The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 525

almost the look of e.n emendation] e.nd ivory was e.noientl:, e.pplied, not only to was brought [Heb. ca11u. The A. V. is furniture, but to the doors nnd walls of against the grammar. As "came" would houses], a.nd all the cities that he built be a stre.uge word to use of a dead man, [Probably Jezrecl wns one, but we he.ve no it is highly probable that instead of ~t:l'l informe.tion concerning them. The fa.et we should read l~l:J'l with the LXX. rai that he did build cities, however, is one ,}X9ovJ to Sa.ma.ria; a.nd they buried the proof of Ahe.b's enterprize. He we.a not king in Sa.maria [" with his father," eh. wee.k in all pe.rticularsJ, are they not writ- xvi 28). ten in the book of the chronicles of the Ver. 38.-A.nd one washed the cha.riot kings of Israel? in [or at; Heb. ~ll] the pool of Sa.ma.ria. Ver. 40. -So Aha.b slept with his !athere; and Ahazl.a.h [" Whom Jehovah upholds." [Nearly all Eastern cities had their tanks The name suggests that, notwithstanding or pools, often outside the city gate. Jeru- his idole.tries, Ahe.b ce.nnot he.ve completely salem has several of these, and we read of abe.ndoned the worship of the Lord] h1B one at Hebron (2 Sam. xiv. 12) and Gibeon son rel.gned in his stead. (ib. ii. 13). Cf. Cant. vii. 4. The Hebrew word i9'.:l:jl is preserved in the modem Are.- Reign of Jehoshaphat. hie Birkeh]; a.nd the dogs [The LXX. he.s the swine and the dogs. The mention of Ver. 41.-A.nd Jehoshaphat [" Whom swine is hardly likely to have been omitted, Jehovah judges"] the son of Asa began to he.d it formed part of the original text] reign over Judah in the fourth year of licked up his blood [cf. eh. xxi. 19, note. Ahab king of Israel. [The historian now According to Josephus, the chariot was resumes for e. moment the history of Judah, washed "in the fountain of Jezreel." '.l.'he which has dropped out of notice since eh. alteration would appear to have been made xv. 24, where the accession of Jehoshe.phat to avoid the difficulty occasioned by the dis- was mentioned. His reign, which is here crepancy between the statement of the text, described in the briefest possible way, occu- e.nd that of c:.h. xxi. 19] , a.nd they washed pies four che.pters (xvii.-xx.) of 2 Chron.J his a.rmour [So the Chaldaic and the Ver. 42.-Jehoshapha.t was thirty a.nd Syrie.c. Bat this translation is now aban- five years old when he began to reign; doned, (1) because it is contrary to the a.nd he rel.gned twenty and five years in usage of the language to make Mi)t the Jerusalem.. And his mother's name was Azu.ba.h the daughter of Sh.Uh1. object; and (2) because that word occurs Ver. 43.-And he walked in all thA wa.ya in the Old Testament only in the sense of of Asa his father (Apari ttom 111s e.lliance harlots (Bahr). The true meaning is that with the house of Ahe.b, e.nd the troubles given by the LXX.., ra, ai 1r6pvat D1.ov,;avro. in which it involved him, hie reign we.r, YCI~ does not require any object such as alike pious and prosperous. Like Ase.'s, it ••chariot," or "corpse," for it is found in was distinguished by internal reforms, and the sense of bathe (intre.ns.) in Exod. ii. by signe.l deliverances from foreign ene- 5; Num. :rix. 19; Buth iii. 21; 2 Kings mies]; he turned not aside from it [a.a Asn v. 10. Bahr reminds us that harlots a.re we.a tempted to do in his old age], doing elsewhere associated with dogs (Dent. xxiii. [Heb. to do] that which was right 1n the 19; Rev. xxii. 15). This fact is mentioned eyes of the Lord : nevertheless the high as a proof of the just judgment of God. places were not taken away [Heb. de- Even if these harlots were not prostitutes parted not, e.s in eh. xv. 14; 2 Chron. xv. devoted to the service of the Phoenician 17 ; 2 Kings xii. 4, Heh. ; xiv. 4, Heb. But deities, whose cultus Ahab had sought to see 2 Chron. xviii. 6. The discrepancy is establish in Isre.el, still the result of his the exe.ct parallel of that between 1 Kings religious policy had been the spread of xv. 14 and 2 Chron. xiv. 3; or between prostitution. It is a . fin<: example of t:11e this latter pnsse.ge and 2 Chron. xv. 17. lex to,lionis. "He which lll filthy, let him And the exple.ne.tion is the snme, viz., that be filthy still"] ; according unto the word an effort was made to remove the high of the Lord which he spake [the reference places, which was pe.rtie.lly, nnd only pl\r- is to eh. xxi. 19]. tially, successful] ; for the people offered Ver. 39.-Now the rest of the acts of and burnt 1nc8lllle yet 1n the high places .Ahab, a.nd all that he did, a.nd the ivory [cf. eh. iii. 2] . house which he made [Bo ea.lied bece.use Ver. 44.-And Jehoshaphat made peaoe it was a.domed with ivory. See on eh. xi. ; with the king of Israel [One gree.t fee.ture e.nd cf. Amos iii. 15; Pse.. xlv. 8; Ca.nt. vii. of his reign was this : the.t the hostility 6. Rawlinson cites several pe.ssages from which had le.sted, even if it sometimes Greek and Latin e.uthors to prove the.t slumbered, between tho two kingdoms for OB. XXII. 1-58,] THE U'IRBT BOOK OF KINGS. 541