PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings
Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William) · 148,035 words · 223 reading sections
B.C. 842-814
2 KINGS x. 1-17 "The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose." SHAKESPEARE. But the work of Jehu was not yet over. He was established at Jezreel; he was lord of the palace and seraglio of his master; the army of Israel was with him. But who could be sure that no civil war would arise, as between the partisans of Z…
681 wordsSECTION 62B.C. 842-814
The ruthless order was fulfilled to the letter by the terrified traitors. The king's sons were with their tutors, the lords of the city. On the very morning that Jehu's second missive arrived, every one of these poor guiltless youths was unceremoniously beheaded. The hideous, bleeding trophies were packed in fig-basket…
670 wordsSECTION 63Chapter Xiii
[196] Omri, 12 years; Ahab, 22; Ahaziah, 18; Jehoram, 12. [197] The reading of 2 Kings x. 1, "Unto the rulers of _Jezreel_," is clearly wrong. The LXX. reads, "Unto the rulers of Samaria." Unless "Jezreel" be a clerical error for Israel, we must read, "He sent letters from Jezreel unto the rulers of Samaria." [198] F…
656 wordsSECTION 64Chapter Xiii
One cruel deed more or less was nothing to Jehu. Leaving this tank choked with death and incarnadined with royal blood, he went on his way as if nothing particular had happened. He had not proceeded far when he saw a man well known to him, and of a spirit kindred to his own. It was the Arab ascetic and Nazarite Jehonad…
959 wordsSECTION 65Chapter Xiii
Happily for the human race, such atrocities committed in the name of religion have not been common. In Pagan history we have but few instances, except the slaughter of the Magians at the beginning of the reign of Darius, son of Hystaspes. Alas that other parallels should be furnished by the abominable tyranny of a fals…
730 wordsSECTION 66Chapter Xiii
Nay, more! If, as is possible, the ghastly story of the siege of Samaria, narrated in the memoirs of Elisha, is displaced, and if it really belongs to the reign of Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, then Elisha himself brands the cruelty of the rushing thunderbolt of vengeance which his own hand had launched. For he calls the unnamed …
768 wordsSECTION 67Chapter Xiii
We can imagine rather than describe the anguish of Jehu when he was compelled to look impotently on, while his powerful Syrian neighbour laid waste his dominion with fire and sword, and the cry of his despoiled and slaughtered subjects was uplifted to him in vain. Nor was this all. Emboldened by these reverses, a host …
733 wordsSECTION 68Footnotes:
[203] 2 Kings x. 12. The shepherds House of Meeting (_Beth-equed-haroim_). LXX., ἐν Βαιθακάθ; Vulg., _ad cameram pastorum_; Aquila, οἶκος κάμψεως. It has been conjectured by Klostermann that it belonged to the Rechabites, that they had been persecuted by Jezebel, and that they were glad to help in taking vengeance on h…
587 wordsSECTION 69Chapter Xiv
_ATHALIAH_ (B.C. 842-836)--_JOASH BEN-AHAZIAH OF JUDAH_ (B.C. 836-796) 2 KINGS xi. 1-xii. 21 "Par cette fin terrible, et due à ses forfaits, Apprenez, Roi des Juifs, et n'oubliez jamais, Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge sevère, L'innocence un vengeur, et les orphelins un père!" RACINE, _Athalie_. "Regardle…
741 wordsSECTION 70Chapter Xiv
The hiding-place was safe; for under Athaliah the Temple of Jehovah fell into neglect and disrepute, and its resident ministers would not be numerous. It would not have been difficult, in the seclusion of Eastern life, for Jehosheba to pass off the babe as her own child to all but the handful who knew the secret. Six …
701 wordsSECTION 71Chapter Xiv
The completion of the ceremony was marked by the blare of the rams' horns, the softer blast of the silver trumpets, and the answering shouts of the soldiers and the people. The tumult, or the news of it, reached the ears of Athaliah in the neighbouring palace, and, with all the undaunted courage of her mother, she inst…
718 wordsSECTION 72Chapter Xiv
Then he took the captains, and the Carians, and the princes, and conducted the boy-king, amid throngs of his shouting and rejoicing people, from the Temple to his own palace. There he seated him on the lion-throne of Solomon his father, in the great hall of justice, and the city was quiet and the land had rest. Accordi…
718 wordsSECTION 73Chapter Xiv
The long reign of Joash ended in eclipse and murder. If the later tradition be correct, it was also darkened with atrocious ingratitude and crime. For, according to the Chronicler, Jehoiada died at the advanced age of one hundred and thirty, and was buried, as an unwonted honour, in the sepulchres of the kings.[265] W…
990 wordsSECTION 74Chapter Xiv
We do not know enough of Zechariah to say much about his character; but priests in every age have shown themselves the most unscrupulous and the most implacable of enemies. Joash probably stood to him in the same relation that Henry II. stood to Thomas à Becket. The priest's murder may have been due to an outburst of p…
872 wordsSECTION 75Chapter Xiv
The anguish and mortification of mind caused by these disasters, and perhaps the wounds he had received in the defeat of his army, threw Joash into "great diseases." But he was not suffered to die of these.[273] His servants--perhaps, if that story be authentic, to avenge the slain son of Jehoiada, but doubtless also i…
488 wordsSECTION 76Footnotes:
[233] 2 Chron. xxi. 2-4. [234] 2 Chron. xxi. 17. [235] ὁμοπάτριος ἀδελφή (Jos.). [236] 2 Chron. xxii. 11. There are undoubted difficulties about the statement (see _infra_). There is no other instance of the marriage of a princess with a priest. [237] Jos., _Antt._, IX. vii. 1: τὸ ταμιεῖον τῶν κλινῶν. The chamber o…
667 wordsSECTION 77Footnotes:
[256] 2 Kings xii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6. Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 399. [257] 2 Kings xii. 2. After "all his days," the R.V. and A.V. add "_wherein_ Jehoiada instructed him." This, however, is not accurate. There is a stop at days, and "wherein" should be "_because_." There seems, however, from the LXX.,…
556 wordsSECTION 78B.C. 796-783 (?)
2 KINGS xiv. 1-22 "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."--MATT. xxvi. 52. The fate of Amaziah ("Jehovah is strong"), son of Joash of Judah, resembles in some respects that of his father. Both began to reign prosperously: the happiness of both ended in disaster. Amaziah at his accession was twent…
738 wordsSECTION 79B.C. 796-783 (?)
Further:--We are told that Amaziah "did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah: he did according to all things _as Joash his father did_." The Chronicler also bestows his eulogy on Amaziah; but having told such dark stories of the apostasy of Joash to Asherah-worship and his murder of the prophets, he could hardl…
692 wordsSECTION 80B.C. 796-783 (?)
So far the older and better authorities. The Chronicler expands the story in his usual fashion, in which historical and critical verity is so often compelled, if not to suspect the disease of exaggeration and the bias of Levitism, at least to feel uncertainty as to the details. He says that Amaziah collected an army of…
637 wordsSECTION 81_The Dynasty Of Jehu_
[276] Νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνας υἱοὺς καταλείπει. Comp. Q. Curtius, vi. 11: "Lege cautum erat ut propinqui eorum qui regi insidiati cum ipsis necarentur." Cic., _Ad Brut._, 15. [277] 2 Kings viii. 20-22. [278] Amos i. 11. [279] The Valley (_Gê_) of Salt is "the plain of the Sabkah," about two miles broad, between the…
812 wordsSECTION 82_The Dynasty Of Jehu_
Where was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the scene. Unless the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced, we do not so much as once hear of him for nearly half a century. The fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove him to repentance. Wearied to death of the Syr…
700 wordsSECTION 83_The Dynasty Of Jehu_
The narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it as it occurs, with but little apprehension of its exact significance. Elisha, though Joash "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," seems to have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth take his bow,[292] and laid his feeble, trembling han…
829 wordsSECTION 84_The Dynasty Of Jehu_
But Elisha's symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply fulfilled. About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in the feebler hands of his son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able to make any way against him (2 Kings xiii. 3), but Joash his son thrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As …
942 wordsSECTION 85Footnotes:
After this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king, in whom the characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in softer outline. He left his son Jeroboam II. to continue his career of prosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of greatness which she had never yet attained, in which she rival…
581 wordsSECTION 86B.C. 781-740
_THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (continued)--JEROBOAM II_ 2 KINGS xiv. 23-29 If we had only the history of the kings to depend upon, we should scarcely form an adequate conception either of the greatness of Jeroboam II. or of the condition of society which prevailed in Israel during his long and most prosperous reign of forty-o…
692 wordsSECTION 87B.C. 781-740
What rendered Jeroboam's glory possible was the immediate paralysis and imminent ruin of the power of Syria. The Israelitish king was probably on good terms with Assyria, and, during this epoch, three Assyrian monarchs had struck blow after blow against the house of Hazael. Damascus and its dependencies had received sh…
714 wordsSECTION 88Footnotes:
[305] 2 Kings xiv. 25-27. There are other allusions to the historic events in 2 Kings x. 32, 33, xiii. 3-7, 22-25. Hitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are "a burden of Moab" quoted from Jonah. [306] 2 Kings xiii. 5, "The Lord gave Israel a saviour"; xiv. 27, "And He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of J…
324 wordsSECTION 89_Amos, Hosea, And The Kingdom Of Israel_
2 KINGS xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-12 "In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt What makes a nation happy and keeps it so, What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat." MILTON, _Paradise Regained_. "We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great, Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate:…
1,144 wordsSECTION 90_Amos, Hosea, And The Kingdom Of Israel_
Others, then, might be deceived by the surface-glitter of extended empire in the days of Jeroboam II. Not so the true prophets. It has often happened--as to Persia, when, in B.C. 388, she dictated the Peace of Antalcidas, and to Papal Rome in the days of the Jubilee of 1300, and to Philip II. of Spain in the year of th…
727 wordsSECTION 91_Amos, Hosea, And The Kingdom Of Israel_
We are not told that Jeroboam II. interfered with the prophet in any way.[331] Had he done so, he would have been rebuked and denounced for it. He probably went no further than to allow the priest and the prophet to settle the matter between themselves. Perhaps he gave a contemptuous permission that, if Amaziah thought…
682 wordsSECTION 92_Amos, Hosea, And The Kingdom Of Israel_
* * * * * Hosea, the son of Beeri, was of a somewhat later date than Amos. He, too, "became electric," to flash into meaner and corrupted minds the conviction that formalism is nothing, and that moral sincerity is all in all. That which God requires is not ritual service, but truth in the inward parts. He is one of th…
652 wordsSECTION 93_Amos, Hosea, And The Kingdom Of Israel_
Yet so it was. Jeroboam II. was succeeded by no less than six other kings, but he was the last who died a natural death. Every one of his successors fell a victim to the assassin or the conqueror. His son Zachariah ("Remembered by Jehovah") succeeded him (B.C. 740), the fourth in descent from Jehu. Considering the long…
517 wordsSECTION 94Footnotes:
[313] Amos vii. 1. Famine (iv. 6); drought (iv. 7, 8); yellow blight and locusts (iv. 9); pestilence (iv. 10); earthquake and burning (iv. 11). [314] Amos vii. 4. [315] Amos i. 1, iii. 14, iv. 11, viii 8; Zech. xiv. 5: "Ye shall flee like as ye fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah." Josephus says that in …
673 wordsSECTION 95Footnotes:
[332] We cannot be sure that the term "Seer" was meant to be contemptuous, although from 1 Sam. ix. 9 we should infer that the title had become somewhat obsolete. Further, we must bear in mind that it may not have been always easy for worldlings to distinguish between true prophets and the unprincipled pretenders who, …
374 wordsSECTION 96_Jotham_ (B.C. 737-735)
2 KINGS xv. 1-7, 32-38 "This is vanity, and it is a sore sickness."--ECCLES. vi. 2. Before we watch the last "glimmerings and decays" of the Northern Kingdom, we must once more revert to the fortunes of the House of David. Judah partook of the better fortunes of Israel. She, too, enjoyed the respite caused by the cri…
827 wordsSECTION 97_Jotham_ (B.C. 737-735)
We are told that Isaiah wrote the annals of this king's reign, but we do not know whether it was from Isaiah's biography that the Chronicler took the story of the manner in which Uzziah was smitten with leprosy. The Chronicler says that his heart was puffed up with his successes and his prosperity, and that he was cons…
759 wordsSECTION 98Footnotes:
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; Give ear unto the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha! To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of …
576 wordsSECTION 99_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
B.C. Shallum 740 Menahem 740-737 Pekahiah 737-735 Pekah 735-734 2 KINGS xv. 8-31 "Blood toucheth blood."--HOS. iv. 2. "The revolters are profuse in murders."--HOS. v. 2. "They have set up kings, but not by Me: they have made princes, and I knew it not."--HOS. viii. 4. "Non tam reges fuere quam fures, latrones…
704 wordsSECTION 100_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
First, as though he saw the terrible conflagration of the Assyrian tyranny rolling southwards, and felt it to be irresistible, he bids Lebanon open her doors, that the fire may devour her cedars. There is perhaps an allusion to the death of Jeroboam II. in the words, "Howl fir tree, for the cedar is fallen." He sees in…
775 wordsSECTION 101_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
The cruel usurper was in no condition to resist him. The brand of Cain was on him and his kingdom. How could the weak, impoverished, harassed troops of Israel stand up in battle against those numberless serried ranks, or withstand their tremendous discipline? If the very name of Persia once struck terror into the brave…
778 wordsSECTION 102_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
Not long afterwards Menahem died, and he had sufficiently established his rule to be succeeded as a matter of course by his son Pekahiah. But "Revenge and wrong bring forth their kind; The foul cubs like their parents are." Samaria had fearful object-lessons in the apparently immediate success of murder and rebellio…
702 wordsSECTION 103_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
It is not impossible that behind these events we may find the efforts and yearnings of a party which cared more for Israel's unity than for David's throne. Such a party may easily have sprung up during the splendid, prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. It has been conjectured by some that the election of Uzziah by the peop…
671 wordsSECTION 104_The Agony Of The Northern Kingdom._
Nor did Pekah escape. Tiglath-Pileser advanced against the northern part of his dominions, and afflicted the land of Zebulon and Naphtali. Ijon; Abel-beth-Maachah, the city of Elisha; Zanoah, the ancient sanctuary of Kedesh-Naphtali, the home of the hero Barak; Hazor, the former capital of the Canaanitish king Jabin; G…
735 wordsSECTION 105Footnotes:
We are told in the Book of Kings that Pekah reigned for twenty years; but some of these later reigns must be shortened to suit the exigencies of known chronological data. It seems probable that he occupied the throne for a much shorter time.[388] Such was the weakened, harassed, vassal kingdom--the gaunt spectre of it…
674 wordsSECTION 106Footnotes:
[376] 2 Kings xv. 37. [377] Vide _infra_. [378] Deut. xxxiii. 19: "They [Zebulon] shall call the peoples unto the mountain: there shall they offer the sacrifices of righteousness." [379] Isa. viii. 6, 7. [380] Perhaps we should read Edomites (2 Kings xvi. 6). [381] The bar of its city gate. [382] Bikath-Aven--"Th…
323 wordsSECTION 107B.C. 734-725
2 KINGS xvii. 1-41 "As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water."--HOS. x. 7. As a matter of convenience, we follow our English Bible in calling the prophet by the name Ho_sea_, and the nineteenth, last, and best king of Israel Ho_shea_. The names, however, are identical (הֹושֵׁצַ), and mean "Salv…
832 wordsSECTION 108B.C. 734-725
His patron Tiglath-Pileser ended his magnificent reign of conquest in 727, soon after he had seated Hoshea on the throne. The removal of his strong grasp on the helm caused immediate revolt. Phœnicia especially asserted her independence against Shalmaneser IV. He seems to have spent five years in an unavailing attempt …
722 wordsSECTION 109B.C. 734-725
Sargon did not raze the city, and we see from the _Eponym Canon_ that its inhabitants were still strong enough some years later to take part in a futile revolt. But we have one dreadful glimpse of the horrors which he inflicted upon it. They were the inevitable punishment of every conquered city which had dared to resi…
949 wordsSECTION 110B.C. 734-725
In the former volume we glanced at some of the causes of this, and the blessings which resulted from it. The central and chiefest blessing was, first, the preservation of a purer form of monotheism, and a loftier ideal of religion--though only realised by a few in Judah--than had ever prevailed in the Northern Tribes; …
699 wordsSECTION 111B.C. 734-725
* * * * * The historian of the Kings here digresses, in a manner unusual to the Old Testament, to give us a most interesting glimpse of the fate of the conquered people, and the origin of the race which was known to after-ages by the name "Samaritan." Sargon, when he had sacked the capital, carried out the policy of …
841 wordsSECTION 112B.C. 734-725
But, as it was, "Assyria and Egypt--the two world-powers in the dawn of history, the two chief sources of ancient civilisation, the twin giant-empires which bounded the Israelite people on the right hand and on the left--were cruel neighbours, between whom the ill-fated nation was tossed to and fro in wanton sport like…
700 wordsSECTION 113B.C. 734-725
* * * * * In order to complete the history of the Northern Kingdom, the historian here anticipates the order of time by telling us what happened to the mongrel population whom Sargon transplanted into central Ephraim in place of the old inhabitants. The king, we are told, brought them from Babylon--which was at this …
844 wordsSECTION 114B.C. 734-725
The "unto this day" refers, no doubt, to the document from which the historian of the Kings was quoting--perhaps about B.C. 560, in the third generation after the fall of Samaria. A very brief glance will suffice to indicate the future history of the Samaritans. We hear but little of them between the present reference …
392 wordsSECTION 115Footnotes:
[389] Hos. iv. 4; v. 1, "Hear ye this, O priests ... ye have been a snare on Mizpah," etc.; vi. 9, "The company of the priests murder by the way to Shechem." [390] Hos. x. 10 (so R.V., and in the main the versions after the Hebrew margin). LXX., ἐν τῷ παιδεύεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐν ταῖς δύσιν ἀδικίαις αὐτῶν; Vulg., "_cum corri…
653 wordsSECTION 116Footnotes:
[409] See my _Minor Prophets_, 6-97. [410] Not as in A.V., "Habor, _by_ the river of Gozan." [411] 2 Kings xvii. 6. The LXX. has "rivers" and "mountains": ἐν Ἀλαὲ καὶ ἐν Ἀβὼρ ποταμοῖς Γωζὰν καὶ ὅρη Μήδων. The river is not Ezekiel's Chebar. These deportations _en masse_ of a whole population, with their women and chil…
661 wordsSECTION 117B.C. 735-715
[433] See Neh. xiii. 4-9, 28, 29; Jos., _Antt._, XI. vii. 2. Josephus makes Manasseh a brother of the high priest Jaddua (B.C. 333). [434] Jos., _Antt._, IX. xiv. 3, XII. v. 5, XIII. ix. 1, XX. vi., XVIII. ii. 2. The bitterly hostile relations between Jews and Samaritans in the time of Christ are illustrated by Luke i…
697 wordsSECTION 118B.C. 735-715
"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a wilderness, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." But even in the midst of this afflictive d…
480 wordsSECTION 119_Isaiah And Ahaz_
[435] Probably a shortened form for Jehoahaz ("The Lord taketh hold"). He is called Jahuhazi in Tiglath-Pileser's inscription (Schrader, _Keilinschr._, p. 163). [436] For twenty-five it is not improbable that we should read fifteen. [437] Isa. iii. 1-12. [438] In Isa. ii. 2-4 we find, as so often in the prophetic bo…
746 wordsSECTION 120_Isaiah And Ahaz_
In the crisis of their miseries, but just before the siege, Ahaz had gone outside the city walls "at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the causeway of the fuller's field," probably to look after the water-supply, which had always been a difficulty for Jerusalem, and on which depended her capacity to withstan…
842 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.