The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 10

is no mention of a "]Rttice." Was siok; i.e. BeeaW!e Ahazie.h had Rposte.tized from God, "was so injnrcd that he had to tako to his God sentenced him to die from the effools of bed." Inquire of Be.al-zebub the god of his fall, 1md not to recover. It is impliecl Ekron. As a worshipper of Baal, bent on that he might hRvo recovored if ho had -w-all-ing in the evil WRY of his father a.nd of acted otherwiso. And Elijah departed; i.e. his mother (1 Kings xxii. 52), Ahaziah quitted the messengers, showing that his would na.tnrnlly inquire of some form of the errand was accomplished-he ho.d said all Baal ditinity. Why he chose" Baal-zebnb that he was commissioned to say. the god of Ekron," it is impossible to say. Ver. 5.-And when the messengers turned Perhaps Bnal-zcbnb ha.d at the time a baok; rn ther, ·when the messengers returned : specia.l reputation for giving oracular_ re- i.e. when they reached the presence of sponses. Perhaps the Ekron temple was, Ahe.zie.h, ho perceived at onoe that they of nil the ancient sites of the Baal-worship, could not have been to Ekron and come the one with which he could most readily be.ck in the time. He therefore inquired of communicate. Philistia lay nearer to Samaria them, Why are ye now turned baok t "Why than Phoonicia did, and of the Philistine have ye not completed your journey?" towns Ekron (now .Akir) was the most Ver. 6.-There came a me.n. It is not northern, and so the nearest. "Baal-zebnb" likely that the messengers did not know hflS bec'n thonght by some to be equivalent Elijah by sight. He was too prominent a to "Beel-samen," "the lord of heaven "-a person in the history of the time, and too divine title well known to the Phcenicilms; remarkable in his appearance, not to have but this new is etymologically unsound, been 1·ccognized, at any rate by some of eince zehub cannot possibly mean" heaven." them. But they thought it best to keep "Bao.1-zebnb" is "the lord of flies "-either back the prophet's no.me, e.nd to call him the god who smds them as a ple.gne on any simply "a man" ('ish)-perhe.ps actuated nation that offends him (comp. Exod. viii. by good will towards Elijah, perhaps by a 21-31), or the god who everts them from fear for their own safety, such as ho.d been his votaries and favourites, an eqnirn.lent of felt by Obadiah (1 Kings xviii. 8-14). the Greek Z£l,s a.,r&µv,os, or the Roman Ver. 7.-What manner of man was he? •• J npiter Myiagrns," flies being in the East litere.lly, what was the manner of the man? not nnfreqnently n terrible plague. The What was his appearance? Were there o.ny Septuagint transle.tiou, Bd.a>..-µvfav, though marks about him by which he might be inaccurate, shows an appreciation of the true recognized and known? Ahaziah may he.ve etymology. Of this diaease; rather, of this already suspected that the man who had illne68 (e,c rijs a.j,/,.,,TT[as p.ov Talin1s, LXX.). denonnced woe on him wonld be the same Ver. 3.-The a.ngel of the Lord. It wonld who had denounced woe on his father (see be better to translate, with the LXX., an 1 Kings xxi. 20-22). angel (&-yye>..os, not 6 &-yye>..os), An angel Ver. 8.-A hairy man; literally, a lord }1ad appeared to Elijah on a previous occa- of hair (1)!11! ~p;i). Somo take the meaning l!ion (l King3 xiL 5, 7). Elijah the Tishbite to be tho.t he was rough and unkempt, with ( comp. 1 Kings xvii. 1 ; xxi. 17, 28; eh. i. 8; his hair and beard long; and so the LXX., and for the weaning of the expression, hat- who give dvhp lia.<Tvs. But the more usue.1 Tishbi, see the comment on 1 Kings xvii. 1). explanation is that he wore a shaggy coe.1. Arise, go up. Elijah was, apparently, in of nntanned skin, with the hair outward the low tract of the Shefelah, or in Sharon, Such a garment seems certainly to have when the messengers started, and was thus been worn by the later prophets (Zech. xiii. commanded to "go up" and meet them, or 4; Matt. iii. 4), and to have been regarded fotercept tLew on their journey before they as e. sign of their profession. But there is descended into the plain. God would not no positive evidence the.t the dress had been have the insult to his majesty carried out. adopted by Isaiah's time. Girt with a girdle Is it not becaue there is not a God in Israel t of leather. Generally the Israelites wore rather, Is it that there iB no God at all in girdles of a soft materie.l, as linen or cotton. Isra,elf The double negative is intensitive, The "ourious girdle" of the high priest's and implies that the king's consultation of ephod we.a of " fine twined linen," em- Be.al-zcbnb, god of Ekron, is a complete and broidored with gold, and blue, e.nd purple, absolute denial of the Divinity of Jehovah. and scarlet (Exod. xxviii. 8). Girdles of To consnlt a foreign oracle is eqnh•alent to leather, rough o.nd uncomfortable, would saying that the voice of God is wholly silent only be worn by the very poor and by the in one's own land. This was going further ascetic. Elijah may have e.dopted his rough in apostasy than Ahab had gone (see l Kings e.nd coarse coetume,either to show contempt :xxii. 6-9). for things earthly, o.s Hengstenberg thinks; Ver. 4.-ll'ow therefore. The worll trans- or o.s o. penite11tial go.rb indicating sorrow lated "therefore" (J:?~) is emphatic, and for the sine of tho people, 11s Keil supposes; means "for this reason," "on this account." or simplo to chMtiso and subdue the flesh,  THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. OIi, L 1-18.]