The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 260

of the princes of Isrnel, and for probably a similar reason, because they dis11pprovcd of h1~ conduct and sympathized with his brethren. Ill. A woRTm.Ess KING. 1 . .An apostate in ,·eligion. To be sure, he never had religion in reality. Yet, as Judah's sovereign and Jehoshaphat's son, he ought to havo upheld the true worship of Jehovah. But instead he became a devotee of Ban!, I\ favour~r of the false. gods his half-heathen wi_fe patronized, building high places for them 10 the mountams of Judah-thus practically reversing the work of his devout father (eh. xvi i. 6) and grandfather (eh. xiv. 2), and causing the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, i.e. to practise idolatry (Isa. xxiii. 17; Ezek. xvi. 29; Rev. xix. 2); yea, compelling Judah by violence to go astray (Deut. xiii. 6, 11). 2. .A weak- li7:g in government. Under him the Edomites, who had in Jehoshaphat's reign been tnbutary to Judah (2 Kings iii. 9), becoming restive, achieved their independence, According to Josephus(' Ant.,' ix. 5. 1), they first slew their king, who had yielded to Jehoshaphat, and afterwards elected one who raised the standard of revolt. A feeble attempt to reduce them to subjection proved abortive. At Zair, on the way to Edom- not to be identified with Zoar (Ewald), which belonged to Moab, but perhaps with the modern ruin Zueirah, on the south-west of the Dead Sea (Conder)-he, with all his princes and chariots, encountered the rebels; but whether he defeated them (Jamieson), or only cut his way through them when they had encompassed him (Keil), is obscure, though even on the former supposition his success was not permanent or decisive. Either then or soon afterwards the Edomites completely renounced the yoke of Judah. About the same period also, Libnah-a city in the district of Eleutheropolis (Eusebius), though as yet unknown-succeeded in establishing its freedom. 3. .A pigmy in man- hood. .Apart from the plague which struck him in his last days, while yet in middle life (ver. 15) he was obviously a poor and contemptible creature. When he died nobody lamented him-at least, nobody among his subjects. "He departed without being desired" (ver. 20). Men were glad to see the last of him. They would not burn a burning for him, as they did for his good father and pious grandfather when they died, His rotten carcase they buried in the city of David; they would not desecrate with it the sepulchres of the kings. Learn: 1. The necessity of personal religion-no man may trade upon his father's piety. 2. The duty of parents to provide for their children-exemplified by Jehosha- phat's donations to his sons. 3. 'l'he bitterness of sin's fruit when fully developed: "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" in its worst forms-murder, fratricide, etc. 4. The value of a good wife-inferred from the calamity of a bad one. 5. The mercy of God to great sinners, even when they do not repent-illustrated by God's tolerance of Jehora.m. 6. The essential weakness of sin-as shown by the Edomite revolt against Judah. 7. The pestilential influence of sin in high places: "One sinner destroyeth much good."-W. Vers. 12-15.-The letter of Elijah. L THE AUTHOR OF THE WRITING. Various suggestions. 1. Elisha, who entered on the duties of his calling before the death of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings iii 11), and who accordingly would be the most likely party from whom should proceed such a communication as Jehoram received. In this case the name of Elijah must have been substituted in the text for that of Elisha (Kennicott, Jamieson). 2. A later hi6torian, "who describes the relation of Elijah to Joram in few words, and according to his conception of it as a whole" (Bertheau); but "this judgment rests on dogmatic grounds, and flows from a principle which refuses to recog- nize any supernatural prediction in the prophetic utterances" (Keil). 3. Elijah, the author named in the text. Besides being in the text, the word occurs in all existing Hebrew manuscripts and in all the Oriental versions. II. THE DATE OF THE WRITING. Again different explanations. 1. After Elijah's trOITUllation. The notions that either Elijah sent the letter from heaven by an angel (Grotius), or spoke it from the clouds (Menken), may be discarded as conjectures want- ing in support from any intelligible analogies (Keil). 2. Before Elijah's translation. Here two views emerge. (1) After Jehoram had ascended the throne (Keil, Rawlin- son). This assumes that Elijah was alive at the commencement of Jehoram's reign (2 Kings i. 17), and may have learnt of the assassination of Jehoshaphat's sons-the knowledge of which crime may have moved him to send its perpetrator the divinely on. XXI, 1-20.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 261