bring it into compA.rieon with those divinest executed. judgmeut agaill.at Joe.ah. Tho pmyers of the SavioUT and of St. Stophrm. Hebrew ~ys litemll1,, "and 011 Jo~sh they· The words on dying Zeohmie.b's lips wore executed Judgments. What the juclgmouls perhe.ps rather the vi'l'id reminiscence of his were we do not read, but surely it is pro- own well-versed knowledge of the Law, or bable that they nre glanced 11,t in the next "the Scriptur<>s" (Gen. ix. 5; xlii. 22). v~rse, "~~r t-hcy left hin:i in great [or,' mcmy '] The Bentenee of the dying priest and pro- d1s_eases, or perhaps "lll great illness" ( oh, phet in one, is, by the writer of Cbl"Oniclcs XXI. 15). at any rate, directed in its fall with fearful Ver. 25.-They left him in great diseases. straightness to the door of Joasb the king See note above, and observe further that himself. Remarkable as is the absence of this parenthetic clause, as treated in both the matter of this and the firn preceding Authorized Version and Revised Version, verses from the parallel, it will not escape prepares the wo.y for what follows and notice bow it is implied in vers. I 7, 18 there, especially for the fact that it was on his bed while the inclusion of it here is again in that they slew him. Render thus, Ancl pa~ent be.rmony with the great object of the after they had betaken themselves away, writer. whereas they left him sorely ill, his own Ver. 23.-At the end. of the year; Hebrew, servants conspired . . . and slew him in his n~1pi;i; margin, both of the Authorized bed. His OWII. servants. These had the Version and the Revised Version, re1Jolution. opportunity the rather at ha.nd, in that he The word ie found three other times, Exod. was so ill and in bed. That he died by the xxxiv. 22; 1 Sam. i. 20; Ps. xix. 7. The conspiring ~ogether of a couple of servants, versions, of course, express correctly what is whose foreign and heathen maternity is meant, but probably the season of spring is particularly recorded, was the more, i"nn- o.lso conveyed (2 Sam. xi. 1 ; l Chron. xx. I). minious end for him, who had commuidecl The host of Syria.. Their king we.s Hazael Zechariah to be openly stoned-a death (2 Kings xii 17), whether actnally with highly honourable in comparison. The them is perhaps not certs.in, but the last parallel (2 Kings xii. 20) adds that it was clause in the verse jusi quoted would seem in "the house of Millo, which goeth down to convey that impression. He was King of to Silla" (for the explanation of which Damascus (Axam, or Syria), and having passage, see note ad loc.), that the servcmls' already temporarily mastered Israel (2 Kings conspiracy to kill Joe.ah took effect. The xiii 3, 4, 22), the way wa.e paved to Gath sons of Jehoiad.a. We know of only ono (cl.J... ::d. 8; xni 11), whence wistfnl eyes son, Zecha.riah; there may have been other were bent on Jernsalem, nearly thirty miles sons, or other lineal relations of Jehoiada. distAnt thence. Destroyed all the princes me.y be covered by the word "sons." We of the people; i.e. as in the next verse. are not obliged to interpret the avenging .And. Bent all the spoil. Whether intended act of the servants as one to which their so here or not, probably the strict subject of own pious and patriotic zeal led them, the verb in this clause is J oash and his whicL, considering their maternal pedigree, counsellors (ver. 18 in parallel), in their is perhaps something unlikely, though of fright-and jnst fright-helplese after the course not impossible, but one to which slaughter chronicled in our following verse, they were incited by the retributive provi- bribing off Hazael and his host, as in parallel. dence of him who held their hea1·ts also The suggestion ie most plausible that tidings in his hand. In a word, it was e. deed done of Zechariah's martyrdom and of the occa- for the blood-required (see note and refer- sion of it were the very incentive to Hazael'e ences under ver. 22). Not in the sepulchres incursion, and an illustration of the" means" of the kings. Bee note on ver. 16, and by which God works, and by which he references there quoted ; as also the am- wrought his purpose in this instance. The biguous expression of the parallel (ver. 21), 11p0il of them. If this means only the spoil " They buried him with his fatheTB in the of the defeated army strictly, then our text city of David." gives no trace of the contents of ver. 18 in Ver. 26.-Zabad. The name Jozachar of parallel just alluded to; ~ut the frequent the parallel is probably the correct word, dislocation incident to copied extracts and and a copyist's corruption may with some matter borrowed from original sources, and plausibility be argued e.s the cause of the so often evidenced in the present history, form Zabad in our text. The parallel omits when we have been comparing the two the names of the mothers' nationality. derived accoWlte to which we are indebted Bhimrith. The parallel has Efhomer, pro- for it, incline UB to the above view, as one bably an Hebraized form of the Moabitieh quite open at any rate to poseibility. name of our text. Ver.24.-Camewithumallcompany •.. Ver. 27.-His sons. We only know of tb.e Lord delivered a very great hollt (so one, Amaziah, his successor. The burdens Lev. xxvi. 8; Dent. xxvili. 25, etc.). Bo they laid upon him, Some explain this expres- err. xxiv, 1-27,] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 287
1lon of the tribute nnd bribe Jonah hBd to Chronicles [c•r,i;i:, •:i~:i ,90J of the kings of pny Hnzocl; others of prophetio "burdens" Judah" (see our Introduction, I Chronicles, uttered against him; ond others (much § 5, pp. vii.-x.), The word rendered favoured by tho position of the clause just "story" or "commentary" in our text is before the rape.iring of the house, etc.) of employed only once beside (eh. xiii. 22). Its tho task which he hod so voluntarily under- verbal root, however, is found about a tnkon, the money-raising and a.II (Ezek. hundred an~ si~t;r-two times, invariably in xxiv. 25; comp. our vers. 6, 9, 11). The the sense ofmqmnng, and almost invariably repairing; Hebrow, iio•J. Render, with the rendered in the Authorized Version by the Revised Version, the rebuilding. The story word "inquire," or "seek;" so that perhaps of the book of the kings, The Revised the word "study" or "pursuit" mi"'ht Version renders the Hebrow text (70,\1 lil'.:11!:)) idioms being allowed for, be the ne~re; "the commentary of the book of the kings," rendering. It is rabbinic literature mostly probably to be followed by the words, "of that has determined the preference for the Judah;" the parallel he.s "the book of the word "commontary."