king:dom. Its he"d and king bad just ( ob. xxxiv. 3) "he bege.n to purge Jurll\h thrown RWR)' the opportunity of blocking e.nd Je!u~alem from the high places," eto. out on<' evor-three.tening enemy. W11at moro At e. similarly youthful ago AsR therefore natural oonseqnence than that wars should me.y he credited with doing the iiko, whil~ rush in the rather as e. flood, in the e.fter- later on he took more etringeut measures times? e.s for instance with Maaehe.h, the queen: Ver. 10.-A prillon-houe; literally, He- mother. brew. iM house of the n::i!),:n;,; i.e. "of the Ver.14.-In his own sepulohres; Hebrew, t";stinir or distortion;". i.e. "the stocks." l'~"9R; fem. plur. of ,~P,- The plural de- The word oocurs three other times only, Rll signates, of course, the range of burial com- of them in J ercmiah, viz. xx. 2, 3; xxix. 26. partments tbe.t formed the tomb of one (For a forcible parallel, see 1 Kings xxii. person or fe.mily. So Job :x:vii. 1, where 2i.) And Asa. oppressed some of the people the me.so. plur. is used, •~ C''HP• In the the 88me time. This may throw some ex- oity of David (see note on eh. xii'. 16). In planatory, though no exculpatory, light on Asa's wre.th e.nd violence towe.rds Hane.ni; the bed; Hebrew, :i~~!?- The nee or assooie.- for it probably me.rks the.t either some tions of this word (found e.bont fifty times) goodly portion of the wiser of the people are almost entirely, if not entirely those of he.d anticipated of their own common sense the bed of ni~~tly rest, even whe~ not at the matter of the message of Hane.ni the ~he time speaking of nightly rest ; and this seer, or the.t they had not failed to follow IS the first and only occasion the.t it is em- it with some keenly sympathetic remarks. pl_oyed to link the grave in kindly e.nalogy For our Authorized Version, "oppressed," with the couch of bodily repose during life- ree.d a stronger verb, as "crushed." time. The fact might have suggested Bishop ,er. 11.-This verse, with the following Ken's lines in the evening hymn- three, is represented by the very summarized ,, Teach me to live, that I me.y dread but sufficiently significant parallel of 1 Kings The grave as little as my bed." xv. 23, 24. Note that the reference work cited iu this verse as the book of the kings of In the present instance, however, the writer, Judah and Israel, is in the po.railed cited e.s whoever he we.s (query, was be the compiler " the book of the chronicles of the kings of of onr Chronicles, or his origine.l ?), is doubt- Jnde.b." Of course, the latt.er citation wes less led to the analogy by considerations mncb the earlier in point of time. more earthly the.n those enshrined in Ken's Ver.12.-His disease was exceeding great. hymn, viz. by the somewbe.t "vain show" Perhaps e. somewhe.t more literal rendering of attractiveness and fre.grance (probably will more correctly express the empbe.sis designed partly for preserve.tive purposes) of the original, e.g. his disease wa.11 great ei,en with which the place WNI filled, e.nd which t.o ezceBB. For yet, ree.d emphe.tically, and were among even pe.triarchal indice.tious of a1MJ; the historian purposing to say the.t e.s, fe.ith in a future state. Sweet odours ; He- in his fear of Baasba, he had not sought the brew, C'Pt?• Of the twenty-nine times that Lord, but Benbadad, so, in his excessive this word occurs in Exodus, Kings, e.nd illneBB e.Iso, he he.d not sought the Lord, but Chronicles, Esther, Canticles, Ise.iah, e.nd tl.te physicians! Ezekiel, it is rendered in the Authorized Ver. 13.-.Amid the frequent uncertainties Version " spice11" twenty-four times, '' sweet of the chronology, we are glad to get some cinne.mon" once, " sweet calamus" once, dates fixed by the agreement of testimonies. and "sweet odours " or "sweet smell" three E.g. this place and the parallel state clearly times. The chief e.nd determining refer- that Ase.'s reign wes one that lasted to its ences are those in Exod. xxv. 6 ; xxx. 23; forty-firat year. The pe.rallel, however (1 :xxxv. 8, 28. And divers kinds; Hebrew, Kings xv. 23), me.kes this date one e.nd the o:;;n: plur. of)!: from the root, W; unused, same tiring with his "old e.ge," while no hnt probably one with e.n Arabic root, mean- manipulation of dates ce.n make him (the ing "to shape;" hence our noun, meaning grandson of Rehoboam and son of Abijab) a kind or species, used here and Ps. cxliv. more than about 1lfty. And it is somewhat 13 (where the margin renders literally, "from rema.rke.ble that, when introduced to UB llH kind to kind"), and in the Chaldee of Dan. 1oucceeding to the throne, nothing is said <,f iii. 5, 7, 10, 15. Prepared; Hebrew, o•rir.-:J,l?; Lis ieuder youth (as, for instance, is said in solitary occurrence of pual conjuge.tion of ihe co.se of Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 1; x.xxiv. the root MP.:;!, "to spice," i.e. to spice, season, 1-3). Nevertheless, the apparent promi- nence of Maache.b e.wbile would tally with or prepare oil for ointment purposes. This the circumstance of Asa's youth at his ac- root occurs in kal future once (Exod. xxx. 38); cession. Another conespondeuce in Jo~iah's in kal part. poel five times (Exod. xxx. 25, ca.ri:er is noticeable; for it is distinctly said 35; x.xxvii. 29 ; l Cbron. ix. 30 ; Eccles. x. that when he was ooly twelve years of age 1); and in hiph. infin. ouce (Ezek. x.xiv. o.n, xvr, 1-14.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 195
10). Dy the a.potheoarlea' a.rt; Hebrew, groot et,en to an eueeding n!tent. Tho burn- n}i'~P- n,:ipy.;>~- 'fmnslate the clause, and ing is not the burning of 1 Sam. xxxi. 12, divers 1'inds compounded by tlio compounding 18 (comp. 2 Sam. x.xi. 10-12 • 1 Chron. x. of art, which moans to so.y spices skilfully 12), but the homing of spices,' indicated hy treated o.ud wrought into ointments by pro- the _language of our ob. ui. 19 and Jer. fessiono.l handa. A very great burning; XXXIV, 5. literally, and !liey burned for him a burning