XV. The brief annals still continue, although with some details as to the important reign of Asa. It is evident that the attempt on the part of Israel to subjugate Judah continues, still (see 2 Chronicles 14:9) aided by invasion from Egypt; it is checked by Abijah’s victory (2 Chronicles 13:3), but... [ Continue Reading ]
ABIJAM. — The form of the name given in 2 Chronicles 13, “Abijah,” is probably correct, as having a more distinct significance. The variation here, if not (as some think) a mere false reading, may have been made for the sake of distinction from the son of Jeroboam.... [ Continue Reading ]
MAACHAH, THE DAUGHTER OF ABISHALOM. — The _Abishalom_ of this passage, called, in 2 Chronicles 11:20, _Absalom_, is in all probability the rebel son of David, whose mother (2 Samuel 3:3) was also named Maachah. In 2 Chronicles 11:21, it seems that of all the wives (“eighteen wives and threescore con... [ Continue Reading ]
WALKED IN ALL THE SINS OF HIS FATHER. — This adoption of the idolatries of Rehoboam did not prevent Abijam (see 2 Chronicles 13:4) from representing himself as the champion of the Temple and the priesthood against the rival worship of Jeroboam, and dedicating treasures — perhaps the spoils of his vi... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVE HIM A LAMP IN JERUSALEM. — There is here a brief allusion to the victory recorded in the Chronicles, which obviously was the turning-point in the struggle, saving the “lamp” of the house of David from extinction, and “establishing” Jerusalem in security. “For David’s sake” is, of course, for th... [ Continue Reading ]
SAVE ONLY IN THE MATTER OF URIAH. — In this passage alone do we find this qualification of the praise of David. In the Vatican MS. and other MSS. of the LXX. it is omitted. Possibly it is a marginal note which has crept into the text, or a comment of the compiler of the book on the language of the a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WAS WAR. — In this verse (omitted in the Vatican MS. of the LXX.) the repetition of the notice of Rehoboam, in spite of some artificial explanations, seems inexplicable. Probably there is error in the text.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS MOTHER’S NAME WAS MAACHAH. — Maachah was (see 1 Kings 15:2) the wife of Rehoboam, and, therefore, grandmother of Asa. She appears, however, still to have retained the place of “queen-mother,” to the exclusion of the real mother of the king.... [ Continue Reading ]
ASA DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT. — This reign — happily, a long one — was a turning-point in the history of Judah. Freed from immediate pressure by the victory of Abijah over Jeroboam, Asa resolved — perhaps under the guidance of the prophets Azariah and Hanani (2 Chronicles 15:1; 2 Chronicles 16:7) —... [ Continue Reading ]
AN IDOL IN A GROVE. — The original word for “idol” — peculiar to this passage and its parallel (2 Chronicles 15:16) — appears to signify a “horrible abomination” of some monstrous kind; and instead of “in a grove,” we should read “for an asherah,” the wooden emblem of the Canaanitish deity (on which... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE HIGH PLACES WERE NOT REMOVED. — The record of the Chronicles — contrasting 2 Chronicles 14:5 with 1 Kings 15:17 — indicates with tolerable plainness an attempt at this reform on Asa’s part, which was not carried out successfully. In spite of all experience of the corruptions inevitably resul... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH HIS FATHER HAD DEDICATED. — These seem to be the spoils of his own victory over the Egyptian army and Abijah’s victory over Jeroboam. They replenished for a time the treasury, swept bare in the reign of Rehoboam by the host of Shishak.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS WAR... — According to 1 Kings 15:33, Baasha reigned from the third to the twenty-seventh year of Asa. The phrase, here repeated from 1 Kings 14:30; 1 Kings 15:7, appears simply to mean that the old hostile relations remained, combined with, perhaps, some border war; for it is expressly sai... [ Continue Reading ]
BUILT RAMAH. — Ramah, or properly, the _Ramah_ — the word signifying only “elevation” — is mentioned in Joshua 18:25 as a city of Benjamin, situated (see Jos. Ant. viii. 12, 3) about five miles north of Jerusalem. It is mentioned in Judges 4:5; Judges 19:13; Isaiah 10:29; Jeremiah 40:1, and is ident... [ Continue Reading ]
SENT THEM TO BEN-HADAD. — This shows that Syria, recovering its independence at the fall of Solomon’s empire, was already attaining the formidable power, which so soon threatened to destroy Israel altogether. The Ben-hadad of the text is the grandson of Hezion, who must be the Rezon of 1 Kings 11:23... [ Continue Reading ]
SMOTE. — The portion smitten now, as hereafter in the Assyrian invasion (2 Kings 15:29), is the mountain country near the source of the Jordan, which lay most exposed to the great approach to Israel from the north by “the entering in of Hamath,” through the wide valley between Lebanon and Ante-Leban... [ Continue Reading ]
DWELT IN TIRZAH — that is, returned to his own capital: in the first instance, of course, retiring to meet the new enemy in the north, and then obliged to give up his attempt against Asa. From 1 Kings 20:34, it seems as if, till the time of Ahab, Syria retained its conquests and a certain supremacy... [ Continue Reading ]
THROUGHOUT ALL JUDAH. — Asa was not content to destroy or occupy the hostile fortress, but pushed his own fortifications further on. Geba, named in Joshua 21:17 as a city of the priests, in the territory of Benjamin, the scene of Jonathan’s victory over a Philistine garrison in the days of Samuel (1... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL HIS MIGHT. — This phrase, not used of Rehoboam or Abijah, is significant, indicating the increased power of Judah under Asa. THE CITIES WHICH HE BUILT. — Fortification of cities (see 2 Chronicles 11:5; 2 Chronicles 14:6) was naturally the traditional policy of the kingdom of Judah — small in ex... [ Continue Reading ]
DID EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD. — This constantly-recurring phrase signifies (as, indeed, the context here shows) perseverance in the idolatrous system introduced by Jeroboam.... [ Continue Reading ]
BAASHA, sprung from an obscure tribe, hardly at any time distinguished in the history, and himself, as it would seem (1 Kings 16:2), of low origin in it, is the first of the many military chiefs who by violence or assassination seized upon the throne of Israel. The constant succession of ephemeral d... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING UNTO THE SAYING OF THE LORD. — See 1 Kings 14:10. There seems no reason to suppose that Baasha had any formal mission of vengeance, or that his conspiracy and assassination were due to any motive but his own ambition. The contrary, indeed, may be inferred from the declaration of 1 Kings 16... [ Continue Reading ]