahijah the partition appeared to have a double
design: to "alllict the seed of David, but not for-
ever " (chap. xi. 39), to be as such a chastisement
(2 Sam. vii. 14) ; and also to afford to the inborn
instinct of Ephraim for independence the opportu-
nity of free development, yet on the indispensable
condition of unchanging fidelity to the fundamental
law that David had held ; the e cpress restriction
was added, that David's seed was not to be afflicted
forever. We already remarked above (Hist, and
Ethic. 5, on chap. xi. 14-43) that such a temporary
division of the kingdom was not inconsistent with
the higher unity of the divine monarchy. But as
neither of the kingdoms adhered to that higher
unity, Ephraim forsaking the law continually from
the beginning, and Judah only sometimes faithful
tin- division became, through the guilt of botb
kingdoms, the germ of their destruction (Matt, xii
CHAPTER XII. 1-24.
14b
26). Because the higher unity was forsaken, the
history of the divided kingdom is nothing but a
Blow process of dissolution of the human monarchy
in Israel, and with it of the outward, earthly king-
dom, limited by natural race and to a given land.
That unity was designed, iu the divine counsels,
to be an eternal heavenly kingdom, an inward
singdom of God, to embrace all nations, a fjaaifaia
ruu ovpavur in which " Ephraim shall not envy
Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim " (Isai xi.
13); in which " they shall be no more two nations,
neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms
any more at all," but shall be ''one nation," and
" one king shall be king to them all " (Ezek. xxxvii.
15-22). The fact that the partition of the kingdom,
this beginning of its end, immediately followed its
culmination of earthly dominion under David and
Solomon, shows how frail and perishable it was;
the more it approached its dissolution, the more
ardent became the longing for an enduring and
eternal kingdom, the more definite and significant
prophecy became. Well may Witsius exclaim,
referring to the above-mentioned sentence in ver.
15: 0 sapientia et occulli miranda potential fall I
quae res omnes ita dirigit et flectit, ut tamen ipsi illuc
ivisse rideamur, et consiliis fatisque nostris gradum
nobis struamus ad fatalem ilium lapsum siee adscen-
sum. The apostle's exclamation about the ways
and judgments of God, though universally applica-
ble, is so especially here (Rom. xi. 33).
4. In the conduct of the various important per-
sonages concerned in bringing about the partition
of the kingdom, all the sins and weaknesses ap-
pear which lie at the bottom of all such events;
so that we behold, in this history, a reflection of
every revolution in its nature and course, and it
may serve as a picture of future ones in every age
(cf. especially the striking treatise of Vihnar, Die
Tlieilung des Davidsreiclis. Pastoral-theol. Blatter.
1861, ■■>-. 177 bis 193), which we cited above on
chap. xi. 4. A complete lack of religious feeling
and manner is first observable in these two oppo-
site parties ; both move upon a purely outward,
secular, and political-worldly soil, though in Israel
the national and religious consciousness coincide
principally. The"', had been hitherto no assembly
of the whole people or of their representatives, for
weighty affairs, in which the religious element had
failed. When Joshua called the elders together in
Shechem, before his end, ''they presented them-
selves before God " (Josh. xxiv. 1 sq.). When Sam-
uel did the same at Mizpeh, he said to them, " pre-
sent yourselves before the Lord" (1 Sam. x. 19).
When all the tribes came to David in Hebron, after
Ish-bosheth's death, and acknowledged him as
king over all Israel, they call to mind Jehovah's
word, and David "made a league with them before
the Lord" (2 Sam. v. 1-3). When Solomon as-
sembled all the heads of the tribes and the elders
at the dedication, the ceremony not only began
with divine worship, but ended by the " king and
all Israel with him offering sacrifice before the
Lord " (chap. viii. 1, 5, 62). In the present instance,
however, nothing was done "before the Lord,"
but everything was done without Him. Xo one,
neither one of the tribe-heads nor Jeroboam nor
Rehoboam Dor his counsellors and companions,
inquire after Him. No one names Him. That He
is their true sovereign before whom they must
all bow does not occur to them. They think only
which of the two parties should rule the other.
This conduct reveals a state of things which
always and everywhere precedes revolutions -
which are made ready inevitably when, in a natioL
and kingdom, high and low alike ask no longer foi
the holy and living God, and where infidelity and
indifference have entered. The breaking of relig •
ous ties brings with it, sooner or later, :*"".' S the
State also ; hence we generally find, in the . resent
day, that those who plan the overthrow of the
government, as a rule, seek also to undermine the
church foundations. — When we look particular!;
at the conduct of the people of the ten tribes we see
that they had all forgotten the great benefits and
blessing they had received through the house of
David, especially during the forty years of Solo-
mon's prosperous reign ; they forgot that each had
dwelt securely under his vine and fig-tree as long
as Solomon lived, that they had eaten and drunken
and been merry; they only thought of the dispute
about tribute-labor, hence ingratitude and discon-
tent. They agreed to go to Shechem instead of Je-
rusalem, and only to do homage under certain con-
ditions ; this was already mutiny and rebellion.
Hereupon they called a mau who had lifted his
hand against Solomon, and proved himself a foe of
David's house, to be their speaker and leader; with
him at their head, they went to the king in the
consciousness that they formed the majority of the
nation, and laid before him their complaint of ex-
cessive labor and want of freedom. When their
stormy petition was rejected, there arose wild and
scornful cries, and a regular rebellion liroke out;
they rushed in blind rage at the innocent mediator
for the king, and murder him. whereupon the king
has to flee in great haste; and they conclude by
making their leader and spokesman king. If, on
the other hand, we contemplate tlie conduct or lb"
government, we find everything here, too, that was
calculated to call forth rebellion and insurrection
instead of avoiding or appeasing it. First, utter
ignorance of the feeling among the people, and
therefore no sort of precaution for the threatened
danger; the king goes thoughtlessly to the dis-
contented people, thus falling into the snare set
for him. When surprised in Shechem with the
demand made, he is irresolute, asks time for reflec-
tion, and keeps the people in suspense, which must
only have increased their excitement. He then
consults his immediate attendants ; the elders ad-
vise him to descend from the throne, for the time
being, and to humor the people ; the young men
advise him to the opposite course. Thus there was
want of unity in the higher circles, and views
in direct antagonism one over against the other.
The high-sounding advice of the courtiers pleased
the weak and headstrong monarch best, and
he delivered an answer which supposes a power
which no longer existed, and shows equal folly,
arrogance, and contempt of the people. There-
upon the storm broke loose, and Rehoboam then
wished to make concessions, and to treat with
them. But instead of going himself courageous-
ly to face the excited throng, this arrogant and
imperious mau sent an old and faithful ser-
vant to be exposed to their rage. It was " toe
late; " Adoram was killed, and he himself had tc
flee in haste. When such perverted ways, faults,
and sins are found in the government, the way for
revolution is already formed, and when it has once
begun, soldiers are as useless as concessions ; what
is lost by a person's own fan" I is lost forever
150
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
5. The appearance of the prophet Shemoiah af-
ter the partition seems like the rising of the sun
after a dark, stormy night. Whilst sin and wick-
edness reign in both parties, and none of them
cares about the living God, "the man of God"
appears with undaunted courage ; armed only with
the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, he
confronts the blinded, wilful king and au army
of 180,000 men. He commands them in the name
of the Lord to lay down their arms, and to go
home; standing on the rock of his strength
(Ps. lxii. 8), he calls to the surging waves, Tims
far and no farther I and no one dares to offer op-
position. Thus the prophets again come forth in
majesty, as the admonishing and avenging con-
science of Israel, as the divine corrective of all
human actions ; and this shows, too, how errone-
ous the assertion is that the partition of the king-
dom was the result of a series of conflicts that
went on, especially under Solomon, between the
two powers of the monarchy and of the prophets,
which existed side by side in Israel. It was not
monarchy and the prophets which were in conflict,
but Ephraim and the house of David. Both these
took purely secular and political ground, and they
had no other aim than to lord it over each other.
The prophets take a stand-point above both ; and
the prophet speaks and contends for the divine
monarchy in Judah as well as in Israel. As for
the rest, Judah appears here in a much more favor-
able light than Ephraim ; it faithfully adheres to
David's house, and knows nothing of complaint
of tribute-labor, which had borne as heavily on it
as on Ephraim ; while Ephraim, which well knew
the promise given to David's house, disregards
that promise completely. Judah, knowing the
word of the Lord by the prophet, rises against
his brethren at the call of his king ; but Ephraim
listens to a Jeroboam, and if a prophet in She-
chem had warned them against insurrection he
would doubtless have fared no better than Ado-
lam.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-20. The departure of Israel from the
house of David: 1. The grievances. 2. The de-
cision. 3. The rebellion. — -The division of the
kingdom. 1. A consequence of manifold sins (of
Solomon, Jeroboam, Rehoboan 2. A divine dis-
pensation (for their humiliatioi and chastisement,
and for a direction toward tho heavenly eternal
kingdom, v. Ethical). — The sources and causes of
the rebellion. 1. In general (estrangement from
God, iudift'erentism, and unbelief). 2. In particular,
these sins on the part of the people (Prov. xiv.
34), and on the part of the princes (Prov. xx. 28).
Where prince and people fear Godj there will lie
no rebellion ; but where no covenant with God
exists, all human considerations fall in pieces.
V« r. 1-5. The assemblage of the people at
Shechem. 1. Who were present (the ten tribes
with Jeroboam, returned from Egypt, at their
head, ostensibly to do homage, but really to
stir up revolt: the assembling together was un-
lawful, unbidden, and arbitrary. Warning from
such courses. Prov. xxiv. 2J-22I. What the
people sought. (Murmurs and complaints against
the pretended oppression of Solomon, in<H'ad of
gratitude for great benefits, and the well-being
of the State. These complaints were rather a
pretext than the truth, and were an exaggera
tion of the grievances; they demanded not th«
maintenance of the law and the covenant; but
merely material elevation, less labor, and more
outward freedom and independence. Admonition
of 1 Pet. ii. 17-19). — Preiswerk (in the periodical,
Morgenland, 1839): The assembling together of
great idle crowds in a small space is a device of aL
demagogues ; these crowds mutually excite each
other, masses of men, like-minded, inspire each other
with confidence, peaceful councils vanish, men be-
come accustomed to the shouts of the insurgents,
imbibe their principles, venture no contradiction
against the outburst of passion, especially when
swelled by numbers, and, thus inflamed, are
dragged onwards in paths from which later re-
pentance can never bring them back. — Ver. 1. It
is never advisable to go where men are assembling
themselves together, who testify by their choice of
a meeting-place that they have no good end in
view. (Shechem recalls the story in Judges ix.) —
Vers. 2-3. Experience teaches that those win
have once set up an opposition to legitimate au-
thority will ever persist in their resolve, even if
their design fail or is pardoned; they only await
another opportunity to carry out their plans ; there-
fore they should never be trusted. — Vers. 3-4.
Rebellious people easily seek and find in public
circumstances means which they amplify and
exaggerate in order to give an appearance of
justice to their wickedness, and to have some
pretext for their criminal designs. — Cramer: It is
an universal fact that men exclaim more concerning
oppression than concerning godlessness and other
sins; are more careful for the body than for the soul ;
and, so they are free in action, give little heed to
the soul's nurture (Ex. xvi. 3). — A people which
prescribes to its lawful sovereign the conditions
of its obedience to him. and directs him how to
govern, assumes to itself royal authority, and
overturns the appointed order of God, thus rush-
ing surely on to its own destruction. — Ver. 5. A
prince who, upon his accession to the throne, re-
quires time to decide if his rule shall be mild and
merciful or harsh and despotic, cannot have
assumed his high responsible post in the fear and
love of God; therefore he must expect no divine
blessing. It is well and good, indeed, in all weighty
matters to take time for reflection, but in time of
sudden danger, rapid, firm decision is equally
necessary. One accustomed to walk in God's
ways will at such times take no step which
will afterward cause htm bitter repentance.
Vers. 6-11. Rehoboam holds a council. 1. With
whom ? (With his own servants, old and young, but
not with the Lord his God, and with his servants.
In difficult and grave matters we should not neglect
to take counsel with men, but chiefly should we go
to Him for counsel of whom it may be said : He has
the way of all ways, and never fails in counsel, and
" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally, &c. (James i. 5).
For, saith the Lord, Woe to the rebellious children
who take counsel, but not of me, &c. (Is. xxx. 1)
If He sit not in the council, in vain do young and
old advise. Had Jeroboam sought light from
above in those three days, and prayed as once hij
father did (1 Kings iii. 9), or as Jeremiah (Jer
xxxii. 19). or entreated like Jehoshaphat (2 King"
iii. 11). then he would not have been like a reed
shaken by the wind, but his heart would hare been
CHAPTER XII. 1-24.
151
strong.) 2. The advice given him. (Neither counsel
was divine, but both merely human (Matt. xvi. 23).
The old men, out of their fear and apprehension,
advised : renounce for the present thy royal pre-
rogative, and bow before the will of the people ;
later thou canst act quite differently. This advice
ran counter to his pride and despotism, so he re-
fused the counsel of the old men. Through Battery
and insolence combined, the young men counselled
a course actually inhuman, viz. : to abuse his royal
prerogative, to care nothing for his people and their
wishes, but simply to treat them with violence.
This advice suited him well, because it correspond-
ed with his rough, harsh, selfish and violent charac-
ter. But this produced the exact reverse of what
he wished and hoped. When you receive conflict-
ing counsels from men, apply to both the test of
God's word, for: Ps. six. S; cxix. 104 sq.) Ver. 6.
It is the first privilege and duty of a king to seek
to surround himself with men, who, fearing no
man, either high or low, and regardless of their
own profit or advantage, shall advise him as befits
men responsible before a just and holy God. One
such man alone outweighs whole hosts of soldiers,
for: Prov. xx. 28. Ver. 7. A king who refuses
to be a " servant of God " readily finds himself in
a situation where he is compelled to be a servant
of the people. The splendor of majesty is enhanced
ny benevolence, goodness, and mercy, but never by
timid yielding and submission to the popular will.
Ver. 8. Where the counsels of the aged are re-
jected, be it in a kingdom or in a house, and those
only of the youthful followed, there men pursue
an unhallowed path. For to a true wisdom of life
experience is necessary, and this youth cannot have
(Lev. xix. 32 ; Ecclesiasticus viii. 11). Those who
grow up with us have, unconsciously and involun-
tarily, a vast influence over our modes of thought
and views of life, therefore parents must have a
watchful eye over the intimacies of their children.
Ver. 10, 11. A vaunting speech is by no means a
proof of courage ; the more boastful a man's speech
the less resolute he will be in peril and temptation ;
a truly strong, firm, and calm man is silent. Time-
serving and flattery are most dangerous for a
prince ; they wear the garb of fidelity and devotion,
and in reality are the greatest treachery. Chiefly
distrust those who counsel thee to do what grati-
fies thy vanity, thy selfishness, and thine own
desires, and costs thee no sacrifice. — Osiander:
One should rather distrust all harsh judgments,
because they accord chiefly with the disposition of
the flesh, and not of the spirit, which inclines to
mercy.
Vers. 12-15. The answer of the king to the
people, (a) It is hard — not merely a refusal,
but imperious, tyrannical, unbecoming in any
sovereign, but especially one who ought to be the
servant of the compassionate and merciful God,
with whom is great truth and loving-kindness
(Ex. xxxiv. 6). Authority is the handmaid of God,
lo thee for good (Rom. xiii. 4), and not a terror.
Government is not built upon whips and scourges,
but upon justice, love, and confidence; that rule
alone is thoroughly right where " mercy and truth
are met together, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other " (Ps. lxxxv. 11). How entirely
different is David's example of sovereignty (Ps. ci.).
(6) A rash and inconsiderate counsel, that of the
young men, throwing oil on the flames instead of
quenching them, and exciting uproar and revolt
instead of disposing to submission and obedience.
Passion always blinds. When the heart is per-
verted the head is likewise dulled, and those who
are generally shrewd become unwise and unrea-
sonable ; for it is not the head which rules the
heart, but, on the contrary, the inclinations and
desires of the heart are stronger than the thoughts
of the head (Prov. xv. 1 : xxx. 33 ; James i. 19,
20; Eph. v. 15-11). " He that liveth many days, let
him keep his tongue from evil," &c. (Ps. xxxiv. 13).
Ver. 14. Midway between weak concessions and
timid neutrality on the one hand, and selfish persist-
ence in presumptive rights on the other, lies a course
always pointed out by the Lord to those who bow
before Him, pray to Him for wisdom, and long
earnestly to do what pleases Him alone. Not only
do great lords give harsh answers, but likewise
petty rulers; those who moan and complain most
bitterly against the tyranny of the great are fre-
quently the greatest tyrants in a small way ; they
perceive the mote in their neighbor's eye, but not
the beam in their own. — Starke : The voice of the
King of kings comes to us utterly unlike that of
Rehoboam ; therefore should we listen the more
submissively and obediently to it. — Wt'RT. Summ:
The Most High is ever at hand to change the
darkest prospects of the children of men to a
happy termination, and the accomplishment of His
all holy will, even as Joseph said to his brethren
(Gen. 1. 20). God disposes not the thoughts of
man to folly and sin, but brings them to judgment
by their very perverseness, and thus makes it
serve to carry out His own designs.
Vers. 16-19. The rebellion, (a) Its causes,
sin, and folly, in high and low places: amongst
the people, ingratitude, jealousy, envy, hatred,
and thirst for independence : with the king,
tyranny, violence, and folly. (b) Its consequences.
(Disunion, which was in no wise advantageous,
but the beginning of every species of ill-fortune,
and of the final dissolution of the kingdom, fol-
lowed deeds of violence, murder, and death-strug-
gles. A people in rebellion is like a fierce dog
unchained. The evil consequences of rebellion are
often felt for a century.)— Ver. 16. As is the ques-
tion, so is the answer. He who makes an unprin-
cipled speech must not wonder if he receive a like
reply. The same people who once came to David and
said : See, we are thy bone and thy flesh, thou hast
led us. thou shalt be our king (2 Sara. v. 1-2), now
said: We have no part in David; what is the
shepherd's son to us? This is the way of the mul-
titude. To-day they cry : Hosanna, blessed be he
who cometh in the name of the Lord ! To-morrow
it is, "Crucify him, we will not that he reign over
us!" To-day, if fortune smile, they are fawning
and bland, to-morrow, if misfortune threaten, they
cry : " Look to thyself." Their cry is : We will be
free, and servants of no man — not seeing that they
are the blind tools of one or more leaders, who
seek to reign over them. With the house of
David, Israel flung aside the great promise (2 Sam.
vii. 10-16 ; xxiii. 5), which depended on that house.
For us has come that Son of David, whose kingdom
shall have no end (Luke i. 32 sq.). Let us hold
steadfastly by Him, and not be led astray by the
uproar of the world: "We will have no part in
him." He will finally destroy all enemies under
his feet. Thus went Israel to his tents, but
not as formerly, blest by the king and bles-
sing him, rejoicing over the goodness of the Lorn
152
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
to David, and to his people Israel (chap. viii. 6C).
Hi; who has not a good conscience cannot return
in peace. — Ver. IS. The people desired freedom.
but a tree of liberty, watered with innocent blood,
can only bear poison fruit. He who asks nothing
of God can only lead others to fol.y, — he who can-
not stand in the gap can never protect others. It
is a judgment of God when a monarch, instead 'if
being able to repose in the bosom of any one of his
subjects, must needs fly before him to save his
life. To yield to superior force is no disgrace,
but shameful is the flight whicli is the result of ar-
rogance and overbearing pride.
Vers. 19, 20. The great majority fell away,
and the small minority remained faithful ; the
first was ruined and had no future; from the
latter came forth the One before whom every
knee bowed down, and whom every tongue ac-
knowledged to be the Lord (Matt. ii. 6 ; Phil,
ii. 1 1). In the kingdom of God there is no
question of majorities and minorities, but it is
simply, are we steadfast and faithful unto death ?
The pretended deliverers of the masses well know-
how to manage, so that they will become rulers of
the people ; they allow themselves to be summon-
ed, and apparently persuaded to the very object
which was the sole aim of their efforts. — Ver. 21.
What Rehoboam had lost through insolence aud
weakness, through wickedness and folly, he now
sought to regain by violence and battle ; instead of
humbling himself beneath the All-powerful hand
of God, he is haughty and depends upon his own
arm of flesh. The natural heart of man is a frow-
ard and timorous thing (Jer. xvii. 9), without safe
resting-place or firm support, now buoyed up, now
cast down, the football of every storm of fortune.
But blessed is the man whose trust and confidence
are in the Lord. It is a precious thing, &c. (Heb.
xiii. 9). Faith is the victory, &c. (1 John v. 4.)
In the renewed heart is no pride and no fear. —
Vers. 22-24. The word of the Lord to the king
and to the host ; (a) the command : Ye shall not,
&c. ; (b) the cause of the commandment : For this
thing is from me ; (c) the obedience to the com-
mand: And they hearkened, &c. The lives and
property of subjects are not to be used to compen-
sate for the sins and follies of their rulers. Civil
wars are the most unnatural, and likewise the
fiercest and bitterest; he who stirs up strife be-
tween brethren commits a crime which never goes
unpunished. — Shemaiah, a type of the Lord's ser-
vants. He is a man of God. aud as such he brings
good tidings of peace (Is. lii. 7) ; he has no other
arms than the sword of the spirit, which is the
word of God (Eph. vi. 17) ; with His word he
comes, strong and fearless, before the king aud his
whole host (Acts iv. 20 ; is. 15). It is said here of
hundreds of thousands: "They hearkened to the
word of the Lord, aud returned, ic." How many
thousands to-day hear this word, but, burying it
beneath cares, riches, and the pride of life, live on
without obedience and without repentance, bring-
ing forth no fruit (Luke viii. 14). — Wurt. Summ. :
We see here with what great might the God of
Truth maintains his word. By the prophet Ahijah
he announced to Jeroboam that he should rule over
ten tribes of Israel: that is accomplished here.
He has promised to leave one tribe to the house of
David: that is accomplished here. He promised
to Ephraim or to his father Joseph, that kings
should proceed from them (Gen. xlix. ; Dent, xxxiii.),
and that is fulfilled here, since Jeroboam becomes
king through Ephraim. Thus nothing remains
unfulfilled of all that God has spoken, promised,
or threatened. Solomon and Rehoboam strove to
prevent the fulfilment of God's word in Jeroboam,
for which purpose Solomon planned to kill Jero-
boam, and Rehoboam assembled a great army
against him, but all in vain. Therefore let all
men believe and seek after the word of God, and
not strive to resist it (Luke xxi. 33).
[F. D. M aurice : " He (Jeroboam (did not trust the
living God. He thought not that his kingdom stood
upon a divine foundation, but that it was to be up-
held by certain divine props and sanctions. The
two doctrines seem closely akin ; many regard
them as identical ; in truth there is a whole heaven
between them. The king who believes that his
kingdom has a divine foundation confesses his own
subjection and responsibility to as actual living
ruler. The king who desires to surround himself
with divine sanctions, would fain make himself
supreme, knows that he cannot, and therefore
seeks help from the fear men have of an invisible
power, in which they have ceased to believe. He
wants a God as the support of his authority ; what
God, he cares very little." — B. H]
B. — The establishment of the kingdom of Israel by Jeroboam.
Ghap. XII. 25-33.
25 Then Jeroboam built Sheehem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein ; and
26 went out from thence, and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now
27 shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice
in the house of the Lord [Jehovah] at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people
turn again unto their lord,1 even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall
28 kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took
counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for
youa to go up to Jerusalem : behold thy gods,3 O Israel, which brought t lice up
29 out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Beth-el. and the other put he
SO in Dan. And this thing became [was4] a sin: for the people went to worship
31 before the one,' even unto Dan." And he made a house' of high places, and
CHAPTER XII. 25-33.
155
made priests of the lowest [mass8] of the people, which were not of the sons of
32 Levi. AndJeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day
of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judab,and he offered' upon the altar.
So10 did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made : and he placed
33 in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered'
upon the altar which lie had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth
month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart" ; and ordained
a feast unto the children of Israel : and he offered' upon the altar, and burnt
incense.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
I Ver. 27. — [The Sept. has " to the Lord and (or even) to their lord." The Syr. omits this word Lord altogether.
The Vat. Sept. omits the last clause of the verse.
7 Ver. 23. — [Our author prefers the sense of the Sept., Chald., and Villi:., "let it suffice you," "do not any longer go
up." Keil argues that the Heb. cannot be so translated, and prefers the sense of the A. V.
3 Ver. 28. — [The Heb. vprip^ may be taken either in tiie plural, as in the A.V. and the ancient VV. generally
or in the singular, as in our author's translation, according to the common Heb. nsage. For reasons for the latter see
the Exeg. Com.
* Ver. 30. — [The translation of \"p^ became may seem to ignore the fact that Jeroboam's deed already was a sin In
Itself. ' :_
8 Ver. 30. — [Our author's translation inserts in brackets " or the other." See Exeg. Com.
' Ver. 30.— [the Vat, Sept. odds, "and forsook the house of the Lord."
7 Ver. 31. — [riiD3"rP2 correctly rendered in the A. V. in the singular, since the contrast is with the niiTTrS
at Jerusalem. The Sept, in translating oikovs €$ ioJ/ijAdd', and the Vulg. /ana in excelsis. have overlooked the point.
8 Ver. 31. — [The lleb. riiVPD does not niean so much "from the lowest of the people" as, '• from all classes,"
" from the mass of the people promiscuously." in contradistinction to the especial Levitical family. Cf. Gen. xlvii. 2;
Ezek. xxxiii. 2. and see Kwg. Coin. The A. V. is sustained by the Vulg. alone among the ancient V V.
9 Ver. 32. — [The A. V. is here sustained by the Vnlu. and Arab. The other VV. give the sense preferred by
our author in the Exeg. Com. -Went up to, or upon (i. e. upon the approach to) the altar," thus translating the
last words of ver. 33, " to burn incense."
10 Ver. 32. — [The Sept. must have read l^"'^ instead of ^ since it translates " — the altar which he made in
Bethel." ,
II Ver. 33. — Neh. vi. 8 clearly shows that the k'ri t,2?D is the true reading. All the translations are in
accordance with this. The k'lib -Q^£ £ives n0 sense, since it does not mean seorsum sc. ajudmis (Maurer, Keil);
but except, beside. [Keil takes the opposite view of the meaning, and denies the necessity of the change. — F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 25. — Then Jeroboam built Shechem.
The first thing which Jeroboam undertook after
his accession was the building of fortresses to
protect his realm. HJ3 means" fortified here, as
T T
Shechem and Penuel were built long before. He
chose Shechem immediately as his residence
(2'.'"1), no doubt, for the same reason that the ten
tribes had assembled there (see on ver. 1). It does
not follow from x\"'l , that he at once removed to
Penuel (Ewald, Thenius), for it only says : he
built, and it is not added that he lived there.
Penuel, too, did not belong to the tribe of
Ephraim, but was in Gad, beyond Jordan, accord-
ing to some, northward, and others, southward of
Jabbok. There was a tower there formerly,
which Gideon destroyed (Judg. viii. 17). Jero-
boam can scarcely be supposed to have fortified
the place on account of the caravan road to
Damascus passing by it (Keil), or to subdue the
Ammonites and Moabites again (Duncker), but to
Becure the territory beyond Jordan against any
attacks from Judah. There is no doubt that he
built these fortifications by tribute-labor, like
Solomon (chap. ix. 15 sq.) ; the "grievous
service " (ver. 4) did not, therefore, cease under
him, and the complaint against Rehoboam appears
all the more like a pretext.
Vers. 26-28. AndJeroboam said in his heart,
tc. Ver. 26. Jeroboam did not seek to establish
his kingdom out%vardly only, but also inwardly :
»nd to attach the people permanently to himself.
The political union witli Judah was indeed broken,
but the religious one still remained. The people
still went up to the yearly feasts at the central
place of worship in Jerusalem ; this practice seems,
from 2 Chron. xi 16 sq., to have extended even,
so that Jeroboam became anxious lest his people
should turn to Rehoboam and dethrone him. He
therefore sought to break this bond also. We can
scarcely admit that J»jnsl ver. 28 ought to be
supplemented thus : "With his counsellors or the
heads of the people, who had helped to make him
king" (Keil), for the text would certainly not have
passed over so important a circumstance as tha,
the representatives of the people concurred with
him in changing the place of worship. He
reflected about it alone, and came to the following
resolution — Vulgate: Et excogitate consilio fecit duos
vituhs; Dereser: " it occurred to him to make two
golden calves." Two golden calves, i. e.. young bulls,
as appears from Ps. cvi 19 sq. ; they were
molten (chap. xiv. 9), probably of brass, and then
overlaid with gold (Isai. xl. 19). The expression
D3^>"3") is never used in the sense of: it is desiring
too much from you ; i. e. it is too hard for you, but :
it is i now) enough, i. e. you have gone up to Jeru-
salem long enough, cease doing so. The Sept.
translates Uavovodu, the Vulgate has : Nolite ultra
adscendere in Jerusalem. Cf. Deut. i. 6 : ii. 3 ;
Ezek. xliv. 6 ; 1 Kings xix. 4 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16. The
words. Behold thy god(s) which, &c. are exactly
the same as the people used when setting mi the
golden calf in the wilderness (Ex. xxxii. 4—8) am1
154
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
refer unmistakably to them. They are not plural
(thy gods which, Ac.) any more than when used
in the former case, for they only refer to one calf,
and.Nehemiah (ix. 18) uses them in the singular;
D'Hi'N , moreover, is construed with the plural of
the predicate (<■/. 2 Sam. vii. 23 with 1 Chron.
xvii. 21). It is certain that Jeroboam did not wish
to introduce the worship of two or more gods ;
but the plural being used in this place may in-
dicate that " the knowledge of the unity of God
is lost in every form of nature-worship " (Von
Gerlach), and that image-worship is closely related
to polytheism (Ewald). The bringing them up out
of Egypt was God's act, by which he made Israel
a separate nation, creating it, as it were, and
choosing it at the same time for his own, from out
all peoples. This was the real historical proof that
the Almighty God, who has no equal either in
heaven or earth, was Israel's God ; therefore the
God who brought Israel out of Egypt is con-
trasted, as the only true God, with the vain gods
of the heathens (Josh. xxiv. 17: Judg. ii. 1, 12;
vi. 13). The people Israel only knew him to be
God who brought them out of Egypt; and should
they worship the golden calf as their God, they
must, as Aaron and Jeroboam did, before every-
thing else, attribute to it the deliverance out of
Egypt. We cannot endorse the ordinary explana-
tion, that Jeroboam meant to say : Non est nova re-
ligio, hoc cultujam olim patres nostri in deserto usi
sunt auctore ipso Aharone (Seb. Schmidt) ; for if the
history of the golden calf were known to the
people, and Jeroboam reminded them of it, he must
also have known that Jehovah's wrath %vaxed hot
on account of that sin, that Moses ground the calf
to powder, and that all the worshippers were
destroyed (Ex. xxxii. 10; xx. 28). Nothing could
be more ill-advised than an appeal to this event,
and it would have been the direct opposite of any
recommendation of the new worship. It appears
rather that the narrative, giving as it does
Jeroboam's praise of the golden calves in the
words the people had used at the sight of the golden
calves in the wilderness, wishes' to convey the
idea that those images were a renewal of the sin
committed in the wilderness, and that, therefore,
Jeroboam's undertaking would, sooner or later,
have a similar end. Ver. 30 also implies this, and
2 Kings xvii. 7 sq. expressly declares it,
Vers. 29-30. And he set the one in Bethel,
Ac., ver. 29. Bethel was on the southern, and Dan on
the northern boundary of the kingdom. The situ-
ation of these places explains why Jeroboam
chose them. He wished to make things easy for
the people ; the northern tribes could readily
reach one place of worship, and the southern
tribes the other, and they would so much the
•sooner become habituated to the new regulation.
At the same time also it was in opposition to the
Judah-centralizing of worship. This was another
reason for having two calves instead of one. It
is generally thought that he chose both places,
because tiny bad been regarded before as sacred
places for worship. This may have influenced
him in choosing Bethel, but scarcely in respect of
Dan, for the narrative in Judg. xviii. by no means
proves that tin- latter place was looked on with
respect by the people as a place of worship. Sad
Jeroboam sought only sacred places, there were
several (e. •/. Shiloll i that were much mere esteem-
ed as such thau Dan. This thing became a sin,
ver. 30. Jeroboam was guilty of great sin is
making images of oxen, contrary to the funda-
mental law, and in setting them up in two places
remote from each other, and thus destroying the
unity of worship which has been the bond of
union for the whole people. The text means
what is afterwards always spoken of as "the sin of
Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin " (chap. xiv. 16 ;
xv. 26, 30, 34; xvi. 2, 19, 26, 31; xxi. 22; xxii.
53; 2 Kings iii. 3; x. 29, 31; xiii. 2, 6, 11; xiv. 24;
xv. 9. IS, 24, 28; xvii. 21, 22; xxiii. 15). The
people went to ivorship before the one, even unto Dan.
inxn 'J3P clearly refers to the "inNn twice re-
peated in ver. 29, and cannot therefore be trans-
lated as Ewald gives it : " the people, as it were
one man : " neither does it mean that the people
only went to one image, that at Dan, chap. xiii. 1.
"Unto Dan," moreover, cannot be joined to Din
and translated, " the people unto Dan ; i. e., the
people in the whole kingdom as far" as Dan"
(Keil). The sentence is evidently abbreviated, and
inxn 'JS? is only put once instead of twice, be-
cause the repetition after the double inN in ver.
29 is understood ; " "inNH is alter here in the sense
of alteruter " (Cassel). The people went to both,
even to the distant Dan. Vulgate : ibat enim
popnlus ad adorandum vitulum usque in Dan.
Vers. 31-32. And he made an house of high
places, &c, ver. 31. For the so-called high places,
see above on chap. iii. 2. As the "high places "in
2 Kings xxiii. 15 is simply n03fl, and the high
places are contrasted with Jehovah's house in
chap. iii. 1, 2, the word here certainly does not
mean a temple, properly speaking, but proba-
bly a kind of cell for the image. Ewald makes it
out " a splendid temple," and says : " this temple
evidently lasted many years and probably rivalled
that at Jerusalem ; later too, this temple was re-
garded as the great sanctuary of the kingdom."
We find not a single word of all this in the Scrip-
ture, however. Jeroboam made priests of the
niVpp of the people; this does not mean, from
the lowest of the people (Luther), but, from all
classes of them (Gen. xix. 4 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 2 ; Jer.
Ii. 31); he made any one that wished a priest.
Thus he broke the law which gave the right to
the tribe of Levi alone (Num. xvi.). He did this
either because he wanted to abolish the institution
of the Levilical priesthood, or because the Levites
and priests, not willing to participate in the service
of the golden calves, left the kingdom (2 Chron. xi.
13). And Jeroboam ordained a feast, ver. 32. Jn
alone, or jnn signifies the feast of tabernacles,
because it was the greatest and most frequented
of the yearly feasts (the feast of harvest, cf. on
chap. viii. 2). This feast fell on the seventh
month, as the law commanded (Lev. xxiii. 34;
xxxiv. 41). Jeroboam changed the time to pre
vent the ten tribes meeting the other twi, or
having any intercourse with them. He fixed it
in the eighth month, because the northern and
more distant tribes would thus have time tc
complete their harvest, and could more easily
take the journey to Bethel, where he himself also
kept the feast (we need not say that the harvest
was later in the northern thau the southern parts;
see Thenius on the place). The feasts were al
CHAPTER XII. 25-33.
15J
ways announced beforehand (Lev. xxiii. 4) ; if
this were done after the feast at Jerusalem was
over, it could not possibly be celebrated there.
Jeroboam did not observe the same day of the
month, the 15th, "on account of the weak, who
were offended at his innovations " (Keil), for in
that case he would have kept it a month sooner,
but he did so because the months and weeks were
counted by the new and full moons, and the 15th
was the day of the full moon. Thus there was
simply a reason derived from the calendar why
that day was retained.
Ver. 33. And he offered upon the altar, &c.
rt3!Qn"i3J? ^V51 tlu*ee times in vers. 32 and 33 can-
not be translated (as Thenius gives them) once
(ver. 32) by : " he sacrificed upon the altar," and
two other times (ver. 33) by: " he went to the
altar ; " they must mean the same each time.
i"l7j; means here, as usual, to go up, to mount ; the
Sept. correctly gives avi^r) three times, the Vul-
gate has ascendens ver. 32, and ascendit twice,
ver. 33. The altar had a raised part in the mid-
dle, to which an ascent [incline ? — E. H.] led up
(Sym. des Mos. Kult. I. *. 480). It is clear that
?J7' cannot be translated every time, as Luther, De
Wette, and Keil give it, he sacrificed, for in ver. 32
it is distinctly distinguished from rot, and in
ver. 33 VtipiT? is added at the end ; this does not
mean: and he offered incense (De Wette), or while
he offered incense (Philippson), but only to offer
incense ; there is no sense in : he sacrificed to
offer incense. The first pjp , ver. 32, means, that
Jeroboam took part in the feast ; the second signi-
fies especially his presence at the first feast in
Bethel, and the third is only to be connected with
the second, on account of the long intermediary
clause in ver. 33, joining TOpil? with it, and so
leading on to "l'tOpn? chap. xiii. 1. In fact ver.
33 forms the transition to the next section chap,
xiii., which is evidently derived from another
source, and relates what happened at the celebra-
tion of the festival at Bethel. Jeroboam ascended
the altar to burn sacrifice, and just as he was
about to do so, a man of God came, &c. (chap. xiii.
1). What ver. 33 repeats from ver. 32, as well as
the words, " which he had devised of his own
heart," shows the writer's intention, I. e., to dis-
play the arbitrary nature of Jeroboam's proceed-
ings, which called forth the occurrence of chap,
xiii. 1 sq.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The religions institutions which, next to the
fortifications, served to establish Jeroboam's king-
dom are of the greatest importance, for they formed
the real and lasting wall of separation between the
two kingdoms Israel and Judah, that existed side
by side for hundreds of years. Through these in-
stitutions the division mentioned in the above sec-
tion became an incurable schism for all future
generations, thus determining the whole of the
after-history of the people. To \inderstand it tho-
roughly in all its bearings, we must, at the outset.
take into consideration Jeroboam's point of view,
and the motives which impelled him. The history
makes him utter these himself clearly enough in
vers. 26 and 27 ; they were of a purely political na-
ture. He took those measures from no religious
convictions, not to do away with abuses, in short,
not for the sake of God and conscience, but to se-
cure to himself and his dynasty the dominion over
the newly founded kingdom, and to withdraw it
forever from the house of David. He well knew
that a political separation without a religious one
too would not be lasting with a people whose dis-
tinct existence from other nations only depended
on their common religious basis. To introduce a
completely new religion, which should displace the
faith of their fathers, would have been very dan-
gerous to his dominion ; so he thought of modi-
fying it in such particulars as he was sure would
be agreeable to the people, who were disposed to
build a strong, impregnable wall of separation be
tween Israel and Judah. All the kings of Israel
inherited the principle on which Jeroboam acted,
however much the dynasty changed, until the dis-
solution of the kingdom. We have here, then, the
type of that political absolutism which makes the
national religion subservient to the interests of a
dynasty, which holds that the secular power is jus-
tified in prescribing the faith and form of worship
for the subjects. This absolutism is found not only
in monarchies but in republics — among crowned
heads as among democrats — it can be traced
through the entire history of the world, and has
appeared in Christendom as Csesaro-papism. In
Israel the prophets opposed it, and as it was firmly
adhered to from the beginning in that kingdom,
we find, accordingly, the prophets were engaged
in a perpetual struggle with it.
2. The germ of all the changes Jeroboam wrought
was the erection of two golden calves. They were not
actual idols, i. e., images that were supposed to
have real connection with the divinity they repre-
sented, as among the heathens (cf. my treatise, Der
Sahmonische Tempel, s. 270 sq.), but symbols of
Jehovah, the God of Israel ; the whole history of
Israel shows that Jeroboam did not intend to in-
troduce idolatry or polytheism. The God who had
brought Israel out of Egypt, thus showing Him-
self to be the true God (cf. Cassel, Konig Jeroboam,
s. 6), was to remain, but he did not wish Him to
appear to have His throne and dwelling-place in
Jerusalem alone, but also in the new kingdom, and
to be visibly present there. He wishes to attach
the people to his kingdom by a visible representa-
tion of Jehovah. But this visible representation
was in direct opposition to the fundamental Mo-
saic law, which just as expressly forbids the
making an image of Jehovah, as the worshipping
of other gods beside Him (Ex. xx. 3, 4). If God
be one, and everything in heaven and earth, and
in the water under the earth, only his creature, it
follows necessarily that He can have no similitude ;
nothing out of Him can represent Him. Every
image is a practical denial of his incomparable and
therefore invisible being, an untruth which, as .
such, can never make Him known, but, on the con-
trary, destroys the knowledge of Him and leads
to idolatry. For the nearer man comes to the life
of nature the less power he has to abstract him-
self from the natural and visible, and to compre-
hend the spiritual and invisible by itself, i. e., tc
distinguish the sign from the thing signified. If
God be worshipped in an image, it is scarcely pos-
sible to avoid worshipping the image itself as God,
hence there is but a short step from a represent*
156
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tion of God to idolatry, which again, in spite of
everything, leads to polytheism (Rom. i. 23). This
is why the Mosaic fundamental law places the
prohibition of every likeness of God in immediate
juxtaposition against that of idolatry. To violate
this command was to lay the axe at the root of
the tree of spiritual life planted in the chosen peo-
ple. This was " the sin of Jeroboam, wherewith
he made Israel to sin." When he sought to give
his kingdom durability by erecting images, contrary
to the conditiou so emphatically laid before him
by Ahijah, namely, keeping Jehovah's laws (chap,
xi. 38), lie brought this very germ of destruction
and dissolution into it ; this our writer expressly
notices in his account of the fall of the kingdom of
Israel (2 Kings xvii. 7 sq.). The question whether
the Old-Testament law against every representa-
tion of God extends unconditionally to the New-
Testament economy, has, as is well known, been
answered variously. While the reformed church
stretches the Old-Testament law still further, and in
contradiction with the Mosaic worship, which con-
sisted wholly in symbols, rejects every symbol and
representation in the churches, the Lutheran and
Roman Catholic churches not only allow represen-
tations of Him who walked on earth in the form
of a servant, but of God himself, only claiming that
they be not worshipped or prayed to. Though
we do not approve of an exaggerated spiritualism,
yet the representations of God as an invisible being
are of very questionable worth, and should at least
not be placed in buildings for public worship. Cf.
Isai. xl. 18 ; 1 Tim. vi. 16.
3. It is almost universally acknowledged that Je-
roboam's long residence in Egypt (chap. xi. 40 ;
xii. 2) led him to choose images of bulls to repre-
sent Jehovah, and that there was reference to the
Egyptian cultus of Apis and Mnevis. But we
have the clearest evidence of the contrary. The
images were to represent (according to ver. 28),
that God who "brought Israel out of Egypt," i. e.,
out of the " house of bondage," from service to an
idolatrous people, by great judgments on the latter,
even the destruction of their entire army, and had
sepamited them as from all nations, so especially
from Egypt (Ex. vi. 6; vii. 5; 1 Kings viii. 51-53).
To choose a specifically Egyptian divinity in order
to represent this God would have been the greatest
contradiction; for it would have meant so much
as: the God who overthrew the Egyptians and
brought you out of Egypt was an Egyptian deity ;
but the clause, " who brought thee out of Egypt,"
contains the most emphatic opposition to any
Egyptian idol. Had the bull-images of Jeroboam
been borrowed from Egypt, we should find other
traces of Egyptian worship in that of the ten
tribes, but none are to be found. All the gods
that were worshipped by them, or afterwards by
Judah, were without exception those of anterior
Asia. Besides this, Apis and Mnevis were differ-
3nt gods, while Jeroboam wished to make symbols
of one and the same deity ; and, moreover, they
were not images, but living idols, belonging to the
Egyptian animal worship, which had always been
despised in Israel, and looked on as an abomina-
tion (Ex. viii. 26). The material and the work-
manship of the golden calves remind us of anterior
Asia, not of Egypt; for the Egyptians had ouly
stone images ; they had no images that were cast,
golden, or overlaid with gold. There is no neces-
sity for seeking the original of Jeroboam's golden
calves in any particular ancient nation. The bul
was, according to the view common to all ancient
peoples, especially to those who were agricul-
tural, a symbol of the creative power, and conse-
quently of the highest divinity, from which all life
and being emanated. There was no type of divi-
nity so universal in the ancient world as the bull
{cf. Creuzer, Symbolik I. s. 318, 505, 747; iv. s.
128, 240; Baur, Symbolik I. s. 177 sq.; Movers,
Rclig. der Phoniz. s. 373 sq.). If Jeroboam wanted
to give an intelligible and acceptable symbol of
Jehovah to ihe people, he could have scarcely
chosen anything but the bull, especially as the God
who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and thus
chosen them as His own (Isai. xliii. 15-17), was
adored by them as the Creator of heaven and
earth. (The command that refers to the Sabbath
day in the decalogue is founded upon the creation
in Ex. xx. 11, and upon the exodus in Deut. v. 15).
That which is true of Jeroboam's image is also
true of Aaron's (Ex. xxxii. 4), which was much
nearer the time of the Exodus from Egypt, and
therefore was still less likely to bo an imitation of
the Egyptian idols.
4. All the changes that Jeroboam made in tht
worship were calculated, on one hand, to serve hi?
political ends, and likewise, on the other, to be
agreeable and desirable to the people of the ten
tribes. By setting up images of the deity he gra-
tified the deep-seated instincts of this portion of
the people, who, more inclined to nature-life (see
the Hist, and Ethic, on above section), in their
rudeness and sensuousness, even in the wilderness
were not satisfied with an invisible God, but
wanted one they could see. He drew the people
from the imageless temple at Jerusalem by the
erection of two images, and at each extremity of
the kingdom ; and he not only withdrew them
from the one central point of worship which was
necessary to the theocratic unity of the people,
but he made it easier for the people to attend the
new places of worship. By giving the priesthood
to any one, not confining himself to the priestly
tribe, he destroyed this sacred institution of a
tribe of priests, who, being dispersed among all
the tribes, were the guardians of the divine law,
and of spiritual and religious culture. At the
same time he flattered the people thereby, because
any one could aspire to the dignity of the priest-
hood and obtain its emoluments. These he may
have lessened in the interests of the people. There
would scarcely have been a surer method of de-
stroying the organization of a "kingdom of priests "
(Ex. xix. 6), which had, as such, its central point
in the priestly tribe, than this procedure of the
king. He retained the feast of tabernacles be-
cause it was the most liked and the most fre-
quented, and he held it necessary for the separated
tribes to gather regularly around him as their
lord, and unite in a common attitude over against
Judah. To make this meeting, however, as easy
as possible, he fixed on a later month, and thus
broke the order of the feast-cycle, arranged accord-
ing to the number 7. This, then, was the supposed
deliverer of his country who, once he had the reins
in his hands, wasnotcontent with controlling secular
things, but so altered the religion of his people as
to serve his own political ends, and introduced
" what he had devised of his own heart " as the
State religion. What was the alleged disposition
of Solomon, from which he pretended to freo th«
CHAPTER XII. 25-33.
15i
people, compared wilh this for which Jeroboam
overthrew the fundamental law of the entire na-
tion ? "This," remarks Viliuar (s. 191), ''is the
way with demagogues and Cajsaro-papalists, who
have in all times said, and are still at it, so many
criminal and senseless things, now of their care
for the people, then of the rights of the ' com-
munity,' just as Jeroboam here ; " and he remarks
before (s. 189) : " the departure (from political mo-
tives) from spiritual principles, which surely leads
to destruction, is here portrayed for all linn-
s'. The modern historical presentation of the elt na-
tion and ordinances of Jeroboam sketches quite an-
other picture from that of the bibilical history.
Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, I. s. 404) thinks
the rebellion of the ten tribes in Shechem was not
separation from Judah, but the reverse: "they
perpetuated the kingdom and name of Israel,
while one single tribe in the south separated
themselves from the whole bod}'. . . . As soon as
Jerusalem ceased to be the capital of the State,
the Temple ceased to be the place of worship for
all the tribes. Jeroboam dedicated anew the old
places of sacrifice at Bethel and Dan, and placed
priests at both. He built a temple on the height
at Bethel, which temple was to be instead of that
at Jerusalem for his kingdom. Those beginnings
of image-worship of Jehovah, which we may ob-
serve in the preceding period of the kingdom,
and which continued in David's time, were now
universally and officially recognized. Jeroboam
set up a golden bull-image to Jehovah in Dan and
Bethel. In this restoration of the Jehovah wor-
ship we may also perceive a national reaction
against the foreign worship that Solomon intro-
duced in the last years of his reign." Menzel
takes the same view (Stoats- und Eel.- Geschichte der
Konigreiche Israel und Juda, s. 15G sq.): "In the
deliberation of Jeroboam in respect of the institu-
tions of public worship, there seemed, doubtless,
a right to restore its sacred character to the old
national sanctuary (of Bethel) which the new
Temple-service at Jerusalem had deprived it of, or
at least lessened. '1 his restoration, strictly speaking,
took place at Bethel only." That the people wor-
shipped images is said to have no other proof than
"the eloquent representation of the foes of image-
worship, who in all ages have tried pretty much
in the same way to enforce their views (colored
by their own feelings) against the representation
of what is thought," as, for instance, "the prophet
Hosea " (Hos. viii. 6).' According to this, there
can indeed be no "sin of Jeroboam, wherewith
he made Israel to sin;" he seems rather to have
done a service to his people ; so far from break-
ing the law, he was rather a reactionist and re-
storer. And when all the prophets denounced
Jeroboam's form of worship, they only spoke from
their peculiar, subjective "manner of feeling," for
Israel always had images of the Deity, and even
David "carried the image of Jehovah about with
him in his marches" (Duncker, s. 40S). We need
no proof to show that this is turning the history
upside down ; it is an example of the unwarrantable
style of writing history, which, under the semblance
of scientific criticism, utterly ignores the text of the
only historical source we have.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 25-33. How Jeroboam sought to estab-
lish his sway, (a) outwardly, by the erection of
fortifications; but these alone do not protectant:
guard a kingdom. A mountain fastness is oui
God (Ps. lxxi. 3 ; exxvii. 1) ; (b) inwardly, by ord*
nances for public worship, which can protect a
kingdom only when they are conformable with
the word and command of God and are not de-
signed to subserve selfish purposes. ["Jeroboam
king of Israel, to the destruction of him and his,
did change the ceremonies which God had ordain-
ed, into his own, that is, into men's inventions and
detestable blasphemies." BuLLIXGER. — E. H.]. —
Wuet. Simji. : We should trust ourselves not to
fastnesses, but to God, and God wills not to be
served otherwise than as He has commanded in
His revealed word; our worship and service, there-
fore, must proceed from faith, and we shall be
blessed of Him. — Ver. 26. As soon as Jeroboam
obtained the wish of his heart, namely, the ruler-
ship, he asked no longer about the condition
under which it was promised to him and with
which it was bound up (chap. xi. 38). How often
we forget, when God has granted to us the desire
of our hearts, to walk in His ways. He who ob-
tains rulership by the path of rebellion, must
always be in fear and anxiety lest he lose it
again in the same way, for the populace which to-
day cries Hosanna will, on the morrow, shout
crucify, crucify ! An evil conscience makes the
most stout-hearted and the strongest timid and
anxious, so that he sees dangers where there are
none, and then to insure his own safety devises
wrong and evil instruments. One false step always
requires another. — Vers. 28-33. The sin of Jero-
boam wherewith he caused Israel to sin. (a) He
erected images of God against the supreme com-
mandment of God (Exod. xx. 4). (6) He set aside
the prescribed order of the servants of God, and
made his own priests, (c) He altered the feast which
was a reminder of the great deeds of God, and made
it a mere nature-and-harvest feast. That is the
greatest tyranny when the ruler of a land makes
himself the master also of the faith and conscience
of his subjects.- — Cramer: In the estimation of
the people of the world this policy of Jeroboam is
held to be proper, because they consider that reli-
gion is to be established, held, and altered, as may
be useful and good for the land and the people
and the common interest, and that the regimen is
not for the sake of the religion, but the religion
for the regimen. Consequently Jeroboam acted
well and wisely in the matter. But God says,
on the other hand, All that I command you, that
shall ye observe, ye shall not add thereto (Dent,
xii. 32). For Godliness is not to be regulated by
the common weal, but the common weal is to be
regulated by Godliness. Every government which
employs religious instrumentalities, and interferes
with the faith of the people, not for the sake of
God and the salvation of souls, but for the attain-
ment of political ends, shares the guilt of the sin
of Jeroboam, and involves itself in heavy respon-
sibilities.— Ver. 28. Camv. B. : To the perverted
man, what he shall do for his God is forthwith too
much. In matters of faith and of the homage due
to God we should not consider what is convenient
and agreeable to the great mass, but should in-
quire only for what God prescribes in His word.
He who conciliates the sensuousness and the un
tutored ways of the masses, and flatters their un
belief or their superstition, belongs to the false
prophets who make broad the way of life. Doc-
15S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
trines and institutions which depart from the re-
vealed word of God are often praised as progress
and seasonable reforms, while in truth tney are
steps backward, and corrupting innovations. In
Christendom we pray no longer to wood and
stone, and to golden calves, and think ourselves
thereby raised far above a darkened heathenism,
but, nevertheless, we often place the creature
above the Creator, and abandon ourselves to it
with all our love and consideration and service.
Behold, the things and persons thou lovest with
thy whole heart and strength, these are thy gods.
What use of typical representations in the wor-
ship of God is permitted, and what is forbidden ?
— Ver. 30. Starke: As a great tree in a forest,
when it falls drags down many others with it,
so also are many others carried along by the bad
example of those who rule, when they fall away
from their religion, or sin otherwise grossly
against God. — Ver. 31. We have in the new
covenant no Levitical priesthood indeed, but a pas-
toral and preaching office which the Lord has insti-
tuted, so that, thereby, the body of Christ may bs
edified (Eph. iv. 11). He who despises this office,
and thinks that any one without distinction and
without a lawful calling may exercise it, is a par-
taker in the sin of Jeroboam. "No one," says
the Augsburg Confession, "shall teach or preach
publicly in the church, or administer the sacra-
meuts, without due calling." — Ver. 32. The fes-
tivals which an entire people celebrate in remem-
brance of the great deeds of God for them, are
the support of their faith and of their life of fel-
lowship. It is to destroy this life when, from
prejudice and for the sake of outward wordly
considerations, arbitrarily they are altered or
abandoned. — Ver. 33. As it is good and praise-
worthy when kings and princes engage in the
service of God along with their subjects, and set
them a good example, so also is it blameworthy
when they do it only to win the people over to
themselves, and to secure their authority over
them.
SECOND SECTION.
jbroboam's government in Israel.
Chap. XIH. 1— XIV. 20.
a^ — The admonition of Jeroboam by a Prophet, and the disobedience and end of the latter.
Chap. XIII. 1-34.
1 And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord
2 [Jehovah] unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And
he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord [Jehovah], and said, O altar,
altar, thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] ; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house
of David, Josiah by name ; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high
places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
3 And he gave a sign2 the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord [Jeho-
vah] hath spoken ; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes8 that are upon it
4 shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying
of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Beth-el, that he put forth
his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put
5 forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The
altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign
6 which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord [Jehovah]. And the
king answered and said unto the man of God, Intrcat now the face of the Lord
[Jehovah] thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again.
And the man of God besought the Lord [Jehovah], and the king's hand was
1 restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the man
of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.
8 And the man of (Jod said unto the king, If thou wilt, give me half thine house, I
9 will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: for
so was it charged me by the word of the Lord [Jehovah], saying, Eat no bread,
CHAPTER XIII. 1-34. 159
10 nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou earnest. So he went
another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Beth-el.
11 Now there dwelt an old prophet in Beth-el ; and his sons' came and told him
all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel : the words
12 which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And
their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen6 what
13 way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his
sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass : and he l'ode thereon,
14 and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak [the
terebinth"] : and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that earnest from
15 Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and
16 eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee :
17 neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place : for it was said to
me by the word of the Lord [.Jehovah], Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water
18 there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou earnest. [And'] he said unto him,
I am a prophet also as thou art ; ami an angel spake unto me by the word of the
Lord [Jehovah], saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may
19 eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and
20 diil cat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the
21 table, that the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto the prophet that brought him
back: and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith
the Lord [Jehovah], Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord
22 [Jehovah], and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord [Jehovah] thy
God commanded thee, but earnest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in
the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water ■
23 thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. And it came to pass,
after he had eaten bread, and after he hail drunk, that he saddled for him the ass,
24 to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.8 And when he was gone, a lion
met him by the way, and slew him : and his carcass was cast in the way, and the
25 ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass. And, behold, men passed by,
and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass : and they
26 came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. And when the prophet
that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God,
who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord [Jehovah] :' therefore the Lord
[Jehovah] hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him,
27 according to the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake unto him. And
28 he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him. And
he went and found his carcass cast in the way, and the ass and the lion staud-
29 ing by the carcass : the lion had not eaten the carcass, nor torn the ass. And
the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and
brought it back : and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 And he laid his carcass in his own grave ; and they mourned over him, saying,
31 Alas, my brother! And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake
to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the
32 man of God is buried ; lay my bones beside his bones :10 for the saying which
he cried by the word of the Lord [Jehovah] against the altar in Beth-el, and
against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria
33 shall surely come to pass. After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil
way, but made again of the lowest [mass] of the people priests of the high
places: whosoever would, he consecrated" him, and he became one" of the
34 priests of the high places. And this thing" became [was a] sin unto the house
of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 2. — rrhe Alex. Sept. omits the last clause of this ver.
1 Ver. 3. — [On the meaning of n£iD=TePas see the hxeg. Com. It is to be remembered, however, that any portent
mast have had the significance of a "sign" and hence tin's meaning appears in the Vulg., Cbald., and Syr., as well 88 ir
the A. V. The Vat. Sept. curiously puts the verb in the future Suitret.
100
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
3 Ver. 8.— fen from the root jgfcj to be or tecome fat, primarily meaning fatneaa (<y. Jud. tx. 9; Ps. lxtll. 6, kc\
and hence translated here and in ver. 5 by the Sept. jtiottjs, is used for the as»hes of animals offered in sacrifice, Id
eontradistinclion to "O^, commou ashes. cy. Lev. i. 16; iv. 12, Ac.
* Ver. 11.— [The Heb. has here ^33 in the sing., followed by the sing. verb. With this agree the Chald. and Arab,
and our author, like Lulher, so translates. On the other hand the Sept., Vulg., and Syr., like the A. V., have the plural.]
5 Ter. 18. — ^X"T1 according to the understanding of all the W. (except the Arab.) is to be pointed ^-p*
ft. 6. In the Hipbil = showed], and so we have translated : " they looked on " or " after the way " gives no proper sense.
The A. V. has followed the masoretic punctuation ^"I'l in tbe ^al' bllt b*v taking ^ in a pluperfect sense has avoided
the difficulty. , .
6 Ver. 14.— [nSxn is usually rendered in the A. V. oak; in Isa. vi. IS it is translated teil tree, because »it>}{ , also
rendered oak, is in immediate connection with it ; for the same reason, in Hos. iv. 13 it Is rendered elm. The Sept.
have SpOs, the Vols, teretnnthits. which is the interpretation of most moderns. The article is by all means to be retained,
as pointing out some well-known tree.
7 Ver. 16. — [There seems no good reason for omitting the conjunction of the Heb., which is retained by the Sept. and
Vulg.
8 Ver. 23. — [Our author translates " the ass of the prophet who had brought him back." The V V. differ from one
another, the Vulsr. and Chald. understanding " the ass of the prophet whom he had brought back ; M the Syr. and Arab.
simply " the ass for the prophet of God ; " while the Sept. omits the words altogether.
» Ver. 26.— [The Vat. Sept. omits from this point to the end of ver. 27.
10 Ver. 31. — [The Sept. adds tea o-wfliai to. bora y.ov fiera twc barwv avroO doubtless with reference to 2 Kinge
xxiii. 18, when the bones of the Samarian prophet were left undisturbed with the bones of the prophet from Juduh.
11 Ver. 33. — [Lit. "filled his hand," a figurative expression for consecration, but rendered literally in the Sept. and
Vulg.
'• Ver. 88.— [The Heb. noun is in the plural J-|iQ3 'JHa, ru"i is rendered in the plural by the Chald. and Arab. •
the Sept., Vulg., and Syr. use the sing, as in the A. V. — F. G.]
13 Ver. 34. — Instead of 13^3 we must read here ~Q"nn with all the W. and several [eight] of the MSB., as it ii
also in chap. xii. 80. The translation : "The reason for sinning was in this thing (through the same)" (Keil) is forced
PRELIMINARY.
This section, over against the preceding and
following chapters, bears an unmistakably pecu-
liar character, and is doubtless inserted here from
some other source. Nevertheless it is closely
connected witli chap. xii. and chap, xiv., as is
sufficiently obvious from its beginning and conclu-
sion. The words, ver. 1 : T'Dpni? nnTOn-^y ~l6y
clearly refer to the concluding words of the former
chapter (ver. 33); TDfJili) natSn-^V bw refer
back and connect the present section completely
with the foregoing. When Jeroboam ascended
the altar at the feast he had instituted, and stood
on it to offer incense, behold I there came a man
of God out of Judah, &c. The man of God did not
appear at an ordinary sacrifice, but on a solemn
public occasion, most probably at the first of the
new festivals. This gave peculiar significance to
his appearing ; " Jeroboam's dreadful apostasy
was not to escape severe chastisement from God "
(v. Gerlach). With the appearing of the man of
God (vers. 1-10) the full account of his conduct
and fate is conjoined (vers. 11-32). That this
account, though it says nothing of Jeroboam, is
not a mere episode, but bears upon the principal
subject, namely, " the sin of Jeroboam," which had
such a marked influence on all Israel's future
history, is obvious from the conclusion of the
narrative (vers. 33-34): "After this thing Jero-
boam returned not from his evil way, but made
again," &c. These words form the connecting
link with the 14th chap. The connection is,
briefly, this : Jeroboam not only entered on an
evil way (chap. xii. 28-33), but let nothing turn him
from it, neither the warning and the miracles of
the man of God (chap. xiii. 1—10) nor his remark-
ably significant fate (vers. 1 1-32). He remained
hardened in his apostasy. The divino sentence
od him and his house, recorded in chap, xiv.,
was therefore announced to him by the prophet
Ahijah, who had promised him the kingdom on
condition of fidelity to Jehovah (chap. xi. 31-39).
In respect of the contents of our section here,
in its phraseology, its source was not contem-
poraneous with the events, as is the case with the
other sources of our books, which are written by
contemporaneous prophets (<•/. Introduc. § 2).
Ver. 32 shows this ; the old prophet of Bethel
speaks of the " cities of Samaria," after the burial
of the man of God. But the city of Samaria did
not even exist then ; it was built by Omri, who
was king fifty years after Jeroboam (chap. xvi.
24) ; and there certainly could not have been at
that time any province named after it. The
explanation that the expression is " proleptic "
(Keil) is untenable, because it was not written by
our author, who lived in exile, but it is given by
him as an expression of the Bethel prophet. Later
critics. Bwald and Thenius, for instance, have
inferred that the whole account is of a much
later date, from ver. 2, where the man of God
does not speak of a future son of David only,
but mentions the proper name of a kiug who
lived more than 300 years later; the narrative
must therefore date from after Josiah's time (2
Kings xxiii. 15-20) and have been written down as
it was repeated among the people. The calling of
proper names, certainly, does not characterize
prophecy, which differs from foretelling in this,
that it does not notice more or less accidental
outward circumstances, but announces only such
things as are connected with the divine economy
aud development of God's kingdom ; it describes the
persons whose future appearances it announces
by their qualities, but not by their names. In the
only exceptional ^ttse (Isai. xliv. 28 ; xlv. 1) tho
name CH13 may be appellative = sun, as a name of
honor for the Persian kings (Hengstenb., Christol.
I. 2, s. 192 sq.). Keil says that "the name
in'SS^O (m our passage) only follows its appellative
me.v;ing; he whom Jehovah sustains, frorr nE'X
CHAPTER Xin. 1-34.
161
to sustain, and means, a son shall be bora to the
house of David, whom Jehovah shall support and
establish, so that he shall execute judgment on the
high priests at Bethel. This prophecy was after-
wards so fulfilled by divine Providence, that the
king who executed the sentence bore the name of
Josiah as his proper name." But this name is
never used anywhere else as an appellative, and
only belonged to one person. If we must take the
expression "all the cities of Samaria" (ver. 32) "as
proleptic," we cannot see the reason why this
may not also be the case with the words "Josiah
by name" (ver. 2). "We need not suppose they
were the gloss of a later interpolator ; our
author took them as he found them in the docu-
ment from which he borrowed ; this document,
however, was, as we have said, not a contem-
porary one, but the later record of what had been
preserved in the verbal traditions of the people, and
had been revived by Josiah's act (2 Kings xxiii).
[f any section of our books bears the stamp of
tradition, the present one does; and that by no
means because a miracle is recorded in it. The
names of the two prophets with whom the whole
narrative is taken up are wanting, which is an
evidence of tradition, as are also the difficulties in
ver. 6 sq. and vers. 18-22, about which opinions
differ widely, and which can scarcely be satis-
factorily explained. Although those facts which
are most important here are historical and un-
changed, yet the traditional coloring of single and
less important circumstances can be plainly per-
ceived ; every attempt to determine what is purely
historical and what is traditional is vain. We
must not forget the general grand aim of the
whole section, which is to make known the won-
derful ways and judgments of God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-3. And behold there came a man of
God, &c. We cannot ascertain who this was.
"Josephus calls him Jadon, thinking no doubt of the
IT. or xny who is called yijp after the k'ri in
2 Chron. ix. 29 ; we cannot accept this, however
(as Jarchi does), because he lived under king
Abijah, according to 2 Chron. xiii. 22, while the
prophet spoken of here died now. For the same
reason we cannot think, with Ephrem and Tertul-
lian, that it was Shemaiah, see 2 Chron. xii. 1, 22 "
(Thenius). It expressly says that he came out of
Judah, therefore he did not spring from the apos-
tate part of the nation. nirP "D"t3 does not mean :
on the word or command of Jehovah, but, as
appears from vers. 2, 9, 17 (c/. chap. xx. 35
and 1 Sam. iii. 21): in (through) the word. "The
word of the Lord is spoken of as a power
that came upon the prophet and forced him to
utter the revelation made to him " (Keil).
0 altar, altar! the altar is metonymically for
what was done on it and concentrated in it; in
short, of the worship performed there. The fact
that the prophet addressed the altar was incompa-
rably more significant than if he had turned him-
self to the person of the king ; the sentence of de-
struction which he pronounces on the altar as the
type of the new worship, and of Jeroboam's sin,
includes the ruin of the latter. For Josiah see
preliminary remarks. The burning of men's bones
on the altar is the greatest possible desecration of
II
it, as according to the law (Numb. xix. 16) every,
even involuntary, contact with a dead body m do
a person unclean ; nothing else could have repre-
sented the altar as so utterly iseless and abominable.
In the genuine prophetic manner, the man of God
adds to his words a deed (see on chap. xi. 30)
of his prophecy. flSlD is not so
much a sign (J11N), as an act producing astonish-
ment, prodigium (Hengstenberg, Christol. II. s. 45
*?■)■ i'""! (really fat, hence the Sept. gives miry;
here) is the fat of the parts sacrificed on the
altar, and ran out mixing with the ashes, therefore
is not ashes absolutely. These ashes of sacrifice
were, on that account, usually taken to a clean place
(Lev. i. 16; iv. 12). The spilling of them out, in this
case, denoted that they, and consequently the sacri-
fice from which they came, and the whole worship,
were unclean ; it was no natural result of the burst-
ing of the altar. 2 Kings xxiii. relates the fulfilment
of the prophetical act and word.
Vers. 4-7. And it came to pass when king
Jeroboam heard the saying, &c. ver. 4. Jero-
boam did not raise his hand to offer the incense
(Thenius) ; but as he stood on the altar, he stretch
ed out his hand towards the man of God as he
spoke, and cried out, Lay hold on him ! It dried
up. " Jeroboam's baud, so suddenly affected that
he could not draw it back, was either paralyzed or,
what seems more explanatory of the expression
dried up, struck with tetanus ; this last is what
Ackermann accepts (in Weise's Materialien III. s.
131 sq.)" (Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 192). Jeroboam's
order thereby lost all effect ; no one ventured to
seize the prophet; it was also a warning to the
king himself, and had a momentary effect on him.
He was terrified, and begged the prophet to "en-
treat now [to make inattentive] the face of the
Lord thy God for me " (rpn) t". «., to beseech Him
so earnestly that He cannot refuse. "The Lord
thy God," he says, not that He was not his God,
but : thy God in whose name and behalf thou hast
come here. When he was succored he invited the
prophet to go home with him, and offered him a pre-
sent, but not from genuine repentance or grati-
tude, but only because he wished to win him over,
aud to do away with or lessen the impression his
conduct (the prophet's) made on the people pre-
sent ; for he himself remained the same apostate
after as before.
Vers. 8-10. [But] And the man of God said,
&c, ver. 8. The object of this prohibition of eat-
ing and drinking in Bethel was not to effect the
" prompt execution of the commission " (Thenius).
Eating and drinking with a person, sitting down
to table with any one, is the sign of communion or
fellowship, and used as such here, as often else-
where in Scripture (1 Cor. v. 11 ; cf. Gen. xliii. 32 ;
Luke xv. 2 ; Gal. ii. 12 ; 1 Cor. x. 18, 21). The man
of God, chosen to announce God's judgment by
word and deed on the apostate and his followers,
was to avoid fellowship with him, for this would be
utterly inconsistent with his commission ; the com-
mand was given him, ad deteslationem idohlatrioz ;
ul ipso facto ostenderet, Bethelitas idololatras adeo esst
detestabiles et a Deo quasi excommunicatos, ut nidluis
fideliuin cum iis cihi vet potus comviunionem habere
velit ( Corn, a Liqride). When he afterwards ate and
drank there, he transgressed a much higher ani'
162
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KIXGS.
more important command than one relative to fast-
ing only. This, too, was why he was to take ano-
ther way home ; not " to remain unnoticed and to
avoid being detained " (Ewald), but to avoid being
brought back, and persuaded to do anything incon-
sistent with his commission or not contained in it ;
this alone he was to do, and then vanish as quickly
as he came. This sheds the necessary light on
the following narrative, vers. 11-32.
Vers. 11-22. An old prophet in Bethel, ver.
11. He lived in the town (vers. 25, 29), but the
high place was probably outside the town. Instead
of "his son," the Sept., the Yukr., and the Syr. give
the plural, as in ver. 12. One spake in the name
of the others, or they agreed with what the one
said. These were actual sons of the prophet, not
pupils, for the latter would scarcely have witnessed
the golden calf worship. The Terebinth (ver. 14)
" is a tree that resembles an oak, .... has ever-
green leaves, and grape-like fruit. It attains a
great age, and therefore often serves as a monu-
ment or for topographical purposes ; Gen. xxxv.
4 ; Jud. vi. 11, 1 9 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 2, 1 9 ; 2 Sam. xviii.
9" (Gesenius). The article points to a certain tere-
binth known in Bethel. The resting under this
tree was not at all the beginning of his sin, as the
older commentators think, for delay in Bethel
alone was prohibited ; still the delay gave time for
others to come up to him. The -)313 ver. 18 is the
same as in ver. 1 7 and ver. 2 ; the angel said to
me, "by the word," t. e., the power of Jehovah's
word ; he does not venture to say Jehovah spake
to him, but says an angel did. See the His.
Ethic, below, for the announcement of punishment
(vers. 20-22) by the same old prophet who had lied
to the man of" God. The final words of ver. 22 :
thy carcass, &c, do not mean, morte violenta, ante-
quam in patriam redeas, peribis (J. H. Michaelis,
Keil, and others), for rf?33 means all dead bodies
(Isai. xxvi. 19), not only those killed with violence;
the Sept. simply gives aCiua. The emphasis falls on
the "sepulchre of thy fathers." It was thought a
misfortune to be buried among strangers, far from
home and relations ; so it was a very natural wish
to be buried in the grave of his fathers (every re-
spectable family had a farailv sepulchre, cf. Winer,
R.-W.-B. I. s. 444), (2 Sam. xix. 38; Gen. xlvii. 29
sq. ; 1. 5). But this blessing so coveted by every
Israelite was refused to the "refractory."
Ver. 23-34. And it came to pass, after he
had eaten, &c, ver. 23. The subject of the last
part of the seutence cannot be other than that of
the first part; so it was not the prophet of Bethel
who saddled the ass, neither is it " one saddled "
(Luther, Bunsen), but the man of God did it or had
it done. X,33p is not in opposition with iS, so
that we could translate : " he saddled the ass for
him, for the prophet he had fetched back" (Keil,
Luther, De Wette) ; for throughout the whole sec-
tion, N'3J is only used for the prophet of Bethel ;
the Judaish one is called " the man of God ; " and
the clause \y&T[ TJ'S , that occurs three times, can-
not be translated differently here from vers. 20 ami
26, where it is impossible to take "ICK a3 the ac-
cusative. N,337 is the general form of the geni-
tive when it denotes possession and belonging, and
must be connected with "lionn immediately pre-
ceding it The old prophet either offered his ass
to the man of God, who hastened home after eat-
ing and drinking, or he gave it to him at his re-
quest. "I3B>, used in vers. 26 and 28 to express
killing by the lion, does not mean: to tear (Ewald,
De Wette), but, to breas, crush, and "is very ex-
pressive, for the lion kills with one blow" (Thenius)
The grave in which the man of God was laid (ver. •
30) was the family sepulchre of the old prophet; '
see on ver. 22. >nx 'in seems to have been the
■ T
usual form of lamentation, cf Jer. xxii. 18. The
man of God from Judah was mourned and buried
as a relative of the family. The Sept. adds at the
end of ver. 31, Iva oo-dwai rd bora fiov fiera tuv
boruv ovtov, which Thenius thinks was original,
because the '3 in the following verse becomes thus
perfectly justified. But this sentence, evidently
borrowed from 2 Kings xxiii. 18, is unnecessary
here ; the connection is : My bones shall rest next
his, for he was a true prophet ; what he prophesied
against the altar at Bethel will come to pass. For
the expression " cities of Samaria " see Prel. Re-
marks. The connection of vers. 33 and 34 with
the preceding verses has been given above. If in
ver. 33, in the various directions for worship de-
vised by Jeroboam, mention only of the priests
he appointed is made, the reason of this is that they
were the main supports of the whole of the unlaw-
ful worship, which could not have lasted without
them. To "fill the hand " is the formula for inves-
titure with priesthood, because the pieces of the
sacrifices which belonged to Jehovah were sol-
emnly laid in the hands of the candidate for con-
secration; Ex. xxix. 24; Lev. viii. 27 sq. (Syrnb.
des Mos. Kult. II. s. 426). '
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The appearance of the man of God from Judah,
at the feast in Bethel, shows in few strokes the charac-
teristic nature of the prophet system, which stands
alone in the history of the world. Unknown
hitherto and living in retirement, neither named
nor called, when the right moment came he stood
there as suddenly as lightning from heaven, not
coming in any man's service but as a messenger of
the Lord, borne up and sustained by the might of
the " word " of God alone. Without any human help
he stood before the proud, energetic king, knowing
his hatred to David's house and to Judah, knowing
how Adoniram had fared (chap. xii. 1 8), but he fears
nothing, and boldly announces the divine sentence,
not at a private interview, but in presence of all
the king's followers, of the whole priesthood, and
crowd of spectators. He adds a divine act to the
divine word, which act is a significant " sign " and
pledge of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Having
spoken and acted in the name of the Lord, he was
under Jehovah's protection, no one dared to seize
him ; the hand of the king, when stretched forth
against him, dried up and became powerless.
When the king, thus punished, begs the prophet
for help, the latter calls upon the Lord, who hears
him, thus showing Himself to be a gracious as well
as a just God (Rom. xi. 22), in order to bring him
CHAPTER XIII. 1-34
16?
back from his evil ways. He vanished as sudden-
ly as lie came, without eating a bit of bread or
drinking water, or receiving a present, even
though it were the half of the house. He was to
disappear completely, that every one should think
of the Lord and His word alone ; of what they had
heard and seen.
2. Jeroboam's conduct is full of contradictions
and inconsistency. At first he was haughty and
violent to the man of God, wishing to seize his
person. But when he failed in this, and he felt a
higher power, he became humble and dejected,
begged the man he had just threatened to intercede
for him, gave him a friendly invitation and offered
him a present ; he then let him go on his way, but
paid no regard whatever to his words and deed. The
cause of this conduct was not weakness of charac-
ter, but rather, on the contrary, the obstinacy witl
which he pursued what his soul desired, and which
was the mainspring of all his actions, i. e.. the re-
solve to keep himself on the throne at any cost
and under all circumstances, and not to come un-
der the dominion of the hated house of David and
Judah again (chap. xii. 26 sq.). The petition to
have his hand restored was only the effect of mo-
mentary fright ; when this passed, instead of list-
ening to the man of God, he tried to bribe him and
win him over, and the whole transaction left no
trace behind it. He is a type of those usurpers
who have no other aim in life than to gratify their
ambition and love of power, and whose apparent-
ly good and noble actions are only the fruit of this
passion. It seems from ver. 11 that the appear-
ance of the man of God made an impression upon
the surrounding people, but the account does not
say of what sort this impression was, and it passes
on at once to the much more important occurrence
related in vers. 10-32.
3. The old prophet in Bethel was called a false
prophet and a "lying prophet " in old times, be-
cause he induced the man of God to return by tell-
ing him a lie. Josephus regards him as such
(Antiq. viii. 9), but he " misunderstands the whole
narrative in a truly frightful manner " (Ewald) ;
but Jonathan, several Rabbins, and older R. Catho-
lic commentators, even Hess also, agree in the
principal thing, and pronounce the motives of this
old prophet, in what he said and did, to have been
unworthy. The recent commentators, following
Ephrem's example and that of Theodoret, Witsius,
and others, have very rightly rejected this view.
The sentence he announces to the man of God
(ver. 21) shows that he was no partaker of Jero-
boam's calf-worship, but was a worshipper of Je-
hovah ; still more does this appear from his belief
in the fulfilment of the prophecy of the destruction
of that false worship (ver. 32), but most of all when,
on hearing of the death of his guest, although he
perceived divine punishment in it, he at once pro-
ceeded to the dangerous place to find the corpse
and bury it in his family sepulchre, lamented over
him as his "brother," and desired his sons to "lay
his bones beside his bones " (ver. 31). We may
see from 2 Kings xxiii. 18, that he never was re-
garded afterwards as a false prophet, but as a true
oomrade of the man from Judah. From all this it
appears that he could have had no bad intention
wnen he at first hastened after the man of God
vers. 12, 13) and pressed him to return and go into
his house. On the contrary, when he had heard
from his sons what he had said and done, he was I
seized with a strong desire to see and speak to the
faithful and courageous messenger of Jehovah, tc
enter into friendship with him, and edify himsell
in his company. One thing alone he was guilty
of, that he used a lie to reach his end. This, how-
ever, by no means shows that he was a false, bad,
aud hypocritical man, but only shows he was no
saiut, just as " dissembling " did not make the
apostle Peter (Gal. ii. 13) a pseudo-apostle. " This
was one of the many lies spoken in good intentions
by otherwise enlightened persons of the Old Tes-
tament, but who were weak in faith " (Ton Ger-
lach) ; old age, too, may have partly accounted for
it. It is, however, a difficulty that the same pro-
phet who had lied to the man of God announced
his punishment to him afterwards. Perhaps his
conscience awoke meantime, when he heard moro
at table, so that he saw his own guilt as well as
that of the man of God, and in this condition be-
came the instrument to announce the punishment,
so that what happened to the man of God might
not seem an undeserved fate. We ought to notice
that he did not announce his death by a lion, but
only said that he should not come into the sepul-
chre of his fathers (see above on ver. 22). Of all
the conjectures about the reason and motive of
the old prophet's conduct, the least tenable are
such as that he followed the Judah-man from mere
curiosity or " from human envy " (Thenius), or
" because God had charged him to speak to the
king " (Dereser), and that he felt his prophetical
reputation injured (Hess). Apart from everything
else, the commission of the man of God was no
enviable one, but difficult and dangerous, and also
a fruitless one. According to Hengsteuberg
(Beitrdge II. s. 149), with whom Keil and Lisco
agree, the old prophet had " sinned by silence about
Jeroboam's innovations." "What the Judah-
prophet did, showed him what he should have
done. Penetrated with shame for his neglect, he
endeavored to restore himself in his own opinion
and that of others by intercourse with the witness
for the Lord." In this case, his purpose in hurrying
after him could uothave been a good one, but selfish
and objectionable, and the lie would have been
so much the greater sin. Besides, if silence were a
sin, the prophet Ahijah would have been peculiar-
ly guilty of it, as he was an Ephraimite and had
placed the prospect of the kingdom before Jerobo-
am (chap. xi. 31—39). Neither prophet undertook
the mission to Bethel, because no commission was
given them from above — a man of God was to
come from Judah. According to Knobel (Der
Prophetismus der Hebr, II. s. 66 sq), the old pro-
phet induced him to return because " no doubt he
wished to test the firmness and obedience of the
Judah-man to Jehovah; perhaps the Ephraimite
wished to form some theocratic plan with him,
and thought it needful to ascertain first whether
he was reliable — a very natural measure for an old
and cautious man who lived among hostile idola-
trous priests." This, it is supposed, explains how
he announced his punishment to the Judah-man,
but could not refuse him his pity and esteem, as
one in the same vocation. This opinion is alsc
untenable, for, according to it, the old prophet
would have taken the very opposite means to at-
tain his end (the formation of a theocratic plan)^
if his test of the fidelity and obedience of the Ju-
dah-man had Succeeded, and he had continued his
home journey without delay, the old prophet coma
164
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
not have communicated his plan to him, still less
have carried it out together with him.
4. The tragical end of the man of God out of Ju-
dah is clearly represented as a divine dispensa-
tion, in consequence of disobedience to Jehovah's
command, wholly conformable to the stern legal
character of the Old-Testament economy (cf, for
instance, Numb. xx. 24; xxvii. 14: 1 Sam. xii. 15,
&c). The question has often been asked, why the
prophet of Judah came to such an end, and the
Bethel prophet who lied to him went unpunished?
To this we may reply with another question : Who
can say to Him who is righteous in all His ways
and holy in all His works (Ps. cxlv. 17), Lord, what
doest Thou (Job ix. 12)? "We do not know what
fate God allotted to the old prophet ; he acts only a
minor part in the narrative, compared with the
prophet of Judah. It is quite wrong to assert, as
is so often done, that the sin of the lie was much
greater than the disobedience to Jehovah's com-
mand. This was distinct from Jeroboam's sin
wherewith he made Israel to sin, for it touched
the whole of the prophet-system, i. e., the institu-
tion of the office of divine guardians and wit-
nesses. By not eating or drinking in that place,
where that sin fully showed itself, he was to
prove (as well by word as by deed) that there
could be no fellowship between those who kept
Jehovah's coveuant and those who had broken it.
If he ate and drank in that place, he nullified the
important end of his mission, and deprived the
threat he had solemnly pronounced of all its force,
by appearing as one who himself did not fear to
transgress the express command of Jehovah. The
fate that overtook him was a confirmation of the
truth of the sentence he had pronounced against
Jeroboam's sin, and which sentence had appeared
doubtful through his conduct ; it showed also to
all the people, as Theodoret remarks, that if God
so punished the man of God, he would certainly
not leave Jeroboam's sin unpunished. In that
the man of God did not " come unto the sepulchre
of his fathers" (ver. 22), but was buried in Bethel,
(i. e., " in this place "), he was, even after death, a
witness against the apostasy, and his grave was a
lasting monument that reminded the apostates of
Jehovah's judgments and exhorted them to con-
version. But for the prophet-system itself, his
fate was of great significance. AVith it began the
active working (henceforth uninterrupted) of the
prophet-system in the kingdom of organized apos-
tasy : here it had a mission, on the unconditional
fulfilment of which everything depended, namely,
the constant struggle against the pseudo-theocra-
cy. The fate of the man of God contained the
strongest warning to all who should afterwards re-
ceive a similar charge, not to allow themselves to
be enticed by anything, however plausible and al-
luring it might be (ver. 18), from implicit obedi-
ence to the divine commission. This is very prob-
ably the reason that the narrative is so explicitly
detailed. As to the old prophet, his lamentation
(vers. 31, 32) evidently proceeds from a heart that
mourns over his own sin ; he says, as it were, If I
can have no more fellowship with my brother in
life, I will at least be united to him in death; our
common grave, to which I shall soon go down in
sorrow, shall be a lasting testimony against the
sin of Jeroboam.
5. Witiius says of the wonderful circumstances
which accompanied the end of the m3n of God [Mis-
cell.sacr.l. cap. 15, s. 145): Denique tot admiranda in
unum cnncurrentia effecerunt, ul vaticinium adversus
aram Betheliticam in omnium ore atque memoria
versaretur, et legatio hujus Prophetoz multo reddere-
twr conspectior et illustrior. The extraordinary na
ture of these circumstances distinguishes his end
from every ordinary accidental death, and bears
the impress of a special dispensation ; this is pe-
culiarly apparent in the fact that the corpse re-
mained untouched, instead of falling a prey to the
wild beasts {cf. chap. xiv. 11), and that it was hon-
orably carried to the grave without any pollution.
To pronounce this deeply serious and significant
narrative to be a " sensational " story (Vatke), on
account of its miraculous disclosures, seems to in-
dicate an almost frivolous character. For, tlipugh
one or another part may bear the trace of a veVbal
tradition (see Prelim. Remarks), having been writ-
ten down at a later date, yet the chief point re-
mains, and that is that this history of the two pro
phets loudly and sternly proclaims the wonderful
ways and judgments of God, and therefore lived
for hundreds of years in the mouths of the people
The fact of the man of God out of Judah being
killed by a lion is significant, inasmuch as God
carried out His judgments elsewhere by lions (2
Kings xvii. 25 sq. ; Wis. xi. 15-17), and He Him-
self, when He comes as a judge, is likened to a
lion (Isai. xxxi. 4; Jer. iv. 7; Am. iii. 8), and
those also who execute His judgments are called
lions (Jer. xxv. 30, 38; xlix. 15; 1. 44). That
the lion did not tear the dead so that he could not
be buried, is a sure evidence that all creatures
are in His hand (the Almighty's), and that they
cannot stir against His will (Heidelberg Katech.).
Cf. Job xxxviii. 11.
HOM1LETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
"Vers. 1-10. The man of God out of Judah.
(a) He comes, led by the word of God, and goes
on his dark, difficult way in faith, without taking
counsel witli flesh and blood. (6) He stands,
strong and bold, before the king, fears him not,
testifies against his sins, and announces the judg-
ment of God. (c) He makes entreaty for him, who
was about to lay hold on him, and heaps coals of
fire on his head, (d) He resists the offers of the
king, and will not be secured by bribes. The tes-
timony against the service of the false gods, (a)
It proceeded from a nameless, unknown, insigni-
ficant man who, without worldly consequence, has
nothing and knows nothing, except only the
power of the divine Word. That is the manner
of the Lord in His kingdom. He accomplishes
by means of small, insignificant instruments what
no king, with all his power, can do. The altars
of heathendom are shattered by means of the tes-
timony of fishers and tax-gatherers (1 Cor. i. 27-
29), even as were the altars of the false worship
of God by means of a poor world-despised recluse.
It was received, at first, with scorn, wrath, and
violence; but the wrath is powerless and avails
nothing; the altar is rent, and the threatening
arm is dried up. Humble entreaties then take
the place of wrath, for: Is. xxvi. 16. But, though
the withered hand be restored, the heart remains
withered as before. Physical aid is alway -eadily
received by men, whilst they shut their hearts
to the testimony against their sins.
Ver. 1. God has never, even when apostasy wa>
CHAPTER SHI. 1-34.
lfl
almost universal, suffered His Church to fail for
want of messengers, who would cry aloud in the
world, " Down with the false idols ! The Lord is
God I the Lord is God! Give God all honor I" — God
not only warns and admonishes men. as Jeroboam
by Ahijah (chap. xi. 38) before they set out in the
path of evil, but when they are already walking in
it, even then He strives with them, in order to re-
claim them, for " He has no pleasure," &c. (Ezek.
xxxiii. 11 ; Rom. ii. 4, 5). — Ver. 2. God announces
beforehand to sinners His judgments, that they
may have time and space, for repentance. Woe
to them who misemploy the respite, for the mea-
sure of their sins will be full. In the new cove-
nant we have a far weightier prophecy. Unto
us is born a Son, named Jesus, out of the House
of David ; who will come again, and pronounce
judgment upon those who know not God, and who
obey not the Gospel, &c. (2 Thess. i. 8, 9).—
Ver. 3. The miracles which the Lord our God
performs are not only proofs of His almighty
power, to amaze us, but likewise significant signs
which reveal to us His eternal decrees, and lead us
to the recognition of that heavenly truth which
sanctifies our hearts. — -Ver. 4. Cramer: Although
faithful teachers often accomplish nothing, and
fail, most signally, with men of high degree, yet
must they never on this account abandon their
office. For if thou warn him, thou hast delivered
thy soul (Ezek. iii. 19). and although the obdurate
remain untouched, yet it shall not remain with-
out fruit (Is. lv. 10). How did even this warning
work itself out, and bear fruit, after 300 years
(2 Kings xxiii. 15). Sinners, eminent by wealth
and position, will only listen to prophets who
are dumb dogs, and cannot bark (Is. lvi. 10).
When a true servant of the Lord cries out " The
axe is already laid at the root of the tree," they
arise in wrath, and cry out, Seize him ! (2 Tim.
iv. 1-5). He who attacks a servant of God, on
account of his testimony, never remains un-
punished. In vain doth the enemy stretch forth
his hand against those who are under God's pro-
tection (Job vii. 44 ; Lev. iv. 29 sq. ; Ps. xxxvii.
17). Those who will not listen to the word of
truth, God often visits with bodily pain in order
to humble them, and teach them to pray and sup-
plicate.— Ver. 6. He who desires for himself the
intercession of others must himself draw near,
humbly and penitently, to God and implore His
mercy. In this wise can we know if we are
indeed children of God, and guided by His spirit,
if we pray and supplicate for those who have
done their worst to us, and thus overcome evil
with good (1 Peter iii. 9). — Ver. 7. Osiander:
Although the ungodly often hold in high esteem
these holy men especially raised up by God, yet
they never follow their instructions and warnings
(Mark vi. 19 sq.). What boots it that we gratefully
acknowledge the material blessings which meet
us, if we leave unfulfilled the very object of these
blessings, viz., the turning of our hearts from sin
and the world to God. Unbelief and impenitence
cannot be outweighed by even the highest friend-
ship and humanity. When the world can effect
nothing more by force and threats, it seeks to
?ain its ends by plausible love-tokens. — Ver. 8,
3. There is no bribe to which the man of God
will yield: to him, that which God has com-
manded him seems, in all times and all places,
in evil as in good days, the fixed and defi-
nite plan of action. — Starke: The oest weapor
and defence against the snares of our spiritual
enemy is the word and law of God. It must
always be said : God has forbidden me (Matt,
iv. 4, 7, 10). It is far from being unimportant with
whom we eat and drink, i. e.. in fellowship and
intimate alliance (1 Cor. v. 11). — Ver. 10. If in
a certain position thou hast done what G'vl com-
manded, and left undone what he forbade, then
go on thy way peaceful and content, how daik
and unknown soever it may seem to thee.
Vers. 11-32. Von Gerlach: The history of
these two prophets offers an important view of the
relation of this class to the new order of things ;
in the prophet out of Judah we see a man of
God full of life and strength, but who yet proved
unstable in these disturbed times; in the old Isra-
elite we look upon one in whom the fire is almost
quenched — it only glimmers faintly — a type of the
expiring high and manly strength of Israel : he is
still upheld by faith in God's word rather than by
self-reliance. They both yet speak and testify i:
death. The fall and death of the man of Judal
set forth two great truths : (a) He who thinketl
he standeth, let him take heed, &c. (1 Cor. x. 12)
(He had conducted himself grandly and nobly, and
victoriously withstood a severe temptation, yet he
yielded to a lesser one. The higher a man stands
the deeper is his fall, and to whom much is given
from him will much be required. Watch ve, stand
fast in the faith, Ac. 1 Cor. xvi. 13 ; x. 1*3. Only
those who are true unto death can obtain the
crown of life.) (6) How unsearchable are his judg-
ments, and his ways past finding out. Rom. xi. 33
He who is holy in all his ways knows how to es-
tablish firmly that which is threatened with des-
truction and annihilation by human treachery and
deceit. The death and the grave of the man of
God announce in louder and more threatening ac-
cents than did his hps — the altar is rent.
Vers. 11-15. The old prophet when he hears
of the man of God hastens upon his way and spares
neither care nor pains to see him and bring him to
his house : how much time, pains, and money are
expended by the children of this world to see and
to hear what will gratify their senses, whilst they
stir neither hand nor foot to acquire that which
pertains to their peace and salvation. — Vers. 1 6-1 9.
So in indifferent ordinary matters, which God has
either ordered or forbidden, we must observe un-
erring obedience, for he who is faithful in that
which is least, &c. (Lu. xvi. 10; xix. 17). Hearken
not unto him who says: I am a prophet, declaim-
ing that he announces divine truth, whilst he de-
prives your heart of the dear and steadfast word
of God, which shall remain until heaven and earth
shall pass away. Hence the warning of the apos-
tle: Beloved, believe not, &c. (1 Johniv. 1-3), and,
But though we or an angel, &c. (Gal. i. 8). What-
ever obtains success and position by means of de-
ceit cannot be followed by a blessing, but rather
by a curse. The Scripture is not silent concerning
the sins of the man of God ; and this, not that we
may excuse our sins by his, but that we may guard
ourselves from haughtiness and spiritual pride,
and pray earnestly : Search me, 0 God, &e. (Ps.
cxxxix. 23, 24). — Vers. 20-22. The same sentence
which the old prophet pronounced upon the man
of God he pronounced upon himself, while he had
led and betrayed him to disobedience. How ofter
does the judgment which we utter for others faL
166
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
upon ourselves, when we have sinned equally or
in greater measure (Rom. ii. 1): for wherein thou,
Ac.— Vers. 23-25. The judgments of God often fall
suddenly and unexpectedly, thus proving that al-
though long delayed they are sure to come, even
as this, after the lapse of three hundred years,
was tho punishment threatened for the golden
ealf worship. — Ver. 24. see Histor. and Eth. 5. —
Vers. 25-29. The chastisement with which God
visits our fellow-men for their sins is both a
warning to reflect upon our own sins and deserts,
and a call to work active deeds of love with all our
might, in life and in death. — Vers. 30, 31. We
often for the first time, at the grave of a friend,
recognize what we possessed in him, and how we
have sinned against him. One look into the open
grave of one dear to us in life is adapted, beyond
anything, to remind us of our own end. It is a
very natural wish to rest in death near those who
were closely bound to us in life by ties of blood
or strong affection ; but yet stronger should be
the wish to die in the Lord, and enter into eternal
glory. Then, wherever in the providence of God
we may find our grave, there shall we rest in
peace, for the earth is the Lord's and the fulness
thereof (Ps. xxiv. 1).
Vers. 33, 34. When neither the severity nor
the patient long-suflering of his God brings to re-
pentance a man who walks in evil ways, he is
brought by his own sin under the sentence for the
obdurate, viz., temporal and eternal ruin (2 Tim
iii. 13; John viii. 34). — Starke: Church patron!
should not abuse their so-called jus patronatus, to
place in charge of themselves and congregations
teachers " having itching ears " (2 Tim. iv. 3), or
one who will preserve silence concerning every
kind of godlessness and misrule. Should they
do so they become followers of Jeroboam, and
must expect Jeroboam's punishment. The spirit-
ual office is put to shame if borne by men who
make a traffic of religion, and are intent only upon
filling their own hands.
[R. South : Vers. 33, 34. " The means to
strengthen or ruin the civil power is either to es-
tablish or destroy the right worship of God." . . .
The way to destroy religion is to embase the
dispensers of it. " This is to give the royal stamp
to a piece of lead." ..." It is a sad thing when
all other employments shall empty themselves into
the ministry ; when men shall repair to it not for
preferment but refuge ; like malefactors flying to
the altars only to save their lives, or like those of
Eli's race (1 Sam. ii. 36), that should come crouch-
ing, and seeking to be put into the priest's office
that they might eat a piece of bread." — E. H.]
B. — The prophecy of Ahijah against the house and kingdom of Jeroboam, and the
death of the latter.
Chap. XIV. 1-20.
I 'At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said
to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to
be the wife of Jeroboam ; and get thee to Shiloh : behold, there is Ahijah the
3 prophet, which told me that I should be king2 over this people. And take with
thee ten loaves, and cracknels," and a cruse of honey, and go to him : he shall tell
4 thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose and
went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see ; for
5 his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Ahijah,
Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son ; for
he is sick: thus and thus* shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she
6 cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was so,
when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said,
Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam ; why feignest thou thyself to be another ? for I
7 am sent to thee with heavy tidings. Go tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord
[Jehovah] God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people,
8 and made thee prince over my people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from
the house of David, and gave it thee : and yet thou hast not been as my servant
David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart,
9 to do that only which was right in mine eyes; but hast done evil above all
that were before thee : for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and mol-
10 ten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back : there-
fore, behold, I will bring evil upon6 the house of Jeroboam, and will cut otf from
Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left" in
Israel, and will take away the remnant' of the house of Jeroboam, as a man
11 taketh away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city
shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat:
12 lor the Lord [Jehovah] hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine
CHAPTER XJV. 1-20.
lC7
15 wn house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. Ana all
Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him : for he only of Jeroboam shall come to
the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord [Jeho-
14 vah] God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover, the Lord [Jehovah]
shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam
1 J that day : but what ? even now. For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is
shaken iu the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he
gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have
16 made their groves, provoking the Lord [Jehovah] to anger. And he shall give
Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to
17 sin. And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah ; and when
18 she came to the threshold of the door, the child died : and they buried him ; and
all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which
he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, be-
20 hold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. And
the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years : and he slept
with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned iu his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1.— [The Vat. Sept. omits the first twenty verses of this chapter, i. e., the whole of this section
* Ver. 2. — h^oi' ""by 13T '"• " 8Palie of me for king."
3 Ver. 8. — [Q^TIJ occurs only here and in Josh. is. 5, 12, where it is rendered in the A. V. by the adjv<;tive mouldy t
The sense of the word seems to be u that which is easily crumbled." The Alex. Sept. translates by KoAAvpiia, adding
ruts tckvois avrov. supposing them to be a sort of cakes for the children, and adds to these <7Ta0t6as, raisins.
* Ver. 5. — [The peculiar form ;-jJ21 f]J3 occurs elsewhere only in Judg. xviii. 4 and Sam. xi. 25.
* Ver. 10. — [The reading j-p^ py , found in many MSS. instead of jy^'^X i scarcely modifies the sense.
8 Ver. 10. — [The difficult words 2}T1N "1}VV are so 'iterally translated in the A. V. as to give a scarcely intelligible
sense. There is no uniformity in the ancient W. although it seems to have been understood as an expression to designate
all classes. Our author translates '* those under aire and those of age." Keil makes the sense to be •' the married and the
■bugle." The phrase occurs also xxi. 21, and 2 Kings ix. 8; xiv. 26. and is taken from Deut xxxii. 37.
~7 Ver. 10. — [The proposition ^r]^ is taken in the A. V. as if it were the noon rV"inN- So alsotne Vulg. Theie ifl
really nothing in the Heb. answering to the word remnant. On the construction of the verb with this prep, see
Oese"nius lex." a. p. -]y3 , Piel. 8.— F. G.j
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vera. 1-6. At that time, &c. As Jeroboam
was not led to a change of heart by what is re-
corded in chap, xiii., a visitation overtook him in
the form of the illness of his promising son Abijah,
who was doubtless to have been his successor.
Then, when in distress, he thought of the prophet
who once promised him the kingdom, and a "sure
house " (chap. xi. 38) ; he thought of Ahijah, whose
prophecy respecting the kingdom had been fulfilled,
and he hoped to receive from him a sure answer
to a question which concerned the continuance of
his dynasty. But, conscious that he had not ful-
filled the prophet's condition — unswerving loyalty
to Jehovah — he did not venture to go himself, but
tried to deceive him, and, as it were, to steal an
answer from him. He sends the mother, the most
natural intercessor for the son ; she is disguised,
so that no one can know her and tell the prophet
who she is. The presents that it was customary
to take (1 Sam. ix. 8) were purposely very small,
for she wished, no doubt, to appear to the prophet
as a very poor woman ; but D^pJ does not mean
"mouldy loaves" (Hess, Dereser, and others), for
ipj means punctured, spotted, but not therefore
mouldy; the Sept. gives noXfajpic, the \Tulgate
crustula. The expression VJ'V ^Dp (Ter- 4), i- «■•
his eyes stood (were set), "means the gray cata
racts, amaurosis, that take place in old age, through
paralysis of the optic nerves " (Keil) (1 Sam. iv. 15).
H"'p , ver. 6, is the same as in chap. xii. 13.
Vers. 7-9. Go tell Jeroboam, &c. Ver. 7.
The older commentators remark that the prophecy
which begins here and ends in ver. 16 takes
a rhythmical form. It has ten verses (vers. 7-16),
five of which make one section (vers. 7-11 and
12-16) ; the first section is in 3 + 2. and the second
in 2 + 3 verses. Jeroboam had sinned above all
that were before him (ver. 9) ; for none, whether
king, judge, or leader, had made an unlawful wor-
ship a State institution, and forcibly maintained it
to gratify lust of power and selfishness ; Solomon
had only permitted the idolatrous worship, and
that first to his already idolatrous wives. niDDD ,
the same as in Deut. ix. 12 ; Jud. xvii. 3, 4, molter,
images. Worship of images is here placed on a
level with worship of idols, because it involuntarily
leads to it (see Hist, and Eth. on chap. xii. 28).
"The expression, hast cast me (God) behind thy
back, which occurs nowhere else but in Ezek.
xxiii. 35, is the strongest possible phraseology to
denote intentional contempt of God — the opposite
L6S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
fix m having God before one's eyes ; and it is
stronger than 'cast Thy law behind their backs'
\eh. ix. 26 " (Keil).
Vers. 10-12. Therefore behold, I will bring
evil, ver. 1 0. The expression " that pisseth
against the wall " in 1 Sam. xxv. 22 (1 Kings xvi.
11 ; xxi. 21 ; 2 Kings ix. 8), was, no doubt, origi-
nally used of dogs, and was not an honorable way
of alluding to the male sex ; for it is employed in
all these passages only of those who are to be
cast away and rooted out. The words "nVl?
31iyi , which are mostly connected with it, are
epexegetical ; literally, the detained, and those set
free, which Seb. Schmidt rightly interprets puer,
qui domi adhuc detinetur et qui emcmcipatws est ; the
male descendants not of age are under guardians
(2 Kings x. 1, 5 ; 1 Ghron. xxvii. 32). This is the
only explanation which suits the word ^N"l""3 ,
which " refers to an intruded, or already assumed
Bhare in public life " (Thenius) ; all the male de-
scendants of the king, even the minors, were
threatened with destruction. Luther's translation,
" those shut up and forsaken in Israel," is de-
cidedly erroneous. " Behind the house of Jero-
boam " means: as often as a new scion arises I
shall take it away, &c. (cf. Isai. xiv. 23). The Vul-
gate which Luther followed is wroug: mundabn
reliquias domus Jeroleam. The threat reaches its
climax in ver. 11, which foretells the frightful
and disgraceful manner of the destruction. To
remain unburied was an intolerable thought to the
Hebrews; and in all the ancient world it was ac-
counted the severest disgrace, because in such
cases the corpse became the prey of the birds or
of wild beasts, or of the voracious dogs in the
East, that ran wild and were reckoned uaclean.
According to Dent, xxviii. 26 this punishment was
a divine curse. The same threat occurs elsewhere,
especially in Jeremiah (chap. xvi. 4 ; xxi. 24 ;
Ezek. xxix. 5 ; xxxix. 17 ; Jer. vii. 33 ; viii. 2 ; ix.
22; xii. 9; xiv. 16). cf. Winer R.- W.-B. I. s. 148.
The '3 at the end is to heighten the effect, as else-
where, and is = irno (Ewald, Lehrb. der hebr.
Sprache § 330 6) ; yes, Jehovah will fulfil this as
well as the former prophecy of Jeroboam's eleva-
tion.
Vers. 13-14. Some good thing toward the
Lord God, ver. 13. nirv i)N is not to be con-
nected with XSOJ , an|l then translated as the
Vulgate has it, a domino (Thenius) ; but it means
towards, or in relation to, Jehovah (cf. 2 Kings vi.
11). The whole context shows that it can scarcely
naea;. anything else than that this son, from whom
the king and people hoped so much, was inclined
to the pure and lawful worship of Jehovah. The
Rabbins have a fable that he disobeyed his father's
command to hinder people from travelling to Jeru-
salem to keep the feasts, and that he even removed
obstructions in the road. The abrupt words in
ver. 14: nnV"D3 TO1 are obscure, and are very
variously explained. Thenius adopts the view of
the Chald. : He shall cut off the house of Jeroboam
" that which now (lives), and that which shall be
(born) to it." But the athnach with QVn as well as
with DO contradicts this, which means not quod but
quid. The meaning seems to be: Jehovah wii'
raise up a king, who at a certain period shall ca
oft' the house of Jeroboam ; what now occurs (the
death of the boy) is the sign and beginning of this
complete destruction. The interrogatory fora'
makes the words more impressive. The Hirscl>
berger Bible says: "And what shall I say (or
that coming day) ? It is even now come ; " Kei.
also; "but what (sc. say I)? even now (vis. he hai
raised him up)."
Vers. 14-16. For the Lord shall smite Israel
ver. 15. Smiting refers to the wasting of Israe.
by hostile nations, before the Assyrian captivity.
A " reed " continually waves to and fro in water,
as it cannot resist the force of the wind and waves
" The image is very striking, for Israel was
brought so low, that every political influence bore
it along" (Thenius). The " scatter ag" took plac*
in the captivity (2 Kings xv. 29; xvii. 23; xviii
11)- D,")t;iN does not mean groves (Luther), but
the statues of the female deity, elsewhere called As-
tarte (see above on chap. xi. 5), who stands over
against Baal, the Canaanitish (Phoenician) male
deity. These statues were wooden (upright tree-
stems) ; the worship was licentious (Judg. iii. 7 -r
yi. 25 sq. ; 2 Kings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xxiii. i2 sq.). K
is not expressly said that images of Astarte were
erected under Jeroboam, but ver. 23 remarks that,
this was done in Judah under Rehoboam, how
much more then in Israel. The Astarte worship
existed in the time of the Judges (cf. on the place).
Jeroboam's image-worship is here regarded as a
continual evil and source of all ruin. Keil'a
assertion that "QviK*S stands for any idols,.
among which the golden calves are to be num-
bered," is not susceptible of proof.
Vers. 17-18. And Jeroboam's wife ... to
Tirzah, ver. ]7. According to Josh. xii. 24, Tir
zah was originally a Canaanitish royal city, situ
ated in a beautiful district (Eccle. vi. 4). "We can-
not ascertain its precise situation ; it was probably
nearShechem; Robinson thinks it was rather north
of Mount Ebal ; former travellers state that they
found a Tersah on a high mountain, three hours'
distance east of Samaria (cf. Winer, R.- W.-B. II. s.
613). According to chap. xii. 25, Shechem was the
residence of Jeroboam ; and he must either have
changed it afterwards to Tirzah, or the latter
must have been only a summer residence. Penuel.
mentioned above, was not a place of residence but
a fortress ; so that the present passage does not
at all contradict that one, as Thenius thinks The
kings Baasha and Asa and Elah resided at Tirzah
(chap, xv 21, 33; xvi. 8).
Vers. 19-20. The rest of the acts of Jero-
boam, Ac, ver. 19. For the book of the contem-
poraneous history of the kings of Israel see Intru-
duction § 2. What is only alluded to by our
author, in the words " how he warred," is fully
given by the Chronicler, from the book of the pro-
phet Iddo ; 2 Chron. xiii. 2-20. This is an account
of a great defeat of Jeroboam by king Abijah, an'j
it says at the end : " and the Lord struck him
OinDJ'l), and he died." Bertheau's supposition
that this refers to the defeat itself, is scarcely-
right ; neither can it mean a sudden death (Tht»
nius), but, as in 2 Chron. xxi. 18, a severe and pain
ful illness.
CHAPTER XIV. 1-20.
16fc
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. From the long reign {twenty-two years) of Jero-
btam, whose history closes with the present section, our
ajthor only selects those deeds that bear on his
apostasy from the fundamental law of Israel, i. e.,
on " the sin wherewith he made Israel to sin."
He passes over all the rest that Jeroboam did as
a shrewd and powerful regent or warrior, because
it was of far less importance to the history of the
kingdom and of the entire theocracy than that sin
which especially characterized his government,
and the results of which were felt for hundreds of
years. David was the king who faithfully kept
the fundamental law, and was therefore the type
of a theocratic king, but Jeroboam was the king
who openly broke the fundamental law, made the
bull-worship the religion of the State, and used it as
a bulwark of his kingdom over against Judah. He
was the real cause of the apostasy of all the after
kings of the ten tribes, for they all regarded it as
the support of their power, and as a firm wall of
separation between both kingdoms. This is the
reason why the account of his reign significantly
closes with the divine sentence on him and the
apostate kingdom. It was a divine dispensation
that he himself, after all warnings and threaten-
ings had been in vain, called forth this divine sen-
tence by the deceitful means he took, and even
from the very prophet who had announced to him
his future elevation ; so that he could judge from
the fulfilment of that announcement that the sen-
tence would also come to pass. As his sin was the
type of the sin of all succeeding kings and of the
whole kingdom, so Ahijah's prediction is the type
of all succeeding predictions regarding this king-
dom ; it forms the key-tone that rings through all
of them (chap. xvi. 4 ; xxi. 23 ; xxii 28 ; 2 Kings
ix. 36).
2. Ahijah's prophecy, in form as well as in con-
tents (cf. above on ver. 7) is a perfectly connected
whole. It refers back (ver. 7, 8) to the former pre-
diction, chap. xi. 30, particularly to ver. 37 sg.
After, in ver. 8, it is stated in a general way that
Jeroboam did not follow David's example, which
was the condition imposed upon him. Ver. 9
declares how he sinned; then follows, in vers.
10 and 1 1, the announcement of the punish-
ment, which was to be a shameful destruction of
his house; vers. 12 and 13 apply this to the
heir-apparent, to the sick and only son, who
was, indeed, also to die. but he was not to
perish so disgracefully, because some " good
thing" was found in him. Vers. 10 and 11 are
repeated in ver. 14, and it is added who is to carry
out this sentence ; but as Jeroboam had drawn all
Israel into his sin, and they had consented thereto,
the prophecy finally proceeds in vers. 15, 16 to deal
with guilty Israel, pronouncing its disastrous future
and final ruin. This alone shows how unfounded
the assertion of the recent criticism is, that the
form of the prediction, as it now is, is not the ori-
ginal. According to Ewald, vers. 9 and 15 are
" clearly an addition of the later (i. e., fifth Deute-
ronomical) author; " the style of ver. 9 is peculiar
to this Tuthor, and ver. 15 interrupts the connec-
tion. But ver. 9 is an essential part of the whole,
and its omission would leave a serious gap ; the
following sentence of punishment is founded on
what ver. 9 states. Just as little does ver. 15 break
the connection ; it rather forms the object and acme
of the prediction, pronouncing the natural and
necessary end of Jeroboam's sin. To take away
this conclusion is to break off the point of the
whole. Thenius only objects to the second hal/
of ver. 15, on account of the expression ; " beyond
the river ; " this he thinks is from an " elaborator.'
But the Euphrates is generally given as I le ex-
treme limit of the land that was promised to the
fathers (Gen. xv. 18; Ex. xxiii. 31 ; Deut. i. 7 ; xi.
24; Josh. i. 3, 4; Ps. lxxx. 12). The prophet,
when he wished to say that Israel should lose the
land given to their fathers, could scarcely use any
other form of expression than that they should be
sent away beyond the river; a case which Solo-
mon foresaw as possible (see above). If criticism
did not take it for granted that any genuine pre-
diction is impossible, it would not think of doubt-
ing the authenticity of this. That the prophet pre-
dicted the cutting off of Jeroboam's house, and the
destruction of the kingdom of Israel, is as little to
be doubted as the prediction connected with it, that
of Ahijah's death, whom the blind prophet had not
even seen.
3. Ahijah's prophecy repeatedly describes the con-
sequence and working of " Jeroboam's sin " (vers. 9
and 15) in the words, provoked the Lord to anger.
This expression occurs in other parts of the Old
Testament also (chap. xiv. 22; xvi. 2, 7, 13; xxi.
22; 2 Kings xvii. 11, 17; xxiii. 26 ; Deut. iv. 25 ;
xxxi. 29; xxxii. 16, 21; 2 Chron. xxiii. 25; Ezek.
viii. 17; xvi. 26: Ps. lxxviii. 58); it by no means
presupposes rude, authropopathical ideas of the
nature of God, but is founded on perfectly just
views of the deity. The two expressions for Jeho-
vah's anger, D1'3 and jop, which are cited in the
above passages, sometimes interchanged and
sometimes used synonymously, are employed only
in reference to a particular sin, i. e., apostasy from
Jehovah through idolatry or image-worship, and
never of sin in general ; and they have, therefore,
direct reference to the fundamental law, the cove-
nant, in which this sin is forbidden, with the addi-
tion, " for the Lord thy God is a N3p ?H ," i. e., a
jealous God. Jehovah had from love chosen Israel
out of all peoples to be His people, and had made
a covenant with them (Ex. xix. 4, 5 ; Deut, iv. 36-
40 ; vii. 6-13 ; x. 14, 15 ; Ps. xlvii. 5 ; Jer. xxxi. 3),
that they should be a holy people, even as He is
holy (Lev. xix. 2). The holy love of Jehovah to
his people is so great and strong that each depart-
ure of Israel from the covenant excites His "jeal-
ousy;" Jehovah, "the holy God," is, as such, also
"a jealous God " (Josh. xxiv. 19), and He would
appear as faithless and unholy if He were indiffer-
ent to idolatry and image-worship, which are
breaches of the covenant, and therefore called
adultery and whoredom (Jer. iii. 9, and many other
places). Offence against the holy love of God
awakens His jealousy, which manifests itself in
retributive justice, i. e., it provokes Him to anger.
" Just anger can only be conceived of as closely
united with mercy. The Old Testament proclaims
this high and blessed truth with a voice above
that of man. This is its greatest excellence, and
conspicuously with it is to be seen its peculiai
sublimity, which consists in its preaching at one
and the same time the all-consuming wrath of God
and the ardor of His mercy, surpassing infinitely
that of a mother. Both are closely and inseparabij
interwoven on every page, the thunder of God'i
170
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
wrath and the quickening spring-breath of His
mercy. Classical antiquity had no genuine, awe-
inspiring knowledge of divine anger, neither had it
any living consciousness of the divine mercy "
(Rothe, Theologische Ethik II. s. 203).
4. The divine judgments announced in Ahijah's
prediction, namely, cutting off Jeroboam's house,
and dispersion of Israel out of the good land given
to their fathers, correspond with the nature of the
old covenant, which has its form in the bodily and
in the temporal. As natural descent and deriva-
tion was the condition of belonging to the chosen
covenant people, so the curse and blessing, good
and evil bound up with the covenant relation, were
of a material, temporal nature. As natural descent
determined a right to partake of the covenant with
Jehovah, so also natural posterity was blessing
and peace, while the dying out or cutting off of a
race was a curse and misfortune. This is the rea-
son why David, who was faithful to the covenant,
was promised that he should always have a light,
i. e., a house forever (chap, xi. 36; xv. 4; 2 Sam.
xxi. 17), while the speedy and shameful extinction
of his house was announced to the unfaithful Jero-
boam. So also the ''good laud," flowing with milk
and honey, was promised to the whole of the chosen
people ; but when they broke the covenant and
partook of Jeroboam's sin they were deprived of
the good land, were scattered in strange lands, and
ceased to be a nation, which was to them the great-
est punishment.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-20. The last divine warning to Jerobo-
am, (a) through the illness of his son, (b) through the
prediction of the prophet. Jeroboam in need and
in distress, (a) He is only concerned about the tak-
ing away of the need and the lifting off of the pun-
ishment, not in the renunciation of his sin and the
conversion of the heart, which should have been
the result of his need, as it is the case now with so
many, (ft) He seeks consolation and help, not at the
hands of his false priests and spiritual hirelings,
whom he himself did not trust, but from the proph-
et, about whom he did not long trouble himself after
he had nothing to ask. Thus it is always. In
need and necessity unbelievers and the children of
this world seek for consolation and comfort from a
spiritual preacher, and despise the finery of the
hirelings who care only for the wool and not for
the sheep, (c) He does not himself apply to the
prophet, because he has an evil conscience, end he
sends his wife in a disguise, for before the world
he does not wish to be viewed as one who cares
much for prophets. This is the folly of the wise
of this world, that they suppose they can deceive
Sod as they deceive men. But the Lord sees what
is concealed in the darkness, and gives to every
one what he has deserved.
Yer. 1. When the threatening, warning word
of God bears no fruit, God at last sends the cross,
especially the cross in the household, to humble
us, to bring us to a knowledge of our sins, and to
lead us to the cross of Christ. — Starke: God gen-
erally lays hold upon men in those respects where
it is most grievous to them (2 Sam. xii. 14; John
iv. 47). — Ver. 2 Calw. B. : Jeroboam did not wish
to be seen having anything to do with the prophet,
by any one. Worldly people are ashamed to make
U known that they believe in anything, even if it be
a superstitious faith. If God send thee necessity
and distress, take no by-ways, but go to Him and
pour out thine heart before Him; He hears al"
who call upon Him, all who earnestly cry unto
Him. Disguise thyself, that no one mark who anQ
what thou art ! This is the bad advice wnicft the
world gives for the conduct of life, and which
passes curreut with it as the true wisdom thereof.
How social life is vitiated by this sin, by the en-
deavor to seem before people rather than to be —
often it is like a masquerade ! It is even more
deceived by actions, by mien and manner, than by
words. The art of disguise corrupts man in the
profoundest ground of his being, and transforms
him into an incarnate lie. — Vers. 3, 4. Calw. B. :
The little bit of faith which worldly people often
exhibit is but part of their selfishness. . . . The
foreknowledge of the future in the affairs of dady
life man would gladly possess, because he will not
yield himself, in faith, to the will of God. Hence
flow often superstition, fortune-telling, dream-in-
terpretation, astrology, both among the heathens as
well as among Christians. — Cramer: The gift of
God neither should nor can be sold or bought for
money. As a rule, unbelief is bound with super-
stition. Jeroboam did not believe when God spoke
to him by word and deed (chap, xiii.), and yet he
believed that by means of a few loaves and cakes
he could persuade God to reveal the future to
him. [The history of religion in modern times
confirms and illustrates this.]
Vers. 4-6. The wife of Jeroboam before the
prophet, (a) She means to deceive the aged
blind prophet by a disguise, but the Lord gives
him sight (Ps. clvi. 8). He gives strength to the
weary and power to the feeble. The Lord ever
gives sight to His true servants, so that the world
cannot deceive and blind them, (b) She hopes, by
her present, to secure the desired answer, but, at
the hour, the Lord gives him the word he shall
speak ; it is the Spirit of God who speaks through
him (Matt. x. 19 sq,). A true servant of God
proclaims the word of truth to every one, without
respect of persons, no matter how hard it be for
him. This often is his hard yet sacred duty. — Vers.
7-16. Ahijah's sermon of repentance and retribu-
tion, (a) Against Jeroboam, who corrupted Isra-
el, (ft) Against Israel, allowing themselves to be
corrupted. — Ver. 7 sq. How often it happens that
the very ones whom God raises from the dust, and
to whom He gives the largest favors, turn their
back upon and forget Him. So Jeroboam, so Is-
rael. Deut. xxxii. 6. — Vers. 10, 15. Not a blessing
but a curse rests upon a house which turns its
back upon the Lord and His commandments. And
so also a people who forget the faith of their fa-
thers lose all territory, are given up to all convul-
sions from within aud from without, and go to de
struction. Sin is the destruction of the peoph-
(Heb. x. 28-30.)— Vers. 12, 13. The death of a be-
loved child, for whom God has prepared good, is
often the only and the supreme means of turning
away the heart of the parents from sin and the
world, and of winning them to the life in God to
which they are strangers. For many a child it is
a divine blessing when it is early taken out of this
vain world and called away from surroundings in
which there is danger of the corruption both of
soul and body. — Ver. 15. Israel, it is thins own
sin that thou hast destroyed thyself. — Ver. 16. If
the Lord say, — he who offeuds one of the least of
CHAPTER XIV. 21-31.
171
these, Ac, &c. (Matt, xviii. 6), what will He say to
those who give offence to an entire people, at the
head of which they stand, through unbelief and
immorality, and beguile them into an apostasy
from the living God? — Ver. 18. What the Saviour
said to those who bewailed Him on His way to
death, Weep not for me, but, &c. (Luke xxiii. 28),
might have been said to the whole people Israel,
and is true to-day of so many who are weeping
over a grave. We should carry the dead in whom
good before God is found with honor to their rest
in the grave.
Vers. 19, 20. The Scripture says (Prov. x. 7),
The memory of the just is blessed, but the name
of the godless will perish (rot). The first is true
of David, the last of Jeroboam, whose name is not
like an ointment poured out (i. e., diffusing sweet
perfume, Eccle. i. 3), but is a savor of death unto
death ; for with his name, for all the future, this
word is connected: who sinned and made Israel to
sin. Of what use is it to have worn a worldly
crown two and twenty years, to have striven and
fought for it, when the crown of life does not suc-
ceed it, which they alone obtain who are faithful
unto death (Rev. ii. 10) ?
THIRD SECTION.
THE KINGDOM IN JUDAH UNDER REHOBOAM, ABIJAM, AND ASA.
(Chap. XTV. 21.— XV. 24.)
A. — The Rule of Rehoboam.
Chap. XIV. 21-31.
21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty
and one1 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in
Jerusalem, the city which the Lord [Jehovah] did choose out of all the tribes ot
Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammoni-
22 tess. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah], and they provoked
him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their
23 fathers had done. For they2 also built them high places, and images [pillars]3,
24 and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were
also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of
the nations which the Lord [Jehovah] cast out before the children of Israel.
25 And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of
26 Egypt came up against Jerusalem : and he took away the treasures of the house
of the Lord [Jehovah], and the treasures of the king's house ; he even took away
27 all: and he took away all the shields of gold which* Solomon had made. And.
king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them unto
the hands of the chief6 of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house.
28 And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord [Jehovah], that
29 the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard-chamber. Now the
rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the
30 book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between
31 Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers,
and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name
was Naamah an Amnionitess.0 And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 21.— [Our author substitutes the number twenty-one in his translation, the reasons for which see in the Exeg.
Coin. On the other hand, the entire agreement of the W. and MSS. is a strong argument for the text as it stands. Kell
iecldes against the proposed alteration.
9 Ver. 28. — [ nT3n~DJ OS^I "and they, even they built," (. e., the Jews aB well as the Israelites.
" Ver. 23.— [ J"p,3i"Q = monumental pillars for religious purposes. Sept., tmJAas. See the Exeg. Com.
4 Ver. 26. — [The Vat. Sept. thus enlarges the close of ver. 26 : shields of gold which David received of the hand of tfca
children of Adrazaar. king of Souba, and brought them into Jerusalem, all the things which he received, the arms of gol<
which Solomon made, and carried them into Egypt.
* Ver. 27. — [The Heb.. followed by all the W., has the plural. The A. V. must have used " chief" collectively.
6 Ver. 31. — [The Vat. Sept., as also the Syr., omits the foregoing clause, which is repeated from vel 21.— F. G.]
172
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 21. Twenty and one years old was Re-
hoboam. [Rehoboam was forty and one years
old. — Eng. Ver.] The usual reading is " forty and
one." Although the Chronicler (2 xii. 13) and all
translations give the latter, and only some MSS.
give twenty and one, yet this is indisputably the
right reading. For (a) in chap. xii. 8, 10 (2 Chron.
x. 8, 10), Rehoboam's companions at the time of
his accession are called 0y~\y , which generally
mean infants, or at most youths, but never men
of forty. The older commentators resorted to the
very strange and far-fetched supposition that the
young men mentioned in chap. xii. were not young
in years but in understanding. Thenius thinks
that their youth was relative as compared with the
age of the "'old men;" but men in ripe manhood
of one and forty years cannot be called D'"!?' in
any case. (6) Regarding the son of Rehoboam,
Abijah, 2 Chron. xiii. 7, says, the insurrection of
Jeroboam and the separation of the ten tribes took
place because his (Abijah's) father was still a boy,
"IJ?J , and 33p-Tl (of a weak, tender heart, cf.
Gen. xxxiii. 1 3). The son wishes to explain the con-
duct of his father by his youthful age ; but he
could not possibly speak thus of a man forty-one
years old. Besides, chap. xii. 6 sq. agrees per-
fectly with the description of Rehoboam's con-
duct, (c) If Rehoboam were forty-one years old
at the death of Solomon, who reigned forty years
(chap. xi. 42), Solomon must have married during
David's life-time, and have married an Ammoni-
tes?, which was contrary to the law ; and, as he
calls himself only a lyj (chap. iii. 7) when lie had
become king, lie must have had a son in about his
18th year. There is nothing, however, of all this
in the history ; on the contrary, it says expressly
that he married a daughter of Pharaoh after he
became king, and she was the real queen (chap,
iii. 1 : ix. 24) ; he did not take Canaanitish wives
till later (chap. xL 1 sq.). All these positive his-
torical evidences for the youth of Rehoboam at
his accession cannot be disproved and rejected on
account of a mere numerical figure, though it
were originally in the text. We must, therefore,
believe, like Capellus and Le Clerc, that the nume-
ral signs were changed, as so often happens, viz.,
that of o with 3; this obviates all difficulties, and
there is no passage that in the least contradicts it.
The name and descent of the mother are expressly
given, because the queen-mother was very much
esteemed and very influential, as the n~P33 , just as
the sultana Walida is now in the Turkish empire.
The text also subsequently gives the name of the
queen-mothers, but only of those belonging to the
Judah-kings (chap. xv". 2, 13 ; xxii. 42, Ac). The
reason of the words, in Jerusalem, the city which the
Lord did choose, &c, is found in the following vers.
22 and 24, in connection with which they mean:
the residence of Jeroboam was indeed the city
where Jehovah's dwelling stood, which was the
centre of the whole theocracy, but even here the
people fell into idolatry. For the expression: put
His name there, see above on chap. vi.
Vers. 23-24. And Judah did evil, Ac. Even
m the times of the judges the apostasy was never
fo great in Judah as it was now under Reho-
boam. For the expression: provoke to jealousy,
see above. For ni?03 see on chap. iii. 2. and fot
D'IB'X see on ver. 15. The ni25i'D are also men-
tioned in Ex. xxxiv. 13; Deut. vii. 5: xii. 3;
xvi. 21 sq., in connection with the Astarte-images ;
from which passages it appears that the former
were made of stone, and the latter of wood.
~2£S from 2"S3 means something that is mad?
fast or placed firmly, and refers to monuments
(Ex. xxviii. 18, 22; xxxi. 13; xxxv. 14, 20; Ex
xxiv. 4; 2 Sam. xviii. 18). As they were only
used to commemorate a divine appearance and re-
velation (Gen. xxviii. 18), meu easily came to pay
them divine honor, and in the heathen world they
passed into regular idols (Lev. xxvi. 1). Whilst
the wooden monuments (Astarte) represented the
female nature-divinity, the stone pillars repre-
sented the male deity, i. e., Baal ; hence J"Di"D
^JQn (2 Kings iii. 2; cf. x. 26; xviii. 4; xxiii.
14). The J"I1D3 were erected on hills and moun-
tains, the idols of the male and female divinities
were placed under thick shady trees, as appears
from Hos. iv. 13, cf. Deut. xii. 2 ; Jer. ii. 20 ; iii. 6 ;
xvii. 2. That tTp (ver. 24), used collectively, does
not mean female (Ewald, Thenius), but only male
prostitutes, is quite evident from chap. xv. 12
(D'Bnpn) and Deut. xxiii. 18; the author men-
tions as the greatest excess of idolatry, that men,
or boys allowed themselves to be prostituted in
honor of the gods. There is no reason to suppose,
as Keil does, that they were such " as had cas-
trated themselves in a fit of religious frenzy."
The words "in the land" (cf. with chap. xv. 12)
shows that they were not natives (Israelites or
Judeans), but strangers, Canaanites or Phoenicians
who had settled in the land for unlawful gain.
Vers. 25-26. Shishak came up, ver. 25. For this
king see on chap. xi. 40. 2 Chron. xii. 2-8 gives a
further account of his invasion of Judah. We do
not know the cause : the Rabbins think it was
only a robber expedition. As Jeroboam had so-
journed as a refugee with Shishak (according to an
addition of the Sept. to chap. xii. 24, he had even
married the daughter of the latter), it has been
supposed that he was induced to undertake the
war by Jeroboam. " It can scarcely be doubted
that the king with a Jewish countenance on one
of the monuments at Carnac (see Winer, R.-W.-
B. II. s. 311, 474) was Rehoboam. if Champollion
was correct in reading Sheshouk (Precis du syst.
hieroglyph, p. 204)," Thenius. ^3i"pnX1 i i.e., all
that he found: took the shields, &c. (chap. x. 16).
These were of peculiarly high value. According
to the connection, the author means, "That Judah
was given over into the power of the heathen was
the punishment that speedily followed their fall
into heathen abominations " (Keil).
Vers. 27-28. King Rehoboam made, &c ,
ver. 27. The D"V"I are the royal guards (see above
on chap. i. 38), who were also named celeres with
Romulus (Liv. i. 14). i'hey kept watch at the
palace gate (see or. 2 Kings xi. 6) and accompanied
the king in solemn procession, as often as he
went to the temple; it was only then that they
bore these shields and :.ot on ordinary ooeasioni
CHAPTER XIV. 21-31.
17o
Nn does not mean exactly the " guard-room," but
any place where the runners were staying. The
costly golden shields which Solomon had made
were in the house of the forest of Lebanon (chap,
x. 17), but it is doubtful whether the brazen
shields of Rehoboam were only kept in the xn ,
being considered as " of no value " (Thenius).
Vers. 29-31. The rest of the acts, &e. What
2 Chron. xi. relates of the cities fortified by Reho-
boam, of the emigration of priests and those faith-
ful to Jehovah to the Judah-territory, and of the
family relations of Rehoboam, is certainly derived
from ancient historical sources, probably from
those mentioned in 2 Chron. xii. 15 (Thenius).
As also the account of the Chronicles gives no
details of a regular war of Rehoboam with Jero-
boam, mrbo here ver. 30, and ntonl?9 2 Chron.
xii. 15 only refer " to the hostile position of both
Kingdoms as manifested in single acts " (Winer),
therefore not to a warlike disposition simply. —
Thenius thinks that the repetition of the conclud-
ing words of ver. 21 (the name of his mother, &c.)
" was caused by a fault in the copyist that cannot
be accounted for." This, however, is very improb-
able, for why should just these words have been
taken by a copyist from ver. 21, have been repeated
here, and then always have remained ? The re-
petition appears rather to have been intentional,
in order to show once more at the end of the ac-
count of Rehoboam that the mother of this king
was descended from that rough heathenish peo-
ple, the Ammonites, who were always hostile to
Israel and that under Solomon the worship of
Moloch, the " abomination of the Ammonites," was
brought by her to Jerusalem (chap. xi. 7) and
Buffered to remain for her by his son Rehoboam.
This appears also to be meant by 2 Chron. xii.
14, in connection with ver. 13.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. We learn only a few facts from these books re-
garding king Rehoboam and his reign, and from
those few no certain conclusion can be drawn re-
garding his relation to the fundamental law of
Israel ; the general phrase also which expresses
the relation to Jehovah, and which always imme-
diately follows the account of the personal cir-
cumstances of all the later kings (cf. chap. xv. ?,
11, 25, 34, &,c.) is omitted here. But Chron. con-
cludes its rather more explicit account with the
words, "he did evil, because he prepared not his
heart to seek the Lord (pan)," 2 Chron. xii. 14 ;
and the remark is made before (ver. 1), that "he
forsook the law of the Lord." We are not to con-
clude from this, however, that he himself served
idols; on the contrary, it is emphatically said that,
in solemn procession, accompanied by his whole
body-guard, he continually visited the temple, and
thus showed himself publicly to all the people as
a worshipper of Jehovah. As such he showed
himself also when Shishak made war against him
(2 Chron. xii. 6, 12) But he forsook the law in
so far that he did not obey its injunctions ; he suf-
fered idolatrous worship in Jerusalem and did
nothing towards exterminating it. This was
" the evil " he was accused of; he continued
Jehovah's servant, but he wanted firmness and
decision. Sometimes fiery and arrogant, some-
limes yielding and weak, he was unstable, as he
had shown himself in Shechem at the commence-
ment of his reign (chap. xii. 5-9, 18, 21); he seems
also to have been under the influence of his idol
atrous mother (see on ver. 31) and wife (chap
xv. 13), and of his many wives (2 Chron. xi. 21)
Menzel (Staats- und Kel.-Gesch., s. 236) is wholly
wrong in referring, in his superficial way, the ex-
pression nirWIX tlVTP (2 Chron. xii. 14) which
he translates " to ask the Lord," to " the relation
of the king to the priesthood, and in that he is
blamed for not inquiring of the Lord, we can per-
ceive that Rehoboam had not been led, by the
misfortune which had befallen him, to accord
greater consideration to the priesthood than they
had enjoyed under his predecessors." That ex-
pression denotes rather, as Dietrich very justly re-
marks ( Zu Gesenius W.- B. s. v.), " the striving of the
spirit after God, the inward seeking, especially in
prayer, and calling upon Him ; cf. Isai. lv. 6 ; lviii.
2 ; Jer. xxix. 13 ; 2 Chron. xv. 2, 14. 6 ; Hos. x.
12; Ps. xiv. 2." That the priesthood under Re-
hoboam strove for greater consideration than
they had under David (for instance) is a pure in-
vention ; but we see from chap. xii. 22-24 and
2 Chron. xii. 5, 6, 12, that Rehoboam did not re-
sist or act in opposition to the prophetical word.
2. Tlte idolatrous worship that commenced in Ju~
dah under Rehoboam was not begun by the latter
but by the people; for ver. 22 does not say. he did
evil in the sight of the Lord, as is said of other
kings, but : Judah did, 4c. This seems remark-
able, because Judah had the central sanctuary in
their midst, and the priests and levites : indeed all
the true worshippers of Jehovah had left the apos-
tate ten tribes and had gone to Judah, by which
the kingdom of Jeroboam was weakened, but that
of Rehoboam strengthened (2 Chron. xi. 13-17).
That Judah, nevertheless, fell so deeply was owing
to an afnir-inrluence of the condition of things
under Solomon's reign, and particularly the latter
part of the same. Commerce and intercourse with
foreign nations, acquaintance with their customs
and mode of life, great riches and uninterrupted
peace, had exercised an enervating and demoraliz-
ing influence. Ease, superfluity, and luxury grad-
ually undermined serious thought, and brought
forth lukewarmness, indifference, and even aver-
sion to the strict covenant-law : what was written
in Deut. xxxii. 15 (Hos. xiii. 6) came to pass.
Added to this, Solomon at last removed every ob-
stacle to the strange heathen-worship of his wives,
so that although Jerusalem was the centre of the
Jehovah-worship, it was at the same time the spot
where the most various national gods were adored,
and where their unchaste worship found a ready
soil (see on chap. xi. 1-8). Immediately after So>
lomon's death this " religious liberty " could onlj
have been abolished by force and iron severity,
but the times were not adapted for this task, and
still less was Ms successor, Rehoboam, the son of
the Ammonitess,the33S-q-|l nyj (2 Chron. xiii. 7);
so that idolatry and immorality rather increased
than decreased, and the fall of Judah seems to
have been even deeper than that of Israel. How-
ever, the condition of Judah was not so bad as the
condition of Israel in this respect; as in the
latter, the breach of the fundamental law had be-
come the State religion and institution of the
kingdom, the separate existence of which da
174
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
pended on the new worship ; whilst in Judah the
apostasy was only permitted, and the lawful wor-
ship of Jehovah had always a firm footing at the
central sanctuary. Many good elements also still
existed in Judah (2 Chron. xx. 12). Judah always
repented as often as they fell into idolatry, and they
continued to be the guardian of the law, whilst
Israel, on the contrary, never completely returned
to the right way.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 21-30. The deep fall of Judah: (o)
Whence it came (Deut. xxxii. 15 ; Hosea xiii. 6;
Prov. xxx. 9 — see Hist, and Ethic. 2) ; whither
it led (Rom. i. 25-28). Amongst individual men as
in entire communities, cities, and nations, revolt
against the living God results from haughtiness,
over-prosperity, and carnal security, bringing as
inevitable consequences, poverty, ruin, and mis-
fortune in war. High as stood Judah under David
and Solomon, so deep in proportion did it sink un-
der Rehoboam. — Vers. 21, 22. Wherever God has
a, house, the devil always builds a chapel close at
hand. How often does it happen that cities and
countries, whence it has been ordaiaed by God
that the light of His knowledge should shine forth,
have become the seat alike of superstition and of
scepticism, and thus infinitely sink below the level
of those lands which have never heard His blessed
word. When an individual man, or a whole
community and people, who have received and ac-
knowledged the truth, again depart from it, then
is their last state worse than their first (Isa. xi.
2G). — Vers. 23, 24. Wherever profligacy and for-
nication are in the ascendant, there is true hea-
thendom, how many soever may be the churches
King Rehoboam, too, sinned grievously in this
wise — he, although not himself au idol-worshipper,
yet failed as a servant of God, in that he did not
oppose idol-worship with all his might, and even
regarded it as having equal rights with the service
of the true God— even, alas, as we find Christian
sovereigns who permit unbelief and revolt from the
truth to rank upon a level with faith and confes-
sion of God in Christ. — Vers. 25 sq. Where the
carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered to-
gether (Matt. xxiv. 28). Theehastiseaients of God
are never delayed where immorality aud godless-
ness prevail, but they do not always lead, as with
Judah, to the humble confession: The Lord is
righteous I (2 Chron. xii. 6). — Calw. B. : Sovereigns
are often only the instruments of God in their un-
dertakings, although they do not or will not recog-
nize the fact. — Ver. 26. The true treasures of the
temple are the worship of God in spirit and in truth,
prayer, faith, love, and obedience ; these no thieves
nor robbers can steal, and without them all the gold
and silver in temples and churches is vain and empty
show. Golden or copper shields are alike in
value if only we can say: Th? Lord is our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel our King. — Vers. 27,
28. It is better to pray to our heavenly Father in
our closet, rather than to worship with pomp in
church to be seen by men. Yet now there are
many who ceremoniously frequent the churches,
but neglect to maintain the fear of God, discipline,
and good morals in their own houses and neigh-
borhoods.— Vers. 30, 31. It is not to a man's
honor when, at his grave, these words are said:
There was life-long enmity between him and his
neighbor.
B. — The reigns of Ahijam and Asa.
Chap. XV. 1-24 (2 Chron. XIIL XTV.)
1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned
2 Abijam1 over Judah. Three3 years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's
3 name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins
of his father, which he had done before him : and his heart was not perfect with
4 the Lord [Jehovah] his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for
David's sake did the Lord [Jehovah] his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set
5 up his son after him,a and to establish Jerusalem : because David did that which
was right in the eyes of the Lord [Jehovah], and turned not aside from any thing
that he commanded him all the days of his life,4 save only in the matter of Uriah
6 the Hittite. And there was war between Rehoboam6 and Jeroboam all the days
7 of his life. Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not
written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And there was
8 war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And Abijam slept with his fathers'1 ; and
they buried him in the city of David : and Asa his son reigned in his stead.
9 And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over
10 Judah. And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's
11 name was Maachah,' the daughter of Abishalom. And Asa did that which icas
12 right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father. And he took away the
sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because
she had made an idol in a grove6 ; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it
14 by the brook [ir. the valley of] Kidroii. But the high places were not removed
CHAPTER XT. 1-24. 175
15 nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord [Jehovah] all his days. And he
brought iu the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himseli
had dedicated,' into the house of the Lord [Jehovah], silver, and gold, and vessels.
16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. And
1 7 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Raman, that he might not
18 suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Then Asa took all the silver
. and the gold that were left10 in the treasures of the house of the Lord [Jehovah],
and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his
servants : and king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son
19 of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a leagufl
between me and thee, and between my father and thy father : behold, I have
sent unto thee a present of silver and gold ; come and break thy league with
20 Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. So Bendiad'ad hearkened
unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities
of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth,
21 with all the land of Naph tali. Audit came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof,
22 that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. Then king Asa made
a proclamation throughout all Judah ; none icas exempted" : and they took away
the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded ;
23 and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.12 The rest of all
the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he
built, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ?
24 Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept
with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father:
and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
I Ver. 1. — [Many MSS. and Ed. read throughout this narrative ns3X i^stend of rj*3Xa6 ,n '-Chron xi 2*2 ; x i i i 1,&^
(C!f. 2Chron. xiii. 20 Jin'St*") an(* s0 tne SePL- A/3tou, and the Syr.
3 Ver. 2 — [The Alex. Sept. makes his reign sixteen years.
3 Ver. 4. — [In the author's translation the name Rehoboam is inserted in brackets as explanatory of the pronoun
him. The natural reference to Abijam may. however, as well be preserved.
« Ver. 5. — [The Vat. Sept. omits the mention of this exception, anil also omits the following verse.
5 Ver. 6. — [For llehoboam eight MSS.. followed by the Syr. and Arab., substitute Abijah The Alex. Sept. puts tha
last pronoun of ver. 6 in the plural — a variation in the opposite direetion.
6 Ver. S. — [The Vat. Sept. adds, "in the twenty-fourth year of Jeroboam," and in ver. 9 changes the number to
correspond — a manifest error.
3 Ver. lb. — [The Vat. Sept. escapes the difficulty connected with the queen-mother's name, here and in ver. 18, by
substituting Ana for Maachah. The Arab, omits the name here, but gives Maachah iu ver. 13.
8 Ver. 18.— rmt!*60 DVpDQ • ^e mear''ng of these words haB been much discussed and is variously given in
tie W. — The most probable sense seems to be u an idol of Ashernh.M See Exeg. Com.
9 Ver. 15.— For ^"^n*| must be read with 2 Chron. xv. IS VC'TPV ^ne a*'r* is '^Hpt which Kiel 6aJ8 " *8 ■
Dad emendation for the above correct "|[;»-|p , which is to be read i^np , or more correctly perhaps 1\y-\p .]
10 Ver. IS. — [The Sept. in translating by to eupefoV give the sense as expressed in the Exeg. Com. All the other W.,
like the A.V. translate literally.
II Ver. 22. — [The adverbial use of -pj **.j^ = nemineimmunii. e. eaxepto is peculiar to this passage. Keil refers for
itt« source to such passages as Dent. xxiv. 5 ; Num. xxxii. 22. The Sept., not understanding the phrase, has rendered
tt as a proper name, ets '1c.vo.kLh (Alex. 'AvvaxeLp..)
18 Ver. 22. — [The Sept. has undertaken to translate the names Geba and Mizpah as common nouns, wav fiovfbf
Bf'-iauit Kai TT)f (TKOTTiaf. — F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 1-5. Abijam king of Judah. Instead of
D'3t<! Chronicles has always ITQX (2 Chron. xiii. 1
sq.^, 'A/?«i in the Sept. The latter seems to be the
rig' .t and original name, composed of"3X and fP .
wb'.ch mean pN"3*>i (1 Sam. ix. 1), not, therefore,
father of the sea, vir maritimtts (Gesenius), but
whose father (benefactor) is God. According to
2 Chron. xi. 20 sq. Abijam was the eldest son of
Rehoboam's second wife Maacha, who was his
favorite, for which reason he set Abijam above his
brothers, and appointed him for his successor. As
there is no mention made of an Absalom except
of him known as the son of David, 03 must mean
the granddaughter here, as 3N means grandfather
in ver. 3. Maacha must then have been the
daughter of Tamar (2 Sam. xiv. 27), as Absalom had
no sons (2 Sam. xviii. 18). The same name is no
doubt meant in 2 Chron. xiii. 2, where Abijam's
mother irPTD is called a daughter of Uriel of
Gibeah ; see on ver. 13. In all the sins, &c, is not
to be taken in a universal sense, but of all the
sins which Rehoboam committed regarding the
service of Jehovah ; in these he followed the ox
176
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ample of his father (VJD^1)- He was in his own
person Jehovah's servant, but he did not oppose
the idol-worship ; he permitted it, and therefore
in no respect resembled his great-grandfather
David, who therefore for all kings continued to be
the pattern and model of right conduct towards
Jehovah. Thenius thinks that vers. 4 and 5 are the
addition of an " elaborator " ; they are certainly
not useless, but stand in a very proper connection.
Abijaru was the third king on David's throne who
allowed idol- worship to exist side by side with
that of Jehovah. Such kings had, in fact, de-
served to lose their laud and throne, because they
nad not acted as servants of the true king of
Israel ; but for David's sake, to whom God had
promised that a descendant of his should always
reign in Jerusalem (for "VJ see on chap. xi. 36),
Jehovah suffered even such kings of the hou6e of
David, who. like this one, were not wholly and
undividedly devoted to Him. The sin of David
against Uriah was great indeed (2 Sam. xi. and
xii.), but apart from the fact that lie repented of it
bitterly, it was not one which broke the funda-
mental law of the theocracy, the covenant and its
rmief commandment, and it did not therefore
undermine the foundation of the Israelite nation-
ality. Vers. 4 and 5 serve, then, to explain ver. 3,
and in a certain measure to justify what is said
there.
Vers. 6-8. And there was war between
Rehoboam and Jeroboam, &c. Ver. 6 says the
same that was previously said in chap. xiv. 30, only
with this difference, that there the concluding
words D'OTI-^ are changed to l"n WW nere>
from which it follows, at least, that this verse is
not, as Thenius thinks, a mere repetition arising
from the carelessness of a copyist. Instead of
"Rehoboam," the Syrian, Arabic, and several
manuscripts have " Abijam ; " but this would make
the conclusion of ver. 7 a mere repetition of our
verse, which is even less tenable than the repeti-
tion from chap. xiv. 30. As the words stand they
3an scarcely be understood in connection with ver.
7 otherwise than as Schulz, Maurer, and Keil take
them ; they give their meaning to be this : that the
hostile feeling which existed between Rehoboam
and Jeroboam during the entire lifetime of the
former, also lasted during the lifetime of his son
Abijam. This interpretation is certainly rather
forced, and it is very possible that the text is no
longer tiie original one ; happily, however, the sub-
stance of the narrative is in no wise affected by it,
but it remains the same, howsoever those words
may be read or explained.
Vers. 9-11. In the twentieth year of Jero-
boam, &c. Ver. 9 sq. If Abijam became king in
the eighteenth and Asa in the twentieth year of
Jeroboam (vers. 1 and 9), Abijam could not have
reigned three full years (ver. 2). The incomplete
years are here, as elsewhere (see on ver. 25), reck-
oned as if complete, in statements of the length of
the reigns. Maachdh, '.he daughter of Abhhalom, is
named in ver. 2 as the mother of Abijam, and as
the mother of Asa in "or. 10, but she could not, of
course, have been the nmtlier of both father and
-i- .11 at the Bame time. It lias therefore been sup-
posed "that Maachah, Abijam's mother, was in
'he position of queen-mother or nT33n i £*i su'"
tana Walida, under Asa, until Asa deposed her or
account of her idolatrous worship (ver. 13), and
that she had been such because, perhaps, Asa'i
mother had died early " (Keil and Ewald after the
Rabbins). QX (ver. 10) would then stand for
grandmother, which is very questionable for the
reason that, often as the name of the mother of a
king is given, his grandmother is never meant
thereby; besides, the mother alone, and never the
grandmother of a king, had the dignity and posi-
tion of the Gebirah, the name given to Asa's mo-
ther, ver. 13 and 2 Chron. xv. 16. Other com-
mentators, who are not insensible to these consid
orations, think that Maachah, the mother of Abi
jam, was indeed, as is said in chap. xv. 2, and 1
Chron. xi. 20 and 21, a daughter of Abishalom, but
that Maachah, the mother of Asa, was the daugh-
ter of Uriel of Gibeah. They think that the Chron-
icler (2 xiii. 2) committed an oversight when he
mentioned the latter (whom he names Michaiah)
as the mother of Abijam instead of Asa, whilst, in-
versely, our author names the daughter of Abish-
alom (ver. 10) instead of the daughter of Uriel, as
the mother of Asa (Thenius, Bertheau). This much
is certain, that the mother of Asa, as well as the
mother of Abijam, was called Maachah.
Vers. 12-15. All the idols. Ver. 12. The de-
signation D,"K|?3 for idols, includes, confessedly, *he
idea of something contemptible, as appears fr"m
the many passages in Ezekiel where it occurs.
The Rabbins, whom several commentators follow,
have derived the word from p">3 or ^rjj , i. e., mud
drained off, and translated it Dei ilercorei, mudgods,
which Thenius thinks the most correct interpreta-
tion. But in the Pentateuch, where the word first
occurs, ~>~>3, mud, is not used, but *?} , DvJ , stone-
heaps, masses of stone (Gen. xxxi. 46, 48, 51, 52),
hence Havernick (Comm. iiber Ezechiel, s. 75) un-
derstands it to mean stone monuments, with the
additional notion of what was dead and lifeless (cf.
Ezra v. 8 ; vi. 4) ; which translation seems better
than: lumps (Keil). Cf. also Deut. xxix. 16; Lev.
xxvi. 30. For nT33 see on chap. xi. 19. DV^SD
means horrendmn, and no doubt refers to a phallus-
image, which was something terrible and detesta-
ble to the Hebrews. The Vulgate gives in sacri)
Priapi for it. The statue of the male and genera-
tive power in nature was placed next that of the
female power (Astarte). That the former was of
wood, like the latter, appears from the " burning
in the valley of Kidron ; " the ashes were thrown
into the brook, which carried them quite away.
The niJD3i ver. 14, mean here such as were dedi-
cated to Jehovah, as in chap. iii. 2 therefore, and
not as in chap. xi. 7, and 2 Chron. xiv. 2. These,
to which the people were accustomed from ancient
times, Asa did not destroy, perhaps because doing
so might have given offence to many even of the
true servants of Jehovah. This was the only un-
lawful thing lie permitted; in everything else he
adhered perfectly, as long as he lived, to the wor-
ship of Jehovah as enjoined in the law. He even
began to till again the treasure chambers of the
Temple, which had been plundered by Shishak
lo nil them partly with what his father Abijam
had taken icf. 2 Chron. xiii. 19), partly with th«
CHAPTER XV. 1-24.
177
pluiider he himself had seized (2 Chron. xiv. 12;
IV. 18).
Ver. 16. And there was 'war between Asa
.... all their days. Ver. 16. The account of
Chronicles does not agree with this, if the former
be only understood in the sense as given above,
chap. xiv. 30. For, according to 2 Chron. xiv. 1
(xiii. 23) the land had rest ten years under Asa :
according to 2 Chron. xv. 19, "there was no more
war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign
of Asa," and in xvi. 1 it says that Baasha did not
make war on Judah till the six and thirtieth year.
Dut these numbers cannot possibly be correct, for
according to our chapter ver. 33, Baasha became
king of Israel in the third year of Asa, and only
Teigned four-and-twenty years, therefore he could
not have made war against Asa in the six-and-
thirtieth year of the latter. The number ten is
also too great, and was used probably because the
numeral sign 1 was shortened to \ Judah had rest
before Baasha's accession to the throne of Israel,
and also two years afterwards, but then, when he
was properly prepared for war, Baasha undertook
the invasion ; this occurred, therefore, in the fifth
or sixth year of Asa's reign. The numeral sign
7=30 of the Chronicles may very well have been
taken out of the 1ToW> • Of. Thenius and Ber-
theau on the same passages. The supposition of
older commentators and of Keil, that the five-and-
thirty, that is, the six-and-thirty years dated from
the time of the separation of the two kingdoms, is
not admissible, because the text in 2 Chron. xvi. 1
says quite positively : " in the six-aud-thirtieth
year of the reign of Asa."
Ver. 11. Ramah (ver. 17) was not in the moun-
tains of Ephraim (1 Sam. x. 2) but in the tribe of
Benjamin (Josh, xviii. 25; Jud. xix. 3), somewhat
more than two hours' distance from Jerusalem: it
is the modern Er-Ram. The fortification of Ra-
mah presupposes that Baasha had recovered the
towns that belonged to the kingdom of Israel (2
Chron. xiii. 19) which had been taken by Abijam.
Tke conjectural reading nVH instead of flfi (The-
nius) is unnecessary ; it is literally : " to the end
that one should not give (or send) any one coming
in or going out, to Asa " (Bertheau) i. e., vtnonpos-
sel quispiam egredi vel ingredi de parte Asa> (Vulg.).
As the principal road from Jerusalem to the north
passed through Ramah, Baasha wished to cut off
all traffic, and in fact to blockade Jerusalem com-
pletely. The D'lnisn , ver. 1 8, does not mean here,
in the strict sense of the word, the remainder, for
Shishak had taken all (chap. xiv. 26) ; Asa, after
his victories and those of his father, filled the trea-
sure chambers again with the plunder he took
(ver. 5), and this, when compared with the former
treasure, was the remainder. The Sept., therefore,
gives to evpeBhi, i. «., what he then found.
Vers. 18-22. Benhadad (ver. 18) means "son
of the sun," for the sun received divine honors
from the Syrians, under the name of Adad [Ma-
crob. Saturn, i. 23). Three kings of Damascene-
Syria bore this name ; the one named here was the
first of them, and he who is mentioned in chap. xx.
1 sq. 34 was his son. The name could scarcely
have been a general royal title (Keil), for the name
Tabrimmon is certainly the name of a person, but
it is, in composition, like "good is Rimmon " (2
12
Kings v. 18). Thenius identifies Hezion with the
Rezon mentioned in chap. xi. 23, who was called
so originally (?). The phrase "king of Syria" h
certainly in opposition with Benhadad. There isa
league, Ac. (ver. 19). i. e., as between our fathers
there was a league, let it continue between us also.
Syria must have increased rapidly in power since
the days of Solomon ; for both kingdoms, Israel
and Judah, sought its friendship, although it was
the natural foe of both. There is no doubt that
Benhadad was induced to break his league with
Baasha by the larger sum that Asa offered him.
The Syrian army, which came from the north, over-
ran the whole land of Naphtali to the lake of
Genesareth ; the towns which it laid waste lay in
a line from north to south. Ijon was the most
northern, and is nowhere else named, except in the
parallel passage 2 Chron. xvi. 4; according to Ro-
binson (Researches, &c. II. p. 438), it is situated in
the well-watered district of Merj Ayun. Dan
could not have been far south of it. Abel-beth-
maachah (2 Chron. xvi. 4 ; Abel-maim) is the same
town as that mentioned in 2 Sam. xx. 14 and 1?,
and was situated at the mouth of the Merj Ayun ;
it is the modern Abil el Kamh (see Thenius on the
place). Cinneroth, " evidently a district, not a town ;
it was the basin which stretches from the lake
of Slerom to the head of the lake of Genesareth "
(the same). Although then Benhadad only dis-
turbed the northern parts of the kingdom, Baasha
saw himself induced to obey the demand to leave
Judah (probably made to him) in order to prevent
further losses. He left oft' building the fortifica-
tions of Ramah which he had begun, and returned
to his residence Tirzah (chap. xiv. 17) without dis-
turbing Asa any more. The latter now had the
building materials at Ramah removed, and he for-
tified Geba of Benjamin and Mizpeh with them;
the former was one-half mile [two and a quarter
Eng. miles] from Ramah, and the latter about three
indes [thirteen and a half Eng.]. These two for-
tresses overlooked each side of the road that led
northwards from Jerusalem.
Vers. 23-24. His might and . . . the cities.
"1133 , not so much potesias as deeds of might,
i. e., brave deeds, as appears from chap, xvi, 27 ;
xxii. 46. Besides Geba and Mizpah, Asa erected
other fortresses in Judah (2 Chron. xiv. 5, 6),
winch were probably designed to protect the
southern part of his kingdom. He was on the
whole prosperous, " only in his old age " he suf-
fered much, and did not show a right trust in
God (2 Chron. xvi. 12). It is uncertain if his dis-
ease were gout (Thenius). Chron. says that he
had caused his tomb to be hewn out in the city of
David ; probably the place of sepulture hitherto
used was not large enough.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. Chronicles gives not only more extended ac
counts of king Abijam, but some also which recent
criticism declares to be utterly irreconcilable with
the representation here. " According to the earlier
narrative," says Winer (i?.- W.-B. I. s. 6), "Abijam
walked in the footsteps of his idolatrous father
(1 Kings xv. 3); according to the later one, he
appears to be a very zealous guardian of th?
worship of Jehovah and of the levitical system
(2 Chron. xiii. 8 sq.). We must bear in mind that
178
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
the Chronicler else'.vhere endeavors to acquit the
Judah-state fr^ni idol-worship, as much as possi-
ble." r>e Wette, Thenius, and others hold similar
views. But against this we remark, that the pre-
supposition that Rehoboam was addicted to idol-
atry, and that Abijam followed in his ways, is
erroneous, and Winer contradicts himself, for (in
the work already cited, II. s. 312, note) he himself
declares, that " the older (i. «., our) narative says
nothing of the personal participation of Rehoboam
with the untheocratic worship, rather, see ver.
28." Now we have already proved above
that Chron. does not accuse him of it. Ewald
therefore justly says (Gesch. Isr. III. s. 460 sq.) :
" Rehoboam indeed permitted or encouraged the
exercise of foreign forms of worship, from his
own predilections," and in this respect " Abijam
walked completely in Rehoboam's footsteps; he
shared his father's religious views and princi-
ples." It is no contradiction when in Chron. he
is represented as a worshipper of Jehovah, for
this he really was. The words he uttered before
the beginning of hostilities to the opposite host
of " all Israel " were not merely edifying and
" exceedingly pious expressions " (Thenius), they
quite correspond with the political and theocratic
stand-point which Abijam took as king of Judith.
He reproaches the ten tribes with their revolt
from the house of David, and at the same time
with all that Jeroboam had done, out of his own
mind, against the divine fundamental law, given
to the whole people. The evident purpose of the
entire discourse was to win over Israel again to
the house of David, to attach those who, being
faithful to Jehovah, had already left the other
tribes and settled in Judah, and also to attract
and encourage such as still remained in Israel.
Abijam had probably observed that his best sup-
port in a war with Israel was not to be found
in the idolaters of his kingdom, but in the faith-
ful servants of Jehovah. His very brief reign
did not allow him any larger experience in this
respect.
2. The long reign of king Asa, which lasted forty-
one years, is treated with great brevity by our au-
thor ; but the Chronicler devotes three whole chap-
ters to it (2 Chron. xiv., xv., xvi.). The former,
however, lays especial emphasis on what is most im-
portant to the history of the theocracy, and what
the Chronicler also esteems the principal thing,
namely, that Asa energetically and sternly put
down the idol-worship, which had been suffered to
remain side by side with that of Jehovah since
Solomon's time, together with all the abominations
the former included, and that he even deprived his
idolatrous mother of her dignity as the Gebirah.
How it happened that he entered with such decision
on an entirely different course, immediately after
his accession, is not told in either of the narratives ;
we can only form suppositions on the subject.
Alter the separation of the ten tribes from Judah,
the latter must have plainly perceived the injuri-
ous results of the religious liberty, which had
been granted from political motives (see above
Histor. and Eth. on chap. xi.). This already small
kingdom lacked unity, and therefore a firm bond.
The more that danger threatened it from Israel
under Jeroboam, through the continual wars that
went on, the more people must have become con-
vinced of the necessity of making an end of the
3cbism which had arisen from tin various forms
of idolatry, of restoring the lost unity, and of thus
giving full sway to the theocratic fuudamental
law through which Judah had become great and
strong, and so making the kingdom firm, both in
its internal and external relations. Besides this,
the number of those who, from true affection to
the divine law, emigrated from all the other tribes
to Judah, increased (2 Chron. xv. 9), and all these
abhorred the idol-worship which still existed in
juxtaposition with that of Jehovah. Besides,
some powerful and influential prophets were not
wanting, who exhorted the king and the people
to be faithful to Jehovah, and not to forsake the
God of Israel, who had always helped His people
(2 Chron. xv. 1 sq. ; xvi. 7 sq.). These circum-
stances may have convinced Asa that nothing
could secure stability and permanence for his
kingdom but the return to the fuudamental law
and firm adherence to the same; and the great
victory which the Lord had given him over Zerah
the Ethiopian must have tended not a little to
strengthen him in that conviction (2 Chron. xiv. 7
sq.). From Asa's subsequent conduct, it seems
very uncertain whether his strict proceedings
against the idol-worship were really the result of
genuine conversion to Jehovah and of true piety,
as might appear from his prayer (2 Chron. xiv. 10) ;
political motives, if not principally, no doubt par-
tially, influenced him. The Chron., which has been
accused of giving a too partial and favorable view
of Asa's character, lays especial stress on some
facts which do not seem to show a true conver-
sion and godly mind, such as David had. For
instance, Asa took away the Temple-treasures
that were consecrated to Jehovah, and had been
lately gathered anew (this our author also men-
tions), and sent them to the king of Syria (who
was growing continually more dangerous to both
kingdoms) in order to induce him to break his
league with Baasha. Also that when the prophet
Hanani reproved him for doing so he threw the
latter into prison, which no king of Judah had yet
ventured to do to a prophet ; and he even punish-
ed others who took the prophet's part ; finally,
that he showed no resignation to the will of the
Lord or trust in Him during his last sickness
(2 Chron. xvi. 10, 12). How completely different
was David's conduct after the report of the pro-
phet Nathan, and a short time before his end
(2 Sam. xii. 13; xxiii. 1 sq.) ! When, notwithstand-
ing all this, both narratives say that Asa's heart
was rriiV-Dy ubd' , it follows that this often re-
peated expression only means: he never waver-
ed between God's service and that of idols or
images, but was unreservedly devoted to the lawful
worship of Jehovah, which was an exclusive
one ; and by being so he rendered his people a
great service.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-8. The fruit falls not far from the
tree. What the old sing, the young chirp
(Was die Alten sungen, das zwitschern die Jim-
gen). The parental house is, for the child, the
preparatory school of life ; what he there sees und
hears is never forgotten through life. No example
is so weighty and important as that of the parents:
how great, then, is their responsibility. Abijam
followed not after the example of David, great and
CHAPTER XV. 1-24.
179
glorious as it was, but after that of his father
Rehoboam, which he saw immediately before him.
— Ver. 4. The blessing of pious, God-fearing fore-
fathers often falls to the advantage of even de-
generate children, through the mercy of God.
— Ver. 5. No human example, however'glorious it
may be. is perfect, for even the greatest and best
are wanting in the sight of God, and miserable
sinners. Therefore we are referred to the ex-
ample of Him who alone is sinless, and out of
whose mouth proceeds no guile. He alone can
say : He who follows me, walketh not in darkness,
but has the light of life (1 Pet. it 2] ; John viii.
12). The children of this world often quote and
excuse their sins by citing the example of good
and holy men who have fallen, but never take
pattern after their repentance and humiliation, and
refuse to know anything of the wrung and smitten
heart of a David (Ps. li. 19), or of the tears of a
Peter (Matt. xxvi. 75).— Vers. 6-8. The enmity,
strife, and war between the sister-kingdoms was
the result of their broken covenant with the Lord
God. Wheresoever, be it amid a nation, a com-
munity, or a family, the fear of the living God,
and the bond of union with Him is destroyed^
there will ever be strife and discord ; peace is only
to be found where the God of peace reigns in the
heart (Col. iii. 15). To go out of the world at
enmity is not a blessed death.
Vers. 9-24. The reign of Asa the king, (a)
in its religious aspect (vers. 9-15) ; (6) in its
political aspect (vers. 16-24).— Ver. 11. It is to
be regarded as a merciful providence of God,
when a son who has grown up with evil sur-
roundings, and the bad example of a father
and mother, yet holds steadily to His word and
commandments, and resists firmly all ungodly
influences.— Vers. 12-13. Against sins of licentious-
ness no authority can be powerful enough, for
where this evil has crept in, there comes a moral
corruption which works destructively upon all
relations of life. Authority being ordained of God.
as the Apostle says, its dutv and task is to oppose
with severity all godless conduct, without fear or
favor of man, and to vindicate the eternal divine
laws. Therefore it is that we have the church
prayer for those in authority. — Ver. 13. Calw. B. :
Thus it is : A man must first cleanse his own
house if he would be an example to others. There-
fore says the Apostle, " if a man know not how
to rule his own house he cannot take care of the
church of God " (1 Tim. iii. 5). Where the honor I
of God or the salvation of the soul comes in ques
tion, there even a mother must not prevail. I am
come, says our Lord (Matt. x. 35 sq.), to set at
variance, &c. — Ver. 14. To remove deep-rootod
and long-standing evils suddenly and completely
is impossible, even for a well-intentioned and
powerful ruler; for in that case he would bring
about resistance to the good rather than furthei
it — Ver. 15. Hence noble and pious princes should
bethink themselves of using their gold and silver
not only for worldly objects, but to enrich churches
and schools, necessary to the accomplishment of
godly designs.
Vers. 16 sq. The enemies who rise up against
us, and bring us into straits, must often serve,
in the hand of God, to try and prove whether
our faith is rooted in the deepest soil of the
heart, and our zeal in religious things no
fleshly one, but a high and holy one. — Vers. 17-
18. What is bestowed in faith must be regarded
as sacred, and under no pretext must it be diverted
to worldly purposes. Nothing but a rude power,
knowing neither fear nor awe of God, could com-
mit such a robbery, and no blessing can ever rest
upon it. He who gives with one hand and takes
back with the other, has his just recompense
therein. — Ver. 19. This is the curse resting upon
the strife of brethren — each forms a league with
the common enemy rather than resolve upon peace
with each other. The least reliable friend and
companion in need is he who can be bought with
gold, and is always at the disposal of the highest
bidder. He who persuades another to break faith
must be prepared to find that he will not maintain
the word given to him. In every strait, seek first
the support and aid of thy God, without whom no
man can help thee. Asa was indeed right believing,
but he was not right believing. — Vers. 20 sq. Whoso
diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth
a stone, it will return upon him (Prov. xxvi. 27).
Baasha wished to become possessed of an ad-
ditional city, and thus lost a series of his own
cities ; with the same stones with which he pur-
posed to strengthen Ramah, Asa built two strong
cities. — Ver. 24. Sickness in old age, previous to
death, is a divine chastisement and trial, to wean
men from the world and ripen them for eternity.
How many men would die unconverted if God did
not visit them before death with sickness I Well
is it for all who through such visitations turn
unto the Lord, as did Asa in 2 Chron. ivi. 12
180 THE FIRST HOOK OV THE KINGS.
FOURTH SECTION.
THE KINGDOM OF ISEAEL UNDER NADAB AND HIS SUCCESSORS UNTIL AHAB.
Chap. XV. 25— XVI. 28.
A. — The reign of Nadab and Baasha.
Chap. XV. 25-XVI. 7.
25 And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second y far
26 of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the
sight of the Lord [Jehovah], and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin
27 [sins1] wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the
house of Issachar, conspired3 against him ; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon,
which belonged to the Philistines ; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon.
28 Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in
29 his stead. And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house ol
Jeroboam ; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed,' until he had destroyed him,
according unto the saying of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake by his servant
30 Ahijah the Shilonite : because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which
he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord [Jehovah]
31 God of Israel to anger. Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ?
32 'And there was war between Asa and Baasha king oflsrael all their days.
33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to
34 reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years. And he did evil in tho
sight of the Lord [Jehovah], and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin
[sins] wherewith he made Israel to sin.
XVI. 1 Then the word of the Lor.d came to Jehu the son of Hanani against
2 Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee
prince over my people Israel ; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and
hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins ;
3 behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house ;
4 and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Him that
dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat ; and him that dieth of his in the
5 fields shall the fowls of the air eat. Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and
what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles
6 of the kings of Israel ? So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in
7 Tirzah : and Elah his son reigned in his stead.' And also by the hand of the
prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the Lord [Jehovah] against
Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of
the Lord [Jehovah], in provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in
being like the house of Jeroboam ; and because he killed him.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMSIATIOAL.
1 Ver. 2fi. — [It is hotter he-re and in ver. 84, &c, to retain the plural form of the Hob. Sin was doubtless intended
vO be understood collectively in the A V.
9 Ver. 27. — [The Heb. ~i£;'»pV| from the root *i£)n to bind or tie together, i3 correctly translated conspired, and
mplies that others were concerned with Ilaasha in the plot.
a Ver. 29.— [rTD'J'J-^3 "VNB'rVWi " ne left nnt anv tnnt nai' breath," i. fl., he destroyed all, both male and female,
•f the house "f Jeroboam, in contrast with the expression in chap. xiv. 10, dee. Cf. Josh. xi. 11, 14.
' Ver. 82. — [The Vat. Sept. omits ver. 83, which has occasioned so much perplexity from its being an exact repetition
of ver. HI. For the reasons of Its Insertion see Exe?. Com.
' Ver. C— [The Alex. Sept aid, " in the twentieth year of king Asa" — an impossible date. Cf. xv. 3:?.- F O.l
CHAPTER XV. 25-XVI. 7
IS!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 25-26. In the second year of Asa.
We see clearly from this verse, compared with the
time given in vers. 28 and 33, as in all the state-
ment regarding the length of reigns, that years
not fully complete are considered as whole ones.
" For if Nadab ascended the throne in the second
year of Asa's reign (ver. 28), and Asa ascended the
throne in the twentieth year of Jeroboam's (ver.
9), Jeroboam could not have reigned quite twenty-
two years, but only twenty-one and some months:
and if Baasha succeeded to Nadab in the third
year of Asa's reign (vers. 28 and 33) Nadab could
not have reigned two years (ver. 25), in fact not
much more than one and a half year or perhaps a
little shorter time " (Keil).
Vers. 27-31 Baasha ... of the house of
Issachar, i. e., of the tribe of Issachar ; he can-
not therefore have been the son of the prophet
Ahijah, as Menzel supposes, for he was an Eph-
raimite of Shiloh. The city of Gibbethon belongs
to the tribe of Dan (Josh. xix. 44), and was one of
the four cities of the levites which belonged ((. e.,
the cities) to this tribe (Josh. xxi. 23) ; it must
have been on the borders of Philistia. It is very
doubtful if it had always been occupied by the
Philistines, and was now for the first time he-
sieged by the Israelites (Winer) ; it rather appears
that the Philistines, after the partition of the
kingdom, again took possession of it as an im-
portant border fortress; whereupon the Israelites
under Nadab and Elah (chap. xvi. 15) tried to re-
cover it. As Nadab met his death on this occa-
sion, it seems that Baasha's conspiracy was of
a military description, and that the latter was
an army chief like Zimri (chap. xvi. 9). Thenius
supposes that Gibbethon was the same as the
modern Muzeiri'ah, or Elmejdel (Tower) {of. Robin-
son, Pal. III. p. 282). How the conspiracy arose
is not stated ; perhaps Nadab was still very young,
and not a match for Baasha, who was very enter-
prising. It seems that he was not satisfied with
exterminating the male relatives of Jeroboam, but
murdered the whole of his race. The 1313 ver.
29, does not, of course, mean : as the Lord had
promised him, but : so that the word of prophecy
was fulfilled. For vers. 29, 30 see above on chap,
xiv. 10 sq.
Vers. 32-34. And there was war ... all
their days. Ver. 32 is a literal repetition of ver. 16,
and does not seem suitable to the context here,
for even if we were to read Nadab instead of Baa-
sha (Ewald), this does not agree with " all their
days," for Nadab did not reign much longer than
a year, and had war with the Philistines during
that time. Nadab, too, should be named first; be-
tween Nadab and Asa ; and finally Asa, whose
year of accession coincided with the short period
of Nadab's reign, had, according to 2 Chron. xiii.
23, no war at that time. Thenius thinks that the
repel .tion of ver. 16 arose through a mistake of
the copyist, but there is certainly no necessity for
.his easy but at the same time violent solution
of the difficulty. Keil's view is better. He finds
(1845) the reason of the repetition in the excerp-
tive character of these books, and in the manner
of theocratic historical writing, namely, in the
want of strict order in the arrangement of the
historical matter. Ver. 16 is taken from the book
of the acts of the kings of Judah ; ver. 32 from
that of the kings of Israel. In the first instance
the remark is given beforehand, because there
was something special to be said about the war be-
tween Asa and Baasha ; here, though it would cer-
tainly be more suitable after vers. 33 and 34, it is
not put in on account of Asa, but on account of
Baasha, and is the regular mode of expression
for the condition* of the State under the different
reigns. For Tirzah see chap. xiv. 1™.
Chap. xvi. 1-0. The word of the Lord came.
The chapter is not here divided according to
the accession of the king, but according to the
prophetic sentence which proclaimed ruin to
the whole reigning dynasty, and therefore was
the beginning of all the subsequent period.
The prophet Jehu is mentioned in 2 Chron. xix. /
sq. as well as in vers. 1, 7, 12; in the above pas-
sage he blames the conduct of the Judah-king
Jehoshaphat, the successor of Asa ; and in 2
Chron. xx. 34 he is named as the author of the
"acts of Jehoshaphat in the book of the kings of
Israel." There is no doubt that his father Hanani
was the same as he who was thrown into prison
because of his censure of king Asa (2 Chron. xvi.
7, 10). According to this, he must have belonged
to the kingdom of Judah, and either pronounced
his sentence there (vers. 2 and 7), or have gone
over, for the purpose, into the northern kingdom.
It is also uncertain whether he pronounced the
threatening to Baasha personally and directly.
For out of the dust (ver. 2) chap. xiv. 7 gives ''from
among the people," from which " we might con-
clude that Baasha had raised himself from a very
low position to be a commander of the army and
finally king" (Thenius). What Baasha did, of
himself and by crime, the prophet ascribes in so
far to Jehovah, that he could not possibly have
executed his plans had they been contrary to the
purposes of Jehovah. The entire sentet ce is
evidently modelled after that of the prophet
Ahijah against Jeroboam (chap. xiv. 7—11) (see Hist,
and Eth. there, 1). Ver. 6 says that Baasha died
a natural death, but Zimri (ver. 1 2) exterminated all
" his posterity" (cf. 'nnX , ver. 3). For nTG3 , see
on chap. xv. 23.
Ver. 7. Came the word, Ac. The QJl is
not equal to and also, or yes (De Wette), neither
does it mean that Jehu himself bore the mes-
sage, but rather "any former thought or excuse
that might be brought forward was strongly re-
jected " (Ewald, Lehrbuch § 354). The whole of
ver. 7 is not, an the Rabbins say, a new and fur
ther prophecy, but i supplementary remark to
the prediction ver. 2, which might be misinter-
preted as meaning that Baasha had a divine com-
mission to murder Nadab and his race. No I the
word, ver. 2, spoken by Jehu was called forth by
the fact that Baasha had of his own accord de-
stroyed the whole house of Jeroboam, and yet
himself had adhered to Jeroboam's sin. This
very word " clearly shows that the extermination
of the house of Jeroboam was not done by di-
vine commission, but from selfish motives." For
D'y^n , see above on chap. xiv. 15. "The work oj
his hands" denotes, according to Deut. iv. 28, IHi
factitii, whether images of Jehovah (calves) u
idols.
182
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. We have much less concerning the two 7s-
raelitish kings Nadab and Baasha and the acts of
their reigns than of the two Judah-kings Abijah and
Asa. The narrative merely says of Nadab that
he walked in the ways of his father Jeroboam ;
i. e., that he retained unlawful institutions, and
after a reign of scarcely two years was murdered
in a conspiracy, by Baasha. But of the reign of
Baasha. which lasted twenty-four years, our only
narrative says that he destroyed all the whole house
of Jeroboam after he (Baasha) became king, as was
threatened to Jeroboam by the prophet Ahijah
(chap. xiv. 7 sq.) ; that he also persisted in the
sin of Jeroboam, and had the same fate as the
latter announced to him by the prophet Jehu.
We can see plainly from this what the priueiple
which guided our author in his historical writing
was. He does not care to give a complete ac-
count of all the facts and events of the reign
of each king, — for these he refers to the authori-
ties that lay before him, — but the thing rather
which concerned him most of all, was the position
each king took with regard to the Israelitish fun-
damental law, i. e., the covenant, which was the
soul of the entire Old-Testament theocracy ;
and how the promises and threatening of this
law itself, or of the prophets charged with its
announcements, and who spoke as the servants
and ambassadors of Jehovah, became fulfilled (see
Introd. § 5). The heavy judgment which over-
took the house of him who first openly broke the
fundamental law of the entire people, and made
the image-worship (so strictly forbidden in that
law) the religion of the State and people ; that
heavy judgment, we say, was a practical historical
prediction for every royal house which persisted in
" the sin of Jeroboam." No less than nine dynas-
ties of the kingdom of Israel, with whom this was
the case, perished in like manner with the house
of Jeroboam, until at last the kingdom itself was
destroyed, whilst the dynasty of David continued
uninterruptedly in Judah.
2. The little that is told of Baasha is sufficient to
shoiv that he was an ambitious, rough, and violent,
indeed even a blood-thirsty man. He did not
conspire against his lord and king, and usurp the
throne, in order to bring the fundamental law of
Israel into force again, and to make an end to the
i'm of Jeroboam, for he himself adhered firmly to it
ill his life, in spite of all the warnings and threat-
anings of the prophets. He only cared for domi-
nion thereof, and for this he esteemed the sin of
Jeroboam as necessary as the latter himself had
done ; in short, he seems to have been a rough
soldier who cared little or nothing about religion.
We see from his enterprise at Ramah (chap. xv.
17), which he wished to fortify "to reduce Judah
utterly, through complete obstruction of trade "
(Ewald), that he haled Judah and wished to de-
Btroy it, and therefore to reign over it also. He
was the first king-murderer in Israel, and led the
way, as it were, to this crime, which was afterwards
bo often imitated. He was the first, too, who ex-
terminated an entire royal house with violence,
and not only killed the males, but " every one
that had breath," an unheard, of cruelty, even in
throne-usurpations in the ancient East. Menzel
(«. nil. who wrongly takes him to have been the
Hon of the prophet Ahijah (see above on ver. 27),
intimates that he v:a8 therefore under prophetical
influence, and then says that he "disappointed
the hopes which the prophets of Jehovah had
placed in him." This, however, is pure fancy. The
conspiracy of Baasha was completely a military
insurrection, as ver. 27 indubitably proves, while
there is not a word to show that he was influen-
ced by the prophets. He was, no doubt, one of the
leaders in Nadab's army, but there is no evidence
in the history that he was " a man distinguished
for his valor" and a "skilful warrior," as Ewald
calls him (III. s. 446 sq.) ; the general term, too,
used in chap. xvi. 5 is no proof. There is still
less ground for the further supposition, that be-
sides the growing discontent of the prophets, the
fact that the house of Jeroboam had not been
able to conquer the kingdom of Judah, and other
enemies, was evidently the chief root of the insur-
rection against it; that Baasha thought he could per-
form more, and in this hope he seized the throne.
The text does not say the least word of all this.
For the sentence announced to Baasha by the
prophet Jehu, see above, Hist, and Eth. on chap.
xiv. 1-20 (4).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 25-31. The ruin of the house of Jero-
boam proclaims these two great truths : sin is the
destruction of a people (Prov. xiv. 34), and: He
who heareth not my word, of him will I require
it (Deut. xviii. 19). God does not punish the inno-
cent children for the sins of their fathers, but those
who, despising the divine patience and long-suffer-
ing shown to their fathers, perpetuate, without
any shame, the sins of the fathers (Exod. xx. 5, 6).
A given example of evil is rarely without imita-
tion : as Jeroboam rebelled against the house of
David, so did Baasha against the house of Jero-
boam. Desire for rule and envy beget first dissa-
tisfaction with the condition in life ordained by
God, lead then to breach of faith, and end at last
with murder and homicide. — Ver. 29. Conspira-
tors and rebels profess to overthrow tyranny and
to throw off its yoke; but when they attain power
and sovereignty they are themselves the most vio-
lent and cruel tyrants. — Ver. 34. Calw. B. : Baasha
trod in the footsteps of Jeroboam just as if Jero-
boam had been good and upright. And yet Baasha
himself was an instrument in the hands of God to
punish Jeroboam on account of his sins. What
folly ! When Jeroboam's son, Nadab, did as his
father, we can explain it by paternal influence; —
but that Baasha should have pursued the same
course is a proof of monstrous blindness. The
world does not allow itself to be interrupted in its
purposes; vain conduct after the way of those
who lived before, is always inherited (1 Pet.
i. 18). — Chap xvi. 1. ' The word of the Lord
in the mouth of a true servant of God is, for
the pious, sweeter than honey and the honey-comb
(Ps. xix. 11), for the wicked and impious it is a
consuming fire, and like the hammer which break-
eth the rock in pieces (Jer. xxiii. 29). — Vers. 2-4
Osiander: The sins of the common people which
they have learned from their princes, as well also
as those which these do not restrain when they
can, are charged to them. Those who are lifted
up out of the dust are often the proudest and mosl
arrogant because they think they must thai.k-onh
themselves for their exalted position, and the}
CHAPTER XVI. 8-34.
183
forget what is written in 1 Sam. ii. 7 sq. For
Baasha, also, the hour struck when it was said,
Behold, oh! most proud, &c. (Jer. 1. 31). The
throne which has been obtained by lying, deceit,
and falsehood and bloodshed has no stability.
The judgment of God, though delayed for a time,
will not always tarry (Ps. v. 6, 1). Robbers and
murderers are not always in caves and the hidden
recesses of forests, sometimes they are seated upon
thrones; but the Lord will " sweep them away,'
and their end will be with horror: before His tri-
bunal no people, no crown is a protection.
11
12
B. — The reigns of Elah, Zimri, Otnri, and Ahab.
Chap. XVI. 8-34.
8 In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah1 began Elah the sou of
9 Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years. And his servant Zimri, cap-
tain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking
10 himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. And Zimri
went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa
king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he began
to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he slew all the house of Baasha : he
left him not one that pisseth against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks,2 nor of his
friends.s Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word
13 of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet,
for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and
by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel
14 to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ?
15 In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah4 did Zimri reign seven
days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which he-
ld longed to the Philistines. And the people that toere encamped heard say, Zimri
hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri,
17 the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. And Omri went
18 up from Gibbethon, and aU Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. And it
came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the
palace [citadel] of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with
19 fire, and died,6 for his sins which lie sinned in doing evil in the sight of the
Lord [Jehovah], in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he
20 did, to make Israel to sin. Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason
[conspiracy] that he wrought, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles
21 of the kings of Israel ? Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts :
half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king ; and half
22 followed Omri. But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people
that followed Tibni the son of Ginath : so Tibni died,6 and Omri reigned.
23 In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over
24 Israel, twelve years : six years reigned he in Tirzah. And he bought the hill
Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called
the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill,
25 Samaria. But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord [Jehovah], and did worse
26 than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, and in his sin [sins] wherewith he made. Israel to sin, to provoke
27 the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest
of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might' that he shewed, are they not
28 written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ? So Omri slept
with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria : and Ahab his son reigned in his
stead.8
29 And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the
son of Omri to reign over Israel : and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel
1S4
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
30 in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the
31 sight of the Lord [Jehovah] above all that were before him. And it came to pass.
as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of
Xebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidoni-
32 ans, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar
33 for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made
a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel to
anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. In his days did Hiel
34 the Beth-elite build Jericho : he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his
first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according
to the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 8. — [The Vat Sept omits the preceding comparative date.
* Ver. 11.— [The Vat Sept omits the latter half of ver. 11 and the first of ver. 12.
1 Ver. 11. — lV^XD ~ ms binsman wn0 might avenge his death. The full force of the word p^j| as the avenger of
blood can hardly be conveyed by any single English word.
4 Ver. 15. — [The Vat Sept. here again omits the comparative date.
6 Ver. IS — [The division of verses breaks the connection, and obscures the dependence of ver. 19 upon the word
"died."
• Ver. 22.— [The Sept adds, "and Joram his brother at that time."
7 Ver 27.— [Many MSS. and editions, followed by the Sept. and the Syr., insert 531 before HC'V "lt'N = "his might
and all that he did." thus assimilating the expression to that used in regard to some other kings, c/. ver. 14; xv. 7, 23,
81, Ac. although the expression of this text is also used elsewhere.
6 Ver. 2S. — [The Vat Sept here inserts (with some chronological variations) the account of the reign of Jehoshaphat
from chap. xxii. 41-50. again repeating that account (withnut those variations) in its proper place. The insertion wae
evidently made to avoid the chronological difficulty between verses 23 and 29, for the explanation of which see the Exeg.
Com. Accordingly in ver. 29 instead of the 3Sth year of Asa the Vat. Sept. has "in the second year of Jehoshaphat'*
The Alex. Sept follows the Hebrew.— F. 6.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers. 8-14. Began Elah to reign, Ac. For
Tirzah see on chap. xiv. 17. As Elah commenced
his reign in the twenty-sixth year of Asa, and
according to ver. 10 was killed in the twenty-
ninth, the two years he was king could not have
been full ones. 331 is now generally translated
riding; but a comparison with chap. ix. 19 ; x. 26
would seem to indicate that it should be chariot.
There is no doubt that some of the chariot-cities
which Solomon built (see on the place) were in
the kingdom of Israel; perhaps "the half" of all
the chariots were at the capital, and Zimri was
placed over them. According to Josephus
(Antiq. viii. 12, 4), Zimri took advantage of the
absence of the army and its chief to undertake
the siege of Gibbethon (see above on chap. xv.
27). The house steward Arza, who had arranged
a drinking bout, was no doubt the principal
person in the conspiracy which Zimri set on foot.
Of. chap. xiv. 10 with ver. 11. Zimri acted, as
Grotius remarks, according to the tyrannical prin-
ciples TT/TTYOr, or TTaTFnti KTEtl'af; vloilC Knr>'/i-r. But
he went farther than Baasha, inasmuch as he not
only killed the relatives of the king, but also his
friends, in order to secure himself from any pos-
sible blood-revenge; all this took place in a few
days, for his whole reign was only seven days.
For vers. 1 2 and 1 3 cf. ver. 3, and above on chap,
xiv. 15, 16. D'^an i. •?., vanitates, anything which
is called God, yet is not God, and which is conse-
quently vain and empty (cf. Deut. xxxii. 21). The
word here docs not refer to idols, properly speak-
'ng, but to images of Jehovah, which, however,
are, like .he former, empty and vain.
Vers. 15-20. Did Zimri reign seven days,
Ac. The distance of Tirzah from Gibbethon re-
quires us to suppose that the seven days apply to
the time during which Zimri was in undisturbed
possession of the throne, i. e., until the day when
the army in Gibbethon made their chief, Omri,
king, who then first went to Tirzah and besieged
it. Zimri's death followed when he saw that he
could not hold the town against the besiegers.
The " people " and "all Israel" mean here all
those who were armed, i. e., the men of war.
|)0"lX , from the root Dix to be high, is the part
that was highest, that is " the fortress of the royal
palace, the securest and inmost place, the citadel, as
it were ; for the royal palace contained a great
number of buildings" (Gesenius, cf. 2 Kings xv.
25). Zimri set fire to this last place of refuge, and
through it to the entire palace, in order not to
fall into the hands of his enemies, and to prevent
the palace and all it contained from passing into
their possession. Similar instances are to be
found in Justin, hist. i. 3; Liv. xxi. 14: Fhr. ii. 18.
Ewald's rendering of jiOIS is quite arbitrary; he
gives the "women's chamber," the haretr; and
supposes that Zimri went there, for the "effemi-
nate man had only suffered the queen and other
women of the palace to live, as they readily lent
themselves to the murder of their lord; and the
queen mother seems to have offered him her
favor." However, there is not a syllable of all
this either in the text or anywhere else. Beside*
the deed recorded in ver. IS rather displays cour-
age and contempt of death than effeminacy. The
Syriac has: and they, the besiegers, fired his
royal house over his head ; and Kimclii translates
and he, that is Omri, set fire. <fco. ; both are de
CHAPTER XVI. 8-34.
166
cidedly wrong. In consideration of Zimri's
short reign of seven days, we must conclude from
ver. 19 that he had formerly shown much par-
tiality for the calf-worship of Jeroboam, and that,
at the time of his accession, he had no intention
of removing it.
Vers. 2i— 22. Then the people of Israel di-
vided. Ver. 21s?. It is generally thought that two
parties had arisen within the army, each of which
wished to make their leader king, and that they
fought forsome time until the weaker party suc-
cumbed, and their leader Tibni fell in battle. Ac-
cording to Ewald, Tibni was assisted in the war
by his brother Joram, and both fell in the one
battle. But it is very doubtful if the "people of
Israel," ver. 21, means the same as "the people
that were encamped," ver. 18, i.e., only the army.
The latter had not divided, for according to ver. 16
Omri was made king by " all " the army ; it is only
said of him that he was the captain of the host,
but neither this nor anything similar is said of
Tibni. We have therefore more reason to sup-
pose that after the death of Zimri a faction arose,
which did not acknowledge the soldier-king Omri,
who had been chosen by the army alone, and which
faction set up Tibni in opposition. The Sept only
makes mention of a brother of Tibni (ml a-c-
Oave Bafivl ml 'lupafi 6 aihldibt; avrov kv rCi m/fiu
enciva), and Josephus also (Ant. viii. 12, 15), only
says, Tibni was killed by Omri's faction, but not
that the two brothers iell in the same battle.
Vers. 23-28. Began Omri to reign over Is-
rael, twelve years. Ver. 23. According to ver.
15 the elevation and death of Zimri occurred in
the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, king
of Judah (929); according to ver. 29, Ahab, the
successor of Omri, came to the throne in the thirty-
eighth year of Asa (918); therefore the twelve
years of Omri's reign could not have been twelve
full years. And furthermore, if Omri became king
in the thirty-first year of Asa, according to ver. 23
(925), and yet died in the 38th year of Asa, accord-
ing to ver. 29 (918), that is, in from seven to eight
years, it is plain that the twelve years of his reign
are reckoned from the year in which he was made
king by the host (929), but did not at the same time
attain the sole sovereignty, as part of the people
wished Tibni to be king. He became sole sove-
reign only in the year 925, so that the struggle
with Tibni's faction must have lasted four years.
The six years during which Omri resided at Tirzah
were the first half of the twelve years of his reign ;
during the latter six years he lived in Samaria, a
city which he had newly built (ver. 24). In order
to explain some chronological difficulties that oc-
cur later, with regard to the kings Jehoram and
Jehoshaphat, Ewald (III. s. 432) refuses to reckon
the four years before Tibni's death in the twelve
years of Omri's reign, and as Asa reigned four
years as a contemporary of Ahab, the successor of
Omri (chap. xxii. 41), Asa could not have reigned
forty-one years (chap. xv. 1 0) but forty-seven, for
the years mentioned in chap. xvi. 15 amount to
that; 27 + 4+12+4. " But according to this suppo-
sition, the numbers here and in ver. 29, also in
chap. xv. 10, which are perfectly correct, should be
altered " (Thenins), and there is no reason whatever
for doing so. The name "IDC* (ver. 24), is proba-
bly the same as "OE> and -|DE> (1 Chron. vii. 32-
34), we cannot, therefore, pronounce the derivation
of the name of the city to be " wrong," because the
owner mustotherwise have been called 1W (Titer-
mann). The mountain of Shrmer is not far to the east
of Tirzah, and it lies north-east of Shechem. The
palace at Tirzah, which was destroyed under Zimri,
does not seem to have been rebuilt, and Omri ap-
pears, as soon as he became king, to have taken
the resolution of building a new capital and royal
city, for which that mountain was peculiarly
adapted. It was a " beautiful round mountain,
covered with splendid trees, and lying in a valley
or basin enclosed with mountains ; " it commanded
" a glorious prospect of the fruitful valley and the
heights and villages surrounding it " (Knobel on
Isa., xxviii. 1— i; Robinson, Palest. III. 1, p. 503
sq.). Samaria, therefore, continued to be the capi-
tal of the kingdom until its destruction. The two
talents of silver, for which Omri bought the hill, are
reckoned at 5,200 Thr. by Keil, and at 4,000 Thr.
byThenius [$3,900 and $3,000 respectively]. We
may infer from Mic. vi. 16, where Judah is re-
proached with keeping " the statutes of Omri and
all the works of the house of Ahab," that Omri
went further in regard to the worship than the for-
mer kings of Israel (ver. 25). We have no more
exact information, but it is certain, at any rate,
that he prepared the way for the state of things
under his successor Ahab. That Omri was a vali-
ant warrior appears from the word ijyn33 (ver.
27), which is used respecting Asa and Baasha, Elah
and Zimri, but not of Nadab.
Vers. 29-33. Ahab. . . .to reign over Israel.
Vers. 29 to 34 describe the government of Ahab
generally ; from chaps, xvii. to xxii. follow noti-
ces of separate events that occurred in this time,
and then in chap. xxii. 39, 40. comes the usual con-
cluding formula, the rest of thv acts, &c. Our section,
therefore, forms a general introduction, and at the
same time the superscription to the following par-
ticulars ; it is also designed to place the reader
beforehand upon the stand-point from which all
that is coming must be viewed and judged. Omri
had departed farther than any of his predecessors
from the fundamental law, but Ahab went still
farther than his father (ver. 30 is therefore no
mere repetition of ver. 25). He was not contented
with the sin of Jeroboam, but he formally intro-
duced the service of Baal into his kingdom, in con-
sequence of his marriage with Jezebel, and he
even built a temple to Baal in the royal city and
capital Samaria. Ethbaal is no doubt the Eiftj/3a-
Jloc (who was mentioned by Menander in Josephus
c. Apian. I. IS), king of T_vre and Sidon, who suc-
ceeded to the throne about fifty j-ears after Hiram's
death, and could, therefore, have very well been
the father-in-law of Ahab ; he was priest of As-
tarte and the murderer of his brother, king Pheles.
What is related of Jezebel afterwards coincides
perfectly with what we should expect from the
daughter of such a father. ?V?n is the known
chief male divinity of the Phoenicians, "the sun-
god, which was regarded as the primary preserver
and principle of physical life, and of the genera-
tive, reproductive power in nature, which flowed
from his being" (Movers, Rel. d. Phiin. s. 184).
According to 2 Kings iii. 2 ; x. 27 the image of
Baal which Ahab had made, was ["Qi'D , '• e.,
monument, a monumental pillar (see on chap xiv
LS6
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
23). In the temple of the Tyrian Hercules
(=Baal), at Tyre, there stood two pillars, one of
gold, the other of emerald (Herodot. II. 44, see
above). Besides Ihe male divinity there was also
the mC'Sn , the female deity a (wooden) image
of Astarte (see above 7). From the great number
of the priests who were employed in the worship
of Baal which Ahab introduced (chap, xviii. 19),
it appears that it was very extensive and magnifi-
cent. More particulars regarding the temple of
Baal are given in 2 Kings x. 25-27. That Ahab
trailt besides "another splendid building of the
same kind, which served as a sacred grove for As-
tarte, and which was probably close to his favorite
palace at Jezreel" (Ewald III. s. 457), is a pure
invention, of which there is not a single word in
the text.
Ver. 34. In his days did Hiel the Bethel-
ite build Jericho. Ver. 34. The city of Jericho,
which was very strong at the time of the conquest
of the promised land, was destroyed after being
taken, and Joshua pronounced these words over
it: " Cursed be the man before the Lord that rais-
eth up and buildeth Jericho; he shall lay the foun-
dation thereof in his first-born, and in his young-
est son shall he set up the gates of it " (Josh. vi.
1, 2,4 26). This does not mean that no one
should live there again, but he who endeavors to
make it again what it was, i. e., a fortress, shall be
severely punished. Jericho was afterwards ap-
portioned to the tribe of Benjamin, but in Ahab's
time it certainlv belonged to the kingdom of Isra-
el (Josh, xviii. 21; 2 Kings ii. 5, 18). At the com-
mand of Ahab, Hiel of Bethel (the chief seat of the
calf-worship) now built, i. e. fortified (,"03 as in
chaps, xi. 27; xii. 25), Jericho again ; probably be-
cause it lay on the borders of Ephraim, or was
designed to protect the passage of the Jordan,
which was near. Whether this was done in defi-
ance of Joshua's prediction, as older commenta-
tors think, or in ignorance of it, is uncertain ; at
any rate Joshua's word was fulfilled. "We can-
not doubt the truth of what is related in this verse,
for the names are mentioned, and the signification
of these names has no reference to the event"
(Thenius). There is no other ground for the sup-
position that Joshua's utterance was a vaticinium
ex eventu than the rationalistic presupposition that
all prophecies are impossible. The supposition of
the Rabbins that all the sons of Hiel, from the
eldest to the youngest, were destroyed during the
building, is unsupported by the text. However,
the question remains how the whole of the infor-
mation contained in ver. 34 comes to be inserted
just here. As it follows immediately after the
account of the introduction of the Canaanitish
idolatrous worship by Ahab (vers. 30-33), our au-
thor may very well have thought of it in connec-
tion with the latter. The fortress of Jericho was,
in Joshua's time, the gate and key to the whole
Land of Canaan; he who possessed it had the
entire country open before him (Josh. ii. 1, 24 ; vi.
1 $q.). The taking of this town was, therefore, of
the greatest importance; it was achieved by a
Miraculous act of Jehovah, which was compared,
on that account, lo the passage through the Red
Sea, i. e., the complete deliverance from Kgypl
(Josh. ii. 9 tqX With it, the land of Canaan fell
into the hinds of the Israelites; with the walla
of Jericho the stronghold of Canaanitism fell, its
destruction was begun, and the pledge of the
same lay, in a measure, in the destruction of that
city. But just for this very reason it should never
again become what it was before its capture.
Ahab, however, who placed the country again in
its ante-Israelitish condition through the introduc-
tion of the Canaanite idol- worship, caused the for-
tress, which had been destroyed by the almighty
power of Jehovah, to be restored. As he denied
the God of Israel, and placed the Baal of the Ca-
naanites in His stead, so he also denied the great
saving act of Jehovah as manifested in the fall and
destruction of Jericho. He showed his apostasy
from Jehovah by causing the walls of Jericho to
be rebuilt. It appears, however, that the God of
Israel would not suffer contempt of Him to go un-
punished. The curse of Joshua was fulfilled as a
warning that the divine threatenings would not
remain unfulfilled. The account in ver. 34, thus
understood, is so well connected with that of ver
32 that it forms the direct transition to the activi-
ty of the prophet Elijah (of whom the following
chapter treats) against the apostasy of Ahab.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The unspeakable results of ihe partition of thi
kingdom, and the co nsequent breach of the fundamen-
tal law of Israel, appears more plainly in the history
of the reigns of Elah, Zimri, Omri, and Ahab, than
in those of the three previous kings. All four of
these kings continued in the sins of Jeroboam, be-
cause they as well as he considered it to be ne-
cessary to the separate existence of their kingdom
and to the support of their power. In fact each
one surpassed the other until the image-worship
reached its natural goal in the worship of idols
(see above), which the last of them, Ahab, not only
permitted, but introduced as the State-religion.
With Ahab, therefore, the history of the king-
dom of Israel comes to a conclusion relatively,
and a new epoch begins, characterized by the
appearing of the great prophet Elijah and his
struggle with idolatry (chap. xvii.). The conse-
quences of the partition, which were felt iu tl e
sphere of religion, were felt, in like manner, in thai
of politics, on account of the peculiar and insepa-
rable connection of the Israelite people with their
religion. The monarchy in Israel had arisen by
means of rebellion and forcible separation from
the house of David, and thus it lacked the ground
of divine law. What Jeroboam conceived he was
justified in doing, every other one thought he had
a right to do also, as soon as he had followers and
power enough ; that was the case with Baasha and
still more with Zimri and Omri. Thus the king-
dom became the football of human ambition and
caprice, so that one insurrection followed another;
and in the comparatively short time of from fifty
to sixty years, seven kings reigned, of whom four
attained the throne by violence and even murder.
But no blessing could rest on such a kingdom.
Tin- people of the ten tribes, who were already
more inclined to nature-life, and therefore more
adapted for the reception of Jeroboam's calf-
worship, must, by the persistence of their kings
in this worship, and by their complete separation
from Judah, the guardian and protector of the
law, and with it of the spirited life by the na-
tion, have sunk lower and lower. A people cac
CHAPTER XVI. 8-34.
1M
indeed endure a bad ruler without themselves de-
generating; but a whole hue of sovereigns, of
whom each obtained the throne by conspiracy,
rebellion, and murder, is only possible where the
people themselves are rough and barbarous. What
social and religious degeneracy is presupposed,
where the nation accepted all the abominations of
its rulers, and where an Ahab (fiually) met no op-
position in instituting the shameful and indecent
worship of Baal and Astarte as the State-religion I
How far different the state of things in Judah !
For though the religious liberty permitted by So-
lomon bore evil fruit, yet the fundamental law
was always adhered to by the kings, and the idol-
worship was completely destroyed by Asa, who
reigned two years contemporaneously with Aliab.
The kingdom was firm ; there was not a trace of
conspiracy or rebellion, and the house of David
retained the throne. Although the kingdom of
Judah was much smaller and weaker than that of
Israel, and was continually in danger from the
latter ; yet, holding fast to its royal house, it vic-
toriously repelled all attempts to subjugate it. Such
was the blessing which rested in fidelity to Jeho-
vah and His law.
2. Of the two kings, Elah and Zimri, we learn
nothing besides that they held to the sin of Jero-
boam, except how they died. This was, however,
sufficient to characterize them. We see that Elah
did not even inherit energy and courage from his
father Baasha, but was a coward and a low-souled
glutton ; because when the whole army was en-
gaged in combat with the Philistines before Gib-
bethon, he not only remained at home, but drank
and caroused. Zimri was still worse ; ambition
led him to unfaithfulness and treason ; he not only
murdered his king and master, but the king's whole
house. How little esteemed and respected he was,
appears from the fact that the whole army, as soon
as they heard of his having ascended the throne,
immediately made another king, and marched
against Zimri. Then, when shut in and sur-
rounded, he set fire to the citadel over his head
and gave himself to the flames — his act was one of
despair rather than of heroism.
3. The accounts of Churl's reign are limited en-
tirely to this: that he built the city of Samaria
after the taking of Tirzah, and that he walked in all
the ways of Jeroboam, and was worse than all who
preceded him. It is not said in what respect he
was worse, but it certainly implies that he main-
tained the anti-theocratic institutions of Jeroboam
with great zeal and decision. It appears that he
Btood well as captain of the army, for it was iu the
camp that he was elected to the throne. Yet
however valiant he may have been as a warrior, iu
the chief thing, i. e., in his relation to Jehovah and
the theocratic fundamental law, he stood worse
than any of his predecessors, and was furthest
from being what was especially required of a the-
ocratic king, that is, a servant of Jehovah. Ac-
cording to Ewald (III. s. 452 sq.), whom Eisenlohr
(II. s. 150) again follows, Omri was " a ruler as
enterprising as he was prudent," and " very wisely
took advantage of the times to secure greater pros-
perity for his kingdom and security to his own
house. This camp-king ruled his people with great
power ard decision, not even sparing the prophets
when they opposed his designs. But without, he
Bought the needful peace in order to
•treugthen himself in his internal relations. He
concluded peace with the kingdom of Judah. . .
Omri's chief efforts were directed towards the fur-
therance of trade, commerce," &c. Every one that
has eyes can see that the text does not say a word
of all this ; it gives us another example of how
history is made. Omri is not great and distin-
guished even as a commander, for it took him four
years to conquer the already weaker faction of
Tibni, and according to chap. xx. 34 ; xxii. 3, he
was, as Eisenlohr himself is obliged to confess,
" forced to conclude a peace with (the Syrian king)
Benhadad on very humiliating conditions." It is
not credible that a soldier-king should have thought
only of quiet and peace; and it does not follow
from the marriage of his son Ahab with the Sido-
nian Jezebel that his chief desires were for the
furtherance of trade and commerce, for Ahab did
not marry till after he became king, that is, after
the death of Omri (ver. 31). It is just as arbitrary
to conclude that because he was worse than they
all, the prophets must have thrown obstacles in
the way of his designs, and that he " punished
their interference with the utmost severity." Ahab
is the first of these kings of whom we have a
complete picture, which is given in the following
chapters.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 8-34. General reflections upon the his-
tory of the reigns of the four kings in the following
succession, Elah, Zimri, Omri, and Ahab. (a) At
variance as they were with each other, hating,
destroying, and killing each other, yet they all re-
mained faithful to the calf-worship, regarding it as
the means by which they could maintain their own
kingdom and their dominion over Judah. The re-
ligion of the people in the service of the policy of
the sovereign. How often dees it happen that self-
ish profit, power, or seeming form the real motive
of a confession of faith. (6) One exceeds the other
in revolt against the living God. — Calw. B. : In
sin and departure from God there are always
gradual advances, just as in godliness and well-
doing— one step follows another, and the slavery
of sin is ever increasing (2 Tim. iii. 13). (c) One
successful insurrection seldom stands alone in his-
tory, but is ever followed by a fresh one, and be-
comes a passion, which, like a deadly plague, saps
the moral and religious life of a nation to its foun-
dations. Hence the apostle's meaning : let no man,
&c. (1 Tim. ii. 1-3).
Vers. 8-10. King Elah. (a) He riots and ca-
rouses whilst his people are pouring out their blood
in war. It is a sign of great barbarousuess and
rudeness amid exterior refinement, when the great
and rich lead a frivolous and luxurious life, whilst
the masses eat their bread in the sweat of their
brow, and are famishing. A riotous court life is
the usual precursor of the storm which shakes or
destroys the throne, (b) Death overtakes him in
drunkenness. To go suddenly and unprepared
from time into eternity is a heavy fate ; but it is
still- more fearful to leave the world in darkness.
Therefore, we should daily pray: Lord, teach us
so to, &c. (Ps. xc. 12). — Wukt. Summ. : The nearer
chastisement comes to the ungodly the more se-
cure are they. When they say, " There is peace,
there is no danger, " then destruction shall over-
take them suddenly, and they shall not escape from
it (1 Thess. v. 3 ; cf. Ps. xxxix 6). Therefore: be
^s
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Bober, &c. (1 Pet. v. 8). It is fearful, when one
?an say nothing more of a man than, " He has
despised God and his word, served his belly, and
ended his life with a revel. Better to famish and
be miserable with Lazarus, and then to be borue
by angels into Abraham's bosom, than with the
rich man to live in splendor and revelry, and af-
terwards to suffer the pains of hell. — Ver. 9.
Drunken revels are an abomination unto the Lord,
and only occur where the fear of the Lord is ab-
Bent. The drunkards rank with those (1 Cor. vi.
9, 10) who will not inherit the kingdom of God,
and the Lord Christ warns : Take heed to your-
selves, &c. (Lu. xxi. 34).
Vers. 11-20. Zimri, King, (a) His way to the
throne : Treachery, cunning, murder. He shunned
no means to gain his end. That is the way of the
ungodly: but without their knowledge or will
diey are compelled to be scourges and whips in
the hand of the Lord (Is. x. 5). (6) His end : a
speedy and fearful one. Only seven days did the
dominion which he so coveted, and attained through
such villany, last. Lightly come, lightly go. The
ungodly are like the chaff, &c. (Ps. i. 4, 6). He
gave himself up to death, in flames of fire. The
ungodly are utterly consumed, &c. (Ps. lxxiii. 19).
As he had lived, so he died. — Ver. 18. The doom
of despair is the end of a life given over to siu,
which has lost sight of the living God, and can
never again find Him. Frequently, what the world
regards as heroism and contempt of death is simply
cowardice and crime in the sight of God. The Lord
has no pleasure, &c. (Ezek. xviii. 23). It requires
more courage and bravery to bear the merited
punishment of one's sins than to escape from it by
suicide.
Vers. 21-28. The King Omri. (a) How he
became king. When the king is chosen by the
people instead of receiving the crown from the
hand of God by right of inheritance, which is by
the grace of God, factions are sure to arise, which
wage bloody conflicts, and waste the best strengtb
of the people, until, at length, the stronger party
conquers the weaker by violence.* The curse of
party spirit. (6) How he reigned. He built Sa-
maria, making it the strong centre of the king-
dom, but he walked in all the sins of Jeroboam,
and " did worse " than all who went before him.
A man may be skilful and useful to himself and
others, in all material and worldly things, whilst
in spiritual and divine things he works only mis-
chief and destruction. What, without religion, is
so-called civilization?
Vers. 29-34. The King Ahab. (a) His union
with Jezebel — a marriage contracted not in obe-
dience to God's holy will, but merely upon worldly
grounds and political considerations, and was
therefore the source of great mischief to himself
and to his people. (6) The uplifting of idolatry
over the religion of the country. The calf- worship
was merged in the Baal worship. The greatest
tyranny is the tyranny over conscience, which
pretends to rule also over belief. The worst rule
is that which, instead of demanding recognition of
the truth, substitutes lies and errors, and exer-
cises its power in aid of unbelief and of supersti-
tion, (c) The rebuilding of Jericho. By means of
" faith " the walls of Jericho fell (Heb. xi. 30).
Idolatry will build them up again, but the curse
rests upon them. He who builds up what the
Lord has destroyed, falls under his judgment. 2
Chron. xiii. 12: Fight ye not, &c. Julian, who
rebuilt the heathen temple, and the Jews, who re-
built the temple of Jerusalem, were confounded
and brought to shame.
* [Of course our readers will estimate at their value these
stiff monarchial sentiments. The present Editor, here as
elsewhere, prefers to translate hi this work rather than omit
them, because it is due to the author to give his work fairly
in a translation." But here he enters a mild caveat, and
s avails himself of the opportunity to say that his task is not
that of "a reviewer, and consequently he has allowed ma*y
things to pass without comment, from which he differs wide-
ly and thoroughly. — B. H.]
CHAPTER XVII. 1-24. 188
SECOND EPOCH,
FROM AHAB TO JEHU.
(1 KINGS XVTL— 2 KINGS VUL)
FIRST SECTION.
THE PROPHET ELIJAH DURING AHAB's REIGN.
1 Kings XVII., XVTLI., XIX.
A. — Elijah "before Ahab, at the brooh Cherith, and in Zarephath
Chap. XVH. 1-24.
1 And Elijah1 the Tishbite, who teas of the inhabitants' of Gilead, said unto
Ahab, As the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there
shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.'
And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto him, saying, Get thee hence
and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before'
4 Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook ; and I have com-
5 manded the ravens6 to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the
word of the Lord [Jehovah] : for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that
6 is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the mornino-
and bread and flesh in the evening6 ; and he drank of the brook.
7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had
8 been no rain' in the land. And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came unto him
9 saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there :
10 behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose
and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the
widow woman was there gathering of sticks : and he called to her, and said
11 Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she
was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel
12 of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord [Jehovah] thy God liveth I
have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse : and
13 behold, I am gathering two sticks, that 1 may go in and dress it for me and my
son," that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not ; go and
do as thou hast said : but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto
14 me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord [Jehovah]
God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil
15 fail, until the day that the Lord [Jehovah] sendeth8 rain upon the earth. And
she went and did according to the saying of Elijah : and she, and he,16 and her
16 house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did
the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord [Jehovah], which he
spake by Elijah.
1 7 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress
190
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of the house, fell sick ; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left
18 in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of
God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my
1 9 son ? And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her
bosom, and carried him up into aloft", where he abode, and laid him upon his
20 own bed. And he cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], and said, O Lord [Jehovah] my
God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slay-
21 ing her son ? And he stretched himself 1! upon the child three times, and cried
unto the Lord [Jehovah], and said, O Lord [Jehovah] my God, I pray thee, let
22 this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord [Jehovah] heard the voice
of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child,13 and brought him down out of the chamber into the
house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of
God, and that the word of the Lord [Jehovah] in thy mouth is truth.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
' Ver. 1.— [The Sept. adds his office. " Elijah the prophet, the Tishbite."
2 Ver. 1. — [The Sept. has mistaken the Heb. participle t^'jn.^ and by a slight change of the pointing has read
•^jMflO 6 U Qeafiiov, " who was of Thesbe." The Alex. Sept. also omits the word Qeapires. It has been much questioned
whether Elijah was of the Thesbe in Galilee mentioned Tobit i. 2 (see Exeg. Com.). Against this supposition is th«
fact that the Jews of our Lord's time believed that " out of Galilee ariseth no prophet (Jno. vii. 5*2).
* Ver. 1. — h~]QT ^D^'DX ^3 *3 strongly emphatic: nisi ego et turn alius vir, etiamsi propheta sit vel prophet-am
mentuitur, dixero, Seb. Schm.
4 Ver. 3.— [The phrase iJQ-^V the ambiguity of which is exactly rendered in the English " before," allows either
the opinion that the brook was on the east of the Jordan (Euseb., Jerome, v. I'.aumer, &c, with whom our author), or that
it was on the west (Ueland, Kobinson, Ac.)
* Ver. 4. — [Q>31U is lrans'aten ravens in all the W. except the Arab. ; yet so important a commentator as S. Je-
rome says: Orbim aceotce vittce in finibus Arabum, Elice dederunt alimenta. But see Exeg. Com.
fl Ver. 6.— [The Vat. Sept. says the ravens brought bread in the morning and flesh in the evening.
7 Ver. 7. — [The Heb. word here used for rain, Q^»n is the same as in ver. 14 and in xviii.41, but different from ~)QQ
coupled with dew, in ver. 1. It denotes heary rain.
s Ver. 12. — [The Sept curiously has here and in ver. 18 TeKi-ois in the plural.
9 Ver. 14. — [The form in the text mj-j is pointed by the Masorets and marked in the k'ri as to be understood jijtj ,
It may, however, be considered as the infin. ]-jfl with reduplicated syllable )n and read |jt}JT| . See Ewald Krit. Gramm.
§ 23S c— F. G.] ,
10 Ver. 15.— The k'ri Nln^tOH in place °f the k'tib ^iTl'Mlil is unnecessary. Maurer : Accentus major voci p^XHt
adponendus, post 73J<m vero cogitatione repetendum est edebat s. edebant. According to Keil, the feminine form
S^Xm *s E0 ^e taken as an indefinite neuter: and it, he and she, ate. [The reading of the kVi, however, is sustained by
many MSS.
1 1 Ver. 19. — [nsPU =" vjrtptZov, the upper chamber which is often built upon the roof of Oriental houses and to which
there was access without passing through the house.
13 Ver. 21.— r"7"TD]"l?1 ,it" "ne measured himself," i. e. stretched himself.
" Ver. 23.— [The Vat Sept. omits the greater part of ver. 22 and the first clause of ver. 28.— F. G.]
PRELIMINARY.
Tlie history of the prophet Elijah, which begins
with Die chapter now before us, is continued in
chapters xviii., xix., xxi., 2 Kings i. , and is brought
to a conclusion in 2 Kings ii., belongs, as is
known, not only to the weightiest portions of our
own, but of the Old Testament historical books
generally. Hence it has been the object frequently,
both of special theological inquiry and also of
devotional consideration. In this respect we name
here: Eichhorn: Ueber die Prophetensafjen aus dem
Reiche Israel (in der allgcm. Bibliothek der bibl.
Literatur IV '. 2 s. 193 sq.). Niemeyer : Charak-
teristik der Bibel V. s. 257 sq. Knobel : Der Prophe-
tisniiis iter llfliraer II. s. 73 sq. Rodiger : In der
Hail. EncyclopadieSd. 33 s. 320. Koster : Die Pro-
pheten des Alten und Neuen Testaments, s. 70 sq
Winer: R.- 17.-5. 1, s. 317 sq. Ewald: Geschichtels
raels IN. s. 485 sq. und 533 sq. Kurtz, in Herzog's
R.-E. III. s. 754 sq. Sartorius: Elias und Elisa,
3. Heft der Vortrage uber die Propheten, Basel,
1862. Menken : Christliche Homilien uber die
Geschiehte des Propheten Elias, 2 Bd. der gesammelten
Schriften, Bremen, 1858. (These 1798 homilies
are, as the preface rightly remarks, "a complete
ascetic commentary." They are to this day un-
surpassed, and belong to what is best that has
ever been said and written upon Elijah.) Fr. W.
Krnmmacher : Elias der Thisbiter, 4. Ausg. . Elberf.,
1851. K. M. Wirth : Das Leben des Propheten Elias,
Predigten, Bern, 1863. F. Bender : Alttestameniliche
Lebensbilder in I'rediykn, 3. Biindchen: Die Propheten
Elias und Elisa, Stuttgart, 1858. [See ajso Dean
CHAPTER XVII. 1-24.
19,
Stanley : Jewish Cliurch, Lecture xxx. F. D.
Maurice : Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament,
Sermon viii. Bp. Hall : Contemplations, Ac, Book
xvii. 6, 7, 8. F. W. Robertson: Sermons, Second
Series, vi. — E. 11.]
Besides the sections in our books just re-
ferred to, we have no further accounts of the
history of Elijah. As his activity was limited
to the kingdom of Israel, the Chronicles, which
are occupied specially with the kingdom of
Judah, furnish no parallel accounts. They make
no mention of Elijah, except that he wrote a
letter to king Jorum (2 Chron. xxi. 12 sq.), of
which, however, we rind nothing in our books.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, Elijah is men-
tioned but once (Mai. iv. 5). How high he stood
in the estimation of the later Jews may be learned
from the praise of him in the Wisdom of Solomon
(xlviii. 1-1 2). In the New Testament no prophet
is mentioned and extolled so frequently as Elijah :
whence certainly it follows that in the time of
Christ and of the Apostles generally, a high sig-
nificance was attached to him in the sphere of the
history of redemption. Rabbinical tradition sup-
plements indeed the history of the prophets, but
its statements are so marvellous, and in part so
absurd (Cf. Schottgen, Hoc. heb. II., p. 533 ; Eisen-
menger, Enldecktts Judenthum II. s. 401 sq.), that
not the slightest historical value can be conceded
to them. They certainly show, however, the ex-
traordinary estimation in which then and always
Elijah stood amongst the Jews. Origen, Jerome,
and Eusebius mention apocryphal accounts of
Elijah, and even the Mohammedans have their
fables about him (See Winer s. 320 and Ewald s.
548).
In respect now of the narrations in our books, as
to form and contents, they are so unmistakably dis-
tinguishable from the chapters which precede, and
which are inserted amongst them (xv., xvi., xx., and
xxii. ), as to place it beyond doubt that they belong
to another documentary source, the work as-
suredly of some prophet, and probably incorpo-
rated into the great historical collection in the
hands of our author (see Introd. § 2). Lately,
distinctions between the different accounts have
been made ; and it has been maintained that they
are the product of different periods. According to
Ewald, chap. xxi. is the most ancient, and 2 Kings
chap. i. 2-17 the latest section (so Thenins also
in respect of the latter) ; but that the main portion,
(chaps, xvii., xviii., six., 2 Kings ii. 1-1S) was
written by one person, who lived at the close of
the eighth or the beginning of the seventh
century, i. e., some two hundred years after Elijah.
This view rests, however, upon a completely un-
justifiable perversion of the history, by virtue of
which the punishment of Naboth (chap, xxi.) de-
cided the whole turn of affairs in Israel. When
the author of the main portion of the narrative
lived cannot be determined. That " he cannot have
lived before the end of the eighth or the first half
of the seventh century," is an assumption which
rests only upon the undemonstrated opinion of the
unhistorical character of the story of Elijah in
general, but which does not necessarily follow from
this. Who in that period, far from being an in-
Bigniticant one, could have been the author ?
Recent criticism, on account of the " accumu-
lation of the miraculous " in the expositions of
the life and work of Elijar contained in our
books, pronounces it more or less unhistoricaL
At first the attempt was made to explain this
miraculous element away by giving to the events
concerned a merely natural coloring (cf. Exeget
llandbuch des Alt. Testaments, S and 9; St. Bauer,
Hebr. Jlythologie II. s. 156 sq. and Gesch. der hebr
Nation II. s. 406 sq. ; Ausfiihrliclie Erklarung de>
Wander II. s. 148), but, as Winer mildly expresses
it. " not with a very felicitous result," examples of
which shall be cited below. Subsequently this
was entirely abandoned. The view now current
takes this form : we have before us here, " not
history strictly speaking, but a tradition-sketch;"
the entire delineation wears often " a wholly fabu-
lous character" (Thenius), and is hence full of " the
marvellous " (Winer), and yet "the fabulous is so
closely connected with the historical that it is scarce-
ly possible to separate the one from the other in all
particulars" (Rodiger, Knobel). The latest way of
looking at the matter goes still farther, claiming
that the documentary source employed by out
author " is a poetico-prophetic wTork of a later age,
in which the image of such an extraordinary phe-
nomenon as Elijah had gradually become stronget
and more colossal," that in this work, still further,
"older narratives and treatises were manifestly
made use of," only "the author, conceiving of
everything with poetic loftiness, lifted up the
reader even to a height often dizzy, has formed
anew the whole history of Elijah and of his time."
It is "a wonderful, creative representation of the
sublimest prophetic truths," and " is freed besides
of every fetter of prosaic historical material "
(Ewald, I. c, s. 534 sq., whose words Eisenlohr, as
usual, repeats). Buusen has expressed this view
in the sharpest way (Bibelwerk fiir die Gemeinde V.
2. s. ;>40. sq.) : " The whole narration of the life of
Elijah is a firmly welded popular epic in its execu-
tion, from the beginning to end . . . for the won-
derful power of this spirit and for his astonishing
manifestations our poem serves better than a dry
narration of the actual occurrences. It is the
fruit of an inspiration which he, like some super-
human being as it were, awakened in his dis-
ciples. Nothing but boundless ignorance, or,
where historical criticism has not died out, only
an hierarchical-dilettanti reaction, foolhardy hy-
pocrisy or weak-headed fanaticism, would wish to
demand the faith of the Christian community in
the historic truth of these miracles as if they had
actually taken place." Reserving details for the
particular statements, we remark as follows, in a
general way, upon these various modes of view of
the new criticism.
(<;) In respect of " the accumulation of the mira-
culous," from which the new criticism generally,
in disputing the historical character of the ac-
count about Elijah, proceeds, Kurtz says — " It must
be confessed that these miracles, partly at least,
are surprising through their outwardness, and
that, were we justified in supposing that mythical
embellishments entered into the biblical history
at all, here (and in Elisha's story) more than any-
where else would they be found." If indeed it be
presupposed that a miracle is an impossibility, and
is to be relegated, consequently, to the sphere of le-
gend or of fiction, the history of Elijah must appear
certainly as legendary and unhistorical. But if this be
not presupposed, the frequent manifestation C'f the
miraculous in this history cannot surprise us. The
entire history (Heilsgeschichte) of the Old and New
iy2
THK FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Testament, as the actual revelation of the living,
holy God, who is infinitely above all natural, finite
being, is a great continuous miracle, and is likewise
the soil in which all miracles, in particular, are
rooted. But as it has, like every other history,
its main epochs, which form the gathering-points
of its development, so it is agreeable to its nature,
that just at these very points the miraculous
should appear stronger, more distinctly and more
frequently, and the appearance of any person who
stands at the apex of a new epoch should be ac-
companied by miracles. The concentration of re-
velation leads, in the nature of the case, to a con-
centration of the miraculous, and moreover, in a
way which corresponds with the steps in the de-
velopment of the people, and the position of the
person who leads them. Such was the case with
Moses, the founder of the Covenant, and with
Christ its finisher, and it would be surprising if in
the case of Elijah, the restorer of the Covenant
(see below, Historical and Ethical), miracle should
not be present. E wald confesses this when (s. 5 1 0)
he says: " The sphere of religion is always that
of wonder, while that of strong faith in the being
and agency of heavenly powers is in action as
well as experience ; where also there is the
strongest intensity of true religion, there will
such wonders in part actually take place through
the activity of the believing spirit, and in part will
be experienced, at least, by believing hearts . . .
In so far were the days of Elijah and of Elisha,
then, when the true religion was compelled to
maintain itself most stringently against its inter-
nal foes, as rich in wonders as of old the days of
Moses and of Joshua had been." Sartorius also
justly remarks: " The activity of these prophets
of an older time did not consist in testimonies
simply by word of mouth, in long speeches and
extended discourses, like those of the later pro-
phets, but in deeds laid upon them by Uod,
wrought by them in the strength of God, which
they taught people rightly to understand only,
in brief statement, as a sign from the Lord. . . .
Especially was the falling away at that time at
such a pass that the conversion of souls could
not be accomplished by words simply, but by de-
monstrations of the power of the living God, and
these we see now an the miracles of Elijah."
What Christ says in John v. 36 of His works, is
true, mutatis mutandis, of Elijah. They were
signs and witnesses, and there can be no discus-
sion here of a surprising " outwardness " in any
particular. They have all a spiritual kernel, and
often speak deeper and louder than words. The
proof of this devolves upon the exegesis. If the
legendary be so cemented with the historical, as the
new criticism confesses, that it is "impossible" to
separate them, the accounts generally can have no
historic worth, and it would be more consistent,
critically, to explain them as fiction. For the rest,
supposing that tradition has added this or that, it
by no means follows, as has been assumed, that
all the miraculous belongs to the legendary only,
and is unhistoricaL The miraculous which the
Jewish tradition has grafted upon the biblical ac-
counts is of the sort which can be readdy dis-
tinguished from that which in the Bible itself is
explained away as legendary. But never would
a tradition, running out into what is irregular i>nd
extraordinary, have been formed, had Elijah's ap-
pearing been without any miracle.
(b) The notion that the accounts of Elijah art
portions of a larger poetical work, in fact » ja-
tioual epic, does away readily with many t«ffi-
culties, but at the same time is involved in irrecon-
cilable contradictions. No one can deny that the
author of our books wished to write an historical
work. Had he regarded the history of Elijah, as
contained in his documentary sources, not as
history but as " fiction," he would not have incor-
porated it into his work, and have placed it side
by side with the other documents to which he
appealed. Least of all would he have done this
in a main portion, in the history of the prophet
who makes an epoch in the history of the monar-
chy, yea, of the theocracy of the Old Covenant.
Of course, if he held that to be history which he in-
corporated into his own work he would have claimed
in its behalf acceptance upon the part of his readers.
If, finally, it were "fiction," that objection of "un-
limited ignorance," absence of "historic sense,"
"foolhardy hypocrisy," or "weak-headed fanati-
cism " would before all strike him, and he would,
at the same time, disclaim for his whole history
all trustworthiness and credibility. If the docu-
mentary source belonged to the end of the eighth
or the beginning of the seventh century, then for
the space of two hundred years, down to the days
of our author, no one remarked that it did not
contain history, but was only a fiction. The his-
tory of Israel was likewise the history of the di-
vine revelation, and consequently a matter not for
the poets but for the prophets (see Introd. § 2),
and nothing can be more certain than that the
prophet who composed the documentary source,
did not mean to write a popular epic, but history.
But apart from every other consideration, the narra-
tives about Elijah, notwithstanding their peculiar
coloring, are not related to the remaining portions
of our books as poetry to prose. The extreme
simplicity and directness of the narratives (c/.
Thenius, Comment, s. 218), the pregnancy of ex-
pression, the frequent designation of places, the
many individual characteristico-psychological traits
impart to the whole an historical impress so un-
mistakable, that the events narrated cannot pos-
sibly be regarded as a poetic costume and " repre-
sentation of the sublimest prophetic truths " and
general religious ideas. Ewald's view, that the
author of the documentary source had gathered
together everything with poetic elevation, and
has lifted his readers up to a height which is
often giddy, contradicts flatly his own previous
assertion : " How grand everything said of him
(Elijah) may be, still all accounts ean be but a
feeble image of the original grandeur, and the all-
conquering might of this great prophetic hero of
the ten tribes." If the appearing of Elijah were
originally so grand — and " there can be no doubt
actually of the marvellousness of his prophetic
activity " — if he achieved the " incredible miracle
of a complete alteration in the condition of the
ten tribes at that time," we see no reason why
the author of the documentary source could or
would have been moved " to form anew the whole
history of Elijah and of his time," " to make an
entire new thing," and to "get rid of every fetter
in the way of a lower historical material." When
Bunsen says, " we have legends, not myths," bu\
adds, " the historical character of the life and of
the personality is not at all imperilled thereby,"
this is simply a contradiction. For legends aro no
CHAPTER XVII. 1-24.
193
history, and in the way of history all that remains
is that once an Elijah lived and did great things ;
all besides is insecure and uncertain, is in fact
legend presented in a poetic garment.
EXEGETICAL AND CEITICAL.
Ver. 1. And Elijah the Tishhite. "When
under Ahab the falling away from Jehovah in
Israel reached a degree never hitherto known
(chap- xvi. 30-34), then the prophet Elijah ap-
peared and announced to the king, &c. Theuius is
of the opinion that the proper opening of the
history of Elijah here is missing, and that the
manner of his appearance presupposes an activity
in the past. Von Gerlach also says, " the history
has a great gap here, at its beginning," for Elijah
appears as one in connection with whom extra-
ordinary occurrences were known for a long time.
But this view is not necessary. It is in the highest
degree probable that Elijah lived, up to that
moment, in retirement, that his prophetic activity
first began with his encounter with Ahab, and that
then his history, strictly speaking, began, like that
of Mark and Matthew, and of John the Baptist his
copy. This sudden coming forth corresponds well
with the peculiarity of his appearing, hence also
Jesus Sirach (Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 1-12) begins his
eulogy upon Elijah with the words: " Then stood
up Elias the prophet as lire, and his word burned
like a lamp. He brought a sore famine upon them,"
&c. The name ?n^X or ri^S (2 Kings i. 3 sg.),
i. e.. not, according to the old interpreters : My
strength is Jehovah, but : My God is Jehovah,
refers to the life's calling of the prophet, which
was to bear witness against Jehovah as the one
true God over against Baal. It is not at all likely
that he gave this significant name to himself
(Thenius). In chap. xxi. 17 he is called the Twh-
bite without any addition. In Tob. i. 2 only, is
Qio3tj, a place, mentioned, "which is at the right
hand of that city which is called properly Naph-
tali, in Galilee above Aser." As there is no
mention anywhere of a place of that name, this
must be the Thisbe. The addition ly^J 'QB'nO
says that Elijah of Thisbe was born in Galilee,
but was living in Gilead, in the land lying over
against Ephraim, on the other side of Jordan.
Instead of 'at-'Tip Ewald, Thenius, and Kurtz
wish, after the Sept. (6 Qeo-j3ir7]c_ 6 etc Qeoorfov rye
YaWaai), to read 'a^'TUp , so that the sense would
be, the Tishbite, namely, of the Thisbe which is in
Gilead, but which is not the Thisbe in Galilee,
mentioned in Tob. i. 2. But there is no proof
that there was a Thisbe in Gilead. Even 3;.' ,n
does not force us to this reading : for it does not
designate a stranger, t. e., a non-Israelite, but one
who had wandered off into another tribe, and was
dwelling there, like the still stronger 13 in Judges
xvii. 7 of the Levite who was of Bethlehem in
Judah, and had settled himself in Ephraim. That
the generally plene written 3L"in stands here
without 1 makes nothing against the Masoretic
punctuation (Keil on the place). Whether Elijah
came from the unknown Thisbe in Galilee, or from
the equally unknown Thisbe in Gilead, is a matter
13
of no moment, but it is certain that he came
over into Samaria from the country east of the
Jordan.
Said unto Ahab, &c. It is often maintained
that the words of Elijah are the conclusion of a
longer conference with Ahab, and the Talmud
(Sanhed. xxii. 1) states the occasion and the con-
tents of the same, but most arbitrarily. The
prophet surely entered into no dispute withAhab.
According to his constantly observed plan, he ap-
peared before the backslider with a short but
incisive word, which he understood well enough
without any extended reasoning. As the Lord God
of Israel liveth is the usual form of an oath, which
here at the same time places Jehovah, the only
living God, in contrast with Baal, the dead idol
The addition also, the God of Israel, stands out in its
full meaning : the true living God is He also who had
chosen Israel and made a covenant with them, which
was now shamefully broken by idolatry. With
the words, before whom I stand (chap. i. 2; x. 5, 8),
Elijah designated himself to the king as the ser-
vant and ambassador of Jehovah, and that as such
he stands before him and announces the impend-
ing punishment. This punishment, that there
should be tio dew nor rain, was not arbitrary and
prejudiced, but was threatened in the law for tha
sin of falling away, and suited the especial circuu.
stances. The fruitful land of Canaan was prom-
ised to the people, after their exodus from Egypt,
on the condition that they would keep the cove-
nant of Jehovah, and not serve other gods. But in
the event of a falling away it was threatened that
the heavens should become brass, and the earth
iron, i. e., that it should become unfruitful; and
this, for an agricultural people, was the direst evil
(Lev. xxvi.19 sq. ; Deut. xi. 16 sq. ; xxviii. 23sq.;
cf. 1 Kings viii. 35 ; Amos. iv. 7 sq.). Never
hitherto had the covenant been broken, and idol-
atry been formally introduced, as under Ahab : if
ever at all, now must the threatening be carried
into execution. Such a punishment was at the
same time an evidence against the Baal-worship ;
for since Baal was worshipped conspicuously as
the generating Nature-power, so was the impend-
ing drought and barrenness a tangible proof of the
impotence and nullity of this idol. It is not to be
overlooked that Elijah, while he announces the
coming of the punishment threatened by Moses,
and in a certain degree executes it, places himself,
at the outset, in the direct position of a mediator
and founder of the covenant, as another Moses,
i. e., as the restorer of the covenant. The prophet
announces the continuance of the drought only
in a general way, because it would depend upon the
conduct of the king and of the people. He there-
fore adds, but according to my word, perhaps " in
opposition to others, particularly the prophets of
Baal" (Keil), certainly for the humiliation of the
haughty king, who had set himself up above Je-
hovah and his commandment, and now must feel
himself dependent upon the word of a man whom
he despised, one of his subjects, but who, never-
theless, " was standing before Jehovah."
Vers. 2-3. And the word of the Lord came
unto him, &c. How Ahab received the announce-
ment of the prophet, whether angrily or indiffer-
ently, is not stated. Certainly he did not lay hands
upon him, who seems to have disappeared as un-
expectedly as he came. From the more general
direction eastward, winch is followed by the more
194
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
especial 'JS'py of Jordan, Thenius justly concludes
that the brook Cherith flowed easterly from Jordan
(Gen. xvi. 12; xxiii. 19; Josh, xviii. 14), in op-
position to the tradition which locates it this
side the same river (see Keil). What recent
writers deliver in respect of its situation are,
after all, uncertain guesses, and nothing can be
gathered concerning it from its name JV"I3 1 *'• «-,
separation The assertion that the " brook " was
called Cherith, i. e.. drying up, because it used to
dry up (Krummacher) much sooner than all others.
is a sort of luetic a iwn lucendo. For it seems, on
the other hand, to have belonged to the class of
perennial fountains, and upon that account to have
been pointed out to the prophet in the time of
drought. Certainly the prophet was not concealed
" in order to get out of the way of importunate
prayers for the removal of the punishment "
(Keil), for a man of such inflexible will would not
find it necessary to get out of the way of such
prayers. We surmise rather that his design was
to be safe from the persecution of Ahab and
Jezebel; for he would be able the more readily
to fly into the neighboring kingdom of Judah. It
was also requisite, after that great declaration,
that he should again retire into the obscurity from
which he had emerged, and not appear again
" until men were convinced of the truth of his
word by the results thereof, and would feel their
need of him and of his God, and he could labor
mightily and decisively against the idol-worship "
(Menken). Since God had appointed him to an
extraordinary task, it was necessary, after he had
begun it with the announcement of the judicial
punishment, to retire into obscurity, in order to
prepare for all that his calling brought with it,
both great and grievous. The sojourn in the
desert was " the time when he grappled and
wrestled in prayer for his people, and was himself
purified and strengthened for his future deeds "
(Von Gerlach). " Most of the saints aud great men
lived, before their entrance upon their public
career, in profound obscurity : so Moses, so Jesus
himself, so Paul, who spent three years in Arabia
after his conversion. God receives His people
first in silence in his school, until He can use them
openly (Calwer Bib.). The second Elijah, John the
Baptist (Matt. xi. 14; xvii. 12), was in the wilder-
ness when the command of God came to him to
appear openly (Luke i. 80 ; iii. 2).
Vers. 4-6. I have commanded the ravens,
&c. To command means "as much as to make
use of them in the execution of his purposes "
(Berleb. Bibel). As the God who hath made heaven
and earth and all that therein is, hath " command-
ed " the serpents (Amos ix. 3), and the clouds
(Isa. v. 6; Ps. lxxviii. 23), the sea also (Job
xxxviii. 11), so likewise the ravens. By means of
these the supply of the prophet with food is
promised, not "against their own voracity, be-
cause subject to the will of God " (Thenius), but
because they have their habitat, and are found in
wild and desolate places (Isa. xxxiv. 11; Zeph.
ii. 14). As the raven, according to Lev. xi. 15 ;
Deut. xiv. 14, belongs to the unclean class of birds,
Kimchi and other rabbins, referring to Ezek. xxvii.
27, explain 0"3ljj as merchants. But apart from
the consideration that 3"ij? by itself never means
merchant, Elijah was not to eat the ravens, and the
eating only of unclean creatures was forbidden.
It is even still worse to read D'QIJ? , >■ e., Arabians
(1 Chron. xxi. 16), or to suppose that the in-
habitants of the unknown city Orbo. or of the
rock Oreb (Judges vii. 25), are meant (cf. on the
other hand Bocbart, Hitroz. II. i. 2). Gumpach is
altogether out of the way when he translates ver.
6, — and the ravens coming to him were bread and
meat ; for then Elijah would have been compelled
to eat, in order to be nourished, unclean creatures
forbidden by the law.
Vers. 7-12. And it came to pass after a
while, <fec. Not after the course of a year, but
after some time ; for D'D1 can only be understood
of the space of a year when the connection ne-
cessarily requires it, as in Judg. xi. 40; xvii. 10;
Lev. xxv. 29. Luther's translation : after several
days, is also incorrect. Zarephathlay between Tyre
and Sidon, also in the native land of Jezebel.
There is still extant a village named Surafend
with remains of an ancient date (Robinson's Pales-
tine, vol. II. p. 474-475). The "commanding"
here is the same as in ver. 4. — The widow wo.
man, &c, ver. 10. From the fact that she was
gathering sticks it is evident that the wonan wa.=
poor and forsaken. To test whether she were thl
person who was to provide for him, wearied by
his journey in the heat of the sun, he begs her
first of all for a drink of water (by <p3 a drinking-
cup which he had brought from the brook Cherith
is to be understood). As she readily complied
with his request he went further, and asked
for a mouthful of bread, and observes from her
reply, in which she speaks only of her son, and not
of her husband, that she was a widow, and also
that she knew Jehovah, the God of Israel. Then
he was no longer in doubt that she was the person
who was to care for him. TITH at the conclusion
of ver. 11 is not to be connected with T\pP but
with Drp~np : a bit of bread which thou hast
(Sep. tfHiifiov aprov rov kv tt) xEtP'1 cov)- From the
oath by "Jehovah" and the addition "thy God "
it is obvious that the woman recognized in the
man thus asking of her an Israelitish prophet,
which, indeed, his dress proclaimed (2 Kings i. 8),
and likewise that she also knew of Jehovah the
God of Israel. The supposition that she knew
only the name of this God, and then, " so much
the more to secure confidence " (Thenius), swore
not by her own, but by the God of Elijah, makes
her simply a hypocrite ; for no one swears by a
God whom he does not honor and recognize as a
God. She indeed names Jehovah the God of the
prophet, but while she swears by this God sha
gives it to be understood that the God of the pro-
phet is also her God. In any event she was not a
worshipper of the Phoenician Baal aud Astarte,
otherwise an Elijah would not have been directed
to her. How and where she learned to know the
God of Israel, we do not ascertaiu. But it is cer
tain that she knew him. It is not impossible that
she was an Israelite by birth, who had been mar.
ried to a Phoenician. To dwell in a foreign land,
with an Israelitish widow, seems entirely suitable
to the prophet's situation. The passage iu Luke
iv. 25 does not suggest that she was a heathen
GHAPTEB XVII. 1-24.
iy.r-
»nd worshipper of idols, but that she was not in
the native land of the prophet. By jijJD "the
smallest-sized bread in the form of cake is to be
understood (Thenius). It is baked in hot ashes;
the Sept. has kyupytyiac [cf. Ps. xxxv. 16). -\2 is a
little vessel for holding meal. Oil was used in bak-
ing. The woman was collecting the wood to have
her last " baking," for she saw before her death
from starvation.
Vers. 13-16. And Elijah said unto her,
Pear not, Sc. The prophet attaches to his word of
consolation a demand which was, for the woman, a
severe test of her faith. Never would he have
made the demand, and still less would she have
paid any attention to it (ver. 15), had she been a
heathen and worshipped idols. That at the word
of Jehovah, the God of Israel (ver. 14), she did
what the prophet bade her, certainly shows a faith
which could scarcely be found in Israel. ]nn is
the infinitive fin with the syllable ]n repeated as
in chap. vi. 19. The addition, and her house, ver. 15,
while in ver. 12 and 13 her sou only is mentioned,
means that there was so much meat and oil that
even her poor relations came to partake thereof.
The Sept. in vers. 12 and 13, without any authority,
has roic tckvoic, and in ver. 15, TartKva, and Thenius
would like to make the text to conform to this.
The same author, without reason, wishes, with the
Vulgate (ei ex ilia die), to refer Q'o' to the follow-
ing verse : and from that time the barrel wasted
not. It means simply a long while, like Gen.
3d. 4 ; Numb. ix. 22.
Vers. 17-18. And it came to pass after
these things, &c. It went so far with the sick
son that "there was no breath left in him." The
same expression occurs also in Dan. x. 1" (cf. 1
Kings x. 5), but where it does not, however, at all
describe death (i. e., being in a state of death). It
would be a mistake to maintain that these words
can mean only that he died. We must rather con-
clude, that as the text does not say ]-|(b5l it did
not mean to say it. Vers. 18 and 20 likewise do not
compel us to think of a being in a state of death, and
Josephus, who certainly was not afraid of the mira-
culous, gives our words thus — " wc mzi -f/v faxr/v
a<pelvat ko.1 66;ai vtupov. The illness was certainly
mortal, and the boy would have remained in a breath-
less and lifeless condition, had not Elijah rescued
him from death. The action of the prophet is
hence miraculous, which he did not perform by his
own human power, but which the God who doeth
wonders achieved through him. The formula 'jr-fiD
T\b)(cf- 2 Sam. xvi. 10; Judges xi. 12; 2 Kings
iii. 13; Matt. viii. 29; John ii. 4) has, according to
the connection, a somewhat different sense. Here
it expresses, as the respectful form of address,
" Man of God," shows, not strong dislike, or "the
breaking up of outward fellowship and a demand
for his departure " (Thenius), but distress and la-
mentation : Is this the result of my association with
thee ? Must such sorrow befall me oecause thou
*rt with me? The words immediately following are
to be connected therewith; ]"IN3 . &c., which do not
convey a positive accusation or objection, but, with
the Sept., Vulgate, Thenius, and others, are to
be understood interrogatively: Was it necessary
for thee to come to me, Ac. As mothers, at the loss
of a beloved child, often seek for the reason of it
in some definite occasion, so here the troubled
woman has the thought that the death of her son
is a punishment for her sin, which first becomes
known properly before God through the man of
God, who, as such, is in a special intercourse with
God. We can scarcely find " the presumption " in
this thought, that "the appearance of a higher
being brings undoubtedly death to the person to
whom it happens" (Menken after Hess), but rather
the erroneous supposition that by intercourse with
the holy man of God, and in contrast with him,
her sinful nature first becomes clear and known to
the holy God. As in contrast with the holy will of
God revealed in the law, man in his sinfulness
knows himself, the same is true also in contrast
with such men as walk before the holy God, and
within whom His holy will lives and works
(Luke v. 8). The error lay in this — that the wo-
man supposed that in the degree in which she had
come to the knowledge and the feeling of her sin,
God also was then taking cognizance of it, and
punishing her. " Folly indeed in the thought,
but in this folly what truth of feeling and humil-
ity " (Krummacher). This error the prophet sets
aside, not by means of a long didactic reply, but
by a rescuing action which must have convinced
her that the distress did not overtake her on ac-
count of her special sin, but virip ttjc So^nc rob
Qeav, and that "the works of God might bo
manifest thereby" (John ix. 3 ; xi. 4).
Vers. 19-23. And he took him out of her
bosom, &c. He goes " into his lonely chamber in
order to be alone with his God, and to be able to
pray all the more freely. Here he pours out his
heart, inwardly moved by sympathy at the grief
of the mother, and much distressed at the incom-
prehensibleness and unexpectedness of this divine
providence, in humble trustfulness before his God "
(Menken). Cf. Acts ix. 40 ; 2 Kings iv. 33. In
the question to God (ver. 20) there is no cavil ; it
is rather the expression of a man wrestling in
prayer with God, who does not doubt that God
will hear him (James i. 6). — And he laid him,
&c. How this was done is more fully stated in 2
Kings iv. 34. Like Christ, the prophet of all pro-
phets, when he healed the dumb, and the blind,
and the blind from his birth (Mark vii. 33 ; viii.
23 ; John ix. 6, 7), so Elijah proceeded in this
case. He employs rational means for warming
and re-vivifying, not with the hope that of them-
selves they would prove effectual, but in the sure
confidence that God, in answer to his weeping
supplication, would impart supernatural, divine,
i.e., life-giving, force to the natural human instru-
ments, and this happened. — Three times Elijah
stretched himself upon the child, calling upon God,
not so much because everything to be thoroughly
and completely done must be done thrice (three
are the true unit), as rather because the calling
upon the name of Jehovah in the old covenant
was a threefold act (Ps. Iv. 18; Dan. vi. 10);
thrice in the high-priestly benediction was the
name of Jehovah laid upon Israel (Numb. vi. 22) ;
thrice did the seraphim before the throne of Je-
hovah cry out holy (Isa. vi. 3).
Ver. 24. And the woman said, &e. The
sense of her words is not that she had doubted
hitherto whether Elijah were actually a man ol
God, but that now she knew it ; for she names him
196
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
such in ver. 18, and as such regards him as the
cause of her grievous visitation. Rather she ex-
plains, now (ni nnj? Ruth ii. 7 ; 2 Kings v. 22),
she is convinced anew and most assuredly about
it- J1DN at the end is not to be taken adverbial-
ly : that thou art truly a prophet and speakest the
word of Jehovah, but as a substantive : that
which thou, in the name of Jehovah, speakest as
His word is truth, upon which one 'can entirely
repose. The experience in ver. 14 is confirmed
here to its fullest extent. Menken is incorrect
here in understanding by flirVDI " the whole
announcement of the truth, all taken together,
which Elijah had said and taught during his stay
in her house, concerning truth and error, the wor-
ship of idols and the worship of God," &e. The
expression never means this, but always simply
the word of Jehovah which He Himself speaks or
has spoken.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The first coming forth of Elijah is in the
highest degree characteristic, and, as it were, the
superscription, in the way of action, to his entire
appearing ; for it throws light, at the outset, upon
the peculiarity both of his personality and of his
public activity. Living until then in the greatest
obscurity and entirely unknown, he stands sud-
denly there "like one fallen from the clouds, to be
compared with the lightning of God, like a light-
ed fire-brand hurled by the hand of Jehovah"
(Krummacher), and after he had spoken his word,
which " burned like a torch " (Ecelesiast. xlviii. 1),
he again disappears, and no one knew whither he
had gone (chap, xviii. 10; cf. 2 Kings ii. 16-18; 1
Kings ix. 3, 8). Wholly alone, without any pow-
er or influence behind him, he encountered the
mighty king fearlessly and courageously, not like
a suppliant, but threatening and punishing (cf.
chap, xviii. 15 ; xxi. 20 ; 2 Kings ii. 15 sq.). His
speech is brief and pithy, firm and definite. He
delivers no elaborated address; the word he speaks
is like a deed. " There is something great, majes-
tic, divine, in the coming forth of this prophet"
(Menken). No less striking is the substance of
his first utterance. He announces to the chief of
the kingdom of the ten tribes, carried over into
formal idolatry by the sin of Jeroboam, and now
completely cut loose from the covenant (chap. xix.
10), the punishment which was threatened in the
covenant (=law), that he may forsake his evil ways
and turn unto the God of his fathers. But in this
he does not bring to light merely one side of his
prophetic calling, but the core and heart thereof.
The peculiar, specific place which he occupied in
the economy of grace was to raise up and restore
the covenant which had been communicated and estab-
lished by Moses, but had become violated. As restor-
er and reformer he stands 'n immediate relation to
Moses, the founder of this covenant. Hence we
shall see, not only in the course of his history is
there much that is analogous with the history of
Moses, but he appears also together with Mosej
at the transfiguration of the Lord (Luke ix. 28-35),
and both speak " of his decease which he should
accomplish at Jerusalem." They both represent
the Old-Testament economy in contrast with Him
who, by his "decease," carries it to its end and ful-
filment. As another, second Moses, Elijah's en-
tire personality and work in his calling bears alsc
supremely an historical character. And as the
restoring and rehabilitation of the covenant de-
manded, necessarily, an overthrowing and remo-
val of the idol-worship, already deeply rooted and
powerful, not only must glowing zeal and impar-
tial strictness be combined in this character so de-
voted to the law, but also a judicial activity itself.
Hence his acts often have the appearance of hard-
ness and violence. The period of his appearing
was, for the covenant-breaking, idolatrous genera-
tion, a day of divine judgment, a time of visitation
and chastening. But in so far as the restoration
of the covenant did not concern outward, political
relations, but the ethico-religious relation to Jeho-
vah, the Holy One, and aimed to " turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of tho
children to their fathers" (Mai. iv. 6), Elijah was
properly tlie prophet of repentance. This, indeed, he
announced by his dress (2 Kings i. 8), which there-
after was the official dress of the prophets and
preachers of repentance (1 Kings xix. 19; 2 Kings
ii. 13; Zach. xiii. 4), and in which he appeared, of
whom the Lord said, "and if ye will receive it,
this is Elias which was for to come " (Matt. iii. 4 :
xi. 14; xvii. 11). And what was his first word
but a call to repentance? Kurtz is somewhat
one-sided in his judgment on Elijah's position in
the divine economy. He says: "In his official
position the absolute one-sidedness of the exhibi-
tion of law, and the limit of his vision and of
his activity to the present, which is therewith
connected, characterizes him .... for the under-
standing of this, his one-sided position as prophet,
having to deal neither with hopes nor with promi-
ses, we should not lose sight of the fact that he
wrought and lived in the kingdom of Israel, not in
the kingdom of Judah. Only there, not here, is
the coming of a prophet like Elijah comprehensi-
ble. In the kingdom of Judah a prophet like Eli-
jah would certainly have taken a different course
. . . .there, all would have worked upon him and
would have made something else out of him." If
this were so, it is not easy to explain why he, in
preference to all other prophets, should have ap-
peared, along with Moses, at the transfiguration
of Christ, and why the Lord, in the passages al-
ready cited, should attribute to him such high sig-
nificance for the Messianic age, just as the pro-
phet Malachi had already done (iv. 5, 6). It
was not Elijah's calling to refer to the Messiah in
words and discourses, he had to do only with the
rehabilitation of the broken covenant, and Messi-
anic predictions could follow only upon this. Under
existing circumstances, this could be brought
about only by great, mighty actions. Elijah,
hence, was, as we have already remarked, a pro-
pltet of action, " the great hero-prophet of the king-
dom of the ten tribes " (Ewald). His whole career
was active. His person was a living prophecy of
him who appeared before the day of the Lord, the
day of judgment, so also of grace (cf. Hengsten-
berg, Christologie III. s. 441 sq.)
2. The three wonderful occurrences which follow
upon the first coming forth of Elijah are in imme-
diate relation to the time in which they took place,
and which was a period of general distress in con-
sequence of the drought, and it was also a time of
preparation for the coming activity of the prophet.
And the transactions here brought together lose
in this way the appearance of being onlj ace'der
CHAPTER XVII. 1-24
197
Lai aud arbitrary, which might have happened just
as suitably at any other time. Far from being
mere "miracles," and from calling up and favor-
ing an unworthy representation of the nature (be-
ing) of God, they are signs and witnesses of the
living, personal God over against the apotheosis
of Nature, aud the dead idols which have months
and speak not, eyes and see not, ears and hear
not, hands and handle not (Ps. cxv. 4-7). All
that is grand and glorious about this God, which
the Scripture teaches, stands here before us in
deeds. The God who has made heaven and earth
and all that therein is, and given to the world its
laws, does not stand beneath but above it, so that
"leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and
unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sick-
ness, wealth and poverty, and all things, do not
come to us hap-hazard, but from His fatherly
hand " (Heidel. Katech.). He does not lack the
means to deliver out of all distress and even death
itself (Ps. lxviii. 21): He is near unto all who call
upon Him. He does for all who call upon Him
earnestly what they who fear God desire. He
hears their cry and helps them (Ps. exlv. 18 sq.).
He often leads them by dark paths, but "they are
mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant
and His testimonies " (Ps. xxv. 10). For Elijah, in-
deed, the necessary experiences of this period of
preparation for his great career, were both a trial
and a strengthening of his faith. When in the
most fruitful district itself, where there was scar-
city, he is remanded first to a desert in which
there is an absence of all food, and only a brook
which at any moment might dry up, and then in a
foreign land to a widow almost at death's door
from starvation. But here a calamity befell out
of which no deliverance seemed possible. He acts,
nevertheless, in firm faith and asks no question,
like the people in the wilderness (Ps. lxxviii. 1 9 sq.),
and the more his faith is proved and exercised, so
much the more is it strengthened, so much the
more gloriously is the power and fidelity of the
living God verified unto him. Thus disciplined
and strengthened, he first properly becomes an in-
strument to destroy the heathen abominations and
to bear the name of his God before the Gentiles
and before the kings and before the children of Is-
rael (chap, xviii.).
3. Elijah's subsistence in ike desert is and re-
mains, according to the simple, clear sense of the
narrative, miraculous. " It is almost laughable,"
as Winer rightly says, when many ancient and
recent expositors, even Rabbins, make the ravens
to be Arabs or merchants; but it is not much bet-
ter when J. D. Michaelis supposes that Elijah had
a hunting-ground for ravens, as well also as young
hares, rats, and mice, which they would carry to
their nests, or had trained them as hawks for the
hunt. Others, like Knobel, perceiving the prepos-
terousness of such explanations, have referred to
"the like cases amongst profane writers:" "Semi-
ramis, exposed as a newly-born infant, was nour-
ished by doves ; a bitch gave suck to Cyrus, a she-
wolf to Romulus and Remus; the same is narrated
by JEttan, v. 12, 42, of hinds, mares, bears, goats "
(Prophet, der Bebr. II. s. 84 ; cf. Rbdiger, Allg. En-
cyklop. Bd. 33, s. 322). All these myths of chil-
dren-nursing animals have grown up upon the soil
of nature-religion, and are consequently specifically
heathen. Their sense is that the power of nature,
revealing itself in the suckling animals, is trans-
ferred to the child, or they explain how this or that
person, remarkable by a special power, has obtaired
it by the same being the distinguishing trait ol
some animal (fuov). What has this remote re-
semblance to do with the fact that the God who
holds in His hand all creatures, provided the neces-
sary nourishment for his prophet in the wilderness
by the occupants of this wilderness, the ravens.
Quite apart from their sense and meaning, not even
in their outward form do these myths allow of a
comparison with our narrative. That which has
been adduced in the way of parallel is equally inap-
propriate. When Jerome (Opp>. i. p. 239) states
that the hermit Paul was fed daily by a raven pro-
vided with a half loaf for the period of sixty years,
this obviously is but an exaggerated imitation of
cur story. Hess (Gesch. der Kon. Isr. I. s. 99) refers
to the "credible accounts that exposed children,
exiles, fugitives have been sustained for a long time
by animals," and remarks thereupon : " Such narra-
tions are rarely questioned, except when they are
adduced by the writers of the Bible, as proofs of a
special divine providence ; " but he adds, that in
the case before us much remains that is " inexpli-
cable."
4. The sojourn of Elijah with the widow of Sarep
ta, considered quite apart from the fact that it
served as a preparation for his public activity, con-
stitutes a weighty moment in his history, because
it shows us one side of the prophet which is thrown
into the back-ground in his public career, but
which, nevertheless, belongs essentially to a com-
plete portraiture of the great man of God. While
over against the fallen, covenant-breaking, idol-
serving generation he was inexorable and uncom-
prising, denouncing and judging, threatening and
punishing, to the poor widow he was sympathizing
and friendly only, full of fellow-feeling and compas-
sion, comforting, blessing, and helping. He there,
for the first time, appears great and wonderful, for
it is manifest that that harshness and severity was
not characteristic, not inborn, but was founded in
the special place which he was destined to occupy
in the economy of grace. Never would he have
fulfilled his calling to put an end to the crime of
a ruinous idolatry, and to be a second Moses, if he
had shown the same traits to Ahab and Jezebel
which he did to the widow of Sarepta. Elijah had to
make good, first of all, obedience and resignation
to the will of God at the brook Cherith, compassion
and love at Sarepta, then it was that he appeared
in the sight of God furnished with iron-severity to
judge and to punish. " Now since thou hast learned
sympathy, go hence and preach, and speak to the
people :" these are the words to him which Chry-
sostom puts into the mouth of God (Opp. vi. p.
109).
5. The narrative represents the fact, that the meal
in the barrel and the oil in the cruse did not fail, to
have been quite as much an extraordinary act of
God as the previous support by means of the
ravens. The grossest prejudice alone can say:
"Here there is not a syllable that this was done
by miracle: God gave his blessing so, that by the
labor of her hands, assisted perhaps by the pro-
phet, she secured for herself the necessaries of life "
(Dinter. Schull. Bib. on the place). In that case
Elijah's promise, ver. 14, was nothing more than
an exhortation to industry, but no prophet was
needed for this. Knobel is equally unsatisfactory
(as above s. 81), when in the whole narrative h«
198
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
finds nothing more than "the view that the bless-
ing of God rests where men of God are." The words
of the Lord, in Luke iv. 25, do uot at all authorize
us to think that this was simply an ordinary act of
divine providence. Hess (as above s. 104) says:
" As for myself, I find the narrative so beautiful
and as suitable to God as anything, and place con-
fidence in the old author, when, without fear of
any wisdom, whether of that time or of to-day, he
continues, She went and did as Elijah bade her,
*c." Menken: This whole history glorifies God,
whom the Scripture teaches us to know in His
unapproachable greatness and in His affable mercy
and condescension. A God such as the human
heart in the needs of this present life needs always
and desires; the all-governing Ruler, the alone-in-
dependent, the free master over all nature, who
gives dew and rain, and punishing lands and peo-
ples, withholds and takes away bread and water.
But the individual man is not forgotten of Him ; no,
not even the beggar on the highways. He beholds
not only the whole, but the single parts: He looks
not only into the palace of kings, but into the huts
of poverty. The need and misery of a poor widow
are not too insignificant for Him ; He observes her
sighs and tears, and her silent desolate cabin is for
Him a place worthy of the revelation of His glory
and goodness (Is. Ivii. 15; lxvi. 1 sq.).
6. The revivifying of the child, on account of the
prophet's mode of procedure, has been explained
as a physician's act. The narrative has, so Knobel
supposes, its foundation ''in the circumstance that
the prophets exercised also the function of phy-
sicians." The boy, in consequence of frequent con-
vulsions, suffered a severe fainting-fit, and was
brought back again to life by pressure, animal
warmth, and applied restoratives (Meyer in Ber-
thold's Theol. Journal iv. 230). According to Enne-
moser (Magnetism, s. 422) this was a case of animal
magnetism (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 319). But noth-
.ng is more certain than that the text adduces no
proof of the medical skill of the prophet, nor says
anything of a human medical act of healing: it sets
forth an act of God done by means of the prophet.
Before he stretches himself upon the boy the pro-
phet calls once and again imploringly upon Him
who can both kill and make alive (Dent, xxxii. 29;
1 Sam. ii. 6 ; 2 Kings v. 7) : Let the soul of this
child come to it again I ,: and Jehovah hearkened to
the voice of Elijah." The revivifying is like an
answer to prayer. It is not the prophet, as a
" thaumaturgist " or as a physician employing
natural means, but Jehovah who hears the prayer
of His servant and delivers from death. If in addi-
tion to praying lie stretches himself upon the child,
he did this after the genuine prophetic way; the
visible human deed served as substratum for the
divine, and this divine deed is affirmed and attested
in the prophet's. The deeds of the prophets are
signs (fliX) which represent what God does or will
do by means of them, and are more or less symbo-
lical actions (see above). The outward action was,
in the case, the sign of that which God alone could
do ; it is not the delivering, quickening might and
power, but only the medium denoting it.
HOS1ILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Ver. 1. The first appearing of the prophet
Elijah, (a) The time when; (b) the message with
which he appeared. The prophet Elijah, (a) his
name — my God is Jehovah ; (b) his origin : Thisbe,
an insignificant, unknown place, like Betnlehem
and Nazareth; (c) his condition and calling: !le
stands before the Lord, the God of Israe Gen-
eral distresses, like hunger and famine, sicknesses
and epidemics, are not mere natural events, but
they are the judgments of God upon the godless
and the God- forgetting; they are the trials of the
pious, and to all they cry : repent and be converted I
— Menkex : Men in general have never been willing
to recognize, and are still unwilling to recognize,
the fact that need and misery upon earth stand in
the closest relation to their conduct towards God ;
that through their need they may be called back
to Him whom they have forsaken, and feel what
it is when God withdraws His hand, when they art
left to themselves, when the Almighty withholds
His gifts and blessings, and sends His punishments
and plagues. The God of Israel is the living God
because He has spoken to Israel and has, through
His word, revealed Himself to them (Ps. cxlvii. 19,
20). God has spoken to us by His Son, the image
of His Being (Heb. i. 2), and has revealed Himself
in Him much more gloriously to us ; therefore
Christendom knows no other living God than the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who can venture
to say that he stands before God ? He who, liks
Elijah, has firm faith, is unconditionally obedient
to the word of God, and fearlessly and courage-
ously pursues the path God has prescribed for him
(Isai. xli. 10). — Krummacher: It is the way of
our God from of old that he takes people, by whom
He will accomplish something great, from the dust
rather than from thrones, so that it may be mani-
fest how all things happen according to His pur-
pose, how that flesh and blood have not done this
and that, but that to him alone belongs the glory.
Vers. 2-9. Bender : Elijah at the brook in the
wilderness, (a) How his faith was tried, and
(6) how it was crowned. — Wirth: Elijah at the
brook Cherith. How the Lord protects and con-
ceals him ; how He leads him into the wilderness ;
and how He cares for him. Elijah in the wilder-
ness, (a) Why the Lord sends him thither ; Jb)
what he suffered him to experience there. — Ver. 3.
Go away and hide thyself, (a) Go away. A hard
word for a heroic man like Elijah, who has threat-
ened the king and the whole people, and must now
flee and expose himself to scorn and contempt.
Going away often requires more self-denial than
remaining. For the testimony to the truth, the
command at one time is, remain and fear not (Acts
xviii. 9 sq.), at another, go from that city, &c
(Matt. x. 14, 23 sq.) ; they "must, like their Lord,
often appear in the form of a servant, and can wear
upon earth no other crown than a crown of thorns,
and if at any time their power is so great that they
can give or take away dew and rain upon earth,
and can punish kings and peoples, at another time
they must bow and bend, suffer and be silent, and
in the eye of the world appear weak and power-
less, so that they and others may thereby know
all the more profoundly, that the superabundant
might is of God, and not of themselves " (Menken).
But to overy true Christian also the command often
comes, go hence, remain not where men are serving
the world and Baal, where the word of the Lord
is despised, and the fear of the holy and righteous
Lord has disappeared. [See The Hermits of the
Rev. Charles Kingsley. — E. H.] (6) Hide thyself.
In order to be able to achieve his great, severe,
CHAPTER XVII. 1-24.
199
snd holy task and to be fitted for it, Elijah had to
go into retirement, where he was alone with his
God and learned to say, Lord whom have I, kc.
(Ps. lxxiii. 25 sq.). Every man who has done any-
thing great in the kingdom of God has passed a
long time in retirement and solitude. But to every
faithful Christian also the command has come,
hide thyself, go into the stillness and solitude.
The hidden man of the heart, with soft, still spirit
{1 Pet. iii. 4), does not thrive in the perpetual tu-
mult and babbling noise of the world. There is
no man who has not felt the need of some time and
place to collect his thoughts and to be alone with
his God ; they who avoid such are not fit for the
kingdom of God. — Ver. 4. Krummacher: Every
way appointed for us by the Lord has His promise,
and we need not fear when once we are assured
that God lias directed our way. — Ver. 5. Might it
be said of us all, in every situation of life and
under all relations, he went thither and did ac-
cording to the word of the Lord. — Menken: He
went in faith along the hard, dark path into the
wilderness, as a genuine son of Abraham the father
of all the faithful, who knew that without faith it
is impossible to please God, and that man can offer
to God no higher and nobler homage than to
believe in his promises. Who so chooses the
dear God. and always hopes in Him, him will He
sustain wonderfully in all need and affliction (Ps.
iv. 4 ; cxlvii. 5). Go whithersoever thou wilt, means
shall not fail thee, thy deed is pure blessing, thy
course pure light. To Elijah the promise was, I
have commanded the ravens to care for thee ; but
we all have a still more glorious promise : He hath
given his angels charge concerning thee, that they
shall watch over thee in all thy ways, &e. (Ps. xci.
10-12). — Menken : Just under these circumstances
in which most men forsake the word of God, it
shows itself most gloriously to the few who hold to
it. When the world despises it, and ridicules the
observance of it as weakness of mind, then is it
mightiest, and it justifies the keeping of it by
meaus of the richest experiences, which are the as-
surance, to those who honor it, of its truth aud of
the power of God. The ravens, which are not ac-
customed to care for their own young, must, at the
command of God, nourish the prophet, as an evi-
dence that even the unreasoning creature cannot
move without His will, and that even the most in-
significant must contribute to the glory of the Cre-
ator, who has promised. I will not leave nor for-
sake thee (Heb. xiii. 5). — Starke: In the case of
His servants and children, God sometimes makes
use of the ravens, i. e., of abandoned and godless
men.
Vers. 7-16. Wirth: Elijah with the widow at
Sarepta. (a) The dried up brook ; (6) The new
place of refuge; (c) The meal in the barrel ami
the oil in the cruse. — Krummacher : The depart-
ure for Zarephath. Elijah's need, Elijah's de-
parture, his grand deliverance. — Bender (vers.
10-24): Elijah with the widow at Sarepta. Our
history confirms the Psalm- word (Ps. lxviii. 21):
(1) we have a God who helps, and (2) a Lord of
lords who delivers from death. The widow at
Zarephath. (a) Her lot (widowed, poor, without
influence before the world, but chosen by God,
Luke iv. 26). (6) Her self-deuial and her faith
{although on the verge of death from starvation,
the will share what she can, and believe the word
»f the prophet as a word from God), (c) Her re-
ward, Matt. x. 41 sq. (she is not only delivered
from death by hunger, Ps. xxxiii. 19 ; but she re-
ceives continuously what she and her whole house-
hold needed, Ps. xxxvii. 19; cxii. 3). — Vers. 7-9.
Elijah's second trial of faith, (a) Depart (one trial
follows another, so that the gold of his faith may
become more free from all dross), (b) To Zarephath
in Sidon (from thy fatherland into a spiritual
waste and desert, in the land of idolatry, where
Jezebel's father ruled, aud where the danger
seemed greater than at the brook Cherith ; but,
courage, it will not be so serious, &c). (c) To a
widow (who herself needed protection, and not to
a rich, powerful man. The Lord will care for
thee, rest assured of that, aud do not ask how it
shall come to pass. Despise no instrumentality
which He points out to thee, no condition and no
man He makes use of, for it is not difficult to the
Lord to send help by means either of little or of
much, 1 Sam. xiv. 6. Things are small before God,
and to the Highest all things are alike [' There is
no great and uo small, to the Lord that maketh all.']
. . . He is the true wonder-worker, who can now
exalt and now overturn). — Ver. 7. When without
thy fault the brook, from which thou dost quench
thy thirst, is dried, and the spring whence thy
life was supported has failed, let the word spoken
come to thee : Wait upon the Lord, who will help
thee (Prov. xx. 22) ; for they who wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength, Ac. (Is. xl. 31).
The words of Elijah to the widow, (a) The re-
quest (vers. 10, 11) ; (b) The consolation (ver. 13);
(c) The promise (ver. 14). Requests made to a
man are often the key which opens to us his most
hidden being. They who have but little usually
give more than they who have much (Luke xxi. 1
sq.). To the weeping widows and orphans the
Lord always calls, Fear not ! 1 Pet. v. 7 ; Matt,
vi. 25 sq. ; Ps. xxxvii. 25. — Ver. 12. In a hea-
then, idolatrous land Elijah finds in a poor widow
what he had sought in vain in Israel : faith in the
living God of Israel. — Krummacher: He who has
experienced it knows how precious il is. when
one is far away in a strange country, where the
roads toward Zion lie waste, and sees one's self
thrown into the circle of the children of this
world, and by the streams of Babylon, to meet
unexpectedly in the wilderness somebody from
Galilee, or a brother or sister in the Lord. — Ver.
13. Berleb. Bib. : Fear not I Ah I How often has
a child of God bemoaned, Now all is lost I I have
nothing more and know nothing more. The opera-
tions of the Spirit of God have ceased for me : the
meal and oil are gone 1 And yet, where there is
nothing more amid the night and the darkness,
the morning brings something, upon which one
can live and find nourishment for the soul, although
the time be miserable. — Vers. 14, 15. When the
need is greatest, then is God nearest. On the
very day when the poor widow, with her son, will
cat the last supplies, her distress comes to an end,
and she has thenceforth her daily bread. He
helps us before we expect, and permits us to
enjoy much good. — Ver. 16. The same God who
spoke by means of Elijah : The meal in the barrel
shall not be wasted, and the oil in the cruse shall
not fail, has also promised, as the earth lasts, seed-
time and harvest, frost and heat, summer aud
winter, day and night shall not cease (Gen. viii.
22). We are astonished at the little miracle in thf
cabin at Sarepta, but we pass over with indiffer-
200
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
euce, and without attention, the large miracle
Vers. 17-2 i. Virth: The great deed of God
in the ease of the son of the widow of Sarepta.
(a) The lamentation of the mother over the dead
body of the son; (b) the praying prophet and
the answering God ; (c) the joyous message, Be-
hold, thy son livethl — Krdmmacher: The resusci-
tation at Zarephath. (a) The divine stroke; (b) the
victorious battle ; (c) the rest after the storm.
The school of suffering at Zarephath. (a) The
Buffering with which the widow and the prophet
were visited ; (b) how each behaved under it ;
(c) what both experienced. — Ver. 17. Great mani-
festations of divine grace follow also great trials,
so that our faith may be made more precious
(1 Pet. i. 7). — Menken : God willed that the good
work begun in her should not be unfinished, and
without suffering this could not be, any more than
it is in our ease and in that of all men. ... It is
pure goodness and fatherly fidelity when the in-
finitely good, heavenly Father sends to His
children sorrow upon sorrow, lays upon them
burden upon burden, and leads them from one
distress and trouble into others. In eternity. He
will be heartily thanked for nothing more than for
this paternal goodness and fidelity. — Ver. 18. The
first thing which the cross and suffering must do
in a man, is to bring about an humble sense of his
sin ; it is the beginning of all true knowledge of
God, the foundation of all true piety. Much that
is erroneous respecting God and divine things
may adhere to a man, but if he have a living
knowledge of his sin, and a living feeling of his
unworthiness before the holy God, he is on the
pathway to a deepening and higher knowledge of
God. — Menken: She does not complain of un-
righteousness upon the part of God, she does not
accuse God : she acquits God and condemns her-
self. That was the true bearing in her trouble,
and so sorrow wrought good within this soul: it
led her within herself, and humbled her in the
deeper knowledge of herself. And God giveth
grace to the humble. A man does not so readily
humble himself too much. . . . The more strictly
a man judges and condemns himself, so much the
which is repeated year by year for the whole world.
— Starke : The way to wealth is cheerful giving
(Luke vi. 38), aud God crowns beneficence with a
blest store (Pro v. xix. 17). God can bless even a
little store so that it will suffice for a longwhile.
more readily is he acquitted, justified, and pardon-
ed before the divine tribunal (Luke xviii. 13 sq.).
Intercourse aud association with a true man or
God become a blessing to us when we are thereby
led more deeply into ourselves, and are made
genuinely conscious of our sinfulness before God
(Luke v. S; Matt. viii. 8). — Vers. 19-22. The
prayer of Elijah, (a) The contents ; (6) the answer
to it. Those are genuine and true friends who do
not show sympathy and commiseration simply
when we are in distress and trouble, but who
give us a helping hand, and from their heart
call upon Him who can help us. Wrestling
with God in prayer is a matter which belongs to
the lonely chamber (Matt. vi. 6). He who prays
only in public, in the church, has never yet prayed
truly. — Ver. 20. In our prayer we may express
indeed how dark and incomprehensible the provi-
dences of God are to us, only when we do so with
submission to His will without complaint or mur-
mur, and humbly committing entirely to His will
how and when He will save us, in our hour of
need. — Ver. 21. In sickness, we must leave no
natural means towards recovery untried, how-
ever much we may long for a miracle of
God, whilst at the same time we implore God to
grant power to these means and bless their ap-
plication.— Ver. 22. Menken: Even if the Lord do-
no miracle, there are still a thousand ways and
means by which he sends comfort and strength, or
help aud salvation, in answer to the believing
prayer of His faithful servants. Eacli granting
of prayer is indeed a miracle, and never is one
humble, believing prayer of a righteous soul uttered
in vain — no, not even when it is refused. — Ver.
23. For the father and mother heart, which moan
and lament over a lost son, what could be a glad-
der message than this: "This, thy son, was dead
and is alive again." (Luke xv. 24.) The mirac'es-
in the kingdom of grace are as worthy of adora-
tion as those in the kingdom of nature. — Ver. 24.
We must pass through much grief and humiliation
before with joyful assurance we can say to Him,
who is greater than Elijah: Now know I that
thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Only
by means of individual experience does each
man come to the blessed confession, that the word
of the Lord is truth. He only is a servant of
God in whose mouth the word of the Lord is
truth, not mere appearance and sham (phrase).
B. — Elijah at Mount Carmel.
Chap. XVIII. 1-46.
1 And it came to pass after' many days, that the word of the Lord [Jehovah]
came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab ; and I
2 will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab.
3 And there was a sore famine in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, which ioos
the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord [Jehovah] greatly :
4 for it was so, when Jezebel cut otf the prophets of the Lord [Jehovah], that Oba-
diah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty * in a cave, and fed them
6 with bread and water.) And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto
all fountains of water, and unto all brooks : peradventure we may find grass to
6 save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts.3 So they divided
the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself,
and Obadiah went another way by himself.
CHAPTER XTII1. 1-16. 201
7 And as Obadiah was in the way,' behold, Elijah met him : and he knew him
8 and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah ? And he answered
9 him, I am : go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I
sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay
10 me? As the Lord [Jehovah] thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom,
whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee : and when they said, He is not there ;
11 he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. And
12 now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to
pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord [Jehovah]
shall carry thee whither I know not ; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he
13 cannot find thee, he shall slay me : but I thy servant fear the Lord [Jehovah]
from my youth. Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the
prophets of the Lord [Jehovah], how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's-
[Jehovah] prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
14 And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here : and he shall slay
15 me. And Elijah said, As the Lord [Jehovah] of hosts liveth, before whom I
stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to-day.
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him : and Ahab went to meet
17 Elijah. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him,
18 Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel ; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the command-
19 ments of the Lord [Jehovah], and thou hast followed Baalim. Now therefore
send, and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of
Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which
20 eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gather-
ed the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, ami said, How long halt ye be-
tween two opinions?' if the Lord [Jehovah] be God, follow him: but if Baal,
22 then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah
unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord [Jehovah] ; but
23 Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.6 Let them therefore give us
two bullocks ; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in
pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other
24 bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under : and call ' ye on the name of
your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord [Jehovah]: 8 and the God
25 that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said,
It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one
bullock for yourselves, and dress it first ; for ye are many ; and call on the name
26 of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was
given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning
even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that
27 answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to
pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud : for he it a god ;
either he is talking,' or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he
28 sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after
their manner with knives [swords] and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon
29 them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until "
the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor
any to answer, nor any that regarded."
3D And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people
came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord [Jehovah] that
31 was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number
of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,12 unto whom the word of the Lord [Jehovah]
32 came, saying, Israel shall be thy name : and with the stones he built an altar in
the name of the Lord [Jehovah] : and he made a trench about the altar, as
33 great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order,
and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid Mm on the wood, and said, Fill four bar-
34 rels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And ha
202 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do
35 it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran around
36 about the altar ; and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass
at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,13 that Elijah the prophet came
near, and said, Lord [Jehovah] God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be
known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and
37 that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord [Jehovah],
38 hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord [Jehovah] God, and
that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord [Jeho-
39 vah] fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and
the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the
people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord [Jehovah], he is
40 the God ; the Lord [Jehovah], he is the God. And Elijah said unto thems
Take the prophets of Baal ; let not one of them escape. And they took them :
and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
41 And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink ; for there is a sound
42 of abundance of rain." So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went
up to the top of Carmel ; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his
43 face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the
sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go
44 again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold.
there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go
up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot,"' and get thee down, that the rain stop
45 thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while," that the heaven was black
with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went
46 to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] was on Elijah ; and he girded
up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
I Ver. 1. — [A few MSS. supply the preposition, and read Q^^O .
3 Ver. 4. — [Nine MSS. repeat the word D^On , according to the usual formula, as in ver. 13.
" Ver. 5.— The k'ri TOiiaTO is plainly to be preferred to the k'tib rTOn3 ]D • [It is also the reading of many M38.
and editions.
* Ver. 7.— [The Sept. emphasize very strongly the privacy of this interview : "And Obadiah was in the way alone, and
Elijah came alone to meet him." .
» Ver. 21.— [For the meaning of the words D'SVBH TIU*"?!? see the Exeg. Com. The rendering of the Sept., "how
long halt ye on both knees," is certainly expressive.
* Ver! 22. — [The Sept. adds "and the prophets of the grove four hundred" (the Alex. Sept. omits the number) from
ver. 19. ,
' Ver. 24.— [D'H^X DC'3 Nip "denotes the solemn invocation of the Deity," Keil. Qf. Gen. iv. 26; xil. 8; 1 Cor. i.
8, Ac.
* Ver. 24. — [The Sept lessen much the force of this contrast, by adding *' my God."
9 Ver. 27. — [rPb* bears either the sense of conversation (as in the Vulg.), see 2 Kings ix. 11 ; or of meditation. The
latter seems rightly preferred by our author. On the meaning of this and the following words see the Exeg. Com.
10 Ver. 29.— [Here the 7 In JIvJ?? is not to be overlooked : )T6]?7 IV means not " till the offering," but " till to-
wards the offering," i. e.. till towards the time of the offering, for ver. 86, Elijah had completed all preparations for his
offering at the time of the evening sacrifice, Keil.
II Ver. 29. — [The Sept. curiously modifies ver. 29. Instead of mid-day they have to SmKivov; the Vat Septomitfl " that
there wm neither voice," &c, to the end of the ver.; and both recensions make the addition given in the Exeg. Com.
" Ver. 81.— [Eight MSS., followed by the Sept, substitute the name Israel.
lf Ver. 86. — [The Vat. Sept. omits the mention of the time, and the Alex, substitutes the name Jacob for Israel.
14 Ver. 41.— [The Sept. quite poetically translates, " there is a sound of the feet of rain." The word here used DK'3 ll
that denoting heavy rain.
16 Ver. 44.— [The word chariot, supplied in the A. V., is implied in the ")DX in this connection, and is given in several
•f the W.
16 Ver. 45.— [On the meaning of the phrase i"!3~iyi HS'iy see tne Exeg. Com. It Is generally rendered In the W.
literally as in the Vulg. hue atque illuc.—¥. d.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass, Ac, &c. The
whole of the eighteenth chapter is distributed in
three sections ; the middle one of which is the chief
(vers. 21-40) ; the first (vers. 1-20) is introducto-
ry to the second (vers. 21-40), and the last (vera
41—16) forms the sequel to the transaction narrat«
ed in the second. The first verse refers distinctly
to chap. xvii. 1. It states when and how tht
drought announced by Klijah came to an end.
The statement in Luke iv. 25, and in James v. 17
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-46
203
according to which it did not rain for the space of
three years and six months, seems to contradict
tl'e words in the third year. The same statement
occurs also in the tractate Jalkut Schimoni ; hence
several interpreters (Schmidt, Michaelis, Keil)
adopt the rabbinical conjecture that Elijah was a
year at the brook Cherith, and that he remained
two years in Sarepta, and that in the third year
Jehovah's command came to him to show himself
unto Ahab. But it is very improbable that Elijah
remained a whole year (Q'D' "pO i chap. xvii. 7,
cannot mean this) at Cherith, and that the reckon-
ing should be made from the sojourn at Sarepta to
the date of his reappearing, and not from his an-
nouncement of the drought, to which the text re-
fers so explicitly. Benson regards the New Testa-
ment statement as a complete settlement of the
Jewish tradition. As in each year there are two
rainy seasons, so the six months before the predic-
tion (chap. xvii. 1), in which it did not rain, are
taken into the account, while, in our passage, the
reckoning is from the second rainy season. Ac-
cording to Lange (on James v. 17), the equalization
lies in this, that in the account in 1 Kings xviii.
the exact period of the famine is stated; but it is
very natural that the famine should have begun a
year after the prediction of the drought, i. e., after
the failure of the early and of the latter rain. Iu
this first year the people still lived on the harvest
of the preceding year. The 1 in nJFlSl is not =
that (Luther, Vulg.) nor = for, but, as in Gen. xvii.
20 ; Dent. xv. 6 = and then. When Ewald says
that after another year of drought ''Ahab himself
at last called Elijah back," he is in direct contra-
diction with the words, Go hence and show thyself
to Ahab, as also with vers. 9 sq.
Vers. 2-6. And there was a sore famine
in Samaria. From here to ver. 6 there is a
parenthetical remark, for " an explanation of the
circumstances which brought about the meeting
between Elijah and Ahab " (Keil). Even in the
residence in Samaria the famine was so pressing
during the drought that the king himself, with his
'• palace-master " (see on chap. iv. 6) — " the gover-
nor of his house " — traversed the land to find food
for his horses and mules. "Entirely without ref-
erence to the Old Testament, Menandros (Joseph.
Antiq. 8, 13, 2) makes mention of a severe
drought of a year under the Syrian king Ithobal,
a contemporary of Ahab " (Ewald). The name
Obadiah is a proper name of frequent occurrence in
theOld Testament(l Chron. iii. 21 ; vii. 3 : viii. 38;
ix. 16; 2 Chron. xvii. 7; xxxiv. 12; Ezra viii. 9,
Ac), and does not here, on account of ver. 4, mean,
as Thenius supposes, " chosen." The prophets who
are mentioned in ver. 4 were, for the most part,
"prophet-scholars," i. e., membersof the association
of the prophets (Prophetenvereine), cf. on 2 Kings
ii. If Obadiah alone delivered a hundred, their
number must have been considerable. Their per-
secution and extermination was the work of the
fanatical, idolatrous Jezebel, whom Ahab allowed
to rule and manage. Hess and Menken suppose that
she was incited thereto by her idolatrous priests,
who represented to her that the public calamity
would not end until the prophets, from the secret
influence of whom it proceeded, were put out of
the way. This conjecture, however, is not neces-
sary, on account of the character of Jezebel, who,
from the start, was bent upon the abolition of the
Jehovah-worship. The caverns in which Obadiah
concealed the prophets were certainly not near
Samaria, but were, perhaps, on Mount CarrneL
" which is full of clefts and grottoes " (Winer,
R.-W.-B. I. s. 212).
Vers. 7-16. And as Obadiah was in the way
&c. He recognized the prophet at once by his pe-
culiar clothing {cf. 2 Kings i. 7, 8). The profound
reverence which he showed to him allows us to con-
clude that there was a personal acquaintance, and,
in any event, it is an evidence of the high consid-
eration in which even then Elijah was held, at least
upon the part of the worshippers of Jehovah,
which could scarcely be accounted for only on th«
ground of his prediction of the drought (chap. xvii.
1). The words ill itnxn cannot be translated, Art
thou not my lord Elijah? (Luther), or with the
Sept., zi g'v d avrdc Kvpce fiov 'H/m; for he had al-
ready recognized him, and had fallen on his face
before him. It is rather a question of wonder :
Art thou, who hast been looked for everywhere in
vain, here ? (ver. 10). The reply of Obadiah in ver.
9 is explained by ver. 12. The statement in ver.
10, that Ahab had set on foot inquiries after the
prophet in every kingdom, is "an hyperbole
prompted by inward excitement and fear " (Keil),
but which, nevertheless, is an evidence of the
great bitterness and hatred of Ahab. From the
anxiety of Obadiah lest the spirit of Jehovah
should suddenly carry the prophet away, it has
been concluded that something like it had previ-
ously occurred, but which has not been related to
us (Von Gerlach, Seb. Schmidt, and others). Keil
remarks, on the other hand: Elijah was not
snatched away after the prediction of the drought,
and there is no more reason for supposing a case
of this kind during the interval, when he was con-
cealed from his enemies. Obadiah certainly had
not in his mind a simple going away, nor does thn
expression suggest " a wind-storm " (Dereser), nor
a mere inward movement from above (Olshaus.,
Acts viii. 39), but divine power. The concluding
statement in ver. 12 does not mean he has not as
"a God-fearing man and a protector of the pro-
phets any special favor to expect at the hands of
Ahab " (Keil), but rather he believes that, as a true
servant of Jehovah, for his own and for the sake
of the prophet, he deserves, least of all, death. He
does not express a doubt of the truthfulness of Eli-
jah, but he supposes that " he will be exposed to
a danger from which God will rescue him by an
abreption, while he himself will thereby be placed
in the greatest peril in respect of Ahab " (Menken).
By the expression in ver. 13, he seeks to justify his
refusal to fulfil Elijah's commission, and to say
that he will suffer a death he does not merit, but he
does not mean to boast of his action, or to claim
any reward. The JliK2Y with fliiT1 (see Keil on 1
Sam. L 3), elevates the solemnity of the oath {cf. on
chap. xvii. 1). DIM means here : at this time,
now (1 Sam. xiv. 33; 2 Kings iv. 8), not to-dai
(Luther, De Wette).
Vers. 17-20. And it came to pass when
Ahab saw Elijah, Ac. As Ahab went, at Obadi-
ah's instigation, to meet the prophet, and not the
prophet to meet him, AJbitTs query does not meat
" Dost thou dare to appear before me ? " (Thenius\
but, rather, Do I meet thee at last, thou bringer of
20 i
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
trouble ? "py does not, as in Gen. xxxiv. 30 ;
Josh. vi. 18; vii. 25, mean here, to perplex, as
Luther translates. Ahab lays all the blame
of the famine upon Elijah, not merely because
he had predicted the drought, but he had added
that it would come to an end only at his word,
without thinking that the prophet had done
this only in the name and at the command of Je-
hovah. In the reply of Elijah (ver. 18) the plural
form D'^ya is not, with Gesenius, to be understood
of images or statues of Baal, but of the various
surnames of Baal according to their special signifi-
cation—Baal-Berith, Baal-Zebul (Winer, R.- W.-B.
I. s. 120). Elijah's desire (in ver. 19) probably ad-
mits of a closer explanation in respectof its ground
and purpose: it was not so much on account of
Ahab as to influence the whole people to another
course — it was to bring all Israel to a decision.
That was the right point of time when the longing
for deliverance from the famine was universal.
Elijah appointed Carmel as the place of assem-
blage, probably because its situation was central,
and it was also near the sea, from which quarter
rain-clouds came. There was, moreover, an altar
to Jehovah there, as on other conspicuous high
places, but which, like other such altars, had been
thrown down in consequence of the introduction
of the Baal- worship (cf. ver. 30 and chap. xix. 10).
The whole of Israel, i. e., the heads of the tribes and
families, and the ciders as the representatives of
the people (chap. viii. 1-62). The prophets of Baal
(cf. ver. 26 sq.) are the priests of Baal, who were
likewise the god's soothsayers and foretellers. As
the male divinity, Baal had more priests than the
female. That the Astarte-priests ate at Jezebel's
table, i. e., were entirely supported by her (see
chap. ii. 7). is expressly remarked, because therein
her blind, fanatical passion for the worship of
idols is shown over against the prophets of Jeho-
vah, whom she persecuted and murdered (ver. 4).
When, according to ver. 20, the enraged and excit-
ed king at once acceded to the demand of Elijah,
this is quite in harmony with his character as he
often exhibited it subsequently. He bowed before
the spiritual supremacy of the prophet, which im-
pressed him. Notwithstanding his apparent scorn,
he had a secret fear of Elijah since the prediction
of the drought had been verified (chap. xvii. 1),
and all the sacrifices of the priests of Baal to avert
the famine had been in vain.
Ver. 21. And Elijah came, Ac. Ewald, whom
Thenius follows on the ground of the Septuag.,
translates the question of the prophet to the peo-
ple: " How long will ye go limping on both hocks,
i. e., always staggering about hither and thither
insecurely between truth and falsehood, Jahve
and Baal ? " But D'SyD is never used in the sense
of lyviai , i. e., hocks, which translation Schleusner
properly pronounces a mera conjectura. The root
E]yD means to divide, to dissever, and all the de-
rivatives point back to this signification. The
D'EyD > Ps. cxix. 113, are those which are divided
within themselves, the double-minded or ambigu-
ous. In Ezek. xxxi. 6: niiSyD means branches,
because these are the divided tree, and in Isai. it.
21; lvii. 5, the clefts of the rocks are named
D'JTOn 'Syp. Tne v«lg- lienee translates right-
ly, Usqueqvoclavdica'is in duos partes t Keil, "up to
the two parties (Jehovah and Baal)." This agreei
perfectly with the word DD3 , *■ e , to go over from
one to another, and Sy is here wi'.h riD3 , as in
ver. 26, where it cannot possibly mean "to the."
But when Keil remarks further : The people were
wishing to harmonize the Jehovah worship and
that of Baal, not to stand, by means of the Baa
worship, in hostile opposition to Jehovah, he it
evidently mistaken. The people rather were divi-
ded between the two forms of worship, that of Je-
hovah and that of Baal; to the latter belonged also
the Astarte-cultus, which it was impossible to
identify or reconcile with the Jehovah-worship.
The persecution and extermination of the Jehovah
prophets by Jezebel must have shown the people,
most explicitly, that between the two religions
the most decisive antagonism existed. Jeroboam's
calf-worship might still seem to be Jehovah-wor^
ship, but the Baal and Astarte worship, never.
The large number of the " sons of the prophets "
shows that, in spite of Ahab and Jezebel, the peo-
ple were divided into two parties.
Vers. 22-25. It by no means follows from tha
,-:lX> " that those also who had been concealed by
Obadiah were discovered and destroyed " (Thenius).
cf. 2 Kings ii. 3, 5. Elijah means to say : All
the other prophets have been murdered, or are
reduced to a state of inactivity : I stand here alone
over against four hundred and fifty priests of Baal;
what, humanly speaking, can one do against so
many ? Be this as it may, the issue will decide all
the more certainly with whom rests tlte Right
"Ijy as in Gen. xxxii. 35; Jos. xviii. 2. To the
four hundred and fifty Baal priests the Sept. adds :
Kal ol Trpo^j/Tai , rait hXaovc -ETpaKOGiot , which
Thenius holds to be original, but is here evidently
tilled out from ver. 19. In ver. 25 and in ver. 40,
moreover, the priests of Baal only are named. A
thrice repeated omission of the Astarte-priests
cannot be explained by the rule, a potiori fit, etc.,
least of all in ver. 40 ; they might indeed have
been summoned, but under the protection of Jeze-
bel they might have been able to escape the re-
quisition of Ahab (Keil). As the issue was a deci-
sion between the worship of Jehovah and that of
Baal, Elijah employed, in connection with it, au
act of sacrifice, because both amongst the Jews
and also the heathen, sacrifice was the explicit
expression of all worship. The significance of fire
in sacrifice was the reason why lie suspended the
decision upon the fire which should consume the
offering; it wafts the sacrifice upwards, and, as it
were, presents it to the deity. Should the latter
send the fire, this would be a sign not only of
power, but also that the sacrifice was accepted and
well-pleasing. Besides this, fire, especially that
which came from heaven, was the general symbol
of deity. Baal also was the God of heaven, of the
sun, and of tire (heaven-fire-sun-god). If he could
not consume the offering, that would show him to
be no God. The cutting in pieces, vers. 23 and 33,
belongs, according to Lev. i. 6, to the proper dress-
ing of every burnt-offering. After the people had
signified their agreement to the proposition of Eli-
jah he proceeded further (ver. 25); and, to avoid
nil appearance of encroachment or of partisanship,
he allowed the priests of Baal a choice between
the two " bullocks," as also precedence in the act
of sacrifice, giving as a rea*OD : for ye are many.
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-46.
20E
This was scarcely said " somewhat scoffingly " iD
the sense of " the crowd shall have the precedence I
You are the prevailing religious party m Israel "
(Menken), but wholly in earnest; he only one,
will take no advantage of the many ; they shall
not feel themselves slighted. 'When, too, as he
himself knew in advance, the vanity, the nothing-
ness of Baal became manifest, the impression pro-
duced by his offering would be all the greater,
while inversely the priests of Baal, under every
kind of pretext, would have wholly omitted the
sacrifice.
Vers. 26-29. And they took the bullock, &c.
By IPlDS'l the dance customary at heathen sacri-
fices is indeed suggested to us (see with Keil the
passage from Herodian Hist. v. 3). The view pre-
vails that limping, " in derision of the unaided
sacrificial dance of the Baal priests," stands here
for dancing (Gesenius) ; but neither here nor in ver.
21 does it denote ridicule. It expresses only the
reeling to and fro ; " the dance, as we may infer
from its climax m vers. 28, 29, may have had some-
what of the bacchantie, reeling way about it " (The-
nius) ; the Sept. has Sti-ptxnv , the Vulgate transi-
liebant, and here ridicule disappears. This first fol-
lows in ver. 27 ; here we are simply informed of
what actually happened. Elijah is not the subject
in iTJ'V; it is impersonal. Nearly all the versions
seem to have read, with many MSS., lt"JJ • In ver.
27 Elijah urges the Baal priests to cry louder, and
gives as his chief reason : in your opinion he is the
real, true God ; he must be hindered in some way,
so that, as yet, he has not heard you. The thrice
repeated '3 heightens the effect of the discourse.
n'L" means neither loquitur (Vulg.), nor: he imagines
(Luther), nor : adoXeox'0- iivrCi ca-iv (Sept.) ; but it
denotes turning within one's self, reflection, medi-
talio, and then, also, sadness (1 Sam. i. 16; Ps. cxlii.
3). Thenius : his head is full ; perhaps, better yet :
he is out of humor. y& the Vulg. wrongly gives:
in diversario est; it means secessio (from Jm» to
withdraw, 2 Sam. i. 22), euphemistic expression
for : he is easing himself. Everything that Elijah
here derisively attributes to Baal must not, with
Movers (Ret der Plioniz. s. 386), be regarded as
that which the Baal priests actually believed of
him as the sun-god (his journeys, labors, sleeping),
for it had ceased to be a matter of sport. They
cried louder (ver. 28), so that Baal, by hearing,
might stultify the derision. By n"H!Vl_, we must
not understand a mere "nicking with knives and
punches" (Luther); for 3"in means sword, and
nO"l the lance belonging to heavy armor (Ezek.
xxxix. 9 ; Jer. xlvi. 4). The nDS , ver. 26, changed
into a weapon-dance, which custom many ancient
writers mention (cf. Doughty. Annlect. Sacr. p.
176), and Movers (as cited s. 682), after them, de-
scribes more particularly. This custom assuredly
has not, as Movers supposes, its reason in the con-
sciousness of " committed sins," but in the super-
stition that blood, especially the blood of priests,
has a special virtue, moving, even compelling the
divinity (Plutarch De superstit. : Bellona sacerdotes
fuo m-uore sacrificant, cf. Symbol, des Mosais. Kultus
II. ». 223, 262). In "er. 29, lN3:rv>l is commonly
translated : and they raved ; in the sense : their
behavior reached to a sort of mania. But 1 Sam.
xviii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26, places to which an appeal
is made, cannot prove that H23 means, in itself
fiaivEoSat; the Sept. never translating it so. The
Baal priests are constantly called here D'X3J i and
as such, they prepared the sacrifice, danced around
the altar, called upon Baal, wounded themselves:
all that they then did, and the time they consumed,
is summed up when it is said that INSJIT ; this
word does not refer to anything besides. Piscator:
fuit vero quum prceteriisset meridies, ut prcphetas
agerent, &c. They went on with their various func-
tions until past noon, yet without any result.
iinjD is here not specially food (vegetable) offering
(Luther), but it denotes offering generally (Gen. iv.
3-5), and here the usual daily evening sacrifice,
which, nevertheless, as is to be seen from vers. 36
and 40 sq., was not offered first at dusk, but before it
(Numb, xxviii. 4). The Sept. adds to ver. 29 : " And
Elijah the Tishbite said to the prophets of the
idols, Stand back ! I will now make ready my offer-
ing. And they stood back and went away." an
addition which does not at all " bear the unmistak-
able stamp of genuineness " (Thenius), but is plain-
ly a supplementary gloss.
Vers. 30-32. And Elijah said unto all the
people, &e. Elijah did not, designedly, build a
new altar, but repaired the old one (see above on
ver. 19), and meant thereby to show that the issue
of the day was the restoration of the ancieut Jeho-
vah-worship, for cultus is expressed synecdochice per
altars (Petr. Martyr). He shows, moreover, still
more explicitly the object of the restoration and
renewal of the broken covenant (chap. xix. 10), in
that, as Moses had once done at the conclusion of
the covenant (Exod. xxiv. 4), in like manner he
repaired the altar " with twelve stones, according to
the number of the tribes of the children of Israel." This
was a declaration in act, that the twelve tribes
together constituted one people, that they had one
God in common, and that Jehovah's covenant was
not concluded with two or with ten, but with the
unit of the twelve tribes. Since the kingdom of
the ten tribes named itself " Israel," over against
the other tribes, it is expressly remarked that
Jacob, the one progenitor of the entire people, had
received from Jehovah the name ''Israel," i. e.,
God's soldier, because he commanded his entire
house : Put away from you the strange gods (Gen.
xxxv. 2, 10 sq.). Only the people who did as he
did had a claim to this name. In ver. 32 the
nirv D'."3 is not to be connected with the remote
rOT ; he built in the name, i. e., by the command,
of Jehovah (for everything that he did, he did no
less by the command of Jehovah), but with the
immediately preceding rQTD i ne Duilt tn's tnat
Jehovah might reveal and authenticate himself; as
inversely, according to Exod. xx. 24, an altar was
to be built where Jehovah had revealed and au-
thenticated himself. The ditch was not designed
as a hedge, " so that the people might not press
too much upon the altar " (Starke) ; it was made
rather to receive the water (vers. 34, 35), as n?l?n i
2 Kings xx. 20 ; Is. vii. 3 ; xxii. 9 ; xxxvi. 2 ; Ezek
xxxi. 4, means properly aqueduct. Not only was
the altar to be soaked, but it was to be surrounded
206
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
with water, so as to remove all suspicion about the
burning of the sacrifice. Impostures of this kind
occurred certainly in later heathendom. The author
of the Orat. in Efliam (I. p. 765), attributed to Chry-
sostom, says : " I speak as an eye-witness. In the
altars of the idols, there are beneath the altar chan-
nels, and underneath a concealed pit ; the deceivers
enter these, and blow up a fire from beneath upon
the altar, by which many are deceived, and believe
that the fire comes from heaven." The words
JTlT DTIXD JV33 are not altogether clear. Keil
and Thenius translate : like the space whereon one
can sow two seahs of grain. But n'3 never signi-
fies a superficies measure, but that which holds
something; and one does not measure a ditch by a
superficial space which it covers, but according to its
capacity for holding; hence Gesenius here: a ditch
which could hold two seahs. The ditch, then, was
about as deep as the grain-measure containing two
seahs. The seah is the third part of an ephah ; ac-
cording to Thenius, two Dresden pecks; according
to Bertheau=661.92, according to Bunsen 338.13
Paris cubic inches. "Without doubt the ditch was
bo near the altar that the water poured upon it
flowed into it and remained there. Elijah took upon
himself the preparation of the sacrifice, jure prophe-
tico, minoribus legibus exsolutus, ut majores servaret
(Grotius). The levitical priest was no longer in the
kingdom of Israel (2 Chron. xi. 13 ; xiii. 9).
Vers. 33-35. And said, Fill four barrels (cad)
to., &c. 13 is a pail (Gen. xxiv. 14) without defi-
nite measure. The solemnity and the emphasis
with which the prophet commands the soaking
with water stamp this act as prophetic, i. e., as a
significant religious act, done for some other than
the merely negative purpose " of cutting away all
ground of suspicion of the possibility of some
cheat" (Keil). The form of the transaction shows
this. For when the prophet orders thrice four
cads of water poured upon an altar composed of
thrice four stones, the intention — i. e., the signifi-
cance of this combination of numbers — is unmis-
takable. The numbers three and four, as well
singly as in their combination with each other, in
peven and twelve, meet us constantly in the cul-
tus, where the significance is beyond all question.
(See above. Of. my Symbol, des AIos. Kultus I.
f. 150, 169, 193, 205.) But we can conclude noth-
ing definitely, with full certainty, respecting the
meaning of the prophetic act. Perhaps the abun-
dant soaking of the altar bearing the sign-number
of the Covenant people with 3X4 cads of water ex-
presses what is promised in Dent, xxviii. 12 to the
Covenant people if they observe the covenant:
"Jehovah shall open unto thee his good treasure,
the heaven, to give rain unto thy land in his sea-
son; " after, on account of the breach of the cove-
nant, " thy heaven over thy head was brass, and
the earth under thee was iron" (Deut. xxviii. 23).
Elijah is not the subject to tf?D ver. 35 ("he
caused the trench to be filled with water," as De
Wette and Keil translate); but Q'O, which also is
elsewhere construed with the singular (Numb. xx.
2; xxiv. 7; xxxiii. 14; Gen. ix. 15); Luther : and
the trench also was full of water. There was so
much water that it ran over the altar and filled
likewise the trench. The question, whence so
much water could have been obtained, in such a
dr jught, cannot shake the trustworthiness of the
narrative. It is plain, from ver. 40, that the brook
Kishon was near, and was not dried up. Its sup-
ply of water was very abundant. Cf Judg. v
21, and the passage from Broward (in Winer, R.-
W.-B. Bd. I. a. 660) : Cison colligit plures aquas,
quia a monte Ephraim et a locis Samarioe propin-
quioribus atque a toto campo Esdrelon confluuni
plurimm aqua et recipiuntur in hunc unum torren-
tern. (Cf. also Robinson, Palest. III. p. 114,
116.) Carmel, moreover, was full of grottoes and
caves (Winer, "some say 2,000"); if there were
water anywhere, it would be there. Van de Velde
(in Keil on the place) has proved that the plact
where the sacrifice was offered is at the ruin El
Mohraka, and that here is a covered spring: "un-
der a dark, vaulted roof, the water in such a spring
is always cool, and the atmosphere cannot evapo-
rate it. I can understand perfectly that while all
other springs were dried up, here there continued
to be an abundance of water, which Elijah poured
so bountifully upon the altar." — [Really this is
very unsatisfactory, and not to the purpose. — E. H]
Vers. 36, 37. And at the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, &c. — The time of day
was that appointed for the daily sacrifice. In his
prayer Elijah calls Jehovah, not his God, as in
chap. xvii. 20 sq., but the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Israel (i. e., Jacob, ver. 31, with unmistak-
able reference to Exod. iii. 15). This designation
of God points to him as the God who had con-
cluded the covenant of promise with the progeni-
tors of the entire people, and brings to mind the
proofs of the grace which Israel had shared from
the first. Here where the broken covenant was
to be reuewed and cemented afresh in this de-
signation, both the assurance and the entreaty
are expressed that the God who had declared
himself to the patriarchs would now, as to these,
so also to his whole people, declare himself. In
Israel, i. e., that thou alone art God, and as such
wilt be recognized and honored in Israel. And 1
am thy servant, i. e., that I do not speak and act
in my own cause and in human strength, but in
thy cause (Septuag. dia ce), and in thy name, as
well in respect of what has happened hitherto as
what shall happen hereafter. The J"l3Dn in ver.
37 does not depend upon '3 , and is not to be trans-
lated, " so turn thou their heart around " (De
Wette), but "that that which shall happen is or-
dained by thee for their conversion " (Thenius).
Vers." 38-40. Then the fire of the Lord fell,
&c, i. e., a fire effected, produced by Jehovah.
The text certainly does not say, as is commonly
thought, a stroke of lightning from heaven ; and
Keil remarks, as against this opinion, a natural
stroke "could not have produced such an effect."
We can conclude nothing definite of the how of
the wonder. To give full expression to the inten-
sity of the fire it is stated that even the stones and
the ground were burned, i. e., according to Le
Clerc, in caJetm redegit. Usually it is supposed
that the earth means that which was thrown up
in the building of the altar, but it can also be that
with which the altar, built of twelve stones, was
filled up (Exod. xx. 24). The impression which
the event produced upon the people was over-
powering, and must have filled them all with con
tempt and wrath against the priests of Baal, 80
that Ahab, even had he desired it. could not hav#
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-16.
201
prevented their destruction. That Elijah did not
slaughter them in his own person is self-evident ;
he demanded it on the ground of the law (Deut.
xiii. 9). Josephus, a-ia-uvav rove Tzpoyr/Tac 'H/jq
tovto TrapaivtcavTuQ. It is more than rash when
Heuzel maintains that the people seized the Baal
priests (we must remember that there were 450 of
them), and "delivered them to the prophet to be
slain by his own hand." The Kislion empties it-
self at the foot of Carmel into the sea. Not where
the sacrifice was offered were the Baal priests to
be put to death, but by the stream which could
carry their blood and corpses from the land and
lose them in the sea.
Vers. 41—45. And Elijah said unto Ahab,
Ac. From the words, Get thee up, it follows that
Ahab had gone to Kishon, and was present at the
execution of his Baal priests; but he had scarcely
joined in the shout of the people (ver. 39). Whe-
ther the words " eat and drink " are to be inter-
preted as derisive (Krummacher, Thenius) is very
doubtful. The prophet may well have derided
the dead idol Baal ; but that he should have mock-
ed the king, whom he wished to win over, is
scarcely credible, and does not agree with what
is mentioned in ver. 46. According to Ewald,
Elijah invited him " to eat of the sacrifice offered
to Jehovah, and thereby to strengthen himself; "
but the offering, apart from the consideration that it
was a burnt-offering, of which nothing was eaten.
was entirely consumed (ver. 39). Others think that
the kiug had eaten nothing during the suspense
of the issue of the contest, from the morning un-
til the evening; hence Elijah advised him to re-
turn quickly, before the coming storm hindered
him, to the place of the sacrifice, where prepara-
tion had been made for his needs (Keil, Calw.
Bib.). But the sense of the words of the prophet
w;is. Be of good heart (Luke xii. 19). Israel has
turned back again to his God, ^oon the famine will
come to an end; already I hear (in spirit) the rain
rushing. t;'{0 (ver. 42) does not mean here top,
summit, but it denotes the outermost promontory
towards the sea. Both Elijah and Ahab went from
Kishon "up;" the former betook himself to the
promontory, which was not so high as the place
where the altar stood, and Ahab had his tent.
Hence Elijah could say to his servant: Go up and
say to Ahab, &c. To the promontory, however,
Elijah betook himself, because thence one could
look far across the sea, and first be assured when
rain-clouds were forming in the distance. Here
he bowed himself down and concealed his face, to
abstract his eyes from everything outward and
visible, and to turn himself wholly and completely
to what was inward. It was the natural, involun-
tary expression of sinking into the most earnest,
wrestling prayer; and there is no reason why.
with Keil. we should refer to the dervishes,
amongst whom Shaw and Chardin have found
similar prayer-postures. Elijah did not wish, in
order to be alone in prayer, and so to strengthen
himself, to look at the sea; he commissioned his
servant with that. Probably he promised to
give him information in a very short time; and
when the servant, at the outset, saw nothing, he
said to him, Go again seven times, i. e., make no
mistake, though it be a matter of seven times.
Seven times is here as in Matt, xviii. 21; cf. Ps.
cxix, 164; xii. 1 ; Prov. xxiv. 16. Elijah wished
also to be informed of the first appearing of a
cloud before any one else observed it, to notify
Ahab, and to convince him that the rain, as he
had predicted in chap. xvii. 1, wo'ijd be the con-
sequence of his prophetic word (prayer). The-
nius remarks on ver. 44: "A very little cloud on
the farthest horizon is, according to sea accounts,
often the herald of stormy weather." The doubled
r)3""iy in ver. 45, according to Maurer and others,
means : until so and so far, and is a form of speech
borrowed from the quick moving of the hand
also : before a man turns his hand. But the rain
did not come so swiftly. According to Exod. viL
16, and Is. xvii. 14, n3"1J? means : until now, up
to this moment. Gesenius : in the mean while ; so
also De Velte and Winer.
Ver. 45. And ran before Ahab, kc. [But
Ahab went towards Jezreel.] He had there a
summer palace (chap. xxi. 2). The city was situ-
ated in the tribe Issachar (Is. xix. 18), in the ele-
vated plane of the same name, about from live to
six miles (seventeen to twenty Eng. ) distant from
Carmel. He betook himself thither, because Je-
zebel was then at this summer residence, and he
wished to let her know the news (chap. xix. 1).
The form of expression, the hand of Jehovah, &c,
ver. 46, occurs also in 2 Kings iii. 15: Ezek. i. 3;
iii. 14, 22; viii. 1; xxxiii. 22; xxxvii. i; and as □
all these places it denotes an inward impulse ex-
cited by God, so there is no reason why here it
should be understood of a wonderful accession of
natural bodily strength, which enabled him, as the
older interpreters thought, to run in advauc6 if
the royal chariot, as it required the swiftest course
(J. Lange, Calmet, and others). Over and above
the ordinary use of the form of expression, what
makes against it is, that it does not stand before
]'T1 , but before Dil""l ; but for the girding of the
loins no extraordinary strength was requisite.
The prophet concluded, from a higher divine im-
pulse, to accompany Ahab, and made himself
Feady. The object and motive was neither to
bring the king unharmed to his residence (S.
Schmidt), nor " to furnish him a proof of his hu-
mility " (Keil). or "to serve him in this fashion as
a courier" (Berleb. Bib.); rather he went before
him "as his warning conscience" (Sartorius), as
"a living tablet, reminding him of all the great
things which the God of Israel had done by his
prophets " (Krummacher). There " was reason
for supposing that he (Ahab) would cast off the
yoke of his scandalous wife, and give himself
thenceforth wholly to Jehovah. The prophet
wished to stand by his side, counselling and help-
ing him in his resolution, and to miss no oppor-
tunity when the king, left to himself, might be-
come a victim to the corrupting influence of Je-
zebel " (Von Gerlach). The servant whom Elijah
had with him on Carmel (ver. 43), and whom, on
the flight from Jezreel into the wilderness, he left
at Beersheba (chap. xix. 3), must have been with
him on the road from Carmel to Jezreel ; so much
the less can we suppose that a miracle cairied
the prophet thither.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The day on Carmel was the central-point and
climax in the public career of the prophet Elijah.
If his peculiar calling and his place in the histrrj
20S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of redemption were, essentially, to restore the
broken covenant with Jehovah, and to lead Israel
back again from idolatry to the recognition of
Jehovah (see Hist, and Ethic, on chap, xvii.), it
was necessary that there should be a decisive
action in the matter ; and for this no moment was
more appropriate than after Ahab as well as the
whole people had become bowed down and humi-
liated in consequence of the famine of several
years, which the Baal-priests were not able to
remedy. This decision took place on Carmel ; and
in the most solemn way, before king and people.
It was a day of judgment, and of the most splendid
triumph over the Baal-worship, which received a
blow from which it never again recovered. On
this account, too, this day has great meaning for the
entire Old Testament history, and marks an epoch
in the divine economy of redemption. A just com-
prehension of all the particulars narrated can be
gained only from this stand-point, which must be
kept steadily in sight.
2. The decision whether Baal or Jehovah be the
true God was not brought about in the way of in-
doctrination, or by a warning and threatening dis-
course; it is connected rather with an actual de-
claration of Jehovah's, prayed for from him. This
mode of decision was not chosen accidentally or
arbitrarily, but was founded in the nature of the
Old Testament economy, and corresponded with
the special relations there prevailing. The Old
Testament religion recognizes Him only as the
true, living God, who declares and reveals himself
as such. The gods of the heathen, who serve the
creature instead of the Creator (Rom. i. 25), are de-
ified nature-forces and world-powers. Over against
these, the God who can create as He wills, who
has made heaven and earth and all that therein is,
reveals and declares Himself thereby, in that He
proclaims His absolute power over all created
things, and his infinite exaltation above nature
and the world. Such declarations (authentications)
are, in Scripture language, " wonders." Jehovah
as the only true and living God is hence so often
designated as the God " who alone doeth wonders "
(?s. lxxii. 18; lxxvii. 15; lxxxvi. 10; xcviii. 1;
cxxxvi. 4) ; He is not bound up in the laws and
forces of nature, but is absolutely independent of
it, both as its Creator and also its sovereign. By
the "wonder" it is that He stands above all the
gods of the heathen, which, over against Him, are
but deified nature-powers, absolutely without
(personal) power, and can do no " wonders."
The conception of the self-declaring and of the re-
velation of God is connected, in the God-con-
sciousness of the Israelites, with the conception
of the wonder, and every extraordinary declara-
tion is accompanied, more or less, by wonders; as
the choice to be a peculiar people, the exodus
from Egypt, the giving of the law on Sinai, which
were prized as tangible witnesses of the true,
living God, and were placed beside the creation.
A^ now the decision was to be made upon Carmel,
whether Jehovah or Baal (i.e. deified human
nature-force) were the true living God, so here
there was a self-declaration of Jehovah as of the
God who is lifted up above the world and all
that is in it, i. e., who doeth wonders. It was a
nature-wonder which brought the people (especi-
ally Israel, inclined to nature-life, see above) to
the confession: Jehovah, He is the God ! and as
hmt the matter involved was a devot'on and
prayer, this wonder was connected with saci.fice,
the palpable expression and centre of all prayer.
It is well worth our while to notice the difference
between the Israelitish God-consciousness and
that of the modern deistic or rationalistic. The
latter knows nothing of " the wonder " and pro
nounces it absolutely impossible. To it, the just
true God is He who doeth no wonders, i. e., who ia
bound up with the laws of nature and of the world,
and, consequently, cannot declare and reveal him-
self in his absolute being above the world, and ia
His creative omnipotence. According to the
Israelitish conception of God, such a God is not
the living, but a dead, powerless god, because he
is not lifted absolutely above the world. That God
works wonders, and through them announces and
reveals Himself, does not rest upon a false, low
notion of the divine being, but, on the contrary,
presupposes the loftiest conception of God.
3. The prophet Elijah appears, in the present
portion of his history, both at the acme of his
activity as the restorer of the broken covenant,
and also in his whole personal grandeur as the
peculiar and true hero amongst the prophets of
the Old Testament. AH that he said and did
gives evidence of a courage and strength of faith
which is scarcely paralleled in the entire history
of the divine economy. To the call : Go show thj
self to Ahab, he is obedient, without questioning
and objections about the consequences, being
assured that not a hair can fall from his head
without the will of God. While Obadiah himself,
who still retained the favor of the king, trembled
before his wrath, and was afraid of his life, Elijah
goes fearlessly to meet his angry, powerful foe,
who had already sought for him everywhere in
vain, and who had permitted the murder of so
many prophets ; and when Ahab meets him in a
stern and threatening way, he is not terrified, he
does not bow down, but declares boldly to his
face : Thou art the cause of all the misery of
Israel. Alone, and without any human protection,
he went to Carmel to meet all Israel and the 450
Baal-priests, his bitterest enemies. He does not
flatter the people, but puts to their conscience the
cutting question, How long halt ye upon both
sides? and with the army of priests he undertakes
to do battle alone. He ridicules their idols and
their whole conduct. The only weapon he employs
in the contest is prayer ; before the vast assem-
blage he calls upon his Lord and God, as humbly
so equally confidently. He is assured of ar
answer. After the decision from on high is ob
tained, and all the people returned to the God of
their fathers, he hands over, resolutely, the propa-
gators of the idolatry to judgment, and his heavy
task is done. Then first he beseeches Jehovah,
in the solitude, that He will be gracious again to
the repentant people, and will relieve them from
their distress. When the longed-for rain cornea
on, he advises the departure of the king, and in
joyful hope of further fruits of this fought-for
victory, refreshed and quickened, he runs before
him to the residence in Jezreel, where Jezebel the
murderess of the prophets was sojourning. Inde-
pendent now as Elijah appears in everything,
there are analogies with the history of him to
whom, as the founder of the covenant, its restorer
naturally points. Like Elijah, Moses also dwell
for a long time amongst strangers, and in retire-
ment receives the call: Go hence, I will send the*
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-46.
2W
lo Pharaoh, ic. (Exod iii. 11); he concludes the
covenant before and with the people collected at
Mount Sinai ; he builds an altar with twelve stones
and offers there a sacrifice ; the whole people,
with one voice, answer him: All the words which
Jehovah hath spoken will we do, &c. (Exod. xxiv.
3 sq.) ; as by the erection of the golden calf the
covenant was broken, he caused the Levites, who
had polluted themselves by the worship of the calf,
to be punished ; but then he earnestly beseeches
Jehovah to turn away the punishment from the
people, and again to be gracious unto them (Exod.
xxxii.).
4. That Elijah ridiculed the calling upon Baal
might seem unworthy of a prophet and man of
God, from whom rather sympathy with error
might be expected. But this ridicule did not pro-
ceed at all from a frivolous sentiment ; it was
rather the expression of the gravest religious reso-
luteness and of the profoundest earnestness.
Over against the one God, to whom only true beiug
appertains (n\T), all other gods are not, to all
of whom, in common, the conception of nothing-
ness belongs, and who are to be designated with
Tarious expressions as not being, cf. Dp'PX , Lev.
xix. 4 ; xxvi. 4 ; J\S , )1S , Is. xli. 24, 29 ; |on ,
Deut. xxxii. 21 ; Jer. ii. 5; viii. 19, &c. The most
resolute contempt and rejection of idolatry is thus
expressed, which consists in this, viz., that man
makes what is nothing, the not-existing, his highest
and best — his God. If now it be the calling and
task of the prophets and men of God to do battle
with idolatry, and to represent it in its thorough
perverseness and blameworthiness, it is quite
proper to hold it up to contempt ; this is
-done by ridicule, which, when reasons and
proof's are unavailing, is the most effective in-
strument. The prophets have a divine right of
ridicule of idolatry, which they often employ (cf.
Isa. xL 17 sq. ; xli. 7; xliv. 8-22; xlvi. 5-U;
Jer. x. 7 sq.) in the sense in which it is said by
the holy God Himself that he mocks and ridicules
the ungodly (Ps. ii. 4; xxxvii. 13; lix. 9). As,
in the time of Ahab, idolatry was so strong and
powerful that it threatened to overwhelm the
worship of the true God, so in the moment when
a choice was to be made between Baal and Jeho-
vah, the opportunity was at hand to make by ridi-
cule the worship of idols contemptible. Kruni-
macher remarks very appositely upon this:
" What a free, undaunted courage does it presup-
pose, what inward repose and elevation, what an
assured confidence of the genuineness and truth of
his cause, and what a firm certainty that he will
win, — that at his momentous appearance upon
Mount Carmel Elijah can employ ridicule 1"
5. The slaughter o' the priests of Baal is in many
ways adduced as a serious objection against the
prophet, and is characterized as "fanatical hard-
ness and cruelty" (Winer, R-W.-B. I. s. 318).
But it appears otherwise if instead of taking the
stand-poiut of the New Testament or of modern
humauitarianism, we occupy that of the Old Testa-
ment and of the prophet. The first and supremest
command of the Israelitish covenant declares : I
am Jehovah, thy God ; thou shalt have none other
gods before me: upon it rest the choice and the
separation from all peoples, the independent ex-
istence of the nation ; with it stands and falls its
world-historical destiny. The actual rejection of
14
this command carried with it perse exclusion front
the peculiar and covenant people, and was hence
punished with death (Exod. xxii. 19; Deut. xiii
5-18 ; xvii. 2-5). But idolatry had never been so
rampant in Israel as under Ahab. It was not
merely tolerated, but had become the State-religion,
and threatened to overwhelm the adoration of the
one true God, and so at the same time to destroy
the covenant, and to take from Israel its character
as the chosen, peculiar people. Elijah was called
to restore the broken covenant, and to put an end
to idolatry. Through the extraordinary, wonder-
ful assistance of God, he had in fierce battle
achieved this result — that the people turned again
to Jehovah their God. To make this permanent, it
was necessary that an effectual bar should be
placed against any further activity of the foreign
supporters and representatives of the idolatry.
Now, if ever, the attestation of Jehovah ought not
to be fruitless ; satisfaction should be made to the
law, and execution take place. The restoration of
the covenant, without the slaughter of the Baal-
priests, was but half accomplished. A3 every
aTroKardoTaGic is in its nature more or less a npioic
(Mai. iv. 5 sq.), so also was the day upon Carmel
a day of judgment. Elijah there stood, not as a pri-
vate person, nor as a leader of a popular party,
but as the second Moses, as an executor of the
theocratic law. The objection about hardness and
fanaticism falls not upon him, but upon the law,
the consequences of which he executed ; and he who
blames him must object to the whole Mosaic insti-
tution as hard and fanatical. When even he who
was gentle and lowly of heart says: "But those
mine enemies which would not that I should reign
over them, bring them hither, and slay them be-
fore me" (Luke xix. 27), certainly still less can it
be concluded from the slaughter of the Baal-priests
that Elijah was a crueL blood-thirsty man, espe-
cially when proofs to the contrary are at hand
(chap. xvii. 9-24). According to these, we must
rather think " how hard, how terribly hard this
procedure must have been to a man like Elijah;
how powerfully it must have gone .... against
his whole natural feeling " (Menken). When Kno-
bel (as above s. 77) maintains that Elijah returned
to Israel " chiefly to revenge the murder of the
prophets by the slaughter of the Baal-and-Astarte-
priests," this is a gross slander upon the prophet,
whom not thoughts of murder and of revenge, but
the calling of his God, whose behests he fulfilled in
spite of the attending danger, carried to Carmel.
It is quite beside the mark to explain Elijah's con-
duct by the "retaliation-right" (Michaelis, Dereser,
and others) ; for that Jezebel had murdered the
prophets at the instigation of the Baal-priests
is an unproved assumption. For the rest, Keil
very properly observes : " From this act of Elijah's
to desire to deduce the right of the bloody perse-
cution of heretics would be not only an entire
misunderstanding of the difference between hea-
then idolaters and Christian heretics, but also a
morally wrong confounding of the New Testa-
ment, evangelical stand-point with the Old Testa-
ment, legal (stand-point), which Christ, in Luke
ix. 55. blamed in his own disciples." Very truly
does the Berleburg. Bib. say, on this place, " The
economy of the new covenant does not allow one
to imitate Elijah."
6. King Ahab, in the present section, appears
indeed as saying and doingbut little, yet even here
210
THE FIRST LOOK OF THE KINGS.
the traits of his character, which become more
prominent in the subsequent course of the history,
can be plainly recognized. The period of the
famine, which Elijah had announced to him as a
retributive judgment, did not bring him to reflec-
tion, still less to repentance. He is very anxious
about his cattle, but not about his people. He does
not himself murder the prophets, but nevertheless
he permits his wife. He looks about for Elijah,
in the foolish fancy that he, and not God, is the
cause of the famine, and with the preposterous
intention of forcing him to make it rain. His
highest official, Obadiah, to whom he intrusted
his horses and mules, cannot trust him, and is
compelled to fear that he may be unrighteously
put to death by him. He carries himself with all
severity and anger towards the prophet, who freely
encounters him, as one who lias the power of life
and death : nevertheless he does not venture to
seize him : he rather bows before him, as the lat-
ter encounters him reprovingly with his brave
message, and he does at once what Elijah bids
him. He was present upon Carrnel with the great
assemblage ; but that which there made an affect-
ing impression upon the whole people left him, as
it seems, unmoved. He witnessed the slaughter
of his Baal priests, and in no way hindered it. We
hear nothing of him than that "he went up from
the brook Kishon to eat and drink." In respect
of the news that rain was coming, what to him
was most important, he started thereupon to get
back to his summer residence, and to tell every-
thing that had happened to his wife. When we
sum up all these things, it is evident that he was a
man utterly without character, at one time high-
flying and impetuous, at another feeble and with-
out power of resistance, occupied only with what
is on the surface, without moral pose, without
receptivity for religious and higher things.
7. Obadiah's meeting with Elijah, which forms
the introduction to the day upon Carmel, affords
us a glimpse into the condition of things which
preceded this day. The thing which especially
strikes us is not so much the great general
misery in consequence of the long drought, as the
fact rather, that in this time when the prophets
were driven from the court, and their extermina-
tion was a settled matter, at the court itself there
should have been a man of the highest official
station who feared Jehovah so much that he
ventured upon the risk of hiding not less than a
hundred prophets, and of supplying them with food
during the general distress. The Calw. Bibel says
justly : " We are at a loss at which to wonder the
most — the God-fearing man at the court, or at the
king who tolerated him there ;" and Menken ob-
serves very truly : " So we see in this history that
even in the most corrupt times there are some
who are free from the general corruption, who re-
main in their faith in God, in their fear of God,
oftentimes even where one would least of all sus-
pect and look for such." It is characteristic of the
biblical history that it brings out such cases into
prominence, as in this instance, with unmistakable
design. But it must no less strike one, that in that
period of the deepest religious apostasy and of
bloody persecution, the number of the prophets
was so grrMt that Obadiah alone secured the safety
and cared fur a hundred of them. A long time
gone, under Jeroboam, the ordained supporters of
the Jehovah-worship. 1 1 1 • ■ priests and levites, hai
departed from all Israel into Judah (2 Chre.L it. 13),
and now that, under Ahab, a formal idolatry had
spread, the number of the prophets so incretsed
that Jezebel was not able to destroy them all; they
were a silent, hidden power, which defied all the
outward power of tb» idol-serving fanaticism.
Who does not recognize therein the wonderful
ways of the fidelity of God in the guiding of His
people ?
8. The recent criticism explains the statement
now in hand, chiefly on account of the miracle
narrated in it, as fabulous or poetical. " As a
matter of fact," says Thenius (on ver. 46), "it can
be seen that, in answer to Elijah's prayer, rain
followed after a long drought, and that the people,
convinced afresh on this occasion of the power
of Jehovah, prepared a great blood-bath from
amongst the idolatrous priests." According to
Bunsen (Bibelwerk V. 2. s. 539), it appertained
to Elijah "to go through the land as the prophet
of the Eternal, and as the awakening leader of the
people. ... In the presence of the Baal-party
he inspires and rouses the people, who, before the
living spirit which is in man, recognize the noth-
ingness and the moral baseness of the masquer-
ade and legerdemain, and of the incomprehensible
solemnities of the Baal-worship, and at the word of
Elijah the 450 Baal-priests were slaughtered at the
brook Kishon." Ewald (as above s. 539j finds in
the delineation of the contest "of the great cham-
pion of Jehovah and of the Baal-prophets, as it
were the antithesis of the beginning of the one and
of the other religion, represented not without
earnest raillery. They who in their mind and work
do not sacrifice to the true God, build the altar, and
prepare the sacrifice, and call loudly upon their
god and worry themselves, the more vain their
trouble, so much the more vehement and senseless
it becomes, as if somehow by dint of importunity
the thing desired might come from heaven: but
nevertheless with all their trouble and with all
their excitement they cannot bring down from
Heaven the fire which they seek, and which alone
would repay them for their trouble. Elijah other-
wi se." The whole is also a prophetico-poetic gar-
ment of a general religious truth. Eisenlohr, as
usual, agrees with this (as above, s. 177). He ex-
plains the consuming of the sacrifice by fire from
heaven as " a beautiful image for the burning
eternal power which is imparted from above to
every truth, over against the death which every-
thing fabricated, false, lying, bears within itself;"
that "no voice, nor answer, nor heed was there,"
is "the inimitable delineation of the emptiness and
vanity of heathenism, which is overladen with
every species of superstition, and is vanquished by
self-torture." In respect of these various views
we refer generally to our preliminary remarks upon
el iap. xvii. ; in details, however, the following comes
into the account. The whole account, excepting
ver. 38, contains nothing which can witli any
reason be objected to as unhistorical. This por-
tion of the history of Elijah especially bears com-
pletely the impress of the usual simple Hebrew
way of historical composition, and it would not
occur to any one to regard it as legendary did it
not contain ver. 38. The miracle here narrated is
not such as could be wanting without detriment
to the whole, and to the further historical develop-
ment about the famine, as may be maintained in
respect of this or o he other miracle ; it is not
CHAPTER XYI1I. 1-46.
211
subordinate, is not a side-matter, but the chief
criticism acknowledges that at the day on Carmel
"there was a noticeable sudden decision," and
that " a mighty upturning of things took
place" (Eiseulohr) ; that '■ here a victory was won
which, at that day, could not have been greater
and more beneficial " (Ewald). But this victory
was the immediate effect of that miracle, and as
generally the day upon Carmel forms the central
point and climax of Elijah's activity, so again this
day culminates in " the tire of Jehovah.'' which
consumed the sacrifice. All that is said before and
after refers to this fact ; he who lowers it takes
the heart out of the body of the whole narration,
and then nothing is left but either to interpret it
as a fraud, or to look upon the whole as fiction.
The view that Elijah "alone and by nothing but
the power of his spirit and word achieved the
prodigious wonder of a complete alteration of the
then posture of the ten tribes" (Ewald) is most
emphatically contradicted by the da}- upon Carmel.
He was the prophet of action and not of speech.
Even here, at the climax of his career, we hear only
a few isolated expressions from him, but no pro-
phetic discourse with which he sought to indoc-
trinate or to convince the people. To his im-
pressive question: How long halt ye, <fec, the
people kept silence ; they accepted his proposition
to obtain an attestation of Jehovah, but only after
it took place did they fall down and cry, over-
powered: Jehovah, He is God I Where in the
whole history of Elijah is there even a trace that
he " inspired and roused " (Bunsen) the people by
public discourse ; and how does it happen that this
people of the ten tribes, who were inclined to
nature-worship, and since the days of Jeroboam
were addicted to the worship of images and even
of idols, and were dull about spiritual impres-
sions, should have at once " recognized the
nothingness and perverseness of the Baal-worship
in presence of the living spirit which is in men
(sic)" ? An extraordinary act alone could have pro-
duced within this people such a sudden, complete
revolution that they actually put to death the
priests of Baal, who were of the highest considera-
tion and under the royal protection. To regard
this latter as an effect of the rain which had come
(Theuius) is an arbitrary perversion of the
historical order. Not the rain, but the return of
Israel to their God was the mark of the day upon
Carmel : the punishment of the drought ought and
could cease only when this end was reached.
The rain followed not before the " blood-bath." but
after it; before it rained, something extraordinary
must have happened to rouse wrath in such a
degree against the Baal-priests. But supposing
that the rain produced the abrupt overturn, this
itself, " had it followed Elijah's prayer," would
have been essentially a miracle ; we must then
grant that Elijah appears, " when he announces
now a drought and then rain, and both happen con-
formably with his prediction, as a nature-expert "
(Knobel I. s. 56) : but in this event his prayer for
rain would have been an intentional deception of
the people and jugglery. The interpretation,
firally, according to which the transaction upon
Carmel is a poetic image of the consuming power of
divine truth (Eisenlohr) is a desperate reversion to
the old allegorical method of interpretation, with
which one can make what one pleases out of
history.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-16. Krcmmacher : Elijah and Obadiah.
What brought Elijah from Zarephath ; what hap
peued at this time at the court at Samaria; how
Elijah and Obadiah met. — Bender : The return of
Elijah to his native country : (1) the efi'ect of
divine chastisement upon Israel; (2) the expedi-
tion of Ahab ; (3) the meeting of the prophet with
Obadiah.
Ver. 1. Krummacher: Let no one imagine
that God will lead us into any darkness whatso-
ever, without also arranging how we may be sup-
ported through it. He never calls upon us to
walk through darkness, unless He Himself is our
staff and stay, and thick and heavy as may be the
night with which we are veiled, He leaves us here
and there always a gleam of light, which tells us
there will be a dawn to the darkness. Hence the
promise: I will send rain. — Ver. 2. Starke : God's
commandments must be obeyed, and neither death
nor danger avoided. Where there is living faith,
there is also obedience and courage (Ps. xci. 1—4).
The great famine in Samaria, both bodily and spiri-
tual. Daily bread was scarce, for the land was dried
up and unfruitful, but the bread of life, the wrord of
God, was likewise scarce, for the nation itself was
dried up, and those who would have sown the seed
of the Word were persecuted, and compelled to-
silence and concealment. Woe to that country
and people upon whom famine, bodily and spiritual,
both fall, and who yet are driven by neither to
repentance and conversion. — Ver. 3. The God-fear-
ing Obadiah. (1) The time in which he lived. (A
time of apostasy, of godlessness, and a licentious
idol worship. In times when unbelief has grown
universal, and is the prevailing fashion, and repre-
sents enlightenment and civilization, not to swim
with the stream, but greatly to fear the Lord, is as
noble and great as it is rare ; we may then say
with truth: "Although all shall be offended, yet
will not I," Ac.) (2) The place. (At the court of
an Ahab and a Jezebel ; not in a remote, lonely
place, but in the midst of the world, where he saw
and heard nothing good, surrounded by godless
men, and exposed to every temptation to godless-
ness, frivolity, rioting, and licentiousness. To be
pious with the pious, to maintain one's faith in the
midst of the faithful, is not difficult ; but in the
midst of the world, to preserve one's self unspot-
ted from it, to keep a pure heart, and have God
before our eyes and in our hearts, wherever the
Lord places us, this is indeed greatly to fear the
Lord.) (3) The position which he took. (He tilled
one of the highest offices, was one of the most
distinguished men of the kingdom, to whom noth-
ing was wanting which pertains to an indolent,
careless life. The noble and powerful often fancy
that the fear of the Lord is fitted only for common
people, for the poor, the lowly, and the oppressed.
But God is no respecter of persons ; the first in
this world are often last in the kingdom of heaven.
He is indeed exalted who, whilst he stands upon
the highest pinnacle of earthly fame, can still
say with St. Paul : lam not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for, &c.) Ahab calls Obadiah, because he
reposes singular confidence in him. — Menken :
The world may hate and persecute, nay, even scorn
a God-fearing man for his fear of God, but must feel
and acknowledge at heart, if not with the mouth,
that this very man is truer, more reliable, an i bettei
212
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
in every way than the whole throng of idle, wanton,
though perhaps witty and polished people, whose
law is their own pleasure, and whose God is their
belly or their pride. More than one godless king
can be found, who desires God-tearing men for his
ministers and counsellors; and many a prince,
although himself no Christian, holds in his service
a Christian, and esteems him more highly than the
others who are not Christian ; and many more
than one unbelieving and godless king, who re-
spects piety and the fear of God in the person of
one of his generals. — Krcmmacher: It is not an
unusual occurrence that in times when there is no
use for triflers, suddenly the hated sect are brought
to power, and the fierce opponents of the Gospel
are rejoiced to have in their midst a few Galile-
ans whom they can take into their secret counsels.
The Lord often has His true disciples and worship-
pers where they are least expected, in courts
and high offices, and they, their innermost hearts
untouched, serve him with soft and quiet spirits,
without any display of piety or without excite-
ment.— Starke: When good and conscientious
men occupy exalted worldly or ghostly positions,
so long as conscience does not require them to lay
down their offices they must retain them, for
although they may not be able to do much good,
they still may have many opportunities to prevent
evil.
Ver. 4. Starke: Good and righteous servants
of God can have no bitterer or fiercer enemies
than ungodly, licentious women (Matt. xiv. 8;
Mark vi. 24). Kritumacher: In our Ahab and
Jezebel days there is no lack of those who are
persecuted on account of their creed, and exposed
to misery, liany a preacher must leave his pul-
pit, many a professor his chair, nay, many an
handicraft's man his bench and workshop, because
he is a Christian. But it was Obadiah's to make
an offensive and defensive alliance ! The proof of
a godly fear: (a) Especially by works (Jas. ii.
14-17); religious words and feelings without deeds
are leaves without fruit; by their fruits ye shall
know them (Matt. vii. 16-21). (6) Especially by
works of self-denying love, which are done in se-
cret (Gal. v. 6) ; by such works the Lord recog-
nizes His own (John xiii. 34; 1 John iv. 8). — Men-
ken: Obadiah could not do this without great
risk, and the exposure of his own person to great
danger .... neither, in that extreme famine,
could he maintain those hundred prophets without
great expenditure of his own substance
Obadiah not only preserved the lives of a hun-
dred iunocent men, — he saved a hundred wor-
shippers of Jehovah, and, yet more, a hundred
men who, immediately the persecution was over,
and the Baal-worship in Israel destroyed, became
useful to the ignorant and bewildered people as
their instructors in doctrine. Thus although Oba-
diah, as the lieutenant of the royal watch, could
not do much tor the kingdom of God by direct tes-
timony and instruction, yet indirectly he did a
great deal, by preserving these witnesses for the
truth, at the peril of his own life and at the ex-
pense of his own fortune. Thus many people, by
the maintenance of the witne=ses for evangelical
truth, by the spread and promotion of the Chris-
tian Scriptures, etc., do much for the kingdom of
God and the truth, which otherwise they could
not do, and lay up a reward in heaven, if they do
lot Blum disgrace, nor prefer earthly and perish
able gains to the celestial and imperishable.- ■
Vers. 5-6. Starke: Godless masters often cart
more for their horses and hounds than for their
subjects. — Krummacheu: Pitiful man I Anxioul
care for the life of his horses, and the maintenance
of his stables ; this is all that the three and a half
years of chastisement of the Almighty had called
forth in his soul .... How often does one think
of a person— "Now he will be quite a different
person " . . . . and then, behold ! where one hopes
to find at length thoughts of God and eternity,
there are only thoughts of horses and mules; and
in place of holy emotions, instead of aspirations,
prayers, and retiections upon the great and eternal
interests . of life— you find a thick swarm of pitiful
cares and considerations which hover about the
soul, and hover with it into an awful eternity.
Ahab and Obadiah both journey on together
through the land, but each goes his own way
alone; a picture of their life-journey: Ahab walks
in the broad, Obadiah in the narrow path; the lat-
ter alone leads to the green pastures and still
waters which refresh the soul (Ps. xxiii. 2-3).
Vers. 7-15. Obadiah's meeting Elijah, a divine
leading for the strengthening of the one and the
proving of the other. That Elijah, journeying on
his weary way, should meet the very man who
was the only true friend of the prophet at the
court, was no more accidental than that Obadiah,
going forth in search of provender for the cattle,
should find the man who was to test severely his
faith and his fear of God. — Ver. 7. Starke. Oba-
diah, himself a distinguished man, addressed the
prophet as " My Lord," not out of mere courtli-
ness and courtier-like flattery, but in evidence of
his reverence for the man of God, and to show
that he did not regard scornfully a servant of God,
as was the custom with all the courtiers of that
day. — He who greatly fears the Lord will likewise
honor and reverence those whose vocation it is
to make known the Lord's name, and preach his
word (Luke x. 16; John xiii. 20).— Vers. 8, 9. The
courage of Elijah, and the fear of man shown by
Obadiah. Even those who fear the Lord, and walk
by faith, are sometimes in the hour of peril over-
come by an agony of fear, which bows them down
as reeds before a whirlwind. Peter, who first
threatened with the sword, became suddenly ter-
ror-stricken before a damsel. It is good for us to
recognize our human weakness, for this knowledge
preserves us from over-security, and leads us to
pray: Lord, strengthen our faith. — Calw. Bibel:
Exclaim not against Obadiah, for in a hundred
ways thou thyself showest no more faith. Eager
and busy as the world is to pursue and get rid
of the true servants of God, who oppose their sins
and unbelief, they move neither hand nor foot
to seek and find them when in want. — Ver. 12.
If we permit ourselves to be overcome by the feat
and dread of man, our senses become so bewil-
dered, and our imagination so excited, that we
lose, in our self-made fancies, a clear view of our
own position. — Ver. 13. Menken: This is not the
speech of an idle self-glorification, anxious to dis-
play the good which has been done, to the first
person approaching— it is the speech of truth and
honest uprightness, the speech of a noble spirit
greatly excited, which would not thus speak of
itself except in a moment of great excitement
An appeal to any special pious or good actions
done by a man, when mad-' not ui pbarisaica
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-46.
2] J
lell'-justification nor self-commendation, but con-
icieutlously, and in self-defence, with all humility,
is unobjectionable. As St. Paul says (1 Cor. xv.
10; 2 Cor. xi. 21 sq.), From my youth up. — Menk-
en: So much the more easily then when a man,
could he greatly fear the Lord, and preserve his fear
of God under great temptations. What is done and
practised in youth will remain the rule of old age ;
8o it is with the fear of God, which is the beginning
of wisdom. Therefore Prov. vi. 20-23 ; cf. 2 Tim.
iii. 15. — Vers. 15-16. A strong resolute word of
faith exercises power over the heart: it strength-
ens the weak, supports the tottering, encourages
the fearful, and tranquillizes the anxious-minded.
— Starke: A teacher must not shrink from his of-
fice through fear or cowardice, let tyrants look
grim as they may (1 Pet. iii. 14).
Vers. 17-20. Krummacher: Salvation out of
the very lion's jaws, (a) The wonderful protec-
tion experienced by Elijah: (6) the unjust accusa-
tion made against him; (c) the bold reply which
he made ; (d) the quiet power which he exercised.
— Bender: Elijah's second encounter with Ahab ;
(a) the king's reproach to the prophet; (b) the
prophet's reply to the king. — Wirth : The meet-
ing with Ahab. (a) The grievance and the count-
er-grievance ; (6) the commanding prophet and the
submissive king. — Ver. 17. Ahab sees Elijah, but
he, the fierce, powerful king, sword in hand, and
■■> great retinue, dares not to lay hand upon the
solitary, unarmed man standing before him, for
The heart of the king in the hand of the Lord is
as a water-brook, he directs it whither he will
(Prov. xxi. 1). — Krummacher: The Lord our God
knous how to shut the lions' mouths, and the
same God who surrounded Elijah with a fiery wall,
who saved Moses from the clutches of Pharaoh,
and Daniel out of the lions' den, still lives, and
will unto this day be a wall of defence to his
children and disciples. — If those, Ac. — Menken :
Men are disposed to seek the cause of their misery
everywhere in the wide world rather than in them-
selves, where only it exists ; but it is the peculiar
error of the world to lay the charge of all the mis-
fortune and turmoil of the world upon the most
innocent and best of men Thou art he that
troubleth Israel, says Ahab to Elijah. We find
this man a stirrer up of the people, was the lying
accusation of the enemies of Jesus ; and under the
name, " enemies of the human race," were the first
Christians hunted, persecuted, and slain. — Starke :
When the godless work mischief, the good and
pious must often bear the blame (Amos vii. 10;
Acts xvi. 20). — J. Lanoe : Here one sees the evil
fashion, of the children of this world, and of great
men seduced by false prophets in their judgments
of the righteous servants of God. For, though
the latter move on quietly, orderly, and circum-
spectly, yet ever making appeal to the conscience
by their testimony to the truth, whilst the former
are ever disquieted, though they will yield no place
to the truth, but rage against it and prejudice
the higher powers against it, — still the latter
are the disturbers of Israel, even as the lamb
troubled the water for the wolf.— Calw. Bib.: In
our days true believers are thus unjustly accused
as Rationalists, Philosophers, and Freethinkers.
They are called Jesuits, corrupters of the people,
obscurantists, and blockheads, &c. — Ver. 18. J.
Lange: This is the true way for a righteous ser-
vant of God — let him, according to the necessities
of the case and the given circums.ances, testify
boldly to the pure truth, without fear of man, but
preserving all due reverence for authority Such a
testimony, given with due boldness, produces a
much greater impression than if the truth is spo-
ken with half covert and mumbled utterance. —
Krcmmacher: This Elijah-speech is seldom
now heard in the world. The earth is rilled with
flatterers and sinners, who not only gather round
the palaces of the great, but crowd into smaller
societies, and even creep into the pulpits of God's
church Much greater things should we be-
hold if this noble and wholesome — "Thou, thou
art the man of death I " were not entirely dead and
silent. Elijah is thus a pattern for all repentance-
preachers, in that he admonishes every one, be-
wailing misfortune and ruin, of his especial ruin
(Jer. iii. 39), and does not generalize over com-
mon sinfulness : even so did Nathan with David,
John with Herod, and Paul with Felix. — Menken:
Elijah is silent concerning all the other sins of
Ahab and his family — concerning their luxury,
their pride, their injustice, and the whoredom and
witchcraft of Jezebel — (2 Kings ix. 22). He
pointed out to the king the chief cause, the real
source from which had sprung all the other evils
to himself and his family, and wherein lay the
misdoing which had brought such a plague upon
Israel. The misdoing was this— that they had
forsaken the word of God, the commandments, the
testimony, and the claims of the Lord, and had
followed after Baal No truth is more gen-
eral or surer amongst men than this — that con-
tempt of God and his word brings with it inevita-
ble ruin and decay — and the history of the human
race sets forth and teaches no truth more clearly
or more fearfully. — Vers. 19, 20. Kuummacher:
How the scene changes: The slave has become
king, the king a slave ; the subject commands, the
monarch obeys. Here is the concealed sceptre in
the hands of the children of the spiritual kingdom,
and the skill and marvellous power which they
exercise upon earth. — Here it says: A single little
word can confound him. We can do nothing
against the truth, &c. (2 Cor. xiii. 8). If it strike
the conscience of a man, he cannot resist its pricks.
— Whilst the prophets are compelled to hide in
holes, and live on bread and water, the priests of
Baal sit at the king's table and live in pomp and
pleasure. So likewise has it come to pass in
Christendom. But much better is it to suffer afflic-
tion with the people of God than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season (Heb. xi. 25).
Vers. 21-45. Elijah upon Mount Carmel. (a)
How he rebuked the divided belief of his nation,
and exhorted them to a decision ; (b) how he
brought to shame tire idol-worship, and exalted the
name of the Lord; (c) how he executed a heavy
judgment upon the lying prophets, and besought
from God merciful showers upon the earth. — Vers.
21-39. The decision upon Carmel. (a) The division
among the people (vers. 21-24) ; (b) the strife of the
four hundred and fifty priests of Baal (vers. 25-29) ;
(c) the victory of the one man (vers. 30-39). — Vers.
21-24. Krummaoiier: Elijah and the people upon
Carmel. (a) How rebuked; (b) how he scorned; (c)
how he believed. Wirth : The assembling of the
people upon Carmel. (a) One against four hundred
and fifty; (b) the questioning of the people; (c) the
reasonable proposal. — Ver. 21. The halting be
tween two opinions. (o)What this means (Matt
214
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
vi 24) ; (b) what are its results (Jas. iv. 4 ; Rev. iii.
16); cf. the hymn book of Lehr. : "Was hinket
ihr. betrogene Seelen," Ac. — Menkes : How hateful
in the sight of the Lord is this " halting," this neu-
tral state amongst Christians, where one does not
yield himself up to God and his cause with his
whole soul, does not renounce unholy sin, the
world, the spirit, and service of his age. How com-
pletely God demands an undivided heart we plainly
see where he says to the lukewarm, " Because thou
art indifferent, leanest to both sides, and dost not
espouse one side, since I will not overlook every-
thing, therefore I will spue thee out of my mouth."
— Krummacher: Indifference is the order of the
day, now in this, now in that form. Whole-heart-
edness and determination in the divine life a rare
pearl. Woe to thee, thou wavering generation, who
thinkest to share thy love and service between God
and the world, and dost lean now to this, now to
that side. The Lord says : He who is not with me
is against me (Luke xi. 23). In our day, the man
who holds entirely with Him is esteemed partial ; it
is thought to be might and wisdom for a man to
hover between two parties, and leave it undecided
whether He be mere man, like ourselves, or the only
begotten Son of God. So that, finally, halting be-
tween two opinions is more esteemed than true
Christianity. " But uncertainty and lukewarmness
are the most pitiable of all weaknesses. Lord,
teach us to tread in safer paths 1 Grant us now
a new, firm spirit " (Wirth). For it is a precious
thing to have the heart fixed (Heb. xiii. 9). There
is no reconciliation between belief and unbelief;
to strive to unite both is a vain effort (2 Cor. vi.
14, 15). The people answers him not. — Calw.
Bib. : Thus on many a Sunday does many a con-
gregation remain dumb before their preachers.
The people were silent and confounded, since
they could not answer, especially to Joshua (Jos.
xxiv. 15); but to-day, if one cries out to the mul-
titude: How long, &c, they say, What will the
priest? We are good Christians. — Ver. 22. Menken:
In cases where faith and reverence for God are
concerned, no human authority er majority of voices
avails ; one opposed to a thousand may be right, and
each individual has the right to acknowledge and
maintain his belief in the truth against thousands.
He is lost whose convictions depend upon the
authority of man or of numbers. He who in-
trenches himself firmly in his faith in God and his
holy word, must also resolve to stand alone and
be forsaken by the world, for faith is not a thing
for everybody. — Vers. 23, 24. He alone is the true
and living God who shows himself in divine acts.
A religion which means nothing of the saving,
beneficent works of God cannot proceed from the
living God. Christianity is therefore the true reli-
gion, because it publishes the great work of God
in Christ (Ps. cxi. 6). Not words and doctrine only,
but divine works are the fouudation of our salva-
tion.
Vers. 25-40. Krummacher: The fire upon
Carmel. We see the god of the blind, mad
world, and the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob.
Vers. 25-30. Wirth : The assembling of the peo-
ple upon Carmel. (a) The vain crying aloud to Baal ;
(b) the rebuilding of the fallen altar of the Lord. —
Vers. 25-39. The twofold sacrifice upon Carmel. (a)
The sacrifice of the priests of Baal ; (6) the sacrifice
of the prophet. — Vers. 25-29. The service of Baal.
(u) The resistance ; (b) the manner and way of th«
worship. The generation of to-day thinks itself ele-
vated far above the Baal worship, which in its na-
ture was deification of nature and the world, and
yet, how often does it happen that it serves the crea-
ture rather than the Creator (Rom. i. 25). Men no
longer make gods out of wood and stone, but con-
struct them out of their own thoughts, and worship
their own ideas. The world wishes to hear nothing
of the God who is holy, and ready to sanctify the
sinful heart of man ; who is just, and metes to each
man the measure which he deserves; who does
not suffer himself to be scorned, but rebukes and
chastises of such a God as He has revealed him-
self in His word the world makes nothing, and
will only hear of a God who never rebukes or pun-
ishes, who is no avenging judge, who works no
miracles, can hear no prayers. Elijah, could he
return to earth, would scorn such a divinity no
less than he did the idol Baal. — Ver. 25. For you,
the many. Thus, even as Elijah allowed them
the numbers which gave them due rank in man's
eyes, so it becomes most evident to us that num-
bers have no influence in God's sight (Luke xii.
32). — Ver. 27. Righteous and unrighteous scorn
{vide Histor. 4). — Ver. 28, Richter: At the present
day, Indians and other heathens fancy they can
win the favor of their deities by fire-tortures and
self-torments. Satan demands far greater and
heavier sacrifices than God. It is an heathenish
error to believe that we can appeal to God, or be-
come reconciled to or merit aught from Him by any
outward corporeal act, and yet this error prevail?
in manifold forms in Christendom. Some think tc
make themselves pleasing to God and to obtain
His mercy by the repetition of many prayers:
others, through fasts and painful pilgrimages ; yet
others by self-inflicted tortures and penances. The
sacrifice pleasing unto God is (Ps. li. 19) within,
and the gift of the heart. All outer works are dead
and useless. Those who belong to Christ have
crucified the flesh, with the lusts and affections
thereof (Gal. v. 24 ; Is. v. 3-5).— Vers. 26, 29. Well
for us if we recognize that God who sleeps not
nor is silent when we call upon Him de profundis,
who hears the voice of our weeping, and listens
when we open our hearts unto Him. Greatly can
we rejoice in Him, that if we pray according to His
will He will hear us (1 John. v. 14; cf. Ps cxxi. 4,
cxxx. 1).
Vers. 30-40. Elijah at the height of his
mission, (a) He rebuilds the broken altar. (6) He
calls on the Lord, who hears him. (c) He exe-
cutes judgment upon the idolatrous priests. — Ver.
30. Wirth : The altar of the Lord is ruined hi
many places, in many houses, in many hearts, ye
servants of the Lord, ye directors of congrega-
tions, ye teachers of youth, ye fathers and moth-
ers.— Ver. 31 sq. Even as the altar which Elijah
built out of the twelve stones reminded the nation
of its old covenant, that its twelve tribes together
should frame a building unto God, so every church
edifice should remind us that we, — built upon the
foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesua
Christ being the corner-stone, — fitly framed togeth-
er, should grow into an holy temple, an habitation
of God, through the spirit (Eph. ii. 20 sq.). — "''er.
34 Every shadow of delusion or deception m ist
be removed from anything done for the honor of
God and the glorification of His name. — Vers. 36-
39. The prayer of Elijah (o) Its purport. (H«
CHAPTER XVIII. 1-46.
218
prays for the glorification of God an'l the conver-
sion of the hearts of the people.) (6) Its granting.
(The Lord declares Himself, and all the people ac-
knowledge Him.)— Ver. 36. The Go 1 of the old
covenant is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob, because to them was the promise given.
The God of the new covenant, upon whom we as
Christians should call, is the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, because in Him are all the fulfilled
promises, the yea and amen (2 Cor. i. 20). — Ver.
37. All knowledge and recognition of God is in-
separable from the conversion of the heart to Him.
That is the aim of every testimony and revelation
of God, and for that every true servant of God
should daily pray in behalf of those intrusted to
his care. — Elijah, unlike the priests of Baal, who
called upon their god the whole day, used few-
words, yet was he heard, because in those few
words he expressed infinite meaning, and his
prayer came from the depths of a believing, un-
questioning soul. — Vers. 38, 39. The fire of the
Lord upon Mount Carmel. (a) Its significance.
(b) Its efficacy. What is the miracle of that fire
which devoured the burnt-offering and compelled
the whole people to cry out: "The Lord He is
God," in comparison with the miracle that God has
sent His son into the world to kindle the greatest
fire which has ever burnt in the world ; compared
with the miracle that the Word has become flesh
and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory,
even the glory of the only-begotten Son, full of
grace and truth ? In Bethlehem and upon Gol-
gotha the glory of the Lord is infinitely higher in
its manifestation than upon Carmel, wherefore
should all tongues confess that Jesus Christ the
Lord is the glory of God the Father. — Ver. 39.
The joyful recognition : The Lord He is God 1
(a) What is herewith recognized, and what prom-
'sed (</. the livmn : " Sei Lob und Eltr," &c, vers.
8 and 9).— Ver. 40. See Hist, and Critical. 5. The
sentence upon the idol-priests was a terrible but
necessary one, which should serve us. not as an
example, but as a warning ; for although, under
the new covenant, superstition and unbelief, idol-
worship and apostasy are not chastised with fire
and sword (Luke ix. 54-56), yet there is not want-
ing a certain fearful looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversa-
ries (Heb. x. 27-31). Those who tread under foot
the blood of the Lamb will shrink from the wrath
of the Lamb (Rev. vi. 16).
Vers. 41-46. Krummacher: The prayer upon
Carmel. (a) The preparation for it ; (6) the prayer
itself; (c) the granting of it. — Wirth: The end of
the divine chastisement upon Israel, (a) How the
prophet announces this end ; (6) how he suppli-
cates ; (c) how the Lord sends merciful rain. — The
prayer of the righteous availeth much when it is
earnest (James v. 16). Elijah a just man, his
prayer an earnest one, and therefore effectual
(Ps. cxlv. 18, 19). The king and the prophet on
the evening of the day upon Carmel. (a) Ahab
goes up to eat and to drink, Elijah goes up to pray
in solitude ; (i) Ahab rode on to Jezreel, Elijah
Buffers him not to go alone, but runs thither before
him. — Vers. 41, 42. Krummacher: Wretched man I
He was no more touched by the great, heart-
searching events of the day, than if he had wit-
nessed an interesting but very long play, after
which refreshment is most welcome and food tastes
well. Tet where are not such Ahab-souls to be
found? Ah! woe to you who permit the strong-
est evidences, the most powerful appeals to con-
science, and the most touching works of God to
glide before you like a magic-lantern before your
eyes : you enjoy it a little, perhaps, but you bring
home from the churches and meetings nothing ex-
cept some complaints over the long divine servic<
or some matter for lively conversation or sell'-sai
islied criticism, and a good appetite for the mea
which now follows, and a gay iooking-forward to
the pleasures and enjoyment which the evening of
the Sabbath-day will bring you. — Who has great-
er cause than Ahab to seek solitude, fall down upon
his knees and say, God be merciful to me and blot
out my sins after Thy great mercy (Ps.li. 3), make
us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast,
&c. (Ps. xc. 15)? But of all this not a word. The
rain alone was of importance to him, not thf
Lord and His mercy. How many like-minded ones
in our day I — Ver. 42. Menken: From the earn
estness, the ardor, the abasement of Elijah, we may
take pattern from his attitudes in this prayer. ...
The outward posture, indeed, is of the least con-
sequence ; bowing of the knee and outward mien,
as well as even the words of the mouth, avail lit-
tle, be they great or small, stately or humble ; but
the man who prays without reverence to God, and
is ashamed to let it be seen in his life, is no bet-
ter than the heathen who knows not God.... In
comparison with this the prayers of most men are
cold, dead — without reverence and devotion, with-
out earnestness and longing. Many a one thinks
that when his eyes are heavy with sleep, when he
has neither strength nor mind for any one earthly
pursuit or affair, when everything besides is done,
then he is in a fitting mood for prayer ; that when
he lies drowsily on his bed, in the morning or
evening, that he is fit to commune with the
Divine Majesty I That 18 entitled "prayer"! Is
it a wonder that men should pray thus for an
half century without having any experience in
real prayer, and, in the end, knowing nothing of
what prayer is and should be ? — Ver. 43. Menk-
en : Oftentimes we look in vain and yet see noth-
ing of the comfort of the Lord, nothing of His help
and salvation ; He leaves us awhile prostrated in
dust and misery, does not at once, hearkening and
comforting, raise us up, but appears as if the voice
of our crying reached Him not. But if we do not
lose our confidence in Him, if we redouble our
prayers and entreaties, He will not "let us be
ashamed " (Is. xlix. 23). He will comfort, help, and
hearken to us at His own, the best time. —
Starke : A man must not weary of prayer, even
though it appears to him useless. (Jer. xviii. 1 ;
Col. iv. 2; Eph. vi. 1.) — Krummacher: The dear
God is not always at hand when we come before
Him with our prayers, but generally allows us to
stand awhile at the door, so that it frequently
seems as if "there was nothing there." Then do
we begin to reflect, and become conscious that we
properly have a right to ask nothing, but that, if
anything be granted, it is in sheer mercy. — Vers.
44, 45. Starke: All the merciful works of God
seem small and unimportant in the beginning, but
thence the}' are seen to be nobler and greater in
the end. — Krummacher. Let the man rejoice who
sees even so much as a little cloud of divine mercy
and grace arising upon the horizon of his life!
The time approaches when this cloud will covei
his whole heaven. — Calw. Bib. : When the houi
216
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
strikes, help comes in with mighty power, and, to
put thy mistrust to shame, it must come unexpect-
edly.— The mighty rain after the prolonged
drought seems to call out to Ahab and to all t he
people : Behold the mercy and the severity of
God: severity to those who have perished, and
mercy to you so long as you deserve mercy, other-
wise thou also wilt be hewn down (Rom. xi. 22).
■ — Ver. 46. Elijah a true shepherd. He goes after
the lost sheep, and leaves them not when he sees
the wolf coming; but the Lord, who is neither
weary nor faint, giveth power and strength to the
faint and to them that have no might, so that no
way is too far, no toil too heavy. — Cramer: The
righteous are often rejoiced by means of the Holy
Spirit, and hope for the conversion of many, but
are afterwards obliged to confess, with great
heaviness of heart, that the prince of this world is
powerful with many men, holds them in captivity,
and finally plunges them into ruin.
C. — Elijah in the Wilderness and upon Horeh ; his Successor.
Chap. XIX. 1-21.
1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal ' how he had
2 slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto
Elijah, saying, So let the gods * do to me,3 and more also, if* I make not thy life
3 as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. And when he saw 6
that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belomjeth to
4 Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the
wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree [broom plant] : and he
requested for himself that he might die ; and said, It is enough ; now, O Lord
5 [Jehovah], take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as
he lay and slept under a juniper-tree [broom plant], behold, then an angel "
6 touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold,'
there teas a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he
7 did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord
[Jehovah] came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and
8 eat ; because the journey is too 9 great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and
drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto
9 Horeb the mount of God. And he came thither unto a [the "] cave, and
lodged 10 there ; and behold, the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to him, and
10 he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah ? And he said, I have been
verv jealous for the Lord [Jehovah] God of hosts : for the children of Israel
have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets
11 with the sword ; and 1, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it
away. And he said, Go forth," and stand upon the mount before the Lord
[Jehovah]. And behold, the Lord [Jehovah] passed by, and a great and strong
wind12 rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord [Jeho-
vah] ; but the Lord [Jehovah] wets not in the wind: and after the wind an earth-
12 quake ; but the Lord [Jehovah] was not in the earthquake : and after the earth-
13 quake a fire; but the Lord [Jehovah] icas not in the fire: and after the fire a
still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face
in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And
behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah ?
14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord [Jehovah] God of hosts :
because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword ; and I, even I only, am left ; and
15 they seek my life, to take it away. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him, Go,
return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus'3: and when thou contest,
16 anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou
anoint to be king over Israel : and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah
17 shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shalt come to pass, that him
thatescapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from
18 the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have '* left me seven thousand in
Israel, all the kmes which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth whiob
hath not kissed him.
CHAPTER XIX. 1-21.
217
19 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who wat plough-
ing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and lie with the twelfth : and Elijah
20 passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran
after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and
then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have
21 I done to thee ? " And he returned back from him, and took a yoke 16 of oxen,
and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave
unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and
ministered unto him.
TEXTUAL A>TD GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. — [JTH "lt'X-73 11N1 • The 73 , which creates the difficulty of this clause, and which is represented la
the withal of the A. V., is omitted in several MSS., and passed over unnoticed by the Sept., Vulg., and some other W.
Its use is to be explained by the combination of great fulness with ellipsis: " He told all that Elijah had done, and (he told)
all how he had slain," &c. .
2 Ver. 2. — [Since the verb is in the plural, all the V V. here understand D^iiPN * as the A. V., of Jezebel's false gods.
The Sept. makes the oath of Jezebel still more emphatic by prefixing to this clause the words Ei ait el 'HAiov ko.\ iyia
I Ver. 2. — [Many MSS. supply V , necessarily Understood and expressed in the VV., as in the English.
* Ver. 2.— [On the use of '3 in connection with oaths see Nordheimer Heb. Gr. § 1091, 3, and cf. Gen. xlii. 16
1 Sam. xiv. 44, Ac.
• Ver. 3.— [The form NT1 admits either of the pointing given by the Masorels: NT1. fut. from the root HNI he saw :
or N1.fl . f"t. from NT he/eared. The latter is followed by the Sept., Vulg., and Syr., and is expressed in six MSS. by
the fuller form N"l,,l • ^s to which sense should be preferred here, see Exeg. Com.
8 Ver. o. — [the Sept. omits the word angel here, supplying its place by the indefinite tis , as the Vat. Sept. has
omitted the messenger in ver. 2 (the Alex., however, there has ayyeAor) ; but in ver. 9 it in given.
» Ver. 6.— [The A. V. has overlooked the word l,riL"N"ip at his head, which is given in all the VV.
8 Ver. 7. — [Our author, in his translation, avoids the comparative sense, and sustains this view in the Exeg. Com.
Others prefer to retain the U6ual comparative force of ID in vj^D in connection with the adjective 31 . In 1 Sam. xx. 21,
to which the author refers, there is no adjective.
9 Ver. 9. — [The article points doubtless to some especially known cave.
10 Ver. 9. — [Notwithstanding the remarks in the Exeg. Com. our author in his translation renders ptft (as in the A.
V.) by iibernachtete; of the W. the Chald. avoids the word altogether, the Syr. and Arab, give the sense of the A. V.,
the Sept. KaTe\v<rev admits of either sense, and the Vulg. accords with the Exeg. Com. The primary meaning of the Heb.
)}5 is unquestionably to pass the niaht, but it hence comes in its secondary sense to mean simply remain.
II Ver. 11.— [The Sept. inserts here the word avpiov. on the morrow, thus showing that the translator meant the
Ko.Tc\v(rev of ver. 9 of passing the night. It also changes the punctuation, putting the clause, "And, behold, the Lord
passed by1' into the future as apart of the previous sentence, with a period following, and then a new sentence beginning,
"and, behold, a great and stormy wind.1' Ac., see Exeg. Com.
12 Ver. 11. — [TheChald. rendering of this verse is remarkable and instructive, as bringing out the ancient Jewish view:
— ''and before him was an host of angels of the wind rending the mountains and breaking the rocks before the Loan, but
the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not in the host of the angels of the wind ; and after the host of the angels of the
wind was the host of the angels of the earthquake, but the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not in the host of the angels
of the earthquake; and after the host of the angels of the earthquake, a fire, but the glory of the Lord (Shekinah) was not
in the host of the angels of fire; and after the host of the angels of fire, a voice of [angels] singing in silence. " The Sept.
describes the voice as </>(jjri) avpas Ae^r^, and the Alex. Sept. adds '-and the Lord was there.''
19 Ver. 15. — [Our author translates "the wilderness towards (gen) Damascus." It maybe questioned, however,
whether the Heb. is not better represented by the A. V.
14 Ver. IS.— [The Heb. verb Is in the future 'mXC'ITl , and this tense is preserved in all the VV. except the Arab.
(The Sept. puts it into the second person leaTaAeci^etO- The A. V. may have been unnecessarily influenced by a regard to
the Kaiiki-nov of Horn. xi. 4, where the tense is a matter of no consequence to the argument.
16 Ver. 20. — [On the question whether this clause should be rendered interrogatively, see the Exes. Com. The VV.
aie divided.
18 Ver. 21. — [The Vat. Sept. puts this in the plural to. £euy>), as if Elisha had slain the whole twelve yoke; the Alex.
Sept. preserves the singular. — F. G-]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Vers.1-2. Then Jezebel sent, &o. She could
hardly have done this without the knowledge of
her husband, who was too weak-minded to prevent
it, and so drew upon himself new guilt. Older
commentators held that Jezebel was so lost to all
discretion that, instead of keeping her purpose
secret, or carrying it out at once, she made it
known to the prophet, without considering that he
might in tlie mean time escape. But the sense of
the message is evidently this: "If thou art still
iere to-morrow at this time and hast not betaken
thyself out of the kingdom, the same thing shall
be done to thee as thou hast done to my priests."
To have him killed without further ceremony did
not seem to her advisable, for the impression which
he had made on the people was still too fresh in
their minds ; but she was determined to have him
out of the way as soon as possible, in order at
least to prevent all further influence on the people
and the king, and so, under cover of a threat of
death, she gave him time for flight. For the ex-
pression, So let the gods do to me. cf. on chap, ii
23.
Ver. 3. And when he saw that, he arose,
ins
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Ac The Sept. translates KT1 by mi e^o^i??;
the Vulgate, timuit ergo ; they read therefore
NT'1, which Thenius explains as undoubtedly cor-
T —
rect, because n{<"l is used of mental vision only
when a simple conclusion from outward circum-
stances is referred to. But this is exactly the case
here, as the Targuni also renders it by Ntn . From
the (outward) circumstance of the message, Elijah
saw clearly how matters stood; he perceived that
he could no longer remain here, as he had wished
and hoped, and that he could not carry his work
of reformation through to the end. Since he did
not as on a former occasion (chap, xviii. 1) receive
a divine command to hazard his life, i. e., to remain
in spite of the threat, he arose and left the king-
dom, as he had done once before. nNI is therefore
used here just as in 2 Kings v. 7 ; if N1>1 , were the
true expression, the person of whom lie was afraid
would have to stand in connection with it, as in 1
Sam. xviii. 12; xxi. 13. Moreover, how should the
man who had just been standing all alone over
against the whole people, the king, and 450 priests
of Baal (chap, xviii. 22), who especially appears as
an unequalled prophetic hero in the history of Is-
rael, have become all at once afraid of a bad wo-
man ? — IC'SJ-^X is used here just as in 2 Kings
vii. 7, and can only mean : in consideration of his
soul, i. e., for the preservation of his (threatened)
life ; this meaning, moreover, is demanded by the
connection with v. 2, and we can hardly find ex-
pressed here the thought : " in order to care for his
soul in the way indicated in v. 4, i. e., to commend
his soul or his life in the loneliness of the desert
to God the Lord, as he should determine concern-
ing him " (Keil). Decidedly incorrect is the trans-
lation of the Vulgate (quocumque eum ferebat volun-
tas), which Luther follows: "Whithersoever he
would," which has led to the erroneous conceptior,
that Elijah Med in his own will and strength, with-
out awaiting an intimation from the Lord. Equally
iucorrect is the explanation of Gerlach: without
end or aim, and certainly that of Krummacher:
He was only travelling off haphazard. — Beer-sheba
lay on the border of the wilderness. Since it be-
longed to the tribe of Simeon (Joshua xix. 2), the
clause : which rrniTv i must mean that he betook
T
himself out of the kingdom of Israel into the king-
dom of Judah, to which at that time the tribe of
Simeon also belonged. — His servant he left behind
in Beer-sheba, not perchance through fear of being
betrayed by him, nor because "he expected to
have no further need of him " (Thenius), nor be-
cause the wilderness afforded no sustenance, but:
"he wished now to be entirely alone, as men often
do in times of sorrow or discouragement ; therefore
he sought the wilderness." (Calw. B.)
Ver. 4. But he himself went a day's jour-
ney into the wilderness, namely, the Arabian,
through which the people had once been compelled
to wander. DO") is not juniper-tree (Luther), but
" a kind of broom plant, that is the most longed-
for and most welcome bush of the desert, abund-
ant in beds of streams, and valleys where spots
for camping are selected, and men sit down and
sleep, in ordei to ;" protected against wind and
vin' (Robinson. Palestine I. p. 203). The words:
It is enough, 4c, do not mean: "I must, as a
human being, fall a victim to death some time,
and I wish to die now" (Thenius), nor: "I have
already endured tribulations enough here below "
(Keil), but : I have now lived long enough. This
is imperatively demanded by the sentence : for 1
am not better than my fathers, which forms the
ground of his request: Jehovah, take away my
soul (life). Long life, old age, is looked on, under
the old covenant, as a special gift of God (Ps. lxi,
7 ; cii. 25 ; Prov. iii. 2 ; iv. 10 ; ix. 1 1 ; x. 27) ; Elijah,
therefore, means to say: for I do not deserve nor
desire to be distinguished and favored above my
fathers by a specially long life. It is an entirely
mistaken view which supposes that Elijah made
this request " from a weak-minded %veariness of
life" (Thenius), or "with a murmuring heart"
(Krummacher). In that case he would have de-
served a reproof or a correction ; but instead of
this the Lord sends a heavenly messenger, who
strengthens and refreshes him, and speaks to him
only animating, encouraging words. Elijah's whole
life and labor had no other aim than to bring Is
rael back to their God ; to this end were directed
all the toils and privations to which he subjected
himself. When he believed himself to have finally
reached this end on Carmel, suddenly there came
an incomprehensible turn of events; he saw him-
self deceived in his holiest and most blessed hopes,
king and people abandoned him, the labor and
struggle of a lifetime appeared to him fruitless
and vain; the deepest, most bitter sorrow per-
vaded his soul. In this frame of mind he began
the journey into the wilderness, and as he now
sits down there wearied and exhausted by the
journey, bowed down by sorrow and grief, what
was more natural and human than for this man,
who besides was already well-stricken in years, to
pray his Lord and God to take from him the heavy
burden and let him come to the longed-for rest ;
" it was a holy sorrow and sadness, such as no
common man is capable of, which filled him at
that time and brought to his lips the prayer: It is
enough," Ac. (Menken.)
Vers. 5-9. An angel touched him. Although
71N7D in verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jeze-
bel,yet here it denotes no human messenger, but a
messenger of Jehovah (V- 7). The Sept. has in all
three places ayyeAoc. — n3V is a thin cake baked on
a stone plate by means of hot ashes laid over it
(chap, xviii. 13." Winer, R.-W.-B. 1, p. 95).— After
the first awakening Elijah had eaten only a very
little, on account of his great weariness, and had
fallen asleep again. — The closing words of verse 7
Keil explains, after Vatablus: iter est majus, quam
pro viribus tuis ; but since ^|QJD (cf. 1 Sam. xx. 21)
is not =wp, we may better follow the Sept. : brt
-oX/.ii anii 01m ij <5<56c, or the Vulgate : grandis enim
tibi restat via. This moreover presupposes that
Elijah had already determined to go to Horeb: foi
that he is not to be considered " as in a manner
summoned thither" (Thenius) is shown by the
question of verse 9: What doest thou here? —
Horeb I = Sinai) is here designated as " the mount of
God" because God declared and. revealed himself
upon it in a special manner as the God of Israel;
it was here that he appeared to Moses in the fierj
bush and called him to bring forth Israel out of
CHAPTER XIX. 1-21.
219
Egypt (Ex. iii. 1-15); it was here also that he
made the covenant with the chosen people, " talk-
ed " with them, and gave them through Moses the
law, the testimony of the covenant, the foundation
on which all further divine revelations rest. Hor-
eb is the place of the loftiest and weightiest reve-
lation for Israel (r*-'it. i. 6 ; iv. 10-15 ; v. 2; 1 Kings
viii. 9 ; Mai. iv. 4. Elijah wished to go thither in
the hope that in mat spot Jehovah would grant
a disclosure to him also, as he had once to his ser-
vant Moses, and make known to him what further
he had to do. — The cave into which Elijah went
was, according to most commentators, that in which
Moses once tarried while the Lord passed by (Ex.
xxxiii. 22) ; this view is favored also by the defi-
nite article. According to Ewald it must have been
the cave "in which at that time wanderers to
Sinai commonly rested."
Ver. 8. Forty days and forty nights. Since
Horeb is not more than 40 geographical miles
from Beer-sheba (according to Deut. i. 2. there
are only eleven days journey from Kadesh Barnea,
situated somewhat to the south, to Horeb), older
commentators have assumed that Elijah, because
old and weak, spent 19 or 20 days on this
journey, remained 1 day on Horeb, and accom-
plished the journey back again in 19 or 20 days.
But the text says very plainly that he went 40
days and 40 nights " unto Horeb." According to
Thenius, "the legend" leaves the actual relations
of space out of sight here, for by this reckoning
Elijah would have accomplished in each 24 hours'
time only 2 hours' distance. But even the legend
could not arbitrarily make a distance, which every
one knew and had before his eyes, three or four
times too great ; in any case the actual distance
was not unknown to the author of our books. The
text is not intended to make prominent the idea
that Elijah kept on 40 days and 40 nights unin-
terruptedly, in order to reach Horeb, but that he
was wonderfully preserved during this time which
he spent in the wilderness before his arrival at
Horeb. We must not overlook in this connection
the reference to the 40 days and nights during
which Moses was on Sinai without eating bread
or drinking water (Ex. xxxiv. 28; cf. xxiv. 18;
Deut. ix. 9, 18, 25; x. 10), and the indirect refer-
ence to the 40 years which Israel spent in the
wilderness, where the Lord fed the people, when
they had no bread, with manna, to make it known
that man does not live by bread alone.
Ver. 9. And behold, the word of the Lord,
Ac. These words do not, as is commonly sup-
posed, begin a new paragraph, but are rather to be
connected with the immediately preceding portion
of the same verse, " while he was spending the
night in that spot, behold, the word of Jehovah
came unto him." It cannot be maintained from
ver. 13 that Jip here means not: to spend the
night, but: to remain, as the Vulgate has it: cum-
gue illuc venisset, mansit in spelunca. The ques-
tion fl3 ^pTTO is, after the example of Josephus
[ri Tapelri, aaraXtWonrac rf/v iro'Xiv, cKsict) : often
taken as implying a censure, quasi Deus diceret,
nihil esse Elim negotii in solitudine, sed potius in
{ocis habitatis, ut illic homines ad veri Dei cultum
adducerel (Le Olerc); also Theni>:s considers it in-
tended " to remind Elijah how he, a prophet whom
Bod would everywhere protect, and who in the
service of God must endure everything, had noi
waited for a divine intimation, but from fear of
man had fled to save his life, and then, in weak-
minded weariness of life, had been able to wish
himself dead." This conception is radically false
and leads to an erroneous understanding of th*
entire passage. For, if a censure were to be in-
flicted on Elijah, it would not have been delayed
until now, but would have been given when he had
fled a day's journey into the wilderness (ver. 4),
and longed to die ; but instead of this he was even
tenderly encouraged by an angel and wonderfully
strengthened, in order to be able to continue the
journey still farther. Why does not the angel say
to him there, what does not follow till ver. 15?
Elijah had indeed no divine command to flee into
the wilderness, but still less had he any command
to remain in Jezreel and bid defiance to Jezebel,
as formerly (chap, xviii.) he had the command to
show himself to the irritated king. When now
during his journey, weary in body and soul, bowed
down with grief and sorrow, he prayed that his
end might come, but this prayer was not listened
to, he longed so much the more " for a revelation
and disclosure of what might be God's will now,
whither he should turn, what begin, whether and
how God would employ him yet further in the ser-
vice of Israel " (Menken). This drove him to the
"mount of God," »'. e., to the place where, once be-
fore, his prototype Moses, the founder of the cove-
nant, beheld the Lord and received comfort and
strength; to the place where the Lord had spoken
to his people and made with them the now broken
covenant. If now he is asked : What doest thou
here ? What desire has driven thee hither ? this
was "a question of tender kindness, to relieve the
full, burdened heart of the prophet, that he, tc
whom the great privilege of being able to com-
plain of his sorrow had so long been denied, might
be moved to reveal his desire, to pour out his
whole heart before the Lord. So the Lord, after
his resurrection, asked Mary, as she stood at the
grave and wept: Woman, why weepest thou?
whom seekest thou, that thou mayst change thy
sorrow into joy " (Menken). So also this is con-
nected with the question Rev. vii. 13.
Ver. 10. I have been very jealous, &c. As
the question is not to be considered a censure or
rebuke as against Elijah, so also his answer is not
to be considered a justification or a reproach as
against Jehovah; entirely mistaken is the assertion
that there is expressed in this answer "only the
greatest despondency concerning his fate " (Theni-
us), and "a carnal zeal that would at once call
down the vengeance of the Almighty on all idola-
ters" (Keil), or that it bears witness to an "inter-
nal strife and murmuring " (Tvrummacher) ; it is
rather, as the Apostle expressly declares, an in-
dictment of Israel (Rom. xi. 2 : e vrvyxave i ru i) e Ct
Kara Toil 'Iopai/X). "The prophet lays the facts,
whose weight had fallen upon him with such fear-
ful power, before the Lord, that He might see how
they appear, and he leaves the riddle which is
therein presented to Him, for Him to explain "
(Gerlaeh). He brings forward for weighty accu-
sations ; (1) they have fallen away from the cove-
nant relation ; (2) they have thrown down the altars
still remaining here and there, dedicated to thee
(3) instead of listening to thy servants who ad-
monished and warned them, they have slain them-
(4) as for myself, the last one who has openly ap-
220
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
peared and been zealous for thee, they are seeking
my life. The words: I have been very jealous,
form the introduction tc this fourfold accusation :
I have used every means, but all in vain; what
then is now to be done, what will and should be
brought about? The complaint of the prophet
was at the same time again a question to the Lord,
to which he then receives a twofold answer (with
signs, vers. 11, 12, and with words, vers. 14—18).
He speaks of his zeal, moreover, not in order to
boast or bother himself about his fate : " God's
honor and Israel's welfare were of far greater
value to him than his own honor or welfare ; he
mentions his own person and his own need only in
so far as they stood in necessary and most inti-
mate connection with the cause of God and the
truth, and so his complaint was a holy one, as all
his sorrow and sadness were holy " (Menken). He
mentions his zeal in order thereby to confirm and
strengthen his accusation against Israel.
Ver. 11. And he said, Go forth, Ac. It is
common to translate with Luther: "Go forth, and
stand upon the mount before the Lord. And be-
hold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong
wind . . . before the Lord." According to this
Elijah must have gone out of the cave before the
wind, &c. But according to ver. 13 he did not go
forth till he heard the gentle breeze ; it is there-
fore absolutely necessary to consider the words
"Oy niiT HSm as connected with the address to
Elijah, and to begin the narrative portion with
mil . That is, the participle lay is not preterit,
but, as usual when it stands for the terbum fini-
tum, present: Jehovah passes by, i. e., he is on
the point of doing it; cf. Is. v. 5; vii. 14; x. 23
(Gesenius, Gram. (Couant) p. 240). The Sept.
translates : 'EfcAercrfl avptov Kal art/ay h'uiriov
Kvpiov kv rcJ oper idov TrapeTievcerai ni'ptot;. Kal idov
irvev/ia /itya k. t. 'A.. This division of the sen-
tences is entirely correct, only avpiov, which is not
found in a single manuscript, is an unauthorized
addition borrowed from Ex. xxxiv. 2. The nar-
rative in that place, moreover, serves in several
ways to explain the one before us: especially the
expression n3y niiT gives clear and definite evi-
dence. Moses desires to see the glory (1133 , see
above p. 76) of Jehovah, whereupon he receives
the answer: "I will make all my goodness ('IIC)
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of
Jehovah " (}'. e., what he is), and farther : " while my
glory passeth by ... I will cover thee with my
hand, until I have passed by ; " then follows " And
Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed,
Jehovah. Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, but that will by no
means clear," &c. (Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19, 22; xxxiv. 6).
The expression -Qy is nowhere else used of Jeho-
vah, and doubtless marks this highest revelation
as one that, is possible only for a moment, in dis-
tinction from a permanent, abiding revelation, for
which (nypc*) |3B> is used. When now Elijah
complains here of Israel that they have jroken
the covenant, as they did once in the wilderness
through the golden calf, and desires a disclosure
concerning the dealings of Jehovah, which trt
dark and incomprehensible to him, the answet
thereupon imparted to him : Behold 1 I3y niiT ,
is designed to express the idea : Jehovah will
reveal himself to thee as he did once to Moses,
and show thee what he is in his essence, and with
this thou shalt receive the desired disclosure.
Ter. 11. And a great and strong wind, Ac
Tempest, earthquake, and fire, as awe-inspiring
natural phenomena, are in the Old Testament es-
pecially signs and attestations not only of the ab-
solute power of God, but particularly of His anger,
i. e., of His penal justice against His enemies, the
ungodly. Thus they appear in connection with
one another Is. xxix. 5 sq. and Ps. xviii. 8-18, and
they have the same significance here also. But
since they occur here separately, one after the
other in regular succession, they plainly indicate a
succession of punishments differing in degree and
kind. The tempest points to the rending, scatter-
ing, and turning to dust (Is. xvii. 13; xl. 24; IviL
13), the earthquake to the shaking of the founda-
tions and the falling down (Is. x.xiv. IS sq. ; Ps
xviii. 8, 16; Jer. x. 10), the fire to the complete
consuming (Is. lxvi. 15*g.; Ps. xviii. 9 ; xcvii. 3). In
none of these three now was Jehovah, only out or
the gentle whispering does He speak, i. e., the pun-
ishments come indeed from Him, pass before Him
and bear witness of Him ; but He Himself, that
which he is, his essence (name) is not to be dis-
cerned in them ; to this corresponds, rather in con-
trast with those destructive phenomena of nature,
the gentle, soothing, refreshing, revivifying breeze
after the storm. The word nDOT from Dot to be
T T ; - T
silent, in Poel to silence (Ps. cxxxi. 2), means
properly stilling, and is used in both the other
places where it appears, of the rest and refreshing
which have followed pain, distress, and terror
(Ps. cvii. 29 ; Job iv. 16). When now Jehovah
" passes by " here in this, the same thing is ex-
pressed symbolically which Moses there heard in
words, as Jehovah passed by ; Jehovah is a God
merciful and gracious, &c. The significance of the
whole phenomenon is accordingly this : Jehovah,
the God of Israel, will indeed display His punish-
ing, destroying might to His despisers and ene
mies, but His own true and innermost essence is
grace, rescuing, preserving, and quickening love,
and though the people have broken the covenant
of grace, yet He maintains this covenant, and re-
mains faithful and gracious as He promised. For
the bowed down and accusing prophet this was
the well-attested divine answer, which contained
comfort and consolation as well as incitement to
carry on His begun work, and not to despair of
Israel, nor allow Himself to be wearied out or led
into error by the apparent fruitlessness of His
efforts thus far. According to Ewald (loc. cit. p.
542) the words before us can " in the first place be
rightly conceived of only as describing how Jahve
will here appear to Elijah, and how He will talk to
him. His passing by announces itself first in the
most distant way by the fiercest storm ; but that
is nut He Himself; then more subtle and near by
thunder and earthquake ; but this also is not He
Himself ; then in the most subtle way by fire (as
in the tempest, according to Ps. xviii. IS (16),
Bab. iii. J); but this is not He Himself, orly ic
the soft whispering that then follows, in the most
CHAI>TER XIX. 1-21.
221
3ubtile spiritual voice does He reveal Himself, and
to this attention is to be given (as Job iv. 16;
xxvi. 4 in like manner)!" Also Thenius says:
"It is the most incorporeal object possible for the
illustration of the presence of the divine being,
such as Job has selected, iv. 16." This conception
is in itself very unnatural; for why should thunder
and earthquakes be regarded as " more subtile "
{i. e,, more immaterial) than a stormy wind, and
the all-consuming tire "more subtile" than an
earthquake? The gradation is rather just the
reverse, from the weaker destroying element to
the most powerful, and not from the grossly ma-
terial to the most immaterial possible. But in
general, the entire context is adverse to this con-
ception; for by no means is the revelation to be
made here to Elijah, that God's essence is spiritual
and that He is incorporeal (Elijah needed no re-
velation for that), but that Jehovah in His own
innermost being is not a destroying, annihilating
God. who only punishes, hut rather a quickening,
saving and preserving, a gracious and faithful God.
Ver. 13. When Elijah heard it, &c. During
the storm of wind, the earthquake, and the fire,
then Elijah was still in the cave, and he came out
of it only at the soft whispering, in obedience to
the command, ver. 11. — He wrapped his face in
his mantle, although Jehovah did not pass by in
visible shape, " from awe before the unapproach-
able one " (Then.), as Moses did once when the
Lord appeared to him in the fiery bush, " for he
was afraid to look upon God " (Ex. iii. 6 : cf. xxxiii.
•20, 22). Even the Seraphim stand with covered
faces before the throne of the Holy One (Is. vi. 2).
The question already addressed to Elijah before
the significant phenomenon and now repeated after
it; ns ^?*TO , has this sense : Hast thou now any
further reason for lingering here? Elijah's repe-
tition of his complaint expressed in ver. 10 can have
only tliis reason, that he does not yet feel satisfied
with what has happened to him (vers. 11-13), be-
cause it is not clear to him what this is in-
tended to signify. He therefore receives now a
reply in definite words (vers. 15-18); and it ap-
pears from other eases also that revelations are
made to the prophets first in sensible signs (sym-
bols) and then in definite words (cf. Jer. xix. 1—13 ;
xxiv. 1-10; Ezek. v. 1-12; xii. 1-12 ; xv. l-.s; xxxvii.
1-14). But iu this case the verbal revelation is con-
stantly not merely ao explanation or interpretation
of the symbolical revelation, but it carries the latter
out still further by showing how that which the
phenomenon attested rather in a general way con-
cerning the being of Jehovah, is to be historically
verified in the special case under consideration.
Vers. 15-13. And Jehovah said unto him,
Ac. This address has always been a source of great
trouble to commentators, because in respect to that
which is here laid upon Elijah and predicted of him
the succeeding history make3 known nothing or
something entirely different. Elijah anointed
neither Hazael nor Jehu ; the former was not an-
ointed at all. not even by Elisha (2 Kings viii. 1 1 sq.),
the latter was anointed long after the departure of
Elijah by a disciple of the prophets, and therefore
certainly not by Elisha, and Elisha himself was in-
deed summoned to be the successor of Elijah, yet
*ot by being anointed, but by being covered with
the prophet's mantle (ver. 19). Still less does the
■history know anything of the fact that Elisha,
whose life and work are nevertheless related so
minutely, ever slew any one, to say nothing of an
equal number with Hazael and Jehu. The older,
ordinary solution of the difficulties is best pre-
sented by Gerlach, who says: "Still it is to bs
supposed that Elijah executed literally what tha
Lord commanded him, since he was expressly told
to go to Damascus for the purpose of anointing
Hazael. For reasons which are not known to us,
this anointing may have been kept secret, as was
the first anointing of David by -amuel (1 Sam.
xvi.), and, just as in the case of this king, the
anointing of Jehu may have been repeated at a
later date by Elisha, when the moment for Joram's
downfall had come. That prophets were anointed
appears, apart from this passage, only figuratively
in the prophecy Is. lxi. 1 ; the more this office now
became the mightiest in the falling kingdom of
Israel, the more natural was it to bring it, by
means of the symbolical consecration, into con-
formity with the royal and priestly officers." This
forced artificial explanation is seen at once to be a
makeshift and to rest on untenable assumptions.
The more recent criticism has made easy work of
it : this affirms : Out of the whole of Elijah's
history, as contained in the original manuscript,
the author of the books before us has everywhere
taken only so much as served his purpose ; here
now, after ver. IS, he has left out the account of
the execution of the commission wliich had been
received in regard to Hazael and Jehu, because the
other original manuscripts, from which he composed
the history of Hazael and Jehu, cannot be recon-
ciled with it (Thenius, followed by Menzel). But
how can we attribute to our author the careless-
ness or unskilfulness of having wholly failed to
observe the inconsistency between vers. 15-18,
and his own reports concerning Hazael and Jehu
(2 Kings viii. and ix.) ? If he had considered them
irreconcilable, he would not have stopped with the
pretended omission of the account concerning the
execution of the commission, but would naturally
also have omitted either the verses before us, 15-
18, or the reports concerning Hazael and Jehu
which cannot be harmonized with these. In order
to remove the difficulty we must take a wholly dif-
ferent course. In the beginning it is well to ob-
serve that the address of Jehovah, vers. 15-18, is
a reply to Elijah's repeated severe accusation of
Israel, and therefore already bears the character of
a divine judicial sentence, which at once contains a
prophecy, and is in the fullest sense a divine
oracle. As now is generally the case with such
oracular sayings, so also here the tone is evidently
lofty and solemn, and the form is sententious,
axiomatic ; what Ewald (Tfte Prophets of the 0. T.
I. p 49) observes in reference to the strophic rhythm
of the prophetic oracles, that the triple rhythm
comes in with great force, especially when the
language possesses a certain stately elevation, fits
the present case completely. The tripartite char-
acter of the whole passage is sharply defined ;
vers. 15, 16 are the first strophe, ver. 11 the sec-
ond, ver. 18 the third; and each of these three
strophes has in turn three members. But in such
an oracle a strictly literal understanding of the in-
dividual expressions is the less necessary, when,
as is here the case, it stands opposed to plain state-
ments that follow. This is eminently true of the
expression "anoint," which is not to be taken
literally, because then the immediately succeeding
222
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
verse 19, according to which Elisha is not really
anointed, would contradict it. To " anoint " a
person or thing means simply to bring them into the
service of God. Thus not only kings and priests,
but also implements of worship (Ex. xxix. 86 ; xxx.
26 sq.), yes. even stones (Gen. xxviii. 18) were
anointed, because they were to serve for the ful-
filment of the divine will. Here too the word is
used in this sense ; it signifies not the actual out-
ward anointing, but what the anointing means,
lust a3 in Judges ix. 8. All three, Hazael, Jehu,
and Elisha, are to serve for the execution of God's
will and counsel, and each, indeed, in a different
way. By Hazael, the foreign Syrian king, Israel
was continually hard pressed from without (2
Kings viii. 12. 29; x."32; xiii. 3, 7); he was the
rod of correction in the hand of Jehovah, the in-
strument of his anger, i. e., of his punishment (cf.
Is. x. 5). By Jehu the kingdom of Israel was
shaken within; he put an end to the house of
Ahab, from which the idolatry proceeded and was
kept up (2 Kings ix. 24, 33; x. 1-28), and was the
divine rod of correction for the idolatrous within
Israel. By Elisha. as successor of Elijah, who
strove with fiery zeal against all idolatry, the re-
formatory work of the latter was to be continued,
and he also served as God's instrument in correct-
ing and punishing Israel, if not by means of the
sword, .vet through his whole prophetic activity.
Since now Elijah, immediately after receiving his
commission to anoint, still did not anoint Elisha.
easily as he might have done this, but summoned
him to be his successor, by covering him with the
prophet's mantle, we have here the clearest evi-
dence that he did not understand the anointing
literally in the case of Hazael and Jehu, any more
than in that of Elisha. He took the whole oracle
in general as a divine revelation of what was soon
to happen in Israel. In connection with the words :
Go and anoint, it is to be remembered that in other
cases also of oracular sayings the prophets are
commanded to do something (symbolically), which
(in reality) is to be brought to pass by the Lord
(cf. Jer xix. 1 sq. ; xxvii. 2 ; xxviii. 10 sq. ; Ezek.
v. 1-12 ; xii. 3 sq.). The disciple of the prophets,
who anointed Jehu under the direction of Elisha,
was obliged to begin this action with the words :
"Thus saith Jehovah: I have anointed thee king
over Israel " ( 2 Kings ix. 3) ; the real anointing
was performed, therefore, by Jehovah himself.
Vers. 15-17. Go, return on thy way, &c.
The words pt-'El m3"lD are not to be translated,
per deserlum in Damascum (Vulgate, Luther), nor
hardly " into the wilderness of Damascus " (Keil
after Le Clerc), but " to the wilderness (through
which he had come after ver. 4) to Damascus "
(Thenius). This command cannot be taken liter-
ally with any more safety than the following:
Auoint; it merely indicates whence the divine
punishment is to break in upon Israel. For de-
tails concerning Hazael and Jehu, ride on 2 Kings
viii. ix. and x. Of the expression "slay," used of
Elisha ver. 17. the same thing is true as of "anoint;"
for that Elisha did not actually slay, our author
knew as well as we do now, and indeed our know-
ledge comes only from his own reports concerning
him. He cannot possibly, therefore, have under-
stood the word literar y, but only in the prophetic
sense in which it is used of the Messiah in the
oracle Is. xi. 4; "he shall smite the earth (the
land) with the rod (i. e., the rod of correction) of
his mouth and with the breath (JVC') of his lips
shall he slay (rrn , as in the passage before us) the
godless." Cf. Is. xlix. 2 ; where the mouth of the
prophet is railed "a sharp sword," into which the
Lord has made it; just so Rev. i. 16; ii.16; xix.
15. The fundamental and main thought of the
oracle is in general this, that the judgment of Je-
hovah will come, but the judging and'dividing wiD
be brought about by the sword, now with the actual
sword, now with the sword of the nil of God
(Job. iv. 9) ; so far could Elisha very well be joined
with Hazael and Jehu in the otherwise very much
contracted oracle.
Ver. 18. Yet I have left, &c. In the three
strophes of this passage also the symbolical mode
of expression is continued. For the number seven
thousand is no more to be taken arithmetically
than the number an hundred and forty and four
thousand (twelve times 12,000) in the Apocalypse
(Rev. vii. 4; xiv. 1-5). Seven is the symbolical
numeral sign of holiness, the covenant and cere-
monial number (cf. Symbol des Mos. Kult. I. s.
193); and it marks those who are left as a holy
company, faithful to the covenant, as the " holy
seed" of the covenant people (Is. vi. 13; cf. Is.
iv. 2; Rom. xi. 7). In like manner the expres-
sions, all the knees, etc., and every mouth, etc., are
a figurative rhetorical description of those faithful
to Jehovah. The kissing is not to be understood
of kisses thrown with the hand (Gesenius), but of
kissing the feet of the image which stands on a
pedestal (Hos. xiii. 2 ; Cicero in Verr. 4, 43 : Quod
in precibus et gratulationibus non solum, id sc. simu-
lacrum venerari, verum etiam osculari solent).
Menken has a striking observation on ver. 18:
" Now the prophet understood why the still, small
voice was preceded by the desolating storm, the
devouring earthquake, and the consuming fire;
and beyond all, the anxiety, terror, bloodshed,
destruction which were contained therein for
Israel. His heart received abundant consolation
from the further revelation of the Lord ; for this
gave him now. in addition to the still, small voice of
the Spirit of Life, a disclosure touching the mercy
of the Lord to Israel, that infinitely surpassed all
his hopes and expectations : and if the revelation
of the wants and plagues which were to come
upon Israel produced in him the same feeling as
the destruction and ruin of threatening storms,
still by this disclosure he felt himself encouraged
and quickened, as in the refreshing blessed cool-
ness after the storm." In the Return (v. 15) there
is contained therefore anything rather than a re-
buke for the prophet; but it is the expression of
comfort and encouragement.
Ver. 19. So he departed thence, &c. The
city Abel Meholah, where, according to ver. 16,
Elisha lived, lay in the valley of the Jordan, about
three German miles from Beth Shean, in the tribe
of Manasseh (Judges vii. 22 ; 1 Kings iv. 12)
Though he may indeed have been already known
to Elijah, yet he hardly belongs with the "sons
of the prophets." among whom Ewald wrongly
places him ; adding, at the same time, " He had
just ploughed round his twelve yoke of land, being
at work on the twelfth and last." But "ISi", as
appears from ver. 21, and as VJBP also ddmanda,
CHAPTER XIX 1-21.
223
Is not a yoke of land, but a yoke (pair) of oxen.
One ploughman belonged with each yoke. Elisha
was with the last, the others all "before him."
The conjecture that the " twelve yoke of cattle re-
presented the twelve tribes " (Hengstenberg, von
Gerlach), like t'>e twelve stones of the altar on Car-
mel (xviii. 31), has very little in its favor. The
number appears to be mentioned only to show
that Elisha was a man in good circumstances,
who, nevertheless, left his property in order to
follow the call of Elijah. rmN is here the pro-
phetic official garment (Bech. xiii. 4; 2 Kings i.
8: ii. 13). The throwing it over Elisha was a sym-
bolical act, which denoted the summons to become
a prophet (the investiture), and was intelligible to
Elisha, even without any words. Elijah seems to
have withdrawn at once; he wished, indeed, to
leave the doubtless astonished Elisha some time
for making up his mind; yet the latter did not
meditate long, but hastened (j"V , he ran ; not he
followed) after him, and declared his purpose to
accept the summons, only he wished first to take
leave of his father and mother (cf. Gen. xxxi 28).
Elijah's answer, y\t' T]P , is not to be translated
with Luther : Go (to thy parents) and come (then)
again ; but just as in ver. 15, where both words
together express only one conception — Return,
namely, to thy parents, as thou wishest. The fol-
lowing sentence, For tvhat have I done to Chetf
should, according to Keil, have the meaning, " I
have not wished to coerce thee, but I leave the
decision concerning the prophetic call to thy free
will.'' In a similar manner Ewald: "As if indig-
nant at this reawakening of desire for the world,
Elijah gave him permission to return altogether
if he wished." This does not agree with the fact
that, according to the Divine will (cf. ver. 16), Eli-
sha was destined to be the successor of Elijah,
and Elijah, therefore, certainly did not leave the
acceptance of the summons wholly to his free will.
Had he given over to him the decision of the mat-
ter he would not have first thrown the prophetic
mantle over him, but would have waited till Elisha
decided. Wheu Elisha prays that he may be per-
mitted to take leave of his parents, his idea is
that he is ready to follow Elijah, and he only
wishes first to satisfy a natural filial obligation,
not that he prefers to remain with his parents.
That Elijah was unwilling for him to fulfil this
filial duty is therefore not to be imagined. The-
nius translates: "Go, return I yet 1 what have I
done to thee? " and observes: " He gives the per-
mission, but recalls the lofty meaning of the sym-
bolical action which had just been performed on
him, by which he had been devoted to the service
of the Lord." This gives indeed a good meaning,
only it is very questionable whether '3 can have
here, where no contrast is expressed, the signifi-
cation, yet I The fundamental idea : for, is never
entirely lost: Go, take leave of thy parents, for
what have I done to thee? I have summoned
thee to the prophetic service; thine abode is
henceforth no more with thy parents : thou art to
follow me.
Ver. 21. And he returned back from him,
fcc. Elisha had run after him (j'T , ver. 20), and
now returned to take a formal leave of his people.
He took (not "a" joke, as Luther hat it, but)
the yoke of cattle, viz., that with which he him-
self had been ploughing (ver. 19), which was his
in an especial sense. These he slew for a farewell
feast (rDTi as in Chron. xviii. 2; 1 Sam.xxviii. 24;
Ez. xxxix. 17), not, he offered it (as a thank-offer-
ing), for the whole context shows that the refe-
rence is not to a religious, priestly act, for which
also an altar would have been necessary. To offer
is here the equivalent of to dispense, to give up
(Keil), and is not to be understood in its strict
sense. The instruments of the oxen, i. e., the yokt
and the frame of the plough, he applied not for-
sooth as would necessarily be expected, if a sacri-
fice were the matter in hand, to the burning of
them up, but to the boiling of the ftexh : certainly
not because there was no other wood at hand (1
Sam. vi. 14; 2 Sam. xxiv. 22), but rather in order
to indicate that he gave up for ever his previous
calling. The people that took part in the feast
can hardly be " the inhabitants of his place "
(Tlienius), but those who up to this point were la-
boring in common with him in the field, and of
them he now took leave as of his parents. The
conjecture that this farewell feast occurred imme-
diately in the field where Elijah met him, and
that he withdrew from it to take leave of his
parents (Calw. B.), is as groundless as it is unne-
cessary. So far as the words are coucerned, the
Lord, in Luke ix. 61, may very likely have been
thinking of this passage, but the sense and mean-
ing are very different. "Elisha did not wish first
to bury his father and mother, i. e., wait until they
were dead, but only to take leave of them ; more-
over, when he wished this, he had not already
put his hand to the plough, like the man in Luke
ix. 61 and 62, for he had not presented himself to
succeed Elijah (Calw. B.). There the Lord is ex-
pressing censure, whereas what is here related
should not prove a reproacli to Elisha, but rather
an honor and praise. There can, accordingly, be
no talk of a "close affinity" between the two
places (Thenius). Krummacher represents the
matter thus : Elisha gave the feast to his parents
at once, became thereby their "host," and ap
peared "here already as a prophet, supplying and
blessing," Ac. This is pure fancy, and has an in
correct explanation of the text for its basis.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. With Elijah's arrival in Jezreel the life of the
great prophet enters upon a new stage. From
the height of the victory which he had won,
with God's wonderful help, on Carmel, he is led
down now into the dark depths of temptation, in
order to come forth from them with only the
greater glory. " The smelter of Israel must be
content to go down now himself into the cruci-
ble" (Krummacher). As the "servant of God,"
which he was in a special sense (xviii 36 ; 2 Kings
ix. 36 ; x. 10), he is led the way which, in ac-
cordance with the Divine economy, is the way of
all true servants of God. For in the great his-
torical idea of the " servant of God," which iB
actually realized under the old dispensation only
in disjectis membris, but under the new dispimsa-
tion, in its complete fulness in Christ, there is con-
tained the thought that every servant of God is
made perfect through trial and temptation, througt
suffering and tribulation, and in that which hi
224
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
suffers he learns obedience (Heb. ii. 10 ; v. 8 ;
Luke xxiv. 2G; Is. liii; Acts ii. 23, 24; iii. 13;
iv. 27). All the great men who, as servants of
God, occupy an integrant position in the history
of salvation, have had to go through this experi-
ence; and the life even of an Elijah or a Moses
would lack an essential element of that which be-
longs to a "servant of God," if he had remained
untempted and untried, free from suffering and
tribulation. From this standpoint must be con-
templated and estimated what the sectioD before
us announces concerning him. He stands now,
not as before, acting and giving, commanding and
judging, but enduring, suffering, and receiving. It
is the Lord who is purifying him through Buffer-
ing ; the temptation becomes for him the way to
the most glorious revelation of God.
2. The removal from Jezreel into the wilderness
should not, as is so often done, be looked on as
properly a " flight," a lack of faith, courage, and
firmness (Krummacher : "Faith to remain was
wanting in him this time "). The text has do more
knowledge of a flight (mj), like that, e. g., in the
case of Jonah (Jon. i. 2, 3), than of his being afraid.
He recognized in the threat of Jezebel a providen-
tial admonition, which, however dark and hard it
might appear to him, he did not believe himself
at liberty to resist, since no higher direction to
remain had come to him. For him, the strong
man. firm a9 a rock, heroic in temper, it was an
infinitely more difficult and humiliating duty to
give up to the auger of a godless, wicked woman,
than to bid her defiance, and make trial of the
Lord. He bowed beneath the inscrutable decree,
as becomes a true servant of God; and so his
going away was an act of faith no less than his
appearing before the persecuting Ahab (xviii. 15
sq.). " To force martyrdom upon himself, of
his own choice, without necessity, he did not con-
sider a part of his calling, nor did he regard it a
great aud holy act, nor has this ever been the case
with the prophets and apostles. In behalf of the
truth aud the glory of God's name the prophet
would have given up his life with joy ; but at the
present crisis this end would not have been at-
tained through his death ; it would have been a
triumph for Jezebel " (Menken). There is no
greater mistake than to suppose that Elijah with-
drew from Jezreel "through fear of man," and
that then, because he had arbitrarily relinquished
the prosecution of his prophetic calling, he was
"summoned, so to speak," to an account aud justi-
fication of himself on Horeb (Thenius). It was
just there that he was favored with the most
glorious revelation.
3. The state of mind into which Elijah fell in the
wilderness has nothing to do with the common
"weak-minded weariness of life" (Thenius). His
righteous and holy sorrow over the fruitlessness
of all that God had done, through him, to save
His people from ruin and destruction, overpowered
him, being as ho was, according to the apostle's
expression, &ftotoiraiH)s i/ftiv (Jas. v. 17 ; cf. Acts
xiv. 15); so that he was subject to the frailty ami
weakness of human nature, from which no mortal
is free, so long as he lives ir. the body. Even he,
this mighty hero, was obliged to go through this
experience for himself, and pay his tribute to it.
Similar states of mind appear even in the lives of
the firmest and strongest, men of God. Thus, in
the case of that other Elijah, John the Baptist in
the prison, who believed, in like manner, that ha
must give up all hope, and sent, in the hard
hour of temptation, to inquire of the Lord, " Art
thou He that should come," &c. ; yet at that time
the Lord testifies of him that he is no reed whicl
the wind blows to and fro. And the Author anc
Finisher of faith himself, in the days of his flesh
(John i. 14), offered up prayers and supplication
with strong crying and tears (Heb. v. 7), and called
out: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death" (Matt. xxvi. 38). As here Elijah, so there
the Lord in Gethsemane was strengthened by an
angel — a clear token that his condition was one
indeed of severe temptation, but not of guilt or
sin, such as would merit censure or reproof, or
even a summons before the tribunal of God.
4. Elijah's spending forty days and forty nights
in the wilderness before reaching Horeb, while he
might have attained his end in a much shorter
time, was anything rather than accidental or
meaningless ; concerning Moses the fact is mads
prominent, not once merely, but repeatedly, with
a certain emphasis, that he, before receiving on
Horeb the highest revelation from Jehovah, spent
forty days and forty nights without eating or
drinking (Ex. xxiv. 18; xxxiv. 28; Deut. ix. 9;
xviii. 25; x. 10). Since, now, the same thing took
place in the case of Elijah also, and in that of no
other servant of God, this very fact marks him
out as the other, the second Moses ; but it follows
at once from this that the season of forty days and
forty nights had the same significance for Elijah,
the restorer of the covenant (vide above on chap,
xvii.), as for Moses its founder. It was a season
of preparation for the highest possible revelation
of God that can be given to a mortal, but, as such,
a season of abstinence from all earthly enjoyment,
of absorption in God and a higher world, of con-
templation and prayer. This significance is im-
pressed upon it by the number forty, which is ia
the Scriptures generally the measure of every sea-
son of abstinence, of purification and trial, of con-
flict and correction, and so also of expectation (Gen.
vii. 4-17 ; Deut. viii. 2, 3 ; xxix. 4-6 ; Jon. iii. 4; Ez.
iv. 6; xxix. 11-13; Matt. iv. 2). Elijah now spent
this time, not like Moses upon the mountain itself,
but in the wilderness lying before it, which was
just the most appropriate locality for him. " Here
the whole wonderful history of the old fathers
passed in review before him. . .With every step
which he took forward into the silent desert, new
pictures and scenes came before his gaze out of
that wonderful past " (Krummacher), he was most
vividly reminded " how even in this wilderness
God the Lord had manifested Himself to His ser-
vants and to His people in the most varied and
most glorious manner. . . .and so he was gradually
prepared for the revelations and consolations
which awaited him in this wilderness" (Menken).
5. The revelation which Elijah received on Horeb
furnishes, indeed, an unmistakable parallel to that
which once fell to the lot of Moses, but the ac-
count of it is in no wise copied by our narrator
from that earlier one, as more recent commenta-
tors suppose. (Thenius thinks that he surpasses
his model almost.) The cornmon.charaeteristic of
the two revelations consists in this, that Jehovah
here, as there, "passes by," which designates, as
observed above, the highest state of revelation uu-
der the old dispensation. When now Elijah is fa-
CHAPTER XIX. 1-21.
226
vored with the same revelation, such as fell to the
lot of Moses only and of no other servant of God
beside Moses under the old dispensation, he is
thereby placed over against Moses ; in fact, to a
certain degree, on the same line with him : and
this is owing to the position which he holds in sa-
cred history as the restorer of the broken cove-
nant, the other, the second Moses. The nature and
method of the ''passing by" were, on the con-
trary, very different ; the accompanying natural
phenomena are wholly wanting in the earlier in-
stance, and are in the Ingest degree peculiar, for
they have reference to the special relations and
circumstances in which Elijah found himself, as is
moreover expressly attested by the explanatory
language of God (ver. 15 sq.). The whole of this
revelation bears in general a predominantly pro-
phetic character, referring, that is, to the future,
while this element is almost entirely absent from the
revelation to Moses. However, it is a matter of
greater importance that here, as there, Jehovah
reveals saving grace as His most real and inmost
essence, and that this revelation fell to the lot of
just these two, Moses and Elijah, i. e.. the founder
and the restorer of the covenant, the representa-
tives of the law and of the prophets, and so of the
Old Testament economy in general (Matt. xvii. 3 ;
Luke ix. 30). This fact is the best refutation of
the common assertion that the God of the Old
Testament is entirely different from the God of the
New Testameut — an angry, despotic, national God,
not the God who, under the new dispensation, has
revealed Himself as " Love." That which became
evident to all, Jews and Gentiles, when the time
was fulfilled, was already disclosed by the Lord to
the two representatives of the old dispensation,
although with " veiled countenance," for it was
just they who, in their higher historical position,
needed to take a deeper look into the essence of
God, and so into the counsel of His mercy and
love.
6. The whole transaction on Horeb may indeed
be designated a " vision " (Niemeyer, Herder,Von
Gerlach. Keil), only by this must not be meant
that it was merely a transaction within the proph-
et, a pure vision which he had during sleep, per-
haps " in a dream " (Thenius). The expression in
ver. 9: " And behold the word of Jehovah came
to him," which is constantly used of an inner reve-
lation, points doubtless to the fact that Elijah found
himself in a visionary condition, into which he
§eems to have been brought already, more or less,
during the forty days and nights (ver. 8); but the
account certainly does not mean to designate the
natural phenomenon, the medium of the theophany,
as an object of purely internal perception, but as an
object of external experience, as appears from the
fact that Elijah went out from the cave and veiled
his face with his mantle. Tet this does not re-
move the visionary condition, for the theophanies
are, as Lange (on Gen. hi. 8) observes, "universal-
ly effected by means of visionary frames of mind."
We have before us here a theophany which is not,
ns in xxii. 17 or Ez. 1, a mere vision, still less as in
Ps. xviii. 7 sq., only poetry, but which, like that in
Ex. iii. 2 sq., has an occurrence in nature for its
substratum. This kind of theophany has, as even
Knobel (Prophet, der Hebr. I. s. 160) says, "an ob-
jective truth in so far as every occurrence in nature
is a revelation of the moving God." As in general
the whole of created niture makes known theCrt-
15
ator and reveals His glory (Ps. xix. 1 sq.), so als«
single special objects in nature, and phenomena of
occurrences in nature, serve for His special revela-
tion, for they correspond to the relations of th«
special time and person, as is here the case.
7. Of the various explanations which the appear-
ance on Horeb has received, that one, first of all, ij
to be rejec'ed as wholly mistaken which finds re-
presented here for Elijah the fact that the peaceful
rest of eternity is to follow the unrest, the conflicts
and tribulaiions of this life (Seb. Schmidt), for this
has no connection with the explanatory oracle in
ver. 15, or rather is directly contradictory to it,
even were it not Jehovah, but Elijah's life, that
" passed by." Much more probable and widespread
is another explanation, according to which the ap-
pearance expresses a censure of Elijah's " zeal as
not wholly free from human passion," and aims
" to quiet his zeal, which d-means itself too pas-
sionately, although it is commendable so far as con-
cerns the sentiment lying at its foundation," and to
" show to him thathio zealous activity for the honor
of the Lord is not in harmony with the love, grace,
and long-suffering of God," aud at the 9ame time al-
so to remind and admonish him not to go too far in
the matter (Keil after Ephraim the Syrian, Theo-
doret, certain Rabbis, Le Clerc, et alii). But
where, then, had the prophet, thus far, demeaned
himself too passionately, aud where did he go too
far in his zeal ? It could only have happened upon
CarmeL But since, then, "by slaying the priests
of Baal he only fulfilled what the law demanded "
(Keil on xviii. 40), he certainly deserved no cen-
sure or reproof; and since later he caused fire
from heaven to fall upon the company sent against
him (2 Kings i. 10 sq.), he would certainly have paid
no heed to the pretended admonition not to be too
zealous. The gentle whispering in which Jehovah
was, and out of which he spoke, can by no means
have set forth what Elijah was to be, and how he
was to control himself; it was no censure, but com-
fort and encouragement, eonsolat ion and support for
him. — A third explanation sees on the appearance
a picture of the two economies : the law, which
terries and crushes sinners, and the gospel, which
makes them alive and quickens them (so Irenasus,
long ago, Grotius, and many more modern ones), or,
at the same lime, of the judgments and chastise-
ments which came upon the people under the old
dispensation, and of the New Testament season of
refreshing and peace, in which the Lord Himself
will appear and dwell among His believing ones
(Jo. Lange, Calw. Bib., et alii). This, however, is
opposed by ihe fact that the appearance would, in
that ease, stand in no direct connection with Elijah's
complaint (ver. 10), to which, nevertheless, it was
the first reply ; and moreover the folio wing oracle
(ver. 15 sq.), which makes it refer to the relations
existing at that time, contains no allusion to the
Messianic age. When Paul (Rom. xi. 5) cites Eli-
jah's complaint and the divine response (ver. 18),
and then continues: " Even so, then, at this pre-
sent time also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace," he does not mean to say : What
is there predicted is now fulfilled, but: As in Eli-
jah's time God according to His grace had left alive
a number of such as did not give themselves up to
the service of Baal so now also, in the time of sal-
vation, there is an "election of grace," which doet
not, with the hardened multitude, reject the offers
of salvation, but embraces it and is saved. Ir
226
TK2 FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Isaiah a recurring theme of prophecy is this: that
alter all the chastisements and judgments which
would come upon Israel, there should still always
be in existence a " remnant" of the peculiar and
faithful people of God, therefore also at the end
of the Old Testament age. resp. at the beginning
of the Messianic age (Isai. iv. 2 ; vi. 13 ; x. 16 sq. ;
xi. 11). But the reference in the oracle before us
is not to this remnant, but to that which in Elijah's
time does not bow the knee before Baal, although
it can always be looked upou as a type of the
later one and the last. The truth presented in the
natural phenomenon on Horeb is of such a kind
that it finds application to various times and rela-
tions, because it is uni%Tersal and eternal, and in so
far it may be valid also for the Messianic age, but
it was revealed to Elijah only with reference to his
own time, that of the Old Testament.
8. Tlte calling of Elisha to become a prophet na-
turally connects itself directly with the revelation
on Horeb. What filled Elijah with the greatest so-
licitude, and drove him into the wilderness and to
Horeb, was, that he alone remained of all the pro-
phets, that with him his work of restoring the cov-
enant would go down and the prophetic office die
out. On Horeb now he learned that Jehovah had
appointed as prophet one who would step into his
place and carry on his work, so that there should
never be in Israel a lack of such as do not bow the
knee before Baal. This it was that brought him
out of his depressed state of mind, since the cause
of God was the only matter of importance to him,
and rilled him with new courage, and because this
was the chief matter for him, he felt himself im-
pelled to summon at once as his successor that
Elisha whom Jehovah had appointed and elected
to become a prophet, and so he betook himself
"thence" to him directly, and without delay.
There can, therefore, be no thought of a "gap " in
the account before us between vers. 18 and 19 (The-
nius. vide above on vers. 15-18). The calling of Eli-
sha was the most urgent thing in his eyes, the time
for the "anointing " of Hazael and Jehu he left
with the Lord. — Krummacher (Elias, s. 294) re-
peatedly expresses such a conception of the calling
of Elisha as that, with it, " an entirely new period
was to begin in the history of the education of
Israel, a period of divine condescension after the
days of punishments and thunderings of the law,
a term of the gentle breeze after that of the storm,
the flame of fire, and the earthquake ; " but this is
in direct contradiction of the oracle (vers. 16 and
17), where Elisha is put in the same rank with
Hazael and Jehu, the instruments of divine pun-
ishment, and it is said: "Him that escapeth from
the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay," which ran
scarcely mean: Elisha, in contrast with them, will
be a bringer of salvation and peace. It was just
the time of Elisha that was farthest from being the
period of the gentle breeze, for from without Israel
was continually hard pressed by the Syrians, and
from within the kingdom was thoroughly shaken
by the turbulent Jehu, who put a bloody end to
the house of Ahab. — We shall return to the relation
in which Elisha stands to Elijah in sacred history
when lie really steps into Elijah's place (2 Kings ii).
9. Elisha's being called away from the plough
to become a prophet and indeed the successor of an
Elijah, an historical position of such elevation and
influence, is one of the not infrequent examples of
the manner in which God has selected ami equipped
with light and power from above, for the carrying
out of his counsels of salvation and fcr the founding
and extending of His kingdom, just such men as
were living unseen before the world and neglected
by it, in quiet and reiirement, faithful aud sub-
missive to their inglorious earthly calling, and were
not thinking or wishing to become anything great,
to the end that all the world might know that the
work which they have been called to carry out is
not of men but of Him (Acts v. 38 sq. ; 2 Cor. iv. 7).
His apostles, who went into all the world and
accomplished the greatest and most difficult task
which has ever been achieved, were called by the
Lord from the fishing-smack and from the custom-
house. It is a rule of the divine government : "God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to con-
found the things which are mighty ; and base things
of tiie world, and things which are despised, hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in His presence " (1 Cor. i. 27 sq.).
HOM1LETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-18. The course which God takes with
His servants, (a) He leads them down into the
depths (wilderness, conflict, vers. 1-8) ; (6) but then
He sets them on high (Horeb, vision of God, ver.
9-18; vide ethical remarks). — Vers. 1-8. Bender:
Elijah in his flight from Queen JezebeL. (o) The situa-
tion into which he came; (i) the state of mind into
which he fell; (c) the comfort which was imparted
to him. — Wirtii : Elijah under the juniper-tree (a)
The deep despondency into which the prophet of
God was fallen; (6) the wonderful strengthening
which he received. — Ver. 1-4. Krummacuer : The
flight into the wilderness, (a) The persecution; (6)
the flight; (c) the dejection. — Vers. 1-2. Ahab after
the day on Carmel. (a) Ahab tells his wife everything
that he has experienced and witnessed there (every
man should tell his wife the great deeds of God, in
order to bring her to the way of life and keep her
there; thus marriage becomes what it should be,
Eph. v. 23-27). (b) He lets his wife's anger and
spite have free course (instead of her being subject
to him, he is subject to her; instead of holding be-
fore her the command : Thou shalt not kill, and
turning her from her wicked way, he sutlers himself
to be contented, keeps quiet, and bows beneath her
will; such weakness is not conjugal love, but sin
and shame). — Wurt. Sdmw. : Hardened sinners
allow themselves to be won over and converted
neither by the punishments nor by the favors of God,
but become more wicked, the longer they live.--
Ver. 2. There is no anger so bitter as the anger of
women. When hatred and revenge have once
entered a woman's neart, she does not shrink even
from the greatest crimes (Mark vi. 19, 24). — To bind
one's self to wickedness by an oath is the highest
step of religious and moral infatuation (Acts xxiii.
12). Calw. Bib. : A profligate man often determines
to bind himself thus in order that his wicked plans
may not be repented of. Would that men would
seek to bind themselves to the right. — Ver. 3. Calw.
Bid. : So long as we can escape martyrdom we may
and should do so (Matt. x. 23). How much more
must it be folly to seek it. It is enough for us to
stand firm when escape from persecution is im-
possible. The Scripture says: He that believeth
shall not make haste (flee), Is. xxviii. 16 ; and, Fear
not them, &c. (Matt. x. 28) ; but every flight is not
OH AFTER XIX. 1-21.
221
unbelief; fleeing is reprehensible and disgraceful
only when it leads away from the fulfilment of a
duty, or when it results from dread of toil or suffer-
ing, from love of rest and ease. It is often the part
of faith and self-renunciation to yield before the
wicked and godless rather than to stay and bid
them defiance. If God shows us ways and means
for saving our life and our honor, we are not at
liberty to hope for, and presume upon, miracles aud
extraordinary assistance.
Ver. 4. The deep sadness of the prophet, (a) Its
origin (it was not the sadness of the world, that
arises from the loss of temporal goods, honor, re-
spect, joys and pleasures, but a sadness in view of
the fact that every great act which God had per-
formed with reference to his people, every labor and
every contest for the salvation of their souls had re-
mained without result. This is the noblest and
rarest sadness. But where are the parents, where
the preachers, who are troubled over nothing so
deeply and seriously as over the blindness and deaf-
ness of the souls intrusted to them)? (b) Its
manifestation (Elijah wishes death for himself be-
cause it is intolerable for him to see God abandoned
and his people running to destruction). — Menken-:
This outbreak of the full, oppressed heart of the
prophet does in no wise justify the thoughtless,
light-minded, irrational utterances of many men who
wish death for themselves, and has nothing in com-
mon with the unholy gloom of unholy men, who. . .
are weary of life because they cannot conquer their
will, because they set no limits to the passions and
demands of their heart, and neither seek nor know
the truth which could free them from all their dis-
content and unhappiness, if they would be obedient
to it. — Wirth : There is no Christian's life, even
though it were the most pious and perfect, which
does not also have its hours of despondency ; there
is no child of God who might not also, for once
perhaps, like Elijah, sit under the juniper-tree aud
wish to shake off his burdens and sigh : It is enough,
Ac. Those are dangerous moments ; the word of
the Lord is applicable to them, Luke xxii. 31 sq. —
Elijah's prayer in the moment of temptation, (a)
It is enough I the measure is full (we may indeed
sigh under the burden, which is pressing us to the
ground, and entreat : Put an end, 0 Lord, put an
end to all our necessity 1 But whether it is enough,
when we think it is enough, is known only to Him ;
to determine the measure of life and of suffering is
not our business but His (Matt. xxvi. 39 ; Luke
xxii. 42). Many a man before now has called out :
It is enough I and yet afterwards thanked God
that the Lord did not at once listen to his request,
but suffered it to be not yet enough). (6) J>'ow, 0
Lord, take away my life (because Elijah's bouI be-
longed to the Lord and his whole life was devoted
to Him, he ventured to say: Take my soul, which
thou gavest me, back to thyself, and give it rest in
the everlasting tabernacles of peace. — Menken : In
order to be able to say with Paul : I desire to de-
part and to be with Christ, we must know and
love the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul knew and loved
Him, and also be able to say like him in truth :
For me to live is Christ I In order to be able to
pray with Elijah: It is enough ; now, 0 Lord, take
away my life I we must, at least on a small scale,
have worked and suffered and maintained our-
selves well amid temptations, and labored over
ourselves with the grace and gift of God as Elijah
did), (c) I am not better than my fathers (the
particular gift of a long life Elijah does not bolieve
himself to have deserved, although he always
walked in the ways of God. Not because he con-
siders himself too good for this world does he
wish himself out of it, but because he feels himself
to be not better than his fathers; he does not rest
his prayer on his merit and good works, but in the
consciousness of his sinfulness and m the hope of
God's grace and mercy he awaits death. He who
dies so, dies well) !
Vers. 5-8. Krummacher : The visit under the
juniper-tree. The guardianship of divine grace
becomes evident (a) in the hearing vouchsafed to
the prophet's prayer ; (b) in the appearance of an
angel which the Lord sends to him ; (c) in a won-
derful nourishment which he experiences; (rf) in
a delightful prospect which God opens before him ;
(e) in a supernatural strengthening for his wander-
ing through the wilderness. — Ver. 5. Menken:
There have been in all ages faithful servants of God
and Christ who have been weakened and dis-
couraged by the thought that it was all in vain, all
their anxiety and labor were fruitless, nothing
more could possibly be gained for the Lord, and no
more work of any importance could be done by
them for His cause and kingdom, and they have
been on the point of finding joyous, spirited,
zealous work in the service of the Lord, nay, evei
life itself, distasteful. But they have always found
consolation from the Lord in his Word, and have
been aroused and strengthened by His spirit to
new courage and to unremitted perseverance in
their work for the truth. They have learned to
think of Him who endured similar contradiction of
sinners against himself. . . . The Lord Je»us
Christ had taught them not to estimate the value
of their labor according to the effect which they
produce by it, nor according to the visible results
perceptible to themselves, but with joy and con-
fidence to persevere unweariedly, even though it
should appear as though all they said was ad-
dressed to au uninhabited desert — Ver. 6 Cra-
mer: When the children of God are forsaken by
every human being, and lie in the midst of a wil-
derness, God with his holy angels, like a heavenly
host, ministers to them. (Heb. i. 14; Gen. xxxii. 1. —
Menken : God is present in the desert also, and
can prepare a table for your soul even there, and
just at a time when man is aud can be nothing to
you, when the world can give you no help; then,
better than at any other time, can he be to you all
and in all. — Wirth : For us too, and for our hours
of lack of faith and despair, God has prepared
bread and water which will nourish and quicken
the soul. This bread, this water is His word, the
everhsting word of God, which is the life of God
and strength of God (Matt. iv. 4). Eat of this
bread, drink of this water, when you are in
danger of going astray in your life-work, not only
once or twice, nay, again and again eat aud drink.
— Ver. 7. We all have a long journey before
us, and do not know how long a time we will be
obliged to spend on the way, through what deserts
He is still to lead us, during how many dark nights
we are to grope about, and what burdens and
hardships, without and within, we have stiil to
bear. Let us then hearken to the voice of Him
who is much more to us than an angel from heaven,
when he cries to us: Awake, thou that Bleepes/
(Eph. v. 14)1 Arise and eat I For the long journey
he provides the bread of life, and water that spring!1
22S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
up unto everlasting life : he that cometh unto Him
will never hunger or thirst (John vi. 35) ;
through his strength, which is mighty in weakness,
we shall reach the goal and arrive there, where we
shall see Him as He is. — Ver. 8. Menken: The
way of the prophet into the wilderness seemed to
him as he entered upon it a road to death and hell,
but it proved to him the way of life and heaven, a
means of most valuable experiences. The world
often thinks that it has given to a man of God a
cup to drink which will prove most bitter to him ;
it plans to give him as much distress as possible.
The Lord permits it, and plans how to make it a
source of good to him, and permits him
to enjoy such pleasures and refreshings, to have
such experiences, to attain such knowledge and
strength, as had never been his portion, and such
as he never wovdd have attained to in any other
way. . . . We too would gladly enjoy something
of the experience, the knowledge and comfort of
the saints ; but without the sufferings of the saints,
without their want and their sacrifices, and just
because we will that in the very midst of the world
it could be our share, with all the peace and joy of
the world beside, it never will be our lot. Our
weak and delicate spirit shrinks from venturii g
even a day's journey into the wilderness; ami
yet in all times every one who has been led far
into its depths have been thankful for all their life
long.
Vers. 8-18. Bender : Elijah on Mount Horeb.
(a) The wonderful consolation which he enjoyed on
his journey thither ; (i) the exalted revelation
which he there received; (c) the new duties and
encouragements which were his lot even there. —
Vers. 9-13. Wibth : Elijah at Mount Horeb. (a)
The night-quarters in the cave ; (6) the appearance
of the Lord. — Vers. 9-11. Kwjmmacher: The ar-
rival at Horeb. (a) The night spent in the cave;
(6) the speaking Word; (c) the divine reproof; (d)
the prophet's complaint; (e) the summons)?) before
the Lord. — Ver. 9. The divine inquiry: Whatdoest
thou here ? (a) To Elijah (purpose and intent of
the question ; vide explanations under ver. 9. God
desires to have us disclose our hearts to Him ; He
summons us to do so in conformity with His love
and friendship for us, Lament, ii. 19; Ps. lxii. 9;
for he would heal those who are of a broken heart,
Ps. cxlvii. 3. — Menken: A question may be like a
cutting and wounding knife in the pain it gives a
human heart ; but it may also be as beneficent as
healing balm. He who is indifferent to the ques-
tions he asks, and does not weigh their import, is
still inconsiderate, and is greatly lacking in wisdom
and love. Many thousand wicked and unnecessary
questions are asked, which are causeless and with-
out aim; questions of scorn, of derision, of anger,
of uncharitableness, and of heart and time-destroy-
ing curiosity. On the other hand, there are few
questions of wisdom and love. He who asks in
order to be able to assist, to instruct, is inspired
with the spirit of love, and in addition to love, he
has great wisdom if he understands how to ask,
so as to attain his end by means of his questions).
(&) Made to us all by Jehovah. (What doest thou
here in this world and at this time ? Art thou here
nnly for the purpose of eating and drinking, to pass
thy life in enjoyment and folly, and wear away the
time? How many live without considering that it
is appointed for men once to die, and then cometh
the judgment. Heb. ix. 27. Let not a day pass
without answering the question which G>d puU
to thee: What doest thou here? The question
may also imply: What doest thou here, in thia
place in which thou happenest to be, in the situa-
tion and circumstances into which thou hast trans-
ferred thyself? What is it that has led thee hither?
Canst thou here talk and act in the sight of Him
of whom it is said : there is not a word in my
tongue, but lo, 0 Lord, thou knowest it altogether-
whether I walk or Ue, thou art about me and art
acquainted with all my ways? Ps. cxxxix. 3,4.
Wherever thou mayest go, or wherever thou tar-
riest, let this question of God come into thy mind:
What doest thou here ? it is a question of divine
love, but yet a question of divine solemnity.) — Ver.
1 0. Elijah's zeal for the Lord, (a) A pure and sin-
cere zeal (it was solely for the Lord, not for him-
self, for his opinion, honor, glory or advantage,
just as with the Apostle who counted all things
but loss that he might win Christ',. Phil. iii. 8. How
often folly, dogmatism, passion, .and injustice is
mingled with zeal for the Lord and for His kingdom
Would that all who would be, or who pretend to
he zealous for the cause of God, could stand before
the Searcher of hearts and say in sincerity : I have
been zealous for the Lord), (b) A persevering and
regardless zeal. (Like Paul, he shrunk from no
distress or labor, from no strife or affliction, nor
hunger nor nakedness, neither scoffing nor disgrace,
Phil. iv. 12, 13; 2 Cor. vi. 4-10. He had no re-
spect of persons,did not ask whether he was aking,
serving Baal, or a beggar, whether he was lord' or
servant, whether his opponents were few or many :
it could be said of him: The zeal of thine house
hath eaten me up, Ps. lxix. 1 0. How few of those
have any knowledge of such a zeal, who follow their
calling mechanically, and never become warm in its
behalf, whose zeal is like a smothered fire, and
grows less and inefficient, and cools, both when
temptation arises and when they are in prosperity.)
— The complaint of the prophet against Israel is a
threefold one. {a) They have forsaken thy cove-
nant, although it is their only source of safety (this
was the first stage of their apostasy. They lightly
estimated the word of the Lord and did not trouble
themselves about it. The same thing appears in
Christianity still. The covenant which was sealed
by the blood of the Son of God, and the covenant
meal are forsaken and considered of no value ; how
many there are who forsake the church and the
communion table, and, losing the knowledge of a
covenant with God through Christ, live henceforth
like the heathen without God in the world). (6)
They have thrown down thine altars. (This was the
second stage of their apostasy ; desertion from grew
into enmity to ; the places of prayer were destroy-
ed ; they were unwilling to have among them longer
anything that reminded them of their Lord and
God. So too, now-a-days, want of esteem and in-
difference rises gradually to enmity. They who
to-day are singing:
Reisst die Kreuze aus der Erden,
Alls sollen Schwerter werden I
would, if they had the power, tear down the altars
and overthrow churches. For a time they are sa-
tisfied with working away at the foundations of
the church of God by means of false wisdom and
knowledge, or by means of scorn and insult.) (c)
They have slain thy prophets with the sword
(This was the lowest stage of their apostesy ; ho*
CHAPTER SIX. 1-21.
226
tility grew into blind fury; not contented with
throwing down the altars, I hey persecuted and put
to death those who warned tiiem to return. So
too in Christianity, there has never been lacking a
persecution of those who have preached repent-
ance and faith witli zeal and earnestness. Matt.
x. 22; John xv. 18. When a man will not listen
to the truth, he seeks first of all to remove its wit-
nesses, either by power or by cunning. But so long
as a single witness of the truth survives, it will
never remain unattested.)
Ver. 11. Krdmmacher: Go forth, and stand
upon the mount before the Lordl This call is is-
sued to all those who, like Elijah, lodge in caves
and dens. The caves, however, are of various
kinds. Our heart is a cave, a dark tomb. . . The
soul attacked and tormented by doubts is in a cave.
. . Bodily distress and external affliction may be
tailed a cave. ... 0 go forth and go upon the
mount and look aloft to Him who hangs upon the
tree. ... go forth 1 Spread the wings of hope,
soar, and place thyself upon the heights of the
everlasting promises of God, which are Yea and
Amen, and from thence cast a look of confidence
into the heart of Him whose counsel is truly won-
derful, but who nevertheless doeth all things glori-
ously.— Wirth : There comes sometimes an hour
when the call of the Lord echoes in every corner
and cavern of life : Go forth and stand upon the
mount before the Lordl Pray, do not think that
you will be allowed to do what you please undis-
turbed in your dens of sin. You must one day come ■
forth and stand before the Lord,before His judgment-
seat, where each man shall receive according to what
he hath done in the life of the body, whether it be
good or evil. . . . One day the blessed hour will
come when he himself will lead you forth forever
out from your chambers of sorrow, and up to his
everlasting hills before his face. — Vers. 11-18. The
revelation of God upon Horeb. (a) By means of
a manifestation of nature, which displayed his
chastising justice toward the recreant and the god-
less, but also his saving, revivifying grace as his
true character. All nature and creation are a revela-
tion of God (Ps. xix. 1-7 ; Job xii. 7-9); by the
word of the Lord it was created, and through it he
speaks to us. It is the great language of God
which we should learn to interpret, a book in which
we should read ; its only end is not to support us
and furnish enjoyment for the mind, but that from
it and in it we may learn to recognize and worship
the majesty of God (Rom. i. 19, 20). He who sees
in nature nothing more than a lifeless mass is as
one who having eyes sees not. (b) By the voice
which announced the decision of God. What was
still dark to the prophet in the manifestation of na-
ture, the divine word plainly and decisively inter-
prets for him. The book of nature is made per-
fectly intelligible only by the word of God in the
book of Scripture. For this reason the Scriptures
place the revelations side bv side (Ps. xix. 1-7 and
8-12 ; Ps. cxlvii. 7-18, 19, 20). The heathen were
able to perceive the character of God in the works
of creation, but they nevertheless fell into idolatry
\nd error (Rom. i. 21 sq .), because they lacked the
word of God. Israel possessed this word, therefore
it ranked above all nations. We have still more
than Israel, therefore let this word, which has been
committed to us, be always a light to our feet and
a lamp to our path. Where it is wanting there is,
in spite of all professed wisdom (Rom. i. 22), fool-
ishness and darkness, moral and spiritual decay. —
Ver. 11. Behold, the Lord passes by! To Mosea
and Klijah, the representatives of the old covenant,
the Lord passed by only hi visible perceptible
veil or covering, but among us He dwelt, who ia
love, and we saw his glory (John i. 14. 16, 17).
For in this was manifested the love of God, £c. (J
John iv. 9; Col. ii. 9). What sentence of condem-
nation will be declared against those who despise
such a revelation and turn away from it (John iii.
36 ; Heb. x. 28, 29). Just as God made known
His true, real character, not in the storm, the earth-
quake, or the tire, but in the still small voice, so
ought our life, if it is from God, to manifest itself,
after the pattern of Christ (Matt. xii. 19, 20), by
an inner, quiet, gentle disposition of love (1 John
iv 16). — Menken: The Lord is not dreadful and
terrible except to the perverse and malignant
Where he cannot penetrate with the word of his
grace, with the glance of his love, with the gentle
admoniti n of his spirit of peace, there he speaks
to hearts and ears, that are like rocks, in the de-
stroying whirlwind, and annihilates that which rises
up against him. like a devouring earthquake, and
makes room and space for himself and lor that which
he desires to create, like a consuming fire. But
liaise who surrender themselves to his grace and
love experience nothing dreadful and terrible from
him, for he is to them a delight, like a rain after the
drought and like a breeze after scorching heat.
Having renounced all his glory and majesty, he
came with gentle and friendly aspect, a Saviour and
Helper; but when now lie shall appear, his coming
will be to his foes like whirlwind, earthquake, and
tiro, sweeping them away, consuming and removiug
them. But to his own, who have remained pro-
tected and unharmed amid all ihis, it will be like the
still, small whispering of the breeze after the storm
has gone by. — Ver. 13. Ouly with veiled face, i. e.,
with renunciation of his own wisdom and right-
eousness, is man able to ylance into the decrees of
the grace and saviug love of God. He who has
once experienced the working of this grace in him-
self, in his inner man, covers his face in humility
and holy awe, and stands adoring before the mystery
of eternal love, listening for the words which pro-
ceed from its mouth. — Tekstegex : I adore the
power of love, &c).
Vers. 15-18. The answer of the Lord to Elijah's
repeated complaint ; it includes (a) a direction : Go,
return, &c, which is the answer to : Thus far have
I been zealous in vain. Carry forward the work
already begun, doubting not the result, let thy
hands fall not, fear not, I am with thee. So the
Lord always calls to all workers in his vineyard.
The work is never intended nor permitted to cease,
although it was sometimes in vain and remained
without fruit. (6) A commission: Anoint Hazael
Ac, that is the answer to: They have forsaken thy
covenant, thrown down thine altars. Through
Hazael will I chastise rebellious Israel, through
Jehu destroy the house of Ahab, through Elisha
preserve the order of the prophets. — Menken : Let
us here observe how the royal government of the
Lord influences so deeply and so powerfully, and
yet so quietly and noiselessly, all human undertak-
ings, contrivances, and conditions, all worldly
events, and how so much happens under his direc-
tion which seems to happen without him, as if by
accident (c/. Dan. ii. 31). (c) A promise: Yet have
I left. &e This is the answer lu : I oulv am left
230
FHE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and they seek my life. The Lord will never forsake
his people and wholly reject them (Rom. si. 3-6).
The race of believers will never perish ; no storm,
no earthquake, no fire will destroy them. However
great and extended the revolt may be, there will
always be a remnant who do not bow their knees
before Baal, who may indeed be oppressed and
persecuted, but can never be exterminated, lor
they rest in the haud of the Almighty ; they are the
salt of the earth, which preserves the world from
corruption and ruin. — Ter. 18. The election of
grace i. e., the chosen, the remnant (Rom. xi. 5, 7).
(a) Who are they ? They are those who have not
bowed. &c, who refuse to float with the current of
the times, who have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. vii. 13),
those who allow not themselves to be seduced from
the narrow way to life by no cross or suffering, and
endure in the faith uuto the end. Dost thou be-
long to these? (ft) Whoknoweth them? The Lord
knoweth them that are his (2 Tim. ii. 19). Even
Elijah at that time knew them not, and yet there
were seven thousand of them. Their cry is not
heard in all the streets, their life is a hidden one.
They are scattered in all lands, in all conditions,
among high and low, rich and poor ; they do not
themselves know one another, but the Lord know-
eth them. How often we consider a person as a
lost child of the world, who in the eyes of the
Searcher of hearts is a child of God. How often
we thiuk that a nation, a city, a community is ut-
terly corrupt, and yet even there too the Lord has
a hidden seed, and election's of grace, (c) Of what
are they assured ? They are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation (1 Pet. i. 5).
The Lamb will lead them, &c. (Rev. vii. 17). That
faith which holds fast to God and Jesus overcomes
and is crowned. &e. (Rev. ii. 10; Col. iii. 3, 4;
Luke xii. 32). Therefore let us look up, &e. (Heb.
xii. 2). — Menken: We must not look upon our-
selves as the only ones, but remember that there
are thousands besides with us, going one way to
the same goal, with one faith, one hope, with one
love inwardly united to us through one spirit, and
that even these sufferings which meet us also be-
fall these our brethren in the world ; we must make
ourselves one in spirit with them all, and the re-
membrance of them be encouraged by and rejoice
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will unite
us with them all. — Krommacher: The invisible
church, (a) The hidden seed; (b) the disclosure
of it; (c) the promise that is given it.
Vers. 19-21. Kroimacher: Elisha's call, (a)
Elijah calls Elisha ; (ft) Elisha follows. Compare
the Historical and Ethical, 8, 9. — Ver. 19. Men-
ken: Thus we find it throughout sacred history.
The greatest, most distinguished men, who have
become God's most important instruments for the
execution of his counsel and immortal benefactors
of the human race, were always humble, modest,
men, who .... were not moved by their own
souls to bring themselves forward in their impure
pride as lights of the world, as reformers of the
human race, but remained in their place and call-
ing, looking quietly up to God .... But the im-
pure, arrogant, egotistical pride, when one without
Woking up to God, without loving the truth, with-
out having a duty and a call, allows himself to be
impelled by bis own soul to wish to enlighten the
world, while he himself is in darkness, to reform
"hnrch and State without having regulated his
own house, much less his heart, — this makes tooli
of the devil, incendiaries who call themselves en-
lighteners. . . . Every withdrawal, through our
own choice and passion, from a calling and station
where by God's will we are and should be, wheth-
er from a lower to a higher station or vice versd,
is dangerous, and sinful, and without blessinj, and
has for its consequence misery and tribulation,
even if matters go on well now, if God does not
completely turn away his mercy. — Krummacher:
Another in his place would long before have come
to the conclusion, that he was too good for the
plough, he was born for a higher sphere than that
of a simple peasant; he was not at liberty to with-
hold his talents from mankind, he must study, and
then enter upon the theatre of public action to
help enlighten and govern the world Con-
sider: the lights have the fairest and clearest lustre
which know not that they shine, and those flowers
of God scatter the sweetest perfume around them,
which, well contented with the little spot the Lord
has appointed them, bloom hidden in silent dales.
It does not follow from the calling of Elisha away
from the plough, to become a prophet, that every
one without gifts and without much knowledge
can leave the plough or any other ordinary occupa-
tion and take up the prophet's calling. Men often
think the Lord calls them to another, higher posi-
tion while it is only their vanity and the over-es-
timation of their gifts and powers which impels
them. If God has called thee to anything, he will
also open the way for thee and furnish the means
that are requisite thereto. — Ver. 20. Elisha's re-
quest and Elijah's granting of it. (a) The request
was no loitering or evasion, it came from a heart
on which the command of God had been imprint-
ed: Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy,
&c. (Ex. xx. 12), and which knew: the glory of a
man is from the honor of his father ; and a mother
in dishonor is a reproach to the children (Sir. iii.
1 1) ; because above all he feared God, he also hon-
ored his father and mother; with God's blessing
on his new calling, he wished also for the blessing
of his parents (Col. iii. 20). (ft) The granting was
not unconditional : Go and return again. Elijah
honors and respects his filial love and gratitude.
There is no calling or position, however great and
high and weighty it mav be, which invalidates the
command: Honor, &c. (Matt. vii. 10, sq.). But just
as little are we permitted to hold back from fol-
lowing the call of the Lord. He that loveth father
or mother, &c. (Matt. x. 37 ; Deut. xxxiii. 9.)—
Elisha's parting from his family, (a) a joyful one
(although he was now going to meet so many de-
privations, so many toils, so great a conflict, yet
the day on which he entered upon his holy calling
was a day of joy and honor, on which all should
rejoice with him, therefore he prepared a feast);
(6) one of love (he invited all who were previously
living and working with him to the feast ; he would
not eat and rejoice alone ; no one was too insig-
nificant for him, no one too low. — Calw. Bib: We
see from this how exemplary a relation subsisted
between him and his servants). — Elisha in com-
parison with the three followers of Christ, Luke
ix. 57-62. (a) Although the son of rich parents
and heir to a great possession, yet he forsakes
and renounces all, for he considers it a greater
gain to follow and serve the (poor) prophet. (6)
He takes leave indeed of his parents, but he does
not put off the succession to a later timr. un'O
CHAPTER XX. 1-43.
•23i
•fter their death; he does not disavow filial affec-
tion, but it does not keep him from entering upon
his succession immediately. (c) He looks not
backward after his call, but forward, and has no
longiug after that which he gives up ; he follows
on and serves with undivided heart in complete
and joyful consecration. How deeply this Elisha
shames many amongst us, to whom however not
an Elijah, not a prophet, but the Lord of glory,
calls : Follow me ! — Menken : Many a one hears
the words of good tidings with joy .... and be-
holds the treasure therein presented; there are
moments and hours when he vividly feels that it
profits a man nothing if he gains the whole world
and loses himself, but that in Jesus Christ is lift
and full sufficiency. . . . Then, instead of making
a good, prompt, firm resolve to surrender himself
on the spot without consideration, and without con-
dition, to the gracious offer of the Lord, he goes
on again amid cares and affections of this world,
turns his gaze again away from the invisible and
eternal ; the willing heart becomes again unwilling
and seeks only a pretext how it can justify this or
that obstacle, or retain and accept with honor this
or that thing which cannot go through the narrow
gate of the heavenly kingdom ; and so he never
attains to complete fidelity and self-sacrifice (cf.
John xii. 26).
SECOND SECTION.
the deeds of ahab.
1 Kings xx, xxx, xxti.
A. — The Victories of Ahab over the Syrians.
Chap. XX.1 1-43.
1 And Ben-hadad 3 the king of Syria gathered all his host together : ana there
were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots : and he went up
2 and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab
3 king of Israel into the city,3 and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy
silver and thy gold is mine ; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest,'
4 are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, accord-
5 ing to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have. And the messengers came
again, and said, Thus speaketh Ben-hadad, saying, Although B I have sent unto
thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and
6 thy children ; yet I will send my servants unto thee to-morrow about this
time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants ; and it
shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes,8 they shall put it in their hand,
7 and take it away. Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and
said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto
me for my wives, and for my children,' and for my silver, and for my gold ; and
8 I denied him not. And all the elders and all the people said unto him, Hearken
9 not unto him, nor' consent. Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben-
hadad, Tell my ' lord the king, All that thou didst send for to thy servant at the
first, I will do : but this thing I may not do. And the messengers departed, and
10 brought him word again. And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said, The gods lc
do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls "
11 for all the people that follow me. And the king of Israel answered and said,
Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that put-
12 teth it off. And it came to pass, when Ben-hadad heard this message as he was
drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set
yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city.
13 And behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus
saith the Lord [Jehovah], Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I
14 will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord
[Jehovah]. And Ahab said, By whom ? And he said, Thus saith the Lord [Je
hovah], Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said.
232 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
15 Who shall order [begin l!] the battle ? And he answered, Thou. Then he num-
bered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two " hun-
dred and thirty-two : and after them he numbered all the people, even all the
16 children of Israel, being seven thousand. And they went out at noon. But Ben-
hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty
17 and two kings that helped him. And the young men of the princes of the pro-
18 vinces went out first ; and Ben-hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There
are men come out of Samaria. And he said, Whether they be come out for peace,
19 take them alive ; or whether they be come out for war, take them alive. "So
these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city, and the
20 army which followed them. And they slew every one his man 16: and the Syri-
21 ans fled ; and Israel pursued them: and Ben-hadad the king of Syria escaped on
an horse with the horsemen. And the king of Israel went out, and smote the
horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter.
22 And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strength-
en thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year
23 the kina; of Svria will come up against thee. And the servants of the king of Syria
said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills ; therefore they" were stronger
than we ; but let us tight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be
24 stronger than they. And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of
25 his place, and put captains in their rooms : and number thee an army, like the
army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot : and we will
fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And
26 he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. And it came to pass at the return of
the year, that Ben-hadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight
27 against Israel. And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present
[were provided for"], and went against them : and the children of Israel pitched
before them like two little flocks of kids ; but the Syrians filled the country.
28 And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said.
Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], Because the Syrians have said, The Lord [Jeho-
vah] is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver
29 all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye's shall know that I am the Lord
[Jehovah]. And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so
it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined : and the children of Israel
30 slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest
fled to Aphek, into the city ; and there a [the19] wall fell upon twenty and seven
thousand of the men that were left. And Ben-hadad fled, and came into the city,
into an inner chamber.
31 And his servants said unto him," Behold now, we have heard that the kings
of the house of Israel are merciful kings : let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on
our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel : perad-
32 venture he will save thy life. So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and jowf
ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Ben-
hadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive ? he is my
33 brother. Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come
from him [and the men interpreted this favorably51], and did hastily catch it:™
and they said, Thy brother Ben hadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then
Ben-hadad came forth to him ; and he caused him to come up into the chariot.
84 And Ben-hadad said unto him, The cities which my father took from thy father,
I will restore ; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father
made in Samaria. Then said Ahab" I will send thee away with this covenant.
So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away.
t And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the
word of the Lord [Jehovah], Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to
36 smite him. Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of
the Lord [Jehovah], behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall
37 slay thee. And as sooh as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew
him. Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the mac
CHAPTER XX. l-i3.
233
38 Bmote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. So the prophet departed, and
waited for the kint? by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face
39 [with a band over his eyes"]. And as the king passed by, he cried unto the
kino; : and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle ; and behold,
a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man : if by
any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shah pay
40 a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.
41 And the kin^ of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast
decided it. And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face [band away
42 from his eyes] ; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.
And lie said unto him, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], Because thou hast let go
out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life
43 shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. And the king of Israel
went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
i [The Vat. Sept. transposes chapters xx. and xxi., thus making the affair of Naboth precede the deliverance and vie
tories of Ahab. but making the narrative of tlie wars of Israel under Ahab with the Syrians continuous.
3 Ver. 1. [Many MbS., followed "by the Sept., have this name uniformly with the final letter r instead of d.
3 Ver. 2. [Ver. 3 begins at this point in the arrangement of our Heb. Bibles, of Luther, and of our author; the Sept
divides as in the A. V.
* Ver. 3.— [The Vat. Sept. omits this qualification of Ben-hadad's demand.
6 Ver. 5.— [On this form of oath, DX s3 of. xvii. 1.
« Ver. 6. The Sept.. Vuh?., and Syr., by taking the pronoun in the plural, make this refer to the officers of Ben-hadad
—whatsoever they should fancy.
7 ver. 7.— [The Sept. more particularly, "my sons and my daughters.'"
8 Ver. S.— [The negative is here printed N17, which form occurs but twice elsewhere, but many MSS. give the more
9,Ver. 9. — [The Sept, changes the pronoun, and reads, " tell your lord." The other V V. all follow the Heb., but below
the Alex. Sept. omits the words "at the first."
10 Ver. 10.— [D^li/X is here, as in xix. 2, connected with verbs in the plural, and is rightly translated as referring to
the false gods of Ben-hadad. The Vat Sept, however, has 6 ©eos in the singular, and the Chald. WDITT=the terrors.
'* Ver. 10.— [On the meaning of ?y*£f see the Exeg. Com.
* Ver. 14 — [nDrten "lD50~V3=who shall join the battle, i. e., begin the fight ?
13 Ver. 35. — [The Alex. Sept. alters this number to 332. an evident error.
14 Ver. 19. — The Sept., by introducing the negative mt and changing the form of the verb to efe After wo-ai' makes ver
19 a part of Ben-hadad's order: " Let not the princes .... go out," Ac
15 Ver. 20. — [The Sept. very unnecessarily reduplicates : *ai tfituTepwaie eicavTos t'ov wap' avrov.
i6 Ver. 23.— [The Sept., by putting the verb in the singular, refers the superiority more immediately to the God oi
Israel. , , .
" Ver. 27.— [The translation of the A. V. is certainly wrong, resting upon a false derivation of !p3p3 from ^3.
The word is Polp. : from ^p and meaDS " were supplied with provisions." Vulg. acceptis cibarits. Our author
renders [mit Leben&mitteln] versorgt ; Keil, too fully, " were supplied with ammunition and provisions." The Vat Sept
neglects the word altogether, but the Alex, renders 6ioi«»j0Tj<ra»\
i« Ver. 23.— [The Sept puts this in the sing., "thou shalt know.1'
19 Ver. 80.— [nDinn = th4 walUc. of the city. "The fleeing Syrians probably, in order to make a stand in Aphek
against the pursuing Israelites, had partly climbed and occupied the city walls, and partly sought behind them a shelter
for their protection," Keil. Many MSS. read without the^ ^ and Kennicott, adopting this reading, would understand the
word of the Simoom, or pestilential wind, by which so many of the Syrians were destroyed. There seems little support
for this.
30 Ver. 31.— [The Vat. Sept makes this the address of Ben-hadad to his servants. At the close of the verse both
recensions have the plural pronoun of the first person — save our lives.
31 Ver. 33.— [^^»»^J, D^OXnl • ^ne TerD CT1J seems to be always used of augury, foreboding, presentiment <tc
(c/. Gen. xliv. 5, 15; Lev. xix. 26; 2 Kings xvii. 17, &c), and is always translated in this general sense in the A. V. ex-
cept in this passage and in Gen. xxx. 27, where it should be. All the versions here concur in this sense, e. g. the Vulg.
Quod acceperunt viri pro omine. Our author translates as in the brackets — Uhd die STdnner deuteten es giinstig. So
also Keil : "These took the words of Ahab as a good omen.'1
23 Ver. 33.— hj|2)On ^oSlTl . These words are of much more difficult interpretation, especiaUy because of the anaf
Key. word £^n . ^or ft discussion of its meaning see the Exeg. Com.
- T
33 Ver. 84.— [All the VV. concur in making this clause a continuation of the words of Ben-hadad. Keil agreej
with our author and with the AV. in changing the speaker to Ahab.
34 Ver. 88. l"1DN iB rendered in ^Q A. V. as in the Vulg. and some of the other W. as If it had been pointed
*l«y t The Chald. and Sept. (rehafttav) have undoubtedly hit the true sense, which in the Chald. Is expressed by the
very similar word ]"nsyO. Tnls ls a&reeftbl6 to tae following words V^JT^V 1 ^ ftlfl0 to tn* "eadinesB witk
which it was removed, ver. 41. — F. G.]
234
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
KXEQETICAL AND CP.ITICAL.
Vers. 1-9. And Ben-hadad. &c. The entire
account of chap. xi. was derived, as we have al-
ready remarked, from a different source than
chaps, xvii., xviii., and six. There can be no other
reason for our author's having introduced it here
than this that the victory of Ahab over the Syrians
occurred previous in time to the execution of Na-
both (chap, xxi.), which gave occasion for the reap-
pearance of Elijah. — Concerning Ben-hadad, see
chap. xv. IS. The thirty-two kings were not rulers
over entire territories, but were lords of single
cities and their districts (cf. Jos. xii. 7), vassals
(Grotius : reguli in clientela ipsius), who paid tribute
to Ben-hadad, and in the event of war, were obliged
to furnish auxiliaries. The cause and aim of the
expedition was, according to ver. 3, to plunder
Ahab, and make him a vassal D'SitSn can hardly
refer, as Thenius and Keil would have it, to wives
and sons, but only to the latter ; by them are meant
not Ahab's own sons, but the best, that is, the most
eminent young men of the city or the country,
whom Ben-hadad demanded as hostages. The im-
port of his message was, " surrender to me all
these, and I will withdraw." When Ahab, with-
out hesitation, consented so submissively aud timo-
rously. Ben-hadad grew only the more audacious
and insolent in his demands ; he was sorry for hav-
ing demanded so little, and he now threatens to
give over the king's palace and the dwellings of
the king's servants to be plundered (the pillaging
of the entire city can hardly be meant, as Keil and
Kimchi think).— Whatsoever is pleasant in thine
eyes, i e., not merely silver and gold, but every-
thing costly and valuable. According to Maurer,
Gesenius, Keil, and others, '3 , of ver. 5, serves,
like on. only to introduce the oratio directa ; and
>3 before DX , ver. 6, is a repetition for the sake
of emphasis merely; DX, however, meaning in
that place "when; " better Thenius: "V3, ver. 5,
serves to strengthen the assertion; DX '3 . ver. 6, to
strengthen it still more, so that the latter is, accord-
ing to the sense, to be rendered: but since Ben-ha-
dad increases his demand." The elders of the land
(ver. 7), in distinction from the elders of the city
(chap. xxi. 8), being the highest officials, pernaps,
had their court at their residences, or, upon the
approach of Ben-hadad, had betaken themselves
thither with their treasures. Ahab calls them
together to say to them : Ben-hadad is not satisfied
with my treasures, he wants yours also. n)TIT does
not here mean " mischief" (Luther: how malevo-
lent his purpose is), but " disaster," " destruction : "
hfc intends to ruin us completely.
Vers. 10-12. And Ben-hadad sent unto him,
4c, ver. 10. He seeks, by boasting in the genuine
oriental style, to overawe Ahab (<•/. 2 Sam. xvii. 13) ;
the import of his words is, My army is so large that
if, in the impending desolation of Samaria, every one
of my people desired to take away with him only a
handful of rubbish, many would have to go back
empty-handed. The explanation of the Rabbins and
the Chali loan: Sisuffecerit palm Somron, utferatur
toleii ptantarum pedum populi qui mecum est, is incor-
rect, since ^>yb' if Isai. xL 12 , Ezek. xiii. 19, the
only other places where the wora occurs, means
not vola pedis, but the hollow of the hand. Just as
incorrect is the interpretation of Josephus : " He
could, with his army, cast up a dike higher than
his walls were, if every one of his people contrib-
uted only a handful of earth." Ahab's somewhat
defiant response, expressed in words of a proverb,
ver. 11, proceeded, perhaps, from the elders, who
were much more determined and courageous, and
were willing to await the utmost. The import of
the proverb is the Latin: ne triumphum canas ante
victoriam ; the German : Verkaufe das Fell des Baren
nicht, bevor du xhn hast. Let not him who is arm-
ing for the fight, boast as though he had already
laid aside his weapons, i. e., had gained the victory.
The rii3D, ver. 12, in which the drinking-bout
occurred, were not tents of sailcloth, but huts
made of branches of trees, like those put up
to-day for the Turkish pashas and Agas on
their expeditions (Keil, Rosenmiiller A. u. N.
Morgenland III. s. 198). The translation of 1DV_".
" bring up 1 (the siege instruments) as a command
to prepare for immediately storming the place " (so
Thenius, following the Sept. o'ticoSofii/crare xapana),
does not accord with the use of the word elsewhere :
in 1 Sam. xi. 11 ; Job. i. 17, the word seems to refer
simply to setting the army in array.
Ver. 13. There came a prophet unto Ahab.
The conjecture of the Rabbins that this prophet may
have been Micaiah (chap. xxii. 8) has no historical
basis. The entrance of a prophet here and in vers
28, 35 Thenius thinks inconsistent with the state-
ments, chap, xviii. 4, 22 ; xix. 10, 14. But the state-
ment is nowhere made that in the persecution of
the prophets all had been put to death ; Ohadiah,
in fact, had concealed a hundred of them who did
not perish, and Elijah mentioned himself as the only
remaining one, because at that time he was the
only one who openly appeared as a prophet. The
persecution appears to have taken place principally
at the time of the famine, and to have ceased after
the flight of Elijah On the approach of Ben-hadad
there were other things to be thought of beside
the extermination of the prophets, and in the time
of their distress a prophet who foretold victory was
even welcome. From what quarter this prophet
came to Samaria, whether he lived there, or whe
ther he had been sent there from one of the schools
of the prophets, must remain undecided. In no
case, however, could the compiler of our books
have been so thoughtless as to have inserted
in chap. 20 anything which stands in contradiction
to the immediately preceding chapters. Where
Elijah sojourned at the time of the war we do not
learn. That it was not he but some other prophet
who announced the promise of victory to Ahab
cannot be wondered at under the existing circum
stances. Elijah was the least suited of all for such
a message.
Vers. 14-16. By the servants of the princes,
ver. 14. Gerlach: " The administrators appointed
over separate districts of the country appear at that
time to have assembled with the army in Samaria,
and each one among them had a sort of body-guard,
or such servants about him as generally executed
his orders" (2 Sam. xviii. 15). The On^l are there-
fore not " pages unaccustomed to fight " (Thenius),
or "young lads of very tender age " (Ewald) ; much
rather are we to suppose that they were a very
CHAPTER XX 1-13.
235
select body of strong young men. Ahab would not
have consented to appoint weak, inexperienced boys
for the advance guard, without at least having ex-
pressed some scruples. The extraordinary divine aid
consisted not in this, that the victory should be gain-
ed by boys, butby such a small uumber (for that very
reason the number is so explicitly specified). Ahab's
question, Who shall open the battle f represents hiin
as by no means a " courageous and resolute man "
(Thenius), for such a man, in a struggle where it
was a question of life or death, would not first ask
a prophet who was to make the attack. The tliou
in the reply, moreover, does not mean that Ahab
was to lead the two hundred and thirty-two, but
that the attack was to be made by Israel. Accord-
ing to ver. 21, Ahab did not march out until the
Syrians had betaken themselves to flight. The very
small army of only seven thousand is a token of a
not very glorious condition of the might of the
kingdom under Ahab. The position of Jarchi 43
that of a true Rabbi, viz., that the seven thousand
were those who had not bowed the knee to Baal
(chap. xix. 18) ; the number, without doubt, is here
an historical one. At noon they marched out. that
is, at the time when Ben-hadad, haughty and confi-
dent, had given himself up witli his vassals to the
table, news of which had probably beeu received
in the city.
Vers. 17-21. And Ben-hadad sent out, &c,
ver. 17. When he was made aware that something
was going on. and the messengers who had beeu
sent out brought him news that a troop was draw-
ing near, in his haughtiness he gave the command
to take them al! prisoners, even in case they had
come to treat or capitulate. Starke, indeed, fills out
the idea of alive with " that they may be cut down
before mine eyes," which thought, however, is not
necessarily contained in the word. According to
ver. 20 they fought man to man, each one coping
with the enemy immediately opposed to him ; the
addition of the Sept. : Kai iSevrepuaev eKao"roc tov
■tap' aiirov is gloss, and does not justify an alteration
of the text. D'Engfl D1D"7>5? does not mean equis
mutatis altevnis (Sehulz), nor according to the Sept.
to 1-7U1' i--M , but upon a horse (according to
Thenius: on a hastily seized chariot-horse) with his
rider, i. e., in company with the horsemen. Not
till now did the king march out of the city with the
remainder of the garrison. In place of 7JS1 the
Sept. has mi e?a3e , therefore Thenius would read
nf5>l , which is unnecessary, as the idea of " taking
posession of" is contained in the word " slew,"
according to Tatablus : he smote those who were
endeavoring to escape upon horses and chariots.
In any ease the idea of butchering of the horses
and the demolishing of the chariots is not intended.
Vers. 22-25. And the prophet came, &c.
ver. 22. The same prophet as that mentioned in
ver. 1 3, as we see by the article. The translation
of p?nnn " be of good cheer ! " or " be brave ! " is
not suitable, inasmuch as Ahab had just now
gained the victory ; therefore : fortify yourself,
make yourself strong — namely, by collecting
Tour forces of war. At the return of the year,
i. e., with the beginning of the next year, " when,
after the close of the winter rains, campaigns were
customarily commenced, 2 Sam. xi. 1 " (Keil).
Vers. 23-25 do not belong to the speech of the
prophet, who only announced the coming war ; the
man of God (ver. 28) is the first to tell the king
what was to happen in that conflict ; vers. 23-21
are thus an insertion of the narrator's. The sense
of ver. 23 is this : in the mountainous region of
Samaria we were defeated by the Israelites, because
we were there obliged to contend against their
gods who are gods of the mountains ; in the plains,
on the other hand, where these gods do not reside,
we will most certainly be victorious. The dii
montium, who are enthroned on mountains and
direct and watch over everything that takes place
within their region, and accordingly prosper and
defend the inhabitants of the mountains, are men-
tioned in other places in heathen antiquities
(Di-yliug, Observatt. III. 12; Winer, Ileal- Wurt.-
Buch I. p. 154). The advice to remove the kings
was caused, perhaps, by the fact that they as vas-
sals marched with him only through compulsion,
and therefore were not in earnest, or not entirely
to be depended upon in a fight, while the leaders
appointed by Ben-hadad himself would be bound
to obey him absolutely, and thus there would bo
greater harmony in inaugurating the war (cf. chap.
xxii. 31). The removal of the princes was ac-
companied with the loss of the auxiliaries furnished
by them, therefore Benhadad was obliged to form
an army from his own people that would equal th«
former one, including the auxiliary troops.
Vers. 23-3U. And it came to pass at the
return cf the year, Ac. ver. 26. Ben-hadad's
wish being to fight in the plain, this Aphek spoken
of can be neither that one at the foot of Lebanon,
in the tribe of A=her (Josh. xiii. 4 ; xix. 30), nor
the highly elevated one of z'ue east of th6 sea of
Galilee ; it is rather Aphek in the p'aiu of Jezreel,
in the tribe of Issachar, "the largest plain ot
Palestine, where from the times of Joshua to Napo-
leon so many great battles have been fought"
(Keil). cf. 1 Sam. xxix. 1 ; xxviii. 4 ; Robinson's
Palestine III. p. 477. — spu'n ver. 'il means properly
something separated (from 5)t."n in its original mean-
ing — to separate), literally, then, like two flocks
of kids, i, e., " like two little flocks of kids sepa-
rated from the main herd " (Keil). These flocks
pasture mostly on the cliffs, and are smaller than
the flocks of sheep. " The figure was used, with-
out question, to present in a vivid manner the in-
significance of the Israelitish army, separated into
two bauds, as contrasted with that of the Syrians
which covered the entire plain " (Thenius). The
leventh day (ver. 29) was probably chosen for the
attack as being a day of good omen (Josh, vi 15).
Tiiere is a difficulty in the number one hundred thou-
sand ; to slaughter so many men in one day seems
scarcely possible. Either ,"13J here has, like our
word "beat," the meaning ot "defeat," so that by
100,000 the size of the entire army is designated,
or the number is a mistake, to be classed with
those mistakes in numbers which arise from con-
founding figures of similar appearance. The fall-
ing of the wall (ver. 30), according to the old inter-
preters, resulted from a miracle ; according to
others, from an earthquake ; according to Gerlacb
and Keil, through a special interposition of God.
Thenius supposes a plan for undermining carried
on by night on the part of the Israelites ; they then
enticed a part of the besieged away to the place,
and at the capture which occurred thereupon the
rest were put to death. Ewald says : the rubbisl
236
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of the quickly devastated city buried the remain-
ing 27,00u. The Sept. translates "11/13 Tin , f'C
rov o2w»> -ov KOtruvoc eic to ra/ielov ; the Vu 'gate;
incubicul^n, quod erat intra cubicidum; it is, how-
ever, not necessary to refer it to a bed-chamber.
Josephus has fie Imoydiau olaov rupvpo. Thenius
interprets arbitrarily : Ben-hadad fled into the for-
tress of the city, and there from one chamber into
another (cf. chap. xxii. 25 ; 2 CI iron, xviii. 24.).
Vers. 31-34. And his servants said, &c, ver.
31. Sackcloth was a sign of penitence, the ropes
about the neck signs of most complete subjection.
The latter custom still exists in the East. " The
peasants in the region of Ningpo (China) are
obliged to bring the contributions levied upon
them to the city with ropes about their necks, as a
sign of their subjection." (Allg. Zeitung, 18fi2,
Suppl. s. 2,931). In place of thy life the Sept. and
Vulg. have, our lives ; evidently incorrect. V&TW
(ver. 33) Vulg. Quod acceperunt viri pro online ;
they took the expression of Abab'a to be a good
omen. The words «QDn ^PM are variously
understood. The Talmud interprets the verb
O^n , occurring only in this place, by declare, and
this Maurer and Keil follow : declarare eum
fecerunt, an ex ipso pronunciatum esset, num ex
animi sententia hoc dixisset. Others consider t3?n
equivalent to ]»^n , to snatch, and according to the
Syriac, Chald., and some manuscripts unite the
n standiug before ys"3 with the verb as a suf-
fix : arripuerunt id ex eo (ex ejus ore, ne istud
revocare posset) : so likewise the Vulg. : rapuerunt
veroum ex ore ejus ; the Sept. has Kal aveteljavTO
rov Myov avTov £/c rov arouaroc aiirov ; following this
Ewald would read : U'OO TJ"Jf1 in place of 1JDOT ,
t. e., they hastily quoted his own word, and adopted it
as theirs. Thenius : they took him immediately
at his owu word. The words " my brother" con-
tained more than they demanded ; namely, not only
that he would grant Ben-hadad his life, but that he
would treat him not even as captive, rather as a
king of equal rank, in fine, as though nothing had
happened between them.
Ver. 34. The cities which my father, &c.
The cities mentioned in. chap. xv. 20 cannot be re-
ferred to here, since these were taken in the time
of Baasha, and Baasha was not the father of Ahab,
and the city of Samaria, besides, was not yet built ;
we are therefore compelled to assume that Beu-ha-
dad's. father, as formerly with Baasha, so afterwards
with Omri, Ahab's father, had a war, and that, too,
after the building of Samaria, which war was con-
cluded by the surrender of certain cities, and can
easily be included in what is spoken of in chap.
xvt 27. The niVn are neither fortified places, nor
places for paying customs, nor pasture grounds, but
streets, iu which the Syrians were accustomed to
live and do business ; thoroughfares for licensed
merchants (Bottcher), bazars (Thenius). The words
irikrX JVI33 'OXI , can only be translated: but I
will permit you to go hence fre3, in accordance
with tho covenant, i. e., the concluded treaty ; thus
translated they could only have been the words of
Ahab and we are compelled to supply at the be-
ginning— -"Ahab replied." This is much more ad
missible than, following the grammatically incor
rect translation of the Vulgate (et ego fLBenadadJ
foideratus recedam a te), to alter the text as Thenius
does, and read, WnVtJ'N,*-*., "and I, on the other,
wish to be sent away in accordance with an agree-
ment concluded and sworn to." Opposed to this
is the emphatic 'J XT , which throughout is not
suited to Ben-hadad ; moreover, the two following
verbs, of which Ahab is the subject, compel us to
refer the iJX to him
Ver. 35. And a certain man of the sons of
the prophets, &c. The expression D'X'ajn ,J3
appears here for the first time ; we are not to con-
sider the " sons of tho prophets " young men ne-
cessarily, but rather members of the society of
prophets, or, if we will, of the order of prophets;
according to 2 Kings iv. 1, there were married men
among them. They were called sons in distinction
from the heads and leaders of the separate com-
munities of prophets (cf. Winer, Real- Wort- Buch
II. p. 282). The jn is a fellow-prophet. Concern-
ing 1313 see under chap. xiii. 1. The passage
vers. 35-43 is not a part which is arbitrarily ap-
pended to the preceding narrative, while not orig-
inally belonging to it. (Thenius), but is an essential
constituent part of it — its fitting conclusion, for it
furnishes the solemn announcement of the divine
punishment for Ahab's perverse procedure with
Ben-hadad (Vers. 32-34). All that the prophet
says and dues, is summed up in the declaration of
v. 42, which must uot be lost sight of, as the prin-
cipal thing. Just as the victory was foretold to
the king by a prophet, as an act of God, so also
the punishment for his conduct, after the victory
had been granted him, was made known to him by
a prophet (whether by the same one or some other
is unknown), as a judgment of God upon him.
This happened in a peculiar, but in every respect
in a genuinely prophetic and solemn manner, name-
ly, by means of symbolic action followed by ex-
plicit declaration (see above, p. 119). The symbolic
action, however, was of such a kind as not only to
present to the eyes of the king the blamableness
of his conduct, hut also to lead him, without his
knowing it or wishing it, to pass sentence upon
hinisenCand by that means declare that the pro-
phesied punishment was justly deserved
Ver. 35. Smite me, I pray thee, &c, that is,
wound me (cf. ver. 37). Th9 prophet was shortly
about to represent himself as a warrior returning
from a severe fight (cf. ver. 39: into the midst of
the battle); the wounding of the prophet renders
all the remaining symbolic action conditional, and
just for that reason it is made so markedly promi-
nent. The demand : Smite me I was accompanied
without doubt with a statement of the reason and
with an appeal to the "word of Jehovah," and for
that very reason the refusal to fulfil the demand,
on the part of a fellow-prophet especially, was not
at all justifiable. But because the prophet without
being wounded could not carry out the action
which he had been charged with, nor make a pro-
phetic announcement of the coming punishment,
he turned and made his request of another, who
consented. What is related besides in ver. 36 of
the fellow-prophet who refused, does not really
belong to the main action, but is a side feature of
CHAPTER XX. 1-43.
237
the narrative, and shows itself to be such from the
brevity and fragmentary character of the state-
ments. It is nevertheless important, because by
it the main action is made only the more conspicu-
ous, and is at the same time referred to the neces-
sity of unconditional obedience to the " word of
God " within the society of prophets. To oppose
this word is a thing not consistent with the nature
of the prophet's position, whose calling consists
wholly in being the instrument of "Jehovah's
word" {cf. chap. xiii. 21, p. 144). Ter. 37: ran
r/VDl, smiting and wounding, i. e., he smote him in
such a manner as to wound him. 1SST ver- 38,
is not equivalent to 12X ashes, as the Vulg.,
Luther, and others translate, but means (from ")2X
to enwrap, to surround) head-bandage, Sept.
T£?.afiuv, bandage (not turban, as Maurer and
others would have it). The bandages betokened
one severely wounded, and served at the same
time to conceal his features, so that Ahab, who
was to be made to pass sentence upon himself,
could not recognize him (ver. 41). By the way
he stationed himself, because the proceeding was
to take place previous to the king's return home,
in the open street, and before the eyes of his en-
tire retinue, as an open testimony against himself.
Vers. 39-41. Thy servant went out, &c. ver.
39. De Wette translates 1D"C"X . a man approach-
ed, but 11D does not mean " to approach," but
"turn aside," turn away from the road (Ex. lii. 3 ;
Judges xiv. 8) ; here, then, one who has left the
field of battle. Ewald, whom Thenius follows,
would read ID which is used for -\£' , and then
translates "captain," i. e., "one whom he (the
wounded man) as king, a common soldier must
obey," an officer. The parable would, under these
circumstances, certainly be more complete, since
this officer would represent Jehovah, who had
given Ben-hadad into the power of Ahab ; but
another lection is not required. If the wounded
man should sutler the prisoner committed to him
to escape, he would have to forfeit his life or a
taleut of silver, i. e., 2,600 thalers. " The prisoner
is thus represented to be a very important person-
age" (Thenius). — In place of nb'l? (ver. 40), Hou-
bigant reads n'J'C , Thenius njb (turning his eyes
this way and that) ; wherefore the translations read :
Sept., TTEpiEfiXkneTo ; Vulg. dum ego turbatus hue
illucque me verterem. This alteration of the text is
absolutely unnecessary. — Concerning the significa-
tion of the parable, so much is indisputable, that
the young man who had gone out into the battle is
representative of Ahab, and the man intrusted to
his keeping, but allowed to escape through care-
lessness, is the representative of King Ben-hadad.
The signification of the wounding is not so ap-
parent, inasmuch, indeed, as Ahab was not
wounded. The hostile treatment which Ahab suf-
fered soon after at the hands of the released Beu-
hadad (chap. 22). cannot possibly be siguifipd,
since the wounding happened before the man's
escape, and besides it was not the work of the
captive ; still less possible is the idea of older in-
terpreters, that it was a symbol of the wound
which Ahab had inflicted on himself and the peo-
Dle by his idolatry and the release of Ben-hadad.
Neither is Ewald's explanation acceptable, that
the prophet allowed himself to be wounded bj
another, " and as though he had a right, on ac.
count of the bloody injury which he had received,
to call aloud on the king for help." put himself in
Ahab's way. It is not acceptable, because the
wounded man did not cry to the king for help, but
demanded of him, as the chief judge, a decision as
to whether he was punishable or not ; moreover,
the king answered him, " thyself hast decided it "
C^aSC'D ver. 40). We would do better to recog-
nize in the wounded man a picture not only of
Ahab, but at the same time of the people of Israel,
inasmuch as the king is the people — individualized,
is the deputy and representative of his people.
The sentence of punishment (ver. 42) especially
shows this: Thy life shall go for his life,
and thy people for his people. Israel had just
endured a hard, bloody fight, and had carried
off the promised victory ; but now, in the person
of its king, it had let the arch-enemy, whom tha
Lord had given into their hands, go free and un-
puuished. They sinned therefore against Jehovah,
whose will it was that this enemy, who had sworn
to destroy Israel, should not be suffered to escape
out of their hands, but should sutler merited pun
ishment ; their suffering him to escape was a prac
tical denial of the might, the goodness, and the
justice of Jehovah. After the king had pro
nounced his own sentence, the aim of the disguise
by means of bandages, indeed the aim of the entire
symbolic proceeding was attained, and hence the
prophet threw aside the bands, and allowed him-
self to be recognized as a prophet, as one who de-
clares the word of Jehovah ; following the sym-
bolic-prophetic action comes (ver. 42) the solemn,
prophetic declaration, as in chap. xi. 31.
Vers. 42-43. Thus saith the Lord, Because,
&c, ver. 42. Ben-hadad is called 'DirTL"^, i e.,
man of my curse, the man whom I appointed to
destruction. Cf. Isai. xxxiv. 5 : My sword shall
come down upon Idumea, DSC'D? 'Din DJJ'i'PI
(Mai. iii. 24). The punishment which Ben-hadad
and his people had deserved, but which thou,
disobeying the Lord, hast remitted completely,
and on thine own authority, shall fall upon
thee and thy nation. King and people seem
here inseparable from one another, as head and
members. Ahab probably had a great desire to
seize the prophet for this independent outspoken
reproof and curse, but he had the less courage to
do it since he had given the sentence of judgment
himself; still he was deeply moved to resistance in
his heart, and angrily withdrew ("ID, from "HD. to
be stubborn, refractory, Deut. xxi. 18; Isai. xxx.
1, meaning more than disheartened or lowrspirited).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The two victories over the Syrians were design-
ed, according to the declaration of both the prophets
who foretold them, to effect "that thou, (king) and
ye (the entire natiun) may know that I am Jehovah"
that is to say, that Jehovah is the only true God, the
God of Israel. In this declaration we have speci
fied the purpose of the entire narrative, and at tha
same time the staud-poiut from which it is to ba
comprehended. That day on Mount Cartnel, if it
did not put an end to idolatry at once, had at least
238
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
broken its power, as was already evident from the
mere fact that the prophets were no longer perse-
cuted and put to death, but could again go about
openly and continue the work begun by Elijah :
they even had access to Ahab again. Still the
conversion was by no means complete, but rather,
Deing weak, it needed support and strength from
above if a complete relapse was to be prevented
from setting in. This assistance came from the
display of the power of Jehovah, a power which
rescued in a time of great need and distress. The
attack of the Syrian king, who had grown so
mighty, threatened Ahab and his kingdom with
destruction ; at this crisis God, who never forsakes
his people, who is "merciful and gracious, long-
suffering and abundant in goodness and truth "
(Ex. xxxiv. 6), repeatedly grants them the vic-
tory, which was so extraordinary and wonderful,
that it could not possibly be ascribed to human
power and strength, but only to God, to His might,
His grace and truth. It was designed to make
king and people unmistakably certain that it is not
Baal or any other god but the God Jehovah who
"doeth wonders, and declareth His strength
among His people, and redeemeth His people with
a strong arm " (Ps. Ixxvii. 15). And in order
that every one may know whence and from whom
6uch a victory came, he caused it to be foretold by
his servants the prophets. If ever anything could
be. this double victory wa3 designed to open the
eyes of king and people, and bring them to a re-
cognition of the " thus saith the Lord, ' I am Je-
hovah.' " We have thus in this account, not mere-
ly an ordinary history of wars, but a part of the
divine history of salvation before us, which in an
individual instance is what the entire history
of Israel is in its completeness, namely, a dis-
play of the special dealings with a guidance of
His people on God's part. Although the first vic-
tory is a marked evidence of the saving might
and grace of Jehovah, the second, by which the
entire Syrian power was destroyed, was for Israel
as well as for the Syrians thtmselves a still more
remarkable proof of the fact, that Jehovah was no
mere mountain, and local, or national divinity, but
that the whole earth was His, and He was God of
all nations (Ex. xix. 5 ; Ps. xxiv. 1). He who
reduces the God of Israel to a mere local or na-
tional deity, as is so often done even nowadays,
stands on the same footing with the " servants of
the king of Syria " (vers. 23, 28).
2 King Ahab appears by no means in the
present part of the historical narrative " in a more
favorable light than in those [previously alluded
to, traditional] passages" (Thenius) ; on the contrary
he is just as weak, faithless, and devoid of charac-
ter. There is not the slightest evidence of a single
religious emotion, in a time of need and distress;
he neither calls upon the Lord for help and assist-
ance, nor renders thanks to him after his rescue
from danger. The name of Jehovah does not pass
his lips. He does not oppose himself to the haughty,
boasiful enemy "as a resolutely determined man,"
but is faint-hearted and timorous, calls himself his
"servant," submits to his demands, and is ready to
surrender to him not only his gold and silver, but
also his wives and sons. It is only when the whole
nation cries out to him, "You have no right to do
that ! " that he plucks up courage and assumes
quite a different tone: to-day despairing and way
down, to-m;rrow defiant and lofty; still for some
time he inquired of the very prophet who foretold
to him his victory, whether indeed he should make
the attack and place himself at the head of his peo-
ple. When the danger was past it did not occur
to him to prepare for a similar peril; a prophet must
first suggest it to him and give him instructions
to that end After the second victory, which
brings into his power the bold, dangerous enemy
who was constantly threatening Israel, and who,
as circumstances afterwards gave evidence, was a
false and treacherous foe, he acknowledges him
as a brother, treats him with royal honor, and al-
lows him to depart on the easiest possible condi-
tions. This last-mentioned act later interpreters
and historians have set down as greatly to his
credit; it was "an act which did honor to his
heart" (Bauer), a token of a "naturally very noble
mind" (J. D. Michaelis), or of "natural kindness
of heart and confiding disposition " (Thenius), he
had " magnanimously granted life and liberty to a
wounded and captive enemy " (Duncker). Not
much can be said, however, concerning kindness
of heart in connection with that man who at one
time permitted the slaughter ol defenceless prophets
because they opposed the wild, lascivious Baal and
Astarte worship, and subsequently permitted the
innocent Naboth to be executed tnrougli deceit
uud treachery, merely because he wanted his vine-
yard ; and when he called that barbarous Syrian
Ben-hadad, who had set out on an expedition mere-
ly to plunder and devastate, and, persevering, sought
to destroy Istael at once, his ''brother." and at the
same time honored him as a king — whereas he had
found fault with such a man as Elijah, charging
him with being a disturber of Israel (chap, xviii.
17). We see no evidence in such action of gener-
osity and magnanimity, but simply that foolishness
which is usually allied with weakness and lack of
character. He is flattered that the highest serv-
ants and generals of Benhadad should come to him
in sackcloth and with ropes around their necks,
and recite to him all manner of things about the
well-known mercy and high-mindeduess of the
kings of the house of Israel, but about which iu
reality nothing had been known since the time of
Jeroboam. That he should allow himself to bt
immediately influenced and entrapped by theii
flattery, is only a proof of his fickle character and
his want of serious moral conduct. The sequel
(chap. xxii. 31 sq.) shows how wretchedly he had
allowed himself to be deceived.
3. The solemn proplietic denunciation whicli
Ahab drew down upon himself was in every sens*
justly deserved. Concerning the fitness of it and
the method of its accomplishment Hess says {he.
cit. 0. p. 14G): "A very striking scene, if we lake
the affair out from its old surroundings, and trans-
fer it to the present time. Considered from the point
of view of the theocracy, as the old narrator luoked
at it, it has by no means any of the impropriety
which the sense of the present day ascribes to it,
but it is a noticeable evidence of the delicate in-
sight into human nature, and the noble independ-
ence with which the prophets understood how to
! resent the encroachments of the kings on the rights
of the theocracy." If ever a man ought to hav
been made harmless once for all, it was this Ben-
hadad, who had twice wantonly commenced war
for the mere sake of robbing and exercising power,
who had set a small value on the lives of thousands
of his subjects, and who proposed to change Sama-
CHAPTER XX. 1-43.
239
ria into a heap of ruins and utterly exterminate
Israel. This is no question of relations between
private individuals ; just as Ahab was not so much
victor as Jehovah, so Ben-hadad was not Ahab's
but Jehovah's prisoner. Ahab had then no right
to let him go free and unpunished, for by so doing
he arbitrarily interfered with the righteous de-
cision of God, and instead of being an instrument
of divine justice he became the toy of his own
foolishness and imbecility. The nature and method
of the prophetic denunciation was similar to that
of Nathan, who caused David to utter sentence
against himself concerning his deed (2 Sam xii. 1
sq). What took place there by means of a spoken
parable took place here through an acted one,
whose peculiarity is by no means any more striking
than the one which we find pro ex. in Jer. xiii. 1
sq. ; xxvii. 2 sq. ; Ezek. v. 1 sq. ; xxiv. 3 sq. At the
same time, however, it gives us an opportunity, as
Vou Gerlaeh observes, " to gain an insight into the
awful solemuity of the prophetic office at this pe-
riod of the revolt." What an obedience to the
word of Jehovah, what independence and courage
were required to do what this son of the prophets
didl When Duncker saya (loc. cit. p. 412): "The
prophets of Jehovah were very much dissatisfied
with this merciful forbearance; as Samuel had
once blamed Saul, so now they blamed Ahab pas-
sionately and bitterly," his remarks spring from
the same spirit of animosity, in accordance with
which they discover something noble and good in
the actions of Ahab and men like him, but place
the doings of the prophets in the worst possible
light. Clericus has indeed remarked with justice:
Factum Ahabi, quamvis dementia spieciem prae se
ferat, non eral verve clementice, quce rwn est erga la-
trones exercenda ; qui si dimittantur, multo magis
nocebunt, quam antea, quemadmodum re vera fecit
Beahadad.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-43. The twice repeated victory of Ahab
o/er the Syrians proclaimed aloud and distinctly (a)
the power and strength of the Lord (Ben-hadad
came with thirty -two kings, horses and chariots, and
a great army, vers. 1 and 10, the first time, with
more than a hundred thousand men the second time,
ver. 29. Ahab had only seven thousand ; two hun-
dred and thirty-two decided the battle, ver. 1 5, the
first time, and the second time his army was like
two flocks of kids, ver. 27 ; nevertheless, he con-
quered. If ever, it could be said in this case : the
horse is prepared against the day of battle, but
safety is of the Lord, Prov. xxi. 31 ; 1 Mac. iii. 18.
19. Every king who goes to battle should consi-
der what is written in Ps. xxxiii. 16 sq., and his
army should sing : By our own strength nothing
is done, &c, through God we shall do valiantly, Ps.
lx. 14 ; lxxxiv. 6). (b) The grace and mercy of the
Lord. (Ahab had deserved nothing as little as he
had this repeated victory, for he had introduced
the worship of idols, abandoned the confederacy,
tc, divine judgments had been fruitless. However,
God granted him the victory, not from any merit
of his, but out of pure grace and compassion. He
endured with much long-suffering, &c, Rom. ix.
22. He is long-suffering, not willing that any, &c,
2 Pet. iii. 9 ; Ezek. xviii. 23. But the great tri-
umph cried out to Ahab and Israel: Despisest
thou the riches, Ike., Rom. ii. 4-6. Great victories
ought not to make a king and his people haughty,
but humble, and bring them to the knowledgd
that He, the Lord, is God alone.) Vers. 1-21.
The war between Ben-hadad and Ahab ; (a)
Ben-hadad's invasion and demands ; (b) Ahab's
danger and distress ; (c) Israel's victory. Vers.
1-11. The messages of Ben-hadad to Ahab,
and his responses, (a) The first one, ver. 1-4; (b)
the second, vers. 5-9 ; (c) the third, vers. 10, 11. —
Vers. 1-4. Wurt Summ. : In these two kings we
see what a thing the human heart is, how insolent
and timorous by turns (Jer. xvii. 9). It is insolent
when man, grown prosperous, powerful, and rich,
places his confidence in his success, and haughtily
despises his neighbor. But it is timid when man
falls into difficulty, and neither sees nor knows
any help, just as was the despairing, womanly
heart of king Ahab, who took it for granted that
everything was lost when he saw the hosts of his
enemies. — Vers. 1-3. Ben-hadad thought that be-
cause lie had the power to rob and appropriate,
he also had the right to do so. But God gives
power and might to kings, not to distort the right,
but to protect it. The power of that one who, con-
fiding in his own strength, treads the right under his
feet, will sooner or later miserably decline. — Ver.
4. Those who no longer have a Lord in heaven
whom they fear, and before whom they bow, cringe
and fawn before all men who can harm or serve
them. If Ahab had said to the King of kings what
he sent as a response to the royal robber and
boaster: "I am thine and all that I have;" he
would then have had the trust and assurance : He
that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, Ac.
(Ps. xci. 1-3). He who bows before God is sure to be
humble before men ; but he does not cringe to them
nor throw himself away. To submit to the superior
power and force that demands gold and silver is
no disgrace ; but to surrender wife and child is
contrary to honor, duty, and conscience. — Vers. 5, 6.
Haughty and insolent men grow all the more over-
bearing and ungovernable, and the more one sub-
mits to them and crawls before them and gratifies
their desires, the more exorbitant they become in
their demands. It is the curse that rests upon
avarice, that the more the appetite after money and
property is gratified, the more it grows, not dimin-
ishes (Prov. xvi. 8). — Vers. 7-9. Ahab and his peo-
ple. (<i) Ahab feels himself helpless and perplexed.
Adversity teaches us how to pray, but Ahab had
turned from the living God, who is a helper in
every time of trouble, to a dumb idol that cannot
help ; he had forgotten how to pray, forgotten the
word of the Psalm 1. 15 : Call on me in a day of
trouble, &c. ; he had sought to help himself by
cowardly submission, and now he seeks help of
men. In every distress we should turn first to
the Lord, Ps. cxviii. 8, 9; cviii. 13; Hymn: Wean
wir in kbchsten Nothen sein, und wissen nicht wo aus
und tin, Ac. (" God is the refuge of his saiuts,
when storms of deep distress invade "), vers. 1 and
2. (6) The elders and the people reproach him.
Instead of his giving instructions to them with the
words of Joel iii. 15, like a king, they give com-
mands to him : Hearken not unto him. He is no
real king, realizing the position which has been
given to him by God, whom the people control
instead of allowing themselves to be controlled ty
him. Tyrants are of this class : at first they d<
not consult the people, and do not scruple to appro
240
THE firs: book of the kings.
priate their most sacred possessions, take away
their faith, aud burden their consciences. Ahab
did not consult his people about the introduction
of the worship of Baal and the persecution of the
prophets ; but now when he does not know how
to counsel or help himself, he applies to the wish
of the nation, the aid of the people is now very
acceptable. — Ver. 10. Boasting and braggadocio
are never a sign of true strength and ability, much
rather of moral weakness. Beu-hadad, who speaks
of the dust of Samaria, shows himself by that very
act to be of dust, Ps. lxxv. 5, 6 ; Jer. xvii. 5 (Matt,
xxvi. 33, 69). — Ver. 11. Cramer: It is presumption
for a man to celebrate a triumph before he has
gained the victory; so that those who propose
doing anything should say : If the Lord will, &c.
(Jas. iv. 15). Starke : ffe have no need to stand
in fear of men who put their confidence in them-
selves.— Ver. 1 2. No success or blessing can rest
upon orders which issue from drunken revelries.
— Ver. 13. Formerly Ahab wished no instruction
from the prophets ; now in his danger and distress
he admits them and listens to them. In days of
prosperity the world does not care for any advice
from the faithful servants of the divine word ; it
looks down upon them and despises them; but in
the hour of sorrow and mourning it grants them ac-
cess, and is glad to avail itself of their consolation.
Temptation teaches us to observe God's word.
They who do accept it and obey it will have as
little cause as Ahab to repent of it. Before a
great troop which has been abandoned of God,
you have no cause to fear if God has said to you :
I will help thee (Isai. xli. 13). Vou are to ac-
knowledge : I am the Lord. This is the end
and aim of all God's guidings and providences ;
if they do not attain this end in your case,
your life and existence are vaiu and of no value,
to no purpose. — Vers. 14, 15. Cf. 1 Sam. xiv.
6; 2 Chron. xiv. 11. A little band of brave
meu accomplishes more than a great troop of
such as tight in a bad cause and with a wicked
conscience. — Ver. 16. Ben-hadad must have sore-
ly repc-nted his drunkenness, as it resulted in the
loss of his army, his horses and chariots. How
often still is drunkenness the original cause of
great sorrow and distress (Ephes. v. 18; Isai. v.
22; Prov. xxiii. 29, 30). — Ver. 18. Great men often
think, when they have been disturbed in their
carnal rest and security, that they only need to
speak the word of command in order to be relieved
from everything disagreeable and wearisome, but
they must learn that they cannot rid themselves
by a command of what God has sent for their
humiliation. — Vers. 19-21. The way of the god-
less shall perish (Ps. i. 6). Their way is covetous-
ness and pillage (vers. 3, 6), haughtiness, insolence,
and assurance (vers. 10, 18), service of their belly,
wantonness (vSr. 16). This way shall perish; they
are as chaff which the wind driveth away, "utterly
consumed with terrors " (vers. 20, 21; Ps. lxxiii.
19).
Vers. 22-34. The second expedition of the
Syrians against Israel, (a) The motive ; (b) the
issue. — Ver. 22. The advice of the prophet; Go,
strengthen thyself, and mark. &c. is applicable in
another, higher sense to us all. Our enemies are
not idle, they are constantly returning to the at-
lack. Kven if we have by the help of the Lord
conquered a victory over sin. the world, and the
dev'.l, that is n it all there is to bo doue ; we must
oven after the victory be on our guard and arm
ourselves, so that the enemy may not fall upon ul
uuawares (1 Cor xvi. 13 ; Ephes vi. 10 sq.; 1 Pet
v. 8 ; Hymn : Ttilsitf each, ihr Christenleute, die Feindi
suchen eucb zur Bcute, &c, " My sou! be on thy
guard, Ten thousand foes arise," &c). — Vers. 23-
25. The evil counsellors of Ahab. (a) They urge
him on to war and battle instead of counselling
peace, because their pride was wounded and their
hope of booty had been frustrated. Place no con-
fidence in the man who incites you to begin a
quarrel. The saying of Scripture (Heb. xii. 14) ia
applicable to all, in private as well as public life,
for individuals and entire nations, for masters aud
servants, (b) They plead religious reasons, and
make use of the superstition of their unwitting lord.
It is possible for a bad, unholy thing to become
confirmed through superstition ; the man who
plants himself on truth, however, will not permit
himself to be deceived on such a foundation, (c)
They shove the blame of the ignominious defeat on
to the thirty-two kings, instead of seeking for it in
themselves. A man always prefers to find the
cause of his own misfortune and distress in anoth-
er's rather than in his own sin and guilt. — Ver. 26.
Ben-hadad followed their foolish and perverse ad-
vice because it was entirely in accordance with his
own wish. So strong and overpowering is sinful
desire in the human heart, that even the bitterest
dispensation and chastisement of God suppresses it
only for a time, and, as soon «s the external im-
pression ceases, it breaks forth afresh. — Ver. 28.
He who calls the God of Israel, who made heaven
and earth and filled them both (Jer. xxiii. 23, 24),
a god of ihe hills or a national divinity, blasphemes
His name ; the Lord, however, will not let him go
unpunished, who takes His name in vain. — Ver.
29 sq. God is a judge who putteth down one and
setteth up another (Ps. lxxv 8) Hymn: Es sind
ja Gott geringe Sachen, mid seiner Allmacht gilt es
gleich, den Reichen arm und klein zu machen. 4c. To-
day a king aud lord over hundreds and thousands,
to-morrow a mau who is obliged to sneak about
and beg for mercy ; to-day haughty aud insolent,
to-morrow a slave in sackcloth, and with a rope
about the neck (Jer. xvi. 6, 7). — Wurt. Summ. :
Nothing among mortal affairs is so inconstant as
temporal prosperity. There is a time for every-
thing. For that reason let no man place his de-
pendence on his good fortune and exalt himself on
its account, for he does not know whether he
shall possess in the evening what was his in the
morning (Sir. xviii. 26) — Vers. 31-42. Lisko :
Ahab's wicked conduct after the victory, (a) In
what it cousisted. (6) How he was punished for it.
— Cramer: "When authority is compassionate out of
proper season and neglects iis office of correction,
it draws upon itself the guilt of the other. God
wants no mercy to bo shown where he has ordered
punishment. Vers. 31-33. 1'raise, flattery, and
subserviency are only too often the snare with
which kings and great men are caught, so that un-
der the appearance of generosity and magnanimity
they may be led astray and act contrary to the
will of God They ought, indeed, to be merciful
.ind gracious, but not forget that to do justice is
(heir first, duty, and that they do not carry the
sword in vain. — Ahab persecutes au Elijah in every
kingdom (chap, xviii. 10), and threatens him with
death, but he permits a robber and a plunderer to
sit beside him in his chariot and miikes a covenant
CHAPTER XXI. 1-29. ^41
with him. What to the eyes of the world looks i joined with pain and sacrifice. — Vers. 3S-40. A
like generosity, in lhe eyes of God, who trieth the I genuine preacher of repentance must first of all
heart and reins, is only weakness and folly. Great
injury can be done by seeming ill-timed generosity.
— Ver. 33. Cramer : After a word has been once
spoken, we cannot recall it. Therefore learn to
guard thy mouth : he who does will not offend by
convict the sinner of his guilt anil bring him to the
point where he condemns himself, just as Nathan
did with David. — Vers. 42, 43. Ahab listened well
pleased to the falsehood from the lips ol the Syrian
nobles, for it gave nourishment to his folly ; the
his words (Sir. xxiii. 7). — Vers. 35-43. The pro- i truth from the mouth of the prophet made him
clamation of the divine punishment for Ahab's I restless and angry, because it punished his folly.
conduct, (a) How it occurred ; (ft) how it was re-
ceived by him (vide Historical and Ethical). — Vers.
35-37. He who has his calling and service from the
word of God ought to allow no danger to detain
him from making an announcement of the fact (2
Tim. iv. 2), and must obediently submit himself to
hi3 commands even when the fulfilment of them is
There is no help for the man who allows himself
to be irritated by the truth instead of receiving it
with meekness (Jas. i. 21). There is nothing that
so rouses and provokes an unconverted and unbe-
lieving man as to have his sinful character so un-
veiled and set before his eyes that he can no longer
justify or excuse himself.
B. — The proceedings of Ahab against Naboth.
Chap. XXI. 1-29.
1 And it came to pass after these things,1 that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vine-
yard, which teas in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And
2 Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a
garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house :J and I will give thee for it a
better vineyard than it ; or,3 if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of
3 it in money. And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord [Jehovah] forbid it me, that
4 I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And Ahab came into his
house heavy and displeased, because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had
spoken to him : for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers.
And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no
■5 bread.4 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so
6 sad, that thou eatest no bread '? And he said unto her, Because I spake unto
Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money ; or
else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it : and he answered,
7 I will not give thee my vineyard.5 And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost
thou now govern the kingdom of Israel ? arise, and eat bread, and let thine
8 heart be merry : I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she
wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the let-
ters " unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his ' city, dwelling with
9 Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth
10 on high among the people : and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to
bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king.
11 And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. And the men of his
city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as
Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had
12 sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the
13 people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him :
and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the pre-
sence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then
they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that
14 he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead
15 And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was
dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Na-
both the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money : for Naboth is not
16 alive, but dead. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was
dead," that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite,
to take possession of it.
16
242 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
17 And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to Elijah the Tishbite, say
18 ing, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is [dwelleth'J in Sama-
ria : behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess
19 it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah],
Hast thou killed, and also taken possession ? And thou shalt speak unto him,
saying, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], In the place '° where dogs licked the
20 blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." And Ahab said to
Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy ? And he answered, I have found
thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord
21 [Jehovah]. Behold, I will bring 12 evil upon thee, and will take away thy pos-
terity, and will cut oft" from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him
22 that is shut up and left in Israel, and will make thine house like the house of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for
the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to
23 sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord [Jehovah], saying, The dogs shall eat
24 Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs
shall eat ; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wicked-
26 ness in the sight of the Lord [Jehovah], whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And
he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the
27 Amorites, whom the Lord [Jehovah] cast out before the children of Israel. And
it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and
put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
28 And the word of the Lord [Jehovah] came to Elijah the Tishbite, sayiug, Seest
29 thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself
before me, I will not bring the evil in his days : but in his son's days will I
bring the evil upon his house.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1. — [The Vat. Sept., which, as before noted, transposes chaps, xx. and xxi., omits in conseqnence the mark of time
at the beginning of ver. 1. The AJex. Sept., which follows the Heb. in that matter, designates Naboth as an Israelite instead
of a Jezreelite. throughout the chapter.
2 Vpr. 2. — [The Sept. omits the reason for Ahab's coveting the vineyard.
3 Ver. 2. — [Several MSS., followed by most of the VV., supply the word or and read Qjfl .
* Ver. 4. — [The Vat. Sept. gives a mere epitome of this ver. : the Alex, follows the Heb.
4 Ver. 6. — [The Sept. instead of vineyard here introduce from ver. 4 " the inheritance of my fathers." As this phrase
explains Nabotlfs reason (see Exeg. Com.) for refusing Ahab. the addition is not likely to be right.
6 Ver. 8. — The k'tib Q^ISQrj is to be unhesitatingly preferred to the k'ri rj*~|2rj . [The k'ri is the reading of many
MSS., but the k'tib reappears in the next ver. and ver. 11 unquestioned.
7 Ver. 8. — [The Chald. and Syr. omit this pronoun, which certainly does not seem necessary in itself ; but, from its repe-
tition in ver. 11, doubtless belongs here also.
8 Ver. 16. — [The Sept. here curiously interpolates the statement, " he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth. Atid it
came to pass after this that Ahab," &c. Ahab seems to have felt no need of such decent hypocrisy.
9 Ver. 18. — [Our author in his translation supplies the ellipsis by the verb dtcelleth rather than is, since the reference
must be to his dwelling-place, and at this moment he was in Jezreel.
10 Ver. 19. — [The Sept. considerably modifies this prophetic denunciation : " In every place where the sowb and the dog»
licked the blood of Naboth, there shall the dogs lick thy blood, and harlots wash in thy blood."
11 Ver. 19. — [nnX~D3 an emphatic repetition of the proii. stiff, literally and well expressed in the A.V.
19 Ver. 21. — [The k'ri gives the full form fc^D Deret and 602N ver- ^, of tais verb, in which there appears to be a
... . T
peculiar tendency of the ^ to fall away.— F. G.]
connecting thought with chap xx, is this: Aa
Ahab. in consequenco of victory twice won, found
tranquillity and peace externally, he was contem-
plating the extension and the beautifying of the
garden of his summer palace at Jezreel (vide on
chap, xviii. 46). Sanctius: post victos hostes ad de-
licias comparandas animurn adjecit.
Vers. 2-6. And Ahab spake unto Naboth,
&c. Ver. 3, literally : Far is it for me from Jehovah
that I, &c. This expression presupposes two
things, viz. : that Naboth was a worshipper of Je-
hovah and did not bow his knee to Baal, and tha»
he belonged to those who had remained faithful
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass after these
things, &c. The Sept. places this whole chapter
oefore the twentieth, and Thenius holds this to be
its original place. Bwald says, rightly: "The
transposition resulted simply to unite more closely
the similar narrations in chaps, xx. and xxii. and
inversely chaps, xvii.-xix., xxi. The expression
iu chap xxi. 4, as a climax to chap. xx. 43, refers
back rather palpably to the latter passage." Na-
both's affair must have happened then after the
two victories over the Syrians, because Elijah's
Bevere sentence proclaiming the fall of the house of (Ahab dot-s not mention the name "Jehovah")
Ahab, which was occasioned by them, could not , and that also he held the alienation of his vine-
have immediately preceded those victories. The yard to be a sin against Jehovah, a transgression
CHAPTER XXI. 1-29
243
of a command of Jehovah. This command must
have been that respecting the inalienability of the
inheritance which was apportioned to each tribe and
to each family, and could not, even by marriage,
go into other hands, and which, even it' it were
sold on account of impoverishment or otherwise on
account of distress, would revert to it again, without
price, in the year of Jubilee (Numb, xxxvi. 1-13 ;
Lev. xxv. 10-28). According to Ezek. xlvi 18,
the prince himself could not force any one out of
his property. This Mosaic law is conuected most
intimately with the stability of the Theocracy ; ii
Becured its material foundation (cf. Symb. des
Mosais. Kult., II. s. 604) ; and if it were not always
strictly observed and enforced, the main thought
pervading it nevertheless struck out strong roots
in the consciousness of the people, and the preser-
vation of the H^nj was for every covenant-keeping
Israelite a matter not merely of piety towards his
family aud his tribe, not merely a prudential,
worldly affair, but a religious, sacred duty. No
consideration would induce Naboth to violate this,
neither greater gain (for Ahab offered him a better
vineyard or wished to pay him well), nor the royal
authority and the fear of the royal displeasure,
especially when, as here, not need, but a royal
whim only, was concerned. Hence it is almost
laughable when with J D. Michaelis Naboth's an-
swer is explained as "uncivil in the extreme," or
when others say that it was a piece of " obstinacy ; "
for in that case Joseph's reply to Potiphar's wife
(Gen. xxxix. 9) was uncivil and obstinate. For -|D
(ver. 4), see on chap. xx. 43 : He turned away his
face, the Vulg. adds adparietem, which 2 Kings xx.
2, has : Seb. Schmidt : more fristtum, qui conversa-
tionem, colloquium etconspectum Iwminum fugiunt et
declinant.
Vers. 7-8. And Jezebel his wife said, Ac
The words nnN — iwii.'" are usually translated
imperatively: "Thou! exert now the royal autho-
rity over Israel" (de Wette), i. e., act as king, use
the power which belongs to thee as king of Israel,
or, " Thou exercisest authority now over Israel "
(Philippson), i. e., now must thou show thyself
to be king over Israel. On the other hand,
as Thenius properly remarks, the collocation
of the words is to be observed (Thou comes first),
and also the connection (Jezebel says : / will give
thee). This antithesis compels us to understand
the words as ironical, and with the Sept., the Vulg.,
and the Syriac, to regard them as a question:
Dost thou now exercise authority over Israel '?
Host thou as kiug permit thyself to ask such a
thing of one of thy subjects ? I will give thee the
vineyard, since thou trustest not thyself to act as
man and king. — The letters (ver. 8) Jezebel furnish-
ed with the royal seal, i. e., she affixed the seal to
(not sealed up). " Probably the seal had on it the
name of the king, which, instead of the signature,
was by the seal stamped upon the document, as is
the case now in Egypt and Persia, amongst Turks
and Arabs; cf. Paulsen, die Regier. der Morgenland.
s. 295 " (Keil) ; Esth. viii. 12. Jezebel certainly
received the seal (seal-ring, Dan. vi. 18) from
Ahab himself, who allowed her the free use of it.
From ver. 8, it is manifest that Ahab and Jezebel
were then in Samaria, their residence, properly
speaking. Tlie elders and nobles constituted with-
out, doubt the city tribunal (Deut. xvi. 18),
"which must have had then, according to oui
chapter, in cases easily to be decided the /us vitoe"
(Thenius) ; cf. on Matt. v. 21. The addition : dwel-
ling with Naboth, shows that they were his fellow-
townsmen.
Ver. 9. Proclaim a fast, as was customary in
the event of national calamities (Joel i. 14), after
grievous defeats (Judg. xx. 26; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13),
after great sins (1 Sam. vii. 6 ; Joel ii. 1 2), or for the
turning away of apprehended misfortune (2 Chron
xx. 2, 4) ; it is always the sign of penitence. Ob-
viously it stauds here in a definite relation to the
offeuce charged, and it was not merely to furnish
occasion for the procedure against Naboth (The-
nius), but rather " to publish the fact that a grievous
fault was resting upon the city, which must be
expiated." The stamp of truth would thus thereby
be impressed, in the eyes of the entire city, upon
the crime with which Naboth was charged (Keil).
Naboth was to be set on high in the assemblage,
'■ so that the public indignation might be the more
vividly expressed, if one who was worthy uf such
distinction, on account of his God-feariug senti-
n ent, should be convicted of being such a grievous
sinner" (Thenius). This is certainly better than
the view advanced by Grotius : ne odio damnasse
crederentur, quern ipsi honoraverant, or the explana-
tion "f Seb. Schmidt: producite eum ante unuersum
populum in judicium ad causam dicendam.
Vers. 10-14. Two men . . before him, Ac.
According to Deut. xvii. 6 and xix. 15, every crime
punishable by death must be testified to by at least
two witnesses, who also must at the stoning
make the beginning. i'HJJ not contra (Vulg.), but
coram, in conspectu. — Thou didst blaspheme 7fl_3
means properly to bless ; then, because at a depar-
ture one utters a benediction, generally to say fare-
well, is to leave, so Job i. 5 ; ii. 5 : to bless God, to
give God a departure, to turn one's self from Him.
If now Xaboth, by this expression, was guilty of a
capital crime, it must of necessity be that which
the law ordained in the death-punishment (cf. Lev.
xxiv. 14 sq.). Blasphemy against the kiug is
placed beside blasphemy against God, because
the king represents God and rules in His name ;
crime against majesty involves death (2 Sam. xvi.
9). Jezebel does not use the name nirP but the
more general indefinite JTilPK ■
Vers. 15-16. Take possession of the vine-
yard, Ac. The immediate seizure of the property
appears here as something which, in consequence
of the execution of Naboth, is understood to be ac-
cording to usage and right. The Rabbins remark,
that which indeed the Mosaic law does not ex-
pressly ordain, the property of an offender against
majesty falls to the king, who was, in so far, its in-
heritor ( E^T1 means also to inherit, Gen. xxi. 10 ;
Jer. xlix. 1). According to 2 Kings ix. 26, Naboth's
sons also were put to death, the heirs proper, be-
sides, were no longer living.
Vers. 17-19. And the word cf the Lord
came to Elijah, Ac. From VI in ver. 18 we
are to conclude that Elijah was, at that time, in a
mountain-district. Ahab's crime is set before him
in the form of a question, which was more fitted to
awaken Ins conscience than a bare affirmation.
When the guilt of the crime is charged upon
Ahab, and not upon Jezebel who was the agent in
244
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
the matter, it is like Gen. iii. 9, where God brings
Adam and not Eve to account. — According to
chap. xxii. 33, the dogs licked the blood of Ahab,
not at Jetreel, the place where Naboth was put to
death, but at Samaria. In order to reconcile both
passages, either "itrX DipD3 have been translated
by pro eo quod (Grotius, Maurer, De Wette : " for
that "), or it has been supposed that the prophecv,
inasmuch as Ahab repented (ver. 27), was ful-
filled but partially in him, and fully in hia son (2
Kings ix. 25) (Calmet, KeiL Gerlach aud others).
Thenius believes that there is a contradiction here
which does not admit of any reconciliation, no
matter what the explanation be. But how thought-
less the author of our books must have been, if' in
two chapters alongside of each other, on the
same leaf as it were, he had admitted ''direct"
contradictions inadvertently. The place where
Naboth's and Ahab's blood were licked up by dogs
was '■ before or outside the city," i. e., the place
where supposed or real criminals were executed
(cf. ver. 13; Lev. xxiv. 14; Acts vii. 56; Hebrews
xiii. 12 sq.). The prophetic word means: As thou
hast unrighteously put Naboth to death, as a crimi-
nal, without the city, so shalt thou, righteously,
in the same place, outside thy city (residence), be
put to death, i. e., as a criminal. In this the pro-
phecy found its fulfilment, in the similarity of the
disgraceful death, not in the similarity of the
special locality. Consequently here the entirely
general DipD stands, and not, as in 2 Kings xi. 25
sq. the special ni3J HT." npbn .
Ver. 20. Hast thou found me, &c. Luther
follows the inaccurate translation of the Vulg. :
num. invenisti me inimicum tibi ? Thenius : "{WO
is herein its most proper signification: to overtake
(seizing me), (I Sam. xxxi. 3 ; Job xi. 7; Jer. x.
8), used especially of the punishing hand(l Sam.
xxiii. 17; Isai. x. 10; Ps. xxi. 9), consequently:
Hast thou overtaken me, mine enemy ? As a defiant
question, and entirely suited to, mine enemy :
thinkest thou that thou hast now got me down ? To
this the reply is wholy suited : Yes, I have got
thee I " Ton Gerlach justly remarks: "Struck at
by the address of Elijah, Ahab seeks to justify him-
self by attributing personal enmity upon the pro-
phet's part towards himself." Michaelis wholly
wrong: Hast thou found me in an act which I can-
not excuse? or Vatablus : Hast thou found some-
thing against me which thou canst censure, thou
who art always against me? — -|3Dnn must be taken
here in a wholly general sense, as in ver. 25 (cf.
1 Kings xvii. 17 : Rom. vii. 14) ; to abandon one's
self without will to evil; tomako one's self a slave
of sin ; " the feebleness is therein expressed also, by
virtue of which he was the tool of others " (Ger-
lach). The Sept. add arbitrarily, /larnv, which
Thenius holds to be original, and then translates :
on account of thy pretended selling of thyself to
do, &c. i.e., thou shalt become conscious that thou
hast fully received the price of sin; very forced.
The ri>v wapopyiaai aiviv of the Sept. after miT is
also an arbitrary addition.
Vers. 21-24. Behold, I will bring evil, Ac.
Upon vers. 21— 24, see above on chap. xiv. 10 sq.
and also xvi. 3 sq. It is the standing avenging
sentence for the dyua-ties of apostate king-, re-
peated also in chap. xxii. 38 and 2 Kings ix. 8 sq.
36. The divine punishment fulls upon Ahab aud his
house not alone on account of the crime committed
against Naboth, but also, and chiefly, on account of
the idolatry existing and promoted during his reign,
with which, indeed, that crime was closely con-
nected. The pn3 in ver. 23 is translated in the
Septuag, rightly here as in 2 Sam. xx. 15, by iv t£
KporaxiofiaTi , by which a space immediately close
to the walls, and belonging to the city-terrain, is
to be understood. Jezebel also was to be devoured
by dogs before, i. e. outside the city. "When for
tajDE ?!?? , SKjnP p?i]3 occurs in 2 Kings ix.
10, 36, 37, not another but the same place is
designated, viz. in the space, i. e., in the city-terrain
of Jezreel. Thenius very unnecessarily would
have the reading in our passage pprQ . Jezebel,
according to 2 Kings ix. 33, was thrown out of a
window and trodden by horses, but was not de-
voured by dogs in " the court of the palace." This
happened rather before the city-walls.
Vers. 25-26. There was none like unto, &c.
The 25th and 26th verses are a parenthesis by
which the relator desires once more to bring out the
reason for the miserable destruction of the house ol
Ahab, and why every effort to wash Ahab clean,
and to make of him " a good man of the best dispo-
sition " (Michaelis) seemed useless, p"i does not
mean here : yea, assuredly (De Wette) ; " it has here
its usual meaning, but it does not stand, as is often
the case, immediately before the word to which it
is related ; translate : besides how Ahab (Ahab ex-
cepted), there was none (as he), &c." (Thenius). —
The Amorites are mentioned instead of the Canaan-
ites generally, as in Gen. xv. 16; Jos. xxiv. 15 ;
Amos ii. 9, because they were the most powerful
tribe of Canaan. Ahab had abandoned himself
entirely to the idolatry on account of which Jeho-
vah had driven the Cnnaanites from their land, and
had given it to the Israelites (chap. xvi. 33).
Vers. 27-29. When Ahab heard those
words, &c. The rending of the clothes, putting on
sackcloth and fasting, are the usual signs of mourn-
ing and penitence (Winer, B.-W-R, II. s. 631.
Ahab slept in his sackcloth. t3X does not mean
barefoot (Jarchi and others), not demisso capite, or
slowly (Keil), but quietly, softly Jsa. viii. 6). — The
complete ruin was not to overtake Ahab during his
lifetime, but ''he was referred back to the threaten-
ing of the law, according to which, the misdeeds of
the fathers were not to be borne in the children,
who did not cease from them longer than to the
third or fourth generation " (Menken).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The procedure against Naboth constitutes a
turning-point in the history of Ahab, in so far as it
called forth the prediction of the destruction of
himself and of his house. Although it concerned
but our contemporaneous people, it has neverthe-
less a general theoeratico-historical significance in
this, that a moral corruption was therein brought
to light, which had seized the head aud the mem-
bers of the kingdom, and was the consequence of
the apostasy from the God of Israel and from His
law. ft was a crying proof that all the evidence
of divine power and grace and fidelity and long
suffering had produced no fruit. That too was the
point of time when it was necessary for the prophet
to appear again, of whom Sirach says (chap.
CHAPTER XXL 1.-29.
246
xlviii. 10), "who wast ordained for reproofs in
their times to pacify the wrath of the Lord's judg-
ment before it break forth into fury. . . . and to
restore the tribes of Jacob." It devolved upon
him whose destination and calling it was essen-
tially to exercise the prophetic avenging office, to
bear witness agajnst apostasy, and to proclaim the
judgments of God — upon him it devolved, before
all things, by virtue of his position in the history
of the kingdom of God (see above), to announce to
the king who, with his wife, had formally intro-
duced the apostasy, and in his procedure against
Naboth had shown himself incorrigible, the final
sentence of God against him and his whole house.
The word of Jehovah came hence also to him, and
he issued forth again from his retirement " as a
fire, and his word burned like a torch " (Ecclesi-
asticus xlviii. 1 ). He first places before the king
his crime against Naboth, and proceeds then to the
announcement of his punishment for his conduct
generally. The whole narration culminates in this
announcement. The new criticism does not ques-
tion the historical reality of the affair with Na-
both: "the dressing up," however, belongs to the
author of the history of Elijah (Thenius, Ewald).
Under this clothing (drapery) nothing else can be
meant than the paragraph from ver. 17 to 24,
wrhich is, however, the main thing. If this be ex-
plained as unhistorical, for which no reason is at
hand, the point of the whole narrative is taken
away, and the high meaning disappears from the
event which it has for the history of Ahab, and
indirectly for the history of the kingdom of Israel
generally. It becomes an isolated, ordinary,
Oriental murder-tale, and ceases to be a turning-
point in the history of the theocracy.
2. We are able to understand for the first time,
rightly and completely, the royal couple from the
present narrative. If Ahab has shown himself,
thus far, to be a weak man, destitute of any re-
ligious and moral firmness, and subject to every
evil influence, here this is the case so con-
spicuously that from feebleness and want of
character he becomes a common criminal. He did
not know how to devote the time of peace, after the
severe pressure caused by the Syrians, to anything
except to be thinking of the enlargement and
beautifying of his pleasure-garden — a sign that all
the great experiences of his life, even the last sharp
threatening at the releasing of Ben-hadad, had made
no permanent impression upon him. The refusal
of Naboth to cede to him his vineyard makes him
angry, and excites him ; but he has not force
enough to make use of his mettle, and so he be-
takes himself to his bed, will not eat, nor see any
person, and behaves like a spoiled, ill-mannered
child, which has been refused a toy. It was
necessary for his wife to supply him with spirit, and
to remind him that he must be a man and king.
He does not interfere himself, but allows her to
arrange the matter, and gives her the insignia of
his royal authority, unconcerned how she may use
it, or, as it almost seems, he enters into her crim-
inal designs. When the infamous transaction was
done, and she told him of it, he was not shocked ;
he was rather visibly pleased and satisfied (Jose-
phus has it: "he sprang up from his bed with de-
light "), and he made haste to take possession of
the property stolen and stained with blood. This
blood-guiltiness rested upon him, so that the pro-
phet could, with all propriety, call him both a
murderer and a thief. In respect of Queen Jezebel,
who has hitherto been portrayed only on the sid«
of her wild fanaticism for the unchaste Baal and
Astarte worship, she sho%vs herself here in hei
complete moral depravity. "We discover in her no
trace of the feebleness and want of energy which
characterized her husband. Josephus well calls hei
a yvuatov Apacrr/pidv re nat Totyqpdv . Her deepest
traits were pride and a desire for dominion, tc
gratify which she shrank back from no instru-
mentality. Under the show and pretext of serving
her husband and fulfilling his wishes, she knew
how to govern him and to appropriate to herself
the royal authority. She did not look at the
monarchy according to the Israelitish sense, as the
institution which was designed to carry out the
law and will of Jehovah, but as the absolute
authority over the property and lives (GutundBiut)
of the subjects. Every refusal to fulfil a royal
wish, though it had been grounded in the divine
law, was, in her eyes, lese-majesty, yes, as blas-
phemy against God, because she wished the king
to In- considered not as the setvant, but as the re-
presentative of Deity. Right and justice, for the
administering of which the monarchy exists, are to
her mere forms, and she misapplies the legal or-
gans of justice to carry out injustice. A religious
solemnity must be the cloak of her lust of robbery
and murder, and the people be deceived by per-
jured witnesses. Jezebel does all this in cold blood
and with calm deliberation : yes, she congratulates
herself upon it, and informs her husband of the fact
with self-satisfaction, as if she had done something
deserving praise and thanks. This was the royal
couple at that time at the head of the people and
of the kingdom. If ever at any time, certainly
here, the Turkish proverb finds its application :
" The fish stinks first at the head."
3. The elders and nobles constituting the city
tribunal at Jezreel are a worthy pendent to the
royal couple. Without hesitation they carry out
quickly and punctiliously the received order, and
they hasten to give the queen the news of it, in
order to show themselves loyal and obedient sub-
jects. The fear and the pleasure of men are the
motives for their way of acting ; there is no trace
of the fear of God and of conscientiousness
amongst them. They knew the tyranny and the
severity of the queen, and they did not dare to
thwart her; they were afraid that by resistance
they might lose the residence and suffer loss, or
be punished in limb and body. It seems that
they, as the presiding officers of the residence,
gladly embraced the opportunity to please the
powerful, dreaded queen, and to show their uncon-
ditional submission, in the hope of being praised
and rewarded for it. Perhaps, owing to the sojourn
of the court there, they had become habituated
to unrighteous expectations of the sort, and that
fawning and servility were no longer new to them
Certainly their whole course presupposes thorough
corruption in public affairs, a natural consequence
of the religious confusion which must have entered
in during a reign when " the covenant of Jeho-
vah " was forsaken, his law trodden under foot, and
the infamous Baal and Astarte worship was intro-
duced and patronized. For there is no more authen-
tic sign of the decay of a kingdom than when law
is deliberately debased, and murder, under the
show of right, and with deference to the usual
forms of law, is done by those to whom the duty of
246
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
public justice is intrusted. Deliberate judicial mur-
der is the most infamous of all, and can only take
place where absolute ungodliness has broken all
moral bonds, and a putrefaction has begun. Jeze-
bel would never have dared to order such a pro-
cess had she not known the people, and regarded
them as capable of everything. The circumstances
here were such as Micah, in chap. vii. 2 it sq., has
portrayed. When we consider that the elders who
composed the local tribunal were not royal officials,
but inhabitants of the place, chosen by their fel-
low-townsmen, aud that they, one and all, as one
man, perpetrated the crime, we learn how deeply
the people, who had freely placed such men at
their head, were sunken, and had become devoid
of all fear of God. The blindness with which the
(alse verdict was accepted, and the brutality with
which it was carried out, doubtless in a tumultu-
ous fashion, is an additional proof of what we
have stated.
4. The meeting of Elijah and of Aliab in Naboth's
vineyard is very characteristic of the personal
jualiiies of each. Both reappear here, such as we
and them in the earlier interview in chap, xviii.
7 et sq. As there, so here, Elijah comes forth sud-
denly from his retirement. Like the lightning
which descends from on high and strikes, he met
the king, walking and eujoying himself in the
stolen vineyard. Nothing was further from his
thoughts than an encounter with the earnest, se-
vere preacher of repentance, aud of hearing from
him the thunder-words of the Divine judgment.
As there, Ahab at first blustered, and saluted the
prophet with the words: " Art thou here, troubler
of Israel?" so here he addresses him angrily:
"Hast thou found me, mine enemy? — thou who
art always in my way." But as then, so also now,
the prophet did not allow himself to be imposed
upon and frightened in the least. With firm words
he announces the destruction of him and of his
house ; then the high-going man breaks down and
becomes so dejected that he is bowed down and
creeps along, and even sleeps in sackcloth. But
the meeting is also significant in respect of the re-
lation between the prophetic and the monarch-
ical element. This relation is now represented in
i manifold way, as that of two " self-appointed
powers " who were in perpetual struggle with
sach other to gain the upper hand in the kingdom.
But Elijah especially, the head and representative
of the prophetic order, from whom proceeded the
strife against the covenant-breaking monarchy,
the most energetic and powerful of all the pro-
phets, resolutely and sharply as he met the king,
who called him his enemy, was in the greatest
degree possible free from all hierarchical efforts.
No one in all Israel cared less than he about hav-
ing anything to do with outward power and au-
thority. He did not, like Jeroboam, in the time
of .Solomon and of Rehoboam, place himself at the
head of the discontented; he did not intrigue
against the secular power, and mingle in political
affairs; he did not live at the residence or at
court; but in retirement, from which he issued
only from time to time, when it was needful to
/esist the base misuse of the royal authority,
which did not fear to revolutionize even the foun-
dations of the people of Israel. He was not " an
enemy" of the monarchy, but an enemy of the
idolatry which was destroying both the monarchy
and the national being.
5. Ahab's penitence was regarded by the older
theologians as hypocritical, so that even yet all
false penitence is called, proverbially, "Ahab's
penitence." But, according to ver. 29, it was not
a sham, but an actual humiliation, which was gra-
ciously recognized by God as such. Vatablua
justly says: " Hoc pemitentia fuit vera, sed tern-
poraria." Owing to the feebleness of his charac-
ter, which made him readily susceptible to every
influence, and the rapid change of his purpose?
it was very comprehensible that the word of the
prophet, piercing bone and marrow, threatening
him and his house with destruction, which had
never yet deceived him, made an affecting impres-
sion upon him. Such a wholesome terror had
never hitherto overtaken him, and might well have
been able to lead him to a thorough change from
his past ways. But he had no abiding conversion
of heart to the living God, as the course of the his-
tory shows. As the threatened punishment did not
follow immediately, he thought he had been able
to ward it off by his penitential discipline, and,
according to his constantly attested fickleness, he
fell back again into his earlier way of life. The
first thing which he should have done, had his re-
pentance been true, to repair somehow a wrong
done, he did not do, but, on the contrary, began
war anew.
HOM1LETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-29. The proceeding against Naboth :
(a) How it was done (vers. 1-16); (6) its conse-
quences (vers. 17-29) — Ver. 1-1 6).— Wikth : The
unrighteous acquisition of Naboth's vineyard, (a)
King Ahab ; (b) Queen Jezebel ; (c) the elders of Jez-
reel; (d) Naboth. — Wurt. Strait.: Here we see
how the children of this world use their rank ;
how they ruin others for the sake of their posses-
sions, and seize upon them ; they try to make them
sell against their will, and wrest their property
from them ; if this fail, they use every false de-
vice, accuse him as an evil-doer before the autho-
rities, and, by means of false witnesses, lead him
on to misfortune, until he is compelled to sacrifice
his little property to save himself, or becomes so
ill that he dies of grief, and thus they obtain his
property. But the Spirit denounces woe to such
men (Isa. v. 8). Every man should guard against
such sin, but especially those in power. Let them
never seize upon the property of their subjects
V. 1. — Starke : It is not well to have godless neigh
bors, especially if they are powerful, for, loving
injustice, they think nothing of over-reaching their
neighbors. One should pray for industrious, pious
and honest neighbors. — Vers. 2—1. Naboth's vine-
yard, (a) The greed of Ahab (ver. 2); (b) the denial
of Naboth (ver. 3) ; (c) the consequence of the deni-
al upon Ahab (ver. 4). — Ver. 2. Great lords often
have fancies, which cost them more time and
money than do their chief and holiest duties.
Thus Ahab thought more of the enlargement and
adornment of his garden, than of the good of his
subjects. The desire for things which serve for
pleasure is often a temptation to grievous sin.
therefore says the Scripture: Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything that is
his. Let the needy be thy lirst care, not thine own
pleasures. It is a great gain to be godly and con-
tented. Watch over thine heart, for desires ap
parently lawful, if not resisted and denied, ma;
CHAPTER XXI. 1-29.
■2rt
lead to ruin. — Ver 3. The men are rare who, for
God and conscience sake, will not yield to entrea-
ties and offers, the granting of which would be
advantageous to them, whilst the refusal would
be accompanied with injury, and perhaps peril to
themselves. Where fear of God and true devout-
ness exist, there also you will ever rind that
piety which holds in love and veneration every-
thing which serves as a remembrance of parents
and all other benefactors. — Ver. 4. RlCHTER:
Godless people regard the care taken by the pious
to observe reverently the divine law, as so much
useless scrupulousness. — Calw. Bib: Even so, in
our day, does the worldling look with an evil eye
upon the Christian who, for the sake of the divine
word, refuses to yield to his wishes ; for either he
recognizes no divine authority, or exalts his own
above it. The children of this world, whose aims
and designs are wholly material, will often fret
and grieve for daya when they are compelled
to give up a temporal gain, or a promised enjoy-
ment, whilst the condition of their souls never
causes them the slightest grief. — Wirth: The
high and mighty ones of this world often think
that all other people are placed here, simply to
yield obedience to their whims. They cannot
comprehend that all men are not to be bought
with: gold, and woe to that inferior whose refusal
destroys their darling plans. Every man not rooted
and grounded in God, becomes ever more and more
grasping; in his vain purse-pride he thinks all the
world must yield to his will, and hates bitterly
him who independently and resolutely upholds his
rights against him.
Vers. 5-16. The condemnation of Naboth.
(a) Ordered by Jezebel ; (b) carried out by the city
ordinauce ; (c) joyfully received by Aliab. — The ap-
parently fortuuate but really unfortunate and ac-
cursed marriage of Ahab and Jezebel, (a) She
seeks the sorrowful man, shares his grief, and seeks
to comfort him, as is the province of a wife; but in-
stead of pointing him to the true Comforter, and
leading his heart to higher and better things, she
strengthens him in his grasping desire after others'
property, and leads him on still further. (6) She
reminds him that he is the lord and master, and
recognizes him as such, as a wife should ; but, at
the same moment, she assumes the dominion, and
the weak man lets her manage and rule, as if she
were the man and he the woman, (c) She rejoices
to accomplish an ardent wish of her husband's, and
to make him a worthy present, as every faithful
spouse should strive 10 do; but it is a blood-stamed
and stolen gift, obtained with deceit and falsehood,
and Ahab delights in it. Thus both husband and
wife, who together should be blest after God's ordi-
nance, together walk on to ruin and destruction. —
Jo. Lange: As a righteous spouse in the court of
a great lord is as a suo, giving light throughout the
land and doing much good work by her example, in
tlie same proportion is an unholy woman mischiev-
ous. The example of Naboth shows what is the
event where such an one rules, and its evil influence
in a country. — The quality (=being) of tyranny, (a)
It regards sovereignty simply as unlimited might and
power over the property and life of subjects ; then the
name of king means the power to do whatsoever a
man wills, without regard to God or man; tjiey re-
verse the divinely ordained " subjection " (Rom. xiii.
1 ), and live in rebellion against God. (6) They upset
justice, and convert the servants of the law, whose
place it is to punish evil, into instruments Df tin-
lighieuusness; they love darkness and ha;e the
light, for they work the works of darkness (Ps. lxiv
7). It dissembles and plays its own game with re-
ligious solemnity, and converts an oath itself into
a means for its worst designs. The proceeding
against Naboth is a combination of the heaviest
crimes, for by it are trodden under foot the three-
divine commands: Thon shalt not kill, Thou shall
not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor. How thankful should we be that
we dwell in a land where mercy and truth are met
together, righteousness and peace have kissed each
other, where righteousness looks down from heav-
en (Ps. lxxxv. lu-12).— Vers. 11-14. The elders
and nobles of Jezreel. (a) Their conduct (they
obey blindly, but God must be obeyed rather than
man; power is not of man, but the minister of God.
Rom. xiii. 4, and before the commandment
''Honor the king," stands that other, Fear God, 1
Pet. ii. 17). (b) Their motives (fear of and sub-
serviency to man, time serving and sycophancy,
fruit of their desertion of the living God and of his
holy word. — Evil masters can ever tind evil ser-
vants, who do their will from ambition or covetous-
ness. — Calw. Bib: Woe, where such things befall I
and shame I that in the fairest lands, as in the
plains of Jezreel, are often the worst men to be
found. — Godlessness and corruption in courts is a
poison, which extends throughout the whole body
politic, even to the lowest rank ; no example is so
powerful upon all classes of society. How many
gross, how many refined sins are committed
out of sheer complaisance to high personages,
whose favor men wish to seek or preserve. Woe
to those lords who hud such ready tools in their
servants, who will be accomplices in their mis-
doings, and palliate, or even laud and praise all
their perverse dealings; they undermine the throne
more than open enemies. The judgment and con-
demnation of Naboth, compared with that of our
Lord. There, as in this instance, offended pride,
followed by hatred, accusation of blasphemy and
riot; false witnesses and vile judges; and a blind,
infuriated populace crying out: Crucify, crucifyl
Vers. 17-29. Krumjiacher: The mission of
Elijah, (o) Its intention; (i) its aim; (c) its imme-
diate results. — Bender : Elijah and Ahab in the
vineyard of Naboth. (a) The sin of the king ; |4)
the judgment of God. — Wirth : Ahab in the vine-
yard of Naboth. (a) The approach of Elijah ; (b)
the announcement of the sentence ; (c) the repen-
tance of Ahab. — Ver. 17. Deceive not your-
self, God is not mocked. What a man sows,
that shall he reap (Gal. vi. 7). Menken: But
though much unrigliteousness and wickedness
goes apparently without further evil results,
and without the chastisements of the just Judge
in heaven, yet still all will be demanded; and
at the Divine judgment-seat everything will
be discovered, and everything to the uttermost
farthing accounted . for. — The blood of Naboth,
which Ahab thought had been swallowed up by
the earth, cried to heaven, and found there judg-
ment and vengeance. Like a lightning-flash comes
the word from heaven into the dark soul of Ahab,
and made him feel that no net of human evil can
be woven thickly enough to conceal the crime
which it veils from the All-seeing Eye. — Vers. 18,
19. It is no easy matter to say to the face of a
royal robber, " Thou hast stolen," and to a royal
24S
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
adulterer, " It is not right that thou shouldst have
thy brother's wife." When -xlay are the prophets
who thus use the sword ol the Spirit ? Thou hast
slain. — Menken: Observe, that evil which thou
couldst hinder, and didst not, and from which thou
shouldst have shrunk, and for which thou didst
neither exhibit horror, nor didst punish — all
shall, in future, be laid to thy accouut, as if
thou hadst committed it in thine own person.
Therefore warns the apostle : Neither be partaker
of other men's sins (2 Tim. v. 22). — V. 20. Hast
thou found me, 0 mine enemy? Calw. B: One
can readily imagine that the hard impenitent,
meeting the pious preacher and soul-director, re-
gards the high-principled, soul-saving address of
the prophet as evidence of personal enmity, and
replies with personal enmity. He is not thine
enemy who rinds thee out, charging thee with
thine unrecognized sins, with thy God-forgetting
life, until thou dost think and tremble — not
thine enemy, the disturber of thy peace and
rest, but thy true friend, who leads thee through
the narrow gates of repentance, to the way
where alone true joy is to be found. — I have
found thee. This word of sentence must be heard
by all, even by those who have come before no
human tribunal — often in this world, certainly
at the last day, " for the Lord will bring to light,"
ifcc. (1 Cor. iv. 5), and cause every man to rind accord-
ing to his wa}'S (Job xxxiv. 11). But there is
also a sentence of mercy, which pursues the sin-
ner and seeks him until it finds him (Luke xv.).
Well for all who have thus been caught aud found
and can say : " Unter alien frohen Stunden, die im
Leben ich empfunden" &c. He who will not be
sought out by mercy, will be found by justice.
Vers. 20-29. — Krummacher : The penitence of
Ahab. (a) What called it forth; (b) what was its
nature ; (c) what were its consequences. — Vers.
21-26. The predicted judgments of God upon
Ahab and his house, (a) Its cause ; (b) its accom-
plishment (chap. xxii. 38; 2 Kings ix. and x.).
" Buying for money " amongst sins. What is to be
understood by this 1 How one can be made bought
and made free (John viii. 33 sq. ; 1 Cor. vi. 20; vii.
23; Rom. vii. 14). It is a great misfortune when one
man can be bought by another as a chattel or mer-
chandise, but a still greater one if he allows himself
to be bought with a price to sin against the Lord.
One may be, like Ahab, lord and king, and yet a
purchased slave. — Ver. 25. His wife stirred him up.
Menken : Woe to the man who, through the pow-
er which love gives him over the heart of another,
by means of which he might become a ministering
angel, is to him as a misleading fiend. How many
fires of ruinous passion, of anger, of discord, of un-
righteousness and of hatred, might and should be
quenched and extinguished by the power of love—
the power of one heart over another — and especially
by the mildness and gentleness peculiar to woman:
and yet so often, by this means, they are kindled
and fanned. This belongs to the catalogue of un-
confessed sins of many men, and especially of many
women. — What gave Ahab's repentance its worth,
and wherein it was defective, (a) It was not mere-
ly ostensible, feigned ; it was a wholesome dread
and fear of the judgment of God which came
upon him, causing him to fear and tremble; he
bowed beneath the mighty hand of God, and was
not ashamed to confess this outwardly, but laid
aside crown and purple, and put on sackcloth,
unheeding if he thus exposed himself to the
scorn of the courtiers and idol worshippers.
Therefore the Lord looked in mercy upon his re-
pentance. Would that, in our day, many would
go even as far as Ahab did in this case, (b) It
bore no further fruits. He retained the stolen
vineyard, he desisted not from idol worship, he
allowed full sway to Jezebel. Everything in his
house, at his court, and iu his kingdom, remained
as of old. He did not hunger and thirst after
righteousness. Fleeting impressions and emotions
are not true. repentance. The tree which brings
forth no fruits, is and remains a corrupt tree
(Matt. iii. 8). How wholly different the repetitance
of David (Ps. li.). — How many go to confess:on
before the communion, bow the knee, aud confess
their sins before God and man, without being in-
wardly bowed down and humiliated, to bring forth
fruits meet for repentance (Joel ii. 13 ; Is. lviii. 5).
— Richter: Since God looks with pardoning mer-
cy upon an outward humble abasement, how much
more upon a righteous repentance. Therefore
pray: Lord, grant true penitence aud grief. —
Krdmmachbr: Ahab was, and is, an example to
warn us how it is possible that notwithstanding
the most remarkable visitations of God, the strong
est incentives, the liveliest emotions, and in spite
of a certain sort of repentance and wonderful grant-
ing of prayer, a man may still, at the very last, be
lost.
C. — AhaVs expedition, against the Syrians, undertaken with Jehoshaphat, and his death.
Chap. XXII. 1-40 (2 Chron. XVIII. 1-34).
1 And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.
2 And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came
3 down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know
ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out ol
4 the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt
thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-gilead ? And Jehoshaphat said to the
king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thj
horses.
5 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at th*
CHAPTER XXII. 1— 40. 21f
6 word of the Lord [Jehovah] to-day. Then the king of Israel gathered the pro-
phets together, about four hundred1 men, and said unto them, Shall I go against
Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear ? And they said. Go up ; for the Lord
7 shall deliver' it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not
here a prophet of the Lord [Jehovah] besides,3 that we might inquire of him?
8 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiab
the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord [Jehovah] : but I hate
him ; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat
9 said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer,* and
10 said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And the king of Israel and Jeho-
shaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in
a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria ; and all the prophets pro-
11 phesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns ol
iron : and he said, Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], With these shalt thou push the
12 Syrians, until thou have consumed them. And all the prophets prophesied so,
saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper : for the Lord [Jehovah] shall
deliver6 it into the king's hand.
13 And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying,
Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one
mouth : let thy word,6 I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak
14 that which is good. And Micaiah said, As the Lord [Jehovah] liveth, what the
15 Lord [Jehovah] saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king. And
the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or
shall we forbear ? And he answered him, Go, and prosper : for the Lord [Jeho-
16 vah] shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the king said unto him,
How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which
17 is true in the name of the Lord [Jehovah] ? And he said, I saw all Israel scat-
tered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd : and the Lord [Jehovah]
said, These have no master ; let them return every man to his house in peace.
18 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did 1 not tell thee that he would
19 prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Hear thou therefore'
the word of the Lord [Jehovah]: I saw the Lord [Jehovah]8 sitting on his
throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him' on his right hand and on his
20 left. Ami the Lord [Jehovah] said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go
up and fall at Ramoth-gilead ? And one said on this manner, and another said
21 on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord
22 [Jehovah], and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto
him, Wherewith ? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in
the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and pre-
23 vail also : go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord [Jehovah] hath
put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Loi'd [Jeho-
24 vah] hath spoken evil concerning thee. But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went
near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of
25 the Lord [Jehovah] from me to speak unto thee ? And Micaiah said, Behold,
thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide
26 thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto
27 Amon the governor10 of the city, and to Joash the king's son ; and say, Thus
saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction
28 and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou
return at all in peace, the Lord [Jehovah] hath not spoken by me. "And he said,
Hearken, O people, every one of you.
29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-
80 gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and
enter into the battle ; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised
31 himself, and went into the battle. But the king of Syria commanded his thirty
and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying, Fight neither with
82 small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to uass, when
the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king
250
THE FIRST BOOK OP THE KINGS.
33 of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him : and Jehoshaphat 'sried
out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots perceived tnat it
34 was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a cer-
tain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the
joints of the harness : wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine
85 hand,13 and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. And the battle in-
creased" that day : and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syri-
ans, and died at even : and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of th«
36 chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going
down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.
37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria ; and they buried the king in
38 Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria ; and the dogs
licked up his blood ; and they washed his armor [and the harlots washed"] ; ac-
39 cording unto the word of the Lord [Jehovah] which he spake. Now the rest
of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made,
and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles
40 of the kings of Israel ? So Ahab slept with his fathers ; and Ahaziah his son
reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 6. — [The Alex. Sept. reduces the number to three hundred.
a Ver. 6. — [The Sept. emphasizes the assurance of the prophets : «ai 5i5oi»? fiwo-ct xupios — the Lord will surely delivei,
Ac. It is noticeable that the prophets do not say [-|irp , but ^"IN ■
3 Ver. 7. — [The Sept., by neglecting the word -py (besides, yet) here and in ver. 8, makes it evident that they under-
stood by the other prophets men who were not really prophets of the Lord. In ver. 8, however, the Alex. Sept. has en.
The Vulg. also : non eat hie propheta Dnmini quispiam. The other VV. follow the lleb. very exactly.
* Ver. 9. — [The Sept. has eiiyov^oi' eVa, but whether because it was known in the time of the translators thatuuch
persons were officers under Ahab, or whether simply because they were usual in the courts of their own time, does not
appear.
6 Ver. 12. — [The Sept. changes the last clause of ver. 12 into " Shall deliver into thy hands even the king of Syria"
(Alex, omits the word Syria), as if Zedekiah would promise Ahab a repetition of his formerly neglected opportunity.
8 Ver. 13. — The singular, which Chronicles, the k'ri. and many MSS. have, is to be preferred to the k'tib. [All the
VV., except the Sept., which has another construction, follow the k'ri.
7 Ver. 19. — [The author (Exeg. Com.) considers the oitx oilrws of the Sept. here as a mistranslation of the Heb. pS
taken for ^ N? ■ ^'Qe 8ame expression, however, is introduced by it into ver. 17, Kal elirev ot>x outws- eupaxa
K. T. A., and the full reading here is Kai elire Mixatas ovx oiirws, ovk eyu}' aKOve prifia K. T. A.
» Ver. 19.— [Sept. — the God (Alex, the Lord God) of Israel.
9 Ver. 19. — LV^I* tae primary idea of ^y above, seems to be here purposely preserved; "the ministers standing
behind or even beside their sitting Lord are raised above him, and thus appear to the beholder as standing over him
Isai. vi. 2; Gen. xviii. 8," Keil.
w Ver. 26. — [For " Araon the governor" the Vat. Sept. h'is " Semer the king."
>> Ver. 28.— [The Vat. Sept. omits the latter [.art of ver. 28.
11 Ver. 34. — [The A. V., like the Vulg., follows the singular of the k'ri in preference to the plural of the k'tib, whtcd
Is adhered to by the Vat. Sepr.
13 Ver. 35. — [n'^rpTSn nb^r]1) , l't. " the Dattle rose," perhaps, as Keil suggests, a figure from the rising of a river,
growing more rapid as it swells. The expression of increase by words of the general sense of rising is, however, very
common in many languages.
14 Ver. 96.— [:|Vrn niiinl • The A. V. is here certainly wrong, although following the Chald. and Syr. Not less
erroneous is the Vulg. habenas laverunt. J-)i}^n must he the subject of the verb, and can only mean harlots. The Sept
has here translated rightly, but has unwarrantably inserted the same words also in the prediction (xx. 42) of which
this is the fulfilment. Here, as there, they associate at des with oi Kvyes. What these harlots washed — whether them
selves, or the chariot, or clothes — has been much questioned, nor is its determination at all necessary to the translation
vpp like the English wash, may be either transitive or intransitive. — F. G.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. And they continued, &c, i. e. Syria
and Israel. The three years are those which had
elapsed since the war mentioned in chap, xx., that
is, since the release of Ben-hadad. In this interval
fell the murder of Naboth. The XXIId chap, is a
continuation of the XXth, and is derived from the
same original document. Chap. xxi. is from some
other authority, but appears here in its proper
chronological position. The ground of Jehosha-
phat's visit to Ahab, according to the parallel
account in Chronicles, was the marriage relation-
ship which had been formed between them, viz.,
Ahab's daughter, Athahah, had become the wife of
Jehoshaphat'a son, Jehoram. Chronicles also
states that Ahab slaughtered a large number of
sheep and oxen for Jehoshaphat and his nume-
rous escort, i. «., he entertained them generously.
Ahab profited by this opportunity, so soon as he
had made sure of the support of his generals who
had come to the entertainment, to persuade Je-
ll shaphat into making an expedition against the
Syriaus in alliance with him. — On liamoth (ver. Hi
CHAPTER XXII. 1-40.
251
see notes on chap. iv. 13. Ben-hadad, contrary to
his promise (xx. 34), had not given up this strong-
hold, from which, as a base, he could easily make
incursions into Israel, and Ahab became more
and more uneasy as years passed by, and the
promised surrender was not consummated. His
words (ver. 3) mean : This important city belongs
to Israel as of right, and besides that Ben-had ad has
solemnly promised to give it up ; yet he has not
done this, but, on the contrary, menaces us on that
side, while " we rest satisfied with this state of
things, instead of taking what is ours by a double
right" (Thenius).
Ver. 4. And he said unto Jehoshaphat. In-
stead of "IDN'I we find in Chronicles iniyD^ i the
same expression which is used in chap. xxi. 25 in
regard to Jezebel and her influence on Ahab; he
seduced him (cf. Jer. xxxviii. 22 ; Deut. xiii. 7).
This shows that Jehoshaphat ought not to have
agreed to the proposition. However, he did not
enter into the plan " after dinner," thoughtlessly
(Riehter), but because he wished to confirm tin-
good understanding which had just been estab-
lished between Judah and Israel, and because he
also saw danger to himself in Ramoth, so long as
it was in the hands of the Syrians. The horses
are especially mentioned, because they formed the
essential part of the military power (Ps. xxxiii. 16,
17 ; Prov. xxi. 31).
Ver. 5. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king
of Israel, Ac. Jehoshaphat had some scruples.
He wished first to be certain that the undertaking
was conformed to the will of Jehovah, a thing in
regard to which no anxiety had entered Ahab's
mind. He ought to have considered this before
giving his consent (ver. 4). The prophets whom
Ahab summoned were not, as some of the old ex-
positors inferred from the number four hundred,
the Astarte-prophets who had not been upon Car-
mel (chap, xviii. 19, 22), for their chief, Zedekiah,
affirmed that he had the spirit of Jehovah (ver. 24),
and all the others unite in this assertion (ver. 12).
Nevertheless, they were not "certainly genuine
Jehovah-prophets " (Clericus), nor " pretended "
Jehovah-prophets (Sehulz), nor prophet-disciples
(Thenius), for the definite article does not refer to
such as these, but to a definite class, different from
these, the prophets of Ahab. Hence Junius and
Tremellius translate correctly according to the
sense : Ahab congregavit prophetas suos. So Mi-
Caiah designates them in vers. 22 and 23, when he
calls them " thy " or " his " prophets. Moreover,
how coidd Ahab ever have brought himself to
tolerate four hundred prophets, adherents of Elijah,
in his immediate circle, when he had not been con-
verted to Jehovah? No one will assert that they
belonged to the number of those who wore the
well-known penitential robe of the prophets, and
went about in goat-skins or in hair-eloth (Zach.
xiii. 4; Hebr. xi. 37). It remains that we can
think of them only as adherents of Jeroboam'*
Jehovah-worship, that is, of the calf-worship.
Hence Jehoshaphat did not recognize them as
genuine Jehovah prophets. Although they all
agree, yet he asks for another, a true worshipper
of Jehovah ; and Ahab calls for such a one,
though with inward dissatisfaction. Since in chap,
xviii. 19, 22, 25, 40, the priests of Baal and As-
tarte are always called D'J03J , the conjecture is
•uggested that these persons were priests of the
calf-worship, who at the same time filled, like th»
Baal and Astarte priests, the functions of proph-
ets. (See notes on xviii. 19.)
Ver. 8. And the king of Israel said unto
Jehoshaphat, Ac. Micaiah is called once only,
in the parallel passage (2 Chron. xviii. 14), Mieha,
and is certainly not, as Josephus and the rabbis
assert, the man who is mentioned in chap. xx. 35
as a prophet-disciple. Ahab could not at the mo-
ment give the name of any other whom he could
summon at short notice. It was very natural that
he should not mention Elijah, even aside from the
fact that he did not know where he was. Micaiah
was in Samaria, and even, as it appears, on ac-
count of some previous prophecy which was unfa-
vorable and displeasing to Ahab, in confinement;
hence he could be at once brought forward. — To
the words, but evil, the chronicler adds: "all his
days," i. e., so long as he has filled the office of a
prophet. Von Gerlach aptly remarks : We find in
Ahab the same heathen conception of the relation
between the prophet and Jehovah, as we find in
the case of Balak (Numb, xxiii. 11). He ascribes
to the seer some power over his God, and there-
fore makes him responsible for his unfavorable
oracles. Agamemnon says to Calchas (Iliad i.
106), "Seer of evil I how hast thou never foretold
to me good I Thou prophesiest to me with plea-
sure only evil in thy trance, and hast never de-
clared to me a favorable oracle." Jehoshaphat's
answer: "Let not the king say so! refers to
Ahab's words : I hate him; I will not now listen
to him. Jehoshaphat's words, therefore, have not
this sense : vaticinabitur prospere (Vatablus, Keil),
but they are a reply to his remark, and contain
such an encouragement as this : Let him come,
though; — and this Ahab then does.
Ver. 10. Sat each on his throne, Ac. Vers.
10-12 carry out into detail that which had been
hinted at briefly in ver. 6. We must, therefore,
think here of the same assemblage as there. It
is now only described more fully in what a
solemn manner this assemblage was held
(see Bertheau on 2 Chron. xviii. 9). That D'tra^o
DHJ3 means " in their official (royal) robes " is
clear from Levit. xxi. 10, where it is said of the
high-priest : D'ljan-nx tri> , l e., " clad in the
official (priestly) garments." D,2tr"i'' is repeated
before pja in the parallel passage 2 Chron. xviii. 9.
It can, therefore, only mean : in area, pi means a
" smooth open place " (Gesenius) ; hence a thresh-
ing-floor, which is such a smooth open place.
However, " threshing-floor " is not the sole mean-
ing, as Thenius asserts. He reads Dp"13 for pjg
(since the word for threshing-floor makes no sense)
and joins it with D'US, ''particolored, that is,
probably, vestes distinctce, acu picks ; " but this con-
jecture is as unnecessary as it is violent. Ewald
alBO joins the word with DHJ3 , and says that it
can from the connection (?), have here only the
meaning, armor, war-dress, but there is no evi-
dence to support this, for the hoirtoi of the Sept
is not a translation of pJ3 but of the words
discussed above "l2 "^D-
Ver. 11. And Zedekiah, the son, Ac. Zede-
kiah, following the method of the true prophets,
252
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
performs a symbolical action before the declara-
tion of his oracle (see on chap. xi. 29). He in-
tended thereby to show himself a prophet of the
northern kingdom. He put on horns of iron,
which would not break, for Deut. xxxiii. 17 says
of F.phraim : " His glory is like the firstling of his
bullock, and his horns are like the horns of uni-
corns, with them he shall push the people
together to the ends of the earth." By a physical
reference to this prophecy he intended to repre-
sent his present declaration as certain. However,
he forgot that " the entire fulfilment of Moses'
blessing depended on the fidelity with which
Israel adhered to the commandments, and to the
Lord. But Ahab, least of all, had been careful to be
thus faithful " (Keil). Of the two imperatives rb'J
il^i'ni , the first is a command and the second an
encouragement, as in Glen. xlii. 18 ; Prov. xx. 13 ;
Ps. xxxvii. 27 ; Job xxii. 21 ; Isai. xxxvi. 16
(Gesen. Grammar § 127).
Ver. 15. So he came to the king. "Ahab
meant by his question to Micaiah to represent
himself to Jehoshaphat as never having attempted
to exert any influence upon the declarations of the
prophet " (Thenius). He took up the attitude to
Micaiah "of holding himself ready for any
answer, and of demanding only to know the
divine will, although he had really made up his
mind, and would be pleased only with one answer "
(Jo. Lange). Hence we may understand the
prophet's answer, which is not irony (Keil), nor
"spoken with ironical gestures and a sarcastic tone"
(Riehter),but certainly a reproof for the hypocritical
question. The sense is : How earnest thou to the
idea of consulting me, whom thou dost not trust ?
Thy prophets have answered thee as thou desirest.
Do, then, what they have approved. Try it. March
out. Their oracles have far more weight with
thee than mine. " Since Micaiah, who, in ver. 14,
had distinctly declared that he would not speak
simply according to the king's pleasure, neverthe-
less repeats almost exactly the words of the
kiug's prophets, he must have spoken in a tone
which made it clear to Ahab that what he said
was not in earnest " (Bertheau). Therefore Ahab
adjured him to speak only the word of Jehovah,
but did not promise to follow the counsel which he
should give him in the name of Jehovah. He was
not in earnest to learn the truth, but only to con-
vince Jehoshaphat that what he had said (ver. 8)
about this prophet was true and just, and that no
authority ought to be ascribed to him. Micaiah
now refuses no longer, but makes known the
vision which he has had (ver. 17). The meaning
of this vision was clear. Ahab understood it.
The king would fall, and Israel would be scattered
without being pursued. Eacli one would take his
own way home, and so the war would end. Perhaps
Numbers xxvii. 17 floated before the prophet's
mind, as Dent, xxxiii. 17 was in the mind of Zede-
kiah in ver. 11. Luther erroneously took the
words of Jehovah n?X? D'JIX-SP as a question.
The sense is : Since these have no longer any
master, let each return. Ahab now assures
Jehoshaphat (ver. 18; cf. chap. xxi. 20), in order
that In* may not be influenced by this oracle,
that it springs from the malice which he had
before declared this prophet to entertain. Then.
ii order to refute this imputation, Micaiah (ver.
19) states, by describing another vision, the rea
son why the four hundred prophets had prophe-
sied falsely and deceitfully.
Ver. 19. Hear thou therefore the word of
the Lord. \zh nas nere -ts regular signification:
i .. T
for this reason. (Keil: "Because thou thinkest
[my declaration the result of mere malice], there-
fore.") Ii is not, " according to the Sept., oi<x oi. -<j-r,
equivalent to |3 Xp : veruntamen " (Thenius). The
speech in vers. 1 9-23 is indeed addressed to the
king in the first instance, but evidently all around
heard it and were intended to hear it. In Chroni-
cles we find for JflOf , lyjX' , as in ver. 28. — I saw
the Lord sitting on His throne. What Micaiah
describes in vers. 19-22 is not a mere parable in-
vented by him, but a prophetic vision which he
saw, and which, as the Berkburger bibel says, re-
presents God and His government and providence
in an appropriate symbolical manner. Peter Mar-
tyr says : Omnia hoc dicuntur av&pu-o~aduc. The
separate expressions are not, therefore, to be
strained or interpreted in a " gross and material-
istic manner " (Richter). — And all the host of
heaven, &c. The old expositors, Peter Martyr,
Jo. Lange. Starke and others suppose that the
prophet described God seated on the throne of
heaven and surrounded by the heavenly hosts, in
contrast with the two kings sitting on their
thrones surrounded by the band of false prophets.
It appears, however, that this cannot be correct,
for if it were correct, then Micaiah must have had
his vision after he came to stand before the kings
and to see how they were arrayed, but the reve-
lation, doubtless, came to him some time before
this. He rather saw God as the ruler of all in
heaven or earth, and as the judge in the full glory
of His majesty, entirely independently of the two
kings. The host of heaven are not, of course,
here the stars, as in Deut iv. 19, but all the higher
heavenly powers who serve as His organs in the
administration of the universe (Heb. i. 14 ; 2 Sam.
xxiv. 16; 2 Kings xix. 35). Some of the older ex-
positors incorrectly say that those on the right
were the good, and those on the left the bad. The
latter are nowhere included in the " host of
heaven." All surround Him and wait for His
commands. — The question in ver. 20 : Who shall
persuade [delude] Ahab ? shows that the fall of
Ahab, who had heaped sin upon sin, was deter
mined in the counsels of God (cf. Isai. vi. 8). The
only question which still remained open was as to
the way in which his fall should be brought about.
'• Who is able to delude Ahab, so that he may
march against Ramoth to his own destruction?"
(Bertheau). And one said on this manner and
another said on that manner. Peter Marty!
says on these words: Innuii varios provufcutus
Dei mudos, quibus decreta sua ad exitum perducit.
i'he dramatic-figurative form of representation
corresponds fully to the character of the vision, in
which inner and spiritual processes are regarded
as real phenomena, nay even as persons.
Ver. 21. And there came forth a spirit.—
rmn , i. «., not a spirit (Luther, and E. V., follow-
ing the Sept.), but the spirit, a dei.liite one, and
it can be, according to the entire connection, none
other than the spirit of prophecy (Thenius; Keil)
the power which, going forth from Hod, and tab
CHAPTER XXII. 1-40.
253
ing possession of a man, makes him a prophet
(1 Sam. x. 6, 10; xix. 20, 23). The rvjj is the
rain crN (Hos. ix. 1). This spirit offered itself
to fulfil the divine decree. It is a feature in the
dramatic-figurative form of representation, that
as all the powers of God are represented as per-
sons, so also this power is personified. It steps
forth from the ranks of the divine powers and de-
clares its readiness to fulfil the divine will: 'I
{'JN with emphasis) will persuade him.'' The
question in ver. 22, Wherewith? adds to the live-
liness of the delineation. The meaning of the
answer : " I will go forth and I will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets " is this ;
The prophets of Ahab shall prophesy to him
what he desires to hear, and thus delude him un-
til he shall bring about his own ruin through his
own plans. As this view was already decided on
in the divine counsels, the Lord answers to the
spirit: Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail
also. G-o forth and do so. Because Ahab,
who had abandoned God and hardened his heart,
desired to use prophecy for his own purposes, it is
determined that he shall be led to his ruin by pro-
phecy. As God often used the heathen nations
as the rod of his wrath for the chastisement of
Israel (Isai. x. 5), so now he uses Ahab's false
prophets to bring upon Ahab the judgment which
Elijah had foretold against him. We have to com-
pare the passage Isai. vi. 8, 9, where the prophet,
who has just been cleansed from sin and conse-
crated to the prophetic office, answers to the Lord's
■question : " Who shall I send," — " Send me," and
then the command is given to him : " Make the
heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert and be healed."
From this we see that the Tpt' nil (ver. 22) is not,
as most of the old expositors declared, Satan, who
•does not belong to the " heavenly host " (ver. 19),
and is, moreover, nowhere called simply rnin
(ver. 21). Keil indeed admits that " neither
Satan nor any other evil spirit is meant," but he
adds that the spirit of prophecy, in so far as it is,
by God's will, a "lpcn ffi*) " stands under the in-
fluence of Satan." But the vision has nothing at
all to do with Satan. The circumstances are en-
tirely different from those in Job i. 6, which are
often compared. It expresses an act in God's
government and judicial administration, in which
Satan is neither directly nor indirectly involved.
In ver. 23 Micaiah states the result of what pre-
cedes : Now see ; the prophets have prophesied
to thee pleasant things, but they are deluded and
they delude thee. If therefore I have prophesied
otherwise, it is not, as thou hast said (ver. 18), out
of hate towards thee, but the Lord has thus spoken
to me, and has thus determined in regard to
thee.
Ver. 24. Zedekiah .... went near. This
leader of the other party felt himself especially in-
sulted, as he had confirmed his prophecy by a
symbolical act (ver. 1 1 ). The blow on the cheek
was intended as an insult (Job xvi. 10; Lament.
iii. 301. We may see from this how Zedekiah
uou<i in Ahab's favor, and how unesteemed
Micaiah was. Chronicles supplies 7]"Fin which
is wanting with nf'S (chap. xiii. 12; 2 Kings iii.
8 ; Job xxxviii. 24). The sense is : How dost
thou dare to say that the spirit of prophecy has
turned aside from me and gone only to thee"
Zedekiah had not, therefore, knowingly prophesiea
falsely, but his insolence was far from being a
proof that lie had the spirit of the Lord. On
~nri3 Tin see notes on chap. xx. 30. The story
of Zedekiah's end is wanting both in Kings and
Chronicles, but this does not prove that the origi
nal document contained much more than now
appears in our books (Thenius, Ewald). As Ahah
fell, and Zedekiah's definite prediction was start-
lingly falsified, we may be sure that he did not fail
to be persecuted.
Ver. 26. And the king of Israel said: Take
Micaiah, &c. .losephus narrates that Ahab was
disturbed by Micaiah's speech, but when he saw
that Zedekiah's hand did not wither as Jeroboam's
'lid lehap. xiii. 4), and that Micaiah indicted do
punishment, that he took courage and went on to
the war. This is an empty rabbinical tradition.
Zedekiah's insolence was influential in encouraging
Ahab in the determination which he had formed.
The latter caused Micaiah to be taken back to
Anion the governor of the city, not to his own
house (Thenius). He had probably been previ-
ously in arrest under this man's charge, but now
he was to be put in prison on the bread and water
" of affliction." Joash, son of the king, was not,
probably, a son of Ahab, but a prince of the blood,
who, together with the commandant of the city,
had charge of the prisoners. If he had been, as
Thenius supposes, a young prince who had been
intrusted to Amon for his military education (2
Kings x. 1), one does not see why he should be
mentioned here. In the last words of ver. 28 Mi-
caiah calls " all people " to be witnesses of his de-
claration, i. e., not " all the world," or " people
generally " (Keil), but all the people who, besides
the two kings and the four hundred prophets,
were collected on tins solemn occasion. The pro-
phet Micah begins his prophecy (chap. i. 2) with
the words ub~2 W12V VOL", but we may not infer
from this, as Bleek does, that the author confused
Micaiah with the much younger prophet Micah,
nor, as Hitzig does, that the words in this passage
are borrowed from that place. It would be more
natural to suppose that Micah borrowed the words
from the original document of this author. How-
ever, the exclamation is so general that it might
occur in the independent works of different pro-
phets. It is remarkable that the pious king Je-
hoshaphat does not interfere to prevent the mal-
treatment of Micaiah ; and that, in spite of the
opposition of that prophet, he goes on the expe-
dition. Peter Martyr says: Affiniias cum impiis
contracia sanctitatem plurimum imminuit. It ap-
pears that he was not willing to take back the
promise which he had given (ver. 4) on account of
a prophet whom Ahab declared to be his personal
opponent.
Ver. 30. And the king of Israel said unto
Jehoshaphat. The Vulgate and Luther mistak-
enly take the infinitives N31 K'Bnnn (disguise and
come) as imperatives addressed to Jehoshaphat
254
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
nnxi i which immediately follows by way of con-
trast, shows that this is wrong. The infinitive
absolute is the plainest and simplest form of the
voluntative for exclamations, and is used when the
speaker is excited and rilled with the idea (Ewald.
§ 328). It is to be remembered, in connection
with Ahab's attempt to disguise himself, that the
ordinary custom was for the king to lead the army
into battle in full royal costume (2 Sam. i. 10).
Hence he was conspicuous not only to his own
army, but also to that of the enemy, who then di-
rected their attack upon him. The words of Mi-
caiah, especially these : "These have no master,"
had caused Ahab great secret anxiety. Moreover,
he might well suppose that the Syrians would
be more eager to attack him than Jehoshaphat.
Though lie knew nothing of Ben-hadad's command
(ver. 21), yet he desired to frustrate the prophet's
prediction. The sense of his words to Jehosha-
phat is, therefore, this: I have every reason to
make myself unrecognizable in this war, but
thou, against whom the Syrians have no especial
hate, mayst go forward in thy royal apparel. —
When thus taken, Ahab's words contain a sort of
justification and excuse of his purpose. Jehosh-
aphat, therefore, agreed to it without objection.
There is no ground for the idea that Ahab had
planned cunningly that Jehoshaphat might be
' killed, in order that he might inherit Judah
(Sehulz, Maurer, and others). Ahab was anxious
to save his own life, not to secure Jehoshaphat's
death.
Ver. 31. But the king of Syria, &e. Perhaps
he had learned that the expedition had originated
with Ahab, who had proposed it to his generals, per-
suaded Jehoshaphat, and pushed forward the plan
perseveringly. He hoped that Ahab's end would be
the end of the war. Hence the command which
he gave to the thirty-two chariot-captains, who are
also mentioned in xx. 24. They were the leaders,
they made known the command to their men.
Neither with small nor great, i. «., do not spend
time in conflict with any one else, but all press for-
ward against the king of Israel. TJX in ver. 32
does not mean certainly (De Wette, Bunsen), but
only. They need not be in doubt, since he alone
wore royal dress. Instead of IID'1 the chronicler
has 13D'l , and the Sept. has, in both places,
hnvKluaav. Bertheau and Thenius regard the lat-
ter as the correct reading. But the Syrians cer-
tainly had not yet surrounded him ; they were
pressing forward towards him, but turned aside
when they saw that they were mistaken in the
person (ver. 33). The Vulg. has: impetu facto
pugnabant confra turn. "VlD means, to turn from
the way and go towards something. When they
saw the king, they turned towards him. Jehosh-
aphat cried out, and, as they recognized him, it
seems that he must have called out his own name,
not, however, in order to make himself known to
them, but in order to call his own people to his
aid. It may be, also, that his people called to him
and uttered his name. In Chronicles it is added:
'' And the Lord helped him; and God moved them
to depart from him." This can hardly have been
borrowed from the original document. The cry
was understood [by later readers] as a cry to God
(Vulg.. clamant ad Diimiiinm), and the rescue as a
divine interposition. If this pair of sentences had
been in the original, it is inexplicable how thej
should have been omitted in the text before U3.
Ver. 34. And a certain man drew a bow
Ac. isn? does not mean " at a venture " (Luther
E. V.), nor in incertum (Vulg.), but, as 2 Sam. xv
11 shows, "without knowing why he aimed par*
ticularly at that individual whom he had in his
eye " (Thenius). According to Josephus this man's
name was Aman ; according to Jarchi it was Naa-
man. In the text, however, emphasis is laid on
the fact that it was an unknown man. Geseniua
and De Wette translate D'pDin by joints or grooves,
but what joints can be referred to ? The stem
p_n means only to hang on or depend from. p3l ,
therefore, means that which depends or hangs
down, but not a joint, nor yet the soft parts or flanks
(Ewald). Luther, correctly: Zwischen den Panzer
und Hengcl [between the corselet and the tunic].
The corselet covered the body down as far as be-
low the ribs. The lower part of the body was
protected by a hanging skirt of parallel plates
(hence the plural D'pXl)- The arrow penetrated
between this skirt and the corselet, where the con-
nection was not close or perfect, and penetrated the
"lower abdomen" (Thenius). This wound was.
of course, a very severe one, if not a fatal one.
We may perceive how far such weapons penetrat-
ed, by the instance, for example, of the arrow with
which Jehu shot king Jehoram, which entered hi3
body between the arms from behind, and came out
obliquely through the heart in front (2 Kings ix.
24; Lament, iii. 13; Job xvi. 13). Hereupon Ahab
commanded his charioteer to turn and drive out of
the midst of the contending armies, for I am
wounded, i. e.} I am no longer fit to fight, and
must retire from the conflict. Evidently 'flvnil
means, in this connection, lam wounded (cf. 1 Sam.
xxxi. 3); Sept., TeTpavfidriafiai ■ Vulg., graviter
vulneratus sum). Thenius translates, " I am not
well," and observes: "He desired to be quickly
rid of the arrow, and not to let any one know that
he was wounded." Similarly Bertheau: "For I
am unwell. The charioteer cannot have observed
that Ahab had been wounded by an arrow." But
a fatal wound in the abdomen, from which blood
flowed into the chariot, cannot have passed unob-
served, and it is impossible that Ahab should have
removed the arrow himself; at least such action is
not mentioned in the text. It is certain that he
felt so unwell that he asked to be removed from
the conflict, and it is difficult to understand how
Thenius can say, on the words Against the Syri-
ans (ver. 35), that " he kept his face towards them
and did not retire from the place of battle."
Ewald's assertion that he " had to be carried from
the field," contradicts the words of the text; also
there is nothing in the text of Ewald's further
statement, that " when his wound had been bound
up Ahab returned into the battle, and fell bravely
fighting to the last." Only so much is certain, that
he w:is removed from the battle in his chariot, but
not that he returned to it, as has been erroneously
inferred from ver. 35.
Ver. 35. And the battle increased, i, e., the
batili' I me more violent. The figure is taken
from a swelling river (Isai. viii. 7). Thenius ex-
plains the following worda, "VSOO «"Pn : " He ivai
CHAPTER XXII. 1-HX,
255
standing upright, i. e., through his own strength.
He forced himself in order that he might support
the courage of his followers." But he had given
orders (ver. 34) that his charioteer should remove
him as incapacitated for further fighting, and it
does not show in the text that he caused his wound
to be bound up and then returned into the fight;
this must be invented and added arbitrarily. The
sentence : the battle increased, is a subordinate
clause to explain how it came about that Ahab re-
mained standing in the chariot and died at evening.
The Calmer Bibel states the connection of thought
very correctly as follows : " Ahab's charioteer could
not escape from the crush of the battle because
the fight became more and more violent, and
Ahab was obliged to remain standing on the cha-
riot on which he was until towards evening.
His wound could not, therefore, be bound up, and
he bled to deatlu When finally, at sunset, the
Israelites turned away from the field of battle,
it was too late to save the king." D1S rDJ does
not mean " presenting front to the Syrians " (The-
nius), but in the face of the Syrians {coram. Judges
xviii. 6; Jer. xvii. 16; Ezek. xiv. 3, 7; Prov. v.
21). The Syrians, however, did not recognize him.
because he was disguised. It is once more stand
that the blood ran out of the wound into the
midst of the chariot, on account of the incident
to be narrated in ver. 38. In Chronicles these
words are wanting, as also the following verses
36-38. The story ends there with the words :
" and about the time of the sun going down he
died," because it is not the history of Ahab which
is there the prominent interest, but that of Je-
hoshaphat.
Ver. 38 And one washed the chariot in the
pool of Samaria. As in the case of other cities
(2 Sam. ii. 13 ; iv. 12 ; Song Sol. vii. 4), so also at
Samaria, there was a pool near the city which
served for purposes ofwashing and bathing. The
dogs licked up the water which was mixed with
the blood washed from the chariot. The words
ISm nijini cannot be translated as in the Syriac
and Chaldaic versions, arnxa laverunt, or, as in the
Vulg., habenas laverunt, in the first place because it
is contrary to the usage of the language to make
nijf the object, and in the second place, because
this word occurs in the Old Testament only in the
signification harlots. Maurer and Von Gerlach
supply, as object ofljfm , the chariot, but then this
clause would only repeat the previous one : ,:they
washed the chariot." Bunsen supplies arbitrarily :
the corpse. ]'m means here, as in Ex. ii. 5 ; Ruth
iii. 31, to bathe. Harlots are also elsewhere men-
tioned together with dogs, though, it is true, in the
figurative use (Deut. xxiii. 19; Rev. xxii. 15), be-
cause both were regarded as impure and contempt-
ible. Theodoret remarks that the harlots bathed
in the evening, according to custom. They did not
intend to wash in the blood, but the water was
mixed with it. Probably the women were the
temple-prostitutes, so that the blood of Ahab was
not only licked up by dogs, but also came in con-
tact with persons who were im pure, and prostitu ted
in the service of Baal and Astarte ; a double mark
of the shameful ruin which had been foretold for
him. Peter Martyr: Sordes suas miscebant cum
languine Ahabi, qum fuit maxima ignominia. The-
nius' proceeding is very arbitrary when he declares
that ver. 38 is an addition of the redactor, who de-
sired to bring the event into full accord with the
prophecy in chap. xxi. 19. We have no further
information in regard to Ahab's buildings men-
tioned in ver. 39. The ivory house was a house
which was richly decorated within with ivory. Cf.
Amos iii. 15 ; Ps. xlv. 8 ; Song of SoL vii 5 ; Ho-
mer's Odys. iv. 72.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. JehoshaphaPs journey to Samaria is an im-
portant incident in the development of the history
of the two kingdoms, for this reason : Ever since
the division of the kingdom (seventy years) the two
parts had been hostile to each other, but Jehosha-
phat's visit was meant to confirm a peace between
them, which had already been brought about by
the intermarriage of the prince of Judah and the
princess of Israel. A period of peace now began.
This new state of things was brought about by
Jehoshaphat and not by Ahab, as we see clearly
from the account in Chronicles, where also we
may learn what considerations induced the pious
king of Judah to seek friendship and alliance with
Ahab. He had raised the comparatively weak
kingdom of Judah to a pitch of prosperity, both
internal and external, such as it had not en-
joyed since the time of Solomon. Especially
against the neighboring nations he had been so
successful that all brought him tribute, and no one
any longer dared to oppose him (2 Chron. xvii. 10).
Since now he had attained to great wealth and
renown (2 Chron. xviii. 1), the wisli must naturally
arise in his heart, to put an end to the long
hostility of the two brother-kingdoms, of which,
probably, each was weary. This could not be ac-
complished by force, for experience had proved
that neither kingdom could subjugate the other.
Jehoshaphat therefore attempted the peaceful
means of a family alliance, and Ahab met him
willingly, since he could expect from such an
alliance nothing but advantage. It appears, how-
ever, that Jehoshaphat aimed at something more
than a mere friendly relation between the two
kingdoms. When we reflect that he, the faithful
adherent of Jehovah, made an alliance between his
son and heir and the daughter of the fanatical
idolater, Jezebel; that he then went himself in
great state to Samaria ; that he entered into a
military expedition with Ahab in spite of the
warning of a prophet of Jehovah; that he after-
wards entered into an alliance with Ahab's suc-
cessor in spite of the warning of the prophet
Jehu not to enter into fellowship with apostates
(2 Chron. six. 1); then we cannot understand all
this save on the supposition that he aimed to
unite once more the two kingdoms under Judah's
supremacy. However glorious the aim was, it
could never be attained in the way upon which he
had entered. The real cause of the division of the
kingdom was Israel's revolt from the chief com-
mand of the covenant with Jehovah. This cause
could not be removed by external means such as
Jehoshaphat sought to use. The friendship wli ich
he sought to establish by intermarriage and by
political measures, ignoring the true ground of
division, and even setting it aside by denying some
features of the theocratic constitution, was a
friendship which had no root, and enjoyed no-
256
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
divine blessing, out of which rather mischief arose
for Judah. For, far from tending to root up Jero-
boam's eultus in Israel, this intermarriage helped
to transplant it to Judah, and brought that king-
dom to the brink of ruin. After seventy or eighty
years, in the time of Amaziah, the hostility between
the two kingdoms broke out afresh, and was never
entirely allayed again until the Assyrians took
Israel into captivity.
2. King Ahab appears here in the last act of
his career, just as we have seen him always
hitherto, devoid of religious or moral character.
His penitence, which seemed so earnest, and which
certainly falls in the period immediately preced-
ing the renewed war with the Syrians (chap. xxi.
27), had, as we see from the story before us, borne
no fruit. His attitude toward Jehovah and His
covenant remained the same. There is not a sign
of any change of heart. He is now enraged
against Ben-hadad, whom, after the battle of
Aphek, he called his "brother," and suffered to
depart out of weakness and vanity. He summons
his chief soldiers to a war against Ben-hadad, and
calls for Jehoshaphat's aid also, in order to make
sure of destroying him. He had either forgotten
the words of the prophet (chap. is. 42), or else he
cared nothing about them. To " be still " (ver. 3)
did not suit him. As Jehoshaphat desired, before
engaging on the expedition, to hear an oracle of
Jehovah in regard to it, Ahab summoned only those
in regard to whose declarations he could be sure
that they would accord with his own wishes, and
when Micaiah, being called at the express wish of
Jehoshaphat, gives another prophetic declaration,
Ahab explains this as the expression of personal
malice, as he had once done in regard to Elijah's
declarations (chap xxi. 20). He allows Zedekiahto
insult and abuse Micaiah, and even orders the latter
into close confinement. But then again he be-
comes alarmed at -the prophet's words, though
before he was passionate and excited. He cannot
overcome the impression he has received, and so,
contrary to military custom and order, he does
not go into the battle like Jehoshaphat, clad in
royal robes, but disguised. This precaution, which
testified to anything but heroism (Eisenlohr says
justly: "He hoped in this way to escape dan-
ger "), did not, however, avail. He was shot
without being recognized. His command to be
removed from the strife, that his wound might be
cared for, could not be executed. He bled to
death on his chariot. Some moderns have re-
presented his end as heroic, starting from the
erroneous exegesis that he caused his wounds to
be bound up and returned to the fight (see Exeg.
on vers. 34 and 35). " He had his wound bound
up, returned to the battle, and held himself erect
in his chariot, though his blood flowed down on
its floor until the evening " (Duncker, Gesch. des
Alterthums I. s. 212 : — following Ewald). Thenins
even says: "If Ahab held himself erect through
the whole day with the purpose already men-
tioned (to encourage his men), then he possessed,
aside from the qualities manifested in chap. xx.
7, 14, 32, 34, a character whose general features
were grand." This view is certainly mistaken,
since we may be sure that the author did not in-
tend to glorify Ahab in this account of his death.
It is so far from his intention to say anything in
hiB' honor, that he even expressly narrates how
Ahab after his death met with involuntary dis-
grace (ver. 38). In mentioning the end of Asa,
Baasha, and Orari their '•heroism" (mQ3) is
mentioned, but when Ahab's death and burial are
mentioned, there is no reference to his valor.
Moreover, it is impossible to speak of this king as
having " a character whose general features were
grand," seeing that he was ruled by his wicked
wife, that he went to bed and would see no one,
and neither eat nor drink, because he could not at
once obtain a garden which he wanted, and that
he did not recover his spirits until he had obtained
the garden by a judicial murder.
3. The congregation of not less than four hundred
prophets, who claimed to be prophets of Jehovah,
but were not such, is a phenomenon which has
no parallel either in the earlier or later history of
Israel, and which, for various reasons, deserves
attention. In the first place, it appears from this
that, although the Baal-cultus had been formally
introduced, it had not entirely superseded the
Jehovah-cultus ; on the contrary, that it existed
by the side of that (perhaps as a consequence of
Elijah's work), and that, as we may infer from the
number of the prophets who were assembled,
a great portion of the people must still have been
well disposed towards the national eultus. Second-
ly, it appears that there was in Israel, besides the
class of prophets of whom Elijah and Elisha and
their pupils were the leaders (2 Kings ii. 3, 5, 7,
16; vi. 1), also another class of prophets, who did
not oppose the eultus of Jeroboam or the idolatrous
dynasty, but rather joined hands with these, and
sought a compromise with them. This latter class
was no doubt, for the most part, identical with
the priests of Jeroboam's eultus, and formed the
official privileged class of prophets. The union of
the priestly and the prophetic offices occurred in
the Baal-religion (chap, xviii.). No ancient people
considered any eultus complete without a class of
men through whom the god might be questioned.
This class was naturally identified, in the first
place, with the priesthood, through whom all deal-
ings with the gods must be brought about. The calf-
worship of Jeroboam must, therefore, have pro-
phets in order to be a complete religious system,
and its priests became its born prophets. Since,
however, this eultus, with its priesthood, was not
a legitimate outgrowth of the national constitution
and the divine covenant, but a creation of politi-
cal policy (chap. xh. 31, 32; xiii. 33), the prophecy
also, which was connected with it, did not stand
upon the covenant with Jehovah, and the spirit
which animated this prophecy could not be the
"spirit of Jehovah." It was a lying spirit, since
the whole existence of this class of persons was
rooted in apostasy and in revolt from the theo-
cratic constitution. These " prophets of Samaria "
(Jer. xxiii. 13 ; Ezek. xiii. 1) were false prophets.
They were not "servants of Jehovah" or " men
of God," but creatures of Jeroboam's royal power,
court prophets, who stood ready for the service of
the king. This is the character in which they
here appear. Ahab knew that they would pro-
phesy "good" concerning him; hence he called
them and would not listen to Micaiah. It is not
necessary to consider them conscious and inten-
tional deceivers, but, though they may havf
believed in their own oracleB, yet they were de-
ceitful prophets, since the " spirit of Jehovah '
was not in them.
CHAPTER XXIL 1-10.
257
4. The prophet ilicaiah, of whom we know
nothing more than is to be learned from this
chapter, unites, in contrast with the prophets of
Ahab, all the chief features of a genuine Jehovah-
prophet in a manner in which they are not to be
found in a single appearance of any other prophet.
We are tirst struck by the fulfilment of his predic-
tion. He announces, on the authority of a vision,
the fall of Ahab as a thing settled in the counsels
of God, and does this iu such a clear and definite
way that Ahab and all the others who were pre-
sent at once understood what was predicted, and
there was no place for a " dim misgiving of the
defeat which was to be suffered" (Ewald). Ac-
cording to human foresight, a great defeat was
the less to be expected on this occasion, since
Ahab's army was considerably strengthened by
the addition of Jehoshaphat's, and the only thing
sought was the capture of one city. Hence the
four hundred prophets unanimously promised
victory. The passage is certainly historical : ac-
cording to Thenius. the vision of Micaiah "is to
be regarded as a proof of the historical truth of
the passage on account of its peculiarity and
originality;" we have here, therefore, a definite
prediction, which can have proceeded only from
divine revelation, from which Micaiah expressly
asserts that he received it. Then with this gift
of prediction Micaiah unites also the heroic
courage which marked all the true prophets. He
steps forth in the face of the king and his four
hundred prophets, as once Elijah stepped forth
in the face of the same king and the four hundred
and fifty priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. Though
he came from captivity, and had now an opportu-
nity to receive the royal favor, and although the
attendant begged him, as he came, to " prophesy
good," yet he speaks only what God has revealed
to him, and fears neither the wrath of the king,
nor the outcry and rage of the four hundred. He
recognizes no fear of men and no desire to please
men' The word of his God is more to him than
all else, and with that he stands firm, no matter
what may threaten him. To this heroic courage
he adds, 'finally, the patient endurance of insult
and abuse which he is called to endure for the
sake of truth. He does not repay Zedekiah in
kind, but refers him to the experience which
awaits him. When the enraged king orders him
into close confinement on the "bread of affliction,"
he does not murmur, but calls on all present to
remember his prediction, and submits to his lot,
leavingjudgment to Him who judges righteously.
So this servant of God appears as a forerunner of
Him in whose mouth no deceit was found, who,
when he was reviled, reviled not again, and did
not threaten when he suffered (1 Peter ii. 22 sq.),
as if the great example had already appeared be-
fore him, and he had only followed iu His foot-
steps.
5. The vision of the prophet Micaiah (vers. 19-22)
is original and peculiar. It has no parallel in the Old
Testament. In meaning it corresponds most
nearly to Isai. xix. 14 sq. It is very important for
the elucidation of the idea of God as contained in
the Old Testament. In so far as it proceeds upon
the supposition that the deceitful prophecy of the
four hundred prophets had its source in God, it
seems to stand upon a religious idea which is not
reconcilable with the holiness of God. In order
to escape the offence which is involved in this view.
17
the action of God has been described as a mere
" permission." Theodoret, for instance, whom
nearly all the ancient expositors follow, says oi
this vision : ■Kpocu~o7voua rtct dtdacnovaa tt/v tidai
ovyx"P*iG'v- But this is clearly a case in which
Jehovah himself appears ordering and regulating
independently and spontaneously, not merely per-
missively. We must bear m mind that the vision
represents an executive or judicial act of God. As
judge, God stands to evil not in the attitude of
permission, but in one of punishment. Since evil
does not come from God, but from man, who re-
bels against God, chooses evil, and opposes it to
God, so punishment comes upon man through evil.
God proves His holiness most of all by this, that
He punishes evil by evil, and destroys it by itself.
It is an essential feature in the divine government
of the world that the evil which springs up in the
world is made an instrument in the hand of the
Holy One for neutralizing and destroying itself,
and that it becomes a means of ruin to him who
chooses it, and brings it into being. The idea of
holiness as applied to God excludes all idea of His
indifference as between good and evil, and there-
fore forbids us to think of Him as "permitting"
evil. The theory of permission does not therefore
reconcile this incident with God's holiness, .but
rather is directly inconsistent with God's holiness.
Hence it has been abandoned iu modern theology
(<?/. Eothe, Eihik, II. s. 204-210). It is also entirely
foreign to Holy Scripture (cf. Heugstenberg,
Beitrdge, III. s. 462 sq.). The notion that God
punishes evil by evil, which forms the basis of
Micaiah's vision, runs through all the Scriptures,
and is not at all, as Thenius says, " an outgrowth
of the opinions of the time." Thenius is even
inclined to regard its close conformity to the pre-
valent notions of the time as " an especial proof of
the historical character of the passage." But this
general notion is found in the writings of the
greatest prophet of the Old Testament (Isai. xix.
14). and in those of the greatest Apostle of the New
Testament (2 Thess. ii. 11 ; Rom. i. 24-28 ; ix. 17).
The saying, frivolous in itself, Mundus vult decipi,
ergo decipiatur, may be applied to Ahab, at least in
this sense : He who seeks and chooses falsehood
will be ruined by falsehood, against his choice (Ps.
xviii. 27).
6 Ahab's end was truly tragical. It was
brought about, not by a blind fate, but by a God
who is just in all His ways, and holy in all His
works (Ps. cxlv. 17), whose judgments are un-
searchable, and His ways past finding out (Rom.
xi. 33). The conflict which Ahab had sought, and
which no warning could induce him to abandon,
became his punishment. He fell in battle with
that very enemy who had once been delivered into
his hands, and whom he had released, out of
vanity and weakness, to the harm of Israel, and so
he made good just the words of the prophet in
chap. xx. 42. He thought that a disguise would
render him secure from the Syrian leaders who
sought to find him out, and he did indeed escape
them ; but an unknown man, who did not know
him, and had no intention against him, shot him,
while Jehoshaphat, though undisguised, escaped
unharmed. The arrow which struck him was not
warded off by his corselet, but just struck the
narrow opening between the corselet and the skirt,
where it could penetrate and inflict a fatal wound
Every one, therefore, who does not regard all in
258
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
cidents as accidents, must recognize the hand
which guided this shaft. The words of the
Psalmist held true : " If he will not turn, he will
whet his sword, he hath bent his bow, and made
it ready. He hath also prepared for him the
instruments of death ; he ordaineth his arrows
against the persecutors" (Ps. vii. 12, 13). Finally.
Ahab did not die at once, but at evening, in eon-
sequence of the loss of blood. His blood flowed
down in the chariot, which was so besmeared by it
that it had to be washed. It was washed at the
pool before the city, where dogs drank and har-
lots bathed. So it came to pass, although he was
buried with all honor, that he was marked in his
death as one condemned by God, and Elijah's word
(chap. xxi. 19) was fulfilled.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-38. Ahab's last undertaking, (a) What
led him to it (vers. 1^) ; (i) the question which he
put to the prophets in regard to it (vers. 6-2S) ;
(c) how it resulted (vers. 29-38). — Vers. 1-4. The
coalition of the two kings, (a) It is proposed by
Ahab. (He aims to bring about the war under an
apparently just pretext, whereas he was himself to
blame for the loss of Ramoth, because he let Ben-
hadad go. So, often, strife is stirred up under the
pretext of a just occasion, when the real cause is
an evil and godless feeling. Instead of using the
time of peace for peaceful industry the restless man
begs for Jehoshaphat's help in a new war. He
was willing to borrow Jehoshaphat's aid for such
an undertaking, but did not care to borrow any-
thing of his piety. [He cunningly proposed the
war to recover Ramoth at a time when Jehosh-
aphat was on a visit to him, and was most anxious
to please him.]) (b) Jehoshaphat agrees to it
(without due consideration. He was bribed by
Ahab's friendly reception and hospitality. He thus
brought himself into great danger, ver. 32. We
must not enter into alliances with men like Ahab,
who are given over to do evil. Still less ought we
to form relationships with them, for we are thus
liable to be led into ways which are displeasing to
God and lead to ruin. 2 Chron. xix. 2. We ought
to be at peace with all men, but to enter into alli-
ances and relationships only with those who stand
on the same ground with us as regards the highest
interests). — Ver. 1. Starke: God gives time and
place for repentance even to the greatest sinners.
If they will not repent he will whet his sword (Ps.
vii. 12 and 13). — Ver. 3. Wurt. SlJMM. : It is a
misfortune when great men have a fondness for
war. They are not satisfied when they must be
still, but seek war without necessity and imperil
their country. — Pfapf'sche Bibel: Do ye not
know that heaven is ours, yet we be still I So
should those cry out to their hearers who are
charged with the cure of souls, and should en-
courage them to take the kingdom of heaven bv
force (.Mail, xi. 12).— Ver. 5. Wurt. StJMM. : We
should undertake nothing without God's approval,
for how can a thing prosper in which God does not
help? Hence we ought to seek counsel of God in
his word and in prayer, and, when the word of God
does not, counsel us to proceed with the undertak-
ing we should give it up, satisfied that it would not
succeed. It is well to ask God's will, but do it al-
ways before, not after thou hast asked >r promised.
— J. Lanue- It often happens thus, i mau deter-
mines on something displeasing to God, following
his own notion, and then convinces himself that it
is according to God's will. Question the word of
God I the best counsellor (a) for all who seek truth
and are tossed about by doubts, 2 Peter i. 19 ; Ps
xix. 8 sq. ; (b) for all who seek consolation and
peace for the soul, Ps. cxix. 82, 92, 105 ; Jer.
xv. 16.
Vers. 6-12. The congregation of prophets, (a)
The question which Ahalj submitted to them. (He
did not ask in the simple desire to learn the truth,
and submit to it, but to obtain divine approval be-
fore the world for that which he had already de-
termined on. If any one prophesies to him in any
other manner he becomes angry with him. The
%vorld demands prophets, but calls only those
" good preachers " whose words please' its ears, 2
Tim. iv. 3, and whose words are not a hammer to
break the rock, but a cradle-song to lure to sleep
in the midst of vain folly.) (b) The answer which
the assembled prophets gave to Ahab. (The an-
swer did not proceed from the spirit of truth any
more than the question, for these prophets did not
stand on the ground of the divine word. He who
has abandoned God's word may speak as finely as
he will ; he is a false prophet. [This holds true as
well of the dogmatist as of the rationalist.] Ahab's
prophets say to him: Go and prosper 1 He goes
and falls into hell. So also now the false prophets
promise salvation to all who walk in the broad way,
Ezek. xiii. 18. Therefore, " Believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits," &c, 1 John iv. 1). — Vers.
7. and 8. In many a city and country where there
are preachers enough, one is still obliged to ask,
as Jehoshaphat did : "Is there not here a prophet
of the Lord besides ? " Is there not one who pro-
claims the word of God simply and purely, without
fear or favor of men, and who can say what Paiu
says: Gal. i. 10? There was indeed one other
prophet of the Lord in Samaria, but he was in
prison, and the king was hostile to him. Starke:
Pious people esteem a single genuine prophet or
preacher more than four hundred false ones. — Let
not the king say so. When a servant of God
touches thy conscience, say not : I will go to that
church no more ; I do not like that preacher. —
Starke : A Christian should not keep silence when
the godless speak sinfully, but interrupt and re-
buke them. The Lord did so on the cross (Luke
xxiii. 39). — Vers. 10-12. Pfafp. Bibel : There is
nothing which is more sinful and worthy of pun-
ishment than to Hatter the great, who need to hear
the truth. This is more sinful, however, in the
clergy than in others. — Berleb. Bibel : Who is
not disgusted by those who fashion their words by
popular favor ? Yet he who would go on smoothly
and easily and prosperously must do this. Then
he will not meet with opposition, nor lose his place
at Jezebel's table (chap, xviii. 19), nor his other
emoluments. All the four hundred agreed unan-
imously, and yet their prophecy was false. In
matters of divine truth it matters not how many
agree. Here voices ought to be weighed, not
counted. The number of the unbelieving or the
superstitious was always greater than that of the
believers, for men agree in error or falsehood much
more easily than in truth. Be not deceived, though
thousands may think and say the same thing, a;. I
though the greatest and most learned may be
amongst them, but cling thou to the word of Him
who has said . " Heaven and earth shall pass away
CHAPTER XXII. 1-40.
259
but my word shall not pass away." — Starke:
Unanimity of opinion, even in the largest congre-
gations of theologians, is not always a proof of
truth, for a great company may err.
Vers. 12-28. Wurt. Summ. : Here we see the
marks of the true and false prophets. The false
teachers say what is popular, so as to enjoy re-
wards; they rely upon their number; they say
that they have God's word, though they have it
not, and claim to be in all things equal to the
true teachers; they dispute more with blows and
screams than wTith proofs from the word of God :
they are held in high esteem. On the contrary,
true teachers do not speak to please anybody, but
they preach fearlessly the truth of God's word,
letting it strike whom it will, refusing to be turned
aside, and submitting to persecution. Micaiah, the
type of a true prophet (see Histor. § 4). — Vers. 13
and 14. Micaiah on his way to the king, (a) How
he was tempted. (The witnesses to the truth often
have to withstand the strongest temptations from
those who appear to be their sincere friends.
They are begged for their own sakes, and for the
sake of those who depend on them, not to oppose
the great and mighty, and not to declare other
teachers false prophets. They aro told that their
declarations will do no good, but will only excite
enmity against them, and deprive them of bread
and of respect. Cf. Mark viii. 32 sq.) (b) How
he repels the temptation. (Neither allurements nor
threats can turn aside a faithful servant of God
from the word of the Lord. That is the rock on
which he takes his stand, the sword and shield
with which he fights. What he has already suf-
fered has not made him submissive; what yet
awaits him cannot turn him aside. All other con-
siderations must yield to the duty of saying what
the Lord gives him to say. Acts iv. 20.) — Ver. 13.
Hall : Those who offer earthly good as an induce-
ment think that every one worships their idol. —
Ver. 14. Starke: We ought to be firm against
allurements and not let ourselves be drawn from
the truth by favor or disfavor. What the
Lord saith unto me that will I speak ought
to be the vow of every preacher when he enters
on his office, (a) What pertains to the fulfilment
of this vow? (Knowledge of the truth, power
from above, prayer for the gifts of the spirit. 2
Tim. iv. 2 sq.) (b) What is promised to one who
makes such avow? (Jer. i. 8 sq. ; Luke xii. 12;
Matt. x. 10 ; Dan. xii. 3 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; 1 Peter v. 4.)
Vers. 15 and 16. Berleb. Bibel : This is a won-
derful thing. People demand certain ones to speak
the truth, to them, yet when the truth is spoken
they are displeased by it. How many demand
the truth, yet are angry when they hear it. —
Cramer : The godless often ask about the truth,
not in order to make themselves better, but in
order to spend their malice on the pious (Matt. ii.
3 sq. ; xxvi. 63). — Hypocritical questions deserve
no earnest answer, but only such a one as may
put the questioner to shame. — Starke : It is not
wrong to sometimes answer the fool according to
his folly, but with wit, in order to make him bet-
ter (Prov. xxvi. 5). — Vers. 17-27. Micaiah's pre-
diction, (a) Its contents, in their refereuce to the
king (ver. 17), and to the four hundred prophets
(vers. 19-23). (b) Its reception by the prophets
{ver. 24) and by the king (ver. 26-28). — Ver. 17.
Kings should be the shepherds of the people.
Israel had in Ahab a master, but not a shepherd.
He led the people not in the right path, but astra;
(Jer. ii. 13). It is the greateat misfortune for a
people when it has no leader who is a true shep-
herd.— Ver. 18. Cramer: The godless murmur
against preachers, saying that they can do noth-
l ing but scold, but they do not murmur against
their own sins (Lament, iii. 39). — Vers. 19-23.
The truths which are presented to us by the pro-
j phet's vision, (a) The Lord in heaven stands
above all earthly thrones. He appoints and de-
| poses kings, and has power over all kingdoms (Dan.
ii. 21 ; iv. 14; 1 Sam. ii. 7). Therefore let all the
earth fear him, &c. (Ps. xxxiii. 8). (6) The Lord
is pure to the pure, and perverse to the perverse.
He gives over the perverse and hard-hearted to
I the judgment of obstinate error ; he sends mighty
1 errors to inthrall those who resist the truth (John
xii. 40; 2 Thess. ii. 11; Ex. xiv. 4, 8). There-
I fore " harden not your hearts," Ac. (Hebr. iii. 8).
— Ver. 21. Pfaff: It is a great judgment of
God upon a country when he allows false pro-
phets to lead it astray, and to put on the mask of
true prophets. It is, however, a judgment which
the world does not recognize as such. — Ver. 22.
Kybcrz : He who seduces others is himself se-
duced as a just punishment. Ahab led the people
from God to Baal, therefore he is here led by a
false oracle to march out upon his own scaffold.
That, however, is the mightiest seduction which
is brought about through those who ordinarily
stand highest in authority, — the prophets. — Vers.
24-28. Micaiah's suffering for the truth, (a) He is
publicly insulted by Zedekiah the chief of the
prophets (Matt. v. 11). (b) He is thrown into pri-
son by the godless king Ahab (1 Pet. ii. 19), (c)
He is left unprotected by the pious king Jehosha-
phat (Matt. xxtfi. 56).— Ver. 24. Ktburz : When
the disputants cannot oppose anything to the truth,
they turn to blows instead of arguments, or the
controversy ends in scolding, and calumny, and
blasphemy. Those are the weapons which are
forged in hell against the truth. Let every one who
intends to speak and write the naked truth make up
his mind that he will be attacked by these if he
disregards the favor of men. This salt [the truth]
has lost nothing of its savor; it bites to-day as it
did 3,000 years ago. — Berleb. Birel: A false
light makes men self-willed; they become like
those who stand in a mist. Each one sees an
open light space about himself, but seems to see
that every other is enveloped in mist. — Hall :
None boast more of having the spirit of God than
those who have it not at all. Vessels which are
full give only a light sound or none at all. In
vituperation and abuse clerical disputants, to
whom it is least becoming, are unfortunately often
most vigorous. By their sensitive vanity, which
can endure no contradiction, their envy, their
arrogance, and their anger, they show plainly that
they have not the spirit of God, which does not
dwell in an arrogant and quarrelsome and self
willed heart, but in a humble one. and its fruit*
are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, &c. (Gal.
v. 22). " The Lord resisteth the proud." Ver.
25. Cramer. Those who are boldest in pros-
perity generally become the most timid when
their affairs begin to decline (Judges ix. 38). —
Vers. 26-28. Ahab's conduct towards the wit-
ness of the Truth, (a) It was tyrannical. (There
is no greater tyranny than to suppress by force the
divine word and the truth.) (b) It was foolish. (We
260
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS.
cannot accomplish anything against the truth, 2 Cor.
xiii. S. We can put the advocates of it in prison, but
not the truth. It cannot be bound in chains, nor
starved. It escapes and spreads, and only gains
in glory by our attempts to oppress it.) — Ver. 28.
Starke : Threats of death or of imprisonment
may not frighten a true servant of God from con-
fessing the truth (Acts v. 25-29). — He who makes
a good confession can without fear call all the
world to witness it (Matt. x. 14). Such a confes-
sion always leaves a sting behind, which one can
never again get rid of (ver. 30).
Vers. 29-3S. The war with the Syrians, (a) A
war which was undertaken without, nay, even
against, God's will, and therefore with no good con-
science, (b) An unfortunate war, which resulted
in danger to Jehoshaphat, death to Ahab, and
rout to the army. — The two kings before, in,
and after the battle. — Ver. 29. So. We should ex-
pect : " So " the two kings abandoned the war.
However they went, one out of self-will, the
other out of weakness. — Calw. Bib. : Men do far
too readily what they want to do, although it is
contrary to God's will, putting aside God's word,
or the warnings of others, or the voice of con-
science. The event is never good. How often
men ask for advice, yet follow their own will only.
Kyburz : Jehoshaphat's example ought to make
us shy of the society of the wicked. The sun of
grace in his heart became gradually dimmed. At
first he had courage to remonstrate with Ahab,
but gradually he comes to silence and indifference,
even while Micaiah is abused and remanded to
prison. In the end this evil companionship
would have cost him his life, if God had not won-
derfully interposed. — Ver. 30. Unbelief, in Ahab,
joined hands with superstition. The king despises
and rejects the word of God which is announced
to him, and yet he is frightened, and seeks to escape
the threatened dangers by disguising himself.
This stratagem was intended to prove the prophet
false. Neither cunning nor might avails against
God's will. Thou mayest disguise thyself as thou
wilt, God will find thee when and where no man
recognizes thee (Ps. cxxxix. 7-12). MiMi ad
fatum venere suum, dum fata timent. — Ver. 32.
Cramer: God sometimes lets his children come
into distress and danger when they have formed
companionship with the wicked, but he saves
them again through His goodness and might, that
they may be the more careful another time.
Into what distress and danger one is thrown by a
careless promise (ver. 4), an ill-timed concession,
and the false shame of taking back one's promise I
— Vers. 34 and 35. If not a sparrow falls, nor a
hair, without His will, how much less can an arrow
or a ball strike thee unless His hand guides it.
— Berleb. Bib. The less of the human there is in
those things which we commonly call accidents,
the more there is of the divine. The weal or woe
of whole nations often depends on those things
which are called accidents. — Ver. 36. Whatever
any men, though they were kings, have brought
together and set up, without God's approval, that
is certain to fall to pieces and perish again. —
Vers. 37 and 38. Ahab's end (see Bistor. §6). (a) It
was sudden (1 Sam. xx. 3 ; Luke xii. 20. From
sudden death, good Lord, deliver us). (J) It was un-
repentant (without conviction of sin, or repentance
for it, or longing for grace and pardon), (c) It was
shameful. (He was indeed buried with honor,
like the rich man, Luke xvi., but the dogs lick
his blood, and his memory does not remain in
honor, Ps. lxxiii. 19. Therefore, Ps. xc. 12; xxxix.
5.) — Starke : As he lived, so he died ; as he died,
so he was judged. The death of Ahab is a testi-
mony to Rom. xi. 33 ; Gal. vi. 7 ; Isai. xl. 8. — Vers
39 and 40. What is the profit of leaving behind a
great and grand house, if one has not set one'i
house in order (Isai. xxrviiL 1; 1 John ii 17) T
PART SECOND.
[THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS, INCLUDING 1 KINGS XXII. 41-53.]
SECOND PERIOD, SECOND EPOCH.
THIRD SECTION.
THE KTNODOM UNDER JEHOSHAPHAT IN JUDAH, AND AHAZIAH AND JORAM IN ISRAEL
(1 Kings XXTT. 41—2 Kings in. 37.)
A. — Reigns of Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah.
1 Kings XXII. 41—2 Kings I. 18.
1 Kings XXII. 41. And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah
42 in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years
old when he began to reign ; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem.
43 And his mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in
all the way of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which
was right in the eyes of the Lord: nevertheless the high places were not taken
44 away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. And
45 Jehoshaphat made [was at] peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the
acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are
46 they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And the
remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he
47 took out of the land. There was then no king in Edorn : a deputy icas king.
48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold : but they went
49 not : for the ships were broken [wrecked] at Ezion-geber. Then said Ahaziah
the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in
the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.
50 And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in
the eity of David his father : and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.
51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seven
teenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.
52 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father,
and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
53 who made Israel to sin : For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked
to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
I
THE
SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS
COMMONLY CALLED
THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Chap. I. 1-18.
1 Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahi«siah
2 fell down through a [window-] lattice in his upper chamber that teas in Samaria,
and was sick : and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Btial-
3 zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel
of the Lord * said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, Go up to meet the messengers
of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not [omit not] because there is
not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?
4 Now therefore thus saith tlie Lord, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on
5 which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And
when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye
6 now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us,
and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord, Is it not [omit not] because there is not a God in Israel, that
thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt
not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
1 And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet
8 you, and told you these words? And they answered him, lie u-as a hairy man,
and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the
Tishbite.
9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he
went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of a hill. And he spake
10 unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah
answered and said to the captain of fifty, If Ifea man of God, then let fire
come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came
11 down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. Again also he sent unto
him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered [lifted up his
voice]' and said unto him, 0 man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down
12 quickly. And Elijah answered and said unto them, [him]," If [And if] I be a
man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.
And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
13 And he sent again a [third]3 captain of the third [omit the third] fifty with his
fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees
before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee,
let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
14 Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the
former titties with their fifties: therefore [but] let my life now be precious in
• [The correct translation of rT)JT . rendered In onr version by Loed. would be The Eternal. This may be regarded ••
• ■undlng correction.]
1 KINGS XXIT. 41-53.
l,'i
16
17
thy si^ht. And the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, Go down with him :'
be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
And he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast sent mes-
sengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it not [omit not] because
there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word ? therefore thou shalt not come
down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. So he
died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram
reigned in his stead, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king
18 of Judah; because he had no son. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which
he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 11.— The Sept. [Cod. Ales.] hare here *<u ivifiri, «ai iM\^mv, so that they read ?$£! for ]V-1 ■ Thenius and
Kei! adopt this reading, citing vers. 9 and 18.
2 Ver. 12. — [Sept. for E^\<^ i irpbs aviov, a necessary emendation.
a Ver. 13.— ['C'Vt" must be read for QW with Thenius and Keil.
4 Ver. 15.— [iniN has the form of the accusative sign with suffix, instead of WS the preposition. The distinction
Is not observed in the later language. Ewald, Lehrbuch d. hebr. Upr. % 264, b. and Ges. g 103, 1. R. 1.— The suffix in
V33D refers to the king.— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 41. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa,
Ac. 2 Chron. xvii.-xxi. gives a more detailed ac-
count of the reign of this king, which our author
here treats with remarkable brevity. On ver. 43,
cf. chap. xv. 9 sq. The statement iu the last part
of ver. 43 is not contradictory to 2 Chron. xvii. 6,
for the latter place refers to the idolatrous worship
of Baal and Astarte, on the high places and in the
groves, while here the author is speaking of the
worship of Jehovah upon the high places, as in 2
Chron. xx. 33. (Cf. notes on chap. ii. 3.) Jehosha-
phat had peace (ver. 44) as a result of his matri-
monial alliance with Ahab (2 Chron. xviii. 1), not
only with that king himself, but also with his suc-
cessors, Ahaziah and Jehoram. On ver. 45, cf.
chap. xv. 23, and on ver. 46, cf. chap. xiv. 24, and
chap. xv. 12.
Yer. 41. There was then no king in Edom.
This observation simply serves to introduce what
the author desired to add, in vers. 48 and 49, as
especially important, from the history of the reign
of Jehoshaphat. As Edom at that time had no
king of its own, but merely a governor, Jehosha-
phat could build a merchant-fleet in the Edom it ic
port, Ezion-gebcr, as Solomon had done before
(chap. ix. 26). The Edomites had been subjugated
by David (2 Sam. viii. 14), but attempted, in the
latter part of the reign of Solomon, to regain their
independence under the leadership of Hadad (chap.
xi. 14 sq.); we have no information whether at all,
or to what extent, this attempt succeeded. Keil
and Ewald are of the opinion that the Edomites
joined themselves to the Ammonites and Moabites
>n their war with Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 1 sq.),
but were conquered by him, and then placed under
a governor. There is not, however, the slightest
■nention of the Edomites in 2 Chron. xx. There
is just as little foundation for the supposition of
Thenius, that Hadad's family had died out before
the time of Jehoshaphat, and that the latter prof-
ited cunningly by the quarrels which arose about
the succession to re-establish the sovereignty of
Judah over Edom. Only this much is certain, that
circumstances had arisen in Edom under Jehosha-
phat which brought about the appointment of a
governor, and rendered possible the re-establish-
ment of the trade with Ophir, which had existed
in the most nourishing period of the kingdom. — On
Ophir and the Ships of Tarshish, see notes on chap.
x. 22. The latter were wrecked, as it seems, be-
fore leaving the harbor of Ezion-geber, by a storm.
According to 2 Chron. xx. 35 sq., Jehoshaphat
caused these ships to be built in company with
Ahaziah, and the prophet Eliezer interpreted their
destruction to him as a divine punishment for his
connection with the apostate Ahaziah (ver. 52)
after he had received a warning on account of his
alliance with Ahab (2 Chron. xix. 2). Probably
he hoped and believed that Ahaziah had better
purposes than Ahab, and therefore he did not at
first reject his propositions. When, however, Aha-
ziah made a second proposal to him (ver. 49) he
declined to enter into it. In this opinion Keil also
now agrees, although he formerly assumed that
the ships were twice destroyed — first, those which,
according to the passage before us, were destined
for the voyage to Ophir, and then those which,
according to 2 Chron. xx. 36, were intended for
that to Tarshish (in Spain). The death of Jehosh-
aphat is somewhat anticipated in ver. 50, for 2
Chron. iii. 7 sq. relates how he made an expedition
against the Moabites with Jehoram, the successor
of Ahaziah.
Ver. 51. Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, &c. For
the chronological statement: "The seventeenth
year of Jehoshaphat," which does not coincide
with the duration of Ahab's reign (1 Kings xvi.
29), and the commencement of Jehoshaphat's reign
(1 Kings xxii. 41), see below, on 2 Kings viii. 16. —
On ver. 52, cf. chap. xvi. 29-33. — On the ground-
lessness of the division, which commences the
1 " Second book of the Kings " after ver. 53. see § 1
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of tho Introdtu tion. Particularly the first verse
of the second hook stands in close connection with
the three last verses of the first book, as is evident
from the words After the death of Ahab. The
death of this king and the accession of Ahaziah
were the immediate causes of the attempt of the
Moabites, who had been tributary ever since the
time of David (2 Sam. viii. 2), to separate them-
selves from Israel. We must therefore put this
attempt before the rest which is related in regard
to Ahaziah, especially before the construction of
the merchant-fleet, which he attempted in com-
pany with Jehoshaphat. War with the revolted
Moabites did not break out under Ahaziah, who
did not reign for even two full years, but immedi-
atelv after the accession of his successor, Jehoram
(chap. hi.). Keil thinks it clear that the revolt of
the Moabites followed upon their alliance with the
Ammonites, which is narrated in 2 Chron. xx.
This alliance, however, was directed against Je-
hoshaphat and Judah, and in the entire account
there is no trace whatever that Israel took part in
the expedition of Jehoshaphat, whereas chap. iii.
4 sq. treats of a war batween Israel and the Moab-
ites. Piscator correctly states the connection be-
tween vers. 1 and 2 thus: JSgrotavit, ac perinde
nihil contra Moabitas tentare potuit.
Chap. i. ver. 2. And Ahaziah fell down
through a (window-) lattice, &c. Accordiug to
Ewald, with whom Thenius agrees, the passage
(vers. 2-16) does not come from the same author
as the other passages which treat of Elijah, viz.. 1
Kings xvii. xviii. and xix., and 2 Kings ii. 1-18, but
is of later origin than these, as " is clear from the dif-
ference of the language in regard to the descent of
fire from heaven in 1 Kings xviii. 38, and 2 Kings i.
10-14, not to speak of the difference in the nature
of the contents of the two passages." When the
narrative is correctly accepted, however, this latter
diflerence disappears. Still less can we conclude,
from the fact that i>Bj is used of the descent of
-T
firo in the first passage and "IT in the second,
that they have different authors. — ilDDE' is lat-
tice-work, also snare (Job xviii. 8). It can hardli-
ne that we have here to think of the balustrade
of the flat roof, but rather of the window-opening,
which was provided with a lattice. For this
interpretation "IJQ through is also an argument.
We may suppose that he leaned too far out through
the low window, although he does not seem to have
fallen very far, as it did not cost him his life; pos-
sibly only on to one of the galleries of the palace.
That this took place on the occasion of a drinking-
bout (Krummacher) is a groundless supposition.
The Sept. render Bual-zrbub [mentioned only in
this passage in the Old Testament] by /Joo/. fivtav
8eA 'AxKap&v, and Pliny says (Hist Nat. 10, 28):
Cyrenaici Achorem Deum (invocant) viuscarum mvl-
tituiliue pestileutiam afferente quae protinus intereunt
postquam litutum est iUi Deo He is therefore the
Baal who protects against the flies, which cause
sickness and other calam'ties; "Defender against
vermin," like the Zebc airo/ivinc, pviaypoc of the
Klf-;ii!s (Pausan. viii. 26, 4). Against this com-
monly received explanation (Gesenius, Movers,
Ewald. Winer, ReaLWdrterbuch, i. s. 120). J. G.
Mull<-r (Herzog, Encyc. i. s. 768), with whom Keil
agrees, maintains that the "Fly-god" cannot have
nis name as enemy of Hies, but that he was TAvia
0e6c, i. e., the fly as god, and therefore ti idol it
the form of a fly. " who must have stood in a simi-
lar relation to flies, being a sun-god and si turner-
god, as the oracle-god, Apollo, who sent and
warded oil' sickness." Stark KGvza, s. 260) re-
marks further : " They (the flies) seem, in their
appearance and disappearance, which depend en
tirely upon the weather, to be themselves endowed
with some prophetic power." This view, however,
cannot be made to agree with the words of Pliny,
and Ahaziah was certainly anxious not only for an
oracle, but also at the same time and especially for
recovery from his illness through the help of the
Fly-god. — Ekron, probably the present Akir, was
the northernmost of the live principal cities of the
Philistines (Jos. xiii. 3), and so lay nearest to the
royal residence. Samaria. [Cf. Robinson's Biblical
Researches, iii. 22-25.] Following Ephrem, Vata-
blus remarks that Ahaziah sent to the Idol at
Ekron by the advice of Jezebel.
Ver. 3. But the Angel of the Lord, &c.
" Not an angel but the angel of the Lord who
makes known all the revelations of the invisible
God to the covenant people. Cf. Hengstenberg,
Christologie, 1. 1, s. 219-232." (Keii.) We have not to
think of any external appearances. [n' T\ti!712
is the varying form under which God reveals him-
self on the earth, on different occasions. Indeed, im
the older books there is often an ambiguity as to
which is meant, God himself or some apparition,
or the representations vary indifferently. Cf. Gen.
xvi. 7, 10, 11 (yet ver. 14, " God of my sight," i. e.,
"whom I have seen"); xxi. 9 sq. ; cf. Gen. xvii. 15
sq., and Gen. xviii. 9-16. In Gen. xxii. notice ver. 12,
at the end, " from me." See also chap. xxxi. 11 sq.,
and espec. ver. 13; also the story chap, xxxii. 24-32,
espec. ver. 30. Cf., further, Ex. iii. 2. 16, 18, and
iv. Cm;.; Ex. xiii! 21, and xiv. 19; Josh. vi. 2;.
Judges vi. 12 sq., espec. vers. 14, 16 and 23 ; xiii. 22
and^23. The latter passages seem to recognize
the distinction more clearly. Judges xiii. 16, the
angel distinguishes between himself and God. It
follows that " whenever God appears, he does so
in an angel, and whenever an angel appears, it is
God who appears in him ; so that appearances of
the angel and appearances of God are the same."
Afterwards this method of revelation gave way to
that of the prophets, with their '•Thus saith the
Lord ! " In the poetical books we find a personifica-
tion of wisdom, out of, and alongside of God, (cf.
Job xxviii. I. and all culminates in the logos-doctrine-
of St. John.— W. G. S.]— Where Elijah was then
living we do not know. Thenius thinks " assuredly
upon Mount Carmel; " but that is contradicted by
the words, " Go up to meet the messengers I " for
Ekron lay to the south and Carmel to the north of
Samaria," in entirely opposite directions. We
should have to suppose thin that Elijah started
much sooner, and came to meet the messengers
immediately upon their coming out of Samaria. —
And Elijah departed (ver. 4|. i. e., he did as the
angel of the Lord had commanded.
Ver. 5. And when the messengers turned
back unto him, &c. They must have received a
powerful impression from the personal presence
of Elijah, whom they did not know, since they felt
themselves compelled at once to turn back and
bring information to their master. The latter
asks them in astonishment : Why are ye now
turned back? as ■' was impossible that the?
CHAPTER I. 1-18.
could have been in Ekron. On the words that ye
go (ver. 3), for which they say in ver. 6 that thou
sendest, Menken remarks, " They lay the blame
entirely upon the king. The prophet, however,
had spoken in such a way that they might observe
that they also had incurred guilt, and had made
themselves accomplices in another's crime." —
CStTO (ver. 7) is not exactly Jujura et habitus
(Vuigata), but the law or rule, as that which
defines the entire personality, "the life-rule of
the individual person'' (Keilj, his peculiarity, by
virtue of which he is distinguished, and by which
he may be recognized. That -|JJ{5> '?JQ L'"X does
not mean " long hair covered his head " (Ewald ). is
clear from the description of the later Elijah (Matt,
iii. 4). The vir pilosus, hirsutus is the man who is
clothed in a hairy (black) garment. Such was the
peculiar dress of the prophets as preachers of re-
pentance, and it was called (cf. Zech. xiii. 4)
"IV"' JTHN • it appears that this costume com-
menced with Elijah, who was the type of all fol-
lowing teachers of repentance, and that he was
distinguished among the prophets of his time by
means of it. (The 400 prophets of Ahab, 1 Kings
xxii. 6, certainly did not wear this dress.) The
girdle, generally the most expensive article of
dress and the emblem of office, was made of
leather only in the case of the poor and low
(Winer, K.-W.-B. i. s. 448). In the case of the
prophet the leather girdle signified self-denial and
contempt for worldly ornament and grandeur, so
that it corresponded perfectly to the coarse gar-
ment of hair (cf. the contrast, Matt. xi. 8), Hebr.
xi. 37.
Ver. 9. Then the king sent, &c. Elijah had
immediately withdrawn again, whether unto Car-
mel remains uncertain ; but certainly Ahaziah
must have discovered his place of abode. The
hostile intention of the king shows itself in the
sending of soldiers ; certainly some act of violence
was proposed. Perhaps he feared lest the dis-
ciples of the prophets, or other adherents of
Elijah, might offer resistance. Ewald thinks he
was going " to have him brought down and then
(as, of course, is clear) executed." The army of
Israel was divided up into bodies of 1,000, 100, and
50 (Num. xxxi. 14,48; 1 Sam. viii. 12), each of
which had its own leader, -|[J» (Winer, i. *. 683).
The address of the leader has a military sound :
Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come
down! That the designation, "Man of God,"
was, in his mouth, not conviction, but scorn, is
shown by the haughty and dictatorial " Come
down I " (nil). The " and " with which the answer
of Elijah begins (ver. 10) must not be omitted, as
it is in the Vulg. and Luther, "since Elijah is
thought of in this first answer (otherwise in
ver. 12) as joining his speech immediately to that
of the captain " (Thenius). The sense of the
answer is: Thou callest me contemptuously and
BComngly " man of God ; " but the Lord will show
thee that I am such — thou shalt experience it.
[Patrick quotes a gloss of Abarbinel to this effect :
" If I be a man of God, as thou sayest, but dost
not think, then I am not bound to obey the king
but God, nor am I subject to his power, but to
God's, who will make thee know that He judges in
the earth."] — [And there came down fire from
heaven, &c. These words do not convey an intelli-
gible description of any physical event of which w«
can conceive. If we try to realize the incident in
imagination we find it impossible. It is not the
ordinary difficulty which attaches to an ordinary
miracle. There we cannot tell how a thing came
to pass, though we can see what the record meana
to assert. We can imagine that a man who nevei
had spoken should open his mouth and speak,
though we cannot conceive how he could be
enabled to do so. Here, however, the words do
not describe any external phenomenon vhich ia.
conceivable, not to say anything about the diffi-
culty which attaches to every miracle of seeing,
how it was done. We cannot tell what the author
means to assert to have come to pass, for the
words by which he refers to it do not give us at
sufficient description of it. It is evident, therefore,
that they refer back vaguely to a terrible judg-
ment, the accurate literal details of which were-
lost. It was only thus remembered as something
strange, shocking, and supernatural. See Histor.
,5 .7. where Bahr seems inclined to take the statement
figuratively, as a designation of the vengeance of
God. — W.G. S.] The second captain who was
sent (ver. 11) surpasses the first, instead of taking
warning by his fate, in that he adds to the "Come
down!" rnno, "quickly," thereby insinuating a
threat. How the king received information of the
destruction of his two expeditions we cannot de-
termine, as no hint is given of it. The Berleburger
Bibel says that the people of the neighborhood
acquainted him with it. — D'C'^i." in ver. 13 cannot
mean " for the third time " (de Wette). If it cannot
be referred to the fifty, as Keil explained it in his
earlier edition, then we must read *ltfcy) as Thenius
does, i.e., "a third," according to the story which
immediately follows. — Afraid of him (ver. 1.7). i. c,
not, as Thenius would have it taken, "of the
captain," but "of the king" (Seb. Smith, Ked), for
it is clear that VJ3D is opposed to iflis . He goes
down with him to the king. One would be glad
to learn something more about the meeting of
Elijah and Ahaziah, but the account is here (vers.
1(5 and 17), as in fact throughout, very brief and
even disjointed. On that very account, however,
it is the more pregnant, and bears the more dis-
tinctly the character of genuineness and originality.
In later times events were not narrated in such
compressed form. Here, just as in other cases,
Elijah reappears suddenly, and disappears again
and no one knows whence he comes d
whither he goes. The manner in whicj.
Krummacher delineates Elijah's meeting with
Ahaziah (Elias der Thisb.,s. 347) is indeed capti-
vating, but, nevertheless, entirely arbitrary. — In
ver. 17, the Sept., the Syriac version, and the
Vulgata add after " Jehoram," " his brother." ( ( f
chap. iii. 1, where he is called the son of Ahab.
On the date ofhis succession, In the second yeai
of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, which it ia
extremely difficult to fix, see notes on 2 Kings,
viii. 16.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The reign of Jehoshaphat was a very suc< eag-
ful and prosperous one for Judah, both inten all?
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and externally, as is clear from the detailed ac-
count of the Chronicles. The author does not
enter more particularly into the details of its his-
tory, evidently because from the time of the divi-
sion of the kingdom on, his main object was rather
to give a representation of the monarchy in Israel
until its downfall. "When, however, after a more
general description of the reign of Jehoshaphat, he
states that that king caused ships to be built which
were intended to bring gold from Ophir (vers.
48—50), that is not a disconnected statement
which was inserted accidentally or arbitrarily, but
it stands in immediate connection with the preced-
ing general characterization, and supplements it in
an essential point. One cannot fail to recognize
that there is therein a reference back to the time
of Solomon, who first established a regular com-
merce with Ophir, and by that, as a principal
means, laid the foundation for the wealth and
prosperity of his kingdom (chap. ix. 26-28 ; x.
11, 22 sq.; 2 Chron. ix. 21 sq.). Jehoshaphat's aim,
after he had established legal order in his dotniu-
ions as far as possible, reduced the neighboring
peoples to subjection again, and concluded peace
with the brother kingdom, was to restore those
times of prosperity, and to bring his realm up to
the height of that of Solomon once more. The
glory of the kingdom, however, as it had existed
under Solomon, was, according to the purpose of
God, forever gone by (see 1 Kings xii. ; Histor. § 2).
Its return was not a part of the divine plan of sal-
vation, and every human attempt to restore it must
necessarily fail. The fleet of Jehoshaphat went
down in the harbor of Ezion-geber, even before it
had sailed out, and that, too, not by human fault,
but by a storm, that is to say, by a dispensation
of God.
2. As regards his relation to Jehovah, which was
the main point for every Israelitish king, Ahaziah
was one of the very worst of them. This is
marked, in the general description, by the fact
that it is said of him, not only that " he did evil in
the sight of the Lord," and " walked in the ways
of Jeroboam," but that it is also added, "in the way
of his father," nay even also (which is observed of
no other king), " in the way of his mother," the
fanatical, idolatrous, and bloodthirsty Jezebel, who
was still living, and perhaps controlled him even
more than she had controlled his father. All the acts
of God during the reign of his father, of which he
had been eye-vi ^ness and ear-witness, the proofs of
God's power, long-suffering, and justice, even the
tragical end of Ahab, had made no impression upon
him. All had passed by him, and left no effect
behind. For this very reason, then, in the first
place, he is worse than Ahab. That he surpassed
him in his alienation from Jehovah became appa-
rent at the approach of his early death. So far
from being brought to his senses by the unfortu-
nate accident which ultimately caused his death,
and seeking refuge in the God of his fathers, lie
sent messengers to a foreign divinity to seek
counsel and help from him. He thereby trail-
er' ed not only the general and chief com-
mandment (Ex. xx. 3), but also the special
commandment (Levit. xix. 31; xx. 6, 21; Deut.
xviii. 10 and 11), which threatened with ex-
termination those wh.> questioned soothsayers
and wizards. That was a public and practical
declaration that he esteemed the Fly-god of the
rnilistinos above the living God of Israel : and it
was a formal degradation and contempt, even an
insult, of the latter. Such a crime had not pre-
viously been committed by a king, and, if ever,
then certainly now, the time was come for the
zealous defender of the name of the God of Israe'
to "break forth like a fire" (Sirach xlviii. 1) from
his concealment, and to announce to the bold
scoffer the divine retribution. Even this terrible
announcement, however, was not sufficient to hum-
ble the dying man or to bring him to repentance;
it rather embittered him and filled him with anger,
and even with plans of murder. He sends out a
band of myrmidons, in order to get possession of
the person of the prophet, and when these meet
with a frightful fate, he does not even yet recog-
nize in it the hand of the Almighty, tut, with a
display of impotent stubbornness, sends out a new
band of men. But neither does the destruction of
this company also bend his hard and stubborn dispo-
sition ; he sends out a third time a band of soldiers.
All this he does while on his death-bed. face to
face with death, so completely has all reverence
for what is sacred abandoned him, and been sup-
planted by a stubbornness and wilfulness which
exiends even to madness. Ahab even had bowed
lrivself and humbled himself (1 Kings xxi. 27)
when Elijah announced to him the judgment of
God ; Jeroboam even sent, when his son was sick,
to the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings xiv. 2); but
Ahaziah perseveres in his senseless perversity, and
si i falls far below both of these. At last, however,
he is obliged to hear his condemnation from the
mouth of the prophet, when he is, as it were, bound
hand and foot, and only death overcomes his stub-
born heart.
3. The Prophet Elijah appears in general here,
just as he always has up to this point, as the av?)p
~l " ', H T'K ovvarbc £ v e p) <j nal hv ?.6}g) [cf. Luke xxiv.
19). He steps forth suddenly from obscurity, "as
it were borne on by the storm, with his fiery
strength and his fierj" tongue " iF.wald). His
weighty, irresistible personality, and his forcible,
energetic speech, make such an impression on the
messengers of the king, who do not know him
(ver. 8), that they do not dare to carry out the
orders of their despotic master, but turn back
without further actior.. As always, so also here,
" when they sought to seize him and make him a
prisoner, he was not to be reached ; " the emissaries
came to disgrace. Without fear, courageous and
unterrified, he appears before the king himself, as
he had once done before his father, and announces
to the fixed and stubborn man his approaching
death. Moreover, in this case, where lie has tc
deal with apostasy in its extremest form, one side
of his peculiar calling and position in the historical
development of the plan of salvation^comes into es-
pecial relief, namely, the function of avenging judge.
As the second Moses, and second founder of the
broken covenant, it was his task, before all else,
to bear witness, both by word and deed, to the
wrath and fiery jealousy of God against anything
idolati'nus (see above, the Historical notes on 1 Kings
wii. § 1). He is the representative and instru-
ment of the jealousy of the divine Judge, the
herald of the divine retributive justice, and on that
aocount the prototype of all the forerunners of the
great and terrible day of judgment (Mai. iv. 5)
so that Sirach (xlviii. 10), at the end of his eulogy
of him, says: o naraypaipnc iv i'/ey/toic elf Ktupovt
K"-aoni bpyijv Trpb tivpuv. It is characterist c tha»
CHAPTER I. 1-18.
Elijah finishes his public activity, wbnh had been
directed against apostasy, by an act in the ca-
pacity of a judge, and thereby seals, as it were,
the position which he occupies in the history of
salvation.
4. The two leaders who perish, together with their
soldiers, are not to be considered " simply as tools
of a will which opposed itself to Jehovah :" so that
" the question whether their fate was a just punish-
ment or not is an idle one " (Thenius). On the
contrary, they participated in the feelings of their
master (ovfi laivovrec ru oKoiriji rrl -e-ouctoroc, says
Theodoret justly), as is seen from the fact that
they, as faithful myrmidons of their abandoned
master, scoff at the greatest of all prophets, whom
they, too, know to be such. They despised in
him the holy and almighty God of Israel, whose
servant he was. The third captain was also a
" tool " of the king ; but he did not share in his
feelings, and was spared just on that account.
AVhereas in his case the address, "Man of Sod,"
was an expression of conviction and respect, it
had been conscious, intentional, and insolent con-
tempt in the mouth of both the others. They arc
representatives of the apparent power of the
apostate, godless monarchy, which seeks to op-
pose the divine purpose by human power, and
which, when it has already experienced the use-
lessness of opposition, nevertheless still perseveres
in its criminal obstinacy, until it proves its own
impotence, and then finally perishes. That was
destined to hold good here, which Moses once said
in a similar case : " And in the greatness of thine
excellency thou hast overthrown those that rose
up against thee : thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble" (Exod. xv. 7);
and also what Isaiah prophesied of the astrologers,
&c, of Babylon : " Behold they shall be as stub-
ble ; the tire shall burn them ; they shall not de-
liver themselves from the power of the flame."
5. The conduct of Elijah towards the captains has
given offence on the supposition of their innocence,
and has been made a ground of blame against the
prophet. Winer (It- W.-B. i. s. 31S) fails to find the
"moral" of it, and Ewald (Geschichte Israels, iii.
s. 546 ; 3d ed., s. 588) sees in this aotion a proof
that this narrative springs from a much later time
than the other ones about Elijah, i. e., from a time
when the history of the prophet had been ex-
panded beyond the limits which had been observed
earlier, and had been moidded in more and more
gigantic proportions, and in a much stiffer manner ;
so that "one might almost say that a Brahminic-
Indian legend upon the acts of some Jogin had
been produced from it." Even in earlier times it
seems to have been believed that Christ, at least
indirectly, expressed disapproval of Elijah (Luke
IX. 55) when he rebuked (i-sriu?/ae) his disciples
who wished to do wc nal 'HXtac .'-nit/ce, so that
these words are omitted in some otherwise impor-
tant manuscripts, and in the Vulgata, in order not
to endanger the reputation of the prophet. This
view rests, however, upon an entire misconception
of the narrative before us, and of the relation
between the economy of the Old and the New
Testaments. For we have here not the act of
revenge of a prophet who was instigated by per-
sonal jealousy, but an act of divine judgment, and
a revelation of God's wrath against all godlessness
.and wickedness of men, who " hold the truth in
unrighteousness " [restrain the truth in a spirit of
unrighteousness]. (Rom. i. 18; ii. 5). All judg-
ments of God are represented in the Old Testa-
ment as a consuming fire (Num. xi. 1 ; xvi. 35 ;
Deut. xxxii. 22; Ps. xxi. 9 sq. ; Isai. xxvi. 11:
Ezek. xv. G and 7 ; Job xx. 26, kc). He himself
even, in His retributive justice, is called a consum-
ing fire (Deut. iv. 24 ; ix. 3 ; cf. Heb. xii. 29 ; x 27).
It is, therefore, perfectly in accordance with the
concrete and literal character which the Old
Testament economy bears throughout, that this
actual fire should be the form of revelation of
the divine wrath, so that in many places we can
hardly distinguish whether it is intendtd to be
taken literally or figuratively. Just as cuce the
rebellious host of Korah was consumed by fire,
and so Moses' authority, as the servant of God,
was ratified (Num. xvi. 35), so the scoffing
band of the idolatrous Ahaziah perished, and
thereby the second Moses was corroborated as
the man of God. As an act of divine judgment
this catastrophe lacks "moral" so little that it is
rather a revelation of the highest moral intensity
— a testimony to the unchangeable justice and
holiness of God. Whoever finds it shocking must
be still more shocked at the prophetic declaration
— " God is jealous and the Lord revengeth ; the
Lord revengeth and is furious ; the Lord will take
vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth
wrath for His enemies. Who can stand before
His indignation ? and who can abide in the fierce-
ness of His anger? His fury is poured out like
fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him"
(Xahum i. 2-6). Christ does not blame Elijah,
but His disciples, because in their dissatisfaction,
which was just enough in itself, they did not dis-
tinguish between the time of Elijah and the time
which had begun with Him, the promised Son of
Man and aurr/fi, and entirely mistook Him, that is
to say, His calling and station in the plan of re-
demption, as contrasted with that of Elijah. Men-
ken remarks on the passage before us : " Any one
who is acquainted, even in a slight degree, with
the theocratical constitution of Israel ; any one who
sees how necessary such acts of God and of His
prophets were, for the confusion and overthrow of
idol-worship, and for the foundation and conser-
vation of the knowledge and adoration of the
one sole living God ; any one who has a genuine
love to God, and a zeal that the name of God shall
be kept holy upon earth : such an one will not be
repelled by this action of God and His prophet.
Many, however, with whom this is not the case,
who, themselves indifferent towards God and His
kingdom, would gladly have all dispositions of
men towards God regarded as insignificant, have
been repelled by it; they have imputed to the
prophet therein a carnal and unholy violence, and
an angry-spirited and revengeful jealousy, and
have blamed him accordingly Elijah might
do much which was not becoming for Jesus the
suffering Lamb of God In his position and
in his time he had to be rather terrible and grand
than mild and lovely; he had to punish, condemn,
and revenge, rather than to teach, forgive, and
console His calling was to be, not a fire to
warm, but a consuming flame against unrighteous-
ness and godlessness."
6. To try to explain and do away with what it
miraculous in this narrative is vain labor, as it is
in other and similar cases. The naturalistic expla-
nation, which points to lightning or the fiery wind-
TEE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
simoom, or to a forcible scattering of the troops
by the numerous "sous [disciples] of the pro-
phets" {ExegeL Eandbuch on the passage), has
indeed been abandoned ; but, on the other hand,
the entire story has been explained as mythical or
legendary, and referece has been made to " pa-
rallel passages in the classics." " When the
Persians advance against the temple at Delphi,
lightnings descend from heaven upon them (Herod
viii. 37) ; and when the Gauls under Brennus are
going to storm Delphi, there occurs an earthquake
with storm and hail, whereby great destruction is
caused among them (Justin, xxiv. 8)." The legend
" expresses only the general idea that the Divinity
protects His favorites at all times, even by unusual
means, and hears their prayers even when they ask
for what is extraordinary " (Knobel, Prophet der
Uebraer, ii. s. 82 ; Rbdiger, Ball. Encyc, i. 33, s. 322).
This view fails utterly to perceive, in the first place,
that the thing to be accomplished here is a judg-
ment upon the apostate and stubborn king and his
emissaries, and that the protection which is given
to Elijah is only a subordinate matter. What
necessity was there then for just such a judgment,
if nothing more was to be expressed by it than this
general idea, which might have been affirmed in
h hundred other ways ? What parallel there is,
finally, between the Persians and Gauls who ad-
vanced against Delphi, and perished by lightning
and earthquake, and the soldiers whom Ahaziah
sent out against Elijah, it is difficult to see, for
one might as well find parallels to this narrative
in all the accidents wherein men have perished,
vhile on the way hither and thither, by lightning
w earthquake.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 41-50. Wirtb. StniH. : All Christian
rulers and governors ought to follow the example of
the pious king Jehoshaphat — to do what is pleasing
to God, to walk in His ways without departing from
them, to maintain and extend pure religion, to re-
move and destroy what is evil, and especially not to
permit whoredom, but with earnestness to do away
with it and punish it, and to guard themselves
from having too much intercourse with godless
persons, or from entering into any covenant with
them, because this leads to no good, as indeed
Jehoshaphat got only danger and loss by it.
Every one should profit by the life-experience of
Jehoshaphat. All that he undertook according to
God's word and will went on fortunately and
attained good success, and was attended with
blessing; but all that he undertook in con-
junction with Ahab and Ahaziah turned out un-
fortunately : there was no blessing upon that. —
Vers. 44—47. See notes on chap. xv. 12, 14. —
Ver. 49. The heart of man proposes its own way,
but the Lord alone allows it to proceed therein.
(Prov. xvi. 9.) lie often confounds our purposes
and destroys our plans, which reach so far and so
high, that we may not become puffed up, but learn
to yield u> Hi- holj will and to say: "It is the
Lord; let llim do what seemcth Him good" (1
Sam. iii. 18). — Ver. fill. What God has clearly de-
stroyed, as a punishment, that let us not build up
again at the counsel or demand of any man; for,
when lb* breaks in pieces, it cannot avail tc build
•gain (Job xii. 14). — So Jehoshaphat would not
build again. The offers of a man who had de-
parted from God, even if he offer thee ever m
much profit and pleasantness, do thou reject with
determined will; for "what is a man profited," ic.
(Matt. xvi. 26.)
Vers. 51-53. Starke: It is bad enough indeed
when one or the other of one's parents is godless,
but how much more when neither fears God? How
can we hope for the good nurture of children in
that "ase ? The power of example is not greater
in am relation than in that of parents to children.
The way in which the father or mother walks has
more influence upon the children than all the doc-
trines and teachings which they give them. —
Wtj rtb. Sl'MM. : It is not praiseworthy, nor a thing
which one can satisfactorily answer for before God,
if the parents and ancestors have been godless or
the adherents of a false religion, that the children
shojld do the same and follow in their footstep*:
. ... it will not suffice before God to say : I
be'ieve what my parents and ancestors believed.
They were of this religion, and I will no", believe
that they have been damned."
Vers. 2—8. Wirth : King Ahaziah on his death-
bed, (a) The sending to Ekron; (b) the message
of the prophet. — Vers. 2-i. Kroimacher : The
journey to Ekron. (a) The seeking for refuge in
Ekron ; (6) the jealousy of God ; (c) Jesus the only
refuge (in Him rests our confidence and strength).
Vers. 2 to 17. In Ahaziah we see the folly of god-
lessness (Ps. xiv. 1 and 2). (a) In the dark val-
ley, in which lie must journey, he seizes, not upon
the staff and support which could comfort him
(Ps. xxiii. 4), but upon a stalk of straw ; he makes
a work of man's hands his consolation in life and
in death; that is the height of folly, (b) He will
hear nothing of death, and hates and persecutes
him who reminds him of death ; death comes, how-
ever ; it is inevitable. To avoid every thought of
death, and to escape from everything which may
remind us of it, is the greatest folly, for we must
all depart sometime (Ps. xxxix. 5), and appear be-
fore Him who will give to each according to his
deeds (Rom. ii. 6). (c) He sends soldiers against
the prophet who announces to him the judgment
of God, and thinks that he can thereby set aside
the judgment itself. But to attempt to do away
witli the truth of God, and to accomplish some-
thing perforce against the decision of God by
means of human power and might, is the greatest
folly. — Vers. 1 and 2. God does not leave him-
self without a witness even in the case of those
who have long ago abandoned Him and turned
their backs upon Him. He seeks with all labor
and care to call them home. Well is it for them,
then, if they understand the testimony, and do not,
like Ahaziah, become still more stubborn. — Ver. 2.
If a man has once torn himself away from the liv-
ing God and His Word, he does not, as infidelity
pretends, become wiser and more enlightened, but
only too often he becomes the prey of the most
insipid and foolish superstition. How many do
not believe in an holy, omniscient, and just God,
to whom they must give an account of all they do
and leave undone, but on the contrary in ghosts,
or in the word of a gypsy, and seize upon the
most senseless means in Deed and sickness. It is
possible to so lose God that one does not find Him
even when face to face with death. — Krvmmachek.
Instead of the oracle at Ekron we have to-daj
clairvoyants and mesmerists: and even if we d«
CHAPTER 1. 1-18.
not have soothsayers and persons who foretell by
cards (the number of whom, however, among the
common people, is far greater than is commonly
believed), still there are " signs " and dreams upon
which people trust, and on which they rest the
peace of their hearts, as if it were upon oracles
from idols While people smile at the
magicians of earlier times, and their arts, with a
mien of superiority, they are not ashamed to take
refuge in all sorts of amulets, or to expect help
now from this and now from that sympathetic
cure Is that not " going to Ekron ? "
[Comprehensive Commentary: The inquiry of
Ahaziah " was very foolish. We should be more
thoughtful of our duty than our fortune, what will
become of us after death, than how, or when, or
where, we shall die ; and more desirous to be told
how to conduct ourselves well in sickness, and get
good to our souls by it, than whether we shall re-
cover."]— Ver. 3. Wurtb. Summ. : All those who
make use of formula? of blessing or other irregular
means, in sickness, seek help from Baal-zebub. God
has given an example in the case of Ahaziah, how
angry He is at this, and how severely He means to
punish such idolatry. — Is it then because, &c
Wirth: The men of our time run hither and
thither in their dissatisfaction and need of help.
Is there then no longer any God in our nineteenth
century, that men do not take refuge in Him ? Is
there then no Gospel, which is the power of God,
and a light upon our pathway? Is there then no
longer a Saviour Jesus Christ, who calls : " behold,
I make all things new? " — The Word of God is the
sole, true, and correct oracle, which we are to
question, and to take counsel of, in every circum-
stance of life, and in all darkness and doubt. This
generation, however, seeks light, wisdom, and truth
among the Philistines, the wise and prudent of this
world, who give out that the Word of the Lord is
an old and unreliable book which no longer satis-
fies the existing grade of cultivation. [" They that
will not inquire of the Word of God for their com-
fort shall be made to hear it, whether they will or
no. to their amazement."] — That ye go, &c. Who-
soever lends himself to be the messenger and ser-
vant of superstition, and of contempt for God,
makes himself a participant in the guilt of them ;
■we must obey God rather than man. — Vers. 4-8.
If the messengers had brought to the king a de-
claration of the Fly-god, he would have accepted
it with faith, but he rejected the word of the
prophet because it did not conform to his wishes;
nay. it even filled him with anger and plans of
murder. Men value the falsehood which flatters
their inclinations and wishes, higher than the truth
which corrects them and demands sacrifices and
penitence of them. — Vers. 7 and 8. He who
p-eaehes penitence, conversion, sacrifice, and self-
denial, to others, but still shows by all his con-
duct and external behavior, that he himself loves
the world, and what is in the world, and that he
is not above the world, such an one belongs to the
false prophets, with whom we must be upon our
guard.
Vers. 9-17. Rrummacher: The sermon in fire,
(o) Ahaziah's attack upon Elijah; (fc) the proph-
et's victory ; (c) Ahaziah's end. — Wirth : Elijah
as messenger of the judgment of God. (o) Tht
annihilation of the two fifties ; (fc) the sparing of
the third fifty; (c) a visit to the sick-bed. — The
judgment of God upon Ahaziah and his troops an
image of the great and terrible day of the Lord (see
the Historical section) for the warning of all scofiers
and stubborn contemners of God. — Elijah in truth a
Man of God. (a) How he sustains himself in that
position in his relations to God (viz., by faithiiil
obedience and faithful courage); (6) how God
sustains him in it in relation to his enemies (viz.,
by powerful protection, and by the annihilation of
his enemies, Ps. xci. 1 sq.). — Ver. 9. Every servant
of the Lord who is really earnest in his office must
make up his mind that rude, low, and godless men
will scorn him and name him "Man of God" in
mockery. Although no fire from heaven falls down
to destroy them, yet the word of the Lord stands
firm for all time: "He that despiseth you," io.
(Luke x. 16), and the Lord will not leave those
unpunished who despise Him in His servants, and
exercise their wit upon the calling of reconciliation
(Isai. xli. 10 and 11). — Great rulers always find
people who will lend themselves as instruments
of their perverted will, who execute, with exact-
ness and without scruple, what "the king says,"
but do not trouble themselves at all about what
God says. — Ver. 11 sq. Hall: It is the sure sign of
approaching ruin when men will not allow them-
selves to be warned. Those deserve only to be
made examples of punishment who will not take
warning from the example of others. — Ver. 13 sq.
God does not let anything be forced from Him by
pertinacity, but to the humble He grants grace.
That which can never be gained by perseverance
and resistance, is reached by earnest, humble, and.
sincere prayer. — Osiander: If we perform our
duty, God has the hearts of men in His hand in
such a way that He leads them whither He wilL
So it often happens that those who seek to kill us
in our absence, in our presence dare not open their
mouths (John vii. 11 16). — Vers. 15 and 16. A
minister of God must not fear to hold up their
sins before sinners and scofiers upon the death-
bed, and to draw their attention to the judgment
of God, in order that, if possible, even in the last
hour, they may come to a knowledge of that which
belongs to their peace, for (Ezek. xxxiii. 8 and 9),
to offer eternal blessedness to the rich and great,
instead of calling them to repentance, is the worst
transgression of a prophet. — To conceal the ap-
proach of his end from one who is sick unto death,
and to hold all thoughts of it from him, or even to
console him with false hopes of recovery, is no gen-
uine love ; for no man can be properly prepared
for death who does not think of it often and much.
He who in days of health has often, in the pres-
ence of God, thought upon death, does not shrink
before the message: "Set thine house in onler;
for thou shalt die, and not live." (Isai. xxxviii. 1.) —
Ver. 9-16. Elijah and the Disciples of Jesus who
wish to imitate Him (Luke ix. 51-57). (a) The
reason why He blames and rebukes th ?m ; (4)
whereto He calls and encourages .fc'Sm see Ei>
terical, § 5).
10 TEE SECOND BOOK OF 1HE KINGS.
B. — Elijah?* departure and Elisha'1* first appearance a* Projphet.
Chap. n. 1-26.
1 And it came to pass, when the Lord would take np Elijah into heaven by a
2 whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said untc
Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to Beth-el. And
Elisha said imto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I -will not leave
8 thee. So they went down to Beth-el. And the sons [pupils] of the 'prophets
that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowcst thou that
the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day ? And he said, Yea,
4 I know it ; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elishi , tarry here,
I pray thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.
6 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto
him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head
6 to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it j hold ye your peace. And Elijah
said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here ; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan.
And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
1 And they two went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and
stood to view [over against theni\ afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.
8 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and
they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha,
Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha
10 said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said,
Thou hast asked a hard thing [to obtain, P4hr] : nevertheless, if thou see me
when Jam taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not be
11 so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there
appeared a qhariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder;
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into [towards] heaven. And Elisha saw it,
12 and he cried, My father, my lather, the [thou, omit the] chariot of Israel, and the
[omit the] horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more: and so he took hold
of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
13 [Then] He took up also [omit also] the mantle of Elijah that fell from him,
14 and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan ; And* he took the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord
God of Elijah [even He] ? And when he also [omit also] had smitten the waters,
15 they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of
the" prophets which were to view [omit to view] at Jericho saw him [from the
opposite side],1 they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they
16 came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they
said unto him, behold now, there Vie with thy servants fifty strong men ; let
them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of
the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain,2 or into
IT some valley.3 And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till
Le was ashamed [to reluse them, Bahr], he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty
18 men; and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they came
again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto
you, Go not ?
19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation
"inhabiting]' of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth : but the water is naught
20 bad], and the ground barren [the locality causes barrenness].' And he said
21 Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And
he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
II
Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters ; there shall not be from thencfl
22 auy more death or barren land [barrenness, omit land].' So the waters were
healed unto this day, according to the saying ol'Elisha which he spake.
23 And he went up from thence unto Beth-el : and as he was going up by the
way, there came forth little children [young persons] out of the city, and mocked
24 him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And
he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord.
And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two
25 children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence
he returned to Samaria.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 15. — L"1^P from over against. Sept. e£ tvavrias : Vulg. e contra : Bnnsen : " on the other Bide."
' Ver. 16.— [The Sept. add iv tio 'lop&ivn. The chetib HIS'S would be the regular form for the plur. of K'3 . The form
found, however (in Ezekiel), is HVN3 , which the keri proposes to insert here.
1 Ver. 19. — VN Jti'lO, literally, inhabiting the city good; *.«., the city is a good one to inhabit. f^^CTD, causing
barrenness. The district, or locality, probably on account of ils bad water, produces barrenness and miscarriage in all
animals.
* Ver. 21. — LJ"V^V' a participial noun, describing the action, miscarrying; "there shall be no more death or
miscarrying from it " (as a cause), (y. on ver. 19. — W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL, AND CRITICAL.
Ter. 1. And it came to pass, when, &e. The
following event certainly belongs to the time after
vhe death of Ahaziali (chap. i. 17), and probably to
;he beginning of the reign of Jehoram, for in the
19th verse the public activity of Elisha begins, i. e.,
that is the time when he stepped into the place
of Elijah, and stood at the head of the prophets.
The war with the Moabites, in which Elisha as-
sumes so important a position (cf. chap, iii.), must
have begun soon after Jehoram's succession to the
throne (chap. i. 1). The letter which came into the
hands of Jehoram from Elijah, according to 2
Chron. xxi. 12, proves nothing to the contrary
(see below, Historical, § 3, b). — On J"lvJ?n3 see
notes on ver. 11. The first half of the verse forms
the title of the entire passage. — Gilgal cannot here
be a place between Jericho and the Jordan (Jos. iv.
19; v. 10), for Elijah and Elisha went down from
there to Bethel (TTVl), and came from Bethel to
Jericho. It is rather, as in Deut. xi. 30, the place
known now as Jiljilia, which was on an elevated
site, southwest of Seilun (Shiloh), near to the
road leading from the latter place to Jericho (cf.
Thenius and Keil on the passage ; Raumer, Paliist.
e. 155). This Gilgal, which lay in Ephraim, and not
the one in Judali, is the one referred to also by the
prophets Amos (iv. 4) and Hosea (iv. 15) who men-
tion it, together with Bethel, as chief seat of the
false worship of Jehovah. Probably it was pre-
cisely on this account that schools of the prophets
were founded there, which should counteract the
error.
Ter. 2. And Elijah said, Ac. It was known
not only to Elijah himself (ver. 9), but also to
Elisha (ver. 3), and to the "sons of the prophets"
at Bethel and Jericho (vers. 3 and 5), that the time
of his departure was come. Evidently the object
of his visit to the three schools of the prophets,
one after another, was to see them once more
oefore his departure, ,°ud to warn and strengthen
them. Keil, following the older expositors, says:
" The Lord had revealed to both (Elijah and Elisha)
that the seal of the divine ratification should be
set to the work of Elijah by his miraculous trans-
lation to heaven, .... but to each of them
separately, so that Elijah did not surmise that
Elisha was aware that he was to be taken away.
For this reason he wished to separate himself from
his servant, not in order to test his love and at-
tachment (Yatablus), but from humility (Corn, a
Lapide, and others). He did not wish to have any
witness of his glorification, without being fully
satisfied that such was the divine will
His ascension had been revealed to the disciples
of the prophets also He took this
road (to Bethel and Jericho) by the direction of
the Divine Spirit, .... without supposing
that they (the disciples of the prophets in those
places) had been informed of his approaching de-
parture from this life by the Spirit of God. God
had revealed it to so many in order that they might
be established in their calling by the miraculous
glorification of their master, still more than by his
words and teachings and warnings." But the most
important considerations are opposed to this very
common conception of the passage. In the first
place, the assertiou that a divine revelation had
given, not only to Elijah, but also to Elisha, and to
the disciples of the prophets at Bethel and Jericho,
information of the approaching ascension of the
first, is a pure hypothesis ; the text knows nothing
of it, and even any remote hint of it is wanting.
To pass over that, however, in the second place, no
analogy can be found in the Scriptures for any
such thing as that different persons, nay, even
entire communities, in different places, at one and
the same time, received the same divine revelation ;
and no one of these persons surmised that the
same thing had happened to others. Thirdly, the
disciples of the prophets at Jericho would never
have urged so perseveringly upon Elisha, after hi*
return, to allow fifty men to seek for the departed
master on the mountains and in th valleys (vers*
12
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
16—18). if they had been informed in regard to
Elijah's ascension into heaven by a divine revela-
tion. We are therefore compelled to conceive of
ths event, we might almost say, more simply and
naturally. As concerns Elijah himself, he knew,
of course, that the time of his departure was come,
and that the Lord was going to take him away ;
die manner in which he would be taken, however,
he did not know, nor did he say a syllable about
it ; especially he did not know, as Krummacher
affirms, that "the horses of fire and the chariot of
flame were already standing behind the clouds
ready to come for him," and that he "should ride,
in a few daj"S, past Orion and the Pleiades, on a
gleaming road, far above the sun and the moon,
and away through the veil into the divine sanctu-
ary." Still less did Elisha and the disciples of the
prophets know it. In the 3d and 5th verses the
latter only say that "now" (Qi'n does not mean
here "to-day," but as in 1 Sam. xii. 17; 2 Kings
iv. 8 ; Job i. 6, at this time) Elijah is going to be
taken away from them and from Elisha ; even
this they could only know from Elijah himself.
For Elijah had no reason for wishing to conceal
his departure from Elisha; on the contrary, he
must have felt himself driven to make it known to
him, since Elisha was now to step into his place
and be his successor. Neither did he conceal it
from the disciples of the prophets ; for his visit to
them had for its chief object to take leave of them.
He simply did not wish that his departure should
be much spoken of, and still less would he permit
that any one should be a witness of it; therefore
he urged Elisha himself to remain behind. This
he did, however, not "from humility," in view of
his approaching glorification, but "because he was
uncertain whether it was agreeable to God that
Elisha should go with him ; cf. ver. 10 " (Thenius).
Only when Elisha would not allow himself to be
held back, and had declared earnestly three times
over (cf. the similar triple repetition, John xxi. 15
sq.) that he would not leave him until the final
moment — only when he had thus stood the trial of
his unchangeable fidelity and perseverance, and
thus maintained himself as competent and fit to
carry on the office of prophet, did Elijah yield his
scruples, and allow Elisha to accompany him.
(Cf. in general on the verse the apt remarks of
Vilmar, PastoraUkeol Blatter, 1862, *. 234.)
Ver. 3. And the sons of the Prophets ....
came foith, to. [The C'K'DSiV'U are the pupils
or disciples of the prophets ; not necessarily their
sons in a literal sense, though they probably were
such in very many cases.— TV. G. S.] This does not
mean: "In Bethel, the disciples of the prophets
came to meet Elisha, with the information,
' Knowest thou 1 ' &c." (Keil), but that after Elijah
had come with Elisha to Bethel (ver. 2), in order
to take his leave there also, the disciples of the
prophets came forth with them, that is, accom-
panied "hem, and said to Elisha: "Dost thou also
ponder," «,c. ? In like manner they were accom-
panied by those of Jericho (ver 7). [This expla-
nation does violence to the meaning of the preposi-
tion pN, which never contains any idea of
accompaniment, above all with a verb of motion;
n-oreover, ver. 7 is not the parallel, but ver. 5.
?S MtXllcan °"'.v '"tan "They came forth to"
(cf. Gen. xix. 6), and it is stated that they cam*
forth to "Elisha," which certainly seems to imply
that they already had heard of the expected event.
PN VC'3'T, ver. 5, is less certain. It might mean
that as they were all standing in a group, and
after Elijah had declared that he had come to them
for the last time, some of them approached Elisha.
The objection taken to the theory of independent
revelations is, however, a just one, and must be
maintained, even if we cannot fix definitely the
details of the occurrence which the words refer to.
Many hypotheses suggest themselves, as, for in-
stance, that Elijah went on to the schools of the
prophets in the first place alone, and that they
then " came forth to Elisha." — W. G. S.] ^J?D nj^>
^C'N"! i according to Keil, " expresses graphically
the removal from his side by elevation into heaven."
Thenius also says, following Bottcher : " Nihil
aliud uiti viam inodumque tollendi pmgit: away off
above thine head." [So also Bunsen.] It is very
improbable, however, in the first place, that the
disciples of the prophets, at Bethel as well as aC
Jericho, should have expressed themselves "graph-
ically," independently of one another, and just
on this occasion. The words TjC'fcO pJJD are equiv-
alent to TjBJJD and T]nX!0 , which are used by
Elijah, in vers. 9 and 10, for the same idea, i. e
literally, " from with you," the sense being " out o:
connection or companionship with you," excep
that the first form hints at the nature of this con
nection more distinctly than the others. Luther,
in a marginal gloss on the passage, says: "To be
at the head is to be master and teacher ; to be at the
feet is to be pupil and subject. For when the teacher
teaches he sits in a more elevated position than
the pupils, so that he has them at his feet, and they
have him at their head. Therefore St. Paul says
(Acts xxii. 3), that he had learned the law at the
feet of Gamaliel." (Cf. Schdttgen, Bor. Hebr. on
this passage.) Elisha is the disciple of Elijah; the
latter is his " master," as he is called here. The
words, " The Lord will take away thy master from
thy head," do not therefore^ean, He will cause
Elijah to arise away above thy head towards
heaven, but, He will take him away from thy
head, i. e., break up the relationship which has
existed hitherto between you, as pupil and master,
and as thy chief thou wilt lose him. ( ^J)D is used
as in Gen. xlviii. 17; Amos vii. 11.) When the
words are thus taken, each gets its full force, and
it is easy to see why both the disciples at Bethel
and those at Jericho put the question to Elisha,
" Knowest thou?" &c. The separation touched
Elisha nearest of all, and was more important for
him than for any of the rest. The question signi-
fies: Knowest and considerest thou alsc, that thou
wilt now lose the master whose servant and ais-
ciple thou art (1 Kings xix. 21)? What wili
become of us when thy guide and ours is gone ?
The answer of Elisha. which would otherwise be
ohscure and difficult, is then appropriate to thii
question : " Yea, I know it," i. e., Alasl I kno%v it
and consider it well, even as ye do. When he
then adds, " Hold ye your peace," he does not
mean to say : Tell no one that he is now going U
ascend into heaven, in order that there may be uc
concourse of people (Clerieus, J. Lange). nor: Speak
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
13
no further of it, for Elijah, on account of his
modesty and humility, does not wish that much
should be said of his glorification (Seb. Smith,
Keil). but : Compose yourselves, yield to the will
of Jehovah ; do not sadden my heart now that I
am about to lose my beloved master and lord.
[Bunsen.]
Ter. 7. And fifty men of the sons, &c. As
Elijah and Elisha departed in the direction of the
Jordan, a band of prophets followed them at a
distance, and remained standing at a point (pro-
bably on an elevation) from which they could see
" whether and in what way the departing ones
would get over the Jordan at a place where there
was no arrangement for crossing " (Hess, Thenius);
that is to say, they followed, out of sympathy and
anxiety, and not " that they might be eyewitnesses
of the removal of their master " (Keil), for, accord-
ing to ver. 10, it was not certain that even Elisha,
who accompanied him, would see tins. They were
witnesses only of that which is narrated in ver. 8.
The manner of crossing the Jordan must have re-
minded them involuntarily of Ex. xiv. 16 (cf. Josh.
iv. 23). As once Moses struck the water and
divided it, in the presence of the whole people,
with his staff, which was the insigne of his office
as teacher, and is called the " rod of God " (Ex.
xvii. 9), whereby he was confirmed and accredited
as chief, so Elijah, the second Moses, here strikes
the water, and divides it in the presence of the
band of the prophets, with his mantle, the sign of
his prophetical calling (1 Kings six. 19), an action
which confirms him, before the disciples of the
prophets, just as he is leaving them, in his position
as chief of the prophets. He folds or rolls the
mantle together, possibly in order to give it at the
same time the appearance of a staff, for in other
cases the water is always struck with a staff (Isai.
xi. 4 ; x. 24 ; Num. xx. 1 1). [The first two passages
cited refer to a beating with a rod as punishment
-or correction, and the third to the smiting of the
rock to make water come out. There is no ground
for supposing that the words in the text have any
further significance than such a folding as would
make the mantle convenient to handle in smiting
the water. — W. G. S.] However, the very fact
that he makes use of the prophet's mantle instead
of making use of the staff, makes the action a dis-
tinctly prophetical, i. e., symbolical one. The
miraculous power is no more attached, in any
magical way, to the mantle than to the staff: but
it is the prophetical calling which God has armed
with such power for the attainment of His ends,
as was shown immediately afterwards in the case
of the successor and representative of Elijah (cf.
vers. 14, 19 sq.).
Ter. 9. And it came to pass when they were
gone over, &c. The command of Elijah : " Ask."
At.., and the reply of Elisha, " Let a double por-
tion," etc.. are to be explained by their relation to
one another, which was not so much that of a
mastei to his servant or of a teacher to his dis-
ciple, as rather that of a (spiritual) father to his
son (ver. 12). Elisha had maintained his attach-
ment, love, and fidelity to the very end, in that he
would not quit Elijah ; and now the latter treats
him as a dying father would (Gen. xxvii. 4), and
Jays: "If thou hast yet any wish in thine heart,
tell it to me;" he is ready to grant him the bless-
ing of a father and of a prophet. Elisha answers
as son to father: " I pray thee, let a double portion
of thy spirit be upon me 1 " According to the law
(Deut. xxi. 17), the first-born son received, of what
the father left behind, D'JB* '3 , *'• «•, two parts,
twice as much as the other sons received. Ac-
cording to this analogy, Elisha begs that Elijah
will regard him as his first-born, and will give to him,
as compared with the other sons of the prophets,
a richer measure of his (prophetic) spirit, that is to
say, of that ni") , which is the condition of all pro-
phetical activity, whether in word or deed, and
which is not only a spirit of knowledge and wis-
dom, but also of strength and power (Isai. xi. 2).
The translation of the words of Elisha, " That thy
spirit may be doubled in me " (Luther, following
the Sept. and Vulg.), is unquestionably false.
Still this interpretation is found again and again in
modern expositions. Krummaeher even asserts,
as a result of this interpretation, that the spirit of
Elisha, as an evangelical (?) spirit, was certainly
twice as great as the spirit of Elijah, which was
Mosaic and legal. If this had been the prayer of
Elisha, however, it would have been, not only in
the highest degree immodest, but also incompre-
hensible, since Elijah could not give more than he
himself had. Elisha did not wish to be more or
greater than his master and lord. He only desired
so much as was necessary for him, in order that
he might be that to which Elijah had destined
him, namely, the one who should succeed to his
place as leader of the prophets. Menken's inter-
pretation of tho words of Elijah is also a mistake,
i. e., that Elisha should give him a commission for
the other world, and beg for himself some service
there, where the Lord would not refuse Elijah any
request he might make on behalf of his faithful
servant. Not to notice other objections, Elijah
says : " Ask what I can do for you before I be
taken away," and not when I am in heaven.
Neither can this place, therefore, by any means be
cited as a support of the Roman Catholic dogma of
the effectual mediation of the saints in heaven, as
is often done. — Elijah means to say, by the words
in ver. 10: Thou hast prayed for something which
it is not in my power, nor in that of any man, to
give, but only in the power of God ; if it is granted
to thee alone, of all the sons of the prophets, to
remain with me until my removal, and to be a wit-
ness of it, then thou rnayest know, by this fact,
that thou art to continue the prophetical work,
which I have begun, and which I must now aban-
don, and then shalt thou also receive that measure
of the prophetical spirit of which thou hast need
for this work.
Ver. 11. And it came to pass, as they still
went on, Ac. The verse is generally translated as
it is by Luther, "Behold I there came a chariot of
fire and horses of fire, .... and so Elijah
rode, in a whirlwind, towards heaven." This is
then understood to mean, that a fiery chariot with
fiery horses attached to it came, and that it re-
ceived Elijah and took him to heaven. Accord-
ing to that, Elijah really " rode" into heaven, as
indeed we find it often represented, especially in
pictures. This conception of the event has struck
such deep root that people scarcely inquire whether
the text really justifies it or not. It is especially
welcome to those who explain the story of Elijah
as myth and poetry, because, as they think, such
an ascension would remove all doubt as to the
14
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
mythical character of the narrative. Here it is
necessary, before all else, to take the words of the
text accurately, aud not to add or till out anything
which is not absolutely demanded. In the first
place, the text knows nothing whatever of a fiery
chariot, with fiery horses attached, but only says .
" Behold ! chariot of fire and horses of fire I " Then
it does not say that Elijah mounted into this literal
chariot, as it is supposed to be, and rode in it
towards heaven, but the rpj1 took place "in a
whirlwind " (mi'M), and not in the chariot. Still
further D'OU'H does not mean : up into heaven,
but : towards or in the direction of heaven, heaven-
wards; especially when it is used with rpy
(Judges xx. 40 ; Ps. cvii. 26 ; Jereni. li. 53).
Finally, rpy is not ride, but go up, in the sense of
disappear [like the German aufgelten, it is U6ed in
the sense of come to an end, disappear, be con-
sumed.— W. G. S.], see Judges xx. 40 : " The
entire city [E. Y. has, incorrectly, "the flame of
the city"] nO'OU'n r6y, arose towards heaven, i.e.,
disappeared, was consumed by the fire. Aiso,
Ezek. xi. 24 : " So the vision that I had seen (^Jpl)
went up from me," i. e., it disappeared (Vulg. : et sub-
lata est a 7ne visio) ; it was taken away. In the
hifil (ver. 1) it means exactly tollere, auferre, take
away, as, for instance, in Ps. cii. 25: "Take me
away in the midst of my days," cf. Job v. 26 ;
xxxvi. 20 ; Amos iii. 5. Furthermore, the word
n^y is the name of the burnt offering, because it,
in distinction from the other sacrifices, disappears
entirely — is completely consumed by the fire.
The clearest proof that the word here has the
signification, take away, remove, is the fact that
the disciples of the prophets, as well as Elisha
himself, always make use of the word np?, and
not of ,-^y, when speaking of Elijah's removal (vers.
3, 5, 9 & 10), and say nothing of any taking up
into heaven. It is not possible, therefore, that rOV
should signify something altogether different from
np? here. Precisely this latter word is used, Gen.
v. 24, in reference to Enoch : " And he was not
( WJ'Nl , i- e., he disappeared suddenly, and left no
trace behind, Job vii. 8; cf. Delitsch on Hebr.
xi 5. Luther: 'He was .seen no more'); for
God took him (npij)-" The removal is therefore
the main point ; and it is o;ly stated here in ad-
dition— which is not done in the case of Enoch —
in what way the removal took place, viz. : mUD3 ,
in the whirlwind; and besides, D'OtS'it, towards
heaven, iTIVD signifies not only " the rapidity of
the elevation " (Thcnius), but also a storm, com-
bined with thunder, dark clouds, wind, and fire
;isai. xxix. 6; Ezek. i. 4; xiii. 11, 13; Ps. cvii. 25).
Through such a storm, then, Elijah was separated
from Elisha, aud removed heavenwards. Now
when Elisha sees, in this fiery storm-cloud,
"charot and horses" of fire, that does not mean
to »..t that he saw a literal chariot and literal
horses. On the contrary, he recognized, in the
fiery appearance, that which "chariot and horses*
signify. According to the usage of the Old Tes-
tament language, these things, as the principal
means of protection and defence of a people
against foreign aggression, are the representation*
of its might and strength, of its glory and fear-
fulness (cf. Isai. xxxi. 1 sq. ; xxxvi. 9 ; Ex. xiv
9, 17 ; Deut. xx. 1 ; 1 Kings x. 29). They are also
ascribed to Jehovah, and then they are an indica-
tion of His great might, majesty, and glory, with
which He conquers aud annihilates His opponents,
but protects and saves His own. Thus Habakkuk :
"Was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst
ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salva-
tion?" Also Isaiah (lxvi. 15): "For beheld the
Lord will come with fire, and with, his chariots,
like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire." Cf. also Ps.
civ. 3 : " Who maketh the clouds his chariots."
That we have here also to think of the chariot aud
horses of Jehovah, is shown by the C'K which
occurs with both words, for fire is the well-knowi:
form of theophany in the Old Testament (Ex. xxiv.
17 ; Deut. ix. 3 sq. ; Ps. 1. 3; Isai. xxix. 6: Ezek. i.
4, 27). Just in the same manner, the servant ct
Elisha. after his eyes have been opened, in ac-
cordance with the prayer of the prophet (2 Kings
vi. 14-17), sees, opposed to the "horses and
chariots " with which the Syrians had surrounded
the city in which Elisha was, the whole mountain
full of "horses and chariots of fire;" i.e.. over-
against the earthly power, he sees the infinitely
greater protecting and saving might of Jehovah.
The following verso (12), where Elisha calls Elijah
" Chariot of Israel and Horsemen thereof," espe-
cially supports the figurative interpretation. Re-
cognizing the inadmissibility of the literal accepta-
tion, which presupposes the existence of literal
fiery chariots, with fiery horses attached to them,
passing down from heaven and up again into
heaven, in which one could ride without being
burned, some expositors have understood by
"chariot and horses," as Grotius does, Angeli ea
specie apparentes. " The vehicle," says, among
others, J. Lange, " or the outward sign with which
Elijah rose towards heaven, was doubtless a
cloud. Still, as Elijah was no doubt accompanied
by an entire band of angels, as Christ was after-
wards, these gave to the cloud the form of a fiery
chariot and fiery horses, by virtue of the divine
power and the divine will, so that the cloud took
the form of a heavenly triumphant chariot."
Similarly Menken says that Elijah " was taken up
by the service of angels; but that the appearance
was that of a flaming chariot ami Naming horses."
But the text, in this place, says ii"t a word about
angels, although, according to this view, they
would be the chief agents: and although the his-
tory of Elijah makes mention of the service of
angels in other places (1 Kings xix. .''. 7 ; 2 Kings i.
3, 15). Ps. lxviii. 17 cannot be cited to support this
interpretation, for there also 331 is not equal to
angel, but is a designation of the immeasurable and
mighty war-power of Jehovah. The interpretation
of Keil seems more probable: "The storm-gust is
the earthly substratum of llu theophany: the fiery
chariot with the fiery horses is the symbolic form
in which the translation of the master into heaver
presents itself to Elisha, who remains behind."
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
The chariot and the horses would, however, in
that case, hare been just as much definite and
visible forms, even if symbolic ones, and we
should have to suppose that Elisha saw Elijah
actually in the chariot and riding in it towards
heaven, of which the text knows nothing. It is
not the form and outline which is symbolic, but the
expression " chariot and horses of fire." Wehave
not to think of a "symbolic form" in ver. 11 any
more than in ver. 12, when Elisha calls Elijah
" Chariot of Israel and Horsemen thereof." In
this way, under a more accurate observation of the
text, it is true that the supposition that Elijah rode
away into heaven in a fiery chariot, drawn by
fiery horses, which is still so generally adopted,
is overthrown; by no means, however, is the mi-
raculous removal or translation of Elijah over-
thrown : that is the main point of the narrative,
with which we must satisfy ourselves, just as we
must satisfy ourselves with what is said, Gen. v.
24 (cf. Hebr. xi. 5), in regard to the translation of
Enoch. So Von Gerlach remarks on the passage
in Genesis: "All the questions in regard to the
departure of this patriarch and that of Elijah,
whither they were removed ? where they now are ?
what changes they underwent in the translation ?
are left unanswered by the Scriptures." Keil also
says : " All further questions, e. g., in regard to the
nature of the chariot of fire and the place to which
Elijah was translated are to be set
aside as useless subtleties concerning things which
surpass the limits of our understanding." We are
only justified in thus setting them aside, however,
if we have rejected the fiery horses and the fiery
chariot and the ride up into heaven, which Keil
does not do. It is well worth observing that the
primitive church, little inclined as it was to shrink
back from a miracle, still did not know anything
of any heavenward ride of Elijah. The Sept. ren-
der D^O'J'n , in ver. 1 and ver. 11, by <Jc fie rbv
ovpavov, and thereby show clearly that they con-
ceived of a raising up towards, but not into, heaven.
Ephraim Syrus says, " Suddenly there came a fiery
storm-gust from on high, .... and divided
the two from one another ; the one it left upon
earth, the other, Elijah, it bore away on high ; but
whither the Ruach bore him, or in what place it
let him down, the Scriptures do not tell us." (Cf.
Keil's remarks on the passages.) Theodoret says:
'0 peya$ 'H//ac a,ve%f$dtj ukv, a?.?/ ovk. fir rov ovpav6v,
aXK <1iq fie roi' ovpavov. In like manner Chrysostom,
Theophylact, and CEcumenius (see the citations in
Suicer, Thesaur. Ecclesiast. i. 1317). That the Jews
also, before and at the time of Christ, knew noth-
ing of an ascension of Elijah into heaven, is clear
from the fact that in the great eulogy of Elijah
(Sirach xlviii. 1-12), where this wonderful removal
is mentioned, neither in ver. 9 nor in ver. 12 do we
find fir rov ovpavov: Josephus, also, who narrates
all the miracles in the history of Elijah, says, I
at length (Antiq. ix. 2, 2): 'H?.lac tf av8p&min>\
T^aviadj] • — Kai ovdelt; e}i'(j pe xpt r^c ai}p.c-pov avrov tt/v I
Te/Levrqv, and then he adds that the Scriptures de- 1
clare of Enoch and Elijah : on yiydvaatv atpaveig ■ I
ddvarov di: avruv ovdels oldev. In the Scriptures j
themselves there is no mention whatever of the i
ascension of Elijah into heaven, not even in Hebr.
xi. where we should most expect it. Now if this
ascension was, as is asserted, "one of the most
glorious, significant, and joyful events which the
world, before the time of Christ, had seen" (Krum-
macher), how does it happen that, however often
mention may be made of Elijah, just this event,
which is asserted to be the most important in his
career, remains utterly unmentioned ? Kurtz (iD
Herzog's Encyclop. iii. s. 758) asserts indeed that
" as regards the ascension of Elijah, all those who
are not ready to look upon the gospel history as a
collection of myths will be compelled to adopt the
opinion which regards this as an historical event,
for the Transfiguration of Christ. Man. xvii., can
only be maintained as a fact if 2 Kings ii. is also
a fact ; the one narrative stands or falls with the
other." This conclusion, however, is incorrect;
for, if Elijah could only appear in and at the Trans-
figuration of Christ, because he had ascended into
heaven, then Moses also, who appears with him,
must have ascended into heaven, of which there
is not the least mention, either in Deut. xxxiv. 5
sq. or anywhere else. [A general protest shotnd
also be raised against the last clause of this opin-
ion of Kurtz. The mode of defending a disputed
point by connecting it with some other very im-
portant and generally accepted one, and then as
sorting that they stand or fall together, is very
often adopted, but it is on every account to be
condemned. It is not a sound method of procedure
either according to logic or history, and it is fatal
to all exegetical science. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 12. And Elisha saw it, &c, i. e., that Eli-
jah "was miraculously carried away" (Keil). By
the words: "My father, my father!" Elisha ex-
presses what the departing one was for himself
(see ver. 9), and by the words: "Thou chariot of
Israel and horsemen thereof 1 " what he was for
the whole nation. King Joash makes use of the
same figurative expression in ch. xiii. 14, in regard
to Elisha. It does not mean " that Elijah had been
the protection and help of Israel even in war "
(Cuho.r Bibel), but "Elijah is thereby designated
as the one in whom consisted that true defence of
Israel, which far surpassed its physical strength."
(Thenius.) See notes on ver. 11. Elijah was the
might for war and the strength for defence of Is-
rael, especially in so far as he defended it against
its greatest and most dangerous enemy, who threat-
ened it with ruin — against the intruding idolatry,
with which he struggled victoriously. The excla-
mation stands, as was noted above, in unmistaka-
ble connection with the words "chariot of fire
and horses of fire." If this is a designation of the
protecting, saving, and conquering might of Jeho-
vah, then it was very natural to call the great
prophet, who had maintained himself, in all his
career, as an instrument of this power in its deal-
ings with Israel, "the Chariot of Israel and the
Horsemen thereof." If, on the other hand, this
fiery phenomenon which separated the two proph-
ets from one another had had the form and figure
of a chariot drawn by horses, which was intended
to bring Elijah to heaven, it would be inexplicable
how a mere equipage, even if it were ever so
wonderful a one, could have led Elisha to call his
departing master a " Chariot." Elijah's whole na-
ture was fiery and energetic: "He burst forth
like a fire, and his word burned like a torch, .
. . . thrice brought he down fire " (Siracb
xlviii. 1, 3). To this the mode of his removal in
the fiery whirlwind corresponded, and it was, as
it were, the divine seal upon his entire career; sc
that he stands, for all coming time (eir naipoif,
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Sir. xlviii. 10), as the man of the fiery jealousy of
God. — And he saw him no more; that is. he did
not see how Elijah rode into heaven in a fiery
chariot, but from the moment when the fiery blast,
the storm-cloud, separated them from one another,
he saw him no more: ir '/ai'/.a-i ioKe—acdij (Sir.
xlviii. 12), he disappeared suddenly from his eyes,
became ayavi/Q. Then Elisha rent his garments,
and that too " in two pieces," i. e., from top to bot-
tom, as a sign of the greatest grief and the deepest
sorrow. If he had been a witness of the ''trium-
phal entry " of his master into heaven, as it has
been often supposed that he was, he would have
had ntDre cause to rejoice than to rend his clothes
for gr.ef ; his feelings were by no means joyous,
they were rather in the highest degree sad.
Ver. 13. He tock up also the mantle, &c. The
mantle is here, as in ver. 8, the insigne of the of-
fice of the prophetical leader. When Elijah chose
Elisha as his successor he threw this mantle upon
him (1 Kings xix. 19). Now, however, he leaves
it to him as a bequest and sign that his prayer in
Ter. 10 is fulfilled, and that he must now undertake
the leadership of the~ prophets. He returns with
this symbol in his possession, and, when he arrives
at the Jordan, has to make the trial whether the
power itself has been granted him together with
the symbol. As Elijah had done in passing over
the Jordan, he also strikes the water with the
mantle, and says: Wheie is the Lord God of
Elijah, even He? Jer. ii. 6, 8, where the sever-
est charge against the people, and especially
against the priests and teachers, is, that they have
not asked the question flirt' nsS , " Where is Je-
hovah ? " but have turned away from Him, shows
that this was not a question of doubt or imperfect
faith. On the contrary, Elisha presents a prayer,
full of faith and confidence, to Jehovah, in the
more emphatic form of a question : " Thou God
of Elijah, if Thou art also mine, and if lam Thy ser-
vant according to Thy will and command as he was,
then let this become evident by granting that that
may take place at my word which Thou grantedst
should come to pass at his " (Menken). The mas-
soretic punctuation separates the words Nin"r|N
from the question, and joins them with the following
sentence. Accordingly DeWette translates: "Also
he (as Elijah had done before) smote the water,"
fai.d Bunsen: " Also when he smote the water; "]
•and Ewald: "Hardly had he smitten the water,
when it divided again." But the l before r\y is a
bar to this interpretation, and ^X nowhere has the
meaning of "hardly." [Apparently feeling the
force of this latter objection, Ewald, ed. vii. s. 853,
note, changes f|N to ?]N ■ The reading of the E.
V. agrees with that of De Wette and Bunsen. —
W. G. S.] Bottcher and Thenius following Hou-
bigant wish to read N1DK : " Where is now Jeho-
vah, the God of Elijah ?" This reading, however,
is entirely without authority, and the position of
the word at the fuel ,,t' the question is also against
it. The Sept. render n meaninglessly by the same
sounds in Greek letters: a<pipu, We take cjx here
as in Prov. ixii. 19, (where Gesenius translates:
docev te, te inquarn.) that is to say, even He; He, I
say. (So also Kcil [and Scott].) The Yulg. has
in ver 14: et percussit iquas, et non sunt diviscr*
Et dixit : ubi est Deus Elice etiam nunc t percussit
que aquas et divisa sunt. The Complutensian edi
tion of the Sept. has the addition: kqi ov dtnpifdrj,
following which Theodoret and, later, Dathe ex-
plain the verse thus : that Elisha considered th«
mantle of Elijah capable of working miracles, and,
in the first place, struck the water with it, without
saying anything; but that, as this was unsuccess-
ful, he called upon the God of his master eom-
plainingly. It is evident, however, that the addi-
tion is only an explanatory gloss, occasioned by
the repetition of H3^, which does not, however,
indicate any repetition of the act of striking.
Ver. 15. And when the sons of the Prophets,
ic. They saw Elisha come back alone, and, since
he had been able to do the same as Elijah, ihey
concluded that the im of Elijah rested upon him,
that is, that the same extraordinary power and
gifts had been given to him by Jehovah, as pre-
paration for the same calling, therefore they went
to meet him and showed their respect for him.
From their words in ver. 16, however, it is clear
that they were uncertain whether Elijah had been
"taken up" forever, or only for a time, perhaps
in the manner referred to by Obadiah. 1 Kings
xviii. 12. It would have been impossible for them
to speak in this way if they had had especial in
formation, by a divine revelation, of a formal as-
cension of Elijah into heaven, as has been deduced
from vers. 3 and 5. It is a supposition which can-
not be maintained, that, although Elisha had no
doubt narrated to them what had occurred, they
still believed that " the Lord had taken his (Eli-
jah's) soul up into heaven, but that his earthly
body had fallen down somewhere upon the earth,
and that they desired to find this in order that
they might show it the last honors" (Keil), for, in
this case, Elisha must have answered them : I saw
Elijah ride on a fiery equipage in glory into hea
ven ; he is therefoi e no longer upon earth, but in
heaven, as was revealed to you beforehand : — or
else, what reason did he have for not saying this ?
Moreover their words, ver. 16, do not indicate by
any means that they simply desired to find his
corpse, in order to bury it. It is evident that they
expected to find the living and not the dead. The
fact that they insisted upon their proposition in
spite of Elisha's attempts to dissuade them shows
plainly that he had not communicated anything in
regard to an ascension into heaven to them. He
was certain that Elijah had departed or been taken
away forever. Hence he said: "Ye shall not
send." When, at length, he permits them to send,
on account of their ceaseless persistency, he does
so in order that they may become satisfied, by
their own investigation, that lie has now suc-
ceeded to the position of Elijah, and that they
have henceforward to attach themselves to him as
their leader. K*3""1J7 (ver. 17) does not mean : very
long, (itsto diutius (PeWette and others), nor: more
than was becoming, nor: in a shameless manner
(Menken, Thenius), but: until he was himself dis-
appointed in the hope (of dissuading them from
their purpose). L"i2 often has this meaning (cf.
Ps. xxii. 5: xxv. 2, 3, 20; Ixix. fi), and it is also a
very appropriate significatioi. for Judges iii. 25,
and" 2 Kings viii. 11. The sons of the prophet!
wished to have "strongmen" sent out, because
the search over mountains and in valleys was at
CHAPTER II. 1-25
17
tended with difficulty and danger. It should also
be observed that Elisha on the return of the fifty
men, only reminds them of his advice which they
had neglected, but does not say a word of the as-
cension of Elijah, much as we might expect that
he would now do so.
Ver. 19. And the men of the city said, ic.
Perhaps it was the authorities who, in the name
of the city, addressed themselves to Elisha, who
now stood at the head of the prophets, and whose
affable disposition had inspired them with confi-
dence. VTS<n cannot here mean "ground" (Keili,
for it is not the ground, but, as ver. 21 says dis-
tinctly, " the water " which was drunk, which
caused miscarriage, and " in fact the direct use or
enjoyment of this or that water has either a bene-
ficial or a prejudicial effect on the functions of
conception and parturition '' (Theuius). ]",X
stands here, therefore, as it does Gen. ix. 19 ; xi.
1 ; xix. 31. It was " pleasant to dwell " in Jericho,
for it lay in a magnificent situation, " rising like an
oasis from a broad plain of sand" (Winer, /.'.- W'.-B.
i. s. 543). Yer. 20. Elisha calls for a "new"
vessel, i. e., one which had not yet been used for
any purpose whatever, because it was intended
for a religious act, for, in general, all that was
employed in the service of Jehovah must be as yet
unused, i. e., uncontaminated (cf. Numb. xix. 21.
Keil takes the " new cruse " " as a symbol of the
renewing power of the Word of God," but it was
only the receptacle for the salt, by means of which
the water was to be made good and healthful, and
it had nothing to do with the " Word of God." The
prophet made use of salt because it is used as a
means of preserving that into which it is placed,
and keeping it from rottenness and decay (death),
in that it draws out the impure particles. In so
far, then, it has healing and vivifying power (cf.
Symbol, des Mosa. Kultus, ii. s. 325 sq.); it is a
symbol of the purifying, restoring power which
proceeds from Jehovah, for it was He, and not the
salt, as such, who purified the spring and made
the waters uninjurious, as ver. 21 distinctly de-
clares. [The " salt " was neither more nor less
significant in this case than the " meal " in eh. iv.
41. — W. G. S.] The act of casting the salt into
the spring was a prophetical, symbolical action, in
which (see 1 Kings xvii. Hist. § 6) the prophet
represents that which the Lord is about to do, by
visible signs, and with the corresponding natural
means. When P. Cassel (Der Prophet Elisa. s.
xxi.) declares that there is a reference here to the
salt of the covenant in the sacrifices (Levit. ii. 13;
Numb xviii. 19), and says: "The miracle of Eli-
sha signified, for the inhabitants of Jericho and for
Israel through all time, a covenant of salt with the
word and promise of God," it is an evident error,
for Jehovah does not say : I make with you a cov-
enant of salt I but : I make this water healthful, I
heal it. It is true that salt serves as the symbol
of a covenant, to indicate its durability and sanc-
tity, but only on account of its power of preserv-
ing and protecting from corruption and decay,
which is the only thing that here comes into con-
sideration. In this connection there is no reference
whatever to a "covenant of salt." — The sprpg in
question exists "unto this day," ver. 22; and is
" doubtless the spring now known as Ain es Sul-
tan, the only spring in the neighborhood of Jericho.
Its waters spread over the plain of Jericho.
2
. A large spring of water, which is indeed not
cold, but at the same time not warm, and has a
sweet and pleasant taste " | Keil. ; cf. Robinson, Bibl
Res. in Palest, i. 554-5, or, ii. 233-4, ed. of 1841).
Ver. 23. And he went up from thence unto
Bethel, &c. As the successor of Elijah iu the office
of leader of the prophets, Elisha wished to visit,
for the first time, the school of the prophets at
Bethel, the principal seat of the illegal worship
(ver. 3). The D'a-jp D'"iW can scarcely be "little
boys" (Luther), i. e., irresponsible children, who do
not know what they say. In the first place their
mocking address is opposed to this view, and still
more the judgment which fell upon them. Solo-
mon was at least twenty years old when he coji-
menced to reign, and yet he calls himself jcp ~,JJJ
(1 Kings iii. 7). Jeremiah also calls himself a
-|J!J at the time of his calling to be a prophet, Jer.
i. >;. 7. likewise Joseph was so called at a time when
he was at least seventeen years old (Gen. xxxvil
2|. It is also shown by 1 Kings xii. s. 10, 14,
where the young counsellors of Rehoboam are
called D,T?,1 that this word (ver. 24) need not
necessarily be understood of little boys. There-
tore Krummacher and Cassel translate correctly by
"young people." [There is an element of modesty
in the use of the word by Jeremiah and Solomon-
at a comparatively advanced age. There were,
quite a number of these persons, more than forty-
tivn. according to ver. 24. D'"1JJJ 's tne word which
would be used of them if they were of various
ages, from children up to young men. It would
not exclude the possibility that there were two or
three older persons among them. — W. G. S.] Both
the older and more recent expositors, Krumma-
cher. J. Lange, and Kurtz, translate the mocking
address by "Ascend, bald-head! (i, e., like Elijah),"
so that there would be in it, at the same time,
scorn for the ascension of Elijah [Patrick and
Comp. Conim.], and the sense would be : " Let him
also ascend and be off, that they might be rid of
him," or: "Elisha. fool that thou air. show thy-
self a prophet. If thou canst do anything, let ua
see it!" (Krummacher.) This is certainly incor-
rect, for n?l' evidently refers to the preceding
n^jj , aud it is impossible that it should mean some-
thing entirely different from this. Furthermore,
H?y never means ascend (Bee notes on ver. 11);
and how could these young people have heard and
known already about the "ascension" of Elijah,
which (ver. 16) was not known even to the disci-
ples of the prophets? Doubtless the young people
had recognized him from a distance by his proph-
et's mantle (perhaps the one left behind by Elijah,
ver. 13), as a prophet, and therefore, as a zealous
opponent of the calf and Baal worship, which had
its principal seat in Bethel (1 Kings xii. 20); as
they saw him now going up the hill to the city,
they called to him in mockery : Go up into our city,
thou bald-head, what dost thou want here among
us? The expression "bald-head" is not to be
understood as it generally is. of actual baldness,
nor of " a smooth place on the back of the head "
(Keil), for how were the young people to notice this
in Elisha as he approached them from a distance?
Moreover, Elisha was still in his best years, and h»
18
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
lived for at least fifty years after this time, so that
he could not possibly have been bald-headed already
on account of age. Still less can there be any ref-
erence to an artificial bareness of the head, for the
Law forbade directly all persons who were conse-
crated to the service of Jehovah, as, for instance,
the priests and nazarites, to shave the hair of the
head (Levit. xxi. 5 ; Numb. vi. 5). In general, to
make bald the head was a sign of dishonor and
disgrace (Isai. iii. 17; xv. 2), and baldness was also
a mark of leprosy (Levit. xiii. 43). " Bald-head "
i>. therefore, a disgraceful epithet, which refers,
nut to a bodily imperfection, a "natural fault"
(Ki ill, but to the calling of Elisha as man of God
and prophet; he is thereby designated as one who
is the opposite of that which he pretends to be
and appears to be, as an impure and expelled per-
son. Cassel remarks: " The expression of the Jews
for Roman Catholic priests, during the Middle
Ages, and until recent times, was ' bald-heads : '
the tonsure passed among them as a mark of tin-
very opposite of consecration and holiness." [The
epithet either had its origin in fact and Elisha was
prematurely bald, or else it was a standing epithet
of insult used for old or reverend people, inde-
pendently of the fact whether the particular per-
son addressed was bald or not. — "W. G. S.] It is
evident, then, from this epithet, that the young
people had recognized, in Elisha, a prophet, and
that they meant to scoff at him precisely as such.
Therefore the prophet had to deal here with some-
thing very different from mere wantonness, such
as little boys sometimes practise with a failing old
man.
Ver. 24. And he turned back, i.e. That which
Moses and Aaron say to the people about their
complaints: "Your murmurings are not against
us but aganist the Lord " (Ex. xvi. 8 ; cf. Acts v.
4), is also applicable here. The scorn of the chil-
dren attacked not so much the person of Elisha as
tin- calling which had been bestowed upon him by
Jehovah, and. in so far, it was a contemning of
Jehovah himself, which the prophet, on his first
appearance in that capacity, and here in Bethel, of
all places, could not allow to pass in silence and
unrebuked, without denying his holy calling. He
cursed them in the name of the Lord, that is,
he threatened them with a divine judgment, which
in the sequel did not fail to befall them. There
came forth two she-bears, whether at once, and
in the presence of Elisha, or not, is uncertain
(Koster: "How long afterwards, is not men-
tioned "). Bears, especially she-bears, are repre-
sented as very fierce and ravenous (Prov. xvii. 12;
xxviii. 15; Hos. xiii. 8; Dan. vii. 5. Cf. Winer,
y.'.-ll'.-y;. i. s. 130). That they ate up forty-two
of the children is not asserted in the text, for
n^Unon only means : they split, opened, i. e., tore
t : — :
to pieces (Hos. xiii. 8). Perhaps it only means to
say in general that they perpetrated a great mas-
sacre among them; the word DnD shows that
there were many more than forty-two of them in
all, and this has led to the conjecture that their
meeting, for the purpose of reviling the prophet,
was planned and prepared. It is possible that they
had heard of the coming of a new head of tin'
prophets, and had gone out to meet him in a body,
in order to revile him. Nevertheless, the number,
forty-two, which cannot be a round or symbolic
number, is a very large one to be destroyed by
two bears. In general such is the brevity and
disconnectedness of the narrative, that all sorts
of questions arise, which remain unanswered,
although they do not justify us in declaring the
story a simple legend, or indeed a mere fiction.
Ver. 25. And he went from thence to Mount
Carmel, &e. It can hardly be that Elisha stayed
for any length of time at Bethel. Whether, as
Krummacher thinks, he hastened away because
"the vision of the monstrous act which he had
performed lay upon his heart with the weight of
mountains," and because the consciousness: such
a deed have I done ! drove him into retirement, in
order that "he might take breath again and re-
cover his composure in the arms of Jehovah," ir<
very doubtful. On the contrary he seems to have
sought solitude after the manner of the prophets
(see Exeg. on 1 Kings xvii. 3), as soon as he had
presented himself to the sons of the prophets as
the successor of Elijah, in order to prepare himself
for his further public life. He chose Carmel for this
purpose, because this mountain, with its numerous
grottos and caves, was especially fitted for a resi-
dence in concealment; perhaps, also, because Eli-
jah had there first broken the power of idolatry
(see notes on 1 Kings xviii). After the return
from Carmel he dwelt in Samaria (cf. ch. vi. 32),
from which fact we see that under Jrhoram, al-
though Jezebel still lived, the persecution of the
prophets had diminished or indeed entirely ceased.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The removal of Elijah, with which the visi-
ble existence of this great prophet ends, is the
main point of the narrative before us, and is, there-
fore, before all else, to be thoroughly compre-
hended. In the first place, the mode and form in
which it took place, come into consideration. It
wras not a mere disappearance, a becoming invisi-
ble, but it was brought about by a fiery storm-
blast. The peculiar mode of Elijah's removal
stands in an unmistakable relation to his vocation,
which consisted in this, that he was to be, by word
and deed, the herald and the instrument of the
divine judgment against apostasy and idolatry, and
was to renew the broken covenant (see 1 Kings xvii.
Hist. § 1). His entire public life and work had,
therefore, the character of that of a judge — on the
one side destroying and consuming, and on the
other reforming and constructing. Just as every-
where in the Scriptures, and especially in the Old
Testament, fire is the form in which all the action
of God as judge presents itself (Deut. iv. 24 ; ix. 3 ;
xxxii. 22; Numb. xi. 1, 2; xvi. 35; Isai. iv. 4
xxvi. 11; xxix. 6; Ps. xxi. 9; 1. 3; Zeph. i. 18;
Hebr. xii. 29; 2 Peter iii. 7, 12, Ac), so the words
of this instrument of the divine energy were words
of fire, and his deeds were deeds of fire. Thus he
appears, not only in the historical books, but also
especially in the great panegyric of the holy fath-
ers, in the book of Sirach, which begins its de-
scription, when it comes to this prophet, with the
words: "And Elijah arose, a prophet like fire, and
his words burned like a torch," and closes with
these: "And he was taken up in a whirlwind of
fire, in a chariot of fiery horses. And he is ap-
pointed for the discipline of future times, to soothe
away anger before judgment, and to convert the
heart of the father to the son, and to establish the
tribes of Jacob" (Sirach xlviii. 1, 9, 10). When
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
1£
cow this fire-prophet is removed and carried away
by God in a fiery storm, it is clear that it is not a
divine judgment which was executed upon him,
but a divine confirmation of his work, in its pre-
dominant aspect, viz.. the judicial; so that it is, as
it were, the seal of God upon that which Elijah
was for his own and for all future times, viz., the
surety for and the herald of, every great judg-
ment-day of God, i. e., of the fire, which acts as well
to purify and build up as to destroy and devastate
(Mai. hi. 2; iv. 1-6. Cf. Hengstenberg, Christolo-
gie desA. T. hi. «. 441 sq.). As such an actual wit-
ness of the all-conquering judicial might of God,
he was not destined to come to his end in weak-
ness and decay, to experience the usual death, the
embodiment of all human powerlessness and tran-
sitoriness, 'but he was destined to be removed in
divine power and might. His translation, far from
being indifferent, accidental, and insignificant, bore
the same stamp as his temporal and earthly ap-
pearance, and corresponded perfectly to his pecu-
liar and unparalleled position in the divine economy
of salvation. Only in this way can his removal and
the mode of it be explained, whereas, according
to that conception of the event, which lays all the
stress upon a chariot, drawn by horses, instead of
upon the fire, any connection between it and the
life and peculiar work of the prophet is wanting,
and we can at best only suppose that this was an
extraordinary reward for his labors. The ques-
tion, What became of the body of Elijah upon his
translation? is exactly like the other one, Into what
place did he come ? and it must remain, to say the
least, an open question, since the Scriptures are
entirely silent in regard to it. Those expositors,
both in earlier and later times, who maintain a
formal ascension of Elijah, adopt either the idea
of a transmutation of his body during the ascen-
sion (Krummacher : " While he is riding on, lo !
his body, the dust, is gradually transmuted." [" His
body being transformed in his passage toward
heaven, he was carried up to live among the an-
gels." Patrick]), or that of a sudden transfor-
mation, citing 1 Cor. xv. 51 sq. : " But we shall all
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump." (Keil : " Elijah did not
die, but was taken up by a transformation into
heaven," and he remarks on Gen. v. 24: '-Who-
ever is raised above death by the grace of God,
cannot arise from the dead, but arrives at the
af&apeia, or the purified state of perfection, by a
transformation, or 'being clothed upon,' 2 Cor. v.
4.") But, not to speak of other objections, "trans-
formation," or new-clothing of the believers in
Christ, presupposes the entire work of Christ, es-
pecially his elevation to the right hand of God and
his second advent ; it is conditioned upon that
second coming, and it is something which is to
take place but once, in an extraordinary manner
(cf. 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16). So St. Paul designates it
as a "mystery," which he could not have done if
it had already taken place in like manner under
the old covenant. To carry back, therefore, [this
Christian conception of the resurrection of the
lead, in a spiritual and incorruptible body,] and
apply it to Enoch and Elijah, is an inadmissible
mixing up of the economies of salvation of the Old
and New Testaments.
2. The translation of Elijah has been compared
n many ways with the ascension of Christ, and
iken as a type of the same. So, for instance.
Richter says: "By this means it was intended
that the Ascension of Christ should be typified and
made more credible," and Keil: "Elijah . . .
as forerunner of Christ (Mai. iii. 3; Matt. xi. 1C
sq.) was received up into heaven without tasting
death, in order to foretell the asceusion of our
Lord, and to typify it, after the manner of the Old
Testament." This opinion rests, however, directly
upon the premise that Elijah ascended into heaven
in the same manner as Christ. Tet the Scriptures
speak with very different, and in fact very defi-
nite, expressions of the departure of Christ, not as
a removal or translation, but as an ascent into
heaven and a reception there, an entrance into the
glory, which he had before the foundations of the
earth were laid (Mark xvi. 19; Luke xxiv. 51;
Acts i. 9-11; ii. 33 sq.; vii. 55; John xvii. o, 24).
Christ actually tasted death, but he arose from the
dead and was elevated, as victor over sin and
death, to the right hand of the Majesty in heaven
(Hebr. viii. 1). He himself says: "No man hath
ascended up to heaven, but He that came dowi:
from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in
heaven" (John iii. 13); although these words may
refer, in the first instance, to the insight into, and
knowledge of, divine things, yet they also testify,
nevertheless, to something which the Son of Man
alone is capable of, as the Apostle also writes:
" He that descended is the same also that ascended
up far above all heavens, that He might fill all
tilings " (Eph. iv. 10). In the case of Christ, the
Ascension forms an integral and essential moment
in His work of salvation. There begins His kingly
function, and that redemptive work which lasts
into eternity (Hebr. iv. 14; v. 9, 10; ix. 12). In
the case of Elijah, on the contrary, his entire work
ceases upon his translation. It is not the entrance
into a broader, higher activity in heaven, but the
end, even though a glorious end, of his work, and
on this account it cannot pass for a type of the
Ascension of Christ. To compare it with this,
therefore, or to put it on the same line with this
is to take from Christ what belongs to Him alone
and, according to the nature of the thing, can be
long only to Him. If Elijah had ridden upon a
fiery chariot, drawn by fiery steeds, up into hea-
ven, his ascension would have been far more glo-
rious and brilliant than that jf the Lord of Glory,
when He was raised to the right hand of the Ma-
jesty on high; how then can it lie a type of this?
If Keil. in spite of this, insists upon an "ascen
sion " of Elijah, and observes : " He, to be sure
who does not know how to estimate the spirit and
nature of the divine revelation of salvation, will
also be unable to comprehend this miracle," thei
we may assert, at least with just as much right :
He who does not know how to estimate Christ
and the significance of His Ascension into hea
ven, will indeed also talk about an ascension oi
Elijah into heaven. Even Theodoret, in his day,
wrote on Ps. xxiv. 9 : Atcji'iovc Ss irvXac avmyr/va'
-apaK£?.evovrac cic finSeTrore Ty tyvau tuv dvdpuTvi.
viravoiyeiaae. Ovdeic yap eneivac ruv avOptj-ran,
AieTripaae :rwn-ore, aW 6 h'av&poirqaac Oeoc X6yoct
ryv i/iisripav hvaXafiuv airapxi/v, avfiyaye' te el(,
ovpavobg, nal EKa&ioev kv fiesta rfjc fieya'AuGvvTjc li
role hh/j/nic, eTrdi'u rrdoy/c dpxfjc koX egovoiac k r. \.
(Eph. i. 21). 6 tie ph'ac 'Wuac avOJ/ipdi] fttv. aXX
•7VK etc rbv oipavdv, aXX' tjc e'lc tov ovpavdi:
The departure of Elijah points back to that of
Enoch and Moses, rather than forward to that o'
20
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Christ. It is not only said of Enoch, as it is of
Elijah, " God took him away " (Gen v. 24) ; but also
that he announced (Trpoe&qievoe) to the rebellious
and godless of his time the coming of the Lord
" to execute judgment upon all, and to convince
(eicteyzai, cf. Sir. lxviii. 10; iv e?.ey/iolc) all that
are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds "
(Jude 14 sq.). He, therefore, had a calling like to
that of Elijah in its essential character ; and, as
" the seventh from Adam " (through Seth), he
marks an epoch in the divine plan of redemption
(see the Comment, on Gen. v. 24, and Jude 141.
Then, in regard to Moses, it is not indeed stated
that God ''took him away," but, that he buried
him, and that no one learned anything of his
sepulchre, or, as some say, of his burial (Deut.
xxxiv. 6). The Jewish tradition goes still further.
According to Origen (Ilcpi 'Apxifrv, iii. 2), Jude took
what he states in ver. 9, about the struggle for
the body of Moses, from a well-known Jewish
document, which had for its title : 'Avafiaoic tov
Mufffwc; and, according to Josephus (Antiq. iv.
8, 48), after Moses had embraced Joshua and
Eleazar for the last time, while he was still talk-
ing with them, he was suddenly carried away
(aoavi(e-ai) by a cloud into a valley, and disap-
peared from their eyes. However it may be with
regard to the authority of these traditions, so
much remains certain, that the departure of Moses
is "placed in the same category" with that of
Enoch and that of the second Moses, Elijah
(Kurtz, Gesch. des Alten Bundes, ii. s. 526). All
these mark definite epochs in the development of the
Old Testament plan of salvation — they are prophets
in the highest sense of the word. Enoch walked
" with God," i. e., in the most intimate intercourse
with him ; Moses stood in such close relation to
God that he talked with him face to face, as a man
talks with his friend (Ex. xxxiii. 11) ; Elijah's entire
life was consumed in fiery zeal for the cause of the
Lord, so that Sirach closes his panegyric with the
words : fiandpim o'i tS&vrec as. No one of the three
••■ itnesses and preachers of the divine judgments,
lor his own and for all future times, was destined
io undergo the sentence of death and corruption.
The world was not to " see them submit to death "
(Schultz). God took them away: and although
Moses died, on account of his transgression in the
desert of Zin (Deut. xxxii. 51), nevertheless he died
i"riiT 'B'^V ["according to the word of the Lord "
(Deut. xxxiv. 5). The author does not translate
these words, but seems to give them a peculiar
signification. It is true that ""Bp^l often means
"according to the command of," i.e., something
was executed or performed, according as some one
had commanded, but it never means that some-
thing took place at or upon some one's command
or fiat. The author seems to give it some such
signification as this last, that is, that although
Moses died — passed through the individual experi-
ence and the physical change which we know as
death, yet he did so, not as a result of disease, or
after decline and weakness and age, but "at the
word of the Lord," which omnipotently removed
him, in a moment, from life to death. If such an
interpretation were justified by the usage of the
language, it would go far to establish the parallel
between Enoch aid Elijah on the one hand, and
Moses on the other, and to put his end on the same
line with theirs. As it is, the interpretation ii
rather born of the attempt to make out the parallel,
than founded on the usage of the language. Th«
end of Moses was mysterious, and its significance
is most justly stated in the remark quoted alo^e
from Schultz. We are not justified in saying more
about it ; and the Hebrew words in the text mean
simply that he died, as God had said that he would,
without entering Canaan. It is right to deny the
parallelism between the end of Elijah and the
Ascension of Christ, and to bring the former into
relation with the end of Enoch certainly, and, per-
haps, with that of Moses also, to some extent ; but
the latter parallelism must not be urged too far. —
W. G. S.] After he had ascended (n^J?) Mount
Nebo, and enjoyed a view of the Land of Promise, he
was withdrawn forever from the sight of the world.
This removal was the main point in the 1'ase of all
three, however different the mode of it was in the
separate instances. It has, however, as a "taking
away," only an essentially negative character
WJ'Kl Gen. v. 24 ; cf. 2 Kings ii. 12 ; Deut. xxxiv.
6), whereas the Ascension of Christ, as the eleva-
tion of the victor over sin and death, to lie Lord
over all which can be mentioned, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come (Eph.
i. 21), is of a purely positive nature, and in fact,
as well as in significance, something totally dif-
ferent.
3. The different views of the end of Elijah may
be divided into two classes.
(a) The old realistic view, which maintains an
actual " ascent into heaven," has been presented, in
recent times, most definitely, and with the most
earnest hostility to any other view, by Krummacher
(Elias der Thisbiter, s 414—125). By way of intro-
duction he says : " We are on the side of biblical
realism. Whosoever takes that from us, takes from
our heart everything : for facts — facts are what it
must have, this human heart ; the more palpable
and substantial they are the better. . . . My
taste is for the massive in the Bible." Having
adopted this stand-point, he refuses to be satisfied
with "fiery clouds, in the form of a chariot and
horses" (Calwer and Hirschbtrger Bibel), or with
a cloud of angels, by whose ministry Elijah was
received up to heaven, as Grotins, Menken and
others suppose, but he gives the following repre-
sentation of the event: "The black clouds fringed
with glowing fire, burst. A gigantic gate of fire
opens, .... and out of this blazing portal
there dashes forth into the air a flaming chariot
and gleaming horses of fire, who spring with it to
the earth as if harnessed to a pole of adamant,
. . . . only a few steps from the man of God,
an invisible charioteer draws up the reins, and the
horses stop How wonderful, how
unheard-of is the event ! Here stands a chariot of
fire ! Here are real horses from on high ! . . .
Raised upon invisible hands, the prophet mounts,
with joyful courage, into the blazing chariot. . .
The horses of fire raise themselves, and swiftly as
an arrow from a bow, they spring away upon the
road of air, heavenwards, toward the open Hame-
gate of the firmament. Ha! how it rolls away
from cloud to cloud ! When the gleaming wheels
touch a cloud, the thunder rolls ; where the supple
steeds set down their feet, there the lightnings
Hash forth under their hoofs The
King of kings himself it is who fri.des the equ!-
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
21
page by invisible reins They have
Boon flown through the atmosphere of the earth,
and now the road loses itself in those regions
where the mortal eye stands at the limit of its
sight. Between the heavenly orbs they fly along,
those flaming steeds, and the thundering wheels
ro'l on, as it were through a fiery ocean, past
thousands of suns and stars The tire-
steeds plunge forward, as with redoubled steps,
toward the open portal, and now through it into
paradise — into the ever-green meadows and the
palm-groves of heaven. The chariot stops," &c., &c.
This entire representation, in which the fiery steed
of the phantasy seems to have run away with his
rider, only shows what we may come to, if we
take the words of the text, "chariot of fire and
horses of fire,'' in a literal sense. The war against
every figurative interpretation of these words as a
" spiritual dish of froth, offered by an over-
estimated wisdom," appears all the more remark-
able, as the words which immediately follow :
"The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof,"
and which correspond to the previous words,
cannot possibly be understood literally, but only
figuratively, as they are understood also by Kriim-
macher himself. Passing by all else, it only re-
mains now to call attention to one point, viz., how
mean, we might almost say, the Ascension of Him
who was more than all prophets, and who was
elevated to the right hand of the Majesty on high,
appears in contrast with this supposed magnificent
ascension. For the rest, Krummacher is good
enough to declare, for the comfort of those whose
taste is not for the "massive in the Bible," that
" in truth, it is not belief in these horses which
brings us salvation, just as doubt of their existence
would not damn anybody."
(h) The rationalistic view will not hear anj'thing
of an ascension into heaven, nor of a miraculous
removal of Elijah. On the authority of the pas-
sage, 2 Chron. xxi. 12, J. D. Michaelis asserts
(Anmerkungen far Ungelehrte XII. on 2 Kings ii. 1)
that Elijah was only carried away out of Palestine,
and that he lived at least twelve years longer, for
" no ono receives letters from people in heaven."
For the same reason Winer (i?.- W.-B. i. s. 318)
also believes that he " only withdrew into solitude,
leaving it to his pupil to carry on the prophetical
ministry." So also recent Jewish expositors, as, for
instance, Philippson. But in 2 Chron. xxi. there is
not a word about a letter (12D), hut only about
writing (3HDD), which is said to have reached Je-
horam from the prophet Elijah. Such a writing,
however, Elijah nught very well have written be-
fore his removal, and entrusted to Elisha, that he
might send it, at the appropriate time, to the king
(Keil); and it is not necessary to suppose, as some
do, a mistake between the names Elijah and Elisha.
Precisely this passage of the Chronicle can, least
of all, be brought to bear against the story in
2 Kings ii. Bertheau says in regard to it: " It is
not mentioned anywhere else that Elijah performed
any prophetical action by means of writing. Ai
the time when Jehoram ruled in the southern
kingdom, Elijah might still have been alive, ac-
cording to the chronological data of the Old Testa-
ment. It is probable, to begin with, that he did
speak in regard to Jehoram's sin, and that he
threatened him with punishment ; but the ' letter '
is composed in general terms, and gives only a
prophetic explanation of the misfortunes by which
Jehoram wTas visited. From this we must con-
chide that it proceeds, in the form in which we
have it, from a later historian, who, drawing from
sources which we do not know, described the re-
lation between Jehoram and Elijah with a few
words, and according to its broad and general
features." Still less is it possible to uphold the
different attempts which have been made to ex-
plain the miraculous event in some natural manner,
as. lor example, that Elijah was carried off by a
water-spout, with accompaniment of thunder and
lightning (Jahn, Eirdeit. in's A. T. ii. 1, s. 261), or
that he was hurled away by a storm- wind, or that
he lost his way in a cloud, or that the king caused
him to be seized and hurried oft' in a chariot, dur-
ing a storm (Exeyet. Handbi 'n des A. J'., on the
passage), or, finally, that a whirlwind drove dust
and sand into the air, as often takes place whej
horses and chariots run over sandy ground, and
that Elisha imagined, when he heard the thunder
like rolling of wheels, and saw the frequent
lightnings, that his master had ridden away
towards heaven in a fiery equipage (Hetzel, on the
passage). Even Knobel (Der Prophet, der Hebr. ii.
s. 85) declares that all these explanations are " very
forced." They are to be regarded as antiquated,
and they do not deserve refutation. It is not much
better, however, to put the removal of Elijah on
the same line with the apotheosis of Ganymede
(Horn. Iliad, xx. 233), or of Romulus (Liv. i. 16),
(Knobel, I. c.\ for what does this genuine Old Testa-
ment narrative contain in the slightest degree simi-
lar to the genuine heathen and Roman legend of
Romulus, who did not live till a hundred and fifty
years after Elijah, or with the genuine heathen
and Greek legend of Ganymede, who was thought
worthy of the society of the immortal gods on ac-
count of his physical beauty ? Such comparisons
prove as great self-will as thoughtlessness.
(c) The purely idealistic view, which has been
maintained, especially by Ewald (Gesch. Israels, iii.
*'. 543 [3d ed„ 584]), followed by Eisenlohr and
Bunsen. starts from the premise (see Prelim. Rem.
after 1 Kings xvii.) that the history of Elijah, in
the form in which it lies before us, was remoulded
by an historian who lived two hundred years later
than Elijah, and who was gifted with a genuine
poetical soul, and that he presented the highest pro
phetical truth in historical form. "A life on earth,
purer than that of any other man of that time,
consecrated to the service of Jehovah, and yet
spent in such all-controlling exertion for the ad-
vancement of the kingdom of God, could only have
a corresponding termination: ceasing to be in the
\ isiMe world, it will work all the more powerfully
and undisturbedly in the spiritual realm, that is,
will be received up into heaven. In that moment
heaven bends itself down here to earth, to raise
up from hence to itself that soul which already
belongs to it. Therefore, a fiery chariot with fier»
steeds moves down from heaven and takes up Elijah
in a whirlwind to heaven. It is only eternal truth
which seeks to explain itself in this hold expres
sion." Especially, however, it is said the re
mainder of the description represents, at the same
time, more precisely "how an Elijah quits his
friends on earth and they him," and thus gives
expression to the following truth: "When the
moment approaches when a holy man like Elijah
is to be taken away from the earth, then a dis-
22
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KIN ",S.
crimination takes place among those who have
hitherto passed for his friends and followers. The
great mass of these draw back in fear and un-
belief— only a few remain faithful unto the end ;
but only upon these (as in this case upon Elisha)
does the blessing and spirit of the saint who is to
be removed from the earth directly fall." According
to this mode of acceptation, the entire narrative of
the translation of Elijah would be an allegorical
fiction. But, elevated as the delineation certainly
is. it still bears by no means the features of poetic-
al composition, in which " every limitation of the
vulgar historical material has been disregarded."
On the contrary, as Menken has observed : " The
tone of the narrative is the same which predomi-
nates in the preceding, and which we also find in
the following, chapters. This incident is narrated
just as simply, prosaically, and unpoetiealry as the
entire history of both prophets, or anything else
which is historical in both Books of the Kings."
(See also Prelim. Rem. after 1 Kings xvii.) Not
to dwell upon that, however, where under the hea-
vens would a poet of the Old Testament suppose
the " purely spiritual realm " to be ? and, bold as
the figurative expressions of the Old Testament cer-
tainly are, where does anything occur which would
be in any degree similar to this: that "a fiery
chariot and fiery horses " should be the expression
for the purely spiritual realm which receives up
into itself the soul which already entirely belongs
to it ? There would be no need of such a detailed
historical dress as we here find for the utterly
simple and prosaic truth, that on the end of a
great man a discrimination between his followers
is wont to occur ; and besides that, in the case be-
fore us, no such discrimination or distinction took
place. There is no sign whatever of any "con-
trast between Elisha and the ordinary pupils of
the prophets ; " on the contrary, they are so warmly
and faithfully attached to Elijah, that, in spite of
the dissuasion of Elisha, they will not be prevented
from sending out fifty men to seek for the trans-
lated master and lord. It is impossible, therefore,
that they should be a figure for the "great mass,"
which "draws back in fear and unbelief," when
the master is taken away from the earth. How-
ever fine and spiritual the idealistic acceptation
may appear, it shows itself, on a more close in-
vestigation, to be utterly unmaintainable both as
a whole and in the details.
[A peculiar interest has always attached to the
prophet Elijah, differing in nature from that which
is felt for the other prophets, just as he differed
from them. The manner in which he appears in
tin narrative, suddenly, without preparation or
introduction, and without reference to his antece-
dents ; the way in which he traverses the history,
from time to time, each appearance forming a cri-
-i-: the enigmatical character of his existence;
the do u l>i as to where he had been in the mean-
time, how he went, how he returned, and how
In- bad lived during his absence; finally, his mode
of working, which was despotic, all-controlling,
sun- of itself, free from hesitation or doubt, and,
afl it seemed, from any deliberation; self-assum-
ing to a degree which nothing could warrant
nut the inner conviction of the very highest pro-
phetical calling, and which could only be main-
tained by the mosl direct and certain inspiration;
- — till these things conspired to make his name one
ot terror and wonder, and to leave a deep impres-
sion on the popular mind, so that we find that hii
name still lives in wild legends and fables among
the Mohammedans and ignorant Christians of tin
East (see Mr. Grove's article in Smith's Diet, of thi
Bib. and authorities there referred to). The ques-
tion is sometimes asked, Why have we no Elijahs
any more ? Why are there no men so penetrated
and inspired by the Divine Spirit now-a-ilays?
Why have we no men whom the world, with its
temptations of all sorts, cannot touch, but itself lies
open to their insight and judgment, with all its
deceits and weaknesses, all its follies and vices, all
its corruptions and falsehoods? Many men aspire
to purity, communion with God, elevation above
the world, and seek to obtain influence over it.
that they may improve it and lead it up to God,
but, although kings and rulers are depraved, and
are often seduced into vice and injustice and cor-
ruption, although laws and institutions are unjust,
and nations forget God and abandon Him for false
worship of all sorts, yet no Elijah appears to de-
stroy and dash in pieces what is base and wrong,
and to consume it with a fire of divine vengeance,
or to nourish and build up institutions which may
regenerate the world. The first reason is that we
do not believe that any such men will arise. We
have made up our minds that they cannot be and
so they never will be. Here again faith is the
grand postulate. Who knows what measure of
His Spirit God might give to-day to any one who
held himself ready to receive it? Elijah, if he
were here to-day, would hear and understand the
Spirit of God as much as he did centuries ago.
Few men, in the whole history of the world, are
ready to accept the necessary preconditions of
such a calling. The first of these is utter self-ab
negation and self-surrender. He who thinks of
himself at all, or carries with him one care for self
and one consideration of his own pleasure, profit,
or renown, is no prophet. A prophet must cast
himself utterly into the plan and providence of God,
and exist, thereafter, only for it. His calling is to
be above the world and to oversee, weigh, con-
demn, and correct, from the elevated stand-point
of God's eternal providence, all which men do and
plan and hope for, or despise and reject and battle
against, on earth. He must see, to some extent,
as God sees. He must judge, so far as a man can,
as God judges; that is, according to His eternal
providence and plan. He must be in and of his own
time, but so elevated above it as to grasp its signifi-
cance in the history of redemption, as a product of the
past and a fountain of the future. From this stand-
point he must judge all separate incidents, all indi-
vidual characters, all proposals and plans, all new
institutions, which it is proposed to found, all old
ones which it is proposed to abolish. To such a
calling no man is called for his worldly honor
that he may be the adored of millions. The world
has too strong a hold on all who are in it. They
can never tear off its bands while they are touched
by its attractions. No man can raise himself above
his time while his interests are all in it. It is only
in the severance of all these ties that he can gain
freedom to mount up to God. If there were men,
however, who were capable of this absolute de-
nial of the world and absolute surrender to God,
lit no one dare to say what they could not receive
from God. A false idea of Elijah and othe- Old
Testament prophets, as if they had possessed pow-
ers of divination and magic, which, as we well
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
23
know, no man now possesses, has led us to despair
of such gifts as they had, and to regard them as
belonging entirely to a past age. The " arm of the
Lord is not shortened," however, and He can fill
His servants with as rich a measure of His Spirit
for their work to-day as He did His prophets of old,
if they will only expect it and wait for it. If such
men as Elijah were needed to-day for carrying on
the work of salvation, God could raise them up.
This brings us to another reason why none such
arise. Elijah was a phenomenon of a turbulent
period, in a disorganized state. He was a hero, in
a heroic age. For him it was possible to live in a
desert, to appear only at intervals, and then to
speak with majestic authority. The later proph-
ets, especially those of Judah, lived among their
countrymen and had homes and families. They
could not lay aside the cares of life. They lived
in an organized state and a well-ordered soci-
ety, whose obligations they could not throw off.
The heroic period had given way to that of law.
Their work was, therefore, no longer the same in
character as that of Elijah. They could not de-
molish opposition with such dictatorial absolute-
ness as he. They could not step forth so surely,
nor speak in such a commanding tone, nor have
recourse to such terrible instruments and means.
They had to maintain the truth of God, proclaiming
it at the right moment, and the right point, bear-
ing witness against all falsehood and wrong, and
then to wait for the truth to prevail. It was not
given them to command, they had to teach. They
could not presume to wield the instruments of
punishment as Elijah did, they must warn, and ad-
monish, and threaten. They therefore had recourse
to writing. Their words were not commands which
required instant obedience, but testimonies, whose
truth time and experience must prove. Still more
is all this true of our times. We live in a society
with fixed institutions and traditions. Men move
now not in a mass, controlled by a few individu-
als, but in an organized body, moved b\7 its own
intelligence and the general convictions. All which
presents itself from outside the social order, and
bases itself upon a violation of the same, is met
with suspicion and ridicule, and moreover (for this
"would be a light thing in itself), must remain des-
titute of any deep influence. Society has come
into absolute dependence upon, and faith in, law.
No man and no doctrine can work efficiently iu
this society if it tries to work from without the
social order. The efficient means of operation
now-a-days are organized combinations of men of
similar opinions and aspirations. Individuals can-
not attain controlling positions. The power has
been broken up and diffused. Individuals are as-
signed to positions in the organization which moves
as a whole. The mass is stubborn, and can only be
acted on from within. It will not submit to dicta-
tion. The only means of influence is, to form a
smaller opinion, inside of the great one, and so
leaven the '.vhole lump. The calling of the proph-
ets has been inherited by institutions, above all by
the Church, and these are the influences to which
we must look to regenerate modern society. The
mi nisters of the Church are the bearers and perpetu-
ators of this calling. Their duty it is to bear wit-
ness of God and of His judgment in the world.
Their duty it is to advise, exhort, warn, and con-
demn, with the fearlessness of Elijah, even if not
»ith his tone of authority and command. — W. G S.]
4. The prophet-communities, or so-called schooll
of the prophets, which Elijah visited again before
his departure, are a phenomenon which is in
many respects important and deserving of at-
tention (cf. in general, with regard to them,
Knobel, Prophet, der Bebr. ii. *. 39-52 ; Winer,
R. - IV. - B. ii. s. 281 ; Keil, on 1 Sam. xix. 24,
s. 146-151 ; Kranichfeld, Be iis qum in V. T. com-
memorantur, prophetarum societatibus. Berol. 1861,
where the older literature is also mentioned).
They come into consideration here principally in
their relation to Elijah. Such communities are
mentioned as early as the time of Samuel (1 Sam.
x. 5, 10 ; xix. 20), but not sooner, so that he is com
monly regarded as their founder, and indeed he it
mentioned in the last place quoted as their 3i"3,
governor or overseer. They appear, from their
names, ?2n, i. e., band, company, or crowd, ai.d
np.~6 (for rpnp) , i- « , congregation, not to have
been organized and exclusive unions or " orders,l;
but freely united companies. Under David we
find no sign of their existence whatever. Not
until the time of Elijah and Elisha do they appear
again, and here they always bear the name
D'X'DSn 'J3 , which refers to a more definite rela-
tion, to firmer and closer connection, similar to
that between father and son, and especially to the
relation between teacher and pupil, for the Hebrew
always calls his teacher " father " (1 Sam. x. 12 ;
2 Kings ii. 12 ; Matt, xxiii. 9), and his pupil. " son "
(Prov. i. 8, 10, 15 ; ii. 1 ; iv. 1 ; Titus i. 4). We see,
from the passage before us, and 2 Kings iv. 38 ;
vi. 1, that they dwelt together in definite places,
and lived in common ; therefore, that they were
not unregulated companies, but exclusive unions
or communities. They stand in a subordinate re-
lation to their teachers and masters (at first Elijah,
and after him, Elisha, cf. 2 Kings ii. 15), and call
them " master " (2 Kings ii. 3 ; vi. 5) and them-
selves " servants " (2 Kings ii. 16 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 3).
According to all this, these schools of the prophets
can hardly be identified with the free unions pf
the prophets under Samuel, or be considered as
the immediate continuation of those. In the latter
was concentrated the religious life, which at that
time lacked a fixed arrangement. When this was es-
tablished by David, they ceased to exist, although
prophets continued to appear from time to time.
The real schools of the prophets, however, came
into existence for the first time, at the period of
apostasy and idolatry under Ahab, and their
founder was Elijah, who may, nevertheless, have
had those combinations under Samuel in mind,
though he gave them a different organization, and
made of them institutions for planting and pre-
serving the pure worship of Jehovah, in opposi-
tion to the intruding idolatry. Such certainly th»
combinations of the prophets under Samuel never
were. Even if we were willing to allow Elijah to
pass, not for the founder, but simply for the re-
storer of the schools of the prophets, yet these re-
main, nevertheless, an actual and important testi-
mony that this prophet not only stepped forth
publicly, in fiery zeal and heroic strength, to battle
against idolatry, but also, at the same time, worked
to build up and to lay foundations. Although
this quieter part of his influence did not attract so
much attention, yet it was not less successful. He
must lave understood w«H how 'o draw hearts tc
24
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
himself and enchain them, as is evident from the
Dumber of these pupils of the prophets (cf. 1 Kings
xviii. 4 : 2 Kings ii. 16 ; iv. 43 ; vi. 1). The bloody
persecution of them under Ahab and Jezebel did
not avail to exterminate them, or even to diminish
their numbers. In the evening of the prophet's
life we even find schools of the prophets in pre-
cisely those places where the worship of the Calf
and of Baal had their principal seats, so that we see
that they had to be endured at last publicly — a
proof that the general strength of the apostasy
had been broken by Elijah. How much the heart
of the faithful servant of God was set upon these
foundations, is evident from the fact that he visited
the three schools at Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho
before his departure, and spoke to them encourage-
ment and consolation.
5. The prophet Elisha is the chief person after
Elijah in the passage before us, from which the re-
lation which we must think of as existing between
the two prophets may be directly deduced. This
relation is often conceived of as one of specific
difference or even contrast. So Krummacher savs
(Elisa, 2d ed. Elberfeld, 1844, i. s. 7) : " Elisha
was appointed to appear as an evangelist in
Israel, whereas Elijah, as the second Moses, was to
enforce due respect for the Law, which had been
forgotten and trodden under foot. Elisha's duty
was, as herald of the divine tenderness, to restore
and lead back to the father's arms, with tempting
invitations, the hearts which his predecessor had
broken with the hammer of the law," and (Elias der
Thisb. s. 409) : " As an evangelist he needed, first of
all, that his own heart should acquire a thoroughly
evangelical disposition, and that he should, in his in-
ternal relation to the Lord, himself foretaste, so far
as was possible, the tender nature of the New Testa-
ment " (see also 1 Kings xix. Hist. § 8). This opinion
springs from the utterly false interpretation of the
spirit of ver. 9, which makes it mean that Elisha
prayed for a double measure of the spirit of Elijah.
Under this interpretation Elisha's manifold acts of
healing and assistance, have then been brought
into connection with this prayer. Accordingly,
this view falls to the ground with the correct ex-
position of ver. 9. As for the acts referred to,
they were not by any means like those of the
Saviour, altogether in the nature of assistance, but
many of them served as punishments (cf. ver. 24 ;
v. 27 ; vii. 19, 20). On the other hand, the miracles
of Elijah were not entirely punishment-miracles
(1 Kings xvii. 6, 14, 23 ; xviii. 45). Moreover,
the time of Elisha was so far from being a time
of "divine tenderness," and "gentle murmuring
after the storm," that, on the contrary, it was
exactly in this time that the most violent convul-
sion inside the kingdom (2 Kings ix. and x.), and
the most violent struggles abroad (2 Kings vi. and
vii.), took place. Finally, according to the oracle,
1 Kings xix. 17, it was Eiisha's destiny to " slay "
all who should escape from the sword of Jehu,
which certainly was no New Testament calling.
The spirit for which he prays (ver. 9), and which
then rests upon him (ver. 15), is the " spirit of
Elijah," not a different one, much less a contrasted
jne. This spirit of Elijah is so far from being a
New Testament spirit, that the Saviour rebukes
His disciples who desire to act in accordance with it
(Luke ix. 55), and says: "Ye know not what man-
ner of spirit ye are of." [Biihr takes it as a ques-
tion, and emphasizes the latter " ye." So also many
good authorities, whom Meyer is inclined to join.
Lachmann and Tischendorf omit it from the text.
There is a heavy weight of authority against it, and
the only argument for retaining it is the one sug-
gested by Meyer, that it is difficult to account for
its interpolation ; while, on the other hand, it might
have been omitted out of a false consideration for
the reputation of Elijah. — W. G. S.] It was one
and the same spirit which inspired both prophets,
and worked in and through them. Elisha was
not indeed " a feeble copy " of Elijah ; but neither
was he, what, as an evangelist before the time of
the evangelists, he would have been, viz., greater
than Elijah. He only desired, as first-born son of
the prophet, a richer measure of the spirit than the
other sons of the prophets were to obtain, be !ause
he was to be their leader and master. His rela-
tion to Elijah was like that of Joshua to Moses
Elijah had broken the strength of the apostasy in
Israel — fought with fiery zeal against idolatry,
and laid anew the foundation of the law and
the covenant. On this foundation Elisha was
to continue to build. The same spirit which, in
Elijah, had to work chiefly to destroy and con-
demn, was to work in Elisha chiefly to cultivate
and preserve. " Elijah had done the work of lay-
ing the foundation. There had been introduced
among the people, in the schools of the prophets
which had arisen again under the shield of Elijah's
mighty energy, a healing salt of life, which now
only needed to be kept from losing its savoi
and to be preserved in its vigor, and blessing
would proceed from it in silence and without dis-
play. To guard these germs of the newly-
awakened life — to nourish them and bring them
to vigorous development — was . . . the task
of Elisha " (Sartorius, Yortrage ubur die Prophet,
s. 38, 41). Like Elijah, Elisha was also the
" chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof "
(2 Kings ii. 12; xiii. 14).
6. The three acts of Elisha after the translation
of Elijah, of which we have an account, are not
by any means arbitrarily placed in succession, as
it Were mere anecdotes of the prophet, but they
belong together in time, as well as in significance,
and form, to some extent, a whole, by means of
which Elisha, on his first independent appearance
as successor of Elijah, is represented as heir of his
spirit and calling. The last act of the master
before the eyes of the pupils of the prophets
(ver. 8) was also the first performed before them
by the disciple, after he had succeeded to the posi-
tion of Elijah, and he performed it with the signi-
ficant mantle of his former master. This was a
sign for him that his prayer for the nil of Elijah
had been fulfilled, and for the sons of the prophets
that the spirit of his master now rested upon him,
and that tl ey must henceforth recognize him as
leader and guide (ver. 15). In this capacity he re-
turns with them to Jericho, their dwelling-place.
Here, whei the men of the city, full of confidence,
complain to him of their misfortune, he maintains
himself as the Man of God, who helps and protects,
and brings safety and blessing. At Bethel, on the
other hand, when they come to meet him with
derision and contempt, it becomes evident what
judgment falls upon those who impudently despise
the servant and messenger of Jehovah. Thus
Elisha, like Elijah, to whose place he had succeeded
(see 1 Kings xvii. Hist. § 1). in his first appear
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
ance, is seen to be a prophet of action — he inaugu-
rates himself, not by a detailed speech to the sons
of the prophets and the believing or unbelieving
people, but by actions. These actions, however,
are of a prophetical character, not insignificant
workings of superhuman power, but rather
" signs," and therefore also testimonials (cf. John
x. 25). The passage through the Jordan bears
witness that the Lord opens paths for those
whom He has chosen and called to be His messen-
gers and servant. It is a surety for the words :
'•Fear not ior I have redeemed thee. I have
called t".*ee by thy name : thou art mine. When
thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee : and through the rivers, they shall not over-
flow thee " (Isai. xliii. 1, 2 ; Ps. cxxiv. 4). The act
at Jericho proclaims aloud that it is the Lord who
gives health. It is surety for the words : " I am
the Lord that healeth thee " (Exod. xv. 25 ; xxiii.
25, 26), " who healeth all thy diseases [infirmi-
ties]" (Ps. ciii. 3; cxlvii. 3; cf. Jer. viii. 22 1.
Finally, the event at Bethel is a sign for the re-
bellious and apostate that judgment waits for the
scoffers — a testimony to the truth of the words :
" The Lord revengeth and is furious ; the Lord will
take vengeance on his adversaries " (Nahuni i. 2);
" who visits the sins of the fathers upon the (like-
minded) children " (Exod. xx. 5).
7. Many have taken offence, in various ways, at
the judgment which befell the derisive youths at
Bethel. For instance, Koster (Die Prophet, s. 85)
says : " The story sounds very unworthy of the
great prophet : it appears as if he ought 'not to have
noticed the derision of irresponsible children ; "
and Thenius remarks on the passage, that "the
immorality of cursing (especially wanton children)
has been lost sight of in the desire to bring into
prominence the inviolability of the prophetical
dignity, which stands under the protection of God."
The incident appears, however, in a very different
light when the persons in question, as was shown
above, are not wanton little children, but youths
who knew what they were doing and saying.
Neither must we overlook the fact that these
youths belonged to the city which was the centre
and principal seat of the apostasy, and which, on
this account, is called by the prophets, " Beth-
Aven," i. e., House of the Idol, instead of Beth-El
[House of God], (Hos. iv. 15 ; x. 5 ; Amos v. 5).
They were, therefore, literally the offspring of
apostasy, and they represented in general the
offspring of apostates which was growing up.
The older expositors, e. </., Bochart, suppose, not
improbably, that the older people had incited the
younger ones, and that the object was to make
the new head of the class of the prophets ridicu-
lous and contemptible at the very commencement
of his career. When, therefore, Elisha threatened
with divine punishment the impudent youths
who despised in the prophet the holy office to
which Jehovah had called him, it was no im-
morality, nor was it unworthy of him ; on the
contrary, he therein did what belonged to his
prophetical office. He did not, however, execute
the punishment himself: he left that to Him who
Bays : " To me belongeth vengeance and recom-
pense " (Deut. xxxii. 35). It was no more Elisha
who caused the bears to come (but Jehovah, ver.
21) than it was he who caused the waters at Jeri-
cho to become healthful. It was a judgment of
God which befell those depraved youths »"d, indi-
rectly, the whole city out of which they came, and
it referred back to that thieat of the law: "If
ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken
unto me, .... I will also send wild beasts
among you, which shall rob you of your childrea
and destroy your cattle ; and your highways shall
be desolate " (Levit. xxvi. 21 sq.). Nevertheless,
the narrative bears a strongly Old Testament char-
acter; it is no portion of the gospel; we cannot
make out of Elisha an "Evangelist" and disciple
of the Saviour; we must bear in mind that he was
tin successor of an Elijah, and that the God of
Israel is a jealous God. Cassel's application of the
incident seems very far-fetched (per Prophet Elisa,
ss. 7 and 9): "The wrath and judgment upcn
the youths is an image of that wrath and judg-
ment which falls upon all Israel Who
does not seek in it the faithful image of the for-
tunes of Israel itself 1 .... Like bears from
a wood Hazael and Jehu burst in upon the people
and the royal race. Without pity and without mercy
they strangled the youth of Israel Even the num-
ber— forty -two — signifies such a judgment, for
forty -two was the number of the sons of Ahazial)
whom Jehu fell in with in his capacity of avenger."
That the author of these books did not think of
that, is at all events certain.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-12. Bender: Elijah's Departure from
the Earth, (a) The solemn journey on the eve of
his departure, and (b) the glorious exit of tire de-
parting prophet. — Vers. 1-6. Krummacher : The
Vigil, (a) How Elijah seeks retirement ; (6) how
he comes to the schools of the prophets ; (•:) what
reception he meets with there. — Elijah on the Ap-
proach of his End. (a) He goes to meet it quietly
and submissively, for he had fought a good fight and
kept the faith (2 Tim. iv. 7 and 8). (6) He takes
leave of his friends and companions in faithful
love ; as he had " loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end " (John xiii. 1).
— Ver. 1. Starke : God does not leave His faith-
ful chddren and servants forever in unrest, but
delivers them finally from all evil and helps them
to come to his heavenly kingdom (Ps. Iv. 23; 2
Tim. iv. 18). — Vers. 2-4". Menken: That which
Elijah had done and labored at throughout his life,
that he also pushed forward and did in his last
hours : he was still active for the advancement of
the kingdom of God, still active in the labor of
assisting and serving love, which does not seek its
own. Even his last hours were consecrated to
others. He was in a state of the soul, in which
he was ready, at every step, in every occupation
and in every conversation which might occur, to
pass over into the invisible world, without need
of any further preparation. Oh! let us employ all
diligence, that we, too, may arrive at such a pre-
cious and blessed soul-state .... that we,
too, in all our conversation and business, whether
it is spiritual or worldly, whether it is grand or
small, may not only think of eternity with pleas-
ure, but also be ready at any moment, if our Lord
should so please, to pass on into the invisible
world.— Vers. 2-6. The faithful Love of Elisha to
his Master and Lord, (a) The g-oun I and source
of it. (It does not rest upon a naf. ral, human
basis, but upon a divine and holy one. The band
2e
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
which bound him to Elijah was living faith in the
living God, and life and labor in and with him.
He honored and loved his father after the flesh [1
Kings xix. 20], but he left him; with his spiritual
father he wished to remain unto the end [ver. 12].
Cf. Matt. x. 37.) (6) Its test and successful en-
durance. (Thrice did Elijah beg him to remain
behind, but he would not be persuaded. Whith-
ersoever the path may lead, and whatsoever may
come to pass, I will not leave thee until God shall
take thee from me. His love was not a mere pass-
ing, bubbling enthusiasm, but it was strong as
death and firm as hell. That love alone is true
which endures trial and will not be turned aside
by any prayers, for which no hindrance is too
great, no journey too long and too hard. Cf. John
xxi. 17.) (c) Its victory and reward. (Elijah
opens for him the path through the Jordan, after
his fidelity has stood the test. He is allowed to
see what no human being besides him might see.
He attains to that which he has prayed for ; with
Elijah's mantle he inherits also Elijah's spirit; he
is a witness of his master's glory. Cf. Rev. ii. 10:
" Be thou faithful," &c. That fidelity conquers and
is crowned, which holds fast to God and Jesus
Christ.) — The words of Elisha : As the Lord liv-
eth, &c, as marriage-vow. The right foundation,
the trial, and the duration, of conjugal love (until
God shall separate). — Elijah and the Sons of the
Prophets, (a) Elijah had not only one disciple and
pupil, but a great company of them, which he
collected from among those who had not bowed the
knee to Baal, and to whom he stood in the relation
of a father to his children, whom he led and taught,
protected and nourished. This was the other side
of the activity of the great Man of God. — Menken:
In his public life he was, according to the needs
of his time, a fire to consume rather than to warm;
in his more retired life he was an enlightening and
warming light. — Labor in the kingdom of God
consists not only in tearing down and removing
superstition and unbelief, but at the same time in
building up faith, in planting and nourishing a di-
vine and holy life. Compare the great reformers.
(b) The children of the prophets were not child-
ren, but sons, young men, bound to a life in com-
mon, in the fear of God. Reading and hearing
the Word of God, prayer and praise of the Lord,
practice in obedience, mutual encouragement and
strengthening, these were the aim and end of their
anion. They were, therefore, in a time of apos-
tasy, communities for the cultivation of the knowl-
edge of God and of the life which proceeds from
God. They were for Israel the salt which gave sa-
vor, and the light which gave light, to all in the
house (Matt. v. 13-15), schools of true wisdom,
whose beginning is the fear of God, through which
alone, until this day, all knowledge and learning
receive- their true value. — Yea, I know it; hold
ye your peace! We should not make the heart
of a departing friend heavy in the moment of sep-
aration, but, with him, yield quietly and peacefully
to the holy will of God, who is calling him away.
— Neither Elijah nor Elisha wished to have that
which wjs about to befall the former according to
the decision of God, made a subject of conversa-
tion.— Vii.mar: No over-hasty gossip or sensation
ought to lie made about acts of God, especially
about those which are still future ; they may not
be treated as objects of curious or worldly ques-
tioning*. The acts of God are meant to be awaited
in respectful silence Those who art
capable of seeing the majesty of the living God
keep silent of themselves, upon others they have
to enjoin silence.
Vers. 7-10. The two Prophets before their Sep-
aration, (a) Elijah's last act; (b) Elisha's last
request.— Vers. 7, 8. Krummacher: The Passage
through the Jordan, (a) The escort of the sons
of the prophets; (b) the position of the two men
of God at the Jordan; (c) the marvellous passage
through it. — Menken : Elijah was to finish hia
course by an act of faith, Le was to build for him-
self, in a certain sense, the path to his glorious
end, by an act of faith, and so impress indelibly
upon the hearts of his friends and followers, who-
saw him, even in the hour of separation, the grand
truth that Jehovah is, the sole living and all-con-
trolling God, and that faith pleases Him above all
else, and that .... no. other way than faith
in God's promises leads to the higher and better
inheritance in light. — Wirth : On the other side
of the Jordan is the place of the glorification of
the prophet. Between him and this spot there
flows yet a broad and deep stream. Through this
he must go, .... there is no bridge, no
ferryman; but he does not despair. He knows:
He who has called me to the other side will help
me to the other side Such incidents
occur to many on the pilgrimage of life. . . .
No stream is so deep, and no flood of calamity
so dangerous, that God could not lead through it
unharmed The prophet-mantle, which
to-day as ever, when it falls upon any Jordan, di-
vides its waves, is faith, strong, glad, living, rock-
firm faith "Faith leads through fire
and flood." — Vers. 9 and 10. The parting Conver
sation of the two Prophets, (a) Elijah calls upon
Elisha to make a request ; (6) the request of Eli-
sha; (c) the answer of Elijah. — Ver. 9. Elijah
speaks in the name of God : Ask what I shall
do, Ac. The Lord will not only listen to our pray-
ers, but He even demands of us that we shall-
pray to Him, and pour out our hearts with all our
wishes before him (Ps. lxii. 8). Not only are we
allowed to pray to Him, but it also is our duty to da
so (Matt, vii. 7 s<j.). — Wurtemb. Summ. : If the
saints in heaven could hear our prayers and could
aid us, there would have been no necessity that
Elisha should beg anything of Elijah before he-
went thither. The invocation of deceased saints
is therefore to be regarded as erroneous and false.
■ — Menken: If we were called upon to make a re-
quest, as Elisha was, what would we choose?
Would we pray for things of this world, which
might delight us for the few days of this life here
below; or would we pray as he did, and choose
spiritual and heavenly things, in the possessioL
and enjoyment of which we should have rich and
pure sources of joy in the other world throughout
eternity? The sincere and conscientious response
to this question can give us an instructive indica-
tion of the nature and worth of our sentiments and
of our spiritual value. — STARKE: The highest good
on earth is not gold nor money, but the Holy Spirit.
— WiiiTH. Simm.: We see and learn from Elijah
that we ought only to pray for necessary and useful
tilings, even where we have the choice. — Ver. 1Q
i'u.u EH BtBEL: The request was great, but even
eie.ii prayers arc permitted when they serve the
ends of the kingdom of God. — Kyhurz: Pray-
dear soul, pray freely for something great ; it it
CHAPTER II. 1-25.
equally hard for God to give thee something great
vr something small. He does not charge it upon
thee as ambition if thou prayest so soon for a large
faith, or a great measure of the spirit, or a high
grade of holiness. Thou must only possess all in
humility and use it for the honor of the giver. —
Osianher : We may indeed pray for glorious gifts
of the Spirit from God, yet we must not make a dis-
play of them, but only serve the Church usefully.
Vers. 11 and 12. Elijah's Departure from this
World, (a) The mode in which he was taken away
by God; (/<) cause and aim of this removal (see
the Exeget. and Ilistor. sections). — Yer. 11. They
still went on and talked, certainly not about a
temporal inheritance nor about anything temporal
at all, or any worldly affairs, but about God and
eternity, life and death, rest after labor, the eter-
nal Sabbath. How consoling it is, in the last days
and hours, to have a friend with whom one can
hold such a conversation, and how elevating for
him who must still remain in the world, to hear
words from the mouth of the departing one, which
sound already as if from the other world. — Starke :
" Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He
Cometh, shall find so doing " (i. e., watching, ilatt.
xxiv. 46). — The same: Pious Christians ought to
remain faithful to one another in life and in death,
and not to separate until God separates them by
earthly death At our death we ought
to be glad to have faithful Christians about us, and
be glad to converse with them and to entrust our
souls with our Heavenly Father in the midst of
their song and prayer. — We shall not, indeed, pass
out of this world as Elijah did. without tasting the
death of the body, but we shall be received into
heaven, for we trust in Him who said : " I go to
prepare a place for you; " and: "I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me "
(John xiv. 2; xii. 21). — In storm and whirlwind
Elijah was taken away, just as his life, outwardly,
had been a storm-tossed one. This last storm,
however, brought him to eternal rest and eternal
peace. So still, in our day, human life is often
stormy, but when it is led in and with God and
directed by Him, eternal sunshine follows the
storm of time, there, where there is no suffering
or crying any more, and where God will wipe
away all tears from our eyes. There is rest pre-
pared there for al! who have fought the good fight
of faith. — Menken : Ho who could not here gain
any taste for heavenly things, who his whole life
long only grubbed in the earth like an earthworm,
can he hope to pass away toward heaven with joy?
Our life and death lie in the hands of the Al-
mighty, who takes one away in storm and whirl-
wind and another in the enjoyment of happiness
and pleasure. Thou knowest not when and where
and how thou shalt die. therefore pray : let me set
my house in order in time, that I may be ready at
all times, and say continually in all circumstances:
0 Lord! dispose of me as Thou wilt. — Ver. 12.
Elisha's Exclamation, (a) My father, my father!
(An exclamation which does no less honor to Eli-
sha than to Elijah. If such an exclamation from
an equally full heart might only follow every
teacher from every one of his pupils, and every
shepherd of souls from every one of the souls en-
trusted to him !) (b) The chariot of Israel and
the horsemen thereof. (Elisha does not forget
what the entire people has lost in Elijah, in the
thought of what his master has been to himself.
One such man as Elijah is more than equivalent to
an entire army. Such was Luther for the German
people. Lord, send us one such man in this time
of apostasy and unbelief.) — Starke: If God take*
away faithful teachers out of the world, it ought
justly to touch our hearts and to fill us with pain,
but we ought also to hope that He will not iea.-e
us desolate (John xiv. 18), and to pray diligently •
Lord, send faithful laborers into Thy vineyard.
Vers. 13-25. The three significant Signs which
confirm Elisha as Prophet and Successor of Elijahi
The sign (a) of his path-making, (b) of his preserv-
ing and conserving, and (c) of his avenging work
(see Historical, § 6). — Vers. 13-15. Kriwimacher:
The Bequest, (a) Elisha with Elijah's mantle, (b)
with Elijah's God, (c) with Elijah's spirit, (d, with-
Elijah's office. — Vers. 13-18. Elisha's Return to the
Sons of the Prophets, (a) What he brings with
him (the mantle of Elijah as a precious souvenir
and significant sign — with the sign, however, the-
thing itself. The spirit of Elijah rests upon him,,
and by virtue of this spirit he makes a path for
himself through the stream of the Jordan. How
many a one is in possession of a prophet's mantle,
but lacks the prophetical spirit! He who has not
this spirit is not fit and capable for the prophetical
office ; it is given, however, to him who earnestly
prays for it. Luke xi. 13). (b) The manner in
which they receive him. (They go to meet him
and evince their respect for him, because he had
shown by his first act, which was also the last one
of Elijah, and which they themselves had seen,
that he is appointed by God to be Elijah's suc-
cessor. At the same time, however, they did not
forget their former father and master, and would
not let themselves be dissuaded from seeking for
him. These sons of the prophets are, therefore, a
type of true and noble fidelity, and they teach us
by their deed that to which Hebr. xiii. 7 exhorts
us. — Vers. 16-18. How many, especially young
and inexperienced persons, will not be dissuaded
from their opinions, views, and doubts, and will
not heed the words of their teachers and parents,
who have the best intentions toward them, and far
more experience ; they must become wise by bit-
ter experience, and then hear to their shame: Did
I not say unto you ? — Hall : Nothing makes a
man wise better than to tire himself out in prose-
cuting his own courses and yet to fail of his ob-
ject.— Vers. 13-15. It was not the mantle but the
spirit of Elijah, by virtue of which Elisha divided
the water and went through the Jordan. So also:
now. the coat of Christ does not help us to go
through life unharmed and holy, but only Hie-
spirit, which He has promised to those who be-
lieve on Him from the heart. He who has not the
spirit of Christ is not His (Rom. viii. 9). — Starke-
We may well preserve relics of holy people, but
we must not worship them.
Vers. 19-25. Elisha's Reception at Jericho ana
Bethel. In the former place they come to meet
him with confidence and respect, in the latter with
derision and contempt. Thus he has to experi
ence, at the very commencement of his course as a
prophet, what is the inevitable fate of all true
prophets and servants of God; they are sought
and honored and loved by some, rejected, de-
spised, and hated by others. So it was with the
Lord himself — His whole life long, until His entf
upon the cross (Luke xxiii. 39 sq.)\ so also with
His apostles, as He foretold to them (Luke x. ft-
28
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
12). He who enters upon an ecclesiastical office
may indeed hope for respect and love, but he must
also make up his mind to disrespect and hate. —
Vers. 19-22. Elisha's Assistance at Jericho, (a)
The need, out of which he helps; (b) the man-
ner in which he helps. — Ver. 19. God is wont,
in most cases, to put some internal or exter-
nal need by the side of prosperity and good
fortune, in order that men may bear in mind their
weakness and need of help, and in order that they
may not be too well off upon earth. Where noth-
ing is wanting that the place may be pleasant to
dwell in, there that comes to pass which is writ-
ten, Hos. xiii. 6. In the districts and countries
where there is no want of anything, and noth-
ing to complain of, there is, as a general rule,
the least religious life and the least morality.
— When the men of Jericho perceived that a man
of God, upon whom the spirit of Elijah rested,
was within their walls, they sought him and pre-
sented their concern to him. How many trouble
themselves about everything that takes place
in their city, or about everything which is to
be seen or heard, but not about a faithful servant
of God, who proclaims the way of salvation. —
Starke : It is not enough to have teachers and
preachers ; it is necessary also to make use of their
counsel, at the right time (Acts xvi. 30). — Vers.
20 and 21. Kyburz: Would that all rulers, preach-
ers, and others, to whom souls are entrusted, would
exert themselves to fill up every spring of evil in
the country, or, like Elijah, to heal and improve it
and make it healthful For this, how-
ever, salt is necessary, the salt of heavenjy wis-
dom. This does not come in an old vessel, but is
stored in a new heart. — Krummacher: In a place
where the spiritual fountains are poisoned, and the
people receive to drink, from all the pulpits and
sohool-teachers' desks, not the water which streams
forth unto eternal life, but the death-draught of
that modern babble of deceit and falsehood,
. . . there there is a more deadly curse upon the
laud than that which once lay upon the district of
Jericho May the Lord of Elisha raise
up those who shall carry the healing salt also into
these fountains. — It was not the natural salt which
Elisha cast into the fountain which purified it, but
that of which the salt was a figure and sign, viz. : the
Word of the Lord, by means of which He created
heaven and earth and continually carries and pre-
serves all things (Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9 ; Hebr. i. 3), which
also creates anew the hearts of men, and brings
them out of death unto life, preserves them from
internal decay, and purifies them from all unclean-
ness. Therefore the Lord says : " Have salt in
yourselves " (Mark ix. 50 ; cf. Ps. xix. 8 sq.). —
Ver. 21. I have healed these waters. The Lord
is the right Physician for both Soul and Body (Ex.
xv. 26). (a) He makes healthful those who are
diseased in body and saves them from death ; the
human physician is only an instrument in His
hand, as Elisha was here, for without Him, His
strength, nis blessing, no physician can accom-
plish anything (Sir. xxxviii. 1, 2). Therefore when
thou hast regained thy health, give to Him before
all others the honor, and say: "Praise the Lord,"
&c. (Ps. ciii. 1-5). How many sick persons travel
about to every physician of whose skill they have
heard, without turning, with all their hearts, to Him
who says: "I give health" and "Call upon me,"
Ac. (Ps. L 15). (6) He healeth the broken in heart
and bindeth up their wounds (Ps. cxlvii. 3). Wa
are all sick and in need of the physician who came
into the world to seek and to save that which was
lost. God directs us all to this physician, and He
alone can help us, of whom it is said : " Neither ia
there salvation in any other" (Acts iv. 12). He
gives life and true health, and that man remains
diseased in time and eternity whom He, the Sa-
viour, does not heal and sanctify. Therefore, listen
to His voice when He calls: "Come unto me," &c.
(Matt. xi. 28). — Ver. 22. Faithful and genuine ser-
vants of God, who cast the salt of the divine,
healing, purifying, and sanctifying Word into the
springs of life, are a blessing for every village and
every city, unto children and children's children,
for whom God can never be thanked enough.
Vers. 23-25. Krummacher: The Judgment at
Bethel, (a) The cause of the insult ; (b) the in-
sult itself, (c) the results of the same. — Elisha
on the Road to Bethel, (a) The derision of the
youths. (Bethel had been for many years the seat
and home of apostasy. "The fathers have eaten
sour grapes," &c, Ezek. xviii. 2. As the old ones
sing so the young ones twitter. Brought up with-
out discipline and exhortation to follow the Lord,
having grown up in rudeness, unbelief, and super-
stition, these youths had lost all reverence for
what is holy, so that they not only held the men
of God in light esteem, but even practised their
wit upon them. Are there in our time no longer
such youth?) (b) The curse of the prophet (was
no vulgar, rude cursing from ill-temper and an-
ger, no misuse of the holy name of God, but the
correct use of this name, threatening with divine
punishment those who, in the prophet, treated
with contumely Him who had sent him. The pun-
ishment itself he left to Him who ever judges
rightly, and whom no one may ask : Lord, what
doest thou? As Elisha was not silent, so also now
a faithful servant of the Lord may not keep silent
if young people are brought up badly and god-
lessly ; he ought not to let pass unnoticed their
wickedness and impudence, and their contempt for
that which is holy. It is his duty to warn them
and their parents of the divine punishment. Woe
to the watchmen who are durtfb watch-dogs, who
cannot punish, who are lazy, and who are glad to
lie and sleep!) (c) The avenging judgment of
God. (It is certain, and will not fail to come, for:
"Be not deceived, God is not mocked," &c, Gal.
vi. 7. The judgment at Bethel is recorded as a
warning to us, 1 Cor. x. 11. If God punished the
mocking children so severely, what will He do to
the older mockers, who seduce youth and incite it
to mocking? Though He may send no bears from
the wood, yet He has countless other means in
time and in eternity, whether earlier or later, for
executing his just judgments. Those who mocked
the Lord upon the cross had afterwards to call
"to the mountains: Fall on us; and to the hills,"
&c, Luke xxiii. 30; Rev. vi. 16. Nor will those
be better off who, now-a-days, exercise their wit
upon the story of the cross, however learned and
enlightened, spirituel and witty, they may be.
" Blessed is the man that walketh not in the coun-
sel of the ungodly," Ps. i. 1). [" In vain do wo look
for good from those children whose education we
have neglected; and in vain do we grieve for [hosa
miscarriages which our care might have prevented."
Bp. Hall, quoted in the Comp. Coxni.]— Krumma
cuirr: A man in whom Christ has found a dwell
CHAPTER III. 1-27.
29
mg, cannot go unattacked through Dan or Bethel.
— CalwerBibel: The prophets, even, in their day.
were despised on account of righteousness, and
the name of God. Be not astonished at the con-
temptuous epithets of to-day for pious people. —
Cassel: Young people are always ready to make
wanton sport of any peculiar appearance which
they do not understand. The unripe behavior of
the young generation which is growing up, always
forms a shadowy reflection of the shallow opposi-
tion in moral and religious ideas which exists in
public opinion. The separate bearers and sup-
porters of the truth, which is deep, and hence
misunderstood by the masses, are, ft""" the most
part, objects of blind scorn to wild _ juth. That
which found expression against Elijah has also
fallen upon many in later times. He who, in the
exercise of his calling, goes up to perverted Bethel,
must expect it. [The Residence at Carmel. "He
can never be a profitable seer who is either always
or never alone." Bp. Hall, quoted in the Comp
Comm.]
C. The Reign of Jehoram, and his Expedition against the Moabites.
Chap. in. 1-27.
1 Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in tna
2 eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And
he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord ; but not like his father, and like his
3 mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Never-
theless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Xebat, which made Israel
4 to sin ; he departed not therefrom.1 And Mesh a king of Moab was a sheepmaster,'
and rendered unto the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred
5 thousand rams, with the wool [the wool of a hundred thousand rams].3 But it
came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king
6 of Israel. And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time [at that time],
7 and numbered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the King of Judah,
saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me : wilt thou go with me against
Moab to battle ? And he said, I will go up : I am as thou art, my people as thy
8 people, and my horses as thy horses. And he said, Which way shall we go up?
9 And he answered, The way through the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel
went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom : and they fetched a com-
pass of seven days' journey : and there was no water for the host, and for the
10 cattle that followed them. And the king of Israel said, Alas ! that the Lord
hath called these three kings together, to deliver them into the hands of
11 Moab ! But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord, that we
may inquire of the Lord by him ? And one of the king of Israel's servants
answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on
12 the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him.
So the King of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13 And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee
to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king
of Israel said unto him, Nay : * for the Lord hath called these three kings together,
14 to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts
liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of
Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee.
15 But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played,
16 that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, Thus saith the Lord,
17 Make0 this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see
wind, neither shall ye see rain ; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that
18 ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light
thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand.
19 And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell everv
good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with
i0 stones. And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat-offering was
offered [at the time of oflering sacrifice], that, behold, there came water
30
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
21 by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water. And when
all the MoabiteB [had] heard that the kings were come up to fight against
them, they [had] gathered all that were able to put on armour, and up
22 ward, and stood in the border [had stationed themselves on the boundary]. And
they rose lip early in the morning, and the sun shone [rose] upon the water, and
the Moabites saw the water on the other side [opposite them] as red as blood:
23 And they said, This is blood : the kings are surely slain [have fought, to their
own destruction],6 and they have smitten one another : now therefore, Moab, to
24 the spoil. And when they came to the camp at Israel, the Israelites rose up and
smote the Moabites, so that they tied before them: but they went forward smit-i
25 ing' the Moabites, even in their country. And they beat down the cities, and!
on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they
stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees [until there were
left] 8 only in Kir-haraseth left they [omit left they] the stones thereof; howbeit
26 the slingers went about it, and smote it. And when the king of Moab saw that
the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew
27 swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not.
Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered
him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation
against [in] Israel : and they departed from him [Mesha], and returned lo their
own land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 8. — [^tDD, sing-fem. suff. referring to a plural noun, when separated from it by a considerable interval, as Id
chap x. 26 ; xvii. 22.
a Ver. 4. — Hi?P is well translated by sheep-master. The word was unintelligible to the Sept. who reproduce it in
Greek letters. They add ev rri iTravavTaaeL, " after the insurrection," a detail which does not seem to be well founded.
3 Ver. 4.— p^pV Oy^N. The words are best understood as suggested above. So the Sept. (iri itokwv, either, m
lanam, or in toturwam, Schl.), Thenius, Bunsen, Bahr, and Ewald ( Widder, i. e., Yliesze, Wollc). Keil undecided betweeD
this and " wool of Iambs or rams."
* Ver. 13. — [3 7N. The Sept. and Vulg. take this as a question; so also Ewald. § 824, b: the same as fj.ri on — a ques-
tion implying fear, and expecting an answer confiraiatoi v i>f ihe fear. Keil, Bunsen. Bahr, Thenius, all take it as in the
E. V.
' Ver. 10. — [E\v. § 328, c, takes HC^ as standing for the first person, and compares 1 Kings xxii. 30.
• Ver. 23.— fOirij, they have fought. The hof. inf. abs. ^nn is joined with it in the adverbial usage, to be
destroyed.— W. G. S.]
7 Ver. 24. — The keri ^3*1 is no improvement. We cau read 13*1_, as in 1 Kings xii. 12, where it stands for N13^5
(Bahr). [The Sept. read N13 ^fcO^j " And they went in farther and farther, and smote Moab more and more." Theniui
and Bunsen adopt this, and it makes the best sense. ni3n is the const, used for the abs.— W. G. S.]
> Ver. 25— [TSK'n is infin. as TDE>T1 in 1 Kings xv. 29; cf. also 2 Kings x. 11 and 17. Ew. § 23S, d. (Keil).
Fflrst, in the concordance, takes it as perf. "tj* must then be taken for ™*V!'^ ">• — ^ G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1 . Jehoram the son of Ahab, &c In re-
gard t" tin- chronological statements see notes on
chap. viii. 16. — In ver. 2 the Sept. and Vulg. read
POSB for n3SD . which Thenius wrongly declares
to be better. .According to chap. x. 2G sq., when
:he temple of Baal, which had been built by Ahab
(1 Kings xvi. 32), was destroyed, in the first place
the (wooden) rri3i72 were burned, and then the
('stone or metal I SjQn fQiTD w-as broken in pieces.
It i. clear that tliis last was the principal statue,
and we have to think here of the same or a similar
one whhh stood before the royal palace, and not
in the temple. It is to be noticed that Jehoram
only removed and did not destroy it. It is not en-
tirely certain whether he did it immediately after his
accession, or after the expedition against Moab.
Ver. 4. Mesha king of Moab, &c The fruit-
ful and well-watered land of Moab was espe-
cially fitted for the pasturage of flocks (Viner,
/,'.- W.-B. i. s. 99). The wealth of the king seems,
as he is himself called "jpj [shepherd or sheep-
master], to have consisted in flocks, hence he
paid the tr"- ite in these. Michaelis, Maurer.
and others, refer IDS [wool], at, the end of ver. 4,
... T
to both lambs and rams, so that Mesha would
have had to pay only tbe wool !rom both • iu that
CHAPTER III. 1-27
31
case, however, the rams must certainly have had
a different wool from the sheep, which cannot be
proved. Ewald and Thenius make it only refer
to the B'^'X i mentioned last before it, so that the
sense is, since "13 is used especially for a fatted
lamb, that the lambs were given alive for food, but
that from the rams only the wool or the fleeces
were given up. The tribute was, in any case, a
very considerable one; but this does not justify
the conclusion that it was paid only on every
change of government (Clericus). There is no
doubt that we have to regard it as a regular
annual tribute (cf. Isai. xvi. 1). At the division of
the kingdom, Judah took Edom and Israel Moab.
As early as the time of Ahaziah the Moabites had
declared their independence of Israel (chap. i. 1);
as he, however, soon fell sick, and did not reign
for even two full years, it remained for Jehoram
to try to resubjugate the rebels, and to retain them
in tributary subjection. [In the year 1869 a
basalt column, three feet high by one and a half
feet wide, and one and a half feet thick, was
discovered near Dibon, in Moab, on which was
an inscription running in the name of Mesha
and detailing his acts, especially the conquests
made, and the temples built, by him. It was
broken, through the jealousy and suspicion of
the Arabs, before it could be removed, or a
copy taken of it. Nothing remains but fragments.
There are, therefore, several gaps in the inscrip-
tion as we now possess it. It refers to the op-
pression of Moab by Israel. Omri is the king
mentioned as having afflicted Moab, "because
Chemosh was angry with the king [of Moab]." A
gap destroys the names of kings of Israel wrho
reigned " for forty years." The reference which is
thus lost would be of the highest value for deter-
mining the date of the inscription. It goes on to say
that Chemosh became gracious again in the days
of Mesha, so that the king gained victories over
Israel. Chemosh told him to take Nebo. He took
it, and sacrificed seven thousand of its inhabit-
ants to Ashtor-Chemosh. and took the vessels of
Jehovah and offered them to Chemosh. The last
part of the inscription is so fragmentary as to be
hardly intelligible. As usual in such inscriptions,
only the king's victories, and not his defeats, are
mentioned. Cf Art. " Writing ; " Smith's Did. Bib.,
Am. ed.— W. G. S.]
Yer. 6. And king Jehoram went out of
Samaria the same time, &c. That is, at the time
when he became king, and Mesha refused him the
tribute. — He numbered, or mustered, i. e., he
brought together, a large army, by a levy of men
throughout all Israel who were capable of bearing
arms ; but he addressed himself to Jehoshaphat at
the same time, in order to be so much the more
certain of attaining his object, and the latter then
entered into an alliance with him. Cf. on ver. 7,
the remarks on 1 Kings xxii. 4. The combined
army could advance by the " way " (ver. 8) over
the Jordan, and then along the eastern side of the
Dead Sea, and so fall upon Moab from the north :
or it could march down on this side of the Jordan
and the Dead Sea, as far as the southern extremity
of the latter, and then force its way into Moab
from the south through a portion of the land of
Edom. Jehoshaphat decided in favor of the latter
road, although it was longer and beset with more
difficulties than the other, chiefly, we may well i
believe, because they could thea call the king of
Edom with his army to their assistance, and make
sure that he did not profit by the opportunity and
make war upon them himself. Perhaps they also
thought that Moab could be more easily surprised
from the south. [The fortifications of the Moabites
were on their northern boundary. On the south
they relied upon the natural obstacles to the ad
vance of a hostile army. On the northern route
moreover, the armies of Israel woidd have beer,
exposed to an attack from the Syrians, who were
in a disposition to seize eagerly upon any such
opportunity. — W. G. S.] Edom had at this timo
no king of its own, but a governor appointed by
Jehoshaphat (1 Kings xxii. 48). The seven days'
journey (ver. 9) cannot be understood of the dis-
tance from Jerusalem, which is only about sixty
miles, for the king of Edom had already joined the
two other kings with his army [i. e., it is said
that the three kings wandered seven days' journey,
so that the time must be reckoned after their
junction ; but the king of Edom would not go to
Jerusalem to meet them, and then march back
again. He joined them at the borders of Edom, a
very short distance from the scene of the distress
for want of water. — W. G. S.]. More probably
" they suffered for seven days from want of water
in the desert-region to the south of the Dead Sea "
(Ewald). For a more particular description of this
region, see Ked on the passage. '3 in ver. 10 is
not equivalent to " for ; " but it serves either to
intensify the assertion : "Alas! for Jehovah," &c.
(Keil, De Wette), or its only use is to introduce the
assertion, and it is not to be translated (Luther,
Thenius), as in Isai. xv. 1.
Ver. 11. But Jehoshaphat said, Ac. Cf.
1 Kings xxii. 5-7. As in that case, Jehoshaphat
desires to hear a prophet of Jehovah, i. < ., a true
prophet, not a pretended one, a prophet of Ahab.
That which Jehoram himself did not know was
known by one of his servants, i. e., no doubt one
of his thief officers, who was, perhaps, like Oba
diah (i Kings xviii. 3), secretly a friend of the
prophet. — Which poured water, &c, i. e., who
"was about Elijah daily as his servant, and who
is certainly the most reliable prophet since he is
gone " (Thenius). — It is clear from the definite
declaration of Jehoshaphat (ver. 12), that the repu-
tation of Elisha had extended already to Judah.
It is very significant that the three kings did not
summon him to them, but themselves went down
to him. Probably " the tents of the kings were
set upon an eminence so as to overlook the en-
campment " (Thenius). The inference which
Josephus affirms, that the prophet had his tent
outside the encampment, and at some distance
from it, is not justified by the words.
Ver. 13. And Elisha said unto the king ol
Israel, &c. The prophet addresses himself to
Jehoram because he is the principal persou here,
through whom the others have been brought into
these straits. The question : What have I to dc
with thee ? means : Why dost thou desire to come
tome, the prophet of the God whom thou hast aban-
doned ? The prophets of his father were, no doubt,
those court-prophets, at whose head Zedekiab
once stood (1 Kings xxii. 6, 11); the prophets of
his mother Jezebel can have been only Baal-Dro-
phets 1 1 Kings xviii. 19). We see from this that
Jehoram, although he had removed the statue of
32
THE SECOXD BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Baal, still allowed the priests of Baal to perform
their functions, as they had done before, without
molestation. This is also clear from 2 Kings x. 19.
Jehoram does not mean by the curt expression'
pt< : it cannot help me to go to the prophets of
Baal (Rabbis), but (cf. Ruth i. 13): Do not repel
me, I am not alone at stake; shall three kings
with their armies perish 1 — On the words : Before
■whom I stand, see notes on 1 Kings xvii. 1 ;
xviii. lo. — Elisha demands (ver. 15) a ''minstrel"
or harp-player, certainly not " that he might chant
'.he reply of God to the accompaniment of the
harp " ( J. D. Miehaelis), nor " in order to pro-
nounce his directions with a sufficiently solemn
tone " (Knobel). Bleek observes : " The recita-
tions of the prophets were, in early times, very
lively, in a lyrical form of composition, and, as is
generally the case with respect to the recitation
of lyrical poetry, accompanied by music ;" the
accompaniment in this case, then, was most pro-
bably " the mode of prophetic recitation, which
was not unusual at the time." But there is no
mention in any other place of any such method,
and it is impossible to appeal to 1 Sam. x. 5, ac-
cording to which an entire band of the prophets
;ame out with drum and flute and harp. That
only proves that music was practised in the
•prophet-communities. It is also certain that
Ebsha's master, Elijah, did not cause his recita-
tions or speeches to be accompanied by music.
The extraordinary means, which does not occur
again in the story of Elisha, presupposes an extra-
ordinary occasion therefor. In ancient times
harp-music was often employed as a means of
withdrawing the soul from the outer world, and of
collecting, quieting, and elevating it. Among the
numerous places which Bochart (Hk-roz. i. 2. 44)
collected upon this point, it may suffice to quote
here only one. Cicero (Tusc. iv.) says that the
Pythagoreans were accustomed mentes sua-s a co-
gitationum intentions cantu fidibusque ad tranquiUi-
tatem traducere. Cf. also 1 Sam. xvi. 16. and
Clericus' remarks on the place. Elisha's dissatis-
faction, which he expresses in vers. 13 and 14,
although it was natural and just, was, neverthe-
less, not the disposition of soul which is demanded
if one is to hear the voice of God within. The situa-
tion, the encampment, and the entire surround-
ings were unadapted for composure and elevation
of soul, for we find that the prophets usually
received their revelations in retirement and quiet,
not in the noise and bustle of the world. In order
that he may be brought into the right disposi-
tion, may direct his inner self entirely towards
the Lord, and may be able to surrender himself
to the higher influence, Elisha makes use of the
usual means, probably the one which was regularly
employed for this purpose in the schools of the
prophets, and indeed not without success, for dur-
ing the playing upon the harp, "the hand of the
Lord came upon him." Cf. notes on 1 Kings xviii.
46 (Jer. 1. 9).
Ver. 17. For thus saith the Lord, Ac. Accord-
ing to Thenius we must identify the -alley where
they were to dig ditches in order to collect the water,
which otherwise would have run quickly away,
with what is to-day called Wady el Ahsy, which is
the natural boundary of Moab on the south (Isai.
xv. 7 1, and from which several ravines run up into
the mountain region of Moab [Robinson ii. 112,
157]. The prophecy itself, vers. 17-19, contains
a climax in its two members : The Lord will not
only save you out of the present need, but he will
also grant you glorious victory over Moab. The
words in the 19th verse are not a command, as ver.
16 is: they only declare what will occur. For
this reason, in the first place, it is impossible ta
charge the prophet with commanding what Deut. n
19 sq. forbids ; but, besides that, the place in Deut
refers to the conquest of Canaan, during which
no fruit-tree was to be used for palisades or forti-
fications in sieges. To mar every good piece of
land with stones, means to throw so many stones
upon it that it would no longer be available foi
cultivation (Sept.: axpetuaErc). — iirOD (ver. 20)
has the same meaning as in 1 Kings xviii. 29. 36.
The interpretation which Von Gerlach and Keil
give to this statement, that on account of the
morning sacrifice offered in the temple at Jerusa-
lem, according to the Law, God turned His favor
once nice upon the people, goes too far. The
statement can scarcely be more than a mere
designation of time, i. e., as it became light.
Before the exile time was not defined by hours.
Nevertheless, a reference may lie in it to the fact
that help came just at the moment of time sacred
to Jehovah. The express mention that there
came water by way of Edom, makes the suppo-
sition inadmissible that, in digging the ditches (ver.
16), "the ties'! springs bubbled up under the feet
of the laborers " (Krummacher). or that we must
think of " subterranean cisterns " (Richter). A
much more probable explanation is that " a great
shower fell at some distance from the Israelitish
encampment " (Josephus even asserts : three days'
journey from it), " or a kind of a cloud-burst (water-
spout) took place, by which the wady was filled
all at once, although the Israelites did not notice
the wind, which always arises before a rain-storm,
in the Orient, nor see the rain itself" (Keil).
Ver. 21. And when all the Moabites heard,
&c. In order to await the attack on their own
mountains — that is, in an excellent position — the
Moabites had stationed themselves, with all their
military force, on the frontier. The morning eun
arising with a red light, caused the water to ap-
pear red, besides which the water itself was
reddened by the red earth of Edom (Ewald).
That they took it for blood was not, as the older
interpreters supposed, a mistake which was brought
about by God in a miraculous manner, but a per-
fectly natural error, into which they would fall all
the more readily as they knew very well that there
was no water in that desert. The supposition
also, which they express in the 23d verse, is not by
any means far-fetched, since similar events often
occurred (2 Chron. xx. 23; Judges vii. 22); and
they well knew what jealousy existed between
Israid and Judah, and the inclination of Edom to
throw off the yoke of the latter I Gerlach). This
supposition rose to a certainty in their eagerness
for liooty. The sentence in ver. 25 from -|J) to
)T"in is "to be joined with the commencement of
the verse : ' and they beat down the cities.' (What
comes between describes the devastation of tht
land, which also had an influence on the cities )
Accordingly !T32X can only be understood in its
real sense of actual wall-stones, and not of cliffs
or rock, and the suffix on this word re fers to -i* j
CHAPTER III. 1-27.
33
nbnn and not to Moab " (Thenius). The city Kir
Hareseth is the same which is called Kir Moab,
3X1D Tp (Isai. xv. 1), and Kir Heres, {jnn Tp
(Isai. xvi. 1 ; cf. Jer. xlviii. 31, 36). It was the
capital city, " the most important, perhaps the
only fortification in the country, built upon a high,
steep, chalk-cliff" (Keil), now called Kerak, and
provided with a fort [see Robinson, ii. G6], (Winer,
R.-W.-B., i. s. 658 sq.). The D^p are not those
who applied siege-engines (Grotius: tor inentarii),
but slingers, in the common meaning of the word,
funditores, who shot at the garrison upon the walls.
— Unto the king of Edom, i. e., toward the side
where the king was with his subjects, either be-
cause this seemed to be the weakest part of the be-
sieging force (Thenius), or because they hoped that
they could most easily draw away the Edomite
contingent from the allied army (Ewald).
Ver. 27. Then he took his eldest son, ftc.
Many take these words with the Rabbis, thus :
During the sortie against the king of Edom,
Mesha captured his son and offered him as a
sacrifice. This occasioned such bitterness among
the Edomites that they refused to continue the
fight, and thereby compelled Israel to give up the
war altogether and withdraw. This interpreta-
tion is decidedly false. The passage, Amos ii. 1,
to which reference is made to support it, refers to
an entirely different event, which is not known to
us more particularly. Amos, who lived, moreover,
one hundred years later, there announces to the
Moabites the avenging judgment of God, because
they had " burned the bones of the king of Edom
into lime." In this case, however, the question is
in regard to a son of the king, who was offered as
a living sacrifice. The bones of the dead were
never burned as a sacrifice, and captive kings or
their sons, although they were sometimes executed
out of revenge, were never sacrificed to the gods.
Even in the darkest heathenism, sacrifice was
always an offering of that which was nearest and
dearest, and it was considered efficient only in so
far as it was such. This is the case especially in re-
spect to tlie child-offerings of western Asia. It
was a custom among the ancients, says Philo, in
the Phoenician History (Euseb. Prep. Evang. iv. 1G)
kv rate fieydTuLcc avji(popuic rijv ntvdbvuv civrl rf/c
iravnjv tpdopac to yyairnuivov t€>v TeKVwv role
KpaTobvrac r/ Trd/leuc i) kdvovc etc otpayjjv eirtfii66vai
Xvrpov role rtfiupolg daifioGi. So also, in this case,
Mesha sacrificed, in order to avert the threatening
destruction, his first-born son. who should have suc-
ceeded him upon the throne ; i. e., the dearest and
most precious thing which he had, not to the God of
Israel (Josephus and Grotius), but to the Moabitish
War-god, Chemosh (cf. on 1 Kings xi. 7). (Cf. on
human sacrifices, Symbol, des Hos. Cultus, ii. s. 241 ;
Movers, Die Relig. der Phceniz. s. 299, sq.) That
the son also, " for his part, willingly yielded him-
self to death for his fatherland " (Ewald), is not in
the text, and is in itself very improbable. The
sacrifice was offered upon the wall, in order that
the besiegers might see it, and fear the divinity,
who might now be supposed to be appeased.
Ver. 27. And there was great indignation in
Israel, .fee. This sentence, on account of its curt-
ness and brevity, is quite obscure and difficult.
Its meaning has been taken in different ways.
Most of th9 expositors, citing the same phrase,
3
Numb. i. 53; xviii. 5 (comp. with Levit. xvii. 11);
Josh. ix. 20; xxii. 20; 2 Chuon. xix. 10; xxiv. 18,
think of divine wrath or a divine judgment, ami
give as the meaning : As a result of this abomi-
nable action, which is so strictly forbidden in the
Law (Levit. xviii. 21; xx. 3), and to which the
allied army had compelled the king of Moab, there
came a divine judgment upon Israel, so that they
withdrew without subjugating Moab (Keil). There
is no objection to this in the usage of the language ;
but the context is decidedly opposed to it. The
divine f|Vp [wrath] is, in all the places mentioned
above, the result of a definite guilt on the part of
Israel ; in this case, however, there is not a word to
the effect that Israel had incurred guilt. That which
had been brought about by the allied army, had
taken place as the prophet had foretold (ver. 18 sq.),
and he had represented it as an especially great
assistance of God. When, then, the king of Moab
did something of his own accord which the Law
strenuously forbade, that was his guilt and not
Israel's. On the hypothesis proposed, the with-
drawal of the army, which was a piece of good
fortune for him, would have been even a reward
for his abominable crime, instead of being the
punishment which he deserved, whereas the
punishment would have fallen upon guiltless
Israel. Moreover, in what did the heavy judgment
of God against Israel consist? The text contains
not a syllable in regard to any plague or calamity.
These expositors are therefore compelled to take
C|Vp as meaning human anger (dissatisfaction, re-
sentment, bitterness), in which sense it occurs,
Eccles. v. 17 [Hbr. text, 16]; Esther i. 18. and as
S]Vp is so often found (Gen. xL 2 ; xli. 10 ; Ex. xvi.
20 ; Levit. x. 16 ; Numb. xxxi. 14). Many exposi-
tors, then, give to the words this sense, that on
account of this shocking crime, there sprang up,
in the kings of Judah and Edom, a great wrath or
resentment against Israel and its king, as original
cause of the war, and therefore of the crime, so
that they would not fight any longer with and for
Israel, but withdrew, and so compelled Israel to
to do the same (Dereser). It is not right, how-
ever, to fill out the text in this manner ; and
nothing justifies us in understanding under ^NX'*
here, simply the army of Jehoram. We therefore
follow the old translations, according to which
^Nt"" ~?y is not, as it is generally understood, a
designation of the object, but of the subject of the
anger. The Sept. have : nai eryevero fitrapeTioc
uiyac M 'lapaifk ; the Vulgata has : et facta est
indignaUo magna in Israel; so also the Syr. and
Arab., and Luther in like manner : " da ward
Israel sehr zornig" (Grotius, Clericus, Thenius).
Sy stands in a similar use ver. 15 ; Jerem. viii. 18;
Jon. ii. 7 [Hbr. text, 8], and often. According
to Ps. cvi. 37-39, by the sacrifice of sons and
daughters the whole land was covered with blood-
guilt, and was rendered impure and accursed. In
the present instance this took place by the sacri-
fice of the first-born son of the king, which the
ruler of the land himself offered. They did not
wish to remain any longer in such a country, on
account of their horror at this deed ; they pre-
ferred to renounce further possession of it. The
words : They departed from him and returned
u
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
to their own land, certainly do not mean to say :
" The end of the expedition was attained, and the
land was forced back under the sceptre of the
king of Israel again " (Krummacher) ; on the con-
trary, they gave up the attempt to subjugate Moab
by force.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The brief and general description of the reign
of Jehoram brings out into prominence, as charac-
teristic of it, two points. In the first place, that
this king removed the statue of Baal, which had
been erected by his father Ahab, then, however,
that he clung all the more decidedly to the Calf-
worship of Jeroboam. From the first statement it
does not by any means follow, as has often been
assumed, that he " abolished the Baal-worship "
altogether (Winer, R- W.-B. i. s. 599), for, accord-
ng to chap x., this worship endured yet throughout
his entire reign, and Jehu was the first who put
an end to it. It appears, therefore, that he only
broke with the worship of Baal for himself, asking,
and meant to declare publicly, by the removal of
the statue, that the worship of Baal was not the
prevailing state-religion. This was, at all events,
a step towards improvement, yet without especial
value ; for, if the fear uf the living God of Israel,
and the conviction of the absolute repulsiveness
of idol-worship had led him to this course, then he
could not possibly have allowed idolatry to con-
tinue in its complete development. That he per-
severed so firmly in maintaining the institutions
of Jeroboam, was brought about by the same cause
as in the case of all his predecessors : the exist-
ence of the kingdom, separate from Judah, was con-
ditioned upon these institutions (see 1 Kings xii.
Hist. § 1). It is therefore very probable that they
were rather political motives and considerations
than anything else which prompted him to the re-
moval of the statue. By means of Elijah and the
schools of the prophets, a large portion, and that,
too, the best portion, of the people had already
been won over to a disposition hostile to the wor-
ship of Baal, so that from that side danger might
arise for the house of Ahab, which had introduced
this worship of idols, as, in fact, at a later time,
this danger became a reality through Jehu
(chap. ix.). Jehoram, therefore, for his own part,
renounced the worship of Baal, and desisted from
all persecutions of the opponents of the same; but
he still tolerated it for the sake of his mother, the
fanatically idolatrous Jezebel, if for no other
reason. His policy of government was therefore
a half-way one, and for that reason an ineffective
one. Indecision, want of firmness, and a disposi-
tion to do everything only half-way, are the
characteristics which present themselves pro-
minently, in many ways, throughout his entire
behavior, as will be shown still further, below.
2. Kin*/ Jehvshiiphat appears here just as in
1 Kings xxii. He yielded to the request of Jeho-
•am, in spite of the unsuccessful results of his
undertakings with Ahab and Ahaziah. and in
spite of the warning of the prophet Jehu not to
help the apostates (2 Chron. xix. 2), probably in-
fluenced by the conviction that the war against
rebellious Moab was a necessary and just one. and
was also in the interest of Judah. The restless
M< ubites had always had a disposition hostile to
»11 the people of Israel (Deut. xxi'i. 4-6). They
had already once entered into an alliai.ce witi
the Ammonites against Jehoshaphat (2 Chron
xx.), and were, therefore, dangerous neighbors foi
Judah : to permit them to become independent
would have been only to make this danger gi eater.
It was in the highest degree important for both
kingdoms, on general principles, to hold the differ-
ent kings who had been tributary since David'i
time in subjection, since every defection or re-
bellion which succeeded would only have en-
couraged and stimulated to another. The restora-
tion of the ancient greatness and glory of the
united kingdom, which Jehoshaphat was striving
for (see above on 1 Kings xxii. 41 so.), would
have become more and more improbable. His
behavior during the expedition stands in strong
contrast with that of Jehoram. The latter does
not know what to do in the time of need ; he
mourns and complains despairingly, while Jehosh-
aphat, the god-fearing, does not lose dignity and
composure ; ne desires that the Lord should be in-
quired of, and he relies upon His help and counsel
The old expositors thought that he ought to have
inquired of the Lord before the expedition, and
that it was because he did not do this that he too
came into so great distress. But Elisha is so far
from giving utterance to any blame against him
that he declares, on the other hand, that it is only
on his account that he is willing to, and will, answer
and give counsel. The tendency of' the whole
story is to show how Jehovah, for the sake of the
one king who is faithful to Him, saves the two
others, in order that both they and the entire army
may see that this God alone is mighty, and that
victory comes from Him (Ps. lxii. 11 [Hbr. 12];
Prov. xxi. 31).
3. We see Elisha here, for the first time, step
out face to face with kings, and interfere in the
fortunes of the entire nation. Here too he maintains
himself as one on whom Elijah's spirit rests (chap,
ii. 15), and not alone as the one who had poured
water on his hands. Without the orders or the
knowledge of the king, he joins the toilsome ex-
pedition, and shares all the dangers of the army,
by no means from soldier-like passion for war, or
from compulsion, but from prophetical zeal, in
order that he may bear witness, by word and
deed, to the God of Israel, His power and faith-
fulness, wherever and however circumstances
might demand Now, when need and distress
occur, and the three kings and their train, Jehoram
at the head, come to him, he knows nothing of
fear, he neither allows himself to be overawed or
terrified, nor does he feel himself honored and
flattered ; but he steps forth to meet the wavering
king firmly and independently, as Elijah had once
gone to meet Ahab (1 Kings xviii. 18), and re
bukes his sins, so that the king stands before him,
as it were, with fettered hands, feels himself
smitten, and begs that the prophet will not repel
him, at least for the sake of the two other kings.
Kbster (Die Propkelen des Alt. Test. s. 86) asserts
that " the prophet appears here, under the control
of uuspiritual pride and anger, to profit by the
distress of the king, in order to hurt his feelings
deeply," and that his conduct " cannot be entirely
justified ;" hut he mistakes entirely the nature and
position of the prophetical calling in Israel, in re-
gard to which that holds true, which was said
to Jerem. (i. 9 sq.) : "Behold, I have put my
words in thy mouth. See I havo this day set
CHAPTER IU. 1-27.
35
thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to root out and to pull down, and to destroy
and to throw down, to build and to plant,"
and to Ezekiel (chap. iii. 17): "Son of man, I have
made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
therefore hear the warning from my mouth and
give them warning from me." It is just on ac-
count of this directly divine calling that the proph-
ecy of the Israelites stands as unparalleled in the
world as the chosen people itself. Not of their
jwn will or power did the holy men speak, but
moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter i. 21). In the
case of Elisha it would have been impossible ever
to say that the spirit of his master Elijah rested
upon him, if he had fulfilled the desire of that
king who clung firmly to the calf-worship, and at
the same time tolerated idolatry, without sayiug to
him a single word of rebuke. The reproof of Eli-
sha deserves besides to be considered in another
aspect. Ewald (Geschichte des V. Isr. iii. s. 487, 3d
ed. s. 525) asserts: "There is not a single sign
from which it appears that Elijah and his school
made war upon this image-worship (i. e., that intro-
duced by Jeroboam) in any such powerful manner
as Hosea did at a later time. On the contrary, the
opposite of this appears true, in the case where
this school reacliPS its final aim, namely, at the re-
establishment of the constitution of the kingdom
by Jehu " (2 Kings x. 31). He also goes ou to say
that, even if Elijah himself was not favorable to
the image-worship, yet in his time there was no
controversy about it in the kingdom of the ten
tribes, but that it was allowed to endure among
the people. Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthimv, i. 5.
404) goes still further. He perceives in the wor-
ship of Jeroboam's calf-image "a national reaction
against the foreign worships which Solomon had
introduced," nay, even " the establishment of the
Jehovah-worship," and then says: "That those
images did not shock the feelings of the people at
that time, and did not give offence to the then
existing measure of religious culture, is proved
by the circumstance that such honored prophets
as Elijah and Elisha had no objection to make to
them." These assertions find their direct contra-
diction in this reproof of Elisha to Jehoram. Je-
horam was uo idolater, he had even removed the
statue of Baal which his father had set up. All
the more firmly, however, did he cling to the cul-
tus which had been introduced by Jeroboam (vers.
2, 3). In like manner the prophets of Ahab, whom
Elisha here definitely distinguishes from the proph-
ets of Jezebel, were uo idol-worshippers, as 1
Kings xxii. shows, but they were false prophets of
Jehovah (belonging to Jeroboam's cultus). When
now Elisha, nevertheless, assails the king so se-
verely, when he then declares solemnly, in answer
to the prayer of the kiug, that he will not repulse
him, that lie will respond to this prayer, not for
the king of Israel's sake, but for the sake of Je-
hoshaphat, who was not addicted to the image-
worship, then nothing is clearer than that he
" made war mightily " not only upon the Baal-wor-
ship, but also upon the worship of the calf-image.
Hjw could Elijah, the re-establisher of the organic
law of Israel, the second Afoses, and his successor
Elisha, have been so zealous against the transgres-
sion of one Mosaic commandment: "Thou shalt
have no other gods before me," and then, on the
other hand, have overlooked and allowed to pass
7/ithout rebuke that other commandment which
stands beside it and is most closely connected with
it: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image" (see 1 Kings xii. Hist. § 1)? [It is a very
remarkable fact that Elijah and Elisha say nothing
about the Jehovah-calf-worship. The nation may
have been so devoted to Baal-worship at this time
that the calf-worship did not deserve attention.
If there is any reference to that worship in this
rebuke of Jehoram, which is very doubtful indeed,
then, to say the least, it is a very indirect and in-
different reference, not by any means in the style
of Elijah or Elisha. When they had anything to
condemn we find that they did it without circum-
locution or innuendo. Even if we recognised in
this rebuke a reference to the calf-worship, the
difficulty would scarcely be lessened : Why did he
not explicitly condemn this worship ? Why do we
find no direct reference to it in his recorded words?
— W. G. S.]
4. The prophecy of Elisha forms the central
point of the whole story; by the fulfilment of :t
he is confirmed, before the three kings of the en-
tire army, as man of God and prophet. Although
the fulfilment of this prophecy did not induce Je-
horam to desist from his course (ver. 3), yet it
seems to have accomplished this much in his case,
that he abstained from all persecution of the
prophet— did not dare to behave towards h:m a.!
Ahab had done towards Elijah, but took up a
friendly disposition towards him (c/. chap. iv. 13),
and from that time on allowed him to reside at Sa-
maria in peace (chap. v. 24). To reduce this proph-
ecy to a more foreboding or presentiment, would
be to make of the prophet a dreamer and a hero of
mere thoughtless daring, and to cut out the nerve
of the entire narrative, which even Thenius reck-
ons among the purely historical portions of these
books; for it is evidently incorporated in the his-
torical record before us, for the sake of this proph-
ecy. Elisha needed for a mere supposition or
presentiment no harp-player, who should raise him
into a higher state of mind, and yet no one can
call this feature of the story legendary or unhis-
torical; it is described rather as "in the highest
degree characteristic of the more ancient Israel-
ite prophecy" (Eisenlohr). He intended, then, to
prophesy and to have his promises regarded, not
as his own opinion but as divine revelation. This
circumstance by itself contradicts the rationalistio
explanation, which is again repeated by Knobel
{Der Prophet, der Hebrd. ii. s. 95): " Elisha was a
distinguished master in the knowledge of nature,
for the times in which he lived. In this character
he appears when he commands the soldiers, who
are suffering for want of water, to dig ditches upon
ditches, and thus procures them a rich supply.
He seems to have recognised in the district the
signs that it contained water, while these signs
escaped the notice of those who were less in-
structed." In order to perceive that the locality
contained water, or, in general, in order to make
use of his remarkable knowledge of nature, he
did not need harp-music; he could do all that
without music. If he, however, demanded music
when he really relied upon his knowledge of na-
ture, he sinks to the level of a mere wizard. t
has been inferred, not without justice, from this
passage in connection with 1 Sam. x. 5, that, as
was remarked abovo, music was practised in the
schools of the prophets. It must, therefore, have
heen regarded as an esse"' "- ""ans for withdraw-
36
THE SECOND BOOK OF TH3 KINGS
ing the soul fiom the external world, and for dis-
posing it to divine things, so that they ascribed to
it, as a gift of God, great value. This reminds us
involuntarily of Luther's declaration (Luth. Werke,
von Wdlch, xxii. s. 2062, 2248 si;.): "One of the
fiuest and noblest gifts of God is music. This is
very hostile to Satan, and with it we may drive
off many temptations and evil thoughts.
. After theology, I give the next place and high-
est honor to music It has often
aroused and moved me, so that I have won a de-
sire to preach I have always loved
music. He who is master of this art is always
well disposed and ready for anything which may
arise. Music must necessarily be retained in the
schools (N. B. in the higher, so-called Latin schools,
exist). A schoolmaster must be able to sing, or
not in the common schools, which did not then
else I do not esteem him. We ought not to ordain
young men to the office of preacher if they have
not trained themselves and practised [singing] in
the schools."
5. The salvation of the Israelitish army from
the destruction which threatened it " did not con-
sist in a miracle which overruled the laws of
nature, but only in this, that God caused the
powers of nature, which He had prepared, to
work in the manner which He had foreordained.
As the abundance of water which suddenly pre-
sented itself was brought about in a natural way
by a sudden Hood of rain at a distance, so the illu-
sion also, which was so ruinous to the Moabites,
is to be explained in the natural manner which is
stated in the text " (Keil). [The inference would
be more just to say that, as the Moabites' mistake
is explained in a natural way in the text, so we
are justified in adopting a natural explanation of
the supply of water. — W. G. S.] Nevertheless this
salvation of the army belongs to that series of ex-
traordinary events which have their foundation in
the selection of the Israelites to be the chosen
people, and which bear witness to their especial,
divine direction and guidance. The Old Testament
knows nothing whatever of the difference between
•lusolute and relative, or direct and indirect mira-
cles. Every act of God in which there is revealed
an especial, divine guidance and providence, espe-
cially a helping and saving might and grace of
God, is called a miracle (Ps. ix. 1 [Hbr. 2] ; lxxi.
17; lxxii. 18; lxxvii. 11 [Hbr. 12]; cxxxvi. 4).
In this sense the action before us is also a miracle,
which had for its object not only to confirm Elisha
as prophet, but also to serve the end that all Is-
rael, and especially its king, who was tolerating
idolatry, should perceive that Jehovah alone is
God, and should confess, with the psalmist : " Thou
art the God that doest wonders; thou hast de-
clared thy strength among the people " (Ps. lxxvii.
14). This act of God is great enough in itself,
and does not need to be made greater, as it is by
Krummacher: "Without delay they follow the
counsel of the prophet and dig out the trenches.
Hardly, however, is the sand penetrated when, oh !
marvel to relate I the fresh springs of water bub-
ble forth beneath the feet of the laborers," or as it
was by the old expositors, who assumed that God
had miraculously influenced the eyes and imagina-
tions of the Moabites (Menochius, Tostatus, and
others ).
6. The departure of the Israelitish army in conse-
quence of the human sacrifice of tlic king of Moah,
whether we understand by >)Vp, ver 27, human oj
divine anger and dissatisfaction, is a very remark
able sign of the difference between the fundamen
tal opinions of the Israelites and of the heathen.
Whereas, among almost all heathen peoples, sac
ritice culminates in human sacrifice, and this is
considered the most holy and most effective, ir. the
Mosaic system, on the other hand, it is regarded
as the greatest and most detestable abomination
in the sight of God. It is forbidden, not merely
from considerations of humanity, but also because,
as the Law declares with especial emphasis, the
sanctuary of the Lord is thereby defiled, and His
holy name (see notes on 1 Kings vi.) is profaned
(Levit. xx. 1-5; xviii. 21). Human sacrifice stands
iu the most glaring contradiction to the revelation
of God as the Holy One, in which character he was
known in Israel alone; hence it was to be pun-
ished, without respite, by death (cf. Symh. d. Mos.
Kult. ii. s. 333). From the preceding narrative we
see how deep roots the detestation of human sac-
rifice had struck in the conscience of the peoplo
Neither the cultus founded by Jeroboam, nor that
of Baal, which Ahab had imported, with all its
barbarism, had been able even to weaken this de-
testation. It was still so strong that a victorious
armj- allowed itself to be led thereby to withdraw
again from a land it had already subdued. Von
Gerlach remarks, with justice : " This occurrence
serves at the same time as a strong proof that
Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter (Judges xi.)
cannot be understood literally." On the contrary,
Kwald infers (Gesch. iii. p. 518, 3d ed. 558) from
this very narrative that "Israel at that time yet,
for a great part, in its views of the subject of sac-
rifice, did not reach above or beyond the heathen
conceptions," for the ancient Canaanitic sacrifice
still had the intended effect upon the people, " as
if Jehovah himself were angry with the Israelites
for having forced the king to this bold and horri-
ble deed." so that " the arm}', impelled by dumb
horror, abandoned the fortress and commenced a
retreat." But, apart from the fact that the text
does not in the least force us to take 5|Xp of the
wrath of God, this acceptation is opposed to the
promise of the prophet, vers. 18 and 19. For,
according to that, it was Jehovah himself who
helped Israel to take possession of the whole
country, and to pursue the king to his capital.
How then could they come to the opinion that the
same Jehovah was now full of hard bitterness
against Israel, which, after all, had only done
what He himself had caused His prophet tc
promise them as His own act? It was not the
supposed exasperation of Jehovah at the great
victonr of Israel which incited the army to re-
turn, but the conviction that the conquest and
possession of the city over which so heavy blood-
guilt and, at the same time, so severe a curse, wan
hanging, could not be either good-fortune or bless
ing for Israel. As for the act of Mesha itself, it
does not indeed belong to the " most memorable
signs of what a king can dare for his people, which
has only just won its freedom " (Ewald, /. c); it is
rather a sign of a barbarism which violated all
feeling of humanity, which was more than brutaL
and in the highest degree detestable, on the par*
of a king who is so cowardly that, instead of
ti'_'litiiiLr to the last as a brave soldier, and risking
his own life for the sake of his first-born son, the
CHAPTER III. 1-27.
37
future leader of his people, lie puts him to death,
rather than continue to pay as a tribute sheep and
wool of rams (ver. 4) from his great wealth of
nocks. In his case, the thiug at stake was not so
much the " freedom " of his people as his own free
dom from a yearly tax, payable in kind. [See note
under Humiltt. and Pract. on vers.
kind. [E
. 21-25.]
H'.MILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-3. Berleb. Bib.: He did that which
was evil in [he eyes of the Lord, and many thou-
sands do that with him, who nevertheless sing:
"God has pleasure in us. If we do not remain in
the footsteps of our fathers and ancestors, yet we
do not, at bust, go far trom ..hem. 'f we perceive
that a reformation or an jr.o-.'ven.e.it is necessary,
then we are glad to iet :' esr at the first stage.
We satisfy ourselves so easilj. if we are only like
father or mother or a wicKed elder brother, and do
not disregard all scrup.es quite so much as others.
Whether God is satisfied with that, however, or not.
and whether He gives us the testimony of a good
conscience in regard to it, about that we do not
trouble ourselves. ... If we do in truth tear
down a statue of Baal or two, and adhere neverthe-
less to the sins of Jeroboam and to his calf-images,
[i. e.] to those ordinances which, for political
reasons, have been introduced and established in
the Church, contrary to the will of the Lord, what
will it help us? — J. Lanse: Those are also to be
accounted godless rulers, who do indeed ordaiu
something good here and there, or abolish some-
thing bad, and perceive still more which their duty
would require them to remove, but cannot bring
themselves to do it, from motives of policy which
are not pure, or pleasing to God. He who, for
himself, abstains from that which is opposed to
God's word and commandment, but continues to
tolerate it in those who are connected with him, or
subject to him, shows thereby that he is not in
earnest in his own obedience to God, and that his
principles are deduced only from external consid-
erations and relations.
Vers. 4-27. The War of Israel with the Moab-
ites. (a) The cause of it, and the preparation for
it; (6) the danger of perishing; (c) the result. —
Ver. 4. Cramer: When kings and lords fall away
from God, then their subjects must fall away from
them ; and when the fathers are disobedient to God,
the children and servants must also be disobedient
to them, for their punishment, for with the froward.
God siiows himself froward [perverse]. (Ps. xviii.
26 [Hbr. 27]). — Ver. 5. It was not on account
of poverty and need and oppressive subjection that
Mesha threw off his obligations (he was very rich)
and rebelled, but from avarice and arrogance.
Those are still the ordinary motives to insurrection
and rebellion in individual instances, or among en-
tire nations. The very ones who have much are often
most inclined to divest themselves of their obliga-
tions.— Vers. 6-8, cf. above, under Bom. and Pract.
on 1 Kings xxii. 4. Osiander: When the unbe-
lieving and wicked need the help of the pious, they
tempt them with friendly words : secretly, however,
ihey behave in a hostile manner towards them. —
Cramer : Covenants between believers and unbe-
lievers are dangerous. — Ver. 8. " A man's heart de-
viseth his way ; but the Lord directeth his steps "
(Prov. xvi 9). Therefore, "Trust in the Lord with
all thire heart; and lean not imto thine own un-
derstanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths " (Prov. iii. 5 and 6;
cf. James iv. 13-15). — By which way shall we go
up ? Ouly the narrow way leads upward, only upon
this is the Lord with us (Matt. vii. 13, 14).
Vers. 9-12. Krcmmacher: The Expedition
against Moab. (a) The distress of the kings;
(6) they seek refuge with the prophet. — Ver. 9.
Cramer: If God did not let us sometimes fall into
necessity and want, we should not often think of
His word and His servants (Ps. lxvii. 2 and 3 [Hbr.
'■'• and 4]). — Vers. 10 and II. In need and distress
the state of a man's heart is brought to light. Je-
horam falls iuto despair, he does not know what
couusel to take, nor how to help himself; instead
of seeking the Lord and calling to Him tor help, lie
accuses Ilim. and casts the reproach upon Him
that He means to destroy three kings at once. In
prosperity and iu days of good fortune, resisting,
and building upon human wisdom and power: in-
time of need, forthwith despairing and helpless —
that is the disposition of the heart of the natural
man who does not know the living God. or, at least,
knows Him only by name. Jehoshaphat, who had
always bent his heart to seek God (2 Chron. xix.
3), -lie- not wring his hands iu despair, but is quiet
and composed. He thinks within himself: The
Lord has neither now, nor ever, withdrawn him-
self from His people. Therefore he trusts, and
asks: Is there no prophet of the Lord here? " He
that dwelleth in the secret place." &c. (Ps. xci. 1
and 2). — Krimmacher: Jehoshaphat falls into the
same calamity with Jehoram. He who goes hand
in hand with the godless, and makes common cause
witli them, must be contented if he is cast to the
earth at the same time with them, when the light-
ning strikes their house.— -Servants often know
more and better where and with whom God's
wurd, consolation, and counsel are to be found than
their masters, who, however, ought to inquire into
this before all others. — Ver. 12. "The word of the
Lord is with him." It is the right testimony and
the best one, when it can be said of a servant of
God : He does uot preach himself, his own, or other
men's wisdom ; his words are not sounding brass
nor tinkling cymbal, but a hammer which breaks
rocks in pieces, and an ointment which heals
wounds. — Wirt. Summ. : So long as men are free
from distress and danger, they ask nothing about
the poor ministers of the Gospel, they take no no-
tice of them, they wish to have nothing to do with
them, they throw their faithful warning to the
winds; but when an accident or a death ocenrs,
then they are glad to see the despised preacher,
and they desire to make use of his services and of
his prayers. — Three kings descend from their ele-
vation and come humbly and with petitions to the
man who once was a servant of Elijah, and poured
water over his hands, of whom they had not even
known so much as that he had joined the expedi-
tion. Him who is proud He can humble (Dan. iv.
34). He raiseth up the lowly from the dust, that
He may seat him by the side of princes (1 Sam. ii.
4, 7). So now emperors and kings bow the knee
before Him, who came to His own and His own
received Him not, who did not have a place to lay
His head, who was so despised that people cov-
ered their faces before Him, and they confess, tc
the glory of God, that He 's the Lord.
Vers. 13-19. Krumma.her: The Miraculous
Assistance. (a) Elisha's address to the lhr€«
38
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS
Kings; (i) the minstrel; (c) the prophet's coun-
sel.— Elisha before the three Kings as the one who
stands in the Presence of the Lord, (a) His zeal
for the Lord; (b) his independence and fearless-
ness; (c) his prophecy. (See Historical, § 3.) —
Yer. 13. Starke: Upright servants of God have
an unterrified independence, and speak the truth
distinctly to the face of the great as well as of the
humble (1 Kings xviii. 18). — Elisha stood before
the Lord, the living God ; Jehoram before the calf-
god. That was not only a difference in religious
views and opinions, but also an entirely different
stand-point in life. Where there is a life in God,
there there can be no fellowship with those who
have denied and abandoned the living God; the
two ways diverge directly and decidedly (2 Cor.
vi. 15). The relation in which a man stands to
God is decisive for his relation to other men ; it
divides him from some by a separation which is
just as wide as the communion into which it brings
him with others is close. — The children of this
world have their prophets, whom they gladly hear
because they speak just what the ears of their
hearers are itching to hear. These prophets are
to be found not only in the priestly class, but
also among civilians, among poets, and learned
men, in professorial chairs, and on the lectur-
er's platform. It is true of them to-day: "Thy
friends have set thee on and have prevailed against
thee : thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are
turned away back " (Jerem. xxxviii. 22; Isai. iii.
12). When thy conscience awakes and thy sin
torments thee, go to them and ask them, they have
no consolation but that of the high-priest, Matt,
xxvii. 4. When thy soul is saddened, even unto
death, go and ask them ; that which belongs to thy
peace in time and in eternity they cannot give thee,
for they themselves have not peace. — Yer. 14. He
who has renounced God and His word can make
no claim to esteem, even though he be a king;
fidelity to God and holding fast to His word are
what make a man truly estimable, even though lie
were the poorest and lowliest. — God does not let
the righteous perish with the unrighteous and god-
less (Gen. xviii. 25); it rather comes to pass that,
for the sake of a single righteous man, many god-
less persons are saved and preserved (Gen. xxxix.
5), in order that they may give up their habits and
may turn to that God who is rich in compassion
and grace, and who wishes, by kindness, to lead
sinners to repentance. — Ver. 15. Since a prophet
like Elisha called for harp-music, and was thereby
brought into a state of mind which was fitted to
receive divine revelations, therefore we may and
ought to regard music as a gift of God, which is
given to us that we may thereby elevate our hearts
and bring them into a holy disposition. It is lack
of understanding and lack of gratitude to exclude
it from the Church. The Scriptures say: "Praise
the Lord with harp," &c. (Ps. xxxiii. 2 and 3).
Whoever sings and makes melody unto the Lord
in his heart will do it also with his mouth and with
his hands. — Like every other gift of God which is
given ua for our salvation and blessing, music also
can be abused : " It is a dangerous art, this mover
of soids, when it is employed in the service of the
world, of vanity, and of sin " (Krummacher). — The
world also often exclaims: "Bring me a minstrel I''
not, however, in order to lift up the heart (sursum
carda) and to soothe the soul, but rather to fan the
fire of the smouldering passions into a flame, and
to awaken the fleshly lusts that war against the
soul. — Vers. 16-19. The great Promise of Elisha
(a) Its contents; (b) its aim and object. — The
Lord gives beyond what we pray for, beyond what
we understand ; He not only saves from need and
danger, but He also gives the victory besides, out
of pure, undeserved grace. That is the fundamen-
tal feature of all divine promises. The Lord not
only does not deal with us according to our sins,
but He gives us, besides that, the victory, through
Him in whom all promises are yea I and amen I (2
Cor. i. 20).— Vers. 21-25. The Fall of Moab a di-
vine Vengeance upon fleshly Secureness and Pride,
upon Avarice and Covetousness. This is written
for the warning of individuals as well as of peo-
ples. [This interpretation of the rebellion of Moab,
as the result of avarice, or perhaps, more strictly
speaking, of niggardliness, is not justified by the
text, and could not fairly be presented in a homi-
letical treatment of the passage. We have not far
to search for the cause of revolt. A nation which
is tributary to another may well have other and
nobler reasons for rebellion than to save the amount
of the tribute. We have no reason for imputing
any baser motives to the Moabites. They may
have been influenced by baser ones, but, so long as
that is not even hinted at in the text, it is not a
legitimate subject for homiletical treatment. The
inscription referred to in the Extg. notes on ver. i
is very valuable as giving a glimpse of the rela-
tions between Moab and Israel at this time "from
the other side." — W. G. S.] — Cramer: When God
is about to punish any one He first causes him to
become secure, proud, bold, and arrogant, then He
takes away from him cunning, sense, and under-
standing, and strikes him with blindness. — Vers.
26 and 27. The disgraceful act of the king of Moab
shows how low man can sink and fall when he
does not know the living God. By the most abomi-
nable crime he thinks that he will do God a service
and save himself (Rom. i. 28). Even yet human
sacrifices occur among the heathen ; how much we
have to thank the Lord that He has saved us from
the power of darkness, and has caused His holy
word to enlighten us. Where this light shines,
there the night of superstition flees, with all its
abominations. — Men often offer the hardest out-
ward sacrifice more willingly than they do the in-
ner sacrifice, which alone God demands, and winch
pleases him (Ps. li. 17). — Ver. 27. Wurt. Summ. :
When we see an abominable crime going on, or hear
of it, we ought not to laugh at it, or to feel a pleasure
in it, but we ought to loathe it, and turn away from
it, that we may not be involved in the punishment,
which will certainly come. — We must renounce an
object or a possession which is stained by blood-
guilt and curses, although ever so great temporal
advantage may be connected with it. We musl
renounce it for the sake of God and conscience.
CHAPTER IV. 1-44. 39
FOURTH SECTION.
elisha's prophetical acts.
2 Kings IV.-Vin. 15.
k. — Elisha with the widow who was hurdened with debt, with the Shunammite, and with tht
pupils of the prophets during the famine.
Chap. IV. 1-14.
1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the
prophets [prophet-disciples] unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant ray husband is
dead ; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord : and the creditor is
2 come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her,
What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house ? And she said,
Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of [omit a pot of] oil
3 [for anointing].' Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neigh-
4 bors, even empty vessels ; borrow not a i'ev>\ And when thou art come in, thou
shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those
5 vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and
shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she
6 poured out.2 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said
unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel
1 more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And
he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou3 and thy children of
the rest.
8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great
woman ; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that, as oft as he
9 passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband,
Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us
10 continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us
set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick; and it
11 shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a
12 day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. And
he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her,
13 she stood before him [Gehazi]. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold,
thou hast been careful for us with all this care ; what is to be done for thee ?
wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host ? And
14 she answered, I dwell among mine own people. And he said, What then is to
be done for her ? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child [son], and her
15 husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her she stood
,16 in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life [of
the next year], thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man
\1 of God, do not lie unto [deceive] thine handmaid. And the woman conceived,
and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the
time of life [in the following year].
18 And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father
19 to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head ! And he said
20 to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him
21 to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up,
and laid him on the bed of the man of God. and shut the door upon him, and went
40 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
22 out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of th«
young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come
23 again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new
24 moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass
and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward ; slack not thy riding for me,
25 except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount
Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar oft' [comma:],
26 that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shlmammite : Run
now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee ? is it well
with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
27 And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet:
but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her
alone ; for her soul is vexed within her : and the Lord hath hid it from me, and
2S hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord ? did I not say,
29 Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my
staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man salute him not; and
if any salute thee, answer him not again : and lay my staff upon the face of the
30 child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul
31 liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. And Gehazi
passed on before them, and laid the staft" upon the face of the child ; but there
teas neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told
32 him, saying, The child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the
33 house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in there-
34 fore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he
went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his
eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands : and he stretched himself
35 upon the child ; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and
walked in the house to and fro ; and went up, and stretched himself upon him ;
36 and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called
Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was
37 come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his
feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son and went out.
38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal : and there was a dearth in the land ; and
the sons of the prophets icere sitting before him: and he said unto his servant,
39 Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one
went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered
thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage ;
40 for they* knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came
to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou
41 man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But
he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot ; and he said, Pour out
for the people, that they may eat, And there was no harm in the pot.
42 And there came a man from Baal-shalislia, and brought the man of God
bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk
thereof [garden-corn in a sack].6 And he said, Give unto the people, that they
43 may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before a hundred men ?
Ke said again, Give the people, that they may eat : for thus saith the Lord,
44 They shall eat, and shall leave thereof," So he set it before them, and they did
eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 2. — /. «., only 6o much as suffices for an anointing. — Bahr. [The chetib *^7 is a late Aramaic form for in*
keri *V, Ew. $ 247, e. The same is true of the other fern, forms, ending in * in this chapter, all of which the kdri
eoanges.— W. G. 8.]
• Ver. 6.— The keri Hpi'lD cannot be preferred to the chetib npS'Q (piel).— Bahr.
1 Ver. 7. — All the versions agree with the keri "pj^ ; if we deBired to retain the chetib, It would be necessary br
CHAPTER IT. 1-44.
41
•hange PIN1 into nXl : u ADd live with tny sons on the remainder," in which case, however, the contrast, which ii
oipressed in ON , would be lost.— Bahr. ["TO? is sing, to agree with the principal subject. " If the text is here correct,
it shows that even the 1 may be omitted in such cases." Ew. $ 889, c— W. G. S.]
* Ver. 89.— Neither he nor the other sons of the prophets.— Bahr.
I yer 42.— [?D"13 i " Corn got from good, garden-like plantations, which is better than field-grain, and which is eithel
eaten roasted, or pounded to groats " (Furst). |1?pV occurs only this once. The authorities agree that it means a "bag."
e Ver 43 —["1711111 ^IDS , Ew. $ 328, a. The infln. as the simplest, most direct, and most comprehensive form.—
W. G. S.1
EXKGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Yer. 1. A certain woman of the, &c. It is
clear from the passage, vers. 1-1, that the sons of
the prophets were not exclusively young men, but
were also often fathers of families, and so did not
lead a cloister life. Perhaps there was an arrange-
ment for a temporary life in common, or a person
might join himself more or less closely to one of
the principal communities of the prophets. Accord-
ing to Josephus and the rabbis, the woman was the
widow of Obadiah (1 Kings xviii. 3 sq.), who, they
think, had exhausted his fortune in the provision
for persecuted prophets, and so had fallen into debt.
This singular legend rests upon no foundation
other than the fact that the woman says that her
husband " feared the Lord," which is also stated in
respect to Obadiah. By these words she does not
mean to say that the fear of the Lord had in any
way been the cause of his falling into poverty, bvit
that he had not contracted debts through folly.
What the creditor demanded in this case, he was
justified in demanding according to the Law, cf.
Levit. xxv. 39 ; Matt, xviii. 26 (Michaelis, Mos.
Becht, iii. 148). From the forms of the suffix
*2 , '3' vers. 2, 3, 7, and the form TIN for nX vers.
16 and 23, which have been designated as
Syriacisms, we cannot infer that a later author
here interpolated a fragment of his own composi-
tion, as was shown by Keil in his edition of 1845.
The ordinary translation of |IDE' 7|1DN by "pot of
oil " is not established by the necessary proofs ;
711DN means unctio, not ointment-jar (Gesenius), so
that the phrase means, word for word, " oil for
anointing;" Butteher: quantum ad unctionem sufficit.
Anointing with oil is an essential part of bathing
among Orientals, 2 Sam. xii. 20 (if. Winer,
R.- W.-B., ii. s. 357 sq.). She was entirely destitute
of the oil which was essential for the preparation
of food — she had only oil for anointing. Yulg.
nisi parum olei quo ungar. The locking of the door
had no other object than to keep aloof every inter-
ruption from without. The action in question was
not an ordinary, simply external, operation, but au
act which was to be performed by the command of
the Man of God, and wiih the heart directed to-
wards God, that is, in faith, so that it was to be
completed, not in the noise and distraction of
every-day life, but in quietness and solitude.
Yer. 6. And the oil stayed, i. e., it did not
lease to flow until all the vessels which were on
hand were full.
Yer. 7. Of the rest. Josephus : Trcpiacortpov in
•ijc Tifiijc roil i'Xaiov. The woman would not make
nee of that which had come into her hands by the
interference of the prophet, without asking direc-
tions from him. She does not regard it as her own
nnconditioned possession, but she leaves it to the
prophet to decide in regard to the use to be made
of it. He directs her, before all else, to discharge
her debt, and then to make use of whatever may
remain for their sustenance ; he desires no pay or
reward for himself.
Yer. 8. And it fell on a day, &c. The woro
Oi>n causes the presumption that the narrative in
its first division (vers. 8-17), follows the preced-
ing chronologically, and it is not placed after it
simply because it treats of a rich woman, in con-
trast with a poor one. From the 23d ver. com-
pared with the 9th, we see that Elisha often be-
took himself from Samaria (ii. 25), to Carmel. As
Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho, where the schools of
the prophets were (chap, ii.), were south of Samaria,
we may suppose that Carmel, which lay in the
middle of the northern part of the kingdom, was
the place where the faithful worshippers of
Jehovah, and the attached followers of Elijah and
Elisha, who lived in the north, came together from
time to time, and were strengthened in their faith,
and instructed by the prophet, as is presupposed
in ver. 23. The city of Shunem [see Robinson, ii.
325] was situated in the tribe of Issachar, on the
slope of the so-called Little Hermon, so that it was
not much farther from Samaria than Carmel, not,
however, upon the road from Gilgal thitherward
("Winer), for Shunem lay to the northeast of
Samaria, and Gilgal to the southwest. Elisha had
to go across the plain of Jezreel in order to come to
Shunem, and then go on from there to Carmel.
Yer. 9. And she said unto her husband, Ac.
Many a one may have been called or called him-
self " Man of God," and " Prophet," at that time,
who was not such in reality By the epithet
" holy," the woman designates Elisha as a real and
not a merely so-called Man of God. We have to
understand by "Vp'lT^V "a chamber built upon
the flat roof of the house, with walls which would
be a protection against every attack of the weather
— not a lean-to or addition on the side of the house "
(Thenius). In such a room Elisha would be pro-
tected from every interruption, such as it was
hardly possible to avoid entirely in the house, and
there he might pass his time in quietness (cf.
1 Kings xvii. 19).
Yer. 12. He said to Gehazi, &c. With regard
to the origin and native place of Gehazi, who
is here mentioned for the first time, we have no
information whatever, neither do we know whet
or why Elisha chose him for his servant. — She
stood before him, i. e., before Gehazi, not before
Elisna, as Thenius, among others, thinks, and he
then assumes that, although she stood before him,
Elisha spoke the words, ver. 13, to her through
Gehazi, because he "would not communicate
directly with her, lest he should compromise hif-
dignity " However, he does tins immediately after
42
THE SECONI BOOK OF THE KINGS.
wards (ver. 16). Moreover, there is no instance
it all of a prophet speaking to a person who stood
before him through a third person. Ver. 13 is to
be taken as a kind of parenthesis, in which the
omission of that which Elisha said to Gehazi, when
he told him to call the Shunammite, is filled up:
"UDN'l at the beginning of the verse is pluperfect.
Elisha wished to make some return to his hostess,
who had received him with Gehazi and entertained
him so often, but he did not know what would be
acceptable to her, a wealthy woman. In order to
learn this, he does not address himself directly to
her, but directs his servant to ask the necessary
questions, that she may express herself with less
embarrassment and less reserve. The question :
Wouldst thou be spoken for to the king or to
the captain of the host? presupposes that Elisha
at that time stood in favor and respect at court,
yet we cannot conclude from this with certainty
that by " king " in this place is meant Jehu, whom
Elisha caused to be anointed (Ewald). The com-
mander of the army is named in connection with the
king as the most powerful and most influential man,
and not " because he might make demands in the
way of oppressive requisitions " (Thenius). In the
answer of the woman, the words : Among mine
own people, are put first for the sake of the con-
trast : At the court, among the high and great of
ihe land, I have nothing to ask for or to desire.
In : I dwell, there lies, at the same time, a notion
of a sure, undisturbed and contented life (1 Kings
iv. 25; Ps. xv. 1; lxi. 4 [Hbr. 5]; Prov. ii. 21).
Perhaps she wished to show, at the same time,
that she had not entertained the prophet for the
sake of the return, but for his own sake, and for
the sake of God. When now Gehazi communi-
cates this answer to his master, the latter feels all
the more bound to do something for her, and he
says to Gehazi (ver. 14) : Hast thou then not ob-
served in the interview, what other thing would be
welcome to her ? Dost thou not thyself know of
anything ? Gehazi answers : I could indeed con-
jecture something which would be her soul's de-
sire, but neither we nor any other mortals could
do that for her: She hath no child [son]. To be
barren was regarded as a disgrace (1 Sam. i 11 ;
Luke i. 25). Elisha now 6ummons her to himself
(ver. 15) ; she comes, but does not go into the
room. Out of modesty and respect she only goes
to the door. To the announcement of the prophet
(ver. 16), which reminds one of Gen. xviii. 10, 14,
the woman replies, surprised and humble, with
the words : Do not lie unto [deceive] thine
handmaid! i. e., do not excite deceitful and vain
hopes in me. [If it were not for the " Call her " in
the 15th verse, one would think of the course of
the details somewhat thus : She is called — Elisha
gives to Gehazi the directions in ver. 13, which
he carries out in an interview with her, upon which
she replies, ver. 13 at the end. While she is
standing by, perhaps before the door, the confer-
ence in ver. 14 takes place, when the prophet ad-
dresses her himself. The second direction to
summon her, however, breaks up the consistency
of this theory. The reason suggested above by
Bahr, why Elisha commissions Gehazi to speak to
iiur, is a good one ; and the hypothesis which is
Bimplest and most satisfactory is to suppose that
r.e earned out this commission, and that he re-
ceived the reply at the end of ver. 13. This ho
reports to Elisha, and they hold the conference is
ver. 14. The only reason Elisha has for com-
municating with her through Gehazi is now re-
moved, and he summons her to himself and ad-
dresses her directly. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 18. And when the child was grown,
ic. The illness of which the boy complained, ver.
19, was probably a sun-stroke, which befell him
as he was in the open field, at the hottest sea-
son of the year, among the reapers (cf. Judith
viii. 2, 3 ; Ps. exxi. 6). The mother carried the
body into the upper chamber and shut the door
upon it, hardly with the sole object that " nothing
should happen to the corpse in the meantime "
(Thenius), for she might have provided against
that in other ways ; on the contrarj , she meant to
keep the death of the child secre; for a while.
For this reason she did not make it known to her
husband or to Gehazi (vers. 23 and 26). Evidently
she had the secret hope that the man of God, who
had promised her a son in the name of Jehovah,
and had not deceived her, could help her to re-
cover him. In that she carries the child to the
prophet's chamber and lays him upon his bed she
already entrusts him in some degree to him. wi -m
she prepares to bring to the spot without delaj
This last she would not have done, however, if she
had been given over to " the belief, which was so
widespread in ancient times, that articles which
had been touched or used by thaumaturgi, pos-
sessed miraculous efficacy in themselves " (Wi-
ner). She will not undertake the journey with-
out the knowledge of her husband; the cause ot
it, however, she does not state to him, but answers
to his questions only : Dl^K*. She also limits her
reply to Gehazi to the same short word (ver. 26), al-
though in that case it is commonly interpreted some •
what differently. In the 23d verse it is said to mean :
pax tibi esto, i. e , vale I or, do not be alarmed I or, let
me have my will I In ver. 26, on the contrary, it is
declared to be a simple affirmative reply to the
question: Tes, it is well! It is impossible, how-
ever, that the same word, in the mouth of the
same person, in two instances which follow each
other directly, should have two different significa-
tions, and, what is more, it would contain an un-
truth in ver. 26, if it were thus understood. Clericus
remarks correctly that it stands like the Latin rectet
(cf. the German : gut /) when one does not wish to
give a definite reply to a question, and yet wishes
to pacify the inquirer (Keil). It follows from the
remark "of the man in ver. 23, that religious as
semblies were held on the new moons and sab-
baths, although the Law only speaks of a sacrifice
on those days (Numb, xxviii. 9 and 11), and that,
for want of legal priests and levites, they collected
around men of God, i. e., prophets, to hear the
divine word.
Ver. 25. So she went and came unto, Ac. On
133D see chap. ii. 7, 15. Elisha showed, by send-
ing his servant to meet her and to salute her, how
highly he esteemed this woman. To the saluta-
tion of Gehazi she returns only the short, indefi-
nite answer: "Well! in order not to be detained
by further explanations " (Keil). She hastens to
the prophet himself, and when she comes near
to him, overcome by the grief which she had re-
pressed until then, she clasps his feet, certainly
not in silence, or without speaking a woi d, but beg
CHAPTER IV. 1-44.
ging for Li? assistance. In her conduct in clasping
hi9 feet, Gfhazi sees, not so much something an-
noying to his master (Koster), as rather an oftence
against his dignity (John iv. 27); he, therefore,
seeks to prevent it, but Elisha rebukes him. The
words, ver. 27 : Let her alone, for . . . hath
not told me, do not mean, " We must first hear
what she has to lament over " (Koster) ; they rather
presuppose that she had declared the cause of her
grief and of her prayer for help when she first em-
braced his feet. The words : The Lord hath hid it
from me, contain the explanation and excuse for
his not having come to Shunem to prevent the death
of the child. [It is a better explanation, that the
mother, in excess of grief, says nothing at first,
and that Elisha commands Gehazi to allow her to
collect herself and tell the trouble, which he as
yet is ignorant of. The idea that the prophet
ordinarily would know of an impending calamity
and hasten to prevent it, is objectionable on many
accounts. We must rather compare places like
2 Sam. vii. 3 sq., which show the fallibility of the
prophetic knowledge and judgment. See notes on
ver. 29. — W. G. S.] The stricken mother then re-
peats to the prophet his own promise (ver. 1G),
meaning to say thereby, at the same time: I did
not complain of my childlessness and did not de-
mand a son ; now, however, I am more unhappy
than before, for it is better never to have a child
than to have one and lose it.
Ver. 29. Then he said to Gehazi, &c. The
grief and the lamentation of the woman moved the
compassionate heart of the prophet so much, that
he desired to bring her relief as soon as possible.
He therefore commanded his servant to make him-
self ready for a journey (Luke xii. 35; Acts xii.
8; Jerem. i. 17), and said: Take my staff in thine
hand, and go thy way : and lay my staff upon
the face of the child. The staff of the prophet is
not, of course, his travelling staff, but, like the
staff (sceptre) of a king, the badge of the prophet-
ical gift which he had received from God, /. e., of
might and strength. Moses, the prototype of all
prophets, was instituted into his office as leader of
the people of Jehovah with these words : " And
thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith
thou shalt do signs " (Ex. iv. 17). Moses himself
therefore calls it : " The rod of God in mine hand "
(Ex. xvii. 5, 9), or : " The rod from before the
Lord " (Sum. xx. 8, 9), cf. notes on chap. ii. 8.
Elisha, in that he gives his prophet's staff into the
hand of Gehazi, commissions him to execute a pro-
phetical act in his stead ; by means of the divine
power, of which the staff was the symbol, he is to
awaken the child out of the death-sleep. He is to
lay it upon the face of the child, because death
had fallen \ipon him through the head (ver. 19),
and because life shows itself first of all in the face.
The question why Elisha gave such a commission
to his servant at all, is answered by the interven-
ing clause in ver. 29 : If thou meet any man
salute him not, &c. These words are often under-
stood to mean that Gehazi is to guard himself from
all distraction, fix his thoughts only upon God and
the commission which had been entrusted to him
and sink his soul in prayer. This sense, however,
c innot by any means be established ; and why
siould the prophet, if he wished to say this, not
have expressed it distinctly, and not in a round-
about way? To refrain from saluting is by no
means the same thing as to lose one's aelf in
prayer. It is well known that salutations are fat
more ceremonious in the Orient than with us, and
that, e. g., inferiors always remain standing until
persons of higher rank pass by (cf. Luke x. 4, am1
Lightfoot on the passage; Winer, R.-W.-R, i
s. 501), whereby delay was often occasioned.
Elisha commands his servant, in the first place, ta
start without delay, and then not to tarry at all by
the way. This command to hasten can scarcely
have had any other ground than that he hoped, in
spite of the declaration of the woman, that life had
not yet entirely left the child, and that utter de-
cease might yet be prevented by swift interference.
Because he did not believe that he himself with the
Shuuammite could accomplish the whole journey
(six hours) so quickly as appeared necessary,
he despatched his servant, or at least sent
him on before, and gave him his prophet's staff,
not in the belief that the staff, as such, had any
magical miraculous power, but on the assumption
that, in such an urgent case, he might commit the
prophetical gift, of which the staff was the insigne
and symbol, to his servant, and so make him his
representative. In this, however, he was mistaken,
however good his intention was. Peter Martyr
remarks: Videtur Elisceus non recte fecisse, qui
faeuUatem edendi miracula alteri delegare voluit, quod
ipsi uon est datum. A similar case, where a pro-
phet falls into error, is found 2 Sam. vii. 3 sq. The
importunity of the woman, that Elisha himself
should come (ver. 30), proceeded from the convic-
tion that the boy was already completely dead, and
that now not Gehazi, but only the prophet himself,
who had promised her the son, could help. To
this deep confidence he responds. Every other ac-
ceptation of the passage is entangled in great diffi-
culties. Almost all the expositors proceed from
the assumption that Elisha knew very well that
Gehazi could not accomplish any miracle, although
he had his staff in his hand. They state variously
the reason why lie, nevertheless, gave him this
commission. According to Koster, Elisha wished
to show himself as the only miracle-worker, and
magnify his own importance. According to Keil,
he did it in order "to show to the Shuuammite and
her connections, and to Gehazi himself, that the
power to perform miracles did not appertain, in
any magical way, to himself or to his staff, but
rather that miracles, as works of divine omnipo-
tence, could only be executed by faith and prayer."
According to Krummacher, Elisha acted thus in " a
pedagogical intention," in order to prepare shame
and confusiou for the " vain and pert youth," who
would gladly have thrown about himself " the
grandeur and glory of his master." In every one
of these interpretations, however, the prophet ap-
pears in a very ambiguous light, for he would
have given, according to any one of them, a formal
commission, in regard to which he knew before-
hand that it could not be executed. The sending
of Gehazi, and the entrusting to him of the pro-
phet's staff, took place, in that case, only for ap-
pearances ; nay, he would have deceived not only
his servant, but also the mother who was so bur-
dened by sorrow, and who already felt herself de-
ceived (ver. 28) ; and this time he would have done
it knowingly and intentionally, an hypothesis which
is not consistent, under any circumstances, with a
sincere and ingenuous character, and especiallv is
unworthy of a " holy Man of God " (ver. 9). Such
a deception would be the less to be foi given, be
(4
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
cause the command of the greatest possible
haste is added. In fact, this last command
is nu consistent with any one of the proposed
interpretations; it would be, at the very least,
utterly superfluous and objectless. As for Keil's
view in particular, we cannot see why the pro-
phet should have intended to give a general in-
struction in regard to the performance of miracles,
just on this special occasion, where haste was of
such great importance.
Ter. 31. And Gehazi passed on before them,
Ac. In order to explain why Gehazi could not
awake the boy, the rabbis assert that he was dis-
obedient to the command not to salute any one by
the way, but to make all the haste possible. This
is contradicted decidedly by the fact that, before
Elisha arrived with the mother of the boy at Shunem,
Gehazi had already discharged his commission, al-
though in vain, and was on the way back again when
he met the prophet. He must, therefore, have made
great haste. Theodoret supposes another reason,
viz., that Elisha knew that Gehazi was pt/.o-i/ioc;
Kal aei'dfiofnc, so that he would boast of his com-
mission to those whom he met by the way : 17 <5e
Ktvodnlia Tip ■davuarovfiyiav nu/.vei. This accepta-
tion has been the general one. Krummacher stated
it in the strongest terms. He knows exactly how
Gehazi conducted himself in his vanity : " What a
ceremonious mien the silly youth puts on, with
what pompous gravity he strides into the house of
death," &c. Others think that he could not ac-
complish the work because the mother of the child
had not given him her confidence (Seb. Smith), or
because the faith which is necessary to such a
work was wanting in him (Grotius). All these at-
tempts, however, which find the cause of Gehazi's
want of success in any blamable conduct of his,
are contradicted by the utter silence of the text.
Even though Gehazi, at a later time, showed him-
self fond of money (chap. v. 20 «}.), yet it does not
follow that he was fond of honor. In the other
case he was severely punished ; here, however,
where the life of an only son is at stake, the grave
transgression which is attributed to him is not re-
buked witli a single word of reproof or warning,
wherefore we must conclude that he did not de-
serve any correction, but had executed everything
which was entrusted to him, as the text distinctly
narrates. That he was not able, in spite of this.
to awake the boy, was not his fault, inasmuch as
Elisha. although lie had given him, it is true, the
external symbol of his prophetical might and power
(tha rm, spirit of Jehovah), yet had not consid-
ered that this might and power was a special
gift of God, which he might not freely delegate
according to his own will — which he therefore
could not communicate or transfer to his servant
without further consideration. Starke justly re-
marks that Elisha "gave this command (ver. 29)
from some overhaste, without having a divino in-
centive to it."
Ver. 32. And when Elisha was come into
the house, &c The want of success of Gehazi's
commission spurred on the prophet all the more to
do what he could in order to i store the boy to life.
In tli" mats he proceeds, as his father and master
Slijah had ones done (see I Kinys xvii., Exeg. on
ver. 2n >q. and Hist. § fi). He calls upon Je-
hovah and Btretches himself upon the body of
the boy. Tlus latter gesture is described more in
detail here (ver. 34) than in the other passage: CO
the contrary, the words of the prayer are gives
there, which are wanting here. Whereas Elijah
there stretched himself three times upon the boy
(ver. 21), Elisha does so only twice, but walks up
and down in the house in the meantime. The con-
clusion has often been drawn, as it has been last of
all by Keil, that the difference in the events con-
sisted in this, that in the case of Elijah, the child,
at his prayer, " straightway " came to life again,
while in the case of Elisha, on the other hand, " the
resuscitation took place by degrees," from which
we may perceive " that Elisha did not pqssess a
double measure of the spirit of Elijah." This
notion does not, however, seem to us to be com-
pletely justified by the text. Why should Elisha,
upon whom the spirit of Elijah rested (chap ii. 15),
and of whom more miracles are narrated to ..s than
of Elijah, have been able to perform only gradually
and by stages what Elijah accomplished at once ?
That Elisha, after the first attempt at resuscita-
tion, walked up and down in the house (ver. 35), did
not take place certainly, quia Ula corporis incuba-
Hone nimium laboravit (Peter Martyr), or: ut air*,
bulando excitaret majorem calorem, quern puei o com~
municaret (Cornel, a Lapide, Seb. Smith); it was
probably an involuntary result of the great emo-
tion with which he looked and waited for the ful-
filment of his prayer. After he had stretched him-
self once more, with prayer, upon the child, the
latter gave signs, by repeated sneezing, of a re-
stored respiration, and then opened his eyes.
" Headache was the beginniug of his illness, and
this is wont to be relieved by sneezing, as Pliny
writes (Hist. Nat. xxviii. 6), Sternutamenta capitis
gravedinem emendanl " (Dereser).
Ver. 38. And Elisha came again to Gilgal,
Ac. Not directly after the act at Shuuem, but once,
at some other time. The two following narratives
are not chronologically connected with the preced-
ing.— In regard to GUgal, see notes on chap. ii. —
V2tb D'SL'" does not mean they lived before him
(Luther, Vulgata), but they sat before him, as pupils
before a teacher (cf. the passage from the Talmud in
Schottgen on Acts xxii. 3). Similarly chap. vi. 1.
We have not, therefore, to understand a residence
together under Elisha's superintendence, but a
coming together and sitting down before him, in
order to hear his word (cf. Ezek. viii. 1 ; xiv. 1 ;
xxxiii. 31 ; Zach. iii. 8). — n~lN i ver. 39, has the gene-
ral signification which the Chaldee gives : pjplT
i. e., green herbs, which may be cooked and eaten ;
what we call " greens." The particular kind
which the seeker found follows with the expression
me |23 , according to the Vulgata, quasi vitis syU
vestris, wild vines like grape-vines, not wild grape
vines. The nib' nypS are wild cucumbers or
gourds (cucuineres agrestes, or, asinini), also called
bursting-cucumbers. They have the form of an
egg, and a bitter taste. When they are ripe they
burst in pieces if pressed on the stem, whence
their name (yp2 fidit, rvpit). When eaten they
cause colic and violent purging. The young man
took these wild gourds foi ordinary unes, which
were very much prized as food (Num. xi. 5)
The Sept and Vulg. translate by colocynth. K < • i -
also prefers this, because this fruit does not birrs!
CHAPTER IV. 1-44.
it
when touched, and so could be easily carried home
iu the garment and cut up ; but the root Jjpa is too
distinctly in favor of the bursting-gourd, which did
not burst in this instance simply because the speci-
mens collected were not entirely ripe (<•/. Winer,
Ii.- W.-B., i. s. 447 sq.). However, the cucumis
colocynthi L., or the poisonous colocynth, also has
a remarkably bitter taste — a vine which creeps
apon the earth, and has light green leaves (cf. I. c,
s. 427).
Ver. 40. There is death in the pot, i. e.. there
is something in the pot which causes death. As
well on account of the bitter taste (the Persians
call wild gourds the gall of the earth) as on account
of the effect, which followed swiftly upon the eat-
ing, they considered the food poisonous and fatal.
Bitterness and death were cognate ideas among
the Hebrews (Eccl. vii. 26; Sirach xli. 1). In ver.
41 the } before inp is not superfluous, but is in the
use which denotes the connection of thought
(Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 348, a). The meal which
Klisha cast into the "pot, has just the same signifi-
cance as the salt which he threw into the un-
healthy fountain at Jericho (chap. ii. 20). " The
meal, as the natural and healthy means of nourish-
ment, was the symbol of which he made use in
order to give to the sons of the prophets the as-
surance that the injurious property had been taken
from the food by him " (Keil, 1845).
42. And there came a man from Baal-
shalisha, i. e.. some place in the district of Shalisha
{1 Sam. ix. 4), no doubt the same one which
Jerome and Eusebius call Beth-shalisha, fifteen
miles north of Diospolis (Lydda), quite near to
Gilgal (chap. ii. 1), where we have to think of the
prophet as being at this time. According to the
Law, all first-fruits of grain were to be offered to
Jehovah, who relinquished them to his servants,
priests and levites (Num. xviii. 13 ; Dent, xviii. 4).
Since now there were no more legitimate priests
and levites in the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings xii.
31), this man, who was a faithful worshipper of
Jehovah, brought his first-fruits to the " Man of
God." the head of the prophets. ?0"12 (Levit. xxiii.
14), or, in the fuller form, ta~l3 EhS (Levit ii. 14),
is spica recens tenera. quae tosta super ignem a
solent (Munster), fresh wheat or barley grits (Keil).
According to Hess, a hundred sons of the prophets
visited Elisha in a company, and he had nothing
more to set before them than what the man had
brought him from Shalisha; but this can hardly
be correct.
Ver. 43. Give the people that they may eat.
As the servant, upon the first command (ver. 42),
expressed some misgivings, Elisha repeated the
order with a statement of the reason : For thus
saith the Lord, i. e., He has revealed it to me, and
He will have it so, therefore, abandon thy mis-
givings and do as I bid thee. From the words :
They shall eat and shall leave thereof, we must
not infer a miraculous increase of the food. That
the bread was not exhausted under Gehazi's hands
— that each one received as much as lie desired,
and that, when no one desired any more, then
there lay still " abundance of bread upon the table,"
•o the astonishment of Gehazi (Krummacher) : of
all that, there is not a syllable in the text. The
miraculous part of it consists rather in the fact
that, by means cf the divine blessing, the hundred
men were satisfied with the little which each re
ceived at the distribution, and even had some tc
spare.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. That which is narrated of Elisha in the pre-
ceding and in the next following chapters, as fai
as viii. 15, is not a consecutive and connected de-
scription of his life, but a simple collection of the
principal acts, by vjhich he vindicated his position at
Man of God and prophet, in different relations, as
well private as public, throughout his long career.
According to Keil, all these acts " belong to the
reign of Jehoram, King of Israel ;" but Jehoram
reigned only twelve years (chap. iii. 1), and Elisha
did not die until some time during the reign of
Joash (chap. xiii. 14). so that he lived after Jeho-
ram's death at least forty-five years, viz., twenty-
eight under Jehu (chap. x. 36), and seventeen
under Jehoahaz (chap. xiii. 1). Moreover, the
name of Jehoram does not occur in any of the
narratives from chap. iv. to chap. viii. 15. The
" King of Israel " is mentioned indefinitely, without
his name (chap. iv. 13; v. 5, 6, 7, 8; vi. 9, 11, 12,
21, 26 sq. ; vii. 6, 9 sq. ; viii. 3). Why Elisha
should have performed all his miraculous works
under Jehoram, and not have performed any others
during the succeeding forty-five years, we cannot
see ; on the contrary, it is quite incredible. If ah
the prophetical acts are collected on the same prin-
ciple mentioned above [namely, to collect loosely
those acts which served as the credentials of his
prophetical calling], the chronological order has
of course, to be given up, and acts have to be in-
serted here which occurred at a much later time
It is also acknowledged that the separate acts are
narrated in a connection, which, as Keil admits,
follows " the relation of their subject-matter to the
preceding or following, and not the sequence of
time at which they took place." It is a striking
fact that the acts which affect private persons,
especially the sons of the prophets, come first, and
then that those which affect the political fortunes
of the people follow. Whether all the incidents
which presuppose that Elisha stands in high favor
with the king, are to be assigned to the time of
Jehu, as Ewald thinks, is a question which cannot
be definitely answered in the affirmative ; certainly
what is narrated chap. iii. 17-25, did not remain
without influence upon Jehoram, and upon Elisha'a
relation to him ; and it is generally true that the re-
lation of the kings to the prophets was not so hostdo
after the death of Aliab. Ewald further adopts
the opinion that the collection of incidents ia
arrayed according to the round and significant
number twelve ; he reaches this number, however,
only by adding to the acts recorded in chap. iv. and
following chapters, the two in chap. ii. 19-25,
although they are separated by the third chapter,
while, on the other hand, he leaves out the first of
all, chap. ii. 14, and the very important one, chap,
iii. 16 ■•■q., which stands between those which are
counted, because these, he thinks, come from a dif
ferent source. The theory that these narratives
■■ were recorded in a special work, before they were
incorporated into our present Book of Kings," is
more probable. The collection into an unbroker
line has. no doubt, contributed much to the a*sei-
tiou which has been made by many parties that
in the life of Elisha, "the sacred documerts (i
46
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Kings ii-xiii.) present u.> with a far greater
multiplication of miraclej, than in the life
of his predecessor, Elijah " (Kurz in Herzog's
Real-Encyc. iii. 3. "66; cf. Winer, R.-W.-B. i.
s. 321). If we consider, however, that the col-
lected prophetical acts belong not to the brief reign
of Jehorain alone, but are spread over the entire
time of Elisha's public career under four kings,
that is to say, over a period of fifty-five or fifty-
seven years, then the appearance of " multiplica-
tion of miracles " falls away ; all the more as the
time of Elijah's activity was much shorter. The
number of miracles recorded as having been per-
formed by Elijah, when accurately estimated, was
not much less, and relatively was even greater.
(On the " multiplication of the miraculous " see
1 Kings xvii. Prelim. Rem. § a.) Finally, %ve must
remember that the acts of Elisha, which are col-
lected in this passage, were accomplished through
the rm or Spirit of Jehovah, and are prophetical ;
that fiey are, therefore, not merely pieces. of dis-
play of a great thaumaturge, but " signs," which
servo to make known and to glorify the one living
God. the God of Israel, and on this account have
a mvre or less ideal significance. They are doc-
trines, presented in and by acts, i. e., symbolical
representations of religious truths. To show this
in detail is our task in what follows.
2. The first narrative in this chapter (vers. 1-7)
is meant to show how Elisha helps a widow and
her children out of debt and distress. The mirac-
ulous increase of the oil, in itself, is not the core
and object of the prophet's act (as the common ac-
ceptation is), but only the means to an end ; relief
from distress is the main point, and thereby the
act becomes a prophetical one. This first narra-
tive, now, together with the one immediately fol-
lowing (vers. 8-37), is ordinarily designated partic-
ularly as having " an extraordinary resemblance "
to the one, 1 Kings xvii. 7-16 (Winer, I. c. ; Kno-
bel, Der Prophet, ii. s. 96), and as one whose simi-
larity causes it to appear as a merely slightly
modified copy of the other (Kurz, I. c). On a more
careful comparison, however, the resemblance is
seen to be limited to the one general point, that
here, as there, help is given to a widow and her
children by the prophet, in their need and distress;
all the rest is utterly diiferent. In the former case
it is a foreigner, a woman who lives in heathen
territory (Luke iv. 26), to whom the prophet is di-
rected, and who is to nourish him ; in the latter, it
is the wife of one of the sons of the prophets who
seeks the prophet, and calls upon him for aid.
There it was a question of subsistence in time of
scarcity, here, of the deliverance of two children
from the slavery which threatened them. There
the two indispensable means of sustenance, meal
and oil, never fail, although they are consumed;
here, once for all, the oil " sufficient for anointing "
is increased and then sold to pay the debt. The
fact that Elijah and Elisha both help and relieve a
widow and her children has its ground in the char-
acter and calling of the two men as " Men of God,"
as they are designated both here and there (ver. 7,
and 1 Kings xvii. 18). It is a well-known feature
if the Old Testament Law, one which is distinctly
prominent, that it often and urgently commands to
Buccor the widows and the fatherless and to care for
them(Exod. xxii. 22-24; Deut. xiv. 29; xxiv. 17, 19;
xxvi. 12; xxvii. 19). They are mentioned as rep-
resentatives of the forsaken, die oppressed, and ths
necessitous as a class (Isai. x. 2 ; Jer. vii. 6 ; xxiL
3; Zach. vii. 10; Mai. iii. 5; Baruch vi. 37). It i»
especially emphasized and praised in Jehovah that
he is the father and judge (i. e., protector of th6
rights) of the widows and the fatherless (Deut. x.
18; Ps. lxviii. a; cxlvi. 9; Isai. ix. 17; Siracb
xxxv. 17 sq.). Neglect and contempt of them are
counted among the heaviest offences (Ps. xciv. 6;
Job xxii. 9 ; Ezek. xxii. 7 ;) just as on the othei
hand compassion and care for them is a sign of the
true fear of God and of true piety (Job xxix. 12;
xxxi. 16; Tobit i. 7; James l. 27). So, then, if
anything is essential to the idea of a Man of God,
this is, that he shall be a counsellor and helper of
the widows and orphans, and shall show himself
such by his actions. Elijah and Elisha were, in the
fullest sense of the word, Men of God, whom Je-
hovah had armed with His Spirit for extraordinary
and marvellous works. It would be remarkable,
therefore, if, among the acts of the two genuine
prophets of action (cf. above, Prelim. Rem. after
1 Kings xvii. § a), there were none by which the}
showed themselves to be counsellors and helpers of
widows and orphans, and none by which they testi-
fied that the living God, the God of Israel, before
whom they stood (1 Kings xvii. 1; 2 Kings Iii. 14),
was a father and judge of the widows and father-
Less. Without this, an essential point in the pro-
phetical calling of each would be wauling. The
prophet, in the case of both widows, takes up and
uses naturally and significantly the last and most
necessary tiling which there was in the house, and
thereby directs attention all the more distinctly to
Him who out of little can make much, and out of
small can make great. "The naturalistic inter-
preters of miracles suppose that an advantageous
retail transaction in oil took place here, or that
there was an increase of the oil by the intermixture
of other substances, for instance, of potash 1 "
(Winer, R.- W.-B. i. s. 322. Cf. Knobel, Der Prophet.
ii. a. 96.) These insipid absurdities do not deserve
refutation.
3. The second narrative (vers. 8-37), which, as
has been said already, many modern expositors
have considered startlingly like to the one in 1
Kings xvii. 17-24, likewise appears, upon closer
examination, to be utterly different from it. The
entire situation is different. In the first place, we
must observe that the narrative is divided into two
parts, the first of which (vers. 8-17) forms a com-
plete whole in itself. It narrates the reception
which the prophet met with at the house of the Shu-
nammite woman on his journey to Carmel, what
he promised her, and how this promise was ful-
filled. The narrative might cease there. The sec-
ond part narrates what occurred afterwards, after
a number of years, namely, that the promised son
fell victim to an illness and was restored to life by
the prophet. The fact of the resuscitation, there-
fore, has the fact of the promise for its premise,
and rests upon it. The Shunammite appeals (ver.
28) to the promise of the prophet, ver. 16, and
founds her prayer upon it. He then also does all
in his power to preserve the son of promise to hie
mother, in order that the promise may remain truth
and not become deceit. The second fact, there-
fore, stands in an inseparable connection with the
first. In the case of the son of the widow of Za-
rcphath, tins is all wanting. He was no son of
promise, and there is no question there of anything
CHAPTER IT. 1-44.
47
but a restoration to life. Then, as for the act it-
self, it takes place there directly through Elijah
himself, whereas Elisha here commits it in the first
place to his servant. For the entire interlude, vers.
29-31, which is narrated so circumstantially, and
is so worthy of attention, the parallel is entirely
wanting. The similarity, then, which is asserted
to exist, is limited to the method of resuscitation re-
ferred to in ver. 34 (c/. 1 Kings xvii. 21), and even
this is not altogether the same. That Elisha fol-
lowed a similar method was a consequence, in the
first place, of the nature of the case — he breathed
life once more into him from whom life had departed
(see above, 1 Kings xvii. Hist. § 6) — and further-
more, it was almost a matter of course for him that
he should imitate the example of his great master
in a similar case. It is impossible, therefore, to con-
clude from this circumstance alone that the entire
narrative is simply imitated. Ewald, who adopts
the opinion that " the passages about Elijah, 1 Kings
xvii. 19; 2 Kings ii. 1—18 were written later than
those about Elisha " (in which case the contrary
would rather be true, that 1 Kings xvii. 17 sq.
was imitated from this narrative), asserts, on the
other hand: "The description, 2 Kings iv. 14-17,
is clearly borrowed from Gen. xviii. 9-14;" but in
the latter place, also, the connection and the entire
situation are utterly different, and that which they
have in common amounts only to this, that there,
as here, the birth of a son is foretold. This takes
place, however, also in Judges xiii. 3 ; 1 Sam. i. 1 7 ;
Isai. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23 ; Luke i. 13 and 31. What
would become of history, especially of Biblical
history, if every incident which resembles another
more or less should be considered an imitation of
it, and therefore unhistorical ? If any story is free
from the appearance of being manufactured, and
has unmistakable signs of historical truth, then this
one is such, with its numerous details and peculiar
characteristic features.
4. The religious point of the narrative, and there
is scarcely a story in the Old Testament which has
a more beautiful one, is utterly lost when we seek
it in the resuscitation of the boy by the prophet.
We have before us here the total of a continuous,
complete, and finished story, which is narrated
with unusual care and explicitness down to the de-
tails, and not simply the record of a single pro-
phetical act, as in the first and third narratives.
The course and conclusion of the whole are indeed
conditioned upon the miraculous act of the prophet,
yet in fact it is rather a history of the Shunammire
than an event in the life of Elisha. The object and
significance of the story are not, therefore, to lie
sought in any single feature of the narrative, as if
all the rest were merely incidental ; it is rather the
whole which here comes into account. Three prin-
cipal points in it come out into especial prominence :
A son is given to a pious, God-fearing woman,
who had received the prophet at her house, and
thereby a blessing and fortune falls to her lot,
which she had no longer dared to hope for ; soon,
however, a great trial intervenes ; she is to lose
her only son, she holds firmly to the word of prom-
ise, however, and sustains the trial ; the son is
given back to her again by the prophet, and now
for the first time she experiences aright that the
word of the Lord is true, and that He crowns at
last with grace and compassion those who hope
»nd hoi I fast their faith in Him. This develop-
ment of the history presents the course by which.
as a general rule, God is wont to lead his children
Thus it was with Abraham, the father and proto-
type of all the faithful in Israel (Gen. xvii. and
xxii. ; Heb. xi. 17 sq.), thus also with Job (Job L
2-42), and thus also with many other pious men of
the old covenant down to Him who was the begin-
ning and end of faith (Heb. v. 5-9 ; xii. 2). This
story, therefore, is a practical enunciation of the
truth which extends throughout the entire Scrip-
tures, and is a fundamental law of the divine
economy of salvation: the Lord "hath set apart
him that is godly for himself" (Ps. iv. 3). It is Ha
who killetli and maketh alive, that bringeth down
to the grave and bringeth up (1 Sam. ii. 6). They
who please God are preserved through the fire of
adversity (Sir. ii. 5). " All the paths of the Lord
are mercy and truth unto such as keep His cove-
nant and His testimonies" (Ps. jiv. 10). The
glory of God is the end and aim of the entire story,
and the work of the prophet serves, here as ever,
only to reach this end.
5. The resuscitation of the boy must remain un-
der all circumstances, however we may conceive
of it, extraordinary, marvellous, produced by the
Spirit (rm) of Jehovah. Starke, following Cleri-
cus, says : " The spirit of natural life was not
warmed into life by the warmth of the prophet,
but by an extraordinary power and energy of God ;
and the touch of the prophet, in itself, was as littlo
able to bring back warmth and life as the toucli of
the staff." No one will adopt now-a-days the mar-
vellous explanations which Knobel (Der Prophet.
ii. s. 96) proposes : " The prophet gave a powder to
the boy and thus removed the headache ; or, the
child had perhaps eaten of some poisonous plant,
and the prophet relieved him of the poison by an
emetic." The opinion also, which is advanced
here, on account of ver. 34, still more confidently,
even, than on 1 Kings xvii. 20, that the boy was
restored to life by the application of animal mag-
netism, and that Gehazi was not able to accomplish
this on account of the antipathy between him and
the mother (Ennemoser and Passavant), must be
decidedly contradicted. The prophets of the Old
Testament were no mesmerizers, but servants of
Jehovan, who "stood before Him," and whose
business it was to bear witness of Him in word and
deed. All the great and marvellous works which
they performed were a result of earnest prayer,
and followed upon their most hearty petitions (see
above, 1 Kings xvii. Hist. § 6). We are not willing,
therefore, to adopt, with Von Gerlach, the opin.on
that "a genuine life-energy was imparted to the
boy from the body of Elisha, which was filled with
the Spirit of Gotl," for the Spirit of God wrought
through the prophets; but that it filled their bodies
is an idea foreign to the Scriptures. The question
whether the boy was utterly dead, and every sign
of life had departed from him, is a very different one.
He is certainly referred to as dead, vers. 20 and 32.
We cannot, however, overlook the fact that, if he
had been dead, decomposition must have set in
long before Elisha's arrival at Shunem. If he
died at noon (ver. 20), and his mother set out at
once, she must have spent six hours in the jour-
ney. If we suppose besides that Gehazi went all
the way from Carmel to Shunem on foot, and that
he returned from there again and met the prophet
and the mother on the way, so that these two did
not arrive until still later, then certainly more than
48
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
twelve hours had passed since the decease of the
child. In the Orient, however, decomposition com-
mences much sooner than among us, especially in
the warm harvest-season (ver. 18). With refer-
ence to the law, Numb. xix. 11, according to which
the touching a corpse makes unclean, the Talmud-
ists. as Philippson observes, raised the question:
" Did the son of the Shunammite render unclean ?
and the auswer is: »n SDDO WW XDDS TO (a
corpse makes unclean, but not a living body)." So
much at least is clear from this, that they did not
consider the boy a real corpse, although they did
not deny the miracle. That the act of Elisha can-
not in any wise be compared with the restoration to
life of the son of the widow of Nain, or of Lazarus,
hardly needs to be mentioned.
6. Gehazi's mission to Shitnem, since it was un-
successful and had no effect whatever upon the
development of the story, might have been left
unmentioned. That it is narrated, however, in de-
tail, is all the more a proof of the historical truth
of the entire story, inasmuch as it cannot serve the
glory of the prophet on account of its entire want
of success. It is. in fact, not omitted, because it
teaches practically that the gift of the Spirit with
which God arms His servants, the prophets, for
extraordinary deeds, cannot be transferred by these
to others, and that it pertains still less to the ex-
ternal symbol of the prophetical calling, so that not
every one in whose hand the symbol may be is
thereby put in a position to execute such acts. It
was not so much the mother of the boy who was
to learn this, for she did not desire that Gehazi
should be sent, nor Gehazi, for he did not offer to
go, but was called upon by the prophet to do so,
as it was Elisha himself. The gift of the ni"l
or Spirit is not an habitual, permanent one, but
one which is given specially for each occasion, and
which the prophet cannot dispose of according to
his own good-will and pleasure. As it had not
been made known to Elisha by Jehovah that the
boy %vas dead or would die, so the command had
not been given to him by God that he should give
Gehazi a commission for the deed, and intrust his
Blaff to him. Out of anxiety, lest the prophet's
credit might suffer if the cause of the failure of
this mission was sought in him, it was very early
thought necessary to have recourse to an allegori-
cal interpretation. The dead boy was said to sig-
nify the human race, which had fallen under death
on account of sin; the staff with which Gehazi
thought that he could awake the dead boy, repre-
sented the Law of Moses, which could not save
from sin and death ; Elisha, finally, who afterwards
brought the dead to life, was a type of the Son of
God, who. by his incarnation, put himself in connec-
tion with our nesh (ver. 34), and imparted new life
to humanity. This interpretation is found from the
time of Origen on, in all centuries, and even in the
most modern times it has been adopted by Cassel
Elisa, s. 42 sq.). However imaginative and edifying
t may be, it has no foundation in the text.
7. The third and fourth narratives (vers. 38^44)
belong together, because both concern the circle
of sons of the prophets. Whereas in the first two
narratives it is individual faithful servants of Je-
hovah, who experience, through the prophet, His
marvellous, protecting, helping, and saving might,
here it is the entire community of sons of the
prophets, that is to say, of those who, in the time
of apostasy, form the core of the covenant-people,
and represent the true Israel. The two narrative!
are not, therefore, inserted here accidentally and
without connection, but they join on very fitly tt
the two preceding. They have not the object, how-
ever, any more than those have, to present Elisha
to us as a thaumaturge and to glorify him : on the
contrary they are intended to strengthen faith in
Him whose instrument and servant the prophet is.
They teach and attest practically the truth of the
Psalmist's words (Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19), which wo
might even place over them as a title, " Behold tn»
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him ; upon
them that hope in His mercy; to deliver their soul
from death (vers. 38^1), and to keep them alive in
famine " (vers. 42—44). At the same time both nar-
ratives afford us an insight into the schools of the
prophets. In the same place where the sous of
the prophets "sat before him," i. e., received in-
struction, there they also ate together, i. e., they
led a life of close fellowship and communion (cf.
Luke xv. 2 ; 1 Cor. v. 1 1 sq.). It follows that this
life in common was anything but luxurious, on the
contrary that it was a life of sacrifice. How
straitened the circumstances were in which they
lived we may see from the fact that Elisha had tc
send one of their number into the field to collect
wild herbs before the mi '.-day meal could be pre-
pared, and also that, later, the little which one man
brought had to suffice for a hundred men. From
this it follows either that the pupils of the proph-
ets were poor by birth, or that they had decided to
live a life of sacrifice and self-denial. Neverthe-
less, their number was large, and the fact that even
bitter want could not separate them from one an-
other and break up the community, is a beautiful
sign of the purity of their motives and of their
faithful zeal.
8. Both prophetical acts of Elisha in the cit cle of
the pupils of the prophets have been referred to
quite ordinary incidents. In the first it has been
said that Elisha showed himself a " remarkable
student of nature for the time in which he lived "
(Knobel, (. c, s. 95), just as in chap. ii. 20 sq. and
iii. 16 sq. If he had been such, however, he would
certainly have known that no one can make a pot
full of bitter and poisonous herbs uninjurious by
simply adding a handful of meal. Hence the Exe-
get. Bandhuch des Alt. Test, believes that the prophet
may have added something else, does not tell, how-
ever, what this something else was, nor whence he
got it. Theodoret observes that it was not >'/ tov
aXevfiov (pvaic, but ?/ tov wpotyr/TiKov TrvebflOTOG
Siva/ill, which weakened or destroyed the action
of the poison. The meal was here only a natural
and appropriate sign of healthful nourishment.
The truth underlying the second story is thought
to be " that the sons of the prophets were pro-
tected by Elisha's wise precaution during that time
of famine " (Knobel, s. 91). In that case Elisha
must have sent orders to the man of Beth-Shalisha
beforehand, and his precaution, since the man only
brought twenty barley-loaves, which were not
enough for so many, would have been insufficient
and not by any means wise. Neither does the
narrative contain "the moral, that the believer can
satisfy his earthly needs even with scanty means "
(Koster, Die Prophet, s. 88), for the prophet does
not mean to give an example of the way in which
we ought to behave, but he states what Jehovai
will do. It is not he who brings about the satis
CHAPTER IV. 1-14.
49
faction of their hunger, but Jehovah ; he only fore-
tells it and announces it. Jehovah ordered it so
that a strange man, uncalled and unexpected,
should bring to the prophet in a time of famine
the first-fruits, which belong to Jehovah according
to the Law (Numb. xv. 19, 20; Deut. xxvi. 2 sq.),
and He blessed this gift so that it sufficed to sat-
isfy the entire community of the prophets. Hence
it follows that this feeding cannot be regarded as a
type of the miraculous feedings in the Xew Testa-
ment, and that we cannot say: "Jesus taught on
a grand scale what Elijah taught on a small scale "
(Dereser) ; still less can the New Testament inci-
dents be regarded as imitations and mythical de-
velopments of this. The Lord Himself, at the
feeding of the five thousand, makes reference, not
to this narrative, but to the feeding of the people
with manna in the wilderness (Kx. xvi. 15 sq.), and
He gives to His miracle an express object and sig-
nificance (John vi. 32 sq.), such as we cannut at
all think of in this case. Besides that, however,
the historical connection, the occasion, the persons,
all are utterly different, and the asserted similarity
is reduced finally simply to this, that through the
divine influence a little suffices for many : an alto-
gether ordinary truth which pierces through many
other incidents in the history of redemption, which
are entirely different from tins one.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-?. Kroimacher: The Story of the
poor Widow, (o) Her distress; (b) she seeks re-
fuge in the prophet, and (c) finds it. — Help in
Need, (a) The woman who receives assistance.
(Widow of a God-fearing man, burdened by debt,
and without resources; mother of two children,
who are to be taken from her; her faith and trust ;
her gratitude. Such are always helped.) (b) The
prophet who assists her. (As a genuine prophet
of God he does not stop his ears to the cry of the
poor, like the creditor, Prov. xxi. 13. He knows
that he who has compassion on the widows and
fatherless thereby serves God, James i. 27. Gold
and silver he has not, but he employs the gift
which he has received, and does not stop with
words. Go and do likewise, 1 Peter iv. 10 ; James
iL 14-17.) — Wurt. Summ. : Our Lord and God al-
lows it to come to pass that widows and orphans
are often distressed and harshly treated in order
to try their faith and patience; if they show them-
selves upright, trust in God, have patience and
pray diligently, then God helps them marvellously,
blesses a little to them, that they may have all
necessary maintenance, and may find it sufficient,
and He saves them, at the proper time, from the
hands of their oppressors. With this reflection all
widows and orphans, when they are poor, aban-
doned, and oppressed, must console themselves, if
their nourishment is scanty, and they are besides
unkindly regarded by the world. — Ver. 1. Starke:
A good reputation after death. He feared God I
See to it that thou, also, after thy departure, mayest
with justice have this name, for all, all must de-
part, but he who doeth the will of God abideth
forever (1 John ii. 17). — He who fears God will
not make debts thoughtlessly; but for him who
falls into debt innocently God will find means of
payment in time. — Summum jus, summa injuria.
We may be entirely in the right and act perfectly
seceding to the law, in the eyes of men, while
we are in the wrong and are sinning against the
highest law before God. See James ii. 13. — Ver.
2. Starke: As God readily hears the cry 3f the
poor and suffering (Ps. cxlv. 18, 19), so do also His
servants and children. — Vers. 3-5. Cramer: In
temporal affairs experience must precede and faith
follow: in spiritual affairs faith must precede, and
then experience follows, for we do not find out the
truth unless belief in God's Word has preceded
(John vii. 17). — Ver. 5. Whatever a man does in
the obedience of faith, whether it appears foolish
or vain in the eyes of the world, is nevertheless
blessed by God, and redounds to his soul's health.
— Ver. 6. Hall: The goodness of God gives grace
according to the measure of those who receive it ;
if He ceases to pour it into our hearts, it is because
there is no more room there to receive it- If wo
could receive more He would give more. — Ver. 7.
It means are given thee to satisfy thy creditor, let
it be thy first duty to pay him before thou carest
for thyself! He who can pay his debts, but wiL
not, takes what does not beloug to him and sins
against the eighth commandment. — Vox Geb-
lach: When the Lord p-ives there is always some
thing left over and above; He never merely takes
away disrress, He gives a blessing besides. He
desires, however, that the obligation to our neigh-
bor should first be satisfied before we begin to
enjoy His biessing.
Vers. 8-37. God's Ways with His Children.
See Historical, § 3. — Bender: Elisha in Shunem.
(a) The kind reception which he there met with;
(b) the great deeds by which he there glorified the
name of his God. — Krummacher: The Story of
the Shunammite. (a) The shelter at Shunem ; (4)
the grateful guest; (c) the dying boy ; (d) Gehazi
with Elisha's staff; (e) the resuscitation of the
dead. — The Shunammite, a woman after God's own
heart. Wurt. Summ. : She loved God's word and
His servant, the prophet Elisha, and she did him
much good out of her fortune; she led a quiet,
modest life, so that she had no affairs at the royal
court or at law; she held her husband in honor,
and did not wish to undertake any journey with-
out his permission ; she was able to strike* a mid
die course, and she knew how to conduct herself
so that she did not anger God, nor give offence to
her neighbors.
Vers 8-17. The house at Shunem, a tabernacle
of God amongst men, for there dwelt faith and love
(vers. 8-11), and therefore, also, peace and bless-
ing (vers. 12-17). — Ver. 8. There are always, among
those whose lot it is to have wealth, some who do
not attach their hearts to it (Ps. Ixii. 10), and do
not trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God
(1 Tim. vi. 17, 18): who have not become satiated
and indifferent in their hearts, but hunger and
thirst after righteousness, and have an earnest de
sire for the bread of life. The servants of the
Word ought not to withdraw themselves from
these, but advance to meet them in every way.
Berleb. Bibel: God always gives to His' children
pious hearts, so that they open their houses and
shelter strangers. Though the Gadarenes beg
Him to depart (Luke viii. 37), though there are
Samaritans who will not receive Christ (Luke ii.
52 sq.), yet there is always a good soul which is
glad to take the Lord Jesus and receive Him to it-
self.— Bexder : He who, like the Shunammite, hon-
ors and loves the Lord, and is anxious to lead a life
in God, honors and loves also the servants of th«
;>ii
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Lord, and seeks their society. He does not seek
them, however, as pleasant companions, or merely
in order to claim their help in bodily need, but
he seeks them as shepherds, as soul-physicians,
as guardians of God's mysteries, and as messen-
gers in Christ's stead. — Vers. 8-11. The Shunam-
mite urges the holy man of God to stay at her
house and to be her guest; she prepares him a
dwelling in her house. He who is more than a
prophet desires to take up his residence with us.
He stands before the door and knocks, and if any
man, 4c, Rev. iii. 20. Let us prepare the dwell-
ing for Him, and pray every day : Come, Lord Je-
sus, be our guest! and: Remain with us, for the
evening is drawing on. 0 ! setiy Haus wo man Dicli
auf'jtnommen, iC'c. (hymn of Spitta), Matt. xxv. 35,
40. — Be hospitable! for the sake of the Lord, and
with joy, without murmuring (Rom. xii. 13; Heb.
xiii. 2 ; 1 Peter iv. 9). — Vers. 9-10. How beauti-
ful it is when one spouse incites the other to holy
works of love, and both are in accord therein ;
when husband and wife understand each other well,
and go on uninterruptedly in a bond of pure fidelity
(Gerhardt's hymn: XYie schbn ists dock, <fcc). —
Starke: Husbands should not restrain their wives
from kind actions toward the children and servants
of God. — Ver. 10. J. Laxge: God gives, in this
eartlily life, not only what is absolutely necessary,
but also what belongs to easiness of circumstances:
a fact which we ought also to recognize with
thanksgiving. — Ver. 11. Hall: Solitude is most
advantageous for teachers and students (Matt. xiv.
23).— Vers. 12-11. What the Lord says, Matt. x.
40-42, is fulfilled already here, under the old cove-
nant; how much more will it be fulfilled under the
new covenant. — The Conversation of Klislia with
the Shunammite. (a) The question of Klislia. (A
question inspired by gratitude, although the wo-
man had far more reason to thank him than he
her, for cf. 1 Cor. ix. 11.— Starke: A noble heart
does not like to receive a favor and make no re-
turn, but recognizes its obligation to return it. It
is, however, also a test-question, to see if the Shu-
nammite had received him in the name of a prophet
and not for the sake of a reward, or for any tem-
poral gain. The question as to thy wishes is a
question as to the disposition of thy heart.) (b)
The answer of the Shunammite. ("I dwell," Ac.
She asks no recompense for the good she lias done,
she wishes to have nothing to do with the court of
the king, and the great ones of this world, she has
no desire " for high things, but," &c. Rom. xii.
16 — a sign of great humility and modesty. Al-
though she lacked that which was essential to
the honor and happiness of an Israelitish wife,
viz., a son, yet she was contented, and no word of
complaint passed her lips — a sign of great con-
tentment. He who is godly is also contented, 1
Tim. vi. 6, and says : Howsoever he may conduct
my affairs, I am contented and silent.) — He who is
at peace with God in his h-.ui i, lives in, and pur-
sues, peace with men (Rom. xii. 18; Heb. xii. 14).
— Vers. 14-17. Tiie Lord, according to His grace
and truth, remembers even the wishes which we
cherish in silence and do not express before men,
and He often gives to t'lose who yield to His holy
will without murmurs or complaints just that
which they no longer dared to hope for. — It makes
a great difference whether we doubt of the divine
promises from unbelief, or from humility or want
of confidence in ourselves because we consider
the promises too great and glorious, and ourselves
unworthy of them (Gen. xviii. 13 sq. ; John xi.
23 sq.).
Vers. 18-21. Happiness aniunhappiness, joy and
sorrow, stand, here upon earth, ever side by side.
There is no unalloyed happiness. We are not in the
world simply in order to have happy days; God
sets the day of adversity over-against the day of
prosperity (Eccl. vii. 14). — Man, in his life, is like
the grass (Ps. ciii. 15, '16). The death of loved
children comes often suddenly, like the lightning
from a clear sky, and destroys our joy and our
hopes. Therefore we should possess these gifts
also, as not possessing them, and learn to believe
that God's ways, Ac. (Isai. Iv. 8, 9). The Lord will
not abandon, in days of adversity, him who trust?
in Him in days of prosperity. He who in the lat-
I ter has learned sobriety, and maintained his faith,
will not be without wisdom and consolation in the
former, but will be composed in all adversity. —
Ver. 22. Starke: A pious woman does nothing
without her husband's knowledge, and does not
willingly call his attention to anything by which
he may be saddened. — Ver. 23. Husbands ought
not to put any hindrance in the way of their wives
when they wish to go there where they hope to
find food "for their souls, and counsel and consola-
tion from God. Sundays and feast-days are not
instituted merely that we may rest from labor, but
that we may hear the "Word of God, and be edified
thereby. This word is not, indeed, bound to any
definite time, it is a well of living water, from
which we may and ought to take at any time, and
satisfy our thirst for knowledge, consolation, and
peace. How many there are, however, of those
who do not do this even on Sundays and feast-
days! — Vers. 25-28. The arrival of the Shunam-
mite at Carmel. (a) She receives a kind welcome
(Osiander: Pious people have hearty love for each
other, aud each shares in the other's joy aud sorrow,
Rom. xii. 15), but she conceals from Gehazi that
which troubles her heart. (Do not make known at
once to ever}- one you meet that which distresses
you, but keep it to yourself until you find one who
understands you, and whose heart you have tested,
Sirach xxi. 28.) (6) She is thrust away by Gehazi
(Beware lest thou treat harshly sad souls, who are
overcome by grief, and who seek help and consola-
tion, and lest thou thrust them away or judge them
hastily. Sir. iv. 3 : Do not cause still more grief to
a bruised heart. — Berleb. Bebel: There are many
servants who wish to hinder others from familiarity
because it appears to them too bold. . . Magda-
lens are thrust away from the feet of Jesus Christ,
aud the Pharisees are scandalized at them, Luke
vii. 38. Elisha receives this woman in a friendly
manner and listens with sympathy. Sir. vii. 38
"Leave not those who mourn without consolation,
but sorrow with the sorrowing." Come, in thy sor
row, to Him who calls the sorrowful and the heavy-
laden to himself, and who has said : " Hun that
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out," John
vi. 37.) — Vers. 29-31. Gehazi's Mission to Shunem.
(a) Elisha's intention in sending liim ; (b) the fail-
ure of his mission (see above, the Exeget. and Criti-
ml and tin' Historical notes). The especial gift
which God lias given, out of free grace, to one
man, cannot be transferred by him to another. Lei
every one serve the other with thai gift wllirh lie
has received (1 Peter iv. 10), for we are not aias
ters of the gifts of God, but only stewards. The
CHAPTER V.-VI. 7.
5i
•taff of the prophet is of no use if the spirit and
power of the prophet are wanting. Do not mistake
the sign for the thing signified. It is God alone
who can help, and His help is not dependent on
external instruments and signs. — 0 1 that we might
all sav, as this woman did to Elisha, to Him who
is more than a prophet, with firm faith and confi-
dence, from the bottom of the heart: "I will not
leave thee ! " (Meinen Jesum lass ich niclit, tc.)
Then would He also go with us in all need and
trial. — Vers. 32-37. The Resuscitation of the Boy.
(a) The preparation therefor (ver. 33; cf. Acts ix.
40; Matt. vi. 6). Elisha first humbles himself be-
fore the Lord, for he knows that it is He alone
who can kill and make alive, (b) The means of
which he makes use (vers. 34 and 35). He does
not weary, but continues and struggles in prayer.
The Lord does not allow great deeds to be accom-
plished without battles and struggles, labor and
perseverance, (c) The successful accomplishment
(vers. 35 and 36). Elisha's prayer and conflict are
crowned with success. He may say: There, take
thy son! and the mother falls on her knees, and
may cry: "Oh! death, where is thy sting? Oh!
grave, where is thy victory?" — What Elisha did
after long struggle and prayer, He, who is him-
self the resurrection and the life, did with a single
word (Luke vii. 14; John xi. 43), that we may be-
lieve that "The hour is coming," &c. (John v. 25;
xi. 26). — Ver. 37. Genuine gratitude and thanks-
giving, when God has done great things for us,
consists in this, that we bow ourselves humbly,
and fall down upon our knees and say: ''Lord, I
am not worthy," &c. (Gen. xxxii. 10).
Vers. 38-44. The high Significance of both the
Acts which Elisha performed among the Pupils of
the Prophets, (o) He makes the poisonous food
healthful (vers. 38^41); (b) he feeds many with a
little (vers. 42-44) ; (see Historical). — The sons of
the prophets in time of scarcity. They had to strug-
gle with want and distress, but no want could hin-
der them from entering the community, or could
induce them to separate. Life in common, in faith,
in prayer, in the praise of God, was dearer to them
than pleasant days, and enjoying the pleasures of
sin in this world (Heb. xi. 25). Hence they ex-
perienced also the trnth of the words : '• I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee " (Heb. xiii. 5 ;
cf. Ps. xxxiii. 18 and 19).— Ver. 38. Where unity
of spirit and true love call people together to a
common meal, there is no need of great prepara-
tions and expensive dishes ; they are readily satis-
fied with the simplest food (Prov. xv. 17; xvii. 1).
— Ver. 39. Calwer Bibel: The poor are here, as
they so often are, in great distress ; the most ne-
cessary means of subsistence often fail them. —
Ver. 40. Death in the pot ! Fear of death ; means
of rescue from it. — It is often with spiritual 'ood
as it is with bodily food ; it looks as if it were
healthful and nourishing, i. e., the words are beau-
tiful and attractive, and yet there is soul-poison in
it, which is destructive, if we are uot on our guard
against receiving it. — Vers. 42-44. Krujijiacher:
The man with the loaves, Elisha's command, Ge-
hazi's confusion. — Ver. 42. By accident a strange
man comes and brings what is needed. How many
times that has occurred I The Lord sent him and
opened his heart, for, when God has found us
faithful, and perceived no hypocrisy in us, He
comes before we know it, and causes great good
fortune to befall us. — Ver. 43. "Give the people,
that they may eat." The Lord gives in order that
we may give, and it is more blessed to give than
to receive (Heb. xiii. 16; Acts xx. 35). — Ver. 44.
What the Lord said: "They shall eat, and shall
leave thereof," holds true still, to day; all depends
upon His blessing. Ps. cxxvii. 1. — Ktburz: God
can bless a little and increase it, so that we shall
find ourselves as well provided for, nay, even have
as much to spare, as many who have much and
yet are not satisfied, because there is no blessing
upon it (Matt. iv. 4).
B. — The healing of Naaman, punishment of Gehazi, and recovery of a lott axe.
Chap. V.-VI. 7.
1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with
his master, and honorable [honored], because by him the Lord had given
deliverance unto Syria : he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.
2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies [in marauding bands], and had
brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ; and she waited on
3 Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with
4 the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And
one | he, i. e., Naaman] went in, and told his lord, saying. Thus and thus said
6 the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go,
and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took
with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand joieces of gold, and ten changes
6 of raiment. [ , ] And he brought the letter [omit the letter] to the king of
Israel [the letter], saying [which was to this effect] : Now when this letter is
come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that
7 thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king
of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to
52 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his
leprosy ? Wherefore, [Nay ! only] consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh
a quarrel against 7ne.
8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel
had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent
thy clothes ? let him come now to me, and he shall know [learn] that there is a
9 prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and
10 stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him,
saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to
11 thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and
said, Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on
the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover
12 the leper [heal the leprosy]. Are not Abana1 and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel ? may I not wash in them, and be clean ? So
13 he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake
unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldst thou not have done it ? how much rather then, when he saith to thee,
14 Wash, and be clean ? Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in
Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God : and his flesh came again
like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and
stood before him : and he said, Behold, now 1 know that there is no God in all
the earth, but in Israel : now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing [token of
16 gratitude from — omit of| of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before
whom 1 stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it / but he
17 refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then [If not, then let there], I pray
thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth ? [,] for thy servant
will henceforth ofler neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but
18 unto the Lord.3 In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, [;] that [omit
that] when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and
he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon : [;] when
I bow down myself3 in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in
19 this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a
little way [some distance].
20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master
hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he
brought : but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of
21 him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running
after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
22 And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even [just]
now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the
prophets : give them, 1 pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of gar-
23 ments. And Naaman said, Be content, [pleased to — omtt ,] take two talents. And
he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of
garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before
24 him. And when he came to the tower [hill] he took them from their hand, and
25 bestowed them in the house : and he let the men go, and they departed. But
he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence
26 earnest thou, Gehazi ? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said
unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his
chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments,
and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid
27 servants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto
thy seed forever. And he went from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Chap. VI. 1. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now,
2 the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray
thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a
3 place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said
CHAPTER V-VI. 7.
53
4 Be content [pleased], I pray thee, and [to] go with thy servants. And h(
5 answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan,
they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the
6 water : and he cried, and said, Alas, master ! for it was borrowed. And the
man of God said, Where fell it ? And he cut down a stick, and cast it in
7 thither*; and [made] the iron did [to — omit did] swim. Therefore said he, Take
it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
-[Ken, AmaDEL See Elegit.
-[The Sept. join the first two words of the next verse with this one. Ttp pT/^aTi rovr^ because of this thins
' Ver. 12.-
* Ver. 17.-
— w. G. S.]
1 Ver. 18. — Thenius proposes to change the last " in 'JT*nn"."rO to 1 , and it certainly does seem better to do so
This is the reading of the Sept. (w T<ji npoaKvvtlv avToe), aDd of the Vuig. (adorante eo). — llahr.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Now Naaman captain of the host,
tc. The 1 with which the narrative begins, is
used as in 1 Kings i. 1, and does not mark the
incident as having occurred immediately after the
preceding. We cannot decide certainly whether
it belongs to the time of Jehoram or to that of the
house of Jehu. In any case it refers to a time
when the relations between Syria and Israel were
not hostile. That Naaman was the man who
fatally wounded Ahab is a mere guess of the
rabbis, and it is not strengthened at all by the
statement of Josephus : iraic ii tic fiaaikmbc rov
'A("df*oi', 'Afiavoc bvofia. Naaman is called a great
man in so far as lie occupied a high position in the
service of the king. The statement: by him the
Lord had given deliverance unto Syria, i. e.,
victory, does not compel us to translate ~>"n "1133
its Thenius does, by "a man of great physical
strength;" the expression marks his military ability.
Keil takes it as second predicate : " The man was a
general though a leper," meaning that, although in
Israel lepers were excluded from all human society,
in Syria a leper could fill even a high civil office.
This is certainly unfounded, for lepers were every-
where physically incapable of performing import-
ant duties. JJ1VI3 is evidently used by contrast,
whether the omission of the 1 connective sharpens
the contrast (Thenius) or not. He was a mighty
military chief, but, on account of his disease, he
could not fulfill his duties. " It is significant that
he who had helped to gain the victory over Israel,
is represented as a leper, who must seek help in
Israel, and who finds it there " (Thenius). [By
whom the Lord had given deliverance. In
consistency with the standing conception of the
Hebrews that Jehovah was the God of all the
earth, it is represented as a dispensation of His
providence that Naaman had won victories for
Syria, cf. chap. xix. 25 and 26. — W. G. S.] -jjnX
ver. 3, as in Ps. cxix. 5, utinam. The word r|DX
I. e., collect, take up, receive, designates the recep-
tion into the society of men which followed upon
deliverance from leprosy (Numb. xii. 14).
Ter. 5. And the king of Syria said, &e. We
seo, from the king's readiness, how anxious he was
for the restoration of Naaman. The treasures
which the latter took with him were very valuable ;
we cannot, however, estimate their value accu-
rately. According to Keil 10 talents of silver are
about 25,000 thalers ($1S,000), and 6000 shekels of
gold ( = 2 talents) are about 50,000 thalera
($36,000); according to Thenius the value would
be 20,000 thalers and 60,000 thalers ($14,400
and $4.3,200). On the ten changes of raiment, cf.
eifiarn ef-Tifioi/ia (Odyss. viii. 249). Winer: "Ax
Oriental is still fond of frequent changes of apparel
(('en. xli. 14; 1 Sam. xxviii. 8; 2 Sam. xii. 20),
especially of grand dresses at marriages and other
celebrations ^Niebuhr, Reise, i. 182)." The royal
letter is abbreviated in ver. 6, for it could not
begin with " Now when." Only the main passage
is given here. The letter was simply a note of
introduction, and we cannot infer from the words :
That thou mayest recover him of his leprosy,
that the king of Israel was then in a relation of
dependence to the Syrian king. The king " pro-
bably thought of the prophet, of whom he had
heard so great things, as the chief of a sort of
magi ... or as the Israelitish high-priest,
who could probably be induced to undertake, on
behalf of a foreigner, those ceremonies and func-
tions of his office from which so great results were
to be expected, only by the intercession of the
king " (Menken). The king of Israel, however, so
far misunderstood the intention of the letter as to
suppose that he himself was expected to perform
the cure; he thought that this demand was only a
pretext, in order to briug about a quarrel with him.
He was thereby so frightened and saddened that
he rent Iris clothes (chap. ii. 12; 1 Kings xxi. 27).
The meaning of the words in ver. 7 is : he demands
of me something which God alone can do, so that it
is clear that he is only seeking a quarrel. To kill
and to make alive is the province of that Divinity
alone who is elevated far above the world
(Dent, xxxii. 39; 1 Sam. ii. 6): leprosy was re-
garded as the equivalent of death (Numb. xii. 12) ;
to deliver from it was to make alive. It is not
probable that the king spoke the words : Where-
fore, consider, in the solemn audience in which
the letter was delivered to him (Thenius) : he
uttered this suspicion only in the circle of his most
intimate attendants.
Ver. 8. And it was so when Elisha the mai
of God, &c. If the arrival of the celebrated
Syrian with his retinue caused a sensation, still
more did the fact that the king rent his clothes; tie
news of it came speedily to the prophet, who wu
then in Samaria (ver. 3). and not in Jericnj
64
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
(Krummacher). The king, in his fright, either
did not think of Elisha, or he did not believe at
ail that there was any one who could help in
Buch a case. Elisha therefore sends to him to re-
mind him that there is a prophet in Israel, i. e.,
that the God who can kill and make alive, the God
of Israel, in spite of the apostasy of king and
people, yet makes Himself known, in His saving
might, through His servants the prophets. — The
house of Elisha, before the door of which Naaman
stood (ver. 9), was certainly not a palace, but
rather a poor hovel, so that the " great man " did
not go in, but waited for the prophet to come out
to him, and receive him in a manner befitting
his rank. This, however, the prophet did not do,
but sent a message to him to instruct him what he
should do. The idea that he did this before
Naaman reached his house (Koster) contradicts the
words of the text. The reason why Elisha did not
come out was not that he was wanting in polite-
ness, or that he was influenced by priestly pride,
or that he feared the leprosy, or avoided intercourse
with a leper in obedience to the Law (Knobel),
but : " He wanted to show to Naaman once for all
that this princely magnificence, this splendor of
earthly honor and %vealth, did not affect him at all,
and that there was not the least cause in all this
why Naaman should be helped. Furthermore, he
wished to prevent the foreigner from thinking that
the help came from the prophet, and that he had
the healing power in himself, and also to prevent
him or any other from ascribing the cure to the
application of any external means : for the Syrians
knew as well as the Israelites that the Jordan
could not heal leprosy. . . . Naaman was to
understand that he was healed by the grace and
power of Almighty God, at the prayer of the pro-
phet " (Menken). — Thy flesh shall come again
to thee, &c. In leprosy raw Hesh appears and
running sores are formed, so that the diseased per-
son dies at last of emaciation and dropsy (Winer,
R.-W.-B. i. s. 115); the cure, therefore, consists in
the restoration of Hesh.
Ver. 1 1. But Naaman was wroth, &c. " Not
because he did not meet with becoming honor and
attention, but because none of the religious cere-
monies which he had expected were performed "
(Menken). He himself tells what he had expected :
Elisha's brief answer sounds to him like scorn.
The river Abana (ver. 12), or, as the keri has it,
Amana, is the Xpvanpfidac of the Greeks, now called
Barada or Barady. It rises in Antilebanon, and
flows through Damascus itself in seven arms
(Winer, R.-W.-B. ii. s. 194). Pharpar, i.e., the
swift, is hardly the little river Fidseheh, which
flows into the Barada, but the larger, independent
stream Avadsch, south of Damascus (see Thenms
<nd Keil on the passage). Both rivers, as mountain
utreams, have clean fresh water, and Damascus is
•fllt-brated to-day for its pare and healthy water;
"whereas the Jordan is 'a deep, sluggish, dis-
colored stream ' (Robinson, ii. 255, ed. of 1841), so
that we understand how Naaman could consider
the rivers of his native country better " (Keil).
The address: My father (ver. 13), is at once
familiar and respectful, as in chap. vi. 21, and
I Sam. xxiv. 11 ; the attendants addressed him
with mild words and sought to soothe him.
Thenius' conjecture that '3N is corrupted from QX ,
i/, is utterly unnecessary. -\21 ■ ■ ■ "OT is a con-
ditional sentence without Dx and the object pre
cedes for emphasis (Keil). — '3 C|X as in 2 Sam. iv. 11
— Tl>1 ver. 14, means he journeyed down, i. e., froir
Samaria to the valley of the Jordan.
Ver. 15. And he returned to, to That which
Elisha had aimed at by his direction in ver. 10,
namely, not merely the cure of the leprosy, but
Naaman's conversion by means of it to the one true
God, the God of Israel, was gained, as Naaman
himself acknowledges : Behold, now I know, Ac.
At the same time he desires to show his gratitude
to the man of whom God had made use, and lie
begs him earnestly to accept a gift (rD"Q as in
Gen. xxxiii. 1 1 ; 1 Sam. xxv. 27 ; xxx. 26). Although
Elisha on other occasions accepted gifts for himself,
or at least for the body of prophet-disciples (cf.
chap. iv. 42), yet in this case he steadily refused
(ver. 16), not certainly from haughty self-assertion
in his dealings with the great Syrian, but to show
him that the prophet of the God of Israel observed
a different conduct from the heathen priests, who
allowed themselves to be richly rewarded for their
deceitful services ; especially, however, in order to
establish in the mind of the healed man the con-
viction that the God of Israel alone, out of free
grace and pity, had helped him, and that ne owed
to that God sincere and lasting gratitude. The re-
fusal of Elisha must have made a deep impression
not only upon Naaman, but also upon his entire
retinue. As Theodoret observes, there lay at the
bottom of this refusal the feeling that our Lord de-
manded of His disciples : " Freely ye have received,
freely give."
Ver. 17. And Naaman said : If not, let there,
then, Ac. X?l = nal el fir/, as the Sept. have, not :
ut vis (Vulg.), nor: "And oh!" (Ewald). It was
not Naaman's object, in his request that he might
take a load of earth with him, to " sacrifice to
Jehovah on this outspread earth, as it were in the
Holy Land itself" (Thenius), but he wished to build
an altar of it. Altars were often made of earth ;
the altar of burnt-offering even, according to the
Mosaic Law, was to be of earth (Ex. xx. 24 ; Symbol,
des Mos. Kult. i. s. 491). It is almost universally
supposed that Naaman was subject to the " poly-
theistic superstition," that each country had its
own deity, who could be worshipped properly only
in it, or on an altar built of its soil (so the latest
commentators: Thenius, Keil, Von Gerlach, 4c).
But if Naaman had cherished the delusion that
every land had its own God, that is to say, that
there were other gods by the side of and besides
the God of Israel, even though they were not so
mighty as He, he would have been in contradiction
with His own words in ver. 15 : I know that there
is no God in all the earth but in Israel, and he
would not yet have grasped the main point, nor
recognized that truth which forms the distinction
of the Israelitish religion from all others, viz., that
Jehovah alone is God, and that there is no other
beside Him (Deut. iv. 35; xxxii. 39, &c). More-
over, the prophet could have passed over this de-
lusion least of all without combating it, not to say
anything of his replying to it : " Go in peace." He
must, at the very least, have called the Syrian's a'
tention to this error. Peter Martyr explains the
desire to take away a load of earth quite correctly •
hoc si'jno sua/n contestatur fidem ergn deum Israelis
CHAPTER V.-VI. 7.
55
et ed terrd, tanquam symbolo, voluit ejus admoneri.
Not because he ascribed to this earth an especial
magical power, but because Israel was the land
in which the only true God had revealed and vindi-
cated himself to His people, and now finally to him,
did he wish to erect an altar of this earl 1 1. which
should be, in the midst of a heathen country, a sign
and monument of the God of Israel, and a memo-
rial of the prophet of that God. This was why he
did not take the load of earth, as he might have
done, from any indifferent spot, but begged it of
the man through whom he had been brought to a
knowledge of the one true God. His request was,
therefore, the result of a strong and joyful faith
rather than of a heathen delusion. If, in a similar
manner, according to the narrative of Benjamin of
Tudela, cited by Thenius on this passage, the syna-
gogue at Nahardea in Persia was built only of
earth and stone which had been brought from Je-
rusalem, it was so built by the strict monotheistic
Jews, certainly not from "polytheistic supersti-
tion." but for the same reasons for which Naaman
wished to build his altar of sacrifice out of
Israeiitish earth. [See bracketed note at the end
of Histor. § 1.]
Ver. 18. In this thing the Lord pardon, etc.
Rimmon is doubtless a designation of the highest
Syrian divinity, abbreviated from Hadad-Rimmon
(Movers). See above, Exeg. on 1 Kings xv. 18. It is
of little importance for us whether the name is de-
rived from DO") (D1"l) «'• «-, to be high, so that it is
equivalent to \xhyi (Ps. ix. 2 ; xxi. 7), or from jia-)
pomegranate (the well-known symbol of the repro-
ductive power). — The expression : And he leaneth
on my hand, designates a service, which apper-
tained to a high official (adjutant) of the king, on oc-
casions when 'he latter bowed down or arose, or
performed any similar ceremony. This service was
also executed at the court of the Israeiitish kings
(chap. vii. 2, 17). The urgency of the request is
marked by the repetition of the words: when I
bow down. The meaning of the request is : when I,
in the execution of any duty, accompany my king to
the temple of Rimmon, and bow down when he
bows down, then may that be pardoned me, and
may I not be regarded as worshipping that divinity.
I will not serve, from this time on, any God but Jeho-
vah. Theodoret : eioiLiv kyu rbv a\Tfdivbv TTpoonvvrjcu
&e6v ■ ovyyvu/i^c Tv%elv l/cerei'd/v, bri fiy Sta rr/v
fiaaCkiK-riv avayKTfv eice?.deiv irpbc tov il>evd(livvfiov
debv avaymCopai. The word ninn"'n , which is
used of prostration before men as well as before
God, and so in itself does not signify a purely re-
ligious act, cannot here be understood of an act of
worship, for, if it could, Naaman would say in ver.
18 the very opposite of what he had promised in
ver. 17, and Elisha could not have responded to
the request that he might worship Rimmon besides
Jehovah with the blessing: " Go in peace." Some
have very unjustly found, in the request that he
might take away a load of earth, and also in the
prayer that he might be forgiven for prostration in
the house of Rimmon, signs that his faith was still
wavering, undecided, and weak. It rather shows
tr at he had a tender conscience, which desired to
avoid an appearance of denying Jehovah, and
which was forced to speak out its scruples and
have them quieted. Such scruples would not have
occurred to one who was wavering between ser-
vice of God and service of the gods. — According tc
Keil, Elisha meant by the words : Go in peace,
ver. 19, to wish for the Syrian, on his departure,
the blessing of God, " without approving or dis-
approving the religious conviction which he had
expressed:" or, according to Von Gerlach, " with-
out entering into the special questions involved."
But the prophet could not return a reply to a request
which proceeded from conscientious scruples, such
as the new convert here presented, nor give a reply
which was at once yes and no, or neither the one noi
the other. Naaman was to proceed on his journey
" in peace," not in doubt or restless uncertainty.
If his request had been incompatible with a knowl-
edge of the true God, the prophet would have beeD
forced to show him that it was so ; he could not
have dismissed him with an ordinary, indifferent
" formula of farewell." That he omitted the cor-
rection and dismissed him in peace, shows beyond
question that he acceded to the request.
Ver. 19 sq. So he departed from him a little
way, &c. Literally : a length of country, as in
Gen. xxxv. 16, without definite measure. It cannot
have been very far (a parasang, according to the
Syrian Version, or three and a half English miles,
according to Michaelis). If it had been so far
Gehazi could not have overtaken the horses
(ver. 9). — This Syrian, ver. 20, Vulg. : Syro isti,
i. e., this foreigner, from whom he would have had a
double right to take some reward. The oath : As
the Lord liveth, stands in contrast with that of
Elisha, ver. 16. Blinded by his avarice, Gehazi
considers it right before God to take pay, just as
Elisha, in his fidelity, considers it right before God
to accept nothing. — Descent from a vehicle (ver. 21)
is, in the East, a sign of respect from the inferior
to the superior (Winer. R.- W.-B. i. s. 501) ; Naaman
honored the prophet in his servant. " From
Gehazi's hasty pursuit he infers that something un-
fortunate for the prophet has occurred " (Thenius),
and askB, therefore, Rectene sunt omnia t (Vulg.)
In reply to Gehazi's assertion (ver. 22), he urges
him to accept two talents, one for each prophet-
disciple, and he causes the money to be borne
before Gehazi in two sacks, as a mark of his eager
willingness. Whether D't2~in means open-worked,
basket-like sacks, with handles (Thenius), or not,
can hardly be determined from the word. — ?pj?n
(ver. 24) is not a proper name (Luther), but the hill
which stood before the house of Elisha, not before
the house of anybody else, an acquaintance, for in-
stance (Clericus).
Ver. 25 and 26. And Elisha said unto him,
Ac. The words of Elisha: 7|i?n 'SP'tO , stand in
evident contrast with the words of Gehazi:
Tn3V 7|^iT"tO , and mean : Thou sayest that thou
didst not go anywhither ; neither did I go away any-
whither, i. e., I was not absent when Naaman de-
scended from the chariot to come to meet thee.
Instead of " I," the prophet says '35 , my heart
(1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; 1 Kings viii. 39 ; Jerem. xvii. 10,
Ac), because he was not present there, as Gehaz-'
was. bodily and visibly, but in spirit, invisiblj
(1 Cor. v. 3). Vulgata: Nonne cor meum in prce-
senti erat quando, &c. Thenius : " Did I not go
hence in spirit, and was I not present there 1 ' It
56
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
is not necessary to take it as a question, however,
as is usually done. The question begins with nyn .
Ewald takes "my heart" to mean "my favorite,
so that Elisha here rather refers with a severe
pleasantry to his most intimate follower, who
could so far transgress against his master, although
he was his favorite pupil." It is incredible that
the prophet could have introduced the hard punish-
ment of Gehazi (ver. 27) with a jesting, scornful
question. [This rendering of Ewald : " Had not
my dear pupil gone forth when some one (i e., Naa-
man) turned back from his chariot to meet thee,"
makes better sense than any other. It is not so
much a jest as it is a sarcastic stripping bare of the
falsehood, and it is not at all inconsistent with the
revulsion of indignation and severity which prompts
the condemnation which follows. Against this ex-
planation, however, is the fact that this meaning for
'3^ cannot be proved. Ewald refers to the Song
of Solomon to justify the explanation, but without
citing particular passages, and the context is so
different in the two cases that the usage could not
be established by its occurrence in that book. —
W. G. S.] The explanation of Botteher is equally
inadmissible : " I, according tc my convictions,
could not have prevailed upon my heart . . .
to go." After ver. 16 Elisha no longer needed to
assert this. It was already clear. Maurer's ex-
planation: Non abierat, i.e., evanuerat (Ps. lxxviii.
39), animus mens, h. e., vis divinandi me nequaquam
defecerat, falls, because "ipTl would have to be
Uken in a very different sense from what it has in
ver. 25, and because the clear reference to Gehazi's
words would then be lost. [The explanation of
Thenius, practically that of the E. V., is the
best. The strain put upon the words to make
thein mean, " I did not go away from the interview
between thee and Naaman," i. <?., " I was present at
it," is apparent. — W. G. S.] — Is it a time, &c., i. e.,
" In any other case better than in this, mightest
thou have yielded to thy desire for gold and goods "
(Thenius). Gehazi had not received olive-trees,
4c, but he meant to buy them with the money.
[The form in which the Vulgate translates the
verse is not literally faithful to the original, but it
brings out with great distinctness the antithesis be-
tween the objects Gehazi had in view, and which,
indeed, he had gained, and the other results which
must follow : " Thou hast indeed received money
wherewith thou mayest buy garments, and olive-
yards, and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and
men-servants, and maid-servants ; but, also, the
leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto
thy seed forever."] A leper as white as snow
(ver. 27), cf. the same expression, Ex. iv. U ;
Numb. xii. 10, where a similar sudden attack of
this disease takes place. According to Michuelis
this takes place often under great terror or great
affliction. The skin around the diseased spots is
chalk-white (Winer, R.-W.-B., l. s. 114). Upon
the words: Unto thee and unto thy seed (pos-
terity) forever, Menken says: "It is the full,
Strong expression of excited, deep, yet holy and
just leeling, which dare not and will not lay its
words upon delicate scales, and which, to ex-
press the fulness of its abhorrence or its admira-
tion, of its curse or its blessing, seizes upon a
'onniila of the vulgar dialects of the country, even
though it may not apply, in syllable and letter, te
the case in hand."
Chap. vi. 1. And the sons of the prophet*
said, &c. This story is to be connected with thr
two in chap. iv. 3S— 44, and is a supplement tc
them. Thenius supposes that it stands here " in
order to show that what is said here in ver. 1 did
not take place until long after." The connection
into which Cassel brings it with chap. v. is verj
forced, viz. : that the needy community of the pro
phets forms a contrast to the rich and mighty
military commander; or, that, in spite of Gehazi's
fall, the number of prophet-disciples had in-
creased so much, that a new house was necessary
for them. Theodoret's connection is at least more
natural: He (Gehazi) sought riches and became a
leper; the company of prophet-disciples, on the
contrary, loved the greatest poverty. It is hardly
possible that the place which had become too small
was in Gilgal (chap. ii. 1 ; iv. 38), for this lay at a
considerable distance from the valley of the Jor-
dan ; the same is true of Bethel. It is more likely
to have been Jericho. The words : Where we
dwell with thee (see on chap. iv. 38). show that
the need was of a larger place of assembly, since
the number of prophet-disciples had increased, and
amounted at this time to certainly over a hundred
(chap. iv. 43). There is no reason to find a refer-
ence to dwellings which were to be built for all, as
has been done in the interest of monasteries. They
wished to go to the Jordan (ver. 2), because " its
bank is thickly grown with bushes and trees "
(willows, poplars, and tamarisks. Hitzig on
Jerem. xii. 5), so that the building material was
conveniently at hand. By the following words
they mean : if each one cuts a beam, the work will
soon be accomplished. They beg the prophet to
go with them, not that he may direct the work —
he was no architect — but because they wish to
have him in their midst, and promise themselves,
from his presence, blessing and success for their
labor.
Ver. 5. But as one was felling a beam, Ac.
It has been inferred from inxn , which also occurs
in the 3d verse, that it was the same one who is
there referred to, but without reason. According
to Hitzig and Thenius the DX before ?T"l3n
introduces the new, definite subject. According
to Keil, it serves to subordinate the noun to the
sentence: " As for the iron, it fell into the water."
In the lament lies also a request for help, which is
strengthened by ?}KB> Nini . The person in ques-
tion had " begged" for the axe, probably because
he was too poor to buy one ; hence the loss grieved
him more than it would have done if it had come
into his possession by gift. Luther's translation
[and that of the E. V.], "borrowed," is correct
in sense, though not exactly the corresponding
word. The Vulgate has : et hoc ipsum mutuo ac-
ceperam. — The words ^flSH S]V*I are translated
by Luther, following the Sept.: "The iron swam,"
and hence the story, vers. 1-6, is commonly en-
titled " The swimming iron." Thenius and Koil
translate: "And he caused the iron to swim.''
But rpv Joes not mean " swim," like nnt' psai. xxv.
11), but : overflow (Lament, iii. 54) : " Waters flowed
over mine head ; " in the hifil ■ to cause to overflow
CHAPTER V.-VI. 7.
57
Deut. xi. 4 : "He made the water of the Red Sea
to overflow them." The word does not occur out
of these two places, in which it is impossible to
translate it by swim and cause to swim. Cf. also
tpiV , honeycomb (Ps. xix. 1 0), from the idea of over-
flowing. Just as Jehovah brought the water over
the horses and chariots, so that they were under
it, Elisha here brought the axe over the water, so
that it was no longer concealed by it. The Sept.
translate: not kneTTokaGE to aidqpov, i. e., and the
iron arose — appeared upon the surface. Hesychius
explains hirrxoTiAoavrec by iirava rov Maroc
Trepitpepdutvot. If hiriTrola^ELV meant swim, it could
not, at the same time, have the meaning: to be
haughty, to exalt one's self impudently (Plut.
Symp. ii. 1, 12). Hence Theodoret, on the passage,
says correctly: o 7rpooi/r//(; hvrryayt to auMjptov.
gvkov yap :uia/G)V, rcapeoKevao'ev k-fxokacat to
ciSi/ptov. [The translation " swim," meaning
simply " float," is perfectly allowable for either the
Hebrew word or the Greek one, by which the
Sept. render it. — W. G. S.] The miracle was not,
therefore, "that the wood which was thrown in
sank, while the iron swam upon the surface "
(Philippson), but, that the prophet, by throwing in
the wood, caused the iron to come to the surface,
where the young man could get it. Following-
many of the rabbis, Vatablus and others, includ-
ing Thenius, have adopted the opinion that Elisha
pierced the hole in the axe with the stick, and so
raised it out of the water. Of this the text says
nothing, it only states that he did bring up the
axe, not, however, how he did it ; wherefore, it can
only be regarded as a guess when Von Gerlach
says : " He thrust the stick into the water, so that
it passed beneath the iron and raised it to the sur-
face."
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The first of the two preceding narratives, which
fills the whole 5th chapter, is one of the most im-
portant in the life and prophetical labor of Elisha,
and this is marked, in fact, by the fulness of de-
tail with which it is narrated. Menken, in his ex-
cellent homilies upon this chapter (see his Schriften
v. s. 77-117), says of it with justice: "This is a
charming testimony to the living God ! — a worthy
part of the history of those revelations and mani-
festations of the living God, which, in their con-
nection and continuation through many centuries,
and in their tendency toward one goal and object,
were designed to plant upon earth the knowledge
and the worship of the true God ! But it offers
besides to our consideration a rich store of reflec-
tions, in which neither heart nor understanding
can refuse a willing participation." There is
hardly a single Old Testament story in which the
character of the Old Testament economy of salva-
tion is mirrored in any such way ; it is a truly pro-
phetical story, that is, an historical prophecy. On
the one side it shows the wonderful providence
and mode of salvation of God, His saving power
and grace, as well as His holy severity, and His
retributive justice ; on the other, closely inter-
woven with this, it shows human thought and de-
sire, suffering and action, as well in good as in
evil : it is the scheme of salvation epitomized.
However, when Krummacher says: "We should
rather expect to find it upon a page of the Gospel
-than senk it in an Old Testament book," and
affirms : " The baptism of the New Testament
meets us here already in a type which is full of
life," he confounds the economies of the two Tes-
taments. In spite of all its typical force, the story
is specifically an Old Testament one. The main
point, the proof of the whole, and therefore the
thing which is not to be lost sight of, is, that a
foreigner, a heathen, who, moreover, belongs to
the people by which Israel at that time was most
threatened ; a mighty commander, by whose instru
mentality Jehovah had given victory to the
Syrians, rinds help from the " prophet in Israel ''
(ver. 8), and comes to a knowledge of the one
true God, the God of Israel. This is the point, too,
which our Lord lays stress upon (Luke iv. 25-27)
when He, in order to shame and warn His country-
men who were scoffing at Him. refers to the
widow of Sarepta, the foreigner, to whom Elijah was
sent, and then to Naaman the Syrian, whom Elisha
healed. The conjunction of the two is by no means
accidental: both these great prophets of action
testified, during the time of apostasy in Israel, each
of them by an act of assistance towards a foreigner,
that Jehovah, with His might and grace, was not
confined to Israel ; that He takes pity upon the
heathen also, and leads them to knowledge, that
His great name may be praised among all nations
What the later prophets preached by word, Elijah
and Elisha prophesied by acts. As " widows and
orphans " were succored by both (see above on
chap. iv. 1 sq.), so foreigners are helped by both.
The story of Naaman, therefore, occupies an essen-
tial place in the history of the prophetical work of
Elisha ; without it one of the chief points of the
prophetical calling would be wanting in this work.
[We must endeavor to analyze this story more
closely, and to gain a more definite conception of
the course of the incidents. Naaman undoubtedly
had the religious ideas which were universal
throughout ancient heathendom. He regarded
the gods of Syria, which he had been educated to
worship, as real gods. None of them, or of their
priests or prophets, had or could cure him of
leprosy. He heard by chance the fame of Elisha,
as one who wrought wonders in the name of
the God of Israel. No heathen would maintain
that his national divinities were the only true gods.
Sennacherib declared that he was conquering
Judah by the command of Jehovah, whom he rec-
ognized as the god of that country. The heathen
colonists whom the king of Syria brought to popu-
late Samaria, attributed the ravages of the wild
beasts to the fact that the worship of the god of
the country was not provided for. It was the
notion of the heathen that each country had its
god, so that Syrians worshipped Syrian gods, and
Hebrews the Hebrew god. To the heathen this
seemed perfectly natural and correct. On the
other hand, the Hebrews declared that Jehovah
was the one only true God of all the earth, and
that the gods of the heathen were nullities (vanity,
E. V.) Naaman did not violate the principles of his
religious education when he went to Elisha ; Aha-
ziah, when he sent to Ekron (chap, i.), did. Naaman
came with a letter from the king of Syria to the king
of Israel, and he came with gifts, and in pomp — all
according to heathen ideas of the means of inducing
the thaumaturge to exercise his power. He was tr
be armed with the influence of authority and rank ;
he was to appear as a great man, for whom it wai
wi ill worth while for the wonder-worker to do what
58
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ever he possibly could, and he brought the material
means which his experience among wizards, divin-
ers, soothsayers, and priests, had taught him to re-
gard as indispensable. The king of Israel was ter-
rified at the demand ; but the prophet intervened.
We are surprised at this feature. If Naaman's er-
rand was really to Elisha, the literal words of the
letter would not have been a demand that the king
should heal him (ver. 6), but that he should com-
mand his subject, the prophet, to exercise his powers
ou the Syrian's behalf. Thus the king would have
simply referred Naaman to Elisha for the latter to
do what he could. The story is evidently so much
abbreviated at this point that its smoothness is im-
paired. Naaman comes in all his pomp to the door
of Elisha. He receives the prophet's command, and
his words in vers. 11 and 12 bear witness again to
wide and deep heathen conceptions. In ver. 11 he
describes graphically the mode of performance of
the heathen thaumaturge. "I thought, he will
stand " (take up a ceremonious and solemn attitude)
" and call upon the name of his God " (repeat a for-
mula of incantation), " and strike his hand upon the
place " (with a solemn gesture) " and remove the
leprosy." Had he come all that journey to be told
to bathe ? Could water cure leprosy ? If it could,
was there not the pure water of Abana and Phar-
par, better far than the sluggish and muddy water
of Jordan ? His pomp and state were thrown away :
the man of God did not even come to look at them.
His high credentials were wasted; the means of
cure prescribed for him might have been prescribed
for the poorest outcast in Israel. The deep and per-
manent truth of this feature, and also of the proph-
et's refusal to accept money, is apparent. The
difference between the Jehovah-religion and the
heathen religions is sharply portrayed by the con-
trast in each point, betweeu Naaman's expectations
on the one hand, and the prophet's words and
actions on the other. The Syrian's servants sug-
gested to him the sensible reflection that he ought
not to despise the prophet's command. He went,
bathed, and was cleansed. He then returned to
reward the prophet, but found that the prophet
did not give his help as a thing to be paid for.
The Syrian was not to think that the prophet had
used a power which was his own, and which might
be paid for, whereby the obligation would be dis-
charged. The service came from God; it was a
free act of grace ; a special blessing upon this one,
and he a foreigner, while many Israelitish lepers re-
mained uncleansed (Luke iv. 27). The prophet and
his God were not at the service of any one who
came and could pay a certain price ; they wrought
only where and when there was good reason, and,
when they did so, the recipient of grace lay under
an obligation which he never could discharge. In
regard to Naaman's words : "Now I know that
there is no God in all the earth but in Israel," a
careful scrutiny shows that the proposition is not
Strictly accurate, for the God of Israel is and was
not only in Israel, but in all the earth. The true
proposition would be : The God of Israel is the only
true God, and He reigns over all the earth. In
the very form of his confession Naaman shows
that his mind was still under the bias of the hea-
then ideaof local deities, so that In' says that there
is no God anywhere else in the world but in Israel.
No other had been able to heal him ; but Jehovah
Had done so by apparently very insignificant means,
Lence ho esteemed Jehovah true, and esteemed the
others very lightly or not at all. It should be no-
ticed also that the conception which he seems te
have reached was that which was held by very
many of the Jews, viz. : that Israel alone had any
God, and that the rest of the world was godless ;
their own gods were nullities, and Jehovah did
not care for them, so that they had no God at all.
He determined to devote himself to the worship
of Jehovah for the rest of his days. He there-
fore very naturally, in accordance with the same
idea of local or territorial divinities, asked for
earth from Palestine to build an altar for the
worship of Jehovah. He also made one furthei
request. His duty at his master's court (al-
though it is difficult to understand how a leper
could have had that office) was to attend his
master, and support him when he went to worship
in the temple of the Syrian God, Riramon. The
idea that Naaman was " converted " to the wor-
ship of Jehovah in such a sense that he went over
to the Hebrew idea of the other gods, is without
foundation. It is a modern idea, which has no
place in this connection. Naaman did not feel
bound at all to keep away from the temple of
Rimmon, as an early Christian would have kept
away from an idol-temple. His last request to the
prophet is, that, when he goes into this temple in
the course of his official duty, it shall not be re-
garded as a violation of his vow to pay all his
worship, for the future, to Jehovah, to the neglect
of all other gods. To this the prophet answers :
" Go in peace," i. e., your sincere performance of
your vow shall be recognized, and this conduct
shall not be interpreted as a violation of it. —
W. G. S.]
2. The healing of Naaman did not take place at
a mere word, but was like all miraculous deeds of
the prophet, attached to some corresponding ex-
ternal means, but to such an one that to it. in
itself, no healing power could be ascribed. This
power must first be conferred upon >t by the
prophet, so that the cure must necessarily be recog-
nized as an act of God, whose instrument and
minister the prophet was. The external means,
a sevenfold bath in Jordan, was a very significant
one. Evidently the prophet had in mind what the
Law prescribed for the purification of a leper.
Such an one was to "bathe himself in water"
(Levit. xiv. 8, 9), and throughout the entire cere-
mony of purification, " sevenfoldness " is the rule
(Levit. xiv. 7, 16, 27 ; cf. 51 ; Symbol, de-s Mos. Kult,
i. s. 196, and ii. s. 508, 518). The conduct of
Elisha was, therefore, in general analogous to the
ordinance in the Law, and, in so far, it referred
back to the God of Israel, who had given the Lf-w.
Naaman had to bathe in the Jordan because that
is the chief river of the promised land, which Hows
through the long and narrow country, so that it is
called simply the land of the Jordan (Ps. xlii. 6).
As Canaan was the land of Israel, so the Jordan
was the river of Israel. Moreover, it had great
importance for the history of Israel. From the " pas-
sage of the chosen people " through this water,
which is compared directly with the passage
through the Red Sea (Ps. cxiv. 3, 5), "dated the
existence of the theocracy in Palestine'' Winer,
A'.- W.-B. i. s. 620). The Jordan was witness, and,
in a certain degree, pledge and warrant of the
mighl and grace of God, which were revealed in
[srael. It was the water, in and at which Jehovah
had manifested himself as the almighty, helping.
CHAPTER Y.-VI. 7.
59
«r.d «pvj"»g God of Israel. The fact of being
apjlfj and purified by bathing in this water, was
iesigned to draw the mind of the heathen to the
fruth, that it is the God of Israel who alone can
help and save, and that He it was who had helped
him ; that he therefore owed gratitude to this God
alone, and not to the prophet who was only His
servant. We have, then, in this case another proof
that the miracles of the prophet were symbolic
acts, and it is remarkable that the immediate sig-
nificance of Klisha's transaction with Naaman,
although it lies upon its face and is so easily to be
recognized, has been hitherto almost entirely over-
looked. The naturalistic method of explanation is
at a loss to account for this miracle. According
to Knobel (Projihet. ii. p. 92-97): " Elisha had the
reputation of a good physician among the Syrians
as well as among the Israelites. . . The bath, taken
in obedience to the command of a man of God. was
blessed with an extraordinary efficacy. That this,
however, was not the entire curative process em-
ployed by Elisha is certain (?), though it is not pos-
sible to find out what else he did to Naaman." To
relegate the entire story to the domain of myth or
legend, on account of the miracle, is the least ad-
missible course to pursue. This story bears in
itself the impress of historical genuineness, if ever
one did. by virtue of its simplicity, its moderate
statements, its numerous characteristic details,
and its purely objective representation. To invent
such a story is impossible ; and it can occur to no
one who understands the matter that Naaman is a
mythical person. The remark of Koster (Die
Prophet, s. 89) : " The whole story is meant to show
that miracles were always intended to extend the
worship of Jehovah," is unsatisfactory, because
this was evidently not the case in many miracles,
and especially in all the rest which are recorded
of Elisha (cf. chap. iv.). [The most important and
most instructive feature of the story seems to be
overlooked by our author. It was not the water
either of Jordan or of Abana which could heal, it
was the obedience of this haughty general to a man-
date which seemed to him frivolous and absurd.
In the gospels faith is the first requisite in similar
cases of healing, and so it was here also — faith and
obedience. Naaman came with his mind all made
up as to how he was to be healed, and he turned
away in anger and disgust from the course which
the prophet prescribed. Tet, when he turned
back, even with a lame and half-doubting faith,
and a half-unwilling obedience, he was healed.
This is the permanent truth which is involved in
the story. Naaman was a type of the rationalist
whose philosophy provides him with a priori
dogmas by which he measures everything which
is proposed to his faith. He turns away in con-
tempt where faith would heal him. That is the
truth which the story serves to enforce. —
W. G. S.]
3. In the acknowledgment with which Naaman
returns to the prophet after being healed, the
Btory reaches its climax : all the ways in which
God led this man tended to this end. With the
words : " Behold, now I know that there is no
God in all the earth, but in Israel," he renounces
'he fundamental error of heathenism on the one
iisnd, viz.: that every nation had its own god,
and on 1he other hand he acknowledges that there
is only one God on earth, and that He reveals
nimaolf in Israel. He does not, therefore, ex-
change one national god for another, but declares
that Jehovah is the first and the last, and that there
is no God beside Him (Isai. xliv. 6), that the whole
earth belongs to Him (Ex. xLx. 5), and that this
God has chosen the people of Israel for the salva-
tion of all nations, and reveaied himself to them.
This is the kernel of Naaman's confession, that he
does not merely turn from Polytheism to Mono-
theism, but recognizes the God who has revealed
himself to Israel as the one living God. There-
fore, also, this land, which God promised and gave
to his people, is for him a holy laud (cf. Dan. xi.
16, 41 ; Ps. xxxvii. 9, 29; Prov. ii. 21 sq.). There-
fore he wishes to take earth from this country that
he may sacrifice thereon to its God. Such a confes-
sion from the mouth of a heathen would be incom-
prehensible, especially from one who had the dis-
position which Naaman showed before he was
healed (vers. Hand 12), if something extraordinary
and miraculous had not taken place. For unfaith-
ful, wavering Israel, which had had a far wider
experience of the might and glory of its God than
Naaman, this confession was a source of shame,
of warning, and of reproof.
4. Naaman's request (ver. 18) and Elisha' s reply
(ver. 19) have been made the text of extended
theological treatises (cf. Buddeus' Hist. Eccles. ii.
p. 3C0 sq.). For instance: it has been inferred
that, under certain circumstances, it is permitted
to participate in the ceremonies of a religion one
recognizes as erroneous. Among Roman Catholics
the passage has been used to justify the conduct
of missionaries who permitted the newly-converted
heathen to continue to observe pagan ceremonies;
among Protestants, as Starke saj's, " Some have
drawn the conclusion that an attendant of a
prince or king might accompany him to Mass, and
do him service there, if he was in the service of
the prince before the latter was converted to a
false worship of God. Such a case was that of
John of Saxony, whom the Emperor Charles V.
asked to carry the sword in procession as Grand
Marshal of the empire, when the emperor went in
solemn state to Mass."' The passage does not,
however, give a general rule for all times and all
places, because the case of Naaman belongs en-
tirely to the Old Testament, and could not now
occur. If Naaman ought not to have continued to
exercise his office about the person of his king
any longer, then he must have given up, not only
his influential position, but also his fatherland and
his nationality, and must have become an Israelite,
and that too at a time when there was so much
apostasy in Israel itself. The entire object of his
being healed, viz., that he, in the midst of a
heathen nation, which was hostile to Israel, might
be a witness and an actual confessor of the God
of Israel, and might carry His name into another
country, would have been frustrated. Elisha,
who had this object before all else in view, does
not, therefore, raise any objections to his request :
he invokes upon him "peace" at his departure;
and, " since he perceives that Naaman's purposes
are pure, he leaves him to the direction of God, as
the one who will guide his conscience " (Jo. Lange).
Cassel (Elisha, s. 89) not improperly draws atten-
tion here to the difference between the conduct o(
Naaman and that of Themistocles in a similar case
The latter found it necessary to appear before the
Persian king, and there prostrate himself before
him, according to the Persian custom. As h;,
60
THE SECOND BOOK OP THE KINGS.
however, considered this unworthy of a Greek, lie
had recourse to the stratagem of allowing his ring
to fall, and then, as he picked it up, he bowed
oefore the throne, and so thought that he had
given satisfaction both to his conscience and to
the king. " Naaman did not wish to act thus.
He was not willing to deceive or act the hypocrite,
for he knew that his God could see through the
stratagem, and would not permit himself to be de-
ceived, although men might think that they had
concealed their hearts." [There is no reason
whatever to suppose that Naaman knew all that ;
and the heinousness of this stratagem of Themis-
tocles was very different from that of an hypocrit-
ical act of worship. Why should we imagine that
Naaman, after he was cleansed of leprosy, had the
clear conceptions, the pure piety, and the delicate
conscience of a modern Christian? Furthermore, it
seems that, if the words of the author above are
pressed, he will be made to say that any one may
engage in hypocritical acts of worship, if he can,
by so doing, remain in a position where he can
make proselytes ! The object of the miracle was
not to make a proselyte of Naaman (see above,
bracketed note at the end of § 1). The Israelites,
at this period, made no effort whatever to gain
proselytes. The opportunity offered to glorify the
God of Israel before a heathen of rank, and it was
done. He naturally turned, as a consequence, to
the worship of Jehovah, as superior to all other
gods. In the addition to § 1, it is stated what Naa-
man meant by this request, and what the signifi-
cance of the prophet's answer was. — W. G. S.]
5. Gehazts transgression and its punishment are
to be estimated principally from the historical-
theocratical, and not alone from the moral stand-
point. His act was not a product of mere vulgar
avarice, which shrinks back from no falsehood.
By it he made his master, all of whose intercourse
with him ought to have exercised a purifying in-
fluence upon him, a liar, and his oath (ver. 1G) an
empty phrase. He did not leave Naaman with
the undimmed conviction that all the grace he had
experienced had come to him gratis, and that
" there was a prophet in Israel." He did not fear
to stain the work which God had done upon a
heathen foi the glory of His name, and thereby he
denied the Holy One, whose might he had just
seen manifested upon Naaman. The words which
Peter used of Ananias were true of him : " Thou
hast not lied unto men but unto God " (Acts v. 4).
His act was a betrayal of the prophet, of Naaman,
and of Jehovah. " A thousand deceits and dis-
honesties might have been committed, by all of
which not one of the dear and holy interests would
have been injured, which in this case were in
danger, and which, by this act, were criminally
and faithlessly betrayed " (Menken). Hence it in-
curred so severe a punishment, which was not
arbitrarily or indifferentlj' chosen, but which pro-
ceeded out of the transgression, and corresponded
'o it. The leprosy of Naaman (ver. 27) became the
eprosy of Gehazi ; as Naaman was a living monu-
ment of the saving might and grace of Jehovah,
so Gehazi was a monument of the retributive jus-
tice of the Holy One in Israel; a living warning
and threat for the entire people. By his conversion
Naaman was taken up into God's community of
redemption in Israel; by his unfaithfulness and
denial of this God, Gehazi brings down upon
himself the punishment which excludes him from
the society of the prophet-disciples, and of th*
entire covenant people. Finally, as Naaman'*
cure and conversion was a physical prophecy that
God will have pity upon the heathen also, and will
receive them into His covenant of grace, so Ge-
hazi's leprosy prophesied the rejection of the
people of Israel who should abandon the cove-
nant of grace, and persevere in apostasy (Matt. viii.
11, 12; xxi. 43).
6. Tlie second narrative (chap. vi. 1-7) relates
the last of the acts of Elisha which concern indi-
viduals. It is distinguished from the two men-
tioned above, which likewise took place in the
circle of the prophet-disciples (chap. iv. 38-44), by
the circumstance that here help is given in need
to one person, not, as there, to the entire society.
The number of the prophet-disciples had become
so great, that the construction of another building
had become necessary. Here now was to ba
shown how each separate individual of the com-
pany might be consoled by the help of Jehovah
even in the slightest need. The loss of the axe,
even though it had been "begged for," was very
slight in itself; but for a poor man, who did not
even possess the necessary implements for cut-
ting wood, a greater one than it would be for
a rich man, if all his treasures should fall into
the water. As before God there is no respect of
persons, prince or beggar being all one, so there
is also before Him no independent value in things ;
what is small and insignificant for one person,
being great and important for another. The lilies
of the field, which bloom to-day and to-morrow
are east into the oven, are as glorious before God
as Solomon in all Ms glory (Matt. vi. 28-30). His
might and goodness are revealed in the smallest
detail as well as in the greatest combination. He
helps in what are apparently the smallest interests
of the individual, as well as in the greatest affairs
of entire nations, and He rules with His grace
especially over those who keep His covenant, and
turn to him in all the necessities of life. That is
the great truth which this little story proclaims,
and just for the sake of this truth, it was " thought
worthy to be inserted in the history of the theo-
cracy " (Hess). The restoration of the axe, where-
by aid was given to the prophet-disciple in his
need, strengthened all the others in the faith that
the God in whose honor they were erecting the
building was with them, and would accompany
their work with His blessing ; they worked now
only the more zealously and gladly.
7. The swimming iron, which is the title ordi-
narily given to this narrative, is an entirely incor-
rect designation of it. It has the literal meaning
of the text against it, and it misleads to the opinion
that the only point of the story is, that Elisha
also made iron swim upon water like wood.
What significance, however, would such a miracle
have under these circumstances? It would not
have any proper force, either for the prophet-
disciple himself, or for the construction of the
building, and would be nothing more than a feat
of the divine omnipotence, without either moral
or religious foundation, and at most only a thing
to excite astonishment. This object has indeed
been suggested : " the prophet-disciples were to
learn here, that God had not only made the
forces which have sway in nature, but, also, that
He directs them continually ; that He makes thai
easy which is hard, when we only pray him to if
CHAPTER V-VI.
HI
bo in a just cause " (Von Schliisser). In that case,
however, even' connection with the building of
the house would be wanting, and one does not see
why so general a truth should be made known to
the prophet-disciples precisely on the occasion of
♦he loss of an axe, which its owner had begged
for or borrowed. The same objection applies with
still more force to the opinion that the miracle of
the floating iron proclaimed the following: "A
light thing raises a heavy thing from the deep . . .
The world's history shows that in the miraculous
providence of God, that which is heavy is raised
by that which is light. . . . Iron is the symbol of
sin ; wood, however, serves for peace, reconcilia-
tion, sacrifice. . . . He who died upon the wood
made all sin powerless; raised it up out of the
deep where it lav buried, in history and in the in-
dividual man" (Cassel, Elisa, s. 100-106). This
allegorical explanation, which is, to begin with,
arbitrary and unfounded, overlooks, from the out-
set, the fact that it is not a question here of a piece
of heavy metal, iron in general, but rather of a
definite implement, which was necessary for cutting
timber, of an axe which had been lost, and of the
poor man who had lost it, after begging for it, and
for whom it was to be recovered. In this misfor-
tune the prophet helped him, and this is the main
point ; not the fact that the iron floated. Accord-
ing to the naturalistic explanation Elisha " pierced
the hole in the axe with the pointed stick, and so
lifted it up " (Knobel, Der Proph. ii. s. 98) ; and
Krister (Die Proph. s. 90) says: "It was very cor-
rectly asserted, even by the Jewish expositors,
that this was no miracle. (Buddeus, p. 364, opposes,
and maintains the miracle, but cannot tell what
was the use of the sharpened stick.) The axe had
flown from the handle; Elisha pierced a stick into
the aperture of it, and brought it up. The edify-
ing application of it was, that presence of mind be-
comes a prophet, and is valuable even in the slight
affairs of every-day life." But the text says
nothing about what would here be the main point,
viz. : the sharpening of the stick. 3VP (ver 6)
does not mean to point, to sharpen, but only to
chop off (Geseniusl. Besides, it is clear that the
narrative is not intended to tell of some ordinary
incident, which any one could do in every-day life
without especial " presence of mind," but of an
act which only a prophet, by virtue of the spirit
of Jehovah, could do. That he made use for this
purpose of an external physical means is true not
only here, but also in the case of all his miraculous
deeds (cf. 1 Kings xvii., Hist. § 5).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-19. The Story of Naaman. (a) His
Illness (vers. 1-8); (b) his cure (vers. 9-14); (c) his
conversion (vers. 15-19). — Vers. 1-8. Bender:
Naaman ; a consideration (a) of the discipline of
suffering under which he was; (b) of the star of
hope which arose for him in his misfortune ; (c) of
the path in which he was led by this hope. — Ver. 1.
Menken : Everywhere where there is, or seems to
be, something great and fortunate, there is also a
Slight discordant " but," which, like a false note
in a melody, mars the perfectness of the good-
fortune. A worm gnaws at everything pertaining
to this world , and everything here below carries
die germs of death in itself. . . . "We ought to
consider all human suffering and misery worthy of
consideration, wherever we find it. It is found
everywhere ; it dwells in the palace and in the
hovel ; it is interwoven with the life of prince and
beggar; and it is inseparable from all worldly
happiness. This is to the end that we may
perceive and be convinced that there is nothing
earthly with which a man should be contented.
and in which he can find true rest and the ever-
enduring peace of the soui, and therefore that
the poor and lowly have no reason to envy the
rich and great. That which makes us happy in
truth and for eternity does not depend upon rank
or upon wealth.— Calwer Bibel : God treated this
heathen in the way in which He is accustomed to
treat His children. Just as He is wont to give to
them, together with everything joyful which He
grants them, also something incidental to restrain
their pride, that they may remain humble, and
may learn to seek God, so that He may still further
glorify himself in them, so He visited this great
military chief, whom He had so magnified in other
respects, with a disease, which should make him
humble, and teach him to seek further grace. That
which seems to us and to all the world to be the
greatest misfortune, and which is mourned as
such, is often, according to God's wise counsel, the
way to our highest good-fortune and welfare.
The Lord says : " What I do thou knowest not
now" &c. (John xiii. 7; HJb. xii. 11).
Vers. 2 and 3. Kpxmmacher: The Foreign
Slave-Girl, (a) The momentous purchase ; (b) the
development of the seed of true religion in a
heathen laud ; (e) the earnest ray of hope in the
dark night of sorrow. The Little Girl from the
Land of Israel, (a) Her heavy lot (such an one
as that of Joseph and Daniel. — Menken: Torn
from her friends, led away from her people and
her fatherland, sold in a foreign country, slave of a
heathen, she was a stranger to the joys of youth
and the pleasure of life, and sadness and sorrow
overclouded her life. How often may she, seized by
yearning for the land of her childhood and youth,
by longing for father and mother, have cried out;
to God. She could endure all this because she
had learned in early youth to know the God whose
eye overlooks all countries, and who holds His
hand over all who heartily depend on Him. How
necessary it is that parents should early make
their children acquainted with the living God and
His holy Word, that they may learn to yield them-
selves to His ways, and may have a light and staff
in the dark valley) ; (b) her good advice. (It came
from a heart which was full of sympathy for the
trouble of her master, and which did not, like so-
many, serve with mere eye-service to please men.
It was like a sun arising in a dark night, and it
was the first movement towards Naaman's salva-
tion in body and soul, and towards the glorifica-
tion of the living God among the heathen. How
great things the little maid brought about without
knowing it. God often makes use of the most in-
significant instruments (1 Cor. i. 28) for building
up His kingdom and for spreading abroad His
name. The least important person in the house-
hold becomes a living proof of the all-controlling,
loving care and providence of God, and of the
declaration, Isai. lv. 9.) — Ver. 4. Cramer: One
ought not to despise the counsel of even insigni-
ficant persons, for God can accomplish great things
even by means of these. — Cassel: When th«
fi2
THE SECOND BOOK OF THK KINGS.
great aud mighty are so bowed down that they
do not know where else to get help, they listen
dven to a child Nay : such are we all. When
>he waves reach to our heads we begin to listen
to anything ; no advice is too contemptible for us ;
ao person too insignificant for us to be willing to
listen. — Ver. 4-7. Naaman's Journey to Samaria.
[a) The equipment for it. (The king gives him a
'etter of introduction : he departs witli great pomp,
with horses and chariots, and he takes with him
rich treasures for gifts. Provided with all this,
he has a firm hope of attaining his object. Rank,
might, and wealth, those are the things in which a
man hopes who has not yet learned to know the
living God; but the Scripture says: " Put not your
trust," &c, Ps. cxlvi. 3, 5; cxviii. 9; and: "A horse
is a rain thing," &c, Ps. xxxiii. 17; and: "We
brought nothing into," Ac., 1 Tim. vi. 7.) (b) The
Reception in Samaria. (The king is terrified
because he has a bad conscience, Job xv. 21;
Wisdom xvii. ] 1. Such a man always finds more
in a letter than it says. Those who do not trust
God do not trust one another. In his terror he is
at a loss what to do. The king of Israel does not
Know what the little maid knew (ver. 3). In mat-
ters of the kingdom of God the humble and lowly
have often more experience than the great, Matt.
xi. 25 ; 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. Naaman was to be made
to feel this, Sirach li. 10 : Ps. lxxxviii. 5, in order
that ho might come to Him from whom alone help
can come, Ps. iii. 8 ; lxviii. 20). — Ver. 6. Great men.
who aie accustomed to find every one ready to do
their will, often believe, in their blindness, that they
can command that to be done which only God can
do. — Ver. 7. What good does it do to believe in a
God who can kill and make alive, if one does not
fear Him and bow before Him ; does not seek Him,
and therefore does not find Him ? (James ii. 19).
Vers. 8-14. The Healing of Naaman. (a) The
conduct <*f the prophet (vers. 8, 10, 14); (ft) Naa-
man's behavior under it (vers. 9, 11-13). — Ver. 8.
Cramer When faithful servants of God see that
the uub'.lief of the godless redounds to God's dis-
honor, I hey hasten to oppose it. God spoke and
made 'mown His mercy by the prophets iu Israel
many times and iu many ways. Last of all. He
revr.f.'ed Himself by His Son, who is the " bright-
ness, of His glory, and the express image of His
person" (Heb. i. 1-3). He speaks to all who have
to '.onsole the sorrowing or counsel the despair-
ing : Let them come to me that they may learn that
a Saviour has come into the world, who restores the
sorrowful and heavy-laden, aud in whom they can
find rest for their souls. — Cassel: In Israel a
prophet is never wanting; He lives who goes ever
with us; He lives who has washed all wounds in
His blood; though all the world should fall in
ruins, my Saviour and my prophet lives. — Vers.
'.), 10. Horses and chariots, external grandeur and
display, must often be employed to conceal inter-
nal misery from the eyes of the world, and to im-
poso upon it. A genuine man of God does not,
however, allow himself to be deceived, or to be
Dribed by pomp and display, but he speaks out
whatever God commands, whether it pleases the
world or not. In human affairs the word of the
Apostle applies: "Bo kindly affectioned one to
mother, " &c, Rom. xii. 10. In divine matters,
iowever, when the recognition of truth, and the
honor of God, and the glory of His name, are at
stake, a servant of God ought not to be governed
by the rules of worldly politeness, but only to b«
guided by that which will contribute to the salva-
tion of souls. It often requires far more self-denial
to resist the great than to yield to them; not all
is priestly pride which seems to the world to be
such. That which Naaman believed to be con-
tempt and rudeness really proceeded, in the case
of Klisha, from genuine love to him, and humility
and obedience to God. — Ver. 11 sq. Menken:
This man, convinced of the inadequacy of all hu-
man and earthly means to relieve his misfortune,
seeks divine help, and when he finds it, and it is
before him, so that he only needs to reach out hia
hands and take it, he is dissatisfied, and complains
of the divine help, on account of its peculiar form
and character; he turns away from it with anger
as from something worthless. And why? Simply
on account of his prejudice; because he had made
up his mind that what was divine must take place
in another way, that its form of acting and help-
ing must be different. He did not stop and ask
himself whether he had reason and right for his
expectation, nor whether the peculiarity of speech,
action, and relief, which displeased him, was un
becoming to what was divine. Trusting to his
prejudice without scruple or investigation as to its
justice, as it were to an oracle, i. e., trusting to
himself as possessing an infallible insight, he de-
parts. How faithful and true the old picture is I
How fresh and new it is, as if men of to-day had
sat for it I Ask thousands, who are devoted to
human pursuits with enthusiasm and zeal, and
who leave what is holy and divine in contemptu-
ous neglect, why they do so, and they will be able
to give but this one answer: I thought that the
divine must speak, and act, and will, and work, iu
a different way from this; I cannot reconcile it
with my opinion; if I should accept this I should
have to throw away my opinion, and that of the
public and the time. — Observe this now well, and
do not think it of little importance. This "I
thought! " is the most mighty of all mighty things
i'ii earth, and even if it is not the most ruinous of
all ruinous tilings, it is yet certainly the most un-
fortunate of all unfortunate ones. This " I thought"
brought sin and misery and death into the world,
and it prevents redemption from sin and death in
the case of thousands. These thousands, if they
perish in their opinion, will begin the next life
with "I thought!" — Calwer BinEL: How com-
mon it is for men to prescribe to God the ways of
His providence and the modes of His assistance!
Just in order to break this self-will, and to awaken
aud test our faith and our patience, God must act
contrary to our prejudice. — Richter: How many
a one asks in unbelief: how can water do so great
things? Water does not indeed do it, but the
word of God. which is in aud with the water. —
The Means by which Naaman was made whole.
(a) Their apparent insignificance ; {h) their real
significance (see Histor. §§ 1 and 2). — Menken:
Blessed is he who is not offended because of me,
said once He, in whom and through whom the di-
vine appeared to men in its purest and most glo-
rious form, and in its deepest and directest sense.
Thereby He showed conclusively that the divine
has a peculiarity on account of which it is and
must be opposed to the perverse sense of sinful
men. Therefore we call that man blessed whe
can believe the divine, and to whom the humble
form in which it arrears here below is no causi
OHAPTER V.-YI. 7.
6S
of mistake, and whom the simplicity in which it
in dressed for the sake of truth, and the humility
with which it is clad for the sake of love, offends
so little that he admires and honors and loves it
all the more exactly on this account.- — Cf. 1 Cor. i.
20-29. — Naaman became angry on account of the
message which the prophet sent to him. So now
also the message of salvation is received with an-
ger because it opposes the opinion and the pride
of the natural man, who is not willing to admit
that he is a poor sinner, and diseased, and in need
of salvation (James i. 21). That which is offered
as a means of life and peace, becomes thus all the
greater cause of destruction. — Luther : The world
wants to earn heaven from God, although He pro-
claims through the world : I will be your God ; I
will give it to you out of free grace, and I will
make you blessed without a price. [Naaman as a
Type of the Rationalist. The a priori notions which
men form, which become prejudices in their minds,
and by which they measure things. They invent
a God in their own minds and go to the Bible to
see if they find the same God there ; if not, they
reject Him. They form a priori notions of Christ,
of the Bible, of religion, and the way in which re-
ligion ought to be presented to them, of prayer, of
Providence, of the sacraments, Ac. If these are
not satisfied they turn away angry. If the diseases
of their souls cannot be healed as they have made
up their minds that they ought to be healed, then
they will not have them healed at all. See Histor. 1
and" 3, with translator's additions. — W. G.S.] — Yer.
13. " The kingdom of God cometh not with obser-
vation ; " " it is not in word but in power " (Luke
xvii. 20; 1 Cor. iv. 20). — Menken: Thousands, who
are sad and heavy-laden under the consciousness
of the spiritual misery of sin and death . . .
would be glad if the Word would order them to
the utmost end of the earth, and would command
them to make the pilgrimage without shoes under
their feet, or covering upon their heads, and to
give all their goods to the poor, and to brand and
torture their bodies with chastisements, because
that would correspond to their sensual feeling, and
to their preconceived opinion ; but they cannot re-
concile themselves to the gospel of the grace of
God, that He sent His Son into the world as ;i
propitiation for sin (1 John iv. 10). — Servants and
subordinates cannot better prove their love and
fidelity to their masters than by dissuading them
from angry and violent steps by friendly and hum-
ble words — not by falling in with and encouraging
their temper. (Prov. xv. 1). — Yer. 14. Krumma-
chee: It is a great thing, when a man is willing
from his heart to submit himself to the ordinances
which God has established for his salvation. — Ben-
der: The divine means of grace of the Church are
for us what the Jordan was for Naaman. We are
called to profit by them by the Holy Ghost, who
will therein enlighten us by His gifts, and sanctify
and strengthen us in the faith. As Naaman was
healed gratis of his leprosy, which threatened him
with death, so that his flesh became like that of a
little child, so are we, through the compassion of
God, which was revealed in Christ, purified from sin
and saved through the "washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost," so that we may
be first-fruits of His creatures, and, as such, heirs
if eternal life (Titus iii. 5 sq. ; James i. 18).
Yers. 14-19. Bender: The Healing of Naaman.
a) The act of God; (J) Naaman's confession; (<-)
his gratitude: (d) his especial request. — Yer. 15
He who has come to faith in the living God, whe
revealed himself to Israel by His prophets, and to
us by His Son, feels an impulsion to confess this
faith with joy before men. Without faith there is
no confession, and without confession there is no
faith (Ps. cxvi. 10; Rom. x. 10).— J. Lange: That
knowledge of God which is won by experience of
the purification of the heart, and which is enjoyed
in the sweet and quiet peace of the soul, is the only
real, genuine, and saving knowledge. — Starke:
Nothing is impossible for faith. It can make of a
proud and boastful soldier a pious and humble ser-
vant of God (Mark ix. 23). Naaman gave with
joy, and God loveth a cheerful giver. He gave
not only because he had been healed, but because
he had come to a knowledge of the true God. Af-
ter God we owe gratitude to none so much as to
those who have brought us to a knowledge of God
and a recognition of the truth. — Yer. 16. Menken:
Godly and holy men, who have devoted their lives
to the service and witness of the divine truth
among men. have always had two peculiarities,
which bad men have never been able to imitate:
freedom from all love of gain, and, in neglect of
the praise and honor of the world, a pure looking-
up to the Father, "who seeth in secret" (Acts viii.
ls--.Mi|. — Starke: True Godliness knows when to
opeu the hand and when to close it (Sir. iv. 36). —
A servant of God must always firmlv ward off
whatever might cast the least evil appearance upon
the purity and fidelity of his sen-ice to his master.
— Yers. 17-19. Naaman's Two Requests, as testi-
monies to his firm and decided faith (see Historical,
%% 1. 4). («) The altar built of the soil of Israel in
a foreign land was au indicator of the way to Israel
and to Israel's God; a physical confession which
required strong courage, for it might call down per-
secution, disgrace, and death. So now it is an act
of faith when a messenger of the faith sets up the
cross in the midst of a mighty heathen people.
How deeply does Naaman shame the Christians
who, even among Christians and in Christian coun-
tries, do not dare to confess Christ by word and
deed, (i) The prayer for indulgence came from a
fine and tender conscience, which makes an earnest
thing of its faith; to which all hypocrisy is loath-
some; which is not willing to lean bot1" ways, but
demands confidence and certainty as to whether
what it does and what it leaves undone are right
in the sight of God, and whether it is maintaining
the grace it has won. How rare are those in our
times who, in matters of religion, are equallv scru-
pulous!—Yer. 17. Cassel: As Naaman was the
type of the converted heathen world, and he car-
ried the soil of Palestine to Aram, so did the hea-
then carry over into their own lands, together with
Christianity, the doctrine, life, disposition, and
spirit, which had nourished in the Holy Land, and
thereby they established for themselves a new
home. . . . When we hear here and there in
Christian lands the names Bethany, Bethlehem,
Zion, &c , what are they but holy places trans-
ferred, in their spirit, from their original location
into our life and thought and feeling. Tn thy re-
ligious observances the main point is not the" cor-
rectness and truth of thy knowledge, or of th6
doctrine which thou professest, but the truth and
purity of thine own character. What one may do
under his circumstances without violating his con-
science, the conscience of another, under other cir
64
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
camstances, will forbid him to do. We have no
right to judge him : to the Lord each one stands or
.'alls (Rom. xiv. 1-7). — Menken-: The higher a man
stands in the world, and the more important he
has made his position, the more is he bound. — Ver.
19. When a man has been heartily converted, and
earnestly strives to enter in at the straight gate,
we ought not to make harder for him what is al-
ready hard, and we ought not to make demands of
him winch, according to the circumstances in which
God has placed him, he cannot fulfill, but look to the
main point and not the incidental or external things,
leaving him with prayer to the gracious guidance
of God, who will complete the work of grace which
He lias begun in him. God makes the sincere to
succeed. — Menken : One does not know what to
admire most in Elisha's mild and simple answer,
the clear and correct insight into a genuine heart
experionce, which, whatever may surround and ob-
scure the main point, still seizes this quickly and
clearly ; or the holy moderation which, even in the
case where it is its prerogative to urge, limit, bind,
loose, or burden, stul restrains itself; or the pure
humanity of disposition, which can so thoroughly
sympathize, so completely put itself in the position
and at the stand-point of the other. The. knowl-
edge of the living God, and the experience of His
saving grace, is the fountain of all peace, with
which alone a man can go gladly on his way.
Vers. 19-27 (cf. Histor. § 5). Bender: Gehazi,
the False Prophet-Disciple, (a) His disposition;
<b) his procedure ; (c) his punishment. — Krumma-
oher : Gehazi. (a) Gehazi's heart ; (b) Gehazi's
crime; (c) the judgment which fell upon him. — Ver.
20. Let not desire overcome thee. How mighty
are the evil inborn lusts of the human heart 1
Even in the case of those who have for years en-
joyed the society of the noblest and most pious
men, who have heard and read the word of God
daily, and who have had the example of holy con-
duct daily before their eyes, lusts arise, take pos-
session of them, and carry them captive (James i.
13-15; Matt. xv. 19). Therefore, "Be sober, be
vigilant," &c. (1 Peter v. 8). — The avaricious and
covetous are always envious; they are discon-
tented when others neglect chances to become rich,
or renounce that which they would be glad to have.
— CalwerBibel: Gehazi speaks contemptuously
of Naaman because he is a Syrian and not an Is-
raelite, although he was far better than Gehazi.
So also now-a-days. unwise Christians and Jews
contemn one another. . . . It is plain from his
unnecessary oath what kind of a man Gehazi was.
Those who swear unnecessarily judge themselves.
Covetousness is the root of all evil : where there
is covetousness and avarice there is also falsehood
and deceit, vulgarity and rudeness, and cunning
theft and bold theft.— Ver. 22. Bender: Gehazi
was Elisha's servant. Ye servants, how do you
conduct yourselves toward your masters? Are ye
open, sincere, honest, obedient, as the apostle says
Eph. vi. 5. 6 7 Is the property and good name of
your masters as dear to you as your own property
and your own honor, or do ye take advantage of
them where ye can? "My master has sent me "
— so says many an unfaithful servant, who cares
for silver and gold, raiment, fields, vineyards, and
gardens, but not for the honor of his master — who
cares more for the wool than for 'he sheep. Hypo-
crites do more harm to the cause of God thai .he
godleis (2 Tim. iii. 5).— Ver 23. He who himself
thinketh no evil and is sincere, does not suspect
cunning and deceit in others. Good-hearted, noble
men, to whom it is more blessed to give than to
receive, are easily deceived, and they follow the
inclination of their hearts, instead of examining
carefully to whom they are giving their benefac-
tions.— -Ver. 24. That which we must conceal
brings no blessing. — Ver. 25. " Whence comest
thou, Gehazi?" Happy are they of whom there
is no need to ask this question ; who can give an
account without falsehood of all the paths in which
they have walked, and of all the places in which
they have been. — Menken : This question should
have been to Gehazi like the wind-gusts before a
storm, which warn the traveler to seek a refuge
where the coming storms and floods cannot reach
him. — This is the curse which rests upon a lie, that
the man seeks to escape from it by new lies, and
so involves himself more and more in the net of
him of whom the master says: " When he speak-
eth a lie he speaketh of his own " (John viii. 44). —
Ver. 26. If God himself arms His prophets with
the gift to bo witnesses of hidden sin, and to bring
it to the light, how much more will He, before
whose judgment-seat we shall all have to appear,
bring that to light which now lies hidden in dark-
ness, and reveal the secret counsels of the heart ?
— Ver. 27. Menken: How did the raiment of Da-
mascus appear to the leper, or the pieces of silver
to the wretched outcast? How often must he have
desired to buy back again with all his treasures
one day of his healthful poverty ? Then, too, the
lost peace of God. Alas I Most incomprehensible,
most depraved, most indestructible and terrible of
all deceits, deceit of riches, who fears thee, as we
all should fear thee ? God have pity upon us all,
and help us all, that no one may set his hopes
upon uncertain riches, but upon the living God,
who gives us all richly to enjoy all His blessings.
And yet again: "They that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare" (1 Tim. vi. 9-12). — The
story of Naaman and Gehazi is a prophecy of the
salvation of the heathen who seek help and grace,
and of the rejection of Israel, if it destroys and re-
jects salvation (Isai. v. 25 sq.). [The leprosy of
riches. Gold is tainted — strength required to use
it aright; right pursuit of wealth ; absorbing pur-
suit of it; curse which cleaves to it when it is ill-
gotten or ill-used ; this curse crops out most fre-
quently in the children. A father absorbed in
pursuit of wealth, and mother absorbed in fashion,
will bring up corrupt and neglected children. Pa-
rents love gold, and fashion, and display, children
will hold these the chief things in life. Thou hast
gotten thee gold, but leprosy shall cleave to thee
and to thy seed forever. — W. G. S.]
Chap. vi. 1-7 (cf. Histor. § 6 and 7). (a) Sketch
of the Community-life of the Prophet-disciples, (a)
Their number does not diminish in spite of all con-
tempt and persecution, but increases (ver 1); (6)
they undertake nothing without their master (vera
2 and 3) , (c) they help and encourage one another
in their work (ver. 4) ; (rf) they experience the di-
vine help and blessing (vers. 5-7). — Ver. 1. It is a
good state of things when a community can say:
"Behold! the place," &c. How many Churches
have room and to spare, and might accommodato
twice as many hearers, while the room in the
buildings devoted to the lusts of the eye and the
flesh, and to the pride of life, is too small. — Ver.
2. Pfaff. Bibel: Each one should contr'uu'.e hii
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20. 6?
share to multiply churches and schools as the pop- I that they may not despair in adversity, but trust in
ulation increases. — Ver. o. Starke: Pious people \ God, and be only the more diligent in prayer. —
are more careful of what is borrowed than of their
own property. — Vers. 5-7. Wtjrt. SraiM. : We
have here an instance where God is touched by
even the least misfortune which visits his children.
He will not let himself be hindered by natural
laws from helping his servants in their need, . .
Krummacher : It often happens that the Lord takes
from us some possession, or appears to do so, only
with the purpose of returning it after a longer or
shorter time in some unexpected way, that it may
thus come to us as a gift of divine love, am'
pledge of His grace.
C. — Elisha's conduct during the Syrian invasion and the siego of Samaria.
Chap. TI. 8-TOI. 20.
8 Then the king of Syria warred against [was at war with1] Israel, and took
counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou
10 pass not such a place ; for thither the Syrians are come down.2 And the king
of Israel sent to the place which the man of God [had] told him and warned
him of, and saved [protected 3] himself there, not once nor twice [i.e., a great many
11 times]. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing;
and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of
19- us4 is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O
king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the
words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And
14 it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither
horses, and chariots, and a great host : and they came by night, and compassed
15 the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and
gone forth, behold, a host com] passed the city both with horses and chariots.
16 And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do ? And he
answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with
17 them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he
may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw: and
behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
18 And when they Came down to him, [«'. «., the Syrian, for, the Syrian army— BShr] Elisha
prayed unto the Lord, and said. Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness.
And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city :
follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But [And] he led
20 them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria,
that Elisha said. Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the
Lord opened their eyes, and they saw ; and behold, they were in the midst of
21 Samaria. And the "king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My
22 father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt
not smite them: wouldst thou smite \if thou shovldst do that, wouldst thou be
smiting] those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow ?
set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their
23 master. And he prepared great provision for them : and when they had eaten
and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the [maraud-
ing] Viands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-badad king of Syria gathered all
25 his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine
in Samaria : and, behold, they besieged it. until an ass's head was sold for
worth] fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung
'was worth — omit for] for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord,
27 0 king. And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee ?
28 out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress ? And the king said unto her,
5
36
66 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
What aileth thee ? And she answered, This woman said unto r.i„ Give thy son,
29 that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my sod to-mOrrcv. So ne boiled
my son and did eat him : and I said unto her on the next, ddy, Give thy son,
that we may eat him : and she hath hid her son.
30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words or til : woman, that he
rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and,
31 behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he raid, God do so and
more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him
32 this day. (But Elisha sat [was sitting] in his house, and the elders sat [were
sitting] with him; [.]) And the king sent a man trom before him: but ere the
messenger came to him, he [Elisha] sj.id to the elders, Llee ye how this son of a
murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, .vn.'ii the messenger cometh,
shut the door, and hold him fast at [held him back by means of] the door: is
2? not the sound of his master's feet behind him ? And while he yet talked with
them, behold, the messenger came down unto him : and he said, Behold, this evil
is of the Lord ; what should I wait for the Lord any longer [what hope shall I
still place in the Lord] ?
Chap. VII. 1. Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord ; Thus saith
the Lord,To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for [be
worth] a shekel, and two measures of barley for [be worth] a shekel, in the
2 gate of Samaria. Then a lord [an officer, or adjutant] on whose ham! the king leaned
answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows
in heaven might this thing be ? [Verily ! Jehovah is going to make windows
in heaven ! even then could this come to pass ?] And he said. Behold, thou shalt
see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they
4 said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter
into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there : and if we
sit still here we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall [away] unto the
host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we
5 shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the
Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part [outskirts, mz., those
6 nearest the city] of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord
had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great host : and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel
7 hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians,
to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their
tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their
8 life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went
into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and
raiment, and went and hid it ; and came again, and entered into another tent,
9 and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another,
We do not well : this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace : if
we tarry till the morning light, some mischief [penalty] will come [fall] upon
10 us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household. So they
came and called unto the porter [guard] of the city: and they told them, say-
ing, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there,
neither voice [sound] of man [a human being], but horses tied, and asses tied,
11 and the tents as they were. And he [one] called the porters [guards] ; and they
told it to the king's house within [reported it inside of the king's house].
12 And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew
you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; there-
fore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field,6 saying, When
13 they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and gi t into the city. And
din' of liis servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the
horses thai remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multi-
tude (if Israel that are left in it: behold, / say, they are even as all the multi-
tude of the Israelites that are consumed [dead *] ;) and let us send and see
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20
67
14 They took therefore two chariot horses [two chariot-equipages]; and the king
sent after the host of the Syrians [towards the Syrian camp], saying, Go and see.
1-5 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of gar-
ments and vessels [utensils], which the Syrians had cast away in their haste
16 [hasty flight ']. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the
people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine
flour was sold for [became worth] a shekel, and two measures of barley for [omu
for] a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
1 7 And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge
of the gate : and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man
18 of God had said, who spake [as he said] when the king came down to him. And
it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two meas-
ures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be
19 to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: And that lord answered the
man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in
heaven, might such a thing be ? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with
20 thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And so it fell out unto him: for the people
trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. S. — [The first clause expresses a circruistance of the main action, best rendered by the absolute participial con-
struction. The king of Syria, being at war with Israel, held a council of his officers, and decided, in such and sr.ch, Ac
--Ew. Lehrb. § 161, a, explains mjnn as a noun in the form of the infinitive, das Sich lagern. Hence the form of tho
•uff.
2 Ver. 9. — [On O^nJ Ges. The*, s. v. says: " Whoever gave this word its punctuation seems to have derived it from
the root nnn {cf. Job xxi. 13), but the force of dejce7it. going dawn, is necessary and indubitable." Sept. KiKpvnrai ;
Vulg. in insidiij aunt. The //.- W.-B. makes it an adj. from nnj , but Ew. casts doubt upon the form, and says it could
as well be a part, niphal from H/l, § 1ST, 6.
3 Ver. 10. — [" He protected himself,'1 i. e.. he occupied the threatened point, and so frustrated the attack. Every tima
that the Syrians came they found that the Israelites had anticipated them at the point where they proposed to attack.
* Ver 11.— [Ewald, Lehrb. § 181, b, and note 2, rejects the form WtTO as an incorrect reading. He takes WSQ
(as in chap. ix. 5) to be the true reading. It is clear, however, that in ix. 5 Jehu includes himself among those, one of
whom the answer is to designate, while the king of Syria asks, "Who of those who belong to us'" naturally enough
excluding himself from the number of those who fall under suspicion of treachery. The meaning of the two forms ifl
•quite distinct, and each belongs to the place in which it is used. Ewald's theory of the use of the abbreviated form of
"Il^'X must bend to this instance; the instance cannot be thus done away with, in the interest of the theory.
•Chap. vii. ver. 12.— [The I"! in the chetib is that of the article, which, in the later books, is sometimes found even
after a preposition. Ew. § 244. a.
• Ver. 13.— [That is to say: They go to the fate which has already befallon all the people who are gone, and which
sooner or later, awaits all who remain. — W. G. S.] We agree with Thenius that the keri pOH is to be preferred, because
the word occurs immediately afterward without the article. — Bahr. [Ew. explains the article in the chetib as retained
in the later or less accurate usage, especially where the article has emphatic force. § 290, d. — W. G. S.]
' Ver. 15.— Keil : The chetib DTDnri3 is the only possible correct form, for 1211 has the meaning, to flee with hatte,
only in the niphal. <y. 1 Sam. xxiii. 26; Ps. xlv:::. 5.— Bahr.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. S. Then the king of Syria, Ac. Accord-
ing to Ewald, the story (vers. 8-23) belongs to the
time of Jehoahaz (chap xiii. 1-9). However, the
passage immediately following begins, ver. 24, with
the words, "Aud it came to pass after this," so
that it also would fall in a later time ; but, by the
words in ver. 26, "king of Israel," and by Elisha's
epithet "son of a murderer," ver. 32, as Ewald
himself admits, we must understand Jehoram, and
not either Jehoahaz or any other king of the house
of Jehu. — pN is used as in 2 Chron. xx. 2 1 : He
brought to them the deliberation \i. e., made them
parties to it], ijps as in Ruth iv. 1 ; 1 Sam. xxi.
3. " My encamping," i. e., the encampment of my
army. The word nijnr , occurs only here. It is
% derivative from njn, to sit down, to encamn
(Gen. xxvi. 17 ; Ex. xiii. 20 ; xvii. 1). Ewald pro-
poses to read ^nhjFl, and to translate: "shall ye
form an ambuscade," because ver. 9 says: "for
there the Syrians are DTirO; but nnj nowhere
has the meaning "to lay an ambuscade," or "to
lie in wait," but : "to go down " or "sink down "
(see Gesen. s. v.), so that it coincides very well
with the meaning of PlJn. The conjecture is there-
fore unnecessary. The proposal of Thenius to
change TliJnri into lX3nn, and to translate : "Ye
shall conceal yourselves at such and such a place,"
is still less admissible. The Vulgate has in ver. 8:
pnmrntus insidias, and in ver. 9, quia ibi Syri in in-
sidiis sunt. The Sept. have in ver. 8 : nape/ipa'Aa ;
ver. 9 : on east "Lvpia evedpeiwci. This is correct,
however, rather according to the sense than the
words, inasmuch as the army, which had encamped
behind the mountains, might certainly be said tc
OS
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
be lying in ambush. In ver. 9, Clericus, DeWette,
and Keil translate the words of Elisha : " Beware
lest thou neglect this place," i. e., leave it unoccu-
pied, "for there it is the wish of the Syrians to
make an incursion ; " but -QV , which means to pass
over, never has the meaning to neglect; certainly not
that of: to leave unoccupied. Moreover, this signifi-
cation does not fit well with VlVfffl ver. 10, to
which Keil incorrectly denies the meaning: to
warn (cf. Kzek. xxxiii. 3; iv. 5; Ecclesiastes iv.
13). At a time when the Syrians were intending
to encamp at a particular spot, and to attack the
Israelites when they should pass by, the prophet
gave warning to the king : the latter anticipated
them, stationed troops in the tl.reatened position,
and so frustrated their plan.
Ver. 1 1. Therefore the heart of the king of
Syria was sore troubled, &c 1JJD means more
than : to lose courage (Luther). It is used of the
tossing, stormy sea ( Jonah i. 11). Clericus wants
to read IJC'^O (Qf- Prov. xxx. 10) instead of
uWOi because the Vulg. translates: guis prodi-
tor mei sit apud regem Israel, and the Sept. :
nfjoiidoici fie. It may be, however, that both
only translated according to the sense. At any
rate it is not necessary to alter the text. From
ver. 12 we see that Elisha's reputation at that time
extended even to Syria. The old expositors thought
indeed that the servant who answered the king was
Naaman, or one of his companions. The king
learned the dwelling of Elisha by spies. Dothan
(Gen. xxxvii. 17) lay five or six hours' journey
north of Samaria, upon a hill (ver. 17), at a narrow
pass in the mountains (Judges iv. 5 ; vii. 3 ; viii.
3), in the district of the present Jinin (Van de
Velde, Keise, i. s. 273). — The king of Syria wished
to get Elisha into his power, not " that he might
hold him," and find out through him '-what the
king of Israel and other princes were plotting
against him in their secret councils" (Cassel), but
in order that, for the future, his military plans
against Israel might not become known to the king
of Israel through Elisha. The phrase -Q3 ?*n •
ver. 14, cannot here be translated : " agreat army "'
(De Wette, and others), as is clear from vers. 22
and 23, bu ■I is used exactly as in 1 Kings x. 2.
The horses uud chariots were accompanied by a
large body of infantry.
Ver. 15. The servant of the man of God, Ac.
Not Gehazi, who would be mentioned by name as
in all other places (chap. iv. 12, 25; v. 20; viii. 4);
moreover, the expression ri"lL"'D is never used of
him. Perhaps it was one of the prophet-disciples
who had accompanied Elisha to Dothan. That
which Elisha says in ver. 16 is essentially the
same as is read Numb. xiv. 9; 2 Chron. xxxii. 7;
Ps. iii. 6 ; xxvii. 3. He saw already the divine,
protecting power, and begged God to allow his
attendant also to see it, that he might undertake
the journey back to Samaria with him, through the
hostile army, fearless and consoled. "The opening
of the eyes signifies elevation into an ecstatic state
in which the soul sees things which the bodily eye
never can see " (Keil, ed. of 1845), Numb. xxii. 31.
Ths horses and chariots which Elisha and the ser-
vant see (ver 17V nftuiil over-against the horses
and chariots of the Syrians (ver. 15), and they art
designated by t,"N , the form of appearance of Je-
hovah (see above, p. 14), as from God, so that
they are symbols of the might of Jehovah, whict
surpasses all humau, earthly might, and is uncon-
querable. We have not to think of literal chariots
and horses of fire here, any more than in chap, ii
11. Usually, Gen. xxxii. 2 is compared, but
there express mention is made of angels, who are
not to be identified directly with the horses and
chariots of a vision. — The Syrians are usually un-
derstood as subject of V^X 1TV1 in ver. 18, but in
that case we must suppose that they were on a
hill from which they descended when they saw
Elisha and his companion go out from the city.
Keil adopts this supposition, for he says : " Do-
than stands upon a hill, which stands by itself on
the plain, but it is surrounded or shut in on th3
east side bv a ridge which runs out into the plaiD
(<■/. Van de*Velde, I. c, s. 273). The Syrians who
had been sent out against Elisha had taken up a
position on this ridge, and from there they marched
down against the city of Dothan. which lay upon the
hill, while Elisha, by going out of the city, escaped
from them." This idea is contradicted, however,
by the assertion, in ver. 14, that the Syrians "sur-
rounded the city " in the night. They enclosed it,
therefore, and did not simply take up a position on
the east side upon a hill, which was. besides, sep-
arated from it by the plain. Furthermore, accord-
ing to ver. 17, it was not the ridge upon which the
Syrians are said to have stood, but the hill upon
which Dothan was, which was full of horses and
chariots of fire, round about Elisha, under whose
mighty protection he and his servant went out of
the city and down the hill. The Syrian army sur-
rounded the hill at its base, so that escape seemed
impossible ; the heavenly army, however, sur-
rounded the city at the top of the hill, and so
stood opposed to the Syrian. This is clearly the
meaning of the passage. In the immediately fol-
lowing words (ver. 18) : " and they went down,'
the reference can only be to Elisha and his com-
panion, who are the subjects of the words imme-
diately preceding. If the words are not taken as
referring to them, then there is no statement that
they left the city, and there is a gap in the narra-
tive. Accordingly V^X must be taken as referring
to the Syrian army. The Syriac version and Jo-
Bephus take it so ('E/./creraioc . . . TrapeAtiuv
fir ftiaovc rove kx&poi't). There is no need of as-
suming that DiT^N stood in the text originally in
the place of V?N , as Thenius does, for D1X is of-
ten used in the singular for the Syrian army (ver.
9 ; 1 Kings xxii. 35), and is construed with the
verb in the singular (1 Sam. x. 14. 15; Isai. vii. 2).
— And he smote them with blindness, i. e., they
were put into a state in which, although they had
their sight, yet they did not see him (Elisha), i. e.,
did not recognize him. Jarcui : They saw, but did
not know (jnv) what they saw. Cf. Gen. xix. 11
(Luke xxiv. 16; Isai. vi. 10). — On ver. 19 Keil
says: "Elisha's untrue declaration: ' This is no',
the way,' must be judged like every other military
stratagem, by means of which the enemy are de-
ceived ; " but, as Thenius well replies: " Tbere it
CHAPTER VI. 8-YII. 20.
GS
no untruth in the words of Elisha ; for his home
was not in Dothan, where he was only residing
temporarily, but in Samaria ; and the words ' to
the man ' may well mean : to his house." Jose-
phus understood the passage correctly ; he says :
" Elisha asked them whom they had come to seek.
When they answered: "The prophet Elisha," ira-
paddjceiv viiioxero, El irpbr ri/i ~o'/n\ ir ij TV) i
ln> (/. e., where he is to be found I, anoZmriH/oeiav
airu. He certainly used a form of speech which
the Syrians might understand otherwise than as
he meant '.t, but he did not pretend in the least to
be anything else than what he was. That they
did not know him was a divine dispensation, not
the result of an untruth uttered by him How
could the •' man of God," after repeated prayers to
Jehovah, straightway permit himself a falsehood,
and try. by this means, to save himself from dan-
ger? If he saw, as his companion did, horses and
chariots of fire round about him, and if he was
thus assured of the divine protection, then he
needed for his deliverance neither a falsehood nor
a stratagem. The Syrians wanted to take him
captive ; instead of that he, by the help of God,
captured them all ; not, however, as is usually the
case in such a ruse, to their harm or ruin, but, af-
ter he has shown them that they could not capture
him, "the prophet in Israel " (ver. 12), he takes
them under his protection, repays evil with good
(ver. 22), and shows them by this very means the
man whom they are seeking.
Ver. 21. And the king of Israel . . . .
when he saw them, &c. The address: "My
father," does not presuppose any filial relationship,
but is rather a mere title (Clericus : sir honrrv) causa
dicitur). Even Benhadad is called " thy (Elisha's)
son," by Hazael (chap. viii. 9). The prophet-dis-
ciples called their master "father," and this be-
cause it was the ordinary title of the chief of the
prophets, somewhat as the same word is occasion-
ally used now-a-days. The repetition of H3N ex-
presses the eager desire to smite them. Elisha's
words (ver. 22): "it."Xn &c-i are taken by many ex-
positors as a question [as in the E. V], the idea
being: if thou dost not even put to death those
whom thou hast captured with bow and spear,
how canst thou slay these ? (Thenius, Keil). Such
a question, however, would be very extraordinary;
for if Jehoram was not accustomed to put to death
even those who had been made captive in battle,
why should he ask whether he should kill these,
who had fallen into his hands without a combat ?
It seems more probable, on the contrary, that he
was accustomed to put captives to death, in ac-
cordance with the prevalent war-usage of the time
(Deut. xx. 13), and he raises the question, in the
present extraordinary case, only out of considera-
tion for the prophet, and because he does not trust
his own judgment in the unprecedented circum-
stances. The Vulgate gives the sense correctly :
non percuties ; neque enim cepisti eos gladio et arcu tuo,
ut percutiat. The objection that n , the article, could
not have patach before X cannot be held to be
decisive against this interpretation; the Massoretes
themselves took n as the article (Gesen. Lex. s. v.
n ; De Wette). [I take n to be the interrogative
(Ewald, § 104, b), but agree with the above inter-
pretation. " If thou shouldst put these to death.
would it be a case of slaying prisoners of war ? "
»'. e., couldst thou justify it by Deut. xx. 13 ? — W.
G. S.] No one doubts that n")3 m3 , in ver. 23,
signifies the preparation of a meal. The only dis-
agreement is as to the connection of this signifies
tion with the fundamental meaning of the root
According to Thenius the root is "ns , which, with
its derivatives, always refers to something round ;
hence, m3 the circle of guests. According to
Keil, m3 , to dig, gradually acquired the mean-
ing: to prepare, make ready, so that it ought here
to be rendered: paravit apparatum magnum. Ac-
cording to Dietrich (in Gesen. Lex. s. v.), the cog-
nate dialects lead to the idea of bringing together
or uniting, which, he thinks, is the fundamental
idea in a banquet. Cf. canu from koivt/. — The re-
sult of Elisha's act was that, from this time oa the
raids of the Syrians ceased, not indeed because the
magnanimity of the Israelites shamed them but
because they had found out that they could not
accomplish anything by these expeditions, but
rather 'brought themselves into circumstances o
great peril.
Ver. 24. And it came to pass after this, 4c.
Josephus correctly states the connection between
the passage which begins with ver. 24, and what
precedes, as follows: Kpvtpa fih> oi)K€~ dieyvu r<~:
tuv 'Yrspaifiaruv iirtxtipch' jiaci'/.a, tov "S.'/iamov
dedotK&e • ipavepcir dt 77o?^epe'w iicpive, 7<j -///i9f7 rftr
nrpanur no), rij 6xwnpei vofti^LW Trepuaetr&ai rca-
r. Nevertheless, an interval of some years
must be supposed to have elapsed between the two
incidents. Ben-Hadad is not an appellative, like
Pharaoh; it is the same king who is mentioned
in 1 Kings xx. 1. In order to show the depth
of the distress from the famine, the writer states
the price of things which are not ordinarily arti-
cles of food. The worst part of an animal, which,
at best, was unclean, the head of an ass, sold for
80 shekels, according to Bertheau and Keil, 35
t balers ($25.20), according to Thenius 53 thalers.
20 sgr. ($38.04). In like manner, in a famine
among the Cadusians, Plutarch (Artaxerxes, xxiv.)
tells that tin head of an ass was scarcely to be
bought for 60 drachmas, wrhereas, ordinarily, the
entire animal only cost 25 or 30 drachma;. The
price of a mouse rose to 200 denarii in Casalinum,
when it was besieged by Hannibal (Pliny, Hut.
Nat. viii. 57; Valer. Max., vii. 6). — There is no
doubt that □Win, >■ e., Q^V nn, means "dove's
dung," and not " dove's food " {Berleb. and Calw.
Bibel) ; the only question is, whether this is to be
taken literally, or whether it is a designation of a
very insignificant species of pease. Bochart main-
tains the latter (Hieroz. ii. 44), and he appeals to
the fact that 3p is really a measure of grain : so
also Clericus, Dathe, Michaelis, and others. The
Arabs call the herba alcali " sparrow's dung." Cel-
sius (Hierobot. ii. p. 30), on the contrary, main-
tains the literal meaning, which is supported by
the keri D'jva'n , jluzus, profluvium columbartim
(3«| from the Chald. 2V\ , to flow), a euphemism
for the chetib. So also Ewald and Thenius ; the
latter says : " If snipe's dung is eaten as a luxury,
necessity may well make dove's dung (2 Kings
xviii. 27 ; Joseph. Bella. Jud. v. 13, 7) acceptable."
Gesenius and Keil do not decide. We incline tc
the interpretation which makes it a kind of vege-
table. Supposing even that dung was collected.
ro
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
for food as was the case, according to Josephus,
at the destruction of Jerusalem, why should dove's
dung be especially used ? There is, moreover, no
instance of dove's dung having been used as food,
and sold at so high a price. The meanest form of
vegetable seems to be here put in contrast with
the meanest form of flesh. The vegetable proba-
bly took its name from the similarity of color
(white) and form, as in the case of the German
Teufelsdreck (assafa-tida). Cab is tho smallest He •
brew dry-measure; according to Bertheau, it is
equivalent to 27.58 cubic inches (Paris), and, ac-
cording to Bunsen, to 56.355. Five shekels are
equal to 2 thlr. 2 sgr. ($1.49, Keil), or 3 thlr. 10
sgr. ($2.40, Thenius).
Ver. 26. And as the King of Israel wi-s
passing by, Sic. The wall of the city was ve> y
thick ; the garrison of the city stood upon it ; tl e
king went thither in order to visit the posts, or i.o
observe the movements of the enemy. — If tie
Lord do not help thee, whence, Ac. |?s is tak. n
here, by many, in its ordinary signification, n : :
May the Lord not help thee ! i. e., perdat te Jehov ih
(Clericus). If this is correct, the king invokes a
curse upon her (Josephus : opyio&eic eivr/paao ro
avrfi 7o»' <&e6v). The following words, hcryev'ir,
"Whence," &c, do not coincide with this inteip'j-
tation. The same is the case if we translate,
with Maurer, vereor, ui Deus te servet. Keil's trans-
lation: No! let Jehovah help thee I (i. e., do not
ask me, let, &c.) is still more inadmissible, for ^x
must not be separated from 7]yt.'T , with which it
is connected by a makkeph. It evidently stands
here for xp QX (Ew. § 355, b), and the meaning
is : " On the general supposition that there is no
help for her : ' If God does not help thee, how
can I ? ' " (Thenius). Cassel's interpretation of
the words as a "rebellious invocation of God," is
entirely mistaken : "Let God help thee : why does
not the Eternal, whom ye have in Israel, and who
has always revealed himself here, help thee?
Where is He, then, that he may help us ? " They
are rather words of despair. — Out of the barn-
floor or out of the wine-press ? as much as to
say : with corn or with wine? (Gen. xxTii. 28, 31);
not, corn and oil, for ap' is wine-press (Prov. iii.
10). [The distress has reached a point where
God's interposition alone can provide food. If
He does not interpose, how can I satisfy thy hun-
ger ? from the threshing-floor or the wine-press —
the only human resources in case of hunger ? Thou
knowest that these are exhausted, and that the
limits of my power of relief have been passed.
Address thyself, therefore, to God. If He does
not help thee, much less can I. The difficulty of
the passage is one that is common enough. There
is an unexpressed premise, viz., the circumstances
of tho case, which are vividly present to the mind
of both hearer and speaker, and an unexpressed
conclusion, viz., the proper inference to be drawn,
or the proper conduct to be pursued, in the prem-
ises. The first speaker has drawn a false infer-
ence from the facts, and tho question aims to lead
him to a correct judgment. Hence ">K is used, very
nearly in the sense of t&> DK ■ — W. G. S.] When
the woman had, probably, replied :o the king that
she did not demand food of him, but appealed to
him as judge, he asked her : What aileth thee 1
Thereupon she relates the horrible incident, in
which the existing misery had attained its height.
The other woman had hidden her child, not in
order to consume it alone, but in order to save it
Her act reminds us of 1 Kings iii. 26.
Ver. 30. He rent his clothes, &c, as a sign of
horror and of grief. As he stood upon the wa'J,
and therefore could be seen by all, the people ob-
served that he had sackcloth next his body, like
Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 27, under the royal garment,
which he tore open. Sackcloth was usually worn
next the skin (Isai. xx. 2, 3), only the prophets and
preachers of repentance appear to have worn it
over the under-garment, because in their case it
was an official dress, and so needed to be seen
(Winer, R.-W.-B. ii. s. 352). The sentence: He
passed by upon the wall, is not, according to
Thenius, to be connected with what follows, but,
as the athnach shows, with what goes before. Je-
horam did not wear sackcloth in order to make a
show before the people, for they could not see it
before he tore the cloak which was above it ; nei-
ther did he wear it out of genuino penitent feeling,
for, in that case, he could not have sworn, with sack-
cloth upon his body, to put to death the prophet,
whom he had called " Father," and to whom he was
under such deep obligations. He wished, by means
of this external action, to turn aside the wrath of
God ; " He thought that he had done enough, by
this external self-chastisement, to satisfy God, and
he wished now, in a genuine heathen disposition,
to be revenged upon Elisha, since he learned from
this story that the famine had not ceased " (Von
Gerlacb). It is not necessary to understand that
Elisha had distinctly demanded that he should put
on the garment of penitence (Ewald); perhaps the
prophet had only exhorted generally to penitence,
and the king, in order to put an end to the dis-
tress, had put on sackcloth. He became enraged
at the prophet, partly because he believed himself
deceived by him, if he, as we may suppose, had
given the advice not to surrender the city ["If
it had not been for him (Elisha), he (the king)L
would long before have surrendered the city on
conditions," Ewald], but to rely upon the help of
Jehovah, and partly because he thought that the
prophet might have put an end to the distress if
he had chosen, and thereby might have prevented
the horrible crime of the women. The oath re-
minds one of that of Jezebel against Elijah (1
Kings xix. 2).
Ver. 32. But Elisha sat in his house, &c. The
narrative in vers. 30-33 seems to be somewhat
condensed, and to require to be supplemented.
This, however, can be done with tolerable cer-
tainty from the context. The sentence : Elisha
sat in his house, and the elders sat with him,
is a parenthesis ; the following, and he, namely,
the king (not Elisha, as Koster and Cassel sup-
pose), sent, &c, joins directly on to ver. 31.
D'Jp-tn can only refer to the magistrates of tho
city, not to the prophets or prophet-disciples (Jo-
sephus). They had not been sent .n .irder to re-
port to Elisha how far matters had come in the
city (Cassel), but had betaken themselves to the
prophet, since no one any longer could give coun-
sel :n the great distress, in order to take his ad
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20.
ii
vice, aid to beg for his assistance. Whi'.e they
were thus assembled the king sent a man, V3D?D,
not, before him (Luther and others), but, from his
presence, i. e., one of those men who stood before
him, and, as servants, waited for his commands
(1 Kings x. 8; Dan. i. 4, 5), just as we see in Gen.
xli. 46. This man was to behead Elisha, in fulfil-
ment -J. the oath which the king had sworn in his
excitement. Perceiving in spirit what was being
done (as in chap. v. 26), the prophet says to the
elders: See ye, *. e., do ye know, ic. He ap-
plies to Jehoram the significant epithet : son of
a murderer ; as by descent, so also in disposition,
is he a eon of Ahab, the murderer of the proph-
ets, and of the innocent Nabotli (1 Kings xxi. 19);
films patrizat. With the words : Is not the sound,
Jtc, Elisha straightway announces that the king
will follow upon the heels of the messenger (cf. 1
Kings xiv. 6), and he calls upon the elders not to
let in the messenger until the king himself comes.
Ver. 33. And while he yet talked with
them, 4c. The first question is, whai is the sub-
ject of -|DX>> ? If we take 7]X?Qn to be the sub-
ject, them we must suppose, as Thenius. Casse),
and others do, mat tne niesspnger speaks *.h.e
words: "This eTlI is of cr.e Lord," ic, as vhe
mouthpiece of the king, since they certainly are
the words of the latter. This, however, is, in the
first place, very forced, because he must have ex-
pressed it by saying : The king commands me to
say to you, 4c, but it is imperatively excluded by
the consideration that the king, according to chap,
vii. 17, was present, and so the messenger could
not speak in his name, in his presence. Ewald,
taking account of vii. 17, wishes to read 7]^13n
for T]X?Qn , but then the affirmation that the mes-
senger, wrhom the elders were to restrain until
the arrival of the king, really came, would be
wanting from the text. The simplest course
seems to be to supply *p8n as the subject of
"I^N'l (there is an athnach after V?N ) and to sup-
plement the text here by what is stated in vii. 17.
The sense would then be : And the king, who had
followed close upon his messenger, said, 4c. Why
did the king follow his servant? Certainly not
" in order to see what was the result of his com-
mand " (Ewald) ; nor, " in order to be assured that
his commands had been executed " (Eisenlohr) ;
but, on the contrary, ''in order to restrain tin- exe-
cution of a command which he had given in an
excess of rage " (Keil). Even Josephus says :
" Jehoram repented of the wrath against the
prophet, which had overcome him, and, as he
feared lest the messenger might have already exe-
cuted his commands, he hastened to prevent it, if
possible." — Behold, this evil is of the Lord, 4c.,
i. e., Jehovah has brought i. to this pass that
mothers slay and eat their own children ; what
further shall I then hope for or expect from Him ?
By these words, "he means to show the prophet
that he no longer refuses to recognize the chastis-
ing hand of God in the prevailing distress, and
then he desires to learn from him whether the di-
vine wrath will not be turned aside, and whether
the distressed city may no; hope for aid " (Krum-
macherl. To these verba Ito minis pent desperantis
(Vatablus), Elisha replies in chap. vii. 1, with a
promise of immediate and extraordinary deliver
ance. The interpretation : The distress is so great
that no help can any longer be hoped for, so that
nothing remains but to surrender the city ; thou,
however, who hast prophesied falsely, and hast
vamlv promised help, and therefore art to blame
for the calamity, thou shouldst justly suffer death
(Seb. Smith, and similarly Thenius), is entirelj
mistaken. If this were the sense, Elisha's solemn
promise would seem to have been forced from him
by the tin eat of death, whereas it rather serves tc
shame the king, who had doubted of Jehovah,
and is, therefore, an answer fully worthy of the
prophet. Jehoram had already given up his plan
of murder when he followed his messenger. [His
di ■! lair is, to a certain extent, intended as an ex
cuse for his murderous project. It is as if he had
said: God sends me only calamity upon calamity
Is it strange that my faith deserts me, and that 1
can no longer hope or believe that God will ulti-
mately help ? Tiiis despair produced the blind and
senseless rage against thee. I have recovered
from that madness, but how can I hope longer?
This hope seems only to delay the catastrophe,
and to make it worse the longer it is deferred.
TL.3 prophet answers the despair by a new, defi-
nite, and confident prediction.- — W. G. S.]
Chap. vii. ver. 1. Hear ye the word of the
Lord, &c The solemnity and distinctness with
which the prophet addresses the king, the elders,
and the others who are present, must not be over-
looked.— On nxp see note on 1 Kings xviii. 32. —
In the gate of Samaria, i. c, the place where the
market was usually held (Winer, li.- W.-B. ii. s
616). On cj'^PC'n an(l the following form of speech
see note on 1 Kings ix. 22, and 2 Kings v. 18. In-
stead of -pa? , all the versions read TJ^BIl , which,
according to ver. 17 and 2 Kings v. 18, is the cor-
rect reading; the dative gives no sense. — The
words of the "lord" in ver. 2 are the scoff and
jest of unbelief; Jehovah will indeed open win-
dows in heaven, and cause it to rain barley and
meal I will that come to pass? Thenius connects
the two sentences thus: "Supposing even that the
Lord should make windows in heaven, will this
(viz., the promised cheapness and plenty') even
then come to pass?" This interpretation finds in
the words only doubt, and not bitter scorn, but,
from the threat with which Elisha answers, it
seems that the latter must be included. "Win-
dows in heaven " may be an allusion to Gen. vii.
11.
Ver. 3. Pour leprous men, cf. Levit. xih. 46;
Numb. v. 2 sq. No one any longer brought them
food from the city, and they were not permitted tu
enter it. In order to escape death from hunger,
they proposed to go over to the campof the enemy
at dusk, when they would not be seen from the
city. That C]L"33 (ver. 5) does not mean " early
in the morning " (Luther), is clear from vers. 9 and
12. — pip, in ver. 6, can only be understood of a
continuous and increasing rushing and roaring in
the air, by which the Syrians were deceived.
There are instances, even now-a-days, that people
in certain mountainous regions regard a rushing
and roaring sound, such as is sometimes hearc
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
there, as a sign of a coming war. — On the kings
of the HLtites, see note on 1 Kings x. 29. The
Blight remains of the nations of the Hittites hav-
ing been subjugated by Solomon (1 Kings ix. 20),
we have to understand that reference is made here
not, as Thenius thinks, to " an independent rem-
nant of this people, living near their ancient home
(Gen. xv. 20 ; Numb. xiii. 29), towards the river of
Egypt," but, to an independent Canaanitish tribe,
which had withdrawn into the northern part of
Palestine. " ' The kings of the Egyptians ' must
not be understood too literally; they are only in-
voluntarily mentioned for the sake of the balance
of the phrases " (Thenius). Both expressions are
only meant to convey, in general terms, the idea
that people from the north and from the south are
on the march to the assistance of the Israelites, so
that danger threatens the Syrians upon all sides.
[It is worth while to notice also the graphic force
which is given to the story by quoting what pur-
port to be the exact speeches of all the parties.
We are told just what Elisha said, and what the
officer said, and what the lepers said, and finally
what the Syrians said, as if the speeches had been
recorded at the time they were uttered. But how
could any one tell what the Syrians said in their
encampment at night? Evidently the writer puts
himself in the place of the Syrians, and imagines
what their interpretation of any sudden alarm
would be. Instead of stating this in the flat and
colorless form in which a modern historian would
state it : The Syrians thought that some one was
coming to help the Israelites — he gives the speech
in what purport to be the exact words. The men-
tion of the king of the Hittites is very strange.
No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed,
and the kings of Egypt did not interfere in Asiatic
affairs throughout this entire period. Yet we
should expect that the Hebrew writer would as-
cribe to the Syrians such fears as they would be
likely to have under the circumstances. — W. G. S.]
On DL"3J"?K see note on 1 Kings xix. 3.
Ver. 9. Then they said one^ to another, ftc
After they had satisfied their hunger and loaded
themselves witli booty, it occurred to them that
officium civium est, ea indicate, quae ad salutem pub-
licum pertinent (Grotius). They were justly anx-
ious lest they might be punished if they should
longer conceal the joyful intelligence from the king
and the city. — -In ver. 10, Thenius wishes to read,
with al) the oriental versions, i~\yy , watchmen,
instead of nyj' , because Orb follows. Maurer
and Keil take the singular collectively for the body
of persons who were charged with the guard of
the city. — The subject of X~lpsl, ver. 11, is not the
speaker among the lepers, but the soldier on guard.
li lid not leave his post, so he called to the
other soldiers who were within the gate, and they
then gave news of the occurrence to the guards in
the palace. The attendants of the mistrustful king
(ver. 12| give him very sensible advice, the sum
of vrivoh is, " However it may turn out. nothing
worse can happen to the troops we sen I out than
lias already happened to many others, or than will
yet happen to the rest" {Berleb. Bibel). " Five " is
here as it is in Isai. ixx. 17; 1 Cor.xiv. 19; Levit.
ixvi. R. 8 gei 'T.il designation of a small numb i
The origin of this use of language is probably thai
five, as the half of ten, is opposed to this number,
which expresses perfection and completeness, Xa
denote the imperfect and incomplete: so that it
means a few horses. According to ver. 14 (twe
chariots) there were not five, but four. Two cha-
riots, or equipages, were sent, in order, we may
suppose, that if one were captured, the other might
quickly bring the news.
Ver. 1G sq. And the people went out, &c.
We may well imagine with what eagerness. The
king had given to his adjutant (ver. 2) command to
maintain order, but the people trod him down in
the gate. He was not " crushed in the crowd," as
Ewald states, but trodden under foot (DOT Isai.
xli. 25). This can hardly have taken place unin-
tentionally, for why should it have happened just
to him ? Probably the eager and famished people
would not listen to his commands, and bore down
his attempts to control them. The repetition of
the prophet's prediction (vers. 1 and 2) in vers. 18
and 19, shows what weight the narrative lays upon
its fulfilment. It is meant to be, as it were, " a
finger of warning to unbelief" (Calwer Bibel), and
designates this fulfilment as the object and the
main point of the entire narrative.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. With the story of these two incidents now,
we pass, in this resume of the prophetical acts of
Elisha (see above, Historical on chap, iv), to those
which bear upon the political circumstances and for-
tunes of the nation and of its king. First come those
which are connected with its foreign affairs. The
especial danger from without was from the Syrians.
Benhadad was the chief and bitterest enemy, who
was evidently determined to subjugate Israel. He
did not succeed in this ; he only served as a rod of
chastisement to bring back the king and the peo-
ple from their apostasy to their God. Jehovah res-
cued them again and again from his hand ; not by
the hand of the king, nor by mighty armies, nor
by great generals, but by the " man of God," the
prophet, in order that all might perceive that sal-
vation from the might of the sworn foe was not a
work of human strength or wisdom, but was due
to Him alone, the God of Israel, to testify of whom
was Elisha's calling. The two incidents belong
together, for one of them shows how his secret
plans and cunning plots, and the other, how his
open assaults, with the employment of the entire
force at his disposal, were brought to naught by
the intervention of the prophet. If anything could
have done it, these extraordinary proofs of the
might, tlie faithfulness, and the long-suffering of
Jehovah, ought to have brought Jehoram to a re-
cognition of his fault, and to reformation (chap. iii.
3). This is the point of view from which both nar-
ratives must be considered.
2. In the first incident, Elisha appears in the
distinct character of a seer, nN"l , which was the
older name for a N'OJ (1 Sam. ix. 9). He " sees "
the place where the Syrians have determined to
encamp, not once, only, but as often as they formed
a plan, and, when they came to take h' n captive,
he saw the heavenly protecting powers, and, at hia
prayer, the eyes of his attendant were opened, sc
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20.
that he, too, saw them, whereas the enemy were
Btruck with blindness. This gift of secret sight,
while one is in clear possession of all the faculties
of consciousness, is similar to that of prophecy.
Both are effects of the spirit of Jehovah, which
non semp&r tangit corda prophetarum, nee de omnibus
(Syra), nee datur Mis per modum habitus, sic ut est in
artifice (Sanctius). The prophet only sees what
others do not see when Jehovah grants it to him,
and his sight does not apply to all things whatso-
ever, nor to all events, as -its legitimate objects,
but only to those things which pertain directly or
indirectly to the relation to Jehovah and to the
guidance of the people of Israel as a nation, or as
individuals. [Moreover, it is not in the power of
the prophet, by any physical and ever-available
means, to bring about this state of the soul at will].
This sight is therefore something entirely different
from so-called clairvoyance, which has nothing in
common with divine revelation. It may be asked
why Elisha, who saw the places where the Syrians
would encamp, and would attack Israel, did not
also foresee their coming to Dothan, and the dan-
ger which threatened him of being captured by
them. Cassel (Elisa, s. 116) is of the opinion that
" he must have known it ; yet he remained at Do-
than and awaited the hostile emissaries: he knew
that there were more with him than all the ene-
mies together could muster." This opinion, how-
ever, has no foundation in the text. On the con-
trary, it is clearly declared that the arrival of the
Syrians was not observed until the morning, and
that it was totally unexpected. If Elisha had
known beforehand, by a divine revelation, that
they were coming, he would have regarded it as a
direction to escape from the threatening danger,
and not to remain any longer in Dothan, as Elijah
once fled from Jezreel (1 Kings xix. 3), and Joseph
from Bethlehem (Matt. ii. 14). The great danger
which suddenly came upon him, without his knowl-
edge or fault, was a trial of faith for him and for his
attendant. While the latter fell into anxiety and
terror on account of it, Elisha showed himself a
true " man of God " in that he trusted firmly in his
Lord and God, and spoke courageously to his com-
panion : " Fear not." In this firm faith he expe-
rienced the truth of what is written in Ps. xxxiv.
7, and xci. 11.
3. The conduct of Elisha towards the band of
Syrians, which had been sent out against him, is
not, as might at first appear, a mere pendant to the
simdar incident in Elijah's history (chap. i. 9-16).
It, cannot even be compared with it, for the per-
sons and the circumstances are of an 'entirely dif-
ferent character. The emissaries, who were sent
to take Elijah captive, were sent out by a king of
Israel, who despised the God of Israel, and sought
succor from the Fly-god of the Philistines. They
were also themselves Israelites who, being of a like
disposition with their king, mocked the prophet of
Jehovah. Under these circumstances an act of
kindness and forgiveness on the part of the
prophet, whose high calling it was to pronounce,
by word and deed, the judgment of God upon all
apostasy, would have been a renunciation of his
calling (see above, p. 6). Benhadad, on the other
hand, was a heathen, who did not know the liv-
ing God of Israel. His troops were blind in-
struments of his will, who did not know what they
were doing, and did not scoff at the God of Israel,
or at his prophet. Besides, Elisha's act was not
merely a piece of good-nature and magnanimity,
it was rather a prophetical act, in the strict sens*
of the words, which had no other aim than to glo-
rify the God of Israel. Not for his own sake did
Elisha pray Jehovah to smite the Syrians with
blindness, but in order that he might lead them to
Samaria. The thanks for their surrender into the
hands of the king were due, not to him, but to
Jehovah. Jehoram was to learn once more to
recognize the faithfulness and might of Jehovah,
and to be convinced that there was a prophet in
Israel (chap. v. 8), from the fact that these dan-
gerous enemies were delivered into his hands with-
out a blow. On the other hand, Benhadad and
the Syrians were to learn that they could not ac-
complish anything, with all their cunning plots,
against the " prophet that is in Israel " (ver. 12),
and much less, against Him whose servant and
witness this prophet was. From this time on,
therefore, they ceased their raids, as is expressly
stated in ver. 23. The release, entertainment, an!
dismissal of the troops was a deep mortification t.
them. The slaughter of the captives, on the con-
trary, would have frustrated the purpose of the
prophet's act.
4 The miraculous features of this story some
have attempted to explain, that is, to do away with,
in various ways. Knobel (Der Proph. der Hebr., ii.
ss. 93, 98 sq ) remarks upon the incident as fol-
lows: " Inasmuch as Elisha had extended his jour-
neys as far as Syria (chap. viii. 7), he had gained
information of the plans of the Syrians against
Israel. This information, as a good patriot, he did
not fail to make known to his king. He led the
Syrians, who do not appear to have known either
him or the locality, to Samaria. The inability to
recognize the person as Elisha, or the place as Do-
than, was, inasmuch as the safety of a man of God
was at stake, caused by God ; all the more, seeing
that it appeared to be extraordinary and miracu-
lous that they should not see that which was di-
rectly before their eyes. The cessation of this
inability was then an opening of their eyes by
God. Sudden insight into things which have long
been before the eyes and yet have not been per-
ceived, the Hebrews regarded as being directly
given by God. . . . The horses and chariots
of fire in the narrative are a purely mythical fea-
ture." This explanation is almost more difficult to
explain than the narrative itself. Nothing is said
anywhere about frequent journeys of Elisha to
Syria. Only one such journey is mentioned, and that
later (chap. viii. 7). He could only have gained
knowledge of Benhadad's plans from his imme-
diate and most familiar circle of attendants. These
attendants, however, reject any hypothesis of
treachery, and cannot explain Elisha's knowledge
in any way except on the ground that he is a
'• prophet," i. e., himself sees the things which are
plotted in the king's bed-chamber. So far from
conspiring with Elisha, these servants of Benha-
dad find out his place of abode, and so bring about
the attempt to capture him. Then, when a com-
pany is sent to Dothan, and really arrives there,
they must have known where the place was, and
that they were there and not elsewhere. Further-
more, how could, not a single individual, but a
whole company, allow themselves to be deceived
by a man who was unknown to them, and to be
ltd a ray five hours' journey without getting " in-
sight into that which was directly before theii
7i
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
eves ? " The fiery horses and chariots, finally, are
a symbolic but not a mythical feature (see above,
p. 14). Ewald's explanation is much more prob-
able than this rationalistic interpretation. Accord-
ing to him, Elisha proved himself " the most faith-
ful counsellor, and the most reliable defence of
the king and people, by pursuing the plans of
the Arameans with the sharpest eye, and by frus-
trating them often single-handed, by means of his
sure foresight and tireless watchfulness. The mem-
ory of this activity is preserved in chap. vi. 8 sq.,
where we have a vigorous sketch of it, as it had
taken form in the popular imagination." If, how-
ever, the prophet's second-sight, which is the central
point of the entire story, is a product only of the
popular imagination which, at a later time, wrought
upon the story, then we no longer have history
before us, and the "man of God," who is espe-
cially presented to us as seer and prophet, sinks
down into a wise and prudent statesman. It would
then be an enigma how he could have " sure fore-
bodings " of the presence of the enemy at this or
that place, and could give them out as certain
facts. According to Koster, the gift of sight,
which was imparted to the companion of Elisha.
at the prayer of the latter, is only a "beautiful
representation of the idea that the eye of faith
sees the sure protection of God where, to the vul-
gar eye, all is dark." In like manner Thenius says :
" It is a glorious thought, that the veil of earthly
nature is here lifted for a moment, for a child of
earth, that he may cast a look upon the workings
of the divine Providence." But here we have not
an idea, be it ever so beautiful, clothed in history,
but an historical fact. The prayer of Elisha does
not mean : Give him faith in the sovereignty of
divine Providence; or: Strengthen this faith in
him ; but : Give him power to see that which, in
the ordinary course of things, it is not permitted to
a man to see. His companion then sees, not the
thought-image of his own brain, but that which
Jehovah allows him to see in symbolic form. In
like manner it was a dispensation of Providence
that the Syrians did not see, in spite of their open
eyes. [The author vindicates the literal historic-
al accuracy of the record, but his opponents bring
out its practical importance. Let us suppose that,
as a matter of historical fact, on a certain day. a
certain man, under certain circumstances, looked
up and saw in the air "chariots and horses of
nre," or something else, for which "chariots and
horses of fire " is a symbolic expression. The
practical religious importance of the incident lies
in the fact that he was thereby convinced that
God protects His own. The prophet's object in his
prayer could be none other than that he might be
thus confirmed in the faith, and the edification of
the story depends upon these two deductions:
God protects His servants ; and, to the eye of
faith, this protection is evident, when earthly eyes
see it not.— W. G. S.]
5. The narrative of the second incident gives us
tafin motion of the great famine in Samaria during
Ou "/■ by (he Syrians. It is impossible not to
perceive the intention of showing, in the descrip-
tion of this siege, how the threats in Levit. xxvi.
26-23, and Deut. xxviii. 51—53, against transgres-
sions of the covenant, were here fulfilled ; for the
separate incidents, which are here referred to,
correspond literally to those threats. The faj
such us had hardly ever before been experienced,
and especially the abominable crimes which it oc-
casioned, referred back to those threats, so that
they forced the people to observe the violation of
the covenant, and the great guilt of king and peo-
ple, and, in so far, were the strongest possibla
warning to return to the God whom they had
abandoned. As for the abomination wrought by
the two women, nothing like it occurs anywhere
but in the history of Israel ; at least, no one has
yet been able to cite any incident of the kind from
profane history. According to Lament, ii. 20 ; iv.
10 (cf. Jerem. six. 9; Ezech. v. 10), something
similar seems to have occurred during the siege
of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv. ;
Jerem. xxxix.); and Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 34)
relates that, at the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus, a noble lady slew her child and ate a part of
it, an action which filled even the Romans with hor-
ror, and caused Titus to declare that he would not
permit " that the sun should shine upon a city on
earth in which mothers nourished themselves with
such food." That such abominations were perpe-
trated precisely among that people which had been
thought worthy to be the bearer of the revelation
and knowledge of the one living God, only proves
that if such a people once falls away from its God,
it sinks deeper than another which does not know
Him, but adores dumb idols.
6. Tlie deliverance of Samaria, like that of tlie
three kings in the war with the Moabites, did not
take place by a miracle, in the accurate sense of
the word, but it belongs, nevertheless, as that does,
in the rank of the events which bear witness to
the special divine governance of Israel (see
above, p. 36). Josephus' opinion that God raised
a great tumult in the ears of the Syrians (>/p,xe-o
6 iieuc KTi'Trov dpf/drojv nat otz'Auv rate duoalc av-
r€n* kvtfxeiv) does not agree with the text, which
distinctly mentions a real and strong roaring. Stdl
less is pip to be rendered by "rumor" (Knobel:
" The Syrians raised the siege suddenly, because
they heard a rumor that the Egyptians and Hit-
tites were on the march against them "). The
threefold repetition of the word, which, moreover,
never means rumor, is against this interpretation.
As for the prediction of deliverance, by Elisha,
that can never be explained on naturalistic grounds.
Knobel leaves it undecided " whether Elisha, who
probably had intrigues with the Syrians, suc-
ceeded in starting such a report among them, or
whether, in reality, an hostile army was advancing
upon the Syrians, of which fact Elisha had infor-
mation." The first hypothesis falls to the ground
when we consider that it was no "rumor" at
all, but a rushing and roaring noise, which the Syr-
ians heard. The alternative is just as unfounded,
for all the external communications of the city
were cut off, and the approaching army, of which,
however, history makes no mention, must have
been so near already that the noise of its march
would be heard, not only in the Syrian camp, but
also in .Samaria; or, can we conceive that Elisha
might have ordered up an Egyptian and Hittite
army, over night, and that this might have marched
:ii . nice ? Ewald's notion that the prophet's prom-
ise of deliverance only shows the " lofty confi-
donee" with which he met "the despairing com-
plaints" of the king, is equally unsatisfactory. It
would have been more than foolhardy in the
prophet to proclaim, as the word of Jehovah be-
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20.
76
fore the king, his attendants, and the elders, some-
thing which he, after all, only guessed, and which
was contrary to all probability. If his guess had
not been realized, what would have become of him,
and how would he hare been disgraced in his
character of prophet? What is more, he not only
promised deliverance, but also foretold to him who
scoffed at his promise: "Thou shalt see it with
thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof," and the
threat was fulfilled. The promise and the threat
of the prophet form together the central point of
the story ; they are not mere incidental details, as
is clear from the express repetition at the close.
The truth of the occurrence, which no one doubts.
Btands or falls with both together. The object of
the story is, to show that there is a prophet in Is-
rael (chap. v. 8), so that it appears, to say the
least, very insipid to hold, with Koster, that " the
moral of the story is : God can save by the most
unexpected means, but the unbeliever has no
share in such salvation." [Chap. v. 8 cannot, with
any justice, be cited as bearing upon the signifi-
cance of this story. Its lesson is one much more
nearly touching the "historical development of
the plan of redemption " than chap. v. It was im-
portant that all should know that there were proph-
ets of God in Israel, only to the end that they
might believe what follows from this fact, viz.,
that God has a plan for the redemption of the
world in which the Israelitish nation plays a prom-
inent part : that He, therefore, is especially present
among them by His prophets, and that their his-
tory and fortunes, their calamities and chastise-
ments, their mercies and deliverances, are inter-
positions of God for the furtherance of His plan.
The point of the incident before us is, that God
would interpose to arrest a national calamity at the
very crisis of its fulfilment, for the instruction,
warning, and conversion of His people. — W. G. S.]
7. Kimj Jehoram presents himself, in both nar-
ratives, just as he was described above (p. 34).
He does not persecute the prophet ; he rather lis-
tens to his counsel, and addresses him as " father "
(chap. vi. 9, 21); but he never places himself de-
cidedly on his side. "He stands an example of
those who often permit themselves to be led, in
their worldly affairs, by holy men, who admire
them from a distance, who suspect the presence
of a higher strength in them, but still hold them
aloof and persist in their own ways" (Von Ger-
lach). When the prophet leads the enemy into
his hands without a blow, he becomes violent, and
is eager to slaughter them all; then, however, he
allows himself to be soothed, gives them enter-
tainment, and permits them to depart in safety.
At the siege of Samaria, the great distress of the
city touches his heart. He puts on garments which
are significant of grief and repentance, but then
allows himself to be so overpowered by auger that,
instead of seeking the cause of the prevailing
misery in his own apostasy and that of the nation,
he swears to put to death, without delay, the man
[who had endeavored to fix his attention upon tin-
true cause of the calamity, and] whom he had
once addressed as " father." Vet this anger is also
of short duration. He repents of his oath, and
hastens to prevent the murder, and asks Klisha,
trembling and despairing, if there is no further
hope. He does not hear the promise of deliver-
ance with scorn, as his officer does, but with hope
and confidence. Then again, when the promised
deliverance is announced as actually present, ha
once more becomes doubtful and mistrustful, and
his servants have to encourage him, and push him
on to a decision. Thus, at one moment elated, at
another depressed, now good-natured and now
hard and cruel, now angry and again despairing,
now trustful and again distrustful, he never rises
above a character of indecision, changeableness,
and contrasted dispositions. He was indeed bet-
ter than his father Ahab, but he was still a true
son of this father (see 1 Kings xviii., Hist. § 6). In
one thing only he was firm : " He cleaved unto the
sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which made
Israel to sin ; he departed not therefrom " (chap. hi.
3). Since, not to mention so many other proofs of
the divine power, patience, and faithfulness, even
the deliverance of Samaria from the greatest peril
did not avail to bring him into other courses, judg-
ment now came upon him and his dynasty, and the
threat of the Law was fulfilled : " I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation " (Ex. xx. 5). ne was the fourth
member of the dynasty of Oniri, or, as it is com-
monly called, from the principal sovereign of
the family, the house of Ahab. With him, that
dynasty ended (chap. ix. 10).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 8-23. The Lord is Hiding-place and Shield
(Ps. cxix. 114). (a) He brings to nought the plots
of the crafty, so that they cannot accomplish them
(Job v. 12), vers. 8-14.' (b) "The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him,
and delivereth them" (P6. xxxiv. 7), vers. 15-19.
(c) " The heathen are sunk down in the pit that
they made : in the net which they hid is their own
foot taken " (Ps. ix. 15 ; xxxv. 7), vers. 20-23. —
Vers. 8-17. Krummacher : Hints of the Course of
Things in Zion. (a) The revealed plot ; (b) the
military expedition against one man ; (c) the peace-
ful abode ; (d) the cry of alarm ; (e) the unveiled
protection from above. — Ver. 8. Cramer: The
heart of man plots its courses, but the Lord alone
permits them to prosper. "A man's heart devis-
eth his way ; but the Lord direeteth his steps "
(Prow xvi. 9). "There is no wisdom, nor under-
standing, nor counsel against the Lord " (Prov. xxi.
30). — Let them undertake the enterprise as cun-
ningly as they can, God leads to another end than
that they seek (Isai. viii. 10). — " In such and such
a place shall be my camp " (Prov. xxvii. 1 ; James
iv. 13-16). — Ver. 9. Osiakder: It is no treason to
bring crafty and malicious plots to the light. It
is a sacred duty (Acts xxiii. 16). Beware of going
into places where thou wilt be in jeopardy of soul
and body. Be on thy guard when the enemy ad-
vances, and "put on the whole armor of God"
(Ephes. vi. 13 sq.). — Ver. 10. No one has ever re-
gretted that he followed the advice of a man of
God; on the contrary, many have thus been saved
from ruin. — Ver. 11. Starke: When God brings
to naught the plots of the crafty, they become en-
raged, and, instead -of recognizing the hand of
God and humbling themselves, they lay the blame
upon other men, and become more malicious and
obstinate. — He who does not understand the ways
of God, thinks that he sees human treason in what
is really God's dispensation Woe ro the r del
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS
who cauuot trust his nearest attendants (Ps. ci. 6,
7). — Ver. 12. A heathen, in a foreign land, con-
fesses, in regard to Elisha, something which no
one in Israel had yet admitted to be true. The
Bame thing also happened when the greatest of
all prophets appeared (Matt. viii. 10; xiii. 57). —
Xri'mmacher: Tremble with fear, ye obstinate
sinners, because all is bare and discovered before
His eyes, and shudder at the thought that the
veil, behind which ye carry on your works, does
not exist for Him ! All which ye plot in your
secret corners to-day, ye will find to-morrow
inscribed upon His book, and however secretly
and cunningly ye spin your web, not a single
thread of it shall escape His eye! — Ver. 13. How
mad it is to fight against, or to attempt to crush, a
cause in which the agency of a higher power is visi-
ble (Isai. xiv. 27 ; Acts v. 38, 39). — Ver. 14. Ben-
hadad sends out an entire army against one, but
finds out the truth of the words in Ps. xxxiii. 18 sq.
Vers. 14—23. Elisha during Distress and Dan-
ger, (o) (Although enclosed by an entire army, he
does not fear or tremble, like his companion, but
speaks to him words of encouragement and confi-
dence. This is the effect of a firm faith, which is the
substance, &c, Heb. xi. 1. Faith takes away all
fear, aud gives true and joyful courage, Ps. xxiii.
4; Ps. xci. 1-4; 2 Cor. iv. 8. David speaks with
this faith, Ps. iii. 5 and 6 ; xxvii. 1-3 ; and Heze-
kiah. 2 Chron. xxxii. 7; and Luther: Uud warn
die Welt voll Teufel war, und wollt, &c.) (b) His
prayer, vers. 17 and 18. ("Lord, I pray thee,
open his eyes ! " So should every true servant of
God pray for every soul that is entrusted to him.
We all need to use this prayer daily : Lord, open
my eyes ! for it is the greatest misfortune if one
cannot see the light, even by day (Eph. i. 18).
Elisha, however, also prays : " Lord, smite this
people, I pray thee, with blindness,'' for his own
protection, and for their salvation , for they were
to learn that He is a God who can save marvel-
lously from the greatest distress, and that no craft
or skill avails against Him. It is not permitted us
to pray for harm to our enemies; but we may pray
that God will make them powerless, and show
them His might.) (c) His victory, vers. 19-23.
(Those who wisli to capture him, he captures ; but
his victory is no victory of revenge. He causes
the captives to bo entertained kindly, and allowed
to depart in safety, that they may learn that the
God, whose prophet Elisha is, is not only a mighty,
but also a merciful and gracious God. God is not
so much glorified by anything else as by returning
good for evil. " For so is the will of God," &c,
Peter ii. 15; cf. Romans xii. 20. He won the
highest victory who said upon the cross: "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.")
— Ver. 15. Our fortune also may change over
night : then, how shall we bear it? — Starke: Our
feeble flesh cannot do otherwise than despair,
when distress comes suddenly upon us, especially
if we are young and inexperienced; for experience
brings hopi I Rom. v. 4).
16 and 17. Cramer: If we had spiritual
i so thai ■ M see the protecting forces of
loving, holy angels, it would be impossible lor us
to fear di i ;! or wicked men (Ps. civ. l ; ffeb. i.
It). — Vers. 17 and is. Beblbb Bdbel: In the
kingdom of Jesus Christ, winch is hidden from the
world, blind men every day r live their sight,
ind men n nitti-n with blindness. —
Ver. 18. The Lord smites with blindness those
who fight against Him, not in order that they may
remain blind, but in order that they may truly see,
after they shall have observed how far they have
strayed, and shall have recognized the error of
their way (Acts ix. 8 sq. ; John ix. 39). — Ver. 19.
It is not a sin to withhold the truth from any one
until the proper time for making it known, but, in
many cases, it is even the duty of wisdom and
love (Johu xiii. 7; Matt. x. 16). " Follow me I"
is the call of the only one who can lead us where
we shall find that winch we are, consciously or
unconsciously, seeking, for He is the light
of the world, &c. (John viii. 12).— Ver. 20. A
time will come for all who are spiritually blind,
when their eyes will be opened, and they wU:
learn that they have been walking in the paths ol
error. — Krummacher : Ye dream of some unknown
kind of an Elysium, and ye shall awake at last
among those of whom it shall be said: "Bind
them hand and foot, and cast them into outer
darkness." — Vers. 21-23. " The wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God " (James i.
20). God does not give our enemies into our hands
in order that we may revenge ourselves upon them,
but in order that we may show ourselves to v.e chil-
dren of Him who dealeth not with us according t)
our sins, neither rewardeth us according to our in-
iquities. He who receives forgiveness from God,
must also show forgiveness to others ; that is the
gratitude which God requires of us, and which we
owe to Him. — Ver. 23. Starke : True love to one's
enemies is never fruitless (1 Sam. xxiv. 7, 17, 18).
Vers. 24-31. Samaria duriug the Siege, (a)
The great scarcity ; (b) the two women ; (c) the
king. — Ver. 24. Evil men wax worse and worse
(2 Tim. iii. 13). As Benhadad accomplished
nothing by his raids, he made an attack with his
entire force. A perverse and stubborn man can-
not endure to be frustrated, and when he is. in-
stead of leading him to submissiveness as it ought,
it only hurts his pride, and makes him more irrita-
ted.— Ver. 25. General public calamities are not
mere natural events, but visitations of God on
account of public guilt. Cf. Jerein. ii. 19, and
iii. 12 and 13. — Krumm ACHEK : Of all the judgments
of God in this world, none is more terrible than
famine. It is a scourge which draws blood. . . .
It often happens that God takes this scourge in hand
when, in spite of manifold warnings, His name is
forgotten in the land, and apostasy, rebellion, aud
unbelief are prevalent. — Vers. 26 to 29. Necessity
leads to prayer, wherever there is a spark of the
fear of God remaining ; but where that fear is
wanting, "necessity knows no law" becomes the
watchword. The crime of the two women is a
proof that, where men fall away from God, they
may sink down among the ravenous beasts.
Separate sores, which form upon the body, are
signs that the body is diseased, and the blood
poisoned. Shocking crimes of individuals are
proofs that the community is morally rotten. — Ver.
26. Starke: Earthly might can help and protect
US againSl the injustice of men, but not against tin
judgments of God. — Ver. 27. How many a one
Bpeaks thus who might help if he only earnestly
tried. When the prayer : Help me! is addressed
to thee, do nol refer the suppliant to God for con-
solation while any moans of help, which are in
thine own hands, remain untried (1 John iii. 17;
.lames ii. 15, 16).— Vers. 30 aud 31. Calw. B:bel-
CHAPTER VI. 8-VII. 20.
?7
Bee here a faithful picture of the wrongheadedness
of man m misfortune. In the first place, we half-
way make up our minds to repent, in the hope of
deliverance ; but if this is not obtained at once,
and in the wished-for way, we burst out in rage
either against our fellow men, or against God him-
self. Observe, moreover, the great ingratitude of
men. Jehoram had already, several times, expe-
rienced the marvellous interference of God ; once
it fails, however, and he is enraged. The gar-
ment of penitence upon the body is of no avail, if
an impenitent heart beats beneath it. Anger and
rage and plots of murder cannot spring from the
heart which is truly penitent. It is the most
dangerous superstition to imagine that we can
make satisfaction for our sins, can become re-
conciled to God, and turn aside His wrath, by ex-
ternal performances, the wearing of sackcloth,
fasting, self-chastisement, the repetition of prayers,
Ac. (Ps. li. 16, 17). The world is horrified, indeed,
at the results of sin ; but not at sin itself. In-
stead of confessing: "We have sinned" (Dan. ix.
5), Jehoram swears that the man of God shall die
(2 Cor. vii. 10). — Starke: Whenever God's judg-
ments fall upun a people, the teachers and preach-
ers must bear the blame (1 Kings xviii. 17 ; Amos
vii. 10).
Ver. 32-Chap. vii. 2. Elisha's Declarations in
his own House, [a) To the assembled elders ; (b)
to the despairing king; (c) to the scoffing officer.
— Yer. 32. The Lord preserves the souls of His
saints; he wiU save them from the hands of the
godless (Ps. xcvii. 10). He sends friends at the
right moment, who serve us as a defence against
wickedness and unrighteous persecution. — Krum-
macher: It is pleasant to be with brethren in a
time of calamity. One feels in \inion a power
against all calamities which threaten him
Moreover, especial promises attach to such a union.
Where two or three are gathered together in the
name of the Lord, there is He in the midst of
them. — Cramer: Although the saints of God are
unterrified at the possibility of martyrdom, yet they
are not permitted to cast themselves into the
flames, but may properly make use of all ordinary
and just means to preserve themselves for the
good of the church of God (Phil. i. 22). — Ver. 33,
cf. Prov. xxi. 1. The wrath of the king changes
to timidity and hesitation. The heart of the natu-
ral man is a rebellious, but. at the same time,
wavering thing. Blessed is the man who trusts
in the Lord (Jer. xvii. 7, 9; Ps. xxxvii. 17). — Chap,
vii. 1. We must still answer " Hear the word of
the Lord " to those who, in littleness of faith and
in despair, cry out, what more shall I wait for
from the Lord? A bruised reed shall he not
break. Ac. (Matt. xii. 20). "To-morrow, at this
time." When the need is greatest, God is nearest.
If God often unexpectedly helps even apostates
out of great need, how much more will He do this
for His own, who call to Him day and night. He
has roads for every journey ; He does not lack for
means. — Ver. 2. The Sin ofUnbelief and its Punish-
ment. The children of this world consider their
unbelief to be wisdom and enlightenment, and
they seek to put that which is a consolation and
an object of reverence to others, in a ridiculous
light. The Lord will not leave such wickedness
unpunished. It is only too often the case that
high-born, and apparently well-bred men, at court,
lake pleasure in mockeries of the word of God and
of its declarations, without reflecting that thej
thereby bear testimony to their own inner rude
ness, vulgarity, and want of breeding. It is a bad
sign of the character of a prince, where scoffere
form the most intimate circle of his retinue (Ps. i
1-4). Unbelief is folly, because it robs itself of
the blessing which is the portion of faith.
Ver. 3-16. The Miraculous Deliverance of
Samaria. It declares loudly (a) what is written a.
Daniel ii. 20 : " Wisdom and might are His." (He
knows how, without chariots or horses, without
arms or army, merely by His terror, to put an
enemy to flight, Ex. xxiii. 27 ; to feed the hungry,
and set the captives at liberty, Ps. cxlvii. 7, in
order that all may confess : " Who is so great a
God," &c, Ps. lxxvii. 13 and 14; and: "Let not
the wise man glory," &c, Jerem. ix. 23, 24); (b) cf.
Ps. ciii. 8 : If ever a deliverance was undeserved,
then this was, that all might admit: "It is of the
Lord's mercies," &c. (Lament, iii. 22 ; Rom. ii. 4
and 5). — Vers. 3-10. The Lepers outside the City.
(a) Their conversation (ver. 3 and 4) ; (6) their visit
to the Syrian camp (vers. 5, 8); (c) their message
to the king (vers. 9, 10). — Vers. 3 and 4. Krum-
macher : How often the same disposition meets
us in the dwellings of the poor ; instead of a joy-
ful and believing looking up to heaven, a faithless
looking for help from human hands ; instead of
submission to God, a dull discontent — a despair
which quarrels with the eternal. . . . Thence
conies the frequent neglect of the household, and
decay of the family. And then what language is
this: "If they kill us, we shall only die," as if
the grave was the end of men, and the great Be-
yond were only a dream ; or as if it were a matter
of course that the pain of death atones for the sins
of a wasted life, and must rightfully purchase
their pardon, and a reception into heavenly blessed-
ness. Our life lies in the hand of God, who sets
its limit, which we may not anticipate. Circum-
stances may, indeed, arise in which a man wishes
for death; it makes a great difference, however,
whether this wish comes from weariness of life,
or whether we say, with St. Paul : " I long to depart
and be with Christ." Only when Christ has be-
come our life, is death a gain. — Vers. 5—7. Starke :
The Almighty laughs at the planning of the proud,
and brings their schemes to a disgraceful end (Ps.
ii. 1 sq. ; Dan. iv. 33 and 34). — Wi rtemb. Suiim. :
It is only necessary that in the darkness a wind
should blow, or that water should splash in free
course, or that an echo should resound from the
mountains, or that the wind should rustle the dry
leaves, to terrify the godless, so that they flee as
if pursued by a sword, and fall, though no one
pursues them (Levit. xxvi. 36). Therefore, we
should cling fast to God in the persecution of our
enemies, should trust Him, and earnestly cry to
Him for help ; He has a thousand ways to help us.
— Ver. 6. Krummacher : It happens to the uncon-
verted man, as it did here to the Syrians. God
causes him to hear the rumbling of His anger, the
roaring of the death-floods, the thunder of His
law, and the trumpet-sounds of the judgment
day. Then he flees from the doomed camp, it.
which he has dwelt hitherto, and hurls away the
dead-weight of his own wisdom, justice, and
strength — Vers. 8 and 9. Wurt. Somm. : Many a
one gets chances to acquire property dishonestly,
to enjoy luxury and debauchery, to gratify fleshly
lusts, and to commit other sins, and. if he is secure
THE SECOXD BOOK OF THE KINGS.
from human eye, lie does not trouble himself about
the all-seeing eye of God ; but his crime is dis-
covered at last in his own conscience, and, by
God's judgment, it is revealed and punished. Con-
science can, indeed, be benumbed for a time ; but
it will not rest forever; it awakes at last, and
stings all the more the longer it has been still.
He who conceals what b« has found, is not better
than a thief. — Pfaffsche Bibel: It is a good
action to warn others of wickedness, and to hold
them back from sin, still more to encourage them
to virtue (Heb. x. 24). — Ver. 10. Lepers, i. e.% out-
cast and despised men, were destined, according
to God's Providence, to announce to the threat-
ened city, in the crisis of its danger, the great and
wonderful act of God. God is wont to use slight
and contemptible instruments for his great works,
that Hi- may, by the foolish things of the world,
confound the wise (1 Cor. i. 27). Fishermen and
publicans brought to a lost world the best Good
News, the gospel, which is a power to make all
blessed who believe in it. — Vers. 12-15. Doubt and
distrust of God's promises are deeply inrooted in
the human heart. Where it is most necessary to
be prudent, there the heart of man is sure and
free from care (Ps. liii. 5), and where there is no-
thing to fear, there it is anxious. Instead of con-
fessing with joy : Lord, I am unworthy of the least
of all thy mercies, when the promised help is of-
fered, it does not trust even yet, until it can see ' d'.b
the eyes and grasp with the hands. — Yer. 1 6. Ca lw.
Bibel : Learn from this that He can lead us, as in
a dream, through the gates of death, and, in an
instant, set us free. — Wi'RT. Summ. : It is easy fo.
our Lord and God to bring days of plenty close
upon days of famine and want. Therefore, we
should not despair, but trust in God, and await
His blessing in hope and patience, until He " open
the windows of heaven" (Mai. iii. 10). — Starke:
God's word fails not ; not a word of His ever fel,
upon the earth in vain; every one is fulfilled to
the uttermost, both promise and threat. — Vers. 17-
20. The judgment upon the king's officer proclaims
aloud : " Be not deceived : God is not mocked "
(Gal. vi. 7; Prov. xiii. 13). — Krummacher: His
corpse became a bloody seal upon the words of
Jehovah, and of His prophet. — Berleb. Bibel: In
the last days also, when the abundance of the
divine grace shall be poured out, like a stream, in
the midst of the greatest misery, many despiser?
of the glorious promises of God will see the begin
ning thereof, but will not attain to the enjoyment
of it; they will be thrust aside by marvellous judg-
ments.
D. — The Influence of Elisha with the King, and his Residence at Samaria.
Chap. VIII. 1-15.
1 Then spake [Now] Elisha [had spoken] unto the woman, whose son he had
restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn
wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the Lord hath called tor [up] a famine;
2 and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose, and
did after the saying of the man of God : ami she went with her household, and
3 sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at
the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines:
4 and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. And
the king talked [was just then talking] with Gehazi the servant of the man of
God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.
5 And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead
body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried
to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king,
6 this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life. And when
the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a
certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field
since the day that she left ' the land, even until now.
7 And Elisha came to Damascus : and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick ;
8 and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. And the king said
unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and
9 inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease ? So Hazael
went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of [and — omit even of] every
good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him.
and said, Thy son, Benhadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall
10 I recover of this disease? And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto [tell] him
[then], Thou mayst [shalt5] certainly recover [live] : howbeit the Lord hath
11 shewed me that he shall surely die. And he [Elisha] settled his countenance
\f and gazed] steadfastly [at him], until he was ashamed [became confused] :
CHAPTER YI1I. 1-15.
79
12 and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord ? And he
answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel .
their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with
the sword, and wilt dash their children [in pieces], and rip up their women with
13 child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, [What is then' thy
servant, the dog,] that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered,
The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be [let me see thee] king over Syria.
14 So he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What
said Elisha to thee ? And he answered, He told me [:] that [omit that] Thou
15 shouldest [shalt] surely recover [live]. And it came to pass on the morrow, that
he [Hazael] took a thick cloth [the blanket], and dipped it in [the] water,
and spread it on his face, so that he died : and Hazael reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 6. — [The Masoretes write il in i"QTV as suffix without uiappik, of which other examples occur (</. 1 Kingl
xiv. 12 ; lsai. xxiii. 17). It might be punctuated as a perfect '"'■■^ • Ew. 247, d. and nt. 2. — Boucher (§418, c) account!
for the omission of mappik by the accumulation of guttural and hissing letters : N i T i V.
3 Ver. 10. — [/. e., give him that delusive hope, since he longs for it, and you, as a courtier, desire to gratify him.
This is adopting the keri v • See Exegei.
3 Ver. 13.— [*3 has the force of then. What then is thy servant, the dog, that, &c. The English translators rendered
the sentence as if it were the same use of language as in 1 Sam. xvii. 43; 2 Sam. iii. 8, but it is quite the contrary. Ha-
zael calls hiuiself a dog and asks how he can do great deeds. Goliath and Abuer resent being treated as if they were
contemptible, which they do not admit. <"ItD i even when it refers to persons, asks, not who t but what f i. e., what kind
of one? (Bottcher, § 899, (.)— W. G. S.]
EXEGET1CAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Then spake Elisha, &c., or, as it should
read, Elisha had spoken ; for what is told in ver. 2
took place long before the incident which is nar-
rated in the 3d and following verses, and forms
only the necessary introduction. The famine of
four years' duration is doubtless the same which
is mentioned chap iv. 38. The years in whicli it
falls among the twelve of Jehoram, it is impossi-
ble to fix. The advice which the prophet gave the
woman to go into a foreign land, must have been
founded upon peculiar grounds, since she did not
belong to the poorer classes (ver. 6 and chap. iv. S
sq.). Perhaps she had become a widow, as some
suppose, and had lost, in her husband, her chief
reliar.ce in a time of distress. She chose the land
of tha Philistines as her residence, probably be-
cause it was near, and because the plains on the sea-
coast did not suffer so much from scarcity as the
mountainous country of Israel (Thenius). On her
return, the woman found her property in the hands
of strangers. We may suppose that it had been
taken possession of, either by the royal treasury,
as property whicli the owner had abandoned (Gro-
tius, Clericus, and others), or by individuals, who
had illegally established themselves in the posses-
sion of it, and who were not willing now to sur-
render it. She appeals, therefore, to the chief
judge, the king.
Ver. 4. And the king talked with Gehazi,
Ac. Piscator, Sebast. Smith, Keil, and others,
have felt compelled to assign this incident to a
time previous to the healing of Naaman, because
it is said (v. 27) that Gehazi and all his posterity
were, from that time on, to be lepers, but here we
find The king conversing with him. In general,
there is no objection to this, for it is very doubt-
ful if the narrative of the acts of Elisha presents
them tc us in their chronological order (see above.
p. 45). The principal ground for this opinion,
viz., Gehazi's leprosy, has not compulsory force,
for, although lepers were obliged to remain outside
the city (chap. vii. 3, and the places there cited),
yet it was not forbidden to talk with them (Matt,
viii. 2 ; Luke xvii. 12). Naaman, the leper, was
admitted to the palace of the king (chap. viii. 6),
and, at a later time, such persons were not ex-
cluded even from attendance in the svnagogues
(Winer, R.-W.-B. i. s. 117). Gerlach thinks that
the king could the more probably meet with Ge-
hazi, for the very reason that the latter had not beea
for a long time in Elisha's service. Jarchi and some
of the other rabbis declare that the four lepers
(chap. vii. 3) were Gehazi and his sons, but this is
a purely arbitrary and unfounded notion. They
were led to it probably by the desire of bringing
the present incident into some connection with the
preceding. Menzel also brings the story, vers. 1-6,
into connection with that in chap. vii. by saving:
"Great fear of the prophet took possession of the
king from that time on " (i. e., from the death of
the scoffer — vii. 20 — which Elisha had predicted).
However, if this had been the ground of his inter-
view with Gehazi, the story would certainly have
had a different introduction from that in vers. 1-3.
It is no cause for wonder that the king did not ask
Elisha himself in regard to his acts, but obtained
a recital of them from Gehazi. As he had been
himself a witness of so many of the prophet's
acts, he was now curious to hear, from a reliable
source, about those acts which Elisha had done
quietly, in the narrow circle of his intimate asso-
ciates, and m regard to which so many unreliable
reports circulated among the people. To whom
could he apply with more propriety for this informa-
tion than to one who had formerly been the prophet's
familiar servant ? Among these acts the restora-
tion of the Shunainmite's son to life was the most
important. By D'lD , ver. 6, we must understand
bO
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
a nig.: officer of the court, not necessarily a eunuch
(<^. 1 Kingj xxii. 9). PIKOFI can hardly mean the
rau; it is rather the produce in kind, which must
have beer restored to her out of the royal stores.
Ver. 7 And Elisha came to Damascus, Ac. :
uui into t..e city of Damascus, as is often assumed,
tor Hazael came out with camels to meet him (ver.
D), so that the most it can mean is that he came
into the neighborhood of the city. Perhaps the
uame Damascus stands for the whole province, as
Samaria did. Keil, who follows the old exposi-
tors, thinks that Elisha clearly went thither " with
the intention of executing the commission which
had been laid upon Elisha at Horeb (1 Kings xix.
15) to appoint Hazael to be king of Syria," but so im-
portant an object to the journey must have been
specified in some way. To pass over the objection
that that commission was given to Elijah and not
to Elisha, and that there is nowhere any mention
of its having been transferred to the latter, we ob-
serve that the prophet does not say here (ver. 12):
Jehovah has commanded me to anoint, or appoint,
thee, Hazael, king of Syria, but: He has made me
see that thou wilt be king of Syria, and that thou
wilt do much evil to Israel. According to Ewald,
Elisha went into voluntary exile for a time, on ac-
count of a disagreement between himself and Je-
horam, who still tolerated idolatry, but the text
does not say anything of this, and we are not com-
pelled to assume anything of the kind. The prophet
was already known and highly esteemed in Syria,
as we see from the entire narrative, especially from
vers. 7 and 8. He might very well, therefore, even
without any especial ground, extend the journeys,
which he made in the pursuit of his prophetical
calling (chap. iv. 9), as far as Damascus. We may,
nevertheless, suppose that it was done " by the in-
stigation of the Spirit " (Thenius). The revelation,
of which he speaks in vers. 10 and 13, he certainly
did not receive until after his arrival in Syria. It
was not the occasion of his journey thither.
Ver. 8. And the king said unto Hazael, ic.
Josephus calls Hazael 6 -urruraroc raw olnerav;
perhaps he was also commander-in-chief of the
army (ver. 12). There is a tacit request in the
question of Benhadad that the prophet would ob-
tain liis restoration to health, from Jehovah, by
prayer. He who wished to consult a man of God
did not come with empty hands (1 Sam. ix. 7 ; 1
Kings xiv. 3). The 1 before ?3, ver. 9, is hardly
explanatory: "and in truth" (Keil); it is rather
the simple conjunctive (Thenius). The messenger
had a "gift in his hand," and besides there were
all kinds of other valuable articles and products
from Damascus, which were carried by forty cam-
els. A camel-load is reckoned at from 500 to 800
pounds, but it would be wrong to reckon the weight
ofthese gifts accordingly at 20,000 to 32,000 pounds
(Dereser). " The incident is rather to be estimated
by tin- oriental custom of giving the separate parts
of a gift to as many servants, or loading them upon
as many animals as possible, so as to make the
grandest possible display of it. Harmar. Beobb., ii.
e. 29. Rosenmuller, Morgenlan , ii s. 17." (Keil).
" Fifty persons often earn what a single one could
very well carry'' (Cliaruin, Voyage, iii. p. 217).
Nevertheli k; were very important, and
we see from their value in how great esteem Elisha
Mood among the Syrians. If he refused to tceeyit
any gift whatsoever at the healing of Naaman (J
Kings v. 16), far less is it likely that he accepted
these grand gifts in this case, where he had to be-
wail the misfortunes of his country (vers. 11 and 12)
Ver. 10. And Elisha said unto him, Ac. The
keri gives ip instead of x'p after "1DX, and the
Massoretes reckon this among the fifteen places in
the Old Testiiment where JO is a pronoun, and not
the negative particle. All the old translations, ana
3ome manuscripts also, present the keri. No one
of the modern expositors but Keil has adopted NP .
non; he accepts that reading as "the more diffi-
cult." He rejects the makkeph between 10X and
Np, joins xi? with the following word ,-pn, and
translates : " Thou shalt not live, and (for) Jehovah
hath shown me that he will die." But 1 never means
for, as it would here, if this interpretation were
correct. It rather means here but, as it so often
does, so that the sentence which begins with it
forms a contrast to the one which precedes. This
tells strongly against the chetib XP- A further
consideration is that the infinitive before the verb
(n'nn iTI"l) always serves to strengthen the verbal
idea(Gesen., Gramm., § 131, 2, a), and that, in this
construction, the negative stands before the finite
verb and not before the infinitive, cf. Judges xv. 13
(Ew., Lehrb., § 312, b). Xp cannot, therefore, be
connected with |"|TI- Still less can it be taken as
a negative with IDX, for Hazael says, ver. 14:
" He (the prophet) told me : ' Thou shalt surely re-
cover.' " This, therefore, was the answer of Elisha
which Hazael (suppressing the other words of the
prophet) brought to the king ; an answer such as
the latter was eager to receive. If there is any
case where the keri is to be preferred to the che-
tib, this is one. Nearly all the expositors, accord-
ingly, agree in reading ip , but their interpretation?
differ. Some translate, apparently with literalness :
"Tell him: — Thou shalt recover; — but God hath
shown me that he shall die," and they suppose,
accordingly, that Elisha consciously commissioned
Hazael with a falsehood, either because he did not
wish to terrify or sadden the king, that is, out of
compassion (Theodoret, Josephus), or, because it
was generally held to be allowable to deceive for-
eign enemies and idolaters (Grotius). Neither the
one nor the other, however, is consistent with the
dignity and character of the prophet, who here
speaks in the name of Jehovah. It is impossible
that the narrator, who only aims to advance the
glory of the prophet, in all his stories about him,
should have connected with his words a sense
which would have made Elisha a liar. Other ex-
positors, therefore, explain it thus : " Of thy illnesn
thou shalt not die, it is not unto death ; " but that
he then added, for Hazael: "the king will lose hia
life in another way" (i. e., violently). Clericua
(following Kimchi), J. D. Michaelis. Hess, Maurer,
Von lierlaeh. and others, agree in this interpreta-
tion. The form ITnn !"Pn in the first member of
the sentence, to which JTO' PIO in the second
member correspond, is a bar to this interpretation
The infinitive strengthens the verbal idea in both
CHAPTER Till. 1-15.
SI
cases. It cannot serve with ITnn to tone down
the verb (" as far as this illness is concerned, thou
mayest preserve thy life"), and with JITO' to
strengthen it. We must, therefore, translate:
" Thou shalt surely live," and : " He shall surely
die." Then the words can have no other sense
than that winch Titringa has established in his
thorough discussion of the verse ( Observatt. Sac, i.
3, 16, pages 716-728) : Vade, et die niodo (aaf iiri-
Tpo-ijv) ipsi: Vtiendv vives; Deus tamen mihi os-
tendit, ilium certe. moriturum esse. So, likewise,
Thenius : " Just tell him (as thou, in thy capacity
of courtier, and according to thy character, wilt
surely dn) : ' Thou shalt surely recover ; ' yet Jeho-
vah hath revealed to me that he shall surely die "
*/. Roos. Fuszstapfen des Glaubens Abrahams, s.
831). [This exposition of t'te grammatical sense
of the words is undoubtedly correct, but there is
room for some scruple about the interpretation.
Elisha seems to encourage the courtier to flatter
the king with a delusive hope. This could at best
be only a sneer, or irony. A clue to a better in-
terpretation is given above. Note that the ques-
tion is : " Shall I recover of this disease ? " The
answer seems to be measured accurately, and
strictly to fit this question : " Go, say to him : Thou
shalt surely live." That is the answer to the ques-
tion asked, and the infinitive has its full force.
Thus the prophet promises a recovery from the
illness. At the same time he sees farther, and
sees that though the illness is not fatal, other dan-
gers threaten Benhadad. He need not declare
this, and in his categorical answer to the king he
does not, but in an aside he does: "Nevertheless,
Jehovah hath shown me that he shall surely die,"
i. e., not of the disease, but by violence.. — W. G. S.]
Elisha, by his prophetical insight, had seen through
'Jie treacherous Hazael, just as he once saw through
the plans of Benhadad (chap. vi. 12), and he now
showed him that he knew the secret purpose which
he cherished in his heart. He gave him to under-
stand this, not only by his words, but also by the
circumstance which is added in ver. 11: "And he
fixed his countenance steadfastly until he (Elisha)
shamed him (Hazael)," i. e., he fixed his eyes stead-
ily and sharply upon him, so that the piercing look
produced embarrassment and made Hazael's coun-
tenance fall. This detail is consistent with the above
interpretation of ver. 10 and with no other. ["Je-
hovah hath shown me that he shall surely die,"
says the prophet, and fixes his eyes upon the am-
bitious and treacherous courtier, who has already
conceived the idea of murdering his master, until
the guilty conscience of the latter makes him shrink
from the scrutiny. — W. G. S.] The Sept. give a
purely arbitrary rendering of ver. 11, thus: nal
kcrij 'A^ai//. Kara TrpocuTrov avrov, ual irape&TjKEV
ertj-tov avrov ra dupa ewe 7)<rxvvero. The onlv
possible subject of "1DJ?51 is Elisha, and the text
says nothing about the presentation of the gifts.
L"3""IJ? does not mean either : " remarkably long "
(Ewald), nor: "In a (taking the words strictly)
shameless manner" (Thenius), cf. on chap. ii. 17.
The man of God did not weep for Benhadad, nor
for Hazael, but forh's own countrymen, on account
of the judgments wj.ich should be inflicted upon
them by the hand of Hazael, as he himself declares
in ver. 12.
Vor. 12. And Hazael said, Why weepeth
0
my lord? The particular statements in Ehsha's
reply must not be taken too strictly in their lit-
eral meaning. He only means to say : Thou wilt
commit in Israel all the cruelties which are wont to
be practised in the bitterest wars (see Hos. i. 14 ;
xiii. 16; Isai. xiii. 15 sq. ; Nahum hi. 10 sq. ; Ps.
exxxvii. 9 ; Amos i. 13 sq.). How this was fulfilled
we see in chap x. 32 sq. ; xiii. 3, 4, 7, 22. In the
13th verse, where the proud Hazael, high in office,
and already plotting to reach the throne, calls him-
self "thy servant, the dog," he commits an ex-
travagance which, in itself, shows us that he was
not in earnest, and that his humility was hypocriti-
cal and false. " Dog " is the most contemptuous
epithet of abuse, 1 Sam. xxiv. 14; 2 Sam. xvi. 9
(Winer, R.-W.-B., i. s, 517). Elisha now declares
openly to the hypocrite that which, in vers. 10 and
11, by word and look, he had only hinted at : "Je-
hovah hath shown thee to me as king of Syria,"
i. e., I know what thou aimest at, and also what
thou wilt become. The words by no means in-
volve a solemn prophetical institution or consecra-
tion (anointing) to be king, such as, for instance,
occurs in chap. ix. 3, 6, but they are a simple pre-
diction (which, at the same time, probes Hazael's
conscience) of that winch should come to pass
He means to say : As God has revealed to me Ben
hadad's death, so has he also revealed to me thj
elevation to the throne. Hazael, therefore, startlea
by the revelation of his secret plans, makes no re-
ply to the earnest words of the prophet, but turns
away.
Ver. 14. So he departed from Elisha, &c.
Hazael makes the very reply to his master which
the prophet had predicted that he would (ver. 10),
and we see from the words 1J1 ^ -)!2X still more
clearly, that we must read i? for N'p in ver. 10.
In the 15th verse nj3'1 cannot have any other sub-
ject than the three verbs which precede, -p'l , jQ'l ,
and IDiOl . It is not, therefore, Benhadad (Lu-
ther, Schulz, and others), but Hazael. Moreover, it
is inconsistent with the entire context that Benha-
dad himself, in order to refresh himself, should have
laid a cloth, dipped in water, upon his face, and then
should have died from the effects of the repressed
perspiration. "132D means, primarily, something
woven, a woven faf/ric, but it is not a fly -guard (Mi-
chaelis, Hess, and others), nor a bath-blanket or
quilt (Ewald) ; but a woven, and hence thick and
heavy, coverlet (Sept. crpa/ia); the bed-coverlet.
This, when dipped in water, became so heavy that,
when spread over his face, it prevented his breath-
ing, and so either produced suffocation, as most un-
derstand it, or brought on apoplexy, as Thenius
suggests. Clericus correctly states the reason why
Eazael chose just this form of murder: uthomi-
nem facilius sujfocaret, ne vi interemtus videret He
would have the less opposition to fear, in mounting
the throne, as he intended, if Benhadad appeared
to have died a natural death. We have not, there-
fore, to think of strangulation, which Josephus
states was here employed (rav fisv arpayyafa) fii?<p-
" < " I. Philippson remarks that, in cases of vio-
lent fever, it is the custom in the Orient, according
to Bruce, to pour cold water over the bed, and that
this bold treatment was perhaps tried in the case of
Benhadad. but with unfortunate results. This,
however, is not at all probable. We may feel confi-
dent that no one will ever succeed in clearing Ha-
82
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
zael from the crime of regicide, however much some
have tried it. Ewald ( Geschichte des Vdlkes Israel, iii.
f. 522 [3e Ausg. s. 561]), narrates the occurrence
thus : "As the king was about to take his bath (?),
his servant (?), we cannot now tell more precisely
from what particular motive, dipped the bathing-
blanket (?) in the warm (?) water, and drew it, before
the king could call for help, so tightly together (?)
over his head, that he was smothered." Every one
sees that the text says nothiug of all that. [It is
unnatural, of course, to introduce a new subject for
np^l- Also, it is not likely that the king commit-
ted suicide the day after he had shown so much
anxiety about his life. Hazael alone remains, and
so we translate. But Ewald refers the case to the
usage in which an indefinite subject, one (Germ.
man), must be supplied, § 294, b. He furthermore
points to the article in "i33Dn , which refers to
some well-known object, he thinks to a bath-
blanket. This, then, would identify the subject as
the servant who was assisting him in the bath.
Again, Ewald observes that if Hazael were the
subject he would not be mentioned again immedi-
ately afterwards (Geschichte, ed. iii. vol. III. s. 562
n. 2). These considerations are not, perhaps, strong
enough to support the inferences which he draws
from them, but they certainly are not contemptible.
— W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAX.
1. Tiiis passage is not by any means arbitrarily
inserted here in the course of the history of the
kings. It stands in close and intelligent connection
with what precedes and what follows. The first
incident (vers. 1-6) is not intended simply to prove
"how God, by overruling slight circumstances, of-
ten brings about great blessings" (Koster); neither
can it properly be entitled : " The Seven-year Fam-
ine," or "The Restoration of the Shuuammite's
Property." It is rather intended to show the high
estimation in which the king held the prophet. The
king had been a witness of very many acts of Eli-
sha, which forced from him a recognition of the
prophet's worth. In order to arrive at a still mure
complete estimate of him, he desires to learn from
a reliable source all the great and extraordinary
works which Elisha had accomplished, and of which
he had already perhaps heard something by public
rumor. He therefore applies to Gehazi for this in-
formation. While Gehazi was telling the story of
the Shunammite, she herself came in and was able
to ratify what he narrated. The king was so much
carried away by the story, and by this marvellous
meeting with the woman herself, that he, for the
sake of the prophet, restored to her the property
she had lost, and even added more than she ever
could have expected. This story, therefore, shows
us the effect which the acts of Elisha had had upon
the king, and is perfectly in place here. Moreover,
it forms the connection with what follows. In
spite of all is recognition of Elisha as a prophet,
still Jehora'_ " cleaved unto the sins of Jen
and departed not therefrom " (iii. 3). He still tol-
erated the disgraceful idolatrous worship in Israel,
bo that, before his end, Jehu could retort upon him :
" What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy
moth<r Ji ,,nd her witchcrafts are so many? "
(chap. ix. 22). Therefore it was that the storin-clt us
of divine judgment, which were to bring mil. I i
him, and to the entire house of Ahab, were ahead J
collecting. This judgment came from two direc-
tions, as the oracle 1 Kings six. 15 sq. (see Exeg.
notes thereon) had already predicted that it wouli
come, both from without and from within; foreign
invasion from Syria by Hazael, and domestic rebel-
lion by Jehu. The second narrative above concerns
Hazael; chap. ix. treats of Jehu. The main point
in the second narrative (vers. 7-15) is the announce-
ment of the divine judgment which is to fall upon
Israel by the hand of Hazael (vers. 11-13). All
the rest, both what precedes and Vhat follows, is
only introduction to this, or development of it. As
God's prophet in Israel (v. 8), Elisha had the pain-
ful task, which he performed with tears, of desig-
nating in advance the usurper Hazael as the onn
through whom the divine judgment should be in-
flicted, "in order that Israel might thereafter know
all the more surely that Jehovah had prepared this
chastisement, and that it was His hand which laid
this scourge upon apostates " (Krummacher). [As
the whole series of incidents, of which this is one.
is told in order to show the greatness of the
prophet, so it seems more consistent to see the
aim of this one in the intention to show that Elisha
foreknew and foretold Hazael's crime and usurpa-
tion, and the misery which he inflicted upon Israel.
— W. G. S.]
2. The first narrative (vers. 1-6) contains, be-
sides the chief point, which has already been speci-
fied, a series of incidents which form a marvellous
web of divine dispensations. The restoration of
the Shunammite's property, with which it ends, is
connected by a chain of intervening incidents with
the famine predicted by the prophet, with which it
begins. The restoration of the property presup-
poses its loss; this the temporary absence from
the country ; that took place by the advice of the
prophet, and this advice was founded upon the
scarcity which God had inflicted as a punishment,
and which He had revealed beforehand to the
prophet. It was especially the marvellous, divinely
ordered, meeting of the Shunammite and Gehazi in
the presence of the king, which influenced the lat-
ter to his unexpected decision. This meeting was,
for the king, a seal to the story of Gehazi, and for
the Shunammite a seal upon her faith and trust in
the prophet. Once she declined any intercession
of the prophet with the king on her behalf (chap.
iv. 13) ; now she found that she received help,
for the prophet's sake, even without his imme-
diate interference. Krummacher: " God does not
always help by startling miracles, although His
hands are not tied from even these. More fre-
quently His deliverances are disguised in the more
or less transparent veil of ordinary occurrences,
nay, even of accidents. This and that takes place,
which at the time we hardly consider worthy of no-
tice ; but let us wait until these slight providential
incidents are all collected together, and the last
thread is woven into the artistic web."
3. What is here told us about king Jehoram
presents him to us from his better side. His de-
sire to learn all of Elisha's acts, still more the way
in which he was ready at once to help the dis-
tressed Shunammite to the recovery of her property,
testify to a receptivity for elevated impressions, and
to a disposition to yield to them. By the fact that
he recognized all that was extraordinary in the
person of the prophet, and yet that he did not desist
from his false line of conduct, he showed that, in
CHAPTER Tin. l-io.
XX
the main point, the relation of himself and of his
people to Jehovah, nothing good could any longer
be expected of him. His better feelings were
transitory and, on a broad and general survey, in-
effectual. He continued to be a reed, swayed
hither and thither by the wind, easily moved, but
undecided and unreliable, so that finally, when all
the warnings and exhortations of the prophet had
produced no effect, he fell under the just and
inevitable judgment of God.
4. The second narrative (vers. 7-15) relates, it is
true, the fulfilment of the oracle in 1 Kings xix.
15, but it shows, at the same time, that that oracle
cannot be understood in its literal sense (see the
Exeg. notes on that passage), for it is historically
established here that Hazael, who now appears for
the first time in the history, was not anointed king
of Syria by either Elijah or Elisha, though he does
appear as the divinely-appointed executor of the
judgments which God had decreed against Israel.
Jehovah " shows " him as such to the prophet, and
the latter, far from seeking him in Damascus and
anointing him, or even saluting him, as king, gives
the usurper, who comes to meet him with presents
aud hypocritical humility, to understand, both by
his manner and his words, that he sees his treach-
erous plans, and he tells him, with tears, what God
had revealed, that he should be the great enemy
and oppressor of Israel. Thereupon Hazael de-
parts, startled and embarrassed, without a word.
This is the clear story of the incident as this nar-
ration presents it to us. There is no room, there-
fore, for any supposition that Hazael was anointed
by the prophet. On the other hand, it is an entire
mistake, on the part of some of the modern histo-
rians, to see in the conduct of Elisha only the
" enmity of the prophets of Jehovah " towards Je-
horam aud his dynasty, and to make Elisha a liar
and a traitor, as Duncker ( Geschichte des Altertkwms,
i. s. 413) does, when he says: "At a later time
[after the siege of Samaria by Benhadad, chap, vi.]
Elisha spent some time among the enemies of his
country, in Damascus. Here Benhadad was slain
by one of his servants, Hazael, at the instigation
of Elisha. Hazael then mounted the throne of
Damascus and renewed the war against Israel, not
without encouragement from Elisha." In like man-
ner Weber (Gesch.des Volkes Israel's, 236) remarks:
"This opportunity [the illness of Benhadad] ap-
pears to have been taken advantage of by the
prophet to bring about a palace revolution, as a
result of which the king of Damascus was mur-
dered on his sick-bed, by means of a fly-net (?) "
Such misrepresentation of history can only be ex-
plained by the neglect or ignorance of the Hebrew
text. When will people cease to make modern
revolutionary agitators of the ancient prophets ?
According to Koster (Die Proph., s. 94) the sense
of the entire story is this: "A prophet may not
allow himself to be restrained from proclaiming the
word of Jehovah, by the possibility of evil or crime
which may result from it." This thought, which
is, at best, a very common-place one, and which
might have been presented more strikingly and
precisely in a hundred other ways, is entirely for-
eign to the story before us.
5 The prophet Elisha appears, in this second nar-
-ative, in a very brilliant light. As he had forced re-
cognition of his own worth from the king of Israel,
so he had attained to high esteem with the king of
Syria. The rude, proud, and unsubmissive Ben-
hadad, the arch-enemy of Israel, whose under-
takings Elisha had often frustrated, who had once
sent an armed detachment to capture him, shows
him, as soon as he hears of his presence in his
country, the highest honors. He sends out hi?
highest officer with grand gifts to meet him, calls
himself humbly his son, and sends a request to
him that he will pray to God on his behalf. This in
itself overthrows the notion that " Elisha's cele-
brated skill in medicine " (Weber) led the king to
this step. We are not told what produced this
entire change in Benhadad's disposition; but it is,
at any rate, a strong proof of the mighty influence
which Elisha must have exerted, both by word
and deed, that he was held in so high esteem even
in Syria, and that Benhadad himself bent before
him. This reception, which he met with in a
foreign land, was also a warning sign for Israel. He
stands before us, high in worth and dignity in this
occurrence also, both as man of God aud prophet ,
He does not feel himself flattered by the high honors
which are conferred upon him. They influence him
as little as the rich gifts, which he does not eveii
accept. At the sight of the man who, according
to the purpose of God, was to be the scourge of
his people, he is carried away by such grief that
he, as our Lord once did, at the sight of Jerusalem
moving on to its destruction, burst into tears for
the people who did not consider those things
" which belonged to their peace." How any one
can form the suspicion, under such circumstances,
that Elisha stood in secret collusion with Hazael,
to whose conscience he addresses such sharp re-
proofs, or can say : " Hazael at once commenced a
war upon Israel, instigated by Elisha " (Weber), it
is hard to understand.
il. This narrative leaves no room for doubt as
to Sazael's character, and especially is that labor
thrown away which is spent upon the attempt to
acquit him of the murder of Benhadad, or to repre-
sent his guilt at least as uncertain, for JlO'l i which
follows the words: He (Hazael) "spread it on his
face," means, so that he died, as n 1 Sam. xxv.
38; 1 Kings ii. 46; 2 Kings xh 21. At heart
proud, haughty, and imperious, b> affects humility
and submissiveness; towards hi-, master, who had
entrusted him with the most important commission,
he is false and treacherous. He shrinks from no
means to attain his object. He lies and deceives,
but, at the same time, he is cunning and crafty,
and knows how to conceal his traitorous purposes.
When, alarmed and exposed by the words of the
prophet, he can no longer keep them secret, he
marches on to the crime, although he seeks to exe-
cute it in such a way that he may not appear to be
guilty. With all this he combines energy, courage,
cruelty, and a blind hatred against Israel, as the
sequel shows. On account of these qualities, he
was well fitted to be, in the hand of God, a rod
of anger and a staff of indignation (Isai. x. 5)
"The Lord makes the vessels of wrath service-
able for the purpose of His government" (Krum-
macher), and here we have again, as often in
the history of redemption, an example of wicked-
ness punished by wickedness, and of godless men
made, without their will or knowledge, instru-
ments of holiness and justice (see above, 1 Kingf
xxii. Hist, jj 6).
84
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
HC-JlILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-6. King Jehoram and the Shunammite.
(a) The marvellous meeting of the two (the inscru-
table and yet wise and gracious orderings of God,
Isai. xxviii. 29 ; lv. 8, 9) ; (6) the restoration of the
property believed to be lost (a proof of the truth
of Prov. xxi. 1 ; and Ps. exlvi. 7, 9 ; therefore. IV.
xxxvii. 5). — Vers. 1-3. Kkummacher: Famine, pest,
war, and all other forms of calamity, form an army
which is subject to the command of God, which
comes and goes at His command, which is ready to
attack or ready to retire as He may order, and
which can assail no one without command. They
are sometimes commissioned to punish, and to be
the agents of the divine justice, sometimes to arouse
and to bring back the intoxicated to sobriety,
sometimes to embitter the world to sinners, and
push them to the throne of grace, and sometimes to
try the saints, and light the purifying fires about
them. . . . So no man has to do simply with
the sufferings which fall upon him, but, before all,
with Him who inflicted them. — Seiler: It is not a
rare thing for God to lead even a large number of
persons at the same time away from a certain
place, where some calamity would have befallen
them with others. Do not abandon thy father-
land without being certain of the call of God :
"Arise! Go," &c, as Abraham was (Gen. xii. 1).
Faith clings to the words in Ps. xxxvii. 18, 19. It
is the holy duty and the noblest task of human
government to help the oppressed, to secure justice
for orphans, and to help the cause of the widow
(Isai. i. 17; Ps. lxxxii. 3). — Vers. 4-6. The King's
Consultation with Gehazi. (a) The motive of it;
(6) the effect of it. — Ver. 4. Osiander: That is the
way with many great men ; they like to hear of
the deeds and discourses of pious teachers, and
even admire thorn, but will not be improved
by them (Mark vi. 20 ; Acts xxiv. 24 sq. ; xxv. 22 :
xxvi. 28). — Kruhmacher: People are not wanting
even now-a-days who, although they are strangers
to the life which has its source in God, neverthe-
less have a feeling of interest and enthusiasm for
the miraculous contents of the text. They read
such portions of Scripture with delight. . . . Even
a certain warmth of feeling is not wanting. What,
hOTSTS" is totally wanting, is the broken and con-
trite spirit, the characts.-.- o: % poor and helpless sin-
ner.— Ver. 5. That the word which has been heard
may not fall by the wayside, but take root in the
heart, God. in His mercy, often causes special occur-
rences to take place immediately afterwards which
bear testimony to the truth of the word. — Ver. 6. For
1 1n- -ake of the prophet the Shunammite was helped
out of her misfortune, and reinstated in the posses-
sion of her property. The Lord never forgets the
kindnesses which are shown to a prophet in the
name of a prophet (Matt. x. 41); He repays them
noc once but many times (chap. iv. 8-10). The word
of God often extorts from an unconverted man a
good and noble action, which, however, if it only
proceeds from a sudden emotion, and stands alone,
resembles a flower, which blooms in the morning,
und in the evening fades and dies. True servants
j] 'lod. like Klisha, are often fountain- of great
blessinir, without their own immediate participa-
tion or knowledge.
Vers. 7-1. ">. Klisha in Syria. In) Iicnhadad's
mission to him ; (4) the mee.lng witb ,Jazael ; (c)
the announcement of the j*i<-gments upon Israel.—
Vers. 7 and 8. Benhadad upon the Sick-bed. (a]
The rebellious, haughty, and mighty king, the
arch-enemy of Israel, who had never troubled
himself about the living God, lies in wretched
ness; he has lost courage, and now he seeke
the prophet whom he once wished to capture,
I just as a servant seeks his master. The Lord can
with his hammer, which breaketh in pieces even
the flinty rock, also make tender the hearts of men
(Isai. xxvi. 16). Those who are the most self-
willed in prosperity are often the most despairing
in misfortune. Not until the end approaches do'
they seek God ; but He cannot help in death those
who in life have never thought of Him. (b) He does
not send to ask the prophet : What shall I, poor
sinner, do that I may find grace and be saved ? but
only whether he shall recover his health. (Starke :
The chddren of this world are only anxious for
bodily welfare ; about eternal welfare they are in-
different.) It should be our first care in severe ill-
ness to set our house in order, and to surrender
ourselves to the will of God, so that we may truth-
fully say with the apostle : " For whether we live,"
ic. (Rom. xiv. 8). The time and the hour of death
are concealed from men, and it is vain to inquire
about them. — Ver. 7. The man of God is cornel
That was the cry in the heathen city of Damascus,
and the news penetrated even to the king, who re-
joiced to hear it. This did not occur to Elisha in
any city of Israel, Luke iv. 24 sq. (John i. 1 1 ; Acts
xviii. 6). Blessed is the city and the country where
there is rejoicing that a man of God is come I —
Vers. 9-11. So much the times may change! He
who once was despised, hated, and persecuted, is
now met with royal honors and rich presents ; but
the one makes him uncertain and wavering just as
little as the other. The testimonials of honor, and
the praise of the great and mighty, the rich and
those of high station, are often a much more severe
temptation to waver for the messengers of the
word of God, than persecution and shame. To be
a true man of God is not consistent with vanity
and self-satisfaction. The faithful messenger de-
livers his message without respect of persons, in
season and out of season (2 Tim. iv. 2). He who
seeks for the honor which cometh only from God
(John v. 44), will not let himself be blinded by
honor before men (Acts xiv. 14; Sirach xx. 31). —
Ver. 10. However well a man may know how to
conceal his secret thoughts and wicked plans, there
is One who sees them, even long before they are
pnt in operation ; from whom the darkness hideth
not, and for whom the night shineth as the day
(Ps. exxxix. 2-12). He will sooner or later bring
to light what is hidden in darkness, and reveal
the secret counsel of the heart (1 Cor. iv. 5). —
Ver. 1 1. He who has a good conscience is never
disturbed or embarrassed if any one looks him
directly in the eye; but a bad conscience cannot
endure an open, firm look, and trembles with terror
at every rustling leaf. — V»rs. 11, 12. Elisha weeps.
These were not tears of sentiment, but of the
deepest pain, worthy of a man of God, who knows
of no greater evil than the apostasy of his people
from the living God, the determined contempt for
the divine word, and the rejection of the divine
grace. Where are the men who now-a-days weep
such tears '.' They were also tears of the most taith-
ful love, which is not easily provoked, tliiiike'.li no
evd, vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up So
CHAPTER VIU. 1G-29.
8£,
our I<ord wept once over Jerusalem (Luke six. 41),
and St. Paul over Israel (Rom. ix. 1-3). — Ver. 13.
Subserviency before men is always joined with
falseness and hypocrisy. Therefore trust no one
who is more than humble and modest. Hazael
called himself a dog, while he plotted in his heart
to become king of a great people. — Cramer : It is
the way with all hypocrites that they bend and
cringe, and humble themselves, and conceal their
tricks, until they perceive their opportunity, and
have fouud the key of the situatiou (2 Sam. xv. 6).
— Kkummacher : There is scarcely anything more
discordant and disgusting than the dialect of self-
abasement, when it bears upon its face the stamp
of affectation and falsehood. — Vers. 14, 15. It U.
the curse which rests upon him who has sold him
self to sin, that all which ought to awaken his
conscience, and terrify and shock him out of hii
security, only makes him more obstinate, and
pushes him on to carry out his evil designs (cf.
John xiii. 21-30). — Ver. 15. The Lord abhorreth
the bloody and deceitful man (Ps v. 7). He who,
by treason and murder, ascends a throne, is no
king by the grace of God, but only a rod of wratb
in the hands of God, which is broken in pieces
when it has served its purpose.
FIFTH SECTION.
THE MONARCHY UNDER JEHORAM AND AHAZIAH IN JUDAH, AND THE ELEVATION OF
JEHU TO THE THRONE IN ISRAEL-
Chap. VHL 16-IX 37
A. — The reigns of Jehoram and Ahaziah in Judah.
Chap. VHI. 15-29 (2 Chrojj. XXI. 2-20).
16 And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ah.ob king of Israel [(] 'Jehosha-
phat being then [had been] king of Jllllahf)], [or expunge the sentence in parenthesis]
17 Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. Thirty and
two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years3 in
18 Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house
of Ahab ; for the daughter of Ahab 3 was his wife : and he did evil in the sight
19 of the Lord. Yet the Lord would not destroy Jndah* for David his servant's
sake, as he [had] promised him to give him always [omit always] a light [forever],
and to [referring to] his children.
20 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king
21 over themselves. So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him :
and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about,6 and
[s»m>£c] 8 the captains of the chariots [». c, of the Edomites] : and the people [of
22 Israel] fled into their tents. Yet [So] Edom revolted from under the hand of
23 Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. And the rest
of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of
24 the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And Joram slept with his fathers, and
was buried with his fathers in the city of David : and Ahaziah his son reigned
in his stead.
25 In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the
26 son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. Two and twenty years old was
Ahaziah when he began to reign : and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And
27 his mother's name was Athaliali, the daughter of Omri king of Israel. And he
walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord,
as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son-in-law of [connected by marriage
with] * the house of Ahab.
88 And he went with Joram the son of Ahab [And Joram himself8 went] tc
the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramothgilead ; and the Syrians
86
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
29 wounded Joram. And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of th<
wounds which the Syrians had given him 10 at Ramah, when he fought against
Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went
down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
' Ver. 16.— [Keil and Bahr and the English translators take ITTliT "pO DBt-'hiTl as a parenthesis. In this view it
mnstbe understood that Jehoram of Judah assumed the government during the lifetime of his father. (Seethe Excursnl
on the Chronology.) In the Sept. (Alex.) Syr., Arab., and many MSS., the words are wanting. They arise from an errol
of the copyist, who repeated them from the end of the verse (Thenius, Bunsen). Ewald supplies ^^ before ^1?^; but,
as Thenius well objects, there is no instance of any such statement inserted in the midst of this current formula.
• Ver. IT. — [The keri proposes the pi. D JI^' according to the rule for numbers between two and ten.
3 Ver. IS. — f" Daughter of Ahab." viz., Athaliah, ver. 26. According to 2 Chron. xxi. 4. he put to death all his brothers,
perhaps, as Keil suggests, in order to get the treasures which Jehoshaphat had given to them (2 Chron. xxi. 8).
4 Ver. 19. — [•• The Lord would not destroy Judah,'' &c, 2 Chron. xxi. 7. "The Lord would not destroy the house of
David, because of the covenant that He had made with David," cf. 2 Sam. vii. 12. On "1 J , see on 1 Kings xi.36. ^ 327 ,
i. e.. "referring to. or, according to the sense, through, or by mtana of, his children" (Thenius, Bahr, Keil, Bunsen,
and others). A man's posterity is spoken of as his liubt. It burns until his descendants die our. God promised that
David's light should last forever, "referring to* his posterity, through whom, or by preserving whom, God would keep
the promise. Cf. 1 Kings xv. 4, for another example of the usage. The "and" in the E.V. is imported from 2 Chron. xxi.
7. where it is adopted, as in the Vulg. and Sept., as an " easier reading " (Tin nius).
6 Ver. 21. — [3*3Dn is an anomalous form. It is punctuated with tsere, which is thus written full, although it is
lone only by accent. Ewald only says of it that it 'Ms very remarkable" (s. 52, note 1). There are a few forms like *1*DV
which have sometimes been explained as part, kal, and some de3ire to punctuate this 2*30 , still regarding it as part,
kal, but explaining it by the last-mentioned analogy. Bottcher. however (§ 994, 3), disposes otherwise of every one of
those forms, and thus destroys that analogy. He punctuates this J jEo ■ The sense would not be different, but a concise
and literal translation is difficult. " He attacked Edom, the investment against him," i. e., he attacked the line which
enclosed him.
6 Ver. 21. — ['■ Smote " must be repeated in the English in order to show that " captain " is in the same construction
with •■ Edonutes."
7 Ver. 27. — |nn is used here generally for a relative by marriage. See the Chron. (II., xxii. 3 and 4) for a develop-
ment of this statement.
8 Ver. 28. — Ln>{ is not the prep., but the case-sign. Bottcher has vindicated for this the signification " sell," § 515, c/.
2 Kings vi. 5. "The iron itself;" the part which was iron; not the handle.
9 Ver. 28.— [For the omission of the article in D'^DIX . cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 52 and 58, and Ew. § 277, c. The article is
necessary according to the general nsage, but exceptions occur.
10 Ver. 29. — [*' Which the Syrians had given." The iniperf. here, and in ix. 15 in the Hebrew text, is very remarkable.
Elsewhere we find the perf. in relative or other subordinate clauses, which interrupt the flow of discourse in order to
specify attendant circumstances or details. It is like the aorist used for the pluperf. In 2 Chron. xxii. 6 we find the perf. —
In 2 Chron. x\i. 17 it is stated that the Philistines and Arabians carried away all the sons of Jehoram but Jehoahaz,
the youngest. In xxii. 1 it is stated that the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah. the youngest and only remaining son
of Jehoram. kin::. The two names are equivalent in meaning, the syllable from the name of Jehovah being in the one
case prefixed, and in the other, aftixed. Probably the latter form was the one adopted when he ascended the throne. In
xxii. 6 we have the form Azariah, which is probably, as Ewald suggests, a slip of the pen. — W. G. S.]
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PERIOD FROM AHAB TO
JEHU.
Polus says of the chronological statement with
which this passage commences: Occurrit hie nodws
impeditus, i :utse it does not accord with pre-
vious data, especially with chap. i. 17, and has,
therefore, caused the expositors great trouble.
The question whether any reconciliation at all is
possible, and. if so, how it is to be brought about,
can only be answered after comparing all the data
with reference to the reigns of the several kings
of both realms between Ahab and Jehu. For, not
only does a new period in the history of the mon-
archy begin with Jehu's reign, but also it gives a
filed point from which to calculate the chronology
of the preceding period, seeing that Jehoram of
Israel and Ahaziah of Judah were both slain by
him. perhaps upon t ! i> - same day (chap. ix. 21-'J7i,
»nd -" there was a change of upant on both
thrones at the same time. This year, which al stall
modern expositor- :.gree in fixing, with a unanimity
which is not usual with them, is 'he yea- 884 B.C.
[This unanimity is not apparent. Rdsch (Art.
" Zeitrechnung," in Herz. Encyc.) gives a table of
twelve authorities. They fix this date as follows :
Petavius, 884; TJssher, 884: Des Vignoles, 876;
Bengel, 8S6; Thiele, 888; Winer, 884; Ewald, 883;
Thenius. 8S4 ; Keil, 883; Set-mirth, 855; Bunsen,
873. We may add, Rawlinson. 884 : Lenormant,
886 ; Lepsius (on the ground of the Egyptian chro-
nology) 861. Nooneofthem make- this tin- start-
ing point for introducing the dates of the Christian
era into the Jewish chronology, and it i-^ char that
there is no more certain means of establishing the
date of Jehu's accession in terms of the Christian
era, than tha of any other event. This date being
thus arbitrarily fixedby the consensus of chronolo-
gers who have reached it by starting from some
other date which they were aide to lix by some in-
dependent means, all the other dates in Bahr's chro-
nology must suffer from the uncertainty which
attaches to this. It is not an independent and sci
entitle method of procedure. For the true point of
connection between tin- Jewish chronology and the
Christian era, see the appendix to this volume. The
CHAPTER VIII. 16-29.
dates adopted by Bahr are also there collected into a
table for convenience of reference. — W. G. S.] From
this date back wards, the dates of the other reigns
must therefon be fixed according to the data given
in the text. As there are two kings who have the
same name, D"lV or D"liiV (in 2 Kings i. 17 and
2 Chron. xxii. 6, both are called D1VT ; in 2 Kings
ix. 15, 17, 21, DiV is the name of the king of Israel ;
in 2 Kings viii. 16 and 29, the king of Israel is called
D"1V , and the king of Judah min' , while in chap.
viii. 21, 23, 24, the king of Judah is called Q-|y).
we will call the king of Israel, in what follows,
Joram, and the king of Judah, Jehoram, simply in
order to avoid ambiguity.
We have to bear in mind, first of all, in counting
the years of the reigns, the peculiar method of
reckoning of the Hebrews. According to a rule
which is given several times in the Talmud, and
which was adopted also by Josephus in his
■writings, a year in the reign of a king is reckoned
from Nisan to Nisan, in such a way that a single
day before or after [the first of] this month is
•counted as a year (see Keil on 1 Kings xii. s. 139
sq.. where the passages from the Talmud are
quoted). [The note is as follows : " ' The only
method of reckoning the year of the kings is from
Nisan.' Further on, after quoting certain passages
in proof, it is added : ' Rabbi Chasda said : " They
give this rule only in regard to the kings of Israel." '
Nisan was the beginning of the year for the kings,
and a single day in the year («'. e., after the first
day of Nisan) is counted as a year. ' One day on
the end of the year is counted as a year.' " The ci-
tations are from the tract on the " Beginning of the
Year " ( nj"'H L"S"I ) in the Guemara of Babylon,
c. l. fol. hi., p. 1, ed. Amstel.] It cannot be doubted
that this method of reckoning is the one employed
in the books before us, for we saw above (1 Kings
xv. 9 and 25) that the reign could not have com-
prised full years to the number stated. The same
is also clear from a comparison of 1 Kings xxii. 51,
and 2 Kings iii. 1, and other examples will follow.
Such a method of reckoning, which counted portions
of a year as whole years in estimating the duration
of a reign, necessarily produced inaccuracies and un-
certainties, so that the difference of a year in differ-
ent chronological data cannot present any difficulty,
much less throw doubt upon the entire chronology
of the period or overthrow it. If now we reckon
'back from the established date, 884 B.C., the reigns
of the separate kings, the following results are ob-
tained :
(a) For the kmgs of Judah: — Ahaziah, who
died in 884, reigned only one year (2 Kings viii.
26), and, hi fact, as is generally admitted, not a full
twelvemonth. He therefore came to the throne in
8S4 or 885. His predecessor, Jehoram, reigned
eight years (chap. viii. 17), down to 885, so that
his accession fell hi 891 or 892. Jehoshaphat, his
father, reigned twenty-five years (1 Kings xxii.
42), that is, from 916 or 917 on. As he came to
the throne in the fourth year of Ahab, the acees-
Bion of the latter falls in 919 or 920.
(h) For the kings of Israel : — Joram, who died
»n 884, had reigned for twelve years (chap. iii. 1). He
came to the throne, therefore, in 895 or 896. His
predecessor, Ahaziah, reitned for two years (1
Kings xxii. 51 and 2 Kings iii. 1), but, as is admit
ted, not two full years. Hence he became king in
897 or 898. Ahab, his father, reigned for twenty
two years (1 Kings xvi. 29) ; came to the throne,
therefore, between 919 and 920, which agrees with
the reckoning above.
Again, if we reckon the corresponding years
of the reigns in the two kingdoms, we arrive at
the following calculation : (a) Ahaziah of Judah
became king in the twelfth year of Joram of Israel
(chap. viii. 26), and, as the latter was slain in
the same year as the former (884), the one year
of the former (viii. 26), cannot have been a full
year. (6) Jehoram of Judah became king in the
fifth year of Joram of Israel (viii. 16), and, as the
latter's accession falls in 895 or 896 (see above),
his fifth year coincides with 891 or S92, the date
above established for the accession of Jehoram.
(c) Ahaziah of Israel became king in the seven-
teenth (1 Kings xxii. 51), and his successor,
Joram, in the eighteenth (2 Kings iii. i)year of
Jehoshaphat, whence it is clear that Ahazifih, i s
was above remarked, did not reign for two whoie
years (1 Kings xxii. 51) The seventeenth of Je-
hoshaphat falls, reckoning from his accession is
916, in 899, and his eighteenth in 898, wherea9,
according to the above calculation, Ahaziah came
to the throne between 897 and 898, and Joram be-
tween 897 and 896. This insignificant discrepancy
is evidently due to the Hebrew method of reckon-
ing, for under that system it might will be that
the two years of Ahaziah, although nol complete,
might embrace parts of 898, 897, and 896, and
still Ahaziah might follow in the seventeenth and
Joram in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. At
any rate, the historical details, which are of far
greater importance, are not touched by these slight
chronological differences, far less are they in contra-
diction with them. Finally, if we add the reigns of
the three kings of Judah, viz., Jehoshaphat twenty-
five, Jehoram eight, and Ahaziah one, the sum is
thirty-four years. As these years, however, were
not all full, there cannot be more than thirty-two in
all. The reigns of the three kings of Israel, Ahab
twenty-two, Ahaziah two, Joram twelve, amount
to thirty-six years, which were not all complete, so
that they cannot give in all over thirty-five years.
The entire period from Ahab to Jehu containa
between thirty-five and thirty-six years, and, as
Jehoshaphat came to the throne in the fourth year
of Ahab. the sums agree.
While the eleven data given in six passages
thus agree essentially, one statement, 2 Kings i.
17, according to which Joram of Israel became
king in the second year of Jehoram of Judah, dif-
fers decidedly. If it is authentic, Jehoshaphat
cannot have reigned twenty-five years, but only
seventeen, and there was no eighteenth year of
his, in which the accession of Joram of Israel is
declared to have fallen (iii. 1). Moreover. Jehosha-
phat's successor, Jehoram of Judah, did not then
reign eight (chap. viii. 17). but fourteen years, and
he came to the throne, not in the fifth (viii. 16)
year of Joram of Israel, but a year before him.
This brings great disturbance, not only into tlio
chronology, but also into the history of the entire
period. In order to do away with tills glaring dis-
crepancy, the founder of biblical chronology,
TJssher, following the rabbinical book called Seder
Olam, adopted the explanation, in hi? Annul. Vet
et Nov. Tastam., 1650, that Jehoram reigned for su
8j
THE SECOND BOOK OF TIIK KINGS.
or seven years with his father Jehoshaphat. This
theory of a joint reign is the most generally ac-
cepted explanation. Keil defends it very vigorously,
and asserts that " Jehoshaphat, when he marched
out with Ahab to war against Syria in Ramoth
Gilend (1 Kings xxii. 3 sq.), appointed his son
regent, and committed to him the government of
the kingdom. The statement in 2 Kings i. IT, that
Joram of Israel became king in the second year
of Jehoram of Judah, dates from this joint govern-
ment. . . . But, in the fifth year of this joint
administration, Jehoshaphat gave up the govern-
ment entirely to him (Jehoram). From this time,
i. e., from the twenty-third year of Jehoshaphat,
we have to reckon the eight years of the reign of
Jehoram of Judah, so that he reigned alone, after
his father's death, only six years." This reconcili-
ation is artificial and forced ; but the following con-
siderations tell especially against it :
(a) The biblical text says nothing anywhere
about the assumed fact that Jehoshaphat raised
his son to share his throne six or seven years be-
fore he died, and that he then, in the fifth year of
this divided government, retired entirely, although,
if any king had done such a thing, it must have had
deep iniiuence on the history of the monarchy. Keil
himself is forced to admit that " we do not know
the reasons which impelled Jehoshaphat to abdi-
cate in favor of his son two years before his death."
It never can be proper to supplement the history on
the basis of an isolated chronological statement. In
2 Chron. xxi. 5 and 20, the reign of Jehoram dates
from the death of his predecessor, just as in the case
of all the other kings, and its duration is stated as
eight years, no account being taken of any two
years during which he is thought to have reigned
while his father was yet alive, or of five years that
he reigned jointly with him. It is said there, in ver.
3, that Jehoshaphat " gave " to his sons gold and
fortified cities, but to his eldest son, Jehoram, the
kingdom ; yet that clearly refers to the disposition
he made for the time after his death, and not to
any distribution which he accomplished two, or, in
fact, seven, years before his death
(b) Appeal is made, in support of this assumed
joint government, to the obscure words in 2 Kings
viii. 16: nTHr 7]i?0 tDQK'ilTl, which Clericus sup-
plements by TI 11J)' adhuc erai in vivis, aut simile
quidpiam. KeiL with many of the old commenta-
tors, translates : " While Jehoshaphat was (still)
king of Judah," i. e., during the lifetime of Jehosh-
aphat. But those words are wanting in the Syrian
and Arabic versions, in some MSS., and in the
Complutensian Septuagint. Luther and De Wette
leave them untranslated. Houbigant, Kennicott,
Dathe, Schulz, Maurer, and Thenius want to re-
move them from the text. Thenius says that they
are "evidently due to an error of the copyist, who
has repeated them here from the end of the verse,"
and that "they were then provided with the con-
junction, in order to give them a connection." We
cannot, therefore, call their omission from the text
" a piece of critical violence," as Keil does. If,
however, it is desired to retain them, because they
are in the massoretic text, the Chaldee version, the
Vulgate, and the Vatican Sept., still they cannot be
translated in the manner proposed. The word
"still," which is here so important, is wanting in
the text, and cannot be inserted without further
deliberation Kmichi and Ewald, with the rabbini-
cal Seilar Olam, supply DO after rTHiT . >'■ e- " an*
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, was dead." This,
however, would be constructing a sentence which
states what is true to be sure, but " the super-
fiuousness of which, and the unpreeedeutedness
also, in the midst of the current formula in which
it occurs, it is not necessary to point out " (Thenius)
If the words are to stand, the only possible re
course is to supply ,-pn , which so often is want-
ing, in the sense of the pluperfect. The sentence
would then have to be understood as a parenthesis,
intended to refer back again to the last king of
Judah, because, in this verse, the history of the
kingdom, which has been interrupted by the nar-
rative of other incidents from 1 Kings xxii. 50 up
to this point, is now to be resumed. " Jehoshaphat
had been king of Judah." But in what manner
soever the words may be translated, they can in nc
case obscure the clear and definite declaration that
Jehoram became king in the fifth year of Joram of
Israel, and that he reigned eight years. What is
obscure can never explain what is clear, but only,
vice versa, that which is clear can explain what is
obscure.
(c) When Joram of Israel undertook the war
against Moab (2 Kings iii. 4 sq.), (at the earliest in
the first year of his reign), he called upon " Jehosh-
aphat king of Judah " to go with him, and when the
three kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom, turned, in
their distress, to Elisha, he would have nothin?
to do with Joram, but referred him to the proph
ets of Ahab and Jezebel, and finally gave ear to
him only for the sake of " Jehoshaphat king of
Judah," who was faithful to Jehovah (ver. 14).
But if Jehoram had then been king of Judah ac-
cording to chap. i. 17, or even joint ruler, Jehosha-
phat covdd not have been spoken of simply as rul-
ing king of Judah.
(</) Jehoshaphat held firmly to the worship of
Jehovah, and was a decided opponent of all wor-
ship of Baal or Astarte. He was, in fact, one of the
most pious of the kings of Judah (1 Kiugs xxii. 43 ;
2 Chron. xvii. 3-6; xix. 3; xx. 32); his son Jeho-
ram. on the contrary, did what was evil in the sight
of God, and was devoted to the worship of Baal,
which Ahab's family had introduced (2 Kings viii.
18: 2 Chron. xxi. 6 and 11 sq.). It is impossible,
therefore, that they should have ruled together. If
Jehoshaphat had allowed his fellow-ruler to intro-
duce and foster the worship of Baal, he would have
made himself a participant in the same guilt, and
would not have received the praise of changeless
fidelity to Jehovah.
(e) Joint governments are foreign to Oriental,
and, above all, to Israelitish antiquity. It is true
that it is stated in the history of king Azariah (Uz-
ziah) that he was a leper, and, therefore, lived in a
separate house, and that his son Jotham " was over
the house, judging the people of the land " (2 Kings
xv. 5). The " house " here meant is the royal
palace (cf. 1 Kings iv. 6; xviii. 3), and it is not in-
tended to assert that he became Miig during the
lifetime of the rightful king, as is assumed with re-
gard to Jehoram. Jotham did not become king
until Uzziah's death, and then he ruled for six-
teen years (2 Kings xv. 7, 33). The years iu which
he acted as regent for his sick father are not
reckoned in these, as they should be. if it is to be a
precedent for including in the eight years of Je-
horam certain years during which lie was joint
CHAPTER VIII. 16-29.
89
ruler with his father. There is no statement any-
where with regard to Jehoshaphat that he was
sick or otherwise incapacitated for governing.
This energetic ruler was far from needing an
assistant, certainly not such a weak one as Je-
horam. The latter was sick for two years before
his death; but even he had no joint regent. His
Bor. Ahaziah did not come to the throne until after
his death.
From all this we see plainly that all attempts
to bring 2 Kings i. 17 into agreement with the
other chronological data, which are essentially in
accord among themselves, are vain. We are there-
fore forced to the conclusion that the text of this
verse, as it lies before us, is not in its original form.
Thenius considers it corrupt, and desires to read
for: "In the second year of Jehoram, the son of
Jehoshaphat," " in the twenty-second year of Je-
hoshaphat." But this does not agree with 2 Kings
iii. 1. where it is said that Joram of Israel came to
the throne in the eighteenth, not twenty-second,
of Jehoshaphat, nor with 1 Kings xxii. 51, where
"in the seventeenth year" must be changed, as
Thenius proposes, to " in the twenty-first year,"
a change which is inadmissible. On the other
hand, it must be admitted that the form of state-
ment varies considerably from the standing for-
mula. In each case where the death of a king is
recorded, there follows immediately the formula:
such a one became king in his stead, without any
further details in regard to the successor than
simply his name. Then when the history of the
following reign commences, often after the in-
sertion of other incidents and reflections of greater
or less length, it is stated in what year of the
reign of the king of the other nation he began
to reign, of what age he was, and how many
years he ruled (cf. 1 Kings xiv. 20-31 ; xv. 8-24;
xvi. 28; xxii. 40-51; 2 Kings viii. 24; x. 35 ; xii.
22; xiii. 0: xiv. 16-29; xv.Y 22, 25, 30, 38; xvi.
20; xx. 21 ; xxi. 18, 26 ; xxiii. 30 ; xxiv. 6). Now, in
2 Kings i. 17, after the words " and he died accord-
ing to the word of the prophet Elijah," follows the
ordinary formula, " and Joram became king in
his stead : " but then there is added, what is not
added in a single other passage : " In the second
year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat king of
Judah," but without the further details, which are
usually given in that connection, in regard to the
length of the reign, &c. These details are not
added until we come to the commencement of the
history of his reign, chap. iii. 1 ; there, however,
they vary very much from this short statement, as
does also viii. 16. Now since, of course, the two
complete and precise statements are to be pre-
ferred to the incomplete one, the unusual chrono-
logical datum in i. 17 must be regarded as a later
and incorrect addition, all the more as it stands in
contradiction with all the other chronological data
of the period in question. It appears distinctly as
an addition in the Sept., where it stands at the
end of the verse, and is not incorporated into it.
It is remarkable that scholars have preferred to
change the other complete and consistent data, in
order to force them into agreement with this.
rather than to give up this one statement which is
totally unsupported, and which introduces con-
fusion not only into the chronology, but also into
-the history
Finally, we have to notice another calcula-
tion of the chronology" of this period which
Wolff has attempted (Studien und Kritiken, 1858, 4:
s. 625-688). He rejects in general very decidedly
any assumption of joint sovereignty, and especially
the joint rule of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat ; but he
inconsistently sets up such an assumption when he
says (s. 643) : " As his (Ahaziah of Israel's) health
was so far lost that he could no longer administer
the government, he took his brother Joram on the
throne with himself, as co-regent, at about the
end of the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. He
remained king until the twenty-second year of
Jehoshaphat. and then gave up the government
entirely in favor of his brother, but did not die
until the second year of Jehoram." Ignoring the
above-mentioned Jewish mode of reckoning, aud
starting from the purely arbitrary and unfounded
assumption that only the dates given for the reigns
of the kings of Judah are correct and reliable,
Wolff changes the twenty-two years of Ahab to
twenty, the two years of Ahaziah of Israel to four
and a half, makes Joram succeed to the throne in
the twenty-second instead of the eighteenth year
of Jehoshaphat, Jehoram in the third and not in
the fifth year of Joram, and, finally, Ahaziah of
Judah in the eleventh and not in the twelfth year
of Joram. No one else has hitherto conceived the
idea of undertaking so many changes in the text ;
they are all as violent as they are unnecessary,
and, therefore, need no refutation, although thej
necessity is confidently asserted. The joint rule of
Ahaziah and Joram is, if possible, still more con-
trary to the text than that of Jehoshaphat and
Jehoram.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 10. Yet the Lord would not destroy
Judah, &c. The connection between vers. 19 and
20 is this : Although for David's sake Judah did
not, as a consequence of its apostasy, lose its
dynasty and its existence as a nation, yet it had
to pay dearly for its sin ; for the Edomites, who
had been subject to Judah for one hundred and
fifty years, endeavored, during Jehoram's reign,
to regain their independence. Josephu? says that
they had killed the governor, whom Jehoshaphat
had appointed (1 Kings xxii. 47), and had chosen
a king for themselves. In order to re-subjugate
them Jehoram marched out with an army rWJTX
unquestionably the name of a place, but not equiv-
alent to Zoar (Hitzig and Ewald), for this lay in
Moab (Jerem. xlviii. 34 , not in Edom. The place
cannot be more definitely located. The chronicler
has instead V"lL""DJ? , '■ <?-, " with his captains,"
and does not mention any place, probably because
he did not know any place by the name here given
Thenius proposes to read n"VS)L", which is favorei
by the Vulg., Seira, so that we should have to un
derstand it as referring to the well-known moun-
tainous region of Edom.
Ver. 21. And he rose by night, Ac. "It is
clear that we have in this verse the record of an
unsuccessful attempt of Jehoram to re-subjugate
Edom. We must, therefore, form our conceptions
of the details according to this character of the
whole " (Thenius). It is an utter mistake to un-
derstand the occurrence as the Calvjer Bibd, on
2 Chron. xxi. 7 sq., explains it: "The cowardly,
90
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
faithless king plotted and executed a massacre by
night of the Edomites who surrounded him, in
which his own captains also fell ; and since, accord-
ing to 2 Kings viii. 21, his own people upon this
deserted him, he could not accomplish anything
further against the Edomites, and they remained
independent.'' The passage rather states simply
that the army of Judah, as it approached Edom,
was surrounded by the Edomites, but broke
through them by night, and fled homewards
(1 Kings viii. 66), so that it barely escaped an
utter defeat. From this time on the dominion of
Judah over Edom was at an end (Ps. cxxxvii. 7).
Ver. 22. Unto this day, /. e., uutil the time of
composition of the original document from which
this is taken (see above, on 1 Kings viii. 8). The
Edomites were, indeed, re-subjugated for a short
time (xiv. 7, 22), but never again permanently. —
Then Libnah revolted at the same time. This
city lay in the plaiu of Judah, not far from the fron-
tier of Philistia. It was at one time an ancient
royal residence of the Canaanites, and afterwards
one of the priests' cities [cities of refuge] of the
Israelites (Josh. xv. 42; xii. 15; xxi. 13), though it
can hardly have retained the latter character until
the time of Jehoram. We may suppose that it was
instigated to revolt by the Philistines, and that it
was assisted by them. Among the further details
mentioned by the chronicler, it is stated that the
Phdistiues attacked Jehoram, and inflicted upon
him a severe defeat (2 Chron. xxi. 16 s?.). [It is
also stated there that the allied Philistines and
Arabians took Jerusalem and plundered the tem-
ple, an event to which Hitzig refers the passage
Joel iv. 4-6. Thenius approves this, but thinks
that 2 Chron. xxi. 1 7 is inconsistent with 2 Kings
x. 3, which assigns a different fate to Ahaziah's
kindred.— W. G. S.]
Ver. 25. Did Ahaziah begin to reign. The
chronicler states Ahaziah's age at his accession as
forty -two (II., xxii. 2). This is the result of a mis-
take of D for 3, in the numerals (Keil, Winer,
Thenius), as we must conclude from the age
assigned to Jehoram in ver. 17. Jehoram was
thirty-two when he ascended the tlu-one; he reigned
eight years; died, therefore, at forty. Ahaziah
was twenty-two at his accession; he was, there-
fore, born when his father was eighteen. There
is nothing astonishing in this, for, according to
the Talmud, young men might marry after their
thirteenth year, and eighteen was the usual age
of marriage (Winer, R- W.-B., i. s. 297). [It should
be noticed that this bears upon 2 Chron. xxi. 17,
where it is said that Ahaziah was the youngest
of the sons of Jehoram. — W. G. S.] — Athaliah is
here (ver. 26) called the daughter of Omri, although
she was in fact his granddaughter, because he was
the founder and father of the royal house to which
she belonged, and which brought so much mis-
fortune upon Israel and Judah. The chronicler
adds (II., xxii. 3), that she was "his [Ahaziah's]
counsellor to do wickedly."
Ver. 28. And he went with Joram, &e. [Jo-
ram himself went ; see the amended translation
and Tactual and Grammatical, note 7. If ns is
taken a- the prep., then we have to assume that,
after Joram was wounded, Ahaziah also left the
seat of war and went to Jerusalem, and then that
he went down from there again to Jezreel to visit
Joram for ',hat is the simple and natural meaning
of the last clause of ver. 29. The awkwardness
of this acceptation is evident. It is better to take
riS as the so-called "accusative sign," as explained
in the note referred to. — W. G. S.] On Ramoth-
Gilead, see note on 1 Kings iv. 13. This strongly
fortified city was, in the time of Ahab, in the
hands of the Syrians, and he did not succeed in
taking it away from them. He was wounded in
the attempt so that he died (1 Kings xxii.). From
chap. ix. 2 ; xiv. 1 .">. we see that, at the time when
Joram was at war with Hazael, it was again in
the possession of the Israelites. It is not stated
when or how, since the death of Ahab, it came
into their hands. According to ix. 14, Joram
was nb"l3 "VO'C , i- «-, he was defending the city
against the attacks of Hazael, who was thirsting for
conquest, aud who undoubtedly commenced the war.
It was, therefore, in defending, and not in attacking
the city, that Jehoram was smitten, that is, se-
verely wounded. [See note on ix. 1.] He ordered,
that he should be taken to Jezreel (see note on 1
Kings xviii. 45), and not to Samaria, although the
latter was much nearer, probably because the coun
was at Jezreel. [Thenius' suggestion that he could
make this journey over a smooth road, while the
way to .Samaria lay over mountains, is also good.
— W. G. S.] But the army remained under com-
mand of the generals in and before Ramoth. The
king's wound does not seem to have healed for
some time. Ewald maintains that Ahaziah did
not go to the war with Joram, but went to visit
him from Jerusalem at a later time, when he was
being healed of his wound. He says, therefore,
that the particle OX iu ver. 28 is to be struck out.
There is, however, no ground for this (see Thenius
on the verse), for -py , in ver. 29, does not prove
that he went from Jerusalem to Jezreel, since the
latter lay to the north of Ramoth as well as of
Jerusalem. It may well be that he visited Joram
from Ramoth, whither he had gone with him to
the war, especially as it was not so far from there
as from Jerusalem. [j-|X is not the prep, but the
case-sign with the nominative; D1V is therefore
the subject of Tp'1 , aud not Ahaziah, as it is com-
monly understood (see Text, and Gramm.). Aha-
ziah did not go to Ramoth, but went down from
Jerusalem to Jezreel. — W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The history of the reign of the tioo kings of Ju-
dith, which forms a consistent whole, does not in-
terrupt the flow of the narrative, as might at first
appear, but is inserted here for good and imperative
reasons. The kingdom of Judah had kept itself
free from the worship of the calf and of Baal,
which prevailed in the kingdom of Israel, until
the death of Jehoshaphat. That worship was,
however, transplanted to Judah by the marriage
of Jehoram, the son and successor of Jehosha-
phat, with Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and
Jezebel, for Athaliah controlled her husband Jeho-
ram. and his son. Ahaziah. as we see from vers. 18
and 27, and from 2 Chron. xxi. 6 and xxii. 3, just
as Jezebel, the fanatical idolatress, controlled
Ahab. Though the guilt of the house of Ahab,
CHAPTER VIII. 16-29.
91
which persisted in its evil courses in spite of all
the testimonies of the divine grace, and in spite of
all the exhortations and threats of the prophets
Elijah and Elisha, was already great enough, it be-
came still greater and heavier by the extension of
the apostasy to Judah. Thus the measure became
full, and the judgment which the prophet Elijah
had predicted, the utter destruction of the dynasty,
was brought about. It was inaugurated by Hazael,
and consummated by Jehu. Joram of Israel was
defending Ramoth against the former when he was
wounded ; he was brought to Jezreel where Jeze-
bel was. Ahaziah of Judah came thither to visit
him (by an especial dispensation of Providence, as
2 Chron. xxii. 7 expressly states), and so it came
to pass that the three chief representatives of the
house of Ahab were present at one and the same
place. At this time now, Jehu was elevated to
the throne ; he hastened to Jezreel and killed all
three of them, Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel. It
was necessary, therefore, that the history of Jeho-
ram and Ahaziah of Judah should precede chap,
ix., which tells about the elevation of Jehu. This
also explains the brevity of this record compared
with the more detailed one in Chronicles. The
author restricts himself to those details which
give the causes and the explanation of the judg-
ment which fell upon Joram and Ahaziah by the
hand of Jehu.*
2. Jehoram and Ahaziah were the first kings
of Judah under whom idolatry was not only tol-
erated, but formally introduced (2 Chron. xxi. 11).
The book of Chronicles contains no further infor-
mation than is here given in regard to Ahaziah,
who did not reign for even one full year. What ia
there stated in regard to Jehoram shows him to us
as one of the wickedest and most depraved kings
that ever reigned in Judah, under whom the na-
tion not only sank religiously, but also politically
came near to ruin. He drove it by force to idola-
try (n Tl) ; he murdered his six brothers, and other
princes besides; the Edomites established their
independence of his authority ; the Philistines and
Arabians defeated him, and carried off all his
treasures, his wives, and his children ; finally, a
horrible disease attacked him, which lasted two
years, when he at length died. Schlier [Die
Konige in Israel, s. 121 sq.) asserts in regard to
him : ': It was oppressive to him to be only a joint
ruler ; he determined to cast off the restraints of a
correcting and warning father. So he sought to
accomplish this by his marriage. He murdered
his six brothers, who were better than himself,
and also several chiefs who stood by them, and he
held his royal father in captivity. It is true that
he scrupled to stain his hand with the blood of his
father, and that he left him still the title of king ;
but he held the government, from this time on,
• [The dynasty of Omri and its connections :
Israel Judah
Omri Ethbaal of Tyre Jehoshaphat
I I
Ahab = Jezebel"
I
I I
lAhaz4ah 'Joram'
• Killed by Jehu.
tha
Athallah = Jehurum
Ahaziah •
I
Joaih
entirely in his own hands." Of all these facts, with
the exception of the murder of his brothers and tha
other prominent men, there is not a word in the
biblical text. They are all pure fictions, to the \n-
vention of which the author is led by assuming as
an historical certainty that Jehoshaphat and Jeho-
ram ruled together for seven years. After making
this assumption he feels justified in going on to ex-
plain the circumstances which produced this state
of things, and especially why, after five years of
this arrangement, Jehoshaphat should have retired
entirely from the government for the last two years
of his life. [It is a very good instance of the
method of commenting on the Scriptures which
consists in inventing possible combinations in or-
der to reconcile apparently inconsistent statements,
and it shows what comes of it. It is often under-
taken in a false idea of reverence for the Scrip-
tures, and in a mistaken desire to save their au-
thority. It is clear that a high and pure conception
of, and loyalty to. historical truth, must be aban-
doned before any one can adopt this method of
interpretation. The statements of the text are one
thing, and the inventions of the commentator are
another. Any one who undertakes this work must
determine beforehand to keep the distinction be-
tween the two clearly and firmly before himself
in his work, ami the only sound method of inter-
pretation is to cling to the text and leave inven-
tions aside. The notion of a joint government is a
purr fiction, and there is no reason why any one
who adopts it should not go farther, and invent fic-
titious causes, occasions, and other details to ac-
count for it. — W. G. S.] The asserted facts fall to
the ground with the false assumption on which
they are built. The facts which are given in the
documents are more than sufficient in themselves
to establish the depravity of Jehoram. His wick-
edness is explained, since his father was one of
the best and most pious kings of Israel, by the in-
rluence of his wife, and by his connection with thu
house of Ahab. In his history and that of Aha-
ziah we have a terrible example of the way in
which one had woman (Jezebel) can radically cor-
rupt entire dynasties and entire states, and of the
curse which rests upon matrimonial connections
which are only formed in order to attain political
objects (see above, 1 Kings xxii. Hist. § 1).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 16-29. Jehoram and his son Ahaziah.
(a) The way in which both walked (18-27); (b)
how they came to choose this way (18-27); (<;)
whither they were brought by it (vers. 20-22, 28,
29; see a\so Hislor. § 2). — The Spirit of the House
of Ahab : (a) Perversion of all divine and human
ordinances. Wicked and corrupt women set the
tone, and ruled over their weak husbands; (b) im-
morality, licentiousness, murder, and tyranny (2
Chron. xxi. 4, 6, 11); (c) contempt, on the one
hand, for the richness of God's long-suffering and
goodness, and, on the other, for the warnings of
God's judgments and chastisements. What a dif-
ferent spirit animated the household of a Corne-
lius (Acts x. 2 1, of a Crispus (Acts xviii. 8), of the
jailer at Philippi (Acts xvi. 34) I Cf. Prov. xiv.
11 ; xii. 7; Ps. xxv. 2 aud 3. — The Importance of
Family Relationships: (a) The great influence
which they exert. (They necessarily bring about
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
relationship in spirit and feeling ; they work gradu-
ally, but mightily; one member of the connection
draws another with him, either to good or to evil.
Tn spite of their pious father and grandfather, Je-
ooram and Ahaziah were tainted by the apostasy
of the house of Ahab (vers. 18, 27). How many
are not able to resist the evil influences of these
connections, and therefore make shipwreck of
their faith, and are either drawD into open sin and
godlessness, or are transformed into a superficial,
thoughtless, and worldly character, (b) The duty
which therefore devolves upon us. (The calami-
ties which even the pious Jehoshaphat brought
upon his house, nay, even upon his country, arose
from the fact that he gave the daughter of Ahab
ami Jezebel to his son, as a wife, and did not bear
in mind that relationships which do not rest upon
the word and commandment of God bring discon-
tent and ruin. Therefore beware of entering into
relationships which lack the bond of faith and
unity of spirit, however grand or advantageous
externally they may seem to be. Do not, by such
connections, transplant the Ahab and Jezebel spirit
into your house, for it eats like a cancer, and cor-
rupts and destroys to the very heart.}— Yer. 19.
Behold the faithfulness of God, who, for the sake
of the fidelity of the father, chastises indeed the
son, but yet will not utterly destroy him. — Cra-
mer: God will sustain his Church (kingdom) until
the end of the world, in order that a holy leaven
may remain, no matter how many may be found
who scoff at His promise to sustain His Church. —
Ver. 20. God punishes infidelity to himself by
means of the infidelity of men to one another. —
Cramer: If we do not keep faith with God, theo
people must not keep faith with us. By means of
insurrection God punishes the sins of sovereigns,
and dissolves the authority of kings (cf. Job xii
IS). — Ver. 26. Calw. Bib. : It is a horrible thing
when not merely relatives, but even a mother in-
stigates to evil. — Yer. 28. Cramer : Have no deal-
ings with a fool-hardy man, for he undertakes what
his own mind dictates, and you will have-to suffer
the consequences with him (Sirach viii. 18). — Yer.
29. Calw. Bib. : As he so gladly joined himself to
Ahab's family, and was so fond of spending his
time with them, there it was, by the ordering of
Providence, that he met his end. Those who, by
their hostility to the Lord, belong together, must
come together, according to God's just decree, that
they may perish together. Jehoram was so anx-
ious to be healed of the bodily wound which the
Syrians had given him, that he left the army and
returned to Jezreel ; but the wounds of his soul,
which he had inflicted upon himself, caused him
no trouble, and did not lead him back, as they
should have done, to Him who promised : " I will
restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of
thy wounds" (Jerem. xxx. 17). The children of
this world visit one another when they are ill ;
they do it, however, not in order to console the
sick one with the Word of Life, and to advance
God's purpose in afflicting him, but from natural
love, from relationship, or other external reasons.
Their visits cannot, therefore, be regarded as Chris-
tian work.
B. — Jehu's Elevation to the Throne of Israel.
Chap. IX. 1-37. [2 Chbon. XXII. 7-9.]
1 And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets [prophet-
disciples], and said unto him, Gird up thy loins, and take this box [vial] ' of oil
2 in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead : And when thou coraest thither, look
out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make
him arise up from among his brethren, and carry [lead] him to an inner cham-
3 ber ; Then take the box [vial] of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith
the Lord, I have anointed [I anoint] thee king over Israel. Then open the door,
and flee, and tarry not.
So the young man, even the young man [the servant of] * the prophet, went
to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold, the captains of the host were
sitting ; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, Unto
which of all us ? And he said, To thee, O captain. And he arose, and went into
the house ; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, I have anointed [I anoint] thee king over the people of the
Lord, even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master,
that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all
the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. For [omit for] The whole
house of Ahab shall perish ; and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth
against the wall, and him that is shut up and left [both him that is of age and
9 him that is not of age] in Israel: and I will make the house of Ahab like the
house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of
8
CHAPTER IX. 1-37. 93
10 Abijah and the dogs sball eat Jezebel in tbe portion [purlieus] ' of Jezreel
and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.
11 Then Jehu came forth to tbe servants of his lord : and one said unto him, It
all well ? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee ? And he said unto them, Ye
12 know the man, and bis communication [secret]. And they said, It is false ; tell
us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake be to me, saying, Thus saitb tbe
13 Lord, I have anointed [I anoint] thee king over Israel. Then they hasted, and
took every man his garment, and put ftunder him [^e*«] on the top of the stairs
14 [bare steps],' and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. So Jehu the son
of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had
kept [defended] Kamoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of [against] Hazael
15 king of Syria : but king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the
wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of
Syria.) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, then let none [no fugitive] go forth
16 nor escape [omit nor escape] out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu
rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. And Abaziab king
17 cf Judab was come down to see Joram. And there stood a watchman on the
tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see
a company.6 And Joram said, Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and
18 let him say, Is it peace [Is all well]? So there went one on horseback to meet
him, and said, Thus saitb the king, Is it peace [Is all well] ? And Jehu said,
What hast thou to do with peace [well or ill] ? turn thee behind me. And the
watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.
19 Then be sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus
saitb the king, Is it peace [Is all well]? And Jehu answered, What hast thou
20 to do with peace [well or ill]'? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told,
saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like
21 the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi ; for he driveth furiously. And Joram
said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel
and Ahaziah king of Judab went out, each in his chariot, and they- went out
against [to meet] Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22 And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace [Is all
well], Jehu? And he answered, What peace [is well], so long as the whore-
23 doms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts [sorceries] are so many ? And
Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery,
24 [Treachery !] O Ahaziah. And Jehu drew [took] " a bow with his full strength
in bis hand] and smote Jehoram between bis arms, and tbe arrow went out at
25 his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his cap-
tain [lieutenant], Take up, and cast him in the portion of tbe field of Naboth
the Jezreelite : for remember how that, when I and thou' rode together [two
by two] after Abab his father, tbe Lord laid this burden [passed this sentence]
26 upon him ; Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood
of his sons, saith the Lord ; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord.
Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word
of the Lord.
27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the
garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also [Him
also ! Smite him] " in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which
28 is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants car-
ried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his
29 fathers in the city of David. And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of
Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it ; and she painted
31 her face [eyelids], and tired her head, and looked out at a window. And as
Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master
32 [Hail! thou Zimri, murderer of his master !] ? And be lifted up his face to the
window, and said, Who is on my side ? who? And there looked out to him two
13 or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down ;
94
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses : anc ho
34 trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and
said, Go, see now [to] this cursed woman, and bury her : for she is a king'*
35 daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than
36 the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. "Wherefore they came again,
and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by hie
servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion [purlieus] of Jezreel shall
87 dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. And the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon
the face of the field in the portion [purlieus] of Jezreel ; [so] [so] that they shall
not say, This is Jezebel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 1.— [iDBfrl 7|S , 1 Sam. i. 1, here, and in ver. 8.
a Ver. 4. — [The article is used with the second ""IVJ in the stat. const, to giye it definite reference back to the first on*.
Kw. $ 290, d. S. Cf. chap. vii. 13.
3 Ver. 10. — [On pPfl see 1 Kings xxi. 28, where ?n occurs nearly in the same meaning, pi! is the moat or ditch just
outside the wall, with the adjacent strip of country, ppll has a wider application to the district on which the city is built,
including the strip of country just outside the wall. In a walled city this latter place is always a place of deposit for
rubbish and offal. Hence the degradation involved in the fate prophesied for her.
4 Ver. 18.— [The words D vJHSn D13 are very obscure. No better meaning is suggested than this, that they spread
their over-garments directly upon the stairs, and so formed something resembling the covered scaffolding on which tb«
king presented himself to the people, and received their homage.
6 Ver. IT.— [The second DISC is in the case absolute. Ew. $ 1T3 d. Cf. JVn Ps. lxsiv. 19.
c Ver. 24.— [nL"p3 IT N?D > word for word, " filled his hand with a bow," i. «., made ready an arrow.
7 Ver. 25.— pON and HJIX are accusatives after "13T • " Remember me and thee riding." The E. V. is a smooth afid
oorreet rendering of it. DHtDi* ', " together" would be a correct rendering of it, but the word suggests that they were
together, one pair in a retinue which was formed two by two.
8 Ver. 2T.— [This is a translation of the Hebrew as it stands. It seems necessary, however, to correct the text, (a)
We n.ay insert t]n351 after ^DSD = " Smite him also 1 and they smote him in the chariot." This is Bahr's emendation,
following Ewald and others (see Exeg. on the verse). (o) We may read in3_sl forin3H and translate: " Him alsol So
they smote him in the chariot." This gives the same sense, but " Him also I " stands as a short exclamatory com mand.
(c) Thenius takes these words in this way, but then (following the Sept.) he conjectures lillZW forin3il = "And he
smote him." It is very tame to make Jehu utter this exclamation merely as such, not as a command, and then shoot the
king himself. The second emendation is the best. — W. G S.]
EXEGETICAL AMD CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. AndElisha called one of the proph-
et-disciples, &c. Elisha was undoubtedly at this
time in Samaria, where his residence was. The
prophet-disciple, to whom he gave this commission,
may have stood to him in the same relation in which
he once stood to Elijah. It is an unfounded sup-
position of several of the rabbis that it was the
prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai [chap. xiv. 25].
—To Ramoth: see chap. viii. 28. — It is not stated
anywhere to what tribe Jehu belonged. It is very
probable that he, as the most able of the generals,
had received the Bupreme command on the depart-
ure of Joram, as Josephus states. — Ver. 2. And
go in: i. e., into the house in which he dweiis, as
is clear from ver. 6 (njV3n), and from the words :
to an inner chamber (see note on 1 Kings x.x. 30).
Jehu with his army was not, therefore, in camp
before Ramoth besieging it, but in the city itself
defending il (see note on viii. 28). [No mention is
made anywhere of any hostilities between Israel
and Syria, from the death of Ahab until this time,
m which tin- city of Ramoth could have changed
.lands. It is clear that the representation through-
3u t this chapter is, that the Israelites were in pos-
session of tin- oily. It may, therefore, be inferred
with considerable certainty that they had sue-
ceeded in taking it in this war either in the assault
in which Joram was wounded, or in some previous
one. If Joram had gained this important victory
for them, it is not probable that the army would
have been in a disposition to see him deposed by
any one else. The inference is that, in the battle, he
had not conducted himself well, and that Jehu's
talents had shone by comparison. It would be
quite consistent with the character of each as it
appears to us elsewhere. Moreover, we see from
ver. 2 1 that Joram was already so far recovered as
to be able to go out in his chariot to meet Jehu.
Yet he had not rejoined his army. This would
seem to indicate that he had made much of a slight
wound, and that he was shirking the hardships of
the war. Putting all this together, we can under-
stand that the feeling of the army towards the king
was that of contempt, and towards Jehu that of
admiration and respect, and the sudden and com-
plete success of the revolution is not then difficult
to understand. — W. G. S.] The prophet-disciple
entered the house, in the court of which the gen
erals were sitting together, perhaps holding a conn
oil of war. John was to be anointed privately, and
the fact was for a time to be kept secret. — Ver. 3.
And tarry not: that no questions might be asked
and "that lie might not be involved in affairs with
which ho was not competent to deal " (Von Ger
laehl; .Insi ■plius : U7T6H ? 6 i1 >J ~til'?ur tutnhf aiU&V
Il was not, therefore, in order that he might es-
cape the danger of beino cajetured bv the fnendl
CHAPTER IX. 1-37.
96
af Joram (Theodoret, Clericus). — Ver. 6. I have
anointed thee ; see above, Exeg. on 1 Kings xix.
16.— On vers. 7-10 see notes on 1 Kings xiv. 10; I
xvi. 3, 4; xviii. 4; xix. 10; xxi. 2\$q. On p^n I see ■
note on 1 Kings xxi. 23 [and note on this verse .
under Textual and Grammatical],
Ver. 11. Then Jehu came forth, &c. The
question Di^tvn occurs, in this chapter, six times,
and it is impossible that it should have a difl'erent
sense in each case. As it evidently stands in op-
position to " strife " or " hostility " in vers. 17, 18.
22, and 31, it must also be translated in its origi-
nal meaning in ver. 11, "Is it peace?" and not;
rectene sunt omnia f (Vulg.); or Stehet es wohl (is
all well) ? (Luther). Cf. 1 Kings ii. 13. [Nearly
all the commentators agree with the opinion here
advocated, and translate "Is it peace?" DvL"
unquestionably meant, originally and etymologi-
cally, welfare, salus. It is often used generally,
not in any special formula, for " peace." As a
formula of salutation, however, its etymological
signification was entirely lost, as much as in our
own " good-bye," the etymological meaning of
which we very seldom have in mind when we use it.
As a question it is destitute of intrinsic meaning.
It merely asks, "What is the news you bring?"
In form only it asks, " Is it good news ? " " Is all
well ? " Every language presents similar exam-
ples of current formulae and words which have
lost their etymological significance. Our own word
"well" is a good instance, particularly in collo-
quial usage, where it often is almost meaningless,
and where it often implies anything but approval
of what has preceded. The inflection of the voice
here carries all the significance. A similar instance
occurs in this chapter. In ver. 26 Jehu quotes the
sentence of God upon Ahab, beginning with the
words x? DX • This is the formula for an oath, and
an ellipsis is necessary to explain the form. This
consists of an imprecation upon the speaker by him-
self. " If I did not see — then may — &c." As The-
nius well remarks, we cannot believe that the ori-
gin ef this formula could have been present to the
mind of Jehu, or that he could have thought of the
alternate, omitted, phrase, when he represented
God as having spoken in these words. The alter-
native was utterly lost sight of, and N? DX meant
simply " verily," as a strong affirmation. — DvC'H
therefore is simply a salutation which calls upon
the person addressed to tell the news, or his mes-
sage. So in ver. 11 it might be translated : " Well ?
Wherefore came," &c. In vers. 17 and IS it has
the same meaning, but Jehu plays upon it by using
it in its strict meaning in his reply (see the amended
translation). In ver. 22 this is still more evident.
In ver. 31 Jezebel uses it as the regular conven-
tional salutation, with which to address her insult-
ing and defiant words to Jehu. To make it mean
in vers. 17, 18, 22, " Is there peace ? " i. e., do you
come with hostile or peaceful intent towards me ?
is to ascribe to the king a suspicion, first of the
unknown party which is approaching, and after-
wards of Jehu. If he had been suspicious that it
was an enemy he would not have sent out one
man ; if he had been suspicious of Jehu, he would
not have g'ne down himself, and, as it seems,
without guards, to meet him. Finally, ver. 23 show«
that he did not suspect anything un.il he heard
Jehu's answer, which was a bokl condemnation
of Jezebel. Then he recognized treachery, and,
as soon as he did, he endeavored to escape. To
send out a man to meet the coming troop and " say
Dl7K*n," was. therefore, simply to send him out to
salute them and inquire what w'as the inlelligenco
they brought. When Jehu was recognized, the
same message was sent to him ((/. chap. x. 13).
Finally, the king went to ask for himself. The only
news which he expected was news about the war. When
the commander-in-chief came riding in hot haste
towards the capital, news, either of a great victory
or an overwhelming defeat, was to be expected.
As for hostility from the approaching party before
ir was recognized, or from Jehu after he was recog-
nized, there was no thought of it, until Jehu's an-
swer, in ver. 23, revealed it all at once as openly
declared. — W. G. S.] The generals put this in-
quiry, not because " they feared the madman might
have done him some harm " (Ewald), but because
they inferred, from the haste with which the
prophet-disciple departed, that he had brought im-
portant intelligence, perhaps bad news, about the
war with Syria (Thenius). Their further question "
Wherefore came this JlJC'tSn to thee? is gen-
erally understood as the mocking and contemptu-
ous speech of rude soldiers about a prophet. The
Hebrew word is then understood to mean a mad-
man or rhapsodist. It is certain, however, thai
these soldiers, who were expecting important and
perhaps discouraging intelligence in regard to the
war. were not in a disposition to scoff at prophets.
ll i Lev had taken the prophet for a madman, they
would not, when Jehu made known to them (ver.
12) the object for which he came, have taken the
extraordinary step they did, without consideration
or delay, and made Jehu king, on the word of a
fanatic. In ver. 20 it is said of Jehu himself :
"He driveth ;ij?3t;'3," whereby it is not meant to
be said that he was a crazy man, a lunatic, or a fa-
natic, but that he was a man of fierce and violent
temper (Vatablus, following the Syriac, translates
prcucipitanter). In Arabic jjjt." means to be bold,
rash, wild (see Ges. Diet., s. v.). The generals
meant to say, therefore, that the wild behavior of
the man, who had come and gone without saying
a word to any one, had struck them. They
thought that his conduct indicated some extraor-
dinary intelligence, and they wanted to know
what it w7as. Jehu at first gives them an eva-
sive answer: Ye know the man and his
n't-". This word does not mean "his speech or
words " (Ges., De Wette, and Luther, who follows
the Vulg. : et quid locutus sit) ; nor, " his babble "
(Junius. Koster, and Philippson, who follows the
Sept. a6olsry\ia), for the word does not occur any-
where in this sense. Neither does Jehu connect
with his words the meaning: "Ye yourselves
have sent this prophet to me, in order to give roe
courage to carry out the plan which ye have
formed (Derescr following Seb. Smith, J. D. Mi
chaelis), nor this meaning : " Ye know the man and
what lie said to me ; ye yourselves are at the bot-
tom of this jest, for ye it was who planned the
farce " (Krummacher). Jehu could not have
meant this, for he knew that the plan or jest had
not originated with the generals, and his answer
96
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
would not then have been an evasive one. No
less incorrect is the explanation of Cornelius a
Lapide, whom Keil follows: Xottis, eum insanum
esse ac proinde insana loquitur, ideoque non oredenda,
nee a me narranda, for JV& is no synonym of JJX'\
Finally, we cannot translate it with Bunsen and
Thenius, " his disposition : " " Ye should be ac-
customed to his disposition, since ye have often
seen him before.'' The word is rather to be taken
here in the same sense as in I Kings xviii. 27, i. e.,
medifatio, absorption in thought; so that, in other
places, it stands for every deep agitation of the
soul : rancor, sorrow, or dissatisfaction (Ps. liv. 2 ;
cii. 1; cxlii. 2; Job vii. 13), and in 1 Sam. i. 16 it
stands as synonym to DM. Jehu means to say:
The conduct of this man ought not to astonish
you ; he was lost in thought, as prophets are wont
to be ; therefore he did not enter into conversa t ion
with any one, and departed as hastily as he came.
[It must be apparent that the epithet JJJ'C'O , as it
is correctly explained above, is not a proper epi-
thet for a man who is lost in meditation. Wild-
ness of behavior is in general inconsistent with
meditation. Moreover, as above stated (note on
ver. 11), it is an error to take DlivjVI to mean "Is
there peace ? " and then to suppose that these sol-
diers asked the question with reference to the war
with Syria. How should they ask whether there
was peace with Syria, when they were there on
purpose to make war with that country ? or how
should they expect that this prophet could bring
intelligence which was to decide that point ? The
prophet came from home, from Israel, and al-
though his message might ultimately bear upon
the continuance of the war with Syria, the natural
expectation would be that lie brought news from
Israel, whence he came. They asked in general
what the news was which he brought. The epi-
thet which they applied need not be pressed so
far as to make them guilty of any intentional dis-
respect to a prophet. He was wild in his beha-
vior, and they called him carelessly a " mad fel-
low." The tone and meaning could hardly be
better given in English. Jehu's reply is best un-
derstood as an attempt to sound them. He ap-
pears in chap. x. distinctly in the character of a
crafty man. So here ; he is in doubt whether the
prophet has been instigated by his fellow-com-
mauders to do this thing, because they hesitated
to make an outspoken proposition of rebellion to
him. He charges them with having plotted this,
as a means of inducing him to rebel. Yt know
the man, and the errand he had. n't? occurs very
frequently in the sense of "complaint," a deep-
seated subject of anxiety. It is used here of the
business or com nunication whieli the prophet
brought deeply hidden in his heart — the deep plot
whirl, had been the result of long meditation. To
this interpretation of ver. 11, npir, "it is a lie,"
in ver. 12, answers well. They deny the charge.
— W. G. S.] The generals notice that Jehu is
trying to evade them, and, as he is not able to
conceal his agitation entirely, they are only the
more urgent. They reply : ipw, i. e., not: "That
is not true!" (Luther, Keil), or: "A lie 1 " (De
Wette), but, " Deceit 1 " (1 Sam. xxv. 21; Jerem.
iii. 2:i). Thenius: "Nonseusel thou desirest to es-
cape us." Thereupon Jehu cannot help himsell
any longer; he tells them plainly what has hap-
pened. Niemeyer's interpretation : " It is true
that he (this man) does not always tell the truth,
yet tell us what he said," is certainly false.
Vers. 13. Then they hasted and took every
man his garment. The immediate and joyful
homage to the general shows, on the one hand,
that they were far from scoffing at the prophet,
or regarding him as a crazy man or a mere fanatic,
on the other hand, that a deep dissatisfaction with
Joram and the house of Ahab prevailed in the
army, while Jehu stood in high esteem. The
words rivytsri D13"?X have been understood in
many different ways. Generally enj is taken in
the sense of its synonym qvj; , '• self," and the
clause is translated: "upon the stairs them-
selves," i. e., upon the bare steps (Kimchi, whom
Keil follows) ; but the word scarcely has this sig-
nification except in connection with personal pro-
nouns. Still less can we approve the translation
of Grotius. Clericus, and others: in fastir/io gra-
duum, for mj never means the top or summit.
Thenius believes that D"I3 is written for D^S, as
the Vulg. shows : in similitudinem tribunalis. He
translates : " As a representation of (or make-shift
for) the (necessary) scaffolding [by mounting upon
which to show himself to the people and receive
their homage, a king was inaugurated], Jehu
stepped up upon the piled-up garments." But, to
say nothing of other objections, there could be no
mention of " steps " in connection with a pile of
heaped-up garments. Evidently, we have rather
to think of a spreading-out of the garments such
as is recorded in Matt. xxi. 8, and, as pN , which
we must not interchange with ^y , designates mo-
tion to or towards, we translate literally: "to-
wards," or, "in the direction of, the stairs." In
the building, in which the generals were assem-
bled, there was, therefore, a staircase, an arrange-
ment like that in the court of the temple for the
king (2 Chron. vi. 13), which had perhaps been
prepared for the king, who formerly lived in Ra-
nioth. The generals spread their garments over
the ground from the place where Jehu stood to
this place, which was ordinarily reserved for the
king, and thus formed a path for him to this place,
on which they saluted him with royal honors.
[See note under Grammatical on this verse.] —
On the blowing of the trumpet, see note on 1
Kings i. 34; cf. 2 Kings xi. 14. — Ver. 14 does
not state the cause of the act in ver. 13, but the
consequence of it, so that we must not under-
stand that there was a " conspiracy " in the ordi-
nary sense of the %vord, i. e., a secret bond, pre-
vious to the wounding of Joram (Koster). After
they had chosen Jehu king by acclamation, he
bound himself and them firmly and solemnly to
hostility to Joram ("itj'p means to bind, to fetter).
The word does not imply, in itself, that he made
them take an oath of allegiance to himself.
Ver. 14. Joram had defended Ramoth, &,c.
DD13 "IfX" shows again, what we saw in ver 6,
that the city was not at that time besieged by
Jnram (Koster), but that he was in it and was de
CHAPTER IX. 1-37.
9V
fending it against the Syrians. In vers. 15 and 16
we have a repetition of viii. 28, 29, but it is not " a
mere superfluous" repetition, which "proves that
those verses and the chapter before us were not
written by the same person " (Thenius). In the
former place the statement is purely historical,
but here it is intended to explain the event nar-
rated in vers. 1-14. Ver. 21 shows that Joram
was healed at the time that Jehu was anointed.
Instead of returning, however, to share the labors
nd the dangers of the war, he remained in his
summer palace in Jezreel, and appears to have
been taking his pleasure with his guest, king
Ahaziah of Judah. This must have had a bad
effect on the army, which could see in it only in-
difference or cowardice, and it explains the enthu-
siasm with which they yielded allegiance to Jehu,
as well as the haste with which the latter started
for Jezreel, inasmuch as it was important for him
to lay hands at once upon the trio, Joram, Aha-
ziah. and Jezebel. He therefore proposes to the
generals that they shall keep the army at Ramoth,
and not allow any one to leave the city, and he
hastens with a small company (nUSL" ver. 17) to
take possession of Jezreel. Peter Martyr : Silenti-
um et celeritatem adhibei, ne Joramo spatiuin detur
vet ad deliberandum vel ad se muniendum. Ewald's
assertion : " He mounted his chariot alone with his
old companion in arms Bidkar, and drove," &c,
contradicts the text.
Ver. 17. And there stood a watchman, Ac.
Ver. 17 stands in close connection with the end of
ver. 16. While the two kings were enjoying
themselves in the summer palace, and thought of
no danger, the watchman appeared before Joram,
and reported : " I see a company." That which is
narrated in vers. 17-20 is as characteristic of Jo-
ram as of Jehu, and that is why it is narrated with
so much detail. It shows, on the one hand, how
careless Joram was, since it was not till after he
had in vain sent out two horsemen, that he took a
more earnest view of the matter, and, on the
other hand, how decided and energetic Jehu was,
since he did not allow himself to be detained, and
kept the two horsemen in his own train, lest they
should hurry on before him with intelligence of
his coming. His question in ver. 18 has the mean-
ing, What is it of thy business, whether I come
in friendship or in hostility ; thou hast nothing to
do with that, it does not concern thee. [See note
on ver. 11.] It is probable that the watchman
had seen, while they were at a distance, that they
were not Syrians. As they came nearer, he recog-
nized more and more distinctly that they were
Israelites, and he inferred, from their violent
speed, that Jehu, the commander of the army,
whose wUd and fierce disposition was well known
to him, was at their head. On |iy3C'3 see note on
ver. 11.
Ver. 21. And Joram said: Make ready, &c.
Now, at length, when he heard Jehu's name, he
became anxious, and set out to meet him — a thing
which he could not have done, be it noticed, if he
had been confined by his wound. [It must be
clear that this anxiety could only have been as to
what events of the war east of the Jordan could
have been the cause that the chief commander
came hurrying home in such haste. If he had sus-
pected treachery, it is not conceivable that he
would have gone to meet Jehu. See notes on vers.
7
11, 22, and 30.— W. G. S.] The portion of Na-
both, where the two kings met Jehu, " is the D13 1
vineyard, of Xaboth, which now formed a part of
the park of the royal palace " (Keil). Joram'g
question, ver. 22, "Is it peace?" shows that he
did not even yet suspect rebellion, but rather ex-
pected news of a victory from Ramoth, otherwise
he certainly would not have gone out alone to meet
him. [That is to say ; the question had reference
to the hostility between Syria and Israel, not to
any suspected hostility of Jehu towards his king.
This is just the distinction which must be kept in
mind, and this question must be interpreted as
asking news of the war. No other interpretation
is possible. The rest of the chapter must there-
fore be interpreted consistently with this. The
king did not here ask : Is there peace between mi
and thee* Xo more did he send a messenger tc
ask : Dost thou come for peace or war between me
and thee? in vers. 17 and 18. If he knew that
they were Israelites, he certainly did not ask the
question in this sense ; if he thought that they
were Syrians, he would not send out one man to
ask them the idle question whether they came
for peace or war. See note below, on ver.
30. — W. G. S.] — In Jehu's answer, ij; has the
same force as in Judges iii. 26 [so long as, or
while]. He gives as the reason for his hosiiie
coming, the whoredoms and sorceries of Jezebel.
[He gives the king to understand that he has not
come to bring news from the war, but to over-
throw him, by a reply in which he condemns the
vices of the queen-mother, in terms which no man
could use who was willing any longer to be a sub-
ject.— W. G. S.] D'MST is n°t to be taken literally,
but is used, as it so often is, in referring to idola-
try (Jerem. iii. 2, 9; Ezek. xxiii. 27, Ac), with
which, however, licentiousness was almost always
connected. By D'St'S we have not to understand
'■ mysteries " (Thenius), but that general practice
of sorcery, and use of incantations for producing
various supernatural effects (Winer. R.- W.-B., II. s.
718), which was closely connected with idolatry.
All these practices were forbidden, as well as idol-
atry, on pain of death, in the Mosaic law (Ex. xxii.
Is; Deut xviii. 10). Jehu's words show that Jez-
ebel was generally regarded as the foundress and
patroness of idolatry. They also contain a rebuke
for Joram, because he had submitted to be led by
her, had helped her instead of opposing her, and
had thereby made himself accessory to her crime.
— 7]2iTl_, ver. 23, see 1 Kings xxii. 34. The ex-
clamation, nolo, deceit, means, "We are deceived,
i. e., really, betrayed" (Keil).
Ver. 24. Between his arms, i. e., from behind
since Joram, in his flight, had turned his back to
Jehu. It means, therefore, really, between the
shoulders (Vulg. inter scapulas), so that the arrow
went obliquely through his heart.
Ver. 25. Then said Jehu to Bidkar, his lieu-
tenant. 1J1 is rendered by all the old versions,
which are misled by'JXi which foliows, in the
first person: "For I remember how," Ac. But!.
is evidently incorrect. Whether D'33"l here sig-
nifies riding on horseback, or in a chariot, is of
d8
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Tery little importance. The point is, that Jehu
was in Ahab's retinue, was an ear-witness when
the prophet pronounced upon the king the sen-
tence of God, after the death of Naboth (1 Kings
xxi. 19 sq.). This had made an ineffaceable im-
pression upon Jehu. — KUT3 means really : " bur-
den," /. e., something which must be borne. If
God lays a " burden " upon any one, he passes a
sentence of punishment upon him, which must be
endured. Hence the word is often used by the
prophets in the sense of a condemnation of, or judi-
cial sentence upon, a man or a nation (Isai. xiii. 1 ;
xiv. 28: xv. 1). — jo DX, in an oath or affirma-
tion: " Verily " (Numb. xiv. 28). Jehu quotes the
sentence which was pronounced 1 Kings xxi. 19-
24 according to its substance, as it remained in his
memory after sixteen years, and with such inaccura-
cies in the wording as were occasioned by his ex-
citement in a moment of the most violent activity.
The repetition of " saith the .Lord " places emphasis
on the oracle of God, as such. I have seen, saith
the Lord : I will repay, saith the Lord. Jehu,
however, mentions something which was not men-
tioned at all in the former place; viz.. " The blood
of his sons," and that he should be requited in the
field of Xaboth. Thenius considers this an " essen-
tial variation," and says that " all attempts at re-
conciliation are vain." But the author must have
been the most thoughtless man in the world, if
he had not perceived that what he here recorded
was contradictory to what he had written a few
pages before. It may, therefore, nevertheless be
permitted us to attempt a " reconciliation " which
will make him talk sense. Although the blood of
the sons of Naboth is not mentioned in 1 Kings
xxi., it may nevertheless be that they were also
killed. It is impossible that Jehu should have talked
to an eye and ear witness, as Bidkar was, about
the blood of the sons of Naboth, if their blood
had never actually been spilled. Thenius very
justly remarks on ver. 7 ("And the blood of all
the servants of the Lord"), that "Jezebel must
have vented her rage upon a still wider circle than
that which is expressly mentioned." Perhaps Na-
both's sons were murdered because it was feared
that they might lay claim to the property of which
.iieir father had been robbed, and might avenge
his murder. Jehu mentions their blood also, as
well as that of their father, because the divine
punishment would thereby appear all the more
just, and his own command, to throw Joram's
corpse upon the field of Naboth, would be more
completely justified. As the murder fell upon
Naboth and his sons, so the penalty fell upon
Ahab and his sons. The word "yesterday" must
not be insisted upon too strongly in its strict sig-
nification. It implies simply, "a while ago," as in
Isai. xxx. 33. Tlie sentence of condemnation in
1 Kings xxi. was certainly not pronounced on the
day alter Nabuth's murder. Secondly, as to the
addition, " In this plat," the emphasis is not upon
this phrase, but upon the word requite: that is the
main idea, about which all the rest is grouped, not
She " plat." Tla- slaying of Joram, the " son of a
murderer" ivi. 32) is marked as a penalty for the
murder of Naboth and his sons by this very cir-
cumstance, that hi- body is cast upon the field
whie i that murder had been committed to win.
Tohu very justly saw, in the fact that Joram must
die jti-it here, a dispensation of Providence, the
ground for which he discovers in the oracle 1 Kings
xxi. [Jehu commands the corpse to be cast upon
the field of Naboth, and proceeds to quote the
oracle as a motive for the command, after which
he repeats his order. (Throw him there, for God
said that he would requite him there ; therefore
throw him there.) It is, therefore, evident that
the emphasis is on the words, " In this plat." For
the rest, 1 Kings xxi. 19 is strictly and literally
fulfilled by this command of Jehu, although it ia
not literally quoted.— "W. G. S.]
Ver. 27. But when Ahaziah the king of Ju-
dah saw this, to. The garden-house, towards
which Ahaziah fled, was certainly not the summer
palace in Jezreel (Calmet), but, since he sought the
open country, either a house which " stood at one
of the exits from the park " (Thenius), or which did
not belong at all to the royal domain, but " stood
at some distance from Jezreel " (Keil). — And Jehu
followed after him, and said, &c. From his
words it is clear that he did not himself pursue
Jehu, but gave the command to do so, just as so
often that which one commands to be done is as-'
cribed to himself. His object was to reach Jez-
reel, where Isabel, the originator of all the mis-
chief, was, and, as he was now close to the city
he hastened thither (ver. 30), leaving the pursuit
of Ahaziah to some of his followers. After the
words : " Smite him in the chariot," something
must be supplied, viz., the fulfilment of the com-
mand, as also after the command in ver. 26 : " Cast
him into the plat of ground," Ac. The Sept. have-
Kaiye avr6v. Kal eKara^ev ahrbv ettI tu apfiarc
ovra iv rjj avaf}aaei Yovp. Thenius, as usual, fol-
lows them, and desires to make the utterly unne-
cessary change from V\3T\ to iri3'1 • He then
translates: "Him also! (I must have him also I)
And he smote (wounded) him on the chariot on the
height of Gur." The rendering of the Vulg. is
better: Etiam hunc percutite in curro suo ! El per-
cusserunt earn in nscensu Garer, except that in curru
suo belongs with percusserunt. Ewald, Maurer,
and Keil are satisfied with inserting V\y\ after
inan , and this is certainly the simplest course to
pursue. — The height or hill Gur is not mentioned
anywhere else. [Thenius takes "na to mean a cara-
vanserai (cf. 7JQ -nj , 2 Chron. xxvi. 7, hospitium
Baalis. Ges.), and thinks that the hill had its name
from an inn which stood alone upon it. Ges., The-
saurus, gives the name under "iy, catulus, a cub or
whelp. So that it would mean ascensus catuli. The
place was not important, and the name was a popu-
lar and ephemeral one. — W. G. S.] Jibleam is
mentioned Josh. xvii. 11 and Judges i. 27 in con.
nection with Megiddo. On the latter place, see
note on 1 Kings iv. 12. The location of Jibleam
cannot be more definitely fixed either from the two
places cited, or from 1 Chron. vi. 55, where DJJ73
stands for it. As Megiddo lay, according to all the
latest maps, directly west of Jezreel, and as Aha-
ziah died at Megiddo, Jibleam, whither he fled and
where he was wounded, must have been likewise
t.i the west of Jezreel, and between that place and
Megiddo (Thenius). It is true that Keil objects
that "between Jezreel and Megiddo there is only
the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelom, in which we
cannot suppose that there was any height Our."
CHAPTER IX. 1-37.
yy
But Megiddo, and therefore Jibleam, which was
near it. did not lie in the midst of the plain, but on
the slope of Mt. Carmel, where there may well
have been a height, such as is referred to. Least
of all can we adopt Keifs supposition that Jibleam
was "south of Jenin," for this place was in a di-
rect line as far south of Jezreel as Megiddo was
west. It is not clear how Ahaziah, when severely
wounded, should have gone from there in a north-
westerly direction, to Megiddo. He cannot bare
fled at the same time in a direct westerly and a di-
rect southerly direction. — The chronicler gives an-
other story of Ahaziah's death (II., xxii. 8 sq.):
" And it came to pass that when Jehu was exe-
cuting judgment upon the house of Ahab . . .
he sought Ahaziah, and they caught him, for he
was hid in Samaria, and brought him to Jehu; and
when they had slain him they buried him.'' Keil
thinks, in order to combine the two stories, that it
is very possible " that Ahaziah really escaped to
Samaria, and that he was there captured by Jehu's
followers and brought back. Then that he was
ivounded at the hill Gur, near Jibleam, and, hav-
ing fled again from there, that he breathed his last
at Megiddo." This explanation is, in the first
place, very forced and unnatural, but it falls to the
ground when we know that Jibleam was on the
road westward towards Megiddo, and not on the
road from Jezreel to Samaria. A variation in the
history is here clearly apparent, and cannot be de-
nied. The main point, i. e., the slaying of Ahaz'-di
by Jehu or his followers, is firmly established l.y
both. A different tradition in regard to the where '.'
and how? may have prevailed in the time of the
Chronicler. The one which is followed by the re-
cord before us, which is certainly older, appears,
especially on account of its geographical details.
to be the more correct and reliable — The differ-
ence between ver. 29 and chap. viii. 25, which
amounts, after all, to only one year, is explained
" most simply on the supposition of a difference in
reckoning the first year of the reign of Joram "
<Keil). See above, note on chap. viii. 16.
Ver. 30. Jezebel heard of it. Women make
use of paint for the eyes, in the Orient, until the
present day. It consists of a mixture of antimony
(stibium) and zinc, which is moistejed with oil, and
applied with a brush to the eye-brows and eye-
lids. The eye itself is thrown into relief by the
dark border, and appears larger (Pliny say> of sti-
bium in his Hist. Nat. 33 : in caUiblepharis mulierum
dilakit octdos). Large eyes were considered beau-
tiful. Homer applies to Juno the epithet ,J iwjnc
[cf. RosenmiiUei", Alt. and yen. Morgenland, iv.
26S, and Keil on this passage). [Boxes have been
fourd in the tombs of Egypt containing portions
of this mixture; also the small, smooth sticks of
wood, or bone, or ivory, by means of which it was
applied. There are specimens in the " Abbot Col-
lection " in the rooms of the N. Y. Hist. Soc. —
W. G. S.] And tired her head hardly means
that she put on a "coiffure of false hair" (The-
uiusl. It refers rather to the ordinary decora-
tions of the head, head-band, crown, Ac. The old
opinion. whi:h is still held by Ewald and Eisen-
lolir, that she summoned up all her seductive fas-
cinations, in order to tempt and conquer Jehu, is
certainly incorrect, for Jezebel had, at this time,
a grandson who was 23 years old (viii. 2G). so that
she must have been advanced in years. Since,
moreover, women fade earlier in the Orient, she -.n-
not have intended to excite any carnal desire in
Jehu. The haughty, imperious woman intended,
rather, to go to meet the rebel in all the majesty
of her position as queen-dowager, and to so far
overawe him that he should desist from any fur-
ther steps. She therefore takes her place at the
lofty wiudow of the palace, and shouts to him, as
he enters the gate, the bold and haughty words in
ver. 31 : "Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of his rnas-
ter?" Luther translates [like the E. V.]: "Had
Zimri peace, who slew his master? " Maurer sup-
ports this rendering by suggesting that she could
not have asked him if he came in peace, at the
same time that she called him a murderer of the
king. But D1?t;*n cannot have'any different mean-
ing here from that in ver. 22 [where, as Bahr ex-
plains it, it means, " Is there peace in the Syrian
war ? " or, " Dost thou bring news of a victory ? "1.
Jezebel connects with the question this meaning :
"Wilt thou submit to me, the queen, and desist
from the rebellion, or wilt thou persist in it?"
[The reader wdl see that this interpretation, which
makes DteTI mean, " Is there hostility between
me and thee ? " is not consistent with the author's
own exposition of ver. 22. Jezebel must have felt
that the hostility of Jehu reached to herself, even
if she had not heard that his declarator, of war
was aimed, in its terms, exclusively at her. She
had heard of the fate of the king, as the last part
of her speech shows. She could not, therefore,
have intended to ask Jehu if he came, in general,
on a peaceful errand. This is perhaps the clearest
instance of all, to prove that this formula had lost
its etymological significance, and it must be appa-
rent that the attempt to give it this meaning here
produces inconsistency and confusion. It was a
standing formula, empty of all independent mean-
ing, used as an interjection in beginning an ad-
dress : Ho ! or Hail I — Just what she hoped to
accomplish by her decorations, and by her ad-
dress, it is difficult to see. Perhaps the safest con-
clusion is one founded upon her domineering and
wilful character. These traits were developed in
her to a tragical degree. She has scarcely a par-
allel either in history or poetry save Medea. Her
last toilet was probably the consequence of a de-
termination to die in full state, self-willed, arro-
gant, defiant to the last. — W. G. S.] There is a
threat also in her words. Zimri, who murdered
king Elah (1 Kings xvi. 10-18), reigned only seven
days, and met with a frightful end. She means to
terrify the violent rebel. "Thou shalt fall as did
Zimri. Thy rule shall not endure I " Perhaps she
hail also taken measures of resistance, had col-
lected about her those on whom she thought that
she could rely, and was, therefore, all the more
self-willed. Jehu's reply, ver. 32, Who is on my
side? Who? seems to sustain this opinion. He
gives her no answer whatever, still less does he
submit to the influence of her manner; he knew
well that no one would heartily support the hated
and tyrannical woman. The two eunuchs, who
were her immediate attendants, gave Jehu a sign,
probably from another window, that they would
join him and serve his purposes. They obeyed
his command. [The " or " between " two " and
" three " in ver. 32 is not in the text. It means
either that two looked out first, and were imme-
diately joined by another, or that two appeared at
one window, and three at another (the latter U
100
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
adopted by Stanley).— TV. G. S.]— n|DO"W, ver.
33, literally : And he trode her under foot, not.
however, " with his own feet" (Bwald). Hecaused
her to be trodden under foot, i. e., the horses of
his chariot trode upon her. Hence the Sept. and
Vulg. have the plural avi'iirarrjaav avri/i', concidca-
verunt earn (cf. Horn., R, x. 432 ; xi. 534).
Ver. 34. And when he was come in, Ac.
After Jezebel was slain, Jehu went into the palace,
took possession of it, and refreshed himself, after
the day of bloody labor, with food and drink.
Then, not, according to Koster's fiction, at the
banquet, but afterwards, he gave orders to see to
the corpse of Jezebel and bury it. He calls her:
this cursed woman, not " abusing her in his
wrath " (Theuius), but as the originator of all the
corruption which had now met with its fitting re-
ward. Nevertheless, he does not wish to have her
refused burial, for, he says, she is a king's daugh-
ter. Not, therefore, because she was the wife of
Ahab, the mother of Joram, and the grandmother
of Ahaziah, but because she was the daughter of
the king of Tyre and Sidon, she was to be spared
the last ignominy of lying unburied (see note on 1
Kings xiv. 11). Polus: Forte sic fecit, tie invidiam el
odium regum Zidoniorum in se inflammaret. When
he was told that sepulture was no longer possible,
he remembered also the remainder of the oracle
which he had quoted in ver. 26 (1 Kings xxi. 23).
This shows that that was no prediction post even-
turn. He quotes the oracle freely, according to its
sense, calling to mind particularly that portion of
it which seemed to him the most important. This
explains the use of p^ri instead of pn (see above,
on ver. 10 [and the Grammatical note on that
verse]). Jehu did not intentionally bring it about
that Jezebel had no sepulchre, i. e., that there was
no spot which perpetuated her memory. This was
ordained by God. The memory of her was to be
rooted out (Ps. xxxiv. 16).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The fall of the house of Ahab is one of the
most important events in the history of the Israel-
itish monarchy, and is marked as such by the de-
tailed and vivid description which we have of it.
In order to understand it correctly and estimate it
justly we must look at it from the stand-point of
the Old Testament theocracy. The house of Ahab
was not only devoted to the cultus of the call-
images of Jeroboam, but it had also (a thing which
no other dynasty had ever done) formally intro-
duced idolatry, murdered the prophets, and perse-
cuted the worshippers of Jehovah. All attempts
to draw it away from these evil courses had proved
vain. We see from chap. x. 18-28 how far the
worship of Baal had taken possession of the king-
dom of the ten tribes. As a result of intermar-
riage with the house of Ahab, the evil had spread
to Judah also, and had been already fostered by
two kings, Jehoram and Ahaziah. " According to
all appearances, therefore, the corruption, which
had already eaten so deeply into Israel, and which,
in spite of all the opposition which the prophets
had exerted, threatened to gradually destroy all
the good influences which remained, was about to
strike root also in Judah, the last stronghold of
the religion of Jehovah, and thereby to destrcj
the very foundation of the Mosaic theocracy"
(Eisenlohr, Das Yolk Israel, ii s. 192). The rule of
the house of Ahab was, in very truth, the opposite
of what the monarchy of Israel ought to have
been. Instead of holding and maintaining (Deut.
xvii. 19, 20) the laws and commandments of Jeho-
vah, and, above all, the Mosaic law, the covenant
upon which the existence of Israel, as the chosen
people, rested, it destroyed, consciously and inten-
tionally, the foundations of the Israelitish nation-
ality, and was, therefore, a continual rebellion
against Jehovah, the true and only king of Israel.
The prolonged rule of this house would have drawn
Israel down into heathenism, and would thereby
have frustrated its destined influence on the his-
tory of the world. It would have been the end of
Israel as the chosen people of God. The over-
throw of this house had become a matter of life
and death for the Old Testament theocracy as an
institution, and a necessity, if God's redemptive
plan with Israel was ever to reach its consumma-
tion. It had been threatened many times with
destruction, and, after it had shown itself during
forty years incapable of reformation, the time was
come at last when it was to meet the fate wit',
which it had been threatened. It was so decreed
in the counsels of Him who raises up and puts
down kings, who has power over the kingdoms of
men, and gives them to whomsoever He will (Dan.
ii. 21; iv. 14, 31). Here, therefore, the question
of the justifiableness of rebellion against a legiti-
mate dynasty, or of revolution in the ordinary
sense of the word, cannot arise. The course of
the house of Ahab was a rebellion against all law,
divine and human, in Israel. It was, therefore, a
revolution which was being brought about by those
in authority. Therefore it resulted in a catastro-
phe which was not the overthrow of divine and
human order, but rather its restoration. All the
details of the occurrence must be weighed from
this stand-point.
2. The long-threatened downfall of the house
of Ahab is the work of the propliet Elisha, in so
far that he gave the order to anoint Jehu king.
His name therefore stands at the head of the nar-
rative, and whereas, in other places, his name
stands either alone or with the epithet, " man of
God," here we find him expressly called "the
prophet," in order to show that he did what is here
recorded of him as a prophet, i. e., by virtue of his
prophetical calling ; as one, therefore, who, as he
himself solemnly declares (1 Kings xvii. 1), stands,
like Elijah, "before Jehovah," and, as an immedi-
ate servant of God, acts in His name and by His
authority. Thereby we are pointed, from the out-
set, to the grand difference between the fall of the
house of Ahab and that of the other earlier or
later dynasties. While the latter were all over-
thrown by military chiefs, whose only concern was
to arrive at power, the fall of the house of Ahab
was brought about by the prophet, and did not
aim at the gratification of ambition, but at the
uprooting of the idolatry which had been intro>
duced and fostered by this family. The first and
chief duty of the prophets, before all, of the great
prophets Elijah and Elisha, consisted in bearing
witness byword and deed against the radical evil,
idolatry, in combating it by every means, and in
plucking it up by the roots. Jehovah had ap-
pointed them " watchmen over His people," acd
CHAPTER IX 1-37.
10]
a»med them by His Spirit for this work, iu order
t^at the great object of the choice of this one peo-
ple out of all the nations of the earth (Ex. six. 3-
6), ». e., its destined influence in the history of the
world, might not be frustrated (Habak. ii. 1 ; Ezek.
iii. IT; xxxiii. 7; Jerem. vi. 17, 27). The words
which Jeremiah heard, when he was called to be
a prophet: " See, I have this day set thee over the
nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to
pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
build, and to plant " (Jerem. i. 10 ; cf. xviii. 7 ; Ezek.
xliii. 3 ; xxxii. IS), hold true of all true prophets.
They appear, therefore, as Knobel (der Proph. der
Hebr., i. s. 196 sq.) justly observes, not only as
heralds of the acts of God, but alio as executors
of them, and things are often ascribed to them
which in truth were done, and could be done, by
God alone (see Exeg. on 1 Kings xix. 15-18, and,
besides the places already quoted, Jerem. v. 14;
xxv. 15 ; Hos. vi. 5). It was therefore the right
and duty of the prophet Elisha, when idolatry had
been pushed to the utmost, and every attempt to
oring the house of Ahab into other courses had
failed, by virtue of his prophetical office and call-
ing, to labor to bring about the fall of that dy-
nasty and the foundation of another. Far from
being a sinful and rebellious undertaking, what he
did was, for all Israel, as Eisenlohr himself ad-
mits, " an act of salvation."
3. The anointing of Jehu is generally regarded,
as it is by Keil, as the fulfilment of "the last of
the commissions which Elijah received at Horeb "
(1 Kings xix. 16). But the correct interpretation
of that passage (see notes thereon) makes this ex-
planation unnecessary; and it is moreover to be
noticed, that such an explanation presupposes that
Elijah commissioned his successor to do something
which he was commanded to do, and which he
might have done, since Jehu was already, in the
lifetime of Elisha, in the train of Ahab (vcr. 25),
but which he nevertheless did not do. There is
no hint in the text that this act of Elisha was a
fulfilment of that command to Elijah, and it is not
consistent with the universal and unconditional
obedience of Elijah. [The discrepancy between
this chapter and 1 Kings xix. 16 in this particular
must be frankly admitted. Even a superficial ex-
amination will show that, between the two, this
passage contains the historical account of the
share of the prophets in Jehu's revolt. — W. G.
S.] It is still more improbable that Elisha should
not have executed a commission which had been
given him, as is suggested, by Elijah, but should
have commissioned another, a prophet-disciple, to
do it. Yon Gerlach thinks that the " already aged
Elisha " did this, because " he was bent with age ; "
but Elisha did not die until Joash was on the
throne (2 Kings xiii. 14), so that he lived for at
least forty-three years after Jehu was anointed.
Accordingly, at the time of that event, he was not
fifty years old. Neither can the reason which
Krummacher assigns be maintained: "Nothing
could have been more distasteful to the loving and
evangelical disposition of Elisha than the com-
mand, in his own person, to put the avenging
eword into the hands of Jehu. So God, who,
father-like, weighs with the most tender anxiety
what He may demand of each one of His children,
and what not, exonerated him from this duty, and
allowed him to send one of the prophet-disciples
in his place." The narrative itself shows us the
reason clearly. The prophet disciple was com
manded to lead Jehu into an inner chamber, and
after anointing him, to depart immediately, with-
out speaking a word to any one. The important
transaction was, therefore, to be carried out in pri
vate, and to be kept as secret as possible. This
was the reason why Elisha did not take it in hand
himself, for if he, the well-known head of the
prophet-guild, had gone to Ramoth and had had
dealings with Jehu, it would have occasioned great
observation, and the cause of his coming could
not have been kept secret. The affair was to be
kept quiet for a time, and only to be proclaimed
when the right time should come according to the
leadings of Providence, just as, at a former time,
the communication of the prophet Ahijah to Jero-
boam (1 Kings xi. 29 sq.) was not to be made pub-
lic, and Jeroboam had to wait until the right mo-
ment for his elevation came (see Hist. § 3 on I
Kings xi. 14—43). Therefore also Jehu did not at
once make known to his fellow-commanders what
had been done, but gave them an evasive answer.
When they pressed him, he broke silence and
thought that the right time had come. Elisha
limited Ins own action strictly to the announce-
ment of the destiny which awaited Jehu. All th~
rest he left to the control of Providence, so w i
hear no more of him until his death (chap, xiii.i —
As for the act of anointing, it was not performed
with "the sacred oil of anointing" (Menzel), as in
the case of the kings of Judah (1 Kintr? i. :;9; cf.
2 Kings xi. 12 ; xxiii. 30), for, in the kingdom of
the ten tribes, where there was no sanctuary of
Jehovah, and where the levitieal priesthood did
not exist, it appears that the kings were not
anointed at all. W was not, therefore, a priestly
act which Elisha in this case executed, but a pro-
phetical one, i. e., a symbolical act, a physical sign
and testimony of that which Jehovah has deter-
mined upon and will do. Hence it is accom-
panied by the words : " Thus saith the Lord : I
anoint thee.'' Ac. (vers. 3-6), just as in chap. ii. 21,
where the prophet throws the salt into the foun-
tain with the words : "Thus saith the Lord: I
have healed these waters " (see pp. 17, 25 1. For
the significance of the act of anointing, when it is
ascribed to Jehovah himself, see above, note on 1
Kings xix. 15-18.
4. What Schlier (Die Konige in Israel, s. 207)
says of tlie newly-anointed king Jehu, holds true.
" There are few persons in the sacred history who
have been so variously judged as he. To some he
is a stirrer up of rebellion and a bloody despot ;
others see in him a pure and unimpeachable ser •
vant of the Lord. Both equally err, for both de
part alike from what the sacred record declares,
and all depends, especially in the case of Jehu, on
allowing ourselves to be led simply by the record."
If we restrict ourselves to what is said in chap
ix., this much is certain, that he did not make him-
self king. There is not a word to justify the sus-
picion that he plotted and conspired before he was
anointed king ; on the contrary, the story shows
clearly that the prophetical calling to be king sur-
prised and astonished him, and also that his fellow-
commanders knew nothing of it. He ought not,
therefore, to be put in the same category with
Baasha, Zimri, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah. and
Hoshea (1 Kings xv. 27; xvi. 9, 16; 2 Kings xv.
10-30), who, instigated by ambition, without au>
thority and in self-will, took the royal power ink-
102
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
their hands. He was called to be king by the
prophet, in the name of Jehovah. The explana-
tion of the selection of juet this man, as the in-
strument for the destruction of the house of Ahab,
and for the uprooting of idolatry, is found in the
fact that at that time there was scarcely a man
who united, as he did, all the necessary qualifica-
tions ; so that Ewald also is forced to admit that
" Elisha certainly could not have fixed his eye upon
a military chief who was better fitted for the pur-
pose he had in view." In the first place, Jehu
was a decided opponent of idolatry and of the
abuses which were connected with it (ver. 22).
The opposition of the prophet Elijah to Ahab and
Jezebel, after the murder of Naboth, had made an
indelible impression upon him, so that he had not
forgotten the words of the prophet sixteen years
afterwards (vers. 25 and 36). This was the first
characteristic which was required. Jehu pos-
sessed the second also. He was a man of the
greatest energy. Pushing onward with boldness
and enterprise, decided and pitiless, he shrank
back before no difficulty (vers. 20, 24, 32 sq.).
Moreover, he did not lack prudence or wisdom
(vers. 11, 15, 18). Finally, he stood high in the
popular esteem as a military leader. After Joram
left Ramoth he seems to have had supreme com-
mand of the army. We see from the joy with
which his fellow-commanders caught up his nomi-
nation and anointment, and from the readiness
with which they obeyed his commands, that he
enjoyed their fullest confidence (vers. 14-16). It
is true that his subsequent conduct is fierce and sol-
dier-like ; that was the natural product of his char-
acter, calling, and education. " To drive like Jehu "
has become a proverb. We ought not to overlook
the fact, however, that nothing was to be accom-
plished here by mild and kind means. If the
deep-rooted evil of idolatry, which threatened Is-
rael with total ruin, was to be rooted out, it could
not be done without violence. Moreover, we have
to notice that Jehu, when Joram came to meet
him, did not shoot him down at once, but, in an-
swer to his question : "Is it peace ? " declared that,
so long as his mother, Jezebel, nourished shameful
idolatry in Israel, there was no chance for peace
and prosperity in the kingdom. Upon this abso-
lutely true declaration of Jehu, Joram turned and
cried " Treason," and took to flight, so that he took
sides with his idolatrous mother. Not until this
point did Jehu send the death-arrow after the fly-
ng king (who sought to reach Jezreel, and to join
Mir), and give orders to pursue Ahaziah, who came
i with Joram, and who likewise took Jezebel's part.
J As Joram fell upon the very spot of ground which
had been taken from the murdered Naboth, Jehu,
who saw in this incident a dispensation of God,
felt encouraged to proceed with his fierce task. So
too, he did not slay Jezebel without further delay,
but only when she put herself in opposition to him,
and shouted down to him her impudent defiance,
and insulted him as another Zimri, i. e., as a mur-
derer ami traitor, did he .call out to "throw her
down."
[Jehu came to Jezreel on purpose to put to
death the kiug and the queen-dowager. Of the
particular circumstances in which he should meet
them, or of the accident which was going to throw
.n his way the king of Judah, another member of
the house of Ahab, he could know nothing before-
hand. Ewald thinks that he had had half-formed
plans in his mind ever since the time whe.t ht
heard the prophet's denunciation of Ahab, but
Bahr is more correct, according to the text before
us, when he supposes that the visit of the prophet
and his business took Jehu by surprise. Whether
this incident only came to ratify and bring to a defi-
nite determination half-formed plans which Jehu
had long cherished, is a secret of his inner life
which probably few or none, even of his contem-
poraries, ever learned. Whether it came at the
very crisis of time when the commanders of the
army were disgusted with the king, and excited
with admiration of Jehu, to suggest to them an act
which perhaps no one had yet proposed in words,
is also uncertain, but it is a theory which is thor-
oughly cousistent with the text. When Jehu had
told them what the prophet had done, it was only
a suggestion, something which might be neglected
and allowed to fall and be forgotten. But the
other generals caught at the idea enthusiastically,
and proceeded to act upon it by proclaiming Jehi.
king with all the solemnity which the means at
hand would allow. The affair had now entered a
new phase. One of the prophets of Jehovah, who
were, as a matter of course, hostile to the reigning
house, might nominate a new king and anoint him
and the event might be passed by as only anothei
declaration of hostility from a well-known and
uncompromising enemy; but to proclaim the new
king was an overt act of treason, and all who par
ticipated in it must know that there was no reced-
ing from it, and that the reigning monarch could
never overlook or pardon it. Jehu's cunning and
caution had been shown in the reply to the gen-
erals in ver. 11, in which he tried, in the first place,
to see if they were really the instigators of this
proposition. Now that he was committed to an
overt act, his promptness, decision, and energy
showed themselves. "If it be your minds, if you
are determined to take this step, then we must go
forward at once. Let no one go out of the city to
take news to Joram of what we have done." He
then set out himself for Jezreel. Between him
self and the house of Ahab there was no possible
compromise. He must gain the advantages of
time and energy. He made no delay (this may be
reckoned as a virtue on his part) in carrying out
his purpose. He took circumstances as he found
them, and carried out his intention as he best
could. He unquestionably intended to destroy the
whole house of Ahab when he returned to Jezreel.
He could not tell what opportunities would offer,
but it is clear that he meant to make opportunities
if they did not come of themselves. He meant to
get all the royal family into his hands and kill
them. Bahr's idea that he waited until Joram had
taken sides with Jezebel, and waited until Jezebel
had insulted him, is suggested by a laudable desire
to excuse him, but it is an invention. We can
hardly repress some feeling of pity, even for Jeze-
bel, in reading the bloody and tragical details, but
pitilessness is a virtue in a man situated as Jehu
was. He had a task to accomplish which led
through blood, and he had to follow it. To wavei
from pity or from fear would have been equal trea
sun to his calling. The sentimentality which for-
gets the crime in pity for the criminal is a modern
and a "civilized" weakness. It is not a ieeling
which a man called to conduct great national or re-
ligious revolutions can allow to dim the clearnesi
of his judgment, or to unnerve his determination.—
CHAPTER IX. 1-37.
103
Jehu was, therefore, a cautious, crafty man, who
was slow to commit himself to any irrevocable
course of action, but energetic and unrelenting in
prosecuting it when he had resolved upon it. He
was a man o" action, who did not hesitate or wa-
ver, and did l.ot lose time in long plans, but struck
quickly and surely where he had determined to
strike. He did not shrink from difficulties, did not
hesitate at harsh means of accomplishing his pur-
poses, did not feel pity in striking down those who
stood in his way, did not leave behind him any-
thing which might, at a later time, rise up to mar
or overthrow his work. This is not a lovely char-
acter. It does not present the amiable virtues,
patience, pity, mercy, kindness. It is not a char-
acter to be imitated in modern, civilized, thor-
oughly regulated life, but neither ought it to be
measured and judged by the standards of a society
trained to peace and order, fearful of revolution,
and encased in law. Its virtues must be sought
in the use to which it put its strength, its energy,
and its decision. It is a character, however, such
as is needed to lead great movements, to give form,
and purpose, and consistency of action, and perse-
verance, to a national effort, in times of discontent
with existing institutions and tendencies, when all
are convinced that the nation is going down, un-
der depraved leadership, to ruin, but when no one
seems able to step to the front and lead on the re-
formation. In the providence of God, such men
are often raised up for great crises in Church and
State. The man is swallowed up in the movement.
It is impossible to tell whether the work has made
him or been made by him. His personal virtues
and faults are lost sight of in the stormy, tumultu-
ous crisis in which he lived. We cannot, in jus-
tice, sit down in peace, when the storm is over,
and lay the line of every-day standards to such a
rugged character, and, from the stand-point of a
time of order, peace, and quiet, condemn it in so
far as it passed beyond the bounds of peaceful, do-
mestic, citizen-like virtue. He was needed and
was called; he responded, and accomplished his
calling well. That is his place in the history, and
5hat is the judgment on his career. — W. G. S.]
5. The fall of the three heads of the house of Ahab
on one day is narrated with so much minuteness be-
cause it not only has simple historical significance,
but also proves the inevitableness of the threats
of God, and the certainty of His requital (" ven-
geance ") (vers. 7-10, 26, 36). The sentence against
the house of Ahab, which accompanied the anoint-
ment of Jehu, is almost literally the same as that
which Ahija pronounced against the house of Jer-
oboam (1 Kings xiv. 10), Jehu against the house
of Baesha (1 Kings xvi. 3), and Elijah against the
house of Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 21). Its repetition
shows that it was the established formula of con-
demnation against every royal house which sought
to undermine the foundations of the Israelitish na-
tionality, the covenant with Jehovah. Those whom
God had set to be watchmen over His people, were
to pronounce the same sentence for the same trans-
gression, wherever it occurred. (On the peculiarly
Old Testament form of the condemnation, see 1
Kings xiv. 1-20, Hist. § 1.) The day on which
the three heads of the house of Ahab fell is, there-
fore, represented as a day of divine judgment. It
has all the marks which belo lg to days of judg-
ment in geneial, and to that one great general
judgrr-ont at the last. It is a terrible day (Joel it
26) ; it comes unawares, like a thief in the night,
and overtakes those who are its just victims when
they are careless and contented (Zeph. i. 14 ; Luke
xvii. 28 sq. ; 1 Thess. v. 2 sq.) ; they cannot escape
it either by flight or by resistance, they are brought
to nought and come to a terrible end (Zeph. i. 18 •
Lament, ii. 22 ; Ps. lxxiii. 19 ; lxxxiii. 17 ; Jerem.
ii. 26; Heb. x. 27, 31 &c.). It is to this day that
the word of the apostle applies : " Now all these
things happened unto them for ensamples: and
they are written for our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the world are come " (1 Cor. x. 11).
6. The story of the end of Jezebel is given with
particular detail, because therein the prophet's
threat was fulfilled with especial frightfulness. As
the sin of the house of Ahab was represented to
the fullest extent in Jezebel, the originator and
patroness of idolatry, so her terrible end forms the
crisis of the divine punishment. Ahaziah is fatally
wounded, and dies in a strange place. Although
he was, as Josephus says : novqpbc not xeipuv rov
irarpdc airow, yet he was buried by his subjects,
because he was " the son (grandson) of Jehosha-
phat " (2 Chron. xxii. 9). Joram falls dead, pierced
through the heart, but is thrown upon the field of
Naboth and not buried. Jezebel is thrown down
from the window by her own attendants ; as she
lies weltering in her own blood she is trodden un-
der foot by horses, and her corpse lies unburied
"like dung upon the fields" (see note on 1 Kings
xi. 14). She appears here in her last moments
such as she had ever been, proud and impudent,
arrogant and domineering, [defiant and insolent].
She places herself at the window, painted ai.d
grandly dressed, and presumes upon her assumed
majesty. Instead of recognizing in the judgment,
which is falling upon her house, the just recom-
pense for her misdeeds, instead of sueiug for grace,
she, who had shed so much innocent blood, and
had exalted herself against the God of Israel, in-
sults the instrument of the divine vengeance as a
murderer and a traitor, demands that he shall sub-
mit to her, and threatens him, relying upon her im-
agined power, with destruction, if he persists.
Just here judgment overtakes her. Her nearest
attendants forsake the hated queen and hurl her
down from her position. She does not reach the
rest of the grave, and remains, eren in death,
marked with infrmy for all time, a proof of the
truth of the words: " It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God " (Heb. x. 31).
7. Modern historians represent the elevation of
Jehu to the throne of Israel in a very different light
from that in which it appears in the Scriptures.
According to Winer (if.- W.-B., i. s. 37, 600): " Eli-
sha secretly anointed Jehu king of Israel (the
prophets could not even yet forget the injuries
they had received from Jezebel, the mother of this
family !); " in consequence of the unfortunate cam-
paign of Joram against Hazael of Damascus " it
rebellion broke out in the Israelitish camp; Jehu
killed his king, and, soon afterwards, Ahaziah
also." According to llenzel (Stoats uud Belig
Gesch. von Isr.. s. 205 sq.) : " The relation in whicL
Elisha stood to Hazael was not without influence "
on the overthrow of the house of Ahab ; he (Eli-
sha) was in communication with Hazael ; Joram
gave the command ?f the army to Jehu when he
returned wounded to Jezreel, " without surmising
that Jehu had already conspired with several of
the other generals for his overthrow. The time
10-t
THE SECOXD BOOK OF THE KINGS.
for the acomplishment of the change of dynasty
planned by Elisha has come ; Elisha sends one of
his servants to the camp with the holy oil of
anointment, commands that it shall be poured
upon Jehu's head and that he shall be called upon
to make himself king, and to root out the house
of Ahab." According to Koster (Die Proph., s. 94) :
'• Hazael's accession to power is parallel with that
of Jehu which immediately followed." Jehu had
"conspired even before Joram was wounded, and,
when he killed him," he gave to Elisha's prophecy
against Ahab (1 Kings xxi.) an extension which
made it subserve his plans. Finally, according to
Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, i. s. 413), it was
the "hostility of the prophets of Jehovah " which
brought such a sad fate upon Joram and his house.
[There can be no question that it was. Duncker,
however, seems to criticize the history of the pe-
riod from the stand-point of Ahab in 1 Kings xviii.
17 and xxi. 20 (" Art thou he that troubleth Is-
rael; "■ " Hast thou found me, 0 mine enemy ! ").
It may be that he is led to it by a revulsion from
the naive method of reading the Scriptures which
insists on making some characters saints and oth-
ers demons, but it is simple perversity, and uncrit-
ical self-will to take the contrary side. Some of
the old expositors seem to have felt that in review-
ing the acts of one who is called " good " in the
record, they must excuse and explain away and
account, on all kinds of imaginary hypotheses, for
any acts of his which were not good according to
our standards. Also that, when a character is
marked as "bad" in the record, the}- must inter-
pret any good acts of his in an unfavorable manner.
The modern critics, many of them, revolt with dis-
gust from a notion, which is so manifestly unjust
and unsound, into the other extreme. Many of
them proceed as if they had adopted some such
canon as this: Every person, who is made a
hero or a saint in the record, was in reality a
coward and criminal, and, vice versa, all who are
represented as wicked and base, were, in fact,
noble and good ; the writers, from some prejudice.
or for some partisan reason, represented them as
we find in the record, therefore, to get at the truth.
we must take them all by contraries. — W. G. S.]
Elisha [Duncker goes on to say], " was the favor-
ite attendant of Elijah, and stood at the head of
the prophets of Israel." After the siege of Sa-
maria (vi. 24 sq.) "he resided for a time among
the enemies of his country in Damascus. Here, at
his instigation. Beuhadad. the king, was mur-
dered by Hazael, one of his servants, who now
ascended the throne, and recommenced the war
against Israel, not without encouragement from
Elisha. Joram was wounded at a battle in Gilead,
and left the army in order to be healed at his
palace in Jezreel. This moment seemed to Elisha
to be favorable for the overthrow of the king of
Israel also. Samuel had once favored David's re-
bellion against Saul, so also Elisha now sun led
in prevailing upon Jehu, one of the generals of the
army, to rebel against Joram." It is not neces-
sary, after the detailed explanations which have
been given above, to refute at length this con-
struction of tin- narrative. The biblical passage
before us, which is tin- only authority we have fur
this history, contains no ground whatever for the
3uspicion that there was a connection between the
murder of Hi-nhadad by Hazael and the over-
•hrow of the house of Ahab by Jehu. It is an as-
sertion which is as false historically a9 it is re
volting, that Elisha instigated Hazael to murd«i
his master, then encouraged the attack of tht
national enemy upon his own country, and finally
provoked Jehu to rebellion. What just "-eason is
there for making such a vulgar intriguer, political
agitator, instigator of rebellion and traitor, out of
the "man of God?" The assertion that Jehu
had formed a conspiracy with the other generals
before Joram was wounded, and he was anointed,
and that lie brought about a rebellion in the army,
is equally groundless and false. The text contra-
dicts it distinctly. But the whole tenor of this
conception of the history is to set aside the true
reason for the overthrow of the house of Ahab,
viz.,' the corrupting idolatry which had been intro-
duced by this house, and which was destroying
the character of the nation. Although this reason
is perfectly clear, yet it is ignored, and instead of
it, the true reason is said to lie in personal hos-
tility, ambition, and other passions, so that finally
the whole story appears only as a drama in which
human interests are at stake and depraved forces
are in play. — Ewald's conception of the history ;»
far better and more probable. He explains ( Gasch ,
iii. s. 526 ; cf. also s. 382) [3d ed. 566 and 409 sq.]
" The Great Revolution " by the conflict which
had been maintained ever since the time of Solo-
mon, "between the two great independent pow«rs,'
the monarchy and the prophetical office as a
national institution in Israel [prophet-hood, if one
may coin a word, after the analogy of priesthood,
for the prophetical office as an institution — Pro-
phetenthniu.} " Heathenism, fostered by the mon-
archy, threatened to displace the old religion, in
both kingdoms at the same time. But just at this
point the old religion stood desperately on its de-
fence once more against the new one; in the first
place, it is true, only spasmodically (! ?), and
through that instrument only which had hitherto
been its living fountain, and its most powerful
force, viz., the prophethood." This explanation i3
based upon that idea on which Ewald's method of
presenting the history rests, and which has been
referred to several times above (see 1 Kings xi. 14-
43, Hist. £ 3). viz.. that "violence" was a radical
trait both of the monarchy and of the prophethood
(Gesch., iii. 13), and that, therefore, they stood in
opposition to each other as "independent powers,"
and struggled for the supreme control — a theory
which we cannot by any means regard as correct.
The prophethood does not anywhere appear as an
'■ independent power," parallel with the monarchy.
The prophets never combated the monarchy as
such, and never strove with it for the supremacy,
as, for instance, the popes with the emperors.
No prophet ever strove for royal authority, or en-
deavored to raise himself to the throne. The two
great prophets, Elijah and Elisha, who had, mosi
of all, to resist the kings who were their contem ■
I Minnies, were farthest from all hierarchical ten-
dencies and from all lust for power They re-
mained poor and humble, and had, from all theii
Strifes, neither advantage nor enjoyment. The
office and calling of the prophets consisted in
taking care that the covenant of Jehovah, the
fundamental constitution of Israel, should be
maintained in its integrity. They were not to
rule bj the side of the kings, much less over
them, but to be the standing correc ive to the
royal power, when this departed from the Mosaic
CHAPTER IX. 1-37.
105
coostitutoa, according to which it was bound to
rule (Deut. xvii. 19, 20). The prophets were not,
tnerefore, in hostility to all the kings, but only to
those who, in contradiction with their calling to
be servants of Jehovah, despised, more or less,
the covenant of the God of Israel. They must re-
sist most earnestly of all those kings, who, like
those of the house of Ahab, not only broke that
covenant, but also introduced and fostered idola-
try, or, at least, tolerated it. Nothing could be
more perverse then, as Knobel himself has shown
(I/er Proph. der Hebr,, i. s. 11 sq.), than to make an
"hierarchical party or caste " out of the prophets.
or " to regard them as restless, innovating dema-
gogues, who were continually plotting, striving
to introduce arbitrary changes, and stirring up
the people to rebellion against the government."
[This, then, was the true hostility between the
prophethood and the monarchy. A single reflec-
tion, however, wdl show how deep it was. The
history of the foundation of the monarchy in 1
Sam. throws doubt upon the degree to which it
was founded or approved by the prophetical au-
thorities of the time. Under a king like David
the prophethood, an institution which took its
specific authority from direct and continual in-
spiration, and the monarchy, an institution found-
ed it is true by God in the first instance, but de-
riving its continued authority from descent and
tradition (in which sense they certainly were in-
dependent authorities, each claiming the right to
direct and control), worked in sufficient harmony.
In the case of another king, who departed from
the standards of judgment which were maintained
by the prophets, there would be opposition and
hostility. The warnings of the prophets were re-
sented, in such cases, as unwarrantable inter-
ference, by the kings. The actions of the kings
were condemned and protested against by the
prophets. Under a theocratic constitution, such
as that of Israel always was in theory, where
there was no possibility of a division of depart-
ments of activity into civil and religious, political
and ecclesiastical, church and state, these colli-
sions were inevitable, if the king departed from
the prophetical standards. Thus these two au-
thorities came into collision. They both sought
to control the nation. It is very true that neitht >-
one ever sought to usurp the peculiar functions of the
other, but that is little to the point. One sought
to control by means of external authority (»'. e., in
the last resort, by force) ; the other sought to
control by moral influence. As long as the proph-
ets approved what the monarch did there was no
jarring ; as soon as they did not thus approve,
antagonism arose. They rebuked the king, which
seemed like insubordination, and they denounced
him to the people, which seemed like inciting re-
bellion. There is certainly no case of factious or
ambitious or hierarchical opposition to the mon-
archy on the part of any of the prophets, but. as
a matter of history, there were so few of the kings
who came up to the standards which the spiritual
authority maintained, that there was hostility be-
tween the two great authorities of the state during
almost the entire duration of the monarchy. As
for Ewald's opinion, he certainly does not mean to
gay that there was any such conflict for worldly
and physical supremacy as his marked modern
history (popes and emperors) — W. G. S.] The
prorhethood in Israel is a peculiar phenomenon,
as the people of Israel is a peculiar phenomenon
in the history of the world (Knobel, s. 1 sq., D«
Wette, Sittenlehre, i. 1, 32). It cannot, therefore,
be judged from a general historical, that is, from
a natural and human, stand-point. This is es-
pecially true in the case before us of the over-
throw of the house of Ahab and the elevation of
Jehu to the throne. If we abandon here the theo-
cratic stand-point of the author of these books,
which is above distinctly maintained, the prophet-
hood becomes a mere caricature of what it really
was. and of what it was intended by God that it
should be.
[S. If we refuse to consider the bearing of this
story upon the justifiable/Less of revolution, we turn
away from one of its most prominent practical les-
sons. We have here two cases of regicide in
close juxtaposition — Benhadad by Hazael, and
Joram by Jehu. Evidently we cannot measure
them by two different standards of right. We
have seen above that, so far as the history in-
forms us, the former of these was one of those
cases of palace-revolution which are almost the
only articulating points in oriental history. Ha-
zael slew his master in order to usurp his authority.
Morally weighed, it was just as bad as the act of a
highwayman who slays a man in order to take hil
purse. Of the state of the kingdom under Ben-
hadad and of the comparative benefits or injuries
which it received from Hazael, we know very
little. As a military leader Hazael was the abler
of the two. Beyond that we know nothing
Jehu's case was in many respects different. A
family was on the throne which had introduced a
licentious worship, had fostered it, and had perse-
cuted the older and purer religion, which, if it
had not succeeded in taking so firm hold of the
people as to hold them to purity and virtue, at
least had not been itself a deep corrupting influ-
ence. The mischief had spread so far that it was
time to try the last and severest measures or to
give up the contest entirely. The indictment was
made out against the ruling house, of corrupting the
national honor and undermining the national exist-
ence, of depriving the nation of a religion whose
spirit was pure and elevating, and giving it one
whose spirit was corrupting and licentious. It was
time for every man to make the choice which Elijah
put before the people in 1 Kings xviii. 21, and for
those who were on the side of Jehovah to strike
without pity, for their cause. Jehu was the chosen
leader and representative of this party, and it was
in its interest that he became a regicide. There
is no ethical principle, therefore, which the chap-
ter teaches more plainly than this, that a nation
is not to let itself be robbed of its highest and
best goods, its purest traditions, and its holiest in
spirations, by any dynasty, however unimpeach-
able its legitimacy, for fear of " revolution." How
terrible these national convulsions are, modern
history shows clearly enough, and we shall see it
also in the development of this history. They are
terrible remedies for terrible diseases, and the
chapter before us gives a test of when and how
they are justifiable. They are justifiable as the
last resort in the utmost danger, when religion,
and liberty, and morality, and national honor can
be saved by no other means. — Jehu was anointed
by authority of a prophet of Jehovah, lint we have
to bear in mind that this authority was given also,
if it was not executed, in the case of Hazael '.
1U6
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Kings six. 15). The one was just as much an in-
strument in the hands of God for carrying out his
plans in history, accordiug to the biblical repre-
sentation, as the other. We may leave this im-
portant chapter with the following paragraph from
Ewald (Ge-tch., iii. 573), in which he reviews this
revolution aud points forward to its consequences :
" The spirit of the aucient religion had, therefore,
once more arisen in its might, in the kingdom of
the ten tribes, against the intrusion of the foreign
and heathen religion, and that was now accom-
plished which Elijah, in his labor and suffering,
had never been able to accomplish. The nation
was once more delivered, by means of a terrible
and powerful revolution, from the mistakes and
errors into which it had allowed itself to be
plunged. It was once more forced back upon its
own peculiar origin and foundation, so far, at least,
as it is ever possible for an earthly kingdom to re-
turn to its own origin. He, whose warnor-haud
was alone fit to be the instrument of such a revo-
lution, Jehu, had shown himself to be, yet again,
one of those unexpected and irresistible cham-
pions of the cause of Jehovah, such as the judges
had once been, with this difference only, that he
did not have to fight, as they did, against external,
but against far more dangerous internal, foes of
this cause. The horrors by which this revolution
was marked were in truth scarcely to be avoided,
partly on account of the character of the ancient
national religion, partly on account of the deep
roots which, at that time, heathenism and the au-
thority of the house of Omri had struck in both
kingdoms, but especially in Israel. Nothing can
be more incorrect, therefore, than to say that, when
Elisha caused Jehu to be anointed, he neither fore-
saw nor approved of these acts of violence and
bloodshed. He could not have had such a dim
vision of the future as not to foresee them, al-
though he certainly did not designate the separate-
victims beforehand, after the fashion of a Ro-
man proscriptor. Moreover, there is nothing which
would render it probable that Elisha disapproved
of those acts after they were committed. But the
deeper and less apparent evils which lay in the
horrible incidents of this, as they lie in the hor-
rors of every, revolution, made themselves contin-
ually more and more apparent, and were contin-
ually more and more sharply felt, in the course of
the history, as we shall see below." — W. G. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-37. God's Judgment upon the House
of Ahnb : (a) The herald of the judgment, vers.
1-10; (6) the executor of it, vers. 11-20; (c) the
victims of it, vers. 21-37. — Vers. 1-8. Krumma-
Ciier: Jehu. The approaching vengeance; the
commission of God to Elisha; the sending of the
prophet-disciple; Jehu's anointment and the object
of it.— Vers. 1-3. WtiRT. Summ. : The Lord God
deposf-s kings and raises them up, Dan. ii. 21 ;
Prov. viii. 15 sq. There is no established authority
which is not from God. A calling to govern is the
work of God, vhether it comes through interme-
diate persons «.r not. Therefore, since rulers and
governors are ordained and established of God,
they ought to govern themselves according to God's
will, and every one ought to respect and honor
them for God's sake, and show them all due obe-
dience, Rom. xiii. 1 sg. When kings and govern.
ors sin and do evil, and nobody dare lisp a word
or still less punish them, then God comes anc
raises up other rulers, and uses them as his execu-
tioners to punish such wicked rulers. Even though
a long time passes, wickedness is not forgotten by
God. He rises up at last and sends against wicked
men those who will fulfil his sentence without
pity. Therefore let all rulers guard themselves
from all wrong, and especially from all persecution
of the servants of God and just men. Also let
not any one, without God's command, lay hand
upon those in authority, lest he call down God's
judgment upon himself. — What Elisha did, he did
in the name and at the command of God, and he-
would have forsaken his duty if he had not done
it. The prophets were not there to sleep and to
lay their hands in their laps, when the ordinances
of God were being trodden under foot, but God
set them as watchmen over His people, that they
might root up the weeds, and plant and cultivate
what was good. — Krummacher: None of the mod-
ern revolutions can appeal to any such revelations
of the divine will ; nay, the standard-bearers would
smile if any one should demand of them to show
any authority of this kind for raising a revolt. The
modern revolutions have all sprung from another
soil, either more or less apparently, and are con-
demned by God's words : Whosoever resisteth au-
thority, resisteth God's ordinance. [This leaves
the mutual relations and obligations of governors
aud governed very unclear. Governors must be
good, governed must be obedient. For homiletieal
purposes a clearer definition of the limits and mu-
tual interlacing of these duties is of prime im-
portance. I have attempted a sharper analysis
below, at the end of the "Homiletieal" section. —
W. G. S.]— Vers. 4^10. The Prophet-disciple : (a)
His mission. (Krummacher: He is one of the
humblest in Samaria, a poor, insignificant boy,
and he carries a kingdom to RamothI How
great the Lord appears in this incident, but also
with what cutting irony He meets all the arrogance
of the self-made gods of earth 1) Here also 1 Cor.
i. 2S applies. (It) His obedience. (He raises no objec-
tions, although the task is hard for him. He might
have said: "I am a child," Ac, Jerem. i. 6. He is
to go into a besieged city, to go before the gener-
als of the army, to put his life and liberty at stake,
yet he goes with no sword at his side ; without a
companion he ventures to go into the army of the
king, to anoint another to be king. All human
scruples and fears disappear before the duty of
obedience. In obedience he does not fear, and
lets no danger terrify him, for he knows and be-
lieves what is written in Ps. xci. 11-13 and Ps.
xxvii. 1). (c) His fidelity. (He does no more and
no less than he is commanded. He~has a great
commission entrusted to him, but he does not
boast. He keeps the secret and departs as he
came. He does not care what may be thought of
him, or what people may say, whether they think
him a " mad fellow " or not. So the Apostles also
carried the secrets of God out into the wide world,
and had no other interest than that they might bs
found true.) — Vers. 7-10. The world of to-day
will not hear that: "The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries," etc. (Nahum i. 2 ; cf. Deut.
xxxii. -13), and declares that this is only an Old
Testament notion, and that the Gospel knows july
jne God who is a God of love. It is truo thai
CHAPTER IX. 1-37
10]
God does not seek revenge, but he is an holy, and
therefore also a just, God, who requites men as
they have deserved, and repays each according to
his conduct (Job xxxiv. 11; Rom. ii. 6). A God
without vengeance, i. e., who cannot and will not
punish, is no God, but a divinity fashioned from
one's thoughts. The same gospel, which teaches
that God is love, says also: "It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God," and:
"Our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. x. 31; xii.
29). The same law which says that God is an
avenging God towards his enemies, says also that
he is " merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
abundant in goodness and truth " ( Ex. xxxiv. 6).
— Krummacher: "The blood of my servants:"
Listen I He has indeed permitted them to lay vio-
lent hands upon His servants, but He has not
overlooked or forgotten it. Nothing cleaves more
irresistibly up through the clouds than the voice
of the blood of persecuted saints. Nothing is bet-
ter adapted to pour oil upon the flames of the
divine wrath against the godless than the sighs
which their cruelty forces from a child of God.
The blood of the saints has often cried from earth
to heaven, and what judgments it has called
down! Let the persecutors of all centuries ap-
pear and bear witness. (Nebuchadnezzar, Belshaz-
zar, Herod, Agrippa, Nero, Inquisitors of Spain,
the Louises of France, Charles IX.): bear witness
all, what a dangerous thing it is to lay hands upon
the saints of the Most High ! — This is not the only
instance where God has raised the destroying axe
over a dynasty which was morally rotten. He
often makes use of royal families, which have
fallen into moral decay, for the discipline of na-
tions, but the time never fails to come when he
passes sentence of destruction upon them, and
brings speedy ruin upon the condemned. A
family-tree does not stand firm in gilded parch-
ments and registers; only when it is planted by
the waters which flow from the sanctuary of God,
will it continue to flourish vigorously.
Vers. 11-16. Jehu, the new King of Israel. He
makes known to the generals his nomination to
the crown ; he is gladly hailed king by them ; lie
enters vigorously and without delay upon his
calling. — Ver. 11. Keep secret for a time that
which occurs in thy chamber between thee and
thy God. Do not proclaim it upon the housetops,
but wait until Providence shows thee an occasion
to make it known (Ps. xxxvii. 34). " Fools have
their hearts in their mouths " (Sir. xxi. 28). —
Berleb. Bibel: It was, then, a common thing at
that time to regard the prophets and servants of
God as fools, enthusiasts, and fanatics, and to look
upon them with contempt (Acts xxvi. 24 ; 1 Cor.
iv. 10; Acts xvii. 18). — Do not judge according to
the external appearance, and the first superficial
impression, in regard to persons and things which
thou dost not know or understand. That which
thou callest follv and nonsense is often the deep-
est wisdom (1 Cor. i. 23-25).— Ver. 12. If the
generals, when they heard that God had anointed
Jehu to be king, hastened, spread out their gar-
ments, and shouted: "Jehu is king," how much
more should all shout Hosanna to him whom God
has anointed with the Holy Ghost (Acts x. 38),
and has seated at His right hand in heaven, who
will rule until He has subdued all His enemies un-
der His feet.
Vers. 15-37. The Day of Judgment. See above,
the Histor. § 5.— Vers. 17-20. The Watchman on
the Tower. He sees the approaching danger and
reports it, but the secure and blinded kings will not
be disturbed until it is too late. It is the duty of
those whom God has made watchmen over souls,
to make them aware of all dangers which threaten
them, and to repeat continually the exhortation to
watch (1 Cor. xvi. 13; Mark xiii. 37). — Ver. 20.
Osiander: Dilatory and careless people do not ac-
complish anything. Only diligent and energetic
persons succeed. — Test thyself to see what spirit
moves thee. The right motive-power is the Holy
Spirit, which never guides to folly. One may con-
duct spiritual affairs and manage the concerns of
the kingdom of God with folly, want of judgment,
and heat (Rom. x. 2). Those only are children
of God who are moved by the Spirit of God (Rom.
viii. 14); the fruits, however, which this Spirit
causes to ripen in them, are love, joy, peace, Ac.
(Gal. v. 22). — Ver. 21. Observe the wonderful dis-
pensation of the divine justice. Joram himself
gave the order to "make ready," in order, without
knowing or wishing it, to ride out to the place
where Naboth's blood was crying for vengeance,
and where ruin was prepared for him. — Ver. 22
(18,19). "Is it peace?" Berleb. Bibel: So it is
to-day also. A false peace is demanded of those
who are sent to make known the stern truth, in
order that hoary evils may not be exposed. Those
who have not true peace, generally want an ex-
ternal, shameful peace at any price (Ezek. xiii. 16).
Ask thyself first of all : " Is there peace in thy
heart ? " and seek peace from Him who is our
peace (Eph. ii. 14). — There can be no lasting peace
where there is apostasy from the living God and
His word; licentiousness, injustice, and tyranny;
there strife and war, with all their attendant mis-
eries and horrors, must come. " Though Hi?
sword rests for a time, yet it does not rest in its
scabbard" (Krummacher). — Vers. 23-29. The
Death of the Kings of Israel and Judah. It was
sudden, unforeseen, and fell upon them in their
security and blindness. The proverb applies to
Ahaziah: " Mitgegangen, mitgefangen ; " hunt with
the fox, and you will be hung with him. (WtJRT.
SIMM. : Refrain from bad companions, if thou
wouldst not be punished with them.) The one is
thrown upon Naboth's field, and left without a
grave ; the other is brought indeed to the sepul-
chre of his fathers, but what is the use of a royal
sepulchre to him who has lost his soul? (Luke
xvi. 22). — Ver. 25 sq. Wurt. Summ. : All parents
should take warning by this and not collect un-
righteous wealth either for themselves or their
children, for " treasures of wickedness profit noth-
ing" (Prov. x. 2), and there is no blessing with
them. They rather bring corruption to both parents
and children (Jer. xvh. 11).
Vers. 30-37. What does the frightful end of
Jezebel teach us? (a) The transitoriness and noth-
ingness of human might and glory. (Jezebel re-
lies upon her might; before her the people trem-
ble. She controlled and directed three kings; she
raged against all who did not submit uncondition
ally to her will ; now she l.es, thrown down from
her height, like dung upon the field, so that no one
could say: "That is the great and mightv queen
JezebeL" Dan. iv. 34: Luke i. 51; 1 Peter i. 24.;
(/<) The certainty of divine retribution. (Gal. vi. 1
sq. Jezebel was au enemy of the living God and of
Tlis word; she seduced old and young vo «por
108
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tasy; she persecuted all who still held firmly to
Jehovah. Her terrible end proves that such a
temper is certainly punished. Her end has no
parallel in Israelitish history. It calls aloud to all
unto this day: " Woe unto him that buildeth his
house by unrighteousness " (Jer. xxii. 13), and it
is a pledge of the truth of this assertion : " Only
with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the re-
ward of the wicked " (Ps. xci. 8). — Vers. 30, 31.
How Jezebel meets her end. (a) Her last action
(ver. 30); (6) her last word (ver. 31). She died
as she had lived. — Ver. 30. How accurately this
description fits many of her sex 1 The highest oc-
cupation they can conceive of is to adorn them-
selves, to show themselves, to conquer, and pro-
duce effects. Thou fool! If God demands thy
Boul of thee to-day, what shall all paint and pow-
der upon the face avail before Him who tries the
heart and the reins? Can velvet and silk cover
thine inner stains ? (Isa. iii. 16 sq.) There could
be no sterner reproof of vanity, pride, and co-
quetry, and no more severe warning to take to
heart the Apostle's words 1 Peter iii. 3 sq. than
the fate of Jezebel. — Ver. 31. What can be more
perverse and pitiful than a man who boasts and
puts on airs in the very face of death, and passes
out of the world with abuse and insults against
God, instead of begging for pity and crying: " God
be merciful to me a sinner I " — Jezebel, who mur-
dered the prophets and Naboth, who revolted
against the Lord of Heaven and Earth, calls Jehu
a murderer and a rebel. The blind and stubborn
human heart always finds in others just those sins
of which it is itself guilty in a far higher degree.
— Vers. 32, 33. As the master is, so is the ser-
vant. Base men always cling to those who have
power, and change their colors as the weather-
cock of fortune turns. He who is himself un-
faithful cannot depend upon the fidelity of others.
Ps. ci. 6 sq. —Ver. 37. Cf. Prov. x. 7 ; Job xviii.
17 ; xx. 4-7.
[The homiletical material of the chapter may be
divided into two heads: the political; and the
ethical or religious. The former here obtains es-
pecial significance, inasmuch as the record is pri-
marily pure history, aud not ethical or philosophical
discussion. It has, therefore, the same utility
which all history, sacred or profane, has for the
instruction of succeeding generations. It shows
certain institutions and certain human passions in
play, and shows the consequences they produce.
It is presented to us from a religious and moral
stand-point, and its instruction is, therefore, great
for the criticism of political institutions from the
point of view of religion and morals. If we see
here anil m the succeeding chapters the horrors of
revolution on the one hand, none the less do we
see when and how revolution becomes a terrible
necessity. All authority is a means, not an end.
It is established, recognized, and obeyed, because
it sen.- iii — , ill-. Its rights and privileges are
correlative with duties obligations, and responsi-
bilities, viz.. to accomplish the objects for which it
was created. Its claims to obedience stand and
fall with its fidelity in fulfilling its trust. If it
fails in this, if it goes farther, and, in the pursuit
of its selfish aims, and the gratification of its own
self-will, threatens to crush and ruin the very in-
terests it was created to serve, the time comes
when obedience ceases to be a virtue and becomes
complicity in a crime. In the absence of pro-
phetical authority to f\x the time and designate the
leaders for renouncing allegiance, it is difficult to
see who is to judge of these save the nation whose
interests are at stake. This bears as complete ap-
plication to republican institutions as to any other.
God's judgment upon the political sins, the reck-
lessness, the self-will, and the selfishness of con-
stitutional authorities is as sure as his punishment
of royal transgressors. It is as possible for a rep-
resentative assembly to sacrifice the highest inter-
ests of a nation as it is for a despot. Though, in
the progress of civilization, constitutional restraints
are so much developed that rulers are under a
strict and unremitting responsibility, and other
correctives are at hand than violence and blood-
shed, yet the principles and their application re-
main. The highest national interests must be
watched over, guarded, and maintained bj vigi-
lance, and by wise resistance to anything vhich
would impair them. — The ethical and moral lessons
of the chapter lie in the character and the fate of
the chief actors in the tragedy. Of Jehu we have
spoken above. When his strength, his virtue, nis
calling, and his work are defined, their limitations
are also pointed out. — Ahaziah seems to have been
one of those weak men who float on in the direc-
tion which their education and family traditions
have given them. He followed the family tradi-
tions down to the family ruin. Joram's wound
seems to bear witness to some military effort, but
in general he appears in the light of an oriental
monarch, indolent, careless, luxurious, fond of
ease. The sudden and hasty approach of the gen-
eral of the army alarmed him in regard to the for-
tunes of the war in Syria, and he went out, with-
out personal anxiety, to meet his fate. His death
fulfilled a malediction upon his father. The two
kings, therefore, appear to be, to a great extent,
the victims of the sins of their ancestors, and as
Jezebel had controlled Ahab, we are led back to
her as the origin of all this individual, family, and
national calamity. She was one of those strong,
bold, wicked women, who have played such im-
portant idles in history. She was of the Phoeni-
cian blood, reared in the luxury and licentiousness
of oriental custom, and of a bloody and sensuous
idolatry. The Mosaic ritual and the Israelitish
constitution had been framed to form a barrier to
preserve the people of Israel from the infection of
those vices which characterized the heathen na-
tions. By Ahab's marriage with this woman the
barrier was broken through, and the licentiousness
of the worship of Baal and Astarte, the freedom
of manners of the Phoenician court, the luxury and
sensuality of the heathen nations was imported
into Israel. To a woman thus educated the reli-
gion, the traditions and customs, which prevailed
even in the northern kingdom, must have ap-
peared cold, austere, bigoted, narrow, and hateful.
It became her aim, therefore, to override, and
break down, and destroy all that was peculiar and
national in Israel, but in so doing she was contra-
vening all that belonged to and sustained God's
plan lor Israel in human history. She braved ths
conflict and reasserted it in her last hour, and she
and her descendants went down in the catastro-
phe.—W. G. S.]
CHAPTER X. 1-36. 10'J
THIRD EPOCH.
FROM THE ELEVATION OF JEHU TO THE THRONE UNTIL THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL.
2 Kings X.— XVH.
FIRST SECTION.
THE MONARCHY UNDER JEHU IN ISRAEL AND UNDER ATTTATiTA AND JOASH IN JUDAH.
2 Kings X— XIL
A. — The Reign of Jehu.
Chap. X. 1-36.
1 And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent
to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel [the city],1 to the elders, and to them that
■2 brought up [the guardians of] Ahab's children, saying, "Now as soon as this
letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with
3 you chariots and horses, a fenced city, also, and armor [weapons]: look even
out the best and meetest of your master's sons, and [that ye may] set him on
4 mb father's throne, and fight for3 your master's house. But they were exceed-
ingly afraid, and said, Behold, two kings stood not before him : how then shall
5 we stand ? And he that was over the house [palace], and he that was over the
city, the elders also, and the bringers up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying,
We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make
6 any [one] king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes. Then he wrote a
[second] letter the second time [omit the second time] to them, saying, If ye be
mine [on my side], and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of
the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time.
[(]Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, teere with the great men of the
"I city, which brought them up[)]. And it came to pass, when the letter came to
them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their
8 heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. And there came a messenger
and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he
said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in [entrance] of the gate until
9 the morning. And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood,
and said to all the people, Ye be righteous [just] : behold, I conspired against
JO my master, and slew him : but who slew all these ? Know now [therefore] that
there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord
11" THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
spake concerning the house of Ahab : for the Lord hath done that which he
11 spake by his servant Elijah. So [And] Jehu slew all that remained of the house
of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks [intimate friends],
and his priests [chief officers], until he left* him none remaining [no survivor].
12 And lie arose and departed, and came to Samaria. And [On the way,] as he
13 was at the shearing house in the way [Shepherd's House of Meeting;], Jehu met
with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye '? And they
answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah ; and we go down to salute the chil-
14 dren of the king and the children of the queen[-mother]. And he said, Take
them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing
house [House of Meeting], even two and forty men ; neither, left he any of 'them.
15 And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Re-
chab coming to meet him : and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart
right [verily sincere], as my heart is with thy heart ? And Jehonadab answered,
It is [verily, verily, it is]. If it be [said Jehu], give me thine hand. And he
16 gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. And he said,
Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they [he] 6 made him ride in
17 his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto
Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord,
which he spake to Elijah.
18 And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said nnto them, Ahab served
19 Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call unto me alp
the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests ; let none be wanting:
for 1 have a great sacrifice to do to Baal ; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall
not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the
20 worshippers of Baal. And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal.
21 And they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent through all Israel : and all the wor-
shippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And
they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full from one end
22 to another [wall to wall]. And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring
forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth
23 vestments. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Recliab, into the house
of Baal, and [he, (Jehu)] said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that
there be here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers-
24 of Baal only. And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings,
Jehu appointed [stationed] fourscore men without, and said, //' [Whoso letteth
— omit if] 6 any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that
letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him [he shall pug for it, life for
25 life]. And it came to pass, as soon as he [they] had made an end of [completed the
preparations for] offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to
the captains [royal foot-guards and horse-guards], Go in, and slay them ; let
none [not one] come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword ;
and the guard and the captains [foot-guards and horse-guards] cast them out,
26 and went [pressed through] to the city [strong-hold] of the house of Baal. And
27 they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them. And
they brake down the image of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and
made it a draught house [privy] unto this day.
28, 29 Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit, from the sins of Jero
boam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from aftei
30 them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan. And
the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well [been zealous] in execut-
ing ilnit which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab
according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation
31 shall sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of
the Lord God of Israel witli all his heart: for lie departed not from the sins
of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.
32 In those days the Lord began to cut [oif parts from] Israel short [omit short]
and Ilazael smote them in all the coasts [along the entire frontier] of Israel
CHArTER X. 1-36.
in
83 from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Keubenites,
and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and
34 Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might,
35 are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ? And
Jehu slept with his fathers : and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz
36 his son reigned in his stead. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in
Samaria was twenty and eight years.
TKXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
• Ver. 1.— [For ^XJJIP read ^X 1'1'H . See Ereg.— D'iOX 3XHX , " Ahab's tutors." Since, however, they were
not tntors <>f Ahab, but those whom he had appointed to instruct his sons. D^JOX Btands in a loose construction in the
case absolute.
8 Ver. 2. — [After the formal erecting and address of the letter, which are no* given here, its substance began with
nnjn- <y. chap. v. 6.
3 Ver. 8.— [hi' , for. Ewald, § 21T, i. 0.
• Ver. 11.— [TX"*H is an infinitive. See Text and Gramm. on chap. iii. 25.
6 Ver. 16. — [All the versions but the Chaldee have the singular.
• Ver. 24.— [For UTtf read D^D' with Keil, Thenius, Bunsen. and others.— W. G. 8.]
EXEGET1CAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Seventy sons in Samaria, &e. Ver.
3 shows (" Your master's sons ") that the grand-
sons of Ahab are included, for the " master " can-
not mean Ahab, who had been dead for twelve
years, but Joram. We must understand the words
as referring to all the male descendants of Ahab. —
To Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel. Ver. 5
shows who are meant, viz., he who was over the
house (palace), and he who was over the city ; and
we may understand it to refer to Samaria, which
was the capital and the residence of the king, and
not to Jezreel, which only served as summer resi-
dence of the court. The governors, who were the
highest officers in Samaria, cannot possibly have
been the " rulers of Jezreel,'' for these could have
had no authority in Samaria. The word pKjnp is
entirely wanting in the Sept. and Vulg. The
former have irpbr rove apxovrar ri/r -roAfuc nai
•rpdc rot'f -n-peaSvripov;; the latter has: ad opti-
■mates civitatis et ad majores 7ialu. Keil, therefore,
conjectures that pXlHP is an error for 5N TJH1 •
This is favored by D'Jp-tn , before which, since it
cannot be taken as an apposition to i-|j}> , ?X must
certainly be supplied. This seems better than, with
Clerieus, Miehaelis, and Ewald, to change PSSTIT1
into ^NT-'" , or, with Thenius, to adopt the con-
jecture that there stood in the original text : " He
sent from Jezreel to the rulers of Samaria." The
D'JON are the tutors appointed by Ahab for his
sons. — Ver. 2. Only the main point of Jehu's letter
is given (chap. v. 6). It is not necessary to under-
stand that this letter was a "trick," or ■■irony." or
"scorn," as is generally done: it rather expresses
contrariness or perversity. Its meaning may be
expressed thus : "lam king; but if you, who have
chariots and horses and weapons in your power,
want to put a prince of Ahab's house on the throne,
commence a war with me." [The letter is very
characteristic in its form. It is composed in that
comprehensive satire which says much in a few
words. It implies self-confidence so great that the
writer can afford to tantalize the reader with an
apparent command of the situation, and an appa-
rent freedom of choice, which in reality he has not
got. It implies also a threat of consequences if the
readers are sanguine enough to choose the policy of
resistance. If on the other hand they choose the
pohcy of submission, they will find out what they
have to do to please the new ruler. It is a satiri-
cal and scornful challenge. — W. G. S.] As Jehu
was well known to them by reputation as one of
the boldest and bravest generals, and no one of
them felt competent to meet him, they became
frightened, and surrendered at once : all the more
readily when they heard what he had already done.
It was very cautious of him not to go himself
immediately, with his small force (chap. ix. 17),
against the strongly fortified city of Samaria, but
to first write them threatening letters, so as to find
nut what disposition he must expect to find in the
capital.
Ver. 6. Then he wrote a second letter, &c.
The reason why Jehu not only commands to put to
death the sons of Ahab, but also to bring their
heads, at the same hour the next day, to Jezreel,
which was nine hours' journey from Samaria, is '
plain from vers. 9 and 10. It was important for him
to be acknowledged by the people as king as soon
as possible. The people were to be convinced by the
sight of the heads that all who might eventually
become pretenders to the crown were dead, and
also that the rulers and the great men of the king-
dom, who had sent these heads, had thereby broken
utterly with the dynasty of Ahab. — The parenthe-
sis in ver. 6 is not to be translated according to the
massoretic punctuation: " The king's sons were sev-
enty persons," for this would be an entirely super-
fluous repetition of ver. 1. It means rather that
the sons, mentioned in ver. 1, resided with these
important persons (J"|X is not a sign of the nomi-
native, but a preposition4 "with"), and that thif
112
THE SECOND J5UU& OE THE KINGS.
is the reason why the command was addressed to
them. — Ver. 8. " Jehu ordered the heads to be
brought to the entrance of the gate, because the
people were accustomed to assemble there. It is
an old oriental custom to cut off the heads of slain
enemies, and then to show these publicly, 2 Mace.
xv. 30 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 54 (cf. Winer, R.- W.-B., i. s.
C81). Even now. in the Orient, the heads of those
who are beheaded are placed upon the gate, in or-
der that they may be seen by all.
Ter. 9 sq. And said to all the people, Ac.
The sight of the seventy heads very naturally pro-
duced consternation among the people, probably
also dissatisfaction and complaints against Jehu,
the supposed cause of their death. Thereupon he
appeared before the people in order to soothe them.
He does not attack them rudely, but appeals to
their just judgment. Ye are just; i. e., not, "Ye
insist upon it that ye are right " (Luther) ; nor :
''Ye are righteous," i. e., ''I declare you guiltless"
(Richter) ; nor : " Now is the sin of the people
atoned for, now are ye once more righteous before
God ; the punishment began through me, here ye
see how it has gone on " (Gerlach). The sense is
rather: " Ye are just, so judge yourselves; I have.
it is true, made a conspiracy against Joram and
killed him ; but I did not kill these seventy. The
rulers in Samaria, the friends of the house of Ahab,
the tutors of the royal princes, killed these. If ye
will lament and complain, ye have far greater rea-
son to do so against them than against me, but
consider that both I and they acted according to
divine ordinance and in consequence of the sen-
tence which Elijah, the great prophet, pronounced."
In all this, Jehu carefully conceals the main point,
viz., that the murders were committed by his com-
mand. Perhaps he saw a providential dispensa-
tion in the very fact that the rulers at Samaria
yielded to him at once, and executed his further
commands from fear. His speech had the desired
effect. The people ceased their complaints and
resigned themselves contentedly. He was thereby
encouraged to go farther, and to put to death all
the higher officers and friends of the house of Ahab,
as is recorded in ver. 11. The VJTTO are not Ahab's
relatives (Luther, E. V.), but his friends and inti-
mate companions. In like manner VJflO are not
his "priests" (Keil), but, as in 2 Sam. viii. 18 and
1 Kings iv. 5, his highest officers and servants.
The turn of the idolatrous priests came later (ver.
1 8 si).). Not until after this had all taken place,
did Jehu go to Samaria, where he no longer needed
to fear any opposition iver. 12).
Ver. 12. At the Shepherd's House of Meet-
ing. " The Chaldee version has jpjn DBf'JS JV3,
the meeting-house of the shepherds, so that it was
probably a house which stood alone, and which
served the shepherds of the region round about as
a place of assembling. The commonest interpreta-
tion is, binding-house (where the shepherds tied up
their sheep for the shearing), but opposed to this is
the fact that the shearing and not the binding is
the main point in that connection, and moreover,
(hat the shearing took place, according to Gen.
xxxviii. 12; 1 Sam. ixv. 2; 2 Stun. xiii. 23, in the
separate localities, and not tit one place for an en-
tire district " (Thenius). — Ver. 13. Instead of Breth-
ren of Ahaziah, 2 Ghron. xxii. 8 has : " Sons of
tin- brethren of Ahaziah" Considering the com-
prehensiveness of the signification of nx , this is no
contradiction. We must understand in general
cousins and relatives of Ahaziah. They undertook
the journey to Jezreel, as they themselves say in
ver. 13, Di^L'6 a& salutandum, in order to make a
friendly visit at the court there. The fact that they
came in such a large number shows clearly that
Joram, at this time, no longer lay ill from his
wound, but was already recovered, as we saw also
from chap. ix. 21. They expected to enjoy a plef.s-
ant visit, and knew nothing of what had occurred
since they last heard from the court of Joram.
When Jehu heard who they were and whither they
were going, he called to his retinue : Take them
alive; i. e., take them captives. Perhaps they
would not submit to be captured, and undertook,
as many suppose, to defend themselves, where-
upon he caused them to be slaughtered. There is
no ground whatever for the notion which Duncker
adopts, that he did this in "the hope of getting
possession of the kingdom of Judah also." There
is no sign anywhere of any such intention on the
part of Jehu. Evidently his purpose was, by slay-
ing these relatives of Ahab, who, as their journey
showed, were friends and retainers of the house of
Ahab, to make every attempt at blood'-vengeance,
or at the overthrow of his royal authority, impos-
sible.
Ver. 15. He lighted on Jehonadab, the son
of Rechab, &c. No one doubts that this is the
same Jehonadab who, according to Jerem. xxxv
1-19, gave to the so-called Rechabites their stern,
nomadic rules of life, and whom they there cal".
their " father." Josephus says of him : avi/p ayadb(
Kal dinatot;, 'luvdfiaSnr bvofia <pi?.o(; airtj [T^oi']
■xa'Atu jfjovaif. It is uncertain whether his meet-
ing with Jehu was accidental, or whether Jehona-
dab came on purpose to meet him. According to
the Hebrew text Jehu saluted him and said: Is
thine heart right, &c. According to Josephus,
Jehonadab saluted Jehu, and commenced to praise
him, because he had done everything according to
the will of God for the rooting out of the house of
Ahab. Jehu called upon him to mount into tho
chariot, and to ride with him to Samaria, saying
that he would show him how he would spare none
of the wicked, but would punish the false prophets
and priests and all who had misled the people to
the abandonment of Jehovah, and to the worship
of false gods. He said that it was the most beau-
tiful, anil, for an honorable and just man, the pleas-
antest sight to see the punishment of the wicked.
Jehonadab, prevailed upon by this, mounted the
chariot and came to Samaria. — Doubtless some
such conversation preceded the words : " Is thine
heart right," &c. At any rate, Jehonadab was <\
zealous servant of Jehovah, and, therefore, also an
opponent of the house of Ahab. As he also stood
at the head of a religious community, it was ol
great importance for Jehu to have him on his side,
and to bo accompanied to Samaria by him. It was
a mark of high esteem to invite him to mount into
the chariot. — ]-|X before ^22^ [is used to form an
usative of specification, equivalent to a nomina
rive absolute. "Is it right, as to thy heart," or
"Thy heart, is it right"="Is thy heart right. "
The form gives peculiar emphasis], see Ewald,
Lehrb., § 277 d. "");;" here involves the idea of »
CHAPTER X. 1-3G.
113
sincere agreement in feeling " (Thenius). Almost
all the versions render 13HT1 , ver. 16, as if they
had real ySTli*- e., "He made him ride." Ac-
cording to ver. 17, the Sr3C thing which Jehu did
in Samaria was just what he had done in Jezreel
(ver. 11). After the entire house of Ahab had
been destroyed, he went on to overthrow the wor-
ship of Baal.
Ver. 18. And Jehu gathered all the people
together, fee. The fact that Jehu was believed,
when he said that he would serve Baal far more
ihan Ahab had done, is explained by the consider-
ation that his entire enterprise was regarded as a
oiilitarv revolution, like that of Baasha and Zimri,
in which the thing at stake was the supreme pow-
9r and the throne, not a religious reform and the
lestoration of the service of Jehovah. No one any
onger thought of that as a possibility. — On the
irophets of Baal, ver. 19 sq., see note above on 1
Kings xviii. 19.— mVJJi ver. 20, is not "feast-day"
(Vulg. diem solemnem) but a solemn festal assem-
bly, as in Isai. i. 13; Joel i. 14; Amos v. 21. —
The " House of Baal " is the one built by Ahab
(1 Kings xvi. 32), which seems to have been a
large and rambling structure, in which were 450
priests of Baal and 400 of Astarte. — nth !"I2 , ver. 21,
strictly, mouth to mouth, or opening to opening,
i. e., as far as it was open, as much as it could
hold. It refers to the outer court in which the
altar of sacrifice stood, for the house, strictly
speaking, that is, the sanctuary or shrine in which
the statue of Baal was, was, as in all temple struc-
tures, very small. — nnn^D, ver. 22, occurs only
here, but means, unquestionably, vestiarium (Ges.,
Thes., p. 764). Thenius thinks, because the king
here gave especial commands, that " we must un-
derstand it to refer to the stores of festal garments
n the palace, not to the wardrobe of the temple of
Baal, or to especial saerleial dresses of all who
took part in the ceremony." However, the king
ordains everything here; it was he who planned
the feast. Neither ' -'ore this nor afterwards is
there any re orence f anything but the house of
Baal, and certainly there were priestly garments
in that, just as the dresses of the priests of Jeho-
vah were preserved in the temple at Jerusalem
(Braun, De Vest. Sacerdot., ii. 26, p. 675). Clericus
says that, in Ethiopie, nn^X , with which nnrfe
is connected, means vestis byssina. Garments of
byssus were the peculiar dress of priests in all an-
cient countries (Symb. des Mosaischen Knit., ii. s.
87 sq.). According to Josephus, it was especially
important for Jehu that all the priests of Baal
should be there. They all received priestly gar-
ments, and became thereby all the more easily
recognizable for the eighty men who were com-
manded to slay them before all others.
Ver. 23. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab,
&c. When they came into the outer court of the
temple, Jehu gave orders to examine carefully
and see whether there were any of the servants
of Jehovah there. He thereby gave himself the
appearance of a strict adherent of Baal ; but his
object was to take care that no servant of Jeho-
vah should be killed. There is no foundation for
Ewald's representation of the incident: " Jehu
jave orders that the feast should be celebrated
8
with all pomp, just as a powerful man may show
himself open-handed towards mysteries into which
he desires to be admitted. He commanded that
garments should be given to all who had not any
such as were proper for the feast. When the
time for the solemnity approached, he commanded
with severity that any servants of Jehovah should
be cast out. (It is well known what an import-
ance the heathen attached to the procul profani!
in their mysteries.) Finally he sacrificed with his
own hand as if he were a most zealous worshipper
of Baal." Eisenlohr, who always follows Ewald,
thinks that ver. 22 refers to " the unchaste gar-
ments woven by the Kedeshoth " [women who
prostituted themselves in the service of Astarte].
But we know nothing at all of any mysteries of
Baal. There is no syllable of reference to any
such thing here, much less of reference to any in-
tention, which was even pretended, of initiating
the king. Nor does the text say that Jehu him-
self sacrificed, and then gave the signal for the
slaughter of all who were present. — Ver. 25,
iri?33 1 cannot here be translated : " When he,
Jehu, had finished," nor, with some of the Rabbis
and Keil: "When he (the sacrificing priest), had
finished the burnt-offering." The suffix i is to be
taken as equivalent to an indefinite subject, " one "
(German, man) [commonly rendered in English by
an indefinite plural, "they," or by a passive con-
struction] : " When they had completed the prepa-
rations for the sacrifice," or, "When the prepara-
tions for the sacrifice were completed." The Sept.
give this same sense: ojc mntereXefjav ttoiovvtsc rip>
ruaw; and the Vulg. also, cum compktuin
esset holocaustum. It is not therefore necessary to
read Dn^D3 as Thenius does (cf. Ew. § 294, b).
As soon as they had completed the prepa-
rations for offering. Not. when the sacrifice it-
self was over, for then the feast of Baal would
have keen at an end. but, at the moment when tlw
sacrifice was just fully prepared, and was on the
point of being offered, Jehu gave command to the
" runners and riders," i. e., to the royal V/ody-guard
and its officers (see note on 1 Kings i. 38 ; ix. 22 ;
xiv. 28) to force their way in. Ewald translates
ID^u'^V " And threw the corpses aside unburied,"
but of course it is plain that they could not under-
take to bury them at once. It did not need an-
other sentence to tell us that they did not bury
them as fast as they killed them. The interpreta-
tion : " They threw the corpses out of the temple,"
is somewhat better, but the athnach with 2"in and
the express repetition of the subject (" the runners
and riders ") seem to indicate that a new sentence
begins with 13*>Bhl. This sentence does not,
therefore, join immediately on to the preceding,
but to what follows, and it is to be connected with
13p!1. In this connection De Dieu translates: pro-
ripuerwit se cam impetu et festinatione, and Thenius :
" And the guards pressed forward." Tpj;' stands
in this sense in 1 Kings xiv. 9. They threw the
corpses behind them as they pressed forward, and
forced their way through to the VJ? of the house
Under this we have not to understand a neighbor-
114
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ing city |Pe Dieu and others), nor a particular dis-
trict of the city of Samaria (De Wette, Maurer. and
others), for this would not fit into the context.
The fundamental signification of -py is sepimentum,
mimiment i ... tocos draanseptas (Furst, Concord., p.
806). It is then used for city, because every city,
as such, was surrounded by a wall, and so formed
a stronghold. In this place, however, it refers to
that part of the entire sacred enclosure, which, in
contrast with the outer courts, was firmly sur-
rounded by a wall, the temple strictly speaking, in
which was the chief image of Baal. This may
have stood upon a base, and risen like a fortress
from it, as the temple of Solomon did. On J"li3i'9
see note on 1 Kings xiv. 23. We cannot deter-
mine whether they were small images of Baal him-
self, or images of other and inferior divinities.
Movers (Ed. der PTionizier, s. 674) thinks they were
the TTapedpoi or ci:/it3u/iOL of Baal. Thenius pro-
poses to read J"QSE in ver. 26, and ni2i'E in ver.
27, as the Sept. do, on account of the sing. surf, in
TOS"1B>\ It is to be noticed, however, that the
images were burned (rer. 26), so that they must
have been of wood, while the chief image was
"broken in pieces" (jTIJ), as the stone temple-
building was. This image was therefore probably
of stone, as indeed we might presume that the
large image would be of stone and the smaller
ones of wood rather than vice versa. The old ex-
positors translate the suffix by unamquamque ea-
rum (Piscator). According to Keil the singular
suffix refers to J"li2XOi the plural being taken as
an abstract, as in chap. iii. 3. [The latter is the
correct explanation of the construction. Cf. Ew.
§ 317, a.] The destruction of this idol was per-
fectly in accordance with the law, Dent. vii. 5, 25 ;
xii. 2, 3. — In order to make the destroyed temple
a place forever unclean and abominable, they made
it a sink or privy. (The ilassoretes propose the
word niKVlD, exits, as a euphemism.) Of. Ezra
vi. 11; Dan. ii. 5 (Rosenmuller, Morgenland, iii. s.
279).
Ver. 28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal, Ac.
This is here once more emphasized as the chief
act of Jehu, but it is added that he persisted in
the sins of Jeroboam, viz., the worship of the
golden calves in Bethel and Dan. — Ver. 30. And
the Lord said unto Jehu, i. e., by a prophet, but
whether by Elisha (Thenius), is very uncertain.
riTDn is correctly rendered by the Vulg. studiose
egisti ; Piscator : quia strenuum te prcebuisti ad fa-
ciendum, etc. He had an earnest will to execute
the purposes of God (2 Sam. xiii. 28; Ruth in. 7,
10). The rooting-out of the house of Ahab and
the attendant overthrow of idolatry, the latter of
which not even Elijah had succeeded in accom-
plishing, were accomplished by Jehu. It was in
truth an act of kindness toward Israel, which
otherwise would, at this time4, have gone to ruin.
In so far Jehu had accomplished a great deed
which is here recognized and acknowledged. The
manner in which he carried it out, in all its de-
tails, is not, however, approved; especially is it re-
corded as unsatisfactory that he persisted in the
worship of Jeroboam's calves. Therefore it was
announced to him that his dynasty should z.ot
reign beyond the fourth generation (Ex xx. 5;
xxxiv. 7), cf. chap. xv. 12. — Ver. 31 is not to be
connected with ver. 30 by "but," but rather with
ver. 32. It states the occasion for what is nar-
rated in 32 and 33. The threatened calamities
from foreign foes came upon them through Hazael
(chap. viii. 12), because Jehu did not walk in the
ways of the Lord with all his heart. [If we hold
to the massoretic verse-division, — and there is no
reason to abandon it. — ver. 30 is a promise of the
throne during four generations as a reward for the
vigor with which Jehu had carried out the task
which was laid upon him, and not a warning that
he should not keep it longer than that because he
had kept up the worship of the calves. The
"but" at the commencement of ver. 31 is there-
fore quite correct. Although God commended
Jehu and promised to reward him, yet Jehu did not
walk perfectly with God. The origin of the calf-
worship was political, and Jehu unquestionably
kept it up for political reasons. While we cer-
tainly could not deny that the military misfortunes
east of the Jordan were divine punishments, if the
record said that they were such, yet in the ab-
sence of any such definite combination of the two
things as cause and effect, we may leave that hy-
pothesis aside, as something which we are not
competent to decide. Such a revolution as this
was certainly never accomplished without great
internal commotion. Jehu found it necessary to
consolidate his authority at home and could not
give his attention to the foreign war. Hazael in
the meantime was a very warlike and energetic
king, and he pushed his conquests with vigor
while his enemy was weak. We shall see below
that this district was recovered when Israel once
more was united and contented under a vigorous
ruler (Jeroboam II.).— W. G. S.]
Ver. 32. In those days the Lord began to
cut off parts from Israel. Instead of niSp? , i- «•
to cut off parts of, the Chald. and Arab, read
»]iXp? i- c. to become enraged (Luther : iiberdrussig
zu werden ; Vulg. taedere super Israel). There is
no ground, however, for changing the text, which
is sustained by. the Sept. (avyxSirreai). — Along the
entire frontier, not " in all the coasts " (Luther,
De Wette, E. V.). The frontier country is, in gen-
eral, the land beyond the Jordan, which was di-
vided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Ma-
nasseh. Their territory formed the district which
was also called Gilead. Aroer on the Arnon was
the southern limit of the Israelitish territory east
of the Jordan. These conquests of Hazael, there-
fore, extended to the frontier of the Moabites
The closing words : Even Gilead and Bashan
[cf. Amos i. 3] are meant to show " that the land
east of the Jordan, in all its extent, even to its
farthest eastern limit, came into the hands of the
enemy (Thenius). These conquests were made
gradually, and they reached this extent at abou»
the end of the twenty-eight years' reign of Jehu.
— On rn?3a , ver. 34, see 1 Kings xv. 23.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1 In regard to the reign of Jehu during the long
period of twenty-eight years, the author gives cnly
CHAPTER X. 1-36
llfc
the summary at the end of the passage before us,
viz., that lie retained the calf-worship which Jero-
boam had introduced, and that he lost a large por-
tion of his territory, piece by piece, to Hazael of
Syria. For all else he refers to the book of the
Chronicles of the kings of Israel. The destruction
ef the house of Ahab, and the abolition of idolatry,
with which Jehu commenced his reign, are nar-
rated with full details. It was these two things
that made his reign remarkable, and that consti-
tuted it an epoch in the history of the Israelitish
monarchy, and of the Old Testament theocracy.
All other incidents or actions of his reign seem to
this theocratical historian to be inferior in signifi-
cance and importance to these. Duncker's asser-
tion is astonishing and it is false (Gesch. des Alt., i.
s. 416) : "The house of Omri, under which Israel had
flourished and prospered, was overthrown and an-
nihilated by a wild murderer whom the prophetof
Jehovah had instigated. . . . Jehu was a
good assassin, but a bad ruler and a bad general.
. . . Although the prophets of Jehovah did not
oppose him as they hud opposed Ahab and Joram,
but, on the contrary, Elisha's authority and influ-
ence were lent to his support, yet Israel, under
his reign, became weaker and weaker." Under
the house of Ahab, of which the shameless and
fanatical Jezebel was the soul, the kingdom of
Israel, so far from being elevated and prospered,
had been shattered to its very foundations. Under
this house iioab revolted, and Ahab and his suc-
cessors never succeeded, even with the assistance
of Judah, in completely conquering the Syrian
arch-enemy, who continually threatened Israel
and even brought it near to ruin (chap. vii. 24).
No fact can be cited from the record to prove that
Jehu reigned for twenty-eight years wickedly, still
less that he was a bad general; if he had been
this latter, his fellow-commanders would never
have proclaimed him king. Moreover, the record
mentions his !T)U3 with especial emphasis (ver.
34), even adding ps , which is not found elsewhere
except in 1 Kings xv. 23, and 2 Kings xx. 20, and
which Ewald correctly takes as referring to " his
great and inexhaustible manly courage." It is
true that he saw himself compelled to give up to
Hazael land after laud on the east of the Jordan,
but this may have been due partly to the superior
strength of the Syrians, partly to the lack of as-
sistance from Judah, such as Ahab and Joram had
enjoyed, partly to the state in which the kingdom
had been left by the house of Ahab. [It is a sim-
ple truism to say that he was defeated partly be-
cause his enemy was stronger than he, and partly
because he did not have more help. It is not at
all certain that Joram left the kingdom weak m
material respects. If it was shattered morally, as
t undoubtedly Was, it would not long prosper ma-
terially, but, for a time, moral decay and material
prosperity might co-exist. The fact that Joram's last
act was to collect an army and go into Gilead to try
to recover Ramoth, even by a conflict with a gen-
eral like Hazael, is certainly strong evidence that
Israel was not weak in material and military force
under his rule. A far more natural ground for
Jehu's inactivity (for all we know to the contrary)
while Hazael was making these conquests, is the
one suggested above in the note on ver. 30 under
Exegetical. That is, that the revolution was not
iceomplished so quickly as one might suppose on
reading the only details of it which are here given
and that it was not accomplished by those few
great and terrible blows which are alone mentioned
here. To kill the royal family and mount the
throne, to kill the priests of a certain religion, and
put an end to the public performance of its rites,
were comparatively easy things. We may be sure,
however, that the house of Ahab had friends and
supporters, and that Baal had worshippers who
saw with sorrow his joyous worship give place to
the austere religion of Jehovah. These elements
of discontent had to be watched and time had to
be spent in healing the wounds which the revolu-
tion had inflicted, before the state could be made
docile, contented, aud loyal at home, and reliable
for campaigns abroad. It was during this interval
that Hazael probably made his conquests. — W. G.
S.] The author sees in the misfortunes east of the
Jordan a divine judgment, because Jehu had per-
sisted in the sins of Jeroboam, and had not fulfilled
his appointed task. [See Bxeg. notes on ver. 31. Bahr
connects vers. 31 and 32, but it is more correct to
begin a new paragraph with ver. 32 as the English
translators do.] We do not learn in what relation
the prophet Elisha stood to Jehu during his reign.
Elisha's name does not occur, as has been said
above, from chap. ix. 1 to chap. xiii. 14, where his
death, in the reign of Joash, is mentioned.
2. Tlie rooting-up of the house of Ahab, and the
destruction of the worship of Baal, ought not to be
measured by the New Testament standards, and
ought not to be judged from a rnocferu, humanita-
rian stand-point. As for the slaughter of Ahab's
family; it was customary in the Orient from the
earliest times for the founder of a new dynasty to
put to death, not only the deposed monarch, but
also his descendants and relatives, especially all
the males. We have several examples of this in
these very books (1 Kings xv. 29; xvi. 11; 2
Kings xxv. 7). Similar instances occur in the
East even in our own day. This cruel conduct
was connected, not only with their ideas of the
solidarity of all blood-relations in one family, but
also with the universal custom of blood-vengeance,
according to which it appeared to the relatives of
a murdered man to be their right and their duty
to pursue and slay the murderer. Not seldom their
vengeance extended to the whole family of the
murderer (Gen. xxxiv. 30 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 7; 2 Kiugs
xiv. 6). How wide-spread and deep-rooted the
custom of blood-vengeance was, may be seen
from the fact that the Mosaic law could not abol-
ish it, but only limit it and restrain it, as was the
case also in regard to polygamy (Winer, B.- W.-B.,
i. s. 189). When, therefore, Jehu put to death all
the adherents of the deposed dynasty, he did not
commit an unheard-of crime, but only " followed
the example of other founders of new dynasties "
(Ewald). What is more, Ahab's house had intro-
duced and fostered idolatry, and it was not to be
hoped that it could be absolutely rooted out, as
long as there were still members of this family
alive. The case is simdar as regards his conduct to-
ward the worship of Baal. The Israelitish constitu-
tion knew nothing of freedom of religion or of wor-
ship, but assigned the death-penalty for all idolatry
(see 1 Kings xviii., Hist. § 5). Jehu acted as little
contrary to the law when he caused the servants
of Baal to be put to death, as Elijah did in 1 Kings
xviii. 40. Nevertheless his mode of action is tc
be condemned, even from the Old Testament stand
116
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
point. He allowed himself to be carried away by
his fierce, violent, soldierly, despotic disposition.
He proceeded to extremes, and observed no limits.
When he had once spilled blood, he thirsted for
more, and thought that this thirst for blood was
zeal for Jehovah. Especially did he fail in the
matter of the cunning and deceit and falsehood
which he employed. In Jezreel he pretended to
the people that he was innocent of the murder of
the seventy descendants of Ahab, although he had
himself ordered it. In Samaria he declared that he
was a zealous servant of Baal, iu order that he
might get all the servants of Baal kito his power,
and slaughter them all at once. Therefore also
the prophet Hosea speaks of the " blood of Jez-
reel " which Jehovah will avenge upon the house
of Jehu (Hosea i. 4). Krummacher asserts, in op-
position to this prophetical declaration, as well as
to the fact before us (Elisa, hi. s. 152) : " Neverthe-
less he (Jehu) comes out from this horrible mas-
sacre pure, because he did not draw the sword in
obedience to his own thirst for blood, but in the
name of Him who 'maketh his angels spirits; his
ministers a flaming fire ' [Ps. civ. 4, where the
translation is incorrect. It should read, "maketh
winds his messengers, and flames his ministers.'' —
W. G. S.], and who had chosen Jehu as His execu-
tioner." Lilienthal observes correctly (Die gute
Sache der gottl. Offtnbarung, iv. s. 410): "An exe-
cutioner does what is right when he takes the life
of an evil-doer, at the command of the civil au-
thority, and receives for this service his proper
wages. But when he purposely torments and tor-
tures the culprit, he deserves to be especially pun-
ished for it. Therefore blood-guilt is ascribed to
Jehu, because it was a gratification to his fierce
disposition to spill the blood of those who had in-
deed merited death, but who ought not to have
been slain at the instigation of private hate."
Every attempt to wash Jehu clean from blood-
guilt becomes, in spite of itself, a defence of false-
hood and deceit in majorem Dei gloriam. Jehu
was indeed a "Scourge of God," but he certainly
was not a "man of God," as appears in the fact
that, with all his pretended zeal for Jehovah, he
nevertheless did not desist from the " sins of Jero-
boam " as long as he ruled. The instruments of
the divine punishments are not made "pure " by the
fact that they are God's instruments, but they are,
in their turn, punished for their own sins; cf. Isai.
x. 5-7, 12.
[Would it not be a hard fate to be chosen to
be an instrument of God's vengeance, and then
to be held to a strict account, if one's human
infirmities of judgment led one to overdo or to
fall short in some points of the just execution of
the task ? The trouble is that Jehu in the first
place gets credit for far more pure and hearty zeal
for the restoration of the Jehovah-religion than
he deserves, and then has to be correspondingly
under-estimated. If we attempt, with all the light
given us by the text, to estimate Jehu's personal
feeling in regard to this revolution, we shall reach
the following conclusion : Jehu was a military
man to whom the crown presented itself as an ob-
ieet of earthly ambition worth some effort. Sup-
posing liini to have been, by conviction, an ad-
herent of the religion of Jehovah, the call to him
to put himself at the head of a reaction in favor of
;]!'■ Jehovah-religion, and the anointment to the
royal office by a prophet of Jehovah, might move
him to make the attempt. The adherence of th«
army determined him. When he had won his vic-
tory, he carried out faithfully the policy to which
he was bound as leader of the Jehovah-party. He
put an end to the worship of Baal. The crown,
however, was his reward. It was a political re
ward, and he took political means to secure it.
He slew all the possible pretenders to the crown
from the house of Ahab, according to the oriental
custom in such cases, as a means of securing him-
self on the throne. He stopped short with his re-
ligious reforms and did not destroy the golden
calves ; he left them for the same political reasons
for which Jeroboam erected them, i. e., that the
northern kingdom might have its own religious
centres outside of Jerusalem. He saw in the revo-
lution principally a gratification of his own ambi-
tion. He was willing to be the instrument of the
overthrow of a wicked dynasty and a corrupt re-
ligion, and he stopped just where his personal in-
terests were in danger of being impaired. It is
not strange that his contemporaries rejoiced so
much at the rescue of their ancestral religion that
they were indifferent to the excesses by which
Jehu tried to establish his royal power, nor that
later and calmer judges, on the contrary, raised
his bloodshed into prominence in judging of his
career (Hos. i. 4). — See further, below, § 5. —
W. G. S.]
3. In connection with the violent and bloody
conduct of Jehu, (he religious and moral condition
into which the kingdom had been brought, under the
dominion of the house of Ahab, is thrown into dis-
tinct relief. "What a shocking picture of de-
moralization, vulgarity, and slavery" (Eisenlohr)
presents itself to us in the rulers, the elders, and
the tutors of the royal princes, that is to say,
among the highest officials and the most familiar fre-
quenters of the court ! Although the fortified city,
with all the necessary means of defence, chariots,
horses, and weapons, were still in their possession,
yet not one energetic man could be found who
would put himself at the head. Upon Jehu's first
letter, which did not even contain a command, but
only a question, or, in a certain sense, only a chal-
lenge to resist, they ah yielded timidly, like cow-
ards. No one of them thinks of even moving a
finger in behalf of the royal house, whose confi-
dants, favorites, and servants they have been.
They change their disposition with the change of
events, and place themselves as instruments with-
out will at the disposal of the new ruler, who had
killed their king and master. Jehu would hardly
have addressed this challenge to them if he hail
not been sure of their utter want of principle, and
j had not known that he had not the leas! independ-
ent opposition to fear from them. Then when he
demands of them the very highest crime, the tnur
der of the scions of the royal house, who havo
been entrusted to their care and their protection,
they do not hesitate a moment ; they slaughter the
whole seventy in one night, and semi their heads
the next morning to Jezreel, in order to win the
favor of the new ruler. If the conduct of the
elders at Jezreel, when they slew Naboth at the
command of Jezebel, testified to the deep corrup-
tion of the time (see 1 Kings xxi.. Bist £ '■'•), how
much more does this behavior of those of the high-
est rank and office bear witness to the same. The
religious decay was as deep as the moral decay
In the capital of the kingdom there was no sanctu
CHAPTER X. 1-36.
in
»ry of Jehovah, but a fortress-like temple of Baal
which Ahab had built (1 Kings xvi. 32), furnished
with idols of wood and stone, and surrounded by
large courts. In spite of the great day on Mount
Carmel, where the people had solemnly declared
for Jehovah, and had slain 450 priests of Baal (1
Kings xviii 21 «?.), this temple remained stand-
ing, and the worship of idols continued to be, as
it had been before, the prevailing religion of the
kingdom. It appears, it is true, that Joram, at his
accession, removed the statue of Baal (chap. iii. 21,
but he did not put a stop to the worship of Baal ;
and the feast of Baal which Jehu ordained, at
which so many worshippers of the god were
present from all parts of the kingdom that the ex-
tended courts of the temple were packed full,
shows how numerous the worshippers of the god
had already become again. To this point had Is-
rael come, under the rule of the house of Ahab ;
since there had been any people of Israel, such a
state of tilings had not existed.
4. The only facts in regard to Jehonadab, the
son of Rechab, which can be deduced from this pas-
sage, are, that, at the time of the great apostasy
under the house of Ahab, he was one of the most
earnest opponents of that dynasty, and of the
idolatry which it introduced; that he was a firm
adherent of Jehovah, and moreover a man who
was held in honor by the people, and highly es-
teemed by Jehu. From the xxxvth chapter of
Jeremiah, we learn further that he stood at the
head of a community, the so-called Rechabites, to
which he had given peculiar rules of life, accord-
ing to which they were not to live in houses, not
to possess farms or vineyards, and not to drink-
wine. They held so firmly to these rules that
Jeremiah, 300 years later, could present them to
the people, who were disobedient to the com-
mands of Jehovah, as models of obedience. This
is sufficient to prove that Jehonadab, although he
was a contemporary of Elisha, and probably also
of Elijah, yet stood in no direct connection with
the prophet -communities which they managed
hap. ii. 'i sq ). sine" ,hese did not probably have
any special rules of life, and certainly did not have
fiose of the Rechabites. Neither is there any
indication anywhere that he acted in concert with
Elijah, who had caused Jehu to be anointed. This
fact is what makes him important for the history
of redemption. Ewald (Gesch., iii. 504 s}. [3d ed.
54!!]) explains this phenomenon by the theory
that, after Elijah's death, "new institutions of in-
fluence for the old religion" had been formed, viz..
on the one hand, the so-called schools of the
prophets, which prosecuted the objects which had
been set before them by Elijah, and, on the other
hand. ■' a socie* ' of those who despaired of being
able to observe erne religion undisturbedly, in the
midst of the nation, with the stringency with
which they understood it, and who, therefore, with-
drew into the desert, and preferred, as all Israel
had once done under Muses, the hardships of life
in tents to all the fascinations of city-life. They
borrowed from the Nazarites the principle of ab-
stention from wine and all food connected with
wine, and the ancient Kenites were their models
for their tent-life." He goes on to say that they
were called Rechabites from the father of their
-"ounder. Jehonadab ; that their oath was extended
and made more stringent at a later time ; that they
only returned into ordinary social life at long in-
tervals and under compulsion, etc. This theory
to which Eisenlohr and Thenius give their adhe>
sion, is contradicted, first of all, by the fact thai
Jeremiah calls them D,-13 , *'■ «•, strangers and so-
journers in the land in which they dwelt. " They
were not of the race of Israel, but were an off-
shoot of the family of the Kenites (1 Chron. ii. 55),
which is traced back to Moses' father-in-law
(Numb. x. 29; Judges iv. 11), and which migrated
to Canaan (Judges i. 16), in friendship and alli-
ance with Israel (1 Sam. xv. 6). In tins passage
in 1 Sam. they appear as still unsettled. Accord-
ing to Judges iv. 11, 17 sq. they continued to be
nomadic, as Rechab was also, even before Jehona-
dab's regulation. . . . It is an established his-
torical fact, which is further confirmed by the part.
D'lJ , that they were already nomadic.
Jehonadab only fixed by law what he already
found as a generally observed usage, and thereby
cut off beforehand all possible temptations to
adopt a settled life " (Hitzig). The Rechabites call
Jehonadab their " father " (Jerem. xxxv. 6. S). but
they do not thereby designate him as their ances
tor (Winer and others). They only mean that he
was their teacher and lawgiver, just as the
prophet-disciples called Elijah their " father " (2
Kings ii. 12). If they had originated with Jeho-
nadab, they would have named themselves after
him and not after his father. Moreover, it is cer-
tain that Rechab was not, strictly speaking, the
father of Jehonadab, but the ancestor of the
family to which he and the other Rechabites be-
longed. We must understand by this name, there-
fore, a national and nomadic community, and not
simply a religious organization. It was much
older than Elijah, and not directly or indirectly an
outgrowth of his activity. There is no hint in the
history that other communities than the schools of
the prophets were formed, after Elijah's death, for
the conservation of " true religion." The most
extraordinary feature is this, that a family, which
did not belong to the race of Israel, maintained it-
self in separation and independence in the midst
of this people from the entrance into Palestine un-
til the fall of the kingdom, and was more com-
pletely devoted to the service of Jehovah than
Israel itself. Jehonadab may have been led to
give them fixed regulations of life by the growth of
the idolatry which Ahab had introduced, and
against which he desired to fortify them by a
strict exclusion. The result was that he accom-
plished his object. He saw in Jehu a deliverer from
the tyrannical and idolatrous dynasty, and he
willingly accepted his invitation to accompany
him to Samaria. He must have known of Jehu's
dissimulation in proclaiming the feast of Baal, and
must have approved of it. for he was present with
Jehu at it (ver. 23). Clericus justly observes :
conscius rei erat, nee Xaudandus eU hoc in negotio
Hess thinks that lie belonged to the number of
these who ''hardly regarded it as an error in
Jehu, that, in his zeal, he went too far, on ac
count of their joy at the overthrow of the idola-
trous dynasty." It is worth noticing that Elisha,
who had been the prime mover in raising Jehv
to the throne, took no part in this proceeding. I,
seems that Jehu purposely did not call for his as
sistance, because he could not expect from him
any approval of his falsehood and dissimulation,
Jehonadab certainly does not appear ^ere in the fa
118
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
vorable light in which Krummacher represents
him : " In fact, we hardly know what to praise
most in this person, whether the soul elevated
and carried heavenward by divine inspiration, or
the rare wisdom, which, in its rich measure, is so
peculiar to him, or the clear, unwavering insight
with which he commands everything, and which
enables him to pass spiritual judgment upon all,
or the foresight and care, as enlightened as tender,
which we see him employ in behalf of his family
and its interests for centuries to come." Neither
the passage before us nor Jerem. xxxv. mentions
with a syllable these grand characteristics. The
further delineation is still more arbitrary and un-
founded: "So they (Jehu and Jehonadab) sit to-
gether— a dark thunder-cloud softly enfolded in a
rainbow of promise, as if Law and Gospel had
been personified in living allegories: Jehu, the
woe of God's condemnation upon all godlessness;
Jehonadab, the divine director to point upward to
the throne of grace. . . . Jehonadab, the
Church, which lives in heaven; Jehu, the State,
which protects," &c.
5. The continuance of the worship of the calves
under Jehu shows that he was not fully in earnest
in the zeal for Jehovah, of which he boasted to
Jehonadab, otherwise he must have destroyed the
golden calves in Bethel and in Dan, as well as the
idols in the temple of Baal at Samaria. He did
not let them stand because he considered that
what he had done was enough "to satisfy the
obligation (?) which he had undertaken towards
the prophet of Jehovah " (Menzel). The reason
was rather the same one which had led the foun-
der of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, to intro-
duce the worship of these images (1 Kings xii. 26
sq., and Hist. § 1). By abolishing the worship of the
calves, Jehu would havo torn down the partition
between the two kingdoms and would have en-
dangered his throne. His zeal for Jehovah did
not go so far as this. His royal authority was
more important to him than the law of Jehovah.
Political and dynastic interests restrained him
after he had extinguished the house of Ahab and
abolished the worship of Baal. The manner in
which he conducted himself in this matter showed
that "he did not walk in the law of the Lord with
all his heart" (ver. 31), and this became still clear-
er when lie was firmly established on the throne.
He is, therefore, it is true, praised for his zeal in
rooting out and destroying the worship of Baal,
but is, at the same time, declared guilty of the
"sins of Jeroboam," and this is given as the reason
why Jehovah began, in his reign, to cut off prov-
inces from Israel, and why his dynasty should
have no firm duration. This criticism of his reign
by the author of the history (who was probably
one of the prophets) shows that the prophets of
the time opposed the worship of the calves [al-
though it was intended, in a certain way, as a
worship of Jehovah], and did not simply, as
EwaM asserts (see above, Pt. II. p. 35), combat the
worship..! falsi gods. [The view of these things
entertained by the prophet-author of the Book of
Kings, who lived at a much later period and under
very different circumstances, cannot be regarded
a a in indication of the views of "the prophets of
the tiiiio.' in regard to them. — W. G. s.] The
great and bloody revolution of Jehu had. therefore,
■i merely negative result, namely, the abolition of
the worship of false gods; the positive results, the
restoration of the constitution, t. e., of the cove-
nant of Jehovah, was prevented by political con-
siderations, i. e., by personal ambition and love of
power. It is another proof that a religious refor-
mation can only fail of its objects and come to
naught, so soon as political and dynastic interests
get control of it, or, indeed, are involved in it.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-27.— The two Chief Acts of King Jehu:
(a) The destruction of the entire family of Ahab,
vers. 1—17 ; (b) the abolition of the worship of
Baal, vers. 18-27 (see the Hist, notes). — Ver. 1.
Wurt. Summ. : Though a large family of children
is a blessing of God (Ps. cxxvii. 3), yet we must
not rely upon them, or be self-willed on that ac-
count, as if the family could not die out, but we
must fear God, must not stain ourselves with sin
against our consciences, and must bring up chil-
dren in the fear of God, else He will take them
away and destroy the entire family. Ps. cxii. 1, 2.
— Vers. 1-7. The Governors and Chief Men at
Samaria : (a) Their cowardice, (b) their blind slav-
ishness, (c) their unfaithfulness. — Moral decline
among the highest ranks of a nation generally
proceeds from a corrupt court which sets the
fashion (Ahab and Jezebel). As is the master, so
is the servant. — He who has the power in his
hands always finds instruments among the great
and those of high rank, who shrink back from no
demand which is made upon them, however much
it may conflict with honor and duty. — Those who
no longer fear God, must fear men. Fear of men
may become the cause of the greatest crimes.
Therefore the Lord says: (Matt. x. 28).— Vers. 6,
7. "\Vurt. Summ. : Here we have an example of
unfaithful tutors and governors and friends, who
look, in their actions, not to the interests of the
orphans, but to their own advantage, and let the
orphans and their cause be ruined. As Jehu nev-
ertheless destroyed them all (ver. 17), so will the
just God also bring upon the heads of false friends
and trustees, all the unfaithfulness which they in-
flict upon orphans: therefore, let such be warned
against all violation of their trust. — Ktbcbz : The
children of this world become traitors to one an-
other, as we see in the case of these guardians of
the royal children. How they probably promised
with all zeal to guard the life, the honor, and the
rights of these princes! Now, they themselves
become their murderers. Let no man trust the
golden words of him who fears man more than he
fears God. — Unfaithfulness ruins those who prac-
tise it. Jehu must infer from the treason of these
guardians towards their wards that they would
still less be faithful to him. He, therefore, treated
them as they treated those who had been en-
trusted to them. — Though the crime which these
men perpetrated against their wards could hardly
occur in our day, yet instructors and guardians
are not wanting who become murderers of the
souls of their pupils, in that they mislead them by
example and precept into apostasy from the living
God and disbelief in His holy word, instead of
educating them in "the fear and admonition of
Hi.. Lord." ('.'/'. Mutt, xviii. '.;.' — Krommacher:
What is the worth of all the friendship and favor
and trust of this world ! It is like a tree in soft,
loose ground, which, so long as tho i boldest il
CHAPTER X. 1-36.
119
upright, covers thee pleasantly with its shadow,
but which, when the storm roars through its top, 1
and it is overthrown, no longer takes account of
thee, but crushes thee in its fall. — Vers. 8—11.
Jehu's Words to the People: (a) He says to the
people just what they like to hear: " Te are just ;"
(6) he throws the guilt off from himself on to
others : " But who slew all these ? " (c) he repre-
sents something which he had done himself as a
divine dispensation : " The Lord hath done that
which he spake," Ac. — He who has a good con-
science may alone appeal to God's word. Guard
thyself from the great mistake of glossing over
and justifying thy sins and errors by citations
from the word of God. — Human sins are not jus-
tified by the fact that they are made means in the
hand of God for accomplishing his judgments. —
Vers. 12-16. Jehu's Journey to Samaria: (a) His
meeting with the brethren of Ahaziah, vers. 12-
14; (b) his meeting with Jehonadab, vers. 15, 16.
—Vers. 12, 13. The quiet and peaceful house of
the shepherd becomes a house of terror and of
death. Destruction overtakes the self-assured on
their way to pleasure and joyl — WiiRT. Sdmm. :
When we go out of the house, let us commit our-
selves into the hands of God, for mucli may hap-
pen on our journey to prevent us from coming in
fife or happiness homeward (James iv. 13-15). —
Ver 15. Jehonadab, son of Rechab, chief of the
Rechabites (Jer xxxv.), is a type of faithful ad-
herence to the faith and the customs of the fathers
in the midst of an apostate, wavering people. —
Decided and firm faith, combined with a strict
and earnest life, compels respect even from those
who themselves follow another course. — Where
there is agreement in the highest and most im-
portant interests, there one may find a speedy and
easy basis of intercourse, whatever may be the
difference of rank or nationality. — Kyburz : Jesus
says to me and thee what Jehu said to Jehona-
dab: If thine heart is right with mine, as mine
with thine, then come up to me upon my throne
(Rev. iii. 21). — Ver. 16. Zeal for the Lord is a great
and rare thing, when it is pure. It forfeits its re-
ward, however, when it aims to be seen (Matt. vi.
1-6). How many a one deceives himself with his
zeal for the Lord, and for His kingdom, when, at
the bottom, he is zealous only for himself, for his
own honor and fame, his own interest and advan-
tage.
Vers. 18-28. The great Feast of Baal at Sa-
maria: (a) The preparation of it; (b) its finale. —
A work which is in itself pure and holy loses its
value when it is accomplished by falsehood and
dissimulation. One cannot battle for the truth
with the weapons of falsehood (Rom. iii. 8). —
Berleb. Bibel: What things one may do by out
ward acts, and yet be internally a hypocrite I
Jehu dissimulated in order to circumvent the hy-
pocrites and idolaters, and never recognized the
hypocrite and idolater in himself. — Jehu destroyed
the worship of false gods by the sword, and by
external violence. He had full justification for this
in the Law, for, under the old covenant, idolatry
was the worm at the root of the Israelitish national-
ity; it was high treason to the Israelitish state.
LTnder the new covenant, it is not permitted to
make use of fire and sword against heresy and su-
perstition. No other weapon may here be used
than that of the spirit, that is, the word of God.
Christianity is not bound to any people ; as it was
not brought into the world by violence, so it can-
not be extended and nourished by the sword. —
Even now every civil power has the right and the
duty to proceed to extreme measures against a
cultus like that of Baal, which is interwoven with
licentiousness and abominations. — Ver. 21. The
house of Baal was full from wall to wall. The
houses in which worship and sacrifice are ren-
dered to the deities of this world, to the lusts of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, are full, also now-a-days, from wall to walk
while the churches, in which the word resounds :
'• Repent and be converted that your sins may be
forgiven," are empty. — Ver. 26 sq. J. Laxge:
The destruction and desecration of the temple of
Baal was a genuine physical preaching of repent-
ance through the entire country, by which many
a one may have been awakened from the sleep of
sin, and many a faithful soul may have been
strengthened in goodness. As the German hymn
say? : " Bring all false gods to shame 1 The Lord
is God ! Give to our God the praise I "
Vers. 28-33. Jehu is a type of those who show
great zeal in tearing down and destroying super-
stition and false worship, but do nothing to build
up t he faith, because they themselves have no liv-
ing faith, and do not walk before God with all
their hearts. — Jehu did indeed destroy idolatry,
but he did not touch the chief sin of Israel, be-
cause he considered it the chief support of his own
authority. So many a one renounces gross, ex-
ternal sins, but will not think of denying himself,
of sacrificing his own interests, and of turning his
heart to the living God. — He who remains stand-
ing half-way, goes backward in spite of himself.
Jehu would not desist from the sins of Jeroboam,
because he thought that it would cost him his
crown, but on that very account he lost one prov-
ince after another.
120 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
B. — AthaliaWs Beign and Fall.
Chap. XL 1-20. (2 Cheost. XXH. 10— XXTTT. 21.)
1 And [But] when [omu when] Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah [ — when she]'
saw that her son was dead, [then] she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the
son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were [who were
to be] 3 slain ; [,] and they hid him, even [omit from and to even: read and put] *
him and his nurse, [omit ,] in the bed-chamber [store-room, and hid him] from
8 Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the
Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.
4 And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds,
with the captains and the guard [centurions of the life-guards and of the run-
ners] ' and brought them to him into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant
with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them
5 the king's son. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye
shall do ; A third part of [those of] you that enter in on the sabbath shall even
6 be keepers of the watch of the king's house ; And a third part shall be at the
gate of [omit of] Sur ; and a third part at the gate behind the guard [runners] ' ;
so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down [to prevent
7 entrance]. And two parts of [omit two parts of] all [those of] you that go forth
on the sabbath [ — of both sorts of soldiers — ] ", even they shall keep the watch
8 of the house of the Lord about the king. And ye shall compass the king round
about, every man with his weapons in his hand : and he that cometh within
[breaketh through] the ranges [ranks] ', let him be slain : and be ye with the
9 king as he goeth out and as "he cometh in. And the captains over the hundreds
did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded : and they took
every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should
10 go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And to the captains
over hundreds did the priest give king David's spears * and shields, that were in
11 the temple of the Lord. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in
his hand, round about the king, from the right corner [hand wall] of the temple
[house] to the left corner [hand wall] of the temple [house] along by [towards]
12 the altar and the temple. And he brought forth the king's son, and put the
crown upon him, and gave him the testimony ; and they made him king, and
anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king [«
Live the king],
13 And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard" and of the people, she
14 came to the people into the temple of the Lord. And when she looked, behold,
the king stood by a pillar [was standing on a platform] as the manner was, and
the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land re-
joiced [were rejoicing] and blew [blowing] with trumpets: and Athaliah rent
15 her clothes, and cried, Treason, treason. But Jehoiada the priest commanded
the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have
her forth without the ranges [through the ranks] ; and him that followeth her
kill 10 with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house
10 of the Lord. And they laid hands on her [made room for her on either hand] ;
and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house:
and there was she slain.
17 And Jehoiada made a [the] covenant between the Lord and the king and the
people, that they should be the Lord's people; between the king also and the
(8 people. And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake
it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew
Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers
CHAPTER XI. 1-20.
121
19 over the house of the Lord. And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the
captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land ; and they brought down
the king from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the
guard [runners] to the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings
20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet : and [but]
they slew [had slain] Athaliah with the sword beside [at] the king's house.
rESTTJAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
i Ver. 1. — [The chetib. l"iriX"ll , is to be retained. Athaliah is put in independent construction at the head of the sen-
tence, as general subject, and then what she did is stated in detached sentences. The construction is made smoother
if we take away the 1 , but the style then loses some of its liveliness. So Thenius and Keil.
• Ver. -2— The keri DVUMEfl is confirmed by 2 Chron. xxii. 11. The chetib DVYIOSH [should be punctuated
O'JVOSn.— W G. S.] mortes, cannot without violence be translated as Keil proposes: " Those who were doomed to
death."— Bahr. [Ewald raises the question whether the chetib cannot be punctuated DTFIOD » nd explained as a parti-
ciple hofal. in which the chief vocal force has been concentrated in the second syllable. He cites several cognate instances
of considerable force. § 131. d, note.— On the use of the participle for a preterit future, see Ewald, § 335, b, and cf. Gen. six.
14; Ex. xi. 5; Judges xiii. S.
» Ver. 2.— [After DVIlDDn strppJy \FtrT from 2 Chron. xxii. 11 ; cf. Exegetical.
• Ver. 4. — [The chetib, riVNO is only a longer and more original form for the keri, HIND, "since HXD is con
tracted from iVN>D •" Ewald. § 267, d.— p here forms a periphrasis for the genitive.
8 Ver. 6.— [/. **., before which the runners generally kept guard. ,
• Ver. ".— [HIT does not mean " parts" in the oame sense as JO D'L'vtJ'n means a fraction of. Its first meaning
is hand*, and so parts like hxmds, that is, two branches of one subject, as the two hands are parts of one person. It referi
to the two military divisions, life-guards and runners, of which the squad which retired on the Sabbath was composed.
The preposition 3 after it marks these as component or essential parts. See further the Exegetical notes on the verse.
7 Ver. 8. — [/.€., any one who strives to break through the cordon of guards thus posted so as to penetrate either into
the palace or the temple.
8 Ver. 10.— [We must read the plural DTP3n!"lt as In Chron. "The sing, in a collective senBe is not a probable
construction in prose " (Thenius).
9 Ver. 13.— [The Aramaic form of the plural in |*7 (pV"l) is very rare In Hebrew prose. It occurs in 1 Kings xi. 83.
S Sam. xxi. 20 (chetib). In poetry it is more frequent. Ewald, § 177, a.
•° Ver. 15.— [riDn , inf. abs. for Imper.— W. G. 8.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Introductory Remarks. — The parallel ac-
count in the Chronicles is, in some places, word
for word the same as the one before us. It can-
not, however, have been copied from this record,
for it not only varies in particular details, but
also contains additions, and those such as the
Chronicler cannot possibly have invented him-
self, t. g., the names of the five centurions and
their fathers (2 Chron. xxiii. 1). It is, there-
fore, very generally admitted that the two ac-
counts are derived from one and the same origi-
nal record, from which the author of the books of
Kings and the Chronicler each took different ex-
tracts according to the stand-point of each. The
record before us is not only older, but it is also
clear and definite, so that when it is regarded by
itself simply it presents no difficulties. These do
not present themselves until we turn to the Btory
in Chronicles, which is, it is true, in some cases
more full and detailed, but which is, on'the whole,
far less clear. In any attempt at reconciliation,
therefore, we must not, as Keil does, make the
Chronicles the standard, but must start from the
record which here lies before us. Noteworthy as
the additions and variations in the Chronicles may
ippear, they can only be accepted in so far as
nhey are not contradictory to this account.
Ver. 1. But Athaliah, 4c. We may suppose
that she had carried on the government as queen-
regent (nT33 cf. 1 Kings xv. 13 and xi. 19),
[In the latter place it is applied to a queen-con-
sort, as in Jerem. xiii. 18 ; xxix. 2. In 1 Kings
xv. 13 and here it is applied to the queen-mother.
It is a title which implies more actual political
power and influence than rOpD. The queen-
mother has always been, and is, a personage of
influence in oriental countries. For the import-
ance of this role in the Israelirish monarchy, and
for the influence exerted on the history by some
of the individuals who filled it (Bathsheba, Maa-
cah, Athaliah, Jezebel), see Stanley's Lectures, 2d
ser. p. -132], during the absence of her son at Ra
moth and at Jezreel (chap. viii. 28 and 29), and now
she took the royal authority directly into her own
hands. In order to establish herself on the throne,
she proceeded in the usual manner of oriental
usurpers (see above, on chap. x.). She slew all
the " seed royal," i. e., all the male members of
the royal house who might eventually become pre-
tenders to the throne. The forty-two "brethren
of Ahaziah," who were slain by Jehu (chap. x. 13
sq.), were not, therefore, all the princes there
were, but a certain portion of them, especially
those who were grown up. — Ver. 2 Jehosheb*
122
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
was the sister of Ahaziah, but not the daughter
of Athaliah. She was the daughter of another
wife of king Jehoram. According to 2 Chron.
xx. 11, she was the wife of Jehoiada. the priest —
a statement the truth of which Thenius unjustly
questions. It explains Jehoiada's conduct most
satisfactorily. The Chronicler has |nni, after
OTI^VSn , and this word must here be supplied.
niaran Tin is not the "bed-chamber" (Luther,
E. V.) either of the royal princes (Clericus), or of
the priests and levites (Vatablus). but the room
of the palace in which the beds, mattresses, and
coverlets were stored, and where no one lived.
The child, who was an infant at the breast, was
temporarily hidden here, and then he was brought,
for greater security, into the house of Jehovah,
i. e., into a room adjoining the temple, or into one
of the temple chambers, so that he was under the
care of the high-priest. With her, i. e., with the
wet-nurse, whose care he yet needed; not, "with
Jehosheba" (Thenius), for she could not remain
concealed for so long a time. The nurse remained
with him, after he was weaned, as his attendant
until his sixth year. Instead of riHX the Chron-
icler has, less precisely, DnX , with them, i. e., in
their family. The priest and Jehosheba kept him
in concealment. The Sept. translate DHN , in
Chronicles, by fieT1 av-rjc, which they also give for
nnX in Kings. We cannot infer, with Keil, that
he was concealed " in the house of the high-priest,
in one of the courts of the temple," for there is no
hint anywhere that the high-priest and his family
lived in any part of the temple-building (cf. Ne-
hem. iii. 26 sq., from which the contrary seems
more probable).
Ver. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada
sent, Ac. For rpC' the Chronicler has ptfinn, i. e.,
" he took courage." It seemed to Jehoiada doubt-
ful whether he ought to keep the prince any
longer in concealment. Perhaps also the govern-
ment of Athaliah had become more and more un-
endurable. In vers. 15 and 18 he is called simply
pin, whereby he is designated as high-priest.
Cf. xii. 11. The centurions were the commanders
each of a hundred men of the life-guards and the
runners (see notes on 1 Kings i. 38 and xiv. 27).
The Chronicler gives the names of these centu-
rions and of their fathers, which he can only have
abtained from the original document which served
as authority both for him and for the writer of
this history. As there are five names given we
may infer that the entire life-guard consisted of
500 men. It is to be noticed that their agree-
ment is not called a "ipt;*, as in the case of Baasha,
Zimri, &c, but a rfH3, Only Athaliah calls it
"Ip'J', ver. 14. The oath which Jehoiada took of
them in the holy place can only have been to this
effect, that they would bring about the elevation
of the prince to the throne, but, for the present,
would keep the intention to do so secret. He
then showed the prince to them. In the account
in Chronicles the words: "And took an oath of
them in the house of Jehovah, and showed them
Ihe k ag's son," are wanting. Instead, we read
there: " And they went about in Judah, and gath-
ered the levites out of all the cities of Judah. ana
the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to
Jerusalem. And all the congregation (i. e„ the
collected representatives of the people) made a
covenant with the king in the house of God. And
he (Jehoiada) said unto them, Behold, the king »
son shall reign as the Lord hath said of the sons
of David." There is no contradiction here, for we
may well suupose that Jehoiada -at first only ad-
mitted the five chiefs into the secret, and won
their adhesion, but that they, before they pro-
ceeded to carry out the plan proposed (ver. 5 sq.),
sought to assure themselves of the support of the
levites and of the representative family chiefs,
and invited them to one of the three great yearly
festivals, at which they were accustomed to visit
Jerusalem according to the law, so that their
presence there would not attract attention. [See
appendix to this section for a detailed comparison
of the two accounts.]
Ver. 5. And he commanded them, ,fec. Je-
hoiada's plan was to take military possession of the
two places, which here were of prime importance,
the palace and the temple. In the latter was the
young prince, who was then to be crowned and
anointed ; in the former was the throne, of which
he was afterwards to take possession. Vers. 5
and 6 treat of the taking possession of the palace ;
vers. 7 and 8 of that of the temple. It should be
particularly observed that Jehoiada's words are
addressed to the centurions of the life-guard and
of the runners (ver. 4). Therefore when he says
(ver. 5): A third part D3D; and (ver. 7): both
sorts Q33 , he means of course no other than the
soldiers under the command of these captains,
who are distinctly mentioned, in ver. 9, as their
"men," so that it is simply impossible to under-
stand by it, " levites." The entire body of men
at their disposal consisted, therefore, of those who
had to undertake guard-duty on the sabbath, and
of those who were released from service on that
day. Those who entered upon service at that
time were to hold control of the palace at three
points ; one third at the *]7Bi1 ]V3 , by which we
have to understand here the royal residence prop-
er, in distinction from the less important acces-
sory buildings connected with it (ver. 5. in which.
it may be remarked in passing, IIDL'T must be
read instead of '"ipt."!. The Sept. add after tpvAa-
ni/v oIkov mi- f^atn^eoc, the words : sv rCi itvXSnit. )
The second third-part was to hold the gate "no.
No gate by this name is mentioned elsewhere.
According to the signification of the stem "hd , to
ill part from the way. it can refer only to the exit
or side-door of the palace. The third third-part
received the charge D'iin "inX "lj'ti'3 , or, as it is
called in ver. 19 simply, D'SIH "IJ!L". [The " run-
ners " were probably couriers whose line of duty
was to act as the king's messengers. This gate
was probably so called, because it was the one
before which they were usually stationed, either
on guard-duty, or awaiting commands which were
directed to their department of the service, or
both. — W. G. S.] Since the new king held his
solemn entry into the palace through this gate
(ver. 19), it must tave been the chief gate, through
CHAPTER XL 1-20.
li'E
which there was the most direct approach to the
royal residence. It was " behind " the runners,
since their usual station was before it. The word
nDD is not a proper name (Luther: Massa; Vulg. :
ifessa), but means repulse, defence, that which wards
off, from nDJ , t» ward off, and it is in apposition
to n"lOt."0 • It may be referred to all three of the
third-parts, since all three were intended to ward
off and expel every one who might desire to gain
admission to the palace. This was the duty as-
signed to those who commeuced duty on the sab-
bath. Those who were released on that day were
to guard the temple (ver. 1). They were not to be
divided up into subdivisions to do duty at sepa-
rate posts, but their two mT were to form irmi"
and to take the young king in their midst (ver. 8).
By rilT are meant, in distinction from JV"vC'
(vers. 5 and 6) the two different sorts of soldiers,
according to their weapons and duties, i. e., the
life-guards and the runners. T\YfW are the ranks,
in which they were to arrange themselves, be-
tween which the king went out of the temple into
the palace. Any one who broke through them
and ventured inside was to be slain (ver. 8). " Let
it be observed with what accuracy Q23 is used in
ver. 7, where the reference is to a distinction of
functions, and D3D in ver. 5, where the reference
is to merely numerical subdivisions of the force "
(Thenius). The final words of ver. 8 : And be ye
with the king as he goeth out and as he Com-
eth in, belong to the directions which Jehoiada
gave fa- the division of the numbers and of the
functions of the soldiers for this especial case.
They cannot, therefore, be taken as of general sig-
nification, referring to all the life of the king, un-
der all circumstances : " In all his business, or, in
all his movements " (Keil), as in Deut. xxviii. 6 ;
xxxi. 2. but they refer to the execution of this
plan, and are to be understood of the movement
of the king from the temple to the palace (The-
nius). In ver. 9 sq. follows the actual execution
of the commands of Jehoiada which have been im-
parted in the preceding verses.
Ver. 10. And to the captains over hundreds
did the priest give, &,c. Instead of the sing.
JVJnn, the Chronicler has the plural DTTjnri,
and all the ancient versions present the plural in
the verse before us. It seems that it stood origi-
nally nivjnn (Isai. ii. 4; Micah iv. 3), and the
last n was lost by an error in copying (Keil). We
must understand that these were not David's own
weapons, but some which he had captured, and
placed in the temple as an offering. According to
Ewald, whose opinion Thenius approves, Jehoiada
gave these weapons to the captains, " in order to
begin and consecrate the enterprise on which they
were about to enter, of restoring the family of
David to the throne, by using the weapons of the
great ancestor of that family." But perhaps his
only reason for distributing these arms among
them was, that those who had retired from ser-
vice at the palace had left their weapons there.
The centurions divided these weapons among
Jieir soldiers, as ver. 11 expressly mentions,
among the "runners," not, therefore, among le-
vites. When the men were thus armed, they were
stationed : " From the rig! t-hand side of th(
house to the left-hand side of the house, along to
wards the altar and the temple," so that they sur-
rounded and covered the person of the king. The
meaning is that they shut off the space from the
temple-building proper to the altar, and that the
king stood in the midst of this space. Whether
one row stood across the front from side to sine,
and two others parallel, along the side (Bertheau),
or whether one row stood from the right-hand
corner of the temple to the altar, and the other
from the altar to the left-hand corner (Thenius),
must be left undecided. Not until after the troops
had been thus arranged, did Jehoiada lead out the
young prince into the midst of the open space (ver.
12). nnyn does not mean the insignia regia
(Clericus), or the phylacteries (Deut. vi. 8, Gro-
tius), but, the Law, and, if not the whole Penta-
teuch, at least the Decalogue, which is so often
called the "Testimony" (Ex. xxv. 21; xvi. 34,
&e.). This was probably given into his hands as a
symbol of what is declared to be the law for the
king in Deut. xvii. 19, whereas the diadem was
placed upon his head (2 Sam. i. 10). He was then
anointed (1 Kings i. 39). To clap the hands was
a sign of delight and approval (Isai. Iv. 12). Be-
sides the armed force, the priests, and the levites,
a multitude of people was also present (ver. 14),
which denotes that the coronation took place on a
feast-day, when the people collected in Jerusalem
from all parts of the country. The acclamations of
the people are in the same words as in 1 Kings i. 25.
Ver. 13. And when Athaliah heard the
noise, &c. As worshipper of Baal. who. at that
time, had his own temple in Jerusalem (ver. 18),
Athaliah took no part in the feasts of the worship-
pers of Jehovah, in the Jehovah-temple, and, on
this day. she paid the less heed to what was go-
ing on in the temple, inasmuch as the change of
the guards in the palace had taken place as usual,
and nothing indicated any unusual disturbance
The great outcry, which she either heard herself,
as she well might in view of the short distance
from the palace to the temple, or which was re-
ported to her by her attendants, aroused her sus
picions, so that she betook herself thither. Jo-
sephus states that she went out of the palace with
her own troops (urrd rf/c iSiac orpaTiac), and that,
when she came to the temple, the priests allowed
her to enter, but the guards prevented her guards
from following ; that Athaliah, when she saw the
crowned boy, cried out, and commanded that he
who had dared to try to usurp her authority
should be put to death, and that thereupon Jehoia-
da gave orders that she should be led out and
executed outside of the temple. [That the
queej should have gone down in person into the
temple, wi'hout guards or attendants, to quell
what must have appeared to be a mere vul-
gar riot, is certainly an astonishing incident. —
W. G. S.] The " words D5D P¥lfl can
not be translated : " Of the people who flocked to
the spot " (Luther, after the Vulg.). " The text
must have read originally DUI11 ('V"!!! ' an(^ '^e '
must have fallen out by a copyist's error" (Then'
us, Keil). The Chronicler transposes the words
ayjn oyrii and adds: ^errnx D'^noni. »' *
124
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
the people who were flocking together and hailing
the king. The D'VT are, however, in this context,
always the -l runners " who formed a part of the
royal guards (vers. 4, 6, 11, 19), so that the word
can mean nothing else in ver. 13, and the text of
the Chronicles cannot, with any good reason at all,
be preferred.— Ter. 14. The king stood nrayn^U ,
i. e., not " at the column " (Luther) [or, " by a
pillar " (E. V.)], but at the appointed, traditional
place, which was reserved for the king, by estab-
lished usage (DBTO3), as in chap, xxiii. 3; 2
Chron. xxxiv. 31. Thenius understands by it " the
top step of the stairs which led up to the temple,"
but this would not be any especial position, be-
cause the priests passed and stood there every
day. Evidently a particular place is meant, an
elevated dais or platform (Vulg. : tribunal), which
was reserved for the king alone, for, when Atha-
liah saw the prince standing there, she knew at
once what the transaction was which was being
accomplished. The people, who stood in the fore-
court, could not have seen the king, if he had
stood on the top of the temple-steps, on account
of the altar ten cubits high which stood in the
court of the priests. The platform in question
must have stood before the altar, at the entrance
to the inner fore-court (xi3Q3 2 Chron. xxiii. 13),
so that the king, when he stood upon it, was the
first object to strike the eye of Athaliah as she en-
tered. Solomon had caused just such arrangements
to be made (2 Chron. vi. 13; see Exeg. on 1 Kings
viii. 22). — The Vulg. incorrectly renders D'ltj'n by
cantores, the Sept. by ol tWo/, and Luther by
"singers," as if the word were D'lE'n. They are
the centurions, as in vers. 4 and 9. The word is
correctly translated in the Sept. and Vulg. ver-
sions of Chronicles by ol apxovrss, and principes. —
nilVSnri , trumpets, for trumpeters. Since the
word occurs in chap. xii. 14, in the enumeration
of the utensils of the temple, and is also used in
Numb. x. 2 to designate the trumpets or horns of
the priests, and since, moreover, 1 Chron. xv. 24
(xiii. 8), the priests appear as nnV^'O? Dv?*¥™? >
we can think here only of levites or priests as the
persons who were blowing the trumpets. — And
all the people of the land, i. e., "the multitude
which was present " (Bertheau), as in ver. 13, not,
" the entire force of militia, which was present in Je-
rusalem " (Thenius). — Athaliah rent her clothes,
not so much in grief as from terror, like Joram,
chap. vi. 30.
Ver. 15. But Jehoiada the priest command-
ed, Ac. The centurions of the life-guard are here
designated as commanders of the army in general.
" The readers are to be reminded by this addition
that the military forces were willing to obey Je-
hoiada" (Bertheau). — Have her forth through
[or between) the ranks, nntiv , i- '■, within the
ranks, " so that she was led through the ranks,
and was hindered from taking any measures in ac-
cord with her adherents " (Bertheau). Any one
who might desire to take her part, or to assist her,
w&i to be slain.— Dn' rb ID'ti" (ver. 16), i. e., not,
as Luther [and the E. V.] translate, following th»
Sept. {i-ijia'/ov ai-ij ^fi/inr), and the Vulg. (impo-
suemntei manus), "They laid hands an her," but,
as the Chaldee version renders it, and as almost
all the expositors understand it : " They made for
her two sides," i. e., they made room for her,
opening the ranks on both sides, " formed in rank
and escorted her out " (Keil). By D'DlDn a\2p,
the entrance- way for horses into the royal stables is
to be understood, so that it is not the "horse-
gate " (Nehem. iii. 28), as Josephus understands,
for this was a gate of the inner city, and led into
the city, not into the palace. She was not to be
conducted by the way into the palace, because the
new king was to make his solemn entry into the
palace by this. It does not follow, however, that
Athaliah was "to die shamefully and disgracefully
by the stables" (Thenius), for the royal stables
were not, as such, a shameful or unclean place.
Ver. 17. And Jehoiada made the covenant,
Sec. Not a covenant (Luther), but the covenant,
i. «., the covenant of Jehovah with Israel, which
had been broken by the false worship of Jeho-
ram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah. This covenant was
solemnly renewed. It attached primarily to the
relation between the king and people on the one
hand, and Jehovah on the other (they were to be
Jehovah's people and belong to Him, Deut. iv. 28),
then, also, to the relation between the king and
the people. The people was to be, from that time
on, once more the people of God ; it was to wor-
ship and serve Him alone. The king was to rule
according to the "testimony," i. e., the Law of
Jehovah, which had been solemnly put into his
hands, and the people were to be loyal to the le-
gitimate king of the family of David. The imme-
diate and necessary consequence of this renewsj
of the coi«nant was the destruction of the temple
of Baal, with its altars and idols (ver. 18). 'When
and by whom this temple was built is nowhere
stated. It is most probable that it was erected by
Jehoram, under the influence of Athaliah (chap,
viii. 1 8), as the one in Samaria was built by Ahab,
under the influence of Jezebel (1 Kings xvi. 32).
Thenius is wrong in inferring from 2 Chron. xxiv.
7, that this temple was erected " in the enclosure
of the temple of Jehovah," for that passage says
only that Athaliah and her sons had plundered
the Jehovah-temple of all which they could use
in the worship of Baal. There can be no doubt
that we must understand it to refer to a building
on another elevation. It is certain also that Mat-
tan, the priest of Baal who was slain, did not
perform his functions in the same place with Je-
hoiada. [The grounds which lead Biihr to be-
lieve that the temple of Baal was not on Mount
Moriah are not satisfactory. Every indication
which we have in regard to it goes to show that
it was there. Mount Moriah is just the spot
which would have been chosen for the site of a
temple by any nation of ancient times which might
have lived at Jerusalem. There w:is no other ele-
vation near or convenient. The " old city " wag
perhaps in some places a little higher than Mount
Moriah. but it presented no sharp and clear eleva-
tion, such as those which ancient nations always
chose as sites of temples, if there was one in th»
neighborhood. The other hills were too far away.
It would be little in accord with the character o?
Athaliah to suppose that she gave up he best site,
CHAPTER XI. 1-20.
125
■which was. at the same time, one of the grandest
in the world, according to the taste in those mat-
ters, to the Jehovah-religion, and sought another
for her own favorite deities. The Jehovah-reli-
gion may have been strong enough in Judah to
force a compromise, and maintain a joint posses-
sion of the mountain. 2 Chron. xxiv. 7 says that
Athaliah and her sons had " broken down " or
" torn down (ijns) the house of God." Just how
much that means we cannot perhaps determine,
but the temple was standing and available for wor-
ship, &c, at this time, as we see, and it may well
be meant that they broke down such portions of
the walls of the courts, 4c, as was necessary to
get room for the temple of Baal. See also chap,
xii. 5 (Exeg.) and 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. Still farther, if
ver. 18 is in its proper chronological position brfore
ver. 19. and is not, as Thenius thinks, to be taken as
belonging after it in order of time, then it gives a
strong ground for believing that the temple of
Baal was on Mount Moriah. They stayed to tear
it down before they formed the procession, and
left the temple-mountain to " go down " and es-
cort the king into the palace. It cannot be re-
garded, therefore, as "beyond doubt" that Mat-
tan aud Jehoiada did not perform their functions
in the same place. That the latter did not like
the juxtaposition, we may well believe, but if
the question was whether to share Mount Moriah
with the worshippers of Baal, or to remove the
Jehovah-worship from it, or to give up the Je-
hovah-worship altogether, we may easily imagine
what course he would have chosen. — W. G. S.] —
Duncker, whom Weber again follows, deduces from
the sentence : The priests appointed J"Rp3 over
the house of the Lord, the arbitrary conclusion
that, in spite of the victory of the priestly party.
" Nevertheless the number of the servants of Baal
was so great, and their courage was so little bro-
ken, that it was necessary to protect the temple of
Jehovah against their attacks by especial guards."
Thenius also thinks that there is reference here to
a kind of temple-officers which had not existed be-
fore, " by whom a new desecration of the temple
by the worship of false gods was to be prevented."
We must understand by it, as is expressly stated
2 Chron. xxiii. 18, the overseers who were ap-
pointed by David (1 Chron. xxv.i, and who, during
the time that idolatry prevailed, had not been regu-
larly kept up, or perhaps had not been appointed
it all. That the article is wanting cannot be de-
cisive to the contrary. [So Keil. Ewald, Thenius.
ind Bunsen, on the contrary, think that they were
intended to protect the temple against the attacks
of the heathen. The Chronicler develops this
short note into an elaborate statement, as he does
all the notices of the origin of any ritual formali-
ties or hierarchical organizations. It is not clear,
however, that it should have been thought neces-
sary, just at the time when the Jehovah-religion
could once more count on the support of the throne,
to appoint new and permanent officers to protect
the temple from heathen attacks and desecrations.
Moreover, this clause, thus understood, makes the
position of ver. 18 before ver. 19 probably incor-
rect as regards the order of time. Shall we un-
derstand that they stayed to appoint temple-offi-
cers before completing the inauguration of the
Wing? It would be mosk, reasonable to under-
stand it to state simply that they appointed a
guard to stay and protect the temple from any
sudden attack of the enraged worshippers of Baal,
while all the rest went to escort the king into the
palace, and see him mount the throne. — W. G. S.]
According to ver. 19, the centurions mentioned in
ver. -A, with their troops, the life-guards and the
runners, escorted the king down (VTH'l) from the
House of Jehovah in a solemn procession arranged
(nj5!l) by the priest Jehoiada. Escorted him down,
it is said, because there was a ravine between
Mount Moriah and Mount Zion, over which at that
time there probably was no bridge. They came
through the " Gate of the Runners " (the Chron-
icler gives 7)103 instead of *|T-j , by way ef ex
planation) into the palace, where the throne stood,
upon which the king seated himself. The Gate of
the Runners belonged therefore to the palace.
The Sept. take 7]^Bn JV3 as a direct genitive,
oIkov -oil flacnleuc. It was unquestionably the
chief gate, for the solemn entry would not take
place through any other (Thenius). Ewald, The-
nius, and Bertheau connect nopt.'' TlTIl with the
following, in opposition to the massoretic punctua-
tion : " And the city remained quiet when they
slew Athaliah with the sword : " that is to say,
her adherents remained peaceful and did not ven-
ture to make any movement to save her. But, in
that case, the words " with the sword" would be
unnecessary. The correct interpretation of the
words is rather that the concluding sentence is in-
tended to append to ver. 16 an emphatic statement
of the manner in which she was put to death, and,
at the same time, to call attention to the fact that,
by Iter death, the last member of the house of
Ahab was removed, and the legitimate authority
of the house of David was restored. §In this in-
terpretation this sentence brings the account to a
well-rounded close.
Appendix. — In the exegetical explanations
which precede, only the less important variations
of the Chronicles have been noticed, and no ac-
count has been taken of the grand divergence of
the two narratives in their general conception of
the occurrence, in order that the continuous eluci-
dation of the text before us might not be too much
interrupted, and in order that no confusion might
arise. The chief variation now, one which runs
through the entire account, is, that, according to
the Chronicler, it was not the centurions of the
royal guards, but the priests, the levites, and the
family-chiefs, by whose aid Jehoiada accomplished
his reformation (2 Chron. xxiii. 2); furthermore,
that the first third of the priests and levites who
entered upon service on the sabbath were ap-
pointed D^BBn ,_)j;i;'"> , »'. e., to be gate-keepers of
the threshold, the second to guard the king's house,
and the third to keep the gate "IID'H (vers. 4, 5) .
finally, that the two classes of priests and levites,
those who entered upon, and those who were re-
leased from, service, remain together (ver. 8), so
that, in general, it is only the temple, and not the
royal palace at various points, which is guarded.
Modern criticism explains these variations as " iir-
126
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
bitrary alterations" of the Chronicler, which he
adopted " out of preference for the tribe of Levi,
iu order to ascribe to the priest-caste an honor
which belonged to the pnetorians " (Thenius, De
Wette). This assertion is, to say the very least.
exaggerated. No suspicion of falsehood can at-
tach to the idea that the priests and levites par-
ticipated iu the coronation and inauguration of the
new king, especially seeing that the main object to
be gained by this was the abolition of idolatry
(ver. 17 sq.) The plan of the enterprise, accord-
ing to the account before us, did not proceed from
the centurions of the praetorian guard, but from
the head of the priest-class, and it would be
astonishing and unnatural if the high-priest had
excluded all his comrades in rank, office, and
family, from participation in a transaction which
was not only political, but also religious, and which
took place in the temple. This participation was
a matter of course, all the more seeing that the
act, according to all the indications (see notes on"
vers. 4, 13), took place on a feast, at which priests
and levites were bound to be present. The au-
thor does not, therefore, exclude them, he rather
takes their participation for granted, as we see
distinctly from ver. 14. Still less does the Chroni-
cler exclude the prajtorian guard from participa-
tion ; he even gives what this author does not
give in regard to them, viz., the names of the cen-
turions and of their fathers, and thereby he shows
how important their part in the work appeared to
him, and also shows that he had not forgotten
them, but desired that they should be kept in hon-
orable remembrance. He could not, therefore,
have had any intention of robbing them of any
honor which belonged to them, and conferring it
upon the levites. But while this author permits
the participation of the levites to remain unem-
phasized, as something which was a simple matter
of course, the Chronicler, who certainly looks at
the history-more from the priestly, levitical stand-
point, feels bound to give it greater prominence.
There is no contradiction between the two ac-
counts in this respect. The case is somewhat dif-
ferent, however, in regard to the other detailed
variations. The three localities which were to be
held, each, according to the Chronicler, by one
third of the priests and levites, cannot possibly
have been all in the temple, for the T]??3ri JV3 ,
the guard of which is entrusted (ver. 5) to the
Becond third, can only be the king's house or pal-
ace, not " the place in the temple where the
young king was (in concealment) " (Keil). The
"Gate HID' ," which was entrusted to the third
third, was, as no one doubts, the same which is
called in Kings (ver. 6) the " Gate "nD t ap-
pears there distinctly as a gate of the tJ.lace.
Probably lio' is only another reading for "HD-
A temple-gate with this name is not mentioned
anywhere else. The D'SD , which the first third
are to guard (ver. 4), might, according to 1 Cliron.
ix. 19, be a locality in the temple, but it is utterly
Impossible that they should be identical, as Keil
assumes, with the "Gate of the Runners" in the
account here beff re us (ver. 6), for this gate is dis-
tinctly mentioned in ver. 19 as the one through
which the king, after the procession had left the
House of Jehovah, was conducted into the palace
According to this account, that gate was guarded
by the third third of that portion of the troops un-
der the command of the centurions which entered
upon duty on that day, and not by priests and le-
vites. who. of course, never mounted guard at the
palace. These variations of the two accounts can-
not be reconciled, and we are absolutely forced to
admit that the Chronicler, although he made some
more detailed extracts from the original document
than the author of the Book of Kings, neverthe-
less did not accurately discriminate between the
priests and levites and the military life-guard, and
did not keep separate the shares of the two in the
transaction. Keil asserts, in order, in spite of
this, to bring the two accounts into accord: Je-
hoiada " determined to carry out the project chiefly
by the aid of the priests and levites, who relieved
each other, in the service of the temple, on the
sabbath, and he entrusted the chief command of
these forces to the captains of the royal life-guard,
that they, with the force of priests and levites
under their command, might take possession of
the approaches to the temple, in order to repel
any attempt of the military to force an entrance,
and might protect the young king. These cap-
tains came into the temple without weapons in order
not to attract attention, therefore Jehoiada gave
them the weapons of king David, which were laid
up in the temple." But the account of the Chron-
icler says nothing of any commission of the com-
mand over the priests and levites to the centu-
rions, and this account directly contradicts any
such notion (see above, on ver. 5), [not to say any-
thing of the very great intrinsic improbability that
any such arrangement — putting military leaders
in command of priestly forces — would ever have
been adopted, or that, if it had, it would have
worked well. — W. G. S.] According to the ac-
count before us it is impossible to exclude the
troops ordinarily under the command of the cen-
turions from a share in the transaction. It was
almost more necessary to get possession of the
palace than of the temple, because the king was
to make his solemn entry into it, and mount the
throne after his coronation. It is not an argu-
ment against the notion that a guard was set over
the palace, that Athaliah came down out of it to
the people in the temple. There was no object in
preventing her from coming out; the guard was
set to prevent any one from gettiug in (riDD ver.
6). There is no force in the citation of Josephus
(Antiq., 7. 14, 7): "Each of the twenty-four
classes of priests took charge of the worship for
eight days from sabbath to satfbath," or in the
observation that "it is not known that any such
arrangement was observed with respect to the
life-guards or any other portion of the army," for
of course all regular guards had to relieve each
other at definite times, and the record 'ays dis-
tinctly that this was the custom of the troops who
were under command of the centurions.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The elevation of Joash to the throne of Judai,
has great importance in the history of redemption,
inasmuch as God's guidance and protection of the
house of David appears in it, and as it is a cod
CHAPTER XI. 1-20.
12?
firmation of the promise given to this house that
it should never be extinguished, and that its light
should never fail (2 Sam. vii. 13 sq. ; 1 Kings xi.
36; xv. 4: 2 Kings viii. 19; cf. Ps. cxxxii. 17). In
the kingdom of Israel the dynasties changed; one
overthrew the other and destroyed it; with Jehu !
the fourth had already begun. In the kingdom of
Judah. on the contrary, the house of David had
maintained itself until this time. But now, when
.Tehu had killed Ahaziah and forty-two of his rela-
tives, and all the remaining royal seed had been
destroyed by Athaliah, it appeared that the line
of David also was at an end. But God wonder-
fully ordered it so that an infant of this house es-
caped the massacre and was saved. He remained
concealed for years, and it must have been believed
that David's lamp had gone out forever, when sud-
denly the sole remaining offshoot of the house of
David ascended the throne, and, with the murder-
ess Athaliah, the last survivor of the house of Ahab
perished. As the fulfilment of the promise to pro-
tect the house of David must have been recognized
in this event, there was .in it at the same time, for
every faithful servant of Jehovah, a pledge that
the God of Israel would protect this house also for
the future in any calamities; and so He did, until
finally, according to the promise, the great " son
of David " came, who was not only the " lamp "
of David, but the light of the world, whose king-
dom shall have no end (Luke i. 32, 33, 69).
2. All the mischief which the relationship con-
tracted by Jehoshaphat with the house of Ahab
(1 Kings xxii., Hist. § 1) had brought upon Ju-
dah, culminated in the reign of Athaliah, which
brought Judah and its royal house to the verge
of ruin. Athaliah was a faithful copy of her
mother Jezebel, fanatical, idolatrous, imperious,
and cruel. As her mother had controlled Ahab,
so she controlled Jehoram and her son Ahaziah.
I', was she who transplanted idolatry into Judah.
which had, until then, been faithful to Jehovah.
Under her influence a temple of Baal was built
in Jerusalem itself. She plundered the temple of
Jehovah and took all the sacred implements for
use in the service of Baal (2 Chron. xxiv. 7). Af-
ter the death of her son she usurped the royal
authority, so that a woman came to sit upon the
throne, a thing which had never taken place be-
fore and never took place afterwards, and which
not only was in direct contradiction with one of
the essential duties which devolved upon a king
of Israel, who, as such, was to be a "servant of
God," but also was contrary to the express pro-
vision of the law. Maimonides, in the tract Me-
lachim, draws this inference, thus : " They place
no woman on the throne, for it is said (Deut. xvii.
15): 'Thou shalt in anywise set him king,' not
queen. So also, in all positions of dignity and au-
thority, they place only men." Athaliah's usur-
pation of the throne was the dissolution of the
Israelitish monarchy. In order to maintain her-
self in her usurped authority, she put to death.
not, lfke other usurpers, her opponents, but those
tvho were connected with her own family, her own
nephews and grandchildren. The ground for this
''senseless crime" (Ewald) cannot be sought in
the fact that she desired to annex Judah to Israel,
for Jehu was reigning there, but only in the blind
and passionate love of power of this " wicked "
woman (2 Chron. xxiv. 7), and in her raging hate
against the house of David, to which all true ser-
vants of Jehovah adhered. For six years she pur-
sued her own courses undisturbed, and believed
herself secure, when finally the legitimate heir to
the throne, who had escaped the massacre by God'a
evident protection, appeared and was anointed
kiug. As her mother Jezebel had stood upon her
majesty in her dealings with Jehu, and -had be-
lieved that she could command, so she came, proud
and insolent, into the house of Jehovah, and, for-
getting the illegitimacy of her own authority,
founded, as it was, solely upon violence, she cried
out: "Treason, treason! " But again, as her mother
had heard her doom pronounced: "Throw her
down ! " so she hears the command : " Have her
forth! and him that followeth her kill with the
sword." As there was no one who took the part
of the hated woman, she died, abandoned by all
her servants, a just and disgraceful death. Thereby
Judah and its royal house were saved. Racine
concludes his tragedy Athalie, with these words :
Par cette fin terrible, et due d ses forfaitx,
Apprenez. roi dee Juifs, et n'oubliez jamais.
Que Us rati dans le ciel out unjuae severe.
L'innocence un vengeur, et Vorphtlin un pert.
3. The high-priest Jehoiada is, for his time, a
very remarkable character. Although, through
his wife Jehosheba, he was connected with the
idolatrous court, and although he was entrusted
with an office which, under the circumstances, was
doubly difficult, yet he held firm and true to the
God of Israel, and to the legitimate dynasty. The
Lord had given the last heir of this line into his
hands, and, at the peril of his life, he protects him
for years in concealment, guarding him as his own
child, and waiting in faith and patience until Je-
hovah shall give means and ways to restore the
apparently exterminated royal house. As the yoke
of the tyrannical woman became more and more
unendurable, he "strengthened himself" [i. e., took
courage, made up his mind] (2 Chron. xxiii. 1), and
put his hand to the work. He did not wish to open
the way to the throne for the young heir by deceit
or craft, by cruelty and bloodshed. In the first
place lie admits the captains of the military guard
into the secret, and makes sure of their assistance;
then he causes the priests and levites, and the
heads of all the families, i. «., the representatives
of the people, to be summoned to Jerusalem for a
public festival. He does'not wish to do anything
by himself alone, but with the consent of the dif-
ferent classes among the entire people. His plan
bears witness, not only to his wisdom and pru-
dence, but also to his patriotism. He takes all his
measures in such a way that the end is accom
plished without tumult or violence, but yet withom
chance of failure. It is not selfishness and love
of power, but pure and disinterested love to Jeho-
vah and to His people which is his motive. Only
when Athaliah stigmatizes the restoration of the
legitimate order of things as treason and insurrec-
tion, puts herself on the defensive, and calls for
armed opposition to the movement, does he give
orders to lead the crowned monster, as Dereser
justly calls her. out of the sanctuary, and deliver
her over to her well-deserved fate. His next care
then is to renew the covenant between the king
and people, exhorting the former to fidelity to the
law, and the latter to fidelity to the kiug. Then
finally he leads the king to the throne, and the
people put an end to the idol-worship. If ever »
12S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
man stood pure and blameless in the midst of such
a bold, difficult, and far-reaching enterprise, then
Jehoiada, the ideal Israelitish priest, did so here.
4. Our modern historians see, in the deration of
the descendant of David to the thront of his fathers,
a priest-revolution, just as they see, in the eleva-
tion of Jehu, a prophet-revolution. So Duncker
(Gesch. d. Alt., s. 417), whom Weber (Gesch., s. 241)
follows, states it thus: ''The priests of the tem-
ple at Jerusalem had yielded to the foreign wor-
ship ninth mere easily than the prophets in Israel.
The example and the success of the latter grad-
ually exercised an influence upon Judah. After
the prophets of Israel had brought about the ruin
of the house of Omri, the priests tried to over-
throw the last remnant of this family in Judah
also. . . . The fall of Joram of Israel, and
perhaps also the hope of finding in Joash, the son
•of Ahaziah, whom the priests held in concealment
from Athaliah in the temple, an easy tool for
priestly influence, induced the high-priest Jehoiada
to undertake the overthrow of the queen." Winer
(R.-W.-B., i. s. Ill) also presents the incident in a
similar manner: "The priests saved her (Atha-
liah's) grandson, Joash, with the help of a princess,
in the temple. When he had grown up he was
secretly anointed king, and Athaliah was put to
death in a popular insurrection excited by the
priests." Here we have another specimen of that
history-making which ignores what the text says,
and states, as assured historical fact, that which
it does not say. That the priests in Judah gave
way more easily to the Baal-worship than the
prophets of Israel ; that they, encouraged by the
example and success of the latter, dethroned and
murdered Athaliah, and regarded Joash as one
who would probably prove an easy tool in their
hands ; that the priests saved Joash and hid him
in the temple; that he was secretly anointed king,
and that then a popular rising was instigated by
the priests ; of all that, there is nothing in either
record. On the contrary, both agree in stating that
the sister of king Ahaziah, without any assistance
from the priests, took away the infant, and hid him
in the palace itself, in the bed store-room, and that
she then hid him, for greater security, in the tem-
ple, which was under the charge of her husband,
the high-priest. These two near relatives of the
prince were, for six years, the only ones who knew
of his existence. Not until the seventh year did
Jehoiada admit any one to the secret, and then not
the priests, but the captains of the military guard,
and he took of them an oath of secrecy. They it
was who summoned the chiefs of the people, and
the priests, and the levites, to the festival at Jeru-
salem, and who took the lead in carrying out the
plan. The young prince was not anointed "secretly,"
but as openly as possible. Not only the priests,
but also the captains of the royal guard, the rep-
resentatives of the people, and the people them-
selves, shouted their acclamations to the new king.
The coronation took place without violence, with-
out any scene of public disturbance. The city is
quiet, and the people joyful (ver. 20). How can
any one then speak of a " popular rising instigated
ry the priests?" Criticism here comes into con-
tradiction with itself. It declares the record in
Chronicles unreliable and nnhistorical, because it
gives such prominence to the participation of the
priests and levites, whereas the record in Kings
on y mentions the captains of the guard, and yet
it says that the entire enterprise was conducted
by the priests. But it is radically perverse and
false to regard the incident as a revolution or a re-
volt. That Athaliah, as even De Wetto expresses
it, "usurped the throne of David," that she took
the royal authority into her own hands, that she
destroyed all the remaining seed-royal, tltat was a
revolution. What Jehoiada undertook, not by
himself, but in harmony with all ranks, and with
the representatives of the people, was a repeal
of the revolution, and a restoration of the con-
stitutional, divine as well as human, order. It
would have been contrary to conscience and to
duty, if Jehoiada had gone down to the grave
with the secret that there was yet living a legiti-
mate heir of the throne of David. It was mos;
natural that he should take the initiative in thi
restoration of the legitimate monarchy, because
he had the prince under his care, and no one knew
anything about him but Jehoiada and his wife.
Moreover, it was doubly his duty, as chief of those
whose calling it was to guard and teach the law,
i. e., the covenant of God with Israel (Mai. ii. 1 ;
Deut. xxxiii. 10 ; Levit. x. 11), to labor to the end
that the organic law of the kingdom, which was
a theocracy, should be maintained ; and, when this
law was trodden under foot by the usurping sov-
ereign, no one was so much bound as he to re-
store it, that is, to renew the covenant. In the
kingdom of Israel, where, since Jeroboam, there
was no longer any lawful priesthood (2 Chron. xi.
13 sq.), it was the prophets who had to watch
over the covenant of Jehovah and to fight for it.
In Judah, on the contrary, " the diminished and
weakened priesthood, together with the true Je-
hovah-prophets, had to form the opposition to the
patronage of paganism " (Ewald). Jehoiada's en-
terprise did not aim to bring about the dominion
of the priesthood, but that of the legitimate the-
ocratic dynasty. He, therefore, turned first to the
servants of the crown for assistance — aimed to have
the new king inaugurated by their power. After
this was accomplished, he restored the priestly
offices. He aimed at nothing more and nothing
less than the restoration of the original theocratic
constitution.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-3. Queen Athaliah. (a) Her wicked
plans, ver. 1. (Idolatrous and fond of power, like
her mother Jezebel, she takes the royal authority
into her own hands, in self-will and contrary to
right, and murders all the male seed, in orier t*
put an end forever to the house of David. Wurt.
Summ. : We see here whither ambition and love of
rule may lead men. Athaliah does not spare hei
own innocent grandchildren, but causes them to
be put to death, only in order that she may be
called queen, and may remain such. Sir. iii. 29
sq.). (b) The frustration of her plans, vers. 2 and
3. (Job v. 12; Ps. ii. 4; xxxiii. 10. Wurt.
Summ : No one can tread down him whom God
sustains. Thus, Pharaoh would have been glad
to destroy Israel ; Saul would have slain David ,
Herod, the child Jesus ; they could not accomplish
it, however; they only injured themselves and
perished, just as Athaliah did also.) — Ver. 1. Je-
hoshaphat's marriage of his son with a daughter of
the house of Aliab. although lie b -ought it aboui
l,nAPTER XI. 1-20.
129
in a good intention, produced the result that Atha-
liah ruled over Judah, and brought the dynasty of
David to the brink of ruin. Neue WCrt. Si'mm. :
So, many a quiet, humble, God-fearing family lias
been brought into calamities, affecting both body
and soul, by a thoughtless marriage. The hope
that those who are brought up by godless parents
will themselves reform and turn to the fear of
God has very slight foundation. — Vers. 1-4.
Krummacher: King Joash. (a) The great dan-
ger which threatened him; (b) but how gloriously
he was protected, and (c) how high he was ele-
vated.— Ver. 1. When she saw, &c That which
should have made her hesitate and bow in hu-
mility to God's judgment, only made her insolent
and blood-thirsty. That is the judgment which
obstinacy and wilfulness bring upon themselves.
— Ver. 2. Calw. Bib. : We have an instance in
Jehosheba how, even in the midst of godlessness
in a family, any one who will can make an excep-
tion.— Jehosheba stole him. That was not " steal-
ing " the child, but saving him. What can a
woman do better and nobler than to save an in-
fant child from danger of soul and body, and take
him under her protection for the sake of God and
His promises? — Ver. 3. "He that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep." He watches
over helpless infants, and holds His protecting
hand over them (Matt, xviii. 10; Ps. xci. 11-13). —
Khl'mmacher: Joash is a voiceless, yet a mighty,
preacher of the security of the elect of God. —
When the godless appear to have succeeded in
the attainment of their objects, and believe that
they have conquered, the very moment of their
victory is the unperceived commencement of their
ruin. The cross of Christ was the victory of His
enemies, but this very victory was what brought
about their total defeat.
Vers. 4-12. Joash's Elevation to the Throne.
(«) How it was determined upon and prepared,
vers. 4-8. (Jehoiada took the initiative in it, for
it was his right and duty. It was no rebellion and
conspiracy against a just authority, but a fact by
itself. Rebels violate law and right in order
that they may rule ; Jehoiada restored law and
right, and did not wish to rule ; he remained
what he was. He conducted himself with cour-
age, but also with wisdom and prudence. See
Historical, § 3). (b) How it was carried out and
accomplished, vers. 9-12. (With the participation
and approval of the different classes of the entire
people, without conspiracy, bloodshed, or vio-
lence; in the house of God, whose servant the
king was ; the crown and the law were given
into his hands ; he was anointed ; significant sym-
bols of his calling as king of the people of God )
— Ver. 4. Jehoiada, a faithful priest, such as is
pleasing to God (1 Sam. ii. 35). It is not hard to
proclaim the word of God, when the mighty and
great of this world hold to it, but the faithfulness
which is needed in the stewards of God's mys-
teries is that which wUl not be stayed or im-
paired, when the great of this world despise and
persecute the word ; which will sad against the
wind of courtly or popular favor, and will perse-
vere in patience (1 Cor. iv. 1, 2). — WiJET. Scmm. :
The servants of the Church in the New Testament
have not the same calling as the high-priests in
the Did, so that they have not to meddle with
worldly affairs. — Where spiritual and worldly au-
thority go hand in hand, where both unite for the
sake of God and for His cause, there the Lord
gives blessing and prosperity. — Ver. 5 sq. Ky-
burz : Jehoiada teaches us by his example that
we ought not to shun either danger or labor in a
just cause, but also that we should go prudently
to work. — Ver. 9 sq. To take weapons in hand
and risk one's life for oue's country, redounds to
the glory and honor of any nation. — Ver. 12. The
word of God says: "By me princes rule, and no-
bles, even all the judges of the earth" (Prov. viii.
16). Therefore kings should be crowned in the
house of God. Starke: The crown and the law
of the Lord belong together. God give to Chris-
tendom princes who love His Word I
Vers. 13-16. Athaliah's Fall, (a) Her last
appearance, vers. 13, 14. (She comes boldly and
impudently into the midst of the people, blinded to
their disposition towards her. Insolently relying
upon her imagined majesty, she commands resist-
ance to the movement which is in progress — a
faithful type of many tyrants. Pride goes be-
fore a fall.) (6) Her terrible end, vers. 15, 16.
(Abandoned, despised, and hated by all the peo-
ple, who rejoice over her fall, she goes to meet
her doom, and receives the fate which her deeds
deserve. "All they that take the sword," &c.
Matt. xxvi. 52. She is punished by that by which
she had sinned.) — And all the people rejoiced.
That was no forced joy, produced at command,
but a natural and sincere joy. It is great good
fortune for a people when its dynasty is pre-
served. It may and ought to rejoice in the house
of God, when God has released it from tyranny
and usurpation. — Ktburz: Sedition! treason I is
the cry of Joram, Jezebel, and Athaliah, and of
all those who are themselves most to blame for it
(Acts xxiv. 5).
Vers. 17-20. The Results of Athaliah's Fall.
(a) The renewal of the covenant, ver. 17 ; (5)
the destruction of the Baal-worship, vers. 18, 19;
(c) the rest and peace of the land. — Ver. 17. The
abolition and extermination of all which is bad
and perverse is necessary, but it is beneficial only
when the construction of what is true and good is
added to it (Jer. i. 10). The reformers of the six-
teenth century not only denied and protested, but
at the same time they also laid the foundation,
other than which none can be laid, and on this they
built the Church. — The covenant which Jehoiada
renewed, (a) The covenant of the king and the
people with God. (The basis and fountain of all
national prosperity. An irreligious state is a folly
and an impossibility ; it is no-thing.) (6) The
covenant between king and people. (It is built
upon the former. There is prosperity in a coun-
try only when the prince rules before and with
God, and the people is obedient through obedience
to God. Without this fundamental condition all
constitutions, laws, and institutions, however good
they may appear, are useless.) Lange : No rela-
tion of subjects and rulers is sound if it has not
the covenant with God as its basis on either side.
— Ver. 1 8. " The zeal of thine house " (John ii.
17). That applies here to an entire people. (Calw.
Bibel : It is a grand national event when a people
destroys its idols.) He who stands by God and
His word tolerates neither gross nor refined idola-
try. Where there is decided *aith in the living
God, the altars of the false gods fall of them-
selves.— The offices in the House of God. God is
a God of order, therefore these offices are neces-
13U THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
sary (Eph. iv. 11, 12).— Vers. 19, 20. Wukt.
Svjmm. : Where there are pious and faithful rulers,
the people should rejoice, should thank God for
them, and pray fervently to him for their pro-
longed life, so that they may lead a peaceful ami
godly life under their government. — Ter. 20
Starke : Governments which are founded it
blood always end disastrously.
C. — The reign of Joaah {or Jehoash).
Chap. XI. 21-XII. 21 (2 Chbon. XXIT.).
21 Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.
XII. 1 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign ; and forty years
2 reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And
Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days wherein [be*
3 cause] Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away.
4 the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. And Jehoash said
to the priests, All the [consecrated] money [omit of the dedicated things] that is
[wont to be] brought into the house of the Lord, even the money of every one that
passeth the account [current money, both'], the money that every man is set at, and
all the money that cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the
5 Lord, let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance : and let them
repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach [every defect which] '
6 shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Je-
7 hoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. Then king Jehoash
called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why
repair ye not the breaches of the house ? now therefore receive no more money
of your acquaintance, but [save that ye] deliver it for the breaches of the house.
8 And the priests consented to receive 3 no more money of the people, neither to
9 repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest,3 and
bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one
cometh into the house of the Lord : and the priests that kept the door put
10 therein all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. And it was so,
when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and
the high priest came up, and they put [it] up in bags, and told the money that
1 1 was found in the house of the Lord. And they gave the money, being told,
into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house
of the Lord : and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought
12 upon the house of the Lord, and to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy tim-
ber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord, and for all
13 that was laid out for the house to repair' it. Howbeit there were not made for
the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers, basins [for sprinkling], trumpets,
any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the
14 house of the Lord: but they gave that to the workmen [commissioners], and
15 repaired therewith the house of the Lord. Moreover they reckoned not with
the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on work-
16 men: for they dealt faithfully. The trespass-money and sin-money was not
brought into the house of the Lord : it was the priests'.
17 Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it.
18 and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash king of Judah
took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehorara, and Ahaziah, his
fathers, kin^s of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the
gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and in the king's
house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria : and he went away from Jerusalem
19
20
21
CHAPTER XII. 1-21.
L3]
And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written
in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And his servants arose,
and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down
to Silla. For Jozachar the son of Shiraeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer,
his servants, smote him, and he died ; and they buried him with his fathers in
the city of David : and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
> Ver. 5 (6 of the Hebrew text).— [y>1Z at the end is a predicate defining ItW , all which thall It found . .
defective, i. «.. all the defective places which shall be found. Cf. chap. viii. 12.
i Ver. 8 (9).— [nnp fur Finp , the feni. inf. shortened before makkeph. Cf. Ewald, § 213, a.
3 ver. 9 (10).— [inX tilK — nnS is commonly adjective, but is sometimes used as a dependent substantive, as here.
' " *Ver! 12 (13).-[npTn , fern, abstract subst In verbs which denote a state we find that the infln. is often supplanted
by the subst. which expresses the abstract of the verbal idea. " For repairs" = to repair, with which, however, the
•abject must be supplied (Boucher, § 277, 8).— W. G. S.]
EXEGET1CAL AND CRITICAL.
Ter. 21. Jehoash was seven years old, &c
The parallel record in 2 Chron. xxiv. is indeed
more detailed than the one before us, and supple-
ments it in some essential particulars, but it is not
by any means an " actual transmutation " of it
<Berth'eau|. Both accounts may well have been
drawn from the same original document, since they
are word for word the same in some parts. — The
name of the mother of Jehoash is given, as is usual
in regard to the kings of Judah throughout the
history. On Beersheba see note on 1 Kings xix.
3.— The words in ver. 2 : All his days that Je-
hoiada the priest instructed him, cannot have
the sense that Jehoash did, his whole life long,
that which was right in the sight of God (Thenius,
Ewald), for this was not true in view of what is
related in 2 Chron. xxiv. 17-25, which is confirmed
by Matt, xxiii. 35, and which Thenius himself ad-
mits must have " historical foundation.'' The Chron-
icler writes : " All the days of Jehoiada the priest,"
i. e., so long as Jehoiada "lived. The sense is, there-
fore, that Jehoash did what was right because, and
so long as, Jehoiada was his instructor. Jlence
the Sept. translate; TracaQ raf t//ifpaC, «C if"-
rtCev avrbii 'loiarie 6 lepeiir; and the Vulgate : cunc-
tis dieitis, quibtts docuit eum Jojada sacerdos; so
also De Wette and Luther [and the E. V.]. Keil:
" All his days that, i. e., all that part of his life in
which Jehoiada instructed or guided him." For
the use of TU"S he refers to Ew. § 331, c, 3. [The
suffix is repeated after iti'X except in general ex-
pressions of time, place, and manner.] For the
suffix in TO' he refers to chap. xiii. 14. The ath-
nach cannot be held to be decisive in this case.
For the rest, it does not follow, when we trans-
late : " All his days, because Jehoiada instructed
him," that he continued to do well even after
Jehoiada's death. Grotius remarks on the state-
ment: "Sic bonus Kero, . quamdiu Seneca usus est
mugistro. [If the suffix in W is retained, then
the massoretic punctuation is correct ; the athnach
has its ordinary force; 1L"X must be translated
" because ; " and the sense is that he was a good
king all his life long, because of the good instruc-
tion which he receive! in his youth from Jehoiada.
Thatisthe simple grammatical statement of the book
of Kings. If the 1 at the end of W can be sac-
rificed, then the athnach must be removed and Je-
hoiada is a genitive depending on 'O' • Let it be
observed that this suffix is neglected in the ver-
sions of the Chron., Sept., and Vulg., quoted above.
The sense then is that he was good as long as Je-
hoiada lived. This last has in its favor that it is
consistent with the account in Chron. Bahr trans-
lates by "because," preserving the suffix in V0\
and tries to interpret the other meaning into this
translation. The words: "He did well all his
days, because Jehoiada was his instructor," would
never suggest that he ceased to do well after his
teacher died. This attempt is fruitless, and we
must make choice between the alternatives pre-
sented above — either to sacrifice the suffix in VD' ,
and bring the account here into consistency with
that in Chron., or to hold to the text and admit the
discrepancy. It is a proceeding which a sound
criticism cannot approve, to alter the text in the
interest of supposed reconciliations. The render-
ing of the E. Y. saves the suffix, and still produces
the other sense by translating "i^'X , " wherein,"
but this is entirely contrary to the usage of the
language. It would require a prep, and suffix af-
ter T."K, referring back to VI3'— "v?. G. S.] On
sacrifices on the high places, see note on 1 Kings
iii. 2.
Ver. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests, Ac.
The temple had fallen out of repair, not so much
on account of its age (it had only been standing
for 130 years) as because it had not been properly
preserved under the previous reigns, nay, even had
been injured by Athaliah and her sons, and the
money intended to keep it in repair had been mis-
appropriated to the worship of Baal (2 Chron. xxiv.
7). The king therefore called upon the priests,
whose calling it was, to take measures for the res-
toration and repair of the building, and, to this end,
to collect the same tax which Moses had once laid
for the purpose of building the tabernacle (2 Chron.
xxiv. 0). Ul LTtri^n f)D3 ^3, t. e., all the silver
which was wont to be brought in- o the sanctuary
and to be given for its purposes. This is now dn.
132
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
fined more particularly by the following words,
"OJ! ^DS , '• e., not " floating money," irregular
income, money from mere accidental gifts (Ewald),
but current money (Luther: das gang und gebt ist
Cf. Gen. xxiii. 16, where the expression cannot be
taken in any other way). It does not mean coined
money, for the Hebrews had no coined money be-
fore the exile, so far as we know, but pieces of
silver which had a fixed weight, and which were
weighed out from man to man in the transaction of
business. The reason why this kind of money was
called for was, that " it was to be paid out at once to
mechanics for their labor " (Thenius). Keil, follow-
ing the rabbis, insists upon the translation : " money
of the numbered," referring back to Ex. xxx. 13 sj.
(DHParrijJ? "l2J?i"H>3) ; but against this translation
there is the decisive consideration that it does not
say : " money of him who passeth among the num-
bered," but simply : "money which passes over,"
that is, which passes from hand to hand in the
transaction of affairs. The special cases are then
mentioned in which this kind of money usually
came into the treasury. The first is the one men-
tioned and ordained Lev. xxvii. 2 sq. (cf. Numb,
xviii. 15), when any one fulfilled a vow. In this
case, the priest had to fix the sum to be paid ac-
cording to the sex, age, &c. of the one who had
made the vow. This ransom was appropriated in
the time of Moses to the support of the sanctuary.
The second case was where any one brought money
as a gift to the sanctuary of his own free will. —
According to the account in 2 Chron., the king
ordered the priests to go out through the cities of
Judah, a.id to collect the tax year by year. This
does not contradict the statement before us, but
rat her serves to explain the words in ver. 5 : " every
man of his acquaintance." The dependence was
upon free-will offerings, as was the case in refer-
ence to the tabernacle (Ex. xxxv. 21); the priests
and levites were to exert themselves to collect
these, each one in his own city and in his own cir-
cle. It is to be observed that the king did not de-
mand of the priests that they should give up, for
the repairs of the temple, any income which prop-
eny came to themselves, but that he only laid
claim, for this purpose, to the funds which Moses
had ordained should be used in this way.
Ver. 6. But it was so, that in the three and
twentieth year, &c. According to 2 Chron. xxiv.
6, the king had commanded the priests to hasten,
" but they did not hasten." Even in the 23d year of
the reign of Jehoash, i. e., in the year in which
there was a change of occupant of the throne of
Israel (chap. xiii. 1), the priests had not yet at-
tended to the repairs of the temple, or, at best,
had only attended to them very imperfectly. We
cannot tell how long before his 23d year he had
commanded them to see to it, but it was certainly
not in his first year, when he was only seven years
old. He now proposes that he will take the mat-
ter into his own hands, and adopt other measures
for accomplishing it, to which they agree. This
interpretation is enforced by inx' , ver. 8: "they
consented" (Sept., eirve<p&n/aav, cf. Gen. xxxiv. 15,
22, 23), which cannot possibly mean : "They were
obliged to yield to the determination of the king "
(Thenius). inpn and the following words, ver. 7,
" It wai placed njJC'3 of the House of the Lord,
do not contain a strict command, but rather a pro-
posal : nolite ergo amplius accipere (Vulg.), other
wise the corresponding statement would be that
they "obeyed," not that they "consented." Only
after the king had taken the matter into his owi
hands did he give orders (2 Chron. xxiv. 8) to make
a chest, &c. [The commentators differ widely iD
their judgment of the conduct of the priests in
this matter, some seizing eagerly upon an incident
winch reflects discreditably upon them, others in-
sisting upon a construction which shall exonerate
them entirely. Bahr does not take up the point
distinctly in this place. Yet ver. 8 is very obscure,
and it is important for its elucidation to understand;
the attitude of the priests. The disposition of the
priests is the key to the situation, and the correct
conception of that point is the key to the correct
exegesis of the verse. The impression is una-
voidable that the first effort failed because it was in
the hands of the priests. The payments in liqui-
dation of vows were appropriated to the support
of the worship. According to the Chronicler an
especial deniaud was made for free-will offerings
for the repairs, and " that which it came into the-
heart of any man to give" must be understood of
offerings for this special end. Otherwise we might
think that it referred simply to pious gifts, which
the priests were wont to retain for themselves,,
and which the giver expected that they would re-
tain. If we adopt the statement of the Chronicler,,
then, it is clear that the priests could not have
used the money for themselves without embezzle-
ment. In any case the re-appropriation to the re-
pairs of the temple of sums which they had proba-
bly been using for some time (especially during the:
prevalence of idolatry) for their own support, must
have curtailed their resources. That they gave'
them up willingly, is not to be supposed. Sums
thus appropriated, but left in the administration
of persons all whose interests were opposed to this
use, would not probably be found to suffice for an
energetic prosecution of the work. This would
also ■heck the zeal, and stop the offerings, of the
people. The systematic revenue of the priests-
under the Mosaic constitution had been broken up
during the time of apostasy ; they had been obliged
to make use of all the revenues of whatever kind
for their own support ; and the incident does not
seem, when viewed fairly, to prove any extraor-
dinary selfishness on their part. The king now,
seeing that the measures he had taken to accom-
plish his object had only served to frustrate it, or-
dered them not to receive any more money for them-
selves, but to devote all they received to this object.
Between vers. 7 and 8 a discussion must be under-
stood in which the priests explained the defects in
the practical workings of this scheme, and the re-
sult was an agreement that they should neither
serve as collectors of the money nor be responsi
ble for the repairs. They put the whole matter out
of their hands. (See Bistor. § 3.)— W. G. S.]
Ver. 9. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest,
&.C. The king did not even now exclude the priests
from all share in the work, but took his measures in
conjunction with the chief-priest, and also appointed
" the priests that kept the door " to receive the
money. The chest had a hole in its lid, into which
the money was dropped. It was locked, and was
only opened when it was full. Its position was by
the side of the altar, on the right as one entered-
the temple. Instead of this we read in Chronicles.
CHAPTER XII. 1-21.
133
nvin , i- e., " outside." It did not, therefore, stand
in the middle of the priests' court (Thenius), but
outside of it, at the entrance-gate which was on its
right. According to 2 Chron. xxiv. 9 and 10, the
king caused this arrangement to be proclaimed
throughout the whole country; it was joyfully
heard, and the people now gave abundantly. [The
most reasonable explanation of this is, that, under
the new arrangement, a man saw his gift placed in
the chest. He knew that this was inaccessible to
all except the appointed officers, and that his gift
was, therefore, sure to be applied to the object for
which he gave it. The share of the priests was
reduced to the mechanical duty of receiving the
money and placing it in the chest. — W. G. S.]
When the chest was full, the priest sent his scribe,
i. e., a civil secretary, and, in his presence, the
chest was opened. This " was done, not out of
distrust of the priests, but because the repairs were
a matter of state interest, and not merely an affair
of the priests. The temple was the chief sanctuary
of the nation, of the theocracy, and it was under
the supervision of the king" (Lisco). The money
was bound up in bags and counted (cf. 2 Kings v.
23). (The Chronicler has njH for V15P1 , i. e., they
emptied out. So the Vulg. also on the verse before
us : efiundebantque et numerabant pecuniam.) " The
binding up in bags is mentioned before the count-
ing because the pieces were not counted separately.
They were bound up in bags and these were weighed
in order thus to estimate the sum which had been re-
ceived " (Keil). — Them . . . that had the oversight
of the House of the Lord, to whom the money
was given (ver. 11), are those who had to oversee
the building. According to 2 Chron. xxxiv. 12,
they were levites. The keri D'TpSDH is supported
by 2 Kings xxii. v. The sense remains the same.
These overseers then paid the wages to the arti-
sans of different kinds, and purchased the neces-
sary building materials. — The statement in vers.
13 and 14 does not contradict 2 Chron. xxiv. 14.
It is there stated that, when the building was fin-
ished, and still some money remained, this was
placed at the disposition of the king and the high-
priest, who used it to procure gold and silver uten-
sds. On these utensils, see 1 Kings vii. 50. — No
accounts were demanded of the overseers of the
building, we are told in ver. 15, because they were
implicitly trusted. 2 Kings xxii. 7 shows that there
is no reference here to a presumed infidelity of the
priests, for the same words are used there, where
the priests had not had anything at all to do with
the work. It is only intended to call attention to
the conscientiousness with which this work was
taken in hand, inasmuch as the most trustworthy
men were charged with it. The remark in ver. 16
has a similar object, viz., to show that the priests
did not suffer on account of the new arrangement,
but that the revenues which properly belonged to
them, those from the trespass-offerings and the sin-
offerings, were still given to them. On the trespass-
offerings, see Numb. v. 8 sq., and Levit. v. 16. Ac-
cording to the law, the priest received no money
from the sin-offering. We must, therefore, sup-
pose that it had become customary to give them a
voluntary gift of money besides the flesh of the
sacrifice (Levit. vi. 24).
Ver. 17. Then Hazael, king of Syria, went
up, 4c. This expedition belongs to the time when
Jehoiada was already dead, and Jehoash had
fallen into sin, as is clear from 2 CLron. xxiv. 15-
22. As Gath, one of the five cities of the Philis
tines (Josh. xiii. 3), lay much farther south that
Samaria, and was almost due west of Jerusalem
towards the sea-coast, this expedition against it
forces us to assume that Israel had been already
conquered by Hazael (chap. xiii. 3). We musl
leave undecided whether Gath at that time be-
longed to Judah, or had fallen again into the pos-
session of the Philistines. As Jerusalem was not
far off, the conqueror was led to attack it next,,
but he was induced, by the surrender of the
treasures, to withdraw. It is certain that 2 Chron
xxiv. 23 sq. does not refer to another, earlier ex-
pedition, as Thenius asserts. That account does-
not contradict the one before us; on the contrary
it supplements it ''most fittingly, for it is very im-
probable a priori that Jehoash purchased peace
by this heavy sacrifice, until after he had suffered
the shameful defeat of which the Chronicler gives
an account. Moreover, the fact that the Syrians
withdrew without prosecuting their victory far-
ther is explained by this peace thus purchased "
(Bertheau).
Ver. 18. And Jehoash took all the
hallowed things, &c. Clericus answers, the ques-
tion why, if there was such a store of these valua-
ble articles, they were not used for the repairs, in-
stead of collecting taxes and offerings;, as follows t
Credibile est, res consecrates, quorum hie fit mentio,
vasa fuisse sacra, quae vendere aut in monetam con-
stare et cudere nokbant, ut servarentur in extremal
necessitatis casus, qualis hie erat, ubi Jerosolymee et
totius regni agebatur. In regard to the implied
statement that offerings had been dedicated by
Jehoram and Ahaziah, who walked in the way of
the house of Ahab (chap. viii. IS, 27), let it be ob-
served that these kings did not formally abolish
the worship of Jehovah, but only introduced the
worship of Baal by the side of it, and, in order not
to come into an open conflict with the people and
the influential priesthood, they even made offer-
ings to the temple of Jehovah. The utensils,
which, aecordiug to 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. Athaliah
and her sons had taken from the temple, and mis-
appropriated to the service of Baal, " had no doubt
been restored to their original purpose before the
occasion mentioned in chap. xi. 18" (Thenius).
Ver. 20. And his servants arose, ic. The
Chronicler here gives a very essential addition to.
the narrative. He states in detail the reasons for
the conspiracy, and the occasion of it. The con-
spirators murdered the king in his bed. where he
was confined by wounds, probably by those re-
ceived in the war with the Syrians. — }<?to TV2
Thenius translates: " In the castle-palace." Millo
was a castle or tower, it is true (see above, note
on 1 Kings ix. 15 ; cf. 2 Sam. v. 9), but JV3 can
hardly refer to a particular building inside this
castle. If it did, we should need to have iiyori ,
with the article, as in the other places. As a
complete fortress in itself, Millo might be called
)V3 . The more definite description x^D TW1 i«
itself obscure. No one of the explanations pro
posed deserves decided preference to the others
All the old versions take tOD as a proper name.
134
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and this certainly seems more correct than to con-
sider it ide-tical with n^DD , a street, as Grotius
and Thenius do, or with D?D , slope or ascent, as
Ewald does. — In ver. 21, instead of : " Jozachar,
the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of
Shomer," the Chronicler has : " Zabad, the son of
Shimeath, an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad, the
son of Shimrith, a Moabitess." We must give the
preference to this latter statement as the more
complete, for the designation of the two mothers
instead of the two fathers, as an Ammonitess and
a Moabitess, cannot be an invention of the Chron-
icler, but is taken from the original document.
Perhaps it is stated to show that the murderers
were not of Jewish descent, but came from foreign
mothers. "121 is a mistake for "DT, and this is a
shorter form for 1311' " (Keil), and -|tX" may have
arisen from the defective form miX" by dropping
the n • [" Although the names (as given in Kings)
are certainly historical, yet it is very remarkable
that the etymology of them, Jehovah-remembers,
son of Hearing, and Jehovah-awards, son of Watch-
er, suggests the last words of Zechariah : ' Jeho-
vah sees it and will requite it' " (Thenius).] The
further statement of the Chronicler: "and they
buried him in the city of David, but they buried
him not in the sepulchres of the kings," does not
contradict this record. "He was buried in the
city of David, where his fathers were buried, but
not in the sepulchres of the kings" (Bertheau),
probably on account of the action mentioned in
2 Chron. xxiv. 17 sq.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The author chooses out of the history of the
forty years' reign of Jehoash the restoration of the
temple, of which he speaks particularly, and
passes over the other incidents which the Chron-
i,l.-r narrates. He would hardly have done this
if he had seen in this restoration nothing more
than a matter of ordinary business routine, a ne-
cessity which had arisen in the course of time.
The temple, as the dwelling of Jehovah in the
midst of His people, is the visible sign and pledge
of the covenant (see note on the Temple after the
Exeg. section on 1 Kings vi.). The covenant of
Jehovah was solemnly restored and renewed at
the elevation of the rescued scion of the house
of David to the throne, and the temple, the sign
and pledge of this covenant, which had become
dilapidated, and had been plundered, under Jeho-
ram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah, could not be left in
that condition. On the contrary, it must be the
chief task of the new king of the dynasty of Da-
vid, who had sworn to the covenant on his acces-
sion, to restore the temple during his reign. As
David was the founder, and Solomon the builder,
of the House of Jehovah, so Jehoash, with whom
the House of David recommenced, as it were, was
the restorer of the sanctuary. We have here,
therefore, a theocratic action, a physical confes-
sion of faith, and a seal upon the renewal and res-
toration of the covenant. This is why it is so es-
pecially mentioned as the most important incident
in the reign of Jehoash. The reason why Jeho-
ash, when he undertook the restoration of the
temple, unquestionably at the instigation of Je-
hoiada, did not carry out the work at the expens«
of the royal treasury, but called upon the whole
people to contribute, as Moses had once done foi
the tabernacle (Exod. xxv. 2-9), was not that
" the crown was not then by any means able, as
it had been in Solomon's time, to carry out such
works by itself " (Ewald), but rather, in order that
the entire people might give a physical proof that
it had renewed the covenant with Jehovah (chap
xi. 17).
2. King Jehoash was not by any means a ruler
who was distinguished for intellect and strength.
Lack of independence, and moral weakness, were
the most noticeable features of his character. He
had in Jehoiada the support which he needed.
After the death of this counsellor and guide, he
became, although he was already advanced in life,
vacillating, and fell into evil courses. It was a
great weakness on the part of one who had re-
newed the covenant with Jehovah, and rebuilt the
temple, to yield to the entreaties of the chiefs of
Judah, who flattered him by their cringing sub-
missiveness, and to allow them (2 Chron. xxiv.
17 sq.) the forbidden, lascivious worship of As-
tarte (see Exeg. on 1 Kings xi. 5). It was some-
thin" more than weakness that he caused Zecha-
riah, the son of his former counsellor, to be
stoned, when he condemned this mistaken course,
and predicted calamity (2 Chron. xxiv. 20 sq.).
No less weak was his conduct in his dealings
with Hazael. Djstead of making a vigorous op-
position to him, trusting in God, as Hezekiah did
(chap, xix.), he surrendered to him, although he
had only a small force, all the consecrated offer-
ings which his ancestors had made to the temple,
and all those which he himself had dedicated up
to this point in his reign, in order to induce him
to withdraw (ver. 18 sq. ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 24). [Ob-
serve, however, the Exegetical note on ver. 17,
quotation from Bertheau, at the end. — W. G. S.j
It is very possible that he had embittered the
people against him by all this, and thus given
occasion for the conspiracy, as a result of which
he fell. " He was the first king of Judah who
came to a violent end at the hands of his own sub-
jects, and the discontent was so great that he was
not even buried in the royal sepulchres. Such
was the disgraceful end of one whose childhood
was marked by such wonderful providences"
(Schlier). He shows us, by his example, whither
weakness in a prince may lead. It is not only a
something wanting, but it is the weightiest sin.
Ewald contradicts himself when he says, basing
the statement upon VD,"i>3 > ver. 2 : "He adopted
T T T
the principles of his teacher with such docility
that he remained true to them even after he came
of age," and then says again, a few pages further
on: " Heathenism may indeed have gained a foot-
ing again under his weak rule." This view also
contradicts the statement in 2 Chron. xxiv. 22,
whose historical truth is admitted. Thenius also
forces the words VD,_i>3 in such a way that he
calls Jehoash a " praiseworthy king," and speaks
of his "good reign," and of his "continuous good
conduct." In regard to the narrative of the
Chronicler, which is inconsistent with this view,
he remarks, giving it a strained and unnatural con-
struction : " Probably this command (to stone Zech-
ariah) was given by Jehoash m a moment of rage,
CHAPTER XII. 1-21.
135
and W3S forced from him, as it were, by Zeeha-
riah's enemies." But, even if we let this pas?, the
" purchase of a peace from Hazael by a shameful
surrender" was not the act of a "praiseworthy
king: " and the murder of Jehoash was not a "mere
act of revenge." The pains which are taken to
present this icing in any other light than that in
which he appears in these two biblical records, are
all spent in vain. The opinion that " Psalm li. con-
tains a prayer of Jehoash in deep penitence lor la-
error" (Thenius), must be regarded as very mis-
taken. Neither can it be inferred from these histori-
cal records, as it is by Vaihinger (in Herzog, Real-
encyr., vi. s. 717), that the prophet Joel belongs
to the time of this king, and that his prophecies
apply to the events of this reign.
3*. In regard to the conduct of the priests in refer-
ence to the restoration of the temple which the
king had commanded, the opinions are very diver-
gent. The assertion of J. D. Michaelis and De
Wetie, that the priests had embezzled the funds
collected for this object, is to be summarily dis-
missed. Thenius goes still further, and says :
" They (the priests) did nothing towards carrying
out the project, because the royal command appro-
priated a part, probably no insignificant part, of
the revenues of the priests, in the intention of
diminishing their arrogance. . . . The priest-
hood may have fallen greatly in a moral point of
view since Athaliah's influence had brought the
Jehovah-religion into neglect, and their attention
may have been exclusively directed to their own
selfish interest. . . . Probably the priests had
kept the free-will offerings, which were intended
for the repairs of the temple, entirely for their
own use, contrary to law." But the text does not
say that the king intended to restrict the revenues
of the priests ; on the contrary, it is expressly
stated (ver. 16) that this was not done. Neither
is there any hint of any moral decay iu the priest-
hood. [The idea that the priests were guilty of
any arrogance which needed curbing is certainly
imported into the ease. It is d priori very un-
likely that they would be guilty of this fault on
emerging from the circumstances in which they
had been during the previous years. Arrogance
is the sin of long and great prosperity. The d
priori probability that the priesthood had suffered
in morale during the prevalence of idolatry is great,
also that their revenues had been greatly im-
paired.— W. G. S.] The king would never have
commissioned them to undertake the management
of this work, if they had had the reputation of be-
ing dishonest iu money matters. Still less, if un-
faithfulness and cheating on their part had been
the cause that the contributions did not flow in in
sufficient abundance, would he have " asked these
priests for their consent (ver. 8) to the change of
his first arrangements, and to the new measures
which he proposed. Moreover, he would not have
charged the priests who guarded the door to re-
ceive the money and put it in the chest, which ar-
rangement still left them an opportunity for dis-
honesty" (Keil). [The circumstantial description
of the box, its arrangement and position, show
that it was intended to free the priests from any
suspicion, just or not, which attached to them. If
the suspicion was unjust, they were most inter-
ested in a public arrangement for the reception of
these contributions which should free them from
M. It is enough to suppose that, when all the
money, that intended for themselves and that in-
tended for the repairs, came into theii hands, ths
distribution of it according to the intentions of the
givers may have been uncertain and imperfect.
At any rate, the givers could not be certain that
their money would reach its destined object. Any
such popular distrust would, according to all ex-
perience, speedily reduce the contributions to a
v. rv languid flow. The chest-arrangement now
accomplished two objects. It permitted the giver
to divide his offering for the temple from the ofl'er-
ing for the priests, and to see for himself that it
was at once put where it could not be applied
otherwise than as he intended. Thr true force of
ver. 16 is that, at this time, the revenues of the
temple were divided and definitely appropriated,
and that the sorts of revenue tlvre mentioned
were specifically set apart for the jupport of the
priests. "When the priests' share iu the transac-
tion was limited to the reception of 'he money and
its immediate deposition in a recef i"acle, which is
expressly declared to have been in the most pub-
lic place in the temple enclosure, it was impossible
to suspect them any longer of dishonesty, unless
they were most accomplished rogues. There is
no express mention of any dishonesty in the
record, but this arrangement with the chest has
unquestionably suggested a suspicion which has
always been felt by readers of the passage. See
also bracketed note under Exegetical on ver. 8. —
W. G. S.] On the other hand, the reason for the
new scheme was not " simply this, that the first
plan had proved inadequate for the purpose," be-
cause the king "had not appropriated any definite
sum for the repairs of the temple, but had left it
to the priests to pay for the repairs out of the
gross sum received " (Keil). The text itself gives
the true reason in clear and definite words (2
Chron. xxiv. 5): "The levites hastened it not," as
the king had commanded them. [If this were the
only reason, the pertinency of the arrangement
with the chest would not be apparent. — W. G. S.]
The reason was not, therefore, dishonesty and
embezzlement on the part of the priests and le-
vites, but their lack of zeal, their indifference and
neglect in an affair in which they, as servants of
the sanctuary, ought to have been most interested.
It is as impossible to acquit them of all blame as
it is to convict them of dishonesty. When a chest
was placed in the temple for the sole purpose of
receiving the offerings for this purpose, and when
particular officers were designated to take charge
of the fund, there was an end of the languid ac-
tivity of the priests and levites in the collection of
the contributions. Each one who came to the
temple brought his gift cheerfully, as is distinctly
stated in 2 Chron. xxiv. 10. De Wette's assertion
that the Chronicler " smoothed over " the matter,
out of his well-known affection for the priesthood
is entirely arbitrary, for the record does not cod
taiu a syllable about unfaithfulness • it states, on
the contrary, that it was the priests who received
the money and placed it in the chest, under the
second plan.
[From the note on ver. 8 and the inserted re-
marks in the above section, it will be seen that
this delineation of the " conduct of the priests " in
this matter is not satisfactory. If we look at the
record without unfair partisan feeling either
against or in behalf of the priests, we cannot
avoid the conviction that their fault was not liiu
VM
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ited to a want of zeal in the collection of funds,
but that it was connected with their administra-
tion of the money. In ver. 4 the king charged
them to take certain moneys and use them for the
repairs of the temple. He addressed them be-
cause they were the proper parties to be commis-
sioned to do this work. It was not until they
proved incompetent, in some way or other, that it
was taken out of their hands, or that they gave it
up. The revenues which are specified in yer. 4
are, 1, that at which " every man is set," which is to
us very obscure, but is probably correctly ex-
plained in the Exegetical note on the verse ; and 2,
free-will offerings which the priests were to solicit
of their acquaintances. In the king's twenty-
third year the work had not been done. There
was fault somewhere. In ver. 7 the king's ad-
dress distinctly implies that the work had not
been done because the money which had been re-
ceived from the "acquaintances" of the priests
had not been appropriated to this purpose. Va-
rious reasons for this are suggested in the trans-
lator's note on ver. 7, which are sufficient without
assuming that the priests had dishonestly taken
for themselves what had been intended for an-
other use. It is very probable that the revenues
had never been distinguished in a manner suffi-
ciently definite, or that, if they had formerly been
definitely distinguished and appropriated, they
had been used indiscriminately for the support of
the priests, during the troubles of the last two
reigns, and had not all together more than sufficed
for this purpose. Ver. 16 implies that the vari-
ous revenues were now definitely appropriated,
and one of the advantages of the chest-plan was
that it served to distinguish them. The reply of the
priests to this reproach and command (ver. 7) is not
given, luit they consented to yield up the entire
work and the entire responsibility. This gap be-
tween vers. 7 and 8 is the place at which the va-
rious inventions, more or less derogatory to the
priests, find entrance. It is as fair as any suppo-
sition which can be made, and accords as well
with ver. 8, to suppose that they denied the impu-
tation, pointed out the difficulty in distinguishing
the revenues intended for the temple from those
intended for the priests, and surrendered the re-
sponsibility both for the money and for the work.
The plan then adopted, which put this money by
itself, and out of the control of the priests, proves
conclusively that the work had not been accom-
plished because the money intended for it passed
through their hands. Their administration of it
had been defective, to say the least; it is not neces-
sary to conclude that it had been intentionally dis-
honest.— W. G. S.]
HOM1LETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
(2 Oliron. xxiv. is to be compared throughout
as a supplementary record.) Vers. 1-21. The
Reign of King Jehoash. (a) During Jehoiada's
Life-time, vers. 1-16; (b) after his death, vers. 17—
21. — Vrers. 1-4. Kybukz: Woe to thee, 0 land,
when thy king is a child 1 (Eccl. x. 16) but blessed
Is the nation, the youth of whose prince is in just
and holy guidance. Such good fortune had Judah
under the guardian care of the wise and experi-
enced Jehoiada. — That which appears to be the
greatest misfortune for a child, to be left father-
less and motherless at an early age, often becomes
a great blessing in the gracious Providence of
God. What would have become of Jehoash if he
had been brought up at the court of his Mola-
trous father and his depraved mother? God
gave him in Jehoiada far more than he had
lost in his father and his mother. — There is
no greater blessing possible for a young prince,
who comes to the throne in his youth, than to
have a wise counsellor. Would that God might
give to every prince a Jehoiada! The first duty
of a prince is to pray God for such an one, and to
listen to his counsel. — None need instruction more
than those who are called to govern; there is no
more responsible calling than that «f instructing
those who will have to rule. Unfortunately this
task is rarely entrusted to those who, like Jehoi-
ada, are fitted for it by age, learning, experience,
and piety. Wurt. Summ. : We ought to pray to
God for wise counsellors, to thank Him for them,
to pray for long life for them, and to regard it as
a heavy divine punishment when He takes .hem
away (Jer. iii. 4). — Ver. 3. The same: Rulers ought
not to allow themselves to be restrained from carry-
ing out what is good and right from any fear of
persons, lest they may possibly incur the disfavor
of the people. There never was a prince who was
not himself guilty of faults and errors, as we see
here from the example of Jehoash, who did not
abolish the sacrifices on the high places.
Vers. 4-16. The Restoration of the Sanctuary.
(a) The king's command to undertake it; (b) the
conduct of the priests in the matter (see Historical,
§ 3). It is true that God does not dwell in tem-
ples made with hands (1 Kings viii. 27; Acts vii.
48) ; we can worship Him as well in a ruin as in
the most magnificent church. But when the build-
ing, in which a congregation assembles to worship
God, to hear His word, and to receive the means
of grace, is left ruinous, God does not receive the
honor which belongs to Him. Where the churches
fall to ruins, there religion and piety also fall into
decay ; but where there is love of God and joy in
His word, there no ruinous churches are seen. A
time in which magnificent palaces, theatres, and
ball-rooins are repaired or built at great expense,
but in which the houses of God are left small,
wretched, dirty, and ruinous, is a time of religious
decay, and resembles the time of Athaliah in Ju-
dah.— The apostle says of the Christian church:
" For ye are the temple of the living God " (2 Cor.
vi. 16). This temple also may in time become ruin-
ous through unbelief, worldly life and behavior,
and immorality. Where are the congregations in
which there is nothing ruinous or decayed, in which
nothing could be improved? How many are in
ruins and are ready to fall I He who destroys the
temple of God, or allows it to be destroyed, him
will God destroy (1 Cor. iii. 17). We cannot indeed
repair these breaches by money. They can only
be repaired by coming to the living stone, which
is rejected of men, but which is chosen of God (1
Peter ii. 4-6). — Vers. 4 and 5. The congregation
ought to be called upon to contribute to religious
objects, which can only be accomplished by ex-
pending money. How long a time often elapses
before means enough are collected even for the
most necessary objects, not to mention that many
give unwillingly (2 Cor. ix. 7). — Vers. 6-8. Work*
which are pleasing to God cannot be accomplished
by careless hands. They are only accomplished
CHAPTER XII. 1-21.
137
where zeal is united with perseverance, patience,
and fidelity. — There have always been such care-
less, indifferent priests and pastors, and there are
such yet. They execute their traditional, official
duties, but only by routine, and from a sense of
duty, not with zeal and enthusiasm. No zeal for
the kingdom of God (John ii. 17) and for the sal-
vation of souls can be noticed in them. How many
a congregation has fallen into decay and remained
so, because those who were appointed to be the
builders of it, who ought to have repaired and
built it, have not raised their negligent hands
(Hebr. xii. 12). " Cursed be he that doeth the
work of the Lord deceitfully " (Jerem. xlviii. 10).
Although no earthly king may ever call them to
account, yet the heavenly king, before whose judg-
ment-seat they must appear to give an account of
their office, will ask: "Why repair ye not the
breaches of the house?" — Ver. 10*}. WurtSumm.:
In former times, under the papacy, the church au-
thorities excluded all secular persons from the af-
fairs which belonged to the clergy: under the gos-
pel, in some places, secular persons aim to exclude
the clergy from all participation in church affairs,
and claim to rule alone ; so the matter is always
wrongly treated, and men go from one mistake to
another; this should not be so. — Public account
should be rendered of all moneys and gifts which
are collected for religious or benevolent purposes,
in order that it may be known that they are ap-
plied as was designed, and that the giver may be
encouraged to further liberality. — Vers. 11 and
12. The laborer is worthy of his hire. Wages
ought to be given punctually to diligent and faith-
ful workmen (Jer. xxii. 13; Levit. xix. 13). — Vers.
13 and 14. What is necessary and useful is always
to be preferred to what is beautiful ; only when the
former is provided may the latter be thought of.
How often the contrary course is pursued. — Ver.
1 5. What a proud thing it is for builders and work-
men when they can be trusted, and it is not neces-
sary to oversee them. When work is carried on
honestly and faithfully, then God's blessing fol-
lows.— Ver. 16. Stabke: To everyone his own,
to God what is God's, to the priests what is theirs
(Sir. vii. 32; 1 Cor. ix. 11). — Let not anything
which justly belongs to any one be taken from him.
Vers. 17-21. The Fall of King Jehoash and its
Consequences, (a) As long as Jehoiada lived, Je-
hoash did what was right : when he had lost thil
support he fell (2 Chron. xxiv. 15-22). " Let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall "
(1 Cor. x. 12). "It is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace " (Hebr. xiii. 9). How
many have begun in the spirit and ended in the
flesh (Gal. iii. 3). The best instruction cannot pre-
serve against a fall, if the heart is not firm and
strong. Only he who endures unto the end shall
be saved, therefore: "Be thou faithful," Sec. (Rev.
ii. 10). The noblest commencement is vain, if the
end is perverse and wicked ; on the contrary : " All
is well that ends well." (6) At the time when Je-
hoash had sinned so grievously, one calamity after
another came upon him ; first, the great defeat
(vers. 17 and 18), by which he lost all his treas-
ures, then, the conspiracy which cost him his life
(vers. 20 and 21). So the words of the dying
prophet (2 Chron. xxiv. 22) were fulfilled : " The
Lord look upon it and require it 1 " (2 Chron. xxiv.
22). So Jehoash was taught what calamities it
brings to abandon the Lord God (Jer. ii. 19). The
Lord rewards every one according to his works,
whether in this or the next world. What a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. Jehoash was mar-
vellously preserved as an infant (chap. xi. 2, 3), he
ends his life wretchedly. — Starke : This is an ex-
ample how near the ruin of a man is when he aban-
dons the good to which he was educated from his
youth up, nay, even is glad to be rid of those who
annoy him by their warnings. — Ver. 18. A man
may buy with money his acquittal from a human
tribunal, but not from the just judgment of God;
nothing helps here but repentance and a new life
(Ezek. xviii. 26-28).— Vers. 20 and 21. All the
people shouted to the child-king: "Long live the
king 1 " and rejoiced and blew the trumpets. Con-
spiracy and murder were the end of his forty-years'
reign. Sic transit gloria mmidi.
138 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE EJNGS.
SECOND SECTION.
TIIS MONARCHY UNDER JEHOAHAZ AND JOASH AND JEROBOAM II. IN ISRAEL, AND UNDER
AMAZIAH IN JODAH.
2 EJNGS XIII.— XTV.
♦
A. — The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash.
Chap. XIII. 1-25.
1 In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah,
Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over [became king of] Israel in Sama-
2 ria, and reigned seventeen years. And he did that which teas evil in the sight
of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made
3 Israel to sin ; he departed not therefrom. And the anger of the Lord was kin-
dled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria,
and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, all their [the] days [of Jehoahaz],
4 And Jehoahaz besought ' the Lord, [.] [(] And the Lord hearkened unto him :
for he saw the oppression of Israel, because [that] the king of Syria oppressed
5 them. ( [omit ( ] And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out
from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their
6 tents, as beforetime." Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house
of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin,3 but walked therein : and there remained
7 [stood] the grove [statue of Astarte] also in Samaria.) Neither did [For] he
leave [had left] of the people to Jehoahaz but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots,
and ten thousand footmen ; for the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had
8 made them like the dust by threshing [beneath one's feet].* Now the rest of
the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not written in
9 the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel ? And Jehoahaz slept with
his fathers ; and they6 buried him in Samaria ; and Joash his son reigned in his
stead.
10 In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash
the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years.
11 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord ; he departed not from
all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin : but he walked
12 therein. And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might [,]
wherewith [how] he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not writ-
13 ten in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Joash slept with
his fathers ; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne : and Joash was buried in Sa-
maria with the kings of Israel.
14 Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died [was to die].'
And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and
said, O my father, my father! the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof!
15 And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow
10 and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow.
And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands.
17 And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha
said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The [an] arrow of the Lord's [omit the
Lord's] deliverance [for Jehovah], and the [an] arrow of deliverance from
[against] Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have con
Binned them.''
CHAPTER XIII. 1-25.
139
18 Ami he said, Take the arrows. And he look them. And he said unto the
19 king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. And
the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten'
five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it
20 whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. And Elisha died, and they
buried him. And the [marauding] bands of the Moabites invaded the land at
21 the coming in [commencement] of the year. And it came to pass, as they were
burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men [marauders] ; and they
cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha : and when the man was let down
[came], and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
22 But [Now] Hazael king of Syria [had] oppressed Israel all the days of Je-
23 hoahaz. [,] And [but] the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion
on them, and had respect unto [turned towards] them, because of his covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he
24 them from his presence as yet. So Hazael king of Syria died ; and Ben-hadad
25 his son reigned in his stead. And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out
of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out
of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by [in the] war. Three times did Joash beat
him, and recovered the cities of Israel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
> Ver. 4.— ['JBTIX H?n. See 1 Kings xiii. 6.
> Ver. 5.— [DlCv'J* 7lOn3, "as yesterday and day before," »'.«., as before. Cf. Gen. xxxi. 2, 5; Ex. v. 1, 14
1 Bam. xxi. 6.
3 Ver. 6.— [The X is omitted in the chetib on account of the X which immediately follows. Cf. 2 Sam. v. 9
1 Kings ma. 21. Bottcher, J§ 414, and 1080, 1.
4 Ver. 7.— ["*"P 12i?3 , literally " like dust to tread upon."
5 Ver. 9.— [in*13p3!_, — the plural, as in English, for the passive, equivalent to the active singular with indefinite sub-
ject. (Germ. man. Fr. on). Cf. chap. vii. 13; 1 Kings i. 1 ; ix. 9; xviii. 10.
8 Ver. 14.— [The imperfect tense in T\Vy his its proper force of the future, and is equivalent to the perfect of the
Latin periphrastic conj. in rug. Ewald, § 136, d.
' Ver. 17. — [n?3~"iy , lit. "until consuming," gerund form, = until thou consume, finish destroying, them.
* Ver. 19.— [m3rv j the infinitive is used like the Latin participle in dus : " It was ta be smitten," i. «., thoc
shouldest have smitten. Ewald, § 237. c. In the conclusion we have a perfect in the sense of the pluperfect conjunctive.
Cf. Gen. xviii. 12; 1 Sam. xiii. 13. Bottcher, § 947, d.— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAX, AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1 . In the three and twentieth year of
Joash. This chronological statement is not con-
sistent with the one in ver 10 : " In the thirty-
seventh year of Joash." For, if Jehoahaz began
to reign in the twenty-third year of Joash, and
reigned for seventeen years, his son Jehoash can-
not have followed in the thirty-seventh, but in the
thirty-ninth, year of Joash of Judah. Again, if
Jehoash of- Israel became king in the thirty-sev-
enth year of Joash of Judah, then his father Je-
hoahaz must have come to the throne in the twenty-
first, and not in the twenty-third year of Joash of
Judah. The old expositors sought to do away
with this difficulty by assuming that Jehoash of
Israel shared the throne for two years with his
father Jehoahaz. This assumption, however, is
untenable, both for the general reasons assigned
above (Pt. II., p. 88, e) and because it is clearly
shown in vers. 9 and 10 that Jehoash did not as-
cend the throne until after the doath of Jehoahaz,
and that he had not shared his authority before that.
Only one of the two numbers, 23 and 37, can be cor-
rect, as is now generally admitted ; but the ques-
tion, which is correct? receives various answers.
We start again, as we did above (Pt. II., p. 86), from
the established chronological starting-point,* 884
B.C., when Jehu became king of Israel, and Athaliah
became queen of Judah. J°hu reigned 28 years
(chap. x. 36), that is, from 884 to 356; l.is son Je-
hoahaz 17 years (chap. xiii. 1). from 856 839; Je-
hoash, 16 years (chap. xiii. 10), 839-823. ithaliah
ruled 6 years, and Joash became king in the " sev-
enth year" (chap. xi. 3, -1), that is, 884-877 ; Joash,
40 years (chap. xii. 2), 877-837 ; Amaziah. 29 years,
837"-808. It follows that the twenty-third year of
Joash of Judah, in which Jehoahaz became king
of Israel, according to ver. 1, was the year 854, but
this cannot be correct because his father Jehu ruled
* See the Appendix, on the Chronology. For the purpose
of the calculation here made, it is immaterial whether this
date is correct or not, but it is certainly wrong to call it "ar
established chronological star'ing-poiiit." — W. G. S
1H"I
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
28 years. and so died in 856. This would bring
Jehoahaz' accession into the twenty-first, not the
twenty-third, of Joash. This is the statement of
Josephus : eitioarC) rit" nal Trpuru etei ttjc 'luaaoi'
PaaiAcio;. The thirty-seventh year of Joash of
Jndah, in which, according to ver. 10, Jehoash of
Israel became king, is the year 840 ; in the second
year of Jehoash of Israel, that is, in the year 838,
Amaziah became king of Judah (chap. xiv. 1).
According to this reckoning, the death of Joash,
the father of Amaziah, does indeed fall in 837, but,
in view of the Jewish mode of reckoning which is
explained Pt. II., p. 86 sq., a discrepancy of a single
year has no significance. Josephus says, in agree-
ment with ver. 10: ej3do/iov t/6t/ nai Tpiaaoarbv
Itoc ftaui'AevovToQ 'ludoov rye 'lo'vda ^>va^c. If, on
the other hand, we hold fast the "twenty-third
year " in ver. 1, and, in ver. 10, read thirty-ninth
for thirty-seventh, as Ewald, Thenius, and others
desire, this thirty-ninth year will be 838, Jehu will
only have 26 years, not 28 (chap. x. 36), and his
son Jehoahaz' reign, extending from 85-4 to 838,
will amount to 16, not 17 years (ver. 1); moreover,
if Jehoash of Israel did not ascend the throne un-
til 838. and Amaziah became king in Judah in his
second year (chap. xiv. 1), then the latter did not
become king until 836, though his father did not
live, at the utmost, beyond 837. If thirty-seventh
is changed into thirty-ninth, then all the other
numbers must be changed, and this is inadmis-
sible. If then we let these numbers stand, we
must suppose that the words: "in the twenty-
third year," in ver. 1, are either a copyist's error
(33 for N3), or, that it is a mistake growing out of
the confusion to which the Jewish mode of reck-
oning gave occasion (see above, Pt. II., p. 86 sq.).
All the versions and all the editions have "thirty-
seventh " except the Edith Aldina of the Sept.
{1518). which has "thirty-ninth." Keil justly ob-
serves that this variant is "nothing but an unfor-
tunate emendation, adopted in order to bring about
a reconciliation, but without any critical value."
Ver. 3. And the anger of the Lord was kin-
dled. The sense and the connection of vers. 3-7,
are as follows : In the time of Jehu, who, contrary
to al! just expectations, clung to the calf-worship
which Jeroboam had introduced, Jehovah had al-
ready commenced to " cut off" from Israel, and had
given the land east of the Jordan into the hands
of the Syrians (chap. x. 32 sq.). Since, however,
Jehoahaz, Jehu's successor, did not take warning,
but, on the contrary, during his reign the worship
of the image of Astarte was once more introduced
(1 Kings xiv. 15), so that the abolition of idola-
try which had been accomplished was rendered
ineffectual. God's anger (»'. e., His justice, and
His avenging, punishing, rigor) was kindled, so
that one defeat followed upon another, until the
might of Israel was reduced to a minimum. In
his great distress, when he was on the brink of
ruin, Jehoahaz at length turned to Jehovah, and
besought Him, and the Lord, seeing the distress
of His people, answered his prayer and sent a de-
liverer.— [That is the sense of the passage, but it
does not account for the grammatical form and
succession of the sentences. The best modern ex-
positors agree with Hie English translators in mak-
i parenthesis of vers. 5 and 6. The only ques-
tion i- as to where it is to begin, and it seems best,
with Thenius and Bunsen, to enclose all after the
Jrst clause of ver. 4. The explanation then is as
follows : Israel was defeated by the Syrians agait
and again during the reign of Jehoahaz. He turned
in his distress to the Lord and sought him. There
was no apparent response to this prayer during
his lifetime, but the writer inserts a parenthesis to
the effect that the prayer was nevertheless heard
and answered, that God saw the distress of Israel
and sent a champion for them, and yet that they
persisted in their sins. The '3 at the commence-
ment of ver. 7 then presents no further difficulty.
It refers back to the first clause of ver. 4. Jehoa-
haz besought the Lord, because He had left but,
&c— W. G. S.]— Ver. 3. All the days, i. e., of Je-
hoahaz, not of Hazael and Benhadad, as is clear
from ver. 22 [also ver. 25 shows that, as a matter
of fact, the success of the Syrians did not continue
through " the days " of Benhadad.— W. G. S.].—
Ver. 5. A savior, cf. Judges iii. 9, 15; Nehem. ix.
27. This was Jeroboam II., the grandson of Je-
hoahaz, as we see clearly from DJTL'Tl , chap. xiv.
27, which has an evident reference to JTCTO in
this verse. He completed what had already been
begun by Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz (ver. 25).
Reference is here made to him in order to show
that he was sent in answer to Jehoahaz' prayer,
although he came so long afterwards. The words:
they dwelt in their tents, describe the peaceful
state of things which was brought about by the
deliverer ; in war they did not dwell in tents, but
in strongholds and fortified places. — Ver. 6 con-
tains a restriction of what has just been said in
ver. 5. The peaceful state of things, which was
brought about, was not a perfectly happy and sat-
isfactory one, for the worship of Jeroboam's calves
still continued, and even the worship of Asherah
(the statue of Astarte) did not cease entirely. The-
nius understands mOl' to mean that the worship
of Asherah " very soon obtained a firm foothold "
(;'. e., under Jeroboam II.). Ewald also thinks that
it was reintroduced at about his time. But the his-
tory of Jeroboam II., chap. xiv. 23-27, contains no
mention of it, and also the '3 in ver. 7 fixes the
attention upon the time of Jehoahaz, when the in-
cidents took place which are referred to in ver. 1.
[This 13 does not refer to ver. 6 at all. No con-
nection can be established which will make good
sense. It refers back to the first clause of ver. 4,
as shown above. Bahr's interpretation, however, is
correct, although it is difficult to understand, as The-
nius says, how the Astarte-image survived Jehu's
reformation. iTTOJJ is better translated " stood,"
than "gained firm foot-hold." mt"Xn has the
article, and the form of statement of the first part
of the verse is that the old apostasy of Jeroboam
was still continued. If it had been intended to say
that this old sin was continued, and that even the
one which had been rooted up was reintroduced, it
seems that some other word must have been used
for moy which would have expressed this latter
idea distinctly. — W. G. S.] Ver. 7 is a continua-
tion of [the first clause of] ver. 4. It shows how
far the "oppression" of the Syrians had gone.
Dathe and Houbigant are in favor of placing it be-
tween vers. 4 and 5, but the close connection be-
tween these verses forbids this. [For he had
left. The English translation: "Neither did he
leave," cannot be defended. It is necessitated by
the supposed connection between this clause and
CHAPTER XIII. 1-25.
HI
the last clause of ver. 4. It also seems to under-
jtand " the king of Syria " as the subject of VtBJfl .
which does not make good sense. The subject of
that verb is Jehovah, and the last half of ver. 7
repeats the same statement substituting " the king
of Syria " (who was the instrument by which it
was accomplished), in the place of the ultimate
agent. The passage may now be made clear, if
we get rid of the parenthesis by putting ver. 7
between the first and second clauses of ver. 4, as
follows : Jehoahaz besought the Lord, for He (the
Lord) had left but, ... for the king of Syria
had destroyed them . . . and the Lord heark-
ened unto him, seeing the distress, and gave a de-
liverer, who delivered them, yet they persisted in
their sins. — W. G. S.] The expression th1? 1SJQ
does not mean chaff, as Luther understands it, for
ISy is not dust which floats in the air, but dust
which lies upon the ground and is trodden under
foot. The fundamental meaning of CT1 is, to tread
under foot (Hab. iii. 12; Micah iv. 13). There is
no reference to the barbarous usage of war re-
ferred to in Amos i. 3; 2 Sam. xii. 31. [Literally
the English for the words would be: dust for
treading, i. e., dust which lies beneath one's feet
(see Grammatical note on the verse). It is an ex-
pression for utter defeat and destruction. They
were reduced to utter helplessness and powerless-
ness. Thenius thinks that it refers to a definite
defeat, and Hitzig, on Amos iv. 10, suggests that
the reference there may be to the same decisive
defeat here alluded to. — W. G. S.] — On ver. 10 see
notes on ver. 1. Jehoash's war with Amaziah,
mentioned in ver. 12, is narrated at length in chap.
xiv. 8 sq. The concluding formula, vers. 12 and
13, belongs properly after ver. 25. It is given in
this place only because it followed, in one of the
authorities used by the author, directly upon vers.
10 and 11, and he did not consider it necessary to
dissever it from this connection.
Ver. 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick, &o.
The narrative in vers. 14 to 21 is, without doubt,
taken from a different original document from that
to which the verses belong which immediately
precede and follow. It is not inserted here merely
because it belongs to the time of king Jehoash.
The end of the great prophet of Israel, who had
wrought so influentially upon its history, and
whose acts had been so circumstantially narrated,
could not be passed over in silence, especially
since the accompanying incidents stood in such
close connection with what had gone before, and
with what was to follow. Jehoahaz had, accord-
ing to vers. 3-7, left the kingdom very much
weakened. When Jehoash heard of Elisha's ill-
ness, he went to him, and, weeping, called to him,
as Elisha had once called to Elijah as he passed
away (see Pt. II., p. 15, and cf. p. G9): O my
father, my father ! the Chariot of Israel and the
Horsemen thereof! as much as to say : If now
thou also, who hast so often shown thyself the
strength and the protector of Israel, and hast
helped by counsel and by act, if now thou also, in
this time of distress, art about to depart, whence
shall come help, and counsel, and deliverance
from the hand of the powerful enemy ? This
humble and chastened spirit on his part leads the
prophet to give him the declaration that the prayer
of his father (ver. 4) had been heard, and that the
deliverance should commence in his time. Tha
fulfilment of this promise is then narrated in the
following verses, 22-25.
Ver. 15. And Elisha said unto him, Ac.
Elisha does not simply make known this promise
to the king by words, but also, as a prophet, in
that form which belongs to the essential character
of the prophetical office, and is peculiar to pro-
phetical announcements, that is, by means of a
symbolic action (see note on chap. 11, 30 sq.).
The declaration thereby receives the impress of a
solemn and purely prophetical announcement.
Here, as in all similar cases, the symbolic action
precedes the words which explain it ; thereby it
represents the future event as a fact, as something
which will come without fail. Inasmuch as it was
the king himself who performed this symbolic ac-
tion, and not the prophet, it became all the more
a pledge to him of the fulfilment of the prophet's
words. The whole transaction consists of two
acts; vers. 15-17 give the first one; vers. 13 and
19 the second, which is a continuation of the first.
Each is followed by words of the prophet, inter-
preting it. Ver. 15. Take bow and arrows.
The prophet made use of these for his symbolic
action, because the matter in hand was a warlike
contest with enemies, and the king, or at least his
attendants, were provided with these arms. The
command: "Take bow and arrows," signifies:
Arm thyself for war against the Syrians! There
is not the least reference to a method of sooth-
saying by means of arrows (Belomancy, cf. Ezek.
xxi. 21), which was practised by many ancient
heathen nations. — Ver. 16. Put thine hand upon
the bow ; literally : Let thine hand ride upon the
bow. In drawing the bow, it is held in a hori-
zontal position in such a way that the left hand
rests upon it. The prophet placed his hands upon
those of the king "in token that the impulse
which was to be given came, through the proph-
et's hands, from the Lord" (Keil). The king's act
thereby becomes to a certain extent the act of the
prophet, and so an act which is performed in the
name and by the authority of Jehovah. Only in
so far can the laying on of hands here be regarded
as at once a consecration and a blessing, for that
is not its primary significance here, as it is in
other places where the hand is laid upon the head.
— Ver. 17. Open the window, that is, order the
grating, which is in front of the window-opening,
to be removed. The king could not open it him-
self, for he had both hands upon the bow. East-
ward, i. e., toward the country east of the Jor-
dan, which the Syrians had taken (chap. x. 33),
and from whence they continually threatened the
country this side the Jordan. The older exposi
tors refer, by way of explanation of the words-
And he shot, to the custom in ancient times ol
declaring war by shooting an arrow into the ene-
my's territory (Virgil, jEneid, ix. 57), but that was
not the significance of the arrow shot by the king
in this case. The words which explain the sym
bolic act follow the discharge of the arrow : A
arrow of deliverance for Jehovah, rrirv? , i. e ,
auctore Jehnva. [The expression seems intended
to interpret the arrow, thus discharged, on two
sides, towards Jehovah, and towards the Syrians.
It was an arrow of deliverance for, or in its rela-
tion to Jehovah, inasmuch as it represented the
deliverance which He was determined to give; i'
U2
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
was an arrow of deliverance against or upon the
Syrians, as it signified the coming overthrow of
their oppression. — W. G. S.] Let this arrow be
a pledge to thee that Jehovah will help thee, and
that thou wilt overcome the Syrians — at Aphek.
Lvais erat boni ominis (Menochius), for Jehovah
had already once given Israel a great victory
there (1 Kings xx. 26-29). The words nj>3-"lg re-
fer, in this verse, only to the Syrian army at
Aphek; in ver. 19, on the contrary, they refer to
the entire Syrian military power.
Ver. IS. Take the arrows. The second part
of the symbolical action which here begins not
only continues the preceding, but consists of an
enhancement of it. The article in Q'Xnn , which
is wanting in ver. 15, designates particular ar-
rows, namely all, besides the one which had al-
ready been shot away, which remained in the
quiver. nV"IN T)H does not mean : Smite the
earth (Luther); nor: Smite upon the earth (De
Wette); still less: Strike with the bundle of ar-
rows in the direction of the earth [i. e., as if smit-
ing an enemy to earth with it] (Thenius). The
last interpretation has no support in the text; and
arrows are not used for smiting enemies to the
earth, or for striking upon the ground. H3J stands
in contrast with nv (ver. 11); it does not mean
jacere (sagittas), to shoot arrows, but, ferire, to hit
(1 Kings xxii, 34; 2 Kings ix. 24; 1 Sam. xvii.
49). The arrow in ver. 17 was only to be shot
away through the window towards the east; the
arrows in ver. 18 were to hit down to the earth,
»'. e., in such a wa.y that what was hit by them
should be stretched upon the ground. As the
king only shot to the earth thus three times and
then stopped, did not, therefore, use up all the
arrows which remained, the prophet was dis-
pleased (Sept. fAi'-^i?//) and said (ver. 19) : Thou
shouldest have smitten, &e. He meant: Thou
hadst more than three arrows, and mightest have
continued to hit; the fact, however, that thou
hast ceased so soon, shows that thou lackest the
zeal which is tireless, and which perseveres, trust-
ing in the Lord ; thou shalt indeed defeat the
Syrians, but the complete destruction of their
power will not come about through thee. The
reasou why the king shot three times and then
stopped was that, according to the prevalent no-
tion, that what was done thrice was done per-
fectly (Numb. xxii. 28, 32, 33; xxiv. 10; Ex. xxiii.
17|, lie supposed that this sufficed. It was not
because he was afraid that, if he shot any more,
the prophecies of Elisha would not come to pass
(Starke), or because he did not dare to shoot more,
"lrst too extravagant demands might deprive him
of all " (Von Gerlach). In the first part of the
transaction (vers. 16 and 17), it is promised him
that Jehovah will give him victory over the Syri-
ans ; in the second (vers. 18 and 19), he is ex-
horted to go on, trusting in Jehovah's assistance,
without hesitation, and putting forth all his ener-
gies, and so to make war upon the Syrians until
he utterly destroys them.
Ver. 20. And Elisha died, &c, riD'l evidently
refers back to fnO' in ver. 14. Vulg. : Mortuus
ut ergo Elisaetvs et sepelierunt eum. This sentence
closes the nirralive which began with ver. 14. It
ought not, therefore, to be treated as a subordinate
clause to what follows, as Luther underst I it:
" When Elisha was dead and they had burie I him,
the Moabites made an incursion." Elisha must
have readied a great age. for Jehoash did not come
to the throne till 840-39, and Ahab, in whose
reign Elisha was already a grown man (1 Kings
xix. 19). reigned from 919-897 (see above, Pt. II.,
p. 45). According to Jerome's statement (Epi-
taph. I'aulae). Elisha's grave was in the neighbor-
hood of Samaria, where he had a residence (chap,
v. 9 ; vi. 32). Krummacher locates it, without
any definite reason, in the neighborhood of Jeri-
cho, and certainly raiding bands of the Moabite3
might much more naturally appear in the neigh-
borhood of Jericho than near Samaria. rDL" N3
means literally : a year came. According to the
Targum and the Rabbis this means: at the be-
ginning of the year. They came at this season
because then the country furnished pasture. It
can hardly mean that they came every year
(Ewald). Still less correct is the rendering of the
Vulg. which Luther follows : in ipso anno, in the
same year. — I3v""l i V®T- 21, is not to be under-
stood of a rude and violent "throwing in," but it
is meant to describe the haste with which they
opened the grave and deposited the corpse in it.
It is not necessary to change T|7'l, as Hitzig and
Thenius do, into =Q7S1, i. e., they went away, foi
7]">n "is used not only of the motion of lifeless
objects, but also of the gradual progress of an
action " (Keil). [It has great dramatic force,
describing the gradual approach of the corpse to
that contact which involved such momentous con-
sequences.— W. G. S.] The Hebrews brought
their dead to the grave, not in closed coffins, but on
an open bier (Winer, R.-W.-B., ii. s. 16), "so that
the corpse which was being brought to the sepul-
chre, on being hastily deposited there, might easily
come in contact with the remains of Elisha " (Keil).
Ver. 22. But Hazael, king of Syria, Ac. The
narrative here returns to vers. 3-'.'. Seb. Schmidt :
reassumitur hoc de Chasaele ad exponendum comple-
mentum prophetiae Elisae. In sense, yrp is to be
taken as a pluperfect. Ver. 23 contains a remark
of the author: Israel had been brought by Hazael
to the brink of ruin, but, for the sake of His cov-
enant. Jehovah took pity upon His people once
more : He did not as yet permit it to be destroyed,
as He did later (chap. xvii. 6). Hazael died (ver.
24), and Jehoash defeated his son and successor
three times, as the prophet had foretold. The
cities of Israel (ver. 25) which Jehoash took
away from Benhadad must have been "those
which lay upon this side the Jordan, for Hazael
had conquered the territory beyond Jordan during
the reign of Jehu (chap. x. 32 sq.), and it is ex-
pressly stated that the cities which he now recov-
ered were those which had been taken from his
father Jehoahaz " (Thenius). Jeroboam II. was
the first who restored the ancient >cundaries
(chap. xiv. 25).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. In regard to Che reign of King J;hoaJaz, wt
CHAPTER XIII. 1-25.
143
have but scanty records ; the Chronicle does not
mention him at all. The kingdom had declined
very much during the Fast years of Jehu (chap. x.
31-33), but, under this king, it sank still lower in
every respect. The worship of the calves, which
his father had retained, still continued ; also the
licentious worship of Astarte was once more
practised. The entire revolution mentioned in
chaps, ix. and x., the overthrow of the House of
Ahab, the foundation of a new dynasty, the aboli-
tion of idolatry, thus proved fruitless and vain.
The divine judgments and chastisements which
had begun under Jehu therefore increased, so that
the kingdom came nigh to ruin. Jehoahaz, there-
fore, turned and prayed to God in anxiety and
despair, and He once more had pity on His people.
Schlier justly says of Jehoahaz : " His prayer was
the best thing that he bequeathed to his suc-
cessor." The state of things during his reign is a
proof that worship of images always leads to wor-
ship of false gods, and that there is only one step
from the one to the other (see 1 Kings xii. 25-33,
Hist. § 2). It shows how, universally, the weeds
of religious error, when they have taken root
amongst a people, although they may be pulled up
again and again, nevertheless strike root again
and spread, and endure more storm and hard
usage than good and useful plants. Is it not true
that even Christian nations cling more stubbornly
to the errors which have fastened upon Christian
doctrine, than to Christian truth itself? On the
other hand, God, who guides the destinies of
Israel, appears here as one whose wrath is indeed
kindled at the sin and apostasy of His people, but
who does not remain angry forever. He never
ceases to be pitiful and gracious, kind and faithful
(Ex. xxxiv. 6; Ps. ciii. 8-9). When His people
call upon Him, He hears the cry, (fnd in due time
Bends a deliverer.
2. There is no mention made of the prophet
Elisha from the anointing of Jehu in 8S4 to the
reign of Jehoash (839), that is, for a period of at
least forty-five years, whereas we should have ex-
pected that his influence would be especially wide
and great under a dynasty which he put upon the
throne. The fact that Jehoash called him "Father"
and the " Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen
thereof" shows that he enjoyed high honor and
esteem, and it would be very astonishing, if Elisha
had not even given a sign of his existence for
forty-five years. We are therefore compelled to
infer either that the original documents used by
our author were silent in regard to his activity, or
that some of the incidents mentioned in chap. iv.
sq. belong to this period (see Pt. II., p. 45). It
cannot be proved, as Ewald asserts, that "all the
incidents, in which he appears as standing in high
estimation with the king of the northern kingdom,
belong to the times of the house of Jehu," that is
to say, especially chaps, v. and vi. It is far more
probable that it was he who warned and threat-
ened king Jehu (chap. x. 30), and also induced
king Jehoahaz to humble himself and turn to God
in prayer (ver. 4). He shows himself once more
on his death-bed in his full and distinctive pro-
phetical character. He appears here in his last
hours in the character which was peculiar to him
as compared with Elijah, i. e., as the one who built
up, rescued from distress, and preserved (see
Pt. II., p. 24). He departs from the world with a
great promise of deliverance to his people, with
the announcement of coming release from the
oppression of the arch-enemy. " Salvation and Vic-
tory from Jehovah I " is his last prophetic oracle.
While the young and vigorous king, despairing
of deliverance, stands crushed and tearful before
him, the prophet, oppressed by disease, and age,
and approaching death, raises himself up from his
death-bed, spiritually full of life and strength, and
gives orders to the king to do this and that, in the
tone of one "who has set up and deposed kings,
and whose calling it has been to break in pieces
and to destroy, to build and to plant (Jer. i. 10).
He commands the king to execute the significant
operation, not because he himself was too weak to
talk much (Thenius), but because the king was to
be the actor, was to be filled with courageous
faith, and was to be assured of the victory he
should win. It must have made a deep and solemn
impression upon him and upon all who stood
about, that he himself executed this symbolic ac-
tion with the hands of the prophet laid upon him.
When the prophet's wrath was kindled against
the king for desisting from shooting, it was not a
sinful ebullition, but a wrath which sprang from
love, because the king did not secure still more of
the promise for himself and his people.
3. The story of the restoration to life of a man
■who was laid in Elisha's grave stands in close con-
nection with what precedes, not only historically,
but also as respects its significance, and its moral.
This is sufficient to show that it cannot have, as
Ephraim Syrus and some other church fathers
suppose, the general moral, that " Elisha, even in
the grave, surpassed Elijah in miraculous power,"
nor, as Theodoret says : wc dimr'/.aoiav tov thfiaoKa-
2.0V rip x^pw iSi^aro [that he had a double por-
tion of his master's spirit]. This notion rests
upon the erroneous interpretation of chap. ii. 9
(see notes thereon). Ehsha is nowhere placed
superior to Elijah. According to theopiniou which
is now generally received, and which was proposed
by Seb. Smith, the object of this miracle of resus-
citation was to " impress the seal of the Divine
confirmation upon the prediction of the dying
prophet iu regard to Jehoash's victory over the
Syrians" (KeU), or, "to give a pledge of the ful-
filment of the promise which had been given "
(Thenius). But the resuscitation of a dead man
has no essential connection with the contents of
this prediction, and the miracle would then be a
mere display of supernatural power, having no
special significance, and presenting no reason why
this rather than any other form of supernatural
work should have been chosen. The incident is
connected, not with the victory over the Syrians,
but with the death and burial of the prophet, which
are mentioned just before. Its significance is this:
Elisha died and was buried as all men are, but
even in the grave testimony was borne to his char-
acter as a prophet and servant of God. The spirit
(rm) of Jehovah, which made him, as well as his
master, prophets (chap. ii. 9, 15), and which is the
principle of all prophetical life and work, made it-
self manifest in him even in the grave. It mani-
fested itself, moreover, in a manner which corre-
sponds exactly to the form cf activity of this
prophet, who was a preserver, savior, and life-giver
(see Pt. II., p. 24). Salvation and life proceed from
him, by the spirit of God, which makes alive, and
is the fountain of life (Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14; Hoa
1U
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGb.
vi. 2 . Deut. x^xn 39). even after he is in the grave.
This interpretation is confirmed by the passage
Siracli xlviii. 1-15. The praises of the great
prophets Elijah and Elisha are there pronounced,
and especial reference is made to the end of each.
The translation of Elijah is mentioned in ver. 9,
and then, in ver. 13. with which the panegyric of
rilisha begins, the author refers back to it again :
" Elijah was enveloped in a storm-cloud, and Eli-
sha was filled with his spirit. During his life he
feared before no ruler, and no one ever imposed
restraint upon him.' He yielded to no compulsion,
Ka'i kv KOttiTjtsei EKpoQfjrevoe rb otj/ia avrov. Dur-
ing his life he performed wonders, Kal ev TeKevry
davunma ra epya avTov" Whereas, in vers. 1— S,
Elijah's separate deeds are particularly described,
Elisha's activity is only delineated in general out-
line ; on the contrary his end. like that of Elijah.
is noticed especially. This shows that, in the time
of Siraeh, this incident was considered important
and significant. Taken in connection with the con-
text the sense is : as the greatest of all prophets,
Elijah, the second Moses, was marvelously glori-
fied at the close of his career : so was his successor,
Elisha. also. Though his end was not like that of
his master, yet it was not without divine testimony
to his prophetical sailing, for the spirit of Jehovah
made itself manifest in him even in the grave. It
was not the dead bones which brought the dead to
life, but the living God. The resuscitation of the
dead man was only ''brought about by contact with
the bones of the dead prophet, because God de-
sired thereby to show to His people that the divine
energy, which had been active in Elisha. had not,
by his death, disappeared from Israel" (Keil Com-
mentor, Ed. of 1845). This shows that it is as
great an error to charge the writer with ascribing
to the bones of Elisha a magical, miraculous pow-
er, as to refer to this narrative as a proof of the
miraculous efficacy of relics. "This instance,"
says Starke, " proves nothing in behalf of the rel-
ics of saints and their misuse in the Romish Church,
for it was not the bones of Elisha. but the power
of God, which made this dead man live. The Church
did not then, and has never since, dug up the bones
of Elisha. much less encased them in gold and sil-
ver, and given them to the people to kiss and rev-
erence, as is done under the papacy, in order to
gain favor with God, for which there is neither
precept nor example in the Scriptures." Neither
is it necessary to have recourse to the typical and
allegorical method of interpretation. J. Lange
says: ''The chief object (of this miracle) was to
affirm the doctrine of the future, universal resur-
rection of the dead. Elisha was, therefore, in this
point, a type of Christ." In like manner, Krum-
raacher says, basing his view on Sir. xlviii. 13, that
the corpse of Elisha prophesied of the " flowing,
new-creating, life-giving, miraculous power, which
was to be poured out in the world through the death
of his great anti-type, Jesus Christ." This latter
notion is inapt, because life and resurrection pro-
ceed, not from the crucified and dead, but from the
risen. Christ. Cassel (Der Prophet Elisa, s. 162 sq.)
even finds the prophetical spirit represented in the
I "ii Elisha, and the people of Israel in the dead
man restored to life. He says: " When the spirit
of the prophets breathed over Israel like an even-
ing wind, then the nation rose again, became living,
and made all live whom its word touched. All the
lead who fall upon prophecy rise aga'n to life.
Elisha is the prophetic law, whosoever in Israel
believes on it experiences the resurrection of the
dead in Jesus Christ. The miracle at Elisha'l
grave is a type — but since all, Jews and heathen,
alike become living at the grave of Christ through
repentance and faith, no dead man's bone any longer
restores to life." It is not necessary to show that
such interpretations have no foundation in the text.
[Scarcely a better means of exposing their frivolity
could be found than to translate them. They are
inflated, rhetorical inventions. When they are
translated literally, they appear to be scarcely
more than ridiculous and incoherent jargon. The
principal utility of quoting them is to keep before
us a warning of the pitfalls which environ the sci-
ence of interpretation. — W. G. S.] Finally, the
naturalistic interpretation of this incident, accord-
ing to which "an apparently dead man, when he
was thrown into the grave of Elisha, was restored
to life by the violent shock of the fall " (Exeget.
Handbuch on the passage ; Baur, Hebr. Mythologie,
ii. s. 197; Jahn, Einleitimg in's A. T. ii. 1. s. 261)
may be regarded as antiquated and abandoned.
Thenius says: "The incident may have occurred
very naturally," but does not tell how. Knobe1'*
remark: There is something analogous in the le-
gend that the ground, where Amphiaraus lay
buried, prophesied (Cicero, ' De Divin. i. 40)," rests
upon an entire misconception of the aim and sig-
nificance of the miracle.
[This might be regarded as a test case among the
Old Testament miracles. It is very doubtful if many
readers will find themselves satisfied with the above
discussion of it. The notion that Elisha was a " con-
structive" prophet, in contrast with Elijah, who was
"destructive," is a mere whim. The fondness for
historical parallels and contrasts seduces many
into finding coincidences, correspondences, and
contrasts where none exist out of the imagination
of the writer. Elijah and Elisha differed some-
what in character, it is true, but they must be
taken together as two men who worked with the
same general method, under very similar circum-
stances, and towards the same ends. There is no
ground for any such contrast as is here affirmed.
Yet this contrast is made to be, in Bahr's explana-
tion of the miracle, after all verbiage is stripped
from it, the motive of this wonderful event. God
bore testimony to Elisha's calling even after his
death, and this testimony took the form of the res-
toration of a dead man to life by physical contact
with the bones of the dead prophet, because Elisha
had been a constructing, lifs-g:-™ pr?ph:t. 01
course, an affirmed miracle would not be disproved,
if we did not see the necessity for it, but no miracle
recorded in Scripture would seem more superflu-
ous than one which was intended to ratify the
calling of Elisha as a prophet of Jehovah, after his
death. As for the authority of Siraeh, it is not
worth while to go into it. His panegyric is poeti-
cal and rhetorical in form, and when he says, for
instance, that " the body (of Elishal prophesied in
the tomb," although there is a reference to this
passage, and although it is a perfectly justifiable
thing for him to refer to it in this poetical strain in
the course of such a composition as that he was
making, yet it is difficult to see how these words
could be reduced to any statement which would
be available for critical and exegetical purposes.
The attempts to lend significance to this incident,
on one side and on the other, are all failures. Tin
CHAPTER XIII. 1-25.
145
Bimple statement of the text is that an incursion
of Moabites interrupted a funeral. The corpse
was hastily thrown into the sepulchre of Elisha,
and when it touched the bones of the prophet, the
man returned to life. The remarkable dramatic
minuteness of the description in ver. 21: "when
the dead man came and touched the bones of the
prophet, he revived," shows that the resuscitation
was dependent on, and, we may say, caused by
the physical contact, according to the convic-
tion of the writer of the narrative. Different
persons will receive this story in different ways,
according to their theological and philosophical
prepossessions. Some will see in it a popular
legend or myth which insisted on glorifying
the prophet by ascribing miraculous efficacy to
his bones after his death, a mere legend which
grew up in the course of time, but had no histori-
cal foundation. Others will simply take the story
as it is given as an indisputable fact, and will go
no farther than the record goes. It is not stated
that the bones of the prophet were ever tested again
to see if they would repeat the miracle, or that any
other persons than this one were ever restored,
and it is not stated why the miracle was performed
at all. Those who adopt this second course must
decline to speculate on these questions. They
must assume that, for some reasons unknown,
God, on a single occasion, attached to the hones
of the prophet this efficacy. They must decline to
deduce general inferences from this incident. Oth-
ers again will go still farther, and infer that the
sanctity of the man was due to the indwelling of
".he Holy Spirit, that this became physically inhe-
rent in the remains of his body, that his bones,
therefore, had miraculous efficacy, and that the
oones of other individuals of equal sanctity will
have equal efficacy. It is a development and ex-
tension of the second view, and it elevates the iso-
lated instance into a law. In this way the story
is made to lend support to the use of relics. It is
remarked above, in reference to this, that it was
not the prophet's bone, but the power of God.
which wrought the miracle. No one would assert
anything else of the use of any relic. It is clearly
stated that the resuscitation depended upon the
physical contact with the physical object, and the
latter had mysterious and supernatural efficacy in-
herent in it, which it could only have acquired as
part of the body of a man who had been marked
by extraordinary tpiritual superiority. That, how-
ever, is the principle which lies at the root of the
use and veneration of relics. — W. G. S.]
4. King Jehoash did not indeed renounce the
worship of Jeroboam's calves, but he was one of
the best among the kings of the northern king-
dom. This much is clear from the story of his
interview with Elisha, if from nothing more. We
do not hear that any other one of the four kings,
under whom the prophet lived, stood in similar re-
lations to him. Even though the tears which he
shed at the prophet's death-bed were not tears of
penitence, and of a "lively regret for his past be-
havior towards the prophet" (Krummacher), yet
they certainly show how deeply he was touched
by the distress of Israel, and how helpless he felt
at the departure of the prophet. By his exclama-
tion : " My Father! " &c, he proclaimed to all who
stood by that the prophet was more to him than
all the military force which still remained. He
then goes on to do what the prophet commands
10
him, as a servant obeys his master. He desisted
after shooting three times, not, as Krummacher
thinks, from fear of condescending below his royal
dignity, but from shame and fear of demanding toe
much [or rather, because what was done three
times was thought to be completely done. See
Exeg. note on ver. 19.] He took courage, and soon
showed himself a bold and victorious soldier, both
in his war with Syria, and in that with Amaziah
(see chap. xiv.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-13. See Histor. and Eth. The history
of the kingdom of Israel under Jehoahaz shows us
[a) God's severity, and (b) God's goodness. Rom.
xi. 22: cf. Siracli v. 6 sq ; xvi. 12. — Starke: Men
who have a personal interest in deeply rooted cus-
toms or traditions, are very loath to see them over-
thrown and abandoned, although they often thereby
draw down God's judgments by their own hands. —
Vers. 3 and 4. How hard it often is to bring a man,
who has turned away from the living God and from
His word, to seek the Lord's face. Jehoahaz had
to be pushed to the last extremity by the enemy,
and tc be most deeply humiliated, before he called
upon the Lord and saw where help is to be found
in all distress (Isai. xxvi. 16). — Vers. 4 and 5. Ber-
leb. Bibel: The Lord heard him and thereby showed
distinctly how easily He may be moved to show
mercy, if we will only bring ourselves to ask Him
in humility and sincere penitence. — Starke : Faith-
ful Christian I If God heard Jehoahaz, how much
more will He hear thee, if thou callest upon Him.
— The Lord gave Israel a deliverer, but Jehoahaz
did not live to see him. God hears the cries of
those who earnestly call upon Him. and helps them,
but the time and place and manner of His aid are
retained in His own discretion. Do not despair if
thy prayer does not seem to be heard, and the Lord
delays His assistance. He knows the fitting sea-
sons and knows what is useful for us. — Vers. 5 and
6. The Lord gave Israel a temporal saviour in its
hour of physical need; to us He has given a spir-
itual Saviour, who can and will save us out of the
hands of the greatest of all enemies: sin, death,
Satan, and Hell (Luke l. 69-71). What can we ex-
pect, if it must be said of us also : Yet they did
not renounce their sins. — Richter: Many a one
prays, like Jehoahaz, in his time of distress, and
when the trouble is past, the good impulses quickly
disappear again. Ver. 7. Wurt. Sumji. : No nation
is so great and mighty that God cannot take away
its might and make it so small and slight that it is
only like dust which the wind scatters (Ps. xviii.
42). Therefore, ye godless 1 plume yourselves not
so much upon your strength (Ps. lxxv. 5). Look
at the chaff, how quickly it is scattered ; so shall it
be with your strength. Vers. 14-21. Elisha's End.
(a) His death-bed, vers. 14-19. (6) His grave,
vers. 20-21. Vers. 14-17. Krummacher: The
sick-bed. (a) Elisha in illness ; (6) bewailed by
the king ; (c) but a prophet until his latest breath.
— Vers. 14-19. King Jehoash at the death-bed of
Elisha. (a) He weeps and laments : (b) He is con-
soled and strengthened. — How did Elisha pass
away from earth ? Sick and weakened by age —
(his lot was the ordinary one of mortals ; he also
had to pass away into darkness and death, however
much he had wrought and fought and labored, Ps
146
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
xe. 10 and 12. God has ordained sickness before
death, that we may set our house in order, may
leek refuge in the mercy of God, and may ponder
tvhat is our sole consolation, in life and in death)
— yet, as a man of God. (In spite of weakness
and physical decay, he is strong and firm ; lie asks
no help from men, but he, the dying one, consoles
and strengthens the living. His last word is a
promise of victory. The words of Isaiah [xl. 29-
31] are verified in him.) — Yer. 14. It is rarely
recognized how great and irreparable is the loss of
a true man of God, a great benefactor, and a faith-
ful servant, until he is gone.- — King Jehoash was
not ashamed to come to the dying prophet, and to
confess with tears his own helplessness; but how
many shun such holy men, and are glad if they
never need have anything to do with them. — Yer.
15 sq. From the example of Elisha, we see how
one who can say: "The Lord is my strength and
song, and is become my salvation " (Ps. cxviii. 14).
stands before the gates of eternity ; proclaiming sal-
vation, extending blessings, sure of victory. There
is no greater thing than a man who, in the face of
death, can cry: "0 death! where is thy sting,"
&c. (1 Cor. xv. 55. 57). — Krcmmacuer: Here we
see Elisha's patriotism. If we would know what
true love of one's fatherland is, let us ask the
prophet. In his case it received a divine conse-
cration. It is truly touching to see with what ten-
derness the prophets enfold in their hearts their
country and people, even when they see in them
little but spiritual death, decay, and corruption,
and experience from their fellow-countrymen little
but bitterness, hate, and persecution. — Yers. 18-19.
Berleb. Bibel : Cease not to shoot arrows of love
into the heart of God, so shall one arrow of deliver-
ance after another come back to thee from the
Lord, and be given to thee in the word of truth.
So shalt thou smite thy spiritual foes and tread
them under foot even more completely than Jeho-
ash did the Syrians. — Roos: The cowardly unbe-
lief of men causes that God cannot reveal His glory
in some places as he gladly would (Mark vi. o). and
that their way is not made so easy for them as God
would be willing to make it (Prov. iv. 12). The
measure of the victory depends upon the measure
of the faith. The Lord said to the centurion of
Capernaum : " As thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee " (Matt. viii. 13). He who is called to
execute a work for God may not stop and desist
according to his own good judgment, but must go
on in it tirelessly and faithfully, till the Lord com-
mands him to cease. — Calw. Bibel: Many enemies
are to be conquered, many tests to be endured.
Faith must hold firm until the end. When on«
battle is won, the conflict is not over. How much
is it to be regretted when one only half believes,
half obeys, or when one, after a good beginning,
desists.
Yers. 20 and 21. The Miracle at the Grave of
Elisha ; its Object and its Significance, (a) for ths
prophet himself; (t) for us all (see Hist. § 3).
Vox Gebxach : The Lord showed thereby that He
was not a God of the dead, but of the living; that
the dead in Him live for Him (Matt. xxii. 32); that
the spirit of life which proceeds from Him spreads
life and blessing everywhere where it comes, and
that it is superior to death and decay. — The dead
cannot make the dead to live ; the spirit of the Lord
alone penetrates even into the place of corruption,
and changes it into a place of life (Ezek. xxxvii. i
sq.). \Ye, therefore, rest our confidence and hope,
not upon dead men's bones, but upon the God who
makes all things to live, and who raised up from
the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep. If wb
are buried with Him, we have this consolation:
the God who raised Him will also raise us to life
through His might (1 Cor. vi. 14; 2 Cor. iv. 14;
Col. ii. 12; Rom. vi. 4).— Berleb. Bibel: The pre-
cept and example of men of God can have power,
even after their death, to the resuscitation of those
who are spiritually dead, if the latter will only
study and follow them (Hebr. xiii. 7). This is the
way in which the bones of the dead are truly effi-
cacious. If thou art dead in sin, cast thyself into
the tomb of the Saviour in humility and self-renun-
ciation, so shalt thou revive and rise to life again
as He did, for he who truly grasps the virtue of
the death of Christ (comes into contact with that
Dead One) is thus revived to the true life of his soul.
Yer. 23 sq. Calw. Bibel: When God turns
Himself from us. then we are given over to wretch-
edness ; when He turns back to us again, then we
find salvation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been
dead for a thousand years, and yet their blessing
was efficacious. — WItrt. Susdi. : God does not take
pleasure in our ruin, but remembers, even in the
midst of His anger, His promised grace and the
covenant which He has made with us (Luke i. 72
sq.). — Cramer: Tyrants are rods by means of which
God chastises His people ; but finally the tyrants
themselves are chastised by God and cast into the
fire. — Yer. 25. Starke: It was unjustly obtained
and quickly lost. Unrighteous wealth rarely comes
to the third generation (Jes. xxxiii. 1). — Richter:
Israel is to-day, as it was then (ver. 23), a covenant
people of God, and is not rejected entirely and
forever (Rom. xi.).
B. — The Reign of Amaziah in Judah, and that of Jeroboam II. in Israel.
Chap. XIY. 1-29. (2 Chron. XXV.)
1 In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel reigned [omit
2 reigned] Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah [became king]. He was
twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and [he] reigned twenty and
nine years in Jerusalem. And bis mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
3 Ainl he did ///"/ which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David hii
♦ather: he did according to [in] all things as Joash his father did [had done}
CHAPTER XIV. 1-29. 147
4 Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet [omit as yet] the people
did sacrifice [were yet sacrificing '] and burnt [burning] incense on the high
places.
5 And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in lus hand, that
6 he slew his servants which had slain the king his father. But the children ot
the murderers he slew not : according unto that which is written in the book
of the law of Moses, wherein [which] the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers
shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for
7 the fathers : but every man shall be put to death [die 2] for his own sin. He
slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, [:] and [omit and — He also] took
Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.
8 Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu,
9 king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.3 And Jehoash
the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle [brier]
that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy
daughter to my son to wife : and there passed by a wild beast that was in Leba-
10 non, and trode down the thistle [brier]. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and
thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this [exult!], and tarry at home: for
why shouldest [wilt] thou meddle to thy hurt [provoke a calamity], that thou
11 shouldest tall, even thou, and Judah with thee? But Amaziah would not hear.
Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah
looked one another in the face at Bcth-shemesh, which belongrth [belongeth] to
12 Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel: and they fled every man
13 to their [his] tents [tent]. And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Ju-
dah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, ;-.nd came 4 to Jeru-
salem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto
14 the corner gate, four hundred cubits. And he took all the gold and silver, and
all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures
of the king's house, and hostages,6 and returned to Samaria.
15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how
he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the
16 Chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was
buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel ; and Jeroboam his son reigned in
his stead.
17 And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jeho-
18 ash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years. And the rest of the acts of
Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of
19 Judah? Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem: and he fled
20 to Lachish ; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. And they
brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the
city of David.
21 And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which [who] teas sixteen years
22 old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built Elath, and
restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam
the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and
24 one years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he de-
parted not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to
25 sin. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of .[near"] Hamath unto
the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he
spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which
26 was of Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it teas very
bitter: ' for there was not any shut up, nor any left [neither any of age, nor any
27 under age], nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that he would
blot out the name of Israel from under heaven : but he saved them by the hand
28 of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all
that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus,
and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the
148
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
29 book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jeroboam slept with his
fathers, even with the kings of Israel ; and Zachariah his son reigned in his
stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Yer. 4.— [The participle here marks an event which was going on at the same time with another. Examples of thil
ire numerous. Cf. 1 Kings i. 5; iii. 26; v. 24; 2 Kings viii. 5.
3 Yer. 6. — The keri is the *esult of a desire to reproduce literally the text of Deuteronomy, but it is unnecessary.
Read the chetib, fTO' ■
* Ver. S. — [DSJD ilNin}, D*J9 is ace. of the part affected. "Let us look upon one another, as to the face" =
"let us look upon one another's face,11 i. e., "let us measure strength with one another.11 Ewald (Lehrbuc/i, § 2S1, o)
explains it ; ■' Let us look upon one another as to the person,11 i. e., in person.
* Yer. 13. — [The keri is unnecessary. Punctuate the chetib lJOs1 •
* Ver. 14. — [Literally: "Sons of pledges."
* Ver. 25— [X13?JD would be literally from as far as ; i. «., it expresses that he penetrated np as far as Hamath,
came near to that place, and then made it a point of departure on the north, from which he extended his conquests south-
ward to the Dead Sea.
' Ver. 26. — [HID from HID- Gesen. (The*, s. v.) understands it to mean deep-rooted, of long standing, but th«
lates nd best expositors agree to take HIS in the sense of 110 j to be bitter. — W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. In the second year of Joash . . .
Amaziah . . . became king. On the chro-
nological datum see chap. xiii. 1. Ver. 3. Instead
of the words: not like David, his father, the
parallel account in Chronicles (xxv. 2) reads : "Not
with all his heart." The additional statement: He
did in all things as Joash his father had done,
shows that Amaziah, in the first part of his reign,
was devoted to the worship of Jehovah as Joash
was (chap. xii. 3), but that afterwards, especially
after his victory over Edom, he introduced, or at
least tolerated, the worship of the false gods of
Edom. as his father had permitted the worship of
Asherah (2 Chron. xxiv. 2, 18). [It is putting too
great a strain on these words to make them co^ver
any such accurate parallelism between the lives
of the two kings, especially when this parallelism
is constructed by borrowing from the Chronicles.
It is simply meant that his general policy, and the
extent to which he conformed to the demands of
the Jehovah-religion, were modelled upon his fa-
ther's conduct. — W. G. S.] The passage ? Chron
xxv. 14 does not, therefore, contradict this verse,
as Thenius and Berthean assert; on the cont'xry,
ver. 2 of the Chronicle contains the same assertion
as ver. 3 here. [An attentive comparison of the
records of Kings and Chronicles at this point reveals
some most interesting characteristics of each, and
nothing could be more mischievous than a false
effort to "harmonize" and "reconcile," which
should obliterate these distinguishing characteris-
tics. A comparison of chap. xii. 2 with 2 Chron.
xxiv. 2 shows a difference of judgment as to Jo-
ash's career. (See translator's note on xii. 2.) In
perfect consistency, each with its own general
judgment, Kings says nothing of any idolatry of
Joash, while Chronicles records such an error (2
Chron. xxiv. 18). Again, Kings approves in gen-
eral of Am.iziah's career, although it was not up
to the standard of David (chap. xiv. 3 ; cf. also xv.
3). Ver. 4 tells wherein he failed according to
this author. 2 Chron. xxv. 2 might at considered
equivalent to this, hut ver. 14 states the fault which
the chronicler had to find with him, while Kings
is silent in regard to any such sin. The two ac-
counts are each consistent with itself, but they dif-
fer in regard to their general estimate of the ca.-
reers of these two kings. Thecius and Bertheau
think that the chronicler inferred from the misfor-
tunes of these kings that they must have been un-
faithful to Jehovah, but it is unnecessary to adopt
so violent an explanation of the divergence. The
chronicler either had more information, or a stricter
standard. — W. G. S.] On ver. 4 see note on 1
Kings iii. 2. On ver. 5 cf. chap. xii. 21 sq. As it
was the custom in the Orient to put to death not
only conspirators themselves, but also their chil-
dren (Curtius TI. 11, 20; Rosenmuller, Altes und
Xeites Morgenland, II. s. 59), ver. 6 expressly em-
phasizes the fact that Amaziah, in obedience to
Deut. xxiv. 16, did not do this, and thereby proved
himself to be a faithful king according to the Is-
raelitish standards. The words : As it is written,
&c, are not, as Thenius asserts, an explanatory
addition by the " redactor : " they do not merely
give his opinion: they rather state the true his-
torical reason why Amaziah acted as he did. It is
clear, therefore, from this passage, that the author
of these books assumes the existence of the book
of Deuteronomy at that time, and did not at all
suppose that it was first composed under Manas-
seh, 150 years later, as modern criticism (Riehm)
maintains. We do not know whether Amaziah
acted according to this precept on his own motive,
or not. Perhaps he was exhorted to it by a prophet
}r a priest.
Ver. 7. He slew of Edom. The Edomites
revolted from Judah, according to chap. viii. 20,
during the reign of Joram. Amaziah undertook
to resubjugate them, and prepared great military
resources to this end, as is narrated in 2 Chron.
xxv. 5 sq. The valley of salt (2 Snm. viii. 13; ]
Chron. xviii. 12) is a plain about two miles broad,
south of the Dead Sea, which does not show a sigr
of vegetation. It is now called El-Glwr (Robinson,
Palestine, II. 488 and 450). The chronicler does
not mention the capture of Sela, hut states that
besides the 10,000 who fell, 10,000 others were
taken prisoners and thrown from a rock. Sela lay
south of the valley of salt, in a valley which was
shut in by rocks, but which was well watered ana
fruitful; it is the well-known Petra, and it was ai
CHAPTER XIV. 1-29.
UM
important in a military as in a mercantile point of
view. Cf. Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 446 sq. The
new name given to this town by the victor is sig-
nificant. ^Nnp' means a Deo subactum, in servi-
tutem redactum (Gesenius, s. v.). We see from the
phrase: unto this day, that the original document
from winch our author took the history of Ama-
ziah's reign, belonged to the time of that king, or
at least to a time not long after his death. As
soon as the city came into other hands again, which
it did under Ahaz (chap. xvi. 6), it certainly lust
that humiliating name. It is possible indeed that
it continued to be called by this name by the Jews,
so that the argument is not conclusive, but, if we
do not adopt this hypothesis, we must infer that
the original document, in which stood the words
" unto this day," which the redactor has preserved,
was written at least before the time of Ahaz. Of
course this place has nothing to do with the Jok-
theel mentioned in Joshua xv. 38.
Ter. 8. Then Amaziah sent messengers.
This took place after the brilliant victory over the
Edomites. The detailed statement "son of Jeho-
ahaz, son of Jehu," &c, gives ground for the sup-
position that the original authority for ver. 8 sq. is
different from that of vers. 1-7. [Let us look one
another in the face. See Grammatical on the
verse. This is a literal translation. Though the
formula is variously explained, yet its significance
is clear. It is a challenge to combat. — W. G. S.]
Josephus says that Amaziah sent a letter to king
Joash, in which he demanded of him to submit
himself and people, as they had once been subject
to David and Solomon, adding that, if he would
not do this, a pitched battle should decide between
them which had the superior authority (Aniiq. ix.
9, 2). It is also possible that, as the rabbis say,
the acts mentioned in 2 Chron xxv. 13 occasioned
this demand. — The parable in ver. 9 is not to be
pressed too much in its details. The main point is
the contrast of the largest, strongest, and most
majestic tree, the cedar, and the contemptible, weak,
and useless, although prickly, briar (not, as The-
nius maintains, thistle. Cf. Prov. xxvi. 9 ; 1 Sam.
xiii. 6 ; Job xxxi. 40. [The comparison between
a tree and a briar bush is more correct and appro-
priate than between a tree and a thistle]). These
two stand side by side upon Lebanon. No wild
beast can break down and crush the cedar, but it
is very possible that this may occur with the briar.
It is more a proverb than a parable, like the story
in Judges ix. 8-15. The words: Give thy daugh-
ter to my son to wife, are not to be interpreted
as implying that Amaziah had demanded a daugh-
ter of Joash as a wife for one of his sons (Dere-
ser) ; neither is the explanation that the kingdom
of Israel is the daughter, and the kingdom of Ju-
dah the son (Thenius), a fit interpretation of the
haughty parable of the king of Israel. Only he
who is equal to the father may demand of the lat-
ter his daughter as a wife for his son, not one who
stands as far below the father as the briar below
the cedar. If such an one as this latter does make
such a proposal, he is guilty of arrogance and pre-
sumption, and he must expect to be set in his
proper place. — Thenius' translation of ver. 10:
"Show thy might at home," is not correct, as we
gee from 2 Chron. xxv. 19, where we read: "Thine
heart lifteth thee up to boast (T33c"6); abide now
at home." 133, in the hifil, metns to win honor
or fame (Gesen.). The Vulg. is right according to
the sense: contentus esio gloria et sede tua in doma
tua. — Calamity is here spoken of as a hostile power
against which one fights in vain [or rather, in
stricter accordance with the literal mean ng of
3 rrePFI • upon which one makes a rash ana cause
less attack, and so provokes it, brings it down upon
one's self]
Ver. 11. But Amaziah would not hear.
Beth-Shemesh (cf. note on 1 Kings iv. 9), where
the two armies met, was in Judah, on the southern
border of Dan, and therefore much nearer to Jeru-
salem than to Samaria. It follows that Joash did
not wait for the attack of Amaziah, but anticipated
his movements and so carried the war into the en
emy's country. Josephus says that Joash threat-
ened the captive Amaziah with death, if"he did not
compel the inhabitants of Jerusalem to open the
gates, and grant him free admission with his army
into the city; and that Amaziah, in fear for hia
life, brought about the admission of the enemy.
This statement, although it stands by itself, and
has no support from any other authority, does not,
at auy rate, contradict the biblical text. Instead
of the chetib 1X3"1, in ver. 13, the keri offers HQ[*\.
In 2 Chron. xxv. 23 there stands instead of either:
:ins,'3,l , i. «•, "he brought him." The Sept. have
this reading in the verse before us also (r/jayev av-
tov), and the Vulg. follows: addxu-it eum. Thenius,
therefore, adopts this as the original reading, but
unnecessarily, for if Joash took Amaziah prisoner
and did not put him to death, it is a matter of
course that he took him with him when he went
farther. The chronicler simply expresses himself
a little more definitely. Although Jelioash did not
need to besiege Jerusalem, yet he caused a large
piece of its wall of fortification to be torn down,
from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate. The
former stood on the north side of the city, towards
Ephraim, and was also called the gate of Benja-
min, because the road to Ephraim ran through the
territory of Benjamin. It is now called the gate
of Damascus. The latter was to the west of this,
at the point where the wall turned southward : i. e.,
at the northwest corner of the city. According to
Thenius TJ? does not here denote the terminus ad
quern, but only the direction in which, because the
distance between them was more than 400 cubits,
viz., 2,000 English feet. The question arises, how-
ever, whether Thenius has correctly fixed the situ-
ation of the corner-gate on his plan of the city, and
whether the distance was as great as he supposes,
as the city was laid out before the exile. In de-
scriptions of localities, ~JJ? always serves to define
the limit up to which, and not merely the direction.
Josephus' assertion that Jehoash caused a breach
(iuokott?/) 30 cubits wide to be made in the wall, and
that he drove through this in a chariot with the
captive king by his side, has no foundation ic the
biblical text. Jehoash's purpose in ordering the
wall to be torn down was not to get a grand gate-
way for a triumphal entry (Thenius), but to mark
the city as captured, and as lying open on the side
of Ephraim. — The "hostages" (ver. 14) were de-
manded by Jelioash especially because he, as Jo-
sephus expressly states, gave the king his freedom,
but desired still to hold him in check. They wert
taken, no doubt, from the most important families,
150
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
but they were hardly sons of the king himself, for,
if they had been, it would probably have been so
stated. The treasures, which the victor carried
oft" were not probably very great (see chap. xiii.
18), and the word Q'KSCjn seems to hint at this.
Ver. 1 5. Now the rest of the acts, &e. The
repetition of the standing formula, in regard to Je-
hoash, after it had once been used in chap. xiii.
12. 13, has its explanation probably in this, that
the author found it in the document from which he
took vers. 8-1 7, as well as in that from which he
took chap. xiii. An especial reason for adopting
this explanation is that the formula is not precisely
the same here as in the former place. "The name
of the king of Israel is there written three times
L"NV . whereas we have here twice K'XiiT . The
latter form is preserved throughout the section
vers. 8- 17, whereas in ver. 1 the shorter form oc-
curs. Here, the natural succession of the details is
observed (death, burial, successor) ; there, there is
a transposition (death, successor, burial) " (The-
litis;. Nevertheless, the author may have been
led to repeat the formula because ver. 17 "con-
tains an important statement which is connected
with Joash's death," namely, that Amaziah lived
and reigned for fifteen years after Joash died. The
author felt obliged to repeat the notice of Joash's
death, as an introduction to this statement (Super-
flua non noctmt).
Ver. 1 7. And Amaziah, Ac. This chronologi-
cal datum stands in perfect accord with the ones
before given in vers. 1 and 2 and in chap. xiii.
10. Amaziah reigned in all 29 years; 15 after Jo-
ash's death; therefore, 14 with him. As Joash
reigned 16 years, Amaziah's succession falls in his
second year, as is stated in ver. 1. [See the trans-
lator's note on ver. 22.] — If we bear in mind that
Amaziah's war with Edom took place before that
with Joash, we are.led to infer that the latter took
place shortly before Joash's death. The old ex-
positors adopted the supposition that Amaziah
spent the 15 years after Joash's deatli in retire-
ment and contempt, as a deposed king, and that
the conspiracy was a consequence of his disgrace-
ful defeat (ver. 1 9). There is no ground for such
an hypothesis, however, for if the conspiracy had
been formed after that defeat, it would not have
been 15 years before it was consummated. The
chronicler says (chap. xxv. 27) : " Now, after the
time that Amaziah did turn away from following
the Lord (i. e., from the time when he, after the
victory over the Edomites, brought their gods back
to Jerusalem with him, 2 Chron. xxv. 14), they
made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem." This
time was before the war with Joash and the great
defeat; it is only intended to assert that the un-
fortunate end of Amaziah was a punishment for
his apostasy. The conspiracy must have had some
other especial cause which is not stated. Accord-
ing to Theuius, who explains all the people of Ju-
dah (ver. 21) to mean the whole military force, it
was a conspiracy of the army. It may be, however,
that a general dissatisfaction arose among the peo-
ple from other causes, and that this finally led to
the conspiracy. — Lachish was originally a royal
city of the Canaanites in the lowlands of southern
Palestine. Joshua conquered it, and afterwards
gave ii to the tribe of Judah (Jos. x. 31; xv. 39).
Rehoboam fortified it against llie Philistines (2
Ohron, ii. 9), ajnaziah Bed to this place, proba-
bly because he could easily flee across the froutiei
from there if the necessity should arise. The con-
spirators seem to have followed upon his heels.
According to ver. 20 it is probable that they brought
the slain king back to Jerusalem in his own royal
chariot.
Ver. 21. And all the people of Judah took,
&c. It is remarkable that, in this case also, the
conspirators did not take one of their own number
and make him king, but, as in chap. xii. 22, they
adhered to the succession of the house of Davii
It is doubtful whether Azariah was the oldest son
of Amaziah, for it is most probable that the latter,
at the age of 54, when he died, left sons older
than this boy of 16 years. The expression }np'
appears to imply that they chose this boy on ac-
count of some peculiar characteristics. — The new
king is called here and in chap. xv. 1, 6, 7, 8, 17,
23, 27, iTHtJ?; on the contrary, in chap. xv. 13, 31,
32, 34, as in the Chronicle (except 1 Chron. iii. 12),
[and in Isai. i. 1 ; vi. 1 ; Hos. i. 1 ; Amos i. 1 ,
Zach. xiv. 5], he is called rt'ty . Against the ex-
planation that n,_ITJJ is an error of the copyist,
arising from the similarity of the "l and the ' , is
the consideration that the error, if it be an error,
is repeated so often. "We must rather suppose
that the king really had both these names, which
are very closely connected " (Keil). [In the ed. of
1865, he says that they are used "promiscu-
ously."] Vatablus : duo nomitia habuit ajjinia: For-
titudu Domini, et Auxilium Domini. [The two
names are at least very nearly equivalent in ety-
mological meaning: rp"lTJ? (he whose) Help (is)
Jehovah ; IVTV (lie whose) Strength (is) Jehovah.
Bertheau calls attention to a similar case. In
1 Chron. xxv. 4, among the sons of Heman, is one
who is called Uzziel. A comparison of the names
in the subsequent repetition shows that he is the
person called Azareel in ver. 18. — W. G. S.] This
is quite possible in view of the frequency with
which names are changed in the Orient. The
name Uzziah seems to have been generally used
after his accession to the throne (see the places
where it occurs in the later prophets, which are
quoted above). — Ver. 22. On Elath, see note on
1 Kings ix. 26. Either Amaziah did not push for-
ward as far as this important port of commerce, in
his expedition against the Edomites, or else he
was unable to retain possession of it after his de-
feat by Joash, at Beth Shemesh ; but Edom was not
a valuable possession for Judah except as it in-
volved the possession of Elath. That the new
king took this city and " built " it, that is, either
extended it or strengthened it, was a most im-
portant event for the kingdom, and especially for
his own authority. That is why it is here men-
tioned by anticipation at the beginning of his
reign, whereas his further history is not given
until later, in chap. xv. 1-7. We cannot infer
from the clause : after that the king slept with
his fathers, that Azariah undertook this expedi-
tion "at once'' (Thenius), and advanced victo
riously to Elath, for he was, at the time of his
accession, a boy of 16 years. However, it may
well have been in the early part of his reign.
[This clause is very enigmatical. No satisfactory
explanation of it has ever been offered. It is said
that a certain king died, another suceeedid, and
when the author goes on to mention the acts ot
CHAPTER XIV. 1-29.
151
the latter's reign, he says that lie did a certain
thing after the {former) king was dead. It is either
a most idle and meaningless statement, or else it
has a significance which has not yet been per-
ceived. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that
it alludes to the fact that Azariah was made king
after his father was captured by Jehoash, and be-
fore he was released, and that he did this after his
father's release and death. This would account
for Azariah's youth at the time he was made king.
Ver. 22 would then follow ver. 14 in the connec-
tion of the narrative. In view of the form and
substance of the intervening verses this is not at
all impossible. After ver. 1 4 the author goes on
to *ell (a) what became of Jehoash, (b) what be-
came of Amaziah, (c) what the people of Judah did
after their king was captured (ver. 22). The im-
mediate release of Amaziah by Jehoash rests only
upon the authority of Josephus. In connection
with this the other remarkable datum in ver. 17
may be noticed : Amaziah lived 15 years after
Joash. (It is worth noticing that it does not say
that he reigned.) Ewald understands this to mean
that he lived as a captive, and was finally released
by Jeroboam ; but he does not suppose that Aza-
riah was made king until after his father's assassi-
nation. This would leave Judah kingless for 15
years, and force us to assume that its king was
assassinated as soon as he was released. If, how-
ever, we suppose that, after Amaziah was taken
away captive, his son was made king ; that when
Amaziah was released and returned to Judah, he
was not welcome there; and that the conspiracy
was formed to remove him, we have a consistent
theory throughout. With regard, then, to the
chronology: Chap. xv. 1 says that Azariah be-
came king in the 27th of Jerob. II. This is incon-
sistent with every other chronological datum, and
is universally sacrificed (see the Comm. on the
verse). Zachariah's accession in the 38th of Aza-
riah would fix Azariah's accession in the 3d or
4th of Jeroboam, if we hold fast 41 years as the
duration of Jeroboam's reign. If, as seems very
probable, Joash died soon after he defeated and
captured Amaziah, then the people of Judah
waited 3 or 4 years for the release of their king,
and when this did not take place, they made Aza-
riah king. Amaziah lived 11 years longer, was
released, returned, and was assassinated, and Aza-
riah was 27 years old when he took Elath. This
construction is consistent with all the texts. The
'• 29 years " in xiv. 2. cover the period from Ama-
ziah's accession to his death, and the " 15 years "
in ver. 17 hold good. Azariah reigned for 52
years from the date of his coronation, or 41 years
from the date of his father's death. In the text his
coronation is recognized as the true beginning of
his reign, and the dates for the accession of Zacha-
riah, Shallum. Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and
Jotham, are all consistent therewith. Against
this construction is the strong consideration that
the circumstances are not more distinctly nar-
rated. We have no mention of Amaziah's release
at all. There are also difficulties connected witli
the chronology, but these confront us in any case.
They can only be removed by arbitrary changes,
and these changes can only be based upon conjec-
ture. Every time that I have re-examined the
chronology of this period the suspicion has been
revived in my mind that the error, which undoubt-
edly inheres in it at this point, is to be sought in
the duration ascribed to the reign of Amaziah, al
though the chronologies almost all alter the data
in regard to Jeroboam or Azariah. It may be
that the clue to the solution of the difficulty lies u
the captivity of Amaziah. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 23. In the fifteenth year of Amaziah,
&c. This statement agrees with that in ver. 1 and
in ver 17. Amaziah ruled 29 years: 14 with Joash
of Israel, and 15 with his son Jeroboam II. The
further statement, however, that Jeroboam reigned
for 41 years, is contradicted by chap. xv. 8, which
says that the son and successor of Jeroboam.
Zachariah, came to the throne in the 38th year of
Azariah (Uzziah). Now if Jeroboam reigned wit!
Amaziah for 15 years, and then 38 years mort
with Azariah, his entire reign was not 41 but 53
years, or if, as is probable, the 15 years and the 38
years were not all complete (see Pt. II., p. 86), then
51 years. As all the chronologers agree that Za-
chariah's accession cannot be placed earlier than the
38th of Azariah, it is generally assumed, in order
to account for the difference between 41 and 51
years, that an interregnum or anarchy of 10 years
took place after the death of Jeroboam (Keil and
others). But, according to chap. xiv. 29, Zacha-
riah followed his father Jeroboam, not after an in-
terval of 10 or 11 years, but immediately after his
death. Moreover there is not the slightest sign, in
the history, of any period of anarchy, though such
a period must certainly have been marked by some
important incidents, and we may not make history
in order to account for a single inconsistent chro-
nological statement. According to Hos. i. 1, that
prophet labored under Jeroboam II., and also under
Hezekiah, who did not come to the throne until
727 B. c. Now. if Jeroboam only reigned 41 years,
from 823 to 782, Hosea must have labored as a
prophet publicly before 782 and after 727, that is,
for over 60 years; but this hardly seems possible.
But if Jeroboam reigned 51 years, 823-772, then
still Hosea's public work covers the great but not
impossible time of 50 years. For all these reasons
we are compelled to conclude, with Thenius, that
there is an error here in copying the letters which
designate the numbers (XD = 'tl for NJ = 51), and
that the latter would be the correct number.
Wolff (see Pt. II., p. 89), with whose other com-
binations we do not agree, considers the number
41 incorrect, and reckons the years of the reign of
Jeroboam II. at 52. [See bracketed note on ver.
22.1
Ver. 25. He restored the coast of Israel,
&c. As in 1 Kings viii. 65 ; Amos vi. 2. 14, Ha-
math, by which we must understand not a city
merely, but also a district of Syria (2 Kings xxiii.
33; xxv. 21). is here used to designate the lorth-
ern boundary of Palestine. The sea of the plain
is the Dead Sea (Deut. iii. 17; Jos. iii. 16), the
ordinary designation of the southern boundary of
Palestine, east of the Jordan, which is more defi-
nitely marked on the frontier of Moabby the brook
Arnon which flows into the Dead Sea (Isai. xvi. 2).
[Cf. also Amos vi. 14.] Jonah is the well-known
prophet (Jon. i. 1) from the city of Gath-Hepher,
which lay in the territory of Zebulon (Jos. xix.
13). This oracle does not lose any of its historical
value from the fact that it is not to be found in
the " Book of Jonah " which we possess. It is
incomprehensible how Menzel could suppose that
the book of Jonah " contains this prophecy in >
metaphorical form, although not directly." Others,
152
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
as Hitzig and Knobel, think that Isaiah xv. and
ivi. contains the oracle of Jonah here referred to,
an hypothesis which rests upon a very weak-
basis. — In vers. 26 and 27 it is explained how it
came about that the frontiers were restored by a
king who still maintained the worship of Jero-
boam's calves. The ground for this lay in Jeho-
vah's pity for His chosen people. He had not yet
declared that He would blot it out for its apos-
tasy. He helped it out of the deep distress into
which it had been brought by the Syrians (chap.
xiii. 3. 7), ami prospered it to an extent which was
no longer to be expected or hoped for ; for, though
Jehoash had recovered all the lost cities on this
side of the Jordan, yet all the territory beyond the
river was still in the hands of the Syrians. Jero-
boam was the one who recovered it. On ~nyy
and 31TJ) see note on 1 Kings xiv. 10 ; cf. Deut.
xxxii. 36. — In ver. 28, a'jj'n cannot be translated
otherwise than ag in ver. 25: he brought back.
Ewald desires to strike out n"WTP and then to
read ^XT.'"^ instead of i)STJ"3 : " He recovered
Damascus and Haraath for Israel." These changes
are as violent as they are unnecessary. rmiT? is
a periphrasis for the genitive, because the proper
names do not admit of any form for the stai. canst.
iKeil, Thenius), and 3 before ^X"IC" means to or
for. As, however, neither the cities nor the dis-
tricts of Hamath and Damascus ever belonged to
Judah or Israel, it is impossible to say, in the
strict sense of the words, that he brought them
back. David had, indeed, once conquered a part
of Syria (Damascus, 2 Sam. viii. 6 and 6), and
Solomon had conquered a part of Hamath (2
Chron. viii. 3, 4). It was these districts, which
had long before made themselves independent of
any authority of Israel, which Jeroboam recov-
ered. The sense is then : Jeroboam re-established
the frontiers of the kingdom as they had once
been under David and Solomon, i. e., at the most
flourishing period of the kingdom.
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The reign of Amaziah had, in general, the
same course as that of his father Joash (chap. 12).
" We see the same good beginning, the same bad
progress, and the same sad and terrible ending in
the case of Amaziah as in that of Joash " (Schlicr).
The text itself affirms this by the words: " He did
in all tilings like as Joash his father had done "
(ver. 3.). The reasons why he clung, at the com-
mencement of his reign, to the lawful worship of
Jehovah, were rather external and traditional than
the result of an internal conviction. He may have
Been that this was necessary for the maintenance
of his authority, just as the kings of Israel consid-
ered it necessary for political reasons to maintain
the worship of Jeroboam's calf-images. It certainly
was not an affair of the heart with him (2 Chron.
xxv. 2). " He was a soldier with all his heart, and
he was nothing more" (Calw. Bibel). \\>- wanted
military glory, and therefore, immediately after his
accession to the throne, he collected a large army,
and also hired mercenaries from Israel (2 Chron.
xxv. 5 and 6). The Edomites had not provoked in
any way the attack upon themselves ; it was purely
an expedition for conquest. The brilliant victorj
which he won made him arrogant, and intensifieu
his thirst for wary so that he, in haughty self-con-
fidence and without external occasion, challenged
Israel to war, and insisted even when the latter put
aside the challenge and warned him to give up his
plan. His arrogance was severely punished ; he
was subjected to a humiliation such as no king of
Judah had experienced, not even his father Joash.
The Chronicler represents this as a divine judgment
upon him because he introduced the worship of the
gods of Kdom into Judah upon his return from the
expedition, and repelled haughtily the warning of
a prophet against this course (2 Chron. xxv. 14-16).
There is no occasion at all to doubt this story, as
Thenius does, because it "is intended to put in
pragmatic form the theocratic explanation of the
unfortunate result of the war with Israel." Neither
is it contradictory to ver. 3. The idea that divine
judgments follow upon idolatry and the worship of
false gods is one which runs through the entire
Old Testament economy ; it is not peculiar to the
Chronicler, but was held also by the author of the
Books of Kings, and, indeed, by all the Old Testa-
ment writers. Amaziah's unfortunate and shame-
ful end showed that it was not enough for a king
of Judah to observe the law for mere external and
political reasons, but that he fulfilled his calling
only when he, like David, clung to Jehovah "with
all his heart."
2. It has been regarded as a proof of extraordi-
nary humanity on the part of Amaziah that, al-
though he put to death, upon his accession, the mur-
derers of his father, nevertheless he spared their sons
and relatives, contrary to the course which was
commonly pursued in such cases (Curtius 6, 1 1 :
Lege cautum erat, ut propinqui eorum, qui regi insi-
diati cum ipsis necarentur. Cf. Cic. ad Brut. 15).
" We see," says Eisenlohr (Das Yolk Israel, U. s.
203), " that there was a remarkable development
and growth of moral feeling in the nation, aud that
a humane and generous culture gradually sup-
planted the former harshness. We are forced to
recognize this movement in spite of exceptional in-
stances to the contrary, and we see that it went
hand in hand with the decay of the more rigid and
formal couception of moral relations, and with the
growth of a more expanded moral vision." But there
are no signs of any progress in humanity at this
period. On the contrary, we are rather forced to
infer from the oracles of the prophets Amos and
Hosea, that it was a time of rudeness and violence.
As for Amaziah, it is impossible to speak of any
humane disposition in a man who, after killing
10,000 Kdomites in battle, proceeded to throw from
a rock 10,000 more who had been captured alive
(2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12). The author ouly means
to say that Amaziah, in the beginniLg of his reign,
was guided by the precepts of the Law. and that
In- obeyed them also in regard to the punishment
of those concerned in the murder of his father, and
their children. This law came from Moses, and
was not the product of a later and (as is asserted)
more humane time. This is not disproved by the
fact that the precept in question is contained in the
Book of Deuteronomy, for that book did not repeal
or abolish former statutes, it only renewed and ex-
tended them. Hitzig is decidedly in error when h«
says, on Jerem. xxxi. 29 [cf. Ezek. n viii. 2 »(.) : " Th«
CHAPTER XIY. 1-29
153
punishmer.t of the sbs of the fathers upon the chil-
dren, a legal institution of the old covenant, is, ac-
cording to ver. 29, repealed. This repeal is accom-
plished (ver. 31) by abolishing the entire former
covenant." In the places cited, the prophets Jere-
miah and Ezekiel are attacking the popular error
that God had left the guilty parents unpunished,
and was now punishing the children for their sins
(cf. Havernick on Ezekiel xviii.). The author of this
passage in Kings is not speaking of God's punish-
ment of men, but of the punishment of the sons of
the murderers by the king, i. e., by the civil power.
The civil punishment of the sons of wrong-doers
for the crimes of their fathers was abolished, not
in the time of Ezekiel or Jeremiah, but by the
law of Moses. Amaziah's conduct was not dic-
tated by thirst for vengeance against the fathers,
nor by humane pity for the sons. It was rather a
simple act of justice, in which he behaved, both
towards the fathers (Ex. xxi. 12 ; Levit. xxiv. 17),
and towards the sons (Dent. xxiv. 16), according to
the Law.
[The question of the degree of humanity to be
ascribed to Amaziah is of little importance. It is
certain that his conduct was very different from
that which was observed en all the changes of
dynasties in Israel, and by Athaliah in Judah.
These events were marked by the wholesale blood-
shed which was common in similar eases elsewhere
in the Orient. The author of the book of Kings
ascribes this action of the king to his loyalty to
the law of Moses, i. e., Deuteronomy. The bearing
of the text on the question of the time of composi-
tion of the book of Deuteronomy is plain. If the
author is correct in his explanation of Amaziah's
conduct, then the Book of Deuteronomy was in ex-
istence at this time. This is not the place to dis-
cuss the general evidence for the time of composi-
tion of that book, but the evidence of this verse
can only be avoided by supposing that the author
carried back to Amaziah the ideas of a book which
was written 150 years after his death, but before
the time when the Book of Kings was written,
or else that this verse was put in by the com-
piler. Those who maintain the late origin of
Deuteronomy are divided between these explana-
tions.—The idea that God punishes the sins of the
fathers upon the children is certainly found in the
Mosaic Law (Exod. xx. 5 ; Deut. v. 9), and it is a
simple fact of observation and experience, both in
history and in private life. This is at once a proof
and a consequence of the solidarity of the human
race. No man can commit an action which will
not have greater or less effect upon his contempo-
raries and upon succeeding generations. Those
on whom the punishment falls complain of injus-
tice in this order of things, as the Jews did who
had to bear the captivity, while their fathers, who
had incurred the penalty, had lived in luxury and
sin and died in peace, at home. Against them the.
prophets maintained the justice of God in his deal-
ings with individuals, and the responsibility of
each for his own sins only. This was, undeniably,
a modification or explanation of Deut. v. 9. Jere-
miah (xxxi. 29 sq.) represents it as a new covenant
which is to take the place of the old. Deut. xxiv. 16
is entirely different. It forbi Is, plainly and most
justly, that men shall imitate the course of nature,
which entails upon the children the consequences
jf the father's sins, by inflicting upon children phy-
sical punishment for their fathers' crimes. The
latter alone comes into the discussion of Amaziah'?
conduct.— W. G. S.]
3. The representation of king Joash which it
here given us supplements essentially the portrait
of him which we had in the last chapter. The man-
ner in which he here repels Amaziah's challenge
is not by any means a well-meant warning ; it is
rather calculated to exasperate him, and to stimu-
late his thirst for war still further. It bears wit-
ness, not to faith and trust in God, but to great
self-confidence and arrogance. The old spirit of
Ephraim appears here again, and, pluming itself
upon superior numbers, and external greatness and
power, looks down contemptuously upon Judah.
The parable of the cedar of Lebanon and the briar-
bush at its feet is a piece of genuine oriental bom-
bast, for which Joash had the less ground inas-
much as all that part of Israel beyond Jordan was
still in the hands of the Syrians, and Israel was
altogether in a distressed condition from which
Jeroboam II. was the first to relieve it (ver. 26).
Moreover, Joash did not bear in mind that fire can
go forth, even out of a briar, and consume the ce-
dars of Lebanon (Judges ix. 15). For the rest, Jo-
ash sustained himself here as a valiant soldier; he
did not wait for Amaziah to attack him, but took
the initiative himself, pushed on to the neighbor
hood of Amaziah's capital, inflicted upon him s
signal defeat, and took him captive. We are not
told why he did not put him to death, and, after
taking Jerusalem, put an end to the kingdom of
Judah, as Nebuchadnezzer afterwards did (chap,
xxv.). It can hardly have been from magnanimity
that he took the captive king with him to Jerusa-
lem, left him upon the throne, and contented him-
self with hostages. It is more natural to suppose
that he did this from arrogance. The " cedar "
treated the "briar" with contempt, and let him go
as beneath fear. Nevertheless he took ho3tagos
as security. We have to recognize here a d;span-
sation of Him who meant indeed to humbla Ama-
ziah (2 Chron. xxv. 20), but who would not permit
that Israel should become master of Judah.
4. Jeroboam IT. reigned, even if 've tjke the
number 41 to be correct, longer tbao. any other
king of Israel. The history of his raign is given
here very concisely, and, with the exception of the
incidental mention, Amos vii. 10, wo have no fur-
ther information. Besides the fact that he, like all
his predecessors, maintained the worship of the
calf-images, we are only told in regard to him that
God, according to the prophecy of Jonah, through
him rescued Israel from its bitter distress, and
that he restored the frontiers of the country as
they had existed under David and Solomon. The
complete defeat of the Syrians, and the expulsion
of these arch-enemies, who had brought the king-
dom to the verge of ruin, had the most important
consequences. These events took place early in the
reign of Jeroboam, and they show us Jeroboam as the
most able and energetic of the kings of Israel. The
latter part of his reign seems to have passed away
without any decisive events. It was a time of
peace and quiet, ' in which, as chap. xiii. 5 says,
" The children of Israel dwelt \*. their tents as be-
fore," and the people enjoyec1. the fruit of the vic-
tory over the Syrians. It follows that Jeroboam
was not only a valiant soldier, but also a prudent
ruler, who understood how to use the time of peace
so as to raise the material condition of his people
From the prophecies of the contemporary prophet*
154:
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Amos and Hosea, it is evident that the kingdom
had then attained a state of prosperity such as it
had never before enjoyed (cf. Amos vi. 4-6 ; iii. 15;
Hos. xii. 8). The deep depravity of the people,
however, appeared just at this time, for, instead of
being led, by God's bountiful goodness, to repent-
ance, they were stimulated to pride, so that Hosea
said : " According to tleir pasture, so were they
filled." &c. (Hos. xiii. 6). Not only did the worship
of the calf-images continue, but also the worship
of false gods increased (Hos. iv. 12, 17 ; viii. 4; xi.
2; xiii. 2). A shocking corruption of morals found
entrance at the same time : luxury, debauchery,
shameless licentiousness, injustice, violence, false-
hood, and deceit of all kinds (Amos ij. 6 sq. ; iii. 9 ;
v. 12; vi. 4-7 ; Hos. iv. 1, 2, 18), so that the king-
dom went on from the height of its prosperity, only
the more surely, towards its final downfall. (See
the next chapter.) In so far, the time of Jeroboam
was a turning point in the history of Israel. It
gave the proof that this nation could better endure
misfortune and oppression of every kind than
earthly glory and prosperity; therefore the Lord
allowed it, for its own salvation, to fall from its
position as an independent nation (chap. xvii. 6 sq.).
5. The prophet Jonah, who foretold the victory
of Jeroboam over the Syrians, and the restoration
of the ancient boundaries by him, must have ap-
peared in the early part of his reign. He is the
first of the line of prophets who not only spoke
(preached I, but also wrote down their prophecies.
A new phase of prophecy begins with him, so that
in this respect also the reign of Jeroboam was most
important for the history of redemption. Up to
this point the activity of the class of prophets of
whom Elijah and Elisha were the chief, was espe-
cially [and almost exclusively] directed to the pres-
ent, and aimed to' bring about a return from the
worship of the calves, and from idolatry, to the
fundamental law of Israel. They seized upon
events and circumstances, not so much by their
teaching and preaching, as by their acts, and their
acts were signs, that is, they were acts which
transmitted a divine revelation. "Since now," as
Hasse (Geschichte des Alien Bumles, s. 110 sq.) re-
marks, "the house of Jehu, which owed every-
thing to the prophets, also failed to return to the
original purity of the Israelitish constitution, and
since it persevered in its idolatry even under Jero-
boam II., who no longer had any foreign enemy to
fear, every hope of a reformation in the northern
kingdom had to be given up, and the prophets
could no longer hope to accomplish anything there
by actual interference [i. e., by such acts as the de-
posing of one dynasty and the institution of an-
other. Even that extreme measure had failed in
the case of the house of Jehu] ; they could only
allow the evil to go on to its consummation. They,
therefore, gradually withdrew from the direction
of affairs, and regarded it as their only remaining
task to make known to this stubborn and hard-
hearted generation the judgment which it was
bringing down upon itself. Just at the time, there-
fore, when the northern kingdom was at the very
height of its glory, Amos and Hosea proclaimed to
it its approaching ruin, and, because Judah had
also been tainted by the contagion of apostasy,
Joel also appeared there at the same time, as her-
ald of the coming judgment. This judgment could
not, of course, arrest the higher destiny of Israel.
Therefore the prophets saw beyond it a new and
purified Israel arise, and form a united kingdom
under a sceptre of the house of David, which
should embrace the heathen also. The Messianic
kingdom, therefore, rose up more and more dis-
tinctly as the end and aim of the entire develop
ment, as the true kingdom of God, and promises
of this kingdom were joined with threats of judg-
ment. Now for the first time did prophecy become
truly prophecy — that is, a vision of coming salvation
which stretched forward into and anticipated the
future; and where the prophets had hitherto made
use of word of mouth only, in order to influenci
the present, and their immediate surroundings,
they now made use of writing, because coming
generations also were to learn what they had re-
ceived into their souls." Instead of recognizing a
turning-point in the history of the prophetic insti-
tution at the time of Jeroboam, Ewald asserts
(Gesch. iii. s. 565 sq. 3d ed. 607 sq.) that there was
a "complete dissolution of the ancient prophetic in-
stitution " at that time. " The entire school (of
Elijah and Elisha) degenerated, and moved, not
forwards, but backwards." The cause of this was
that "the violent and imperious character which
clung to all the old kind of prophecy, but especially
to its developments in the northern kingdom, could
no longer be maintained over against the crown.
The bow wa3 stretched too hard — it had to break.
. . . A new form of the prophetical institution
now arose. . . . This did not aim to be an in-
dependent power in the kingdom, to exercise a
control which admitted of no contradiction, to set
up and to depose kings," &c, &c. This theory
rests upon the erroneous premise mentioned above
(Hist., § 7, on Chap, ix.), that the ancient propheti-
cal institution stood opposed to the crown as one
independent power to another, and that they strove
for the mastery, whereas the former %vas only a
divinely appointed corrective for the latter. If we
were to charge any of the prophets with violent
and imperious behavior, this charge would fall first
of all upon the new order of them, Hosea and
Amos for instance, in comparison with whose
words those of Elijah and Elisha sound mild and
gentle. Jeremiah, who came still later, was called
to the prophetic office with the words : " See, I
have this day set thee over the nations and over
the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down," &c.
(Jerem. i. 10; cf. xviii. 7). The development of the
prophetical institution stands in exact relation to
the history of Israel, and is conditioned upon it.
It does not break off with Elisha, who died under
Jeroboam's predecessor. The word-prophets stand
upon the shoulders of the deed-prophets, and carry
on the work which they had founded and begun
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-20. The Reign of Amaziah. (a) The
good beginning, vers. 1-7; (b) the deterioration
as it advanced, vers. 8-14; (c) the sad ending,
vers. 17-20. — Ver. 3. In cases like that of Amaziah,
where faith is not completely and sincerely an
affair of the heart (2 Chron. xxv. 2), it has no firm
foundation and is quickly overwhelmed, either by
unbolief or by superstition. A half-and-half dis-
position in what is good is a bridge which leads tc
what is evil. — In sacred and spiritual affairs we
have not to ask, how did our fathers do '? but, how
would God hav? us do? Because Amaziah onlj
CHAPTER XIV". 1-29.
155
did as his father had done, he finally fared as his
father had fared. — Vers. 5 and 6. The civil author-
ity does not carry the sword in vain, but it is an
avenger to indict punishment upon him who does
wickedly (Rom. xiii. 4). It is as much a sin to
leave the guilty unpunished as to punish the inno-
cent. Eight and justice are distorted by both
courses. Where regicides are allowed to go un-
punished, out of pity or weakness, there all justice
ceases. The throne [and the civil authority] are not
established by weak concessions, but by righteous-
ness (Prov. xvi. 12). — Although the faults of the
fathers are not nowadays visited upon the chil-
dren, yet it is not rare that the son suffers from
enmity which his father incurred.
Vers. 7-14. Pride goes before a Fall, (a) Ama-
eiah's arrogance; (b) his fall. — Ver. 7. Victory
cometh from the Lord (Prov. xxi. 31). If Amaziah
had seen ami believed this, he would have given
to God the honor, and would have humbled him-
self; but he ascribed the victory to himself and to
his own power, and so became haughty and arro-
gant (Jerem. xvii. 5, 7). — Extraordinary success in
our undertakings is a great temptation to arro-
gance (WX'RT. Sumh. : Those must be strong legs
which can support great good fortune and pros-
perity). God blesses our undertakings in order
that we may become, not haughty, but humble
(Gen. xxxii. 10 and 11). Every undue self-exalta-
tion robs us of the blessing again. Paul labored
with greater success than any other of the apos-
tles, but he was so far from proudly exalting his
heart on this account that he called himself the
least of the apostles, and said : " By the grace of
God I am what I am" (1 Cor. xv. 9, 10). — Ver. 8.
To commence a war from mere lust for war and
victory is an abomination in the sight of God.
Quarrelsomeness among common people is the
same as love of war among kings. The word of
God says : " Follow peace with all men " (Heb. xii.
14), and : " If it be possible, as much as lieth in
you, live peaceably with all men " (Rom. xii. 18). —
Vers. 9 and 10. As you shout, so will the echo be.
He who over-estimates his own strength, and
pushes himself forward into the charge of things
which he is not capable of managing, must not be
surprised if lie is contemptuously corrected. The
warning to " Enjoy your victory (which }-ou have
already won) and stay at home ! " belongs justlv to
vanity and self-exaltation. — He who desires to cor-
rect another for his arrogance must take good care
not to fall into the same fault himself. Blame and
complaint for the pride and arrogance of others
jften come from hearts which exalt themselves too
•nuch. — Do not parade your wisdom and strength,
if you really possess them. The Lord breaks down
even the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. xxix. 5 ; cf. Isai.
ii. 12, 13). Little David, when he comes in the
might of the Lord, is a match for the giant Goliath.
— Ver. 11. When the humiliating truth is spoken
out with scorn and derision, although it is in itself
beneficial, yet it only exasperates and embitters,
instead of leading to self-knowledge. As a bee
sucks honey even out of a poisonous flower, sa
also a sincere and truth-loving soul will win even
from the scorn and mockery of its enemies some-
thing good and beneficial for itself. — Arrogance
and love of honor make men deaf to every warn
ing and incapable of considering what is reallj
best for them. But he who will not hear must
feel.— Vers. 11-14. The defeat and fall of Amaziah
proclaim loudly: (a) "Pride goeth before destruo-
tion, and a haughty spirit before a fall " (Prov. xvi
is). "The stone falls back upon the head of him
who casts it into the air': (Sir. xxvii. 28). (ft) He
who desires too much, loses even that which he
already has ; therefore, " Godliness with content-
ment is great gain " (1 Tim. vi. 6).— Vers. 13-16.
" What is a man profited," &c. (Matt. xvi. 26).
Joash won a great battle, took the king prisoner,
conquered Jerusalem, and came back to Samaria
crowned with glory and laden with gold and silver;
but the best thing, the God who was yet wor-
shipped and honored in Judah, he did not bring,
lie remained in the sins of Jeroboam until his
cud. — Vers. 17-20. It is the great grace of God
when a long time is given to a man who has
sinned grievously in order that he may make good
again the harm which his sins have done, but then
the responsibility is all the heavier when the limit-
ed time expires. There stands written on the tomb-
stone of Amaziah by the finger of God this grea'.
and eternal truth: " God will resist the proud 1 "
Vers. 23-29. See Histor.and EHi.— Vers. 25-27.
Israel's deep misery (Jer. ii. 19), and God's great
pity (Ps. ciii. 10; Hos. xi. 8).— Wurt. Summ. :
Our faithful God helps us out of trouble according
to His great compassion, even when we have not
deserved it of Him, but often not until our distress
has reached the highest pitch and no help is to be
expected from any other quarter. — When God not
only helps us out of trouble which we have not
deserved, but also gives us besides what we never
could have hoped for or expected, He thereby says
to us: "I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked," Ac. (Ezek. xxxiii. 11; Rom. ii. 4). — Ver.
25. In times of need and calamity God provides
faithful servants who bear witness' to his pity and
call men's attention to the one thing needful. " Well
is it for those who listen to these voices and do
not harden their hearts. — Vers. 28 and 29. Jero-
boam had striven for the external prosperity of
his people, and, when he died, he left the kingdom
in a more flourishing condition than any previous
king of Israel. For its spiritual welfare, however,
he had done nothing. Calf-worship and the ser-
vice of false gods had continued, and a moral rot-
tenness had found entrance, which brought the
kingdom near to ruin. So has many a one, at his
death, left to his children treasures which he had
won by long labor and care, but those children
hive not been bred in the fear and love of God,
and have not been taught that "The world
passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that
doeth the will of God abideth forever " (1 John ii
17 ; 1 Peter L 24 sq.).
156 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
THIRD SECTION.
IHE MONARCHY UNDER AZARIAH (UZZIAH) AND JOTHAM IN JUDAH, AND UNDER ZAOHARIAH AN1
OTHERS UNTIL HOSHEA, IN ISRAEL.
(2 Kings xv.-xvii.)
A. — The reigns of Azariah and Jotham in Judah, and of Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem
Pekahiah, and Pekah in Israel.
Chap. xv. 1-38. (2 Chron. xxvi. and xxvii).
1 In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel [,] began [omit
2 began] Azariah son of Araaziah king of Judah to reign [became king]. Six-
teen years old was he when he began to reign [became king], and he reigned
two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecholiah of
3 Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, aeeord-
4 ing [like] to all that his father Amaziah had done ; save that the high places
were not removed ; the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high
5 places. And the Lord smote [touched] the king, so that he was a leper unto
the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house [house of sickness]1. And
6 Jotham the king's son was over the house, judging the people of the land. And
the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the
1 book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? So Azariah slept with his
fathers ; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David : and Jotham
his son reigned in his stead.
8 In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son
9 of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months. And he did that lohich
was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done: he departed not from
10 the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And Shallum
the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people3, and
11 slew him, and reigned in his stead. And the rest of the acts of Zachariah,
behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1° This was the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons
shall sit on the throne of Israel unto the fourth generation. And so it came to
pass.
13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign [became king] in the nine and thirtieth
14 year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria. For
[And] Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and
smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his
15 stead. And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made,
behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
16 Then Menahem [starting from Tirzah] smote' Tiphsah, and all that were there-
in, and the coasts [environs] thereof from Tirzah [omit from Tirzah] : because
they opened not to him*, therefore he smote it; and all the women6 therein that
were with child he ripped up.
17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began [omit began]
Menahem the son of Gadi to reign [became king] over Israel, and reigned ten
18 years in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord:
he departed not all his days [omit all his days] from the sins of Jeroboam the son
19 of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. And [In his days — omit And] Pul the king
of Assyria came against the land : and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of
silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand
CHAPTER XV. 1-38. 157
20 And Menahem exacted [imposed] the money of [upon] Israel, even of [upon—
omit even of] all the mighty men of wealth, of [upon] each man fifty shekels of
silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and
21 stayed not there in the land. And t he rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that
he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel?
22 And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead.
23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem
began to reign [became king] over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.
24 And he did that tchich was evil in the sight of the Lord : he departed not from
25 the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. But Pekah the
son of Renialiah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in
Samaria, in the palace [citadel] of the king's house, [together] with Argob and
Arieh, and with him [*. «. Pekah there were] fifty men of the Gileadites: and he
26 killed him, and reigned in his room. And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and
all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the
kings of Israel.
27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of
Remaliah began to reign [became king] over Israel in Samaria, and reigned
28 twenty years. And he did that ichich was evil in the sight of the Lord : he
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to
29 sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria,
and took Ijou, and, Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor,
and Gilead, and Galilee,8 all the land of Xaphtali, and carried them captive to
JO Assyria. And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son
of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned [became king] in his
31 stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. And the rest of the
acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the
Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
32 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began
[omit began] Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign [became king].
33 Five and twenty years old was he when he hegan to reign [became king], and
he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerusha,
34 the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the sight of the
35 Lord : he did according [like] to all that his father Uzziah had done. Howbeit
the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still
in the high places. He built the higher [upper] gate of the house of the Lord.
36 Xow the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in
37 the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? In thosedays the Lord
began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of
38 Remaliah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers
in the city of David his father : and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
i r
1 Ver. 5.— [JVp'Sn, for which 2 Chron. xxvi. 21 has fTC'SH i is an abstract noun, " sickness." Cf. Ew. § 165, a and
o. rV^'pnn JY2 therefore means house of sickness, hospital. So Gesen., Theniua, Bunsen, and others. Hengstenberg
and Keil understand it to mean, "house of freedom," i. e., in which those dwell who are freed or released from human
nblig&tton. It is clear how artificial and forced such an explanation is. Bahr (see Exeg. on the verse) takes it as the
English translators did. "separate," but J."2n , although it means free, comes to that idea from another side. Its
primary meaning is to be loosened, lax, and so free from bonds. Hence, by a connection of thought which is often
found, it means, when applied to the body, having the natural conserving forces weakened and relaxed, i. e., to be
weak, diseased, sick. There is here a certain sense of ,l free." but not the one which is akin to separate. It is of
the utmost importance, in following out the developments of the radical signification of a Hebrew root, not to depart
frorr. the true line of its development. The ramifications of different roots approach one another very often, at many
points. It is all the more necessary not to pass over from one to the other. JVt?2r"in JV3 means " house of sickness*
a house belonging to the king, standing by itself, no doubt, as a matter of fact, and Bet apart as his residence under the
circumstances of his disease. — W. G. S.l
* Ver. 10.— Before witnesses, or, in public. ?2p [lengthened from ?3p , (which form Ge». gives in the II.- W.-B.
»nd pronounces Quobdl) is to be pronounced Quobol (Bottcher, Ewald), and] is equivalent to the Chaldee Qtp ■
Dan. li. 31 : Mi. 3— B»hr.
158
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
8 Ver. 16. — [Note the imperfect n3k after IX • Like the historical present it is used for graphic force, to folio*
dramatically tne succession of events as they arose or came to pass. Ew. § 134, b.
* Vers. 16 — [nnD is impersonal, "because it was not opened," or. "because no opening was made,'' i. e. because
the penple did not open the sates for him.
* Ver. 16. — [The art. with the suff. is very rare. See, however, Levit. sxvii. 23; Josh- vii. 21 ; viii. S3, — Ew. § 290. d.e
* Vers. 29. — [H^vSn — Elsewhere in the O. T. it is always called ^b3H • It is not regarded as a fern, and hence
the Ultima is not accented, though the plural has the form m^^3 ,— Ew. § 173, h, 2 and 3, note 1. Bottcher sees 1l
it a peculiarity of the " Ephraimitic " dialect (§ 341. In form H. T^H is a perfect feminine, but, as the other
form was Judaic, that is, classical, the punctuators did not ascent this as a feminine. Lehrb. § 616, 3. — W. G. S-]
EXEGETICAL, AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. In the twenty and seventh year of
Jeroboam. This chronological statement, although
it appears in all the versions and in the massoretic
text, is inconsistent with chap. xiv. 2, 17, 23. Am-
aziali the father of Uzziah ruled in all 29 years
(xiv. 2), 14 years contemporaneously with Joash of
Israel, and 15 years contemporaneously with his
successor, Jeroboam II. (xiv. 17, 23). Amaziah
therefore died, and his son Uzziah succeeded him.
in the 15th year of the reign of Jeroboam II., not
in the 27th. In order to retain the number 27, it
las been assumed that there was an interregnum
of 11 or 12 years, although there is no mention of
any such thing in the history. According to chap,
xiv. 20, 21, Uzziah succeeded immediately upon
the death of his father, and moreover, if this sup-
position were to be adopted, we should have to al-
ter all the other chronological statements in chaps,
xiv. and xv. Cf. the Excursus on the Chronology,
below, after chap. xvii. Evidently there has been
an interchange of the numerical signs here, J3, 27,
has been put for yj, 15, as Capellus and Grotius
supposed, and as all the expositors, even including
Keil and Von Gerlach, now assume. [Thenius,
adopting this solution of the difficulty, calls atten-
tion to the testimony which it bears to the anti-
quity of the use of 113, instead of IT , to represent
1 5. The latter being the abbreviation for pflfp . was
avoided, as is well known, when it should have oc-
curied in the list of numerals to represent fifteen. If
Vl3 ever stood there, of course the inference is good,
that, even at a very early time, the superstitious
reverence for the name HUT had gone so far as to
produc this change in the mode of writing the
numbf r. In fact, however, the change here from
27 to 15 is purely arbitrary. It must be defended
by considerations drawn from the context. Any
argument in its favor which is deduced from the
greater or less resemblance of 13 to 10 is of little
value. Other letters would have as great or greater
resemblance. We ought to understand that, when
we abandon the text as it stands, we make arbi-
trary changes, and we must justify them by criti-
cal grounds. We only deceive ourselves when vri
imagine that there is a resemblance between the
numerals in the text and those we want to put
there, and so persuade ourselves that we have
found further support for our conjecture. That
number must be put in the place of 27, which the
best critical combinations require. The expositors
almost .ill agree in reading 51 (53) for 41 as the
duration of Jeroboam's reign, and then in reading
1.". for 27 here, because Zachariah succeeded in
Uzziah'a 38th. See, however, the bracketed note
on chap. xiv. 22. and the Appendix on theGhronoJogy.
— W. G. S.] Azariah, or Uzziah, was devoted to
the worship of Jehovah, as Amaziah was at the
commencement of his reign ; like him, however, he
still permitted the worship upon the high places.
See notes on chap. xiv. 3 and 4. The chronicler
says that he sought Jehovah so long as the prophet
Zachariah lived (2 Chron. xxvi. 5). [The chroni-
cler does not charge him with idolatry at all. He
accounts for his leprosy by telling how he tres-
passed upon the function of the priests. This he
did from pride; nevertheless, it was rather too
great zeal in the service of Jehovah than too little.
— W. G. S.]
Ver. 5. And the Lord touched the king, &c.
This did not take place until after Uzziah had ac-
complished what is narrated in 2 Chron. xxvi. 6-
15. The ground which is there given (ver. 16) for
the punishment with leprosy is. that he, beinj,
puffed up in consequence of his victories and of
his powerful position, usurped priestly functions
contrary to the law (Numb, xviii. 3, 7), and thereby
violated the sanctuary. It is hardly possible that
he can have become a leper earlier than the last
years of his long reign. His son Jotham, who
ruled in his stead during his sickness, was only 25
years old when he became king in his own right
by his father's death (ver. 33).— ryE'Snn JV3 does
not mean : sick-house, or pest-house, as it is now
generally translated, for t."Sn means to be loose,
free, that is, separated (Levit. xix. 20). Neither does
it mean house of freedom, or manumission (Heng-
stenberg, Keil). but house of separation, i. e„ a house
which stands in the open country, by itself, sepa-
rate from others. Vulg: in domo libera seorsum
[See Grammatical note on the verse.] According
to the Law (Levit. xiii. 46), the lepers had to dweL
apart (TQ). outside of the city or the camp (2
Kings vii. 3). Probably the house in which the
leprous king lived was especially built for him. —
And Jotham the king's son was over the house,
i. e„ he filled one of the highest offices of the court
(cf. 1 Kings iv. 6; xviii. 3; 2 Kings xviii. 1R)—
judging the people of the land [cf. 1 Sam. viii.
6, 20 ; 1 Kings iii. 9), i. e., Yicarius erat regis, qui a
populo segregates fungi regiam potesiatem von poterat
(Grotius). As was said above (Pt. II., pp. 88 and S9),
this passage bears strongly against the supposition
that there occurred, in the Hebrew history, joint-
egencies which are not specifically mentioned.
l zziah remained king until his death ; up to that
event, Jotham was not co-regent, but only the rep-
resentative of his father. — In the city of David.
ver. 7. Instead of this the chronicler says (II.. xxvi.
23) : " In the field of the burial which belonged Ut
the kings; for they said, He is a leper." Bertheau
remarks on this; " He was buried, according tc
this, near to the royal tombs (with his fathers), be-
cause they did not dare to put a king who had died
of leprosy in the royal sepulchres, lest they should
make them unclean."
Ver. 8. In the thirty and eighth year, Ac. Id
regard to the correctness of this statt ment, Bet
CHAPTER XV. 1-38.
159
note on chap. xiv. 23. The assassinations of kings
which had been perpetrated before this, had taken
place in secret, but this one was carried out in pub-
lic, that is to say, boldly and without fear. The
people saw it perpetrated without opposing it. The
Sept. translate quite incorrectly: Kal iirara^ev
avrov iv Ke/3Aad/i. Ewald considers DJT^Sp a
proper name, because DJ? has not the article [and
because *>2p does not " occur elsewhere in prose,"
and because the Sept. take it as a proper name].
He believes it to be the name of the "third king
during that month " [see Zach. xi. 8]. He trans-
lates: "And Kobolam slew him." Not to speak
of any other objection to this, we should then ex-
pect to be told whose son he was, as in the similar
cases, vers. 14, 25, and 30. [Stanley is the only
scholar who has followed Ewald in this invention.
The facts referred to in support of it are not by
any means without weight, but the invention of
another king is too ponderous a solution for them.
Yet it is remarkable to notice that a form from the
root 73p forms a part of certain Assyrian proper
names. (See the list of Assyrian kings at the end
of vol. I. of Lenormant's Manual of the History of
the East, with foot-note thereon.) However, to take
DU"?3p as a proper name in the place before us
renders the passage awkward and unnatural. — W.
G. S.] Thenius arbitrarily pronounces ver. 12 to
be an addition by the " redactor." It refers back
very significantly to chap. x. 30. Zachariah was
the fourth and last descendant of Jehu upon the
throne of Israel.
Ver. 13. Shallum the son of Jabesh, &c. As
the one month, during which Shallum reigned,
falls in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Uzziah,
the six months, during which Zachariah was king
(ver. 8), must be placed in the last part of the 38th
year of Uzziah's reign ; probably some of them fall
even in the beginning of the 39th. According to
Josephus, Shallum was a friend (<pi?.oc) of Zacha-
riah, and put him to death by taking advantage of
this relation. When Menahem, 6 amarr/yoc (i. e.,
the commander-in-chief), who was then in Tirzah,
heard this, he started up with his entire force, and
marched to Samaria, ml avu^a?ujv fie pd\i/r drai-
pei rbv Sf /./owkx' ; after he had made himself
king, eneiftei' elr Bail'av irapayivtxai -ii'/iv. Tir-
zah lay in the neighborhood of Samaria. See
above, note on 1 Kings xiv. 17. — -Then Menahem,
ver. 16, i. e., after he had made himself master
of the throne. The verse contains a further
continuation of ver. 14, and tells more definitely
what Menahem did, after he had killed Shallum,
in order to become rider of the country. This
event does not belong to the reign of Menahem,
for the story of that does not begin until the 17th
verse, but it belongs to the incidents connected
with his taking possession of the throne. It fol-
lows that Tiphsah is not the celebrated Thapsacus
on the Euphrates (as it is in 1 Kings v. 4 ; see note
thereon), as has often been supposed, and as Keil
[and Rawlinson] yet maintain. Menahem could
not, at any time, have undertaken an expedition
against this far distant city, which formed the ut-
most limit of the kingdom of Solomon ; least of all
oould he have undertaken this just after ascending
the throne. He had enough to do to establish his
usurped authority on a firm basis. Most commen-
tators, therefore, correctly judge that Tiphsah waa
a city near Tirzah, of which, as of so many others
which are mentioned but once, nothing further ia
known. The name nDSn, trajectus, ford, "may,
in view of its appellative force, have been applied
to many towns which lay near to fords " (Winer).
There is not sufficient reason for believing that
" nDEn is an error for rnsri ," a town on the bor-
der between Ephraim and Manasseh, Jos. xvii. 7,
8 (Thenius). — HVinO cannot be translated other-
wise than as in ver. 14. It does not therefore
mean: "from Tirzah on." i.e., to Tiphsah. but:
'starting out from Tirzah," and it is to be joined
with n|' , not with iT^32 . The meaning of the
passage is, therefore, this: When Menahem heard
of the events which had happened in Samaria, he
marched from Tirzah with his army, or a part of
it, to Samaria, and there slew Shallum. Then he
went back to Tirzah and marched out with his en-
tire force to reduce the country to obedience to
himself. In Tiphsah he met with obstinate resist-
ance, but took the city by storm (Josephus: Kara
Kpdrog), and chastised it and the surrounding ter-
ritory in a horrible manner (Josephus: uudir/rof
' - ,< vj/.?)i> ov fcara?j7r<jv ovde a-ypidryror). He
thereby frightened any others who might have
been intending to resist, and so established him-
self on the throne. We have mention of a similar
cruelty towards pregnant women in chap. viii. 12;
Hos. xiv. 1 [E. V. xiii. 16] ; Amos i. 1 3. If news-
paper reports may be believed, a guerilla captain in
Michoacan, Mexico, did the same thing in tne year
1861.
Ver. 17. In the nine and thirtieth year, &c.
On the duration of Menahem's reign, see note on
ver. 23. The closing words of ver. IS : VD,_i>3
are nowhere else added to the stereotyped formula
which recurs in that verse, although they would
hold just as true of any of the other kings of Is-
rael as of Menahem. The Sept. join the words to
the following verse, and translate : iv rair r/fiepaig
avroi avififi *o//.. They therefore read VO'3t
and Thenius and Keil, referring also to ver. 29,
agree in regarding this as the original reading of
the text. By this change N3 , at the commence-
ment of ver. 19, comes into a good connection of
sense, and is not left abrupt; also there is no need
for Hitzig's emendation joi. — Pul (ver. 19) is the
first Assyrian king who is mentioned in the Old
Testament. In fact this is the first reference to
the Assyrians in the history of the Israelites.
Since they had to come through Syria in order to
reach Palestine, it follows that the}' must have re-
duced that country to subjection, and extended
their power on this side of the Euphrates ; i. e.,
Assyria must have commenced to take the position
of a great world-monarchy. [Assyria had begun
to take the position of a world-monarchy, but it
must be understood that these expeditions were
raids rather than complete conquests. Tribute was
imposed and then the defeated nation was left in-
tact. It refused the tribute as soon as it dared and
then a new expedition was made against it. It waa
only after a long period of this vassal relationship
that a conquered country was incorporated as a
160
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
province of the empire. Accordingly very fen-
were ever thus treated at all. The expression for
incorporation used in the inscriptions is to "treat
them like the Assyrians." — W. G. S.] Hosea (viii.
10) calls the king of Assyria " The king of princes."
[•• King of kings " is a standing epithet of the As-
syrian monarchs upon their monuments.] It has
often been inferred from Hos. v. 13; vii. 11 1 viii.
9 that Menahem invited the Assyrians to support
him against other aspirants to the crown (Thenius),
and that Pul came "to help the king to restore
order" (Ewald). This notion is controverted by
the expression JIXiT^j; N3 , which is used of a
hostile coming and attack, Gen. xxxiv. 25; Judges
xviii. 27 j Isai. x. 28; Job ii. 11. In 1 Chron. v.
26, Puis coining is distinctly referred to as a hos-
tile attack. Jlenahem induced the mighty enemy
to withdraw from the country by a large sum of
money, and then secured his alliance against inter-
nal and external foes. This last is what Hosea
calls Israel's going to Assyria. A thousand talents
of silver are about two or two and a half million
thalers [SI, 440,000 or $1,800,000. The value of
the talent is not surely and definitely known.]
Menahem imposed this sum as a tax ( NX' , he
made the money go out) upon the " able ones " in
Israel. P'riH 'liaj are not here the mighty men
of the army, but those who were strong in wealth
(Job xx. 15; Ruth ii. 1). Either there were no
treasuries then in Israel or, if there were any,
they were empty. Menahem did not include the
poor in this tax, in order that he might not excite
discontent, and might not have to use force to col-
lect it. Each man fifty shekels of silver. As a
talent contained 3,000 shekels, there must have
been 60.000 " mighty men of wealth." The inter-
pretation, that Menahem paid to Pul 50 shekels
for every soldier in his army (Richter), is incorrect.
It is often inferred, though incorrectly, from 1
Chron. v. 26, that Pul, on his departure, took away
Reuben and Gad and the half of Manasseh. This
deed is ascribed there, as here, to Tiglath Pileser
(see Bertheau on that passage). The assertion of
the Calw. Bibel that " this entire occurrence was
prophesied in Amos vii. 1-3," has little or no
foundation.
Ver. 23. In the fiftieth year of Azariah, Ac.
As Menahem became king, according to ver. 17. in
the 39th of Uzziah, and ruled 10 years, we expect
here the 49th year. Keil assumes that " some
months passed between the death of Menahem and
the accession of Pekahiah ; probably because of the
disorder which prevailed at the time, and which
made this accession difficult." We prefer to sup-
pose that Menahem became king in the last months
of the 39th year of Uzziah, and reigned for a
month or two into his 50th, i. «., a few months
over ten years. [This changes the form of the
difficulty, but does not do away with it at all. If
the facts had been as is here supposed, the Jewish
mode of reckoning would have made Meuahem's
reign 11 or 12 years in duration. There is a dis-
crepancy which we cannot explain. We must
either change the text, or pass i'. over, taking 10
years as the length of the reign and neglecting the
other statement. The attempted explanations are
futile — TV. G. S.] On {."'$>"'. ver. 25. see Rxeg.
note on 1 Kings ix. 22. It is not apposition to
Remaliah (as Luther took it), but to Pekah. The
citadel of the king's house is not the harem
(Ewald). It is the fortified part of the palace into
which Pekahiah fled when the conspirators ap-
proached (cf. 1 Kings xvi. 18). [So far as we know
there was no part of the Oriental palaces which
was, in any proper sense, fortified. The Assyria!,
palaces which have been exhumed consist of three
independent yet connected buildings, a hall of au-
dience or business, a servants' house, and the
harem. The last was the most strictly enclosed
and carefully guarded, and was the strongest for
defence. It was connected by an enclosed cloister
with the first mentioned building. If wemayjudge
from this of the arrangement of a Samaritan palace,
the J1D1X w-as the harem or included it. — "W. G. S.j
Josephus gives as the reason for his short reign of
two years : ti] rov ~arpdg KaTa.Ko7.ov&i]oa(; cjuon/rt.
Argob and Arieh were no doubt high officials, and
influential friends of the king, whose opposition
was '.o be feared, and whom Pekah, therefore, put
to death together with (JIN) the king. The fol-
lowing lay shows that they were not fellow-con-
spirators of Pekah (as many have supposed) who,
with him, murdered the king. The fifty Gileadites
probably belonged to the body-guard which was
under the command of Pekah. The Gileadites,
who were stout soldiers (1 Chron. xii. 8 ; xxvi. 31 ;
Josh. xvii. 1), were employed in this department
of the service.
Ver. 27. In the two and fiftieth year, &c.
On the chronological data in vers. 27 and 30, see
below, after chap. xvii. The following may suffice
here : Pekah is said (ver. 27) to have reigned only
20 years. But, according to ver. 32, he reigned two
years before Jotham. The latter reigned 1 6 years.
According to chap. xvii. 1, Pekah's successor,
Hoshea, came to the throne in the 12th year of
Jotham's successor Ahaz. But 2 + 16 + 12 = 30.
AVe are therefore compelled to conclude that the
time from the accession of Pekah to that of
Hoshea was thirty years. All the commenta-
tors agree in this. Then, either Pekah ruled
30 instead of 20 years, or he reigned 20 y^rs
and there was an interval of 10 years before
the accession of his successor, Hoshea, during
which there was no king in Israel, and, as those
who adopt this view agree, there was anarchy.
Ver. 30, however, contradicts this latter hypothe-
sis, for it is there said that Hoshea slew Pekah
and reigned in his stead, not after an interval of
10 years, but as soon as he had killed him. The
history does not hint at any period of strife or
anarchy, although such a period must have pre-
sented incidents worth recording We do not hesi-
tate, therefore, to assume here, as in ver. 1, that
an error in copying has been made. The error
here, in writing 3, 20, for ^>, 30, is one which
could take place more easily than the one we dis-
covered there (Thenius). AU the other chrono-
logical data are consistent with 30 in this place, as
we shall see belew, on chap. xvii. [See the trans-
lator's addition below at the end of this Exeg. sec-
tion.]
Ver. 29. In the days of Pekah . . came
Tiglath Pileser. This Assyrian king was the
successor of Pul. To which of the Assyrian dy-
nasties he belonged, and whether he was the last
CHAPTER XV. 1-38.
161
of the dynasty of the DereetacUe, are questions
which do not interest us here [?] (Keil on the pas-
Bage). The signification of the name Tiglath-
pileser (or, as the chronicler writes it, Tilgath-
pilneser) is uncertain. According to Gesenius.
Tiglath is equivalent to Diglath, the Tigris river,
and pileser means lord: " Lord of the Tigris river."
According to Fiirst, Tiglath means acer, forlis. —
[This is the etymological meaning of Diglath, ap-
plied to the Tigris from its swiftness. See the
dictionaries ou ppl.T-] — ?3, arcere, and TDS,
prince; together: "The chief, as mighty defender."
According to others, Diglath is the name for the
goddess Derceto, or Atargatis. [The name is tran-
scribed from the cuneiform by Lenormant: Tuklat-
pal-ashir; by Smith: Tukulti-pal-zara ; by Raw-
linson : Tiglat-pal-zira. Rawlinson (Five Great
Monarchies, IL 539) gives the etymology thus :
Tiglat is worship, or adoration (Chald. "On , to trust
in); pal is son (of this there is no doubt ; it occurs
in scores of names) ; zira is obscure ; Sir. H. Raw-
linson thinks that it means lord, "as Zirat cer-
tainly means lady." However this last may be,
Pal-zira, as a compound, was an epithet of the
god Xin (= Hercules), and the king's name would
mean: " Worship to Hercules." This is the only
explanation yet offered which is anything more
than a guess. — W. G. S.] On Ijon and Abel-beth-
maachah, see notes on 1 Kings xv. 20. Janoah
cannot be the town on the border between Ephraim
and Manasseh, which is mentioned Josh. xvi. 6
sq., for all the cities here mentioned were in the
northern part of Palestine ; it probably lay near
those which have been mentioned. Kedesh was a
free, levitical city in the tribe of Naphtali (Josh.
xix. 37 ; xx. 7 ; xxi. 32) ; on the western bank of
the sea of Merom (Robinson, Palest. III. 355). On
Hazor see note on 1 Kings ix. 15. Gilead with
the article is not a city but the territory east of the
Jordan which Jeroboam II. had recovered to Is-
rael (chap. xiv. 25). On Galilee, or Galilah, see
note on 1 Kings ix. 1 1. All the land of Naphtali
is an explanatory apposition to Galilah. The
places are mentioned in the order in which they
were conquered. The incident which is here nar-
rated coincides with that in chap. xvi. 9 (see Mau-
rer on that verse) and belongs to the last years
of Pekah's reign. Perhaps it gave occasion to
Hosea's conspiracy against him. The chronologi-
cal statement in ver. 30 : in the twentieth year
of Jotham, cannot be correct, for Jotham only
reigned 16 years. See further, notes on chap,
xvii.
Ver. 32. In the second year of Pekah, &c.
On the section vers. 32-38 see the parallel narrative
in 2 Ohron. xxvii. 1-9, which contributes further
information in regard to Jotham. To the words:
He did like to all that his father Uzziah had
done, the Chronicler adds: " howbeit he entered
not into the temple of the Lord," i. e., into the in-
ner sanctuary, by which it is meant to sa,y that he
did not usurp priestly functions as Uzziah had
done (2 Chron. xxvi. 16). He did not abolish the
worship on the heights (ver. 4 and chap. xiv. 4).
He built the upper gate, i. e., he restored it, he
rebuilt it more splendidly, for it could not well be
meant to assert that he built it at this time, and
that there had been none before.
U
l%n
is not the
highest gate, nor the chief gate, but "the upper
one," perhaps because it was toward the north, to-
wards that part of the temple rock, which, as com-
pared with the south side, was higher. (Bertheau,
on '2 Chron. xvii. 3). [" King Solomon's palace was
evidently at a lower level than the temple, and
therefore (2 Chron. xxvii. 3) king Jotham may still
have built much upon the wall." (Jerusalem Re-
stored, p. 222).] According to Ezek., xl. 38 sq ,
the sacrifices were slain at this gate. (Of. Ezek. ix.
2 : viii. 5.) This is probably the reason why Jotham
made it especially beautiful. In Jerem. xx. 2 it is
called the gate of Benjamin. It must not be confused
with the gate -|J|D, chap. xi. 6, for this was adjoining
the palace (see Exeg. note on that ver.). — In those
days (ver. 37), i. e., towards the eud of Jotham's
reign, Jehovah began to send against Judah the
confederated Israelites and Syrians, t. e., he brought
this chastisement upon Judah (Levit. xxyi. 22 ; Amos
viii. 11). Rezin; "the name of the founder of the
dynasty (1 Kings xi 23) [rather of the founder of
the monarchy. There had been more than one
dynasty.] appears again, slightly altered, in him
who was to close it" (Thenius). The attacks were
begun under Jotham; under his successor Ahaz
(chap, xvi.) they first became threatening to the
kingdom. As the Assyrians had already once
penetrated into Palestine (ver. 19), and as Ahaz
once more called on them for aid against Rezin
and Pekah (chap. xvi. 7), we must suppose that the
Syrians had, in the mean time, freed themselves
once more from the Assyrian yoke (see notes on
ver. 19). This had probably become possible for
them because the Assyrians, on account of the
revolt of the Medes and Babylonians, were pre-
vented for a time from maintaining their authority.
Tiglath Pileser reconquered Damascus (chap. xvi. 9).
[Supplementary Note on the references to
Assyrian history contained in chap. xv. — The ref-
erences to contemporaneous history which occur
in the text are of the highest value for the solu-
tion of the chronological difficulties, and for the
elucidation of the history. Every such reference,
therefore, requires our most careful attention. In
the three years since the German edition of this
volume was published most important contribu-
tions have been made to our knowledge, espe-
cially of Assyrian history. It is difficult to under-
stand how the German author' could lay aside all
notice of the results which had been attained, even
at that time, and refuse to take notice of them.
The time has now certainly come when biblical
scholars must give them attention, and a summary
of the information we possess is given in a series
of notes at the end of the Exegetical sections on the
next few chapters.*
* Of works which are available to the English stu<lent
for acquiring a more detailed acquaintance with history
contemporaneous to that of the Israelitish monarchy, we
may mention the following: a) Prof. Geo. Uawlinson's Five
Groat Monarchies of the Ancient World. (4 Vols. Murray:
London, 1864. 2ded. 1371.) This work Isbased on the inves-
tigations and opinions of Sir H. Rawlinson. The first edition
has been already to some extent superseded by later discov-
eries. I)) Manual of Ancient History, by the same (Har-
pers' reprint, 1871). This is a small and convenient work. A
large part of it is taken up with the history of Greece and
Home, and the history of the Oriental nations is so innch
epitomized that it is hardly available for any who are not
already familiar with the history from other sources. It
is not consistent in its chronology. It adopts the " shorl
period" for Assyrian history, but has not ventured to
depart from the received chronology for the Israelitisb
162
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Pul (ver. 19) is the first king of Assyria who
is mentioned in the Book of Kings, though we
know from the monuments and inscriptions that
Ahab and Jehu both came in contact with the
Assyrian world-monarchy. (See notes 5 and 12 on
the 'Chronological Table, and p. 114 of Part II.) No
such king is mentioned in an_v inscription which
has yet been found, and no such one is named in
the Canon (See Appendix on the Chronology, § 4).
Rawlinson (Five Great Monarchies, II., p. 385 sq.)
thinks that the identification with certain known
kings of Assyria, which has been attempted, is
unsatisfactory, but does not dispose definitely of
the question. In the Manual, Pul is not mentioned
among the kings of Assyria though he is mentioned
in the section on "Judaea." Oppert offers a solu-
tion of the difficulty. He gives credit to the story
of the " first destruction of Nineveh " by the Chal-
deans and Medes. According to his identification
of the eclipse mentioned in the Canon (App. on the
Chron., £ 4.). the date of this would be 789. The
accession of Tiglath Pileser II. in 747-5 is beyond
dispute. The gap between 789 and 747 is filled by
inserting Pul, a Chaldean (the name is not Assy-
rian in form), who is supposed to have remained
in Assyria after the destruction of Nineveh as ruler
of the country. This, such as it is, is the best con-
jecture to account for the king mentioned in ver.
19.
Tiglath Pileser II. (ver. 29) was, according to
Rawlinson. a usurper, according to Lenormant, a
descendant of the ancient Assyrian dynasty. His
reign dates from 745-4, but he may have been
engaged for two or three years before that time in
securing the throne. He reigned until 727. He
is said in the text to have come into Syria and Sa-
maria in the reign of Pekah. This is the first in-
stance we find of that policy of deportation which
the Assyrians and Babylonians afterwards prac-
tised so much. It was not generally, or certainly
had not been up to this time, the policy of the
Assyrians to destroy the nationality of the nations
which they subdued. (See bracketed note on ver.
19.) They made expeditions against certain nations
which they plundered and made tributary, but
which they then left undisturbed so long as the
tribute was paid. It was only after long vassalage,
and repeated revolts and reconquests, that nations
were incorporated as provinces in the Assyrian
empire.
We are now promised from the Assyrian inscrip-
tions a solution of one of the most perplexing dis-
crepancies in the chronological statements of the
monarchy in order to bring them into accord. (See notes 5
and 15 on tbe Chronological Talile at the end of this
volume, and the Appendix on the Chronology, Both
these works are marked by a certain timidity and want
of independence, c) Lennrmsnt's Manual of the Ancient
History oft!,* East; English edition edited by Chev&llier
(Asher: London, i! vol, ; Vol. I., 1869; Vol. II., 1870. This
is tile edition to which the references in this volume apply.
Ueprint by Lippincott). The French edition (Levy: Paris,
1869) is a ropanied by an excellent historical atlas.
This work is based chiefly upon the researches of Oppert.
but contains also original investigations and independent
judgment. It present- a very satisfactory statement of the
present state of our knowledge, and is in style and method
very available as a student's manual. The caution needs
to be borne In mind, however, in using it that assured
facts and hypothetical conjecture are sometimes combined
to produce a Smooth narrative, atid that the reader lias
little warning as to which is which. It is very conserva-
tive in its religious and theological attitude, and the Eng-
lish edition follows the E. V. sometimes even where It is
aertainly incorrect.
text, and one which, if correct, at the same tim*
supplies an omission in the historical narrative.
It is said that Pekah reigned for 20 years (ver. 27),
but it is stated also that he came to the throne in
the 52d of Azariah, who reigned for 52 years. la
chap. 17, 1, it is said that Hoshea (Pekah's succes-
sor) came to the throne in the 12th of Ahaz. In
the mean time Jotham reigned for 16 years. But
1 + 16+12 = 29 or 28 years interval for Pekah's
reign. This difficulty has never been solved ; it
has only been put aside by the assumption of an
interregnum after the death of Pekah.
Oppert claims to have discovered the explanation
in certain statements of the inscriptions. Lenor-
mant adopts his results, but Rawlinson does not.
" It is found that the reign of Pekah was inter-
rupted for more than 7 years; that about 74 2 he
was deposed by a second Menahem, probably a
son of Pekahiah, who was placed on the throne by
Tiglath Pileser II., king of Assyria, to whom he
paid tribute as vassal. In 733 a new revolution
dethroned him and restored Pekah. The latter,
openly hostile to the Assyrians, whose vassal he
had dethroned, made an alliance with Rezin, king
of Damascus. These two princes, even in the time
of Pekah's first reign, had formed the design of
overturning the throne of the House of David, and
installing as king in Jerusalem a certain son of
Tabeel (his own name is given in the inscription —
Ashariah), a creature of their own (see ver. 37,
where they seem to have formed the plan before
Jotham's death, and Isai. vii. 1-6), in order, prob-
ably, to oppose a more compact force to the As-
syrians." (Lenormant, I. 172; <•/. also 389.) See
note 15 on the Chron. Table. In the last column of
the table the chronology of the events of this
period is given according to this scheme. In the
second alliance and revolt of Rezin and Pekah, in
733, they resumed the plan of attacking Judah.
Ahaz called for Tiglath Pileser's aid (see note after
Exeg. on chap, xvi.), and that monarch marched
into Damascus. He put Rezin to death, made
Damascus a province, forced many of the chief
inhabitants of Syria, northern, and trans-Jordanic
Israel to emigrate into Armenia, and, though he left
Pekah on the throne, reduced the kingdom of Is-
rael to the district of Samaria. Pekah was present
as a vassal at Tiglath Pileser's • t in Damascus
in 730.
"Towards the end of 730, Muthon, king of
Tyre, made an alliance with Pekah, king of Israel,
and they both refused their tribute to the As-
syrians. Tiglath Pileser did not consider this
revolt of sufficient importance to require his own
presence. He contented himself with sending
an army into Palestine. On the approach of this
force a conspiracy was formed in Samaria, headed
by Hoshea, who, after killing Pekah, possessed
himself of the crown. The Assyrian king con-
firmed him in this position, and Muthon, finding
himself without an ally, attempted no resistance,
and quickly submitted to pay his tribute." (Lenor-
mant, I. 391.) — For continuation see Supp. Not*
after the Exeg. section on chap. xvi. — W. G. S.]
IIISTOP.ICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. This chapter contains rather a succinct it-
view of several reigns than a detailed account of
them. Although we have very little specific in
formation in regard to the character and conduct
CHAPTER XV. 1-38.
163
»f the kings mentioned, yet we have a statement
»bout each one in respect to his attitude towards
the Fundamental law, or constitution, of Israel,
that is, towards the covenant of Jehovah. This is
always stated in a stereotyped formula. Hence
we see that this point was the most important one,
in the eves of the author, in regard to any king,
and that, in reviewing or estimating his reign, he
laid most stress on this inquiry : How did he stand
towards the covenant with Jehovah — the consti-
tution of Israel ? After the death of Jeroboam II.
the decline of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes went
on without interruption. From the reign of Zach-
ariah on, the kingdom was iu the progress of dis-
solution. The author therefore hastens more rap-
idly over the period of these kings, of whom three,
indeed, only reigned for a very short time, and
gives only those facts in regard to them which
bear either upon the chief question mentioned
above, or upon the approaching catastrophe. For
everything beyond this he refers to the original
authorities. It is true that he follows the same
course in regard to Uzziah and Jotham, who be-
longed, according to the Chronicler, to the number
of energetic and efficient rulers, but this is to be
explained, tirst, by the fact that he treats the his-
tory of Judah with less detail from the time of the
division of the kingdom on. and, secondly, by the
character of the activity of these two kings, which
was directed almost exclusively to the external
and political prosperity of the nation, not to the
restoration and complete realization of the theoc-
racy, which was, for this author, the matter of
chief interest. From what the Chronicler gives in
addition, we cannot see that the religious and
■moral life took any new elan under their rule, or
reached any more vigorous development. Both
were, it is true, favorable to the worship of Jeho-
vah, but they lacked decided zeal for it, for " the
people still sacrificed and offered incense upon the
heights : " i. ?., they did nothing to abolish a form
of worship which could so easily lead to error. The
external prosperity which they produced and fos-
tered caused carelessness, luxury, forgetfulness of
God, and immorality of every kind, just as the same
causes had produced these vices in Israel under
Jeroboam II. This we see from the descriptions
•of the prophets see Isai. ii-v.). A slow corruption
and demoralization was making its way in Judah.
It became evident, and bore fruit under the next
king, Ahaz. His successor, Hezekiah. was the first
to bring the Mosaic constitution into full and effi-
cient working, hence the author narrates in detail
the reign of this genuine theocratic king (cf. chaps,
xviii., xix., and xx.).
[Ewald (Gesch. III. s. 634) thus describes the
state of Judah under Uzziah: At this time the
people turned their attention to money-getting
" not so much, as had formerly been the ease, in
particular provinces and districts, but throughout
the country, even in Judah, and not so much be-
cause a single king like Solomon favored commer-
cial undertakings, as because the love of trade and
gain, and the desire for the easy enjoyment of the
greatest possible amount of wealth, had taken pos-
session of all classes. All the scorn poured out by
the prophets upon this haste to be rich, and all
their rebukes of the tendency to cheat, which was
one of the fruits of it, no longer availed to restore
the ancient simplicity and contentment (Hos. xii.
8: Isai ii. 1). The long and fortunate reign of
Uzziah in Judah was very favorable to the growth
of this love of gain and enjoyment. The quick in-
terchange of money in the lower classes, and the
fierce struggle for gain which gradually absorbed
the entire people, stimulated the upper classes to
similar attempts. Many were the complaints in
Judah of- the injustice of the judges, and of the
oppression of the helpless (Amos iii. 1 ; vi. 1 ; Hos.
v. 10; cf. also Ps. xii.). There was a perverse and
mocking disposition prevalent which led men to
throw doubt upon everything and to raise objec-
tions to everything (Amos vi. 3; ix. 10; Hos. iv.
4). It made them treat with harsh contempt the
rebukes and exhortations of the best prophets, as
we feel distinctly from the whole tone of the writ-
ings of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. It led them to
desire to know heathen religions, and to introduce
foreign divinities, even when the king himself held
aloof from any such movement (Amos ii. 4; Hos.
iv. 15; vi. 11 ; xii. 1 ; Isai. ii. 8). It became more
and more difficult to restrain these tendencies."]
2. The only incident which is mentioned during
the long reign of Uzziah is that God touched him
(WJ)i and tnat he was a leper until his death. It
follows that this fact must have seemed to the au-
thor to be important before all others. Leprosy is
not, for him, an accidental disease, but a divine
judgment for guilt, as it is often described (Numb.
xii. 10; Deut. xxiv. 8, 9 ; 2 Sam. iii. 29; 2 Kings
v. 27). He does not tell more particularly what
the sin of the king was, perhaps because it was
baleful to the king alone and personally, and not
to the whole people, like the sin of Jeroboam. He
rests with a simple reference to the original docu-
ments. [The author of the Book of Kings regards
Uzziah's sickness as a visitation of Providence,
just as he regards any other affliction, or any piece
of good fortune, as something sent by God. He
does not know of any guilt on the part of Uzziah
for which this was a judgment. He simply men-
tions it as a matter of interest in itself, and in its
connection with the fact, otherwise unparalleled in
the history of the monarchy (unless Uzziah was
made king while his father was a captive), that
the king's son exercised royal functions during his
father's life-time. He does not hint at any belief
on his part that this was a proof that the king had
been guilty of some sin, and it does not behoove
us to draw any such inference. — W. G. S.] On
the contrary, the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxvi. 1 6 sq.)
gives a detailed explanation of the cause of this
visitation. According to him the king, who had
become arrogant and puffed up by his prosperity
and by the power he had attained, was no longer
contented with the royal authority, but sought, as
an absolute ruler, to combine with it the highest
priestly authority and functions, as the heathen
kings did. The institution of the levitical priest-
hood, however, formed an essential part of the
theocratic constitution, and the monarchy, which
was, moreover, not established until much later,
was not justified in attempting to absorb the
priestly office and to overthrow its independence.
Uzziah's guilt, therefore, did not consist in a sin-
gle illegal action, but in an assault upon the con-
stitution. A principle was at stake, whose viola-
tion would have opened a cleft in the theocratic
constitution. According to .Tosephus, Uzziah went
into the sanctuary (holy-place), on a great feast-
day, before the entire people, evfivc tefia-ritcr/v errr*
/.'/)', and offered incense there upon the golden al
164
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tar. [Thenius calls attention to the remarkable
detail in the account of this incident in Josephus.
Josephus says that the earthquake which is men-
tioned inAmos i. 1, and Zach. xiv. 5. as having occur-
red during Uzziah's reign, took place at the moment
of his quarrel with the priests ; that it broke the
roof of the temple, and that a ray of sun-light pen-
etrated this, fell upon the head of the king, and
produced the leprosy.] No former king had ven-
tured to make such an assault upon the independ-
ent authority of the priesthood. Thenius says :
" It is most probable that the powerful king de-
sired to reassume fhe high-priest's functions which
had been executed by David and Solomon," but
this is decidedly false, for there is no hint any-
where that David and Solomon executed priestly
functions in the holy place, or in the holy of ho-
lies ; in fact, there is nothing in the whole Old
Testament about any " chief-priestly authority of
the kings." (See notes on the passage 1 Kings ix.
25.) It" was not, therefore, " any improper self-
assertion on the part of the priests against the
ki^g " (Ewald). They did right to resist him. On
the other hand, it was a usurpation on the part of
the king to attempt any such violence upon the
rights and functions of the priesthood which God
had appointed. It was as much the right as it
was the duty of the priests not to allow any such
invasion of their prerogatives, and if they resisted
the powerful and revered monarch, their courage
deserves to be honored. Moreover, it was not
they, but Jehovah, who smote the king with lep-
rosy, and he was now compelled to abandon not
only the priestly, but also the royal functions.
3. Witsius (Decaphyl. p. 320) says of the five
kings who followed Zachariah: non tarn reges fuere
quam fares, latrones ae tyranni, augusto regum
nomine indigni; qui tyrannidem male par tarn neque
melius habitam /cede amiserunt. They all per-
severed in the sin of Jeroboam, which was, from
the very commencement of the kingdom, the germ
of its ruin. It is to them that the prophet's words
apply : " They have set up kings, but not by me ;
they have made princes and I knew it not " (Hos.
viii. 4). Only one of them died a natural death
and left the succession to his son, who, in his turn,
could only retain the sceptre for a short time. Of
the others, each one killed his predecessor in order
to gain the crown, the authority of which was, in
the mean time, shattered by these commotions.
One of the most important factors in the history of
this period is the conflict with the rising Assyrian
monarchy, which came to assist the internal dissen-
sion in hurrying the nation to its downfall. As-
syria was destined, in the purpose of God, to be
the instrument for inflicting the long-threatened
judgment. Invited, probably, by the internal
weakness and distraction which commenced under
Zachariah, Pul made-the first invasion during the
reign of Menahem ; he could only be bribed to
withdraw by a heavy tribute. The second Assy-
rian. Tiglath Pileser, came during Pekah's reign;
be could not be satisfied with money, but carried
nil' a large portion of the inhabitants into captivity.
Tin third, Shalmaneser, came during Hoshea's reign,
captured Samaria, and put an end to the kingdom
forever (chap. xvii. 6). [See the bracketed addition
»t the end of the Exegetical section, above.]
4. Not a single event of the reign of Zarhariah,
which, in fact, only lasted for six months, is men-
tioned. It is, however, stated expressly that with
him the house of Jehu expired, according to th«
words of the prophet, chap. x. 30, and not by dy-
ing out. but in a violent and bloody way (Hos. i.
4; Amos vii. 9). This was also an actual confir-
mation of the declaration in the fundamental law
of Israel, that God visits the sins of the fatherj
upon the children unto the third and fourth genera-
tion (Ex. xx. 5; xxxiv. 7; Deut. v. 9); that is, the
sin against the first and chief commandment :
''Thou shalt have none other Gods before me, and
shalt not make to thyself any graven image " [the
first commandment, according to the Lutheran
division]. This commandment was the foundation
of the covenant with Israel and the centre of the
Israelitish nationality. The meaning is, therefore,
that the " sin of Jeroboam " will not be permitted
by God to run on beyond the third or fourth gene-
ration (<•/'. Menken, Schriften, V. s. 35). No dynas-
ty in Israel which followed the sin of Jeroboam
lasted for more than three or four generations.
The house of Jeroboam, like that of Baesha and
Menahem. perished with its first member; the
house of Omri with its third, and the house of
Jehu with its fourth. Zimri, Shallum, Pekah, and
Hoshea died without successors, while the house
of David remained without pong] interruption
upon the throne. Although single kings in the
line were guilty of apostasy, yet the sin was never
continued until the second generation. [On the
physical calamities which marked the last years
of Jehu's dynasty, and on the death of Zachariah,
see Stanley, II. 400-403.]
5. Shallum, the king of a month, had no histori-
cal importance further than this, that he murdered
and was murdered. Both these facts go to show,
what the author desires to show, the state in which
the kingdom then was. The history makes special
mention of only two events in the history of Mena-
hem, although he reigned for ten years, but these
two events are characteristic of him and of the
state of the kingdom. The first is his campaign
against Tiphsah, the city which would not admit
him, that is, would not recognize him as king. We
see from this that he was not at all beloved, and
that the land was already distracted by parties.
The fact that he there perpetrated a great mas-
sacre, and did not even spare the infant in its
mother's womb, and so raged against his own
countrymen after the manner of the most savage
foreign foes, shows that he was a bloody tyrant,
who desired from the outset to fill all his opponents
with terror. Machiavelli's words (De principe, 8)
apply to him : " He who violently and without just
right usurps a crown, must use cruelty, if cruelty
becomes necessary, once for all, in order that he
may not find it necessary to recommence the use
of it daily." The second fact mentioned in regard
to this reign, one which had decisive influence
upon the fate of the whole nation, is the contact
with Assyria. Menahem pressed from his subjects
a large sum of money, in order not only to bribe
the Assyrian king to leave his territory, but also
to purchase his support and assistance against his
subjects themselves. He was the first king of
Israel who, in order to hold his people in subjec-
tion and establish his own authority, purchased the
assistance of a foreign power. " In order to estab-
lish his authority, at the price of the independenca
of his people, he founded his power upon the As-
syrian support" (Duncker). It was against thil
course that the prophet Hosea pronounced his in
CHAPTER XV. 1-38.
165
tense denunciations (v. 13 ; vii. 1 1 ; x. 6). Instead
of establishing the kingdom securely by these
means, the king only hastened its ruin, for " it has
always been thus in the history of the world ; the
protection of mighty nations has only been the
first step towards oppression by them. Such pro-
tection has often been, as it was here for Israel, a
punishment for those who sought it " ( Calw. Bibel).
Starke's observation : " Menahem acts prudently
here, not only in purchasing the departure of the
invader with money, but also in laying the tribute
as a tax upon his wealthy subjects," entirely misses
the historical connection. Ewald says: "Mena-
hem seemed at first to be inspired witli better
principles, and it seemed as if the nation would
take new lite, under his rule, after three incapable
rulers had been killed in a single month." The
fact of the three kings is asserted on the strength
ofZaeh.xi. 4-8. where "three shepherds" are men-
tioned, but it falls at once as destitute of founda-
tion. " Kobolam " is a pure fiction (see Exeget.
on ver. 10). There is no hint in the text of any
better principles at the beginning of Menanem's
reign; his conduct at Tiphsah rather bears testi-
mony to the contrary. Also all the rest which
Ewald brings together in regard to Menahem's
reign (Gesch. III. s. 599 sq. [3d Ed. s. 644]) rests
upon passages in the prophets Zachariah, Isaiah,
and Hosea, which do not contain any history.
Winer justly characterizes it as: "a very ill-
founded combination."
6. The author does not mention a single event
in the reign of Pekahiah. He only speaks of the
end of it, which was significant in two respects.
Menahem had bought at a heavy price the assist-
ance of Assyria to confirm his royal authority, and
to found a dynasty. As long as he lived he main-
tained himself on the throne. Hardly had his son
succeeded him, however, before the vanity of the
Assyrian support became apparent. In the second
year it was all over with the new dynasty; it was
not destined to last. Pekahiah was murdered,
not by foreign foes, but by one of his familiar
attendants with the help of a portion of the body-
guard which should have protected him. Such
crimes can be perpetrated only where all the
bonds of discipline and order, of fidelity and obe-
dience, are loosed; hence the contemporary pro-
phet Hosea says : "The Lord hath a controversy
with the inhabitants of the land," &c. (Hos. iv.
1, 2).
7. In regard to Pekah again, we are not informed
of a single act of his. The author tells us, how-
ever, that, during his reign, Tiglath-pileser con-
quered a large portion of the country and carried
off the inhabitants. This was the upshot of Pe-
kah's long reign. This was the great event of the
time, in comparison with which all else that oc-
curred was insignificant. The reference to this
event is meant to show us that with Pekah's reign
comes the beginning of the end. The war which
Pekah carried on against Judah in alliance with
Rezin, contributed to the same general result, as is
shown in chap, xvi It is at any rate a proof of
unusual and irrepressible energy that Pekah, in
Bpite of the internal decay and decline of the king-
dom, was able to maintain himself so long upon
the throne. He had energy and a soldier's courage.
The manner in which he attained to the throne
shows that he was a violent, ambitious, and per-
fidious man, who cared not for God or divine
things. Isaiah never calls him by his name, but
only refers to him contemptuously as the "son of
Remaliah " (Isai. vii. 4, 5, 9), probably because he
was a man of vulgar origin. We can only guess
what passages in the prophets apply especially to
Pekah, since we have no historical data in the book
before us upon which to attach them. The inter-
pretation of Zach. xi. 16 sq. ; xiii. 7; cf. x. 3, aa
applying to Pekah, which Ewald proposes so con-
fidently (Proplieten des A. .B.I.s.319 sq. Geschichte
III. s. 602 [3d ed. s. 64S]), is arbitrary and forced.
Schmieder's opinion (in Von Gerlach's Bibelwerk)
that Hosea vii. 4—7 refers to Pekah's conspiracy
against Pekahiah, although it is much more proba-
ble than Ewald's notion mentioned above, is not
by any means above serious doubts.
8. In the history of king Jotham of Judah no
details are given aside from the regular data, ex-
cept that he built the upper gate of the temple
(on the north side of the outer court), and that,
about the end of his reign, the attacks of Rezin
ami Pekah upon Judah began. The first of these
has direct reference to the statement that the peo-
ple still sacrificed on the high places, or, as the
Chronicler expresses it, that " the people did yet
corruptly " (2 Chron. xxvii. 2). In order to put a
stop to this " corruption," to which the people was
so much accustomed, Jotham "built" the gate,
through which the sacrifices were brought in,
anew ; he desired thereby to induce the people to
bring their sacrifices hither and not to the forbid-
den " high places." This was at least an act in-
spired by loyalty to the theocracy. This king
thereby confessed himself a servant of Jehovah,
and the act is therefore especially mentioned. The
second fact recorded had, as appears in chap, xvi.,
more important consequences for Judah than any-
thing else which happened during Jotham's reign.
Hence it deserved to be especially mentioned. It
was not so much a chastisement for Jotham him-
self as for the people, who, under the prosperous
reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, still continued to act
" corruptly," and inclined strongly to idolatry.
IIOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-7. (Compare 2 Chron. xxvi.) King-
Uzziah. (a) His prosperous reign of 50 years.
(6) His unfortunate end. — It is the greatest bless-
ing for a nation, when a God-fearing king lives
long to rule over it. Hence we pray for those in
authority. — Ver. 4. How hard it is to abolish and
do away with bad customs which have been handed
down from generation to generation! — -Ver. 5.
Uzziah's guilt and punishment. Starke : We
should not be over-bold to undertake duties which
do not devolve upon us. He who covets more
than he has any right to have loses even what he
has. — Let each one remain in his own calling to
which he is called, and not invade the f motions of
another calling, even if he has strength and oppor-
tunity to do so. We cannot break over the bounds
which God has set without incurring punishment.
— Calw. Bibel : This is a warning example for
those who behave as if they are capable of being
all in all, whereas each one has his own gifts and
his own calling. The might of kings does not
reach into the sanctuary. — Think no man blessed
until thou hast seen his end. The most fortunate,
rich, and mighty king learned that "all flesh i».
166
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS
grass," and that "the world passeth away," &c,
' John ii. 17. — Pfaff. Bibel: God chastises often
the great in this world with heavy misfortunes,
in order to remind them of their own nothingness,
and to humble them. — Separation from the world
and from the current of affairs, and residence
in solitude, may become a great blessing to him
who recognizes in them a divine dispensation. —
Cramer : Children must take care of their sick
and weak and aged parents ; must take their
places as far as they can, and honor them in word
and deed (Sirach hi. 9, 14). [The history of king
Uzziah presents warning and instructive lessons
especially for a time of prosperity, when greed of
gain, love of luxury and ease, respect for wealth,
with all the attendant vices of prosperity, are the
characteristics of society. See the bracketed ad-
dition to Hist § 1.— W. G. S.]
Vers. 8-31. See Historical and Ethical. The
last kings of the northern kingdom, or the mon-
archy in its decay, (a) The monarchy as the
highest civil authority is ordained by God (Prov.
viii. 16); it is God's ordinance. If it does not
consider itself as such it cannot endure. The last
kings of Israel were not chosen and instituted by
God, nor even by the people ; they raised them-
selves by force through robbery and murder (Hos.
viii. 4). They ruled, not by the grace of God, but
by His wrath (Hos. xiii. 11). The monarchy in Is-
rael had lost its foothold on the divine ordinance.
All its kings persevered in the sin of Jeroboam,
therefore it had no endurance. No dynasty en-
dured beyond the third or fourth generation, some
only to the second, the last ones not even to the
first ; while the house of David, in Judali, did not
perish in spite of storms. Where one dynasty
overthrows another, there the true, divinely insti-
tuted monarchy comes to an end, and people and
kingdom perish with it. (b) The monarchy is the
" minister of God to them for good " (Rom. xiii. 4) ;
it is its calling to work out the welfare of the peo-
ple. The last kings of Israel did not care for this,
they only cared for power and dominion. Hence
the people and the kingdom sank continually lower
aud lower. When kings only rule for their own
sakes and not for the sake of their people, then
they cease to be shepherds of their people (Jerem.
xxiii. 1-4), and the monarchy decays (Prov. xx. 28;
xxv. 5). Rulers who seized power by force and
violence, have never been the deliverers and pro-
tectors of their people, but rather tyrants, who
have led it down to its ruin. " In one demagogue,"
says Luther, " there are hidden ten tyrants." — As
is the master, so is the servant ; as is the head, so
are the members. A succession of rulers, who at-
tained to the throne by conspiracy, revolt, perjury,
and murder, is the surest sign, not only that there
is something rotten in the State, but also that there
is nothing sound in the nation, from the sole of the
foot to the crown of the head (Isai. i. 6 ; Hos. iv.
1 si/.). The corruption in Israel extended, in the
first place, from the head downwards. Jeroboam
made Israel to sin. Then, however, it came from
bolow upwards. The rebels and murderers who
came to the throne came from the people. Tries'
kings were so hostile that the one killed the other
but they were of one accord in abandoning Jeho-
vah, and persevering in the sin of Jeroboam. This
was the cause of their ruin. When there is no fear
of God in the heart, then the door is open to every
sin and vice.
Vers. 8-1 2. The end of the house of Jehu is a
clear testimony to the fulfilment of the threats of
the divine law (Exod. xx. 5).— Before the people. It
is a sign of general demoralization and corruption
when sins and crimes can be perpetrated in public
without causing horror and incurring condemna-
tion.— Vers. 13-15. As a rule, one successful re-
volt is only the prelude to another. A throne
which is founded on sin, cannot sustain the attacks
of storms. — Wurt. Summ. : We see in the case of
Shallum, the murderer, who reigned but a month,
how God, the just judge, exercises His retributior
upon tyrants. — Vers. 14—22. In the eyes of f>
domineering man there is no greater crime than
that any one should refuse obedience to his will.
Love of command is the vice which makes a man
inhuman, and more cruel than a wild animal. — It
is the way of all tyrants, great and small, that they
are cruel and fierce to those over whom they have
authority, but tremble and cringe before any who
are greater than themselves. — Menahem, instead
of turning to God as his protector and helper (Ps.
cxi. 1 and 2), seeks help from the enemies of Is-
rael. He buys this help with money forced from
his subjects, but thereby prepares the ruin of his
kingdom and people. Cf. Jerem. xvii. 5 and Hos.
xiii. 8 seq. A friendship which is bought with
money will not last. — Vers. 23-26. A prince who
is not faithful to his God cannot expect his ser-
vants to be faithful to him, but a king who, like
David, is a man after God's own heart, can say :
" Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the
land," &c. (Ps. ci. 6, 7). — Osiander: Princes ought
not to trust too implicitly to their servants — those
whose duty it is to protect them may be the first,
to strike them. — Vers. 27-31. To the "sonofRe-
maliah " the words apply : " He that exalteth him-
self shall be abased " (Matt, xxiii. 12). — Osiander:
Tyrants generally rise very high that they may fall
only so much the farther (Isai. xxvi. 4-6).
Vers. 32-38 (cf. 2 Chron. xxvii.). — Pfaff. Bibel:
How beautiful it is to see children walk in the foot-
steps of their fathers when these were righteous.
It is a glorious thing for a prince, instead of beau-
tifying his palaces, and building ivory houses
(Amos iii. 15), to restore the temple gates, and so
says to his people : " Enter into his gates with
thanksgiving and into his courts with praise" (Ps.
c. 4). — Vers. 37 and 38. Calw. Bibel: We have
here a distinct proof that neither the good conduct
of a prince by itself,. nor the good conduct of the
people by itself, can make a nation happy. Prince
and people must together serve the Lord, if the
land is to prosper. — Osiajjder : When God wishes
to punish the sins of a nation, he is wont to re-
move pious princes by death before the judgment
begins.
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20. 1(37
B. — The Reign of Ahaz in Judah.
Chap. xvi. 1-20. (2 Chron. xxviii.)
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the sou ot
2 Jot ham king of Judah began to reign [became king]. Twenty years old wa&
Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did
not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father.
3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass
through the tire, according to the abominations' of the heathen, whom the Lord
4 cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense-
in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
5 Then Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, came
up to Jerusalem to war : and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him
6 [prevail].2 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered [won] Elath to [for]
Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath : and the Syrians s came to Elath, and
7 dwelt [dwell] there unto this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser
king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me
out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel,
8 which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found
in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for
9 a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him:
for [and] the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried
the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria,
and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest
the fashion [pattern] of the altar, and the pattern [plan] of it, according to all
11 the workmanship thereof.* And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all
that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against
12 king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damas-
cus, the king saw the altar : and the king approached to the altar, and offered
13 thereon [went up upon it]. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat
offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood, of his peace
14 offerings, upon the altar. And he brought also the brazen altar, which was
before the Lord, from the forefront of the honse, from between the [new] altar and
15 the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the altar. And king Ahaz
commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning
burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice,
and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and
their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood
of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice : and [as for] the brazen
16 altar shall be for me to inquire by [I will consider further].6 Thus did Urijah
the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
IV And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from
off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it,
18 and put it upon a pavement [structure] of stones. And [he altered] the covert
[covered way] * for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's
entry without, turned he from [omit turned he from. — insert in] the house of the
Lord [,] for [fear of] the king of Assyria.
19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the
20 book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And Ahaz slept with his
fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah hig
son reigned in his stead.
168
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 3.— [Abominable rites or usages.
1 Vers. 5.— [Qf. Isai. vil. 1, where we And HvV after Dn?H? , " Was not able to make war against it," t. «. us
•easl'ully.
* Ver. 6.— [The chetib is to be retained. (/. Exeg. Ewald, Thenins. Bottcher (Lehrb. % 976), and others, who
follow the keri, also change D1X7 , above, to Q11N? • The entire conception of the incident is then changed.
Kezin does not conquer Elath for himself, but restores it to Edom, in order to strengthen the hereditary enemy ol
Judah and gain his alliance. Keil very justly objects that Q1"IN is written defectively D"TN only once in the
O. T. (Ezek. xxv. 14). His explanation of the form D^DITX is also simpler than the above change. He considers
it a Syriac (Aramaic) form (u for a), and points to other similar forms in the same chapter, D^Oipn for D^DpTJ
(ver. 7) ; JIv'X for D/'N (ver. 6) ; pt'BVI for pL"QT (ver. 10). Bottcher gives the euphonic and other
grounds for these exceptional forms in §§ 1132, 9, 1 ; 351, a.
* Ver. 10. — [/. e. with full details how it was made.
6 Ver. 15. — [" 1 will consider further what shall be done with that" Thenius defends the rendering given In
the E. V. He denies that ^"iTiT can have the sense which we give it, but he finds it necessary to chang*
ipaS into &%&> .
* Ver. IS. — [The keri is supported by the Vulg. : tfu#ar.h. However, we find other instances of "■ 7" instead of
1 in the first syllable of a word before K* or D . See Dt|','l for DCT'l . Gen. xxiv. 83 ; TID" for ~i]DV , Ex.
jxx. 32. See also Ezek. xli. 8. (Bottcher, § 460, b). — The massorah requires that njlXTIfl shall be accented milel,
because it will not recognize a feminine In this adjective which agrees with X130 • C/. i"P vJH , chap. xv. 29,
Qramm. note.— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1, Ahaz became king, &c. On the year
of Ahaz's accession see the chronological discus-
sion after chap. xvii. — Ver. 2. If Ahaz was 20
years old at his accession and reigned 16 years, so
that he was 36 years old when he died, then he
must hare begotten his son Hezekiah in the tenth
year of his age, for Hezekiah, according to xviii.
2. ascended the throne in his 25th year. This
would not be an impossibility, for even yet mar-
riages occur in the East between boys of 10 and
girls of 8 years (see the instances quoted by Keil
in his Comment, on the verse). It is, however,
very improbable, and there is no similar instance
in Scripture. It is very likely, therefore, that the
reading " twenty-five " instead of twenty, which is
presented by some MSS., by the Vatican MS. of
the Sept., as well as by the Syriac and Arabic
translations on 2 Chron. xxviii. 1, is the original
and correct one (Ewald, Thenius, and Keil).
Ver. 3. But he walked in the way of the
kings of Israel. This cannot mean that he trans-
planted the Israelitish worship of the calves into
Judah, for the relation between Judah and Israel
had become hostile even in the last years of his
father Jotham (chap. xv. 37). Moreover, there is
not a hint of that form of worship in the history
of Judah. The words only mean, generally, that
Ahaz forsook the covenant of Israel as the Israel-
itish kings had done The parallel passage 2
Chron. xxviii. 2 and 3 adds directly the words ;
" And made also molten images for Baalim. More-
over he burnt incense in the valley of the son of
Hinnom." This sentence "is evidently taken from
he original authority " (Thenius). Probably it was
omitted by the author of the Book of Kings be-
cause it seemed to him to be implied in the state-
ment already made that he " walked in the way
of the kings of Israel," for these had had images
of Baal (1 Kings xvi. 32 ; 2 Kings iii. 2 ; x. 26 sq.l
He desired to go on at once to the things which
this king had done other than what had been done
by the kings of Israel. We have not, therefore,
to understand, by the images of Baalim, calf-ima-
ges like those of Jeroboam (Keil), but idol-images.
On the valley of Hinnom see notes on chap, xxiii.
10. — Yea, and made his son to pass through the
fire, viz., IpQ? • This must be supplied, as we see,
from chap, xxiii. 10; Levit. xviii. 21 ; Jerem. xix.
5. The meaning of the phrase r_"N3 T3W1 is dis-
tinctly stated in Numb. xxxi. 23. It has accord-
ingly been supposed by some that, where p or
D'J3 is the object, and not gold or silver, it re-
fers to a literal passage through fire, and that it
was an act of lustration or purification (Theodo-
ret, Grotius, Spencer, and others). It is clear,
however, from 2 Chron. xxviii. 3, where "|J,'2»1
stands for it, that it is not a simple passage
through, but a burning up. The same is clear from
chap. xvii. 3] ■ Deut. xii. 31 ; Jerem. xix. 5; Ezek.
xvi. 20 sq. ; xxiii. 37. Josephus declares plainly
of Ahaz : Kai iSiov u?*0KavTu)oe ndi6a (cf. Gesen.
Thesaurus, II., p. 985). Another question arises,
however, viz., whether we must understand that
the children were burned alive, or that they were
killed and then burned. The rabbis assert the
former (see the passages quoted from Jarchi in
Winer's R.-W.-B. II., s. 101), but their authority is
overturned by other and better testimony. In Ezek.
xvi. 20 it is said : " Thou tookest thy sons and thy
daughters, which thou hadst borne to me. and slew-
est them (O'naiffl) [as a sacrifice] to them [1. e., tc
the false gods] ?i3X? [«'• «-, to consume them]
Was thy whoredom too slight a thing that thou
slewest ('BntTll) my sons, and gavrst thf m awaj
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20.
169
DfliS vayrn " — [t. e., in that thou causedst them
tJ go through, or, to be burned up in, the tire] ?
Ps. cvi. 37 sq. speaks only of the slaughter of
children in sacrifice to idols, not of burning them :
" And they slew their sons and daughters in sac-
rifice (in3t!l) to false gods, and shed innocent blood
— blood of their sons and daughters whom they
sacrificed (irnt) to the idols of Canaan, and the
land was desecrated by the shedding of blood
(D'Q'IS)-" Diodorus Siculus (xx. 12) describes the
brazen statue of Kronos (Moloch) with its out-
stretched arms, glowing hot from an internal fire,
but he does not say that the children were laid liv-
ing upon them. Eusebius (Prop. Evang. iv. 16)
states in regard to the human sacrifices which were
offered at Salamis that they were first killed by the
priest with a spear and then burned upon the pile.
Slaying, and cutting in pieces, and shedding blood,
are essentials in sacrifice, so that n3T, i- «■, to
slaughter, means, to sacrifice. We have certainly
to understand, therefore, in the case of the child-
sacrifices, that they were killed before they were
burned (Havernick, Comm. iiber Ezech. s. 237 sq.).
Such seems to have been the case also in the inci-
dent mentioned in chap. iii. 27. The only remain-
ing question is this : if the procedure was the same
in the case of the child-sacrifices as in the ordinary
burnt offerings, why do we find the expression
CX3 T3JJ.~! used only of the former ? The proba-
ble explanation is that the expression only referred
originally to a passage through the fire without
consumption, a sort of fire-baptism, as purifications
by fire were practised by various peoples, and that
it was not connected with human sacrifice. Not
until a later time did this become corrupted into
a real sacrifice and burning, but the original ex-
pression was retained and became general (see
Keil on Levit. xviii. 21). It may be, too, as Wit-
sius [Miscett. p. 616) suggests, that the practice was
not always and everywhere the same, but both liv-
ing and dead children were burned, and this ex-
pression was used in both cases.
[This is the point in the history of the Israel-
ites at which they became acquainted with the
Assyrio-Chaldean idolatry. The gods Baal and
Ashtaroth became known to them from the Phoe-
nicians by the marriage of Jezebel with Ahab.
That that was the point of contact between the Je-
hovah-worship and the itoai-worship is proved by
the fact that this pair (Baal and Ashtaroth) are the
ones whom the Israelites worshipped, and that
that was the couplet which was worshipped at Si-
don (see note on chap. xvii. 17). Now. however,
Pekah and Ahaz came into close intimacy with the
Assyrians, and learned from them the astral con-
ception of the same heathen religion. Ashtaroth
always had sidereal character, but her worship, so
far as it was introduced into Israel, seems to have
been confined rather to its voluptuous rites. Ahaz
introduced the astral worship into Judah. In or-
der to understand the influence of these heathen
religious conceptions on Judah, and the origin of
the rite of passing through the fire, it is neces-
sary to take a somewhat comprehensive view of
these heathen religious conceptions. Here follows
a description of the cultus. Ou the astral ideas see
note on xvii. 17. The religious conceptions of the
nations of Western Asia were all closely related
to each other. The deity was conceived of as one,
simple, formless, and universal, but in a pantheistic
sense. It has often been observed that behind th»
polytheism of these nations (and of Egypt also)
there was an idea of one sole and original deity, and
it has been inferred that there was a pure and trua
mouotheistic idea at the root, and that the polytheism
was only popular. In fact, however, the corruption
of these heathen religions was rooted in the pan-
theistic conception of this original divine essence.
Then his attributes were deified (hence the plural
Baalim), and not only his good attributes but also
his destructive and profane and base attributes.
Hence, by a legitimate deduction, all the cruel and
licentious rites of pretended religion. In different
countries the chief and original God took different
names according to the especial point of view from
which he was regarded. The Assyrians called
him Asshur, or, in a still more pantheistic concep-
tion, Ilu ; and among the Canaanites he was called
El as the " Mighty One," the first and simplest
conception of God as strength. He was also very
widely named Baal (Babylonian Bel [Merodaeh]),
as the "Lord;" also Yaoh (Hebr. Yahiak [Jeho-
vah]), as the "Eternal," the pure conception of be-
ing or existence. The Ararmeans named him Ha-
dad or Hadar, " The Only One; " the Ammonites,
Moloch, the " King ; " the Moabites, Chemosh, the
"Governor." Then he received different names ac-
cording to his attributes, and was worshipped by
each nation under the name of the attribute which
they kept most in mind. As the deity which pre-
sided over generation he was Thammuz or Adon
(Hebr. Advnay ; Greek, Adonis) ; as protector and
preserver he was Chon; as destroyer he was Mo-
loch ; as " presiding over the decomposition of
those destroyed beings whence new life was again
to spring," he was Zebub (Beelzebub). Hence,
probably, Baal-zebub was the god of restoration to
health from dangerous sickness. See 2 Kings i. 2.
In this last sense probably the main idea was that
of resurrection or life from death. The flies on
carrion seemed to spring to life out of it. The
Egyptian beetle probably embodies the same idea.
Moloch was therefore the supreme deity in his at-
tribute of destroyer. Fire, lightning, war, pesti-
lence, and so on, represented htm. He was wor-
shipped under this form when his appetite for
devouring and destroying was being satiated.
Hence his rites consisted in sacrifices of things
cast into the fire. Those who robbed themselves
of something which they cast into the fire appeased
the god and averted the assaults which were to bo
apprehended from him if his appetite for destruc-
tion was not satisfied. The parents who thus
sacrificed their children might hope that this fright-
ful sacrifice would save them from further or other
losses When the king of Moab found the fight
going against him he offered his son to Chemosh,
that the god, appeased by this, might not push on
the destruction of war. No doubt he considered
that this sacrifice was successful when the horrified
Israelites desisted from the war (2 Kings iii.). So
far as we can judge, the children were cast alive
into the flames. — The religion of Israel differed
from these heathen religions in that its supreme
deity was personal, spiritual, and holy, and that
the Israelites refrained from deifying his attributes
as emanations or hypostases of himself. — W. G. S.]
Instead of 1J3 in ver. 3 and chap. xxi. 6, the
Chronicler (II. xxviii. 3 and xxxiii. 6) has the plural
V33 • Thenius regards this as a contradiction, or,
170
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
at least, as an exaggeration of the passage before
us, but the plural stands here, as it often does
(Matt. ix. S; ii. 20; Gesen. Lehrgeb. s. 664 sq.)t
rhetorically, in order to say, in general, that Ahaz
and Manasseh had incurred the guilt of child-
sacrifice. " The pure, abstract idea of child-sacri-
fice, apart from any idea of number, is expressed
by the plural" (Bertheau, Keil). In like manner,
Cicero (De Prov. Cons. xiv. 35) : jucundissimi liberi,
although Caesar had only a single daughter (cf. also
Pro Lege Manil. 12). On ver. 4 cf. 1 Kings xiv. 23.
The sense is : The centralization of the worship of
God, such as the law prescribed, came to an end ;
the very contrary came to pass. Thenius seizes
upon the fact that we have 3 before ni03 , in-
stead of *?y , which we find before rrijDifl , as a
support for his interpretation of the former word
as "grove" or "sacred enclosure" (see Exeg. on 1
Kings ii. 2 and 3). It stands here, as it often does,
for nQ3n JV3 , Ahaz offered incense in the sacred
places on the tops of the mountains and on the
hills, i. e., on heights where there was no 7V3 but
only an altar.
Ver. 5. Then Rezin, king of Syria. See on
this and the following verse : Caspari, Ceber den
Syrisch-epliraimiiischen Krieg v/nter Jofham und
Ahaz. Christiania, 1849. After the author has
described the reign of Ahaz in its broad and gen-
eral features (vers. 1-4), the detailed account of the
particular incidents begins in ver. 5. fN only
means, therefore, after Ahaz had succeeded to the
throne. The attacks began under Jotham (chap.
xv. 37), but there had not yet been any formal and
united expedition. [The first attempt was frus-
trated by the attack of Tiglath Pileser on Damas-
cus and Samaria See Supp. Note, p. 161.] No
real attack was made until Ahaz was on the
throne. The object was, according to Isai. vii. 6,
to conquer Judah and to set upon the throne a
person called "the son of Tabeel," of whom we
know nothing further. [Mention of this confede-
ration occurs in the Assyrian inscriptions. We
learn there that the name of this " son of Tabeel "
was Asliariah.] Whether " they hoped thereby to
be able to oppose larger means and stronger force
to the aggressions of the Assyrian empire " (The-
nius |, is a matter for mere supposition. [This sup-
position is now very strongly confirmed.] They
came as far as Jerusalem, which they besieged
( VW1 means besiege, as it does in 2 Sam. xx. 15 ;
Jerem. xxi. 4 ; xxxix. 1 ; Ezek. iv. 3, and not
merely : " they pressed forward towards it "), but
were not able to take it, for the city had been
strongly fortified on all sides by Uzziah and
Jotham (2 Chron. xxvi. 9; xxvii. 3), and, in the
providence of God, it was otherwise decreed (Isai
vii. 7).
Ver. 6. At that time Rezin won Elath for
Syria, &c. JOnn D5G does not meaD " there-
upon" or "afterwards," but designates in gen-
eral the time of the Syriac-ephnumitic war against
Judah. Ver. 6 is a sort of parenthesis, so that
ver. 7 is the real continuation of ver. 5. The
author desires to record the danger which threat-
ened Jerusalem, for this was the chief event in
this war, and, besides this, to record the fact that
Judah, during this reign, lost the city which was
Its most important seat of commerce, and one of
the chief sources of the prosperity of the country
(cf. on Elath, notes on 1 Kings ix. 26 and 2 Kings
xiv. 22). Ver. 7 then joins on to ver. 5, for Ahaz
sent to Tiglath Pileser, not on account of the loss
of Elath, but on account of his endangered capital,
with which the whole kingdom must stand or fall.
Many expositors, both ancient and recent, have de-
sired to change D1JO to DV1n6 , because Elath
never belonged to Syria, and therefore could not
be " restored " to it. But this conjecture is not
supported by a single manuscript or ancient ver-
sion, and, as Winer and Keil observe, S'L'TI does
not necessarily imply the idea of "back again."
It means, in general, to turn away from something
to something else (Isai. i. 25, and Knobel's note
thereon; Ps. lxxxi. 14; Amos i. 8; Dan. xi. 18).
It means, therefore, that Rezin took away Elath
from Judah, to which it had previously belonged,
and joined it to Syria. The case is similar with
the word D'OVIM , for which the keri offers
D'ETINl, the Sept., 'ISov/iaioi, and the Vulg.,
Idumcei, but evidently incorrectly. The Edomites
did not need to come to Elath and to settle there ;
they had always lived in this city, which lay in
their own country, and had remained there even
when it was in the hands of the Jews. What is
asserted, however, is. that Rezin expelled the Jews
and brought thither Syrians, who settled there for
purposes of trade, and remained there " until this
day,"». e., at the time that these books were written
the Syrian commercial colony was yet in Elath.
Yet one question further suggests itself here, viz.,
whether Rezin took Elath before or after the at-
tack which he and Pekah made upon Jerusalem.
The answer to this question depends upon another
one : What is the relation between the record be-
fore us and that in the parallel passage in Chroni-
cles ? In the latter there is no mention of the
expedition against Elath, nor of the siege of Jeru-
salem. On the other hand, it is recorded that Je-'
hovah gave Ahaz into the hand of the king of
Syria, who defeated him. and took away many cap-
tives to Damascus ; likewise into the hand of the
king of Israel, who, in a great battle, won a great
victory over him (vers. 5 and 6). This narrative
the rationalistic school formerly regarded as an in-
vention and unworthy of belief (Gesenius, De
Wette, Gramberg), but that view has been aban-
doned even by this school. Thenius, amongst
others, regards the narrative as unquestionably
historical, and as a supplement to the record before
us. Nevertheless there is some disagreement as to
whether the campaign described in Chronicles is the
same one which is described here. Caspari has
examined this question very carefully in the work
mentioned above; we, therefore, refer in general
to that work and here add only what follows.
Those, like Vitringa, Movers, Havernick, and
others, who adopt the hypothesis of two suces-
sive expeditions, appeal for their proof especially
to Isai. vii. 1-9. At the commencement of the
war against Judah, when it is made known to the
house of David that the Syrians are already in
Ephraim, the prophet announces to Ahaz the com.
plete failure of the enterprise of the two kings.
As, however, according to the account in Chroni-
cles. Ahaz was defeated by each of these kings, it
is inferred that that must have taker, place in »
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20.
17J
different expedition from the one here referred to,
and that it took place before the latter ; further-
more, that the capture of Elath took place during
the second expedition and after the siege of Jeru-
salem, since it is narrated in the history after that
event (ver. 6). It is certain thf.t the two battles
mentioned in 2 Chron. xxviii. 5 and 6, must have
taken place before the siege of Jerusalem, but it
does not follow that they occurred in an earlier
expedition. As it was the intention of Rezin and
Pekah to put an end to the kingdom of Judah and
to put " the son of Tabeel " (probably a Syrian
general) upon the throne, it is not by any means
to be supposed that they would have abandoned
the attempt after gaining two victories over Ahaz,
and then would have undertaken a new expedition
in order to besiege Jerusalem. On the contrary,
it is plain that they would try, after winning two
victories, to complete their enterprise by taking
Jerusalem. The words in Isai. vii. 2, D~lS HrU
t -: T T
D^TSX "7V °-o n°t mean, 3s they are often trans-
lated : " The Aramaeans are encamped in Ephraim "
(Bunsen), nor: "The Syrians stand [are under
arms] in Ephraim " (De Wette), so that it would
follow, that Rezin first advanced into Ephraim at
the outbreak of the war, in order to advance, in
conjunction with Pekah, against Jerusalem. The
phrase must be explained as it is in the Chaldee
paraphrase : "The king of Syria has joined himself
(12nnS, societatem iniit) with (DP) the king ot
Israel." So the Sept. translate : cmztyuv-qatv 'Apa/i
nyjoc tov 'Ect>paip. " The verb niJ with py is never
used of an army encamping, and it does not seem
fitting to take D'13S as referring to the country,
and Q"1X as referring to the people " (Heugsten-
berg). niJ means, to lie down to rest, and it ex-
presses, when it is used as it is here of a person
who rests upon or over (">]}) another, a being with
or by, a being in connection with him (cf. Numb. xi.
25,26; Isai. xi. 2; Ps. cxxv. 3). [An examination
of these passages will show that they do not
justify any such rendering of py niJ as, to be in
alliance With. They contain " the spirit rests upon "
or some similar sense of 7J? rTO , which is a differ-
ent sense of " rest " and a different sense of " upon "
from the one here to be proved. Hengstenberg's
objection, that Aram is used of the people and
Ephraim of the territory, has force, but the most
fair rendering of the words is : " Aram is encamped
in Ephraim" (Bunsen, Ewald). niJ is not indeed
the technical word for the encamping of an army,
but it is used for special force. They have settled
down, are stationed, are resting and recruiting, but
when an army does this it encamps. — W. G. S.]
What made Ahaz and his people tremble, as the
trees of the forest tremble before the wind, was
not the fact that Syria was in camp in Ephraim.
but the fact that the kings of Syria and Israel had
joined forces against Judah. The prophet prom-
ised that this enterprise should not succeed, and
his promise was fulfilled. The supposition that
Rezin began the war by taking up a position in the
land of Ephraim is, therefore, totally unfounded.
Moreover, it was not necessary for him. in order
x> make war upon Jerusalem, to go through
Ephraim. He could just as well advance on the
other side of the Jordan, and this he no doubt
4id As for the capture of Elath, ver. 6 of the
chapter before us does not force us to the assump>
tion that it took place before the siege of Jerusa-
lem, for, as we have said above, ver. 6 is a paren-
thesis and ver. 7 follows ver. 5. It is also difficult
to believe that Rezin gave up the siege, because
Jerusalem could not be taken (ver. 5). aud then,
because he " was unwilling that the expeditio:
should have been made entirely in vain" (The-
nius), that he made a long march around the south-
ern end of the Dead Sea in order to return home.
After Ahaz had called upon Tiglath Pileser for aid,
and the latter was actually advancing against
Syria, it is impossible that Rezin can have under-
taken this long march; he must have' hastened
home by the most direct route. In view of all this
we come to the following conception of the course
of the events. Rezin made an alliance with Pe-
kah and advanced on the east side of the Jordan
and won a great victory over Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii.
5). At the same time, on this side the Jordan,
Pekah invaded Judah, and also inflicted a severe
defeat on Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii. 6). As a conse-
quence of his victory Reziu marched on southward
to Edom, %vhere he put an end to the hated supre-
macy of Judah over Edom, and captured Elath,
an important source of commercial prosperity to
Judah (2 Kings xvi. 6). From thence he moved
northwards on this side of the Dead Sea and made
a junction with Pekah, who had in the mean time
been devastating the country, in order, with him,
to make a united attack upon Jerusalem, and so to
come to the end of his entire undertaking, namely,
to the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah and of
the dynasty of David. [It may hardly be worth
while to balance conjectures where the basis of
testimony on which to build them is so slight. The
above construction is open to considerable objec-
tion. If a king set out, in alliance with another,
against Judah, would it not be strange that he
should march through Edom to Elath and then up
to Jerusalem before joining his ally ? What is
more, it is very remarkable that Isaiah, when he
prophesies deliverance to Ahaz, makes no refer-
ence to two defeats which the king is supposed to
have suffered already. We expect a sentence in
this form: although thou hast been defeated, yet,
&c. The king looks for aid to Assyria. The pro-
phet rebukes this. He evidently expects that the
physical form of the deliverance will be something
else than Tiglath Pileser's advance. It is more
consistent to suppose that the city was found too
strong, that the two kings commenced to devastate
the country, that Ahaz was twice defeated when
he sallied out to try to restrain them, or before he
was shut up in the city, and that Rezin pushed
forward as far as Elath. Probably it was not
until they had made some progress in plundering
the country that they heard that Tiglath Pileser
was advancing. The information derived from the
Assyrian inscriptions strongly sustains this view.
Rezin and Pekah revolted in 734-3. Haste was
necessary above all things. It was deemed neces-
sary to conquer Judah and force it into the confed
erated revolt. Hence the news comes suddenly tc
Ahaz in this startling form: The Syrians are in
Ephraim. Before the end of 731 the war was all
over and Tiglath Pileser held his court in Damas-
cus. (See Supp. Note at the end of this section.;
The whole campaign in Judah was therefore ,'ery
brief. There was no time for a siege. The twi
"battles" were fought in the open country and
172
THE SECuNL BOOK OF THE KINGS.
the "captives" were taken thence, and the long
expedition to Elath was undertaken in order to
bring the strongest possible pressure to bear on
Ahaz to force him to join the revolt, next to the
capture of his capital. — W. 6. S.] As the Edom-
ites and Philistines had also invaded Judah (2
Chron. rxviii. 17 sq.), Ahaz, pressed on every side,
turned to Assyria for help in spite of the warn-
ings and promises of Isaiah (vii. 1 sq.). This in-
duced Rezin to desist from his advance and to
hurry home. There he was defeated and slain by
Tiglath Pileser. — It is scarcely possible to combine
the two narratives in any ether than this simple
and direct way. Keil also places the capture of
Elath before the siege of Jerusalem, but leaves it
undecided whether Rezin advanced northwards
from Elath, against Jerusalem, or whether, after
his victory over Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii. 5), "he
sent a portion of his army into Idumea to detach
that country from Judah, while he, in conjunction
with Pekah, led the rest of the army against Jeru-
salem." Against this view arises the objection
that ver. 6 makes no mention of a detachment
sent into Idumea, but says that Rezin himself
marched thither and drove the Jews out of Elath.
Ver. 7. Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath
Pileser. He did not take this step as soon as
hostilities commenced, but, as has already been
said, when he saw himself hard pressed. He did
not heed the prophet's warning and counsel (Isai.
vii. 4) ; on the contrary, by the words : thy ser-
vant and thy son, lie placed himself in servitude
to the king of Assyria as well as under his protec-
tion. He sent the presents of gold and silver (ver.
8) after the allied armies had withdrawn from
Jerusalem, and Damascus had been taken (ver. 9).
Tiglath Pileser took the captured inhabitants of
Damascus to Kir. By this we have not to under-
stand, as the ancient Expositors did, the Median
city Kovpfyva or Ko/u'i^, but the country around the
river Kur (Kvpog, Kbp/x%), which flows through the
northern part of Iberia, the modern Georgia, into
the Caspian sea (Isai. xxii. 6 [cf. also Amos i.
3-5]). "Tiglath Pileser transferred the inhabitants
of Damascus to the most remote portion — in the
extreme north — of his dominions, and yet to the
place from which their ancestors had originally
migrated (Amos ix. 7)." (Thenius). After the sub-
jugation of Syria, Tiglath Pileser advanced against
Israel, and accomplished what is recorded in chap.
xv. 29. It may be that Pekah submitted at once to
the approaching enemy and thereby averted from
himselfthe fate of Rezin. [See Supp. Note, p. 161.]
— The statement 2 Chron. xxviii. 20 sq., according
to which Tiglath Pileser marched against Ahaz, and
besieged him but did not overcome him, is discussed
in detail by Caspar! (work above cited, ss. 5G-60).
11. -t rives to reconcile it to the statements of the
passage before us, but does not in all respects suc-
ceed. So much is certain ; Ahaz, in spite of all his
gifts to Tiglath Pileser, did not find in him a true
helper and friend; on the contrary, he was harsh-
ly treated by him: "It did him no good." [The
meaning of 2 Chron. xxviii. 20 seems to be more
correctly given in the English translation: "He
came unto him (not against him), and distressed
him (not necessarily besieged him), and strength-
«ncd him not."]
Ver, Hi And king Ahaz went to Damascus
to meet Tiglath Pileser, i. e., in order to testify
to his g*atitnde towards him for his deliverance,
and at the same time to secure the confined favor
of the king of Assyria. The latter must, there-
fore, have remained at Damascus for some time.
Perhaps Ahaz himself brought the presents which
are mentioned in ver. 8. While he was at Damas-
cus he saw an altar which pleased him so much
that he sent orders to Urijah the priest to make
one like it. This Urijah can hardly be the same
one who is mentioned in Isai. viii. 2. [We should
unhesitatingly infer that these two were the same
individual, if it were not for the improbability that
a man, who would build and introduce into the
temple a new altar built on a heathen model,
should be called by a prophet a " faithful " wit-
ness. The solution may be that the prophet took
the priest as a faithful witness on account of
his official position solely. The priest seemed the
most fit and proper witness, however much the
prophet may have had to find fault with (as to
which he tells us nothing one way or the other)
in his administration of his office.— W. G. S.] It
was undoubtedly an altar consecrated to an Assy-
rian deity which Ahaz saw, but he desired to have
one like it for the service of Jehovah (ver
15). rHOT has a general signification : shape,
image ; JVJ3n designated more particularly the
model; and nt"I?Q the sort of workmanship, de-
coration, &c. — In ver. 12, V?V ?JM is not to be
translated: "and, he sacrificed upon it "(Luther, De
Wette, and others), but: "and he ascended upon
it." See 1 Kings xii. 32, 33. It does not follow
from this, however, that "Ahaz was not willing
to give up the royal prerogative of exercising the
high-priestly office upon occasion " (Thenius). The
words mean simply that this was his sacrifice,
namely, the one which he offered for his fortunate
return from Damascus. He led the way by his
own example. We have not to understand that
he usurped any priestly functions. It is no more
intended to assert in ver. 13 that he himself sprin-
kled the sacrificial blood, than it is in ver. 14, that
he, with his own hand, removed the altar. [The
translation : " He went up upon it," is justly pre-
ferred by Bahr, but it does not remove the difficulty
about the king's share in the sacrifice. Why did
he go up upon the altar, if not to perform the rites
himself? There is no other evidence at all that
any one but the person officiating at the sacrifice
went up upon the altar. Furthermore, ver. 13 is
not a case of the ultimate agent being said to do
what others do by his command. The fact that the
king could sacrifice unrebuked by the priest is not
any more astonishing than that the priest should
make an altar on a heathen pattern, and put it in
the place of the one built by Solomon. Both inci-
dents belong to the picture of this reign. — W. G. S.]
The thank-offering was the chief thing (ver. 13).
but it was preceded by a burnt-offering as usua'
(Symbol, d. Mas. Kult. II. s. 362, 423, 435). 2 Chron.
xxviii. 23 does not contradict the passage before
us. It does not refer to the new altar and the
sacrifice which was offered upon it, but to the
sacrifices which Ahaz offered elsewhere (cf. ver. 1 1.
Vers. 14 and 15. And he brought also the
brazen altar, &c. Xlp'l cannot mean: "he re-
moved," " Er that weg" (Luther), nor: he moved
away; " Er riickte hinuieg" but: he brought nearer,
he moved closer up to. The sense of "awa.
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20.
]'
from " is, of course, in nSO • The first meaning
of 3"lp!l is certainly: "he brought nearer," but
as it is not clear what it was brought nearer to, the
word seems to have lost this force and to mean
simply, he moved. Bahr translates: "Bi.' the bra-
zen altar (*. e., the altar of burnt-offering), which
was before Jehovah (t. e., which was immediately
before the house of Jehovah), he moved nearer,
away from (the place) before the house (i. e., away
from the point) between the (new) altar and the
house of Jehovah, and he put it by the side of the
new altar towards the north." It is not clear what
it was nearer to. — W. G. S.] The altar of burnt-
ofTering was called the "brazen" altar, in contra-
distinction from the golden altar of incense in the
interior of the temple. It stood in the middle of
the court of the priests in front of the temple-
building. Urijah had placed the new altar in front
of this, but Ahaz ordered the brazen altar to be
moved away from its former position to the north
side of the new one. This he did evidently be-
cause the position which was nearer to the dwell-
ing-place of the divinity seemed to be more holy,
and he did not wish that the old altar should be
regarded as superior in honor or sacredness to the
new one. As they were now upon the same line,
they were, in so far, equal; while the new one,
being in the middle, was, if anything, superior.
In ver. 15 the new altar is called pVljn : hardly
because " it was somewhat larger than Solomon's
altar" (Keil), for the latter was very large, twenty
cubits long and wide and ten cubits high (2 Chron.
iv. 1). It seems better, with Thenius, "to under-
stand it as in pyijil ]H3 and to translate : ' the
■chief altar.' " According to Ahaz's orders, all the
offerings were now to be made upon the new altar ;
the regular morning and evening sacrifices and
the special ones of particular individuals, whether
the king or others. He did not, therefore, forbid
the worship of Jehovah — he did not dare to do that
— but nevertheless this worship was to be celebrat-
ed only upon an altar imitated from one which be-
longed to the heathen. — The morning burnt-
offering and ther evening meat-offering. " It
might seem from this that there was no meat-
offering in the morning and no burnt-offering in
the evening, which would be contradictory to Ex.
xxix. 38-42 and Num. xxviii. 3-S. But. as no
burnt-offering was brought without a meat-offering
(Numb. vii. 87 ; xv. 2-12), the latter is assumed as
u matter of course in the morning offering: and,
as the burnt-offering was to burn throughout the
whole night (Levit. vi. 9), the meat-offering was
the only part of the evening sacrifice at which the
people could assist " (Thenius). The final words :
And as for the brazen altar "Ipai? '-rrPIT , are
translated by the Vulg. : erit paratum ad volunta-
tem meam: similarly Philippson: "But to inquire
at the brazen altar is my prerogative." This ren-
dering is evidently incorrect, for "ipa means to
investigate but not to seek out or inquire, much less
to be at one's disposition (Levit. xxvii. 33). It has
here the same meaning as in Prov. xx. 25, to con-
sider, so that the phrase is to be translated : " I
will consider [farther] " (Furst). Thenius, very un-
necessary, desires to read C'j33? for "l|53?, be-
cause |) ITn, as he maintains, always means M
serve a certain purpose. The meaning would then
be " shall be mine for prayer ; " i. e., that the old
altar should be retained as a "prayer-altar."
j> ITn is used here, however, as it is in Gen. xv.
12 ; 1 Sam. iv. 9; Josh. ii. 5. No distinction be-
tween prayer-altars and altars of sacrifice was
recognized in ancient times. Ahaz did not desira
that the altar of Solomon, which had hitherto been
held very sacred, should be removed at once, but
he desired to wait and see how the people would
regard the innovation. He therefore reserved his
further commands for a time.
Ver. 17. And king Ahaz cut ofl, ic. Thenius
maintains that this and the following verse are a
continuation of the first half of verse 10, and that
a more precise statement is here added to the re-
report of Ahaz' journey to Damascus which is
there spoken of, viz., that it was impossible for
him, after he had obtained the needed assistance,
to appear before Tiglath Pileser with empty hands ;
that the treasury was empty (ver. 8) ; that he was,
therefore, compelled to take for this gift any-
thing which could be made available ; and that this
is what is meant by the closing words of ver. 18 :
"for the king of Assyria." But vers. 17 and 18
clearly carry on the narrative of what occurred
after the return of the king from Damascus (ver.
12). They are therefore a direct continuation of
vers. 10-16. Besides the removal of the brazen
altar, Ahaz undertook still further changes in the
sanctuary, namely those which are mentioned in
vers. 17-18. As the brazen oxen are among the
things which he removed, and as they were not
carried away from Jerusalem until the Babylon-
ians carried them off (Jerem. lii. 20), it is not to be
understood that they were carried as a gift to Da-
mascus by Ahaz. As it was with the oxen, so it must
have been also with the other decorations men-
tioned in ver. 17. Finally the words: " for (^3D)
the king of Assyria," cannot be understood in the
sense of : " In the service of the king of Assyria "
(Luther), or, "In order to obtain (by abstracting
the decorations mentioned) the necessary gifts for
the king " (Thenius) ; for ijan means for in the
sense of from fear of anybody (cf. Judges ix. 21;
Gen. vii. 7 ; Isai. xx. 6; 2 Kings xxii. 19 ; Hos. xL
2, Ac.), but never for the sake of any one, or out oj
love to him. Ahaz removed all these valuable
objects " before the king of Assyria " not in order
to make him a present of them, but either because
he thought that they would give him offence or
because he feared that he might want them and
demand them of him. [This last is the true expla-
nation. He wanted to escape the cupidity of the
Assyrians by hiding evidences of wealth. — W. G.
S.] — On the J"li"l3TO of tne bases and on T>3 and the
brazen sea, see notes on 1 Kings vii. 27 sq. Ahaz
did not set the last " upon the stone pavement "
(Luther), but upon a foundation built of stone. —
The TTD'JD was " unquestionably a covered place,
a platform or hall, in the forecourt of the temple,
s. i apart for the king when he visited the temple
with his retinue on the Sabbaths or feast-days "
(Keil). This addition was built later than the
rest of the temple. Its form cannot be de£- Jtelj
discovered, for it is only mentioned here. Tin
174
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Sept have for it : rbv -&eui7.iov tt)C natiifipac riiv
napfiaruv, wind) does not throw any light upon it,
as they evidently read isms , foundation, forT|D1D-
The king:s entry without is perhaps the
" aneent " mentioned in 1 Kings x. 5. According to
Thenius it was " the entrance at the eastern gate
of the inner court, which lay towards the outer
fore-court through which the king alone entered
(Ezek. xlvi. 1, 2), and it is mentioned in contrast to
the platform of the king in the inner forecourt,
which has just been mentioned." Keil translates
2DH , which applies to both the localities, " lie
transferred into the house of Jehovah," but the
platform (7ID1D), which was in the inner court,
cannot possibly have been transferred into the
temple itself, still less the outer entrance. More-
over, why should this transfer have taken place
" before " or " for fear of " the king of Assyria ?
3DH means strictly : to make something turn
about, to change a thing so that it is not what it
was. Hence it often means to change one's name
(2 Kings xxiii. 34; xxiv. 17), and it can only be
understood here in the same sense. Thenius:
"He 'changed' in the same way as he had
changed or altered the bases, Ac." This no
doubt took place in this way, that he took off
from them what was valuable. niiT JV3 is the
ordinary accusative of place, "in the sanctuary." —
We see from 2 Kings xxiii. 1 2 that Ahaz was not
contented with the arrangements for worship here
made, but also erected altars on the roof of his
"upper chamber." — In regard to the sepulture of
king Ahaz (ver. 20), 2 Chron. xxviii. 27, says:
" They buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, but
they brought him not into the sepulchres of the
kings of Israel." It is not evident why this is an
" error," as Thenius asserts. It does not contra-
dict the record before us, and the same thing
occurred in regard to Uzziah, although not for the
same reason (cf. chap. xv. 7 and 2 Chron. xxvi. 3).
[Supplementary Note on the references to con-
temporaneous history in chap, xvi., incorporating the
results of Assyrian investigations. — As we saw
above (p. 161), chap. xv. gives an account of the
intervention of Assyria in the history of Israel.
Chap. xvi. gives the history of the intervention of
Assyria in Judah. The first revolt of Pekah and
Rezin against Assyria, and their conspiracy to at-
tack Judah and force it to join in the attempt, in
the last year of Jotham (742), was crushed before
it gained any strength. In 734 they once morei
united in revolt, and renewed their policy of at-
tacking Judah. Ahaz, hard pressed by them (see
Exeg. on ver. 7), called to Tiglath Pileser for aid,
and paid him tribute. The aid was promptly
piven, as Tiglath Pileser regarded Rezin and
Pekah as rebels. Ahaz was thus relieved from
lliis danger (732). Tiglath Pileser, after dealing
with the rebels as described on p. 162, marched
into Philistia and took Gaza and Ashdod, and
also Dumah in Arabia, and came back to Damas-
cus. It was probably on this march that he
"came to" Ahaz, and distressed him; and it was
probably at this time that Ahaz removed the fur-
niture of the temple and took away its decorations,
lest they might present an appearance of wealth
to Tiglath Pileser, and excite his cupidity (see
Exeg. on ver. 18). In 731, before leaving Damas
cus to return to Assyria, Tiglath Pileser " held
a court " of his vassals at that city. Twenty-three
such vassals came. Among them are mentioned
Pekah of Israel and Ahaz of Judah (Lenormant
I. 389 and 390). Continued in the Supp. Note after
the Exeg. section on chap. xvii. — W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The reign of king Ahaz was the most disastrous
through which Judah had yet passed. The king-
dom sank so low, both internally and externally,
religiously and politically, that it was on the verge
of ruin. Such an incapable ruler had never before
ascended the throne. The predominant feature in
his character was weakness, weakness of spirit
and weakness of intellect. History records no-
thing about him which is worthy of respect. Al-
though Judah and Israel had had many perverse,
wicked, and godless rulers, yet these had been at
least brave and energetic soldiers ; but of Ahaz
even this much cannot be said. When the enemy
approached " his heart was moved as the trees of
the wood are moved with the wind " (Isai. vii. 2).
No word of prophetic promise or encouragement
could deliver him from his despair. He was de-
feated; he did not win a single victory: all the
conquests of his two predecessors were lost ; the
land was devastated and robbed of all its sources
of revenue. Finally he turns in his distress, in
spite of every warning, to the threatening Assyrian
power and purchases its help, not only by the
treasures of the temple and the palace, but also
with the independence and honor of his kingdom.
As is usually the case with weak rulers, he cringes
before the mighty, but is arrogant and domineering
towards his subjects (cf. vers. 7-16). As for the
main point, the attitude towards Jehovah, his
apostasy was deeper than that of any other king
of Judah or even of Israel. He not only tolerated
idolatry, but practised it zealously himself, and
even went so far in his error as the abomination
of sacrificing his own son. The historical books,
which only state the facts, do not tell how it came
about that a king of Judah, a descendant and suc-
cessor of David, fell so low, but the prophetical
books give us an insight into the religious and
moral status of the kingdom. The kingdom of
Judah had attained to power and glory under Uz-
ziah and Jotham, as Israel did under Jeroboam II.
Flourishing trade and lively intercourse with for-
eign countries produced wealth, and with it also
foreign manners and customs. Finally foreign
divinities were introduced. The result was great
luxury, effeminacy, debauchery, and excess which
soon, especially in the upper classes, led to immo-
rality and vice of every kind. The foreign forms
of worship, which were, for the most part, bril-
liant and attractive, and connected with vice,
pleased this degenerate generation better than the
simple, severe, and earnest Jehovah worship,
which indeed continued, but had degenerated into
a mere external ceremonial. Uzziah and Jotham
had indeed, as we have said above, done their ut-
most for the external prosperity of the kingdom.
They also remained true to the worship of Jeho-
vah, but they were not filled with warm zeal for
it, and they did not oppose effecuve resistance to
the invading corruption. Isaiah, who commenced
his prophetical labor in the year in which Uzziah
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20.
175
died (Isai. vi. 1), says, in the passage in which,
according to the generally received opinion, lie is
speaking of the time of Jotham : " Therefore thou
hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, be-
cause they be replenished from the East [filled
with Eastern rites and acts] and are soothsayers
like the PhUistines, and they please themselves in
the children of strangers. Their laud also is full of
silver and gold, neither is there any end of their
treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither
is there any end of their chariots; their land is also
full of idols, they worship the work of their own
hands, that which their own fingers have made "
(Isai. ii. 6-8). In another passage, which, though
it does not belong to the time of Jotham, yet falls
in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, the prophet
describes the degeneracy of morals, the debauch-
ery, licentiousness, pride, deceit, alienation from
God, injustice, oppression, &c, of the time (Isai. v.
8-25). In such circumstances the youthful Ahaz
had grown up. Such was the atmosphere which
he had breathed from his childhood tip. He was
emphatically a child of his time, a faithful repre-
sentative of the majority of the nation, corrupted
by foreign modes of thought and morals. By
nature he was weak and vacillating. He allowed
himself to be swept away by the stream, and sank
deeper into a depraved character and career, so
that even the heavy judgments which befell him
did not avail to bring him into other courses.
2. The idolatry which was practised in Jndah,
in the time of Ahaz, by the side of the worship of
Jehovah, was not of the form peculiar to any par-
ticular people, but was like that which Solomon
allowed his wives to practise (see Exeg. on 1 Kings
xi. 5 and Hist. §§ 3 and 4 on 1 Kings xi. 1-13), a
mixture of the different kinds of worship which
predominated in western Asia. Since, as we saw
from Isai. ii. 6-8, such a cultus had been estab-
lished in Jndah even in the time of Jotham, and
Ahaz found it in existence when he ascended the
throne, it follows that it cannot have been Assyrian
in origin, for, in Jotham's time, Judah had not come
in contact with Assyria at all. In the book of
Chronicles, as well as in the book of Kings, the
sacrifice of children is presented as the extreme of
apostasy. In its nature this form of sacrifice is
the most utter contrast to the worship of Jehovah
(see Pt. II., p. 36). As it is not mentioned as
haying been committed at all before the. time of
Ahaz, but, on the contrary, he was the first who
went so far astray, it has been supposed that he
was led to it by becoming acquainted with the As-
syrian fire-gods, Adrammelech and Anammelech
(2 Kings xvii. 31) (cf. Movers, Phoniz. I. s. 65;
Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 101). The record, however,
distinctly contradicts this notion by the words :
" According to the abominations of the heathen
whom the Lord cast out from before the children
of Israel." The Assyrians did not belong to this
category and the words apply here, as they do
wherever they occur (chap. xvii. 8, 11; cf. Numb,
txxiii. 51-55; Deut. iv. 38), to the Canaanitish
nations, that is, the nations of western, not of
upper, Asia. It is an unquestioned fact that
among the former, especially among the Phoeni-
cians, child-sacrifices were common, and that
Moloch, to whom they were offered, was worship-
ped in western Asia (cf. Levit. xviii. 21, 27 sq. ;
xx. 1-5). Moreover, it cannot be proved that Ahaz
did not perform such sacrifices until after he be-
came acquainted with the Assyrian cultus. It U
mentioned in the most general terms as a sign of
his apostasy. His sacrificing and offering incense
'• under every green tree " does not point to As-
syrian star-worship, but to the Astarte and
Aschere-worship of western Asia. Dunekers
notion that Ahaz first offered child-sacrifice when
Rezin and Pekah were before Jerusalem, and he
was most hardly pressed on all sides ("'In vain
the king offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus
in order to turn the fortunes of war ; in vain he
sacrificed his own son as a burnt-offering "), is
nothing but a pure construction on the basis of 2
Kings iii. 27. The biblical text does not offer the
slightest hint of it. It is in fact very questionable
whether child-sacrifices were common among the
nations of Upper Asia, and especially among the
Assyrians. It cannot, at any rate, be proved from
2 Kings xvii. 31. It cannot, indeed, be denied that
Ahaz, after he had met Tiglath Pileser in Damas-
cus, became acquainted with the Assyrian cultus
and transplanted at least some parts of it to Jeru-
salem. This is proved, not so much by the fact
that he caused an altar to be built after the pat
tern of the one which he had seen in Damascus,
as rather from 2 Kings xxiii. 12, where "altars
upon the upper-chamber of Ahaz " are mentioned,
evidently referring to Assyrio-Chaldean star-wor-
ship (see note below on the place mentioued).
The chariots and horses of the sun which are
there mentioned most probably belonged to the
time of Manasseh. For the rest, Ahaz tolerated
the Jehovah-worship after his return from Damas-
cus; for the sacrifices which he commanded the
high-priest Urijah to make (ver. 15) upon the new
altar were not offerings to idols but to Jehovah
The weak man had not the courage formally to
abolish the Jehovah- worship, for a party which
could not be despised still clung to it. He wor-
shipped all possible gods according to his own
tastes and notions. In his time there was in
Judah complete religious anarchy and license. [See
the bracketed note on ver. 3 under Exegetical.
That note presents the facts in regard to the point
discussed in this section according to the latest
and best knowdedge. It will be seen that it modifies
and corrects some of the above statements.]
3. T)ie war which the confederated kings of Israel
and Syria undertook against Judah is "one of the
most notable and most important events in the
Israelitish history " (Caspari). It was the first
time that one of the two sister-kingdoms formed
an alliance, with the hereditary enemy against the
other, in order to destroy it. This was a most
unnatural alliance and was a sign of the process
of dissolution which was commencing; for it show-
ed that the consciousness of forming with Judah a
common nationality based upon common blood
and faith had been lost by Israel. The importance
and the external prosperity, which had been won
by Judah under Uzziah and Jotham (see above,
§ 1), had perhaps reawakened Ephraim's ancient,
deep-rooted hate and envy of Judah (see 1 Kings
xii. ; Mist. § 1), and incited the faithless and
ambitious Pekah to the alliance with Rezin. In
addition to this was the fact that Israel had, under
Menahem, fallen into a certain position of depend-
ence upon, and subjection to, the growing and
threatening Assyrian power, and that Syria had
also, in this power, a dangerous neighbor. Id
order to recuperate Israelat the expense of Judah
176
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
and to find a protection on the side of Assyria in
the intervening nation of Syria, Pekah formed an
alliance with Rezin, who was also eager for con-
quest, and these two " fire-brands " (Isai. vii. 4)
formed the plan of putting an end to the nation of
Judah and the house of David. They made their
first efforts in this direction in the last years of
■Tothara, but without success (chap. xv. 37). When,
however, the weak and incapable Ahaz came to
the throne, the right time for carrying out their
plan seemed to them to have come. But the Lord
said: "Take counsel together and it shall come
to naught; speak the word and it shall not stand "
(Isai. viii. 10). At the moment when they were
close to their object they were obliged to give up
their plan, and they ran to their own destruction.
Rezin lost his kingdom and his life ; Pekah was
made subject to Tiglath Pileser, and a part of his
people were led away into exile (chap. xv. 29).
Ahaz also lost his kingdom and his people, and
had to bow beneath the supremacy of Assyria.
The whole war was a heavy judgment upon the
three kingdoms. The kingdom of Syria-Damas-
cus, which had, up to this time, been the instru-
ment of the divine judgments against Israel, dis-
appeared forever from the scene. Israel went on
with hasty steps to its destruction, for Pekah was
murdered by Hoshea in consequence of his sub-
jection to the Assyrians, and Hoshea, as he re-
fused to pay the tribute to Assyria, was taken
captive by Shalmaneser. Thus the kingdom of
Israel came to an end (chap. xvii. 3 sq.). [See
Supp. Note, p. 161.] "As the hostility to Judah
had given it its origin, so the same hostility
brought about its destruction : born from this, it
also perished by it " (Caspari). Judah itself,
finally, as a punishment for its apostasy from
Jehovah, came into that contact with Assyria, from
this time on. which had such a deep influence
upon its history. From this time the conflicts
witli the small nationalities ceased and those with
the great world-monarchies began. In so far this
war was, for Judah also, the beginning of the end.
It was a turning-point for both nations which had
not heeded the chastisements nor the proofs of
the goodness and long-suffering of God, but had
hardened themselves more and more in their apos-
tasy. " It was in the highest degree providential
that the great world-monarchies began to interfere
in Israel just at the time when this hardening took
place'' (Caspari). But this -'war between Judah
and the allied kingdoms of Ephraim and Syria is
still further especially remarkable for this fact,
that the grandest prophecies were spoken in it,
and that it forms the historical basis of a product
of the Old-Testament prophecy which is of the
very highest, or, in fact, of unique significance.
This fact stands in connection with the position
af this war at the turning-point of the Old-Testa-
ment history ; in the middle of the Israelitish his-
tory, at the end of the first and beginning of the
second period, in which latter the fortunes of the
people of God under the world-monarchy, its
period of suffering, falls. It stood, therefore, at
the point where a prospect offered itself to the
eye of the prophet which reached out over the
whole future development of the kingdom of God "
(Caspari).
4. After his visit to Damascus, Alias caused
certain changes to be made in the arrangements of
'fit temple 'jt ./■ rusalem which were of greater or
less significance. The record mentions some of
these very briefly, but speaks more at length of
those which affected the altar of burnt-offering,
because these were by far the most important,
Since the entire cultus was concentrated in the sac-
rifice, and all sacrifices, those of the individual as
well as those of the entire people, were to be
offered on this one altar (Levit. xvii. 8, 9; Deut.
xii. 13, 14), it formed the centre of the sanctuary,
which, without it, would have lost its significance.
Its form and shape, its position in the sacred edi-
fice, its entire construction, were, therefore, by no
means indifferent matters, but they were strictly
prescribed in accordance with its character and
purpose, so that any alteration of it seemed to be
a sort of denial or contradiction of the religious
idea which it was constructed to serve. Merely
to take away the four horns from its four corners
was to desecrate and destroy it (Amos hi. 14 ; Ju
dith ix. 8. Symbol, d. Mosaisch. Cult. I. s. 473). Now
when Ahaz caused this altar to be removed and
another made on a pattern obtained from Damas-
cus, this was nothing less than an indirect setting
aside of the lawful Jehovah-worship, and it bore
witness not only to an entire want of comprehen-
sion of that worship, but also to an unheard-of
self-will. He ordained, indeed, that the priest
should offer all the sacrifices which had hitherto
been offered — that is to say, all the sacrifices to Je-
hovah— upon the new altar. He did not diminish
the amount of worship to be paid to Jehovah ; the
crime and folly were that an idol-altar was used
for the worship of Jehovah. It appears that Ahaz
intended to gradually transform the Jehovah-wor-
ship in this way. Certainly the ground for it was
not merely that the form of the altar which ha
saw " in a city where, according to all the indica-
tions which we possess, the fine arts were highly
developed, pleased him better than that of the
large brazen altar in the forecourt of the temple
at Jerusalem " (Ewald), so that " he had rather an
aesthetic than a religious reason for the change "
(Thenius). For, aside from the fact that there is
not an indication of any especial fondness for art
in Ahaz, as, for instance, there was in Solomon,
and that he was a weak and incapable man, we
must notice that he removed even the works of
art which were in the temple ; he took away the
brazen oxen and he destroyed the artistic " bases '
upon which the laver rested. He desired that the
new altar shotild be made exactly like the one he
had seen at Damascus, and to this end he sent a
model of it to Jerusalem. This shows that his
object was not so much to have a beautiful work
of art as it was to have an altar made on a pattern
borrowed from Damascus ; his interest in it was
not artistic but political. "When he perceived
the zeal of the Assyrian rulers for the propagation
of their national cultus, he commanded his priests
to change the arrangements of the temple so as to
conform to this desire " (Duncker). His ordinance
in this respect was simply a contemptible captatio
hrnmilentim for the Assyrian king. The removal
of the twelve oxen of the brazen sea, which he
then placed upon a mere foundation of stone, was,
if we consider the significance of this piece of the
temple furniture as it is stated above (1 Kings vii.,
Bisi. S 6), a degradation of the Israelitish priest-
hood and a contradiction of the destiny of Israel
as the chosen priest-people, as well as an assault
upon the character of the Israelitish relig ;>n. Th«
CHAPTER XVI. 1-20.
177
lame is true in regard to the removal of the Mis-
geroth from the bases, for upon them were the
characteristic emblems of the inner sanctuary,
cherubim arid palms (see above, 1 Kings vii., Hist.
j5 7). Movers' opinion (Ktliy. ikr Phon.j, that Ahaz
removed the oxen, &c, because the symbolism
of animals was especially abominable to the Assy-
rians, who were addicted t" star-worship, seems
to us to be entirely erroneous. The changes,
finally, which Ahaz made in the gallery and stand-
ing-place of the king are not more definitely spe-
cified. Possibly there were emblems upon them
also which were peculiar to the Jehovah-worship.
We hear nothing of any changes in the interior
of the sanctuary. Those which were made affect-
ed only the objects which stood in the fore-court,
so that they were prominently before the eye and
might offend the Assyrians. The additional state-
ment in Chronicles (2 Chron. xxviii. 24), that Ahaz
closed the doors of the temple, is often brought in
question, and asserted to be an exaggeration
(Thenhis, Bertheau, and others). As it does not
stand alone, however, but is supported by the as-
sertion in chap. xxix. 3, that Hezekiah opened the
1<- -• again, which again is assumed in vers. 7 and
17, we have as little reason to reject this as any
of the other additions to these books which are
supplied by the Chronicles. The " upper cham-
bers" with their altars, which, according to 2
Kings xxiii. 12, Ahaz caused to be made, are not
mentioned in this place, although they were in
existence. We must not forget that Ahaz did not
do all at once, but went on from step to step in
his apostasy. As it is certain that he did not be-
gin with the sacrifice of his son in the valley of
Hinnom, so it is certain also that he did not com-
mence by closing the doors of the temple ; on the
contrary, these were the extremes to which he
allowed himself to be driven under the influence
of the heathen party. Fortunately, his reign was
not a long one.
5. The conduct of the high-priest} Urijah, under
the commands of the king, stands in glaring con-
trast with that of the high-priest Azariah and the
eighty other priests when Uzziah attempted to
usurp priestly functions (2 Chron. xxvi. 17 sq.).
Instead of resisting the commands of the weak
and capricious Ahaz, he keeps silence, bows in
acquiescence under his will, "and does all that
king Ahaz commanded him" (ver. 16). Neither
did the other priests stir ; they allowed everything
to go on without opposition. We cannot believe
chat this was the same Urijah whom Isaiah desig-
nates as a faithful witness of Jehovah (Isai. viii.
2, 16). [Cf. Exeyet. note on ver. 10.] We should
have to suppose that he fell so low after a long
interval. Nothing similar had ever been done be-
fore by any priest in Judah. It seems that he,
like his companions in office, was only anxious for
his revenues. At any rate, his conduct is a sign
of the character and standing of the priests of that
lime. They were dumb dogs who could not bark ;
they all followed their own ways, every one his
own gain (Isai. lvi. 10 sq.). Amos, Hosea, Isaiah,
and Hicah stand over against them, grand and
noble, speaking without fear, rebuking the sins
both of high and low, and announcing the threat-
ening judgments of God.
12
HOIIILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Ver3. 1-9. King Ahaz. a) The way in which
he walked, vers. 1-4. (An apostate from the God
of Israel even to the point of offering sacrifices to
Moloch.) b) The distress into which he came,
vers. 5 and 6. (2 Chron. xxviii. 5. The land wan
devastated; Elath, the fountain of the national
prosperity, was cut off; the throne was in danger.
He trembled like the trees of the forest in the
wind. Isai. vii. 2.) c) The help which he sought,
vers. 7-9. (Instead of seeking help from the living
God, to whom the prophet pointed him, he seeks it
from the king of Assyria. Ps. cxxiv. 8 ; Jerem.
xvii. 5, 7. Instead of seeking it with prayer and
supplication, he seeks it with silver and gold. Ps.
1. 15.) — Vers. 1-3. Wurt. Summ. : Not all pious
parents are blessed with pious children. It is, in-
deed, a great trial for parents when children do not
turn out well, but when the parents have not
failed in their discipline, then they can leave the
rest to God, and have a good conscience that they
have done their best. — Vers. 3 and 4. Starke: Men
are so blind that they think they serve God most tru-
ly by those very actions by which they sin most
grossly against him.— The Moloch-sacrifice, or child-
sacrifice, is a proof of the extravagance of error into
which men can fall when they have not the know-
ledge of the living God and His revealed word, or
when they have rejected the same (Rom. i. 21,
22). This abomination, which still continues among
heathen nations, is the strongest and most direct
call to all, who know the living God and who pos-
sess his word, to take part in the work of missions,
and to help to bring it about that light may come
to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of
death, and that they may come to a knowledge of
salvation (Luke i. 79 ; ii. 32). — God commands us
to give our dearest and best to Him, but not to-
Moloch. There are no longer any sacrifices to Mo-
loch in Christendom, but it happens often enough,
even now, that parents sacrifice their childreD to
the idols of the world, which consume them so
that they are lost eternally. — Pfaff. Bib. : He
who trains up his children to evil, sacrifices them
to the Moloch of hell, that is, to the devil. —
Starke: As a corrupt atmosphere can taint a
healthy body far more easily than a pure atmo-
sphere can purify a tainted one, so also bad com-
panions can lead good people astray more easily
than good men can convert bad ones. Evil is
more easily propagated than good. — For two hun-
dred years the people in Judah had kept them-
selves free from idolatry and heathen abominations,
and yet Ahaz succeeded in a short time in filling
the land with these (Isai. i. 5, 6). The higher a
people stands, the lower it may fall. Judah sank
even lower than Israel. There have been, and
there are even yet, Christian nations which have
sunk lower than the heathen. The fall of one who
has been most highly blessed is often the heaviest
and deepest. Therefore, Be sober I &c, 1 Peter v
8. — Ver. 4. Happy is he who, under every greet,
tree and on every height, has learned, not to serve
the world and its gods, but to praise the one holy,
living, and gracious God. — Wherever God has a
Church, the devil builds a temple by the side of
it. — Vers. 5 and 6. The War of Rezin and Pekah
against Judah (see Histor. and Ethical, § 3).
The object, the result, and the significance of it
(Isai. viii. 10; vii. 6, 7). — The unnatural allianc*
17S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of the two enemies against Judah. Compare the
alliance of Herod and Pilate. Ps. xxxiii. 10 ap-
plies.— The allies could not succeed in their enter-
prise, not on account of a vigorous resistance, but
because it was otherwise ordained in the counsels
of God. He who says to the turbulent sea:
'•Hitherto shalt thou come and no further; and
here shall thy proud waves be stayed" (Job
xxxviii. 11) — He rises limits and restraints for all
human powers, however great and mighty, however
victorious and proud they may be. — Ver. 7. Cra-
mer: He who will not be God's servant must be
the servant of men, and must lose all his indepen-
dence, his honor, and his dignity. — "I am thy
servant and thy son, come and help me ! " — Ad-
dress this promise and this prayer in all your need
and distress, not, as Ahaz did, to an earthly,
human king, however great and mighty he may
be, but to the King of all kings, in whom alone is
our help (Hos. xiii. 9), for "It is better," &c. (Ps.
cxvivi. 9 ; cxlvi. 3, 5). — The friendship and help
which is bought with silver and gold has no dura-
tion and no value. So it is said of Ahaz here :
'•He helped him not" (2 Chron. xxviii. 21). The
great aud mighty, when they listen to the prayer
of the humble and the weak for aid, generally
have no other object in view than their own ad-
vantage, and the increase of their own power.
Vers. 10-18. The Sacrilege upon the House of
God. a) The king's self-willed assault upon the
established institutions; b) the high-priest's con-
cession. Berleis. Bib. : See in this a clear picture
of the lack of Christian spirit in the two highest
ranks. The State desires to see everything ar-
ranged according to its whims : the Church yields
for the sake of the temporal advantage. — It is the
fashion of depraved rulers that they thiuk they
can command in religious as well as in secular
matters, and can control everything according to
their own good pleasure.— Those who tremble
themselves and cringe before the great are almost
always imperious and haughty to those who art
below them. — Ahaz' sinful and insane arrange-
ment of sacrificing and offering incense to the
Lord upon an idol-altar, is one which may still be
observed where the heart is addicted to sin and
to love of the world, and is alienated from the
living and true God, while yet homage is paid to
him. — " Know ye not that ye are the temple of
God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you ? "
( 1 Cor. iii. 16 sq. • vi. 19 sq.) Whosoever destroyeth
the temple of God, him will God destroy. In this
temple also there may be only one altar; he
who sets up another by the side of it destroys it.
— Ver. 1G. Neue Wurt. Summ.: There would not
be so much harm done by wicked rulers if they
did not find so many people who allow themselves
to be used as instruments of their evil designs,
and who approve of their undertakings in order to
win their favor. Osiander: Ecclesiastics have
always been found who esteemed the favor of
great men more than the honor of Almighty God.
Would that such men were no longer to be found
in the Christendom of to-day I — Wi'RT. Summ. :
We have in this high-priest a specimen of those
hypocrites and belly-servants who say: " Whose
bread I eat, his song I sing; " who veer about
with the wind and seek to be pleasant to all men ;
" dumb dogs who cannot bark ; " who wish to
hurt no one's feelings, but teach and say just
what any one wants to hear. But God's word
alone, and not the favor of men, nor the goods
and honors of the world, ought to be the rule and
norm, from which we ought not to turn aside out
of favor to any man, although it may involve risk
of life or limb to speak the truth. For if any talk and
teach according to the desires of their hearers, for
the sake of their own comfort, their honor will
come to shame and their end is condemnation
(Phil. iii. 19; Acts iv. 19).— Ver. 18. "For fear of
the king of Assyria." It is shameful to introduce
changes in religious matters for political reasons.
C. — The Fall of the Kingdom of Israel, under Hoshea.
Chap. xvii. 1-41.
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz kino; of Judah began [omit began] Hoshea
the son of Elah [became king] to reign [omit to reign] in Samaria over Israel
2 nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not
3 as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser
king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents
4 [tribute]. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea : for he had
sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of
Assyria, as lie had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him
5 up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout
6 all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth
year1 of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into
Assyria, and placed them in Hal ah and in [on the] Habor [,] by the river of
[omtt of] Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes [Media].
7 For so it was, that [so it cairn; to pass that when] the children of Israel had
sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land
of Egypt, from under the hand -:i "J'haraoh king of Egypt, and had feared othet
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41. 179
8 gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from
before the children of Israel, and [in those] of the kings of Israel, which [statutes]
9 they [i. e.. the kings] had made. [: — ] And the children of Israel did secretly
those thing* that were not right against the Lord *,heir God, and they built them
high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced
10 city. And they set them up images and groves [statues] in [on] every high
11 hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in [on] all the
high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away [removed] before
12 them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anojer: For they
served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Te shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the Lord testified' against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets,8
and by [and by] all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep
my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I com-
manded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets
14 Notwithstanding, they would not hear [And they heard not], but hardened
their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord
15 their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with
their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them ; and they fol-
lowed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round
about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not
16 do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and
made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove [an Astarte-
17 statue] and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they
caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divina-
tions and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord,
18 to provoke him to anger. [: — ] Therefore [It came to pass, I say (ver. 7), that
then] the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight :
19 there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. [(] Also Judah kept not the
commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel
20 which they made. [)] And [then] the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and
afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast
21 them out of his sight. For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they
made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave [seduced]4 Israel
22 from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. For the children of
Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did ; they departed not from
23 them :° Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his
servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to
Assyria unto this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and
. from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the
cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria,
25 and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was [it came to pass] at the begin-
ning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord : therefore the Lord
sent lions among them, which slew some of [slaughtered amongst] them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou
hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the
God of the land : therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they
27 slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then
the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom
ye brought from thence ; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach
28 them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they
had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them
29 how they should fear* the Lord. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own,
and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made,
30 every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made
Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made
31 Ashima, And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt
their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
ISO
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
32
33
34
So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them [from
the common people] priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the
houses of the high places. They [». «., these immigrants] feared the Lord, and
served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom [whence] they
[were] carried away from thence [omit from thence].
Unto this day they \i. «., the remnant of the Israelites] clo after the former man-
ners : they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after
their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded
35 the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel ; With whom the Lord had made a
covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow
36 yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them: But [only] the Lord,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched
out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do
31 sacrifice. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law,' and the command-
ment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore ; and ye shall
38 not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not
39 forget ; neither shall ye fear other gods. [;] But [only] the Lord your God ye
40 shall fear ; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. Howbeit
[and] they did not hearken, but they did after their former manners.
41 So these nations [i.e., all the mixed inhabitants of the northern kingdom] feared the Lord,
and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's chil-
dren : as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 6. [rpy^Tin flJCO The stat. const, is nsed in such cases, where only the second word has the article. In
order to form a closer connection between the words. Ew. § 287a.. 1.
» Ver. IS.— [On the hifil form Ijn cf. "Ip'li Gen. yiii. 18; Gesen. § 72. 7.— W. G. 8.]
3 Ver. 13.— The keri SOJ for the chetib "I&02J is in so far correct that the 1 belongs to the following word, p3 ,
as a copula, and there is no sufficient reason why &03J should have the possessive pronoun and Htn not. The keri
is followed by the Vulg. and the Syr. and Arab, versions, and is presented by several codices. Maurer and Keil prefer
the chetib. but do not offer satisfactory reasons for it. — Uahr. [Ew. § 156 e. note 2, says that, if the chetib is to be kept,
then nfPI is a nonn = oracle.
4 Ver. 21.— [The chetib, NT1 , is biOl from N1j i or, by an interchange of consonants which is frequent in books
later than the Pentateuch, fHj - The form does not occur elsewhere from either of those 6tems. The keri proposes
nTI , hif. of rflj ■ The signification is the same, repel, remove, or seduce (Deut. xiii. 14; Prov. vii. 21).
• Ver. 22. -[The fem. suff. in iljDD refers to the plural niXtin • Abstracts are expressed by the plur. or by the
fern., and sometimes, where the words are far separated, such an interchange of the one for the other, in relative words,
takes place. Cf. Job xxxix. 15; xiv. 19; 2 Kings iii. 8; x. 20. Ew. §817 a.
• Ver. 28.— [Imperf. in an indirect question referring to something which at a past time was regarded as not to come
to pass.— W. G. S.]
THE CHRONOLOGY OP THE PERIOD FROM THE
REIGN OP JEHU UNTIL THE FALL OF THE
KINGDOM OF ISRAEL.
[Compare the Appendix on the Chronology.]
This period, as well as that from Ahah to Jehu,
presents chronological difficulties. Their solution
can be successfully accomplished only by starting
from the surest possible data, and bringing to-
gether and comparing all the separate chronologi-
cal statements. For the starting-point we have the
year 8S4 in which Jehu, in Israel, and Athaliah,
in Judah, came to the throne; the date of the
close of the period is also firmly established. The
kingdom of Israel came to an end, according to
the great majority of the chronologers, in the year
721 B.C. However much they may differ about
tne limits of the several reigns, they generally
agreo in this. So Petavius, Usher, Scaliger, Seyf-
farth. Winer, Tiele, Keil. See Herzog's Encyc.
XVIII. s. 459, where Rosch has collected into a
table the results of the investigations of twelve
chronologers. [Rawlinson may be added to the
number of those who advocate the date 721. On
the other hand are Des Vignoles, 718; Bengel,
722; Ewald, 719; Thenius, 722; Bunsen, 709;
Niebuhr. 719; and Lepsius still later, 693. It
cannot be regarded as a satisfactory scientific pro-
cedure to thus borrow the results of a certain
number of scholars. There is no such consensus
of opinion as would enable us to simply proceed
from these dates as results of science which are no
longer questioned. In the absence of such a con-
sensus it is mere building upon the sand to make
them the foundation of a calculation which makes
claim to reliability. It is to gain the appearance
of certainty where there is no certainty. In the
Appendix on the Chronology will be found a brief
criticism of these chronological data and an esti
mate of their value. — W. G. S.] Bengel and
Thenius adopt the date 722, but the difference it
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
1S1
not important. They agree with the others in
placing Ilezekiah's accession in the year 727, and
Samaria tell (chap, xviii. 10) during his sixth year,
that is, in the year 721. Evvald adopte the year
719 instead of 721. The cause of this difference is
that he reckons the years of some of the reigns as
complete years, which, as we shall see, is inad-
missible. Bunsen differs very widely from the
rest. He fixes this date as 709, but his entire cal-
culation is founded upon data of the Assyrian
chronology which are, as yet, in the highest degree
uncertain, and which have not been yet regarded
by anj'body as correct. [See the Aj'pendix on the
Chronology, §§ 3 and 6.] They cannot, therefore,
avail to shake our confidence in the two dates 884
and 721. This period accordingly covers 163
years, and, as the numbers giveu for the various
reigns do not always apply to complete years,
but sometimes to fragments of years (see Pt. II.,
p. 86), inasmuch as the year in which one died and
another succeeded may be counted twice over,
these 163 years give us the only reliable basis for
estimating the length of the separate reigns. If
then we calculate, commencing from the year 884,
we reach the following results: —
a) For the kings of Judah. Athaliah reigned
from 884 on for six years. In the seventh, that is
in 877, Joash became king (chap. xi. 3; xii. 2).
Since, however, he became king in the seventh
year of Jehu, the forty years of his reign were not
complete years, so that the accession of his suc-
cessor falls in 838. — Amaziah reigned 29 years
(chap. xiv. 2), that is to 809, or, if the years were
not all complete, until 810, or possibly 811. —
Uzziah (Azariah) reigned 52 years (chap. xv. 2),
that is, until 759 or 758, for all the years of his
reign can hardly have been complete twelve-
months.— Totham reigned 16 years (chap. xv. 33),
that is, until 743. — ALaz reigned 16 years (chap,
xvi. 2), that is, until 727, in which year Hezekiah
came to the throne. In the latter's sixth year
(chap, xviii. 10) Samaria fell; that is, in 721. If
we add together the numbers representing the
durations of these reigns we get 165 years, where-
as the time from 884 to 721 is only 163 years.
This difference is only apparent. It proceeds from
the fact that fragments of years at the beginning
or end of reigns are counted as years.
b) For the kings of Israel. Jehu reigned from
884 on for 28 years (chap. x. 36), that is, until
856. — Jehoahaz reigned 17 years (chap. xiii. 1),
that is, till 840 or 839. — Jehoash ruled 16 years
(chap. xiii. 10), that is, until 823. — Jeroboam II.
reigned, according to chap. xiv. 23 only 41 years.
But, as he is said in the same verse to have be-
come king in the fifteenth year of Amaziah of
Judah, and as this statement is consistent with
chap. xiv. 1 and 17, he must have been king, as is
shown above (chap, xiv., Exeg. on ver. 23). for
61 or 52 years, unless we are willing to assume
that there was an interval of anarchy for 10 or 11
years. At any rate, his son Zachariah did not
come to the throne before the year 773. He only
ruled six months and his successor Shallum, in the
'ollowing year, 772, only one month (chap. xv. 8,
13). Menahem reigned from 772 on for 10 years
(chap. xv. 17), that is until 762. — Pekahiah reigned
two years (chap. xv. 23), that is, until 760. — Pekah
ruled only 20 years according to chap. xv. 27 ; but
according to ver. 32 he ascended the throne two
years before Jothara of Judah, survived him (he
lived 16 years, ver. 33), and waged war with Ahaz,
his successor. It was not until the twelfth yeai
of the last-named king that Hoshea became king.
Now 2 + 16+12=30; therefore, either Pekah
reigned 30 years and not 20, or there was no king
in Israel for a space of 10 years (see notes on
chap. xv. 27). [See the Supp. Note after the Exeg.
section on the fifteenth chapter.] This much is
certain, that Hoshea became king 30 years after
760, when Pekah ascended the throne, that is, in
730. He reigned 9 years, that is, uutil 721. — The
sum of all the reigns mentioned is 164 instead of
163 years, and this plight difference is accounted
for as before in the case of the kings of Judah.
c) The synchronistic data between the reigns in
the two kingdoms. Athaliah in Judah and Jehu in
Israel began to reign in the same year 884. Joash,
Athaliah's successor, became king in the seventh
year of Jehu (chap. xii. 2), or, since the latter
became king in 884, in 877. — Amaziah became
king in the second year of Jehoash (chap. xiv. 1),
or, since Jehoash ascended the throne in 840 or
839, in the year 838. — Uzziah became king, ac-
cording to chap. xv. 1, in the twenty-seventh
year of Jeroboam II., but this statement rests, aa
was shown in the comment on that passage, and
as is generally admitted, upon an error of the
copyist. We must read, according to chap. xiv.
17, in the fifteenth year, but this was not a full
year, so that Josephus says : " In the fourteenth
year of Jeroboam." Since now the latter became
king in 823, Uzziah ascended the throne in 809. —
Jotham became king in the second year of Pekah,
chap. xv. 32, or, as the latter became king in 760,
in 759. — Ahaz became king in the seventeenth
year of Pekah (chap. xvi. 1), or, as the latter
began to reign in 760, in 743. — Hezekiah finally
became king in the third year of Hoshea (chap,
xviii. 1), or, as he ascended the throne in 730, in
727. — In Israel, the successor of Jehu, Jehoahaz,
began to reign, according to the correct reading in
chap. xiii. 1 (see Exeg. note thereon), in the twen-
ty-first year of Joash, king of Judah, or, as he
became king in 877, in 856. — Joash became king
in the thirty-seventh year of Jehoash of Judah
(chap. xiii. 10), or, as the latter ruled from 877, in
840 or 839. — Jeroboam II. became king in the
fifteenth year of Amaziah (chap. xiv. 23), or, as the
latter began to reign in 838, in 823. — The acces-
sion of the five following kings : , Zachariah, Shal-
lum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah is defined
(chap. xv. 8, 13, 17, 23, 27) in terms of the years
of Uzziah's reign. Since, however, the year ol
the accession of this king is less certain than thai
of almost any other (Bengel and Thenius put it in
811, Usher and Keil in 810, Petavius and Winer in
809, Ewald and Niebuhr in 808), it is uncertain
what year was his thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fif-
tieth and fifty-second. But this does not render
the chronology radically uncertain. The year of
accession of these kings can be very satisfactorily
ascertained from other data (see above, under b).
Moreover, the statements in terms of the years of
Uzziah's reign are not perfectly accurate, as we
see from chap. xv. 13 and 23. For, if Menahem
became king in the thirty-ninth of Uzziah and
reigned 10 years, Pekahiah must have folk wed in
the forty-ninth, and not, as ver. 23 states in the
fiftieth of Uzziah. On the other haud. it is certain
that Menahem and Pekahiah together reigned for
12 years, viz., from 722 to 760. The year in which
182
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Zacliariah oegan to reign (according to ver. S the
thirty-eighth of Uzziah) may, therefore, have been
the year 773 ; but it is also possible, inasmuch as
he and Shallum did not both together reign for a
year, that all these kings, Zachariah, Shallum,
and Menahem, came to the throne in the same
year, 772, and therefore, since the synchronistic
data and the chronological data do not coincide,
that the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth of Uzziah
both fell in the year 772. — Hoshea, finally, became
king in the twelfth year of Ahaz (chap. xvii. 1), or,
since he became king in 743, and this was the
very beginning of his twelfth year, in 730.
d) From this review it follows that the chrono-
logical data in no less than fifteen places, however
much they may traverse and interlace one an-
other, nevertheless agree, for the difference of a
single year which appears here and there is fully
accounted for by the peculiarity of the Jewish
mode of reckoning, and it cannot be regarded
here, any more than in the former period, as a con-
tradiction. [In making this comment on the chro-
nology, Bahr must take it for granted that the
reader has fresh in his mind those changes in the
text which have been found necessary, and those
assumptions which have been made in order to
complete the construction of the chronology.
With this modification the above may be allowed
to pass as a just comment on what has gone be-
fore. Otherwise it would convey a very incorrect
impression of the reliability of this chronology. —
W. G. S.]
Now, on the other hand, there remains one
datum which is utterly irreconcilable with these
which have been considered. According to chap,
xv. 30 Hoshea became king in the twentieth year
of Jotham, son of Uzziah. This stands in con-
tradiction to three other statements which are
consistent with each other. According to chap,
xv. 33 Jotham did not reign for 20 but only for 16
years, as is also stated in 2 Chron. xxvii. 1. Ac-
cording to chap. xvii. 1, Hoshea did not become
king until the twelfth year of Ahaz the successor
of Jotham. According to chap. xvi. 1, Ahaz com-
menced to reign in the seventeenth year of Pekah,
and as Ahaz waged war with Pekah (chap. xvi.
5). it is impossible that Pekah's successor, Hoshea,
should have begun to reign during the reign of
the predecessor of Ahaz, Jotham. All sorts of
attempts have been made to solve this flat con-
tradiction (see Winer, R.-W.-B. 1, s. 614). We
take notice here only of the two most common
ones. The first is to this effect : Jotham was co-
regent with his father Uzziah for four years,
'lining his sickness (chap. xv. 5). If these four
years are added to the sixteen of his reign, fie
was king for 20 years, and Hoshea became kin;: in
his twentieth. This attempt at a solution is dis-
posed of, not to speak of other objections, by the
statement in xvii. 1, that Hoshea did not become
king until the twelfth year of Jotham's successor,
Ahaz. The second attempt at a solution, the one
which was adopted by Usher, and which has
been lately designated by Keil as the only suc-
cessful one, ass es that, in chap. xv. 30, 4 years
of the reign of Ahaz are reckoned in the reign of
Jotham, " because the history of Jotham's reign is
not narrated until we come to ver. 32 sq." But
the years of the reign of a king cannot possibly be
reckoned on after hie death, least of all when, as
hero, his successor followed immediately; more-
over, as above stated, Hoshea did not become
king in the fourth of Ahaz (or, if so reckoned, the
twentieth of Jotham) but in the twelfth of Ahaz.
All attempts at a reconciliation are here vain.
Hitzig and Thenius have attempted to escape the
difficulty by text-conjectures, but these are so
complicated that they do not fall, in point of im-
probability, at all behind the artificial attempts at
reconciliation. When we examine the final words
of chap. xv. 30: "In the twentieth year of
Jotham the son of Uzziah," they strike us as
strange and unusual. In other cases we do not
find the date of a king's accession given in terms
of the corresponding reign in the sister-kingdom
until we come to the place where the history of
the new reign begins (see the proof-passages
quoted above, Pt. II., p. 89). Such is the case
here also with reference to Hoshea, chap. xvii. 1.
The author, who, in the usual place, viz., where
the history of Jotham's reign begins, chap. xv. 33,
states the duration of that reign at 16 years, in
agreement with 2 Clnon. xxvii. 1, cannot possibly
have spoken, a few lines before, in ver. 30, of the
twentieth year of Jotham. If he had, he must
have been more forgetful than the most thought-
less copyist. In fact these words are, in this
place, not only superfluous, because the statement
of the year in which Hoshea became king is given
farther on in its proper place (chap. xvii. 1), but
they are even a cause of confusion. If they
should be adopted as correct, it would be ne-
cessary to change a whole series of data to corre-
spond with them. All this renders it very prob-
able that the words are a false and late addition,
in regard to which the case stands as it does with
2 Kings i. 17 (see Pt. II., pp. 87-8). Another cir-
cumstance which goes to prove this is that Jo-
tham's father is called, in vers. 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 17,
23, 27, Azariah; here all at once he is called
Uzziah. Keil unjustly characterizes the erasure
of this clause as " violent," for we are compelled
to it, since fifteen other passages, all of which are
consistent with one another, are in irreconcilable
conflict with this one, so that it introduces contra-
diction and confusion into the entire chronology
of the period. The question is simply whether
we will correct all the other data to bring them
into consistency with this one, or whether we will
sacrifice it. If it is not "violent" to change the
number "27," in chap. xv. 1, into 15, as Keil
does, then it is not violent to regard the number
20, in chap. xv. 30, as incorrect.
e) In this period, as well as in the former one,
some have thought it necessary to assume joint-
reigns and interregna, that is, times of anarchy in
which there was no king. So it is supposed that
the two Israelitish kings Jehoahaz and Jehoash
reigned together for 2 or 3 years, and the Jewish
kings Jotham and Ahaz for 4 years. We have
spoken above (Pt. II., p. 88) about the theory of
joint-reigns in general, but besides this, the first
of these cases is disposed of when we have dis-
covered the correct reading in chap. xiii. 1 and 10
(see Exeg. notes thereon) ; and the second, when
we have removed the false addition chap. xv. 30,
upon which alone it rests. The assumed inter-
regna have much more probability in their favor
Formerly it was often assumed that there was as
interregnum of 11 years betweeu Amaziah and
Uzziah in Judah, but this is now almost entirely
abandoned, and rightly. On the other hand, twe
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
183
others are still assumed in the history of Israel
by almost all scholars, the first of 11 years, be-
tween Jeroboam II. and Zachariah; the second of
9 or 10 years, between" Pekah and Hoshea, to
which reference was made above under b). But
the biblical text does not hint at any such inter-
regna, though they must have been of great im-
portance for the history of the kingdom. On the
contrary, it always assumes that each king was
followed immediately upon his death by his suc-
cessor. The author makes especial mention of the
fact about Edom that " there was no king in
Edom " (1 Kings xxii. 48), and he mentions a
king who reigned but 7 days (1 Kings xvi. 15),
and another who reigned but a month (2 Kings
xv. 13). Certainly he would not have passed in
3ilenee over the fact that Israel, at two different
times, for periods of 9 or 11 years, was without a
king. It is true, as Keil says, that "A period of
anarchy in a time of the utmost confusion and
distraction would not be anything astonishing,"
but it certainly would be astonishing that the
text should be silent about such an important
historical event. There are no historical state-
ments whatsoever in the text which have led to
the hypothesis of interregna. This hypothesis is
the result solely of the desire to reconcile certain
chronological data. "We cannot, however, be in-
duced to manufacture history to account for cer-
tain discrepancies in figures, discrepancies which
can arise so easily from simple errors either of a
copyist or of others. Josephus is as silent about
any periods in which there were no kings as the
Bible is. Ewald call3 the hypothesis that there
were such periods " erroneous in every respect.
It contradicts the tenor of the text directly, and
produces an utterly incorrect conception of the
history." Bunsen also rejects the hypothesis de-
cidedly. Wolff, in the work quoted above (Pt. II.,
p. 89) says: " We must, therefore, have done en-
tirely with this notion of interregna as an escape
from difficulties. It invents arbitrarily blank and
empty periods and inserts them in the history."
When, however, Wolff changes most of the chro-
nological data of the text, — when he gives Jeho-
ahaz 14 instead of 17 years, and Jehoash 19 in-
stead of 16, when he makes Amaziah succeed in
the fourth instead of the second year of Jehoash,
Zachariah in the twenty-sixth instead of in the
thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, Pekahiah in the
thirty-eighth instead of in the fiftieth year of
Uzziah, Pekah in the forty-first instead of in the
fifty-second of Uzziah, and asserts that the two
Israelitisli kings Jehoash and Jeroboam II. ruled
over Judah, the former for 4 years and the latter
for 27 years, that is all as void of foundation and
as arbitrary as is the " interregnum-hypothesis "
which he rejects.
EXEGETICAI AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 2. And he did that which was evil * * *
but not as the kings of Israel, i. e., not to the
same degree as his predecessors. As the formula :
" He did that which was evil, &c," always refers
to the attitude towards Jehovah and the Jehovah-
cultus, so the restriction: " But not," Ac., must be
understood as applying to the same, just as in
chap. iii. 2. We are not told wherein Hoshea
differed from his predecessors in this respect. It
is not at all probable that he desisted from tba
calf-worship (Thenius). If he had done so he
would have broken down the wall of separation
between the two kingdoms, and the text would
certainly have contained some mention of it. The
old commentators for the most part follow the
statement of the rabbis in the book, Seder Olam,
chap, xxii., according to which Hoshea did not re-
place the golden calf-image at Bethel (Hos. x. 6),
which had been carried away by the Assyrians,
and made no opposition to his subjects' accepting
Hezekiah's invitation to the passover-festival at
Jerusalem (2 Chron. xxx. 6-11). But, according to
the account in Chronicles, this invitation was
laughed at and scorned ; only " a few " accepted it,
which shows that Jeroboam's cultus was stUl
maintained under Hoshea. Moreover, Hezekiah's
passover certainly did not take place before the
three-year siege of Samaria, but rather after it.
Perhaps Hoshea's better behavior was limited to
this, that he was an opponent of the idolatry
which had found entrance under his immediate
predecessors.
Ver. 3. Against him came up Shalmaneser,
king of Assyria. This king must have ruled
between Tiglath Pileser (xv. 29) and Sennacherib
(xviii. 13) in Assyria. It has hitherto been be-
lieved that Sargcm, who is mentioned in Isai. xx.
1, ruled for a short time between these two, but,
"through the deciphering of the cuneiform in-
scriptions it is placed beyond a doubt that the
king of Assyria who is called in the biblical annals
Shalmaneser or Shalman [Hos. x. 14], really bore
the name of Sargana, so that he is identical with
Sargon, who was the father and immediate prede-
cessor of Sennacherib " (Wolff, in the above
quoted work, s. 672. Cf. Brandis, Ueber den his-
torischen Gewinn aus der Entzifferung der assyi'ischen
Inschriften, ss. 48 and 53). [Later discoveries show
that this statement is incorrect. Sargon and Shal-
maneser are different persons, and not even of the
same dynasty. See the Supp. Note at the end of
this section, in which this whole subject is treated.]
Among the countries mentioned in the inscriptions
as having been conquered by Sargana is " Samiri-
na " (Samaria). (See notes on chap, xviii. 13 be-
low.) Hoshea does not seem to have provoked
Shalmaneser's first expedition against him (ver. 3).
It appears to have been an expedition of conquest
on the part of the growing and spreading Assyrian
power, yet it is also possible that Tiglath Pileser
had imposed a tribute upon Pekah which Hoshea
refused to continue to pay, and that the expedition
was intended to compel him to do so. When he,
however, at a later time, again refused the tribute
(ver. 4), and had recourse to Egypt for help to re-
sist, the king of Assyria came a second time and
took away from him his country and his people.
As Shalmaneser waged war with Tyre, but island
Tyre resisted him for five years (Josephus; Autiq.
9, 14, 2), Ewald supposes, and very many of the
latest authorities follow him, that the people of
Samaria joyfully recognized in this a proof that the
Assyrians were not invincible, and considered this
a favorable opportunity to make an offensive and
defensive alliance with Egypt: furthermore, that
when Shalmaneser heard of this, he suddenly
marched against Hoshea. It is impossible, how-
ever, to determine certainly whether the war
against Island-Tyre took place before or after the
fall of Sam..ria. Knobel, in fact, in his comment
184
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
on Isai. xx. 1, assumes that it took place after that
event. Thenius unnecessarily desires to change
YJ'f) , conspiracy, to ngE> , falsehood, deceit, ffe
have to understand by " conspiracy " nothing more
than a secret agreement. The name of the Egyp-
tian king X1D is to be punctuated X1D > Seveh. In
Manetho he is called Zcvexoc. He is doubtless
"one of the two kings named Shebek of the
twenty-fifth dynasty, belonging to the Ethiopic
race " (Keil). Hoshea turned to him because Egypt
was at that time the only great power which
seemed at ail able to cope with Assyria. It seems,
however, that Seveh did not enter into the alliance,
or, if he did, that he did not carry it out when the
Assyrian attack was made. On the words:
The king of Assyria shut him up, &c, Vatablus
remarks: Hoc dicitur per anticipationem ; pnstea
narratur, quomodo factum. The final consequences
which Hoshea's attempted revolt had for his own
person are stated forthwith, and then in vers. 5
and 6 the particular description of the course of
events in regard to the country and the people is
given (Thenius). It is not, therefore, correct
that " Shalmaneser ordered him to appear and
give an account of his conduct " before the siege
of Samaria, "and then, when he came in obedience
to this command, made him prisoner" (Ewald,
Schlier). The text does not say this ; on the con-
trary, the words in ver. 6 and in chap, xviii. 10 :
" In the ninth year of Hoshea," assume that
Hoshea was king when the city was taken.
Moreover, it is very improbable that Hoshea, who
had sought for, and was expecting, aid from
Egypt, would have forthwith obeyed the summons
of the king of Assyria, from which he could not
anticipate any pleasant consequences, and that,
after the king of Samaria had been made captive,
that city should have resisted for three years. On
the contrary, the captive king was taken in chains
to Assyria after the city had been taken, and
there lie %vas put in prison, while his people were
led into exile in distant regions. " Plate 100 in
Botta's Monum. de Ninev. represents a king stand-
ing upon a war chariot, before whom a chained
captive with apparently Hebrew features is being
led. Plate 106 represents two figures with the
same cast of countenance and appropriate costume,
one of whom is presenting the model of a fortified
city " (Thenius). -|¥J? is used here as in Jer. xxxiii.
1 ; xxxvi. 5. — The three years of the siege were
not thirty-six months, for, according to chap, xviii.
9 sq. it began in the seventh of Hoshea, and the
city was taken in his ninth. Accordingly it can
hardly have lasted for two years and a half.
[The later discoveries have so changed the face
of our knowledge of all this contemporaneous his-
tory that the above must all be modified by what
is stated in the Supp. Note below.]
Ver. G. And carried Israel away int^ As-
syria, ;'. e., into the kingdom of Assyria, which
then included Mesopotamia, Media, Elam, and
Babylon (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 102). It is, there-
fore, a general designation of place which is fol-
lowed by the names of the particular localities in
this kingdom The two first names, in Halah and
on the Habor, belong together, as well as the two
latter. On the river Gozan and in the cities of
Media, as is evident from 1 Chron. v. 26: "And
brought them unto Halah, and [to the] Habor,
and [to] Hara [i. e., Media] and to the river
Gozan.'
This verse also shows that Jfij -|,-|J ii
not, as has often been supposed, in apposition to
113113: "To the Habor, the river of Gozan," so
that Habor would be the name of this river. There
is nothing else with which the name Halah can be
identified but the district in the north of Assyria
bordering upon Armenia, which Strabo (xi. 8, 4
and xvi. 1, 1) calls Ka/.axav//, and Ptolemy (vl 1)
Ka?.aKivr/. [Lenormant takes it to mean Calah, the
capital of Assyria at this time.] Habor is not
"133 (Ezek. i. 1 and 3) in upper Mesopotamia, the
large river which flows into the Euphrates, but,
because the name Halah precedes, it must be " the
smaller river of this name which flows westward
and empties into the Tigris to the north of Nine-
veh " (Ewald). Here, in northern Assyria, there
is a river, "which is called K habur Chasaniae to
distinguish it from the river Chaboras or Chebar
in Mesopotamia. It still bears its ancient name "
(Keil). The Jewish tradition also favors this.
This designates northern Assyria, and, in fact, the
mountainous region, the district on the border be-
tween Assyria and Media, on the side towards
Armenia, as the place of exile of the ten tribes (cf.
Wickelhaus ; Das Exil der zehn Stumme Israels.
in the Deutsch-morgenland. Zeitschrift ; Y. s. 474).
The river Gozan is " the Kisel-osen, which rises in
the northern part of the Zagros range and flows
into the Caspian Sea " (Fiirst, Dictionary s. v.). It
refers, therefore, not to the district of Mesopotamia
which Ptolemy calls (v. 18) Tav^avlric, but to the
city of Media which he mentions (vi. 2) as Tai\avta.
This we see also from the passage in Chronicles
quoted above, where "the river Gozan" is men-
tioned after Harah, Media. " If this river, which
bounds Media, is the one meant, we can under-
stand why the ' and ' is, in this connection,
omitted before it. The two first names and the
two latter names then belong more closely in
pairs" (Ewald). Thenius desires to change -|nj
into nnj , and 'ny into nn , because the Sept.
here read : h> 'EXae nal ev 'Afiwp Trorafiolc ru^av
nai ev bpioic J&ijiSuv, so that Halah also would have
to be taken as the name of a river, that is, of the
one anciently called Mygdonius and afterwards
Saokaras. But the Sept. have, in the similar
verse, chap, xviii. 11, the singular jrora/zw. The
plural nora/joic is, therefore, evidently a mistake.
This disposes of the rash supposition that Halah is
the Saokaras. The proposed reading 'in is, to
say the least, unnecessary.
Yer. 7. And it came to pass when the chil-
dren of Israel, &c. The frequently recurring
'3 \T1 means always : " And it came to pass
when (Gen. vi. 1; xxvi. 8; xxvii. 1; Exod. i. 21;
Judges vi. 7, &c). It is not correct, therefore, to
translate as Bunsen, De Wette, and others do:
" And it came to pass, because." Ver. 7 does not
e;irry on the narrative as it is taken from the ori-
ginal authorities, but the writer himself here be-
gins a review of the history and fate of Israel,
which ends with ver. 23 and forms an independent
section by itself. The conclusion to the opening
sentence: "And it came to pass, when," &e
follows in ver. 18: "That then the Lord was very
angry." Vers. 8-15 contain merely a develop-
ment of what is said in ver. 7, inasmuch as thej
go on to specify how, and by what means, th«
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
ISC
children of Israel " sinned," viz., partly by apos-
tatizing from Jehovah and falling into idolatry
(Ex. xx. 2, 3), and partly by making for themselves
molten calf-images tc represent Jehovah (Ex. xx.
4 1. It is shown in the verses from 18 to 23 that
these transgressions brought down judgments upon
them, and what was the character of these judg-
ments. — The words in ver. 7 : Which had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt * * *
king of Egypt must not be taken as a paren-
thesis, as Luther takes them. They do not con-
tain a mere incidental remark ; rather the entire
emphasis rests upon them, as is evident from Hos.
xii. 10 and xiii. 4-6. The deliverance from Egypt
was really the selection of Israel to be God's pecu-
liar and covenant people (Ex. xix. 4-6). It was
not only the beginning, but also the symbol, of all
divine grace towards Israel, the pledge of its
divine guidance. It therefore stands at the head
of the covenant, or organic law (Ex. xx. 2 ; Deut.
v. 6), and it is always cited as the chief and funda-
mental act of the divine favor (Levit. xi. 45;
Joshua xxiv. IT; 1 Kings viii. 51; Ps. lxxxL 10;
Jer. ii. 6. &c.). Therefore this author also makes
that the standpoint for his review and criticism of
the history. He means to say, thereby : although
no people on earth had experienced such favor
from Almighty God as Israel had, nevertheless it
abandoned this God and adored other gods. Vers.
8-12 state the manner in which this latter fault
was committed. The worship of idols was the
worship practised by the very people whom God
expelled before the Israelites, and whose utter de-
struction he commanded, that is to say, of the
nations of Western Asia (ver. 8, of. Deut. xi. 23 ; 1
Kings xiv. 24 ; xxi. 26; 2 Kings xvi. 3 ; xxi. 2). But
the Israelites erected places of worship all over the
country, after the fashion of the heathen, instead
of worshipping the one true God in the one central
sanctuary (vers. 9—11). They also followed the ex-
ample of the heathen in setting up idol images
which they worshipped (ver. 12). — nipn , ver. 8,
means religious ordinances (see notes on i Kings ii.
3; iii 3). Instead of holding faithfully to the ordi-
nances which Jehovah had given, the kings of
Israel gave to the people ordinances made by
themselves, win. h were obeyed and observed by
them. The result is given in ver. 9. The words
D'-QT SINBIT1 are translated by Keil, who fol-
lows Hengstenberg: "They covered Jehovah,
their God, over with words which were not right,
i. e. they sought, by arbitrary distortions of God's
word, to conceal the true character of Jehovah."
It is clear however, from D'"131 in ver. 11, and,
still more certainly, from "Qin , ver. 12, where
it cannot possibly be understood otherwise than
as thing : that that is its sense here, and not word.
The fundamental signification of XDH or nan is
to cover, cloak over, envelop (2 Sam. xv. 30; Esth.
vi. 12 ; 2 Chron. iii. 5, 7, 9). The literal rendering
of these words would therefore be : " They cov-
ered Jehovah with things which were not right "
;2 Kings vii. 9), i. e. They concealed him by them, so
'hat he could no longer be seen and recognized,
which is as much as to say that they practically
den-ji and ignored him. Compare the formula
\hv "133 i *° reconcile any one with Jehovah ;
vprhu drily, to cover ud his sins before Jehovah.
The things by means of which, ot with whieli,
they denied Jehovah are mentioned forthwith, so
that Luther correctly represents the sense when
he puts ndmlich before the following words. The
translation of the Sept. is entirely incorrect : not
i/fioucavTO loyovc adUovc Kara Ki'piov \}eou avruv,
Thenius follows this, and explains thus : " They
dressed up, decorated, and adorned things which
were not right, against Jehovah ; i. e. they made
a parade of things which were not right against
Him," and he calls attention, in this connection, to
•• the parade and pomp of the external forms of
idolatry." It is equally incorrect to render the
words as the Vulg. does: et offenderunt verbis rum
rectis dominum suum; or, as Gesenius does: per-
fide egerunt res in Jehovam ; or, as De Wette does .
They wrought secretly things which were not
right, against Jehovah." With v.-ords of covering
*?]! is never against, but always owr, or upon
(Ex. xxxvii. 9; xl. 3 ; Ezek. xxiv. 1). — [The
uncertainty attaching to the interpretation of
these words is apparent from these diverse ren-
derings of the various expositors. Biihr's in-
terpretation, which is closely akin to that of Keil
and Hengstenberg, is fanciful and far-fetched.
The idea of men covering God, that is, obscuring
the sense of His presence, and of their responsi-
bility to Him, by their sins, aud thus practically
denying Him, is, in a religious sense, most true
and just; but it is very foreign to the simplicity
of the conceptions which we find in the Old Tes-
tament, especially in the historical books. The
meaning of ty XBn is, to cover a material over
an object, or, in the English idiom, to cover an
object with a material. If the notion he not pushed
farther than this, that they had put their evil lusts
and deeds between themselves and God, and pre-
ferred these to Him, it offers a meaning which is
satisfactory, and which agrees well with the latter
half of the verse. I have, however, allowed the
E. V., which agrees substantially with the render-
ing of Gesenius and De Wette, to remain unaltered.
— W. G. 8.]
Ver. 9. From the tower of the watchmen,
Ac, i. e., from the lonely buildings erected as a
protection for the flocks (2 Chron. xxvi. 10) to the
largest and most strongly fortified cities. — On ver.
10 see chap. xvi. 4. On niSSO see notes on chap.
iii. 2. On D^L'»K see note on 1 Kings xiv. 15. On
the meaning of 0)13 see 1 Kings xiv. 1-20 ; Hist. §
3. — In ver 12, the emphasis is on D'^?3n, which
contains a subordinate contemptuous and abusive
signification (see note on 1 Kings xv. 12). Israel
sank so low that it worshipped lifeless idols, which
it ought to have treated witli contempt, and whos«
worship it ought to have disdained.
Ver. 13. The author now goes on in his re.
view to the consideration of that which Jehovah
had done in his faithfulness and truth, in contrast
to the apostasy of the people, which has just been
described. These dealings of God with His people
had remained fruitless, or had produced exactly
contrary results from those which were desired
(vers. 13-17). Not only in Israel, of which king-
dom he has hitherto been speaking especially, but
also in Judah, which, according to ver. 19, lad
behaved in a similar manner, had Jehovah bo m
1S6
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
witness to himself, not only by the law and testi-
mony which had been given, but also by his pro-
phets and seers. Quaamque ratione vel forma illis
cernendam proponebat voluntatem suam (Piscator).
The form o'' speech in ver. 14, to harden one's neck,
i. e. to be stiff-necked or obstinate, is borrowed from
Deut. x. 16. Cf. Exod. xxxii. 9. To disobedience
and obstinacy (ver. 14) they added formal rejec-
tion and contempt of the commands and of the tes-
timonies of Jehovah (ver. 15), and then followed
complete decline into heathenism. This last is
described by the words : They followed vanity
and became vain. The same form of speech is
used in Jerem. ii. 5, and St. Paul makes use, in
reference to the heathen, in Rom. i. 21, of the
same expression which the Sept. here use to ren-
der this: cfiaratuH-i/aav. Heathenism deals with
nothingness, vanity, that is, with what has no ex-
istence, so that it is folly and falsehood (Deut.
xxxii. 21). As a proof that they have fallen into
heathenism, that is, have become vain, a series of
facts is detailed in vers. 16 and 17, from which this
appears clearly. In the first place they made calf-
images, then Asehene, then they adored the host
of heaven (the stars or constellations), and finally
they caused their children even to go through the
fire (see note on chap. xvi. 3), and devoted them-
selves to soothsaying and augury. Besides all
this, tiny sold themselves, that is, "they sur-
rendered themselves into complete slavery to idol-
atrous practices" (Thenius). All the host of
heaven is here mentioned between the worship
of the Ascheraj and that of Moloch ; that is, by
the side of the Moon-goddess and the Sun-god, cf.
Deut. xvii. 3 ; iv. 19. Perhaps the planets are to
be especially understood by it. As the author has
here only that period in view which fell before the
Assyrian influence commenced, we cannot under-
stand him to refer to the Assyrio-Chaldean worship
of the constellations, which is not met with among
the Hebrews before the time of Manasseh (chap,
xxi. 3; xxiii. 5, 11), but only to that which was
common in Western Asia, such as we find espe-
cially among the Arabs(Wiuer, R.- W.-B., II. s. 52S).
Soothsaying aud augury are mentioned with the
same expressions in Numb, xxiii. 23 and in Deut.
xviii. 10, by the side of the worship of Moloch.
They seem to have been especially connected with
this worship (Winer, I. c, s. 672).
[As has been abundantly shown in the trans-
lator's notes on the two last chapters (see espe-
cially note on xvi. 3), the Assyrian religion became
known to the Israelites in the time of Ahaz and
Pekah. The subdivisions of the deity (if they may
be so called), which these heathen believed in,
have been described in that note. But, by the side
or each such subordinate or local god, we find a
goddess, as the passive principle by the side of the
active. These couplets had different names in
different places {Bel and Belit at Babylon; Shed
and Shedath among the Hittites (,,:ir_", Gen. xvii.
1 : Job v. 17 ; Ruth i. 20, Ac.) j Hadad and Atargath
at Damascus). The couplet which the Israelites
adopted. Baal and Ashtaroth, is that of Sidon,
showing whence this religious idea came to them.
(<n the Baal-worship and the rites of Moloch see
!_:>'-? on xvi. 3. The astral idea in this heathen
relig.cn does not seem to have attracted the atten-
lion of ir.i Israelites before the time of Pekah and
^haz, although Ashtaroth always had a distinctly
sidereal character among the Phoenicians. The
whole religious conception which has been above
described, and which prevailed in Western Asia,
was carried out by the Chaldeans and Assyrians
into an astral system of deities. When the hierar-
chy of divinities, or deified emanations and attri-
butes, with their corresponding masculine and fem-
inine forms, had beeu elaborated, they were iden
titled with the luminaries visible in the heavens
The sun, moon, planets, constellations, and stara
formed a corresponding hierarchy whose members
were identified. Eight cabirim or planets were
reckoned ; one was supposed to be invisible be-
cause it was nearer to the ultimate and original
source, the ALL. It is not difficult to perceive
the step by which they passed from this to astro-
logy, divination, and sorcery. If the heavenly
bodies are gods, or represent gods, and if they are
seen to be in motion, then it is natural to suppose
that those motions correspond with and cause the
imitations of earthly events and fortune. Since
the time of Ahaz and Pekah these religious notions
had been introduced into Israel aud Judah and ac-
cepted there. It is to them that the text refers. —
W. G. S.]
Ver. 18. That then the Lord was very
angry, 4c. Here begins the real conclusion to
ver. 7 [see the amended translation]. As we had,
in vers. 8-17, the more complete development of
ver. 7, so we have here, in vers. 19-23, that of ver.
18. Out of his sight, i. e. out of the Holy Land
where Jehovah has His dwelling; out of the land
of the covenant and the land of revelation. Cf.
Ezek. xi. 15 sq. On the tribe of Judah only,
see 1 Kings xi. 13, 31, 36 (Exeg. notes). — In ver. 19
the old expositors thought they saw the state-
ment of a still farther reason for the rejection of
Israel by God, which consisted iu this, that it had,
by its apostasy, tainted Judah also (Hos. iv. 15),
but the context shows that this notion is false.
The verse is rather a parenthesis, as the Berkberg.
Bibel observes. It contains an incidental remark
which is brought out by the "only" in ver. 18.
It means to say that " in truth Judah was also
ripe for punishment " (Thenius). Ver. 20 follows
directly upon ver. 18 in the connection of thought.
We must understand by all the seed of Israel,
not the entire people. Israel and Judah (Keil), but
ouly the ten tribes; for the rejection of Judah
had not yet occurred. The inhabitants of certain
districts had been taken into exile, during the
reign of Pekah (chap. xv. 29). The inhabitants
of the entire country were now, under Hoshea.,
taken away. Before that Jehovah had given them.
for their chastisement and warning, into the hands
of plunderers or "spoilers; " first into the hands or
the Syrians (chap. x. 32 ; xiii. 3), and then into
those of the Assyrians (chap. xv. 19, 29). — 13, in
ver. 21, connects back, not only with ver. 18, but
also with what has been said in vers. 18-20. Grotius
says justly in regard to ver. 21 : eTravodnc ad osten-
dendam malorum ariginem. Jeroboam's calf-wor
ship, which led to pure idolatry, was a conse-
quence of the revolt from the house of David aud
the separation from Judah. so that these were the
cause of all the misfortune. The Vulg. therefore
renders, according to the sense : Ex eo jam temport
quo^scissus est Israel a domo David. It cannot be
correct to take Jehovah as the subject of yip, a*
the old expositors did. and as Ke-ii sti'l d.iea
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
1S7
This is a deduction from 1 Kings xi. 11 and 31, but
the final cause of the apostasy and rejection of
Israel is here given, and that cannot lie in Jeho-
vah himself. The separation from the House of
David took place indeed according to God's de-
cree ; but it was only intended to serve as a hu-
miliation to the House of David, and was not to
last " forever " (1 Kings xi. 39). It took for granted,
moreover, that Jeroboam would remain faithful to
the covenant and to the Law of Jehovah (1 Kings
xi. 38). But Jeroboam broke with these in order to
make the separation permanent. The separation
thereby became the germ of all calamity for Israel.
The natural subject of jnp is bipv\ (see 1
Kiugs xii. 16), and it is not necessary to read,
as Thenius does, jnpj , J. e. "Israel had torn
itself away ; " nor to supply, as De Wette does,
nD^DSiTDS : " Israel had torn away the royal au-
thority from the House of David," fcr it is not the
monarchy as such which is here in question, but the
separation between Israel and Judah, that is, the
disruption of the theocratic relation. The words
mean simply : secessionem fecerant (Clericus). — Ver.
22 is not a mere repetition of ver. 21, but it means :
Israel not only fell into this sin of Jeroboam, but
it persevered in it in spite of all the divine warn-
ings and chastisements. — Ver. 23. As he had said
by all His servants the prophets. C/., for in-
stance, Hos. i. 6; ix. 16; Amos hi. 11, 12; v. 27 :
Isai. xxviii. 3. Unto this day, i. e. until the time
at which the author was writing, which does not
mean to affirm that the exUe did not last any
longer.
Ver. 24. And the king of Assyria brought.
This king the old expositors supposed to be Esar-
haddon (chap. xix. 37), because (Ezra iv. 2) the
Samaritans who desired to take part in the erec-
tion of the second temple, say to Zerubbabel : " We
do sacrifice unto him [your God] since the days
of Esarhaddon, king of Assi r, which brought us
up hither." Keil still maintains this, because he
thinks that ver. 25 shows "that considerable time
must have elapsed between the leading of the
Israelites into exile and the introduction of new
colonists into the depopulated country." But this
does not by any means follow from the words:
It came to pass at the beginning of their
dwelling there. The context forbids vis to think
of any other king than the one above mentioned,
Shalmaneser. Esarhaddon was not even his
immediate successor, for [Sargon and] Sennache-
rib intervened. He did not come to the throne until
695 [681] B.C., that is, twenty-six years after the
Israelites were led into exile by Shalmaneser in
721. Nothing is more improbable than that the
latter should have left the country destitute of
popidation, and that this state of things should
have lasted for twenty-six years. The colo-
nists who speak in Ezra iv. 2 are [descendants
of] later ones, whom Esarhaddon may have sent,
for some reason unknown to us, to join those
nlready there. Why does not the author mention
by name the king who is spoken of in chap. xix.
37, if that is the ore he here meant? [This
point also is treated in the Note below, a', the
end of Exeg. section.] Babel is here not the city,
but the province, as in Ps. cxxxvii. 1. The posi-
tion of Cuthah is entirely uncertain. Josephus
says: to Xovdaiui' idvnc, ol Tvp6rtpov ivSoripa T^j
rhpu/'ifoc nal 77/t; M?/t^iac ijcav. According to Geso-
nius and Rosenmuller, Babylonian Irak must be
thought of as lying somewhere in the region of
Nahar Malka. Clerious considers the Cutha?ana
as identical with the Kossajans, in Susiana, in the
northeast of what is now Khurdistan, and tins
opinion is the best founded (cf. Winer, 7J.-ir.-_B. I.
s. 237). As the Samaritans are called by the rab-
bis simply D'VTC. it seems probable that the
Cutlueans composed the main body of the colonists.
[Cuthah was close to Babylon. — a suburb of it.
See the Supp. Note below.] The location of the
city or district Ava is also uncertain. It lias been
sought in Persia, in Syria, and in Mesopotamia.
Perhaps it is to be identified with the Ivali which
is mentioned in chap, xviii 34; xix. 13; Isai.
xxxvii. 13. [Ivah, however, is unknown. In ver.
31 it is said that "the Avites made Nibhaz,"
a Chaldean god. Honce this place was unques-
tionably in Chaldea, near the others except Ha-
math. Whoever caused this migration had just
conquered Chaldea See the Supplementary Note
below.] Hamath (1 kings viii. 65; 2 Kings xiv.
25), in the north of Palestine, on the Oroutes, had
then already fallen under Assyrian dominion.
Sepharoaim is generally believed to be the 2(rrpd/ja
mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 18, 7), the southernmost
city 'if Mesopotamia, on the eastern bank of the
Euphrates. However, as it is mentioned in Isai.
xxxvL 19, together with Hamath and Arpad,
Syrian localities, we might be rather led, with
Vitringa and Ewald, to the supposition that it was
a Syrian city. [It is undoubtedly Sippara, called by
the"Greeks Heliopolis. (Its divinity was Shamash,
the sun, TOC')- The Chaldean legend of the flood
says that Xisuthrus, warned by the gods of the
approach of the flood, buried at Sippara tables on
which were written an account of the origin of the
world and of the ordinances of religion. His
children dug them up after the flood, and they be-
came authorities for the Chaldean religion (Lenor-
iiiant). The primitive Chaldeans were Turanians;
but if the word has a Semitic etymology it would
seem to mean the Scripture-city (~12D)- — W. G. S.]
(On these different names, see Winer, R.- W.-B. s. v.,
[and the Dictionaries of the Bible]. This is the
first time that fniyp is used of the entire king-
dom. It is incorrect to infer, as Hengstenberg
does, from the words : Instead of the children of
Israel, that all the inhabitants, to the last man,
were taken into exile, for, see 2 Chron. xxxiv. 9.
[Samaria was now reduced from the tributary to
the provincial position, as Damascus had been
twelve years before.]
Ver. 25. And it came to pass at the begin-
ning of their dwelling there, &c. The land be
came desolate in consequence of the exile of its
inhabitants, especially as some time, no doubt,
elapsed before the new colonists arrived and
brought the land once more under cultivation. It
is also probable that their number was not nearly
as great as that of the exiles. So it came to pass
that the lions, which had been in the country in
small numbers before the exile, multiplied to such
a degree as to be dangerous to the new inhabi-
tants. Under the circumstances this was not
purely a natural incident, but a divine dispensa
tion. The author so considers it, having in mind
18S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Levit. xxvi. 22 (Exod. xxiii. 29; Deut. xxxii. 24;
tf. Ezek. xiv. 15). The colonists saw in this an
interposition of the god of the country, because
they had not worshipped him. In order to escape
from the plague they sent a request (ver. 26) to
the king who had located them in this country,
that he would send some one to them who could
;eaeh them how to worship the local deity, so that
he might release them from the calamity. [See,
on the heathen conception of local deities, Pt II.
p. 57.] With a genuine heathen judgment they
considered the external worship a means of ap-
peasing the god of whom they knew nothing.
The priest who was sent to them was, as ver. 27
expressly states, one of the exiles — that is to say,
one of the priests of Jeroboam's calf-worship.
He took up his residence at Bethel, the chief seat
of the calf- worship (1 Kings xii. 29), although the
Assyrians had carried away the golden calf (Hos.
x. 5). Perhaps they erected there new images,
not molten images, but less artistic and less ex-
pensive ones. The sending of this priest seems
to be so particularly narrated, because it shows
how it came that the country did not become en-
tirely heathen.
Ver. 29. Every nation made gods of their
own. The new inhabitants, who had been brought
from very different countries, set up, in the houses
on the high places, which the Samaritans had pre-
pared as places of worship (see Exeg. on 1 Kings
iil_, 2 and 3), the images of their gods. Selden
(De Dm Syr. ii. 7) understands J"lSj3 JTGD in the
literal meaning of the words: "Daughter-huts,"
and most of the expositors since his time have fol-
lowed him in this interpretation. It is then under-
stood to refer to the huts or tents in which the
young women prostituted themselves in honor of
Mylitta, i. e. Venus, a custom which Herodotus
speaks of, I. 199. However, this is clearly against
the context, for, whereas ver. 29 treats of the
places of worship, ver. 30 gives the names of the
gods whose images were set up in them. Succoth-
Benoth is the first-mentioned amongst these. It is
not, therefore, an appellative any more than the
following names: Nergal, Asima, Nibhaz, and Tar-
tak. The old versions all give it as a proper name.
The Sept. have ri/v 2ukx"& BqwjiJ or Bevi-8. They
therefore understood by it a female divinity.
" JVGD (Amos v. 26) was the name of a female di-
vinity, and jyi33 or rPJ3 appears only to contain a
modification of it. Neither word is to be referred
to a Hebrew etymology " (Fiirst). We must not,
therefore, understand it as referring to " little tem-
ples or shrines which were worshipped, together
with the image which they contained " (Gesenius),
but to the image of a particular divinity of which
we know nothing further. The rabbis assert that
it was a hen with her chickens, representing the
constellation of the "Clucking Hen" [the Plei-
ades]. This is possible, but no further proofs of
it can be produced. Movers' interpretation of it,
as female genitals, is entirely without foundation.
The passage 2 Kings xxiii. 7, which is often refer-
red to for the above-mentioned ordinary interpre-
tation, has no pertinency here.
[For as exhaustive summary of the different
nterpretations of these words heretofore offered,
see Herzog's Encyc. XV. s. 253. The Babylonian
goddess Bilit or Mylitta (see note on ver. 17) took
two forms, just as Venus did in the classical my-
thology. The one, Taauth, was austere, the other,
Nana or Zarpanit, was voluptuous. She had a
temple at Babylon, where every woman was forced,
once in her life-time, to surrender to a stranger as
an act of worship to the goddess. At Cutha she
was worshipped as Succothbenoth, a name refer-
ring to these prostitutions. In the astral system
she is Ishtar. In her " austere " form she is san-
guinary and is the " Goddess of Battles — the Queen
of Victories ; " in her voluptuous form she pre-
sides over reproduction. Moreover two Isldars
are distinguished, each of which presides over
two weeks of the month (hence called the " God-
dess fifteen "). This accounts for the Phoenician
plural form Ashtaroth. (Lenormant.)]
The names Nergal, Asima, Nibhaz, and Tartak
have hitherto been explained very diversely upon
etymological grounds, some of which are fictitious,
and all of which are very uncertain. (See Gese-
nius' Thesaurus; Winer's R.- W.-B. s. v.) We there-
fore pass over these attempts at explanation. The
rabbis ascribe to Nergal (probably Mars) the form
of a cock, which certainly does occur frequently
on the old Assyrian monuments ; to Asima, the
form of a goat; to Nibhaz, that of a dog; to Tar-
tak, that of an ass. But these statements also
rest upon very uncertain etymologies. The case
is not much better with the names Aclrammelech
and Anammelech. We can only infer from the
child-sacrifices which were offered to these idols
so much as this, "that they were akin to Moloch"
(Keil). The interpretations of Movers and Hitzig
are very uncertain and doubtful.
[In an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, now in
the British Museum, is read : " I consecrated the
portico of the god Nergal and of the god Nibhaz,
the gods of the temple Valpitlam at Cutha." (See
note on ver. 24.) " The special god of this town
was Nergal, and we learn from some mythological
details given in the tablets of the library of As-
sliurbanipal, that he was worshipped there under
the form of a lion." (Lenormant, I., 485.) His
image is rare. He stands on the legs of a cock
and has a sword in his hand. His epithets are :
" the Great Hero, the King of Fight, the Master of
Battles, Champion of the Gods." Hence he is
identified with Mars. — Adrammelech= Adar- Malik,
i. e. " Adar the king." Adar (fire) was also called
Samdan (the powerful). He was the Assyrian
Hercules. Anammelech= Anu- Malik, i.e. "Ann,"
or " Oannes, the king." " Oannes, the ' Lord of
the Lower World, the Lord of Darkness,' was re-
presented on the monuments under the strange
figure of a man with an eagle's tail, and for his
head-dress an enormous fish, whose open mouth
rises above his head, while the body covers his
shoulders." (Lenormant.)]
According to ver. 32, the worship of heathen
gods and the worship of Jehovah, under the fjrni
of the calf, existed side by side. In regard to the
priests " from the mass of the people " see note
on 1 Kings xii. 31. — Ver. 33 repeats and brings
together the contents of vers. 28-32.
Ver. 34. Unto this day they do after the
former manners. Even at the time at which
the author was writing they still followed the way
of the first colonists, that is, those which are
described in vers. 28-33. Some did not worship
Jehovah, but served idols (vers. 25 and 29); these
were the heathen who had immigrated, who had
CHAPTER XVTX 1-41
1S&
brought their national divinities with them and
still worshipped them ; the others worshipped Je-
hovah indeed (vers. 28-32), but not according to
the ordinances which had been given them by
Him ; these were those of the Israelites who re-
mained, and those who adopted the worship taught
by the priests of Jeroboam's calf-worship, who
were sent back for the purpose (ver. 27). The
words in ver. 34 : After their statutes or after
their ordinances, do not, therefore, stand "in
contrast" with those which immediately follow,
as Keil thinks, that is, with the words : After the
law and commandment which the Lord com-
manded the children of Jacob, so that the
meaning would be: "Until this day the Samari-
tans have retained their peculiar worship, which
consists of idolatry and the worship of Jehovah
through the calf-image, and do not worship accord-
ing to the manner of the ten tribes, nor according
to the Mosaic law." The 1 before mW3 cannot
have any other meaning than that which it has
before the preceding and the following words. It
does not, therefore, mean "still," but "aud" in
the sense of "namely," in which sense it so often
occurs. The words " "121 miDDl form au epexe-
gesis to 'i;i QnprD," as Thenius justly remarks
cf. 1 Kings ii. 3). — The sentence: Whom he
named Israel has the same sense here as in 1
Kings xviii. 31. — In reference to those who at the
time of the author still persisted in illegal worship,
or even in idolatry, he points expressly, in order
to show the heinousness of their offence, in vers.
35-39, to what Jehovah had done amongst His
people and for them, and how earnestly he had
warned them against any breach of the covenant.
—On ver. 36 see note above on ver. 7. The breach
of the covenant was the more base inasmuch as
the Lord had miraculously removed all the hin-
drances, even the greatest ones, and had held faith-
ful to His people. In ver. 37 particular stress is
laid upon the fact that the Law was written, and
not merely spoken. The existence of the written
law is, therefore, assumed as undoubted. — And
they did not hearken (ver. 40); i. e. "Those de-
scendants of the ones to whom this warning and
exhortation had been addressed, who had remained
in the land" (Thenius). Their former manner,
i. e. the worship introduced by Jeroboam. Ver.
41 brings the author's review of the history to a
close with a reference to the posterity of the apos-
tates who had not desisted from the sins of their
fathers. [There is great obscurity in the verses
33-41. probably because the writer has in mind
different classes of the Samaritan population whom
he does not distinguish or define. Thus the sub-
ject changes in vers. 33 and 34 without being
specified in such a manner as the laws of gram-
mar require. If we paragraph as is done in the
amended translation, and identify the subjects as
is there suggested, we reach a clear meaning. — The
new population of the northern kingdom might be
classified thus : (o) Sincere worshippers of Jeho-
vah in the old theocratic sense. These were very
few, if indeed there were any. (5) Worshippers
of Jehovah under the form of the calf, i. e., ad-
herents of the old worship of the northern tribes,
(c) Israelites who adhered to the calf-worship, but
lad adopted also the idolatry of the heathen colo-
nists, (d) Heathen colonists who had adopted the
alf-worship. — Thus there were very few, possibly
none, whom this theocratic author could approve.
The third and fourth were the largest classes, and
are the ones referred to in the text. Those under
(c) "feared not the Lord," i. e. in the religious
sense. They knew him and should have been his
servants, but were not, while they apostatized to
idolatry. Those under (d) " feared the Lord," no*
in the religious sense, — they never had been taugh*
to fear God in that sense, — but they were afraid
of Him, and paid Him deference, but served, i. e.,
gave their faith and worship to their heathen di-
vinities.—W. G. S.]
[Supplementary Note on the references to con-
temporaneous history in chap. xvii. (See similar
notes after chaps, xv. and xvi.) The great kiug
Tiglath Pileser died in 727. In the same year
Ahaz died and was succeeded by Hezekiah on the
throne of Judah. Shalmaneser (IV. Rawlinson;
VI. Lenormant), the next king of Assyria, seems
to have been a less able ruler. We have no records
of him save some bronze weights in the British
Museum. The dates, however, are furnished by
the canon. Hoshea's revolt against Pekah, as
we saw at the end of the note on chap, xv., was a
success for the policy of submission to Assyria.
However, this entire history is nothing but a series
of revolts against Assyria, and Hoshea, in his
turn, soon renewed the attempt. In 725 the Ethi-
opians, who had for some time held dominion over
Upper Egypt, invaded Lower Egypt under a king
named Sliebek (Sabacon, Shabaka). This name is
really Shaba or Shava, with the Cushite article ka
appended. It is therefore written in Hebrew jjid.
The Massoretes punctuated this xiD . (See note
on ver. 4 above.) This king succeeded in overrun-
ning all of Egypt, and conquering it, although the
native dynasty preserved its succession, being con-
fined to the western half of the delta "in the
marshes" (Herod. II. 137). The appearance of
this great conqueror on the scene infused hope into
the small nations of Western Asia that they might
be able at least to change masters; that this new
Egyptian power might form a counterpoise to the
Assyrian ; and that his rule might be found milder.
Hoshea was seduced by this hope. He plotted a
revolt, but Shalmaneser hastened to crush the at-
tempt before union with Shebek might make it
formidable. He captured Hoshea, conquered thn
province of Samaria, and in December, 724, laid
siege to the capital by investment. In 722 he died.
He left a son who was a minor. The Tartan or
general-in-chief, Sargon, a member of the royal
family, seized the throne in spite of some opposi-
tion. An eclipse of March 19, 721, was influen-
tial in some way at this crisis. For three years
he was nominally regent for the young prince
(Samdan-Malik = Samdan [Hercules] is King).
From 718 on he reigned alone. He was a great
conqueror, one of the most famous of the kings of
Assyria. He regained all the territory which had
been lost and extended the empire beyond any
limits which it had ever attained. "The long in
seriptions found by M. Botta in the palace of Khor
sabad make us even better acquainted with the
details of his reign than with those of more than
one of the Roman emperors." A long inscription,
called commonly the " Acts of Sargon," details the
events of fifteen campaigns. The following are
the contents, so far as they are interesting to us in
the present connection :
190
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
•' I besieged, took, and occupied the city of Sa-
maria, and caried into captivity 27,280 of its inhab-
itants. I changed the former government of the
country, and placed over it lieutenants of my own."
Thus he counts the capture of Samaria among his
own achievements. In place of the inhabitants
whom he forced to emigrate, he introduced colo-
nies from Elam which he had just conquered.
" . . . . and Sebeh, Sultan [so Lenormant
translates a rare title which is said to mean suzerain,
referring probably to Shebek's position as a recent
conqueror and not regular king] of Egypt, came to
Raphia to fight against me ; they met me and I
routed them. Sebeh fled."
Pursuing the record in order to find traces of
the recolonization of Samaria, we notice the fol-
lowing:
From 720 to 715 the Assyrians were occupied in
an unsuccessful siege of Tyre. " Taubid of Ha-
math .... persuaded . . . Damascus and
Samaria to revolt against me, and prepared for bat-
tle I killed the chiefs of the rebels in
each city and destroyed the cities." [This revolt
of Samaria, after its reduction to a province, is not
mentioned in the Bible. It may have been after
this conquest of Hamath that some of the inhabi-
tants of that country were colonized in Samaria.]
The inhabitants of Papha in Pisidia were trans-
ported to Damascus.
In 710 he marched against Ashdod, which had
revolted (Isai. sx. 1).
In 709, according to the canon of Ptolemy, Sar-
gon defeated Merodach Baladan at the battle of
Dur Yakin. By this victory he resubjugated
Chaldea, which had been independent since 747.
The prisoners taken in Chaldea were colonized in
Samaria. In August, 704, Sargon was assassinated.
He was succeeded by Sennacherib, whose glory
rivalled that of his predecessor. In regard to him
see the Note after the Exeg. section on the next
chapter. In 681 he was assassinated by his two
sons.
Another sou, Esarhaddon, succeeded him, and
reigned from 681 to 667. On him also see below.
We are only concerned here with one statement in
his annals. — At the close of his first campaign,
which was in Phoenicia, he says : " I settled the
inhabitants of Syria and the sea shore in strange
lands. I built in Syria a fortress, called Dur-
atshwr-akhiddin, and there established men whom
my bow had subdued in the mountains, and to-
wards the sea of the rising sun (Caspian)."
[Whether Syria here includes Samaria is indeed
doubtful, but it is probable that, as the policy of
transportation was practised more and more, it
became more thorough and comprehensive. Proba-
bly this was a large migration, since the name of
a country is given for the new seat of the colonists
instead of the names of cities. Hence the memory
of this migration was perpetuated while the lesser
migrations under Sargon were forgotten. It is not
at all likely that the different migrations remained
distinct from one another, and remembered each
the time and occasion of its own migration. The
second temple was finished in 516 (Ewald). so that
from the time of Esarhaddon to the time of the
speakers in Ezra iv. 2 there must have been 160
years. Tins is sufficient to account for the fact
that they aseril e their origin to Esarhaddon.] In
this account we have followed Lenormaut's Manual
very closely.— W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL ANT3 ETHICAL.
1. Only so much is narrated in regird to tht
nine years' reign of Boshea as p»rtains to this fact,
that he was the last king of the kingdom of the
ten tribes. " Hoshea's chief aim was to become
independent of Assyria. He saw what a mistake
Menahem had made when he called Pul into the
country, and what had been the sad consequences
to Pekah. who had subjected himself to Tiglatb
Pileser" (Scldier). [See the last paragraph of
the Supplementary Note on chap, xv.] He there-
fore refused the tribute which had been imposed,
turned to Egypt for help, and defended himself
for three years bravely and perseveringly against
the Assyrian power. From this it is evident that
he was not a weak ruler, but that he had a strong
will and was an able general. But the despairing
resistance was useless, the measure was full, the
days of the northern kingdom were numbered,
and the long threatened ruin drew on unchecked.
The criticism upon Hoshea's reign, and his conduct
in general, which is given in ver. 2, is often under-
stood as if it asserted that he was the best of all
the kings of the northern kingdom. Ewald says:
"It seems like a harsh jest of fate that this Hoshea,
who was to be the last king, was better than all
his predecessors. The words of the noble prophets
who, during the last fifty years, had spoken so
many and such grand oracles in regard to this
kingdom, had perhaps had more influence upon
him. But as these prophets had always foretold
the destruction of the kingdom as certain, so the
irresistible power which works in history was now
to show that an individual, though a king, better
than all his predecessors, is too weak to arrest the
ruin of the commonwealth when the time for refor-
mation is past." The Calmer Bibel also says of
Hoshea : " When he was at length seated upon the
throne he showed himself personally better than
all his predecessors, and nevertheless it was in his
reign that the destruction was consummated."
Schlier also supposes that Hoshea. in the conflict,
through which it is assumed that he won the
throne, "turned to the Lord more sincerely than
his predecessors." There is not a word of all that,
however, in the text. The words in ver. 2 do not
say that he was better than all his predecessors,
but only that he was not as bad as the kings be-
fore him (V^zb ). This can only be understood,
however, as applying to his immediate predeces-
sors (Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah), for the
word " all " is not in the text. [It is arbitrary and
untenable to restrict the application of the words
to these kings. The " all " is not in the text, but
it is a fact that the author introduces a modifica-
tion here into the standing formula which goes
farther towards lessening the sweeping condemna-
tion than any which is introduced at the mention
of any other king of the northern kingdom. Je-
horam is said to have been bad, but not as bad as
AJiab : nd Jezebel (2 Kings iii. 2). In the other
cases the condemnation is utter and complete. The
modification introduced in reference to Hoshea,
Blight as it is, is, therefore, by comparison, very
weighty. — W. G. S.] The statement does not ap-
ply i.i iiis personal and moral character, but to his
attitude as king towards the national religion. He
made his way to the throne by conspiracy and
murder (chap." xv. 30), as several of his preie^o*
OHAPTKR XVII. 1-41.
191
sors had done. He did not, therefore, have any
"better principles," and was not a "better man"
than they. If he had listened to the warnings of
the true prophets, he would not have turned to
Egypt for help, for they warned him against this
as much as against Assyria. The least probable
supposition of all is that Hoshea gave up the cul-
tus which Jeroboam had introduced, for, if he had
done so, then his fate would have been undeserved.
[This argument is presumptuous and unfounded.
All such inferences from the dispensations of
Providence to the desert of those who suffer
calamity are precarious and unbecoming. The
special fact here at stake is insignificant, but the
general principle involved in this method of argu-
ment is of the first importance. — W. G. S.] The
review of the history which the author appends to
the story of this reign assumes that the king ad-
hered to Jeroboam's eultus. His case is similar to
that of Jehoram, of whom it is said (chap. iii. 2):
"He wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, but
not like his father and like his mother, for he put
away the image of Baal that his father had made.
Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jero-
boam." Hoshea may have differed from his imme-
diate predecessors in the same way. Probably he
was led more by political than by religious conside-
rations, at least we find no sign at all of the latter.
"We have no reason at all to imagine that he was
genuinely converted. For the rest, it has several
times occurred in the history of the world, as Keil
remarks, that the last rulers of a falling kingdom
have been better than their predecessors.
2. The somewhat lengthy review which the au-
thor appends to the story of the downfall of the
northern kingdom is, as Hess observes : " Almost
the only instance in the Old Testament where the
author departs from his usual habit of simply nar-
rating, without inserting any comments of his
own." We see from this that he was interested
not only in the narrative, but also in something
further. Here, where the kingdom of the ten
tribes comes to an end, and disappears forever
from history, was the place, if there was any, for
casting a glance back upon its development and
history, and for bringing together the characteris-
tics of the story in a summary. This he does from
the Old Testament stand-point, according to which
God chose the people of Israel to be His own pecu-
liar people, made a covenant with it, and took it
under His especial guidance and direction for the
welfare and salvation of all nations. The breach
of the covenant by the northern kingdom is,
therefore, in his view, the first, the peculiar,
and the only cause of its final fall, and this fall
is the judgment of the holy and just God. By
showing this in careful detail he makes it clear
to us that this is the only light in which the his-
tory can be or ought to be criticised. His mode
of criticism, therefore, stands in marked contrast
with that of modern critical science, which considers
it its task to set aside this point of view, — to meas-
ure the history of the people of God by the same
standards as that of any other ancient people.
There is no other passage in the Bible where what
we have called in the Introduction, § 3, the the-
ocratic-pragmatic form of representation, is so
clearly and distinctly evident as in this review.
This is a proof that the author of these books was
a prophet, or belonged to the prophet-class, and so
thai it is properly reckoned among the D'N'QJ-
This review, however, is noticeable also in another
respect, viz., that the existence of the mifi, with
all its nivr? , niirn , nnj?, and D'DBTO , long be-
fore the time of the monarch}", and that too in a
written form (ver. 37), is assumed in it as unques-
tioned. If the author had not known that this
Law, in the form in which he was familiar with it,
had existed long before the division of the kingdom,
he could not have declared so distinctly and de-
cidedly that the fall of the kingdom of the ten
tribes was a divine judgment upon it for its apos-
tasy from that Law.
3. The forced emigration of the ten tribes to
Assyria was a result of the despotic principle
which was accepted throughout the entire Orient,
that it was right to make any revolt of subjugated
nations impossible (see Exeg. on 1 Kings viii. 50).
In this case it was not merely a transportation into
another country, but also the commencement of the
dissolution of the ten tribes as a nationality. No one
particular province in Assyria was assigned to them
as their dwelling-place, but several, which were
far separated from one another, so that, although
this or that tribe may have been kept more or less
together, as seems probable from Tob. i., yet the
different tribes were scattered up and down in a
foreign nation, without the least organic connection
with one another. They never again came to-
gether ; on the contrary they were gradually lost
among the surrounding nations, so that no one
knows, until this day, what became of them, and
every attempt to discover the remains of them
has been vain. (See. on the attempts which have
been made, Keil, Comm. zu den Biichern d. K. s.
311, sq.) In this particular the exile of the ten
tribes differs from that of Judah and Benjamin.
The exile in Babylon was temporary. It lasted for
a definite period which had been foretold by the
prophets (2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 ; Jerem. xxix. 10).
It was not like the Assyrian exile, a period of na-
tional dissolution. Judah did not perish in exile;
it rather gained strength, and finally came back
into the land of promise, whereas, of the ten
tribes only a few who had joined themselves to
Judah, and become a part of it, ever found their
way back. The ten tribes had, by their violent
separation from the rest of the nation, broken the
unity of the chosen people, and, in order to main
tain this separation, they had revolted from the
national covenant with Jehovah. The breach of
the covenant was the corner-stone of their exist-
ence as a separate nationality. Thereby also they
had given up the destiny of the people of God in
the world's history. They were the larger frag-
ment of the entire nation, but they were only a
separate member which was torn away from the
common stock, a branch separated from the trunk,
which could only wither away. After 250 years
of separate existence, when all the proofs of the
divine grace and faithfulness had proved vain, it
was the natural fate of the ten tribes to perish and
to cease to be an independent nation. " The Lord
removed them out of his sight ; there was nonr
left but the tribe of Judah alone" (ver. 18). Th»
case was different with Judah. Although it had
sinned often and deeply against its God, yet it never
revolted' formally and in principle from the cove-
nant, much less was its existence built upon a
breach of the covenant. It remained the sup-
porter and the preserver of the Law, and therefore
192
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
also of the promise. Its deportation was indeed a
heavy punishment and a well-deserved chastise-
ment, but it did not perish thereby, nor disappear
as a nation from history, but it was preserved un-
til He came of whom it was said : '• The Lord God
shall give unto Him the throne of His father David,
and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for-
ever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end"
(Luke i. 32, sq.).
4. Tin population of the country of the ten tribes
after their migration consisted, in the first place, of
the few of the ancient inhabitants who had re-
mained. That such a remnant did remain is cer-
tain, whether we assume that there were two im-
migrations, one under Shalmaneser and the other
under Esarhaddon, or only one under the latter
(see note on ver. 24 under Exegetical [See, also,
the bracketed note under Exeget. and Crit., on ver.
41, for the classes among the population, and the
Supplementary Kote above, at the end of the Exi g.
section, for the details of the re-population of the
country by Sargon and Esarhaddon.]). This is
proved beyond question by 2 Chron. xxx. 6, 10;
xxxiv, 9 ; Jerem. xli. 5. Furthermore this is sup-
ported by " the analogy of all similar deportations,
in which only the mass of the population was car-
ried oft", especially the classes from whom revolts
might be expected, and by the fact that, in a
mountainous country, it would be impossible to
seize every man of the population " (Keil). [For
the number of persons carried away see the In-
scription quoted in the Supp. Note above.] The
new inhabitants, however, formed the chief por-
tion of the population. The king of Assyria had
brought them from different parts of his kingdom,
which was already far extended. They did not,
therefore, belong to one, but to many diverse na-
tionalities and races. They worshipped various na-
tional divinities, and each nation amougst them had
its own cuitus which it retained (vers. 29-31).
Their common life in the same country produced
unavoidably a mixture of the various nationalities
with each other as well as with the remnant of the
Israelites. A nation was thus formed which lack-
ed all unity of worship, and which, socially and
religiously, formed a complete chaos. As the ex-
iles, scattered in different localities, lost their na-
tional unity and character, so did also the few
Isralites who remained in the country and formed
connections with the immigrants. In place of
unity there arose a complete dissolution and disin-
tegration of the nationality of the ten tribes.
They never regained their unity. The author
means to say in the passage from ver. 24 on that
this was the judgment of God upon the covenant-
breaking and apostate- people which had resisted
every chastisement and every warning to reform.
5. The cuitus which prevailed in the northern king-
dom after the exile of the ten tribes, is commonly de-
signated as an "amalgam of Jehovah calf-worship,
and heathen idolatry " (Keil and others). But the
text speaks, not of an amalgamated cuitus, but of
an amalgamated population (see notes on ver. 34).
Jeroboam's Jehovah-worship, although it was ille-
gal, was nevertheless monotheism. As such it
simply and utterly excluded polytheism. So. for
instance. Jehu, who maintained Jeroboam's cuitus,
rooted out idolatry with violence (chap. x. 28 sq.).
Now a cuitus which had for its object the one
true God. and at tin- same time many gods, a cui-
tus in which monotheism and polytheism were
j combined, is inconceivable, because it involves »
fundamental contradiction. [This is unquestion-
I ably true in logic, but such inconsistencies are
| very common in history. The population of Sa-
maria (see bracketed note on ver. 41 under Exeg.)
had no such clear and well-defined devotion to the
Jehovah-worship, even under its degraded form,
and no such pure consciousness of the bearings of
the various parts of their cuitus upon one another,
as to feel this contradiction and try to escape it,
A truer conception of the state of things wotdd be
that the Jehovah calf-worship, when reestablished,
took its place among the other acknowledged
forms of worship. The remains of the ancient
Israelitish population cultivated this worship es-
pecially, the other nationalties cultivated each its
own cuitus especially, and thus the various forms
existed side by side, doubtless not without mutual
influence on one another. This is substantially
the view advocated by Bahr below, and it is far
more consistent with all we know of the state of
things than the amalgamation theory. The latter
cannot be disposed of, however, by showing its
logical inconsistency. — W. G S.] It seems that
the exiles maintained in their banishment the wor-
ship of Jehovah through Jeroboam's calf images:
(Tob. i. 5). It is still more probable that those
who remained in Samaria did the same. The priest
who was sent back to Samaria (ver. 27) was to
" teach them the manner of the God of the land.':
He therefore took up his residence at the ch:.ef
seat of Jeroboam's worship, at Bethel, which thus
became once more the centre of this worship. It
was not, however, the source of a new worship
which combined the ancient form with idolatry.
That the Jehovah-worship was maintained in the
country without mixture with heathenism is shown
by the statement of those who, 20U years after-
wards, came to Zerubbabel and said : " Let us
build with you ; for we seek your God as ye do;
and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of
Esarhaddon, king of Assur, who brought us up
hither " (Ezra iv. 2). In later times this Samari-
tan people " was more strict in its adherence to
the Mosaic law than even the Jews " (Von Ger-
lach). How could this have been the case if their
cuitus had been mixed with idolatry from the time
of the Assyrian exile onwards ? The form of
Jehovah-worship which Jeroboam had introduced,
and heathen idolatry, existed, as a consequence of
the mixed population, alongside of one another,
but not in one another. Although individuals
may have tried to practise both worships at once,
or may have turned now to one and now to the
other, the mass of the Israelites who remained
held firmly to the illegitimate Jehovah-worship, so
that this gradually gained the upper hand of
heathenism. At the time of Christ we hear no
more of the latter in Samaria. As the Samaritans
recognized the authority of the whole Pentateuch,
the Jews could not regard them as idolators.
They were not willing, however, to have any in-
tercourse with them, because, in blood, they were
no longer pure Israelites, and so were not a por-
tion of the people which was sharply separated, in
blood, from all heathen nations. They were con
sidered a'AAoytveic, and as such they were held it.
about the same estimation as the heathen (Luke
xvii. 16, 18 ; Matt. x. 5 ; John iv. 9 ; viii. 48). The
bitter hostility between the Samaritans" and the
Jews is to be ascribed, in great Dart, to the ai>
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
19i
cient, deep-rooted, never extinguished hatred of
the tribes of Judah and Ephraim for one anotlier
(see 1 Kings xii., Hist. § I.). On the Samaritans
see Winer, R.- W.-B. II. *. 369 ; Herzog, Keal-Encyc.
XIII. «, 3G3.
6. Finally, we may here briefly take notice of
the manner in which modern historians represent and
judge the fail of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes. " Sa-
maria." says Dunoker (Gesch. d. Alt. s. 443, sq.\
"defended itself with the energy of despair in the
determination either to preserve its independent
national existence or to perish. It was only after
a siege of three years' duration, and the most
obstinate resistance, that the capital fell, and
with it the kingdom. Without proper preparation
or energetic leadership, unsupported by the na-
tural allies in Judah or by Egypt, Israel fell after
brave resistance, and so not without honor."
Weber speaks in like manner of the " glorious "
fall of Israel. Menzel (Stoats- und Religionsgesch.
s. 229) passes his judgment as follows: "The en-
ergetic prophet class, which had had so much to
do with the foundation of the kingdom of Israel,
had found its grave with Elisha. The prophets
Amos and Hosea, who appeared during the reigns
of the last kings of the house of Israel, saw their
activity limited to rebukes and reproofs. The for-
mer was banished from Bethel as an inciter of sedi-
tion. The ancient prophets do not seem to have
recorded anything which would cast upon the
kings or the people of Israel the reproach of an
idolatry which was stained by human blood, as the
historical and prophetical books do for several of
the kings of Judah, although they are severe
enough in their denunciations of the vices, and of
the illegitimate forms of worship, of the northern
kingdom. It is true that the institution of the
prophets had shown itself incapable of arresting
the decline of the northern kingdom, or of setting
up a strong dynasty in the place of the regular
succession which had been broken by the over-
throw of the house of Omri, and that, in Judah. the
duration of the kingdom of the house of David had
been preserved, by the help of the priesthood, yet
even there the final ruin had only been postponed
for a century." As for this last conception of the
history, which in fact makes the prophets respon-
sible for the fall of Israel, in the first place it runs
directly counter to the entire history of the re-
demptive scheme, and in so far needs no refuta-
tion. It only shows how far astray we may go, if
we give up and abandon the stand-point from
which alone this history claims to be considered,
and from which alone it can be understood. But
the first representation quoted above is, to say the
least, destitute of foundation, for the text, which
says no more than that Shalmaneser, after 24
years' siege, took the city, does not by any means
intend by this to chant a song of praise and glory
over the fallen city. There is no syllable to imply
that this siege was lengthened out by the brave
and " heroic resistance " of the inhabitants. The
great allied army of the Syrians and the Israelites
besieged Jerusalem for a long time, and neverthe-
less could not take it (chap. xvi. 5), though the
cowardly Ahaz did not offer heroic resistance.
Shalmaneser was at the same time carrying on
war with the surrounding people, by which the
strength of his army was divided. Moreover, Sa-
maria had a very strong site on a hill. Still other cir-
rumstances which are not mentioned may have con-
spired to lengthen out the siege. Although the city
may have been bravely defended, which certainly
is very possible, yet it does not follow that the
northern kingdom " fell with honor." It is impos-
sible to. speak of the " glorious end " of a kingdom
which was in a state of anarchy, and which was
politically, morally, and religiously rotten and shat-
tered, as the contemporary prophets testify in the
plainest and strongest terms. The praise which is
awarded, however, is most plainly shown to be
undeserved by the review which the ancient his-
torian himself gives of the decline and fall of
Israel.
HOMTT.KTICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-6. The last King of Israel, a) " He did,
4c, yet not, 4c," ver. 2. (Though he did not gc
so far in wickedness as the 18 who preceded him,
nevertheless he did not walk in the way of salva-
tion. Half-way conversion is no conversion. In
order to bring back the nation from its wicked
ways, he should have been himself devoted to the
Lord with all his heart. When people are not
fully in earnest in their conversion, then there is
no cessation of corruption, whether it be the case
of an individual or of a State.) b) He makes a cov-
enant with the king of Egypt, ver. 4. (By this he
showed that his heart was not perfect with God.
Egypt, the very power out of whose hand God had
wonderfully rescued His people, was to*help him
against Assyria. But: " Cursed be the man," 4c,
Jerem. xvii. 5, 7; Hos. vii. 11—13. "Woe to
them," 4c, Isai. xxxi. 1. "It is better," &c. Ps.
cxviii. 8, 9 ; xci. 1. sq.). c) He loses his land and
his people and is cast into prison, vers. 4-6. (By
conspiracy and murder he had attained to the
throne and to the highest pitch of human great-
ness, but his end was disgrace, misery, and life
long imprisonment, Ps. i. 1-6. Thus ended the
kingdom of Israel, Isai. xxviii. 1-4.) — Cramer:
Godless men thiuk that they will escape punish-
ment though they do not repent. They therefore
fall into discontent; as a result of such discontent
they have recourse to forbidden means, such as per-
jury, treachery, and secret plots. They hew them
out cisterns that can hold no water, Jerem. ii. 13,
for it is vain to make covenants with the godless,
and to neglect the true God (Hos. vii. 11). — Starke:
Upon him who will not be humbled by small evils
God sends great and heavy ones (1 Peter v. 6).
Vers. 7-23. The fall of the kingdom of the ten
tribes, a) It was the result of the sin and guilt of
the people. (Separation from the other tribes and
dissolution of the national unity — revolt from the
national covenant and overthrow of the Law — de-
generation into heathenism — persistence in sin —
moral and religious corruption, Matt. xii. 25 ; Hos.
xiii. 9.) It was a judgment of the just and holy
God. ("I, the Lord, . . . give to every man
according to his ways;" Jerem. xvii. 10 ; Rom. ii.
5, 6 : " The Lord God, merciful and gracious," etc.,
Ex. xxxiv. 6: "God is not mocked," Gal. vi. 7.
He guarded the kingdom of Israel for 250 years in
patience and long-suffering. He warned, and
threatened, and taught, and chastised, and sent
messengers to summon them to return. When
all proved vain He sent the Assyrians, the rod of
His wrath and the staff of His indignation, Isai. x.
5, 6. He removed them from before His face.
19J-
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
The judgment never fails to come. It does not
come at once, it is often delayed for centuries,
but it comes at last, upon States as well as upon
individuals, 1 Cor. x. 11, 12.) — Berleb. Bibei.:
Would that men, when they read such passages,
would stop and think, and would enter upon a
comparison between the people of God of that
time and of this, and would thus make application
of the lesson of history. The people of Israel were
hardly as wicked as the Christians of to-day. The
responsibility to-day is far greater, for they were
called to righteousness under the old Law, we un-
der the Gospel of free grace. The people of the
ten tribes did not reject belief in the God who had
brought them out of Egypt, when they founded the
kingdom of Israel (1 Kings xii. 28), but they made
to themselves, contrary to the law of this God, an
image of Him. This was the beginning of their
downfall, the germ of their ruin, which produced
all the evil fruits which followed. This led from
error to error. They commenced with an image of
Jehovah ; they finished with the frightful sacrifices
of Moloch. He who has once abandoned the cen-
tre of revealed truth, sinks inevitably deeper and
deeper, either into unbelief or into superstition, so
that he finally comes to consider darkness light,
and folly wisdom. So it was in Israel, so it is now
in Christendom. lie who abandons the central
truth of Christianity, Christ, the Son of God, is
in the way of losing God. for '-Whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father" (1 John ii.
23). — A nation which no longer respects the word
of God, but makes a religion for itself according to
its own good pleasure, will sooner or later come to
ruin. — Vers. 9-12. External rites of worship were
not wanting in the land of Israel. In all the cities,
on all the mountains and hills, under all the green
trees, there were places for prayer, altars, and
images, but nevertheless the true God was not
known (Acts xvii. 22, 23), and no worship of the
true God in spirit and in truth existed. Their
heart was darkened in spite of all their worship
(Rom. i. 21, 23), because they did not revere the
word of God, and placed their light under a bushel.
So it was at the time when Luther appeared, and
so it is yet everywhere where the light of the
Gospel is not set upon a candlestick that it may
give light to the whole house. What is the use
of crucifixes if the Crucified One dwell not in the
heart, and if the flesh with its lusts be not cruci-
fied?— Vers. 13, 14. Starke: Before God sends
forth His judgments and chastisements, He sends
out true and upright teachers who call the people
to repentance (2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 1U). — The Lord
still provides a testimony of Himself, and sends to
the unbelieving and perverse world this message
by His faithful servants: Turn ye from your evil
ways! But, as it was with Israel, so it is still;
those who preach repentance are laughed to scorn.
He, however, who does not listen to the exhorta-
tion to repentance, does not remain as he was, he
becomes continually worse and worse. If such a
hea\y punishment fell upon those who would not
hear the prophets, what must those expect who do
not listen to the words of the Son of God, but per-
severe in their unbelief and in their sins? Heb.
iv. 7 ; x. 2!i. V,rs. 15-17. Contempt for the cove-
nant and for the testimonies of God makes men
"vain," that is, in Jin 'nut and empty, like the
heathen whose g'»l- atv nothingness. [A heathen
trod is nothing, a nullity, it is emptiness, u name
for something which does not exist, vanity. Peo
pie who worship them make themselves empty,
insignificant, and vain.] The further a man re-
moves himself from God, the more vain and insig-
nificant he becomes, however learned and culti-
vated he may be, and however highly esteemed he
may appear. — If an entire people falls into slavery
and misery, or even loses its national existence
the reason for it must not be sought merely in ex-
ternal, political circumstances, but, first of all, in
its apostasy from the living God and His word.
— Berl. Bibel: They rejected His ordinances, not
indeed by a declaration in words, but by theii life
and conduct. What can be regarded among us as
more explicit rejection and contempt of God, than
to assert and to try to convince one's self that
it is impossible to keep God's ordinances ? Only
look at Christ's ordinances in Matt, v., vi., and vii.,
and compare them with the maxims which we pro-
fess, and then say whether more of us accept than
reject the former. How do we keep the covenant
which we have made in baptism, to conduct our-
selves as those who belong to God (Gal. v. 24) /
But that covenant is the covenant of a good con-
science towards God (1 Peter iii. 21). If we take
up the point of "vanity," we may use the words
of Eccl. i. 2. Our speeches, our works, our dress,
our buildings, our food, and all our habits of mind
bear testimony of its truth. They served Baal ; we
serve the belly, mammon, the world, nay, even the
devil himself, Rom. vi. 16. They caused their
children to pass through the fire ; through how
many dangerous fires of worldly lust we cause our
children to pass ? Most of them are so corrupted
by false education, and so much trained to evil by
false example, that finally parents and children fall
together into the eternal fire. — Ver. 18. Kyburz:
The kingdom of Israel had nineteen kings, and
not one of them was truly pious. Wonder not at
the wrath but at the patience of God, in that He
endured their evil ways for many hundred years,
and at their ingratitude, that they did not allow
themselves, by His long-suffering, to be led to re
pentance. Is it any better nowadays? — Ver. 19.
Ricuter: Judah was corrupted by Israel as Ger-
many was by France. Observe : Israel was never
improved by the good which still remained in
Judah, but judah was only too often corrupted by
the evil in Israel. Evil conquers and spreads faster
than good. — Vers. 20-23. Pfaff. Bibel : When
the measure of sin is full, then at last the judg-
ments of God begin to fall (Ps. vii. 11-12). — Wi-rt
Summ. : We should see ourselves in this mirror
and not bring on and hasten the ruin of our father-
land by our sins, for what here befell the kingdom
of Israel, or even more, may befall us (Rom. xi.
21).
Vers. 24-41. The Land of the Ten Tribes aftei
their Exile, o) The substitution of foreign and
heathen nations for the Israelitish population, vers.
21-33. b) The religious state of things in the
country, which was produced by this. Cramer :
It is indeed a great calamity when the inhabitants
of a country are expelled, with their wives and
children, by the invasion of foreign nations ; but it
is a still greater misfortune when the devil's tem
pie is set up in places where the worship of the
true God has been celebrated (Ps. Ixxiv. 3). — WuKT.
Summ.: The land in which Christ and His Apostles
preached has fared as did the land of Israel; the
Koran now prevails there. So also have many
CHAPTER XVII. 1-41.
105
other cities and States tared, which now hear the
doctrines of Antichrist, instead of the doctrines of
Christ. Therefore we ought to guard ourselves
against contempt of the word of God, that God
may not be led to chastise our land and church
also (Rev. ii. 5). — Vers. 25-28. The heathen immi-
grants imagined that, in order to get rid of the
plague of the lions, it was necessary to observe
particular religious ceremonies. This fancy pre-
vails yet to a considerable extent even in Christen-
dom. People think that they can be delivered from
all sorts of evil by practising certain rites, whereas
no religious acts are pleasing to Almighty God, or
have value, unless they are an involuntary, direct
expression of living faith, and cjf surrender of the
heart to God. — Ver. 2T. The king of Assyria, a
heathen, took care that the religious necessities of
his subjects should be provided for. He even sent
a priest of Jehovah to teach them. Would that all
Christian rulers were like him in this ! Vers. 29-
33. A country cannot fall lower than it does when
each man makes unto himself his own god. We
are indeed beyond the danger of making to our-
selves idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, but
we are none the less disposed to form idols for our-
selves out of our own imaginations, ami not to fear
and worship the one true God as He has revealed
Himself to us. That is the cultivated heathenism
of the present day. Some make to themselves a
god who dwells above the stars and does not care
much for the omissions or commissions of men
upon earth: others, one who can do everything
but chastise and punish, or one in whose sight
men forgive themselves their own sins ; who does
not recompense each according to his works, but
forgives all without discrimination, and who opens
heaven to all alike, no matter how they have lived
upon earth (Jerem. x. 14, 15). — Ver. 29. Crimer:
Sketch of the papacy, under which each country,
city, and house has its own divinity, its saint and
patron. (" 0 Israel ! . . in me is thine help : ''
Hos. xiii. 9 ; see also ver. 39 of this chapter). — Ver.
33. Berl. Bib. They feared the Lord and worship-
ped their own idols ! Is not that exactly the state
of things amongst us? We want to serve mors
than one Lord. We have invented a kind of feat
of God with which the worship of gold, fame, and
worldly enjoyment, and, above all. of selfishness,
is not inconsistent, nay, it is rather a component
part of it. — Ver. 34, sq. Decay in religious matters,
lack of unity of conviction in the highest and
noblest affairs, prevents a nation from ever becom-
ing great and strong. It is a sign of the most rad-
ical corruption. Similarity of faith and community
of worship form a strong uniting force, and are the
condition of true national unity. The existence of
different creeds and confessions by the side of one
another is a source of national weakness. It is an
error to try to produce this unity by force; it is a
blessing only when it proceeds from a free convic-
tion (Eph. iv. 3-6). — J. Lange: The correct appli-
cation of the lesson of this passage is to abstain
from communion with whatever is inconsistent
with the Christian religion, for, outside of Chris-
tianity there are, besides the errors which under-
mine the foundation of faith, also those ordinances
of men, and service of the world and sin, which,
alas! the majority, even in evangelical churches,
while they have knowledge of the pure truth of
the gospel, yet endeavor to unite with pure religion.
Verily, to serve God and sin at the same time ts
as radical an apostasy from true religion as ever
the errors of the Samaritans were.
196 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
THIRD PERIOD.
(727-588 B.C.)
THE MONARCHY IN JUDAH AFTER THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM
OF ISRAEL.
(2 KINGS XVIIL-XXV.)
FIRST SECTION.
THE MONAEOHT UNDER HEZEKIAH.
(Chaps. XVIII.— XX.)
A.. — The Reign of Hezekiah; the Invasion by Sennacherib, and Deliverance from it.
Chaps. XVIII. and XIX. (Isai. XXXVI. and XXXVII.)
1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of El ah king of Isiael,
that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign [became king].
2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign [became king] ; and
he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was
3 Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight
4 of the Lord, according [like] to all that David his father did. He removed the high
places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves [Astarte-statues], and
brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made : for unto those days
the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he [they] ' called it Nehush-
5 tan.' He trusted in the Lord God of Israel ; so that after him was none like
6 him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave
to the Lord, and departed not [did not swerve] from following him, but kept
7 his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with
him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth [in all his goings-forth ; —
t. «., in everything which he went oat to do] : and [omit and — insert — ] he rebelled against the
8 king of Assyria, and served him not. [;] [^//c?] He smote the Philistines, even
unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the
fenced city.
9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the
seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of
10 Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three
years they took it : even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of
11 Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry
away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in [on the] II bor [,] by
12 the river of \omit of] Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes [Media, : Because
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX. 19T
they obeyed not the voice of the Lonl their God, but transgressed his covenant,
and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear
them, nor do them.
13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib kin s? 0f As
14 Syria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.3 And
Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have
offended [erred]; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear.
Ami the king of Assyria appointed unto [put upon] Hezekiah king of Judah
15 three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave
him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures
16 of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah. cut oft' [strip] the gold from
[omit the </../</ from] the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from [omit from]
the pillars4 which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it [them] tc
the king of Assyria.
17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from
Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem : and they went
up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood
by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of "the fuller's field.
IS And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son
of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the
19 son of Asaph the recorder. And Rab-shakeh said unto them. Speak ye now to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is
20 this wherein thou trustest ? Thou sayest, (but they are but [omit they are but]
vain words, [it is a saying of the lips only]) [:] I have [There is] counsel and
strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against
21 me? Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff* of this bruised reed, ereiinpou
Egypt, on which if a man lean, it wrill go into his hand, and pierce it : so is
22 Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. But if ye say unto me, We
trust in the Lord our God : is not that he, whose high places and whose altars
Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall
IV. worship before this altar in Jerusalem ? Now therefore, I pray thee, give
pledges to [make a bargain with] my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver
thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of [i.e., repulse, put to flight] one captain of
[amongst] the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egvpt for
25 chariots and for horsemen? Am I now come up without the Lord [uninsti-
gated by Jehovah] against this place to destroy it ? The Lord said to me, Go up
26 against this land, and destroy it. Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and
Shebna, and Joah, unto Rab-shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the
Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' lan-
27 guage in the ears of the people that are on the wall. But Rab-shakeh said
unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these
words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may
28 eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you ? Then Rab-shakeh
stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saving, Hear
29 the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: Thus saith the king, Let not.
Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his [my] '
30 hand : Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will
surely deliver us, and this city "shall not be delivered into the hand of the king
31 of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah : for thus saith the king of Assyria,
Make an agreement [terms,] with me by a present [omit by a present], and ome
out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig-
32 tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern : Until I come and take
you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread
and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die :
and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will
33 deliver us. Hath [Have] any of [omit any of] the gods of the nations delivered
at all [mu at all] [each] his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria *
y8 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
34 Where are the gods of Hamath, ami of Arpad? where are the gods of Sephar-
vaim, Hena, and Ivah ? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand [that
35 any delivered Samaria out of mine hand ] ? Who are they [there] among all
the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand,
36 that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand ? But the people
held their peace, and answered him not a word : for the king's commandment
37 was, saying. Answer him not. Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which
irns over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the
recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab-
Chap. xix. 1 shakeh. And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that
he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house
2 of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna
the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the
3 prophet the son of Amoz. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This
day is a day of trouble [distress], and of rebuke [chastisement], and blasphemy
[rejection] ; for the children are come to the birth [opening of the womb],' and
I there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the
words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach
[blaspheme] the living God ; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy
5 God hath heard : wherefore lift up tlry prayer for the remnant that are left. So
6 the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said unto them.
Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the
words which thou hast heard, with which the servants [minions] of the king
7 of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold I will send a blast upon him [I will
inspire him with such a spirit that], and [when — omit and] he shall hear a
rumour, and [he — omit and] shall return to his own land ; and I will cause him
to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Lib-
9 nah : for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. And when he heard
say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee ;
10 he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Heze-
kiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee,
saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by
12 [in] destroying them e utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods
of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed ; as Gozan, and
13 Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which xcere in Thelasar? Where
is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of
Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah ?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it :
and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which
dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the
16 kingdoms of the earth ; thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down
thine ear, and hear : open, Lord, thine eyes, and see : and hear the words ot
Sennacherib, which [he] hath sent him [omit him] to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their
18 lands, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the
work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them
i9 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even
thou only.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennache-
21 rib king of Assyria I have heard. This is the word that the Lord hath spokeia
concerning him:
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX. 199
[oracle of god in regard to the impending danger.]
[I. Scornful Rebuke of Sennacherib 's Roast.]
She despises thee, she scorns thee, — the virgin daughter, Zion !
She wags her head at thee, the daughter, Jerusalem !
22 Whom hast thou insulted and blasphemed ? against whom hast thou lifted voice ?
Thou hast even lifted thine eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel !
23 Through thy messengers thou hast insulted the Lord, and hast said :
" I come up with my chariots on chariots 10 to the top of the mountains, to Leb-
anon's summit ;
And I hew down its loftiest cedars and its choicest cypresses ;
And I come to its summit as a resting-place,
To its forest-grove.
24 I dig, and I drink the waters of foreign nations ;
Yea ! I parch up with the sole of my foot all the rivers of Egypt ! "
[II. Refutation of his Self-assumjytion.]
25 Hast thou not heard ? — Of old time I made it —
From ancient days I ordained its course;
Now I have brought it to pass, —
And thou art [my instrument] to reduce" fortified cities to heaps of ruins
26 Therefore their inhabitants were short-handed;
They despaired and were terror-stricken ;
They were grass of the field and green herb ;
Grass of the house-top, and corn blasted in the germ.
27 So, thy resting in peace, and thy going out, and thy coming in, I know; "
Also thy violent rage against me ;
28 For thy violent rage and thine arrogance are come up into mine ears,
And I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips,
And I will lead thee back by the way by which thou earnest.
[III. Encouragement to Judah and Hezekiah.]
29 And this be the sign to thee : — ■
Eating one year what springs of itself from the leavings of the previous crop,
And the second year the vild growth,
And the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall take root again dowi»
wards,
And shall bear fruit again upwards ;
31 For from Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and from Mount Zion a rescued
band : —
The zeal of Jehovah (of Hosts) 13 shall do this !
[IV. God's Decree in regard to the Crisis.]
32 Therefore, thus saith the Eternal in regard to the king of Assyria: —
He shall not come against this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor assault it with a shield,
Nor throw up a siege wall against it.
33 By the way by which he came he shall return,
And he shall not come against this city ; — is the decree of the Eternal ;
34 But I will protect this city to save it,
For mine own sake and for the sake of David, my servant.
200
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
35
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand : and
36 when they arose early in the morning, behold, they wert ill dead [,] corpses. _ So
Sennacherib kins; of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nine-
in the house of Nisroch his
37 veh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping
god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons " sm
smote him with the sword: and
they escaped into the land of Armenia [Ararat].
reigned in his stead.
And Esarhaddou his son
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL,
i Ver. 4.— f M-|T1 is singular, but with the indefinite subject, equivalent to an English indefinite pluraL
> Ver. 4.— [ jnt^rO , the thi"g "■? brM>'
3 Ver 18— r n"'"NVV— Tue masculine suffix is used (though the feminine would be correct) as the more general,
mnd universal. This is not'rare. Cf. Gen. xxxi. 9 ; Amos iii. 2 ; Jerem. ix. 19; 2 Sam. xx. 8; Ew. § 184, c-In the clas-
sical nassaees (" I'rose of the priests ") such irregularities do not occur, but in the prose of less cultivated writers (laymen),
li \ . u Hr~, uetrv. and in the later language, they are frequent. See ver. 16. and chap. xix. 11 (liiittcher, § ST7, 8).
« Ver. 16.— [ niJDXn —Elsewhere we find niTTO for doorPosU- BSnr aaTB that the worQB are synonymous, but
Thenius' explanation is better. He thinks that niJOJCri refer8. not only to the door-posw, but also the door-/ram«, sill,
and lintel- i e all which gives stability, strength, and shape, ( pX ), t0 the door-opening.— On the suffix in Qjj-pl ,
see Gramm. note 3, above.— The patach in pjfp is due to the guttural which followB. Cf. chap. xxi. 8 : pppjn -|3X
IBOttcher, |g®3nsteUi'o?^so which is wanting in the text of Isaiah, we most read, with all the old versions, vjsp ._
• Ver. 80,-[The ]-|j{ before "VyD is wal'ting in Isai. xxxvi. 15. It is important as bearing on the question whether
BShr
j ever stands with a' proper nominative. Ewald admits that, if the nx in this place were properly in the text, we
instance. He adopts the reading in Isaiah, erases the nX , »nd says that this particle "never becomes
should have one
^M£nn1^^
th
affirms that J-|X occurs
ire cases where it occurs
this verv one). Cf. chap. vi. 5, and vni. 2S, Gramm. no
he reading with nv which our text offers us:-" This very city," or, " This city here.'
I Chap. xix. ver. 8— [IJ&O ! oriftctum uteri.
k Ver. 11.— [On the sufBx in DDv"l'"ir6 , see 6ra""' note on choD- xviii- 13 (note 8' aboTe)-
' Ver. 15.-[In Isaiah we fin.l p^L" inRtead of )rbv ■ "The 8ufflx "'"* t0 'T31 " " sineular object,- the
m^^TerK^rSer,rteche«lMB.^fadopU the keri (see Hz*, on the verse). However, as he says, th, <ense is
the same. The idiom in the chetib is similar to the one by which it is rendered in the translation.- W. G. 8.]
II ver 25.— nteJiT?19 shortened from the keri niNETl? , which is found in Isai. xxxvli. 26.— Bahr.
£ £?5ktaif«e^^
"'^er^Kis^
ixxvil. 32, and ix. 6.— Bahr.
Preliminary Remarks. — We have, besides the
narrative before us in chaps, xviii., xix., and xx.,
two other accounts of HezekiaKs reign, one in
Isai. xxxvi.-xxxix., and the other in 2 Chron. xxix.-
xxxii. To these authorities may be added some of
the prophecies, especially of Isaiah, who had great
influence at this time. The first question which
arises, therefore, is this: what relation do these
various accounts bear to one another?
,1) The narrative in Isaiah, xxxvi.-xxxix., agrees
witli the one before us from chap, xviii. 13 on, with
the exception of a few subordinate details, so lite-
rally, that the two cannot possibly have been pro-
duced by different authors independently of one
, ther. The question is: whether the one served
11s the original of the other? or, whether both were
derived independently from the same source?
Different opinions are maintained in answer to
lh< se questions, but it is not necessary here to en-
ter into a careful examination of them in detail.
We limit ourselves to general and necessary con-
siderations. Gesenius ( Commen. zum Jesai. II. s. 392
sq.), following Eichhorn, sought to show in detail
that the account before us is the original, and that
the one in Isaiah is borrowed from it. De Wette,
Maurer, Koster, Winer, and others take the same
view. The chief ground for this opinion is that
the text in Isaiah is comparatively more condensed,
that it presents common and simple wcrds in the
place of those in the text which are rare and ob-
scure, and that forms which belong to the later
usage of the language appear in it. On the con-
trary. Grotius, Vitringa, I'aulus, Hendewerk, and,
most recently, Drechsler, have asserted the origi-
nality and priority of the account in Isaiah. In
proof of this they bring forward the following con.
siderations : The account in Isaiah cannot be bor
rowed from that in Kings because it contains Heze
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX
201
kiah's long and highly important hymn of grati-
tude (chap, xxxviii. 9-20), which is entirely want-
ing in the latter: The language in Kings is the
"more careless dialect of common life," the style
is " inferior," while the version in Isaiah is more
rich. " more correct, and more elegant." When
the opinions in regard to the st\de and language
of the two versions are so diverse, it is impossible
to deduce any arguments from this consideration
for the priority of either. The truth is, as will
appear from the detailed exegesis, that, as far as
expression and language are concerned, sometimes
one and sometimes the other version is to be pre-
ferred. The oinissioits are more important. The
account in Isaiah cannot be borrowed from that in
Kings on account of the hymn of Hezekiah; but
it is just as certain that the account in Kings is not
based upon that in Isaiah, for it contains additions
which cannot be regarded as simple assump-
tions of the redactor; such, for instance, as the
passages chap, xviii. 14, 15, and especially chap,
xx. 7—1 1, compared with Isai. xxxviii. 7, 8, 21, 22.
In view of the omissions which occur sometimes
ill one account and sometimes in the other, the
majority of the modern expositors. Rosenmiiller,
Hitzig, Umbreit. Knobel, Ewald, Thenius, Von
Gerlaoh, KeU, suppose that both narratives are
borrowed from a common source which we no
longer possess. This seems to us also to be the
correct view, though we cannot agree in the opin-
ion that the " Annals of the Kingdom " were the
common source, for both accounts bear the charac-
ter of prophetical, and not of mere civil, historical
records. The source was more probably that collec-
tion of histories of the separate reigns, composed
by different prophets, of which we spoke in the
Introduction g 3. According to 2 Chron. xxxii. 33,
Isaiah was the author of the history of Hezekiah,
which had a place in this collection. Neither this
narrative, therefore, nor the one in Isai. xxxvi-
xxxix.. is Isaiah's original composition, but both are
borrowed from this, which, unfortunately, we no
longer possess. Both come from Isaiah originally,
but neither reproduces accurately and fully the
original account Sometimes one and sometimes
the other approaches nearer to the original. This
view is, on the whole, the one which the editors
of Drechsler's Commentar zu Jesaia(ll. s. 151 sq.),
Delitsch and Hahu, and the former also in his own
Comm. zu Jes. (s. 24, 351 sq.), maintain. But they
evidently contradict themselves when they admit,
on the one hand. " that the text in the book of
Kings is. in many cases, and, perhaps, in the most,
to be preferred to that in Isaiah," and yet, on the
other hand, assert that " the author of the book
of Kings cannot have obtained the parallel account
xviii. 13-20. xix. from any other source than the
book of Isaiah." It is true that Delitsch appeals
again and again to the relation between Jer. chap.
lii. and 2 Kings xxiv. 18, sq. and chap. xxv. as " an
analogous proof that the text of a passage may be
more faithfully preserved in the secondary recen-
sion than in the original one, from which it was bor-
rowed : " but, although it is possible to render a pure
fountain impure, it is impossible that a pure stream
should flow from a more or less impure fountain.
How, then, can a secondary text be better and purer
than the primary one ? [The author agrees with the
authorities mentioned above that both the accounts
ar» borrowed from a third document as their source.
Neithf r one of the accounts, therefore, as toe have
them, can be said to have superior claims to the
other, as the primary recension. No one will deny
that the ultimate human source of the words of
the oracle was the brain and lips of Isaiah. Whether
he himself collected and arranged his prophecies
in the form in which we have them, is a question
to be treated in its proper place.- If we assume
that he did, then it is indeed fair to suppose,
wherever any doubt arises, that he cited his own
words more accurately than another could do it.
But now we have to take account of the history
of the two texts since they left the hands of those
who put the book of Kings and the book of Isaiah
in the form in which they have come down to us —
whoever they may have been. In the course of
time the primary recension may have been copied
more frequently, and by other means also have in-
curred more corruptions than a recension which,
in the first place, was a secondary one. This is
what Drechsler means when he says that a second-
ary recension may have retained the text until our
tone in a purer form than the primary recension.
An element is here introduced which interferes
materially with any apriori claim to superior
weight which either the one or the other of the
texts before us may make, as having come more
directly from the hand of the original author.
We are thrown back upon the critical examination
of each individual variant in each account to de-
termine which reading is more probably the "orig-
inal " and correct one. The question which text
presents, in the most cases, the preferable reading,
is one which can only be decided by reviewing the
results of these separate critical investigations. —
W. G. S.] Nevertheless, we believe that the version
in Isaiah was written earlier than the one in Kings,
for, whatever opinion one may hold in regard to
the time of composition of the second part of
Isaiah (chaps, xl.-lxvi.), no one can assert that the
first part (chaps, i.-xxxix.) was not composed be-
fore the end of the Babylonian Exile, which is the
time of composition of the book of Kings (Introd.
§ 1). It does not by any means follow that this
account was borrowed from Isaiah. The two ac-
counts are independent recensions from the same
original. The reason why the same passage oc-
curs in two different books of the Bible is simply
this, that in the one it is given for the sake of the
prophet, and in the other for the sake of the king.
The whole forms an important incident in Isaiah's
work, and an important incident in Hezekiah's
reign, which was an important part of the history
of the kings of Judah, on account of the deliver-
ance from Assyria.
o) The account in Chronicles condenses into very
concise form the contents of the other accounts,
but it contains also additions peculiar to itself. It
gives (chap. xxix. 3-xxxi. 21) detailed descrip-
tions of the rites and ceremonies which Hezekiah
prescribed; especially of the Passover which he
celebrated. All that has been brought forward
against the credibUity of this narrative has bee&
refuted by Keil (Apolog. Versuch iiber diebibl. Citron
i. 399 sq.). Although it is still asserted that the
Chronicler allows himself "to treat the historical
facts with more freedom," yet it is admitted that
his account " has the foundation of an exact his-
torical tradition" (Bertheau, Comm. zur Chron. s.
396), and Winer says : " There is, generally speak-
ing, nothing in it which represents the facts and
incidents in a manner false to history." The at-
202
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
count before us especially emphasizes the fact, in
regard to Hezekiah's reform in worship, that he
abolished idolatry, and even the Jehovah-worship
upon the high places. It is a matter of course,
however, that the zealously pious king did not
stop with the destruction and abolition of the false
worship, but also positively put in its place the one
which was prescribed in the Law. This the Chron-
icler states distinctly, and he describes this re-
formed cultus in detail, in complete consistency
with the tendency and stand-point of his work.
For him, neither the prophetical institution nor the
monarchy stands in the foreground, but the leviti-
cal priesthood. While the author of Kings fixes
his attention upon the political and theocratic side
of the history of Hezekiah's reign, and writes
from the stand-point of the theocracy, the Chron-
icler Axes his attention upon those iucideuts of it
which were important for the levitical priesthood,
and writes from the stand-point of a levite. His
statements are, in this case, therefore, an essential
addition to the story in Kings and in Isaiah, as in-
deed his peculiar contributions generally supple-
ment the narratives elsewhere found. The source
from which he obtained this information was, as
he himself tells us (2 Chron. xxxii. 32), "the jitn
of the prophet Isaiah, the son of Arnoz, in the
book of the kings of Judah and Israel," that is to
say, the same work to which the author of Kings
refers (chap. xx. 20) for the history of Hezekiah.
c) The prophetical oracles in Isaiah and Micha
contain, it is true, most important descriptions of
the moral and religious state of things at the time
when these prophets lived, but no history, in the
proper sense of the word. Definite facts, which
might supplement the historical narrative, cannot
be derived from them, and it is especially vain to
attempt this, since, up to the present day, there is
no consensus of opinion in regard to whether par-
ticular oracles are to be assigned to the time of
Hezekiah, or to that of some other king, during
whose reign Isaiah also exerted influence. For in-
stance, the first chapter of Isaiah refers, according
to some modern critics, to the time of Hezekiah;
according to others, to that of Uzziah; according to
still others, to that of Jotham ; and yet again, ac-
cording to others, to that of Ahaz. We therefore
adhere, in this place, since we have to deal with
the firm substance of history, as closely as pos-
sible to the historical narratives, and leave it to
the exposition of the prophetical books to show
to what events, recorded in the historical books,
tin- separate oracles refer.
[The author would probably be greatly misun-
derstood, if any one should infer from this that
lie estimated as unimportant the light which the
prophetic oracles of the Old Testament throw upon
the Jewish history. It is one of the unique and
most remarkable features of the Old Testament
that it presents to us side by side a section of hu-
man history, and a criticism of the same from the
Btand-point of the highest, purest, and most in-
tense religious conviction. The historical narra-
tives of the Old Testament are simple, brief, and
dry annals of events and facts. The seventeenth
chap, of 2d Kings presents a solitary example in
which the author comes forward to discuss causes,
to weigh principles, and to review the moral forces
at work under the events he records. All that we
tall nowadays the " philosophy of history " is
wanting in the strictly historical books. It is sup
plied by the books of the prophets. They give us
an insight into the social and political status, into
the vices, the moral forces, the ambitions, and the
passions which were at work under the events
and produced them. To modern minds the history
is not by any means complete until these are elu-
cidated. " History " is not bare events or facts
If it were, ne might save ourselves the trouble of
ever studying it. It would be a pure matter of
curiosity. But history is the fruit of certain
moral forces. We study the forces in their fruits.
We deduce lessons of warning and encouragement
from the study. The forces are the same now as
ever since mankind lived upon the earth, and they
act, under changed outward circumstances, in the
same way. They will produce the same results,
and the whole practical value of history is that we
may profit by the accumulated experience of man-
kind, as the individual profits by the mistakes and
sufferings of the years through which he has lived.
To this end, however, insight into the moral causes
of events is the valuable thing, and it is that which
we must aim at in studying history. What is pecu-
liar to the prophets of the Old Testament, as such,
is that their criticisms of Jewish history were not
bare literary or scholarly productions, but appeals,
rebukes, and warnings, of the most personal and
practical description. That is a characteristic of
them which has ethical and perhaps homiletical
interest, but does not contribute to our historical
knowledge, while their analysis of the social con-
dition under which these events took place, and
their statement of the moral causes which pro-
duced them, are of the highest importance for the
history. These till up the back-ground, and give
the light and shade, and the perspective, to a pic-
ture of which the historical books have only
sketched the outline. We have a sort of parallel
in the works of the ancient orators, which have
contributed essentially and undeniably to our
knowledge of ancient history. Such being the
case, it is evident that any one who undertakes to
expound the historical books must give good heed
to the light which the prophetical books throw
upon them. It is indeed true that it is often very
difficult to assign particular oracles to their time
and circumstances, but we have only to observe
the wonderful light which the oracle before us
(Chap. xix. 22-34), and its historical setting, throw
upon one another, now that we have them in un-
doubted juxtaposition, to see what we may hope
for, if we can succeed in fixing the connection and
relations of other and similar oracles. The light
to be derived from the prophecies for the history
is not by any means to be lightly set aside, but it
is to be regarded as one of the fruits of critical
science most highly to be valued, and most earn-
estly to be labored for. — W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass, Ac. It must bo
carefully observed that vers. 1-8 contain a sum-
mary account of the entire reign of Hezekiah. like
the one given of Ahaz' reign in chap. xvi. 1-4. In
the Srst place there is given, as usual, liis acre, the
time of his accession, and the duration of his reign
(vers. 1 and 2); then, what he did in regard to the
Jehovah-worship (vers. 3 and 4); then, what spirit
animated his life and conduct in general (vers. S
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
203
and 6) ; finally, what successes were won. during his
reign, against foreign nations (vers. 7 and 8). After
this general summary follows, from ver. 9 on, the
narrative of the chief events during his reign, in
chronological order, viz.. the overthrow of the King-
dom of the Ten Tribes, in his fourth year (vers. 9-12),
and the oppression of the Assyrians, which began
in his fourteenth (ver. 13 sq.). — In the third year
of Hoshea. Since the fourth and sixth years of
Hezekiah correspond to the seventh and ninth of
Hoshea, according to vers. 9 and 10, it has often
been thought that the " third year " in this state-
ment must be incorrect (see Maurer on the pas-
sage), and it lias been believed that it ought to read
" in the fourth year." Josephus, in fact, lias irei
6c rirn/iru. But the explanation is that the years
of 1 lie two kings do not run exactly parallel. The
difficulty is removed, and the text is assured "as
soon as we assume that Hoshea came to the
throne in the second half of T.'IO, and Hezekiah in
the first half of 127, before Hoshea's third year
had expired'' (Thenius); or, "If we assume that
Hezekiah's accession took place near the end of
Hoshea's third year, then his fourth and sixth
years correspond, for the most part, witli the sLxtli
and ninth of Hoshea " (Keil).— n'pTn is the
shortened form for irvpUT i which is found
in Chronicles, and in 2 Kings xx. 10 ; Isai. i. 1 ; Hos.
i. 1. In Isai. xxxvi.-xxxix. the name always lias
the form 1!Tp?n . This form is also found several
times in Kings. In Micah i. 1. we find n'pTIT .
Gesenius gives, as the signification of the name,
"Jehovah's strength." Fiirst's explanation is bet-
ter: "Jah is Might." In like manner '3X is
shortened from !T3X which is found in Chron-
icles. Which Zachariah was her father, we cannot
determine.
Ver. 4. He removed the high-places. On
ni"33 see notes on 1 Kings iii. 2. Here, as in 1
Kings iii. 2, and xv. 12, 14, we have not to under-
stand by the word, places of idolatry, but eleva-
tions on which Jehovah was worshipped, in con-
trast with the temple as the central place of wor-
ship. This is clear from ver. 22. On the images
(probably of. stone), and the wooden Astarte-col-
umns, see note on 1 Kings xiv. 23. Instead of the
singular mB>X , all the old versions have the
plural, which is also found in 2 Chron. xxxi. 1.
Therefore Thenius reads DRIB'S , but this change
is unnecessary. According to Keil the singular is
here " used collectively." — And brake in pieces
the b:a-e i serpent, &c. (cf. Numb, xxi. 5 sq.). It
is commonly assumed that this refers to the ser-
pent-image which was made by Moses in the wil-
derness. Von Oerlach says: "It was perhaps
preserved in a side-chamber of the temple as a
highly revered treasure and memorial. ... In
the times of manifold idolatry it had been brought
out. and an idolatrous worship had been practised
with it." It is not impossible, in itself, that the
image was still in existence after 800 years, and
was [.reserved in the temple as a relic. We have
no hint, however, that such was the case, and it is
hardly supposable that Moses, who so carefully
avoided everything which could nourish the incli-
nation of the people towards idolatry, should have
taken this image with him during his entire jour
ney through the wilderness. Moreover, the taber-
nacle had no side-chamber in which it could have
been kept. Even if we suppose that it was still in
existence when the temple was built (480 years
after the exodus), yet there is no mention of it at
all amongst the objects in the tabernacle which
Solomon caused to be brought down into the tem-
ple (see 1 Kings viii. 4) ; neither is there any men-
tion of the fact that any later king caused it to be
brought out and set up where it would be possible
for the people to offer incense to it. It is reckoned
as a merit in Hezekiah that he caused it to be
broken in pieces, but it is hardly probable that he
would have been the one to destroy a symbol which
had been set up and preserved by the great Law-
giver himself, and which had survived so long, as
a sacred memorial and treasure, all the storms of
time. Winer (R.-W.-B. II. s. 415) therefore infers
"The brazen serpent mentioned in 2 Kings cannc
be the very one which was set up by Moses.1' It
the sensuous people wished to see their God and
to have an image of Him, scarcely any image
would suggest itself more immediately than the
one which Moses had himself once made and com-
manded thein to look upon, and of which the peo-
ple were so directly reminded by their history.
In the time of idolatry, therefore, they made an
image like the one which Moses had set up, and
offered incense to it. The text seems to us not
only to admit this supposition, but also, when taken
with the context, even to require it. The clause:
that Moses had made, distinguishes this image
expressly from the statues and images mentioned
just before. They had been borrowed from the
heathen, but that, though it had been made by
Moses in the first place, had been abused for
idolatry. Moreover, Moses had not made it with
his own hands, but had caused it to he made.
This also does away with the oft-repeated asser-
tion that the serpent-worship in Israel had its
origin in Egypt, where this cultus was very wide-
spread. The serpent was there the symbol of
healing power (Winer, /. a), whereas in the book
of Numbers it is represented as bringing death and
destruction, wherefore Moses, who certainly was
far enough from intending to thereby set up an
image of idolatry, hung up a serpent-image as a
sign that it could not bring death to those who,
with faith in Jehovah's death-conquering power,
should look up to it. — Unto those days, i. e., not
from Moses' time on uninterruptedly until the time
of Hezekiah, but " from time to time, and the idol-
atrous worship which was practised with this im-
age continued until Hezekiah's time " (Keil). The
subject of xip'l is not Hezekiah. as the Vulg.
and Clericns understand, but Israel Sept. ini/f-
cm: [It is better to take it as a singular with in-
definite subject (one called) = they called, or it
was called. See note 1 under Grammatical.] The
name |nt;TI3 , *'• e., "a brazen thing.'' shows tint
the "brass" was not an accidental circumstance
in the construction of this image, but was essen-
tial, perhaps on account of its glowing-red color
in which it resembled the " fiery " serpents (Numb
xxi. G; Dent. viii. 15; cf. Rev. i. 15), whose bitt
burned and consumed. [riL'TO , therefore, meant.
The Glowing-red One, The Consuming One, Tli9
Burning One. There is no contemptuous sense
in it. such as: "A little bit of brass." as thoss
204
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
think who assume that Hezekiah is the subject
(Dereser). Still less is it correct that the image
had that name only in contrast with the other
idols which were of wood or stone. Neither is the
designation: " The so-called Brass-God" (Kwald),
an apt rendering of the word. — The sentence in
ver. 5 : After him was none like him, Ac, has
been incorrectly understood as a proverbial form of
expression for sonieth. ig winch is very rare, the
parallel of which is not on record. It "is not in
contradiction with chap, xxiii. 25, for its application
must be restricted to the single characteristic of
trust in God. In this particular Hezekiah showed
himself the strongest, whereas, in xxiii. 25, strict
Hdelitv to the (Mosaic) Law is applauded in Josiah "
(Thenhis). — He clave to the Lord (ver. 6). This
appeared from the fact that he never gave himself
up to idolatry, but kept the commandments of
God.
Ver. 7. And the Lord was with him, Ac.
p>3t;» has exactly the same sense as in 1 Kings
ii. 3. The words 1J1 ?33 are not to be trans-
lated as by Luther and De "Wette [and the E. V.] :
" Whithersoever he went forth," but, as by the
Vulg. : in cunctis, ad quve procedebat. His pros-
perity appeared in two points ; in his escape from
the Assyrian supremacy, under which Judah had
disgracefully fallen during Ahaz' reign (chap. xvi.
1) ; and in his war against the Philistines, who
had, dnriug Ahaz' reign, made conquests in Judah
(2 Chron. xxviii. IS). Luther's translation, Dazu
\d. i. ausserdem] warder" [Moreover he rebelled],
destroys the connection of thought. The 1 before
Y10' is Hie simple copula, and is equivalent to
the German n.imlich [that is tu say. or. for instance].
As those two facts only are mentioned here as in-
stances of his prosperity, we must not infer from
their position in the story that they took place at
the outset of his reign. It is to be observed that
his revolt from Assyria is not mentioned here as
something blameworthy, but as something which
redounded to his praise. The apostate Ahaz sub-
jected the kingdom to Assyria; Hezekiah, who
was faithful to Jehovah, made himself independent
of the Assyrian yoke. As to the time at which
he resolved to do this, see note on ver. 13.
Ver. 9. And it came to pass in the fourth
year of King Hezekiah, 4c. Vers. 9-12 repeat
what lias been already narrated in chap. xvii. 3-6.
This is due, according to Thenius, to the fact that
the author found these words not only in the
annals of Israel, but also in those of Judah, and
that lie reproduces his authorities with "complete
fidelity." Hut the repetition cannot be due to any
such merely mechanical procedure ; it has a further
and deeper cause. In the first place, the over-
throw of Samaria was an event, of the highest im-
portance for Judah also, and it deserved especial
mention here on account of the contrast with vers.
1-8. Hezekiah carried out a reformation in his
kingdom. He remained faithful to the Lord, and
I succeeded in what he undertook. Israel, on
t 11 contrary, had come into conflict with the As-
syrian power. The king of Assyria, encouraged
inii stimulated by his si S9 in this conflict, now
turned hi- .-inn- against Judah. Hut this kingdom,
although it was weaker and smaller, did not fall,
because Hezekiah trusted in the Lord. This is
what the historian desired to show by the repeti-
tion, so that it is exactly in its right place between
vers. 8 and 13. — For the detailed exposition of vera,
9-12, see notes on chap. xvii. 3 sq.
Ver. 13. Now in the fourteenth year . . .
did Sennacherib . . come up, 4c. Herodo
tus calls this king Zni'a;rdp</?or; Josephus, leva-
X'lP'fiac. Nothing but guesses, which we do dot
need to notice, have yet been brought forward in
regard to the signification of this name. [The
true form of the name is Sin-akhe-rib, and it means:
" Sin (the Moon-god) has multiplied brothers." —
Lenormant.] Sennacherib was the immediate suc-
cessor of Shalmaneser, for Sargon (Isai. xx. 1) is,
as was remarked above on chap. xvii. 3, one and
the same person with Shalmaneser. [For a cor-
rection of this error see the Supplementary Note
after the Exeg. section on chap xvii., and also the
similar note at the end of this present section.]
Delitsch (on Isai. xx. 1) has lately once more de-
nied this on the authority of the Assyrian inscrip-
tion published by Oppert and Rawlinson, and has
ventured this assertion: "He [Sargon], and not
Shalmaneser, took Samaria after a three years'
siege. . . . Shalmaneser died before Samaria,
and Sargon not only assumed command of the
army, but also seized the reins of power, and,
after a conflict of several years' duration with the
legitimate heirs and their party, he succeeded in
establishing himself upon the throne. He was,
therefore, a usurper." The biblical text is wholly
silent in regard to all this; nay, it even contradicts
it. For the "king of Assyria" mentioned in
chap. xvii. 4, 5, and G, is necessarily the same one
who is mentioned in ver. 3 just before, viz. Shal-
maneser. It is impossible to insert another king,
and he a usurper, between these four successive
verses. If Sargon was a different person from
Shalmaneser, the statements of the biblical text
in chap. xvii. 3-6 are incorrect ; if these are correct,
then either the Assyrian inscriptions are incorrect,
or they are incorrectly read and interpreted.
Sennacherib would hardly have called his predeces-
sors his " fathers." if the supposititious Sargon had
been a usurper who had come to the throne by the
overthrow of the reigning dynasty.
[The reading and interpretation of the cuneiform
inscriptions cannot yet, it is true, be regarded as
beyond all question, yet there are certain results
which are now placed beyond doubt. They con-
stitute the highest authority for Assyrian history,
and by them nothing is more satisfactorily estab-
lished than the fact that Sargon succeeded Shal-
maneser and %vas a usurper, and Sennacherib was
his son. The above quotation from Delitsch cor-
rectly states the facts of the case. If the inscrip
tions are not correctly interpreted it remains for
those who are competent to do so to make the
necessary corrections; but those who have not
mastered the subject (and it is a very difficult one)
are not justified in treating the authority of Assyr-
ian scholars with neglect and contempt, even upon
the supposed authority of the biblical text. The
author of the book of Kings was an inhabitant of
Judah. Before the time of Sennacherib this king-
dom had had very little to do with Assyria. Kvec
Israel knew "the king of Assyria" only as an
enemy, the head and representative of the great
and threatening world-monarchy. They did not
fear Shalmaneser or Sargon as individuals- they
feared the head of the hostile nation, "thekint
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
205
of Assyria." Shalmaneser was celebrated for his
campaign against Tyre as an individual who bore
this dreaded title. If, as is supposed, he began
the siege of Samaria, but died during it, and if
-Sargon finished it, but then returned to Assyria to
secure his usurped power — (Rawlinson seems to
think that he was not at Samaria, but took advan-
tage of the discontent of the people of Nineveh at
Shalmaneser's long absence to raise a rebellion
against him, and then counted among the great
deeds of his first year the conquest of Samaria,
which Shalmaneser, or his generals, had nearly
accomplished) — then it is not strange that his
name is not mentioned here among those individ-
uals who were known to the author of these books
to have worn the crown of Assyria. Sennacherib
was his son, and again so far from his mention of
his fathers'' being an argument that he was not
the son of a usurper, it is rather in character for
such a person to boast of his ancestors, to try to
obliterate the recollection of his origin and title to
the throne, and to endeavor to avail himself of the
prestige of the old dynasty. The Bible is silent in
regard to all this, it is true, but it is generally
silent in regard to contemporaneous Assyrian,
Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek history. Of
■China, India, and Arabia it tells us nothing. For
■our knowledge of these things we are thrown upon
the proper authorities. The silence of the Bible
is no disparagement of the Bible, and no argument
against the conclusions to which we may be led by
such separate national authorities as we possess.
For the facts in regard to the question here before
us, as they appear from the Assyrian inscriptions,
see the Supplementary Note at the end of this Exeg.
section, and for a list of the Assyrian kings, with
the dates of their reigns, see the right-hand col-
umn of the Chronological Table at the end of the
volume. — W. G. S.]
The fourteenth year of Hezekiah, who became
king in 727, is the year 713. The fall of Samaria
took place in 721 (see the Chron, Table). How
long after that Shalmaneser reigned cannot be de-
termined [by biblical data]. The ordinary opinion
that he lived until 718, and that Sargon reigned
from TIN to 715 or 714, falls to the ground when
the identity of the two is established. Sennacherib
seems to have reigned a year or two before he un-
dertook the great expedition. Probably the change
of occupant of the throne of Assyria had encour-
aged Hezekiali to make himself independent of
the oppressor (ver. 7). It is not likely, as Xiebuhr
supposes, that lje attempted this soon after his ac-
cession, for then Shalmaneser would not have
retired from Samaria in 721 without chastising
him for this revolt. It is not especially stated
what caused the expedition of Sennacherib, but it
certainly was not the revolt of Hezekiah alone.
It was an expedition of conquest, directed espe-
cially against Egypt, which was then the great
rival of Assyria, under whose protection the small
kingdoms of "Western Asia ranged themselves
against Assyria. We do not know certainly
whether Hezekiah entered into an alliance with
Egypt after he revolted from Assyria. It is clear
from Isai. iii. 1; xxxi. 1, compared with vers. 21
and 24 of this chapter, that the authorities at Jeru-
salem were much inclined to this course, and that
they had taken preliminary steps towards it. We
shall recur to the subject of Sennacherib's expe-
dition against Egypt below, at the end of the Ex-
egetical notes. [See the Supplem. Note after this
Exeg. section. The facts as established by the
inscriptions, are there brien_, stated. All that \t
said above about the relations of Jewish and As-
syrian history must be corrected by what is stated
in the Note below.] — Against all the fenced cities
of Judah, Ac. The statement in Chronicles is
more accurate: "He encamped against the fencjd
cities and thought to win them for himself" (2
Chron. xxxii. 1). It is clear from xix. 8 that he did
not take them all. When he approached with his
great army, Hezekiah armed himself to resist, and,
as he could not risk a battle in the open field, he
set Jerusalem in the best possible condition for de-
fence (2 Chron. xxxii. 2 sq. ; Isai. xxii. 9, 10).
Ver. 14. And Hezekiah . . . sent to the
king ot Assyria, 4.e. Vers. 14 to 1G are entirely
wanting in Isaiah, and are an important addition
to the narrative there given. They are evidently
taken from the common source. They are not,
therefore, " a mere annalistic insertion " (Delitsch).
The text of Isaiah is here condensed as it is in the
following verse (17), where he only mentions Rab-
shakeh, and says nothing about Rabsaris and Tar-
tan.— Lachish, whither Hezekiah sent his messen-
gers, was fifteen or eighteen hours' journey south-
west of Jerusalem on the road to PJgypt (see note
on chap. xiv. 19). Sennacherib had, therefore,
already passed Jerusalem on his way to Egypt.
''The possession of this city was, on account ol
its position, a matter of great importance to an
army which was invading Egypt" (Theniusi.
Hezekiah, therefore, had grounds for extreme anxi-
ety, more especially as there was no sign of move-
ment on the part of any Egyptian force to meet
Sennacherib, and Judah seemed to have been aban-
doned by Egypt. He determined to try to make
terms with the powerful enemy, and rather to sub-
mit to a heavy tribute in money than to risk the
possession of his capital and the independence of
his kingdom. TINBn does not mean: I have
sinned against God by my revolt from thee (that
would require that T\\Tvh should be added, as we
find it Gen. xih. 13; xxxix. 9; 1 Sam. vii. 6; 2
Sam. xii. 13 and elsewhere); nor, as the ancient ex-
positors supposed: I have, in thy opinion, sinned;
nor, imprudenter egi. We have simply to adhere
to its original signification, to fail, to err (Job v. 24;
Prov. xix. 2). "It is an acknowledgment wrung
from him by his distressed circumstances " (The-
nius). Hezekiah admits, in view of the great dan-
ger to which he has exposed himself and his king-
dom, that he has committed an error. — The sum
which Sennacherib demanded was certainly a verv
large one. Thenius estimates it at one and a half
million thalers ($1,080,000), and Keil at two and a
half million thalers ($1,800,000). The reduction
to terms of our modern money is very uncertain.
The fact that Hezekiah stripped off the meta'
which he had himself put upon the door-casings
shows how difficult it was for him to raise this
sum.
Ver. 17. And the king of Assyria sent Tar-
tan, .to. Josephus thus states the connection be-
tween vers. 1G and 17. Sennacherib had promised
the ambassadors of Hezekiah that he would ab-
stain from all hostilities against Jerusalem, if he
received the sum which he had demanded. Heze-
kiah. trusting in this, had paid it, and now believed
20(i
THE SKCOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
himself to be free from all danger. Sennacherib,
however, "did not trouble himself about his prom-
ise. He marched in person against the Egyptians
ami Ethiopians, but he left the general (or/m7J,)oi)
Rab-shakeh, with two other high officers (aim 6valv
ii'/'/n,, rim tr r;/«)and a large force to destroy
Jerusalem." This undoubtedly tills up correctly
the omission of the biblical text. The two last of
these names are clearly official titles, but the first
is not a proper name. See Jerem. xxxix. 3, 13,
where these titles stand by the side of the proper
names. }mn is tne title of the general or mili-
tary commander, as we see from Isai. xx. 1. Proba-
bly it is equivalent to D'nati'Tl (chap. xxv. 8 ;
Jerem. xxxix. 9; Gen. xxxvii. 36), captain of the
life-guard. We pass, without discussion, Hitzig's
suggestion that the title is of Persian origin and
means. "Skull of the body," that is, " Person of
high rank." D'lD'HI is the chief of the eunuchs,
who. however, was not himself a eunuch (chap.
xxv. 19; cf. Gen. xxxvii. 36; xxxix. 1, 7; Dan. i.
3, 7). This officer is now one of the highest at the
Turkish court (Winer, R.-W.-B. II. a. 654). All
the officers and servants of the court were under
his command. npL"3"l is the chief cup-bearer,
who is more distinctly designated in Gen. xl. 2, 21
as D'pKTSmtV. This was aiso a post of high honor
at Oriental courts. Nehemiah once filled it (Ne-
hem. i. 11; ii. 1). These court dignitaries were at
the same time the highest civil and military olli-
ii is (cf. Brissonius de regno Pers. i. p. 66, 138.
Gesenius on Isai. xxxvi. 2). Sennacherib sent
time such officers in order to give importance to
the matter. — The upper pool is the one called
Gihon (2 Chron. xxxii. 30; 1 Kings i. 33) outside
of the city, on the west side. A canal ran from
this to the field of the fullers or washers, which,
partly on account of the impurity of the water
collected in the pool, and partly on account of the
nncleanliness of that occupation, was outside of
the city. The same designation of this locality is
found in Isai. vii. 3, from which it is clear that this
canal existed in the time of Ahaz and earlier, and
is not the one mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. —
And when they had called to the king, &c,
i. c, "They made known to those upon the wall
tneir desire to speak with the king. He, however,
did not yield to their demand to speak with hint
in person, not, as Josephus thinks, vtto deiXlac, but
because it was beneath his dignity. The chief offi-
cers of the king appeared " (Thenins). On the
offices which they filled, see notes on 1 Kings iv.
3 417. From Isai. xxii. 15-22 it is commonly infer-
red that Shebna, who there appears as the officer
JVBrOJ? , but is threatened with deposition from
that office, had been degraded to a "1DD , in which
rank he appears here, and that Eliakim had been
put in his place. Other expositors, Vitringa for
instance, will not admit that he is the same person.
It is at best very uncertain. Nothing can be in-
ferred from this in regard to the comparative rank
of these officers, for in 1 Kings iv. 3 sq. the Sopher
and the Maskir stand before the Master of the Pal-
ace.
Ver. 19. And Rab-shakeh said unto them,
fcc Probably he was more familiar with the He-
brew language (ver. 26) than either of the others,
and otherwise better fitted to be spokesman. The
rabbis falsely consider him an apostate Israelite
and even a son of Isaiah. — Rab-shakeh calls his
king "the great king," because he had kings for
his vassals, Isai. x. 8 ; Hos. viii. 10. Cf. Ezek. xxvi.
7; Dan. ii. 37, where Nebuchadnezzar is called a
"king of kings." In Ezra vii. 12, the name is ap-
plied to the Persian king.— |int£3 does not roean
defiance (Bunsen : " What is this defiant confidence
with which thou defiest"?), but confidence, reli-
ance: cj. nr3 in ver 5. The question does not
contain a rebuke (Gesen. : qualis est jidueia ista:
i.e., quain insanis ea est); but rather astonishment.
"What reliance hast thou that thou darest to re-
volt from me? I look about in vain for any satis-
factory answer to this question " (Dreehsler).—
mDN in ver. 20 is to be preferred to "mipx in
Isaiah. A saying of the lips only is not object:
" Thou speakest but a word of the lips [when thou
sayest]: counsel and strength, Ac." (Knobel)
Still less is the sense: "Thou thinkest that m;
words are only empty talk." The sense is rather-
"Thou sayest" (it is, however, no well-considered
expression of a conviction, but a mere pronuncia-
tion of the lips) "counsel and strength." ,4c, cf.
Proverbs xiv. 23; Job xi. 2. The Vulg. translates
very arbitrarily : P&isitan inisti consilium, nt prve-
pares te ml pradium. Ver. 21 is not a question
(Vulg. Luther). Rab-shakeh himself gives the an-
swer to his own question in ver. 20. and 'affirms
roundly that Judah is in alliance with Assyria's
arch-enemy, Egypt" (Knobel). The intake of the
staff (TIJBB'O , cf. Isai. iii. 1) of a reed is a very
striking one. As it is used also in Ezek. xxix. 6 in
reference to Egypt, it evidently is suggested by
the fact that the Nile, the representative river of
Egypt, produced quantities of reeds (Isai. xix.
6). The reed, which at best has a feeble stem,
bent hither and thither by the wind, is moreover
''bruised," so that, although it appears to be whole,
yet it breaks all the more easily when one leans
upon it, and moreover, its fragments penetrate the
hand and wound it (cf. Isai. xlii. 3, where y<~\ and
*Q(? are accurately distinguished from one another).
[For J'VT , Germ, knicken, we have no precise
equivalent. It is a kind of breaking which ap-
plies peculiarly to green reeds. The stem may be
broken in such a way as to destroy its rigidity, its
power to sustain any weight upright, and yet the
lemrrittj of the fibre is such that the parts hold to-
gether, and the external form is maintained. A
reed is not available as a staff under any circum-
stances. One which has been thus impaired will
give way at once under any weight. — W. G. S.
Thenins : " Sennacherib compared Egypt to a reed
thus snapped or bent, not because he had broken
the Egyptian power, but because, in his arrogance,
he regarded it already as good as broken." De-
litsch thinks that he calls it so ''in consequence
of the loss of the dominion over Ethiopia, which
had been lost by the native dynasty of Egypt
(Isai. xviii)." What is here said about Pharaoh
agrees exactly with Isai. xxx. 1-7.
Ver. 22. But if ye say unto ire, lus. In Isai.
xxxvi. 7 we find instead of p~iONPl , IDND • them
sayest. Keil considers this the original reading, be-
cause in ver. 23 sq. Hezekiah i< once more directly
addressed in his ambassadors. The majority, how
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
207
ever, from Vitringa on, are in favor of jn'^Xn i be-
cause Hezekiah is immediately afterwards referred
to in the third person. In this case the v^ords are not
addressed simply to the ambassadors but to the
entire people. Thenius takes the question, Is not
that he, &c, as a continuation of the speecli of
those who trust in Jehovah, and who thus refer to
Hezekiah's zeal for the centralization of the na-
tional cultus as a ground for hoping for God's
help. But 2 Chron. xxxii. 12 is opposed to this
notion. According to that passage the words are
an objection raised by Rab-shakeh in order to
overthrow the confidence of the people, and thus
they are understood by nearly all the commenta-
tors, ancient and modern. The conclusion of the
speech, ver. 2a, requires the same interpretation.
The argument is: God is not with the one who
has removed His altars and restricted His worship
to one single place, but with the one who, at His
command, has taken possession of the country,
and has already won such great success. Rab-
shakeh desires to inspire them with suspicion of
Hezekiah, who, according to ver. 30 and 2 Chron.
xxxii. 7. had encouraged them to trust in Jehovah.
He knew how much the people were accustomed
to the worship on the high-places, and how much
more convenient it was for them.
Ver. 23. Now, therefore, make a bargain
with, Ac., n.ll'l i. e., Take account, moreover, of the
lack of a proper military force, of which cavalry
forms an important part. 2~iJ,Tin does not mean :
'■ Promise to my Lord " (Luther), nor, ''lay a wager
with my Lord " (Hansen, Von Meyer). 2~1]1 means
/: change, exchange, barter (Kzek. xxvii. 9, 27). In
the hithpael it means to enter into intercourse with
(Ps. evi. 35; Prov. xxiv. 21). The reference here
is to a mutual giviug and taking, not to entering
into a contest (Knobel). The sense is: Even if
any cue should give thee ever so many horses,
thou hast not men who are fit to ride upon and
use them. [It is a strong expression of contempt
for the military power of the Jews. You talk-
about opposing me by force, but even if I, your
enemy, should furnish you with horses, you could
not find men to form cavalry. If you should make
terms with me so that I gave you these odds, it
would not do you any good. — W. G. S.]. TL"n
means literally : to cause to face about, i. e.. to put t"
fliyht. The riins ,the governors of provinces, were
likewise commanders in the army in lime of
war, 1 Kings xx. 24 (cf. xxii. 31); -'the least" is
the one who commands the smallest number of
soldiers. Drechsler's interpretation seems to
us to be entirely mistaken. According to him
there is no reference here to war, and ytl'n , &c.
has the signification : to reject a suppliant, so that
the sense is, "He THezekiah] will have to concede
every demand and yield to every wish which is
brought before him by such a person [as one of
these governors]." — On the chariots see 1 Kings
x. 28 sq. — In ver. 25 Rab-shakeh presents the
matter in a light exactly contrary to that in which
the Jews look at it : So far from thy being justi-
fied in relying upon Jehovah, He is. on the con-
trary, on our side, and it is by His command that
we are come hither to destroy Jerusalem. This
was, as Clericus says, purum putum mendacium.
As an Assyrian he did not believe at all in the
God of Israel, but only made use of this form of
statement, cf. vers. 34 and 35. It can hardly be that
he meant to refer to the successes which the Assy-
rians had had up to this time as proofs that they
were under the guidance and approval of Jehovah
(Calmet, Thenius). Still less can we suppose that
he " had heard of the declarations of the prophets,
who had predicted this distress as a punishment
sent by Jehovah " (Knobel, Von Gerlach, KeiL
Vitringa and others.) [At the same time, if we
impute to Rab-shakeh such a disbelief in the exist-
ence of Jehovah as makes his reference to His pro-
vidence here a pure fiction, merely assumed for
the purpose of producing an effect upon the listen-
ers who did believe in Jehovah, we shall introduce
a modern or monotheistic idea into the speech of
an ancient heathen and polytheist, to whom it wag
foreign. The characteristic of the Jewish mono-
theistic religion was exclusiveness, intolerance.
The polytheistic heathen religions did not deny
the existence of the national divinities of each
separate nation. The fact that Rab-shakeh be-
lieved in the Assyrian divinities does not, there-
fore, exclude all belief on his part in Jehovah. In
ver. 12 he assumes the existence of gods of the
countries mentioned. In xvii. 26 we have another
instance of the usual heathen conception. That was,
that every nation had its own divinities. These
were conceived of as existing and being true gods,
one as much as the other, in all the sense in which
heathen ever conceived of gods as truly existing.
Each nation held its own god or gods to be greater
and mightier than those of other nations, but
thought it necessary, especially when in a foreign
country, to pay proper respect to the local divinitj
Rab-shakeh no doubt went thus far, at least, in
his " belief in " Jehovah, and his claim to enjoy
the favor of Jehovah was either a pure assumption,
good at least until the event contradicted it, or it
was founded \ipon the successes hitherto won, or
it took advantage of such prophecies of the Jew-
ish prophets as he may have heard of. Cf. the
bracketed note on p. 57 of Pt. II. in regard to
Naaman's idea of Jehovah. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 26. Then said Eliakim, &c As the
haughty words of Rab-shakeh, especially what he
had last said (ver. 25), might have a depressing
effect upon the soldiers posted on the wall, the
king's ambassadors interrupted him and begged
him, in a friendly manner, to speak Syriac. To
this he gives a rudeanswer. JVD1X ('. e., Syriac, —
[more strictly and correctly, Aramaic. The name
Syriac is commonly restricted to a later dialect o!
the Aramaic. — W. G. S.] — " was spoken in ancient
times in Syria, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia" (Ge-
senius). It was "the connecting link between the
languages of Eastern [middle] Asia and the Sem-
itic languages of Western Asia" (Dreehsler). On
account of the intercourse between the Hebrews
and these nations, the high court-officials especi
ally were acquainted with Hebrew. The Hebrew
and the Aramaic were closely related languages
(Ez. iv. 7). Rab-shakeh spoke Hebrew in this
case, not out of politeness, but in order that he
might be understood by the listening people, who
were not acquainted with any other language. His
object was to influence the common people. ^>5J
and PN in ver. 27 have no distinction of meajiog
208
THE SECOND BOOR OF THE KINGS.
In Isai. xxxvi. 12 we find px for pj; . Rab-shakeh
pretends to be a friend of " the people." So he says,
in substance- Ye are abusing your common peo-
ple. Ir, exposing them to a wasting siege ye are
cringing them, with yourselves, into the direst ex-
tremity, so that they will at last be compelled to
consume ilieir own excrement. (Compare similar
abominations, chap. vi. 28, sq.) " Instead of the
vulgar word DfPtOn , excrementa sua, and DrWB'i
winds suits, the keri substitutes the euphemisms
Cnxii' their out-going, and CiT^JT 'D'Di the water
of their feet The text is punctuated for these
readings " (Knobel). "litDV'1 stands here as in 1
Kings viii. 32. Ewald: '• He now. for the first time,
took up a position directly in front of the wall."
It can hardly mean what Keil understands: "He
took up a position calculated for efi'ect. He does
exactly the contrary of what they begged him to
do. He approaches nearer in order to be still more
distinctly heard by the people," and " follows still
more directly his object of influencing the minds
of the common soldiers " (Drechsler).
Ver. 31. Make terms ■with me, &c. Yulg :
Facite mecum quod vobis est utik. Luther; Adept
my favor. But i"C"l3 means blessing, and implies
the same as DipE'i peace, prosperity (Josh. ix. 15),
for peace was concluded with mutual blessings,
and expressed wishes for prosperity on either
hand (1 Chrou. xviii. 111). Come out to me, the
usual expression for besieged who "go out" and
surrender to the besiegers (1 Sam. xi. 3; Jerem.
xxi 9; xxxviii. 17). The threats are now follow-
ed by wheedling and promises. Then eat ye, &c. ;
i. e., ye shall lead a life which is in every way
peaceful and happy. See 1 Kings iv. 20. Until
I come, ver. 32. Not, "until I come back from
Egypt " (Knobel), but. in general; I will come and
take you away. It appears, therefore, that, "Even
in case of a capitulation, the Assyrians proposed
to transport the Jewish population, according to
their usual custom. For the proofs that they were
accustomed to adopt this measure with all subju-
gated nations see Hengstenberg. De rebus Tyriis,
p. 51. sq." (Keil). [On these deportations see the
Supplementary Note after the Exeg. section on chap.
xvii. The first one on record is there noticed, as
well as a large number both out of, and into, Syria
and Samaria.] We need not attempt to define the
land referred to. The whole promise was a mere
pretext. THV IV r is the olive-tree which bears oil-
producing fruit, in distinction from the wild olive-
tree.
Ver. 33. Have the gods of the nations de-
livered each his land, Ac. Finally the speaker
puts the Assyrian power (the " king of Assyria " is
here used generally for the Assyrian imperial power,
not for Sennacherib in particular) above the might
of all the national divinii ies, anil therefore above the
supposititious god Jehovah, and proves the justice
of the assumption by those successes of the Assy-
rian power which no one could deny. It is very
skillful of him to close his speech with this argu-
ment which he considers the strongest and n ist
effective. He means to say: If all the gods of
these numerous and mighty nations could no re-
sist the might of Assyria, "much less will J fto-
vah, the insignificant god of an insignificant nation,
be able to do so " (Knobel). It is true that he
thereby falls into a contradiction of what he had
himself said in ver. 25, and this shows that his
words there were empty pretence. — In ver. 34,
Drechsler translates TIPX both times by the singu-
,ar, following the Vulgate. But as it. must be
taken as a plural in ver. 33, so also here, especi-
ally as it is a fact that those nations had more
than one god each. On Hamath, Sepharvai)n, and
Joah see notes on chap. xvii. 24. 30 sq. Many hy-
potheses have been suggested in regard to Arpad.
As it is mentioned her eand Isai. x. 9, xxxvii. 13,
and Jerem. xlix. 23, in connection with Hamath, it
must have belonged to Syria. We have "no trace
of it either in writings or elsewhere " (Winer) It
cannot be certainly affirmed that the district Arfad
in northern Syria, seven hours' journey north of
Haleb (Keil), is the same place. IJena is also men-
tioned with Joah in chap. xix. 13, and in Isai
xxxvii. 13, but its location is as little ascertainable
as that of the latter place. It is more probable
that we must look for it in Mesopotamia (Winer)
than on the Phoenician frontier (Ewald). [In 142,
when Tiglath Pileser conquered Syria (see Supp.
Note on chap. xv. p. 1G1), the city of Arpad alone
resisted him with any success. It held out for
three years. The same city joined Samaria and
Damascus in the revolt mentioned in the Svpp.
Note on chap. xvii. p. 189. Sargon reconquered it.
It is, therefore, certain that it was in Syria, though
the identification with Arfad is doubtful. It was
a large and important city, for it is mentioned in
the acts of Sargon, together with Hamath, Damas-
cus, Syria, and Samaria, as among the chief cities
of that part of the world. — Some good maps offer
Hena in the Euphrates valley and identify it with
Anah, or Anatho. Sepharvaim was certainly in
the Euphrates valley (see Exeg. note on xvii. 24) and
it is very probable that Hena and Ivah were also
there.— W. G. S.] The Vulg. which Luther, Cleri-
cus, and Thenius follow, takes Ip'JfiT'D as a ques-
tion. Thenius even considers i^n the original read-
ing. But it cannot well be taken differently from
?,i',",3 in the following verse, where there certainly
is not a question, but an inference, as in ver. 20. The
sentence is abbreviated. In full it would read :
Where are the gods of Samaria that they should
have saved it? Jehovah will be just as unable to
save Jerusalem. The gods of Samaria are includ-
ed in those " of the nations."— But the people
held their peace, ver. 3t>. In Isaiah the word
D«n is wanting, so that m»"inm ou'y refers to the
three officers. Of course Hezekiah had forbidden
them to reply, or to enter into any negotiations,
partly because he reserved this responsibility to
himself, and partly in order not to provoke the
enemy still more. Because they kept silence, the
people, to whom Rab-shakeh had addressed his last
words, also kept silence. Hezekiah could not have
commanded the people to keep silence, because he
did not know beforehand that Rab-shakeh would
address himself to them instead of to the ambassa-
dors. The latter returned with rent garments, in
grief and sorrow, not only for the hard message
which they had to bring, but also on account of
the insults to tho king, and still more on accouttf
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
209
of the blasphemies against Jehovah, which they
had been obliged to hear. See chap. vi. 30.
Chap. xix. ver. 1. And it came to pass when
king Hezekiah heard it, &c. The sackcloth
which Hezekiah put on was not only a garment of
sorrow, but also a garment of penitence, as in 1
Kings xx. 32 ; 2 Kings vi. 30. The king saw in
this event a divine chastisement (ver. 3). The
rabbis use the passage to prove that when blas-
phemies are uttered, not only those who hear them,
but also those to whom they are reported, ought
to rend their garments (See Schottgen, Hor. Hebr.
on Matt. xxvi. 65). Hezekiah goes into the tem-
ple, "in order to humble himself before God and
to pray for help " (Thenius). At the same time
he sends a solemn embassy of the highest officers
and the most important men to the prophet Isaiah.
The elders of the priests are the most notable
amongst them. "Embassies are often sent to the
prophets by the kings in times of extraordinary
distress " (Von Gerlaeh), cf. Numb. xxii. 5 ; Jerera.
xxi. 1). It is very significant of the comparative
position of prophets and priests that the latter
were chosen as ambassadors to the former. The
priests were officers only by virtue of their birth.
The prophets were chosen men of God, filled with
His Spirit. " Isaiah was the ouly one to whom
the nation could turn under the circumstances, the
one to whom it must turn. From the point of
time referred to in Isai. vii. 3 sq. he presided over
this work of divine discipline " (Drechsler). The-
nius' remark : " This official embassy was intended
to encourage the people," is an error. It was not
sent with any politic intention at all, but sprang
from the need of reliable counsel in a desperate
situation. Hezekiah desired first of all to know
God's will. He therefore sent to the approved and
highly honored prophet. — A day of distress, &c,
ver. 3. Luther incorrectly, following the Vulg.
(et increpationis et blasphemies) : und des Scheltens
und Ldsterns [E. V. of rebuke and blasphemy].
nnoin means chastisement, punisliment (Hos. v. 9 ;
Ps. cxlix. 7). HVX2 means disdain, abhorrence,
especially of the people by God (Deut. xxxii. 19 ;
Lament, ii. 6). [The meaning here is that it is a
day on which God has disdainfully rejected his
people, and left them to their enemies. — W. G. S.]
—For the children are come to the opening
of the womb, &c. The proverb is taken from
the crisis in child-bearing, where the child is in the
midst of the birth, but the strength of the mother
fails on account of the continuous pains, so that
she and the child are both in danger. Clericus,
therefore, interprets it of the situation of those in
great peril, who know what they must do in order
to escape, but who feel that it is beyond their
power to take the necessary measures, and who
fear that, if they should make the attempt, all
would be lost. — 'pix , ver. 4, non est dubitantis
particnla, sed bene sperantis (Clericus). He hopes
that God will not allow the words which have
been spoken to go unnoticed. The Lord thy
God, inasmuch as the prophet is in an especial
sense His servant. The remnant are those who,
like Jerusalem, were not yet in the power of the
Assyrians, who had already overrun the country
and captured the strongholds.
Ver. 6. And Isaiah said unto them, &c. The
prophet does not call the officers <>f the king DH3y ,
but D'lyj • He does not thereby simply desig-
nate them as "servants," or, in fact, "body-ser-
vants," as Thenius insists. There is rather a con-
temptuous cignificance in the word, which is never
used of old men, such as these officers were.
Knobel: "The youths, the youngsters." Ewald
and Umbreit even render it: "The boys"; Drechs-
ler : " The guards, the rank and file, who have no
discretionary judgment." [Herein lies the con-
tumely of the epithet. These high officers are
called by a name applicable only to those who
have nothing to do but mechanically obey orders.
It is like calling cabinet ministers, who are, in a
good sense, " servants " of the State, public lack-
eys.— W. G. S.] — I will inspire him with such
a spirit, &c, ver. 7. Malvenda's rendering : Yeniet
per aerem nuncius sen rumor, is entirely erroneous.
"Others understand 'by 'spirit' here, a wind, es-
pecially a noxious wind, the Simoom, or something
of that kind, which can sweep away a whole army,
and which the angel (ver. 35) may have used as an
instrumentality " (Richter). That, however, is not
the meaning. nVl is often used for disposition,
state of mind. (Knobel: I will awaken in him
such a state of mind. Thenius : a despondent
disposition or mood. Similarly Theodoret : nveiua,
ri/v Aeiliav oi/tcu Sr/hivv). Here it evidently meant,
more than that, and refers to the " extraordinary
impulsion of a divine inspiration which is to hurry
him blindly on " (Drechsler). This spirit is to
leave him no rest, so that, as soon as a certain
rumor reaches his ears, he shall hurry away. The
sense is, therefore: I will bring it about that he
shall feel himself powerfully impelled to retreat.
The "rumor" which he is to hear is not the nrws
of the defeat of his army (Lightfoot, Thenius), for
he was with his army in person, but the news
of Tirhakah's approach (ver. 9). This news was
the first aud immediate occasion of his retreat.
The destruction of his army was then added, and
this hastened his steps. The prophet does not,
therefore, refer expressly to the latter. Drechsler
fiuds in this a kind of "pedagogic wisdom, for
thus he forced Hezekiah and the people to put im-
plicit faith in the word of God upon which they
had to rely." — And I will cause him to fall by
the sword in his own land. The assertion that
this declaration is put in the mouth of Isaiah by
the historian, post eventum, is both arbitrary and
violent. It appears also in the other narrative,
Isaiah xxxvii. 7, in the same words. It therefore
belongs to the common source of both, which
Isaiah himself wrote.
Ver. 8. So Rab-shakeh returned. He did
not, therefore, forthwith commence the siege, al-
though he had come to Jerusalem with a l^rge
force (chap, xviii. 17), but first reported to his
master that he had accomplished nothing by his
speeches, and had found Jerusalem strongly forti-
fied. He found Sennacherib making war before
Libnah. In regard to this city, see note on chap,
viii. 22. It lay some distance north [north-west]
of Lachish, about as far from it as from Jerusalem,
which lay to the northeast of both. [The position
is uncertain. On the authority of Eusebius, Ge-
senius, Thenius, and Keil place it in the neighbor-
hood of Eleutheropolis or Beit Jibrin. Lenonnant
puts Libnah on his map S. E. of Lachish.] It fot
210
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
lows that Sennacherib had not, in the mean time,
advanced southwards, towards Egypt, but north-
wards, that is, he had retreated. This he had
done, no doubt, on account of Tirhakah's advance.
It can hardly be, as Keil and Thenius suppose,
that he had taken Lachish, for, if he had done so,
he would probably have remained in that place,
and not have retreated. Lachish appears to have
been so strong by nature that he could not take it
at once, and therefore desired to get possession of
Libnah at least. He heard the news of Tirhakah's
advance, not at Libnah, but while he was besieg-
ing Lachish. In the first place he passed by Jeru-
salem, but it was now of the utmost importance
to him to get possession of this strong position,
so as not to have it in his rear. [On this point
also see the Supplementary Note.] — -Tirhakah, who is
called by Manetho, 1apan6c, by Strabo, Ttd/wuv 6
Airfiui/', on Egyptian monuments Tahrka or Tahra-
ka, "is represented on the Pylon of the great
temple of Medinet-Abu in the guise of a king,
who is slaughtering, before the god Amnion, ene-
mies from the conquered countries, Egypt, Syria,
and Tepopa (a country which cannot be identi-
fied) " (Keil). When, and how long, he ruled over
Egypt, are questions which do not here concern us
further. (See Niebuhr, Gesch. Assyr., s. 72 and
458). He is described, like Sesostris, as one of
the great conquerors of the ancient world (Strabo
L 45). This was the ground for the effect which
his approach produced.
Ver. 9. He sent messengers again unto
Hezekiah. Instead of 3£«1 we find in Isai.
T T-
xxxvii. 9 J?DC"1 . Drechsler thinks that this word
is much more forcible, and that it is repeated from
the beginning of the verse, in order to show that
Sennacherib sent the messengers as soon as he
Ueard the news. The text before us, however,
fems to be the better one, asDelitsch also admits
in this case. The point to be emphasized is,
not that Sennacherib sent at once upon hearing
this news, but that he sent again, made another
attempt to get possession of Jerusalem by capitu-
lation, without drawing the sword, for Jerusalem
was far stronger than Samaria, and the latter cost
Shalmaueser a three years' siege. — On ver. 1 0 see
chap, xviii. 30, and on ver. 1 1 cf. the similar piece
of boasting, Isai. x. 8-11. This time Sennacherib
addresses himself directly to Hezekiah by a letter,
and hopes for better success than was won by his
servants. The letter contains the same arguments
as Rab-shakeh's speech, with this difference, that
still more countries which had been conquered by
the Assyrian arms are here enumerated, in order
to heighten the effect. DO,"iniT> (ver. 11), not: in
order to destroy them, but; so that they destroyed, or:
by this, that they destroyed them ; strictly : by devot-
ing them to destruction. Cf. Dent. ii. 34; iii. 6;
Josh. viii. 26; 1 Sam. xv. 3, 8; Numb. xxi. 3. —
In ver. 1 2 the countries which Rab-shakeh had not
mentioned are mentioned first, and then, in ver. 13,
those which he had mentioned. On Gozan see
note on chap. xvii. 6. The mention of this place
in connection with Haran in Mesopotamia (Gen.
s.\. 31) does not force us to conclude that it refers
to Gauzanitis in that country. " The enumeration
is founded on historical, not on geographical facts "
(Keil). Itezeph wue a place in the district, of Pal-
myra, in eastern Syria, which Ptolemy calls (5,15)
'¥rjaaij>a. It was a day's journey west of the En
phrates (Winer, R,- W.-B.). Jalkuti mentions nin»
cities of this name in his geographical dictionary.
The one here referred to was probably the most
important amongst them. Eden is certainly not
the Syrian Eden (Amos i. 5), for the reference here
is to Assyrian conquests ; but is the Eden men-
tioned in connection with Canneh and Haran, in
Ezek. xxvii. 23. It must, therefore, be sought in
Mesopotamia. It is quite uncertain where Thelasar
was, and whether it was a city or a district. Per-
haps it was in Mesopotamia, like the other places
here mentioned, or perhaps it was in Babylon, for
pn (hill) occurs at the first part of many Baby-
lonian geographical names. Ewald considers it
identical with Theleda, near Palmyra. According
to Delitsch, it is " Thelser of the Tab. Peuting.,
on the east side of the Tigris." The children of
Eden " may have been a tribe which had just
then acquired importance, had established itself in
Thelasar, a place which did not originally belong
to it, and had founded a kingdom there, as -the
Chaldeans did in Babylon " (Drechsler). — On ver.
1 3 see notes on chap. xvii. 24 and xviii. 34.
Ver. 14. And Hezekiah received the letter.
The plural, D'lSD , has here a singular significa-
tion ; literal, epistola, as the suffix in WbHS'l
shows. Hezekiah went into the temple to pray,
after the receipt of Sennacherib's letter, as he had
done after Rab-shakeh's speech (ver. 1). He
spread it before the Lord, as it were before
the throne of Jehovah. It is incomprehensible
that Gesenius should have asserted that Hezekiah
did this with the same motive with which the Thi-
betans set up their prayer-machines before their
gods, in order that the gods may read the prayers
for themselves. The substance of the prayer itself
(ver. 15-19) contradicts any such notion most dis-
tinctly, for the conception of the one sole God of
heaven and earth, as opposed to all heathen con-
ceptions of divinity, which here appears, excludes
totally any such coarse anthropomorphic fantasy.
It is impossible to impute any such gross supersti-
tion to that king of Israel, who displayed zeal
against idolatry such as no king since David had
shown, and who stood in such relation as we have
seen to Isaiah, the most gifted of the prophets.
Nor can we explain to ourselves Hezekiah's action
in spreading the letter before God, with Keil
and Von Gerlach, as " child-like faith and confi-
dence," for it would have been more than " child-
ish " if Hezekiah had believed that this letter must
be presented to God for Him to see and read it
Himself. Still less can we suppose that his object
was ut populum earum literarum conspectu ad deum
orandum excitaret (Clericus). It was rather a signifi-
cant, or symbolic, act. Hezekiah solemnly hands
over the letter, the documentary blasphemy, to Je-
hovah. He spreads it before Jehovah and leaves to
Him the work of punishing it. Lisco: "The act of
spreading out the letter before Jehovah is a sym
bolic presentation of the great distress into which
lie has been brought by Sennacherib, and to which
his prayer refers." Delitsch: "It is a prayer
without words, a prayer in action, which then
passes into a spoken prayer." He calls upon Je-
hovah as the God of Israel, i. e., as the one who
has chosen Israel out of all the nations of tho
earth to be His own people, and has made a cove-
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
211
nant with this nation, and who, therefore, sits be
tween the cherubim, and dwells amongst His cho
sen people (see the dissertation on the Significance
of the Temple under 1 Kings vi., § 6, c and d), is not,
however, a mere national divinity like the gods of
the nations which the Assyrians had conquered, as
Sennacherib supposed, but is the One, Almighty
Creator of heaven and earth. In Isai. xxxvii. 16
we And with niiT the word niN3V , wairewpd-
Tup (2 Sam. v. 10; vii. 8). This would hardly have
been left out if the author had found it in the origi-
nal document which served as his authority. " JOn
in fcWrrnFIN 's an emphatic repetition, and so a
reinforcement, of the subject, as in Isai. xliii. 25 ;
li. 12. &c. ; tu We (not, tu es Me), that is, tu, nullus
alius" (Delitseh).
Ver. 16. Lord, bow down thine ear. Drechs-
ler : " This express mention of the two chief senses,
the development of each of the two chief ideas, ac-
cording to their details, into a twofold prayer, the
complete symmetry of the two clauses of the sen-
tence, the repetition of nirp in the second clause
— all these conspire to give to the prayer the
greatest urgency and emphasis." The singular,
"thine ear,'' with the plural, "thine eyes," is a
standing formula (Ps. xvii. 6 ; xxxi. 2, Ac). " When
we wish to hear, we bend down one ear to the
speaker; when we wish to see, we open both
eyes " (Gesenius). That " open thine eyes " does
not mean : " Read the letter " (Knobel) is evident
from Isai. i. 15, where the reference is not to a let-
ter at all, but only to a prayer. The second " hear "
ia equivalent to " notice," " pay heed to." [The
anthropomorphism is plain. The explicit mention
of the senses in addressing God is intended to ex-
press the most urgent prayer for attention. — W.
G. S.] — In ver. 17 Hezekiah admits the truth of
what Sennacherib had boasted of, namely, the sub-
jugation of all those peoples and countries. By the
following words he means to say : This was possi-
ble for him because they had no protection and no
help in their gods of wood and stone ; but thou, 0
Jehovah I our God, art the only God, the Almighty
One, Who canst help. Help then thy people for
thine own glory, that all nations may know Thee
as the One True God (ver. 19). a'lnn does not
mean : to put to death by the sword (Luther), but : to
devastate, to destroy. Ezek. xix. 7 ; Judges xvi. 24.
Instead of the nations and their lands, Isaiah
xxxvii. 18 reads: "all the lands and their (own)
land." [E. V. (as an escape from the difficulty)
"all the nations and their lands."] The reading
of Isaiah is not to be preferred " on account of its
greater difficulty " (Keil, Drechsler). On the con-
trary, the text of Kings seems to be more correct,
as the majority of the commentators admit. The-
nius goes so far as to say that the text of Isaiah
must be " totally rejected." The explanation that
the Assyrians had, in consequence of their numer-
less wars, devastated their own country, is alto-
gether too forced. It does not fit the context, for,
if it were adopted, then "their gods" in ver. 18
might refer to the gods of the Assyrians. Neither
does Jinjl , in Isaiah, deserve to be preferred, as the
more difficult reading, to the 1}J"U1 of the text be-
fore us. Knobel gives an incorrect interpretation
of the words : And have cast their gods into
the fire. Hezekiah does not mean " to put their
godliness in its proper light," and to say: "They
acted wickedly even from their own stand-point,
since they held these idols to be gods, and never-
theless destroyed them." Drechsler's remark is
more correct : " Standing themselves in the midst
of the heathen modes of thought, and moving with
the mythologic tendency which was in the process
of development, they recognized the deep connec-
tion between the religion of a people, its national
cultus, and its identity as a particular individual in
the family of nations. It was a result of this fun-
damental conception that the idols of conquered
peoples were often carried into captivity." [That
is, the whole nationality was taken captive, reduced
to submission, and carried away by the victor,
root and branch. — Hezekiah's mention of the de-
struction of the heathen gods (idols), in his prayer,
therefore, belongs to his description of the com-
pleteness of the Assyrian victory, and the utter ex-
tirpation of the nationalities which they had con-
quered.— W. G. S.] Thenius refers, in his com-
ment on this passage, to Botta, Monum. pi. 140,
" where an idol is being hewn in pieces while the
booty from a conquered city is being carried out
aDd weighed." — Therefore they have destroyed
them. They were easily able to do so, he means
to say, because these were gods made by men's
hands out of wood and stone. " It will, however,
and it must, be entirely different, if he now pro-
ceeds to assail Jehovah " (Drechsler). [The con-
nection of thought may be thus developed : His
boast is true. He has indeed uprooted the nations,
devastated their countries, and destroyed their idols,
in whom they trusted for protection. The inference
he desires us to draw is, that Jehovah, our God, in
whom we trust, will not be able to save us, any
more than these gods to save their worshippers.
But what is the assumption on which this inference
entirely depends ? It is that Jehovah is only an-
other god like those. But they are only pieces of
wood and stone, while Jehovah is the sole and al-
mighty God of hosts. Hence the assumption is
false, the inference falls to the ground with it, and
the boast, although it is true, is idle. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 20. Then Isaiah . . . sent to Hezekiah,
Ac. He did not probably send the following an
swer by a "younger prophet," or " prophet-dis
ciple " (chap. ix. 1) (Knobel), but by the same em-
bassy which Hezekiah, who in the mean time had
gone into the temple, had sent to him. The reply
was not written (Starke), it was delivered orally,
but it is certain that it was recorded by Isaiah. —
She despises thee, &c., ver. 21. The entire pas-
sage vers. 2 1-34 may be divided into three parts.
In the first, vers. 21-28, the haughty Assyrian
himself is addressed. It consists of words especi-
ally adapted to scorn his pretensions. In the sec-
ond, vers. 29-31, the prophet addresses himselt
directly to Hezekiah. In the third, vers. 32-34,
the catastrophe of the Assyrian enterprise is sol-
emnly foretold. The commencement of the oracle
constitutes, in form and contents, the strongest
nnd most confident contrast to the Assyrian haugh-
tiness. [This division is correct for the sense of
the passage. According to its poetic construction,
however, it is rather composed of four strophes,
two of four and two of three verses. The oracle
is highly finished both in its poetic construction,
and in the flow of thought. It commences witt
an indignant and scornful outburst o' utter cop-
212
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tempt for the Assyrian pretensions (first str.) ; it
then proceeds to refute them by calmer reasoning
(sec. str.) ; then it turns to Hezekiah and Judah,
the other parties to the dispute, with encourage-
ment (third str.) ; and finally it gives, with quiet
confidence, a declaration as to the solution of the
crisis (fourth str.). — W. G. S.] — The virgin daugh-
ter, Zion: not o/Zion. Even the stat. const, rtarG ,
only expresses the relation of apposition. " Daugh-
ter " is the ordinary figure under which lands and
cities are designated (Isai. xxiii. 12 ; xlvii. I ; Jerem.
xlvi. 11; Lament, i. 15). "Virgin" is used of a
city which is as yet unconquered (see Gesenius on
Isai. xxiii. 12). Here it is prefixed by way of em-
phasis, and expresses " in contradiction to the
confidence of the Assyrian, the consciousness of
impregnability " (Drechsler). At thee, lit. after thee
or behind thee. " This is a picturesque feature in the
description, and is, therefore, mentioned first (He-
brew text). Behind thee, as thou departest in shame
and disgrace " (Drechsler). She wags her head,
not moving it from side to side as a sign of refusal or
disapproval, but up and down, as a sign of ridicule,
Ps. xxii. 7 ; cix. 25; Job xvi. 4; Jerem. xviii. 16.
She shows "by this gesture that it must have
turned out so and not otherwise " (Delitsch). This
scorn and ridicule is well deserved, because Sen-
nacherib had blasphemed the Most High, therefore,
ver. 22 : Whom hast thou insulted and blas-
phemed ? He that sitteth upon the heavens shall
laugh. — Lifted voice, not in the sense of shouting
aloud (Drechsler, Keil) (for Rab-shakeh was the
only one who had lifted up his voice in this sense,
not Sennacherib), but in the more general sense of
uttering words against anybody [a poetic expres-
sion for speaking]. D110 is not the "height of
thine eyes " (Umbreit), but on high, upwards to-
wards heaven; cf. Isai. lvii. 15, "I dwell in the
high and holy place." It does not, therefore,
simply mean, as in Isai. xl. 26, to look up towards
heaven, but, as is seen by the following words:
" Against the Holy One of Israel," it has au acces-
sory reference to that pride and arrogance, which
places itself on a level with Him who dwells in
heaven. The Holy One of Israel is, it is true,
the name which is peculiar to Isaiah, but here it is
used because " Jehovah is especially designated
by the title which distinctly implies that His
majesty cannot be outraged by anybody with im-
punity, Isai. v. 16" (Drechsler). The Sept. and
Vulg. [and E. V.] translate, in violation of the
masoretic accents : " Against whom hast thou
lifted up thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on
high ? Against the Holy One of Israel I "
Ver. 23. By thy messengers thou hast
insulted the Lord. The "messengers" are
those mentioned in ver. 9. In Isai. xxxvii. 24
we find instead : " thy servants," evidently re-
ferring to those meutioned in chap, xviii. 11. The
speech which the prophet here puts in the mouth
of Sennacherib, and in which he gives the key to
ali the feelings and disposition of the latter, is di-
vided into two parts by the emphasized 'JX in
vers. 23 and 24. Then each principal clause
is subdivided. The Sept., Vulg., Luther, and
others take all the verbs iu both verses as perfect
tenses, but it is incorrect because the perfect TlvVi
ver. 23, is followed by the two futures J1113X an»
nX13S , and likewise the perfect 'flip , ver. 24,
by innN- It is still less admissible to refer ver.
23 to past time and ver. 24 to future time, and to
translate the perfect 'JVPy as a perfect, but the
perfect 'mp as an imperfect, as is often done.
The rule which here applies is the one given by
Gesenius (Hebr. Gramin. § 126, 4): "The perfect
may even refer to the future, especially in strong
affirmations and assurances, in which the speaker
regards the matter, in his own will, as already
done, or as good as accomplished. In German
[and English] the present is used in such cases in-
stead of the future " (cf. Ewald, Lehrb. § 135, c).
This use is common in prophecies, Isai. ix. 1 ; v.
13. Cf. Ps. xxxi. 6; Gen. xv. 18; xvii. 20. We
therefore translate, with De Wette, Hitzig, Knobeh
Umbreit, Ewald, and others, both perfects by the
present, especially as it could not, in any sense, be
said of Sennacherib that he had already dried up
all the rivers of Egypt. Sennacherib boasts not
so much of what he has done as of what he can
do ; he represents himself as almighty. Yet it is
true that " in each of the two verses, the second
clause gives the consequence of the first, that is
to say, the second clause tells, in each case, what
the Assyrian proposes to do after he has accom-
plished what is mentioned in the first clause "
(Keil). Drechsler's objection that this makes the
Assyrian appear as an "empty boaster," who, "in
ridiculous hyperboles piles up a catalogue of things
which he boastfully intends to do," has no weight,
for it is not the prophet's intention to mention all
the great tilings which the Assyrian has already
done, but to show what he imagines that he can
do. He does not mean to make him enumerate the
great deeds which he has accomplished, but he
means to describe his disposition, the thoughts of
his heart. — This answers the question whether the
words which are here put into the mouth of Sen-
nacherib are to be taken literally (historically) or
figuratively. Many of the old commentators
thought that they were literal and historical.
Drechsler adopts this view. He says: "The
greater the deeds were which he boasted of, the
more necessary it was, if he did not wish to pro-
duce an entirely contrary effect from the one which
the words seem to indicate, that there should bo
earnest facts behind his words, and that they should
rest upon incidents which could not be denied, but
were notorious." Keil justly objects that there is
not the slightest reason to believe that Sennache-
rib, or any of his predecessors, ever crossed Mt.
Lebanon, with all his chariots and military force,
and conquered Egypt, or dried up its rivers. Um-
breit also says : " We do not see what the cutting
down of the cedars and cypresses signifies, under
this interpretation." "Nevertheless, the speech,
although it is here given in a rhetorical and poet-
ical form, is not mere poetry. The figures used
rest upon actual circumstances, and the speech is
not exhausted if we simply interpret it to mean
There exists no effectual hindrance to my power,
neither heights nor depths, neither mountains with
impenetrable forests, nor plains which are barren
and waterless, or cut up by rivers. On the con-
trary, ver. 23 refers directly to Palestine, and ve»
CHAPTERS XVIII. AXD XIX.
21?
24 to Egypt. Lebanon is the mountain which
forms the northern boundary of Palestine. It
shuts it in and forms the gateway to it (cf. Zaeh.
xi. 1, Cocceius : Libanon munimentum terra Canaan
versus septentrionem est). When an enemy lias
passed ever it and occupied it, the whole land lies
open before him ; it is in his power. Just as the
word "gate" is made to cover that to which the
gate leads, so Lebanon here stands for the whole
country to which it is the key (Isai. xxxiii. 9 ; xxxv.
2). [There is no instance of this use of language.
Lebanon is often spoken of as one of the glories
of the country ; never as standing for, covering, or
representing the country. The two instances quoted
belong to the former usage. In Isai. xxxiii. 9, Leb-
anon is mentioned with Sharon and Bashan, the
other especial sources of pride to the country, as
lying waste. In xxxv. 2, among the details of the
future glory which was to be enjoyed, Lebanon
is mentioned to say that it shall recover its former
grandeur. In neither ease does it, in any sense,
stand for the land of Canaan. — W. G. S.] As in
the north Canaan was shut in by Lebanon, so it
was enclosed and protected on the south by the
waterless desert of Beersheba (Gen. xxi. 14), which
is contiguous to the desert El Tih (Herodotus iii.
5, Robinson, Palestine I., 300). Beyond are the
rivers, the arms of the Nile which protect Egypt.
These two great hindrances, the mountain on the
north, and the desert and then the rivers on the
south, the haughty king declares to be insignificant.
He can pass over Lebanon even with his chariots,
and can dry up the rivers of Egypt with the soles
of his feet. But all this even does not exhaust
the meaning of this speech. If, namely, ver. 23
only meant to say : The highest mountain in the
country is no hindrance for me, then we could not
see what was the significance of the following
words: And I will hew down its loftiest
cedars and its choicest cypresses. It cannot
refer to any actual cutting down of these trees,
since Sennacherib had no reason for devastating
Lebanon, or for wanting cedar or cypress wood.
Moreover the cedars and cypresses were no partic-
ular hindrance to him. We have here another in-
stance of the figure which occurs in Jerem. xxii.
6, 7. 23; Ezek. xvii. 3, only somewhat further
elaborated. Lebanon is the kingdom of Judah, its
summit is Jerusalem, the city of David and Mount
Zion. Its cedars and cypresses are its princes and
mighty men, whom Sennacherib thinks that he can
" hew down." Its " resting-place " and " forest-
grove " are the king's palace on Mount Zion ; there
he intends to make his encampment (Isai. x. 29.
See Delitsch on Isai. xxxvii. 24). i?D~i3 "ijp is not
a designation for the "places on Mount Lebanon
which were thickly grown with herbs " (Fiirst),
but for the forest on its summit, which consisted of
beautiful trees forming an orchard-like grove, see
Isai. xxix. 17. "The predicate 'garden' is applied
to this forest because it consists of choice trees "
(Drechsler). [It rather resembles a carefully kept
grove or orchard than an untrained forest. — W. G.
S.] Both expressions are decisive in favor of the
figurative acceptation of the passage, for we can-
not suppose that there was a real "inn," or " rest-
.ng-place," on the summit of Lebanon (Clericus,
Vitringa, Rosenmuller) ; in the first place, because
there is no mention of any such thing, and again,
'' ■■cause, if there had been, it would not have been
of any importance to Sennacherib. Moreover.
"Resting-place" [literally "inn"] and "forest-
grove " are in apposition, but a forest is not an inn,
and can only be called a " resting-place " in so far as
it is a shady place fit to rest in, that is, in a figura-
tive sense. There is, however, in both expressions
a reference to the " House of the Forest of Leba-
non " (1 Kings vii. 2; Isai. xxii. 8), which repre-
sented the defensive military forc6 (see 1 Kings
vii., Exeg. on ver. 2, and Hist, § 2), and which re- ,
sembled a forest on account of its cedar columns.
The full sense of ver. 23, therefore, which, because
it affected Hezekiah, is more detailed than ver. 24,
which refers to Egypt, is this: I am putting an
end to the kingdom of Judah with its capital, its
citadel, its kings, and its princes, and all its glory.
[The figurative interpretation is adopted by all the
commentators of note, but the above special appli-
cation of the details of the verse to "Mount Zion,"
the "King's palace." the "House of the Forest of
Lebanon," the "Princes and Chief men," Ac, &c,
suffers from the weakness which is inherent in
every symbolical interpretation which is not directly
suggested in the context. It is evident that the sym-
bolical explanations are forced and far-fetched, and,
in the mouth of an Assyrian, inexplicable. More-
over, a careful examination of the other cases where
Lebanon is used in a metaphor (Isai. xxxiii. 9 ; xxxv.
2; xxii. 6, 7, 23; Ezek. xvii. 3; Hab. ii. 17) shows
that they differ essentially from this one. The
simile is always formally introduced as such, and
there is no evidence of any usage of language by
which Lebanon was made to stand for the whole
country as, for instance, " Jerusalem " or " Mount
Zion " were used for the whole nation. The de-
tails given in verse 23 form an exact description of
the march of an army over Lebanon. Let us sup-
pose for a moment that Sennacherib had actually
entered Palestine from the north by passing over
the mountain. He then boasts that by or with the
whole host of his chariots, usually supposed to be
fit only for travelling over a plain, he has even
gone up to the top of the mountain ; that he there
cut down the largest and strongest trees (cypresses
and cedars being the principal trees on Lebanon), in
order to make a way for his army — these mighty
trees, the pride of the mountain, making it difficult
for an army to march through and preserve its
order, had not availed to hinder him. He had
hewn them down and cast them away. He had
found a resting-place and encamped his army on
the very summit of the mountain, in its choicest
and most beautiful forest, which had proved for
him a shelter and resting-place, not a hindrance.
If we thus suppose that, as a fact, he had accom-
plished this difficult military feat, it is seen that
the details of this boast, which is put into his
mouth, fit well into the actual details of such an
undertaking. We will not infer that he had accom-
plished this feat, since no hint of it occurs any-
where, but the accuracy of the details is very re-
markable. Ver. 24, on the other hand, is brief,
and purely poetical. What are we to understand
by parching up rivers with the soles of one's feet?
This rather corresponds to the nature of a bold en-
terprise, as yet unaccomplished, than to the actual
details of a feat already performed. The attempt
to specify in detail the things referred to by the
separate objects in a bold poetic image or reference
of this kind is always a failure. It only sketches
in bold outline the thoughts, ambitions, and inteo
2U
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
tions of Sennacherib, being based possibly on actu-
al deeds which he had accomplished, and in this
form it must be left. It is not a parable, but a
poetic and boastful statement, in huge outline, of
what was in his mind. Whether; as an actual fact,
he had led his army over Lebanon or not, he makes
use of such a feat as a general specimen of the
kind of things he was capable of accomplishing. If
he had not done something of that kind, Drechsler's
objection would have great force, that his boast
would be ridiculous. That "Lebanon" figures in
this speech may be merely owing to the fact that
a Jewish prophet puts it into the mouth of the
Assyrian, and Sennacherib may somewhere else
have passed with his army over a mountain which
was supposed to be impassable. In short, then, it
is a boast, founded probably on some feat which
the Assyrians had accomplished, calling up in vivid
figures their power to overcome hindrances sup-
posed to be insurmountable, and setting forth the
arrogance which these successes had inspired in
them, which led them to think that no obstacles
could stay them. Having passed mountains, they
were ready to believe that they could parch up
rivers. Then follows the rebuke that they had had
all these successes only because they were fore-
ordained instruments of God's Providence, but
that, when they had reached the limit of what he
intended them to do, they could go no farther, and
moreover that their arrogance in ascribing their
success to their own power would call for punish-
ment from Him.— W. G. S.]
In regard to the detailed exegesis we have yet
to notice <33"| 33"I3 , literally: "With chariot
of my chariots," i. e., with my numberless chariots
(cf. Nahum iii. 17, '313 313). According to Keil
this is " more original ; " according to Knobel
it is " more choice, more difficult, and therefore
preferable " to «j3i 313 , " with the multitude
of my chariots," which we find in Isai. xxxvii. 24,
and which the keri, many codices, and all the an-
cient versions have in this place. We agree with
Thenius in preferring the latter reading as the mere
natural one. The sense is the same in either case.
Ewald translates : " By the simple march of my
chariots," but the point of importance here is not
the uninterrupted onward march, but that chariots,
which generally are only fit for level ground, are
said to have passed over the highest mountains.
Its summit, (TI3"I\ cf. Jer. vi. 22, where the
Sept. has a^' toxdrov), literally, its outmost limit
or boundary, Vulg. summitas. )i?0 is decidedly
to be preferred to D1"ip 1 height (Isai. xxxvii. 24), for
it is far more significant, and the idea of " height "
is already expressed in ,ri3"l'' ■ — I dig and drink,
ver. 24. Ver. 23 refers to the subjugation of Pal-
estine; ver. 24 to that of Egypt. The digging
does not refer to " the redigging of the wells and
cisterns which had been filled up by the fleeing
enemy " (Thenius), but to the work which is neces-
sary to find water for a great army in a district where
it is wanting. "Strange water" is "water which
is not sprung from the soil of this nation " (Drechs-
ler), not, water which belongs to others (Clericus:
in alieno solo, quasi in meo, fodiam puteos). if is used
«s in Isai. xvii. 10. The word is wanting in the
text of the parallel passage of laaiah, but it il
very forcible. [This interpretation is not clear.
It must mean either that Sennacherib's army car-
ried with it water from Assyria, which is not con-
ceivable unless possibly for the king alone, or else,
taking the verb as a distinct preterite, that he had
drunk the waters of other nations than Judah, viz.,
of Assyria, and hence his strength. This latter hy-
pothesis would not chime well with the next clause
and is not acceptable. Clericus' interpretation ia
better. The Assyrian boasts that he comes into
foreign nations and digs for and drinks the water
of their soil — makes use of their resources. — W.
G. S.] On the other hand, where there is a super-
abundance of water, as in Egypt, where the rivers
assure the inhabitants an abundant supply, and, at
the same time, form barriers to an invader (Nile
and its arms, see Winer, R.-W.-B., I. s. 25), there
he parches it up. With the sole of my foot,
a strong hyperbole. It does not mean " under the
footsteps of my countless army " (Knobel). [It
seems to be a purely imaginative and poetic idea,
with which no literal, corresponding, fact can be
associated. It could only be applied to a deity,
and then only by a poetic image, if the river should
disappear by some extraordinary interposition.
The king, in his self-assumption, asserts that he
will, by some similar god-like power, which is not
probably defined as to its mode of operation, even
in his own mind, dispose of this hindrance when
he meets it. — W. G. S.] "lixO is the poetic name
for Egypt. [llVJD, "the 'land of distress' (Angst-
land), is a poetic metamorphosis of the Hebrew
name of Egypt," D'nSD 1 " cf. chap. xix. 6 ; Mi-
cah vii. 12" (Ewald).] D,~IN, are 'he arms and
canals of the Nile; Isai. xix. 6 compared with vii.
18; Ezek. xxix. 3; xxx. 12; Micah vii. 12. In
like manner Claudian (De Bella Goth., V. 526)
represents Alarich as boasting: Cum cesserit om-
nts Obsequiis natura meis ? subsidere nostris. Sub
pedibus montes, arescere vidimus amnes. Drechs-
ler thinks that " the historical acceptation of ver.
24 cannot be refuted," but the notion of drying up
the Nile with the soles of the feet is certainly fig-
urative. [Ver. 24 certainly cannot be understood
literally or historically, see above.] The Nile and
its branches are to Egypt what the Lebanon and
its cedars were to Palestine, viz., tie fortification
and protection of the country. Sennacherib exalts
himself above both as if he were almighty : Where
there is no water, there I know how to bring it
out of the earth, and where a mass of water lies
in my way, I can dry it up.
Ver. 25. Hast thou not heard? Jehovah
now answers Sennacherib's insolent and arrogant
boast (ver. 23 and 24) by a question, the form of
which assumes that he must give an affirmative
reply, as the most lively and sharpest form of re-
buke (see the questions in Job xxxviii.) : Thou
speakest as if the greatness of thy might were thy
work, and all which thou hast done an achieve-
ment of thy power. Know that / planned and
ordained it thus of old, and that thou hast only
executed my decrees, and been an instrument in
my hand, cf. Isai. vii. 20 ; x. 5 ; vi. 12 sq. The old
commentators took " hear " in a literal sense as
referring to the wonderful deeds of God in deliver-
ing His people out of Egypt and bringing them t«
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX
215
Canaan, which, they think, were well known to these words now, the prophet turns to Hezekiah.
Sennacherib : but the following nnX , this, shows
that that only is meant which had been accom-
plished by the Assyrians. Hence others have
imagined that there was a reference to prophetic
oracles like Isai. vii. 20 sq. which had come to the
ears of Sennacherib (cf. Jerem. xl. 1-15), but we
may be sure that the prophet did not, in his oracle
against the enemy, refer back to that declaration,
which was pronounced against Israel. Still less
can we agree with Thenius that it refers to an
inner hearing of the soul or conscience, or indeed
to " Assyrian oracles which were consulted before
undertaking the expedition." The question has
rather this simple sense : If thou hast never heard
it, then hear it now, and know that I planned and
determined (literally, fashioned) it so (Isai. xxii.
11). Vitringa : Eventum hunc in omni sua nepiaTa-
eet pr<tformasse in consilio mea providential. pimD
is used here of time, as in Isai. xxii. 11 ; Ql\> 'D'D
as in Isai. xxiii. 1 ; Micah vii. 20, " from ancient
days." \~ljn is generally translated : " That thou
mayest be for the destruction." Keil and Dreehs-
ler : " That there may be fortified cities for de-
struction," as in the formula "|JQ;j iTTI (Isai. v. 5 ;
vi. 13 ; xliv. 15), i. e., that strong cities may be to
be destroyed. [Bahr, in his translation of the
text, follows the latter. The former is strictly
grammatical and less constrained : Thou art to de-
stroy, i. e., this is thy destiny, thou art an instru-
ment for this work. — W. G. S.] — Ver. 26 is close-
ly connected with ver. 25. That the inhabitants
fell down so powerless (literally : were short of
hand, i. e., powerless, Numb. xi. 23 ; Isai. 1. 2), and
made no resistance, was not the work of the As-
syrians, but was foreordained by God. The same
images are used for sudden decay of power in Ps.
xxxvii. 2 ; Isai. xl. 6. This series of metaphors
forms a climax. The grass upon the roof is that
which fades more quickly than that of the field,
because it lacks soil (Ps. cxxix. 6). The corn
blasted in the germ is the corn which is blight-
ed and withers away before the blade springs, so
that at the very outset it has the germ of decay in
itself. nSTt;' is much to be preferred to the less
definite and more general nOTCy, ground (Isai.
xxxvii. 27).— Resting in peace, going out, and
coming in (ver. 27) cover all the activity of a
man (Ps. cxxi. 8 ; Deut. xxviii. 6 ; Ps. cxxxix. 2).
[See note 12 under Grammatical.] — Violent hate,
Vitringa : Commotio furibunda, quw ex ira nascitur
superbiae mixta (Isai. xxviii. 21). Arrogance,
which comes from the feeling of security, Amos vi.
1 ; Ps. cxxiii. 4. The first figure in ver. 28 is taken
from the taming of wild animals, the second from
the controlling of restive horses (Ezek. xix. 4 ;
xxix. 4; Isai. xxx. 28; Ps. xxxii. 9). There are
two sculptures at Khorsabad which represent " a
victorious king leading captives, who stand before
him, by a rope and a ring fastened in their lips "
(Thenius) Dignum superbo supplicium, ut qui se
tupra hominem esse putat, ad morem bruti abjiciatur
(Sanctius) By the way by which thou earnest,
i. e., with this purpose unaccomplished, without
having reached thine object.
Ver. 29. And this be the sign to thee. "With
Tibi autem, Ezechia, hoc erit signum (Vulg.). niX
means in general, as Delitsch accurately observes
(note on Isai. vii. 11), "a thing, an event, or an
action, which is intended to serve as a pledge or
proof of the devine certainty of another. Some-
times it is a miracle, openly performed, striking th
senses (Gen. iv. 8 sq.), sometimes it is a permanent
symbol of what is to come (Isai. viii. 18; xx. 3),
sometimes it consists in a prophecy of future
events, which, whether they are natural or miracu-
lous, are not to be foreseen by human wisdom, and
therefore, when they occur, either reflect back-
wards in proof of their own divine origin (Exod. iii.
12), or furnish evidence of the divine certainty of
others yet to come (Isai. xxxvii. 30 ; Jerem. xliv.
29 sq.)." In the case before us the sign is no mira-
cle (riBlO , 1 Kings xiii. 3), but a natural event
which serves to give assurance of the truth of a
prophecy (Keil). This sign is taken from agricul-
ture, "since this was, at that time, the most im-
portant interest of the people, and their attention
might be expected for a sign which took this form "
(Knobel). In the following declaration PUX stands
first with emphasis, an infinitive absolute, which
"can stand concisely and emphatically for any
tense or person of the verb which the context de-
mands " (Gesenius, Gramm. § 131, 4 b.). It is
often understood here as an imperfect : One shall
eat, i. e., people shall eat, or, ye shall eat (Drechs-
ler, Keil, and others) ; or, as a present ; One eats,
i. e. Ye are eating (Umbreit, Delitsch, and others),
and njtsTl '3 then translated, " this current year."
But we have here three years mentioned, of which
the third is the first, which shall be a complete
harvest-year, viz., on account of the withdrawal of
the Assyrians, who shall leave the land which they
have occupied once more free. Ver. 35 shows
distinctly that the Assyrian army perished before
the third year after the prophet's declaration, and
Sennacherib's retreat therefore followed before the
third year. Observe especially, in ver. 35, the
words: "that night." (See notes below on these
words.) Sennacherib, when he heard of Tirhaka's
advance, had withdrawn from Lachish to Libnah.
From there he once more threateningly demanded
the surrender of Jerusalem (vers. 8-10). How can
we now understand that, from this point on, he re-
mained in Palestine yet three years, without really
laying siege to the city which he had so earnestly
threatened ? We are, therefore, compelled to take
this inf. abs. in the sense of a perfect : edistis
(Maurer, Gesenius, Thenius. Cf. Ewald, Lehrb. §
240, a. ; 302, c). [Sixth Ed. In the seventh Ed. the
subject is otherwise treated, and the inf. abs. is
not represented as standing for any finite form, but
as a pure and indefinite expression of the verbal
notion, without giving it limitations of time or per-
son. This is unquestionably correct. See § 328,
b. — W. G. S.] njE*", in contrast with " the second "
and " the third " year, cannot, of course, refer to
anything else than he year which precedes them,
that is, the first one. In this first year the Assy-
rians had invaded the country, and had prevented
the people from raising crops. In the second year
they were still there, and the crops failed because
they had devastated the country. In the tlird
216
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
year they retired, and therefore the land could
be cultivated. In the first year they lived upon
IV2D i *• ?■■ upon that which grew up from the leav-
ings of the former crop, Levit. xxv. 5, 11. Vitringa :
Ex etymo valet accessorium, quod sponte nascitur post
sementem ; a sort of after-growth from fruit of the
previous crop which was accidentally dropped in
gathering in the harvest. In the second year they
lived upon t.'"nD , i e., " offshoots of the roots,
which spring up in the second year after the plant-
ing " (Fiirst) ; avTotiw/ (Aquila, Theodoret). " In
the fertile parts of Palestine, especially in the plain
of Jezreel, on the highlands of Galilee, and else-
where, the grains and cereals propagate themselves
in abundance by the ripe ears whose super-abun-
dance no one uses (cf. Schubert, Reise, III. *. 115,
166. Ritter, Erdkunde XVI. s. 283, 482, 693).
Strabo (11. p. 502) makes a similar statement in re-
gard to Albania, that the field which lias been
once sown bears, in many places, a double harvest,
sometimes even three, the first one tiftyfold "
(Keil on Levit. xxv. 6). And the third year sow,
and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their
fruits. " The long series of imperatives makes a
strong impression, especially in contrast with the
indifference of the infin. absol. in the first hemi-
stich " (Drechsler). This interpretation of the
oracle is the only one which gives just force to
J11N • The sign is not something which does not
yet exist but is to come ; it is something visible,
physical, and present, which announces and gives
a pledge of something invisible and future. The
sense, therefore, is not : Te shall from this time
on, in the present year, eat the chance product of
the uncultivated fields, and in the next, the fruit of
the offshoots from the roots of the plants, and then,
in the third, sow and reap — for that would not be
a " sign " ; — but the sense is : So certainly as ye
have lived one year on the chance produce, and one
year on after-growth, just so certainly shall ye sow
and reap in the third year ; that is to say : the land
will be delivered from the Assyrians, and free for
you to cultivate (cf. Hos. vi. 2). [Clearly this,
when it should come to pass, would not bo any
" sign " that something, viz., the retreat of the As-
syrians, should yet come to pass. In the nature of
things the Assyrians must depart before the Jews
would venture into the fields. We might as well
say : The clouds shall be dispelled, and the sign
of it shall be that the sun shall shine. The inter-
pretation of the passage givea above is correct, but
the " sign " cannot be understood to mean that,
when this thing should come to pass according to
the prophecy, it should be a pledge that another
thing, which the prophet had also foretold, should
yet come to pass. It can only mean that when
the Jews should once more find themselves at
work in the fields, where they had not been for
two years, this should be a sign, proof, and re-
minder to them that they had been delivered, by
divine interposition, from a great national calamity.
It is a sign which is of the nature of a symptom, or
index. — W. G. S.] The interpretation which is
given by many of the old expositors admits, on ac-
count of ver. 35, that the retreat of Sennacherib
took place in the year in which the prophet de-
livered this oracle, but it takes the infinitive ~>13X
»s an imperative on account of the following im-
peratives, and then assumes that the " first " year
the one in which Sennacherib retreated, was a Sab-
bath-year, in which, under any circumstances, ac-
cording to the Mosaic law, the people neither sowed
nor reaped, but lived on the second, spontanecui
growth (Levit. xxv. 5), and that a Jubilee-year fol-
lowed next after this, in which likewise there waa
no sowing or reaping (Levit. xxv. 1 1), so that two
harvests in succession were passed over. But the
simple fact that piatt is an infinitive forbids us to
take it as an imperative, and. even if we assume
that the Sabbath- years and Jubilee-years were, at
that time, regularly observed, yet there is no hint
in Levit. xxv. that the Jubilee-year followed imme
diately after a Sabbath-year. But still farther,
who can prove, since every hint of it is wanting in
the text, that just at that time a Sabbath-year and
a Jubilee-year followed successively ? Others have,
therefore, given up the Jubilee-year and have sup-
posed that only the spontaneous product of the
fields was eaten in the first year, because the
country had been devastated by the Assyrians, but
that the second year was a Sabbath-year. Yet
even this cannot be accepted, for the intent of the
" sign " is not that they, trusting in Jehovah,
should for still another year have food to eat, al-
though they did not sow or reap, but that Sennach-
erib should retreat, the land should be delivered
from him, and that too at once, not after three
years. We cannot, therefore, agree with Ewald
(Proph. des Alt. Bundes, I. s. 299 sq.), whom Urn-
breit follows, when he says : " As, after the year
in which, according to the Law, the ground lay fal-
low, yet another year was to be spent without
raising crops, in order to restore the land to its
original condition, a figure which evidently (?)
floated before the mind of the prophet here, so he
apprehended (?) that, in this far more important
case, still a second year must pass without field-
labor, in which they must eat the spontaneous
product of the ground, until, after the extirpation
of all that was unsound and corrupt in the State, a
small company of purified men should commence,
in the third year, a new and prosperous existence,
and the messianic time should begin, taking its
rise in Zion." There is no reference to the Sab-
bath, or Jubilee, year in the entire passage, and no
such reference can ever be established from the
mere fact that IT3D occurs also in Levit. xxv. 5
and 11. Neither can we agree that Drechsler's
explanation (s. 184) is "very simple." According
to him there was left in Judah at that time only a
greatly diminished population, which could not at
once undertake the cultivation of the fields, so
that it was not until after three years that the reg-
ular cultivation of the soil was reestablished. If
there was only "a small remnant" of the popu-
lation remaining, then they did not require much.
They could cultivate enough soil to produce what
they needed, and did not need to live on IT3D ,
much less on t^flD . These interpretations are
all more or less forced, and they all fall to the
ground as soon as we no longer insist upon taking
the infin. absol. TDK as an imperfect or an impera
tive.
Ver. 30. And the remnant of the house 01
Judah that is left. Starting now from the refer
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
217
enee to the growth of the crops, the prophet goes
ou to matters of higher importance, and takes up
that which is the ghief theme of his prophecies in
all their diverse phases (Schmieder), viz., that God,
although he inflicts tierce judgments upon His peo-
ple for their apostasy, nevertheless will not allow
them to perish utterly, but will preserve a remnant
which has escaped or been delivered," a holy seed,"
«nd that from the midst of this the Messiah shall at
ast arise (Isai. vii. 3; x. 20; iv. 2; vi. 13 ; cf. 1
Kings xix. 18). The repeated expressions HC^Bi
mXL"J , and TVlNC* , in vers. 30 and 31, refer to this
idea. The Assyrian invasion, like that of Ephraim
and Syria (Isai. vii ; 2 Kings xvi. 5), was a divine
judgment upon Judah, but the prophet says that
the nation shall not perish under it. A remnant
(JV"INB*i ver- 31i refers back to jyiNtiTI in Heze-
kiah's prayer, ver. 4) shall still remain, and it shall
add roots ( HSD1 ), that is, it shall go on to develop
new roots, and shall win firmer hold (Thenius) ; cf.
Isai. xi. 11; xxvii. 6.— For, from Jerusalem, &c,
ver. 31, i. e., it is the determination of God, adopted
of old, that from Jerusalem, which now is so much
distressed and apparently lost, salvation and re-
demption shall go forth (Isai. ii. 3). Jerusalem and
Mt. Zion form the centre of the theocracy, or king-
dom of God. " The Assyrian chastisement will,
therefore, be a purification of the nation. It will
not result in its destruction. That judgment was,
therefore, a prototype of all the others which be-
fell the kingdom of God in later times, out of
which the election of grace is developed (Rom. xi.
5) in more and more glorious form (Von Gerlach).
The only ground for what is said in vers. 29 to 31
is the zeal of Jehovah, i. e., His zealous and
faithful love to His people (Zach. i. 14). The same
concluding words follow the oracle, Isai. ix. 1-6,
and they show that the passage before us is also,
at least indirectly, messianic. — Therefore, thus
saith the Eternal. p5 gathers up the substance
of all which precedes. The first of the four mem-
bers of the verse, He shall not come, contains
the principal idea. The three others "are nothing
but a development of this one, intended to surround
it here, at the close, with all possible emphasis "
(Drechsler). At the same lime they form a climax :
So far from coming into the city, he shall not even
discharge his missiles against it, or form an assault
against it, or even build up a wall to besiege it.
DHp in the piel means to advance. " The reference
is to an assault with shields held out in front"
(Thenius). Cf. Ps. xviii. 5, 18 ; lix. 10. Instead
of H3 X3' , in ver. 33, we find in Isai. xxxvii. 34 :
FQ N3 , which is unquestionably the correct read-
ing. All the old translations here present the per-
fect. The other reading seems to have arisen from
the second N2' . That which has been already said
in vers. 28 and 32 is here repeated in order to em-
phasize the promise. — For mine own sake, " as
Hezckiah had prayed, ver. 20, and for the sake of
David, my servant, i. e., for the sake of the prom-
ise given to David, 2 Sam. vii." (Drechsler), cf. 1
JLings xi. 13 ; xv. 4.
Ver. 35. And it came to pass that night.
According to Thenius, vers. 35-37 are "evidently
borrowed from a different source from that of xviii.
13-xix. 34, and xx. 1-19." In the original docu-
ment of vers. 35-37 he thinks that the words : " It
came to pass in that night," referred to something
which had been narrated immediately before and
which is not mentioned here. Delitsch also be-
lieves that there is a gap between vers. 34 and 35,
for, according to ver. 29, there was to be yet a lull
year of distress between the prophecy and the ful-
filment, during which agriculture would be neg-
lected." This consideration loses its force under
our interpretation of ver. 29. The narrator un-
doubtedly means to say in vers. 35-37 that the
prophecy which reaches its climax in vers. 32-34,
was fulfilled at once, and not after the lapse ol
years. This point was of especial importance to
him, and we have no reason to interpret ver. 35-
37 according to ver. 29 ; rather, on the contrary,
ver. 29 according to vers. 35-37. Further, when
we consider that both narratives [the one here and
that in Isaiah] were constructed independently o"
one another from the same source (see the Pre
Urn. Remarks), and that in both, vers. 35-37 fol-
low immediately upon ver. 34, we must infer
that the same was the case also in their common
source. There is, therefore, no room to assume
the existence of another source in which that was
supplied which is here supposed to be left out. —
The words : NinD W'h'Z TVl are generally under-
stood in the sense of ea ipsa node, i. e., in the night
following the day on which Isaiah foretold the re-
treat of the Assyrians. On the contrary Delitsch
thinks that " it can only mean (if, indeed, it is not
a mere careless interpolation), ilia node, referring
to ver. 32 sq., (i. e., the night in which the As-
syrians sat down to besiege Jerusalem)." The Rab
bis (Guemara Sanhedr. iii. 26), and Josephus (xara
tijv Trpu>TTri> rijc iroXinpniac vvara) thus understood
it. But the text does not anywhere say or imply
that Sennacherib had advanced with his whole
army from Libnah to Jerusalem, and that he stood
before it ready to besiege it. [This is true, but
does not meet Delitsch's hypothesis, which is that
a year is to elapse before the Assyrian would com-
mence the formal siege of Jerusalem, and that
" that night " refers to the first night of this siege.
Such an hypothesis removes the difficulty, but does
not seem to be a natural interpretation of the
words. — W. G. S.] The Vulg. translates : Factum
est igitur, in node ilia venit angelus. Menochius
takes this to be emphatic for : in celebri ilia node,
viz., in the one in which the destruction of the As-
syrian army took place. It is very noticeable that
the words in question rre wanting in the narrative
in Isaiah, although that account is in other respects
here identical with the one in Kings, and that ver.
36 there begins with XVI • Also the Sept. ver-
sion of the verse before us omits Xinn and reads
simply: nal eyevero wktSc. Now, although the
statement is no thoughtless interpolation, and still
less, as Knobel thinks, " manufactured " out of
Isai. xvii. 14, yet it would never have been passed
over in Isaiah's narrative, if it had been essential,
or if the chief emphasis lay upon it. The inter-
pretation ea ipsa node does not, therefore, seem to
be absolutely necessary. The main point is, what
is common to both narrat. ■ es, that there was no
delay in the fulfilment of the prophecy. It wai
218
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
not years — for instance, three years — before it was
fulfilled. — The angel of the Lord " is the same
one who, as JVncisn i smote the first-born in
Egypt (Ex. xii. 29 compared with vers. 12 and 13),
and who inflicted the pestilence after the census
under David (2 Sam. xxiv. 15 sq.). The latter pas-
sage suggests that the slaughter of the Assyrians
■was accomplished by a pestilence " (Keil). Jose-
phus (Antiq. x. 1, 5,) declares outright: tov -deny
?.oifiifii[i< kvcKjpl>avTo(; avrov ru G-partS vooov. The
interpretations which assume that there was a battle
with Tirhaka, or an earthquake with lightning, or
a poisonous simoom, are all untenable. The greatly
abbreviated account in Chronicles states, instead
of giving the definite number of the slain (185,000),
that the angel " cut off all the mighty men of valor
and the leaders and captains in the camp of the
king of Assyria" (2 Chron. xxxii. 21). This does
not mean that " only " those persons were killed
(Thenius), but that even these, the real supporters
and the dower of the Assyrian power, fell. In the
camp. We are not told where this was at that
time. It is most natural to suppose that it was
where Rab-shakeh found it on his return, viz., be-
fore Libnah (ver. 8), whither Sennacherib had re-
treated from Lachish. It was pot, therefore, as
has been said, before Jerusalem ; neither was it in
" the pestilential country of Egypt" (Thenius), for
Sennacherib sent the letter to Hezekiah, not from
there, but from Libnah (vers. 8-1 0).— And when
they arose early in the morning, ic. The word
"Ip33, which occurs also in Isai. xxxvii. 36, pre-
supposes the previous reference to " that night,"
which is not there mentioned. Those who were
spared, whose number cannot have been large,
arose as usual early in the morning and found
corpses everywhere. " If DVIO is regarded as an
attribute it is very flat and superfluous, but as an
apposition it gives emphasis " (Drechsler). It was
a cause of great trouble to the old expositors that
Sennacherib was not among the slain. It is not
necessary to suppose that he chanced just then to
be outside the camp. Death of a still harder kind
was destined to befall him (see verse 7), but the
arrogant man was first to suffer the humiliation
that his entire force in which he trusted was to be
destroyed, and he was to march home in shame and
disgrace (ver. 21). "The heaping up of the verbs:
he departed, and went, and returned, expresses
the hastiness of his retreat" (Keil). This retreat
cannot, therefore, have been delayed until the third
year after Isaiah's prophecy, any more than the
pestilence which occasioned it. Sennacherib dwelt
in Nineveh. "The object of these words is to
emphasize the fact that he did not, from this time
forward, undertake any assault upon Judah"
(Drechsler). On Nineveh, the capital and resi-
dence of the kings of Assyria, see Winer, R.-W.-B.
II. s. 158 sq. Nisroch is probably the name of the
chief Assyrian divinity, which is represented on
the Assyrian monuments in human form with
dovble wings and an eagle's head. See Keil on
the place and Muller iu Herzog's Realencyc, X. s.
"i* .', [The rank of Nisroch in the pantheon is not
yet dct' run 1. He was also called Shalman. He
was "king of fluids." He " presided over the course
of human destiny." Hence marriages were placed
under his care (Lenormant).] Adrammelech is the
name of a divinity. [See the bracketed note on
;hap. xvii. 31.] It was a very wide-spread custom
that princes bore the names of divinities (Gesenius
on Isai. vii. 6). Sharezer is probably also the name
of a divinity. It is said to mean "Prince of Fire."
[His full name was Asshur-sarossor = " Asshur
protects the king."] The murder of Sennacherib
by his sons is mentioned in Tobias i. 21, and also
by Berosus, who, however, only mentions one son
(Euseb. Chron. Armen. i. p. 43). The land of Ara-
rat is, according to Jerome on Isai. xxxvii. : Regia
in Armenia campeslris per quam Araxes fluit. It
forms, according to Moses of Chorene, the middle
portion of the Armenian high land. Esar-haddon,
Ezra iv. 2, called by Josephus 'Aaoapaxoddac, is
mentioned by Berosus also as the successor of
Sennacherib. The questions whether he ruled
during his father's life-time as viceroy of Babylon,
and whether Nergilus reigned before him, do not
here demand our attention. See Niebuhr, Geschichte
Assyr. s. 361. It is not by any means free from
doubt that Sennacherib lived nine years after his
retreat before his assassination, as the Assyrian
inscriptions are asserted to show. " Accordingly,
when Hitzig declares that the mention of Senna-
cherib's assassination bears witness against Isaiah's
authorship of this historical passage, he has at least
no ground in the chronology for this assertion, for
it is more than possible, it is very probable, that
Isaiah lived into the reign of Manasseh " (De-
litsch). [See the Supplem. Note at the end of this
section.]
Appendix.- — It remains still to consider the oft-
debated question, whether and when the expedition of
Sennacherib against Egypt took place. It is certain
according to ver. 24 that Sennacherib had the in-
tention of marching against Egypt. It is not,
however, asserted, in the biblical documents at
least, that he ever carried out this intention. On
the contrary, Herodotus gives (II. 141) the account
which he received from the Egyptian priests, thai
Sennacherib advanced against Egypt as far as Pe-
lusium, in the days of the Tanitic king Sethon, a
priest of Vulcan. (Pelusium is the |'D of Ezek
xxx. 15. " It lay at the month of the eastern branch
of the Nile, twenty stadia from the Mediterranean,
in the midst of marshes and morasses. Partly on
account of this position and partly on account of
its strong walls, it was the key to Egypt, of which
every invading army which came from the East
must seek to get possession. All the conquerors
who invaded Egypt from this side stopped at Pe-
lusium and besieged it." Winer, R.- W.-B. II. s. 469.)
They added that, at the prayer of tins priest to the
God for deliverance out of danger, field-mice (five
apovpaiovc) came by night and gnawed the quivers,
the bows, and the straps of the shields, so that
the army whose weapons had thus been made use-
less, was obliged to flee, and many fell ; and that,
on this account, there was, in the temple of Vul-
can, a stone image of this priest-king, having in
the hand a mouse, and bearing the inscription : c{
kftl tic opetjv evaefflc lotw. Josephus (Antiq. x. 1,
1-5), referring expressly to Herodotus, narrates
that Sennacherib undertook an expedition against
Egypt and Ethiopia, but that iiaimpruv rf/ci-'t mic
AXyvKTiovc i~i.^"v'/7;c. he returned leaving his ob-
ject unaccomplished, because the siege of Pelusi-
um had cost him a great deal of time, and becaus«
he had heard that the king of Ethiopia was ad
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX
21s)
ranting with a very strong army to the rtiief of
the Egyptians. Furthermore, Josephus adds that
the Chaldean historian Berosus also states that
Sennacherib miay hnearparevoaro rij 'Aoia nat rij
Alyv-Tu. It can hardly be doubted, therefore, that
though the Assyrian army did not dry up the rivers
of Egypt (ver. 24), yet it advanced to the frontier.
But now we come to the far more difficult question,
at what point of time did this take place '? The
least probable reply is that it fell between vers. 34
and 35 (Sauetius, Knobel), and that the historian
gives no account of it. after ver. 34, because it did
not affect Judah, but simply mentions the destruc-
tion of the army in vers. 35 and 36 without men-
tioning whether it took place in Judah or in Egypt.
But it is incredible that Sennacherib, for whom it
was of the utmost importance (chap, xviii. 17 sq.;
six. 9, sq.) to get possession of Jerusalem, should
have given up the effort to capture it without put-
ting any of his threats into execution, and should
have marched on against Egypt, leaving in his rear
this city which was favorably disposed towards
his enemies (chap, xviii. 21). His backward move-
ment from Lachish to Libnah (ver. S) shows that
he was no longer pursuing his advance against
Egypt. Ewald (Gesch. Isr. III. s. 630 sq.) proposes
another hypothesis. He sets the expedition against
Egypt before all which is narrated from xviii. 13
on. He suggests that Sennacherib marched into
Egypt, by the ordinary way, by Pelusium ; that he
was there arrested and turned back by some ex-
traordinary calamity to which Herodotus' story
refers ; that he then fell upon Judah w-ith a greatly
superior power, and that at this point in the course
of events xviii. 13-xix. 37 comes in. But this
hypothesis also is untenable, for, according to it,
i"6jJ in chap, xviii 13 must refer to a march of
Sennacherib "from South to North," from Egypt
towards Judah ; but it cannot have any different
meaning in ver. 13 from what it has in ver. 9, and
there it is used of a march from Assyria to Judah,
that is, from North to South. It is used in the
same way in chap. xvi. 7 in regard to Tiglath Pile-
ser's expedition, and in chap. xvii. 3 and 5 in re-
gard to Shalmaneser's. Moreover, it would be very
astonishing, if the biblical narrative did not men-
tion the march against Egypt with a single word,
but only mentioned tire retreat from there ; for
Sennacherib must have gone through Judah in
order to reach Egypt, and Judah was hostile to
him and friendly to Egypt. If, however, ver. 13
is to be understood as referring to the advance of
the army, then vers. 14-16 must refer to the same
and not to the retreat. Finally, Josephus pro-
poses a third hypothesis. According to him, Sen-
nacherib devastated Judah, but on the receipt of
gifts from Hezekiah, withdrew, and advanced with
his whole army against Egypt. Contrary to his
agreement, under which the tribute was paid, he
left Rab-shakeh and Tartan behind (narihffe) that
they might destroy Jerusalem. When, however,
he found, after a long siege, that he could not take
Pelusium, and when he heard of Tirhakah's ad-
vance, he suddenly decided to return to Assyria ;
vrroorpeTpac. (T 6 "Zevaxifpiftoc aitb rov r&v Alyinrriuv
•Kokkjiov elc ra 'lepooo'Kvpa KareXafZev €Kel ttjv irnb
rp crparrryiS 'Va-ifianri ivvap.iv rov Qeov Timpmrp
tvOKfppavroc avrov rij> arpari^ vdoov, Kara rty> 7rp<^r?/v
tt/c iroXtopKia^ vvKray diatp&eipovrai pvpiadec, o/crw-
taifana nal rrevraKiax'^'oi .... Seiaac irepl rep
orpariS rravrl <pevyet pera rfji; h)t—qc. tiirvapEuc eli
rrfv avrov fiaaihtiav elg rrjv lisivov. There is but
slight objection to this hypothesis. On the whole
it is the most probable of all. Hezekiah became
king in the year 727 B.C. In his fourteenth year
(chap, xviii. 13) Sennacherib made this expedition,
and sought to get possession of all the fortified
towns in Judah. This was in the year 714. In
713 lie marched against Egypt, leaving Rab-shakeh
in Judah. In 7 12 he was once more before Lachish
and Libnah, and. after his overthrow by the pesti-
lence, he retreated to Assyria. This accords with
chap. xix. 29, according to our iuterpretation of it.
Oil the contrary, according to chap. xix. 7-9, Sen-
uaeherib appears to have heard of Tirhakah's ad-
vance, not when he was before Pelusium, but
when he was once more before Libnah. That he
boasted as he does in vers. 23 and 24, even after
his retreat from Egypt, is not astonishing in the
case of such a haughty king. Possibly he had
drained off or dried up a few swamps in the neigh-
borhood of Pelusium. There can be no more
truth in Herodotus' story which he obtained from
the priests than possibly this, that Sennacherib
besieged Pelusium, but returned without having
t;ik<n it. The rest, of course, is purely mythical.
A mouse was the hieroglyph for devastation and
destruction (Horapoll. Hierogl. i. 50) ; the inhabi-
tants of Troas worshipped mice, on rdc vevpaq run
KoMpiav fiUrpayov rdguv ■ also, the symbol of Mars
was a mouse (Bahr, Herodot. Mus. i. p. 641). It
may well be that Sennacherib was impelled by
some natural occurrence to desist from the siege
of Pelusium and to turn back, and this may have
occasioned the story about the mice. If there had
not been some event of the kind, he certainly
would have advanced further than the frontier.
The army cannot, however, have been rendered
destitute of weapons (yvpvol bnWuv) at Pelusium, or
it could not have carried on war in Judah on its
return. According to all this it can hardly be
doubted that it is one and the same expedition of
Sennacherib which is mentioned by Herodotus and
by the Scriptures, nevertheless the further suppo-
sition which is commonly adopted, that the event
mentioned in ver. 35 is the same one which Hero-
dotus narrates, though under a mythical form
(Bahr, /. c. p. 881), does not seem to us to be cor-
rect. That event took place in Judah, this one be-
fore Pelusium. and it is very improbable that the
Egyptian priests should have made a myth out of
an event which took place in another country, and
did not immediately affect them, and should have
commemorated it by a statue. We cannot deter-
mine definitely what the event was which occurred
before Pelusium, but we must assume that it was
a very striking and important one which influenced
the haughty king to give up his plan and return
to Assyria. In like manner, when he stood in Ju-
dah once more with his army of 185,000 men, and
there assumed such a haughty bearing, some
weighty incident must have occurred which deter-
mined him to hasten his flight.
[There is no reasonable ground for finding two
distinct events in these two accounts, and without
reasonable ground we cannot assume that two dis-
tinct calamities befell Sennacherib which were of
such a character that they were regarded as divine
interpositions. Pelusium was on the frontier, and
it is not at all remarkable that an event which hap-
pened there, or even at Libnah, immediate'y aftet
-220
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Sennacherib had retreated from Pelusium, should
figure in the history of both Judah and Egypt.
Neither is it astonishing that the traditional ac-
count of the event should wear a mythical color ;
on the contrary, such events always take on myth-
ical features. The biblical account is more origi-
nal and direct, and is older than that of Herodotus,
but it certainly refers to the same event.— W. G. S.]
However the fact may be in regard to this
point, the story of Herodotus, which, as Delitsch
says, " depends upon a hearsay tradition of lower
Egypt," and which therefore appears as " a suspi-
cious imitation of the biblical story," cannot be
put on the same footing with the scriptural ac-
count, much less be used to correct it.
[Supplementary Note on the references to
contemporaneous history in chaps, xviii. and xix.
(See similar notes on the preceding chapters.) In
the note on chap. xvii. we gave a summary of the
Assyrian history, so far as it bears upon the his-
tory of the Northern Kingdom, especially upon the
recolonization of Samaria by Sargon, Sennacherib,
and Esarhaddon. This led us to notice some of
the conquests of those kings, and so to observe the
nationalities of the new population. "We have now
to go over the same reigns so far as they bear upon
the history of Judah. Here also the Assyrian in-
scriptions offer us invaluable information for en-
larging and correcting our knowledge of the bibli-
cal history.
It might at first seem strange that the histori-
cal books of the Bible contain no mention of Sar-
gon. We find that he was really king of Assyria
when Samaria fell; that be subdued a revolt in
Samaria a few years later ; that he was the king
who introduced a large part of the new population
into Samaria ; that he conducted two very impor-
tant campaigns in Philistia, in both of which he
came into conflict with Egypt, and in one of which
he won the battle of Raphia, one of the great bat-
tles of Assyrian history. It is impossible that this
all should have come to pass without exciting the
attention and interest of the inhabitants of Judah.
The author of the Book of Kings seems, however,
to have so construed his task, that he did not con-
sider himself called upon to notice campaigns of
the Assyrians which never actually touched, or
directly threatened, Judah. Isaiah (chap, xx.)
mentions Sargon and his attack upon Ashdod rather
in the way of a chronological date ; but his refer-
ence shows that this expedition of the Assyrian
king (or of his Tartan, commander-in-chief) formed
an important event, and fixed a date for the Jews.
Sargon was assassinated (it is not known by whom),
in August, 704.
Sennacherib, son of Sargon, succeeded. We
now possess very full accounts of his reign. These
Assyrian statements and the biblical narrative of
the conflict of Hezekiah and Sennacherib are in
full accord so far as they go; but in the attempt
to harmonize the details we meet with some diffi-
culty, not from their inconsistency, but from their
defectiveness. Lenormant and Rawlinson do not
agree in their accounts of this section of the his-
tory. Rawlinson thinks that Sargon made or sent
two separate expeditions into Judah ; Lenormant
thinks that the whole story belongs to one cam-
paign. The chief argument against the theory of two
«eparate campaigns is that only one is mentioned in
the inscription, although, according to the usage of
the inscriptions, the campaigns are always cata-
logued in their consecutive order, so that, if thera
was one against Judah, then one against Babylon,
and then another against Judah, we should expect
them to be so catalogued. Rawlinson's account
makes a very clear and satisfactory narrative (see
"Five Great Monarchies" II. 431-443 2d Ed.
161-168), but the usage of the inscriptions is so
constant that we seem compelled to follow the
theory of one campaign.
On the death of Sargon (104), Hezekiah re-
volted (xviii. 7) together with the kings of Phoeni-
cia, Philistia, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. They
had also sympathy and encouragement from Sha-
batok (Sabacon II., the Sethos of Herodotus, son
of Sabacon I., the So of the Bible), king of Egypt.
It was not until Sennacherib's third year that he
turned his attention to this revolt. An inscription
on a cylinder in the British Museum reads thus :
" In my third campaign I marched towards
Syria." He swept down through Phoenicia and
Philistia, crushing all opposition. "The rulers . .
of Ekron " (Lenormant reads Migron, cf. Isaia. x.
28) "had betrayed the king, Padi, who was in-
spired by friendship and zeal for Assyria, and had
given him up bound in chains of iron to Hezekiah
of Judah." The Egyptians came against Senna-
cherib and a battle ensued near Eltekon (Jos. xv.
59), in which the Assyrians won a great victory
which ranked with that of Raphia in their annals.
Sennacherib then took Ekron. He executed ven-
geance on the anti-Assyrian party. " I brought
Padi, their king, out of Jerusalem, and restored
him to the throne of his royalty." (This is the
point at which the biblical narrative begins. The
statement "in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah"
(xviii. 13) has thus far proved irreconcilable with
the inscriptions. It was the year 700. Rawlinson
proposes to read " twenty-seventh " for " four-
teenth.") " But Hezekiah, king of Judah, did not
submit. There were forty-four walled towns and
an infinite number of villages that I fought against,
humbling their pride and braving their anger. By
means of battles, fire, massacre, and siege opera-
tions, I took them. I occupied them. I brought
out 200,150 persons, great and small, men and
women, horses, asses, mules, camels, oxen, and
sheep without number, and carried them off as
booty. As for himself I shut him up in Jerusa-
lem, the city of his power, like a bird in its cage.
I invested and blockaded the fortresses round
about it. Those who came out of the great gate
of the city were seized and made prisoners. I
separated the cities I had plundered from his coun-
try, and gave them to Mitenti, king of Ashdod, to
Padi, king of Ekron, to Ishmabaah king of Gaza.
" Then the fear of my majesty terrified this
Hezekiah king of Judah He sent away the
watchmen and guards whom he had assembled for
the defence of Jerusalem. He sent messengers
to me at Nineveh, the seat of my sovereignty,
with 30 talents of gold and 400 (300?) talents of
silver, metals, rubies, pearls, great carbuncles,
seats covered with skins, thrones ornamented with
leather, amber, seal skins, sandal wood, and ebony,
the contents of his treasury, as well as his daugn-
ters, the women of his palace, his male and female
slaves. He sent an ambassador to present this
tribute and to make his submission" (Lenormant).
Thus the inscription omits all mention of the
disaster which befell the Assyrians in tliis oam
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
221
paign, and which the Jewish and Egyptian tradi-
tions concur in affirming. There is no mention of
the siege of Lachish, although that siege is repre-
sented on a bas-relief in the British Museum (Le-
normant). This want of candor is not very aston-
ishing, but it serves to show us that the account
in the inscription lays stress upon the flattering
circumstances and slurs over the disasters of the
campaign.
Now let us interweave this with the biblical
story. Chap, xviii. 13 is a parallel description of
Sennacherib's devastations in the open country.
The idea of the character of the campaign which
we get from this verse is exactly that which the
inscription offers in detail. Hezekiah was shut up
in Jerusalem, and the enemy ravaged the country
and destroyed the small towns at will. Hezekiah
sent to sue for peace. He met with certain de-
mands and he sent certain offerings. Yet in ver.
IT we find, when we expect to hear of peace, that
an army was sent against him. The only explana-
tion which suggests itself is that the offerings
which he sent did not satisfy the Assyrian de-
mand. Probably Sennacherib did not desire to
make peace with Judah, but to get possession of
Jerusalem, which he dared not leave behind him
when he advanced into Egypt. Hezekiah desired
to create the impression, by tearing off the decora-
tions of the temple, that his resources were ex-
hausted, though we find that he was able to make
a boastful display of his treasures to the Babylo-
nians, a year afterwards. Perhaps he did not
send the full amount demanded by the Assyrian,
pleading inability, and sending these decorations
stripped from the temple as a proof that he had no
further treasures. This gave Sennacherib an ex-
cuse for persisting in hostility. Rawhnson is led
by this difficulty to suppose that Hezekiah paid
the full amount demanded, and secured a respite.
Three years later (698) Sennacherib came again,
besieged Lachish, and sent the three great officers.
Then there would be a gap of three years between
rers. 16 and IT. "With our present information it
is impossible to decide definitely between these
theories. During the siege of Lachish. whether it
was in the campaign referred to in vers. 13-16 or
in a later one, Sennacherib sent a detachment of
his army to besiege Jerusalem, or rather, if possible,
to secure its surrender, for it was of the highest
importance for him to finish the reduction of the
few strongholds which still held out in Judah and
Philistia, so that he might push on against Egypt,
before that nation recovered from the blow which
he had already inflicted. Hence the parley of the
three chief-men on each side. Encouraged by
Isaiah, Hezekiah sent a refusal. On the return of
the three Assyrians they found that Sennacherib
was besieging Libnah, having taken Lachish.
(Bahr, in the text of the Comm. above, assumes
that Sennacherib had suffered a check at Lachish.
The only ground for this is the belief that Libnah
was north of Lachish, so that going from the lat-
ter to the former was a " retreat." The situation
of Libnah, however, is so very uncertain, that this
assumption rests on a slender support. There is
no hint of any disaster to Sennacherib in this cam-
paign until the great one recorded in vers. 35 sq.
This seems to have interrupted him in the full tide
of success.) The success which he had won, and
the news that Tirhakah jvas coming with a new
force of Egyptians, made Sennacherib more impa-
tient than ever to finish the conquest of Jerusalem
and Libnah. Tirhakah is called king of Ethiopia.
The dynasty to which he belonged (the XXVth)
was a dynasty of Ethiopians. He was the son of
Sabacon II. mentioned above, and grandson of Sa-
bacon I., called in the Bible, So. He seems to
have been, at this time, crown-prince (Lenormant).
He raised a new army to try to retrieve the disas-
ter of Eltekon. Under these circumstances Sen-
nacherib sent messengers once more to Hezekiah
to demand a surrender, warning him to make
terms while he could, and not to incur the total de-
struction which had befallen those who stubbornly
resisted the Assyrian power. This was again re-
fused, and soon after the great calamity fell upon
th; Assyrians which forced them to retreat with-
out coming to blows with Tirhakah. Hence the
story of this disaster was preserved both in Jewish
and Egyptian annals, each nation ascribing it, as
a great national deliverance, to its own God.
It will be seen that this gives a simple and
clear explanation of many points which, in the
above section of the Commentary, remain obscure.
The question in regard to Sennacherib's invasion
of Egypt is entirely solved, and it is not necessary
to show in detail how much of the author's dis-
cussion of this question in the above Appendix,
which was founded upon less perfect information
than we now possess, is wide of the mark-
Sennacherib was assassinated in 680 by his
sons Adrammelech and Asshursarossor. Another
son, Esarhaddon (Asshurakhidin [Asshur has given
brothers]), had for a few years been viceroy in
Babylon. He returned with hostile intentions
against the assassins, who fled into Armenia. Es-
arhaddon was recognized throughout the Empire.
— W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. King Hezekiah stands in the front rank of
Israelitish kings. The general characterization
which precedes the history of his reign gives him
a testimonial such as no other king had received
up to that time, especially in reference to that
which was the main point for the history of re-
demption, namely, his bearing towards Jehovah
and His Law. In the panegyric of the holy fathers,
Sir. 44-49, he is placed in the same rank with
David and Josiah (Sir. xlix. 5 : " All the kings ex-
cept David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, were guilty ").
Not one down to this time had reproduced the
model theocratic king, David, as he did. He was,
as Eu-ald justly says (Gesch. Isr. III. s. 621), :1 one
of the noblest princes who ever adorned David's
throne. His reign of 29 years offers an almost un-
marred picture of persevering warfare against the
most intricate and most difficult circumstances,
and of glorious victory. He was very noble, not
unwarlike or wanting in courage (2 Kings xx. 20),
yet by choice more devoted to the arts of peace "
(2 Cliron. xxxii. 2T-29; Prov. xxv. 1). Von Ger-
lach, on the contrary, characterizes him often and
in general as a " weak and dependent man," but
this is in contradiction with his very significant
name (see notes on xviii. 1), and still more with
the testimony in xviii. 3-8, and cannot, moreover,
as will be seen, be brought into accord with the
story of the separate acts of his life. " How won-
derful it was that the most godless king of Judah
had the most excellent son. An Hezekiah follow
222
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ed an Ahaz " (Schlier). The Scriptures give no
explanation of this. It is a mere guess when it is
hinted that Hezekiah's mother may have influenced
him, for we learn nothing more of her than just
her name and that of her father. It is also a mere
guess that she was " the granddaughter of Zaeha-
riah, who. under Uzziah, had such a good influ-
ence " (2 Chron. xxvi. 5) (Schlier). It is equally
unsatisfactory when Koster says (die Propheten des
A. T. s. 106): "Hezekiah was the opposite of his
unbelieving father Ahaz; the difference is explica-
ble from the fact that they had lived through the
destruction of Ephraim, and that that event had
had a mighty influence on both the king and the
people of Judah." It is certain that Hezekiah did
not wait until after the destruction of the kingdom
of Israel before he began his reformation of the
worship, but that he commenced it immediately
after his accession to the throne. The notion of
the rabbis, that he had Isaiah for his tutor and
guide, as the high-priest Jehoiada was the tutor of
Joash, seems more probable, but, not to mention
the complete silence of the text in regard to this,
it does not follow from Sir. xlviii. 25, and it is very
improbable in itself, that Ahaz, who never himself
listened to Isaiah, should nevertheless have entrust-
ed him with the education of his son and succes-
sor. All these and similar grounds do not suffice to
account for such a sudden and complete change of
policy on the throne; rather we must recognize here,
if anywhere, a dispensation of Divine Providence.
Just now, when Ahaz had brought the kingdom to
the verge of ruin, when the kingdom of Israel was
near its fall, and little Judah alone still represent-
ed the Hebrew nationality, this Judah was, accord-
ing to the decree of God. to take a new start, and
to receive a king on the model of David, who
should be a true and genuine theocratic king, and
bring the true character and destiny of the nation
home to the consciences of the people. Hezekiah
was foi Judah a gift of the Lord. In a true sense
he was king by the grace of God of whom the say-
ing held good : " The king's heart is in the hand of
the Lord, as the rivers of water ; he turneth it
whithersoever he will " (Prov. xxi. 1). Therefore
his whole life is somewhat typical. It shows
more than that of almost any other king that
God's ways are pure goodness and truth to those
who keep his covenant and his testimony (Ps.
xxv. 10).
2. The first thing that Hezekiah did after his
accession to the throne was to abolish the idolatry
which Ahaz had introduced, and to restore the leyal
worship of Munnh. The history expressly Btates
how far he went in this effort. He not only de-
stroyed the heathen idols, but also put an end to
the Jehovah-worship on the high places, which
even Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Ama-
ziah, and Uzziah had permitted to continue,
and had not ventured to assail (1 Kings iii.
2; xv. 12, 14; xxii. 44; 2 Kings xii. 4; xiv. 4;
xv. 4, 35). He returned to the original ordinances
of the Mosaic Law, which prescribed not only one
central sanctuary, but also one central worship
(Levit. xvii. 8, 9 ; Deut. xii. 13 sq.). Hezekiah
was, therefore, the restorer of that central wor-
ship which was so important and indispensable
for the unity of the people and kingdom (sec 1
Kings xii. 1-24, ffist. § 1). His reign, for this
reason, forms an epoch in the history of Israel. It
la moreover specifically stated that he destroyed
even the brazen serpent, which was of pur «ly Is-
raelitish origin, and to which there clung such im-
portant memories and associations for the people.
This he did not do from puritanical zeal such as
the later Judaism displayed (see 1 Kings vii. Hist.
§ 3). but because this cvufo/.ov curr/piac, as it is
called, Wisd. xvi. 6, had been perverted by the
people into an tiduV.ov, whereas once every one
who turned to it, ov fica to deupov/jtvov eau^ero,
a/Aa did ae rbv Trdvrwv Gurfjpa. To offer incense to
this image was not only contrary to the Law (Ex.
xxv. 5 ; Deut, v. 8, 9), but also it was senseless,
because thereby the very thing through which
Jehovah, by His own might and power, intended
to grant salvation, was regarded as holy, and
adored as divine. If there was anything which
was contrary and hostile to the worship of the
Holy One in Israel, then it was the worship of this
image; therefore Hezekiah destroyed it as ruth-
lessly as he did all the other images. If we add
to this all that is said in Chronicles about the re-
storation of the levitical worship by Hezekiah,
then it is clear that no king of Israel since David
had been filled, as he was, with zeal for the divine-
ly-given fundamental Law. If we consider fur-
ther that he ascended the throne in a time of deep
decay, at a time when the temple of Jehovah was
closed (2 Chron. xxix. 3, 7), and Judah was filled
with all the abominations of heathenism, when
disgraceful apostasy was widely spread among the
great and mighty of the kingdom, then this king
cannot certainly be called " a weak and dependent
man." To carry out such a reformation under the
most unfavorable circumstances, is not the work
of a weak man ; on the contrary, it presupposes
courageous faith, and extraordinary energy.
3. Ttie oppression of Judah by the Assyrians, and
its deliverance from the same, is one of the greatest
and most important events of the Old Testament
history of redemption, as we may infer from the
fact that it is narrated with such careful detail,
and that we have no less than three accounts of it.
How deep an impression the event made upon
the mind of the people, and what great significance
was ascribed to it. is shown by its express mention
in the late apocryphal books, in Jesus Sirach xlviii.
18-21, in the books of Maccabees I. vii. 41 ; II.
viii. 19; III. vi. 5, and in the book of Tobias i. 21
(of the Latin; i. IS, of the Greek, text). It is also
generally admitted that the noble Psalm xlvi. re-
fers to this event, if not also Ps. lxxv. and lxxvi.
(Sept. <jfi') irpbc rbv 'Acovpiov). Assyria stood at
the summit of its power under Sennacherib: it had
become a world-monarchy. Besides the nations
of Eastern [Central] Asia, it had subjugated Phoe-
nicia and Syria, and overthrown the kingdom of
the Ten Tribes. It was just ready to extend still
farther and to subjugate Egypt. Having invaded
Judah, which was already tributary, the conqueror
had already devastated the country and captured
the strongholds. Only Jerusalem yet remained.
Now he threatened this last stronghold of the
once prosperous kingdom. With arrogant and
threatening words, scoffing at the God of Israel,
he demanded a surrender of the city which was
already hard pressed on every side, and spoke of
carrying off its inhabitants into captivity. The
greatest power on earth stood in hostility to the
little kingdom of Judah. which was reduced to two
small tribes, and rendered powerless by misgov
eminent. Its destruction seemed to be inevitable
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX.
223
But .list at this point the power which had hither-
to been resistless was broken, and it remained
broken. This world-monarchy now commenced
to decline. [This is a mistake. The next half
century (700-650) includes the height of the As-
syrianpower. — W. G. S.] A change took place in
the affairs of Judah which secured it yet a cen-
tury and a half of existence. This change in its
affairs it owed, not to its own strength or courage,
not to a great army which came to its help, not to
any human power, but only to its Lord and God,
■who said to the roaring sea: "So far and no far-
ther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed ! "
The great and invincible army perished without a
battle or a stroke of the sword, as the Lord had
foretold by His prophet (Isai. xxxi. 8). In a sin-
gle night Judah was delivered out of the hand of
its mighty enemy. With the downfall of the king-
dom of the Ten Tribes a new epoch had begun for
Judah. It was, from this time on, to represent
alone the ancient covenant people. The great act
of divine deliverance which is here recorded
stands at the commencement of this new era, as a
new covenant-sign, and pledge of the election of
Israel, but at the same time also as a loud call to
faithfulness. This was the significance of an
event which had had no parallel since the deliver-
ance from Egypt. It is, therefore, put parallel
with that great event which was the type of all
national deliverances (see notes on xvii. 7, and
Exeg. on 1 Kings xii. 28). In subsequent times of
peril it was mentioned together with the deliver-
ance from Egypt, as a ground of prayer for divine
aid (see the places quoted from the books of Macca-
bees). As there was there, so there is here, an
arrogant enemy, who obstinately resists the God
of Israel, who oppresses Jehovah's people so that
they cry to him. " As Moses there promised pro-
tection and deliverance, and said: 'These Egyp-
tians whom ye see to-day shall ye see no more
forever,' so Isaiah here promises help: 'Fear not!
for the Lord will guard this city. He shall not
come into it, but shall return by the way by which
he came ; ' as there, ' Moses stretched out his
hand over the sea and the sea returned at the
dawning of the morning' (Ex. xiv. 27), so here,
' When they arose early in the morning, behold
they were all dead, corpses ' : Isai. xxxvii. 36 "
(Von Gerlach on Ps. xlvi. 6); as there the angel
of the Lord smote at midnight all the first-born in
Egypt, and rose up against the oppressor, so that
he sank in the sea with his chariots, his horses,
and his horsemen (Ex. xii. 29; xiv. 19, 28), so he
here smote the Assyrian army by night so that
Sennacherib " arose, departed, and went " (excessit,
evasit, erupit. Cic. 2 Cat. at the beginning). Ewald
justly says : " One of those rare days had come
again when the truth which no hands could grasp,
forced itself home to the conscience and convic-
tion of the people. . . . Nay, indeed, in the pre-
ceding long and weary distress and trial, as well
as in the sudden deliverance, and in the conver-
gence of all these things to enforce faith in the
only true help, this time has a certain resemblance
to the time of the foundation of the nation, just
as, throughout all these centuries, few souls at-
tained so nearly to the height of Moses as did
Isaiah." What a deep impression the event made
upon the neighboring peoples is shown by the
words of Chronicles, where the history of it closes
with the words: "And many brought gifts unto
the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah
king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the
sight of all nations from thenceforth " (2 Chron
xxxii. 23). So that came *,o pass which Hezekiah
had prayed for in his praj er for God's help, chap,
xix. 19.
4. l?ie prophet Isaiah stands first and foremost
among those who appear either speaking or acting
in the foregoing history. He is the central figure
of the story, so that it appears also in the book of
his prophecies. All that constitutes the peculiar-
ity of the Jewish institution of prophets, and its
high significance in the history of redemption, by
virtue of which it stands independent of, and even
above, the priestly office and the throne, presents
itself to us here in one person as it does not in any
other case either earlier or later. Not only as a
"human counsellor in difficult political transac-
tions " (Koster, Die Propheten, s. 106), as the king's
privy-councillor, but as the servant and minister of
Jehovah, the God of Israel, Who, through him,
makes known His will and His decrees, and guides
the fortunes of His people, and as the messenger
and intermediary of the divine dispensations, Isaiah
stands before us. He fulfils his mission most
completely. Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah
were in peril such as had never before befallen
them since they had existed. No one was pre-
pared with advice or counsel. Anxiety, terror,
and despair controlled all. In the midst of all this
Isaiah stood firm and unshaken as a rock in the
sea. With calmness and even joy, such as only a
servant of Jehovah, who is conscious that he
stands before his Lord, can feel (1 Kings xvii. 1 ;
xviii. 15), he proclaims, in the name of his Master,
deliverance to the covenant people, and destruc-
tion to the blasphemous foe, and as he says so it
comes to pass. Where in the history of the anci-
ent world is there anything at all resembling this?
The oracle, vers. 21-34, belongs to the grandest
which have been preserved, and is iu the front
rank even of those of Isaiah. All the things
which we find to admire in the discourses of this
prophet are here united. The language is clear
and unambiguous, it is concise and rich, powerful
and stirring, sharp in censure as well as consoling
and encouraging. At the same time it is, in form
and expression, poetical and rhetorical. The re-
ligious feeling on which it rests is the distinctively
Israelitish, in all its depth and purity. The God,
in whose name the prophet speaks, is the Holy
One of Israel (see Isai. vi. 3), a character in which
He has revealed Himself to this people alone, and
in which no other people knows Him. At the
same time He is a Being who is elevated abso
lutely above all creature limitations, and He gov-
erns all the nations of the earth according to His
will. He has chosen Israel to be His own pecu-
liar people, while it keeps His covenant. He is
merciful and gracious, but He will not be scorned
or blasphemed. The godless are an instrument in
His hand, which He breaks and throws away
when it has served His purpose. This discourse
was indeed occasioned by the peculiar circumstan-
ces of the time, and it refers in the first place to
them, nevertheless it does not lack that which is
the deepest and inmost soul of all prophecy, the
forecast of the distant future, the Messianic ISt^
t :
2VJ" [the idea that out of all calamities a purified
remnant shall still survive to carry on the office ol
224
TtLK SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
the chosen people] (vers. 30, 31; cf. Isai. vii. 3;
vi. 13; x. 21). This deliverance is the type and
pledge of the one which shall £0 forth from Zion
(Isai. ii. 2, 3).
5. The prophet's prediction of the destruction of
Sennacherib is a prophecy in the common use of the
word [something foretold], and every attempt to
rob it of this character is shown to be vain, first
by the great definiteness of the prediction, and
secondly, by its undeniable fulfilment. Modern
criticism, starting from the assumption that a
specific prophecy is impossible, has declared ver.
7, as well as the concluding verses of the oracle,
vers. 32-34, on account of their " suspicious de-
finiteness," to be additions by the late redactor.
This is indeed the easiest way to set aside any
apparent prophecy. It is to be noticed, however,
that the whole passage, from ver. 21 on, comes
naturally and necessarily to this termination, and
the tone and language are exactly the same as in
the previous verses. [The artificial construction
of the strophe and antistrophe make it impossible
to regard vers. 32-34 as anything but an integral
part of the original composition. See the arrange-
ment in the translation. — W. G. S.J To take these
verses away from the oracle is to rob it of all its
point. It is both arbitrary and violent.
The so-called naturalistic explanation, which
Knobel maintains, is not much better. According
to this, the pestilence had then already commenced,
and it threatened to weaken the Assyrian army
very materially. News had also come that Tirha-
kah was advancing (ver. 9). These two things
caused the prophet to " hope " that Sennacherib
would not persevere, and, inspired by this hope, he
"sustains his courage and exhorts the king and
nation to confidence." But the assumption that
the pestilence had at this time already broken out
in the Assyrian camp is unfounded, it is entirely
arbitrary, and it even contradicts the statements
of the text in vers. 35 and 36. With this assump-
tion the factitious "hope" of the prophet falls to
the ground. Moreover it is perfectly clear that
the prophet is not giving expression to a mere
hope. As Knobel himself admits, "the tone is
that of the utmost confidence," and "the passage
(vers. 32-34) is perfectly definite."
Ewald's conception of it is much finer and
more delicate. (Gesch. Isr. III. s. 634 [Ed. third s.
682]). He thus states his conception of the cir-
cumstances: In the first place, when Rab-shakeh
uttered his threats, the prophet exhorted the king
in general to courage and fearlessness (ver. 6).
Afterwards, when Sennacherib's letter arrived and
Hezekiah was in great anxiety, " Isaiah forth-
with announced to him, if possible (!) yet more
distinctly than before, the heaven-sent consolation.
The bolder and more insolent the language of Sen-
nacherib was, the more firm was the divine confi-
dence against all his human vanity which Isaiah
expressed in his mighty oracles. Thereby he
powerfully influenced both the king and the peo-
ple. He was the most unwavering support in this
calamity, and the unswerving strength of his soul
grew with the raging of the storm." However
much this conception may contain which is grand
and true, yet it does not rise above the idea that
the prophet had a merely natural and human hope
and foreboding. The prophet himself, however,
means to have his words taken as something more
Shan this He could not possible with good con-
science, say of something which he merely hoped
for and foreboded : " Thus saith the Lord I"
[The question in dispute is : What did the pro-
phets mean when they said : Thus saith the Lord !
No one will assert that they meant that they
had heard words with physical ears, or read words
with physical eyes, which came to them from God.
Their apprehension of the things which they thu3
announced must have been subjective, in so far
that it was spiritual and conscientious. Then we
come to a psychological analysis of the degrees of
hope, expectation, faith, and foresight. If the pro-
cess by which prophets apprehended divine oracles
is utterly beyond the analogy of our experience,
then, of course, it defies our analysis. But, in that
case, it is a pure dogma which we cannot explain
or state in words, and therefore cannot teach or
transmit. We can repeat a formula, but we can-
not form an idea. If, however, we have an an-
alog}' in our experience of faith and trust in God.
— in our knowledge and conception of Hia laws —
and in our belief in His Providence, for the kind of
activity which produced the prophecies, then we
may indeed believe that the prophets acted upon a
much greater measure of the same convictions.
Certainly the prophets did not utter guesses, and
pronounce them with a " Thus saith the Lord ! "
Any attentive reader of the prophecies will perceive
that this formula has, in the mouths of the prophets,
a truly awful meaning. They had intense convic-
tions as to God's will and Providence, and a pro-
found faith in His truth and justice. When they
spoke it was without faltering, and with complete
faith that they were pronouncing the oracles of
God. The " definiteness " of this prophecy, which
is made a ground for believing it post eventum,
may be questioned. It is grand, broad, and poetic.
It is not specific in announcing the form of the de-
liverance, but has the features of 0. T. predictions.
The more detailed treatment of prophecy belongs
to the exposition of the prophetical books. — W. G.
S.]
There was nothing in the ciroumstances to
justify the expectation that the hitherto invincible
conqueror, who was already in the neighborhood
of Jerusalem with 1S5,000 men, would withdraw
immediately. On the contrary nothing seemed
more certain than that he would carry out his
threats. Nevertheless Isaiah declared to the
king and the people in regard to him, " in the tone
of an ambassador of God " (Koster), with the
greatest definiteness and confidence: "He shall
not come into this city, Ac." If this was mere
surmise and supposition, then it was, under thesa
circumstances, pure insanity to exhort Jerusalem
to scorn and defy the conqueror at the very mo-
ment when it was in the greatest jeopardy ; nay,
even the comparison of Sennacherib with a wilo
beast with a ring through its nose and a bridle in
its mouth, would be a piece of bombast no way in-
ferior to that of Rab-shakeh. What would have
become of Isaiah? What would have become of
the prophetic institution, if he had then been
mistaken in his mere individual and subjective
supposition and hope ? It is useless to turn and
twist the matter. We must either strike out the
entire oracle, or we must recognize in it a genuina
prediction and admit that "the prophecy came not
in old times by the will of man, but holy men of
God spake as they were inspired by the Holy
Ghost" (2 Peter i.'21). The fact that this event
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX
225
which was beyond the range of all human fore-
sight and calculation, was definitely foretold by
the prophet, gives it the character of an event de-
termined beforehand of God for the deliverance
of His people, that is, of an incident in the history
of redemption, and takes away from it all appear-
ance of an accidental, natural, occurrence.
[The question is: Were the prophets infallible ?
The author's argument seems to assume that they
were. The assumption ought to be fairly stated
and understood, and the issue involved ought to
be fairly met. If the prophets, who were " men,"
"subject to like passions as we are " (Jas. v. 17),
were infallible, why may not the Pope be so ? If
a distinction can be made, and if it be said that
the prophets were infallible in their oracles, why
may not the Pope be infallible when he speaks ex
cathedra, though not otherwise ? A fair criticism
of this oracle will show it to be a prediction. The
event which followed was a dispensation of Provi-
dence and an incident in the history of redemption
(see bracketed addition to § 9, below). It rested
on very much more than a hope or suspicion. It
was a confident expectation which was based on
trust in God and faith in His Providence. This
amounted to a certain conviction in the prophet's
mind, so that he did not hesitate to pronounce it in
solemn form as God's will that Sennacherib's plan
against. Judnh should be frustrated. He was
obliged to stake his prophetical authority on this
prediction. His religious faith rose above all the
appearances of improbability (humanly speaking),
that Sennacherib's course could be arrested. He
did not fear, relying on his faith in God, to threaten
Sennacherib with the most shameful overthrow.
Sennacherib lived and prospered for twenty
years afterwards (see Supplem. Note after the
Exeg. section). If we insist on the literal accuracy.
or even specific reference, of ver. 28 we shall make
a grievous error, but, as a poetic expression for a
prediction of shame and disaster to Sennacherib,
it was completely fulfilled. Thus the event .justi-
fied Isaiah's faith, and ratified his authority as a
man of God ; i. e , a man endowed with power to
dee and understand the ways of God. The notion
that the prophets had communications from heaven,
which gave them infallible information as to what
was to be, is a superstition. The idea that they
were men whose faith and love towards God gave
them communion with Him, knowledge of His
ways, insight into His Providence, and. therefore,
foresight of His dealings with men, is a sublime
religious truth, — one which deserves the study, as
it will cultivate the religious powers, of every
Christian man. — W. G. S.]
6. Hezekiah's behavior during the peril from the
Assyrians appears to be inconsistent with the gen-
eral characterization' which stands at the head of
the narrative (xviii. 5-7), inasmuch as he, who had
the courage to declare his independence of the As-
syrian supremacy, and who, according to 2 Chron.
xxxii. 5-8, at Sennacherib's approach, not only
took all possible measures for a determined resist-
ance, but also encouraged the people to trust in
Jehovah, its God, and not to fear, nevertheless in-
structed his ambassadors to ask for mercy, and de-
clared himself ready to submitto any sacrifice which
might be demanded of him (ver. 14). This one
fact, however, does not justify us in regarding him
as a " weak and dependent man " (see above £ 1 1.
We do not even know whether he took the step
i on his own motion, or, as is very possible, was
forced to it by those who were about him. It was
not until the Assyrian army had advanced evon
beyond Jerusalem, had taken one city after an-
other and devastated the country, so that it seemed
to him that Jerusalem could not much longer be
defended, that he determined to make this humili-
ating offer. He had a good intention, which was
i" save Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah from
a fate like that of Samaria. Yet he did not send
to the Assyrian such a message as his wretched
father, Ahaz, had once sent: "I am thy servant
and thy son" (chap. xvi. 7), but only went so far
as necessity compelled him. Certainly he was not
a hero in faith like Isaiah. "When he had taken
the first step (the revolt), trusting iu his God, then
he ought to have taken the second, also trusting
in Him " (Schlier), but that he did not do so does
not prove that he had no faith. There are times
in the life of every truly pious and believing man
when the ground trembles under his feet, and he
is wanting in firm and invincible faith. It was
in such a moment that John the Baptist sent to
ask the Saviour : " Art thou He that should
come ? " and yet the Saviour said of him that he
was no reed shaken by the wind. Peter denied
his master, and yet the master called him the rock
on which the Church should be built. The time
of peril from the Assyrians was. for Hezekiah, a
time of trial and discipline. Soon after he had
acted in faint-heartedness and despair he learned
that help is not to be bought in distress by gold
or silver. The treacherous foe only pressed him
the harder, and then at last Hezekiah showed him-
self a true theocratic king. Recognizing a divine
chastisement and discipline in this danger, he turns
first to the prophet as the servant of Jehovah and
the organ of the divine spirit, and sends an embas-
sy of the chief royal officers and of the chief priests
to him to beg his intercession. The solemn em-
bassy was a physical recognition by the king of
the prerogative of the prophet. It shows that
where both were such as they ought to be there
could be no question of " independent powers "
over against each other (see I Kings xxi. Hist.
§ 4, and Pi. II. p. 104), but that both worked to-
gether, and had co-ordinate and complementary
functions in carrying on the plan of redemption.
The position which Hezekiah took up in his deal-
ings with the prophetical institution, even when it
was exercising its functions of warning and re-
buke, may be seen from the incidental allusion in
Jerem. xxvi. 18 sq. (See Caspari uber Micha, den
Morasthiten, s. 56.) In the case before us he did
not rest content with the solemn embassy to the
prophet, but went before the Lord, and poured out
his heart to Him in prayer. Von Gerlach justly
says : " It is most clearly apparent that, in this
prayer, the inmost faith of a genuine Israelite is
expressed." In true humility and fervor he calls
upon the only living God, who has made heaver
and earth, and who is the king of all kings ol
earth; who had chosen Israel to be His people,
and dwells and reigns amongst them as a sign ant
•pledge of His covenant. To Him, the Almighty
One, who alone can help and save, he cries for help
and salvation. He is not so much alarmed for his
throne and his own glory as he is that the name
of this God shall not be blasphemed, but rather be
revered by all the world. We have no such prayer
from any other king since Solomon. Because th«
226
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Lord is near to all who call upon Him, and does
what the god-fearing ask of Him, and hears their
cry (Ps. cxlv. 18 sq.), therefore this prayer was
heard. The Lord helped wondrously and beyond
all Hezekiah's prayer or hope.
7. The Assyrian king, Sennacherib, and his chief
cup-bearer form the sharpest contrast to Hezekiah
and the prophet. The pride and arrogance which,
as a rule, animate all gr^at conquerors, is expressed
by them. Such men, insolently relying on their
own human power and might, recognize nothing
superior to themselves, shrink from no means of
gratifying their ambition for territorial aggrandize-
ment, and insult and scoff at Almighty God, until
He finally sends His judgments upon them and
brings them to shame. The language which this
ancieut conqueror used is that of a heathen, but
the spirit which animated it has not perished from
the earth : it appeared again in the words of the
greatest conqueror of modern times. When Na-
poleon, during his expedition to Egypt, said to a
Mufti : " I can cause a fiery chariot to descend
from heaven and to turn its course to earth ; " —
when, in his proclamation to the inhabitants of
Cairo, he declared, denying the true God and put-
ting fate in His place : "Can there be any one who
is blind enough not to see that fate itself guides
all my undertakings? . . . Inform the people that
it is written from the foundation of the world that,
after the destruction of all the enemies of Islam
and the overthrow of the cross, I should come
from the far west to fulfil the task which is set
for me. . . . Those who raise prayers against us
to heaven pray for their own damnation. I could
demand from each one of you an account of the
secret thoughts of his heart, for I know all, even
that which ye have told to no one. A day will
come when all will see that I have been guided by
commands from above, and that all the efforts of
men can accomplish nothing against me" (Leo,
Vniversalgesch. V. s. 317. Baur, Geschichts- und Le-
bensbilder, I. *. 385, sq.) — is that not the same thing
as Sennacherib boasts chap, xviii. 25, 35 and xix.
1 sq. in regard to himself, though with different
words? It is an entire misconception, on the part
of Ewald, when he thus states Sennacherib's poli-
cy and intentions (I. c. s. 596) : " The wars between
the numerous small kingdoms this side the Eu-
phrates had, during the last centuries, assumed
continually more and more the character of mere
plundering expeditions. It was enough to merely
rob and plunder a weaker neighbor. . . . There
was no conception of a fatherland, a great kingdom
which was a power to restrain wrong by justice
and unity. But the ' warlike ' [Ewald's interpre-
tation of 3~p] king, as the Assyrian king was now
called before all others (Hos. v. 13; x. 6) desired
a great, united, and powerful kingdom, in which
petty national jealousies should disappear." The
Scriptures do not contain any hint of any such
noble and beneficent intentions on the part of the
Assyrian king. On the contrary, Sennacherib
himself boasts that he has devoted all the con-
quered lands to destruction, and has caused the na-
tions to perish (chap. xix. 11, 12). The Scriptures
call Sennachorib especially a destroyer, plunderer,
or robber (Isai. xxxiii. 1), whose heart is set to de-
Stroy and uproot nations, and who does not know
that he is only ■< hired razor, the rod of God's wrath,
>>nd the staff of His auger (Isai. x. 5-7). That
this man, the greatest and mightiest of the kings
of Assyria, before whom all nations trembled,
should come to shame in his contest with the small
and weak kingdom of Judah, this proclaimed to
all the world the great and eternal truth : He can
humiliate even the proud !
8. The speech of the ambassador, Rab-shakch,
is a remarkable specimen of ancient oriental rheto-
ric. It has, in form and expression, none of the
smoothness and fineness of modern diplomacy, but
it is, in the method which it pursues, by no means
out of date, but as fresh as if it had been spoken
but yesterday. In the first part, which is ad-
dressed to king Hezekiah and his high officers, the
speaker utters undeniable truths. It was true
that Egypt was like a broken reed on which a
man could not rest or rely. It was true that Heze-
kiah had abolished the worship on the high places
and centralized the cultus in Jerusalem. It was
true that if he had ever so many horses he lacked
riders for them, while the Assj'rian army was
richly provided with both. It was true, finally,
that this army had not advanced to Jerusalem and
beyond without the permission of God; but all
these truths stand here in the service of arrogance,
hypocrisy, and falsehood. The ancient diplomat
understood the falsely celebrated art of convin-
cing by sophistical arguments, and yet of cheating
and deceiving. When the royal councillors did not
at once yield to him, he became rude and insolent
towards them, and began to harangue the common
people. In the first place, he puts before them the
distress and misery which await them if the city
is not given up at once; then he makes promises,
tempts them and sets prosperity, and good fortune,
and wealth before them ; then he makes them sus-
picious of their king, and calls them to disobedi-
ence to him ; finally, he undermines their religious
faith, represents to them their trust in God as
foolish and vain, and appeals to the fall of Samaria
which (he declares) this God was as little able to
prevent as the gods of the other nations were to
prevent their overthrow. Here again we must
exclaim with Menken, as above in the case of
Naaman : " How true and faithful is the ancient
picture I How fresh and new it is, as if men of
to-day had sat for it ! "
9. The destruction of the Assyrian army, which
impelled Sennacherib to retreat, is unquestioned
as an historical fact ; il has not been assailed even
by modern critical science. Its character as an
incident in the history of the redemptive plan (see
§ 3) has, however, been taken from it by the
assertion that it was due to one of the pestilences
which were common in the Orient, and especially
in Egypt ; that the number of those who died is
"exaggerated," and that the destruction in a sin-
gle night is a mythical detail. Appeal is made in
proof to the " frightful devastation which the pes-
tilence accomplishes in a short time.'' Instances
are cited such as that " at Constantinople, in 1714,
nearly 300,000 human beings perished, and at the
same place, in 1778, 2,000 died daily " (Winer, H.
W.-B., II. s.232), and that " the pestilence in Milan,
in 1 C29, according to Tadino, carried oil' 1 G0,000 per-
sons; at Vienna, in 1679, 122,849; and in Moscow, at
the end of the last century, according to Martens,
670,000 " (Delitsch on Isai. xxxvii. 36). As for
the number 185,000, the fact that it is not "an
exactly round number bears witness to its histori-
cal accuracy " (Thenius). Both accounts have It
CHAPTERS XVIII. AND SIX.
227
Moreover it occurs 1 Mace. vii. 41, and 2 Mace. xv.
22, and Jos. Antiq. x. 1, 5. It is arbitrary to throw
aside a number which is supported by such testi-
mony and has nothing against it. It would not
be allowed in the case of a number supported by
so many profane authors. As for the assumed
mythical detail that they all perished in one night,
that is not the statement of the text; but that
J'the angel went out on that night and he smote,"
•&c., that is, on that night the pestilence broke out
in the Assyrian camp, so that in the morning very
many already lay dead, and it raged until the
whole army, 185,000 strong, was carried off. With
that night the destruction of the entire army be-
gan. [That is hardly a fair reading of ver.
35. The angel went out that night and smote
185.000 men, and in the morning they were corpses.
The naivete of the remark, that they rose up and
lol they were all dead, belongs to the simplicity
of the style of composition. Its meaning is clear
that the 185,000 men did not comprise the whole
Assyrian army. The intention of the history to de-
clare that 185,000 men were smitten and perished
m one night is undeniable. — W. G. S.] " In view
of the conciseness of the record we may assume,
with Hensler and others, that the pestilence raged
in the Assyrian camp for some time, and that it
carried off thousands by night (Ps. xci. 6) up to
the number of 185,000 "" (Delitsch). If the words
Xinn r6,?3 were what made of the incident a
miraculous interposition of God, they could not be
wanting from the narrative in Isaiah ; also the
Chronicler, who does not in other cases show any
listrust of what is miraculous, and the three places
in the book of Maccabees, and that in Sirach, all
of which mention the event, would not be silent as
to that which would form the distinctive feature of
it. When Knobel remarks that "the historian as-
cribes the event which brought about the deliver-
ance of Jndah to the God of Judah," we must
ask. to whom else should he ascribe it? to Nature ?
to the climate? to accident? The God of Judah
is the living God, who, as Hezekiah says (xix. 15,
19), made heaven and earth. He alone is God.
If not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him
(Matt. x. 29), then 185,000 men were not carried
off without His will. As in the case of Isaiah's
prophecy (§ 5), so here, aU turning and twisting
is useless. The incident was "a dispensation of
God which evades until this day all attempts to
solve its causes." We may admit that it was pro-
duced by the pestilence; "but, in the way of an
attempt at a natural explanation, this amounts to
nothing. No disease has ever, in its natural
course, accomplished anything of the kind. All
the extraordinary cases which are cited from his-
tory are only calculated to render the more promi-
nent the fact that the incident here recorded is
totally dissimilar from them all" (Drechsler).
[The miraculousness of the incident consists nei-
ther in the number of the slain, nor in the short space
of time in which they perished. It consists in the
fact that this extraordinary calamity befell the As-
syrian army, by a dispensation of Providence, at
a great crisis in the history of Judah. The rava-
ges of pestilence in various historical instances
are, therefore, no parallels. They are entirely
aside from the point. The destruction of the
Spanish armada by a storm is a far closer parallel
than any one of these. We may hesitate to inter-
pret these dispensations of Providence in modern
times. The prophetic author of the Jewish his-
tory had no such scruples. He saw and plainly
declared the hand of God in this event. "It i*
not without reason that in the churches of M".scow
the exultation over the fall of Sennacherib is still
read on the anniversary of the retreat of the
French from Russia ; or that Arnold, in his Lec-
tures on Modern History, in the impressive passage
(p. 177) in which he dwells on that great catastro-
phe, declared that for 'the memorable night of
frost in which 20,000 horses perished, and the
strength of the French army was utterly broken,'
he ' knew of no language so well fitted to describe
it as the words in which Isaiah described the ad-
vance and destruction of the hosts of Sennache-
rib.' " (Stanley, II. 534.) Our best means of
arriving at a strictly historical conception of such
providential interpositions as the one here recorded,
is that of comparing them with other similar events
nearer and more familiar to ourselves. — W. G. S.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-8. The noble Testimony which th«
Holy Scriptures bear to King Hezekiah. (a) He
abolished the false worship in his kingdom and
reestablished that which was in accordance with
the word of God (vers. 3 and 4). (b) He trusted
the Lord, clung to him, and departed not from Him
(vers. 5 and 6). (c) What he did prospered, for the
Lord was with him (vers. 7 and 8). — Vers. 3-6.
Lange : It is sad when godly parents have godless
children and must see that all their pains are spent
upon them in vain. On the contrary, where godless
parents, especially a godless father, have pious chil-
dren, we must look upon it as a direct fruit of the
grace of God. The testimony to Hezekiah is, there-
fore, the more excellent the more depraved his
father was. Cramer: Virtue and godliness are not
inherited from one's parents. — Ver. 4. Hezekiah
succeeded in uprooting ancient abuses, because he
was moved not merely by political or other human
considerations, but only by love to the Lord, and
zeal for His honor. He was anxious not only to
root up, destroy, and deny, but also to set up in
the place of what was evil that which was right
and good. — The brazen serpent. The purpose for
which Moses made it (John iii. 14 sq.) ; why Hez-
ekiah destroyed it (worship of images and destruc-
tion of images. Use and abuse of images). — Cra-
mer: If the cross on which Christ hung were pre-
served by the papists it would certainly be a relic
of remarkable antiquarian interest, but to keep a
feast in its honor, make pilgrimages to it, and grant
indulgences by virtue of it, would be pure idolatry.
— -Vers. 5 and 6. True piety consists of (a) a faith
wllich is at once trust and confidence, Heb. xi. 1 ; (b)
clinging to the Lord in adversity and in prosperity,
without departing from Him, Ps. lxxiii. 25 sq. ; (c)
keeping the commandments of God, James ii. 17;
1 John v. 3. — Vers. 7 and 8. Osiander : God re-
wards godliness even in this life, Matt. vi. 33 ; 1
Tim. iv. 8. — Starke: Only the faithful and pious
can console themselves with God's favor, and boast
that God is with them, Ps. cxviii. 6, 7 ; Ps. i. 3.—
To throw off a disgraceful foreign yoke, and to
take back what one has been robbed of, is not a
breach of fidelity, but it is the right and duty of
every ruler who wears a crown lawfully. — Vers.
9-12. See notes on chap. xvii. Hoshea and Heze-
22S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
kiah. The former came to the throne by conspir-
acy and murder, and he did not do what was pleas-
ing to the Lord, therefore he perished with his
people. The latter trusted in the Lord and clung
to Him, and therefore he came out with his people
victoriously from the peril.
Vers. 13-16. Hezekiah enjoyed peace and rest
for fourteen years. His reign was a prosperous
one ; then, howerer, came the time of trial and
danger, which does not fail to come even to those
who have faith and trust. — Berleb. Bibel: No
one can belong to God unless he passes through
trial and discipline. The harder the trial is, the
more must we increase our faith and dependence,
for God chastises us only that He may make more
clear His mercy and care for those who trust in
Him.- — The gold of faith can only be made to ap-
pear through the fires of adversity, Sir. ii. 5. If
thy faith is not a mere notion, or opinion, or feel-
ing, or sensation, then it will not diminish in the
time of trial, btit grow and become stronger and
purer. " Whence should we have had David's
psalms, if he had not been tried ? " Therefore
St. Paul says, Rom. v. 3 sq. — Ver. 14. There is no-
thing harder for any one who holds a high posi-
tion than to humble himself, yet there is nothing
more beneficial. The king finds himself compelled,
in order to save his kingdom, to beg forgiveness
of the monarch from whom he had revolted. That
was the first consequence of his chastisement —
Cramer : An oppressive peace is better than the
most just war, and it is better to purchase peace
than to risk kingdom and people, life and liberty.
— When we see that we have done wrong we
ought to confess it not only before God but also
before men. — Do thou say to God what Hezekiah
sent his ambassadors to say to Sennacherib. Thou
wilt find Him not faithless, but always good and
faithful, and He will lay upon thee no burden
which thou canst not carry. — Ver. 17. We can
never rely upon the fidelity of a man who is sim-
ply bought with money. — Want of courage in
one's self invites an enemy to arrogance. The
more humbly one approaches an enemy the more
insolent he becomes. — Peace and quiet which are
bought with money have no duration. [This
ought to be taken to modify the doctrine quoted
above (on ver. 14) from Cramer, that it is better
to buy peace than to risk war.]
Vers. 17-35. Rab-shakeh's speech (a) to Hez-
ekiah's messengers, vers. 19-27 ; (6) to the people,
vers. 28-35. See Histor. § 8. That is always the
way of the devil ; he mixes up truth and falsehood,
that he may inoculate us with the falsehood. — Rab-
ehakeh. the wolf in sheep's clothing, (a) He appears
to warn against Egypt as a power which neither can
nor will help, just as Isaiah himself does, while he
himself comes to destroy and devour (Matt. vii. 1 5 ;
1 John iv. 1). (6) He represents what had been or-
dained by Hezekiah according to the Law of the
Lord and for His honor as a sin and a breach of
religion, while he himself cared nothing whatever
for the Law of the Lord or the true and right wor-
ship. Beware of those who represent as weak-
ness and folly that which is divine wisdom and
strength (1 Cor. i. 18*?.). (c) He claims that the
Lord is with him and has commanded him to do
what he is doing (ver. 25), whereas, in fact, he is
only the rod of I rod's wrath, the staff' of His anger,
a ''hired razor," and ambition, lust for gold and
land, desire for glory and plunder are his only
motives (Matt. vii. 22 sq.). Be not deceived by tit
prosperity and the victory of the godless. Thej
are like chaff' which the wiud scatters and theii
way disappears (Ps. i. 3, 6). — Ver. 20. In what
dost thou trust ? Ask thyself this every day
Dost thou trust in other men who have rank,
wealth, and influence (Ps. lx. 12; cxlvi. 3, 4;
Jerem. xvii. 5) ; upon thyself, thine own power, wis-
dom, and judgment (Prov. iii. 5. 7 ; 1 Cor. i. 19,
20); or on the Lord alone (Ps. cxviii. 8, 9; cxlvi
5; Jerem. xvii. 7, 8)? — Ver. 21. J. Lange: How
often it happens that when a man abandons God
and seeks another reliance, he finds but a broken
reed ! — LTjibreit : So weak and faithless men often
prepare for those who are not satisfied with God's
grace, but seek help from them, the deepest mis-
fortunes. He who trusts only in God stands high
and free even above the ruins of his earthly hap-
piness ; he who takes refuge in men becomes the
slave of men. — Ver. 22. Kyburz: It is the most
deadly temptation of the adversary that he thrown
suspicion upon all which one has done for God, or
upon all the spiritual good which one has wrought.
This is the way of the devil and of the blindec.
world. They praise that for which one deserves
punishment and make a threat of that by virtue
of which one might hope for the favor of God.
He who does not mean to fall under this trial must
strive for the testing spirit that it may teach him
to distinguish false and true, light and darkness,
according to the divine standards (John xii. 4 sq.).
—Starke: When the world wishes to give pain
to the pious it calls their trust m God obstinacy,
and their constancy, arrogance. — Wurt. SUMU.:
Perverse and depraved men often consider true
religion the origin of all misfortune. — Vers. 23 and
24. The boastful cannot stand before the eyes of
the Lord (Ps. v. 6, 7). He says to them : "Speak
not with a stiff" neck," ic. (Ps. lxxv. 5—8. cf. Jerem.
ix. 23, 24). " There is no king saved by the multi-
tude of an host," Ac. (Ps. xxxiii. 16, 17). — Ver. 25.
Starke : The godless do not want to have the ap-
pearance of making their undertakings under and
with God; they boast that they do not do so, yet
wrongly. — Menken : God uses the bad for pur-
poses for which he cannot use the good. The
prosperity of the wicked destroys them (Prov. i.
32). — How often a man puts his own wishes or
thoughts in the place of the will of God and says
or thinks: The Lord commanded me! It is crime,
however, for a man to ascribe to the will of God
that which sprang from his own evil lusts (James
i. 13 sq.).
Vers. 26 to 28. The just Request of the King's
Councillors to Rab-shakeh and his insolent Reply.
— Cramer : A Christian ought to be careful in all
things and to try to avert harm wherever he can
(Eph. v. 15). — Simple and uneducated people lend
an ear far too easily to boasters, to those who dis-
tort truth, and allow themselves to be cajoled, be-
cause they lack insight to distinguish between ap-
pearance and reality, error and truth. Therefore
not all subjects should he discussed before the
multitude, in whose minds one distorted expression
will often do more harm than the most reasonable
discourse can cure. A faithful government ought
to protect its subjects from hypocritical and lyinfr
teachers as much as from thieves and robbers.
Ver. 27. He who cannot endure any contradiction,
however moderate and just it may be, without be-
coming violent and angry, shows thereby that h»
CEAPTERS XVIII. AND XIX
229
is not aiming at truth and right, but that he has a
selfish and insincere purpose. — Rab-shakeh was an
official of the court and a man in high station, who
did not lack wisdom and information ; neverthe-
less his words show rudeness and vulgarity. High
rank and position, even when united with wisdom
and information, do not insure against rudeness
and vulgarity. These only disappear where the
life lias its springs in God, and there is a purified
heart and a sanctified disposition (Luke vi. 45). —
Ver. 28-35. The ways and means of demagogues
and tl use who stir up sedition, (a) Vers. 29 and
30. They cast suspicion upon the lawful authority,
however righteous its intentions may be. They
scatter abroad distrust of its power and of its
good disposition, and strive to make the people
discontented with all its ordinances. (6) Vers. 31
and 32. They promise to the people peace and
prosperity and good fortune, deliverance from tyr-
anny and slavery, in order that they may then lay
upon it their yoke, which is far heavier and more
disgraceful (Ps. cxl. 5). (c) Ver. 33 sq. They un-
dermine the faith of the people under the pretence
of enlightening it, while they themselves walk in
darkness and are enemies of the cross of Christ.
Therefore : " Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,
quit you like men, be strong " (1 Cor. xvi. 13). —
Ver. 28. Starke: When Satan wants attentive
listeners he talks God's language ; therefore be-
lieve not every spirit (1 John iv. 1). — Ver. 30. The
Lord will save us! (a) A noble saying in the
mouth of a king speaking to his people. He
thereby admits that his own power is insufficient
and vain. He leads his people in that faith which
is a confidence in what is hoped for, and which
admits no doubt of what is not seen. How well
it would be for all princes and peoples if they had
Buch faith. (A) In this saying all the hope of the
Christian life is expressed : With God we over-
come the world, for the Lord will at length
save and deliver us from all evil, and bring us to
his heavenly kingdom. The blasphemer and
boaster wanted to remove these words of the king
from the heart of the people, because he knew
that he should then have won. Nowadays also
these words are laughed at and scorned. Let
them not be torn from your heart 1 Happy is he
whose trust is in the Lord his God (Ps. cxlvi. 5).
— Ver. 31 sq. Cramer: When Satan cannot ac-
complish anything by resistance and force, he
strikes the softer strings and promises luxury,
riches, splendor (Matt. iv. 9). — Ver. 33 sq. Pride
and arrogance go so far that man, who is but dust
and ashes, exalts himself in his folly above Al-
mighty God. — Pfaff. Bibel: The Lord punishes
writh especial severity the crime of scoffing at the
Living God and doubting of his might and majes-
ty (2 Mace. ix. 28; Isai. xiv. 13-15).
Ver. 36 sq. The Impression which Rab-shakeh's
Speech made, (a) The people kept silence and did
not answer. (Silence is an answer — often a more
empnatic one than speech. Happy is the people
which is deaf to the words of seducers and those
who stir up insurrection.) (6) The ambassadors
of the king tear their clothes as a sign of grief and
of horror at the blasphemous words which they
had been forced to hear. Rab-shakeh was obliged
to depart with his mission unaccomplished (1 Peter
v. 8, 9). — Ver. 36. We ought not to enter into any
dispute with those who do not care to arrive at
the truth, but only to accomplish their own selfish
ends, and who are versed in the art of mixing
truth and falsehood, but we should punish them
by silence. — Ver. 37. Starke: We ought not to
laugh at blasphemous speeches, but to be heartily
saddened by them. — Wurt. Summ. : We ought not
to get angry at a blasphemer, lest we also do
some wrong, but we ought to wait patiently for the
Lord (Isai. xxx. 15). — Cramer: Cast not your
pearls before swine, nor give what is holy unto the
dogs (Matt. vii. 6). It is not always wise to an-
swer a fool. There is a time for silence (Eccl. iii
1).
Chap. xix. vers. 1-7. Hezekiah in great Dis
tress, (a) lie rends his clothes (as a sign of horror
at Rab-shakeh's blasphemous speech). He puts on
sack-cloth (as a sign of repentance), and goes to
the house of the Lord (to humble himself before
God, for he recognizes in his need and distress a
consequence of sin and apostasy, and a call to re-
pentance). (6) He sends the chiefs and representa-
tives of the people to the prophet, from whom he
hopes to hear the. best counsel. He orders them
to make known his request, and he is encouraged
by Mm to stand fast in faith. — Ver. 1. The words
in Ps. i. 1 apply to Hezekiah. A man who truly
fears God cannot endure that unbelief should open
its insolent mouth ; his heart is torn when he hears
the living God scoffed at. Woe to the people and
country in which the speeches of the godless are
listened to in silence and with indifference, with-
out pain or grief, and where . jests at God and
divine things are regarded as enlightenment and
wisdom (Luke xix. 40). — Vers. 2 and 3. In anxi-
ety and perplexity our only consolation is to call
upon God (Ps. xxxiv. 19; xlvi. 1). — Hall: The
more we hear the name of God desnised and
abused the more we ought to love and Honor it. —
Starke : It is of great importance that, in time of
need, one should have a faithful friend, to whom
one can confide all, and find counsel and help. —
Ver. 4. Cramer: We should not doubt in prayer,
nor prescribe methods of action to God, but wait
in patience and humility for the help of the Lord
(James v. 10). — We should apply to others in our
need that they may intercede for us. When a man
like the Apostle Paul exhorts the believers to pray
for him (Rom. xv. 30; Eph. vi. 18, 19), how much
more does it become us to beg this service of love
of others, and to console ourselves with the strength
of the intercession of those who have intercourse
of prayer with the Lord. He, however, who de-
sires that others should pray for him ought not to
have given up the habit of prayer himself. Heze-
kiah went first himself into the house of the Lord
to pray, and then he sent to the prophet. — Ver. 5.
What happiness and what a blessing it is in times
of distress and perplexity to have a faithful ser-
vant of God at hand, who stands firm' in the storm.
— -Vers. 6, 7. Isaiah's Answer (a) as a word of
encouragement (ver. 6), (6) as a word of promising
and threatening (ver. 7). The prophet calls the
emissaries of the Assyrian king: "servants" [see
Exeg. on the verse], a contemptuous name, because
they had blasphemed the God of Israel. It is not
manly to assume airs of superiority and to pretend
to scorn the word of God. but it is boyish. How-
ever high in rank a man may be, if he speaks and
acts as these men did he is a low fellow (Ps.
xxxvii. 12, 13). — Ver. 7. God punishes those who
have no fear of Him by making them fear men,
and flee at the mere Timor of a danger which is-
230
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
not yet at hand. Pray God, therefore, that He
may give thee the right spirit, not a spirit of fear,
but of power and love and self-control (2 Tim. i. 7).
— ffe think that danger threatens the Kingdom of
God and Christianity when people write and de-
claim against it, but fear not : all these adversaries
have perished like Herod who sought the young
child's life (Mart. ii. 20), and only forfeited their
own salvation, for "Whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken " (Matt. xxi. 44). — Osiander:
God has many means whereby he can bring the
rage of His adversaries to naught. — Hall: Proud
and self-confident men of the world think little of
the future consequences, and even while they are
spinning their plots they come to shame.
Vers. 8-19. The two Contrasted Kings, Sen-
nacherib and Hezekiah — the Godless and the Just.
(a) Sennacherib, who sees himself in peril and
obliged to retreat by the approach of Tirhakah,
does not on that account become more modest or
more humble, but only more obstinate and arro-
gant. That is the way with godless and depraved
men. In distress and peril, instead of bending their
will and yielding to the will of God, they only
become more stubborn, insolent, and assuming.
(Osiaxder: The less ground the impious have to
hope for victory over the righteous, the more cruel
do they attempt to be.) Hezekiah, on the contrary,
who was in unprecedented trouble and peril, was
thereby drawn into more earnest prayer. He
humbled himself under the hand of God, and
sought refuge in the Lord alone. He went into the
house of God and poured out his soul in prayer,
I's. v. 5-7. (Calw. Bibel: Learn from this to pray
earnestly and faithfully, when thou art in distress;
also learn from this what is the best weapon in
war, and when the fatherland is in the dangers of
battle.) (b) Sennacherib rejects faith in the God of
Israel as folly, and boasts that all the gods of the
heathen were powerless before him. He lives
without God in the world and knows no God but
himself. But it is the fool who hath said in his
heart: "There is no God" (Ps. xiv. 1). He asks:
" Where is? " &c, but where is now Sennacherib
who talked so proudly ? (Berl. Bib.) He is gone
like chaff before the wind, for the way of the godless
shall perish (Ps. i. 4, 6 ; xxxv. 5 ; Zeph. ii. 2). But
Hezekiah will not let himself be drawn away from
his God. His faith becomes only so much warmer
and deeper. He prays and seeks not his own
honor, but that of the Lord in whom he puts his
confidence (Ps. i. 3). The greater the cross the
greater the faith. The palm grows under weight.
Sweetness Hows from the grape when it is well
trodden (Ps. i. 1, 2). — Vers. 14-19. Hezekiah's
'Prayer, (a) The appeal for hearing (vers. 15, 16);
(b) the Confession (vers. 17, 18); (c) the request
(ver. 19) (see Bistnr. § 6). — Distress and misfor-
tune are the school in which a man learns to pray
aright. How many a one repeats prayers every
day and yet never prays aright. Every one knows
from his own experience that he has never talked
so directly with God as in the time of need. —
SlARKB: Earthly kings ought not to be ashamed
to pray, but rather go before others with a good
(sample. — Arxdt: Who is a true man ? He who
can pray, and who trusts in God. — Ver. 15. Under
the old covenant God dwelt above the cherubim
rf the ark ; under the new one, He dwells in
Christ amongst us, therefore He demands to be
addressed by us as the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. — Ver. 16. "He that planted the ear," tc
(Ps. xciv. 9). Though men do not hear or see, He
hears and sees all, even that which is said and
done in secret (Ps. cxxxix. 1 sq.). It often seema
as if He did not see or hear, but he will some time
bring to light what was done in darkness, and
will make known the secret counsel of the heart.
We must give an account of every vain vord
which we have spoken. — Vers. 17, IS. Goda
which are the work of man's hands, or'the inven-
tion of man's brain, can be thrown into the fire and
destroyed. They are good for nothing more, but
the Holy, Living God cannot bo thus done away
with or destroyed. He is hjnself a consuming
fire which shall consume all the adversaries (Heb.
x. 27 ; xii. 29).— Ver. 19. When we pray to God
for relief from .distress, or for anything else which
we earnestly desire, we must not have our own
honor, or fortune, or prosperity altogether or
principally at heart, but we must try to bring it
about that, by the fulfilment of our prayer, God'a
name may be glorified and hallowed. Therefore
this petition stands first in the Lord's Prayer.
Vers. 21-34. Isaiah's Prophecy (a) against Sen-
nacherib, vers. 21-28; (b) on behalf of Jerusalem,
vers. 29-34. — Ver. 21. There is no more fitting
punishment for a proud and arrogant man, than to
be laughed at and derided without being able to
take revenge. The derision of the daughter, Zion,
at the blasphemous boaster, Sennacherib, is not
due to sinful malice ; it is rather a joyful recogni-
tion and a praise of the power and faithfulness of
God, who reigns in heaven and laughs at those
who scoff at him (Ps. ii. 4; xxxvii. 12, 13). — Ver.
22. When sinful man, who is dust and ashes,
ascribes to himself that which he can oulj do by
God's help, or which God alone can do, that is a
denial and an insult of God. — Ver. 23. Here we
see the mode of thought and of speech of all the
proud. All this have I done by my wisdom and
courage and skill. The Apostle, who had labored
more than any other, responds to them all : " What
hast thou that thou didst not receive ? Now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if
thou hadst not received it? " (1 Cor. iv. 7, if. xv.
10). — Cramer: When we remember that the affair
is not ours but God's, then we see that the ene-
mies are not ours but God's. When we see the
pride and arrogance of our enemies, then we may
look for their fall very soon (Prov. xvi. 18). — Ver.
25. If no hair of our heads can fall without the
will of God, how much less can a land or a city
perish unless He has so ordained it? Therefore,
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
that He may exalt you in His good time (1 Peter
v. G). — Ver. 26. " Let all the earth fear the Lord ;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of
Him " (Ps. xxxiii. 8), for they are like the grass of
the field before Him ; He causes the wind to blow
upon them and they are gone. — Vers. 27, 28. Be not
deceived by the victory and good fortune of the
enemies of the kingdom of God, to think that God
is witli them. He knows their going out and their
coming in, their rage and their arrogance. They
are in His hand and He uses them without theii
knowledge for His own purposes. They cannot
take a step beyond the limits which He has set
for them. When they have done what He intend-
ed them to do, He puts His bridle in their mouths
and leads them back by the way by wbich they
came. (As Sennacherib came to Jerusalem, £0
CHAPTER XX. 1-21.
231
came Napoleon to Moscow. Then the Lord called
to him : " So far and no farther 1 " and led him
back or the way by which he came.) Isai. xiv.
5, 6; I. 12-15. — Ver. 29. All sowing and reaping
should be to us a sign of what God does for us
and what we ought to do for Him (Gal. vi. 7-9 ; 2
Cor. be. 6 ; Jer. iv. 3; Hos. viii. 7 ; James iii. IS ;
Sir. vii. 3 ; Eccles. xi. 4, 6). God does not always
give full harvests in order that we may learn to
be satisfied with little, and may not forget that
His blessing is not tied to our labor, but that He
gives it where and when He will. — Vers. 30 and
31. Starke: In the midst of all calamities God
preserves a faithful remnant for Himself which
shall praise and spread abroad His name (Ps. xlvi.
3 to 5; xxii. 30). — The Same: The Church of
Christ is invincible. However much it may be
oppressed at times, vet God preserves a secret
seed for Himself (Matt. xvi. 18:1 Kings six. 18).
— The deliverance goes forth from Zion I Isai. ii. 2,
3): salvation comes from the Jews (John iv. 22).
— The saved form the holy seed (Isai. vi. 13),
which takes root below and bears fruit above.
The ground in which thev take root and stand
firm is Christ (Eph. iii. 17; Col. ii. 7). The fruit
which they bear is love. joy. peace, &c. (Gal. v. 22).
They never perish. They continue from genera-
tion to generation. However small their number,
and however fiercely the world may rage against
them, they nevertheless endure, for the Lord is
their confidence, His truth is their shield (Ps. xci.
4). Therefore, "Fear not, little flock," &e. (Luke
xii 32). — Vers. 32-34. Jerusalem, the earthly City
of God, a Type of the Eternal City, the Church of
Christ. If God protected the former so that no
arrow could come into it, how much more will Ha
protect the latter, break in pieces the bows of its
enemies, and burn their chariots in fire. Cf. Ps
xlvi., and Luther's hymn : " Ein' feste Burg" &c.
Vers. 35 to 37. Sennacherib's Fall, (a) A mira-
cle of the saving power and faithfulness of God;
iJl a terrible judgment of the Holy and Just God
(see IIMor. § 9). — Cf. Pss. xlvi., lxxv., and lxxvi.
Von Gerlach : When such times recur, similar
psalms and hymns are given to the Church, as in
1530 the hymn: " Ein' ftste Burg ist unser Gott,"
which is founded on Ps. xlvi., was composed.
(Compare the noble hymn of Joh. Heermann :
" ih:n\ unser Golt. lass nicht zu Schandm trerden.")
— God's judgments are often delayed for a longtime,
but then they come all the more suddenly and
mightily (Ps. Ixxiii. 19). A single night may
change the whole face of the matter. Whero is
now the boaster ? Where is the multitude ot his
chariots ? Luke xii. 20. — Sennacherib's calamity
and his retreat proclaim to all the world that God
resisteth the proud, and they are a testimony to
the truth of 1 Sam. ii. 6-10. — He who had smitten
whole kingdoms and peoples fell under the blows it
his own sons. " With what measure ye r.ete it
shall be measured to you again " (Luke vi. 38).—
OstAN'DER : When God has sufficiently chustised
His Church, He throws the rod of His wra. h into
the fire, Isai. xxxiii. 1.
B. — HezekiaKs Illness and Recovery ; his Reception of the Babylonian Embass-y, and his End.
Chap. XX. 1-21. (Isai. XXXVHI.)
1 Ix those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the
son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine
2 house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to
3 the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember
now how I have walked before thee in truth [fidelity] and with a perfect heart,
and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, ' that the
5 word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the
captain [prince] of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy
father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee:
6 on the third day thou shalt go unto the house of the Lord. And I will add
unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand
of the king of Assyria ; and I will defend [protect] this city for my own sake,
V and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said, Take [Bring:] a lump of figs.
8 And they took [brought] and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Heze-
kiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be [is] the sign that the Lord will heal me,
9 and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day ? And Isaiah
said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that
he hath spoken : shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten de-
grees ? [the shadow is gone forward ten degrees, — if it go back ten degrees ?]
10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten de-
1 1 grees : nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the
prophet cried unto the Lord : and he brought the shadow ten degrees back-
ward, by which it had gone down in [on] the dial [stairs] of Ahaz.
12 At that time Berodach-baladan, th° son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent
232
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
letters and a present unto Hezekiah : for he had heard that Hezekiah had been
13 [was] sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them [rejoiced because of them], !
and shewed them all the house of his precious things [treasury], the silver, and
the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his
armour [armory], and all that was found in his treasures : there was nothing in
his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
14 Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What
said these men *? and from whence came they unto thee ? And Hezekiah said,
15 They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. And he said, What
have they seen in thine house ? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that
are in mine house have they seen : there is nothing among my treasures that I
16 have not shewed them. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the
17 Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which
thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried unto Babylon:
18 nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And [some] of thy sons that shall issue
from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away ; and they shall be
19 eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto
Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is
it not good, if peace and truth be in my days ? [And he said : Verily ; may-
there only be peace and security in my days.]
20 And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a
pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in
21 the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept witb
his fathers : and Mauasseh his son reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 4.— [On the keri see EJreg. The E. V. follows it as do Thenius and Ewald. The chetib reads " the middle
city." It is adopted by Keil, Bunsi-n, and Bahr.— W. G. S.]
3 Ver. 18. That Jftpt*,s1 is not the original reading, but nOL"aT , which we find in Isai. xxxix. 2, is evident from
Dir^y
which follows. The latter reading is also supported by all the ancient versions. — Bahr.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. In those days. By these words He-
zekiah's illness is referred to the time of the last-
mentioned events, but only as a general designa-
tion of the time of its occurrence (Keil). It fell,
like those events, in the middle of his reign. The
expositors are not agreed, however, whether it
took place before or after Sennacherib's retreat.
The majority of the modern scholars adopt the
opinion that it was before that event, founding
their opinion on ver. 6. There he is promised fif-
teen years more of life, and Sennacherib's retreat
is spoken of as something which has not yet come
to pass. Now, as Hezekiah, according to chap,
xviii. 2, reigned twenty-nine years, and Senna-
cherib invaded Judah in his fourteenth year (xviii.
13), this illness must have befallen him, it is
argued, in his fourteenth year, either " at the be-
ginning of Sennacherib's invasion " (Keil), or
" while the Assyrians were still besieging Jeru-
salem'' (Thenius). It is further alleged in sup-
port of this view that Hezekiah showed to the
Babylonian embassy, which came to congratulate
him, treasures of gold and silver (xx. 13), but that
he bad L'iven up everything of this kind which he
1 ad (xviii. 15) to Sennacherib, so that his illness
vnd recovery must have taken place be/ore the re-
treat of the Assyrians (Delitseh and Halm). These
may appear to be very forcible arguments, but
there are opposing considerations of the highest
Importance. In the first place, both narratives j
put the story of Hezekiah's illness after the I
account of the Assyrian invasion, and as Calmer
observes : Nequc ego libenkr desero seviem et ordi-
nem rerum in libris sacris deducUim, nisi valida id
argumenla suadeard. It has indeed been urged
that the historian placed the story of Sennacherib's
retreat (xix. 35 sq.) first, because " he desired to
finish up the story of the Assyrian invasion, so as
not to be obliged to return to it " (Knobel). But
the ( 'hronicler makes this hypothesis, which is in
itself improbable, entirely inadmissible, for he says
that Hezekiah was highly honored by all nations
on account of this deliverance, and that many sent
presents to him, and then he proceeds to give the
story of his illness (2 Chron. xxxii. 22-31). Jose-
phus also asserts very positively that Hezekiah
and all the people offered thank-offerings to God,
and showed great religious zeal, but that then
(in-? nv TioAv) he was afflicted by a severe illness.
Secondly, the Babylonian embassy cannot be as-
signed to the period before the retreat of Senna-
cherib, nor to any time during the Assyrian in-
vasion, for the king of Babylon, who was a vassal
of the king of Assyria, would not have dared to
congratulate Hezekiah at that time when he was
in revolt against the suzerain of both, and he would
have had no grounds for seeking an alliance with
Hezekiah when he was in distress and peri)
Thirdly, Hezekiah's hymn of thanksgiving (Isai.
xxxviii. 10) begins with the words: " I said (that
is, I thought) in the cutting off (interruption, period
of tranquillity) of my days." he. ; i. e., "when a
period of rest had come in my life, a pause in the
midst of the ceaseless toil and :a¥e nnd danger of"
CHAPTER XX. 1-21.
Vd'6
life " (Drechsler) ; wlien I believed that I was re-
lieved from a'l danger by Sennacherib's retreat, and
that I could live on in peace and security, then
came a new trouble and danger, and it seemed
that I must go down to the grave. Against all
these important considerations, which are taken
from history, it cannot be argued that " the former
story [of the peril of Jerusalem] is placed first be-
cause it is most important " (Von Gerlach), for what
would become of the art of writing history, if histo-
rians should narrate later events before they did ear-
lier ones, because the former were more important?
As for ver. 6, the number " fifteen " cannot be
arithmetically accurate, for if it were so, then not
only Sennacherib's invasion and Hezekiah's illness.
but also the journey of the army of at least
185,000 men through the desert el Tilt to Egypt,
the siege of Pelusium, the return to Judah, the
siege and conquest of the "fenced cities." the de-
vastation of the country, and finally, the destruc-
tion of Sennacherib's army and his retreat, and
even the embassy from Babylon, must all have
taken place in one year, — Hezekiah's fourteenth,
and this appears impossible, considering that they
had no railways. Isaiah's words in vers. 5 and 6
are not an historical allusion, but a prophetic
oracle. In the prophetic style numbers have not
always their strict, arithmetical value, but are
clothed with a significance of another character.
The number 15, in this case, is not, indeed, as
Knobel thinks, " contributed by the redactor, ex
eveittu. and put in the mouth of the prophet, who
could not know how many years longer Hezekiah
was to live," but still we ask why should he have
just fifteen years longer, and not one more or one
less ? Fifteen is not what is commonly called a
round number. It will not do to answer this by
the anticipatory statement (xviii. 2) that Hezekiah
reigned twenty-nine years. Not because he was
to reign twenty-nine years in all were fifteen years
more assigned to him, but because he was spared
for fifteen years more his whole reign amounted to
twenty-uine years. When he was taken ill he
had finished his fourteenth year and begun his
fifteenth. He was then thirty-nine years old, in
the prime of life. Suddenly he stood on the brink
of the grave, and it was all the more painful to
him to quit life at this moment, because he had
just been delivered from his most powerful enemy,
and had hopes of being able to reign now in peace
and quiet. It was regarded as a very great mis-
fortune to be called away in the prime of life,
hence his earnest prayer (ver. 3), which had no
other sense than this : " 0 my God ! take me not
away in the midst of my days " (Ps. cii. 24, cf. lv.
23). The prophet promises him the fulfilment of
this prayer, and that he shall reign as much longer
as he had already reigned. The words which fol-
low : I will deliver thee out of the hand of the
king of Assyria, then refer to the remainder of
his reign. In the new lease of life which was to
be given him, he should fear nothing from the
great and mighty enemy ; he should reign in peace.
This promise was of the greatest importance, for,
although Sennacherib had fled in disgrace, yet he
was still very powerful and very dangerous, and
his wrath against Judah was fiercer than ever
(Tobias i. 18). He might collect his forces and
make another expedition against Judah. In fact,
he did immediately collect an army and march
against Babylon which had revolted. Thus the
words are understood by Vitringa, Clericus, Gese-
nius, Rosenmuller, and Drechsler, and the latter
adds the pertinent remark that, if ver. 6 had been
spoken before the events narrated in chaps, xviii.
and xix. took place, then xix. 34 would be only a
repetition of the promise in that verse.
Ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord : Set thine
house in order; literally: Give commands in re-
gard to thine house, i. e., take the necessary meas-
ures for the management of thine affairs (cf. 2 Sam.
xvii. 23, where ^S stands for ^ ). It does not
mean " make known thy (last) will " (Knobel,
Gesenius), nor, "give commands in regard to the suc-
cession to the throne" (Hess). — To the wall (ver.
2), not in dissatisfaction as Ahab did, 1 Kings xxi.
4 (Hitzig), but away from those who were present,
in order that he might pray more freely and col-
lectedly.—O Lord ! remember now (ver. 3). To
fall a victim of disease in the midst of his days
seemed to the king, in view of proverbs like Prov.
x. 27 : "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but
the years of the wicked shall be shortened," to be
a proof of having displeased God, that is, to be a
punishment. He therefore prays God to remem-
ber also the good which lie has striven to do, and
" takes refuge in the promises which God had
given in the Old Testament that good works
should be rewarded by length of days " (Starke)
For the rest, his words are not to be taken as re-
ferring in a general way to moral purity, but, as
the expressions " with a perfect heart," and " good
in thy sight " show, as referring especially to his
zeal for the pure worship of Jehovah, and his
earnestness against every form of idolatry. (On
D?K' see notes on 1 Kings xi. 4 and 6.) — And
Hezekiah wept sore. Josephus declares that, in
addition to the disease, there was now great
adv/iia, because he was to die childless and leave
the kingdom without an heir, and that, in this
difficulty, he prayed to God with tears, that He
would allow him to live a little longer until he had
become a father. The Church fathers and many
other ancient expositors adopt this conception of
the circumstances, and point, in its support, to the
fact that the son and successor of Hezekiah, Ma-
nasseh, was only twelve years old when his father
died (chap. xxi. 1), that is, he was born three years
after this illness. Ewald calls this a " fiction " and
appeals to Isai. xxxviii. 19 and xxxix. 7. It cer-
tainly is hardly credible that Hezekiah was child-
less at the age of thirty-nine ; it is not necessary
to assume that Manasseh was the oldest son (see
note on 1 Kings i. 5) ; and it is possible that the
older sons had died before Hezekiah did. The
only reason for his tears is the one which he gives
in his hymn of thanksgiving, Isai. xxxviii. 10 sq.
Ver. 4. Afore Isaiah had gone out into the
middle city. The middle city is " the central part
of the city, i. e., of lit. Zion where the royal castle
was situated." The keri -)Vn ("the middle
court " [E. V.], not of the temple but of the castle),
is presented by all the ancient versions, but it is
only an interpretation of "\>y as referring to the
castle after the analogy of x. 25 (Keif). nii'D
does not mean the "inner" city, in contrast with
the houses which lay outside of the wall of Mt. ZioB
(Knobel), but only, the middle one. — The words it.
234
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ver. 5 from " behold " to " house of the Lord " are
wanting in Isaiah xxxviii. 5, but are brought in in
xxxviii. 22. At this point it is quite evident that
the account in Isaiah is very much abbreviated.
The words on the third day (ver. 5) need not be
taken literally, but they certainly do not mean
" within a few weeks " (Hitzig). The phrase,
prince of my people, which is added, indicates the
ground for assisting him.— On ver. 6 see notes on
ver. 1. The closing words : For mine own sake,
&c, are wanting in Isaiah because they already
occur in xix. 34 (Isai. xxxvii. 35). They have here
the same force as there. They are not, therefore,
to be understood as containing any special refer-
ence to the circumstance that Hezekiah had no son,
but that, nevertheless, the house of David should
not become extinct, as the old expositors under-
stood.— D'JNn r\?21 , ver. 7, means properly a
pressed mass of figs, nbj7] without D\3Xn means
a cake of figs (1 Sam. xxv. 18; xxx. 12). This
was laid upon [TlE'i'l, strictly, the inflammation,
hence, the fester, or boil (Job ii. 7 ; Ex. ix. 9). It is
ordinarily understood to refer to a plague-sore, and
it is inferred that Hezekiah was afflicted with "the
plague which had carried off the Assyrian army "
(Knobel), " the contagion of which had been trans-
mitted to the king" (Winer and others); but this
is utterly false. For, in the first place, pnL" never
occurs in reference to a plague, and then again,
only one sore is here spoken of, whereas the plague
produced several on different parts of the body.
Moreover a plague or pestilence never occurs in
isolated cases, but as an epidemic. There is not
the slightest hint that any such disease raged in
Jerusalem either before, or during, or after the
Assyrian invasion. Still further, figs are not ap-
plied as a specific remedy for plague-sores. In
pestilence "no medicines are administered except
at the commencement of the disease, something to
produce perspiration " (Winer, R- W.-B. II. s. 233).
Figs were the usual remedy for boils. Dioscorides
saj'S of them : fiuupoftci otiknpiac ; Pliny : Ukera
aperit; and Jerome remarks on Isai. xxxviii.:
Juxta artem medicorum omnis sanies siccioribus flcis
atque contusis in cutis superficiem provocatur {cf. Cel-
sius, Hierobot. II. p. 373). We cannot define more
nearly what sort of a boil it was. Ewald thinks
it was " a fever-boil ; " according to Thenius " a sin-
gle carbuncle formed under the back of the head."
but this is a pure guess. [The ground for Thenius'
idea, which goes as far as is possible towards de-
fining more nearly the character of the disease, is,
that there was a single sore, and that it was about
to prove fatal. A carbuncle, particularly in such
a place, would answer this description. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah,
What is the sign, Ac. ? In his deep anxiety the
sick man desires an external sign to strengthen
his faitli in the prophet's words. Such signs usu-
ally attended a prophet's promises (Isai. vii. 11,
14: chap xix. 29). This demand of the king is
not at all astonishing in view of the words ad-
dressed to Alia/, in Isai. vii. 11:" Ask a sign," &C.
There also the prophet allowed the king to choose
what the sigc should be. Vers. 9, 10, and 1 1 are
condensed in Isaiah into one verse. In ver. 9
Drechsler rejects the ordinary translation [that of
It e E. V.] which makes of the last part an alter-
native question. He asserts that that translator
is "simply impossible." He translates: "The
shadow shall advance ten degrees, or shall it reced6
ten degrees ? " taking -|^n as a command. "Tin
prophet determines, in the first place, that it shall
advance, then he interrupts himself, corrects him-
self, and leaves the king to determine which it shall
do." But it is only in disjunctive questions that
DX means or, and the prophet does not " correct
himself" in such a solemn expression. Keil also,
in his new commentary, translates: "The shadow
has advanced ten degrees — if it should recede ten
degrees ? " He takes the second clause hvpothet-
ically: "Whether it may indeed," &c, which is
not only forced but also unclear. Hezekiah's an-
swer presupposes a disjunctive question. As in
Isai. vii. 11, the prophet asks the king whether he
will ask a sign in the depth or in the height, so
here he asks Hezekiah whether the sign of the
shadow shall be that it shall go forward or back-
ward. It cannot be objected that n is wanting
with 7[^n , for this is often the case, and the ques-
tion is designated only by the tone of the voice
(Gen. xxvii. 24; 2 Sam. xviii. 29. Gesen. Gramm
£ 153. 1). [The argument for reading ver. 9 as B
disjunctive question resolves itself intoan inference
from Hezekiah's answer. Regarding simply the
grammar of ver. 9 there are two obstacles to this
rendering ; first, the omission of n , which is never
omitted in a disjunctive question, and secondly, the
perfect tense 7|^n . Keil's translation is therefore
better. " The shadow has advanced ten degrees —
if it should recede ten degrees ? " would that be a
satisfactory sign ? It is true that the answer of
Hezekiah does not seem to fit well to this question
The only other and more satisfactory solution of
the difficulty is that which involves an alteration
of the text. Knobel and Hitzig read -p^fl • It
seems necessary to supply also n as having fallen
out before 7]Sl . The reading would then be :
What sign shall there be ? The shadow's advanc-
ing ? or shall the shadow recede ? Keil's objection
{Comm.s. 344 note 2), that the inf. abs. would, in that
case, be used for the future, would not apply. The
inf. abs. must be understood in its most ordinary use
to express directly and simply the verbal idea. —
See Gramm. and also Exeg. notes on ^bx , chap
xix. 29. — W. G. S.].— The words i?y and T\bvo re
fer to the instrument which we call a sundial,
and which the ancients called a shadow-measurer
(Plin. xxxvi. 15), because the hour of the day was
estimated by the length of the shadow. It is evi
dent from this that these instruments were not ar-
ranged by them as they are by us (see Martini,
You den Sonnerathren der Alten, Leipzig, 1777, s. 35).
The Di?VD served to indicate the time. It u
generally supposed that they were the degrees or
lines (Vulg. linea) of the scale on the indicator of
the sun-dial. But TOVO means a going up, an <w
cent, or that which ascends, hence a step (1 Kings x
19; 2 Kings ix. 13), never a grade, a degree, or a
line (see Knpbel on Isai. xxxviii. S). The Septa)
CHAPTER XX. 1-21.
23a
ways render it by ava/}a6/ioi. The shadow-mea-
surer must, therefore, have had steps like a pair
of stairs. As it is called in ver. 10 : " the steps of
Ahaz ;" it has often been supposed that it consisted
of the stairs to the royal palace. Stairs, however,
as distinguished from steps, were called npl'jj
(Ezek. xl. 26), and why should the stairs of the
royal palace, which had long been in their place,
be called the stairs of Ahaz ? It is evident that the
shadow-measurer was an instrument by itself and
not a part of the royal palace. It was " an arrange-
ment contrived especially to measure the length of
the shadow as a means of learning the hour " (The-
niusj. It is not possible now to say how it was con-
trived. Among the numerous guesses which have
beeu made as to the mode of its construction
(Winer, Ii.- W.-B. I. s. 498 sq.) the simplest and
most natural seems to us to be that it was a col-
umn with circular steps surrounding it. " This
column cast the shadow of its top at noon upon
its uppermost, and morning and evening upon the
lowest step, and thus designated the hour of the
day " (Knobel). The prophet's question gives rise
to the supposition that there were twenty of these
steps, so that the shadow could go forward or
backward ten degrees. "If the sign was given
an hour before sunset then the shadow, returning
ten degrees of a half-hour each, came back to the
point at which it stood at noon " (Delitsch). It is
impossible to draw any inference from this as to
the division of hours among the Jews, for it is
probable that they did not have any such division
before the captivity (Winer, /. c. II. s. 560). The
fact that the sun-dial was named after Ahaz is
doubtless due to its having been first set up by
him in the court of the palace. According to He-
rodotus (ii. 109) it was a Babylonian invention,
and as the Babylonians were then m continual in-
tercourse with the Assyrians, Ahaz may have be-
come acquainted with it through the latter, just as
he borrowed from them the plan of the new altar
(xvi. 10). ["To them (the Assyrians) also is to be
attributed the institution of the week of seveu
uays. dedicated to the seven planetary bodies wor-
shipped by them as divine beings, and the order
assigned by them to the days has not been
changed from time immemorial. Having invented
the gnomon, they were the first to divide the day
into twenty-four hours, the hours into sixty mi-
nutes, and the minutes into sixty seconds " (Lenor-
inant I. 443). They had a sexagesimal system of
notation (Chevallier, ibid.).]
Ver. 10. And Hezekiah answered: It is a
light thing. Cierieus thinks that Hezekiah an-
swered the prophet's question non satis prudenter,
for that it would be as difficult for the shadow to
advance as to recede. But Starke observes cor-
rectly: " As the shadow, in the ordinary course
of things, always advances and never recedes, the
king chooses that which appears to be the more
difficult in order that the proof may be the clearer."
Full of his ardent wish that the shadow of death
(Matt. iv. 16) may not extend any further, but may
become shorter, he naturally chooses the latter
movement for the shadow on the dial. And
Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord. Ac, ver.
11. Thenius arbitrarily asserts that "these words
do not belong to history, but express the mode of
conception prevalent at the time the history was
written " [in other words, that Isaiah did not, as
an actual matter of history, at this point in his
conversation with the king, " cry to the Lord," but
that the historian's idea of what a prophet would
do under such circumstances was, that he would
at this point cry to God, and that he accordinglj
inserted here a mention of Isaiah's having done so]
The prophets were accustomed, before giving a
sign to confirm their utterances, to call upon God,
because they knew, and every one else was to be
taught, that the sign did not come from them but
from God (1 Kings xvii. 20 ; xviii. 36 ; 2 Kings iv.
33 ; vi. 17; cf. John xi. 41). As in ver. 9 so alsc
here in ver. 11, a movement forwards and back-
wards is ascribed, not to the sun but to the shadow.
In this sign, all turned upon the shadow, not upon
the sun. Thenius thinks that fDCTI must be sup-
plied as a subject to nTV , because it is a femi-
nine form, while pv is masculine, but, in view of
the variableness of the Hebrew genders, we cannot
draw an inference from this feminine form which
shall contradict the clear sense of the words (see
Drechsler on lsai. xxxviii. S). The account in
Isaiah has instead of this verse : " Behold, I will
bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is
gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees
backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by
which degrees it was gone down;" but here alsc
pV must be understood as the subject of the first
mT , and, in the case of the second !TTT , we
must understand that the reference is not to any
movement of the sun, but to a movement of the
shadow caused by the sun. Drechsler correctly
observes on the words: "And the sun turned
backward :" " that is to say, of course, that the
sunshine moved backwards on the indicator [bet-
ter, the steps] on which it fell." (Cf. also De-
litsch on lsai. xxxviii. 8.) The account in Kings is
more detailed and more accurate than that in
Isaiah, for the latter omits vers. 10 and 11, and
mentions briefly, in vers. 21 and 22, after the
thanksgiving of Hezekiah (xxxviii. 9-20), that
which is here given in vers. 7 and 8, as if the
figs had not beeu applied until after the 3D3D
of Hezekiah.
[The story of the incident is complete without
vers. 7-11. Hezekiah's recovery is mentioned in
ver. 7, and it is a surprise to read in ver. 8 a re-
quest from him to be assured by a sign that he
shall be healed. This lack of unity in the story
seems to point to the fact that two independent
traditions in regard to Hezekiah's illness are here
combined. Unfortunately the account in Isaiah is
also somewhat disjointed. lsai. xxxviii. 21 and 22
brings in the account of the king's recovery as &
sort of supplement, or after thought. He there
asks for a sign that he shall go to the temple on the
third daij} not, that he shall recover. — See further
the bracketed addition to Histur. % 4. — W. G. S.]
Ver. 12. At that time Berodach-baladan, So..
This took place "certainly not very soon after
what is narrated above, for, at that time, news
travelled slowly, and journeys took time " (The-
nius), but it certainly was not as late as 703 [See
Supplem. Note after the Exeg. section on chaps,
xviii. and xix., and the similar Note after the pre-
sent Exeg. sectiou], as Knobel thinks, that \c tet
years after, for the ostensible object of the em
236
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
bassy was to congratulate the king on his recovery.
7]"INn2 stands tor 7|"!N"ip Isai. xxxix. 1. It is
not an error, but simply an interchange of the la-
bials, as in X'HH and N'HJD • Merodach is really
the name of the Babylonian Mars (Jerem. I. 2).
[See Exeg. notes on xvi. 3; xvii. 16; 30 and 31. —
Merodach belonged to the third rank of gods in the
Babylonian Pantheon. This rank consisted of five
gods representing the five planets. Merodach was
equivalent to Jupiter, and was identified with the
planet which we call by that name. He was one
of the chief gods at Babylon and had two shrines
(one mystic) in the great pyramid there. Nebu-
chadnezzar speaks of having adorned this pyramid
and these shrines. Merodach was a secondary
form or emanation of Bel (Baal). " He was called
' the ancient one of the gods, the supreme judge,
the master of the horoscope ; ' he was represented
as a man erect and walking, and with a naked
sword in his hand." (Lenonnant, I. 454 sq.)] It
was the custom of the Babylonians and Assyrians
to give their kings the names of divinities. Bala-
dan is, according to the Aramaic, equivalent to
jinx bl'3 • On l'le question whether this king
was the Hapdonefiirad'oc in the Canon Ptol., who
reigned twelve years, or the Merodach-baladan in
the Citron. Arrnen. of Eusebius (Berosus), who only
reigned six mouths, see Niebuhr, Gesch. Assyr. s. 40
and 75 sq., and Delitseh on Isai. xxxviii. 1. [See
Supplem. Note at the end of this sectioi..] — Accord-
ing to 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, the object of the embassy
was, not only to congratulate Hezekiah on his re-
covery, but also to get information about the mir-
acle, that is about the "sign" of the prophet.
Evidently this was only the ostensible object ; con-
sequently Josephus does not mention it at all
{Ant. x. 2, 2), but only gives the true one: cvfijjia-
%6v re avrov elvai rrapeKaXet nai tp'tAov. The kings of
Babylon, who at that time were under the Assyrian
supremacy, sought to free themselves from it. The
present time, when Sennacherib had suffered a se-
vere calamity, seemed to them to be the best op-
portunity. " The object of the embassy was to
form an alliance with a king who had successfully
resisted the Assyrian power " (Von Gerlaeh).
Hence it follows that Hezekiah's illness fell in the
time after aud not before the Assyrian invasion. His
recovery gave the king of Babylon the pretext he
desired for sending an embassy. He did not care
much to offer an empty congratulation. His ob-
ject was, to " find out the strength of the kingdom
of Judah" (Ewald). The ambassadors succeeded
in inducing Hezekiah himself to give them full in-
formation in regard to this. — Ver. 13. And Hez-
ekiah rejoiced on account of them, certainly not
merely on account of their civility in coming to see
him, aud congratulate him, but also on account of
the real object of their visit, which he easily per-
ce:-«.d, even if they did not expressly make it
knjwn to him. An alliance with the Babylonians,
whose power was then on the increase, seemed to
him to be very advantageous to his kingdom, and
to assure him against further danger from the As-
syrians. He therefore showed them his treasury,
his armory, &c , in order to show them that his
means were not so entirely exhausted as might be
). ted a.'ter the Assyrian invasion. Drechsler
justly remarks 1 1 [ .. . r i the enumeration of the differ-
ent objects which follows, that " it lay in the in-
terest of the narrator to enumerate as many si
possible of these objects, in order to show that
Hezekiah exerted himself to bring out and show
everything which could set off his military
strength and resources." First the treasury is
mentioned, in which silver and gold were stored.
ri^j is not to be connected with ]")^33 (Gen.
xxx vii. 25; xliii. 11) i.e., spice, especially the gum
of the tragacanth which grows in Syria (why
should the " spice-house " be mentioned first of
all, before the silver and gold?). The word cornea
rather from the unused root J"H3 . equivalent to
DQ : conceal, cover, preserve (see Fiirst, s. v.), so
that it means " treasure-house," or "store-house."
The assumption that it was first used for storing
spices, but then for storing gold and silver (Gese-
nius), is at least unnecessary. [The etymology
suggested by Fiirst and adopted by Bahr is very
uncertain and improbable. It does not appear
that D13 has the sense attributed to it. Gesenius'
explanation is the best, and is the one almost
universally adopted. nJ3 — J1S33 spice. The
spice-house is the one used for storing spices —
which were always reckoned as precious articles.
The name then passed over to a store-house, or trea-
sury, for precious articles of all sorts. — W. G. S.].
D'D'-'O , perfume, the general expression for all ob-
jects which have a pleasant smell, which were
used either for incense or for ointment, and which
were highly esteemed. " At courts it was consid-
ered highly important to have a good stock of
these " (Winer II. s. 495 sq.). The rabbis, whom
Movers and Keil follow, say that HIED |DC is not
fine olive-oil, but balsam-oil manufactured from
the products of the royal gardens. The armory
which here stands in contrast with the treasury is
without doubt the house of the forest of Lebanon
(see notes on 1 Kings vii. 2). In all his domin-
ion, i. e., " throughout the extent of his authority ;
not only in the royal castle, but throughout his
kingdom " (Drechsler). It has been asked whence
all these treasures came, since Hezekiah had to
give up all his gold and silver to Sennacherib, and
even to take off the gold coverings to the door-
posts of the temple, which he had himself given
in order to satisfy Sennacherib (chap, xviii. 14-16).
The answer is not difficult. Sennacherib had only
demanded gold aud silver, not perfume, nor oil,
nor even arms, aud with these last Hezekiah had
abundantly supplied himself at the approach of the
Assyrians (2 Chron. xxxii. 5). The armory was
therefore full, and the spices all remained. As for
the silver and gold, it is evident from ver. 17 ("and
that which thy fathers have laid up in store ") that
Hezekiah had not given up all, but still retained
some of the ancient articles which had been handed
down. He preferred to take the temple adorn-
ments which he himself had given, rather than to
give up these articles which perhaps were hidden
away in subterranean places of security "The
Chronicler also relates (II. xxxii. 23), in a credible
manner, that, after the retreat of the Assyrians,
many kings sent presents to Hezekiah" (Thenius)
Finally, a great deal of booty may have been ob-
tained from the camp of the Assyrians after their
sudden flight, as Vitringa, Ewald, and Drechsler
suggest. [See Supplem. Note after Exeg. on chaps,
xviii. and xix. The tribute given by Hezekiah
CHAPTKR XX. 1-21.
is there mentioned in detail, from the inscrip-
tions.]
Ver. 14. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto
king Hezekiah. Isaiah perceived the real object
of the Babylonian embassy. He saw that the ob-
iect was not merely to congratulate the king on
his recovery and to satisfy their curiosity, but that
they also desired to draw Hezekiah into an alliance,
and" he saw that the king was disposed to enter
into one. He therefore felt himself impelled to go
to the king and to call him to account. This he
does by a question which, however, involves a
strong affirmation : I know what has been done,
but why hast thou done it? lie desired a confes-
sion from the mouth of the king himself. As lie
had zealously protested before against any alliance
with Egypt and Assyria, so he now warned the
king against Babylon, and showed him what was
to be apprehended from that quarter. Hezekiah's
unembarrassed reply (ver. 15) shows that he suppos-
ed that he was doing right. " Hear,'' the prophet
rejoins, "Jehovah's word " (ver. IB) ; tlion hopest
for help and deliverance from Babylon, but this
very Babylon shall bring to thy kingdom and
people ruin and destruction. These, to whom thou
hast shown all that thou hast, will take away all
tliis and more besides; they will take away even
thy children and make them servants at their court.
Ver. IS. That shall issue out of thee, that
thou shalt beget — not his own sons, strictly
speaking, but Ins descendants, a sense in which ]3
is so often used. Although D'D'TD really means
eunuchs, and although " the proper sting of the as-
sertion in this verse is not to be unnecessarily blunt-
ed" (Drechsler), nevertheless we must not insist
upon the literal force of the word, as Gesenius
does, but understand by it footmen, or court attend-
ants (1 Sam. viii. 15), as we see from the example of
Daniel (Dan. i. 8), who was not a eunucl*. There
was humiliation enough in this prospect.
Ver. 19. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah. —
He subjects himself in humility, and in submission
to the will of God, and to the prophet's words, as
Eli did, 1 Sam. iii. 18, cf. the same expression 1
Kings ii. 38, 42. 3io cannot here mean kind (Um-
breit). for the words in vers. 17 and IS were not
" kind ; " nevertheless they were good in the fullest
sense of the word, inasmuch as they were the
words of God. — " They were such that there was
no fault to be found with them " (Lange). Clerieus
remarks on the word ; Bonmn vocatur id, in quo ac-
quiescere par est, quippeabeo profectum, qui nihil facit,
quod non tantum justissimum, sed quod summa boni-
tate non sit temperalum, etiam cum pasnas sumit.
The second TDS'l shows that after the first part
of the answer there was a pause, and that the fol-
lowing words were not addressed directly to Isaiah,
although they were spoken before he went away:
not, as Knobel thinks, after he was gone, xpn is
Btrictly nonne? "The interrogative force is often
lc3t, and it does not differ from ?n or nan ■ See
1 Sam. xx. 37; 2 Sam. xv. 35; Job xxii. 12"
(Gesenius). DX is a particle of wishing (Ps. lxxxi.
B; exxxix. IS). Calmet renders the sense thus:
Justa sunt omnia, quxcunque Deus sancivit, sed
utinam coercrat ullionis sues cursum, quamdiu vivo.
This seems simpler and more natural than Keil's
translation: " Is it not so, i.e., is it not pure good-
ness if peace and security are to last through my
days (as long as I live)?" Instead of DS i>bT\
we find in Isai. xxxix. 8, ^3 , which is by no means
to be preferred, for the translation : " For thera
will be peace " does not join on well to what pre-
cedes. According to Knobel '3 simply introduces
the direct discourse. It is an error to translate,
as is often done: "Very well! so long as there
may only be peace and security in my time," and
to take the words as an expression of "naive"
(Gesenius), or "easy" (Knobel), or "genuine ori-
ental " (Hitzig) egotism, as if, as some of the
rabbis indeed understand it (see Jerome on Isai.
xxxix.), he did not trouble himself about his peo-
ple. On the contrary, it is out of love for them
that he does not wish to survive or see their de-
struction. His words are an expression of pain
(Josephus : 'Awnii eic), and not of easy selfishness.
Drechsler and Keil understand ]"I!3X to refer to
the " faithfulness of God, who keeps the covenant
of grace which He has made with the humble," and
Hitzig understands it of the faithfulness of men,
" who keep the peace and observe treaties." But,
as there is no reference here to peace with God
(see vers. 17 and 18), so it cannot refer to His
faithfulness, much less to that of the Babylonians,
who, as yet, had made no treaty. n^DX is rather
a synonym of Dipt;', and signifies permanence,
security. It cannot be understood otherwise in
Jer. xxxiii. 6, where it stands in the same connec-
tion (cf. Jerem. xiv. 13). Vitringa: status return
slabilis.
Ver. 20. And the rest of the acts, Ac. In
the notice of the close of Hezekiah's reign, vers.
20 and 21, we find inserted in the ordinary formula
especial mention of his mU3 (see Exeg. on 1
Kings xv. 23), and also of the aqueduct which he
built, and which was of permanent utility to the
city. The panegyric of Hezekiah in Sir. xlviii. 17,
makes especial mention of the same. The refer-
ence is, of course, to the aqueduct which Hezekiah
caused to be built at the approach of the As-
syrians, and not to the one which is mentioned
chap, xviii. 17 and Isai. vii. 3. According to 2
Cliron. xxxii. 3 sq. all the fountains outside of the
city walls, also Gihon and its pools, were covered
over, in order, in case of siege, to deprive the be-
siegers of the use of the water. Then the water
was all collected and led under-ground into tho
city, where it flowed into the pool called after
Hezekiah, now more generally known as the Bir-
ket el Hamman. (See Thenius, in the appendix to
his Commentar, s. 18. Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 56S.
Keil on 2 Kings xviii. 17.) — According to 2 Chrou.
xxxii. 33, Hezekiah was buried "on the hill-slope
[E. V. is incorrect] of the graves of the sons [de-
scendants] of David," i. e., he was not buried in
the royal sepulchres. The additional remark :
" And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
did him honor at his death," shows that he was
not buried elsewhere than in the royal sepulchres
through lack of respect, but probably through
lack of room, or because he himself had chosen
tliis place.
[Supplementary Note incorporating thorn re
23S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
suits of Assyrian and Babylonian investigations which
bear on the tin, -illation of chap. xx. As we saw in
the Note at the end of the Exeg. section on chaps,
xviii. and xix.. Rawlinson thinks that Sennache-
rib made two expeditions into Judah (or, at least,
sent a second I. in the year 700 or 698. Lenormant
supposes that all the events mentioned occurred
in one campaign in 701-699. Hezekiah's sickness
was of such a character (ver. 7) as to suggest a
plague, the result of the Assyrian occupation. It
occurred in 699 or 69S. He, however, recovered.
There can be no question that Hezekiah was in
imminent danger of this kind at one time in his
life, soon after the Assyrian invasion. As we shall
see, below, the statement that his life was pro-
longed for fifteen years thereafter presents great
difficulty. Rawlinson. although he puts Sennache-
rib's invasion in 700-698, puts Hezekiah's illness,
and the visit of the Babylonians, in 713, on account
of the biblical data. IVe must, however, accept
the results of the investigations, and put the visit
of the Babylonian ambassadors in 698-7. The
sickness of the king was not an event of such a
character as to be recorded in the history, if it
were not for Isaiah's connection with it. On jbis
account it was included at a later time, and, if it
contains chronological statements which conflict
with those which we find elsewhere, it is rather
they than the others which must be disregarded.
It is noticeable that the sickness is said to have
occurred just in the middle of the king's reign, and,
if the date were not well-known, and an arbitrary
date had to be fixed upon by tradition, this is the
one of all o¥hers which would be most likely to be
chosen. Let us therefore disregard this statement
rather than others, and put the king's illness in
698-7.
The world is always ready to worship success,
without stopping to analyze it, and see on what it
rests. Little Judah alone of the nations of West-
em Asia had escaped the Assyrians. It had not
done so by virtue of its own strength, but by vir-
tue of what must have appeared to the neighbor-
ing nations to be an accident. Nevertheless we
find that an embassy came immediately afterwards,
from Babylon, to form an alliance.
There was a kiug on the throne of Chaldea in
709 who is called Merodach Baladan, (Marduk-balid-
din) in the inscription called the " Acts of Sargon."
Lenormant identifies him with the Kinzirus of
Ptolemy's canon; hut that king reigned earlier,
and the identification with Mardocempalus (721-
709). which Rawlinson adopts, seems better. In
709 Sargon totally defeated this kiug at Dur-Yakin.
a town on the Euphrates below Babylon. Baby-
lon became subject to Assyria. (It had been free
Bince 760. Supp. Note, on chap. xv). The defeated
king either escaped in disguise or was taken pris-
oner; the inscription says one thing in one place
and another in another. When we next meet with
the same name, it is, therefore, doubtful whether
it is the same person or his son. Merodach Bala-
dan at any rah- proved himself a patriotic Babylo-
nian, and a determined foe of the Assyrians. Im-
mediately after Sargon's assassination, in 704. Bab-
ylon revolted under Agises, but Merodach Baladan
killed him, and himself took command (Lenormant i.
Bennacherib mentions, in his inscription, that his
first campaign was against Merodach Baladan, and
the armies of Elarn, which were allied with him.
He defeated and plundered them, spoiled Chaldea,
and put a vassal king over it (703). While Senna-
cherib was engaged in Syria, Philistia, and Judah
(see Supp. -Votes on chaps, xvi.. xvii., xviii. and
xix.) Merodach Baladan escaped from prison, raised
another revolt, and expelled the vassal king. Sen-
nacherib, after his disaster in Judah, turned once
more against Chaldea. It was now that Merodach
Baladan sent to Hezekiah to try to form an alli-
ance. Hezekiah was flattered by this and made a
show of his treasures. He probably did not want
the Babylonians to think that, after all, he was
not an ally worth having. The result proved the
justice of the prophet's warning. Merodach Bala-
dan was again defeated. He died in exile soon
after, and Chaldea was once more subjugated.
Sennacherib set his sou Asshur-nadin on the
throne.
Some years of peace followed, during which
Sennacherib was rebuilding Nineveh, which he did
with great magnificence. But in 693, on the death
of Asshur-nadin, Babylon once more revolted.
For the next ten years Sennacherib was occupied
in suppressing a series of fierce but unsuccessful
revolts in Babylon, and in prosecuting wars in
Elam and Susiaua to punish the allies of the rebels.
In 682 lie made his son Esarhaddon viceroy of
Babylon, having chastised the city with such
severity as to leave it half-ruined. He was assas-
sinated in 6S0 (Lenormant).
To return to Hezekiah. If he lived fifteen,
years after his illness, he died in 685, and reigned
forty-two (not twenty-nine) years. Lenormant
adopts this opinion, and adjusts other data to it
thus: Manasseh was born in 797. He was recog-
nized as king from his birth. The twenty-nine
years of Hezekiah are reckoned to this time, and
the fifty-five of Manasseh from it. Hezekiah died
in 685, when Manasseh was twelve years old.
Aside from the violence of this theory, it encoun-
ters numerous specific objections, and cannot be
adopted. It is more reasonable to hold fast the
twenty-nine years for Hezekiah's reign, and sacri-
fice the fifteen years stated as his new lease of
life. See the first paragraph above. Hezekiah
died in 698-7. and Manasseh was twelve years old
at that time. — See Note 30 on the Chronolog. Table
at the end of the volume. — W. G. S.]
HISTOPaCAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The story of the illness of Hezekiah "withdraws
our attention from the external history of the king-
dom, which is narrated in the foregoing chapters,
and reveals to us the soul of the king. It leads us
out of the city into the royal palace " (Ombreit).
The announcement of his approaching death
shocked him deeply : he turned away from those
who surrounded him, and "wept sore," as if death
were the end of all. What has become of his firm
faith? Where is the fearless confidence with
which a pious man faces death? Does this not
seem like unmanly weakness, and like anything
but submission to the will of God ? But there are
two things to be considered in explanation. Hez-
ekiah had passed his whole life up to this point in
anxiety and trouble; he had only just escaped a
danger which threatened his kingdom and his life;
he was now, for the first time, in a position to look
forward with courage and hope to a period of peace,
rest, and prosperity, and to the opportunity of
doing more for his eoiziry thar he had hitherto
CHAPTERS XX. 1-21.
239
been tble to do. At this time, now, iD the very
prime of life, he was suddenly called to die and to
give up all. He had succeeded to the throne iu a
time of deep decay, and had sought iu every way
to restore prosperity and strength, and now, when
he was iu a position to labor for this end with some
success, he must leave all. Nothing could be more
natural than that he, a man of warm and earnest
feelings, from whom no stoical apathy was to be
expected, should be terrified and shocked when he
heard the prophet's words: Thou shalt diet He
does not murmur or complain, still less does he,
like Ahaziah (2 Kings i. 4-9), burst out in anger
against the messenger of death Neither does he
simply resign himself; he bows humbly and pours
out his grief in prayer to Him in whom he believed.
Therefore his prayer finds an answer, which it
never would have done if it had been made in wo-
manish weakness or in that love of life which is
displeasing to God. The fulfilment of his prayer
is a proof that it was offered in a right spirit. The
prayer came from a faithful, noble, and pious heart,
as we see from his hymn of thanksgiving, Isai.
xxxviii. 9-20. He had in mind the words, Ps.
cxlv. 18 and 19. In the second place it is to be
remembered that Hezekiah belonged to the pious
men of the Old Testament, who had not that hope
and confidence which belongs to those who know
Him who has conquered death; that he had never
heard the words: ■' Thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1
Cor. xv. 57). The promises in the Old Testament
economy all refer to this life and to the bliss of
communion with the living God. Death had not
yet lost its sting. Hence the terror with which
even the pious men of the Old Testament looked
forward to it. while the pious men of the New
Covenant look up in full confidence to Him who
has robbed death of its power, and in Whom all
promises are yea and amen.
2. Hezekialts prayer has been interpreted as
"self praise," on account of the appeal which it
contains to his righteous life (Thenius), and the
ridiculous assertion has been made that "the
Church, at least the Protestant. Church, must, ac-
cording to its standards, class him among the self-
righteous " (Meuzel). It is entirely left out of view,
in this judgment, that Hezekiah stood in the econ-
omy of the Old Testament, that is, in the economy
of legal righteousness ; that the entire revelation of
the Old Testament is concentrated in the Law of
Moses, as that of the New Testament is concen-
trated in the Gospel; and that to walk according to
this Law is not to be virtuous, morally pure, ami
free from sin, but to serve Jehovah as the only
God, to fear Him, to trust Him, and to love Him
with all the heart (Dent. vi. 1-5). Hezekiah did
not know any more about the modern doctrine that
a man should practise virtue simply for the sake
of virtue, than he did about the evangelical doctrine
that faith alone, without works, ensures salvation.
He considered that death, which was announced
to hie, was a penalty inflicted by God, and he did
not know how he had incurred it, since he had al-
ways endeavored to serve God to the best of his
knowledge and conscience, and never had departed
from Him. He comes before the judge of life and
death and begs Him not to remember his sins alone,
but also to remember that he has feared and wor-
shipped Him. He could say all this without phar-
tsaical " self-praise " (Luke xviii. 9-12). just as well
as St. Paul could say, without self-righteousness-
" I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith " (2 Tim. iv. 7). The
whole thanksgiving hymn, Isai. xxxviii., breathes
humility before the Almighty and Holy One ; there
is not a hint of self-prf.ise or of holiness by works
in it. "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it
from the pit of corruption ; for thou hast cast all
my sins behind thy back " (Isai. xxxviii. 17). His
greatest cause for grief was that he must go thither
where he could no longer praise the Lord. Would
that all who consider themselves virtuous and holy
would show themselves as humble and penitent iD
the face of death as Hezekiah did.
[It cannot be denied that there is a great deal
of special pleading in this criticism of Hezekiah's
words. We have to be on our guard against set-
ting out with a determination to see nothing but
good in certain of these characters, and nothing but
evil in certain others, and against warping facts to
suit this foregone judgment, most of all, if " good "
or " evil " are to be measured by modern standards
When Hezekiah says that he has walked before
God with a perfect heart, and in fidelity, he refers
to the requirements of the Mosaic Law, but when
he says: " I have done good in thy sight," he
mi-. i us moral good — righteousness. He claims, in
perfect honesty and simplicity, that he has done
what is right. The answer to those who accus«
him of self-praise is not to be found in twisting the
words. Two things may be urged in answer, both
of which are true as general principles, and are not
suggested by the desire of establishing the saint-
liuess of Hezekiah's character. The first is that,
if he had really done what was right as far as he
knew, and if his theology taught him that this ca-
lamity was a punishment which indicated that he
had been doing wrong, then he had a full right to
appeal to his conduct against this theological in-
ference [cf. the argument of Kliphaz, Job iv. 5, par-
ticularly chap. iv. 7, and Job's answer, in which
he justifies himself. See chap. xiii. 15, 23). Se-
condly : the naive expression of Hezekiah, who
thinks that he has done right and says 30, is not to be
judged by the modern mock-humility which often
thinks that it ftasdone right, and says that it has not;
which assents to the doctrine that all have sinned,
as a general theological proposition, while the in-
dividual who repeats it does not see, in his heart,
that he has sinned after all. The Jewish theology
taught that temporal calamities were judgments of
God inflicted in punishment for sin. Hence it was
inferred that a man who suffered misfortune must
have sinned (Isai. liii. 4). Hezekiah had attempted
to do right to the best of his ability. His con
science told him that he had been faithful to this
effort, and in all truth and simplicity he expressed
this conviction. It is evident that it is impertinent
to judge any such naive and truthful expression
by our conventional modern standards of how
much a man may be allowed to express of the sin-
cere convictions of his heart, when they bear upon
his own merits or abilities. — W. G. S.]
3. The prophet Isaiah here " meets us ones
more in all the glory of the prophetical dignity "
(Umbreit). His conduct is based upon the premise
of his prophetical character, without which it
would be obscure and enigmatical. What he does
and says, he does and says not in his own power,
but as one who " stands before Jehovah " (1 Kin6*
xvii. 1), and who is set "over nations and king
240
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
doms to root out and to pull down and to destroy,
to throw down, to build and to plant " (Jerern. i.
10). Mighty in word and deed, without tear of
men or anxiety to please them, he threatens, and
warns, and exhorts, and helps. He undertakes
without hesitation the duty, heavy for him no
doubt, of going into the palace to announce to his
sovereign the terrible command : " Set thine
house in order." Then he retires, leaving the king
to the effects of this command, but soon returns
and declares to the crushed monarch, who is ab-
sorbed in anxious prayer, the fulfilment of that
prayer, the promise of complete and speedy reco-
very, nay even of a reign prolonged for as many
years more as it had already lasted, and the pro-
tection of God throughout this time. What would
become of the prophet if he did all this in obedi-
ence to his mere human judgment? According
to the ordinary custom of the prophets (see 1
Kings xvii. Hist. § 6: Pt. II. pp. 17, 47, 58) he
combines with the promise of recovery the use of
an external means of healing. The cluster of figs
here had just the same fuuction as the means used
by our Lord (John ix. 6, 14). It was not the clus-
ter of figs which helped the man at the point of
death, but the Almighty Lord of life and death.
The ordinary means of healing was here a sign
and pledge of the promised cure. As the Berle-
burger Bibel says: "Since this means could not
have the power of curing in itself, it was used as
a sign of the divine superhuman power." Isaiah
did not employ the ordinary, natural means until
he was sure of the divine help. It was just be-
cause this means of cure was the ordinary natural
one, that Hezekiah wanted a " sign " that Je-
hovah would heal him (ver. 8), and did not have
complete confidence in this remedy. It is, there-
fore, utterly erroneous to ascribe Hezekiah's cure
to the cluster of figs, to talk about Isaiah's knowl-
edge of medicine, and to draw the inference that
the prophets were accustomed to act as " physi-
cians " (Knobel. Der Prophet, der Htbr. I. s.*55.
Winer, It- W.-B II. s. 280). If the prophet had,
as a physician, been sure of the efficacy of this
remedy, he would have behaved in the most re-
prehensible manner in not applying it at once, and
in beginning by announcing certain death.
4. The sign, which was granted to Hezekiah at
his request, has intimate analogy with the pro-
phetic declaration which it was intended to con-
firm. There could hardly be a more significant
sign than one presented on the shadow-measurer,
that is, the time-measurer, which was "arranged
in the court of the palace before the king's win-
dows" (Thenius). Every human life is like a day
— it has its morning, its noon, and its evening,
(Keel. xi. 6 ; xii. 1. 2 ; Job xi. 17 ; Matt. 20. 3, sq.).
The advance of the shadow shows the approach
of evening (Jer. vi. 4; Job vii. 1. 2), which will
be followed by darkness and night. Hezekiah's
life-day was on the decline ; the night of death
was approaching: then it was promised him this
day should stand once more at its noon, that the
shadow of death should recede, and that the even-
ing should once more become mid-day. The sign
is not therefore "a mere pledge of the fulfilment
of the promise in vers. 5 and 6," in which "there
is no analogy to be traced with the fact of the pro-
longation of his life " (Thenius). On the Contrary,
its significance is so apparent that it is difficult
not to see it at once. This is not a mere trick of
art or power, in place of which any other one
might just as well have been chosen, any more
than any of the other prophetic signs. — As for
the physical features of the sign, many, starting
from the supposition that a " violation of the or-
der of the solar system " (Menzel), a miracle which
involved the revolution of the earth on its axis in
a direction contrary to its regular one, is here re-
corded, have been shocked and repelled, and have
either sought to explain it naturally, or have cha-
racterized it as a myth. The old naturalistic ex-
planations by a second-sun, a vapor cloud, or an
earthquake (see Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 499), may
all be passed over as antiquated. We need only
take notice here of the two most recent attempts.
According to Gumpach {Alttestam. Studien, 1. s. 195
sq.), Isaiah turned about the foot of the index,
which before was towards the East, so that the
shadow, instead of running down, as before, would
descend [ascend?]. In that case, however, the
sign would be nothing but "a very simple trick "
(Oehler), and the greatest prophet of the Old Testa-
ment would be nothing but a common juggler.
This trivial hypothesis falls to the ground with the
erroneous, at least unproven assumption, that the
shadow-measurer had a gnomon with a foot-piece.
According to Thenius, we have to understand that
there was "a partial eclipse of the sun. unnoticed
by most men." Such an one occurred, according
to Prof. Seyffarth's communication to Thenius, on
the 26th of Sept., 713, B.C., "which date is in
perfect consistency with all the other chronologi-
cal statements of the Book of Kings." He adds
that during such an eclipse " a slight advance and
recession of the shadow takes place." " Isaiah
made use of his astronomical knowledge to give
the king, in his despair, a sign which should re-
arouse his courage." This explanation, which no
one else has yet adopted, — [Stanley (II. 537) says
it is the only thing which could "illustrate" the
cause of the phenomenon. He adds that he is
informed that the variation would be almost im-
perceptible except to a scientific observer.] — rests
upon the very doubtful assumption [':] that there
was a partial eclipse of the sun in the year 713,
and upon the still more doubtful assumption tha*
Isaiah kad great astronomical knowledge, ana
knew how to make shrewd use of it upon occa-
sion. It is, therefore, a most unfortunate attempt.
Let us have done with attempts to explain facts
and events, which the historian distinctly declares
to be miracles, by naturalistic hypotheses. Mod-
ern criticism does not indeed any longer deny that
a miracle is here recorded, but disposes of it as a
myth, and asserts either that a natural event was
at a later time exaggerated and embellished with
miraculous details, or that this story grew up
through tradition out of the simple promise of the
prophet, that, as the sun, after going down, returns
and repeats its course, so Hezekiah's life should,
though it had reached its limit, take a new start,
and go on for a time longer (Knobel, Hitzig).
Ewald's notion amounts to the same tiling He
says: "It must not be overlooked that this story
was not written down, in its present form, until
twenty years or more after the event, and after
the death of Hezekiah and of Isaiah. Isaiah's
good influence in this incident, even on the domes-
tic life of the good prince, stands firm as an his-
torical fact, and his words of trust and consola-
tion no doubt miraculously (!) encouraged the
CHAPTER XX. 1-21.
241
king." In this way, it is true, we glide most easily
over all difficulties. But it is a purely self-willed
assumption, which has no foundation save dislike
for everything miraculous, that this story was not
recorded in its present form until twenty years
after the event, and that it is a product of tradi-
tion. The two records of it are, in the main points,
identical. Both are taken, as was shown above,
from an older authority, with which we are not ac-
quainted, and of which we cannot assert that it
was first written years after the death of Hezekiah
and Isaiah, at a time when tradition had already
converted the history of this incident into a myth.
The Chronicler also, «lthough his record is very
brief, speaks of a nSID (2 Chron. xxxii. 24). Criti-
cal science first exaggerates the miracle, and makes
of it an event which would produce a cataclysm
on earth, in order to have so much more ground
for declaring it a myth. But there is no hint of
any such event in the text. The miracle "was
not visible everywhere, but only in Jerusalem,"
and " since it is a case of a sign which was to
serve as a pledge, and did not need to be super-
natural, it was accomplished by a phenomenon of
refraction in the rays of light " (Keil), " for it is
sufficient tnat the shadow, which in the afternoon
was below, by a sudden refraction should be bent
upwards " (Delitsch). There are " certain weak
analogies in the natural course of nature, as, for
instance, the phenomenon cited by many exposi-
tors, which occurred in the year 1103, at Metz, in
Lothringia, and which was observed by the prior
of the Monastery there, P. Romuald, and many
others, that the shadow on a sun-dial receded an
hour and a half" (Keil).
[Bosanquet, in an Essay published in the Jour,
of the Royal Asiatic Soc, Vol. XV., offers a solution
of this phenomenon from the features of an eclipse.
This eclipse took place in the year 689, on the 11th
of January. He founds upon this an argument
that that must have been the year of Hezekiah's
sickness, but this argument has not been consid-
ered conclusive as against other data. We men-
tion it here only as a proffered explanation of the
manner in which such a phenomenon might have
been perceived, without involving a reversed mo-
tion of the earth. For a few days before and
after the winter solstice, the sun's altitude at noon
at Jerusalem is about 34°. If the " steps of Ahaz "
were a flight of steps in the palace court mounting
from north to south, at an angle of about 34°, then
the sun would throw a shadow down them at noon
which would just tip the top step. The upper
limb of the sun would alone rise above the object
(a roof, for instance) which threw the shadow.
If the upper limb were eclipsed, the moon, in pass-
ing over the sun's disk, would cut off the sun-
light, and the shadow would once more descend
the stairs. As the moon passed away the sun-
light would once more pass below it and above
the roof, and once more light the whole stair.
The same explanation would apply to the dial if it
were a small stair-like instrument, used for mea-
suring time. An eclipse, to accomplish what is
here supposed, must be nearly total, must be on
the upper limb of the sun. must occur within
twenty days of the winter solstice, and at noon of
the day. Any contribution, in the way of expla-
nation, ought to be carefully considered, but there
»re grave objections to 'his one. (o) The date of
16
the eclipse, which is found to satisfy the condi-
tions tolerably well, is irreconcilable with other
data, (b) The phenomenon would be very slight
and only noticeable to careful observation, or UD'
der the most marvellous concatenation of circum-
stances, (c) It can hardly be believed, after read-
ing the text, that the king had seen the shadow
abnormally recede, and that the " miracle " con-
sisted in its returning to its regular and proper
place and motion. — W. G. S.]
5. The narrative of the embassy of the king of Bab-
ylon to Hezekiah hinges upon the prophecy of Isaiah,
in which, for the first time, the downfall of the king-
dom of Judah and the Babylonian captivity are fore-
told. This incident, like the two previous ones, is
recorded in the book of Isaiah on account of his
prophecies, which form the kernel of each. Heze-
kiah's behavior, it is true, occasioned the prophecy,
but the prophecy is the main thing, and it throws
the proper light upon his conduct. Drechsler:
" Evidently the arrival of these ambassadors flat-
tered Hezekiah's vanity so much that he forgot
the rules of ordinary prudence." TJmbreit :
" Hardly has the king escaped death and won a
new lease of life, and found the treasure in heaven,
before his heart is once more set upon the treasure
of earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. In-
stead of making known to the ambassadors the
glory of God, he shows them, boastfully, the per-
ishable riches of his palace." Hezekiah, accord-
ing to the prevailing opinion of the commentators,
shows his treasures out of boastfulness and love
of display, and hence the "bold moral preacher"
(Koster), the prophet, pronounced to him the fitting
rebuke, and announced the coming punishment.
But this conception is certainly erroneous. There
is no sign of love of display or of vanity in any-
thing which is recorded of Hezekiah. Drechsler
himself exclaims: "What a contrast to the tone
of Isai. xxxviii. ! " This very contrast is an argu-
ment against the above conception of the disposi-
tion in which Hezekiah acted. A proud and vain
man would have answered the prophet, when he
called him to account, in a very different manner,
and would not have expressed himself so openly
and unembarrassedly as Hezekiah does in ver.
15. His further reply in ver. 18 bears witness to
anything but a haughty and vain character. But
e-en supposing that he had been influenced by
vanity on this occasion, this momentaneous weak-
ness would be terribly punished by the threat of
the loss of his kingdom. This threatened punish-
ment would be out of all proportion to the fault,
and would be tyrannical and oppressive. Thenius
justly says : " Hezekiah's conduct towards the am-
bassadors did not proceed from vanity or love of
display (Knobel). ... He accepted with joy thf
offered alliance of the Babylonians in the hope ot
avenging (?) himself, and he showed them the ex-
tent of his resources in order to convince them
that he would be no contemptible ally (Clericus)."
In this, however, he had, on the one hand, departed
from complete trust in God alone; and, on the
other hand, he had lost sight of the ordinary dic-
tates of prudence to an extent which must ulti-
mately be ruinous to Judah and Jerusalem. The
prophet's rebuke was meant to make him see this,
and that must also be the sense of the Chronicler's
brief notice (II., xxxii. 25), that Hezekiah " trusted
too much to his own power." The occasion of the
prophet's rebuke, and the thing which called for
242
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
punishment, was not the personal vanity of Heze-
kiah, but the fact that he, who had experienced
such signal instances of Jehovah's power and wil-
lingness to save, and who had been so often warned
agains-t all complications with heathen nations,
should enter with joy into an alliance with Baby-
lon. This was a sin which was not to be expected
in him, a sin against the theocratic and soteriolo-
gical destiny of Israel.
6. The prophet Isaiah appears here also in all his
•prophetical majesty, although seen from a different
side from before. There he appeared as a consoler,
here as a messenger of the divine judgment. The
latter, as well as the former, character belongs to
the prophetical calling. The message announces
the destruction, in the first place, of Eezekiah and
his family, but then, by implication, that of the
entire nation. " Not that the exile was inflicted
as a punishment for this fault of Hezekiah " (De-
litsch), but because the whole nation had incurred,
though in a far higher degree, the same guilt as
Hezekiah against the theocratic relationship to God,
and was about to incur it still further, so that the
measure would become full, and then the punish-
ment threatened in the Law (Levit. xxvi. 33 ; Deut.
iv. 27 ; xxviii. 36, 64) must fall. " The Babylonian
Captivity," observes Starke on Isai. xxxix 6,
"would have taken place, even if Hezekiah had
never committed this sin, but it would not have
been foretold at this time, if this incident of the
Ambassadors had not occurred. It was meant, at
the same time, to be a humiliation of Hezekiah on
account of his fault." He received the prophet's
announcement as such a humiliation, and hence
he was spared the trial of himself experiencing
the exile.
On account of the definiteness of the prediction,
modern critical scholars have asserted that it is
an oraculum post eventum, which originated with
the historian (Knot.el), or, at least, that the actual
fulfilment determined "the light in which the pre-
diction is set before us " (Ewald). [What lie
means is, that this historian, who had lived
through, and been an eye-witness of, the capture
of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, lends sharpness
of outline and accuracy of detail to the picture,
when he tells us how Isaiah had once foretold all
this.] This, however, takes away the point from
the whole story. It is true that " political sagaci-
ty might foresee the unfortunate consequences of
Hezekiah's thoughtless conduct, but without pro-
phetical inspiration it was impossible to foresee
that Babylon, which was just struggling for inde-
pendence, would supplant Assyria as the great
world-monarchy, and that Babylon, and not As-
syria, which was then threatening rebellious Ju-
dah, would really inflict the extremest woes upon
her" (Delitsch). The definite reference to Babel,
which is the thing that offends critical science,
forms the point of prophecy. It was occasioned
by the embassy from Babylon, and it is intended
to signify to Hezekiah: This very Babylon, from
which thou hopest to obtain help and support, will
ruin thy nation and people. Isaiah does not ap-
pear here as a sagacious statesman any more than
he appeared in the former incident as a skilful phy-
sician, or a learned astronomer. His words have
not the form of wise advice, but of a divine sen-
tence of condemnation. Their form, therefore,
would be inexcusable, if the prophet was only ex-
pressing his personal misgivings and his human
anticipations. Why shall he be mad3 out to be
everything possible, physician, astronomer, states-
man, only not that which he claimed to be, and
which he was, viz., a prophet, who spake as he
was "inspired by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter L
21)?
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-11. Hezekiah's Illness "unto Death"
and his Recovery from the same. — Wvrt. Summ. :
God sends illness upon the good, not in punish-
ment for sins past, but as a trial of their faith and
patience (Rom. v. 3) ... or for His own glory
(John ix. 3 ; xi. 4). By observing this we may the
better possess our souls in patience (Luke xxi. 19).
— Cramer: Bodily illnesses are the forerunners of
death, and God's means for fostering the health
of the soul. — Starke : God lays upon his children
first one evil and then another. Hezekiah is first
delivered from Sennacherib and the hands of man,
and then he falls into the hands of God, who hr. 1
before delivered him. — "Ver. 1. Hall: Teacl *rs
and preachers must not conceal disagreeable truths
from men, but make them known, whether they
will be pleasant or not. — Starke : We see, from
the example of Isaiah, what is the duty of phy-
sicians and preachers towards the sick, viz., not
to encourage them by false hopes of recovery, but
at the right time to point out to them the duty of
setting their house in order, and preparing them-
selves for death. — The Same : The rich and great
should also be warned to prepare for death. — It is
a great mercy of God to allow us to foresee our
approaching end (Deut. xxxii. 48 sq.). — Every ill-
ness, even though it does not seem likely to be
fatal, is a warning to prepare for death, a memento
mori, which can harm no one, whereas it is very
harmful if all thoughts of death and eternity are
held far away. He who, in his days of health,
thinks upon death, and faithfully believes in Him
who has overcome death, is not terrified when he
is commanded to set his house in order. — Kyburz:
Set thy house in order, 0 man! If thou hast no
house, thou hast at least a soul. Prepare it as
best thou mayst for death, for thou knowest not
whether to-day or to-morrow thou wilt be called
upon to quit this tabernacle. It is vain, however.
to attempt to fit a soul for death by a sacrament,
if it has not during its time of health and labo.-
sanctified itself by holy deeds and by communion
with God. How peacefully one may die, in spite
of shrinking nature, if one can only say to God,
as Hezekiah did : Thou knowest that I have walk-
ed faithfully before Thee. — As it is wise, in time
of health and strength, to set one's house in order
in a worldly sense, that is, to make one's will and
arrange one's affairs, so is it still more wise to set
one's house in order in a spiritual sense, and not
to put off making one's peace with God until one
stands on the brink of the grave. — Vers. 2 and 3.
Hezekiah's Behavior at the Announcement of his
Approaching Death, (a) He turned his face to the
wall, that is, he turned away from all things
earthly and temporal, to collect his thoughts, (b)
He prayed to the Lord, that is, he sought refuge
in Him alone. That is what we also should do in
every illness. — Starke: It promotes devotion to
make one's prayers in secret and alone. — Tub
Same: Children of God should not murmur when
they are scourged of God, but kiss the rod (Mioah
CHAPTER XX. 1-21.
243
rii. 9; 1 Sam. lii. 18j. — tfear of Death, its Cause,
and how it may be overcome. — The wish of a
dying man to live longer is not wicked, if it conies
from the sentiment : si diutius vivam, Deo vivam,
and has not its origin in the desire to enjoy the
world and life a little longer. Paul desired to de-
part and be with Christ, but he admits that longer
lifa enables one to bear more fruit (Phil. i. 21 and
22). " Let me live that I may serve thee : let
me die that I may possess thee." Hezekiah's
prayer in view of death did not come from a
proud and self-righteous heart, but from a humble
and penitent one. He based his prayer upon the
promise which God had given to the faithful under
the old covenant: Do this and thou shalt live
(Luke x. 28; Levit. xviii. 5; Prov. x. 27). There-
fore he was heard by God, Who resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. So
should we also, in the face of death, not console
ourselves with our own righteousness and virtue,
but build our hopes upon the promises which He
has given us in the New Testament, and upon
Him through whom our sins are forgiven. He
that believeth in Him, though he were dead yet
shall he live (Rom. x. 4; John xi. 25 sq.). — Vers.
4-6. The prayer of the righteous is very effectual
when it is earnest (James v. 16; Ps. cxlv. 18; Sir.
xxxv. 21; Isai. lxv. 24; xxx. 19). — The word of
consolation to all who cry to the Lord with tears
in sorrow and distress: "I have heard thy prayer,
I have seen thy tears." — How consoling to think
that the length or the shortness of our days is in
God's hand (Sir. xi. 14). '• From sudden death,
good Lord, deliver us." — Cramer: The Lord al-
ways gives more than we pray for; the king prays
for life, and He gives him long life (Ps. xxi. 5).
Moreover, He promises him protection against As-
syria, for He can do far more (Eph. iii. 20). —
" Thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord."
This was not a command, but a fulfilment of a
wish and prayer, and it shows that Hezekiah
loved the place where God's honor dwelt (Ps.
xxvi 8 ; xxvii. 4). — The first steps after recovery
should be to the house of God, to thank Him for
restored health (Ps. lxvi. 12-14).— Ver. 7. The
fact that God connected the healing of the king
with the use of a certain remedy shows that we
should not despise the means of healing, which
are His gift, but should join the use of them with
our prayers to Him (Sir. xxxviii. 1-4). — The Lord
is the true physician, for it is He who either gives
or denies efficacy to human remedies. One is re-
lieved by the slightest remedy; for another the
best and strongest is of no avail. — Ver. 8. Cra-
mer: God treats us like a good physician, not
only as regards our bodies, but also as regards
our souls. As the physician puts a staff in the
hands of a yet feeble convalescent, so God grants
to Hezekiah a "sign" as a staff for his faith (Isai.
xlii. 3). So nowadays God grants the sacraments
as means of strengthening our faith. — In the Old
Covenant God gave many signs, in the New Cove-
nant only one — Christ, the Sign of all signs.
Therefore we should ask no other. When the
Pharisees demanded a sign, Our Lord said : " 0
wicked and adulterous generation," &c. (Matt. xii.
38 sq). The sign for all time is that He was
dead and liveth again to all eternity, and holds the
keys of death and hell. All signs, as well as all
promises, are in Him yea and amen.- — Vers. 9-11
God alone controls the index on the dial of life ; to
turn it forwards or backwards is the prerogative
of His might and grace. Therefore, submit to His
will, and say : " It is the Lord, let Him do what
seemeth Him good " (1 Sam. iii. 18).
Vers. 12-19. The Embassy of the King of Ba-
bylon to Isaiah, (a) Hezekiah's conduct towards
it ; (b) what Isaiah declared to him on account of
his reception of it (see Histor. § 6). — Starke: The
most grievous calamities are not as ruinous as the
flatteries of the children of the world. — Ktburz : In
the storm Hezekiah was preserved ; in the sunshine
he was lost. — J. Lange: It may well come to pass
that a man who has bravely withstood a great
trial falls under a slight one. Let him that
standeth take heed lest he fall. The world nowa-
days often behaves as the king of Babylon did, for
he did not care so much to make known by his
embassy and gifts his sincere respect for Hezekiah,
as he did to secure his alliance for his own advant-
age, and so secure his own ends (cf. Sir. vi. 6 -9).
— Ver. 1 3. Pfaff. Bibel : We should not be too
friendly with the enemies of the Lord, especially
when they may misuse our friendship to our dis-
advantage. Friendship with the world is enmity
to God ; he who wishes to be a friend to the worlj
becomes an enemy to God (James iv. 4). — The de-
sire of making a display, and of infusing a high
opinion of one's self into others, is often found
even in those who are true Christians, and who
have borne hard tests with success. Thus vanity
clings to us and is the first thing and the last
which we have to conquer in following Our Lord.
Therefore watch and pray. The spirit indeed is
willing but the flesh is weak. The Saviour said :
" He that will follow me," &c. (Luke xiv. 33). —
Kyburz : We still show our spiritual treasures to
the friends from Babylon, especially when we
admire our own gifts, and like to have others ad-
mire them. As soon as strangers arrive we hasten
to show our gifts, and powers, and accomplish-
ments, in order to win respect. This is just the
way to lose all those things. If one collects
treasures let him store them up in heaven, where
no spies will come to see them. — Ver. 14. It is a
proof that He who watches over our souls is a
good shepherd that he sees when we are about to
depart from Him, or to transgress, and sends one
of His faithful servants, or some faithful friend, to
warn us, and to say : " Hear the word of the Lord I "
Is such a friend always welcome to thee ? — Ver.
15. He who denies his fault will never succeed ir.
concealing it ; he who confesses it will find pity
(Prov. xxviii. 13; cf. 1 Chron. xxx. 11). — Vers. 17-
19. Roos: Worldly people, with whom a child of
God thoughtlessly mingles, do him great harm.
Happy is he who is set right again after every
transgression by a word from God, as Hezekiah
was I It is the just sentence of God that the staff
in which we trusted becomes a rod for our punish-
ment.— Ver. 19. From the example of Hezekiah
we learn, when the word of God rebukes our van-
ity and love of display, our vacillation and our
want of faith, to bow in submission and to say:
" Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast
spoken;" when we have shown true penitence,
then we may also pray: Da pacem, Domine, in
diebus noslris I
244 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
SECOND SECTION.
THE MONARCHY TINDER MANASSEH, AMON, AND JOSIAH.
(Chaps. XXI.-XXin. 30.)
~*~
A. The Reigns of Manasseh and Amon.
Chap. XXI. 1-26. (2 Chron. XXXTTT.)
1 Manassbh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty
2 and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzi-bah. And he
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the
3 heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up
again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared
up altars for^Baal, and made a grove [an Astarte-image] as did Ahab king ot
4 Israel ; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them And he built
altars in the house of the Lord, of which ' the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I
5 put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts
6 of the house of the Lord. And [omit And] he [He also] made his son pass
through the fire, and observed times [practised sooth-saymg], and used enchant-
ments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards [patronized necromancers
and wizards] J : he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to pro-
7 voke him to anger.' And he set a graven image [copy] of the grove [Astarte-
image] that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to
Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of
8 all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever: Neither will I make the
feet of Israel move [wander] any more out of the land which I gave their fa-
thers; U only \omu only] if they will [only] ' observe [take care] to do accord-
ing to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my
9 servant Moses commanded them.' But they hearkened not: and Manasseh
seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed
before the children of Israel.
And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying Because Manas-
seh kin^ of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly
above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah
12 also to sin with his idols : Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold,
I am bringing mch evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth oi
13 it,' both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of
Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab : and I will wipe [out] Jeru-
salem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down [-he
14 wipeth it and turnetb it upside down]. ' And I will forsake [throw away] the
remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies ;
15 and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies ; Because they
have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger,
since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day
16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he r .ad failed
Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin wherewith he made Judah
to sin, in doing that tohich teas evil in the sight of the Lord ,
17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh. and all that he did, and his sin
that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the king.
I 0
I I
CHAPTER XXI. 1-26.
2il
18 of Judah ? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden
of his own house, in the garden of Uzza : and Anion his son reigned in his
stead.
19 Amon teas twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daugh-
20 ter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did that lohich was evil in the sight of the
21 Lord, as his father Manasseh did. And he walked in all the way that his father
walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them :
22 And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the
23 Lord. And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in
24 his own house. And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired
against king Amon ; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in
25 his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not writ-
26 ten in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? And he was buried
[they buried him] in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza : and Josiah his son
reigned in his stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 4. [iw'S accus. after a yerb of speaking, denoting that in respect to which. C/. ver. 7 and Gen. xx'.l. 14 (Kv.
i 2S2, a. 2).
3 Ver. 6. [That is, he trained men by special education for this work and then gave thera official position.
8 Ver. 6. [The flow of the narrative is arrested in this verse in order to enumerate Manasseh's faults. Hence thf
ose of the perf. consec. Ew. § 342, 6, 1.
* Ver. S. [DN pT i if only \ cf. Deut. xv. 5; 1 Kings viii. 25.
* Ver. 8. [121 PD?} • — " That which I commanded " and M the law which Moses commanded " are not two different
things. ?2?} serves to gather up and recapitulate, bo that it is equivalent to u namely" or " I mean,* cf. Gen.ix. 10
xxiii. 10 ; 1 Chron. xiil. 1 ; xxviii. 1 : 2 Chron. vil. 21 (5 is wanting in 1 Kings ix. 8) ; Ezra i. 6 ; Jerem. xix. 13 (Ew. 810, a).
* Ver. 12. [The chetib presents an irregularity of gender, the masc. suff. referring to njH. The keri
corrects this.
' Ver. 13. ["The perf. iinO is very noticeable, especially in view of the accents. We should expect ilDD and
that it would be connected with what follows " (Ew. «. 838, nt. 2).— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old.
It is uncertain whether he was the eldest son of
Hezekiah, and whether he had brothers ; perhaps
his elder brothers had died. " Perhaps a Gebirah
(queen-mother) (1 Kings xv. 13) assumed author-
ity until lie attained to years of discretion " (The-
nius). At any rate there is no hint of a regency.
The name Pn_,V3n , My-delight-is-in-her, is ap-
plied symbolically to Mount Zion in Isai. lxii. 4. —
From ver. 2 we see that the idol-worship whicli
Manasseh introduced was, in the first place, that
of Canaan (1 Kings xiv. 24 ; 2 Kings xvii. 8 ; xvi.
3). — Luther translates )3'i 3B»|, in ver. 3, after
the Vulg. (conversvxque est et adificavit), and the
Sept. [nai kiziorpetye nal t^Ko66^.T/aE): " und verkehrte
sich und bauete" [went astray and built]. The
two words, however, form one notion by an idio-
matic use : he built again the high places which
Hezekiah had removed. For the rest, see 1 Kings
xvi. 32 sq. Ahab was the one who first introduced
the worship of Baal and Astarte into Israel [see
bracketed notes under Exeg. on xvi. 3 and xvii. 16.]
niE'S here refers no doubt to the Astarte-statue
mentioned in ver. 7. In Chronicles we find the
piurai O^JQ and nitC^N • The cause of this may
be that each divinity, the male and the female,
incorporated several attributes, each of which was
separately worshipped. Manasseh introduced
also, besides these two chief divinities, the Assyrio-
Chaldean star-worship, the adoration of All th«
host of heaven (see chap, xxiii. 5, 11). [See
Exeg. on xvii. 16. Also chap, xxiii. 12 shows that
the astral worship, although extended and culti-
vated by Manasseh, was first introduced by Ahaz.]
"This does not imply that the divinities of the
Canaanites had no relation to the heavenly bodies,
but this relation was subordinate in them " (Mo-
vers). From the star-worship arose sooth-saying
and magic. Men saw in the stars the originators
of all growth and all decay, and adored in them
the controllers and directors of all sublunary af-
fairs.—Vers. 4-7 contain a climax. The idola-
trous (vers. 2 and 3) Manasseh built idol-altars
even in the house of the Lord (ver. 4), and altars
also for all the host of heaven, as well in the inner
as in the outer court (ver. 5, p'l resumes r03 in
ver. 4), nay, he even went so far that he set up the
image of Astarte (ver. 7) inside of the temple,
perhaps in the holy place. On the formula: "I
will put my name " (Ver. 7) see Exeg. on 1 Kings xiv.
21. On C'X3 T2JJH see notes on chap. xvi. 3.
Sooth-saying and magic are here united with thia
idolatrous ceremony as they are in chap. xvii. 17
(c/. Levit. xix. 26). So also in Deut. xviii. 10,
11, where the necromancers and augurs are also
mentioned. Manasseh gave to these persons offi-
cial position (riC'V is used as in 1 Kings xii. 31).
On DJJ3 see 1 Kings xiv. 1-20, Hist. § 3. On ver
7 see 1 Kings viii. 16; ix. 3. The house of Jeho
vah could not be so utterly desecrated in »ny othei
*46
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
way as by setting up an idol in the very sanctuary,
the " dwelling," *\&fp i>3TI (Ps. v. 8 ; lxxix. 1).
The selection of Israel to be God's peculiar people
was thereby rejected.- — The words in ver. 8 are ex-
plained by 2 Sam. vii. 10, and are added in order
to make more apparent the greatness of the sin.
Jehovah had, at first, only a dwelling in a tent in
the midst of His people ; afterwards He caused a
house to be built for His dwelling, as a physical
sign of His covenant with Israel (see the Jntrod. §
3, and 1 Kings 6, Hist. § 3, b.) ; and now in this
house Manasseh set up an idol. — More evil than
did the nations, Ac. (ver. ix.). Not because the
Canaanitish nations did not keep the law of Moses,
but because they only worshipped their own na-
tional deities, while the Israelites adopted, not
only the gods of the Canaanites, but also those
of the Assyrians and Babylonians, and forsook
their own God.
Ver. 10. And the Lord spake by His ser-
vants, &e. It is impossible to tell which prophets
are meant, for no one of those whose writings we
possess can be assigned with certainty to the reign
of Manasseh. It is not certain that even Isaiah
lived during any part of Manasseh's reign ; still
less is it certain that Habakkuk did so (though
Keil supposes that Habak. i. 5 refers to this
reign), for it is probable that he first appeared under
Josiah (Winer, Delitsch), or under Jehoiakim
(Knobel). The Amorites (ver. 11) stand for Ca-
naanites in general ; see notes on 1 Kings xxi. 26 ;
cf. Ezek. xvi. 3 ; Amos ii. 9. The expression :
both his ears shall tingle, ver. 12, also occurs in
1 Sam. iii. 11 and Jerem. xix. 3. As a sharp, dis-
cordant note pains one's ears, so the news of this
harsh punishment shall give pain to all who hear
of it. — Ver. 1 3. And I will stretch over Jeru-
salem the line of Samaria. According to Gro-
tius this means : eadem mensura earn metiar, qua
Samariam mensus suin. So also Thenius : " Mea-
suring line and plummet are here only symbols for
testing by a standard," for, he says, a building is
built with measuring line and plummet, but not torn
down with them. However in Isai. xxxiv. 11 we
read : He shall stretch out upon it the line of con-
fusion (devastation) and the stones of emptiness
["plummet of desolation," Bahr], cf. also Lament,
ii. 8. Now in the text before us, also, the refer-
ance is to devastation. The two implements of
construction are employed where there is an empty
space of ground, whether it be that no building
has ever stood upon it, or that one which stood
there has been torn down. We have to understand
here a state of things symbolized by the latter of
these cases. The metaphor therefore means: I
will make Jerusalem even with the ground, like
Samaria, so that a measuring line can be drawn
over it, and its houses (families) shall perish like
the family of Ahab. [Why is a measuring line or
a plummet applied to a bare space of ground ?
Only as a preliminary to building, or re-building,
upon it. There is no great applicability, therefore,
in the metaphor as Bahr interprets it. — It means
that God will come and apply severe standards of
judgment to Jerusalem as He had to Samaria;
that He will insist that it shall satisfy these stand-
ards : and that lie will punish inexorably all short-
comings. Samaria had beeu thus tested, found
wanting, and swept from the face of the earth, —
no also should it be with Jerusalem. — W. G. S.]
The following figure of the dish is parallel an4
similar, but stronger if anything. nnSX meani
really something hollowed out, hence, a dish (2 Chi-on.
xxxv. 13 ; Pro v. xix. 24), not a wax-tablet (Calmet).
Thenius thinks that "the lower city, by its configu-
ration, might well suggest the figure cf a dish."
However the fact may be in regard to that, we have
not to understand that it was what suggested this
figure. Neither is the metaphor that of " a hungry
man who empties a dish and turns it wrong sida
up " (Ewald), but that of a person who, when he
no longer wants to use a dish, wipes it out, and
turns it over, that not a drop may remain in it.
Kimchi expressly states that this was the usage
of the Jews with dishes. The figure therefore
" implies the complete overthrow and destruction
of Jerusalem with all its inhabitants " (Keil). The
comparison with a dish also involves some con-
tempt. n'JB is the " upper side, as it were the
T •- T
face, in distinction from the back " (Thenius). —
Ver. 14. The remnant of my possession is the
two tribes which composed the kingdom of Judah
ten having been led into captivity. t'toj , ;' e., to
abandon, but with the accessory notion of throwing
away (1 Kings viii. 57 ; Judges vi. 13 ; Ezek. xxix.
5). The nation, when abandoned by Jehovah, ne-
cessarily becomes a spoil for its enemies (Isai.
xlii. 22).
Ver. 16. Moreover Manasseh shed innocent
blood. This verse is not a " continuation of the
extract from the annals which was broken off at
ver. 9 " (Thenius). It is closely connected with
what is read in vers. 10-15, and forms in a certain
sense the crisis of what is narrated of Manasseh.
This king not only introduced all sorts of idolatrous
worship (vers. 1-9), but also, when Jehovah re-
buked and warned him by His prophets (10-15),
he not only did not profit by it, but filled the city
with their "blood and that of all the innocent per-
sons who sided with them, and opposed his god-
lessness. PS? H3 as in chap. x. 21 " from one
edge to the other." Josephus (Antiq. x. 3, 1) af-
firms : navrac Gipuc rove dmaiovc rove sv toic 'E/3pa/-
nic aTTEKTEivzv, a?.?.1 ovde tCiv rrpoipT/riJv ho~xE tyco'u'
Kal tovtuv 0£ Tivac icaff yuepav arrsa^a^ev. The
latter statement does not, of course, apply to the
whole duration of his reign; but there may have
been a time during which innocent blood was daily
shed. According to the Jewish tradition (Gue
mara Jebam. iv. 13; cf. Sanhedr. f. 103), which
was taken up by the church fathers (Tertul. De
Paiientia 14. August. De Civil. Dei xviii. 24),
Isaiah was put to death under Manasseh. It is
said that he was sawed in two while fastened in a
cedar tree in which he had taken refuge, cf. Hebr.
xi. 37. [For the details of the legend see Stanley,
II. p. 544.] But it is doubtful whether he lived
under Manasseh. Isai. i. 1 does not say that he
lived so long. He must, at any rate, have been
very old. It is possible that he may have suffered
a martyr's death, though not in the form asserted
(cf. Winer, R- W.-B. I. s. 554. Umbreit in Her-
zog's Encyc. IV. 8. 508 sq.).
Ver. 17. sq. Now the rest of the acts of Ma-
nasseh, &c. Some further and very important
facts in regard to Manasseh are recorded in 2
Chron. xxxiii. 11-20. The historical truth and
CHAPTER XXI. 1-26.
247
credibility of what is there recorded has indeed
been denied (Gramberg, "Winer, Hitzig, and others).
On the other hand, Ewald, Thenius, Havernick,
Keil, and Bertheau, hare, with justice, maintained
the historical truth of those statements. The
Chronicler appeals to the "annals of the kings of
Israel," and to the 'tin TO as his authorities,
and the entire Jewish tradition is built upon the
facts which he records. " It is not astonishing that
we do not find any reference to those facts in the
book of Kings, when we consider the brevity of
the narrative there given, a brevity which is to be
explained by the fact that the author passes as
curtly as possible by all periods of misfortune"
(Bertheau). The apparent contradiction between
2 Chron. xxxiii. 15 and 2 Kings xxiii. 12 disappears,
if we suppose (what is very possible) that Amon
■set up again the idols which Manasseh had re-
moved, and that Josiah was the first who entirely
did away with them (cf. E. Gerlach in the Studien
und Kritiken, 1861, III.).— Ver. 18. In the garden
of his own house. "W3 cannot be the royal
palace built by Solomon, because the garden be-
longing to it is called that of Uzzah, evidently re-
ferring to its former owner. iJV3 must, there-
fore, refer to a pleasure-house belonging to Ma-
nasseh " (Keil). Thenius thinks that the " garden
of Uzzah " (the name occurs several times : 2 Sam.
vi. 8 ; 1 Chron. viii. 7 ; Ezra ii. 49 ; Nehem. vii. 51)
was situated " in the Tyropoeon, at the foot of the
Bpur of Ophel." Robinson finds it on Mt. Zion.
See further the notes on chap. xx. 21.
Ver. 19. Amon was twenty and two years
old when he began to reign. The assertion that
this king reigned twelve instead of two years
(Ebrard in Stud, und Kritik. 1847, III. s. 644 sq.)
rests upon very weak evidence, as Thenius has
shown. — The city of Jotbah, from which his mo-
ther, Meshullemeth (that is, Friend, sc. of God, =
Pid) came, was situated, according to Jerome, in
Judah. — Ver. 23. The servants of Amon were
unquestionably his court attendants. We have to
understand, therefore, that it was a conspiracy
in the palace. We cannot determine what
causes led to this conspiracy. — By the people
of the land (ver. 24) Thenius understands, here
as in chap. xi. 14, the military forces of the
nation, and he infers that Amon had made
himself popular with the troops, and that Josiah
had inspired some such hopes as Uzziah once
did (chap. xiv. 21). There is no more reason
to think of the army here than in chap. xi. 14.
The murder of the king, who had only ruled for
such a short time, by the attendants in the palace,
may have embittered the people of Jerusalem so
that they took revenge upon the murderers. Re-
ligious differences can scarcely have had anything
to do with the matter, for the immediate attend-
ants of the idolatrous king certainly did not be-
long to the persecuted Jehovah-party, and, if the
king's idolatry had been displeasing to the people,
they would not have put his murderers to death.
[StT?PLE5iE>.TTARY Note on contemporaneous his-
tory, with further information as to Manasseh from
Assyrian sources. As we approach the catastrophe
of the history of Judah it is necessary to pay at-
tentijn if those movements among neighboring
nations which (humanly speaking) caused it, and
determined its form.
We saw in the Supp. Note on chap. xx. that
Sennacherib, having finally reduced Babylon to
submission in 682, put his son Esarhaddon on the
throne of that city as viceroy ; also that Sennach-
erib was assassinated by two other of his sons in
681. The assassins were obliged to fly ; Esarhad-
don hastened to Nineveh and ascended the throne.
He reigned from 681 to 667. Extensive records
of his reign exist in the British Museum, only part
of which have, as yet, been published or read
(Lenormant). His first campaign was in Syria
and Phoenicia (see Supp. Note on chap. xvii.). He
conquered and plundered Phoenicia, and deported
the inhabitants of Syria. He repopulated the
country with Chaldeans and Elamites.
During this campaign he attacked Judah ; took
Manasseh captive, confined him in Babylon for a
time, but then set him at liberty and restored him
to the throne as a vassal (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11).
Manasseh is mentioned on one of his inscriptions
as tributary. Esarhaddon became attached to
Babylon from his early residence there, and made
it his home. That is probably the reason why he
took Manasseh there, and not to Nineveh.
Esarhaddon's reign was spent in extensive and
successful wars in Asia Minor, Arabia, Egypt
(which he conquered), in suppressing stubborn re-
volts in Chaldea, and in punishing the Elamites
and Susianians who assisted in them. We are
not here interested in these wars further than
this, that the Assyrian power was, during his
reign, at its height, but that Babylon kept up a
continual resistance.
Very much the same state of things continued
under his successor. Esarhaddon abdicated in
668 in favor of his son, Asshurbanipal, who reign-
ed until 647. He was warlike and able. Babylon
was ruled by his brother, Shamulshamugin, as
viceroy, but he revolted and headed an insurrec-
tion which included nearly all the tributary prov-
inces. Egypt was permanently lost. Psammeti-
chus becoming king. The remainder of the revolt,
however, was speedily suppressed, though it took
years to follow up and punish all the parties to it.
His successor was his son, Asshuredililani,
who reigned from 647 to 625. Under him the As-
syrian power declined (Lenormant). See Supp.
Note on p. 285.
Tho explanation of the incessant revolts of
Babylon is, that that city had a sacred character
as the " home of the gods." It was so regarded
by the Assyrians themselves, who knew how an-
cient it was, and revered it as their own place of
origin. This veneration for Babylon served to
keep the Babylonians continually restive under
the supremacy of Assyria, and also to stay the
hands of the conquerors whenever they were
ready to destroy the city as a punishment for re-
bellion.
At the point which we have now reached (640),
the time of Amon's death and Josiah's accession,
the Assyrian power had barely begun to decline.
The Median empire had been founded by Phraortes
in 657. It had secured independence, and had
made important conquests in Central Asia. Just
about this time Phraortes thought himself strong
enough to attack Assyria, but he was totally de-
feated in 635 (Lenormant). In Egypt, rsammeti-
chus became independent of Assyria, and put ai
^48
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
eud to the " Dodekarchy," about 650. Babylon
was, for the time being, crushed, but it was only
recovering strength for another revolt. — W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. King ManasseKs reign lasted longer than
that of any other king in either kingdom, but we
have relatively the very briefest account of it.
The author restricts himself to a statement of Ma-
nasseh's disposition towards Jehovah and the
Jehovah-worship. The explanation of this may
be that, in general, "the Old Testament his-
torians pass more hastily over periods which
it is sad for them to recall " (Ewald). This shows,
however, at the same time, that the disposition
towards Jehovah is the main point of interest
to the author in the history of each reign, and
that everything else is subordinate to this, in-
asmuch as nothing else touches the soteriological
development in the history. Manasseh's reign
forms an epoch in that development, for, under
him, the apostasy reached its height. If David
was the model king, then Manasseh was his in-
verted image. It is true that many of his ances-
tors had tolerated idolatry, and practised it them-
selves. His grandfather, Ahaz, had even removed
the ancient altar of burnt-offering and set up in its
place another one which he had himself caused to
be made on a heathen pattern, and had also sacri-
ficed his son to Moloch (chap. xvi. ) ; but Manasseh
went so far as even to establish a special place of
sacrifice for this god in the valley of Hinnom (chap,
xxiii. 10; Jerem. viL 31; xix. 6). Moreover he
set up an idol in the temple itself, and that, too, an
image of that goddess whose worship was connected
with licentious rites and practices. In fact he
made Jerusalem, the city which Jehovah had
chosen for His own abode, the place for collecting
and practising all forms of idolatry. He was a
violent enemy of the Jehovah-worship, which he
sought to abolish. He formally introduced all
sorts of idolatrous abominations, and he compelled
his people to practise them. This had never been
done even in the kingdom of the ten tribes, " but
now, there arose in Judah, the only remaining
support of the true religion, the most open and
violent hostility to its most sacred principles, on
the part of the king himself I . . . The heart of
the ancient religion had never before been so
sharply and violently smitten " (Ewald). The
" sin of Manasseh," in which apostasy reached its
culmination, became typical (ver. 16; chap, xxiii.
26; xxiv. 3; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9; Jerem. xv. 4), just
like the "sin of Jeroboam," who made Israel to
sin by introducing the worship of the calves (1
Kings xii. 28 sq. ; xiv. 16; xv. 26, 30, &c), and
the " way of Ahab," who first introduced the wor-
ship of Baal (1 Kings xvt 30 sq. ; xxii. 53 ; 2 Kings
viii. 27). " With his reign, therefore, began a new
epoch in the history of the kingdom of Judah,
during which it moved on steadily towards its
fall " (Ton Gerlach). Under his rule the kingdom
became the very contrary of that which, according
to its original plan, it was intended to be (Deut.
xvii. 20).
2. A great change seems to have taken place
under Manasseh in the circumstances of the peoj>le,
when we compare the status under him with that
under llezekiali. No king since David had labor-
ed, as Hezekieh did during his reign of twenty-nine
years, for the pure and legitimate Jehovah-wor-
ship. The people had approved of and participated
in his efforts, and had come together from all
sides to the passover festival which he instituted
(2 Chron. xxx. 12, 13). The reformation seemed
to be thorough and complete ; idolatry was forever
uprooted. Immediately after his death there was
a complete change. The new king made idolatry,
with all its abominations, the established religion
of the kingdom, and was violent against the na-
tional worship and law, and against all who sup-
ported them. The people made no opposition to
this, but joined in it for a half century. It had in-
deed come to pass before this time, that the people
had fallen into idolatry which was favored by the
rulers, as, for instance, under Athaliah and Ahaz,
but such a general and complete change, especially
after the saving power of Jehovah had just been
so clearly and startlingly manifested, has no par-
allel in history. Yet this remarkable fact is ex-
plained, although no explanation of it is offer-
ed in the historical books, when we take into con-
sideration the descriptions of the state of things at
that time which are offered by the prophets. There
had been for a long time, at least since the reign
of Ahaz, a party in Judah which sought support
for the little kingdom from one of the two great
world-monarchies of the time — either from Egypt
or Assyria. The persons of rank, and office, and
wealth, and influence especially belonged to this
party. They had adopted heathen notions, and
had fallen into immoral and licentious modes of
life. Isaiah says of the people, even before Manas-
seh's accession : " The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint," &c. (IsaL i. 4-6). King Heze-
kiah had held this party in restraint, and had
therefore been supported by the prophet Isaiah.
After the death of the pious king and the great
prophet, the opposition made a strenuous effort to
control the policy nf the nation. It was not diffi-
cult to insnare and seduce the king, a boy of
twelve years, especially as he appears to have
been inclined bjr nature to sensual enjoyments.
When he was once caught he became the seducer
of his people, while he himself sank lower and
lower. It appears, therefore, that Hezekiah's re-
formation was one accomplished by external pres-
sure. It did not spring naturally from a religious
need which was deeply felt in the popular heart.
It had, therefore, no firm ground, and the cultus
continued to be only an external ceremony. On
the other hand, the luxurious and sensuous idol-
worship was far better adapted to please the peo-
ple than the austere Jehovah-worship. We have
still further to take into consideration the inconsis-
tent character of the people (Deut. ix. 12, 13 ; xxxi.
20 ; xxxii. 6 ; Isai. i. 2, 3, &c), at one moment ob-
stinate, at the next fickle and capricious. If we
take all this into consideration, the sudden change
under Manasseh is not so astonishing, but is satis-
factorily explained by the circumstances. Dunck-
er's conception of the course of the development
of the national religion {Gesch. des Alterthwns, I. s
502) is entirely false. He asserts that for the first
two centuries after the settlement of the Hebrews
in Palestine the worship of Jehovah and that of
Syrian divinities existed side by side ; that the first
Hebrew prophets opposed with the most violent
zeal and fanaticism the introduction of the Baal-
worship; that then the later prophets opposed the
deepened and sharpened conception of the nationa'
CHAPTER XXI. 1-26.
249
God to the renewed attempt of idolatry to rind a
foothold and succeeded in keeping it out ; and that
now, under Manasseh, these two hostile tendencies
once more appeared in open conflict. This con-
ception, which overturns the entire soteriological
development, rests upon the assumption that, in
Israel, monotheism and polytheism stood originally
side by side in equal honor. It cannot be estab-
lished unless we strike Moses out of history, throw
aside the Israelitish law — the constitution of the
nation, deny the calling of the nation in human
history, and make of the prophets fanatical dis-
turbers of the public peace. Ewald has explained
the chansred circumstances under Manasseh some-
what differently (Gesch. ILL 666 [third Ed. 716
sq.~\). He says: "He [Manasseh] sought to be-
come acquainted with all foreign heathen religi-
ons, and to introduce them into Judah. He there-
fore sent to the most distant lands wherever a cel-
ebrated worship was practised, and spared no
pains to acquire it. Every new religion brought
not only a new form of oracle, or of sensuous in-
dulgence and lust, but also its own form of wis-
dom, and the desire for ' wisdom ' had grown so
touch since the time of Solomon, that it is not
strange if the desire awoke to learn the secrets of
all religions, and so to acquire a wealth of wisdom
which the simple Jehovah religion did not seem to
offer. Then, too. Manasseh sought to make all
these religions accessible and agreeable to the
people." It would appear then, on this showing,
that the abominable and unheard-of apostasy of
Manasseh and his people, the cultus of licentious-
ness and child-sacrifice, the cultivation of augury
and sooth-saying, the patronage of necromancers
and augurs, and all the rest of his senseless super-
stition, arose from a desire for wisdom, and a wish
to penetrate into all secrets, and become acquaint-
ed with all knowledge. No proof is needed to
ehow that this conception contradicts the Scrip-
tures flatly. There is no hint in them that Manas-
seh sent into foreign lands to import heathen re-
ligions. "Isai. lvii. 5-10; Jer. ii. 10-13," from
which this is said to be evident, does not contain
a word about it. Manasseh did not, for instance,
borrow anything from Egypt. He introduced
especially the cultus of the " nations whom the
Lord destroyed before the children of Israel " (ver.
9), that is of the Canaanites. Neither is there any
proof that he tried to make the heathen religions
acceptable to the people ; on the contrary, he used
violence and shed innocent blood, so that Jerusa-
lem was filled with it from one end to the other
(ver. 16).
[The Scriptures contain no explanation of the
facility with which the people followed and acqui-
esced in the different attitudes of different kings
toward the Jehovah religion, whether they were
enthusiastically faithful or fanatically hostile. It
does not seem worth while, therefore, to wage
a polemic against an hypothesis like this of
Ewald, which certainly has as much, if not more,
in its favor than the one offered by the author.
Ewald's theory does not " flatly contradict " Scrip-
ture, because Scripture makes no statement in
regard to the matter. The passages quoted from
Isaiah and Jeremiah bear very strong testimony
to such a disposition on the part of the people
to follow strange gods, to go to a distance to
-seek strange forms of worship, and to take up
■aith any foreign noveltv ->r device rather than to
adhere to thoir own religion. The "wisdom" of
the ancients was almost always bound up in reii.
gion. It was the " mystery " at the heart of a cul-
tus. It was esoteric and select, only imparted to
the chosen few. It had the fascination, therefore
of an acquisition in knowledge and of the discov-
ery of a secret closely kept by an elect few. It
was at once a sign of the truth of the Jehovah-re-
ligion and a reason why the Hebrews were so
easily led to despise it in comparison with the re-
ligious of the heathen, that it was simple and
open. No doubt also it seemed to them hard and
cold and austere. The heathen religions were
warm, voluptuous, and aesthetic. The latter, there-
fore, had all the weaknesses of human nature on
their side of the balance. Still further, it is very
probable that Manasseh did introduce Egyptian nov-
elties. The name of his son Amon is the strong-
est testimony to a familiarity with and taste for
Egyptian religion. Ver. 9 does not say that he
introduced Canaanitish gods, but that he made the
Jews sin worse than the Canaanites, probably by
practising still more foreign and abominable rites.
See Exegeiical notes on that verse. Moreover the
idols which are enumerated in xxiii. 13 as having
been destroyed by Josiah bear witness to the facx
that Manasseh had sought out and introduced
numenus foreign divinities of various kinds. Fi-
nally, the shedding of innocent blood does not
prove that he did not try to make heathenism ac-
ceptable to his people. Persecution always has
the aim to recommend the rival of the persecuted
religion, strange and unwise as the attempt may
be. There are, therefore, suggestions in this theory
of Ewald which are well worth attention from any
one who desires to understand the phenomenon in
question, and the counter-considerations above ad-
duced have little if any force. — W. G. S.]
3. The reign of Manasseh was, to say the least,
the saddest period in Jewish history since the
time of David. We hear of no important events,
of no victory over enemies, of no extension of the
frontier, of no new beneficent institutions, during
his time. The only event recorded is that an As-
syrian army took Manasseh prisoner and carried
him away in chains to Babylon (2 Chron. xxxiiL
11). The nation had never before sunk so low, re-
ligiously and morally, as at this time. " In the na-
tional life the most terrible decay extended con-
tinually farther and farther." A " deep and dead-
ly corruption " had affected the nation (Eisenlohr,
Das Yolk 1st. II. s. 310). The wildest superstition
and the coarsest unbelief went hand in hand. The
corruption had pervaded all ranks. " Woe to her
that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city I "
cries the prophet Zephaniah. " She obeyed not
the voice ; she received not correction ; she trusted
not in the Lord ; she drew not near to her God.
Her princes within her are roaring lions; her
judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the
bones until the morrow [they spare not for th«
morrow]. Her prophets are light and treacherou?
persons ; her priests have polluted the sanctuary,
they have done violence to the law " (Zeph. iii. \-
4; cf. Mic. iii. 11). The origin of many important
parts of the Old Testament canon has recently
been ascribed to this time of corruption, decay,
moral disease, and death. First of all, the book of
Deuteronomy is said to have been written at thii
time (Ewald, Riehm, Bleek), also the book of Job
an entire series of the most noh'e Psalms, part V
250
THE SECOND BOOK OP THE KINGS.
the Proverbs, and detached fragments of the book
of Isaiah, especially Hi. 13 to liii. 12 (Ewald and
Eisenlohr). It is said : " The deeper the corrup-
tion became and the farther it spread the more
decidedly did the genuine spirit of prophecy rise
up, with all the divine force with which it was
endowed, in opposition to it." This is not the place
to enter into a critical investigation of the time
when these books were written. We have to do
here only with the time of Manasseh, but in regard
to it the test applies: "Do men gather grapes of
thorns or figs of thistles? " It is true that faith-
ful servants and prophets of Jehovah were not
wanting at this time (ver. 10), but not a single
great prophet, not one of those whose writings we
still possess, was active during Manasseh's reign.
Isaiah's life closed soon after his accession, if not
indeed still earlier. Zephaniah's first appearance
was in Josiah's reign, and Jeremiah's still later.
How could a time of "deep corruption," which ran
through all ranks of society, be a time of great
literary activity and produce works of the intel-
lect which are only possible in the midst of the
richest and most active intellectual life? It has
been justly said that this was a time in which
"bloody persecution raged." Blood flowed in
streams. Of course this persecution fell first of
all upon the prophets, and especially upon the
most prominent amongst them. The number of
the faithful must, therefore, have been small, and
we know of not a single prominent person amongst
them. It may be that in this small circle hymns
of affliction and persecution arose, but it is incon-
ceivable that such persons should have produced
the book of Job, that " model of religious reflec-
tion, and of the literary art which proceeds in its
creations according to the most definite plan," and
which marks the " Chokmah-literature " of the
Hebrews (Delitsch). Still less can the hook of
Deuteronomy have been written at this time of op-
pression and misery, a book which is described as
marked by "a tranquil fulness of detail," "an ex-
traordinarily light and flowing style," as well as by
" breadth and fluency " (Vaihinger). In its long
repetition and development of the Mosaic Law
there is not a sign of lamentation, nor a sound of
affliction. It might be asserted with far more
justice that there was no period in Hebrew history
less capable of producing the book of Deuteronomy
than the degenerate times of Manasseh.
4. The brief reign of king Amon was in every
respect a continuation of the wicked and untheo-
cratic reign of his father, Manasseh. It was dis-
tinguished by no fact or event. From the words,
2 Chron. xxxiii. 23 [see Supp. Note after the Exeg.
section above] : " Aud humbled not himself before
the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled
himself, but Amon trespassed more and more," we
infer that he was even worse than Manasseh. The
description of the moral and religious status which
is given by the prophet Zephaniah, who made his
appearance under the next following king, Josiah
(Zeph. i. 1, 4 sq. ; 12 ; iii. 1 to v. 11), shows that no
improvement had taken place. This also appears
from the description in chap, xxiii. 4 sq. of all the
steps which Josiah had to take in order to restore
the state of things prescribed by the Law. The
statement of the Chronicler (I. c.) in regard to Ma-
nasseh's reformation must, therefore, be under-
stood as referring to his own person, for it had no
effect upon the mass of the people, else it would
have been impossible to say that Amon had sur-
passed his father's guilt. [The meaning of that
passage is that Manasseh, in spite of all his wicked-
ness, humbled himself and repented, but Amon
never did so. He persisted in his wickedness. H»
went on from trespass to trespass without inter-
ruption. Hence he was worse than his father.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1-16. The Kingdom of Judah under Ma-
nasseh. (o) King and People (return to heathen-
ism and the cause thereof, vers. 1-9). (6) The
Prophets (their courageous opposition and their
testimony against the general corruption in spit<
of persecution, vers. 10-16). Vers. 1-9. Manassel
the seduced and the seducer. — Even God-fearing
parents often have perverse children without any
fault of their own. So much the greater is the
guilt of those who lead infant children astray, af-
ter the death of their parents, instead of giving
them care and good training. It is especially im-
portant that princes should be guided in their
youth by good counsellors and governors. God is
not confined with His word to any land or people.
If His word is not received with love and grati-
tude, and if it is not feared, then He will come
soon and remove the candlestick from its place
(Rev. ii. 5), so that men may go astray and be-
come a prey to terrible errors. As Judah, which
the Lord had chosen to be His people and to
bear His name before the heathen, and before
kings, and before the children of Israel, committed
more terrible abominations than any of the heathen
whom the Lord had cast out, so now also, a peo-
ple, although it has the word of God and the
means of grace, may fall lower than another
which has never heard of His word (e. g., the hor-
rors of the French revolution). — To fall is easier
than to rise. If the infection comes from above it
spreads with greater celerity. Where God pun-
ishes a people he gives them bad rulers (IsaL iii.
4; Eccl. x. 16). — When the evil spirit is cast out
and then returns, he brings with him seven others
worse than himself. It is so with individuals, and
it is so with families; they become worse and
worse from generation to generation (Ahaz, Heze
kiah, Manasseh), Matt. xii. 43 sq. — Wurt. Summ. :
There are nowadays Evangelical Christians who
are in many respects worse than Papists, or even
than Jews and Turks, for they curse and blas-
pheme, they drink and commit adultery, and do
other things which Turks and Jews avoid. How
will such Christians stand before God's judgment-
seat when Jews and Turks are placed by their
side? — Cramer: Those who are ungrateful to
wards God, and blind to the clear light of truth,
are given over to the dominion of error, so that
they give their faith to falsehoods (2 Thess. ii. 11).
— Ver. 6. The Scriptures place sooth-saying and
augury by the side of sacrifices to Moloch. They
belong properly to the darkest times of heathen-
ism. Nevertheless they are found in the midst of
modern Christendom. Those who believe in thent
and practise them have become heathen. — Ver. 7
Calw. Bibel: Ahaz had once closed the temple
and built altars in the city. Manasseh set up idols
in the temple itself. Thus Antichrist shall advance
(2 Thess. ii. 3, 4). — Manasseh set up an image of
the goddess of licentiousness in the temple of the
living God. " If any man defile the temple at
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
251
God, him shall God destroy" (1 Cor. iii. 17).
Those houses of God are desecrated in which, in-
stead of the living God who revealed Himself to
ua in Christ, a God of man's invention is preached.
— Ver. 8. Starke: Men are such that they hold
fast the covenant of God's rich promises, but will
not remember the other covenant of the obedience
which He requires. — Yer. 10. Even in the worst
times God takes care (since He does not desire
that any one should perish, but rather that he
should turn from his wickedness and live, Ezek.
xviii. 23) that faithful persons shall not be want-
ing to warn the wicked, to exhort them to repent-
ance, and to make known to them the coming
judgment of God. — Vers. 12 and 13. WiJRT. Summ. :
The just God threatens the idolatrous city, Jerusa-
lem, with the line and plummet of Samaria ; — like
sins deserve like punishment (Luke xxiii. 41). —
The Lord is " good " and " ready to forgive " (Ps.
Ixxxvi. 5), but He does not cease to be a just God,
who causes every individual as well as whole cities
and peoples to reap that which they have sown,
for " righteousness and judgment are the habita-
tion [foundation] of his throne " (Ps. xcvii. 2).
This generation wants to hear only of a God who
is nothing but love, but it will not hear, in spite of
its apostasy, of a God who is also a consuming
fire (Heb. xii. 29). Whose ears tingle nowadays
when he hears of the judgments of God ? (Heb. x.
26 and 27). — Berleb. Bibel: A dish is turned over
when there is nothing more in it. That is the
hardest punishment which God can inflict on a
soul which turns away from Him. There is then
no longer a drop to be found in it of that which
was in it before. — Ver. 16. Starke: Idolatry and
tyranny are closely allied. — Osiander: Those
whom Satan has in his toils he leads from one sin
to another. Enmity to the word of God is not
merely a different opinion or contradiction in re
gard to religious matters, but a devilish powei
which impels even to the shedding of innocent
blood. It is possible to kill the preachers of truth
but not the truth itself. He who was the truth was
nailed to the cross, but His words remain, though
heaven and earth pass away. The blood of the
martyrs only fertilized the soil of the Church, sc
that it has borne richer and more abundant fruit.—
All innocent blood cries to heaven as that of Abel
did. He who dwells in heaven answers : " Ven-
geance is mine ; I will repay."
Vers. 19-26. How wretchedly a king appears
of whom history has nothing more to record than
his godlessness.- — Wurt. Summ. : When men will
not heed either good words or bad, and will not be
induced to repent by warning or example, then
God comes with His punishment and recompenses
wickedness as it deserves. Let men take heed
and repent, let them become wise by the sight of
others' calamities, that they be not overtaken in
their sins by death before they have repented. As
is the king so are his officers ; as is the governor
so are the citizens; a depraved king ruins his
country (Sir. x. 2, 3). — Wurt. Summ. : Unfaithful-
ness is punished by unfaithfulness. Amon was
not faithful to God ; unfaithfulness was his punish-
ment. He was murdered by his own servants,
and these in their turn were punished by their
own sin — they also were murdered. (See Matt,
xxvi. 52; Luke vi. 28.) Therefore be faithful
both to God and man and do good, then thou
shalt be rewarded with good both in time and
eternity. Tumult and murder, perpetrated now
by the authorities, now by the people, those are
the natural fruits which are produced in a land
which has abandoned God, and in which His word
is no longer respected.
B. — The Reign of Josiah ; the Discovery of the Book of the Law, and Restoration of the Mosaic
Ritual.
Chap. XXII.-XXIII. 30 (2 Chron. XXXIV., XXXV.).
1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign [became king], and he
reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedi-
2 dah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned
not aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent
Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the
4 Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver
which is [has been] brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of
5 the door have gathered of the people : And let them deliver it [and may deli-
ver it] ' into the hand of the doers of the work [commissioners], that have the
oversight of the house ' of the Lord : and let them give it to the doers of the
work, which is [who are] in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the
6 house, Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn
1 stone to repair the house. Howbeit, there was [But let] no reckoning [be] made
with them of the money that was [is] delivered into their hand, because [for]
they dealt [deal] faithfully.
And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the
book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Sha
8
252 THE SECOND BOOK OP THE KtNGS.
9 phan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought
the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered [emptied out] the
money that was found [stored] 3 in the house, and have delivered it into the
hand of them that do the work [the commissioners], that have the oversight of
10 the house of the Lord. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hil-
kiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law,
12 that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and
Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the
13 scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying, Go ye, inquire of the Lord
for me [on my behalf] and for [on behalf of] the people, and for [on behalf of]
all Judah, concerning [on account of] the words of this book that is found: for
great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers
have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that
which is written concerning us [prescribed for us].'
14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah,
went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wTife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son
of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe ; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college
15 [lower city] ;) and they communed with her. And she said unto them, Thus
16 saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the
Lord, Behold, I will [am about to] bring evil upon this place, and upon the
inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath
17 read: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other
gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands ;
therefore my wrath shall be [is] kindled against this place, and shall not be
18 quenched. But to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the Lord,
thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the
19 words which thou hast heard ; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast
humbled [humbledst] thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake
[had spoken] against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they
should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept
20 before me ; I also have heard thee [omit thee] saith the Lord. Behold therefore,
I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave
in peace ; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this
place. And they brought the king word again.
Chap, xxiii. 1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of
2 Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and
all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the
priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great : and he read
in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was [had been]
3 found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by a pillar [or on a plat-
form], and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep
his commandments and his testimonies [ordinances] and his statutes with all
their heart and all their soul, to perform [maintain] the words [terms] of this
covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to [joined
in] * the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the
second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the
Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove [Astarte], and
for all the host of heaven : and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields
6 of Kidron, and carried" the ashes of them unto Beth-el. And he put down
[caused to desist] the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained
to burn incense ' in the high places in [of] the cities of Judah, and in the places
Uia in the places] round about Jerusalem ; them also that burned incense unto
Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets [constellations of the
6 Zodiac], and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the grove [Astarte
image] from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron,
and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30. 2?.f:
the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people [common
V people]. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites [male prostitutes],
that were, by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the
8 grove [tent-like shrines for Astarte]. And he brought all the priests out of the
cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense,
from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates [both]
that were [which was] in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of
the city, [and that] which were [was] on a man's left hand at the gate of the
9 city. Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to [were not
allowed to sacrifice upon] ' the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat
10 of the [omit of the] unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled
Topheth, which is the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make
11 his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away'
the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of
the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which
was in the suburbs [colonnade of the temple], and burned the chariots of the sun
12 with fire. And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz,
which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made
in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down [demolish],
and brake [tear] them [omu thern] down from thence, and [he] cast the dust of
13 them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem,
which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the
king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth [or Astarte] the abomination of the
Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom
14 the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake
in pieces the images, and cut down the groves [Astarte-statues], and filled their
places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and [omit and] the high place which
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar
and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it
16 small to powder, and burned the grove [statue of Astarte]. And as Josiah
turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent,
and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and
polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed,
17 who proclaimed these words. Then he said, What title [grave-stone] is that
that I see ? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man
of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed [foretold] these things that
18 thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. And he said, Let him alone; let
no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the
19 prophet that came out of Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places
that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to pro-
voke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the
20 acts that he had done in Beth-el. And he slew all the priests of the high places
that were there [,] upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and
returned to Jerusalem.
21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto
the Lord your God, as it is written in the [this] book of this [the] covenant.
22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that
judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of
23 Judah ; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein [omit, ana wherein]
this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits [necromancers], and the wizards,
and the [household] images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were
spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might
perform [establish] 10 the words of the law, which were written in the book that
25 Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. And like unto him was there
no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his
soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses ; neither after
him arose there any like him.
254
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
26 Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath,
wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations
27 that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the Lord said, I will remove
Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city
Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall
28 be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not
written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ?
29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of
Assyria to the river Euphrates : and king Josiah went against him ; and he
30 slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in
a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in
his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,
and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 5.— The chetib, fOTV , is altogether to be preferred to the keri, 'iTOJV— Bahr. [The E. V. follows the
keri. Boucher's explanation is to be preferred. He retains the chetib and punctuates i"UJV , explaining the suffix as
an Irregularity in gender. Qf. Oramm., note on 2 Kings xvi. 17, and Bottcher § 877, e. — W. G. S.]
3 Ver. 5. — [Here also the chetib, IV33 , is to be preferred to the keri JT3 . Of. Jerem. xl. 5 ; xli. 18. JV3 , in ver. 9,
cannot prove the contrary. — Bahr.
' Ver. 9. — [They had emptied out the money from receptacles into which it had been put by the priests as it was
offered from time to time by the people, and in which it was stored, so that it was "found" there, as the text says,
literally.
* Ver. 13. — [Literally, "written upon," or "against us."
* Chap, xxiii. 3. — [Literally: stoodin. Probably they signified their acquiescence and participation by standingin
a certain place. Hence it means "joined in." So Keil, Thenius, Luther, De Wette, Bahr, Bunsen. Maiirer and Ge-
senius take it to mean persist or persevere, which would be the modern colloquial significance of the "stood to" of the
E. V., but is not the proper sense here.
* Ver. 4. — [X^'Jl ; the strict rule of the language would here require the iniperf. consec. Other instances of laxity in
the use of this form occur in late books, Jerein. xxxvii. 15; Ezek. ix. 7 ; xxxvii. 7, 10; Dan. xii. 5, and in the book of
Ecclebiastes. (Bottcher § 9S2, II.)
' Ver. 5. — nt^p^l; that one might offer: the subject is the indef. sing. French, on. Germ, man. The singular,
however, is very remarkable, and the text may be incorrect. The versions all translate as if it were "1I3p7 , " for which
llSp1! is probably an error of the pen " (Keil). Bottcher takes the imperf. consec. as a pluperfect, because it follows
another plup., and compares Gen. xxxi. 84, and 1 Sam. xix. IS. — " Whom the kings of Judah had appointed and [who,
f. e. any one amongst them] had offered incense." This makes good sense, but the change from passive to active, and
from plur. to sing, is awkward, and the grammatical principles are not clear.
s Ver. 9. — [Such is the force of the imperf. " They might not," i. e„ they were not allowed to.
9 Ver. 11.— [Literally: he canned to cease; i. e., these horses of the sun had been kept as an act of worship to the
Bun. He took them away and put an end to the arrangement.
10 Ver. 24. — [rj'pn i aet upright, i. e., that he might introduce the institutions and customs prescribed in the law
and establish them in successful operation. — W. G. S.]
PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
The parallel account in the book of Chronicles
coincides perfectly with the above in all its details.
In some passages, indeed, it is identically the same
(chap. xxii. 8-20 and xxiii. 1-3 compared with 2
Chron. xxxiv. 19-32); but the Chronicler cannot
have made use of the book of Kings as his author-
ity, for he gives a number of chronological data,
and also certain proper names (xxxiv. 3, 8, 12 ;
xxxv. 8, 9), which are wanting in the book of
Kings, and which cannot possibly have been in-
vented at a later time. The case is the same with
this passage as with chap. xi. 1-20. Both ac-
counts are taken from one and the same original
source, viz., the work which both refer to at the
close of the passage (chap, xxiii. 28; 2 Chron.
xxxv. 27). Their principal points of difference are
two ; viz., that each one describes in great detail
certain ones of the facts noticed, which in their
turn are passed over more summarily by the other,
and that the facts are not narrated by both in the
same chronological order.
In the book of Kings the extirpation of idolatry
»nd of illegitimate Jehovah-worship is described
with care and detail, so that the passage here
which deals with this point (xxiii. 4—20) is, as re-
gards its external form, longer than the correspond-
ing one in Chronicles ; moreover, as regards its
contents, it is by far the most important passage
in the entire narrative, all that goes before it (xxii.
3-20 and xxiii. 1-3) serving only as an historical
introduction, and all which follows (xxiii. 21-24)
only as the conclusion and sequel to it. In
Chronicles, on the other hand, the description of
the passover festival is the object of greatest in-
terest, as is evident, in the first place, from the
fulness with which it is given (2 Chron. xxxv.
1-19), while the extirpation of the false worship
is very briefly recorded. [This is in accord with
what we observe in general in regard to the char-
acteristics of the two books. The book of Kings
attaches the interest to the religious and theocratic
features of the history, while the book of Chronicles
is especially interested in its ecclesiastical details.
In Kings we have the history studied from the
standpoint of the prophets ; in Chronicles, from
that of the levitical priesthood. In Kings we find
those details especially prominent which refer* to
ethical, religious, and monotheistic truth; in Chro
CHAPTER XXU.-XXIII. 30.
255
nicies the fortunes of the priesthood, and the
ritualistic and hierarchical developments, are all
fastened upon and described in detail. — W. G. S.]
Evidently these fundamental charactisterics of the
' two authors present themselves in their accounts
of this reign. The older author gives us an ac-
count from his theocratic and pragmatic stand-
point. He desires to show that king Josiah stands
alone in the history of the Jewish kings, iu that he
carried out in practice and execution the funda-
mental law of the theocracy with a zeal and
severity equalled by none of his predecessors or
successors (xxiii. 24 and 25. The statement is
wanting in Chronicles.) The latter author, on the
contrary, adopts the levitical and priestly stand-
point. He desires to show that the passover had
not been so solemnly or correctly celebrated since
the time of Samuel as it was under Josiah. For
this reason we must regard the account in Kings
as more important, and use that in Chronicles
merely as a valuable complement to it. — As for the
chronological succession of the events, the author
of the book of Kings puts the eighteenth year of
Josiah's reign at the head of the narrative. He
says that the repair of the temple, during which the
Book of the Law was found, took place iu this
year; that the reading of this book agitated the
king so much that he sought higher guidance in
regard to it ; that he, after this guidance had been
given him through the prophetess Huldah, collect-
ed the people and bound them to observe the cove-
nant prescribed in this book ; that he then pro-
ceeded to extirpate all false worship, and abolish
idolatry, first in Jerusalem and Judah, and then in
Samaria, and when he had accomplished this, that
he ordained an observance of the passover accord-
ing to the strict prescriptions of the book. It must
be admitted that this is a sequence of events
in which each one follows naturally and necessarily
from the preceding. The Chronicler, on the other
hand, begins his account with these words: "In
the eighth year of his [Josiah's] reign, while he
was a boy ["iyj], he commenced to seek the God
of his father David, and in his twelfth year he
commenced to purify Judah and Jerusalem from
the high-places, and the Astarte-images, and the
idols of stone and the molten images, and they tore
down before him the altars of the Baalim," Ac.
After the same had been done in " the land of Is-
rael " he " returned to Jerusalem " (chap, xxxiv.
3-7). After this followed, still in the eighteenth
year, the repair of the temple, during which the
Book of the Law was found. This occasioned the
oracle of the prophetess and the oath of fidelity to
the covenant from the assembled people. Imme-
diately after the description of the last event fol-
lows the remark : " And Josiah took away all the
abominations out of all the countries that pertain-
ed to the children of Israel, and made all who
were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the
Lord their God " (chap, xxxiv. 33). Then, in chap,
xxxv., follows the description of the passover.
The chronicler, therefore, puts the extirpation of
idolatry before the repair of the temple and the
discovery of the Book of the Law, and before the
oath of fidelity to the covenant. This cannot,
however, be the correct chronological sequence of
the events, for the incentive which moved Josiah
to collect the people and exact an oath of fidelity to
the covenant from them was the threats of the
newly discovered Law-book. Such an oath would
have been useless and destitute of signifies Dee il
every illegitimate cultus had already been abolish-
ed. The chronicler seems to have perceived this
himself, for he repeats, in brief and condensed
form, after the narrative of the discovery of the
book, and after the public oath of fidelity, the state
ment of the reformation in the cultus which he had
already given in vers. 4-7. On the other hand,
his definite chronological statements in ver. 3 : In
the eighth and in the t%velfth years of Josiah,
statements which are wanting in the book of
Kings, cannot be pure inventions of his own, espe-
cially if it is true that the sixteenth year of life,
that is, in this case, the eighth year of the reign,
was " the year in which, according to numerous
indications, the king's sons became of age'
(Ewald). It is also unlikely that the king, who
had been remarkable for his piety from his youth
up, should have suddenly undertaken such a star
tling reformation in the eighteenth year of his reign
The repair of the temple previous to the discovery
of the book shows that he was disposed to foster
the Jehovah-worship. What he did in his eighth
and twelfth years may have been a commencement
and preparation for what he carried out in his
eighteenth year with thoroughness and severity,
being impelled by the threats contained in the
book which had been discovered. This eighteenth
year was, therefore, the real year of the reforma,
tion, the year in which there was a complete
change in the religious worship of the nation, and
in which Josiah accomplished the work by virtue
of which he stands alone in the history of the
kingdom. This is the reasou why the author of
the book of Kings puts this date at the head of
his narrative, omitting any mention of the eighth
and twelfth years, and also repeats it at the close
(chap, xxiii. 23). The chronicler, on the contrary,
who only mentions the abolition of the illegal and
illegitimate worship in the briefest manner, de-
sired to add to his statement that Josiah " began"
in his twelfth year "to purify Judah and Jerusa-
lem" the further information how he carried this
out, although somewhat later, in the land of Israel
also. This uncertainty in the arrangement of the
historical material is due to the imperfeetness of
the art of the historian, and it is not right to
ascribe to the account in general, as De Welte
does, " distortion of the sense, confusedness, and
obscurity." Neither is it by any means correct to
assert, as Keil and Movers do, that " the account
of the chronicler is, on the whole, more correct,
chronologically," for it is not possible that the abo-
lition of idolatry, even in Judah, should have taken
place before the discovery of the Law-book, as
chap, xxxiv. 6, 7 seems to assert. The assertion
that •' not all the events mentioned in this account
(chap. xxii. 3-xxiii. 23) could have taken place in
the one eighteenth year," especially seeing that
the passover feast belonged in the commencement
and not at the end of the year (Keil), is not found-
ed on conclusive arguments, for the eighteenth year
is a year of the reign, not a calendar year, and it?
end may very well have fallen at the commence-
ment of the calendar year ; moreover, we do not
see why the work of destruction might not have
been accomplished in one year, seeing that it met
with no opposition. Thenius even thinks that it
was accomplished "in a period of imr mouths."
[Nevertheless, as Keil says (.Comm. * 35 0 "If
THE SECOND BOOK OP THE KINGS.
we take in review the separate events and incidents
which are narrated in this passage, the repair of
the temple, the discovery of the Law-book, the
reading of it to the king, the inquiry of the pro-
phetess and her oracle, the reading of the book to
the people in the temple with the renewal of the
covenant, the abolition of idolatry not only in
Judah, but also in Bethel and the other cities of
Samaria, and, tinally, the passover festival, it is
hardly necessary to remark that all this cannot
have taken place in the one eighteenth year of his
reign."] It is not necessary to suppose, as Ber-
theau does, that both narratives are chronologi-
cally inaccurate, inasmuch as "events are included
in the narrative [xxiii. 4-20] which belong to the
time before the eighteenth year." It is certain
that Josiah " began " to reform before his eigh-
teenth year, but the events mentioned in 2 Chron.
xxxiv. 4-7 belong not to this time, but to the eigh-
teenth year, and there is no reason to transfer to
the time before this year events which belong to
this year itself. [The author's opinion is, there-
fore, that Josiah's undertaking to repair the temple
bears witness to his disposition to reform the eul-
tus, and that this, in connection with the assertion
of the chronicler that he made certain efforts to
this end in his twelfth year, forces us to the con-
viction that the reformation commenced before the
eighteenth year of the reign, but that those efforts
in this direction which he is said by the chronicler
lo have made before his eighteenth year really be-
long to that year, including all the reformatory
measures of which the Scripture has preserved a
record.— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICA1 AND CRITICAL.
Ter. 1. Josiah was eight years old, &c.
Amon was twenty -four years old when he died
(chap.xxi. 19). Hemust have begotten Josiah when
he was only sixteen years old. This is not aston-
ishing in view of the early marriages which are
common in the Orient (see notes on chap. xvi. 2).
Whether the young king was under a regency, or
had an elderly man as tutor and governor, as
Joash did (chap. xii. 3), is not stated. We know
nothing of Boscath, the birth-place of his mother,
except that it was in the plain of Judah (Josh. xv.
39). Ver. 2 characterizes in general the reign of
Josiah, and forms, as it were, the title of the entire
following passage. The expression : " Turned not
aside to the right hand or to the left " (see Deut.
v. 32 ; xvii. 11, 20 ; xxviii. 14) is only used of this
king in this book. — On the chronological date :
" in the eighteenth year," see Preliminary Remarks.
The addition in the Sept. : ev tC. finvl ru bydou,
is not found anywhere else, and does not deserve
any attention. In Chronicles (xxxiv. 8) two other
persons are mentioned whom the king sent with
Shaphan, Maaseiah, the governor, and Joah, the
recorder. Shaphan alone is mentioned here, as he
was the one who had charge of the money. The
others were merely companions. On "|£C i see
notes on 1 Kings iv. 3.
Ver. 4. Go up to Hilkiah, the high-priest,
fcc. Since the time of Joash (chap. xii. 5), a period
of 250 years, the temple had not been repaired.
It had, therefore, become very much dilapidated.
Josiah went to work according to the precedent
•Btablished by Joash. " The fact that we find
here almost the same account as in chap. xiL 11
sq. is due to the similarity of the two incidents
and is perfectly natural, so that it cannot be re-
garded as a proof that the account is untrue
(Stahelin, Krit, Untersuch.s. 156)" (Thenius). The
account is here somewhat abbreviated and pre-
supposes some things which are there distinctly
stated. The author only mentions the temple-
repairs because they brought the Law-book to
light. The high-priest Hilkiah is mentioned in the
list of the high-priests, and is designated as the son
of Shallum (1 Chron. vi. 13). Nothing further is
known in regard to him. Many have supposed
that he was the father of the prophet Jeremiah
(Jer. i. 1), (Eichhorn, Von Bohlen, and Jlenzel), but
this is certainly an error, as Hitzig in the prole-
gomena to his Comm. on Jeremiah has shown.
DFT is hifll from Don , and means, to make
perfect (see Furst s. v.) not, to pay (Geseu.). [This
money was the result of offerings which came in
slowly and steadily. The force of 0!V is to take
up the money which had been paid in up to this
time, make an account and settlement, and so
finish up, make complete, the sum on hand. The
E. V. " sum " is, therefore, quite accurate. — W. G.
S.] Hilkiah's duty in the circumstances was that
which is described more fully in chap. xii. 10
sq. The conjecture Dnffl , *• e., and seal up
(Thenius) is entirely unnecessary. The translation
of the Sept., ^wrracarE, is incorrect. So is also
that of the Vulg. : confletur pecunia. According to
2 Chron. xxxiv. 9 the money was paid in " by
Manasseh and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Is-
rael, as well as by all Judah and Benjamin, and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem." The names of the
commissioners or inspectors are also given there
(ver. 12), but they have no further interest or im-
portance.
Ver. 8. I have found the book of the Law in
the house of the Lord. The emphasis lies here,
as the position of the words [Hebr. text] shows,
on minn "I3D , words which can only be trans-
lated "the book of the Law," according to the
familiar rule: "If a compound notion, expressed
by a governing noun and a dependent genitive, has
to have the article, this is regularly placed before
the genitive, but it then affects the entire com-
pound " (Gesenius, Gramm. § 109, 1 [19th Ed. §
111, 1]; Ewald, Lehrb. § 290, a, 1). KVD is here
emphatic, and does not mean, to fall in with
something which is known to be somewhere at hand,
but to discover something which is concealed (cf.
Levit. v. 22 and 23 [English text vi. 3 and 4],
where we And with it m2X , »'• e., something lost).
[XVO means to find in three different senses: (a)
to find a thing of whose existence one has know-
ledge, and which one therefore seeks for; (b) to
find, by accident, a thing whose existence was
known, but which had for some time been lost
sight of; (c) to find a new thing which one never
had seen or heard of before. The author thinks
that the second meaning is the one which it has
here. Ewald, quoted immediately below, takes it
in the third sense. — W. G. S.] We see in the
course of the narrative that this book is always
referred to as that which had been " found " [i. e.
resiled from ooncealment] (chap. xxii. 13 ; xxiii
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
257
2, 24; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14; xxi. 30). It is, there-
fore, arbitrary and violent of Ewald, who estab-
lished the above rule, to give to these words, on
account of other considerations, the " indefinite
sense : " " Hilkiah also (!) spoke with Shaphan
about a (!) book of the law which he said he had
found in the temple," and to assert in the note :
u There is ho possible reference here to an old al-
ready known, and now only rediscovered, book of
the Law." The appeal to -|BD (ver. 10) has no force,
for there minn is to be supplied from ver. 8, for
Hilkiah had already definitely described it as the
book of the Law, and Shaphan brought it to the
king as such. [We have no right to interpolate the
minn in ver. 10. The fact is rather as follows :
In ver. 8 Hilkiah calls it " the book of the Law,"
because he is convinced . that it is so; in ver. 10
Shaphan presents it to the king as a book, in re-
gard to whose character he does not himself ex-
press any opinion, nor desire to raise any preju-
dice. It is simply an interesting book deserving
the king's attention and examination. Such is the
true meaning of the text as it stands with minn
in Hilkiah's description, but omitted in Shaphan's.
"We obliterate this feature of the narrative if we
supply minn in ver. 10. — W. G. S.] Thenius
justly says, in contradiction of Ewald : " The ex-
pression shows distinctly that it refers to a book
which was known in earlier times, not to one
which had now for the first time come to light,"
and Bunsen says: "It certainly refers to a work
which had been previously known." Nothing but
the critic's preconceived notion could lead him to
contradict this. Now there can be no doubt as to
what is meant by the expression minn ")SD ,
for it is the well-known technical expression for
the books of Moses as a whole. In the parallel
passage in Chronicles we read (xxxiv. 14) : " Hil-
kiah, the priest, found --pa mnrmin napTIN
i1l''0 ," and according to Deut. xxxi. 24-26, Moses,
after he had finished writing out the whole law
(DSn'ny), said to the levites : "Take -)3D HN
n?n minn , and lay it by the side of the ark of
the covenant." In chap. xxiiL 2, 3, 21 ; 2 Chron.
xxxiv. 30, 31, we find instead JV"13,n "I2D, but
this expression also designates the books of Moses
us a whole. It is the same as ncti min ^3 ,
chap, xxiii. 25. This expression is never used of
a portion, or of a single one, of the books of
Moses, so that it proves that the "book" which
was found could not be, as has often been sup-
posed, the book of Deuteronomy. That book was
certainly contained in it, for it was the " threats "
contained in that book (Deut. xxviii.) which made
such a deep impression on the king (ver. 11), and
which were affirmed by the prophetess (ver. 16).
It, however, presupposes the other books, and
never formed a separate book by itself.
Josiah certainly could not renew the covenant on
the basis of one book only, but only on the basis of
the whole book of the law (chap, xxiii. 1-3). The
opinion that this book was Deuteronomy alone
has, therefore, been almost universally abandoned,
and Bertheau justly observes of this opinion (Zur
n
Gesch. Isr. s. 375) : It " lacks all foundation, and
only rests upon favorite assumptions, which can-
not stand before a critical science which examines
more carefully." It is now commonly assumed
that "the law-book was a document which formed
the basis of Deuteronomy at the final redaction *
(Hitzig on Jerem. xi. s. 90), or that it was a " col-
lection of the commands and ordinances of Moses
which has been since incorporated in the Penta-
teuch, especially in Deuteronomy" (Thenius on the
place), or that it was " a collection of the laws of
Moses ; in fact, that formally arranged collection
of them which is contained in the three middle
books of the Pentateuch " (Bertheau on 2 Chron.
xxxiv. 14). But there is not the slightest hint of
any such " collection " as existing before, or by the
side of, the Pentateuch ; much less is there any
hint that any such collection was designated as
" the book of the Law," or "the book of the Cov-
enant." It is a pure hypothesis in which refuge
has been sought, because, on the one hand, it war
impossible to understand by the newly discovered
" book " any one of the books of the Pentateuch;
while, on the other hand, it was believed that the
composition of the Pentateuch must be ascribed to
a later date. This is not the place for an investiga-
tion into the origin of the Pentateuch. We simply
hold firmly to this, on the authority of the text be-
fore us, that the newly discovered book was the
entire Pentateuch. De Wette, even, declares
(Einleit. § 162, a): "The discovery of he book of
the law in the temple in the reign of Josiah is
the first (?) certain hint which we find of the exist-
ence of the Pentateuch as we have it to-day."
[In the above discussion there are two points
involved : (a) the general question of the date of
the origin of Deuteronomy, and (b) the especial evi-
dence of the text before us on that question. I
dismiss the former point with the following re-
marks, (a) It is a question of great scope, involving
the examination of many texts (very few of which
are mentioned above), and calling for a comprehen-
sive treatment. Such an undertaking is out of
place and impossible here. (6) This question re-
quires freedom, and scholarly independence from
dogmatic prepossessions, for its discussion. It
requires also thorough and wide knowledge of a
variety of subjects. It cannot be settled by any ar-
bitary and dogmatic assertions, (c) The reasons
which are adduced for believing in the compara-
tively late origin of the book of Deuteronomy, if
not convincing, are at least such as to demand the
candid consideration of honest scholars. (For the
summary of the arguments on either side see th©
Introductory Essays in the Commentary on Gene-
sis, and the articles " Pentateuch " and " Deutero-
nomy," in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.)
The other question, as to the bearing of this
verse on the question of the date of the origin of
Deuteronomy, is in place here, but, in fact, the
text bears little or no evidence on that point. The
reasons for thinking that Deuteronomy was not
written by Moses, but at some time long after his
death, are critical and independent of the verse be-
fore us. When this opinion had gained ground
the question arose, when was it written ? then at-
tention was turned to this passage, and it was
s'ispected that this was the time of its publication,
if not of its composition. Then the text was tor
tured to try to make it bear evidence either to con-
firm or overthrow this suspicion. There is evi
258
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
aenoe to this point drawn from other sources, but
the text before us yields none to either side.
(a) In the first place, " the Book of the Law " is
a name which may have referred at one time to
the Decalogue, at another time to a collection of
laws, at another time to a still later revision, and
so on until it was applied finally to the Penta-
teuch in its preseut form, and so came down to us
with that meaning. This is what the "critical
school " affirm to have been the fact, and so far as
the name, " The Book of the Law " goes, it is not
inconsistent with that assertion. The " Revised
Statutes " of a State, at any given time, means the
volume of law as fixed, up to that time. Ten
years later, the same title refers, perhaps, to a
very different set of laws. The illustration an-
swers rudely for the development which is sup-
posed to have taken place from the original writ-
ings of Moses to the historical, political, religious,
and ritual work which now bears his name. We
have some indications of the extent of what is
called " the Law of Moses," in the time which
seems to have been required for reading it, but
they are vague and uncertain. In Josh. viii. 32,
however, we read that Joshua " wrote there upon
the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he
wrote in the presence of the children of Israel."
Probably no one will think that, in this case, it re-
fers to the Pentateuch. Therefore, in the verse
before us, " the Book of the Law " refers to what-
ever was so considered, or passed as such at this
period, but what that was is exactly the point in
dispute.
(b) The word NVt3 , as was said above, is used
for different kinds of finding. It does not, there-
fore, give us any clue as to whether the thing
found was an old thing, whose location had not,
for some time, been known, or a thing which
had not previously been known to be in exis-
tence at all. However, no one believes that
nothing had previously existed, or been known to
exist, which passed under the name of the " Law
of the Lord." The question in dispute is, whether
the thing now so designated was identical with
what had previously been so called, or was a revi-
sion and extension of the same, containing espe-
cially, as a recent addition, the book of Deutero-
nomy. On that question the word XVD casts no
light.
(c) Hilkiah uses the definite article. Let us
endeavor to realize the state of things, and see
what inference Hows from this fact. We know
that, at this time, certain religious doctrines were
known and believed, and certain rites of worship
were practised in Judah by those who maintain-
ed the worship of Jehovah. We also know (so
mucli, at least, no one disputes) that Moses had
given certain revelations of religious truth, and
certain religious ordinances to the Israelites, iu
the name of Jehovah, and had written them down.
The only dispute on these points can be as to the
degree of knowledge, faith, and worship which
existed in Judah, and as to the amount of revela-
tion and law which Moses gave and wrote. It
follows that the writings of Moses, either in their
original, or in a modified and extended form,
served as the authority for the doctrine and wor-
ship which still remained in Judah, or else, that
this written law had passed from human know-
ledge, lost iu the flood of heathenism which had
poured over the nation during the last century, iu
which case the doctrine and worship which re-
mained would be based on a tradition of the an<
cient writings as such ; and the name " The Law *
would refer only to the substance of them, so fai
as it was remembered. Hilkiah's announcement
throws light on this alternative. If he had said:
I have found a book of the Law, — it would have
implied that he had found a copy of a generally
well known volume. But he says : I have found
" the Book of the Law." He refers to it as some-
thing known or heard of before, yet the tone ot
the announcement and the effect of the discovery-
show that no other copies of this book could have
been known to be in existence, or else that this copy
was different from all others. If the latter were the
case, the suspicion would be forced upon us, by
the reference to " threats " in the book, that what
marked this copy, as distinguished from all others,
was just the book of Detlteronomy. Many scholars
so regard the incident. However, it is strange
that, if other copies existed, while this copy con-
tained matter which was missing from them, no
hint of this should be found in the context. Ho v
was it that no one produced a copy of the " Law,"
or challenged the new copy as a forgery ? Or, if
it passed at once as genuine, because it was not in
the " spirit of the age " to be critical about literary
authorship, and if it was well known, from easy
comparison with existing copies, that this copy
gave new and valuable knowledge of the Law,
why do we find no hint of this gain? The argu-
ment from silence is never conclusive, but in this
case it is very strong. It seems rather that Hil-
kiah refers, by his words, to a book which was
unique, so far as his, or the general public know-
ledge went, and that he meant to announce the
discovery of the Book which contained that Law
which was known to them by tradition, which
formed the basis of their faith and worship, of
whose existence, at a former time, in a written
codex, they had also heard, but of which they
possessed no written copy.
The only true inference from this text is,
therefore, this, that during the time of apostasy
the Scriptures had been lost to public knowledge,
and "the Law" existed only as a tradition and
memory. This leaves us face to face with the
question : Of what did " this book of the Law "
consist, — of our Pentateuch, or of some imperfect
form of what we now call the Pentateuch ? We
must look for the answer to that question else-
where. We shall not find it in this verse. — W.
G. S.]
As for the particular copy of the book which
was found, the Rabbis and many of the old ex-
positors, Grotius, Piscator, Hess, and others in-
ferred from the words 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14: "The
book of the law of Jehovah nt;*D T3," that it
was " the original manuscript from the hand of
Moses," and Calmet was of the opinion that this
supposition could alone account for the great effect
which the discovery produced. In Numb. xv. 23
we find the same expression, but there it cannot
possibly be understood literally of the " hand " of
Moses. It is used in the sense in which we often
find T3 elsewhere (1 Kings xii. 15 ; Jer. xxxvii
2), simply to denote the medium through which
Clericus' statement is correct: Satis est, exemplai
quoddam Legis antiquum fuisse, idque authenucum.
As it was found " in the house of Jehovah," i'
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
259
•was most probably the temple-copy, i: «., the offi-
cial one which, as the documentary testimony to
the covenant, was deposited in the temple, accord-
ing to Deut. xxxi. 12, 26, and was used for public
reading from time to time before the people. Per-
haps this copy was distinguished by its external
.appearance, size, material, beauty of the writing,
&c, from the ordinary private copies. [The pas-
sage in Deuteronomy must then be interpreted as
a general injunction always to keep a copy in the
tabernacle or temple, an interpretation which a
glance will show to be incorrect, and it is assumed
that there were private copies in existence. If
private copies of " the Book of the Law " were
common, or if a single one was known to be in
■existence, then we cannot understand why the
discovery produced such a sensation, unless in-
-deed we suppose that the newly discovered copy
contained something which the other copies did
not. In that case the reference to the " threats "
contained in the book, as one of its prominent
characteristics, would awaken the gravest suspi-
cion that what it contained over and above the
■other copies was just the book of Deuteronomy.
There is no reason to believe that private copies
existed, and the definite article minn T2D bears
witness to the contrary, as above stated. — W. G.
S.] It is nowhere stated when and how this offi-
cial copy was thrown aside and lost sight of.
According to the tradition of the rabbis, this took
place und9r Ahaz, who, they say, caused all the
■copies to be burned, but Kimchi justly objected
■that the reformation under Hezekiah presupposed
the existence of the Law-book, and acquaintance
with it. The supposition is therefore naturally
•suggested that under the fanatical idolater Manas-
seh, who sought to destroy all Jehovah-worship,
.and who reigned for fifty-five years, some faithful
servant of Jehovah, perhaps the high-priest him-
self, took care to conceal and preserve the sacred
Scriptures, and that the book only came to light
again at the repairing of the temple under Josiah,
after sixty or seventy years of concealment.
During this period the priests " followed an imper-
fect tradition in their execution of the public wor-
ship of Jehovah, instead of being guided by the
legal prescriptions " (Von Gerlach), and " it may
be that the active practice of religious observances
(which we must take for granted as existing in a
well-ordered State) saved them from feeling the
necessity for written rules " (Winer, R.- W.-B. I. s.
S10). The discovery of the authentic Law-book
was all the more important on this account, for by
means of it the pure and correct worship of Jeho-
vah could now be re-established. The idle ques-
tion, where the book was found ? whether under
the roof, or under a heap of stones, or in one of
the treasure chambers, may be left to the rabbis
to contend over.
Ver. 11. When the king had heard the
words of the book of the law, Ac. Shaphan did
not read to the king the v)hole book, but lie read
therein (2 Chron. xxxiv. 18 : S3). Judging from
the impression which the words made upon the
king (rending one's clothes is a sign of the deepest
anxiety and terror; see chap. vi. 30; xix. 1), those
passages seem to have been read in which the
transgressors of the law are threatened with the
hardest punishments; such, for instance, as Deut.
sxviii. ''Perhaps the last part of the book-roll
was unrolled first " (Richter). — The king now sends
a deputation of his highest officers, as Hezekiat
had done in similar uncertainty, to inquire of the
Lord ; not, as Duncker (Gesch. des Alt. I. x. 504)
states, "in order to find out whether this really
was the law of Moses," but rather, because the
genuineness of the book appears to him to be be-
yond question, he sends to inquire whether and
how the punishments which are threatened may
be averted. " He desires to learn whether the
measure of sin is already full or whether there ia
yet hope of grace " (Von Gerlach). Only a pro-
phetical declaration — the word of the Loid —
could give him an answer to this question. Ahi-
kam appears afterwards as the friend and pro-
tector of Jeremiah (Jer. xxvi. 24), and as father of
Gedaliah, the governor of the cities of Judah (Jer.
xl. 5). Achbor is called, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 20, Ab-
don, perhaps only by a mistake of the letter char-
acters. According to Jerem. xxvi. 22 ; xxxvi. 12,
he was the father of Elnathan, who belonged to
the most intimate associates of king Zedekiah.
Asahiah, who is only mentioned here, is spoken of
as " the servant of the king," that is, as an officer
in his immediate service. — Unto Huldah, the
prophetess (ver. 14). The king had commanded
the deputation to inquire of the Lord without di-
recting them to go to any particular person. The
reason why they sought her is probably hinted at
in the remark which is added, and which in itself
appears unimportant, that " she lived in Jerusa-
lem." The two prophets who made their appear-
ance during Josiah's reign were Jeremiah and
Zephaniah. The former came from Anathoth in
Benjamin (Jer. i. 1). He was probably at this time
still in that city. The latter, according to Pseudo-
epiphanius {Be prophet. 19), belonged to the tribe
of Simeon and came airo bpovc lapapada. The de-
putation went to Huldah because she was the only
one at Jerusalem who had the gift of prophecy.
In order to show that she was a person of good
position, not only the name and office of her hus-
band are given, but also the name of two of his
ancestors. He was keeper of the wardrobe, "ei-
ther of the royal wardrobe, or of that of the sanc-
tuary; the latter is more probable on comparing
2 Kings x. 22 " (Bertheau). " In the second part,"
i. e., in the lower city. See Nehem. xi. 9 ; Zeph.
i. 10. Josephus: aU?; ttoA<c. Thenius: "In tho
second district of the (lower) city, which wis after-
wards included within the walls." [He thus iden-
tifies it with a small hill which formed the extreme
north-western suburb of the city ]
Ver. 15. And she said unto them, &c. She
addressed her reply in the first place to the man
that sent you (vers. 15-17), afterwards to the
king of Judah which sent you (vers. 18-20).
The first part was addressed not only to the king
but to "every one who would hear;" the second
part was addressed to the king especially (Keil).
This is more simple and natural than Thenius' no-
tion : " In the first part, Huldah has only the sub-
ject matter in mind, while in ver. 18, in the
quieter (?) flow of her words, she takes notice- of
the state of mind of the particular person who sent
to make the inquiry." — All the words of the
book (ver. 16), stands in apposition with njTI
whioh precedes. In Chronicles we find instead :
" All the curses that are written in the book which
they have read before the king of Judah " (xxxiv.
'260
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
24). Dnmn in ver. IS is not to be connected
with what follows : " Thy heart was tender on
account of these words" (Luther), but it is to be
taken as a nominative absolute : as for the words
which, &c. The sense of vers. 18 and 19 is : Be-
cause thou hast heard we and taken heed to my
threats, I will also hear thee and not fulfil these
threats upon thee. p~i is to be taken here in the
sense of timid, Deut. xx. 8; Jer. li. 46. The
threats had awakened terror and dismay in him. —
A desolation and a curse, see Jerem. xliv. 22.
The fact that Josiah was slain in battle (chap.
xxiii. 29) does not contradict Di^'3 in ver. 20.
That only means to say that he should die " with-
out surviving the desolation of Jerusalem, as we
see from the added promise : thine eyes shall
not see, &c." (Keil). According to 2 Chrou. xssv.
24, 25, Josiah was laid in the sepulchre with high
honors, followed by the lamentations of the whole
people.
Chap, xxiii. ver. 1. And the king sent and
they gathered unto him, &c. Although the king
had received an answer which was favorable only
in its bearings on himself, his first care was to
bring together the entire people, to make them
acquainted with the law-book, to lead them to re-
pent, and so to avert as far as possible the threat-
ened punishment. In ver. 2 all the classes of the
population are mentioned in order to show how
much Josiah had it at heart that the entire people,
without distinction of rank or class, should become
acquainted with the Law. Among these classes
the priests and prophets are mentioned. Keil
supposes that Jeremiah and Zephaniah were among
these "in order that they might, by their partici-
pation, accomplish the renewal of the covenant,
and that the prophets might then undertake the
task of bringing home to the hearts of the people,
by earnest preaching in Jerusalem and the cities
of Judah, the obligations of the covenant." If
that had been so, however, the prophets could not
have been merely incidentally mentioned, but they
would have been especially pointed out as promi-
nent agents in the work. The DWaJ , who here
stand with the priests and form one class with
them, are evidently not the prophets in the nar-
rower and more especial sense [i. e., as persons
who foretold future events and pronounced the or-
acles of God], but the word is a general designa-
tion of the persons whose duty it was to preach
and to explain the Law. The Chronicler (xxxiv.
30) has instead D'vH , which is no contradiction
or arbitrary alteration, for it was the duty and
calling of the house of Levi to preach and to in-
terpret the Law (Deut. xvii. 18; xxxi. 9 sq. ;
xxxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xvii. 8, 9; xxxv. 3); the
Chaldee paraphrase therefore interprets D'N'DJ
here by WIDDl > ypa^arelc.
t t : t :
[What we understand by " interpretation of
the law " did not exist until after the captivity.
The levites are represented in Deuteronomy as
the guardians and readers of the Law, and in
Chronicles we find them charged with its publica-
tion, but nowhere are they represented as doing
what the '■ scribes " did at a later time. That is
an interpretation of the rabbis which is borrowed
from their own time, and is unhistorical as applied
to this text. Neither were the prophets divided
into two classes, one of which was charged witt
the office of interpretation. There is no evidenc*
of such a division, or of such a duty of the pro
phets. Certainly if the duty of interpreting th«
Law had been given by Moses to the levites, the
whole spirit of the Israelitish constitution forbids
us to believe that other persons — prophets — per-
sons of every trib^, could have interfered with
that duty or shared in it. We cannot thus recon-
cile our text with that of Chronicles. — We may get
a correct idea of the incident referred to by ob-
serving : (a) that the class of prophets was, at thii
time, very large. The name N'33 applies to then;
all. No distinction is made, and the name is ever
applied to false prophets, whether with an epi-
thet, marking them as false (Ez. xiii. 2 and 3;
Isai. ix. 14 ; Jerem. vi. 13, &c), or without any
such epithet (Hos. iv. 5; ix. 7, 8). The same
name is given to the " prophets " of BaaL The
original meaning of the word is speaker or orator,
but it is essential to the idea of a x'33 in the 0.
T. that he speaks under the influence of divine
illumination or inspiration. He may be false, and
pretend to an illumination which he has not, or he
may speak in the name of a false god, but, as one
who claims and pretends to illumination, he is a
N'33 • (b) There were schools in which persons
were trained to this office and work. Originally
such persons were few in number, but the book
of Jeremiah shows conclusively that, in the time
of that prophet, they were numerous, and that
many had the name without the spirit. Many
were called, but few chosen, (c) The aim of the
schools of the prophets was to nourish faith in
Jehovah and worship of Him ; to cultivate men
who preserved the traditions of the Jehovah reli-
gion, perpetuated the great doctrines which the
prophets continually reiterate, and cultivated in-
sight into divine truth, (d) The schools could do
no more than spend their labor on those who of-
fered themselves for the work. The truth of their
calling could only appear in their subsequent work.
Hence the authority of the prophets was nothing
more or less than their divine calling, which mani-
fested itself in their later labors. In fact, it was
not until Isaiah and Jeremiah had been long dead;
that their labors were ratified and could be esti-
mated, (e) The words or writings of the fifteen
or sixteen whose works remain to us comprise, if
we may so speak, only the cream of the prophetic
utterances of centuries. (/) The prophets never
base their teachings on Moses, but teach origin-
ally. They do not say : Thus saith Moses. They
do not quote the Pentateuch as an authority.
They never impress their commands by quoting
the " Law of Moses " as the supreme authority of
faith and duty. If they did, their works would
not be Holy Scripture, but commentaries, or, at
most, sermons. On the contrary, they say: Thus
saith the Lord. Their work is original and crea-
tive ; it is not merely in the way of application or
reflexion. When they quote the " La w of the Lord "
they quote principles and doctrines which were fun
damental in the Israelitish constitution. They do
not refer to specific ordinances and enactments,
but to the spirit and principles of the Jehovah-
religion. We have an analogy in the frequent ref-
erence in modern sermons to " the will of God."
This refers only generally to the Bible, and in-
cludes those things also which are not specificalli
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
261
ordained in the Bible, but which a Christian con-
science recognizes as God's will, (g) It is, therefore,
an error to attempt to enhance the character and
«uthority of the great prophets by supposing that,
during their life-time, they were separated from
others of their class, (h) It is also an error to
suppose that they held any insubordinate or inde-
pendent place in the body politic. We admire
these men who rebuked kings, and dictated public
policy in great crises, but we do them injustice
if we believe that, on ordinary occasions, and in
ordinary duties, they emancipated themselves from
the obligations of subjects of thekingdom. — In the
present case the text shows us the place of the
prophets. They ranked with the priests as reli-
gious persons. If Jeremiah was in Jerusalem we
may be sure that he took his place, simply and
without ostentation, among his comrades in station
and calling. We do not need to invent any special
reason for the presence of the prophets. They
were there simply as a class amongst the multi-
tude assembled, (i) It is also an error to reconcile
the text of Kings with that of Chronicles by iden-
tifying the levites. in function, with the prophets,
or any class of the prophets. In the time of the
chronicler the prophets had ceased to exist, cer-
tainly as a class. He was accustomed to see levites
in this place by the side of the priests on such oc-
casions, and that is the simple reason why he men-
tions them as occupying that place in the present
instance. — W. G. S.]
Both small and great. This does not mean
both the children and the grown-up persons, but,
both the lower classes and the people of distinc-
tion. No doubt the king left to the priests or pro-
phets the duty of reading the book, but himself
took the oath of fidelity to the covenant from the
people. He therefore took his place upon the
platform (see notes on xl 14).
Ver. 4. And the king commanded Hilkiah
the high priest, &c. As in chap. xi. 17, 18, the
conclusion of the covenant was followed by the
extirpation of idolatry, first by the removal of the
utensils of this cultus (ver 4), then by the execu-
tion of the priests of it (ver 5), then by the destruc-
tion and desecration of the places in which it was
practised (ver. 6 sq.). nj'_'12n 'jro are not, as the
rabbis say, the deputies of the high-priest, but, in
contrast with him, the younger and subordinate
priests. See 1 Chron. xv. 18 ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 12 ;
1 Sam. viii. 2. The keepers of the door are the
levites whose duty it was to guard the temple
(chap. xxii. 4; 1 Chron. xxiii. 5). On Baal and
Aschera and upon the host of heaven, see notes on
chap. xxi. 3 [also notes on chap. xvi. 3 and xvii.
17] This burning took place in obedience to
Deut. vii. 25 ; xii. 3. It was accomplished outside
of Jerusalem, because the things were unclean, on
the fields of the Kidron, north-east of the city,
where the Kidron valley is broader than between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. Asa had
caused an idol to be burned there (1 Kings xv. 13),
and Hezekiah caused all the impure things which
were found in the temple to be carried thither (2
Chron. xxix. 16). Not even the ashes, however,
might remain there. They were carried to Bethel,
certainly for no other reason than because that had
been the chief place of origin for all idolatrous
and illegitimate worship ever since the time of Je-
roboam (1 Kings xii. 33). That which had pro-
ceeded from thence Josiah sent back thither — ii
ashes. Thenius' conjecture: ',7X"n,3 . he carried
the ashes into the house of nothingness, i. e., he scat
tered them on all the winds,'' is, to say the least,
unnecessary.
Ver. 5. And he caused to desist the idola
trous priests, ,tc. : Not, he caused to perish, pin
to death (Sept. naremvcs ; Vnlg. delevit), but, he
caused to cease, or set aside. The word Q'"|D3
occurs besides only in Hos. x. 5 and Zeph. i. 4.
The etymology of the word is uncertain. The
rabbis derive it from 103 , nigredo, because they
wore black garments, but we have no instance of
priests who wore black garments, and this etymo-
logy is certainly false. According to Gesenius it
comes from "tsj , to execute or accomplish, and
means the celebrant (of the sacred offices), ipduiv,
sacriticer. [This is Keil's opinion, not Gesenius'.
The latter, in the Thesaurus s. v. follows the ety-
mology above ascribed to the rabbis. lie says
that it means " blackness, sadness, and so, con-
cretely, one who walks in black garments, i. e., a
grieving, sad, ascetic, priest." As it is only used
of the priests of false worship, it would be very
remarkable that the name applied to them should
mean, strictly, ascetics. — W. G. S.] Fiirst connects
it with the Arabic chamar=coluit deum, hence,
one who serves, a servant. It certainly refers to a
kind of priests, not necessarily of idols, for in Hos.
x. o the priests of Jeroboam's Jehovah-calf-worship
are so called, and here they are distinguished from
those who offered incense to Baal. Probably it
refers to those who, without actually being priests,
exercised sacerdotal functions either in the service
of the calves or of false divinities. Baal " serves
as a designation of the entire cultus which was
covered by his name, as if it were said: Baal, i. e.,
the sun, &c." (Thenius). The Jlii'iD , from ^TD ,
lodging, dwelling, station, are the twelve divisions
of the Zodiac marked by the figures and names of
animals ; the twelve constellations of the Zodiac,
which are called in Job xxxviii. 22 J"li"l1t2 (see
Gesen. Thes. II. 869). me'Kfl (ver. 6), means not
one but many Astarte-statues which Manasseh
had set up in the temple (chap. xxi. 7). If he re-
moved them after his return from Babylon (2
Chron. xxxiii. 15), they were reinstated by Anion.
— On the graves of the common people. The
chronicler says : " On the graves of those who
had sacrificed to them " (the false gods). Evi-
dently this is a gloss added by the chronicler him-
self. Persons of the common folk [as the text
reads literally] are not worshippers of false gods,
but common people. These did not have heredi-
tary sepulchres hewn out of the rock (Winer,
B.-W.-B. I. 444), as the rich and noble had. They
were buried in the open fields where the corpses
were more likely to be dug up by wild animals
The present burying-place of the Jews is in the
Kidron valley. It is evident from Jerem. xxvi. 23
that this burial was not disgraceful, although it
was less honorable than that in a rock-hewn
sepulchre. If this had been the burying-place for
idol-worshippers, it would have been the usual
burying-place in the time of Manasseh, whereas at
that time it was rather the faithful servants of
Jehovah who were dishonorably buried. Josiah'*
262
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
reason for throwing the ashes on these graves
was, therefore, not " to desecrate them as the
graves of idolaters " (Keil), but in order still
further to dishonor the ashes of the destroyed
idols. — On D'Cnpn (ver. 7) see note on 1 Kings
xiv. 24. Only male prostitutes, not female (The-
nius) can be understood. They had their dwell-
ings (tents or cabins) near the temple, perhaps in
the outer court. In these also dwelt the women who
wove WF\2 for the Ashera. Whether these were
" tents, " and, if so, of what kind they were (hard-
ly, as Ewald thinks, " garments " [he alters the
text and reads QH33 Gesch. III. 718]) is not
clear. Chap. xvii. 30 does not throw any light on
it. Movers (Phcen. I. s. 686) says : " The castrated
male prostitute (CHp) imagines or pretends that he
is a woman : negant se vivos esse * * * mulieres se
volunt credi. Firmic. He lives in association with
women, and the latter, in their turn, have a pecu-
liar inclination towards him."
Ver. 8. And he brought all the priests out
of the cities of Judah. Vers. 8 and 9 belong
together. The true levitical priests, who exercised
their functions on the high places instead of in
the temple, he caused to come to Jerusalem in
order to make them desist from this. He caused
the high-places to be made unfit for use by dese-
crating them. However, these priests, since they
had forfeited their priestly dignity, were not allow-
ed to perform priestly offices in the temple. They
were employed simply as levites. They were
allowed to eat unleavened, or sacrificial, bread, but
not in company with the other priests (cf. Ezek.
xliv. 10-14). They were, therefore, placed in the
same category with those sons of Aaron who were
prevented by some physical defect from under-
taking the hereditary functions of their family
(Levit. xxi. 21). It is not stated in the text that
they continued to be participes eniolumentorum
sacerdotalium (Clericus). — From Geba to Beer-
sheba, that is, throughout the entire kingdom.
ieba is the Gibea in the territory of Benjamin,
ear Ramah, the home of Saul. See notes on 1
I ings xv. 22, and Knobel on Isaiah x. 29. It is
mentioned as the northern limit. Beersheba is
mentioned as the southernmost and last seat of ille-
gal worship (Amos v. 5 ; viii. 15). — The high-
places of the gates were places of worship (in
this case simply altars), either close to the gates,
or, since these were large open buildings for public
meetings and intercourse (Nahum viii. 16; Ruth
iii. 1 1 ; Prov. xxii. 22), even inside of them. Prob-
ably these altars served for the foreigners as they
came in or went out to offer sacrifices of prayer or
of thanksgiving in reference to the transactions in
which they were about to engage, or which they
had just completed. The two following clauses,
each of whicn begins with ")E'N , define these
high-places more nearly, and it is not admissible
to supply prcesertim or imprimis (Clericus, Dathe,
Maurer) before the first 1t.''N , and then to regard
the second relative as referring to this. How can
we comprehend the description of a high-place
which was at the entrance of the gate of Joshua,
and at the same time on the left hand of the gate
of tho city ? As reference is made to two high-
places in two different gates, the verse cannot be
otherwise understood than as it is interpreted by
Thenius : " He tore down the high-places of ilia
gates, (the high-place) which was at the entrance
of the gate of Joshua (as well as that) which was
on the left hand in the gate of the city." So also
Keil and Ewald. Neither of these gates is men-
tioned anywhere else, at least by the same name.
Thenius locates the former in the inside of the
city, because he assumes that the governor of the
city must have lived in the citadel, Millo, and that
this gate must have been one which connected
the lower city with the citadel, and was close to
his dwelling. This gate was called, in later times,
Gennath. This, however, is a pure guess. The
" gate of the city " may have been the valley-gate,
or the Jaffa-gate, on the west side of the city to-
wards the valley of Gihon, through which the traf-
fic with the Mediterranean passed.
Ver. 10. And he defiled Topheth. nSPIil is
a special designation of the spot in the valley of
Hinnom, south of the city, where, during the time
of apostasy, children were sacrificed to Moloch.
In Isaiah xxx. 33 this place is called the " pyre."'
Fiirst derives the word from the unused root P^n i
to burn up. The majority of the expositors, however,
derive it from E|:iri , to spit or vomit, that is, to detest,
hold in abhorrence, nan would then mean abomi-
nation (see Rodiger in Gesenius' Thesaurus, p.
1497). The place either had this name from the
time of Josiah, who defiled it by burning there the
bones of the dead (ver. 16), or else it was thus
named still earlier, by the faithful servants of
Jehovah, on account of the detestation they felt
for the abominable child-sacrifices which were
practised there. Hitzig and Bottcher take Q3n as
an appellative from Qjn , to groan, and translate :
" Valley of the wailiugs of children." — And he
took away the horses, ver. 11. The same ex-
pressions are used here in regard to the horses as
in ver. 5 in regard to the D'ICG • They were
given (jnj), that is, established or instituted, and he
took them away (rOK')- Both expressions must
therefore be understood here as they are there.
He did away with the horses, but did with the
chariots as he had done with the idol-images
(ver. 6), he burned them (cpt")- If the horses had
been of wood he would have burned them also.
It follows that they were living horses. Horses
are often mentioned as animals sacred to the sun
among Oriental peoples (see the proofs quoted ir.
Boehart, Hieroz. I. 2, 10). Horses were not only
sacrificed to the sun, as the supreme divinity
(Herod, i. 216), but they were also used to draw
the sacred chariot (Curt. iii. 3, 11 ; see Herod, i.
189). This latter was the purpose for which they
were kept here. They served to draw the sacred
chariot in solemn processions, representing the
course of the sun through the zodiac, not, as Keil
asserts, following the rabbis, "to go forth to meet
the risiug sun." [This custom of keeping horsea
sacred to the sun is connected with the idea of the
sun as a flaming chariot drawn through the heavens.
Hence horses and a car were kept on earth as sacred
to, and symbolical of, the sun.] X3D is not to be
translated, as it is by De Wette : " so that they
came no more into the house of Jeh wah," nor ia
it to be connected with ri3L''s1 (he removed than
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
263
from the entrance of the temple), but it states
where the place was where che horses were ordi-
narily kept : from the coming into the house, that is,
when any one came into the temple (through the
western or rear door of the fore-court, the gate
T\^?'£' , 1 Chron. xxvi. 16), the place of the horses
was on the side of him to or towards (?N) the
chamber of Nathan-melech. This chamber was
OTnS3 . The rfawb in the outer court (see
notes on 1 Kings vi. 36) were side rooms which
served for different purposes ; not only as dwell-
ings for the priests who were on duty (Ezek. xl.
45 sq.), but also as store-rooms for different mate-
rials (1 Chron. ix. 26; 2 Chron. xxxi. 12). This
chamberlain (chap. xx. 18), Nathan-Melech, of
whom nothing further is known, was, no doubt,
charged with the care of the sacred horses. It is
impossible to decide whether the HSC'? was his
dwelling, and the stable of the horses was near by
(Thenius), or whether this chamber itself was
arranged as a stable for them (Keil). No one dis-
putes that -|V1S is the same as 1313 , 1 Chron.
xx vi. 18. In the latter place the divisions of the
gate-keepers of the temple are stated in vers. 12-19.
As these had their posts only in and near the tem-
ple, and two of them were especially appointed
for the "1313 , the word cannot mean suburb (the
rabbis and De Wette), nor any other locality out-
side of the fore-court of the temple. The ordinary
interpretation of the word as the colonnade (Gese-
nius. Bunsen) is also excluded, for the Parbar is
distinctly designated in the place quoted as lying
on the west or rear side of the temple, where cer-
tainly it is least likely that a colonnade was built
which formed the feature distinguishing that side
from the others. [Bahr, in his translation, renders
13133 by in den Saulenhallen, in the colonnades.]
We have rather to think of some specially marked
space on the west side, inside of the fore-court. Of
the six watchmen who were posted at the west
side, four had posts assigned them on the street,
that is, at the gate which led to the street, and
•only two in the Parbar. The latter must therefore
have been inside the court, otherwise it could not
have been left to the weaker guard. It is not
stated what particular use this space, called the
Parbar. was put to. We can only suppose that it
was used for purposes for which the other sides of
the court were not well adapted. The more speci-
fic details as to the size of the space, the wall by
which it was surrounded, &c, which Thenius gives
in his notes on the passage, are the result of mere
combinations.
Ver. 12. And the altars that were on the
top of the upper chamber of Ahaz. The n'^V
of Ahaz was certainly not the upper chamber which
was above the sanctuary of the temple (see notes
on 1 Kings vi. 20), but only a chamber which was
first erected by this idolatrous king, and which was
probably over one of the outbuildings in the fore-
court, which, according to Jerem. xxxv. 4, at least
some of them, had different stories one above an-
other. Perhaps it was over a gate. It probably
served for observations on the stars, and the altars
were for the worship of the constellations (Zeph. i.
'5; Jerem. xix. 13). [It therefore proves that the
Assyrio-Chaldean star-worship was introduced in
the time of Ahaz and Pekah. See notes on chap,
xvi. 3 andxvii. 17, above, pp. 160 and 186.] H>
tore down the altars which Manasseh had
made (chap. xxi. 5). ]-|J is used as in verse 7.
Keil translates the following f'"V1 : " He crushed
them from thence," taking it from T'VT , to crush,
pulverize, and making it equivalent to pTI in ver.
6. But Dt?D doos not coincide well with the notion
of crushing, which, moreover, is fully expressed in
]T)J ■ It must be taken from Wl , to run, in the
sense of to hasten (Isai. lix. 7) ; he hastened thence
since he had yet all the high-places outside of
Jerusalem to destroy (ver. 13). The Chaldee
paraphrase explains it by JQP1D p'mjO , that is,
he removed from thence (Ps. lxxxviii. 19) ; the Sept. :
ml KadciXev avra kneiftev. Thenius therefore agreea
with Kimchi in reading VT1 : " He caused to
run — and cast, &c, that is, He gave orders to le-
move and cast with all haste, Ac. (Jerem. xlix. 19).
In this case he probably east the debris directly
over the wall of the temple enclosure down into
the valley." And the high-places that were
before Jerusalem, &o. Vers. 13 and 14 are a
direct continuation of ver. 12, and they state what
Josiah did in regard to the high-places before the
city, which had existed long before Ahaz and
Manasseh. On these high-places, see notes on 1
Kings xi. 7. The Mount of Corruption is the
southernmost peak of the Mount of Olives which
lay to the East (^B'py) of Jerusalem. It received
this name on account of the idolatry which was
practised there. Among Christians it is now call-
ed, Mount of Offence, mons offensionis, which the
Vulg. has in the place before us. On the images
and Astarte-statues (ver. 14) see notes on 1 Kings
xiv. 23. DDlpD does not mean " their elevated
pedestals " (Thenius), for N?0,1 would not fit
into this meaning, but, in general, their places.
It is to be observed that it is not said in reference
to Solomon's high-places (in ver. 13) that he tore
them down, as it is said of those which were of
later origin (vers. 6, 7, 8, 12), but only that he de-
filed them. No doubt this is because they had
been already torn down by Hezekiah, or perhaps
even before his time (2 Chron. xxxi. 1). He only
defiled the places where they had been (perhaps
some parts were still remaining) in order to oblit-
erate thoroughly all the false worship. Thenius
is certainly mistaken when he asserts : " The idol-
temples which Solomon had erected remained until
the time of Josiah, though they were several times,
e. g., under Hezekiah, placed under interdict." How
could Hezekiah, who even removed the heights
where Jehovah was worshipped (chap, xviii. 4),
have allowed idol-temples to stand untouched, with
their images, over against Jerusalem ? [As far as
the text gives any information in regard to the
matter, either here or elsewhere, Solomon's heights,
Ac, remained until this time. The inference as to
what other reformers must have done, is only an
inference. If we allow ourselves to infer that such
and such things had been done before this time,
we obliterate those peculiarities of Josiah's re-
formation which make it especially interesting. —
264
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
V. G. S ] We do not need to assume, as Meno-
chius does: Ab impiis regibus excitata sunt fana et
idola iis similia. gum excitaverat Salomon iisdem
locis, ideogue Salomoni tribuuntur prima illorum
auclori.
Ver. 15. Moreover the altar that was at
Beth-el. — After Josiah had put an end to all ille-
gal worship in Judah, he extended ihe reformation
to the former kingdom of Israel, whence that wor-
ship had originally sprung, and where it had been
made the basis of the political constitution (1 Kings
xii. 26s{.). It is told in vers. 15-20 what he did there.
From the time of Jeroboam Bethel had been the
chief seat of the calf-worship (1 Kings xii. 2S ; xiii.
1 ; Amos iii. 14 ; vii. 10, 13 ; Jerem. xlviii. 13 ; see
Hos. x. 5). This altar was the one mentioned in 1
Kings xii. 33 and xiii. 1. The first riD3n in ver. 15
cannot be taken as an accusative of place, " on the
high-place," as Thenius takes it, but only as appo-
sition to "altar." The Bamah was a house on an
elevation, for he tore it down and burned it. The
altar did not stand in the house, but before it. In
what follows the statement is clearer : " that altar
and the high-place." After the immigration of the
heathen colonists an Astarte-statue seems to have
taken the place of the calf-image there. — On ver.
16 sg. see the Prelim. Rem. on 1 Kings xiii. Vers.
16 to 18 belong, according to Stahelin (Erit. Unter-
suck. s. 156), to the autlror and not to the document
which served him as authority. According to The-
nius they are taken from the sequel to 1 Kings xiii.
1-32. This, he says, is evident "from D31 in
ver. 19, which corresponds to that in ver. 15, and,
still more distinctly, from the consideration that
Josiah could not defile the altar by burning men's
bones upon it (ver. 16) after he had broken it in
pieces (ver. 15)." But, if the remarkable incident
in vers. 16 to 18 was to be narrated, it could not
be mentioned anywhere but here, because it took
place at the destruction of the high-place at Bethel.
Ver. 19 then carries on the history of the destruc-
tion and extirpation of the illegal cultus throughout
Samaria, and goes on to tell what was done else-
where than at Bethel. As for the difficulty about
the altar, the author must have been very careless
to make a statement in ver. 16 which was incon-
sistent with what he had said in ver. 15. He says
nothing in ver. 15 about burning the altar, but only
about burning the house and the Astarte-statue.
He caused bones to be burned on the spot where
the altar had stood in order that that also might
become unclean and never more be fit for an altar,
t. e., for a place of worship. The author, no doubt,
in many ways made use of old authorities and in-
corporated them into his work, but he certainly
never thoughtlessly patched separate pieces to-
gether, or arbitrarily inserted a bit here and there.
— He turned himself, i. e., to look about; of.
Exod. ii. 12; xvi. 10. The "mount," where the
sepulchres were, cannot be the one on which the
>ltar and the Bamah stood, but one in the neigh-
borhood, which was to be seen from the one where
the Bamah stood. After D'H^Xn L'*X the Sept.
have the words : " When Jeroboam, at the festival,
otood at the altar, and he turned his eyes upon the
sepulchre of the man of God who had spoken these
words." Thenius regards this addition as origin-
tlly having belonged to the perfect text, but it may
•aiily be recognized as a gloss. — Ver. 17. What
grave-stone is that? The sepulchres of promi
nent persons were marked by monuments placed
before them (Ezek. xxxix. 15; Gen. xxxv. 20;
Jerem. xxxi. 21). This monument attracted the
king's attention and he asked whom it commem-
orated.— Ver. 18. Out of Samraia. The name
here refers not to the city but to the country, and
stands in contrast with the words " from Judah "
in ver. 17. It therefore marks the origin of this
prophet : " he was an Israelitish, not a Jewish pro-
phet " (Thenius). The priests whom Josiah caused
to be put to death (ver. 20) were not levitical or
Israelitish priests at all. but, unquestionably, idol-
priests who had established themselves in the
country. n3Pl cannot be understood as if Jo-
siah offered these priests as a sacrifice to God. If
that were so he would have helped to establish the
human sacrifices which it was the object of his re-
formation to root out. rOT here has the sense
of to slaughter, as often elsewhere (see Exeg. on 1
Kings xix. 21). They suffered upon their own al-
tars the death-penalty imposed by the Law (Deut.
xvii. 2-5). At the same time these altars wero
thereby defiled and made unfit for use. According
to Tertullian public child-sacrifices lasted in Africa
usgue ad proconsulatum Tiberii, qui eosdem sacer-
dotes in iisdem arboribus templi votivis crucibus
exposuit.
Ver. 21. And the king commanded all the
people. Josiah had abolished with relentless se-
verity all which was forbidden in the book of the
covenant and the Law to which he had bound the
people by an oath of allegiance (ver. 3) ; now, how-
ever, he proceeded to perform all which was there
commanded, and he began, as Hezekiah had done
(2 Chron. xxx. 1), by ordaining a passover, for thi9
feast had been instituted to commemorate the ex-
odus and the selection of Israel to be the peculiar
people, which was the foundation of its national
destiny, and of its calling in human history. No-
other feast could have served so well to inaugurate
the restored order as this one, which had been cel-
ebrated even in Egypt. The statement: 3^J"I33
in the book of this covenant does not mean:
which is mentioned in this book. That would be a
superfluous remark, and the translation would not
be a correct rendering of the original. It means
that the Passover was to be observed according to
the regulations prescribed in the book which had
been found. The translation of Luther [E. V. also]
following the Sept. and Vulg. is not correct : " Im
Buck dieses Bundes " [in the book of this covenant],
for that would require niiH . The emphasis falls
on "book." Josiah does not wish that the pass-
over shall be celebrated according to precedent and
tradition, but according to the regulations of the
book which had been read before the people. _ This
is the only conception of its meaning according to
which we get a good sense, for the remark in ver.
22 : surely there was not holden such a pass-
over, Ac. <3 refers to what immediately pre-
cedes : " In this book of the covenant," so that the
sense is: No passover had been so strictly ob-
served according to the regulations of the Law
since the times of the judges. Even the Passover
of King Hezekia'h had not been perfectly conformeo
to the law, for he was eompelle 1 by circumstances
to deviate in some respects (2 Ojron. xxx. 2, 17
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIIL 30.
265
sq.). Clerieus: Crediderim hoc velle scriptorem sa-
crum : per tempera regum nunquam ah omnibus se-
cundum omnes leges Mosaicas tarn accurate J'ascha
celebratum fuisse. Consuetudinem antea, ttiam sub
piis regibus, videntur secuti potius quam ipsa verba
legis ; quod cum Jit, multa necessario mutantur ac
negliguntur. Sed inventi nuper libri verba attendi
diligentissime voluit Josias. It is difficult to under-
stand how any one could understand from this pas-
sage, as De Wette does, that no Passover had ever
been celebrated before this one. Thenius also as-
serts that " it can hardly be doubted that the cele-
bration of the Passover was neglected from the
time of the Judges on, and that it did not begin
again until after the ordinances of the Law in re-
gard to it had once more become known under Jo-
siah," because " there is no reference whatever to
the Passover either under Samuel, or David, or
Solomon." He therefore infers that "in order to
bring about an accord with the story in Chronicles
of the Passover feast instituted by Hezekiah " n?H
was substituted for nun in ver. 21, and nD33
for np3n in ver. 22. In this way, of course, any-
thing may be found in the text which any one wants
to read there. Neither the day of Atonement nor
the Feast of Pentecost is expressly mentioned in
the historical books, and the Feast of Tabernacles
is only mentioned in connection with the conse-
cration of the temple (1 Kings viii. 2). It would
therefore follow that the Israelites alone of all an-
cient peoples had no religious festivals from the
time of the Judges. If, however, one festival was
celebrated it was certainly the feast of the Pass-
over, which was moreover a natural festival (Levit.
xxiii. 10 sq. ; Deut. xvi. 9). The same chronicler
who recorded the Passover under Hezekiah also
gives a detailed account of the one under Josiah,
and adds at the close of his account (xxxv. 18) the
same comment which we here find in ver. 22. We
cannot, therefore, assume that ver. 22 has suffered
any alterations " in order to bring it into accord
with the record of the Passover under Hezekiah."
On ver. 23 see the Prelim. Rem.
Ver. 24. Moreover the necromancers. —
" After Josiah had completed the reformation of
the public worship, he went on to put an end to
all the superstitious practices and idol-worship
which were carried on in private houses " (The-
nius). The necromancers and wizards had arisen
under Manasseh (chap. xxi. 6). The Teraphim, or
household-images, were the penates, the gods of
the fireside, to which a magical power was as-
cribed. They served as a kind of talisman for the
family, and as a kind of private oracle. Cf. Gen.
xxxi. 19; Judges xviii. 14; Ezek. xxi. 26; Zach.
x. 2. On W7?l see 1 Kings xv. 12 and 2 Kings
xvii. 12. They were doubtless private household
gods. And all the abominations that were
spied, i. e., everything which was to be abhorred
and which was found anywhere, " for it might well
be that many things of this character were con-
cealed " (Thenius). That he might establish,
i. e.t put in operation. Even private and family
religious observances were to be regulated accord-
ing to the newly discovered book, in order that it
might serve as the norm and rule for the entire
life of the people. The author therefore proceeds
(ver. 25): And like unto him, &c., by which he
means, according to the context, that the entirt
law of Moses was not so strictly and severely car
ried out by any king before Josiah, not even by
Hezekiah, although the latter was not at all infe
rior in genuine piety and in trust in the Lord (see
notes on chap, xviii. 5). With all his heart, &c,
has distinct reference to Deut. vi. 5. — In vers. 26
and 27 " the author passes on to the story not only
of the end of Josiah, but also of the fall of the
kingdom " (Keil). at." in ver. 26 stands in coi trast
with ac* in ver. 25. Josiah turned to Jehovah,
but Jehovah turned not from his wrath. Quamvia
enim rex religiosissimus esset populusque metu et
pa/reret, propterea tamen animus populi non erat mu-
tatus, ut satis liquet a castigationibus Jeremice, So-
phonice, et aliorum prophetarum, qui circa hmc tern-
pora et paulo post vaticinati sunt (Clerieus). Cf.
Jerem. i. 10; Zeph. i. 2-6; iii. 1-4. The corrup-
tion had struck such deep root luring the reign of
Manasseh that it could not be eradicated even by
Josiah's severe measures. The Law was observed
externally, but the conversion of the entire people
was out of the question. This became distinctly
apparent after Josiah's death. Hence the long
threatened judgments of Jehovah must now fall
On ver. 27 see Jer. xxv. 26, and notes on chap,
xxi. 4-7.
Ver. 28. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah,
&c. The author now hastens to the close of the
history of Josiah. It is necessary to tell how he
met his end, but he does this very briefly (ver. 29).
The more specific details are given by the chron-
icler (II. xxxv. 20-27). Necho (in Chronicles and
in Jerem. xlvi. 2 : faj ; in the Sept and Jose-
phus Ne,facj) was, according to Herodotus (ii. 158),
who calls him N«c<jc, the son of Psammetich I.
According to Manetho he was the sixth king of
the twenty-sixth, Saite, dynasty, and was an ener-
getic prince who built fleets both on the Mediter-
ranean and on the Red sea. The King of Assy-
ria, against whom Necho was marching, can hardly
have been Sardanapalus, under whom Nineveh was
destroyed by the Babylonians and Medes, but the
Babylonian Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchad-
nezzar, who, as ruler of Assyria also, might now be
called king of that country. For Necho lost the
battle of Carchemish (2 Chron. xxxv. 20) to Nebu-
chadnezzar (Jerem. xlvi. 2), and Josephus says
(Antiq. x. 5, 1) that Necho undertook this expedi
tion against M.ij6ovc Kal 'BabvTajviovc, oS ttjv 'Auovpiuv
Karslvoav apxnv, rfjq yap 'Aciac fiaotAevoat TtdSrov
elxev. Evidently Necho desired, now that the As-
syrian empire had come to an end, to hinder the
Medes and Babylonians from forming a world-mon-
archy, and to become himself ruler of Assyria (see
Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 105 sq. II. s. 143. Duncker,
Gesch. des Alterthums I. s. 499 sq.). He did not
take the long and tedious way through the desert
et Tih and southern Palestine, but made use of his
fleet, and landed probably in the neighborhood of
the Phoenician city of Akko, in a bay of the Medi-
terranean. This is evident from the fact that Jo-
siah did not march southwards to meet him, but
northwards, and that they met at Megiddo, in the
plain of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Carmel. On
the situation of this city see Exeg. on 1 Kings iv. 12
and ix. 15. Herodotus calls it M<i;(i«/.oi', and
Ewald understands him to refer to Megdel, south-
east of Akko but, as Keil shows in his coumierJ
266
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
on the verse, this can hardly be correct. He slew
him. This curt statement finds its explanation in
2 Chron. xxxv. 22-24, according to which it was
not Necho himself that slew Josiah, but the latter
was mortally wounded by an arrow from the Egyp-
tian bowmen, and then died at Hadad-Rimmon
(Zach. xii. 11), not far from ilegiddo. — The people
of the land (see chap. xxi. 24) made the younger
son of Josiah king, as we see by comparing ver. 31
with ver. 36, perhaps because they had greater
hopes of him, though in this they were mistaken
( Jerem. xxii. ] 0 sq.). It is stated that they anointed
him (a ceremony which is not elsewhere expressly
mentioned in speaking of a change upon the
throne), perhaps because he was not the son whom
Josiah had chosen to succeed him (see notes on
1 Kings i. 5 and 34), but nevertheless they desired
to give him the consecration of a legitimate king.
[On the contemporaneous history see the Sup-
plementary Historical Note after the next Exegetical
section.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. King Josiah was the last true theocratic king of
Judah. Higher praise is given to him than to any
other king, even to Hezekiah, namely, that he
" turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all
his soul, and with all his might, according to all the
Law of Moses." Sirach, in his panegyric on the
fathers, groups him, as we have said above, with
David and Hezekiah, besides whom there was no
king who did not more or less abandon the Law of
the Lord. He also further says of him what he
says of no other king : Mvvpdowov 'luciov etc
cvv&eoLV dvpiaparoc, hcKevaopevov £p)v pvpeipov, ev
iravrl orbpari die peki yXvKavdqoe-at, Kal Lc povotKa
in avjiTTooiu olvov (Sir. xlix. 1). Josephus also {Antiq.
x. 4, 1) is loud in his praise. If we take into con-
sideration, on the one hand, that under his two im-
mediate predecessors, Manasseh and Amon, who
together reigned for sixty years, apostasy and cor-
ruption had spread far more widely, and penetrated
far more deeply, than under Ahaz, who only reigned
sixteen years, and, on the other hand, that Josiah,
at the time of his accession, was only a boy of
eight years, who might be easily influenced and
led astray, then it appears to be almost a miracle
that he became what he was. This miracle is not
by any means explained by supposing that, after
the death of Amon, " the priests of Jehovah once
more gained influence at court " (Duncker), or that
" the priests of Jehovah succeeded in getting the
young prince, whom the opposite party had ele-
vated to the throne, under their control " (Menzel).
We have not the slightest hint that Josiah was
educated or controlled by any priest of Jehovah,
as was the case with Joash under entirely different
circumstances (chap. xii. 2). Neither did the pro-
phet Jeremiah have influence upon his education,
for that prophet made his first appearance, while
he was yet a young man, in Josiah's thirteenth year,
at Anathoth, from whence he was driven away ;
moreover he was not the son of the high-priest,
but of another Hilkiah (Jerem. i. 1, 6). Ewald's
comment is far better (Gesch. III. s. 690): - We
cannot reach an accurate notion of the educational
development through which he passed during his
minority, but the decision and strictness with which
he defended and maintained the more austere reli-
(fion, in the eighteenth year of his reign and the
twenty-sixth of his life, show plainly enough that
he had early attained to a firm determination in
favor of true nobility and manliness of life. It
may well be that the grand old history of Israel,
with its fundamental truths, as well as the memory
of David's greatness, of the marvelous deliverance
of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, and of all else
which was glorious in the history of his ancestors,
had early made a deep impression upon him."
True as this is, however, it is not sufficient to ac-
count for such a phenomenon as Josiah was, since
he stands before us almost like a Dens ex machina.
His character is, as Hengstenberg says (Christol.
III. s. 496), "as little to be comprehended on the
basis of mere natural causes as is the existence of
Melchisedek . . in the midst of the Canaanites,
who were hastening on with steady tread and
ceaseless march towards the consummatiot of
their sins. The causes which produced Josiah,
such as he was, are the same which produced Jer-
emiah." If it was marvelous that a man like
Hezekiah followed a man like Ahaz, it was still
more marvelous that an eight-year old boy like Jo-
siah followed men like Manasseh and Amon, and
that he, during all his reign, should have turned
'• neither to the right hand nor to the left," and
should have been unexampled in the entire history
of the kings. It was no accident that a king like
Josiah arose once more, and attained to the height
of David as the model of a genuine theocratic king.
It was a gracious gift from the God who had chosen
Israel as His own peculiar people, for the accom
plisliment of His redemptive plan, and Who con
tinued to raise up men who were endowed with
gifts and strength to work in and for His plans, anc
to manifest themselves to His people as His instru-
ments. If a king like Josiah could not restore the
people to its calling, then the monarchy, as an in-
stitution, had failed of its object and was near its
end. The kingdom must hasten to its downfall
and the threatened judgments must come.
2. We are made acquainted, in this passage,
only with those events in the reign of Josiah (thirty-
one years) which appertained to the abolition of idol-
atry, and the restoration of the legitimate Jehovah-
worship. It was by virtue of these events that his
reign formed an epoch in the history of the king-
dom. In comparison with these events, all else,
in the judgment of this historian, sank into insigni-
ficance. We see, however, from a passage in the
book of Jeremiah, that he was remarkable also in
other respects, for the prophet presents him to his
son, Jehoiakim, as a model : " Shalt thou reign be-
cause thou closest thyself in cedar ? Did not thy
father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice,
and then it was well with him ? " &c. (Jerem. xxii.
13-17). Josephus says of him (I. c): T?)v fie tpvaiv
avrbc apiOToc vrrijpxe, Kal TTpbc aperi/v ev yeyov&c
. . . uc av TTpeofivraToc Kal voijoai to diov iKaiGira-
roc, . . . oofftia aal eirivoig ttjc (pvaeuc xpupevoc
. . . rolg yap vdpotc KaraKoXov&cJv, ovtu Trepl ttjv
rd^iv Tijc TToXtrelac Kal rye irepl rb tielov evGef$eia(
evodeiv re ovviftaive . . cnredeige 6e rtvac Kpi-as
Kal ETriOKbTTOvc, Lie av dioiKolev to 7rao' eKaoroic rrpay-
para, Tzepl Tzavrbc rb diKaiov Troiovuevoi, k. r. /.. The
fact that he extended his reforming work into
Samaria shows that he had attained to power and
authority there : when and how he obtained this ia
nowhere stated, but the fact that he had it stand?
linn, and might be inferred even from other his
torical hints. After Esarhaddon, the successor o'
CHAPTER XX.-XXIII. 3
2(37
Sennacherib, the Assyrian power began to sink.
The Scythians invaded the country from the
North; on the East and South it was threatened
by the Medes and Babylonians, who sought to
make themselves independent of its power. These
events belong to the time of the reign of Josiah.
Josiah must have made vigorous opposition to the
Scythians who were pressing forward in Palestine
towards Egypt, devastating everything, for he re-
mained undisturbed by them. It is very probable
that it was easy for him, after their departure, to
extend his authority over the territory of the
former kingdom of the ten tribes, since the Assy-
rians were not, at that time, in a position to pay
much attention to Israel, or to maintain intact
their supremacy over it. In the year 625 the Assy-
rian power was being hard pushed by Nabopolassar,
the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and Josiah's refor-
mation falls in the year 623, that is, in the time
when the Assyrian empire was tottering and fall-
ing. Whether Josiah, as "a king who desired in
all things to be a getniino successor of David,"
had the intention of " restoring the authority of
the house of David over all the surrounding peo-
ples " (Ewald), or whether he "regarded himself,
after the fall of the northern kingdom, as king of
the entire covenant people, and took advantage of
the impending or already accomplished dissolution
of the Assyrian empire, in order to conciliate to
himself the Israelites who remained in Samaria, to
make them well disposed towards his authority,
and to win them to his reforms " (Keil), we cannot
decide, but this is certainly far more probable than
that he " as a vassal of the Assyrian king had a
certain limited authority over this territory," and
that " his enterprise was permitted by the Assy-
rian authorities " (Hess), or that he petitioned the
new ruler of Assyria (Nabopolassar) for permis-
sion to exercise authority there in matters of reli-
gion (Theuius). However this may be, Josiah
certainly stands before us as a king who was en-
dowed with the above-mentioned virtues of a
rider, and with an enterprising spirit and warlike
courage. These last traits are proved by his at-
tempt to resist Necho. in regard to which see be-
low. It is utterly erroneous, therefore, to see in
this king, as modern historians are disposed to do,
merely a passive instrument in the hands of the
priesthood. [See the Supplementary Notes after the
Exeg. sections on chaps, xx. and xxi., and on the
next following section of the text.]
3. The discovery of the book of the Law was, in
spite of its apparent insignificance, an event of the
first importance for all the subsequent history of
Israel. Although Josiah had, before that event,
turned to the Lord and sought to inaugurate a
reform (see the Prelim. Rem.), yet it was this dis-
covery which determined him to take measures of
the utmost severity against all idolatry, and to re-
store the worship of Jehovah in Judah and in
Israel. From this discovery dates the complete
revolution in the circumstances of the kingdom,
and from this time on this book had such authority
that, in spite of all vicissitudes, and in spite of re-
newed apostasy, yei it held its place in the respect
of the nation, it has been recognized until to-day
by the Jews as their most sacred religious docu-
ment, and their religion, in all its distinctive pecu-
liarities, is built upon it. Suppose that this book
had never been discovered, but had been lost for
ever, so that only incomplete and iuauthentic
private copies had been preserved, scattered here
and there, what would then have been the state of
Judaism, and how different must have been the
shape which its religious and moral development
would have taken. The whole history of Israel
bears witness to the guiding and controlling hand
of God, but if there is any one eveDt in which
more than in any other, the Providence of God is
visible, then it is this important discovery. It was
a physical proof that God watches over this docu-
ment, which is the testimonial to Israel of its elec-
tion, and the highest divine revelation; that he
preserves it from the rage of idolaters ; and that,
even if it lies long unnoticed and unknown in the
night of apostasy, he will bring it again to light,
and make it to show its force once more, so that it
is like a fire which consumes all which is false and
corrupt, and like a hammer which breaks the rocks
(Jerem. xxiii. 29). The discovery of the book was
a pledge to the king and people of the indestructi-
bility of the divine written word. — Modern his-
torical science has taken an entirely different v'.ew
of this event. "The impression left by the devas-
tations of the Scythians," says Duncker (Gssch. d.
Alt. I. s. 503 sq.). " who had left the land a desert,
was deep and fresh in the minds of the people
The king was young, and, as it seems, open to in-
fluence. The priests were bound to take advantage
of these circumstances to set up a stronger barrier
against the Syrian forms of worship. Manasseh's
persecutions had led the Jehovah-priests to look
about for means to prevent the recurrence of
similar oppression. They naturally found them-
selves forced to an attempt to secure their creed
and their official position against the changing
will of the kings, to emancipate it from the fickle
disposition of the people, and to put an end, at
last, to the vacillation between Jehovah-cultus
and foreign and heathen forms of worship." There
was room to hope that " by means of a law-book,
which made the worship of Jehovah the basis of
all national life, and embraced all social interests
in its scope, all future perils to the priesthood
might be prevented, their position might be per-
manently assured, and the Jehovah-worship might
be securely established and strictly carried out.
. . . A codification of the rules which had
been gradually formed by the priests as the scheme
of life which would be pleasing to Jehovah, a
compendium which should sharply emphasize the
chief demands which religion made upon the laity,
was, therefore, needed. For such a law-book alone
was there hope that it would find acceptance, that
it would be recognized by the king and by the
people as an unquestionable authority, and as the
organic law of the country, and that it might be
completely and successfully put in operation. This
was the purpose, and these were the fundamental
principles on which this book (Deuteronomy),
which Hilkiah, the high-priest, sent to the king,
was compiled. . . . Josiah was deeply
moved by the contents of it, and by the threats
which it pronounced against those who trans-
gressed the Law of Jehovah. In order to con-
vince himself of the genuineness of this book as
the real law of Moses, he appealed from the au-
thority of the temple and the high-priest to a
female soothsayer. The wife of one of the k Qg'a
officers, Huldah, was asked in regard to the
genuineness of the book, and she declared that the
words of the book were the words of Jehovah.
26S
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
We have an example, in this entire presentation
of the incident, of the inexcusable manner in which
modern historical science treats the biblical his-
tory. The book which was found was, according
to this view, simply the book of Deuteronomy, an
assumption which, as we have seen, is so contrary
to the text that even the most daring and advanced
critical science has recognized its falsehood. This
book, too, is represented as having been secretly
compiled after the Scythian invasion of Palestine,
that is, as we have seen above, after 627 B. c, by
the priests, without the knowledge of the king,
and then as having been sent to the latter by Hil-
kiah, as the book written by Moses, and now re-
discovered, so that it would be in fact forged.
The king permits himself to be deceived, and is
deeply moved by the threats invented by the
priests, yet he turns, superstitiously, to a " female
soothsayer," inquires of her in regard to the
genuineness of the book, and she, being of course
initiated into the secret of the priests, answers
that the words of the priests are the words of
Jehovah. The whole affair is thus reduced to
cunning, deceit, and falsehood, on the part of the
priests, in their own selfish interests. The priests,
with the high-priest at the head, are vulgar
cheats, and the king and people are cheated. The
entire grand reformation, and the complete revo-
lution in the state of the kingdom, with all the
religious development which followed, rest upon a
forgery. Such an arbitrary and utterly perverse
conception refutes itself, and Ewald (I. c. s. 700)
justly says: " We must beware of obscuring the
view of the incident by any such incorrect hypothe-
sis as that the high-priest composed this book him-
self, but denied its origin. Want of conscientious-
ness in the conception of history cannot be more
plainly evinced than by such unfouuded and unjust
suppositions." Ewald himself, on the other hand,
ascribes the composition of Deuteronomy to a
prophet who. during the persecution by Manas-
seh, took refuge in Egypt, and says : " If the
book was written thirty or forty years before, by a
prophet who, at this time, was dead, and if it
found circulation only gradually, so that it finally
reached Palestine as it were by accident, a copy
might accidentally have found its way into the
temple, and there have been found by the high-
priest." But the notion that the book of Deutero-
nomy was composed in Egypt " stands in the air,"
and has thus far been adopted by none but Eisen-
lohr. Moreover, that it came to Palestine by ac-
cident, came into the temple by accident, by the
hand of an unknown priest, and without the
knowledge of the high-priest, so that it was found
by him, again — " by accident," not only does not
explain the incident, but it even makes it still
more marvelous and inexplicable than it is accord-
in;-' to the biblical account. If we assume that the
book of Deuteronomy was first writteu in the time
nt Manasseh, or in the time of Josiah, and that the
book of the Law thereby first reached its com-
pletion, then we are compelled to have recourse
to all sorts of arbitrary hypotheses to account for
I1 alleged " discovery " of the book at this time.
pi seems hardly probable that the question of
the date and authorship of the book of Diuteronomy
\'.ill ever be definitely settled. On the one hand,
the traditional view is firmly fixed in the belief of
'In- Church. On it are supposed to hang doctrinal
a ■Inch would fall if the Mosaic author-
ship were surrendered, and these doctrines are re-
garded as too essential to the structure of the
Christian faith to admit of any weakening. Such
a position is false philosophically, as it involves *
reasoning from dogma to fact, instead of the con-
trary and only legitimate process. Nevertheless,
there seems little reason to expect that this posi-
tion will be overthrown, at least as far as we can
yet foresee. Moreover, the admission that Moses
was not the author involves, or seems to involve,
the admission of a literary forgery, although no one
can believe that Moses wrote the account of his
own death in the 34th chapter. On the other hand,
the grounds for believing in the comparatively late
origin of this book are such as only scholars of
great attainments can appreciate or understand,
Therefore the position of the question now is, ana
probably for a long time to come wUl be, that thti
opinion which enjoys ecclesiastical sanction is the
traditional opinion of the Mosaic authorship, while
the scholars (with very few exceptions, and those
of inferior authority) are firmly convinced that
Deuteronomy was written at a time long after that
of Moses, and by an unknown hand. The grounds
on which the latter opinion is based are critical and
historical. The former are, in the briefest state-
ment, these: (a) The language of the book. It is
marked by archaisms such as are peculiar to the
other books of the Pentateuch, but these are found
side by side with peculiarities of the late language,
especially those which mark the book of Jeremiah.
It is said that this is a clear proof that the author
lived in the later days of the Jewish monarchy,
and either unconsciously adopted ancient forms
from familiar acquaintance with the old Scriptures,
or purposely affected archaic forms, (b) Its lite-
rary style. It bears the character of a codification
or digest of the previous books. It is also marked
by a handling of the ordinances of Moses, in the
spirit of their principles, but with the freedom of
one who had thoroughly studied them, and digested
them, and now purposed to codify and arrange
them in a more practical and available form, (c)
It presents, however, certain variations from the
other books of the Pentateuch, always in the sense
of making the ordinances more flexible and of freer
application, as it were to a higher civilization and
a more complicated society, (d) It contemplates a
state of things in which the nation is living a set-
tled and ordered life, under a king, face to face
with neighbors, not like the Canaanites, but pow-
erful and large enough, if victorious, to swallow up
Israel in captivity, (e) It is too long to be delivered
as a speech, as it is represented. — The historical
arguments are these : (a) Deuteronomy ordains
worship at one central sanctuary, a thing which
was not regarded as important until after the time
of Solomon, but which, from the time of Josiah on,
became a fixed and fundamental doctrine of the
Hebrew religion. (I) The spirit of the book of Deu-
teronomy is that which marked Josiah's reforma-
tion and the preaching of the later prophets. It
controlled the ultimate development of the Jewish
religion after the captivity. — All these arguments
meet with answers from the opposite school, the
weight of which depends on the philosophical or
dogmatic prepossessions of the persons who arc
called upon to weigh them. They are only men
tioned hereto show in general and in brief what is
the character of the grounds on which " critical
science" has based the belief that Deute- noniy
CHAPTER XX1I.-XXIII. 30.
was not written by or in the time of Moses. They
are independent f nd critical throughout. To esti-
mate them requires close knowledge of the Hebrew
language and history, a knowledge which goes be-
yond grammar lind dictionary, and involves phi-
losophical insight, and critical sagacity and skill.
Certainly it devolves upon all who are charged with
. the study of the Scriptures to give to the subject
a candid" and unprejudiced consideration, in order
that the truth, on whichever side it may lie, may
be established. There is not a subject on which
the tyro in biblical learning may more easily fall
into rash error, nor one upon which those who
cannot, or will not, enter upon the tedious investi-
gation which is involved ought more carefully to
refrain from passing a dogmatical judgment.
Strictly speaking, this question lies aside from
our present occupation. In commenting on the
23d chapter of the 2d book of Kings, and noticing
the bearing of the facts which it records upon the
"development of the plan of redemption " (see
Preface), we have only to notice the effect produced
by the discovery of the " book of the Law." But
it is asserted by some that this book was not the
same, nor a mere copy of any, which had existed
before, but a revision of the former records, with
an addition consisting of a repetition and codi-
fication of the ancient ordinances. They assert
that this new work was an extension and re-app.;-
cation of the legislation of Moses, which was espe
cially adapted to the time of Josiah, and that herein
lie the grounds of its great and peculiar influence.
If such an assertion be true, and if the peculiar
character of this new revision, as compared %vith
the ancient records, was a new and broader appre-
hension of the spirit of the Mosaic legislation, and if
this new spirit gave to that legislation a new im-
petus which made it the controlling principle in the
subsequent development of the Jewish religion,
then certainly it was a most important event in the
development of the history of redemption. In fact,
if this assertion be true, the composition of the
book of Deuteronomy was the most important in-
cident in the history of the Israelites after the time
of Moses. Hence the importance of studying the
question involved in the most thorough manner,
by its proper evidence, with all the light which
history or criticism can throw upon it.
Our present chapter bears upon it in so far as
we discern in the reformation of Josiah a peculiar
character, as compared, for instance, with that of
Joash, or that of Hezekiah, and in so far as these
peculiar features of this reformation are traceable
to Deuteronomy as distinguished from, the other books
of the Pentateuch. On this point we observe that
this book of the Law produced a profound sensa-
tion. It brought to the king's notice things which
he had never heard or known of, and which, there-
fore, were not popularly known of, as parts of the
11 Law of the Lord,'1 although something was cer-
tainly known under that name. It is also said that
the thing in the new book which especially at-
tracted his attention, and stirred him to the action
which he took, was the " threats " or denunciations
which it contained (cf. Deut. xxviii. especially vers.
25 and 64). But these only occur in the book of
Deuteronomy. When we read the description of
'■uture and possible degeneracy under the kingdom,
ind the threats of captivity, &c, which are con-
tained in the book of Deuteronomy, and compare
them with the state of things under Josiah, when
the northern kingdom had already disappeared in
Assyrian exile, we cannot wonder at the effect pro-
duced on the king's mind. He saw himself and hi!
nation in this description as in a mirror. — We also
notice particular expressions : " Turned neither to
the right hand nor to the left," as the description
of a perfect king (cf. Deut. v. 32; xvii. 11, 20;
xxviii. 14) ; the " burning " of idolatrous images
and utensils (ver 4. cf. Deut vii. 25; xii. 3); " With,
all his heart " (xxiii. 25. cf. Deut. vi. 5) ; the death
penalty for idolatry (xxiii. 20. cf. Deut. xvii. 2-5).
The fact that, from this time on, the '• Law " played
a far more important part in forming and guiding
the faith and practice of the Jews than ever before
is indisputable. The author describes its influence
above. Whether we can discern in the further de-
velopments the peculiar effect of the book of Deu-
teronomy, so far as that book differs in character
from the other books of the Old Testament, or not, is
a question which must be left to the study of the
passages and books from which it may appear. —
W. G. S.]
4. The prophetess Huldah, who is mentioned only
here, offers a very remarkable proof that prophecy,
"as a free gift of the divine spirit, was not confined
to a particular sex," and that " God imparts the
gifts of his spirit, without respect to human divi-
sions and classifications, to whomsoever He will,
according to the free determination of His holy
love. The people were to recognize the truth, al-
though, it might be, in imperfect measure, that the
time would come when there would be a general
pouring out of the spirit upon it, Joel iii. 1 sq. "
(Havernick on Ezek. xiii. 17.) Besides Huldah
there are two women mentioned in the Old Testa-
ment who are designated as prophetesses, Miriam
(Ex. xv. 20), and Deborah (Judges iv. 4). But she
was a nx'33 in another and fuller sense than they.
What they did and said was produced in a state of
ecstasy; they did not prophesy in the narrower
and stricter sense of the word, i. e., they were not
instruments by means of which God made known
His will and purpose to those who asked it. She
solemnly and expressly pronounces her oracle as
the word of Jehovah (chap. xxii. 16, 18: "Thus
saith the Lord "), and she uses the manner and form
of speech of the true and great prophets. The same
or similar fact is not true of any other woman.
She stands alone in the history of the old covenant,
and it is very significant that just at this point,
where the entire future of the people and its grand-
est and highest interests are at stake, the Lord
makes use of a weak and humble instrument to
bring about the execution of His purpose. Huldah
cannot, therefore, be at all brought into comparison
with the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 7), or with
the prophetesses of whom Ezek. speaks (chap. xiii.
17). The wife of Isaiah is also called nX^n
(Isai. viii. 3), but in an altogether different sense,
viz., as wife of the prophet and mother of the pro-
phet-sons. Finally Noadiah is designated (Nehem.
vi. 14) as a false prophetess. The rabbis arbitra-
rily fix the number of prophetesses in the Old Test-
ament at seven (Seder Warn 21). Their statements
in regard to Huldah, as, for instance, that an honor
was shown her after her death which was not
shown to anybody else not of the house of David,
namely, to be buried inside of the walls of J iru-
salern, belong purely to tradition, it is true, but
they show in what high esteem she stood (cf
270
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE K/NGS.
Witsius. De Prophetissis in the Miscell. Sacr. I.
p. 288).
5. The abolition of idolatry and of the illegitimate
Jehovah-worship under Josiah is distinguished from
every earlier attempt of the kind, even from that
under Hezekiah, by the fact that it was far more
thorough. It extended not only to the kingdom
of Judah but also to the former kingdom of Israel,
not only to the public but also to the private life
of the people. The evil was everywhere to be
torn out, roots and all. Nothing which could per-
petuate the memory of heathen, or of illegitimate
Jehovah- worship remained standing. All the places
of worship, all the images, all the utensils, were
not only destroyed but also defiled ; even the ashes
were thrown into the river at an unclean place
that they might be borne away forever. The idol-
priests themselves were slain, and the bones of
those who were already dead were taken out of
the graves and burned. The priests of Jehovah
who had performed their functions upon the
heights were deposed from their office and dignity,
and were not allowed to sacrifice any more at the
altar of Jehovah. This reformation has been
charged with "violence," and this has been
offered as the explanation of the fact that it
was so short-lived. So Ewald : " This attempt at
reformation bears the character of violence in all
its details of which we have any knowledge. . . .
The evil results of such violent conduct in religi-
ous and civil affairs soon showed themselves, and
all falling together in an accumulated evil produced
a discord and confusion which could not be smooth-
ed over," &c. To this Niemeyer (Charakt. d. Bib.
V. s. 100) answers: ''In the case of such corrup-
tion which had already eaten into the vitals of the
State, and, above all, in the face of such unnatural
customs as were connected with it, let any one say
what he will about the compulsion of conscience
and the harshness of compelling a man to adopt a
religion which he does not choose, I believe that
it was a political right and duty to eradicate the
evil, if indeed it was any longer possible to eradi-
cate it. I will not say that the mass of men gen-
erally goes whither it is led, and that there is no
instruction or improvement possible for them but
that which is based upon authority and belief, so
that better leaders and a more reasonable authori-
ty are a gain at all times I will only reply to
those who charge Josiah with cruelty and tyr-
anny, in putting the priests of Baal to death, that
those who should preach murder as a religious
duty, and as an exercise pleasing to God, would
not be left unpunished in any enlightened State.
Josiah, therefore, when he put an end to these
abominable sacrifices of innocence, for vengeance
for which mankind seemed to stretch forth its
hands to him, did no more than the kindest ruler
would have considered it his duty to do." Hess
also well remarks (Gesch. d. Konige, II. ss. 236 and
238) : '• To allow them [the priests of Baal] to live
would be to nourish seducers for the people, and
to transgress the law to which a new oath of alle-
giance had just been taken, for this demanded that
those who introduced idolatry should be extermi-
nated. . . . Josiah's fundamental principle was
that a half-way eradication of idolatry would be
no better than no attempt at all. If anything of
this kind had been permitted to remain, the door
would have been left open for the evil sooner or
lator to return. The idolatrous disposition and
tendency took advantage of the slightest circum-
stance, aud seized upon the slightest trace oi
former idolatry, to once more gain a footing." We
should like to know how Josiah should have un-
dertaken to get rid of the harlots and male prosti-
tutes who had settled themselves in the very fore-
court of the sanctuary, and there carried on their
shameful occupations, or to abolish the horrible
and abominable rites of Moloch, with their child-
sacrifices and licentiousness. That would never
have been possible in the way of kindness, as we
see from the attempts of the prophets. When wag
a reformation ever accomplished, when corruption
had reached such a depth, without "violence"?
Even Luther, who publicly burned the popish law-
books, cannot be acquitted of it; and how would
the reformation of the 16th century have come to
pass if no violence had been used against the cor-
ruptions which had affected not only religious,
but also moral and social order, and if those cor-
ruptions had been treated only by kind and mill
means ? Nothing is more mistaken than to criti-
cise and estimate antiquity from the standpoint o*
modern humanity and religious freedom. Evei
the Lord Jesus Christ did not pronounce a dis
course to those who had made the house of God a
den of thieves (Matt. xxi. 13) ; he made a whip and
scourged them out of the temple (John ii. 15).
That also was "violence." It is nowhere hinted
that Josiah forced the people to accept the Jeho-
vah-religion against their conviction. He only put
an end by violence to the heathen usages and li-
centious abuses, and this he did not do until after
he had collected the people, made them acquainted
with the Law-book, and received their assent to it.
The Israelitish monarchy was not instituted to in-
troduce religious liberty ; on the contrary, it was
its first and highest duty to sustain the funda-
mental law of Israel (Dent. xvii. IS, 19; 1 Kings
ii. 3). To use the physical force which it possess-
ed in the service of this law was its right and it?
duty.
[Let us endeavor to analyze the circumstances,
and the principles which are here at stake, and to
arrive at a sharper and firmer definition of our po-
sition in regard to them. What deserves distinctly
and permanently to be borne in mind is this : if
mild measures would not have availed to accom-
plish the desired object of rooting out idolatry aud
restoring the Mosaic constitution, neither did these
violent measures have that effect. Josiah's reforma-
tory efforts failed of any permanent effect, and his
arrangements disappeared almost without a trace.
It is very remarkable that the prophets, who
might have been expected to rejoice in this under-
taking, and to date from it as an epoch and a stand-
ing example of what a king of Judah ought to do,
scarcely refer to it, if at all. A few pages back,
we had occasion to use strong terms in condemna-
tion of a violent and bloody attempt of Manasseh
to crush out the Jehovah religion and establish
the worship of other gods. Violence for violence,
can we approve of the means employed in the one
case any more than in the other ? Is the most
highly cultured Christian conscience so uncertain
of its own principles that it is incapable of any
better verdict than this : violence when employed
by the party with which we sympathize is right ;
when employed against that party it is wrong ? Wi
justify Josiah and we condemn the Christian perse
cutors and inquisitors. A re these vi°"*s inconsistent
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
271
and, if not, how can we reconcile them ? We have to
Dear in mind that it is one thing to admit excuses for a
line of conduct, and another to justify it. Judaism
certainly had intolerance as one of its fundamental
principles. Violence in the support of the Jeho-
vah-religion was a duty of a Jewish king. In at-
tempting to account for and understand the con-
duct of Josiah, it would be as senseless to expect
him to see and practise toleration as to expect him
to use fire-arms against Necho. We can never
carry back modern principles into ancient times
and judge men by the standards of to-day. To do
so argues an utter want of historical sense. On
the other hand, however, when we have to judge
actions which may be regarded as examples for our
own conduct, we must judge them inflexibly by
the highest standards of right and justice and wis-
dom with which we are acquainted. How else can
we deny that it is right to persecute heresy by vio-
lent means when that is justified by the example
of Josiah ? Judged by the best standards, Josiah's
reformation was unwise in its method. The king
was convinced, and he carried out the reformation
by his royal authority. The nation was not con-
verted and therefore did not heartily concur in the
movement. It only submitted to what was im-
posed. Hence this reformation passed without
fruit, as it was without root in public conviction.
We are sure of our modern principles of toleration,
and of suffering persecution rather than inflicting
it. We believe in these principles even as means
of propagating our opinions. Let us be true to
those principles, and not be led into disloyalty to
them by our anxiety to apologize for a man who is
here mentioned with praise and honor. Violence
is th? curse of all revolutions, political or religious.
Has not our generation seen enough of them to be
convinced of this at last? Do we not look on dur-
ing political convulsions with anxiety to see
whether the cause with which we sympathize will
succeed in keeping clear of this curse ? Is it not
the highest praise which we can impart to a revo-
lution, and our strongest reason to trust in the
permanence of its results, that it was " peaceful " ?
The Protestant Reformation was indeed violent,
but it was weak just in so far as it was violent,
and the bitter fruits of the violence which attend-
ed it follow us yet in the bitter partisan hatred
which marks the divisions of the Church of Christ.
The most successful reformation the world has
ever seen was the one our Lord brought about —
how? — by falling the victim of violence, and by
putting the means of force and authority utterly
away from himself. Josiah's reformation is not an
example for us. Its failure is a warning. We have
not to justify the method of it. We cannot condemn
the man, for his intentions and motives were the
oest, but we cannot approve of or imitate the method
of action. Its failure warns us that no reformation
cau be genuine which is imposed by authority, or
which rests on anything but a converted heart, and
that all the plausible justifications of violence which
may be invented are delusions. See further the
bracketed notes in the next section. — W. 6. S.]
6. Josiah's measures aimed at a thorough reform-
ation of the kingdom. This king, who sought the
Lord in his early youth, turned neither to the right
hand nor to the left, and had devoted himself to
the Lord with all his heart and all his might (chap.
xxii. 2 ; xxiii. 25 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2 and 3), did
not aim merely at the extirpation of idolatry and
the external observance of all the prescriptions of
the Mosaic Law, but at the conversion of his entira
people to the Lord, and at the renewal of their re-
ligious as well as of their moral and political life
(see the passage from Josephus under § 2). In
spite of all the energy and severity with which he
sought to accomplish this, he nevertheless failed.
He succeeded in suppressing all public forms of
idolatry, and in maintaining the Jehovah-worship
in its integrity as long as he lived, but a real and
sincere conversion was no longer to be hoped for.
The nation had, since the time of Manasseh, ad-
vanced so far in the path of corruption that a halt
was no longer possible. Apostasy from the living
God had gained too strong a hold in all classes,
among the rich and great, and even among the
priests. It had contaminated all and had corrupted
all the relations of life. Judah was in a worse
state than any which even Israel had ever been in.
The Jehovah-worship which had been reintroduced
became a mere external ceremonial worship, and
finally degenerated into hypocrisy and pretended
righteousness. This is clear from the writings of
the contemporary prophets, Jeremiah and Zeph-
aniah (Jerem. iii. 6 sq. ; Zeph. iii. 1 sq.). " The
State seemed to arise once more, but it was only
like the last flicker of an expiring fire. The in-
ternal corruption was so great that the new and
good religious order seemed to be only produced
by a kind of enchantment. All the props and sup-
ports on which it rested broke in pieces when the
king, whose early death seemed like an inexpli-
cable dispensation of Providence, closed his eyes "
(Vaihinger in Herzog's Real-Encyc. VII. s. 36).
Only the severest chastisements of Providence
could avail here, and they were not long in falling.
Ewald presents the matter somewhat differently
(I. c, s. 700 sq.), and, as usual, Eisenlohr follows
him. He finds the grounds of the failure of Josi-
ah's reformation not so much in the irreformability
of the people as in the character of the reform
itself. In the first place he says that it was " the
spirit of violence which had from the beginning
characterized the Jewish nation and which was
now reawakened, which necessarily impaired his
[Josiah's] work," inasmuch as " it might do away
for a time with the evils, but could not permanently
stop up their sources The true religion
could only impair its own good effect and progress,
if it clung, at this late and changed time, to the
narrowness which marked its youth. Since such
violence had been used in rooting out all which
was heathenish, the reconstruction of all which
was peculiar in the Jehovah religion must be car-
ried out in the same spirit. The first new Passover
served as a sign of the severity with which the
regulations of the Jehovah-worship were hereafter
to be observed." Then again " a new series of
evils " was developed from the circumstance that
" a book, especially such an imperfect Law-book
and history as the Pentateuch, was made the fun-
damental law of the nation; first of all, that evil
which naturally arises where a sacred document is
made the basis of all public and social life, viz., a
puffed-up book- wisdom, and a hypocritical and false
learning in the Scriptures." Finally, instead of re-
conciling the parties which had existed ever since
the time of Solomon, he thinks that Josiah's vio-
lent reformation intensified the party divisions and
sharpened the party lines. " The party which may
be called the deuteronomical. or stricter. Dartv de
272
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
mauded unsparing severity in rooting out hea-
thenism ; . . . the heathen, or more liberal, party,
on the other hand, . . . not only allowed the wor-
ship of heathen gods, but also took pleasure in the
low standard of morality which attended idolatry.
While, therefore, the strict party demanded a po-
licy which, in fact, was no longer adapted to the
circumstances of the country, and sought to carry
it out by force, the liberal party fell short of the
standard of morality which the times required.
But though the latter no less than the former re-
lied upon physical force, it nevertheless had the
entire tendency of the time towards a wider
and freer development in its favor. It therefore
gained the upper hand immediately after Josiah's
unfortunate death, ... so that the whole king-
dom fell into a complete confusion which nothing
but greater force than either party had at its dis-
posal could put a stop to." Eisenlohr also, speak-
ing from a similar point of view (Das Volk Israel
II. *. 351 sq.), says: "The entire reformation de-
generates into a slavish restoration, a seeking out
again and dragging forth of all the old institutions
and ordinances of the kingdom ... if possible, in
a still more stiff and immobile form, so that . . .
they produced the strongest reaction under the ex-
isting imperfect organization of the religious life.
. . . The State-religion exerted its utmost powers
to effect a renewal of the national vigor, and a pre-
servation of the national identity, by setting the
theocratic law and constitution in operation in its
fullest, and most rigid, and most peculiar, construc-
tion," but '• hardly had the State-religion begun,
under royal protection, to forcibly control anew
the public life, before a cry of sharp complaint
began to arise against the evils which are the in-
separable concomitants of every privileged form of
religion, — hypocrisy, and external or pretended pi-
ety." To tills must be added that " a sacred codex
became the standard of all public life. . . . The
effects of the entire method in which the reforma-
tion exerted its influence on the national life, and
sought to accomplish its ends, were, for the mo-
ment, all the more disastrous (!) inasmuch as its
internal principle was violence and its external
policy was bigoted exclusiveness." It needs no
proof to show that this entire manner of conceiv-
ing of the circumstances stands in the most pro-
nounced antagonism to the biblical representation.
The Scriptures contain no hint of all these rea-
sons why Josiah's reformation failed, and even
became finally disastrous, so that it brought about
the downfall of the kingdom. Neither the histo-
rical books nor the discourses of the contemporary
prophets contain a word of disapproval of the re-
formation ; they offer only one reason for the
failure of it, and that is the total corruption and
perversity which had grown up since the time of
Manasseh (chap. xxii. 16 to 20; xxiii. 26, 27;
.Terem. xv. 1—4.
[No reason at all is specifics 'j assigned any-
where why this reformation failed. Its failure is
not spoken of, recognized, or accounted for. Ma-
nasseh's sins are referred to as the explanation of
Che judgments which fell upon Judah. But when
we speak of the national "corruption" which had
been spreading since the time of Manasseh as the
ground of the failure of Josiah's reformation, it is
allowable to go farther and ask : In what did this
cor) uption consist ? What were the especial forms
of vice which were prevalent in Judah? What
were the tendencies which the reformation had t«
encounter? What were the faults of national
character which were in play? What were the
selfish interests which the reformation threatened?
These all make up what we call in a word national
corruption and decay. It is only by such analysis
that we are able to present to our minds the state
of things iu detail and to comprehend the situation.
" Corruption " is only a general word which serves
to cover the state of things, to conceal it from us,
and to keep us from penetrating to a satisfactory
conception of it. It is not difficult to gather from
the documents, historical and prophetical, answers
to the above questions. When we examine the sub-
ject we find that Ewald's picture of the parties and
their characteristics, of the tendencies in play, &c,
is exceedingly faithful. It would certainly be
wrong if any one should say that the "violence"
of Josiah's reformation caused the subsequent de^ay
and downfall of Judah. Also the effect of using a
document as ultimate authority is exaggerated by
Eisenlohr, if not by Ewald. The pedantry of the
rabbis, and the ritual righteousness of the Phari-
sees, did not arise for centuries. But this much is
certainly true : The corruption had advanced bo
far that perhaps all hope of converting the nation
by moral and religious appeals was vain. Even,
however, if such were the case, a violent reforma-
tion, imposed on royal authority, could do no good,
but only additional harm. It did not stem the tidt
of corruption, while it embittered parties and left
deep-rooted hatred and thirst for revenge. — Stanley
gives tables of the parties which existed in Jeru-
salem, at this time, in his Lectures on the Jewish
Church, II. 565 and 566.— W. G. S.]
In the view above quoted [Ewald's and Eisen-
lohr's] it is really Josiah who, on account of his
mistaken zeal and unwise measures, was to blame
for the ruin of the kingdom, but the text says of
him that there was no king like him before him,
who so completely clung to the Lord with all his
heart (chap, xxiii. 25), and thereby presents him as
the one who, among all the kings after David, wa3
just what a king of Israel ought to be. But the
charge is entirely incomprehensible that he did not
allow to the " liberal party " "the worship of all
gods" together with their " baser standard of mo-
rality," and that " a sacred book became the stand-
ard of all public life." Not to speak of anything
else, it is exactly for this reason that he received
the promise that he should not himself live to see
the desolation, but should be gathered to his fa-
thers in peace (chap. xxii. 19, 20). [Josiah is not
charged with any fault in not having done this.
It is said that the measures which he took did not
tend to correct or convert these misguided men,
but only to compel them to submit to force, and
that thus their opinions were not altered, while
their feelings were embittered. As soon as they
dared, they returned, with renewed zeal, to the
practice of their opinions, and also sought revenge
for the oppressive persecution which they (as they
thought) had suffered.— W. G. S.] The charge
against Josiah of having made a sacred book the
standard involves an insult to the fundamental
Protestant doctrine of the authority of the Bible as
the sole standard of religion and morality, and,
therefore, also of civil life. We see here whither
we are led when we allow ourselves to he girded,
in the interpretation of the Old Testament, by the
doctrines of mode-n liberalism.
CHAPTER XXII.-XXIII. 30.
273
[The idea here presented of the danger which
attends the use of a written document us the stand-
ard of religious truth and of morality is not a
liberalistic doctrine. It is a truth which deserves
solemn attention, most of all from Protestants.
Those who believe in the authority of the Bible,
and teach it and use it continually, are the very
ones who need to have always distinctly in mind
the dangers which inhere in the use of a literary
standard, in order that they may guard against
them. In the use of any such standard the inter-
pretation of it becomes a matter of transcendent
importance. Witness the rabbis, and the scribes
and lawyers of Gospel times, that the danger of a
class of men growing up who will hold knowledge
of the Scriptures to be their privilege, who will de-
velop an artificial and radically false and vicious
system of interpretation, and who will overburden
the Word with fancies and fables and arbitrary in-
ventions, is no imaginary one. Witness the scho-
lastics of the middle ages that the text of Scripture
may be made a stem on which to hang frivolities and
casuistical toys without end. Witness the papacy
that the interpretation may come to bo regarded as
a matter so all-important that the Scriptures, ex-
cept as interpreted, may be reserved as an exclu-
sive possession of a privileged class. The danger
of hypocritical book-wisdom and esoteric exeget-
ical knowledge is one to be guarded against con-
tinually.
With regard to the general estimate of Josiah's
reformation we may sum up as follows: The at-
tempt, on the part of the king, to arrest the disso-
lution and corruption of the nation by bringing it
back to sincere devotion to the national religion is
worthy of our most hearty admiration. The source
of his early inclination towards the Jehovah-reli-
gion we cannot trace. It is clear that a violent
persecution like that of Manasseh must have pro-
duced terror, bitterness, stubborn though concealed
opposition, and a relentless purpose, on the part
of those who had all the law and traditions of their
nation, together with patriotism, on their side, and
who could compare with pride the moral purity of
their religion with those abominations of heathen-
ism which were shocking and abhorrent to the sim-
plest instincts of human nature, to repay their per-
secutors at the first opportunity. Where those
abominations were the only religious observances
taught, education might avail to make them pass
without protest; but where there was any. even a
slight knowledge of a purer religion and a better
morality, the protest could never entirely die out.
The Jehovah-religion was, as compared with hea-
then religions, austere. It warred against the base
passions of men and the vices which they produce.
Heathenism seized upon those passions as its
means. It fostered them in the name of devel-
oping what was " natural," and therefore must be
right. Modern civilized heathenism does just the
same thing. Heathenism therefore seemed to re-
present enjoyment of life, while the Jehovah-
religion seemed to repress pleasure. It is re-
markable that a boy-king should have chosen the
latter. We are ignorant of the persons or consid-
erations which may have influenced his choice.
There is an undeniable resemblance in features
between the revolutions of Hezekiah, Manasseh,
and Josiah, which seems to point to a relationship
between them. A chain of reprisals seems to have
been started, and each successive revolution or re-
18
formation was more radical, more bloody, and more
unsparing than the last. The newly discovered
book, with its commands and threats, gave the king
a stimulus to undo all that Manasseh had done, to
put a stop to the abominations which the latter had
firmly established, to reintroduce the ancient na-
tional cultus in its perfection, to requite the heathen
party for its cruelty, to avenge the slaughtered
servants of Jehovah, to foster those religious ob-
servances and moral principles which might regen-
erate the State, and to establish the new order of
tilings securely. The thought of vengeance he
may not have had, but it would be most natural,
and not by any means shocking to the mind of a
man of his generation. His purpose then was per-
fectly laudable and good. The means which he
adopted for carrying it out were the only ones
which could suggest themselves to him. They
were the same in kind as Hezekiah had adopted,
and as Manasseh had employed on behalf of the
contrary interest, only he went still farther. No
Jewish king would ever have thought of employing
other means. It is idle to sit in judgment on him.
His example in this, however, cannot form any rule
for an age which enjoys a higher enlightenment,
and a truer wisdom. As for the evil effects of the
" violence " employed by Josiah. they may be lim-
ited to the embittering of those party divisions
which seem to have hastened this fall of Jeru-
salem as they did the one under Titus. The great
reason for his failure, however, was that the means
which he employed encountered too strong oppo-
sition in the popular feelings ana tendencies of the
nation at the time He was working up hill, so to
speak, in trying to bring back the nation to a more
severe religion, a sterner morality, and a purer
patriotism. They preferred their luxury, and plea-
sure, and vice. He had only a small party with
him, and the reformation which was accomplished
by royal authority controlling the physical force of
the realm, which was conducted in the iuterest of
a written code which could not have been tho-
roughly understood and appreciated, and which did
not have the hearty co-operation of the body of the
people, failed when the king fell upon whose will
it mainly depended. The death of Josiah was a
disappointment and discouragement to the Jehovah
party far beyond the mere loss of their protectoi
and friend. They no doubt had no little supersti-
tious confidence in the favor of heaven for the.
pious prince, and this was struck to the ground
when the life on which all the prosperity of the
Jehovah-worship seemed to depend was taken
away, as it were by a stroke of Providence.
W. G. S.]
7. Josiah's expedition against XtcJio. which
brought about his early death, fell in the year 608
B. c, fifteen years after he accomplished his refor-
mation in Judah and in the former territory of Is-
rael. He must, therefore, have gained possession
of the latter, or, at least, must have regarded him-
self as ruler of it. Necho. therefore, had no right
to pass through this territory without paying any
respect to Josiah's authority, even though, as he
asserted (2 Ohron. xxxv. 21). he had no hostile in
tention towards the king of Judah. Josiah, there
fore, undertook to intercept him, as Josephus says
(Antiq. x. 5, 1): fjerd dwapeae. elpyev avrov Ata rrjc
\6iac Troieicdat \dpac rrjv knl rove Mi/dovc e?.aatv.
and, in spite of Necho's assurance that he meant him
no harm, Josiah persisted in refusing to allow hint
274
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
rijv oheeiav dtipxcaffai. The ground for this conduct
of Josiah was not, as many have assumed, that he
had already formed an alliance with Nabopolassar,
the Babylonian, the new ruler of Assyria, or that
he desired to secure the favor of this conqueror in
the hope that he would thus make sure of being
left in undisturbed possession of his kingdom, but
the grounds of his conduct were very simple and
close at hand. " A very little reflection sufficed to
see that it was all over with the independent ex-
istence of the kingdom of Judah if the Egyptians
secured a foothold in the country to the North "
(Ewald). [Judah would thus be placed between
Egypt and its outlying conquests, and of course
its independence would not be long respected.]
Niebuhr justly characterizes Josiah's undertaking
(Gtsch. Assyr. s. 364) as a ''thoroughly correct po-
licy . . . Josiah knew that, although Necho as-
serted that he had no hostile intention towards
him, yet, if the Egyptians conquered Ooelo-Syria,
the independence of Judah was at an end." As a
true theocratic king, and as a man of warlike cou-
rage and disposition (the Sept. translate the words
2 Chron. xxxv. 22 by Kokeftelv ovtov e/cparatei&y),
he did not allow himself to be deceived by Necho.
By the dispensation of Providence he fell at the
very beginning of the campaign (Josephus: ri,r
ireirpufiftnfti oc^ai, eic rovf avrbv -apoppr/Gu(Tr/c).
His death was a great misfortune for the nation,
but it was nevertheless honorable. It was uni-
versally lamented, especially by Jeremiah (2 Chron.
xxxv. 24 and 25). All felt what they had lost in
him. The more detailed account in Chronicles gave
occasion to some of the older historians to blame
Josiah severely. For instance, Hess (Gesch. <kr
Kbnige Jud. und Isr. II. s. 455 sq.): " He was so
over-hasty as to dispute the passage through the
country with Necho, and collected an army at
Megiddo. . . . This was not at all necessary for
the security of his own kingdom, for Necho had
advanced so far without doing him any harm, and
had sent an embassy expressly to assure him that
he intended him no harm, but was directing his
attack against the mighty monarchy to the East,
being stimulated thereto by a divine calling. . . .
To thus attack the Egyptian without the counsel
of a prophet, or any sign of divine direction, was
not trust in God, but in his own power. ... It
was, in any case, unwise to offend a ruler who was
mighty enough to measure forces with the Baby-
lonian power." It is incorrectly assumed in this
view that the " God," whose approval Necho
claimed, was Jehovah, the God of Israel. It is
nowhere asserted that Josiah made this expedition
without having consulted "the true oracle of Je-
hovah," that is, without the " counsel of a prophet."
To judge from what Jeremiah says about Egypt in
his forty-sixth chapter, he would hardly have dis-
Buaded the king from this undertaking. We see how
far it was from the intention of the chronicler, in his
fuller account, to hint at anything unfavorable to
Josiah, for he is the very one who makes especial
mention of the universal grief for the death of Jo-
siah, of the songs of lamentation which the singers
sang for him " until this day," and of the lament
which Jeremiah wrote. "We cannot conceive that
all this would have been so if he had entered rashly
into the war, contrary to the advice of the prophet,
and had thus pKnged the nation into misfortune.
Von Gerlach very mistakenly infers from the ac-
count in Chrr.niclei that ''Josiah, in spite of his
sincere piety, belonged to the number of weak and
inefficient and imprudent rulers who closed the
long series of kings of the house of David." In
that case how could Jesus Sirach, who certainly
was not ignorant of what is there narrated, say of
him, centuries later (xlix. 1), that the memory o!
him was like costly incense, and sweet as honey
in the mouth of all. [On the historical connections
of this event see the Supplem. Note at the end of
the next Exeget. section, below.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 1 and 2. The panegyric of Josiah, Sir.
xlix. 1 and 2. His name is like costly incense and
sweet as honey; for as he walked, &c. Although
his father walked in evil ways, yet Josiah did not
take him as an example, but that one of his ances-
tors who was a man after God's own heart. He
sought the Lord while he was yet a boy, and in-
creased in knowledge and in favor as he grew in
stature (2 Chron. xxxiv. 3 ; Luke ii. 40, 52).
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way,
&c," Ps. cxix. 9. Starke: Beginners in the Chris-
tian life must choose good examples and follow
them faithfully (Phil. iii. 17 ; 1 John ii. 14). He
turned not either to the right hand (like the later
Pharisees), nor to the left (like the Sadducees) ;
although he lived in a corrupt age, he fell neither
into superstition nor unbelief. The way which leads
to life is narrow, and it is well to have a firm heart
so as not to totter on either side. — Wirt. Summ. :
We are seduced on the right by hypocrisy, and on
the left by epicureanism, but the word of God
says: This is the way, walk therein, and turn
neither to the right hand nor to the left (Isai. xxx.
21). — Cramer: We have in Josiah the mirror of a
true ruler. (l)Such an one is given by God, out
of pure grace, as a blessing to the country. (2)
Such an one is bound, not only to protect the life
and property of his subjects, and to preserve peace
and order, but also to care for the Church and
Kingdom of God. — Wurt. Scmm. : We ought not to
despair of the children of the godless and to give
them up ; they may become, as in this case Josiah
did, the most pious, through whom God accom-
plishes wonders. Good instruction and discipline
may, by the blessing of God, correct much evil
which such children have inherited or learned from
their parents.
Vers. 3-10. The Discovery of the Law-Book.
(a) The occasion of it, vers. 3-7. (b) The signifi-
cance of it, vers. 8-10. — Vers. 3-7. The Restora
tion of the House of God. (a) The king under-
takes it impelled by pure love to the Lord (Ps.
xxvi. 8). (b) The people of all the provinces wil-
lingly contribute to it (2 Chron. xxxiv. 9). (c) The
laborers work without reckoning, with fidelity. —
See the homiletical hints on chap. xii. 5-17. — Josi-
ah was zealously interested in the repair of the
temple before the law-book was found and he had
become acquainted with it. We have not only the
old law-book but also the entire word of God,
each one may hear and read it, nevertheless the
churches are often allowed to fall into decay, and it
is only at the last moment that any one thinks oi
spending money and time upon them. — Berl
Bibel : All are here earnestly interested in the
work upon the house of God. Would that out
zeal might be aroused for the same interests! that
we might not rest where we should v :>rk, nor
CHAPTER XXII. -XXIH. 30.
275
work where we should rest ; not to tear down
where we ought to build, nor to build where we
ought to tear down, but to carry on the work of
the Lord orderly and properly. — Cramer : The
physical temples are useless, if the spiritual tem-
ples are not properly cared for. — Vers. 8-10. What
is the use of building and arranging and adorning
churches, if the word of God is wanting in
them, and instead of being a light to shine, and
bread to feed, is hid under a bushel or locked up,
and concealed by the ordinances of men and their
own self-invented wisdom ? — Pfaff. Bib. : Wretch-
ed times when the law-book has to be concealed :
happy times when it is rediscovered. How happy
are we who have the word of God in such abund-
ance I Wurt. Summ. : As in the times of Josiah
the law-book had been pushed aside and become
lost by the carelessness of the priests, so that
scarcely any one knew anything about the law of
God, so, before the time of Luther, under the pa-
pacy, the Holy Bible lay, as it were, in the dust,
and, although it was not entirely lost, yet there
were very many, not only among the common peo-
ple, but also among the ecclesiastics and men of
rank, who had never seen and read the Bible, un-
til God called Luther and others, through whose
faithful services the Bible, the holy and divine
Scripture, was once more brought forth, brought
into the light, and given to every man, in all lan-
guages, to read for himself: which goodness of God
we still recognize and praise, and read, on account
of it, more diligently in the Bible, and exe-cise
ourselves in the word of God day and night, that
we may obey the words of the Apostle Paul (Col.
iii. 16): "Let the words of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom." — There is indeed nowadays
scarcely a family, in countries where evangelical
religion is professed, in which a Bible is not to be
found, but it is often laid aside, and covered with
dust, or it is regarded as an old book which is no
longer adapted to our times. What higher praise,
however, could be given to a family than to say ; I
found therein the Word of God, not hid under a
bushel, but set on a candlestick, so that it gave
light to the whole house (Matt. v. 15). — Vers. 9
and 10. Nothing which is undertaken with zeal
and faith to glorify the name of God ever remains
unblessed. Shaphan brought to his master the
greatest and best treasure possible out of the tem-
ple which was falling to ruin. — The Book of books
is there to be read by every on6, king or beggar.
The minister was not ashamed to read it before
the king, and the king was not ashamed to listen
with the utmost attention.
Vers. 11-14. The Impression which the Divine
Word made on the King when he had heard it.
(a) He rent his garments (sorrow and grief on ac-
count of the transgressions of the people, horror in
view of th9 divine judgments. Pfaff. Bib. : How
profitable it is to have such respect for the word
of God and to be terrified at His threats! If the
word of God had such effect upon us, how much
better it would be for us), (b) He asks how the
threatened judgments may be averted. (Wher-
ever the word penetrates to the heart, there the
question always follows : What shall I do? Acts
it 37. Felix trembled, but he said : " When I have
a more convenient season," &c, Acts xxiv. 25.) —
Wurt. StTMM. : When we hear of God's threats
against sin, let us not allow them to pass as idle
winds, but take them to heart and seek the means
of grace. We must only ask of the Apostles and
Prophets who wrote as they were impelled by the
Holy Ghost. God speaks with us through their
words. His answer is: Repent, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and forsake sin. — Ver. 14. See
Histor. and Eth. § 4. — Starke : True fear of God is
humble and honors the gifts of God wherever it
finds them, but in itself least of all. — Vers, i 5-20.
The Oracle of the Prophetess a Threat for the peo-
ple (vers. 15-17), and a Promise for the King (vers.
18-20). — The Lord will bring temporal misfortuuu
upon the city which despises and scorns His law ;
what will He do to that which rejects His Gospel?
2 Tim. i. 8. 9. — Those who humble themselves at
the word of the law will come to the grave in
peace. The just are taken away before the calami-
ty comes (Isai. lvii. 1). If the Lord takes thee
early away from the earth, submit to His will and
say: Lord, let now thy servant depart in peace, as
Thou hast said (Luke "ii. 29).
Chap, xxiii. 1-25. Josiah's Great Work of Re-
formation, (a) He renews the covenant on the
basis of the newly discovered law-book, vers. 1-3
(b) He puts an end pitilessly to all idolatrous wor-
ship in the kingdom, vers. 4-20. (c) He restores
the legitimate worship with the celebration of the
Passover, vers. 21-25. — Every true reformation
must proceed from the word of God, and have that
as its basis; then it is strong, not only in destroy-
ing and denying, but also in building up and re-
storing (Luther and the reformers). — Vers. 1-3.
The king collects the entire people and lays the
law-book before them ; not until after they have
approved does he begin the work. The civil and
spiritual authorities ought not to proceed violently
and in self-will in matters of the highest import-
ance for Church and State, nor to force the consc'
ences of the people. They ought to secure the ai>
sent of the latter. The entire people, small ana
great, learned and unlearned, ought to be made ac-
quainted with the word of God, so that no one car.
plead ignorance as an excuse. To deny to the peo-
ple the right to read the Word of God is not to re-
form, but to destroy. Kyburz : Josiah caused
the light which he had received to shine to all ; so
do ye also. We ought not to enjoy any treasure
which we discover without sharing it with othera.
— The people joined in the covenant outwardly but
not heartily, therefore it had no permanence. How
often now a whole congregation promises obedi-
ence to God and does not keep it. Do not expect
hearty conversion everywhere where you hear as-
sent to the word of God (Matt. vii. 21 ; Isai. xxix.
13).
Vers. 4-20. Wurt. Strain. : Here we may see
that when God's word is laid aside people fall into
all kinds of vice. So it was under the papacy. If
we observe the word of God we shall be saved
from sin and error. — Although the civil authorities
ought to apply no force to conscience, yet they
ought to punish murder and licentiousness, no
matter what may be the pretence under which
they are committed. The more severely and more
pitilessly they do this, the more honor they deserve.
— Weeds grow most rapidly ; they can only be de-
stroyed by being pulled up by the roots. — The
abominations which took root in Israel were a
proof of what St. Paul says, Rom. i. 21-28. In
times of corruption, and against inveterate evils,
mild measures are of no avail, but only the utmos'
severity, which has no respect of persons. Ecola
276
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
BiasticB who, instead of being pastors of the peo-
ple, become their seducers, are doubly worthy of
punishment, and ought to be removed without
mercy. — Vers. 16, 17. Starke: Divine prophecies
will certainly be fulfilled at last, though the fulfil-
ment may be delayed so long that it seems as if it
would never follow (1 Kings xiii. 2, 31). — Ver. 18.
The Same : The bones of departed saints ought to
be left in their graves and not to be carried about
or displayed. — Vers. 21-24. The building up of a
new life must follow upon the eradication of sin.
The Passover cannot be celebrated until all the old
leaven is removed. The Passover was the feast
with which each new year began ; we also have a
passover or Easter lamb (1 Cor. v. 7, 8). — The festi-
vals and fasts are the frame-work of the common
life of the congregation ; where they are neglected
this life is decaying. If Israel had kept up the
celebration of its appointed feasts, it would never
have fallen so low. — Vers. 25-27. Why did the
Lord not return from His anger? Not because
Josiah's efforts were not pure and sincere (on the
contrary, they proceeded from pure zeal, and per-
fect love, and the best intention), but because the
people were not converted with their king. They
only assented externally and iu form ; in then
hearts they were obstinate and perverse (Jeretc.
xxv. 3-7). — Roos: Jeremiah seems to have fallen
on a good time with his warnings and exhortations
to repentance, but the contents of his books show
that such was not the case. This should be a
warning to those who look to the authorities for
the chief power to convert men, and do not wish
to act without them. — Luther : Before God inflicts
a severe judgment he always grants a great illu-
mination. Therefore a great judgment will fall
upon those who now neglect the Gospel. — Vers.
29 and 30. See 2 Chron. xxxv. The early death
of the king was no punishment for him, for he
was thus gathered in peace to his fathers, but it
was a chastisement for his unrepentant people
who now lamented him and saw, when it was too
late, what noble purposes he had had in their be-
half.
THIRD SECTION.
THE MONARCHY FROM THE REIGN OF JEnOAHAZ TO THAT OT ZEDEKIAH.
(Chaps. XXIII. 31— XXV. 30.)
A. — The Reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.
Chap. XXni. 31-XXV. 7.
3 1 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign ; and ne
reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the
32 daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight
33 of the Lord, according [like] to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh-
nechoh put him in bands [took him captive] at Riblah in the land of Hamath,
that he might not reign1 in Jerusalem ; and put the land to [laid upon the land]
34 a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh-
nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father,
and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to
35 Egypt, and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pha
raoh ; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment
of Pharaoh : he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of
every [each] one according to his taxation [assessment], to give it unto Pharaoh-
nechoh.
86 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign ; and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the
37 daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of
Chap. xxiv. 1. the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. In his days
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant
2 three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent
CHAPTER XXIII. 31.-XXV. 7. 277
against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the
Moabites, and bands of the children of Amnion, and sent them against Judah to
destroy [devastate] it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by
3 his servants the prophets. Surely [Only] at the commandment of the Lord
came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh,
4 according to [in]* all that he did ; And also for the innocent blood that he
6hed : for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood ; which the Lord would not
5 pardon. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they
6 not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah ? So Jehoiakim
7 slept with his fathers : and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. And the
king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land : for the king of Babylon
had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained
to the king of Egypt.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter
9 of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the
10 Lord, according [like] to all that his father had done. At that time the ser-
vants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came3 up against Jerusalem, and the
11 city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the
12 city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went
out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes,
and his officers : and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his
IS [the king of Babyion-s] reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the
house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the
vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the
14 Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away [captive] all Jerusalem, and
all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives,
and all the craftsmen and smiths : none remained, save the poorest sort of the
15 people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the kind's
mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those
16 carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might,
even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were stronc
and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the
19 daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight
20 of the Lord, according [like] to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the
anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast
them out from his presence [.] that \omU that ; itwert And] Zedekiah rebelled
Chap. xxv. 1. against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year
of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchad-
nezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched
2 against it ; and they built forts [siege-works] against it round about. And the
3 city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And on the ninth
day of the fourth [omit fourth]' month the famine prevailed in the city, and there
4 was no bread for the people of the land. And the city was broken up [a breach
was made in the city], and all the men of war fed by night by the way of the
gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden (now the Chaldees were
against the city round about [had invested the city] :) and the king' went tha
5 way toward the plain. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king,
and overtook him in the plains of Jericho : and all his army were scattered frora
6 him. So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to
7 Riblah ; and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zede-
kiah before his eyes, and [he] put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and [thev] bound
him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
278
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
1 Ver. 83. On the keri see remarks under Exegetical.
' Chap. xxiv. ver. 3. [733- 3 here has peculiar force. It means in or throughout all that he did, infecting all accord*
toff to a certain measure. Whatever he did there was a certain measure of wickedness in it acoording to its character.
The somewhat subtle force of the particle led to variants. "One codex has 733, Sept. and Syr. 7331 • The reading
In the text is correct" (Thenius).— W. G. S.]
' Ver. 10. The keri is to be preferred. — Bahr. [The chetib is sing. The keri is a grammatical correction. The stng.
may have been written with the mind fixed on Nebuchadnezzar. This point has importance for the question whether he
accompanied the expedition from the outset. Cf. ver. 11.
* Chap. xxv. ver. 3. [The statement that it was the fourth month is here imported into the text by the translators
from Jeremiah, who gives it in both places; chap. Hi. and chap, xxxix.
• Ver. 4. [-p^ is singular, and our version supplies " the king " as the subject. It is more likely that it is a case of
the indefinite subject " one " (Fr. on ; Germ. man). The army went, or, as we are obliged to translate, they went. The
king's presence in the train is implied and assumed. In Jerem. lii. 7 we find -I37J1 , and in Jerem. xxxix. 4, the sing.
K^'l i but there the king is mentioned in the context.— W. G. S.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 31. Jehoahaz was twenty and three
years old. This son of Josiah is called by Jere-
miah (xxii. 11) Shallum ( cht' ), which name,
according to Hengstenberg. Keil, and Schlier, is
significant, and means: "He who shall be recom-
pensed," referring to his fate (vers. 33 and 34).
But why should this king be expressly so named
when others, as, for instance, Jehoiachin and Zede-
kiah, met with a similar fate (chaps, xxiv. 15 ; xxv.
7)? According to Junius, Hitzig, and Thenius,
Jeremiah gave him the name Shallum, with refer-
ence to his reign of three months (chap. xv. 13), in
the same manner as Jezebel named Jehu " Zimri,
murderer of his master" (chap. ix. 31). But this
also is forced and invented. In 1 Chron. hi. 15, in
the enumeration of the sons of Josiah, he is called
Shallum instead of Jehoahaz, but we may be cer-
tain that the chronicler did not put in a "symbol-
ical " name, which the prophet only once used
with particular significance and emphasis, by the
side of three other actual names, and in a dry gene-
alogical list. Shallum was the name which this
king actually bore before his accession to the
throne. When he became king he received ano-
ther name, just as Eliakim and Mattaniah did (ver.
34 and xxiv. 17). Shallum took the name Jeho-
ahaz, i. <?.. ile-whom-Jehovah-sustains. The people
made him king in place of his elder brother, and
Shallum seemed a name of evil omen, inasmuch as
the former king Shallum [of Israel] only reigned
for one month. According to Josephus, Jehoahaz
reigned three months "and ten days."
Ver. 33. And Pharaoh-necho took him cap-
tive at Riblah in the land of Hamath. ir-pDN'l
.- generally translated : he hound him, or put him
in bunds, but IDS has also " the primary
meaning, to mnke captive, without the notion of fet-
tering. Gen. xlii. 10" (Gesenius), and, taking into
consideration chap. xvii. 4, this more general sig-
nification is here to be preferred. — The city of
Riblah (now the village Ribleh) belonged to the dis-
trict of the Syrian city Hamath at the foot of Mt.
Hermon (Antilebanon), on the river Orontes, that
is, therefore, on the northernmost boundary of
Palestine towards Damascus (1 Kings viii. 65; 2
Kinp" tiv •_'.'» . Amos vi. 14). Riblah lay in a large
and fruitful plain on the high-way which led, tiy
way of the Euphrates, from Palestine to Babylon.
At a later time Nebuchadnezzar also established
his headquarters there (chap. xxv. 6, 20. 21. See
Winer, R.- W.-B. II. s. 323). It can hardly be the
same Riblah which is mentioned in Numb, xxxiv.
11 (see Keil on that passage). If Neeho had al-
ready advanced, since the battle of Megiddo in
which Josiah fell (ver. 29), on his way to the Eu-
phrates, as far as Riblah, it cannot be that, during
the three months that Jehoahaz reigned, he had
also made a detour to Jerusalem and besieged and
taken that city. Shalmaneser spent three years
in besieging and taking Samaria, which was not so
strongly fortified (chap. xvii. 5). Moreover. Necho
did not probably "quit the main army without
great necessity while it was advancing against a
powerful enemy " (Winer). The text says distinctly
that he took Jehoahaz prisoner in Riblah and not
in Jerusalem, and it gives no support to Keil's
statement, that, while the main army advanced
slowly towards Riblah, " he sent a detachment to
Jerusalem to take that city and dethrone the
king." In that case he must have captured the
king in Jerusalem and not in Riblah. The attempt
has been made to sustain this notion that Necho
took Jerusalem by a statement of Herodotus (II.
159): fieri rf/v paxnv (at Megiddo) K&Svtiv tt6~Aiv
t?]C J.vpir]c eovcav peyaknv et/U. But it is now uni-
versally admitted that 'Kadvric cannot mean Jeru-
salem, but rather that it was some sea-port {cf.
Herod. III. 5), although this does not necessarily
imply that it was Gaza, as Hitzig and Starke
affirm. [It is Kadesh, a city of Syria, on the
Orontes, near to Kmessa, the ruins of which have
lately been discovered. — Lenormant.] We are not
told how Jehoahaz came to Riblah, but it certainly
was not, as the old expositors supposed, with a
large army in the intention of repeating his father's
attempt to arrest Necho's advance, for the army
of Judah had perished in the battle of Megiddo.
According to Josephus. who says nothing of any
capture of Jerusalem by Necho, the latter sure
moned Jehoahaz to come to his camp (/jeTaire/iTrera.
TTpbc avr'nv). and took him captive when he came.
This is more probable than that he came of his
own accord, " perhaps to seek from the victor the
ratification of his election to the throne " (Thenius).
However that may be, he was unexpectedly made a
CHAPTER XXIII. 31. -XXV. 1.
279
captive at Riblah. We may infer, as Ewald does,
from Ezek. xix. 4, where he is likened to a young
lion whom " the nations " had taken " in their pit "
(certainly not. therefore, at Jerusalem), that he
was " treacherously " bound and carried away cap-
tive to Egypt. [See the Supplem. Note below, at
the end of th s section.] — The words 7pB3
oi>CTT3 are translated bv Keil : " When he had
- T T
become king in Jerusalem." That, however, had
been said just before in ver. 31, and is understood
from the connection as a matter of course, so that
it would be a mere idle remark. Neither can the
translation : " Because he had exalted himself to
be king in Jerusalem " (Dereser), or, dum regnaret
(Vatablus) be sustained. We must, therefore,
adopt the keri TpBD , as is done by the Chaldee
version, the Sept. (rov fti/ (iaciWevEiv ev 'lepovaa^.r/u),
and the Vulg. (ne regnaret in Jerusalem). This is
further confirmed by the parallel passage (2 Chron.
xxxvi. 3) in which the verse is abbreviated : " And
the king of Egypt put him down (liTVp'J)
[i. e., removed him, set him aside] at Jerusalem."
(The Sept. have in that place k6i]eiv which repre-
sents the Hebrew of Kings, and they have here
lierearTiaev which represents the Hebrew of Chron-
icles.) In 3 Esra i. 3 also we find: nal aireori/oev
avrbv jlacitevc Alyinrrov rov fiij ^aatXeveiv hi 'lepov-
ca'Ar/fi. It is not necessary to suppose, with
Ewald, that TJi>BD was "dropped out" from 2
Chron. xxxvi. 3 ; still less, with Thenius, to read in
this place, inTD'l instead of WlDX't- —
And laid upon the land a tribute. The relative
amount of the silver and the gold is remarkable, one
hundred talents of silver to one of gold, but, as the
same figures are given in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3 and in
3 Esra i. 36, we are not justified in changing them,
as Thenius does, appealing to chap, xviii. 14, and
adopting the statement of the Sept. that there wore
ten talents of gold instead of one. It may be that
Neeho wanted silver, which was rarer in the Ori-
ent, or that he did not wish to alienate the country
too much from himself by pitiless severity. The
entire tribute amounted, according to Thenius. to
230,000 thaler [$165,600]; according to Keil the
gold amounted to 25,000 thaler [$1S,000], and the
silver to 250,000 thaler [$180,000].
Ver. 34. And Pharaoh-necho made Eli-
akim, son of Josiah, king, &c. After the victory
at Megiddo and the death of Josiah, Necho re-
garded himself as master of the country, and there-
fore he would not recognize as king Jehoahaz, who
had been elevated to the throne by the people
without his (Necho's) consent. Possibly also, as
has often been assumed, either the elder brother
Eliakim, who had been passed over, had appealed
to Necho, or the Egyptian party had, by its in-
trigues, induced Necho, after setting aside Jeho-
ahaz, to appoint the elder brother, and not a for-
eigner, for instance one of his own generals. He
changed his name, as was the customary sign of
subjection and vassalage (chap. xxiv. 17 ; Dan. i.
7). It appears that the choice of a name was left
to Eliakim, who only changed — ^x to — in' in
the composition of his former name so that its sig-
nification : God (Jehovah) will-establish, remained
the same. Whether he did this " in intentional
contradiction to the humiliation of the royal dy-
nasty of David, which Jeremiah and the other pro-
phets had threatened " (Keil), is very doubtful.
Menzel very mistakenly infers that the name Jeho-
iakim pleased Necho better " on account of th6
connection with the Egyptian moon-God." — And
took Jehoahaz away, rip? does not mean here:
" He had taken prisoner," any more than it does
in ver. 30. This much has already been staled in
ver. 33. It only means that he did not leave him
in Riblah where he had taken him captive, but
took him away from there (Gen. ii. 15). The Sept.
and the Tulg. read, instead of K3>1 , ND'1 ;
et duxit, and in Chronicles we find inx,3,l ,
but N3>1 implies that Jehoahaz came to Egypt
before Necho returned thither. — " In ver. 35 the
details in regard to the payment of the tribute im-
posed by Necho are given before the history of the
reign of Jehoiakim is entered upon, because tho
payment of that tribute was one of the conditions
on which he was elevated to the throne " (Keil).
7]X ^nevertheless, but in order to obtain the sum ;
he did not pay it out of his own means. He de-
manded contributions " from each one, even from
the humblest inhabitant " (Ewald). This place
shows that by " the people of the land " we have
not to understand, as Thenius does, the "national
militia," or the "male population fit for war."
Ver. 36. Jehoiakim was twenty and five
years old. He was therefore two years older
than Jehoahaz (ver. 31), and must have been
begotten by Josiah in the fourteenth year of
the latter's age. His mother was not the same
person as the mother of Jehoahaz. Rumah, he?
native place, is probably identical with Arumah in
the neighborhood of Shechem (Judges ix. 41). —
Chap. xxiv. 1. In his days Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon came up. On the name
"IXSO*133J (Jeremiah generally, and Ezekiel always,
writes it "li'NTDlDJ ), its different forms, and
its significance, see Gesenius, Thesaurus, II. p. 840,
and Niebuhr, Gesch. Assyr. s. 41. [The name is
Nabu-kudurri-uzur, and means either Nebo-pro-
tects-the-youth (Oppert), or, Nebo-is-the-protector-
of-landmarks (Sir fl. Rawlinson) — Rawlinson, Five
Great Man. III. 80.] He was the son of Nabo-
polassar, and he appears here for the first time in
this history. The question as to the time in Je-
hoiakim's reign at which he made this expedition
can be answered from other data with tolerable
certainty. According to Jerem. xxv. l,the fourth
year of Jehoiakim's reign was the first of Nebu-
chadnezzar, and according to Jerem. xlvi. 2 this
fourth year of Jehoiakim was the year in which
Nebuchadnezzar inflicted a decisive defeat upon
Necho near Carchemish, a large well-fortified city
at the junction of the Chaboras and the Euphrates
(Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 211 sq.). Moreover, accord-
ing to Jerem. xxxvi. 1, Jeremiah commissioned
Baruch, in this fourth year of Jehoiakim, to write
down his discourses in a book which was read in
public on a great fast day which was held in the
ninth month, that is, towards the end of the fifth
year of .Jehoiakim (ver. 9). This fast-day was not
ordained on account of a misfortune which had al-
ready been experienced, " in order, by humiliation
380
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ind submission, to turn aside the wrath of God,
and to implore the divine pity" (Keil), but "evi-
dently, becausi Jehoiakim was alarmed at the ap-
proach of the Chaldeans, and saw in it danger of
a calamity to the country which might perhaps
yet be averted " (Ewald) ; for Jehoiakim, when he
heard that the book had been read, commanded it
to be brought, and then cast it into the fire, be-
cause there was written in it : " The king of Baby-
lon will certainly come and destroy this land"
(ver. 29, cf. also ver. 3). At the time of this fast-
day, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar had not yet come.
His coming was something to be looked forward to
even in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoi-
akim. It follows that his expedition took place,
at the very earliest, at the end of the fifth, or at
the beginning of the sixth, year of Jehoiakim's
reign. How far southward he penetrated, whether
as far as Egypt, as some suppose, is uncertain.
The supposition that he at this time captured the
strongly fortified city of Jerusalem (Keil), and even
took captive a part of the inhabitants of the city
or country, as he did at a later time under Jehoi-
achin, is not sustained by anything in the Book
of Kings or in Jeremiah. It is inconceivable that
he should have done so and yet no mention of it
be found in Scripture. This much only is certain :
that Jehoiakim then "became subject to him for
three years," that is, until the eigth or ninth year
of his reign (chap. xxiv. 1), which may well have
come to pass without the capture of Jerusalem, or
the deportation of its inhabitants, although we do
not know the manner in which it did come about.
We have, therefore, to present to our minds the
course of events as follows : After Necho had de-
feated Josiah at Megiddo and taken Jehoahaz cap-
tive at Riblah, and had made Jehoiakim king, he
pushed on northeasterly towards the Euphrates,
but he was met and so severely defeated by Ne-
buchadnezzar at Carchemish that he was obliged
to give up his plan of conquering Assyria and re-
treat to Egypt. The victor, Nebuchadnezzar, then
advanced through the territory east of Jordan,
where he had little opposition to encounter (Kno-
Del, Prophet. H. s. 227), and made the king of
Judah, who had for five years been a vassal of the
king of Egypt, subject to himself. After three
years, however, Jehoiakim revolted, but for the
remaining two or three years of his reign he was
hard pressed by bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Mo-
abites and Ammonites, who were probably incited
to invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, for he was too
much occupied in other directions, in consequence
of the death of his father, to march against Judah in
person. When he found opportunity he appeared
in person with an army " to punish the revolt, and
he took vengeance for it upon the son [Jehoiachin]
who had recently succeeded Jehoiakim " (Thenius),
especially because Jehoiachin had not. at his ac-
cession, immediately submitted to the Babylonian
authority.
Against this natural and simple conception of
the course of events two biblical texts may be
cited. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6 reads: "Against him
came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and
bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar also carried [some] of the vessels
of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them
in his temple at Babylon." It is not here asserted
that Jehoiakiir was actually brought as a captive
to Babylon, and this can, in fact, hardly have been
the fact, for he was king in Jerusalem not ?ight oi
nine but eleven years (2 Kings xxiii. 36 ; 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 5). It would be necessary, therefore, tc
assume that he was set at liberty again and came
back to Jerusalem as king, of which we have no
hint anywhere, and which is highly improbable.
Certainly he did not die in Babylon (chap. xxiv. 6 ;
cf. Jerem. xxii. 17-19). The Sept. filled out the
meagre story of Jehoiakim in Chronicles from this
account, but omitted entirely the words : " And
bound him in fetters," &c., evidently because they
considered them incorrect. In view of the remark-
able brevity and superficiality with which the
chronicler treats the history of Jehoiakim and Je-
hoiachin, it appears, as Hitzig supposes (note on
Dan. i. 2), that he confused the two, for, according
to our more detailed and more accurate account,
the incidents which he mentions as having occurred
to Jehoiakim really happened to Jehoiachin (chap.
xxiv. 13-15). Josephus (Antiq. x. 6, 1) seems to
have made the same mistake, for he confuses the
history of the two kings. He says that Jehoiakim,
on the promise that no harm should happen to
him, admitted Nebuchadnezzar into the city, but
that the Babylonian broke his word and put to
death the king and the principal men, threw th-"
body of the king under the wall, and left it unbu-
ried, took about 3,000 Jews, among whom was Eze-
kiel, away captive to Babylon, and placed Jehoi-
akim's son, Jehoiachin, on the throne. Then that,
fearing lest Jehoiachin might, out of revenge for his
father's murder, lead the city to revolt, he sent an
army to Jerusalem, but gave an oath to Jehoiachin
that, in case the city should be taken, no harm
should befall him. That then the king of Judah
surrendered, in order to spare the city, but was
nevertheless taken away into captivity with 10,000
other captives. It appears that Josephus was not
able to harmonize the account in Chronicles with
the account here, and so he mixed them both up
together, not writing history but inventing it. —
The other text which may be cited against the
construction of the history above given is Dan. i.
1 : "In the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,
came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jeru-
salem and besieged it (-|V!1 [pressed it hard]
see Isai. xxi. 2; Judges ix. 31; Esther viii. 11),
and the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into
his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of
God," &c. It is true that this passage does not
say that the city was besieged and taken, and that
then the king was bound and taken away to Ba-
bylon. When the Chaldeans had driven the Egyp-
tians out of Palestine, Jehoiakim found himself in
great distress, and, in order not to lose his crown
and his kingdom, he surrendered to the king of
Babylon, gave him some of the temple ornaments
and utensils, and, probably enough, also gave him
certain hostages, among whom was Daniel. But
the statement that this took place in the third year
of Jehoiakim does not agree with the statement*!
above quoted from Jeremiah. No one has yet
succeeded in removing the discrepancy, although
very many attempts have been made (see a critical
analysis of these attempts by Roseh in Herzog's
Real-Encyc. XVIII. s. 464). The latest of these at-
tempts, that of Keil, which insists that we "must
regard the third year of Jehoiakim, in Dan. i. 1, as
the terminus a quo of Nebuchadnezzar's coming,
i. e., must understand that statement :o mean thai
CHAPTKK XXIII. 31.-XXV. 7.
281
Nebuchadnezzar began the expedition against Ju-
dah in that year; that Necho was defeated at Car-
chemish in the begmning of Jehoiakim's fourth
year, and that, in consequence of this victory, Je-
rusalem was taken and Jehoiakim was made tribu-
tary in the same year," is unsatisfactory especially
in view of Jerem. xxxvi. 9. There is scarcely any
escape remaining except to assume that Daniel
reckoned from some other point of time which we
cannot now specify. It is not admissible to give
his one statement the preference over the numer-
ous chronological statements of Jeremiah, since
these are consistent with one another, and with the
historical connection, and are, moreover, as will be
shown below in the review of the chronology of
this period, in perfect harmony with all the other
chronological data both in Jeremiah and in the
Book of Kings, while the statement in Daniel, if it
is taken as fixed and correct, introduces confusion.
{See the Supplement. Note below.]
Ver. 2. And the Lord sent against him
bands, ic. It is not stated what impelled Jehoi-
akim after three years to try to throw off the yoke
of Nebuchadnezzar. Perhaps his courage rose
again when Nebuchadnezzar had withdrawn and
■was fully occupied in other parts of his immense
kingdom. Perhaps also he hoped for aid from
Egypt. Before Nebuchadnezzar himself could
come, "bands" (D'TfB in distinction from p<n ,
chap. xxv. I, not an organized army) devasted the
country, though they could not take the capital.
" All the nationalities here mentioned had no
doubt been obliged to recognize Nebuchadnezzar's
supremacy, and they gratified their own hate
against Judah at the same time that they served
his purposes " (Thenius). The i in iTaxnip does
not refer to Jehoiakim (Luther: dass sie ihn um-
brachten [that they might put him to death] ), but
to " Judah " which immediately precedes. This
is evident from ver. 3. On vers. 2^ Starke ob-
serves : " It is expressly said : ' The Lord sent,'
and again : ' According to the word of the Lord,'
and in ver. 3 again : 'Surely at the commandment
of the Lord came this ' (i. e., it came to pass only
because the Lord had commanded it), and again in
Ter. 4 : ' The Lord would not pardon,' in order that
in all this the hand of God might appear and be
recognized, and that men might not think that
these judgments came upon Judah by accident, or
merely on account of the physical strength of the
Babylonians.'' The author means to say that the
judgments which had long been threatened and
predicted by the prophets (Isaiah, Micah, Huldah,
Habakkuk, Jeremiah) now began. The invasion
of all these bands on every side was the presage
of the downfall of the kingdom, for from this time
on came one misfortune after the other, and the
kingdom and nation moved on steadily towards
their downfall. — Ver. 3. Only at the command-
ment of the Lord, i. e., it came only for the rea-
son that God had so willed it. Instead of ^Z'h]}
Ewald and Thenius desire to read 51X-7J? &s >n
ver. 20, i. e., because of the wrath of God. The
Bept have: tt?J/v dv/ibt; Kvplov rpi inl rbv 'Invdav
the Vulg. has: per verbum. The change in the
text is not necessary. For the sins of Manasseh,
tee notes on chap. xxi. The sin of Manasseh was
f»r greater and heavier than that of Jeroboam.
Judah gave itself up to this sin so entirely that
not only were all the warnings and exhortations of
the prophets ineffectual, but also the stern meas-
ures of Josiah could not effect anything in opposi-
tion ; on the contrary, as we see from the words
of Jeremiah, after his death this sin once more
permeated the national life. The sins of Manas
seh were not, therefore, avenged upon the people,
but, because they persisted in them, they fell
under the judgments of God. [That is, the nation
was not punished under Jehoiakim for sins which
Manasseh and his contemporaries had committed.
The " sins of Manasseh " had become a designation
for a certain class of offences, and a particular
form of public and social depravity, which was in-
troduced by Manasseh, but of which generation
after generation continued to be guilty. — W. G. S.]
Keil is mistaken when he thus states the connec-
tion between ver. 1 and ver. 2, and the following
verses : " After God had given the nation into
subjection to the Babylonian supremacy, as a
punishment for its sins, every revolt against that
power was a revolt against Him." — In ver. 5 we
find the last reference to the Book of the Chron-
icles of the kings of Judah. The history of
Jehoiakim therefore seems to have formed the con
elusion to this book.
Ver. 6. So Jehoiakim slept with his father!.
The details which are given elsewhere in mention-
ing the death of a king, as to his burial and the
place of his sepulture, are here wanting, certainly
not through accident or error. Jeremiah says of
Jehoiakim, chap. xxii. 19 : " He shall be buried
with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem," and, chap, xxxvi.
30 : " He shall have none to sit upon the throne
of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in
the day to the heat and in the night to the frost."
As the statement that he " slept with his fathers "
means neither more nor less than that he came to
death, this text doss not exclude or deny the ful-
filment of the prophecy ; nor can the statement
which is interpolated in the Sept. : /cat jm/////^
'luanEi/i fiera tuv Traripuv eavrov, ftai ET&tpT? iv
yavo^av fiera tuv narepav eavrov, for which there
are no corresponding words in the Hebrew, avail,
as Thenius believes, to prove the non-fulfilment
of the prophecy. On the contrary, Ewald infers
from the prophecy, which, however, he says " was
written, in its present form, after the event," that
the following is the circumstantial story of Jehoi-
akim's death: "Probably he had complied with a
treacherous invitation of the enemy to visit his
camp, for the purpose of making a treaty, and as
soon as he came out he was taken prisoner in the
very sight of his own capital. But as he resisted
with rage and violence, he was borne away by
force, and shamefully put to death. Even an
honorable burial, for which his family no doubt
entreated, was harshly refused." This represen-
tation of the incident goes beyond the prophecy
even, and builds history upon it. Winer supposes
that Jehoiakim's body was thrown out after, and
in consequence of, the capture of the city in the
reign of Jehoiachin (ver. 10), "on which occasion
either the enemy, or perhaps the inhabitants of
Jerusalem themselves, showed their rage against
the hated king," but, according to Jeremiah, he
met with no burial at all. We therefore limit our-
selves to the assumption, which is also made by
Keil. " that he perished in a battle with some on*
2S2
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
of the irregular marauding bands mentioned
above, and was not Luried." — Ver. 7. And the
king of Egypt came not again any more,
Ac. This remark is here inserted in order to show
under what circumstances Jehoiachin succeeded
his father (ver. 6), and how it came that he only
reigned for so short a time (ver. 8). Necho had
retired finally from Asia after such losses that he
could not venture again to meet his victorious
enemy, therefore Judah could expect no more
support from him. Much less could it attempt
alone to resist the conqueror from whom it had
revolted. The river of Egypt is not the Nile,
but the stream now known as Arish, which forms
.the southern boundary of Palestiue (1 Kings viii.
65 ; Isai. xxvii. 12).
Ver. 8. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old,
Ac. The form of the name pa'ilT which occurs
here and in Chronicles (II. xxxvi. 8, 9), is the full
and original form. The signification is " He-whom-
Jehovah-confirms." In Ezek. i 2 we find pa'V1 ;
in Jer. xxvii. 20 ; xxviii. 4 : liTJD' ; and in Jer.
xxii. 24, 28 : 1ITJ3 , which last is probably a pop-
ular abbreviation of the name. Instead of eigh-
teen years the chronicler gives eight years, evi-
dently through an omission of i= 10. The grounds
adduced by Hitzig (note on Jer. xxii. 28) in favor
of eight are swept away by ver 15 of this chapter,
where the king's " wives " are mentioned. There is
no reason to cast suspicion upon the more accurate
statement of the chronicler: "three months and
ten days," as Thenius does. Elnathan belonged
to the D'ltV at the court of Jehoiakim, Jerem.
xxvi. 22; xxxvi. 12, 25. — Ver. 10. At that time,
Ac. The chronicler says instead : " When the
year was expired" [more correctly it would read:
" At the turning-point of the year," i. e., either the
spriug equinox, or the beginning of the Jewish
year, both of which came at nearly the same time ;
the time at which military movements were com-
menced], i. e., in the spring, not "late in the sum-
mer or in the autumn " (Thenius). Nebuchadnez-
zar sent out his generals (DnSJ?), in the first
place, with the army to besiege the city. After-
wards he came himself, in order to be present at
the capture (see notes on ver. 2). — And Jehoi-
achin, king of Judah, went out, Ac, ver. 12.
NY' , as in chap, xviii. 31, is the ordinary expres-
sion for besieged who go out to surrender to the
besiegers (1 Sam. xi. 3; Jerem. xxi. 9; xxxviii.
17). Jehoiachin perceived that the city would not
be able to hold out very long, and therefore deter-
mined to surrender, in the hope of meeting with
grace from Nebuchadnezzar, and of being allowed
to keep his kingdom, though as a vassal. He
therefore went out with his mother as the Gebirah
(1 Kings xv. 13), and with his ministers and offi-
cers, but his hopes were all disappointed. Nebu-
chadnezzar distrusted him, not without reason, and
he desired to punish the father in the son nf5'l ,
he seised him. not "he received him graciously"
(Luther and the Calw. Bib.), for, if the latter were
the meaning, he would have restored him as a
vassal, but he dethroned him and took him into
exile. The eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, who
became king in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer.
xxv. 1), fell in the year after the eleven-year reign
of Jehoiakim had closed. On Jerem. lii. 28 aq
see below.
Ver. 13. And he carried out thence, Ac,
that is, from the city which he had entered aftei
seizing the king and his chief men. In the first
place he took all there was in the treasuries of the
temple and the royal palace, and then he took the
utensils of the temple. The meaning of VXp'l is
not altogether clear. "To tear off the gold sur-
face " (Keil) is a meaning which is not applicable
to "all the vessels," for many of these were en-
tirely of gold, as. for instance, the candlesticks, and
such, we may be sure, he did not leave behind.
The Sept. have owi/an/ie, the Vulg. concidit or con-
/regit (chap, xviii. 16), hence Thenius renders it:
" to crush into shapeless masses," but, if this had
been done, Cyrus would not have been able to give
these articles back again to the Jews, as it is
stated in Ez. i. 7-11 that he did do. We must
understand it to mean, to tear away violently, avellii
(Winer), for the most of these articles were no
doubt fastened to the floor of the temple, pa'n
does not mean the temple as a whole, but the
sanctuary, the " dwelling," all the articles in which
were of gold. Nebuchadnezzar did not take away
the brazen vessels from the forecourt until he de-
stroyed Jerusalem (chap. xxv. 13 sq.). — As the
Lord had said, chap. xx. 17; cf. Jerem. xv. 13;
xvii. 3. — Ver. 14. And he carried away captive
all Jerusalem. He left only the poorest and
humblest of the population, because nothing was
to be feared from them (see Jerem. xxxix. 10:
"the poor of the people which had nothing").
Ver. 14 states in general, and in round numbers,
what persons were taken into exile. There were
two classes : first, the D'lt' , the chiefs [E. V.
"princes"], not the military chiefs, but the chief
men of rank, the nobles, and the p^nn "l~)i33 ,
i. e.., the mighty men of wealth, the rich (chap. xv.
20); and second, C'inn , the artisans, the workers
either in brass, or iron, or wood (Isai. xliv. 12,
13; Gen. iv. 22: 1 Kings vii. 14), and IJDBn,
i. e., not "common laborers who broke stone and
carried burdens" (Hitzig on Jerem. xxiv. 1), but.
literally, one tvho shuts in, encloses, or locks up, from
~U D , to close, or shut up, and so, according tc
Ewald : " persons who are skilled in siege opera-
tions (from T3DH , to invest or enclose, cf. Jerem.
xiii. 19)." but we prefer to understand by it lock-
smiths, inasmuch as these also made weapons (1
Sam. xiii. 19). When these persons were taken
away into captivity the rest were deprived of the
power to revolt or to make war. There were in
all ten thousand of the exiles. Vers. 15 and 16
are not a mere repetition of ver. 14 ; they particu
larize what ver. 14 stated in general. The king
and his court are mentioned first, then the >~>m
]"INn (keri, ^N), that is, the mighty men of the
land, who are included in the B<~)\? in ver. 14,
then the ^nn 'C'JX , who are there called '113}
pTin • There were seven thousand of the rich
and noble, and one thousand of the two classes of
artisans, pan in ver. 16 (not ?b"l) " gathers hi
one all who have been mentioned, and it U the:
CHAPTER XXIII. 31.-XXT. 7.
2b-d
specified in regard to them that they were all men
in the prime of life, and that they were familiar
with the use of weapons " (Thenius). We see
from Jerem. xxix. that there were also priests and
prophets among them, and according to Josephus,
(Antiq. x. 6, 3) especially 6 irpo<pi/Ti/c 'It&icbifatc.
■wale uv. Of. Ezek. i. 1-3. Ver. 17. Mattaniah
was. according to 1 Chron. iii. 1 5, the third son of
Josiah, so that he was the uncle of the exiled king
Jelioiachin (Jerem. xxxvii. 1 ). VilS , 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 10, must not, therefore, be translated : " his
brother," but: "his couein," or, "his relative," a
sense in which it frequently occurs. (Sept. adsApov
tov irarpbc avrov). On the change of name see
notes on chap, xxiii. 34. Nebuchadnezzar did not
choose the name, he only approved of the new
name chosen by the king, as Necho had done in
the case of Jehoiakim. |nD , gift, is changed to
pIV , justice, righteousness, so that the name means :
"the righteousness of Jehovah," that is, "he by
whom Jehovah executes justice." It is hardly
probable that the king meant by this name to
identify himself with IjpiV nirv promised by
Jeremiah (xxiii. 6), as Hengstenberg and Von
Gerlach think ; it is much more likely that the
prophet took occasion from the king's name, with
which his character did not at all correspond, to
promise that one should come to whom alone this
name might justly be applied. — Nebuchadnezzar
showed himself merciful in that he put another
member of the native dynasty on the throne, and
did not appoint a stranger and foreigner as vice-
roy.
Ver. 18. Zedekiah was twenty and one
years old. Of the passage from this verse on to
the end of the book, Jerem. Iii. 1-34 is a duplicate,
almost word for word. The only differences are
that Jerem. lacks 2 Kings xxv. 22-26, and 2 Kings
lacks Jerem. Iii. 28-30. It follows that neither one
is borrowed from the other. Moreover there are
also a few other slight differences, as, for instance,
2 Kings xxv. 16, 17 compared with Jerem. Iii. 20-
23. It is certain that the fifty-second chapter of
Jeremiah is an appendix to the discourses of that
prophet, and that it does not come from his hand,
for it is impossible that he should have survived
the liberation of Jehoiachin (ver. 31). (See the
Introd. § 1 ) Although it is not true that the text
in Kings is " thoroughly corrupt " (Hitzig), yet that
in Jerem. is, on the whole, to be preferred, and is
therefore the more original. On the other hand,
that of Kings has some peculiar excellences, as, for
instance, xxv. 6, 7, 11, 17 compared with Jerem. Iii.
9, 10, 15, 20. We are driven to a conclusion simi-
lar to that which we reached in regard to the his-
tory of Hezekiah (see p. 201), and which is adopted
also by Keil and Thenius, that both narratives
were borrowed from one source which is now lost.
— The mother of Zedekiah was also, according to
chap, xxiii. 31, the mother of Jehoahaz; he was,
therefore, the full brother of the latter, and the
step-brother of Jehoiakim (xxiii. 36). On ver. 20
see notes on xxiv. 3. The author means to say
tt-at, as this king and the people persisted in their
evil ways, the judgment which had long been
threatened was executed in this reign. The special
occasion of it was his revolt from Nebuchadnezzar
who had put him upon the throne, and, according
to 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13 and Ezek. xvii. 13, had taken
an oath of fidelity from him. The year of this re
volt cannot be accurately determined. At th»
commencement of his reign he sent an embassy to
Babylon, as it seems, in order to bring about the
release of the captives who had been carried away
under Jehoiachin (Jerem. xxix. 3 sq.). In his fourth
year he himself went thither with Seraiah, proba-
bly with the same intention, but in vain (Jerem. li.
59). Then came ambassadors from the neighboring
peoples who wanted to unite with Zedekiali in a
common effort to cast off the Babylonian yoke
(Jerem. xxvii. 3). False prophets encouraged him
to agree to this (Jerem. xxviii.i. This led him to
send to Egypt " that they might give him horses
and much people " (Ezek. xvii. 15). As the Chal-
dean army was before Jerusalem in Zedekiah's
ninth year, the revolt must have taken place, at
the latest, in his eighth year, but it probably took
place in his seventh, or perhaps even earlier.
Chap. xxv. 1. And it came to pass in the
ninth year, &c. These dates can be given thus
accurately to the month and the day, because the
Jews were accustomed during the exile to fast on
the anniversary of these days of disaster (Zach. vii.
3, 5 ; viii. 19). It is evident from ver. 6 that Nebu-
chadnezzar did not come to Jerusalem himself, but
remained at Riblah (chap, xxiii. 33), and sent his
army from thence against Jerusalem. According
to Jerem. xxxiv. 7 they also besieged Lachish and
Azekah, the only two strongholds remaining. The
word p'l cannot mean a " wall " (De Wette), for it
stands in contrast with rppb as something differ-
ent (Ezek iv. 2 ; xvii. 17 ; xxi. 27). It is ordinari-
ly derived from piR speculari, to observe, to watch,
and is understood to mean a " watch-tower," or,
collectively, " watch-towers " (Havernick on Ezek.
iv. 2 ; Gesenius, Keil), but 3'3D , which does not
refer to observation but to an encircling on all
sides, does not fit this meaning. The Sept. trans-
late it in Ezek. iv. 2, by —noua%uv, a bulwark, a
rampart, in Ezek. xvii. 17 ; xxi. 27 by fteMoraoic,
a mw:hine for throwing missiles, and this place thev
translate : weonjKodo/jvoev fir" airrt/v relxoc Ki'/c/lw ; the
Vulg. has munitiones. Hitzig understands by it
"lines of eircumvallation," and Thenius "the outer-
most of the siege lines, built only of palisades, and
intended to prevent the introduction of supplies,"
&c, but this last cannot be so accurately determin-
ed. We must, therefore, content ourselves with
the less definite meaning, " bulwark," or, " siege-
work." Vatablus : Machinam bellicam, qualisqualis
fuerit. — Ver. 2. Unto the eleventh year, &c.
The siege lasted in all one year five months and
twenty-seven days, for the city was very strongly
fortified (2 Chron. xxxii. 5 ; xxxiii. 14). This is
conclusive against the assumption that a capture
of the city is implied in xxiv. 1 sq. According to
Jerem. xxxvii. 5, 11, the besieging army, or at least
a part of it, raised the siege and marched against
the Egyptian army which was coming to the help
of the Jews. It would thus appear that the siege
was interrupted for a time. — Jeremiah gives the
date in ver. 3 more accurately (see Jerem. xxxix.
2, and Iii. 6): "In the fourth month, on the ninth
[day] of the month." The first words <JP3-|fl BHrQ
have been omitted by some accident in the version
in Kings, and they must be supplied. How severs
the famine was, and what horrors came to pass aft
2S4
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
a consequence of it, may be seen from Lament, ii.
11, 12, 19; iv. 3-10 (Ezek. v. 10; Baruch ii. 3).
See also Jerem. xxxvii. 21. The famine did not
begin on the ninth of the fourth month, but bad
become so severe at that time that the people were
no longer capable of making a strong resistance ;
bo on that day the enemy was able to storm the city.
Ter. 4. And a breach was made in the city.
This breach was on the north side, for, according
to Jerem. xxxix. 3, the leaders of the Chaldean
army, when they came in, halted and seated them-
selves in " the middle gate," that is, in the gate
which was in the wall between the upper, southern
city (Ziou), and the lower northern city, and which
led from one of these into the other. "When the
king learned of this he took to flight with his war-
riors by night. In the text before us not only is
"Zedekiah, king of Judah " (Jerem. xxxix. 4)
omitted after Tyn , but also the predicate 1IT1T
^SV'l (Jerem. xxxix. 4; Hi. 7) is omitted after "men
of war." AH the old versions supply at least one
of these words. They fled towards the south, be-
cause the enemy had penetrated by the north side,
and there was no hope of escaping that way, but
even on this side they had to fight their way
through, for the Chaldeans had invested the entire
city (T3D). The attempt derived its only hope of
success from the darkness, and from the greater
weakness of the besieging force on the south side.
—By the way of the gate between, &c. This
gate, called the gate of the fountain (Nehem. iii.
15), was at the southern end of the ravine between
Ophel and Zion, the Tyropoion. At this point, in-
asmuch as it was the site of the pool of Siloam and
there were cisterns to be protected, and inasmuch
also as the formation of the ground made it a con-
venient place for the enemy to attack (Thenius),
two walls had been built, between which was this
gate (Sept. : ddbv ivvknc T>/£ 0"<> fcaov run reyfSv,
and in Jerem. Hi. 7 : ava fiiaov tov reixovc mi rov
TrpoTecxivfiaTos). This double wall is also mention-
ed in Isai. xxii. 11. The way of the gate is the
way through that gate out of the city. It is not
quite certain whether the king's garden was inside
or outside of this double wall; Thenius assumes
that it was outside (see Map of Jerusalem Before
the Exile, appended to his commentary). It is
said in Ezek. xii. 12: "The prince . . . shall bear
upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go
forth ; they shall dig through the waU fl'jH) to
carry [him] out thereby." Here -pg cannot be un-
derstood to refer to either of those walls, for he
went through the gate ; moreover it would have
been impossible to break through such a wall in
the night. We must therefore understand it of
that wall which the enemy had built aH around the
city (ver. 1), and which it was necessary to break
through. The fugitives then took the way to the
plain (naiyn), that is, to the plains or meadows
through which the Jordan flows, and which were
called the plain (Josh. xi. 2 ; xii. 3 ; 2 Sam. ii. 29 ;
iv. 7). Their intention was to cross the Jordan
and escape, but they were overtaken near Jericho,
iii hours' journey from Jerusalem.
"Ver. 6. So they took the king, 4c. On Rillah
lee notes on chap, xxiii. 33. " Nebuchadnezzar
was not present at the storming of Jerusalem
(Jerem. xxxix.' 3), he awaited the result in his
camp " (Thenius). Instead of the plurals snail
and iDnti' in ver. 7, we find in Jerem. xxxix. S
and Hi. 9 the singular with Nebuchadnezzar as the
subject. Although the latter may be the more
original reading, the sense is the same in either
case, for Nebuchadnezzar certainly did not put
Zedekiah's sons to death with his own hand ; he
appointed a tribunal which judged and executed
them. Instead of the singular tDSC'D Jeremiah
has, in the places quoted and elsewhere, the plural,
D'tDQC'D • "With 13T it means, to deal with and de-
cide a question of law. This trial cannot have occu-
pied much time, for it was a matter of common
notoriety that Zedekiah had broken his oath of al-
legiance and revolted. The sons of Zedekiah, not
all his children, had fled with him. They also
were regarded as rebels and put to death, in order
to put an end to the dynasty. His daughters were
taken away as captives according to Jerem. xii. 20.
As for Zedekiah himself, he was to suffer a painful
punishment as long as he lived. His eyes were
put out. This form of punishment was used by
the Chaldeans and ancient Persians (Herod, vii.
18). Princes are still disabled in this way in Per-
sia when it is desired to deprive them of any pros-
pect of the throne. " A rod of silver (or of brass),
heated glowing hot, is passed over the open eye "
(Winer, R.- W.-B. II. s. 15). The Vulg. has oculos
ejus effodit, and on Jerem. Hi. 11: oculos eruii. It
was also a customary mode of punishment in the
Orient to pierce out the eyes (Ctes. Pers. 5). " Plate
No. 18 in Botta (ifonum. de Nin.) represents a king
who is in the act of piercing out with a lance the
eyes of a captive of no ordinary rank who kneels
before him " (Thenius). See Cassel on Judges xvi.
21. However the act of piercing out the eyes is
not generally expressed by "ny, but by ~if5J ,
Judges xvi. 21 ; 1 Sam. xi. 2 ; Numb. xvi. 14.—
With fetters of brass, and double fetters at that,
D'PIKTIJ • He was doubly fettered hand and foot,
and brought to Babylon. In Jerem. Hi. 11 the
words follow : " And put him in prison till the day
of his death." The Sept. have : fir o'miav fiiihjvoc,
evidently having in mind Judges xvi. 21. The
author of the Book of Kings may have thought
that this statement was unnecessary, since every
person who was in chains was put in the prison as
a matter of course. According to Jerem. xxxix.
6, and Hi. 10, " All the nobles of Judah " were put
to death with the sons of Zedekiah, that is, those
who had fled with him. There is no reason to re-
gard this as a false feature of the story borrowed
from 2 Kings xxv. 21, as Thenius does.
[Supplementary Note on contemporaneous hu-
tory. In the note on p. 247 we brought our notice
of contemporaneous history down to the year 640,
the year in which Josiah ascended the throne. The
commotion of the next sixty years, during which
Assyria ceased to be a nation, Egypt was humbled,
and (he Median and Babylonian empires advanced
to the first place, amounted to an historical cata
clysm. In the Bible we have references to these
movements only when, and in so far as, they af-
fected the fortunes of the Jewish people. This
they did in the most important manner, and. in
CHAPTER XXIU. 31.-XXV. 7.
2S5
order to understand the influence of the neighbor-
ing nations on Judah at this time, it is necessary
to have a comprehensive, if not exhaustive, knowl-
edge of the historical movements which were in
progress in Asia.
It should be distinctly understood that the his-
tory of the period now before us is very obscure.
We have no historical inscriptions to guide us, and
are thrown upon the authority of literary remains
which are imperfect and inconsistent. Our chief
authorities, Rawlinson and Lenormant (Sir H. Raw-
linson and Oppert) differ very materially. It is
therefore to be understood that what is here given
is only conjectural and provisional.
The great question in dispute, on which the
adjustment of the fragments of information which
we possess into a smooth narrative depends, is as
to the year in which Nineveh was taken, whether
it was in 625 (Rawlinson), or in 606 (Lenormant).
The weight of authority is in favor of the latter,
though it is open to serious historical objections.
It is. at present, impossible to bring this question
to a final decision.
In 640 Asshur-edil-ilani (L.), or, Asshur-emid-
ilin (R.) was on the throne of Assyria. His reign
ended about 626-5. Rawlinson, putting the fall
of Nineveh at this date, identifies this king with the
Saracus, or Assaracus, of Abydenus. Lenormant,
putting the fall of Nineveh in 606, supposes that
Saracus was another and the last king, who reigned
from 625 to 606. The last king was far inferior to
his ancestors. Under him the empire was unable
to meet the attacks which fell upon it.
The Medes, whose first attack on Assyria, under
Phraortes, we mentioned above (p. 247), were a
hardy mountain people who now arose into pro-
minence. Cyaxares, the successor of Phraortes,
made elaborate preparations to renew the attempts
at conquest towards the west. He was ready for
the attack (Rawl.), or made it (Lenor.), either alone
(R.) or in conjunction with the Chaldeans, under
Nabopolassar (L.), either in 634 (R.) or in 625 (L.).
This attack was interrupted by the appearance of
new a'ctors on the scene. A horde of barbarians
from the north, Scythia, poured down upon the
nations in the Euphrates valley. They were of the
same origin as the Goths, Huns, Avari, and Van-
dals, who appeared in Europe early in the Christian
era, and their behavior, whithersoever they came,
was the same as that of the barbarians who entered
Europe. They poured over Media, Assyria, and
Babylonia, and spread westward into Syria and
Palestine. On the borders of Egypt they found
Psammetichus besieging Ashdod. He persuaded
them by gifts to turn back, and thus cheeked their
advance in this direction. Herodotus says that
their sway lasted for nineteen years. It is difficult
to tell what this means, for in some countries, Media
for instance, the natives overcame them sooner than
in others. They were not able to found any per-
manent authority in any country. They perished
by luxury and vice, were slain, or employed as
mercenaries. Jeremiah refers to them in chap. vi.
22 sq.\ viii. 16; ix. 10; v. 15, and, in the 50th
chap., where he foretells the destruction of Baby-
lon, the Scythian invasion furnishes the colors of
the picture in which he describes it. Rawlinson
puts their invasion in 632 ; Lenormant in 625.
Rawlinson supposes, that after the Scythian inva-
sion had subsided, tho Medes renewed the attack
on Nineveh, aud secured the alliance of Nabopo-
lassar, in 625, when Nineveh was taken and de
stroyed.
In 610 Psammetichus died, and Necho sue
ceeded on the throne of Egypt. Necho reigned
from 610 to 595. He was young and ambitious,
and he planned an expedition into Asia, no doubt,
if Assyria had already fallen, with the intention of
winning the western provinces for himself. H»
marched through Philistia and Samaria. He:c Jo-
siah of Judah marched out to meet him (chap, xxiii.
29). We do not need to seek far for a reason for
Josiah's action. It may have been inspired, as is
generally supposed, by a desire to manifest fidelity
to his suzerain, Babylon (R.), but it is a more sim-
ple explanation to notice that, under the existing
weakness of Assyria, Josiah had been able to ex-
ercise sovereignty over some portion of Samaria
(chap, xxiii. 15 sq.). If the Babylonians were al-
ready the supreme power, they had not interfered
with this. If Egypt conquered Samaria, it was at
an end. Josiah, therefore, had a very natural and
simple interest in opposing the Egyptian invasion.
If Necho intended at this time to measure his
strength with the Babylonians, he certainly desisted
from that project. The words in 2 Chron. xxxv.
21 throw no light on the party he intended to at-
tack. There is ground here for believing that Nin-
eveh had not yet fallen, and that the Babylonians
had not yet displayed their power. Necho saw in
the feebleness of Assyria an opportunity to conquer
its western provinces, and the force which he had
was probably only such an one as he considered
necessary for this purpose. Josiah was not, there-
fore, as rash as we might at first suppose (cf.
Ewald III. 762 — 3d ed. He seems to think, how-
ever, that Necho may have taken Carchemish at
this time. cf. ss. 782—3). However, the Jewish king
was killed in the battle, and his second son Jeho-
ahaz was made king. Necho pursued his course
of conquest with success for three months. On
his return, he regarded Judah also, by virtue of his
victory at Megiddo, as a conquered province, al-
though he had declared at the outset that he had
no hostile design against that country (2 Chron.
xxxv. 21). He refused to ratify the election of
Jehoahaz, but took him (probably sent a detach-
ment to bring him) from Jerusalem to the camp at
Riblah (chap, xxiii. 33), where he put him in chains,
and carried him captive to Egypt. He made Judah
tributary. Jeremiah (xxii. 10) calls Jehoahaz more
worthy of pity in his captivity than his father in his
death, and Ewald, with good reason, interprets the
parable (Ezek. xix., especially vers. 2-4) of Jehoia-
kim. Necho put the elder brother Eliakim on the
throne, changing his name to Jehoiakim (chap,
xxiii. 34). This was in 609 or 608. Necho at this
time took Gaza (Jerem. xlvii. 1), and remained
sovereign over the western provinces for two or
three years.
We come now to the year 606 in which Nineveh
was taken according to Oppert, Lenormant, Ewald,
aud others. The historical features of this event,
aside from the question of its date, are as follows.
The king of Assyria sent to Babylon, as satrap, a
general named Nabopolassar (Nebo-protects-my-
son), probably an Assyrian. It is certain that,
when the final attack was made, it was twofold,
both from Media and from the south. Nabopo-
lassar and Cyaxares formed an alliance which was
cemented by the marriage of Nebuchadnezzar, sod
of Nabopolassar, with Amyitis, daughter of Cyax
2S6
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
ares. Rawlinson's idea is that Nabopolassar was
charged with the defence against the attack from
the south, but turned traitor. This supposition is
necessary since lie does not think that the Chal-
deans participated in the first attack. Lenormant
supposes that Nabopolassar was sent to Babylon
as satrap, that he matured plans of revolt, that he
joined in the first attack, and that he employed the
interval of nineteen years in establishing his inde-
pendence. He also thinks that Nabopolassar was,
in 607, an old and broken man, that he associated
his son Nebuchadnezzar with himself on the throne
in that year, and that, therefore, the capture of
Nineveh is really to be reckoned among the ex-
ploits of that prince. He supposes that certain
chronological discrepancies are to be accounted for
by the fact that Nebuchadnezzar became joint ruler
in 607, so that two starting-points for his reign
were confused. (See chap. xxv. 8, and Jerem. lii.
28-30.) The attack of the confederated Medes and
Chaldeans was successful, and Saracus perished
with his court and treasures in the downfall of the
city.
Nebuchadnezzar now becomes the chief figure
in the drama. He was a prince of extraordinary
talents and energy, and he consolidated, if we may
not say that he actually established, the Babylo-
nian monarchy. Having destroyed Nineveh, his
next task was to recover that portion of his new
conquest which the Egyptians had held in posses-
sion for two or three years. In 605, the fourth
year of Jehoiakim (Jerem. xlvi. 2), he met Necho,
who came out to defend his possessions, at Car-
chemish, on the Euphrates, and totally defeated
him. He pursued the Egyptians to the border of
Egypt (chap. xxiv. 7), and no doubt intended to
push on into that country, when news came to him
(604) that his father was dead. He hastened to
Babylon with a small escort through the nearer,
but more dangerous, way of the desert. He met
with no opposition in ascending the throne, in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim of Judah (Jerem. xxv. 1).
In the haste of these movements, Judah had re-
mained secure in its mountains. Nebuchadnezzar's
army marched to Egypt in two columns, one through
Philistia and one through Perea (Lenormant). But
Nebuchadnezzar soon returned to Palestine and
Phoenicia to complete the work of conquest. In 602
or 601 he made Jehoiakim tributary (chap. xxiv. 1)
and took away certain hostages or captives. In
599 or 598 Jehoiakim planned a revolt (chap. xxiv.
1), relying on help from Egypt. Rawlinson thinks
that the embassy mentioned in Jer. xxvi. 22 had
for its object to form this alliance, and that the
matter of Urijah was only a pretext. Nebuchad-
nezzar first incited the neighboring nations against
him (chap. xxiv. 2), and then himself marched into
Judah. Jehoiakim died at this time, and Jehoi-
achin, his son, succeeded (chap. xxiv. 8). He was
not able to resist the Chaldeans, and surrendered
at discretion (chap. xxiv. 12). He was taken away
prisoner, with 10,000 other captives (chap. xxiv. 13
•nd 14), the most energetic and independent por-
ion of the people. The city and temple were
plundered, and Mattauiah, the youngest son of Jo-
Siah, was put upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar,
under the name of Zedekiah (xxiv. 17).
Lenormant justly says of Zedekiah that he was
only a Babylonian satrap. A strong party urged
linn continually to revolt, but Jeremiah counselled
patience and submission. In 595 the nrinces of
the neighboring countries met at Jerusalem (Jerem.
xxvii. 3) to plan a concerted revolt, but Zedekiah
was persuaded by Jeremiah to renounce this plan
(Jerem. xxvii.). He went to Babylon (in his fourth
year, 594) to counteract suspicions of his fidelity
which had been aroused (Jer. li. 59). However
he again cherished similar plans, and entered ink
negotiations with Uaprahet (Uaphris, Apries,
Hophra) of Egypt. The Chaldeans again invaded
Judah in 590. The siege of Jerusalem began early
in January, 589 (Lenorm.). During this siege the
serfs were manumitted, that they might help in the
defence (Jerem. xxxiv.). The Egyptians advanced
to the relief of Jerusalem, the Chaldeans turned to
meet the attack, and the hopes of the Jews revived
so far that the freedmen were once more enslaved.
This diversion, however, produced no effect. It is
uncertain whether a battle was really fought and
lost by the Egyptians (Josephus, Antiq. X. vii. 3),
or whether they retreated without fighting at all.
In 5S8 a breach was made and the Chaldeans en-
tered the city (xxv. 3 and 4). Zedekiah fled (xxv.
4), hoping to break through the investing lines, hut
he was captured and taken to Riblah (xxv. 6),
where Nebuchadnezzar was encamped. His sons
were slain before his eyes. He was then blinded
and taken captive to Babylon. One month later
(xxv. 8, cf. xxv. 3) Nebuzaradan was deputed
to carry out the systematic destruction of Je-
rusalem, and deportation of the most influential
of its population. This he did thoroughly, though
not without some slight leniency (chap. xxv. 12-
22). However, the fanaticism of Ishmael and his
party destroyed the last hope of maintaining the
Jewish nationality, even in the pitiful form in which
the Chaldeans had yet spared it (xxv. 25). The
history of Judah, from this time on, is merged in
that of the great world-monarchies. — W. G-. S.j
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
* 1. The author treats very curtly the history of
the last four kings of Judah. In Chronicles we find a
still more abbreviated account. He passes hastily
over this part of the history of Judah, just as he
did over the similar part of the history of Israel
(see p. 162 sq.), for it is the twenty-three years of
the " death-agony of the nation" (Ewald). Josiah
was the las"t genuine theocratic king. With his
death begins the end of the kingdom ; the history
of his four successors, three of whom were his sons
and one his grandson, is nothing more than the
* [Genealogical Table of the Last Kings of Judab
Pedaiah
Jeremiah
Zebudah = Josiah (* )= Hamutal
Eliakim, or Jkhoahaz(*), or Mattaniah, or
Nehusta= Jehoiakim (3) Bhallum Zedekiah (•)
Jehoiachin (<) or
Jeconiah, or
Contah
/Assir Shealtiel, or
\ Salathiel
Sovereigns in small capitals. The numbers desigiuu
the order of succession on the throne - W. G. S.1
CHAPTER XXIII. 31, -XXV. 7.
28
Story of this end. The author tells no more in re-
gard to them than appears to him from his theo-
cratic and pragmatic standpoint to be absolutely
necessary. So he tells first what the attitude of
each was towards Jehovah, that is, toward the co-
venant or the Mosaic law, and then so much of
their history as pertains to the downfall of the
kingdom, which was approaching step by step. "We
therefore learn rather what happened to them ac-
cording to the counsel of God than what they them-
selves did. Essential additions to the history are
contributed by Jeremiah, especially by the histor-
ical portions, but also by the prophetical discourses,
though it is not always easy to determine which
reign these latter belong to, nor what events they
refer to. It is very remarkable that this great
prophet, who certainly was an important personage
during these last four reigns, and who is one of the
most remarkable individuals mentioned in the Old
Testament, is not mentioned or referred to at all in
the historical book, perhaps for the reason that the
acquaintance of the readers with the book of the
prophet is taken for granted. [This is one reason
for thinking that Jeremiah himself wrote the Books
of Kings. See Introd. § 1.— W. a. S.]
2. The reign of king Jehoahaz, although it only
lasted for three months, had important influence
on the course of the history, inasmuch as it broke
with Josiah's theocratic regime, and introduced an-
other policy which hastened on the downfall of
the kingdom. All that Josiah had built up with
such anxious care and labor fell in ruins in a few
months. Although the Jehovah-worship was not
formally abrogated again, yet the door was opened
for all manner of heathen falsehood and corruption
to re-enter, and no one of the following kings
abandoned the new policy which was thus inaugu-
rated. This is the heavy guilt which rests upon
Jehoahaz. How he came to adopt this course we
can only guess, since we have no explanation of it
offered in the Scriptures. The notion of some of
the old expositors, that he was seduced by his
mother, is entirely without foundation, and is es-
pecially improbable as she came from the ancient
priest-city Libnah, and so cannot certainly have
been bred to idolatry. It is much more probable
that the heathen-party, to which many persons of
rank and influence belonged, but which had been
repressed under Josiah, arose once more after his
death, and sought to regain its power. He either
brought them over to his side or sought to win
them by concessions. It does indeed seem proba-
ble, from the course which Necho adopted towards
him, that " he continued to be hostile to Egypt "
(Ewald), but the text nowhere states that " he
resisted unworthy proposals of the Egyptian king."
Niemeyer (Character der Bibel V. s. 105) says of
aim : " When compared with his elder brothers and
successors, he seems to have been superior to
tli am in many respects. One passage in Jeremiah
would almost lead us to the opinion that the peo-
ple longed for his return from Egypt.'' TJmbreit
also remarks on Jerem. xxii. 11 sq. : "He seems,
during his reign of three months, to have made
himself very much beloved." But it by no means
follows, because the people passed over his elder
brothers to make him king, that he was in any
way better than they, for he certainly did not ful-
fil any hopes which may have been formed in re-
gard to him, and Josephus (Antiq. X. v. 2), who
certainly would not contradict the general verdict
in regard to him which had been crystallized in
tradition, calls him aaedr/c not fuaobc rbv tqoitov. As
for the text, Jerem. xxii. 10-12, in which he ia
called Shallum, it certainly cannot mean that Shal-
lum deserved to be lamented more than the model
king, Josiah, who walked in the way of his
father David, and turned neither to the right
hand nor to the left, whereas Jehoahaz followed in
the ways of Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon (chap.
xxii. 2 ; xxiii. 32). The prophet there threatens
the house of David (ver. 1) with destruction, be-
cause it has abandoned the covenant of Jehovah
(vers. 5-9). He says that one king has already
been carried away captive out of his land, — the
land of promise, — that he will die and be buried in
a foreign land (a great calamity and disgrace, ac-
cording to Israelitish notions), and that another
will be cast out before the city like a dead animal
and find no burial at all. There is, therefore, no
syllable here of desire and longing on the part of
the people for the return of Jehoahaz as one who
was better than the rest. Why should the people
long for the return of a king who had disappoint-
ed all their hopes and expectations ?
3. Josephus says (Antiq. X. v. 2) of king Jehot-
akim : Iriyxave uv tt/v <pioiv adiKoc teal Kanovoyoc^
kol [litre ttqoc Qebv bawc, fiyre Trgbc ardgunovc bntei-
idjg. The correctness of this criticism appears es-
pecially from the passages in Jeremiah which serve
as supplements to the historv before us, Jerem.
xxii. 13-19; xxvi. 20-24; xxxvi. 20-32. The
idol-worship which Jehoahaz had tolerated onco
more grew and spread with great rapidity undei
Jehoiakim. All the abominations which had ex-
isted under Manasseh reappeared. Ewald and
Vaihinger infer from Ezek. viii. 7-13 that he "ad-
ded to " the Asiatic forms of idolatry which had
existed under Manasseh, "by introducing also the
Egyptian cultus," but the reference in that passage
is to the worship of Thammuz (Adonis), a well-
known deity of Western Asia, the chief seat oi
whose worship was the ancient Phoenician city of
Byblus, and to whose cultus belong the represen-
tations of worms and unclean animals on the wall?
(ver. 10. — See Havernick on Ezek. s. 98 and 108).
Moreover, the question may be raised whether this
cultus was introduced under Jehoiakim, or not un-
til the reign of Zedekiah. However that may be,
there is no hint of any Egyptian cultus under Je-
hoiakim, although he was a vassal of Egypt, and
in fact there is no hint at all of any Egyptian forms
of idolatry among the Hebrews. Jehoiakim was
the tool of the heathen party ; he not only did not
listen to the prophets, he hated and persecuted
them. He caused the prophet TJrijah, who had fled
from him to Egypt, to be brought back from thence,
to be put to death, and then his corpse to be shame-
fully handled (Jerem. xxvi. 20-24). Jeremiah
barely escaped death (Jerem. xxxvi. 26). 2 Kings
xxiv. 3 and 4 also shows that Jehoiakim shed
much innocent blood. He had also a passion for
building, and he caused expensh e structures to be
erected unjustly, and without paying wages to the
laborers. [Jerem. xxii. 13 sq.] He exacted the
tribute which Necho had imposed upon him from
the people instead of using the royal treasures for
this purpose. Even after the resources of the
country were exhausted he continued his exactions
so that the courageous prophet rebuked iiim;
"Thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy
covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and
285
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
for oppression, and for violence to do it " (Jerem.
xxii. 17). Therefore the prophet warns him that
he will not be lamented nor buried, but that, in
Bpite of all his royal grandeur and glory, he will
be dragged forth and cast upon the field like a
dead ass. No doubt he early showed what sort of
a disposition he had, and it is not strange that the
people, after Josiah's death, passed him over and
made his brother king. He was a tyrant who was
forced upon the nation by a victorious enemy,
through whom it was punished for its apostasy.
His reign formed a part of the divine judgment
which had already begun to fall.
1. King Jehoiachin is placed before us by both
the historical narratives (2 Kings xxiv. 9 ; 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 9) as just like the three other kings as re-
gards his attitude towards Jehovah. It is simply
Mid of him without restriction : " He did that
>vhich was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like to all
that his father had done." The only thing further
which is related in regard to him is that, when the
Babylonian army appeared before Jerusalem to
besiege it, he went out and surrendered himself,
begging for mercy. Josephus {Antiq. X. vii. 1) re-
gards this as a praiseworthy action. He says:
6 Si- <pvaet XQVCT°S &v KaL <5<woc oi'K i/^iov rf/v tt6?uv
Kivdwebovaav 6C avrov irepiogfv' that the king had a
solemn promise from the generals whom Nebuchad-
nezzar had sent that no harm should happen to
him or to the city, but that this promise was broken,
for Nebuchadnezzar had given orders that all who
were in the city should be taken captive and
brought into his presence. Niemeyer also says
(Cltarart. d. B. Y. s, 107) : " Jehoiachin, the son of
Jehoiakim, was undeniably a better king than his
father. He does that which wisdom and human-
ity require under the circumstances. He desists
from the active prosecution of a revolt which could
only result in greater cruelty from the enemy, and
greater exhaustion of the land, which was already
thoroughly worn out. He must have been regard-
ed, even in his captivity, as a man who deserved
great respect (Jerem. Hi. 31)." Similarly Ewald I
(Gesch. III. s. 734) says : " This prince was obliged '
to yield, in religious matters, to the prevailing de-
pravity, but he did not lack good features of char-
acter which served to excite good hopes of him.
There was a greater feeling of happiness under
him than under his father, and there was great
lamentation when he was obliged, at an early age,
to go into captivity. Probably the touching psalms
xlii., xliii., and lxxxiv. are from his hand." Tai-
hinger also (Herzog, Real-Encyc. VI. s. 787) agrees
with this general opinion: "Although he had not
reigned in the spirit of the Jehovah-religion, yet
there continued to be among the people a longing
for his return. The false prophets especially
nourished this hope (Jerem. xxviii. 4)." These
favorable opinions, however, are not at all well
founded. From his sudden surrender of the city
we may rather infer that he was weak and coward-
ly than anything else. [It should be noticed, how-
ever, that this is just what Jeremiah urged Zede-
ki:ih to do afterwards, viz., to yield to the Babylo-
nians and sue for mercy (Jerem. xxxvii. 17 sq., cf.
Blso xxxvii. 2). Jehoiachin, by surrendering, seems
to have saved the city from sack and pillage and
burning, which was its fate after Zedekiah's resist-
ance. We cannot condemn Jehoiachin for pusil-
lanimity in surrendering at discretion, and Zede-
*ial* for obstinacy iu resisting to the end. See
next section. The surrender is as much a sign of
wisdom as of weakness. — W. G. S.] There is na
support iu this text nor in Jeremiah for what Jose-
phus adds in regard to the promise which had
been given him and was broken. The words of
the prophet (Jerem. xxii. 24—34), where he pro-
nounces the divine oracle, come in here with pecu-
liar significance : "As I live, saith the Lord,
though Coniah [Jehoiachin], the son of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, were the signet upon my right
hand, yet would I pluck thee thence I And I will
give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life,
and into the Viand of them whose face thou fearest,
even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Ba-
bylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans And I
will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee,
into another country where ye were not born, and
there shall ye die, but to the land whereunto they
desire to return, thither shall they not return. Is
[then, do ye ask] this man Coniah a despised,
broken, idol ? Is he a vessel wherein is no pleas-
ure ? Wherefore are they cast out, he, and his seed,
and are cast into a land which they know not ?
0! earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord : Write ye this man childless,
a man that shall not prosper in his days, for no
man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the
throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah."
This stern condemnation by Jehovah cannot rest
upon any other foundation than the fact that Je-
hoiachin had done " that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord, like to all that his father had
done." It would have been a very unjust condem-
nation, if Jehoiachin had been " a man deserving of
the highest respect," and if, by virtue of his good
traits, he had been " superior to his brothers and
his uncle," or had belonged to the better portion of
the nation. The comparison to a signet ring,
which has been so often interpreted to Jehoia-
chin's advantage, does not mean, if he were as
dear to me as such a ring, nevertheless I would
cast him away. Only those are dear to Jehovah
who walk in His ways, and such he does not cast
away. The meaning rather is, as is shown by the
tearing off from the hand, this: however firmly he
supposes that, as a king [of the House of David],
he is held by me, even like the signet on my hand,
nevertheless I will cast him away on account of
his own sins and the sins of the people. When
the false prophet Hananiah (Jerem. xxviii. 5
sq.) foretells that Jehovah will bring back all the
vessels of the house of Jehovah, and king Jehoia-
chin, and all who are captive with him, and will
break the yoke of the king of Babylon, this does
not express any especial "longing" for the return
of this king, but only a general desire for deliver-
ance from the Babylonian yoke, and the restora
tion of the kingdom with its independent dynasty.
On the other hand it is generally understood, and
with far more apparent reason, that the "young
lion," Ezek. xix. 5 sq., represents Jehoiachin. but
this also is impossible, because all that is there
implied in regard to him cannot possibly have
taken place within three months (Schmieder on
that passage). In the abbreviated name Coniah
(see the Exeg. notes on chap. xxiv. 8), which is
there used, many old expositors, such as Grotius
and Lightfoot, and also Hengstenberg and Schmie-
der, have seen an intention to figure forth to the
king his approaching doom: "The future is put
first in order bv cutting off the ' to cut off hope: t
CHAPTER XXni. 31.-XXT. 7.
2S9
Jechouiah with J, a God-will-confirm without the
'will'" (Hengstenberg). Not to speak of any
other objection to this, it is enough that the abbre-
viated form Coniah is used instead of Jeeoniah not
only in prophetical but also in historical passages
(Jerem. xxxvii. 1), where there is no possible in-
tention to signify the " cutting off of hope."
[Bahr seems to allow his judgment of Jehoia-
chin to be too much controlled by the standing
formula that " he did that which was evil." &c.
This formula covered many grades of evil, and no
violence is done to the general justice of this ver-
dict upon him, if we recognize the fact that he was
not one of the worst among the bad. Ewald is
justified in saying : " The king meant no harm, but
he was negligent in his duties. He did not look
forward to the future with good judgment. He
was a tool of the nobles, and he was far too weak
for the bitter crisis in which he was called to
reign." Stanley also gives a fair estimate of the
king and of the popular feeling in regard to him :
"With straining eyes the Jewish people and pro-
phets still hung on the hope that their lost prince
would be speedily restored to them. The gate
through which he left the city was walled up like
that by which the last Moorish king left Grenada,
and was long known as the gate of Jeconiah.
From his captivity as from a decisive era the sub-
sequent years of the history were reckoned (Ezek.
i, 2 ; viii. 1 ; xxiv. 1 ; xxvi. 1 ; xxix. 1 ; xxxi. 1 [2
Kings xxv. 27]. The tidings were treasured up
with a mournful pleasure, that, in the distant Ba-
bylon, where, with his royal mother (Jerem. xxii.
26; 2 Kings xxiv. 15), he was to end his days, af-
ter many years of imprisonment, the curse of
childlessness, pronounced upon him by the pro-
phet (Jerem. xxii. 30), was removed : and that, as
he grew to man's estate, a race of no less than
eight sons were born to him, by whom the royal
race of Judah was carried on (1 Cliron. iii. 17, 18,
cf. Susan, i.-iv.) ; and yet more, that he had been
kindly treated by the successor of his captor (2
Kings xxv. 27-30 ; Jerem. Hi. 31-34) ; that he took
precedence of all of the subject kings at the table
of the Babylonian monarch; that his prison gar-
ments and his prison fare were changed to some-
thing like his former state. . . . More than one
Bacred legend — enshrined in the sacred books of
many an ancient Christian Church — tells how he,
with the other captives, sat on the banks of the
Euphrates (Baruch i. 3, 4), and shed bitter tears as
they heard the messages of their brethren in Pales-
tine ; or how he dwelt in a sumptuous house and
fair gardens, with his beautiful wife, Susannah,
' more honorable than all others ' (Susannah i.-iv.)."
— W. G. S.]
5. The account of the eleven yews' reign of Zedekiah
only states how that reign came to an end, for be-
sides the standing formula that he did evil in the
Bight of the Lord, it contains only the remark that
he revolted from the king of Babylon. We obtain
a more complete picture of this reign from the de-
scriptions and historical accounts which are pre-
served in the book of Jeremiah, and also to some ex-
tent in the book of Ezekiel. As concerns his atti-
tude towards Jehovah and the law of Moses, he does
not seem to have been himself devoted to idolatry,
but he did not oppose it any more than his brother
Jehoiakim had done. On the contrary, heathenism
and immorality rather increased and spread during
his reign. The atoi r was rolling ; it oould not be
19
stayed any more. The class whose especial duty
it was to oppose this tendency, namely, the priests
and prophets, sank during this time lower and
lower (see Jerem. xxiii.). Then, too, the revolt of
Zedekiah from Nebuchadnezzar was of a very dif-
ferent kind from that of Hezekiah from Sennacherib
(see n<>tes on chap, xviii. 7), nay, it was even worse
than that of his brother Jehoiakim from Pharaoh-
Necho, for he not only owed to Nebuchadnezzar
his crown and his throne (as Jehoiakim had owed
his to Pliaraoh-Necho), but he had also sworn an
oath of allegiance to him. as is expressly stated in
the brief account, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13. This oath
he broke in a frivolous way without any sufficient
reason. The prophet Ezekiel declares that this
oath-breaking was a great sin, not only against him
to whom it was sworn, but also against him by
whom it was sworn, Jehovah, and he evon gives
this as the reason for the ruin of the king and of
the nation (chap. xvii. 18-20): " Seeing he despised
the oath by breaking the covenant, when lol ho
had given his hand, and hath done all these things
he shall not escape. Therefore thus saith tlu
Lord God, As I live, surely mine oath that he hatt
despised, and my covenant that he hath broken,
even it will I recompense upon his own head.
And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall
be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Ba-
bylon, and will plead with him there for his tres-
passes that he hath trespassed against me." He
does not appear in a much better light according to
some facts which Jeremiah mentions. During the
siege of Jerusalem he entered into a solemn cove-
nant with all the people " that every man should
let his manservant, and every man his maidser-
vant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free,
that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of
a Jew his brother." The " princes " and the " peo-
ple " agreed to this and manumitted the serfs or
slaves. But when it was heard that the Egyptian
army was coming to help them, and they thought
that they would not need the freed people any
more, they broke the covenant and reduced them
once more to slavery. This led the prophet to de-
clare : " Therefore, thus saith the Lord : ' Ye have
not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty every
one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor:
behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord,
to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine,
and I will make you to be removed into all the
kingdoms of the earth . . . And Zedekiah king of
Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of
their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek
their life, and into the hand of the king of Baby-
lon's army, which are gone up from you. Behold,
I will command,' saith the Lord, 'and cause them
to return to this city ; and they shall fight against
it and take it and burn it with fire, and I will make
the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabit-
ant'" (Jerem. xxxiv. 8-22). What is narrated in
Jerem. xxxvii. and xxxviii. is still more significant.
At that time of great anxiety and distress the
king sent messengers with this request : Pray for
us to Jehovah 1 then, however, he allowed the offi-
cers to seize Jeremiah, maltreat him, and cast him
into prison, because they were angry at his threats
Not until some time afterwards did he send for Jer-
emiah, though secretly, and ask of him an oracle
of the Lord. Even yet he did not set him free, but.
only granted him a somewhat less severe imprison-
ment. Then, when the prophet repeatedly foi»-
200
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
told the victory of the Chaldeans, the officers and
chiefs demanded his death, and the king replied:
" Behold he is in your hand ; for the king is not he
that can do anything against you." Then they
lowered him into a dungeon in which there was no
water, indeed, but slime, into which he sank, and
where he would have perished wretchedly, if he
had not been rescued through the efforts of an
Ethiopian, Ebedmelech. Even yet, however, he
was held as a prisoner. Still again the king
Bought a secret interview with him, but did not
obey his counsel to give himself up, because he
feared that he should be despised and maltreated
by those Jews who had deserted to the Chaldeans.
He commanded the prophet to keep the interview
a secret, and especially not to let the " princes "
knotr of it. "When finally the Chaldeans penetrated
into the lower city, he took flight by night with
his immediate attendants from the opposite side of
the city, but was soon caught by the Chaldeans,
and brought before Nebuchadnezzar, who caused
him to be blinded, and his sons to be put to death.
From this entire story we see what was the chief
feature in Zedekiah's character: "Weakness, and
weakness of the saddest kind " (Niemeyer). In-
stead of ruling as king, he allows himself to be
controlled by those who stand nearest to him ; he
cannot do anything against them. [Yet it would
not be fair to overlook the fact that a powerful
party of nobles, in a besieged city, where excite-
ment and confusion and anxiety reigned, might
make a strong king powerless to resist a policy on
which they were determined. The party of the
41 princes " seems to have been possessed by that
fanatical patriotism which not unfrequeutly takes
possession of men under such circumstances, and
drives them to heroic folly or foolish heroism.
This passion appeared among the Jews in every
crisis of their history. In this case it pushed the
nation on to its fate, and though Zedekiah was a
weak king, he might have been a strong one and
not have been able to stem this tide. — W. G. S.]
He has good inclinations, but he never attains to
what is good. He demands an oracle of God but
in secret, and, when he receives it, he does not
obey it. His weakness of character makes him
vacillating, false to his word and oath, unjust and
pitiless, cowardly and despondent, and finally leads
him into misery. We have here another example
which shows that weakness and want of character
are the very gravest faults, nay, even a vice, in a
rider. Josephus (Antiq. X. vii. 2) justly says of
Zedekiah: tow tie 6inaiuni Kai TOV 'ifovroc vrr eooxTT/c.
an! yap ol Kara ri]v ift.iniav f/aav aaefteig Tvepl avrov,
nal 6 rrdc o\'/>>r ejf egovoiac, iif$pi£sv a r/&E%e.
6. Zedekiah's end was the end of the royal home
of David and of the Israelitish monarchy. This
dynasty had remained on the throne for nearly 500
years, while, in the seceded kingdom of the ten
tribes, within a period of 250 years, nine dynasties
of nineteen kings reigned, of which each one de-
throned and extirpated the preceding one. " What
a wonder it is to see one dynasty endure through
almost five entire centuries, and that too in the an-
cient times when dynasties usually had but brief
duration, and to see this dynasty, in the midst of
perik and changes, form a centre around which the
nation always formed, so that when it perished at
last, it perished only in the downfall of the nation
Uself. . . . Such a kingdom might fall into t;iiev-
■ rr<,r for a time, but in the long run it must be
brought back by the example of its great hero and
founder David, and by the wealth of experience
which it had won in its undisturbed development,
to the eternal fundamentals of all true religion, and
all genuine life " (Ewald, Gesch. III. s. 419). This
" wonder," however, of the uninterrupted existence
of the dynasty of David does not rest upon human
will or power, but upon the promise which was
given to David (2 Sam. vii. Ssq.): " And thy house
and thy kingdom shall be established forever be-
fore thee ; thy throne shall be established forever "
(ver. 16). The premise on which this promise was
based was the idea that the Old Testament theo-
cratic monarchy was realized in David. This mon-
archy is, as it were, realized in him, and he is not
only the physical ancestor of his family, but the
model for all his successors, according to their
fidelity to which their reigns are estimated and
judged (1 Kings xi. 38; xv. 3, 11 ; 2 Kings xiv. 3;
xvi. 2; xviii. 3; xxii. 2). God sustains the mon-
archy in their hands for David's sake, even when
they do not deserve it, for their own (1 Kings xi.
12; xiii. 32; xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19). When he
went the way of all the earth he left as a bequest
to his son the following words : " Be strong and
show thyself a man. and keep the charge of the
Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his
statutes and his commandments, and his judgments,
and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of
Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou
doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
That the Lord may continue his word which he
spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take
heed to their way, to walk before me in truth, with
all their heart and with all their soul, there shal'
not fail thee, said he, a man on the throne of Is-
rael " (1 Kings ii. 2—4). When, however, after Jo-
siah's death, four kings in succession abandoned
the way of David, and apostasy became a fixed and
permanent tradition, the monarchy ceased to be
what it was its calling and purpose to be ; it was
necessarily doomed to perish. "When the tradi-
tions of evil are maintained, or at least tolerated,
then the monarchy suffers a transformation. Kings
become incapable of executing the duties of their
office, and a divine judgment becomes inevitable.
So it was with the sons of Josiah, whose fate is a
warning beacon on the horizon of history " (Vil-
mar). But, in spite of the inevitable doom of the
nation, the promise to David was fulfilled in its in-
tegrity. Although the external authority of the
house of David ceased with Zedekiah, yet from the
time of his fall the preparation went on, all the
more surely, for the coming of that Son of David
who was to be a king over the house of David for-
ever, and whose kingdom should have no end (Luke
i. 33). The place of the light of the house of David,
which had been extinguished (1 Kings xi. 36 ; 2
Kings viii. 19), was taken, when the time was ful-
filled, by the true light which illumines the whole
world (John i. 9), and which will not be extin-
guished to all eternity. The last king who sat upor>
the throne of David, and who falsely called himself
liTp"TC [The. righteousness of God], served to
point forward, in the Providence of God. and ac
cording to the words of the prophet, to the coming
king and shepherd of his people, whose name
should be called : VtfVl njiT , " The Lord oui
Righteousness " (Jerem. xxiii. 6).
CHAPTER XXIII. 31.-5XT. 1.
291
H01IILETICAX AND PRACTICAL.
See the above paragraphs and compare the ad-
ditional information afforded by the passages above
-quoted from Jeremiah.
Chap, xxiii. 31-xxv. 7. The Four Last Kings
of Judah. (a) The way in which they all walked.
(They all abandoned the living God and His law,
though they had the best model avd example in
their ancestor. They did not listen to the warn-
ings and exhortations of the prophets, but followed
their own lusts. Instead of being good shepherds
of their people, they led them into deeper and
deeper corruption.) (b) The end to which they all
came. (They all learned what misery comes of
abandoning the Lord, Jerem. ii. 19. Two of them
reigned for only three months each; their glory
was like the grass, which in the morning groweth
up, but in the evening is cut down, dried up, and
withered. One of them was forced to go to Egypt,
where he died, and another to go to Babylon, where
he remained a captive for thirty-seven years. Two
of them died miserably : one was dragged to death
and his corpse was thrown out like that of a dead
animal ; the other was forced to see his sons slain
before his eyes, then he was blinded and ended his
days in a prison. The godless, even though they
be princes, perish utterly, Ps. lxxiii. 19. The judg-
ments of God are true and righteous, Rev. xvi. 7 ;
Ps. cxlv. 17.) — Ktbcrz: We are surprised that Je-
hoiakim did not take warning by Jehoahaz, and that
Jehoiachin and Zedekiah did not take warning by
Jehoiakim, but that all made themselves abomina-
ble to God by the same sin ; but how many great
families and races have we seen since then come
to a fearful end, without taking warning by their
fate. On the contrary, we have made ourselves
guilty in his sight with the same or greater sins. —
A dynasty in which apostasy has become hered-
itary and traditional has no blessing or happiness ;
it must sooner or later perish. The words of Ps.
lxxxix. 14: "Justice and judgment are the habit-
ation of thy throne," apply also to an earthly throne.
A throne or a government which lacks this
"habitation " [more correctly, stronghold] has no
sure foundation. It rocks and reels and finally
falls. This is shown by the history of these four
kings, all of whom departed from righteousness
and the law of God, and were guided in their rule
only by political considerations. They became the
sport of ambitious conquerors. — There can be no
greater disgrace or humiliation for a country than
that foreigners should set up or depose rulers for it
according to their whim.
Chap, xxiii. 31 sq. The son's want of loyalty to
the law of God tore down in three months what the
father's zeal had built up by thirty-one years of
anxious labor. How often a son squanders in a
short time what a father has collected by years of
careful toil. — What a responsibility falls upon the
ruler who opens the door again for the return of
the evils which a former government has earnestly
labored to shut out. — Ver. 34. Two brothers stand
in hostile relations to each other. One deposes the
other. They are both sons of the same pious fa-
ther, but they resemble him in nothing — Jehoiakim
and Zedekiah each receive a new name when they
ascend the throne. What is the use, however, of
changing the name when the character is not
changed, or of taking on a name to which the life
does not correspond? — A throne which is bought
with money won by exactions is an abomination in
the sight of God. Jehoiakim does not contributa
anything from his own treasures, but exacts all
from his subjects. He builds great houses and
lives in abundance and luxury, but does not give to
the laborers the wages which they have so well
earned. This is the way of tyrants, but they re-
ceive their reward from him who recompenses each
according to his works (Jerem. xxii. 15-19). Ava-
rice is the root of evil, even among the great and
rich ; it brings them into temptation, 1 Tim. vi. 9. —
Chap. xxiv. 1. To-day the mighty king of Egypt
makes Jehoiakim his vassal, to-morrow the still
more mighty king of Babylon ; such is the fate of
princes who put their trust in an arm of flesh, and
turn away from the Lord instead of calling after
him : " He is my refuge and my fortress, my God,
in him will I trust " (Ps. xei. 2). — Ver. 2. Wvrt.
Sttmm. : It is not a mere chance when at. armed
enemy invades a country ; they are sent by God,
without whom not one could set a foot thereir. It
is a punishment for sin. Therefore let no man take
courage in sin because there is profound peace.
Peace is never so firm that God cannot put an end
to it and send war. — He revolted. He who cannot
bend under the mighty hand of God will not sub-
mit to the human powers in subjection to which he
has been placed by God. Resistance, however, is
vain, for God resisteth the proud. — Kyburz : Hear,
ye kings and judges of the earth! God demands
that ye shall humble yourselves before His mes-
sengers. David did this before Nathan. Do not
think that your majesty is thereby diminished;
God can exalt again those who humble themselves
before him. But, if ye do not do this, God will do
to you as he did to Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. — The
word of the Lord, which He spake to Jehoiakim
by His prophet, the king threw into the fire and
thought that he had thus reduced it to naught
(Jerem. xxxvi. 23), but he was brought to the bitter
experience that the word of the Lord cannot be
burned up, but is, and remains to all eternity, true
and sure. — Vers. 3, 4. The sin of Manasseh was
not visited on his descendants in such a way that
they could say : " The fathers have eaten sour
grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge "
(Jerem. xxxi. 29), for " The son shall not bear the
iniquity of the father " (Ezek. xviii. 20), but the
punishment fell upon Judah because it had made
itself a participant in the crime of Manasseh, and,
like him, had shed innocent blood (Jerem. xxvi.
20-23; see also Ezek. xxxiii. 25 sq.). — Ver. 7. Easy
won, easy lost. This has always been the fortune
of conquerors. What one has won by robbery and
force another mightier takes from him. The Lord
in heaven makes the great small, and the rich poor
(1 Sam. ii. 7 ; Ps. lxxv. 7).
Vers. 8-16. Osiander: As long as the people
of God does not truly repent it has little cause to
rejoice that one or another tyrant is removed, for
a worse one may follow. — " Wheresoever the car-
cass is, there will the eagles be gathered together "
(Matt. xxiv. 28). A nation which is in decay at-
tracts the conquerors, who do not quit it until it is
torn to pieces. — Starke : There is always misery
and danger where there is war, therefore let us
pray to be preserved from war and bloodshed.—
Ver. 12. Instead of calling upon God, Jehoiachin
surrenders himself at once and asks for mercy.
He who does not trust in God soon falls intc
despondency. DeUrant reges. vlectuntnr Achivi. —
292
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
Vers. 14-16. Notice God's mercy and longsuffering
even in his judgments. He still allows the king-
dom to stand, and turns the heart of the enemy so
that he does not yet make an utter end of it (Ezek.
xviii. 23, 32 ; see notes on chap. xxv. 21).
Chap. xxiv. 17 to xxv. 7. Zedekiah, the last
king on David's throne. See Historical § 5. Roos :
Zedekiah is an example of a man who, in spite of
some good traits, finally perishes because he never
can attain to victory over the world and over sin.
He listened unmoved to Jerem. xxvii. 12 sq. and
xxxiv. 2 sq. He made an agreement with the
people to keep a year of manumission (Jerem.
xxxiv. 8). He desired that Jeremiah should pray
to the Lord for him and for his people (chap, xxxvii.
3). He rescued Jeremiah from a fearful dungeon
into which he had been cast without the king's au-
thority, asked of him secretly a divine oracle, and
Mused him to be brought into an endurable prison
(chap, xxxvii. 17 sq.). He saved him once more
from a terrible prison and asked once more pri-
vately for the divine oracle (chap, xxxviii). Yet
in the midst of all this he remained a slave of sin.
He asked and listened, but did not obey. His pur-
poses had no endurance or energy. He was a king
whom his nobles had succeeded in overpowering.
He feared them more than God. He had no cour-
age to trust God's word and he feared where there
was no reason (chap, xxxviii. 19 sq.). On the other
hand he allowed himself to be persuaded by his
counsellors and nobles (chap, xxxviii. 22). He
hoped for miracles such as had been performed in
early times, particularly in the time of Hezekiah
(chap. xxi. 2), although he had no promises of God
to serve as a ground for such hope. He trusted
in the strength of the fortification of Jerusalem
(chap. xxi. 13), and did not believe what Jeremiah
foretold in regard to the destruction of this city. —
Chap. xxiv. 20. Zedekiah broke his oath for the
sake of earthly gain and honor. Be not deceived,
God will not be mocked. He who calls upon God
and then fails of his word mocks at Him who can
ruin soul and body in hell. All the misery and
woe which befell Zedekiah came from his perjury
(Ezek. xvii. 18*}.). Pfaff: We must keep faith
even with unbelievers and enemies (Josh. ix. 19). —
A prince who breaks his own oath cannot complair.
when his subjects break their oath of allegiance to
him.. — Chap. xxv. 1 sq. Starke: When the rod
does not avail, God sends the sword (Ezek. xxi. 13
and 14). — Ver. 3. Cramer : God often punishes
loathing of His word by physical hunger (Lament.
iv. 10). — Vers. 4-6. Wurt. Summ. : When God
means to punish a sinner no wall or weapon avails
to protect him (Jerem. xlvi. 6). — Starke : If we
will not take that road to escape which God has
given us we cannot escape at all (Hos. xiii. 19;.
Jerem. ii. 17). — Ver. 7. Starke: Many parents, by
their godless behavior, bring their children into-
temporal and eternal ruin. Such children will
some day have just cause to cry out against their
parents (Sir. xli. 10). — A punishment which is de-
served must be inflicted upon the just condemna-
tion of the proper authority, but even the mightiest
earthly power has no right to torture a convict.
The civil authority is indeed an avenger to punish
the guilty, and it does not carry the sword in vain,
but it ceases to be God's servant when it becomes
bloodthirsty and delights in pain.
B. — Fall of the Kingdom of Jvdah; Jehoiachin set at Liberty.
Chap. XXV. 8-30. (Jerem. LII. 12-34.)
8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nine-
teenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan,
9 captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem : And
he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of
Jerusalem, and every great mail's [omit mail's '] house burnt he with fire.
10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with ' the captain of the guard,
11 brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people
that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Baby-
lon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the
12 guard carry away. But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to
13 be [read to be] vinedressers and husbandmen.' And the pillars of brass that
were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the
house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of
14 them to Babylon. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the
spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered [the service was
15 performed], took they away. And the firepans, and the bowls [sprinklers],
and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of
16 the guard took away. The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon
had made for the house of the Lord ; the brass of all these vessels was without
17 weight. The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter
[capital] upon it was brass ; and the height of the chapiter three cubits ; and'
the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of
brass- and like unto those had the second pillar with wreathen work.
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
293
x8 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah
19 the second priest, and the three keepers of the door: And out of the city he
took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that
were in the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal
[win principal] scribe of the [captain of the] host, which mustered the people
of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the
20 city : And Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to
21 the king of Babylon to Riblah : And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew
them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their
22 land. And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchad-
nezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of
23 Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler. And when all the captains of the armies,
they and their [the] men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah
governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Netha-
niah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the
Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
24 And Gedaliah aware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not
to be [omit to be] the servants of the Chaldees : dwell in the land, and serve the
25 king of Babylon ; and it shall be well with you. But it came to pass in the
seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the
seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died [and
put him to death], and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Miz-
26 pah. And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies,
arose, and came to Egypt : for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
27 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Je-
hoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day
of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to
28 reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison ; And he
spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were
29 with him in Babylon ; [.] And [he] changed his prison garments: and he did
eat bread continually before him [in his presence, «• «•> at his table] all the days
30 of his life. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king,
a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL.
- » er. 9. |_7?iT3 JV3 . The translators took the stat. const, to mean house of a great (*c. man). It Is a case, how-
ever, of an adjective bound somewhat more closely to its substantive by the stat. const. = every great house, mansion.
Of. 123 t'fj , chap, xviii. 17. Ew. § 287, 1.
3 Ver. 10. [" After -|t5>K we must supply J1X from Jerem lii. U." Ew. Lehrb. s. 737, ut 1.— W. G. S.]
3 Ver. 12. For the chetib D^?} the keri presents 0*03 V^ aB in Jerem. lii. 16. The signification is the same.-
Bahr.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE PERIOD FROM THE FALL
* OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL TO THE FALL
OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH.
Although the chronology of this period presents
.ar fewer difficulties than that of the two former
ones (pp. 86 and 180), yet a certain transmutation
of its data into dates of the Christian era is hardly
possible, for this reason, that the number of years
stated as the duration of each reign does not always
represent so many complete twelvemonths, and,
■)f course, the years intended are not years of the
Christian era, so that one year of a reign may fall
in two different years "before Christ," and two
years of these reigns may fall in one year B. c.
We cannot, therefore, avoid some uncertainties in
the transfer from one to the other of these two
modes of reckoning, and a difference of a single
year cannot demand an explanation, or vitiate the
calculation.
(a) Let us start from the fixed date which we
have reached above (p. 181), 721 b. c, the year of
the fall of Samaria. As this was the sixth year of
Hezekiah, who reigned twenty-nine years (2 Kinga
xviii. 10), there remain twenty-three years of his
reign to be reckoned into this period. This gives
us the following results : —
Reigned for
Hezekiah 23 years longer, l. e., until 698.
Manasseh
55 "
(chap. xxi. 1) "
" 643
Amon
2 "
(chap. xxi. 19) "
" 641
Josiah
31 "
(chap. xxii. 1) "
" 610
Jehoahaz
3 mos.
(chap, xxiii. 31)
Jehoiakim
11 yrs.
(chap, xxiii. 36) "
" 599
Jehoiachin
3 mos.
(chap. xxiv. 8)
Zedekiah
11 yrs.
(chap. xxiv. 18) "
" 588
294
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
The Book of Chronicles agrees exactly in all these
dates. There is no variant in regard to a single
one of them ; the old versions have them exactly
as they are given in the Hebrew text, and Josephus
also gives the same. We are, therefore, as sure of
these numbers as of any. Some modern scholars
have taken scruples at the long reign of fifty-five
years which is ascribed to Manasseh, and have
shortened it arbitrarily either to thirty-five years
(Movers, Von Gumpach), or to forty-five years
(Bunsen, Wolff). This change, however, is inad-
missible, for it necessitates other changes and
throws the whole chronology into confusion. [This
change is made in the interest of what is known as
the " shorter period " foi the space of history which
is here included. The grounds for it are found in
the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian chronol-
ogies. The problem is very complex, and the solu-
tion of it is hampered at many points by the uncer-
tainty of many of the data. The majority of
scholars have not, therefore, thought it wise to
make any changes in the Hebrew chronology, to
bring it into accord with that of contemporary na-
tions, until the latter shall be more satisfactorily
determined. Those who desire to attempt, even
now, to bring about an accord, find it necessary to
shorten the time which is required by the sum of
the reigns for this period, and they see in the long
reign ascribed to Manasseh the point where the
error is most likely to lie. — W. G. S.] The time
for which the kingdom of Judah outlasted the king-
dom of Israel amounts to 133 years. The six
months for which Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin reigned
are here left out of the account, and with justice,
for it can hardly be that the years ascribed to the
other reigns were all full twelvemonths. It is im-
material whether each three months' reign is reck-
oned into the preceding or the following reign. It
is possible that Zedekiah did not ascend the throne
until 598, so that he reigned until 587, but in no
case can his dethronement be placed later than
587. Instead of the year 588, in which, according
to our reckoning, the fall of Jerusalem took place,
many have lately adopted 586 as the date of that
event. Bunsen, starting from the very uncertain
Assyrio-Egyptian chronology, puts the fall of Sa-
maria in 709 instead of in 721. He would be
obliged, if he admitted 133 years for the subsequent
duration of the kingdom of Judah, to put the fall of
Jerusalem in 576, but, as he sees that this is inad-
missible, he arbitrarily cuts off ten years from the
reign of Manasseh and thus reaches the date 586.
Ewald also adopts the date 586, but he reaches it
by putting the fall of Samaria in 719 instead of in
721. This obliges him to set the date of accession
of each of the following kings two years later than
our dates, and thus he arrives at 586 instead of
588. We saw above (p. 181) that the date 719 is
incorrect ; with the incorrectness of this date, the
date 586 falls to the ground. If, as we have seen,
the date 721 is certainly established, then 588 is
the only date which can be correct for the fall of
Jerusalem, for, even if we suppose that all the years
of all the reigns were full years, they only amount
to 133 years.
(b) Besides the statements as to the duration of
these reigns, we have the following chronological
data in regard to them : (1) The thirteenth year of
Josiah is given as the year in which Jeremiah first
appeared as a prophet (Jerem. i. 1). This was the
year 628 for Josiah began to reign in 641. Also
the eighteenth year of Josiah is mentioned as tin
year of his reformation and celebration of the pass-
over — that is, 623 (2 Kings xxii. 3 ; xxiii. 23). Ai
Josiah was slain in his battle with Necho, the in-
vasion of Asia by the latter took place in Josiah'a
thirty-first year, that is, in 610. The invasion of
Judah by the Scyths, which is not mentioned at all
in the historical books, must have taken place dur-
ing the reign of Josiah, not before the public ap-
pearance of Jeremiah (628), and not after the great
reformation (623). Duncker sets it in the fourteenth
year of Josiah's reign, that is, 627. [See the Supp.
Note, p. 285.] — (2) King Jehoiakim ascended the
throne either at the very end of 610, or perhaps in
609, for Jehoahaz reigned for three months after
Josiah's death. According to Jerem. xlvi. 2, the
great battle at Carchemish, in consequence of which
Nebuchadnezzar advanced into Palestine, took place
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, that is, in 605 or
604 (see notes on chap, xxiii. 36). In this same
fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah caused to be
written down his prophecies, which were solemnly
read in public in the following year, on a great ho-
liday (Jerem. xxxvi. 1, 9). Up to this time, there-
fore, Jehoiakim was not yet subject to Nebuchad-
nezzar ; he cannot have become so until the end of
605 or the beginning of 604. He revolted after
three years (2 Kings xxiv. 1), that is, in 602 or 601.
Chaldean and other forces harassed him from that
time until his death in 599 (2 Kings xxiv. 2 sq. ). —
(3) As Jehoiachin only reigned three months, it
may well be that Zedekiah ascended the throne
before the end of the year (599) in which Jehoiakim
died. His fourth year, in which, according to
Jerem. li. 59, he made a journey to Babylon, was,
therefore, 595 ; certainly it was not 593, as Duncker
and Ewald state, for, if he had not become king
until the beginning of 598, this journey would fall,
at the latest, in 594 In his ninth year, 590, the
Chaldeans appeared before Jerusalem (chap. xxv. 1).
In his tenth year (589), while the city was being
besieged, he ordered Jeremiah to be imprisoned
(Jerem. xxxii. 1). In his eleventh year (588), Je-
rusalem was taken, and Zedekiah was blinded and
taken away captive to Babylon. In this same
year occurred the destruction of the temple and
of the city (2 Kings xxv. 4, 8).
(c) Several synchronisms are given between the
reigns of the Jewish kings and that of Nebuchad-
nezzar. According to Jerem. xxv. 1, the first year
of Nebuchadnezzar was the fourth of Jehoiakim
(606), that is (see above), the year of the battle of
Carchemish (Jerem. xlvi. 2). This first year of
Nebuchadnezzar aud fourth of Jehoiakim waa
also, according to Jerem. xxv. 1-3, the twenty-
third year of Jeremiah's work as prophet, which
began (Jerem. i. 2) in the thirteenth year of Josiah
(628). According to 2 Kings xxiv. 12, Nebuchad-
nezzar took Jehoiachin prisoner in his own eighth
year, that is, in 509, in which year, as we have
seen above, the three months' reign of Jehoiachin
fell. Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year corre-
sponds, according to Jerem. xxxii. 1, to the tenth
year of Zedekiah, that is, since Zedekiah became
king in 599, 589, and his nineteenth year, in which
he took Jerusalem (2 Kings xxv. 8 ; Jerem. lii. 2),
corresponds to the eleventh year of Zedekiah (2
Kings xxv. 2). This is the year 588. In Jerem.
lii. 28 sq., the seventh year is given instead of tha
eighth, and the eighteenth instead of the nine-
teenth of Nebuchadnezzar, but we shall «ee be-
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
2t>5
low, in the appendix to the Exegetkal notes, that
this difference, which only amounts at best to one
year, is only apparent and not real. It cannot in-
validate the calculation. The last chronological
statement which occurs in the book is that, in the
thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity, Evil-
Merodach, Nebuchadnezzar's successor, released
Jehoiachin from his prison in Babylon (chap. xxv.
27 ; Jerem. lii. 31). As the exile took place in
the year 599 (see above under a), the liberation
must have occurred in 562. According to Jose-
phus (Antiq. x. 11, 1) Nebuchadnezzar reigned
for forty-three years. We have seen above that
he became king in 606 ; his death, therefore, took
place in 562. In this year Evil-Merodach follow-
ed him, and, on his accession, he showed grace to
Jehoiachin.
Thus the chronological statements in reference
to this period which are presented by the Bible
stand in the fullest accord with each other, and
we have the more reason to hold to them, inas-
much as they are consistent with those of the
former period. It is not our duty to inquire
whether they agree with the results of the Assy-
rian and Egyptian investigations. We need only
remark that these results are based, partly upon
later unbiblical authors, and partly on attempts to
decipher old Asiatic inscriptions, which have as
yet produced no certain results, so that, as Rosch
says : " They are not yet by any means so firmly
established that they could force us to surrender
the data of the Old Testament." [See the Appendix
<m the Chronology.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL.
Ver. 8. And in the fifth month, on the sev-
enth day. Instead of the seventh day, Jerem.
lii. 12 gives the tenth day. As the tenth day was
the day on which Nebuchadnezzar came to Jeru-
salem, according to that passage, it is impossible
to assume, with the Rabbis, that the seventh day
was the day that the burning commenced, and the
tenth the day on which it ended. Also in ver. 17
Jeremiah has five cubits instead of three, and in
ver. 19 seven men instead of five. The difference
in these numbers is to be explained by a mistake
in the numeral-letters. In ver. 17 the number five
is unquestionably correct (cf. 1 Kings vii. 16; 2
Chron. iii. 15), and in this verse the number ten (')
no doubt is to be preferred to seven (J). In fact,
the text of Jeremiah is in many respects to be pre-
ferred. Josephus (Bella Jud. 6, 4, 8) states that
Herod's temple was burned on the tenth of the
fifth month, and adds that it was a marvellous
coincidence that the first temple was burned on
the same day by the Babylonians. — The nine-
teenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar. See the
Chronological section above. — Nebuzar-adan. On
the etymology and signification of this name see
Gesenius, Thesaurus II., p. 839, and Furst, H.- W.-
B. II., s. 6. [The former interprets it by Mercurii
iux dominus, i. e., dux cui Mercurius favei], the lat-
ter considers it equivalent to the Hebrew expres-
sion which immediately follows : DTQO'QT PC),
t «., literally : The captain of the executioners,
the one who commands those who are commis-
sioned to execute the king's commands, especially
his death-sentences, and so, in general, the captain
tfihe [royal] guard (Gen. xxxvii. 36). [" It is prob-
ably a Hebrew corruption of Nebu-zir-iddin, which
means Nebo-has-given-offspring " (Rawlinson).
This is the only explanation which has any value,
since it alone rests on an etymological study of
Chaldee names. — W. G. S.J The supplementary
description in Jerem. lii. 12: "Who stood before
the king of Babylon," designates him as the first
and highest officer who stood nearest to the king.
He therefore remained in the camp at Riblah with
the king, and only went to Jerusalem for the exe-
cution, and not, as Thenius thinks, in order to
bring the siege to a conclusion. [It is laying too
much stress on the primary signification of the
word, which, moreover, is incorrect, to suppose
that he did not go up to the city until it had been
taken, and that then his business was to " exe-
cute " upon it the vengeance or punishment ordain-
ed by the king. He went up as the chief officer of
the king "to bring the siege to a conclusion," to
take possession of the city in the king's name, and
to carry out the king's determinations in regard
to it.— W. G. S.]
Ver. 9. And he burnt the house of the
Lord, &c. We see what is meant by TQ-^ ,
all the houses, from 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19, where we
read : ITniJEnX"^ , all the palaces. He left the
small houses standing for the poor and humble
people who were left behind. — In Jer. lii. 14 we
find $>3 before nbin in ver. 10. It has been
omitted here by some accident, or because it was
regarded as a matter of course ; it is by no means
"an arbitrary exaggeration" (Thenius). On the
other hand we must supply J-|X before 21 on the
authority of the passage in Jeremiah. Many old
MSS. contain it, and all the versions supply it
Nebuzar-adan directed the work of destruction;
the entire army fulfilled his commands. — The
exiles were composed, as the repetition of riXl
shows, of " remnants " (IIV) of tw0 classes ; first,
of those whom famine, pestilence, and sword had
yet spared, and those who had deserted to the
Chaldeans; and, secondly, of JlDnn , or, as we
read in Jerem. lii. 15 liDXH , which Hitzig de-
clares to be the original reading, and to mean
master-workman in a collective sense, comprising
both the classes which are mentioned in Jerem.
xxiv. 1. The parallel passage, however, in Jerem.
xxxix. 9 does not admit of this interpretation, for
there we read: D'TXtran DJjn "ITY1 ■ DSCT is not
a synonym of [IDS!! (master-workman), but rf
Jionn (multitude). This latter word is used for
the mass of the people, and especially for the mul-
titude of persons capable of bearing arms (Isai.
xiii. 4; xxxiii. 3; Judges iv. 7; Dan. xi. 11). We
must understand this class of exiles to be the re-
mainder of the able-bodied male population who
were capable of bearing arms (Thenius). In
fl!2H71 , X is an error for n . The one class
were inhabitants of the city ; the other were per-
sons who had belonged to the army without being
inhabitants of the city. — VTXH Ty?*\ , ver. 12, is
used as in chap. xxiv. 14. The words do not mean
that he left vinedressers and husbandmen, b'j<. aj
296
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
is stated in Jerem. xxxix. 10, that he "left of the
poor of the people, which had nothing, in the
land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields
at the same time." The Chaldee version has it,
"that they might cultivate vineyards and fields."
The land was not to remain desert and unculti-
vated.
Ter. 13. And the pillars of brass, Ac. In
regard to these pillars, and the bases, and the sea,
see notes on 1 Kings vii. 15-39. The ripifD
(sprinklers), mentioned in Jerem. lii. 18, are not
named among the utensils enumerated in ver. 14
(for description of which see notes on 1 Kings vii.
40, 50); they are mentioned in ver. 15. In ver.
15 we have the utensils of the forecourt, aud in
ver. 15 those of the sanctuary. It is expressly
stated in Jerem. xxvii. 19, 21 that there remained
after the first spoliation, chap. xxiv. 13, a portion
of these utensils which may have been hidden
away at that time. The parallel passage, Jerem.
lii. 19, adds four more to the utensils which are
mentioned in ver. 15. In general the account
here is brief, and all articles not mentioned are
summarily disposed of by the words : " such
things as were of gold, in gold, and such things
as were of silver, in silver," i. e., " so much as
there was to be found of either kind " (Thenius).
— rip? is not to be supplied in ver. 16 from ver.
15, and D'HlSJfn , &c, are not the objects of this
verb. The verse means to show that there was
such a mass of the brass which was carried away
that it could not be weighed. D,"1:lt3yn is a no-
minative absolute. As for the pillars, Ac., the
mass of the brass was so great, &c. triN with
Qsn stands in contrast to D'JK' with DHIBWI •
t - • - : - t
There were two of the pillars but only one sea. —
In ver. 17 the author recurs to the pillars in order
to say that they were very valuable, not only on
account of the mass of the brass which was on
them (ver. 16), but also on account of the artistic
labor which had been spent upon them. Cvt7 i
as has been said above, is an error, the con-
sequence of mistaking the numeral character, for
the height of the capital of the column, according
to the consistent statements in 1 Kings vii. 16; 2
Chron. iii. 15; and Jerem. lii. 22 was five cubits.
H33t;'n-7y , at the end of the verse, is difficult, for
the second column was in all respects, and not
simply in respect to the " wreathen work," like to
the first. Moreover, the wreathen work was not
the most remarkable feature in these columns, so
as to deserve to be especially mentioned. Thenius
sees in the clause " the residuum of a sentence
which is given in full in Jeremiah" [lii. 23], and
which closes with the words y2D n33tMrr?y •
We must admit either that the original account
[which was used by the author of " Kings "] was
here too much abbreviated by him, or else that
the text at this point is defective. The account
in Jeremiah is, at this point, fuller and more
satisfactory. As this author had already given a
full description of these things in 1 Kings vii.
15-22, he did not think it necessary to go into de-
tail here.
Ver. 18. And the captain of the guard took
Seraiah. The persons who are mentioned here
aud in ver. 19 are not the same ones who ar«
called, in Jerem. xxxix. 6, D'lh , and who were
put to death with the sons of Zedekiah, for these
were first captured by Nebuzar-adan after the taking
of the city. Seraiah is not the person of that name
who is mentioned in Jerem. 1L 59, but the grand-
father or great-grandfather of Ezra (see Ezra vii. 1 ;
1 Chron. v. 40). Zephaniah was no doubt the son of
the priest Maaseiah, who, although a priest of the
second rank (see notes on chap, xxiii. 4), appears
to have been a person of importance (Jerem. xxi.
2; xxix. 25, 29; xxxvii. 3). The three keepers
of the door were the chiefs of the body of levites
who guarded the temple; one was stationed at
each of the three main entrances to the temple
(Jerem. xxxviii. 14); according to Josephus: rove
(pvAaocovrac to iepbv qyefidvac. The chief royal offi-
cers were also taken, together with these chief
men in the personnel of the temple (ver. 19). -py
stands in contrast with the temple; whether it has
the narrower meaning of the " City of David " (The-
nius), is uncertain. D,-ID cannot mean a eunuch
here, any more than in chap. xx. 18, and xxiv. 12.
The command of soldiers would never be intrusted
to such a person. Jerem. lii. 25 has ITn instead
T T
of N1H , evidently more correctly, for he was so no
longer. We cannot tell whether five men of those
who belonged to the king's immediate circle were
carried away, as is here stated, or seven, as is
stated in Jerem. lit 25. The diverse statements
are the result of some error in reading or copying
the numerals. Hitzig : " Seven persons are men-
tioned as having been chosen to be a sacrifice on
account of the mystical significance of that num-
ber," but the number five, half of ten, which was
the number for a complete whole incorporated of
parts, may also have had mystical significance.
The reason why just this number, whether five or
seven, were taken appears to be given in the rela-
tive clause which follows, and that is that there
were just so many left in the city. S3SH "if is a
genitive after "ISDH [the scribe of the captain ot
the host], and X3Vt3i"I is not to be joined with -ie»
but with isbn [the scribe who was put on the
staff of the commander-in-chief, and whose duty it
was to enroll the persons liable to military service,
&c] The article with -\QD (it is wanting in Jerem.
lii. 25) shows that that is not a proper name in ap-
position with " Captain of the host," as the Tulg.
and Luther understand it : " Sopher, the com-
mander of the army." It means the general's
clerk, the officer who had charge of the writing
which might be required. " Perhaps the com-
mander himself had fled with the king " (Thenius).
[Of course any one who filled this office at a time
when writing was a special accomplishment would
be a person of far more importance than a military
clerk now is. The Babylonian king thought him
an officer whom it was worth while to put to death
among the high officials ol the- kingdom. — ] The
threescore men of the people of the land, who
were put to death with the chief officers, were
either " the due's of the rebellion with their im-
mediate followers-' (Von Gerlacli), or -Sich at
CHAPTER XXY. 8-30.
297
aad in some way distinguished themselves above
others in the defence of the city " (Keil). It is
very doubtful whether they were, as Thenius
thinks, the handful that were left of the garrison
of the city of David, and the opinion of Hitzig and
Bertheau that they were the country people who
had fled into the citadel is very improbable. — Vex.
21 So Judah was carried out of their land.
" Xebuzar-adan took up his march toward Riblah,
not only with these who were destined to death,
but also with all the people of Judah " (Hitzig).
This sentence evidently closes the history, like
Jerem. lii. 27, and chap. xvii. 23. At the same
time it forms the introduction to what follows.
Thus was Judah (that is, the mass and strength of
the nation) led away into captivity. As for those
who were left behind (the comparatively smaH,
and poor, and weak portion), Nebuchadnezzar set
Gedaliah over them.
Ver. 22. And as for the people that remain-
ed in the land of Judah. What is here narrated
in vers. 22 to 26 is omitted in Jerem. lii. because it
is narrated, in that book, in chaps, xl. and xli.,
i»nd in much fuller detail. The verses before us
form only an extract from that account, which is
here inserted in its proper historical connection. —
Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar appointed gover-
nor, was the son of Ahikam, who is mentioned in
chap. xxii. 12 as a man of importance under Josiah,
and who, according to Jerem. xxvi. 24, saved the
life of the prophet when, during Jehoiakim's reign,
he was in danger of falling a victim of popular
rage. Gedaliah, like his father, was a friend of
the prophet. He shared the prophet's judgment in
regard to the wise policy to be pursued, and joined
with him in advising Zedekiah to surrender to the
Babylonians (Jerem. xxxviii. 11). Hence Nebu-
chadnezzar, after he had taken the city, intrusted
the prophet, who until then had lain in captivity,
to the care and protection of Gedaliah (Jerem.
xxxix. 14; xl. 6). — The captains of the armies,
they and the men, &c. Instead of D'tMKfl we
find in Jerem. xl. 7: DiTtl'JN, their men. These
are they " who were scattered when the king was
captured, so that Jerem. xl. 7 describes them as
those ' which were in the fields ' " (Thenius).
Mizpah was a city in the territory of Benjamin
(Josh. xiii. 26), some hours' journey north-west of
Jerusalem. Here, in this city, which was situated
in a high position and strongly fortified (1 Kings
xv. 22), the governor established himself, as he
could not live in the destroyed city of Jerusalem.
Ishmael, according to ver. 25, was the grandson of
Elishama, the "ISD of king Jehoiakim (Jerem.
xxxvi. 12, 20). For further particulars in regard
to Johanan see Jerem. xl. 13 sq. ; xli. 11 sq. Jona-
than is mentioned with him, Jerem. xl. 8, as an-
other son of Careah. Possibly the similarity of
the names caused the latter to be omitted in this
place. Seraiah came from Netopha, which appears
to have lain between Bethlehem and Anathoth (Ezra
ii. 22 ; Nehem. vii. 26). Jaazaniah came from
Maa>:ha, which is mentioned in 2 Sam. x. 6, 8 ; 1
Chron. xix. 6, and Josh. xii. 5, together with
Syrian districts, and, in Deut. iii. 14, is mentioned
as lying on the boundary of the country east of the
Jordan. He was, therefore, a naturalized alien. —
By the servants of the Chaldees (ver 24) we
have to understand the officers whom Nebuchad-
nezzar had left to govern the country, and whom
he had perhaps put under Gedaliah's command
The latter, therefore, makes promises on their be
half, provided that the Jewish captains would ac-
quiesce in the new order of things. — Ver. 25. In
the seventh month, that is, only two months af-
ter the destruction of Jerusalem (ver. 8). Of the
seed royal ; this is expressly stated in order to
show what incited him to this action. He believed
that he, as a descendant of the royal house, had a
claim to the position of governor. According to
Jerem. xl. 14 he was also incited to this action by
Baalis, king of the Ammonites, who no doubt
would have been very glad to throw off the Chal-
dean yoke. — The author breaks off abruptly with
ver. 26, and simply states the result of this act.
The people, fearing the return and vengeance of
the Chaldeans, fled into Egypt. For further de-
tails see Jerem. xl.-xlii.
Ver. 27. In the seven and thirtieth year of
the captivity. See the Chronological Remarks above.
In Jerem. lii. 31 the twenty-fifth day is given in-
stead of the twenty-seventh, in the Hebrew text,
and in the Sept. the twenty-fourth, evidently in
consequence of a mistake in the numerals. We
see from this accuracy in the date what significance
was attached to the event. Evilmerodach was the
son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar. He only
reigned two years and was put to death by his
brother-in-law, Neriglassar (Berosus, cited in Jo-
sephus c. Apion. i. 20). The signification of Evil is
uncertain. Merodach, or Berodach, was the name of
the Babylonian Mars. We find it in the composi-
tion of other proper names also (see notes on xx.
12). In the year that he became king. For
1370 we find in Jerem. lii. 31: 'irpi>B , i- «•, of his
reign, equivalent to : When he came to be king.
This is evidently more correct. Sept. : h> ro eviav-
Ttj rf/c paoiteiac aiirov. C'SO-JIX KfeO , as in Gen.
xl. 13, 20, means, To lift up the head (for some one),
i. e., inasmuch as captives moved about in despon-
dency, with bowed heads, to lift up their heads is
to release them from captivity, despair, and misery
(Job x. 15, cf. Judges viii. 28). Here again the
text before us is abbreviated. It omits NV'l,
which is found in Jerem. lii. 31, before JV30 .
This deliverance from captivity was an act of grace
performed by him at his accession, but there seems
to have been a special ground for it in the case of
Jehoiachin, as he was preferred before the other
captive kings. ["The rabbis say that Evilmero-
dach had formed a friendship with Jehoiachin in
prison, into which Nebuchadnezzar had cast the
former because he had been guilty of excesses in
carrying on the government during an illness of
the king, and had expressed pleasure at the same ;
evidently a fiction based on this passage and Dan.
iv." (Thenius).] — And set his throne above, &c,
ver. 28. This certainly means that he gave him
the preference and the higher rank. Whether he
merely held him in higher estimation (Rosenmuller,
Keil), or " allowed him actually to occupy a more
elevated seat " (Hitzig, Thenius), is not a matter of
importance. The kings that were with him in
Babylon, are " those who, having been deprived,
like Jehoiachin, of heir kingdoms, were forced tc
298
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
enhance the triumph and glory of the court at Baby-
lon, cf. Judges i. 7 " (Hitzig). — Ver. 29. And
changed his prison-garmeuts. Instead of the
late Aramaic form NSC' we find in Jerem. Hi. 33
T •
nst'- The subject is not Evilmerodach (Hitzig),
but Jehoiachin, who is the subject of the following
verb ^3N1 ■ In y>n the suffix can only refer to
— t : t - "
Jehoiachin and not to Evilmerodach. It would be
a false inference, therefore, that Jehoiachin's period
of grace only lasted through Evilmerodach's short
reign. "Jehoiachin ate in person at the royal
table, but he probably also received an allowance
for the support of his little court, consisting of his
servants and attendants " (Hitzig). Here again this
text is abbreviated. In Jeremiah there follow af-
ter inra the words: "until his death." Here
those words are omitted as unnecessary after : all
the days of his life. The Sept. also have these
words in this place. The fact that they omit them
in Jerem. lii. 34 does not justify the assumption of
Thenius that they were borrowed from ver. 29,
and are not original in that place. Hitzig very
properly declares that they are " evidently genu-
ine," and adds: "In ver. 11 'all the days of his
life ' might well be omitted. Here, however, where
he narrates something joyful, the author looks back
once more, after fixing the term or limit, over the
entire period of good fortune. Cf. 1 Kings v. 1 ;
xv. 5." He wants to tell once more what good
fortune Jehoiachin enjoyed until the end of his life,
and how Evilmerodach at least had the intention of
providing for him. This good fortune lasted until
Jehoiachin's death, whether he died before or after
Evilmerodach.
Appendix. — After the words : So Judah was
carried away out of their land, there follows, in
Jerem. Hi. 28-30, the following statement, which is
omitted in the book of Kings: "This is the people
whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive ; in
the seventh year three thousand Jews and three
and twenty. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchad-
rezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem
eight hundred thirty and two persons. In the
three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Ne-
buzar-adan, the captain of the guard, carried away
captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five
persons. All the persons were four thousand and
six hundred." 2 Kings xxv. 22-26 is wanting in
Jeremiah lii. because its statements had been given
In detail in chaps, xl. and xli. ; the statements above
quoted are inserted in Jerem. lii. because they had
not been given before, as they are in 2 Kings, in
chap. xxiv. 14-16. The numbers given in Jere-
miah vary very much from those in Kings. The
former, however, are recommended, as Hitzig says,
by their detail ; they cannot have been invented.
They are evidently derived from a different source,
and the only question is, what relation does that
source bear to the statements in the book of Kings ?
Of the three separate deportations mentioned, one
took place in the seventh, and one in the eighteenth,
year of Nebuchadnezzar. These can be no other
than the one which took place according to 2 Kings
xxiv. 12, in the eighth, and the one which took
place according to 2 Kings xxv. 8 and Jerem. lii.
12. in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
The eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar would be.
as is expressly stated in Jerem. xxxii. 1. the tent);
of Zedekiah, that is, the year in which Jerusalem
was first besieged. There cannot have been any
deportation in this year. Again, the seventh year
of Nebuchadnezzar would not be the year in which
Jehoiachin reigned for three months, and in which
it is said that he and ten thousand others were led
into exile, but the last year of Jehoiakim. In this
year there was no deportation. We are therefore
compelled to assume, if we wiU not alter all the
other chronological data in the book of Jeremiah
itself, that the original document from which
Jerem. lii. 28-30 is derived, reckons the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar from auother starting-point from
that which is adopted in the book of Kings and
elsewhere in Jeremiah. This may weH be, inas-
much as the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign do not
coincide exactly with those of the Jewish kings.
The difference, however, only amounts to one year.
The third deportation in the twenty-third year
must, therefore, have taken place in the twenty-
fourth year. It is not mentioned in Kings at all,
but no doubt took place. In view of the continual
disposition to revolt, it is very likely that he carried
off more of the people in his twenty-third or twen-
ty-fourth year, especiaUy as he was at that time
busy besieging Tyre. He intrusted this duty to
the same officer who had had charge of the previous
deportation. There is a much more serious diffi-
culty in regard to the number of the exiles. Ac-
cording to Jerem. lii. 28 there were only 3,023 in
the first deportation ; according to 2 Kings xxiv.
14 there were 10,000. Josephus says there were
10,832. Evidently he has joined the 10,000 in
Kings, for the first deportation, with the 832 in
Jeremiah for the second (Antiq. x. 1, 1). Thenius
suggests that the sign for ten (yod) may have re-
sembled the sign for three (gimel) in the original
document from which these statements are derived,
and so 3,023 took the place of 10,023. This last
would then be the accurate number for which
10,000 is the round number. But the sum given
at the end, 4,600, supports 3,023 in this place, and
this testimony cannot be put aside by the critical
decree that : " The summation at the end was in-
terpolated by the redactor." According to Ewald,
" mL"J) has faUen out after JQE» in ver. 28 just
as certainly as it has fallen out after njICL" in
the statement of Jehoiachin's life in 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 9." According to this we should have to
take it as referring, not to the deportation men-
tioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 14, but to the later one
under Zedekiah. The seventeenth of Nebuchad-
nezzar was the 9th of Zedekiah, and in that year
Nebuchadnezzar advanced against Jerusalem (2
Kings xxv. 1). He took the city in Zedekiah's
eleventh year (2 Kings xxv. 2), and before that no
deportation can have taken place. The discrep-
ancy between 10,000 and 3,023 can hardly be ac-
counted for otherwise than by the explanation of
Estius. In ver. 28 the 3,023 are expressly men-
tioned as "Jews," that is, persons who belonged
to the tribe of Judah. The 10,000 included persons
not of that tribe, Benjamites and others who had
joined themselves to Judah, since it alone repre-
sented the Israelitish nationality, and who made
common cause with it against the Chaldeans.
There may well have been 7,000 of these, and the
entire number in the first captivity, in hiding the
3,023 " Jews," was thus 10,000. It is evident that
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
299
the statements in Jerem. lii. 28-30 are meant to
apply only to the persons of the tribe of Judah
(see rVTOT ver. 27), and not to all who were car-
ried away captive. This opinion is also favored
by the number 4,600 as the sum of the exiles, for
this number would be far too small for the sum of
all the persons carried into captivity. [There can
be no doubt that Jerem. lii. 28 30 refers to the
Jews who were taken captive. What reason have
we for supposing that 2 Kings xxiv. 14 refers to
or includes any others than Jews ? There is none.
It is only an invention for the sake of harmonizing
the two passages. Then the probabilities are
against it. The persons carried away were chosen
on account of their rank, position, and influence.
We have an instance in Jaazaniah of Maaeha (ver.
xxv. see Excget. notes on that verse) that others
than men of Judah held power and rank. Shebna
the scribe (Isai. xxii. 15) is another instance to
prove that in the time before the captivity pure
Israelitish, much more pure Jewish blood, was not
necessary to hold high office in Jerusalem. The
persons of the highest rank were the ones taken
away — as such — whether Jews or not. Non-
Jews were, of course, rare exceptions. Of the
common people large numbers were spared. Natu-
rally people of Judah, who were most deeply in-
terested in the fate of Jerusalem, would be taken
first, together with such of other tribes or nation-
alities as were dangerous from their rank and influ-
ence and ability. It is, therefore, improbable that
many non-Jews of the common people were carried
away. It amounts to a certainty that the exiles
were not composed of non-Jews in the ratio of
7,000 to 3,000. This explanation must, therefore,
be abandoned. It is the only true policy, in this
and in similar cases, to take note of the discre-
pancy as a fact, and to abandon the attempt at
forced and strained explanations. Between the
two accounts, that in Jeremiah deserves the pre-
ference as the more specific, and also as the more
moderate statement. The larger number and the
round number is suspicious. — W. G. S.] Only 832
were taken away in the second deportation, be-
cause there were only so many left of the more
influential people. The 745 who were taken away
at the third deportation were not inhabitants of
Jerusalem but DHIIT (ver. 30). The smallness
of this number is due to the fact that most of the
Jews, properly speaking, had been taken away
before.
[The numbers certainly are astonishingly small
in one point of view, though in another we are not
surprised that they are no larger. Taking the
number of Israelites who entered Palestine at the
lowest estimate, and noticing the numbers which
formed the armies, or were engaged in battle at
various times, as well as the pictures of society
which are given, especially by Isaiah and the other
older prophets, we get the impression that there
was a very large population in Palestine before the
Assyrian Empire began to press upon the North.
On the other hand, when we consider the great
difficulty of leading a large mass of people, with
the aged, the women, and the children, on a long
journey through a rough country, we can hardly
conceive it possible that the conquerors should
have taken away an entire population. The Assy-
rians, however, blotted out the kingdom of the ten
tribes. The whole picture which is presented to j
us gives the impression that the land was depop-
ulated and left desert. The wild beasts took pos-
session of it. Not enough remained to continue
the ancient traditions and worship there. It wa(
found necessary to begin almost de novo in the
population and cultivation of the country. So too
in Judah. The pictures presented by the prophets
and in the Psalms, as well as by the books of Ezra
and Nehemiah, are those of a depopulated and
desert country. Such numbers were taken away
that some had to be left on purpose to cultivate
the land. When the exiles came back they had to
re-found the nation. Now we hear that there were
only 4,000 exiles in all, or, at most, 10,000. This
seems reasonable in view of the difficulty of trans-
portation, but it is difficult to see how it accounts
for the destruction of the nation. Two suggestions
present themselves: in the first place, the last 150
years, with their internal dissensions, their refor-
mations and revolutions, their counter-reforma-
tions and counter-revolutions, as well as their for-
eign wars, may have greatly reduced the popula-
tion. In the second place, in a nation such as
Judah was, the centre of gravity of the nationality
was, no doubt, in the upper and better classes.
The poor and uneducated and humble were prob-
ably very dependent upon the more fortunate
classes. One proof of it is the fact that the pro-
phets and psalmists were continually rebuking the-
arrogance of the latter towards the former. The-
Babylonian king's policy of carrying off the "chief
men " may, therefore, have been radical and all
sufficient for rooting out the nationality. — W.
G. S.]
Those who were carried away last were prob-
ably those who had formerly been considered
harmless, but whom it was found, upon experience,
inexpedient to trust. However the numbers may
be explained, it is certain from Jerem. hi. 28-30
that there were only three deportations, and not
six, as Usher and the Calw. Bib. assume, viz., the
first in the seventh of Jehoiakim (Dan. i. 1,3 (?) ),
the, second in the seventh of Nebuchadnezzar, the
third under Jehoiachin, the fourth in the eighteenth,
the fifth iu the nineteenth, and the sixth in the twen-
ty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Later scholars
have reduced these to four: the first under Jehoi-
akim, the second under Jehoiachin, the third under
Zedekiah, and the fourth some years after the de-
struction of Jerusalem. But this is not correct,
for there is no hint of any deportation under Je-
hoiakim either in Kings or Chronicles or Jeremiah.
So much only may be accepted, that Daniel was
sent to Babylon as a hostage when Jehoiakim be-
came a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 1).
Perhaps, also, at that time Jehoiakim gave some
of the temple utensils to the enemy to pacify him
(2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7).
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL.
1. The destruction of Jerusalem did not take
place immediately after the fall of the city, but one
month later. It is clearly designated in the record
as a later and independent event. Nebuzar-adan
who ': stood before the king of Babylon " (Jerem.
lii. 12), who, that is, attended his orders, came
to Jerusalem, by the express command of the
king, not to take the city, which had not vet been
captured (as Thenius thinks), but, as ver. 9 dis
tinctly shows, in order to destroy the captured citj
300
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
The destruction of the city was intended and dis-
tinctly commanded by Nebuchadnezzar. It was
the punishment which the king had decreed and
which Nebuzar-adan was to execute. He went
methodically to work. First of all he caused the
temple to be burned, then the royal palace, then
the houses of the great men, then he tore down
the walls, and finally he took the inhabitants away.
In vers. 13-17 the account returns to the temple
and enumerates its decorations and furniture,
which w-ere destroyed or carried off. The utter
destruction of the temple cannot have been insisted
on, on account of the value of the objects it con-
tained, for these were not of gold, like the ones
which had formerly been carried away (chap. xxiv.
13). The only ground for it was that the temple
had especial significance, as the dwelling of the
one God in the midst of His chosen people. Both
politically and religiously it was the centre of the
State, the basis and the bond of the national unity.
It was the building of chief importance, and was,
therefore, to be destroyed first and utterly. The
temple worship had become, under the four last
kings, a mere external ceremonial. Even the
priests made of it a mere hypocritical show, so that
Jeremiah cried out : " Trust ye not in lying words,
saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord are these " (Jerem.
vii. 4) Then he commanded them to repent and
amend. They did not, however, and so the ex-
ternals in which they trusted were taken from
them. The destruction of the temple was the seal
of God's truth impressed upon the words of the
prophets, in which the people had not believed
(Jer. xxvii. 19-22). The two brazen columns are
mentioned first and chiefly in the description of the
glories of the temple. (They are described with
nore detail in Jeremiah than in Kings.) The cause
5f this is, as we saw in the Exeg. note on 1 Kings vii.
l\ and Hist. § 5 on 1 Kings vii. 1-51, that these col-
inms represented the foundation and the strength of
ihe temple, and were, therefore, in a certain mea-
mre, representatives of Jehovah. The destruction
.nd removal of these showed, more than any other
•vent, that the house of Jehovah, as the physical
t>ntre of the theocracy, had come to an end. The
jk of the covenant is not mentioned in either ac-
' ouut. It seems to have been removed from the
simple before its destruction. It had been re-
uoved under Manasseh or Amon, for Josiah com-
manded the levites to bring it back into the temple
(2 Chrou. xxxv. 3). We may suppose that it was
removed again under one of the following kings,
perhaps under Jehoiakim. What became of it we
cannot tell. The inference from Jer. iii. 16 that it
was no longer in existence in the time of Jeremiah
(Hitzig) is not justified. Some suppose, as Carpzov
does (Apparat. Crit. p. 298), that it was among the
articles which Nebuchadnezzar caused to be either
destroyed or carried off in the time of Jehoiachin
(chap. xxiv. 13; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10). The story
of the rabbis that Josiah had caused it to be hidden
in a subterranean chamber, and that Jeremiah
commanded those who fled to Egypt (chap. xxv.
26) to take it with them, and that they hid it in a
cleft of the mountain on which Moses had once been
(2 Mace. ii. 5. Cf. Buxtorf, De area fad., cap. 22.
Winer, It.-W.-B I. s. 2C3), sound'1 very wild.
2. The /all o) 'he kingdom of Judah was, accord-
ing to the distui. '• statement of the Scriptures, the
divine judgmeiA vhich had long been threatened
by the prophets (Isai. xxxix. 6, 7 ; 2 Kings xxi
10-15; Jerem. xix. 3-13). It fell when all Jeho-
vah's attempts to recall the chosen people to their
allegiance had failed, and the apostesy from Him
and from His law had reached the utmost limit.
Sun and Moon, Baal and the Queen of Heaven,
Adonis and Astarte, all the host of heaven were
worshipped, and children were sacrificed to Moloch
in the valley of Hinnom. Idols stood even in the
House of Jehovah ; idol-altars stood in the streets
On the hills, on the roofs, in the groves, incense
was offered to idols. There was no abomination
of idolatry which was not practised. All that re-
mained of the Jehovah worship was external cer-
emonial, and priests and pre) ' ts uttered lies
(Jerem. vii. 17, 18, 30, 31, 32; \i. 2; xi. 12, 13;
xvii. 2 ; xix. 4, 5, 13 ; xxxii. 29, 34, .J5 ; Ezek. viii.
3, 9, 10, 14; xxiii. 38, 39, &c). Moral corruption
kept pace with this religious apostasy : "Will ye
steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear
falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after
other gods whom ye know not ; and come and
stand before me in this house, which is called by
my name, and say : We are delivered to do ail
these abominations ? " [Lit. we are concealed to dc,
&c, i. e., we have impunity] (Jerem. vii. 9, 10).
Avarice, love of gain, and cheating (Jerem. vi. 13),
licentiousness and whoredom (Jerem. v. 8, 9), in-
justice and violence (Jerem. vi. 6), shedding inn-j-
cent blood (Jerem. ii. 34 ; vii. 6), overriding justice
and right (Jerem. vii. 6), falsehood and hypocrisy
(Jerem. viii. 9, 10), bigotry and obstinacy (Jerem.
vii. 24-26), infidelity and perjury (Jerem. ix. 2, 3,
7), in short, all sins and vices were prevalent, es-
pecially among the rich and great. " Run ye to
and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see
now and know, and seek in the broad places
thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that
executeth judgment, and that seeketh the truth,
and I will pardon it " (Jerem. v. 1 ; cf. 2 Chron.
xxxvi. 14-16). So the measure had become full.
Judah had fallen lower than Israel, therefore the
Lord cast it away from before His face as He had
cast away Israel (2 Kings xvii 20; xxiv. 20).
As there the king of Assyria, so here the king of
Babylon was the instrument of the divine judg-
ment, "the rod of his anger," which, after it had
served His purpose, He broke and cast into the fire
(Jerem. 1. 17, 18; cf. Isai. x. 5). This punishment,
however, was not the annihilation of the chosen
people, but the sole radical cure for it. The Lord
keeps His promises even while He chastises and
punishes. The only means by which the chosen
people could preserve and fulfil its destiny in hu-
man history, to bring the knowledge of God and
salvation to all nations, was by the downfall of
the visible kingdom, the earthly theocracy. The
downfall of the visible kingdom was a step in the
divine economy of salvation, and it marked pro-
gress towards the true kingdom of God. The
people needed to be convinced of the nothingness
of the visible kingdom, and to have its attention
directed to the new, spiritual, true, and eternal
kingdom. This was the aim of the divine judg-
ment, to awaken an appreciation of this kingdom
and a longing for it, and this aim was reached in
the end. The idea of the messianic kingdom which
the prophets had brought forward long before
the downfall of the visible kingdom, but which
had fallen uncomprehended, now took firm
root. Hasse -well says (Oosch. lies A. B. s. 136)
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
301
" It belonged to the consummation of the history
of Israel that Judah also should perish. It had
long ago made this necessary by its backsliding
after every momentary reformation, and by its ob-
stinate resistance to every call of grace; but the
power of the Davidic element to recover from cor-
ruption had thus far saved it. This power ex-
hausted its last energies in Josiah, and, after his
death, the kingdom sank rapidly into ruins. As
the old passed away, the prophets were cbliged to
turn and give expression to what they jerceived
as something new and future. A sharp division
separated this new from the old. On the one hand,
the judgment and penalty were recognized as a
penalty of death. On the other hand arose the
figure of the new life, and it was transfigured into
a lofty ideal." Lisco (Das A. T. I. s. 538) gives a
similar conception : " The breach which was made
by the separation of the kingdom was never healed.
On the contrary, its evil effects lasted on until the
downfall, first of Ephraim and then of Judah. In
the measure in which the political confusion and
decay increased, and the impending calamity ap-
proached, in the same measure the prophetic word
grew loud and clear, and, when the blow fell
which destroyed the Jewish nation, Jeremiah arose
upon the ruins of Jerusalem, Daniel appeared as a
prophet to speak in the name of his people before
the king of Babylon, and Ezekiel watched over the
scattered remnants of the nation who were in exile
on the Chaboras. The civil power was dead ; the
prophetical power survived its death." The fall of
Jerusalem forms the most important crisis in the
history of the ancient people of God. It was not
an event between two nations; it was an event in
the history of the world. Many a great nation fell
both before and after, but the fall of none of them
had anything like the significance for the history
of the world which that of Judah had. It is an
event which is as unique in history as the Jewish
people was unique among nations, for " Salvation
cometh of the Jews'' (John iv. 22). By its fall
Judah became the keeper and bearer of salvation
for all the world (cf. Jerem. xxx.-xxxiii.).
3. The deportation of conquered peoples from their
country was the ordinary policy of the ancient
Asiatic conquerors, in order that the nationality
might thus be obliterated (see Exeg. on 1 Kings
viii. 46 sq.). In this case, however, the effect was,
on the contrary, in the providence of God, to pre-
serve the conquered people in all their peculiarity
of character and calling and destiny. Herein con-
sists the great difference between the downfall of
Samaria and that of Judah, as we saw above (2
Kings xvii. Hist. § 3); whereas the exile of the
people of the ten tribes in Assyria served to anni-
hilate their nationality, and they sank lower and
lower until they disappeared from history, the
exile of the people of Judah in Babylon served
only to strengthen and purify them, so that they
far out-lived the world-monarchy which had con-
quered them. Nothing could show more clearly
the indestructibility of the chosen people than this
fact, that the event which should have destroyed
hem only served to purify and strengthen them.
The distress of the captivity brought them to their
senses, and made them see their own sinfulness.
They repented, and turned to Jehovah and to His
Law with a sincerity which they had never before
felt. The exile awakened in them a deep longing
for the promised land, for the city in which Jeho-
vah had placed His name (2 Kings xxi. 7), for the
temple which was the pledge of the selection of
Israel to be the chosen people, and the centre of
its nationality. This is expressed in Ps. cxxxvii.
and cxxvi. It was a dispensation of Divine Pro-
vidence that the king of Babylon did not do as
the king of Assyria had done in Samaria — bring
heathen colonists to settle in the land of Judah
after its population was taken away. If he had
done so a mixed population would have grown up
there and the land would have become the home
of many diverse religions and forms of worship
(2 Kings xvii. 24-33 ; cf. 2 Kings xvii. Hist §§ 4
and 5). Judah maintained its purity of religion
and nationality both in captivity and in the home
country. The exiles retained their national con-
stitution (Ezek. xiv. 1; xx. 1; Sus. v. 28). Ac-
cording to the Talmud (Gem. Makkoth i. 1 ; Sanhedr.
i. 12, 21) they were put under a flPSn CN"I [Go-
vernor of the captivity, i. e., of the captives] of the:T
own nation. The practice of their religion was
also allowed them, but they could not offer sacri-
fices, because they lacked the one central sanc-
tuary at which alone sacrifice might be offered.
This only increased their longing to erect the sanc-
tuary once more, and this longing endured until
the time of chastisement was at an end (Jerem.
xxv. 12 ; xxix 10). When they returned their first
care was to rebuild the sanctuary (Ez. i. 3; vi. 3).
4. T)ie two brief narratives by which the author
closes his work are not mere appendages to the
history, but the proper epilogue to the words:
"So Judah was carried away out of their land."
They are parallel, in a certain manner, to the re-
view which the author gives in chap. xvii. 1 sq. of
the history of Israel. The first of these incidents
shows us how deep was the corruption which had
pervaded the kingdom, and how hopelessly de-
praved the monarchical constitution had become.
It was not possible any longer to have even a de-
puty-king under Babylonian sovereignty. Geda-
liah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had left as governor,
was put to death after a few months in spite of
his oath (ver. 24), and the murderer, Ishmael, who
desired to make himself king, was obliged to flee
with his followers into the territory of the Ammon-
ites. Others fled, for fear of the vengeance of the
Chaldeans, into Egypt. Every attempt to unite the
scattered remnants, and to set up at least the
shadow of a monarchy, failed. Judah could not
any longer stand any kind of a monarchy. It was
incapable of sustaining an independent existence
under an independent dynasty. The inauguration
of such a government only served to produce
greater confusion and disorder. The events which
followed the destruction of Jerusalem only showed
how necessary the divine chastisement had be-
come. This is what the author desires to show by
the first incident which he relates. However, he
could not and would not close his work, which was
written primarily for those who, like himself, were
living in exile, with such a sad and hopeless inci-
dent. He therefore adds the story of the deli-
verance of Jehoiachin from his prison after thirty-
seven years of captivity. He thereby offers to
the people who sat weeping "by the waters of
Babylon," and thinking of Jerusalem, a prospect
into a more hopeful future. The release of Je-
hoiachin " was the first ray of light in the long
night of the captivity . . . and was a guarantee
302
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KIXGS.
to the people that the Lord would keep His pro-
mise, and would not withdraw his grace from the
house of David forever" (Keil). It gave the cap-
tive people hope that the hour of their deliverance
also would come. The author could not have given
a more appropriate close to his work, in which he
had shown God's plan of grace and redemption in
the history of the chosen people.
5. In conclusion, we must notice the manner in
ichkh the latest modern historians conceive of, and re-
present, the fall of Judah. "There had been," says
Duncker {Gesch. des Alt. I. s. 542), "no increase in
power since the time of Hezekiah. There was no
better guarantee for the existence of a small State
than there had been at that time. If Egypt went
on, as it had begun under Psammetichus, making
conquests in Asia, and if a new great power arose
.0 inherit and increase the might which Assyria
had once possessed, the existence of Judah would
once more be threatened as seriously as it was in
the time of Hezekiah (s. 552) : The effort of the
nation to regain its independent existence, the stiff-
necked resistance with which the Jews were ready
to fight for their fatherland, and to break the yoke
of the foreigner, were as well justified as was the
abstract religious policy of Jeremiah. Who can
blame those who hold the duty of sacrificing one's
life for one's country, even under the most hopeless
circumstances, higher than the counsel to submit at
discretion ? Who can blame those who regarded
Jeremiah's conduct and policy as ruinous, who de-
manded that Jeremiah should stand on the side of
his own nation against the foreign foe, and who
stigmatized his discourses as treason? . . . (s. 553):
He (Jeremiah) is oitter and violent enough to call
down bloody destruction upon his [personal] ene-
mies (Jerem. xv. 5). . . . (s. 556): However much
Jeremiah's assertions were calculated to discourage
the king and people, they did not have that effect.
It was natural that Jeremiah should seem to the
people to be a cowardly traitor. . (s. 557) : Jere-
miah's persistence in advising submission, under
the circumstances, finally so far outraged the chief
men that they demanded his life of the king . . .
(s. 544) : The prophet went so far in his opposition
to Jehoiakim that he finally brought his own life
into danger. At the same time he irritated the peo-
ple against himself by his persistent prophecies of
the coming fall of Jerusalem. . . . He was no less
severe against the people for the wickedness of
Jieir conduct, and for their practice of some re-
mains of foreign usages which had not been eradi-
cated by the (new) Law-book." It is hardly neces-
sary to say that this view is diametrically opposed
to that of the Bible, and yet the biblical documents
are the only authority for the history. In the text
the grounds of the national downfall are stated to
be the apostasy of the nation in religion, its cor-
ruption in morals, and the unfaithfulness, tyr-
anny, and depravity of its king. The downfall is
represented as a divine judgment upon the nation
in punishment for all this. Duncker, however,
ignores thi3 view. In his view all is explained by
the physical weakness of the kingdom of Judah in
face of the great world-empires, Assyria, Egypt,
and Babylon. It was all due to external and natu-
ral causes, such as have often produced similar
catastrophes in human history. It was an unde-
served misfortune, in which the king and people
appear battling with desperate courage for the
highest national interests. They appear great and
admirable, while the truly great one, the prophet
who was persecuted while laboring for the tra«
welfare of the people, who held firm and impreg-
nable as a rock in the midst of the storm, is repre-
sented as a factious oppositionist, nay, even as a
traitor. This is not writing history, but turning it
upside down.
[The facts of history are one thing ; their phi-
losophy is another. The theocratic philosophy of
history is one thing, and the purely human philos-
ophy of it is another. To pass behind history and
trace the moral causes which were at work, and
observe their effects, is the great task of the his-
torian, but he limits himself to the second causes,
aud contents himself with seeing God's plan only
in the grand results of centuries, and in the move-
ments of epochs. The attempt to pursue this latter
investigation into details never succeeds when men
try it. God's Providence is in every event of his-
tory, and in the character of every historical per-
sonage, but its presence and its operation there are
matters of faith. Try to seize it, to specify it, and
to examine it, and you are baffled and disappointed.
God is in every blade of grass. His presence there
is clear to our reason, our conscience, and our faith.
If we hastily infer that, if God is in the blade of
grass which we hold in our hands, then we can
seize Him and see Him, and if we betake ourselves
to the microscope and the dissecting apparatus, we
find that we fail. Just so it is here in history.
This biblical history is the only one we have in
which the history is written from the theocratic
standpoint, and in which the presence of God in
history is traced step by step and man by man.
If we attempt to take up this stand-point and follow
it and apply it rigorously we involve ourselves in
hopeless contradictions. The standpoint is not
rational, it is prophetic; that is, its norm and stand-
ard of consistency is that of the divine plan, not of
the human reason. The reason, however, is the
only instrument at our disposal, and it falls short
of its task if it undertakes to adopt the prophetical
method. It took a prophet to give us this view of
the Jewish history, and it would require a prophet
to apply the same method elsewhere, or to follow
it here into greater detad. Duncker lays aside
the theocratic and prophetical conception, and ap-
proaches the facts of the history, as here recorded,
in exactly the same spirit, and with exactly the
same method, by which he treats the history of
Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. His work is a uni-
versal history. The history of Israel as an earthly
monarchy enters into the scope of his work as re-
gards its earthly and external fortunes. Its theolo-
gical and religious significance are aside from his
plan. He is an historian, not a prophet, and he
can only treat history as ordinary historians treat
it His view, therefore, naturally appears low and
worldly and commonplace, when quoted in a book
of this kind, which is avowedly biblical and the-
ocratic, and only follows and explains the biblical
presentation. His undertaking is a legitimate one
for an historian. We cannot say that it is wrong
for him to treat history as he does, and to include
Jewish history in his plan, but he is engaged in a
work whose stand-point and aim are so different
from that in which we are engaged, that we are
not called to consider it here. His readers must
add to his representation of the history the expla
nation and philosophy of it which is furnished by
their Bibles. The distinction which is brought oul
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
303
Here is one which it is most important to bear in
mind in commenting on the historical books. — As
for Jeremiah's attitude at the siege of Jerusalem,
the question is the one- which always arises in such
cases between prudeme and valor. The role which
was filled by Jeremiah, to give wise and prudent
counsel to men who are heated with the strongest
passions, and to stem alone a tide of feeling which
animates a body of men of which he is a member,
and with which he is expected to sympathize with-
out reserve or question, is the most thankless one
which can possibly devolve upon any man. He
cannot succeed in persuading his companions ; he
can only draw down persecution on himself. His
only consolation is his fidelity to his convictions,
and our judgment of him, as of any other man who
has the courage to undertake the prophet's task.
must be regulated by the issue. He stakes all
upon the wisdom of his counsel. If in a calm view
of the situation and its results we see that he was
wise and right, we must " blame " those who per-
secuted him and denied the wisdom of his counsel.
Humanly speaking, Jeremiah was the only wise
counsellor in Jerusalem, for his counsel would have
saved the city and the national existence, if not the
national independence. If, however, we turn to
the theocratic standard, we see how utterly im-
possible it is for us to apply it. As we have seen
above (§ 2), the fall of Jerusalem was no step back-
wards, but a great one forwards, in the develop-
ment of the redemptive plan. When a church or
a nation reaches the point of saying " The temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these," that
is, when it puts its trust in externals, in ceremo-
nies, and sacred houses, and sacred things, while
the spirit of truth and righteousness is lost, and
treats God's promises as if He had bound His own
hands against punishing their sins, their fate is
sealed. The downfall of Jerusalem might have
been delayed, it could not have been averted, or, if
it had been averted, as far as we can judge, all the
religious truth of which Israel was the keeper and
witness would have been lost. Here, however, is
>ust the difficulty. History only takes one course
of two or more which are conceivable. This one
only is open to our study and observation, and we
are forced to assume that that was God's plan.
The consequences of the other policy, supposing it
to have been adopted, are a pure matter of spec-
ulation. Now Jeremiah counselled submission.
That might have saved the city and the temple and
the nationality, but, if we can rely upon our judg-
ment expressed in § 2, it would have sacrificed the
kingdom of God. He also preached amendment
and righteousness as the on!" condition of perma-
nent safety, but we cannot see, as far as we judge,
that such amendment was possible until after se-
vere chastisement, and it remains for us, what it
was for Jeremiah, a subject of faith, that God would
have preserved the national independence if the
people had repented. — W. G. S.]
Ewald's presentation of the fall of Jerusalem
[Gesch. III. 5. 712-717) is very different from
Duncker's superficial and perverted view of it. As
he sees in the whole course of the history, from the
time of Solomon on, a continual conflict between
two "independent authorities," the monarchy and
the prophetical institution, and explains this conflict
by the " violence " which was characteristic of
either (see Pt. II. pp. 103 and 4), so he finds the
causes of the ruin of the kingdom in this conflict.
" It remained to be shown, by the fate of Judah
also, that violence destroys its own cause, even
when that cause seems to be the most permanent
and enduring. . . . The second of these independ
ent powers, the prophetical institution, was now
also irrevocably broken." The reason why the pro-
phetical office no longer possessed its ancient power
was that " it had rid itself of the last relics of the
violence which marked it even in Isaiah, and had
risen to a purely spiritual activity and influence.
It was long since violence had been able to accom-
plish any sound results even in the prophetical of-
fice. Thus the highest prophetical activity lost its
power when it lost its fierce and violent forms of
action, and the second of the two forces on which
the nationality rested was radically ruined. . . .
When the two forces which could alone carry and
preserve the nation were thus worn out, when th»
nation could no longer find either the right king or
the right prophet, it sank rapidly towards its ca-
tastrophe. Then first did the evils which had long
threatened it, or which had made themselves tem-
porarily felt, become fatal to it." In this view also
the idea which is made uppermost in the biblical
narrative, that the fall was a divine judgment justly
and deservedly inflicted as a punishment for per-
sistence in sin, is obscured and neglected, and the
fall is represented as a catastrophe which was the
legitimate result of a regular development. [There
is no real disagreement here. The one is a prag-
.matic and the other is a philosophical statement of
the same idea. The ancient Hebrew writer states
it as a balance between so much sin and so much
punishment. We caunot expect a critical and phi-
losophical statement from him. In his view God
stands over the sinful nation patiently and with
long-suffering, and finally His hand falls in pun-
ishment. The modern German critic sees, in " per-
sistence in sin," the adoption of certain depraved
doctrines, principles, and modes of thought, which
form a creed or sum of convictions tacit or expressed.
These produce a reiteration of unchaste, immoral,
and irreligious acts — sins. This finally becomes a
national habit, a characteristic of the nationality.
It rises into a moral cause, and according to Ike laws
of God's moral government, this cause will in time
produce inevitably certain moral and physical re-
sults— national decay (which will show itself first
in the most vital organs of the State, its throne, its
altar, and its pulpit), and finally national ruin. The
two forms of statement are identical. — W. G. S.]
As for the theory that there were two " independ-
ent authorities " in the State, and that the great
characteristic of each was violence — employment
of force in word or deed — in fulfilling its functions,
it has been sufficiently noticed on p. 1 04. We need
only remark here, that if violence was a character-
istic of Isaiah, then Jeremiah's discourses are far
more forcible, vigorous, and violent than his, so
that Duncker (quoted above) charges him with pas-
sion, severity, and sternness. No prophet ever
rebuked the sin and apostasy of king and people
with more plain and severe language than Jere-
miah. It cannot be said of him that he had thrown
off the violent manner of the ancient prophets, and
that "one and the same ruin enveloped the last
great prophet and the nation, with all of its better
interests which still remained at this stormy time."
His forcible words of rebuke and reproof, his en-
durance, pertinacity, and inflexibility, in the hardest
conflicts and sufferings, down to the very end, boar
304
x-HE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
testimony, not to the weakness and decay of the
prophetical office, but to the fact that it was as
grand, as great, and as vigorous as ever before.
The monarchy sank and ceased at the fall of the
kingdom, but the prophetical institution, so far
from ceasing, arose again to new glory and strength.
Those have the less ground for denying this who
ascribe the second part of Isaiah to a great un-
known prophet, who lived near the end of the
captivity.
[The decay of the prophetical office is unde-
niable, in spite of the fact that one or two last great
ones yet appeared. There had been false prophets,
in g'eater or less number, at all times, but see the
23d chap, of Jeremiah, from the 9th verse on, for
a sweeping denunciaton of the contemporary pro-
phets. No distinction between false and true is
Bpecified. Depraved priests and prophets are to-
gether branded with one terrible denunciation. In
xxiii. 38-40 the degeneracy of the prophets seems
to be given as the cause why Jehovah had aban-
doned the city. Prophecy ceased at some time —
when did it cease ? It did not cease abruptly, but
shared the fate of all similar institutions among
mankind. It degenerated into formalism and su-
perstition (see Jerem. xxiii. 33-37). In its rise and
bloom and decay we can trace undeniable steps of
change, development, progress, and decline. After
the exile we have a few prophets, but not like the
ancient ones. The spoken word gave way to the
written word ; the original oracle gave way to the
commentary ; the prophet gave way to the scribe.
Following the stream upwards we come to the
" Great Unknown " (?), and to Jeremiah. We find
in Jeremiah descriptions of the contemporary pro-
phets, and we see that the institution was dying,
and that the one or two great ones who yet arose
were great and grand as exceptions to the preva-
lent degeneracy. Jeremiah was the last prophet
who was a statesman also, as the ola prophets had
been (Stanley).— W. G. S.]
HOATXLETICAL: AND PRACTICAL.
Vers. 8-21. God's Judgment upon Judah. (a)
It was well deserved (Rom. ii. 5-11); (b) it was
terrible (Hebr. x. 30, 31 ; Deut. iv. 24) ; (c) it was
a warning (1 Cor. x. 11 ; 2 Thess. i. 8-10; Isai. ii.
10-17). Comparison of the destruction of Jeru-
salem by the Chaldeans with its destruction by the
Romans, (a) Wherein they were alike ; (6) wherein
they differed. — Keil : The saying that the world's
history is the world's condemnation, finds its full
justification in the history of Judah, and nowhere
else. — Vers. 9-17. Kyburz: No place is so strong,
no building so grand, no wall so firm, that sin can-
not undermine and overthrow it. Let no man trust
in ceremonies, or sacred houses, or sacred tradi-
tions, so long as his heart is far from God, and his
life is not in accord with his righteous creed. The
destruction of the temple was a testimony that
God will spare no house in which any other name
lhan His is worshipped, or in which He is wor-
shipped only with the lips while the hearts are far
from Him. If the temple of Solomon was not
spared, no physical temple can save us. — Starke:
If temples are not used for the true worship of
God, He allows them to fall into the hands of un-
oelievers, Matt, xxxii. 37 (as at the time of the
extension of Mohammedanism). — Pfaff. Bib.: The
highest pitch of the divine condemnation is eached
when God removes the fight of His Word from ita
place, and takes away from us the ordinances of
true worship (Rev. ii. 4, 5; 1 Pet. iv. 17). — Vera.
18-21. God often executes His judgments by
means of wicked and godless men. This does not
excuse or justify them in their cruelty or wicked-
ness. They are only the rod of his anger, which
he breaks after it has unconsciously served Hii
purpose (Isai. x. 5 ; xiv. 3-6; Jerem. 1. 51). — Ver.
21. Pfaff. Bib. : When the measure of sin is full,
and the judgment of God has begun to fall, nothing
can any longer arrest its flood. — Cramer: He who
will not serve God in peace and prosperity must
learn to do so in misery and adversity. — Osiantjer :
Those who will not serve God in their own father-
land, must serve their enemies in harsh subjec-
tion.— The Curse and the Blessing of the Exile,
Deut. xxx. 19. (a) The curse consisted in this, that
the Lord removed the people from before His face
(chap, xxiii. 27 ; xxiv. 3, 20), that is, He removed
them from the land of promise, in which He gave
them His gracious blessings, and placed them in a
distant country, where nothing was known of the
true and living God. This curse, which had long
been threatened (Levit. xxvi. 33 ; Deut. iv. 27 ;
xxviii. 26 ; Dan. ix. 11) is a proof of the truth of
the words: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked,"
&c. (Gal. vi. 7). God still does spiritually to indi-
viduals and to nations what He did to Judah— He
removes them from before His face ; He removes
from them His word and His means of grace, if
they do not repent, and leaves them to live in
darkness, without Him. (6) The curse became a
blessing for this people. It humiliated itself and
repented. It experienced that there was no greater
curse than to live far from its gracious God, and it
longed for the land of promise. When it had lost
its earthly kingdom and its earthly king, it learned
to look for the kingdom of heaven, and for that
One in whom all God's promises to man are ful-
filled. The exile became a blessing for the whole
world, for the Jewish nation was thereby made fit
to fulfil its destiny in the redemptive plan of God.
It was " a great opportunity, by which the name
and glory of Jehovah were spread abroad, as a
preparation for the preaching of the gospel of
Christ " (Starke). We all lay under the curse of the
law, but Christ has redeemed us (Gal. iii. 13, 14).
Vers. 22 to 26. See Jerem. xlii.-xliv. The Peo-
ple who remained in the Countrv. (a) Their pro-
tection by Gedaliah, vers. 22, 23, 24. (" The king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord," Prov. xxi. 1.
Nebuchadnezzar gave them a ruler from among
their own countrymen who promised them favor
and protection. So the Lord often offers consola-
tion even in deserved misfortune, but men go their
own way and plunge themselves into ruin.) (ft)
Their flight into Egypt (Jerem. xliii. 7; xlii. 18,
22. Their bad conscience leads them back to the
country from which God had wonderfully delivered
them. Starke: When the godless attempt to flee
from a calamity they plunge themselves into it.
Isai. xxiv. 17 sq.) — Ver. 24. Osiander: It is great
wisdom to bear our burdens with patience ; we thus
make them lighter. It is folly to resist a greater
power, for thus we only make our burdens heavier.
— Ver. 25. We see, by the example of Israel, how
envy and jealousy, pride in high descent and des-
tiny, and love of power, lead to the most utter ruin
(Ps. v. 6; Prov. xxvii. 4). Passion makes men
CHAPTER XXV. 8-30.
305
fools. Ishmael could not hope with his small com-
pany to resist the Chaldean power.
Vers. 27-30. Jehoiachin's Deliverance from his
Prison, (a) Its significance for the whole captive
people (Levit. xxvi. 44) ; (b) the warning which we
may find therein. — An unfortunate state of things
often endures for a long time. It seems that it
never will end. Happy is he who does not murmur
against God, but can say with the Apostle, — Rom.
v. 3-5 ; see also Rev. ii. 10, — The time of our de-
liverance is in the hands of the Lord. It comes
when He sees that it is best for us. — Wurt. Suiiii. :
We should despair in no trouble or punishment,
but cry to God and trust in Him. — Ver. 27. Stabkb :
80
Kings win great love by acts of grace and mercy
(Acts xxv. 1-9). — The Same : We should be kind M
captives, and pray to God for a loving disposition
towards our enemies (Matt. v. 44). — Per Aspera
ad astral That is the way in which our Lord
walked and in which we all must follow Him (Rom.
viii. 17 ; Pa. cxxvi. 1-6). — Pinal Review of the
History in the Apostle's words : " Oh the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God I How unsearchable are his judgments, and
his ways past finding out I For of him, and
through him, and to him are all things ; to whom
be glory forever. Amen " (Rom. xl 33 and 36).
APPENDIX ON THE CHRONOLOGY.
1. The chronology of the history contained in
the Books of the Kings piesents difficulties which
iiave never yet been conquered. There are data
in the text which are contradictory. The only
means of forming any chronology at all is to sacri-
fice some of the statements, and the text does not
offer sufficient critical grounds upon which to de-
cide which ones are correct. The usual method
has been to fill out and reconcile conflicting texts
by inventing interregna and joint governments, or
to guess arbitrarily which datum was to be sacri-
ficed. It is evident that this is only another way
of admitting our inability to solve the problem sat-
isfactorily by the means which we as yet possess.
All the schemes which we form must be regarded
as tentative. We need to arrive at some hypo-
thetical chronology as a stepping-stone to further
investigation, but we must frankly admit, while
taking this course, that the knots are neither untied
nor cut, but only marked for further study by our
arbitrary guesses and our fabricated interregna.
2. Biihr says in his Preface (at the end) that he
has "followed a method, in regard to the Chro-
nology, which differs somewhat from the ordinary
one." It consists in adopting certain dates which
have been fixed with the greatest certainty, and
reckoning from these, by periods, through the inter-
vening reigns (see Pt. II. p. 86 and the translator's
note there). It is evident that this method has no
independent value. The chrouologers who have
undertaken this task have gone minutely over the
separate texts, and have managed to bridge over
the difficulties by one or another hypothesis. All
the uncertainty which inheres in these hypotheses
must inhere also in their completed schemes. If
there were a consensus in their results, it would
not, therefore, produce any certainty; it would
merely prove that those who have confined them-
selves to the biblical data, and have stepped over
the difficulties by various hypotheses, reach con-
clusions which vary only within certain moderate
limits. However, there is, in fact, no consensus
among the authorities. It is fallacious, therefore,
to regard these dates, which are only an average
between the results of various independent schol-
ars, as possessing any certainty. Furthermore, it
seems to be labor thrown away to pore over the
data for the intervening details of the chronology.
The consensus in regard to one date is not greater
than that in regard to any other in the whole list.
If we borrow one date from the average, why not
borrow the whole list in the same way ? In fact,
in the present state of this subject, there might be
much wisdom in so doing. The general scheme
about which the authorities seem to cluster is the
one at which Bahr arrives. His method only bor-
rows the results of certain independent scholars,
and then travels back for a certain distance on the
road by which t -ey reached those results. In the
following pages Z have collected the dates upon
which he fixes, and arranged them in a table. This
scheme is substantially that of Usher, for, of all
who have studied this subject, confining them-
selves to the biblical data, no one has succeeded
in going much beyond what he, the first thorough
student of it, established. I have also added to
the table a sort of outline of the history, of the
synchronisms with the contemporaneous history
of other nations, and of the varying religious con-
dition of the two Israelitish kingdoms. The data
enclosed in brackets are those which are not men-
tioned in the text of the Bible.
3. For the final solution of the problems which
present themselves we must look to the synchron-
isms with contemporaneous history. The deci-
phering of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and of the
Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions has furnished us
with material which promises to make a solution
ultimately possible. This promise is so good that
it seems unprofitable to repeat the labor of com-
paring and reconciling the biblical data, a labor
which has already been so often performed and
with such meager results. We have above (Pt.
II. p. 162) an instance of the amount of light which
we may hope for from these sources. If Oppert
is right in his interpretation of the data in the As-
syrian inscriptions which bear upon the reign of
Pekah (and no one but a trained Assyrian scholar
is competent to dispute his conclusions), then one
of the most perplexing of these chronological prob-
lems is solved. It is true that the Assyrian schol-
ars are not in accord as to all their results, and
it is also true that many of the best living scholars
(the Germans especially) are skeptical in regard to
the whole system of interpretation of the cunei-
form, and also that the scholars who have thus far
prosecuted this subject have not always followed
the independent unbiased method which would
recommend their results, but, in spite of all this,
the progress in this department is undeniable.
Every step verifies and confirms what has gone
before ; the original Assyrian grammatical and
lexical works multiply in an enormous ratio the
rate of progress ; and the results acquire such cer-
tainty as compels assent.
4. In the Athenwum of May 18th, 1867, Sir H.
Rawlinson announced the discovery that two frag-
ments in the British Museum were parts of the
same stone, and that together they furnished a
canon for the most important part of Assyrian
history. The Assyrians had a system of naming
the years after eponymous magistrates, and the
canon contains a list of them, by which the chro-
nology may be reckoned with certainty. It also
contains mention of an eclipse of the sun which
occurred on the 30th of the month Swan, in the 9th
year of king Asshur-edil-ilani IL and which fur-
nishes a definite starting-point, if it can be identi-
fied. Rawlinson identifies it with the eclipse of
June 15th, 763. Oppert, however, identifies it
with the eclipse of the 13th of June, 889. He also
says that an eclipse of the sun is several times re-
ferred to in the inscriptions of Asshw-nazir-pal as
having occurred on the day of that monarch's ac-
cession. This he identifies with an eclipse which
took place on July 2d, 930. This eclipse is not
mentioned by Rawlinson, but, if Oppert is correct
in regard to it, it goes far to support his identifi-
308
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
cation of the othei one. The difference of 46 years
in regard to the fl rst of these eclipses, marks their
respective chronologies down to the date of Tiglath
Pileser II. (747 or 745). The gap is closed up in
Oppert's scheme ^y inserting Pul between the first
destruction of Assyria by the Medes and Chaldeans
in 7S9 (an event which Rawlinson does not credit
at all, but which Hincks accepted) and the acces-
sion of Tiglath Pileser II. Thus their lists compare,
at this point, as follows (the names in the two lists
refer to the same persons, though they are tran-
scribed differently) : —
Oppert.
Sir. H. Rawlinson.
(Leuormant's Manual). (Prof. Rawlinson's Manual).
Asshur-edil-ilani II. 818
Eclipse 13th June 809
Asshur-likhish (the
Sardanapalus of the
Greeks) 800
Destruction of Nineveh 789
Pul (a Chaldean) 789
771 Asshur-danin-il II.
763 15th June, Eclipse
753 Asshur-likh-khush
Tiglath Pileser IL 747
745 Tiglath Pileser II.
but he reckoned from 744
Shalmaneser VI.* 727 Shalmaneser IV.*
In favor of Rawlinson is the fact that Pul is not
mentioned in any inscription yet found or in the
canon, and that Oppert is obliged to assume that
the succession of eponymous magistrates was in-
terrupted during his reign, and that, as he was a
Chaldean, the account was kept, after the Chaldean
fashion, by the years of his reign. In favor of
Oppert's scheme is (a) the fact that it makes a
chronology which is in accord with the biblical
chronology, while Rawlinson would shorten the
period of the Israelitish monarchy (see note 5 on
the Chronological Table) ; (6) the fact that there was
certainly a break in the succession at Tiglath Pi-
leser's accession (Rawlinson says that he was a
usurper) ; (c) the fact that the Era of Nabonassar
of Babylon begins at 747, which is in excellent
harmony with the hypothesis that, at the death of
Pul, Chaldea was unable to maintain dominion
over Assyria, but found itself separate and inde-
pendent, so that a new era was founded. It had
iiot been independent for centuries before this, and
it was resubjugated by Sargon in 709. (d) This
combination is supported by the words : " Pul,
king of Assyria," 2 Kings xv. 19. (e)It is sup-
ported by the Greek story of Sardanapalus. — It is
evident that we have here a clue which promises
ultimately to unravel the intricacies and contra-
dictions of the biblical chronology.
Opposite the reign of Pekah will be found
marked that solution of the contradiction in the
data concerning his reign which Oppert claims to
have obtained from the inscriptions. See above,
p. 162 of Part II. of the Comm.
5. The other important series of synchronisms
is that with Egyptian history. Here also scholars
have given the most diligent labor to the scientific
investigation of the evidence which bears on the
biblical chronology. A fundamental question here
meets us, whether the dynasties of Manetho are
■U coisecutive, or whether some of them were
• The same person, bu*. different mode of counting.
parallel and contemporaneous with others. If
reckoned as successive, the period which thej
cover reaches back to more than 5,000 years before
Christ. Very many scholars, appalled at the mag-
nitude of this period, have inferred that the dynas-
ties must, many of them, have been contempora-
neous. Lepsius adopts this view, and in his Ko-
nigsbuch der Alien Aegypter he has reconstructed
with admirable skill and diligence the entire list
of Manetho's dynasties. Prof. Rawlinson adopts
the same view, avowedly following the English
Egyptologers. He carries it further than Lepsius,
and, in fact, the weakness of the theory is that it
may be carried as far as any one finds necessary in
order to reduce the period of Egyptian history to
what he considers a reasonable length. It is es-
pecially suspicious that the shortening is accom-
plished by putting many of the most ancient dynas-
ties contemporaneous with one another, that is,
the dynasties which fall at the time of which we
know least. In Rawlinson's scheme (Manual, p.
77) six of Manetho's dynasties are put as contem-
poraneous in the period from 2100 to 2000. In
the more modern period of the history, where we
know that there were many rulers in different
parts of Egypt at the same time, we find that Ma-
netho only recognized one. The especial impor-
tance of this for us, at present, is that the synchron-
isms fall in such a way as to require a shortening
of the period of the Israelitish monarchy. Lepsius
carries out the calculation of the Israelitish chro-
nology in consistency with his scheme for that of
Egypt, and fixes the chief dates as follows (Konigs-
buch, ss. 102, 3, and 4): Division of the kingdom,
953; Accession of Athaliah and Jehu, 861; Fall
of Samaria, 693; Destruction of Jerusalem, 586.
6. It will be seen from this and from what was
said about Rawlinson's dates for Assyrian his-
tory that the ehronologers may be divided into
two classes or schools, the defenders of the " long
period " for the Israelitish monarchy (chiefly those
who rely on such a scheme as they are able to
form from the biblical data), and the defenders of
the " short period " (Assyrian and Egyptian scho-
lars, who rely on the data furnished by the mon-
uments).
7. The " short period " has always been strong
from the fact that both the Assyrian and Egyptian
chronologies seemed to demand it, but it will be
noticed that, whatever date we may assign to the
great eclipse, the Assyrian authorities fix the Fall
of Samaria certainly in 721, and set aside Lepsius'
date as impossible. All the shortening therefore
must come before that date, but the synchronism
with Tirhaka is one of the most important in the
Egyptian scheme. Therefore the Assyrian and
Egyptian chronologies are not in accord in the
shortening which they require.
8. Others, however, discard the notion of con-
temporaneous dynasties, and reckon the dynasties
as successive. This is carried out in Lenormant's
Manual, and it brings the synchronisms into accord
with the " long period " which he adopts for the
Israelitish monarchy, and also with the Assyrian
chronology, which he borrows chiefly from Oppert,
and which has been described above. — Evidently
we may hope that from this quarter also confirm-
atory evidence will come, and that all will con-
verge to a reliable result. Our task here has been
to give a succinct account cf the present state of
the question. — W. G. S.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
PERIOD FROM THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM TO
BOOK OF KINGS.
THE COMPILATION 01 THB
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SYNCHRONISMS, <fc<
975
REHOBOAM .
ABIJAM
41
1
18
20
17
3
41
.TF.urmnAM
1
32
Jelwvah-calf-xcorship in Israel.
Fifth of Rehoboam. Shishak, king of Egypt,
invades Judah. (Sheshonk I., 1st king XXII.
Dyn.)
Hostility between Judah and Israel.
357
955
953
NATllR, ,...,
2
3
26
27
31
38
2
24
2
7
d'ya
12
22
952
ttAAKTTA , ,.',
Tirzah capital of Northern kingdom.
Fifteenth of Asa. He defeated Zerah, **ths
Ethiopian," l at Zephathah.
Supremacy of the Jehovah-religion in JitdaJu
Baasha attacks Asa. — Latter forms allianc*
with Benhadad I.,2 king of Syria.
Heathen idolatry in Israel.
930
TJT.ATT
939
Z I M R I [OMRL
TIBNI1.
OJ1RI
Civil war in Israel for four years.*
925
920-19
AHAB
923 Omn founded Samaria and made It the
capital. War between Israel and Syria.
917-16
JEHOSHAPHAT.
35
4
Ki
Political and religious reforms in Judah.
Peace and prosperity.
Ethbaal in Tyre.* Elijah.
Phoenician idolatry (sensual and materialistic
nature-worship) introduced into Israel 6>
Jezebel.
902 and 901. War between Israel and Syria
Success of Israel and alliance with Syria
Benhadad II.*
898. Renewed war between Israel and Syria.*
Revolt of Moab against Israel.
Elisha. Slight and temporary reaction against
Phoenician warship in Israel.
893-7
ATTA7TATT
17
>tao-
n.1
2
12
898-5
JOB-AM ■
2 J
ra
ho
h.»
Judah, Israel, and Edom in alliance against
Jfesha, king of Moab.s
Moab, Ammon, and the Edomites of Mt. Seii
invade Judah, but quarrel and kill each othei
near Engedi.
1 This king, who was formerly identified with Uaserken I.
(the Osorkon of the Greeks), who was king of Egypt, is now
known to be Azerch-Amen, an Ethiopian conqueror, who
overran Egypt during the reign of Uaserken, and was not ar-
rested until he was on the point of entering Palestine. See
Lenormant, B. II. chap. iv. sec. 2, note ; and B. IV. chap.
lv. sec. 2.
3 See Exeg. notes on 1 Kings 3d. 23, and xv. 18.
3 The date given for Omri's accession (925) is the "81st of
Asa," but, as Ahab followed in the "38th of Asa,'1 Omri's 12
years1 reign must be reckoned from 929, when he was first
called to the throne. This would give four years for his con-
test with Tibni for the crown.
4 See Exeg. on 1 Kings xvi. 31. He put an end to a period
of anarchy and founded a dynasty 937 B.C. Asshurnazirpal
says, on an obelisk now in the Brit. Mns., that he took tribute
of Tyre, Sidon, etc., in 916. (Lenormant, B. VI. chap. iii.
§ec. 2, 6.
• Shalmaneser IV. (II. R.) mentions, on a stele found near
the source of the Tigris and now in the Brit. Mus., Benhadad
and *' 10,000 of the men of Ahab of Israel" among the forces
whom he defeated at Karkar in 900, the year after this alliance
was formed. (Lenormant, B. II. chap. iv. sec. 3 ; and B. IV.
chap. ii. sec. 4.) Rawlinson, in the Manual, says that Shal-
maneser II. was contemporary with Ahab, but gives as the
date of Shalmaneser's reign 85S-823 (see p. 42), and for Ahab'i
reign 918-897 (p. 66). In the "Five Great Mo7mrchies^,',
(1 ed.) Vol. II. p. 362 note, this notice is quoted as " Ainabof
Samhala," not yet having been distinctly recognized. Sir H.
Rawlinson, after the discovery of the Canon, fixed the date,
of this battle as 853. See the Appendix on the Chron. § 4.
e We should infer from 1 Kings *"Hr 3, that Ramoth had
not been given up to the Israelites, as, perhaps, was stipulated
in the treaty of alliance three years before.
1 1 Kings i. 17.
B 2 Kings iii. 1.
9 This is probably the Mesha of the Moabite stone. S«
the Comm., Part II. p. 31.
310
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE— (Continued).
10 a
o o
■§"
a
KINGS OP
JTJDAH.
I
1
to
d
1
d
o
D
o
h
tH
1
M
■g
a
o
I
n
KINGS OP
ISRAEL.
§
I
HI
o
<
p
1
d
a
fl
5
O
o
d
&
■g
SYNCHRONISMS, to.
892-1
885-4
JEHORAM
ATTA7.TATT
32
22-j
5
12"
ll11
8
6
40
Tehoram introduces Phoenician idolatry inU
Judaic ; murders his six brothers and others.
Edomites revolt successfully against Judah.
The priest^ciry Libnah revolts.
Arabs and Philistines invade Judah. Siegfl of
Samaria by Benhadad and miraculous deliv
erance.
Hazael in Syria.
Progress of Phoenician idolatry in Judah,
Israel at war with Syria (siege of Ramoth).
28
884
S77
856
Revolution in Israel. Massacre of Allah's fam-
7
7
ily. Religious reformation. Phoenician idol-
atry abolished.
Massacre of A/iaziah's family, and supremacy
of Phu-nician idolatry in Judah.
Hazael conquers territory of Israel east of the
Jordan. Shalmaneser 12 takes tribute of Jehu,
883.
Restoration of the line of David and religious
23
37
17
16
reformation. Phoenician idolatry abolished
in Judah.
Limitedrevinal of Ph< tiiician idolatry in Israel.
Hazael continues to attack Israel. Time of
depression and weakness. Israel overrun by
the Syrians.
Phoenician idolatry tolerated in Judah.
Hazael takes Gath and threatens Jerusalem.
Benhadad III. in Syria.
838
S24
823
AMAZIAH
25
3
29
Israel successful against the Syrians— recovery
of lost cities.
Phirntcian idolatry once more abolished in
15
■41
read
52
J uduh .
Aniaziah made a successful expedition against
the Edomites and took Sela (Petra).
War between Israel and Judah. Amaziah pris-
oner of Joash. Israelites plunder the temple.
Time of strength and prosperity in Israel.
Territory from Damascus to the Dead Sea re-
covered.
Luxury, folly, and vice in Israel. Amos.
Time of peace and prosperity in Judah. Su-
AZAEIAH OB UZ-
ZIAH.
16
27
(*)
B2
811-10
773
38
89
39
50
52
6
moa
1
mo
10
2
20
rr;u
30
premacy of the Jehovah-religion.
[7S9. First destruction of Nineveh by the Medea
and Chaldeans (?)]
Elath taken from the Edomites, Gath and Aeh-
dod from the Philistines; Ammonites and
Arabs of Gurbaal tributary.
778
772
762
760
Put ' 6 takes tribute from Menahem,
JOTHAM.
25
2
16
759-8
[747. Era of Nabonassar of Babylon.)
■" 2 Kings vilL 25. "2 rings ix. 29.
•» This Shalmaneser (IVth, according t> Lenormant ; lid,
according to Rawlinson) is the same mentioned above in note
5 He reigned from 905 to 870 (Len.). Among his cam-
paigns and exploits mentioned on the "black obelisk" (Brit.
Mus ) the same mentioned in note 5, we find it stated that,
in 883, he received tribute of " Jehu, son of Omri " (the change
of dynastj not being known or not being remembered), and,
on t"h- same obelisk, Jehu is represented, in one of the bas-
reliefs, as prostrating himself before Shalmaneser. He prob-
ably c hi. n d int., I ributary relations to Shalm. in order to get
protection against Hazael. (Lenormant I., 166, 381. Kaw-
lin»..n. Fine at. Mnn. [2d ed.l II., 105 and 106.) This is the
distress whieh fell upon Jehu and kept him from that ener-
getic development of Israel which we should have expected
af him. See PL II. pp. 114 and 115.
i» 2 Kings xv. 30.
14 2 Kings xvii. 1.
is Rawlinson {Manual, p. 67) gives for Menahem s reign
772-762. On p. 44 he says that Tiglath Pileser II. took
tribute of Menahem in 743. It is another case of the
inconsistency mentioned above in note 5. See also the
footnote p. 161 of Part II. It is agreed that Tig. Pil. II.
is stated in the insciptions to have taken tribute of Me-
nahem of Israel. Oppert, by combining this with the other
data, arrives at the construction mentioned on p. 162. and
which is placed In the column of remarks opposite the reign
of Pekah. ' ,
is Pul is called, In 2 Kings xv. 19, "king of Assyria, but
he is not mentioned in the inscriptions or the Canon. See il
regard to him, p. 162 of Part II.
APPENDIX ON THE CHRONOLOGY.
311
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE— (Continued).
o o
T43
KINGS OF
JTJDAH.
KINGS OP
ISRAEL.
SYNCHRONISM*, io.
80
17 16
780
728
727
HEZEKIAH.
4 op HEZEKIAH
25 3
HOSHEA..
20 Jo-
tham.19
12
Ahaz."
6 OF HOSHEA.
6 OF HEZEKIAH = FALL of SAMARIA = 9 OF HOSHEA.
[744. Tiglath Pileser II. in Assyria until 727.1
[New rise of the Assyrian power.]
[742. Tig. Pil. in Syria ; Rezin, Pekah, and Ast
ariah sen of TabeaL, confederated againsl
Ahaz.]
[742. Pekah dethroned. Menahem n.18 set up
by Tig. Pil. and tribntary to him.]
Assyrio-Chaldean star-worship introduced into
Israel and Judah..1''
[734. Rezin and Pekah unite and revolt. Pekah
regained the throne.]
732. Campaign of Rezin and Pekah against
Ahaz of Judah. 732. Damascus taken.
731. Forced migration of Syrians and Israelites.
[730. Tiglath Pilescr took G'aia, Ashdod, Du-
mah in Arabia, and probably went to Jerusa-
lem. ' 9 At the end of the same year he held
a court of his vassals at Damascus, at which
Pekah and Ahaz were present.30]
[730. Pekah in alliance with Methon of Tyre
revolts against Assyria. On the approach of
the Assyrians, Pekah is slain by Hoshea, who
submits to pay tribute.]
Phoenician idolatry and Moloch-worship en-
couraged in Judah.. Political and religion*
degradation in fsrael.
Luxury and corruption in Judah. The tempi*
of Jehovah closed.
[Shalmaneser21 in Assyria, 727-722.]
[725. Sabacon I.,22 the first king of the XXVth
Ethiopian Dyn. in Egypt.]
Reformation in Judah. Revival of the Jeho-
vah-worship. Passover renewed.
724. Hoshea, in reliance upon So,23 revolts
against Assyria. Shalmaneser besieges Sa-
maria.
[722-704. Sargon2* in Assyria.]
[719 or 718. Sargon's campaign in Phoenicia.
Battle of Raphia, in which he defeats the
Egyptians.]
[718-14. Siege of Tyre by Sargon for five yeara
without success.]
[715 (about). New revolt of Samaria, Damascus,
and Hamath subdued by Sargoc]
[710 (about). Sargon's campaign against Ash
dod.35] [710-704. Sargon occupied in build-
ing at Dur-Sharyukin.3*]
[709. Sargon defeats Merodach Baladan at Dur
Yakin 31 and reduces Chaldea to subjection.]
[704-681. Sennacherib in Assyria.]
[701. Sennacherib in Phoenicia.87] [Wins bat-
tie of Eltekon 2* against the Egyptians (Sa-
bacon II.).]
700. Sennacherib in Judah.39 Judah tributary
to Assyria. Sennacherib's army destroyed.
[699. Babylon in revolt against Assyria under
Merodach Baladan.] Merodach Baladan sends
messengers to seek an alliance with
kiah.30
' ' See Exeg. on 2 Kings xvi. 3 ; xvil. 16 ; xxiii. 12.
is See note 15.
» Cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 20.
30 Cf. 2 Kings xvi. 10.
31 See the Supplementary Note, p. 189.
" See p. 1S9.
33 See Exeg. on 2 Kings xvii. 4, and p. 189.
a* See p. 189. The Assyrian form of the name is Shar-
yuJein.
« Cf. Isai. xx. 1.
34 I.e. Castle of Sharyukin or Sargon. It is the modern
Khorsabad.
»? See p. 220.
»e see p. 220.
" See p. 220.
30 This date is in dispute. "We are told that Hezekiah
reigned 29 years (2 Kings xviii. S'-, that Sennacherib's inva-
sion fell in his 14th year (2 Kings "xviii. 13), and that he lived
15 years afterwards (2 Kings xx. 6). These data are consist-
ent with each other, but the second would make Senna-
cherib's invasion fall in 713. This is irreconcilable with
Assyrian data, which seem to be beyond question. All the
explanations or conjectures offered sacrifice the statements of
the biblical text. They cannot be regarded as solutions of
the difficulty. It should be noticed, therefore, th*t the date*
given to this and other events connected with it a-* *>-*thoM
which the biblical text would give. See Sups. * * *ft*»
Exeg. on Chap. 20.
31 See Supp. Note on Ohap. 80.
312
THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE— (Continued).
is
* >
a
C
KINGS OF
JTJDAH.
B
O
"i
1
*
|
1
o
a
o
I
SYNCHRONISMS, fcc.
(98
HAUASSEH
AMON
12
22
8
66
2
81
[697-682. Sennacherib in constant war witi
Babylon, which revolts again and again.]
Supremacy of the heathen religions in Judah.
Persecution of Jehovah-worshippers.
[6S1-667. Esarhaddon in Assyria.]
c. 6S0. Manasseh captive in Babylon." [Ma-
nage h tributary.]
ft 675. Esarhaddon conquers Egypt.]
667-647. Asshurbanipal in Assyria.8*]
657. Fhraortes establishes Median Empire.]
647-625. Asshuredililani III. in Assyria.]3*
643
641
JOSIAH
independent king of Egypt.]38
[Cyaxares in Media.]
Revival of Jehovah-worship.
[625-606. Saracus in Assyria.] [Nabopolassar
in Babylon until 604.] 34
[625. First attack of Medes and Babylonians on
Nineveh. Scythian invasion.]
622. Repair of the Temple. Discovery of the
Book of the Law. Great Reformation. Pass-
over celebrated.
SIB
610
JEHOAHAZ
ELIAKIMOB
JEHOTATCTM'.
JEHOIACHIN...J
MATTANIAH OB
ZKDEKIAH.
23
26
8(f)
18
21
3
moB
11
3
mos
11
610. Battle of Megiddo. Josiah slain. 609. Je-
hoahaz taken captive to Egypt.
Judah tributary to Egypt. Heathenism in the
ascendant.
[607. Nebuchadnezzar associated with his father
as king of Babylon.] 34
[606. Nineveh taken by the Medes and Baby-
lonians.]34
605. Battle of Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar
defeats Necho.
[604. Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon until 561.]
602. Nebuchadnezzar invades Judah.
599. Nebuchadnezzar again in Judah. Begin-
610
699
C99
ning Of THJi CaPHVITK.
Kg
595. Confederated plan of revolt with Phoenicia,
Ammon, and Moab.34
594. Zedekiah's visit to Babylon.*6
Hophra (TJahprahet) in Egypt.
690. Revolt of Judah. Babylonians besiege Je-
rusalem.
e.SSO
King**1
587. Gedaliah killed by IshmaeL
[561. Evil Merodach in Babylon.] Jehioftchin
released from prison.
11 Cf. 2 Chron. xniu. 11. Supp. Note on Chap. 21. I ** I give here the dates of Lenormant, On the question at
33 See Supp. Note on Chap. xxi. Rawlinson (Five Great issue and the conflicting authorities, see r. • 284 sg.
Hon. II. 52) gives Asshnr-banipal's reign 668-626, andthatof 1 " Jerem. li. 5ft.
kis son, whom he call* Asshur-eund-iiin, 626-636. j
V.Q.8.