The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 479

Aphek could bury so large a nnmber in from it]: peradventure he Will save thy their ruins. Rawlinson suggests that the llfe. [LXX. owr lives, r,k ,frvxai: ,jµwv.] Syrians at the time were '' manning the Ver. 32.-So they girded sackcloth on deiences in full force," and that the earth- their loins, a.nd put ropes on their heads, quake " threw down the wall where they a.nd ea.me to the king of Israel, and said, were most thickly crowded upon it ; " but Thy servant Ben-ha.dad salth, I pray thee, the question e.rises whether it is possible to let me llve. [Compare with this abject mass 27 000 men upon any po.rt of a wall, or petition for life the arrogant ing;,ience oi all the ~alls, especially of an ancient vil- vers. 6, 10. The tables are indeed turned.] lage fortress. Thenius hints that the fe.ll And he said, Is he yet alive t he is my of the wall may have been occasioned by the btother. Israelites undermining it during the night, Ver. 33.-Now the men did dillgently but it seems hardly likely that so small a observe whether anything would come force could undertake operations of that from him, and did hastily catch it [Heh. kind against so formidable a body of and the men augured--0m divinavit. Cf. troops. Keil objects to this view on another Gen. xliv. 15 ; Levit. x.i.x. 2b; 2 Kings xvii. ground, viz., that its object is to negative 17. LXX. oiwviaavro. Vulgate acceperunt the idea of B Divine interposition. But the pro amine-and hasted and made him declare text does not ascribe the fe.11 of the wall to whether from him, the meaning of which is any such interposition, and we know that sufficiently clear, viz., that the men took the sacred writers are not slow to recognize Ahab's words, "He is my brother," as a speech the finger of God whenever it is exerted.] of good omen, and immediately laicl hold of And Ben-had.ad fled, and came into [Heh. it, and contrived that the king should be to] the city [i.e., Aphek. Rawlinson in- held to it e.nd made to con firm it. The only terprets this statement to mean that he "fled from the wall, where be had been at difficulty is in the word ~t:l~t:,~1 which is [i-;raE; the time of the disaster, into the inner parts Xiy. The Talmud, howevci, interprets it to of the city," but this is extremely doubtful. mean, declare, confinn; in the Kn.I conjug1i- Observe the words, " fled and came to the tion and the Hiphil would therefore mean, city"-words almost identical with those made him declai·e. The LXX. nncl Vulgate, used of the fugitives above], into an inner however, have understood it otherwise, chamber. [Heh. into a chamber within a chamber, as in eh. xxii. 25. This cannot taking t:>~r:, as the equivalent of l'~Q rapuit. mean "from chamber to chamber," as The former hns avEX,;avro rov Xuyov i,c: roii marg. It is to be observed that 1'J!;I alone aroµ.aroc avroii, and the latter rap11er11nt t1erbum ex ore ejw. They would seem also signifies properly an inner chamber. See to have read instead of rn.z,r.,;i 't) 1J"l;t Gen. xliii. 30; Judg. xvi. 9, 12. Rawlinson (Ewalcl). The law of dakheei" (s~~ Lny~1~,l, thinks that n secret chamber may be meant "a cha.mber in the wall, or one beneath N. and B. pp. 317-319), by which Rnwlin- ~e floor of another."] eon would explain this incident, seems to be rather nn usage of the Bedouin thnn of Ver. Sl.-And his servants [Possibly the any civilized Du!.i.:ms] : and they ea.Id, Thy very same men who (ver. 23) had counselled brother Ben-ha.dad. Then said he, Go ya, this second expedition] eald unto him, Behold bring him. Then Ben-ho.dad ea.me forth now, we have he:ird that the kings of the to him [ont of his hiding-placo nml out of house of Israel are merciful kings (As no the city]: and he caused him to come up doubt they were when compared with con- into the chariot. [A mark of great favonr temporary page.n sovereigns]: let us, I (compare Gon. xli. 43), and of reconcilin- J)ray thee, put sackcloth on our loins [in tion and concord (cf. 2 Kings x. 15).] token of humiliation and contrition. PI?' Ver. 34.-And Ben-ha.dad sald unto him, The cities, which my father took from is identical, radically, with aa,c:rot, saccw, thy father, I will restore [We can hn.rdly and our sack], and ropes upon our heads see in these words " the terms of penco [i.e., round our necks. To show how oom- which ho is willing to offer as the price of pletely they 'Yere at Ah°:b's ~erc;y. Bahr bis freedom" (Rawlinson), becauso ho wns shows that this custom still exists m Chio e., absolutely at Ahab's mercy, am! wns not in but the well-known story of the citizens of a position to make any stipulations; but Calais, after its siege by Edward III., sup- they express Den-be.dad's idea of the results plies a closer illustration], a.nd go out [Heh. whioh must follow the conquest. His utter 90] to the king of Isra.el (It would appear defeat would necessitate this rco mstrnction from the language of ver. 33 as if Ahab's of their respeotive territories, &c. We can- army was now besieging the place. He not be quito certain that tho citios hero re- himself may have kept at a safe distance ·fcrted to a.re thoeo enlllllerated in eh. xv. 490 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oR. XX. 1-48,