FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rawlinson, Kings of Israel and Judah, p. 86. "The name of Ahaziah ('the Lord taketh hold'), like that of all Ahab's sons, testifies to the fact that the husband of Jezebel still worshipped Jehovah. Among the names of the judges and kings before Ahab in Israel, and Asa in Judah, scarcely a single instance occurs of names compounded with Jehovah; thenceforward they became the rule" (Wellhausen, Israel and Judah, Es. 1, p. 66).

[2] 1 Kings xxii. 47; 2 Kings iii. 9: comp. viii. 20.

[3] 2 Sam. viii. 2. On the ethics of these wars of extermination, such as are commanded in the Pentateuch, and were practised by Joshua, Samuel, Saul, David, and others, see Josh. vi. 17; 1 Sam. xv. 3, 33; 2 Sam. viii. 2, etc., and Mozley's Lectures on the Old Testament, pp. 83-103.

[4] See Stade, i. 86. He gives a photograph and translation of it at p. 534.

[5] See Records of the Past, xi. 166, 167.

[6] 2 Kings i. 2; Heb., be'ad hass'bakāh; LXX., διὰ τοῦ δικτυωτοῦ; Vulg., per cancellos (comp. 1 Kings vii. 18; 2 Chron. iv. 12).

[7] LXX., Βάαλ μυῖαν θεὸν Ἀκκαρών. So, too, Jos., Antt., IX. ii. 1. It is possible that the god was represented holding a fly as the type of pestilence, just as the statue of Pthah held in its hands a mouse (Herod., ii. 141). Flies convey all kinds of contagion (Plin., H. N., x. 28).

[8] Pausan., v. 14, § 2.

[9] The name, or a derisive modification of it, was given by the Jews in the days of Christ to the prince of the devils. In Matt. xii. 24 the true reading is Βεελζεβούλ, which perhaps means (in contempt) "the lord of dung"; but might mean "the lord of the [celestial] habitation" (οἰκοδεσπότην). Comp. Matt. x. 25; Eph. ii. 2; "Baal Shamaim," the Belsamen of Augustine (Gesen., Monum. Phœnic., 387; Movers, Phönizier, i. 176). For "opprobrious puns" applied to idols, see Lightfoot, Exercitationes ad Matt., xii. 24. The common word for idols, gilloolim, is perhaps connected with galal, "dung." Hitzig thinks that the god was represented under the symbol of the Scarabæus pillularius, or dung-beetle.

[10] Lev. xx. 6.

[11] בַּאַל שֵׂצַר (LXX., δασύς), whether in reference to his long shaggy locks, or his sheepskin addereth, μηλωτή (Zech. xiii. 4; Heb. xii. 37).

[12] ζώνη δερματίνη (Matt iii. 4).

[13] There is perhaps an intentional play of words between "man (אישׁ) of God" and "fire (אשׁ) of God" (Klostermann).

[14] Hebrew.

[15] "Come down quickly" (2 Kings i. 9).

[16] Luke ix. 51-56. This is a more than sufficient answer to the censure of Theodoret, that "they who condemn the prophet are wagging their tongues against God." The remark is based on utter misapprehension; and if we are to form no judgment on the morality of Scripture examples, they would be of no help for us. Compare the striking remark of the minister to Balfour of Burleigh in Scott's Old Mortality.

[17] Quoted by Rev. Professor Lumby, ad loc.

[18] Elijah, p. 146.

[19] This is practically the sum-total of the answer given again and again by Canon Mozley in his Lectures on the Old Testament, 2nd edition, 1878. For instance, he says that "the Jewish idea of justice gives us the reason why the Divine commands (of exterminating wars, etc.) were then adapted to man as the agent for executing them, and are not adapted now" (p. 102).

[20] Comp. Ezek. xviii. 2-30.

[21] For the idea involved see Num. xi. 1; Deut. iv. 24; Psalm xxi. 9; Isa. xxvi. 11; Heb. x. 27, etc.

[22] 1 Chron. ii. 55, where "Shimeathites" means "men of the tradition," and "scribes," "men of letters."

[23] Josh. iv. 19; v. 9, 10.

[24] Deut. xi. 30. It is on a hill south-west of Shiloh (Seilun), near the road to Jericho (Hos. iv. 15; Amos iv. 4). The name means "a circle," and there may have been an ancient circle of sacred stones there.

[25] 2 Kings iv. 38.

[26] 1 Kings xiii.

[27] As there are fords at Jericho, the object of this miracle, as of the one subsequently ascribed to Elisha, is not self-evident. Nothing is more certain than that there is a Divine economy in the exercise of supernatural powers. The pomp and prodigality of superfluous portents belong, not to Scripture, but to the Acta sanctorum, and the saint-stories of Arabia and India.

[28] Deut. xxi. 17. The Hebrew is פִּי־שְׁנַיִם, "a mouthful, or ration of two." Comp. Gen. xliii. 34. Even Ewald's "Nur Zweidrittel und auch diese kaum" is too strong (Gesch., iii. 517). In no sense was Elisha greater than Elijah: he wrought more wonders, but he left little of his teaching, and produced on the mind of his nation a far less strong impression.

[29] In 2 Kings vi. 17 the stormblast (sā'ārāh) and chariots and horses of fire are part of a vision of the Divine protection. Comp. Isa. lxvi. 15; Job xxxviii, 1; Nah. i. 3; Psalms xviii. 6-15, civ. 3.

[30] That is, the protection and defence of Israel by thy prayers.

[31] Even the Church-father St. Ephræm Syrus evidently felt some misgivings. He says: "Suddenly there came from the height a storm of fire, and in the midst of the flame the form of a chariot and horses, and parted them both asunder; the one of them it left on the earth, the other it carried to the height; but whether the wind carried him, or in what place it left him, the Scripture has not informed us, but it says that after some years, a terrifying letter from him full of menaces, was delivered to King Jehoram of Judah" (quoted by Keil ad loc.). See 2 Chron. xxi. 12. The letter is called "a writing" (miktâb).

[32] 2 Kings ii. 11; Ecclus. xlviii. 12. The LXX. curiously says ἐν συσσεισμῷ ὡς εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. So too the Rabbis, Sucah, f. 5.

[33] The circumstance has left its trace in the proverbs of nations, and in the German word Mantelkind for a spiritual successor.

[34] 2 Kings ii. 14. LXX., καὶ οὐ διῃρέθη; Vulg., Percussit aquas, et non sunt divisæ.

[35] Mal. iv. 4-6.

[36] Bava-Metzia, f. 37, 2, etc. His name is used for incantations in the Kabbala. Kitsur Sh'lh, f. 71, 1 (Hershon, Talmudic Miscellany, p. 340). The chair set for him is called "the throne of Elijah." For many Rabbinic legends see Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, pp. 172-178. The Persians regard him as the teacher of Zoroaster.

[37] The name Elisha means "My God is salvation."

[38] Gen. xiii. 10. "The city of palms" (Deut. xxxiv. 3).

[39] Jos., B. J., IV. viii. 3; Robinson, Bibl. Researches, i. 554.

[40] Abarbanel's notion that they meant "Ascend to heaven as Elijah did" is absurd.

[41] קֵרֵהַ This means bald at the back of the head, as נִבֵּהַ (gibbeach), means "forehead-bald" (Ewald, iii. 512). Elisha could not have been bald from old age, since he lived on for nearly sixty years, and must have been a young man. Baldness involved a suspicion of leprosy, and was disliked by Easterns (Lev. xxi. 5, xiii. 43; Isa. iii. 17, 24, xv. 2), as much as by the Romans (Suet., Jul. Cæs., 45; Domit., 18). Elisha's prophetic activity lasted through the reigns of Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash (i.e., 12 + 28 + 17 + 2 years).

[42] The κατέπαιζον of the Vat. LXX. implies persistent and vehement insult. The Post-Mishnic Rabbis, however, say that Elisha was punished with sickness for this deed (Bava-Metzia, f. 87, 1).

[43] There are great difficulties in the statement (2 Kings iii. 1) that he began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. I have not entered, nor shall I enter, into the minute and precarious conjectures necessitated by the uncertainties and contradictions of this synchronism introduced into the narrative by some editor. Suffice it that with the aid of the Assyrian records we have certain points de repère; from which we can, with the assistance of the historian, conjecturally restore the main data. In the dates given at the head of the chapters I follow Kittel, as a careful inquirer. Some of the approximately fixed dates are (see Appendix I.):—

854. Battle of Karkar (Ahab and Benhadad against Shalmaneser II.)
738. Tribute of Menahem to Tiglath-Pileser II.
732. Fall of Damascus.
722. Capture of Samaria by Sargon.
720. Defeat of Sabaco by Sargon in battle of Raphia.
705. Accession of Sennacherib.
701. Campaign against Hezekiah.
608. Death of Josiah.

[44] But neither the man of God from Judah nor Amos directly denounce the calf-worship, so much as its concomitant sins and irregularities.

[45] Perhaps the true reading is "pillars" (LXX., Vulg., Arab.).

[46] He is called "a sheep-master," noked; LXX., νωκήδ. Elsewhere the word occurs only in Amos i. 1. The Alex. LXX. has ἦν φέρων φόρον.

[47] According to the Moabite Stone.

[48] It is not clear whether the lambs and rams were sent with the fleeces. The A.V. says "lambs and rams with their wool," in accordance with Josephus—μυριάδας εἴκοσι προβάτων σὺν τοῖς πόκοις. The LXX. has the vague ἐπὶ πόκων, and implies that this was a special fine after a defeat in the revolt (ἐν τῇ ἐπαναστάσει): but comp. Isa. xvi. 1.

[49] 2 Chron. xx. 1-30.

[50] Robinson (Bibl. Res., ii. 157) identifies it with the brook Zered. Deut. ii. 13; Num. xxi. 12. The name means "valley of water-pits." W. R. Smith quotes Doughty, Travels, i. 26.

[51] Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 7. The phrase "who poured water on the hands of Elijah" is a touch of Oriental custom which the traveller in remote parts of Palestine may still often see. Once, when driven by a storm into the house of the Sheykh of a tribe which had a rather bad reputation for brigandage, I was most hospitably entertained; and the old white-haired Sheykh, his son, and ourselves were waited on by the grandson, a magnificent youth, who immediately after the meal brought out an old richly chased ewer and basin, and poured water over our hands, soiled by eating out of the common dish, of course without spoons or forks.

[52] This seems to have struck Josephus (Antt., IX. iii. 1), who says that "he chanced to be in a tent (ἔτυχε κατεσκηνωκώς) outside the host."

[53] Comp. 1 Sam. x. 5; 1 Chron. xxv. 1; Ezek. i. 3, xxxiii. 22. Menaggēn is one who plays on a stringed instrument, n'gînāh. The Pythagoreans used music in the same way (Cic., Tusc. Disp., iv. 2).

[54] Deut. xx. 19, 20.

[55] Lev. ii. 1. Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 36.

[56] This dreadful result crippled the revolt of Vindex against Nero.

[57] Jeroboam I., b.c. 937; Joram, 854.

[58] Isa. xv. 1, Kir of Moab; Jer. xlviii. 31, Kir-heres. It is built on a steep calcareous rock, surrounded by a deep, narrow glen, which thence descends westward to the Dead Sea, under the name of the Wady Kerak. We know that the armies of Nineveh habitually practised these brutal modes of devastation in the districts which they conquered. See Layard, passim; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies ii. 84.

[59] 1 Kings xviii. 27. Comp. Psalm xxxv. 23, xliv. 23, lxxxiii. 1, etc.

[60] Comp. Micah vi. 7. This is an entirely different incident from that alluded to in Amos ii. 1.

[61] Eusebius (Præp. Evang., iv. 16) quotes from Philo's Phœnician history a reference to human sacrifices (τοῖς τιμωροῖς δαίμοσιν) at moments of desperation.

[62] The rendering is doubtful. LXX., καὶ ἐγένετο μετάμελος μέγας ἐπὶ Ἰσράηλ; Vulg., indignatio in Israel; Luther, Da ward Israel sehr zornig.

[63] Amos ii. 1-3.

[64] Hos. i. 4: "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu."

[65] Jos., Antt., IX. iv. 2. This perhaps is only suggested by the reminiscences of 1 Kings xviii. 2, 3, 12.

[66] Lev. xxv. 39-41; Matt. xviii. 25.

[67] 2 Kings iv. 10. Not "a little chamber on the wall" (A.V.), but "an alîyah with walls" (margin, R.V.).

[68] Frankl., Jews in the East.

[69] John iv. 27: "Then came His disciples, and marvelled that He was talking (μετὰ γυναικὸς) with a woman."

[70] 2 Kings iv. 13: "Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care" (LXX., πᾶσαν τὴν ἔκστασιν ταύτην).

[71] The Sheykh with whom I stayed at Bint es Jebeil could think of no return which I could offer for his hospitality so acceptable as if I would say a good word for him to the authorities at Beyrout.

[72] Gehazi is usually called the na'ar or "lad" of Elisha—a term implying lower service than Elisha's "ministry" to Elijah.

[73] 2 Kings iv. 23. Hebrew "Peace"; A.V., "It shall be well."

[74] Salutations occupy some time in the formally courteous East. Comp. Luke x. 4.

[75] 2 Kings viii. 1.

[76] Not "lap," as in A. V. (Heb., beged); LXX. συνέλιξε πλῆρες τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐτοῦ; Vulg., implevit vestem suam (both correctly).

[77] Heb., paquoth; LXX., τολύπην ἀγρίαν; Vulg; colocynthidas agri. Hence the name cucumis prophetarum.

[78] Lord of the Chain and "Three lands." Three wadies meet at this spot, a little west of Bethel.

[79] 2 Kings iv. 42. Karmel, Lev. ii. 14. Perhaps a sort of frumenty.

[80] The word for "wallet" (tsiqlon; Vulg., pera) occurs here only. Peshito, "garment." The Vatican LXX. omits it. The Greek version has ἐν κωρύκῳ αὐτοῦ.

[81] See Lev. ii. 14, xxiii. 14.

[82] 2 Kings iv. 43. The word for "his servitor" (m'chartho) is used also of Joshua. It does not mean a mere ordinary attendant. LXX., λειτουργός; Vulg., minister.

[83] It is curiously omitted by Josephus, though he mentions him (Ἄμανος) as the slayer of Ahab (Antt., VIII. xv. 5). The name is an old Hebrew name (Num. xxvi. 40).

[84] The word l'boosh means a gala dress. Comp. v. 5; Gen. xlv. 22. χιτῶνες ἐπημοιβοί (Hom., Od., xiv. 514). Comp. viii. 249.

[85] Elisha would not be likely to touch the place.

[86] Now the Burâda ("cold") and the Nahr-el-Awâj.

[87] Compare the answer of Abraham to the King of Sodom (Gen. xiv. 23).

[88] The feeling which influenced Naaman is the same which led the Jews to build Nahardea in Persia of stones from Jerusalem. Altars were to be of earth (Exod. xx. 24), but no altar is mentioned in 2 Kings v. 17, and the LXX. does not even specify earth (γόμος ζεῦγος ἡμιόνων).

[89] This is the only place in Scripture where Rimmon is mentioned, though we have the name Tab-Rimmon ("Rimmon is good"), 1 Kings xv. 18, and Hadad-Rimmon (Zech. xii. 11). He was the god of the thunder. The word means "pomegranate," and some have fancied that this was one of his symbols. But the resemblance may be accidental, and the name was properly Ramman.

[90] See Deut. xxxii. 8, where the LXX. has κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων.

[91] The moral difficulty must have been early felt, for the Alexandrian LXX. reads καὶ προσκυνήσω ἄμα αὐτῷ ἐγὼ Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ μου. But he would still be bowing in the House of Rimmon, though he might in his heart worship God. "Elisha, like Elijah" (says Dean Stanley), "made no effort to set right what had gone so wrong. Their mission was to make the best of what they found; not to bring back a rule of religion which had passed away, but to dwell on the Moral Law which could be fulfilled everywhere, not on the Ceremonial Law which circumstances seemed to have put out of their reach: 'not sending the Shunammite to Jerusalem' (says Cardinal Newman), 'not eager for a proselyte in Naaman, yet making the heathen fear the Name of God, and proving to them that there was a prophet in Israel'" (Stanley, Lectures, ii. 377; Newman, Sermons, viii. 415).

[92] Prov. iv. 14, 15.

[93] Prov. xvii. 14.

[94] On Gehazi's lips it meant no more than the incessant Wallah, "by God," of Mohammedans.

[95] 2 Kings v. 19. Heb., kib'rath aretz, "a little way"—literally, "a space of country." (The Vatican LXX. follows another reading, εἰς Δεβραθὰ τῆς γῆς; Vulg., electo terræ tempore[?].)

[96] LXX., κατεπήδησεν.

[97] A talent of silver was worth about £400—an enormous sum for two half-naked youths.

[98] 2 Kings v. 24. The LXX. (εἰς τὸ σκοτεινὸν) seems to have read אֹפֵל (ophel); "darkness," a treasury or secret place, for צַֹפֶל, and so the Vulgate jam vesperi.

[99] 2 Kings v. 26. The verse is so interpreted by some critics, especially Ewald, followed by Stanley. Margin, R.V.: "Mine heart went not from me, when" etc.

[100] Exod. iv. 6; Num. xii. 10.

[101] The later Rabbis thought that Elisha was too severe with Gehazi, and was punished with sickness because "he repelled him with both his hands" (Bava-Metsia, f. 87, 1, and Yalkut Jeremiah).

[102] The Hebrew word for "cut off" (qatsab) is very rare. LXX., ἀπέκνισε ξύλον; Vulg., præcidit lignum.

[103] It must be further borne in mind that "the iron did swim" (A.V.) is less accurate than "made the iron to swim" (R.V.). The LXX. has ἐπεπόλασε, "brought to the surface." Von Gerlach says, "He thrust the stick into the water, and raised the iron to the surface."

[104] Gen. xxxvii. 17, Dothain, "two wells" (?).

[105] Psalm xci. 4.

[106] Psalm xxxiv. 7.

[107] Psalm xci. 11.

[108] Zech. ix. 8.

[109] Isa. lxiii. 9.

[110] Adopting the reading of the Syriac version: "And when they [Elisha and his servant] came down to them [the Syrians]." The ordinary reading is "to him," which makes the narrative less clear.

[111] 2 Kings vi. 19. מַנְוֵרִים, ἀορασία, only found in Gen. xix. 11.

[112] Deut. xx. 13.

[113] Num. xxxi. 7.

[114] Vulg., Non percuties; neque enim cepisti eos ... ut percutias.

[115] Jos., Antt., IX. iv. 4, Κρύφα μὲν οὐκέτι ... φανερῶς δέ.

[116] Kittel, following Kuenen, surmises that this story has got misplaced; that it does not belong to the days of Jehoram ben-Ahab and Benhadad II., but to the days of Jehoahaz ben-Jehu and Benhadad III., the son of Hazael (Gesch. der Hebr., 249). In a very uncertain question I have followed the conclusion arrived at by the majority of scholars, ancient and modern.

[117] So asafœtida is called "devil's dung" in Germany; and the Herba alcali, "sparrow's dung" by Arabs. The Q'ri, however, supports the literal meaning; and compare 2 Kings xviii. 27; Jos., B. J., V. xiii. 7. Analogies for these prices are quoted from classic authors. Plutarch (Artax., xxiv.) mentions a siege in which an ass's head could hardly be got for sixty drachmas (£2 10s.), though usually the whole animal only cost £1. Pliny (H. N., viii. 57) says that during Hannibal's siege of Casilinum a mouse sold for £6 5s.

[118] So Clericus. Comp. Jos. ἐπηράσατο αὐτῇ.

[119] Lev. xxvi. 29.

[120] Deut. xxviii. 52-58.

[121] Jer. xix. 9.

[122] Lam. iv. 10: comp. ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Jos., B. J., VI. iii. 4.

[123] 1 Kings xxi. 27; Isa. xx. 2, 3.

[124] Compare the wrath of Pashur the priest in consequence of the denunciation of Jeremiah (Jer. xx. 2).

[125] 1 Kings xix. 2.

[126] In 2 Kings vi. 33 we should read melek (king) for maleak (messenger). Jehoram repented of his hasty order.

[127] The Jews say Gehazi, and his three sons (Jarchi).

[128] Lev. xiii. 46; Num. v. 2, 3.

[129] The capitals of the ancient Hittites—a nation whose fame had been almost entirely obliterated till a few years ago—were Karchemish, Kadesh, Hamath, and Helbon (Aleppo).

[130] Lectures, ii. 345.

[131] Jer. xxv. 29; Ezek. xxxviii. 21.

[132] See the cases of Samuel (1 Sam. ix. 7), of Ahijah (1 Kings xiv. 3), and of Elisha himself (2 Kings iv. 42).

[133] As Jacob did in sending forward his present to Esau. Comp. Chardin, Voyages, iii. 217.

[134] 2 Kings x. 32, xiii. 3, 22.

[135] Isa. xiii. 15, 16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.

[136] See Josh. vi. 17, 21; 1 Sam. xv. 3; Lev. xxvii. 28, 29.

[137] Psalm cxxxvii. 9.

[138] 1 Sam. xxiv. 14; 2 Sam. ix. 8.

[139] מַכְבֵּר. Jos., Antt., IX. iv. 6, δίκτυον διάβροχον. Aquila, Symmachus, τὸ στρῶμα. Michaelis supposed it to be the mosquito-net (κωνωπεῖον). Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 13. Ewald suggested "bath-mattress" (iii. 523). Sir G. Grove (s.v. "Elisha," Bibl. Dict., ii. 923) mentions that Abbas Pasha is said to have been murdered in the same manner. Some, however, think that the measure was taken by way of cure (Bruce, Travels, iii. 33. Klostermann, ad loc., alters the text at his pleasure).

[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:—

              OMRI
           ____|____
           |       |                   JEHOSHAPHAT
         Ahab = Jezebel                    |
       _______|__________________          |
       |            |           |          |
    Ahaziah      Jehoram      Athaliah = Jehoram
  (of Israel).  (of Israel).           | (of Judah).
                                       |
                                    Ahaziah
                                   (of Judah).

[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.

[203] 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.

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

[205] LXX., ἡ δυναστεύουσα.

[206] 2 Kings x. 14, A.V., "at the pit." Lit., "in" or "into the cistern."

[207] See Martin, Hist. de France, ix. 114.

[208] Whittier.

[209] 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."

[210] 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).

[211] In Josephus it is Jehonadab who blesses the king.

[212] Heb., יֵש וָיֵשׁ.

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

[214] 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."

[215] Lit., "mouth to mouth." LXX., στόμα εἰς στόμα.

[216] 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,—

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

[217] 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).

[218] A.V., images; R.V., pillars.

[219] Comp. Ezra vi. 11; Dan. ii. 5.

[220] Amos i. 11.

[221] Amos ii. 1.

[222] Hos. i. 4.

[223] Psalm lxxvi. 10.

[224]

Jehu 842-814.
Jehoahaz 814-797.
Joash 797-781.
Jeroboam II. 781-740.
Zechariah 740.

[225] 2 Kings viii. 12.

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

[227] Amos i. 3, 4.

[228] Amos i. 6-15.

[229] 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.

[230] Schrader (E. T.), ii. 199.

[231] Mic. vi. 16.

[232] 2 Kings xiii. 6.

[233] 2 Chron. xxi. 2-4.

[234] 2 Chron. xxi. 17.

[235] ὁμοπάτριος ἀδελφή (Jos.).

[236] 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.

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

[238] 2 Kings xi. 4: "The centurions of the Carians and of the runners."

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

[240] 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.

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

[242] 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.

[243] 1 Kings vii. 21. Comp., however, 2 Kings xxiii. 3.

[244] 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."

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

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

[247] 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.

[248] 2 Kings xi. 15. Not as in A.V., "without the ranges." Heb., lash'dêrôth; LXX., ἔσωθεν τῶν σαδηρώθ.

[249] 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."

[250] 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).

[251] Wellhausen, Isr. and Jud., p. 96.

[252] 2 Chron. xv. 9-15.

[253] 2 Chron. xxix. 10.

[254] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31.

[255] 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).

[256] 2 Kings xii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6. Stanley, Lectures, ii. 399.

[257] 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.

[258] 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.

[259] 2 Chron. xxiv. 7.

[260] 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.

[261] The Chronicler says "at the gate."

[262] 2 Chron. xxiv. 11.

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

[264] 2 Chron. xxiv. 8-10. There is a difference between the historian and the Chronicler respecting the vessels of the house.

[265] 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.

[266] 2 Chron. xxiv. 27.

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

[268] 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).

[269] 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."

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

[271] Jer. xxix. 24-32.

[272] 2 Kings ix. 11.

[273] 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.

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

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

[276] 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.

[277] 2 Kings viii. 20-22.

[278] Amos i. 11.

[279] 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).

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

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

[282] 2 Chron. xxviii. 17; Jos., Antt., XII. viii. 6.

[283] 2 Chron. xxv. 5-10, 13.

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

[285] 2 Kings xiv. 17. The phrase that "he lived fifteen years" is unusual, and seems to imply that the historian saw,—

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

[287] 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.

[288] 2 Chron. xxiv. 23.

[289] 2 Kings xiii. 4; "besought," literally "stroked the face of" (1 Sam. xiii. 12; 1 Kings xiii. 6).

[290] The reference is usually explained of Jeroboam II.

[291] Comp. 2 Kings ii. 12.

[292] 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).

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

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

[295] LXX., ἐλυπήθη.

[296] See R.V., margin.

[297] Antt., IX. viii. 6.

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

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

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

[301] 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.

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

[303] This implies that at least half the northern wall was dismantled—the wall towards Ephraim.

[304] 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?

[305] 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.

[306] 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.

[307] 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.

[308] 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).

[309] Isa. xv. 7; Amos vi. 14.

[310] Amos vi. 2.

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

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

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

[314] Amos vii. 4.

[315] 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).

[316] 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).

[317] 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).

[318] 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.

[319] Amos i. 1-ii. 5.

[320] Amos ii. 6-13.

[321] Amos iii. 9-15.

[322] Amos iv. 1-13.

[323] 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).

[324] Amos vi. 1-14.

[325] Amos vii. 1-9.

[326] 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.

[327] Amos iii. 2.

[328] 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.

[329] 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).

[330] Amos ix. 11-15. Comp. Hos. iii. 5.

[331] 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.

[332] 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).

[333] Amos viii. 1-ix. 9, 10.

[334] Amos ix. 11-15.

[335] Hos. iv. 15-19.

[336] 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.

[337] Hos. viii. 5, ix. 15.

[338] Hos. x. 13, 14.

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

[340] 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).

[341] Wellhausen, Isr. and Jud., 85.

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

[343] 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.

[344] 2 Chron. xxvi. 2-15.

[345] 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

[346] 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.

[347] 2 Kings xv. 5 (2 Chron. xxvi. 21, "a house of sickness"). LXX., ἐν οἴκῳ ἀφφουσώθ; Vulg., in domo libera seorsim. Comp Lev. xiii. 46. Theodoret understands it that he was shut up privately in his own palace: ἔνδον ἐν θαλάμῳ ὑπ' οὐδένος ὁρώμενος. Symmachus, ἐγκεκλεισμένος.

[348] His misfortune must have made a deep impression, and is possibly alluded to in Hos. iv. 4: "For thy people are as they that strive with the priest."

[349] The Chronicler attributes the good part of his reign to the influence of an unknown Zechariah, "who had understanding in the visions of God"; and says that when Zechariah died Uzziah altered for the worse.

[350] This high priest, Azariah, is only mentioned elsewhere in 2 Chron. xxvi. 17, 20.

[351] Josephus says that he had put on a priestly robe, and that a great feast was going on, and that the earthquake (Amos i. 1; Zech. xiv. 5) happened at the moment, which broke the Temple roof, so that a sunbeam smote his head and produced the leprosy. We here see the growth of the Haggadah.

[352] For instance, two verses earlier (2 Kings xv. 30) we read of the twentieth year of Jotham.

[353] Isa. i. 10-17.

[354] Amos viii. 2.

[355] Amos iv. 1-3.

[356] It is probable that our present Book of Zechariah is composed of the works of three prophets of different dates, each of whom may have borne that name. See my Minor Prophets ("Men of the Bible" Series).

[357] Zech. xi. 8. In 2 Kings xv. 10 the LXX. read καὶ επάταξεν αὐτὸν ἐν κεβλαάμ; and Ewald thinks that "before the people" (קָבָל־צָם) is really a proper name of the third king in one month—"and Kobolam slew him." There is insufficient ground for this; though a similar name is found in Assyrian records.

[358] Hos. viii. 3, vii. 7.

[359] Zachariah, Shallum, Kobolam (?).

[360] Zech. xi. 1-17 (Heb. 13).

[361] That this was Thapsacus on the Euphrates (1 Kings iv. 24), and that Menahem was in a position to march northward three hundred miles, and offer so deadly and wanton an insult to the might of Assyria, is out of the question. The name means "a ford," and might apply to any town on a river. Thenius thinks the name is a clerical error for Tappuach, between Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. xvii. 7, 8).

[362] Josephus says, ὠμότητος ὑπερβολὴν οὐ καταλιπὼν οὐδὲ ἀγριότητος. It is said that the same crime was committed in 1861 by a Mexican bandit. Machiavelli says, "He who violently and without just right usurps a crown must use cruelty, if cruelty becomes necessary, once for all" (De princ., 8).

[363] 2 Kings viii. 12; Hos. xiii. 16.

[364] Amos i. 13.

[365] Hos. x. 14. This allusion is, however, uncertain. Shalmaneser III. is not elsewhere found abbreviated into Shalman. Some suppose him to be a Moabitish king, Salamannu, who was a vassal of Tiglath-Pileser. The LXX., Vulg., etc., identify him with the Zalmunna of Judg. viii. 18. Psalm lxxxiii. 11 renders the word ex domo ejus qui judicavit Baal (i.e., Gideon). Beth-Arbel is either Arbela in Galilee, or Irbid, north-east of Pella.

[366] Nah. iii. 10.

[367] Isa. xiii. 16.

[368] The two predecessors of Tiglath-Pileser (Tuklat-abal-isarra) were Assurdayan and Assurnirari.

[369] Isa. v. 26-29.

[370] Comp. Job xx. 15; Ruth ii. 1.

[371] Hos. v. 11-13. Comp. x. 6: "It [Samaria] shall be carried to Assyria for a present unto King Jareb." Sayce (Bab. and Orient. Records, December 1887) thinks that Jareb may have been the original name of Sargon, and so too Neubauer, Zeitschr. für Assyr., 1886. The Vulg. renders King Jareb ad regem ultorem, and so too Symmachus. Aquila and Theodotion have δικαζόμενον. It may be the name of an unknown king of Assyria, or of Pul, or of Sargon—R.V., margin, "a king that should contend."

[372] Hos. vii. 8-12.

[373] Josephus says, τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀκολουθήσας ὠμότητι.

[374] 2 Kings xv. 25, A.V., "in the palace of the king's house" (armon), rather "fortress." For the character of the Gileadites see 1 Chron. xii. 8, xxvi. 31.

[375] The length of Pekah's reign is most doubtful. If the periods assigned to the reigns in the Northern and Southern Kingdoms be added together up to the Fall of Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 9, 10), it will be found that the Southern chronology is twenty years longer than the Northern. G. Smith would alter the text, and make Jeroboam II. reign fifty-one years and Pekah thirty years; others invent an interregnum of eleven years between Jeroboam II. and Zachariah, and an anarchy of nine years before Hoshea's accession; others shorten Pekah's reign to one year.

[376] 2 Kings xv. 37.

[377] Vide infra.

[378] Deut. xxxiii. 19: "They [Zebulon] shall call the peoples unto the mountain: there shall they offer the sacrifices of righteousness."

[379] Isa. viii. 6, 7.

[380] Perhaps we should read Edomites (2 Kings xvi. 6).

[381] The bar of its city gate.

[382] Bikath-Aven—"The cleft of Aven"—Cœle Syria, or Hollow Syria, still called by the Arabs El-Bukāa. Comp. Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7. Aven—or "Vanity"—is perhaps Heliopolis or Baalbek. Comp. Ezek. xxx. 17.

[383] Perhaps Beit el Jame, "House of Paradise"—about eight hours from Damascus (Porter, Five Years in Syria, i. 313).

[384] Kir, in Armenia—the land of their origin (Amos ix. 7).

[385] But, after all, was there a golden calf at Dan? It is scarcely ever alluded to, and the notion that there was one may have arisen (1) from a corruption or mistaken rendering of the text in 1 Kings xii. 29, and (2) from the existence there of the idolatrous ephod. See Klostermann, ad loc.; Isa. ix. 8-17.

[386] LXX., Ἀποτρίψαι τὸν μόσχον σοῦ, Σαμάρεια; Vulg., Projectus est vitulus tuus, Samaria. Orelli renders it, "Abscheulich ist dein Kalb, O Samaria." In Jer. xlvi. 15 we read (of Egypt), "Why is thy strong one swept away?" where the true reading may be, "Hath Khaph [i.e., Apis], thy chosen one, fled?" LXX., Ἆπις ὁ μόσχος σοῦ, ὁ ἐκλεκτός. So Amos had prophesied that the "god of Dan" and the "way of Beersheba" should fall for evermore (Amos viii. 14).

[387] Isa. ix. 11-16. With this passage comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 5; Zeph. i. 4; Hos. vii. 9, 10.

[388] Tiglath-Pileser says: "Pakaha, their king, I killed: Ausi [Hoshea] I placed over them. The distant land of Bit-Khumri [the "house of Omri"]—the whole of its inhabitants, with their goods—I carried away to Asshur" (b.c. 734). In this year he mentions Ahaz among his tributaries.

[389] Hos. iv. 4; v. 1, "Hear ye this, O priests ... ye have been a snare on Mizpah," etc.; vi. 9, "The company of the priests murder by the way to Shechem."

[390] Hos. x. 10 (so R.V., and in the main the versions after the Hebrew margin). LXX., ἐν τῷ παιδεύεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐν ταῖς δύσιν ἀδικίαις αὐτῶν; Vulg., "cum corripientur propter duas iniquitates suas"; A.V., "When they shall bind themselves in their two furrows." I believe that the "two iniquities" may mean two cherubs at Bethel. See x. 15: "So shall Bethel do unto you because of the evil of your evil."

[391] Hos. xi. 8-11.

[392] 2 Kings xvii. 1 is inconsistent with xv. 30, 33, and it is wholly useless for our purpose to enter into complicated chronological hypotheses, every one of which may be erroneous.

[393] Schrader, K. A. T., p. 255.

[394] Seder Olam, xxii. 2; 2 Chron. xxx. 6-11.

[395] See Herod., ii. 137; called So (Heb., Sô or Seve) in 2 Kings xvii. 4. Perhaps Shebek, the founder of the twenty-fifth dynasty. LXX., Σηγώρ; Vulg., Sua; Manetho, Sabachon. In the Eponym Canon he is called an Egyptian general, Sibakhi, who helped Gaza against Assyria, and was defeated. The ka appended at the end of his name (Egyptian Shaba-ka) is thought by some to be the Cushite article. The race of the priest Hirhor died out with Piankhi, and the Ethiopians elected a noble named Kashta. Shabak was his son. He conquered Sais, and burnt his rival Bek-en-raut alive (b.c. 724). His dynasty ruled for fifty years; he was succeeded by Sevechus (Shabatok), and he by Tehrak (Tirhakah).

[396] His name means "Salmân, pardon." We have no monuments or inscriptions of this king; only an imperial weight.

[397] Mic. v. 1.

[398] Hos. xiii. 13.

[399] Hos. xiii. 7-11. The prophecy is rhythmic, though not written in actual poetry.

[400] Till the discovery of the Assyrian records, Sargon (Sharru-kênu, 'the faithful king') was but a name. The Jews knew but little of him. He is but once mentioned in Scripture (Isa. xx. 1), and was probably confused by some Jews with other kings. Yet he reigned sixteen years (722-705), and his records give the annals of fifteen campaigns. In 720 he crushed a confederacy headed by Yahubid of Hamath, and reduced that city to a "heap of ruins." He then advanced against Hanno, King of Gaza, who was in alliance with Sabaco, and defeated the combined forces of the Philistines and Egyptians at Raphia, half-way between Gaza and the Wady-el-Arîsh, "the torrent [nachal] of Egypt." Sargon was at the time too much occupied with other enemies to pursue his advantage over Egypt; for Armenia, Media, and other countries needed his attention. This encouraged Ashdod to rebel, and its king, Azuri, refused his tribute (see Isa. xx. 1). Sargon deposed him, and put his brother Ahimit in his place. Relying on Egyptian promises, Philistia joined Judah, Edom, and Moab in defying Assyria. They deposed Ahimit as an Assyrian nominee, and put Yaman in his place. Egypt, as usual, failed to help, and in 711 the Assyrian Turtan, or Commander-in-chief, took Ashdod after three years' resistance, and carried its people into captivity. The punishment of Egypt was reserved for the subsequent reigns of Esarhaddon (681-668) and Assurbanipal. See Driver's Isaiah xlv. (Isa. xx.). Isa. xiv. 29-32 is an ode of triumph for the Fall of Philistia.

[401] Hos. xiii. 16.

[402] See De Hincks in Journ. of Sacr. Lit., October 1858; Layard, Nin. and Bab., i. 148.

[403] Isa. xxviii. 1-4.

[404] 2 Kings xvii. 13, "by all the prophets, and all the seers," (chôseh). Hāvernick thinks that the nebi'îm were such officially.

[405] See Amos ii. 4, 5; Isa. xxviii. 15; Jer. xvi. 19, 20; Ezek. xx. 13-30, etc.

[406] Deut. xxvi. 5.

[407] Isa. xli. 14.

[408] Hos. xi. 9.

[409] See my Minor Prophets, 6-97.

[410] Not as in A.V., "Habor, by the river of Gozan."

[411] 2 Kings xvii. 6. The LXX. has "rivers" and "mountains": ἐν Ἀλαὲ καὶ ἐν Ἀβὼρ ποταμοῖς Γωζὰν καὶ ὅρη Μήδων. The river is not Ezekiel's Chebar. These deportations en masse of a whole population, with their women and children, their waggons and flocks, are depicted on Sargon's series of tablets in his splendid palace at Khorsabad.

[412] Ezra iv. 10. "The great and noble Asnapper" of the passage is either some Assyrian general, or a confusion of the name Assurbanipal.

[413] 2 Kings xvii. 9. Heb., "covered"; A.V. and R.V., "did secretly," rather "perfidiously"; LXX., ἠμφιέσαντο λόγους ἀδίκους κατὰ κύριον; Vulg., Et offenderunt verbis non rectis dominum suum.

[414] Star-worship is not mentioned in the Book of the Covenant (Exod. xx.-xxiii.) or the oldest sections of the Mosaic Law. It is first forbidden in Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3, when contact with Syrians and Assyrians made it known (comp. Job xxxi. 26-28; Jer. viii. 2, xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5). The language of 2 Kings vii.-xxiii. frequently reflects the prohibitions of Deuteronomy (see Deut. xii. 2, 30, 31, iv. 19, v. 7, 8, xvi. 21, xviii. 10, xxxi. 16, etc.)

[415] In 2 Kings xvii. 11, for "they did wicked things," the LXX. has κοινωνοὺς (i.e., qedeshîm) ἐχάραξαν καὶ ἑταιρίδας (qedeshôth); i.e., they had depraved hieroduli of both sexes. Comp. Hos. iv. 14; Gen. xxxviii. 21 (where the allusion is to one of the votaries of Asherah).

[416] Bishop Lightfoot, Sermons, p. 267.

[417] "La quale Religione se ne Principi della Republica Christiana si fusse mantenuta, secondo che dal dottore d'essa ne fu ordinato, sarebbero gli State e le Republiche Christiane più unite e più felici assai ch' elle non sono" (Discorsi, i. 12).

[418] 2 Kings xvii. 24. Comp. xviii. 34. Hence the later Jews comprehensively called the Samaritans Cuthites. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 13; Isa. xxxvii. 13.

[419] Heliopolis, Ptolemy, v. 18, § 7; Isa. xxxvi. 19. Here, according to the Chaldæan legends, Xisuthrus buried his tablets about the Creation, etc.

[420] From Ezra iv. 2 some infer that the main immigrants were introduced by Esarhaddon, who did not succeed till b.c. 681. He claims to have colonised Syria.

[421] So we see from 2 Kings xix. 13, which applies to the reign of Hezekiah.

[422] See Appendix, "The Golden Calves."

[423] He uses the agency of "the great and noble Asnapper" (Ezra iv. 10) for the deportation (see Botta, 145; Layard, Nin. and Bab., i. 148; Dr. Hincks, Jour. of Sacr. Lit., October 1858), unless Asnapper be a confusion for Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus).

[424] Hos. iii. 4.

[425] See Jer. xlix. 19, l. 44; Prov. xxii. 13, etc.

[426] Lit., "Daughter-huts" (Selden, De Dis Syr., ii. 7), but probably a transliteration. Zarpanit—"She who gives seed"—was Aphrodite Pandemos (Mylitta—Herod., i. 199). The Rabbis—who only guess—say she represented "the Clucking Hen"—i.e., the Pleiades. There does not seem to be any connection between Succoth and "Sakkuth," the various reading in Amos v. 26, which seems to be the Assyrian Moloch.

[427] Said to be worshipped under the form of a cock.

[428] LXX., Ἐβλαζέρ. Jarchi says these deities were worshipped under base animal forms—but it is more than doubtful.

[429] The Rabbis, from Exod. xxiii. 13; Josh. xxiii. 7, thought they were bound to give scornful nicknames to heathen deities. Hence such changes as Kir-Heres for Kir-Cheres, Beelzebub for Beelzebul, Bethaven for Bethel, Bosheth for Baal, etc.

[430] Not as in A.V., "of the lowest of them," but "of all classes." Comp. 1 Kings xii. 31.

[431] In 2 Kings xvii. 31-38 we again find repeated references to Deuteronomy (iv. 23, v. 32, x. 20, etc.).

[432] Ezra iv. 1. The actual word "Samaritans" occurs only once in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings xvii. 29.

[433] See Neh. xiii. 4-9, 28, 29; Jos., Antt., XI. vii. 2. Josephus makes Manasseh a brother of the high priest Jaddua (b.c. 333).

[434] Jos., Antt., IX. xiv. 3, XII. v. 5, XIII. ix. 1, XX. vi., XVIII. ii. 2. The bitterly hostile relations between Jews and Samaritans in the time of Christ are illustrated by Luke ix. 52-54.

[435] Probably a shortened form for Jehoahaz ("The Lord taketh hold"). He is called Jahuhazi in Tiglath-Pileser's inscription (Schrader, Keilinschr., p. 163).

[436] For twenty-five it is not improbable that we should read fifteen.

[437] Isa. iii. 1-12.

[438] In Isa. ii. 2-4 we find, as so often in the prophetic books in their present too-often-haphazard arrangement, a glowing promise of universal peace placed before unsparing denunciations. The verses are also found in Micah (iv. 1, 2), and it has been conjectured that in both prophets they are a quotation from some older source—perhaps from Jonah, son of Amittai.

[439] Heb., "deceiving with their eyes."

[440] Isa. v. 7. The paronomasia of the original is striking. Van Oort renders it, "He looked for reason, but behold treason; and for right, but behold affright."

[441] His name means "Jehovah saves," and is perhaps alluded to in Isa. viii. 18. Amos ("One who bears a burden"), needless to say, is a totally different name from that of Amoz ("Vigorous"), the father of Isaiah.

[442] 2 Chron. xxviii. 19.

[443] It may mean "God is good" (Tabeel).

[444] For further explanations I must refer to my paper on Rabbinic Exegesis (Expositor, First Series, v. 373).

[445] 2 Chron. xxviii. 7.

[446] Of Oded nothing else is known.

[447] Some, however, interpret the name "A remnant repents" (LXX., ὁ καταλειφθεὶς Ἰασούβ; Vulg., Qui derelictus est Jaseb).

[448] Isa. vi. 13.

[449] The words "And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people" (Isa. vii. 8), are almost certainly an interpolation: for (1) the overthrow came within far less than sixty years; (2) the clause awkwardly breaks the context; (3) the "sixty years" is inconsistent with the promise (vii. 16) that it should be within very few years.

[450] Isa. vii. 1-25.

[451] Not improbably the water which afterwards flowed through Hezekiah's new tunnel between the Virgin's Tomb and the Pool of Siloam. It is referred to in 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 30 (Isa. xxii. 9-11). See Appendix II.

[452] This, if it be correct, can only mean that the son of Tabeal had a party in Jerusalem; but Hitzig renders it "dreadeth," not "rejoiceth in."

[453] The meaning is by no means clear.

[454] See Driver, Isaiah, p. 34.

[455] See 2 Kings xxiii. 11, which shows that this was not an innovation of Manasseh's. They were common in Persia. See Q. Curtius, iii. 3.

[456] 2 Kings xvii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 21, xxiii. 37, xxxiii. 6; Deut. xii. 31; Jer. xix. 5. See 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; for "his son," בְּנוֹ, it uses בָּנָיו "his sons," but perhaps generically. Moloch-worship may have been stimulated by accounts of the Assyrian fire-god Adrammelech (Movers, Phöniz., ii. 101). On this sacrifice of children to Moloch, which the Phœnicians referred back to the god El or Il, once King of Byblos, who in a crisis of danger sacrificed his eldest son Icond, see Plut., De Superst., § 13; Diod. Sic., xx. 12-14; 2 Kings iii. 27, xvi. 3, xxi. 6; Mic. vi. 7; Döllinger, Judenthum u. Heidenthum (E. T.), i. 427-429.

[457] This worship was to be punished by stoning (Lev. xviii. 21, xx. 2-5; Deut. xviii. 10). On the whole subject see Movers, Phöniz., 64; Jarchi on Jer. vii. 31; Euseb., Præp. Ev., iv. 16.

[458] Josephus says that Ahaz made "a whole burnt-offering" of his son; but his authority is very small (καὶ ἴδιον ὡλοκαύτωσεν παῖδα). Comp. Psalm cvi. 37.

[459] Ignorant Romanists have often cherished the same notions about the saints. For centuries in Spain the people bought the old gowns and cowls of the monks, and buried their dead in them, to deceive St. Peter into the notion that they were Dominicans or Franciscans!

[460] See Ovid, Fasti, v. 659: "Scripea pro domino Tiberi jactatur imago." They were also called Argei, id. 621; Varro, L. L., vi. 3.

[461] Varro, L. L., v. 3.

[462] Herod., ii. 137. Egypt., Sebek; Heb., So (2 Kings xvii. 4), or perhaps Seve; Arab., Shab'i. Rawlinson, Hist. of Anct. Egypt, ii. 433-450.

[463] Kir (see Amos ix. 7) is omitted in the LXX. Elam is added in Isa. xxii. 6. Tiglath-Pileser calls the king Rasunnu Sarimirisu—i.e., of Aram. See Smith, Assyr. Discoveries, p. 274; Eponym Canon, 68; Schrader, K. A. T., 152 ff.

[464] Isa. xvii. 1-11.

[465] The name seems to be Tuklat-abal-isarra,—according to Oppert worshipper of the son of the Zodiac—i.e., of Nin or Hercules. According to Polyhistor, he was a usurper who had been a vine-dresser in the royal gardens. He never mentions his ancestry. But see Schrader, K. A. T., 217 ff., 240 ff., and in Riehm.

[466] Eponym Canon, p. 121, lines 1-15. On this fall of Damascus and Samaria, see Isa. xvii.

[467] Jahuhazi (Schrader, Keilinschr., p. 263). He probably bore both names; but, as in the case of Jeconiah, who is called Coniah, the omission of the element "Jehovah" from his name may have been intended as a mark of reprobation.

[468] The remark may refer to some earlier period in the reign of Ahaz, before the capture of Damascus. It is more probable that the altar was used for some Assyrian deity, and the adoption of it may have flattered Tiglath-Pileser.

[469] 2 Kings xvi. 11, which records the zealous subservience of Urijah, is wanting in some MSS. of the LXX. But that the altar was made, and without his opposition, is clear from the narrative. Asa (2 Chron. xv. 8) had repaired Solomon's great altar; Hezekiah subsequently cleansed it (id. xxix. 18); Manasseh rebuilt it (Q'ri). The brass of it ultimately went to Babylon (Jer. lii. 17-20).

[470] Bähr says: "It seems that Urijah, like his companion, was only anxious for his revenues. At any rate, his conduct is a sign of the character and standing of the priests of that time. They were 'dumb dogs who could not bark.' They all followed their own ways, every one for his own gain" (Isa. lvi. 10, 11). "We have in this high priest," says the Würtemberg Summary, "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; who wish to hurt no one's feelings, but teach just what any one wants to hear."

[471] 1 Kings viii. 64; 2 Chron. iv. 1. In this and similar instances commentators, biassed by a priori considerations, have imagined that Ahaz did not in person offer sacrifices. But this is what the text says, and it was the custom of kings to regard themselves as invested with Divine attributes. Ahaz may have had this lesson impressed on his mind by his visit to Tiglath-Pileser. See Grätz, Gesch. der Juden., ii. 150. Layard, Nin. and Bab., 472 ff., gives us pictures of Assyrian kings ministering at their altars, which are of various shapes.

[472] 2 Kings xvi. 15. Vulg., paratum erit ad voluntatem meam. The LXX. followed another reading: ἔσται μοὶ εἰς τὸ πρωί. Grätz (ii. 150), for לכקר, "to inquire," reads לקרב "to draw near to."

[473] 1 Kings vii. 23-39.

[474] 2 Kings xvi. 18. The allusions are obscure. R.V., "the covered way"; A.V., "the covert for the Sabbath." See 2 Chron. ix. 4. Here the Hebr. Q'ri has Mûsak, and the Vulg. Musach Sabbati. The LXX. evidently did not understand it (καὶ τὸν θεμέλιον τῆς καθέδρας ᾠκοδόμησεν). For "covert for the Sabbath," Geiger suggests "molten images for the Shame" (Bosheth-Baal, by transposition of Shabbath). Comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 2.

[475] 2 Chron. xxviii. 20: "Tiglath-Pileser came unto him, and distressed him, but helped him not."

[476] 2 Kings xviii. 15, 16.

[477] In justice to Ahaz, we should observe that (1) in every instance the later account multiplies and magnifies and gives a darker colouring to his offences; (2) that neither Isaiah, Micah, nor any other prophet has a word of reproach for such enormities in Ahaz.

[478] It is a Jewish tradition that Hezekiah would not bury his father Ahaz in a sarcophagus, but on a bier (Pesachin, f. 56, 1; Sanhedrin, f. 47, 1; Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden., ii, 224).

[479] His name, Chizquîyyah, is shortened from Yechizquîyyahoo (Isa. i. 1; 2 Kings xx. 10; Hos. i. 1). It means "Jehovah's strength" (Gesen.), or "Yah is might" (Fûrst).

[480] The first of these dates is highly uncertain, as is the entire chronology of this reign. I follow Kittel.

[481] 2 Chron. xxxi. 2-21.

[482] Josiah did this many years later (2 Kings xxiii. 13).

[483] Gen. xxxv. 14. See Spencer, De legg. Hebr., i. 444; Bochart, Canaan, ii. 2.

[484] Exod. xxiv. 4. Comp. Deut. vii. 5, xii. 3, xvi. 22; Lev. xxvi. 1; 2 Chron. xiv. 3, xxxi. 1; Jer. xliii. 13; Hos. x. 2; Mic. v. 13 (where the A.V. often has "statue" or "image"). Comp. Clem. Alex., Strom., i. 24; Arnob., c. Gent., i. 39.

[485] The rendering "grove" in the A.V. is borrowed from the ἄλσος of the LXX., and the lucus of the Vulgate. On the connection of the Asherah with the sacred tree of the Assyrian, see my article on "Grove" in Smith's Dict. of the Bible; and Fergusson, Nineveh and Persepolis Restored, 299-304. On the worship of Asherah, see 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings xxi. 3-7, xxiii. 4; 2 Chron. xv. 16; Judg. iii. 5-7, vi. 25, xviii. 18. Baudissin in Herzog Realencykl., s.v. We may well be startled by the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem revealed in Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxix. 11, xxx. 9, 22, etc.

[486] See Wellhausen, Hist., 235; Stade, Gesch. d. V. I., 460; W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, 171; Cheyne, Isaiah, ii. 303; Renan, Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, i. 230 (Prof. Driver, Bibl. Dict., i. 258, 2nd edition).

[487] Hierozoicon, ii. 3, § 13.

[488] Jer. xliv. 17. In the collection of antiquities of Baron Ustinoff at Jaffa are five or six dragon-headed serpents, with ears of copper and hollow inside. They are ancient, and were perhaps used as talismanic copies of Nehushtan.

[489] If this was a genuine relic, it must have been nearly eight hundred years old. It is never mentioned elsewhere.

[490] נְחֻשׁתָּן, "a brazen thing." The king certainly showed a horror of sacerdotal imposture and religious materialism. Yet Renan argues, from Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxx. 9, 22, that he must have had a certain amount of tolerance. See Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, iii. 30.

[491] 2 Kings xviii. 4. Vayyikra is like the English indefinite plural. The impersonal rendering (as in other passages) is adopted in the Targum of Jonathan, the Peshito, etc., and by Luther, Bunsen, Ewald, and most moderns.

[492] This relic is still shown in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan. It used to be the popular notion that it would hiss at the end of the world. The history of the Milan "relic" is that a Milanese envoy to the court of the Emperor John Zimisces at Constantinople chose it from the imperial treasures, being assured that it was made of the same metal that Hezekiah had broken up (Sigonius, Hist. Regn. Ital., vii.). It is probably a symbol used by some ophite sect. See Dean Plumptre, Dict. of Bibl., s.v. "Serpent."

[493] 2 Kings xvi. 8; Driver, Isaiah, 68.

[494] The diverting of the water-courses enabled him to bring the water into the city by a subterranean tunnel. The Saracens took a similar precaution (Gul. Tyr., viii. 7). See Appendix II., where the inscription is given; and compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. Apparently it carried the water of Gihon to the south-east gate, where were the king's gardens. Ecclus. xlviii. 17: "Ezekias fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water." For "water" the MSS. read "Gog," a corruption probably for ἀγωγὸν, "a conduit" (Geiger) or "Gihon" (Fritzsche).

[495] Psalm xlvi. 1-11.

[496] 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.

[497] 2 Kings xviii. 8: comp. xvii. 9. Josephus says that he failed to take Gath (Antt., IX. xiii. 3).

[498] A.V., "treasurer" (soken; lit., "deputy" or "associate": Isa. xxii. 15). He was "over the household." The Egyptian alliance had for Judah, as Renan points out, some of the fascination that a Russian alliance has often had for troubled spirits in France (Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, iii. 12).

[499] Renan says that he may have been a Sebennyite, and his name Sebent.

[500] Isa. xxii. 17, 18: "Behold, the Lord shall sling and sling, and pack and pack, and toss and toss thee away like a ball into a distant land; and there thou shalt die" (Stanley). The versions vary considerably.

[501] Isa. xxxvii. 2. There can be little doubt that there were not two Shebnas.

[502] Mic. i. 10-16. See the writer's Minor Prophets ("Men of the Bible" Series), pp. 130-133, for an explanation of this enigmatic prophecy.

[503] Jer. xxvi. 8-24. He tells us that the prophecy was delivered in the reign of Hezekiah. See my Minor Prophets, pp. 123-140.

[504] Isa. x. 28-32. It would involve a cross-country route over several deep ravines—e.g., the Wady Suweinit, near Michmash. In 1 Sam. xiv. 2, Thenius, for "Migron," reads "the Precipice." Some take Aiath for Ai, three miles south of Bethel. Renan says (Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, iii.): "Nom d'Anathoth, arrangé symboliquement."

[505] Isa. x. 14. The metaphor of a bird's nest occurs more than once in the boastful Assyrian records.

[506] Isa. xxx. 1-7. Rahab means "fierceness," "insolence." For the various uses of the word, see Job xxvi. 12; Isa. li. 9, 10, 15; Psalm lxxxix. 9, 10, lxxxvii. 4, 5.

[507] See Dr. S. Cox (Expositor, i. 98-104) on Isa. xxviii. 7-13.

[508] Acts xvii. 18.

[509] Isa. xxviii. 7-22.

[510] Professor Smith, Isaiah, i. 12.

[511] Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 73; Smith, Isaiah, 109.

[512] One of the first to point out the necessary rearrangement of the events of Hezekiah's reign was Dr. Hincks, in his paper on "A Rectification of Chronology which the newly discovered Apis-stêlês render necessary" (Journ. of Sacred Lit., October 1858). See my article on Hezekiah, Smith, Dict. of the Bible, 2nd ed., ii. 1251.

[513] Heb., sh'chîn; LXX., ἕλκος; Vulg., ulcus.

[514] The Rabbis even make his sickness the punishment for his having neglected to secure an heir. He pleads that he foresaw the wickedness of his son. Isaiah tells him not to try to forestall God (Berachoth, f. 10, 1).

[515] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.

[516] Comp. 1 Kings xxi. 4 (Ahab).

[517] 2 Kings xx. 4. The Q'rî or "read" text is, as here rendered, chatsee (comp. 1 Kings vii. 8), and is followed by the LXX. (ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τῇ μέσῃ), by the Vulgate (mediam partem atrii), and by the A.V. The R.V., which adopts the Kethîb or written text, ha'îr, renders it "the middle part of the city." If this be the true reading, it would mean that Isaiah had gone some distance from the palace, and was now perhaps in the Valley between the Upper and the Lower City. But it seems not improbable that (1) "the steps of Ahaz" would be in the royal court, and (2) the answer of God, like the mercy of Christ to the suffering, may have come promptly as an echo to the appealing cry.

[518] The LXX. calls "the stairs" ἀναβαθμοὺς τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου, and so, too, Josephus (Antt., X. ii. 1). The Targum calls them "an hour-stone." Symmachus has, στρέψω τὴν σκίαν τῶν γραμμῶν ἥ κατέβη ἐν ὡρολογίῳ Ἀχάζ.

[519] It should, however, be observed that on the question of priority critics are divided. Grotius, Vitringa, Paulus, Drechsler, etc., thought that the account in the Book of Isaiah is the original; De Wette, Maurer, Koster, Winer, Driver, etc., regard that account as a later abbreviation, perhaps from a common source.

[520] See Professor Lumby, ad loc.

[521] There is an exactly similar sun-dial not far from Delhi.

[522] Journ. of Asiatic Soc., xv. 286-293.

[523] Figs have a recognised use for imposthumes. See Dioscorides and Pliny quoted in Celsius, Hierobot., ii. 373. In the passage of Berachoth quoted above, Hezekiah in his sickness asks Isaiah to give him his daughter in marriage, that he may have an heir. Isaiah replies that the decree of his death is irrevocable. The king bids Isaiah depart, and says (quoting Job xiii. 15) that a man must not despair, even if a sword is laid on his neck.

[524] Comp. Psalm xlii. 4.

[525] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.

[526] The Babylonian form of his name is Marduk-habal-iddi-na—i.e., "Merodach gave a son." He is the Mardokempados of the Ptolemaic Canon, and the second fragment of his reign (six months) is mentioned by Polyhistor (ap. Euseb.). Josephus calls him Baladan (Antt., X. ii. 2). He was originally the prince of the Chaldæan Bit Yakîm. Sargon calls him "Merodach-Baladan, the foe, the perverse, who, contrary to the will of the great gods, ruled as king at Babylon." He displaced him for a time by "Belibus, the son of a wise man, whom one had reared like a little dog" (as we might say "like a tame cat") "in my palace" (Schrader, ii. 32). In the Assyrian records he is often called (by mistake?) "the son of Yakim." For the adventures of the Babylonian hero, see Schrader, K. A. T., 213 ff., 224 ff., 227, and in Riehm, Handwörterbuch, ii. 982.

[527] Isa. xiv. 4, xiii. 19.

[528] Gen. x. 10, 11, xi. 1-9.

[529] Jos., Antt., X. ii. 2: Σύμμαχόν τε αὐτὸν εἶναι παρεκάλει καὶ φίλον.

[530] 2 Kings xx. 13. LXX., ἐχάρη.

[531] See Dan. i. 6.

[532] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.

[533] Job i. 21.

[534] Manasseh seems to mean "one who forgets." See Gen. xli. 51. It was the name of the husband of Judith (Judith viii. 2), and is found in Ezra x. 30, 33.

[535] One legend of his birth resembles the finding of Moses in the bulrushes.

[536] Schrader, K. A. T., pp. 272-274; Records of the Past, vii. 28.

[537] Smith, Eponym Canon, p. 130.

[538] See Prof. Smith, Isaiah, p. 198.

[539] Records of the Past, vii. 40. Sargon's words are, "The people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab were speaking treason. The people and their evil chiefs, to fight against me, unto Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, a monarch who could not save them, their presents carried, and besought his alliance" (G. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, 290).

[540] On the monuments called Turtanu, "Holder of power." See Schrader in Riehm, s.v.

[541] Raphia, or Ropeh, is on the borders of the desert. Asia beat Africa in every encounter—at Raphia, at Altaqu, at Carchemish. The impression of the seal of Shabak, attached to his capitulations with Sargon, was found at Nineveh by Sir A. H. Layard, and is now in the British Museum. Shabak died in 712. His son Shabatoh succeeded him in Egypt, and his nephew(?) Tirhakah in Ethiopia. Sabaco's name assumes many forms (LXX., Σηγώρ; Herod., ii. 137; Σαβακώς; Vulg., Sua). The Egyptians called him Shaba(ka).

[542] Isa. xx. 1-6.

[543] Lenormant, Les Premières Civilisations, ii. 203; Records of the Past, vii. 41-46.

[544] Isa. xxi. 6, A.V., "Watch in the watch-tower." Hitzig, Cheyne, "They spread the carpets." Much in this short oracle (xxi. 1-10) is obscure. Isaiah seems, in denouncing the fate of Babylon, to mourn for the ruin of the smaller states of which it was the prelude (G. Smith, Soc. of Bibl. Arch., ii. 320 Kleinert, Stud. u. Krit., 1877 W. R. Smith in Enc. Brit., s.v. "Isaiah").

[545] Isa. xxi. 10—i.e., "My people threshed and trodden"; LXX., ὁ καταλελειμμένος καὶ οἱ ὀδυνώμενοι Records of the Past, vii. 47.

[546] Herod., Σαναχάριβος; Jos., Σεναχήριβος. See Appendix I. Sin was the moon-god; Merodach, the planet Jupiter; Adar, Saturn; Ishtai, Venus; Nebo, Mercury; Nergal, Mars (Schrader, ii. 117).

[547] Sargon seems to have been murdered in the palace of unparalleled splendour which he built at Dur-Sharrukin ("The City of Sargon"). It took him five years to build it with armies of workmen. Its halls, opened by Botta, were the first Assyrian halls ever entered by a modern's foot. It is strange that this greatest of Assyrian kings is only mentioned once in the Bible (Isa. xx. 1). We owe to Assyriology his restoration to his proper place in the annals of mankind. See Ragozin, Assyria, 247-254.

[548] Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, ii. 178.

[549] Canon Rawlinson, Kings of Israel and Judah, 187.

[550] On his own monuments this campaign, except its final catastrophe, is narrated in four sections: (1) The subjugation of Phœnicia, and of Philistine towns; (2) the conquest of King Zidka of Askelon; (3) the defeat of Ekron, the restoration of their vassal king Padî to his throne, and the defeat of Egypt at Altaqu; (4) the expedition against Jerusalem (Schrader, E. Tr., i. 298). See Appendix I.

[551] This allusion is said to be the only instance of humour—"grim humour, or it would not be Assyrian"—which occurs in the Assyrian annals.

[552] Schrader, pp. 234-279. The account of the memorable campaign is narrated in duplicate on the Taylor Cylinder in the British Museum, and on the Bull Inscription at Kouyunjik.

[553] Sennacherib calls Tirhakah's army "a host that no man could number"; but it was defeated by the better discipline, the heavier armour, and the superior physical strength of the Assyrians.

[554] See Josh. xix. 43.

[555] This very phrase "I imposed on them" is found on Sennacherib's monument (Schrader, ii. 1). The references, when not otherwise specified, are to Whitehouse's English translation.

[556] In 2 Kings xviii. 16 the word "pillars" or "doorposts" is uncertain. LXX., ἐστηριγμένα; Vulg., laminas auri.

[557] 2 Chron. xxxii. 9. He had to besiege it "with all his power." He seems to have thought it even more important than Jerusalem, for he superintended the siege in person (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 150; Monuments of Nineveh, 2nd series, pl. 21). The ruined Tel of Umm-el-Lakîs lies between the Wady Simsim and the Wady-el-Ahsy (Riehm).

[558] See 2 Chron. xi. 9, xxv. 27; Jer. xxxiv. 7. The allusion to this city in Micah (i. 13) is obscure: "O thou inhabitant of Lachish [swift steed], bind the chariot to the swift steed: she is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee." This seems to imply that some form of idolatry had come from Israel to Lachish, and from Lachish to Jerusalem. In Sennacherib's picture of the city, foreign worship is represented as going on in it (Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, Pls. 21 and 24; Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. 477).

[559] Isa. xxix., xxx., xxxi.

[560] Isa. xxxiii. 8.

[561] Isa. xx. 1.

[562] Jer. xxxix. 3. The meaning of the name is not certain. Sarîs, in Hebrew, is "eunuch"; but the word is not known in Assyrian records, and we should expect Rabsarîsîm, as in Dan. i. 3.

[563] Rabsak perhaps means chief officer or vizier, and is Hebraised into Rabshakeh. Prof. G. A. Smith (Isaiah, p. 345) calls him "Sennacherib's Bismarck." Rabshakeh, usually rendered "chief cupbearer," is an Aramaised form of Rabsak (great chief); but we know of no chief cupbearer at the Assyrian court (Schrader, K. A. T., 199 f.).

[564] From an Apis-stêlê he seems to have reigned twenty-six years (b.c. 694-668?).

[565] Isa. xxii. 1-13.

[566] Eliakim. See Isa. xxii. 21, 22.

[567] "Vain words"; lit., "a word of the lips." LXX., λόγοι χειλέων.

[568] 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.

[569] 2 Kings xviii. 23, A.V.: "Let Hezekiah give pledges."

[570] Heb., Arâmîth.

[571] 2 Kings xviii. 28, where stood should be rendered came forward.

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

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

[574] 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.

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

[576] 1 Kings xx. 32; 2 Kings vi. 30.

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

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

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

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

[581] 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.).

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

[583] 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).

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

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

[586] 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.

[587] 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.

[588] 2 Kings xix. 33. "The river of Egypt" (Nachal-ha-Mizraim) is the Wady-el-Arish.

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

[590] 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).

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

[592] 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.

[593] 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.

[594] Comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16.

[595] 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.

[596] 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.

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

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

[599] 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."

[600] 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).

[601] 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.

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

[603] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.

[604] 2 Chron. xxxii. 23.

[605] Wellhausen, p. 116.

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

[607] 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.

[608] Antt., X. i. 1-5.

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

[610] 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).

[611] Isa. vi. 11-13.

[612] Isa. v. 26-30.

[613] Isa. vii. 18.

[614] Isa. viii., xxviii. 1-15, x. 28-34.

[615] Isa. xiv. 29-32, xxix., xxx.

[616] Isa. i. 19, 20.

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

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

[619] Isa. xlvii. 13.

[620] Stanley, Lectures, ii. 531.

[621] Isa. xl. 15.

[622] Isa. xix. 24, 25.

[623] Ecclus. xlix. 4.

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

[625] 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.

[626] Chron. xxxiv. 1-3.

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

[628] Mic. vii. 1-20.

[629] 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."

[630] 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.

[631] 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.

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

[633] See Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3.

[634] 2 Kings xxiii. 11, 12.

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

[636] 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.

[637] 1 Sam. iii. 11; Jer. xix. 3.

[638] Comp. Isa. xxxiv. 11; Lam. ii. 8.

[639] 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."

[640] 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.

[641] 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.

[642] 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."

[643] 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).

[644] 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).

[645] 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.

[646] 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).

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

[648] 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.

[649] 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.

[650] 2 Kings xxiii. 12.

[651] 2 Kings xxi. 20.

[652] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15.

[653] 2 Kings xxiii. 26.

[654] Jer. xv. 1-9.

[655] 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.).

[656] 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).

[657] 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).

[658] 2 Kings xxi. 19. The LXX. reads "twelve years," but not so Josephus (Antt., X. iv. 1), or 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21.

[659] Zeph. iii. 1-11. Comp. i. 4.

[660] 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.

[661] 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.

[662] See Jer. v., vi., vii., passim.

[663] Jer. vi. 13-15.

[664] Jer. v. 30, 31.

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

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

[667] 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.

[668] Zeph. ii. 4-7.

[669] Zeph. ii. 12-15.

[670] 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.

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

[672] Jer. iv. 7-27.

[673] Jer. v. 15-17.

[674] Jer. vi. 1, 22, 23, 24.

[675] 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).

[676] 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.

[677] See Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix.

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

[679] 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.

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

[681] 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.

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

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

[684] 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.).

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

[686] Nah. iii. 8-11.

[687] Strabo, xvi. 1, 3: ἠφανίσθη παοαχρῆμα.

[688] Xen., Anab., III. iv. 7.

[689] Chaldees, Kardim, Kasdim, Kurds.

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

[691] Newman, Hebrew Monarchy, p. 315.

[692] 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).

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

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

[695] Exod. xxviii. 2, etc.

[696] 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."

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

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

[699] 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").

[700] 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.

[701] 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.

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

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

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

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

[706] 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.

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

[708] 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).

[709] 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.

[710] 1 Kings xiii. 29-31.

[711] 2 Chron. xxxv. 1-19.

[712] 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.

[713] See Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 56, id. 6.

[714] 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).

[715] Jer. xvii. 9-11.

[716] Ewald, The Prophets, iii. 63, 64.

[717] Jer. xvii. 1-4.

[718] 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).

[719] Psalm lxxxv. 8.

[720] Deut. xxx. 11-14. See Wellhausen, p. 165.

[721] 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.

[722] 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.

[723] 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.

[724] Mic. iii. 11.

[725] Jer. vii. 4, 8-15.

[726] Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.

[727] Jer. xxii. 15, 16.

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

[729] 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.

[730] Antt., X. v. 1.

[731] Herod., ii. 158. His father Psamatik had left him an adequate army of natives and mercenaries.

[732] Herodotus says of his ships: Ἁι μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ βορηίῃ θαλάσσῃ ἐποιήθησαν.

[733] Judg. iv. 23; 1 Sam. xxix. 1-11; 1 Kings xx. 26; 2 Kings xxiii. 29; 2 Chron. xxxv. 22; Rev. xvi. 16 (Armageddon). Herodotus confuses it with Migdol (Μάγδολον).

[734] 1 Macc. xii. 49; Jos., Antt., XIII. vi. 2.

[735] 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-22.

[736] According to 1 Esdras i. 25-32, "for upon Euphrates is my war."

[737] Klostermann, in 2 Chron. xxxv. 21, reads bachalôm, "in a dream," instead of "to make haste."

[738] Gen. xli. 1; Herod., ii. 188; Records of the Past, ix. 52.

[739] 2 Kings xviii. 25.

[740] Antt., X. v. 1: Τῆς πεπρωμένης οἶμαι εἰς τοῦτ' αὐτόν παρορμησάσης.

[741] Deut. xxviii. 1-8.

[742] Psalm xx. 6, xviii. 29-50.

[743] Lev. xxvi. 36.

[744] 2 Chron. xxxv. 22: "hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God."

[745] "When he had seen him." Comp. 2 Kings xiv. 8.

[746] 1 Esdras i. 25; and LXX., "firmly resolved," "strengthened himself," as in 2 Chron. xxv. 11.

[747] Jos., Antt., X. v. 1; and 2 Chron. xxxv. 23; 1 Esdras i. 30.

[748] The fortunes of the Jews again prevailed in this plain in the days of Holofernes (Judith vii. 3); but they were defeated there by Placidus (Jos., B. J., IV. i. 8).

[749] Zech. xii. 11-13 (comp. Jer. xxii. 10, 18). No such place as Hadadrimmon is known, though there is a Rummâne not far from Megiddo. Jerome (Comm. in Zach.) identifies it with a place which he calls Maximianopolis. Wellhausen (Skizzen, 192) thinks that the mourning is compared to some wail over the god Hadadrimmon, like the wailing for Tammuz. Jonathan and Jarchi say that Hadadrimmon was the son of Tabrimmon, who opposed Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead.

[750] 2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25. Jeremiah's elegy has probably perished. It would have been most interesting had it been preserved. Lam. iv. is too vague to have been this lost poem.

[751] Jer. iv. 10.

[752] Jer. xx. 7, 8.

[753] Chron. iii. 15.

[754] He is named "fourth," but he was older than his brothers Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (2 Kings xxiii. 31, xxiv. 18). The genealogy is as follows:—

             Zebudah  =  JOSIAH  =  Hamutal.
                      |          |
                ------           |--------------------
                |                |                   |
  Nehushta = ELIAKIM          ZEDEKIAH            JEHOAHAZ
           | or Jehoiakim.    or Mattaniah.      or Shallum.
           |
       JEHOIACHIN.

[755] An allusion to the Syrian mode of hunting the lion by driving it with cries into a concealed pit (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, 118; Cheyne, 140).

[756] Ezek. xix. 1-4.

[757] The name Shallum means "recompense." It may have been regarded as ill-omened, since the King of Israel who bore this rare name had only reigned a month.

[758] The Talmud says that kings were only anointed in special cases (Keritoth, f. 5, 2; Grätz, ii. 328).

[759] Jos., Antt., X. v. 2: Ἀσεβὴς καὶ μιαρὸς τὸν τρόπον.

[760] Herod., ii. 159.

[761] Mr. G. Smith identifies Carchemish with Jerablûs.

[762] Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 127.

[763] Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 20, 21. The old Hittite capital of Riblah was a convenient halting-place on the road between Babylon and Jerusalem. It was on the northernmost boundary of Palestine towards Damascus (Amos vi. 14).

[764] Jer. xxii. 10-12.

[765] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3; 1 Esdras i. 36. The smallness of the tribute proves the impoverishment of the land. Sennacherib demanded from Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty of gold; and Menahem paid one thousand talents of silver to Tiglath-Pileser.

[766] Not Jehoiakim, but Jehoiachin, as the sequel shows.

[767] Ezek. xix. 5-9. The allusions to Jehoiakim by Jeremiah are numerous, and all unfavourable (xxii. 13-19, xxvi. 20-23, xxxvi. 20-31, etc.)

[768] Josephus (Antt., X. v. 2) is very severe on this king. He says that "he was unjust in disposition, an evil-doer, neither pious towards God nor just towards men."

[769] Perhaps an allusion to a sort of fortified palace on Ophel.

[770] Hab. ii. 9-11.

[771] The text is perhaps corrupt. Two MSS. of the LXX. read "because thou viest with Ahab," and the Vatican MSS. has "with Ahaz." Cheyne adopts the former reading.

[772] Jer. xxii. 13-17.

[773] Jer. xxiii. 1.

[774] Jer. xxii. 23.

[775] Jer. xii. 5.

[776] Jer. xxvi. 20-23. So far as I am aware, Bunsen stands alone in identifying Urijah with the "Zechariah" who wrote Zech. xii.-xiv. Others refer Zech. xii. 10 to the murder of Urijah.

[777] Jer. xxvi. 18.

[778] Isa. xiv., passim.

[779] Nabu-pal-ussur, "Nebo protect the son."

[780] Nabu-kudur-ussur, "Nebo protect the crown" (Schrader, ii. 48), or "the youth" (Oppert). The portrait of Nebuchadrezzar—this is the proper spelling, as generally in Jeremiah—is preserved for us on a black cameo which he presented to the god Merodach. It is now in the Berlin Museum, and shows strong but not cruel or ignoble characteristics. It is copied in Riehm's Handwörterbuch, ii. 1067. The Jews, as they were fond of doing to their enemies, made insulting puns on his name. Thus in the Vayyikra Rabba (Wünsche, Bibl. Rabb.) the Three Children are represented as saying to him, "You are Neboo-cad-netser: bark [nabach] like a dog; swell like a water-jar [kad], and chirp like a cricket [tsertser],"—in allusion to his madness.

[781] Jer. xlvi. 5 (vi. 25).

[782] Jos., Antt., X. xi.; Berosus, p. 11. The Chronicler and Josephus show some confusion, caused by the similarity of the names Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin.

[783] Dan. i. 6.

[784] We might infer from Ezek. xvii. 12 that Nebuchadrezzar actually took Jehoiakim with him to Babylon.

[785] Ezek. xvii. 15.

[786] Jer. xxxvi. 29, xxv. 9, xxvi. 6.

[787] 2 Kings xxiv. 2-4.

[788] Grätz thinks that Jeremiah's roll was substantially Jer. xxv.

[789] Jos., Antt., IX. ix. 1.

[790] Jer. li. 59. Ewald, Hitzig, and others take the title to mean "quartermaster" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 8).

[791] Jer. xlv. 1-5.

[792] Zeph. i. 8; 1 Kings xxii. 26; Jer. xxxvi. 26, A.V., "The son of Hammelech." Comp. xxxviii. 6. Hammelech may be a proper name, or a prince of the blood-royal may be intended.

[793] "The 'Book,' now as afterwards, was to be the death-blow of the old regal, aristocratic, sacerdotal exclusiveness. The 'Scribe,' now first rising into importance in the person of Baruch to supply the defects of the living Prophet, was, as the printing-press in later ages, handing on the words of truth, which else might have irretrievably perished" (Stanley).

[794] Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 149; Jer. xiv. 1-xv. 9.

[795] Nebuchadrezzar occupies a larger space in the Bible than any heathen king, being spoken of in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

[796] For further details of Jehoiakim see 1 Esdras i. 38: "He bound Joakim and the nobles; but Zaraces his brother he apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt." The allusion is entirely obscure, and probably arises from some corruption of the text. The literal rendering is: "And Joakim bound the nobles; but Zaraces his brother he apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt." Zaraces might be a corruption for Zedekiah, who was Jehoiakim's half-brother. Some think that Zaraces is a corruption for Urijah, and "his brother" a clerical error.

[797] Jer. xxxvi. 30, xxii. 19.

[798] LXX., καὶ ἐκοιμήθη Ἰωακεὶμ ἐν Γανοζὰν μετὰ τῶν πατέρων ἑαυτοῦ.

[799] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8.

[800] Sanhedrin, f. 104, 2. For another allusion see id. 49, 1; Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, p. 232.

[801] Jer. xxvi. 22.

[802] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9.

[803] Jer. xx. 2. There seem to have been special "stocks" and "collars" in the Temple, reserved, by order of the priest Jehoiada, for those whom the priests regarded as unruly prophets (Jer. xxix. 26).

[804] Jer. xxii. 24-30. The captivity of the queen-mother struck men's imaginations (Jer. xxix. 2).

[805] Middoth, ii. 6, quoted by Cheyne, p. 163; Jos., B. J., VI. ii. 1. Comp. Ezek. i. 2.

[806] Ezek. xix. 6-9. The special allusions are no longer certain.

[807] 2 Kings xx. 17. The expression "he cut to pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon had made" is hardly consistent with Ezra i. 7-11, unless we understand the word in a loose sense.

[808] He says that he nobly gave himself up to save the city (Antt., X. vii. 1). His captivity was made an era from which to date Ezek. i. 2, viii. 1, xxiv. 1, xxvi. 1, etc. Comp. Susannah 1-4.

[809] Jer. xxii. 30, 'arîrî. His "son" Assir (1 Chron. iii. 17) may have been made an eunuch (Isa. xxxix. 7).

[810] Luke iii. 27, 31; Matt. i. 12.

[811] Baruch i. 3, 4.

[812] The favourable notice of Nebuchadrezzar in Taanith (quoted above) is not found in Berachoth, f. 57, 2, where he is called "the wicked." There are many wild legends about him. In Nedarim (f. 65, 2), R. Yitzchak says: "May melted gold be poured into the mouth of the wicked Nebuchadrezzar! Had not an angel struck him on the mouth, he would have outshone all David's songs and praises." With reference to Isa. xxii. 1, 2, the Rabbis say that Jeconiah went to the Temple roof, and flung up the keys into the air, when Nebuchadrezzar required them: "a hand took them, and they were seen no more" (Shekalim, vi. 5). In Nedarim (f. 65, 2) we are told that Zedekiah's rebellion consisted in divulging, contrary to his oath, that he had seen Nebuchadrezzar eating a live hare (Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud).

[813] Comp. Jer. xxiii. 6: Jehovah-Tsidkenu.

[814] Ezek. xvii. 12-14.

[815] Ezek. xvii. 1-6.

[816] Jer. xxxiv. 8-11.

[817] Jer. xxxiv. 19. Comp. Gen. xv. 17.

[818] This is strikingly shown by his piteous remark to them in Jer. xxxviii. 5.

[819] He first sent two of Jeremiah's friends, Elasah and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan.

[820] Some critics have doubted the authenticity of Jer. li., lii.

[821] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14-21; Stanley, ii. 528; Milman, i. 394.

[822] Shaphan's other sons, Gemariah, Ahikam, Elasah, and his grandson Gedaliah, were friends of Jeremiah.

[823] Ezek. viii. 17. The allusion seems to be to a custom like that of the Parsees, who hold a branch of tamarisk or pomegranate twigs (called barsom) before their mouths when they adore the sacred fire. Strabo, xv. 732; Spiegel, Zendavesta, ii., p. lxviii; Eran. Alterthumsk., iii. 571 (Orelli, ad loc.). Lightfoot explains it, "add fuel to their wrath."

[824] Ezek. xvi. 15-34.

[825] Jer. vii. 4, 21-28, viii. 8, xxiii. 31-33, xxxi. 33, 34.

[826] Jer. iii. 15, 16.

[827] Jer. xxvii. 3.

[828] Herod., ii. 161.

[829] Psammis, the son of Necho, only reigned six years; Hophrah (b.c. 594) was his son.

[830] The LXX. calls him "the false prophet."

[831] Jer. xxvii. 1-8, 12-18. On vv. 16-22 see the LXX.

[832] Here (Jer. xxviii. 11, and in xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 5) the name is written "Nebuchadnezzar"; everywhere else in Jeremiah it is "Nebuchadrezzar."

[833] Part of his dispute with Jeremiah turned on the recovery or non-recovery of the Temple vessels. Zedekiah is said to have given a set of silver vessels to replace the old ones (Baruch i. 8).

[834] Jer. xxix. 21-23.

[835] Jer. xxiii. 9-32.

[836] Jer. xxviii. 13-16, xxiii. 28.

[837] Jer. xxiii. 29.

[838] Ezek. xiii. 1-23.

[839] Ezek. xvii. 25.

[840] Josephus rightly attributes the unfortunate career of Zedekiah to the weakness with which he listened to evil counsellors, and to the insolent multitude.

[841] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13; Jer. lii. 3.

[842] Ezek. xvii. 15, 16, 18, 19.

[843] Ezek. xvii. 7-10.

[844] Jer. xlvi. 17.

[845] Another form of belomancy is still commonly practised among the Arabs. Three arrows are placed in a vessel: on one of them is written, "My God permits me"; on another, "My God forbids me"; the third is blank. They are then shaken, and the decision is guided by the one which falls out first. Comp. Homer, Iliad, iii. 316; Speaker's Commentary, ad loc.

[846] Ezek. xxi. 28-32.

[847] An allusion to the restoration of Jeconiah or his descendants, and to the far-off Messiah, meek and lowly.

[848] Ezek. iv. 1-3.

[849] Jer. xxxvii. 3.

[850] Ezek. vii. 16.

[851] Jer. xxi. 1-10, xxxvii. 1-17. Josephus says that Pharaoh was defeated (Antt., X. vii. 3). Jeremiah merely says that he and his army returned to their own land.

[852] Homer, Iliad, i. 106-109.

[853] But it must not be forgotten that Jer. xxxi. 1-34 is so hopeful that it has been called "the Gospel before Christ."

[854] Jer. vi. 14, viii. 11; Ezek. xiii. 10.

[855] W. R. Smith, "Prophets" (Enc. Brit.).

[856] Jer. xxxvii, 11-15.

[857] Jer xxxviii. 5. The Jewish aristocracy consisted, says Grätz, of three classes: the benî hammelech, or "king's sons"—i.e., princes of the blood-royal; the roshî aboth, "heads of the fathers," or zekenîm, "elders"; and the abhodî hammelech, "king's servants," or "courtiers" (ii. 446).

[858] Lam. v. 4.

[859] Jer. xxxvii. 21, xxxviii. 9, lii. 6.

[860] Lam. iv. 7, 8.

[861] Lam. iv. 10, ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Baruch ii. 3.

[862] Lam. iv. 5. See Stanley, Lectures, ii. 470.

[863] Ezek. xi. 22.

[864] This may possibly be alluded to in Psalm lxix. 2.

[865] Jer. xxxviii. 10, A.V., "thirty."

[866] Van Oort, iv. 52.

[867] Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2; 2 Chron. xxxii. 5, xxxiii. 14. First and last, the siege seems to have lasted one year, five months, and twenty-seven days.

[868] Zech. viii. 19.

[869] The inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar which have been as yet deciphered speak of his sumptuous buildings and of his worship of the gods rather than of his conquests. See Records of the Past, vii. 69-78.

[870] Robinson, Bibl. Res., ii. 536. Some suppose that "the king's garden" was near the mouth of the Tyropœon Valley.

[871] Ezek. xii. 12. Perhaps the gate alluded to is the fountain gate of Neh. iii. 15. Ezekiel seems to speak of "digging through the wall." Robinson says that a trace of the outermost wall still exists in the rude pathway which crosses the mouth of the Tyropœon on a mound hard by the old mulberry tree which marks the traditional site of Isaiah's martyrdom.

[872] Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2.

[873] Traces of his presence are found in inscriptions in the Wady of the Dog near Beyrout, and in Wady Brissa. See Sayce, Proceedings of the Bibl. Arch. Soc., November 1881.

[874] 2 Kings xxv. 7. See Layard, Nineveh, ii. 376.

[875] The blinding was sometimes done by passing a red-hot rod of silver or brass over the open eyes; sometimes by plucking out the eyes (Jer. lii. 11, Vulg. oculos eruit; 2 Kings xxv. 7, effodit). See a hideous illustration of a yet more brutal process in Botta (Monum. de Ninève, Pl. cxviii.), where Sargon with his own hand is thrusting a lance into the eyes of a captive prince, whose head is kept steady by a bridle fastened to a hook through his lips. See also Judg. xvi. 21; Xen., Anab., i. 9, § 13; Procopius, Bel. Pers., i. 1; Ammianus, xxvii. 12; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, i. 307.

[876] Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2, 3.

[877] Nebur-zir-iddina, "Nebo bestowed seed." Jer. xxxix. 9, 13, is in some way corrupt. Ezekiel (ix. 2), however, and Josephus (Antt., X. viii. 2) mention six officers. Nebuzaradan was "chief of the executioners" (Gen. xxxvii. 36; 1 Kings ii. 25, 35, 46).

[878] Psalm lxxix. 2, 3.

[879] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17; Lam. ii. 21, v. 11, 12.

[880] To the reminiscences of these scenes are partly due the Talmudic legend about the blood of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, bubbling up to demand vengeance. Nebudchadrezzar slew a holocaust of human victims to appease the shade of the wrathful prophet, until the king himself was terrified, and asked if he wished his whole people to be slaughtered. Then the blood ceased to bubble.

[881] See Rawlinson, Kings of Israel and Judah, p. 236.

[882] Lam. iv. 22.

[883] Psalm lxxix, 1.

[884] Obad. 14-16; Psalm cxxxvii. 7; 1 Esdras iv. 45.

[885] Comp. Esther i. 14.

[886] On these personages see 1 Chron. vi. 13, 14; 2 Kings xxii. 4; Ezra vii. 1; Jer. xxi. 1, xxxvii. 3, etc.

[887] Nebuchadrezzar had no doubt needed them for his great buildings at Babylon, and their deportation would render more difficult any attempt to refortify Jerusalem.

[888] Jer. xli. 8, xl. 12.

[889] Jer. lii. 28-30. In his seventh year, 3,023; in his eighteenth, 832 in his thirty-third, 745 = 4,600.

[890] Ramah was but five miles from Jerusalem, and at first Jeremiah may not have been identified (Jer. xl. 1-6).

[891] The present, if accepted, could only be regarded, under the circumstances, as part of the necessity of life. It does not fall under the head of the presents often offered to prophets (1 Sam. ix. 7; 2 Kings iv. 42; Mic. iii. 5, 11; Amos vii. 12).

[892] Jer. xi. 19-21, xii. 6.

[893] Stanley, Lectures, ii. 515.

[894] So Grätz and Cheyne.

[895] Jer. xxxi. 15-17.

[896] Jer. xxvi. 24.

[897] Jer. xl. 12.

[898] Some identify it with Shaphat, a mile from Jerusalem.

[899] They are called sarî ("princes").

[900] There is no Elishama in the royal genealogy, except a son of David. Ishmael may have been the son or grandson of some Ammonite princess. An Elishama was scribe of Jehoiakim (Jer. xxxvi. 12).

[901] The Hebrew text calls these ten ruffians rabbî hammelech, "chief officers of the king" of Ammon.

[902] Josephus records or conjectures that the governor was overpowered by wine, and had sunk into slumber (Antt., X. ix. 2).

[903] In Jer. xli. 9, for "because of Gedaliah," the better reading is "was a great pit" (LXX., φρέαρ μέγα).

[904] Ishmael—a marvel of craft and villainy—put into practice the same stratagem which on a larger scale was employed by Mohammed Ali in his massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo in 1806 (Grove, s.v. Bibl. Dict.). For "the midst of the city" (Jer. xli. 7), we ought to read "courtyard," as in Josephus.

[905] Comp. Jehu's treatment of the family of Ahaziah (2 Kings x. 14).

[906] The dark deed is still commemorated by a Jewish fast, as in the days of Zechariah (Zech. vii. 3-5, viii. 19).

[907] Isa. xix. 18-22.

[908] Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1; Ezek. xxx. 18; Jer. xliii. 7, xlvi. 14; Herod., ii. 30.

[909] Fl. Petrie, Memoir on Tanis (Egypt. Explor. Fund, 4th memoir), 1888.

[910] Jer. xliii. 13, Beth-shemesh. Only one pillar of the Temple of the Sun is now standing. It is said to be four thousand years old. It is certain that Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and defeated Amasis, the son of Hophrah, b.c. 565, reducing Egypt to "the basest of kingdoms" (Ezek. xxix. 14, 15). Three of Nebuchadrezzar's terra-cotta cylinders have been found at Tahpanhes.

[911] How far the prophecy was fulfilled we do not know. Assyrian and Egyptian fragments of record show that in the thirty-seventh year of his reign Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and advanced to Syene (Ezek. xxix. 10).

[912] 2 Macc. ii. 1-8; comp. xv. 13-16. The tradition is singular when we recall the small store which Jeremiah set by the Ark (Jer. iii. 16).

[913] Evil-Merodach (Avil-Marduk, "Man of Merodach") only reigned two years, and was then murdered by his brother-in-law Neriglissar (Berosus ap. Jos.: comp. Ap., i. 20). The Rabbis have a story—perhaps founded on that of Gaius and Agrippa I.—that Evil-Merodach had been imprisoned by his father for wishing his death, and in prison formed a friendship for Jehoiachin.

[914] "Lifted up his head." Comp. Gen. xl. 13, 20.

[915] To be thus ὁμοτράπεζος, or σύσσιτος, of the king was a high honour (Herod., iii. 13, v. 24. Comp. Judg. i. 7; 2 Sam. ix. 13, etc.).

[916] T. Hodgkin, Friends' Quarterly, September 1893, p. 401.

[917] Jer. xxix. 25-27.

[918] Up to the time of Tiglath-Pileser II., the Eponym Year (which is not here given) marks the second complete year of each king's reign.

[919] This Shalmaneser died about b.c. 825, after a reign of thirty-five years (Sayce in Records of the Past, v. 27-42; Oppert, Hist. des Empires de Chaldée et d'Assyrie; Ménant, Annales des Rois d'Assyrie, 1874).

[920] Many of these dates can only be regarded as uncertain and approximate. Kamphausen dates the commencement of all the latter kings a year later (Die Chronologie der hebräischen Könige, Bonn, 1883).