abowing thnt Jobu reokonetl on that steep "seed royal," whom the wicked Athalial1 hill to ennble bis pursuing warriors to over- had "destroyed." Gesenius says that the bike Ahazie.h: makes e. sufficiently possible words that wrap in them the slight amhi- harmony, to SBY the lenst, in respect of the guity, ri::i i~f, are a. phrase peculiar to th<J remaining incidents narrated of bis life- later Hebrew, a.nd he instances nine ex- that be mode for the time e. successful flight amples, all ·or which come from Daniel or to Megiddo, e.fterwe.rds sought to bide in Chronicle8, the virtue of the phrase amount- deeper retirement in Se.maria., we.a thence ing to the potis esse of the Latin. Trans- brought to Jehu e.t Megiddo, there even- late, And there waa no one of the house o/ tually slain before his eyes, and by his own .A.haziah able f(Yf' the kingdom, the exacter servants, who must be supposed to have had conditionB of the case not being recorded. some atta.obment to him, but probably with Ver. 10.-But when Athe.liah. For parallel the sanction of Jehn himself, conveyed "in to the end of the chapter, Bee 2 Kin~ xi. a. cha.riot to Jerusalem" for sepulture "in 1-3. The words, of the house of Judah, are the sepulchre of his fathers in the city of here carefully supplied, wanting in parallel. David" (2 Kings ix. 28). The fact that he Ver. 11.-After of the king, the parallel received decent burial being due to the God- conveniently certifies the name, JOTam, and fearing character of his grandfather, and adds, "Bister of Ahaziah" (very possibly that this should find its record on the pa.go of half-sister, though), and afterwards particu- the book that will last wbile the world lasts, le.rizes the hiding, as from Athe.liah, as in that very page already two thousand five the latter part of this verse. We are here hundred years old, is e. most touching con- told, what is not mentioned in the parallel, sideration. Megiddo was on the Esdre.elon that J ehoshehe. was "wife of J ehoiada the or J ezreel plain, that stretched between the priest," probably the high priest. Nor is hills of Galilee and those of Mount Ephraim this negatived by the fact that the name is, or Samaria.. llad no power to keep still the not found (1 Chron. vi.) in the line from, kingdom. The undoubted mea.ning of this Aaron to J ozadak: for this is only the line clause is that there was no one of the house of J ozoo.ak? s ancestors, a.II of whorn were not of Ahe.ziah who could succeed him. The high priests. J'oe.sh is to be heard of again Hebrew text does not say, "no one left," etc. (2 Kings xi. 21: eh. =iv. 1). ' But the allusion can scarcely be to anything Ver. 12.-With them hid in the house of but the foot that transpires in our ver. 11 God six years. During this time evidently (where only Joo.eh is mentioned as a son, Athalia.h reigned. There were in the and with him a nurse), viz. that his only "house of God" chambers sacred to the use surviving son was an infant. The king's of either priests or temple officials (1 Kings sons (presumably sons of Ahe.ziah and vi. 5--10). grandsons of her own) were among the
HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-12.-.A medley of the memoranda of evil-doing, its consequences, and its end. 1 The one surviving son of Jehoram, his youngest son, Ahaziah, is put on an unsteady, unsafe throne. Jehoram had caused all his own brethren to be slain, and now it had: come to pass that all his "eldest sons had been slain by the band of men that came, with the Arabians to the camp" As Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and grand- daughter of Omri, the evil wife of Jehoram, had not failed to make an evil husband of Jehoram, so, the evil mother, she does not fail to make an evil son of Abaziah. She. "was his counsellor to do wickedly." And therein her whole house, "the house of; Ahab" were "after the death of his father, counsellors to his destruction." Ahazie.h repeated the error of his grandfather J ehoshe.phat, in associating himself with the King of Israel goina up with him to fight against Hazael King of Syria, at Re.moth-Gilead.: It leads to further complications. The King of Israel is wounded and returns to J ezreel, and because "he was sick," Ahaziah must go thither also to "see" him. He uncon- sciously is courting "his destruction," "of God" (ver. 7); for once there he must support the king of his rival line against one whom "God had anointed" to the very work of "cutting off the house of Ahab." He is not only setting hi1;1self '.' to ~elp t1:e ungodly and to love them that hate the Lord" ( eh. xix. 2), but he 1s settrng himself m battle vlith one against whom the Lord has anointed his own servant_(" Jeh~ the son ~f Nimshi "), that he may destroy him and his I That is, he bas put hu~self m the post• tion of actively a.nd directly fighting against God. An~ now, by domg thus, he not only involves II the princes of Judah, and the sons of his own brethren" (because oi THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES .• [oH. x.xn. 1-12.