[203] 2 Kings x. 12. The shepherds House of Meeting (_Beth-equed-haroim_). LXX., ἐν Βαιθακάθ; Vulg., _ad cameram pastorum_; Aquila, οἶκος κάμψεως. It has been conjectured by Klostermann that it belonged to the Rechabites, that they had been persecuted by Jezebel, and that they were glad to help in taking vengeance on her descendants.
[204] The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxii. 8) says "_sons_ of the brethren of Ahaziah."
[205] LXX., ἡ δυναστεύουσα.
[206] 2 Kings x. 14, A.V., "at the pit." Lit., "in" or "into the cistern."
[207] See Martin, _Hist. de France_, ix. 114.
[208] Whittier.
[209] Jer. xxxv. 1-19. Josephus (_Antt._, IX. vi. 6) calls him "a good man and a just, who had long been a friend of Jehu." "He was," says Ewald (_Gesch._, iii. 543), "of a society of those who despaired of being able to observe true religion undisturbedly in the midst of the nation with the stringency with which they understood it, and therefore withdrew into the desert."
[210] Jer. xxxv. (written about B.C. 604). Communities of Nazarites seem to have sprung up at this epoch, perhaps as a protest against the prevailing luxury (Amos ii. 11).
[211] In Josephus it is Jehonadab who blesses the king.
[212] Heb., וָיֵשׁ יֵש.
[213] Striking hands was a sign of good faith (Job xvii. 3; Prov. xxii. 26).
[214] He did it "in subtilty" (בְצָקְבָה). This substantive occurs nowhere else, but is connected with the name Jacob. LXX., ἐν πτερνισμῷ, "in taking by the heel," with reference to the name Jacob, "supplanter."
[215] Lit., "mouth to mouth." LXX., στόμα εἰς στόμα.
[216] Ver. 22, מֶלְחָּהַה, _Vestiarum_, occurs here only. The LXX. omits it or puts it in Greek letters. Targum, κάμπτραι, "chests" Sil. Italicus (iii. 23) describes the robes of the priests of the Gaditanian Hercules,--
"_Nec discolor ulli, Ante aras cultus; velantur corpora lino Et Pelusiaco præfulget stamine vertex._" KEIL, _ad loc._
It was a mixture of "the rich dye of Tyre and the rich web of Nile."
[217] The phrase may be impersonal, "when one [_i.e._, they] had finished the sacrifice"; but the narrative seems to imply that Jehu offered it himself (LXX., ὡς συνετέλεσαν ποιοῦντες τὴν ὁλοκαύτωσιν Vulg., _cum completum esset holocaustum_).
[218] A.V., images; R.V., pillars.
[219] Comp. Ezra vi. 11; Dan. ii. 5.
[220] Amos i. 11.
[221] Amos ii. 1.
[222] Hos. i. 4.
[223] Psalm lxxvi. 10.
[224]
Jehu 842-814. Jehoahaz 814-797. Joash 797-781. Jeroboam II. 781-740. Zechariah 740.
[225] 2 Kings viii. 12.
[226] Isa. xiii. 11-16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.
[227] Amos i. 3, 4.
[228] Amos i. 6-15.
[229] See Appendix I., Schrader, _Keilinschriften u. das Alte Test._, 208 ff.; Sayce, _Records of the Past_, v. 41; Layard, _Nineveh_, p. 613; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 469. He is twice mentioned in inscriptions of Shalmaneser II. (861-825). He is called Ja-hu-a, son of Omri. The name of Omri was familiar in Nineveh; for Ahab had fought as a vassal of Assyria at the battle of Karkar, and Samaria was called Beth-Khumri. Shalmaneser would not trouble himself with the fact that Jehu had extirpated the old dynasty. His black stêlè was found by Layard, and is figured in _Monuments of Nineveh_, i., pl. 53. The name of Jehu was first deciphered by Dr. Hincks in 1851.
[230] Schrader (E. T.), ii. 199.
[231] Mic. vi. 16.
[232] 2 Kings xiii. 6.