sufficient to negative the rendering" father" most ancient of towns, and is referred to by Rltogether. In our text altogether inappro- Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' v. 18), as "Joppa Phce- priate, it may be called there itltogether im- nicum, antiquior torrarum inundatione, ut possible. It has been proposed to render it ferunt." Its name(\~, "beauty") is said to as a proper name .Abi, or as an affix of have been justified by the beautiful groves l1011our, .Ab, equal to "master." However, in its neighbourhood. It is mentioned Josh. Gesenius (in• Lexicon,' sub ooo. :lN (6), which xix. 46 as Japho, where 11lso we learn the see) furnishes a eignifioation, "chief coun- circumstances under which the Dan tribe sellor," which (taking it to mean chief were possessed of it. It is remarkablo that counsellor, or as it were expert, chief re- it is not mentioned again till our present feree, or even only for,:mn,n in such matters verse, not even in the parallel (1 Kings v. as might be in question) would well suit all 9). But it appears ago.in in Ezro. iii. 7; the p&Bsages, and remove all difficulty. Jonah i. 3, and in several places in the Acts Ver. 14.--Son of a woman . . . of Dan. of the Apostles. The modem no.me of it is Both this and the p&rallel (l Kings vii. 14) Ja:ffa, and it is not reputed 11s a good port agree as t,o the father of this very clever now. It was distant from Jerusalem some workman, that he was " a man of Tyre." thirty-four miles. The carriage of the tim- But the parallel gives the mother as a ber this road-journey is nowhere described wolll&U "of the tribe of Naphtali," and ea.Us in detail, nor is the exact spot of the coast her a " widow." This must meo.n, either west of Lebanon mentioned where the flotes that she was a widow now, or that she was were made, and thence despatched. a widow when "the mo.n of Tyre" married Ver. 17.-Strangers. By these are meant her. If this latter is the correct meaning, those of the former inhabitants and posses- it has been suggested that., though the sors of the land, who had not been extirpated mother was really a woman of the daughters or d,·iven out. Special regulations respect- of Dan, yet the husband who, dying, left her ing them nre recorded in J udg. i. 21-28, 38- a widow, was of the tribe of Naphtali, and 36. But these had lal'gely lapsed till, as it t!:iat from this ,he became credited with appears, David revived them ro.ther trench- belonging to that tribe. It would seem not antly, and David is now followed by Solo- altogether impossible that it may be intended mon (eh. viii. 7, 8; 1 Kings ix. 20, 21). The to state, in a delicate way, that this remark- very much milder enforcement of labour ably able man was the natural son of the upon the Israelites themselves is evident wiJow in question, "the man of Tyre" (not from 1 Kings v. 13-16. After the number- called her husband) being the father. On ing wherewith David his father had num- the intermarriages of Danites and Phceui- bered them. Of this transaction on the part cians. see Blunt's • Coincidences,' pt. 2. iv. of David we do not possess any absolutely Skilful . . . to find out every devioe. (For distinct statement. But the place of it is the identical phrase, see Exod. xxxL 4.) The sufficiently evident, as indicated in 1 Chron. present verse, exceeding in definiteness ver. xxii. 2. 7, ,upra, undoubtedly purports on the face Ver. 18.-Three thousand and six hundred. of it to ascribe a very wide range of prac- Adding to these the 250 of eh. viii. 10, infra, tical skill, and not merely genera.I adminis- the total 3850 of l Kings v. 16 is exactly trative and directing skill, to Hiram. Note, reached. That total, however, is reached by however, the significance conched in the a somewhat different classification, the divi- la.et clauses of both verses. sion being into 3300 "strangers," and 500 Ver. 15.-The contents of this verse can- " chief of the officers" (1 Kings ix. 23). not be supposed to imply that King Hiram The explanation probably is that of the 3600 is ee.o-er for the pay to be remembered, bnt •• stranger " overseers, the small proportion are e°qnivalent to saying promptly that all of 300 were of much higher grade in office things are ready lo begin, and that therefore than the rest, and were ranked by the writer the commissariat must be re1tdy also. in King-a with those overseers (250) of Solo- Ver. 16.-loppa.. This wa.H one of the mon, who were probably Israelites.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-18.-This chapter, in a homiletic point of view, invites attention to those methods ( or some of them) of religious enterprise which go to ensure success and to issue in real usefulness. For we may notice here- L THE REPEATED RECORD, ON THE PART OF SOLOMON, OF RIB RESOLUTION OR DETEllMINATION. "Solomon determined." The enterprise "of building a. house to the Name of the Lord" h.a.d been set before him. He knew it had been in his father's mind. He had heard H in the earnest tones of a. father'H prayer. He hncl fotened to the urgent, loving, proud tones of a father's charge to a. son. lie liad, no doubt, said orr. u.1-18.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 23