The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

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.

225

Isa. xiii. 11-16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.

226

Amos i. 3, 4.

227

Amos i. 6-15.

228

See Appendix I., Schrader, Keilinschriften u. das Alte Test., 208 ff.; Sayce, Records of the Past, v. 41; Layard, Nineveh, p. 613; Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. 469. He is twice mentioned in inscriptions of Shalmaneser II. (861-825). He is called Ja-hu-a, son of Omri. The name of Omri was familiar in Nineveh; for Ahab had fought as a vassal of Assyria at the battle of Karkar, and Samaria was called Beth-Khumri. Shalmaneser would not trouble himself with the fact that Jehu had extirpated the old dynasty. His black stêlè was found by Layard, and is figured in Monuments of Nineveh, i., pl. 53. The name of Jehu was first deciphered by Dr. Hincks in 1851.

229

Schrader (E. T.), ii. 199.

230

Mic. vi. 16.

231

2 Kings xiii. 6.

232

2 Chron. xxi. 2-4.

233

2 Chron. xxi. 17.

234

ὁμοπάτριος ἀδελφή (Jos.).

235

2 Chron. xxii. 11. There are undoubted difficulties about the statement (see infra). There is no other instance of the marriage of a princess with a priest.

236

Jos., Antt., IX. vii. 1: τὸ ταμιεῖον τῶν κλινῶν. The chamber of beds was a sort of unoccupied wardrobe-room.

237

2 Kings xi. 4: "The centurions of the Carians and of the runners."

238

This is the second time that the word "Sabbath" occurs, or that the institution is alluded to, in the history of either monarchy.

239

Nothing is known of סוּר, Sur, or יְסוֹד y'sôd, the Foundation (2 Chron. xxiii. 5). They are not mentioned elsewhere. LXX., εν τῇ πύλῃ τῶν ὁδῶν, and (in Chronicles) ἐν τῇ πύλῃ τῇ μέσῃ.

240

Not as in A.V., "that it be not broken down."

241

In reading side by side the narratives in the Books of Kings and Chronicles (2 Chron. xxiii.), it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the main anxiety of the Chronicler is to leave the impression that the work in the Temple was chiefly done by the Levites, and that the sacred precincts were not polluted by the presence of alien troops. He evidently stumbled at the notion, conveyed by the older narrative, that Carians and suchlike semi-heathen mercenaries should have stood by the altar at a high priest's command; so he substitutes Levites for guardsmen, and the profane laymen are relegated outside. In details the two accounts are only reconcilable by a special pleading which would reconcile any discrepancy.

242

1 Kings vii. 21. Comp., however, 2 Kings xxiii. 3.

243

See Exod. xxv. 16, 21, xvi. 34. הָצֵדוּת (see 2 Chron. xxiii. 11). Kimchi takes it to mean "a royal robe," and other Rabbis a phylactery on the coronet (Deut. vi. 8). In the Targum to Chronicles it is explained to mean the costly jewel (2 Sam. xii. 30), of which none but a descendant of David could bear the weight. For ha'edôth Klostermann therefore suggests hats'adôth, "the royal bracelets."

244

So says Josephus (μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας στρατίας), and it is certain that she would hardly go unattended.

245

Jos., Antt., IX. vii. 3: Τὸυς δὲ ἑπομένους ὁπλίτας εἶρξαν εἰσελθεῖν.

246

The meaning of al-ha'amôd is uncertain (A.V., "by a pillar"; Vulg., "on the tribunal"). Comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 3; 2 Chron. xxiii. 13; 1 Kings viii. 22; 2 Chron. vi. 13.

247

2 Kings xi. 15. Not as in A.V., "without the ranges." Heb., lash'dêrôth; LXX., ἔσωθεν τῶν σαδηρώθ.

248

A.V., "And they laid hands on her"; LXX., ἐπέβαλον αὐτῃ χεῖρας; Vulg., imposuerunt ci manus. But R.V. as in the text, following the Targum, and the Jewish commentators, "They made for her two sides."

249

This is usually understood to be the "horse gate" of the city (Neh. iii. 28), and so Josephus seems to have taken it, for he says that Athaliah was killed in "the Kedron Valley." Canon Rawlinson says that it was more probably in the Tyropœon Valley. But there could have been no object in dragging the wretched queen all this way. Jehoiada was only anxious that she should not stain the Temple with her blood, and "the way by which the horses came into the king's house" seems to be some private palace-gate. We are expressly told (ver. 16) that Athaliah was slain "at the king's house," probably in "the king's garden" (2 Kings xxv. 4).

250

Wellhausen, Isr. and Jud., p. 96.

251

2 Chron. xv. 9-15.

252

2 Chron. xxix. 10.

253

2 Chron. xxxiv. 31.

254

The name is perhaps an abbreviation from Mattan-Baal, "gift of Baal." Comp. "Methumballes" (Plaut.). The names of Tyrian kings, Mitinna, Mattun, occur in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser II. See Herod., vii. 98 (Bahr, ad loc.). "Methumbaal of Arvad" is mentioned on a monument of Tiglath-Pileser II. (Schrader, ii. 249).

255

2 Kings xii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6. Stanley, Lectures, ii. 399.

256

2 Kings xii. 2. After "all his days," the R.V. and A.V. add "wherein Jehoiada instructed him." This, however, is not accurate. There is a stop at days, and "wherein" should be "because." There seems, however, from the LXX., to be some variation in the text, and according to the Chronicler Joash became an apostate. LXX., Πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἅς ἐφώτιζεν αὐτὸν ὁ ἱερεύς; Vulg., Cunctis diebus quibus docuit eum Jojadas sacerdos.

257

The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxiv. 1, 2) more suo copies 2 Kings xii. 1, 2, but omits 3, because he dislikes the fact that not even his hero Jehoiada had anything to say against the bamoth. But it appears from 2 Kings xxiii. 9 that the bamoth had regular priests of their own, who "eat the priestly portions" (according to an old MS.) among their brethren.

258

2 Chron. xxiv. 7.

259

2 Kings xii. 4: "The money that every man is set at." Lit., "Each the money of the souls of his valuation." Comp. Numb. xviii. 16; Lev. xxvii. 2.

260

The Chronicler says "at the gate."

261

2 Chron. xxiv. 11.

262

Lev. v. 1-6, xiv. 13. "Trespass-money" is here first mentioned.

263

2 Chron. xxiv. 8-10. There is a difference between the historian and the Chronicler respecting the vessels of the house.

264

2 Chron. xxiv. 15, 16. The statement of the Chronicler is (as so often) surrounded by difficulties and improbabilities. If Jehoiada was one hundred and thirty years old when he died, he must have been ninety when Ahaziah was murdered, at the age of twenty-three. But as Ahaziah was (apparently) born when his father Jehoram was eighteen, Jehosheba must have been under eighteen, and must have been married to a man seventy years older than herself! See Lord Arthur Hervey, On the Genealogies, p. 113.

265

2 Chron. xxiv. 27.

266

Stanley charitably thinks that Joash may have only burst into hasty words like those of Henry II. against Becket.

267

The Chronicler says that "the sons of Jehoiada" had helped to crown him, and that he put "the sons of Jehoiada" to death (2 Chron. xxiii. 11, xxiv. 25).

268

Gittin, f. 57, 2; Sanhedrin, f. 96, 2; Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, p. 276; Lightfoot on Matt. xxiii. 35. There can be little doubt that the reading "Berechiah" is a later correction of some one who remembered the murder narrated in Jos., B. J., IV. v. 4, and that the true reading is "son of Jehoiada." This is the last murder of a prophet mentioned in the Old Testament, and we learn from the Gospel the fact that he was slain "between the Temple and the altar."

269

Isa. xxiv. 2; Jer. v. 31, xxiii. 11; Ezek. vii. 26, xxii. 26; Hos. iv. 9; Mic. iii. 11, etc.

270

Jer. xxix. 24-32.

271

2 Kings ix. 11.

272

But from the Book of Kings we should not infer that there had been any fighting at all. The Syrian commander had been bribed to retire.

273

We cannot understand the addition "on the way that goeth down to Silla." Silla is nowhere else referred to.

274

LXX., 2 Chron. xxiv. 27, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ πάντες.

275

Νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνας υἱοὺς καταλείπει. Comp. Q. Curtius, vi. 11: "Lege cautum erat ut propinqui eorum qui regi insidiati cum ipsis necarentur." Cic., Ad Brut., 15.

276

2 Kings viii. 20-22.

277

Amos i. 11.

278

The Valley (Gê) of Salt is "the plain of the Sabkah," about two miles broad, between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the hills which separate the Ghôr from the Arabah (Seetzen, Reisen, ii. 356; Robinson, Researches, ii. 450, 488). David had won a great victory there (2 Sam. viii. 13; Psalm lx., title).

279

Selah, "a rock" (Πέτρα). Eusebius calls it Rekem.

280

It is the name also of a city of Judah (Josh. xv. 38).

281

2 Chron. xxviii. 17; Jos., Antt., XII. viii. 6.

282

2 Chron. xxv. 5-10, 13.

283

Κατακρημνισμός. This mode of execution prevailed till quite recent times in the little republic of Andorra.

284

2 Kings xiv. 17. The phrase that "he lived fifteen years" is unusual, and seems to imply that the historian saw, —

285

Josh. x. 6, 31, xv. 39; 2 Kings xviii. 17; 2 Chron. xi. 9.

"In more of life true life no more."

286

I have not thought it worth while to unravel by a series of uncertain conjectures the careless, and often self-contradictory, synchronism of the reigns of the kings in the two kingdoms. The compiler of these books evidently attached little or no importance to accurate chronology. For instance, the data of 2 Kings xiii. 1, 10, do not coincide; and instead of entering into tedious, doubtful, and confusing guesses, I have contented myself throughout with giving for the reigns of the kings such dates, or approximate dates, as seem to result from the several notices compared with the contemporary annals of Assyria.

287

2 Chron. xxiv. 23.

288

2 Kings xiii. 4; "besought," literally "stroked the face of" (1 Sam. xiii. 12; 1 Kings xiii. 6).

289

The reference is usually explained of Jeroboam II.

290

Comp. 2 Kings ii. 12.

291

Lit., "Make thine hand to ride upon thy bow." There is not the slightest taint of belomancy in the story (comp. Ezek. xxi. 21), nor does it allude to shooting an arrow into an enemy's country as a declaration of war (Virg., Æn., ix. 57).

292

Aphek, a name of good omen (1 Kings xx. 26-30).

293

Thrice. Comp. Num. xxii. 28; Exod. xxiii. 17, etc.

294

LXX., ἐλυπήθη.

295

See R.V., margin.

296

Antt., IX. viii. 6.

297

See Ecclus. xlviii. 13: "When he was dead, he prophesied in the tomb." (But the clause may be spurious.)

298

Possibly some matrimonial proposal may have lain behind the interchange of messages.

299

Stade. For similar parables see Judg. ix. 8; Herod., i. 141; Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., iii. 226.

300

Beth-Shemesh, "the house of the sun." It is mentioned in 1 Sam. vi. 9, 12, and was a priestly city, and one of Solomon's store-cities (1 Kings iv. 9). It ultimately fell into the hands of the Philistines (2 Chron. xxviii. 18). It is not the Beth-Shemesh of Josh. xix. 22.

301

Josephus says that this was the fault of Amaziah, whom Joash of Israel threatened with death if Jerusalem resisted.

302

This implies that at least half the northern wall was dismantled – the wall towards Ephraim.

303

Some have conjectured that Amaziah of Judah became more or less the vassal of Joash of Israel, and that the vassalage continued till after the death of Jeroboam II. (1) For Jeroboam II. held Elath till his death, when Uzziah recovered it (2 Kings xiv. 22), and he certainly could not have held this southern Judæan port if Judah was entirely independent; and (2) we read that Uzziah did not become king at all till the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam II. But if Amaziah only survived Joash of Israel fifteen years (2 Kings xiv. 17), Uzziah must have succeeded in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam. Is the explanation to be found in the fact that up to that time – for twelve years – Jeroboam did not allow the Judæans to elect a king? or are these among the hopeless confusion of synchronism which cannot be reconciled at all with our present data?

304

2 Kings xiv. 25-27. There are other allusions to the historic events in 2 Kings x. 32, 33, xiii. 3-7, 22-25. Hitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are "a burden of Moab" quoted from Jonah.

305

2 Kings xiii. 5, "The Lord gave Israel a saviour"; xiv. 27, "And He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash." Some suppose the saviour to be the Assyrian King.

306

It had owned the feudal supremacy of David (2 Sam. viii. 6), and Ahab had extorted the privilege of having bazaars there (1 Kings xx. 34). Considering how immense had been the resources of Damascus (2 Kings vi. 14), which had once been able to send to battle twelve thousand war-chariots (Eponym Canon, p. 108) under Benhadad, we see how fearfully the Syrian capital must have been weakened.

307

If Isa. xv. 1, 2, refers to this invasion of Jeroboam II., as Hitzig first conjectured, we infer that he had taken both Ar of Moab (Rabbath) and Kir of Moab, a strong fortress on a hill, by night assaults; and that he had also captured Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba, and inflicted on them summary chastisement. It appears that the Moabites had advanced northwards from the Arnon, while Hazael occupied Ramoth-Gilead, and had seized part of the tribe of Reuben. Jeroboam II. first expelled them, and then invaded their own proper country. Hitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are really an old prophecy – perhaps by Jonah, son of Amittai – which Isaiah quotes, and to which he adds two verses (Isa. xvi. 12, 13). In such overthrow Moab must have learnt to be ashamed of Chemosh (Jer. xlviii. 13).

308

Isa. xv. 7; Amos vi. 14.

309

Amos vi. 2.

310

Merchandise had hitherto been considered discreditable for a pure Jew, so that a trader is called a Canaanite (Hos. xii. 7, 8).

311

See the writer's Minor Prophets ("Men of the Bible" Series), pp. 231-243.

312

Amos vii. 1. Famine (iv. 6); drought (iv. 7, 8); yellow blight and locusts (iv. 9); pestilence (iv. 10); earthquake and burning (iv. 11).

313

Amos vii. 4.

314

Amos i. 1, iii. 14, iv. 11, viii 8; Zech. xiv. 5: "Ye shall flee like as ye fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah." Josephus says that in an earthquake a little before the birth of Christ ten thousand were buried under the ruined houses (Antt., XV. v. 2), and he has many Rabbinic haggadoth to tell us about the earthquake, which, he says, happened at the moment when Uzziah burnt incense in the Temple (Antt., IX. x. 4).

315

According to Hind, they took place on June 15th, b. c. 763, and February 9th, b. c. 784. Amos alludes to the capture of Gath by Uzziah, of Calneh (Ktesiphon), and of Hamath (vi. 2; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6). Gath henceforth disappears from the Philistian Pentapolis (Amos i. 7, 8; Zeph. ii. 4; Zech. ix. 5).

316

Or "dresser of sycomore-trees" (R.V.). LXX., κνίζων συκάμινα; Vulg., vellicans sycomoros. The sycomore-fruit (fruit of the Ficus sycomorus, or wild fig) is ripened by puncturing it (Theoph., H. Plant., iv. 2; Pliny, H. N., xiii. 14).

317

The well-known town of Tekoa had been Solomon's horse-fair, and had been fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6). It lay in a wild country six miles south of Bethlehem (2 Chron. xx. 20; 1 Macc. ix. 33; Robinson, Bibl. Res., i. 486). For a fuller account of these prophets, I must refer to my book on The Minor Prophets in the "Men of the Bible" Series. It has always been assumed that Amos belonged to the well-known Tekoa, and was therefore a subject of the Southern Kingdom. In recent days this has become uncertain. No sycomores grow or can grow on the bleak uplands of Tekoa (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 397); so that Jerome, in his preface to Amos, thinks that "brambles" are intended. Even Kimchi conjectured that Tekoa was an unknown town in the tribe of Asher. Amos's allusions to scenery are all applicable to the Northern landscape.

318

Amos i. 1-ii. 5.

319

Amos ii. 6-13.

320

Amos iii. 9-15.

321

Amos iv. 1-13.

322

This title, "Jehovah-Tsebaoth," now begins to occur. It is not found in the Hexateuch. It probably means "Lord of the starry hosts." Contact with Assyria first made the Israelites acquainted with star-worship. Amos alludes to the Pleiades and Orion (v. 8: comp. Job ix. 9, xxxviii. 31). Star-worship is forbidden in Deuteronomy. In Amos v. 26 the true meaning is that the Israelites would take with them, on their road to exile, Sakkuth (Moloch?) and Kewan (the god-star Saturn).

323

Amos vi. 1-14.

324

Amos vii. 1-9.

325

Strange as it may seem, the early authority for the existence of any calf at Dan is very slight, and the extreme uncertainty of the reading and interpretation in one main passage (1 Kings xii. 32) makes it at least possible that there were two calves at Bethel, and that at Dan there was no calf, but only the old idolatrous ephod of Micah, still served by the servant of Moses. See additional note at the end of the volume.

326

Amos iii. 2.

327

That the chief priest of Bethel bore the name "Jehovah is strong" shows once more that "calf-worship" was in no sense a substitute for the worship of Jehovah.

328

This was not quite accurate; he had rather prophesied the devastation of the high places (vii. 9). In fact, his words had often been very vague. "Thus will I do unto thee" (iv. 12).

329

Amos ix. 11-15. Comp. Hos. iii. 5.

330

The exaggerated haggadoth of later days say that Amaziah had Amos beaten with leaded thongs, and that he was carried home in a dying state (Epiphan., Opp., ii. 145), to which there is a supposed allusion in Heb. xi. 35: ἄλλοι δὲ ἐτυμπανίσθησαν.

331

We cannot be sure that the term "Seer" was meant to be contemptuous, although from 1 Sam. ix. 9 we should infer that the title had become somewhat obsolete. Further, we must bear in mind that it may not have been always easy for worldlings to distinguish between true prophets and the unprincipled pretenders who, about this time, succeeded in making the name and aspect of a prophet so complete a disgrace that men had carefully to disclaim it (Zech. xiii. 2-6). It is true that the heading of Amos (i. 1), which may not, however, be by the prophet himself, tells us of "the words which he saw" (i. e., spoke as a seer), and he also disclaims the name of prophet (vii. 14).

332

Amos viii. 1-ix. 9, 10.

333

Amos ix. 11-15.

334

Hos. iv. 15-19.

335

Hos. v. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, ix. 3-6, xi. 5, xii. 1, xiv. 3. It must be borne in mind that the cuneiform inscriptions prove that Assyria had burst into sight like a lurid comet on the horizon far earlier than we had supposed. Jehu had paid tribute to Shalmaneser as far back as b. c. 842, more than a century before Menahem's tribute in 738. The destruction which Hosea prophesied took place within thirty-one years of his prophecies – probably in b. c. 722, when Sargon finished the siege of Samaria begun by Shalmaneser. The king Hoshea was perhaps taken captive before the siege.

336

Hos. viii. 5, ix. 15.

337

Hos. x. 13, 14.

338

Hos. vi. 9: for "by consent" read "towards Shechem."

339

Hos. vii. 3-7. The allusions are vague, but we see a drunken king among his drunken princes, surrounded by wicked plotters who have flattered his vices. He is ignorant of his peril. The subjects aid the rulers in these abominations. All are blazing, like an oven, with passion and infamy, and only rest (as the baker does) to acquire new strength for inflaming their burning desires. At the dawn their treachery blazes into the crime of murder, and in the wine-sick fever-heat of the banquet the king is murdered by his corrupt intimates (see my Minor Prophets, p. 78).

340

Wellhausen, Isr. and Jud., 85.

341

Hence, perhaps, the expression that the people "took him." If Amaziah died at fifty-nine, he probably had other sons.

342

Compare the interchange of the names Azariel and Uzziel (Exod. vi. 18) in 1 Chron. vi. 2, 18. Azariah means "Jehovah hath helped," and Uzziah "Strength of Jehovah." It is just possible that his name was changed at his accession, as the chief priest also was named Azariah, and confusion might otherwise have arisen.

343

2 Chron. xxvi. 2-15.

344

Isa. xiv. 29. A mixed language arose in this district in consequence (Neh. xiii. 24; Zech. ix. 6). The word Palestine only applies strictly to the district of Philistia. Milton uses it, with his usual accuracy, in the description of Dagon as

"That twice-battered god of Palestine."

345

Uzziah's opposition to Assyria – of which there seems to be no doubt, for he must be the Azrijahu of the Eponym Canon– took place about 738, and was a coalition movement. But it gives rise to great chronological and other difficulties. As the solution of these is at present only conjectural, I refer to Schrader (E. Tr.), ii. 211-219. He is called Azrijahu Jahudai.