The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 439

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-10.-.Three melancholy spectacles. As we read these verses we feel that we are drawing very near the end of the kingdom of Judah; there is an air of melan- choly pervading this last ch11pter of the Hebrew chronicles. There are three things which it is sad to see. I. A NATION SINKING Th'TO SERVITUDE. When Egypt comes up and deposes one king and sets up another, calling that other by a name that it pleases to confer, e.t the same time imposing a heavy tribute on the people of the land; and when, that power declining, Assyria sends its troops and, without any resistance, enters the capital, puts the sovereign in chains, and then extends to him a contemptuous protectorate; when this same power again comes up and carries away the sovereign after a brief reign of three months, and takes him away, with the most precious treasures of the capital;- we are affected by a sense of pitiful national decline. We enter into the feelings of its patriot-subjects who could not have helped contrasting the glories of the age of David and Solomon with the abject humiliation of their own time. A strong and 11e!f-respecting people falling into servitude, bowing its head to an utterly relentless power which has no other force than that of the sword and the war-chariot,-this ie a melancholy spectacle indeed. It may profitably suggest to us the question-What is the real cause of e. nation's fall? and it will be found, on inquiry, that while this may be due to overweenino-0 ambition, it is much more likely to be ascribed to indul- gence, to demoralization, to the weakness which must attend more.I and spiritual deterioration. Simplicity and purity of life, sustained by Christian principle-this is the one security against decline, subjection, and ruin. II. A YOUNG MAN'S HOPES EXTINGUISHED. No doubt the young prince Jehoahe.z grew up in the court of Judah with high hopes for his future. His father was in possession of no mean estate, and there was every prospect of his succeeding to some measure, if not to the chief part of it. But, after three months' occupancy 01 power and enjoyment of wealth, to be cast into chains and taken away to languish in confine- ment in Egypt until he died, was a sad and sorry portion. We do not know, but we can well imagine, that there was high hope extinguished, love broken o:ff, much earthly brightness i;uddenly eclipsed. It is one of the consolations of obscurity that it is much lees likely than is prominence to be subjected to such sudden and painful en. xxxvr. 1-28,] 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF THE CBRONICLEB. 413