The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 112

and hiding away their booty. They ought, mAde prisonen, while the town itself, left as soon B.B they had BBtisfied their hunger, without defenders, would be captured. Com- to have hurried baok to the oity and spread pare the capture of Ai byJoshua(Josh. viii. the good news. ThiB day is a day of good 3-19), when the chief ~rt of the garrison tidings, and we hold our peace; i.e. we keep had been enticed out ofit. silence, and do uot proclaim them, as we Ver. 13.-A..nd one ot his ■ervants an- ought. If we tarry till the morning light, swered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, some millchief will oome upon UB; rat Iler, five of the horses that remain. One of J e- punishment un'll fall on us; we shall suffer horam's "servants," i.e. of the officers at- for wh11.t we have done-a very re11,Sonable tnohed to his person, suggested that a supposition. Now therefore oome, that we small body of horse (four or five) should be may go and tell the king's houehold. The sent out to reconnoitre. The besieged had "king's household " means the court, the still some horses left, though apparently medium through wbioh the king wa.s ordi- not many. Note the phrase, "five of the narily approached. horses that remain." The majority had Ver. I0.-80 they oame andoalled unto the died of want, or been killed to furnish food porter of the oity; i.e. to the guard of the to the garrison. (Behold, they Rre as all the gate nearest them. The word i:i,i,, "porter," multitude ot Israel that are left in it-i.e. or "gate-man," is nsed collectively. And in Se.maria-behold, I say, they are even as t.hey told them, saying, We oame to the all the multitude of the Iara.elites that are oamp of the Syrians, and, behold, there we.s consumed); i.e. they will run no more risk no man there, neither voice of man, but than the other troops who remain in the horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as city, for these, too, "are consumed," i.e. are they were. •The horses and asses within a on the point of perishing. Supposing that camp were always "tied," or tethered, RB they fall into the enemy's bands, it will go we see from the monumental representations no harder with them than with the " multi- of Egyptian camps (Re.wliuson, 'History of tude" which is on the point of starvation. Ancient Egypt,' vol. i. p. 476), and also And let us send and see. We ce.u do nothing learn from historians (Herod., iv. 135). It until we know whether the siege is really is somewhat surprising that the horses were raised, or whether the pretended withdrawal left behind, as they would have expedited is e. mere ruse. We must send and have the flight l,e.d they been ea.Jelled and this matter me.de clear. mounted. But this was, perhaps, over- Ver. 14.-Theytook therefore two ohariot; looked in the pmic. horses; literally, two chariots of horses; i.e. Yer. 11.-And he called the porters ; and two chariots, with the accustomed number they told it to the king's hones within; of horses, which (with the Israelites) was two, rather, and the porters (or, gate-keepers) though with the Assyrian& and Egyptians called out and told it, etc. N:J'' may be e. it was frequently three. The employment plural be.fore its subject; or the ·true read• of chariots instead of horsemen is remark- ing may be lN-:1R:, which is found in some able, and seems to in<licate that with the manuscripts. Israelites, as with the Egyptians, the chariot Yer. 12.-A..nd the king arose in the night, force was regarded as superior to the cavalry and said unto his servants, I will now show for practical purposes. And the king sent you what the Syrians have done to us. They after the host of the Syrians, aaying, Go and know that we be hungr1; therefore are see. The o.dvice of the king's "servant" they gone out of the camp to hide them- we.a taken; a couple of chariots were sent selves in the field. Jel,oram, knowing of out to reconnoitre. no reason for the flight of the Syrians, sus- Ver. 15.-And they went after them unto pected a not uncommon stratagem. He lorda.n. The charioteers, finding the camp supposeil that the enemy had merely gone really empty, discovering no ambush, and 11 little way from their ca.mp, and. pla.ced coming upon abundant signs of a be.sty Rnd themselves in ambush, ready to take e.d- perturbed flight, followed upon the track of Yautage of any rash movement which the the fugitives until they reached the Jor<lan, I•re.elites might make. So Cyrus is said probably in the vicinity of Beth-she.n, which to have entr"pped and slaughtered Spe.rge.- lay on the ordinary route between Samaria pises, the son of Tomyris, together with a and De.m11Scus. Uonvinced by what they large detachment, in bis last war against saw that the Syrians bad really withdrawn tl1<· llfassagetre (Herod., i. 211). His sup- into their own country, they pursued no position was not unr, e.sone.ble. Saying, furthl·r, but returned to Se.maria. And, lo, When they oome out of the city, we shall all the way was full of garments and vessels, catch them alive, and get into the oity. A which the Syrians had oast away in thtil' double o.dve.ntage might be expected to ha.ste. Cloaks, sha.wls, shields, and even follow-those who quitted the town to swords and spears, would b!l cast_ aw3:y as pi =dcr the camp would be surrounded and impedimenta-hiudrances to a rapid fhghL 00, vu. 1-20.) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 151