struck down threo warriors closely related to AhA-z-Maaseiah the king;'s son i.e. cousin or uncle, as in eh. xdii. 25 and xxii. 11, since Ahaz could hardly at the com~encemont of his reign have had a son capable of bearini arms; Azrikam, the ruler of the house1 not of the temple (eh. xxxi. 13; 1 Chron. ix. 11), but of the palace, hence a high officio.l in the royal household; and Elkanab, that was next or second to the. kino- i.e. his prime mi~ister. In ~ddition,_ two bnncir~ thousa.nd women, sons and daught~rs, with much spoil, were carncd captive to Samaria. The great number of the slnin· and of the captives may be accounted for by remembering: that it was practically a war for the existence of the southern kingdom, which would require Ahaz to call out all his able: bodied population; that the Israelites were accustomed to act with great cruelty ir,. war (2 Kings xv. 16), and probably did so on this occasion (ver. 9); and that Jehovah had delivered Ahaz and his people into the hands of their enemies on account of their apostasy, as by the lips of Moses (Lev. xxvi. 17, 37) he had threatened he would in such cases do. 2. The Edomites. These, whom Uzziah had reduced to subjection (eh. xxvi. 2), were probably emboldened by Rezin's successful attack upon Eloth (2 Kings xvi. 6) to throw off the yoke of Judah, and even attempt reprisals in the shape of an im,asion of Judrean territory. This they executed with such military skill, that they carried off, as the Syrians and Israelites had done, a number of prisoners. 3. The Philistines. During the 11revious reign these also had been conquered, and their country occupied by garrisons of Judrean soldiers (eh. xxvi. 6); but, embracing the opportunity afforded by the simultaneous attacks directed upon their ancient enemy and present suzerain, they asserted. their independence, made an irruption into the low land and south country of Judah, captured and occupied a number of cities, with their dependent villages: Beth-shemesh (see on eh. x:xv. 21); Ajalon, the modern Jalo (eh. xi. 10); Gederoth, in the hill country of Judah (Josh. xv. 36); "the Gedor of the 'Onomasticon,' ten miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Diospolis, now -the ruin Jed,ireh" (Conder, 'Handbook,' p. 411); Shocho (eh. xi. 7), the Shuweike of to-day; Timnah, the present Tibneh, on the frontier of Judah three quarters of an hour from Ain-shems; Gimzo, now Jimsu, a large village between Lydda and Jerusalem. LESSONS. 1. The degeneracy of human nature-a good Jotham begets a wicked Ahaz. 2. The madness of idolatry, exemplified in the career of Ahaz. 3. 'l'he cer- tainty of retribution, illustrated by the" briaging low" of Judah.-W.
Vers. 8-15.-.The sending back of the captives-an incident of tl1e L9raelieish war. L THE WARRIORS OF lBRAEL AND THE CAPTIVES OF JUDAH. (Ver. 8.) 1. The number of the captives. Two hundred thousand persons. (I) This, following upon a slaughter of one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, showed the crushing nature of the blow which had fallen upon Judah. (2) It exemplified the horrors of war, especially amongst ancient peoples, with whom the deportation of vast hordes of a country's population was a familiar phenomenon. Cf. among the Jews the twenty thousand footmen taken by David from Hadadezer of Zobah (2 Sam. viii. 4; 1 Chron. xviii. 4), and the ten thousand Edomites captured by Amaziah (eh. xxv. 12); amongst the Assyrians the carrying away of the inhabitants of Samaria to Assyria by Tiglath- Pileser II. (2 Kings xv. 29; cf. 'Records,' etc., v. 52)-" the population, the goods of its people (and the furniture) to the land of Assyria I sent," a.ad the removal by Sargon II. of 27,280 of the leading inhabitants of Samaria to Gozan and Media(' Records,' etc., vii. 28); and amongst the Egyptians the number of foreign peoples transported to the Nile valley a.s the result of successful campaigns, a number so great as with their descendants to compose in the time of Rameses besostris "a third, and probably still more, of all the families of Egypt" (Brugsch, 'Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii. 104). (3) It illustrated the ease with which, when God willed it, a nation could be •• minishP.d and broun-Jit low" (Job xii. 23; Pe. cvii 39). (4) Jt attested the certainty and severity of God':judgments on account of sin, whether upon nations or individu~ls (Lev. xxvi. 17; Deut. xxxii 30; eh. xv. 6). 2. The persons of the captives. (1) The brethren of the Israelites, i.e. their kinsmen; hence the wickedness of their conduct in enslaving not merely human beino-s, which was bad, but their own flesh and blood, which was worse, yea, was unnatural~ and (2) of these, not the men who had fought against them, which might have been in some sort excusable, hut, which WaB wholly iadefensible, the women, with their sons and daughters, who were all alike inn.ocent of offence in eith_or ea.using on. xxV'm.1-27.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 343