The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 285

. wlmt his wife clid, end' wh11.t he did, on bought him off. Our next verse, however, belrn1£ of Joosh the infant 11,nd Joash shows to what end those worrls tended. the king for the goocl of the nation or Ver. 18.-Served groves; Revised Ver- Jdngdom of Judah. We soem to know sion, the Asherim, correctly (see note, eh. too little of him, and tho parallel eupplies xiv. 3). Fo_r this their trespass. Comparing- considerably lees them our text in Chronicles. the emphatic IangnRge of ver. 23," destroyer! Hie age, 11.e stated in this verse when he all the princes of the people from among tl,e diecl, seems very improbable, cmd for II very people,'' we may conclude that stress is to clear and o.dmirable putting of the case, be laid on the pronoun "their" in the pre- see Lord Arthur C. Hervey's article in sent verse. The worship of the true God Dr. Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' i. 944. was not left by the whole people, and we There is, however, no manifest or even a.re not told it was by the king; but (very suspicious symptom of corruptness in the probably through want of moral courage) text just here, supported as it is by the he incurred the severest sort of blame, and Septuagint and Josephus, by the stress laid was without even the excnse of strong per- on his old age, whether it showed a sonal temptation. hundred and thirty years, or thirty years or Ver. 19.-Prophetil. The name of only fifty years (as have been variously suggested) one, Zecbariah, as in next verse, is given fewer; the little fact, otherwise looking (see by the side of this verse the emphatic very significant, that the expression, full of and touching language of eh. xxxvi. 14-16). days, is used beside only of Abraham, Isaac, Ver. 20.-Came upon; margin, clothed; Joh, and David, loses its pertinence in that Revised Versior. margin, clothed itBelf with very circumstance that it is used of David, (I Chron. xii. 18). Compare the beautiful whose age was in no way extreme. The expression of Rev. i. 10, "I was in the oge of the other three, however, exceeded Spirit;" it was not merely that the Spirit this reputed age given to Jehoiada I deigned to visit St. John in Patmos, but so Ver. 16.-The honour done Jehoiada. well possessed him that he was in the Spirit. belonged to him, not only for his goodness, The son of Jehoia.da; i.e. very possibly grand- his greatness, bis practical services to the son of Jehoiada (Jehoiacla's great age the kingdom, but for the fact that those prac- rather countenancing this interpretation) tical services had entailed the necessity of and "son of Barachiae" (Matt. xxiii. 35). bis standing in loco regi8 for some time. That ye can.not prosper. The Hebrew text Hie royal alliance with J ehoram's daughter, says, "and ye will not prosper." This and, if it were so, his extreme patriarchal clause may read all the more fo!cibly if kept age, may all hnve contributed to the honour under the dominance of the why of the now put upon him. Little stress can be former, reminding us of such appeals as laid, however, upon this last consideration, "Why will ye die?" etc. (eh. xv. 2; Dent. faJ\ing any other allusion to it, or any xxviii. throughout). Reading these two emphasized statement of what we have in clanses in the preterite or present tense our ver. 15. will make them neither less forcible nor Ver. 17.-The princes. These turned less correct, so indicating that they, the aside from the better part they had per- princes and the nation, were already begin- formed (eh. xxiii. 13, 20). Me.de obeise.noe; ning to eat the fruit of their ways, and Hebrew, 11!:JJ'.I~:. Thie is the word that is "rumours of war," if not war itself, were on used of the. sheaves of the brethren of them. Joseph bowing down, according to his Ver. 21.-Stoned him. Yet this was their dream, to his sheaf; it is also the repeatedly Law's punishment for themselves, for idolaters used word of the worship pa.id to Jehovah (Lev. xx. 2). At the commandment of the the true God, e.nd to idols and false gods. king. The king, who had yielded to the The word occurs neo.rly two hundred times. :flattering obeisance and worship of the The obeisance ot' these princes, therefore, on princes, is now driven on II grievous length this occe.sion Jacked nothing of the most further. In the oourt of the house of the pronounced cha.re.cter, and the worst species Lord. So Matt. x:riii. 35, "between the of flattery gained its disastrous ends. Joash temple [Revised Version, • se.nctuary '] and must have been now about thirty-six yee.re the altar.'' of age; he we.s seven years old when he Ver. 22.-Remembered not the kindness began to reign, he had reigned twenty-three (Gen. xl. 23). The Lord look_ upon it, ~d years before the restoring of the temple (2 require it. So, too, the Revised Version, Kings xii. 6), and a few yea.re had ele.psed whfoh also, according to its custom, removes since. '.rbe words of the princes, to whioh the italic type from the two nenter pronouns Joash hearkened, are not supplied by the "it." But probably a better and corree.ter parallel, which indeed at once proceeds to rendering is, " The Lord will see and will speak of the threatening attitude of the require" (for it is not necessary to regard tiyrif\n king H11z11el, and of how Joa.eh this as a prayer of Zeoha.ria.h); and thus 28G THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [err. xx1v. 1-27.