The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 95

bility is that, ae cities on the borderland, in the south (Ezek. xlvii. 19; xlviii. 28; eh, they wore whe.t had been e.t present un• xx. 2), is intended. Our text, howeveT, in the ocoupied by Israelites, were all the likelier present place offers no choice while that in in bnd repa.ir, and, unve.lued by 1-Iire.m, Kings(compare Cbethiv and Keri) is doubt- were, when put into good repair by Solomon, ful. And finally, our writer is here evidently euch the.t Solomon might justly ca.11Se the in the neighbourhoo,l of Hamath, which of ohildren of Iara.el to dwell in them. course best suits 'fadmor. Although there Ver. 3,-Ha.ma.th-zoba.h. Hamath (when is an apparent disjointedness between this the name occurs separe.tely) was a place and the parallel, closer notice may rather both of great geogre.phical note (occupying, bring confirmation of substantial agreement whether rege.rded as a larger region or a between them. For instance, the store cities town, e.n importe.nt position in the northern here spoken of as belonging to Hamath (but end of tbe.t broad valley of Cmle-Syria not individunlly named here and not corre- which sepe.re.tes Lebanon and Antilcbanon, sponding with those that are named in and through which passed the river Oroutes) Kings) are accounted for by the words," and and of great histmical note from the time of in Lebanon," in 1 Kings ix. 19. the Exodus to that of Amos. The town, or Ver. 5.-Beth-horon the upper . , . Beth- city, is to be understood to be the Great horon the nether. ·The parallel mentions Hamath (Amos vi. 2). But the kingdom, only the latter (1 Kings ix. 17). They were or district, or county, was almost conter- both in Ephraim (1 Chron. vii. 2-l:; Josh. x. minous with Coole-Syria. Zobah, also a 10, 11; xvi. 1-6; xviii. 13, 14), but were portion of Syria, amounted to a small king- assigned to the Kohathite Levites (Josh. dom, and is read of alike in Saul's and in =i. 22; 1 Chron. vi. 68). The name means David's times, as in Solomon's time. It "the hollow place." The npper Beth-horon probably lay to the north-east of Hamath was about four miles from Gibeon, and the (1 Sam. xiv. 47; 2 Sam. viii. 3, 7, 8, 10; x. lower about three mile8 further on. The 9, 16, 19; 1 Chron. xviii. 4; xix. 16). But Roman general Cestius Ga.llns was defeated Hamath-zobnh of this verse was probably a here in the last Jewish war; Judas Ma.c- place called Hamath, in the region of Zobah, cabams conqnered here (1 Mace. iiL 13-25). in which also two other cities are mentioned, Other interesting references may be made to Berothai and Tibhe.th, or Betah (2 Sam. 1 Sam. xiii. 18; 1 Kings ix. 7; eh. =v. 13. viii. 8 ; 1 Chron. xviii. 8). These two king- Ver. 6.-Baalath (parallel 1 Kings ix. 18). doms of Hamath and Zobah, contiguous as Thie place belonged to Dan (Josh. :xix. 40- they were, seem as though they purposed to 45). Nothing is known about it; some take compliment one another-Zobah by naming it to be one with Baalah of Josh. x:v. 9, 10. one of its towns Hamath, and vice verBa. It Store oities , . . ohariot cities . . . cities is said that the Assyrian inscriptions show of the. horsemen (see eh. xvi. 4; xxxii. 28 ; that they remained, after Solomon, distinct 1 Kings iv. 26; ix. 19). In the parallel kingdoms, some of the names of the places built, or Ver. 4.-Ta.d.mor in the wildemess. Tad- rebuilt, or repaired by Solomon in this con- mor, one with the classical Palmyra, lay in nection are given as "Millo and the wall of the desert of Syria, about half-way between Jerusalem" (Millo's foundations occupied the rivers Orontes and Euphrates, and dis- the hollow at the south-west comer of the tant from Damascus about a hundred and hill of the temple)," and Razor and Megiddo forty miles to its east-no1·th-east. Stanley and Gezer" (1 Kings ix. 15). All that (' Sinai and Palestine,' p. 8, note 1) says, Solomon desired to build; i.e. for purposes "Is it quite certain that 'Tadmor' and of personal enjoyment or ornament. ' Palmyra' are words derived from the Vere. 7-10.-These verses, corresponding ' palms'? A palm is in Hebrew tamar .. very nearly exactly with the parallel ( 1 Kings and in Greek . . . phrenix." Solomon was ix. 20-23), betray bow it was a thing never probably not the originator, but rather re- to be forgotten, if only as a fact, that the builder, of the place. Its fome was great extermination of the old possessors of tho under Zenobia, the Queen of Oden11thus; she land had not been ~ntire; so that allusion Was taken captive by the Emperor Aurelian, to it is not omitted e'ven by a post-Captivity A.D. 273, when the oity was subdued. It is compiler. The parallel charitably reads, now little better than the haunt of a few "whom the children of Israel were not able Arabs. Splendid ruins remain, specially of to destroy utterly," where our te~t 8hows the great temple of the sun. The Hebrew with exacter fidelity, whom the children of text of 1 Kings ix. 18 has apparently Israel consumed not. The parallel also Tcmor, or Tamar, and it has been suggested uses the words, "levy a tribute of bimcl- by Movers on that passage that possibly a service" for our more ambiguous make to Ta!Illlr in the south, and that is found in the pay tribute (Judg. iii. 1-7). In the words, neighbourhood of some of the other places, until this da.y, the copyist, shall we say, too suoh as Banlath, Deth-horon, and Gezer, all slavish, is again detected (ver, 9). The  THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [orr, vm. 1-18,