The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 235

Sons, it might be e.eenmed, wonld be cogni- were barbarously put to death by being t:ant of their father's intention, and would precipitated from the top of e. rock (2 Ohron. so be e.oc0880riee before the fRC',t. And the xxv. 12). "The valley of salt," the scene law of daim, or•• blood-feud," would make it of the battle, is probably identified with the dnngerous to spa,re them, since they would sunken plain, now oe.llod Es Sabltah, at the be bound to avenge their father's dee.th on southern extremity of the Dead See.. This his destroyer. That the practice preve.iled is "a large fiat of at least eix miles by ten, among the Isre.elitee appears from Josh. vii. occasionally flooded" (Tristram), but dry in 2'1, where we find the ohildren of Achan the summer-time. It is full of salt springs, involved in his fate, and &,,"'!\in from 2 Kiuge and is bounded on the west ond n01-th-west iL 26, where we are told that Naboth's sons by a Ion~ ridge of pure salt, known e.s the suffered with their father. But it was con- Khasm Usdum, so that the name "valley trary to e.n express comma,nd of the Law, as of salt" would be very appropriate. And the writer goes on to show. Aooording unto took Selah by war. Selnh with the e.rUole that whioh is written in the book of the (has-Selah) can only be the Idumme.n capi- Law of Moses. "The book of the Law of tal, which the Greeks called Petra (Dfrpm Moses" (;-rr;o--r,"1\M "IElO) ma,y be either the or .;, nfrpa.), and which is one of the most Pentateuch •· regarded -.M one book, or Deu- remarkable sites in the world. In the rocky teronomy, the particular•• book" of the Pan- mountains which form.the eastern boundary te.tench in which the passage occurs. In of the Arabah or sandy slope reaching from either case the passage is fatal to the theory the edge of the Se.bke.h to the Red Sea, of the late composition of Deuteronomy, amid cllifs of gorgeous colours, pink and which is here found t.o have ruled the con- crimson and purple, and re.vines as deep duct of a Jewish l.-ing a hundred and fifty and narrow as that of Pfeffers, partly exca- years before Manasseh, two hundred before vated in the rock, partly emplaced upon it, Josiah, and two hundred a,nd eighty before stood the Edomite town, difficult to approach, the return from the Captivity-the de.tee still more difficult to capture, more like the assigned to Deuteronomy by recent "ad- home of a colony of sea-gulls than that of vanced " critics. Wherein the Lord oom- a number of men. Petre. is gre.phice.lly de- JD&D.ded, saying, The fathers &hall not be pnt scribed by Dean Stanley (' Sinai and Pales- to death for the ohildren, llDr the children tine,' pp. 88-92), and has also received be put to death for the fathers; but every notice from Robinson (' Researches,' vol. ii JD&D. shall be put to death for his own ain. pp. 518-538), Hight.on (' Dictionary of the As usua,l, when one sacred writer quotes Bible,' voL iii. p. 1191), and others. And another, the quotation is not exact. "But" oalled the name of it J'oktheel; i.e. "sub- (Ct:t ~) is inserted at the beginning of the dued by God." The name took no perma- final clause, and the form of the verb in the nent hold. Sele.h is still "Sele." in Isaiah 111Lme clause is modified. It seems to be (xvi. I), Obadiah (ver, 3), and Jeremiah intended that we should be made to feel (xlix. 16). It is known only as "Petre." to that it is the sentiment or meaning con- the Greeks and Romans. Unto this day; veyed, and not the phraseology in which it i.e. to the time of the writer who composed is wrapped up, that is of importance. the account of Ame.ziah's reign for the Ver. 7.-He Blew of Edom in the valley of • Book of the Kings,' and whose words the 118.lt ten thollSRild. Edom had revolted from author of Kings transcribes here as so _often Jndah and recovered complete independence elsewhere. in the reign of Jehore.m, about fifty years Ver. 8.-Then Am&zie.h sent messengers previously ( eh. viii 20). Since that time the to J'ehoash, the son of J'ehoe.haz son of Jehu, two countries had remained at peaoe. Now, King of Israel, saying. Amaziah ho.d a however, Ame.ziah reBDlved npon a great cause of complaint age.inst Jehoash, or at effort to resubjugate them. According to any rate against his subjects, which does Josephus(' Allt. Jud.,' ix. 9. § 1) and Chro- not appear in the narrative of Kings. 'fhe nicles (2 Chron. :u:v. 5), he levied an army author of Chronicles tells us that, when of 400,000 men-300,000 Jews, and 100,000 Amaziah dismissed his Israelito mercenaries, hired Israelites-with which he marched they were offended, and vented their anger e.ge.iast the three nations of the Amalekites, by an inroad into his territories (2 Chron. the IdummaUB, and the Ga.halites. Rebuked xxv. 13), where they killed three thousand by " prophet for want of faith in calling to men and " took much epoil." This was a his aid the wicked Israelites, he consented clear caBIUI belli, if Amaziah ohose to con- to dismiss them, and made the invasion e.t sider it such. Come, let us look one another the head of his own troops only. These in the face. A rude message, if it was were carefully o_rge.nized (2 Chron. xxv. 5), actually couched in these terms. But per- and met with a great Enccesa. Ten thousand haps the writer substitutes the giat of the of his enemiee fell iu battle, and an equal message for the language in which it '.""s aumber weze made prit1oners. Theae last wrapped up. Josephus says that Amnzu1,h CIR, Xlv, 1-29,) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 281