Out of the twenty-six ocourrences of this exact form, Judg. xv. 19; 2 Sam. xxiii. 16; worcl, it is rendered (Authorized Version) 1 Cbron. xi. 18; Isa. xlviii. 21). The twonty-thrce times l:>y the word "plague,'' elementary idea of the root is to divid.e; twice hy the word" slaughter'' (2 Sam. xvii. and it occurs in one conju"ation or another 9; xvi ii. 7), and once" stroke" (Eztk. xxiv. fifty-one times, there being no more typi- lG). It is not the word (17}.J) which about cal occurrence than that of Gen. vii. 11. sixty times (chiefly in Leviticus) describes Carried a.way. 'l'he Hebrew uses the word the physical plague, but both of the words "carried captive" (1:;ir:')); possibly the order are applied to the plagues, e.g. of Pharaoh, of ver. 14 is inadverteotly neglected, which ancl to the suffering that ea.me of a.oy severe puts the li viog beings before all the sub- smiting of the people. As no physical stance, or, goods (lli1:r:,;;i-':i~). His sons affliction in the shape of disease visited, also. From eh. xxi v. 7 we not.e that the so far as we know, the people, wives, and sons were not punished for their father's children of the king, and as his goods &.re sins alone, but for their own. J'ehoahaz. reckoned in for the great plague, the general This person is called .Ahaziah in eh. =ii. 1 opinion is probably the correct one, that the (the syllables of the name being reversed) inva.8ions spoken of (vers. 16, 17) fulfilled and Azariah in eh. xxii. 6, which cannot be the punishment now announced. explained, but mu9t be supposed an error. Ver. 15.-Therefore against Jehora.m and The Jehoiachin of eh. xxxvi. 9 is written Judas Iscariot and Herod was it decreed Jeconiah, or Jechoniah, in 1 Chron. iii. 16, that their very bowels should bear witness. 17; Coniah in Jer. xxii. 24,etc.; and Jccho- Ver. 16.-The moreover of this verse is niah in eh. xxiv. 1, etc. The two parts of simply tl.ie conjunction "and;" it is not the the word combined in eitlier order make the □ J of ver. 11, for instance. Our Authorized same meaning. On account of the express Version "moreover" obscures the purport mention of the camp in eh. xxii. 1, some of the verse. Better the simple "and," as in think that the slaughter and the plunder the Revised Version. The Lord stirred up. were all such as might have been wrnught Reference may again be made to eh. xvii. in the royal quarters there; others that we 10-12. The things then gained are now a.re to infer the ta.king by asmult of Jeru- bein~ lost. The Arabians . . . near the salem itself and what was therein. Ethiopians. The Ethiopians, i.e. Cushites, Ver. 18.-An incurable disease; i.e. it was fully fifteen centuries before the date of so severe that it was in this case incurable. those oli~ina.l treatises from which the Ver. 19.-After the eo.d of two years. writers of Kings and Chronicles respectively That " two years'" space begu.n at the end borrowed their materials, or some of them, of nearly two years after bis father's death. are recorded both genealogically and geo- Two years' warning and space for repent- graphically in Gee. x. 6-8. They had their ance subsequent Jehoram had turned to no location very early in the south of Arabia, account, and even affliction and suffering as al.Bo to the south of Egypt, speaking brought him no amendment. No burning generally, with the Red Sea on the east, the (see our note on eh. xvi. 14). Libyan desert on the west, and Abyssinia Ver. 20.-Depa.rted without being desired; on the south, whilst Svene marked con- literally, without desire. The closing com- spicuously a site on the line of the northern mentary, so quietly written, becomes the bounds between them and Egypt (Ezell. more pathetically mournful. The "desire" xxix. 9-11 ; Isa. xviii. 1, 2; xlv. 14; Zeph. spoken of is the desiderium of Horace, of iii. 10). They are almost invariably con- nearly nine centuries later (' Odes,' i. 24). nected with Africa, from whence it is now But there was now no "desiderium that stress is la.id upnn those of them to tarn ea.Ii capitis," for want or room for this whom the Arabians, on the other side of the latter description. They buried him in the Red See., were contiguous. oity of David, but not in the sepnlchres of Ver. 17.-Brake into it; Hebrew, kal the kings (see age.in our note on eh. xvi 14; future of JI~") ( compare the other four sig- RDd comp. eh. xxiv. 25; xxviii. 27). nificant and expressive occurrences of this
HOMILETICS. V ers. 1-20.-.A reign of unmitigated shame. To the career of Jehoshaphat o~ ~l~ost exemplary excellence that of Jehoram, his son, forms a contrast most hum1hatmg. Obviously it is not the least painful feature of this latter that it so inevitably for?e' into our memory the parental fault, which, if it were not the ea.use and very ~oundation of an eldest son's abandoned character and course of conduct, could not fail to have given opportunity for it, and could not fail to incur the res_po~sibility before all the world of having lent the occasion. This chnpter teaches us s1gn1.ficantly- 266 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [oH, xxr. 1-20,