[589] It is needless in each separate case to enter into the chronological minutiæ about which the historian is little solicitous. A table of the chronology so far as it can be ascertained is furnished, _infra_.
[590] 1 Kings xx. 5; 2 Kings x. 7.
[591] Hitzig thinks that Psalm xlv. was an epithalamium on this occasion, from the mention of "ivory palaces" and "the daughter of Tyre." Had it been composed for the marriage of Solomon, or Jehoram and Athaliah, or any king of Judah, there would surely have been an allusion to Jerusalem. Moreover, the queen is called שֵׁנָל, which is a Chaldee (Dan. v. 2), or perhaps a North Palestine word. The word in Judah was Gebira.
[592] Ἰθόβαλος, Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 1; _c. Ap._, I. 18 (quoting the heathen historian Menander of Ephesus). It may, however, be "Man of Baal," like Saul's son Ishbaal (Ishbosheth). In Tyre the high priest was only second to the king in power (Justin, _Hist._, xviii. 4), and Ethbaal united both dignities. He died aged sixty-eight. Another Ethbaal was on the throne during the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Josephus, _Antt._, X. xi. I).
[593] Josephus, _c. Ap._, I. 18. The genealogy is:--
+-----------------------+ | | Phelles Ethbaal. (a usurper, whom his | brother Ethbaal slew). | | +----------+------+ | | Badezon. Jezebel. | Matger (_Belus_). | +---------------+ | | Pygmalion. Dido.
See Canon Rawlinson, _Speaker's Commentary, ad loc._
[594] Plaut., _Pænul._, V. ii. 6, 7. Phœnician names abound in the element "Baal."
[595] Ahaziah ("Jehovah supports"), Jehoram ("Jehovah is exalted"), Athaliah (?). The word Baal merely meant "Lord"; and perhaps the fact that at one time it had been freely applied to Jehovah Himself may have helped to confuse the religious perceptions of the people. Saul, certainly no idolater, called his son Eshbaal ("the man of Baal"); and it was only the hatred of the name Baal in later times which led the Jews to alter Baal into Bosheth ("shame"), as in Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth. David himself had a son named Beeliada ("known to Baal"), which was altered into Eliada (1 Chron. xiv. 7, iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16; comp. 2 Chron. xvii. 17). We even find the name Bealiah ("Baal is Jah") as one of David's men (1 Chron. xii. 5). Hoshea too records that Baali ("my Lord") was used of Jehovah, but changed into Ishi ("my husband") (Hosea ii. 16, 17). It is used simply for owner ("the baal of an ox") in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi. 28). See Robertson Smith, _Rel. of the Semites_, 92.
[596] Ethbaal is called King of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31), and was also King of Tyre (Menander _ap._ Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 1).
[597] 1 Kings xvi. 23; 2 Kings iii. 2, x. 27.
[598] _Asherim_ seem to be upright wooden stocks of trees in honour of the Nature-goddess Asheroth. The Temple of Baal at Tyre had no image, only two _Matstseboth_, one of gold given by Hiram, one of "emerald" (Dius and Menander _ap._ Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. v. 3; _c. Ap._, I. 18; Herod., ii. 66).
[599] Döllinger, _Judenth. u. Heidenthum_ (E. T.), i. 425-29.
[600] 2 Sam. x. 5; Judg. iii. 28.
[601] 2 Chron. xxviii. 15.
[602] Comp. Josh. vi. 26; 2 Sam. x. 5.
[603] Rev. ii. 20.
[604] 1 Kings xxi. 25, 26.
[605] Henry Smith, _The Trumpet of the Lord sounding to Judgment_.