The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 128

bar,' which oonte.ine (p. 162) the following d01tth in his twenty-fifth yee.r, whoo he passage : " 'l'he me.lik ordered the.t they bcoe.me solo king (see the oomment 011 should place e. ce.rpet on Abdalle.b'e mouth, eh. i. 17 e.nd oh. iii. 1). l!O that hie life was cut off." And spree.d it Ver. 17.-Thirty and two yea.rs old wa.1 on his f&oe, eo tha.t he died. It be.s been he when he began to reign; e.nd he reigned supposed by some commentators, o.s Luther, eight yea.re in Jeruse.lem, The eight years Schultz, Geddes, Boothroyd, that Beuhadad seem to he counted from his assooie.tion in put the wet macber on his own fe.oe for the kingdom hy his father in his twenty- refreshment, e.nd e.ooideutally suffocated third year, He reigned as solo king only himself; but this is very unlikely, and it six years. is certainly not the ne.tural sense of the Ver. 18.-And he walked in the wa.y of words. As "Hazael" is the subje.ct of "de- the kings of lllra.el, as did the house of parted" and "ce.me" and "answered" in Aha.b; i.e. he introduced into Jude.h the ver. 14, so it is the ne.ture.l snhject of Ba.a.I e.nd Astarte worship, which Ahab had " took " and "dipped " and "spread" in introduced into Isre.el from Phmnioia. (On ver. 15. Ver. 11 also would be unintelli- the ne.ture of this worship, see the • Com- gihle if Hamel entertained no murderous mentary on the First Book of Kings,' p, intentions. Why Ewald (' History of Is- 374.) The "house of Ahab" maintained rael,' "f"Oi. iv. p. 93, Eng. trans.) introduces e.nd spread the Be.a.I-worship, wherever it e. "bath-servant,'' unmentioned in the text, he.d influence. Ahe.zia.h, the son of Ahab, to murder Benhe.dad for no assignable championed it in Israel (1 Kings uii. 53); reason, it is difficult to conjecture. And J ehore.m, his brother, allowed its continu- :Ha.ze.el reigned in his stee.d. The direct e.nee (eh. x. 18-28); Jehore.m of Judah succession of Haze.el to Benhadad is con- we.s induced by his wife, Athe.liah, the firmed by the inscription on the Black daughter of Ahab, to countenance it in Obelisk, where he appears as King of Judrea; Athalie.h, when she usurped the De.mascns (line 97) a few yee.rs only after throne upon the death of her son Ahe.ziah, Benhadad (Bin-idri) had been mentioned me.de it the state religion in tbe.t country, uking. " Evil communications corrupt good man- ners." The alliance of the two separated Vere. 16-24.-THE WICKED REIGN OP kingdoms, concluded between Jehosbapbe.t JEHORAH IN JUDAH. At this point the and Ahe.h (1 Kings xxii. 2-4), he.d no writer, who has been concerned with the te.ngihle result beyond the introduction into history of the kingdom of Israel hitherto J nde.h of the licentious e.nd debasing super- stition which ho.d previously overspread the in the present book, takes up tl,e story of sister country. For the daughter of Aha.b the kingdom of Jude.h from 1 Kings xxii. was his wife. In ver. 26 Atha.lie.b, the 50, and proceeds to give e. very brief wife of Jehore.m, is called "the daughter account of the reign of Jehosba.phat's eldest of Omri;" but by "do.ughter" in that place son, Jehoram, or (by contraction) Joram. must be mea.nt "descendant" or "grand- daughter." Athalie.h has been well called His narrative has to be supplemented from "a seconcl Jezebel." And he did evil in the 2 Chron. :ui., which contains many fa.et.a sight of the Lord. The wicked actions of Je- not mentioned by the writer of K.inga. horam a.re recorded e.t some length in Chro- nicles (2 Chron. xxi. 2-4, 11-13). Shortly Ver. 16.-And in the fifth year of J"oram afler his accession he put to dee.th his six tl:.a son of Ahab King of Israel, Jehoshaphat brothers-A.zariah, Jehiel, Zachariah, Aha- being then Xing of J"nda.h; litere.lly, and of ziah (?), Michael, e.nd Shephe.liah-in order Jelio•haphat Kir.g of Jud.ah. The words are to " strengthen himself." At the so.me W:J.uting in three Hebrew manuscripts, in time, he caused me.ny of the " princes of 6c,me editions of the Septuagint, in the Isre.cl " to be executed. Soon afterwards Peshito Syrie.c, in the Parisian Heptaplar he "ma.de high places in the monutnins of Syriac, in the Arabio Version, and in many Judah, and caused the iuhe.bite.nts of Jem- copies of the Vnlge.te. They cannot pos- salem to commit fornication" (i.e. tb become sil,ly have the sense assigned to them in idolaters), "and compdled Judah thereto." unr version, e.nd o.re most probably e. gloss That the idolatry which be introduced we.a whi,·h be.a crept into the text from tl,e the Dae.I-worship is clear, both from the margin. lehore.m the aon of lehoshaphat preseut pas,e.ge and from 2 Chron. xxi. 13. King of Jnda.h began to reign. Jehoram's Ver. 19,-Yet the Lord would not destroy reigu ,•. as sometimes counted from the Judah for David his eerva.nt's sa.ke. The sen,niecutL year of his father, when he nature.I punishment of apo8te.sy was re- w11s given the royal title, sometimes from jection Ly God, a:ud on rejection would, ns his father's twenty-third year, when he was a rno.tter of couroo, follow destruction o.u,I assucin.t.ed, awl 1ometimea from his father's ruin. God had declared by Mosos, "If 011, VIU. 1-29.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS .