The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 101

(xlvii. 19; xlviii. 28) as forming part of the eouthern boundary of Palestine, bas been cln.imml n.s the 'fndmor here alluded to (Thenius, Bahr, Schrader), on the ground that in 1 Kings ix. 17, 18 t,he building of Tamar is associated with the building of Gezer, Beth-boron, o.nd Baalath, and that Tamar is stated to have been in the wilderness in the land. But the first of these arguments ie not conclusive, while the second has force only if Palestine, and not Hamath, is the land meant. (For a description of Tadmor or Palmyra, see Biblical Cycloprediae.) 8. Existing citiesf(Yf'ti,fied. (1) Beth- horon, or "the house of the narrow way,'' an old double town of Ephraim, said to have been built by Sheerab, a daughter or descendant of Ephraim (1 Chron. vii. 24); but as the two Beth-horons, the present Beit-wr-ei-Foka and Tachta (Robinson), the upper and the lower, situated in the tribe of Ephraim on the borders of Benjamin, existed in the days of Joshua (x. 28), it is probable that Sheerah was "an heiress who had received these places as her inheritance, and caused them to be enlarged by her family" (Keil). Solomon transformed them into i;!Rrrison cities, with walls, g:i.tes, and bars. (2) Baa.lab, a town in the tribe of Dan (Josh. xix. 44), not far from Beth-boron and Gezer (Josephus), perhaps the modem villa!!;e Bel'ain (Conder). Though mentioned along with 'l'admor, there is no ground for identifying it with Baal-bee or Heliopolis (Ritter and others). This also the king fortified to protect his kingdom against the Philistines. 4. Store cities, etc., erected. (1) In Hamath-zobah, which Solomon con- quered (ver. 3). This territory comprised the well-known town Hamath on the Orontes, ruled over by Tou, and the adjoining state of Zobah, whose king, Hadar-ezer, David smote when he went to establish hiR dominion by the river Euphrates (1 Chron. xviii. 3). Both kings appear to have been rendered tributary to the Israelitish throne as the result of that expedition, and their territories practically annexed to the Israel- itish dominions under the composite name employed by the Chronicler. (2) In Palestine proper (ver. 6). These" store citie11 "were not so much depots of merchandise (Ewald, Jamieson) as magazines for victuals, laid up for the convenience of travellers and their beasts (Bertheau), perhaps also for materials of war to aid in the protection of the empire (Bahr). Along with these were chariot cities (cf. eh. i. 14), and cities for the horsemen, probably not different from the former (see eh. ix. 25; 1 Kings x. 26). Learn: 1. Kings should be patterns to their subjects of religion and industry. 2. It is legitimate for princes to look well to the safety of their dominions. 3. The best defences for kingdoms are not muniments, but men.-W. Vers. 7-10.-The subjects of Solomon. I. NoN-lSRAELITES. 1. Their nationalities. Descendants of five of the seven nations in the promised land anterior to the conquest, remnants of which were left instead of being utterly consumed as enjoined by Moses (Deut. vii. 1). (1) The Hittites, sons or descendants of Heth, the second son of Canaan (Gen. x. 15), who in Abraham's time dwelt in and around Hebron (Gen. xxvL 34), in Moses', along with the Amorites and Jebusites, occupied the mountains of Judah and Ephraim (Numb. xiii. 29), and in Solomon's, resided north of Palestine (1 Kings ix. 20; x. 29 ; xi. 1 ; 2 Kings vii. 6). Identified with the Cbeta of the Egyptian monuments (Ebers, 'Egypt and the Books of Moses,' pp. 285, 286), and the Chatti of the cuneiform inscriptions (Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' p. 107, etc.), they have finally been discovered by Sayce (' Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,' p. 5) and Brugsch (' Egypt,' etc., i. 338) to be a large and powerful nation " whose two chief seats were at Kadesh on the Orantes, and Carchemish on the Euphrates." Ehers and Schrader doubt whether the northern belonged to the same family as the southern Hittites; but evidence tends to the conclusion that they did. "That the Hittites formed part of the Hyksos forces, and that some of them, instead of entering Egypt, remained behind in Southern Canaan," is confirmed by the statement of Manetho, that Jerusalem was founded by the Hyksos after their expulsion from Egypt, and by that of Ezekiel (xvi. 3) that Jerusalem had a Hittite mother (Sayce). Traces of their existence have been left in two places in Palestine-in Hattin, the old Caphar Hittai or the Talmud, above the Sea of Galilee; and in Kefr Hatta, north o~ Jerusalem (Conder, • Handbook to the Bible,' p. 235). (2) The Amorites. Mountaineers, a~ the name imports, found on both sides of the Jordan, from north to south of Palestme, though their principal habitat was the Judrean mountains (Gen. xiv.13, 17, 24:; Numb. xiii. 30; Josh. x. 6), they were among the most powerful of the ancient Cll.naanitish tribes.  102 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [oH. vm. 1-18,