The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

140

2 Kings viii. 15; LXX., τὸ μαχβάρ; Vulg., stragulum; lit., "woven cloth."

141

The following genealogy may help to elucidate the troublesome identity of names: —

142

Jotham ben-Uzziah was not the colleague of his father, but his public representative.

143

The only other king of Judah whose mother's name is not mentioned (perhaps because his father Jotham had but one wife) is Ahaz.

144

2 Kings xi. 18; 2 Chron. xxi. 11, xxiv. 7.

145

Vulg., Seira; Arab., Sa'ir (but the historian never uses the name Mount Seir); LXX., Σιώρ. There is perhaps some corruption in the text, and the reading of the Chronicler "with his princes" shows that it may have once been צַמ־שָׂרָיו.

146

2 Kings viii. 21. "The people" (i. e., the army of Judah) "fled to their tents." Apparently this means that they slunk away home. The word "tents" is a reminiscence of their nomad days, like the treasonable cry, "To your tents, O Israel."

147

Josh. x. 29-39.

148

Jos., Antt., IX. vi. 1.

149

1 Kings xix. 15, 16.

150

2 Kings viii. 12, 13.

151

The name was not uncommon, 1 Chron. ii. 38, iv. 35, xii. 3.

152

2 Kings xiii. 20, xxiv. 2; Jer. xlviii.

153

2 Kings vi. 8-23.

154

2 Kings vii. 6.

155

Jehoram = Jehovah is exalted. Ahaziah = Jehovah holds.

156

Vial (pak) only here and in 1 Sam. x. 1. "The oil" (LXX., τὸν φακὸν τοῦ ἐλαίου).

157

"His habit fit for speed succinct" (Milton).

158

Inner chamber, 1 Kings xx. 30.

159

Perhaps, if Elisha had gone in person, suspicion might have been aroused. He was not more than fifty at this time, and lived forty-three years more.

160

Seder Olam, c. 18.

161

It seems as though they were inside the town to defend it, not a beleaguring host outside.

162

The expression is remarkable, as showing how completely the prerogative of the Chosen People was supposed to rest with the Ten Tribes, as the most important representatives of the seed of Abraham.

163

"Him that is shut up, and him that is left at large in Israel" (2 Kings ix. 8; 1 Kings xiv. 10, xvi. 3, 4).

164

The A.V. has, less accurately, "in the portion of Jezreel." See 1 Kings xxi. 23. Heb., חֵלֶק. The חֵיל of an Eastern town is the ditch and empty space – a sort of external pomœrium around it. It is the place of offal, and the haunt of vultures and pariah dogs.

165

1 Sam. xvi. 4: "Comest thou peaceably?"

166

2 Kings ix. 11, הַמְּשֻׁנָּצ LXX., ὁ ἑπίληπτος. Comp. ver. 20, "he driveth furiously" (בְשִׁנָּצון).

167

Ver. 12, a lie! (שֶׁקֶר).

168

What is meant by the gerem of the staircase is uncertain. The word means "a bone" (Aquila, ὀστῶδες), and is, in this connection, an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. The Targum explains it as the top vane of a stair-dial. The margin of the R.V. renders it "on the bare steps." The Vulgate renders it in similitudinem tribunalis, as though gerem meant tselem. The LXX. conceal their perplexity by simply translating the word ἐπὶ τὸ γαρέμ. Grotius and Clericus, in fastigio graduum. Symmachus, ἐπὶ μίαν τῶν ἀναβαθμίδων.

169

2 Kings ix. 14: "So Jehu conspired against Joram." The same word is used in 2 Chron. xxiv. 25, 26.

170

2 Kings ix. 15, R.V.: "If this be your mind."

171

So far as we know, he never returned to Ramoth-Gilead, of which indeed we hear no more.

172

Tristram, Land of Moab.

173

Heb., Shiph'hath, "a dust-storm" (LXX., κονιορτόν, αἰ. ὄχλον; Vulg., globum), not as in A.V. and R.V., "a company." Comp. Isa. lx. 6; Ezek. xxvi. 10.

174

Clearly the rendering "he driveth furiously" is right. The word "furiously" is beshigga'ôn (Vulg., præceps), and is connected with "mad," ver. 11. LXX., ἐν παραλλαγῇ. Arab. Chald., "quietly." Josephus, "leisurely, and in good order." Such an approach would not, however, have been at all in accordance with the perilous urgency of his intent.

175

Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, is named from his grandfather Nimshi, who seems to have been the founder of the greatness of his house.

176

2 Kings ix. 23: "Turned his hands." Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 34.

177

Ver. 24. Vulg., inter scapulas.

178

LXX., reading צַל בּרְכָּיו.

179

Bidkar, perhaps Bar-dekar, "Son of stabbing." Comp. 1 Kings iv. 9.

180

Heb., ts'madim, "in pairs"; LXX., ἐπιβεβηκότες ἐπὶ ζεύγη. It is uncertain whether Jehu and Bidkar were in the same chariot as Ahab, as Josephus says (καθεζομένους ὄπισθεν τοῦ ἅρματος), or in a separate chariot.

181

2 Kings ix. 26: "Saith the Lord." Ephraem Syrus omits these words. He says that the night before Jehu had seen the blood of Naboth and his sons in a dream. Comp. Hom., Od., iii. 258: Τῷ κε οἱ οὐδὲ θανόντι χυτὴν ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἔχευαν 'Αλλ' ἄρα τονγε κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατέδαψαν Κείμενον ἐν πεδίῳ.

182

A.V., "By the way of the garden-house." LXX., Βαιθγάν.

183

The text is a little uncertain.

184

Thenius supposes "Gur" to mean "a caravanserai." Comp. 2 Chron. xxvi. 7, Gur-Baal; Vulg., Hospitium Baalis.

185

The account of the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxii. 9) differs from that of the earlier historian. It may, however, be (uncertainly) reconciled with it as in the text, if we suppose the words "he was hid in Samaria" to mean in Megiddo, in the territory of Samaria. Obviously, however, the traditions varied. There are difficulties about the story, for Ibleam is on the west towards Megiddo, and not between Jezreel and Samaria.

186

פּוּךְ, "Lead-glance." A mixture of pulverised antimony (stibium) and zinc is still used by women in the East for this purpose. In calliblepharis dilatat oculos (Plin., H. N., xxxiii.). Keren-Happuk, the name given by Job to one of his daughters, means "horn of stibium." The object could hardly have been to attract Jehu (as Ephraem Syrus thinks), for Jezebel had already a grandson twenty-three years old (viii. 26).

187

A.V., "Tired her head." Comp. tiara. Lit., "made good"; LXX., ἠγάθυνε.

188

Josephus gives the sense very well: Καλὸς δοῦλος ὁ ἀποκτείνας τὸν δεσπότην (Antt., IX. vi. 4). The same question might have been addressed to Baasha, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea; but at least Jehu might plead a prophet's call.

189

"Two or three." Lit., "two three," like the old English "two three" for "several."

190

Ver. 33. Heb., "He trod her underfoot." LXX., Συνεπάτησαν αὐτήν; Vulg., Conculcaverunt eam.

191

Liv., i. 46-48.

192

Prov. xi. 10. Compare the remark of Voltaire, who saw "le peuple ivré de vin et de joie de la mort de Louis XIV."

193

1 Kings xvi. 31. At this time Ethbaal was dead. He reigned probably from b. c. 940-908, and died at the age of sixty-eight (Jos., Antt., VIII. xiii. 1, IX. vi. 6; c. Ap., i. 18).

194

1 Kings xxi. 23.

195

Comp. Psalm lxxxiii. 10. Her name remained a by-word till the latest days (Rev. ii. 20), and the Spanish Jews called their persecutress Isabella the Catholic "Jezebel."

196

Omri, 12 years; Ahab, 22; Ahaziah, 18; Jehoram, 12.

197

The reading of 2 Kings x. 1, "Unto the rulers of Jezreel," is clearly wrong. The LXX. reads, "Unto the rulers of Samaria." Unless "Jezreel" be a clerical error for Israel, we must read, "He sent letters from Jezreel unto the rulers of Samaria."

198

Fig-baskets, Jer. xxiv. 2. The word dudim is rendered "pots" in 1 Sam. ii. 14. LXX., ἐν καρτάλλοις; Vulg., in cophinis. In Psalm lxxxi. 6 the LXX. has ἐν τῷ κοφίνῳ.

199

Jos., Antt., IX. vi. 5.

200

Heb., Tsibourîm; LXX., βουνούς.

201

Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 54; 2 Macc. xv. 30.

202

2 Kings x. 12. The shepherds House of Meeting (Beth-equed-haroim). LXX., ἐν Βαιθακάθ; Vulg., ad cameram pastorum; Aquila, οἶκος κάμψεως. It has been conjectured by Klostermann that it belonged to the Rechabites, that they had been persecuted by Jezebel, and that they were glad to help in taking vengeance on her descendants.

203

The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxii. 8) says "sons of the brethren of Ahaziah."

204

LXX., ἡ δυναστεύουσα.

205

2 Kings x. 14, A.V., "at the pit." Lit., "in" or "into the cistern."

206

See Martin, Hist. de France, ix. 114.

207

Whittier.

208

Jer. xxxv. 1-19. Josephus (Antt., IX. vi. 6) calls him "a good man and a just, who had long been a friend of Jehu." "He was," says Ewald (Gesch., iii. 543), "of a society of those who despaired of being able to observe true religion undisturbedly in the midst of the nation with the stringency with which they understood it, and therefore withdrew into the desert."

209

Jer. xxxv. (written about b. c. 604). Communities of Nazarites seem to have sprung up at this epoch, perhaps as a protest against the prevailing luxury (Amos ii. 11).

210

In Josephus it is Jehonadab who blesses the king.

211

Heb., יֵש וָיֵשׁ.

212

Striking hands was a sign of good faith (Job xvii. 3; Prov. xxii. 26).

213

He did it "in subtilty" (בְצָקְבָה). This substantive occurs nowhere else, but is connected with the name Jacob. LXX., ἐν πτερνισμῷ, "in taking by the heel," with reference to the name Jacob, "supplanter."

214

Lit., "mouth to mouth." LXX., στόμα εἰς στόμα.

215

Ver. 22, מֶלְהָּהַה, Vestiarum, occurs here only. The LXX. omits it or puts it in Greek letters. Targum, κάμπτραι, "chests" Sil. Italicus (iii. 23) describes the robes of the priests of the Gaditanian Hercules, —

"Nec discolor ulli,Ante aras cultus; velantur corpora linoEt Pelusiaco præfulget stamine vertex."Keil, ad loc.

It was a mixture of "the rich dye of Tyre and the rich web of Nile."

216

The phrase may be impersonal, "when one [i. e., they] had finished the sacrifice"; but the narrative seems to imply that Jehu offered it himself (LXX., ὡς συνετέλεσαν ποιοῦντες τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν Vulg., cum completum esset holocaustum).

217

A.V., images; R.V., pillars.

218

Comp. Ezra vi. 11; Dan. ii. 5.

219

Amos i. 11.

220

Amos ii. 1.

221

Hos. i. 4.

222

Psalm lxxvi. 10.

223

Jehu 842-814.

Jehoahaz 814-797.

Joash 797-781.

Jeroboam II. 781-740.

Zechariah 740.

224

2 Kings viii. 12.