own per~on, our own family, our own country, bas been preserved; we may much more rejoice when the cause e.nd kingdom of Christ has been greatly advanced. This should be the object of our solicitude and of our rejoicing. V. THAT REST IS THE nIGHTFUL PURCHASE OF LABOUR AND OF STRIFE, (Ver. 30.) Tbe country that has won its religious liberty by heroic suffering and strife (as with Holland) may well settle down to a long period of rest and peace. The man who has gone through several decRdes of anxious and laborious activity may well enjoy a long evening of life when the burden is le.id down and the sword is sheathed. The quieter service of the later years of life seems a fitting prelude to the peaceful and untiring activities which constitute the rest of immortality. YI. THAT THE WORTHIEST HUMAN LIVES DO NOT CORRESPOND TO OUR IDEAL. If we were to construct an ideal human life, we should not introduce another unwise com- bination (ver. 3i) and e. disastrous expedition to cast a shadow on its closing years. Yet this was the case with Jehoshaphat. Our lives, even at their best, do not answer to our conceptions of what is perfectly beautiful and complete. We must not look for this, for we shall very seldom find even the appearance of it. We must take the good man as God gives him to us, wiLh a true soul, with a brave spirit, with a kind and faithful bee.rt, with a character that is very fair and perhaps very fine, but that leaves something to be desired; with a life that is very useful and perhaps very noble, but that bears marks of blemish even to the end..-C. Vers.1-4.-.An alarm ef war-aninvasionfrom the East. I. A STARTLING REPORT, The Rafety of Jehoshaphat's empire was threatened by a formidable foe. 1. The com- position of the enemy. (Ver. 1.) (1) The children of Moab. Descendants of Lot and his elder daughter (Gen. xi.x. 37). Their territory lay east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and had for its northern boundary first the Jabbok (Deut. ii. 20), and afterwards 1lhe Arnon (Numb. xx.i. 13-26), the modem Wady Mojeb, opposite Engedi. After the conquest a large portion of this region was occupied by the tribe of Reuben, which caused the Moe.bites to put forth long-continued efforts to recover their lost possessions. This they did soon after Joshua's death, and even acquired ascendancy over Israel until their yoke was broken by Ehud (Judg. iii. 12, etc.). In Saul's time troublesome, they were by David completely subdued (1 Sam. xiv. 47; 2 Sam. viii. 2). Under Solomon or the first kings of Israel they must have again broken loose, for they were once more reduced by Omri, who, according to the Moabite inscription, "took the la.ad of Medeba, and occupied it in his days and bis son's days forty years" (' Records,' etc., xi. 166). On the accession of Jehoram, Ahab's son, to the Israelitish throne, Mesha, the son of Chemoshgad, rebelled and successfully asserted his independence (2 Kings iii. 5). (2) The children of Ammon. Likewise descendants of Lot (Gen. xix. 38). These originally occupied the same region as their kinsmen, the Moe.bites, but were eventually "obliged to retreat eastwards to the water-shed (Deut. ii. 37), where they remained in the mountains, in a district not annexed by Israel, in which their name is still preserved at Amman, the ancient Rabbath-Ammon (Numb. xxi. 24)" (Conder, • Handbook to the Bible,' p. 237). The Ammonites worshipped the supreme Being, under the name of Moloch or Milcom (1 Kings xi. 7). (3) The Ammonites. Proba?lY the Mennites, or Maonites ( eh. xxvi. 7)-" a tribe whose head-quarters were the city of Me.an, in the neighbourhood of Petra, to the east of the Wady Musa" (Keil); they are afterwards described as "inLa.bita □ ts of Mount Seir" (vers. 22, 23). 2. The number of their army. "A great multitude" (ver. 2) had often before assailed Israel (eh. xiv. 11; Judg. vi. 5; Josh. xL 4), and afterwards did assail Judah (eh. xxxii. 7). When Solomon spoke of I•rael as a people like the dust for multitude (eh. i. 9), it was rhetoric. 3. The place of their encampment. Hazazon-tamar, or "the pruning of the palm tree" (Gen. xiv. 7)-" a name probably preserved in that of the tract called Hasasah, •pebbles' near 'Ain-Jidy" (Conder, p. 414)-otherwise Engedi, or "fountain of the kid," the modern 'Ain-Jidv-wa.s situated on the west coast of the Dead Sea, about the middle and directly opposite the mountains of Moab. "Few landscapes are more impressive than the sudden unfolding of the Dead Sea. basin and its eastern wall from the top of the pass of Engedi" (Tristram, in' Picturesque Palestine,' iii. 191). The allied forces had probably not crossed tile lake (Josephus), but rounded its wuthern extremity. on. xx. 1-87.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 247
II. AN UNEASY APPREHENSION. The fear felt by Jehoshaphat was justified by e. variety of circumstances. 1. The character of the invasion, It was the first time Jehoshapho.t's kingrlom had been exposed to the horrors of war within its own borders, Heretofore Judah'e campaigns had been beyond th8 limits of her own territory, as at Hnmoth-Gilead (eh. xviii. 28). Foreign ware are a.pt to be invested with a. spurious glory; wo.r at home discovers its repulsive features to all. When a land becomes a battle-field, then- " All her husbandry doth lie on heaps, Corrupting in its own fertiiity. Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, Unpruned diea," etc. (' King Henry V.,' act v. ec. 2.)