The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 203

the ',~l from im of Egypt (Gen. xv. 18), uncertain, yet it would appear certain that bo.t ather tends to identify them. The ~be. int_erve.l exceeded twenty years, to the entering of-lleu;iath; _i.e. t~e way to Hamath time that Do.vicl now takes in hand to bring (He_brew, M(:J_n.;.Numb.xxnv. 7, 8). He.me.th home, as it were, the ark. The ark of God, was one of the great cities of the Orontes the Lord. Though the Authorized Version valley, in Upper Syria, which formed the of this passage is better and clearer than boundary in especial of the empire of Solo- that of the parallel (2 Sam. vi. 2), yet it is mon. Thie valley is watered by the Orontes, left somewhat obscure. The comma should the rive? of Antioch, o. river remo.rkable for follow the name God. Jehove.h sitting upon its abundant spring (situate immediately the cherubim then follows Bd a clause in north of the source of the Leontes), which apposition, while the last three words (aa won for it the name, among all the other the name is called, rather tban whose name) springs of Syria, of "The Spring," and slate that clause to contain" the Name of remarkable for" the length of its course, the the Lord" (Deut. x. 8; xxxi. 9; 1 Se.m. h-. volume of its waters, and the rich vegetation 4; v. 3; vi. 8). Bertheau, following The- of its banks." It is the one of the four ri rnrs nius, proposes to change the Hebrew 021 which take their rise beneath the heights of into c.ii. But there are abundant objecl.io~s the Lebauon and Anti-Lebanon which be- to tuis: comes really worthy of the name of river, the Ver. 7.-They oa.rried; the Authorized other three, viz. the Jordan, the Leontes or Version of the parallel "tbeyset." But the modern Litany of Phwnicia, and the Abana verb is the Hiph. of :l~~. a word carrying more or 111odern Barada of Damascus, more re- of majesty in its use (Deut. xxxiii. 26; Job sembling the nature of the mountain stream. xxx. 22; Ps. xviii. 11; lxviii. 38; Isa. xix. 1), 'fhis river was to the ancient Romans "the A new oe.rt. The stress laid on the newness representative of Syria, as the Thames might of this cart, the term being twice repeated in be said to be of England, and in later times the parallel passage, may ju,tly remind of the region formed tile chief point of conto.ct Me.rk xi. 2; Matt. xxvii. 60 (see •Speaker's between this part of Asia aud the West'' Commentary' on 2 Sam. vi. 3). The house (Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine,' pp. 414, of Abinade.b. There is no mention of Abina- c,f, edit. 1866). The king~om of Hamath dab the.t would indicate that he still lived, comprised the tract of this valley of the even when twenty years before, the ark was Orantes, skirted by the hills separating the ple.ced in his house. Eleazo.r was his eldest Leontes from the Orontes, and ei;;tending son (1 S!\m. vii. 1), and was "sanctified lo to the Pass of Daphne below Antioch. keep the e.rk of the Lord." Uzzo. and Ahio Riblah (Numb. :nxiv. II ; 2 Kings xxiii. 33) were possibly sons of Elco.zo.r, and not sous lies on the east bank of the Orontes, thirty- of Abinado.b, e.nd Eleozar's younger brothl'rs. five miles north-east of Bo.al-bek, or Banl- The Septuagint tro.nslntes Ahia, and uccord- god. The people of Hamo.th were of the ingly reads, "Uzzo. e.nd his bretlucn dro.ve race of Hnm, of the descendants of Cannan the cart." (Gen. x. 18), and are not to be reokoned as Ver. 8.-Played before God. The Hebrew of Phceuicinn origin. word is the Piel of priif ,the rootofwhich,from Ver. 6.-To Be.ale.h, that is, to Kirjath- the simplest meaning of "to lo.ugh" (and jearim (see Josh. xv. 9-11; I Sam. iv.-vii.; with the two appropriate prepositions used 2 Sam. vi. 2; where the no.me is spelt with for lnughing witu e.n expression of derision a final yod instead of he). A third name of this same plu.oe, Kirje.th-baa!, is found in or contempt), throu_gh ,,ilie tw,?. fll~Lhe! meo.nino-s of "sportrng and JOstrng, Jodb. xv. 60; xviii. 14. Probably the present 0 passes to the significe.tion_ of "danoing" 'Arma, a ruin . ( i.q. Kirjath-o.rim, Ezra ii. (1 Sam. xviii. 7; Jer. xxx1. 4). Its deep- 25) on the brink of the valley of Sorek, est idea seems to be ·• to make merry," and may be the place (see Conder's 'Bible to savour of the vary same ambiguity Handbook,' p. 419, 2nd edit.). We read in e.ttu.ohing to tho.t idiom with ourselves. Josh. ix. 17-27 how the men of Kirjath- The pe.rallel of this pe.sse.ge exhibit• "be- jearim had been made by Joshua" hewers of fore the Lord." With e.11 their might. See wood and drawers of water for the congrega- the evident mistake of the parallel (" on all tion, o.nd for the altar of the Lord." Hither manner of instruments macle of firwood," to this Kirjo.th-jearim the ark had been litero.lly, with all firwoods) through similnr- conveyed from Bethshemesh (1 Sam. vii. 1, ity of the Hebrew characters. Cymbals and 2) and here it " e.bode " long time, " for it . . . trumpets. Of tho five nnmos of musical w~ twenty years." Perhaps the_ word instruments, the sumo in number in botb "abode" in this poes11ge may be equivalent passa"es the first three ore the s11me in lh11 lo abode unmoved (I Sam. xiv. 18, H>). For Hebr;w, but these lost twonrediffercnt words, though the chronology from the death of n\,:i:\:n:l1 c•nS:rci:ll hero for c:S:i:~:1::l1 c•p:n::J, Eli, through the remo.iu<ler of Samuel's career and of Saul's, seems almost hopelessly A ~o.riati~ii' ~t -this pe.rlic.nlar· kind ·ago.ill 196 THE FIRS'l' BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [oa. xm. 1-14.