The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 129

thou wilt not hearken unto the voice or .As he promised him to give him al,cay• a the Lord thy God, to observe to do all hia liaht in re•pect o/ hi• children, and compare, oommandments and statutes, which I com- for the promise of "a light " (1 Kings xi. mand thee this day ; nil these curses shall 36; xv. 4; and Ps. cxxxii. 17). oome upon thee. . . . The Lord shall send Ver. 20.-In bis de.ys Edom revolted from upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in under the hand of Judah. Edom ho.d been all that thou setteet thine he.nd unto for to conquered by Joab in the time ot' David, do, until thou be de8troyed, e.nd until thou and had been treated with gTent severity, perish quiokly; because of the wickedness all the males, or nt any rate all those of full of thy doin"'s, whereby thou hast Corse.ken age, ha.Ying been put to death (l Kings xi. me. The Lord shall make the pestilence 15, 16). On the death of David, Edom i:lea.ve unto thee, until he hafle consumed seems to have revolted nuder a prince thee from off the land, whither thou goest named Ha.dad, and to have re-estahlishc,I to possess it. T~e Lord s~all smite thee its independence. It had been again sub- with e. consumption, a.nd with a fever, a.nd jected by the time of Jehoshaphat, who with an inflammation, and with en extreme appointed a governor over it (l Kings xxii. burning, and with the sword, and with 47), and treated it ns a portion of his OW!l blasting, and wHh mildew; and they shall territories (eh. iii. 8). Now the yoke wee pursue thee till thou perish. And thy finally thrown off, as had been prophesie,l heaven which is over thy head shall be (Gen. xxvii. 40). Edom became once more braes, and the earth that is underneath thee e. separate kingdom, and was especially shall be iJ'on. . . . The Lord shall cause hostile to Judah. In the reign of Ahaz the thee to be smitten of thine enemies; thou Edomites "emote Judah" and carried away &halt go out one way against them, and flee many captives (2 Chron. xxviiL 17). When seven ways before them : and thou shalt the Cha.ldmans attacked and besieged J eru- be removed into all the kingdoms of the sa.lem, they cried, "Down with it, dowrr earth. . . . Thou shalt become an aston- with it, even to the ground!" (Ps. cxxxvii. ishment, a proverb, and a byword, among 7). They looked on with joy at the capture all nations whither the Lord shall lead of the holy city (Obad. 12), and " stood in thee" (Dent. xxviii. 15-37). The apos- the crosswa.y, to cut off such as escaped" tasy of Jehornm, and of the nation under (Obad. 14). After the return from the him, waa calculated to bring about the Captivity, they were still Judah's enemies, immediate fulfilment of all these threats, and are especially denounced as such by and would have done so but for a restrain- the Prophet Malachi (i. 3-5). In the ing cause. God ha.d ma.de promises to l\facca.bce wars, we find them always on the David, nnd to his seed after him (2 Sam. Syrian side (1 Mo.cc. iv. 29, 61; v. 3; vi. 31; vii. 13-16; Ps. lxxxix. 29-37, etc.), 2 Ma.cc. x. 15, etc.), doing their best to rivet which would be unfulfilled if Jmlah's the hateful yoke of the heathen on their candlestick were at once removed. He had snft'cring brethren. As Id umrel\ns, the decfo.red, "If thy children forsake my Law, Herodio.n family D1ust ho.ve been specially and walk not in my statutes, . . . I will hateful to the Jews. And ma.de e. killg over visit their offences with the rod, and their themselves. The king mentioned in eh. iii. sin with scourges. Nevertheless my loving- 9, 26 was probably a mere VllBSal king kindness will I not utterly take away, nor under Jehoshaphat. suffer my truth to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone Vtr. 21.-So 1oram went over to Zair. out of my lips; I have sworn once by my Naturo.lly, Jornm did not e.llow Edom to holiness th11t I will not fail David." If he become independent without an e.ttempt to bad now swept e.way the Jewish kingdoJD, reduce it. He invaJe,l the country in full be would have dealt more hardly with those force, tnking up a position at a. pince cnllcd who clo.ve to David thnn with those that Zair, which is not otherwise known. Zair broke off from him. He would not have (1')1~) ca.n scarcely be Zoar (1)1ii), which, shown the "faithfulness" or the "mercy" wh'erever it wns, was certainly not in Edom; ,vhioh be ho.d promised. He would have and it is hardly likely to be e. oorruptiou of forgotten "the loving-kindnesses which he "Seir" (7')1;,'), since the utterly unknown i·;:i swnre unto David in hie truth" (Ps. lxxxix. would sca.·rcely be put by a copyfat in the 4!1). 1'hornforn he would not-he could not place of the well-known ,•v~·. Moreover, -as yet "destroy Judah," with which, in if l\fouut Seir were intenJ~d, it would point of fuot, he bore for above three probably have h>td the prefix i;,, as in centuries longer, until at lo.et the onp of 1 Chro11. iv. 42; 2 Chron. u. 10, 22, 23; their iniquities wna full, and "there wa.s no Ezek. xxxv. 2, 3, 7, 15. "SL>ir" alone is reJDedy." As he promised him to give him poetical rather than historical, especially in alway a light, o.nd to bis ohildren. Thero tho laugu11g0 of the la.ter books of the Old is uo "and" ill tue origiual. Translate- Testa.went. And all the oha.riota with him, 170 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [ou. vm. 1-29.