Chapter X: The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi

Whatever influence Manasseh’s reformation exercised over his people generally, the taint of idolatry was not removed from his own family. His son Amon succeeded him at the age of two-and-twenty. Into his reign of two years he compressed all the varieties of wickedness once practised by his father, and undid the good work of Manasseh’s later years. He recovered the graven images which Manasseh had discarded, replaced them in their shrines, and worshipped them instead of Jehovah. But in his case there was no repentance, and he was cut off in his youth.

In the absence of any conclusive evidence as to the date of Manasseh’s reformation, we cannot determine with certainty whether Amon received his early training before or after his father returned to the worship of Jehovah. In either case Manasseh’s earlier history would make it difficult for him to counteract any evil influence that drew Amon towards idolatry. Amon could set the example and perhaps the teaching of his father’s former days against any later exhortations to righteousness. When a father has helped to lead his children astray, he cannot be sure that he will carry them with him in his repentance.

After Amon’s assassination the people placed his son Josiah on the throne. Like Joash and Manasseh, Josiah was a child, only eight years old. The chronicler follows the general line of the history in the book of Kings, modifying, abridging, and expanding, but introducing no new incidents; the reformation, the repairing of the Temple, the discovery of the book of the Law, the Passover, Josiah’s defeat and death at Megiddo, are narrated by both historians. We have only to notice differences in a somewhat similar treatment of the same subject.

Beyond the general statement that Josiah “did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah” we hear nothing about him in the book of Kings till the eighteenth year of his reign, and his reformation and putting away of idolatry is placed in that year. The chronicler’s authorities corrected the statement that the pious king tolerated idolatry for eighteen years. They record how in the eighth year of his reign, when he was sixteen, he began to seek after the God of David; and in his twelfth year he set about the work of utterly destroying idols throughout the whole territory of Israel, in the cities and ruins of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, as well as in Judah and Benjamin. Seeing that the cities assigned to Simeon were in the south of Judah, it is a little difficult to understand why they appear with the northern tribes, unless they are reckoned with them technically to make up the ancient number.

The consequence of this change of date is that in Chronicles the reformation precedes the discovery of the book of the Law, whereas in the older history this discovery is the cause of the reformation. The chronicler’s account of the idols and other apparatus of false worship destroyed by Josiah is much less detailed than that of the book of Kings. To have reproduced the earlier narrative in full would have raised serious difficulties. According to the chronicler, Manasseh had purged Jerusalem of idols and idol altars; and Amon alone was responsible for any that existed there at the accession of Josiah: but in the book of Kings Josiah found in Jerusalem the altars erected by the kings of Judah and the horses they had given to the sun. Manasseh’s altars still stood in the courts of the Temple; and over against Jerusalem there still remained the high places that Solomon had built for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom. As the chronicler in describing Solomon’s reign carefully omitted all mention of his sins, so he omits this reference to his idolatry. Moreover, if he had inserted it, he would have had to explain how these high places escaped the zeal of the many pious kings who did away with the high places. Similarly, having omitted the account of the man of God who prophesied the ruin of Jeroboam’s sanctuary at Bethel, he here omits the fulfilment of that prophecy.

The account of the repairing of the Temple is enlarged by the insertion of various details as to the names, functions, and zeal of the Levites, amongst whom those who had skill in instruments of music seem to have had the oversight of the workmen. We are reminded of the walls of Thebes, which rose out of the ground while Orpheus played upon his flute. Similarly in the account of the assembly called to hear the contents of the book of the Law the Levites are substituted for the prophets. This book of the Law is said in Chronicles to have been given by Moses, but his name is not connected with the book in the parallel narrative in the book of Kings.

The earlier authority simply states that Josiah held a great passover; Chronicles, as usual, describes the festival in detail. First of all, the king commanded the priests and Levites to purify themselves and take their places in due order, so that they might be ready to perform their sacred duties. The narrative is very obscure, but it seems that either during the apostacy of Amon or on account of the recent Temple repairs the Ark had been removed from the Holy of holies. The Law had specially assigned to the Levites the duty of carrying the Tabernacle and its furniture, and they seem to have thought that they were only bound to exercise the function of carrying the Ark; they perhaps proposed to bear it in solemn procession round the city as part of the celebration of the Passover, forgetting the words of David(435) that the Levites should no more carry the Tabernacle and its vessels. They would have been glad to substitute this conspicuous and honourable service for the laborious and menial work of flaying the victims. Josiah, however, commanded them to put the Ark into the Temple and attend to their other duties.

Next, the king and his nobles provided beasts of various kinds for the sacrifices and the Passover meal. Josiah’s gifts were even more munificent than those of Hezekiah. The latter had given a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep; Josiah gave just three times as many. Moreover, at Hezekiah’s passover no offerings of the princes are mentioned, but now they added their gifts to those of the king. The heads of the priesthood provided three hundred oxen and two thousand six hundred small cattle for the priests, and the chiefs of the Levites five hundred oxen and five thousand small cattle for the Levites. But numerous as were the victims at Josiah’s passover, they still fell far short of the great sacrifice(436) of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep which Solomon offered at the dedication of the Temple.

Then began the actual work of the sacrifices: the victims were killed and flayed, and their blood was sprinkled on the altar; the burnt offerings were distributed among the people; the Passover lambs were roasted, and the other offerings boiled, and the Levites “carried them quickly to all the children of the people.” Apparently private individuals could not find the means of cooking the bountiful provision made for them; and, to meet the necessity of the case, the Temple courts were made kitchen as well as slaughterhouse for the assembled worshippers. The other offerings would not be eaten with the Passover lamb, but would serve for the remaining days of the feast.

The Levites not only provided for the people, for themselves, and the priests, but the Levites who ministered in the matter of the sacrifices also prepared for their brethren who were singers and porters, so that the latter were enabled to attend undisturbed to their own special duties; all the members of the guild of porters were at the gates maintaining order among the crowd of worshippers; and the full strength of the orchestra and choir contributed to the beauty and solemnity of the services. It was the greatest Passover held by any Israelite king.

Josiah’s passover, like that of Hezekiah, was followed by a formidable foreign invasion; but whereas Hezekiah was rewarded for renewed loyalty by a triumphant deliverance, Josiah was defeated and slain. These facts subject the chronicler’s theory of retribution to a severe strain. His perplexity finds pathetic expression in the opening words of the new section, “After all this,” after all the idols had been put away, after the celebration of the most magnificent Passover the monarchy had ever seen. After all this, when we looked for the promised rewards of piety—for fertile seasons, peace and prosperity at home, victory and dominion abroad, tribute from subject peoples, and wealth from successful commerce—after all this, the rout of the armies of Jehovah at Megiddo, the flight and death of the wounded king, the lamentation over Josiah, the exaltation of a nominee of Pharaoh to the throne, and the payment of tribute to the Egyptian king. The chronicler has no complete explanation of this painful mystery, but he does what he can to meet the difficulties of the case. Like the great prophets in similar instances, he regards the heathen king as charged with a Divine commission. Pharaoh’s appeal to Josiah to remain neutral should have been received by the Jewish king as an authoritative message from Jehovah. It was the failure to discern in a heathen king the mouthpiece and prophet of Jehovah that cost Josiah his life and Judah its liberty.

The chronicler had no motive for lingering over the last sad days of the monarchy; the rest of his narrative is almost entirely abridged from the book of Kings. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah pass over the scene in rapid and melancholy succession. In the case of Jehoahaz, who only reigned three months, the chronicler omits the unfavourable judgment recorded in the book of Kings; but he repeats it for the other three, even for the poor lad of eight(437) who was carried away captive after a reign of three months and ten days. The chronicler had not learnt that kings can do no wrong; on the other hand, the ungodly policy of Jehoiachin’s ministers is labelled with the name of the boy-sovereign.

Each of these kings in turn was deposed and carried away into captivity, unless indeed Jehoiakim is an exception. In the book of Kings we are told that he slept with his fathers, _i.e._, that he died and was buried in the royal tombs at Jerusalem, a statement which the LXX. inserts here also, specifying, however, that he was buried in the garden of Uzza. If the pious Josiah were punished for a single error by defeat and death, why was the wicked Jehoiakim allowed to reign till the end of his life and then die in his bed? The chronicler’s information differed from that of the earlier narrative in a way that removed, or at any rate suppressed the difficulty. He omits the statement that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and tells us(438) that Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. Casual readers would naturally suppose that this purpose was carried out, and that the Divine justice was satisfied by Jehoiakim’s death in captivity; and yet if they compared this passage with that in the book of Kings, it might occur to them that after the king had been put in chains something might have led Nebuchadnezzar to change his mind, or, like Manasseh, Jehoiakim might have repented and been allowed to return. But it is very doubtful whether the chronicler’s authorities contemplated the possibility of such an interpretation; it is scarcely fair to credit them with all the subtle devices of modern commentators.

The real conclusion of the chronicler’s history of the kings of the house of David is a summary of the sins of the last days of the monarchy and of the history of its final ruin in xxxvi. 14-20.(439) All the chief of the priests and of the people were given over to the abominations of idolatry; and in spite of constant and urgent admonitions from the prophets of Jehovah, they hardened their hearts, and mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of Jehovah arose against His people, and there was no healing.

However, to this peroration a note is added that the length of the Captivity was fixed at seventy years, in order that the land might “enjoy her sabbaths.” This note rests upon Lev. xxv. 1-7, according to which the land was to be left fallow every seventh year. The seventy years captivity would compensate for seventy periods of six years each during which no sabbatical years had been observed. Thus the Captivity, with the four hundred and twenty previous years of neglect, would be equivalent to seventy sabbatical periods. There is no economy in keeping back what is due to God.

Moreover, the editor who separated Chronicles from the book of Ezra and Nehemiah was loath to allow the first part of the history to end in a gloomy record of sin and ruin. Modern Jews, in reading the last chapter of Isaiah, rather than conclude with the ill-omened words of the last two verses, repeat a previous portion of the chapter. So here to the history of the ruin of Jerusalem the editor has appended two verses from the opening of the book of Ezra, which contain the decree of Cyrus authorising the return from the Captivity. And thus Chronicles concludes in the middle of a sentence which is completed in the book of Ezra: “Who is there among you of all his people? Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up....”

Such a conclusion suggests two considerations which will form a fitting close to our exposition. Chronicles is not a finished work; it has no formal end; it rather breaks off abruptly like an interrupted diary. In like manner the book of Kings concludes with a note as to the treatment of the captive Jehoiachin at Babylon: the last verse runs, “And for his allowance there was a continual allowance given him of the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.” The book of Nehemiah has a short final prayer: “Remember me, O my God, for good”; but the preceding paragraph is simply occupied with the arrangements for the wood offering and the first-fruits. So in the New Testament the history of the Church breaks off with the statement that St. Paul abode two whole years in his own hired house, preaching the kingdom of God. The sacred writers recognise the continuity of God’s dealings with His people; they do not suggest that one period can be marked off by a clear dividing line or interval from another. Each historian leaves, as it were, the loose ends of his work ready to be taken up and continued by his successors. The Holy Spirit seeks to stimulate the Church to a forward outlook, that it may expect and work for a future wherein the power and grace of God will be no less manifest than in the past. Moreover, the final editor of Chronicles has shown himself unwilling that the book should conclude with a gloomy record of sin and ruin, and has appended a few lines to remind his readers of the new life of faith and hope that lay beyond the Captivity. In so doing, he has echoed the key-note of prophecy: ever beyond man’s transgression and punishment the prophets saw the vision of his forgiveness and restoration to God.

FOOTNOTES

1 Cf. _Ezra_; _Nehemiah_; _Esther_, by Professor Adeney, in
“Expositor’s Bible.”

2 Ezra iii. 12.

3 Isa. lxvi. 22.

4 Quoted for _Asa_ (2 Chron. xvi. 11); _Amaziah_ (2 Chron. xxv. 26);
_Ahaz_ (2 Chron. xxviii. 26).

5 Quoted for _Jotham_ (2 Chron. xxvii. 7); _Josiah_ (2 Chron. xxxv.
26, 27).

6 Quoted for _Manasseh_ (2 Chron. xxxiii, 18).

7 Quoted for _David_ (1 Chron. xxix. 29).

8 Quoted for _David_ (1 Chron. xxix. 29) and _Solomon_ (2 Chron. ix.
29).

9 Quoted for _David_ (1 Chron. xxix. 29).

10 Quoted for _Rehoboam_ (2 Chron. xii. 15).

11 Quoted for _Jehoshaphat_ (2 Chron. xx. 34).

12 Quoted for _Manasseh_ (2 Chron. xxxiii. 19). “Seers,” A.V., R.V.
Marg., with LXX.; R.V., with Hebrew text, “Hozai.” The passage is
probably corrupt.

13 Quoted for _Solomon_ (2 Chron. ix. 29).

14 Quoted for _Hezekiah_ (2 Chron. xxxii. 32).

15 Quoted for _Joash_ (2 Chron. xxiv. 27).

16 Quoted for _Abijah_ (2 Chron. xiii, 22).

17 Quoted for _Uzziah_ (2 Chron. xxvi. 22).

18 Quoted for _Solomon_ (2 Chron. ix. 29).

19 Cf. pp. 17, 18.

20 2 Chron. xx. 34.

21 Chron. xxxii. 32.

22 R.V. marg.

23 R.V.

_ 24 E.g._, the wars of Jotham (2 Chron. xxvii. 7).

25 2 Chron. xiii. 22; xxiv. 27. The LXX., however, does not read
“Midrash” in either case; and it is quite possible that glosses have
attached themselves to the text of Chronicles.

26 Cf. 2 Sam. vi. 12-20 with 1 Chron. xv., xvi.

27 Cf. 2 Kings xi.; 2 Chron. xxiii.

28 The last two classes are not easily distinguished; but the additions
which introduce the Levitical system into earlier history are
clearly the work of the chronicler or his immediate predecessor, if
such a predecessor be assumed, or were found in somewhat late
sources. This is also probably true of other explanatory matter.

29 Cf. 2 Sam. iv. with 1 Chron. viii. 34, also 2 Sam. vii. 7 with 1
Chron. xvii. 6, and 2 Sam. xvii. 25 with 1 Chron. ii. 17. In both
these instances Chronicles preserves the correct text.

30 Cf. Book II., Chap. IV.

31 Oehler, _Old Testament Theology_, i. 283 (Eng. trans.).

32 Nestle, _Die Israelitischen Eigennamen_, p. 27. The present chapter
is largely indebted to this standard monograph.

33 Nestle.

34 1 Chron. vii. 14.

35 Philo, _De Cong. Quær. Erud. Grat._, 8.

36 Hiller’s _Onomasticon ap._, Nestle 11.

37 vii. 8.

38 i. 35.

39 xviii. 15.

40 i. 20.

41 viii. 36.

42 ii. 18.

43 iii. 20.

44 iv. 3.

45 Bertheau, i. 1.

46 iv. 22.

47 iv. 22.

48 The translation of these words is not quite certain.

49 Nestle, p. 68.

50 Num. i. 10.

51 Num. i. 12.

52 Num. i. 6.

53 Cf. p. 40.

54 xi. 30; vii. 25 (Nestle).

55 Nestle.

56 Joel i. 15; Isa. xiii. 6. It is not necessary here to discuss either
the etymological or the theological history of these words in their
earliest usage, nor need we do more than recall the fact that
Jehovah was the term in common use as the personal name of the God
of Israel, while El was rare and sometimes generic.

57 Ezra ii. 61-63; Neh. vii, 63-65.

58 Acts xvii. 26.

59 Col. iii. 11.

60 Josh. xiv. 6.

61 1 Sam. xxvii 10.

62 Ver. 55.

63 The occurrence of Caleb the son of Jephunneh in iv, 15, vi. 56, in
no way militates against this view: the chronicler, like other
redactors, is simply inserting borrowed material without correcting
it. _Chelubai_ in ii. 9 stands for _Caleb_; cf. ii. 18.

64 viii. 33-40; ix. 35-44. We have used Mephibosheth as more familiar,
but Chronicles reads Meribbaal, which is more correct.

65 Psalm lxxviii. 59, 60, 67-69.

66 iv. 14, 21-23.

67 1 Chron. xv.

68 Cf. 2 Chron. xxix. 12 and xxx. 22.

69 2 Chron. xvii. 8.

70 Exod. xxv-xxxix.; 1 Kings vi.; 1 Chron. xxix.; 2 Chron. iii., v.

71 1 Chron. xv. 4-10.

72 1 Chron. xii. 23-37.

73 John iii. 8.

74 i. 10.

75 i. 19.

76 i. 46.

77 Cf. Gen. xxxvi. 24 and 1 Chron. i. 40.

_ 78 I.e._, Achan (ii. 3, 7).

79 1 Sam. ii. 7, 8.

80 Vv. 17, 18, as they stand, do not make sense. The second sentence of
ver. 18 should be read before “and she bare Miriam” in ver. 17.
Mered and Bithiah formed a tempting subject for the rabbis, and gave
occasion for some of their usual grotesque fancies. Mered has been
identified by them both with Caleb and Moses.

81 Deut. vii. 3; Josh. xxiii. 12; Ezra ix. 1, x.; Neh. xiii. 23.

82 iv. 9, 10.

83 The reading on which this translation is based is obtained by an
alteration of the vowels of the Masoretic text; cf. Bertheau, i. 1.

84 Gen. xxviii. 20; xxxiii. 20.

85 This translation is obtained by slightly altering the Masoretic
text.

86 iv. 41; cf. R.V.

87 1 Sam. xv.

88 Judges i. 17.

89 Judges i. 22-26.

90 Judges xviii.

91 Vv. 7-10, 18-22.

92 Deut. xxxiii. 20; 1 Chron. xii. 8, 21.

93 Gen. xxv. 15.

94 Gen. xvi. 12.

_ 95 Lay of the Last Minstrel_, iv. 3.

96 Vv. 25, 26. Note the curious spelling _Tilgath-pilneser_ for the
more usual _Tiglath-pileser_.

97 Cf. Bertheau, i. 1.

98 In Josh. xix. 42, xxi. 24, Aijalon is given to Dan; in Judges i. 34
it is given to Dan, but we are told that Amorites retained
possession of it, but became tributary to the house of Joseph; in 2
Chron. xi. 10 it is given to “Judah and Benjamin.” As a frontier
town, it frequently changed hands.

99 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

100 2 Chron. xx. 20.

101 2 Chron. xxix. 6.

102 1 Chron. vi. 31-48, xv. 16-20; cf. psalm titles.

103 1 Chron. vi. 33, 37; cf. Psalm lxxxviii. (title).

104 1 Chron. xvi. 38, 42.

105 1 Chron. ix. 26-32; cf. 1 Chron. xxiii. 24-32.

106 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxi.; xxxiv.; xxxv.

107 2 Chron. xxix. 27, 28.

108 Num. iv. 3, 23, 35.

109 1 Chron. xxiii. 24, 27. Probably “twenty” should be read for
“thirty” in ver. 3.

110 1 Chron. xxiv. 6.

111 2 Chron. xxxiv. 13; xxxv. 3.

112 2 Chron. xxxv. 3; cf. 1 Chron. xxiii 26.

113 1 Chron. xxvi. 29.

114 2 Chron. xvii. 7, 9.

115 Wellhausen, _History of Israel_, p. 191; cf. 2 Chron. xix. 4-11.

116 1 Chron. ix. 31, 32.

117 Ezra ii. 36-39.

118 1 Chron. xxiv. 1-19.

119 Luke i. 5.

_ 120 Bell. Jud._, IV. iii. 8.

121 1 Chron. xxiv. 20-31; 2 Chron. xxxi. 2.

122 1 Chron. xxv.

123 1 Chron. xxvi.; Ezra vi. 18; Neh. xi. 36.

124 Recently a complaint was received at the General Post-office that
some newspapers sent from France had failed to arrive. It was stated
that the names of the papers were—_Il me manque_; _Plusieurs;
Journaux_; _i.e._, I am short of “Several” “Papers.”

125 1 Chron. ix. 3.

126 Luke ii. 36.

127 Levi of course excepted.

128 1 Chron. iii.

129 ii. 55.

130 iv. 21-23.

131 Maspero, _Ancient Egypt and Assyria_, p. 60.

132 Craddock, _Despot of Bromsgrove Edge_. Teck Jepson is, of course, an
imaginary character, but none the less representative.

133 Cave, _Scripture Doctrine of Sacrifice_, p. 163.

134 George Eliot, _Janet’s Repentance_, chap. xix.

135 2 Chron. xii. 1, 6.

136 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18.

137 Ezra ii. 2.

138 Isa. xlix. 6.

139 Isa. ix. 7.

140 Isa. xvi. 5.

141 Isa. xxxvii. 35.

142 Isa. xxxviii. 5.

143 Acts ii 29.

144 Hos. iii. 5.

145 Amos ix. 11.

146 Micah v. 2.

147 Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; cf. xxxiii. 15 and Isa. iv. 2, xi. 1. The Hebrew
word used in the last passage is different from that in the
preceding.

148 Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25.

149 Zech. iii. 8; the text in vi. 12 is probably corrupt.

150 Hag. ii. 23.

151 Zech. xii. 8.

152 Written after the death of Pompey.

153 Schultz, _Old Testament Theology_, ii. 444.

154 An incidental reference is made to these facts in 1 Chron. xii. 19.

155 2 Sam. iii. 39.

156 2 Sam. v. 21; 1 Chron. xiv. 12.

157 Deut. xxiv. 16, quoted in 2 Chron. xxv. 4.

158 2 Sam. xxi. 19; 1 Chron. xx. 5.

159 1 Chron. x. 14.

160 Cf. xi. 1-9; xii. 23-xiii. 14; xv.

161 1 Chron. xi. 2.

162 1 Chron. ii. 15.

163 1 Chron. xii. 1, 19. There is no certain indication of the date of
the events in xi. 10-25. The fact that a “hold” is mentioned in xi.
16, as in xii. 8, 16, is not conclusive proof that they refer to the
same period.

164 xii. 20.

165 1 Chron. xxix. 27.

166 xi. 10-47; xx. 4-8.

167 xiii. 14-xvi.

168 xvii.

169 xviii.; xx. 3.

_ 170 I.e._, virtually Jehovah our God and the only true God.

171 For a more detailed treatment of this incident see chap. ix.

172 xxi.-xxix.

173 xxix. 20-22, 28.

174 xvi. 8-36.

175 xvii. 16-27.

176 For a short exposition of this passage see Book. IV., Chap. i.

177 1 Chron. xi. 15-19.

178 xxix. 20.

179 Rom. xiv. 22.

180 2 Sam. xii. 31; 1 Chron. xx. 3.

181 Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_, i. 205.

182 x. 14; xi. 3.

183 xii. 38.

184 xxix. 1, 22.

185 xiii. 2-4.

186 1 Sam. xxiii. 9-13; xxx. 7, 8.

187 xxv. 1, 2.

188 xiii. 1.

189 xxviii. 1.

190 xxix. 22.

191 But cf. 2 Chr. xxvi.

192 Cf. xvii. 4-15 and xxviii. 2-10.

193 xiii. 1-14.

194 The casual reference in Jer. lii. 20 is only an apparent exception.
The passage is really historical, and not prophetic.

195 Deut. xvii. 16, 17; cf. 2 Chron. i. 14-17 and 1 Kings xi. 3-8.

196 Psalms lxxii. and cxxvii. are attributed to him, the latter,
however, only in the Hebrew Bible.

197 Ecclus. xlvii. 12-21.

198 Matt. xii. 42.

199 Matt. vi. 29.

200 Acts vii. 47.

201 1 Chron. xxix. 25.

202 2 Chron. ix. 22, 23.

203 2 Chron. viii. 11.

204 Neh. xiii. 26.

205 Such changes occur throughout, and need not be further noticed
unless some special interest attaches to them.

206 Kings v. 13; ix. 22, which seems to contradict this, is an editorial
note.

207 2 Chron. ii. 2, 17, 18; viii. 7-10.

208 1 Kings ix. 11, 12.

209 2 Chron. viii. 1, 2, R.V.

210 1 Chron. xxii. 9.

211 1 Chron. xxix. 23, 24.

212 2 Chron. i. 7-13.

213 2 Chron. i. 14-17.

214 v. 11, 12, peculiar to Chronicles.

215 vi. 41, 42, peculiar to Chronicles, apparently based on Psalm
cxxxii. 8-10.

216 1 Chron. xxi. 26; 2 Chron. vii. 1-3, both peculiar to Chronicles.

217 vii. 8-10, mostly peculiar to Chronicles. The text in 1 Kings viii.
65 has been interpolated from Chronicles.

218 vii. 13-15, peculiar to Chronicles.

219 viii. 3, 4, peculiar to Chronicles. Hamath is apparently referred to
as a possession of Judah in 2 Kings xiv. 28.

220 viii. 12-16, peculiar in this form to Chronicles, but based upon 1
Kings ix. 25.

221 ix., as in 1 Kings x. 1-13.

222 ix. 31.

223 ix. 28.

224 It is not suggested that the chronicler intended to convey this
impression, or that it would be felt by most of his readers.

225 xiv. 3, 5, contradicting 1 Kings xv. 14 and apparently 2 Chron. xv.
17.

226 xv. 8-14, peculiar to Chronicles.

227 xv. 18, 19.

228 xvii. 6 contradicts 1 Kings xxii. 43 and 2 Chron. xx. 33.

229 xvii. 7-9, peculiar to Chronicles.

230 xxiv. 1-14.

231 xxi. 11, peculiar to Chronicles.

232 xxv. 4.

233 2 Chron. xxviii. 24-xxxi., mostly peculiar to Chronicles; but
compare Kings xviii. 4-7, which mentions the taking away of the high
places.

234 xxxiii. 16.

235 xxxiv.; xxxv.

236 xxx. 2.

237 xxii. 1; xxiii. 1-15; xxvi. 1; xxxiii. 25; xxxvi. 1.

238 xxv. 12.

239 xvi. 12.

240 xx. 37.

241 xxiv. 20-27.

242 xxv. 14-27.

243 xxvi. 16-23.

244 xxxii. 25-33.

245 xxxv. 20-27.

246 Milton, Hymn to the Nativity.

247 Tennyson, In Memoriam.

248 2 Chron. ix. 1.

249 Prov. xxxi. 1-9.

250 Articles XXI. and XXXVII.

251 Eph. ii. 12.

252 2 Chron. xii. 12, peculiar to Chronicles.

253 1 Kings xv. 3.

254 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11-20, peculiar to Chronicles.

255 2 Kings xxiii. 32.

256 2 Kings xvi. 5.

257 Isa. viii. 2.

258 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9.

259 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5, 8, 11.

260 2 Chron. xxviii. 5-15, peculiar to Chronicles; cf. 2 Kings xvi. 5,
6.

261 2 Chron. xxviii. 16-25, peculiar to Chronicles; cf. 2 Kings xvi.
7-18.

262 xxviii. 27, peculiar to Chronicles.

263 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14, xxix. 34, xxx. 27, all peculiar to Chronicles.
In xxx. 27 the text is doubtful; many authorities have “the priests
and the Levites.”

_ 264 I.e._, in the view given us by the chronicler of the period of the
monarchy, after the Return the priests were far more numerous than
the Levites.

265 1 Chron. xxvi. 30-32.

266 2 Chron. xix. 4-11.

267 2 Chron. xv. 3. In the older literature the phrase would bear a more
special and technical meaning.

268 Exod. xxxii. 26-35.

269 Num. xxv. 3.

270 Psalm cvi. 30, 31.

271 1 Chron. xii. 23-28.

272 1 Chron. xxvii. 5; cf. however, R.V. marg.

273 2 Chron. xiii. 12.

274 2 Chron. xxiii. 7. All the passages referred to in this paragraph
are peculiar to Chronicles.

275 Neh. iv. 17.

276 1 Macc. v. 67.

277 1 Chron. xiii. 8; xvi. 2.

278 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19.

279 2 Chron. vi.

280 2 Chron. xx. 4-13; xxx. 6-9, 18-21, 27.

281 2 Chron. xxxv.

282 1 Chron. xiii. 10.

283 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-23.

284 2 Chron. xxxi. 3-5.

285 Mal. i. 8; iii. 4, 10.

286 2 Chron. xxxi. 10.

287 Exod. xv. 3.

288 Psalm lxxiv. 8, 9. This psalm is commonly regarded as Maccabæan, but
may be as early as the chronicler or even earlier.

289 1 Macc. iv. 46.

290 Ezra ii. 63.

291 2 Chron. xxix. 25, peculiar to Chronicles.

292 2 Chron. xii. 5-8, peculiar to Chronicles.

293 2 Chron. xv.-xvi. 10, peculiar to Chronicles.

294 2 Chron. xix. 2, 3, xx. 14-18, 37, all peculiar to Chronicles.

295 xxi. 12-15, peculiar to Chronicles.

296 xxiv. 18-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

297 xiv. 15, 16, peculiar to Chronicles.

298 2 Kings xix. 5-7, 20-34.

299 xxxii. 20.

300 xxxiii. 10, 18.

301 xxxv. 21, 22, 25, peculiar to Chronicles.

302 1 Esdras i. 28.

303 Ezra v. 1; vi. 14.

304 Neh. vi. 14.

305 1 Chron. xii. 18, peculiar to Chronicles.

306 Acts ii. 30.

307 2 Kings iv. 42.

308 Abbott, _Through Nature to Christ_, p. 295.

309 Jer. xv. 10.

310 Deut. xviii. 18.

311 Ecclus. xlix. 10.

312 R.V. “delight in” is somewhat too strong.

313 It is, however, possible that the text in Samuel is a corruption of
text more closely parallel to that of Chronicles.

314 Noldius and R. Salom. _apud_ Bertheau i. 1.

315 Josh. xviii. 28; Judges i. 21, as against Josh. xv. 63; Judges i. 8,
which assign the city to Judah.

316 1 Chron. xxvii. 23, 24.

317 Ver. 7 is apparently a general anticipation of the narrative in vv.
9-15.

318 Josh. v. 13.

319 Schultz, _Old Testament Theology_, ii. 270.

320 Exod. iv. 21; Josh. xi. 20; 1 Sam. xix. 9, 10; 2 Sam. xxiv. 1; 1
Kings xxii. 20-23.

321 Prov. xvi. 4; Lam. iii. 38; Isa. xlv. 7.

322 Zech. iii. 1.

323 Jer. vii. 12-14; xxvi. 6.

324 1 Chron. xxviii. 19.

325 Heb. vii. 14.

326 Hos. xii. 13.

327 Schultz, _Old Testament Theology_, ii. 353.

328 2 Chron. xxx. 6; 1 Kings xviii. 36.

329 1 Chron. xvi. 13, 17; Gen. xxxii. 28.

330 Gen. xxiii. 4; cf. Psalms xxxix. 13, cxix. 19.

331 Job viii. 9.

332 Called, however, at that time Antonia.

333 viii. 9.

334 xi. 5-xii. 1, peculiar to Chronicles.

335 xii. 2-8, 12, peculiar to Chronicles.

336 xii. 14, peculiar to Chronicles.

337 Ecclus. xlvii. 23.

338 xiii. 3-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

339 Josh. xviii. 22.

340 Judges ix. 8.

341 Num. xviii. 19.

342 2 Chron. x. 15.

343 This verse must of course be understood to give his whole family
history, and not merely that of his three years’ reign.

344 xiv. 1, 7, peculiar to Chronicles.

345 xiv. 3-9, peculiar to Chronicles.

346 1 Chron. xii., etc.; 2 Chron. xi. 5 ff., xvii. 12 ff., xxvi. 9 ff.
xxvii. 4 ff., xxxiii. 14.

347 xiv. 9-15.

348 So R.V. marg.; R.V. text (with which A.V. is in substantial
agreement): “There fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could
not recover themselves”; _i.e._, the routed army were never able to
rally.

349 The second reformation is dated early in Asa’s fifteenth year, and
Abijah only reigned three years.

350 xv., based upon 1 Kings xv. 13-15, but the great bulk of the chapter
is peculiar to Chronicles; the original passage from Kings is
reproduced, with slight changes in vv. 16-18.

351 2 Sam. xii. 9-11. “Barak” with LXX. and Peshite; Masoretic text has
“Bedan.”

352 Judges v. 6, 7; vi. 11; viii. 15-17; ix.; xii. 1-7; xx.; xxi.

353 Cf. 1 Kings xv. 12.

354 1 Chron. ix. 3.

355 Exod. xxii. 20; Deut. xiii. 5, 9, 15.

356 1 Kings xv. 16, 32, 33.

357 xvi. 7-10, peculiar to Chronicles.

358 Isa. vii. 17.

359 Isa. xxxi. 1; xxx. 3.

360 Jer. ii. 36.

361 Zech. iv. 10.

362 The date, as before, is peculiar to Chronicles.

363 xvi. 12_b_, peculiar to Chronicles.

_ 364 Time and Tide_, xii. 67.

365 George Eliot, _Romola_, xxi.

366 Part II., Chap. IX.

367 xvii., peculiar to Chronicles.

368 1 Chron. xviii. 1-3.

369 xix. 1-3, peculiar to Chronicles.

370 xix. 4-11, peculiar to Chronicles.

371 Milman, _Latin Christianity_, Book XI., Chap. I.

372 xx. 1-30, peculiar to Chronicles.

373 So R.V. marg., with the LXX. The Targum has “Edomites,” the A.V. is
not justified by the Hebrew, and the R.V. does not make sense.

374 Cf. 1 Chron. iv. 41, R.V.; and 2 Chron. xxvi. 7.

375 One Hebrew manuscript is quoted as having this reading. A.R.V., with
the ordinary Masoretic text, have “Syria”; but it is simply absurd
to suppose that a multitude from beyond the sea from Syria would
first make their appearance on the western shore of the Dead Sea.

376 2 Chron. iv. 9.

377 Ver. 9; cf. 2 Chron. vi. 28, and the whole paragraph (vv. 22-30) of
which our verse is a brief abstract.

378 Not Ziz, as A.R.V.

379 הדרת קדש, literally, as A.R.V., “beauty of holiness”; _i.e._, sacred
robes. Translate with R.V. marg. “praise in the beauty of holiness,”
not, as A.R.V., “praise the beauty of holiness.”

380 Exod. xiv. 30.

381 With R.V. marg.

382 The identification of the valley of Berachah with the valley of
Jehoshaphat, close to Jerusalem and mentioned by Josephus, is a mere
theory, quite at variance with the topographical evidence.

383 Kings xxii. 48, 49.

384 2 Chron. xxiv. 24, peculiar to Chronicles.

385 Psalm xx. 7.

386 1 Macc. ii. 35-38.

387 xxi. 2-4, peculiar to Chronicles.

388 Vv. 5-10; cf. 2 Kings viii. 17-22.

389 xxi. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles.

390 So R.V. marg., with LXX. and Vulgate A.R.V. have “mountains,” with
Masoretic text.

391 Jer. xxix.; xxxvi.

392 Green’s _Shorter History_, p. 404.

393 xxii. 1_b_, peculiar to Chronicles.

394 The Hebrew original of the A.R.V., “departed without being desired,”
is as obscure as the English of our versions. The most probable
translation is, “He behaved so as to please no one.” The A.R.V.
apparently mean that no one regretted his death.

395 We need not discuss in detail the question of Ahaziah’s age at his
accession. The age of forty-two, given in 2 Chron. xxii. 2, is
simply impossible, seeing that his father was only forty years old
when he died. The Peshito and Arabic versions have followed 2 Kings
viii. 26, and altered forty-two to twenty-two; and the LXX. reads
twenty years. But twenty-two years still presents difficulties.
According to this reading, Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, was born
when his father was only eighteen, and Jehoram having had several
sons before the age of eighteen, had none afterwards.

396 xiii. 7_a_, peculiar to Chronicles.

397 Cf. p. 20.

398 Cf. xxv. 2 with 2 Kings xiv. 4, xxvi. 4 with 2 Kings xv. 4, xxvii. 2
with 2 Kings xv. 34, where similar statements are omitted by the
chronicler.

399 2 Kings xii. 9.

400 Exod. xxx. 11-16.

401 Neh. x. 32.

402 xxiv. 14-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

403 Curiously enough, Jehoiada’s name does not occur in the list of
high-priests in 1 Chron. vi. 1-12.

404 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Chron. vii. 19, xii. 5, xiii. 10, xv. 2, xxi.
10, xxviii. 6, xxix. 6, xxxiv. 25.

405 Cf. 2 Kings xii. 17, 18, of which this narrative is probably an
adaptation.

406 xxv. 5-13, peculiar to Chronicles, except that the account of the
war with Edom is expanded from the brief note in Kings. Cf. ver.
11_b_ with 2 Kings xiv. 7.

407 In the phrase “from Samaria to Beth-horon,” “Samaria” apparently
means the northern kingdom, and not the city, _i.e._, from the
borders of Samaria; the chronicler has fallen into the nomenclature
of his own age.

408 For the discussion of the chronicler’s account of Ahaz see Book
III., Chap. VII.

409 So R.V. marg., with LXX., Targum, Syriac and Arabic versions,
Talmud, Rashi, Kimchi, and some Hebrew manuscripts (Bertheau, i. 1).
A.R.V., “had understanding in the visions” (R.V. vision) “of God.”
The difference between the two Hebrew readings is very slight. Vv.
5-20, with the exception of the bare fact of the leprosy are
peculiar to Chronicles.

410 Cf. Ezek. xxvi. 9.

411 Pliny, vii. 56 _apud_ Smith’s _Bible Dictionary_.

412 Num. xviii. 7; Exod. xxx. 7.

413 Kimchi interprets “those days” as meaning “after the death of
Jotham.”

414 The reference to the wall of Ophel is peculiar to Chronicles:
indeed, Ophel is only mentioned in Chronicles and Nehemiah; it was
the southern spur of Mount Moriah (Neh. iii. 26, 27). Vv. 3_b_-7 are
also peculiar to Chronicles.

415 This is usually understood as Nisan, the first month of the
ecclesiastical year.

416 xxix. 3-xxxi. 21 (the cleansing of the Temple and accompanying
feast, Passover, organisation of the priests and Levites) are
substantially peculiar to Chronicles, though in a sense they expand
2 Kings xviii. 4-7, because they fulfil the commandments which
Jehovah commanded Moses.

417 Exod. vi. 18, 22; Num. iii. 30, mention Elizaphan as a descendant of
Kohath.

418 So Strack-Zockler, i. 1.

419 Lev. i. 6.

420 According to 2 Kings xviii. 10, Samaria was not taken till the sixth
year of Hezekiah’s reign. It is not necessary for an expositor of
Chronicles to attempt to harmonise the two accounts.

421 Cf xxx. 11, 18.

422 xxx. 14; cf. 2 Kings xviii. 4. The chronicler omits the statement
that Hezekiah destroyed Moses’s brazen serpent, which the people had
hitherto worshipped. His readers would not have understood how this
corrupt worship survived the reforms of pious kings and priests who
observed the law of Moses.

423 Cf. xxix. 34, xxx. 3.

424 Lev. xv. 31.

425 So Bertheau, i. 1, slightly paraphrasing.

426 A.R.V., with Masoretic text, “the priests the Levites”; LXX., Vulg.
Syr., “the priests and the Levites.” The former is more likely to be
correct. The verse is partly an echo of Deut. xxvi. 15, so that the
chronicler naturally uses the Deuteronomic phrase “the priests the
Levites”; but he probably does so unconsciously, without intending
to make any special claim for the Levites: hence I have omitted the
word in the text.

427 xxxii. 2-8, peculiar to Chronicles.

428 xxxii. 30.

429 xxxiii. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles.

430 So R.V.: A.V., “among the thorns”; R.V. marg., “with hooks”, if so
in a figurative sense. Others take the word as a proper name: Hohim.

431 Ezek. xviii. 20.

432 Peter iv. 18.

433 Ezek. xviii. 21-23.

434 Psalm cxxx. 4, probably belonging to about the same period as
Chronicles.

435 1 Chron. xxiii. 26, peculiar to Chronicles.

436 2 Chron. vii. 5. The figures are peculiar to Chronicles; 1 Kings
viii. 5 says that the victims could not be counted.

437 Jehoiachin. The ordinary reading in 2 Kings xxiv. makes him
eighteen.

438 2 xxxvi. 6_b_, peculiar to Chronicles.

439 Mostly peculiar to Chronicles.