The Expositor's Bible: The Books of Chronicles Part 29

not, as A.R.V., "praise the beauty of holiness."

380 Exod. xiv. 30.

381 With R.V. marg.

382 The identification of the valley of Berachah with the valley of Jehoshaphat, close to Jerusalem and mentioned by Josephus, is a mere theory, quite at variance with the topographical evidence.

383 Kings xxii. 48, 49.

384 2 Chron. xxiv. 24, peculiar to Chronicles.

385 Psalm xx. 7.

386 1 Macc. ii. 35-38.

387 xxi. 2-4, peculiar to Chronicles.

388 Vv. 5-10; cf. 2 Kings viii. 17-22.

389 xxi. 11-19, peculiar to Chronicles.

390 So R.V. marg., with LXX. and Vulgate A.R.V. have "mountains," with Masoretic text.

391 Jer. xxix.; x.x.xvi.

392 Green's _Shorter History_, p. 404.

393 xxii. 1_b_, peculiar to Chronicles.

394 The Hebrew original of the A.R.V., "departed without being desired,"

is as obscure as the English of our versions. The most probable translation is, "He behaved so as to please no one." The A.R.V.

apparently mean that no one regretted his death.

395 We need not discuss in detail the question of Ahaziah's age at his accession. The age of forty-two, given in 2 Chron. xxii. 2, is simply impossible, seeing that his father was only forty years old when he died. The Pes.h.i.+to and Arabic versions have followed 2 Kings viii. 26, and altered forty-two to twenty-two; and the LXX. reads twenty years. But twenty-two years still presents difficulties.

According to this reading, Ahaziah, Jehoram's youngest son, was born when his father was only eighteen, and Jehoram having had several sons before the age of eighteen, had none afterwards.

396 xiii. 7_a_, peculiar to Chronicles.

397 Cf. p. 20.

398 Cf. xxv. 2 with 2 Kings xiv. 4, xxvi. 4 with 2 Kings xv. 4, xxvii. 2 with 2 Kings xv. 34, where similar statements are omitted by the chronicler.

399 2 Kings xii. 9.

400 Exod. x.x.x. 11-16.

401 Neh. x. 32.

402 xxiv. 14-22, peculiar to Chronicles.

403 Curiously enough, Jehoiada's name does not occur in the list of high-priests in 1 Chron. vi. 1-12.

404 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Chron. vii. 19, xii. 5, xiii. 10, xv. 2, xxi.

10, xxviii. 6, xxix. 6, x.x.xiv. 25.

405 Cf. 2 Kings xii. 17, 18, of which this narrative is probably an adaptation.

406 xxv. 5-13, peculiar to Chronicles, except that the account of the war with Edom is expanded from the brief note in Kings. Cf. ver.

11_b_ with 2 Kings xiv. 7.

407 In the phrase "from Samaria to Beth-horon," "Samaria" apparently means the northern kingdom, and not the city, _i.e._, from the borders of Samaria; the chronicler has fallen into the nomenclature of his own age.

408 For the discussion of the chronicler's account of Ahaz see Book III., Chap. VII.

409 So R.V. marg., with LXX., Targum, Syriac and Arabic versions, Talmud, Ras.h.i.+, Kimchi, and some Hebrew ma.n.u.scripts (Bertheau, i. 1).

A.R.V., "had understanding in the visions" (R.V. vision) "of G.o.d."

The difference between the two Hebrew readings is very slight. Vv.

5-20, with the exception of the bare fact of the leprosy are peculiar to Chronicles.

410 Cf. Ezek. xxvi. 9.

411 Pliny, vii. 56 _apud_ Smith's _Bible Dictionary_.

412 Num. xviii. 7; Exod. x.x.x. 7.

413 Kimchi interprets "those days" as meaning "after the death of Jotham."

414 The reference to the wall of Ophel is peculiar to Chronicles: indeed, Ophel is only mentioned in Chronicles and Nehemiah; it was the southern spur of Mount Moriah (Neh. iii. 26, 27). Vv. 3_b_-7 are also peculiar to Chronicles.

415 This is usually understood as Nisan, the first month of the ecclesiastical year.

416 xxix. 3-x.x.xi. 21 (the cleansing of the Temple and accompanying feast, Pa.s.sover, organisation of the priests and Levites) are substantially peculiar to Chronicles, though in a sense they expand 2 Kings xviii. 4-7, because they fulfil the commandments which Jehovah commanded Moses.

417 Exod. vi. 18, 22; Num. iii. 30, mention Elizaphan as a descendant of Kohath.

418 So Strack-Zockler, i. 1.

419 Lev. i. 6.

420 According to 2 Kings xviii. 10, Samaria was not taken till the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign. It is not necessary for an expositor of Chronicles to attempt to harmonise the two accounts.

421 Cf x.x.x. 11, 18.

422 x.x.x. 14; cf. 2 Kings xviii. 4. The chronicler omits the statement that Hezekiah destroyed Moses's brazen serpent, which the people had hitherto wors.h.i.+pped. His readers would not have understood how this corrupt wors.h.i.+p survived the reforms of pious kings and priests who observed the law of Moses.

423 Cf. xxix. 34, x.x.x. 3.

424 Lev. xv. 31.