THREE YEARS - More strictly, not much more than two years (compare 1 Kings 15:1, 1 Kings 15:9). Any part of a year may, however, in Jewish reckoning, be taken as a year. HIS MOTHER’S NAME WAS MAACHAH - Or Michaiah, according to the present reading of marginal reference. THE DAUGHTER OF ABISHALOM -... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WALKED IN ALL THE SINS OF HIS FATHER - Yet Abijam prepared precious offerings for the temple service 1 Kings 15:15, probably to replace vessels which Shishak had carried off, and in his war with Jeroboam professed himself a faithful servant of Yahweh 2 Chronicles 13:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO SET UP HIS SON - The idolatry of Abijam deserved the same punishment as that of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14:10, of Baasha 1 Kings 16:2, or of Zimri 1 Kings 16:19, the cutting off of his seed, and the transfer of the crown to another family. That these consequences did not follow in the kingdom of Judah,... [ Continue Reading ]
The writer repeats what he had said in 1 Kings 14:30, in order to remind the reader that Abijam inherited this war from his father. Abijam’s war is described in marginal reference That the author of Kings gives none of its details is agreeable to his common practice in mere military matters. Thus he... [ Continue Reading ]
MOTHER’S NAME - Rather, “grandmother’s.” The Jews cal any male ancestor, however remote, a father, and any female ancestor a mother (compare 1 Kings 15:2; Genesis 3:20). This Maachah was the favorite wife of Rehoboam 2 Chronicles 11:21, and the mother of Abijam. The way in which she is here mentione... [ Continue Reading ]
Asa degraded Maachah from the rank and state of queen-mother. The word translated “idol” both here and in the parallel passage (marginal reference), does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. It is derived from a root signifying “fear” or “trembling,” and may perhaps best be understood as “a fright, a... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Chronicles 14:3 would seem at first sight to imply that he entirely put down the worship. But idolatry, if at one time put down, crept back afterward; or while Asa endeavored to sweep it wholly away, his subjects would not be controlled, but found a means of maintaining it in some places - not per... [ Continue Reading ]
Abijam’s dedications were made after his victory over Jeroboam, and probably consisted of a portion of the spoils which were the fruit of the battle 2 Chronicles 13:16. Asa’s dedications may have been made from the spoils of Zerah the Ethiopian, who attacked him in his eleventh year (2 Chronicles 1... [ Continue Reading ]
Baasha became king of Israel in the third year of Asa 1 Kings 15:33. The petty warfare which ordinarily prevailed on the borders of the two kingdoms continued “all the days” of Asa and Baasha. During the first ten years of Asa’s reign he was little molested 2 Chronicles 14:1, 2 Chronicles 14:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ramah (perhaps “Er-Ram;” marginal reference) was situated halfway between Bethel and Jerusalem. Its distance from Jerusalem was no more than five miles so that its occupation was a menace to that capital. Baasha’s seizure of Ramah implies a previous recovery of the towns taken by Abijam from Jeroboa... [ Continue Reading ]
LEFT - Or, according to another reading, “found.” The wealthy condition of the temple treasury is sufficiently indicated in 1 Kings 15:15. Compare 2 Chronicles 15:18. Asa’s conduct in calling Benhadad to his aid, condemned by the seer Hanani 2 Chronicles 16:7, cannot, of course, be justified; but th... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, “Let there be a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father.”... [ Continue Reading ]
Ijon is probably marked by the ruins called “Tel-Dibbin,” which are situated a few miles northwest of the site of Dan, in a fertile and beautiful little plain which bears the name of “Merj’ Ayun” or “meadow of fountains.” On Abel-beth-maachah, or Abel-maim (“Abel-on-the waters”) and Dan, see the mar... [ Continue Reading ]
Geba, situated opposite to Michmash 1 Samuel 14:5, is almost certainly “Jeba,” which stands picturesquely on the top of its steep terraced hill on the very edge of the “Wady Suweinit.” Its position was thus exceedingly strong; and, as it lay further north than Ramah, Asa may have considered that to... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REST OF ALL THE ACTS OF ASA - A few of these are preserved in 2 Chronicles 15:9; 2 Chronicles 16:7. From the whole narrative of Chronicles we gather that the character of Asa deteriorated as he grew old, and that, while he maintained the worship of Yahweh consistently from first to last, he fail... [ Continue Reading ]
Asa prepared his own sepulchre in his lifetime, as has been so often done by Oriental kings; and his funeral was conducted with great magnificence 2 Chronicles 16:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
The sacred historian now gives an account of the contemporary kings of Israel, beginning with Nadab, who ascended the throne in Asa’s second year, and concluding with Ahab, in whose fourth year Asa died. This narrative occupies him almost to the close of the first Book of Kings. CHRONOLOGY OF KINGD... [ Continue Reading ]
BAASHA ... OF THE HOUSE OF ISSACHAR - It is curious to find Issachar furnishing a king. Tola, its one very undistinguished Judge Judges 10:1, on obtaining office had at once settled himself in the territory of Ephraim. The tribe was as little famous as any that could be named. The “ass crouching bet... [ Continue Reading ]
An exact repetition of 1 Kings 15:16. From the book before him 1 Kings 15:31 the writer extracts a passage which happens to correspond exactly with one which he has already extracted from the “Book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.” He does not object to repeating himself (compare 1 Kings 14:... [ Continue Reading ]