The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 18

EXPOSITION. Ver. 3.-:e:nram. Bo the name is spelt, CHAPTER II. whether of Tyrian king or Tyrian workman, Ver. 1.-In the Hebrew text this verse in Chronicles, except, perhaps, in 1 Cbron. ehmds as the le.et of eh. i. Determined. xiv. 1. Elsewhere the name is written The Hebrew word is the ordinary word for D~I';'), or sometimes D11'TJ, instea.d of c:,vi. " ea.id; " a.a, e.g., in the expression of such Gesenius draws attention to Josephus's fre,1uent occurrence, "The Lord said." Its Greek rendering of the name, Etpw/Los, with natural equivalent here might be, he gave whom agree Menander, an historian of the word, or issued the command, for the Ephesns, in a fragment respecting Hiram building of a house. For the Name of the (Josephns, 'Contra. Apion,' i. 18); and Lord; better, to the Name of the Lord (1 Dins, a fragment of whose history of the Kings v. 3; or in Hebrew text, v. 18; 1 Phcenicians telling of Solomon and Hiram, Chron. xxii. 7). The expression," the Name Josephus also is the means of preserving of the Lord,'' is of very early date (Gen. iv. (' Contra Apion,' i 17). The Septuagint 26). A name named upon a person at the first write the _n.,me X,pd./L; the Alexa.ndria.n, purported as far as possible to mark his XEtpa./L; the Vulgate, Hiram. The na.me of nature, either its tout ensemble or some strik- Hiram's father was Abibaal. Hira.m him- ing attribute of it. Hence the changed self began to reign, a.ccording to Menander, name, sometimes of Divine interposition when nineteen years of age, reigned tbirty- (Gen. xvii. 5, 15; xxxii. 28; xxxv. 10); fouryears (B.o.1023-990), and died therefore and much more noticeably the alterations at the age of fifty-three. Of Hiram and his of the Di vine Name, to serve and to mark the reign in Tyre very little is known beyond progressive development of the revelation of what ill so familiar to us from the Bible God to man (Gen. xvii. 1; Exod. iii. 14; history of David and Solomon. The city of' vi. 3; xxxiv. 14). So the Name of the Lord Tyre is among the most ancient. Though it stands ever-monogram most sacred-for ill not mentioned inHomer,yet the Sidonia.ns, himself. A house for hie kingdom; i.e. a who lived in such close connection with the royal residence for Solomon himself. This Tyrians, are mentioned there(' Iliad.,' vi. 290; is more clearly expressed as, "in his own xxiii. 743; • Odys.,' iv. 84; xxii. 424), whilst house" ( ob. vii. 11 ; viii. 1 ; 1 Kings ix. Virgil calls Tyre the Sidonia.n city, Sid on 10, 15). The description of this house for being twenty miles distant(' 2En.,' i. 12,677; himself is given in 1 Kings vii. 1-13. But iv. 545). The modem name of Tyre is Sur. no parallel account exists in Chronicles. The city was situate on the east coast of the Ver. 2.-The presence of thte verse here, Mediterranean, in Phamicia, about seventy- and the composition of it, may probably mark four geographical miles north of Joppa, some corruptness of text or error of copyists, while the road distance from Joppa to as the first two words of it are the proper Jerusalem was thirty-two miles. The first first two words of ver. 17, and the remainder Bible mention of Tyre ill in Josh. xix. 29. of it shows the proper contents of ver. 18, After that the more characteristic mentions which are not only in other aspects appa- of it are 2 Sam. v. 11, with all its parallels; rently in the right place there, but also by x:xiv. 7; Isa. x:xiii. 1, ~7; Ezek. xxvi. 2; analogy of the parallel (1 Kings v. 15, 16). xxvii. 1-8; Zeoh. ix. 2, 3. Tyre was The contents of this verse will therefore be celebrated for its working in copper and considered with vers. 17, 18, brus, and by no means only for its cedar II. 0HR0NI0LEB, • 0 18 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [err. n. 1-18,