in our history or its parnllol to acoretlit place in tbA compilatirm of tho Chronicles. tho talo of Nocho, or to discredit the heart Itis indeed possible that they might purport, nnd motive of Josiah-nothing ezcept what from the pen of the writer of Chronicles, Hilence and the result aecm to eay. One that in point of fact the words of~ echo had other element of interest and of difficulty beon the permitted wa.ming, though not the may Le culded to ibo question; for of tho nctuo.lly dicta.led language of Gori. The thirteen years' interval, wbich we have de- genius of the whole passage strongly re- soribed nbove as one preeumably of happy minrls us of eh. XXV. 17, 19-21; and its retrospect in certain aepecte for Joeiah, we parallel in 2 Kings xiv In the valley of know nothing from Scripture, but have every Megiddo; i.e. among those hills wlii<Jh reason to euppoee tbe.t during it Josiah and separate the country of the coast from Es- hie kingdom liad become subject, if only draelon-a valley as that "of Kishon" ( •00 nominally, to Nabopolo.ssar; eo that, in Stanley's ' Sinai and Palestine,' pr. ~66, offering to resist Necbo of Egypt, be was 339, 347; but see e.lso Conder's ' Handbook,' offering to strengthen so far forth the royal p. 287, where a different view is taken). line which did dishonour to hie own country Ver. 24.-And he died. If the form of nnd hie country's God. Upon thie supposi- words used in the parallel, 2 Kings xxiii. tion, however, we can lay no strese. 30, be followed, Josi:i.h was dead before they Ver. 21.-Not against thee this da.y. reached Jerusalem. And e.ll . . . mo11rned Possibly the snggestion couched in these for Josiah. We still find no note whatever le.st two words may be.ve been the opposite of blame attributed to Josiah, and the of e.greeable to King Josiah. For God oom- general mourning (Zech. xii. 11) appears to me.nded me to make haste. The margin have been most genuine. reading of the Revised Vereion eeems pre- Ver. 25.-If Jeremiah's lamenting on this ferable, both for the Hebrew text o.nd the ocoasion was one committed to writing, it connection, hath given command to speed me. has not survived. To this da.y; i.e. probably Ver. 22.-Would not turn his face (so anniversary after anni ven,ary to the time of eh. xxv. 17 and its parallel, 2 Kings xiv. 8). the writer to whom this statement belongs, Disguised himself. 'fhis is, possibly enough, the authority from which our compiler draws the intention of the word, but it is more bis materials. Written in the lamentations. probe.hie that the simple mee.ning is fully We have here another glimpse of a work armed himself. The Septuagint has strength- which has not been handed down to us. ened himself. Hearkened not Ullto the Ver, 26.-Goodness; Heh_, text, kind- words of Neoho from the mouth of God. nesses. Acoording to that . . . written in Unless these words are intended to convey the Law. Thie sentence pictures ,T usiah a really their patent and most natural import, careful, loving student of the ~d, to the it is tenfold strange that they should find a end that he might become a "doer" of iL
HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-19.-The solemn celebration of the Passover. (For the homiletics of this passage, or the subject of it, see those written on eh. xxx.)
Vere. 20-27.-The lamentations/or Josiah's death. Some cloud of mystery, but, so far as we can see, none of shame, hangs over the closing events of Josiah's reign and life. His determined resolution to oppose Necho King of Egypt, when he came to "Charchemish by Euphrates," with the view of engaging in battle with the forces of Babylon or Assyria, had no doubt some strong motive. It is not at all impossible to imagine and even to assign some alternative motives as those most probably at work. One element in the obscurity concerns the question-What was the operating and determining reason? The larger source of difficulty, however, lies in the obscurity surrounding the question whether any blame whatsoever attached to Josiah for his immovable resolution. That he paid no heed to the representations and remonstrances of the King of Egypt, ns that king me.de very free use, but by no means necessarily equally intelligent and religious use, of the name of God, was very natural, and surely diplomatically justifiable. We can, meantime, find nowhere any reflection passed on Josiah for neglecting the pretended anxious warning of Necho, which may be construed to mean all anxiety for himself only. No condemnation of Josiah's conduct is written on the page of Scripture, either before or after his death, in connection with this subject. And, lastly, the allusions which tho writings of tbo prophets contain (Jer. :xxii. 10, 18; :x.xxiv. 6; Zech. xii. 11) a.re not only equally clear of any suspicion of 430 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cR. xxxv.1-2T.