_What title_[R.V. MONUMENT] is _that that_[R.V. WHICH] _I see?_ The word is used in Jeremiah 31:21 for -way marks" to guide along a road, and in Ezekiel 39:15 for a -sign" to mark a spot where lay some object needing notice. So that -monument" appears the better rendering, especially as in the reply... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let him alone_ R.V. LET HIM BE. The verb translated -let alone", in a later clause of the verse is not the same as this. Hence the change in the English. _that came out of Samaria_ i.e. The prophet of Bethel, for that place belonged to what was afterwards known as the kingdom of Samaria. The word... [ Continue Reading ]
_high places that_were _in the cities of Samaria_ It would seem from this that when the ten tribes had been carried away the king of Judah exercised some sort of authority over the people in the northern kingdom. But the high places in Samaria were most likely the places in which purely heathen idol... [ Continue Reading ]
_and burnt men's bones upon them_ To the heathen, as well as to the Jew, this would be a pollution that would make the place for ever unfit for worship.... [ Continue Reading ]
He puts down superstitious rites and worship. He is slain at Megiddo when he goes against the king of Egypt (2 Chronicles 35:1-27; 2 Chronicles 36:1) 21. _Keep the passover_ The Chronicler gives elaborate details concerning the way in which this feast was kept to shew that all the arrangements comma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely there was not holden_[R.V. KEPT] _such a passover_ The same change is also required in the next verse. The king had said - _Keep_the passover". This verse cannot be tortured into the meaning which some have put upon it, that the passover had been wholly neglected since the days of the Judge... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the eighteenth year of king Josiah_, wherein [R.V. WAS] _this passover was holden_ R.V. THIS PASSOVER KEPT. There is no need for the italics of A.V. The writer wishes to say emphatically _when_this strict observance of the passover took place. The writer of the Kings has never mentioned the pass... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moreover the_workers with [R.V. THEM THAT HAD] _familiar spirits, and the wizards_ See note on 2 Kings 21:6. Josiah now proceeds to exterminate all the superstitious practices which grow up side by side with idolatry. _and the images_ R.V. THE TERAPHIM. These were a sort of household gods, and som... [ Continue Reading ]
_no king before him_ For before the kingdom was established the religious strictness of the people had greatly degenerated, and even the best rulers never were so solemnly recalled to the legal regulations as Josiah was by the discovery of the temple-copy of the Law. The next verse makes it clear wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen_ R.V. THIS CITY WHICH I HAVE CHOSEN, EVEN JERUSALEM. This rendering preserves the order of the Hebrew. More than this cannot be said in its favour.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharaoh-nechoh_ R.V. NECOH. He is stated to have been the 5th or 6th king of the Saïte 26th dynasty. His expedition against the king of Assyria was b.c. 610. He probably came from Egypt by sea and landed on the coast of Palestine. Otherwise Josiah would have chosen some place further south than Meg... [ Continue Reading ]
_carried him_in a chariot] The italics are wrong as also in 2 Kings 9:28. The verb signifies -to carry in a chariot". The R.V. prints in common type. According to the Chronicler, they moved him from his war chariot into a second chariot which he had at hand. From Zechariah 12:11 -As the mourning of... [ Continue Reading ]
Reign of Jehoahaz. He is put down by the king of Egypt. Jehoiakim is made king, and becomes tributary to Egypt (2 Chronicles 36:1-4) 31. _his mother's name_was _Hamutal_ So he was by the same mother as well as by the same father as Zedekiah. See 2 Kings 24:18. On _Libnah_, see above 2 Kings 8:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath_ In 2 Chronicles 36:3 it is said -the king of Egypt put Jehoahaz down at Jerusalem". We cannot, however, be sure that this implies an advance by Pharaoh-nechoh upon the holy city. However, the appointment which the people had made was clearly not acc... [ Continue Reading ]
_Eliakim … and turned his name_to _Jehoiakim_ We can hardly think that this change was made by Pharaoh. He probably insisted on a change of name, but allowed the new king to suggest what it should be. So the change was made from _El_(God) _iakim_(will establish), to _Jeho_(i.e. Jehovah) will establi... [ Continue Reading ]
_he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land_ The king did not undertake to pay, as had been done aforetime (cf. 2 Kings 16:8; 2 Kings 18:15) this tax out of any treasures in the house of the Lord, or of the king's house. In those troublous days there was likely to be but little in... [ Continue Reading ]
_His mother's name_was _Zebudah_ R.V. ZEBIDAH. The R.V. follows the spelling of the _Kethib_. The name _Rumah_, the native place of Zebidah, is not mentioned elsewhere. It has been conjectured that it is the same as Dumah (ד and ר being in Hebrew writing most easily interchanged). Dumah (Joshua 15:5... [ Continue Reading ]