The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 148

religion is impossible. He who abandons the service of God cannot stop short of serving the devil. No man can serve two masters (Matt. vi. 24); but every man must tNllTe one. IV. Co~"TAGIOUB IN rrs INFLUENOE. As Achan perished not alone in his iniquity (Josh. xxi1. 20), so Rehoboam sinned not alone in his apostasy, but by means of hie royal example or command drew all Israel after him. " One sinner destroyeth muoh good" (Eccles. ix. 18); "A_ little leavell: leaveneth the whole lump" (1 Cor. v. 6), One a.~ks, where were the pnests and Levites who had so bravely resisted the profana- tions of Jeroboam, and rather sacrificed their suburbs and possessions than defile their consciences (eh. xi. 14)? and where were the pious Israelites who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel (eh. xi. 16)? In one short year their fervour had been quenched, their :fidelity shaken, their courage damped. V. DrsASTRous IN ITS CONSEQUENOE. "Evil pursueth sinners" (Prov. xiii. 21) and in two years Nemesis overtook Rehoboam in the shape of an Egyptian invasion. 'Of all sinners it is true, "their feet shall slide in due time" (Deut. xxxii. 35); of apostates it is written, "I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord" (Ezek. xi. 21). Learn: 1. The sin of apostasy. 2. The danger of prosperity. 3. The impossibility of neutrality. 4. The :fickleness of crowds in religion as in politics. 6. The corrupting influence of evil example. 6. The certainty of retribution.-W. Vers. 2-4.-Shishak's invasion. I. THE INVADER. Shisbak King of Egypt, the Sesonchis of Manetho, the Sbashanq I. of the monuments (a.a. 966). Originally the son of an .Assyrian king named Nimrod," who had met hie death in Egypt and been buried at Abydos," Sbashanq I. of the twenty-second dynasty established his seat of royalty at Bubastis, in Lower Eicypt (Brugsch, 'Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii. 215, 216; Ebers, in Riehm's 'Handworterbuch,' art. "Sisak;" 'Records of the Past,' xii. 93). His mother's name was 'l'entespeh, his wife's Tahpenes (1 Kings xi. HJ). One of his wife's sisters married Hadad the Edomite; another became the wife of Jeroboam (Stanley,' Jewish Church,' ii. 275; Ewald,' History of Israel,' iii. 217; iv. 32). IL THE ARMY. L (Jh,a,,,-wts. In ancient times a common instrument of war (Exod. xiv. 9; 2 Sam. xv. 1; 1 Kings xx. 1). Shishak had twelve hundred, or twice the number of Pharaoh's chosen chariots in the time of Moses (Exod. xiv. 7). The Philistines once collected against Israel thirty thousand (1 Sa.m. xiii. 5). Solomon had fourteen hundred (1 Kings x. 26), Rehoboam likely not so many in consP.quence of the disruption of the kingdom. 2. Horsemen. Sixty thousand; five times as many as had belonged to Solomon (1 Kings iv. 26), and twelve times as many as the Pbilistinee had brought against Israel (1 Sam. xiiL 5). Forty thousand mounted warriors once fell before David's troops (2 Sam. x. 18). 3. Infantry. Without number, composed of native forces and mercenaries or foreign troops-Lubims, Sukkims, and Ethiopians. (1) The Lubims, or Libyans (eh. xvi 8; Dan. :xi. 43), the Lehabim of Gen. x. 13, the Temhu, or Tehennu, or more accurately the eastern portion of thie people, the Lubu of the monuments (Ebers, 'Egypt and the Books of Moses,' p. 104), were the inhabitants of the districts of Mareotis and Libya west of the Canopic arm of the Nile (Knobel), or in the larger sense the Liby-lEgyptii of the ancients (Keil), the people dwelling between Lower Egypt and the Roman province of Africa (Kautzsch in Riehm, art. "Libyer "). (2) The Sukkim were aborigines of Africa, "cavemen," troglodytes (LXX., Vulgate), "probably the lEthiopian troglodytes upon the ~ountains. on the west coast of the Arabian Gulf" (Bertheau), whom Strabo and Phny mention, the latter speaking of a troglodyte city Suche, which has been identified with Suii.kim (Kautzsch). (3) The Ethiopians, or Cushites, introduced among the forces of Shisha.k (cf. Nah. iii. 9) were drawn from the African territory eouth of Egypt. III. TBE BEA.SON. 1. Shishak's. Perhaps to assist Jeroboam in his measures of hostility aga.iDBt Rehoboam, and eventually to secure the supremacy of Judah, possibly al.so of !llra.el ae welL 2. Jehovah'•· To punish Rehoboam and Judah for their a.poetasy. Though second causes need not be overlooked, they mus~ not be permitted to obscure far less to deny, the first. Had Rehoboam remained faithful to Jehovah, all the int~igues of Jerobo11,m would have failed to start Shishalt on tlte exi:ieditioii hero raporteq, ctt. xt1. 1-10.J THE SlWOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 149