The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 239

time Rgreea with those in oh. xiii. 10 and name for the lower Jordan ve.lley, like El- oh. xi,. I, 17, but not with that in oh. xv. Ghor at the present day (see Deut. iii. 17 • J (see the comment on that passage)--.Tero- Josh. iii. 16; xii. 8, eto.). The territory boam the aon of J'oash King of Israel began recovered no doubt inoluded all the trons- to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and Jordanic region e.s fe.r south as the river one yeara. Jo~ephus says "forty years." Arnon ; but the recovery of dominion over Many moderns (Thenins, Bahr, o.nd others) Moab, and even over Ammon, which some extend the term to fifty-one years. Some he.ve seen in this passage (Ewald, • History suppose that Jeroboam was joint-king with of Israel,' vol. iv. p. 124), is eoarcely con- his fe,ther in Ame.ziah's third year, sole tained in it. Aooording to the word of the king from hie fifteenth. But it is better to Lord God of Israel, whioh he spake by the acknowledge the general confusion of the hand of his serve.nt Jon.ah, the son of chronology, and to regard it as: uncertain, Amittai (comp. Jonah i. 1). Jonah's de.ta unless where e. synchronism is distinctly is determined by this passe.ge. He was mnde out. Such assured s,nchronisms are oontempore.ry with Hosea and Amos, e.nd the following: (I) The •synchronism of earlier than Micah. His prophecy concern- Ahnb with Jehoshaphat; (2) the synchro- ing Jeroboe.m is probably e.ssigned to the nism of Jehoram, .Ahe.b's son, with the early po.rt of the.t king's reign. The prophet, same; (3) the synchronism of Jebn's first whioh was of Gath-hepher. Ge.th-hepher is year witll the first year of Athalie.h; (4) mentioned in Joshua., under the name of the synchronism of .Ame.ziah with Joe.sh G_ittah-hepher, as e. city of Zebulon (eh. of Israel; (5) the synchronism of Peke.h x1x. 18), not fe.r from Mount Te.bor. It is with Ahe.z; (6) the synchronism of Hoshea's conjeoturRlly identified with El-Meshhed last yeaz with Hezekiah'e sixth ; (7) the north of Naze.reth, where the tomb of Jonah eynchroniem of Ame.zie.h's fourteenth year is shown. with J eroboe.m Il.'s first, being twicee.sserted Ver. 26.-For the Lord 1aw the aflliotion in two distinct forms (vers. 17 e.nd 23), is, of Isre.el, that it we.a very bitter (comp. eh. at any re.te, highly probe.ble. Numbers xiii. 4, 28). The repetition is perhaps to which occur once only in e.ncient writers be accounted for by the desire of the writer ce.n seldom be implicitly trusted, since the to explain how it came to pe.ss that so great lie.hility of numbers to corruption is ex- a delivere.nce we.a granted to Iere.el under cessive. o. king who maintained the worship of the Yer. 24.-And he did the.t which we.s evil ce.lvee. He views it as the consequence of in the sight of the Lord: he departed not God's infinite compassion, and of the extreme from all the sins of J'eroboam the son of bitterness of Israel's suff'eringd under the Jiebat, who made Israel to sin (comp. eh. x. Syrians (comp. eh. xiii. 7 e.nd Amos i. 8). 29 e.nd xiii. 2, 11, where the so.me is said of For there was.not e.ny shut up, nor any left his fe.ther, grandfather, and great-gre.nd- (see the comment on 1 Kings xiv. 10), nor father). The jndgments which had fallen e.ny helper for Isre.el Apart from Jehove.h, upon Jehu and Jehoe.baz on account of Israel he.d no on.e to come to her aid. these sins did not teach e.ny lesson to Joash Judah would not help her, for Judah he.d or Jeroboam IL The fate.I taint, which was just suffered at her hands (vers. 11-14); congcnite.l with the Israelite mone.rchy, still less would Philistio., or Moab, or could never be purged out, but clung to it Ammon, who were her constant enemies. to the end. Her isole.tion rendered her e.11 the more an Ver. 25.-He restored the ooast of Israel object for the Divine compassion. from the entering in of Ha.math. By " the Ver. 27.-And the Lord said not that he entering in or He.me.th" is to be understood would blot out the name of Israel from the opening into the Ccele-Syrian valley e. un.der heaven. God's decision under the little north of Baalbec, where the ground circuD1.Btances was not, e.s it well might begins to slope northwards, and the streo.Dl.8 he.ve been, considering Israel's ill desert, to to flow in the same direction to form the blot out forth with the very name of Israel Orantes. He.math iteeU was between eighty from the ee.rth. On the contrary, he gave and ninety miles further to the north, on the nation e. breathiug-spe.ce, a glee.m of the middle Orontes, about N. !at. 35° 22'. light, e. second summer before the winter The "entering in of Ham.e.th" was alwe.ys set in-a further opportunity of repenting reckoned the northern boundary of the e.nd turning to him with e.11 their hearts if Holy Land (see Numb. xxxiv. 8; Josh. they would only have taken e.dvantage of xiii. 5 ; J udg. iiL 3; I Kings viii. 65). It it, e. chance of redeeming the past e.nd re- conceponded with the we.tershe,l between establishing themselves in his favour. He the Orantes and the Litany. Un.to the ■ea might well have destroyed the~ e.t ~his of the plain. The " see. of the plain " is time if he had looked only to considerations undoubtedly the Dead Sea, •• the plain'' of justice, if in his wre.th he had not thought (ha-.Arabah) being used 1111 a sort of proper upon merOf. But he Hved them; i.e. ha llll, XIV, 1-20.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 285