Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

persuade him. (22) And the LORD said Ja 2 Chron. 18. 23.
unto him, Wherewith? And he said,
I will go forth, and I will be a lying
spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
And he said, Thou shalt persuade him,
and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
(23) Now therefore, behold, the LORD

sent to Prison.

come in peace. (28) And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of

you.

(29) So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ra

hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of or, from cham moth-gilead. (30) And the king of Israel

all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

(24) But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee ? (25) And Micaiah said,

ber to chamber.

[ocr errors]

said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and enter into the battle; but put on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. (31) But the king of Syria commanded his thirty and two captains that had rule over his chariots, saying,

Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when Heb. a chamber Fight neither with small nor great, save

thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.

in a chamber.

only with the king of Israel. (32) And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him and Jehoshaphat cried out. (33) And it came to pass, when the cap

(26) And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; (27) and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction to ise hintains of the chariots perceived that it and with water of affliction, until I

3 Or, when he
disguise

self, and enter
into the battle.

euphemistically, "the spirit") overruled to work out the judgments of God. The absolute subordination of such spirits of evil in every notice of them in the Old Testament precludes all danger of the monstrous dualism of so many Eastern religions. The reference of the power of divination to such spirits is found in the New Testament also. (See Acts xvi. 16-18.) (23) The Lord the Lord.-The emphatic repetition of the Name Jehovah here is an implied answer to the insinuation of mere malice in verses 8, 18.

(24) Smote Micaiah on the cheek.-The act is not only the expression of contempt (see Isa. 1. 6; Micah v.1; Matt. v. 39), but of professed indignation at words of blasphemy against God, or of contempt for His vicegerents; as is seen clearly, when it is recorded as directed against Our Lord or against St. Paul (John xviii. 22, 23; Acts xxiii. 2). The words which accompany it evidently convey a sarcastic reference to the knowledge of the secret dealings of God, implied in Micaiah's vision, with a view to turn it into ridicule. Micaiah's answer accordingly passes them by, and merely declares the shame and terror, with which Zedekiah shall find out hereafter the truth of the prophecy of evil. Josephus has a curious addition, that Zedekiah challenged Micaiah to wither up his hand, like the hand of Jeroboam at Bethel, and scouted his prophecy as inconsistent with that of Elijah (Antt. viii. 15, § 4).

(26) Joash the king's son, of whom we know nothing hereafter, is apparently entrusted (like the seventy sons of 2 Kings x. 1) to the charge of the governor of the city, perhaps in theory left in command of Samaria with him.

(27) Bread of affliction . .-Comp. Isa. xxx. 20. This is a command of severe treatment, as well as scanty fare. Ahab's affectation of disbelief-which his subsequent conduct shows to be but affectation-simply draws down a plainer and sterner prediction, accompanied moreover, if our text be correct, by an appeal

:

was not the king of Israel, that they

to the whole assembly to bear witness of it. Of Micaiah's fate we know nothing; but it is hard to suppose that his bold and defiant testimony could escape the extreme penalty of death, when Ahab's fall gave opportunity of revival to the ruthlessness of Jezebel.

(28) Hearken, O people.-It is a curious coincidence that these are the opening words of the prophetic Book of Micah. They are not found in some MSS. of the LXX., and are supposed by some to be an early interpolation in this passage from that book.

(29) So... Jehoshaphat.-The continued adhesion of Jehoshaphat, against the voice of prophecy, which he had himself invoked (severely rebuked in 2 Chron. xviii. 31), and, indeed, the subservient part which he plays throughout, evidently indicate a position of virtual dependence of Judah on the stronger power of Israel, of which the alliance by marriage-destined to be all but fatal to the dynasty of David (2 Kings xi. 1, 2) -was at once the sign and the cause.

(30) I will disguise myself.-The precaution of Ahab is almost ludicrously characteristic of his temper of half-belief and half-unbelief. In itself it is, of course, plainly absurd to believe that God's judgment has in all probability been pronounced, and yet to suppose that it can be averted by so puerile a precaution. But, as experience shows, it is not the less on that account true to human nature, especially such a nature as his, always" halting between two opinions."

(31) His thirty and two captains.-See chap. xx. 16, 24. The power of Syria had already recovered itself, and is directed with singular virulence against the person of the king who had unwisely spared it. Ahab is represented as the mover of the whole war, and as fighting bravely to the death.

[ocr errors]

(32) Cried out-i.e., to rally his people round him. In 2 Chron. xviii. 31 it is added, And the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him."

[blocks in formation]

plicity.

Jehoshaphat's Reign.

turned back from pursuing him. (34) And 1 Heb., in his sim- armour; according "unto the word of a certain man drew a bow at a venture, the LORD which he spake. and smote the king of Israel between (39) Now the rest of the acts of Ahab,

5

the breastplate.

3 Heb., made sick.

4 Heb., ascen led.

B.C. 914.

which he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel ? (40) So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

the joints of the harness: wherefore 2 Heb., joints and and all that he did, and the ivory house he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. (35) And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. (36) And there went a proclamation throughout the Heb., bosom. host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. (37) So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. (38) And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his 2 Chron. 20. 31.

6 Heb., came.

a ch. 21. 19.

(34) A certain man.-Josephus says, "a young man named Naaman." (Comp. 2 Kings v. 1 : “because by him the Lord had given deliverance to Syria.”)

The driver of his chariot. In the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, as subsequently in the Greek of the Homeric days, the war-chariot holds but two, the warrior and the charioteer. This is the first place where the chariot, introduced by Solomon from Egypt (chap. x. 29), is mentioned as actually used in war. (See subsequently, 2 Kings ix. 16, 21, xxiii. 30; and compare the proverbial expression of this period, "The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof," 2 Kings ii. 12, xiii. 14.)

[ocr errors]

(35) The king was stayed up . . .-Ahab's repentance, imperfect as it was, has at least availed to secure him a warrior's death, before "the evil came on his house and on Israel. Evidently he conceals the deadliness of his hurt, though it disables him from action, and bravely sustains the battle, till his strength fails. Then the news spreads, and the army disperses; but the subsequent history seems to show that no fatal defeat was incurred. This union of desperate physical bravery with moral feebleness and cowardice is common enough in history, and (as Shakspeare has delighted to show in his Macbeth) most true to nature.

[ocr errors]

(38) They washed his armour. -There seems little doubt that this is a mistranslation, and that the LXX. rendering (supported also by Josephus) is correct: 'And the harlots bathed in it," that is, in the bloodstained pool, the usual public bathing-place of their shamelessness. The dog and the harlot are the animal and human types of uncleanness.

According unto the word of the Lord.-The reference to the emphatic prophecy of Elijah is unmistakable, and the context fixes its fulfilment plainly as having taken place in Samaria. The difficulty is, of course, the notice in 2 Kings ix. 25, where the dead body of Jehoram is cast"in the portion of the field of Naboth," evidently at Jezreel; with quotation of the "burden of the Lord laid upon him," "I will requite thee in this plot, saith the Lord." The reconcilement is, with our knowledge, difficult, if not impossible. But the reference in the text is so much clearer, that it must

(41) And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. (42) Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. (43) And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD:

We

outweigh the other. Naboth, in any case, is likely to
have had land in his native place, which would be for-
feited to the king; and there would still be an appro-
priate judgment in making it also the scene of the dis-
honoured death of the last king of Ahab's house.
may notice, moreover, that the quotation in 2 Kings
ix. is not taken from Elijah's words against Ahab,
nor does it contain the characteristic notice of the
dogs licking the blood;" though it is noticed as a ful-
filment of the subsequent prophecy of chapter xxi. 24
against Ahab's house.

66

(39) The ivory house.-See Amos iii. 15. We note that now, for the first time since the days of Solomon (chap. x. 18-20, 39), the use of ivory-in this case for inlaying the walls of houses-so characteristic of Zidonian art, is mentioned. The "undesigned coincidence," in relation to the renewed intercourse with Zidon, is remarkable.

All the cities . . .-Possibly the cities ceded by Ben-hadad, and rebuilt as strongholds. The description shows that Ahab's reign was externally one of power and prosperity, as yet unimpaired even by his death and disaster at Ramoth-gilead. The fruits of spiritual corruption had not yet ripened.

(41) Jehoshaphat.-The narrative here, so far as it is full and continuous, centres round the prophetic work of Elijah and Elisha, the scene of which was in Israel; and the compiler contents himself with the insertion of a few brief annalistic notices of the kingdom of Judah, taking up the thread of the narrative of chapter xv. 24, except where (as in 2 Kings iii.) it becomes again connected with the history of Israel. In the Chronicles, on the contrary, there is a full and interesting account of the reign of Jehoshaphat, and especially of his great religious revival (2 Chron. xvii.—xx.), coinciding with this chapter, almost verbally, in the account of the battle at Ramoth-gilead. The brief notices here of the religious work of Jehoshaphat, his "might," and his wars, agree entirely with

this fuller record.

66

[ocr errors]

(43) The high places were not taken away.— This agrees with 2 Chron. xx. 33, and stands in apparent contradiction with 2 Chron. xvii. 6: "He took

The reigns of Ahaziah

I. KINGS, XXII.

and Jehoram.

nevertheless the high places were not | Or,had ten ships. servants go with thy servants in the

taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. (44) And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

(45) Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he shewed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah ? (46) And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.

(47) There was then no king in Edom: a deputy was king.

(18) Jehoshaphat 'made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber. (49) Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehoshaphat, Let my

B.C. 889.

B.C. 913.

away the high places and groves out of Judah." Probably the key to the apparent discrepancy lies in the words" and groves" (Asherah). The high places taken away were those connected with the base Asherah worship; those which were simply unauthorised sanctuaries remained, at any rate in part.

(41) And Jehoshaphat. This verse is chronologically out of place. It refers to the policy of Jehoshaphat, pursued apparently from the beginning, of exchanging the chronic condition of war with Israel in the preceding reigns, for peace and alliance.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(46) The remnant -See chaps. xiv. 24, xv. 12. (47) There was then no king in Edom.-This notice is apparently connected with the following verses; for Ezion-geber is a seaport of the Edomite territory. Whatever may have been the influence of Hadad in the last days of Solomon (chap. xi. 14), Edom does not seem to have regained independence till the time of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xxi. 8-10); although in the confederacy against Jehoshaphat, those "of Mount Seir" are included with the Moabites and Ammonites (2 Chron. xx. 10, 22). The "king

B.C. 898.

ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.

(50) And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead.

(51) Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. (52) And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: (53) for he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

of Edom," of 2 Kings iii., who is evidently a subject ally, not regarded in consultation (see verses 6-9), must be "the deputy" of this passage.

(48) Ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir.-See Note on chap. x. 22. We note that this revival of maritime enterprise coincides with the renewed alliance through Israel with Tyre. The account in 2 Chron. xx. 35-37 makes the brief narrative of these verses intelligible. The fleet was a combined fleet of Judah and Israel, built at Ezion-geber, which belonged, to Judah; the alliance was denounced and judgment threatened by the prophet Eliezer. After the wreck of the fleet, manned, it would seem, by the subjects of Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah of Israel desires to renew the enterprise with the aid of Israelite and probably Tyrian sailors; but Jehoshaphat now refuses.

(51) Ahaziah.—In this short reign the influence of Jezebel, evidently in abeyance in the last days of Ahab, revives; and the idolatry of Baal resumes its place side by side with the older idolatry of Jeroboam, and (see 2 Kings i. 2) with the worship of the Canaanitish Baalzebub.

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS.

« PreviousContinue »