22 : 1 AND they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to-day. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here besides a prophet of the LORD, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah the son of Imlah: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until they be consumed. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the 41. AND Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab 42 king of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Azubah 43 the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in all the way of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: howbeit the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high 44 places. And Jehoshaphat made peace with 45 the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the 46 kings of Judah? And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land. 47 And there was no king in Edom: a deputy 48 was king. Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at 49 Ezion-geber. Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But Jehosh- 50 aphat would not. And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead. the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so 11 that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. And some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and silver for tribute; the Arabians also brought him flocks, seven thousand 12 and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven hundred he-goats. And Jehosha- 13 phat waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles and cities of store. And he had many works in the cities of Judah; and men of war, mighty men of valour, in Jerusalem. 14 And this was the numbering of them according to their fathers' houses: of Judah, the captains of thousands; Adnah the captain, and with him mighty men of valour three hundred 15 thousand: and next to him Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred and four- 16 score thousand: and next to him Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself 17 unto the LORD; and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valour: and of Benja- 18 min; Eliada a mighty man of valour, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow 19 and shield: and next to him Jehozabad, and with him an hundred and fourscore thousand 20 ready prepared for war. These were they that waited on the king, beside those whom the king put in the fenced cities throughout all Judah. Chap. 18, giving the account of the union of forces between Ahab and Jehoshaphat, the disastrous battle of Ramoth-Gilead, and death of Ahab, is embodied in the latter's history, Section 15. 19:1 And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem. 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the wicked, and love them that hate the LORD? for this thing wrath is 3 upon thee from before the LORD. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast put away the Asheroth out of the land, and hast set thine heart to seek God. 4 And Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem: and he went out again among the people from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back unto the LORD, the God 5 of their fathers. And he set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, 6 city by city, and said to the judges, Consider what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but 7 for the LORD; and he is with you in the judgement. Now therefore let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor re- 8 spect of persons, nor taking of gifts. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and the priests, and of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel, for the judgement of 9 the LORD, and for controversies. And they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them, 10 saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart. And whensoever any controversy shall come to you from your brethren that dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and judgements, ye shall warn them, that they be not guilty towards the LORD, and so wrath come upon you 11 and upon your brethren: this do, and ye shall not be guilty. And, behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the LORD; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be officers before you. Deal courageously, and the LORD be with the good. 20:1 And it came to pass after this, that the children of Moab, and the children of 2 Ammon and with them some of the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea from Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar (the same is En- 3 gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek unto the LORD; and he proclaimed 4 a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to seek help of the 5 LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new 6 court; and he said, O LORD, the God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and art not thou ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? and in thine hand is power and might, 7 so that none is able to withstand thee. Didst not thou, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for 8 ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, 9 If evil come upon us, the sword, judgement, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house, and before thee, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, 10 and thou wilt hear and save. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of 11 Egypt, but they turned aside from them, and destroyed them not; behold, how they reward 12 us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that 13 cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. And all 14 Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation; 15 and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehosha- phat: thus saith the LORD unto you, Fear not ye, neither be dismayed by reason of this 16 great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To-morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the 17 valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set your- selves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed: to-morrow go out against them; for the LORD is with you. 18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants 19 of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God 20 of Israel, with an exceeding loud voice. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be 21 established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them that should sing unto the LORD, and praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and say, Give thanks unto the LORD; for his 22 mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set liers in wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against 23 Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made 24 an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came to the watch-tower of the wilderness, they looked upon the multitude; and, behold, 25 they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and there were none that escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in taking of the 26 spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Beracah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of that place was called The 27 valley of Beracah, unto this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the LORD 28 had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries 29 and harps and trumpets unto the house of the LORD. And the fear of God was on all the king- doms of the countries, when they heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about. 31 And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah: he was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was 32 Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. And he walked in the way of Asa his father, and turned 33 not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD. Howbeit the high places were not taken away; neither as yet had the people set their hearts unto the God of 34 their fathers. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are writ- ten in the history of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel. 35 And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel; 36 the same did very wickedly: and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to 37 Tarshish: and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the LORD hath destroyed thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish. 2. Chron. 17: 1, 2.** Jehoshaphat strengthens the defences of Judah. Son of Asa, fourth king of Judah, Jehoshaphat succeeded to the throne B.C. 914, at thirty-five years of age. His reign lasted twenty-five years, to B.C. 889. Ahab was now king in Israel; Benhadad I. still reigned in Syria; and Elisha abode in Israel. There had been from the division a chronic state of hostility between the kindred king- doms. It was the cities on the frontier of Is- rael that Jehoshaphat first sought to strengthen, as his father had done the cities on the southern border. Walls were built or rebuilt; walled towns were garrisoned, and military outposts and stations established. 3-5. God's ample return for faithful service. Two points are here referred to concerning Jehoshaphat's conduct; each one in a double form, positive and comparative. It is said: 1. That he sought not unto Baalim, but sought to the Lord God of his father. Baalim, the plural form, refers to the various names, im- ages or places in which the Tyrian god Baal, already introduced widely into Israel and Judea, was worshipped. In the licentious practices and cruelties of that abominable worship Je- hoshaphat took no part; nor had he faith or respect for any such divinity. Jehovah, the true God, the God of his fathers, was the sole object of his trust, the Divine Being whom he sought to, or worshipped. 2. He walked in Je- hovah's commandments, and not after the doings of Israel. To the seeking, or the trust and worship, he added the obedient life, here called "walking in His commandments." The figure is as expressive as it is familiar. We read of the walk with God or before Him; the walk by faith, the upright and the disorderly walk; everywhere descriptive of the tenor of the life, whether true and godly, or self-seeking, false, and defiant toward God. This good king sought to do as well as to know the will of God. He re-established more thoroughly the law and worship of Jehovah throughout his kingdom. And, it is added, he did not walk "after the doings of Israel." We remember that Jezebel, Ahab's impious queen, had just enthroned the Baal worship as the supreme religion of the kingdom of Israel. And it is to this universal acceptance of that gigantic and terrible idolatry by the people of Israel that reference is here made. The practical suggestions are plain when we read that because Jehoshaphat thus sought to Jehovah and walked in His commandments, the Lord was with him. If we would secure the only desirable favor, that of God, our first and ever foremost personal duty is a trustful seeking of God, as revealed in Christ. The necessary condition and consequence of such seeking of God is the turning away from all other seeking and trust, from any and all other objects of supreme attachment and interest. And second, persistent search to know and unremitting endeavor to do the revealed will of God must accompany, and prove as genuine the trustful seeking of God. This doing of His will also implies the not doing our own will when differing from His. In other words, obedience means and includes all necessary self-denial and sacrifice. How the Lord's favor was realized and made manifest further appears in the narrative. The kingdom was more firmly established. The whole people gladly added large voluntary gifts to the ordained taxes, for use by the king in adding to the strength and splendor of the kingdom. And, it is added, "he had riches and honor in abundance." The prosperity and renown of his reign far exceeded that of any rule in either of the divided kingdoms. B. 3. He walked in the first ways of his father.** The purest blood this world has ever known is that of a Christian ancestry. It outranks all other aristocracies. Descent from kings and emperors bears no comparison with it. There is a law of Christian nurture by which, through the grace of God, every Christian family becomes a nursery of the Church of Christ. Such is God's obvious design. Character is not transferable from father to son, but the elements out of which character grows are so. Religion once rooted in a Christian family should achieve so much conservation of Christian forces. A moral dike is thus built up against the floods of depravity, behind which children may be safe, as Holland is from the inroads of the sea. There is no good reason why our children should not grow up into Christian faith, instead of being wrenched into it by moral convulsions after years of riot in depravity. Phelps. Ways of Baalim. By "Baalim" seem to be meant different forms of the god Baal, such as Baal-berith, Baal-peor, Baal-zebub, and the like. Jehoshaphat was not seduced into this worship, though in his day it overspread almost the whole kingdom of Israel. 4. The doings of Israel.** By this we are to understand not so much the worship of the calves, which, being antagonistic to Judah, could scarcely possess attractions for a Jewish king, as the special idolatrous doings of the time—the introduction and establishment of the worship of Baal and the groves. B. C. 6-9. The memorable crowning act of Jehoshaphat's reign.** Instead of a heart lifted up with pride because of prosperity, these proofs of Divine favor wrought in him a grateful lifting of heart in the ways of the Lord. Still more thoroughly he sought to root out the spirit and practice of idolatry from the entire kingdom. But his greatest work, one which gave the highest distinctive character to his reign, is narrated in verses 7-9. It consisted in an organized mission to instruct the entire people in the knowledge of the then written Word of God. The Scriptures of Moses we know were included in "the book of the law of the Lord." A copy of this law the king entrusted to a commission of five princes, nine Levites, and two priests, whose names are here recorded. This commission he sent throughout all the cities of Judah, with instructions to gather the people together and teach afresh the forgotten Divine precepts. The princes directed the work to which their presence, as the king's personal representatives, lent dignity and authority. The Levites and priests, as the appointed interpreters, read and expounded the written Word of Jehovah. It was a new and greatly needed measure, the first endeavor of a practical kind to diffuse among the people the knowledge of Jehovah Himself, of His law, and of His previous dealings with His chosen people. And it was the conception and execution of this grand work which eminently distinguished the reign of this good and gentle king. To realize how memorable and crowning an act it was we have but to recall the long, sad history of the whole nation's declension in the knowledge and service of Jehovah, from the days of Solomon onward. B. It is, in fact, the first missionary effort on record. For the first time instruction in the ways of God was brought to their homes. As Matthew Henry well writes, "He dealt with them as reasonable creatures, and would not lead them blindfold, no, not into a reformation, but endeavored to have them well taught, knowing that that was the way to have them well cured." W. Benham. 9. And had the book of the law with them. There is no reasonable doubt that this "book of the law" was the Pentateuch—nearly, if not quite, in the shape in which we now have it. Copies of the whole law were, no doubt, scarce; and therefore Jehoshaphat's commission took care to carry a copy with them. B. C. 10. The remarkable result of the king's fidelity to Jehovah and wide dissemination of His Word. It is not said that the people of Judah were prospered, but that the neighboring hostile countries were so impressed by the prevalent spirit of God's now obedient people that a fear of Him came upon those heathen nations. So Judah had peace without and tranquillity within. More than this, on the one side the Philistines, and the Arabians on the other, voluntarily brought presents of silver and of flocks to the king of Judah. A great prosperity came to king and people. The business of the cities was vastly augmented, and large treasures were accumulated. And this was the reward of even imperfect obedience and of partial knowledge and regard of the Word of Jehovah! How clear and striking the lessons to us of the latest days! God's Word, now full and complete, may be in every hand. In every hand it should be placed. It may be apprehended by every mind and received by every heart. The heart knowledge of and obedience to its truths brings inward peace and outward prosperity to the individual soul, and to the nation. Are not these thoughts worthy of profound consideration and self-application? B. 12-19. Throughout the whole country he built "cities of store," or magazines of arms and provisions. In Jerusalem he collected a large military force, under five chief captains, Adnah, Jehohanah, Amasiah the son of Zichri, Eliada, and Jehozabad, who were placed at the head of five distinct corps d'armée. Over the garrisons in the other towns he placed his own sons as commandants, or else princes chosen out of the host, supplying them in abundance with silver and gold (21:3). G. R. Chap. 18. In common with the Book of Kings, the account is given of the union of Jehoram, the son and successor of Jehoshaphat, with Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel; and also of the joint warfare of Ahab and Jehoshaphat with Benhadad of Syria, with the fatal issue of the conflict in the death of Ahab. (See Section 15.) B. Chap. 19. This chapter is entirely additional to Kings, and of great interest. It deals with three matters only, the rebuke addressed to Jehoshaphat by the prophet Jehu (verses 1-3), the personal efforts of Jehoshaphat to effect a religious reformation (verse 4), and his reform of the judicial system (verses 5-11). 1. Jehoshaphat returned to his house in peace. With the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, and the death of Ahab, the war came to an end. The combined attack of the two kings having failed, their troops had been withdrawn, and the enterprise in which they had joined relinquished. The Syrians, satisfied with their victory, did not press on the retreating foe, or carry the war into their enemies' country. B. C. 1-3. The reproof of Jehoshaphat by the prophet Jehu. The best lives recorded in the Scripture history are marred by infirmity and sin. At some time and in some of its forms, self-seeking gets the mastery, and works its evil and wretchedness. So it was with this good king. For his fidelity God gave him many years of great prosperity—as He ever gives to the truly faithful, and continues so long as they abide true and unselfish. But his "abundant riches and honor," helped by his strong natural sympathy for a great national league, if not an ultimate reunion of the two kingdoms, led him into an alliance with Ahab of Israel. After six years of conflict he confirms a treaty of peace by the marriage of his youthful son Jehoram with the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. The point of Jehoshaphat's offence was not any direct self-seeking, but it was a wrong aim in leaguing with Ahab, God's open enemy; an aim pursued, therefore, in disregard of God's will. He would rearrange matters between the two kingdoms, without making the God of both a party to the new arrangement; without even consulting him. Practically, in making so intimate an affiliation with Ahab and Jezebel, he went over from the Lord's side to the ranks of the Lord's most eminent enemies. And he did this not only in the ill-starred marriage of his son, but also in joining forces with Ahab against the invading king of Syria. Nay, further than this, when the warning of God was sent to him by Micaiah upon the battle-field, Jehoshaphat disregarded it, and went into the battle at Ahab's side. After the defeat and death of Ahab, he returned with a disarrayed army to Jerusalem. At the gate of the city the king and army were met by another prophet of Jehovah, Jehu, the son of Hanani. "Wrath is upon thee from the Lord!" Jehu openly announced. "Shouldest thou love them that hate the Lord, and help the ungodly?" Exactly this the king had done; in allying his household with that of Jezebel, and in joining his army with that of Ahab. Upon the ordinary principles governing national alliances there would be no ground of objection to this whole procedure of Jehoshaphat. Mere human politicians would count it wise. "It were far better," they would say, "that these adjoining kingdoms of the same people should be at peace and in alliance; and that both should unite their strength against their most formidable common enemy." But then God was a known and active party in all these issues. Ahab was His open and pronounced enemy; Jehoshaphat His avowed subject. Nothing but failure, loss and misery could result to any, whether foes or friends, whom God did not aid and favor. And He could not—Jehoshaphat well knew—succeed those who avowedly hated and defied Him, as Ahab and Jezebel had always done. Upon this knowledge, the good king was rightly adjudged and condemned for his alliance with and help of Ahab. The sentence of wrath seems to have been executed, as so many Divine chastisements are visited, not upon the king himself and his people, but in the way of natural result, upon his son and his people. It came in the evil and suffering consequent upon the idolatry and crime introduced into Judah through the marriage with the wicked Athaliah, daughter of the viler Jezebel. Here are practical suggestions, wide-reaching and momentous. They cover the whole vital matter of human alliances—personal, family and national. Whatever nice questions, of application to details, may remain unsolved, the essential principle is simple and clear. It is that we are not to accept as heart friends, life guides or family counsellors avowed enemies of God, positive disbelievers in the truths of His Word, even those who lack positively just, pure principles, or who have not measurably proved such principles by a settled practice. But with the very words of reproof the great mercifulness of God appears. For with rebuke he joins commendation for the good things Jehoshaphat had done. It is one of the multiplied proofs that lie upon the Scripture pages, of God's full, glad recognition of everything He can find to approve. How unlike mere human parents and friends is He in this; that He upbraideth not. Reproof, rebuke, He utters; and where wickedness is aggravated by intelligent, defiant impiety, He uses the severest denunciation. But no approach or casting back of acknowledged sin comes from Him. Rather does He rejoice in the feeblest purpose and smallest fragments of good, and own them with glad approval. And this is the cheering truth which the story further suggests. You may read it in the comforting, golden promise of 1 John 1:9. B. 2. It is wonderful at how many points the biographies of the Old Testament touch modern life. Jehoshaphat was a representative man—representative of a large class of good men in every age, who for selfish ends choose their friends from among the irreligious and the worldly. The friendship of wicked men is one of the most dangerous social temptations to which Christians are subjected. A Christian who subjects his Christian faith to worldly policy in the choice of his associates in life strikes right athwart the whole range of scriptural command and admonition and expostulation and example. No Christian can safely do that. Further, Christian alliances with the wicked do not command the respect of the very men for whose favor they are formed. Men of the world are very keen in their judgments of Christian character. They know what is consistent Christian living when they see it, as well as we do. Indeed, their theoretic ideal of a Christian life is commonly more exalted than that of men who are struggling to realize it. No other class of men are so prompt to tell us what they would do if they believed as we do as those who believe nothing. An upright and downright Christian they always revere. In heart they make obeisance to him as to no other type of man. Do you not know a godless man who professes to have lost all faith in religion, but who makes exception of some one humble Christian woman—his mother perhaps, or sister, or wife? "If ever human being gets to heaven, she will," is his testimony. That one life keeps open to his faith the celestial gates. . . . Of this trial of Christian principle, it should be further said that the Christian religion requires no narrow or ascetic seclusion from the world. The thing which Christian principle forbids is the seeking of worldly friendships and alliances for selfish ends, and to the peril of religious usefulness and religious character. Phelps. As to the sin itself with which Jehoshaphat is charged, and the probable reasons or motives of its commission, we must seek an explanation of his conduct rather in mistaken views of policy than in any considerable indifference to the honor of God, or any leaning to the defections of apostasy and idolatry. In his anxiety to pacify, to conciliate, and to reclaim he was tempted to go a little too far—even to the sacrificing of his own high integrity, and the apparent countenancing of Israel's corruptions. Here lay the error of this good prince; and here it was that he suffered the subtlety of worldly wisdom and the spurious kindness of worldly liberality to interfere with the simplicity of an upright and honorable faith in God, and a godly love toward men. To desire the restoration of his brethren of Israel to the privileges of the covenant which they had renounced was natural, just and right, in one who himself valued these privileges so highly. But with this view, and under this pretence, to make friendly advances toward them, and show a disposition to unite with them, in their present state of apostasy and idolatry—this was imprudence—this was sin. Candlish. 4. Jehoshaphat went out again through the people and brought them back. While continuing to maintain, both with Ahaziah and with his successor Jehoram, the closest and most friendly relations, Jehoshaphat was careful to show that he had no sympathy with idolatry, and was determined to keep his people, so far as he possibly could, free from it. He therefore now personally set about a second reformation. Passing through the whole land, from the extreme south to the extreme north—from Beer-sheba to the cities in Mount Ephraim which Abijah had taken from Jeroboam (chap. 13:19)—he once more put down by the strong arm of authority all idolatrous worship, and brought his people back to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. G. R. 5-7. Appointment of judges throughout the land, and charge respecting their duties. God's reproof wrought a salutary effect upon the "heart prepared to seek" Him. Through the land among all the people the king went again on a Christ-like mission: to "bring them back unto the Lord God of their fathers." The great object of all these kingly missions in Judah was the extirpation of idolatry. Now, through the recent alliance with idolatrous Israel, the evil had been disseminated with fresh power and impetus. That the king himself had received no taint is manifest, before by the prophet's commendation, and now by his own earnest, self-denying work of visitation. Not only the interests of religion, but those of righteous government were cared for in this self-imposed beneficent mission. Of two classes of tribunals then instituted, these verses refer to that which was the inferior, more numerous and widespread. In all the larger towns he appointed new judges, with new methods and powers of administering justice. The reason for this reform we can only conjecture—that it was necessitated by the existing corruption which had grown out of so long unresisted idolatry. The charge to the appointed judges is a sublime one. It has special application to all who make, expound and administer, and execute human laws—i.e., to all officials connected with human government. Yet its grand counsels, with the reasons upon which they are based, apply to every responsible human actor in every sphere of accountable human action. "Take heed what you do, for you act not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you to direct and aid you in your acting! Wherefore, knowing this, take heed to do whatever you do in the trustful, prayerful fear of the Lord. Act justly, with truth and righteousness; as God Himself acts, without iniquity in your hearts, without respect of persons, without perversion of the right in return for bribe of any sort. All human conduct, however it affects our fellow-man, has supreme respect to the known will of God. All truth and honesty, all just and kind dealing toward man, have their vital spring in the heart's homage and obedience to God. And all injustice and deceit, all unkindness and wrong toward men, have their secret source in the heart's disobedience and rejection of God. Simply recognizing this cardinal fact of human action, in the sore remembrance of his blood-guiltiness toward Uriah, David said, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. And it is this double foundation truth that Christ asserts in the judgment allegory by the words, Ye did it, and Ye did it not—unto Me! 8,9. Establishment of a supreme court of appeal in Jerusalem, and charge to its chosen judges. Beside the inferior courts in the several cities, Jehoshaphat created a supreme tribunal with original and appellate jurisdiction, and located it in the capital. As its judges he chose the best and wisest of the priests and Levites, and of the heads of the families of Judah. This tribunal had two divisions: one presided over (verse 11) by Amariah, the chief priest; the other by Zebadiah, the ruler of the king's house. The former adjudicated upon "all matters of the Lord;" all questions pertaining to the ceremonial and ritual law prescribed by Jehovah. The latter finally determined all civil and criminal cases arising under the laws of the land. Over the doings of the supreme judicatory the king himself could exercise general oversight and control. His charge to its members was simpler and more comprehensive than that to the inferior judges in the cities; but its substance was the same. What they did he enjoined them to do faithfully, in the fear of the Lord, and with a perfect, or undivided, heart. Thus this good and wise king completed a great and needed reformation in Judah. He re-established a pure worship. He instituted a system of religious education among the people, causing them to be instructed in the knowledge of the written Scriptures. And he established these tribunals for a wise and faithful administration of justice throughout the land. B. Chap. 29. The narrative contained in this chapter, as far as verse 30, is entirely additional to Kings. The remainder, except verse 37, runs parallel with 1 K. 22: 41-49. B. C. 1-13. As we have already learned, this good and wise king had taught his people the written Word of Jehovah. He had restored a true and pure temple worship in Jerusalem. And he had established tribunals for the efficient administration of law and justice. Years of quiet and prosperity followed these wise, right measures. Then trouble arose from a new quarter. The Ammonites and Moabites, descendants of the two sons of Lot, who occupied the region eastward of the Dead Sea, and the Edomites, descendants of Esau, inhabiting the mountains extending southward to the Red Sea, combined in undertaking the subjugation of Judah, and a permanent possession of the territory. Hence the immense multitude, and the untold amount of spoil afterward gathered; for not only all the armed men, but the mass of the entire people of those three nations seem to have migrated in this hostile movement. The great combined host had passed round the southern limit of the Dead Sea, and half way up its western border, and was encamped at Engedi, only thirty miles from Jerusalem, when the intelligence of the invasion first reached the king and people. Speedily, at the king's summons, came the people together at the capital. With the fighting men were their wives and children, for the summons was to the taking part in a religious service rather than in a combat. In this Jehoshaphat exhibited his faith at the very outset. To the house of God he leads the alarmed people; to the temple where he had long before restored the highest condition of worship. There, in the great emergency, he shows how fully he understood and how deeply he sympathized with the spirit of that prayer of dedication which God had pledged Himself to answer. Himself following Solomon's example and leading the people in prayer, he makes bold and fervent appeal to Jehovah. His chief plea and reliance is upon His covenant-relation and special covenant promises to His people. But he also pleads the gross, because causeless, wrong of the invaders: for Israel had not trespassed upon their territory when entering into Canaan. Then with the declaration of utter inability to cope with the vast advancing multitude, the royal suppliant completes his prayer with sublime words of trust: Our eyes are upon Thee! And THEN, while all Judah stood before the Lord, while these trustful words still lingered upon the king's lips, came 14-17. God's answering message by Jehaziel, a prophet-psalmist. From the midst of the gathered congregation, a voice instantly responded with the words: Thus saith the Lord unto you! The message included, first, needed assurance of safety for their encouragement; and next direction for their conduct. Ye have trusted in God; He will deliver you. Go down on the morrow against them, but not to fight. Set yourselves in array, but stand still to behold the Lord's deliverance. And the inspired speaker indicated the very place where, on the next day, their enemies were smitten of God. It was at a point only twelve miles from Jerusalem, at the head of the long winding ascent from Engedi, where the ravine issued into the tableland wilderness of Judah. B. 15. The battle is God's.** The history of the Church is full of instances of this law of Divine procedure. An old saying of the German Reformers was this: "One with God on his side is a majority." Every cause which God originates starts with only Gideon's three hundred. From this law of God's working it is clear that in spiritual affairs the balance of power does not depend on numbers. Votes have very little to do with it. It depends on spiritual forces. It depends on insight into the spiritual wants of the world, on consecration to God's service, on the power of prayer, on spiritual discovery of the side on which God is, and specially on intensity of Christian character. . . . Minorities of honest and earnest men, devoted to a great cause, should never be opposed heedlessly. Let us be on the lookout for such men. Let us greet them with a "God-speed" when they make their Divine credentials clear. . . . Within the Church of Christ itself is to be found a minority of believers whom God regards with peculiar complacency. As a spiritual power, they are the vanguard of the Church. They are the spiritual aristocracy of Christ's kingdom. Phelps. 17. Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord. The prophet used words almost identical with those which Moses had addressed to the Israelites on the shores of the Red Sea immediately before the destruction of Pharaoh's hosts (Ex. 14 : 13), thus indicating that the deliverance would, now as then, be wholly from God. B. C. 18,19. How God's response was received by king and people. It was with humble worship and with grateful praise. Jehoshaphat and all Judah reverently prostrated themselves before the Lord; while the Levite choirs, bands from the special families of the Kohathites and Korhites stood and chanted in their wonted loudly jubilant strains the high praises of the Lord God of Israel. This spontaneous unanimity, at once manifesting itself in worship and song, indicated the people's faith in the Divine assurance granted them. Some of the very words of the message they had read or heard out of the reopened, restudied book of the law and the providence of Jehovah toward Israel. The battle is not yours, but God's. Stand ye, and see the salvation of the Lord with you! And their faith was helped by the facts of the history, when these words had been made real and living. But even then they needed the reinforcement of their king's yet mightier and more absolute faith. Hence followed on the next day. 20. The grandly simple, purely evangelical exhortation of Jehoshaphat. It occurred early on the next morning, as the armed hosts of Judah and Jerusalem passed through the great gate of the capital. In the gateway stood the true-hearted monarch, and, as band after band went by, he repeated the double charge: Believe in the Lord your God! Believe His prophets! So, he assured them, shall ye be established and prosper. No scene in Judah's history is at once so picturesque, sublime and instructive as this crowned preacher standing in the archway of the lofty gate, and earnestly reiterating this simple Gospel command, "Only believe." Long years of wise, good rule and of varied experience gave increased force to his urgency with these men of Judah. They had known and trusted him; therefore they would be the more willing to trust the God he trusted—the God who had prospered him and the people of Judah. We need not pause to suggest the application of this comprehensive call to faith. We may refer to the power for good which is accumulated by a long living Christian experience; and to the effect of such exerted power in imparting or re-enforcing the spiritual strength, courage, or comfort of feeble or discouraged souls. 21. The appointment of singers to express the people's trust in praise. No preparation for fighting was to be made, though the armed men went in battle array. It was for them an utterly passive conflict, an inward fight of faith; for they never saw a living enemy of all the host that had come so nigh them. But still they made preparation for the expected victory and triumph. And the preparation was exactly suited to the call and promise of God. It was a preparation for praise—for the utterance in songful worship of the people's assured trust in God; and of their grateful acknowledgment beforehand of His promised delivering mercy. Apparelled in white linen robes, the symbols of holy beauty, bands of singers went before the army, as a vanguard of surest protection. And as they went all the way from the city to "the watch-tower in the wilderness," they ceased not their song of gratitude and trust: PRAISE JEHOVAH; for His mercy endureth forever! 22-30. The result that accompanied their trustful, praising refrain. Let the record be noted: when they BEGAN to sing and to praise, the Lord's work in their deliverance began. And as they continued, for those long miles and hours of steady march, to sing and praise, Jehovah's hand stayed not in His destruction of their enemies and His, till "they were smitten." And when the still praising vanguard reached the place of carnage, "behold the multitude were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped." Among the three nations, composing the vast horde of invaders, God had stirred up dissension. This led to jealousies and animosities, which soon broke out into deadly strife with each other; prolonged until multitudes were slain, and the remnant had fled panic-stricken to their native hills. Immense spoil and treasure covered the wide camping ground, requiring three days' work to gather and prepare for removal. So the same God, who in the New Testament characterizes Himself as rich in mercy, greatly enriched the king and people who had only asked for deliverance. And such exceeding abundance above all we ask or think is His royal wont to all that thoroughly trust and utterly repose upon His promised mercy. The history (verses 26-28) tells of their thankful recognition of both the signal deliverance and the large bounty. On the fourth day, before their homeward journey, they assembled themselves for special praise upon the field where the dead and the spoil had lain. And their service of blessing and thanksgiving thenceforward gave the name of Berachiah (or blessing) to the immediate region or valley. "Then returned every man, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront, to Jerusalem with joy." With harp and song "they came unto the house of the Lord." And to the record of their solemn yet joyful gratitude and praise, added to that of their previous prayerful trust, appropriately follows the statement: "So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet; for his God had given him rest. The Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel." The story impressively discloses the relations of faith and praise, and strongly emphasizes the high place and importance of a thankful, praising spirit among the essentials of Christian experience and living. As faith must show itself by its fruits—of obedience to direction and expectation of blessing—so faith and love and gratitude, if they exist, must manifest themselves by their natural fruit of thanksgiving and praise. So was it here. The faith of king and people implicitly obeyed the Divine direction, and anticipated the fulfilment of the Divine promise. The assured expectation of blessing wrought love and gratitude, which found their expression in song and praise. So was it in all the Old Testament worship. Always prominent as an essential element, praise expressed the adoring, grateful feeling of true worshippers. The Psalms, scattered through the history and gathered in the Psalter, were but the utterance of a natural demand for such voiced expression of gratitude and adoration. And the habitual, fervent use of these inspired lyrics has maintained and intensified the feeling in all generations since. Richly, too, does the New Testament respond to this spirit of adoring praise and practice of thankful song, which so characterizes the Old economy. Throughout, by example and by precept with promise, it fervently commends thankfulness in song and the spirit of thankful praise in the heart. When they had sung an hymn, Christ went forth to His garden-agony. And we recall the midnight psalms, in the Philippian prison, of the Lord's suffering witnesses. The Epistles abound in exhortations and thanksgiving. Study attentively Paul's inspired and inspiring counsels on this point (Eph. 5:19, 20; Col. 2:7; 3:15-17; Phil. 4:6, 7; 1 Thess. 5:18); and trace out in your Concordance the words "thankful," "thanksgiving," and their equivalents, if you would realize the vital need of more praise, more felt and expressed thankfulness, in your heart and in all Christian hearts. No defect in our practical Christianity to-day is more strange and signal, more hindering and hurtful, more deadening to faith, more paralyzing to loving obedience and effort, more enfeebling to prayer and to Christian living, than the lack of this praising spirit in the heart, and the withholding of its voiced or silent expression to God. As the emphatic teaching of this lesson, then, be it noted: That the thankful, praising spirit is at once the highest proof and effect of a living trust, and its most efficient helper. B. Never was army so unaccountably destroyed as that of the enemy; not by dint of sword, or strength of arm, but the Lord set ambushments against them, that they fell upon their own friends as if they had been enemies, and every one helped to destroy another, so that none escaped. This God did when His people began to sing and to praise (verse 22), for He delights to furnish those with matter for praise that have hearts for it. Never was spoil so cheerfully divided, for Jehoshaphat's army had nothing to do beside; the rest was done for them. When they came to the view of this vast army, instead of finding living men to fight with, they found them all dead men. Jehoshaphat and his people prayed to be delivered from being spoiled by the enemy; and God not only did that, but enriched them with the spoil of the enemy. Never was victory celebrated with more solemn and enlarged thanksgivings. They kept a day of praise in the camp before they drew their forces out of the field. They assembled in a valley, where they blessed God with so much zeal and fervency that that day's work gave a name to the place, the valley of Berachah—i.e., of blessing (verse 26). Then they came in solemn procession, Jehoshaphat at the head, to Jerusalem, that the country, as they passed along, might join in their praises, and that they might give thanks for the mercy there where they had by prayer obtained it, in the house of the Lord (verses 27, 28). H. The passage 2 Chron. 20:35-37 is manifestly out of its chronological order here. This event occurred within one, or at most two, years after Ahab's death (Ahaziah, his successor, having reigned less than two years); consequently about the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat—eight years before his death. Hence the words "after this" cannot mean, after the great victory recorded in this chapter. With this passage compare 1 K. 22: 48, 49. Ezion-geber being a port on the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea, these ships were for the Indian, not the Mediterranean trade, and were therefore called "ships of Tarshish" only in the sense of being ships of the largest size—"East Indiamen." Or possibly some place in those waters bore this name "Tarshish." The Lord wisely baffled this commercial enterprise; for it was not well for Jehoshaphat to be in intimate relations to this godless Ahaziah. H. C. Jehoshaphat was a good king—one of the best of the Jewish sovereigns. He was, too, a prosperous and successful monarch. His country flourished under his sway. He sought to do his subjects good, and he did them good. God blessed and honored him in his ways. He died in peace and in favor with God. But he leaned to his own understanding in a matter of great moment. He put policy for principle, conciliation for frank dissent, worldly advantage for manly firmness, and sowed the seeds of evil, that lived and thrived and bore fruit centuries after his decease. R. Hallam. There can be no doubt that Judea was extremely prosperous under Jehoshaphat's rule. He was certainly the ablest and most energetic king that had reigned over Judah since the time of Solomon. While it cannot be denied that the one fatal mistake which he made in joining affinity with Ahab had, in course of time, the most terribly disastrous consequences, leading as it did to the desecration of the Temple, the complete apostasy of the State during the space of six years, and the almost entire destruction of the seed of David, yet the immediate results were, in a worldly point of view, advantageous, and a most flourishing condition of affairs seems to have been temporarily established. Commerce revived; Jehoshaphat's relations with the Edomites enabled him to resume possession of the port of Ezion-geber upon the shores of the Red Sea; and, although on one occasion the fleet which he had prepared to sail to Ophir for gold was destroyed by a storm almost before it was well out of harbor (2 K. 22: 48), yet there is reason to believe that the trade was, at any rate to some extent, restored, and that in Jehoshaphat's reign Jewish fleets were once more seen upon the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean, pursuing the peaceful occupations of traffic and commerce. Jehoshaphat built commercial cities as well as fortresses, and everywhere promoted a vigorous commercial policy. The riches which flowed in upon him (2 Chron. 17: 5; 18: 1) were the natural result of this course of action, though no doubt his resources received large accessions from various other quarters (ibid., 17: 5, 11; 20: 25). Jehoshaphat died at the age of sixty, leaving behind him seven sons of full age, the eldest of whom, Jehoram, he had designated as his successor (2 Chron. 21: 2, 3). G. R. 1. K. 22:** 51 AHAZIAH the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherein he made Israel to sin. And he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done. 2. K. 1:** 1, 2 And Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this sickness. But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And the messengers returned unto him, and he said unto them, Why is it that ye are returned? And they said unto him, There came up a man to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whither 7 thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And he said unto them, What manner of man was he 8 which came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the 9 Tishbite. Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of the hill. And he spake unto him, O man of God, 10 the king hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And 11 there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And again he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O 12 man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy 13 fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in 14 thy sight. Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and consumed the two former cap- 15 tains of fifty with their fifties: but now let my life be precious in thy sight. And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he 16 arose, and went down with him unto the king. And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it be- cause there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down 17 from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram began to reign in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son. 18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? THE history of Ahaziah's reign begins in 1 K. 22:51, and is carried on, without any real break or pause in the sense, to 2 K. 1:18. How the two books came to be divided at this point is quite inexplicable. The division is most un- happy. Not only does it, without apparent reason, draw a strong line of demarkation in the middle of a reign, but it separates what it was evidently the intention of the writer most closely to connect—viz., the sins of the mon- arch and their punishment. Ahaziah began his reign by openly showing himself a devotee of Baal—by "walking in the way of his father and in the way of his mother," the wicked Jeze- bel: therefore calamity immediately smote him—first Moab rebelled, threw off the Israel- ite yoke, and re-established its independence; and then, within a short space, Ahaziah him- self met with an accident which produced a dan- gerous illness. The writer relates barely the former fact, quit enlarges on the latter, which gave occasion for one of the most remarkable of the miracles of Elijah. P. C. Ahaziah, the eldest son, and of like spirit, succeeded Ahab. During the second year of his reign he accidentally fell from a window. Severe sickness ensued, which led him to send messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub if he would recover. God directed Elijah to intercept the messengers, and to send them back with His reproof and warning to Ahaziah. In defiance of this Divine message Ahaziah sends three successive companies (of fifty each) forci- bly to arrest Elijah. To the sharp summons of the two captains of the first and second compa- nies, by a Divine impulse and direction, Elijah called down fire from heaven, which destroyed them all. God did this to teach king and people that He was to be reverenced in the per- son of His prophet, and to show that He would protect the faithful and destroy the disobedient. The third captain, heeding the terrible lesson, did reverence to Elijah as God's prophet, and was spared by God upon his own entreaty for mercy. Then Elijah, as bidden by the Lord, went obediently and boldly as aforetime into the presence of the king and Jezebel, and re- peated the exact words of the previous message. And no hand did this impious son and mother raise against him, notwithstanding the executed doom upon their two arresting bands, and his bold utterance of God's warning message. "So Ahaziah died, according to the word of the Lord." This was Elijah's last recorded public act. B. Nothing is related concerning him but what is unfortunate. He renewed the close alliance with Judah, which had been made by his father (1 K. 22 : 44 ; 1 Chron. 20 : 36), uniting with Jehoshaphat in the maritime enterprise on which he was bent, and engaging in the construction of the joint fleet which was intended to make voyages to Ophir for gold. The ships were constructed in the port of Ezion-geber on the Red Sea at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, and were manned (apparently) by Jewish sailors only. A disaster followed. Scarcely had the fleet set sail when it was driven back to port by a violent tempest, which greatly damaged most of the vessels. Ahaziah ascribed the calamity to the unskilfulness of the Jewish mariners, and proposed that in any future voyage the ships should be manned by mixed crews from the two nations (2 K. 22 : 49) ; but Jehoshaphat was too proud to accept such a proposal, and a coolness must have followed in the relations between the allies, though there seems to have been no actual rupture. With the Moabites on the southeastern frontier of Israel the case was different. There Ahab's death produced an immediate rupture of peaceful relations (2 K. 1 : 1 ; 3 : 5) ; and a war followed (whereof we have the Moabite account on the "Stone of Mesha") which seems to have consisted of little more than a series of Israelite reverses. Mesha recovered in succession Medeba, Baal-meon, Kirjathaim, Ataroth, Nebo and Jahaz, which had all been occupied by the Israelites. In Nebo alone he slew no fewer than seven thousand men. The entire country was recovered, and a number of ruined cities rebuilt and strongly fortified with walls, and towers, and gates, and moats. The entire tribute which Moab had previously paid (2 K. 3 : 4) was lost, and a powerful kingdom was set up on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, which threatened both Israel and Judah. A single year sufficed for the capture or massacre of all the Israelite garrisons, and for the complete establishment of the Moabites as an independent nation in the country which they claimed as their own. G. R. 1. Then Moab rebelled.** The Moabites, who had once lorded it over Israel (Jud. 3 : 12-14), were reduced to subjection by David, and treated with extreme severity (2 S. 8 : 2). Nothing is related of them in Scripture from the date of this subjection to the time of Ahab, when they are found to be dependent on the kingdom of Israel, to which it has therefore been generally supposed that they fell at the separation of Israel from Judah. The Moabite monument, discovered in 1869, has now given reason to believe that, at the separation of the kingdoms, they recovered their independence, but were again reduced by Omri, who, with his son Ahab, is said (in round numbers) to have "oppressed" them for "forty years." The enormous tribute exacted by Ahab implies a grievous oppression. Moab rebelled as soon as Ahab was dead, and easily regained her independence. It is this war of liberation which is the principal subject of the Moabite monument above mentioned, a monument which was set up by Mesha (chap. 3 : 4) to commemorate his successes. B. C. 2. Ahaziah had been walking on the roof of his palace in Samaria, and had leaned against what seems to have been a latticed fence running round the roof. The fence gave way. The king fell either into the street or into the inner court of the palace, and was so severely injured that he became alarmed for his life. After the example of his father and mother he had been a worshipper of Baal. In particular, Ahaziah had honored him as Baal-zebub, the god of flies. This deity would appear to have been held in peculiar reverence at Ekron, the most northerly of the five great cities of the Philistines, and, therefore, nearest to Samaria. Thither, accordingly, Ahaziah sent his messengers, immediately after his fall, with the inquiry whether or not he should recover from its effects. It was a daring violation of the law of God (Lev. 20 : 6). It was a countenancing of idolatry in the worst form in which it had been supported by Ahab and Jezebel. And the offence was rendered still more heinous by the recent character of that work of reformation which had been effected by Elijah. W. M. The same hand that guided Ahab's shaft cracks Ahaziah's lattice. How infinite variety of plagues hath the just God for obstinate sinners ! Whether in the field or in the chamber, He knows to find them out. No place is safe for the man that is at variance with God. The body of Ahaziah was not more sick than his soul was graceless. Bp. H. 3. Of the whole period of ten years between the calling of Elisha and the summons to meet the messengers of Ahaziah, we known, so far as concerns Elijah, absolutely nothing. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 2:1 And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me as far as Beth-el. And Elisha said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Beth-el. And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they were divided hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not. And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho; and he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? It is at this point that the sacred narrative introduces one of the greatest events of the old dispensation, the ascent of Elijah. The chronology is intricate, but the event seems to have taken place about the time of Ahaziah's death. The chief difficulty arises from the letter which Elijah sent to Jehoram, king of Judah, prophesying his destruction because he followed the sins of the house of Ahab. This, by the way, is the only point of connection between Elijah and the house of David, and the only mention of his name in the Chronicles (21:12-15). Now Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram, took part in the campaign which is related after Elijah's ascension, and in which too Elisha appears as the prophet. That Elisha ever left his attendance upon Elijah to act in public, before he received the prophet's mantle, is a supposition quite unwarranted by the history. That the letter of Elijah to Jehoram was written before but delivered after his ascension, is a violent assumption. The true and simple explanation is, that Jehoram began to reign over Judah some years before his father's death. There is therefore no reason to depart from the order of the narrative in Kings. P. S. It is probable that during the eight or ten years of Elijah's life, after the anointing of Elisha, the two prophets were quietly and actively ministering in the cities and villages of Israel. Taught by the "still small voice" of Horeb, Elijah would speak to the people of Jehovah's goodness and mercy, and seek to win them to spiritual service and love. We read also of sons of the prophets settled in Bethel, which had been one of the chief seats of idolatry; and there are indications that "schools of the prophets" were organized and established throughout the land, and that to these Elijah devoted some years of assiduous culture, indicating that under his influence true religion made considerable progress in Israel. Allon. Elijah's work was finished. But he lies not down to die in despondency and gloom. God has assured him of an end more glorious than that of any of the whole race of men. The clouds that have swept over his day of toil and endurance are to pass away before the golden evening radiance, which for him shall burst instantly into the effulgence of heaven's eternal day. 1-5. From Gilgal Elijah goes, with Elisha, to Bethel and Jericho, to take leave of the sons of the prophets. No dates are recorded of Elijah's life. From Gilead he came; in Samaria his ministry was performed, perhaps for twenty years; to Gilead he returns and thence is translated. Of this translation, like Moses, he had received beforehand a Divine intimation. He is now directed first to pay a parting visit to those schools of the prophets that he had nurtured and trained. In these schools were men whom God had raised up from among the people, to act as instructors of His law and truth to such as desired and accepted this teaching. From these men God selected the superior prophets, and endowed them with special inspiration to declare His counsel and purpose as events demanded. Thus God had done and continued to do, in order to preserve the truth among His people, to counteract the influence of false and idolatrous teachers, to reclaim the people from iniquity and recover them from idolatry, and to hold firm in their integrity as many as would obey and serve Him. Thrice, in his journey to the Jordan, Elijah sought to check Elisha's purpose to accompany him. He seems to have designed in this to test the steadfastness and strength of Elisha's faith. But the heart of Elisha firmly stood the trial to the end. He answers by the double asseveration "As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth"—thus appealing to the eternity of God and the immortality of the soul—"I will not leave thee." So he abides at Elijah's side until they are parted by the whirlwind which bears the prophet heavenward. At Bethel and Jericho the same events transpire. Words of instruction, encouragement and blessing Elijah spake to the pupils from whom he was now finally to part. And they seemed to have inferred the issue and naturally spoke of it to Elisha. His reply was not a denial or rebuke, but a caution that they should not suffer the fact they understood to be noised abroad. B. 1. From Gilgal.** The Gilgal here mentioned, from which the two prophets "went down" to Bethel, must be sought in the hill country of Ephraim, and at a higher elevation than Bethel itself, which is in the mountain region. Such a position belongs to the modern Jiljileb, on the highland between Nablous and Beitin (Bethel), about eight and a half miles from the latter; and this place is therefore now commonly supposed to be the Gilgal here mentioned. Some regard it as the ordinary residence of Elisha. B. C. 3. No record of Elijah's parting intercourse with these sons of the prophets is given. We are left to imagine the seriousness, fidelity, and tenderness of his last words to these pious youths, whom he had gathered and trained for the religious ministry of the land. It is touching and beautiful to think that such should have been his last earthly occupation, his last counsels and blessings; that his last words should have been words of help to those who were to be God's witnesses in the land. Allon. 6-8. From Jericho the two prophets proceed to the Jordan and cross the river. Fifty of Elijah's pupils follow them afar off, and witnessed the crossing of the river, but no more. In the method of that crossing, the miraculous dividing of the waters, we witness Elijah's last prophetic act. Herein we see conclusive proof, not only that he maintained his trust steadfast to the end, but that his faith culminated in force and sublimity at the very end. And God responded to his faith. As, under Divine direction, Moses at the Red Sea stretched forth his rod—the sign of his office—so now Elijah smites the waters with his mantle, and God honors the sign and divides the river as at Joshua's entrance. "So they two went over on dry ground." Into Gilead they went, Elijah's native country, whence he would fain depart to be with Christ: into Gilead, under the shadow of Pisgah, whence Moses had finally withdrawn from the leadership and the love of the long-wandering people of God. B. 6. They two went on.** There was silence in all probability between them. They were solemnized by the consciousness of a Divine presence, by the feeling that they were every moment approaching nearer to an as yet unknown manifestation of the Divine counsels, by the persuasion that one of them at least was standing on the threshold of the unseen world. Under impressions such as these Elisha had already declined conversation with the sons of the prophets at Bethel and at Jericho. Under the same impressions he was silent now. Nor would Elijah be inclined to speak. His departure itself, and not the words with which he might accompany it, was to be the lesson to his companion and friend. When we stand by the death-bed of the child of God our impulse is not so much to speak as to learn the lessons that are taught us by the scene. Thus Elijah and Elisha—"they two went on." W. M. 7. By the ford opposite Beth-Nimrah, or Bethabara, did Elijah most probably pass, when he had vainly attempted to prevent his faithful Elisha from accompanying him, as, for the last time, he hastened toward the mountains of his native Gilead, thence to be carried up to his eternal home. Up to that bold peak of Quarantania behind, the sons of the prophets had climbed, and there they "stood to view" and watch as master and scholar walked across the plain, till they descended to the wooded bank. There was no delay, as the stricken waters made a path for them dryshod; and thence they would naturally follow the road to the mountains. Not long had they walked, still absorbed in converse, when the chariot and horses of fire appeared, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Not long—for when Elisha returned, the sons of the prophets had not yet relinquished their post of observation. Still had they gazed on, waiting till their fathers should return, when soon they recognized Elisha, coming back in all the power and spirit of Elijah. It could not, therefore, have been far from this ford that heaven and earth were brought so near together. There is a peculiar appropriateness in this identification since he who was to come "in the spirit and power of Elias" appeared, completed his mission and discharged his function of herald of the Kingdom, by the baptism of Christ at Bethabara, just opposite, near the very spot where his prototype had disappeared. By this ford, too, our Lord and His disciples passed over Jordan, when they came by the plain on the east side and ascended from Jericho to Jerusalem. Tristram. 8. The use of the "mantle" had undoubtedly a meaning. It had been the most characteristic token of the prophet's work. As a garment of rough hair, it reminded both him and all who witnessed the use to which it was put, of his privations in the wilderness, of his loneliness, of his toils, of his self-denials, and of his sufferings, in the execution of his mission. It was associated with the thought of a good fight fought, of a course finished, of faith kept. Why should it not be a source of strength to him in a departing hour? It had covered him alike in his struggles and in his triumphs, in his sorrows and his joys. He rolled it together as his rod, struck the waters of the river with it, and he and Elisha passed over dry-shod. W. M. 9, 10. The sublime offer of Elijah, and the equally sublime request of Elisha. Never were two human souls moved by higher inspiration and more hallowed aspiration than in this invitation and response. The offer came from a deeper feeling than even Elijah's love to Elisha. It was actuated by the desire to aid his inexperienced successor in lifting the burden he was about to lay down. And back of this desire was his yearning of soul for the glory of Jehovah to be manifested in the future blessing of His people. Thus true to God's glory and to His people's welfare was this grand man to the last. Once more Elisha could be availed of his mightily prevalent intercession. And how pure and lofty is the responsive request of the younger prophet! No thought of self-elevation marred its singleness and grandeur. About to take Elijah's place and work, he knows his need of wisdom and courage, of strength and steadfastness of soul, of unfaltering trust and fidelity toward God. Therefore he simply asks for these qualities—so eminently vouchsafed to Elijah—that he too may carry forward God's work among His people. Not for more than Elijah's own gifts does he ask; but for the double portion allotted to a first-born son—for thus much more than the Lord's remaining prophets. So pure, lofty and large is Elisha's aspiration and request. And Elijah's answer indicates his full appreciation of its reach and greatness. He cannot assure the reception of such high gifts. He can only, and will fervently, refer the petition to God. And God Himself will give a sign, if He grant it. As we know, the sign was given, and the prayer in its real intent and spirit abundantly answered. Living longer and in closer relations to the people, Elisha wrought twice as many miracles as Elijah, and exerted a wider personal influence. But none save Moses is comparable with Elijah in strength, depth and permanence of effect wrought upon Israel and Judah. B. Elisha reckoned himself Elijah's first-born spiritual son, and asked for the elder brother's share, because he had been designated as successor, and would need more than others for his work. The new sense of responsibility is coming on him, and teaching him his need. Well for us if higher positions make us lowlier in the consciousness of our own unfitness without Divine help! Elijah knew that his spirit was not his to give, and can only refer his successor to the Fountain from which he had drawn; for the sign which He gives is obviously not within his power to determine. If the Lord shows him, who is left, the ascending master, He will give the servant his desire. A. M. 11, 12. The ascension of Elijah, and its effect upon Elisha. As they still went on, and talked, they were parted. Elijah had referred Elisha's petition fervently to God, and now, like his ascending Lord, was uttering words of instruction and counsel and encouragement. Neither thought nor petition had he for himself, until God's time and summons came. And the next record of Elijah—nine hundred years later—reveals him as talking with his transfigured Lord concerning the one central theme of heaven and eternity. Suddenly a violent storm surrounds and encloses them. Near to the earth Elisha sees a chariot and horses of fire, parting him from Elijah. And instantly he beholds Elijah caught up in the tempest and borne heavenward. The flaming chariot and horses were an acknowledged symbol of present Divine power and protection. Elisha may have witnessed this symbol, or, like his servant in Dothan (2 K. 6: 17), this may simply have been a spiritual vision. No further record have we of this transcendent marvel. We are only assured of this, that in a moment, by the mighty working of Christ, the body of Elijah was changed into the likeness of His own glorified body. Here, as in the case of Enoch, was a complete victory over death. And here the event was far more glorious, significant, and cheering. Enoch's quiet, unseen translation was suited to the undemonstrative character of that early time. Elijah's visible ascent, like Christ's, was equally suited to the period of Jehovah's signal exhibition of Himself—through His express ordinances and by His prophets, to His chosen people. In the glory thus reflected from the exaltation of Elijah, God strikingly commended to people and prophets the worth of truth and fidelity, of trust in Him, and of purity in His worship. And He intimated that the reward of all these excellences in character and life was to be experienced in a loftier, freer and more beautiful heavenly existence. In his exclamation, Elisha touchingly utters the noblest testimony concerning his ascended teacher. First, his loving heart overflows with a sense of its bereavement, in the tender appellation, Father. Then as the thought fills his own great mind of that intrepid, energetic, and effective life, and of its grand results in the spiritual deliverance and help of the people, he utters his grief in behalf of the people's loss: Thou who wast the defence of Israel—"the chariot and the horseman thereof"—art departed! (And to himself, at his departure, these identical words were spoken, with this meaning, 2 K. 13: 14.) Then, as signifying this great loss to the nation and to himself, although he had received the sign of God's answer to his own desire, he rent his garments in twain. B. 11. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven;** literally, and Elijah went up in a storm into the heavens. There is no mention of a "whirlwind;" and "the heavens" are primarily the visible firmament or sky which overhangs the earth. Elijah, like our Lord, rose bodily from the earth into the upper region of the air, and was there lost to sight. Three only of the seed of Adam—Enoch, Elijah, Jesus—have passed from earth to heaven without dying. P. C.—Literally, "Elijah went up in a storm into the sky." There is no mention of a whirlwind, but only of a storm; and the word translated "heaven" is properly the visible firmament or sky. No honest exegesis can explain this passage in any other sense than as teaching the translation of Elijah, who was taken from the earth like Enoch, without dying. B. C. Elijah is not said to have gone up into heaven in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. The chariots and horses of fire appeared, but they are so spoken of as to show that they were rather the accompaniment than the means of this translation. Such appearances Elisha actually beheld waiting, as it were, upon Elijah in the last moments of his life upon earth; and then, with that glory as his attendant satellite, he saw him swept away in a storm toward heaven. Thus with all reverence for the Sacred Word may we be permitted to speak of the translation of Elijah. W. M. There are three bodily inhabitants of heaven, Enoch, Elijah, our Saviour Christ: the first, before the Law; the second, under the Law; the third, under the Gospel—all three in a several form of translation. Our blessed Saviour raised Himself to and above the heavens by His own immediate power: He ascended as the Son; they, as servants: He, as God; they, as creatures. Elijah ascended by the visible ministry of angels; Enoch, insensibly. Bp. H. The essential fact is that Elijah was translated without dying. Not only does the credibility of the history demand this; but the entire biblical conception demands it also. If the gospels do not accept myths as veritable history, if the transfiguration of our Lord be a fact, and not a mere vision or legend, if there be any significance in the representation of Moses and Elias appearing with Him in glory, we must literally accept the representation that Elijah was translated without tasting death. The miracle it is impossible to remove, and those who reject miracles must reject the narrative as a whole. W. M. Elijah was going and talking when the storm from heaven came to take him. There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to find us in than in a diligent prosecution of our calling. The busy attendance of our holy vocation is no less pleasing to God than an immediate devotion. Happy the servant whom the Master, when He comes, shall find so doing. Bp. H. The removal of Elijah from the earth was in keeping with the manner and work of his life upon the earth. Like Enoch, we may say of him that “by faith he was translated that he should not see death;” and it is noteworthy that, so far as we know anything of it from the fragment of his prophecy preserved by Jude, Enoch’s career was just such a struggle and protest against prevalent iniquity as that of Elijah was. Thus both of these exceptions to the great law of human mortality were granted to men who had been faithful witnesses to God and His truth in periods of general apostasy. W. M. Taylor. The teaching of the event is plain. As for the pre-Mosaic ages the translation of Enoch, and for the earlier Mosaic epoch the mysterious death of Moses, so for the prophetic period the carrying to heaven of Elijah, witnessed of a life beyond death, and of death as the wages of sin, which God could remit, if He willed, in the case of faithful service. Enoch and Elijah were led round the head of the valley on the heights, and reached the other side without having to go down into the cold waters flowing in the bottom; and though we cannot tread their path, the joy of their experience has not ceased to be a joy to us, if we walk with God. Death is still the coming of the chariot and horses of fire to bear the believer home. A. M. One of the purposes, doubtless, of this translation of Elijah was to make plainer to our dull understandings the upward heavenly going of every saint when his work on earth is over. We are so apt to follow the body with our thoughts and to imagine our departed friends in the grave, that here God made the body go upward that we may be weaned of this wrong and heathenish notion. Enoch and Elijah certainly are not alone of men in heaven. They are there with all God’s saints who have departed this life. Paul shows us that to depart is to be with Christ. Elijah’s ascent is to elicit our look upward for our departed friends—to think of them as with the cloud of witnesses. H. Crosby. Nor are we without assurance that the departing soul at death enters upon a state of joy and blessedness, as appears by the promise to the penitent thief on the cross; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; Christ telling the Sadducees that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living;” the translation of Enoch and Elijah, and the appearance of Moses with Elijah on the mount of transfiguration; our Lord’s arguing that they who kill the body are not able to kill the soul; His commending His spirit into His Father’s hands, and its being in Paradise while His body was in the grave; His promising, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be;” Stephen’s seeing heaven opened, and his praying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; our being come to the spirits of just men made perfect; Paul’s desiring to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, and to be absent from the body and present with the Lord; the blessedness of the dead which die in the Lord. Baxter. Those who would find Elijah, let them aspire to the heavenly Paradise. Let them follow the high steps of his sincere faithfulness, strong patience, undaunted courage, fervent zeal. Shortly, let them walk in the ways of his holy and constant obedience; at last, God shall send the fiery chariot of death, to fetch them up to that heaven of heavens, where they shall triumph in everlasting joys. Bp. H. The translation of Elijah, as aforetime of Enoch, was the transfiguration of life as well as of death. As such, it is hardly possible to overestimate its value to the faith of the saints of the olden world. For the Christian, too, whose life is hid with Christ in God, there come, now and then, in the rare, supreme moments of peculiar experiences, sometimes in the midst of life, sometimes as the end draws near, a Divine rapture and translation out of the earthy into the heavenly. It is then that others nearest them, if they may not at once follow on, do, at any rate, catch glimpses and get inspirations which henceforth are not to be forgotten. And the best of it is, such disclosures help us to such worthier conceptions of the Christian life; the life with possibilities so inconceivably richer, higher, sweeter, mightier than the dull heart of worldly wisdom could ever attain to. Oh, for their mantle to fall on us! Interior. The translation of Elijah conveyed to the Old Testament Church an intimation of immortality. No doubt life and immortality are brought clearly to light only in the Gospel of Christ. Of Him alone who rose on the third morning from the grave can we say that He hath abolished death, and hath given us the assurance that an hour is coming when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. But as for all the other truths of the Christian dispensation, so for this great truth there was a preparation made before Jesus came. We are distinctly taught by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that those saints of old who received the promises, and were led in doing so to confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, thus plainly declared that they sought a better country, even an heavenly (Heb. 11:16); and throughout the prophets there are not a few passages which show that the expectation of life in a world to come was rising upon the mind of Israel with increasing clearness as time ran on. Such views the translation of Elijah must have deepened and confirmed. W. M. One such translation, well certified, might spread its influence over vast countries, and send it down through long succeeding ages. How grand and yet how specific the testimony it bears to the resurrection of the righteous dead! How it must awaken thought and inquiry! For it could not be supposed that the blessed home for God's saints in His presence could be for Enoch and Elijah only; it could not be assumed that those two human bodies and those only among all the saved would find place before the throne of God. Certainly, men must infer that the bodies of other saints—nay of all the saints—must reach that blessed world, as well as theirs, in God's due time, and in His ordained method. It scarcely need be suggested that in an age, drifting like that of Elijah so fearfully away from the true God into Baalworship, the call for such a demonstration of the future life would be urgent, and the scope for its influence vast. H. C. A most instructive view of Elijah's translation is its parallel and contrast with Christ's ascension. The one was by outward means; the other, by inward energy. Storm and fire bore Elijah up into a region strange to him. Christ ascended up where He was before, returning by the propriety of His nature to His eternal dwelling-place. The one is accomplished with significant disturbance, of whirlwind and flame; the other is gentle, like the life which it closed, and the last sight of Him was of extended hands of blessing. Each life closed in a manner corresponding to its character. The one was swift and sudden. The other was a slow solemn motion, vividly described as being "borne upward" and as "going into heaven." The one bore a mortal into "heaven." In the other, the Son of God, our great High-priest, "hath passed through the heavens," and now, far above them all, fills all things. . . . And the Scripture teaches us ever to associate together the departure and the coming of the Lord, and always when we meditate on His ascension to prepare a place for us, to think of His real presence with us through the ages, and of His coming again to receive us to Himself. A. M. Midway between the incarnation and the ascension, the transfiguration blended the humiliation and the glory, the humanity and the Divinity, of our Lord. As of His person, so of His kingdom: this was the unifying symbol, which conjoined all agencies and dispensations in Jesus as the centre of glory and of power. The great law-giver of the Old Testament and the grandest of the prophets came in their heavenly forms and splendor to do homage to the Son of man on earth, to testify of His crucifixion as the crowning of their work, and to greet the apostles of His future Church. The unity of doctrine, the unity of purpose, the unity of ministration, the unity of fellowship, the unity of redemption, were thus manifested in Him who "gathered in one all things which are in heaven and which are on earth." Supreme in authority as the Son of God, Jesus must be heard and obeyed by every soul that would be saved. Yet from the glory of that presence which would fill us with dread He comes to us with the tender voice of friendship, saying, "Arise; be not afraid." Equally at home with God in heaven and with man on earth, passing and repassing from one world to the other, He has effaced the shadows of the spiritual world, has peopled that world with loved and familiar names, and transfigured death into His own glorified presence. J. P. T. The appearance of Moses and Elijah set forth Christ's death, which was their theme, as the climax of revelation. The Law with its requirement and its sacrifices, prophecy with its forward-looking face, stand there, in their representatives, and bear witness that their converging lines meet in Jesus. The finger that wrote the Law and the finger that smote and parted Jordan are each lifted to point to Him. The stern voices that spoke the commandments and that hurled threatenings at the unworthy occupants of David's throne both proclaim "behold the Lamb of God, the perfect fulfiller of law, the true king of Israel." Their presence and their speech was the acknowledgment that this was He whom they had seen from afar; their disappearance proclaims that their work is done when they have pointed to Him. Their presence also teaches us that Jesus is the life of all the living dead. Of these two, one had died, though mystery hung round his death and burial; the other had passed into the heavens by another gate than that of death; and here they both stand with lives undiminished by their mysterious changes, in fulness of power and of consciousness, bathed in glory, which was congruous with them now. They are witnesses of an immortal life, and proofs that His yet unpierced hands held the keys of life and death. He opened the gate which moves backward to no hand but His, and summoned them; and they come, with no napkins about their heads and no trailing grave-clothes entangling their feet, and own Him as the King of life. They speak too of the eager onward gaze which the Old Testament believers turned to the coming deliverer. In silent anticipation, through all these centuries, good men had lain down to die, saying, "I wait for Thy salvation," and after death their spirits had lived expectant, and crying, like the souls under the altar, "How long, O Lord, how long?" A. M. 12. And he cried, My father! my father! Elisha regarded himself as Elijah's specially adopted son, and hence had claimed the "double portion" of the firstborn. That his request was granted showed that the relationship was acknowledged. The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof**—i.e., the best earthly defence of Israel. "In losing thee," he means, "we lose our great protector—him that is more to us than chariots and horsemen—the strength of Israel, against both domestic and foreign foes." The sight of the fiery chariot and horses may have determined the imagery, but they are not spoken of. P. C. The only possible farewell of Elisha, the only sign of his reverence and love, was the tender, piercing cry, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." To him Elijah had been a father; to Israel, the simple prophet had been a defence and a glory, more than armies, more than chariots and horses. They are not the phenomena of death that are so wonderful, they are the characteristics of the life that death crowns. So God testified to His servant "not that he was unclothed, but clothed upon—mortality swallowed up of life." So, after the great conflicts and depressions of his life, this great servant of God entered into his rest—"an abundant entrance administered unto him"—the supreme and typical instance of the glorious end of a good and great life. Allon. Verses 13-18. 13, 14. The second dividing of the Jordan at the believing appeal of Elisha. As Elijah was taken up, his mantle—the sign of the prophetic office—fell from him at Elisha's feet. Cast down from the heavens by the hand of God, it was His token of Elisha's full investiture with the commission and work of Elijah. Instantly the intimation is accepted. The youthful prophet, tarrying not to grieve, lifts the mantle and returns to the east bank of the river. And his first word and act prove that his prayer for high spiritual gifts, and Elijah's seconding intercession, have been answered. Smiting the waters with the mantle, he cries, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" Though Elijah was removed, he knew that Elijah's God continued His all-controlling presence. The words are a sublime appeal in testimony of this faith. They are uttered in the spirit of the Old Testament saints; based upon God's own naming of Himself as the God of their great fathers. Thus associating Elijah with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he asserts his belief that the Lord had equally distinguished His just ascended servant. And he further affirms his faith in his own Divine commission, and his assurance that Elijah's God will be his God; that He will direct, actuate, deliver and succeed his appointed work. And this signal faith at the outset continued to the end of his long career. The faith and the prayer met on the instant a Divine response. The Lord God of Elijah again parted the stream, and Elisha's spirit was strengthened as he passed between the retiring waters. B. 15. The fifty "sons of the prophets" yonder are watching to see what he will do. It is necessary that they should know that he has received his credentials to act as Elijah's successor. He believes that the power to stay the river lay not in Elijah, but in Elijah's God. He knows no reason why that God may not work with him as well as with another. And therefore he calls upon the Lord. "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" he cries, and lifts the mantle, as Elijah had done, to smite the waters. And lo, for him too they part; the bed of the river lies bare, and he passes to the other side as dry-shod as before. And the wondering spectators, convinced that the same Divine presence remains on earth which had distinguished the Tishbite's life, exclaim, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha!" C. E. Smith. When God removes one servant, He has another ready to take up his mantle. On the beautiful monument erected to the memory of the brothers Wesley in Westminster Abbey, these words are engraved: "God buries the workers, but He carries on the work." When Moses dies, Joshua is ready to take the leadership. When Elijah is translated, Elisha is so invested with his miraculous might, that the sons of the prophets could see, and say: "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." W. M. Taylor. The mantle that passed from one to the other was the symbol of office and authority transferred; the functions were the same, while the holders had changed. The sons of the prophets bow before the new master; "the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha." So the world goes on. Man after man serves his generation by the will of God, and is gathered to his fathers; and a new arm grasps the mantle to smite Jordan, and a new voice speaks from his empty place, and men recognize the successor, and forget the predecessor. A. M. Elijah and Elisha. In personal character and history there is a marked contrast between Elijah and Elisha. No genealogy is recorded of Elijah, and no human relationship anywhere hinted at. Strong and stern in spirit, with an unequalled majesty of demeanor and elevation of soul, he stands forth as superior to human tenderness and affection. He represents the God of Sinai, and the predominating spirit of severity that marks His Law. But Elisha is presented to us at the outset as a beloved and loving son, who desires and seeks the parental blessing as he obeys the call of God (1 K. 19: 19, 20). His life is spent in close contact with men. His spirit, too, is full of human sympathy and interest. And thus he exemplifies the gentler and more gracious temper which predominates in the Gospel. B. Elisha is distinctly secondary to Elijah. He is in no sense an originator, either of fresh revelations or of new impulses to obedience. He but carries on what Elijah had begun, inherits a work, and is Elijah's Timothy and "son in the faith." The same spirit was on him, though the form of his character and gifts was in strong contrast to the stormier genius of his mightier predecessor. Elisha had no such work as Elijah—no foot-to-foot and hand-to-hand duels with murderous kings or queens; no single-handed efforts to stop a nation from rushing down a steep place into the sea; no fiery energy; no bursts of despair. He moved among kings and courts as an honored guest and trusted counsellor. He did not dwell apart, like Elijah, the strong son of the desert; but, born in the fertile valley of the Jordan, he lived a life "kindly with his kind," and his delights were with the sons of men. His miracles are mostly works of mercy and gentleness, relieving wants and sicknesses, drying tears and giving back dear ones to mourners. He is as complete a contrast to his stern, solitary, forceful predecessor, as the still small voice was to the roar of the wind or the crackling hiss of the flames. A. M. Elisha's reception by the sons of the prophets. From their view-point near the river, beholding the amazing miracle now performed by Elisha, they saw in it the proof of his Divine appointment to the place of Elijah. To this Spirit of God now resting upon him they did reverence, as they came and bowed before him. And yet their strong love for the grand old prophet asserted itself in 16-18. Their earnest request and fruitless search. The possible recovery of Elijah's body seems to have been their aim. If God had taken his soul, as they inferred from Elisha's return alone and with Elijah's mantle, they might at least find and honor the prophet's body. They would, at least, be assured that he was beyond this last friendly ministry. To their continued importunity, when his patience was exhausted, he at last assented; perhaps lest they might draw some unfavorable inference from his denial. On their return to Jericho from a fruitless search on the other side of the Jordan, Elisha merely met their account with the gently reproving reminder that he had not sent them. B. 17. And they sought him three days, but found him not.** He was gone, no more to be seen by mortal eyes; or, if ever again, only in far-distant ages, when on the summit of "a high mountain, apart by themselves," three disciples, like Elisha, should be gathered round a Master whose departure they were soon expecting; "and there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with Him." The ascension or assumption of Elijah stands out alone in the Jewish history, as the highest representation of the end of a great and good career; of death as seen under its noblest aspect—as the completion and crown of the life which had preceded it, as the mysterious shrouding of the departed within the invisible world. Stanley. Elijah's work was singularly simple and direct. One idea runs throughout it all. At his first appearance before Ahab at Carmel, at Horeb, in the vineyard of Naboth, in his dealings with the captains of Ahaziah, and at his translation into heaven, he has one truth to enunciate and one lesson to enforce. He is the embodiment of law. He stands in a position wholly different from that of the evangelical prophets of the Old Testament. He is a second Moses. He is the prophet of judgment and of fire. No one could fulfil such a function who was not stern, bold and unflinching even unto death. His dependence was wholly upon God. In every event of his life he looked to Him, and to Him alone, for guidance. He had neither wishes nor purposes of his own. With this simplicity of faith was closely connected singleness of aim. He had one thing to do, to reawaken the religious life of Israel, and to that he directed all his efforts, assured that the final issue must be for the common welfare, and that, if we seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, all things will be added unto us. In this respect, he embodied the essence of the true prophetic spirit; and his character thus possessed all the force which belongs in every age to men who become so possessed by one great cause that for its sake they are ready both to live and die. No one of the old prophets is so frequently mentioned in the New Testament; and his name never occurs except in a conconnection which testifies to the deep impression that he had made. His memory was cherished with admiration and reverence. The priests and Levites could not comprehend the Baptist's right to baptize unless he was either the Christ, or the great prophet that was to come, or Elijah (John 1: 25). Paul refers to an incident in his history to give force to his argument that Israel was not wholly cast away (Rom. 11: 2). James sees in him the most striking illustration of the power of prayer (5: 17); and our Lord's disciples quote him as one whose deeds afforded a justification of what they were anxious to do to the inhabitants of the village that would not receive their Master (Luke 9: 54). It was the rugged sternness and severity of his character which most of all left this impression upon men's minds. They had an instinctive feeling that it had been needed, and that there was no one by whom it had been so strikingly and consistently displayed. Possessed of elements of character like these, Elijah stands out on the page of Old Testament history the grandest and most unique of all its figures except the great law-giver Moses. He was the prophet of fire, and it was most of all, by being so, that he prepared the way for Him who was the Hope at once of Israel and of the world. W. M #### Suggestions and Lessons. Love remains to the last, thoughtful of the beloved. Like Christ, the Christian loves his own to the end. But not less is he faithful to his Lord, in supreme mindfulness of His glory! Working on up to the last in the work set before you is the best way to prepare for death—to make the transition a translation! The prayer that needs neither qualification nor stint is that for gifts of spirit that we need for the Lord's assigned work. We cannot too earnestly covet or aspire after the highest and best of spiritual gifts—wisdom, courage, trust in God and single-souled faithfulness. Of these possessions (which are the elements of spiritual character) only can it be said: We are what we have, as well as what we wish for. Since we are together but a little while at the most, is it not the part of true wisdom, affection and fidelity to impart and to receive all the good that may be communicated and exemplified? Elijah's words conclusively show that dead saints cannot intercede for living ones. Whatever earthly ministry, if any, pertains to departed believers, the blessed office of intercession ceases with their departure. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like His! Elijah's tenderness, affection and fidelity, as well as his serenity in the brief period after the crossing of Jordan, naturally suggest this prayer. So ought Christian love to remain thoughtful of and helpful to its beloved to the last. So ought Christian fidelity to toil on in the service given it to the end. Thus is death best prepared for in loving helpful work for the glory of the Master; thus is the transition made a translation. In Elijah's translation we see how this life, had it been sinless, might have ended. We learn how "they that remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air." We have a glimpse and gleam of the life immortal brought to light in the Gospel. And so, in his exaltation, who was a man of like passions as we are, we may well take to heart, by an anticipating faith, the apostle's triumphant challenge: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! What prayer is, and what it does, is nowhere more effectively taught and shown than in Elijah's career. What it is—a constant, close, fervid, importunate asking, seeking and knocking, in the very presence, at the very heart of God. As shown at Carmel, it is an address to the personal God revealed by covenant to Abraham; it is the asking something definite; it has a plea; comprising two always inseparable things, God's glory and His people's welfare. And what prayer does—in the training of his own intrepid faithful spirit; in the marvellous events that followed his prevalent supplication: the shutting and opening of the heavens—restoring the widow's dead child—bringing down the fire upon the prepared sacrifice, and the flame of judgment upon the two companies! And our simple conclusion is, that if one man's prayer wrought such marvels, every man's prayer—of like spirit—will assuredly avail to secure God's best blessings of grace and providence freely promised to all. And this conclusion, at least, the Apostle James clearly substantiates in his intimation that Elijah was only a man. B. IT is evidently the object of the writer or compiler of 2 Kings to collect in this place the principal, or at any rate the most noted, of the miraculous acts of the great prophet who succeeded Elijah, and so to preserve them from oblivion. This object, which he began to set before himself in chap. 2 : 13, is pursued in chaps. 4 and 6. Hammond.—These six miracles are here set together, not merely to secure unity and order in the arrangement of sections, but also to classify this group of similar topics, and to facilitate their comparative study. B. 19. And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city 20 is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the water is naught, and the land miscarrieth. And he 21 said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying. 22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spake. 19-22. A miracle of mercy to Jericho. Although this city had been rebuilt in the face of a Divine curse (which was fulfilled upon the builder) yet no order for its demolition followed. There were now good men living in it. Not only the sons of the prophets, but it would seem the chief men of the city, recognized Jehovah in the person of His prophet. Faith in His power must have helped to prompt this prayer to Elisha for the removal of their chief trouble. Their personal comfort and the productiveness of the neighboring country depended upon the purity of the spring which has ever been the one source of supply to Jericho. "The city is pleasant," they said, "but the water is bad and the soil barren." On Elisha's part there is no hesitation or delay. The opportunity is used to signalize God's mercy in answer to their call. The occasion is furnished to further confirm and establish Elisha's prophetic mission among the people. And the means employed help this confirmation as they make the miracle more conspicuously God's work. At the spring-head of the waters Elisha cast in a bowl full of salt. This was indeed a symbol of purifying power. But its only natural effect was to increase the brackishness of the waters, and the unproductiveness of the ground. Well did the people know this, living so near the salt Dead Sea, and familiar with its desolating waters. Yet "the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha." And this spring, the only one in the neighborhood, still exists; and its pleasant waters extend over the whole plain of Jericho. B. The situation of Jericho is indeed pleasant, as its inhabitants observed to Elisha. And to this day it deserves the epithet. It has been called a diamond in the desert; for it pushes forward from under the steep mountain range of the central hills of Palestine, which shelter it, into the dreary gypsum-strewn Ghor or Plain of Jordan—a bright green gem in a wide setting of desert. A square of two or three miles in extent each way is one luxuriant mass of exuberant verdure; and this is all due to the live-giving streamlets that are carefully led in every direction from Ain es Sultân, "the prophet's fountain." Many copious fountains spring from the base of the mountains near the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea. But, with two or three exceptions, all are salt or brackish. 19. The water is naught. The cause for this is not far to seek. The upper strata of the plain are saturated with various salts and with sulphur, and often crusted with gypsum. After a rainstorm has washed the ground, I have often seen the surface coated with an efflorescence of thin minerals of a yellowish-white color. No wonder, then, that the water percolating through such a soil should become impregnated with salts. The two remarkable exceptions are the giant fountains of Ain Dûk and Ain es Sultân. But Ain Dûk is more than three miles northwest of Jericho, immediately under the mountains, here most precipitous, and is doubtless fed by their drainage without coming in contact with the lower deposits. Not so Ain es Sultân, "the prophet's fountain." It bursts up, a stream full grown at birth, at the foot of an insignificant rocky mound, only a few feet high, in the middle of the plain. Its very position seems to attest the reality of the miraculous healing; for by all analogy it should be salt. The tradition of the beneficent wonder-working prophet still lingers on the spot. It has always struck me that the very existence of this marvellous spring is in itself a witness of the miracle. But how came a place without good water to be a city of such importance in the Canaanitish days, before the conquest by Joshua? Careful research explains this; for there are many traces of ancient aqueducts which brought down to the plain the sweet waters of Ain Dûk, and also those of the Wady Kelt (the valley of Achor), a little to the south of it. These aqueducts were, of course, destroyed by Joshua when he razed Jericho to the ground. Long after, when Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho (1 K. 16: 34), he did not reconstruct the aqueduct, and the inhabitants were dependent on the brackish waters of their own fountain, excepting for the small supply they might carry from a distance. Tristram. 20. The "new cruse" and the "salt" are evidently chosen from a regard to symbolism. The foul stream represents sin, and to cleanse it emblems of purity must be taken. Hence the clean "new" dish, previously unused, and thus untainted; and the salt, naturally very unapt to heal an unwholesome stream, which generally holds too much salt in solution, but a common scriptural symbol of incorruption. B. C. 20-22. The cruse and the salt must be their own; the act must be his; the power, God's; he cast the salt into the spring and said, "Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness." Far was it from Elisha to challenge aught to himself. How careful is the man of God that Jericho shall know to whom they owe the blessing, that they may duly return the thanks! Elisha professes he can do no more of himself than that salt, than that cruse: only God shall work by him, by it; and whatever that Almighty hand undertakes cannot fail, yea is already done. Neither doth he say, "I will heal," but "I have healed." Even so, O God, if Thou cast into the fountain of our hearts but one cruseful of the salt of Thy Spirit we are whole; no thought can pass between the receipt and the remedy. Bp. H. The effect of the cure. There was not to be from thence (the spring) any more death or barrenness. The result of Elisha's word was that "the waters were healed unto this day." "Down to the present hour all travellers to Palestine—Robinson, Dean Stanley, Professor Porter—speak in glowing terms of the cool, sweet, and pleasant waters of the 'Fountain of Elisha.' The soil is extensively cultivated. Sugar-yielding canes are plentiful. Fig-trees abound on all sides." All which things may again be interpreted as a parable. The Gospel is the new cruse, and in it is the healing salt—the word of truth—which, cast into the diseased spring of the human heart, heals and purifies its waters; yet is the effect not wrought by the natural action of the truth apart from the Divine and omnipotent operation of the Holy Spirit, who works through human means yet is Himself the efficient Agent in all conversion. The work is of God, and the effects are incalculable. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5: 17). The most marvellous influence is exerted by Christianity on the spring, not only of private, but of public and social life; and State as well as Church is blessed. Christianity is the salvation of peoples—the source of true national as well as of individual well-being. J. O.—Out of the heart are the issues of life. Into the heart, the fountain of evil, is to be put that grace of God which alone can give healing to the soul, sweetness and fruitfulness to the life. When God thus quickens the spirit there is no more death or barrenness. B. How striking an image is this rebuilt city, with its unhealed spring, of godless civilizations, founded on self-will and defiance of God's counsel, often stately and imposing, yet ending in vanity, because no means exist to cure the spring of the corrupt human heart! "Of republican Athens, of imperial Rome, it might well be said, 'The city was pleasant.' In both there was learning, genius, high civilization, the cultivation of the fine arts to an extent that has made the Elgin marbles, for example, the wonder of the world. But 'the water was naught, and the ground was barren,' because there was the absence of true religion. No country whatever can in the highest sense prosper without it." T. H. Howat.—Politics, literature, art, science, material civilization, will dwindle and decay unless a pure stream can be made to flow from the people's heart; for "out of it are the issues of life." J. O. The men of Jericho believed the prophet of God, and in response to their believing request, received God's blessing. The men of Bethel scoffed, and God returned to them the judgment of the scoffer. So is the same message of God from the lips of the Gospel preacher a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, as it is believed or rejected. B. 23. And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children (or, young lads) out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria. 23,24. A miracle of judgment at Bethel. This was one of the chief centres of idolatrous worship. Here also was the leading school of God's prophets, whereby alone the interests of pure religion were preserved in Israel. But the mass of the people were wholly given up to their false and iniquitous worship. Under this influence their children were trained as scoffers at the true God and His prophets. It was the natural result of this training that led a number of these children (rather, young men) to go forth on Elisha's coming and shout their impious mockery. They expressed the spirit of the parents, who rejoiced to be rid of Elijah, and would have Elisha also taken out of their way. Hence the cry, Go up, and the insulting epithet, thou bald head! The curse of Elisha which followed was spoken under a Divine impulse. As in the miracle of mercy at Jericho it was the Lord who inspired Elisha's act and words, so here it is the Lord who puts the impulse to curse in the prophet's heart. And it is the Lord who Himself carries out His appointed doom. He who elsewhere uses fire, flood, pestilence, or famine as instruments of His judgments, here summons savage beasts to destroy these impious mockers. Mocking the Lord's messengers and misusing His prophets are specifically referred to among the crying sins of Israel (2 Chron. 36 : 16; see also Lev. 26 : 21, 22). And this offence was aggravated here by the blasphemous allusion to God's translation of Elijah. Richly deserved, therefore, was this terrible punishment by these youthful mockers. Through them its effects reached to their parents, while it conveyed to the whole nation a fearful warning against impiety. It foreshadowed the doom that would surely follow God's unheeded patience and long-suffering. And it furnished a needed authentication of Elisha's Divine mission as the successor of Elijah. It is to be noted that this miracle of judgment and the leprosy pronounced on Gehazi are the exceptions among the many wonders performed in connection with Elisha's whole ministry. All the rest were miracles of mercy. This one instance in a long life of helpful beneficence shows, as the Incarnate Master of Elisha clearly intimated, that love may flash with the spirit of judgment and wield the power of doom. B. The prophet Elisha, ridiculed by a band of children in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, denounces against them the malediction of God; immediately forty-two of them are torn by bears that rush forth out of the forest. This event occurs at Bethel, the chief seat of idolatry in the kingdom of Israel. The taunts uttered by these children against the prophet of Jehovah were, consequently, an outrage against Jehovah Himself. Their sarcasm is even carried to blasphemy; for when they cry after Elisha, "Go up, thou bald head!" they sneer at the ascension of Elijah, which, as Elisha had declared, had recently taken place; and they urge the servant to follow, if he can, his master into heaven. The immediate punishment of these children was destined to warn the entire nation of Samaria of the total ruin which so much impiety was about to bring upon it. Godet. This shocking impiety toward the God of the holy prophets; this inexpressibly awful hardihood in joking thus upon the chariot and horses of fire which swept Elijah up to heaven—what shall we say or think of it? We are not surprised that a Divine impulse moved Elisha to curse them, and that God made them examples of swift and terrible retribution. H. C.—The offence, involving as it did a blasphemous insult upon one of the Lord's most signal acts, made a near approach to what in the New Testament is called the sin against the Holy Ghost. It became the Lord to vindicate His own honor among a people governed by sensible dispensations of judgments and of mercy; and it became Him to vindicate the character and authority of His anointed prophet at the outset of his high career. Kitto.—O fearful example of Divine justice! This was not the revenge of an angry prophet: it was the punishment of a righteous Judge. God and His seer look through these children, at the parents, at all Israel. He would punish the parents' misnurturing their children to the contemptuous usage of a prophet, with the death of those children whom they had mis-taught; He would teach Israel what it was to misuse a prophet; and if He would not endure these contumelies unrevenge in the mouths of children, what vengeance was enough for aged persecutors? Bp. H. I take this story as teaching us what I think we very much need to be taught—viz., that the faults of our youth, and those which are most natural to us at that age, are not considered by God as trifling. . . . You may hear grown-up people talk in a laughing manner of the faults which they committed at school, of their idleness, and their various acts of mischief, and worse than mischief. And when boys hear this, it naturally makes them think it really does not matter much whether they behave well or ill—they are just as likely to be respectable and amiable men hereafter. . . . Men measure faults by the harm which they do in this world, and not by the harm which they do in unfitting us for the kingdom of God by making us unlike God and Christ. T. Arnold. Children will ordinarily tread in the steps of their parents. In their hearts is reproduced the spirit that rules in the household, either of reverence or of impiety. Hence the fearful responsibility of parents. No thought concerning God's character and dealing is more impressive than this—His patience and long-suffering! Everywhere in the history it meets us. Here and there only, as in the doom of the priests of Baal and the children of Bethel, we read of His "strange work" of judgment! But even these would have been withheld, if His very mercy to the nation had not required them. They must be warned in a way that they could recognize and feel. How ought this sublime thought of God's amazing patience to exalt our estimate of His character, and to draw us nearer to His heart of love and mercy! Yet we know that God's patience has a limit with every soul. If His long-suffering, active mercy be persistently unheeded, it will at length give place to His wrath. He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy! B. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth 2 year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother; for he put away 3 the pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. 4 Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster; and he rendered unto the king of 5 Israel the wool of an hundred thousand lambs, and of an hundred thousand rams. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. 6, 7 And king Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: 8 I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses. And he said, Which 9 way shall we go up? And he answered, The way of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom: and they made a circuit of seven days' journey: and there was no water for the host, nor for the beasts that followed 10 them. And the king of Israel said, Alas! for the LORD hath called these three kings to- 11 gether to deliver them into the hand of Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may inquire of the LORD by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, which poured water 12 on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the LORD is with him. So the 13 king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of Israel said unto him, Nay: for the 14 LORD hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor 15 see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, 16 that the hand of the LORD came upon him. And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this 17 valley full of trenches. For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet that valley shall be filled with water: and ye shall drink, both ye and your cattle 18 and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD: he will also de- 19 liver the Moabites into your hand. And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all fountains of water, and mar every good 20 piece of land with stones. And it came to pass in the morning, about the time of offering the oblation, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled 21 with water. Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all that were able to put on armour, and up- 22 ward, and stood on the border. And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, and the Moabites saw the water over against them as red as blood: and they 23 said, This is blood; the kings are surely destroyed, and they have smitten each man his 24 fellow: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil. And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: and they went for- 25 ward into the land smiting the Moabites. And they beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the fountains of water, and felled all the good trees: until in Kir-hareseth only they left the stones thereof; 26 howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it. And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew sword, to break 27 through unto the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land. 1-3. Jehoram (abbreviated Joram), the ninth king of Israel, was the son of Ahab and Jezebel, and the successor of his brother Ahaziah. His accession is marked by a twofold date—in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat—that is, the second year of Jehoram's association with his father, Jehoshaphat, in the kingdom. Jehoram of Israel reigned twelve years at Samaria. He maintained a close alliance with Judah, and it was perhaps by the influence of Jehoshaphat that he was a shade better than his father and his brother. P. S.—Jehoram was only half-hearted in his religious changes. He must have personally disapproved of the sensuous Phoenician religion; but he either shrank from carrying out his views to the full for fear of popular disturbances, or he was so far under the influence of the Queen-mother, Jezebel, that he submitted to a compromise, and while publicly condemning the Baal worship, privately connived at its continuance. Elisha's angry words (in verse 13), "Get thee to the prophets of thy father and to the prophets of thy mother," sufficiently indicate his dissatisfaction with the king's half measures; and the history of Jehu's reformation (2 K. 10: 21-28) shows that the Baal temple, image, and worship all continued to the end of Jehoram's reign, and were not removed until the reign of his successor. 4-27. From religious reforms Jehoram turned his attention to matters political. The revolt of Moab in the reign of his predecessor, and the complete recovery by the Moabites of their independence through a series of successes unchecked by a reverse, constituted a new source of danger to the State, which could not afford the lowering of its prestige consequent upon the brilliant campaign conducted by Mesha. An effort was necessary, if not to recover Moab, at any rate to repair the loss of honor involved in the successful rebellion; and Jehoram, seemingly in his first year, conceived the design of forming a powerful confederation against the triumphant rebels, which should at the least severely chastise them for their audacity. In the first instance he applied to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, who had shown himself well disposed both toward Ahab (1 K. 22 : 4, 29) and toward Ahaziah (ibid., verses 44-49), and solicited his aid, which was willingly granted (verse 7); after which negotiations were entered into with the king of Edom, a semi-independent monarch, and he also was induced to join the league. Edom was at this time growing in power, and probably entertained a covert jealousy of Moab, which was its near neighbor and might be a formidable enemy. The king therefore accepted the third position in the confederacy, and even gave the armies of Israel and Judah passage through his territory, that so they might have the better chance of taking the Moabites by surprise. After traversing the waterless tract west and south of the Dead Sea, the frontier of Moab was approached at a point where a deep torrent bed separated between Moab and Edom. Here it seems to have been supposed that water would be found; but the bed of the stream proved wholly dry, and Jehoram gave way to despair. He was, however, persuaded by Jehoshaphat to make an appeal for aid to the prophet, Elisha, who had accompanied the host; and Elisha, after some contemptuous expressions and a half refusal, was induced to exert his supernatural powers in order to save the army. The host, refreshed in the night by a rush of water down the gully caused by some heavy rain at a distance, was set upon in the morning by the Moabites, who, seeing the ruddy sunrise reflected the pools which the flood had left, imagined that the red liquid was blood, and that the allies had fallen out and fought each other. Their error was fatal to them. Rushing, half armed probably, and in a disorderly crowd, against the Israelite camp, they were met by an enemy who was expecting their onset, repulsed, and routed. A hurried flight followed, and a hot pursuit; great numbers of the Moabites were slain; even the cities afforded little protection, and the land was devastated and ruined. At last the king of Moab stood at bay in Kir-Haraseh, the strongest of his fortresses. Then occurred that horrible scene, the king openly offering his son as a burnt offering upon the wall. Shocked and dismayed at the sight, the besiegers broke up their camp, and returned to their respective countries. Ewald remarks that "had there been a Joab or a David then alive in Israel, such an issue of the campaign would not have been tolerated; but already a worm of inward weakness had begun to gnaw at the national heart and at its confidence in Jehovah. From that day, however, Moab remained independent; and long ages after, every time that other causes had enfeebled the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, the roving bands from Moab marched across the Jordan on plundering excursions." G. R. The enormous annual tribute of one hundred thousand fleece of rams, and as many of lambs, led, after the death of Ahab, to a vigorous revolt, in which Ammon rallied to the support of Moab. This tribute in kind is referred to by Isaiah (Isa. 16 : 1): "Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness." A campaign, or rather two campaigns, quickly followed, of which, or of parts of which, we have three distinct records. 2 Kings, chap. 3, recounts the invasion of Moab by the combined armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom. 2 Chronicles, chap. 20, records an invasion of Judah by Moab and her allies, Ammon and Edom. Twenty years ago the discovery of the famous monolith of King Mesha, at Dibon, known as "the Moabite Stone," a unique relic of antiquity, nearly three thousand years old, and not only the sole Moabite inscription, but the earliest existing document in the Hebrew language, older by a hundred and fifty years than any other epigraphic record containing the same species of writing, gave us the story of Moab's struggle with Israel from the side of the former. The Moabite Stone pictures to us the desperate defence of Mesha in his capital, Kir (now Kerak), which the invaders had overrun and destroyed his whole country. But, as we read in verse 27, they retired; and then Mesha, evidently a monarch of great sagacity and vigor, set to work to restore his fortresses, and, pushing beyond the Arnon, wrested again from the unstable grasp of Reuben many of the towns which, originally Moabite, had been seized by Sihon, to be soon conquered by Moses. Henceforward, till the Assyrian invader impartially ravaged both alike, Moab was the aggressor in a border warfare, kept in check only by the growing power of Syria. In the warnings of the prophets we see how bitter was the feud between the children of Lot and of Abraham. But the end soon came; and from the date of the Captivity the kingdom of Mesha disappears from history, and Moab itself has remained but a geographical expression. Tristram. The points established by the Moabite inscription are: 1. That Moab recovered from the blow dealt by David (2 Sam. 8 : 2, 12), and became again an independent state in the interval between David's conquest and the accession of Omri. 2. That Omri reconquered the country, and that it then became subject to the northern kingdom, and remained so throughout his reign and that of his son Ahab, and into the reign of Ahab's son and successor, Ahaziah. 3. That the independence was regained by means of a war, in which Mesha took town after town from the Israelites, including in his conquests many of the towns which, at the original occupation of the Holy Land, had passed into the possession of the Reubenites or the Gadites, as Baal-Meon (Num. 32: 38), Kirjathaim (ibid. 37), Ataroth (ibid. 34), Nebo (ibid. 38), Jahaz (Josh. 13: 18), etc. 4. That the name of Jehovah was well known to the Moabites as that of the God of the Israelites. 5. That there was a sanctuary of Jehovah at Nebo, in the trans-Jordanic territory. 8. The way through the wilderness of Edom.** That is, round the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and across the Arabah, or continuation of the Jordan and Dead Sea valley. This route led to the Edomite country which extended along the eastern side of the Arabah and bordered on Moab toward the south, where its desert (midbar) was divided from that of Moab by the Wady-Kurahy or El Ahsy. One object of taking this route was most likely to effect a junction with the forces of Edom, which had resumed its dependence on Judah, though the year before it had been in alliance with Moab. (See 2 Chron. 20: 22.) Another may have been, to come upon the Moabites unprepared. This line of march was followed on more than one occasion by the Crusaders, who maintained fortresses in the Moabite country. B. C. 10. God had not "called the three kings together;" they had come together of their own accord, guided by their own views of earthly policy. Yet God was not about to "deliver them into the hands of Moab," as in strict justice He might have done. He was about to deliver the three kings from their peril. 11. The Israelite monarch despairs at once; the Jewish monarch retains faith and hope. Undoubtedly he ought to have had inquiry made of the Lord before he consented to accompany Jehoram on the expedition. But one neglect of duty does not justify persistence in neglect. This he sees, and therefore suggests that even now, at the eleventh hour, the right course shall be taken. Apparently Jehoram was not aware of Elisha's presence with the army. He had to be enlightened by one of his attendants, who happened to be acquainted with the fact. We may suppose that Elisha had joined the army "at the instigation of the Spirit of God" (Keil), God having resolved to rescue the Israelites from their peril by His instrumentality, and at the same time to show forth His glory before the people of Moab. 12. Prophets were commonly summoned into the king's presence, or, if they had a message to him, contrived a meeting in some place where they knew he would be. That the kings should seek Elisha out and visit him was a great sign both of the honor in which he was held, and also of the extent to which they were humbled by the danger which threatened them. Hammond. 13. And Elisha said unto the king of Israel.** Jehoram's present humility does not save him from rebuke. He is of the accursed stock, and lies himself under a special curse; since all the evil threatened against Ahab was to come to pass in "his son's days" (1 K. 21: 29). Moreover, his reformation (see verse 2) had been but a half reformation—a compromise with idolatry. Not only had the calf worship been retained, but the Baal worship itself, though disestablished, had been allowed to continue and was in favor with the queen-mother, and probably with a portion of the court. B. C. 15. The power of music in particular—the concord of sweet sounds—to soothe the brain, to calm the nerves and elevate the soul, is well known. The noblest passages in "Paradise Lost" were composed as Milton's daughter played to her father on the organ. We all remember how David's harp chased away the evil spirit from Saul. The father of medicine himself, Esculapius, appears in ancient history as healing diseases with songs. The philosopher Pythagoras quieted the troubles of his mind with the lyre. T. H. Howat.—As David's harping refreshed Saul and tranquilized his spirit, so the playing of any skilled minstrel had a soothing effect on those possessing the prophetic gift generally, and enabled them to shut out the outer world, and concentrate their whole attention on the inward voice which communicated to them the Divine messages. 17. Wind and rain usually go together in the East, especially when there is sudden heavy rain after a time of drought. What Elisha promises is a heavy storm of wind accompanied by violent rain, which, however, will be at such a distance that the Israelites will see nothing of it, but whereof they will experience the effects when the torrent-course that separates them from the Moabite country suddenly becomes a rushing stream as the rain flows off down it. Their "pits," or trenches, will retain a portion of the water, and furnish them with a sufficient supply for their wants. It was necessary that the storm should be distant, that the Moabites might know nothing of it, and so fall under the delusion (verse 23) which led to their complete defeat. 20. Behold, there came water by the way of Edom.** The Wady-el-Ahsy drains a portion of Southern Moab, and also a considerable tract of Northern Edom. The nocturnal storm had burst, not in the Moabite country, where it would have attracted the attention of the Moabites, but in some comparatively distant part of the Idumæan territory, so that the Moabites were not aware of it. Hammond. 20-24. We have here the Divine gift of both those things which God had promised by Elisha—water and victory; and the former not only a pledge of the latter, but a means of it. God, who created and commands all the waters both above and beneath the firmament, sent them an abundance of water on a sudden, which did them double service. H. 23. This is blood.** The pits, deep but with small mouths, gleaming redly through the haze which would lie along the newly moistened valley, seemed to the Moabites like pools of blood. They caught at the idea, probably, the more readily from a recollection of their own disaster the preceding year, when they and their allies had mutually destroyed each other (2 Chron. 20: 23). It seemed to them, from their knowledge of the jealousies subsisting between Judah, Israel, and Edom, not unlikely that a similar calamity had now befallen their foes. 25. Only in Kir-Haraseth.** Kir-Haraseth, called also Kir-Hareseth (Isa. 16: 7), Kir-Haresh (ibid 11), and Kir-Moab (ibid 15: 1), is identified almost certainly with the modern Kerak, a strong city on the highland immediately east of the southern part of the Dead Sea, It was the great fortress of Moab, though not the capital, which was Rabbath or Rabbah. B. C. 25-27. The victory was followed up by an exterminating war. The cities of Moab were razed, and their stones thrown into the cornfields; the wells were filled, and the fruit-trees were cut down. The only refuge left was the city of Kir-Haraseth; and even this was on the point of being taken by storm, when the king of Moab, with seven hundred chosen warriors, tried to cut his way through to reach the king of Edom, but he was driven back into the city. He resorted to the forlorn hope of his horrid superstition. Mounting the wall, in sight of the besiegers, he offered his eldest son and heir as a burnt offering to Moloch. It would seem that this act of despair roused the sympathy of the Edomites, as well as the horror of Jehoshaphat: "There was great indignation against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land;" and the next we hear of the relations between the allies is the revolt of Edom from the king of Judah. To Elisha's aid in this war may probably be ascribed those friendly relations between Jehoram and the prophet which belong to the history of the latter. Indeed the deeds of Elisha filled the greater part of the annals of Israel under Jehoram. P. S. Elisha was a prophet of the Gospel, as Elijah had been a prophet of the Law. Yet, as the Law is in the Gospel, and the Gospel was in the Law, so Elisha could sometimes denounce God's judgment, and Elijah yearn for and delight in His mercy. The story of the three kings and their invasion of Moab discloses Elisha in both aspects—severe toward the king of Israel, but gentle and helpful to the king of Judah. And such is the true character of the Gospel, and the genuine spirit of its teachers and confessors. Always accessible with its precious truths and promises, and always helpful with its wise counsels and sufficient grace, yet always boldly and sternly outspoken when fidelity to truth and righteousness demand. B. 1. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead: and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the 2 LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two children to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me; what hast thou in the house? And 3 she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. 4. And thou shalt go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all 5 those vessels; and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons; they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. 6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a 7 vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons of the rest. The widow's oil increased. This simple and touching story is one of those many narratives which make the Bible a book for every one, and a book for every-day life. The individual is never lost in the nation or the race. The Bible is partly a history of nations, and particu- larly of the Jewish nation. But it is much more a history of individuals. It is this that makes it such a book of universal comfort and instruction. As we read of the men and women whose lives are recorded in it, we learn more from their faith and their failings, from their temptations and their victories, than we could from any abstract discourses about the benefit of virtue and the evil of vice. We learn that they were men and women of like passions with ourselves. We learn that the temptations they conquered we can conquer by the help of the same Spirit; that the trials they endured we can endure; and that the faith and holiness to which they attained are within our reach also. Perhaps we think it hard to be religious in our business, in society, or amid the cares and worries of our daily life. The Bible shows us men and women living under the same con- ditions, and yet living so much in the fear of God and the presence of eternity that they tri- umphed over their distractions, and, while in the world, were not of it. Such a glimpse of every-day life we obtain in the narrative be- fore us. C. H. I. This whole section reveals Elisha's sympathy and helpfulness, while it conveys Gospel pre- cepts bearing upon practical human conduct. The miracles it narrates, like all the miracles of the Old and New Testaments, were for use and instruction, not to produce mere wonder- ment. 1. The request of faith under circumstances of strait and distress. A woman (probably of Samaria, where Elisha lived) is the suppliant— a widow of an humble but godly teacher. The husband had been one of a small class of in- structed and devout men, trained in the re- ligious schools founded by Samuel and con- tinued under succeeding prophets. Either as youths or men, and under an impulse of the Divine Spirit, they voluntarily entered these sacred seminaries. But, whether as students or as graduated evangelists, unmarried or mar- ried, each one, like Paul, had an occupation by which he maintained himself or his household. This man had left a debt as his only legacy. How incurred we know not, but not, certainly, from evil or blameworthy conduct. By the laws of all ancient nations children were counted as the property of the parent, and so reckoned among his assets, wherewith his debts could be paid. The Jewish law empowered the creditor to hold a deceased creditor's chil- dren as bondsmen for seven years. What dues could not be paid in money, it required to be paid in such enforced service. This law was about to be applied to the two sons of this poor widow. She had no resource but her trust in God. This trust she shows by going at once to God's acknowledged prophet. She knows that Elisha is favored with Divine gifts for God's people. Her husband was God's servant, and his household is consecrated to God. And this is the ground of her appeal in her great strait and distress. Of God's favor she seeks to be availled at the hand of His prophet. B. Of the wives of the sons of the prophets. We learn from this that the "sons of the prophets" were not merely, all of them, college students, but included fathers of families, who cannot have lived a cloistered life, but must have had separate homes for themselves and their families. Such persons may still have taught in the prophetical schools, as do the married tutors and professors of modern universities. The creditor is come to take my two sons to be bondmen. In primitive communities men borrowed upon their personal credit, and the primary security for debt was regarded as being their own persons, the value of their labor, and that of those dependent on them. In Greece and Rome, originally, as in the He- brew community, borrowers ordinarily raised money by pledging their persons, and, if they could not pay when the debt became due, went into servitude with their children. The Mosaic law presupposes this state of things, and per- mits its continuance, but in two respects inter- feres to modify it: by requiring that the service exacted shall not be severe (Lev. 25: 43, 46), but such as was commonly rendered by hired servants (verses 39, 40); and by limiting the period of service to the date of the next jubilee year (verses 40, 41). In the instance brought here under our notice, it would seem that the creditor had not proceeded to claim his rights until the debtor died, when he enforced them against the man's children. Hammond. 2-4. The answer of Elisha.** Instantly he recognizes and responds to her faith. He acknowledges her claim, and at once proceeds to satisfy the appeal of her need. A little before he had sternly repulsed the king, Jehoram, in the midst of his royal allies and their combined hosts, with the question, What have I to do with thee? But now with tenderest sympathy he asks this lone and lowly widow, What shall I do for thee? The question expressed his willingness to supply her want from resources (not his own) which he could draw upon by a signal and assured faith. Yet he seeks full information before he acts. By a second question he brings out the completeness of her destitution, and discovers a way by which she also can be called upon to do something in self-help. Thus her faith and obedience will be tested by being called into action. So (in a previous chapter) he had bidden the thirsting army dig ditches for the promised water. And so Christ and His apostles always summoned those they were about to help to some act or some expectation by which faith might be awakened, encouraged or tested. This law of all Divine help, that man must in some way co-operate with God by desire, will, or deed, is expressed in its highest form by Paul in Phil. 2:12, 13. A little oil in a pitcher: this is her sole remaining treasure. Assured that God will multiply this at his intercession, Elisha bids the woman borrow as many empty vessels as she could from families that know her—i.e., of the sons of the prophets. Then he directs her, with the door closed upon herself and her two sons, to pour from the small half-empty pitcher into them all, until they are filled. B. 2. None can so freely compassionate the hard terms of a prophet as an Elisha. He finds that she is not querulously impatient; expressing her sorrow without murmuring and discontentment; making a loving and honorable mention of that husband who had left her distressed; readily, therefore, doth he incline to her succor: "What shall I do for thee? Tell me what hast thou in the house?" Bp. II.—God's help takes its starting-point from what we already have. The widow had but "one pot of oil," but this was made the basis of what was to be done. So Elijah founded his miracle on the widow of Zarephath's "handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse." The lesson is that what means of help we have are to be made use of to the utmost before supernatural aid is invoked. J. O. 5,6. The obedience of faith and its result.** She did what she could and what was commanded. Neither the strangeness of the command nor the seeming impossibility of the asserted consequences delayed her acting. Nor for a moment did her faith waver while gathering the vessels or filling them one by one from her own small pitcher. When her obedience was fully rewarded and no empty vessel remained, then the supply ceased, but only with the pouring. And now God had greatly enriched her. Used as the olive oil was for food, for light, for various ceremonials, its value was permanent and great. And it could always be readily exchanged for money. B. Divine love is an eternal fountain that never leaves running while a vessel is empty or capable of holding more; and it stands open to all comers: therefore, come; and if ye have not sufficient of your own, go and borrow vessels, empty vessels, not a few; "pay your debts out of it, and live on the rest" to eternity. Elisha Coles.—Our faith, our earnestness of desire, our ardor and confidence of prayer, our faithfulness of stewardship and strenuousness of use, measure the amount of the unmeasured grace which we can receive. So long as our vessels are brought, the golden oil does not cease to flow. The more we trust, the more we can contain of His gift, and the more we can contain, the more shall surely possess. As Bernard beautifully says, "He puts the oil of His mercy into the vase of our trust," and the larger the vase the fuller the stream which He pours into it. As long as we bring vessels, the blessing runs, like the oil into the widow's cruse. When we cease to hold up our emptiness to the fountain, it stays. "Ye have not, because ye ask not." If our Christian life be shrunken, and our graces feeble, it is only because we have not gone to Him for fresh supplies. Little faith means little grace. . . . The principle of the variation in actual manifestation of the unvarying might of God is found in the Lord's words: "According to your faith be it unto you." So, then, we may expect periods of quickened energy in the forth-putting of the Divine power. And these will correspond to and be consequent on the faithful prayers of Christian men. See to it that you keep the channels clear, that the flow may continue full and increase. A. M. We see here how exactly the oil matches the capacity and number of the vessels provided. According to the provision made, so was the miraculous gift. This shows us the law of God's dealing with men's souls. He gives grace, but He gives it in measure. He gives grace as much as man is ready to receive; but He requires man to prepare vessels to receive the grace He gives, and to use and not "leave of it." The oil was given to be used; so is Divine grace. If we use what God gives and value it, he who gathers much shall have nothing over, and he who gathers little shall have no lack. Baring-Gould.—As the widow's oil increased, not in the vessel, but by pouring out; and as the barley bread in the Gospel multiplied, not in the whole loaf, but by breaking and distributing; and as the grain bringeth increase, not when it lieth on a heap in the garner, but by scattering upon the land; so are these spiritual graces best improved, not by keeping them together, but by distributing them abroad. The talent gathereth nothing in the napkin, unless it be rust and canker; but travelling in the bank, besides the good it doth as it passeth to and fro, it ever returneth home with increase. Sanderson. No way to honor God, no way to win souls, no way to increase your own gifts and graces, but to exercise them for the good of others. Grace is not like to worldly vanities that diminish by distribution, but like candles which keep the same light, though a thousand are lighted by them. Grace is like the widow's oil, which multiplied by pouring out; and like those talents which doubled by employment. T. Brooks. 7. Gratitude expressed and counsel sought. The large deliverance. In few but fervent words "she told the man of God." And he, who saw her feeling of gratitude and of stewardship, told her first how to discharge her stewardship by full honest payment of her husband's debt. Then he intensified and made permanent her grateful sense of God's mercy, by bidding her and her children live of the remainder of His bounty. Thus she received more than she had asked, even all that she needed.—And a better gift God added in the greatly quickened and strengthened graces of her spiritual life. As the thought has been expressed of Christ: He laid large foundations for the future Church in the great numbers of those whose faith was wrought or strengthened in connection with His beneficent miracles. B. I do not see her run forth into the street and proclaim her store; nor calling in her neighbors, whether to admire or bargain. I see her running to the prophet's door and gratefully acknowledging the favor, and humbly depending on his directions; as not daring to dispose of that which was so wondrously given her without the advice of him by whose powerful means she had received it. Bp. H. The element of miracle here is very notable. But the pledge of Divine help in distress implied in such a miracle remains to us, and God will honor every draft on His promises made by faith, basing itself on such deeds as this. It might almost be said that there is a multiplying power in the Divine blessing apart from miracle. The whole incident teaches us the lesson of trusting God in every time of need. When have the righteous been forsaken, or their seed seen begging bread (Ps. 37: 25)? If we can trust in God for temporal supplies, much more may we for our spiritual supplies (Phil. 4: 19). J. O.—Let those who are poor and in distress be encouraged to trust God for supply in the way of duty. "Verily thou shalt be fed," but not feasted. It is true we cannot now expect miracles, yet we may expect mercies if we wait on God and seek Him. Let widows particularly, and prophets' widows in a special manner, depend upon Him to preserve them and their fatherless children alive; for to them He will be a Husband and a Father. Let those whom God hath blessed with plenty use it for the glory of God, and under the direction of His Word; let them do justly with it, as this widow did, and serve God cheerfully in the use of it; and, as Elisha, be ready to do good to those that need them—be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. H. Rich suggestions of Gospel truth, precept and promise abound in this and the succeeding miracles, each of which is only an acted parable. In this one we find many golden texts. 1. "Be care-full (or anxious) for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make known your requests unto God." "Casting all your care upon Him." And by abundant similar invitations are we encouraged to take our trouble, whatever it be, to God—in Him to find assured relief. 2. "What shall I do for thee," is the question of all true Christian helpfulness. Coming from the heart, it is always seconded by the hand in appropriate deeds or gifts. Genuine sympathy is active, expressing itself in earnest intercession with the Divine Helper if it can do no more. 3. He who supplied Israel in the desert with bread from heaven and water from the rock, who multiplied the meal and oil for two poor widows, still "giveth all their meat in due season." And by the same Divine power out of the same infinite resources, though now through the familiar miracle of fruitage from the warmed and moistened earth. 4. Not only in "man's extremity" does God find His "opportunity." The promise that "the Lord will provide" equally applies and needs to be realized by men in their times of fulness. It were well if then too they found opportunity for grateful looking and resting upon God. 5. Borrow not a few vessels! Large expectation brings abundant provision. Large asking is the condition, as it has the promise, of bountiful supply. And it honors God's royalty in giving. He gives exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think! 6. In His providence and grace alike we are workers together with God. The increase of what we have comes not without our own act concurring with His interposition. By the woman's pouring the vessels were filled. So are we bidden to "work out our own salvation," if we would have "God work in us" all precious results of holy character and happy experience. 7. Render unto all their dues: owe no man anything. Honor, in its high, true sense, as well as conscience, accepts this Gospel law. In a just and lofty meaning of the terms, it is true that honesty is the best policy. Even the poor must be honest and pay their debts—poor men, poor ministers, and poor churches. The daily bread we ask of God must be honestly ours, or our prayer is a mockery and is unheard of Him. 8. Grace, like the widow's oil, is the supernatural free gift of God, and avails to pay all the soul's debt. More even than this, it provides for every spiritual need of this life; beautifying, nourishing, healing the soul, and lighting its pathway until it enters into glory. And, according to the Divine assurances, "God is able to make all grace abound." Add now the entire expression of the Holy Ghost, and learn the reason of this abounding grace given: that it may be used for the glory of God. No word even of Paul surpasses this wonderful succession of unlimited superlatives. None is fraught with deeper, richer meaning of promise and counsel concerning the abundance and the right use of grace. Read thoughtfully and ponder each word of this royal cumulative utterance of the Divine Spirit: God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work! B. 8. And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make, I pray thee, a little chamber on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no son, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said unto her. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to his servant, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the servants, and one of the asses, that I 23 may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him 24 to-day? it is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slacken me not the riding, 25 except I bid thee. So she went, and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, 26 Behold, yonder is the Shunammite: run, I pray thee, now to meet her, and say unto her, Is 27 it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, Let her alone: for her soul is vexed within her; and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not 28 told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me? 29 Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: 30 and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the LORD 31 liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, The 32 child is not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, 33 and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed 34 unto the LORD. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon 35 him; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house once to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven 36 times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunam- 37 mite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out. S-17. Elisha's ordinary ministry consisted in the oversight of the prophetic schools, and in personal instruction and helpfulness in behalf of those who still acknowledged Jehovah. Although living in Samaria, he seems often to have visited Elijah's old retreat at Carmel, there to obtain the same needed blessing of quiet thoughtfulness and devotion. The city Shunem lay upon the road he usually traversed, between Samaria and Carmel. In this city was a woman of comparative distinction and wealth, who was a worshipper of the true God. This woman, at first recognizing Elisha as a prophet of Jehovah, invites him to come in for passing refreshment and rest. Then, receiving spiritual cheer and help from his devout and genial spirit, she desires more of his presence, that she may receive more of God's blessing upon her household. Her husband gladly concurring, a chamber is specially prepared for Elisha's use, that he may make the house his home as often and as long as he will. Through Elisha's gratitude, she who thus received God's prophet, received a prophet's reward (Matt. 10:41). At his intercession, God gives the childless woman a son, and for some years permitted her to lavish a mother's affection upon the child. B. S. Three miles north of Jezreel, by the south-west edge of Little Hermon, was Shunem—the modern Solâm. Here, at the house of a distinguished family, the prophet Elisha was entertained, from time to time, in his goings past the place, with generous hospitality; and here he restored to life the only child of the household—the child of promise—who had died of a sunstroke received in the harvest field. The prophet, at the time of the child's death, was at Mount Carmel, no doubt near the scene of his predecessor's great triumph over the false prophets. The distance from Shunem was about twelve miles. N. C. B. S. 9. They are not rendered selfish or worldly minded by their prosperity. They feel and admit the claims of religion upon them. In Elisha they recognize a "man of God;" first, it would seem, officially. As the official representative to them of the Most High, they regard him as entitled to kindness and hospitality. They press upon him their good offices, and insist on his taking his meals with them, "constrain him to eat bread" (verse 8). When by degrees they have become acquainted with his character, they recognize in him something more—they "perceive that he is a holy man of God" (verse 9). Like is perceived by like. It takes some holiness to perceive and recognize holiness. And the perception raises a desire for greater intimacy. Like desires like. It will be a blessed thing if they can persuade the prophet, not merely to take an occasional meal in their house, but to be an occasional inmate—to rest there, to sleep there. So the woman proposes to her husband to build the prophet a sleeping-chamber; and he readily consents. Hammond. Man of God. A striking title to give to a human being, and a very grand one. And yet is not this the title which every man should be able to adopt and proud to bear? We all come from His creating hand. We live on His beneficence. We are subject to His providence. A great many different kinds of life men can live on the earth, lower and higher, but there is only one best life—that which a man may live in God. A man of God should be proud of his title. Other men are proud of theirs—the man of the world, the man of letters, the statesman, the man of honor. The man of God should never be ashamed of his name, if only he has the right to bear it. A. Raleigh. The life of men forgiven and the life of men attached, the life of men devoted and the life of men expectant may be represented as the life of godliness wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost in all believing people. And this life of godliness throws round a man a holy unselfishness, invests him with a beautiful charity, develops in him a pure consecration of thought and life, so that by the unction of the Holy Ghost upon him there is consciously felt, by all around him, the fragrance of an undemonstrative yet irresistible sanctity, that mighty power instilling mighty principles in all he does, that mysterious atmosphere in which every man breathing finds something of the instinct of a better life, and all are prepared to say, concerning the consistent servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Truly this is a holy man of God that passeth by us continually.” Richardson. 10. And it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. In the intervals between his active ministrations, a prophet would naturally desire quiet retirement, security from interruption. He would need to reflect, to meditate, to pray, perhaps to write. The Shunammite’s proposal shows not only kindness, but thoughtfulness and appreciation. Hammond.—A chamber was fitted up on the wall for Elisha’s private use, and there he abode, and could feel at home, whenever he passed that way. How beautiful the large and unstinted generosity, the wise forethought, the warm consideration for another’s comfort, displayed in this incident! This wise and unselfish use of wealth is the true secret of obtaining enjoyment out of it. J. O. 12. He said to Gehazi his servant. Gehazi is first mentioned in connection with this narrative of the Shunammite (verse 12), of which he subsequently gave an account to the king (2 K. 8:4, 5); besides this, he is only once spoken of in his deceit practised upon Naaman and its penalty. He was the attendant upon Elisha, as Elisha himself had been upon Elijah, and Baruch was upon Jeremiah (Jer. 36:4). He may have been one of the sons of the prophets, whom Elisha here entrusts with a sacred function, and who, he may have hoped, would both be a valuable assistant to him in his work and continue it after he was taken away. W. H. G. 13. I dwell among mine own people. As if she said, “The courtesy is not small in itself, but not useful to me. I live here quietly, in a contented obscurity. I have neither fears nor ambitions. My neighbors are my friends.” If the world afford any perfect contentment, it is in a middle estate; equally distant from penury, from excess; it is in a calm freedom, a secure tranquillity, a sweet fruition of ourselves, of ours. Bp. H. This is indeed, in the fullest sense of the term, a contented woman, whom we here, under the reign of King Joram, meet in hospitable Shunem, as the childless hostess of God’s holy prophet. That which has been bestowed on her she does not despise; calmly and peacefully her days glide on in the midst of her people. To Elisha she has offered all that her house affords; but has nothing to ask from him, even when he puts words in her mouth. Van O.—She said—and the words indicate the power which, even under that earlier dispensation, God’s grace had gained in her heart—“I dwell among mine own people;” words worthy of a psalmist, worthy of an apostle, worthy of him who sung, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage,” and of him who wrote, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Oh, that in an age when men run to and fro in restless quest of something which at present they have not, we could all re-echo her sentiment, and take it up into our mouths with sincerity: “I dwell among mine own people.” “In my present home I desire to abide, till I exchange it for a better and an eternal one!” E. M. G. 16. Like Sarah, the woman was incredulous; she could not believe the good tidings, and thought the prophet was only raising hopes to disappoint them. Her words, "Do not lie unto thy servant," are less harsh in the original, being merely equivalent to the "Do not deceive me" of verse 28. Hammond. 18-21. The child's death from sunstroke. God is about to test her faith as He had before tested that of the widow of Zarephath. This He did, as He ever does, that her faith might be exercised, confirmed, strengthened and rewarded. Therefore this child of promise and of prayer, given in love, and rejoiced over with grateful affection, was stricken with death in her enfolding arms. Without one act of preparation for burial, laying the dead boy upon Elisha's own bed, she hastens to lay her burden upon the prophet's heart. Faith there was—wonderfully simple and strong—in all her quiet and firm, uncomplaining yet energetic acting. She trusted Elisha and Elisha's God. Her acts were a prayer, and an expectation of answer that would in some way meet her sore needs. 22-24. Message to her husband and his reply. She asked that he would send an ass upon which she might ride to Carmel, and a young man to lead or drive the animal (as is now customary in the East). The distance was upward of twelve miles. She assigned no reason for her request, and the husband supposed that her purpose referred to religious instruction or counsel from the prophet. "It is neither new moon nor Sabbath," he said, thus showing that these religious festivals were still honored by devout Israelites. But satisfying him with a general reply, she persisted in seeking the prophet, and bade the servant to make all speed upon the way. B. The husband's surprised question, "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath," shows that it was Elisha's custom to hold religious assemblies on the Sabbath days, to which the godly in Israel resorted. This is an interesting side light on the practice of the time. Weekly assemblies were not provided for in the law; but where love to God is in the heart, it needs no law to bring believers together. J. O. 23. It is specially worthy of remark that the schools of the prophets served the people of the northern kingdom as a substitute for the legitimate sanctuary. From verse 23 it may be inferred that the pious betook themselves, on the new moons and Sabbaths, to the schools of the prophets; nay, from the mention of the offering of first fruits of barley loaves and new corn (verse 42), it may be presumed that there were some who brought to the prophets the dues prescribed in the law (for the sanctuary). O. 25-28. What transpired before and at the interview on Carmel. Thither she had hastily ridden, well knowing where to find Elisha. At a distance she is recognized by the prophet. From her coming, and in haste, he infers some calamity in her household. In instant sympathy he bids his servant to run and meet her, with the inquiry if all is well. The faith that has nerved her still holds out as she answers Gehazi, Well! Yet she slacks not her speed until she has ascended the hill, and reached the spot where the anxious prophet has waited. Then her troubled soul finds its expression only by clasping the feet of Elisha. When Gehazi would have removed her, the master forbade him; for well Elisha read her sore grief, though he knew not its cause. In two terse, touching questions, she exposes the core of her sorrow. They conveyed an appeal, not a reproach, to Elisha. "Not from my asking was God's gift of the child! Thou wilt not let the gift be taken thus prematurely, and so utterly destroy the hope that thou, all unsolicited, hast awakened in these brief years of joy and love!" B. This mourner took her trouble to the right place. She found words which in form were words of expostulation: "Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?" In reality she was recalling to the prophet that it was his own word which had promised her this child. She was telling him in effect that the child was dead, and supplicating his help to prevent his original promise being completely cancelled. God is pleased that we should plead His promises with Him. He bids us "put Him in remembrance." J. O. How many a sad heart is to-day tempted to raise this cry of anguish! And how patient is Elisha with wild words, and how he discerns, beneath the apparent rough reproach, the misery which it implies and the petition which it veils! Elisha's Lord is no less tender in His judgment of our hasty, whirlwind words, when our hearts are sore; and if only we speak them to Him and cling to His feet, He translates them into the petitions which they mean, and is swift to answer the meaning and pass by the sound of our bitter cry. A. M. 29-31. The mission of Gehazi with Elisha's staff, and its failure. What the prophet intended or expected from the laying of his staff upon the face of the dead child we do not know. No reasonable conjecture has been framed concerning it. The extreme haste he enjoined upon Gehazi seems to suggest his hope that life was not wholly gone, and that it might be recalled through this applied official symbol. But, ignorant as we are of Elisha's purpose, the act itself with its utter failure conveys this lesson: That mere outward instrumentalities are not honored of God. Even in miracle working, and assuredly in all spiritual ministry, only a personal agent inspired with faith and exercising that faith in prayer is used by God in the accomplishment of His gracious life-giving purposes. The child continued insensible to Gehazi's call, after the laying of the staff upon his face. The servant therefore returns to meet his master, who, with the trusting mother, was hastening back to Shunem. "The child is not awakened," he said. B. 30. Apparently the woman supposed that Elisha intended to do nothing more, but trust the child's recovery to such virtue as might inhere in his staff. But her own resolution was long ago taken—she would be content with nothing less than bringing the prophet face to face with her dead child. She "will not leave" him till he consents to accompany her to her home. And he arose, and followed her; as, no doubt, he had intended from the first. Hammond. O strong faith of the Shunammite, that could not be discouraged with the seizure and continuance of death; raising up her heart still to an expectation of that life, which to the eyes of nature had been impossible, irrevocable! O infinite goodness of the Almighty, that would not suffer such faith to be frustrate; that would rather reverse the laws of nature in returning a guest from heaven, and raising a corpse from death, than the confidence of a believing heart should be disappointed! Bp. H. 31. Although on some occasions it has pleased God to allow miracles to be wrought by the instrumentality of lifeless objects, as when Elisha's bones resuscitated a dead man, and when virtue went out from the hem of our Lord's garment, and still more remarkably, when "handkerchiefs or aprons from the body of Paul were brought unto the sick, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits were cast out of them;" yet the instances are, comparatively speaking, rare, and form exceptions to what may be called the usual Divine economy of miracles. Miracles are, as a general rule, attached in Scripture to intense unwavering faith—faith, sometimes, in those that are the objects of them, almost always in those that are the workers of them. The present case was not to be an exception to the general rule, the circumstances not calling for an exception. The power of faith was to be shown forth once more in Elisha, as not long previously in Elijah (1 K. 17: 19-23); and Israel was to be taught, by a second marvellous example, how much the effectual fervent prayer of a faithful and righteous man avails with the Most High. Hammond. 32-35. The dead child restored to life at Elisha's intercession. A careful comparison of this narrative with that of Elijah's (1 K. 17: 19-22) is greatly interesting and instructive. Like Elijah, Elisha shuts himself in his own room, with the lifeless body and with God. Like Elijah, he first cries to the Lord. Then, like his old teacher, he stretches himself upon the child, if possible that his body might impart warmth to the cold body. "And the flesh of the child waxed warm." But there needs yet more of importunity before full consciousness is restored. This Elisha utters, as he walks to and fro with intensely stirred spirit. "He continues and struggles in prayer. The Lord does not allow great deeds to be accomplished without battles and struggles, labor and perseverance" (Bahr). Then he returns again to repeat the symbolic act by which he expressed his yearning to aid in bringing back a full life. And God responded to his prayer of faith and its accompanying act of helpful desire. The child is awaked! B. 34. When that one uniting force in human society—love built upon confidence—is diverted from the poor finite creatures, and transferred from one another to Him, then His infinite energy, which is ever around us, whether we know it and open our hearts to it or no, flows into our being, and becomes an indwelling guest which fills our souls. They that love are one. "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." And as the prophet in the wonderful old story laid himself down on the dead child, hand to hand, mouth to mouth, lip to lip, and heart to heart, that the throbbing heart might move the pulses, and the warmth might steal into the dull, cold frame, so, but with a contact closer, more real, more all embracing as is the difference between man and God, between spirit and flesh, Christ lays His life to our death, and in Him we too live and move. In Him we are quickened together and raised up together. Christ's dwelling in us, and we in Him, is the secret and the condition of all our spiritual life. A. M. 36, 37. The child delivered to the grateful, happy mother. With heart too full for words, reverently and gratefully she falls at the prophet's feet; thus expressing her acknowledgments to Him who had given her child back from death. With her faith thus marvellously confirmed and rewarded, her twice given son henceforth becomes a bond to hold her heart closely to the gracious Jehovah. B. How beautiful are the quiet words, "Take up thy son"! She has no words; but, for all answer, comes close to him (there is no "in" in verse 37), and once again, but with what different feelings, clasps his feet. The story draws a curtain over that meeting in the prophet's chamber. Sad hearts, who have vainly longed for such a moment, can fancy the rapture. But the day will come, not here, but in the upper chamber, when parted ones shall clasp each other again; and many a mourner shall hear Jesus say from the throne what He once said from the cross, "Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy mother." A. M. How true an heir is Elisha of his master; not in his graces only, but in his actions! Both of them divided the waters of Jordan; the one as his last act, the other as his first. Elijah's curse was the death of the captains and their troops; Elisha's curse was the death of the children; Elijah rebuked Ahab to his face; Elisha, Jehoram. Elijah supplied the drought of Israel by rain from heaven; Elisha supplied the drought of the three kings by waters gushing out of the earth. Elijah increased the oil of the Sareptan; Elisha increased the oil of the prophet's widow. Elijah raised from death the Sareptan's son; Elisha, the Shunammite's: both of them had one mantle, one spirit; both of them climbed up one Carmel, one heaven. Bp. H. The enjoyment of our little ones, while they are with us, is a blessing, and for that we should be grateful. It is better to have had them and lost them than never to have had them at all. We have had all the radiance of their presence, and all the discipline both of their training and their departure, so that while their removal has indeed changed the world for us, their coming to us and sojourn with us have revolutionized our own natures. Our charity is broader, our sympathy is wider, our characters are deeper. The little ones have gone, but the qualities which they created in us and fostered within us remain to be a blessing both to ourselves and others. That is a profound utterance of Tennyson, when in lines of condolence to a bereaved friend he says: "God gives us love; something to love He lends us; but when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve Falls off; and love is left alone." So the gift of a child, even though he should be taken from us, leaves a deposit of blessing on our characters, and is a perennial source of benefit. Moreover, it is not to be forgotten, that if the mystery of the death of little ones be great, the consolation is proportionate. We have the unfaltering conviction of their eternal salvation, and when we think of the dangers of life, when we remember what perils have menaced ourselves, and how we have often come near making shipwreck of our souls, we may sometimes see reason to be grateful that God took our loved ones away out of reach of the storm, into the haven of security. Then what a drawing heavenward is felt by the father or the mother who has a child in glory! W. M. Taylor. The simple, touching story affectingly illustrates one of the main purposes and uses of afflictive providences when visited upon the believer. By every such visitation God intends to exercise and strengthen faith, by begetting a sense of utter dependence upon Himself and by constraining the afflicted soul to look unto and wait upon Him for support and deliverance. Such trust—dependent, expectantly looking, patiently hoping and waiting—He always rewards in the issue. B. From Heb. 11:35 we learn that it was in answer to the woman's faith that she received her dead raised to life again. It was her faith that led her to seek the prophet's aid; in her trial she held firmly to the word of promise, and in answer to the prophet's prayer of faith her son was given back to her. It was neither the staff, nor the breath of the prophet, nor the warm contact of the living with the dead that brought back life to the child. It was the prayer of faith that moved the Divine power. That alone could restore the boy to his stricken mother. Faith may not now bring back the dead to life, yet it always brings victory over death. It looks forward to the day of resurrection, when our Lord will restore the child to the mother, and the friend to the friend, never again to be parted. Anon. The prophet's course in seeking the restoration of the dead child impressively intimates the human means and methods through which the spiritually dead are divinely renewed. Only the spiritually living have a part in the Divine work of restoring lifeless souls. But in God's plan, this part is an essential condition of His work. This part is twofold: first, the earnest wrestling prayer of faith; and next, personal contact of the living soul with the dead, through a visible godly life and the expressed interest of warm living sympathy and yearning. Such a manifest holy life and such expressed yearning joined to fervent intercession cannot fail to awaken healthful thought and feeling in unrenewed souls. For the Spirit of God always co-works with such prayer and personal effort. Thus, and thus only, does He ordinarily quicken the spiritually dead. How great, then, the responsibility of every Christian believer in connection with Christ's vast work of seeking and saving the lost! How much has every Christian soul to do in the salvation of those especially among whom his lot is cast! Elisha's dealing with the Shunammite wife and mother presents effectively the human side of the Old Testament Gospel. We behold him first as a visitant and teacher; then a friend and frequent and welcome guest. In the natural outflow of friendship, and knowing the willing love of God, he asks the best earthly boon for his friendly entertainer, the boon of motherhood. And afterward, when the mother's faith was sorely tried and failed not, he besought and brought again the child-blessing from God. And the history of subsequent years shows that the human friendship was held and proved by other fruits of blessing to the mother. In these, as in other points, there is clearly evinced the humanizing character of the Old Testament spirit. B. 38. And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and 39 seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred 40 them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, 41 O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. The great pot is set on to seethe pottage in, and one goes out to gather herbs to eke out the scanty supply. Attracted by some wild creepers, the messenger gathers therefrom a lapfful of gourds, which he mistakes for gourds of a similar appearance that are edible. The plants he had gathered were in reality poisonous. He brought them home, and they were shred into the pottage. J. O.—Prompt measures must be taken, if poisoning is even suspected. He has meal brought—not that meal has any virtue in itself against any deleterious drug. But he acts, now as always, under Divine direction, and is instructed to use meal on this occasion, as he used salt in healing the waters of Jericho. Hammond.—The meal was brought, and cast into the pottage, and the evil was at once cured. There seems no reason for using the meal except that it was customary to accompany these prophetic miracles with an outward symbolical act; and the meal, as a symbol of what was wholesome and nutritious in food, was as appropriate a medium as any to be used. We get this idea—that the unwholesome is to be displaced by the wholesome. If the bane is to be destroyed, we must use as antidote that which is of opposite character. We may learn two lessons: 1. The danger of being deceived by appearances. Things often are not what they seem. The most plausible errors are those which bear a superficial resemblance to great truths. We need to have our "senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5 : 14). To the true vine there correspond many wild vines; to the gourds that nourish and satisfy, many fair but poisonous imitations. 2. The best intentions may lead to sad mistakes. The important point to be noticed here is that our intentions, however good, cannot prevent things from acting according to their real nature. The person who gathered the gourds thought them innocuous, but they produced their poisonous effects all the same. "Sincerity" does not exonerate us from the consequences of our actions; at least it cannot prevent these consequences following. Poisonous principles are as harmful in their influence when promulgated in ignorance, as when diffused with the fullest knowledge of their deadly character. "They knew it not" does not suffice to alter the nature of facts. The pottage was no sooner tasted than the peculiar flavor and felt effects discovered to those eating it that there was something amiss. The cry was raised, "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot !' One poisonous ingredient had destroyed the value of much wholesome food. It did not require that all the elements in the pottage should be unwholesome; it was enough that this one was. Through it the whole mixture was rendered deadly. It is not uncommon to defend a system by pointing to the numerous truths which it contains. But one vital error blended with these truths may give the whole a fatal quality. The Gospel itself may be adulterated with specious lies which destroy its power for good. J. O. 42. And there came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of corn in his sack. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servant said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the LORD. 42. The "loaves" of the Israelites were cakes or rolls, rather than "loaves" in the modern sense of the word. Each partaker of a meal usually had one for himself. Naturally, twenty "loaves" would be barely sufficient for twenty men. And full ears of corn—i.e., a few ripe ears of the same corn as that whereof the bread was made. And he said, Give unto the people—i.e., to the sons of the prophets who dwelt at Gilgal—that they may eat. 43. This time, however, he added an explanation of the proceeding: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. God had supernaturally intimated to him that the quantity of food would prove ample for the hundred men; they would show that they had had enough by leaving some of it. And the result was as predicted. 44. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. We are not expressly told how the miracle was wrought. But the analogy of our Lord's miracles of feeding the multitudes, whereof this is a manifest type, makes it probable that in this case also there was a miraculous increase of the food. The object of the writer in communicating the account is certainly not merely to show how the Lord cared for His servants, but to relate another miracle wrought by Elisha, of a different kind from those previously related. Hammond. It has been generally seen that this miracle was a faint foreshadowing of our Lord's far more marvellous feeding of thousands with even scantier materials. The resemblance is not only in the broad fact, but in various minute particulars, as in the distribution through the hands of others; the material, bread; the surprised question of the servant, and the evidence of superfluity in the fragments that were left. (See Matt. 14 : 19-21; John 6 : 9-13.) B. C. 2. K. 5 : 1** Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given victory unto Syria : he was also a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ! then would he recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, And now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? but consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God : and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him : and he said, Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel : now therefore, I pray thee, take a present of thy servant. But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it ; but he refused. And Naaman said, If not, yet I pray thee let there be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth ; for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant ; when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought : as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw one running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets ; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants ; and they bare them before him. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and bestowed 25 them in the house : and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, 26 Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants and 27 maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. THE historical continues his narrative of Elisha's miracles, commenced in chap. 2, and gives in the present chapter a very graphic and complete account of two which were especially remarkable, and which stood in a peculiar relation the one toward the other. One was the removal of leprosy; the other its infliction. One was wrought on a foreigner and a man of eminence; the other on a Hebrew and a servant. The second was altogether consequential upon the first, without which the occasion for it would not have arisen. The two together must have greatly raised the reputation of the prophet, and have given him an influence beyond the borders of the land of Israel; at the same time extending the reputation of Jehovah as a great God through many of the surrounding nations. Hammond. It is not only the doctrine of the New Testament, but of the Old as well, that the Lord is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Rom. 3 : 29). When Abram was first called to be the father of the chosen race, who should be for a time the depositaries of Divine revelation and of the true religion, it was with explicit reference to the ultimate diffusion of these blessings and the salvation of the world (Gen. 12 : 3). The restriction was not with the view of excluding others from participation in the saving benefits granted to the seed of Abraham, but for their protection and perpetuation in the midst of prevailing idolatry and corruption, until such time as the barriers could be safely thrown down and the Church could assume the aggressive. Meanwhile, intimations were given, from time to time, to remind the Israelites that they were not the exclusive favorites of heaven, but that God's grace was for the Gentiles likewise. Such an intimation is contained in Elijah's abode with the widow in Zarephath rather than with any of the widows of Israel, and in Elisha's cleansing the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian rather than that of any of the lepers in Israel, as we learn from our Lord's reference to them in the synagogue of Nazareth at the outset of his ministry (Luke 4 : 25-27). W. H. G. 1. The station, condition, and character of Naaman. In the Syrian kingdom of Benhadad he held the highest military and civil office; in both relations standing next to the king himself. This position he had achieved by his own wisdom in counsel and valor in the field. Yet was he only an instrument in God's hand, for it is added, "by him the Lord had given deliverance to Syria." And herein is declared the grand truth that God is in all human history; that His sovereignty controls the course and issue of all events, alike among idolatrous nations as among His own chosen people. But with all his honorable distinction and great wealth, Naaman was a leper. He was afflicted, not with that severer form of the disease which produces a disgusting disfiguration and decay of the body, but with the milder type, which was known as the white leprosy. Yet its effects were sore enough to embitter his otherwise happy life, and to throw a shadow of sadness over the court and within his own household. The whole story shows a deep sympathy on the part of all associated with him, from the king his master to his lowest dependents. And this sympathy, together with the spirit he manifests in the incidents that follow, reveals much that is attractive and noble in the character of the man. They show that he was attached to his master and faithful to his interests; that he was kindly to his servants, ready to recognize their sympathy, to hear, to consider, and act upon their friendly suggestions; even to yield to their reasonable remonstrances when his pride of station and of opinion had been deeply wounded by Elisha's dealing. And his nobleness of spirit is further shown in his grateful return and acknowledgments to the prophet after his restoration, and his spontaneous self-consecration to Jehovah. B. 1. By him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. From the history of Syria so far as it is referred to in the books of the Kings, we should find no clew to this allusion to national perils. Syria had recently been victorious over the combined armies of Israel and Judah at Ramoth-Gilead. But all is explained by the recently discovered Assyrian monuments. There we find that Asshur-idannipal had, a few years previously, overrun the whole of Northern Syria—then Hittite—and had received the submission of Tyre and Sidon. But as regards Phœnicia and Syria at least, the conquest was not permanent. As soon as he had retired, Damascus threw off the yoke; and when his son, Shalmaneser II., succeeded him, n.c. 859, Syria paid no tribute. In the seventh year, and again in the eleventh year of his reign, Shalmaneser tells us he led his armies against Benhadad of Damascus, and defeated him; but in neither case does he claim to have carried off any trophies, imposed tribute or received submission. We may, therefore, safely infer that the Syrian resistance had been successful. These campaigns occurred in the beginning of the reign of Jehoram of Israel, and it is evident that Naaman had been the successful general who repelled the invader and gave deliverance to Syria. Surely this illustration well deserves a place among the undesigned coincidences which set forth the historical accuracy of Old Testament history. Tristram. 2-4. The captive maid's sympathy reported to Naaman and to the king.** Syria had long been a rod in God's hand for the chastening of Israel. Over the common border of the two kingdoms frequent inroads were made by marauding bands of Syrians. In one of these raids this Israelitish girl had been taken from her—possibly desolated—home. But from that home she had borne with her the blessed results of a godly training. Her faith in God had taught her tenderness in behalf of the afflicted. Even to those who had wrought her evil, she would return only good. Knowing Elisha's power with God, and trusting in God's willingness to heal and bless, her heart constrains her to utter the simple fervent desire that her lord would seek the prophet's help. (Thus incidentally we learn that Elisha's prophetic character was generally known, and the influence of his teachings widely felt in Israel.) And child and captive though she was, her devout and helpful spirit won its way into the heart and faith of her mistress. The words that thus awakened hope in the wife were speedily reported to Naaman, and by him to the king. So much of faith and hope was aroused in both as to lead to instant preparation for testing the prophet's power. B. The little maid who waited on Naaman's wife was a lily among thorns—a transplanted rose, beautiful and fragrant, in a foreign garden. Her harp was not broken by the rough hand of captivity; nor was it hung on the willows. She could sing the Lord's song, the song of peace and goodwill to men, in a strange land. She was kind to those who had been unkind to her; she overcame evil with good. It gave her no pleasure that the captain whose soldiers had stolen her away from the land of the Hebrews was thus deeply afflicted. She desired his relief. As she knew no country more blessed than her own, and no person there more renowned than Elisha, she recommended that he journey to that good land, and make the acquaintance of that remarkable man. And thus was she true to the injunction of the Lord to her nation, to seek the good of those countries whither they were carried captive. She was a spirit of peace in a warrior's palace—a living leaf of mercy scattered among the Gentiles. Charity, seeking not its own, burned in her heart; and her tongue was moved by it to speak words kind as the oil on Aaron, and sweet as the morning dew. "Would to God, my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria; for he would recover him of his leprosy." All that a man hath will he give for his life. The trumpet of fame and the plaudits of the multitude are unheeded in the sick chamber; while the voice of a child proposing a remedy is listened to with delight. R. T. 5-7. Naaman's journey, and reception by Jehoram, king of Israel.** A royal letter-missive is prepared for Jehoram, and munificent gifts as a fitting return for the hoped-for restoration. Both the character of the letter and the proposed gifts seem to imply the heathen king's impression that Elisha was a superior magician or conjurer at the court and under the direction of Jehoram, to whom the matter of the cure would of course be referred. For no idea had either Benhadad or Naaman of a God who would gratuitously grant so great a blessing as this. And the professed wonder-workers of that day, as ever since, were wont to demand enormous rewards for their services. In Jehoram's exclamation (upon reading the letter of the Syrian king) is implied an acknowledgment of Jehovah as the only true God. He knew that leprosy was incurable save by Divine power. Further, he acknowledges that he himself had no claim or means or hope of the interposition of that power. There may also have been a tacit conviction of blasphemy in the request of Benhadad. But his is not the devout heart to be horrified at the thought of such blasphemy. What filled his selfish soul with alarm and suspicion was the belief that the Syrian king was only seeking a fresh occasion of quarrel with himself and his people. In his fear, too, as in his previous prosperity, he forgot the existence of the prophet who had already delivered his father (Ahab) and himself from this same Syrian power. But God interposes at this juncture by Elisha's message to the troubled king. The tone of reproof and command that appears in the message recalls the similar tone of Elijah to Ahab. Here again the sovereign was summoned to do the bidding of the subject, and in this case not by the prophet himself, but by his servant. But in assuming this commanding tone, both prophets were inspired with the same spirit of jealousy for the Lord of Hosts. Both were animated with the same purpose of showing that there was still a God in Israel. And this purpose was achieved in the case before us, as it had been with Elijah. "None but God," Jehoram had said, "can make alive (or) recover a man of his leprosy;" and confirming this declaration by the after miracle wrought at the prophet's word, God reveals Himself afresh to Jehoram; impressing anew upon his own and his people's heart the old lesson that He alone is God, the God of Israel! 9, 10. Naaman's reception and treatment by Elisha. At the prophet's summons, he goes with his splendid retinue from the king's palace to Elisha's lowly abode. But the prophet neither asks him to enter, nor goes forth to receive him. He only sends him a simple message by a servant. As the prophet of Jehovah, Elisha thus supports the character and dignity of that God who is no respecter of persons. He corrects the ignorant notions of Naaman, gathered from the familiar methods of the heathen enchanters. Unlike these magical pretenders, Elisha keeps himself in the background. He honors God by putting the issue upon His working, while he demands the use of means by Naaman. Thus he excites and exercises the faith, and tests the obedience of the princely leper. He brings distinctly into view and so exalts the sole agency of Jehovah; and he elicits Naaman's acknowledgment of that agency. He strikes effectually, yet not in a way of provocation, at the pride and self-will of Naaman. And thus he helps the cure of the inward leprosy of soul, as well as the outward bodily disease. For all these reasons, Elisha sends by his servant's mouth the simple direction, "Go, wash seven times in Jordan!" B. Jehoram may despair, but Elisha is confident. His message to his king (verse 8) has a noble ring of assured power and consciousness of his prophetic dignity. "Let him come now to me," as befits a suitor. The great end of miracle is clearly put in "he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." That was not self-assertion, from which the gentle nature of Elisha was wholly free, but upholding the honor of his office, and, therein, of Him who had appointed him to it. The picture of the long train of Naaman's attendants, and especially of horses and chariots drawn up at Elisha's humble door, has stamped itself on the writer's mind, as well it might. Here is the dreaded soldier, who wielded the power that had often made Israel tremble, sitting, a humble suppliant, outside the prophet's house. The prophet stays indoors, because he has nothing to do with the cure but to proclaim how to obtain it. He is only a voice. His personality disappears. He brings the sick man into the presence of the true physician's prescription, and there leaves him. So our sense-bound nature is always ready to fly to forms and sacraments and outward means, administered by priests, as the vehicles of forgiveness and cleansing. But God's messenger has no such function. He has simply to proclaim the conditions of cure. A. M. Wash in Jordan. He was told to do this particular thing because of its symbolic significance. Leprosy was defilement; washing was the symbol of cleansing and purification. And the river Jordan in the Lord's land represented a cleansing by His immediate agency. Seven times, both from its significance as the number of perfection and because the repetition afforded a further test of Naaman's faith. The cure was not effected until the number was complete. If he had dipped himself six times, and gone away, he would have experienced no cure. W. H. G. 11, 12. Naaman's impulsive angry words. His wrath was natural. His "thought," that is, the method of Elisha's acting which he had counted on, was utterly disappointed. No respect was shown to his person and rank. No public ceremony in the presence of his retinue; no incantations or prayers; no magical touching of the prophet's hand; no instant marvellous effect. All this was in his thought. Instead of all this display in compliment to his state and in gratification of his vanity, only a message by a servant. With his unchanged human nature, he could not but go "away in a rage." The proud Syrian altogether overlooked the relative position of Elisha and himself in reference to the desired cure. He forgot that the method of cure should properly originate with the agent of the cure, who would best know what under God would effect the cure. And he did not then consider that the cure consisted not in the washing, much less in the waters of any river, but in the power of God, exerted in connection with His own pre- scription. Not in the means, but in their Divine authorization, together with the obedience which accepted and used them. All this he afterward gratefully acknowledged. Apart from his national pride in the rivers of Damascus, his high estimate was fully justified by their superior beauty, breadth, and clearness. "The Abana is no doubt the modern Barada, which rises in the tableland some twenty-three miles from Damascus, and flows through the city in seven beautiful streams. The Pharpar passes a little below the city." The Jordan's turbid waters bore no comparison with these magnificent streams, supplied, as they were, so abundantly by the extended and lofty ranges of Anti-Lebanus. But the Jordan was in a peculiar sense the river of God, and had been oft hallowed by His marvellous presence in Israel's history. There was a fitness, therefore, in the direction of the prophet. This also Naaman afterward learned. B. 11. He will surely come out to me.** This was the tribute which Naaman expected to be paid to his rank. To this day, in the East, the exact mode of meeting and receiving a guest is one of the most important parts of social etiquette. The host is naturally seated on a cushion, carpet or mat, exactly in centre of the side of the room opposite to the door, on the raised dais which is generally to be found in an Eastern hall or guest-chamber. If the visitor be of inferior rank, the host remains seated, while the other advances, making a salaam or obeisance at each step, the form of which differs according as he is a slave, a freeman, a messenger, a suppliant or a trader. If he be of equal or nearly equal rank, the master rises, and makes a step or several steps forward. And, as I have often experienced, in exact proportion to the number of his paces is the amount of consideration shown to the guest. If an inferior is honored by the visit of a superior, all propriety demands that he should at once come forward and meet his visitor before or outside his door. But Elisha would humble the pride of Naaman. Tristram. Elisha's conduct may serve as an illustration of one characteristic of God's great message of healing for the world. The Gospel puts us all on one level, and treats us all in the same fashion. Naaman wanted to be dealt with as a great man who happened to be a leper; Elisha served him as a leper who happened to be a great man. So Christianity brushes aside all surface distinctions, and goes down to the deeply identities of character and need. We have to be content to be dealt with, not as culcultivated, educated, refined, distinguished people, but as sinners; for we are all alike in that. But many of us dislike this, and want to be cured indeed, but with proper deference. Naaman has plenty of successors living yet, who prefer not to be saved from their sins, because the way is offensive to their self-esteem. But that impartial treatment of all is the glory of the Gospel, and is the precursor of as universal a healing. "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." . . . Let me put it into plain English. Whether do you think it matters most in your relation to God—yours and mine—that we are sinners, or that we are cultivated people? Whether do you think it matters most that our hearts have started aside from Him and our hands have done evil, or that we can read Latin and Greek books and are scholars? Whether do you think it matters most that we have broken God's commandments, or that we have made a quantity of money, and live in fine houses, and take a position before our fellows? Are we going to stand upon our miserable, tiny mola-hills beneath those solemn stars far above us and say: "Their light ought to fall upon us in another fashion from what it does on those people that live a little lower down"? I am a rich man. Come out and strike thy hand over the place. I have got a cultivated taste, a highly polished intellect. I must have another gospel from the vulgar crowd. I am a man of position and fame. I am not going to be treated like that poor old woman in her garret, like that soul struggling with insanity, like that little child, like that barbarian just dragged out of cannibalism and savagery. There must be something special for me! There is something for you. If the distinctions on which you pride yourselves are worth anything, they will help you to apprehend and profit by God's gift. But the gift is one. You must be content to sit at the public table, to make one of the thousands on the grass there, fed with the same food as all the others. If any Pharisee or scribe will gather up his robes about him and demand a meal apart, he will have to go without. A. M. There were two ways of cleansing the leprosy: the grand way that Naaman expected; the very simple way which the prophet prescribed. Even so there are two ways of salvation: God's way and man's way. Man's way is unavailing, yet much frequented, because it flatters the pride of man. Man's way of salvation deals with what it takes to be great things: great works which man himself is to do, great organizations, great gifts, which flatter human vanity and will-worship, but have this trifling defect, that they are of no avail. God's plan knows nothing of earthly grandeurs, burdensome minutiae, external observances. God's messages are very short and very few and simple. He says only, "Wash and be clean;" "Believe and obey;" "Believe and live." It rests with you to take Christ's service or man's bondage, Christ's simplicity or man's inventions. If the kingdom of God is not within you, then it is nowhere for you. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Parrar. 12. Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus.** Truly to the eye of man the Jordan can bear no comparison with the rivers of Damascus, any more than the bare hills of Israel with the garden-forests of the "City of the Sun." Turbid and discolored from the time when it leaves the clear blue lake of Galilee till it enters the lifeless basin of the Dead Sea; twisting and writhing in its lonely course through the deep, solitary, and, for the most part, desolate valley; without even an isolated human habitation on its banks, and only a narrow belt of trees and verdure on either side to mark its course—the Jordan, apart from its history and the phenomena of its sudden birth and exit, has nothing to attract. But the Abana—or, as it is now called, the Barada—the river to which the beauteous oasis of Damascus owes its beauty and its very existence—winding from the Anti-Lebanon through a deep green zone, its waters clear and transparent as crystal, dashing through rocky dells, or buried from sight under the foliage of a forest of fruit-trees of every kind—the Abana was justly the Syrian's boast. No wonder that the limpid Abana seemed to Naaman worthier than the muddy Jordan! . . . From the summit of Mt. Hermon we looked down on Tyre and Sidon, on Carmel and Gerizim and Nebo. Lakes Huleh and Gennesareth, sunk in the depths beneath us and reflecting the sunlight, were magnificent. And very striking were the views to the north and east, with the head-waters of the Pharpar rising beneath us and the Abana in the far distance, both rivers marking the courses of their fertilizing streams by the deep green lines of verdure, till the eye rested on the brightness of Damascus, and then turned up the wide opening of Cæle-Syria until shut in by Lebanon. Tristram. Damascus lies in a plain at the eastern foot of Anti-Lebanon, six or eight days' journey from Jerusalem. For many miles the city is girdled by fertile fields and gardens, watered by the Barada and other streams; and the vegetation is so fresh and green, that in the East Damascus is called "a pearl in the midst of emeralds." As the traveller approaches it from Anti-Lebanon, the view is magnificent. A plain, fifty miles in circuit, bordered by blue mountains in the distance, lies before him, forming a vast waving grove of walnut, fig, pomegranate, plum, apricot, citron, and other fruit-trees; while in the distance, rising above this vast sea of green, brown, and yellow foliage, are seen the leaden domes, the gilded crescents, and the marble minarets of Damascus. The situation seems as if marked out by Nature as the site of a great and wealthy city. In the course of its long history it has passed through many fluctuations of fortune, and acknowledged many different masters; at the present day, with a population of some 150,000, it is still one of the most considerable cities of the East. W. G. B. The Damascus oasis is really a triangle, containing more than two hundred square miles. It owes its existence entirely to the streams from Hermon and Lebanon, especially the Awaj (or Pharpar), and the Barada, the old Abana. The waters of these rivers are distributed everywhere by canals, and where they go they carry fertility and beauty. In the days of Abraham, "Damesek" is spoken of as a well-known city. It seems likely that Abraham tarried here on his way from Mesopotamia to Canaan, and "Eliezer of Damascus," afterward his steward, may then have been added to his family. From that day to this it has never ceased to be a populous city. If it be asked how it is that amid the fall of empires and the destruction of great cities—Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Memphis, Thebes—Damascus ever lives, the gurgling waters of the limpid Barada give the reply. This oasis always has been the natural stopping-place for caravans, travellers and armies moving from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates in the East across the great Arabian steppe to Palestine, to the Mediterranean ports and to Egypt, in the West and Southwest. As we drew toward it we had a token of this fact in meeting a herd of one hundred and forty camels being led from Bagdad on the Tigris to Cairo, the metropolis of Egypt, for sale there. The causes which led armies and tradesmen by this route from Assyria and Babylonia to Egypt three and four thousand years ago are still in force. Damascus is the great highway-house between the East and the West. Dulles. Better than all the waters of Is- rael. What is Jordan that I should wash in it? What is the preaching that I should attend on it, where I hear nothing but what I knew before? What are these beggarly elements of water, bread, and wine? Are not these the reasonings of a soul that forgets who appoints the means of grace? What, though it be clay, let Christ use it, and it shall open the eyes, though in itself more likely to put them out. Gurnall.—Christianity comes to us—or rather, instead of that abstract word, let us say Christ, who is Christianity, comes to us—trusting wholly and only to spiritual remedies. He, too, says “wash and be clean.” The one power that cleanses is His blood for pardon, His spirit for holiness. The one condition of receiving these is simple faith in Him; all externals are nothing. Forms and ceremonies, acts of worship, and church ordinances are of no avail. The bond that unites us to Him who is our life is the medium through which life flows to us. And that one bond is faith; and that life is the life-giver who died for us. The Gospel depends wholly on spiritual forces, and is received only by spiritual acts. . . . Christ’s work for us must be all in all, or not at all. There must be no cking out ours with His; no saying, “Well, I do as well as I can—and for the rest I will trust in Christ!” The old cannot be patched with the new in that fashion. You must throw away the rags, and let Him clothe you wholly from head to foot—not in your own righteousness, completed with bits of His—but in His wholly—“if so be that being clothed we may not be found naked.” Powerless we are, but He is strong. Sick, but He is the healer. Leprosy, but He both will and can make us clean. A. M. 13, 14. The servants’ interposition heeded, and the result. Not blinded by pride, nor maddened by passion, they could see nothing humiliating or unreasonable in the proposed washing in Jordan. It seemed to them, as it really was, a simple and appropriate means of healing. So in their strong affection and sympathy, they venture upon their unanswerable appeal. His earnest desire of recovery, they humbly say, would lead him to undergo any amount of toil or of sacrifice. How much rather, then, do this small thing, demanding neither toil nor sacrifice? Their deep interest and sympathy and these reasonable words at once soothe and convince Naaman. His anger is quieted, and he comes to himself. He realizes his leprosy condition and the folly of his pride. His faith is encouraged and hope is rekindled. Both prove strong enough for the journey to the river, and for the sevenfold bath. And both faith and hope find full reward, when, having obeyed “the saying of the man of God, his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child.” In these miracles of the Old Testament, like most of those recorded in the New, some form of human acting preceded or attended the exertion of Divine power. In the restoration of the dead children by Elijah and Elisha, there was the personal contact as well the prayer of faith. Here the seven dippings in Jordan in the spirit of obedience to “the saying of the man of God.” And as in Naaman’s case healing and faith followed close upon obedience, so would it prove with many a sin-troubled soul. If only such a soul would obey the call of Christ to come to Him for healing and cleansing, virtue would assuredly go forth from Him, and the inestimable blessing of the new life would be experienced. B. These men loved more their master’s health than his passion; and would rather therefore advise than flatter; draw him to good than follow him to evil. Since it was a prophet from whom he received this prescription, they persuade him not to despise it; intimating there could be no fault in the slightness of the receipt, so long as there was no defect of power in the commander; that the virtue of the cure should be in his obedience, not in the nature of the remedy. They persuade and prevail. Next to the prophet Naaman may thank his servants that he is not a leper. He goes down upon their entreaty, and dips seven times in Jordan. His flesh riseth; his leprosy vanisheth: not the unjust fury and technical of the patient shall cross the cure; lest, while God is severe, the prophet should be discredited. Bp. II. Naaman had good servants. The little maid sent him to Elisha, and now his attendants will not let him go. Their advice is so undeniably reasonable that there is no resisting it. Naaman had already “done a great thing,” in coming to the foreign soil, and seeking help from an Israelite, as well as in bringing so large a reward, which he was ready to give for healing, and now to refuse to do so simple a thing would be preposterous. But it is a peculiarity of human nature, that it is always more willing to seek great ends by difficult than by easy paths, and suspects simple means if they profess to accomplish large results. We see the same tendency everywhere. Man loves involution, and trouble, and effort. God loves simplicity. The most unreasonable and tragic instance is the frequent rejection of the Gospel, just because there is so little for us to do in order to be cured. It asks nothing from us but our acceptance of its terms. People are willing to fast and go on pilgrimages, and practice austerities, to swing with hooks in their shoulder-blades or to hold their hands up till the arm is stiffened, or to build churches, and spend money and pains to secure salvation, however falsely they may conceive of the nature of it; but they are not willing to give up trying to do anything, and to take salvation as God's free gift. A. M. A readiness to do some great thing is not peculiar to Naaman the Syrian. There are many Christians who can never find a place large enough to do their duty. They must needs strain after great changes, and their works must utter themselves by a loud report. Any reform in society, short of a revolution, any improvement in character, less radical than that of conversion, is too faint a work, in their view, to be much valued. Nor is it merely ambition, but often it is a truly Christian zeal, guarded by no sufficient views of the less imposing matters of life, which betrays men into such impressions. If there be anything, in fact, wherein the views of God and the impressions of men are apt to be at total variance, it is in respect to the solemnity and importance of ordinary duties. The hurtfulness of mistake here, is of course very great. Trying always to do great things, to have extraordinary occasions every day, or to produce extraordinary changes, when small ones are quite as much needed, ends, of course, in defeat and dissipation. It produces a sort of religion in the gross, which is no religion in particular. H. B. Single-mindedness, or simple-mindedness, is a characteristic of childhood; and child-likeness is the standard of greatness for the disciple of Jesus. A strong thinker, and a child-like looker for God and for God's truth, has said: "The simplest things, after all, are the hardest, apparently, for people to see. They are looking, like Naaman, for great biddings or teachings. I am glad Jesus thanked the Father, as he did after John's disciples had come to Him from their master, that God had revealed these things to babes. I want to be numbered among those babes, whose eyes, unambitious or unable to see perplexities, are content with lovingly looking at the simplicities which there are in Christ." S. S. T. 15-19. Naaman's noble confession, and consecration to the God of Israel.** A radical spiritual transformation is wrought with the physical. He is no longer a proud heathen prince, but an humble believer in the God who has achieved this double miracle in himself. Now he knows that God had directed Elisha's act and message; that God had effected the cure. Thus "believing in his heart," he instantly returns to Samaria (thirty miles), makes "confession with his mouth," and desires to leave an offering in token of his gratitude and devotion. The confession Elisha gladly heard. The offering, though presented in a right spirit, and with no thought of making recompense, he declined. Neither himself nor the simple schools over which he presided needed such help. Whatever was required beyond the returns of their own toil was readily supplied by the few godly households of Israel. With the confession of Jehovah as the only true God, Naaman declares his allegiance to this only Lord. Him alone will be worship and serve. He is not, indeed, fully aware of the spiritual character of true worship and the utter singleness of true service. The two requests he makes show this. First, he asks for a gift of earth enough from the enclosure of Elisha's dwelling, to construct with it an altar to Jehovah in his own house. This request, so natural to one of his training, Elisha tacitly declines, thus indirectly instructing him in the spirituality of acceptable worship. The second request (18) shows the sincerity of his confession, and the thorough honesty of the man's nature. Uninstructed as he was, both conscience and heart told him that even an outward seeming of worship to his master's God was wrong. Foreseeing this great hindrance in the way of his purposed confession of Jehovah, he brings the matter to Jehovah's prophet for counsel. In his civil capacity as the king's personal attendant, when the king himself bows down and all his attendants, would it be wrong for him, not in worship but in simple courtesy and obedience, to bow with the king? This nice point Elisha does not decide. He neither allows nor forbids. But he puts the doing or not doing upon the same conscience, now stirred at the anticipation, afterward to be more fully enlightened by the arousing Spirit. He knows the man is true and earnest, and means faithfully to serve the God of Israel. Such a man, he knows, will be guided and taught, and kept steadfast too, by the Spirit of God who has won him. Since He has given life, He will give light. So without mistrust or anxiety concerning his future, Elisha dismisses the humble, grateful Syrian general with the benediction of God's peace! B. 15. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company. It is not always seen what this involved. It involved going out of his way at least fifty miles. At the Jordan, Naaman was on his way home, had accomplished a fourth part of his return journey; in three more days he would be in Damascus, in his own palace. But he feels that it would be an unworthy act to accept his cure and make no acknowledgment of it, having turned away from the prophet "in a rage" (verse 12), now, without apology, or retraction, or expression of regret or gratitude, to return into his own country under the obligation of an inestimable benefit. His cure has wrought in him not merely a revulsion of feeling from rage and fury to thankfulness, but a change of belief. It has convinced him that the God of Elisha is the God of the whole earth. It has turned him from a worshipper of Rimmon into a worshipper of Jehovah. He must proclaim this. He must let the prophet know what is in his heart. He must, if possible, induce him to accept a recompense. Therefore he thinks nothing of an outlay of time and trouble, but retraces his steps to the Israelite capital, taking with him all his company, his horses and his chariots, his gold and silver and bales of clothing, and numerous train of attendants. And came, and stood before him—i.e., descended from his chariot, and asked admittance into the prophet's house, and was received and allowed an audience—a striking contrast with his previous appearance before the house, in expectation that the prophet would come down and wait upon him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.** This is an acknowledgment of the sole supremacy of Jehovah on the part of a heathen, such as we scarcely find elsewhere. The general belief of the time, and indeed of antiquity, was that every land had its own god, who was supreme in it—Baal in Phoenicia, Chemosh in Moab, Moloch in Ammon, Rimmon in Syria, Bel or Bel-Merodach in Babylon, Amun-Ra in Egypt, etc., and when there is an acknowledgment of Jehovah on the part of heathens in Scripture, it is almost always the recognition of him as a god—the God of the Jews or of the Israelites, one among many. But here we have a plain and distinct recognition of Him as the one and only God that is in all the earth. Hammond. 16. In this particular case Elisha felt that he would be unfaithful to the God whom he served if he accepted anything. It might lead Naaman to think that he had purchased that blessing, which God bestowed as a free gift of undeserved mercy. It might lead him to think that the prophets of God were influenced by mercenary motives in granting their aid, like the magicians and soothsayers of the heathen. Hence Elisha refused to accept a gift which was thus capable of being misunderstood. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. It was creditable to Naaman that he pressed the prophet to accept his token of gratitude; it was equally creditable to Elisha that he would not take it. W. H. G. 17. Naaman distinctly intimated his conviction that the land of Israel was a sacred soil, seeing that there alone the true God was to be found; and it was for this reason that he desired to possess a portion of its venerated dust. If, therefore, we look to the uses to which the Easterns apply the soil of places accounted holy, it is possible we may hit upon the right reason for Naaman's singular request. To the Mohammedans at the present day the sacred soil is that of Mecca; and the man accounts himself happy who has in his possession the smallest portion of it for use in his devotions. He carries it about his person in a small bag; and in his prayers he deposits this before him upon the ground in such a manner that, in his frequent prostrations, the head comes down upon this morsel of sacred soil—so that in some sort he may be said to worship thereon. May it not be that Naaman contemplated forming, with this larger portion of the soil of the sacred land, a spot on which he might offer up his devotions to the God of Israel? Kitto. 18,19. It seems that it was Naaman's duty to attend the king of Syria when he went to pay his idol homage, and as the king leaned upon him with his arm upon his shoulder, and bowed very low, he could not well avoid bending his own body with the king. And he meant to ask whether, if he did this out of duty to his master, and not of reverence to the idol, he should commit sin. It showed great tenderness of conscience in him. If the same question were put to us, we should say that it would depend very much upon circumstances whether it would be right or wrong for Naaman to do this. If he wished to save himself from persecution by a seeming compliance with the idolatries of his country, or if any would suppose him to be still an idolater from that act, then it would undoubtedly be wrong; but if it would not be so taken, nor was done to avoid persecution, but was only an act of duty to his king, there was no harm in it. Now it is evident that Naaman meant no concealment of his new faith. He avowed before all the company of Syrians who were with him, that he would henceforth worship only Jehovah. And he probably built an altar on his return, and openly worshipped the true God, so that it would be known when he went to the house of Rimmon that he was no idolater. Therefore Elisha said unto him, "Go in peace." W. H. Lewis. All the Syrian court shall know that he sacrificeth upon Israelitish earth to the God of Israel. They shall hear him protest to have neither heart nor knee for Rimmon. If he must go into the house of that idol, it shall be as a servant, not as a suppliant: his duty to his master shall carry him; not his devotion to his master's god: if his master go to worship there; not he: neither doth he say, "When I bow myself to the image of Rimmon;" but, "in the house." He shall bow to be leaned upon, not to adore. Yet had not Naaman thought this a fault he had not craved a pardon. It is not for us to expect a full stature in the cradle of conversion. As nature, so grace rises by many degrees to perfection. Leprosy was in Naaman cured at once; not corruption. The prophet, as glad to see him but thus forward, dismisses him with a civil valediction. Bp. H. Did Elisha accept Naaman's plea? The evidence turns entirely on Elisha's words, "Go in peace." These words are the common form of Oriental leave-taking. They may have been little more than a courteous dismissal. Elisha may have felt that the permission craved by Naaman involved a question of conscience which he was not called upon to resolve. Hence he would not sanction Naaman's want of consistency on the one hand nor condemn it on the other. He declines the office of judge. He leaves conscience to do her work. Who shall say this was not the wisest course to adopt? The prophet saw Naaman's weakness, but he also saw Naaman's difficulty. Put the worst construction on his words, and you will say he evades the question; put the best, and you will say he exercises a wise forbearance. We may fairly ask how far Naaman is to be excused in urging the plea of the text. Superstition mingled with his faith. He was a heathen, only just converted, only newly enlightened. We may excuse Naaman, but we cannot pretend as Christians to make his plea ours or to justify our conduct by his. Bp. Perovene. It is worthy of being noted that the indulgence which Naaman sought for was not denied by Elisha. There is perhaps somesomething more to be deduced from this than the facile accommodation of these earlier times. There may be instruction in it to us on whom the latter ends of the world have come; and I should feel inclined to see in this history a rebuke of those sticklers for small things who scruple not at great things, who strain at gnats while they swallow camels. T. C. Elisha declared neither that God would nor that he would not forgive Naaman his departure from the path of strict right. He was not called upon to give an answer, since Naaman had not put a question, but had only expressed a wish. His "Go in peace" is to be taken simply as "wishing the departing Syrian the peace of God upon the road." So he departed from him a little way. Naaman left the presence of Elisha, quitted Samaria, and had gone a short way on his homeward journey when Gehazi overtook him. Verse 19 is closely connected with verse 20. Hammond. #### Chief Distinctive Lessons of the Story. The subtle interlacing of providential events under God's control is here most happily illustrated. No thought had that marauding Syrian band in securing the little captive of the blessing that would follow to their chief commander. No thought had Naaman's wife in bringing (perhaps by her own choice and purchase) this maid into her household of the healing of her lord. But God's providence led to that particular foray and to the transfer of that captive. He conducted the godly child to the splendid heathen home of Naaman. Thus he wrought out the whole preparation for the ultimate blessing to Naaman and his household, to the kings and people of Israel and Syria, and to multitudes in subsequent ages. And it may be noted, Christ expressly recognizes this incident as illustrating God sovereignty in providence and grace (Luke 4: 27). Here also we read one of the finest, most complete illustrations on record of the vast issues of good resulting from a single kindly and devout impulse—and this in a youthful heart. Herself and her parentage nameless and obscure; except for this record, utterly unknown. Yet by her thoughtful, sympathetic kindness she has saved the name and fame of Naaman. Nay more, by her simple helpful instrumentality, Naaman himself was saved. And through her indirect agency, by the Gospel truths disseminated through the story over all the earth, this unknown maiden and her simple, heartfelt exclamation have been honored of God in the production of blessing to unnumbered souls. The man of leprosy soul neither knows his inward defilement nor wants it cured. The way of cure—by the sacrifice of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit—makes him a recipient and dependent, therefore his pride rejects it. And the inner experiences he must undergo in the substitution of humility for pride, of submission for self-will, of self-restraint and sacrifice for self-indulgence, are all repelling and painful. And yet in this matter God's voluntary doing and man's required experiences are all worthy of a wise, holy and loving God, while they exalt and ennoble the soul that accepts and conforms to them. For the breaking down of man's natural pride of heart is not humiliating, but exalting. The subjection of man's will to the wiser, better will of God is not enslaving, but ennobling, and principled, helpful self-denial is as consciously elevating as unrestrained, selfish indulgence is degrading. For the lowly, obedient and unselfish heart is a trusting and loving heart. And the possessor of such a heart is the child and heir of God, assured of sufficient grace here, and of abundant glory and joy hereafter! Men seek to do great things in the pursuit of position, power and gain. But the acquisition of each of these objects is ordinarily secured by gradual advances, by steadiness in regular toil and by successive small undertakings. So it is pre-eminently in the attainment of salvation and with progress in the Christian life. All the great things are done by God Himself in the giving of His Son, in the willing sacrifice of Christ and in the mission of the Holy Ghost. Ours is the smaller, simpler work of a receiving and appropriating faith, in the good but the lesser part of a willing glad choice of eternal life. Very simple and clear is the way of attaining this life. It is to come as unto a flowing fountain for the cleansing of sin's defilement, and to receive the new spirit of life in Christ Jesus. B. There is a distinct parallel between the miracle and the greater miracle which cleanses a sinful heart, in that in both the cure is suspended on simple compliance with the terms, and that, in regard to the Gospel healing, the sole condition of being cleansed is to let Christ cleanse us. "Wash and be clean" is the one call of Christ's love. It was not easy to provide that all-cleansing fountain. To do so required the mystery of Incarnation and the agony of Calvary; but, being provided, all else is simple. Jesus has done all, and we have but to accept what is done. "Wash and be clean" is a command shadowing forth "the soul-quickening words, Believe and live." We have our Lord's authority for seeing in this story of Naaman at least some of the principles which regulate the dispensation of His love and grace, exemplified for the world. He alleges it as an instance of the way in which the universal love overleaped all national distinctions, and surged over the barriers which Jewish narrowness would have erected for its free course. "None of them were cleansed, save Naaman, the Syrian." A. M. Verses 20-27. Mercy and judgment both find place in God's dispensations. The history of Naaman is a signal instance of God's free mercy granted to a stranger who was not of the chosen race—who came, not only from a foreign land, but from one which was frequently in open hostility to Israel. It shows that even in that restricted economy God's grace was not confined to one favored people; but they who sought Him, from whatever land and whatever nation, might find Him and receive rich blessings from His hand. But to this bestowment of God's favor upon an alien there is a reverse picture—the infliction of just judgment upon an offender who was not only one of the chosen race, an Israelite, but who was specially privileged as belonging to the household of the prophet. This shows that descent from Abraham and connection with the commonwealth of Israel are not of themselves a sure passport to the Divine favor. It is an anticipation of the truth that many shall come from the East and West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out. W. H. G. 20. The temptation of Gehazi, and the fall. Gehazi is to be classed with Judas and with Ananias and Sapphira, rather than with Achan or Simon Magus. Unlike the true servants of the heathen Naaman, he was a false servant of the Lord's prophet. They had no means of knowledge and grace. A professed follower of Jehovah, he had the fulness of the knowledge then possessed and the grace then given. More privileged he, than even the other sons of the prophets, by his special relation to Elisha. Therefore the words by which he is here characterized, "Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God," convey a peculiar sadness and solemnity in connection with his fearful crime. Like Judas and Ananias, he belonged to the fellowship of the Lord's disciples. By this his guilt was aggravated, and its effects tended greatly to harm and hinder the Lord's work. Gehazi said, "I will avail myself of the offers of this despicable Syrian, whom my master has foolishly let go free of cost and sacrifice." While this Jewish servant of Elisha despises Naaman because a heathen, yet his eye and heart are admiringly set upon Naaman's sacks of treasure. But his thought and desire went further than mere possession of some of this treasure. He was already conceiving himself as having olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and many servants. The money would give him all these, and set him among the rich and distinguished in the land. As Naaman's departing retinue disappeared in the distance, Gehazi's resolve was formed. Strangely enough, too, he binds himself to its execution by a sacred form of oath: "As the Lord liveth." He had already broken the ninth and tenth Commandments. Now he breaks the third as he goes forth to break the eighth. He follows after Naaman to rob him under a fraudulent pretence. B. Naaman, a Syrian, a courtier, a soldier, had many servants, and we read how wise and good they were (verse 13). Elisha, a holy prophet, a man of God, has but one servant, and he proves a base liar. They that heard of Elisha at a distance honored him and got good by what they heard; but he that stood continually before him to hear his wisdom had no good impressions made upon him either by his doctrine or miracles. One would expect that Elisha's servant should be a saint (even Ahab's servant, Obadiah, was), but even Christ Himself had a Judas among His followers. The means of grace cannot give grace. H. 20. My master hath spared Naaman this Syrian. The words "this Syrian" are emphatic. Gehazi persuades himself that it is right to spoil a Syrian—that is, a Gentile, and an enemy of Israel. As the Lord liveth.** These words are here a profane oath. It could be no fit occasion for a solemn asseveration. But Gehazi, anxious to make himself believe that he is acting in a proper, and, even, in a religious spirit, does not scruple to introduce one of the most solemn of religious phrases. B. C. 21, 22. Gehazi's reception, and his request of Naaman. Recognized at once as the servant of Elisha, he is treated with great respect by the grateful Syrian. Naaman even descends from his chariot to greet this supposed messenger of the prophet. Gehazi at once appropriates this thought of Naaman, and thus begins this complicated series of falsehoods. As with every plan of covetousness for wrong getting, so this one involved many untruths. Elisha had not known of his coming; could not have authorized it, much less have sent him. Elisha had not asked for gifts; nay, had declined them. Gehazi well understood the principle which actuated the prophet in declining. Not only did he misinterpret Elisha's conduct, and so throw a stain upon the prophet's character, but what was even more heinous, he was falsifying God's own declarations by the prophet's mouth and act of the utter freeness of His grace. In God's name Elisha had said, I will take no recompense for the blessing. Now Gehazi abuses his position to counteract this Divine announcement. Further, he takes as his own what, as Naaman gives it, is a return for the Divine goodness in healing. Thus Gehazi robs God of Naaman's purposed gift to Him, and he robs Naaman of so much treasure. That the man was shrewd appears in the reason and form of his request. Nothing was asked for Elisha himself; but for those under his oversight and care. Yet more, the request is made in view of an emergency that has risen since Naaman parted with Elisha. In all this fabricated statement he only so far protects Elisha's consistency that his own story may pass muster. As for any other care and for any principle, the story furnishes no trace. One thing he overlooked. This was the vast disproportion of the amount he asked to the object proposed. But his covetousness would be content with no less, though any score of the sons of the prophets might well have been satisfied with half the sum asked for. 23, 24. Naaman's gift: where bestowed by Gehazi. The covetous servant required urging only to keep up the play he was enacting. "Please you to take two talents," said Naaman. Very gladly Gehazi accepted. For in this comparatively vast treasure—equal to the amount paid for the whole city of Samaria—he saw wealth and abundance for life. In his gratitude Naaman also insisted upon sending back two of his servants to carry the bags of silver. But soon as they reached some point in the city, Gehazi took the bags, dismissed the servants, and concealed his ill-gotten wealth in Elisha's house. 25-27. Elisha and Gehazi. The judgment of leprosy. Gehazi then resumes his place in attendance upon his master. Elisha's first question ought to have warned him of some knowledge on the prophet's part. It seems designed as an opportunity of voluntary confession and repentance. But the covetous spirit, now enhanced by possession, could not see this possible meaning or purpose in the prophet's question. Still, as he thinks, guarding himself, he replies with a square falsehood. Like Ananias, he thinks to keep his doubly stolen riches, at least without the prophet's knowledge. And in this "Satan" also deceived him "to lie to the Holy Ghost." Elisha's words of arraignment are almost gentle in the reproach they address to his instructed conscience. Yet are they explicit and plain, both respecting Gehazi's act (now denied), and respecting his intended use of his treasure. The prophet's heart was saddened at the occurrences that had just taken place, in the seeking and meeting of Naaman. All the deceit and wickedness of Gehazi, the result of simply yielding to covetous desire, he saw and grieved over. And he knew all the effects of evil to result from this selfish sin of Gehazi, through its unhappy result, possibly upon Naaman and upon Syria, certainly upon Gehazi himself and upon the people of Israel. He saw God's work hindered, God's grace specially dishonored at a time when apostasy widely prevailed. This man hitherto professing a lowly life of faith in God, unselfish and truthful, a life then mainly needed as the great stay against the inroads of evil, would by his fall shake feeble souls from their hold upon God. He would destroy Elisha's character with the people as a pure true prophet. Nay, he would represent Jehovah himself as having the selfish false spirit of Baal. All this was involved in the time and the events then transpiring. Servant as he was, his position with God's prophet and his professed relations with God Himself gave him this tremendous vantage-ground for evil doing. Therefore went forth the judgment of God, at the mouth of Elisha, in the mark of leprosy, borne down to after generations. Dismissed from the prophet's service, Gehazi "went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." But he went as a rich man, openly taking his treasure. He invested it, too, as he had proposed; and we may suppose, from 2 K. 8: 1-6, that his was the exact career depicted by Christ (Luke 12: 13-20). All this is strange, some may think—that God should suffer him to possess this wealth in peace, obtained by fraud and falsehood. But this is precisely what God is suffering to be done by all who have the purpose and hardihood to do it. For Him to interpose and take away from every man what is dishonestly gotten would be to revolutionize His ways among men. It would be to interfere seriously with men's own agency and responsibility. It would be prematurely to execute His now waiting judgment. Christ's words apply here, too: "Let both wheat and tares grow unto the judgment." Like the Pharisees of the Master's time, Gehazi had his reward. He enjoyed the wealth and position he had coveted. He was elevated toward Naaman's position. But he had Naaman's curse. This curse no waters of the Jordan would ever relieve or remove. Nay, life itself would not bring it to an end; for the true and the terrible leprosy rested upon his selfish, guilty soul. This he alone had brought upon himself. B. 25. But he went in, and stood before his master. Gehazi, lest his absence should be noticed, as soon as he had put away the money, sought his master's presence, entering the room casually, as if he had been busied about the house. He was met at once, however, by the plain question which follows. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? literally, Whence, Gehazi? A short, stern, abrupt question. And he said, Thy servant went no whither. There was no help for it. One lie necessitates another. Once enter on the devious path, and you cannot say whither it will conduct you. To deceive and plunder a foreigner of a hostile nation probably seemed to Gehazi a trifle, either no sin at all, or a very venial sin. But now he finds himself led on to telling a direct lie to his master, which even he could not have justified to himself. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, my master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim. And he said, Take it up to thee. So he put out his hand, and took it. That the schools of the prophets had special buildings for their accommodation is not only inferable from the necessities of the case, but is touchingly indicated here, as we read that "the sons of the prophets" came to Elisha to say that their accommodations for students' rooms were too strait, and proposing to go to Jordan and its timbered bottoms, and take thence every man his beam [pole], and fit up more such humble accommodations for their shelter. He said, "Go;" but they quietly suggest that he go with them; and, like a true and faithful father-prophet, he went. It was fortunate that he did; for so he was on hand to bring the iron axe-head to the surface when by accident it had sprung from its helve and fallen into the Jordan. The cry, "Alas, master, for it was begged!" brought Elisha's miracle-working power at once to their aid. They were too poor to buy their axes. This man had to beg his—ask it, as the Hebrew signifies—yet never in the sense of borrow. It is the word used in the history (Ex. 3:22; 11:2) of the Israelites asking jewels and goods of the Egyptians—which was by no means "borrowing." All in all, this is a very pleasant inside view of college life in those ancient schools of the prophets—antedating by a few thousand years the experiences of some prophet schools of our age which have struggled upward from the humblest beginnings amid many privations, and not a little morally wholesome manual toil, and occasionally some cheering tokens of a helping power from above. H. C. 1. The place where we dwell with thee.** Literally, "the place where we sit before thee"—i.e., "the place where we assemble, and sit to hear thy teaching." Elisha did not, properly speaking, "dwell with" the sons of the prophets. He only visited them in circuit, staying a short time at each place where a "school" was established. 5. The axe-head. Literally, "the iron." The Jews used iron for the heads of axes at a very early date. (See De. 19:5.) They probably acquired a knowledge of the smelting process in Egypt, where iron was employed at least from the time of the third Rameses. For it was borrowed.** This is part of the wood-cutter's exclamation, not a remark of the author's. The wood-cutter shows the axe-handle to Elisha, and cries, "Alas, my lord, and it a borrowed one!" He merely made the natural exclamation of a man to whom such a misfortune had happened. 6. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither. It has been suggested that no miracle is here intended, but that Elisha, seeing the axe-head at the bottom of the river, thrust in a long stick, and adroitly passing it through the hole designed to receive the handle, lifted the axe-head to the surface. But there are two objections to this. First, it is not the natural sense of the words, which imply that the prophet threw the wood into the water; and secondly, the sacred writers do not record mere acts of manual dexterity. Made the iron to swim.** His action, though it could no more naturally produce such a result than salt could purify a spring or meal remove the noxious character of poisonous herbs, yet had the effect which he intended. The iron rose to the surface, and remained there. No doubt there is something startling in the trivial character of this miracle, and of the few others which resemble it. We are apt not to be satisfied unless there is clearly seen by us to be a dignus vindice nodus in each case of miraculous interposition. But we really know very little as to the laws which govern the exercise of miraculous powers, where such powers have been committed by God to a mere mortal. It is possible that they may sometimes, like natural gifts, be so much under their possessor's control that he can exercise them, or not exercise them, at pleasure. And it may depend on his discretion whether they are exercised in important cases only, or in trivial cases also. Elisha had evidently great kindness of heart. He could not see a grief without wishing to remedy it. And it seems as if he had sometimes used his miraculous power in pure good nature, when no natural way of remedying an evil presented itself. B. C. In this miracle God did not do all. There was water, air, sky and iron. Instead of these four concourses there were five, one of which was Jehovah's will. Why did the iron sink? It was heavier than the water; gravity pulled it down. Why did it swim? This excess of gravity might have been counteracted by a lifting up with a string or a stick; but God simply interpolated a new transient force equal to the excess of the specific gravity of the iron over the water, and acting in a direction opposite to that of gravity, and the iron floated. This is also true of the most complex of miracles, as the rising of Lazarus from the dead. It was not simply to arrest decay, but to make the atoms of the body go back to healthy action, as in life. God simply changed the conditions by a new Divine force, and the atoms acted as in his growing youth and manhood. How different the miracles of the Bible from other miracles! They were certain definite events, not done in the dark nor in a corner, but in the clear light of day, where everybody could see them. They were repeated under varying circumstances, before many witnesses, and under the inspection of the senses—sight, touch, hearing. A. A. Hodge. 8. Now the king of Syria warred against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are coming down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. And the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber. And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host with horses and chariots was round about the city. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. And he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them : wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23 And he prepared great provision for them : and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. 8-23. THE chronic hostility which subsisted between the Israelitish and the Syrian kingdoms soon broke out again in war. In this, as in other instances, Syria was the aggressor. The invaded kingdom was delivered, not through "the sword and the bow" (verse 22) of its king, but once more through the interposition of Elisha. J. O.—Incursions, on the side of Syria and of Israel, were of constant occurrence during almost the whole period of the monarchy of Jehoram. "The Syrians went out by companies, and brought away captives out of the land of Israel," and the Israelites no doubt retaliated, and from time to time sent their plundering expeditions into Syria, and took booty and prisoners. But before Jehoram had been on the throne many years a more threatening system of attack was organized by the second Benhadad, and attempts were for a second time made to push the war to extremities, and to effect the subjection of Samaria to the Syrian yoke. The enterprising monarch of Syria led a series of expeditions into the Israelite territory with the hope of surprising and cutting off detachments or of otherwise gaining some considerable advantage; but his expectations were frustrated after a manner for which he found it hard to account—his designs seemed to be penetrated, his intentions known. Suspecting treachery among his officers, he was met by the assurance that the Syrian ranks harbored no traitor, but that Elisha, by his supernatural powers, was able to penetrate and expose all his plans. Under these circumstances, he sought to obtain possession of Elisha's person; and having learned that the prophet was residing in a small Israelite town called Dothan, he sent an army thither to take him. Elisha, though angelic hosts surrounded him, was instructed to yield, and obeyed. He induced the Syrians to accompany him to Samaria, under a strange species of illusion; after which he delivered them over to Jehoram, whose first impulse was to put them to death. This impulse Elisha checked. The king, he said, should rather entertain his prisoners hospitably, release them freely and let them return to their own country. The advice was followed; and Benhadad appears to have been so far touched by the generous treatment of his soldiers, that for some considerable space he refrained from further hostilities against the Israelites. But some years later he suddenly invaded Israel and laid siege to Samaria. G. R. (See next Section.) 8-13. Elisha foils the ambuscading schemes of the Syrian king. At several points successive ambuscades were laid to entrap the king of Israel. But Elisha, by special supernatural vision, faithfully forewarned Jehoram upon each occasion, and the king escaped the peril. Naturally the Syrian king was surprised at the seeming disclosure of his secret plans, and inferred treachery on the part of his own officers. Upon investigation at a called council, he was informed by one who had learned the fact in some way, that Elisha the prophet had revealed all his very thoughts to the king of Israel. At once he sends out spies to discover the place where Elisha was tarrying. They return with the intelligence that he is at Dothan. This was a small town upon a hill, about eleven miles north of Samaria. B. 8. Then the king of Syria warred against Israel.** It may seem strange that, so soon after sending an embassy to the court of Samaria, and asking a favor (chap. 5 : 5, 6), Benhadad should resume hostilities, especially as the favor had been obtained (chap. 5 : 14); but the normal relations between the two countries were those of enmity (chap. 5 : 2), and a few years would suffice to dim the memory of what had happened. Hammond. 9. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel—Jehoram (2 K. 3 : 1), or Joram, as he is likewise called (2 K. 8 : 25), the son of Ahab. How little regard Elisha had for this ungodly monarch is plain from his language to him on a former occasion (2 K. 3 : 13), when he sought the prophet's aid in a time of great peril, and from his speaking of him (2 K. 6 : 32) as "this son of a murderer." And how alienated the king was from the prophet appears not only from the fact that it was not he, but one of his servants, who suggested the application to the prophet when the armies of the three kings were in danger of perishing (2 K. 3 : 11), and that he did not direct Naaman to him until the prophet himself volunteered in the case (2 K. 5 : 8), but that, in the straits to which Samaria was reduced afterward in a siege, instead of soliciting the intercession of the prophet, he ordered him to be put to death (2 K. 6 : 31). It is perhaps significant that he is here spoken of not by name, but simply by his office. The message of the prophet was addressed to the king of Israel. He was for the time the head and representative of the people of God, and it is for the safety and the welfare of Israel that the prophet is concerned, not for the personal advantage of Joram. W. H. G. Elisha is a thousand scouts. He sends word to the king of Israel of the projects, of the removes, of his enemy. More than once had Jehoram saved both his life and his host by these close admonitions. It is well that in something yet a prophet may be obeyed. What strange state-service was this which Elisha did, besides the spiritual! The king, the people of Israel owe themselves and their safety to a despised prophet! The man of God knew and felt them idolaters; yet how careful and vigilant is he, for their rescue! If they were bad, yet they were his own; if they were bad, yet not all; God had His number among their worst: if they were bad, yet the Syrians were worse. The Israelites misworshipped the true God; the Syrians worshipped a false. That if it were possible he might win them, he will preserve them; and if they will needs be wanting to God, yet Elisha will not be wanting to them: their impiety shall not make him undutiful. Bp. H. 12. And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber: The cure of Naaman's leprosy was doubtless widely known in Syria. Such a miracle wrought upon the general of the army and the favorite of the king could not be a secret. And many other evidences of Elisha's supernatural power may also have been generally reported. W. H. G. 14, 15. The encompassing Syrian host, and the servant's great fear. Secretly and by night this little city was invested by a considerable company of Syrians, with horses and chariots and footmen. This great company of hostile warriors met the gaze of Elisha's new and untried servant, as he went forth early in the morning upon the wall. The imminence of the peril pressed sorely upon his inexperienced heart, and with small faith in God or His prophet, he hastens with the alarming news to Elisha. Yet had he some faith with his fear; for he asks, "How shall we do?" 16, 17. The answer and the prayer of Elisha. Calm and undaunted in spirit, with the unwavering courage of implicit faith in Jehovah, Elisha hears his servant's appeal. And quietly he assures the young man of God's absolute invincible protection. He sees the gathered hosts of God, outnumbering far the human array and girded with the might of omnipotence, now as ever interposed for his deliverance. How sublime the contrast here of human fear and human faith—fear of man and faith in God! In this we read the first grand lesson of the incident. But Elisha adds to his assurance a fervent prayer for the same elevation of faith to be imparted to his servant. He asks that a spiritual vision may be given to the mind of the man. And there, as he stood in the prophet's secluded chamber, the Lord gifted him with supernatural mental vision. To the actual scene he had just beheld, now reproduced upon the eye of the mind, the Divine Spirit added a sublime picture of a vaster host of fiery chariots intervening between Elisha and his foes—a multitude filling the city, and the hill upon which it lay. The end of the vision was the enlargement and confirmation of the man's faith. And this is the second grand lesson of the incident under review. Faith comes through the spiritual vision of God. The power of spiritual sight is imparted by His Spirit. The Holy Ghost alone unseals the eyes of the understanding, to behold the wondrous things of God—of His law, of His grace and love. The marshalled hosts of God were around Elisha, but the young man saw them not until a Divine illumination was imparted to him. So the sublime facts of God's presence, of His providence and redemption—all truths disclosed in type and history, in psalm and prophecy in the Old Testament, and fulfilled by Christ and the Holy Spirit—all have intense reality. But the sense of that reality comes alone through the apprehension of faith. And the vision of faith is the gift of God. It is the work of His quickening, illuminating Spirit. And this Divine gift is bestowed, this Divine work inwrought in every soul, in answer to the prayer of those who, like Elisha, already believe and live. B. Elisha's servant quakes at the Syrian army, no fear invades the prophet. He saw, and caused his man to see, a greater Deliverer above. So it is with men in the time of trouble; if their eyes be fixed on earth, their enemies appear great, and God that is so high seems little. Let our eyes be in heaven, and from thence look down upon our enemies, God will then appear mighty, our foes weak and contemptible. Adams. 16. Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them, is the perfectly fearless word of Elisha at Dothan. It gets echo and emphasis in Paul's perfectly fearless word at Corinth: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Old Testament and New Testament agree in this, that a true faith allies us to God. And alliance with God means majority and might and victory. H. Johnson. As stood the prophet with his servant in the midst of two opposing hosts, gathered for his destruction and deliverance, so stands every human soul. In the midst of two opposing hosts, both of whom, the enemies as well as friends, are invisible save to the vision of faith, a vision divinely given in answer to prayer. Satan and his hosts of evil daily, hourly arrayed against me. God and His hosts of good daily, hourly arrayed for me. This is the one grand reality of our life against which our eyes are closed, the reality which God alone can enable us to behold. B. There is no contrast in modern life so great as the contrast between the two standards under which the whole world ranges itself to-day. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—these two stand over against each other in irreconcilable hostility; and yet the subjects of both meet and intermingle in the world, often without knowing to which of the two kingdoms one another belongs. The two kingdoms are spiritual kingdoms, and their soldiers do not always wear a visible uniform by which they may be distinguished. But the distinction, though not always visible, is there; and its consequences reach into eternity. No other contrast of life matters so much—whether we are rich or poor, ignorant or intelligent, refined or uncultivated, is a question which may chiefly affect this life; but the distinction between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom is one whose consequences will affect each of us untold ages after the other contrasts of this life shall have been forgotten. H. C. T. 17. Some have tried to explain away the record of spiritual appearances as due to the natural surroundings of romantic scenery working on an excited imagination. Dothan lends itself to no such fantastic solution. A wide, rich plain, lying on the natural highway from Syria across Jordan by Bethshean to Samaria, with a smooth, round-topped hill at its south-eastern edge, beneath which is a copious spring, precious to the shepherds, and many dry cisterns, into one of which Joseph may have been cast, lends no aid to the imagination. The ancient city, now marked by grass-grown mounds, covered the summit of the hill. On its slopes the Syrians could not camp. They beleaguered it by encircling it with their camp on the rising ground beyond the base of the mount. It was on the open space all round the city that the hosts of Jehovah were revealed interposing between Benhadad's troops and the prophet. Tristram. The horses and chariots mean warlike force. Still, what the servant sees is not a material, it is a spiritual reality, taking a form which assures him of God's sure protection, through the agencies of these ministers of His who do His pleasure, and at a time when all was dark to the eye of flesh. Liddon.—The servant of Elisha, until his eye was divinely opened, saw nothing but the hosts of the enemy surrounding Dothan and cutting off escape; but as soon as Divine light fell on him, he beheld a new spiritual world. He was now the enlightened one, the man of opened eyes; while the Syrians, who gloried in their strength, were smitten with blindness, and led captive by a single unarmed man. His mind had drawn in a great lesson. The chariots of fire, indeed, and horses of fire, were, in one sense, unreal; that is, they were not of flesh, nor obvious to human sense: they were unearthly powers, who assumed a form by which they could make an impression of truth on the distrustful, fleshly mind of the prophet's servant. There were no chariots there, nor horses; but there were spiritual hosts, who showed themselves before the imagination of the young man to be more than a match for the army of besiegers. Thus a great truth from heaven, a reality as lasting and as wide as the universe, was taught him, that, beyond our eyes and ears, a majestic, spiritual world is moving on in silence; that an unseen God has infinite, unseen resources; that the causes and issue of things lie outside of the horizon of the senses; that immense agencies may be at work in all stillness and without the slightest show, of which the worldly mind does not so much as dream. If there are hosts of foes of God, there is a God of hosts above them. T. D. W. In the state of light the soul can see that to which it was previously quite blind. The prophet's servant imagined that his master and himself were left alone, but when his eyes were opened he saw the mountain to be filled with chariots and horses of fire. As great a wonder is often wrought in our own days. A man is living among us seeing nothing beyond a contracted circle of earth and earthly interests—thinking, perhaps, that few care for him, and that he needs to look to no one but himself— that he is isolated and alone or almost so—but the Spirit touches him, the scales fall from his eyes, the curtain is withdrawn from the spiritual world, and the intense light of Divine truth, with gradual dawn or sudden flash, lights up the amphitheatre by which he is surrounded, and he beholds that he is in the midst of eternities—at once a spectacle to and a spectator of another and grander universe. R. Flint. The Gospel comes to recreate and strengthen our faith in things and persons unseen and eternal; it comes to rebridge the great gulf which we have fixed between the seen and temporal, and the unseen and eternal, and to draw us in thought and affection over the bridged chasm. It comes to make real and substantial to us the invisible. It seeks to make us walk by faith, not by sight—to live for, fight for, work and suffer and die for invisible interests and beings; and to reveal them (if that were possible) would be to subvert its objects. Our invisible helpers must remain invisible. They are here. They are real. We need but a spiritual vision, an all-conquering faith to see them, to realize their presence, to banish our fears, to make us ever calm and serene. Faith says in all the way, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” J. Drummond. This manifestation has several features of resemblance to that given to Jacob in his most defenceless hour, when he saw beside his unprotected camp of women and children “God’s host,” and in a rapture of thankful wonder named the place “Mahanaim”—“Two Camps.” The sight teaches us that God’s messengers are ever near, and then most near when needed most. It tells us, too, that they come in the form needed. They are warriors when we are ringed about by foes, counsellors when we are perplexed, comforters when we mourn. Their shapes are as varied as our needs, and ever correspond to “the present distress.” They come in power sufficient to conquer. There was force enough circling the prophet to have annihilated all the Syrians. True, they did not draw their celestial swords, but they were there, and their presence was enough for the triumphant faith of the guarded men. What living thing could come through that wall of fire? Our eyes are blinded, and we need to have them cleared. We look so constantly at the things seen that we have no sight for the unseen. Worldliness, sin, unbelief, sense and its trifles, time and its transitorinesses, blind the eyes of our mind; and we need those of sense to be closed, that these may open. The truest vision is the vision of faith. It is certain, direct and conclusive. The world says, “Seeing is believing;” the Gospel says, “Believing is seeing.” If we would but live near to Jesus Christ, pray to Him to touch our blind eyeballs, and turn away from the dazzling unrealities which sense brings, we should find Him “the Master-light of all our seeing,” and be sure of the eternal, invisible things with an assurance superior to that given by the keenest sight in the brightest sunshine. When we are blind to earth, we see earth glorified by angel presences, and fear and despair and helplessness and sorrow flee away from our tranquil hearts. If, on the other hand, we fix our gaze on earth and its trifles, there will generally be more to alarm than to encourage, and we shall do well to be afraid, if we do not see, as in such a case we shall certainly not see, the fiery wall around us, behind which God keeps His people safe. A. M. Prayer is a cold and heartless thing in numbers of instances because men see nothing of Him to whom prayer is addressed, nothing of God, nothing of Jesus, nothing of the spirit-world around the throne, nothing of the majesty, the beauty, the glory which encircles God, such as is possible, really possible to our finite and purblind gaze—nothing of the everlasting worship which surrounds Him, nothing of the ministers of His that do His pleasure. Liddon. 18. The investing company of Syrians smitten with blindness at the prayer of Elisha. With his now assured servant Elisha goes down to the Syrian camp in the plain below. As he approaches his prayer is uttered, “Smite this people, I pray Thee, with blindness.” For his servant he had asked sight, a clear, mental impression of things invisible. Upon this Syrian cohort he prays that a mental delusion or bewilderment (concerning things visible) may fall. Not a bodily blindness, but such a dazing of the senses as utterly to bewilder and paralyze the ordinary judgment. The object of Elisha was to hinder their recognition of him, and to lead them (as he did) to Samaria. And this prayer of Elisha, also, was instantly answered. The Lord smote the Syrians with such blindness, and thus prepared the way for Elisha’s further interposition in behalf of Israel. B. He that prayed for the opening of his servant’s eyes to see his safeguard prays for the blinding of his enemies, that they might not see to do hurt. As the eyes of Elisha’s servant were so shut that they saw not the angels when they saw the Syrians, so the eyes of the Syrians shall be likewise shut, that when they see the man they shall not see the prophet. To all other objects their eyes are clear: only to Elisha they shall be blind—blind, not through darkness, but through misknowledge. They shall see and mistake both the person and place. Bp. II. 19-23. Going boldly into their midst he bids them follow him to the city where the man they seek has his dwelling. Then he leads them eleven miles to Samaria. Whatever question may be raised respecting the precise truthfulness of the prophet's assertion to them, finds its most satisfactory solution in these two facts: that God seems to have directed the prophet's action in the whole matter; and that Elisha's use of his simple stratagem intimates a kind temper and purpose toward the Syrians. When their blinding bewilderment was removed, at Elisha's prayer, they found themselves captives in the midst of the capital city, Samaria. Jehoram would then have fallen upon and destroyed them. But the prophet nobly rebukes the king. "Thou wouldst not slay those thou overcomest in fair conflict. Much less shouldst thou harm these whom God has put in thy power. Rather treat them kindly and generously; and release them to their master." Yet these Syrians had been exclusively seeking this very prophet. There was prudence and policy, as well as kindness and nobleness, in Elisha's conduct. His generous treatment, together with their own sharp experience, served to put a stop at least for a time to the warfare against Israel. B. 19. Justly now might Elisha say, "This is not the way, neither is this the city," wherein Elisha shall be described. He was in Dothan: but not as Elisha. He shall not be found but in Samaria, neither can they have any guide to him but himself. No sooner are they come into the streets of Samaria, than their eyes have leave to know both the place and the prophet. The first sight they have of themselves is in the trap of Israel. Bp. II. Elisha meant the Syrians to understand him to say, "This is not the way which ye ought to have taken if ye wanted to capture the prophet Elisha, and this is not the city (Dothan) where he is to be found." And so the Syrians understood him. In the morality of the time, and, indeed, in the morality of all times up to the present, it has been held to be justifiable to deceive a public enemy. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. It could only be through the miraculous delusion for which Elisha had prayed, and which had been sent, that the Syrians believed the first comer in an enemy's country, followed him to the capital without hesitation, and allowed him to bring them inside the walls. But for the delusion they would have suspected, made inquiries of others, and retreated hastily, as soon as the walls and towers of Samaria broke on their sight. 20. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.** Their delusion was dispelled—they returned to their proper senses, and, seeing the size and strength of the town, recognized the fact that they were in Samaria, their enemy's capital, and so were helpless. Hammond. Elisha, in promising to bring them to the man whom they wanted, undertook no more than he performed. Only when the Lord opened their eyes, they found they were not in Dothan, but in Samaria. This is one way in which God frequently discomfits wicked men, pouring confusion into their counsels. They "grope for the wall, like the blind, and grope as if (they) had no eyes: (they) stumble at noonday as in the night; (they) are in desolate places as dead men" (Isa. 59: 10). They are granted the desires of their hearts, but after a fashion of God's own; and in such a way as to lead to their final discomfiture. J. O. 22. "Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow?" As if he said, "These are God's captives, not thine; and if they were thine own, their blood could not be shed without cruelty. If it be victory thou aimest at, overcome them with kindness; set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink." Oh, noble revenge of Elisha, to feast his persecutors! To provide a table for those who had provided a grave for him! These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha; he sends them from Samaria full of good cheer. Thus should a prophet punish his pursuers. No vengeance but this is heroical, and fit for Christian imitation; "If thine enemy hunger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drink, and the Lord shall reward thee." Bp. II. 23. Faith in God puts enemies in our hands, but not for vengeance. Elisha in the might of his faith captures those who sought to capture him, and in capturing their persons he would capture their hearts. He has them treated by his king with kindness, and then, unharmed, they are sent back to their master, taught that the God of Elisha and of Israel is not only a mighty but a gracious and forgiving God. This is faith's way. It "worketh by love." H. Johnson. The king of Israel hath done that by his feast which he could not have done by his sword. The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel. Bp. H.—The Syrian raids, which had hitherto been frequent, perhaps almost continuous (chap. 5: 2), now ceased for a time, and the kingdom of Israel had a respite. Hammond. The incident impressively illustrates the sublime expression of Paul in 2 Cor. 4: 17, 18. The unseen agencies of the eternal world ever surround the believer. He abides under the shadow of the Almighty. He is entrenched within the impregnable camp and guarded by the invisible cohorts of God. With clear, high thoughts of this encompassing Divine presence, whom can he fear? "If God be for him, who can be against him?" Only let him look more steadfastly and trustingly upon the things which are not seen, only let him realize that he is "kept by the power of God," and, like Elisha he shall abide calm and undaunted in the midst of the beleaguering hosts of evil, assured of daily deliverance through the period of continuing peril, and at length of "an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The incident further discloses the privilege and office of the clear-visioned and strong-hearted believer in behalf of the feeble-sighted, the fearful and faint in spirit. Not only by his example, but by his fervent prayer, may the believing soul help to impart vision and reinforce the courage and faith of the half-seeing, the timid, and the doubting. What Elisha achieved by his prayer for his servant may be accomplished by every Elisha-like disciple according to the measure of his faith in God's promise and working. Further, in the opening of the eyes of the prophet's servant, and in the dimming of the vision of the prophet's foes, we find an effective illustration of Christ's words in John 9: 39. "I am come into the world," He said, "that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." To those who know and feel their spiritual darkness, who desire and gladly welcome Him as the light of life, He imparts the clear vision and the blessed experience of faith. But from the spiritually blind who think they see, who therefore reject His offered light, He withholds all quickening grace. Thus, in judgment, the darkness is sealed upon their hearts forever. B. 6: 24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the wine-press? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; (now he was passing by upon the wall;) and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall 32 stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how, this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him: is not the sound of his 33 master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; why should I wait for the 7:1 LORD any longer? And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD: thus saith the LORD, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two meas- 2 ures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to 4 another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall 5 live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of 6 the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, 7 and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and 8 fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried thence 9 also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, punishment will 10 overtake us: now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but the horses 11 tied, and the asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters; and they 12 told it to the king's household within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, 13 When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed:) and 14 let us send and see. They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent 15 after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in 16 their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the people went out, and spoiled the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and 17 two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the 18 king came down to him. And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall 19 be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria; and that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: 20 it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died. The siege of Samaria. Unwarned by the failure of previous attempts, Benhadad was soon engaged in a new war on Israel. The fresh invasion was made the occasion of a fresh deliverance, more wonderful than any of the preceding, but not before Samaria had been reduced to the most desperate straits. J. O. A considerable interval succeeded the inroad of the Syrian bands, recounted in the preceding section. But at length the same king Benhadad comes against Israel with a great army. Through a plundered and wasted country, he reaches, surrounds, and lays siege to the capital city. The siege is protracted until there is great famine in Samaria. Jehoram, excited with the suffering of the people, becomes enraged against Elisha. Either he thought that Elisha's threats and prayers had brought the sore evil upon them, or that the prophet had forborne to use his prevalent intercession with God for their relief. He does not realize that his and his people's sins have brought upon them humiliation and calamity. These sins were the proper objects of his wrath, and not the good prophet. The messenger sent by Jehoram to kill Elisha was arrested by command of the foreseeing prophet. At the same moment the king himself comes in to Elisha with a bitter complaint against Jehovah. Then the prophet speaks words of hope and promise, which are only doubtingly received by the king and his attendants. On that very afternoon deliverance came by miracle, from God alone. He used an empty sound—as harmless a thing as can be conceived—sending it through the air on either side the Syrian camp. Simply the noise of great hosts advancing from afar struck the besieging army with an utter overwhelming panic. Not only did they flee on the instant, but to give completeness to God's deliverance and supply to Israel, they left behind the horses and asses upon which they might more swiftly and safely have fled. The discovery was made by four lepers outside the city gate. With starvation on every other side, they determine to trust the mercy of the Syrians. They find absolute silence and desertion in the rich and splendid camp. After satisfying their hunger and securing abundance of gold and silver and raiment, late in the evening they make their way back to the city gate and tell their story. The porters carried the tale to those that were within, and so it reached the king. B. While Jehoram paid a certain amount of respect to Elisha, as the prophet of Jehovah, he nevertheless allowed the worship of Baal to continue in the capital (chap. 10 : 18-28), if not elsewhere, and maintained the calf worship also at Dan and Bethel (chap. 3 : 3). He had suffered himself to be guided by Elisha in rerespect of the Syrian prisoners captured by the prophet (verse 23), and had evidently been in communication with him on the subject of the present siege, had probably been exhorted by him to repentance, and promised that, if he would wait upon Jehovah, in due time there should be deliverance. The prophet's words had made some impression on him; he had to a certain extent turned to God, had put sackcloth upon his loins, not ostentatiously, but secretly (verse 30), had borne the privations of the siege without murmuring, had refused to surrender the town, and looked to Jehovah to deliver it. But there was no depth in his penitence, no surrender of the heart and the will to God, no firm and rooted faith in God's truthfulness and in the certain accomplishment of His promises. A single incident of the siege—a horrible one certainly, but not without a parallel in other sieges—shattered the whole fabric of his repentance and his resolution, turned him against the prophet and against Jehovah, caused him to threaten the prophet's life, and to make up his mind that he would follow his own course and not wait for the Lord any longer (verse 33). He thus revealed the true state of his heart and soul, showed his spiritual unsoundness, revealed himself as one whose character was rotten at the core, who had never turned to Jehovah in sincerity and truth. What wonder, then, that God had not granted the deliverance promised to true faith and true penitence, that a half repentance had not availed with Him? So it had been with Ahab; so it would always be with all those who, after Jehoram's example, should be half-hearted in religion, should at once "fear the Lord and serve their own gods" (chap. 17 : 33)—own for masters both God and mammon. A half repentance is useless. Nothing avails but to turn to God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength. Hammond. 24. And it came to pass after this—probably some considerable time after, when the memory of Jehoram's kind act had passed away—that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host. A contrast is intended between the inroads of small bodies of plunderers and the invasion of the territory by the monarch himself at the head of his entire force. And went up. However Samaria was approached from Syria, there must always have been a final ascent, either from the Jordan valley or from the Plain of Esdraelon. And besieged Samaria. Josephus says that Jehoram was afraid to meet Benhadad in the open field, since his forces were no match for those of the Syrian king, and therefore at once shut himself up within his capital, without risking a battle. The walls of Samaria were very strong. 28. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee?** Probably, as Bähr suggests, the woman explained to the king that she did not appear before him to beg food, but to claim his interposition as judge in a case in which she considered herself to be wronged. Such an appeal the king was bound to hear; and he therefore asks, "What aileth thee?"—i.e., "What is thy ground of complaint?" Then she tells her story. Hammond. 33. It has been proposed to change "messenger" into "king," the two words being in Hebrew nearly alike, and the speech with which the chapter ends being only suitable in the mouth of the king, whose presence is moreover indicated in verses 2 and 17 of the next chapter. Jehoram bursts into the prophet's presence with a justification of the sentence he has pronounced against him. "Behold this evil—this siege with all its horrors—is from Jehovah—from Jehovah, whose prophet thou art. Why should I wait for Jehovah—temporize with Him—keep, as it were, on terms with Him by suffering thee to live—any longer? What hast thou to say in arrest of judgment?" B. C. 7:1, 2. The separation of these verses from the preceding narrative is most unfortunate. They are an integral part of it, and form its climax. In answer to the king's attempt upon his life, and hasty speech in which he has threatened to renounce Jehovah, Elisha is commissioned to proclaim that the siege is on the point of terminating, the famine about to be within twenty-four hours succeeded by a time of plenty. There is thus no reason for the king's despair or anger. Hammond. The promise came from Elisha when all seemed desperate. The wonderfully vivid narrative in the previous chapter, tells a pitiful tale of women boiling their children, of unclean food worth more than its weight in silver, of a king worked up to a pitch of frenzy and murderous designs, and renouncing his allegiance to Jehovah. Elisha had counselled resistance, and the woman's story was the result. "God do so to himself, and more also, if the prophet's head stood on him an hour longer." He could blame the prophet, but all his sorrow had not taught him the first step toward a better mind by blaming himself. Meanwhile Elisha was quietly sitting in his house with the elders of the city, who had come, we may suppose, to take counsel with him. Suddenly turning to them, he told them that the king—a true son of Ahab, the murderer of the prophets and of Naboth, and himself now bent on murder—had sent a messenger to behead him. They must refuse him admission; for the king would be sorry for his command as soon as he had given it, and would follow in haste to prevent its execution. It was indeed so. While the soldiers still parleyed with the elders outside the door, the king appeared, his fury gone, his spirit changed. "Behold," said he to Elisha, "this evil is of the Lord. He has willed that we open the gates to the Syrian. Why should I wait for deliverance any longer?" The horrors he had heard seemed to tell him that hope of aid from God was vain; that surrender was inevitable. What had the prophet to say? "Hear the word of the Lord," replied he. "To-morrow, about this time, a seah—that is, a peck—of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." "What!" said the officer on whom the king leaned, "if God make windows in heaven, and rain down flour and barley, that may be, but not otherwise." "You will see it," answered Elisha, "but will taste neither." . . . Note the precision and confidence of the promise. The hour of the fulfilment and the price of flour and the cheaper barley are stated. Man's promises are vague; God's are specific. Mark, too, the entire silence of the promise as to the mode of its fulfilment. Probably Elisha knew as little as any one how it was going to be accomplished. The particularity and vagueness combined are remarkable. A. M. 3-16. The mode in which Elisha's prophecy of relief and deliverance was fulfilled is now set forth. Four lepers, excluded from the city, and on the point of perishing of hunger, felt that they could be no worse off, and might better their condition, if they deserted to the Syrians. They therefore drew off from the city at nightfall, and made for the Syrian camp. On arriving, they found it deserted. The entire host, seized with a sudden panic, had fled about the time that they began their journey. The lepers' first thought was to enrich themselves by plunder; but after awhile it occurred to them that, unless they hastened to carry the good news to Samaria, inquiry would be made, their proceedings would be found out, and they would be severely punished. So they returned to the capital, and reported what they had discovered. Jehoram, on receiving the news, feared that the Syrians had prepared a trap for him, and declined to move. He consented, however, to send out scouts to reconnoitre. The scouts found evident proof that the entire army had actually fled and was gone, whereupon there was a general raid upon the camp and its stores, which were so abundant that Elisha's prophecy was fulfilled ere the day ended. Hammond. 3. Now there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. By the Mosaic law, lepers were regarded as ceremonially unclean, and excluded from all association with others, and, in the language of the statute, were required "to dwell alone without the camp" (Lev. 13:46; Num. 5:2, 3). The form of expression makes it plain that this law was enacted in the wilderness while Israel occupied a camp, and before they reached settled habitations in Canaan. It thus affords ocular demonstration of the falsity of that critical hypothesis which would assign the law to a much later date. Moreover, the fact that these lepers were outside of the city shows that this law was in existence, and that it was observed even in the apostate kingdom of the ten tribes. W. H. G. 6. The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise. Keil truly remarks that we cannot say whether the miracle by which God now wrought deliverance for Samaria consisted in a mere illusion of the sense of hearing—parainel to the illusion of the sense of sight by which Elisha had been recently delivered (chap. 6:19, 20); or whether there was any objective reality in the sound. He adds with equal truth that the determination of this question is a matter of no importance. "The Divine causality is the same in either case." The kings of the Hittites. The Hittites, who are found in early times far to the south in the country about Hebron (Gen. 23:7), and who afterward inhabited the central table-land of Judea (Josh. 11:3), seem to have retired northward after the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites. They are found among the Syrian enemies of the Egyptians in the monuments of the nineteenth dynasty (about n.c. 1300), and appear at that time to have inhabited the valley of the Upper Orontes. In the early Assyrian monuments they appear as the most powerful people of northern Syria, dwelling on both banks of the Euphrates in the country along its course from Bir to Balis. In this tract they form a great confederacy under a number of petty kings, while at the same time there is a second confederacy of their race farther to the south, which seems to inhabit the anti-Lebanon between Hamath and Damascus. These southern Hittites are under the dominion of twelve kings. They are in the time of Benhadad and Haza-el a powerful people, especially strong in chariots; and generally assist the Syrians against the Assyrians ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii., pp. 361-63). The Syrians seem now to have imagined that these southern Hittites had been hired by Jehoram. B. C. Monumental research has not only proved the truth of the events recorded in Scripture, it also proves that the account of these events must have been written by contemporaries. On no other hypothesis is the minute accuracy which distinguishes it to be explained. This accuracy has lately been illustrated by a startling and unexpected discovery. Besides the small Hittite tribe settled in the south of Judah, of whom we hear so much in connection with the lives of the patriarchs, reference is more than once made in the Books of Kings to Hittites living in the north of Syria. Solomon, we are told, imported horses from Egypt, which were sold again to "all the kings of the Hittites" and the kings of Aram or Syria (1 K. 10:29). Again, when God had sent a panic upon the Syrian army which was besieging Samaria, the soldiers of Benhadad supposed that "the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians." Objectors to the historical truth of the Old Testament narrative declared that these allusions to northern Hittites destroyed its credibility. No Hittites in the north of Syria were known to classical writers; and the Hittites of Genesis lived in the southern part of Judea. But first the Egyptian and then the Assyrian monuments proved that not only did Hittite tribes inhabit the very district to which the notices in the Books of Kings would assign them, but also that they were once a very powerful and important people. In the time of the great Egyptian monarch, Rameses II., the oppressor of the children of Israel, they contended on equal terms with the Egyptians themselves; the Egyptian king was glad finally to secure a peace by marrying a Hittite princess. For several centuries they successfully withstood the power of Assyria; and it was not until the reign of Sargon that their capital, Carchemish, was at last taken by storm, and the last Hittite sovereign replaced by an Assyrian governor. In the age of the Exodus they had carried their arms across Asia Minor as far as the shores of the Ægean, and the empire they founded in Asia Minor has left remains in the neighborhood of the river Halys, as well as on the sculptured rocks of Lydia. They had invented a peculiar system of pictorial writing, and their art, though based on Babylonian models, was also of a peculiar kind. The early art of Greece was indebted to it, and through the art of Greece the art of modern Europe as well. The site of their northern capital, Carchemish, was discovered at a place now called Jerabids, on the Euphrates, by Mr. George Smith. Since then the ruins of Carchemish have been partially explored, and some of the Hittites monuments disinterred among them are now in the British Museum. Carchemish, however, was not the only capital the Hittites possessed. The Bible speaks of their "kings" in the plural, and in agreement with this we find from the Egyptian inscriptions that they had also a southern capital on the Orontes, called Kadesh. Sayce. 7. The Egyptians advancing from the south, and the Hittites from the north, the Syrians apprehended that they might be surrounded and all chance of retreat cut off. They accordingly fled with precipitation by the only route which they supposed was left open to them, eastward to the Jordan (verse 15), that they might make their way as speedily and directly as possible to Damascus, whence they had come. Fled in the twilight. Everything was accurately adjusted, in the plan of God, to effect His purpose, and bring to pass what He had declared through Elisha. W. H. G. Not long before, Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses, but heard none; now, these Syrians hear chariots and horses, but see none: that sight comforted his heart; this sound dismayed theirs. The Israelites heard no noise within the walls; the lepers heard no noise without the gates; only the Syrians heard this noise in their camp. What a scorn doth God put upon these presumptuous Aramites! He will not vouchsafe to use any substantial stratagem against them. Nothing but an empty sound shall scatter them, and send them home empty of substance, laden with shame, half dead with fear. The very horses that might have hastened their flight are left tied in their tents. Their very garments are a burden. All is left behind save their very bodies, and those breathless for speed. Bp. H. 12. The king's fear of stratagem and ambuscade in the seeming retreat. Not surprising when we remember how large his experience had been of this Syrian style of warfare. Jehoram had the report of the lepers only. He had not heard the noise of an oncoming host which filled the ears of the besiegers. And he had no reason to look for God's favor, though it had been promised him. The very consciousness of his evil-doing and disbelief only made his belief and expectation of good the more difficult. Doubt of God's mercy and distrust of His promises root themselves naturally in a guilty heart and a disquieted, suspicious conscience. 13-15. A sensible suggestion of one of his officers acted upon. "Send men upon the few remaining horses, and trace the course of the Syrian host. All the men and the horses are dying fast. We may well risk these to ascertain the truth of the matter." So two chariots were sent forth to search out the track of the besieging army. They went on until they came in view of the Jordan, "and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrians had cast away in their haste." The effects were evident, though none knew the cause of so complete a panic. As rapidly drove the now rejoicing messengers back over the twenty and more miles they had traversed, and told the king. And with the morning light the imprisoned, famished people of Samaria went forth to liberty and abundance. B. 15. They went after them unto Jordan.** The Syrians had fled probably by the great road which led from Samaria to Damascus through Geba, En-gannim, Beth-shean, and Aphek. This is the route assigned to Holofernes in Judith. It crosses the Jordan at the Jisr Mejamia, about thirty-five miles northeast of Samaria. B. C. 16-19. Elisha's word of promise and his prophecy of judgment fulfilled in order. The tents of the Syrians were spoiled. And so enormous was the amount of grain in store, that in its sale that day in the city gate the low scale of prices predicted by Elisha was accurately realized. Thus was his word of promise made good. And thus was God glorified in His merciful interposition again in behalf of His chastened people. But Elisha had been moved of God to utter a prediction of judgment against one who dared deride his promise of Divine deliverance. A high official of the court in personal attendance upon the king the day before had openly expressed his disbelief in Elisha's prediction of speedy and complete relief. "As soon expect a rain of flour and barley from heaven," he had mockingly said to the prophet. "Thou shalt see it," rejoined Elisha, "but thou shalt not eat thereof." Now, when the people were bringing the grain from the Syrian camp into the city, this same lord was appointed by the king to collect a toll upon the food. It would seem that the people were indignant at the imposition of such a tax at such a time, when many within the city were still starving. This led to violence against the king's collector. "And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died." This statement occurs twice, and the whole previous incident is cited to emphasize the fact of God's judgment upon his disbelief, as solemnly foretold by Elisha. The people were God's agents of judgment in crushing the proud man who had scorned His power. B. The writer's intention is to lay special stress on the fulfilment of Elisha's prophecy; and to emphasize the punishment that follows on a lack of faith. The concluding passage of the chapter is, as Bähr says, "a finger of warning to unbelievers." Hammond. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas, my master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim. And he said, Take it up to thee. So he put out his hand, and took it. That the schools of the prophets had special buildings for their accommodation is not only inferable from the necessities of the case, but is touchingly indicated here, as we read that "the sons of the prophets" came to Elisha to say that their accommodations for students' rooms were too strait, and proposing to go to Jordan and its timbered bottoms, and take thence every man his beam [pole], and fit up more such humble accommodations for their shelter. He said, "Go;" but they quietly suggest that he go with them; and, like a true and faithful father-prophet, he went. It was fortunate that he did; for so he was on hand to bring the iron axe-head to the surface when by accident it had sprung from its helve and fallen into the Jordan. The cry, "Alas, master, for it was begged!" brought Elisha's miracle-working power at once to their aid. They were too poor to buy their axes. This man had to beg his—ask it, as the Hebrew signifies—yet never in the sense of borrow. It is the word used in the history (Ex. 3:22; 11:2) of the Israelites asking jewels and goods of the Egyptians—which was by no means "borrowing." All in all, this is a very pleasant inside view of college life in those ancient schools of the prophets—antedating by a few thousand years the experiences of some prophet schools of our age which have struggled upward from the humblest beginnings amid many privations, and not a little morally wholesome manual toil, and occasionally some cheering tokens of a helping power from above. H. C. 1. The place where we dwell with thee.** Literally, "the place where we sit before thee"—i.e., "the place where we assemble, and sit to hear thy teaching." Elisha did not, properly speaking, "dwell with" the sons of the prophets. He only visited them in circuit, staying a short time at each place where a "school" was established. 5. The axe-head. Literally, "the iron." The Jews used iron for the heads of axes at a very early date. (See De. 19:5.) They probably acquired a knowledge of the smelting process in Egypt, where iron was employed at least from the time of the third Rameses. For it was borrowed.** This is part of the wood-cutter's exclamation, not a remark of the author's. The wood-cutter shows the axe-handle to Elisha, and cries, "Alas, my lord, and it a borrowed one!" He merely made the natural exclamation of a man to whom such a misfortune had happened. 6. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither. It has been suggested that no miracle is here intended, but that Elisha, seeing the axe-head at the bottom of the river, thrust in a long stick, and adroitly passing it through the hole designed to receive the handle, lifted the axe-head to the surface. But there are two objections to this. First, it is not the natural sense of the words, which imply that the prophet threw the wood into the water; and secondly, the sacred writers do not record mere acts of manual dexterity. Made the iron to swim.** His action, though it could no more naturally produce such a result than salt could purify a spring or meal remove the noxious character of poisonous herbs, yet had the effect which he intended. The iron rose to the surface, and remained there. No doubt there is something startling in the trivial character of this miracle, and of the few others which resemble it. We are apt not to be satisfied unless there is clearly seen by us to be a dignus vindice nodus in each case of miraculous interposition. But we really know very little as to the laws which govern the exercise of miraculous powers, where such powers have been committed by God to a mere mortal. It is possible that they may sometimes, like natural gifts, be so much under their possessor's control that he can exercise them, or not exercise them, at pleasure. And it may depend on his discretion whether they are exercised in important cases only, or in trivial cases also. Elisha had evidently great kindness of heart. He could not see a grief without wishing to remedy it. And it seems as if he had sometimes used his miraculous power in pure good nature, when no natural way of remedying an evil presented itself. B. C. In this miracle God did not do all. There was water, air, sky and iron. Instead of these four concourses there were five, one of which was Jehovah's will. Why did the iron sink? It was heavier than the water; gravity pulled it down. Why did it swim? This excess of gravity might have been counteracted by a lifting up with a string or a stick; but God simply interpolated a new transient force equal to the excess of the specific gravity of the iron over the water, and acting in a direction opposite to that of gravity, and the iron floated. This is also true of the most complex of miracles, as the rising of Lazarus from the dead. It was not simply to arrest decay, but to make the atoms of the body go back to healthy action, as in life. God simply changed the conditions by a new Divine force, and the atoms acted as in his growing youth and manhood. How different the miracles of the Bible from other miracles! They were certain definite events, not done in the dark nor in a corner, but in the clear light of day, where everybody could see them. They were repeated under varying circumstances, before many witnesses, and under the inspection of the senses—sight, touch, hearing. A. A. Hodge. 8. Now the king of Syria warred against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are coming down. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. And the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber. And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host with horses and chariots was round about the city. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. And he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them : wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. 23 And he prepared great provision for them : and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. 8-23. THE chronic hostility which subsisted between the Israelitish and the Syrian kingdoms soon broke out again in war. In this, as in other instances, Syria was the aggressor. The invaded kingdom was delivered, not through "the sword and the bow" (verse 22) of its king, but once more through the interposition of Elisha. J. O.—Incursions, on the side of Syria and of Israel, were of constant occurrence during almost the whole period of the monarchy of Jehoram. "The Syrians went out by companies, and brought away captives out of the land of Israel," and the Israelites no doubt retaliated, and from time to time sent their plundering expeditions into Syria, and took booty and prisoners. But before Jehoram had been on the throne many years a more threatening system of attack was organized by the second Benhadad, and attempts were for a second time made to push the war to extremities, and to effect the subjection of Samaria to the Syrian yoke. The enterprising monarch of Syria led a series of expeditions into the Israelite territory with the hope of surprising and cutting off detachments or of otherwise gaining some considerable advantage; but his expectations were frustrated after a manner for which he found it hard to account—his designs seemed to be penetrated, his intentions known. Suspecting treachery among his officers, he was met by the assurance that the Syrian ranks harbored no traitor, but that Elisha, by his supernatural powers, was able to penetrate and expose all his plans. Under these circumstances, he sought to obtain possession of Elisha's person; and having learned that the prophet was residing in a small Israelite town called Dothan, he sent an army thither to take him. Elisha, though angelic hosts surrounded him, was instructed to yield, and obeyed. He induced the Syrians to accompany him to Samaria, under a strange species of illusion; after which he delivered them over to Jehoram, whose first impulse was to put them to death. This impulse Elisha checked. The king, he said, should rather entertain his prisoners hospitably, release them freely and let them return to their own country. The advice was followed; and Benhadad appears to have been so far touched by the generous treatment of his soldiers, that for some considerable space he refrained from further hostilities against the Israelites. But some years later he suddenly invaded Israel and laid siege to Samaria. G. R. (See next Section.) 8-13. Elisha foils the ambuscading schemes of the Syrian king. At several points successive ambuscades were laid to entrap the king of Israel. But Elisha, by special supernatural vision, faithfully forewarned Jehoram upon each occasion, and the king escaped the peril. Naturally the Syrian king was surprised at the seeming disclosure of his secret plans, and inferred treachery on the part of his own officers. Upon investigation at a called council, he was informed by one who had learned the fact in some way, that Elisha the prophet had revealed all his very thoughts to the king of Israel. At once he sends out spies to discover the place where Elisha was tarrying. They return with the intelligence that he is at Dothan. This was a small town upon a hill, about eleven miles north of Samaria. B. 8. Then the king of Syria warred against Israel.** It may seem strange that, so soon after sending an embassy to the court of Samaria, and asking a favor (chap. 5 : 5, 6), Benhadad should resume hostilities, especially as the favor had been obtained (chap. 5 : 14); but the normal relations between the two countries were those of enmity (chap. 5 : 2), and a few years would suffice to dim the memory of what had happened. Hammond. 9. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel—Jehoram (2 K. 3 : 1), or Joram, as he is likewise called (2 K. 8 : 25), the son of Ahab. How little regard Elisha had for this ungodly monarch is plain from his language to him on a former occasion (2 K. 3 : 13), when he sought the prophet's aid in a time of great peril, and from his speaking of him (2 K. 6 : 32) as "this son of a murderer." And how alienated the king was from the prophet appears not only from the fact that it was not he, but one of his servants, who suggested the application to the prophet when the armies of the three kings were in danger of perishing (2 K. 3 : 11), and that he did not direct Naaman to him until the prophet himself volunteered in the case (2 K. 5 : 8), but that, in the straits to which Samaria was reduced afterward in a siege, instead of soliciting the intercession of the prophet, he ordered him to be put to death (2 K. 6 : 31). It is perhaps significant that he is here spoken of not by name, but simply by his office. The message of the prophet was addressed to the king of Israel. He was for the time the head and representative of the people of God, and it is for the safety and the welfare of Israel that the prophet is concerned, not for the personal advantage of Joram. W. H. G. Elisha is a thousand scouts. He sends word to the king of Israel of the projects, of the removes, of his enemy. More than once had Jehoram saved both his life and his host by these close admonitions. It is well that in something yet a prophet may be obeyed. What strange state-service was this which Elisha did, besides the spiritual! The king, the people of Israel owe themselves and their safety to a despised prophet! The man of God knew and felt them idolaters; yet how careful and vigilant is he, for their rescue! If they were bad, yet they were his own; if they were bad, yet not all; God had His number among their worst: if they were bad, yet the Syrians were worse. The Israelites misworshipped the true God; the Syrians worshipped a false. That if it were possible he might win them, he will preserve them; and if they will needs be wanting to God, yet Elisha will not be wanting to them: their impiety shall not make him undutiful. Bp. H. 12. And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber: The cure of Naaman's leprosy was doubtless widely known in Syria. Such a miracle wrought upon the general of the army and the favorite of the king could not be a secret. And many other evidences of Elisha's supernatural power may also have been generally reported. W. H. G. 14, 15. The encompassing Syrian host, and the servant's great fear. Secretly and by night this little city was invested by a considerable company of Syrians, with horses and chariots and footmen. This great company of hostile warriors met the gaze of Elisha's new and untried servant, as he went forth early in the morning upon the wall. The imminence of the peril pressed sorely upon his inexperienced heart, and with small faith in God or His prophet, he hastens with the alarming news to Elisha. Yet had he some faith with his fear; for he asks, "How shall we do?" 16, 17. The answer and the prayer of Elisha. Calm and undaunted in spirit, with the unwavering courage of implicit faith in Jehovah, Elisha hears his servant's appeal. And quietly he assures the young man of God's absolute invincible protection. He sees the gathered hosts of God, outnumbering far the human array and girded with the might of omnipotence, now as ever interposed for his deliverance. How sublime the contrast here of human fear and human faith—fear of man and faith in God! In this we read the first grand lesson of the incident. But Elisha adds to his assurance a fervent prayer for the same elevation of faith to be imparted to his servant. He asks that a spiritual vision may be given to the mind of the man. And there, as he stood in the prophet's secluded chamber, the Lord gifted him with supernatural mental vision. To the actual scene he had just beheld, now reproduced upon the eye of the mind, the Divine Spirit added a sublime picture of a vaster host of fiery chariots intervening between Elisha and his foes—a multitude filling the city, and the hill upon which it lay. The end of the vision was the enlargement and confirmation of the man's faith. And this is the second grand lesson of the incident under review. Faith comes through the spiritual vision of God. The power of spiritual sight is imparted by His Spirit. The Holy Ghost alone unseals the eyes of the understanding, to behold the wondrous things of God—of His law, of His grace and love. The marshalled hosts of God were around Elisha, but the young man saw them not until a Divine illumination was imparted to him. So the sublime facts of God's presence, of His providence and redemption—all truths disclosed in type and history, in psalm and prophecy in the Old Testament, and fulfilled by Christ and the Holy Spirit—all have intense reality. But the sense of that reality comes alone through the apprehension of faith. And the vision of faith is the gift of God. It is the work of His quickening, illuminating Spirit. And this Divine gift is bestowed, this Divine work inwrought in every soul, in answer to the prayer of those who, like Elisha, already believe and live. B. Elisha's servant quakes at the Syrian army, no fear invades the prophet. He saw, and caused his man to see, a greater Deliverer above. So it is with men in the time of trouble; if their eyes be fixed on earth, their enemies appear great, and God that is so high seems little. Let our eyes be in heaven, and from thence look down upon our enemies, God will then appear mighty, our foes weak and contemptible. Adams. 16. Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them, is the perfectly fearless word of Elisha at Dothan. It gets echo and emphasis in Paul's perfectly fearless word at Corinth: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Old Testament and New Testament agree in this, that a true faith allies us to God. And alliance with God means majority and might and victory. H. Johnson. As stood the prophet with his servant in the midst of two opposing hosts, gathered for his destruction and deliverance, so stands every human soul. In the midst of two opposing hosts, both of whom, the enemies as well as friends, are invisible save to the vision of faith, a vision divinely given in answer to prayer. Satan and his hosts of evil daily, hourly arrayed against me. God and His hosts of good daily, hourly arrayed for me. This is the one grand reality of our life against which our eyes are closed, the reality which God alone can enable us to behold. B. There is no contrast in modern life so great as the contrast between the two standards under which the whole world ranges itself to-day. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—these two stand over against each other in irreconcilable hostility; and yet the subjects of both meet and intermingle in the world, often without knowing to which of the two kingdoms one another belongs. The two kingdoms are spiritual kingdoms, and their soldiers do not always wear a visible uniform by which they may be distinguished. But the distinction, though not always visible, is there; and its consequences reach into eternity. No other contrast of life matters so much—whether we are rich or poor, ignorant or intelligent, refined or uncultivated, is a question which may chiefly affect this life; but the distinction between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom is one whose consequences will affect each of us untold ages after the other contrasts of this life shall have been forgotten. H. C. T. 17. Some have tried to explain away the record of spiritual appearances as due to the natural surroundings of romantic scenery working on an excited imagination. Dothan lends itself to no such fantastic solution. A wide, rich plain, lying on the natural highway from Syria across Jordan by Bethshean to Samaria, with a smooth, round-topped hill at its south-eastern edge, beneath which is a copious spring, precious to the shepherds, and many dry cisterns, into one of which Joseph may have been cast, lends no aid to the imagination. The ancient city, now marked by grass-grown mounds, covered the summit of the hill. On its slopes the Syrians could not camp. They beleaguered it by encircling it with their camp on the rising ground beyond the base of the mount. It was on the open space all round the city that the hosts of Jehovah were revealed interposing between Benhadad's troops and the prophet. Tristram. The horses and chariots mean warlike force. Still, what the servant sees is not a material, it is a spiritual reality, taking a form which assures him of God's sure protection, through the agencies of these ministers of His who do His pleasure, and at a time when all was dark to the eye of flesh. Liddon.—The servant of Elisha, until his eye was divinely opened, saw nothing but the hosts of the enemy surrounding Dothan and cutting off escape; but as soon as Divine light fell on him, he beheld a new spiritual world. He was now the enlightened one, the man of opened eyes; while the Syrians, who gloried in their strength, were smitten with blindness, and led captive by a single unarmed man. His mind had drawn in a great lesson. The chariots of fire, indeed, and horses of fire, were, in one sense, unreal; that is, they were not of flesh, nor obvious to human sense: they were unearthly powers, who assumed a form by which they could make an impression of truth on the distrustful, fleshly mind of the prophet's servant. There were no chariots there, nor horses; but there were spiritual hosts, who showed themselves before the imagination of the young man to be more than a match for the army of besiegers. Thus a great truth from heaven, a reality as lasting and as wide as the universe, was taught him, that, beyond our eyes and ears, a majestic, spiritual world is moving on in silence; that an unseen God has infinite, unseen resources; that the causes and issue of things lie outside of the horizon of the senses; that immense agencies may be at work in all stillness and without the slightest show, of which the worldly mind does not so much as dream. If there are hosts of foes of God, there is a God of hosts above them. T. D. W. In the state of light the soul can see that to which it was previously quite blind. The prophet's servant imagined that his master and himself were left alone, but when his eyes were opened he saw the mountain to be filled with chariots and horses of fire. As great a wonder is often wrought in our own days. A man is living among us seeing nothing beyond a contracted circle of earth and earthly interests—thinking, perhaps, that few care for him, and that he needs to look to no one but himself— that he is isolated and alone or almost so—but the Spirit touches him, the scales fall from his eyes, the curtain is withdrawn from the spiritual world, and the intense light of Divine truth, with gradual dawn or sudden flash, lights up the amphitheatre by which he is surrounded, and he beholds that he is in the midst of eternities—at once a spectacle to and a spectator of another and grander universe. R. Flint. The Gospel comes to recreate and strengthen our faith in things and persons unseen and eternal; it comes to rebridge the great gulf which we have fixed between the seen and temporal, and the unseen and eternal, and to draw us in thought and affection over the bridged chasm. It comes to make real and substantial to us the invisible. It seeks to make us walk by faith, not by sight—to live for, fight for, work and suffer and die for invisible interests and beings; and to reveal them (if that were possible) would be to subvert its objects. Our invisible helpers must remain invisible. They are here. They are real. We need but a spiritual vision, an all-conquering faith to see them, to realize their presence, to banish our fears, to make us ever calm and serene. Faith says in all the way, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” J. Drummond. This manifestation has several features of resemblance to that given to Jacob in his most defenceless hour, when he saw beside his unprotected camp of women and children “God’s host,” and in a rapture of thankful wonder named the place “Mahanaim”—“Two Camps.” The sight teaches us that God’s messengers are ever near, and then most near when needed most. It tells us, too, that they come in the form needed. They are warriors when we are ringed about by foes, counsellors when we are perplexed, comforters when we mourn. Their shapes are as varied as our needs, and ever correspond to “the present distress.” They come in power sufficient to conquer. There was force enough circling the prophet to have annihilated all the Syrians. True, they did not draw their celestial swords, but they were there, and their presence was enough for the triumphant faith of the guarded men. What living thing could come through that wall of fire? Our eyes are blinded, and we need to have them cleared. We look so constantly at the things seen that we have no sight for the unseen. Worldliness, sin, unbelief, sense and its trifles, time and its transitorinesses, blind the eyes of our mind; and we need those of sense to be closed, that these may open. The truest vision is the vision of faith. It is certain, direct and conclusive. The world says, “Seeing is believing;” the Gospel says, “Believing is seeing.” If we would but live near to Jesus Christ, pray to Him to touch our blind eyeballs, and turn away from the dazzling unrealities which sense brings, we should find Him “the Master-light of all our seeing,” and be sure of the eternal, invisible things with an assurance superior to that given by the keenest sight in the brightest sunshine. When we are blind to earth, we see earth glorified by angel presences, and fear and despair and helplessness and sorrow flee away from our tranquil hearts. If, on the other hand, we fix our gaze on earth and its trifles, there will generally be more to alarm than to encourage, and we shall do well to be afraid, if we do not see, as in such a case we shall certainly not see, the fiery wall around us, behind which God keeps His people safe. A. M. Prayer is a cold and heartless thing in numbers of instances because men see nothing of Him to whom prayer is addressed, nothing of God, nothing of Jesus, nothing of the spirit-world around the throne, nothing of the majesty, the beauty, the glory which encircles God, such as is possible, really possible to our finite and purblind gaze—nothing of the everlasting worship which surrounds Him, nothing of the ministers of His that do His pleasure. Liddon. 18. The investing company of Syrians smitten with blindness at the prayer of Elisha. With his now assured servant Elisha goes down to the Syrian camp in the plain below. As he approaches his prayer is uttered, “Smite this people, I pray Thee, with blindness.” For his servant he had asked sight, a clear, mental impression of things invisible. Upon this Syrian cohort he prays that a mental delusion or bewilderment (concerning things visible) may fall. Not a bodily blindness, but such a dazing of the senses as utterly to bewilder and paralyze the ordinary judgment. The object of Elisha was to hinder their recognition of him, and to lead them (as he did) to Samaria. And this prayer of Elisha, also, was instantly answered. The Lord smote the Syrians with such blindness, and thus prepared the way for Elisha’s further interposition in behalf of Israel. B. He that prayed for the opening of his servant’s eyes to see his safeguard prays for the blinding of his enemies, that they might not see to do hurt. As the eyes of Elisha’s servant were so shut that they saw not the angels when they saw the Syrians, so the eyes of the Syrians shall be likewise shut, that when they see the man they shall not see the prophet. To all other objects their eyes are clear: only to Elisha they shall be blind—blind, not through darkness, but through misknowledge. They shall see and mistake both the person and place. Bp. II. 19-23. Going boldly into their midst he bids them follow him to the city where the man they seek has his dwelling. Then he leads them eleven miles to Samaria. Whatever question may be raised respecting the precise truthfulness of the prophet's assertion to them, finds its most satisfactory solution in these two facts: that God seems to have directed the prophet's action in the whole matter; and that Elisha's use of his simple stratagem intimates a kind temper and purpose toward the Syrians. When their blinding bewilderment was removed, at Elisha's prayer, they found themselves captives in the midst of the capital city, Samaria. Jehoram would then have fallen upon and destroyed them. But the prophet nobly rebukes the king. "Thou wouldst not slay those thou overcomest in fair conflict. Much less shouldst thou harm these whom God has put in thy power. Rather treat them kindly and generously; and release them to their master." Yet these Syrians had been exclusively seeking this very prophet. There was prudence and policy, as well as kindness and nobleness, in Elisha's conduct. His generous treatment, together with their own sharp experience, served to put a stop at least for a time to the warfare against Israel. B. 19. Justly now might Elisha say, "This is not the way, neither is this the city," wherein Elisha shall be described. He was in Dothan: but not as Elisha. He shall not be found but in Samaria, neither can they have any guide to him but himself. No sooner are they come into the streets of Samaria, than their eyes have leave to know both the place and the prophet. The first sight they have of themselves is in the trap of Israel. Bp. II. Elisha meant the Syrians to understand him to say, "This is not the way which ye ought to have taken if ye wanted to capture the prophet Elisha, and this is not the city (Dothan) where he is to be found." And so the Syrians understood him. In the morality of the time, and, indeed, in the morality of all times up to the present, it has been held to be justifiable to deceive a public enemy. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. It could only be through the miraculous delusion for which Elisha had prayed, and which had been sent, that the Syrians believed the first comer in an enemy's country, followed him to the capital without hesitation, and allowed him to bring them inside the walls. But for the delusion they would have suspected, made inquiries of others, and retreated hastily, as soon as the walls and towers of Samaria broke on their sight. 20. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.** Their delusion was dispelled—they returned to their proper senses, and, seeing the size and strength of the town, recognized the fact that they were in Samaria, their enemy's capital, and so were helpless. Hammond. Elisha, in promising to bring them to the man whom they wanted, undertook no more than he performed. Only when the Lord opened their eyes, they found they were not in Dothan, but in Samaria. This is one way in which God frequently discomfits wicked men, pouring confusion into their counsels. They "grope for the wall, like the blind, and grope as if (they) had no eyes: (they) stumble at noonday as in the night; (they) are in desolate places as dead men" (Isa. 59: 10). They are granted the desires of their hearts, but after a fashion of God's own; and in such a way as to lead to their final discomfiture. J. O. 22. "Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow?" As if he said, "These are God's captives, not thine; and if they were thine own, their blood could not be shed without cruelty. If it be victory thou aimest at, overcome them with kindness; set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink." Oh, noble revenge of Elisha, to feast his persecutors! To provide a table for those who had provided a grave for him! These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha; he sends them from Samaria full of good cheer. Thus should a prophet punish his pursuers. No vengeance but this is heroical, and fit for Christian imitation; "If thine enemy hunger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him water to drink, and the Lord shall reward thee." Bp. II. 23. Faith in God puts enemies in our hands, but not for vengeance. Elisha in the might of his faith captures those who sought to capture him, and in capturing their persons he would capture their hearts. He has them treated by his king with kindness, and then, unharmed, they are sent back to their master, taught that the God of Elisha and of Israel is not only a mighty but a gracious and forgiving God. This is faith's way. It "worketh by love." H. Johnson. The king of Israel hath done that by his feast which he could not have done by his sword. The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel. Bp. H.—The Syrian raids, which had hitherto been frequent, perhaps almost continuous (chap. 5: 2), now ceased for a time, and the kingdom of Israel had a respite. Hammond. The incident impressively illustrates the sublime expression of Paul in 2 Cor. 4: 17, 18. The unseen agencies of the eternal world ever surround the believer. He abides under the shadow of the Almighty. He is entrenched within the impregnable camp and guarded by the invisible cohorts of God. With clear, high thoughts of this encompassing Divine presence, whom can he fear? "If God be for him, who can be against him?" Only let him look more steadfastly and trustingly upon the things which are not seen, only let him realize that he is "kept by the power of God," and, like Elisha he shall abide calm and undaunted in the midst of the beleaguering hosts of evil, assured of daily deliverance through the period of continuing peril, and at length of "an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The incident further discloses the privilege and office of the clear-visioned and strong-hearted believer in behalf of the feeble-sighted, the fearful and faint in spirit. Not only by his example, but by his fervent prayer, may the believing soul help to impart vision and reinforce the courage and faith of the half-seeing, the timid, and the doubting. What Elisha achieved by his prayer for his servant may be accomplished by every Elisha-like disciple according to the measure of his faith in God's promise and working. Further, in the opening of the eyes of the prophet's servant, and in the dimming of the vision of the prophet's foes, we find an effective illustration of Christ's words in John 9: 39. "I am come into the world," He said, "that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." To those who know and feel their spiritual darkness, who desire and gladly welcome Him as the light of life, He imparts the clear vision and the blessed experience of faith. But from the spiritually blind who think they see, who therefore reject His offered light, He withholds all quickening grace. Thus, in judgment, the darkness is sealed upon their hearts forever. B. 6: 24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the threshing-floor, or out of the wine-press? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; (now he was passing by upon the wall;) and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall 32 stand on him this day. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how, this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him: is not the sound of his 33 master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; why should I wait for the 7:1 LORD any longer? And Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD: thus saith the LORD, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two meas- 2 ures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to 4 another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall 5 live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of 6 the Syrians, behold, there was no man there. For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, 7 and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and 8 fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried thence 9 also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, punishment will 10 overtake us: now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but the horses 11 tied, and the asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters; and they 12 told it to the king's household within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, 13 When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed:) and 14 let us send and see. They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent 15 after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in 16 their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the people went out, and spoiled the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and 17 two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spake when the 18 king came down to him. And it came to pass, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall 19 be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria; and that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof: 20 it came to pass even so unto him; for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died. The siege of Samaria. Unwarned by the failure of previous attempts, Benhadad was soon engaged in a new war on Israel. The fresh invasion was made the occasion of a fresh deliverance, more wonderful than any of the preceding, but not before Samaria had been reduced to the most desperate straits. J. O. A considerable interval succeeded the inroad of the Syrian bands, recounted in the preceding section. But at length the same king Benhadad comes against Israel with a great army. Through a plundered and wasted country, he reaches, surrounds, and lays siege to the capital city. The siege is protracted until there is great famine in Samaria. Jehoram, excited with the suffering of the people, becomes enraged against Elisha. Either he thought that Elisha's threats and prayers had brought the sore evil upon them, or that the prophet had forborne to use his prevalent intercession with God for their relief. He does not realize that his and his people's sins have brought upon them humiliation and calamity. These sins were the proper objects of his wrath, and not the good prophet. The messenger sent by Jehoram to kill Elisha was arrested by command of the foreseeing prophet. At the same moment the king himself comes in to Elisha with a bitter complaint against Jehovah. Then the prophet speaks words of hope and promise, which are only doubtingly received by the king and his attendants. On that very afternoon deliverance came by miracle, from God alone. He used an empty sound—as harmless a thing as can be conceived—sending it through the air on either side the Syrian camp. Simply the noise of great hosts advancing from afar struck the besieging army with an utter overwhelming panic. Not only did they flee on the instant, but to give completeness to God's deliverance and supply to Israel, they left behind the horses and asses upon which they might more swiftly and safely have fled. The discovery was made by four lepers outside the city gate. With starvation on every other side, they determine to trust the mercy of the Syrians. They find absolute silence and desertion in the rich and splendid camp. After satisfying their hunger and securing abundance of gold and silver and raiment, late in the evening they make their way back to the city gate and tell their story. The porters carried the tale to those that were within, and so it reached the king. B. While Jehoram paid a certain amount of respect to Elisha, as the prophet of Jehovah, he nevertheless allowed the worship of Baal to continue in the capital (chap. 10 : 18-28), if not elsewhere, and maintained the calf worship also at Dan and Bethel (chap. 3 : 3). He had suffered himself to be guided by Elisha in rerespect of the Syrian prisoners captured by the prophet (verse 23), and had evidently been in communication with him on the subject of the present siege, had probably been exhorted by him to repentance, and promised that, if he would wait upon Jehovah, in due time there should be deliverance. The prophet's words had made some impression on him; he had to a certain extent turned to God, had put sackcloth upon his loins, not ostentatiously, but secretly (verse 30), had borne the privations of the siege without murmuring, had refused to surrender the town, and looked to Jehovah to deliver it. But there was no depth in his penitence, no surrender of the heart and the will to God, no firm and rooted faith in God's truthfulness and in the certain accomplishment of His promises. A single incident of the siege—a horrible one certainly, but not without a parallel in other sieges—shattered the whole fabric of his repentance and his resolution, turned him against the prophet and against Jehovah, caused him to threaten the prophet's life, and to make up his mind that he would follow his own course and not wait for the Lord any longer (verse 33). He thus revealed the true state of his heart and soul, showed his spiritual unsoundness, revealed himself as one whose character was rotten at the core, who had never turned to Jehovah in sincerity and truth. What wonder, then, that God had not granted the deliverance promised to true faith and true penitence, that a half repentance had not availed with Him? So it had been with Ahab; so it would always be with all those who, after Jehoram's example, should be half-hearted in religion, should at once "fear the Lord and serve their own gods" (chap. 17 : 33)—own for masters both God and mammon. A half repentance is useless. Nothing avails but to turn to God with all the heart and all the soul and all the strength. Hammond. 24. And it came to pass after this—probably some considerable time after, when the memory of Jehoram's kind act had passed away—that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host. A contrast is intended between the inroads of small bodies of plunderers and the invasion of the territory by the monarch himself at the head of his entire force. And went up. However Samaria was approached from Syria, there must always have been a final ascent, either from the Jordan valley or from the Plain of Esdraelon. And besieged Samaria. Josephus says that Jehoram was afraid to meet Benhadad in the open field, since his forces were no match for those of the Syrian king, and therefore at once shut himself up within his capital, without risking a battle. The walls of Samaria were very strong. 28. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee?** Probably, as Bähr suggests, the woman explained to the king that she did not appear before him to beg food, but to claim his interposition as judge in a case in which she considered herself to be wronged. Such an appeal the king was bound to hear; and he therefore asks, "What aileth thee?"—i.e., "What is thy ground of complaint?" Then she tells her story. Hammond. 33. It has been proposed to change "messenger" into "king," the two words being in Hebrew nearly alike, and the speech with which the chapter ends being only suitable in the mouth of the king, whose presence is moreover indicated in verses 2 and 17 of the next chapter. Jehoram bursts into the prophet's presence with a justification of the sentence he has pronounced against him. "Behold this evil—this siege with all its horrors—is from Jehovah—from Jehovah, whose prophet thou art. Why should I wait for Jehovah—temporize with Him—keep, as it were, on terms with Him by suffering thee to live—any longer? What hast thou to say in arrest of judgment?" B. C. 7:1, 2. The separation of these verses from the preceding narrative is most unfortunate. They are an integral part of it, and form its climax. In answer to the king's attempt upon his life, and hasty speech in which he has threatened to renounce Jehovah, Elisha is commissioned to proclaim that the siege is on the point of terminating, the famine about to be within twenty-four hours succeeded by a time of plenty. There is thus no reason for the king's despair or anger. Hammond. The promise came from Elisha when all seemed desperate. The wonderfully vivid narrative in the previous chapter, tells a pitiful tale of women boiling their children, of unclean food worth more than its weight in silver, of a king worked up to a pitch of frenzy and murderous designs, and renouncing his allegiance to Jehovah. Elisha had counselled resistance, and the woman's story was the result. "God do so to himself, and more also, if the prophet's head stood on him an hour longer." He could blame the prophet, but all his sorrow had not taught him the first step toward a better mind by blaming himself. Meanwhile Elisha was quietly sitting in his house with the elders of the city, who had come, we may suppose, to take counsel with him. Suddenly turning to them, he told them that the king—a true son of Ahab, the murderer of the prophets and of Naboth, and himself now bent on murder—had sent a messenger to behead him. They must refuse him admission; for the king would be sorry for his command as soon as he had given it, and would follow in haste to prevent its execution. It was indeed so. While the soldiers still parleyed with the elders outside the door, the king appeared, his fury gone, his spirit changed. "Behold," said he to Elisha, "this evil is of the Lord. He has willed that we open the gates to the Syrian. Why should I wait for deliverance any longer?" The horrors he had heard seemed to tell him that hope of aid from God was vain; that surrender was inevitable. What had the prophet to say? "Hear the word of the Lord," replied he. "To-morrow, about this time, a seah—that is, a peck—of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria." "What!" said the officer on whom the king leaned, "if God make windows in heaven, and rain down flour and barley, that may be, but not otherwise." "You will see it," answered Elisha, "but will taste neither." . . . Note the precision and confidence of the promise. The hour of the fulfilment and the price of flour and the cheaper barley are stated. Man's promises are vague; God's are specific. Mark, too, the entire silence of the promise as to the mode of its fulfilment. Probably Elisha knew as little as any one how it was going to be accomplished. The particularity and vagueness combined are remarkable. A. M. 3-16. The mode in which Elisha's prophecy of relief and deliverance was fulfilled is now set forth. Four lepers, excluded from the city, and on the point of perishing of hunger, felt that they could be no worse off, and might better their condition, if they deserted to the Syrians. They therefore drew off from the city at nightfall, and made for the Syrian camp. On arriving, they found it deserted. The entire host, seized with a sudden panic, had fled about the time that they began their journey. The lepers' first thought was to enrich themselves by plunder; but after awhile it occurred to them that, unless they hastened to carry the good news to Samaria, inquiry would be made, their proceedings would be found out, and they would be severely punished. So they returned to the capital, and reported what they had discovered. Jehoram, on receiving the news, feared that the Syrians had prepared a trap for him, and declined to move. He consented, however, to send out scouts to reconnoitre. The scouts found evident proof that the entire army had actually fled and was gone, whereupon there was a general raid upon the camp and its stores, which were so abundant that Elisha's prophecy was fulfilled ere the day ended. Hammond. 3. Now there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. By the Mosaic law, lepers were regarded as ceremonially unclean, and excluded from all association with others, and, in the language of the statute, were required "to dwell alone without the camp" (Lev. 13:46; Num. 5:2, 3). The form of expression makes it plain that this law was enacted in the wilderness while Israel occupied a camp, and before they reached settled habitations in Canaan. It thus affords ocular demonstration of the falsity of that critical hypothesis which would assign the law to a much later date. Moreover, the fact that these lepers were outside of the city shows that this law was in existence, and that it was observed even in the apostate kingdom of the ten tribes. W. H. G. 6. The Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise. Keil truly remarks that we cannot say whether the miracle by which God now wrought deliverance for Samaria consisted in a mere illusion of the sense of hearing—parainel to the illusion of the sense of sight by which Elisha had been recently delivered (chap. 6:19, 20); or whether there was any objective reality in the sound. He adds with equal truth that the determination of this question is a matter of no importance. "The Divine causality is the same in either case." The kings of the Hittites. The Hittites, who are found in early times far to the south in the country about Hebron (Gen. 23:7), and who afterward inhabited the central table-land of Judea (Josh. 11:3), seem to have retired northward after the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites. They are found among the Syrian enemies of the Egyptians in the monuments of the nineteenth dynasty (about n.c. 1300), and appear at that time to have inhabited the valley of the Upper Orontes. In the early Assyrian monuments they appear as the most powerful people of northern Syria, dwelling on both banks of the Euphrates in the country along its course from Bir to Balis. In this tract they form a great confederacy under a number of petty kings, while at the same time there is a second confederacy of their race farther to the south, which seems to inhabit the anti-Lebanon between Hamath and Damascus. These southern Hittites are under the dominion of twelve kings. They are in the time of Benhadad and Haza-el a powerful people, especially strong in chariots; and generally assist the Syrians against the Assyrians ("Ancient Monarchies," vol. ii., pp. 361-63). The Syrians seem now to have imagined that these southern Hittites had been hired by Jehoram. B. C. Monumental research has not only proved the truth of the events recorded in Scripture, it also proves that the account of these events must have been written by contemporaries. On no other hypothesis is the minute accuracy which distinguishes it to be explained. This accuracy has lately been illustrated by a startling and unexpected discovery. Besides the small Hittite tribe settled in the south of Judah, of whom we hear so much in connection with the lives of the patriarchs, reference is more than once made in the Books of Kings to Hittites living in the north of Syria. Solomon, we are told, imported horses from Egypt, which were sold again to "all the kings of the Hittites" and the kings of Aram or Syria (1 K. 10:29). Again, when God had sent a panic upon the Syrian army which was besieging Samaria, the soldiers of Benhadad supposed that "the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians." Objectors to the historical truth of the Old Testament narrative declared that these allusions to northern Hittites destroyed its credibility. No Hittites in the north of Syria were known to classical writers; and the Hittites of Genesis lived in the southern part of Judea. But first the Egyptian and then the Assyrian monuments proved that not only did Hittite tribes inhabit the very district to which the notices in the Books of Kings would assign them, but also that they were once a very powerful and important people. In the time of the great Egyptian monarch, Rameses II., the oppressor of the children of Israel, they contended on equal terms with the Egyptians themselves; the Egyptian king was glad finally to secure a peace by marrying a Hittite princess. For several centuries they successfully withstood the power of Assyria; and it was not until the reign of Sargon that their capital, Carchemish, was at last taken by storm, and the last Hittite sovereign replaced by an Assyrian governor. In the age of the Exodus they had carried their arms across Asia Minor as far as the shores of the Ægean, and the empire they founded in Asia Minor has left remains in the neighborhood of the river Halys, as well as on the sculptured rocks of Lydia. They had invented a peculiar system of pictorial writing, and their art, though based on Babylonian models, was also of a peculiar kind. The early art of Greece was indebted to it, and through the art of Greece the art of modern Europe as well. The site of their northern capital, Carchemish, was discovered at a place now called Jerabids, on the Euphrates, by Mr. George Smith. Since then the ruins of Carchemish have been partially explored, and some of the Hittites monuments disinterred among them are now in the British Museum. Carchemish, however, was not the only capital the Hittites possessed. The Bible speaks of their "kings" in the plural, and in agreement with this we find from the Egyptian inscriptions that they had also a southern capital on the Orontes, called Kadesh. Sayce. 7. The Egyptians advancing from the south, and the Hittites from the north, the Syrians apprehended that they might be surrounded and all chance of retreat cut off. They accordingly fled with precipitation by the only route which they supposed was left open to them, eastward to the Jordan (verse 15), that they might make their way as speedily and directly as possible to Damascus, whence they had come. Fled in the twilight. Everything was accurately adjusted, in the plan of God, to effect His purpose, and bring to pass what He had declared through Elisha. W. H. G. Not long before, Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses, but heard none; now, these Syrians hear chariots and horses, but see none: that sight comforted his heart; this sound dismayed theirs. The Israelites heard no noise within the walls; the lepers heard no noise without the gates; only the Syrians heard this noise in their camp. What a scorn doth God put upon these presumptuous Aramites! He will not vouchsafe to use any substantial stratagem against them. Nothing but an empty sound shall scatter them, and send them home empty of substance, laden with shame, half dead with fear. The very horses that might have hastened their flight are left tied in their tents. Their very garments are a burden. All is left behind save their very bodies, and those breathless for speed. Bp. H. 12. The king's fear of stratagem and ambuscade in the seeming retreat. Not surprising when we remember how large his experience had been of this Syrian style of warfare. Jehoram had the report of the lepers only. He had not heard the noise of an oncoming host which filled the ears of the besiegers. And he had no reason to look for God's favor, though it had been promised him. The very consciousness of his evil-doing and disbelief only made his belief and expectation of good the more difficult. Doubt of God's mercy and distrust of His promises root themselves naturally in a guilty heart and a disquieted, suspicious conscience. 13-15. A sensible suggestion of one of his officers acted upon. "Send men upon the few remaining horses, and trace the course of the Syrian host. All the men and the horses are dying fast. We may well risk these to ascertain the truth of the matter." So two chariots were sent forth to search out the track of the besieging army. They went on until they came in view of the Jordan, "and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrians had cast away in their haste." The effects were evident, though none knew the cause of so complete a panic. As rapidly drove the now rejoicing messengers back over the twenty and more miles they had traversed, and told the king. And with the morning light the imprisoned, famished people of Samaria went forth to liberty and abundance. B. 15. They went after them unto Jordan.** The Syrians had fled probably by the great road which led from Samaria to Damascus through Geba, En-gannim, Beth-shean, and Aphek. This is the route assigned to Holofernes in Judith. It crosses the Jordan at the Jisr Mejamia, about thirty-five miles northeast of Samaria. B. C. 16-19. Elisha's word of promise and his prophecy of judgment fulfilled in order. The tents of the Syrians were spoiled. And so enormous was the amount of grain in store, that in its sale that day in the city gate the low scale of prices predicted by Elisha was accurately realized. Thus was his word of promise made good. And thus was God glorified in His merciful interposition again in behalf of His chastened people. But Elisha had been moved of God to utter a prediction of judgment against one who dared deride his promise of Divine deliverance. A high official of the court in personal attendance upon the king the day before had openly expressed his disbelief in Elisha's prediction of speedy and complete relief. "As soon expect a rain of flour and barley from heaven," he had mockingly said to the prophet. "Thou shalt see it," rejoined Elisha, "but thou shalt not eat thereof." Now, when the people were bringing the grain from the Syrian camp into the city, this same lord was appointed by the king to collect a toll upon the food. It would seem that the people were indignant at the imposition of such a tax at such a time, when many within the city were still starving. This led to violence against the king's collector. "And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died." This statement occurs twice, and the whole previous incident is cited to emphasize the fact of God's judgment upon his disbelief, as solemnly foretold by Elisha. The people were God's agents of judgment in crushing the proud man who had scorned His power. B. The writer's intention is to lay special stress on the fulfilment of Elisha's prophecy; and to emphasize the punishment that follows on a lack of faith. The concluding passage of the chapter is, as Bähr says, "a finger of warning to unbelievers." Hammond. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. Now Elisha had spoken unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD 2 hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years. And the woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God: and she went with her 3 household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she 4 went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things 5 that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life him that was dead, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the 6 woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now. 7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was 8 told him, saying, The man of God is come hither. And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, 9 Shall I recover of this sickness? So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Thy son Ben-hadad king of Syria hath sent me to thee, saying, Shall I recover 10 of this sickness? And Elisha said unto him, Go, say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; 11 howbeit the LORD hath shewed me that he shall surely die. And he settled his countenance 12 steadfastly upon him, until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with 13 child. And Hazael said, But what is thy servant, which is but a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king 14 over Syria. Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What 15 said Elisha to thee? And he answered, He told me that thou shouldst surely recover. And it came to pass on the morrow, that he took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead. 1-15. ELISHA is still the protagonistes of the historical drama. The writer brings together in the present section two more occasions of a public character in which he was concerned, and in which kings also bore a part. One of the occasions is domestic, and shows the interest which Jehoram took in the miracles of the prophet, and in those who were the objects of them (verses 1-6). The other belongs to Syrian rather than to Israelite history, and proves that the influence of Elisha was not confined to Palestine (verses 7-15). Hammond. In chronological order this narrative seems to precede the cure of Naaman, while Gehazi was still the servant of the prophet. A famine of long duration was about to descend on the land, and Elisha gave timely warning to the Shunammite to take refuge somewhere else. J. O. Seven years had this Shunammite sojourned in Philistia; now she returns to her own, and is excluded. She that found harbor among Philistines finds oppression and violence among Israelites; those of her kindred, taking advantage of her absence, had shared her possessions. How oft doth it fall out that the worst enemies of a man are those of his own house! All went by contraries with this Shunammite. In the famine she had enough; in the common plenty she was scanted: Philistines were kind unto her; Israelites, cruel. How happily doth God contrive all events for the good of His! This suppliant shall fall upon that instant for her suit when the king shall be talking with Gehazi; when Gehazi shall be talking of her to the king. The words of Gehazi, the thoughts of the king, the desires of the Shunammite shall be all drawn together by the wise providence of God into the centre of one moment, that his oppressed servant might receive a speedy justice. Bp. H. 1. Now Elisha had spoken unto the woman. The reference is to a time long anterior to the siege of Samaria. A famine is mentioned in chap. 4 : 38, which must belong to the reign of Jehoram, and which is probably identified with that here spoken of. Elisha, on its approach, recommended the Shunammite, though she was a woman of substance (chap. 4 : 8), to quit her home and remove to some other residence, where she might escape the pressure of the calamity. He left it to her to choose the place of her temporary abode. The phrase, "God hath called for a famine," means no more and no less than "God has determined that there shall be a famine." With God to speak the word is to bring about the event. 4. Now the king was talking with Gehazi. The king, that is, happened to be talking with Gehazi at the moment when the woman came into his presence and "cried" to him. It has been reasonably concluded from this that chronological order is not observed in the portion of the narrative which treats of Elisha and his doings, since a king of Israel would scarcely be in familiar conversation with a leper (Keil). It may be added that Gehazi can scarcely have continued to be the servant of Elisha, as he evidently now was, after his leprosy. He must have dwelt "without the gate." 5. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he—i.e., Elisha—had restored a dead body to life. This was undoubtedly the greatest of all Elisha's miracles, and Gehazi naturally enlarged upon it. As an eye-witness he could give all the details. That, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. The coincidence can scarcely have been accidental. Divine Providence so ordered matters that, just when the king's interest in the woman was most warm, she should appear before him to urge her claim. At another time, Jehoram would, it is probable, have been but slightly moved by her complaint. Under the peculiar circumstances, he was deeply moved, and at once granted the woman the redress for which she asked. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. The Shunammite was accompanied by her son, now a boy of at least ten or eleven years old—the actual object of Elisha's miracle. The king's interest in the woman would be still more roused by this circumstance. 6. The order was, that not only was the Shunammite to receive back her house and estate, but that she was also to have the full value of all that the land had produced beyond the expense of cultivation during the seven years of her absence. English law lays down the same rule in cases of unlawful possession for which there is no valid excuse. The piety of the Shunammite had been sufficiently shown in the previous record left us of her (chap. 4 : 8-37). The sequel of her story indicates how, in a wonderful way, events and circumstances seemingly fortuitous and unconnected work together for the advantage and happiness of one who lives virtuously, and seeks in all things to serve God and advance the cause of religion. "The series of incidents," it has been well said, "forms a marvellous web of Divine dispensations" (Bähr). 1. The coincidence of the king's desire to learn more about Elisha with the return of the woman to her own land. It was, humanly speaking, a pure accident that the curiosity of the king with respect to Elisha happened to be aroused just as the famine was over, and the woman, having returned from Philistia into the land of Israel, found her estate occupied by another. It was another accident that she bethought herself of appealing to the king, instead of having recourse to any other remedy. 2. The coincidence of Gehazi being speaking of her case exactly as she made her appearance. Gehazi had many miracles to relate, and might have been discoursing of any one of them; but events were so ordered that it was of her child's resurrection that he was telling the king, and not of any other miracle, when she came into the royal presence. This coincidence it was which so interested the king in her, that he at once gave the order for restoring her estate to her. We may learn from the entire narrative that our lives are divinely ordered; that nothing happens to us by mere chance; that events which seem to us, at the time when they happen, of the least possible importance, may be necessary links in the chain which Divine providence is forging for the ordering of our lives, and for the working out through them of the Divine purpose. Hammond. Verses 7-15. 7,8. The Lord has won to Himself honor among the heathen. In Israel we have seen kings sending to consult heathen gods; among the heathen we behold a king sending to consult the God of Israel through His prophet. The great Benhadad lies on a sick bed; and having heard that the famous prophet of Israel, who had healed his general Naaman, was come to Damascus, he sent a great officer named Hazael to Elisha to ask if he should recover from this sickness. Kitto.—The miracles of Elisha had had, at any rate, this effect—they had convinced the Syrians that Jehovah was a great and powerful God, and made them regard Elisha himself as a true prophet. Their faith in their own superstitions must have been at least partially shaken by these convictions. It was by these and similar weakenings of established errors that the world was gradually educated, and the way prepared for the introduction of Christianity. There was very early among the Syrians a flourishing Christian Church. Hammond. 10-15. The disease which laid him upon his bed was not mortal; he might certainly recover from it, and would recover if let alone. This was all that was required from him, and he gave it. But he knew more, about which he was not consulted. He read the heart, the purposes, and the future life of the man who stood before him, and was willing to let him know it. So, after a pause, he added, as addressed to Hazael himself and not as part of his response to the king, "Howbeit, the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die." Much misapprehension has arisen from regarding this as part of the response to be borne to the sick king, though the change of personal pronouns in the two sentences might alone suffice to show the difference: "thou" in the first; "he" in the second. Having said this, the prophet looked steadfastly at Hazael, until the latter quailed beneath that searching gaze; and then the man of God turned his head aside and wept. Why wept he? Hazael himself respectfully asked that question. Elisha answered that he wept because he clearly saw the misery and desolation which this man would hereafter inflict upon Israel. On hearing this, the Syrian exclaimed, "But what is thy servant, a mere dog, that he should do this great deed?" He was not offended, as the current version would seem to imply, or he would not have called it a great deed. But he asked how could a person of comparatively low condition like himself have such high influence upon the fate of nations. The prophet answered that the Lord had disclosed to him that he should become king over Syria. Hazael then returned to his master, and in reply to his anxious inquiries delivered the message the prophet intended for him, but suppressed the intimation given to himself that he should really die. But the very next day, it would seem that Hazael accomplished the purpose he had probably long contemplated, and which the prophet had detected. He put his master to death, and in such a manner that the crime remained undiscovered, and the king was supposed to have died of his disease; and dying apparently childless, the wicked and unscrupulous general was enabled to secure the object of his ambition. Kitto. 11. And he settled his countenance steadfastly—literally, and he settled his countenance and set it—i.e., Elisha fixed on Hazael a long and meaning look—until he was ashamed—i.e., until Hazael felt embarrassed, and his eyes fell. It may be gathered that the ambitious courtier had already formed a murderous design against his master, and understood by the peculiar gaze which the prophet fixed upon him that his design was penetrated. And the man of God wept.** There flashed on the prophet's mind all the long series of calamities which Israel would suffer at the hands of Syria during Hazael's reign, and he could not but weep at the thought of them. Hammond. 13. He does not shrink from Elisha's words, or mean to say that he would be a dog, could he act so cruelly as Elisha predicts he will. On the contrary, Elisha's prediction has raised his hopes, and his only doubt is whether so much good fortune ("this great thing") can be in store for one so mean. "Dog" here, as generally (though not always) in Scripture, has the sense of "mean," "low," "contemptible." B. C.—Hazael does not accuse Elisha of making him out a dog in the future, but calls himself a dog in the present. Hazael means to say: How is it possible that he, occupying, as he does, so poor and humble a position as that of a mere courtier, should ever wage war with Israel, and do the "great things" which Elisha has predicted of him? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. Elisha explains how it would be possible. Hazael would not continue in his poor and humble condition. Jehovah has revealed it to him that the mere courtier will shortly mount the Syrian throne. 14. He told me that thou shouldst surely recover.** This was giving half Elisha's answer, and suppressing the other half. The suppressio veri is a suggestio falsi; and the suppression was Hazael's act, not Elisha's. Had Hazael repeated the whole of Elisha's answer, "Say unto him, Thou shalt surely recover; howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die," Benhadad might have been puzzled, but he would not have been deceived. Hammond.—Hazael repeated the exact words of Elisha: "Thou shalt certainly live;" but he omitted the clause by which Elisha had shown how those words were to be understood. He thus deceived his master, while he could flatter himself that he had not uttered a lie. B. C. 15. A thick cloth.** The fatal prediction is accomplished in every point. Hazael smothers his master with a wet cloth, seizes the throne, and his first measure is a bloody battle at Ramoth against the combined forces of both the Jewish kingdoms under Jehoram, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, who had just succeeded his father, Jehoram of Judah. In this calamitous field Jehoram was wounded, and retreated to Jezreel, where Ahaziah came to meet him. Milman. Hazael succeeded in repulsing the Assyrians, and maintaining his independence, notwithstanding all their efforts to conquer him. He reduced Israel to a species of semi-subjection (chap. 13:7). He compelled even Judea to purchase peace at his hands (chap. 12:18). He was, on the whole, the most warlike of all the early kings of Syria; and, though he suffered one great defeat at the hands of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser II., yet he issued from the struggle unsubdued, and left his dominions intact to his son and successor, Benhadad III. Hammond. Even in the practice of the purest and loftiest souls there are oftentimes slight variances from truth or rectitude, waverings of a kind, generous, unselfish spirit, neglects of that love which is heart-expanding and enriching, and even unchecked pulsations of temper, pride, and evil passions, and the soul's own knowledge of these concealed weaknesses, so inconsistent with its apparent life, will cause the face to flush at the thought of unveiling its secret feelings to another soul. B.—Is there one who can affirm that he could stand with unblenched cheek before the man whom he believed to be viewing his naked soul? Is there one who could endure, without confusion of face, without a quivering frame, the keen anatomy of his character, his conduct, his spirit, by even the most friendly hand in the world? Would he be content that any human eye should trace the tortuous meanderings of feeling in regard to any one matter in which he has ever been engaged—the unholy thought, the ungenerous imputation, the low suspicion, the doubt, the dislike, the covetousness, the hate, the contention, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life—that more or less enter into and defile, with the prints of villainous hoofs, the fairest gardens of life? To us it is of infinitely less concernment what man thinks of us than what God thinks; what man knows than what God knows; yet while we shrink with such instinctive dread from the too near survey of a fellow-sinner, we manage to get on quietly, with small trouble of mind, in the perfect knowledge that One who cannot be mistaken, who sees through all disguises, and from whom nothing can be for a moment hid, and who understands us far better than we ourselves know or than our nearest friends or keenest enemies imagine, has a sleepless eye fixed with unceasing vigilance upon our hearts. This keen susceptibility to the inspection and good opinion of man, and this comparative indifference to the constant survey of God, is a familiar thing, and strikes us little because it is familiar; but it is nevertheless one of the strangest anomalies of our nature, and is beheld with astonishment and grief by the angels of God. In their view it is an inversion of the whole order of life and being. To them God is all, His inspection is all. How different would be our conversation and our walk if we lived and moved in the ever-present consciousness that the unseen Eye was upon us and noted all our steps, and that the opinion of us, hereafter to be pronounced in the presence of the assembled universe, as the foundation of final and unchangeable judgment, fixing our lot forever, shutting us up in despair or opening all the golden doors of joy, is a matter of inconceivably more importance to us than all that the world can think or say, can offer to us or deprive us of! Let us believe that to walk and act from day to day with this as a vital consciousness about us, as a check to sin, an encouragement to faith, and a stimulus to duty, without any supreme anxiety but to walk so as to please God, is a most pleasant life, is the very antepast of heaven. There is no bondage in it. It is perfect freedom, and is happiness as complete as this world allows. It relieves us from many masters, and redeems from bondage to a thousand fears. Oh, the blessedness of being freed from this slavish reference to erring man's judgment of our conduct and our motives, by being enabled to realize the presence and to welcome the inspection of One who, although He be of purer eyes than to endure iniquity, is incapable of harsh, unjust, or unkind judgment—who has become to us in Christ Jesus a kind and loving Father, and longs with deep yearnings of paternal affection to pour out upon us all the fulness of His everlasting love! It is quite impossible for any one to be truly happy until this great work, the reversal of the ordinary influences upon his life, has been wrought within him, making God first and man second in all his thoughts; until the great matter becomes God's judgment of us, and the small matter man's; until, in answer to all injurious thoughts and imputations, we can answer with Paul, "It is a small matter for me to be judged of you or of man's judgment; for I serve the Lord Christ." Kitto. This man, Hazael, who was ashamed at the idea of perpetrating such enormities at first, actually enacted them a few hours afterward. The elements of the devil are in every man, though he may not know it. Men have often deprecated courses of action which afterward they have pursued with alacrity and delight. The virtue of many men is only vice sleeping. The evil elements of the heart are like gunpowder, passive, until the spark of temptation falls on them. The greatest monsters in human history were at one time considered innocent and kind. "Many a man," says a modern author, "could he have a glimpse in innocent youth of what he would be twenty or thirty years after, would pray in anguish that he might be taken in youth before coming to that." What is the moral of this? The necessity of a change of heart. A. Mackay. When temptation is at a distance, and all goes on smoothly, we are apt to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think; but let a strong temptation work upon a suitable corruption in the heart (Satan and opportunity blowing up the flame), and there is no saying what may happen. It was well observed that "heed ought to be taken by the best of saints against the worst of sins." "Watch and pray, therefore, that ye enter not into temptation." And "let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." But if thou hast fallen, let not thy sin drive thee to despair, but to Christ, that thou mayest be delivered both from its guilt and its power. Hill. REIGN OF JEHU, 28 YEARS (Begun). 8: 16 AND in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife; and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. Howbeit the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his sercities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn. 4 Now when Jehoram was risen up over the kingdom of his father, and had strengthened himself, he slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel. Jehoram was thirty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. Howbeit the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a lamp to him and to his children alway. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves. 9 Then Jehoram passed over with his captains, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots. So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, unto this day: then did Libnah revolt at the same time from under his hand: because he had forsaken the LORD, the God of his fathers. 11 Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, and led Judah astray. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah; but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like as the house of Ahab did; and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thy-self: behold, the LORD will smite with a great plague thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy substance: and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day. And the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians which are beside the Ethiopians: and they came up against Judah, and brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. And after all this the LORD smote vant's sake, as he promised him to give unto him a lamp for his children alway. In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves. 21 Then Joram passed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled to their tents. So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, unto this day. Then did Libnah revolt at the same time. And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. 25 In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. 26 Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter (or, granddaughter) of Omri king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab. And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram. 29 And king Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. 11 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehoshaba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons that were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land. 4 And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds, of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king's son. And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king's house; and a third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier. And the two companies of you, even all that go forth on the sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king. And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he that cometh him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19 And it came to pass, in process of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years: and he departed without being desired; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings. 22:1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter (or, granddaughter) of Omri. He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father, to his destruction. He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians within the ranks, let him be slain: and be ye with the king when he goeth out, and when he cometh in. And the captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men, those that were to come in on the sabbath, with those that were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And the priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in the house of the LORD. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king round about. Then he brought out the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of the LORD: and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, treason. And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth between the ranks; and him that followeth her slay with the sword: for the priest said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD. So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses' entry to the king's house: and there was she slain. 6 wounded Joram. And he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which they had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went unto Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. And it came to pass, when Jehu was executing judgment upon the house of Ahab, that he found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, ministering to Ahaziah, and slew them. And he sought Ahaziah, and they caught him, (now he was hiding in Samaria,) and they brought him to Jehu, and slew him; and they buried him, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. And the house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom. 10. Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah. But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land. 23:1 And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jehoram, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him. And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers' houses of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said unto them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as the LORD hath spoken concerning the sons of David. 4. This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, of the 5 priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors; and a third part shall be at the king's house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in 6 the courts of the house of the LORD. But let none come into the house of the LORD, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall come in, for they are holy: but all 7 the people shall keep the watch of the LORD. And the Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever cometh into the house, let 8 him be slain: and be ye with the king when he cometh in, and when he goeth out. So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men, those that were to come in on the sabbath, with those that were to 9 go out on the sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses. And Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had 10 been king David's, which were in the house of God. And he set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, 11 along by the altar and the house, by the king round about. Then they brought out the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and made him king: and 12 Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they said, God save the king. And when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the 13 house of the LORD: and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets; the singers also played on instruments of music, and led the singing of 14 praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, treason. And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth between the ranks; and whoso followeth her, let him be slain with the sword: for 15 the priest said, Slay her not in the house of the LORD. So they made way for her; and she went to the entry of the horse gate to the king's house: and they slew her there. Summary of the Section. The story of Jeho- ram is very sad and painful, yet full of valua- ble suggestions. On his accession he murdered all his own brothers. As far as he could he ob- literated the pure worship, the righteous laws, and excellent institutions established by his fa- ther. In their place he established the vile Baal-worship, and the foul institutions of Ahab and Jezebel, and compelled the people to fall in with idolatry and its iniquities. And the reason assigned is, that he had Ahab's daughter as his wife. Under the influence of three such monsters in iniquity as Ahab, Jezebel and Athaliah, it was not surprising that "he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab; and wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord." As a written message from Eli- jah predicted, God punished his gross and defi- ant iniquity. Edom successfully revolted from his sway; and the Philistines and Arabians in- vaded his capital, slew all his sons save one (because "the Lord would not destroy the house of David") and carried away his wives and his substance. And then "the Lord smote him with an incurable and agonizing disease." A still briefer but similarly wicked reign was that of his son Ahaziah. "He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother (Athaliah) was his counsellor to do wickedly!" "To his destruction," it is added. He was slain by Jehu, when he allied the forces of Judah with those of his uncle Jehoram of Israel. Then his mother, Athaliah, slew all his children save one (whom the covenant God kept) that she might retain the sway over Judah. But a true and devout woman, daughter of Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, and wife of the faithful priest Jehoiada, saved an infant son of Ahaziah from the murderous grandmother. Six years she hid him in the Temple precincts—a place where he was safest, for God's house was un- visited and unnoticed by Athaliah. In the seventh year of the spared infant's life, the true-hearted priest Jehoiada silently gathered the chiefs of the families of the Le- vites into a covenant of allegiance to the youth- ful king Joash. The coronation speedily fol- lowed; and the slaying of Athaliah in the city street, as her mother Jezebel had been slain. One of the noblest and wisest characters of the Old Testament history we find in this doubly loyal priest Jehoiada, loyal to both Divine and helpless human king. And the interposition of such characters as himself and his like-hearted wife, with the providential circumstances at- tending the transfer of the throne from Ahaziah to Joash, are also instructive. We see how the natural flow of wickedness, by ordinary descent from father to son, was checked by the very excesses of wickedness itself; and how a new beginning of character, like that of Asa and Jehoshaphat, was made possible. B. 1. AND Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said unto him, Gird up 2 thy loins, and take this vial of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when thou 3 comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and 4 make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber. Then take 5 the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee 6 king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not. So the young man, even the 7 young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. And when he came, behold, the captains 8 of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain. And Jehu said, 9 Unto which of all us? And he said, To thee, O captain. And he arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, the God 7 of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the LORD, even over Israel. And thou 8 shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the 9 prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab every man child, and him 9 that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. 10 And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. 11 And he opened the door, and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said unto them, 12 Ye know the man and what his talk was. And they said, It is false; tell us now. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I have anointed thee king 13 over Israel. Then they hastened, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on 14 the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king. So Jehu the son of Jehosha- phat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram kept Ramoth-gilead, he and 15 all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria: but king Joram was returned to be healed in Jez- reel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If this be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the 16 city, to go to tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram 17 lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram. Now the watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it 18 peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the 19 watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it 20 peace? And Jehu answered, What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving 21 is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously. And Joram said, Make ready. And they made ready his chariot. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him in the 22 portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother 23 Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said 24 to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Ahaziah. And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and smote Joram between his arms, and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in 25 his chariot. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him: Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth; and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD. But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot: and they smote him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David. 29 And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah. 30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and tired her head, and looked out at the window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master's murderer? And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. 33 And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink; and he said, See now to this cursed woman, and bury her: 35 for she is a king's daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel. ANOTHER great revolution was at hand. Four kings of the house of Omri and Ahab had now sat on the throne of Israel; but the death-knell of the wicked dynasty had rung. There had been a new war between Syria and Israel; and Ramoth-Gilead, as before, was the scene of the contest. King Jehoram had been wounded in battle, and had retired to Jezreel, where his cousin, King Ahaziah of Judah, had come to see him. W. G. B. Elisha is still the primary figure in the historical drama; but at this point his personality merges in the general account of the kingdom of Israel, which it is the object of the writer to trace from beginning to end. Elisha here performs his last public act, being commissioned, and carrying out his commission, to transfer the kingdom of Israel from the unworthy dynasty of Omri, which on account of its persistent idolatry has fallen under Divine condemnation, to a new dynasty, that of Jehu, which will, at any rate, check the worst excesses of the prevalent idolatrous system, and maintain the Jehovah-worship as the religion of the State. Hammond. With Jehu begins the most powerful, the most important, and the longest-lived of all the Israelite dynasties. The descendants of Jehu kept the throne "to the fourth generation" (2 K. 10: 30). Five kings in succession, furnished from a single house, showed that, under certain circumstances, God would allow, even to the northern kingdom, a certain prosperity and stability. The five reigns filled the space of above a century, and in the course of this period Israel attained the highest point of her greatness. Under Jeroboam the Second there was a near approach to a restoration of the Davidic kingdom, not, however, in the Davidic line, but in a line which aspired to supersede it. 1-3. The further course of the Syrian war is not given in Scripture with any detail; but it appears that Jehoram, shortly after the panic flight of the enemy from Samaria (last Section), took the offensive, and in conjunction with his nephew and ally, Ahaziah king of Judah, invaded the Syrian possessions in northern Perea and recovered the important city of Ramoth-Gilead, which Ahab and Jehoshaphat had failed to take (1 K. 22: 29-36; 2 K. 8: 28; 9: 1, 14). Jehoram received severe wounds in the course of the siege, and in consequence withdrew to Jezreel for medical aid, leaving his army in Ramoth-Gilead under the command of Jehu, one of the captains of the host, to watch over the place (verse 14) and defend it, should the Syrians attempt its recapture. It was while matters were in this position that Elisha, regarding the fitting time as at last arrived, proceeded to carry out the commission which had been entrusted to Elijah many years previously (1 K. 19: 16), of anointing a new king to the throne of Israel in the place of Jehoram, whose sins had forfeited his crown. One of the "sons of the prophets" was sent by him to the Israelite army at Ramoth-Gilead, with instructions to seek out Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and having obtained a private audience, to anoint him king of Israel with the holy oil of the sanctuary, a portion of which the prophet put into his hands. G. R. It is a serious question how the relation of Elisha toward a dynasty stained by so many crimes, and so unfaithful to the true service of the Lord, is to be explained. It certainly cannot be understood without taking several considerations into account. The situation was not simple, but complicated, and accordingly the motives influencing the conduct of the prophets were varied, and, if one-sidedly viewed, may for that very reason appear conflicting. These three considerations may, however, help us to understand their general bearing. First, the prophets were always only the executors of God's behests; they stood not in any independent personal relation to events or individuals. Secondly, the behests of God, and consequently the prophetic commission, whether as regarded judgment or deliverance, applied to acts and individual events, not to persons or lives. Thirdly, the final object of all was, on the one hand, the vindication of Jehovah's dealings, and, on the other, the arresting of Israel's spiritual and with it of their national decline. It was needful that signal judgments should sweep away Ahab and all connected with his ways, and Jehu was, in the circumstances of the time and in the state of the people, the most suitable instrument for it. Thus far, and thus far only, had his counter-revolution the countenance of the prophets. A. E. We must distinguish throughout this history between the motives which actuated Jehu in his conspiracy against Ahab, and the providential purpose which, as God's instrument, he was raised up to fulfil. That is to be read from the standpoint of the prophet. Israel was a people called into existence for the purpose of being a witness for the true God amid surrounding heathenism. It owed its existence and possession of the land of Caanan to Jehovah. From Him it had received its polity; to Him it was bound in solemn covenant; the fundamental laws of its constitution required undivided allegiance to Him. The penalties which would follow from disobedience were but a counterpart of the blessings which would flow from obedience. The first great sin of the nation was in the setting up of the calves under Jeroboam. For adherence to this unlawful form of worship two dynasties had already perished (verse 9). But with the accession of the house of Omri a new development in evil took place. The worship of the Phœnician Baal was introduced; God's prophets were relentlessly persecuted, and, under the influence of Jezebel, the moving spirit of three reigns, corruption had spread far and near throughout the realm, and had penetrated even to Judah. Jehoram at first showed a better spirit (chap. 3 : 2), but he must afterward have yielded to the superior influence of his mother, for Baal-worship was restored, and had the prestige of court example (verse 22; chap. 10 : 21). Under these circumstances, it was folly to hesitate, if Israel was to be saved. "Here the question of the justifiableness of rebellion against a legitimate dynasty, or of revolution in the ordinary sense of the word, cannot arise. The course of the house of Ahab was a rebellion against all law, human and Divine, in Israel" (Bāhr). Even in ordinary earthly states, the right of revolution when religion, liberty, morality, and national honor can be saved by no other means, is universally conceded. But revolution here was not left to dubious human wisdom. The initiative was taken by Jehovah himself, acting through His prophet, and express Divine sanction was given to the overthrow of Ahab's house. J. O. Oh, the sure though patient justice of the Almighty! Not only Ahab and Jezebel had been bloody and idolatrous, but Israel was drawn into the partnership of their crimes. All these shall share in the judgment. Elijah's complaint in the cave now receives this late answer: Hazael shall plague Israel; Jehu shall plague the house of Ahab and Jezebel. Bp. H. 6. Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel.** Jehovah's name is emphatically put forward, in contrast with the name of Baal, as that of the true God of Israel; and appeal is made to Jehu, as to one whose God is Jehovah, and who will accept as authoritative a message emanating from Him. I have anointed thee king over the people of Jehovah, over Israel. Practically, the people is, in the main, "the people of Baal" (chap. 10 : 19-21), but theoretically and by covenant it is "the people of Jehovah"—His "peculiar people" (De. 14 : 2), chosen by Him out of all the nations of the earth to be His own. 7. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master.** This is plainly a command, not a prophecy. Jehu is expressly ordered by God to "smite"—i.e., destroy utterly—the whole house of Ahab. This command he carried out (verses 24, 33; chap. 10 : 1-11); and his obedience to it obtained for him the temporal reward that his children to the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel (chap. 10 : 30). Yet still his conduct in destroying the house of Ahab is spoken of by the prophet Hosea as a sin, and God declares, by Hosea's mouth, that he will "avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu" (Hos. 1 : 4). It is naturally asked, "How could Jehu's shedding this blood, at God's command and in fulfilment of His will, be a sin?" And it is rightly answered, "Because, if we do what is the will of God for any end of our own, for anything except God, we do in fact our own will, not God's. It was not lawful for Jehu to depose and slay the king his master, except at the express command of God, who, as the supreme King, sets up and puts down earthly rulers as He wills. For any other end, and done otherwise than at God's express command, such an act is sin. Jehu was rewarded for the measure in which he fulfilled God's commands, as Ahab, 'who had sold himself to work wickedness,' had yet a temporal reward for humbling himself publicly, when rebuked by God for his sin, and so honoring God, amid an apostate people. But Jehu, by cleaving, against the will of God, to Jeroboam's sin (chap. 11 : 29, 31), which served his own political ends, showed that, in the slaughter of his master, he acted, not as he pretended, out of zeal for the will of God (chap. 10 : 16), but served his own will and his own ambition only. By his disobedience to the one command of God, he showed that he would have equally disobeyed the other, had it been contrary to his own will or interest. He had no principle of obedience. And so the blood which was shed according to the righteous judgment of God, became sin to him that shed it in order to fulfil, not the will of God, but his own" (Pusey). Hammond. 7. The blood of all the servants of the Lord. We may gather from this passage that besides the murder of the prophets there had been general persecutions of the worshippers of Jehovah at Jezebel's instigation—persecutions which are not recorded in the direct narrative. The allusion cannot be to the single case of Naboth. B. C. 9. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Jeroboam's house had been "cut off," smitten, destroyed, till not one of his posterity was left, about seventy years previously, by Baasha, "because of his sins which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger." The far greater sin of Ahab could not be visited with less severity. Hammond. 10. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel. The fate of Jezebel had been prophesied by Elijah (1 K. 21 : 23 ; 2 K. 9 : 36, 37). Its announcement as imminent forms a worthy climax to this grand prophecy of Elisha's. Hers was the chief guilt. From her had come the whole of that terrible sin which had now overshadowed both kingdoms. What more fitting, then, that now, when the evil was come to a head, and Divine wrath was about to burst forth and sweep away the entire impious brood, she should be selected for a punishment of extraordinary horror—a punishment which would never be forgotten—which, in Jewish eyes, was the most terrible that could befall humanity? In the portion of Jezreel. There most fitly would she suffer, at Jezreel, the scene of her idolatries—there, where she had set up her temple and her grove, had maintained her four hundred prophets and her priests, had threatened Elijah with destruction, and, above all, had stirred up her lord to commit murder. The "portion" or "field" of Jezreel, if not exactly identical with the vineyard of Naboth, was, at any rate, a tract closely adjoining upon it. 11. The captains do not mean to say that the man is mad ; but seeing his excited look, his strange action, and his extreme haste, they call him (as soldiers would) "this wild fellow"—"this scatter-brain." 13. On the top of the stairs. Rather, "on the very stairs," or "on the stairs themselves." The stairs would undoubtedly be those of the house in which the captains were assembled ; they would rise against the wall of the house from the pavement of the court to the level of the upper story, or of the roof. At the top of the stairs would be a flat platform, and this would form a convenient extempore throne, on which the new king could exhibit himself to his subjects (who were, doubtless, admitted into the court below) seated and in an elevated position. 14. Joram had kept Ramoth-Gilead. Rather, "Joram was keeping watch in Ramoth-Gilead." The city being taken, but the war continuing, and there being a danger of the Syrians recovering it, Joram and all Israel—i.e., the whole military force—were guarding the recent conquest, while Hazael threatened it. Joram is mentioned, though not present, because the watch was kept by his orders. Then, to prevent misconception, the writer repeats, almost in the same words, what he had said in chap. 8 : 29, of Joram's personal withdrawal to Jezreel. The whole passage, "Now ... with Hazael, king of Syria," is parenthetic. B. C. 15. Literally, let no escaper go forth from the city—equivalent to let no one quit the city—to go to tell it in Jezreel. This is the important point. Secrecy was absolutely essential. If the revolt had got wind—and a single messenger might have carried the news—the whole attempt might have failed, or only have succeeded after a long and bloody civil war. Hammond. 15,16. Jehu evinced his fitness to rule by the promptitude with which he decided on his course of action. He determined to set out at once for Jezreel, and to be the first to declare to Jehoram that his reign had ended. This relative position of the two parties in the action forms the foundation of perhaps the most striking, forcible, graphic, and yet concise description of a revolution in all literature. Kitto. On a mound near the head of the valley of Jezreel is Zerin (Jezreel), commanding a view of nearly the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon westward, and eastward looking down the broad rich valley of Jezreel to the acropolis of Bethshean and the distant mountains of Gilead. The village itself is poor and miserable, and there is little to remark in the ruins that cover the mound, but beneath that heap of rubbish lie waiting for the hand of the explorer the site, perhaps the remains, of the ivory palace of Ahab, the street into which Jezebel was thrown down at the command of Jehu, and the scenes of some of the bloodiest tragedies in sacred history. Without the city, on the road to Beisan, was the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, where Joram met his death; and as we look down the long valley with its even slope of green turf, we can easily picture the advance of Jehu, which is here so graphically described; the dispatch of the several messengers, the recognition of Jehu by his furious driving, the hasty preparation of the chariots of the kings of Israel and Judah, the meeting near the foot of the mound, the death of Joram and the flight of Ahaziah, mortally wounded, over the great plain to Megiddo—all come before the traveller with a vividness and reality that can only be felt by those who have visited the spot. Wilson.—As we stand on the crown of the ridge, perhaps on the very site of the palace, we open our Bible and read the story of poor Naboth and his vineyard. The vineyard was here below us in the plain (verse 16). Then turn to 2 K. 9: 11-37, and the scene is changed; and every incident of that fearful change is illustrated by the natural features of the scene bebefore us. We see how up the valley from the Jordan Jehu's troops might be seen advancing; how in Naboth's "field" the two sovereigns met the relentless soldier; how, while Joram died on the spot, Ahaziah drove across the westward plain toward the mountain-pass, by the beautiful village of Engannim ("the garden-house"), but was overtaken in the ascent, and died of his wounds at Megiddo; how, in the open place which, as usual in Eastern towns, lay before the gates of Jezreel, the body of the queen was trampled under the hoofs of Jehu's horses; how the dogs gathered round it, as even to this day, in the wretched village now seated on the ruins of the once splendid city of Jezreel, they prowl on the mounds without the walls for the offal and carrion thrown out to them to consume. Murray's Handbook. 18. The watchman evidently though his not returning suspicious, and reported it at once. Joram should now have taken alarm, but he did not. He appears to have had no notion that any danger could be approaching. 20. A still stranger circumstance, and one still more suspicious. The second messenger could only have been sent out because the king disapproved the detention of the first. Whoever, therefore, had detained the second messenger must be consciously acting in opposition to the wishes of the king. 21. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot. The uncle and the nephew went out together, still, as it would seem, unapprehensive of any danger, though the circumstances were certainly such as might well have aroused suspicion. And met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.** Humanly speaking, this was accidental. The "portion of Naboth," or his plot of ground, lay outside the southeastern gate of the city, at no great distance from the walls; and it happened that Joram and Jehu met within its limits. Had the king started a little sooner, or had Jehu made less haste, the meeting would have taken place farther from the town, and outside the "portion of Naboth." But Divine providence so ordered matters that vengeance for the sin of Ahab was exacted upon the very scene of his guilt, and a prophecy made, probably by Elisha, years previously, and treasured up in the memory of Jehu (verse 26), was fulfilled to the letter. Hammond. 22. What peace, etc.** Joram had asked the usual question, "Is it peace?" meaning simply, "Is all well?" Jehu replies with another question, "How can all be well, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel, and her many witchcrafts continue?" 23. Joram turned his hands and fled.** The meaning here is that Joram ordered his charioteer to turn round and drive back to the town. Jehu's words left no doubt as to his hostile intention; and so Joram, who had probably come out unarmed and unattended, felt compelled to seek for safety in flight. Flying, he shouted to his nephew the two words—"Treason, Ahaziah!" B. C. 24. Too late now doth wretched Jehoram turn his chariot and flee, and cry, "Treason, O Ahaziah." There was treason before, O Jehoram: thy treason against the majesty of God is now revenged by the treason of Jehu against thee. That fatal shaft, notwithstanding the swift pace of both the chariots, is directed to the heart of Jehoram. There is no erring of those feathers which are guided by the hand of destiny. Bp. II. 25. Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.** "Take up the body," that is, "and cast it into the plot of ground which once belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite, and was forfeited to the crown at his death (1 K. 21: 15), and taken possession of by Ahab" (verse 16). The reason for the order follows. For remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him. Jehu recalls his captain's recollection to an occurrence which was deeply impressed upon his own. "When thou and I rode together after Ahab" probably means "when we two stood behind Ahab in his chariot." 26. I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord.** This was the gist of the prophecy, which ran as follows: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the Lord. The evil prophesied against Ahab had been formally and expressly deferred to his son's days on Ahab's repentance (cf. 1 K. 21: 29). Hammond.—On that very spot, or near it, Naboth's own blood had been shed, and, as this verse shows (verse 26), not his alone, but the blood of his sons. Thither, after the murder, Ahab went down to take possession of the vineyard, and there, when he arrived, he found Elijah standing, waiting to denounce upon him the doom of blood. This was not all, for among those who rode with Ahab that day were two of his captains, one of them Bidkar, the other this Jehu, who heard the prophetic announcements against Ahab and his family. That prophecy, probably, had never altogether left the mind of Jehu, but now it came home to him with fresh force as he saw it actually fulfilled by his own hand. Bidkar, too, as it chanced, was there, and Jehu recalled to him the prophetic oracle. Then, to give it literal accomplishment, he bade Bidkar give orders that the corpse of Jehoram should be thrown into the plat of ground which formerly belonged to Naboth. J. O. How just are the judgments of God! It was in the field of Naboth, wherein Jehoram met with Jehu: that very ground called to him for blood. And now this new avenger remembers that prophecy, which he heard from the mouth of Elijah, in that very place, following the heels of Ahab; and is careful to perform it. What a resemblance there is betwixt the death of the father and the son—Ahab and Jehoram! Both are slain in their chariot; both with an arrow; both repay their blood to Naboth; and how perfect is this retaliation! Face doth not more answer to face than sin to sin. Bp. II. 26. And the blood of his sons.** The murder of Naboth's sons is here for the first time mentioned. As the removal of the sons was necessary if the vineyard was to escheat to Ahab, we can well understand that Jezebel would take care to clear them out of the way. She was not likely to do any work which she undertook by halves. B. C. 27,28. Ahaziah king of Judah was pursued and slain in a little time, and not far off (verses 27, 28). Though he was now in Joram's company, he had not been slain but that he was joined with the house of Ahab both in affinity and in iniquity; he was one of them; so he had made himself by his sins, and therefore he must fare as they fare. Yet perhaps he had not at this time fallen with them if he had not been found in company with them. It is a dangerous thing to associate with evil-doers; we may be entangled both in guilt and misery by it. H.—Ahaziah continued his flight to Megiddo, where he died. A slightly different account of the manner of his death is given in 2 Chron. 22: 9. Whatever the precise circumstances of the death, we cannot but see in it a righteous retribution for his own sins, and an example of the end of evil association. Through his mother Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel, he was brought into close and friendly relations with the court of Samaria, and sharing in the crimes of Ahab's house, shared also in their fate. It was his visit to King Jehoram which immediately brought down this doom upon him. J. O. 29. In the eleventh year. We read in chap. 8:25 that Ahaziah ascended the throne in Jehoram's twelfth year. The discrepancy may be explained as arising either from two modes of calculating the regnal years of kings (Keil), or from two ways of reckoning the accession of Ahaziah, who is likely to have been regent for his father during at least one year. 30. Jezebel painted her face. Literally, "put her eyes in antimony"—i.e., dyed the upper and under eyelids with a pigment prepared from antimony, a common practice in the East, even at the present day. The effect is at once to increase the apparent size of the eye, and to give it unnatural brilliancy. No doubt the practice was very ancient among the Oriental nations. And tired her head. Foreseeing her fate, Jezebel determined to keep up her regal splendor to the last, and painted her eyes and tired her head, and no doubt put on her royal robes, that she might die as became a queen, in true royal array. B. C.—While one loathes the character of the woman, it is impossible not to admire the boldness and spirit with which she faces the inevitable. Her proud, imperious nature comes out in her last actions. She paints her eyelids with antimony, tires her head, and adorns her person, as if she was preparing for some festal celebration. Then she plants herself at the window, and, when Jehu appears, assails him with bitter taunting words. "Is it peace, thou Zimri, thy master's murderer?" she mockingly asked. What a power for evil this woman had been in Israel! What a power, with her strong intellect and will, she might have been for good! J. O. 33. And he said, Throw her down. A splendid example of the man's prompt and bold and unscrupulous decision. A queen, a queen-mother, always more tenderly regarded than an ordinary queen-regnant, a princess in her own right (see verse 34), daughter of a neighboring and powerful potentate, settled in her kingdom for over thirty years, the most powerful person in the State during that entire period, backed up by the numerous and dominant party of her coreligionists, she is to Jehu nothing but a wicked woman who is in his way; she inspires him with no awe, she does not even touch him with any feeling of respect. "Throw her down." History presents no parallel to such an indignity. The boldness of Jehu communicated itself to those whom he addressed; and the eunuchs violently seized the person of the queen, and precipitated her from the window to the ground below. Hammond. 34. He passed over her, and entered the palace, the hoofs of his horses and his chariot-wheels red with her blood, without pausing to see whether she lived or died. He took possession, and after awhile sat down to refresh himself with meat and drink after that morning's bloody work. The coolness of this iron-hearted man is astonishing, but not without parallel. Kitto. 25-37. Retribution may be long in coming, but it comes at last. Yet throughout all history evil disposed men have persisted in wicked and cruel conduct just as if it was not only possible, but probable, that retribution would be escaped. The lesson thus needs continually to be impressed on men, that sooner or later retribution must come—that there is no escape from it. Retribution must come— Because God rules the universe, and God is just. Disbelief in retribution is essentially atheistic. It implies either that there is no God, or that God is without one or more of those attributes which make Him God. A just God must have the will to punish; an omnipotent God must have the power to punish. If a so-called God did not punish sin, he must be either not just or not omnipotent, or not either; but then he would not be God. As Bähr says, "A God without vengeance—i.e., who cannot and will not punish, is no God, but a divinity fashioned from one's thoughts." Because God has declared that it shall come, and God is true. God has said to each man, through his conscience, that He will punish sin. Remorse and regret, the dissatisfaction of a guilty conscience, are such punishment begun. In His Word God has expressly declared that "He will reward every man according to his works;" that He "will by no means clear the guilty;" that "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, shall be on every soul of man that doeth evil." Nothing is more plainly taught in the whole of Scripture, from the beginning to the end, than requital, retribution, condign punishment. Because any negative instance that can be produced will only show a delay, not an abrogation of the sentence. Infinite time is at the disposal of the Almighty. Men are impatient, and if retribution does not overtake the sinner speedily, are apt to conclude that it will never overtake him. But with the Almighty "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The important thing to be borne in mind is the end; and the end will not be reached till "the judgment is set, and the books are opened," and men are "judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works." Punishment may be long in coming—the ungodly may continue during their whole lifetime in prosperity. But there remains a future. Hammond. 1. Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and unto them that brought up the sons of Ahab, saying, And now as soon as this letter cometh to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fenced city also, and armour; look ye out the best and meetest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, the two kings stood not before him: how then shall we stand? And he that was over the household, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and they that brought up the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us; we will not make any man king: do thou that which is good in thine eyes. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be on my side, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to-morrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up. And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them unto him to Jezreel. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him: but who smote all these? Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. So Jehu smote all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining. And he arose and departed, and went to Samaria. And as he was at the shearing house of the shepherds in the way, Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah: and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him: and he saluted him, and said to him, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me thine hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD. So they made him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he smote all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake to Elijah. And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshippers, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal; whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. And Jehu said, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. And Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another. And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. And he brought them forth vestments. And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal; and he said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of the LORD, but the worshippers of Baal only. And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him. And it came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal. And they brought forth the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them. And they brake down the pillar of Baal, and brake down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house, unto this day. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan. And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin. In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jehu slept with his fathers: and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years. 1-28. THE revolution initiated by the destruction of Joram and Jezebel is here traced through its second and its third stages. In verses 1-11 is related the action taken by him, so far as the descendants of Ahab were concerned, and his success in ridding himself of all rivals possessed of so strong a claim. Verses 12-14 relate his dealings with another body of Ahab's relations, belonging to the neighboring kingdom of Judah. In verses 15-28 an account is given of the still more bloody and more sweeping measures by which he cowed the party opposed to him, and firmly established his dynasty in the Israelite kingdom. Hammond. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria.** By "sons" we must understand "male descendants." Most of the "seventy" were probably his grandsons (see verse 3); some may have been great-grandsons. They lived in Samaria; since Samaria was the principal residence of the court, Jezreel being simply a country palace. Hammond.—The term "sons" is evidently used for descendants, since there were among them children of Jehoram. (See verses 2, 3, 6, 13.) B. C. 2-5. To the persons in charge of the young princes in Samaria, Jehu wrote—for we now begin to hear of written communications more frequently than of old—a curious epistle. He assumed their devotion to the house of Ahab, and told them that, since they had the resources of the capital at their disposal, they had better set up one of the likeliest of the young princes as king, and uphold his cause by force of arms. There was a latent irony in this letter; as the writer must well have known the real state of the case, and how little likely it was that they would take up the cause of a fallen house—known to have been doomed of God. It so happened. The elders of Samaria, having conferred on the subject, sent in reply their unreserved submission to Jehu, declaring their readiness to obey his orders in all things. Kitto. 6,7,8. King's sons.** Some of the royal children were actual sons of Jehoram, while others were probably his nephews—are now called in a general way "the king's sons." 8. The "two" heaps were probably placed one on either side of the gateway, to strike terror into the partisans of the late dynasty as they passed in and out of the town. 9. A serious address to those Jezreelites who had gone out of their town to see the sight. "Ye are just," says Jehu, "and can judge aright. Judge between me and the party of Ahab who accuse me. I indeed slew my master, but they have slain these seventy youths." Jehu keeps back the fact that they had done it at his command. B. C.—He concealed the orders to this effect that he had sent—and which no one else dared disclose—desirous of making it appear that this slaughter had been the spontaneous act of the leading men of the metropolis, in testimony of their adhesion to his cause. Kitto. 11. Having killed Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel, having secured the adhesion of the chief men in Samaria, and effected the destruction of all those who might naturally have claimed the succession and involved him in civil war, Jehu proceeded to greater lengths. He "slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel"—the princesses probably, as well as the princes—and further put to death all the leading partisans of the dethroned dynasty, the "great men," perhaps even those who had worked his bloody will at Samaria, and the intimate friends and supporters of the house. Hammond. 12. The brethren of Ahaziah. Not the actual brothers of Ahaziah, who had all been slain by the Arabs before his accession to the throne (2 Chron. 21:17; 22:1); but his nephews, the sons of his brothers, as we learn from 2 Chron. 22:8. It is remarkable that they should have penetrated so far into the kingdom of Israel without having heard of the revolution. The children of the king and of the queen—i.e., "the sons of Jehoram, and the children (sons and grandsons) of the queen-mother, Jezebel." 14. Neither left he any of them. These princes, it must be remembered, were descendants of Ahab through Athaliah, and so included in Elijah's sentence (1 K. 21:21). B. C. 15. Jehonadab, the son of Rechab. Called Jonadab (Jer. 35:6, 14, 16, 19). It appears from 1 Chron. 2:55 that this personage belonged to the tribe of the Kenites, one of the most ancient in Palestine. Their origin is unknown, but their habits were certainly those of Arabs. They were constant nomads, and are found in various parts of Palestine at different periods—among the Midianites in the time of Moses, who took his wife from them—in Galilee, under the early judges (Judg. 4:10-17)—mixed up with Amalek, in the reign of Saul (1 S. 15:6). Owing to their connection with Moses, they formed a friendship with the Israelites, accompanied them in their wanderings, and finally received a location in the wilderness of Judah (Judg. 1:16). The character of this chief, Jonadab, is best seen in the rule which he established for his descendants (Jer. 35:6, 7)—a rule said to be still observed at the present day (Wolff, Pierotti). B. C. If it be, give me thine hand. Jehu merely means to say, "If thou art heart and soul with me in the matter, put out thy hand, and I will take thee into my chariot." Jehu intended at once to do honor to the Kenite chief, and to strengthen his own position by being seen to be so familiar with him. And he—i.e., Jehonadab—gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot. There was always room in a chariot for at least three or four persons—the charioteer and the owner of the chariot in front, and one or two guards behind. Hammond. Doubtless his heart was thoroughly in accord with Jehu's heart in the purpose of rooting out the Baal worship. It is impossible that its sensuality and effeminacy (being joined with that of Astarte) should not have been revolting to a man of Jonadab's temperament and race, a man of the free open air, with its necessary abstinence and scorn of luxury. The spiritual nature of such a man, quick and responsive from his constant communion with nature, would be the first to feel the power of teachings such as Elijah's, and it is not surprising that he was moved by them to lay upon his tribe, in a time when luxury and indulgence were eating out the heart of the nation, the laws of abstinent and simple living, which, as we find, they obeyed for more than three hundred years (Jer. 35:1-10). Houghton. As a protest against the corruption and luxury of his time, Jehonadab had withdrawn from life in cities, and had laid upon his sons a vow that they would drink no wine, neither build houses, nor plant vineyards, but would dwell in tents all their days. To get this man of ascetic virtue on his side would, Jehu felt, give color and repute to his proceedings. It is noticeable how anxious men who make no pretensions to godliness often are to get the countenance and approval of good men for their deeds. Hypocrisy has been called the homage which vice pays to virtue, and this desire for the approval of a holy man is, in another form, the tribute of worldly policy to the superior power of character. J. O. In how many fields is the anxious inquiry made by faithful pastors, "Is thine heart right?" To this the response may be made by some, "It is." What more reasonable than the further demand, "Give me thy hand?" The Church of God needs to-day as perhaps never before that every one whose heart is with its cause should pledge his fidelity by open confession and deliberate act. Jehonadab was not afraid to give his hand to the man who had taken upon himself the avenging of the honor of God's name, "and he took him up into his chariot." Before the eyes of all Israel he identified himself with this struggling cause. He did not wait for its complete triumph. He did not ask for its ideal perfection. He did require that it should renounce every doubtful follower. Prompt, decisive, unashamed, the man accepted the issue and the challenge, and to the loyalty of his heart he added the open pledging of his palm. Interior. Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. Of Jehu's "zeal," in itself considered, there could be no question. His zeal is seen in his eager haste to attain his ends, in his scouting of difficulties, in the thoroughness with which each piece of work is accomplished, in the quickness and skill of his devices. Such zeal is in large measure a natural endowment—a thing of temperament. Still, it is an essential to success in practical undertakings, spiritual as well as worldly. "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing" (Gal. 4 : 18). More doubtful is the quality of Jehu's zeal "for the Lord." Ostensibly it was God's will Jehu was carrying out; outwardly it was God's work he was doing. He may even have persuaded himself into the belief that he was honestly and disinterestedly serving God's ends. But the result showed that in serving God it was really his own ends Jehu was serving. His zeal was impure. It was largely inspired by selfish ambition, by considerations of policy, by the thought of the reward to himself. It was impure also in its admixture of craft and worldly expediency. Similarly, how much that passes for "zeal for the Lord" in this world is of the same impure nature! How much of it is inspired by sectarian rivalry, by party spirit, by the desire to make "a fair show in the flesh" (Gal. 6 : 12), by self-interest and worldly policy. How largely is it alloyed with human passion and intrigue! Truly we do well to examine ourselves. Zeal is to be tested not by its passing and spasmodic exhibitions, but by its power of endurance amid good report and evil report. J. O. Jehu's zeal burned brightly and scorched up everything before it as long as it was fanned by the excitement of self-interest and a naturally stormy temperament; but the whole heart was not in it; it was "zeal for God when it answers my purpose," not "zeal for God, cost me what it may." He was a man who would serve God as long as by so doing he could serve himself. The truth which Jehu did not see, and which we ought to see, is that God, if He be served at all, should be served with all our heart, and soul, and strength; that our service must be complete and free, as from those who feel that all they can do must fall infinitely short of a perfect worship of the infinite God. Bp. H. Goodwin. There is such a thing as a factitious zeal in the active service of religion; and that forms a ground of high pretension. You may have seen examples. Men in restless activity; full of scheme, and expedient, and experiment, and ostentatious enterprise; to promote, apparently, the work of God, the Christian cause; seeming ready to compass sea and land for the purpose. But an attentive observer could easily desery that the cause of God was a very secondary concern with them, even at the best interpretation. Their grand object, whether they were conscious of it or not, was their own notoriety; and the cause of religion happened to be that which would most effectually serve this purpose. "Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts." The successes and progress, real or pretended, of a good cause, were recounted and proclaimed by them in no other form of story than that of their own exploits for it. J. F. There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what the world calls zeal. There are so many passions which hide themselves under it, and so many mischiefs arising from it, that some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the benefit of mankind if it had never been reckoned in the catalogue of virtues. Spectator.—Unholy ambition, a compound of the love of renown and the love of power, drives the ploughshare of ruin over the fairest portions of the world. It turns men into Ishmaelites. It reigns in the human heart from early childhood to the extremest age—from the tiny rival for maternal caresses up to the contender for a throne. The speciality of its unfitness for religious service is not so much that over the whole face of society it produces such a struggling of human spirits for mastery and power; but that the whole contest is pushed without a throb or a prayer for anything but personal aggrandizement; that it has no mercy and no forgiveness for any man, action or event which obstructs the designs of its inflexible ambition; that its strides are over that very truth and equity and happiness and order, to abet which God asks for the heart of humanity. C. White. Let us take heed that we do not sometimes call that zeal for God and His Gospel which is nothing else but our own temptations and stormy passions. True zeal is a sweet, heavenly and gentle flame, which maketh us active for God, but always within the sphere of love. It never calls for fire from heaven to consume those that differ a little from us in their apprehensions. It is like that kind of lightning (which philosophers speak of) that melts the sword within, but singeth not the scabbard; it strives to save the soul, but it hurteth not the body. Cudworth. 17. Spake to Elijah.** This emphatic reiteration (compare verse 10) marks, first, how in the mind of the writer all this history is viewed as deriving its special interest from its being so full and complete an accomplishment of Elijah's prophecies; and, secondly, how at the time Jehu carefully put forward the plea that what he did had this object. It does not indicate that a single-minded wish to execute God's will was Jehu's predominant motive. Even where he most strictly fulfilled the letter of prophecies, he was working for himself, not for God; and hence vengeance was denounced upon his house even for the very "blood of Jezreel" (Hos. 1:4). B. C. 18-28. Having thus obeyed the Divine injunction to "avenge the blood of the prophets and servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel and Ahab," Jehu next proceeded to crush out the worship of Baal which Ahab and Jezebel had established in Israel. B. 18. The serving of false gods was by the law of Israel a capital offence (De. 13). It was right, therefore, for Jehu to use his power to put an end to the practice, and to inflict upon the perpetrators of this crime the penalty of the law. But in doing this he made use of falsehood and deceit; and his efforts to extinguish the worship of Baal were prompted not by a sincere loyalty to Jehovah, but with the view of establishing his own power. The adherents of Baal were naturally partial to the family of Ahab. If Jehu could exterminate them, he would rid himself of a party who were likely to be hostile to him, and he would at the same time secure the attachment of those who favored the old order of things. W. H. G. 19. All the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests. Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. His absence would be regarded as an act of contumacy verging on rebellion, and so as deserving of capital punishment. But Jehu did it in subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.** "Subtilty" was characteristic of Jehu, who always preferred to gain his ends by cunning rather than in a straightforward way. Idolaters were by the law liable to death, and Jehu would have had a perfect right to crush the Baal worship throughout the land, by sending his emissaries everywhere, with orders to slay all whom they found engaged in it. But to draw some thousands of his subjects by false pretences into a trap, and then to kill them in it for doing what he had himself invited them to do, was an act that was wholly unjustifiable, and that savored, not of the wisdom which is from above, but of that bastard wisdom which is "earthly, sensual, devilish." Jehu's religious reformation did not succeed, and it was conducted in such a way that it did not deserve to succeed. A little more honest boldness and a little less frequent resort to subterfuge and craft might have had a different result, and have been better both for himself and for his people. Hammond. I can commend the zeal of Jehu; I cannot commend the fraud of Jehu; we may come to our end even by crooked ways. He that bade him to smite for Him did not bid him to lie for Him. Falsehood, though it be but tentative, is neither needed nor approved by the God of truth: if policy have allowed officious untruths; religion never. Bp. H.—Jehu inflicted the merited punishment on these criminals, not by a fearless application of the law or a conscientious discharge of the regal office, but by perfidious subtlety and idolatrous hypocrisy. Gisborne. 20, 21. Jehu summons all the prophets, priests, and servants of Baal to a great sacrifice in the Temple of Baal at Samaria. Such solemn assemblies for religious observances were common among all nations and under all systems of religion. From every part of the land where altars to Baal had been erected all the resident priests were gathered, until the great "House of Baal was full." They came in the expectation that Jehu was about to inaugurate his reign by the fresh enthronement of their god as the supreme object of worship. So had he led them to believe, in order to entrap and destroy them. 22-24. Preliminary preparations for the slaughter. First, he decked the victims from the vestry-room of the temple in gorgeous priestly garments. This was in seeming deference to their sacred office. Next, he, with Jehonadab the Rechabite, went among them and bade them search among themselves, that no servants of Jehovah might remain in their temple. His anxiety in this matter, too, seemed to express his zealous desire to exclude all the intruders from this special sacrifice. His real purpose was to make sure that no worshipper of Jehovah should be slain. Lastly, he placed eighty armed men without at the entrance, and charged them with the merciless slaughter of all within. B. 23. Jehu's real object was undoubtedly to save the lives of any "servants of Jehovah" who might incautiously have mixed themselves up with the Baal-worshippers, out of curiosity, or to have their share in the general holiday. That he should have thought such a thing possible or even probable indicates the general laxity of the time and the want of any sharp line of demarcation between the adherents of the two religions. He cleverly masked his desire for the safety of his own religionists under a show of keen anxiety that the coming ceremonies should not be profaned by the presence of scoffers or indifferent persons. Hammond. 25-28. Massacre of the entire multitude and destruction of the images of Baal. The temple of Baal, like that at Jerusalem, had outer courts or enclosures where the altar was, and the sacrifices were offered. It had also an inner fortress-like sanctuary, called here "the city of the house of Baal," where stood the great stone image of Baal, surrounded by smaller wooden images of his fellow-gods. Into the outer enclosures, thronged with the defenceless priests and people, at Jehu's command the armed guard now entered and faithfully executed their work of slaughter. Then, when none were left alive, they penetrated into the inner court or "city" and brought forth the images of wood and burned them amid the heaped-up corpses. Last of all, they shattered the great stone image of Baal, and razed the entire structure to the ground, leaving the mass of débris as a sepulchre of the underlying dead, and a token of the Divine judgment against this impious and loathsome false worship. "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." B. 28. The writer, picturing the wild scene, sums up with a touch of exultation: "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel," where note the emphatic prominence of the three names of the king, the god and the nation. That is the vindication of the terrible deed. A. M. —The measures taken were effectual; the worship of Baal was put down, and is not said to have been revived in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. Moloch worship seems to have taken its place (see chap. 17: 17). Hammond. The slaughter of that wicked house of Ahab and of the Baal priests was the act of Divine justice, and the question is simply whether that justice was entitled to slay them. To that question believers in a Divine providence can give but one answer. The destruction of Baal worship and the annihilation of its stronghold in Ahab's family were sufficient reasons, as even we can see, for such a deed. To bring in Jehu into the problem is unnecessary. He was the sword, but God's was the hand that struck. It is not for men to arraign the Lord of life and death for His methods and times of sending death to evil-doers. Granted that the "long-suffering" which is "not willing that any should perish" speaks more powerfully to our hearts than the justice which smites with death, the later and more blessed revelation is possible and precious only on the foundation of the former. Nor will a loose-braced generation like ours, which affects to be horrified at the thought of the "wrath of God," and recoils from the contemplation of His judgments, ever reach the innermost secrets of the tenderness of His love. From the merely human point of view, we may say that revolutions are not made with rose-water, and that, at all crises in a nation's history, when some ancient evil is to be thrown off, and some powerful system is to be crushed, there will be violence, which easy-going people, who have never passed through like times, will hold up their hands at in horror and with cheap censure. No doubt we have a higher law than Jehu knew, and Christ has put His own gentle commandment of love in the place of what was "said to them of old time." But let us, while we obey it for ourselves, and abjure violence and blood, judge the men of old "according to that which they had, and not according to that which they had not." Jehu's bloody deeds are not held up for admiration. His obedience is what is praised and rewarded. Well for us if we obey our better law as faithfully. A. M. The idolatrous defection in Israel imperilled at once the nation and the Church. If continued, it would utterly destroy not only the national hopes of the Jews, but the world's hope of redemption to be developed along the line of the covenant people. All nations had a stake in bringing Israel back to the worship of one God and keeping true the words of the Lord's prophets. Idolatry must be destroyed by the destruction of those who had set up its altars. And therefore, for the salvation of the nation and the Church, the supreme Lord of nations ordered the destruction of the idolaters. That it was a just punishment of their own sins is also apparent. They had carried on a most ruthless and relentless persecution of the Lord's people, their hands had been steeped in the blood of the saints, and their fell purpose was to blot from the records of Israel forever the worship of the true God. And that God, who by His providence is ever punishing sin, did it in this case by a direct command. Nor is His agency more real in the one case than in the other. Therefore, Jehu is not condemned in the Bible, and is not to be condemned by us, for executing vengeance on the false prophets. Behind the king stands God, who anointed the king for this work of revolution. To say that God permitted but did not authorize the work of Jehu is to solve no difficulty and to speak in the face of the record. If the Bible makes anything clear, it is that in the exigencies of Old Testament times God assumed the direct punishment of people and the protection of His cause by methods which differ from those usually accounted providential only in making men the declared and commanded instruments of His justice. C. L. Thompson. For God's work of salvation He uses consecrated men. Jehu was of use as a destroyer, as an image breaker, but he was no national or moral reformer in the true sense. He was of no spiritual benefit to others. For such work God uses only those who themselves have received spiritual blessing. C. H. I. Introduced by Ahab with his queen Jezebel from Phoenicia, Baal worship was thus extinguished with his dynasty. And as this open displacing of Jehovah by an idol was the preeminent sin of Ahab, by which his wickedness was distinguished above even that of Jeroboam, so the leading adherents of Ahab's dynasty were specially characterized by this form of idolatrous worship. One, therefore, who sought to obliterate all remaining influences of Ahab's power must eradicate this worship out of the land. It was not, then, zeal for God, but a politic regard to his own interests that led Jehu to lay the foundation of a new dynasty in the destruction of the priests and the demolition of the temple of Baal. The party of Baalites was small as compared with those who still maintained the calf worship of Jeroboam. Yet its power was great, having been so long in possession of prominent offices. Its basis and rallying point being now exterminated, Jehu could look for abiding support from the mass of the nation. Therefore, having coolly perpetrated this great slaughter from motives of selfish policy, from the same motives 29-31. Jehu falls into the exact way of Jeroboam, in worship and life. To the law of the Lord he gave no heed. It had no influence over his heart, nor effect upon his life. He renewed the first great breach that had been made by Jeroboam in the form and spirit of worship. He revived among the people an utter disregard of the second commandment from Sinai, after himself enacting God's fearful judgment against those who had led the people in impious disobedience to the first. The Baal worship was the "having other gods before Jehovah." The calf worship was a professed worship of Jehovah, but under the form of an image. Policy and self-interest led him to fall back into Jeroboam's way of worship. The larger part of the people preferred this way. And Jeroboam's own reason for devising and using it still existed: it prevented the return of the people to worship at Jerusalem. But Jehu was no worshipper of Jehovah under any form. He had obeyed special Divine commands in the line of his soldier-like tastes. He had slain and slaughtered, and driven over a pathway of corpses to the throne. But self-interest had prompted his obedience thus far. Yet (and it is a strangely instructive fact) God expresses approval of his obedience. He even rewards it with a great and distinguishing favor, prolonging his dynasty upon the throne of Israel beyond the period of any other family. In this approval there is no commendation of the falsehood and treachery by which the end was reached. The destruction of Ahab's house and of Baal's worship was "right in His eyes," and "according to all that was in His heart." This, when commanded, Jehu had zealously fulfilled. And, without reference to any wrong method or selfish spirit in the doing, God shows Himself accurately just, and more than generous, in the reward He gives. Thus He shows that He will never be in debt to any man. With more than generous measure He will repay the little good that men may do in obedience to His command. And in the face of such Divine promise and reward Jehu's life was like Jeroboam's—self-seeking and indulgent. After this, we hear of no obedience to God, and of no further approval. Enthroned by God's appointment and hand, he secures his power by his own policy. Receiving supreme advancement and an excess of earthly gifts, he intimates no grateful feeling, manifests no faith in God, no care for His will. Thus for twenty-eight years, during which "the Lord began to cut Israel short" (verse 32), on account of their continued disobedience and counterfeit worship, Jehu led them in the sins of Jeroboam. Untaught by multiplying calamities which gradually but surely narrowed the confines of the nation, to the end king and people together bowed before altars and images reared in express violation of God's commands. B. So far as might serve the elevation of Jehu to the crown of Israel, to setting him on the throne, so far he goes in the ways of God's command, but no farther. So let God command anything that may hit with a man's own ends, and be suitable to him, and he seems to be very obedient to God; but let God go on further, and require something that will not serve his turn, that will not agree with his own ends; and here God may seek for a servant; as for him he will go no farther. Burroughs. Here the motives which influenced Jehu stand displayed. Though raised to the throne by the hand of God, he now looked for the security of it to his own policy. Destitute of faith in Him to whom he was indebted for all, he trusted not to the King of kings for the permanence of the gifts which He bestowed. Destitute of gratitude to his gracious Benefactor, he returned for unmerited kindness habitual and presumptuous disobedience. While regard to the commandments of God conducted him in the path of advancement, he was eager to obey; but now, to his worldly apprehension, obedience and interest ceased to coincide. He who had been exalted to sovereign power, for the express purpose of annihilating idolaters, converted his authority and example into instruments of upholding and perpetuating idolatry among his subjects. Nor was his dereliction of God the crime of a moment or the error of sudden surprise. During a reign of twenty-eight years, unmoved by the judicial calamities with which the Lord "cut Israel short," this obdurate monarch bowed down, together with his people, before the images erected in violation of God's commands, before altars reared in express opposition to His holy temple. Gisborne. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu. Probably by the mouth of Elisha. Jehu had been expressly ordered to "smite the house of Ahab" (2 K. 9 : 7); and thus to a certain extent his bloody measures were acts of obedience, for which God might see fit to assign him a temporal reward. Thy children to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. This was accomplished in the persons of Jehoahaz (2 K. 13 : 1), Joash (ibid., verse 9), Jeroboam (14 : 16), and Zachariah (15 : 8), the son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson of Jehu. It is noticeable that no other family sat upon the throne of Israel so long. The house of Omri, which furnished four kings, held the crown for three generations only and for less than fifty years—that of Jehu reigned for five generations and for above a hundred years. B. C. 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Jehovah, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He abolished the worship of Baal, but did not keep up the worship of God nor walk in His law. He showed great care and zeal for the rooting out of a false religion, but in the true religion showed no care, took no heed, lived at large, was not at all solicitous to please God and do His duty; took no heed to the Scriptures, to the prophets, to his own conscience, but walked at all adventures. Those that are heedless, it is to be feared, are graceless; for where there is a good principle in the heart it will make men cautious and circumspect, desirous to please God and jealous of doing anything to offend Him. H. He contented himself with rooting out Baal, but left the calves. That shows the impurity of his "zeal," which flamed only against what it was for his advantage to destroy, and left the more popular and older idolatry undisturbed. Obedience has to be "all in all, or not at all." We may not compound for sins we are inclined to, by zeal against those we have no mind to. Our consciences are apt to have insensitive spots in them, like witch-marks. We often think it enough to remove the grosser evils, and leave the less. But white ants will eat up a carcass faster than a lion. Putting away Baal is of little use if we keep the calves at Dan and Bethel. Nothing but walking in the law of the Lord "with all the heart" will secure our walking safely. A. M. Personal ambition had been at the bottom of his heart, and he had destroyed that form of idolatry which was identified with the house of Ahab. But having achieved his end, he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord. His zeal for righteousness did not turn inward and burn up his own sins. When there was nothing left to destroy, his occupation was gone. The same thirst for blood which had marked him passed down, a ghastly bequeathment, to his children, and brought the Divine curse upon them. W. Benham. 33. There is other evidence, besides this, that Hazael was one of the most warlike of the Syrian kings. We find him, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II., mentioned as a stubborn adversary of the Assyrian arms. In the seventeenth campaign of Shalmaneser a great battle was fought between the two monarchs. Hazael brought into the field more than twelve hundred chariots, but was defeated and obliged to retreat, his camp falling into the hands of the enemy. Four years later Shalmaneser invaded Hazael's territory, and took, according to his own account, four cities or fortresses belonging to him. He does not claim, however, to have made him a tributary; and by his later annals it is evident that he avoided further contest, preferring to turn his arms in other directions. Hammond.—In Jehu's reign we are brought into contact for the first time, since the mention of Chedorlaomer, with the great monarchies of Western Asia. We possess in the British Museum an obelisk of black basalt, brought by Mr. Layard from Nimroud, which was set up by Shalmaneser I., king of Assyria, to commemorate his victories. It appears that, while Benhadad II. and Hazael were warring against Israel, they had to sustain a conflict with Assyria; and among the tributaries to Shalmaneser appears the name of "Jehu (or Yahua), the son of Khumri" (Omri). The erroneous patronymic is accounted for by Omri's being regarded as the founder of the kingdom of Samaria, the name of the city itself appearing on the obelisk in the form "Beth-khum-ri" (house of Omri). P. S. 36. In Samaria was twenty and eight years.** Twenty-eight years was a long reign for an Israelite king, only exceeded by one other king in the entire list—viz., Jeroboam II., who is said in chap. 14:23 to have reigned forty-one years. The kings of Judah were longer lived. Hammond. The state of the kingdom under Jehu, and still more under his son and successor Jehoahaz, was, in a political aspect, a very unfortunate one; for Hazael, who had been raised according to prophecy to the throne of Damascus as a Divine scourge to Israel repeatedly and successfully invaded the land, treating with especial harshness the part of Palestine east of the Jordan (Amos 1:3), which became for some time subject to the kingdom of Damascus. During this period of distress the opposition of the prophets was withdrawn; nay, when the kingdom was reduced to the last extremity it was by the mouth of the prophets that Divine deliverance was once more announced, the dying Elisha first promising to the dejected Joash, the son and successor of Jehoahaz, victory over the Syrians (2 K. 13:14 sqq.), and Jonah, the son of Amittai, subsequently predicting the restoration of the ancient boundaries of the kingdom (14:25). Joash was successful in his wars against Damascus and Judah; but the glory of the kingdom was still further enhanced under his valiant son Jeroboam II., who not only restored the ancient limits of the kingdom, but even conquered a portion of Syria. External success, however, effected no internal change; on the contrary, its internal corruption continuing to increase, it was during the period in which, to human eyes, it was attaining a hitherto unparalleled prosperity, that the state, together with its royal house, was hastening toward those judgments which the prophets Amos and Hosea were raised up under Jeroboam II. to proclaim. First, it was the shepherd of Tekoa who came from Judah and testified to the tyrannical nobles of Samaria, revelling in proud security, and to the multitude trusting in their mistaken and hypocritical piety, the approach of the day of the Lord (Amos 5:10 sqq., 6:1-6). Afterward, probably toward the end of Jeroboam the Second's reign, Hosea appeared; and when the respite granted by the prophetic word (2 K. 10:30) to the house of Jehu had nearly expired, he announced first to the latter, and then to the kingdom of Samaria in general, that judgment was now at hand, and continued his testimony during the terrible times beginning with Jeroboam's death. O. The Jehu type of character has always been familiar in Church and State. Such a man may be zealous, even violent, for special reforms which somewhere touch personal interests or stir personal feelings. But in no wise is he better than others in reference to the daily stringent demands of a pure and an unselfish life. Not that his zeal is altogether hypocritical, although it may employ sharp devices. It may be genuine and right enough as far as it goes; but its rightness is only partial, and its reach is limited. It does not cover the actual needs of the spirit's daily life. As a general result, such a reformer falls back out of sight when the issue has been reached. And when the dust raised by his apparent zeal is stilled, all can see and rightly estimate his selfish motive. So the ultimate effect of his acting is to add another to the many living examples that spur selfish men to self-seeking. B.—His sin was the sin of Jeroboam; he made Israel to sin for his own advantage. It is the sin of the present day, the debasing of the ideal from motives of policy. It is the sin which every one commits, who says that it is not practical to conduct business or order conduct on high religious principles. Houghton. 11:17 AND Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD's people; between the king also and the people. And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the LORD under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the LORD, to offer the burnt offerings of the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David. And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the LORD, that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the LORD: and they came through the upper gate unto the king's house, and set the king upon the throne of the kingdom. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword. 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters. And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of the LORD. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony? For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD did they bestow upon the Baalim. So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the LORD. And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. And it was so, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites, slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. And he took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard unto the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword at the king's house. 12. Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign. In the seventh year of Jeho began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of the LORD, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the LORD, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance: and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD. And they and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also such as wrought iron and brass to repair the house of the LORD. So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set up the house of God in its state, and strengthened it. And when they had made an end, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the LORD, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days, and he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they forsook the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it. And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgement upon Joash. And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD, and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. But there were not made for the house of the LORD cups of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD: for they gave that to them that did the work, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD. Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work: for they dealt faithfully. The money for the guilt offerings, and the money for the sin offerings, was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests'. Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and smote Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goeth down to Silla. For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonites, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. 11:17 AND Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD's people; between the king also and the people. And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and Jehoiada appointed the offices of the house of the LORD under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the LORD, to offer the burnt offerings of the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David. And he set the porters at the gates of the house of the LORD, that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in. And he took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of the LORD: and they came through the upper gate unto the king's house, and set the king upon the throne of the kingdom. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword. 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters. And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of the LORD. And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out unto the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that ye hasten the matter. Howbeit the Levites hastened it not. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the LORD, and of the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony? For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD did they bestow upon the Baalim. So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the house of the LORD. And they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end. And it was so, that at what time the chest was brought unto the king's office by the hand of the Levites, slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. And he took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard unto the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword at the king's house. 12. Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign. In the seventh year of Jeho began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of the LORD, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of the LORD, let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance: and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD. And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD. And they and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of the LORD; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also such as wrought iron and brass to repair the house of the LORD. So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set up the house of God in its state, and strengthened it. And when they had made an end, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the LORD, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada. But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days, and he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they forsook the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear. And the spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it. And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgement upon Joash. And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD, and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. But there were not made for the house of the LORD cups of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD: for they gave that to them that did the work, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD. Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work: for they dealt faithfully. The money for the guilt offerings, and the money for the sin offerings, was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests'. Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem. Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and smote Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goeth down to Silla. For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonites, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead. 1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the 2 son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. And he did 3 that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of 4 Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. And the anger of the 5 LORD was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, 6 and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael, continually. And Jehoahaz besought the 7 LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him: for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the 8 king of Syria oppressed them. (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out 9 from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as before- 10 time. Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, wherewith he 11 made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the Asherah also in Samaria.) 12 For he left not to Jehoahaz of the people save fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thou- 13 sand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in thresh- 14 ing. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, are they not 15 written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jehoahaz slept with his 16 fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his stead. 17 In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz 18 to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. And he did that which was evil 19 in the sight of the LORD; he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 20 wherewith he made Israel to sin: but he walked therein. Verses 12 and 13 transferred below, following verse 25. 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died: and Joash the king of Israel 15 came down unto him, and wept over him, and said, My father, my father, the chariots of 16 Israel and the horsemen thereof! And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows: and he 17 took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the 18 bow: and he put his hand upon it. And Elisha laid his hands upon the king's hands. And 19 he said, Open the window eastward: and he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot: and he 20 shot. And he said, The LORD's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria: for 21 thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. And he said, Take 22 the arrows: and he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground: 23 and he smote thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou 24 shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst con- 25 summed it: where as now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. 20. And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at 21 the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. 22, 23 And Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. But the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them 24 from his presence as yet. And Hazael king of Syria died; and Ben-hadad his son reigned in 25 his stead. And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash smite him, and recovered the cities of Israel. 12 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might wherewith he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the 13 kings of Israel? And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Of the other kings in Jehu's dynasty only brief notices appear. His son Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years; had wars with Syria, for a while disastrous, destructive; but subse- quently, when he besought the Lord for help, he found deliverance and peace (verses 3-5, 22, 23). It fell to his son Joash to stand and weep over the aged prophet Elisha in his last sick- ness, and to give utterance to his emotions in words borrowed from Elisha's own lips as he saw Elijah ascend: "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." The dying prophet aroused himself sufficiently to give the king some prophetic announcements bearing on the then pending issues of his wars with Syria, in which the measure of the king's success turned upon the reach and compass of his faith. At this point the historian records that the bones of Elisha imparted life to a dead body thrown in hastily upon them (verse 20) —so wonderfully was the miraculous element blended with his whole life, extending even to his decaying bones. The demand for miracles, resulting from the great decline of faith, especial- ly in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, is a point worthy of special notice. The ministry of prophets, and particularly of the miracle- working prophets, Elijah and Elisha, was the chief agency employed of God to resist and eradicate Baal-worship from the land and to bring the people back to a living faith in Israel's God. Other prophets in considerable number had important work to do in this special field; but miraculous agency seems to have been chiefly limited to these two men. Two prophets whose writings have come down to us, Hosea and Amos, fall within the long reign (forty-one years) of Jeroboam II., son and successor of this Joash. Their writings show how solemnly they expostulated with and how earnestly they rebuked both the people and their king for their sins; how tenderly they entreated them to turn to their compas- sionate Father to find mercy; and yet with how little avail. If these written exhortations fairly represent the oral preaching of the prophets in Israel, it must have been wonder- fully pungent, searching, thrilling, and ought to have been full of moral power. H. C.—Never more clearly than in this period, during the dynasty of Jehu, does it appear how the prophet, as the messenger of God, combined the twofold function of preaching to his own and, in a sense, to every future generation, and of intimating the wider purposes of God in the future. There is not in the prophetic utter- ances recorded any one series of admonitions, warnings, or even denunciations which does not lead up to an announcement of the happy prophetic future promised. In this respect prophecy has the same fundamental character- istic as the Book of Psalms, in which, whatever the groundnote, every hymn passes into the melody of thanksgiving and praise. This sim- ilarity is due to the fact that, in their scriptural aspect, the progress of outward teaching and the experience of the inner life are ever in ac- cordance. On the other hand, there is not in the prophetic writings any utterance in regard to the future which has not its root, and, in a sense, its starting point in the history of the time. The prophet, so to speak, translates the vernacular of the present into the Divine lan- guage of the future, and he interprets the Di- vine sayings concerning the future by the well- known language of the present. As between his teaching and his prediction, so between the history of the present and that of the future there is not a gap: they are one, because through both runs one unswerving purpose which gradually unfolds what from the first had been infolded. And so history and prophecy also are one, because God is one. And so also, if we would rightly understand them, must we study not so much prophecies as isolated utterances, but as prophecy in its grand harmonious historical unity. A. E. 1-9. The biblical text seems here somewhat involved, in part from the mixture of remarks by the writer with the historical notices extracted from existing documents. The following appears its real order. The usual notice (verse 1) of the accession of Jehoahaz, and of the duration of his reign is followed by a general description of the character of that monarch (in verse 2): as doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and continuing the wrongful religious institutions of Jeroboam. Then we have in verse 3 a notice of the Divine punishment of these sins in the surrender of Israel to Hazael, king of Syria, and to Benhadad, his son and successor. The following verse (verse 4) marks the repentance and prayer of Jehoahaz, occasioned by these calamities, and God's gracious answer, although not in the immediate present (see verses 22-25). Verses 5 and 6 form a parenthesis. Possibly it may begin with verse 4. The reference to the wars of Benhadad in verse 3, which can only apply to the time of Jehoahaz, may be rather of a general character (see verses 22 and 25). In any case the continuous historical notices, or extracts, recommence with verse 7, which describes the depressed condition of the kingdom under Jehoahaz, while verses 8 and 9 record, in the usual form, the death of Jehoahaz and the accession of his son, Jehoash (or Joash). Thus, as already stated, verses 5 and 6, if not also verse 4, form an intercalated notice, telling on the one hand how God had heard the prayer of Jehoahaz by raising up "a saviour" to Israel (verse 5), and, on the other hand, how this gracious interposition did not really affect the spiritual state of Israel (verse 6). They not only continued in the sins of Jeroboam, but "there stood the Asherah also in Samaria." This parenthetic notice must be considered as of a general character: "the saviour" raised up being in the first place Jehoash (verse 25), and finally and fully Jeroboam II. (2 K. 14: 25-27). Sayce. 3. Now first were the anticipations of Elisha on his introduction to Hazael near Damascus fully realized; now first did all those evils which his prophetic soul had presaged come on the unhappy Israelites. Invasions of their land fell upon them year by year, accompanied with all the horrors of the most savage and cruel warfare. G. R. 4. A prayer wrung from the king, not by the sense of his sin, but by the intolerable pressure of affliction, might have been thought undeserving of an answer. But the Lord is very pitiful, and welcomes the faintest approach of the sinner unto Him. He does not thrust the suppliant away, but seeks, by giving him tokens of His grace, to ripen his imperfect desires into real repentance. Accordingly, Jehoahaz met with a gracious response. God promised a saviour to the land, and ultimately raised one up in the person of Joash, who, but for his want of perseverance, would have completely delivered the nation from the Syrians. The work which he left undone was finished by his son, Jeroboam II. Thus God shows Himself ready to hear the cries even of the worst of men. None need despair in calling on Heaven when Jehoahaz was listened to in such dire straits. J. O. Assuredly no better evidence could be afforded us that even in our furthest decline we may still turn to God, nor yet that prayer—even by Jehoahaz, and in that state of Israel—shall not remain unanswered. Yet, though the prayer was immediately heard, as in the judgment pronounced upon Ahab (1 K. 21: 27-29), its immediate manifestation was delayed. These are precious practical lessons to all time, and the more valuable that they are in such entire accordance with God's dealings as declared in other parts of Revelation, exhibiting the harmony and inward unity of Holy Scripture. Sayce. As soon as any relenting is shown, as soon as the king acknowledges God's hand in His punishment, and turns to Him and entreats His aid, even although he does not put a stop to the practices by which God's anger has been provoked (verse 6), yet the Divine compassion is stirred. "The Lord hearkened unto him" (verse 4). A saviour is given, in the Divine counsels, if not at once in fact. The nation's fall is arrested, its life prolonged. Hammond.—O faithful Christian, if God heard Jehoahaz, how much more will He hear thee, if thou callest upon Him! The Lord gave Israel a deliverer, but Jehoahaz did not live to see him. God hears the cry of those who earnestly call upon Him, and helps them; but the time, and place, and manner of His aid are retained in His own discretion. Do not despair if thy prayer does not seem to be heard, and the Lord delays His assistance. He knows that fitting season as well as He knows what is useful to us. Starke. 6. There remained the grove.** One would have thought that, in such a reformation as that of Jehu, there would have been a clean sweep, or, at any rate, that Ahab's pet idolatries would have gone. But no! evil is terribly persistent. No reformation ever sweeps away at once all that it was intended to sweep away. "The grove remains." How many heathen superstitions survived the supersession of heathenism by Christianity! How many iniquitous laws continue in all countries after every attempt that is made to reform the laws! The result is partly through the fault of the reformers, who cease their efforts while much still remains to be done; but it is also caused in part by the tenacity of life which the things that need to be swept away possess in themselves. And as evil is thus persistent in communities, so is it also in the character of individuals. A man makes a great effort at self-reformation, changes his rules of conduct, his habits, the whole method of his life, as he thinks; but in some corner there still lurks a remnant of the old leaven, which shortly reasserts itself, and too often leavens the whole mass with its corrupting influence. The lesson to be learned is watchfulness and perseverance. By care, by consideration, and by constant effort, the persistency of evil may be met and counteracted. God's Holy Spirit is always ready to assist our endeavors; and whether in a community or in an individual, continued effort, divinely aided, will prevail at last. 7. The meaning seems to be that Hazael limited the standing army of Jehoahaz to fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen, not that he slew the entire military population except this small remnant. The policy of limiting the forces to be maintained by a subject-king was one known to the Romans, and has often been adopted in the East. It is still a part of our own policy in the government of India. The limitation left the country at the mercy of all its neighbors. Hammond. Jehoahaz reigned seventeen years (incomplete), from the twenty-first year of Joash, king of Judah, to his thirty-seventh year (verse 10). He left his crown to his son, Jehoash, or Joash, to whom he had given the same name as that borne by the contemporary Jewish sovereign. This act would seem to imply that the friendly relations which had subsisted between the two kingdoms during the rule of the house of Omri were for a time resumed. But old jealousies were allowed to prevail; and the opportunity for alliance being suffered to slip, it was not long ere the ancient hostility once more showed itself (2 K. 14: 8-14), and came to such a head, that henceforth the two sister nations continued estranged during the remainder of their joint existence. G. R. # Verses 10-25. The writer passes from the reign of Jehoahaz, Jehu's son, to that of Joash, Jehu's grandson, which he seems to have intended at first to despatch in the short space of four verses (verses 10-13). He afterward, however, saw reason to add to his narrative, first, an account of an interview between Joash and Elisha, shortly before the death of the latter (verses 14-19); secondly, an account of a miracle wrought soon afterward by means of Elisha's corpse (verses 20, 21); and thirdly, a brief notice of Joash's Syrian war (verses 22-25). Hammond. Jehoash (or Joash), the twelfth king of Israel, and the third of the line of Jehu, began to reign, in conjunction with his father Jehoahaz in the thirty-seventh year of Joash, king of Judah (R.C. 841), and alone two years later (R.C. 839); his entire reign lasted sixteen years. There is an apparent discrepancy between his character and his actions. It would seem as if the calf-worship of Jeroboam had become so inveterate in Israel that a king who practised it might yet be chosen as a deliverer from foreign oppression if he did not serve Baal; or it may be that God willed to give Israel a final opportunity of restoration, irrespective of the character of the king, "and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet" (verse 23). We find Jehoash received with favor when he visited Elisha upon his death-bed, and he mourned over him in his own words when he lost Elijah, "O my father! my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" The prophet assured him of victory over the Syrians by significant actions. He bade him shoot an arrow from the open window toward Syria, and himself laid his hands with the king's upon the bow, as if to give Divine power to the shot, which he called "the arrow of Jehovah's deliverance from the Syrians," who were to be smitten in Aphek. Then he bade the king strike the ground with the arrows. The three strokes signified three victories; and the prophet was angry with the king for not striking five or six times, as he would then have consumed them utterly. The whole was a parable of the co-operation of human effort with the Divine counsels. It was fulfilled by three great victories which Jehoash gained over Benhadad III., the son Hazael, and by which he recovered the cities which Hazael had taken from his father. Meanwhile, Elisha died, and a last miracle was wrought by his remains. A man was about to be buried in the same rock in which the prophet's sepulchre was hewn, when the bearers were alarmed by the approach of one of the predatory bands of Moabites that now infested Israel. They thrust the body hastily into the first open tomb in the face of the rock. It was that of Elisha, and upon touching his remains, the dead man came to life and stood upon his feet. All these events happened in the early years of Jehoash. The other great event of his reign was the conquest of Jerusalem which is related under the reign of Amaziah, king of Judah. He died, was buried in the royal sepulchre at Samaria, and was succeeded by his son Jeroboam II., the greatest king of Israel. P. S. 10. In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah.** Three years before his death, since he reigned forty years (chap. 12:1). The two Joashes were thus contemporary monarchs for the space of three years. Hammond. 12,13. It is difficult to account for the occurrence of these verses in this place. They recur, with little variation, in the next chapter (verses 15 and 16). Keil rightly notes that they are here too early, since the whole remainder of the chapter is devoted to the acts of the king whose reign they bring, as it were, to a close; while in the next chapter they are altogether out of place, since they needlessly interrupt the history of the Jewish monarchs. According to ordinary laws of historical composition, they should form the closing paragraph of the present chapter. B. C.—Hence they are transferred to the close in the above text. B. 14-19. Jehu reigned twenty-eight years, his son Jehoahaz seventeen years, and his grandson Joash sixteen years. Because these three kings "departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin," during their three reigns the Lord delivered Israel "unto the hand of Hazael, king of Syria, and of Benhadad," his son. Many times through that long period had God heard the intercession and employed the agency of Elisha in behalf of a people, whom He seemingly "could not give up." Once more, upon the prophet's dying bed, He heeds his last intercession for the guilty nation, and by Elisha's act and word gives another pledge of "deliverance from Syria." 14. Joash weeps over the dying Elisha.** In spirit resembling the disciple whom Jesus loved, like John, Elisha lived to a great age. Like him, too, his ministry for the greater part of sixty years was a quietly leavening influence. Upon the court and people he had exerted a helpful and blessed force, year by year. Beside his direct interposition for their deliverance from siege and assault, to all these kings he had been as a living conscience, preventing their utter lapse into defiant rejection of God. Now and then they had even been moved to beseech the Lord (verse 4). By steadfast, wise supervision of evangelists, sent forth from the schools of the prophets, and by his own personal teaching, he had aided the people. Thus the knowledge of God had been more widely diffused, and the faith of true worshippers of Jehovah had been strengthened, confirmed and made more fruitful. It was not strange then that the king, who knew what Elisha had been to Israel for three-score years, should come down from his palace to the prophet's abode to express his grief, and to seek the last counsel from the man of God. If there was selfishness in his lament there was sincerity in his respect and veneration. With an intense feeling and truth he repeated the affectionate eulogy of Elisha over Elijah's departure. Elisha left no successor to whom he could go for help in his need. No other had been entrusted with the power of miracle. No other had such prevalent might in intercession with God. To whom, then, could Joash look when Elisha is taken from Israel? "Thou, the defence of Israel, art to take thy heavenward flight!" B. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. Elisha, who was grown to manhood before the death of Ahab (1 K. 19:19), must have been at least eighty years old at the accession of Joash. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him. The visit of a king to a prophet, in the way of sympathy and compliment, would be a very unusual occurrence at any period of the world's history. The act of Joash certainly implies a degree of tenderness and consideration on his part very uncommon at the time, and is a fact to which much weight should be attached in any estimate that we form of his character. Hammond. The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. It is impossible to imagine that Joash now by a mere coincidence spoke the exact words at the deathbed of Elisha, which Elisha himself had spoken when he was about to lose Elijah. He must have known the circumstances of Elijah's removal, which were perhaps already entered in the "book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel;" and he must have intended to apply to Elisha his own words on that solemn occasion. "Alas!" he probably meant to say, "thou too art about to leave us, and to follow Elijah—thou who hast been since his departure that which he was while he remained on earth, the true defence of Israel." B. C. 15-19. Elisha's last ministry, a pledge of God's deliverance.** To the very last Elisha's heart, like Elijah's, beat fervently for the honor of God and the welfare of his people. His last word shall be an encouragement. Partly by symbolical action he declares that God will give Joash victory over the Syrians. By bidding the king "take bow and arrows, to put his hand upon the bow," and afterward to shoot, Elisha intimates that God will still work for Israel, and through Joash himself, if only he be obedient and determined. The Syrians were now masters of the country east of Jordan. Therefore the course of the arrow is through a window opening eastward. Through Elisha's hands upon the king's, the act of the king derives its authority from Elisha's God. The promise of success and deliverance is His. And it is explicit: "Thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them." Joash desired the fulfilment of God's promise; but he lacked that concentrated earnestness of faith and energy of will which still burned in the soul of Elisha. The sharpness and decision of the prophet's whole symbolic action ought to have roused an intensely eager purpose. But instead of this, when he is bidden to hit the ground with the remaining arrows, although knowing that this sign also meant conflicts and victories, he smites but thrice. A half faith and a half will is all that he can give back to the old prophet's fiery enthusiasm for God and for God's people. What wonder Elisha is vexed with his half-heartedness, and reproves his slack hand! Then Joash fully learns what faith and determination have to do with success. Had he shot all the arrows, he had smitten Syria in her strongholds, till Syria's power was finally broken. Now he shall smite only the army of Syria within the bounds of Israel. This he subsequently did. "Three times did Joash beat Benhadad, the son of Hazael, and recovered the cities of Israel" (verse 25). But Syria remained as a scourge to Israel. B. 16. Put his hands upon the king's hands.** So that the shooting should be, or at least appear to be, the joint act of himself and the king. The intention was, no doubt, as Keil says, "to show that the power which was to be given to the bow-shot" was not the king's own power, but "came from the Lord through the mediation of His prophet." Hammond. 17. The action declares:** 1. That deliverance in trouble is from God only. As He alone can give it, so He is the true Source from which to seek it. 2. God employs human agency in His deliverances. The bow and arrows were the symbols of the human instrumentality. Joash had to put his hands upon the bow. It was he who shot the arrow. It was he who was to smite the Syrians. Man has his part given him in all God's works of deliverance on earth. 3. The human agent could only succeed as God strengthened him. Elisha put his hands upon Joash's, signifying that the power to gain the predicted victories came from God. J. O. 18. And stayed.** Joash struck with the arrows against the floor three times and then paused, thinking he had done enough. He did not enter into the spirit of the symbolical act, which represented the smiting and slaying of enemies. Perhaps he had not much faith in the virtue of the symbolism. 19. Elisha was angered at the lukewarmness of Joash, and his lack of faith and zeal. He himself, from his higher standpoint, saw the greatness of the opportunity, the abundance of favor which God was ready to grant, and the way in which God's favor was stinted and narrowed by Joash's want of receptiveness. Had the king been equal to the occasion, a full end might at once have been made of Syria, and Israel might have been enabled to brace herself for the still more perilous struggle with Assyria, in which she ultimately succumbed. If he had been earnestly desirous of victory, and had had faith in the symbolical action as divinely directed, he would have kept on smiting till the prophet told him it was enough. Hammond.—The unfaithfulness of man limits the goodness of God. Our Lord "could do no mighty work" in one city, "because of their unbelief" (Mark 6: 5, 6). God had been willing now to give the Israelites complete victory over Syria—victory "even to consuming" (verse 17); but Joash by his non-acceptance of the Divine promise in its fulness had checked the outflow of mercy; and the result was that the original promise could not be fulfilled. B. C. We learn: 1. Very trivial actions often reveal a great deal of character. 2. We often have not from God because we ask not. These shootings of the arrows were at once prayers for victories from God and pledges of victories. Joash, as it were, asked for only three victories, and he only got three. Had he asked for more, he would have got more. Had Abraham not ceased pleading for Sodom when he did, he might have got a yet further extension of grace for that doomed city. It is never in God we are straitened in our prayers; it is only in ourselves. 3. It displeases God that we do not ask more from Him. His controversy with us is not that we ask too much, but that we do not ask enough. Joash missed the full blessing by stopping in his asking. J. O. Be reminded from the story of one great fact of the kingdom of heaven, a fact on which the holy Master constantly spoke, saying, "According to thy faith be it unto thee"—the fact that according to the measure of our trust will be the measure of our blessing. There was a blessing for Joash from the dying prophet—just as there is a blessing for you and for me from the living Prophet—if he could put his trust in him. Unless he could put his trust in him, the thing signified would not accompany the sign. "And Joash smote thrice." That was the measure of the man's confidence in the promise of God, and so it was the measure of the fulfilment of the promise too. And this has been the Lord God's way in dealing with mankind. He that looks for great things from the hand of God—for great peace, for great nearness to the mercy seat, for great victory over self—he, through the merit of Christ, and he alone, shall do great things; but he who asks with an irresolute desire and a wavering heart, "let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord." Christ's mercy, as one well says, like water in a vase, takes the shape of the vessel that holds it. On the one side the grace is infinite: it is given to every man according to the measure of the gift of Christ, with no limit but His unlimited fulness. On the other hand, the amount which we practically receive from the store is at each successive moment determined by the measure, and the purity, and the intensity of our faith. On Christ's side there is no limit but infinity; on our side there is no limit but capacity, and the capacity of each one of us is settled by our better desires. The word to us is, "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it." "According to thy faith be it done unto thee." Anon. We pray for nothing less than Christ's great glory, and it is possible to ask too little. We have prayed and have received; but have we prayed or received in any measure corresponding to the exceeding great and precious promises ises of Him with whom we have to do? the merits and sufferings of Him whose death and righteousness are our plea? or the boundless compassion of Him who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not? We are not straitened in God; but we are straitened in our desires, our purposes, our believings. Here all is narrow; there—in the heart of God—all is wide. We have not, because we ask not. J. W. A. 20, 21. Elisha's death and burial, and the after-miracle. As Elisha had lived among the people, so he died among them. King and nobles and people took part in his public and honorable burial. God so ordered it that the influence of his stainless character and the teaching of his helpful, ministering life, might be thus recalled and freshly impressed. Two generations had he faithfully served in his sixty years of ministry for God. And in all his history we read no word of reproach nor hint of defection, from the mouth of God. Enoch-like he walked with God, yet he was not translated. For God would add to the witness of even so prolonged a life the testimony of a tranquil and triumphant death. No more completely-rounded life, none more human and more exemplary, do we read in the Inspired Records. And after death and burial, even in his sepulchred body, God honored this faithful servant as He never honored any beside. Briefly as the incident is narrated, the purpose of the record is clear; and its suggestions are grand and impressive. Within a year the land was invaded by raiding parties from Moab, on the east of Jordan. One of these bands was seen in the distance by a small funeral train bearing a dead man to the grave. They chanced to be passing the hill-side tomb of Elisha. Hurriedly they bore the body into the tomb and laid it down in contact with that of the prophet. Instantly the dead man came to life and rose to his feet. That life should come to the dead from the dead was a marvel never heard of before, a work clearly wrought by the direct power of God. And such a miracle had a worthy purpose. It manifestly conveyed a posthumous testimony to the Divine mission and life-work of the departed prophet. By it God authenticated Elisha's teachings afresh, as by a voice from heaven; and intimated that He would have them remembered and heeded by His people. By it, too, He substantiated and sealed Elisha's prophetic promises and warnings, with a sanction so solemn seeking to give them vividness and persuasive force over the hearts of king and people. Further, while distinctly hinting the fact of a future resurrection of the body, this miracle vividly suggested the reality of another life in which God was still the God of the living Elisha. So God would encourage the hopes of believing Israelites by the glimpse of a rest remaining for His people; that they might “endure as seeing Him who is invisible,” who would finally reward their fidelity in a future immortal life. And upon the heedless, unbelieving multitude the same stupendous reality was solemnly impressed, that they, too, might be led to due care and preparation for its experience. For these immediate effects upon the living generation, and to convey these suggestions of a bodily resurrection and a future life to all generations, God added this miracle of life from Elisha’s lifeless body to His previous testimonies in the translation of Enoch and Elijah. B. 20. And Elisha died.** The longest and most useful life thus comes to its close. It is well when, on a death-bed, one can look back on a life which has been spent in the service of God. The certainty of removal by death from the scene of their labors should animate those who are still in the vigor of their powers to work while it is to-day, and should lead those who enjoy the presence and services of good men to prize and honor these servants of God while they are here. From the side of the saint himself death is not a calamity, but a gain. “He rests from his labors, and his works follow him.” J. O. 21. He revived and stood up on his feet.** To make a dead corpse the source out of which vitality shall leap forth to fresh energy is to surpass all that the most lively fancy could imagine of wonderful, and almost to reconcile contradictions. God willed at this time to show that He could effect even this marvellous thing—make death give life to that which was recently dead—educe from one dead in Him the vital power that should resuscitate and reanimate another also dead, and make a tomb—the place of death—the scene of the transformation! Hammond. This miracle was the immediate work of God, and concurred with the translation of Elijah, to keep alive and confirm, in a degenerate and infidel age, the grand truth of a bodily resurrection, which the translation of Enoch was calculated to produce in the antediluvian world, and which the resurrection of Christ, in a glorified body, fully illustrated. Hales.—This great miracle, though very briefly related, was a decided proof of his mission, and a confirmation of all his prophecies. It was also a plain indication of another life after this; when Elisha died, there was not an end of him, for then he could not have done this. From operation we may infer existence. By this it appeared that the Lord was still the God of Elisha, therefore Elisha still lived, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Elijah was honored in his departure, Elisha was honored after his departure. God thus dispenses honors as He pleases, but, one way or other, the rest of all the saints will be glorious (Isa. 11:10). H.—God set the seal on his prophetic work by making life-giving power to issue even from his grave. The miracle suggests to us the fact that from every good man’s grave there issues in an important sense a life-giving power. The influence of men does not die with them. On the contrary, it is often greater after their deaths than during their lives. J. O. The good man’s influence lives after his body dies. The illustration of this truth, with such emphasis as even so sensuous a people could not resist, seems to have been one chief object of the miracle. The truths he had taught them and the spirit he had manifested would have more permanent effect because of such demonstration of God’s interest even in his dust. His influence would have quickening power, as his bones had power to bring to life the man who “revived and stood upon his feet” as soon as he touched these entombed relics of the prophet. Our posthumous influence does not receive enough of our thought. A man may be forgotten, his name may be unknown, and strangers may tread upon his grave or disturb his ashes to make room for their own dead, but the works he made in life will be seen and the power he possessed will be felt by those who follow him. J. Eells.—This narrative teaches us that the influence of faithful workers for the kingdom of God extends beyond the grave, and that frequently a cause for which men have labored and spent themselves is advanced by the departure from among us of those who have taken it in hand. Contact with the death of such a worker not unfrequently imparts life—the life of earnestness, the life of devotion, the life of Christian self-sacrifice—to those who did not possess it, or who possessed it only imperfectly and inefficiently before. G. Calthrop. 22. The author, having parenthetically related the extraordinary miracle wrought by the instrumentality of Elisha’s corpse, returns to the subject of the Syrian oppression. He had, in verses 14–19, dwelt upon the promises of victory given by the prophet to Joash. He is now bent on relating their fulfilment. But before doing so he recapitulates. Verse 22 refers back to verse 3, and verse 23 to verses 4 and 5. 23. And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them.** Even in His wrath God "thinketh upon mercy." While He was still punishing Israel by the sword of Hazael, he was yet careful not to make a full end, not to allow the affliction to proceed too far. He still preserved the nation, and kept it in being. Hammond. Because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That covenant was the main fact in the history of Israel. It underlies and governs all God's dealings with them, past, present, and prospective. It was the remembrance of this covenant which led to the deliverance from Egypt; to the settlement in Canaan; and to God's patient dealings with the nation amid their various rebellions, and under their constant provocations. God saved them, not for their righteousness' sake, but for His own Name's sake. He is the God of unchanging faithfulness. He bears long with men, if haply they will repent. Wherefore it is said, "He would not destroy them, neither cast He them from His presence as yet." There is a limit, however, to Divine forbearance. The time came when, still remaining impenitent, they were cast away, though even then not forever. J. O. 23-25. At its close the narrative again returns to what is its key-note (in verses 4, 5). Again comes the record of the Lord's compassion, of His faithful remembrance of the covenant with the Fathers, and of His merciful delay of that final punishment of Israel's sin which would sweep them far from their land. It was as God had promised. Hazael was dead. Once and again—nay, three times—did Jehoash defeat Benhadad (III.), the son and successor of Hazael, and take from him those cities which had been captured in the reign of Jehoahaz. But as from the rock-hewn sepulchre of Elisha came attestation of his Divine mission, so comes there to us from the monuments of Assyria confirmation of this defeat of Benhadad in fulfilment of Divine promise. For whereas his father is repeatedly referred to as a bold warrior even against the overwhelming might of Assyria, Benhadad (III.) is not even mentioned. This is most significant; evidently his reign was smitten with weakness, and his power had been wholly broken. A. E. Victory of Joash over Amaziah. 12. Fought against Amaziah.** Amaziah, king of Judah, had defeated the Edomites with great slaughter, and returned victorious with a large booty (2 Chron. 25: 9) to Jerusalem. Then, in the insolence of victory, the Jewish king sent a challenge to his Israelite brother, in the curt but perfectly clear phrase—"Come, let us look one another in the face." Joash answered the challenger in true Oriental fashion, with a parable: "The thistle that was in Lebanon," he said, "sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there came by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle" (2 K. 14: 9). To his parable he added a few words of advice: "Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?" But Amaziah had gone too far to draw back. Instead of "tarrying at home," he marched out to attack his foe, and met him at Bethshemesh, not far from Jerusalem, where the two kings "looked one another in the face," and fought a bloody battle. The host of Judah was discomfited before Israel, and fled away in confusion; Amaziah himself being taken prisoner upon the battlefield. Joash forthwith advanced upon Jerusalem, which, being quite unable to resist the conqueror, had to submit upon disgraceful conditions. A space of four hundred cubits (two hundred yards) in the northern wall was levelled (2 K. 14: 13). All the treasures contained in the Temple and in the royal palace, whether in the shape of bullion or of vessels, were considered to be forfeited, and were seized and carried off (ibid., verse 14). Hostages also were demanded and given—a new feature in the warfare of the time; after which Joash, having released Amaziah and restored him to his throne, returned in triumph, with his victorious army, to Samaria. It would seem that Joash did not very long survive his great victory. His entire reign lasted only sixteen years, and the earlier part of it must have been occupied with the Syrian war. Amaziah did not, probably, ascend the Jewish throne till Joash's fourth year, and then must have been for some considerable time engaged in his preparations against Edom (2 Chron. 25: 5-11). The Edomite campaign can scarcely have been fought earlier than his tenth or eleventh year, which was Joash's thirteenth or fourteenth. Even if the battle of Bethshemesh took place in the year following, Joash can have survived it only for a year or two. He appears to have died peacefully in Samaria, and to have been buried there in the sepulchres of the kings. (See reign of Amaziah, Section 36.) G. R. # Other Distinctive Practical Teachings. 1. The measure of success in Christian conflict or work depends upon the measure of faith, of earnestness and perseverance. Feebleness of faith, fitfulness and inconstancy in action hinder effectiveness in warfare, and fruitfulness in achievement. Therefore obediently, with all the soul's energy, and tirelessly, must Christ's soldier and toiler struggle and endure to the end, as seeing Him who is invisible. 2. The time and circumstances of death are varied in God's wise appointment. Sometimes He allots a briefer term of service, or summons with a sudden call. So He dealt with Elijah. To others, as to Elisha, He ordains a protracted period of usefulness, and a gradual approach to death. Each experience has its advantages, and God metes these out to every believer in His unerring wisdom and unfailing love. But His is the ordering, and of each life and of its close He makes the most and the best. 3. To all believers, especially to those who are charged with ministry in the Church of God, the example of Elisha is full of incitement to single-hearted fidelity. Such fidelity makes every believer's life, like Elisha's, a blessing to his community and nation. And such a life of blessing never dies out of the hearts that have been blessed. Through these hearts the blessing influence is transmitted to succeeding generations, and thus the believer "being dead yet speaketh," even unto the end of time. B. In the Old Testament, we may study both God and man by an "inductive method." We may learn what God is, and what He will do for and with men, by seeing what He was, and what He did, in the days of patriarchs and prophets. We may discover what fate will attend the various forms of human conduct, by seeing to what they led in that olden time. We may know what are the possibilities of human endeavor, and what men, by the grace of God, may do and be, by learning what the ancient men of God, of whom the world was not worthy, became and achieved. We may discover what are the elements and the fashioning powers of a noble and godly life by studying the development and the character of the grand and saintly souls of the Old Testament age. S. Burnham. #### 15th of Amaziah to 14th of Uzziah, of Judah. 14: 1 In the second year of Joash son of Joahaz king of Israel began Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah to reign. He was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the his servants which had killed the king his father. But he put not their children to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, as the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin. Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and ordered them according to their fathers' houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and upward, and found them three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do valiantly, be strong for the battle: God shall cast thee down before the enemy; for God hath power to help, and to cast down. And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this. Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger. And Amaziah took courage, and led forth his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. And other ten thousand did the children of Judah carry away alive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces. But the men of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote of them three thousand, and took much spoil. Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, LORD, yet not like David his father: he did according to all that Joash his father had done. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he slew his servants which had slain the king his father: but the children of the murderers he put not to death: according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, as the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin. He slew of Edom in the Valley of Salt ten thousand, and took Sela by war, and called the name of it Joktheel, unto this day. Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face. And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory thereof, and abide at home; for why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldst fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? But Amaziah would not hear. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Amaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his stead. which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of thine hand? And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Have we made thee of the king's counsel? forbear; why shouldst thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel. 17 Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face. 18 And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldst fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom. So Joash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. And Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. 25 And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years. Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? Now from the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. 28 And they brought him upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah. 2. Chron. 25: 1. Amaziah was twenty and five years old.** Joash died at the age of forty-seven (Chron. 24: 1). Amaziah must therefore have been born when his father was twenty-two; and the marriage of Joash with Jehoaddan must have been, at the latest, when he was just twenty-one. B. C. 2. When he came to the throne he was undoubtedly attached to the worship of Jehovah, and if not of a "perfect heart," yet at any rate anxious to maintain true religion, and observe the Law in his own person. Like his father, Joash, he seems to have fallen away in later life; and at best the lacked the earnest zeal of a true religious reformer. G. R. 2. A perfect heart.** Religion is something within you, working outward from the centre, and that centre a heart possessed by the grace of God. It is not, as too many imagine 17. And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years. 18 Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. And they brought him upon horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. it, a reformation commencing in the outer circumference of one's life and habits, and then working its way to the core, till the heart is reached and changed; it takes its start in the innermost recesses of our being, and from thence reaches outward, till the whole character and conduct are brought under its blissful sway. J. T. Davidson. 3,4. Though the succession naturally devolved upon Amaziah, the late king's eldest son, and no one ventured to contest it with him, yet it was some time before his authority was generally acknowledged and his rule "established" (verse 5). When disturbance subsided the first step that he took was to arrest the murderers of his father, and to punish their crime with death. But, while thus vindicating law and right, he exhibited also what was regarded as extraordinary clemency, since he punished only the guilty parties themselves, and did not visit their crime upon their sons, as was, in spite of the Law of Moses (De. 24 : 16), the ordinary Jewish custom. 5-13. His first great undertaking was the reconquest of Edom. Edom, since its revolt from Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat (2 K. 8 : 20), had been a thorn in the side of Judea, causing perpetual trouble and annoyance. Edom "did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever" (Amos 1 : 11). Southern Judea was subject to continual ravages. Towns and villages were burned; crops carried off or destroyed; trees cut down; good land marred; prisoners carried into slavery. To subdue Edom, to put an end to these losses, was worth a great and sustained effort, an effort which needed very careful preparation. Amaziah began with his own subjects. Having numbered the men capable of bearing arms through all Judah and Benjamin, from twenty years old and upward, and found them to amount to three hundred thousand, he proceeded to organize and discipline this vast host. An Israelite contingent was hired, and was on the point of setting out in company with the Judean troops to invade Edom, when a prophet, whose name is not given, interfered, and representing to Amaziah the wickedness of making common cause with an idolatrous people, threatened him with God's anger and the failure of his enterprise unless he sent the army of Israel away (7, 8). "But what," exclaimed the monarch, "shall we do for the hundred talents"—the amount of their hire—"which I have given to the army of Israel?" How shall I recoup myself for this expenditure? "The man of God answered—The Lord is able to give thee much more than this." Then, we are told, "Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again" (10); and they returned home, while he went on to the Edomite war without them. Naturally they were indignant; and on their way back through Judea to their own country vented their wrath in petty plundering of Jewish towns and villages, which was sometimes resisted, with the result that as many as three thousand Jews fell in the tumults and skirmishes (13). It was now the turn of the Judeans to feel provoked and indignant, and to cherish a grudge which they would be sure to take the first opportunity of venting. Meanwhile, Amaziah had pushed forward through southeastern Judea toward the Edomite country, and passing the border at the southwestern angle of the Dead Sea, found the troops of Edom drawn up to meet him in the "Valley of Salt," or plain of the Sabkah, an open space between the southern shore of the sea and the high ground that separates between the Jordan depression and the Arabah. Here a decisive battle was fought, in which the Edomites suffered complete defeat, losing ten thousand men, while Amaziah's victorious host pressed upon the flying columns, and chased them to Selah, or Petra, the strange Idumæan capital amid the mountains. Selah was besieged and taken (2 K. 14 : 7), and its name contemptuously changed to Joktheel, "the subdued of God." Numerous prisoners were made, roughly reckoned at ten thousand; and these unfortunates were dragged to the brink of the cliffs for which Petra is noted, and precipitated from them into the gulf below. Edom was for the time completely cowed and subdued, while Amaziah was greatly elated at his success. G. R. 14-16. In obedience to the command of God (verses 7-10), Amaziah resigned the hundred talents; yet he lived in calamity and died by violence and treason. Did the Lord God, the God of goodness and truth, forsake His servant? No; the Lord forsook Amaziah because Amaziah drew back from being His servant. Amaziah, when he had destroyed the Edomites, brought with him to Jerusalem their idols; and with the infatuation which belongs to presumptuous wickedness set them up to be his gods, and burned incense to them, and worshipped them: yet the sword of Divine justice paused in its scabbard. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The Lord, instead of immediately cutting off the king in the midst of his ingratitude and impiety, was mercifully pleased to send a prophet to rebuke him and call him to repentance (verse 15). How did the king receive the message from God? When the former prophet had delivered his message Amaziah obeyed his command. But he now refused to humble himself before his Maker. His heart was obstinately fixed in apostasy. He charged the prophet with insolent obtrusiveness for daring to reprove him, and ordered him to be silent on pain of punishment (verse 16). Then the prophet, perceiving him not to be reclaimed, pronounced his doom: "I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel." Hence followed the disastrous residue of his life and his miserable end. And we may learn from his example, that no former acts of righteousness, no former sacrifices of present interest for conscience' sake, will avail us as an excuse for indulging afterward in sin. Gibborne. 17. Amaziah, flushed with his conquests over Edom, sent a defiance to the king of Israel. Jehoash, who now filled that throne, was a politic and successful prince; after the death of the formidable Hazael, he had reinstated his kingdom in its independence, and reconquered great part of his territory by three victories over the Syrians, which took place according to the prediction of the dying Elisha. Milman. 18,19. Joash perfectly took the measure of his challenger, and answered him according to his folly. First, he replied by a parable. He told how the briar (or thistle) of Lebanon sent to the cedar of Lebanon, demanding that the daughter of the cedar should be given in wife to his son. But a wild beast of the forest passed by, and trode down the briar. It was meant to sting and insult the Jewish king by intimating to him that in Joash's eyes he was no more than a contemptible briar in comparison with the majestic cedars. Joash cannot be acquitted of overweening arrogance. It is a scornful, haughty spirit which breathes in his parable. From the Israelitish point of view the Ten Tribes were the kingdom of Israel; Judah was the isolated tribe. But the state of Israel at this time, and in the recent past, did not warrant these boastful metaphors. The cedar, as well as the briar, had been pretty well trodden down by the wild beast of the forest. This arrogant spirit, moreover, is apt to lead its possessor into the error of despising things simply because they are outwardly weak. In this case the king of Israel very justly took the boastful Amaziah's measure. But it does not always follow that the cedar has the right to lord it over the briar. Nevertheless, the parable was just in so far as Amaziah was matching himself against one who, as the event showed, was greatly his superior. Joash was by far the abler soldier, and had larger forces. Amaziah wished to show himself his equal, but lacked the power of taking a just estimate of his own capabilities. This is one of the first conditions of a man's strength—to know himself. "How many men may you meet in middle life whose career has been marked by bitter disappointments! They began with hopes which have never been realized; and so they blame what they call their adverse fate. But they have never sought to know themselves. They began in a fool's paradise, and they have never made their escape from it. A more exact and modest estimate of their own powers, a clear and honest apprehension of their own capacity, a readiness to do the work within their limits, the work they were meant to do, and they had been spared many bitter hours." Following up his parable, Joash gave the king of Judah a piece of advice, scornfully and contemptuously expressed, but such advice as, on the whole, Amaziah would have done well to take. He touched truly enough the motive of his foolish challenge. "Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart is lifted up." A measure of success turns the heads of some people, inflates their ideas of themselves, and incapacitates them for sober calculation of the future. He bids him content himself with what he has achieved and tarry at home. The tone is most insulting, implying the most perfect contempt for Amaziah's threatened attack; but the advice was wise. Amaziah was a fool to provoke a needless war, and run himself and his kingdom into danger from a mere motive of vain-glory. He predicts to him what will happen if he persists in his foolish course. "Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldst fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?" It perhaps was not to be expected that Amaziah should take advice so unpalatable, so tauntingly conveyed, so wounding to his pride and royal honor. But the result showed that Joash had not overstated his case. Amaziah meddled truly to his hurt, and he fell, even he and Judah with him. It is the fatality of a foolish mind that it is impregnable to considerations which would show it its folly. J. O. Although he reigned fifteen years afterward, Amaziah never recovered the prestige which he had lost in his war with Joash. At last the long-smothered discontent broke out. A conspiracy formed against him in Jerusalem assumed such dimensions that he was led to regard resistance as hopeless, and to seek safety in flight. His place of refuge was Lachish, now Um-Lakis, on the southwestern border of Judah. This was a city of considerable strength (2 Chron. 11: 9; 2 K. 19: 8), and had the king been accompanied by even a small body of faithful troops, he would probably have been able to maintain himself against his revolted subjects for months, or even years; but Amaziah had made himself generally unpopular and seems not to have had even a knot of adherents. When the conspirators "sent after him to Lachish" (2 K. 14: 19), he succumbed to them without a struggle. Those who seized his person put him to death, but offered him no further indignity. On the contrary, they placed the corpse in the royal chariot in which Amaziah had reached Lachish, and so honorably conveyed it to Jerusalem and buried it in the royal sepulchres. Amaziah had reigned altogether twenty-nine years, and had reached the fifty-fourth year of his age. G. R. The great failing of Amaziah seems to have been a weak but restless ambition. He was always aiming to do grand, brilliant things beyond his power, and neglecting to do the simple, ordinary things within his reach, in the faithful performance of which lay his plain duty, his true usefulness, and his real honor; and the measure of success which attended his efforts in this direction led him on to new undertakings which involved him in defeat and disgrace. The king of Israel warned him of his folly, but he would not listen. Thou hast conquered Edom. Be content. Tarry at home, and mind thine own business. Take care of thy kingdom, and the welfare of thy people. Why wilt thou meddle to thy hurt? It was good counsel, but it was not heeded. The bold, bad spirit that unsanctified success had produced would not be quiet. The fire of revenge and ambition must find fuel to feed upon. This is not Amaziah, it is human nature. There is nought in it peculiar to him, we share it with him. Let a man in whom religion has not its proper ascendancy have his way, and he always grows bold, arrogant, rapacious. His desire rapidly increases. There is nothing that he will not aspire after, nothing that he will not essay to achieve. "He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied." Alexander conquers the world, and weeps for other worlds too. Ah, there is nothing that will still conquer and satisfy the heart but God and His service. A restless, insatiable craving, that grows with success, and is hungrier the more it is fed—this is the fruit of ungodly prosperity. Is it not a destruction? Beware! surely the prosperity of fools destroys them. Hallam. 23. In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of 24 Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD : he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam 25 the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah the son of Amittal, the 26 prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter : for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for 27 Israel. And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven : 28 but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the 29 book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel ? And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel ; and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead. THE long reign of Jeroboam II., the most important of those belonging to the kingdom of Israel since that of Ahab, is treated with great brevity by the writer, whose interest is far more in Judah than in Israel. Seven verses only are devoted to him. The result of his wars is given without any account of the wars themselves. And the great fact of his ruling over Damascus only comes in by a sort of afterthought (verse 28). The usual formulas are followed in introducing his reign and dismissing it. Jeroboam II. was contemporary with Amaziah during fourteen years of his reign. Hammond. 23. Jeroboam. The name is here remarkable. It is the only instance, in the history of either kingdom, of a recurrent royal appellation. We can scarcely doubt that Jeroboam II. was named after the great founder of the Israelite kingdom by a father who trusted that he might prove a sort of second founder. B. C. Jeroboam II., the thirteenth king of Israel, and the fourth of the house of Jehu, succeeded his father Jehoash in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, and reigned forty-one years at Samaria. His reign is by far the most prosperous in the annals of Israel. To him even more than to his father is the statement applied that, in Israel's decline, God gave them a saviour, in remembrance of His covenant with their fathers; though he also followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He not only recovered from Syria the whole district east of the Jordan from Hamath to the Dead Sea, and reconquered Ammon and Moab, but he attacked Damascus itself; and if he did not actually take the city, he regained a large part of its territory for Israel. The apparent ease of these conquests may be explained by the sufferings of Syria from the constant attacks of the great Assyrian Empire, now at the height of its power. P. S. We are not able to lay down on any historical authority the order of Jeroboam's wars. But taking probability for our guide, we shall not be likely to stray very far from the truth if we put his war with Syria of Damascus first, that for the recovery of Hamath second, and that with Moab and Ammon in the far south third. Syria of Damascus still retained at Jeroboam's accession the whole territory east of the Jordan—"all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (2 K. 10: 33), all the tract conquered by Hazael from Jehu. Joash had recovered only the cities taken by Benhadad, the son of Hazael, from Jehoahaz (2 K. 13: 25). It would be natural that Jeroboam should seek first to "recover his border." Rapid success seems to have attended him. Not only was the entire trans-Jordanic region recovered, but the Damascenic kingdom was itself invaded; the troops of Jeroboam carried all before them; and the capital city, the great and ancient "Damme-shek," was taken (ibid., verse 28). When we consider the great power of Damascus, how, under Benhadad and Hazael, it had warred on tolerably even terms against Assyria, what a strength of chariots it possessed, and how nearly it had but a little while previously conquered the kingdom of Israel (2 K. 13: 7), the change of fortune does indeed seem remarkable, and the success of Jeroboam extraordinary. Then Jeroboam "recovered Hamath to Israel" (verse 28) after it had enjoyed independence for the space of a hundred and fifty years, regaining thereby the sovereignty over which it had been lost upon the death of Solomon. Thus victorious in the northeast and the north, Jeroboam seems to have turned his arms against the south. He did not indeed attack Judah, which was growing in strength under the judicious rule of Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, but in re-establishing his southeastern border he could not fail to come in contact with the Ammonites and Moabites, and there is reason to believe that he severely chastised both nations, and even conquered them, or at any rate made their kings tributary. How long it took Jeroboam to effect his numerous and important conquests is uncertain. He had a reign of very unusual length, extending over a space of forty-one years. There is reason, however, to believe that his great victories and successes belong to the earlier rather than to the later portion of his reign, and that after they were completed the people of Israel enjoyed under Jeroboam's rule a long term of continually increasing material prosperity. The prosperity exhibited itself in magnificent buildings of various kinds, in a vast number of the most luxurious contrivances for material enjoyment, and in a general expensiveness and softness of living among the upper classes which tended, as time went on, to injure the morals and sap the physical vigor of the nation. "Great houses" were built, "palaces," as they are called in some places (Amos 3: 11; 6: 8), of hewn stone (ibid., 5: 11), and liberally adorned with ivory (ibid., 3: 15); some were used as winter, others as summer residences (ibid.); they were richly and luxuriously fitted up with ivory beds (ibid., 6 : 4), and soft couches draped with Damascus cloth (ibid., 3 : 12); the harp and the viol resounded in them (ibid., 6 : 5); and their owners indulged in a continuous round of feasting and revelry. As Ewald says: "The comfortable prosperity of the people passed, in the metropolis of Samaria and in many other parts of the country, into debauchery and excess, and then again into such pampered effeminacy of morals that the austere old Israel could hardly be recognized, and the prophets could not pour out their divine wrath, or the moralists their ridicule, abundantly enough. The clearest sign of the degradation of public morality was furnished then, as at all similar times, by the growing effrontery of women and the decline of domestic chastity (Hos. 4 : 13; Amos 2 : 7; 4 : 1-8; 8 : 13). Such a vehement appetite for debauchery and ostentation created an equally powerful tendency to avarice and all kinds of fraudulent oppression of the most defenceless citizens; and the opportunities for these perversions of justice increased in proportion as the king came to be regarded simply as the first among a number of similar potentates and military chiefs (Hos. 5 : 1; Amos 3 : 9, etc.). And now, too, as in the time of Solomon, the freer intercourse of the people with heathen nations, who had either been conquered or were distinguished by commerce and art, together with the general spread of looseness and intemperance of life, caused an extensive introduction of heathen religions. Thus the fair promise with which the reign of Jeroboam opened passed away, and was succeeded by a time of general corruption and depravity. The existing dynasty was declared to lie under the Divine displeasure, and was threatened with speedy extinction (Hos. 1 : 4; Amos 7 : 9). The kingdom itself was declared to be approaching its dissolution (Amos 3 : 12; 5 : 27; 7 : 17). Assyria was not obscurely indicated as the world-power by which the destruction would be accomplished (Hos. 10 : 14). A sad and dismal prospect must have lain before the aged Jeroboam in the later years of his life, when, denounced by the prophets of Jehovah, and at war with one of them (Amos 7 : 12), he must have felt that his dynasty approached its term, and that even his kingdom's days were probably numbered. At the age of threescore years and ten, or more, he at length "slept with his fathers" (5 : 29), having reigned longer, and probably having lived longer, than any other king of Israel; having also done more than any other king to increase the glory and raise the military prestige of his kingdom, but having greatly sapped its strength, and brought it into a condition which would naturally make it an easy prey to the first powerful enemy with which it should be brought into contact. G. R. 23. Forty and one years.** Many moderns (Thenius, Bähr, and others) extend the term to fifty-one years. Some suppose that Jeroboam was joint king with his father in Amaziah's third year, sole king from his fifteenth. 25. Jonah, the son of Amittai** (cf. Jonah 1 : 1). Jonah's date is determined by this passage. He was contemporary with Hosea and Amos, and earlier than Micah. His prophecy concerning Jeroboam is probably assigned to the early part of that king's reign. 26. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter** (cf. chap. 13 : 4, 23). The repetition is perhaps to be accounted for by the desire of the writer to explain how it came to pass that so great a deliverance was granted to Israel under a king who maintained the worship of the calves. He views it as the consequence of God's infinite compassion, and of the extreme bitterness of Israel's sufferings under the Syrians (cf. chap. 13 : 7 and Amos 1 : 3). 27. God's decision under the circumstances was not, as it well might have been, considering Israel's ill desert, to blot out forthwith the very name of Israel from the earth. On the contrary, He gave the nation a breathing-space, a gleam of light, a second summer before the winter set in—a further opportunity of repenting and turning to Him with all their hearts if they would only have taken advantage of it, a chance of redeeming the past and re-establishing themselves in His favor. He might well have destroyed them at this time if He had looked only to considerations of justice, if in His wrath He had not thought upon mercy. Hammond.—According to the promises of Deut. 32 : 36-43 (which are in the writer's mind), God "repented Himself for His servants," and was "merciful unto His land and to His people:" He did not send a prophet to say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but on the contrary sent two to announce that they should be delivered from their present enemies, and obtain triumphs over them. That he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. This is again a Mosaic phrase found only here and in Deut. 9 : 14; 29 : 20. B. C.—By the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Joash began the salvation, but it was reserved for Jeroboam to complete it. He was the true “saviour” (chap. 13:5), the true accomplisher of the work, for which his father only paved the way. Thus one Jeroboam founded the kingdom; another refounded it, restored its ancient glories, and gave it its old dimensions. Hammond. 29. Zechariah his son reigned in his stead. By Zechariah’s accession the promise given to Jehu (chap. 10:30), that his “children to the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel,” was literally fulfilled. No other royal house occupied the Israelitish throne for more than three generations. Hammond. With this period a new stage in prophecy begins. Hitherto the prophets had been chiefly God-sent teachers and messengers to their contemporaries—reproving, warning, guiding, encouraging. Henceforth the prophetic horizon enlarges. Beyond their contemporaries who were hardened beyond hope of recovery, their outlook is henceforth on the great hope of the Messianic kingdom. They have despaired of the present; but their thought is of the future. They have despaired of the kingdom of Israel and of Judah; but the Divine thought of preparation that underlay it comes increasingly into prominence and clearer vision. The promises of old acquire a new and deeper meaning; they assume shape and outlines which become ever more definite as the daylight grows. It is the future, with Israel’s Messiah-King to rule a people restored and converted, and an endless, boundless kingdom of righteousness and peace which in its wide embrace includes, reconciles, and unites a ransomed world, obedient to the Lord, which is now the great burden of their message, and the joyous assured hope of their thoughts. For doomed apostate Israel after the flesh, we have Israel after the spirit, and on the ruins of the old rises the new: a Jerusalem, a temple, a kingdom, and a King fulfilling the ideal of which the earthly had been the type. Without attempting any detailed account, the prophets of that period and the contents of their writings may here be briefly referred to. The earliest of them was probably Joel, “Jehovah is God”—a Judean whose sphere of labor was also in his native country. His “prophecy” consists of two utterances (1:2–2:18; 2:19–3:21), couched in language as pure and beautiful as the sentiments are elevated. From the allusions to contemporary events (3:4–8, 19), as well as from the absence of any mention of Assyria, we infer that his ministry was in the time of Joash, king of Judah, and of the high-priest Jehoiada, with which agree his temple-references, which indicate a time of religious revival. But here also we mark the wider Messianic references in chapters 2 and 3. The prophecies of Joel seem already referred to by Amos, “the burden-bearer” (cf. Amos 1:2; 9:13 with Joel 3:16, 18, 20). Amos himself was also a Judean, originally a “herdman of Tekoa” (Amos 1:1; 7:14). But his ministry was in Israel, and during Jeroboam’s reign, after the accession of Uzziah (Amos 1:1). There in Bethel, where the false worship of Israel was combined with the greatest luxury and dissipation, the prophet was confronted by Amaziah, its chief priest. Although apparently unsuccessful in his accusations of political conspiracy against the prophet, Amos was obliged to withdraw into Judah (Amos 7:10–13). Here he wrote down his prophetic utterances, prefacing them by an announcement of coming judgment (Amos 1, 2) through a nation, evidently that very Assyria on which the confidence of Jeroboam had rested (cf. Amos 5:27; 6:14). Yet, amid all his denunciations, Amos also looked forward to and prophesied of the glorious Messianic kingdom (Amos 9:11–15). A third prophet of that period was Hosea, “help”—the Jeremiah of the northern kingdom, as he has been aptly designated. From certain allusions in his book we infer that he had been a native of the northern kingdom (Hos. 1:3; 6:10; cf. 7:8). His ministry was probably toward the end of the reign of Jeroboam, and extended to the rising of Shallum and of Menahem (cf. Hos. 6:8; 7:7). His prophecies give special insight into the political relations and dangers of the northern kingdom, and into the utter corruption of all classes. Frequent, too, are his references to Judah. Yet here also we mark the persistence of the outlook on the better Davidic kingdom (Hos. 3), with much concerning it scattered throughout his prophecies. Lastly, as yet another prophet of that period, we refer to Jonah, the son of Amittai, a native of Gath-hepher, in the tribal possession of Zebulun, and therefore in the northern part of Israel. Without entering on the critical questions connected with the story which forms the burden of the Book of Jonah, a deep significance surely attaches to its association with the prophet contemporary of Jeroboam II. It is not only that it points to a preaching of repentance to the Gentiles also, and to their ingathering with believing Israel into the family of God, but the circumstances of the time give it a special meaning. From apostate, morally sunken Israel, such as we have learned to know it from the descriptions of the prophets, Jonah, the very messenger who had announced coming deliverance to Jeroboam, turns by Divine commission to the Gentiles, to that great world-empire which was representative of them. And from this comes to us a fresh and deeper meaning in regard to the application of this history by our Lord (Matt. 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32). It had been "a wicked and adulterous generation" of old that had heard the prophecy of Jonah, and understood not the sign; nor was other sign to be given to it. So would it be to those who heard and saw the Christ, yet craved after other "sign" suited to their unbelief. None other than the sign of Jonah would be theirs, yet even this, "a sign" sufficient in itself, a sign also not only of judgment, but of wider mercy (Matt. 12:41). A. E. Reign of Zechariah, 38th Year of Uzziah, Six Months. Reign of Shallum, 39th Year of Uzziah, One Month. Reign of Menahem, 39th to 50th Year of Uzziah, Ten Years. Reign of Pekahiah, 50th and 51st Years of Uzziah, Two Years. 15 : 1 IN the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead. In the second year of Pekah the son of his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he waxed exceeding strong. Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. And he built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle; in the lowland also, and in the plain: and he had husbandmen and vinedressers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields; for he loved husbandry. Moreover Uzziah had an army of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their reckoning made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. The whole number of the heads of fathers' houses, even the mighty men of valour, was two thousand and six hundred. And under their hand was a trained army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king 14 against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them, even for all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the battlements, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against the LORD his God; for he went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy brake forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from thence; yea, himself hastened also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write. So Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead. 27: 1 Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render unto him, in the second year also, and in the third. So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. Now the rest of the Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead. acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the 8 kings of Israel and Judah. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and 9 reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead. # Fifty-two Years, 27th of Jeroboam II. to 1st of Pekah, of Israel. 8. In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam 9 reign over Israel in Samaria six months. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of 10 Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against 11 him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the 12 kings of Israel. This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass. 13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of 14 Judah; and he reigned the space of a month in Samaria. And Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in 15 Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the 16 kings of Israel. Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the borders thereof, from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up. 17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi 18 to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of 19 Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with 20 him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of 21 Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the 22 chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead. 23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to 24 reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith 25 he made Israel to sin. And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the castle of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he slew him, and reigned in his stead. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. JEROBOAM died, and was succeeded by his son Zechariah. This was the fourth generation of the house of Jehu, and it will be seen that he reigned only six months. From this time Israel went rapidly to its ruin. The height of prosperity reached in the reign of Jeroboam was but the last flicker of the light before final extinction. A little over thirty years after Jeroboam's death—forty at most—the words of the prophets were fulfilled, and the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and its people carried away by the Assyrian. J. O.—In the thirteen or fourteen years between the death of Jeroboam II. and that of Uzziah, the northern kingdom saw no less than four kings, of whom each was removed by violence. In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, Jeroboam II. was succeeded by his son Zechariah, the fourth and last monarch of the line of Jehu. Holy Scripture here specially marks the fulfilment of Divine prediction (2 K. 10:30), in the continuance of this dynasty "unto the fourth generation." Of his brief reign, which lasted only six months, we read that it was characterized by continuance in the sins of Jeroboam. A conspiracy by one Shallum, not otherwise known, issued, not in the private assassination but in the public murder of the king. So terribly had all bonds of society been loosened. The regicide occupied the throne for only one month. Menahem, whom Josephus describes as the general of Zechariah, advanced against Shallum from Tirzah, the ancient royal residence, and slew the usurper. The assumption of the crown by Menahem seems to have met some resistance. At any rate, we read of an expedition of Menahem against a place called Tiphsah ("a ford"), which had refused to open its gates to him. The town and its surrounding district were taken, and Menahem took horrible vengeance on the population. The reign of Menahem, which, as regards religion, resembled that of his predecessors, lasted ten years. But it may truly be characterized as the beginning of the end, for with it commenced the acknowledged dependence of the northern kingdom upon Assyria, of which the ultimate outcome was the fall of Samaria and the deportation of Israel into the land of the conqueror. Leaving aside questions of chronology, the Assyrian monuments enable us more clearly to understand the biblical account of the relations between Menahem and his eastern suzerain (verses 19, 20). Thus we learn that after a period of decadence which may account for the independent progress of Jeroboam II., perhaps even for the occupation of Tiphsah by Menahem, a military adventurer of the name of Pul, apparently sprung from the lower orders, seized the crown of Assyria and assumed the title of Tiglath-pileser II. The first monarch of that name, five centuries earlier, had founded the power of Assyria, which was now to be re-established. In the very year of his accession he vanquished and impaled the king of Babylon, and henceforth himself assumed that title. Two years later he turned his armies to the west, and after a siege of three years took the Syrian city Arpad, in the neighborhood of Hamath, and not far from Damascus (cf. Isa. 10:9; 36:19; 2 K. 18:34; Jer. 49:23). Without following his further military expeditions, it may suffice to state that three years later (in the eighth year of his reign), he is described on the monuments as receiving the tribute of Menahem of Israel among those of other vassal kings. The shattering of the power of the Syrian confederacy and the occupation of Hamath fully explain the biblical notice of the advance of Pul or Tiglath-pileser II. into the northern kingdom. His progress was for the time arrested by the submission of Menahem, and his payment of an annual tribute of one thousand talents of silver, or about £375,000, which the king of Israel levied by a tax of fifty shekels, or about £6 5s., on all the wealthier inhabitants of his realm. This would imply that there were sixty thousand contributors to this tax—a large figure—indicating at the same time the wide prosperity of the country and the extent of the burden which the tribute must have laid on the people. On these hard conditions Menahem was "confirmed" in "the kingdom" by the Assyrian conqueror. A. E. 8-12. Reign of Zechariah over Israel. Fulfilment of the Promise made to Jehu. The writer has nothing to record of Zechariah but his murder by Shallum after a reign of six months. Verses 8, 9 and 11 contain the usual formula. Verse 10 gives the only event that needed record. Verse 12 recalls to the reader's attention a previous passage in which a prophecy had been mentioned, whereof Zechariah's reign was the fulfilment. Hammond. 10. Before the people.** Rather "before people." Openly and publicly, that is, as Jehu, the founder of the dynasty, had slain his own predecessor Joram (2 K. 9 : 24). The slaughter of Zechariah fulfilled the prophecy of Amos, that "God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword" (Amos 7 : 9), and also that of Hosea, that Jehovah would "avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu" (Hos. 1 : 4). 12. This was the word of the Lord.** This loss of the kingdom in the person of his fourth descendant was in exact accordance with the prediction of a prophet, probably Elisha, to Jehu, that his children should keep the throne until the fourth generation. B. C. —And so it came to pass. The house of Jehu ceased to reign in the fourth generation of the descendants of its founder. In breaking off from the divinely chosen house of David, and choosing to themselves a king, the Israelites had sown the seeds of instability in their state and put themselves at the mercy of any ambitious pretender. Five dynasties had already borne rule in the two hundred years that the kingdom had lasted; four more were about to hold the throne in the remaining fifty years of its existence. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," though said of Reuben only, fairly expressed the character of the entire kingdom, with which Reuben cast in its lot at the time of the separation. 13-15. Short and Unimportant Reign of Shallum.** Three verses suffice for the reign of Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who held the throne for only thirty days. Hearing of his conspiracy, Menahem, the son of Gadi—"the general," as Josephus calls him—marched from Tirzah to Samaria, got Shallum into his power, and put him to death (verse 14). The writer concludes with the usual formula. Hammond. 17-22. Reign of Menahem, Ten Years.** 19. Pul, the king of Assyria.** This is the first distinct mention which we find in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power. From the native monuments we learn that she had been now for above a century pushing her conquests beyond the Euphrates, and seeking to reduce under her dominion the entire tract between that river and Egypt. One great monarch had conquered Northern Syria, and forced Phœnicia to pay him tribute; another, his son (Shalmaneser II.), had invaded Southern Syria, reduced Hamath, ravaged the territory of Damascus, and received tribute from Jehu; a third, the grandson of this last, had taken Damascus itself, and claimed authority, not only over Phœnicia and Samaria, but over Philistia and Edom. It is even doubtful whether Judea had not acknowledged Assyrian suzerainty, and consented that her monarchs should receive their investiture from the hands of the Ninevite king. But hitherto there had been no hostile invasion of Jewish or Israelite soil by an Assyrian army; and so the sacred historian, to whom we may ascribe the natural feelings of a patriot, had allowed himself to maintain silence with respect to the encroachments of this hated and dreaded power. At length, however, an actual invasion took place—Pul "came against the land"—and it would have been no longer honest to maintain silence. The Assyrians are therefore now at last formally introduced into the history. B. C.—The monarch who inaugurated the most brilliant period of Assyria's history bore the two names of Tiglath-pileser and Pul. Properly, Tiglath-pileser (Tiglathi-palzira) was the throne-name which he bore in Assyria, as monarch of that country, and Pul (Pulu) was the throne-name which he bore in Babylonia, as king of Babylon. The double nomenclature was not readily understood by foreigners. We are indebted for the identification to a cuneiform document. G. R. 23-26. Short Reign of Pekahiah.** The short reign of Pekahiah was wholly undistinguished. He held the throne for two years only, or perhaps for parts of two years, and performed no action that any historian has thought worthy of record. Our author has nothing to relate of him but the circumstances of his death (verse 25), wherewith he combines the usual formulae (verses 23, 24, 26). Hammond. Of Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, nothing is recorded except that he maintained the calf worship, like his predecessors, doing "that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, by not departing from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" (verse 24), and that he was barbarously murdered by one of his captains—Pekah, the son of Remaliah. The scene of his slaughter was the royal palace in Samaria, where he was attacked by Pekah at the head of a band of fifty Gileadite desperadoes, who slew him in his harem, with the two attendants who alone were faithful to him, Argob and Arieh. G. R. 15 : 27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD : he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali ; and he carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 17 : 1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria ; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea ; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year : therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. The brief text above, from 2 Kings, must be supplemented from 2 Chron. 28 : 5-15 and Isa. 7 : 1-9 ; 8 : 1-8 ; and the Assyrian inscriptions. B. THE short reign—two years—of Pekahiah, son and successor of Menahem, ended with conspiracy and his violent death ; one Pekah, son of Remaliah, a captain of his, being the successful usurper. During his reign of twenty years—religiously like his predecessors, doing only evil—Tiglath-pileser came up against him, dismembering his kingdom by wresting from it the region of Naphtali, including several important cities (mentioned in verse 29). This Pekah became prominent, associated with Rezin, king of Syria, in wars with Ahaz, king of Judah, with various success ; besieging Jerusalem unsuccessfully (2 K. 16 : 5), but smiting the army of Ahaz with immense slaughter (according to 2 Chron. 28 : 5-8). To these events we refer more in detail in tracing the history of Judah. H. C. The coming ruin was hastened by Pekah, who, after slaying Pekahiah the son of Menahem, ascended the throne B.C. 759. He allied himself with the Damascene kingdom, the hereditary enemy of Israel, against Judah, probably with the hope of strengthening himself by the overthrow of Judah and the dethronement of the house of David, against the encroaching power of Assyria. The ancient hatred of Ephraim toward Judah, which had so frequently during the last two centuries led to sanguinary conflicts, was now once more to burst forth with fury, and to hasten the destruction of Ephraim. The Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser, whose assistance had been invoked by Ahaz, having first executed against Damascus the judgment predicted by Amos (chap. 1 : 3 sqq.), took the provinces east of the Jordan and the northern portions of those west of this river (Galilee), and carried away the tribes inhabiting these regions into the interior of Asia, about 740 B.C. This was the second stage of the judgment. Isaiah (9 : 9) describes the people of Samaria, however, as receiving all such Divine corrections with arrogance and presumption, and comforting themselves with wicked hopes of better times. O. During the lifetime of Menahem Israel remained tributary to Assyria, and the Assyrian king did not again turn his arms against the west. After the death of Menahem and the murder of his son Pekahiah, however, important changes took place. The usurper, Pekah, in alliance with Rezin of Damascus, attacked Judah with the intention of overthrowing the dynasty of David and placing on the throne of Jerusalem a vassal king whose father's name, Tabeel, shows that he must have been a Syrian. Jotham, the Jewish king, died shortly after the war began, and the youth and weakness of his son and successor Ahaz laid Judah open to its antagonists, who were further aided by a disaffected party within the capital itself (Isa. 8:6). In his extremity, therefore, Ahaz appealed to the Assyrian monarch, who was already seeking an excuse for crushing Damascus, and reducing the Jewish kingdom, with its important fortress of Jerusalem, to a condition of vassalage. In B.C. 734, accordingly, Tiglath-pileser marched into Syria. Rezin was defeated in a pitched battle, his chariots broken in pieces, his captains captured and impaled, while he himself escaped to Damascus, where he was closely besieged by the enemy. The territory of Damascus was now devastated with fire and sword, its sixteen districts were "overwhelmed as with a flood," and the beautiful gardens by which the capital was surrounded were destroyed, every tree being cut down for use in the siege. The city itself, however, proved too strong to be taken by assault; so, leaving a sufficient force before it to reduce it by famine, Tiglath-pileser proceeded against the late allies of the Syrian king. Israel was the first to be attacked. The north of the country was overrun, and the tribes beyond the Jordan carried into captivity. Gilead and Abel-beth-maachah are mentioned by name as among the towns that were taken and sacked. The Assyrians then fell upon Ammon and Moab, which had aided Israel and Syria in the attack on Judah, and next made their way along the sea-coast into the country of the Philistines, who had seized the opportunity of the late war to shake off the yoke of the Jewish king. Their leader, Khanun or Hanno of Gaza, fled into Egypt; but Gaza itself was captured and laid under tribute, its gods carried away, and an image of the Assyrian king set up in the temple of Dagon. Ekron and Ashdod were also punished, and Metinti of Ashkelon committed suicide in order to escape the vengeance of the conqueror. Now that all fear of danger in the south had been removed, Tiglath-pileser marched back into the northern kingdom and took Samaria. Sayce. Now, for the first time since the separation of the brother-nations, the northern kingdom had entered into a formal league against Judah with a heathen nation, and that its hereditary foe, Syria. And the significance of this fact deepens as we remember that the final object was not merely to conquer Judah, but to dethrone the house of David, and substitute for it a Syrian, presumably a heathen ruler. So forgetful had Israel become of its great hope, and of the very meaning of its national existence. For the first time also, at least in the biblical record, does the Assyrian power now appear on the scene of Palestine, first to be bought off by Menahem (2 K. 15:19, 20); then to be invoked by Ahaz, with the result of rendering Judah tributary, and finally of overthrowing Israel. The continuance of the northern kingdom was now only a question of time, and the exile of Israel had actually begun. Judah had become dependent on Assyria, and henceforth was only able fitfully and for brief periods to shake off its yoke, till it finally shared the fate of its sister-kingdom. Lastly, Syria ceased to exist as an independent power, and became a province of Assyria. But in the history of the kingdom of God every movement is also a step toward the great goal, and all judgment becomes larger mercy. So was it on this occasion also. Henceforth the whole historical scene was changed. The prophetic horizon had enlarged. The falling away of Israel had become already initially the life of the world. The fullest predictions of the person and work of the Messiah and of His universal kingdom date from this period. Even the new relations of Israel formed the basis for wider conceptions and spiritual progression. Those petty wars with Syria, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia, which had filled the previous history, now ceased to be factors in it, and Israel found itself face to face with the great world-power. This contact gave new form and shape to the idea of a universal kingdom of God, wide as the world, which had hitherto only been presented in dim outline, and of which only the germ had existed in the religious consciousness of the people. Thus in every respect this was the beginning of a new era—an era of judgment indeed, but also of larger mercy; an era of new development in the history of the kingdom of God; a type also of the final hardening of Israel in the rejection of their Messiah, and of the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers. A. E. 1. In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Twenty years old was right in the eyes of the LORD, like David his father: but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the LORD your God? Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you. Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war, and said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for ye purpose that which will bring upon us a trespass against the LORD, to add unto our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the armed was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not that which was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there, unto this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king drew near unto the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. And the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meal offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his meal offering, with the men left the captives and the spoil before 15 the princes and all the congregation. And the men which have been expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto their brethren: then they returned to Samaria. 16. At that time did king Ahaz send unto the 17 kings of Assyria to help him. For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, 18 and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with the towns thereof, and Tim- nah with the towns thereof, Gimzo also and the towns thereof: and they dwelt there. 19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had dealt 20 wantonly in Judah, and trespassed sore against the LORD. And Tilgath-pilneser king of 21 Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, 22 and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but it helped him not. And in the time of his distress 23 did he trespass yet more against the LORD, this same king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin 24 of him, and of all Israel. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD; 25 and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD, the 26 God of his fathers. Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are 27 written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. AHAZ, who succeeded his father, Jotham, upon the throne of Judah at the age of twenty, had neither courage, nor patriotism, nor energy, nor prudence, nor piety, nor even a decent re- gard for the traditions of his house and nation. He found the nation far advanced in corrup- tion—the nobles, and even the members of his own family, attached generally to the hea- thenizing party—his kingdom menaced by a combination of two powerful states, which threatened its destruction, or at least his own deposition (Isa. 7:6)—and his only hope of efficient support the interposition and protec- tion of some powerful heathen sovereign. His two deadly enemies, Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria, who had commenced the war in the lifetime of his father (2 K. 15:37), came up to- gether against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: but the brasen altar shall be 16 for me to inquire by. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz com- 17 manded. And king Ahaz cut off the bor- ders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and 18 put it upon a pavement of stone. And the covered way for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turfied he unto the house of the 19 LORD, because of the king of Assyria. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the 20 chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. (2 K. 16:5; Isa. 7:1). A horrible fear fell upon both king and people—“the heart of Ahaz was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind” (Isa. 7:2). Nevertheless, encouraged by Isaiah, who scoffed at his assailants and bid him feel no dread of such mere “tails of smoking fire- brands” (ibid., verse 4), Ahaz resisted, and after a while forced his antagonists to raise the siege, and attempt the subjugation of Judea by a different method. Rezin drew off his troops, and proceeding southward fell upon the south- ern Judean territory, overran the whole of it, and pushed his conquests to the shore of the Red Sea, where he “drave the Jews from Elath” (2 K. 16:6), and restored to the Idume- ans the city and adjacent territory. Pekah also gave up the siege, and set to work to ravage the territory, where he slew, we are told (2 Chron. 28:6), a hundred and twenty thousand men, and took two hundred thousand women and children prisoners (verses 7, 8). In this deep affliction of the Jewish nation her old foes, moreover, rose up against her. The Edomites on the southeast and the Philistines on the southwest poured in their troops upon the devoted land, and added to its calamities. Edom was content, apparently, with a single desolating raid, in which numerous captives were carried off (verse 17); but the Philistines were bolder in their aggression and more bitter in their hostility. They "invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and took Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gede-roth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof; and they dwelt there" (verse 18). Judah was indeed "brought low, and made naked." Her "country was desolate, her cities burned with fire: her land, strangers devoured it in her presence; it was desolate, as overthrown by strangers" (Isa. 1:7). The territory that remained to her was truly but "a very small remnant" (ibid., verse 9), and even this was threatened. Pekah and Rezin might be expected at any moment to resume their attacks. It is not surprising that under these circumstances Ahaz thought himself entitled to call in foreign aid, and judged that the power from which he was most likely to obtain effectual aid was Assyria. This great empire had reached well-nigh the zenith of her power; and just at this time it was her special desire to extend her influence toward the southwest, and round off her dominion in that quarter, by absorbing into it the Palestinian region. Ahaz, therefore, having collected all the treasure on which he could lay his hand, sent a humble embassy with the rich gift to the court of Tiglath-pileser (2 K. 16:7; 2 Chron. 28:16). Tiglath-pileser responded at once to this appeal by a sudden march against Damascus and subsequent capture of the city. Rezin lost his life and Damascus its separate existence. Then the conqueror advanced against Samaria, and finding a party friendly to him within the walls, who undertook to remove Pekah, negotiated with them, and appointed their chief, Hoshea, to be tributary king of Israel. Ahaz was thus effectually relieved from the enemies whose attack he had feared; but to obtain this relief he had been forced to sacrifice the independence of his country. As Ewald says—"The price paid for the Assyrian aid was much more than the treasures of the Temple and of his palace; it was the independence and honor of the realm itself." Ahaz became, by his compact with Tiglath-pileser, a mere subject—almost a mere nominal—king; his position was no better than that of Hoshea. Subjection to Assyria involved not only the continual payment of tribute year by year and the occasional sending to the monarch of rich presents besides, but appearance before him to do him homage whenever he was in the neighborhood. Ahaz, we are told, humbly paid his court to Tiglath-pileser at Damascus, before that monarch returned to Ninevah. This is probably the occasion of which Tiglath-pileser has left an account, when he says that tribute was brought him by twenty-two kings, among whom we find those of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Askelon, Gaza, and also "Jehoahaz of Judah." True religion was almost wholly extinguished under this wicked king. In vain did Isaiah warn him, rebuke him, offer him signs, threaten him, urge him to rely on Jehovah (Isa. 7:4-17; 8:1-4); he doggedly pursued his own course, sought help in every quarter but the right one, put his trust in arms of flesh, or in the gods of the nations—Assyrian, Syrian (2 Chron. 28:23), Phoenician (ibid., verse 2), Ammonite (2 K. 16:3)—cared not how he degraded his country or disgraced his noble lineage, persisted in evil, ever trespassed more and more (2 Chron. 28:22), till, at the age of thirty-six (2 K. 16:2), when he was in the very prime of life, God cut him off, called him to his account, and so stopped the further degradation of His people. Ahaz seems to have died in the same year with his patron, Tiglath-pileser, n.c. 727. He was buried, like his fathers, in the city of David (ibid., verse 20); but, according to the writer of Chronicles (2 Chron. 28:27), "not in the sepulchres of the kings." G. R. He made himself notorious for his wickedness, surpassing in crime and downright depravity all the kings of Judah; he was surpassed in sin by few if any of the most wicked kings of Israel. H. C.—From the very first he gave himself to idolatry of all kinds. He even consecrated his children by baptism of fire to Nolech, the hideous god of Moab. In the valley of Hinnom, in a spot known by the name of Tophet, the brazen statue of Molech was erected, with the furnace within, into which the children were thrown. To this dreadful form of human sacrifice, Ahaz gave the highest sanction by the devotion of one or more of his sons. He removed the great brazen altar of burnt offerings from the court of the Temple, and set it up elsewhere, as an adjunct of a heathen altar. He despoiled the Temple of some of its finest ornaments. He took its treasures and cut in pieces and melted all its vessels of precious metal; and finally closed its doors and caused its worship to cease. Todd.—The moral darkness became thicker than ever during the sixteen years of his reign. Open apostasy was now the order of the day. Images of Baal, altars and high places consecrated to idolatry did not suffice King Ahaz: he crowned his abominable practices by burning his children in the valley of Hinnom. The visitation of Divine wrath upon guilt so flagrant was swift and terrible. Against the remonstrances of Isaiah, he applied for help to the king of Assyria; and in answer to his request, Tiglath-pileser attacked and destroyed Damascus. King Ahaz went to that ancient capital to meet him; but when the king of Assyria came to him “he distressed him, and helped him not.” The influence of this king seems to have been most pernicious. Calamity only served to blind his eyes and harden his heart. The thickening afflictions of the sister kingdom had no effect on him; and had his reign not been cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-six, a similar catastrophe could hardly have been averted from Judah. W. G. B. 2. K. 16:1.** As throughout this history, it is emphatically indicated that just as former successes had come from the help of the Lord, so now the real cause of Judah’s reverses lay in their apostasy from God. From the first, and throughout, Ahaz “did not the right in the sight of the Lord.” Nor should we omit to mark how the sacred text when describing each successive reign in Judah brings its religious character in comparison with that of David, which should have been the type for that of all his successors, even as Jeroboam’s became that for the kings of Israel. A. E. 2. Ahaz did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.** Ahaz’s apostasy seems to have commenced with the very first year of his reign. He was the worst of all the kings of Judah. We need not suppose that all the idolatrous practices enumerated in verses 3 and 4 preceded the invasion of his territory by Rezin and Pekah (verse 5); but it is plain from 2 Chron., verse 5, that some were anterior to it. 3. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel.** The meaning is not that he set up calves, which we can scarcely suppose him to have done; but, as the writer of Chronicles explains, “he made molten images for Baalim.” He imitated—i.e., the worst of the Israelite kings—Ahab and Ahaziah—by a reintroduction of the Baal-worship, which had been rooted out of Israel by Jehu, and of Judah by Jehoiada. B. C.—He began with the high places; thence he descends to the calves of Dan and Bethel; from thence he falls to a Syrian altar—to the Syrian god; then, from a partnership, he falls to an utter exclusion of the true God, and blocking up His Temple; and then to the sacrifice of his own son; and at last, as if hell were broken loose upon God’s inheritance, every several city, every high place of Judah hath a new god. Bp. H. In the opening chapters of Isaiah we have an account of the condition of the kingdom of Judah at the time that Ahaz succeeded to the throne. The prosperity which the country had enjoyed under Uzziah had been continued and increased under the righteous reign of his son Jotham. And now the grandson, Ahaz, a young man of twenty, finds the country abounding in wealth, full of silver and gold. Isaiah says there was no end of their treasure; their land also was full of horses, neither was there any end of their chariots. Their commerce, too, was in a thriving condition. But before Ahaz died, all this was changed. Enemy after enemy invaded his country. The land became desolate. The king was reduced to great extremities to obtain money. Instead of the sunshine of prosperity, there was on every side the dark shadow of desolation and decay. We have the explanation of it all in the third and fourth verses. Ahaz began badly, and every fresh movement in his life was a step from bad to worse. His history is a further illustration of how one sin leads to another. It was a continuously downward path. C. H. I. The fact which seems to be certain is, that Ahaz adopted the Moloch worship of the Ammonites and Moabites, and sacrificed at least one son, probably his first-born, according to the horried rites of those nations. A king of Moab had once done the same when he found himself in a sore strait (2 K. 3:27). Another had expressed his willingness so to appease his god (Mic. 6:7). Hitherto, apparently, the Jews had been guiltless of the abomination. They had been warned against it by Moses (Lev. 18:21; De. 18:10). Now, however, as the time of more searching trial approached, as dangers thickened, and the national existence was seen to be in peril, the awful rite seems to have exercised a fatal fascination upon them. Unnoticed among the national sins by the earlier prophets, it comes in Jeremiah and Ezekiel to be one of the offences most frequently protested against. Another king besides Ahaz sacrifices the heir-apparent to the throne (2 K. 21 : 6). The people follow the example with fatal eagerness, and the Hinnom valley swims with the blood of human victims. The cruel custom is practised in both kingdoms (2 K. 17 : 17). 5. Then Rezin and Pekah came up.** Rezin and Pekah had begun their attacks upon Judea in the reign of Jotham. The earlier scenes of the war, omitted by the writer of Kings, are given at some length in Chronicles (28 : 5-15). The confederates, it appears, acted separately. Rezin in one quarter, Pekah in another, invaded the kingdom. A great battle was fought with each. In both engagements the Jews were defeated, and lost numerous prisoners. In the battle with Pekah the slain numbered (if the text be correct) one hundred and twenty thousand. The country was then ravaged by Pekah, and women and children to the number of two hundred thousand were carried off. These, however, were, by the advice of the prophet Oded, restored. Siege was then laid to Jerusalem by the allies in common, as related in the present passage (cf. Isa. 7 : 1) ; but the siege was unsuccessful, the defences raised by Uzziah (2 Chron. 26 : 9) and Jotham (ibid., 27 : 3) proving too strong for the besiegers, who, probably at the close of the military season, retired. B. C. It was the purpose of Pekah and Rezin to depose the house of David and place on the throne of Judah a person of low origin (Isa. 7 : 6). Not only would their plan not "come to pass" (Isa. 7 : 7), but looking beyond the unbelief and the provocations of an Ahaz (Isa. 7 : 13), the Divine promise would stand fast. "The house of David" could not fail. For beyond the present was the final goal of promised salvation in Immanuel the Virgin-born (verse 14). And this was God's answer to the challenge of Rezin and of the son of Remaliah—His "sign" as against their plans : a majestic declaration also of His object in maintaining "the house of David," even when represented by an Ahaz. And when the hour of judgment came, it would be not by placing a Syrian king on the throne of David, but by carrying prince and people into a banishment which would open a new—the last—period of Israel's God-destined history. A. E.—Their attack upon Jerusalem itself was unsuccessful, chiefly in consequence of the spirit infused into the people by Isaiah. To this epoch belongs the celebrated prophecy in which the birth of the child Immanuel, whose very name expressed the devout confidence, "God is with us," was a sign of the speedy overthrow of both the hostile kings by Assyria. A second sign was given by the birth of a child who received the significant name of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "Make speed to the spoil ! hasten to the prey !" And in that exalted style of pregnant meaning, which has given Isaiah the name of "the evangelic prophet," these passing wars are dignified by the most glowing prophecies of the Messiah's kingdom. P. S. While the fate of Judah was trembling in the balance, the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to go with his son, Shear Yashub, to meet the king "at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, at the highway of the fuller's field" (Isa. 7 : 3). From the manner in which the locality is mentioned, we infer that the king was wont to pass that way, possibly on an inspection of the northwestern fortifications. The prophet's commission to Ahaz was threefold. He was to admonish him to courage (Isa. 7 : 4), and to announce that, so far from the purpose of the allies succeeding, Ephraim itself should, within a given time, cease to be "a people." Lastly, he was to give "a sign" of what had been said, especially of the continuance of the house of David. This was, in contrast to the king's unbelief, to point from the present to the future, and to indicate the ultimate object in view—the birth of the Virgin's Son, whose name, Immanuel, symbolized all of present promise and future salvation connected with the house of David. The result was what might have been expected from the character of Ahaz. As with ill-disguised irony he rejected the "sign," implying that his trust was in the help of Assyria, not in the promise of God, so he persevered in his course, despite the prophet's warning. Yet it scarcely required a prophet's vision to foretell the issue, although only a prophet could so authoritatively, and in such terms, have announced it (Isa. 7 : 17-8). A. E. 2. Chron. 28 : 17, 18.** The retreat of Pekah and Rezin gave Ahaz no permanent relief. In the words of Isaiah, God had raised up against him the Syrians in front (the East), and the Philistines behind (the West). They overran the whole maritime plain (Shefelah) and the highlands that border it, taking Bethshemesh, Ajalon, and other cities. The Edomites, set free by the Syrians, invaded Judah and carried off many captives, while the Syrians and Israelites threatened to return. Ahaz now applied for help to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, against Syria and Israel. P. S. 2. K. 16 : 9.** Rezin was slain and Damascus destroyed. Damascus now disappears from the Old Testament history; but by the fourth century B.C. it had been rebuilt, and has maintained its prosperity down to the present day. It is situated in a fertile plain watered by the river Barada, which is probably the Abana of Scripture, to the east of the great mountain chain of the Anti-Libanus, on the edge of the desert. Travellers describe it as "embosomed in a wide forest of fruit trees, intersected and surrounded by sparkling streams, in the midst of an earthly paradise." This natural beauty and fertility, combined with its importance as a centre of trade, have secured the permanence of its prosperity for nearly four thousand years. A. F. K. With the capture of Damascus, the Damasco-Syrian empire, which had hitherto been a scourge for the punishment of Israel, came to an end. Henceforth it was only a province of Assyria. It is in the light of all these events that we have to read such prophecies as those in Isa. 7 and the first part of chapter 8. The majestic Divine calm of these utterances, their lofty defiance of man's seeming power, their grand certitude, and the withering irony with which what seemed the irresistible might of these two "smoking firebrands" is treated—all find their illustration in the history of this war. Such prophecies warrant us in climbing the heights of faith, from which Isaiah bids us look, to where, in the dim distance, the morning glow of the new Messianic day is seen to fill the sky with glory. But in Damascus the conquered did Tiglath-pileser gather, as for an Eastern durbar, the vanquished and subject princes. Thither also did King Ahaz go "to meet" the king of Assyria; and thence, as the outcome of what he had learned from prophecy and seen as its fulfilment in history, did this king of Judah send the pattern of the heathen altar to Jerusalem (2 K. 16: 10, 11). A. E. 10-18. The altar at Damascus** (verse 10). He sent its pattern to Jerusalem, where Urijah the high priest prepared an altar of the same form against the king's return from Damascus, when, with a profanity on which Athaliah even had not ventured, Ahaz put it in the place of the brazen altar, and commanded Urijah to offer on it all the burnt offerings and other sacrifices. Superstition led him, however, to preserve the brazen altar for oracular uses, and he placed it on the north of his great altar. The great brass sea of Solomon was dismounted from its supporting oxen, and the lavers from their bases, which were sent to the king of Assyria, together with the coverings which had been built for the king's entry to the house and for the shelter of the worshippers on the Sabbath. The golden vessels of the house of God were cut in pieces and sent with the rest, and the sanctuary itself was shut up; while idol altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem, and high places in every city of Judah. It was not for want of provocation to Jehovah that Judah did not at once share the captivity of Israel; but for the sake of "the sure mercies of David" another respite was given, and a new era of godliness throws its light over the reign of Hezekiah, amid all the pressure of invasion and the threats of approaching captivity. P. S. By the side of the notice, that Ahaz "broke up the vessels of the house of God," we find it stated that he "shut up the doors of the house of Jehovah." This implies that the services within the Holy Place were now wholly discontinued. Thus the worship would be confined to the sacrificial services at the new altar; while the transference into the Temple porch of the king's stand and of the entry to it would not only bring them close to the new altar, but also assign to them a more prominent and elevated position than that previously occupied. After this we do not wonder to read that Ahaz "made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem," nor yet that "in every several city of Judah he made high places [bamoth] to burn incense unto other gods." What influence all this must have had on a people already given to idolatry will readily be perceived. Indeed, Holy Scripture only gives us a general indication of the baneful changes made in the public religious institutions of the country. To close the doors of the Holy and Most Holy Places was to abolish what set forth Israel's fellowship with their Lord, His gracious acceptance of them, and His communication of pardon, light, and life. The temple of Ahaz was no longer that of Jehovah, and the attempt to attach the old services to the new altar would only aggravate the sin, while it exhibited the folly of the king. Even more strange seems the mixture of heathen rites which it was sought to introduce by the side of the perverted Temple ritual. It consisted of the worship of the Syrian deities, of Baalim, of Ashtoreth, of the host of heaven, and of Molech—in short, it combined Syrian, Phœnician, and Assyrian idolatry. Yet in all this Ahaz found a servile instrument in the high-priest Urijah (2 K. 16: 11-16). Assuredly the prophet's description of Israel's "watchmen" as "ignorant," "dumb dogs . . . loving to slumber," "greedy dogs," "insatiable shepherds," only bent on gain and steeped in vice, was true to the letter (Isa. 56: 10-12). And with this corresponds the same prophet's account of the moral and religious condition of the people (Isa. 2: 6-9; 5: 7-23). In view of this, King Ahaz can only be regarded as the outcome of his time and the representative of his people. Accordingly the judgments announced in these prophecies of Isaiah read only as the logical sequence of the state of matters. The account of these judgments comes to us equally from the Books of Kings and Chronicles, which here supplement one another, and especially from the prophecies of Isaiah, which in chapter 7 give the most vivid description of the condition of things. A. E. 19. Reason of the calamities brought upon Judah.** The record is ever the same. It is the Lord that brings Judah low. It is the sin of Ahaz, the king, that brings upon the nation the judgment of Jehovah. The one great truth standing out upon every page of this inspired history, is this, that the nation is dealt with according to its treatment of Him. Neglect of His worship and commandments is invariably attended with sore calamities upon the king and people. 20,21. The result of the appeal of Ahaz to the king of Assyria.** Beside the offer to make his kingdom tributary to the king of Assyria, Ahaz sent that monarch large amounts from the stores of the Temple and the national treasury. Tiglath-pileser came with a large army, conquered Syria (one of the foes of Judah), overcame Pekah, the king of Israel, and depopulated the eastern tribes of Israel. He also conquered the Philistines and took their capital. Although Ahaz was thus relieved from the oppression of these hostile kingdoms, the record declares that the king of Assyria neither strengthened nor helped him, but made his condition the more trying. "His interposition did not replace Ahaz in an independent or safe position; it merely substituted an actual for a threatened subjection. It straitened Ahaz's resources by depriving him of all his accumulated treasure, and left him subject to a heavy annual impost." Thus by his rejection of God, and his defiant impiety, the great dominion inherited by Ahaz from Uzziah and Jotham was broken up, large numbers of the people of Judah were enslaved, the treasures of the Temple and the capital were wasted, and Ahaz himself made a subject of the king of Assyria. B. 23. They were the ruin of him and of all Israel.** He was not content with the paganism which he found already in the kingdom. He imported new shapes of idol worship. For when "King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus, King Ahaz sent to Urijah, the priest, the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof." . . . Thus "he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus which smote him." "They were the ruin of him," says the historian, "and of all Israel." Meanwhile, the true God and His Temple and worship he treated with scorn. Hallam. 26,27. The burial of Ahaz.** Though his remains were brought into the city, they were not buried in the sepulchres of the kings. This was an expression of judgment upon the character of the dead king. His great and manifold iniquities prevented his interment in the royal burial-place. B.—His subjects complain that he died so late; and, as repenting that he ever was, deny him a room in the sepulchres of kings; as if they said, "The common earth of Jerusalem is too good for him that degenerated from his progenitors, marred his kingdom, depraved his people, forsook his God." Bp. H. In the foolish persistence of Ahaz in extreme impiety, we learn that true relief from trouble or distress is found nowhere but in God; and only from disobedience to God come trouble and suffering that can find no alleviation. And we have in this king an illustration and emphatic confirmation of the utterance of Solomon, The way of the transgressor is hard. B.—This the legitimate ending of a long career of alternate chastisement and sin without repentance. A Cornish proverb says, "He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock." This is the rock on which haughty and defiant guilt is wrecked. It is simply left to itself, to become what it has chosen to be—such a demon of iniquity as to be abhorred of God and man. God save us from ourselves! We carry within us the elements of hell if we but choose to make them such. Ahaz, Judas, Nero, Borgia, Alva—all were once prattling infants in happy mothers' arms. The first babe of our race—a marvel of joy to the first mother—was the first murderer. Who shall dare to encounter the possibilities of human guilt without the grace of God? King Ahaz is one of the stupendous monuments of guilt in Israelitish history. He is one of the few men in any history of whom not one good thing is recorded. His career was one uniform and unmitigated stream of iniquity from beginning to end. Not one virtue or virtuous act is thought worthy of mention in his whole life. So black and disgraceful was his reign, that when he died, the indignant and revolted conscience of the nation refused him burial in the royal sepulchre. His career illustrates that law of character by which the wickedness of a man is proportioned to the amount of holy influence which he has conquered. We find a reason for his extreme depravity in the extreme facilities which he had for being a saint. He was the son of a godly father. His youth was passed under the restraints of holy example. He was one in a royal line which had been distinguished for examples of illustrious piety. He knew that he alone, of all the monarchs of the world, held his crown and kingdom by Divine right as king of God's chosen people. He knew that a splendid history lay behind him, and that a more splendid future was before him. In the line of regal descent, in which he was a connecting link, One was to appear in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed. That ancient promise of God to Abraham spanned like a rainbow the royal family of Judah. Mysterious as its meaning was, it must have been a power of moral restraint and moral stimulus to a man called of God to sit on the throne of Judah. Such a combination of holy influence this Judean king broke through; and therefore he became the man he was. The career of this apostate prince illustrates also the faithfulness of God in chastising wicked men for their good. "The Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz." From the beginning to the end of his reign, he experienced the truth that the way of transgressors is hard. In war he was whipped all around. In alliances he was cheated and checkmated. His people were made captives by thousands. Nothing went well with him. His public life was one long career of defying God, yet of God's persistent efforts to save him by chastising him. This is repeated over and over again in the experience of wicked men. Such men often think it a great mystery that they suffer so much. They do not understand why it is that misfortune pursues them so. "Just my luck," says one, when ill-success attends his business. Yet often the secret reason is that God is trying to save the man. He is contending with God in one way, and God is contending with him in another. There is no luck about it. It is God's faithfulness to the soul. The sufferings of this world are not in the strict sense retributive. They are disciplinary. The world of retribution lies farther on. In love God holds the rod over many a bad man. He strikes him here, and He strikes him there. God's flail threshes him like wheat. He surrounds him with trouble. He heaps up misfortunes. This is His way of striving to save men from eternal death. Sometimes He pursues it to the very last, till the grave closes over the incorrigible sinner, and he passes on to a world where the retributive decisions of eternity displace the benign discipline of time. The life of this depraved prince illustrates further the extreme which sin reaches when men fight successfully against God's chastisements. "In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord." This is the fearful phenomenon sometimes witnessed in the developments of sin in this world. Some men are not subdued by suffering. They refuse to bow to chastisement. The more they suffer, the more they sin. Trouble angers them against God. The reign of this wicked monarch illustrates the disappointments which wicked men experience in their hopes of happiness in sin. The historian relates of him: "He said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him." True to the life, every word of it! In no more truthful figure can we express the experience of many young men who enter on a career of worldliness. They see other men living for this world alone, as it seems to a looker-on, on the top of the wave of human felicity. A rich man seems to them a supremely happy man. A successful statesman appears to have all that an aspiring man can ask for. A man who has gained the summit of social rank and splendor becomes, to many who are below him, the model of earthly bliss. Any man at the top of the ladder seems very high up to a man at the bottom. So a young man is apt to look on the world to which he proposes to devote his being. "The world makes these men happy," he says; "and I will try it, that it may make me happy too." This is the secret experience, probably, of all who give themselves deliberately to a life of irreligion. They are allured by the glamour of irreligious prosperity. But when they try the experiment for themselves, "it is the ruin of them." The fruit turns to ashes. No such young man ever finds the world to be what it looked to be when he surveyed it from afar. It is a beautiful mirage. The testimony of experience is proverbial, that the richest men are not the happiest men. The most successful ambitious men are not the happiest men. The seekers of pleasure who find the most are not the happiest men. One word expresses the issue of all such experiments—disappointment. This world is full of soured and disappointed men. The more irreligious men are, the more profoundly they experience this inward consciousness of failure in their life's plans. They have "hewed out to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water." In one of Hawthorne's thrillingly fearful fictions, he represents a wretched man going about with a serpent in his bosom. Every now and then he clutches at his breast with his fingers, crying, "It gnaws me; it gnaws me!" As he walks the streets among his kind, he thinks he finds that every man he meets is cursed with the same snaky guest in his bosom. Each man at intervals seems to thrust his hand up to throttle the reptile. All alike are doomed to the hideous companionship. "It gnaws me; it gnaws me!" is the universal confession. The whole world seems to his crazed fancy to be at the mercy of vipers, each man warming and cherishing his own. Such a world is any world of beings given over to seeking happiness in itself. Such is this world, except as its fearful consciousness is relieved by the grace of God. Such is self in any man or woman, when turned away from God and turned inward. Phelps. REIGN OF HEZEKIAH, TWENTY-NINE YEARS (Begun). From 3d of Hoshea, of Israel. For, whereas the kings of Israel had hitherto maintained guards upon their frontiers, to hinder their subjects from going up to worship at Jerusalem, Hoshea gave them all free liberty to worship there, and probably encouraged them in demolishing the high places (2 Chron. 30, 31). On this account he has, as to religion, the best character given him in Scripture of all that reigned before him over Israel after the division of the kingdom; for, although he was by no means perfect in the true worship of God, yet his ways were less offensive than the ways of any who had preceded him in that kingdom. Prideaux.—Hoshea's general attitude toward Jehovah was much the same as that of former kings of Israel. He maintained the calf worship, leaned upon "arms of flesh," and turned a deaf ear to the teaching of the prophets—e.g., Hosea and Micah, who addressed their warnings to him. But he was not guilty of any special wickedness—he set up no new idolatry; he seems to have allowed his subjects, if they pleased, to attend the festival worship at Jerusalem. 4. He had sent messengers to So. king of Egypt.** We learn from the prophet Hosea that the expediency of calling in Egypt as a counterpoise to Assyria had long been in the thoughts of those who directed the policy of the Israelite State (see Hos. 7:11; 12:1, etc.). Now at last the plunge was taken. An Ethiopian dynasty of some strength and vigor had possession of Egypt, and held its court during some part of the year at Memphis (Hos. 9:6). The king who occupied the throne was called Shabak. Hammond. The Ethiopian king Shabaka, or Sabako, is the So of the Old Testament, whom Hoshea had bribed to help him against the Assyrian monarch. But before that help could be sent the Assyrian had descended on his rebellious vassal, whom he dethroned and imprisoned. Now, as ever, the Egyptian had proved to be a "bruised reed" to those who trusted in him. Sabako, in fact, was too much engaged in consolidating his power in Egypt to think of foreign conquests. Sayce. 5. Went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.** From some time in Hoshea's seventh year to some time in his ninth. According to the Hebrew mode of reckoning, parts of years are counted as years; and thus the siege need not have lasted much over a year, though it may have been extended to nearly three years. In either case, there was ample time for Shabak to have brought up his forces, had he been so minded; and his failure to do so, or in any way to succor his ally, showed how little reliance was to be placed on Egyptian promises (cf. chap. 18:21). Hammond.—From the fourth to the sixth of Hezekiah, and from the seventh to the ninth of Hoshea (2 K. 18:9, 10); two years, therefore, according to our reckoning, but three, according to the inclusive reckoning of the Hebrews. This was a long time for so small a place to resist the Assyrians; but Samaria was favorably situated on a steep isolated hill, and was no doubt defended with desperation. B. C. Hoshea's revolt from Shalmaneser seems to have been no less an act of patriotism than Hezekiah's, though not prompted by such purely religious motives. Hoshea was, in fact, the best king in the whole line from Jeroboam. Nor ought we to be surprised that the final catastrophe came in his reign. Speaking humanly, the State was past redemption; the utter corruption and impenitence of the people are attested by the denunciations of Hosea, and confirmed by their scornful rejection of Hezekiah's call to repentance and union. Even the king was only some shades better than his predecessors, and it was no partial reform that could save and renew the State. Viewing the case from the higher ground taken throughout the Scripture history—the inseparable connection between national prosperity or adversity and religious obedience or rebellion—we cannot say that it was too late for Israel to be saved; as Nineveh was, when her people repented at the preaching of Jonah. They had only forty days of grace; Hoshea and his people had three years; let us now see how they used them. In the third year of Hoshea (B.C. 726) Shalmaneser, who had succeeded Tiglath-pileser, in B.C. 730 marched against Hoshea to enforce payment of the tribute, the refusal of which, in the very year of Hezekiah's accession, is perhaps another proof of a common feeling. Hoshea submitted and became tributary to Assyria. His second revolt is morally justified by patriotism; and even politically, the favorite test of success might not have been wanting, as we see in the case of Hezekiah. But, in the religious point of view, it was an utter wrong and failure. Had Hoshea made common cause with Hezekiah, and thrown himself on the protection of Jehovah, we have a right to believe that the times of David might have returned. But Hoshea took the very course denounced by the law of Moses—reliance upon Egypt. The long contest had begun between the sovereigns of Egypt and Western Asia for the frontier province of Palestine, and both had their partisans at the court of Samaria. The king of Egypt, who is called So in the Scripture narrative, was either Shebek I., the Sabaco of Herodotus, or his son Shebek II., the Sevechus of Manetho. He belonged to the warlike twenty-fifth (Ethiopian) dynasty, who opposed the progress of Assyria with all their force. Hoshea formed a secret league with him, and withheld the accustomed tribute from Shalmaneser; who, informed of the conspiracy, seized the king of Israel and shut him up in prison, where he was bound with fetters and treated with cruel indignity. His sudden destruction is compared by the prophet Hosea to the disappearance of the foam upon the water. The imprisonment of Hoshea clearly preceded the siege of Samaria: it may be that he was seized on a visit to Nineveh for the purpose of excusing his conduct. Shalmaneser then marched against Israel; and after overrunning the country, laid siege to Samaria in the seventh year of Hoshea, the fourth of Hezekiah (B.C. 723). Then followed one of those memorable defences, the despairing efforts of dying nations. We have no details of the siege; but Isaiah gives a glowing description of the mighty instrument of Jehovah smiting like a hailstorm the glorious beauty of the city, which towered on its hill like a crown of pride, the head of the fat valleys of the drunkards of Ephraim. Its strong position enabled the city to hold out for three years, during which we learn from the Assyrian monuments that Shalmaneser died and was succeeded by his son Sargon, a change not noticed in the Scripture narrative, which, after the first mention of Shalmaneser, only speaks of the "king of Assyria." The city was taken in the ninth year of Hoshea, the sixth of Hezekiah. Sargon himself records the capture of Samaria in the following terms; "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away." According to the Scripture narrative, he "carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and the cities of the Medes." This deportation of the people extended to Samaria and its dependent towns, a region small in comparison to the original kingdom of the ten tribes. The region east of Jordan had already been so treated by Tiglath-pileser, who had also carried away the northern tribes, but not to the same extent; for a remnant were left, who form the nucleus of the mixed population of the later Galilee. The cities in the south of Ephraim, which had been attached to Judah by conquest, or by the bond of religion under Hezekiah, probably shared the fortunes of the southern kingdom. P. S. The predictions of Amos and Hosea assigning the causes of the captivity of Israel convey in substance the great and comprehensive truths respecting God's dealing with man. As He deals with His own chosen people, so will He deal with men. The history of Israel is a history and illustration of the spirit and principles and methods of God's government on the earth. What God is, and what God will do in every juncture of human interests and affairs, and in connection with every form of human conduct, is here exemplified by actual events. And what man is, and what man will do in the face of multiplied marvels of God's bounty and grace and patience, is here amply disclosed in the deeds of successive generations. And to convey this knowledge to all the after generations, to impress upon us these supreme lessons for our use and eternal profit, is the one design of this Inspired Record! B. SAMARIA FINALLY TAKEN AND ISRAEL CARRIED TO ASSYRIA. REASONS ASSIGNED FOR THEIR CAPTIVITY. SAMARIA REPEOPLED BY ASSYRIAN COLONISTS. THEIR MIXED RELIGION. 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 18:9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria carried Israel away unto Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it. 17:7 And it was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made. And the children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up pillars and Asherim upon every high hill, and under every green tree: and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: and they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. Yet the LORD testified unto Israel, and unto Judah, by the hand of every prophet, and of every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like to the neck of their fathers, who believed not in the LORD their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them that they should not do like them. And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he spake by the hand of all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria, unto this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the LORD, and made unto them from among themselves priests of the high places, 33 which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been 34 carried away. Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; 35 with whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear 36 other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them: But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and unto him shall ye bow yourselves, and to him shall ye sacrifice: 37 and the statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote 38 for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods: and the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods: 39 but the LORD your God shall ye fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your 40, 41 enemies. Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day. 2 Kings 17 : 6 ; 18 : 9-11. THIS occurred in the ninth year of Hoshea, the nineteenth and last king of Israel in a period of two hundred and fifty-four years. The division of Solomon's kingdom occurred 975 B.C. The final captivity of Israel took place 721 B.C. (or, 718). The other kingdom (of Judah) lasted one hundred and thirty-five years longer, until 586 B.C. Then Judah was carried into the same region of country by the Babylonian power, which meanwhile had succeeded to the Assyrian. Probably upon the restoration of the Judahites, or Jews, after seventy years of captivity, a proportionate number of the northern kingdom (of the Ten Tribes) returned and became incorporated with their brethren of Judah. Now, however, Sargon transported the most energetic and useful among the people of Israel into his own domain, that he might be the gainer by their skill and toil, and save the trouble and expense of conquering them again. With settlers from Assyria he replaced the removed Israelites from Samaria. This policy was repeated by Esarhaddon, who substituted other Assyrians for the remnant of efficient Israelites. These Eastern strangers gradually affiliated with the remaining Israelites, and the population thus resulting took the name of Samaritans, from the rebuilt city of Samaria. B. Hoshea, who obtained the throne by conspiring against and slaying Pekah, and who, according to 2 K. 17 : 2, was comparatively a better king, became tributary to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, but sought, by concluding an alliance with So, king of Egypt (the Sabakön of Herodotus), to release himself from this dependence. Shalmaneser, who was then occupied in Hither Asia, immediately marched into the land of Israel. Hoshea, after being, as it seems, summoned to the Assyrian camp to account for his conduct, was imprisoned, and Samaria attacked. But an heroic resistance must have been made in this as in all the deadly struggles of the Israelites; for it was not till after a three years' siege that it was taken, and "the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim trodden under foot" (Isa. 28 : 3), not, as is now settled by the cuneiform inscriptions, by Shalmaneser, but by his successor, Sargon, mentioned in Isa. 20 : 1. The people were led into captivity 720 B.C., and thus was the judgment accomplished. The dwelling-places assigned to the exiles were situated in Media and the upper provinces of Assyria (verse 6). It has been already remarked that the continued existence of the Ten Tribes during the subsequent centuries is attested by 1 Chron. 5 : 26, "unto this day," and Josephus (Ant. xi. 5, 2); their restoration is also expressly foretold by the prophets. Oehler. The recently exhumed monuments of Assyria illustrate in a remarkable manner the minute accuracy of the sacred narrative. It has just been stated (verse 5) that Shalmaneser (the fourth of that name), king of Assyria, came up against Hoshea. But though Shalmaneser commenced the siege of Samaria, he did not complete his work. That was done by his usurping successor, Sargon. The siege began in the fourth year of Shalmaneser's reign, and lasted till his sixth, which was his last; for in that year the usurper Sargon seized the throne, and continued his predecessor's campaigns against Samaria and Tyre. In his inscriptions, he claims the conquest of Samaria as an event in the first year of his reign. We may note the careful accuracy of the writer of Kings, who says (18 : 10) Shalmaneser besieged Samaria, and that at the end of three years they took it. Sargon further tells us, in his cylinder, that he deprived Samaria of its partial independence, and appointed an Assyrian governor over it, further punishing it by carrying off 27,280 of the inhabitants, and imposing on the impoverished remainder the same tax to which the city had been liable before its revolt. Sargon also states that, six years afterward, "he subdued the uncultivated plains of South Arabia, which had never before given tribute to Assyria," and carried captive some of the Thermodites (a well-known Arab tribe), and settled them in Samaria. Hence came Geshem and the Arabians whom Nehemiah mentions among the Samaritan opponents of the rebuilding of the temple. The Sacred History tells us that the Assyrian king placed the captives in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan (or, rather, "on the Habor, the river of Gozan"), and in the cities of the Medes. Halah (or Chālach, as it would be pronounced) has been identified by Layard with a remarkable mound marking an ancient city, and called Gla, in the great plains of the Khabour (= Habor), a western affluent of the Euphrates, often mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, which waters the wide district of Gozan, the Gauzanitis of the Greeks. The cities of the Medes (or, as the Septuagint reads, the mountains of the Medes) refer to the wild highland region, east of the Tigris, north of the Persian Gulf. This region the records of Sargon tell us he overran, and annexed it to Assyria; and "changed the abodes" of his subjects, planting conquered Ashdod in the extreme west of his new empire with captives from Media. Thus he made room for the Israelites, whom he transplanted to the extreme east of his newest conquest. We may note also that he tells us that in his second year he took Hamath, the capital of the Hittites in northern Syria; and after separating from the spoil two hundred chariots and six hundred horsemen as his royal portion, he transported the remainder of the inhabitants to other regions; and his captives from the east, "in the midst of Hamath I settled them," while the Book of Kings tells us that Samaria was resettled by men, among others, from Hamath. Tristram. The comparatively small number of Israelites who were carried into captivity shows that Sargon contented himself with removing only those persons and their families who had taken part in the revolt against him; in fact, Samaria was treated pretty much as Jerusalem was by Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Jehoiachin. The greater part of the old population was allowed to remain in its native land. This fact disposes of the modern theories which assume that the whole of the Ten Tribes were carried away. Sayce. The seed of Jacob, whose history we have heretofore followed in the land of Canaan, were now dispersed in four or five different countries. Assyria, Media, Chaldea, Egypt, and Palestine contained each a section of the chosen people. The prophecy of Moses, uttered eight or nine hundred years before, received its first, but not its only fulfilment; on account of their sins and provocations, the chosen people, whom God loved so well, were scattered among the heathen. Though a few of the captive Israelites remained in Nineveh, the greater part were placed in the province of Media. Media lay to the east of Assyria. Its aspect was wild and mountainous; thus forming a great contrast to the flat plains of Assyria and Mesopotamia. Its northern boundary was formed by the great chain of mountains that spread out on either side from Ararat, and that sometimes rise to heights that are almost lost to view in the skies. It is a singular fact that the Israelites were thus brought back to the neighborhood of the first settlements of the human race. Some of them would drink from rivers cooled by the snows of Ararat. W. G. B. Thus ended the kingdom of Israel, after a duration of just two hundred and fifty-five years, under nineteen kings and seven dynasties, not reckoning among the latter the ephemeral usurpations of Zimri and Shallum. The last two of these dynasties perished with their founders, Pekah and Hoshea: three, those of Jeroboam, Baasha, and Menahem, had two kings each; the house of Omri numbered four kings in three generations; Jehu's, the longest of all, reigned for five generations from father to son, and all its kings died a natural death except the last, Zechariah. Of the other kings, only Jeroboam I., Baasha, Omri, Ahaziah, and Menahem had the same lot; the rest were slain by traitors or in battle, or died in captivity. Their character was even worse than their fate. Not one in the whole list is commended either for morality or piety; all were idolaters, and traitors to Jehovah. Even the zeal of Jehu ended in idol worship, and the patriotism of Hoshea was marred by disloyalty to God. The sacred historian concludes their history with an impressive and affecting summary of their sins, in which they were followed by Judah, provoking the anger of Jehovah till "He removed them out of His sight." First, "there was none left but the tribe of Judah only;" but their sins had already caused Jehovah to "rend Israel from the house of David;" and at last "Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel." But not till He had given them abundant invitations to return to God by the long line of prophets, the preachers of repentance and reformation. Besides the many whose names are too often forgotten because their writings are not extant, Elijah and Elisha shine amid the darkest night of Israel's idolatry; Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, seals his testimony against the apostasy of Judah with his martyrdom; and the century before the fall of Samaria is glorified by the names of Jonah, Amos, and Hosea in Israel, and Joel, Isaiah, and Micah in Judah. P. S. EXTINCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, CAUSED SOLELY BY THE NATION'S WILFUL REJECTION OF GOD'S COVENANT MERCY, AND OPEN, FLAGRANT, AND PROLONGED DISOBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS. # Verses 7-23. Here the writer ceases to be the mere historian, and becomes the religious teacher and prophet, drawing out the lessons of history and justifying the ways of God to man. As Bähr says, he "does not carry on the narrative as taken from the original authorities, but himself here begins a review of the history and fate of Israel, which ends with verse 23, and forms an independent section by itself." The section divides itself into four portions: (1) From verse 7 to verse 12, a general statement of Israel's wickedness; (2) from verse 13 to verse 15, a special aggravation of their guilt—viz., their rejection of prophets; (3) verses 16 and 17 contain a specification of their chief acts of sin; and (4) from verse 18 to verse 23, a general summary, including some words of warning to Judah. Hammond.—The Bible does not simply relate, but draws aside the veil and shows us the innermost springs of God's providence, and how they work. It teaches us to understand the deepest causes of the rise and fall of nations. The causes it insists on are not economical, or political, or intellectual, but religious, and its lessons are for all time. We may say of this survey of Israel's history—these things "are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor. 10:11). J. O. The brevity of the account of the fall of Samaria contrasts with the long enumeration of the sins which caused it. Modern critics assume that verses 7-23 are "an interpolation by the Deuteronomic writer," apparently for no reason but because they trace Israel's fall to its cause in idolatry. But surely the bare notice in verse 6, immediately followed by verse 24, cannot have been all that the original historian had to say about so tragic an end of so large a part of the people of God. The whole purpose of the Old Testament history is not to chronicle events, but to declare God's dealings, and the fall of a kingdom was of little moment, except as revealing the righteousness of God. These verses, closely looked at, disclose a very striking progress of thought. In the centre stands verse 13, telling of the mission of the prophets. Before it, verses 7-12 narrate Israel's sin, which culminates in provoking the Lord to anger (verse 11). After it, the sins are reiterated with noticeable increase of emphasis, and again culminate in provoking the Lord to anger (verse 17). So we have two degrees of guilt—one before and one after the prophet's messages; and two kindlings of God's anger—one which led to the sending of the prophets, and one which led to the destruction of Israel. A. M. Scarcely on any other occasion does the sacred writer allow himself reflections of this kind. But they are appropriate, and almost needful, at the close of a history which relates events in their bearing on the kingdom of God, and views Israel as a nation called to be the servants and the messengers of the Lord. They explain the inner meaning of God's dealings in the past, and the deeper causes of a rejection and an exile which cannot end till Israel and Judah, no longer hostile nor separate, shall in one common repentance turn to seek Jehovah their God and the Son of David their King. A. E. 7-17. God's judgment upon Israel vindicated. The lessons of the history rehearsed in summary. In the same plain, dispassionate style which marks all the inspired writers, this one, at a time and place most appropriate and called for, records what God had done for Israel, what He asked of Israel, and how Israel had treated His favors and requests. He had, first of all, delivered them from the galling and debasing servitude of Egypt and the Pharaohs. He had assigned to their possession the finest territory of the East. From this, their land, He had cast out heathen nations. Singling out the people from all others, He had exercised a peculiar personal rule and care over them. Entering into a special personal covenant, he had given specific principles and detailed rules by which they might easily secure all the blessings and promises of His covenant. Thus it would seem that God had done everything he could to attract their confidence, to win their affection, and secure their grateful obedience. But "so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God." They worshipped other gods, which He had expressly forbidden. They carried out the idolatrous customs and practices ordained by heathen nations, in place of the prescribed ceremonials of His worship. They preferred to obey the decrees of kings "which they had made," rather than the rightful commands of the supreme Jehovah. They overlaid the worship and the commands of God with pretences and perversions (verse 9), impiously attempting to mix the false and specious with the true and Divine, and so obscuring the nature and the words, the ways and works of God. "They built high places" or idolatrous shrines (verse 10) in every hamlet, town, and city. They set up idols in every hill, and established their abominable worship in every grove. Like the heathen nations, whom they knew that God had condemned and punished for this very thing, they burned incense and wrought exceeding wickedness. In all this they knowingly provoked God to anger, for He had said, "Ye shall not do this thing." But even this was not all. When, under Jeroboam and Ahab, they had thus trampled on God's covenant and authority by shameless and defiant service of idols, God had still forborne with them. To the laws and counsels long before given through Moses and Samuel, He adds the direct and special testimony of Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and other prophets and seers. The burden of this testimony, clearly authenticated by miracles, was simply a reminder His statutes and an entreaty to keep them. Yet they neither heard nor heeded. They would not hear. Like stubborn oxen, though themselves reasoning creatures with a conscience, they made their necks stiff, and would not submit to the easy yoke of Divine love. Openly they rejected His statutes, wilfully they repelled His covenant, defiantly they scorned His warnings and entreaties. They became assimilated to the idols they worshipped. As these were vanity or nothingness, so they lost all force of character, all power to know and do that which was right and advantageous. In this senseless impotence of soul, the indictment declares in summing up the various forms of idolatry, they made and bowed down before molten calves, they established secret orgies in the groves, they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, and the planets, and they served Baal. It further particularizes their burning of children in sacrifice to the fire god, and (from the connection here and elsewhere with Moloch) their horrid use of these human victims as means of divination, or methods of foretelling future events. By these impious and inhuman practices, long wilfully maintained, they "sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger." B. 7. The first characteristic of Israel's sin was ungrateful departure from God. There is a world of pathos and meaning in that "their God," which is enhanced by the allusion to the Egyptian deliverance. All sins are attempts to break the chain that binds us to God—a chain woven of a thousand linked benefits. All practically deny His possession of us, and ours of Him, and display the short memory which ingratitude has. All have that other feature hinted at here—the contrast, so absurd if it were not so sad, between the worth and power of the God who is left and the other gods who are preferred. The essential meanness and folly of Israel is repeated by every heart departing from the living God. 9. Here the charge is of covering idolatry with a cloak of Jehovah worship. A varnish of religion is convenient and cheap, and often effectual in deceiving ourselves as well as others; but "as he thinketh in his heart, so is he," whatever his cloak may be; and the thing which we count most precious and long most for is our God, whatever our professions of orthodox religion. 10-12. The idolatry is then described, in rapid touches, as universal. Wherever there was a solitary watchman's tower among the pastures was a high place, and they were reared in every city. Images and Asherim deformed every hill-top and stood under every spreading tree. Everywhere incense loaded the heavy air with its foul fragrance. The old scenes of unnamable abomination, which had been so terribly avenged, seemed to have come back, and to cry aloud for another purging by fire and sword. The terrible upshot of all was "to provoke the Lord to anger." The New Testament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting that there is the capacity of anger in the God whose name is love, and that sin calls it forth. The special characteristic of sin, by which it thus attracts that lightning, is that it is disobedience. As in the first sin, so in all others, God has said, "Ye shall not do this thing;" and we say, "Do it we will." What can the end of that be but the anger of the Lord? "Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." A. M. 13. God had never left Himself without living witness. Besides the written testimony of the law, He had sent them a continuous series of prophets, who "repeated and enforced the teaching of the law by word of mouth, breathing into the old words a new life, applying them to the facts of their own times, urging them on the consciences of their hearers, and authoritatively declaring to them that the terrible threatenings of the law were directed against the very sins which they habitually practised." The sin of Israel would not perhaps have been quite "without remedy" had they not for so long a time turned a deaf ear to the warnings and exhortations of the prophets, and persisting in their disobedience, their wickedness, their greed, their cruelty, their besotted idolatry, despite the scathing denunciations, the tender pleadings, the wise counsels, almost uninterruptedly addressed to them. "Stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears" (Acts 7: 51), they "resisted the Holy Ghost;" and their doom had to be pronounced. Hammond. 14,15. The heavier sin followed the Divine pleading. That Divine voice leaves no man as it finds him. If it does not sway him to obedience, it deepens his guilt, and makes him more obstinate. Like some perverse ox in the yoke, he stiffens his neck, and stands the very picture of brute obduracy. There is an awful alternative involved in our hearing of God's message, which never returns to Him void, but ever does something to the hearer, either softening or hardening, either scaling the eyes or adding another film on them, either being the savor of life unto life or of death unto death. The missions of the prophets changed forgetfulness of God's "statutes" into "rejection" of them, and made idolatry self-conscious rebellion. Alas! that men should make what is meant to be a bond to unite them to God into a wedge to part them further from him. But how constantly that is the effect of the Gospel, and for the same reason as in Israel, that they "did not believe in the Lord their God." A. M. 18. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.** The "tribe of Judah" stands for the kingdom of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, into which the greater part of Dan and Simeon had also been absorbed. This became now exclusively God's "peculiar people," the object of His love and of His care. 19. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God.** The sharp contrast which the writer has drawn between Israel and Judah in verse 18 reminds him that the difference was only for a time. Judah followed in Israel's sins, and ultimately shared in her punishment. This verse and the next are parenthetic. 20. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel. God is no respecter of persons. As He had rejected the Ten Tribes on account of certain transgressions, which have been enumerated (verses 8-17), so, when Judah committed the self-same sins, and transgressed equally, Judah had equally to be rejected. "All the seed of Israel" is the entire nation—Israel in the widest sense, made up of Judah and of Israel in the narrow sense. And afflicted them**—by the hands of Sargon, and Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon (2 Chron. 33: 11), and Pharaoh-Nechoh, and others. 21. For he rent; rather, for he had rent. The nexus of the verse is with verse 18. The difference between the fates of Israel and Judah—the survival of Judah for a hundred and thirty-four years—is traced back to the separation under Rehoboam, and to the wicked policy which Jeroboam then pursued, and left as a legacy to his successors. Hammond.—Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord.** The strong expression "drave Israel" is an allusion to the violent measures where Jeroboam had recourse in order to stop the efflux into Judea of the more religious portion of his subjects (2 Chron. 11: 13-16), the calling in of Shishak, and the permanent assumption of a hostile attitude toward the southern kingdom. B. C. 23. In judgment against their determined wickedness God returns them to bondage, from which He had originally rescued them. Patiently He had endured their ingratitude and evil ways for many hundred years. Every possible means he had employed with the Ten Tribes during their separate existence as a nation. But their kings were all idolatrous and wicked rulers. And the mass of the people gave themselves up to impiety and the most flagrant immoralities. "Therefore the Lord removed Israel out of His sight," out of the land which He had hallowed by His special indwelling, out of the land where He had established His covenant and worship, where He had revealed His word by prophets and teachers. As a distinct people, they were dispersed among heathen nations. Not only the entire history of the Israelites from the Exodus, but emphatically the history of the separate kingdom of Israel, is full of vital instruction. Nowhere else stands so sharply revealed the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the natural heart of man. Nowhere else do we derive so deep an impression of the strength and tenacity of God's love to sinners. Yet, while plainly revealing the fact that judgment is God's "strange work," it as plainly shows that His long-suffering and forbearance can be overcome by the sinner's determination in disobedience and evil-doing. It proves that even the patience of God has a limit and an end. Though sentence against the evil-worker be long delayed, it will at last be surely executed. His threatenings, like His promises, never fail of accomplishment. He will destroy the wilfully impenitent soul in his sins. B. Let it be remembered this doom of national destruction had been predicted long before, even by Moses (Lev. 26 and De. 28), and this prediction the Lord through His prophets missed no good opportunity to reaffirm. Note also that whereas, under the national policy of Jeroboam, they had in the outset severed themselves from the Mosaic institutions, especially the temple worship and the national festivals—a step which seemed to Jeroboam a necessity of their separate national existence—the Lord graciously sought to supply this lack by a specially vigorous development of religious agency through the prophets. It was sustained remarkably by miracle, as we have seen particularly in the case of Elijah and Elisha; also by wonderful interpositions of God by means of drought and famine; also by various national events—wars, deliverances. To all this we must add the labors of those prophets who wrote their messages and scattered them among the people. Of these, we have among the northern tribes Hosea and Amos certainly; and Micah seems to have some reference to this kingdom. It was only after all these efforts had proved unavailing that the Lord at length gave them up—Hosea indicates in more passages than one with what wonderful tenderness of emotion and after what touching admonitions and warnings. It was through his lips and pen that the Lord said, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within Me; My repentings are kindled together" (Hos. 11: 8). The fall of the northern kingdom was purposely made admonitory to the southern. It could not be otherwise than a solemn warning to Judah. We cannot say definitely how powerful the influence of this final fall and captivity of Samaria was upon the people of Judah in promoting the great reform wrought by Hezekiah. This reform he commenced in his first year, six years before the final conquest; but continued it with efforts more or less vigorous throughout his reign of twenty-nine years. Consequently, under the "logic of events" the great fact was bearing upon his people of God's exterminating judgments upon that apostate nation. It was of yet more value to them because its date (after this great reform commenced) gave them the opportunity to invite their brethren of the north to come in and join them in this general turning to the Lord. In our study of that reform we shall see how intimately they must have become acquainted with the religious state of the northern kingdom; how clearly they must have seen and felt their fearful apostasy from God, and the incorrigible hardness of the masses; and how powerfully this must have augmented the moral effect of that terrific judgment, which, almost before this great reform had culminated, became a fearful fact before their eyes. After the fall of the northern kingdom prophets became more conspicuous in Judah. Released from service in the north, they concentrated their labors upon the only remaining kingdom, uniting in one grand effort to save Judah from the same threatening doom. We meet no further notice of the prophet-colleges at Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho. They may or they may not have continued in operation. Those localities were not remote from Jerusalem, but no historic allusions to their work or even to their existence have come down to us. H. C. # Verses 24-41. The writer, before dismissing the subject of the Israelite kingdom, proceeds to inform us of certain results of the conquest. Having removed the bulk of the native inhabitants, the Assyrians did not allow the country to lie waste, but proceeded to replace the population which they had carried off by settlers from other localities (verse 24). These settlers were, after a short time, incommoded by lions, which increased upon them and diminished their numbers (verse 25). The idea arose that the visitation was supernatural, and might be traced to the fact that the new-comers, not knowing "the manner of the God of the land," displeased Him by the neglect of His rites or by the introduction of alien worship (verse 26). A remedy for this was sought in the sending to them from Assyria one of the priests who had been carried off, from whom it was thought they might learn how "the God of the land" was to be propitiated. This was the origin of the "mixed religion" which grew up in the country. While the nations who had replaced the Israelites brought in their own superstitions, and severally worshipped their own gods (verses 30, 31), there was a general acknowledgment of Jehovah by all of them, and a continuance of Jehovistic worship in the various high places. The nations both "feared the Lord, and served their graven images," down to the time when the writer of Kings composed his work (verses 33-41). 24. And placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. Transplantation of nations, commenced by Tiglath-pileser, was practised on a still larger scale by Sargon. 25. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord. They were ignorant, that is, of Jehovah, and paid Him no religious regard. They brought with them their own forms of heathenism (see verses 30, 31). Hammond. 28. Taught them how they should fear the Lord. It must not be supposed that the priest sent to the colonists was a true Jehovah-priest, who instructed them in the pure worship of God. The whole context makes it clear that He was one of those who had been attached to the calf worship at one of the two national shrines—probably at Bethel. Hence, He would be willing to wink at the mixed religion, which a true Jehovah-priest would have unsparingly condemned. B. C.—The priest selected by Sargon's advisers was a Bethelite priest, and, returning thither, took up the worship familiar to him. This worship could only be that of the calf-priests instituted by Jeroboam, which was, however, most certainly a worship of Jehovah, and an imitation or travesty of the temple worship at Jerusalem. 32. So they feared the Lord—rather, and they (also) honored Jehovah—i.e., with their idolatrous worship they combined also the worship of Jehovah (cf. verse 28)—and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places—i.e., followed the example of Jeroboam in taking for priests persons of all ranks, even the lowest. 33. They feared the Lord, and served their own gods. This syncretism, this mixed religion, is so surprising to the writer, and so abhorrent to his religious sentiments, that he cannot but dwell upon it, not shrinking from repeating himself (see verses 32, 33, 41), in order to arrest the reader's attention, and point out to him the folly and absurdity of such conduct. The practice was still going on in his own day (verses 34, 41), and may have had attractions for the descendants of the small Israelite population which had been left in the land. The new immigrants "feared Jehovah" in a certain sense—i.e., externally. They admitted Him into their pantheon, and had ritual observances in His honor. But they did not really fear Him in their hearts. Had they done so, they would have inquired what were His laws, statutes, and ordinances, and would have set themselves to obey them. This they did not think of doing. 40. Howbeit they did not hearken. The mixed race, with their mixed religion, though professing to be worshippers of Jehovah, paid no attention to the warnings and threatenings of the law (verse 34), which were to them a dead letter. But they did after their former manner—i.e., they continued to maintain the syncretism described in verses 28-33. 41. So these nations—i.e., the Babylonians, Cuthæans, Hamathites, Avites, and Sepharivites settled in Samaria—feared the Lord, and served their graven images. Hammond. We have, in the New Testament, a very distinct picture of the relations existing between the Jews and the Samaritans in the time of Jesus. How did these relations originate? In other words, how did the Samaritans come to be the people they were? Two elements enter into the answer of this question, one or the other of which is apt to be neglected, in the answers that are commonly given. First, Sargon and the Assyrian kings who followed him largely repeopled the regions around Samaria with inhabitants who were not Israelite in race or religion, but who superstitiously adopted something of the worship of Jehovah, as the local god of the region, in addition to the religion they brought with them from their former seats (2 K. 17, etc.). They had a centre of worship for Jehovah in Bethel (17:28). When the Jews returned from the exile under Zerubbabel and Jeshua, being in high favor with the Persian king, these Samaritan worshippers of Jehovah were disposed to make common cause with them, and be regarded as of the same religion. When the Jews refused their overtures they became hostile. This state of things seems to have been kept up through the century and more that intervened between the first year of Cyrus and the close of the twelve years of the first administration of Nehemiah. But there was a second element, without which these people would never have become the Samaritans of the New Testament. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah disclose the existence of sharp differences of opinion and practice among the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from the Exile, and their descendants. On the one hand, large numbers were disposed to intermarry and affiliate with their Samaritan, Moabite and Ammonite neighbors; and, on the other hand, Ezra and Nehemiah and those who held with them were determined to break up these practices, and to preserve Israel separate from the other peoples. Among their opponents were men of high rank, including priests and Levites; even Eliashib, the high-priest, was implicated. The last verses of Nehemiah indicate that this contest reached its crisis while Nehemiah was yet governor. One of the grandsons or great-grandsons of Eliashib married a girl of the family of Sanballat, and Nehemiah banished him. The Bible does not tell us what became of him, but we find reason for holding that he became high-priest at Mount Gerizim, and that, with his banishment, the contest between the two parties at Jerusalem virtually, at least, became a schism; those who sided against Nehemiah drawing off, becoming permanently affiliated with the people of Samaria, modifying their Judaism accordingly, and thus producing the new form of religion known as Samaritanism. It may have taken a generation or more for the new movement to assume its distinctive form. W. J. B. The captivities which befell the kingdom of Israel are recorded in 2 K. 15 : 29 ; 17 : 6 ; 18 : 11, and 1 Chron. 5 : 26. These records speak of two deportations of the people of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes—the first at the hand of Pul (or Tiglath-pileser II.); and the second at that of Sargon, after the taking of Samaria. The first affected Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh—i.e., the Israelites of the Gilead, or the region beyond the Jordan—and also the Israelites of the Galilee region—i.e., Naphtali, Asher, Zebulun, and Issachar. The second is described as befalling the kingdom as a whole, after the taking of Samaria; but it seems to have fallen especially upon the tribes of Dan, Ephraim, the other half of Manasseh, and the Israelitish portion of Benjamin. These tribes coincide as to their areas with the later province of Samaria. The return from the Babylonish captivity, which we find described in Ezra and Nehemiah, was of the Jews of the southern kingdom, which, although generally described as consisting of two tribes, really included Judah, Levi, what was left of Simeon, and a large part of Benjamin. We hear nothing, in either the Bible or parallel sources, of the return of Israelites from the more northern region, to which the Assyrians carried them captive, although some think it not improbable that part of them did come back with the returning people of Judah. Thus far we have the facts. But as to the inferences which have been drawn from these facts, there is no agreement. The open questions are as follows: 1. Did the Assyrian captivity of Israel mean the deportation of the bulk of the people beyond the Tigris, or only that of the heads of society? 2. Did the Israelites who were carried captive lose their identity among their heathen neighbors, or did they maintain it by emigrating to a more remote country, or are they to be sought in the general body of Hebrews we afterward find in the region between the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea? The generally accepted answer to these questions is that the Ten Tribes were carried captive as a whole, leaving a mere fragment in numbers as well as in importance in the land of Israel; that the captives were lost to their nation, possibly, by absorption, but more probably by both migration and absorption; that the Jews of later times, with some exceptions, are the descendants of the people of Judah; that the identity of the posterity of the Ten Tribes is one of the unsolved problems of historic ethnology. On this basis of supposition have been built a multitude of theories, of which the identification of the Israelites with our North American Indians has furnished the basis for the historical romance called "The Book of Mormon." The Afghans, the Falashas of Abyssinia, the Bani-Israel of Bombay, the Jews of China, and the Mexicans, have each in turn been identified with the Ten Tribes. Last of all comes the Anglo-Israel theory, which identifies them with the Anglo-Saxon race, and sees in the extent and influence of the British Empire an accomplishment of the prophecies made to Israel. To me it seems that the supposition of the loss of the Ten Tribes is a mistake, and one which cannot be reconciled with the teachings of either the Old or the New Testament. The Jews of to-day are the descendants of all the tribes, who were settled in the Holy Land in Joshua's time; and while there were some losses through absorption into pagan nationalities—Syrian, Arabic, Hellenic, and Roman—and still more through conversions to Christianity and to Islam, the integrity of the nation has not been impaired by them. It probably has gained more than it lost, through absorbing Edomites, Moabites, and the peoples settled in the Holy Land after the captivities, by the proselytism of Roman times, and by the great conversion of the Khozars of what now is Southern Russia in the Middle Ages. 1. It is a mistake to assume that any of the four captivities meant the deportation of a whole people. That would have been an undertaking too great for even a Nebuchadnezzar. Nor is such a deportation really implied in the biblical statements, as is seen when we compare one part of the record with another. Thus we read in 2 K. 15:29 and in 1 Chron. 5:26 of the captivity of the seven tribes of the Galilean and Perean regions in terms which, if taken to the foot of the letter, would mean that all the population was carried off. Yet in 2 Chron. 30:1-13 we find Hezekiah sending out his messengers "to Ephraim and Manasseh," and "throughout all Israel, even from Dan to Beersheba," to invite the "children of Israel" to keep the great passover with him at Jerusalem. He speaks to them as "the remnant that are escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria," and beseeches them to turn to God, that their brethren and children may "find compassion before them that led them captive." While most of those who heard the message only mocked at it, "divers of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." And this minority of "the remnant" of these three tribes made with the people of Judah "a very great congregation." It was their presence that moved Isaiah to the outburst of thankful song over the latter-day glory conferred upon "the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali," in which one ground of exultation is, "Thou hast multiplied the nation; thou hast increased their joy" (Isa. 9:1-3). I may remark here that the Hebrew word shaar, translated "remnant," does not necessarily mean a mere fragment, but simply that which is left when something else has been taken away, whether what has been taken is more or less than what is left. So, again, we find Ezekiel, who was taken captive in the first Babylonish captivity, writing to those who inhabited "those waste places of the land of Israel," and who were accustomed to say: "Abraham was one, and he inherited the land; but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance." The message God sends them through His prophet is one of rebuke for their sins and impurities, and a threat of further desolation of Israel: "The pride of her power shall cease." Thus Scripture explains Scripture; and so do the monuments in the same sense. In 2 K. 17:6; 18:11 we have the statement that the Assyrians "took Samaria and carried Israel away unto Assyria." Sargon's account of the matter shows exactly what this means: "The city of Samaria I besieged; it I took; 27,280 of its inhabitants I carried away; fifty wagons I took from them; their other possessions I suffered to be taken [by the soldiers]; my lieutenant I placed over them; the tribute of the previous king I imposed upon them." This exact statement shows how little of a clean sweep was made; and we have no reason to suppose that the previous deportation of the Perean and Galilean tribes was on a greater scale than this, which carried away but 27,280 persons from the Samarian tribes. At most it was a deportation of the heads of society, and the whole number taken from the northern kingdom cannot have been much over sixty thousand people. This left a great body, who, in the theocratic sense, were a headless "remnant," but, in the view of modern statistics, were the bulk of the Israelitish nation. "The most numerous class—i.e., the poorest," to use the language of modern sociology, was left in possession. 2. It is not agreed whether the Israelite captives were all transferred to Media, or part of them settled in the Assyrian plain. From the time of the Babylonian Talmud doctors have disputed as to the location of "Halah, Habor, the river Gozan, and Are-Madai (translated "the cities of the Medes"). The best Talmudic authority places Halah at Holvan, whose Jews paid tribute to the Prince of the Exile, the ruler of the Jews of Babylon; Habor at Hadyab in Adiabene, the seat of a Jewish school and the scene of the conversion of Queen Helena to Judaism; Gozan at Guinzak, whose Jews in the second century were so ignorant that they knew nothing of the Flood or of Job; and Are-Madai at Hamadan or Ecbatana, the capital of Media. What is there to forbid our identification of the Jews at these well-known centres of Jewish population and worship with the descendants of the Israelitish exiles whom Tiglath-pileser II. placed there? Chiefly a Jewish tradition that, instead of remaining where they were placed, they chose to migrate farther from their own country. In fact, from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea every province had its Jewish population. Some considerable cities were entirely in their hands. While Babylon, no doubt, was the centre of the dispersed of Judah, there is no reason to suppose that the Jews in these other provinces were not descendants of Israelitish as well as Judean captives. The farther north and east we go in that region, the stronger is the presumption that the Jewish population comes, at least in part, from the northern kingdom. When we turn to the New Testament, we find not a hint of the loss of the Ten Tribes from the rest. Our Lord is born and labors among the people of the region which suffered by the first deportation of Israelites to Assyria, and whom even the Judeans owned as their countrymen. From this region came all His apostles except Judas Iscariot, who was a Judean. Choice is made of twelve apostles for the establishment of the Church, with distinct reference to the number of the tribes among whom they are to labor (Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:30). At the day of Pentecost we find Peter making his appeal to "all the house of Israel;" and "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites" from the regions of the Assyrian captivity are the very first mentioned as hearers of the wonderful word of power; after them come "the dwellers in Mesopotamia," the region of the Babylonish captivity. Paul speaks to Agrippa of "the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to come." James addresses his Epistle "to the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion." John in the Revelation witnesses the sealing of twelve thousand of each of the twelve tribes, only Dan being omitted, while Levi is included in the number. In many places throughout that book "twelve" is used with mystic reference to Jewish history. Still more noticeable is the silence of the New Testament. We may infer that this notion of a loss of ten tribes had no recognition in the New Testament age from the fact that it never is alleged by any one in arguing with the Jews. Our Lord might well have used it in His warnings to the Jews that mere descent from Abraham would not stand in the way of the rejection of an unbelieving people (John 8), from whom the kingdom would be taken away and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof (Matt. 21:43). Stephen might well have urged it on his murderers as right in the line of his great argument from the past of the nation. Paul might have used it with telling effect in the ninth chapter of Romans, in the third of Galatians, and other passages. But not one of them refers to this alleged fact of the loss of the greater part of the elect people from the national fellowship. The belief in the loss of the Ten Tribes out of the body of the Hebrews, and their present existence in some part of the world, may be traced, I think, to the general acceptance of certain "travellers' tales" in the medieval literature of the Jews. A careful account of this curious romancing is given by Dr. A. Neubauer in the Jewish Quarterly Review for 1888-89. R. E. Thompson. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, he departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; whithersoever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. son of Jehallelel : and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah : 13 and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel : and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and 14 Mattaniah : and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei : and of the sons of Jeduthun, 15 Shemaiah and Uzziel. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD, to cleanse 16 the house of the LORD. And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanliness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to 17 the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD ; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days : and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an 18 end. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the 19 table of shewbread, with all the vessels thereof. Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified ; and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD. 20 Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up 21 to the house of the LORD. And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he-goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the 22 LORD. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar : and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood upon the altar : they killed also 23 the lambs, and sprinkled the blood upon the altar. And they brought near the he-goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation ; and they laid their hands upon 24 them : and the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood upon the altar, to make atonement for all Israel : for the king commanded that the burnt offering and 25 the sin offering should be made for all Israel. And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet : for the commandment was of the LORD 26 by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with 27 the trumpets. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also, and the trumpets, together 28 with the instruments of David king of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpets sounded ; all this continued until the burnt offering was 29 finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present 30 with him bowed themselves and worshipped. Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. 31 Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings ; and as many as were of a willing 32 heart brought burnt offerings. And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congrega- tion brought, was therefore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs : 33 all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. And the consecrated things were six hun- 34 dred oxen and three thousand sheep. But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings : wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves : for the Levites were more up- 35 right in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for every burnt 36 offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that which God had prepared for the people : for the thing was done suddenly. 30 : 1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover 2 unto the LORD, the God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all 3 the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient num- 4 ber, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing was 5 right in the eyes of the king and of all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem : for they had not kept 6 it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that are escaped of you out of the hand 7 of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, 8 as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were ; but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve the LORD 9 your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that led them cap- tive, and shall come again into this land : for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, 10 and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they 11 laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and 12 of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. Also in Judah was the hand of 13 God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the 14 word of the LORD. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of 15 unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. And they arose and 16 took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, 17 and cast them into the brook Kidron. Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day 18 of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified them- 19 selves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD. And they stood in their 20 place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled 21 the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites. For there were many in the con- 22 gregation that had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of killing 23 the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the LORD. For a 24 multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had 25 not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it is written. For 26 Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one that setterth his 27 heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to 28 the purification of the sanctuary. And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the 29 people. And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleav- 30 end bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD 31 day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD. And Hezekiah spake comfort- 32 ably unto all the Levites that were well skilled in the service of the LORD. So they did eat 33 throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making 34 confession to the LORD, the God of their fathers. And the whole congregation took counsel 35 to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness. For Hezekiah 36 king of Judah did give to the congregation for offerings a thousand bullocks and seven 37 thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten 38 thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. And all the congre- 39 gation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of 40 Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, re- 41 joked. So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David 42 king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests the Levites arose and 43 blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habita- 44 tion, even unto heaven. 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities 45 of Judah, and brake in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and brake down the 46 high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, 47 until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his 48 possession, into their own cities. And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and 49 the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the priests and the 50 Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to 51 praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD. He appointed also the king's portion of his 52 substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and 53 the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is 54 written in the law of the LORD. Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusa- 55 lem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the 56 law of the LORD. And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave 57 in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the 58 field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And the children of Israel 59 and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and 60 sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, 61 and laid them by heaps. In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, 62 and finished them in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the princes came and 63 saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned 64 with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest, of the 65 house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since the people began to bring the oblations into 66 the house of the LORD, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for the LORD 67 hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store. Then Hezekiah com- 68 manded to prepare chambers in the house of the LORD; and they prepared them. And they 69 brought in the oblations and the tithe and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them 70 Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second. And Jehiel, and 71 Azariah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, 72 and Mahath, and Beniah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his 74 brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. 75 And Kote the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter at the east gate, was over the freewill 76 offerings of God, to distribute the oblations of the LORD, and the most holy things. And 77 under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in 78 the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brethren by courses, as well to the 79 great as to the small: beside them that were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three 80 years old and upward, even every one that entered into the house of the LORD, as the duty 17 of every day required, for their service in their charges according to their courses; and them that were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses; and them that were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their set office they sanctified themselves in holiness: also for the sons of Aaron the priests, which were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every several city, there were men that were expressed by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all that were reckoned by genealogy among the Levites. And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered. (For Dates, see Section 3, page 51.) Hezekiah's Accession Year. The first of his twenty-nine years: (1) 2 K. 16: 2, 20; 17: 1; 18: 1, 2, sixteenth of Ahaz, following the third of Hoshea; (2) 1 Chron. 5: 26; 2 K. 15: 29; 17: 3; 2 Chron. 30: 6-9, relations of Israel to Assyria, at the time; (3) 2 K. 16: 8, 10; 18: 7, relations of Judah to Assyria; (4) 2 Chron. 28: 18, to Philistia; (5) 2 Chron. 28: 19; 29: 8, 9, condition of Judah (captivity, not exile). His First Year (not counted as in 2 K., but beginning the new year after his accession—the fifth of Hoshea). (1) 2 K. 18: 3-6, etc., religious policy of Hezekiah; (2) 17: 2, religious policy of Hoshea; (3) 2 K. 16: 10, 14-18; 2 Chron. 28: 21, 24; 29: 3, 5, 7, 16, 19, condition of the temple; (4) 2 Chron. 29: 3-36, cleansing of the temple; (5) 2 Chron. 30, the great passover, the second month; (6) 31: 1, breaking down the altars of false worship in Ephraim, Manasseh, etc.; (7) 2 Chron. 31, provisions for the service at Jerusalem; 31: 7, third to seventh month. Hezekiah's Prosperity. (1) Rebellion against Assyria, 18: 7; (2) smiting of Philistines, 18: 8; (3) his riches and power, 2 Chron. 31: 20, 21; 32: 27-29; 2 K. 20: 13; (4) connected with the rebellion of Hezekiah, Hoshea's refusal of tribute, and sending messengers to So, 2 K. 17: 4; (5) connected with this, the breaking of the rod that smote "Philistia, all of it," Isa. 14: 28, 29. Up to Hezekiah's Fourth Year, 2 K. 17: 4; the king of Assyria imprisons Hoshea for refusing tribute, etc. Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Years of Hezekiah. 2 K. 17: 18: 9-12, the siege and overthrow of Samaria. Hezekiah's Illness, 2 K. 20: 1-11; Isa. 38. (1) 2 K. 18: 13, 2; 20: 6, the date of it; (2) 2 K. 20: 1-7, the prayer and healing; (3) 20: 6, the promise of deliverance from Assyria; (4) 2 K. 20: 8-11, the shadow on the dial; (5) Isa. 38: 9-20, Hezekiah's "writing." Hezekiah and Merodach-baladan, 2 K. 20: 12-19; Isa. 39. Sennacherib's Great Invasion. (1) 2 Chron. 32: 1, 2, his coming; (2) 2 Chron. 32: 3, 4, 30; 2 K. 20: 20, Hezekiah's waterworks; (3) 2 Chron. 32: 5-8, his other arrangements for defence; (4) 2 Chron. 32: 9-15; 2 K. 18: 17-35; Isa. 36: 2-20, Sennacherib's message from Lachish; (5) 2 K. 18: 36-19: 7, resulting acts of the officers, the king, and Isaiah, noting especially the form of the promise (verse 7); (6) 19: 8, 9, Tirhakah; (7) 2 Chron. 32: 16, 17, 13, 14; 2 K. 19: 9-13, Sennacherib's written messages; (8) 2 Chron. 32: 20, 19; 2 K. 19: 14-34, the prayer over these messages, and its answer; (9) 19: 35-37; 2 Chron. 32: 21, Jehovah's vengeance on Sennacherib. Death of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 32: 32, 33; 2 K. 20: 20, 21. The biblical literature connected with this reign is not limited to the accounts contained in the historical books, but includes also many of the prophecies of Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum, some Psalms, and the last chapters of Proverbs. The known Assyrian literature for this period is even more voluminous than the biblical; and, at some points, quite as full in its details of Palestinian history. In a very large number of instances the two literatures mention or allude to the same persons, events, or customs. W. J. B. 2. Chron. 29.** The history of Hezekiah's reign, which is here commenced, and carried through four chapters, stands in marked contrast with the corresponding portion of Kings (2 K. 18-20). While the writer of Kings fixes his eye mainly on civil affairs—on the two invasions of Sennacherib and on the embassy of Merodach-baladan, which he relates at length, passing lightly and hastily over Hezekiah's religious reformation (chap 18: 4-7), the author of Chronicles sets himself to give a full account of this latter, which he does in three chapters (29-31), compressing into the compass of one (chap. 32) the whole that he has to say of the civil history of the reign. Thus chaps. 29-31 of 2 Chron. contain matter which is almost wholly new; while chap. 32 is little more than a brief summary of what the writer of Kings has related fully in the three chapters which he has devoted to this reign. B. C. 29:1, 2. Duration and character of Hezekiah's reign. It began when he was five and twenty years old, and continued twenty-nine years. It would seem that a good mother had counteracted the evil influence of a bad father, in the formation of the character of Hezekiah. Her name is given, and her parentage. Zechariah, her father or grandfather, may have been the "faithful witness" of Isaiah (13:2). In his character, Hezekiah stands with David and Josiah. These were counted the perfect kings, and furnished the standard models by which other kings were estimated. He did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah. He blended a thorough affection with a thorough devotion to Jehovah, and to the interests of His worship and His authority over the people. And this fidelity to Jehovah in His worship and authority furnishes the great test by which the character of the kings, both of Israel and Judah, is estimated. Here we find a supreme principle, applicable to all judgments of human character. Every one stands or falls by this test. Every one who rightly worships and truly obeys God possesses a character that is acceptable in His sight. B. Hezekiah, the thirteenth king of Judah, succeeded his father Ahaz in the third year of Hoshea, the nineteenth and last king of Israel. In the very first year, perhaps, of his reign, he began the reformation of religion by reopening and repairing the doors of the Temple, which had been closed by Ahaz. His character is marked by the commendation which has not been repeated since Jehoshaphat, "He did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done." P. S. Of all the monarchs who ruled over the kingdom of Judah after its separation from Israel, Hezekiah is the most remarkable, and the interest which attaches to the history of the separate kingdom culminates in him. He was a statesman, a warrior, a poet, an antiquarian, an engineer, and the leader of a most important religious movement. Judea in his clay seemed to be at the point of dissolution; it was to him that she owed a recovery, which gave her a fresh lease of life, and enabled her to outlive her sister kingdom by nearly a century and a half. Hezekiah's political position when he ascended the throne was that of a tributary to Assyria. His father's voluntary compact with Tiglath-pileser (2 K. 16:7) involved his own subjection; and nothing could set him free from this obligation, or restore his country to independence, but an open and avowed revolt. To this height of audacity he does not seem to have lifted himself at once. It rather appears that he paid his tribute, as it became due, regularly, both to Shalmaneser and to Sargon, deferring his open rebellion to the time of Sennacherib, Sargon's son and successor. Meanwhile, all the energies of his powerful and active mind were devoted to the internal condition of his country, and especially to the removal of those impious innovations which his father, Ahaz, had introduced into the arrangements of the Temple, and into the religious ceremonial generally, to the rooting out of idolatry, and to the re-establishment of the religion of Jehovah in its pristine purity and splendor. G. R. 2. K. 18:6. He clave to the Lord.** Other good kings had fallen away in their later years. Hezekiah remained firm to the last. The phrase "cleaving to God" is frequent in Deuteronomy, rare elsewhere. 7. The Lord was with him.** This had been said of no king since David (2 Sam. 5:10), not even of Solomon, of whom we are only told that the "wisdom of God was in him" (1 K. 3:28). The phrase is very emphatic. B. C. —Hezekiah trusted in the Lord; he clave to the Lord; he departed not from following Him; he kept His commandments as given to Moses. Trust, fidelity, obedience, and perseverance—in all these were his distinctive characteristics. Some kings had trusted, but not with so entire a heart; some had been obedient, but not so fully; some had been faithful for a time, but had failed to persevere. Hezekiah had the better record. God puts special honor on whole-hearted service. We are to see, however, that, exceptional as his goodness was, Hezekiah was not perfect. He had his sins, his failures too. The intention of the text is not to represent him as sinless, but only as pre-eminently great and good. J. O. 2. Chron. 29:3-5.** His first good work, the reopening and cleansing of the Temple, and the re-establishment of the priesthood and their ministry in it. This was commenced at the very outset of his reign. His first thought was of the worship of God, and his first purpose and effort was the restoration of that worship. The closed doors of the Sacred Porch were opened and repaired. The priests and Levites to whom was committed the care and the service of the Temple were gathered together from the various portions of the land. First, Hezekiah bade them "sanctify" themselves, and then to cleanse the house of the Lord. We may remind our readers that the priests were descendants of the family of Aaron, and were among the Levites, or descendants of Levi. The priests were charged with the religious ministries of the Temple: the offering of sacrifices, and the burning of incense. The Levites aided the priests in their preparatory work. They also formed the great choir of singers, and fulfilled the functions of gatekeepers and guards of the Temple. Like the priests, they were a carefully educated class, and aided in the instruction of the people. The sanctification referred to here included a ceremonial washing with water, as well as a cleansing with sacrificial blood. It was applied to the vessels, the floor, and the walls of the building, after the accumulations of dust, and possibly of remaining idolatrous objects, had been removed. B. We can never begin good things too early, and when we come into new positions, it is easier to take the right standing at first than to shift to it afterward. Hezekiah might have been excused if he had thought that the wretched state of political affairs left by Ahaz needed his first attention. Edomites on the east, Philistines on the west and south, Syrians and Assyrians on the north, compassed him about like bees, and worldly prudence would have said, "Look after these enemies to-day, and the Temple to-morrow." He was wiser than that, knowing that these were effects of the religious corruption, and so he went at that first. A. M. 6-9. The exceeding guilt of their fathers, and how God had punished it. It was Ahaz and the people of the preceding reign whom Hezekiah charged with this impious trespass against God. The particulars of his charge are instructive. They had done evil in God's sight by wilfully forsaking Him, and insultingly turning the back upon Him. They had barred up the doors of His sanctuary, after extinguishing its lights. And above all, they had despised the sacrifice and the incense, the double offering which symbolized the atonement for sin, and the intercession for the sinner. In a word they had closed the Temple doors, they had banished the Temple servitors, they had deliberately rejected the divinely appointed means of approach to Jehovah, and virtually outlawed God from His own house and His own supreme right over them. To this apostasy from God as its sufficient cause, Hezekiah ascribed all the sufferings of the people and the calamities that had befallen the kingdom. Invasions of other nations, resulting in the draining of resources, the laying waste of cities, the destruction of life, the breaking up of families, and the immense numbers taken captive—all these humiliating and calamitous consequences they had witnessed. And the king declares that these events were the manifest tokens of the wrath of God upon Judah and Jerusalem. In these He has only fulfilled the threatening side of His ancient covenant with His people. 10, 11. Hezekiah's purposed Covenant with God, and his charge to the ministers of the Temple. He would restore prosperity by renewing the fulfilment of the conditions of God's mercy contained in His covenant. He declares this his purpose to the priests and Levites, in order that they might unite with him in its execution. This declaration was the more needful to the priests and the people because it involved an utter reversal of his father's policy. It indicated a new and lofty aim as characterizing the reign that was now commenced. There was courage as well as faith in God evinced by Hezekiah in this announcement and its subsequent execution. A point of practical suggestion is here presented. In the beginning of every great life-change, and frequently in the progress of the ordinary spiritual life, courage as well as faith is essential in the taking and the keeping of a stand for God and truth. The king's address indicates his kingly spirit. Though but a young man he addresses these older and more experienced men as children. He charges them in a tone of authority and tenderness to make faithful efforts to fulfil the ministry now assigned them. And he reminds them of their own special appointment of God to stand in His presence, and to serve Him by the offering of sacrifice, incense and praise. Let them unite with him in the great preparatory work by which Jehovah should be brought back to His Temple and prosperity restored to His people. . . . A practical suggestion. Since all believers are priests under the Christian system, all are needed in the ministry of truth among men, in order to the bringing of God's presence and His blessing upon men. B. Hezekiah was in earnest, and his resolve was none the less right because it was moved by a desire to turn away the fierce anger of the Lord. Dread of sin's consequences and a desire to escape these is no unworthy motive, however some superfine moralists nowadays may call it so. It is becoming unfashionable to preach "the terror of the Lord." The more is the pity, and the less is the likelihood of persuading men. But, however excited, the firm determination (which does not wait for others to concur) that "as for me, I will serve the Lord," is the grand thing for us all to imitate. A. M. 17. The work of purification began on the first day of the first month, immediately after Hezekiah called the priests and Levites together and addressed them (verses 3-11). It commenced with the repair of the doors (verse 3), with the self-purification of the collected priests and Levites (verse 15), and probably with the cleansing of the courts. This occupied eight days. By the close of the eighth day they had reached the porch of the Temple. It took them then eight days to cleanse the Temple itself, and, consequently, the whole work was not finished till the sixteenth day. 24. To make an atonement for all Israel.** The words "all Israel"—twice repeated in this verse—appear to be emphatic. Hezekiah aimed at reuniting once more the whole people of Israel, if not into a single state, yet, at any rate, into a single religious communion. The northern kingdom was in a condition approaching to anarchy. Since the downfall of the house of Jehu a succession of usurpers had borne rule for short terms. Four Assyrian invasions had swept over the country within the space of thirty-five years. The Syrian kingdom, hitherto a barrier against the Assyrian power, had been absorbed, and Samaria had been laid completely open to the assaults of her great adversary. The end was evidently approaching. Hoshea, the king contemporary with Hezekiah (2 K. 18:1), ruled, not as an independent monarch, but as an Assyrian feudatory (ibid. 17:3). Under these circumstances Hezekiah designed to invite the revolted tribes to return, if not to their old temporal, at least to their old spiritual allegiance. (See chap. 30:5-10.) In order, therefore, to prepare the way for this return, he included "all Israel" in the expiatory sacrifice, by which he prefaced his restoration of the old worship. 27. Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering.** All had hitherto been preparatory. Now Hezekiah gave orders that "the burnt offering"—i.e., the daily morning sacrifice—should be offered upon the brazen altar in front of the porch, thus restoring and reinstituting the regular Temple service. A burst of music gave notice to the people of the moment when the old worship recommenced. B. C. When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also. The lesson is clear. We all want happiness—that our joy may be full. But we cannot have it by aiming at it directly. Begin to sacrifice, to give to God what you really value; say, "I will not offer unto the Lord my God that which doth cost me nothing." Give your money, interest, time, effort. Copy the example of Him who "went about doing good," and "pleased not Himself." Try to make lives brighter, homes happier, business more pure. Take up the cross. Then this bit of Old World history shall record your experience: "When the burnt offering began, then the song of the Lord began also"—a song which grew louder and mightier as the sacrifice went on, and never ended until the sacrifice itself came to an end. J. Ogle.—The words, however strangely they sound at first, are literally true as the history of many a man's life. From the moment that it began to live for other people, the nature which had no song in it before became jubilant with music. The soul that trifles and toys with self-sacrifice never can get its true joy and power. Only the soul that, with an overwhelming impulse and a perfect trust, gives itself up forever to the life of other men, finds the delight and peace which such complete self-surrender has to give. There is another reason why it would seem to be absolutely necessary that man should have the power of finding pleasure in his self-sacrifices, in the actual fulfilment of his completed tasks, the actual doing of the necessary duties of his life, and that is found in the fact that joy or delight in what we are doing is not a mere luxury; it is a means, a help, for the more perfect doing of our work. Joy in one's work is the consummate tool without which the work may be done indeed, but without which the work will always be done slowly, clumsily, and without its finest perfectness. The man who really lives in the world of Christ's redemption claims his self-sacrifices. He goes up to his martyrdom with a song. To live in this world and do nothing for one's own spiritual self, or for fellow-man, or for God is a terrible thing. There is no happy life except in self-consecration. Phillips Brooks. 2. Chron., Chap. 30.** The central fact of this portion of Hezekiah's history is the celebration of the first Passover; and the most touching portion of the history we find in the letters of the king, sent throughout all Israel as well as Judah, inviting the return of all the people of God remaining in the entire land to the service of Jehovah. B. 30:1. Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh. The "Ephraim and Manasseh" of the second clause must be taken as equivalent to the "all Israel" of the first; since it is evident that the letters were sent to the remoter tribes as well as to the nearer ones. (See verses 10 and 11.) 2. In the second month.** The law allowed individuals to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, instead of the fourteenth day of the first, in case of absence on a journey or temporary defilement (Num. 9:10, 11). Hezekiah and his counsellors considered that this permission might, under the circumstances, be extended to the whole people. It had been found impossible to complete the cleansing of the Temple till the fourteenth day of the first month was past (chap. 29:17); and even then the purification of the priests was far from complete (ibid., 34); moreover, if the Passover had been held at once, few, comparatively speaking, would have been gathered to it. It was, therefore, determined to defer it to the 14th of the second month, which allowed time for the priests generally to purify themselves, and for proclamation of the festival to be made throughout all Israel. B. C. 5. Proclamation throughout all Israel.** We may reasonably suppose that this took place with the consent of Hoshea, king of Israel; for he has the best character given of him of all the kings of Israel; and, though "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 K. 17:2), yet it is added in the next words, "but not as the kings of Israel that were before him;" which probably implies that he did not prevent his subjects from attending their Divine worship at Jerusalem, as other kings had done. Wells. 8. Yield yourselves unto the Lord.** Before you can come into communion with Him you must come into covenant with Him." Give the hand to the Lord; so the word is—i.e., "Consent to take Him for your God:" a bargain is confirmed by giving the hand: "Strike this bargain. Join yourselves to Him in an everlasting covenant. Subscribe with the hand to be His. Give Him your hand in token of giving Him your heart; devote yourselves to His service, to work for Him. Yield to Him—i.e., "Come to His terms; come under His government; stand it not out any longer against Him. Yield to Him, to be absolutely and universally at His command, at His disposal; to be and do and have and suffer whatever He pleases. In order to this, be not stiff necked as your fathers were; let not your wicked wills rise up in rebellion against the will of God. Say not that you will do what you please, but resolve to do what He pleases." H. 10-13. The response made to this appeal was not very hearty nor very general; but still the appeal succeeded to a certain extent. As Hezekiah's messengers "passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun," they were for the most part treated with derision—the people "laughed them to scorn, and mocked them" (verse 10); but, nevertheless, there were "divers of Asher and of Manasseh and of Zebulun" (verse 11), and likewise of "Ephraim and Issachar" (verse 18)—amounting altogether to "a great multitude" (ibid.), who "humbled themselves," and accepted the royal invitation, and "came to Jerusalem" (verse 11). In Judah all were of "one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes," and there "assembled much people to keep the feast . . . a very great congregation" (verses 12, 13). G. R. 15. The symbolic character of the Passover revealed the heart of God in all the riches of its love. It proclaimed, in the most graphic way, the great fundamental truth, that, boundless as God's willingness is to save sinners, yet salvation can only rest upon the firm foundation of perfect righteousness. There can be no manifestation of love at the cost of justice and holiness. The Passover was a sacrifice. God expressly called it by that name (Ex. 12:27). It was a bloody sacrifice, in which the blood occupied not a secondary, but the very first place; it was the conditio sine qua non of the redemption. Whatever may have been the spiritual privileges which Israel possessed as God's chosen people, none of these could have saved them from the sword of the angel of death. It is difficult to conceive how the truth that without sacrificial blood there is no salvation could have been proclaimed more emphatically. This was the manifestation of the great truth of God's eternal and unchangeable justice. But, at the same time, there was as emphatic a manifestation of God's eternal and unchangeable love to His people. It was not their blood which God desired to see. He provided another blood to be shed in the place of theirs. This fact could not fail to set the spiritually minded a-thinking seriously over grave questions. That the blood of lambs could not save indeed must have been perceived by such men as David and Isaiah. They must have been looking out for a Lamb which God Himself was to provide. At length this Lamb appeared in the flesh. And with a shout of joyful surprise John cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." J. de Liefde. 17. There were many in the congregation that were not sanctified.** Who these were is explained in the next verse. The greater number of the Israelites who had come to keep the feast were involved in some ceremonial or moral defilement, from which there was no time for them to purify themselves. As the Passover was being held in the second month, and there could consequently be no "little Passover" for these (see Num. 9:6-12), Hezekiah decided that they should be admitted to the feast, notwithstanding their legal uncleanness (see verse 19). But, on account of this uncleanness, they were not to slay their own lambs, but to delegate the office to the Levites. B. C. 18. Hezekiah's prayer to God for the forgiveness of this irregularity. It was his zeal that had called them together in such haste, and he would not that any should fare the worse for being straitened of time in their preparation; he therefore thought himself concerned to be an intercessor for those that ate the passover otherwise than it was written, that there might not be wrath upon them from the Lord. His prayer was short but to the purpose. The good Lord pardon every one in the congregation that has fixed, engaged or prepared his heart to those services, though the ceremonial preparation be wanting. The great thing required in our attendance upon God in solemn ordinances, is, that we prepare our hearts to seek Him; that we be sincere and upright in all we do, that the inward man be engaged and employed in it, and that we make heart work of it; it is all nothing without this. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part. H. If we were to analyze the influences that blended in this great religious movement, we might say—the ritual services of sacrifices, altars, Temple, were present in their full strength; perhaps the stronger for having been long remitted. Coupled with those were the outpouring of song; the teaching of the good knowledge of the Lord; the social power of an immense congregation; the services protracted till the hearts of the people were profoundly impressed; and not least, the immediate historic antecedents—that fearful scourging of war and captivity which had sent death into so many households, and borne away so many loved ones into a captivity from which nothing but national repentance could move the Almighty to restore them. Nor let us forget the influence of the noble king, leading on with his whole heart; consecrating treasure without stint, and promptly foremost in every point where his hand could touch the springs of a great movement. All in all it was a scene of moral sublimity rarely equalled. 31. When this great Passover scene was finished, the people were in heart prepared for one more service imperatively demanded—viz., the destruction of idol-images, altars and groves throughout all the cities and high places of both Judah and Israel. That they should go forth en masse throughout Judah on this mission was to be expected. Such a reformation would have been wretchedly superficial and shallow without it. But that they should have gone forth over all the kingdom of Hoshea as if there were no such king there; that they should go where they would with no apparent resistance—this is truly a wonderful proof of the zealous enthusiasm and of the moral power of this great reformation. Recalling to mind the fact that this great revival and this breaking down of idols in the northern kingdom preceded the invasion under Shalmaneser by only three years, and the total destruction of Samaria and the entire northern kingdom by not more than six years, we shall see reason to regard this as not only God's last call of mercy to thousands in the northern kingdom, but as His grand providential agency for sifting out His own chosen ones; gathering in all whom the most efficient agency could avail to save before the final storm should sweep the nation forever into ruin. H. C. 2. K. 18:4. The brazen serpent that Moses had made. On the making of this serpent, see Num. 21:9. Its history from the time when it was set up to the date of Hezekiah's reformation is a blank. Some suppose that it had always been preserved in the tabernacle, and had been brought by Solomon from Gibeon and placed in the Temple. The present passage favors this supposition; for it implies a long-continued worship of the serpent by the Israelites generally, and not a mere recent worship of it by the Jews. The children of Israel did burn incense to it.** We need not suppose that this idolatry, though ancient and long continued, was more than occasional. The remembrance of the old cures wrought might induce those bitten by venomous reptiles to seek help in this quarter. A leaning to ophiolatry, such as is found widely spread through the East, may have led others to turn their devotion hitherward. B. C. This serpent, which was appointed for cure to Israel, at last stings them to death by idolatrous abuse. What poison there is in idolatry, that makes even antidotes deadly! As Moses therefore raised the serpent, so Hezekiah pulled it down: God commanded the raising of it, God approved the demolishing of it. Superstitious use can mar the very institutions of God; how much more the most wise and well-grounded devices of men! Bp. H.—That image of brass, instead of rendering an important spiritual service, became the occasion of idolatrous homage. Instead of leading the thoughts of men's minds to God, it drew them from Him; and instead of reverencing Him, they worshipped it. So the brave and wise king, daring all reproach and rejecting all half measures, brake it up before the eyes of the people, and, in the act of destruction, called it "Nehushtan"—i.e., a bit of brass. This he did that he might impress on their minds, by word as well as deed, that this image, which they had turned into an idol, was nothing but a piece of workmanship, made of man's hands, and to be unmade of him at his will. The principle which lies at the root of this somewhat daring and very decisive act, is this—that no good thing, however good it be, must be allowed to come between our souls and God, to rob Him of His service; that, if anything does so come, a strong hand must be used, if need be, a destructive one—to take it away; or, to put the truth in a more positive form, that whatever means we use for worship or instruction must not be turned into an end, but must be resolutely and determinedly employed as a means to bring the mind into the presence of God's truth and the heart into communion with Himself. W. Clarkson. To the description of the reformation inaugurated by the piety of Hezekiah, it seems desirable to add some further particulars, either illustrative of the text or derived from other notices in Holy Scripture. As regards the trustworthiness of the account of the sacrificial worship in the restored Temple—that it was not of later invention, and designed to bear out the priestly institutions first enforced in the time of Ezra—we have to point to the important fact that the number of sacrifices and sin offerings in the time of Hezekiah notably differs from that at the dedication of the Temple in the time of Ezra (cf. 2 Chron. 29: 21, 32 with Ezra 6: 17). This, considering especially the symbolism of numbers, shows that the one account could not have been framed upon the other. It follows that the Mosaic institutions must have existed in and before the time of Hezekiah, and could not, as a certain school of critics contends, have originated with the priesthood at a much later period. Indeed, as we follow the present line of argument by a comparison of the services in the time of Hezekiah with the Mosaic institutions to which they bear reference, the conviction grows upon us not only of the existence of the latter, but of their general acknowledgment, since, keeping in view the circumstances of the previous reign, it is impossible to suppose that all this could have been "invented" in the first year of Hezekiah's reign. And as connected with this we mark that not only were the liturgical services conformed to a previous model—the Davidic—but that the hymns chanted were in "the words of David and of Asaph the seer" (2 Chron. 29: 30). This seems not only to imply the existence at the time of Davidic and Asaphite Psalms—the absence of any mention of other Psalm collections here deserving special notice—but even to indicate some orderly collection of these Psalms in books. In short, it casts light on the beginning of the present arrangement of the Psalter in five books. It may well have been that, subject to later revision, the former collection of Psalms consisting, roughly speaking, of the two first books of Psalms (now Ps. 1-41; 42-72), was now enriched by the addition of a further collection—roughly speaking, the present third Book of Psalms (Ps. 73-89), which in its present form begins with an Asaphite Psalm (Ps. 73), and has in succession eleven Psalms of the same authorship (Ps. 73-83). But whatever our view, or more accurately our conjectures, on this subject, there cannot at least be doubt that Hezekiah actively busied himself, under competent guidance, with the collection and arrangement of the existing sacred literature of Israel. This is expressly mentioned as regards a part of "the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah collected." A. E. The narrative before us illustrates the fact that when God converts men from amid surroundings of great depravity, He often has some great and signal service for them to do for Him. Such was the case with King Hezekiah. God summoned him to the reformation of a kingdom. He trained him for it by permitting him to see the guilt and the ruin of his father's reign. When the critical time came, He lifted him out of the slough of iniquity, and made him one of the signal examples of a godly prince, whose name should give lustre to the Jewish throne forever after. The work of King Hezekiah illustrates the moral power of one man in effecting a great work to which God has called him. From the narrative in the lesson it appears that the reformation of the kingdom was at first the idea of Hezekiah alone. "It is in my heart," he says, "to make a covenant with the Lord." The movement grew up silently in his own heart. God and he planned it alone. Probably he had been brooding over it and praying over it for years. Men do not spring into such honor at a bound. At last he was the soul of the reform. The idea was his; the measures were his; the execution was his. So it often is in other great works of God. Some one man heads it; puts his soul into it; gives his life to it; rouses other men, and energizes them in it. There is almost no limit to the power of a live man called of God to a great life's work. Other men fall back to the right and to the left, and let such a man go up the highway of the King, while they fall in at the rear and acknowledge His lead. Phelps. # REIGN OF HEZEKIAH (Continued). HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY. HIS PSALM OF GRATITUDE. EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN. HEZEKIAH'S SIN AND ISAIAH'S PREDICTION OF PUNISHMENT. 2. K. 18:13. "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah." This note of time, which places the invasion of Sennacherib eight years only after the capture of Samaria, is hopelessly at variance with the Assyrian dates for the two events, the first of which falls into the first of Sargon, and the second into the fourth of Sennacherib, twenty-one years later. We have therefore to choose between an entire rejection of the Assyrian chronological data, preserved to our times in the original contemporary documents, and confirmed in numerous minute points by the Canon of Ptolemy, and an emendation of the present passage. The knot may be cut by a substitution of "seven and twentieth" for "fourteenth" in the present passage. B. C.—The evidence in support of this solution is clearly given in the following historical detail by Canon Rawlinson. B. 13-16. The Assyrian annals place the accession of Sennacherib in the seventeenth year after the capture of Samaria by Sargon, which was the twenty-third year of Hezekiah. He was the eldest son of Sargon, and succeeded his father, without interregnum or difficulty, in the summer of B.C. 705. He calls himself "the great king, the powerful king, the king of the Assyrians, of the nations, of the four regions, the diligent ruler, the favorite of the great gods, the observer of sworn faith, the guardian of law, the establisher of monuments, the noble hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the punisher of unbelievers, the destroyer of wicked men." He was mighty both in war and peace. No more energetic soldier ever commanded an army eager for battle; no more vigorous administrator ever commanded the resources of a vast empire. Sennacherib, on mounting the throne, found the condition of affairs in Babylonia more critical, and more requiring his immediate presence, than those of any other portion of his dominions. Merodach-Baladan, who had been driven from Babylon by Sargon, had returned thither as soon as Sargon was dead, and had succeeded in establishing himself as king for a second time. Sennacherib was engaged for some years in recovering Babylonia to the Assyrian Empire, and it was not till his fourth year, B.C. 701, that he was able to turn his attention to the western provinces, and set himself to the task of placing matters there on a satisfactory footing. He found that on all sides intrigues were afoot to organize a powerful combination against Assyrian influence in southwestern Asia. Phoenicia under Eluleus, king of Sidon, Judea under Hezekiah, Philistia under Zidqa, king of Ascalon, and Egypt under Tirhakah, who held his court at Meroe, were banded together, and bent on checking Assyrian progress by all the means in their power. But in most of the States there appear to have been divided counsels, two parties, one for submission, the other for resistance; one leaning on Egypt, the other anxious to make the best terms possible with Assyria. Unwisdom and unreality, as was natural, showed themselves. No general union of the confederates took place. Sennacherib was allowed to fall upon his adversaries separately, and crush them one by one. In the spring of n.c. 701 he marched his troops into Syria, and directing his attack upon Phoenicia first of all, proceeded to take "Great Sidon, the lesser Sidon, Sarepta, Hosah, Ecdippa, Accho," and other towns, forcing Elulæus to flee before him, and establishing in his place another king. Thence he marched southward, along the coast, to Ascalon, taking Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak, and Azor upon his way, and compelled Ascalon to submit, and receive another monarch instead of Zidqa. Tirhakah had by this time sent an army to assist his confederates. This force Sennacherib fell in with at Eltekon, and completely defeated, or (as he says) "accomplished its overthrow." He next reduced Ekron; and having thus carried all before him, and left Hezekiah without an ally, he, last of all, turned upon Judea. With an army of, probably, at least two hundred thousand men, he swept over the land, especially on the west and on the south, ravaging the territory, besieging and taking the fortified places, and gathering spoil and captives at every step. His own account of his invasion is the following: "Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the might of my power I took forty-six of his strong-fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, with the marching of a host and surrounding of a multitude, with attack of ranks, and force of battering-rams, and mining and missiles, I besieged and captured a countless number. From these places I took and carried off 200,150 persons, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mules, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. Then upon this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem, with thirty talents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty. All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the city of my dominion, Hezekiah having sent them by way of tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power." The author of Kings compresses this history into verses 13-16. G. R. The entire passage in Chron. 32:1-8 is almost wholly supplementary, being concerned with the preparations made by Hezekiah for resistance, whereas in 2 Kings we are informed only of what he did when, after a time, he determined to make his submission. 2. Chron. 32:3-8.** Hezekiah had taken all the measures for his defence that circumstances permitted. He had "stopped the waters of the fountains which were without the city," concealing the sources and conducting the precious fluid to the reservoirs and conduits beneath the Holy City (Isa. 22:9, 11), thus at once improving his own supplies and straitening the enemy. He had "strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers," using as material the houses in the vicinity; and he had built "another wall without, and repaired Milo, and made darts and shields in abundance." He had also done his best to raise the spirits of the besieged by addressing them with words of encouragement. 8. With us is the Lord our God.** The faith which these words express would, one might have thought, not have wavered. But—alas! for human infirmity—we learn, both from Kings (2 K. 18:14) and from the inscriptions of Sennacherib, that within a little while this noble confidence died away, and was succeeded by despair and submission. Like Rehoboam, like Joash, Hezekiah was content to purchase his safety. The narrative of Kings tells us at what price (2 K. 18:15, 16). Hezekiah stripped the temple and emptied his treasures to obtain what proved a mere temporary relief. B. C. One of the most striking illustrations of Scripture, which the profane records of the world furnish, is that supplied by the earlier portion of the annals of Sennacherib in its bearing upon 2 K. 18:13-16; 2 Chron. 32:1-8; and Isa. 36:1. The agreement of these two narratives cannot but be admitted to be most striking. In both we have the same pair of adversaries, Tsin-akh-irib (Sankherib), king of Asshur, and Khizkiyahu, king of Judah; in both the Assyrian is the assailant; in both the first brunt of his attack falls upon the strong fenced cities of Judah, which are successively taken and plundered; in both he then proceeds against Jerusalem, where Hezekiah is for a time shut up, while the siege is pressed; in both after awhile submission is made, an embassy is sent, tribute is agreed on, and consists of a certain definite amount of each of the precious metals, gold and silver; in both the amount of the gold is identical. G. R. 2. Kings 18 : 17-37 ; 19 : 1-37. } Text almost Isaiah 36 : 2-22 ; 37 : 1-38. } identical. 2 Chronicles 32 : 9-23. The narrative includes the embassy of Rabshakeh and its effect in the message of Hezekiah to Isaiah, with Isaiah's brief response of encouragement; the letter of Sennacherib, with the prayer of Hezekiah and the response of Jehovah conveyed through Isaiah, announcing His purposed defence of Jerusalem; and the destruction of the Assyrian host and final departure and subsequent murder of Sennacherib. B. The impious, proud demand of Sennacherib for the surrender of Jerusalem. The Assyrian king while besieging the town of Lachish, distant forty miles southwest, sent three messengers, with a considerable force, to Jerusalem. In 2 K. 18 : 17, these persons are referred to under their official names: Tartan, or Commander; Rabsaris, the Court Chamberlain; and Rabshakeh, Chief Cup-bearer—the chief civil and military officers of the empire. Their mission was not a military one, but was designed to summon the king and the people to a complete surrender. The Assyrian officers were not admitted into the city, nor did the king himself go out to meet them. Instead of this he sent three of his chief officers, who, standing on the wall, received the message of the Assyrians. "The chief cup-bearer was the spokesman. He spoke in Hebrew. The Jewish chiefs entreated him to speak in his own Aramaic; but his purpose was directly to address the spectators as they sat on the houses along the city wall, and his speech breathes the spirit which pervades all the representations of Assyrian power" (Stanley). Egypt was the great enemy of Assyria, and had been for centuries. Assyria was the "north" kingdom, and Egypt the "south" of Daniel's prophecy. Judah was in alliance with Egypt. The first appeal of Rabshakeh referred to this alliance. His scornful question, "Whereon do ye trust?" had reference to the impotence of the Egyptian king to resist the inroad of Sennacherib. This might be well enough. But the messenger undertook to counteract the persuasions of Hezekiah, wherein the king had sought to lead his people to trust alone in God. The messenger aimed to stir afresh their prejudices against the king, who had destroyed the high places and altars where the people had been accustomed to worship. Not only did he strive to undermine the faith of the people in their king, and in Jehovah, but he impiously exalted the idol gods above Jehovah; nay, further, he expressly boasted that the power of Jehovah was not adequate to deliver them from the hand of Sennacherib. He placed this boast upon the ground that the gods of other nations had not been able to deliver them from the Assyrian power. Thus he compared Jehovah with other gods, and assumed that the gods of Assyria were mightier than Jehovah. The three messengers also sought to terrify the people on the wall, so that they might open the gates of the city to the Assyrian forces. B. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 2. K. 19:8-13.** The Rabshakeh returned from his bootless expedition to his master, leaving, as we suppose, his army before Jerusalem. He found Sennacherib not at Lachish, but at Libnah, to which he had retreated probably on hearing of the advance of Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia. As we have seen, Sennacherib gained indeed the victory of Altaku. But it was a virtual defeat, which, with the failure to gain possession of Jerusalem, determined the final retreat of Sennacherib from Palestine. His circumstances must have made him most anxious to obtain the surrender of the Judean capital. Accordingly, a second summons was despatched to demand it—probably before the battle of Altaku, although after the approach of the Ethiopian army. This second summons was embodied in a letter addressed to Hezekiah, and was in terms similar to those previously used, although it naturally contained no longer any reference to Egypt, and was also perhaps more directly challenging to the God of Israel. A. E. Sennacherib seems to have been induced to write to Hezekiah by the fact that he could not march against him at once. A forward movement on the part of Tirhakah was reported to him (verse 9), and he thought it necessary to meet, or at least watch it. He sends a letter, therefore, as more weighty and impressive than a mere message. He warns Hezekiah against being himself deceived by Jehovah (verse 10), and he expands his inductive argument in proof of the irresistible might of Assyria, by an enumeration of four more recent conquests (verse 12). Otherwise, he does little but repeat what Rabshakeh had already urged. Hammond. 9. Tirhakah was one of the most powerful monarchs of ancient times. According to Manetho, he was the last king of the twentyfifth Egyptian dynasty, which was an Ethiopian house. He ruled not only Upper Egypt (Thebais), but also Ethiopia. His name appears in hieroglyphic-phonetic characters in one of the temples of Egypt. This rumor of his approach (predicted in verse 7) startled Sennacherib. His first effort was to urge Hezekiah to surrender. He must have assumed that Hezekiah had not heard the news from Egypt. H. C. The history of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, receives illustration both from the monuments of Egypt and from those of Assyria. The monuments of Egypt place before us a king whom they call Tehrak, or Taharuka, at exactly the time when the Tirhakah of Scripture alarms Sennacherib. This monarch appears in the Egyptian records, first of all, as a hostile king of Ethiopia, whose power is unacknowledged in Egypt. Later he is found to have established his dominion over the lower country, and to be lord of the two Egypts, no less than of the Ethiopian highland. The point of time whereof the narrative of Isaiah belongs seems to be just when one of these two conditions was merging into the other. It does not appear that the two great rivals, Tirhakah and Sennacherib, ever came into contact. The miraculous destruction of the Assyrian host paralyzed the aggressor, and forced him to return hastily to his own land before his troops came into collision with those of his powerful antagonist. But that antagonist profited by his withdrawal. All the extant records show that Sennacherib's great failure was followed by the retirement of Assyria from the position of an assailant of Egypt; and that, as that country was too weak to stand alone, Ethiopia, in the absence of Assyria, obtained an undisputed supremacy. Hence the great name which Tirhakah obtained among the Greeks and Romans. The Assyrian records show us that the eminence of Tirhakah was maintained for nearly thirty years, and that it was only forfeited after a severe struggle with the Assyrians under Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib, who reduced all Egypt under his authority, and forced Tirhakah to retire upon Meroe, his capital. Egypt then passed under Assyria for a space of some two or three years (B.C. 671-669), during which period there was "a pathway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian came into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians served with the Assyrians" (Isa. 19: 23). Esarhaddon vaingloriously styled himself during these years "King of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Meroe, and Ethiopia." But even then the spirit of the great Ethiopian was not crushed. Tirhakah bided his time, and in B.C. 669, learning that the Assyrian monarch had fallen ill and partially abdicated his throne, he once more issued from his Ethiopian fastnesses, and burst upon the Nile valley with overwhelming force. Expelling the governors whom Esarhaddon had set up in the various towns, he established his court at Memphis, and reigned undisturbed for two (or perhaps three) years, Assyria making no effort against him. At length, however, in B.C. 667 (or 666), Sardanapalus (Assurbanipal), having succeeded his father, Esarhaddon, took in hand the recovery of Egypt, and in the course of a couple of years succeeded in re-establishing the Assyrian suzerainty. Tirhakah was once more compelled to fall back upon his native dominions, B.C. 665 (or 664); and his death happening about the same time, the Assyrian power was soon firmly established in Egypt, Ethiopian ascendancy was repressed, and henceforth no "king of Cush" was ever able to subject Egypt or even seriously trouble it. G. R. Hezekiah received the letter of the king of Assyria, and "went into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord." The prayer, which is given, is one of exceeding sublimity, simplicity, and directness. It recognizes the God dwelling between the cherubim as the only God of the kingdoms of earth, and the maker of heaven and earth. It beseeches Jehovah to hear the reproachful words of the Assyrian king. It appeals to God's own honor, puts the trust of himself and his people for deliverance alone in Jehovah; and asks that His interposition in saving Judah may be so signal, "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord God, even Thou only." The chronicler alone (verse 20) states that Isaiah, too, "prayed and cried to heaven." B. Do by thy slander as Hezekiah did by the railing lines of Rabshakeh. Spread them before the Lord, and leave thy quarrel in the just hands of that great Arbiter of heaven and earth, who will be sure in His good time to revenge thy wrong and to clear thine innocence, and will requite thee good for their causeless curses. Abp. Tillotson. Having heartened himself and pleaded with God by all these names, Hezekiah comes to his petition. It is but the putting into words of the symbol of spreading the letter before God. He asks God to behold and to hear the defiant words. Prayer tells God what it knows that He knows already, for it relieves the burdened heart to tell Him. It asks Him to see and hear what it knows that He does see and hear. But the prayer is not for mere observance followed by no Divine act, but for taking knowledge as the precursor of the appropriate help. Of such seeing and hearing believing prayer is the appointed condition. "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him;" but that is not a reason for silence, but for supplication. Hezekiah rightly regarded Sennacherib's words as meant to reproach the living God, for the point of the letter was to dissuade from trust in Him, as no more powerful than the petty deities of already conquered cities. The prayer, therefore, pleads that God would take care of His own honor, and, by delivering Jerusalem, show His sole sovereignty. It is a high and wonderful level for faith to reach, when it regards personal deliverance mainly in its aspect as vindicating God and warranting faith. It was noble that this man should have no word to say about self but "save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art God alone." Like him, we may each feel that our defence is more God's affair than ours, in proportion as we feel we are His rather than our own. That siege of Jerusalem was indeed as a duel between faith and unbelief, on the one hand, and between Jehovah and the gods who were "no gods" on the other. Sennacherib's letter was a defiant challenge to Jehovah to do His best for this people, and when faith repeated in prayer the insolence of unbelief only one result was possible. It came. A. M. Liberty of access to the throne of grace and liberty of speech there are the unspeakable privilege of the Lord's people at all times, especially in times of distress and danger. Hezekiah took Sennacherib's letter and spread it before the Lord, not designing to make any complaints against him but those grounded upon his own handwriting. Let the thing speak itself, here it is in black and white. Open thine eyes, O Lord, and see. God allows His praying people to be humbly free with Him, to utter all their words before Him, to spread the letter, whether of a friend or an enemy, before Him, and leave the contents, the concern of it, with Him. The great and fundamental principles of our religion, applied by faith and improved in prayer, will be of sovereign use to us in our particular exigencies and distresses, whatever they are; to them, therefore, we must have recourse, and abide by them; so Hezekiah did here. He encouraged himself with this, that the God of Israel is the Lord of hosts, of all hosts; of the hosts of Israel, to animate them; of the hosts of their enemies, to dispirit and restrain them; that he is God alone, and there is none that can stand in competition with Him; that He is the God of all the kingdoms of the earth and disposes of them all as He pleases, for He made heaven and earth; and therefore both can do anything and does everything. H. That all the kingdoms of the earth may know. If the mighty army of the great Assyrian king were successfully defied by a petty monarch like Hezekiah, it could not but draw the attention of the surrounding nations, who would be forced to confess that the escape was owing to the protecting hand of Jehovah, and would thus be taught, in spite of themselves, that He, and He alone, was the true God. The sentiment is exactly parallel to that uttered by David on occasion of the great confederacy against him (Ps. 83; 2 Sam. 10:6-16): "Let them be confounded and troubled forever: yea, let them be put to shame and perish; that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth." Thus Hezekiah, the true follower of David, rises in his distress to the same height of self-abnegation, desiring the Divine help, not for his own sake, not even for the sake of his people, but for the glory of God—that His honor may be vindicated among surrounding nations. B. C. Faith instinctively turns to God when anything goes wrong, because it has been accustomed to turn to Him when all was right, according to the world's estimate of right and wrong. Whither should the burdened heart betake itself but to Him who daily bears our burdens? The impulse to tell God all troubles is as truly a mark of the faithful soul as the impulse to tell everything to the beloved is the life breath of love. Our faith is of little power to bless unless it impels us to take God into confidence in regard to everything which troubles us. If the letter is not grave enough to be spread before Him, it is too small to annoy us. If we truly live in fellowship with God, we shall find ourselves in His house, with the cause of our trouble in our hands, before we have time to think. Instinct acts more quickly than reason, and, if our faith be vital, it will not need to be argued into speaking to God of all that weighs upon us. A. M. The whole trouble must be spread before Him; God loves minuteness; there is no spreading without minuteness. To speak out loud a sorrow or a care even to a thing inanimate is a help to definiteness, to clearness of thought, to manfulness, to duty; how much more so when we confide in God. J. Vaughan.—Nothing that dulls me, nothing that makes a danger, or a difficulty, or a trial, or a temptation, but should be at once spread out before the Lord. Test your lives, your thoughts, your affairs, your purposes, by this—“Will they stand carriage before the Lord?” If not, the sooner you get rid of them the better. And then, “Be anxious for naught, but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving make your requests known unto God.” A. M. God is the Hearer of prayer. As in the case of Daniel (9 : 20), while Hezekiah was still speaking, an answer was sent to him through Isaiah the prophet. Thus also answers to prayer were sent in the cases of Paul (Acts 9 : 10–18) and Cornelius (Acts 10 : 1–8). Isaiah was the one person whose faith had remained unshaken through all this crisis. But it is not merely Isaiah’s confidence which speaks in this composition. He brought to the king a direct “word of God.” His oracle is one of surpassing beauty, grand and sustained in style, and expressing the greatest truths. J. O.—Hezekiah spread the letter before God with a solemn prayer to Him to prove the difference between Jehovah, the only God, and the “no gods” whom the Assyrian had justly reproached; and the answer was given by the mouth of Isaiah in a sublime prophecy of the destruction of the Assyrian and the future glory of the remnant of Judah. P. S. First of all, Hezekiah is assured that his prayer has been “heard.” God has “bowed down His ear” to it (verse 16)—has taken it into His consideration, and has sent a reply. Then the reply follows, in fourteen verses arranged in four strophes or stanzas. The first (verses 21–24) and second (verses 25–28) are addressed to Sennacherib, and breathe a tone of scorn and contempt. The third (verses 29–31) is addressed to Hezekiah, and is encouraging and consolatory. The fourth (verses 32–34) is an assurance to all whom it may concern, that Jerusalem is safe, that Sennacherib will not take it, that he will not even commence its siege. Hammond. 22. The Holy One of Israel.** This is a favorite phrase with Isaiah, in whose prophecies it is found twenty-seven times, while it occurs five times only in the rest of Scripture (Ps. 71 : 22 ; 78 : 41 ; 89 : 18 ; Jer. 50 : 29 ; 51 : 5). Its occurrence here is a strong proof—one among many—of the genuineness of the present passage, which is not the composition of the writer of Kings, but an actual prophecy delivered at this time by Isaiah, bearing all the characteristic marks of that prophet’s fervent and highly poetic style. 23. And hast said.** Isaiah clothes in words the thoughts of Sennacherib’s heart—the real thoughts that were present there when he wrote or dictated his letter, and which underlay the letter itself. These thoughts are thoughts of the extremest self-confidence. Sennacherib believes that by his own power and might he can trample down all opposition, overcome all obstacles, and conquer whatever countries he pleases. B. C. 25. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it? The strain suddenly changes—the person of the speaker is altered. It is no longer Sennacherib who reveals the thoughts of his own heart, but Jehovah who addresses the proud monarch. “Hast thou not heard, how from long ago I have acted thus? Hast thou never been taught that revolutions, conquests, the rise and fall of nations, are God’s doing, decreed by Him long, long ago—ay, from the creation of the world? Art thou not aware that this is so, either from tradition or by listening to the voice of reason within thine own heart?” It is implied that such knowledge ought to be in the possession of every man. Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldst be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.** The idea was very familiar to Isaiah and his contemporaries. Years before, when Assyria first became threatening, Isaiah, speaking in the person of Jehovah, had exclaimed, “O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (Isa. 10 : 5, 6). But the heathen kings whom God made His instruments to chasten sinful nations imagined that they conquered and destroyed and laid waste by their own strength (see Isa. 10 : 7–14). Hammond. 28. Put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips.** The imagery is most striking. Captive kings were actually so treated by the Assyrians themselves. A hook or split-ring was thrust through the cartilage of the nose, or the fleshy part of the under lip, with a rope or thong attached to it, and in this guise they were led into the monarch's presence, to receive their final sentence at his hands. In the sculptures of Sargon at Khorsabad we see three prisoners brought before him in this fashion, one of whom he seems to be about to kill with a spear. Hammond.—Forbearance is not forgiveness, and patient long-suffering is not oblivion. The same great lesson runs through the whole course of human history, from the rout of Chedorlaomer to the Moscow campaign. No leviathan is so powerful but the King of nations can put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips at the most fitting season. Birks. 29. And this shall be a sign unto thee.** The prophet now once more addresses Hezekiah, and gives him a "sign" or token, whereby he and his may be assured that Sennacherib is indeed bridled, and will not trouble Judea any more. His people, whose land has been devastated by the march of the Assyrian army, shall find enough to eat during the remainder of the current year from the grain which has sown itself; in the ensuing (probably sabbatical) year they shall also be nourished sufficiently by the same means; in the third year, when they resume their agricultural labors, they shall be undisturbed in them, and reap their fruits in peace. This promise could not, of course, be a sign of the immediate relief of the city from the threatened attack, which relief took place before the promise began to be fulfilled (see verse 35); but it was a sign of what was of far greater importance—viz., the continued freedom of the land from attack during the whole of the remainder of Sennacherib's reign, a space of seventeen years. B. C. We cannot fail to recognize the internal connection between this and the former utterance in Isa. 7 in regard to the Syro-Israelitish invasion in the time of Ahaz. Once more we have "a sign" of the certainty of promised deliverance in an event as yet future. The absolute deliverance of Judah from the invasion of Assyria is guaranteed by this sign, that in the present year, when the ordinary operations of sowing had been interrupted, they would have sufficient for their support in that which sprang from the grains that had accidentally fallen out of the corn reaped at the former harvest. Similarly, as regarded the next year's harvest, for which it was impossible to make preparation, partly from the presence of the Assyrian army and partly from the depopulation of the country, there would be sufficiency from the corn which sprang of itself (either on the old stems or from what dropped from unreaped ears). Lastly, in the third year, the ordinary agricultural operations would be resumed, because the Assyrian host would be gone without retaining occupation of the land, and because such as were left of the population would have returned to their homes from Jerusalem and the other fenced cities where they had sought refuge. Thus "the sign" lay in the promised certainty of their support through the Divine blessing on the land which Assyria boasted to have laid waste (verses 23, 24). Thus the provision for their present wants, and that for the agricultural year on which they had already entered, would in those two years be a constant sign that the relation between Jehovah and Sennacherib was what had been told, and that they had not to fear any return of the enemy. And so would this prophetic "sign"—"natural" by the special blessing of God, but "supernatural" when viewed by itself—be alike for comfort and the strengthening of faith, but also for the constant exercise of it. A. E. 32,33. Hezekiah receives four clear promises, each one more comforting than the last. 1. Sennacherib shall not "enter into the city"—i.e., it shall not be taken. 2. He shall not "shoot an arrow there"—i.e., he shall not order the assault. 3. He shall not "come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it"—i.e., there shall not even be the commencement of a siege. And 4. "By the way that he came, by the same shall he return"—i.e., he shall not even approach the city, but shall return to Assyria by the same route by which he came, through the low country of the Shephelah, thus avoiding not only Jerusalem, but even Judea. B. C. 32. Nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.** We have here an exact picture of an ancient siege, such as is portrayed on the sculptures of Nineveh, in the picture of the siege of Lachish. The final means of capture was the mound raised against the wall of the beleaguered place. But for the erection of this the archers were indispensable. While the slaves and laborers of the army were heaping materials for the mound, the archers were continuously employed in shooting at every defender who appeared on the ramparts, galling them with their arrows, and thus protecting their workmen, or drawing off the attention of the enemy. The archers, as we see from the Assyrian sculptures, were protected by the shieldman. The shield was a strong wooden frame, as high as a man, covered with leather, resting on the ground, and held by its bearer in front of the archer, who under its protection was not only safe, but was able to take deliberate aim. The mound was made of any materials that came to hand, with a gradual slope upward, till it almost reached the wall, and was not much inferior to it in height. When completed, battering-rams were piled from it against the upper part of the wall and the battlements, until a breach was effected. The mound was employed even to the later times of the Roman Empire. Tristram. 34. The two reasons assigned for defending the city were His "own sake"—the honor and glory of His name, now fully implicated by the blasphemies and boasts of the Assyrian king; and the promises He had made to David respecting his royal seed. (See 2 Sam. 7: 12.) This promise looks not only to his pious successors, like Hezekiah, but pre-eminently to his greater Son, the promised Messiah. For the sake of all the interests embosomed in this royal seed and this future kingdom, God would surely protect Jerusalem against this proud, blasphemous foe. H. C. God intended all along to teach the Jews that the earth and heaven belonged to Him and obeyed Him. He taught them and the proud king of Assyria once and for all that He was indeed the Lord, Lord of all nations and King of kings, and also Lord of the earth and all that therein is. Those who really trust in Him shall never be confounded. Those who trust in themselves are trying their paltry strength against the God who made heaven and earth, and will surely find out their own weakness, just when they fancy themselves most successful. If man dare not fight on the Lord's side against sin and evil, the Lord's earth will fight for Him. Earthquakes and burning mountains will do His work. C. Kingsley. Never, it has been justly remarked, had a prophet predicted more boldly, never was a prediction more brilliantly fulfilled. The blow which fell upon Sennacherib's army in time to save the Jewish State was a coincidence which no political forecast could have anticipated, no estimate of probabilities calculated. Yet Isaiah's foreknowledge of it was of long standing, certain, and precise. Not once, but repeatedly, even before Sennacherib's army had appeared on the north of Palestine, and while all seemed calm on the political horizon, he had announced, not merely the distress in which before long Jeru- Jersalem would find herself, but the unexpected and startling interposition by which she would be released from it. Driver. 35-37. The destruction of the Assyrian host, and subsequent assassination of Sennacherib. On the same night came upon the great army of Sennacherib, far distant from Jerusalem, a supernatural slaughter. One hundred and eighty-four thousand Assyrians were in some way destroyed by Divine power. Of the agency of the destruction we know nothing; the fact and the author only are given in the narrative. The number of the slain and the greatness of the disaster compelled the king of Assyria to return from his campaign against Egypt. Through the remainder of Hezekiah's reign, no further attempt was made against Judah by Sennacherib. Seventeen years after this miraculous overthrow of so large a portion of his army, the king was slain by two of his sons while he was worshipping in his temple. B. 35. Here in fewest words is the grand, sublime event which vindicated the dishonored name of Jehovah; brought down just retribution on the haughty, impious Assyrian; plucked God's praying people from the open jaws of ruin, and gave a glorious testimony to the faithfulness, the power and the presence of Israel's God. It became a night to be ever remembered of the Lord's ancient people; a fountain of religious impulse; a theme of fresh and grateful praise for ages to the escaped of Israel. H. C. When they arose early in the morning, behold, etc. These words form the only trustworthy data that we possess for determining to any extent the manner of the destruction now wrought. They imply that there was no disturbance during the night, no alarm, no knowledge on the part of the living that their comrades were dying all around them by thousands. Hence we may at once put aside several of the conjectures of commentators—as those of a nocturnal attack by Tirhakah (Ussher, Preiss, Michaelis), of a terrible storm (Vitringa, Stanley), of the plague (Gesenius, Dathe, Maurer, Winer, etc.), of the simoom (Prideaux, Milman)—none of which would have left the survivors wholly unconscious of evil till morning came. On the whole, it would seem that all mere natural causes must be rejected, and God must be regarded as having slain the men in their sleep without causing disturbance, either by a peculiar pestilence called into being for the occasion, or by that "visitation" of which English law speaks. The most nearly parallel case is the destruction of the first-born, which (it may be observed) is also ascribed to a destroying angel (Ex. 12 : 23). B. C. There is no need of departing from the strict sense of the words, or of disputing whether by the angel of the Lord we are to understand a storm, a hot wind, or a pestilential fever. The terms used can naturally signify nothing but a single instantaneous stroke of Divine vengeance. The parallel narrative in 2 Chron. 32 : 21, instead of numbering the slain, says that all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders, and the captains in the camp of the Assyrian were cut off. Where this terrific overthrow took place has been disputed and can never be determined, in the absence of all data, monumental or historical. Throughout the sacred narrative it seems to be intentionally left uncertain whether Jerusalem was besieged at all, whether Sennacherib in person ever came before it, whether his army was divided or united when the stroke befell them, and also what proportion of the host escaped. It is enough to know that one hundred and eighty five thousand men perished in a single night. A.—These unanswered questions do not invalidate the great facts of the narrative, nor in any wise abate from the moral force of the great lessons which it teaches. Perhaps it was the Lord's special design to foreclose our critical and historical inquiries in order to shut us up the more closely to the consideration of these great moral lessons. Be this as it may, it behooves us to account these moral lessons the main thing, and to give them our chief and very earnest attention. H. C. 36. Dwelt at Nineveh.** The meaning seems to be, not that Sennacherib made no more expeditions at all, which would be untrue, for his annals show us that he warred in Armenia, Babylonia, Susiana, and Cilicia, during his later years; but that he confined himself to his own part of Asia, and did not invade Palestine or threaten Jerusalem any more. Nineveh appears here unmistakably as the Assyrian capital. 37. And it came to pass.** The death of Sennacherib, which took place many years afterward (n.c. 680), is related here, as, from the Divine point of view, the sequel to his Syrian expeditions. The arrogant blasphemer is punished doubly—first, by the destruction of his host, and then by death at the hands of his sons. B. C.—He was murdered in the temple of Nisroch by two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, who fled into Armenia, and was succeeded by another son, Esarhaddon, one of the most powerful of the Assyrian monarchs. P. S. 2. Chron. 32 : 22, 23.** The fame of Hezekiah's deliverance brought him congratulations and presents from all the surrounding nations; and the remainder of the days, which God's special grace had added to his life, were spent in prosperity and wealth. Like Uzziah, he possessed numerous flocks and herds, in addition to the treasures that he collected at Jerusalem. When he died, he was honored with the chief place in the sepulchres of the kings (n.c. 698). The glorious promise of his reign was terribly eclipsed under his successor. P. S. The contrast between the devout, God-fearing, God-trusting Hezekiah, and the proud, self-trusting, self-asserting Sennacherib is one of the most striking and instructive in Scripture. The two are set one over against the other in the most graphic way. Hammond. Hezekiah "went unto the house of the Lord," and found Him a very present help in trouble. Sennacherib was slain in the house of his god. The two pictures of the worshippers and their fates are symbolic of the meaning of the whole story. Sennacherib had dared Jehovah to try his strength against him and his deities. The challenge was accepted, and that bloody corpse before the idol that could not help preaches a ghastly sermon on the text, "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: He is their help and their shield." A. M. Yet other thoughts come to us—how the worldly policy of even a Hezekiah in forming alliances against Assyria was rebuked, and he learned in the school of affliction and humiliation to turn from all such help to God, and then obtained mercy; and how from the first Isaiah stood forth faithful in his warnings, and calm and unshaken in his confidence, the true prophet and representative of the Lord. And yet beyond these lessons, which are to all times, comes to the Church and to every member of it the conviction that He who supernaturally, although by what we call natural means, once swept away the host of Egypt and again laid dead the proud warriors of Assyria, also watches with ever-mindful care over the meanest of His creatures, so that not a sparrow can fall to the ground without His knowledge, nor yet any harm befall His people, nor earthly might overthrow His cause. For He of old is the living and the true God. A. E. # Parties in Judah during Reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah. The Egyptian party was numerous in Jerusalem. Opposed to the Egyptian was the Assyrian party, which advocated submission to the all-powerful empire of Assyria. A party, which we may call national, was headed by Isaiah. It drew its policy and its existence from the words of Divine counsel which the prophet uttered, and the message he was commissioned to deliver. Its watchword was "quietness and rest;" "in returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." It was a policy of non-intervention, that was opposed to an alliance with Assyria or Egypt; Judah had gained nothing but evil from intermeddling with the politics of its heathen neighbors, its religion and morality had been corrupted, and calamity after calamity had fallen on the nation. God had marked it out as "a peculiar people," and its safety lay in the national recognition of the fact. It was He who had permitted the Assyrian to be the rod of His anger, and had allowed him to chastise and chasten the sins of His people; but the chastisement was not to be utter destruction, and a bound had been set beyond which the violence of the invader was not to go. A remnant was yet to escape from Zion, and the Assyrian should be beaten down "which smote with a rod." Isaiah preached for long to deaf ears. Ahaz turned for help to the Assyrian, Hezekiah to the Egyptian. King and people alike could not believe that the Lord would interfere on behalf of His city, and overthrow the foe in the very moment of his success. Hezekiah might accept the rebuke of the prophet for his pride of heart in showing the ambassadors of Babylon the treasures of his house, but he did not forsake the policy he was following, and cease to plot with Egypt and Babylonia against the Assyrian king. It needed the campaign of Sennacherib and the signal deliverance of Jerusalem from the victorious enemy to convince Hezekiah that Egypt should indeed "help in vain," and that the true policy of himself and his country was that which had so long been pressed upon them by Isaiah. If he and his people would trust in the Lord, and abstain from all intrigues with foreign powers, they might rest in peace and safety, for the Lord Himself would defend them in the hour of need. And though with the death of Hezekiah evil days came again upon Judah—days which, we may gather, Isaiah was privileged never to see—the effect of the prophet's policy continued to be felt. The house of David and the national existence of the people over whom it ruled were preserved until a new king arose in Assyria and inaugurated new principles of government. The Temple and kingdom of Jerusalem were saved till the time was ripe for the chosen people to pass through the fiery ordeal of the Babylonish exile. Sayce. # Differing Policies of Isaiah and Jeremiah Explained and Justified. The position occupied by Isaiah was necessitated by the age to which he belonged. The message he communicated was in accordance with the conditions of his time. Hence arises the striking contrast between the policy of which he was the mouthpiece, and that which Jeremiah was called upon to urge. While Isaiah advocated resistance to the invader, in confident security that God would defend His Temple and city, Jeremiah declared that no buildings made with hands could save the people, and that submission to the Chaldean was their only hope of safety. Isaiah, in other words, was the prophet of national independence, Jeremiah of national subjection. But between the time of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah a total change had come over the face of the Eastern world. Nebuchadnezzar was a more dangerous enemy than Sennacherib; Egypt had risen afresh from its ashes, and was prepared to reassert its ancient rule over Palestine, and Judah itself had sunk into the deepest degradation and decay. Its princes were idolatrous and corrupt, and Nebuchadnezzar himself was a more reverent observer of the moral law than they. The measure of Judah's iniquities was full; the period of God's long-suffering had drawn to a close, and there was no king on the throne like Hezekiah to follow loyally the teachings of the prophet, no minister like Eliakim to carry them out. The Lord would fight no longer for His city and the earthly throne of David; His people were to be disciplined by suffering, and to be taught that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, but requires truth and uprightness, not correctness of ritual or stately shrines. The policy, then, which Isaiah was empowered to press upon his countrymen, the promises he was commissioned to hold out, were adapted to other circumstances and other needs than those which confronted Jeremiah. The object and end of both prophets was the same, but the means for effecting the end were necessarily different. Jeremiah lived when the old national independence, with its Oriental court and foreign alliances, had ceased to be possible or desirable; Isaiah's lot was cast in a happier age, when the safe-keeping of Jerusalem was needful to the Divine education of the people of the Lord. He had the privilege of leading the national struggle against foreign oppression and heathen arrogance, of promising success to his countrymen in their supreme hour of peril, and of seeing that promise fulfilled. The hosts of the Assyrian, which none had yet been able to resist, were shattered against the walls of Jerusalem, and Isaiah's had been the voice of the herald which announced the doom of the enemies of Israel. Sayoe. 2. K. 20: 1 IN those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle part of the city, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. And Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of the LORD the third day? And Isaiah said, This shall be the sign unto thee from the LORD, that the I am deprived of the residue of my years.11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD in the land of the living : I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.12 Mine age is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent : I have rolled up like a weaver my life ; he will cut me off from the loom : From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.13 I quieted myself until morning ; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones : From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.14 Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter ; I did mourn as a dove : mine eyes fall with looking upward ; O LORD, I am oppressed, be thou my surety.15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it : I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.16 O Lord, by these things men live, And wholly therein is the life of my spirit: Wherefore recover thou me, and make me to live.17 Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness : But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption ; For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee : They that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day : The father to the children shall make known thy truth.20 The LORD is ready to save me ; Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of the LORD.21 Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil,22 and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD? 39 : 1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah : for he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.2 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken : shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go 10 back ten steps? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten steps : nay, but let the shadow return 11 backward ten steps. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD : and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.12 At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah : for he had heard 13 that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures : there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.14 Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Baby- 15 lon. And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen : there is nothing among my treasures that I have 16 not shewed them. And Isaiah said unto 17 Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon : nothing shall be left, saith the 18 LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away ; and they shall be eunuchs 19 in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, Is it not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days? 20. Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of 21 the kings of Judah? And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. THE simple, common-sense view of the matter is, that since the traditional position of these chapters among the writings of Isaiah corresponds exactly to the known fact of his having written a part of the history of Judah, the presumption in favor of his having written both the passages in question cannot be shaken by the mere possibility, or even the intrinsic probability, of other hypotheses, for which there is not the least external evidence. The specific end for which the narrative is here appended to the foregoing prophecies appears to be that of showing the fulfilment of certain prophecies which had relation to a proximate futurity, and thereby gaining credence and authority for those which had a wider scope and a remoter consummation. A. It is well known that Isaiah wrote portions of the historic records of his nation—e.g., the life of Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:22) and of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 33:22). None can doubt that he wrote these historic chapters. Both the resemblances and the differences of these two narratives are easily accounted for upon this highly probable supposition. The narrative in 2 Chron. 32 differs very considerably from either of these, omitting much; condensing some of the points which it introduces, yet bringing out some new matter. It can scarcely be doubted that this account is of later date and purposely supplementary to the other two. There is abundant reason to conclude that the books of Chronicles were chiefly compiled by Ezra and his associates, the matter, whether original or selected, being adapted to certain moral purposes which were then of paramount importance to the recently restored exiles. H. C. 1. MANASSEH was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hephzi-bah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practised augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. And he set the graven image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations, whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. 12 And when he was in distress, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself 13 greatly before the God of his fathers. And he prayed unto him; and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God. 14 Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate; and he compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fenced cities 15 of Judah. And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16 And he built up the altar of the LORD, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, but only unto the LORD 18 their God. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the 19 kings of Israel. His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of 20 Hozai. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead. 21 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years 22 in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father: and Amon sacrificed unto all the graven images which Manasseh his 23 father had made, and served them. And he humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and 24 more. And his servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house. 25 But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead. king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his 12 idols: therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it 14 upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their 15 enemies; because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day. 16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was 17 evil in the sight of the LORD. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the 18 kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead. 19 Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of 20 Haruz of Jotbah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did 21 Manasseh his father. And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and 22 worshipped them: and he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and walked not in 23 the way of the LORD. And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the 24 king to death in his own house. But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in 25 his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead. the people of the land made Josiah his son king THE fifty-five years of Manasseh were probably 695-641 B.C. The two years of Amon were probably 640 and 639 B.C. Contemporary History. During Manasseh's reign, the Assyrian kings were, counting from the "first year" of each: Sennacherib, B.C. 704-681; Esarhaddon, 680-668; Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus), 667 to some unknown date; his "first year" as king of Babylon was 647 B.C. References in the Prophets to the Reigns of Manasseh and Amon. 1. Manasseh's shedding innocent blood (Jer. 15:4; 2:30, 34, etc.; perhaps Isa. 1:15, etc.). 2. To Manasseh's reform, followed by the relapse under Amon, perhaps Jer. 3:10 and context, and Zeph. 1:4-6, with many like passages in Zephaniah and the early parts of Jeremiah. W. J. B. The account in Chronicles differs chiefly from Kings in omitting (1) the names of the two queen-mothers, (2) the shedding of innocent blood by Manasseh, (3) the words of warning addressed to him, and (4) the circumstances of the burial of Amon; and, more importantly, in adding (1) the account of Manasseh's captivity, (2) of his repentance and restoration to his kingdom, (3) of his buildings, (4) of his abolition of idolatry, and (5) of the ample records that existed of his reign. The central part of the chapter, from verse 11 to verse 19, is thus almost entirely new matter, while the earlier and the later portions correspond closely with Kings, and are, on the whole, less ample. B. C. 2 Chronicles 33:1-19; 2 Kings 21:1-18. The longest and worst reign has the briefest record; chiefly because of the slaughter of God's prophets, who are the principal historians. Eighteen verses in the Book of Kings and twenty verses in the Chronicles (many of which are identical in the two accounts), with hints elsewhere, comprise the written history of a reign of fifty-five years. But what is lacking in amplification is made up in conciseness. The monstrous details of Manasseh's manifold iniquities and fearful guilt are summarily condensed in the first nine verses. No clew is given by the historian, here or in the Kings, of the influences which so utterly transformed the son of a good father into a signally destructive agent of Satan. Both at the outset of his reign and afterward he was wholly unlike Joash and Josiah, whose rule also began in childhood, and at even an earlier age. The case of Joash we understand clearly, and that of Josiah we can readily conjecture. Both of these were, in the providence of God, rescued from an evil parentage and trained under godly influence. The reasonable inference is, that Manasseh's childhood was subjected to ungodly teaching from kindred and courtiers. The extreme contrast in character and reign between the two former and Manasseh, suggests the vital and always needed lesson of the tremendous obligation resting upon parents and friends in the forming and training of youthful character. Living illustrations abound in these days to emphasize this lesson—a lesson found in every reign of the kings of Judah and Israel; found, too, in almost every other personal history of the sacred records. Manasseh's wickedness was pre-eminently shameless and God-defying. All the particular iniquities of previous evil reigns he re-enacted and surpassed. Nay more, he equalled the heathen in his abominations, and far outdid them in his guilt. They sinned in comparative ignorance; he with full knowledge of God, and of His dealings with the kings and nations of Israel and Judah. A marvel of hardness of soul is he presented to us. A monster of iniquity, exceeding in daring impiety not only his grandfather, Ahaz, but even the two kings of Israel, Jeroboam and Ahab. He presents, perhaps, the foremost illustration of the extent and magnitude of possible human iniquity in all history, sacred or profane. Even a Nero had not the knowledge of God. According to the sacred record, Manasseh introduced into Judah every form of idolatrous worship and abominable vice that had been practised by heathen nations. He deliberately undid all the good work of his father. He restored the high places and the idolatrous altars which Hezekiah had removed. He re-established the foul worship of Baal, "and added to the obscene rites of Ashtaroth those unutterable abominations which made princes and subjects 'rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah.'" Nor this only. His daring went further than Ahaz, who had only closed the sanctuary, and dismissed the priesthood. Manasseh signalized his iniquity by a fearful desecration of the Holy Place, the very chamber dedicated to Jehovah and long consecrated by the symbol of His presence. In this chamber he set up a carved image as an object of supreme worship, and upon the very spot once illumined by the Shekinah. In the courts of the Temple he reared altars for the Babylonish worship of the heavenly bodies. He erected in the valley of Hinnom a temple to the fire-god Moloch, and offered his own children in sacrifice. "He dealt with wizards and necromancers, and 'seduced the people to do more wickedness than the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before them.'" And his was the fearful pre-eminence of inaugurating the persecution to the death of God's saints. He made Jerusalem the arena of the first of those martyrdoms to which Paul refers in the eleventh of Hebrews. He shed the innocent blood of multitudes of devout worshippers and religious teachers. That most illustrious prophet, who had been the foremost teacher of God's people and counsellor of kings through four reigns; he whose chapters contain the richest treasure of evangelical truth found in the Old Testament; he whose inspired vision of Christ's suffering and glory was so wonderfully fulfilled in the Messiah's trial, crucifixion and burial—Isaiah, the aged, the inspired seer and faithful saint, was the chief object of this monster's cruelty, the signal victim of his murderous torture. B. So far as foreign enemies were concerned, Judea enjoyed an interval of profound peace. Sennacherib, from the date of the destruction of his host, carefully avoided all contact with the nation of the Jews; and thus Manasseh had reigned for nearly twenty years before any necessity arose for him to consider whether he should follow the example of his father in his defiance of the Assyrian power, or, like his grandfather, should tamely submit to it. Ahaz was his model in the internal conduct of his kingdom; why should he not follow him also in its external management? Therefore, when Esarhaddon, Sennacherib's son and successor, about the year B.C. 680, made an expedition into Palestine with the object of re-establishing Assyrian influence in the southwest, Manasseh seems to have submitted to him without a murmur, and to have resumed that position of Assyrian tributary which Hezekiah had succeeding in throwing off. On a broken cylinder of Esarhaddon's, containing a notice of his second year, we find "Manasseh, king of Judah," mentioned, together with the kings of Tyre, Edom, Moab, Gaza, Askelon, Ekron, Gebal, Arvad, Ammon, Ashdod, and ten Cyprian monarchs, in a connection that implies his subjection to the empire of Assyria. Later on, however, the Jewish monarch seems to have repented of his tame submission, and to have been guilty of acts which his Assyrian suzerain regarded as rebellious. About the year B.C. 672 an army was sent against him under Assyrian captains, which, according to Josephus, ravaged his territory, and got possession of his person by stratagem. His captors led him away prisoner, and brought him into the presence of Esarhaddon at Babylon. There for some time he remained in captivity, but at length, in answer (as he believed) to the fervent prayers which in his affliction he addressed to Jehovah, the royal clemency was shown to him. Not only was he released from prison, but Esarhaddon once more received him into favor, and even sent him back to Jerusalem to reign again as tributary monarch. Such clemency is not wholly unexampled in Assyrian history; but we may fairly assume that Esarhaddon was actuated in the business by policy rather than by compassion. He was contemplating a serious struggle for supremacy with Egypt, and it was of great importance to him to have so strong a fortress as Jerusalem, and one situated so near the Egyptian frontier, held for him by a trusty adherent. He must have believed in gratitude as a powerful constraining motive, and have thought that a forgiven enemy would be the surest friend. Manasseh, as far as is known, did not disappoint him. The only Palestinian power which deserted Assyria in its struggle with Egypt seems to have been Tyre. According to the author of Chronicles, the repentance of Manasseh in his captivity at Babylon was a true repentance, and was fully maintained after his return to his kingdom. But Manasseh, though he might repent of the past, could not undo it. He had slain many of the more godly among the people, and had left the profane and the idolatrous. He had made havoc of the prophetical order, silenced the warning voices, and let a generation grow up without any sound religious teaching. After the murder of Isaiah no new prophet seems to have been raised up until the reign of Josiah had begun. Hence his reformation failed to reach the hearts of the nation. In spite of his persuasions and commands, the people could not be weaned from the high place worship which he had at one time encouraged, but "did sacrifice still in the high places," swore by the name of Malcham (Zeph. 1:5), and worshipped the host of heaven upon the housetops (ibid). There was no genuine reaction from the idolatry of Manasseh as there was from that of Ahaz, no real turning of the people to God with true and unfeigned repentance. Manasseh died after a reign of fiftyfive years, at the age of sixty-seven, and was buried in Jerusalem; but, as there was no more room in the burial-place of David, a tomb was made for him in his own palace garden, in a portion of it known as "the garden of Uzzah." He left his throne to his son, Amon. G. R. 2. K. 21:10-18.** Here is the doom of Judah and Jerusalem read, and it is a heavy doom. The prophets were sent, in the first place, to teach them the knowledge of God, to remind them of their duty, and direct them in it; if they succeeded not in that, their next work was to reprove them for their sins, and to set them in view before them, that they might repent and reform and return to their duty; if in this they prevailed not, but sinners went on frowardly, their next work was to foretell the judgments of God, that the terror of them might awaken those to repentance who would not be made sensible of the obligations of His love, or else that the execution of them in their season might be a demonstration of the Divine mission of the prophets that foretold them. The prophets were deputed judges to those that would not hear and receive them as teachers. H. Ewald sums up the state of things as follows: "The atmosphere of the age was poisoned from above; and the leaders of the people of every class, whose moral decline had already become a subject of lament in the preceding century, sank into an almost incredible degeneracy. The prophets, who ought to have been ever the most loyal guardians of the truth, were for the most part like dumb and greedy dogs; many of the priests allowed themselves to be seduced into offering heathen sacrifices; the judges and nobles paid little heed to the eternal right. Equivocation and hypocrisy spread among those who ought to have ministered most austerely to public truthfulness of life; while those who were engaged in commerce and trade sank into the harshest indifference to every higher aim, and thought only of the acquisition and enjoyment of wealth. So terrible was the demoralization which set in under Manasseh, that those who remained faithful to the ancient religion were either scoffed at as fools, or allowed to perish in cold contempt without any effort being made to save them, and were even derided after their death." The moral and spiritual depravity of Judah, though it only came to a head in the time of Manasseh, had its roots in a long-distant past. As Stephen pointed out to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:39-43), it began in the wilderness with the worship of the golden calf, and went on to the worship of the host of heaven, of Moloch, and of Remphan; it was shown markedly in the terrible sin of Peor (Num. 25:1-3); it stinted God's hand when the nations had to be driven out from Caanan (Judges 2:1-5); it provoked God's anger greatly during the whole period of the Judges (Judges 2:11-19); checked under David and Solomon, it broke out afresh on the accession of Rehoboam (1 K. 14:22-24), and showed itself, more or less, under every subsequent king, culminating at last in that fearful condition of things which has been described above. Hammond. 2. Chron. 33:10, 11.** God's marvellous forbearance and merciful chastening exercised even toward this sacrilegious blasphemer, and persecutor of the saints. This was manifest, first, in warnings by the prophets uttered to Manasseh and his people. These warnings we read in 2 K. 21:10-15. The warning voices of the Divine messengers were silenced in their blood. The sacred history declares that this was the crowning sin, which subsequently brought the doom of destruction upon the nation. Then the Lord sent reverses upon the nation. The Philistines, Moabites and Ammonites successfully revolted. Next Sennacherib's successor, Esarhaddon, destroyed Jerusalem, took Manasseh captive, bound him with chains, and caused him to be led to Babylon. Here he was imprisoned for an indefinite period. But God did not destroy him. He gave him a period for reflection, and an opportunity for repentance. B. Manasseh is carried captive to a king of Assyria, not in Nineveh, but in Babylon, which when last heard of was the capital city of Merodach-baladan, an enemy of Assyria. Evidently by some great change a new state of things has been brought about. Here the inscriptions of Assyria, especially those of Esarhaddon and his son Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus), make what was otherwise obscure perfectly plain. Sennacherib tells us that he conquered Babylon, and established a son as viceroy there. Esarhaddon takes from the very beginning of his reign the double title, "king of Assyria and king of Babylon." Bricks bearing his name have been found at Babylon, and indicate that he built himself a palace there. Assurbanipal, his son, tells us that Esarhaddon, toward the close of his life, having become infirm, relinquished the government of Assyria altogether, and retiring to Babylon, made it his constant residence, and contented himself with ruling that portion of his dominions. Thus the presentation of a captive prince to an Assyrian monarch at Babylon, which would have been strange and inexplicable at any earlier period, is natural in the time of Esarhaddon, with whom Manasseh was contemporary. Manasseh might without any strangeness have been brought to Esarhaddon at the southern capital during any period of his reign. If his capture fell, as it probably did, late in Esarhaddon's reign, Babylon, which had then become that monarch's permanent residence, would necessarily be the scene of the interview. G. R. 12. God's yet more wonderful mercy in response to the prayer of this royal penitent.** Mark the impressive record. Manasseh "came to himself." He "humbled himself greatly, and prayed unto the God of his fathers; and He was entreated of him and heard his supplication." God made of this kingly blasphemer and persecutor a distinguished "pattern of his long-suffering to men." As if to show the greatness of His grace, He singles him out, among the many evil kings of Israel and Judah, for forgiveness. He restored him again to his kingdom. Then, the record declares, Manasseh knew that Jehovah was the true God. B. When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord. Manasseh might now say with his grandfather David, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." His prison was now a more happy place for him than his palace; Babylon a better school than Jerusalem. What fools are we to frown on our afflictions! These, how severe soever, are our best friends. They are not indeed for our present pleasure, but they are for our lasting profit. 13. And He was entreated of him. We wonder not at Manasseh sinning or repenting; we wonder at the goodness of God, who thus graciously called him to repent and received him repenting; that as he had before been a most loathsome and monstrous spectacle of wickedness, he now became a pleasing and useful pattern of conversion. Who can despair of the mercy of God that sees the tears of a Manasseh accepted? The wickedness of men can never equal the goodness of God. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.** Till his own smart and cure, Manasseh knew not that the Lord was God. The Almighty will be sure to be known for what He is, if not by His kindness, at least by His severity. If our prosperity and peace and sweet experience of His mercy can win us to acknowledge Him, it is more for our ease; but if we will needs be taught by stripes, it is more for His glory. Bp. H. The pardon extended by Esarhaddon to Manasseh, little consonant as it is with general Oriental practice, agrees well with the character of this particular monarch, whose rule was remarkably mild, and who is proved by his inscriptions to have been equally merciful on other occasions. G. R.—While Sargon and Sennacherib were employed in extending the empire and carrying out the dreams of Tiglath-pileser by brute force, it was reserved for Esarhaddon to consolidate their conquests by a milder administration and fuller permission for the development of the national life. The vanquished nations were no longer compelled to become Assyrians and to acknowledge Assur as their god; they were allowed to retain their old habits and customs, their old religion, even their old form of government. In place of the satraps the native kings were allowed to preserve their sway over the subject populations; Manasseh of Judah was as much a servant of "the great king" as the Assyrian governor of Samaria, but so long as he acknowledged the supremacy of Nineveh and paid the annual tribute he was allowed to govern his people after the fashion of his fathers. It was only where the older lines of rulers had been replaced by satraps before the change took place in the imperial policy that the order of things established by Sennacherib and his predecessors continued to prevail; elsewhere, in Judah, in Edom, in the petty principalities of Egypt, the government was left in the hands of the native princes. Sayee. 14-16. The evidence of Manasseh's true repentance.** He sought to undo all his evil work. He took away the idol image from the holy place, and cast out the strange gods and altars from the whole city. He further sought to remove the high places of idolatrous worship throughout the land. He reared anew the altar of sacrifice, and restored the Temple worship. Upon the great altar he sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings, "and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel." But we learn from verse 17 that Manasseh found it impossible to undo his own previous evil work. The people retained many of the high places. The associations of habit had made these places too familiar and dear to be given up. Nominally professing to worship Jehovah in them, they yet retained much of the spirit of the idolatrous worship. It was easy, therefore, for Amon, the son of Manasseh, to restore the whole system of idolatrous worship in the land. We recall three prominent points, illustrated more signally here, perhaps, than elsewhere in the whole Bible. 1. A more eminent type even than Paul was Manasseh of the long-suffering of God; for Paul was not such a transgressor. He sinned ignorantly against his Lord, whom he knew not. His life was blameless. His persecuting spirit proceeded from a conscientious though wrongly taught conviction of duty. In all these points Manasseh's evil-doing is sharply contrasted. His sin was committed with full knowledge, and in the face of clear warnings. He practised and encouraged impurity and blasphemy, notwithstanding the plain record of God's dealings with his fathers; dealings of goodness and mercy toward the obedient and faithful kings, and of judgment upon the disobedient and unfaithful. That God should have shown mercy to Manasseh, therefore, signally illustrates His forbearance and long-suffering. 2. The same facts, in God's dealing with Manasseh, teach us the greatness of His grace to men, in His positive exercise of that grace in Manasseh's behalf. Not only did He forbear with this guilty king, not only did He refrain from visiting extreme judgment upon his iniquities, but by the visitation of His Spirit did He actually seek and persuade this transgressor to repentance and return to Himself. He convinced him of his sin, and renewed in him the spirit of trustful obedience. Manasseh was a sinner saved by grace. Who, then, may despair of God's mercy with such an instance of the greatness of His grace as is here recorded? 3. When the goodness of God fails of its purposed effect in leading to repentance, He sends affliction for this end. When chastening fails, God uses no further agency of mercy. Transgressors are then abandoned to their own way, the end whereof is perdition. And this perdition is their own work. B. We are taught by the story of Manasseh's repentance: 1. The seeds of early instruction may blossom after many days. Who can doubt but that it was the impressions received in early days which at last revived and brought Manasseh back to Jehovah? 2. There is hope for the worst sinners. After Manasseh, surely any one. Nor did his conversion take place till his course was nearly run. We should despair of none. Miracles of grace as great as this have perhaps rarely been witnessed, but they have been witnessed. 3. God subdues men to Himself by affliction. It was while a prisoner in Babylon—taken there by the captains of the king of Assyria—that Manasseh found the Lord. 4. Repentance does not secure the reversal of the temporal effects of sin. The wickedness of Manasseh through a long reign wrought out its effects independently of him. His conversion came too late to undo them. The blood he had shed "the Lord would not pardon." The nation was inculpated as well as he, and though he repented, it did not. It is an awful thought that no after-repentance can obliterate the effects of words spoken and deeds done while sin still had dominion over us. Nor can the effects of sin on our own health, characters, usefulness, etc., ever be completely recalled. J. O. His life is the old story—sin, chastisement, repentance and forgiveness. We are told that in his captivity "he humbled himself greatly." A certain proportion runs through his history. A great sinner, a great sufferer, a great penitent. God works thoroughly. He is faithful in adjusting the discipline to the exigency. Whom He loves, He chastens proportionately to His necessities. He spares not the rod at the expense of the child's soul. He plans for eternity, not for time. So would we have it, would we not, in the experience of our children? Often is this experience repeated in common life, whether our weak souls would so have it or not. God is faithful beyond our desires. Like other wise fathers, He adjusts His dealings to the future judgment and desires of His children. He trusts to eternity for His justification in our sight. The prayers of the Christian father and mother for the wayward son are answered in waves and billows of affliction often, till the prodigal comes back, and humbles himself greatly, and says, "I have sinned against my father and my father's God." Phelps. How much encouragement is here to hope and pray and labor perseveringly for the conversion of sinful men, and especially of those whose early youth has been blessed with holy prayers and pious instructions! We are not to despair of any man. Few cases ever presented a more desperate and discouraging aspect than that of Manasseh. His wickedness began early and continued long. He grew into manhood a bold transgressor. He "framed iniquity for a law." His sin was high-handed, public and shameless. He grew hoary-headed in sin. He had not only thrown aside the restraints of truth, but he had sanctified falsehood, and found a religion to sanction his sins and turn them into a semblance of piety. Still he was not beyond repentance, not incapable of repentance, for he did repent. There were avenues to his heart still open to the approaches of the Spirit. There were resources in Divine providence sufficient to bring back his soul from the pit. May it not be so of any man who is going on still in his wickedness? Ah! let us never despair of the sinner. Let the sinner never despair of himself. God may not have given him up; it may be that He yet waits to be gracious to him. It is not ours to utter decrees of reprobation on ourselves or on others. Hallam. Often is it said of the penitent thief on the cross, that one such case is recorded in the Scriptures, that none may despair of repentance on a death-bed; and but one, that none may presume. Similar is the twofold lesson to be learned from the recovery of this fallen monarch. He tried the fearful experiment of abandoning the God of his fathers, and becoming a monument of illustrious guilt. Through bitter disappointment and humiliating sorrow he was saved. The Scriptures expressly contradict the Jewish tradition. But he was one of a thousand. No other such is clearly declared in the Scriptures to have run that risk with safety at the last. God can save a soul in such an extremity of sin; but it is like lifting to its place again a fallen star. Fallen stars generally go out in darkness. The general law of God's dealings with men is that strange and unnatural wickedness shall be left to itself to work out its own penalties. This it did in the case of King Ahaz. Phelps. There is no limit to the mercy of God. Sinners the chief are welcome to complete forgiveness. If only great saints got into heaven, we who are great sinners would lose hope. But when we see Manasseh and men like him going in and getting welcome, there is hope for us. If we follow their steps in repentance, we shall be permitted to join their company in rest. Arnot. 2 Chronicles 33 : 21-25 ; 2 Kings 21 : 19-26. The short reign of Amon, the son and successor of Manasseh, was distinguished by only two events : (1) his restoration of all the idolatrous and wicked practices which his father had upheld during the earlier portion of his reign; and (2) his untimely death, in consequence of a conspiracy which was formed against him among the officers of his court. Hammond. The godless portion of the people and of the nobles, by the accession of Amon, were again rendered all-powerful. We learn from 2 Chron. 34 : 3 that Josiah, who succeeded Amon, did not begin till the eighth year of his reign to seek God, nor till the twelfth to purge Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry. We thus see that the fourteen years which intervened between the death of Manasseh and the twelfth year of Josiah must have been an evil time. C. G. B.—Judah was fast ripening for judgment under the two kings Manasseh (696-641) and Amon (641-639), who systematically set to work to overthrow the worship of Jehovah, and to establish the undisputed supremacy of idolatry. The conversion of Manasseh seems to have produced no decided effect upon the people, and its good results were all frustrated by Amon. O. Though his reign lasted but two years, he turned the Temple once more into a high place for Baal, set up an Asherah there, re-established the worship of the host of heaven on altars in the two Temple courts, built altars on the upper chamber of Ahaz (2 K. 23 : 12), restored the horses of the sun to their position near one of the entrances to the Temple (ibid., verse 11), set up "houses of the Sodomites" close by the house of the Lord (ibid., verse 7), relighted the fires of Tophet in the valley of the children of Hinnom (ibid., verse 10), rebuilt the high places round about Jerusalem and in all the cities of Judah, and caused incense to be burnt on them to the sun and moon and the zodiacal signs, and all the host of heaven (ibid., verse 5), allowed the outbuildings of the Temple to fall into disrepair (2 K. 22 : 5), filled Jerusalem with altars and with molten and graven images set up above them (2 Chron. 34 : 3, 4), probably renewed the enchantments and the dealings with familiar spirits which Manasseh had first allowed (2 K. 21 : 6) and then put down—"in all the way that his father walked in he also walked," and "served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them" (ibid., verse 21), "and humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself" (2 Chron. 33 : 23), but persisted in evil, and ever "trespassed more and more" (ibid.). The general corruption of the people under the evil influences of Amon's reign seems in no degree to have fallen short of that reached in Manasseh's time. The picture drawn in Zephaniah and in the early chapters of Jeremiah represents this state of corruption, which necessarily continued on into the first years of Josiah (Zeph., chaps. 1, 3 ; Jer., chaps. 5, 6, 7). 2. Chron. 24, 25. A conspiracy was formed against him among his immediate attendants, and they "slew him in his own house" (2 K. 21 : 23). The murder was certainly not caused by any general dissatisfaction with Amon's idolatrous practices; for "the people" rose up against his murderers, "and slew all them that had conspired against King Amon," and gave him honorable sepulture in the burial-place which Manasseh had constructed in the palace garden, in the part known as "the garden of Uzzah" (2 K. 21 : 24, 26). Here Amon rested, together with his father, Manasseh; and here was afterward interred the last king whose body found a sepulchre in Jerusalem, the brave but unfortunate Josiah. If Amon died, as is probable, at the early age of twenty-four, his sins may be to some extent excused by his youth. G. R. Beware of turning the riches of God's grace into a snare. As Manasseh's case is recorded in the Bible that an aged sinner desiring to turn may not be cast into despair, Amon's case is recorded beside it that the young may not delay an hour, lest they perish forever. None of us will be saved or lost in consequence of anything in our parents. Amon saw his father born again when he was old, but the son did not inherit his father's goodness. Josiah was the child of an ungodly parent, and yet he became a godly child. These two lessons are plainly written in the history, the one to make the presumptuous humble, the other to give the despairing hope. A converted father cannot secure the safety of an unconverted son; and an unconverted father cannot drag down a child in his fall if that child follows the Lord. Arnot. 22 : 1 JOSIAH was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: and let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the house of the LORD; and let them give it to the workmen which are in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house; unto the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons; and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully. And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it, And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said. Thy servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have dedelivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they delivered it into the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD gave it to amend and repair the house; even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully; and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all that did the work in every manner of service; and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought the king word again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read therein before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according unto all that is written in this book. So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spake to her to that effect. And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they livered it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the house of the LORD. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they communed with her. And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thy self before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. Therefore, behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again. 23: 1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant. might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought the king word again. The king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And he caused all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were found in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. All his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers. 35:1 And Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD. And he said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders: now serve the LORD your God, and his people Israel. And prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of your brethren the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites. And kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, to do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses. And Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all 4. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the common people. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he brake down the high places of the gates that were at the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king break down, and beat them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he brake down; and he burned the high place and stamped it small to powder, and burned the Asherah. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount; and he sent, and took the bones out of the of them for the passover offerings, unto all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks. 8 these were of the king's substance. And his princes gave for a freewill offering unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred 9 oxen. C081niah also, and Shemaiah and Nefhanel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for the passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen. So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their courses, according to the 10 king's commandment. And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood, which they received of their hand, and the 11 Levites flayed them. And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. 12 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings so they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all 13 the children of the people. And afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests; because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for 14 the priests the sons of Aaron. And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they needed not to depart from their service, for their brethren the Le- 15 vites prepared for them. So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according 16 to the commandment of king Josiah. And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of 17 uncavened bread seven days. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants 18 of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept. 19 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchenish by Euphrates; 20 and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God hath 21 commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he 22 destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and he sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, 17 who proclaimed these things. Then he said, What monument is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 18 And he said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of 19 Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the 20 acts that he had done in Beth-el. And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem. 21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the 22 covenant. Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23 but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover kept to the LORD in Jeru- 24 salem. Moreover them that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest 25 found in the house of the LORD. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after 26 him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had 27 provoked him withal. And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My 28 name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of 29 the kings of Judah? In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew 30 him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead. from meddling with God, who is with me, that he and not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and he hearkened not unto the words of Neco, from the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king 24. Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations, unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of the LORD, and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. Substance and Order of the Text and the Events. 1. General statements, 2 K. 22:1, 2; 2 Chron. 34:1, 2. 2. The reforms in his eighth and twelfth years, 2 Chron. 34:3-7. 3. The prophesying of Zephaniah, Zeph. 1:1 and the whole book (but other opinions date the book later in Josiah's reign). 4. Earlier prophecies of Jeremiah, Jer. 1:2; 25:3; 1:4-3:5; perhaps 3:6-6:30. 5. The reformation of Josiah's eighteenth year: (a) Temple repairs, 2 K. 22:3-7; 2 Chron. 34:8-13; (b) finding the Book of the Law, 2 K. 22:8; 2 Chron. 34:14, 15; (c) reading in it before the king, 2 K. 22:9-11; 2 Chron. 34:16-19; (d) the prophecy of Huldah, 2 K. 22:12-20; 2 Chron. 34:20-28; (e) the public reading and accepting of the Book of the Covenant, 2 K. 23:1-3; 2 Chron. 34:29-32; (f) subsequent iconoclastic operations, 2 K. 23:4-20, 24, 25; 2 Chron. 34:33; (g) Josiah's passover, 2 K. 23:21-23; 2 Chron. 35:1-19; (h) concluding events, and literature, 2 K. 23:26-30; 2 Chron. 35:20-27. . . . Mention of the times of Josiah in Zephaniah, Jer. 1-6, and Habakkuk. W. J. B. Comparison and Explanation of the Two Accounts in Kings and Chronicles. The main topic in the Book of Kings is the religious reformation, alike in its positive aspect as regarded the Temple, the law and national religion (2 K. 22:3; 23:3), and in its negative aspect in the abolition of idolatry (2 K. 23:4-20). On the other hand, the chronicler records at greatest length, and with fullest detail, the Paschal observance (2 Chron. 35:1-19), while he passes very briefly over what might appear as of graver importance (2 Chron. 34:4-7). This will explain what otherwise might have seemed a difficulty in the arrangement of the narrative. The account both in the Book of Kings and in Chronicles places the Temple restoration "in the eighteenth year of king Josiah." But in the former the record of the religious reformation begins with this event, while the chronicler prefaces it by a very brief summary of what had previously been done for the abolition of idolatry (2 Chron. 34:3-7). That something of this kind must have preceded the restoration of the Temple seems evident. It cannot be supposed that a monarch like Josiah should for seventeen years have tolerated all that Amon had introduced, and then, in his eighteenth year, suddenly proceeded to the sweeping measures which alike the writers of Kings and of Chronicles narrate. It is, therefore, only reasonable to accept the statement of the latter, that "in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young" (in his sixteenth year—when presumably he commenced personally to administer the government), king Josiah "began to seek after the God of David his father," and that "in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem" from their idolatry (2 Chron. 34:3). And then the chronicler, who, as we have stated, makes only briefest reference to the reformation described with such detail in 2 K. 23:4-20, at once adds to the mention of the initial measures toward the abolition of idolatry a summary of what was finally done in that direction, after the restoration of the Temple and in consequence of the discovery of the Book of the Law (verses 4-7). It was only natural that such preliminary measures as the chronicler relates should have been followed by, as indeed they must have stood in connection with, the restoration of the Temple and its services. This was done in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. Nearly two and a half centuries had passed since the former restoration by Joash (2 K. 12:4-16), and the sacred building must have greatly suffered under the idolatrous kings, especially during the late reigns of Manasseh and Amon. As the restoration was naturally on the same lines with the previous one under Joash, the two accounts are necessarily similar. The collections for the Temple repairs, to which reference is made, must have begun some years previously (2 K. 22:4)—perhaps so early as the eighth year of the king's reign. But what specially interests us is that contributions came not merely from Judah, but from the Israelitish inhabitants of what had been the kingdom of Israel (2 Chron. 34:9). This indicates not only a religious movement among them, such as previously in the time of Hezekiah, but that politically also the remnant of Israel in the land was drawn into a hopeful alliance with Judah. A. E. Josiah, the sixteenth king of Judah, was eight years old at his accession, and reigned thirty-one years at Jerusalem. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. Though he fell in battle before he had completed his fortieth year, he left the brightest name for piety and religious zeal among all the successors of David. He shares with Hezekiah the praise of walking perfectly in the way of his father David. His reign marks the last dying glory of the earthly kingdom of David. It may, indeed, seem mysterious that a doom so often postponed by the repentance and faith of earlier kings should have followed so close upon the reign of the best and most zealous of them all, and that he himself should have fallen by a premature and violent death. But we must look beyond the personal character of the king to the state of the people and their rulers. We have seen that the great reform of Hezekiah was probably superficial; the apostasy under Manasseh and Amon was the last and lowest stage in the long course of national degeneracy; and the deep corruption that prevailed during the minority of Josiah is drawn in the blackest colors by the prophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah. The very violence of Josiah's reformation indicates the absence of true and spontaneous sympathy among the people. In short, they were past purifying except by the fiercest fires of affliction. P. S. 2. Chron. 34: 1, 2.** Duration and character of Josiah's reign. At eight years it began, and continued thirty-one years until his death in battle. This was the sixteenth reign of the separate kingdom of Judah. Again, as in the case of Joash, the providence of God breaks the connection of an evil parentage, so that Josiah comes under other and better influences in the forming age of character. Whence these influences came and what they were we know not, only inferring a good cause from so good an effect. As in the multitude of cases we can trace, it may have been due to a godly mother's wise and faithful training. There were doubtless other devout persons connected with the court or priesthood who seconded this training. "He did that which was right, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left." Rectitude or rightness is set forth here and elsewhere by the figure of a straight pathway. Divergence from this on either side is error, or wandering; that is, sin, transgression. This divergence is here appropriately characterized as declension. Josiah is named with Hezekiah, in association with David, and seems to have been one of the purest and most devout of the Old Testament kings and believers. B. Josiah was only eight years old when he succeeded to the royal dignity. As his extreme youth would withdraw him from the influences and temptations to which Manasseh had been exposed at his accession, so it must have necessitated the tutorship, or at least guidance, of men to whom, as generally venerated, a royal child would be entrusted. That such there were, we infer from the revival of prophecy, as represented by a Huldah, a Jeremiah and a Zephaniah; from the notices we have of some whom we afterward find surrounding the king; and, lastly, from the bearing of the priesthood under their chief, Hilkiah. Such men as they, under whose auspices afterward the reformation of Josiah was carried out, could have had no difficulty in showing the youthful king how the brightest memories of the royal house of Judah were associated with the names of David, Jehoshaphat and Joash, Uzziah and Hezekiah, and that the times of greatest national prosperity had been those of faithful and earnest allegiance to Jehovah and His service. These are indeed mainly inferences; but they are grounded on the facts of this history, and explain them. A. E. # Personal Consecration at Sixteen Years of Age. 2. Chron. 35: 20. After all this. Thirteen years after, in B.C. 608. For this period Jewish history is an absolute blank, since we can gather nothing certain from Jeremiah. It is not improbable that into this space fell the great invasion of the Seythians, who overran all Western Asia between the years B.C. 633 and B.C. 605, and who certainly came into these parts. Psammetichus, king of Egypt, met them at Ascalon, on the extreme frontier of Philistia toward Egypt (Herod. 2: 105); and in the valley of the Jordan they occupied permanently the old Canaanitish city of Bethshan. Otherwise their raid into Lower Syria seems to have been hasty, and though it must have created great alarm, to have left no permanent impression. Necho came up to fight against Carchemish.** Rather, "at Carchemish." Necho's object was to engage the Assyrian (or rather the Babylonian) forces, which he expected to find in the vicinity of Carchemish, at this time the chief city of Northern Syria. B. C. Politically, the time was a stirring one. The great invasion of Western Asia by the Scythic hordes (Herod. i. 103–106), which is alluded to by Jeremiah (6: 1–5), Ezekiel (38, 39), and perhaps by Zephaniah (2: 6), probably belongs to it; as also the attack of Psamatik I, upon Philistia, the fall of the Assyrian empire, and the destruction of Nineveh; the establishment of the independence of Babylon, and her rise to greatness; together with the transfer of power in the central part of Western Asia, from the Assyrians to the Medes. Amid the dangers which beset him, Josiah appears to have conducted himself prudently, gradually extending his power over Samaria and Galilee, without coming into hostile collision with any of the neighboring nations, until about the year B.C. 609 or 608, when his land was invaded by Pharaoh-Necho, the Neku of the Egyptian monuments. Josiah felt himself called upon to resist this invasion, and, in doing so, met his death. Hammond. 2. K. 23: 29. Pharaoh-Necho.** This king is well known to us both from profane historians and from the Egyptian monuments. Named after his grandfather, who was a tributary prince of Lower Egypt under the Assyrians, he succeeded his father, Psammetichus (Psamatik), in the year B.C. 610, and was king of Egypt for sixteen years, from B.C. 610 to 594 (Herod. ii. 159, confirmed by monuments). B. C. 2. Chron. 35: 21.** Such references to God—especially in the present circumstances—need not surprise us. Canon Cook gives an almost exactly parallel expression from a Pharaoh of the year 750 B.C. The eastern, in contradistinction to the western mind almost instinctively refers to the direct agency of the Divine Being certain human actions or remarkable events, and such expressions must not be too closely pressed according to our modern notions, nor yet literally understood. A. E. 22. Valley of Megiddo.** In a nook of the hills, about five miles northwest of Taanach, just on the borders of the plain, are ancient ruins, strewn with large fragments of marble sculptures and granite, on both sides of a little stream, but no modern village or houses. The place bears the name of Lejjun, the Arabic corruption of Legio, the Roman name of the Megiddo of the Old Testament. There are few spots of greater interest in the old history of Israel. From the brow here we look out upon the great plain of Esdraelon (the Greek corruption of its old name, the plain or "valley of Jezreel"), the great battle-field of Israel. The wide western portion of it may be called the plain of Megiddo. Megiddo was the fortress of the western portion of the plain. From its position it was the point of contact between the Israelites, who relied solely on their infantry, and the Canaanites and subsequent invaders, whose strength was in their cavalry and chariots. Hence it has been taken in the Apocalypse as the figurative name of the place of final conflict between the powers of good and evil, "called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Rev. 16: 16)—i.e., "the Mount of Megiddo." Two of the great battles of Old Testament history occurred in front of Megiddo. The first was when Barak, stirred up by the prophetess Deborah, roused all the northern and central tribes to shake off the yoke of Jabin, king of Canaan. Sisera's nine hundred chariots of iron were mustered in front of Taanach and Megiddo. Barak descended from Tabor, on the opposite side of the plain, and, as a terrific storm burst upon the Canaanites, fell upon them. The mountain torrents, rapidly swollen, poured down into the Kishon, the river overflowed, and the torrent swept away chariots and horses in hopeless confusion. So "the Lord discomfited Sisera." Very different were the circumstances and the results of the second battle of Megiddo, six hundred and fifty years later. Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, marching against the king of Assyria, came, as it would seem, along the plain of Sharon, and then, rounding Carmel, turned to march up the central plain toward Syria; when Josiah, determined to oppose his progress, met him at Megiddo. Here, exposing himself in his chariot, Josiah was mortally wounded by the Egyptian archers and carried to Jerusalem, where he died, overwhelming his nation in the bitterest grief. The lamentations for Josiah "were made an ordinance in Israel." The battle of Megiddo is mentioned by Herodotus, who speaks of the Jews as Syrians. Josiah was not the first king of Judah to whom Megiddo had been fatal, for here Amaziah died of his wounds when he fled from Jehu (2 K. 9: 27). Tristram. (See Vol. III., pp. 184, 218). The death of Josiah proved an irremediable disaster to the Jewish State. He left behind him a family torn by jealousies and supported by rival factions, a people hostile to the religious reforms he had carried through, and an army which had lost both its leader and its veterans. From henceforth Judah was no longer able to defend itself from an invader, whether Egyptian or Babylonian; and even the strong walls of Jerusalem no longer proved a defence in days when the method of warfare had changed, and a victorious army was content to sit down for years before a fortress until its defenders had been starved out. Necho's triumph, however, was short-lived. Three years after the battle of Megiddo (n.c. 606), he had to meet the Babylonian army, under its young general Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, at the ford of the Euphrates, which was protected by the old Hittite city of Carchemish. The battle of Carchemish finally decided who should be the master of Western Asia. The Egyptian forces were completely shattered, and Necho retreated with the wreck of his army to his ancestral kingdom. Judah and the countries which adjoined it passed under the yoke of Babylonia. Sayce. 2. Chron. 34: 24, 25.** Josiah, who in the course of the fight had been wounded by an arrow, was conveyed to Jerusalem in his second chariot (2 Chron. 35: 24), where he died of his wound in a short time. Great lamentation was made over him, and he was buried with all due honors in his own sepulchre, near the tombs of Amon and Manasseh. Jeremiah mourned his death in a special elegy, which continued to be sung by professional minstrels of both sexes till long after the return from the Captivity (2 Chron. 35: 25). G. R.—The result brought deep sorrow upon all his good people. Jeremiah bewailed his noble sovereign and bosom friend with tenderest lamentation—and not without reason. There were graceless sons to succeed their godly father on his throne—not one worthy man among them all. Days of bitter trial and of stinging grief were coming upon Jeremiah, and perhaps, to no small extent, upon those other good men who had wrought in this great reformation. They must breast the fury of this storm—and with no sustaining hope of arresting the near impending doom of their country. H. C. The prophet Zechariah employs the mourning at Megiddo as a type of the more wholesome sorrow of Judah in the day when God shall pour out upon them the spirit of grace and prayer, as a preparation for His final destruction of all the nations that come up against Jerusalem; and his imagery is adopted in the visions of the Apocalypse. On the very scene of the two most signal defeats of Israel and Judah by their most inveterate enemies, the Philistines and Egypt, the seer beholds the mystic "battle of Armageddon," which avenges all such defeats by the final overthrow of the kings of all the world in the great day of God Almighty. The reign of Josiah was marked by the revival of prophecy, which had long been silent under Manasseh and Amon. To this period belong Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and the greatest of all, Jeremiah. Nahum's splendid prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh seems to have only preceded the event by a short time. The date of Habakkuk, though far from certain, has been placed, upon strong internal evidence, about the twelfth or thirteenth year of Josiah (n.c. 630-629). The title of Zephaniah's prophecy places him in the reign of Josiah; and though it has been inferred from one passage that he wrote after the restoration of Jehovah's worship, his vehement denunciations of the sins that prevailed in Judah seem rather applicable to an earlier period. Jeremiah's long career began in the thirteenth year of Josiah (n.c. 629) with reproaches for sin and warnings of coming judgment, mingled with exhortations and encouragements to repentance, and promises of restoration. Though he is only once mentioned in the history of Josiah's reign, the language of his own book assures us that, both as priest and prophet, he animated the king and people in the work of reformation, and most vigorously denounced the policy of the Egyptian party. His final lamentation for the fate of Josiah must have been doubly embittered by seeing Israel again prostrate beneath her old oppressor. P. S. 2. K. 23 : 25.** Josiah is perhaps the most blameless of the kings of Judah. "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left." "Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might; neither after him arose there any like him." G. R. 26. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not.** The great misfortune was that, as to the generality of the court and people, all this seeming reformation was nothing but show and pretence, a mere compliance with the vigor and resolution of their prince; their hearts were never firmly in it; but, as plainly appears by the event, they were ready to revolt again into their old idolatry and vice upon the first opportunity. They complied with Josiah's religion, but their real inclinations were to the old corruptions of Manasseh; for which reason God still resolved to deliver up this part of His chosen people also to the power of a foreign monarch. Pyle.—The people had sunk into a condition in which a true repentance was no longer possible. Individuals, like Josiah, were sincere, but the mass of the nation, despite their formal renewal of the covenant and their outward perseverance in Jehovah-worship, had feigned rather than felt repentance. The earlier chapters of Jeremiah are full at once of reproaches which he directs against the people for their insincerity, and of promises if they would repent in earnest. "Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord" (Jer. 3 : 10). B. C. The history of this ancient prince suggests that one who becomes a Christian early in life is likely to become a better man than one who first lives through a career of sin. He is likely to be a more consistent Christian. He will probably have fewer faults to get rid of, and fewer habits which his piety must break up. As soon as the young king was old enough to understand the state of things, he set himself, and his ministers, and his cabinet, and his soldiers, and his workmen, to putting things to rights. He began early, and kept at it, and spent his life in it. We are told that he "covenanted to serve God with all his heart and with all his soul." This is making a business of doing right. He started with the very first thing that he had to do, and did it right, and in order to please God. Now this is the true way to be a Christian. There is no great mystery about it. There is nothing in it which a child cannot do by the grace of God as well as anybody else. God does not require you to go through any long season of unhappiness, in trying to feel as some others have felt in repenting of sin. You have only to do right in order to please Christ. That is religion, and that is the whole of it. Phelps. Straightforward and Straightway are two good motto words for the Christian, and especially for the young Christian, as his habits are yet to be formed. He may well mark and fix in mind the meaning of righteousness as here indicated—rightness or rectitude. It is easy to conform to this idea of straightforwardness in conduct in early years; it is more difficult with every added year. Habit is a chain, whose links of thinnest wire at first increase to more than cable thickness at the end. "Since habit is our master," says Bacon, "we should endeavor to form only the best habits." The example of Josiah is one of signal emphasis and force. His piety was not the result of favorable culture, but of his own deliberate choice in early manhood. Every step taken in the successive reforms carried out during his reign was planned and performed by himself. And the zeal, the courage, and the steadfastness of his faith in God, the thorough loyalty to the obligations of his kingly office, which so eminently characterized his youthful career, were maintained to the end of his life. His is one of the few stainless and noble characters in the sacred history. Other high advantages of early consecration. 1. Absence of contaminating contact with evil, so that there is nothing to unlearn or retrace in experience, and nothing to undo in conduct. 2. Life is touched and tinctured at the outset and throughout with a freshness, a beauty, and a sweetness which hold it in perpetual youth, and which impart to it such effectiveness and fruitage that its close is peaceful and satisfying. In the personal work of cleansing, all idols of the heart, all selfish aspirations, and all evil thoughts must be put utterly away. This is our life-work, comparatively easy if early begun, but hard in proportion to the length of time in which self-will and self-seeking have dominion, and to the strength of control which they have obtained over the heart. B. Josiah must not be regarded as an example of the quiet growth of youthful piety under favorable culture. So evil were the influences about him that he only "began to seek after the God of David his father" in his sixteenth year. His religion was his own decided choice, as the first act of his opening manhood; a choice prompted by that loyalty to his high calling as the son of David, which marks every act of his reign. Doubtless he was aided and encouraged by some among the priests, and by prophets, such as Zephaniah and Jeremiah; but it is a striking feature of his history, that the king himself is the prime mover in every act of reformation. P. S. The discovery of the Book of the Law reminds us that the true basis of all religious reform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but he did not know how great the task was which he had taken in hand till he heard the law read. That recovered book gave impulse and direction to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of the Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as a symbol of the whole, Luther's finding the dusty Latin Bible among the neglected convent books. The only reformation of an effete or secularized church is its return to the Bible. A. M.—The Reformation was, in all senses, a resurrection of the Bible; its recovery and restoration as an ancient document; the recognition of its authority as the word of God; the discovery of its meaning as a rule of faith and worship and life, and its new diffusion through the Christian body. The restoration of the Scriptures to their place of power and honor brought with it a revival of true piety scarcely if at all inferior in extent and fervency to that which attended the preaching of the apostles. I. T. God's providence is seen in nothing more remarkably than in the care He has exercised over the written Word. He has wonderfully protected it through all ages alike from the neglect and the fury of men. If for a time the knowledge of it seemed lost, it was again revived at the most favorable juncture for the execution of His purposes. It was Josiah's zeal in the repairing of the Temple which prepared the way for the discovery here; and the book was found just in time to give a new impetus to the reforming movement. In Divine providence, all things fit together in time and place. J. O. In the loss of the Bible and its fruits we should lose the knowledge of the true God. History proves this beyond reasonable dispute. God must speak, or man does not find Him. Mankind needs a book to keep alive in the earth the knowledge of a spiritual and personal God. By the loss of the Scriptures and their results from the knowledge of mankind, we should lose sooner or later our institutions of benevolence. Benevolence on any large scale, and in the form of permanent institutions, and for all classes of mankind is a biblical idea. In the loss of the Bible and its fruits, we should sooner or later suffer the loss of our institutions for popular education. Culture has existed without a revelation from heaven. Schools are not the product of the Bible only. But it is beyond question that popular education is of Bible origin. Other than Christian religions build themselves on the ignorance of the masses. By the loss of the Scriptures and their creations, we should sooner or later part with our institutions of civil liberty. History shows that the great charter of freedom in the world is the word of God. The great free nations of the earth are the great Christian nations. Phelps. God's word is the only agent in humanizing and civilizing mankind. In proportion as it is searched, understood, and obeyed, is human nature lifted up, developed, expanded in all its faculties, purified and ennobled. Even now were the Bible to be destroyed, the nations would be ultimately remitted to barbarism. This is the one supreme lesson of all history, in the Jewish and the Christian dispensations. The true value and real efficiency of the Bible lies not in the number of copies printed, nor in the extent of their distribution; not in the mere possession, but in the regularity, fidelity and heart-interest with which they are searched, and their truths pondered. Bless God that you have a Bible, but do not rest complacently, or even gratefully, in the possession. Get the far better, the needful and all-essential blessing of His Spirit's enlightening and impressing influences upon its quickening, sanctifying and helping truths. Thus only will the Bible be a newly found treasure every day. Thus your vision of truth will be widened, its transforming power will be augmented, and its enriching, comforting and delighting influence enhanced. All who have the Bible and appreciate its worth and power by experience will seek to put it into every hand that has it not. Nay more, every heart that is in any measure "sanctified through the truth" will pray for a similar effect to be wrought by the Spirit upon all who receive the Word. By the Law is the knowledge of sin. So was it in this case of Josiah. So is it in every other. He frankly met his responsibility when he received the needed knowledge. He felt, and by the symbol of rending his clothes acknowledged and confessed, his own sin, and the sin of his people. In his words and his act of inquiry before God, he virtually repeated the confession and the prayer of David (Ps. 51). B. If a man will give God's word a fair hearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees. No man rightly uses God's law who is not convinced by it of his sin, and impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes were the passionate expression. Josiah was wise when he did not turn his thoughts to other people's sins, but began with his own, even while he included others. The first function of the law is to arouse the knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that penitent knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely external. A. M. Josiah's thought and feeling, and his confession and prayer were for his people as much as himself. All alike had sinned, and all deserved the wrath of God. That wrath he sought to avert from all. And he would have the people join in his conviction of sin, share in his confession of it, and unite in his prayer, that its consequences of wrath might be averted. Herein are clearly indicated old and vital lessons. Sin, personal and national, still brings the same wrath of God. That wrath is averted only and surely by full confession, and by frank and utter trust in the promised and long-illustrated mercy of God. B. It is remarkable that through the whole of Josiah's long reign—one of the longest in Judean annals—not one wrong thing is recorded of him. Doubtless he had faults, and did wrong things; but not one was important enough to be mentioned in the Bible. The only important mistake recorded of him was that in which he lost his life by fighting with the king of Egypt. Except that one mistake of excessive bravery and patriotism, not a thing is recorded of him that went wrong. Phelps. God never promises anywhere that those who love and fear Him shall be always saved from the consequences of their mistakes. Josiah was mistaken in going out against Pharaoh-Necho. And he sent to urge him not to assail him as an enemy, when he was not at enmity with him. And this warning of the Egyptian king, though he did not know it, was really a warning from God, and is therefore called "the words of Necho from the mouth of God." Josiah did not regard this warning, and God allowed the natural consequences of his own act to take their course. The arrow did not turn aside because Josiah was a servant of Jehovah, but did its deadly work. What God did then, He does now. Champneys. # REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ, THREE MONTHS. REIGN OF JEHOIAKIM, ELEVEN YEARS. INCIDENTS REPORTED BY JEREMIAH. 23 : 31 JEHOAHAZ was twenty and three years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem : and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. JEHOAHAZ, three months of B.C. 608. (1) 1 Chron. 3: 15; Jer. 22: 11, 12; 2 K. 23: 31, 36, his name was originally Shallum. (2) 2 K. 23: 30-33; 2 Chron. 36: 1-3, the tenure by which he held the throne. (3) 2 K. 23: 32, character of his reign. W. J. B. The death of Josiah, in B.C. 608, marks the virtual end of the kingdom of Judah. The four kings who followed him were the mere pup- pets of Egypt and Babylon, and the twenty- two years of their nominal reigns are occupied with successive conquests and deportations. These twenty-two years are divided into two equal parts by the captivity of Jehoiachin. P. S. The defeat of the Judean army and the death of Josiah not only put an end to his great re- formatory movement, and to the hopes of the possible reunion and recovery of Israel and Ju- dah, but it sounded the knell of Jewish inde- pendence. Henceforth Judah was alternately vassal to Egypt or Babylonia. According to 1 Chron. 3: 15, Josiah had four sons, of whom the eldest, Johanan, seems to have died, either before his father or perhaps in the battle of Me- giddo. The other three, arranging them in the order of age, were Eliakim, afterward called Jehoiakim; Shallum, afterward called Jeho- ahaz; and Zedekiah. On the death of Josiah "the people of the land" made and anointed, as his successor, not the eldest royal prince, but his younger brother Shallum, who, on his accession, assumed the name Jehoahaz, "Je- hovah holds up" (cf. 2 K. 23: 30 with Jer. 22: 11 and 1 Chron. 3: 15). From the fate which so speedily overtook him, we may infer that the popular choice of Jehoahaz was largely influenced by his opposition to Egypt. Of his brief reign of three months we only know that "he did the evil in the sight of Jehovah." Meantime, Necho had, after the battle of Me- giddo, continued his march toward Syria. Thither at Riblah (the modern Ribieh, on the Orontes), "in the land of Hamath," the victor summoned the new Jewish king. On his ar- rival, Jehoahaz, who had been crowned with- out the leave of Necho, was put in bonds. Necho does not seem, on this occasion, to have pursued his expedition against Assyria. The great battle at Carchemish, to which the chron- icer refers by anticipation (2 Chron. 35: 20), was fought on a second expedition, three years later, when the Egyptian army under Necho was defeated with great slaughter by Nebu- chadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar. This was after the fall of Nineveh, and when the Babylonian or Chaldean empire had taken the place of the Assyrian. But on the present oc- casion Necho seems to have returned, before encountering the Assyrians, into Egypt, whither "he brought" with him Jehoahaz, who died in captivity. A. E. Jehoahaz pleased the popular imagination, which saw in him a "young lion," well trained to "catch the prey" and capable of "devour- ing men" (Ezek. 19: 3). The hope was enter- tained that he would raise the fallen fortunes of Judea, and recover her glories for her (ibid., verse 5); and when this hope was disappointed by his capture and deportation to Egypt, the regret was excessive. Among others, Jeremiah himself bewailed him. "Weep ye not for the dead," he said—i.e., for Josiah—"neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country" (Jer. 22:10). No Jewish prince before him had died in exile; and the prophecy that he should do so touched the nation's heart with a feeling of deep commiseration. G. R.—His brief reign was characterized by wickedness and oppression, but he was lamented as the last king of the people's choice. The fortunes of Jehoahaz and his two successors are described in highly poetical imagery by Ezekiel (19:1-9). P. S. Jehoiakim's Accession, 608 B.C., his "first year" being the year 607 B.C. (2 K. 23:33-36; 2 Chron. 36:3-5). 1. His tenure of the throne. 2. The fine, why levied, and how paid. 3. General character of his reign. "The Beginning" of his Reign, perhaps B.C. 607, 606. 1. Jer. 26:20-23, the prophesying and death of Urijah (by extradition from Egypt). 2. Jer. 26, the trial of Jeremiah for prophesying. 3. Jer. 7-10, fuller text of the prophecies for which he was tried, cf. 7:2 and 26:2: (a) 7:12-15 and 26:6, 9, etc.; 9:11, cf. 26:9, the two specifications of the charge; (b) 26:17-19, the precedent cited in Jeremiah's favor; (c) 26:20-23, the precedent cited against him. His Third Year, B.C. 605, accession year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 K. 24:1; 2 Chron. 36:6, 7; Dan. 1:1-16). Jehoiakim changes masters. His Fourth Year, B.C. 604, the "first" year of Nebuchadnezzar. 1. Jer. 46:1-49:33; 25:1-38, especially verse 13. Jeremiah's written prophecy "concerning the nations;" the great battle of Carchemish. 2. Jer. 45; 36:1-8. Baruch writing Jeremiah's prophecies. His Fifth Year, B.C. 603, Jer. 36:9-32. 1. Burning of Baruch's first roll, and writing of the second. 2. Daniel and his companions, Dan. 1:17-20, graduate from Nebuchadnezzar's training school; Dan. 2, Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Remainder of his Reign, B.C. 602-597. 1. 2 K. 24:1-4, his rebellion and its consequences. 2. Jer. 35, the Rechabites. 3. Jer. 22:1-4, etc., opportunities for repentance. 4. Jer. 52:28, three thousand and twenty-three persons deported in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, the tenth of Jehoiakim. 5. 2 K. 24:6; Jer. 36:30, 31; 22:18, 19, his death, in Jerusalem, by violence, in his eleventh year. W. J. B. The prophets Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah belong to the kingdom of Judah, in the Babylonian period. The characteristics of this period shed much light upon their utterances. It was a time of widespread and increasing corruption. In the face of judgments, the nation is presumptuous in self-confidence and obstinate in sin. False prophets abound and are strong in influence. The true prophets of Jehovah suffer persecution. The Babylonian power, the instrument of the Divine judgment, arises, threatens and at length executes. Judah falls before it, as the kingdom of the north had fallen before Assyria. The prophecy of this period is characterized chiefly by denunciation, yet is not without consolation. For Judah there exists a larger hope than, previously, for Israel. She is not completely apostate, nor is she to disappear finally from history. Moreover, the time is peculiarly ripe for the proclamation of the world-judgment, and in this is found hope for the remnant of Judah. The leading figure of the times is Jeremiah. His ministry was long in duration; the record of it is extensive. The activity of his contemporaries was shorter; their recorded prophecies are brief. Zephaniah emphasizes especially "the day of Jehovah" and its results. His message, strongly positive, is directed principally to Judah. Habakkuk has left us one of the most beautiful books of Hebrew literature. His message is particularly directed against Babylon. Especially does he emphasize abiding faithfulness toward Jehovah. G. S. Burroughs. With the reign of Jehoiakim began, within the walls of Jerusalem, one of the noblest and most glorious moral contests which the page even of sacred history records. Almost single-handed, for the long period of above twenty years, the gentle and timid Jeremiah stood forth for the Lord in opposition to the united power and fury of the kings, princes and priests of Jerusalem. In his communings with his God we have glimpses of the dreadful expense of personal suffering at which this conflict was maintained by him; but in public, whether in prison or at large, in the palace or in the Temple, we never see him flinch from uttering the stern message committed to him. W. G. B. # Summaries of Jehoiakim's Reign. Jehoiakim, the eighteenth king of Judah, was twenty-five years old when he was placed on the throne by Pharaoh-Necho, instead of his brother Jehoahaz; and he reigned eleven years at Jerusalem, doing evil in the sight of Jehoah. Jeremiah sternly rebukes his injustice and oppression, his cruelty and avarice, and his reckless luxury in building himself a magnificent palace, and contrasts all this with his father's justice to the poor; and in the Chronicles his name is dismissed with an allusion to "all the abominations that he did." From the very commencement of his reign, the voice of Jeremiah is heard plainly predicting, and prefiguring by striking signs, the captivity at Babylon as a judgment rendered inevitable by the people's sins, but adding the promise of their future restoration. In one of these prophecies, after mourning the death of Josiah and the hopeless captivity of Jehoahaz, he predicts the fate of Jehoiakim to the very details of his dishonored end (22:1-23). On another occasion the prophet took his stand in the court of the Temple, amid an assemblage from all the cities of Judah, to proclaim that God would even yet repent Him of the coming evil if they turned to Him, but if not, that His house should be destroyed like the tabernacle at Shiloh, and the city made a curse to all nations. The priests and prophets now resolved on Jeremiah's death; and they had a precedent in the case of Urijah, the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who, having uttered prophecies like those of Jeremiah, had been pursued by the envoys of Jehoiakim into Egypt, and brought back to suffer an ignominious death. The princes of Judah, however, before whom Jeremiah was arraigned, appealed to the better precedent of the times of Hezekiah, who allowed Micah to prophesy with impunity, and Jeremiah's life was saved by the influence of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and other old counsellors of Josiah (Jer. 26). These warnings were given in the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, and their fulfilment was soon begun by the overthrow of his Egyptian protector. P. S. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh-Necho met in the vicinity of Carchemish (now Jerablus), in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, which was the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar, and contended in a great battle, wherein ultimately the Babylonians were victorious. The battle is prophetically, but very graphically, described by the prophet Jeremiah (46:3-12). Jehoiakim was only too glad to submit, and become Nebuchadnezzar's servant (2 K. 24:1) instead of Necho's, and pay his homage and his tribute to his new sovereign. The kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, probably also those of Tyre and Sidon, did the same. Nebuchadnezzar, however, was prevented from punishing Necho as he desired, or completing his arrangements for the future government of Syria and Palestine, by intelligence which reached him as he was about to ascend the valley of the Nile. His father, Nabopolassar, had succumbed to his weight of years, and died at Babylon, in the twenty-first year of his reign, n.c. 605. Arrived at Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne without difficulty, but the state of affairs seeming to require his presence in the East rather than in the West, he for some time left Syria and Palestine to themselves—a policy sure to result in fresh troubles. A single defeat was not likely to have cowed the possessor of an old and powerful monarchy; and the petty kingdoms of southwestern Asia were almost certain to incline to that one of the two rival empires which was not at the time their master. Necho, under the circumstances, naturally encouraged this disposition, and it was not long before some of the petty kings openly revolted and declared themselves independent of Babylon. Jehoiakim was the first to take the plunge. In the fourth year after his subjugation, n.c. 602, despite the warnings of Jeremiah, he "turned and rebelled against" Nebuchadnezzar (2 K. 24:1). At first the Great King was content to punish him by sending against him a few "bands" of Chaldeans, which, in combination with some of the neighboring nations—as the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites—plundered and ravaged his territory; but about the year n.c. 598, Ithobal, king of Tyre, having also rebelled, he marched at the head of a large army into Syria. The sieges of Tyre and Jerusalem were formed simultaneously; but, while Tyre resisted with great obstinacy, Jerusalem very soon succumbed. Jehoiakim fell into Nebuchadnezzar's hands, was executed, and received at first "the burial of an ass" (Jer. 22:19); but his remains were afterward collected, and interred in the sepulchre of Manasseh. G. R. 2. K. 24:1.** The sudden disappearance of Assyria from the scene, and the sudden appearance of Babylon upon it at this point of the history, are very remarkable. Without a word upon the circumstances that had brought it about, the writer of Kings shows us that a great crisis in the world's history has come and gone; that the mighty State which had dominated Western Asia for centuries is no more, and has been superseded by a new and hitherto scarce heard of power. "In his [Jehoiakim's] days Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up." Babylon had in remote days (Gen. 10: 8-10) been a powerful State, and had even possessed an empire; but for the last seven hundred years or more she had been content to play a very secondary part in Western Asia, and had generally been either an Assyrian feudatory or an integral part of the Assyrian monarchy. But in the counsels of God it had been long decreed that she, and not Assyria, should be God's instrument for the chastisement of His people. Therefore, as the appointed time for Assyria's fall approached, Babylon was made to increase in power and greatness. A wave of invasion, which passed over the rest of Western Asia, left her untouched. A great monarch was given her in the person of Nabopolassar, who read aright the signs of the times, saw in Media a desirable ally, and, having secured Median co-operation, revolted against the long-established sovereign power. A short, sharp struggle followed, ending in the utter collapse of the great Assyrian empire, and the siege and fall of Nineveh. The two conquering States partitioned between them the Assyrian dominions—Media taking the countries which lay to the northwest and north, Babylon those toward the southwest and south. Thus, so far as the Jews were concerned, Babylon, between B.C. 625 and B.C. 608, had stepped into Assyria's place. She had become "the hammer of the whole earth" (Jer. 50: 23); God's battle-axe and weapons of war (Jer. 51: 20), wherewith He brake in pieces nations and kingdoms, man and woman, old and young, captains and rulers. The prophecy of Isaiah to Hezekiah (chap. 20: 16-19), which seemed so unlikely of fulfilment at the time that it was uttered, found a natural and easy accomplishment, the course of events in the latter part of the seventh century B.C. having transferred to Babylonia, under Divine direction and arrangement, that grand position and dignity which had previously been Assyria's. When she had served God's purpose, Babylon's turn came; and she sank as suddenly as she had risen, because she too had been "proud against the Lord" (Jer. 50: 29), and had provoked His indignation. Hammond. 2,3. The rejection of Judah is again in these verses connected with the sin of Manasseh, only, however, as before shown, because people and rulers made these sins their own, and would not depart from them. Heathenism was again rampant, and Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, was shedding "innocent blood." Scripture knows no fatalism beyond that which springs from the incorrigibleness of a people wedded to their sins. Neither is there any sin which, if sincerely repented of, God will not pardon, though its temporal effects may still have to be endured. But there is the awful possibility of getting beyond pardon through our own obduracy. Both sides of the truth are seen in Jeremiah—on the one hand, exhortations to repentance, with assurances of forgiveness (Jer. 18: 7-10; 26: 1-3; 35: 15); and, on the other, declarations that the time for pardon was past (Jer. 7: 13-16, 27, 28; 11: 11-14; 15: 1; 18: 11, 12; 36: 16, 17, etc.). It was not because the fathers had eaten sour grapes that the children's teeth were set on edge (Ezek. 18: 2); but the children had walked in the fathers' ways. J. O. 2. Chron. 36: 6, 7. Nebuchadnezzar advanced to Jerusalem, which he took after a brief siege, dethroned Jehoiakim, and put him in fetters, with a view to carry him to Babylon. For some reason this intention was abandoned, and Jehoiakim was restored to his throne as a vassal. His treasures were carried off to Babylon, where the vessels of the sanctuary were dedicated in the temple of Belus. At the same time Nebuchadnezzar commissioned Ashpenaz, the chief of his eunuchs, to choose a number of royal and noble Hebrew youths, excelling alike in beauty and mental accomplishments, to be brought up at his court and trained in the learning of Chaldea. Among those thus selected were Daniel, with his three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. P. S.—Nebuchadnezzar was one of the most mild of all the Assyrian and Babylonian sovereigns. While a skilful warrior, he cared more for building and adorning temples, for beautifying Babylon and for constructing great canals, than for the clash of war. When Jehoiakim submits, Nebuchadnezzar leaves him quietly on the throne. When he revolts, the Babylonian army comes again—"surely at the commandment of Jehovah," writes the historian, "came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did." Lyon. 2. K. 24: 7. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land. Necho's two expeditions were enough for him. In the first he was completely successful, defeated Josiah, overran Syria as far as Carchemish, and made Phœnicia, Judea, and probably the adjacent countries tributary to him. In the second (Jer. 46 : 2-12) he suffered a calamitous reverse, was himself defeated with great slaughter, forced to fly hastily, and to relinquish all his conquests. After this, he "came not any more out of his land." Whatever hopes he held out to Judea or to Tyre, he was not bold enough to challenge the Babylonians to a third trial of strength, but remained peaceably within his own borders. Hammond. The writers of Kings and Chronicles include Jehoiakim's reign of eleven years in nine and four verses respectively, only four verses (in Kings) more than Jehoahaz's reign of three months. All the detail of Jehoiakim's history we find in the 26th and 36th chapters of Jeremiah, which follow. The 45th chapter is added to complete the story of Baruch. B. 24 : 8 JEHOIACHIN was eighteen years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months : and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came unto the city, while his servants were besieging it ; and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers : and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths ; none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon ; and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths a thousand, all of them strong and apt for war, even then the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem : and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence : and Zedekiah re- FOLLOWING a practice not uncommon in the East, Nebuchadnezzar, while executing the was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about:) and they went by the way of the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgement upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. Josiah had four sons (1 Chron. 3:15)—Johanan, the eldest, who probably died before his father; Jehoiakim, or Eliakim, the second, who was twenty-five years old at his father's death; Jehoahaz, the third, otherwise called Shallum, who, when his father died, was aged twenty-three; and Mattaniah, the youngest, who must have been then aged ten or nine. It was this fourth son, now grown to manhood, whom Nebuchadnezzar appointed king in Jehoiachin's room. Hammond.—Zedekiah, the twentieth and last king of Judah, and the youngest son of Josiah and Hamutai, was twenty-one years old at his accession, and reigned eleven years, till the final destruction of Jerusalem. His proper name, Mattaniah, was changed to Zedekiah at his accession. The only events of his reign, except the brief record of the fall of Jerusalem, are those connected with the history of Jeremiah, from whose book we learn the spirit of the times. Zedekiah accepted his royalty over the impoverished remnant of the Jews as the vassal of Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he was bound by every principle of good faith. The fate of his brother and his nephew had proved the hopelessness of rebellion even before the whole strength of the nation had been carried into captivity. The miserable remnant might well envy the condition of their captive brethren, and the time had at length come for piety and patriotism to show themselves in a wise submission to the will of God. Of such a course Jeremiah was the assiduous adviser. P. S.—The events connected with the history of Jeremiah and those connected with the fall of Jerusalem sum up the records of his reign. Established upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, after the Temple and palace had been despoiled and the best warriors and artisans of the kingdom had been sent to Babylon, his kingship was only nominal and tributary. Disregarding the counsel of Jeremiah, he followed in the evil courses of Jehoiakim, and was persuaded to break his allegiance to the Babylonish king. His character was rather weak than wicked, yet at the instigation of the Egyptian party, like Manasseh, he shed much innocent blood. B. Zedekiah's dealings with Jeremiah exhibit him as a weak rather than a wicked man. He had a friendly feeling toward the prophet, a belief in his supernatural gifts, and a desire to shield him from the violence of the nobles, who sought his life. But he had not sufficient strength of character to adopt the course which the prophet recommended, to impose his will upon the nobles, or even to protect Jeremiah from them boldly and openly. He was a man of half measures, timid, impressible, vacillating. He strove to reconcile an acknowledgment of Jehovah with disobedience to His expressed will, kindness toward Jeremiah with complaisance toward his persecutors, renewal of the covenant with flagrant transgressions of its plain requirements (Jer. 34:8-21). Better disposed than any of the later monarchs except Josiah, he nevertheless brought his country to destruction. Having neither sufficient wisdom to perceive what the course of political affairs was likely to be, nor sufficient faith to accept the authoritative announcements made to him of what the course was to be, he undertook an impossible task, and ruined both himself and his country. B. C. 2. K. 24:20. Zedekiah's rebellion permitted by God for the destruction of Judah. Had he remained true to his allegiance to Babylon, the city and the Temple of Jehovah might have continued, and Zedekiah remained ruler of the Babylonian province of Judah. But God had decreed the captivity of Judah as well as Israel. The cup of Judah's iniquity was now full, and Nebuchadnezzar was God's instrument in its final subjection and exile. 2. K. 25:1-3. The closing siege of Jerusalem and its effects. The memorable day is here given in which the armies of Babylon invested the city, and the period of continuance of the siege. It began on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. This day ever afterward was commemorated by the Israelites as a fast. On that day the vast army of Nebuchadnezzar, comprising representatives of all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, "pitched against Jerusalem, and built forts round about it." The siege lasted a year and a half. The result is simply stated in the fact that there was no bread for the people in the city. Intimations in the Book of Lamentations show how terrible were the sufferings of the besieged inhabitants. B.—The final siege of the Jerusalem of the monarchy lasted for eighteen months—a long siege according to our modern ideas, but short compared to many of the great sieges of history. The siege of Troy was ten years, that of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar occupied thirteen years, and that of Ashdod (or Azotus) by Psammetichus, king of Egypt, twenty-nine years. Of course, these sieges were rather blockades than a series of assaults. The description, in the passage before us, of the capture of Jerusalem, is easily understood from the position and character of the place. The two southern hills, Zion and Moriah, were, under the conditions of ancient warfare, impregnable on the south and east sides, while to the north and west they were flanked by the lower city, where was the chief part of the population, and had inner walls, defensible, should the outer city be stormed. The Chaldean army assaulted on the north side of the lower city, at what was afterward called the second wall, near where the Damascus gate now stands. This was the only part where mounds and battering-rams could be used, the other faces of the city being too steep. Zedekiah and the garrison were in Zion, the city of David, within the inner wall; but they abandoned all attempt at further resistance, and fled. Tristram. 1. Extreme exactness with respect to a date indicates the extreme importance of the event dated. In the whole range of the history contained in the two Books of the Kings, there is no instance of the year, month, and day being all given excepting in the present chapter, where we find this extreme exactness three times (verses 1, 4 and 8). Hammond.—As the final catastrophe approaches, the historian becomes more close and exact in his dates, marking not only the year, but the month and the day, on which the siege began, no less than those on which it closed. Compare Jer. 52: 4 and Ezek. 24: 1, from which last passage we find that on the very day when the host of Nebuchadnezzar made its appearance before Jerusalem, the fact was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylonia, and the fate of the city announced to him (verses 6-14). Against Jerusalem. The army seems to have at first spread itself over all Judea. It fought, not only against Jerusalem, but "against all the cities of Judah that were left"—and especially against Lachish and Azekah (Jer. 34: 7), two cities of the south (2 Chron. 11: 9), which had probably been strongly garrisoned in order to maintain the communication with Egypt. This division of the Babylonian forces encouraged the Egyptians to make an effort. After the siege of Jerusalem had continued for a certain time, news arrived that Hophra had put his troops in motion and was advancing to the relief of his Jewish allies (Jer. 37: 5). On hearing this, Nebuchadnezzar, who saw the importance of concentrating his forces, broke up from before Jerusalem, and marched away to the south. There he probably effected a junction with the detachments which were besieging Azekah and Lachish, thus saving them from destruction, and at the same time showing to the Egyptians his readiness to give them battle. It appears that the display was enough. The timid southerners, finding their enemy prepared to receive them, shrank back, returned into their own country (Jer. 37: 7; Ezek. 17: 17), and took no further part in the war. Nebuchadnezzar then led back his army, and once more invested the city. B. C. In the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month. Upon this very day Ezekiel, in captivity, announced to the exiles about him that siege had been laid to the city (Ezek. 24: 1, 2), and that it should certainly be taken, and the sanctuary profaned. This crisis in the affairs of the capital city was a turning-point likewise in Ezekiel's ministry. Up to this time the exiles had maintained their confidence that the city of God could not be taken, and that the captivity would be of short duration; and, in consequence of these fallacious hopes, they did not submit with penitence and humility to this Divine discipline. It was necessary, therefore, for Ezekiel constantly to utter the language of denunciation and warning, and to insist upon the certainty and necessity of the overthrow of the city. From the day of the beginning of the siege until word was brought him of the fall of the city (Ezek. 24: 27; 33: 21, 22) he was dumb as to the exercise of his ministry, and discontinued his disclosures on that subject. Thenceforward his ministry was one of consolation and blessing, setting forth the assurance that God would protect and regather His captive people. W. H. G. 3. The famine. That the city yielded only to famine—famine which brought pestilence in its train—is apparent from many passages of Jeremiah (21:7, 9; 32:24; 38:9, etc.). The intensity of the suffering endured may be gathered from Lamentations, Ezekiel and Josephus. The complexions of the men grew black with famine (Lam. 4:8; 5:10); their skin was shrunk and parched (ibid. 4:8); the rich and noble women searched the dunghills for scraps of offal (ibid. 4:5); the children perished for want, or were even devoured by their parents (ibid. 2:20; 4:3, 4, 10; Ezek. 5:10); water was scarce, as well as food, and was sold at a price (Lam. 5:4); a third part of the inhabitants died of the famine and the plague which grew out of it (Ezek. 5:12). B. C. 2. K. 25:4, 5. The escape, pursuit, and capture of Zedekiah and his army. A breach was made in the walls, and the city was entered at midnight (Josephus; Ezek. 12:2-12). The entrance was effected by the northern gate. Through the darkness of the night, lit up, if at all, only by the nine days' moon, the Chaldean guards silently made their way from street to street, till they suddenly appeared in the centre of the Temple court, in the middle gateway which opened directly on the great brazen altar. Never before had such a spectacle been seen in the inviolable sanctuary of Jerusalem. Then the sleeping city woke. A clang and cry resounded through the silent precincts at that dead hour of night. The first victims were those who, whether from religious or superstitious feelings and duties, were habitually occupants of the sacred buildings. The virgin marble of the courts ran red with blood, like a rocky wine-press in the vintage (Lam. 1:15). The alarm soon spread to the palace. In the twilight of the early summer dawn, these dreadful scenes were dimly discerned from the palace below; and before the sun had risen, the king, with his wives and children and the royal guard, escaped, not by any of the regular gates, but by a passage broken through a narrow alley confined between two walls, at the southeastern corner of the city, which the Chaldean army had not been able completely to invest. They passed out with their heads muffled, either for disguise, or to express their sense of the greatness of the calamity, and bearing on their shoulders such articles of value as they hoped to save. As in the case of David, the object of the king was to escape to the east of the Jordan. He and his companions descended, unobserved, by the royal gardens, and down the steep descent to Jericho. There he was overtaken by the Chaldean soldiers, who had received intelligence of his flight from deserters; and in that wide plain, the scene of the first triumph of Joshua, was fought the last fight of the expiring monarchy. His troops fled, and were scattered to the winds. Stanley. With this account of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar should be compared the narrative of its later destruction by Titus (A.D. 70). History does not always repeat itself; but in this instance it does so with marvellous fidelity. The close investment of the city, the desperate resistance, the horrors of famine within, the incidents of the capture, the burning of the Temple, the demolition of the walls, and the captivity of the people, present striking parallels in the two cases. By one of those rare coincidences that sometimes occur, it was on the very same month and day of the month on which the Temple was burned by Nebuchadnezzar, that the sanctuary was fired by the soldiers of Titus. The earlier destruction fulfilled the predictions of the prophets; the later, the predictions of our Lord. One stands appalled at so complete a wreck of a city which God had once honored by making it the place of His abode, and for which He had done such great things in the past. But the lesson we are to learn from it is that nothing can reverse the action of moral laws. God is terrible in His justice. Though a person or place is as "the signet upon His right hand," yet will He pluck it thence, if it abandons itself to wickedness (Jer. 22:24, 28). J. O. 4. Ezekiel (Ezek. 12:12) prophesied the very details of the flight. It was to be "in the dark," the king himself was to "carry" some of his valuables, they were to "dig through" the earthen ramparts; and all appears to have been literally fulfilled. The flight was taken in the opposite direction from the entrance of the besiegers; two walls, which probably ran down the valley between Zion and the Temple mount, afforded cover to the fugitives as far as to the south city wall, and there some postern let them out to the king's garden. That is a tragic touch. It was no time then to gather flowers. The forlorn and frightened company seems to have scattered when once outside the city; for there is a marked contrast in verse 4 between "they fled" and "he went." In the description of his flight, Zedekiah is still called, as in verses 1 and 2, the king; but after his capture he is only "Zedekiah." A. M. 6. They brought him to Ribiah. Nebuchadnezzar had, some time before, left Nebuzaradan in command; and as he was carrying on the siege of Tyre at the same time, had himself pitched his camp at Riblah, where the caravan route from Chaldea across the desert enters the upper Syrian plain, and then divides, one road leading south to Samaria and Judea, and another southwest under the spurs of Lebanon toward Tyre. It is situated on the side of a stream near the mountains, in a wide fertile plain, and was a regular outpost of Assyrian armies. It still retain its ancient name. From this position, then, the king could control the operations of both the besieging armies. Tristram.—And they gave judgment upon him. As a rebel, who had broken his covenant and his oath (Ezek. 17 : 16, 18), Zedekiah was brought to trial before Nebuchadnezzar and his great lords. The facts could not be denied, and sentence was therefore passed upon him, nominally by the court, practically by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52 : 9). By an unusual act of clemency, his life was spared; but the judgment was still sufficiently severe. Hammond. 7. This king, Zedekiah, both weak and wicked, met a fearful doom—his sons slain before his eyes, himself brought to look face to face into the eyes of the Chaldean king against whom he had faithlessly rebelled. Then his eyes were put out, and himself taken in chains to Babylon to die there. With singular minuteness all the apparently conflicting prophecies concerning him were precisely fulfilled. Ezekiel (chap. 12 : 13) had said of him, “I will bring him to Babylon, yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.” Precisely so. He was borne there, yet never to see that great city not the light of day there. These nobles of Judah, whom we have seen exerting a sway so absolute and so pernicious over this weak king, are all slain. H. C.—Thus were fulfilled two prophecies that seemed to contradict one another; the first that of Jeremiah, that “Zedekiah’s eyes should behold the eyes of the king of Babylon” (Jer. 32 : 4), and the other that of Ezekiel, that “he should not see Babylon, though he should die there.” W. Loeth. He was made to witness the execution of his own sons, and of all the princes of his court. These fearful executions were then indelibly impressed upon his mind by the destruction of his own sight. He was then bound in chains, and remained in prison until his death. In the death of Zedekiah ended the royal house of David. And thus was closed the sad experiment of monarchy in Israel. It had been begun nearly five hundred years before, by the people’s rejection of Jehovah’s personal rule and their choice of Saul as their king. Broken in twain at Solomon’s death, the severed parts had each nineteen kings (or twenty, if we count Tibni and Athaliah). The great root-sin in each kingdom was idolatry; the source of all the long series of calamities, as it was the cause of successive Divine judgments. For this cause at last God was constrained to extirpate the desired monarchy, and to depopulate the very land which He had originally given to their fathers. But the great evil was eradicated by the long captivity in Babylon. In the sad years of exile the remnant of God’s people learned the lesson taught by a discipline so severe. Strangers in a strange land, the faithful ones among them pondered the teachings of the prophets, whose books they had borne with them. And God interposed still in their behalf by merciful providences, and communicated with them by the living prophets Daniel and Ezekiel. Thus He prepared them, when at length they utterly gave up their idolatry, for the period of return and partial restoration in the land of their fathers. B. The sinful heart remains unwarned and untouched by the most fearful consequences of others’ sin, though these are seen ever so clearly. Zedekiah and his princes received warning upon warning, not only by the mouth of Jeremiah, but by the successive visitations of calamity during the three preceding brief reigns. Yet they would not learn these multiplied lessons; but in the face of consequences so terrible they filled up the measure of their own iniquities. And such has ever been the course of the naturally deceitful, desperately wicked heart of man. Even when sentence is executed speedily upon others, their hearts remain set in them to do evil. God’s strange work of judgment will at last be performed. By the legitimate effect of his own evil doing upon the transgressor, and by the natural instrumentality of other wicked men, His visitations of punishment are finally wrought. Thus was it with the people of Judah in these closing reigns. And this is one of the strongly significant lessons of these reigns. God will not be mocked, nor will He stay His avenging hand, when the day of His mercy is overpassed. This captive, blinded, imprisoned, crushed and hopeless king presents to us a signal type of the end of every wilful transgressor against Divine mercy. Under sin’s cruel mastery the soul is at last bound and blinded, and hopelessly crushed forever in the prison of despair. Yet God is rich in mercy to all that call upon Him. He desires not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And He will save to the uttermost all that come unto Him by Christ Jesus. B. The story of the Judean captivity brings to view, as every other great event in history does, these two distinct lines of purpose—the line of God and the line of man. To effect God's will in the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, this one man must suffer the barbarities of ancient warfare, and die at last a dethroned prince, a childless father, a blind old man, in an enemy's country, and in a dungeon. Yet the great wheels of Providence moved on calmly and relentlessly, crushing out that one life as if no being in the universe cared for it. No friendly ear seemed to hear the death-cry of the victim. Of the many truths which the passage before us teaches, this mysterious intervolution of the plans of God with the plans of men will seem to some minds the most impressive. The enclosure of the plans of men within the plans of God is such that commonly men appear to be left very much to themselves. This unfortunate prince, whose lot it was to close the line of independent monarchs on the throne of Judah, does not appear to have been overruled by any visible network of Divine purposes. Yet all the while a plan of God enveloped him, which touched and checked at all points his plans, directed his workings to God's ends, and wrought out over and around him a chapter of universal history, which was to concern the world in distant ages, and nations yet unborn. Such is the sublime involution of every human life with the purposes of God. So noiseless is His working, that, when men are defeated, His agency is not forced upon their notice. They need not see Him if they choose not to see Him. Commonly they do not see Him. They say of their misfortunes, "Luck was against me." In leaving men to themselves in the forming and working of their own plans, Divine control does not prevent the occurrence of very shocking catastrophes. God does seem to leave men to their fate at times, as if death-throes were no concern of His. All happy things at such times appear to mock human agony with a ferocity all the more unbearable because it is so still and so beautiful, yet so cold-blooded. Individuals are left to work out their own ruin. Tempters do devil's work on the young and the unwary. Innocent ones suffer with the guilty. Nations trample out nations in the rage of their huge passions. The millions are dragged under by the pride of one. Helpless women and little children are the victims. The great wheels crash into and crumple up the little wheels. Happy homes give place to battle-grounds. Wheat-fields grow rank, fertilized by human blood. Artillery thunders in cemeteries, and ploughs open graves. So human life goes on. This is history. Yet the plans of God envelop and use the plans of men with more than motherly tenderness for every man, every woman, every child. In infinite pity He looks down upon man, woman, child, one by one. The remoteness of His hiding is only the measure of His love. All the mystery springs from the fact that His melting eye looks so far ahead, and His soft hand reaches down to the roots of suffering, so far beyond our sight, or even our will to see. God only knows the love of God. This truth in its fulness we owe to the Bible. Through the whole range of the Old Testament this idea runs—that God is a personal and faithful friend to every one who will be His friend. Do we venture to say, "Our Father"? He responds, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort thee." The New Testament declares the same with yet more intense significance. Taking this key from God's word, we can unlock the whole mystery of life so far as suffering is concerned. To eyes once opened to this truth, it throws a flood of golden light over the blackest and most tempestuous midnight of a troubled life. Such a man knows that there is a God in heaven whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, but who deigns to dwell in the homes of men. You can neither prove it to him nor disprove it. He knows it. The interlacing of the plans of God with the plans of men goes far toward explaining the mystery of shocking and exceptional calamity. Starting with the inexplicable fact of sin, there is little mystery left in any kind or degree or combinations of suffering. In a world overrun with sin and steeped in guilt as this world is, suffering is no mystery. It is God's great remedial antidote to sin. The mystery would be fearful if there were none. Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. The great object of this life is character. This is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity. Benevolent discipline, therefore, is aimed at the accumulating, the consolidating, and the purifying, of character. To gain the most of it, and the best of it, is the object of probation. For such an object, suffering must often take on a surgical severity. The interworking of the plans of God with the plans of men suggests the only true method of happy as well as holy living. It is to make our plans one with God's plans. Thus blessedness is sure for both worlds. Study God's plans; study His providences; study His word; hearken for the whispers of His Spirit. Make much of still hours. Find out thus your place in God's purposes of procedure. Then drop into that place trustfully and contentedly. Move with His moves, start at His bidding, go here, go there, stay, as He directs. Lie still and suffer, if that be the order from above. Have no will but His. Phelps. The last verse of chapter 51 runs: "Thus far the words of Jeremiah." This 52d chapter is not Jeremiah's work; it is not his style. The author of it writes Jehoiachin; Jeremiah writes him always Jeconiah, or Coniah. It is merely historical. The author, whoever he was, relates the capture of Jerusalem, the fate of Zedekiah, the pillage and burning of the city and the Temple. He mentions also certain persons of distinction who were slain by the Chaldeans. He mentions the number of the captives that were carried to Babylon at three different times; and concludes with the deliverance of King Jehoiachin from prison in Babylon, in which he had been for thirty-seven years. It is very likely that the whole chapter has been compiled from some chronicle of that time; or it was designed as a preface to the Book of the Lamentations; and would stand with great propriety before it, as it contains the facts on which that inimitable poem is built. A. C. This chapter was confessedly added by some one after Jeremiah's time, probably by Ezra, or whoever revised the sacred writings after the return of the Jews from Babylon, and collected them into one body. It contains a brief history of the captivity, nearly the same, word for word, as it is related in the second Book of Kings, chap. 24: 18-20 and 25, together with some few additions. Some have supposed it placed here as a proper introduction to the Book of Lamentations. But more probably the design was, by immediately subjoining this historical narrative of the desolations of the Jewish nation to the predictions of Jeremiah concerning them, to hold forth a nearer view of the exact accomplishment of the Divine word of prophecy. Blayney.—It is by no means unnatural that a judicious compiler should deem it important to append to such a book of prophecies a succinct historical sketch of the fall of Jerusalem, the disposal made of the captives, and the ultimate fortunes of their surviving king, Jehoiachin. If Jeremiah had written this chapter, there is no reason apparent why it should not have come in its natural order with chap. 39, where, in verses 1-10, he gives his account of the capture of the city. If these views are correct, this chapter should appropriately have been styled, not Jeremiah, chap. 52, but "A supplement to Jeremiah by the compiler." H. C. 2. Kings 25 : 22-26. A Brief Outline. 25 : 22 AND as for the people that were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor. 23. Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netopha- 24 thite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. And Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not because of the servants of the Chaldeans : 25 dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and 26 the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah. And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt : for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. 8. Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And the residue of the people that were left in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away captive. But the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases and the brasen sea that were in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. And the firepans, and the basons; that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away. The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which 27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison ; and he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. And he changed his prison garments, and did eat bread before him continually all the days of his life. And for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him of the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life. (Jeremiah 52 : 31-34 identical with above.)