2 Kings 15:1-7. Reign of Azariah king of Judah. He is smitten with leprosy and lives apart. His death (2 Chronicles 24:1-23) 1. _In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam_… began _Azariah_ This statement cannot be made to accord with the numbers given in the previous Chapter s. In 2 Kings 14:1 it i... [ Continue Reading ]
_his mother's name_was _Jecholiah_ R.V. JECOLIAH. This is the form in 2 Chronicles 26:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he did_that _which_was _right in the sight_ R.V. EYES. i.e. His obedience to God's law was partial, like that of his father, for he also allowed the high-places to remain and to be used for worship: and the close of Azariah's reign was marked by further falling away, just as Amaziah's had been befo... [ Continue Reading ]
_save that_[R.V. HOWBEIT] _the high places_ The rendering is thus made to agree with verse 25 of this chapter, where the Hebrew is the same. The Chronicler at this point supplies us with many particulars of Azariah's history unnoticed in Kings. Azariah, he says, -sought God in the days of Zechariah... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper_ The more political history in Kings tells us nothing about the reason why Azariah was smitten. The Chronicler however says that the king's successes caused his heart to be lifted up, and he presumed to go into the temple, and to take upon him the... [ Continue Reading ]
_the rest of the acts of Azariah_ The record of these is said by the Chronicler (2 Chronicles 26:22) to have been written, first and last, by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. We know from Isaiah 6:1 that the great vision of the Lord in His glory was seen by Isaiah in the year of Azariah's death,... [ Continue Reading ]
_and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David_ His body, as appears from 2 Chron., was not laid with the rest of the kings in the royal sepulchre, but apparently in the same piece of land. -They buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings: for they sai... [ Continue Reading ]
Zechariah king of Israel. He is slain, after six months, by Shallum, who succeeded him (Not in Chronicles) 8. _Zachariah_[R.V. ZECHARIAH] _the son of Jeroboam_ This was as is noticed below, in. verse 12, the fourth generation of the family of Jehu. The sovereignty had been promised them no longer.... [ Continue Reading ]
_who_[R.V. WHEREWITH HE] _made Israel to sin_ And the same change is necessary in verses 18, 24 and 28 of this chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shallum the son of Jabesh_ Nothing more is known of him than is given in this verse. The death of the last scion of the house of Jehu by the sword appears to be foretold in Amos 7:9, -I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword". _before the people_ i.e. Publicly. Hence it would seem t... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_[R.V. NOW] _the rest of the acts of Zachariah_ We can see from the language of the prophet Amos that the corruption of Israel was very great at this time, and that the nation appeared incorrigible. In these excesses Zechariah no doubt bore his share. Hence the shortness of his reign.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the word of the Lord which he spake unto Jehu_ For the promise, see above, 2 Kings 10:30. _thy sons_ The R.V. brings the words -to the fourth generation" forward in the verse and places them after -sons" thus making the sentence conform, as it does in the original, to the order of the words in the... [ Continue Reading ]
Shallum king of Israel. He is slain, after a month, by Menahem (Not in Chronicles) 13. _a full month_ R.V. THE SPACE OF A MONTH. The margin of A.V. gives, -Heb. a month of days". The rendering of R.V. corresponds with that of A.V. in Genesis 29:7 for the same words. The Hebrew for -of days" is adde... [ Continue Reading ]
_Menahem the son of Gadi_ It has been suggested that Menahem was an officer of king Zechariah and advanced from Tirzah, where he was stationed, to Samaria to avenge the murder of his master. This may have been so, but if the expression -before the people" in verse 10 be correct, it would appear as i... [ Continue Reading ]
_And_[R.V. NOW] _the rest_&c. As above in verse 11. It may be noticed that Menahem's conduct in slaying Shallum is not called -a conspiracy". Menahem seems to have been a man of much ferocity, and probably carried out his plans without helpers.... [ Continue Reading ]
Menahem king of Israel. He smites Tiphsah. Pul, king of Assyria, comes against Israel but is bought off. Death of Menahem (Not in Chronicles) 16. _Menahem smote Tiphsah_ Tiphsah is mentioned 1 Kings 4:24 as at one boundary of the dominion of Solomon. The place there intended is Thapsacus on the west... [ Continue Reading ]
_all his days_ These words are unrepresented in the LXX.... [ Continue Reading ]
And _Pul the king of Assyria came against the land_ R.V. THERE CAME AGAINST THE LAND PUL &c. The sentence has no conjunction, and so R.V. represents the original better. In the LXX. we find -In his days" put as an introduction to the sentence, and the name of Pul represented by Φουὰ, or Φουλὰ or Φοὺ... [ Continue Reading ]
_Menahem exacted the money_ Fifty shekels=one maneh, was the sixtieth part of a talent of silver. Hence the mighty men of wealth must have numbered 60,000, a number which tells of the richness of the time. The population of Israel in David's time had 800,000 soldiers (2 Samuel 24:9). _stayed not th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pekahiah his son_ Ten years of stern rule had enabled Menahem to secure the throne for his son, though the latter had but a short tenure of power.... [ Continue Reading ]
Reign of Pekahiah king of Israel. He is slain by Pekah, the son of Remaliah, who succeeds him (Not in Chronicles) 25. _Pekah … a captain of his_ R.V. HIS CAPTAIN. The word is the same which in 2 Kings 7:2 is used for the captain (A.V. lord) on whose hand the king of Israel leaned. Probably Pekah oc... [ Continue Reading ]
Pekah king of Israel for twenty years. Invasion of Israel by Tiglath-pileser. Pekah is slain by Hoshea (Not in Chronicles) 27. _Pekah the son of Remaliah_ This king is chiefly remarkable because of the attempts which he made against the kingdom of Judah, and which gave rise to the prophecies record... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria_ This is the second Assyrian king of this name; the first having flourished in the twelfth century b.c. For some of the facts connected with his history see note on verse 19 above. According to the Assyrian canon Tiglath-pileser reigned 18 years, from b.c. 745 to b.c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hoshea the son of Elah_ Josephus (_Ant._IX. 13. 1) says Hoshea was a friend of Pekah. He is mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions (Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 285), and it appears from that record as if he had been set up by the Assyrian king. Perhaps Hoshea, having conspired and slain Pekah... [ Continue Reading ]
Jotham king of Judah. Commencement of the plots of Israel against Judah (2 Chronicles 27:1-9) 34. _according to all that his father Uzziah had done_ The Chronicler notes the great exception -Howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord". As this sin of Uzziah had not been recorded by the comp... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit the high places_ In 2 Chronicles it is merely said -the people did yet corruptly". _He built the higher_[R.V. UPPER] _gate of the house of the Lord_ By -build" is only meant -restore" or -beautify". The gate existed before. The temple stood on a slope, of which the northern side was the hig... [ Continue Reading ]
_In those days_ In the days of Jotham the confederacy between Israel and Syria against Judah was formed, though the effects were not felt to the full till the days of Jotham's son Ahaz. In Isaiah 7 we find that Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Israel, had come up against Jerusalem to fight aga... [ Continue Reading ]