The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 289

writing under the IILter kings from Jeroboam part of Dan and Simeon had also been II. to Hoehee., e.lludes to the Be.e.1-worship absorbed. Thie became now, exclusively, (Hoe. ii. 8, 17) e.s continuing. God's "peculiar people," the object of hi~ Ver. 17.-And they oe.UBed their sons e.nd love and of hie care. The writer, it must their de.nghters to po.ea through the fire. be remembered, belongs to the period of (On thie phrnee, eee the comment upon eh. the Captivity, and is not speaking of the xvi. 3.) The sin of chilrl-murder he.d not restored Israel. been previously laid to the charge or Israel; Ver. 19.-Also Judah kept not the oom- but, ne it he.d infected Judiih (eh. xvi. 3), mandments of the Lord their God. The there ie no reason why it should not he.ve sharp contrast which the writer has drawn inv11ded also the sister kingdom. Perhaps between Israel and Judah in ver. 18 reminds it is alluded to by Hoeee. in iv. 2; v. 2; him that the difference wae only for a time. e.nd vi. 8. It was an old sin of the Ca- Judah followed in Israel's sins, and ulti- naanitish nations (Lev. xviii. 21, etc.), e.nd mately shared in her punishment. This continued to be practised by the Moe.bites verse and the next are parenthetic. But (oh. iii. 27; Amos ii. 1) and Ammonites, walked in the statutes of Israel whioh they neighbours of Ismel. And used divination made; i.e. followed Israel in all her evil and enohantments. The " witchcrafts" of courses, first in her Be.al-worship, under Jezebel have been e.lree.dy mentioned (eh. Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athe.liah; then in ix. 22). Magical practices always e.ccom- her other malpractices under Ahaz (eh. xvi. panied idolatry, nnd were of many kinds. 3, 4), Manasseh (eh. xxi. 2-9), and Amon Sometimes divination was by means of eta ves (eh. x.xi. 20-22). Of course, the calf-worship or rode (rhabdome.ncy), which were mani- ie excepted, Jnde.h having no temptation to pulated in various we.ye (Herod., iv. 67; follow Israel in that. Schol. ad Nicandr., 'Tueriac.,' 613 ; Tacit., Ver. 20.-And the Lord rejeoted all the ' German.,' § 10 ; Amm. Me.re., xxxi. 2 ; seed of IeraeL God is no respecter of persons. Hos. iv. 12). Sometimes it was by iirrowe As he had rejected the ten tribes on account (Ezek. xxi. 21 ). Very often, especially in of certain tre.nsgreeeions, which have been Greece and Rome, it wae by inspecting the enumerated (vers. 8-17), eo, when Judah entrails of victims. Where fe.ith in God committed the self-same sius, and trans- want>s, n trust in me.gic:.11 practices, astro- gressed equally, Judah had equally to b" logy, chirome.ncy, "eortee Virgilianm," ho- rejected. "All the seed of Israel" is the roscopes, spirit-rapping, e.ud the like, almost entire nation-Isrsel in the widest sense, alwe.ye enpervenee. And sold themselves to made np of Jnde.h and of Iere.el in the do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke narrow sense. So Keil, rightly. And him to anger. (On the expression, "sold afflioted them~by the he.nds of Sargon, and themeel ves to do evil," see the comment upon Sennacherib, and Eee.rhaddon (2 Chron. l Kings xxi. 20.) xxxiii. 11),a.nd Pha.raoh-Nechoh, aDll nthers Ver. 18.-Therefore the Lord we.a very -and delivered them into the hands of angry with Israel; rather, that then the spoilers. The " spoilers " intended are Lord was 'l!ert/ angry, etc. We he.ve here probably, first, the "bands of the Chaldees, the apodoeie of the long sentence beginning e.nd of the Syrians, and of the Moabites, with ver. 7 and continuing to the end of and of the children of Ammon,'' who were ver. 17. When all that is enumerated in let loose upon Jndma by Nebuchadnezzar these verses he.d taken place, then the Lord when Jehoie.kim rebelled against him (eh. we.e moved to anger e.ge.inet Iereel, then xxiv. 2), and secondly Nebuchadnezzar him- matters he.d reached a crisis, the cup of seU and Nebuzur-adun, who completed the their iniquity we.a full, and God's wrath, epolie.tion of the country, and plundere,l long restrained, descended on them. And Jerus11lem itself, to punish the revolt. of removed them out of his eight. Removal Jehoiachin and Ze,lekie.h (eh. xxiv. 13-16 out of God's eight is loss of his favour and and :xxv. 8-21), when all the treasures of of his co.re. " The eyes of the Lord are the temple were carried off. Until he had over tile righteous" (Ps. xxxiv. 15)-he oast them out of his sight; i.e. until he " knoweth their way," •• we.lcheth over bud punished Judah aa lie had previously them" (Jor. xxxi. 28), "cnreth for them" punished lsreel (ver. 18), which was what (Ps. ex.I vi. 8); but " the countenance of justice required. the Lord ie against them [averted from Ver. 21.-For he rent; mther, j<YT he them] who do evil" (Ps. xxxiv. 16). He had rent. The nexus of the verse is witl1 will not look upon them nor hear them. vor. 18. The difference between the fates There wae none left bnt the tribe of J'udah of Israel e.nd Judah-the survivfil of Judah only. The" tribo of Judah" stands for the for e. hundred and thirty-four yee.rs-is kingdom of the two il'ibes of Judah aud tmced be.ck to the separation under Reho- Benjamin (see 1 Kings xi. 31-36; xii. 23; boam, nnd to the wicked policy which 2 Ohron. xvii. 14-18), into which the greater Jeroboam then pursued,and left as n legacy  386 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. (OH, XVII, 1-41.