The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 435

IT. JosIAH's FATAL WOUND. (Ver. 23.) 1. The ineffectool disguise. Like Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead (eh. xvi ii. 29), Josie.h resorted to e. custome.ry but foolish e.nd, In this ce.se useless a~tifice. Josiah should he.ve -ventured upon no ce.mpe.ign which deme.nded such an expeihent. Had Josie.h been sure of the Divine e.pprobe.tion, he would he.ve needed no protection beyond the invisible shield e.nd buckler of Jehove.h (Ps, xci.). 2, 7'he death-'11)1,nged arrow. No coat of mail ce.n protect a soldier, or strata.gem prolong the day_s of hi~ v.:hose hour is come. . Whether the Egyptian bowmen penetrated through Josiah s d1sgmseor not, Jehovah did. If Necho's archers shot at random, the almighty and omniscient Archer (Lam. iL 4; Job vi. 4; Rev. vi. 2) did not. Every she.ft that flies from his hand hits. Josiah believed he was only fighting against Necho; Necho told him he wa.s fighting ~<>'&inst God. In this unequal contest (Isa. xxvii. 4) Josie.h was of course defeated. "The archers shot at King Josiah; and King Josiah said to his servants, Have me away; for I a.m sore wounded." V. JosrAH's UNTIMELY DEATH. (Ver. 24.) It was: 1. Immediate. The pious but mistaken monarch felt he had received his death-blow. Obeying his instructions, his 110ldiers lifted him from his war-chariot, and, placing him "in a second chariot which belonged to him, and was probably more comfortable for a wounded man" (Keil), conveyed him to Jerusa.lem, where he shortly after expired. 2. Untimely. What Hezekiah fee.red was about to happen to him in his thirty-ninth year (Isa. xxxviii.10), happened in reality to Josiah; he was deprived of the residue of his years. What another singer prayed against (Ps. cii. 24) befell him, perhaps, notwithstanding his prayers-he was cut off in the midst of his days. In the language of a Hebrew prophet, "his sun had gone down at noon" (Amos viii. 9). Considering his elevated character, the quality of the work he had already performed, and the promise of good for his land and people which lay, or seemed to lie, in his prolonged life, his death could scarcely be pronounced other than premature; it was all too soon for Jerusalem and Judah. Yet was it not too soon for God, who best knew the moment in which to fulfil his own promise (eh. xxx.iv. 28; Ps. xx.xi. 15); or for Josiah, who was thereby removed from the evil to come (Ps. xii. 1 ; Isa. lvii. 1), so that his eyes saw not the calamities which forthwith began to descend upon his country (eh. xxxvi. 3). 3. Regretted. (1) Mourned for by the people. When they buried him in the sepulchres of his fathers (ver. 24), or in his own sepulchre (2 Kings xxiii. 30)-perhaps in one of the chambers of Manasseh's tomb (eh. xx.xiii. 20)-the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem felt that "a prince and a great man" had been taken from them. They sorrowed for him ne they had never before sorrowed for a sovereign, "lamenting and grieving on his account many days" (Josephus), with such an intensity of heartfelt anguish that even after the Captivity "the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon" became a. proverbial expression for the deepest and truest grief (Zech. xii. 11). (2) Lamented by Jeremiah. The most plaintive of all the prophets, who had commenced his ministry in the thirteenth year of the deceased sovereign's reign (Jer. i. 1), composed a dirge to keep in memory his death. Whether that elegiac hymn was recited at hie funeral (Stanley) or not, it was placed in the national collection of such threnodies, and was long after chanted by the singing men and singing women who, on fixed days, were appointed to recall the memory of the good king. LESSONS. 1. The danger of intermeddling with other people's strife (Prov. xxvi. 17). 2. The folly of rejecting good advice, even though given by an enemy. 3. The proba- bility that he who runs into danger unbidden will not escape unhurt (Ps. xci. 11). 4. The certainty that death will overtake all, in such an hour as they think not (Matt. xxiv. 44). 5. The loss which a good man's death is to a community or nation (2 Kings ii. 12). 6. The propriety of perpetuating the recollection of noble lives (Prov. x. 7). 7. The fitness of song to express sorrowful emotions (2 Sam. i 17; Micah ii 4).-W. EXPOSITION. able, called 'The Chronicles.' And thirteen CHAPTER X.XXVL verses sum the contents of the four Inst One short chapter now brings to a. con- pre-Captivity kings of the line of Judah. elusion the work. i.n ao many aspects remark• The wor<lii of Keil, in opening this lllBt 011. xu.vt. 1-23.J TllE SECOND BOOK OF THE CllRON1CLES. 439