The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 182

i;e.tisfied by the latter part of ver. 2 or by all beneath his sway, with a view to sacrifice ver. 7. This is not very likely; still, the and to record anew hallowed resolve as 11 oonjunetion " and" would thereby b!'tkr nation. The strangers. U ie a signifioant account for itself. Nevertheless, it would comment on the estranging e:ffeot of religious !!till remain the.t the word "prophecy" is schism (for the schism was religious eveu not in c,t)flBtruct but absolute state, and we beyond what it was national) that so com- cannot oonnt the difficulty removed, com- paratively soon these of the tribes of Israel paratively unimportant as it may be. He should have beoome oalled " strangers" by took oouraga, and put away, eto. These the side of J'udah and Benjamin. They fell words may exp'1'8911 either Asa's accomplish- to him ... in abnndanoe. Another signifi- ing of the reforms spoken of in the former cant comment on the sameness of human ohapter (vem. 8-5), or quite lt8 probably his nature in e.ll time; the weak and the multi- pel'80verance and renewed diligence and tude will see, learn, do duty, less under pure vigour in the same; the language, " he took oonviotion of right, than under the strong conmge," favours this latter view. The oities commanding influence of observation of whioh he had taken from, eto. Some say where and with whom success goes, even if that the ref&rence here and in eh. xvii. 2 also that success necessitate the owning of the must be understood to be to Abijah's victory Divine blessing as its cause (eh. xi. 16 and and spoils (eh. xiii. 19), and that these two l Chron. xii.19). n should be noted, not for places must accordingly be in slight error. the so.ke of satire of human nature, but for If this passnge he.d stood alone, this view the inculcation of the infinite importance of might have been more easy to accept, but godly irluence and exe.mple. Out of Simeon the words in eh. mi. 2 explicitly state that (see also eh. xxxiv. 6). The "lines" of the Asa had taken such cities, and the mere fact Simeonites fell to them originally (Josh, that the history does not record when, nor ::rix. 1) within Judah. The difficulty sug- even show any very convenient gap into gested by their being called, apparently, which Asa's taking of such cities after con- " strangers," and being certainly classed :flict with Israel might well fit i.B., can scarcely with the comers from "Ephraim and Ma- be allowed to override the direct assertion of nasseh," may be variously overcome, either eh. xvii. 2 (comp. eh. xvi. 11). At the same by supposing that they had become more time, the work that would devolve on Asa estranged from Judah in religious position in holding the cities his father Abijah had than it was possible to them to have become first taken, =Y easily accolIDt for all, and in merely geographical; or that they had in have been acconnt.ed Asa's taking, in the some degree outgrown their own proper ha- sense of taking to them, or retaking them. bitat, and had to some extent colonized a Renewed the altar. The eltar, the place of more northerly region (Gen. xlix. 7); or that, which was before the poroh, was the e.ltar of though, indeed, our compiler's composition burnt offering. The Hebrew for "renewed" undoubtedly places the Simeonites sum- is try:i. The Vulgat.e tra.n.slates insufficiently moned, among the strangers, through men- dedica'DU. Bertheau thinks the renewal tioning them after Ephraim and Manasseh, designs simply the purification of it from yet this location of their name be held acci- idolatrons defilements, elthough he admits dental, rather than due to special design. that this is to assume that it had been Ver. 10.-In the third month. The "Feast defiled by idolatrous priests. Keil BBYS the of Weeks" began about the sixth of this eltar might well need genuine repair after third month Sivan (June). In the fifteenth the lapse of sixty years from the building of year. It has been conjectured from eh. xiv. the temple. Of the nine occurrences of the 1 that Zerah the Ethiopian, or Cushite, word, five are metaphorical (as e.g. Ps. li.10), invaded Judah in Asa's eleventh year. The but of the remaining four distinctly literal present sacrificial festival, in his fifteenth uses, including the present, three must year, evidently was held very shortly after mean ja~t strictly "repair" ( eh. :uiv. 4, 12; the close of Asa's victory over Zerah. Thie Isa. lxL 4), and the probability may there- infers a rather longer duration of the war fore be tl.iat such is the meaning now. Many, than is otherwise to be gathered from the however, prefer the other view. The work face of the history. The interval, it is true, of Asa, e.s described in eh. xiv. 3-5, was may be explained by supposing that Asa, one of taking away, breaking down, and lingered long to restore the state of things cutting down; but this item shows it now, in where Zerah's vast host had unsettled it. his fifteenth year, become also one of renew- Ver. 11.-These otrerings were probably ing and repairing. The porch of (so eh. chiefly of the nature of peace off'Ol'ings (Lev. :uix. 17 ; l Kings vii 6, 7, 12 ; Ezek. rl. 7); vii 11-21). In the mention of the" spoil" ~ . though in contitnsct state, the ka:metz (eh. xiv. 13, 15) nothing is said of oxen. impure. Seven hundred . . . seven thousand. The Ver. 9.-He gathered. As the following number seven is common when the sacrifices ve=s go on to show, Asa wisely gathered were in units (as e.g. Numb. :u.iL 32; l tJti. xv. 1-19.] rn:tll SECOND :MOK OF Tttt CHRONICLES. 1 183