The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 240

l!Outh of Jeruse.lem, e.nd from it II weddy the wilderness of Jeruel." And none eaoaped; running to the Dead Soo. So shall ye be i.e. "without an exception." estBbliflbed. (80 Isa. vii. 9.) J ehosho.phat'e Ver. 25.-Both riohea with the dead own faith 11nd zeal make him nervously bodies. The Hebrew text re11ds literally, anxious th11t his people should not f1tll both riches and dead bodies (no article). behind him, and fall short of their duty The c•:,,i~, of the text, however, nppcnrs in and the grandeur of the ocrasion. several (" old authorities," Uevised Vcrsion) Ver. 21.-Andwhenhe hadoonsultedwith manuscripts, 11s c•:,p, ("garments"), and ihe people; i.e. possibly simply "conferred the versions of both Septuagint and Vulgo.te with " those who were over the singers, e.s lend their authority to this reading. Jewels, to who should be the most prominent in The Hebrew term is •~:?, the most frequent leading the ser,ioe of praise, or 11s to w~at rendering of which is "vessels," so rondored, should be the words sung and other like that is, a hundred and sixty times out of matters of detail: or more probably, consider- about three hundred e.nd eight times in all ing the exact form of language used, the of its ocourrenoe. It is, however, a word reference is to what we are told Jehoshaphat of very generic quality, and is rendered as had jw;t done, to wit, counselled well the here" jewels" about twenty-five other times. people and given good ad vioe to them. It would seem nugatory to tell us that there Praise the be&nty of holiness. The render- were " dead bodies," iu the bald rendering ing should no doubt be in the beauty of holi- of "and dead bodies." Our Authorized 'MS.!i, i.e. in garments of beauty (l Chron. Version rendering, " riches with the dead xvi. 29; Ps. xxix. 2; Revised Version mar- bodies," of course both ingeniously glosses gin," in holy array"). Praise the Lord; Re- the difficulty and makes a sufficiently good vised Version, give thank;; to the Lord (eh. v. me.a.n.ing. 13: ,ii. 3, 6 ; Ps. cvi.; cxxxvi.). Ver. 26.-Bere.ohah. This is just the Ver. 22.-Set ambushments. The Hebrew Hebrew fem. subst. from a verb. It is usod is ci-:;r:1~t;1 J::Q, i. e. " set persons lying in in l Chron. xii. 3 as the name of a man. wait,". o; "in vcbush" (piel pai:t·. plur._ of The present name of the valley survives in ::i::itt)- SoJudg. ll.. 25, bnt kal participle with the Waddy Bereikat ou the Hebron road, apparently future equivalent meaning occurs beyond, therefore, the date unto this day of the writer. eighteen times in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Ver. 27.-The Lord h&d ma.de them to Ezra, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. Who reJ010e. Note the extremely similar and the persons were, supematnra.l or not. or almost identical language of Ezra vi. 22 what their mode of operation, is not told, e.nd and Neh. xii. 43, and add also to the oom- is not plain. The effects are quite plain- parison the last sentence of our ver. 29. that first the two confederates, Moab and Ver. 29.-With this verse compare par- Ammon, thought they saw reason to fall on ticularly vers. 10, 11 of eh. xvii. them" of Mount Seir ~' e.nd secondly, having Ver. 30.-Ris God gave him rest (so see this done, to fall on one another to the end eh. xv. 15). of mutual extermination. They were smit- Ver. 31.-With this verse recommences ten. The marginal, " they smote one an- the parallel of 1 Kings xxii. 41-50. In other," may be better, but _it is not at all this verse we find the addition in the necessary, the meaning ~emg_ that collec- parallel very naturally to be accounted for, tively they became the s1D1tteu instead of the of " began to reign in the fourth year of l!miters I Ahab King of Israel." Otherwise the verses Ver. 23.-ThiB verse proceeds to explain are almost identical. Of Azubah nothing hou, this resulted in a kind of triangular more is heard. duel on large see.le. Ver. 33.-Howbeit the high plaoes ... the Ver. 24.-The we.toh-tower. See eh. xxvi people had not prepared. The statements 10, where, however, the ordinary 1,-;ir~• and so precisely made in this verse evidently not the present word (only found, except RB serve the purpose of distinguishing between a proper name, here and !sa. xx:i. 8), is e'!-1- the wishes and orders of the king and the ployed. It is scarcely likely tho.t a built unequal conduct of his people. watch-tower is intended even here, but Ver. 34.-The rest of the aots of Jehosha- rather a lofty site and point of view from phat, etc. These "acts of Jehoshaphat" which a large number of people could see. are said in this verse to find their record in The proper names Mitzpeh (Mizpeh). 11:nd the book of Jehu . . , mentioned in the book Mitzpah (Mizpah) are of course familiar. of the kings of Israel. The parallel has, They looked Ullto the multitude. Judah and " in the book of the chronicles of tho kings ib! e.rmy and heralding Levite singe!s would of Judah." For onr "mentioned," note mar- see now in new significance the tl.nng se.,d gin, literal, "made to ascend" and Revised by Je.haziel in our ver. 16, "Ye shall find Version " inserted." The " book of the kinl{s them at the end of the brook-cou.ree, before of Israel" may (note also the remarkabla cm. xx. 1-87.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 241