EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER XVI. 29-34. this was one of the veritable turning-points of Jewish history. One of tho reo.l "decisive TKE RmmN OP Alwl.-With the acces- battles of the world "-tho.t between the sion of Ahab a new main section of our Lord and Be.o.1-was then fought out. No history begins-the section which has its wonder that our historian felt constrained to close in the destruction of the houso of chronicle at length the transactions of e. Omri by Jchu, as related in 2 Kings x. reign so pregnant both with good and evil And this reign is recorded at unusual length; for the people of tho Lord o.nd for the faith in fact, it occupies nearly nil the remain- with which they hnd been put in trust. In- ing portion of this volume, whereas the deed, the same guiding principk which led reigns of preceding kings have in severe.I in- him to devote so many of his pages to the stances been dismissed in e. few verses. It . reign of Solomon, when the theocratic king- owes this distinction to the ministry of the dom was at its highest, impelled him to great prophet Elijah by which it was marked, linger over the reign of Aho.b when religion and, indeed, was profoundly influenced; but was at its lowest ebb. Tho secular his- this ministry, it must be remembered, was torian, too often like the sun-dio.l which necessitated by the critical oiroumste.nces of "counts no hours so.ve those serene," dra.ws the time. It mo.y be that " every age thinks e. veil over the time of his country's deca- itself e. crisis," but no one can fo.il to see that •dcncc, or touches its misfortunes with a 874 THE r!RST BOO:tt or ltINGS. [on. XVI. 20-84.
light he.nd. It is only in the inspired Dido.) This statement helps to explain records that we have an impartial register Jezebel's fierce and sanguinary oharaoter, both of the glory and aha.me of a common- and at the same time acoonnts for her great wealth. devotion to the gods of her oonntry, and for her determined efforts to establish their Ver. 29.-And ln the thirty and eighth impure rites in her husband's kingdom. n :yee..r or Asa k1Jlg or Judah [see notes on was only what one would expect from the ver. 23] began Ahab [" Father's brother." child of such e. parent] k1Jlg of the Zldonla.ns The name is apposite. He was Omri's alter [This alliance, it is extremely probable, was ego in impiety] the son of Omrt to reign made for purely politioal reasons, as a over Israel : and .Ahab the son or Omrt counterpoise against the e.otive, ambitious, reigned over Isra.el in Sama.ri& twenty and and enoroe.ohing power which had arisen in two years. De.me.scene Syria. The army which had Ver. 30.-And .Ahab the son of Omrt [The already humbled Omri (eh. :n:. 34) could repetition is noticeable. It is possible that not fail to be a source of danger to Tyre], the preoeding verse has been revised by a and went and served Baal [Heb. the Baal, chronologer. The LXX. text is much more i.e., the lord or master; cf. o rcvpw,;. The condensed] did evil in the sight of the Lord name appears among the Babylonians as *bove a.11 that were before him. [The same Bel (Isa. xlvi. I)-Greek /3;;>.o,;. Beference words are used of his father in ver. 25. It has eJ.ree.d.y been made to the frequent re- is not difficnlt to see in what way Ahab's currence of the word in different compound rnle was worse even than Omri'1:1. The names, and in different parts of Palestine, latter had gone beyond his predecessors in as showing how widespread must have been the matter of the calf-worship. See note on his worship at an earlier age. We are also ver. 25. But the calf-worship, however it familiar with the word in the names Hanni- may have deteriorated in process of time- bal, Hasdrubal, &o. Baal was the Bllpreme and it is the tendency of such systems to male god of the Cane.anitish races, as Ash- wax worse and worse--we.s nevertheless e. toreth was their great female divinity. The cult, though e. corrupt, a.nd unauthorized, former was regarded, not only as the pos- and illicit cnltus, of the one true God. sessor, but as the generator, of all], and Under Ahab, however, positive idol.a.try was worshipped him. established and fostered-the worship of Ver. 32.-And he rea.red up an altar for foreign and shameful deities.] Baal in [Heb. omits in; cf. eh. xv. 15, &c.] Ver. 31.-And it came to pass, as 1f lt had the house of Baal [A temple, we can hardly been a light thing for him [Heb. as marg. doubt, of considerable splendour. Jezebel was it a light thing 1 Ewald (362 a) explains would not be satisfied with less], which he this to mean "because it was." But it had built ln Samaria [According to 2 Kings seems better to understand, " was it such e. iii. 2, x. 27, he also raised a pillar (A. V. light thing . . . that he mt1St needs also?" image) in the hollSe of Baal We leam &c.J to walk in the s1ns or Jeroboam the from Dins and Menander that Hiram had son of Nebat [i.e., the sins of heresy and raised a golden pillar to Baal in Tyre. schism], that he took to wife Jezebel Perhaps Ahab may have copied this. But [="Without cohabitation." '' chaste," Ge- it is probable that this image, which repre- senit1S, who compares it with .A.gnu. It is sented the generative powers of nature, was hardly the origina.l of lea.bell.a.] the daughter an essential part of the impure worship of of Ethba.a.l [ =" With Be.al." The Greek Baal. The house and its contents alike form 'I06/311Ao, or E10wf3aJ..or:, found in Jos., were destroyed by Jehu (2 Kings :x. 27), Ant. viii. 13.1; cf. Contr. Ap. i. 18, suggests Ver. 33.-And Ahab made a grove [Heb. as its original ~P.;! iT-lN i.e., "with him is an .A.sherah, i.e., image of A.sto.rte, a female figure corresponding to the male effigy just Baa.I." In either case the name well be- de8cribed. See note on eh. xiv. 23] ; and .Ahab came him, for, according to Menander (apud did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel Jos. l.c.), he was the priest of A.starte, who to anger than a.11 the kings of Israel that gained for himself the throne of the Zido- were before h1m. nia.ns by the assassination of Pheles. He is Ver. 34.-In his days did Hiel the Beth- further sa.id to have reigned thirty-two years, and to have lived sixty-eight years. He elite [Observe the form '?~y n1.;1, and see wonld therefore be thirty-six years old at note on eh. ii. 8. It is noticeable that it the time of his accession. It does not ap- was reserved for a mo.n of Bethel to commit pear that (Keil) he was the brother of this act of impiety. It was to. such results Pheles. Pheles, however, was certainly e. the worship of the ce.lve_s cont~~uted] build fratricide. (Rawlinson reminds us that [i.e., rebuild, fortify, as m eh, xii. 25; cf. eh. Jezebel wa~ ~eat-aunt to Pygma.lion and ix. 17. It is cle11r from Judg. iii. 13 a.nci t:lil, XVI, 29-84.] '1111:E FI:B.ST :BOOK OF KINGS. 875