The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

Comp. Isa. xxx. 1-7; Ezek. xxix. 6. It seems to be an over-refinement to suppose that Sennacherib refers to the divisions between Egypt and Ethiopia.

568

2 Kings xviii. 23, A.V.: "Let Hezekiah give pledges."

569

Heb., Arâmîth.

570

2 Kings xviii. 28, where stood should be rendered came forward.

571

The coarse expression is softened down by the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxxii. 18).

572

The kings of Assyria usually called themselves "great king, mighty king, king of the multitude, king of the land Assur."

573

Every one must notice the glaring inconsistency between this defiance of Jehovah and the previous claim to the possession of His sanction. On Hamath, Arpad, etc., see Schrader, ii. 7-10.

574

Isa. xxxiii. 8: "He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man."

575

1 Kings xx. 32; 2 Kings vi. 30.

576

Sennacherib had already carried off vast numbers. See Isa. xxiv. 1-12; Demetrius ap. Clem. Alex., Strom., i. 403.

577

Isaiah's phrase, na'arî melek, "lads of the king," is contemptuous. LXX., παιδάρια.

578

Heb., ruach; LXX., δίδωμι ἐν αὐτῷ πνεῦμα. Theodoret calls this "spirit" cowardice (τὴν δειλίαν οἶμαι δηλοῦν).

579

Libnah means "whiteness." Dean Stanley (S. and P., 207, 258) identifies it with a white-faced hill, the Blanchegarde of the Crusaders.

580

The dates usually given are Sabaco, b. c. 725-712; Shabatok, 712-698; Tirhakah, 698-672. Manetho, Τάραχος; Strabo, Τεράκων, ὁ Αἰθιώψ. He was third king of the twenty-fifth dynasty, and the greatest of the Egyptian sovereigns who came from Ethiopia. He reigned gloriously for many years. We see his figure at Medinet Abou, smiting ten captive princes with an iron mace; but he was finally defeated by Esarhaddon, and in 668 by Assurbanipal at Karbanit (Canopus). He is called by his conqueror "Tar-ku-u, King of Egypt and Cush" (Schrader, K. A. T., 336 ff.).

581

Heb., Sepharîm; Vulg., litteræ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 17. The more ordinary term for a letter is iggereth.

582

2 Kings xix. 12 (Heb.); Ezek. xxvii. 23. On these places see Schrader, ii. 11, 12. It had been indeed Sennacherib's work "to reduce fenced cities to ruinous heaps." He boasts on the Bellino Cylinder, "Their smaller towns without number I overthrew, and reduced them to heaps of rubbish" (Records of the Past, i. 27).

583

"It is a prayer without words, a prayer in action, which then passes into a spoken prayer" (Delitzsch).

584

The Assyrians are sometimes represented in their monuments as hewing idols to pieces in honour of their god Assur (Botta, Monum., pl. 140).

585

LXX., κινεῖν τὴν κεφαλήν, "a gesture of scorn" (Psalm xxii. 7, cix. 25; Lam. ii. 15). With the vaunts of Sennacherib compare Claudian, De bell. Geth., 526-532.

"Cum cesserit omnisObsequiis natura meis? Subsidere nostrisSub pedibus montes, arescere vidimus amnes …Fregi Alpes, galeis Padum victricibus hausi."Keil, ad loc.

586

Comp. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 (Heb.); Psalm xxxix. 1; Isa. xxx. 28; Ezek. xxxviii. 4, xxix. 4. The Assyrians drove a ring through the lower lip, the Babylonians through the nose. See Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, ii. 314, iii. 436.

587

2 Kings xix. 33. "The river of Egypt" (Nachal-ha-Mizraim) is the Wady-el-Arish.

588

Isa. x. 33, 34, xi. 1, xiv. 8; Stanley, Lectures, ii. 410.

589

אוֹת. A sign "is a thing, an event, or an action intended as a pledge of the Divine certainty of another. Sometimes it is a miracle (Gen. iv. 15, Heb.), or a permanent symbol (Isa. viii. 18, xx. 3, xxxvii. 30; Jer. xliv. 29)" (Delitzsch).

590

The first year they should eat saphîach (LXX., αὐτόματα; Vulg., quæ repereris); the second year, sachîsh (LXX., τὰ ἀνατέλλοντα; Vulg., quæ sponte nascuntur).

591

2 Kings xix. 35: "It came to pass that night." Isaiah only has "then"; Josephus, κατὰ τὴν πρώτην τῆς πολιορκίας νύκτα. Menochius understands it "in celebri illa nocte." The LXX. omits "that," and simply says "in the night" (νυκτός). Comp. Psalm xlvi. 5 (Heb.); Isa. xvii. 14.

592

Josephus, followed by many moderns, and even by Keil, suggests a plague. The malaria of the Pelusiotic marshes easily breeds pestilence. The "maleak Jehovah" is "the destroyer" (mashchith) (Exod. xii. 23; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16.) Comp. Justin., xix. 11; Diod. Sic., xix. 434.

593

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."