The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 77

variations in spelling are again to be noticed). scendants, it is not surprising th,e.t the judge's Here Solomon cast the Temple vessels. By s01;1s should possess some of the villages of some it is identified with Kum Se.rte.heh (but Jarr], which are 1n Gilea.d; to him also per- see Quart: Stat. of Pal. Explor. Fund, July, tained the region [';,:;m, lit., 111,easuring cord, 1874, and Conder, pp. 233, 234), a few miles came to signify the· 'region measured] ot bel~w Be_tbshan. ~~ is noticeable (in con- Argob [else~h~re "the Argob," i.e., the nexion ,nth Josh. w.16) that at this point ~e Jordan valley narrows (Keil). It occupies stony. This 1s the region subsequently high ground and co=ands an extensive kn~wn !LS _Tre.~honitis, now called the Lejah. view (Robinson)] beneath [or belo10] .tez- It 1s distmgmshed here and in Josh xiii reel [Wordsworth remarks that "Jezreel 3~, ~nd ~ Oh.ran. ii. 22 from the Gil~adi~ now Zerin, is a lofty site." But the idei:, distr1c_t Just mentioned, with which it is bf " beneath " is not that of depression, sometrmes confounded. Both seem to have but of geographical position= the district been conquered by J air, but the towns of the south-east of Jezreel] from [LXX. and from) former bore the name of Havoth Jair and Bethshea.n to Abelmeholah [lit. meadow these of Bashan Havoth Jair. Cf. Dent. iii. of the dance. It lay ten miles south of 41 5, 14 with Numb. xxxii. 41. The latter con- Bethshean. It is mentioned in connexion sisted of thr~score cities, with walls, gates, ~th Zererath (Zaretan) in Judg. vii. 22, but and ba:5. _This remarkable district, twenty- 1s best known as the home of Elisha (1 Kings ~o miles m length by fourteen in breadth, lS "wholly composed of black basalt which xix. 16)] even unto the place that is beyond [Heh. unto the other side o_n Jokneam. [Pro- appea~s to have issued from innu~erable perly, Jokmeam .. Identified by the Survey pores m the earth in a liquid state. , . . Be- (Conder, p. 68) with TellKeimun. ALevitical fore cooling, its surface was violently agitated town (1 Chron. vi. 68) probably the same as and it '!as_afterwards shattered and rent by Kibzaim (cf. Josh_ xxi. 22). This district co~vulS1on~. . .. Strange as it may seem, coincided practically with the tribe of Man- t~s ungainly an~ forbidding region is asseh. It embraced a part (see ver. 17) of tJ:uckly studded with deserted cities and the fertile pie.in of Esdraelon and of the villages" (Porter, "Giant Cities of Bashan" also in Kitto's Cycl iii. p. 1032 ; Diet. Bib. Jordan valley.) i. 104)] which 1B 1n Basha.n, threescore great Ver. 13.-The son of Geber[possibly son of cities with walls and bra.zen ba.rs. [These the Geber mentioned in ver. 19] 1n Ramoth- words are a reminiscence of Dent. iii. 4, 5.] gilea.d [two districts east of the Jordan are Ver. 14.-A.binadab the son of Iddo [prob- now enumerated. And first, the territory of ably the seer of that name, 2 Chron. ix. 29] Gaci ~ll.Illoth-gilead '!as a Levitical city had Maha.na.im [Heb. to Mahanaim, as marg. (Deut. 1v. 43; Josh. xn. 38). Its selection That is, went, or was appointed, to Maha- ns a city of refuge (Josh. xx. 8), e.nd as the naim. Rawlinson understands that his seat of Bengeber's prefecture, together with district was " from the placea last mentioned the constant wars waged for its possession to Mahanaim," but for this the usus loquencli (1 Kings xxii. 3; 2 Kings viii. 28; ix. 14) of the writer would lead us to expect ill. For show. that it was a position of great strength and importance]; to him pertained the Mahanaim, see Gen. xxxii. 2; Josh~a xiii. towns of Ja.ir [the Havoth Jair are strictly 26]. the lives (i.e., villages, because men live Ver. 15.-Ahimaaz (probably the son of there) of Jair. So Gesenius, who cites Zadok, 2 Sam. xv. 27 ; xvii. 17] was 1n Eisleben and similar names] the son Naphtall; he also [like Ben-Abinadab, ver. Manasseh [it is doubtful whether the judge 11] took Basmath the daughter of Solomon of that name (Judg. x. 3) or Jair, the son of to wife. Segnb (called a "son of Mano.eseh" in Numb. Ver. 16.-Ba.naa.h [or Bao.no., the second xxxi.i. 41, becanse his grandmother we.s a prefect of that name (ver. 12). The names daughter of the great Machir, though his are identical in the Hebrew. In 2 Sam. iv. father belonged to Judah, 1 Chron. ii. 21), is 2 the name is Baanah] the son of Bushal intended.. Probably it is the latter. (They can [the Archite, David's friend. Cf. 2 Sam. xv. hardly be one and the same person, though 32] was 1n Asher and Aloth. [No town or they are often identified, as, e.g., in the district of this name is known. Probably Speaker's Comm. on Judg. x. 3. But they the word should be Bea.lath, as in the LXX., belong to different periods.) Curiously Syr., and Vulg. Our translators have taken enough, the Havoth Jair are mentioned in the initial -¥ for a prefix, but it is almost connexion with each (see Numb. xxxii. 41; certainly part of the name. There was a pent. iii. 4, 5, 14; Josh. xiii. 30; 1 Chron. Baaloth in Judah (Josh. xv. 24) and a u. 22; Judg. x. 4), but in every case except Baa.lath in Dan (ibid. xix, 44), but neither the last _th~ reference is to the son of Segub. of these can be meant here.] AB the Judge was probably one of bia de- Ver, 17.-Jehoshap~at the BOD ofPa.rua.JJ. CH, IV. 1-19.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 71