multitude ; and, lastly, of in'l'ocation re• spoken of 11,8 the place or cattle; there are, newed. or still determinedly eusta.i.ned, pressed however_,__f011r pnl!B&gee _looldug the same wo.y home oy t~e clenching challenge of relation- (Gen. :r.m. 5; Judg. v1. 5; 2 Kings vii. 7: ehip and 1tl! rorrelative responsibility e.nd Jer. :r.lix. 29). It is the word used for the preBllmBble holy pride. The antithesis taberne.ole of the wilderness many times and 1 me.rked in these two last clauses will not many times for the plnoe of e.bode that has escape notice-one made all the bolder. with highest associations (Ps. xv. l ; cxviii. 15), the marginal reading of " mortal man " for and of the usual abodes of people ( eh. x. 16). ihe empbe.tic (a poetica.l, universal kind of) The ~se of the w~rd here,_ tho~gh unique, will word here employed (lt'1l~) for man. oooas1on no ~urp11:se, cons1dermg the camping Ver. 12.-So the Lorci smote the Ethio- of the vast 1nve.drng army. Camels in abun- pi&n&. As little o.s the real work wo.s of the dece. The mention of this spoil reminds army of Asa, so little is said of even the us both where we are, on desert border mere human metlwd by which this great (1 Sam. x.xvii. 7-10; xxx. 16, 17), and Yictory was obtained for Asa and J'udah, W?a~ was the per~onality ?r nationality Age.in e.nd yet e.gain, in the following two withm some latitude of choice of the in- verses, the glory is given to "the Lord." vaders. Returned to J'erusalem. The ex- Ver. 13.-.1.nd the Ethiopians . . . before pression awakens inevita.bly, though inaptly, his host. It is evident that these words, a reminiscence of Scriptlll'e language in with the clauses they include, should be strangest contrast-the climax in a descrip- placed in brackets, and so lee.ve "they," the tion also, but of e. victory infinitely vaster subject of the verb ·•carried" in the last and gra.nder e.nd for e,er (Luke xxiv. 52 ; clause, io refer to its proper noun-subject, Acts i. 12). This return of "Asa. and the Alla a.nd the people. Gera.r. This ple.ce is people that were with him" to Jerusalem mentioned a.s defining a full distant spot as dated the commencement of e. period of com- the limit of the pursuit of the flying army. pe.re.tive internal peace and reform for tbe 'While it was nearly folll' holll'B south of kingdom of Judah, that le.sted twenty-one Gaza, on tile road to Egypt, it is calculated years, and yet more of exemption from Egyp- that it wa.s more than twenty miles distant tian attack, that lasted about three hundred from Me.reshah. and thirty years (B.O. circ. 940-609). It Ver. 14.-The fear of the Lord oame upon was a doubtful benefit, but Judah and Egypt them; i.e. on the cities round a.bout Gerar. ea.me to be found in alliance against Assyria This and the following verse illustrate in (2 Kings xvii. 3-6: xviii. 20, 21, 2-l ; pe.rti.cula.r the very graphic character which Isa. xxx. 2: Hos. vii. 11). The 'Speaker's attaches to the entire stretch of the descrip- Commentary' points out the interesting fe.ot tion of the scene, introduced so suddenly in that this was one of the only two occasions ver. 9 and closing with ver. 15. l'lluoh spoiL known of the J ewe meeting in open field The Hebrew word here used for " spoil " either Egypt or Assyria (the other occasion (11:!~) is found only in Chronicles, Ezra., being the unfortunate one of Josiah against Esther, N ehem.iah, Daniel, a.nd once in Necho, eh. :x.xxv. 30), and e.dds, "Shishe.k, Ezekiel (xxix. 19). Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar, Ver. 15.-The tents of cattle. This word Aleu.nder, e.nd Ptolemy I., were either un- "t.enta " (?DI$, comtnwt sf,ate) is used just opposed or only opposed from behind walls." 825 times, and this is the only time it is
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-15.-The guiet of ten yeara. The former half of this chapter may be said to tnm upon the welcome subject of the "quiet" (spoken of twice), the "no war" (spoken of once) and the" rest" (spoken of three times), which were now for ten years the portion of J ~dah. The tender yo~th and the p~ous promise of King Asa co~bined, no doubt, in the providence of God, with external circumstances, to secure that interval of quiet and repose from wa.r from which many blessings were a.ble to flow. We may notice generally from such induction of i!lUBtrations as are yielded by the far lees complex in.stan~s of those wars that belong to early history and to the bistoriee of Scripture, some of the essential and intrinsic advantages and blessings of being, in this most impressive sense, "q_tdet." l. THE FREE, LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE .A.FPEOTIONB OF HUMAN NATURE, What more dreadful subversion could be known to bum.an na.ture tha.n that love should be called and should become hate, and to labour to destroy human life should ta.ke the place of labour and zea.l to save and to serve it I A nation that is at peace, and undis- twbed by apprehension of war, is, by the very fact, delivered from being the victim of os:. xiv. 1-16.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 171