The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 336

Ver. 8. -And Abljam slept with his Deut. xxix. 17, where it is coupled with fa.then; a.nd they buried him 1n the olty "abominations; "Ezek. xxiii. 87) ; but whe- of David [This fact a.lone should negative ther the word is to be interpreted by ,iA 11 Lightfoot's theory ns to his name; see note on oh. xiv. 31] : a.nd Asa his BOil relglled ball of dung, in which oase these idols 1n his stead. (Dei stercorei) would have a designation like The Reign of Asa. BeelzebO.l (" the lord of dung"), or with ?1 Ver. 9.-And 1n the twentieth year of a heap of stones (Gen. xxxi. 46, 48), Dei Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa [Gesen. interprets the name to mea.n lapidei, is uncertain. Keil would translate " physician "] over Juda.h. [This reign logs, Gesenius trunks, stocks, which from is related at much greater length in 2 Chron. being rolled might well bee.r this name] ri,.-xvi. We are there told of the Ethio- tha.t his fathers had made. pian invasion, of ;the propheoies of Aze.riah Ver. 13.-And also Ma.a.cha.h his mother, and Ho.nani, of the league with Syria., &o.] even her he removed from being queen Ver. 10.-And forty and one years rel.gned [Re.ther, queen-mother. Gebirah, a.s already he 1n Jerusalem [Corn. a Lapide points out pointed out on ob. ii. 19, answers to the that Asa saw eight kings of Israel on the Sultana Valide. The Vnlgate ree.ds, Ne esset throne, Jeroboam, Na.dab, Ba.a.sha, Elah, princeps in sacris Priapi. Wordsworth re- Zimri, Tibni, Omri, and Ahab]. And his minds us of the position which the queen- mother's [or grandmother's, as margin] mother Atosse. holds in the Persae (vers. na.me was Ma.achall, the daughter of Abi- 159-850). A queen consort is hardly pos- shalom. [The same words as in ver. 2, sible in a. polygamous household ; see Kitto, and the reference can hardly be to a differ- iv, 177] because [Heb. which, a.sin ver. 5] she ent person. Bahr indeed questions whether had made a.n idol [M¥~PI? from r~~ terruit, i:ll5 can here stand for grandmother, (1) signifies an object of fear, /oi·mido-not because in every other case it designates pudendum, a thing of shame, as the Rabbis the king's mother, (2) Because the mother and others have held, i.e., a phallic image of the king, and not the grandmother, en- (simulacntm obscoenum, Jerome), but IIO'r- joyed the dignity and position of Gebirah rendum. The devout Jew could not but (ver. 13; 2 Chron. xv. 16). Some would regard such objects with horror) in a grove read for Abishalom, Uriel of Gibeah; others, [Heb. for (i.e., to serve as) an Asherah. See strengthened by the Michaiah of 2 Chron. note on eh. xiv. 15, 23. Asherah is not the xiii 2, think the historian mistaken in name of the goddess(= Astarte), as Words- mentioning the name of Abija.m's mother worth thinks, but of the image], and Asa (ver. 2 ; 2 Chron. :ri. 21) as Maachah. The destroyed [Marg. cut off, Heh. simply cut, difficulty by no means admits of a ready which here must mean cut down. The image solution, but perhaps the best explane.tion was, no doubt, planted erect in the ground] is the.t the grandmother, Mae.chah, Reho- her idol [horror, as above], and burnt it boam's favourite wife, retained her position, [this shows that it was made of wood] by possibly by force of character, or because the brook Hldron. [Cf. Exod. xxxii. 20. Asa's mother was dead. It is not certain, Here, as in eh. xvii. 3 (where see note), our however, that if the latter had lived she translators have been una.ble to adhere would have disple.ced Maachah, of whose strictly to the original "in the brook," &o., influence and imperious temper we have several indications; e.g., in the appoint- from not knowing that ?m, which primarily ment of her son, though not the first-bom, mee.ns "brook,'' also means" watercourse," to succeed his father, and in her open wady. It is probable that the brook was at maintenance of idol-worship, and above this time flowing, and that the ashes of the all in the fa.et that she was publicly deposed wooden Asherah were cast into it; but the by Asa. burning also took place in the Wady, or Ver. 11.-And Asa did that which was valley. We read of another similar burning right 1n the eyes of the Lord, as did Da.v1d in 2 Kings xxiiL 4, 6; bat in this case the hls father. [" It is a wonder how Asa. ashes were either carried to Bethel or ea.et should be good, of the seed of Abija.m, of upon the graves, to defile them. It is a. fair tbe soil of Maachah" (Hall).] inference that on this latter occasion tho Ver. 12.-And he took away the Bodom- Kedron was dry. The valley, "the fields of itea [see on eh. xiv. 24, and Rom. i. 23-27. the Kedron" (ver. 4 l.c.), is conveniently It appea.re from eh. xxii. 46 that this abomi- ple.ced for such a purpose.] uation was not wholly suppressed] out of Ver. 14.-But the high places [evidently such a.s are referred to in eh. iii., i.e., un- the land, a.nd removed all the idols [C'~'i,~ authorized shrines of Jehovah ; of. 2 Kings from '~J vot!lit. 4 terill ot oontempt (~ ~v. 4] were iiot ~en away (lit., de- OR, xv. 1-24,l THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 841