The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

Comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16.

594

The Babyl. Talmud and some Targums, followed by Vitringa, etc., attribute to it storms of lightning; Prideaux, Heine, and Faber, to the simoom; R. José, Ussher, etc., to a nocturnal attack of Tirhakah.

595

It is, however, perfectly possible that a contingent was left on guard. "Where is the [past] terror? Where is he that rated the tribute? Where is he that received it?" (Isa. xxxiii. 18). "At the noise of the tumult the people flee" (Isa. xxxiii. 3); "At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep" (Psalm lxxvi. 6). Comp. Psalm xlviii. 4-6.

596

This is the meaning of "he departed, and went, and returned."

597

Not, only fifty-five days, as we read in Tobit i. 21.

598

Jos., Antt., X. i. 5: "In his own temple to Araskê"; LXX., Ἀσαράχ; Isa. xxxvii. 38. One guess connects the word with Nesher, "the eagle-god," often seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Lenormant calls him "the god of human destiny."

599

Alex. Polyhistor ap. Euseb., i. 27; Kimchi ad 2 Kings xix. 37. Buxtorf (Bibl. Rabbinic.) says that Sennacherib entered the temple to ask his counsellors why Jehovah favoured Israel. Being told that it was because of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, he said, "Then I will offer my two sons." Rashi adds that they slew him to save their own lives. (See Schenkel and Riehm, s. v. "Sanherib" – both articles by Schrader).

600

See Schrader in Riehm's Handwörterbuch, s. vv. "Sanherib," "Asarhaddon." Esarhaddon, judging from what is called "Sennacherib's will," in which the king leaves him splendid presents, seems to have been a favourite of his father (Records of the Past, i. 136). He says that on hearing of his father's murder, "I was wrathful as a lion, and my soul raged within me, and I lifted my hands to the great gods to assume the sovereignty of my father's house." See Appendix I.

601

The Book of Tobit (i. 21) calls him Sarchedonas.

602

2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.

603

2 Chron. xxxii. 23.

604

Wellhausen, p. 116.

605

Herod., ii. 14. "Sin" (Tanis?), Ezek. xxx. 15. It lay in the midst of morasses, and some attribute the catastrophe to the malaria.

606

The deliverance is really connected with Tirhakah, whose deeds are recorded in a temple at Medinet Habou, but the jealousy of the Memphites attributed it to the piety of Sethos. See G. W. Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i. 141; Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. 394.

607

Antt., X. i. 1-5.

608

Comp. 1 Sam. v., vi., where, after a plague, the Philistines sent an expiation of five golden mice.

609

We may add that even the Chronicler drops a veil over Sennacherib's actual capture of fortresses in Judah ("he thought to win them for himself," 2 Chron. xxxii. 1: comp. 2 Kings xviii. 13; Isa. xxxvi. 1).

610

Isa. vi. 11-13.

611

Isa. v. 26-30.

612

Isa. vii. 18.

613

Isa. viii., xxviii. 1-15, x. 28-34.

614

Isa. xiv. 29-32, xxix., xxx.

615

Isa. i. 19, 20.

616

Isa. x. 33, xxix. 5-8, xxx. 20-26, 30-33.

617

Isa. xxxviii. 6. See for this paragraph an admirable chapter in Prof. Smith's Isaiah, pp. 368-374.

618

Isa. xlvii. 13.

619

Stanley, Lectures, ii. 531.

620

Isa. xl. 15.

621

Isa. xix. 24, 25.

622

Ecclus. xlix. 4.

623

One legend says that Hephzibah was a daughter of Isaiah. Not so Josephus (Antt., X. iii. 1).

624

See Gen. xli. 51. His name may have referred to the new union between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Comp. 2 Chron. xxx. 6, xxxi. 1.

625

Chron. xxxiv. 1-3.

626

See Zeph. i. 8. Comp. 2 Chron. xxiv. 17; Isa. xxviii. 14; Jer. v. 5, etc.

627

Mic. vii. 1-20.

628

LXX., τῇ Βαά̈λ. The feminine, however, does not imply that Baal was here worshipped as a female deity, but is probably due to the fact that later Jews always avoided using the names of idols (from a misapprehension or too literal view of Exod. xxiii. 13), and therefore called Baal Bosheth ("shame"), which is feminine. Hence the names Mephibosheth, Jerubbesheth, Ishbosheth. In Suidas (s. v. Μανασσῆς) he is charged with having set up in the Temple "a four-faced image of Zeus."

629

For בָּתִּים, in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, the LXX. read χεττίμ (?). Grätz, (Gesch. d. Juden., ii. 277) suggests בְּנָדִים, "broidered robes." Ezek. xvi. 16. See Herod., i. 199; Strabo, xvi. 1058; Luc., De Deâ. Syr., § 6; Libanius, Opp., xi. 456, 557; Ep. of Jeremy, 43; Döllinger, Judenthum u. Heidenthum, i. 431; Rawlinson, Phœnicia, 431.

630

Chron. xxxiii. 3; 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Movers, Rel. d. Phöniz., i. 65 "In all the books of the Old Testament written before the Assyrian period no trace of star-worship is to be to found." 2 Kings xvii. 16.

631

Jer. vii. 18, viii. 2, xix. 13; Zeph. i, 5.

632

See Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3.

633

2 Kings xxiii. 11, 12.

634

See Jer. vii, 31, 32, xix. 2-6, xxxii. 35; Psalm cvi. 37, 38.

635

Ewald infers from Isa. lvii. 5-9; Jer. ii. 5-13, that he actually sought for all foreign kinds of worship, in order to introduce them.

636

1 Sam. iii. 11; Jer. xix. 3.

637

Comp. Isa. xxxiv. 11; Lam. ii. 8.

638

2 Kings xxi. 13. LXX., ἀλάβαστρος, al. πυξίον. The Vulgate also takes it to mean the obliteration of writing on a tablet: "Delebo Jerusalem sicut deleri solent tabulæ; et ducam crebrius stylum super faciem ejus."

639

2 Kings xxi. 16; Heb., "from mouth to mouth"; LXX., στόμα εἰς στόμα; Vulg., donec impleret Jerusalem usque ad os. Comp. 2 Kings x. 21.

640

Antt., X. iii, 1: "He butchered alike all the just among the Hebrews." To this reign of terror some refer Psalm xii. 1; Isa. lvii. 1-4.

641

This (as I have said) cannot be regarded as certain. Isaiah began to prophesy in the year that King Uzziah died, sixty years before Manasseh. It is a Jewish Haggadah. See Gesen on Isa. i., p. 9, and the Apocryphal "Ascension of Isaiah."

642

Esarhaddon reigned only eight years, till 668, and then resigned in favour of his son Assurbanipal. In his reign Psammetichus recovered Egypt, and put an end to the Dodecarchy. In the reign of his successor, Assuredililani, Assyria began to decline (647-625).

643

Comp. Isa. xxxix. 6; Jos., Antt., X. iii. 2. The phrase "among the thorns" means "with rings" (comp. Isa. xxx. 28, xxxvii. 29; Ezek. xxxviii. 4; Amos iv. 2). Assurbanipal says similarly that he seized Necho, "bound him with bonds and iron chains, hands and feet," but afterwards allowed him to return to Egypt (Schrader, ii. 59).

644

Late and worthless Haggadoth, echoed by still later writers (Suidas and Syncellus), say he was kept in a brazen cage, fed on bran bread dipped in vinegar, etc. See Apost. Constt., ii. 22: "And the Lord hearkened to his voice, and there became about him a flame of fire, and all the irons about him melted." John Damasc., Parall., ii. 15, quotes from Julius Africanus, that while Manasseh was saying a psalm his iron bonds burst, and he escaped. See Speakers Commentary, on Apocrypha, ii. 363.

645

Such pardon from a king of Assyria was rare, but not unparalleled. Pharaoh Necho I. was taken in chains to Nineveh, and afterwards set free (Schrader, K. A. T., p. 371).

646

See 2 Chron. xxvii. 3. The "fish gate" was, perhaps, a weak point (Zeph. i. 10).

647

2 Chron. xxxiii. 19. Heb., dibhrî Chozai; A.V., "the story of the Seers"; R.V., "in the history of Hozai"; LXX., ἐπὶ τῶν λόγων τῶν οὐρανιῶν; Vulg., in sermonibus Hozai. The elements of doubt suggested by the name "Babylon," and by the liberation of Manasseh, have been removed by further knowledge. See Budge, Hist. of Esarhaddon, p. 78; Schrader, K. A. T., 369 ff.

648

Since the Council of Trent this prayer has been relegated to the end of the Vulgate with 3, 4, Esdras. Verse 8 (the supposed sinlessness of the Patriarchs) at once shows it to be a mere composition.

649

2 Kings xxiii. 12.

650

2 Kings xxi. 20.

651

2 Chron. xxxiii. 15.

652

2 Kings xxiii. 26.

653

Jer. xv. 1-9.

654

The later Jews certainly took no account of his repentance. His name was execrated (see the substitution of Manasseh for Moses in Judg. xviii. 30), and he was denied all part in the world to come. The Apocryphal "Prayer of Manasses" has no authority, though it is interesting (Butler, Analogy, pt. ii., ch. v.).

655

In estimating the Chronicler's story, we cannot wholly forget the fact that a number of Haggadic legends clustered thickly round the name of Manasseh in the literature of the later Jews. He is charged with incest, with the murder of Isaiah, the distortion of Scripture, etc., and is represented as having got to heaven, not by real repentance, but by challenging God on His superiority to idols. The Targum, after 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, adds, "And the Chaldees made a copper mule, and pierced it all over with little holes, and put him therein. And when he was in straits, he cried in vain to all his idols. Then he prayed to Jehovah and humbled himself; but the angels shut every window and lattice of heaven, that his prayer might not enter. But forthwith the pity of the Lord of the world rolled forth, and He made an aperture in heaven, and the mule burst asunder, and the Spirit breathed on him, and he forsook all his idols." "No books," says Dr. Neubauer, "are more subject to additions and various adaptations than popular histories." See Mr. Ball's commentary (Speaker's Commentary, ii. 309, and Sanhedrin, f. 99, 2; 101, 1; 103, 2).

656

The name Amon is unusual. Some identify it with the name of the Egyptian sun-god (Nah. iii. 8). If so, we see yet another element of Manasseh's syncretism, and (as some fancy) an attempt to open relations with Psammetichus of Egypt. But perhaps the name may be Hebrew for "Architect" (1 Kings xxii. 26; Neh. vii. 59).

657

2 Kings xxi. 19. The LXX. reads "twelve years," but not so Josephus (Antt., X. iv. 1), or 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21.

658

Zeph. iii. 1-11. Comp. i. 4.

659

Chemarim, 2 Kings xxiii. 5; Hos. x. 5. The root in Syriac means "to be sad," but Kimchi derives it from a root "to be black." The Vulgate renders it æditui and aruspices.

660

We are told in the titles of their books that both these prophets prophesied in the days of Josiah; but such pictures can only apply to the earliest years of his reign.

661

See Jer. v., vi., vii., passim.

662

Jer. vi. 13-15.

663

Jer. v. 30, 31.

664

Kamphausen (Die Chronologie der hebräischer Könige) makes Josiah succeed to the throne in 638.

665

Otherwise his genealogy would not be mentioned for four generations (Hitzig).

666

Zeph. i. 1. Jeremiah also was highly connected. He was a priest and his father Hilkiah may be the high priest who found the book; "for his uncle Shallum, father of his cousin Hanameel, was the husband of Huldah the prophetess" (2 Kings xxii. 14; Jer. xxxii. 7). The fact that Jeremiah's property was at Anathoth, where lived the descendants of Ithamar (1 Kings ii. 26), whereas Hilkiah was of the family of Eleazar (1 Chron. vi. 4-13), does not seem fatal to the view that his father was the high priest.

667

Zeph. ii. 4-7.

668

Zeph. ii. 12-15.

669

Jer. ii. 1-35. Considering the very great part played by Jeremiah for nearly half a century of the last history of Judah, the non-mention of his name in the Book of Kings is a circumstance far from easy to explain.

670

Jer. iv. 6, A. V., "retire, stay not." Comp. Isa. x. 24-31.

671

Jer. iv. 7-27.

672

Jer. v. 15-17.

673

Jer. vi. 1, 22, 23, 24.

674

The almond tree (shâqâd) "seems to be awake (shâqâd), whatsoever trees are still sleeping in the torpor of winter" (Tristram Nat. Hist. of the Bible, 332; Jer. i. 11-14).

675

The name Kimmerii (on the Assyrian inscriptions Gimirrai) is connected with Gomer. The Persians call them Sakai or Scyths. The nomad Scyths had driven the Kimmerii from the Dniester while Psammetichus was King of Egypt. For allusions to this see Jer. vi. 22 seq., viii. 16, ix. 10. The first notice of them is in an inscription of Esarhaddon, b. c. 677, who says that he defeated "Tiushpa, the Gimirrai, a roving warrior, whose own country was remote." Zephaniah and Jeremiah were certainly thinking of the Scythians (Eichhorn, Hitzig, Ewald; and more recently Kuenen, Onderzoek, ii. 123; Wellhausen, Skizzen, 150). In b. c. 626 they could not have consciously had the Chaldæans in view, though, twenty-three years later, Jeremiah may have had.

676

See Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix.

677

Ezek. xxxviii. 2. So Gesenius, Hävernick, etc., and R.V.

678

The form in the Vulgate and the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX. is Mosech; in the Assyrian inscription, Muski. As far back as 1120 Tiglath-Pileser I. had overrun Tubal (the Tublai, Tabareni) and Moschi, between the Black Sea and the Taurus. They were neither Aryans nor Semites. In Gen. x. 2; 1 Chron. i. 5, Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Gomer are sons of Japheth. They are referred to in Rev. xx. 8.

679

Herod., i. 74, 103-106, iv. 1-22, vii. 64; Pliny, H. N., v. 16; Jos., Antt., I. vi. 1; Syncellus, Chronogl., i. 405.

680

Sayce, Ethnology of the Bible; Records of the Past, ix. 40; Schrader, K. A. T., 159. Some identify Gog with Gyges, King of Lydia, who was killed in battle against the Scythians, but whose name stood for a geographical symbol of Asia Minor, sometimes called Lud. It is said that in 665 Gyges (Gugu) sent two Scythian chiefs as a present to Nineveh.

681

Hence, in 2 Macc. iv. 47, 3 Macc. vii. 5, Scythian is used with the modern connotation of "Barbarian."

682

Ezek. xxxii. 26, 27; Cheyne, Jeremiah ("Men of the Bible") p. 31.

683

Expositor, 2nd series, iv. 263; Cheyne, Jeremiah, 31. Hitzig and Ewald (erroneously?) refer Psalms lv., lix., to these events, and it seems also to be an error to suppose that the later name of Bethshan – Scythopolis – has anything to do with this incursion. Like the names of Pella, Philadelphia, etc., it is later than the age of Alexander the Great. See 2 Macc. xii. 30; Jos., B. J., II. xviii., Vit. vi. Perhaps Scythopolis is a corruption of Sikytopolis, the city of Sikkuth; or Scythian may merely stand for "Barbarian," as in 3 Macc. vii. 5; Col. iii. 11 (Cheyne, l. c.).

684

Nah. i. 10, ii. 5, iii. 12; Diod. Sic., ii. 26.

685

Nah. iii. 8-11.

686

Strabo, xvi. 1, 3: ἠφανίσθη παοαχρῆμα.

687

Xen., Anab., III. iv. 7.

688

Chaldees, Kardim, Kasdim, Kurds.

689

Nabu-pal-ussur, "Nebo protect the son" b. c. 625-7. Jos., Antt. X. xi. 1: comp. Ap., i. 19.

690

Newman, Hebrew Monarchy, p. 315.

691

2 Kings xxiii. 4. We have here the first mention of "the second priest" (if, with Grätz, we read Cohen mishneh, as in 2 Kings xxv. 18; Jer. lii. 24). In later days he was called "the Sagan." At this time he probably acted as "Captain of the Temple" (Grätz, ii. 319).

692

Comp. 2 Kings xii. 15, where we find the same remark.

693

Exod. xv. 20; Judg. iv. 4; Isa. viii. 3. "The prophetess" seems to mean "prophet's wife." Noadiah was a false prophetess.

694

Exod. xxviii. 2, etc.

695

2 Kings xxii. 14. Heb., mishneh, lit. "second"; A.V., "the college"; R.V., "the second quarter." Perhaps it means "the lower city" (Neh. xi. 9; Zeph. i. 10). It puzzled the LXX.: ἐν τῇ μασενᾷ. Vulg., in secunda. Jerome says, "Haud dubium quin urbis partem significet quæ interiori muro vallabatur." Comp. Zeph. i. 10, "an howling from the second" (i. e., quarter of the city); Neh. xi. 9, where, for "second over the city" (A. and R.V.), read "over the second part of the city."

696

Another reading is "in Jerusalem," which gets over an historic difficulty.

697

Comp. 2 Kings xi. 14; LXX., ἐπὶ τοῦ στύλου; Heb., al-ha-ammud; Vulg., super gradum.

698

2 Kings xxiii. 4; for "in the fields of Kedron" one version has ἐν τῷ ἐμπυρισμῷ τοῦ χειμάῤῥου, "in the burning-place of the wady," – perhaps reading bemisrephoth for bishedamoth, and alluding to lime-kilns in the wady. It is surprising that they should carry the ashes "to Bethel." Thenius suggests the reading בֵּית־אַל, "place of execution" (lit., "house of nothingness").

699

Hos. x. 5; Zeph. i. 4 (the only other places where the word occurs). The delevit of the Vulgate (2 Kings xxiii. 5) only means that he put them down, and the κατέκαυσε of the LXX. should be κατέπαυσε.

700

Comp. Jer. ii. 23, where the LXX. has ἐν τῷ πολυανδρίῳ. In 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4, perhaps the true reading is, not Benî-ha-'âm, but Benî-hinnom– which would mean that he scattered the dust in the gehenna of Jerusalem. Comp. 1 Kings xv. 13.

701

For these Galli, see Seneca, De Vit. Beat., 27; Pliny, H. N., xi. 49.

702

Heb., bathîm, lit. "tents" or "houses"; Vulg., quasi domunculas.

703

In 2 Kings xxiii. 8, Geiger would read "the high places of the satyrs" (שׂצירים).

704

Usually derived (as by Selden and Milton) from toph, "drum," but perhaps from tuph (to spit in sign of abhorrence).

705

Parvar– perhaps "open portico." Renan connects the word with the Greek περίβολος. On horses dedicated to the sun, see Xen. Cyrop., viii. 3, 5, 12; Anab., iv. 5.

706

See Zeph. i. 5; Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29.

707

2 Kings xxiii. 13: "The Mount of Corruption"; Vulg., Mons offensionis; LXX., τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ Μοσθάθ. Some conjecture that Maschith may be a derisive change for some word which meant "anointing" (from being the Oil Mountain, Har ham-mischchah).

708

In burning the bones of the dead, he violated all Jewish feeling. Amos (ii. 1) had severely rebuked this form of revenge and insult even in the case of the heathen King of Moab. Bones defiled the touch (Num. xix. 16; Herod., iv. 73). Josiah's question at Bethel was, "What pillar is that?" (tsiyun). LXX., σκόπελον. Comp. Gen. xxxv. 20.

709

1 Kings xiii. 29-31.

710

2 Chron. xxxv. 1-19.

711

Jer. xi. 3, 4. Since, in this part of my subject, I make frequent reference to the prophecies of Jeremiah which are indispensable to the right understanding of the history, I may here say that modern critics (Cheyne and others) arrange them as follows: —

In the reign of Josiah, Jer. ii. 1-iii. 5, iii. 6-vi. 30, vii. 1-ix. 25, xi. 1-17.

In the reign of Jehoiakim, xxvi. 2-6, xlvi. 2-12, xxv., xxxv., and possibly xvi. 1, xviii. 19-27, xiv., xv., xviii., xi. 18-xii. 17.

In the reign of Jehoiachin, x. 17-23, xiii.

In the reign of Zedekiah, xxii. – xxiv., xxvii. – xxix. 1-11 (?), lii.

In the Exile, xxxix. – xliv.

712

See Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 56, id. 6.

713

Canon Cheyne shows that even Mohammed could not persuade the Qurashites wholly to give up their black stone at the Kaaba, and their dolmens and sacred trees (id. 103). He left the auçab, or sacrificial stones (matstseboth), though he warns his followers against them (Quran, v. 92).

714

Jer. xvii. 9-11.

715

Ewald, The Prophets, iii. 63, 64.

716

Jer. xvii. 1-4.

717

The Qurashites and other heathen Arabs accounted holy a large green tree, and every year had a sacrifice in its honour. "On the way to Hunain we called to God's Messenger (Mohammed) that he should appoint for us such trees. But he was terrified, and said, 'Lord God, Lord God! Ye speak even as the Israelites … ye are still in ignorance, – thus are heathen enslaved'" (Vakïdi, Book of the Campaigns of God's Messenger, quoted by Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 103, from Wellhausen).

718

Psalm lxxxv. 8.

719

Deut. xxx. 11-14. See Wellhausen, p. 165.

720

Jer. vi. 20. The passages of Jeremiah which seem of a different spirit may have been added by later hands —e. g., xxxiii. 18, which is not in the LXX.

721

Jer. vii. 21; Ewald; and Cheyne, l. c. 120. So the Jews seem to have understood it, for they appoint this passage to be read on the Haphtara after the Parashah about sacrifices from Leviticus.

722

Jer, vii. 22, 23. This alone would show that Jeremiah did not (as earlier critics thought) write "Deuteronomy," in spite of the numerous close resemblances in phraseology. Thus, Jeremiah often denounces the priests (i. 18, ii. 8-26, iv. 9, v. 31, viii. 1, xiii. 13, xxxii. 32). Cheyne, p. 82.

723

Mic. iii. 11.

724

Jer. vii. 4, 8-15.

725

Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.

726

Jer. xxii. 15, 16.

727

He was forced to desist by a fearful mortality among the labourers.

728

Circ. b. c. 611-605. Herod., ii. 158, 159, iv. 42. Psamatik, the father of Necho, was perhaps a Lybian. He established his sway over all Egypt displacing the Assyrians.