PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Books of Chronicles
Bennett, W. H. (William Henry) · 128,650 words · 176 reading sections
Chapter I. The Last Prayer Of David. 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19.
Another point that the chronicler objects to in Jeroboam’s priests is the want of any other than a property qualification. Any one who chose could be a priest. Such a system combined what might seem opposite vices. It preserved an official ministry; these self-appointed priests formed a clerical order; and yet it gave …
667 wordsSECTION 122Chapter I. The Last Prayer Of David. 1 Chron. xxix. 10-19.
Ritual, too, has its negative value. By observing the Levitical ordinances the Jews were protected from the vagaries of any ambitious owner of a young bullock and seven rams. While we grant liberty to all to use the form of worship in which they find most spiritual profit, we need to have Churches whose ritual will be …
260 wordsSECTION 123Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Abijah, dying, as far as we can gather from Chronicles, in the odour of sanctity, was succeeded by his son Asa. The chronicler’s history of Asa is much fuller than that which is given in the book of Kings. The older narrative is used as a framework into which material from later sources is freely inserted. The beginnin…
878 wordsSECTION 124Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Jehovah justified the trust reposed in Him. He smote the Ethiopians, and they fled towards the south-west in the direction of Egypt; and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar, with fearful slaughter, so that of Zerah’s million followers not one remained alive.(348) Of course this statement is hyperbolical. The …
674 wordsSECTION 125Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
But the principle has a wider application. A little examination of the more obscure and complicated movements of social life will show moral forces everywhere overcoming and controlling the apparently irresistible material forces opposed to them. The English and American pioneers of the movements for the abolition of s…
828 wordsSECTION 126Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Another minor discrepancy is found in the statement that “the heart of Asa was perfect all his days”; this is reproduced verbatim from the book of Kings. Immediately afterwards the chronicler relates the evil doings of Asa in the closing years of his reign. Such contradictions render it impossible to give a complete a…
737 wordsSECTION 127Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Deborah’s song records great vexations: the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways; the rulers ceased in Israel; Gideon “threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.” The breaking of nation against nation and city against city will refer to the destruction of Succoth and …
685 wordsSECTION 128Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Asa’s festival was held in the third month of his fifteenth year, the month Sivan, corresponding roughly to our June. The Feast of Weeks, at which first-fruits were offered, fell in this month; and his festival was probably a special celebration of this feast. The sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand shee…
718 wordsSECTION 129Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
After his victory over Zerah, Asa received a Divine message(357) which somewhat checked the exuberance of his triumph; a similar message awaited him after his successful expedition to Ramah. By Oded Jehovah had warned Asa, but now He commissioned Hanani the seer to pronounce a sentence of condemnation. The ground of th…
862 wordsSECTION 130Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Sin like Asa’s has been the supreme apostacy of the Church in all her branches and through all her generations: Christ has been denied, not by lack of devotion, but by want of faith. Champions of the truth, reformers and guardians of the Temple, like Asa, have been eager to attach to their holy cause the cruel prejudic…
713 wordsSECTION 131Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
In discussing the chronicler’s picture of the good kings, we have noticed that, while Chronicles and the book of Kings agree in mentioning the misfortunes which as a rule darkened their closing years, Chronicles in each case records some lapse into sin as preceding these misfortunes. From the theological standpoint of …
757 wordsSECTION 132Chapter III. Asa: Divine Retribution. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.
Of all the cruelty inflicted in the name of orthodoxy there is little that can surpass the refined torture due to this Jewish apologetic. Its cynical teaching met the sufferer in the anguish of bereavement, in the pain and depression of disease, when he was crushed by sudden and ruinous losses or publicly disgraced by …
838 wordsSECTION 133Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Asa was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, and his reign began even more auspiciously(367) than that of Asa. The new king had apparently taken warning from the misfortunes of Asa’s closing years; and as he was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, he had been trained before Asa fell under the Divine displeas…
687 wordsSECTION 134Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Great prosperity had the usual fatal effect upon Jehoshaphat’s character. In the beginning of his reign he had strengthened himself against Israel and had refused to walk in their ways; now power had developed ambition, and he sought and obtained the honour of marrying his son Jehoram to Athaliah the daughter of Ahab, …
1,019 wordsSECTION 135Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Possibly the martial tone of the sentence that concludes the account of Jehoshaphat as the Jewish Justinian is due to the influence upon the chronicler’s mind of the incident(372) which he now describes. Jehoshaphat’s next experience was parallel to that of Asa with Zerah. When his new reforms were completed, he was m…
661 wordsSECTION 136Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
“Didst not Thou, O our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this land in favour of Thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend for ever?” And now long possession had given Israel a prescriptive right to the Land of Promise; and they had, so to speak, claimed their rights in the most formal and sol…
672 wordsSECTION 137Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Jahaziel’s message showed that Jehoshaphat’s prayer had been accepted; Jehovah responded without reserve to the confidence reposed in Him: He would vindicate His own authority by delivering Judah; Jehoshaphat should have blessed proof of the immense superiority of simple trust in Jehovah over an alliance with Ahab or t…
721 wordsSECTION 138Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
There is no question of military order, no reference to the five great divisions into which the armies of Judah and Benjamin are divided in chap. xvii. Here, as at Jericho, the captain of Israel is chiefly concerned to provide musicians to lead his army. When David was arranging for the musical services before the Ark,…
805 wordsSECTION 139Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
“Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.” There is no touch of pity for the wretched victims of their own sins. Greeks of every city and tribe could feel the pathos of the tragic end of the Athenian expedition against Syracuse; but the Jews had no ruth fo…
749 wordsSECTION 140Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
We have next to notice the chronicler’s most important omissions. The book of Kings narrates another alliance of Jehoshaphat with Jehoram, king of Israel, like his alliances with Ahab and Ahaziah. The narrative of this incident closely resembles that of the earlier joint expedition to Ramoth-gilead. As then Jehoshaphat…
674 wordsSECTION 141Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
When they were thus helpless, Jehovah wrought for Israel, as He had destroyed the enemies of Jehoshaphat in the wilderness of Jeruel. The Jews stood still and saw the working out of their deliverance; great empires wrestled together like Moab, Ammon, and Edom, in the agony of the death struggle: and over all the tumult…
721 wordsSECTION 142Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
If the chronicler had lived to-day, the history of the Society of Friends might have furnished him with illustrations almost as apt as the destruction of the allied invaders of Judah. He would have rejoiced to tell us how a people that repudiated any resort to violence succeeded in conciliating savage tribes and foundi…
679 wordsSECTION 143Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Chapter V. Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah: The Consequences of a Foreign Marriage. 2 Chron. xxi.-xxiii. The accession of Jehoram is one of the instances in which a wicked son succeeded to a conspicuously pious father, but in this case there is no difficulty in explaining the phenomenon: the depraved character and evil…
777 wordsSECTION 144Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
The other prophets of Judah delivered their messages by word of mouth, but this communication is made by means of “a writing.” This, however, is not without parallel: Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives in Babylon, and also sent a written collection of his prophecies to Jehoiakim.(391) In the latter case, however, t…
739 wordsSECTION 145Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
The chronicler’s account of the reign of Ahaziah(395) does not differ materially from that given by the book of Kings, though it is considerably abridged, and there are other minor alterations. The chronicler sets forth even more emphatically than the earlier history the evil influence of Athaliah and her Israelite kin…
699 wordsSECTION 146Chapter IV. Jehoshaphat—The Doctrine Of Non-Resistance. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.
Athaliah’s usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husband’s dominions to the authority and faith of the wife’s family. It is probable that Athaliah’s permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the northern kingdom. This last misfortune was averted by the energy a…
335 wordsSECTION 147Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.
For Chronicles, as for the book of Kings, the main interest of the reign of Joash is the repairing of the Temple; but the later narrative introduces modifications which give a somewhat different complexion to the story. Both authorities tell us that Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all the days of …
911 wordsSECTION 148Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.
Having remonstrated with Jehoiada, the king took matters into his own hands; and he, not Jehoiada, had a chest made and placed, not beside the altar—such an arrangement savoured of profanity—but without at the gate of the Temple. This little touch is very suggestive. The noise and bustle of paying over money, receiving…
1,191 wordsSECTION 149Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.
The chronicler’s biography of Joash might have been specially designed to remind his readers that the most careful education must sometimes fail of its purpose. Joash had been trained from his earliest years in the Temple itself, under the care of Jehoiada and of his aunt Jehoshabeath, the high-priest’s wife. He had no…
661 wordsSECTION 150Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.
The chronicler’s account of his successor Amaziah is equally disappointing; he also began well and ended miserably. In the opening formulæ of the history of the new reign and in the account of the punishment of the assassins of Joash, the chronicler closely follows the earlier narrative, omitting, as usual, the stateme…
724 wordsSECTION 151Chapter VI. Joash and Amaziah. 2 Chron. xxiv.-xxv.
Then Jehovah, in His anger, sent a prophet to demand, “Why hast thou sought after foreign gods, which have not delivered their own people out of thine hand?” According to current ideas outside of Israel, a nation might very reasonably seek after the gods of their conquerors. Such conquest could only be attributed to th…
715 wordsSECTION 152Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
After the assassination of Amaziah, all the people of Judah took his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen, called in the book of Kings Azariah, and made him king. The chronicler borrows from the older narrative the statement that “Uzziah did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah …
856 wordsSECTION 153Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
The student of Chronicles will by this time be prepared for the invariable sequel to God-given prosperity. Like David, Rehoboam, Asa, and Amaziah, when Uzziah “was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” The most powerful of the kings of Judah died a leper. An attack of leprosy admitted of only one explana…
908 wordsSECTION 154Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham, who had already governed for some time as regent. In recording the favourable judgment of the book of Kings, “He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done,” the chronicler is careful to add, “Howbeit he entered not into the temple o…
699 wordsSECTION 155Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
Hezekiah’s policy was made clear immediately after his accession. His zeal for reformation could tolerate no delay; the first month(415) of the first year of his reign saw him actively engaged in the good work.(416) It was no light task that lay before him. Not only were there altars in every corner of Jerusalem and id…
768 wordsSECTION 156Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
Then Hezekiah celebrated a great dedication feast; seven bullocks, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats were offered as a sin-offering for the dynasty,(418) for the Temple, for Judah, and (by special command of the king) for all Israel, _i.e._ for the northern tribes as well as for Judah and Benjamin. Apparently…
678 wordsSECTION 157Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
“So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun.” Either Zebulun is used in a broad sense for all the Galilean tribes, or the phrase “from Beersheba to Dan” is merely rhetorical, for to the north, between Zebulun and Dan, lay the territories of Asher and Naphtali. I…
832 wordsSECTION 158Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
And so the feast went on happily and prosperously, and was prolonged by acclamation for an additional seven days. During fourteen days king and princes, priests and Levites, Jews and Israelites, rejoiced before Jehovah; thousands of bullocks and sheep smoked upon the altar; and now the priests were not backward: great …
695 wordsSECTION 159Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
Then follow an account of the deliverance from Sennacherib and of Hezekiah’s recovery from sickness, a reference to his undue pride in the matter of the embassy from Babylon, and a description of the prosperity of his reign, all for the most part abridged from the book of Kings. The prophet Isaiah, however, is almost i…
745 wordsSECTION 160Chapter VII. Uzziah, Jotham, and Ahaz.(408) 2 Chron. xxvi.-xxviii.
We have spoken of the chronicler so far chiefly as a professional musician, but it should be clearly understood that the term must be taken in its best sense. He was by no means so absorbed in the technique of his art as to forget its sacred significance; he was not less a worshipper himself because he was the minister…
557 wordsSECTION 161Chapter IX. Manasseh: Repentance And Forgiveness. 2 Chron. xxxiii.
In telling the melancholy story of the wickedness of Manasseh in the first period of his reign, the chronicler reproduces the book of Kings, with one or two omissions and other slight alterations. He omits the name of Manasseh’s mother; she was called Hephzi-bah—“My pleasure is in her.” In any case, when the son of a g…
727 wordsSECTION 162Chapter IX. Manasseh: Repentance And Forgiveness. 2 Chron. xxxiii.
Like most of the pious kings, his prosperity was partly shown by his extensive building operations. Following in the footsteps of Jotham, he strengthened or repaired the fortifications of Jerusalem, especially about Ophel. He further provided for the safety of his dominions by placing captains, and doubtless also garri…
813 wordsSECTION 163Chapter IX. Manasseh: Repentance And Forgiveness. 2 Chron. xxxiii.
The chronicler’s theology is as simple and straightforward as that of Ezekiel. Manasseh repents, submits himself, and is forgiven. His captivity apparently had expiated his guilt, as far as expiation was necessary. Neither prophet nor chronicler was conscious of the moral difficulties that have been found in so simple …
1,170 wordsSECTION 164Chapter IX. Manasseh: Repentance And Forgiveness. 2 Chron. xxxiii.
If our author’s statement of these truths seem unsatisfactory, we must remember that his lack of a doctrine of the future life placed him at a serious disadvantage. He wished to exhibit a complete picture of God’s dealings with the characters of his history, so that their lives should furnish exact illustrations of the…
327 wordsSECTION 165Chapter X. The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi.
Whatever influence Manasseh’s reformation exercised over his people generally, the taint of idolatry was not removed from his own family. His son Amon succeeded him at the age of two-and-twenty. Into his reign of two years he compressed all the varieties of wickedness once practised by his father, and undid the good wo…
687 wordsSECTION 166Chapter X. The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi.
The account of the repairing of the Temple is enlarged by the insertion of various details as to the names, functions, and zeal of the Levites, amongst whom those who had skill in instruments of music seem to have had the oversight of the workmen. We are reminded of the walls of Thebes, which rose out of the ground whi…
669 wordsSECTION 167Chapter X. The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi.
Josiah’s passover, like that of Hezekiah, was followed by a formidable foreign invasion; but whereas Hezekiah was rewarded for renewed loyalty by a triumphant deliverance, Josiah was defeated and slain. These facts subject the chronicler’s theory of retribution to a severe strain. His perplexity finds pathetic expressi…
720 wordsSECTION 168Chapter X. The Last Kings Of Judah. 2 Chron. xxxiv.-xxxvi.
However, to this peroration a note is added that the length of the Captivity was fixed at seventy years, in order that the land might “enjoy her sabbaths.” This note rests upon Lev. xxv. 1-7, according to which the land was to be left fallow every seventh year. The seventy years captivity would compensate for seventy p…
550 wordsSECTION 16923 R.V.
1 Cf. _Ezra_; _Nehemiah_; _Esther_, by Professor Adeney, in “Expositor’s Bible.” 2 Ezra iii. 12. 3 Isa. lxvi. 22. 4 Quoted for _Asa_ (2 Chron. xvi. 11); _Amaziah_ (2 Chron. xxv. 26); _Ahaz_ (2 Chron. xxviii. 26). 5 Quoted for _Jotham_ (2 Chron. xxvii. 7); _Josiah_ (2 Chron. xxxv. 26, 27). 6 Quoted for _Manasseh…
656 wordsSECTION 17023 R.V.
69 2 Chron. xvii. 8. 70 Exod. xxv-xxxix.; 1 Kings vi.; 1 Chron. xxix.; 2 Chron. iii., v. 71 1 Chron. xv. 4-10. 72 1 Chron. xii. 23-37. 73 John iii. 8. 74 i. 10. 75 i. 19. 76 i. 46. 77 Cf. Gen. xxxvi. 24 and 1 Chron. i. 40. _ 78 I.e._, Achan (ii. 3, 7). 79 1 Sam. ii. 7, 8. 80 Vv. 17, 18, as they stand, do not…
652 wordsSECTION 17123 R.V.
146 Micah v. 2. 147 Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; cf. xxxiii. 15 and Isa. iv. 2, xi. 1. The Hebrew word used in the last passage is different from that in the preceding. 148 Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25. 149 Zech. iii. 8; the text in vi. 12 is probably corrupt. 150 Hag. ii. 23. 151 Zech. xii. 8. 152 Written after th…
661 wordsSECTION 17223 R.V.
226 xv. 8-14, peculiar to Chronicles. 227 xv. 18, 19. 228 xvii. 6 contradicts 1 Kings xxii. 43 and 2 Chron. xx. 33. 229 xvii. 7-9, peculiar to Chronicles. 230 xxiv. 1-14. 231 xxi. 11, peculiar to Chronicles. 232 xxv. 4. 233 2 Chron. xxviii. 24-xxxi., mostly peculiar to Chronicles; but compare Kings xviii. 4-7, …
653 wordsSECTION 17323 R.V.
317 Ver. 7 is apparently a general anticipation of the narrative in vv. 9-15. 318 Josh. v. 13. 319 Schultz, _Old Testament Theology_, ii. 270. 320 Exod. iv. 21; Josh. xi. 20; 1 Sam. xix. 9, 10; 2 Sam. xxiv. 1; 1 Kings xxii. 20-23. 321 Prov. xvi. 4; Lam. iii. 38; Isa. xlv. 7. 322 Zech. iii. 1. 323 Jer. vii. 12-1…
672 wordsSECTION 17423 R.V.
383 Kings xxii. 48, 49. 384 2 Chron. xxiv. 24, peculiar to Chronicles. 385 Psalm xx. 7. 386 1 Macc. ii. 35-38. 387 xxi. 2-4, peculiar to Chronicles. 388 Vv. 5-10; cf. 2 Kings viii. 17-22. 389 xxi. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles. 390 So R.V. marg., with LXX. and Vulgate A.R.V. have “mountains,” with Masoretic tex…
667 wordsSECTION 17523 R.V.
421 Cf xxx. 11, 18. 422 xxx. 14; cf. 2 Kings xviii. 4. The chronicler omits the statement that Hezekiah destroyed Moses’s brazen serpent, which the people had hitherto worshipped. His readers would not have understood how this corrupt worship survived the reforms of pious kings and priests who observed the law of …
270 wordsSECTION 176*** End Of The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Expositor'S Bible: The Books Of Chronicles ***
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