Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 27:1
Jotham [was] twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also [was] Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
Ch. 2Ch 27:1-6 (cp. 2Ki 15:32-35). Jotham Succeeds
1. he reigned sixteen years ] It is probable that the independent reign of Jotham was shorter than this, indeed if Azariah (Uzziah) be really mentioned (cp. 2Ch 26:1, note) on an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III. of b.c. 740, Jotham’s sole reign lasted probably less than six years, for Ahaz his successor seems to have begin to reign about b.c. 736.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This short chapter runs parallel with 2 Kings (marginal reference), and is taken mainly from the same source or sources which it amplifies.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXVII
Jotham succeeds his father Uzziah, and reigns well, 1, 2.
His buildings, 3, 4.
His successful wars, 5, 6.
General account of his acts, reign, and death, 7-9.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. Jotham was twenty and five yearsold(See on 2Ki 15:32-35).
His mother’s name . . .Jerushah, the daughter of Zadokor descendant of the famouspriest of that name [2Sa 8:17].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jotham was twenty five years old,….
[See comments on 2Ki 15:33].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jotham having ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, reigned altogether in the spirit and power of his father, with the single limitation that he did not go into the sanctuary of Jahve (cf. 2Ch 26:16.). This remark is not found in 2 Kings 15, because there Uzziah’s intrusion into the temple is also omitted. The people still did corruptly (cf. 2Ch 26:16). This refers, indeed, to the continuation of the worship in the high places, but hints also at the deep moral corruption which the prophets of that time censure (cf. especially Isa 2:5., 2Ch 5:7.; Mic 1:5; Mic 2:1.).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
1 Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly. 3 He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. 4 Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. 5 He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third. 6 So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God. 7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8 He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
Verses 1-9
There is not much more related here concerning Jotham than we had before, 2 Ki. 15:32, etc.
I. He reigned well. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; the course of his reign was good, and pleasing to God, whose favour he made his end, and his word his rule, and (which shows that he acted from a good principle) he prepared his ways before the Lord his God (v. 6), that is, he walked circumspectly and with much caution, contrived how to shun that which was evil and compass that which was good. He looked before him, and cast his affairs into such a posture and method as made the regular management of them the more easy. Or he established or fixed his ways before the Lord, that is, he walked steadily and constantly in the way of his duty, was uniform and resolute in it: not like some of those that went before him, who, though they had some good in them, lost their credit by their inconstancy and inconsistency with themselves. They had run well, but something hindered them. It was not so with Jotham. Two things are observed here in his character:-1. What was amiss in his father he amended in himself (v. 2): He did according to all that his father did well and wisely; howbeit he would not imitate him in which he did amiss; for he entered not into the temple of the Lord to burn incense as his father did, but took warning by his fate not to dare so presumptuous a thing. Note, We must not imitate the best men, and those we have the greatest veneration for, any further than they did well; but, on the contrary, their falls, and the injurious consequences of them, must be warnings to us to walk the more circumspectly, that we stumble not at the same stone that they stumbled at. 2. What was amiss in his people he could not prevail to amend: The people did yet corruptly. Perhaps it reflects some blame upon him, that he was wanting in his part towards the reformation of the land. Men may be very good themselves, and yet not have courage and zeal to do what they might do towards the reforming of others. however it certainly reflects a great deal of blame upon the people, that they did not do what they might have done to improve the advantages of so good a reign: they had good instructions given them and a good example set before them, but they would not be reformed; so that even in the reign of their good kings, as well as in that of the bad ones, they weretreasuring up wrath against the day of wrath; for they still did corruptly, and the founder melted in vain.
II. He prospered, and became truly reputable. 1. He built. He began with the gate of the house of the Lord, which he repaired, beautified, and raised. He then fortified the wall of Ophel, and built cities in the mountains of Judah (v. 3, 4), took all possible care for the fortifying of his country and the replenishing of it. 2. He conquered. He prevailed against the Ammonites, who had invaded Judah in Jehoshaphat’s time, ch. 20:1. He triumphed over them, and exacted great contributions from them, v. 5. He became mighty (v. 6) in wealth and power, and influence upon the neighbouring nations, who courted his friendship and feared his displeasure; and this he got by preparing his ways before the Lord his God. The more stedfast we are in religion the more mighty we are both for the resistance of that which is evil and for the performance of that which is good.
III. He finished his course too soon, but finished it with honour. He had the unhappiness to die in the midst of his days; but, to balance that, the happiness not to out-live his reputation, as the last three of his predecessors did. He died when he was but forty-one years of age (v. 8); but his wars and his ways, his wars abroad and his ways at home, were so glorious that they were recorded in the book of the kings of Israel, as well as of the kings of Judah, v. 7. The last words of the chapter are the most melancholy, as they inform us that Ahaz his son, whose character, in all respects, was the reverse of his, reigned in his stead. When the wealth and power with which wise men have done good devolve upon fools, that will do hurt with them, it is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
See note on 2Ki 15:32
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES
IN discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Usshers chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.
The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.
Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah.
SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLE
The Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly (2Ch 1:1).
The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:
First, Solomons kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomons case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomons preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly fathers purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Fathers will for him.
The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the kings personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same. Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God (2Ch 5:14).
It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.
The on-going of this Book reveals Solomons conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2Ch 6:12). That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,
O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:
Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.
Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me (2Ch 6:14-16).
Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David (2Ch 6:17).
Then follows an appeal that Gods eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.
Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:
Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:
Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive (2Ch 6:29-30).
These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant (2Ch 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.
The further text records Solomons fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomons wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.
Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,
It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:
Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.
Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God (2Ch 9:5-8).
The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomons annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earths lesser lords.
Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (2Ch 9:29-31).
It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history. How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons. His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey.
REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION
The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboams tyrannical spirit split the kingdom. When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee (2Ch 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the peoples friend. Their hope was in vain.
The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,
My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (2Ch 10:14).
It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous Hundred Year War of history.
Israel and Judahblood brothersbecame the bitterest of enemies. For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judahs history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.
The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2Ch 11:14-15). When God is once put away, when Gods priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.
Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.
The man of many favors may forget God.
When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (2Ch 12:1).
What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboams failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (2Ch 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed thisto begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of Gods adversary.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAH
Chapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade. In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it. Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.
The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdoms glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judahs coursedecline.
Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judahs strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.
The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, Like people, like priest. We can paraphrase that, Like princes, like people. The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature. Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place. The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.
The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.
There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.
When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere Gods strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11).
Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pro 28:13).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] This chapter is par. with 2Ki. 15:32-38, and taken mainly from the same source or sources. Ampler than narrative in Kings, and given with certain religious reflections after manner of writer (cf. Speak. Com.). Jothams character (2Ch. 27:1-2), Jothams buildings and wars (2Ch. 27:3-6), Jothams death and successor (2Ch. 27:7-9).
2Ch. 27:1-2.J.s character. Right, better than his father, as he did not intrude into temple. 2Ch. 27:2. Corruptly, which frustrated his efforts to reform (cf. 2Ki. 15:35). For general character of corruption, see Isaiah 1-5.
2Ch. 27:3-6.J.s conduct. Built, i.e., repaired. High gate, the north hill of temple. Ophel, i.e., the mound or eminence on south-eastern slope of temple hill. Much to defend Jerusalem in every direction. 2Ch. 27:4. Mountains, hill tract of Judah. Castles (2Ch. 18:12), forts to check invaders. Ammon, restless under the yoke of Uzziah (2Ch. 26:8), revolted against Jotham. Revolt repressed, and higher tribute exacted. 2Ch. 27:6. Prepared, marg. established; directed, disposed his ways aright (cf. Pro. 21:29).
2Ch. 27:7-9.J.s death. Wars besides with Ammon, in later years with Rezin and Pekah (cf. 2Ki. 15:37). City, i.e., with his fathers (2Ki. 15:38), in the sepulchre of the kings.
HOMILETICS
JOTHAMS PROSPEROUS REIGN.2Ch. 27:1-8
I. He began by imitating his father in good, not evil ways. Amaziah considered a good king in the greater portion of his reign, though guilty of two great sins (cf. 2Ki. 14:3 and 2Ch. 25:2; 2Ch. 25:14; 2Ch. 25:16). J. imitated his father in all respects, except impious usurpation of priestly office. Far more easy to copy bad than good deeds. But J. took warning from his fathers folly and punishment, acted a wise part, and displayed a piety singular and conspicuous among the people who did corruptly.
II. He became powerful by the adoption of right measures. He detected the dangers, and desired the welfare of his kingdom.
1. His military measures. He strengthened Jerusalem, fortified country places, and repressed revolting nations. Wise to fortify against attack and guard weak places in character, churches, and kingdoms.
2. In religious measures. He prepared his ways before the Lord his God (2Ch. 27:6). Earnest and whole-hearted in piety. Thoughts fixed on God, and desired to please him in life. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. This leads to power and prosperity, for both come from God. The more steadfast in religion, the more able to resist evil, perform good, and influence others.
PREPARATION AND STRENGTH.2Ch. 27:6
Here we get an insight into Jothams purpose and ways. He prepared his ways, exercised forethought, arrangement, and prayer.
I. All Strength is gained by preparation. Not the result of accident or negligence. Strength of body and mind, strength of character and position, result from exercise, discipline, and growth. The virtue of the soil, the events of Providence, the creation of the world, and the incarnation of Christ after long and silent preparation.
II. All preparation must be in recognition of God. This invests all acts with influence, and gives them religious character. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field.
1. In recognition of Gods supremacy. Before the Lord. God sovereign and supreme Ruler. All power in his hands, all events under his control.
2. In covenant with His mercy. Before the Lord thy God. Conscious of Gods presence and love; a sense of interest and sonship. Loving appropriation and humble dependence.
III. When a person thus prepares his ways before God, he will become mighty. J. became mighty because he prepared his way. Preparations never vain; rashness and haste lead to failure and misfortune. Strength and success gained by fixed resolve, entire consecration, and devout preparation. Mighty in prayer, influence for good given before God; required in Christian effort and in a sinful world. Mighty through God.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
2Ch. 27:2. According to all that his father Uzziah did. One single act of impiety destroys not general good character of his reign [Speak. Com.]. People did corruptly, civil injustice and social cruelty; laborious service and empty ritual; foreign oppression and providential misery (cf. Isaiah 1-5). Jotham a witness for God in prevalent corruption and national faithlessness.
2Ch. 27:1-9. Jothams life. His mothers name and relations. His age at succession (2Ch. 27:1). His great achievements: built cities, conquered enemies, and became mighty in fame, wealth, and power. His death a lamentation, and his son an unworthy successor. Wrought a woeful change, being optimi patris pessimus filius [Trapp].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
LESSON TWENTY-TWO 2729
THE REIGN OF JOTHAM. AHAZ AND HIS ALLIES.
HEZEKIAH, RELIGIOUS REFORMER.
12. THE REIGN OF JOTHAM. (Chapter 27)
INTRODUCTION
Jotham avoided Gods house and failed as king in Judah. The door was opened for Ahaz wicked reign and terrible idolatry. The Damascus altar had no place in Jerusalem. Times were ripe for Hezekiah, one of Judahs most respected kings.
TEXT
2Ch. 27:1. Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. 2. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done: howbeit he entered not into the temple of Jehovah. And the people did yet corruptly. 3. He built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. 4. Moreover he built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. 5. He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year a hundred talents of silver and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render unto him, in the second year also, and in the third. 6. So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his Ways before Jehovah his God. 7. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
PARAPHRASE
2Ch. 27:1. Jotham was twenty-five years old at the time he became king, and he reigned sixteen years, in Jerusalem. His mother was Jerushah, daughter of Zadok. 2. He followed the generally good example of his father Uzziahwho had, however, sinned by invading the Templebut even so his people became very corrupt. 3. He built the Upper Gate of the Temple, and also did extensive rebuilding of the walls on the hill where the Temple was situated. 4. And he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and erected fortresses and towers on the wooded hills. 5. His war against the Ammonites was successful, so that for the next three years he received from them an annual tribute of $200,000 in silver, 10,000 sacks of wheat, and 10,000 sacks of barley. 6. King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to follow the path of the Lord his God. 7. The remainder of his history, including his wars and other activities, is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 8. In summary, then, he was twenty-five years old when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years, in Jerusalem. 9. When he died, he was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Ahaz became the new king.
COMMENTARY
Because of Uzziahs leprosy, Jothan had considerable experience in government before he was installed as king of Judah. At age twenty-five he became king in his own right and he held this high office for sixteen years. Nothing more is known about his mother, Jerushah, or her family. In the latter years of Uzziahs reign the people of Judah forsook Jehovah. Jotham came to the throne at a time of spiritual crisis. He was able to provide responsible leadership within certain limits. Whereas Uzziah had entered the Temple to burn incense like a priest, Jotham did not enter the temple of Jehovah. Even though he led his people back toward God, there was an alienation in that he did not frequent Jehovahs Temple. This should be contrasted with Solomons early love for Gods House. Generally, the people of Judah were in desperate need of a great spiritual revival.
Jotham concerned himself with certain building improvements in Jerusalem such as the upper gate. This has been described as a gate leading from the kings palace to the court of priests at the Temple. Ophel means hill or mound and was located in the southeast sector of Jerusalem below the Temple mount. In the regions of Judah he built other fortifications. The ancient rivalry between Judah and the Ammonites continued. Jotham was able to force the Ammonites to pay considerable tribute in the form of wheat and barley. The measure used here was the cor which amounted to about three and one-half quarts. Judah was able to collect ten thousand measures each of wheat and barley through each of three succeeding years. In addition, Judah collected one hundred talents of silver each year. The silver talent may be valued at about two thousand dollars. Having considered Jothams achievements, the historian attributed his success to the fact that the king ordered his ways before Jehovah. This brief account is a summary of Jothams life and times. There were other failures, successes, wars. His biography became a part of the significant history of his people. He was accorded a burial with full honors and was succeeded on the throne by Ahaz, his son.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXVII.
REIGN OF JOTHAM. (Comp. 2Ki. 15:32-38.)
LENGTH AND CHARACTER OF THE REIGN.
PUBLIC WORKS (2Ch. 27:1-4).
(1) Jotham was twenty and five years old.Word for word as 2Ki. 15:33, only adding Jotham.
Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.Perhaps the high priest Zadok of 1Ch. 6:12. (Comp. 2Ch. 22:11.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Reign of Jotham.
v. 1. Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. v. 2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did, v. 3. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, v. 4. Moreover, he built cities in the mountains of Judah; and in the forests, v. 5. He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, v. 6. So Jotham became mighty, v. 7. Now, the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, v. 8. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
v. 9. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter of nine verses is paralleled by the seven verses of 2Ki 15:32-38. It consists of personal particulars respecting Jotham (2Ki 15:1, 2Ki 15:2); his building and his wars (2Ki 15:3-6); a reference to his further doings (2Ki 15:7); an exact repetition of a part of the first verse (2Ki 15:8); his death, burial, and. successor (2Ki 15:9).
2Ch 27:1
Jerushah. This name in the parallel is spelt with a final aleph instead of he. Nothing else is known of Jerushah, nor of her father Zadok.
2Ch 27:2
Howbeit. This word purports to render the Hebrew , which might find a more telling reproduction in such a phrase as “and moreover.” It has been said, wherein his father did right, so did he; and to his clear advantage, where his father went wrong, he did not. The people did yet corruptly. The parallel, in its verse 35, specifies in what this consisted, viz. that they continued the high places, burning incense and sacrificing at them. The early chapters of Isaiah depict forcibly the extent of this national apostasy, and the heinous offensiveness of it in the Divine sight.
2Ch 27:3
The high gate. In the parallel, rendered in the Authorized Version the “higher” gate, the Hebrew () being the same in both places. The Revised Version shows “upper gate” in both places. It was probably the gate which led from the palace to the temple’s outer court (see 2Ch 23:20, and note there). On the wall of Ophel; Hebrew, ; i.e. the ophel, which may be Englished “the swelling ground.” It was the extreme south end of the spur which gradually narrowed southward, and which was the continuation of the Bezetha hill, bounded by the brook Kedron on the east, and the Tyropceon on the west. This extreme south part called the Ophel sank into the bounding valleys to the Kedron precipitously and to the Tyropeon gradually. Pp. 328-335 of Condor’s ‘Handbook’ (2nd edit.), and specially pp. 332-334, well repay a thorough study. A ditch was cut across the narrowest part of the ridge, which separated the temple hill itself from the Bezetha hill. In these parts fortifications were built, and no doubt to such it is our text calls attention.
2Ch 27:4
The mountains of Judah; Hebrew, ; Revised Version, hill country of Judah, the Hebrew text being in the singular number (compare particularly Jos 9:1, where the Har is evidently placed in contrast with the Shefelah). Castles; Hebrew, (so 2Ch 17:12). The meaning is that he built forts (Isa 2:15; Hos 8:14).
2Ch 27:5
He fought the King of the Ammonites. No allusion is made to the matter of this verse in the parallel, which contains a statement of the Syrian Rezin’s attack or threatened invasion of Judah; as well as Pekah’s, son of Remaliah King of Israel. Of the Ammonites’ defeat by Uzziah we have just heard (foregoing chapter, 2Ch 27:8). A general statement is all that is made there of the gifts or tribute, they then had to pay. The present tribute was a heavy payment, and enforced for three, years. The “wheat” and “barley,” in which payment was largely made bespeak the fertile arable quality of the Ammonite land, and this is noticed by travellers to the present day.
2Ch 27:6
The virtue of the reflection of this verse is apparent. Prepared; Hebrew, ; Revised Version, ordered; with some others (such as “set straight,” etc.), a good rendering in keeping with other Old Testament renderings of words betokening moral habitude.
2Ch 27:7
All his wars (see note on 2Ch 27:5, and parallel, verse 37). The book of the kings of Israel and Judah. Note carefully the parallel, verse 36, and also 2Ch 27:6 of same chapter, entries of Judah kings, and comp. peps. 11, 15, 21, 26, 31 of same chapter. (2Ki 15:1-38.), entries of Israel kings.
2Ch 27:8
This verse is identical with so much of 2Ch 27:1 as has to do with same subject; that it is no mere careless repeated insertion, however, is evidenced by the name Jotham in that verse, in the place occupied by was in this verse.
HOMILETICS
2Ch 27:1-9
The blameless reign of a son who followed all that was good in a father’s example, and took warning of what was wrong in it.
The preacher may take occasion, from the apparently scant contents of this chapter, to enlarge on the general subject of example as a force in human life, pointing out its strong points and its weaker side; what is requisite to give it a steady and equable influence, and how there is only one perfect Examplean Example always and in all things and by all worthy to be followed. Point may be given to the subject, as based on this chapter, by observing how it reminds us that
I. NO HUMAN EXAMPLE CAN BE WORTHY TO BE FOLLOWED AND COPIED IN EVERY RESPECT. The most filial son may not look to the wisest, kindest, and most religious father as an absolutely safe guide and model in everything; and so, through the whole range and operation of the relationships, and the influences in them for good even, which affect our character and are prone to dominate our life.
II. THE EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHOM WE BEST LOVEOF GREAT MEN, OF THE SAINTLIEST–KNOWN CHARACTERS, OF THOSE WHOM WE DESERVEDLY ADMIRE AND VENERATEMUST NOT BE MADE ANY SLAVISH MODEL, MUCH LESS PERVERTED INTO AN IDOLATROUS ONE. Nay, how very common it is, in such cases, to see that errors, defects, peculiarities, mannerisms, are what are copied first, while the weightier qualities and objects of imitation are overlooked! As if we imitate perfectly our human model, much is still wanting of Divine perfection, and which in our measure it is quite possible to incorporate; so, if we imitate slavishly, we are putting in what had better be left cut, and are often caught putting it in, even at the expense of omitting the worthier things.
III. HUMAN EXAMPLE GIVES THE HELP OF WARMTH, SYMPATHY, AND AN ENCOURAGING INDUCEMENT TO ATTEMPT WHAT WE KNOW FROM IT THAT OTHERS HAVE DONE OR ATTAINED. It offers our thought and our moral nature a stepping-stone; it leads us on by the analogy to take the advantage of higher endeavour and of a higher model.
IV. FOR THE DISCRIMINATION ABSOLUTELY NEEDED, WHEN WE ARE FOLLOWING HUMAN EXAMPLES, SINCERE ENDEAVOUR, CONSCIENTIOUS THOUGHT, AND HUMBLE PRAYER WILL DO VERY MUCH TO FIT US. As in so much else these three moderating and directing forces reap God’s blessing and gain safe practical results, so assuredly they will here, in what is a delicate grace to bloom and flourish in any circumstances, viz. that of discrimination. Jotham was made wise in this respect above many others, and his brief but very expressive and unique biography is therefore written without one single reproach or blot.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
2Ch 27:1, 2Ch 27:2
Uzziah and Jotham, father and son.
From the slight materials we have here, and those still more scanty in the Book of Kings, we may glean
I. THAT THE BEST PART OF UZZIAH‘S FORTUNE WAS IN HIS FATHERHOOD. He did, indeed, enjoy a very good estate; the “lines fell to him in pleasant places, and he had a goodly heritage.” He had the highest position in the land, power, wealth, a large and noble sphere for great natural ability and honourable ambition (2Ch 26:6-15). But more precious than all of these to the king’s heart, we may be sure, was the possession of a true, loyal, godly son and successor. That which touches us in our home affections either stirs within us the deepest and purest joy or awakens the profoundest and most poignant grief. An unworthy son, a “thankless child,” an heir who is likely to overturn all that we have laboriously built up, will make the very sweetest enjoyments and the fairest earthly possessions to lose ill their charm and be of no account to us. But such a son as Jotham is to his father the crown of prosperity and the comfort of adversity. From royal cares the king goes home to find, in conjugal and in filial affection, a contentment and a peace, an exhilaration and a joy, which no glittering gewgaws and no obsequious attentions are able to command. We do not know how highly Uzziah prized the virtue and the attachment of his son during his earlier and happier years, but we may be well assured that, when the hand of God was upon him, and he was separated from the society of men, he found in Jotham’s regency and in his filial sympathy a priceless mitigation to his loss, an invaluable treasure in his loneliness and his decline. Parents may think that their professional or household duties make it impossible for them to afford time for the teaching and training of their children, for the culture of their Christian character; but they ought to know that, whatever their other claims may be, they cannot afford to neglect their parental duty. If they do neglect it, they will leave undone that which will make them immeasurably poorer than they might become a few years further on.
II. THAT THE BEST PART OF JOTHAM‘S SUCCESSION WAS HIS FATHER‘S CHARACTER. He inherited great things from his father, the king; but from his father, the servant of Jehovah, he gained one that outweighed them allthe influence for good of a godly man. He “did what was right according to all that his father did.” It was very largely, indeed, to his father’s example that he owed his own character for piety and purity. And what is there in the most splendid surroundings, or in the most attractive positions, that is to be compared with that? They will perish, but that will endure; they will soon lose their charm, but it will always he precious beyond all price; they are relatively, but that is intrinsically and eternally, valuable. We may not have to thank our parents for a fortune or a dowryit matters little; we may have to thank them for a bright and beautiful examplethat matters much, indeed everything.
III. THAT JOTHAM LEARNT THE LESSON WHICH THE DIVINE FATHER TAUGHT, “Howbeit he entered not [profanely and intrusively] into the temple of the Lord.” God rebuked his father, Uzziah, for this flagrant transgression, rebuking at the same time his pride of heart, his spiritual decline (see homily on 2Ch 26:16-21, “A clouded close”). Doubtless Uzziah himself understood the meaning of that heavy blow, and bowed his heart beneath it; he “was in subjection to the Father of spirits, and lived.” In that lingering death of leprosy he found life in penitence and in return to God. Jotham, his son, also learnt the lesson; and, instead of giving way to haughtiness of heart in the days when he was “mighty” (2Ch 27:6), he retained his integrity before the Lord.
1. We may not plead our father’s deficiencies, excesses, or disobediences as an excuse for our own. If they erred or sinned, they also suffered for their error, for their guilt. And their experience should be a warning which we should heed, and not an example which we foolishly follow.
2. We should give God heartfelt thanks for all the gracious influences which come to us in our home-life, and regard them as of the very best gifts that come from his Divine hand.
3. We should have it as a sacred and honourable ambition to confirm (and not to destroy) the work of those who went before us. If we do thus live, our fathers will be living on in us and through us, and if we cannot immortalize their name, we can perpetuate their influence.
4. We may hope that such filial devotedness will be rewarded by parental rejoicing in those whom we shall leave behind, to whom we shall commit the fruit of our labour.C.
2Ch 27:1-9
Features of an honourable life: Jotham.
But little of Jotham’s reign is recorded in Scripture, and his name is seldom on our lips. But he was a man of worth and wisdom; and, considering the comparative brevity of his life, we may say that he contributed much to his country. We learn from the account in the Second Book of Kings (2Ki 15:5)
I. THAT HE SERVED A USEFUL APPRENTICESHIP. We find that, for some time during his father’s illness, he, “the king’s son, was over the house, judging the people of the land.” This was an admirable arrangement for the country and for the young prince; for it had the advantage (which the son could not fail to obtain) of the experience of Uzziah; and he was learning the great art of ruling, while his responsibility was shared by one much wiser and stronger than he. It is an excellent thing for the you-,g, in every sphere, to be placed where they can be gathering wisdom before they carry the heavy burden of a weighty responsibility.
II. THAT HE FOLLOWED IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF A WISE AND GOOD MAN. (2Ch 27:2.) (See previous homily on “Uzziah and Jotham, father and son.”)
III. THAT HE WORKED IN A WISE DIRECTIONFROM WITHIN OUTWARD. First, “he built the high gate” of the temple (2Ch 27:3); that was beginning at the very centre, at “the house of the Lord,” which was morally, if not geographically, the central spot in the kingdom. Then he made some additions to the wall of Jerusalem (2Ch 27:3). Then, moving outward, he built fortified cities in the mountains, and castles in the forests of Judah. And. then, going further afield, he warred with Ammon, and compelled it to pay tribute (2Ch 27:5). This is the true order. Let solicitude and activity begin at the centre; let them begin at the very centreat a man’s own heart and character; let them move outwardto those in the home circle, to the kindred, to the Church; and then to those still further awayto fellow-countrymen, to fellow-men everywhere. A circumscribed activity is altogether a mistake; but we must begin with ourselves, becoming right at heart, and then we may and should move outward in our sympathies and our endeavours.
IV. THAT HE ATTAINED GREAT POWER BY MAINTAINING HIS GODLY CHARACTER. (2Ch 27:6.) (See succeeding homily.)
V. THAT HIS LIFE WAS DARKENED BY MANY SHADOWS AS WELL AS BRIGHTENED BY MANY BLESSINGS.
1. He could not effect all the reforms he would have liked to carry out, and he had to witness some evil-doings which must have grieved his spirit. “The people did yet corruptly” (2Ch 27:2).
2. Foreign invasion began to threaten the kingdom (1Ki 15:1-34 :37).
3. He found himself sick unto death at an age (forty-one) when he might have expected to do great things, and to be much to the people whom he ruled. It was an honourable and useful life that Jotham lived; one to be remembered and to be followed in its salient features. Like him
(1) we should see that we inherit that which is the best from our fathers;
(2) pursue the right steadfastly, without swerving, even to the end;
(3) beginning at home, we should extend our influence as far as we can send it;
(4) be prepared to lay down our weapons in the midst of our days. And how much better to die, as Jotham did, leading all men to wish that he had lived longer, than, as so many others have done, compelling their best friends to wish that they had died sooner! It matters little when the night of death comes; but it matters much that, during the day of life, we do our work well and bear our burden with a brave and patient heart.C.
2Ch 27:6
The accumulation of spiritual power.
“So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God;” or, because “he made his ways firm before Jahveh.” Whatever may be the exact rendering of the passage, and whatever may be the precise shade of thought intended to be conveyed, it is clear that Jotham’s might or his strength in the kingdom is referred to his continuance in the service of the Lord. And thence we gain the truth that true power is to be sought and found in permanent piety, in walking with an unfaltering step in the ways of Divine wisdom and of human obedience. Power of the truest and highest kind is not the endowment of a moment; it is not a suddenly acquired possession; it is a growth, an accumulation; it is the “long result ‘ of a faithful service. It is
I. THE COMBINATION OF MANY CHRISTIAN VIRTUES. AS the “mighty” swordsman is the man who is strong at all points of attack and defence; as the “mighty” speaker is he who has all possible qualifications for interesting, convincing, and persuading men; so the “mighty” man of God is he who has acquired all the various excellences which we are able to secure. “Giving all diligence,” we are” to add to our faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance,” etc. (2Pe 1:5, 2Pe 1:6). “Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report,” we are to think upon and, of course, to pursue and to acquire. We are to “build ourselves up on our holy faith.” And building up is a work that is not done in a day nor in a year. It is a Work of time. And the strong character thus formed is the accumulated result of many spiritual activities, protracted over many years.
II. THE WORK OF TIME IN MANY PARTICULARS. No man can be a mighty man, in a spiritual sense, who is not:
1. A large possessor of Divine wisdom. A superficial. knowledge of Divine truth may serve for a while in simpler and subordinate positions; but he who occupies an important post, to which large responsibilities and delicate duties belong, must be furnished with a large measure of spiritual sagacity. And this can only be gained by serving the Lord for many years and in many ways. It is the acquisition of one whose “ways have been firm before Jehovah;” who has been living before God, and learning of him from year to year, from period to period.
2. A man of much self-command. A hasty or impulsive man is necessarily a weak man. Only those who can control themselves can command their fellows or direct affairs. Patience, self-possession, the ruling of our own spiritthis is an essential condition of all real strength; and this, again, is the work of long-continued struggle and discipline. It is the harvest of strenuous effort and of earnest prayer; it is a steady, spiritual accumulation.
3. One that has acquired skill and strength in exercise and activity. No man can do a thing really well till he has first done it imperfectly and tentatively. Excellency is always the fruit of practice, of patient, continuous endeavour. And here, again, is gradual acquisition or accumulation.
4. One that enjoys a good measure of esteem. It is the man of whom we say, “We know the proof of him;” the man who has approved himself in many a field of labour and in many a flood of trial; to whose words we listen, whose will we obey, whom we permit to guide and rule us. And, of all things, esteem is the product of consistency and beauty in life, of much walking “in the ways of Jehovah.”
III. A GOAL TO BE PURSUED AND ATTAINED. It is true that power, or might, is, to some extent, an endowment; it is a direct gift of God. But it is far from being wholly so. In the kingdom, large or small, over which we are placed, we may “become mighty;” we may rise to influence; we may make our mark, which will not soon, if ever, be erased.
(1) By a thorough consecration of ourselves to Jesus Christ and his cause;
(2) by consistency and excellencyby blamelessness and beauty of life and spirit;
(3) by earnestness of purpose and endeavour;
(4) by prayer for Divine communications (Eph 3:16; Col 1:11);we also may “become mighty” to bear our witness, to overcome our foes, to do our work before we die.C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW
2Ch 27:1-9
A brief record of a bright reign.
I. JOTHAM, A GOOD MAN.
1. Of honourable parentage.
(1) His father Uzziah, though guilty in his lifetime of a great sin (2Ch 26:16), and dying under a cloud (2Ch 26:21), was essentially a sincere worshipper of Jehovah. Good men may commit acts of wickedness, from the temporal consequences of which they cannot, in their lifetime, shake themselves free, (e.g. Moses, Jacob, David); yet are their characters and standing before God not to be judged by these, but by the whole course of their earthly careers.
(2) His mother Jerushah, a native of Jerusalem (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 9.11. 2), and the daughter of Zadokif this was the high priest mentioned in 1Ch 6:53 (Bertheau)was probably a woman of piety. Incalculable is the influence of mothers in determining the characters of sons (e.g. Jochebed, Eunice, Monica, Susanna Wesley).
2. Of excellent character.
(1) He followed in his father’s steps in so far as these were good (1Ch 6:2), which was all he was warranted to do (Act 4:19). Religion doubly influential upon the young when recommended by the example of devout fathers and mothers. Who would make others good, himself must be good. Irreligious parents not likely to succeed in the godly upbringing of their children.
(2) He avoided the mistake his father had committed (1Ch 6:2). Mistakes of ourselves or others not actions to be repeated or patterns to be copied, but beacons to be observed and paths to be shunned. Whether, had Uzziah not been “stricken of the Lord,” but permitted to assume the priest’s office, Jotham would have discontinued the practice as an unwarrantable intrusion into a province that belonged not to kings, may be doubtful; it was to his credit that he was able to interpret the lesson of God’s judgment on his parent, and meekly acquiesce in the same (Psa 119:75, Psa 119:120).
(3) He persevered in the right way in spite of the sinful practices of his people. These “did corruptly” (1Ch 6:2), i.e. worshipped idols, sacrificed, and burnt incense in the high places (2Ki 15:32); and if the representations of the prophets may be credited, were sunk in deplorable immorality (Isa 2:5, etc.; Isa 5:7, etc.; Mic 1:5; Mic 2:1, etc.). Cf. the phrase used of the Babylonian tower-builders on the monuments: “Babylon corruptly to sin went” (‘Records,’ etc; 7.131). Jotham stood alone, or nearly so, in an extremely degenerate age; like Noah in the antediluvian world (Gen 7:1), Lot in Sodom (2Pe 2:8), and Daniel in Babylon (Dan 6:13); which heightens one’s idea of both the nobility of his character and the strength of his piety. It requires a strong man, intellectually and morally, to be singular, and especially to be good, when goodness is unpopular and immorality with irreligion holds the field. “This king was not defective in any virtue, but was religious towards God and righteous towards men” (Josephus).
II. JOTHAM SUCCESSFUL KING.
1. The duration of his success. Throughout his entire reign of sixteen years. If his father’s reign was longer and more brilliant, his was more symmetrical and complete. If he was a more obscure monarch than his father, he was probably as good a man.
2. The nature of his success.
(1) His buildings were important.
(a) He restored and beautified the upper gate of the temple (verse 3), i.e. the northern gate, which led into the inner court (Eze 8:3, Eze 8:5, Eze 8:14), and was called “upper” probably because it stood upon higher ground than the gates upon the south (Eze 9:2). His reason for such architectural ornamentation most likely was, either that it formed the principal entrance to the temple (Bertheau), or that there the burnt offerings were washed; cf. Eze 40:38 (Bahr). In beginning with the temple, Jotham observed the right order; first the things of God, and then those of man; first religion, and then business; first the claims of Heaven, and then those of earth.
(b) He added to the city fortifications. “On the wall of Ophel,” which ran along the southern slope of the temple hill and joined the temple wall at the south-eastern corner, at the turning of the wall (2Ch 26:9), where his father before him had raised erections, “he built much.” As Solomon’s palace, on the southern slope, was considerably lower than the temple, Jotham may have had a good deal of building.
(c) “In the mountains of Judah,” on the military roads, he erected fortified cities or garrisons; and in the forests or wooded hills, where such “cities” could not be placed, he constructed” castles and towers” (Eze 40:4). Thus, while like a good man he honoured God, like a prudent sovereign he looked well to the safety of his kingdom.
(2) His wars were victorious. “He fought with the Ammonites, and prevailed against them” (Eze 40:5), compelling them to resume payment of the tribute which Uzziah had imposed upon them (2Ch 26:8), but which they had discontinued. If, after two payments, the tribute (“a hundred talents of silver,” equal to 50,000, with “ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley”) ceased, this was probably due to the incursions of Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel (2Ki 15:37) having enabled them to successfully assert their independence. Probably in close connection with this subjection of the Ammonites was his annexation to the kingdom of Judah of the trans-Jordanic tribe of Gad, of whose population he made a registration according to their genealogies, doubtless for the purpose of imposing an assessment (1Ch 5:17).
(3) His reputation was high. If barely realizing the ideal of uprightness or perfection contained in his name (Jotham, equivalent to “Jehovah” is, “upright,” or” perfect),” he yet maintained an untarnished escutcheon. Though a man s funeral cannot always be accepted as an index to his moral excellence (Luk 16:22), yet the circumstance that when Jotham died he was interred in the royal mausoleum, “in the city of David,” was a proof he had done nothing to forfeit the good opinion of his subjects. Contrast the burials of Joash (2Ch 24:25), of Uzziah (2Ch 26:23), and of Ahaz (2Ch 27:1-9 :27).
3. The explanation of his succces. Neither the wealth of his kingdom, which was “full of silver and gold” (Isa 2:7), nor the size of his army, “The land [in his day] was also full of horses, neither was there any end of chariots” (Isa 2:7), nor the splendour of his merchant navy, which consisted of ships of Tarshish (Isa 2:16), accounted for the remarkable prosperity of this sovereign’s reign. If, on the one hand, these were rather signs and results of the flourishing condition of the nation; on the other hand, they were ominous of, and contributory to, the nation’s decay. Not only did these in no way diminish, but, on the contrary, fostered and increased the worst characteristics of the peoplea love of luxury, which evinced itself amongst the women in a passion for finery and dress (Isa 3:16-24), amongst the men in licentiousness and oppression, witchcraft and soothsaying (Isa 2:6; Isa 3:9), amongst both in haughtiness and self-conceit (Isa 2:17), a thirst for war (Isa 2:7), and an infatuation for idolatry (Isa 2:8). The real secret of the kingdom’s prosperity lay in the piety of its king. Judah was blessed because Jotham “prepared [or, ‘ordered’] his ways before the Lord”a clear case of imputation of merit and of vicarious blessing. Jot. ham systematically and studiously guided his personal and official actions by a regard to the Divine Law, and Jehovah caused him to become mighty. Them that honour me I will honour” (1Sa 2:30). No piety likely to he either deep or permanent that does not spring from well-considered choice and lead to scrupulous obedience. A good man may pray, “Order my steps in thy Word” (Psa 119:133), knowing that “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer 10:23), and that a good man’s steps are ordered by the Lord (Psa 37:23); if a truly good man, he will try to answer his own prayer (Psa 101:2), in doing which he has God’s encouragement (Psa 50:23). Rehoboam prepared neither his heart nor his way, and consequently went astray (2Ch 12:14).
LESSONS.
1. The best men are often the least known.
2. A life short in years may be long in influence.
3. The danger of inferring inward stability from outward prosperity.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
h. Joash: the Prophet Zechariah Son of Jehoiada.Ch. 24
. Reign of Joash under the Guidance of Jehoiada: Repair of the Temple: 2Ch 24:1-14
2Ch 24:1.Joash was seven years old when he became king; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. 2And Joash did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of 3Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada chose for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters.
4And it came to pass after this that it was in the heart of Joash to renew the house of the Lord. 5And he gathered the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out into the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and hasten ye the matter: but the Levites hastened it not. 6And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said unto him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of the Lord, and of the 7congregation of Israel, for the tent of witness? For Athaliah the wicked doer [ and] her sons1 have broken up the house of God, and bestowed all the 8consecrated things of the house of the Lord upon Baalim. And the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it without at the gate of the 9house of the Lord. And they proclaimed in Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the Lord the tax of Moses the servant of God upon Israel in the wilder ness. 10And all the princes and all the people were glad, and they brought 11and cast into the chest, till it was full. And at the time when the chest was brought to the survey of the king by the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, then went the kings scribe and the officer of the head priest and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again: thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. 12And the king and Jehoiada gave it to the work-master of the service of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to renew the house of the Lord, and also smiths in iron and brass to repair the house of the Lord. 13And the workmen wrought, and furtherance was given to the work by their hand: and they set the house of God in its form, and strengthened it. 14And when they had finished, they brought before the king and Jehoiada the rest of the money, and they made of it vessels for the house of the lord, vessels for ministering and offering, and cups, and vessels of gold and silver: and they offered burnt-offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.
. Death of Jehoiada: Stoning of his Son, the Prophet Zechariah: 2Ch 24:15-22
15And Jehoiada was old and full of days, and he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died. 16And they buried him in the city of David with the kings; for he had done good in Israel, and for God and His 17house. And after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and bowed down before the king: then the king hearkened unto them. 18And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their 19trespass. And he sent prophets among them, to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, and they did not give ear. 20And the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest2; and he stood up before the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, and do not prosper? for ye have forsaken the Lord, and He has forsaken you. 21And they conspired against him, and stoned him by command of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. 22And Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada had done to him, and slew his son: and when he died, he said, The Lord shall see and require.
. Distress of Joash by the Syrians, and his End: 2Ch 24:23-27
23And it came to pass in the course of a year, that the host of Syria came up against him; and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people out of the people,3 and sent all the spoil of them 24unto the king to Damascus.4 For the host of Syria came with few men; and the Lord gave into their hand a very great host, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers: and they executed judgments upon Joash. 25And when they went from him, for they left him with many wounds, his servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons5 of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the 26city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. And these were the conspirators against him: Zabad son of Shimath the Ammonitess, 27and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabitess. And his sons, and the greatness6 of the burden upon him, and the building of the house of God, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the Kings: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.
i. Amaziah.Ch. 25
. Duration of his Reign, and its Spirit: 2Ch 25:1-4
2Ch 25:1.Amaziah became king when twenty and five years old; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, but 3not with undivided heart. And it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he slew his servants who smote the king his father. 4But he put not their sons to death, but as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, as the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the sons, nor shall the sons die for the fathers; but every one shall die for his own sin.
. The Conquest of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt: 2Ch 25:5-13
5And Amaziah gathered Judah, and arranged them by father-houses, by captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, for all Judah and Benjamin: and he mustered them from twenty years old and upwards, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, going out to war, holding spear and 6shield. And he hired out of Israel a hundred thousand mighty men of valour 7for a hundred talents of silver. And a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with 8Israel, with all the sons of Ephraim. But go thou; do, be strong for the battle; [ otherwise7] God shall make thee fall before the enemy; for with God is power to help and to cast down. 9And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred8 talents which I have given to the host of Israel? And the man of God said, It rests with the Lord to give 10thee much more than this. And Amaziah separated them, to wit, the host that was come to him from Ephraim, to go to their place: and their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned to their place in hot 11anger. And Amaziah took courage, and led forth his people, and went to 12the valley of Salt, and smote of the sons of Seir ten thousand. And the sons of Judah took ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, and all of them 13were broken in pieces. And the men of the host which Amaziah sent back from going with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even to Beth-horon, and smote of them three thousand, and took much spoil.
. Amaziahs Idolatry, War with Joash of Israel, and End: 2Ch 25:14-28
14And it came to pass, after Amaziah was come from smiting the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the sons of Seir, and set them up for him as gods, 15and bowed down before them, and burnt incense to them. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah, and He sent unto him a prophet, who said to him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, who did not deliver their own people out of thy hand? 16And it came to pass as he talked with him, that he said unto him, Have we made thee councillor to the king? Forbear; why should they smite thee? And the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath resolved to destroy thee, because thou hast 17done this, and hast not hearkened to my counsel. And Amaziah king of Judah took counsel, and sent to Joash son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu king of Israel, saying, Come,9 let us look one another in the face. 18And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thorn that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife; and a beast of the field that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled on the thorn. 19Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom; and thy heart hath lifted thee up to boast: now abide at home; why provokest thou evil, that thou mayest fall, and Judah with thee?
20And Amaziah hearkened not; for it was of God that they might be given 21up, because they sought after the gods of Edom. And Joash king of Israel went up, and they looked one another in the face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which is of Judah. 22And Judah was smitten before 23Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. And Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the 24gate of Ephraim to the corner gate,10 four hundred cubits. And all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the kings house, and the hostages; and he 25returned to Samaria. And Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived after 26the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years. And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the 27book of the kings of Judah and Israel? And from the time that Amaziah turned away from the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: and they sent after him to Lachish, and there put him to death. 28And they brought him upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.11
k. Uzziah.Ch. 26
. His early Theocratic Inclination and Prosperous Reign: 2Ch 26:1-15
2Ch 26:1.And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, when sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 2He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after the king had slept with his fathers. 3Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he became king; and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Jechiliah12 of Jerusalem. 4And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that 5Amaziah his father had done. And he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions13 of God: and so long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
6And he went out and fought with the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabs that dwelt in Gur-baal,14 and against the Meunites. 8And the Ammonites15 gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name 9went even to Egypt; for he became very mighty. And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner gate and at the valley-gate, and at the corner, and 10fortified them. And he built towers in the wilderness, and dug many wells; for he had much cattle in the lowland and in the plain; husbandmen and vine-dressers in the mountains and in Carmel; for he was a lover of land. 11And Uzziah had a host of fighting men, that went out to war in troops, by the number of their muster at the hand of Jeuel16 the scribe, and Maaseiah the officer, at the hand of Hananiah, one of the captains of the king. 12The whole number of the chiefs of the fathers for the mighty men of valour 13was two thousand and six hundred. And at their hand was an army of three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred fighting men in full strength, to help the king against the foe. 14And Uzziah prepared for them, for the whole army, shields and spears, and helmets and coats of mail, and 15bows and sling-stones. And at Jerusalem he made engines, the invention of craftsmen, to be on the towers and battlements, to shoot arrows and great stones: and his name went forth far abroad; for he was marvellously helped till he was strong.
. His Boasting, and Divine Chastisement by Leprosy: his End: 2Ch 26:16-23
16And when he became strong, his heart was lifted up to do corruptly, and he transgressed against the Lord his God; and he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. 17And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, men of valour. 18And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast transgressed; and it shall not be for thine honour from the Lord 19God. And Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy burst forth on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incensealtar. 20And Azariah the head priest and all the priests looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they drove him out thence; and even he himself hasted to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. 21And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a sick-house as a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord: and Jotham his son was over the kings house, judging the people of the land.
22And the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, Isaiah son of Amos the 23prophet wrote. And Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field of the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.
l. Jotham.Ch. 27
Chap 2Ch 27:1.Jotham was twenty and five years old when he became king; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mothers name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. 2And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did; only he entered not into the temple of the Lord: and the people did yet corruptly. 3He built the high gate of the house of the Lord; and on the wall of Ophel he built 4much. And he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he 5built castles and towers. And he fought with the king of the sons of Ammon, and prevailed over them: and the sons of Ammon gave him in that year a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand of barley: this the sons of Ammon paid him also in the second and third 6year. And Jotham strengthened himself; for he established his ways before the Lord his God.
7And the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, lo, 8they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was twenty and five years old when he became king; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. 9And Jotham slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
m. Ahaz: The Prophet Oded.Ch. 28
. Idolatry of Ahaz: his Defeat by the Syrians and Ephraimites: 2Ch 28:1-8
2Ch 28:1.Ahaz was twenty17 years old when he became king; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not that which was right in 2the eyes of the Lord, like David his father. And he walked in the ways of 3the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim. And he burnt incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom, and burnt his sons in the fire, after the abominations of the nations, whom the Lord had cast out before 4the sons of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, 5and on the hills, and under every green tree. And the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and took from him a great many captives, and brought them to Damascus:18 and he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, and he inflicted on him a great 6blow. And Pekah son of Remaliah slew in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all sons of valour, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. 7And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the kings son, and Azrikam, the governor of the house, and Elkanah the 8vicegerent of the king. And the sons of Israel took captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and stripped them of great spoil, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
. Oded the Prophet procures the Release of the Captives: 2Ch 28:9-15
9And a prophet of the Lord was there, of the name of Oded; and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, in the wrath of the Lord God of your fathers against Judah He hath given them into your hand; and ye slew of them with a rage that reacheth unto heaven. 10And now ye purpose to subject the sons of Judah and Jerusalem for bondsmen and bondsmaids to you: are there not even with you yourselves trespasses against the Lord your God? And 11now hear me, and release the captives which ye have taken of your brethren; for the hot anger of the Lord 12is upon you. Then arose men of the chiefs of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, and Hezekiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, against those who came from the war, 13And said unto them, Ye shall not bring the captives hither; for with the trespass of the Lord upon us ye intend to add to our sins and to our trespass: for great 14is our trespass, and there is hot anger against Israel. And the armed host left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation. 15Then there rose up the men who were expressed by name, and took the captives, and clothed all that were naked of them from the spoil, and gave them clothes, and shoes, and food, and drink, and anointed them, and carried them on asses, all the weary, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palms, beside their brethren: and they returned to Samaria.
. Further Visitations of Ahaz on account of his Idolatry: his End: 2Ch 28:16-27
16At that time King Ahaz sent unto the kings of Assyria to help him. 17, 18And again the Edomites came and smote Judah, and took captives. And the Philistines invaded the cities of the lowland and of the south of Judah, and took Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Socho with her daughters, and Timnah with her daughters, and Gimzo with her daughters: and they 19dwelt there. For the Lord humbled Judah on account of Ahaz king of Israel, because he had revolted in Judah, and transgressed greatly against the 20Lord. And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him, and distressed 21him, and strengthened him not. For Ahaz had plundered the house of the Lord, and the house of the king and the princes, and given it to the king of Assyria; and it was not a help to him. 22And in the time of his distress he 23transgressed yet more against the Lord, this king Ahaz. And sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that smote him, and said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria, they help them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me: and they were the downfall of him and of all Israel. 24And Ahaz gathered the vessels of the house of God, and cut up the vessels of the house of God, and shut the doors of the house of the Lord; and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. 25And in every single city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers.
26And the rest of his acts and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city in Jerusalem: for they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
EXEGETICAL
We take together the reports, contained in 2 Chronicles 24-28, of the five reigns from Joash to Ahaz, partly on account of their general similarity, partly because in 2 Kings 12, 14-16, we have pretty full and nearly literal parallels to them.
1.Reign of Joash under the Guidance of Jehoiada: Repair of the Temple: 2Ch 24:1-14The parallel account in 2Ki 12:1-17 is more detailed in the statement of several circumstances, especially with regard to the repair of the temple, but yet receives many important supplements from the present narrative, which is derived from the same sources, but constructed on different views and principles.
2Ch 24:2. All the days of Jehoiada the priest. Somewhat different in 2 Kings: during all his days, while Jehoiada instructed him.
2Ch 24:3. And Jehoiada chose for him two wives. here obviously expresses this sense, not as in 2Ch 13:21 : took to himself; for it refers to this, that the young king soon married and begat an heir to the throne.
2Ch 24:4-14. The Repair of the Temple; comp. Bhrs exposition of 2Ki 12:5-17.To renew the house of the Lord; comp. 2Ch 15:8, and the synonym to repair (properly, strengthen, make strong again) in 2Ch 24:5; 2Ki 12:6.And hasten ye the matter, properly, with respect to the matter. On the relation of the following statement, according to which the Levites hastened not, to the apparently different narrative in 2 Kings, comp. Bhr.
2Ch 24:6. And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, namely, of the priesthood, by which, however, is not necessarily meant the high priest; the phrase , head-priest, supreme priest, may (as, for example, above 2Ch 19:11 of Amariah, or beneath 2Ch 26:20 of Azariah, under King Uzziah) denote the legal high priest, but has not necessarily this meaning; comp. on 23.8.Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in, literally, asked of the Levites, etc. (comp. Job 5:8; Psa 142:3) ? The tax or assessment of Moses (, as 2Ch 24:9; comp. Eze 20:40) is that of the sanctuary (heaveoffering) imposed, Exo 30:12-16; Exo 38:25, by Moses, and willingly paid by the community of Israel, of half a shekel a head.
2Ch 24:7. For Athaliah . . . (and) her sons. By these sons of Athaliah are scarcely meant the priests of Baal (Jerome) or certain bastard sons of the queen (Ewald, Gesch. iii. 1, 290), but probably Ahaziah with his brothers and brothers sons (comp. 2Ch 21:17, 2Ch 22:3 f.), that might have shown their zeal for idolatry at a very early age (comp. Berth., also Hitz. Gesch. p. 203).Broken up the house of God; , as 1Ch 13:11; Job 30:14; Ecc 10:8.All the consecrated things of the house of the Lord; all the gold and silver vessels, weapons, etc., preserved there as gifts. Of such profanation of the temple treasures by the idolatrous sons of Athaliah, moreover, the Chronist only reports, who here supplements the statements of 2 Kings.
2Ch 24:10. Cast into the chest till it was full. , as 2Ch 21:1 (comp. also , 2Ki 13:17; 2Ki 13:19); literally, even to making full, whereby may be meant either the fulness of the number of givers, or even the fulness of the chest that received the gifts. The latter sense, which the Sept and Vulg. express, commends itself most, as 2Ch 24:11 shows, and should not therefore have been questioned by Berth., Kamph., etc.
2Ch 24:11. And at the time, etc., literally, and it came to pass at the time when one brought the chest to the survey of the king, that is, for the royal surveillance or keeping (, as in 2Ch 23:18).And when they saw that there was much money, properly, and on their seeing, etc.Thus they did day by day, literally, to day by day (comp. 1Ch 12:22), that is, every day when it was necessary, every time that the chest was full.
2Ch 24:12. And the king . . . gave it to the work-master of the service of the house of the Lord. here, not service in the house of the Lord, as 1Ch 23:24, but labour, repair of the house of the Lord.And they hired, literally, and they were hiring, continually from day to day; comp. Mat 20:1 ff. Masons and carpenters; so in 1Ch 22:14; comp. Ezr 3:7.
2Ch 24:13. And furtherance was given to the work by their hand, literally, there went up (was laid, Jer 8:22) binding on the work; on , binding, healing, comp. Neh 6:1; Jer 30:17.And they set the house of God in its form; literally, on its measure (Exo 30:32), that is, in the original proportions.
2Ch 24:14. And they made of it vessels, literally, made it vessels (into vessels); comp. Ezr 1:7.Vessels for ministering and offering, altar vessels (comp. Num 4:12), from which cups (Exo 25:29) and other gold and silver vessels are there distinguished.And they offered burnt-offerings . . . all the days of Jehoiada: as long as he had the direction of the temple worship, it was conducted in a regular and legal way; that it had quite ceased after Jehoiadas death, neither the present phrase nor the subsequent narrative affirms.
2. Death of Jehoiada: Stoning of his Son: the Prophet Zechariah: 2Ch 24:15-22. There is no parallel to this section in 2 Kings 12; but it is of no less importance for the pragmatic understanding of that which is related underneath, 2Ch 24:23 ff., concerning the last events in the life of Joash.And Jehoiada was old and full of days. as otherwise only of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, of David (1Ch 24:1; comp. 2Ch 29:28), and of Job (Job 42:17), so in general is it used only of five men of God in the Old Testament; comp. Achelis, Das Zeitalter der Patriarchen, a contribution to the understanding of Scripture (Barm. 1871), p. 46. From the following statement of his age as 130 years at his death, it follows that he must have been about 100 years old when he helped his nephew by a successful revolution to the throne (877 b.C. by the common chronology); for the repair of the temple carried on by Joash and him (which he survived for a time, according to 2Ch 24:14 of our chapter), fell, according to 2Ki 12:7, in the twenty-third year of that king.
2Ch 24:16. And they buried him . . . with the kings. With this honourable distinction bestowed upon him at his death, the directly following record of the slaughter of his like-minded son stands in the same contrast as that presented by Christ, Mat 23:29 ff., over against the Pharisees.
2Ch 24:17. Bowed down before the king, earnestly entreating; for what? The following words show that it was for permission to worship strange gods along with the Lord. That Joash himself forthwith took part in this worship of idols is not affirmed, but that he bore the full responsibility of it, and afterwards took a direct part in the impiety, is plain from 2Ch 24:21 f.; comp. 2Ch 24:25.
2Ch 24:18. Served the Asherim, etc.; comp. on 2Ch 16:2. For the flame of wrath () which this enkindled, comp. 2Ch 19:2; 2Ch 19:10, 2Ch 29:8.
2Ch 24:19. Testified against them, by way of warning, pointing to the inevitable consequences of their apostasy; comp. 2Ki 17:13; Psa 50:7; Neh 9:26; Neh 9:29. Was Joel also among these prophetic monitors? As we may conjecture from his book that his age nearly coincided with the reign of Joash, it is not improbable; comp. Wnsche, Die Weissagung des Proph. Joel, Introd. p. 13 ff.; also Keil, Introd. to the O. T. p. 322 f.
2Ch 24:20. And the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. On , clothe, comp. 1Ch 12:18. The identity with the Zechariah mentioned by Christ, Mat 23:35, Luk 11:51, as slain between the temple and the altar, who is called in the former passage the son of Barachias, is to be assumed the more certainly, as1. The place of his death quite agrees there and here (the is the altar of burnt-offering, which stood in the court; comp. 2Ch 24:21); 2. An allusion is made in the speech of Christ to our passage before mentioning the martyrdom of Zechariah; see above on 2Ch 24:16; 2 Chronicles , 3. The Barachias named in Mat 23:35 as the father of Zechariah may have been the son of Jehoiada, and Zechariah his grandson, which is highly probable, from the great age to which Jehoiada attained.Stood up before the people, properly, above the people ( , as in 2Ch 13:4); the inner court, from which he spoke, and where he was afterwards slain, was higher than the outer, where the people stood.And do not prosper, or: and will be unfortunate, will have no success. The two things are, in a theocratico-prophetical point of view, inseparably connected: the forsaking of the Lord (comp. 2Ch 12:5, 2Ch 15:2, etc.), and becoming unfortunate; comp. 2Ch 26:5 (Uzziah).
2Ch 24:21. And they conspired against him; comp. 2Ch 24:25; 1Ki 15:27, and also 2Ch 23:13. The true witness of God is slain by stoning, the very penalty which is in the law (Lev 20:2; Lev 24:23) imposed on idolaters, to which therefore his murderers were doomed.
2Ch 24:22. And Joash . . . remembered not the kindness; , as in Mic 6:8. Joash appears here designated as the murderer of the son (or grandson) of Jehoiada, certainly not for mere silent connivance at the wicked deed, but for positive and direct participation in it; comp. 2Ch 24:21.The Lord shall see and require, or will see (comp. Psa 84:10) and require (, here seek revenge, punish; comp. Psa 9:13; 1Sa 20:16).
3. Distress of Joash by the Syrians, and his End: 2Ch 24:23-27. Here again 2Ki 12:18-21 affords a parallel, where that which relates to the invasion of the Syrians is narrated more particularly, and their king, Hazael (Haza-ilu of the Assyrian inscriptions), is named as executor of this judgment on Joash.And it came to pass in the course of a year, in the circuit of a year, the year beginning with the death of the prophet Zechariah.That the host of Syria, as in 2Ch 24:24.And destroyed all the princes of the people out of the people, out of the mass of the people (comp. Psa 89:20), so that these were spared, but their chiefs, who were the authors of the religious and moral evil (2Ch 24:17 f.), were overtaken by the doom of extermination. On the variants in the old versions with respect to out of the people, see Crit. Note.With few men, literally, with smallness of men; comp. Job 8:7.And they executed judgments upon Joash. , as in Exo 12:12; Num 33:4; Eze 5:10; Eze 5:15; elsewhere with , here with (comp. , 1Sa 24:19).The judgment upon Joash refers especially to the mortal wound which he received.
2Ch 24:25. For they left him with many wounds. , less suitably translated diseases by Luther, occurs only here; but comp. the similar 21:19 With respect to the somewhat surprising sons of Jehoiada (instead of son), see Crit. Note.And slew him on his bed; narrated more particularly 2Ki 12:21. The burial was not in the tombs of the kings, but in another place, as in the case of Joram; see 2Ch 21:20.
2Ch 24:26. On the names of the conspirators, of which one is different in 2 Kings 12 (Jozachar for Zabad), see Bhr on this passage.
2Ch 24:27. And his sons, and the greatness of the burden upon him, the greatness of the treasure which he had to send as tribute to Hazael in Syria; comp. 2Ki 12:19. So it is perhaps to be explained (with Then. and Kamph.) on the basis of the Kethib . Possible also is the interpretation adopted by Cleric., Keil, and others: and the multitude of prophetic oracles concerning him (comp. 2Ch 24:19), though in this case the singular is somewhat strange. On the contrary, the reference, attempted by the Vulg., Luther, and others, of the to the temple tribute (2Ch 24:6; 2Ch 24:9) imposed by Joash would require a change into , and the would not suit this view (for which we should rather expect . The Keri gives rise to the sense: and with regard to his sons the oracle (that of the dying Zechariah, 2Ch 24:22 b) multiplied itself in them, which is obviously much too obscure, and could scarcely be intended by the Masoretes themselves. The Sept. alters the text quite arbitrarily, ( for ), and so the Syriac.Behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of Kings, the elaboration of this book; comp. on 2Ch 13:12, and Introd. 5, ii.
4. Amaziah: a. Duration of his Reign, and its Spirit: 2Ch 25:1-4; comp. the essentially parallel verses, 2Ki 14:1-6.
2Ch 25:2. And he did. . . but not with undivided heart. For this is in 2 Kings: yet not like David his father, he did according to all that his father Joash did. This more particular statement our author avoided, perhaps, on account of the less favourable light in which he had exhibited Joash. The following also: only the high places were not removed, etc., he omits; perhaps he intended sufficiently to indicate this partial continuance of idolatry by his not with undivided heart (comp. 2Ch 16:9).
2Ch 25:4. Put not their sons to death, according to the law, Deu 24:16; comp. Bhr on 2Ki 14:6.
5. Continuation: b. The Conquest of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt: 2Ch 25:5-13. Again a section peculiar to the Chronist, for which nothing is found in 2Ki 14:7 but the brief notice that Amaziah smote the Edomites in the valley of Salt, took their city Sela, and gave it the name Joktheel.And he mustered them (comp. Num 1:3) and found them 300,000 choice men; thus almost a million less than the force of Judah and Benjamin under Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 17, and, if the numbers there are to be considered incorrect, even much less than the sum total of the troops of the south kingdom given in 2Ch 14:7 for the time of Asa. But it is obvious that the number of troops must be shown to be much diminished by defeats sustained during the last reigns and other calamities, and therefore in need of being strengthened by foreign mercenary soldiers, as the following verse clearly proves.Going out to war (comp. 1Ch 5:18), holding spear and shield; comp. 1Ch 13:9; Jer 46:9.
2Ch 25:7. With all the sons of Ephraim. This is a more definite addition to Israel (comp. Isa 17:3; Isa 28:1) that appears not unnecessary, because the author often designates the kingdom or people of Judah also as Israel (comp. on 2Ch 12:1).
2Ch 25:8. But go thou alone, do, or execute it; comp. 1Ch 22:16; Ezr 10:4.Be strong for the battle, (otherwise) God shall make thee fall before the enemy. The sense is obvious; be strong, then will God not let thee fall. Before is to be supplied , with Ew., Berth., Keil, Kamph., etc.; for the can neither be taken (with Cleric.) = sin minus, nor (with Seb. Schmidt, Ramb., etc.) = alioquin. That the text certainly needs emendation is manifest from the arbitrary and diverse interpretations presented by the old translators; for example, the Sept. ; Vulg. quod si vultis in robore exercitus bella consistere; Luther, For so thou comest as to show a boldness in fight, God will let thee fall before thy enemies.For with God is power to help and to cast down, literally, present is might in God, etc. For the sentence, comp. 1Ch 29:12; 2Ch 20:6; also the well-known verse of G. Neumark, He is the only wonder-man, who now lift up, now cast down can.
2Ch 25:9. What shall we do for the 100 talents? In the mouth of a prudent ruler, who counts the cost in all his steps, certainly a very pardonable question, even as the answer given to it is highly worthy of a trustful man of God. , troop, that is, a body of mercenaries; comp. 2Ch 22:1; 2Ki 13:20 f.
2Ch 25:10. To wit, the host, etc. before is the defining =namely (comp. 2Ch 25:5 a); the whole is in apposition to the suffix in And they returned to their place in hot anger, literally, in the glow of anger (comp. Exo 11:8), enraged at the bad usage they had received, and at the prospect of booty being first held out to them and then withdrawn (comp. Act 16:9).
2Ch 25:11. And Amaziah took courage., as in 2Ch 15:8; comp. also the of the prophet in 2Ch 25:8. On the situation of the valley of Salt (south-east of the Dead Sea), see Bahr on 2Ki 14:7.
2Ch 25:12. And brought them to the top of the rock ( ), probably the rock on or at which the Edomite capital Sela lay, so that the rendering on the top of Sela (Kamph., etc.) is admissible. The passage in 2Ki 14:7, where the taking of Sela after the victory in the valley of Salt is recorded, and the present one thus complete one another. That the present report of the Chronist is merely derived from a misunderstanding of the text of the old source, somehow become illegible (Then, on 2Ki 14:7), appears an inadmissible assumption on this account, that our writer would not have imputed so frightful and barbarous a proceeding as the throwing of thousands of captive Edomites down a precipice (comp. for the matter of fact, Psa 137:9; Luk 4:29), on light grounds or on a mere misunderstanding, to a king like Amaziah (comp. on 1Ch 18:2; 1Ch 20:3). Besides, the number 10,000 here, as in the previous verse, is a round number, and not to be pressed in its literal sense.
2Ch 25:13. And the men of the host (literally, sons of the host, that is, the troops belonging to it) fell upon the cities of Judah; comp. for construction, Gen 22:24. This pillaging raid of the mercenaries is to be regarded as simultaneous with the absence of Amaziah in Idumea, and favoured thereby; comp. the similar events in the thirty years and the seven years wars; also the invasion of Switzerland by the Armagnacs, and of Elsass under the Emperor Frederic III. (1444), etc.From Samaria even to Beth-horon, that is, with Samaria as starting-point, and Beth-horon (see for its site on 1Ch 7:24) as the termination of their raid, so that all the towns between these two, so far as they belonged to Judah, were exposed to pillage.
6. Close: c. Amaziahs Idolatry, War with Joash of Israel, and End: 2Ch 25:14-28. The second book of Kings presents no parallel to the statements regarding the desertion of Amaziah to the gods of the conquered Edomites, 2Ch 25:14-16. On the contrary, the report of the war with Joash of Israel (2Ch 25:17-24) agrees almost literally with 2Ki 14:8-14, as also the following 2Ch 25:25-28 with the closing remarks there, 2Ch 25:17-20After Amaziah was come from smiting the Edomites; comp. 2Sa 1:1.The gods of the children of Seir are naturally their idols (otherwise or ); and the conquered Edomites are here called children of Seir, not because they were identical with the tribe of Seirites or Meunites (2Ch 20:1; 2Ch 20:10; 2Ch 20:22) who dwelt with them, but because here, where the peculiarity of their gods as hill-gods came into view (comp. 1Ki 20:23), it was very natural to designate them according to the hill-country in which they dwelt.
2Ch 25:16. Have we made thee counsellor to the king? properly, given; the plural is of communicative import, spoken from the position of the king and his council. With the question: Why should they smite thee? comp. the similar one: Why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Eze 33:11.)I know (have now observed) that God hath resolved to destroy thee; comp. 1Sa 2:25 (Eli); and Exo 6:1; Exo 10:1; Exo 10:11 :I, etc. (Pharaoh).Because thou hast done this (worshipped the gods of Edom), and hast not hearkened to my counsel. Thus the prophet declares himself authorized to give counsel to the king, however scornfully the latter may have deprecated this as an assumption on his part.
2Ch 25:17 ff.; comp. Bhr on 2Ki 14:8 ff.Took counsel, namely, with his counsellors and courtiers; comp. 2Ch 10:6; 1Ch 13:1 Luthers rendering is also possible: resolved, came to the decision after counsel taken.Come ( = , come on; comp. Num 23:13; Jdg 19:13), let us look one another in the face, measure, have a passage at arms with one another.
2Ch 25:19. Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom, or if thou hast smitten. It is, moreover, of the same import if we render (with Luther, Kamph., etc.) I have smitten.And thy heart hath lifted thee up (or carried, urged thee; comp. Exo 35:21; Exo 35:26) to boast, properly, to make heavy; comp. Isa. 8:23. It is considerably different in 2Ki 14:10; see Bhr on the passage.
2Ch 25:20. For it was of God that they should be given up, literally, that they might be given into the hand (of the enemy); comp. Deu 1:27; 1Ki 20:42, etc.
2Ch 25:22. And they fled every man to his tent, to his house; comp. 2Ch 10:16; 1Ki 8:66.
2Ch 25:23. From the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate; so according to the emendation for , which latter reading gives no rational sense, as the direction in which the gate in question turns itself must have been stated if meant the gate turning itself (comp. Eze 8:3).
2Ch 25:24. And all the gold, namely, he took, a verb () which is to be supplied from 2Ki 14:14
2Ch 25:25-28. Comp. Bhr on the parallel 2Ki 14:17-20; and with regard to the book of the kings of Judah and Israel (2Ch 25:26), Introd. 5, ii.
2Ch 25:28. In the city of Judah appears to be an error in copying for in the city of David, occasioned by the following (2Ch 26:1); comp. Crit. Note. If the Masoretic reading is to be retained, we might be tempted to think of the designation , occurring Luk 1:39, which, however, can scarcely be supposed to refer to Jerusalem (see Van Oosterzee on this passage).
7. Uzziah: a. His early Theocratic Inclination and Prosperous Reign: 2Ch 26:1-15; comp. the very brief parallel, 2Ki 14:21-22; 2Ki 15:1-2, where the present (2Ch 26:6-15) report of the successful wars of Uzziah, his buildings, and his strong military force, is wanting. There, moreover, this king, along with the present name (, might of Jehovah), bears also the name Azariah ( or whom Jehovah helps). Comp. 2Ki 14:21; 2Ki 15:1; 2Ki 15:6; 2Ki 15:8; 2Ki 15:23; 2Ki 15:27, where the latter form is used, with 2Ki 15:13; 2Ki 15:30; 2Ki 15:32; 2Ki 15:34, where Uzziah stands, the form which the Chronist, irrespective of 1Ch 3:12, always uses, and which is also found in the superscriptions of the prophets Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah, as in Isa 6:1; Isa 7:1. The Assyrian cuneate inscriptions (the tablets of Tiglath-pileser; see Schrader, p. 114) present exclusively the form Azariah (Az-ri-ya-hu), whereby the opinion of those who regard this form as the later, or as the result of a mere error of writing, is refuted (so, for example, Gesen.-Dietrich in Lexicon). But Hitzigs hypothesis also (Gesch. p. 209), that the name Azariah was transformed from that of the high priest contemporary with him (2Ch 26:17) to the king, is refuted by this evidence of Assyrian inscriptions. Much rather the only assumption that remains warranted is: that the similar names of almost equal import were used simultaneously (Berth.); as was the case, for example, with Uzziel and Azarel, a descendant of Heman (1Ch 25:4; 1Ch 25:18). Not even the conjecture expressed by Bhr on 2Ki 14:21 : that the name Uzziah appears to have come into more general use after he ascended the throne, will harmonize with the fact that the Assyrian kings know only the name Azariah.
2Ch 26:2. He built Eloth. On the emphatic prefixing of this notice, even before the chronological dates of the following verse, see Bhr on the passage.
2Ch 26:3. Reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, 810759 b.C., according to the usual chronology, though, according to the Assyrian monuments, considerably later(according to Neteler, p. 225 ff., 786735). On the name of the queen-mother Jechiliah (in 2 Kings Jecholiah, not Jechaliah, as Luther writes), see the Crit. Note.
2Ch 26:5. And he continued to seek God, literally, and he was to seek God, was out to seek Him; comp. 2Ch 31:21; Ezr 3:12.In the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God. Accordingly this Zechariah, who is otherwise unknown (for he cannot be identified with the Zechariah son of Jeberechiah mentioned Isa 8:2, as he was at least a generation older), must be considered a prophet, and must be regarded as a chosen periphrasis for , the seer (comp. Dan 1:17). But as the vision of God cannot be taken as a work of human activity, the reading of the Sept. and other old witnesses (see Crit. Note) commends itself more, which gives the sense expert in the fear of God, or even teacher of the fear of God (comp. Neh 8:9). Zechariah remains a prophetic teacher and counsellor of King Uzziah even with this reading (for his possible priestly character would have been marked by a ); but that he was a master in divine visions is not to be read from it; and still less is it to be inferred that he and no other was the author of the oracles of Balaam (as is asserted in an arbitrary way by Frst, Gesch. der bibl. Literatur. ii. pp. 231, 359).
2Ch 26:6-15. Uzziahs Successful Wars, Building of Cities, etc. (without parallel in 2 Kings).And he . . . fought with the Philistines, to punish their pillaging inroad under Joram (2Ch 21:16 f.). This punishment must have been inflicted by him in very full measure, probably by the subjection of their whole territory; for the cities said to have been destroyed by him, Gath (see on 2Ch 9:8), Jabneh (=Jabneel, Jos 15:11, later=Jamnia in the Maccab. and in Josephus), and Ashdod (now Esdud, comp. on Jos 13:3), were at that time the chief places of the Philistines.
2Ch 26:7. And God helped him.. . against the Arabs, who are named also, 2Ch 17:11, with the Philistines. Where Gurbaal was is uncertain; it is by no means to be identified (after the Sept., see Crit. Note) with the Edomite Petra; rather with Gerar (Gen 20:1), of which the Targ. thinks. Concerning the Meunites, see on 1Ch 4:41; 2Ch 20:1.
Ver, 8. And his name went even to Egypt, literally, even to the entrance of Egypt. But by the name of Uzziah is scarcely meant merely his fame (Luther), but also his active influence, his power.For he became very mighty, literally, showed himself mighty (Dan 11:7) unto the height (comp. 1Ch 14:2; 1Ch 29:25).
2Ch 26:9. And Uzziah built towers . . . at the corner gate. The corner gate (comp. 2Ch 25:23) lay at the north-west end of the city; the valley gate on the west side, where the Jaffa gate is now. On the east, over against these two points belonging to the west side where defence was most needed, is , the corner, to be soughtnamely, a bend of the eastern wall near the horse gate; comp. Neh 3:19-20; Neh 3:24-25.
2Ch 26:10. And he built towers in the wilderness, in the wilderness of Judah, to protect the herds grazing there; comp. 1Ch 27:25; Mic 4:8; Isa 5:2; in which latter place mention is made of the digging of a well along with the tower building.For he had much cattle in the lowland, etc., properly, and in the lowland and in the plain, etc. It appears, therefore, as if three regions were here distinguished1. The wilderness (of Judah) west of the Dead Sea; 2. The lowlands at the Mediterranean (comp. 1Ch 27:28); 3. The plain (), perhaps the plain beyond the Jordan, the territory of the Reubenites, a region specially adapted for grazing, which Uzziah was under the necessity of taking from the Ammonites (2Ch 26:8).Husbandmen and vinedressers in the mountains. Kamph. connects against the accents, in the plain, husbandmen. He will also explain neither of the Mount Carmel (Jos 19:26; Son 7:6), nor of Carmel in the south of Judah (1Sa 15:12), but renders in the fruitful field (comp. Isa 29:17), for which there is no constraining necessity.
2Ch 26:11. And Uzziah had a host of fighting men, literally, a host (comp. 2Ch 14:7) maker of war (comp. 2Ch 26:13; 2Ch 11:1), that went out to war (comp. 1Ch 5:8) in troops (in a marshalled host).By the number of their muster at the hand of Jeuel., as afterwards, under the guidance of Hananiah, is expressed by at the hand ( as 1Ch 25:6). The captain Hananiah appears therefore is superintendent, Jeuel and Maaseiah as subordinate executive officers in the business of the muster.
2Ch 26:13. And at their hand ( , as in the previous verse) an army of 307,500 fighting men. Thus each of the 2600 father-houses constituted a corps under the command of the bravest among them. The total number of 307,500 warriors agrees in the main with the above statement of the strength of the army under Amaziah, 2Ch 25:5, and presupposes the more certainly an actual numeration for its basis, as it is not a round number.
2Ch 26:14. And Uzziah prepared for them; comp. 1Ch 15:1; 1Ch 22:5,
2Ch 26:15. He made engines, the invention of craftsmen, literally, devices (, excogitata), the device of the deviser ( ), skilfully contrived engines of war, as the following words showa kind of catapults or balisters, for assaulting besieging troops from the walls and towers of defence.And his name went forth, etc.; comp. above, 2Ch 26:8.
8. Uzziah: b. His Boasting and Divine Punishment by Leprosy; his End: 2Ch 26:16-23. Comp. 2Ki 15:5-7, where, however, the mere fact of the kings becoming leprous is mentioned, without particularizing the cause, so that in fact the three verses correspond only to our 2Ch 26:21-23.And when he became strong,, as in 2Ch 12:1. For the following: to do corruptly (), comp. 2Ch 27:2.Went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense, which, according to Exo 30:7; Exo 30:27, Num 18:1-7, only priests were to do. Uzziah wished to exercise regal and sacerdotal functions at the same time (as the Egyptian kings, and afterwards the Roman emperors). He fell into the same sin as Saul before him (1Sa 13:9 f.). It was not the restitution of a formerly legitimate union of regal and sacerdotal power, as it was nominally possessed by David and Solomon (Thenius, Ewald), which was his aim; for only occasionally, and in certain religious solemnities of an extraordinary kind, had those kings exercised several priestly functions, with the permission of the lawful priests (so correctly Bertheau, Keil, etc.).
2Ch 26:17. And Azariah the priest. Whether he was actually high priest is not determined with perfect certainty from his subsequent designation as (as in the case of Jehoiada; see on 2Ch 23:8); yet it is most probable that the head priest, who was accompanied with eighty priests, was the actual legitimate holder of high-priestly office. But very improbable is the identity asserted by Keil of this Azariah with the Azariah named in the list of high priests. 1 Chron. 5:36, 37, as the father of Amariah, who belongs certainly to a considerably earlier time (see on this passage). On the predicate men of valour, , comp. 1Ch 5:18.
2Ch 26:18. And they withstood Uzziah, stood against him; comp. Dan 11:14.And it shall not be for thine honour from the Lord God, that is, thy offering incense serves not, as thou fanciest, to increase thy honour and glory before God, but rather brings thee shame, because thou thereby showest thyself to be disobedient and apostate.
2Ch 26:19. And while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy burst forth on his forehead, in punishment of his impious attempt. The punishment is the same that Miriam endured on account of her rebellion against Moses (Num 12:10), and with which Elishas servant Gehazi was visited for his covetousness (2Ki 5:27). In a physical and pathological sense, also, the malady may have been brought on in all these cases in essentially the same way,by a strong physical excitement, which brought the leprosy, already existing as a tendency in the system, suddenly to a visible eruption (Friedreich, Zur Bibel, etc., pp. 228, 230). Wedel (Exercitationes medico-philologic, ii. 4. 9) quite arbitrarily asserts that Uzziahs malady was not leprosy, but syphilis. Not less arbitrary and contrary to the text is the attempt of K. Ad. Menzel to reduce the whole malady to a bold and sly mystification of the high priest Azariah, who suddenly cried out that he saw the sign of leprosy on the forehead of the king, and by this application of his medical authority so far robbed him of his self-command that he allowed himself to be arrested and put in a place of confinement (Religion und Staatsidee, p. 89; comp. on 2Ch 16:13). A special contrast to this crude attempt at a natural explanation by a miracle-rejecting rationalism is presented by the Jewish legend in Josephus, Antiq.ix. 10. 4, which makes Uzziah be punished not merely by becoming leprous (supposed to be produced by a sunstroke which fell through the split roof of the temple on his face), but also by a simultaneous violent earthquake, the same which is mentioned Amo 1:1, by which that splitting of the temple roof was effected.
2Ch 26:21. And dwelt in a sick-house, properly, a house of separation; see Bhr on 2Ki 15:5, where also all that is necessary is remarked on the probable (amounting only to a few years) duration of Uzziahs illness and of Jothams regency.
2Ch 26:23. And they buried him with his fathers in the burial-field of the kings; for they said, He is a leper. They wished not to defile the proper tombs of the kings by burying his body in them, and therefore buried it in the field adjoining these tombs. In the parallel 2Ki 15:7 f. this important detail is wanting.
9. Jotham: 2 Chronicles 27; comp. 2Ki 15:32-38, and Bhr on this passage.
2Ch 27:2. Only he entered not into the temple of the Lord; he abstained from such an impious undertaking as that of his father, 2Ch 26:16 ff. This remark is wanting in 2 Kings. On the contrary, instead of the rather indefinite: and the people did yet corruptly (comp. on 2Ch 26:16 ff.), we find there the more special statement: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places.
2Ch 27:3. And on the wall of Ophel he built much; fortified thus the southern slope of the temple mountain, which is called Ophel (; comp. 2Ch 33:14; Neh 3:26-27), and therein continued the fortifications of his father Uzziah, which had applied more to the west and east sides of the city wall. In 2 Kings this is wanting, as also the notice in the following verse of the towns and castles built by Jotham (for , castles, forts, see on 2Ch 17:12), while the previous notice regarding the building (anew) of the upper temple gate, the north gate in the inner court of the temple, is also found there.
2Ch 27:5.And he fought with the king of the sons of Ammon. Of this victorious war with the Ammonites, also, nothing is found in 2 Kings. This war, like the buildings, appears to be a continuation of that waged by Uzziah; for, according to 2Ch 26:8, the Ammonites had also to pay tribute to that king. It was therefore an attempt at revolt, for which they were now punished by Jotham with the imposition of a new and heavier tribute (100 talents of silver, with 10,000 cors of barley and wheat yearly, is pretty well for a not very numerous people).This the sons of Ammon paid him also in the second and the third year, but no longer than during these three years; perhaps on account of the war of Syria and Ephraim with Judah, which took its rise under Jotham, 2Ki 15:37, and procured for the Ammonites their former independence.
2Ch 27:6. And Jotham strengthened himself, namely, in his kingdom; comp. 2Ch 13:21, and the following: he established his ways, Pro 21:29.
2Ch 27:7. And all his wars. That these wars of Jotham, of which only one is here mentioned, were uniformly successful is not stated in the text; and therefore the war commenced with Syria and Ephraim, in which Jotham suffered some very severe defeats, may be here included (against Keil). In other respects the closing notices, 2Ch 27:7-9, agree essentially with 2Ki 15:36; 2Ki 15:38.
10. Ahaz: a. His Idolatry, and Defeat by the Syrians and Ephraimites: 2Ch 28:1-8; comp. 2Ki 16:1 ff., where the first four verses, relating to the idolatry of Ahaz, agree tolerably well with 2Ch 28:1-4 of our text; while the report of the war given in 2Ch 28:5-18 presents considerable deviations from the narrative in our ch., 2Ch 28:5 ff., 2Ch 28:9, and 2Ch 28:16 ff. Comp. on these differences, as well as on the whole report of the war, C. P. Caspari, Der syrisch-ephraimitische Krieg unter Jotham und Ahas, Christiania 1849.Ahaz was twenty years old. Thus also 2Ki 16:2; but on account of the age of his son and successor,Hezekiah being already twenty-five at the death of Ahaz,it is more probable that the reading of the Sept., Syr., and Arab, is to be preferred, and the age of Ahaz at his accession set down at twenty-five (not, however, at thirty, as Hitzig, Gesch. Isr. p. 214, will have it). Moreover, the name Ahaz () is on the Assyrian monuments Jahu–kha–zi, which is elsewhere = the Hebr. Jehoahaz (); see Schrader, pp. 25, 147, 151 ff. This difference is either to be referred to this, that the later Jews in the Old Testament changed the actual name of the king, namely Jehoahaz, in consequence of his idolatrous propensity, into Ahaz, by the omission of the divine name, or to this, that the Assyrians falsely transferred to Ahaz the like-sounding name of an earlier king (Jehoahaz), as they made Jehu a son instead of a successor of Omri (Schrader, p. 152). If the first of these two conjectures, according to which Ahaz is a curtailed name, be correct, we may compare the change of such names as Jerubbaal (into Jerubbesheth) or Mephibaal (into Mephibosheth), and also the legend of the medival sects, as the Euchites, Bogomiles, etc., that Satan was originally called Satanael, and after his fall his name was deprived of the last syllable. Comp., moreover, on 2Ch 28:21.
2Ch 28:2 f. And made also molten images for Baalim; comp. Psa 106:19; Jdg 17:3, etc. Both these words and the following: and he burnt incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom, are wanting in 2 Kings; but they have there fallen out by an oversight (occasioned by a twofold ); comp. Bhr on the passage.And burned his sons in the fire, or made his sons pass through the fire. According to 2 Kings, he performed this barbarous human sacrifice only in the case of one son, which is intrinsically the more probable (comp. 2 Kings 30:27; 21:6); the plur. of our passage is thus, as in 2Ch 33:6, merely a rhetorical generalization (Casp., Keil, Bhr, etc.). On 2Ch 28:3 b and 4, comp. Bhrs exposition of the parallel text.
2Ch 28:5. The Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria. These introductory words of the following report of the war, compared with 2Ki 16:6 ff., demonstrate that our writer proposes to give rather a rhetorically conceived than a strictly historical description of the chastisements inflicted on Ahaz by the Syrians and Ephraimites. Comp. Caspari as quoted, p. 42 ff., and Keil, p. 325 f.: The facts, which show how Ahaz, notwithstanding the grievous blows which fell on him and Judah, sinned yet more grievously against the Lord his God, are brought out of the historical material into relief, and oratorically represented, so that they display not only the increasing obstinacy of Ahaz, but also, by adducing the conduct of the citizens and warriors of the kingdom of Israel, the depth to which Judah had fallen.And they smote him, literally, on him, that is, they in flicted a defeat on his army.And took from him a great many captives, led captive from him a great leading of captives (, as in 2Ch 28:11; Neh. 3:36).
2Ch 28:6. And Pekah, son of Remaliah, slew in Judah 120,000 in one day, that is, in a great battle, with the pursuit and plundering that followed. Against the suspicion cast on this number by de Wette Gesenius, Winer, and others, as exaggerated, see Caspari, p. 37 ff., who points with justice1. to the fanaticism of the Israelites and Syrians, who aimed directly at the annihilation of the Jewish power (Isa 7:6; 2Ki 15:16; comp. also 2Ch 28:9); 2. to the military strength of the Jews (307,500), stated shortly before under Uzziah, 2Ch 26:13, which shows that it was about a third of their force that was put to the sword; 3. to the round number 120,000 (as also the subsequent number of 200,000 captives), showing itself to be the product of a rough estimate, and not an exact enumeration.
2Ch 28:7. And Zichri . . . slew Maaseiah the kings son, probably a royal prince of an older generation, uncle, cousin, or brother of Ahaz, for he himself at this time had scarcely a son of military age. Azrikam also is perhaps to be regarded as a relative of the king, for a governor of the house can scarcely designate a president of the temple (according to 1Ch 9:11; 2Ch 31:13); rather might it be the title of a higher officer of the royal house or palace.And Elkanah the vicegerent of the king, literally, the second after the king, his minister (chancellor, vizier).
2Ch 28:8. And the sons of Israel took captive of their brethren. Observe the importance of this reference to the character of the war, as a barbarous strife between brother tribes.
11. Continuation: b. Oded the Prophet effects the Release of the Captives: 2Ch 28:9-15 (without a parallel in 2 Kings).And a prophet of the Lord was there of the name of Oded, in Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Here, as well as in other places of this kingdom, prophets of the true God appear active till its complete fall (722 b.c.), as in particular the ministry of Hosea teaches, which was likewise exercised on this soil.And he went out; comp. the report, 2Ch 15:2, of Azariah son of Oded under Asa.In the wrath . . . against Judah. Not so much your bravery as the judicial sentence of God for the punishment of idolatrous Israel is the cause of the great victory over your adversariesa victory which you have abused by a frantic slaughter and carnage. On that reacheth unto heaven, comp. Gen 18:21; Ezr 9:6
2Ch 28:10. And now ye purpose to subject; comp. Gen 1:28; Lev 25:42 ff.Are there not even with you yourselves trespasses against the Lord? look for once at yourselves, whether ye do not perceive there enough of that which inculpates you before God. To this exhortation to repentance is suitably added the warning in 2Ch 28:11, to beware of the further abuse of the power given them to execute the divine judgment, and therefore of the unmerciful treatment or even the longer retention of the captives.
2Ch 28:12 f. Four of the chiefs of Ephraim declare their concurrence with this exhortation and warning of Oded. Their names occur only here, but they present, at all events, a weighty testimony for the concrete historical character and credibility of the present account.For with the trespass of the Lord upon us, that the effect of our heavy guilt with God (2Ch 28:10) may fall upon us, that the heavy punishment of sin may overtake us. is here the effect, the punishment of guilt contracted before God.
2Ch 28:14. And the armed host left, the armed escort who conducted the captives to Samaria. , as in 1Ch 12:23.
2Ch 28:15. The men who were expressed by name, the notable men mentioned by name in the old records, who specially distinguished themselves at that time by a noble emulation of love and compassion for the poor captives; comp. 1Ch 7:31; 1Ch 16:41; 2Ch 31:19. The analogy of these passages forbids us to think only of the four named in 2Ch 28:12.And clothed all that were naked of them, literally, all the nakedness (abstr. pro concr.).And anointed them, because they should return home happy and cheerful.And carried them on asses; to which is appended a limiting and more exactly defining phrase, all the weary (or stumbling, ). Observe the pictorial reality and epic breadth of the whole description, which exhibits itself even in designating Jericho as the city of palms (comp. Jdg 3:13), and by the mention of it (as the border town of Judah, whither the captives were first brought; comp. Jos 18:21) accords with the story of the good Samaritan. For, in fact, there is here a grand archetype of the deed of compassion described in this didactic narrative of the Lord, as sure as they were inhabitants of the city and later country of Samaria, who took so loving an interest in the helpless Jews. The thought that Christ drew directly from this episode of the present war several points of His noble lesson should by no means be absolutely rejected. Comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
12. Close: c. Further Visitations of Ahaz on account of his Idolatry; his End: 2Ch 28:16-27. Only the part of this section that refers to the relations of Ahaz to the Assyrian world-power (his seeking aid from Tiglath-pileser, his payment of tribute to the same, and his fall occasioned by this slavish submission to the idolatry of Syria and Damascus, 2Ch 28:16; 2Ch 28:20-25) is reported in 2 Kings 16 (2Ch 28:7-18), and there, indeed, much more fully than here. On the contrary, there is wanting there a statement of the contemporaneous humiliations of Ahaz by the Edomites and Philistines, as they are here reported, 2Ch 28:17-19.At that time King Ahaz sent unto the kings of Assyria. The rather indefinite admits the assumption that this embassy to Assyria took place immediately after the invasion of Rezin and Pekah (Berth.), as well as that several months or years elapsed between these events (Keil). But according to 2Ki 16:6 ff., the consequence of that first heavy defeat by the Syrians and Ephraimites, the taking of Elath by Rezin (and that which was connected with it, the invasion of the Edomites and Philistines), seems to have been the motive of Ahaz to apply to the Assyrians for aid. The plural the kings of Assyria is perhaps not rhetorical, as above, 2Ch 28:3, (Keil), but, as it seems, originally written under the consciousness that the head of the Assyrian government was composed of several factors, namely, the king and the so-called eponymus or archon of the current year; see in particular 2Ch 30:4, where this view seems undeniable; also 2Ch 30:6; and comp. Schrader, Studien und Kritiken, 1871, part iv.; Die Keilschriften, etc., p. 308 ff.
2Ch 28:17. And again the Edomites came, perhaps made free again by Rezins expedition against Elath, 2Ki 16:6, from the Jewish yoke, which lay upon them from the time of Amaziah and Uzziah (2Ch 25:11, 2Ch 26:2). The tense is to be taken as the pluperfect: and moreover , et prterea, et insuper; comp. Isa 1:5) the Edomites had come; and so in the two following verses, for they also report something that preceded the fatal treaty with Tiglath-pileser, and served to bring it about.
2Ch 28:18. And the Philistines invaded. Of the places conquered by them, Beth-shemesh (1Ch 6:44), Ajalon (1Ch 6:54), and Socho (2Ch 11:7) have occurred already in our book. For Gederoth (in the Shephelah), comp. Jos 15:41; for Timnah, now Tibneh, Jos 15:10; for Gimzo, now Jimsu, a large village between Lydda and Beth-horon, Robins. Palest, iii. 271 The mention of daughter cities (literally, daughters) along with the chief places, as in 2Ch 13:9.
2Ch 28:19. For the Lord humbled Judah on account of Ahaz king of Israel. Ahaz is perhaps ironically so named; for the title King of Israel can scarcely be an honourable designation in him, as in Rehoboam (2Ch 12:6) or Jehoshaphat (2Ch 21:2), or as in his fore-fathers in general, 2Ch 28:27. It contains, perhaps, an allusion to the contrast between his idolatrous reign and the mind and walk of the true Israel of God (comp. Gal 6:16, Caspari, Keil, etc.).Because he had revolted in Judah. So is with following certainly to be taken, not as Kamph. and others think: because he made Judah refractory; comp. rather Exo 5:4, which speaks also against the rendering of the Vulg.: eo quod nudasset eum auxilio, and of Luther (that he made Judah naked).
2Ch 28:20. And Tiglath-pilneser. Concerning this form, as corresponding not so well to the Assyrian as the Tiglath-pileser of the other Old Testament sources, see on 1Ch 5:6; for the conjectural identity of Pul with Tiglath-pileser, see on 1Ch 5:26.And distressed him, and strengthened him not. This is the only rendering agreeable to the context, according to which, here, contrary to its usual intransitive meaning, expresses the active sense of strengthening (confortare, roborare). See for justification of this rendering against Luther, Then., Bertheau, etc. (who take according to 2Ch 27:5, Jer 20:7, etc.= overcome): he oppressed and besieged him, but subdued him not, in particular Keil on this passage; rightly also Neteler and Kamph.
2Ch 28:21. For Ahaz had plundered the house of the Lord. This was at the time that he sent the embassy with its cry for help to the mighty Assyrian king (2Ch 28:16), for with empty hands he need not approach him (comp. also 2Ki 16:7-8). here is not divide (Luther), but plunder, spoliare (Vulg.); comp. , booty, share of spoil (Num 31:36; Job 17:5). The strong expression corresponds to the rhetorical tone of the narrator; thereby the certainly historical statement shows that the treasures of the kings house, as well as those of the princes (the high officers of the palace, or perhaps also the princes of the royal house; comp. on 2Ch 28:7), must have contributed, that the gift (, see 2Ki 16:8) sent with the ambassadors might be worthy of acceptance. That Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser is attested, besides our passage and the report in 2Ki 16:7-9 (comp. also Isa 36:5, where Rabshakeh charges Hezekiah with revolt from Assyria), also by the Assyrian monumerts. In line 61 of an inscription composed in the last year of Tiglath-pilesers reign (ii. R. 67), it is said that this king received tribute (madatu) from Mittini of Askalon, Ahaz (JehoahazJa-hukha-zi) of Judah, Kozmalak of Edom. That here Ahaz is spoken of as a tributary of the great king, and not Uzziah (as H. Rawlinson thought on account of the surprising form of the name), is shown by the naming of the rulers of Philistia and Edom, who in Uzziahs time would scarcely have been co-ordinated with the Jewish king, the naming of whom along with Ahaz is quite consistent with the contents of the verses of our chapter. Comp. Schrader, p. 151 ff.
2Ch 28:22. And in the time of his distress, a date of like indefiniteness and pliability with in 2Ch 28:16. That the revolt of Ahaz to the gods of the Syrians thus took place after the distresses which the Edomites, Philistines, and Syrians prepared for him, cannot be definitely concluded from this passage; rather it seems to follow from 2Ch 28:23 that he had already, during the war with Rezin, begun to testify his respect for the gods of his foe and his country. There is therefore no proper contradiction between our passage and 2Ki 16:10 ff.; only that there is given a more concrete and definite report concerning this turning of Ahaz to the Syrian gods than in our section, which also, again, bears an eminently rhetorical and pathetic character, as indeed all that is related from 2Ch 28:5 onwards.
2Ch 28:24. And Ahaz . . . cut up the vessels of the house of God, that is, as is stated more precisely in 2Ki 16:17, he broke out the sides of the bases, removed the lavers from them, transferred the sea from the brazen oxen to a stone pavement, etc.And shut the doors of the house of the Lord, that is, according to 2Ch 29:3; 2Ch 29:7, the doors not of the court, but of the temple itself, or the porch before the holy and most holy places. Accordingly, the shutting of these doors signified that he suspended the worship of God in the holy and in the most holy place, while he left the altar of burnt-offering in the court; with which 2Ki 16:15 f. agrees, although there the erection of a separate altar of burnt-offering, built after the model of Damascus of Syria, beside the brazen altar of Solomon, is reported (see Bhr on the passage).And made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. Among these altars is included the new altar of burnt-offering in the court, 2Ki 16:10-16, built at the command of Ahaz by the priest Uriah after the pattern of the idol-altar at Damascus. The in is not to be pressed, nor, for example: under every tree, in 2Ch 28:4, nor the phrase: in every single city of Judah, in the following verse.
2Ch 28:25. And provoked to anger the Lord (, hiph., as in Deu 32:16; 1Ki 14:9).
2Ch 28:26-27; comp. the briefer closing notice in 2Ki 16:19-20.And they buried him in the city in Jerusalem; thus not: in the city of David, as is usually said, and further not: in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel (see on 2Ch 28:19), but apart from the proper tombs of the kingsperhaps in the field mentioned in 2Ch 26:23, where the leprous Uzziah was buried. 2Ki 16:20 reports nothing of such an exception that was made with respect to the grave of Ahaz.
Evangelical And Ethical Reflections And Homiletic Hints On 2 Chronicles 24-28
1. A period of fully a century and a half (877727 in the usual chronology) is occupied by the five reigns here combined, comprising a reign of forty, of nearly thirty, and of fifty-two years. But none of them yields any permanent gain for the development of Judah into the normal form of a truly theocratic condition, as the deep corruption exhibited under the last, an instance of decided misrule, shows. When the Canaanitish idolatry, naturalized by Athaliah, after a short predominance, was again expelled, as an element utterly foreign to the Davidic house and the Jewish people, five reigns regularly following in legitimate succession, of which perhaps none was begun otherwise than under favourable auspices, and with joyful hopes on the side of the theocratic party, furnish before the end of 150 years the sad result of a decided relapse into that idolatry. For the less insidiously evil and murderous than merely weak policy of Ahaz in every instance must be regarded as such a relapse, though it might not be the Tyrian-Canaanitish idolatry of Athaliah to which he chiefly yielded, but the Damascene-Syrian superstition of his adversary Rezin, and though, further, the outward form and show of the legitimate worship was perhaps better observed under him than under the priest-opposing daughter of Omri. On the whole, it is manifest that under Ahaz the corruption of religion and morals had gnawed more deeply than at that time, and struck firmer roots into the consciousness and customs of the people. It is now, at least, quite contrary to the state of things then, directly a priest, perhaps the high priest (Uriah, 2Ki 16:10 ff.), who readily enters into the kings idolatrous intentions, and lends a hand to desecrate the sanctuary of Jehovah with foreign modes of worship, elaborated after heathen models; a characteristic which the Chronist perhaps only neglected expressly to mark, because it disgusted and annoyed him to report anything so unreasonable and abominable as this treason of a priest of the Lord. And as the priest, so the people does not now, at the beck of a true witness, as then of Jehoiada, rise up as one man to put an end to the foreign hateful thing at one blow, but presents so little resistance to the seductions to spiritual and corporeal adultery proceeding from the court, that it remains, during a reign of almost sixteen years, on the path of Baal-worship, and establishes not only idolatrous altars in every corner of Jerusalem, but also high places for burning incense to strange gods in every single city of Judah (comp. 2Ch 28:24-25), without standing up in righteous indignation against such a course, or even earnestly seeking a return to theocratic obedience. That it could come to this a century and a half after the events under Athaliah, tells not of a gradual progress to a better state of things, but rather, of a slow but irresistible sinking into worse and worseof a constant ripening of the people for that fearful judgment of God which now fell on the kindred people of Ephraim immediately after the death of Ahaz at the end of these 150 years, and with respect to which for Judah, with all the energy of many attempts at reform (especially under Hezekiah and Josiah), nothing beyond a postponement, a delay of less than 150 years more was secured.
2. None of the four comparatively theocratic reigns before Ahaz had been able to check the descent of the people with uneasy certainty and constancy on this downward path to final corruption; for none possessed the reverence for God and law, untainted by heathenish abominations, which characterized the rule of an Asa or Jehoshaphat. For Joash maintained a decidedly theocratic demeanour only so long as his paternal friend, instructor, and counsellor Jehoiada governed him, or so long as those two symbols given him (2Ch 23:11) at his accessionthe crown as the sign of power, and the law as the sign of theocratic wisdomexercised their united influence over him;19 after whose death he permits, at the request of the worldly-minded princes of Judah (representatives of the higher nobility, to whom the priestly power might long since have well been an abomination), the entrance again of idolatry, and causes the faithful witness of the truth, warning them of the evil consequences of such a course, the son of his instructor Jehoiada (and therefore his near relative), to be slain in the court of the temple. Whereupon also the threatened judgment of God, accomplished by a desolating raid of the Syrian Hazael, suddenly enters, and in a very short time brings about the endand that a terrible endof the unfaithful king. This reign resembles in more than one respect the history of such rulers of the Middle Ages or of modern times as the German emperors Otto III. and Henry IV., or in many respects Louis XIV. of France, who enjoyed the guardianship of excellent regents of the spiritual order at the beginning of their career, but afterwards failed to beware of the evil consequences of their passing over to a false independence. Not much better or happier was the reign of Amaziah, whose early measures, as the sparing of the children of the murderers who conspired against Joash (2Ch 25:4; comp. Deu 24:16) shows, were entirely accordant with the precepts of the law; but who afterwards, in consequence of a successful war with Edom, which seems to have made the conqueror presumptuous, degenerated into heathenish practices, offered the tribute of worship to the gods of the conquered Edomites (naturally without meaning to abolish the legitimate worship of Jehovah, proceeding on some sort of theoretical and practical mingling of the two modes of worshipping God), and added to this the further folly of a supercilious provocation of the powerful Joash of Israel to war. A severe humiliation by this foe, as a reward for this haughty bearing (conjoined with which are here, again, scornful neglect and rough treatment of one of the prophets of Jehovah, ver. 16), here also failed to delay the issue; and the end of the king, effected by a band of traitors and conspirators, ver. 27, was as violent as that of his father. With respect to external politics as well as military and economic (financial) consolidation of their power, the two following reigns appear to have been more fortunate. The vigorous Uzziah, reigning more than a half century, restores in many respects once more the glorious days of a Jehoshaphat, especially with regard to the maintenance of his sway over the southern tribes, and the great advance of the defensive power and financial capability of the country. But when the true spiritual adviser whom he long followed, the prophet Zechariah, was separated from him, he also exhibited haughtiness, daring arrogance, and false independence in spiritual things. And if his people were not involved in the judgment incurred by this guilt, yet his transgression brought on himself a heavy and shameful fall, for which there was no recovery on this side the grave. He dies as one smitten of God (Isa 53:4; comp. Job 2:7; Job 6:4 f., 2Ch 16:12 ff.) in a sick-house, and does not even in death partake of the honour due to a king of the line of David, and also a powerful and celebrated prince (2Ch 26:28). To his son Jotham, reigning a much shorter time, but in a like spirit and with like external fortune, a humiliation of the same kind is certainly spared; for he entered not into the temple of the Lord, ventured on no such daring stretch of his authority as Uzziah in his attempt to burn incense. And how far he was thereby from being without guilt, or free from inward participation in such offences, is shown by the reckless audacity with which his on and successor, during his whole reign (of equal length with that of his father), ventured to addict himself to the demoralizing idolatry of the neighbouring nations, and to procure for it unlimited entrance among his people. Of the father of such a son we can form no very favourable opinion, even if the scanty notices of our author announce little or nothing positively unfavourable concerning him.
3. The penal judgment of God for such continued yielding to the seducing and corrupting influence of heathenism, as it was decreed against Judah, soon after the corruption had broken forth in all its grossness, in the so-called war with Syria and Ephraim, appears, according to the representation of the Chronist, to have been terribly great and severe. More than 100,000 fighting men fall as the sacrifice of a single battle-field, and almost double that number of women, children, and other prisoners of war are dragged away as slaves, and owe their instant unconditional release to the compassion of their kinsmen, the victorious Ephraimites, evoked by a bold and vehement prophetic admonition; so that in this case the Jews were put to shame by the more righteous and pious conduct of the citizens of the neighbouring kingdom (which, however, took place on the very eve of their religious and political ruin). But the spiritual blessing which should have sprung from so heavy and deeply humiliating a visitation was gone. No trace of the return of the heart to the true God and to His law comes to light in the subsequent accounts concerning the acts and events of the reign of Ahaz. And the calamities added to that great defeat, the invasions of the Edomites and Philistines, as well as the distress from the Assyrian king, whose alliance naturally soon proved to be an oppressive sovereignty, produce, instead of repentance toward God, only increasing submission to the idols. As slave children with venal servility kiss the rod with which they are chastised, so Ahaz thinks he must present more demonstrations of respect to the gods of his victorious foes, in proportion as they prepare for him heavier humiliations. And no one among the people brings him back from such folly; the voice of no prophet, though they press as strongly and closely upon his ear as that of an Isaiah (Isaiah 7-10), is able to check the criminal course into which he has gone with his princes, his counsellors, and his strong party among the people. First under his son Hezekiah, repentance and amendment, the path to which was already prepared in many hearts by the previous afflictions, come to light; and that unusually severe judgment of God finally proves to be a wholesome corrective measure, the effect of which is to save, create new life, and purify; comp. Hezekiahs own reflections on it, 2Ch 29:9,a passage which, at the same time, deserves to be taken into account as a supplementary testimony to the greatness of the loss suffered by the people from the defeats in question.
4. In the representation of the author of the books of Kings, this pragmatic connection of the defeats of Ahaz, especially that inflicted on him by the Syrians and Ephraimites, with his sins and his sinking into ever worse impenitence and idolatry, is less sharply and clearly exhibited than in the strong, rhetorically-coloured, and generally animated and impassioned style adopted by our author. But its substantial credibility can suffer no damage from this, that it here and there presents other points of view, and in part connects the events otherwise. As the reports of the Chronist, giving great prominence to the Levitical element in the revolution conducted by Jehoiada, as well as in the contributions for the temple and its repair under Joash, in contrast with those of the books of Kings, do not deserve to be cast in the shade and disparaged; or as that which our author more specially relates concerning Uzziahs transgression and punishment from his Levitical point of view is not to be suspected in comparison with the allusive brevity of the older parallel account; even so we have no right to hesitate with regard to that which is peculiar to him in the description of the Syro-Ephraimitish war. The roundness, resting rather on an estimate than an exact enumeration, of the high numbers in 2Ch 28:6-8 is the only thing that is to be conceded to the judgment of the opponent calling in question the strict historical accuracy of his narrative (see above on this passage). All other details of this description clearly rest on good historical ground; neither the names of the persons that fell, 2Ch 28:7, in the great engagement with Pekah among the kings relatives and nearest circle, nor those of the nobles of Ephiraim who supported by their vote the admonition of Oded to release the Jewish captives (2Ch 28:12), look like mere invention. The invention of such names, in order to invest an account, legendary in itself, with the appearance of historical truth, would, in fact, be an inconceivable monstrosity, a unicum in the history of literary fictions. But they both hold and support each other, the undeniable historical reality of these names, and the credibility of the facts with which they are connected and environed. The entrance also of the prophet Oded, and the words spoken by him, are accredited by the reacting power of these concrete names. What is done to the Jewish captives by those four chiefs of Ephraim seems purely inconceivable without a vehement admonition, such as that spoken by Oded according to 2Ch 28:9-11. Caspari therefore declares it to be the highest levity (against Gesenius, in his Commentary on Isaiah, p. 269, and other impugners of the historical truth of this prophetic utterance) to hold the report in vers. 911 to be unworthy of credit, and yet to regard the contents of 2Ch 28:12 ff. as historical. And in the same relation of supplement and of correspondence to 2 Kings stands in general all that our author reports different from the statements there concerning Ahaz and the steps taken by him for the furtherance of idolatry. As the remarks made by him, 2Ch 28:17-19, concerning the invasions of the Edomites and Philistines, agree excellently with 2Ki 16:6, so between that which he relates, 2Ch 28:23-25, regarding the idolatrous profanation of the temple and its vessels and 2Ki 16:10-16 there is no contradiction whatever, but merely a relation of supplement and confirmation. On the whole, it would seem superfluous, indeed almost paltry, after Casparis emphatic and pertinent argument in favour of the essential harmony of the two reports of the war, to enter further into subtle critical disquisitions or wide apologetic investigations regarding their apparent or even real points of difference.
Footnotes:
[1]The absent copula before is supplied in the Sept., Vulg., and Luth., and rightly.
[2]The Sept. and Vulg. take rather as the accus. belonging to Zechariah ( , sacerdotem).
[3]The Vulg. and Syr. do not translate ; the Sept. ( ) appears to have read .
[4]Hebr. , as always in Chronicles; comp. 1Ch 18:5.
[5]For the Sept. and Vulg. probably read aright The plur. seems a slip of the pen.
[6]So according to the Kethib . on the Keri , be multiplied (the sentence upon him), see Exeg. Expl.
[7]Before is to be supplied, with almost all recent expositors. See Exeg. Expl.
[8]For we should certainly read, with the Keri (and a considerable number of mss.): .
[9] , Kethib; the Keri is . Comp Exeg. Expl.
[10] , gate of turning, is undoubtedly and error for , corner gate; comp. 2Ch 26:9, and especially the parallel 2Ki 14:13.
[11]For the old versions (Sept., Vulg., Syr.) have: in the city of David.
[12]The Keri amends , after 2Ki 15:2, into , which is scarcely right.
[13]Instead of should rather be read, with the Sept. ( ), Syr., Targ., Raschi, Kimchi, and some Hebrew mss. of de Rossi: .
[14]Sept.: (Perhaps thinking of petra, the capital of Edom).
[15]Sept.: , by mistake (from the preceding ).
[16]So the Kethib (); the Keri has (as Ezr 8:13).
[17]The Sept., Syr., and Arab. have twenty-five, a reading which Houbigant, Dathe, Ewald, Berth., and most moderns prefer. Comp. also J. A. Bengel, in the passage quoted, Introd. 6, Rem. (p. 28).
[18]Properly Darmascus; comp. 1Ch 18:5-6; 2Ch 14:2; 2Ch 24:23.
[19]Comp. Luthers marginal note on this passage: Finely are both the crown and the book presented to the King that he might be not only mighty, but also wise, or (as we may say) know Gods word and right. Thus, even now, we make kings with a sword and book.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The reign of Jotham is recorded in this chapter. He obtains a victory over the Ammonites. He is succeeded by Ahaz.
2Ch 27:1
It may be proper to observe that the relation given in the Chronicles and in the book of Kings concerning this prince, is nearly one and the same. 2Ki 15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 27:6
The circumstances of Jotham’s day make it all the more remarkable that this should be the record of his life. He ascended the throne as regent at the time of Uzziah’s removal, when the sovereign and the State alike were suffering from the perils of prosperity. National life had deteriorated, for national ideals were lowered, and but little place was given in the life of the people to the true worship of God. The new king, however, having somehow caught a vision of the only certain strength of any man or nation, took the singular course which the man must ever take who seeks to be true to the light which has shone upon him from God. Despite the current worldliness he steadfastly set himself to realize the highest type of life and leadership, and sought power for this in the sanctuary by there preparing his ways. It is always interesting to discover the secret springs which, gathering force as they go, ultimately form some great river and here is one of them. Jotham’s attitude towards the serious facts of life is the secret of the strength which he acquired and by means of which he exercised such beneficent influence over his people. It is an anticipation one of the clearest which the Old Testament affords us of the Saviour’s precept to His followers to seek ‘first the kingdom of God,’ and is likewise one of the most arresting illustrations of its force. For to prepare his ways before the Lord will always assure the pure and permanent quality of any man’s life.
I. Power is not so much an acquisition as an accumulation. God does not bestow strength, at any rate in the moral and spiritual realms, in the same way as he bestows sunlight and rain. A man becomes mighty only according as he adopts a right attitude toward the claims of God, and according also as he exerts the whole strength of his life toward their obedience.
II. There is perhaps no greater peril than that of unconsciously drifting into a haphazard attitude toward life, the temper of the man who takes neither thought for the morrow nor for the day, but is content to take things as they turn up. Such an one failing to recognize the seriousness of life, even in its most trivial details, enfeebles and unfits himself for the strenuous service to which God has appointed His people. The unprepared man is the unfruitful man, and indeed is often the defeated man when confronted with the ordinary temptations to which each of us is subject. The conflict comes upon him unawares, and finds him unarmed, surprised and easily overcome. Occasional immunity from severe test, or, on the other hand, a mere casual success, saps the strength of many an one by deceiving him as to the necessity of honest preparation of all his ways personal, social, commercial and religious in view of the constant adverse influence of the enemy. But it is victory indeed when, as with Jotham, such chance success is valued at its right worth, and is not suffered to deceive nor blind a man as to the absolute necessity of living before the Lord his God continually.
III. To rightly understand the necessity of this preparation of our ways brings a new conception of the nature and value of the daily prayer-appointment. It is not merely the presentation of petition, the proffering of request, the seeking for personal benefit, but a subjective exercise also of inquiry and discrimination. It is, or should be, the occasion for testing motive, for judging relative worth, for scrutiny of ideal. Just as the mariner adjusts his compasses before a voyage, just as the musician tunes his instrument before playing upon it, just as the soldier primes his arms before a contest, so the Christian must prepare his ways before each day’s life.
IV. The outcome of such faithful preparation as unto which Jotham gave himself is certain to be with us as it was with him. Such a life is bound to wax stronger and stronger, and cannot but be in vivid contrast to the anaemic lives of the mere drifters, who are content to be borne on the waves of passing impulse and fleeting emotion in what they hope is a heavenward direction. It brings an increased sense of dependence which is not a contradiction but a complement of true strength. It develops a faculty of discrimination by which a man discerns the things which are worth while, and has power both to choose them and to refuse the others. It invests life with true dignity; for a man cannot daily go forth from the secret place, having there prepared his ways before the Lord, without having the springing step and buoyant heart of one who knows himself to be God’s son and servant. This is the might which is possible to all who will thus daily learn to face life by first facing Him. And since we have ‘boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus,’ while there must be no presumption there need be no fear. The strength of the redeemed is in the Redeemer, and is theirs as they set themselves with honest intent of heart to do those things that please Him.
J. Stuart Holden, The Pre-Eminent Lord, p. 111.
References. XXVII. 6. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, etc., p. 207. J. McNeill, Regent Square Pulpit, vol. iii. p. 329. XXVIII. 1-16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2305. XXVIII. 10. Ibid. vol. vi. No. 294. XXVIII. 19, 22, 23, 25. A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book for All Ages, p. 100. XXVIII. 22. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. li. No. 2993, xxviii. 23. Ibid. vol. xliv. No. 2565. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, etc., p. 215. XXIX. 1, 2. A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book for All Ages, p. 111. XXIX. 1-11. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, etc., p. 225. XXIX. 7. D. T. Young, The Crimson Book, p. 88. XXIX. 15. H. Hensley Henson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxix. 1906, p. 5. XXIX. 18-31. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture 2 Kings, Chronicles, etc., p. 232.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Jotham Regarded As a Connecting-link
2Ch 27:22Ch 282Ch 28
WHO was he? Whence did he spring? He comes so suddenly upon us: let us interrogate him. A few facts may lead to a great philosophy. Jotham was the son of a king, and the probable son of a high priest. Then he must be good! Let us take care how we hasten to conclusions. We may be right, or we may be wrong; but let us take great care of the basis oh which our reasoning is founded. His father’s name was Uzziah, not a name to be altogether proud of, as we have seen. His mother was the daughter of Zadok, and Zadok was probably high priest. Jotham was a good king, almost whole-hearted in genuine piety, and a wise man in that he avoided at least one of his father’s mistakes. Anybody can avoid a vulgarity; no genius is required in forbearing to imitate drunkenness, profanity, sheer and desperate recklessness: the thing that is difficult to avoid is a divergence from the path of virtue and wisdom. Heavenly wisdom discriminates between shades. A child might soon learn to distinguish between the right hand and the left; but all things are not diametrically separated; there are radii, and they can come quite closely together, being finely drawn, by specially prepared instruments. The wisdom that is from above hath a microscopic eye which can see the finest shades and the closest lights. Uzziah made a fool of himself in a way that his son could hardly imitate. Moreover his son may have heard of the penalty that fell upon the trespassing king. When a man’s father has been blasted with leprosy, surely the son is not likely to go and do the very thing which brought upon his parent that malediction. We read, therefore, that Jotham “entered not into the temple of the Lord.” Here is a negative virtue to begin with. The meaning is not that Jotham did not go to the temple service, did not heed the temple ritual, did not care for temple life; probably he was regular and punctual in his attendance at the temple within the assigned limits; but he did not enter the temple sacrilegiously as his father did, for, as we have seen, his father went in and took the censer, and swung it, and burned incense, and the priests followed him with great haste, and arrested him, king though he was, and said No: even a king must keep within the proper limitations; and whilst they remonstrated the white patch came up in the forehead, and Uzziah went out a leper, as he had come in a trespasser. Jotham took care not to imitate the broad vulgarity of his father’s sacrilege. But to avoid a great sin does not involve the fact or the necessity that we must therefore be minutely, critically, and vitally pious. The Scripture comes into closer quarters with us, and asks many questions in a whisper which we could have borne if they had been hurled at us in thunder. It is the searching whisper, the spiritual cross-examination, the still small voice that wants the minutest secret from the heart, that we cannot endure.
The piety of Jotham was the more remarkable that he had nobody to sustain him: “The people did yet corruptly” ( 2Ch 27:2 ). It is hard to be a flower in a wilderness of weeds. There is a singularity that is painful. It is hard to pray when everybody is cursing. It is easy to join the popular hymn, easy to flow with the stream. The difficulty is to be the one example, to stand by conviction in the time of general moral collapse; to be the one faithful among the many faithless. But there is danger even here. A man may think himself more pious than he really is because other people are so corrupt. A little light may seem to be quite a sun where the darkness is so great. The danger is that we take credit to ourselves for being very heavenly when we are only really good by contrast, when we owe more to the darkness that is around us than to the light that is in us for the display of any supposed virtue or excellence.
We have said that Jotham was almost whole hearted: what flaw was there in the crystal? Read the words, and say if the most critical eye can detect in them any foreign material, any vitiating speck:
“He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers” ( 2Ch 27:3-4 ).
This wall looked towards the south: who does not like to work or build or loiter on the sunny side of the hill? Work then becomes a kind of pleasure, the sun blithely assists the labourer, and makes him forget quite half his toil. Many men are willing to assist on sunny days and at sunny places and under sunny circumstances, who are no use among shadows and gathering gloom and threatening thunder. They call themselves your friends, and so they tell wicked lies; they profess themselves to be willing to undertake any work that the sun shines on, and to do it in the spirit of sacrifice: no such action is possible; they do it that they may enjoy themselves, that they may receive the benediction of the sun. Perhaps they do not mean to be wicked: what man ever did, fully and self-consciously, intend to be as bad as he could be? But they are self-deceived, they are charmed and tempted because the work is on the southern slope, and there the sun seems to shine all day. If all this were said to an intelligent Christian congregation the assembly would listen with interest and attention; yet this is not the meaning of the text, and this has no connection whatsoever with the text. This is the difficulty which the Christian teacher must always contend with, namely, that nobody knows the Bible; and further that there is a great danger in neglecting the text that the sermon may be enjoyed. As well neglect to reap, and come for the fruit. What then does “Ophel” mean? It means the mount. Where was the mount? On the southern slope. Why did the king build so much on Ophel? Because it was most accessible to the enemy; he would have built as much on the northern or shady side if that had been the weak point of his life; like a wise commander he remembered that no man is stronger than his weakest point, and that no fortification is stronger than its frailest part; so the king built much where the wall was weakest, or where the access of the enemy was most open; and in doing so he gathered up and represented the wisdom and experience of the ages, and anticipated what we and all the sons of time ought to do. Many men are building unnecessarily; they have not walked round the wall to see what place was weakest. So long as they are building they think they are industrious; it is industry thrown away. So many men are foolishly energetic and industrious. Why put more bolts on the door that is already ironed and strengthened in what appears to be every possible way? Why so diligently protect the front door, and leave the back door standing wide open? This is the folly of life, this is the madness of many business men, this is the secret of failure in a thousand directions, industry to the point of exhaustion, early rising, late retiring, continual friction, but all at the wrong time or under the wrong circumstances, all stultified by want of proceeding from the right centre. What is your weakest point? Build much there. Your weakest point is not want of information; if your wisdom were half your knowledge a greater than Solomon would be here. Why all this acquisition of more languages, more history, more philosophy? Your character is running out of you at another point. Build much where much building is needed. Your want is not want of more money. Suppose your money were multiplied by ten, what of it? It would be multiplied by ten if you thought it were. After a certain point, a man can have just as much as he pleases to have by multiplying it a hundredfold. There is a time when money ceases to be of value as to living effect and blessed influence; therefore you can at any time multiply what you have by any number of units and ciphers, and all will come out in the great polysyllable of love. You do not need more money, but you need more character, patience, thoughtfulness, self-control, settled persistence, unsparing discipline: why not build much at Ophel? What is your weakest point passion? Have plenty of water at hand, mountains of ice; that will be wisdom; but to be giving great festivals and floating banners and sounding trumpets will be absolutely useless to you: what you want is a plunge into an ice-pit, and to stop there till your friends fetch you out of it, you will be a long time absent, What is your weakest point covetousness? Then take inkhorn and pen and cleanest sheet of whitest paper, and write on it in God’s sight that every day in the week you will give a sum that will pinch you. You do not give till you begin to feel you have given. All other contribution is luxury, vanity, a perfunctory service; let there be some feeling of real sacrifice; then every day for a time will be a battle. There will stand the oath a challenge, a claim. Near your shoulder there will plead an invisible devil, who will say, Has not the time come when you might relax your discipline? And you, poor bruised reed, only healed the day before yesterday, will begin to feel that perhaps you might intermit a day. Build much on that Ophel; that is your salvation or your ruin, namely, your relation to that weakest point in your character. What is your most accessible point indolence? Build much there; insist upon being roused; say to your soul, It is right that I should, if need be, be maddened into action; and plead with your dearest friend not to spare the puncture that will call you to your fate. Sloth steals over a man, lulls him, delights him; and how quickly the unsympathetic clock goes when we are dozing! What man ever woke up and said, It is not so far on as I thought it was? How many thousands awake to say they had no idea that the time had passed so rapidly? Is your weakest point envy? Is it impossible for you to see your neighbour prosper without your sleep being broken in upon? Does the prosperity of your competitor spoil your peace? That is your Ophel; build much there; to build otherwhere is useless; such building may express industry, but industry misspent; to beat the air is a fool’s exercise.
You are not going to found an accusation on the process and action of building. He was not building evil temples, unholy houses, places destitute of every sign of spiritual excellence and religious significance. Yet it was in all that building that he got wrong. We must go to the religious critic to find what men are doing. We must go to the pulpit, if the pulpit is true, to know whether kings are acting wisely or unwisely; and the pulpit must bear the foolish accusation of being political in its criticism and censure. All the building is proceeding, and people are saying what an admirable building it is; but Hosea was the prophet of the time, a burning fire in the northern kingdom, a man who would be written down by the journalists of the day for being political; he thundered in his age, and made kings know that prophecy was the true royalty. Said he, in the name of God: “Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” Whilst Jotham was building Hosea was thundering. Hosea might have been more popular if he had said nothing about it. People love an inoffensive ministry; a sweet, quiet, vapid platitudinarianism. But the prophets were great critics; they let nothing escape them, they condemned with a strong voice. Said Isaiah, that great statesman-prophet who would not be shut up within some limited place called a pulpit, but who made creation the theatre of his action, “The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,” the northern tribes being politically designated by that name, and being thus significantly described. Jotham would have fortresses and castles and towers and much masonry. The Lord has always been training the race to spiritual dependence. If he has allowed man to build anything with mortar and stone, it has been to teach him the inutility of any such erections. “I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” The word “castles” in this verse literally means palaces, the very word which Hosea uttered at the bidding of God. The Lord is to be our refuge and strength, not our high walls and great towers and invincible bastions. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. A man may be building atheistically. A man may lay up so much for a rainy day that in his very economy and penuriousness and forethought he may be denying God. Innocent indeed Jotham appeared to be when building and completing the line of fortifications; but he ought to have trusted more in the living God. There be those who say that heaven helps those who help themselves, and they help themselves so much as to leave heaven nothing to do. Are we not displacing faith by prudence? Are we not ousting religion by calculation? Except the Lord keep the city, every gate of it will fall down, and the burglars may enter in full force. Except the Lord watch, the watchman’s lamp and rattle are but child’s toys. What is the fortification of our life? What is the line of defence? Wherein have we put our trust? What appears to be innocent may in reality be full of atheism and folly. Self-preservation may be really an aspect of atheism. To put another line of defence around one’s life may be to restrain prayer before God. Thus all through the ages God has been training men to spiritual trust, to simple faith, to casting one’s self upon the Almighty, and saying Father, as thou wilt; I am not my own, I am thine: lead me, guide me, make use of me, make my whole life a blessing; I want to have no will but thine: there cannot be two almighties: the Lord reigneth; he shall be the defence of my soul.
Was Jotham, then, condemned and utterly cast away? No. We will retain our first form of words and say he was almost whole-hearted in his healthy piety. And it is recorded of him, “Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God” ( 2Ch 27:6 ). Literally, He directed his steps by the meridian of God’s righteousness. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” How difficult it is to be a whole-hearted man in piety! How strong the temptatation just to do a little building and a little praying! How likely the Sunday of life is to be voted out by the six competing days! It must be hard to be the one day in the week which peculiarly bears the image and superscription of God. It is difficult to tell the whole truth. Who does? Society would be rent in pieces if the whole truth were spoken one single day. Jotham established his ways before God; he lived a religious life; he had an uppermost thought that fixed itself upon the living God. Who is a Christian? No man. It is impossible to be a Christian. What is possible is the desire “I count not myself to have attained, but I press toward the mark.” If that was all the great apostle accounted himself to have done, in some feeble echo only can we claim to be of the glorious company of the apostles. The Lord looks upon the uppermost thought, the supreme desire, and when we can say, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee: I know what happened four days ago I know it yet I love thee,” then shall come a mission to feed the lambs and sheep.
Such was Jotham, in rude outline. Such a father must, we should say, have an excellent son. On so fair a tree fair fruit must be found. Yet we must beware of our own reasoning, for such halting logic would not have given us Jotham himself. We are on the wrong line of reasoning if we suppose that a good father must have a good son. There is a kind of natural logic in it, a sequence that comes as if it were of necessity; but it is not so. Jotham’s father was a leper, and was smitten with leprosy on moral grounds. Helped until he became strong, he was not satisfied with strength; he exaggerated his strength into presumption; he inspired his strength by a baleful ambition, and he was ruined in his very endeavour to become more than God intended him to be. Blessed is he who knows the measure of his election, and who makes his calling and election sure; blessed is he who knows he cannot preach, cannot utter music, cannot grasp and handle with mastery the tragedy of life; blessed is he who knows just what he can do, and who faithfully, simply, lovingly does it; he shall be honoured with many honours when his Lord cometh. Uzziah was not after that model. Having done much he thought he could do more, and in the perversion and misapplication of his strength he found his leprosy. It would seem as if Providence persistently broke in upon natural logic and asserted a sovereignty immeasurable, incalculable, so that no man could tell what will happen tomorrow. The growth of humanity is not after a horticultural manner. We cannot say that a good tree shall have good off-shoots, if we are speaking of humanity. The holiest father may have a murderer for his son. The sweetest mother may die of a broken heart. Only a foolish criticism is reckless in fixing definite responsibilities in this matter of the nurture and culture of children. The Lord rebukes us when we say that because the father was good the son must be good; or because the father was evil the son must be evil. The Lord permits men to come in between who are bad, or who are good, that all our little speculation about heredity, and all our arrangements for moral progress, may be thrown back and lost in confusion. Herein is the working of that mysterious law which is often misunderstood when denominated the law of election. We cannot tell what God is doing. Your son ought to have been good: for where is there a braver soul than yourself? The boy ought to have been chivalrous, for he never knew you do a mean deed or give lodgment to an ungenerous thought. In a way too he was proud of his father; yet there was no devil’s work he would not stoop to do. He did not get the bad blood from his mother, for gentler, sweeter soul never sang God’s psalms in God’s house. Yet there is the mystery, and it is not for a reckless criticism to define the origin and the issue of this mysterious phenomenon in human development.
Jotham had a son called Ahaz: “But he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father” ( 2Ch 28:1 ). What a point of departure! The prodigal son has been in every history; it required but the fingers of Christ to take him out and set him forth in a parable that fills the eyes like the sun at midday. Why did Ahaz go astray when his father was a good man? Perhaps he went only a little astray; perhaps the deflection was hardly calculable. No, that is not so: “For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim,” not for Baal; he served all the gods; his idols were in the plural number: for every aspect of Baal; literally, for the Baals. There was not an avatar that had not its recognition from wicked Ahaz. He walked round the Baalim to see how many there were of them, and the more there were the better he was pleased. “Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel” ( 2Ch 28:3 ). He revelled in wickedness; he was a glutton at the devil’s table. He would have come well immediately after his grandfather, the leper. But Jotham was between. That is the mystery. How is it that man goes on for a while, and then suddenly reverts, or turns aside, or makes room for a monster? It is a curious history! There was no end to the wickedness of Ahaz. “He made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord”: literally, He made Judah licentious; still more literally, He loosed Judah, took away the restraints of decency, custom, publicity; cut the tether, loosed Judah, made Judah naked, destroyed the last light of decency. Yet Jotham was his father. That is the difficulty. The old leprosy was to come up again in another form. This is the son of the leper, only the leprosy is on the heart, not on the face. A melancholy record, truly! Yet Jotham was his father. His father prayed, he worshipped idols; his father acknowledged God, he denied him. All the home influence was lost; he was a sevenfold offender. Hear his record: he worshipped the gods of Syria, “For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But” now comes a sentence that ought to be written in letters of fire, that ought to be kept steadily before the eyes of every young man
“But they were the ruin of him” ( 2Ch 28:23 ).
Now let us read the verse in its entirety:
“For he [Ahaz] sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel [lit. and they (i.e. those very gods) were to him to make him stumble, and all Israel. The mode of expression, as well as the thought expressed, is highly characteristic] ( 2Ch 28:23 ).
Local gods are full of prejudice; sectarian gods will not bless the men that go to the next church. The gods of the Syrians are supposed to favour the Syrians only little gods, mean, poor-hearted gods, little shrivelled tearless gods, petting their own idolaters after a superstitious fashion, but having nothing to do with the great human heart in all the tragedy of its meaning. That is the history of sectarianism everywhere. Only that God is true, though he be but a painted deity, that loves the world. The artist that painted such a god created him. This is the glory of the Bible, that it reveals a God who loves all men, who redeemed all men, who is no respecter of persons. A God that respects persons pays his Godhead for his elevation. How many men have been mistaken in seeking false inspiration or in coveting false benedictions! The young man says he has a difficult task tomorrow, he is to meet persons with whom he has no sympathy and from whom he expects no quarter; constitutionally, he is nervous, self-distrustful, somewhat afraid of a certain aspect of controversy: he therefore says, I will fortify myself, I will take wine, the wine will quicken the flow of my blood, will pleasantly and usefully excite the nervous centres, and I shall go forward boldly and confidently and make the best of myself; but it was the ruin of him! Wine never made a man really bold; whilst the wine was working its little temporary miracle upon him, it was sucking out his will, it was twisting the chain round his life; whilst the wine satisfied one thirst it was creating another, and he who was so bold under the inspiration of one glass of wine will need two the next time; and so he seeks a fool’s helper, that will be the ruin of him. Impudence is not boldness; self-forgetfulness wrought by this demon of the pit is not power, dignity, or noblest manhood. For a time you were pert, self-sufficient, heedless, careless of every man, and could answer in retort and repartee with some sharpness: it was not you, but the evil spirit, and that evil spirit will be the ruin of you; though you start business with a heavy capital, and with many friends, and with the fullest sunshine of social favour, take heed; you may be buried with the burial of an ass. Are there not those who seek false inspiration? They will consult their false pride, they will sacrifice at the altar of appearances; over their poverty they will put some borrowed rag in the hope that observers will look at the rag and not at the poverty, and treat them as occupying a certain social position. False pride will be the ruin of them. Why do you not acknowledge poverty? There is a poverty that is honourable, there is an industry of which no man need be ashamed. If you cannot surround yourself with liveried servants, who cares? The people who simulate amazement at your grandeur will laugh at you as fools when they go home. False appearances are the ruin of many people. They are ashamed to work, they would die if they had to clean their own doorstep. All this we must get rid of, or we shall have no real health. All tall talk, all high assumptions, all genteel lying must be swept out of the way, and men must go for what they are worth, and create an aristocracy of merit. Let capacity lead the nation: let merit be the chief partner in business: let genius wear the purple and sway the sceptre. They were the ruin of Ahaz, and they will be the ruin of every man that consults false sources of inspiration or excitement; it is not inspiration, it is insanity; it is not healthy excitement, the glow of an intelligent enthusiasm, but the madness and the lawlessness of superstition or self-idolatry.
The subject gives a word to many, let the word be confined to one only, and that to the soul who wonders why his child should not be better. It is a wonder. There is no frivolous explanation of that mystery. Do not be content with any man who would try to daub that wall with untempered mortar. We did not expect this; we all said, The son of such a father must have on him the stamp of spiritual royalty; his very speech must be attuned to the music of heaven. God is working, and he may at last show what he has been meaning all the time; but you may rest in this solemn doctrine that judgment is in the hand of God. It is not for man to condemn or to praise beyond a very easily defined limit of criticism. God knoweth all things. He knoweth more things than you, even the boy’s father, can tell, because he knows all the fathers that have gone before you. You do not know them beyond a very recent date; but every line is open, even to nakedness, to the eyes of him with whom we have to do; and he will be kind, he will be gracious. Aaron says, “His mercy endureth for ever.” Israel says, “His mercy endureth for ever.” All men who have had experience of him say, “His mercy endureth for ever.” And all his attributes, purposes, have been gathered up into one sublime utterance, which a child can remember as to words, but which no archangel can fathom as to meaning, “God is Love.”
Prayer
Speak thy word to our hearts, thou God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and may we know that the word is thine because of our glowing love. There is no voice like thine, there is no touch like thine. Draw near to us, whisper to us, lay thy fingers upon us, and we shall be cheered and healed and made strong with thine own strength. We have wandered, but thou knowest that we love thee; we have stopped our prayers that we might do some sin, yet all the while the prayer has been uppermost and has prevailed; we have gone away from thy sanctuary, but our hearts have ached that we might return. Behold, thou hast not left us to ourselves, thou hast followed us, thy Holy Spirit has been with us, entreating, rebuking, reproaching, yet comforting: assuring us when our hunger was keenest that in our Father’s house there was bread enough and to spare. Give us understanding of the times, that we may know what thy Church ought to do; bless us with the spirit of fearlessness, that we may speak the necessary word with all clearness and with the power of self-restraint and the charm of anxious modesty; may there be no sparing of wrong, may there be no compromise with evil or darkness, may no bribe be accepted at Christ’s altar, but may all men be alive with the spirit of righteousness, burning with the spirit of love; then shall there come upon all thy Church a revival full of intelligence, earnest, intense, enduring, and he who is our Saviour shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XV
THE REIGNS OF UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND THAZ (OF JUDAH) AND ZECHARIAH, SHALLUM, PEKAHIAH, AND PEKA (OF ISRAEL)
2Ki 15:1-16:20
In this chapter we begin with the brief reign of Zechariah who was the last king of the dynasty of Jehu. He was a weakling preceded by four strong men, but himself very inferior to his predecessors. Zechariah reigned only six months, and during that six months we have the same story of sin and corruption repeated as we have had in all the reigns previous to him. He was murdered by a usurper named Shallum, and thus ends the dynasty of Jehu as had been prophesied: that his children to the fourth generation only should sit upon the throne.
Then follows the brief reign of Shallum. The usurper succeeds in removing Zechariah and seizes the throne. His reign is short lived, but during that time we have an even more terrible picture of the condition of the people as described in the book of Hosea, Hosea 4-14. It is during this period and after, that Hosea gives us the bulk of his prophecy. In Hos 10:3 , referring to one of these revolutions when the dynasty was changed, we find this statement: “Surely now shall they say, We have no king; for we fear not the Lord; and the king, what can he do for us?” which indicates that the people felt themselves without a king. They cared not for God nor for the king. The kingdom was without a head) without a central government, the result of such condition of affairs is the anarchy which he describes. In Hos 4:1-2 we have a catalogue of the sins of the people: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land; nought but swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” So frequent were the murders that the blood of one is not dried up before another one takes place and there is a continuous stream of blood.
Next comes the brief reign of Menahem, who seized the throne through murder, destroyed all the dynasty preceding him, and the brief statement made in regard to his character would indicate that he was a man, barbarous in his ferocity, a murderer and a relentless freebooter.
The record tells us that when Uzziah was exalted, his heart was lifted up with pride, and he assumed to perform the functions of the priesthood. He thrust himself into the Temple to offer the incense which the law placed in other hands. There the priest met him, bravely stood in the way of that offering, and while the spirit of persistence was upon him, God smote him with leprosy, and from the day that leprosy struck him he had to be isolated from the throne and the people and though he lived years afterward a regency was established by his son, Jotham. It is called Uzziah’s reign, but Jotham acted as king until his leprosy killed him.
In 2Ki 15:19-20 and 1Ch 5:26 we find that Pul, king of Assyria, or the great Tiglath-Pileser, approaches the Northern Kingdom, and Menahem had to pay a large tribute in order to maintain his kingdom, a thousand talents of silver: “And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria, so the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.” Thus he was able to maintain his throne and kingdom by paying Tiglath-Pileser a heavy tribute. Then follows the reign of Pekahiah, the son of Menahem. He was a little improvement upon his father. In a short time he was himself butchered by Pekah who seized the throne and established another dynasty. His character was in line with the other kings of Israel in general: “He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.”
About this time Uzziah died. It is notable that he was buried “in the field of burial with his fathers, for they said, He was a leper.” Just at this time, Isaiah, the greatest of Old Testament prophets, had his vision, and also the prophetic work of Amos and Hosea of Israel and Micah of Judah falls in this period. From these prophets we get a fine description of the customs and practices of this time.
Upon the death of Uzziah, his son Jotham, reigned in his stead. His mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. His character was ahead of any other king in the period except Hezekiah. He didn’t put down the high places, but he didn’t commit particular sins to aggravate the condition of the people. He carried forward some important building enterprises. He built the upper gate of the Temple, the wall of Ophel, cities in the hill country of Judah and castles and towers in the forest. He was also successful in war with the Ammonites who paid him large tribute.
During the reign of Pekah several things happened. The kingdom was now nearing its end and we read that Pul, the great Assyrian king approached eastern Palestine, conquered it, deported the entire population “and brought them unto Halah, and Habor and Hara, and to the river of Gozan,” and there they remained. Tiglath-Pileser was the first of the great Assyrians that inaugurated the system of deporting a rebellious people, thus rendering them powerless to oppose him. He picked them up, and transported them to other countries, and brought in others to take their places, simply transferred whole nations. Thus all eastern Palestine had gone into exile.
We now come to Ahaz and the whole picture is black. He reigned sixteen years and he crowded into that time as much meanness, vileness, as a man can put into sixteen years. Let us glance at the record itself to see some of the things that he did. In the sketch of his character it is said, “He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” There was a confederacy formed against him to which the prophets give particular notice. The king of Israel and the king of Syria entered into an alliance to destroy Judah. Here the prophet Oded comes in and the record says, “Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the Lord your God?” You acted as the sword of God against Judah. Ought it not to put you to thinking that God would make some other nation the sword against you? ‘Spurgeon has a great sermon on that text: “Are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the Lord your God?” Spurgeon preached his sermon to those harsh censorious people who with an eye of a buzzard can detect anything fowl, or dead, or decaying in the character of other people, and he made this charge in the sermon: “You that condemn others, you who are so ready to pass a harsh and inexorable judgment upon them, are there not even with you some trespasses against the Lord your God?” Our Lord carried out the thought thus: “What judgment ye mete unto others shall be measured unto you.” Not only was Ahaz smitten by this confederacy from the north, but the Edomites on the south revolted against him; on every side the enemies came in and smote him.
Now we come to his next sin. Instead of turning to God with repentance and asking the Lord to help him he seeks an alliance with Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, and invites him to smite Syria for a consideration: “Now I will foot the bills.” In order to foot the bills he strips the house of God of all of its precious ornaments and with that gold he buys the service of the Assyrian king to smite the Syrians and the Assyrian was ready enough to do the smiting. He had an eye in that direction already and he did smite, but he demanded that Ahaz should come up to Damascus and pay tribute to him.
So we come to the third great sin of Ahaz. When in Damascus he studied the form of the altar of burnt offerings that the idolaters had up there and was very much pleased with it; so before he leaves he sends a plan of it to a certain priest and instructs him to make one just like it, and when he gets home he moves God’s altar off to one side, and puts up this heathen altar that he had copied. He didn’t stop at that; he shut up the holy place, and closed up all the services of the worship of the true God. That gives some idea of his sins.
In 2Ki 15:29 we have the account of another terrible deportation by Tiglath-Pileser. He came “and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all of the land of Naphtali, and he carried them captive to Assyria.” Thus we see that northern Israel was stripped of all of its land east of the Jordan and of all its land north of the plain of Esdraelon, and only the hill country of Ephraim was left, about one-tenth perhaps of the entire dominion. So the kingdom is going, falling, being stripped of its possessions gradually.
In 2Ki 15:30-31 , we have an account of the death of Pekah, which was the result of a conspiracy of Hoshea, the son of Remaliah. But between Pekah and Hoshea we find, according to good authority,” another interregnum of nine years which is determined by comparing 2Ki 15:27 ; 2Ki 15:30 and 2Ki 17:1 .
QUESTIONS
1. Who succeeded Jeroboam II, and what was his character?
2. How long did he reign, what was the manner of his death, and what promise of Jehovah was fulfilled in him?
3. Who succeeded Zechariah and what was the story of his reign and death?
4. Who succeeded Shallum and what was his character?
5. What was Uzziah’s sin, what was its punishment and what is meant by “several house”?
6. Who became king regent and what was his special work as such?
7. What invasion of Israel just here and what results?
8. Who succeeded Menahem, what was his character and what the manner of his death?
9. Who succeeded Pekahiah and what was his character?
10. What is notable in the death and burial of Uzziah, what great prophet had his vision in the year of Uzziah’s death, and what other prophets came in this period?
11. Who succeeded Uzziah, who his mother and what his character?
12. What was the spiritual condition of his people, what of his building enterprises and what of his conquest and result?
13. What deportation of Israel here, who took them and where, and what the market condition of Judah at this time?
14. Who succeeded Jotham, what was his character, and what horrible thing did he practice?
15. Recite the account of the war between Ahaz and Rezin and Pekah including the account of Isaiah and the work of Oded the prophet.
16. What invasion here of Judah, what was the result and what reason assigned?
17. What distressed condition of Ahaz at this time, to what source did he turn for relief and what result?
18. What second deportation of Israel, who took them and where?
19. Recite the story of Ahaz’s sacrilege and its lessons.
20. What of the interregnum between Pekah and Hoshea and how determined by the author?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ch 27:1 Jotham [was] twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also [was] Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
Ver. 1. Jotham was twenty and five years old. ] Twenty and five he was years old when his father was stricken with leprosy; from which time he reigned as king, even in his father’s days: after whose death the kingdom was more solemnly stablished to him alone. Hence he is said then to have begun his reign; and then was Ahaz twenty years old, Jotham being about forty.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Chronicles Chapter 27
His son Jotham (2Ch 27 ) follows in the right way in a measure as his father did. He entered not into the temple of Jehovah as his father had done; but the people did yet corruptly. However, he builds and wars and becomes mighty, because he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
twenty and five years old: i.e. when he began to reign alone. He was twenty when his father was smitten, and when he became co-regent. At his father’s death he was twenty-five, and Ahaz was five. See App-50.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 27
And chapter 27 takes up the reign of Jotham.
Twenty-five years old when he began to reign, reigned for sixteen years. He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, just like his father Uzziah: however he didn’t enter into the temple. But the people under him began to do corruptly ( 2Ch 27:1-2 ).
And, of course, you’ll get that in Isaiah’s prophecy.
And Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God ( 2Ch 27:6 ).
But not much is told us about him. The rest of what he did is told in the book of Kings, and he reigned for sixteen years. So he was actually just thirty-six years old. No, he was forty-one years old; twenty-five when he started.
And he slept with his fathers, they buried him in the city of David ( 2Ch 27:9 ):
So that brings us up to chapter 28. Next week we will finish the book of II Chronicles as we come to the end of the books of history prior to their being carried away into the Babylonian captivity.
Now you know that the Old Testament is divided into different sections. The first being the first five books being the books of Moses; and then we have the books, really, of the history of the nation. Beginning with Joshua coming into the land, the period of their judges, and then the period of their kings up until the time of their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. And then we have two more books of history, Ezra and Nehemiah. But the books of Ezra and Nehemiah carry you into the post-captive period after they returned from Babylonian captivity. So II Chronicles will bring us up to the what they call the pre-exilic history of the nation and the post-exilic we will have when we get the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Then we go into the books they call of poetry as we get into Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. And then we get into the books of the major prophets. Major only because of the length of their books, not because of the importance of their prophecies or the position, or not because one prophet was greater than another. But just the size of their books, the major prophets. And then the smaller books of the prophets, which are called the minor prophets because the books are smaller.
And when we get into the books of poetry, you must fit them back into this period of history we’ve already covered, because these books were written during this period. For instance, Job was written sometime during the historic period of Genesis. Job could have lived about the same time as did Abraham. And so that book goes way back historically.
The Psalms, of course, cover mainly David’s reign but yet some of the psalms were written by Moses and some of them by Solomon and others of Asaph, one of David’s musicians. As you get into Proverbs, of course, you’re into Solomon’s reign. As you’re into Song of Solomon you’ve got again one of the thousand or more songs that Solomon wrote. Then as you get into the prophets, Isaiah, we’re in the particular period of history right now where Isaiah comes in. And with Jeremiah this is the period of history that Jeremiah. We’re coming right up now to Jeremiah in the next king. And that’s when Jeremiah began his prophesying when he was just a lad of seventeen years old. And you begin to fit then the prophets back into this period of history.
So it’s important that you sort of get the history in your mind because to understand the prophets and their messages you’ve got to know what were the circumstances of Judah and Israel at the time the prophets were telling them of the destruction that was going to come upon their enemies or the destruction that was going to come upon them because they had forsaken God. And so to get a good understanding of the prophets, it’s important that we lay the foundational base in the history so that you’ll be able to understand more completely the message of the prophets when we get there. So sometimes history has a way of being a drag, but yet it does have its value in understanding better the message of the prophets as we move on.
So shall we stand.
May the Lord fill your heart with praise and thanksgiving through the week that you might know God’s work and God’s victory in your life. May God help you to bring things into their proper perspective and the proper priorities. That you might seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness. That you might realize the power and the glory of the God that you serve, in order that you might see His work in your life in a very real and beautiful way. In Jesus’ name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
2Ch 27:1-9
2Ch 27:1-9
THE REIGN OF JOTHAM THE SON OF UZZIAH
JOTHAM (750-735 B.C.)
“Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done: howbeit he entered not into the temple of Jehovah. And the people did yet corruptly. He built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render unto him, in the second year also, and in the third. So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before Jehovah his God. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
“The people did yet corruptly” (2Ch 27:2). 2Ki 15:35 has the information that the high places were not removed; thus God’s people continued their idolatrous worship in the high places.
“The wall of Ophel” (2Ch 27:3). “This wall was part of the old Jebusite city, a very important part of Jerusalem, also called `the City of David.'” Jotham’s fortifying this part of Jerusalem, “Indicated that he feared an external attack, probably from Assyria and Samaria. This faithless trust which Judah at that time put in fortifications was rebuked by the prophets (Hos 8:14; and Isa 2:15).”
“Ten thousand measures of wheat” (2Ch 27:5). Curtis (Madsen) estimates this amount of wheat as 120,331 bushels. Ammon had been subject to Uzziah, Jotham’s father, but they rebelled against Jotham who put down their insurrection and exacted heavy toll for three years.
None of the commentaries available to us carries any extensive comment on Jotham’s reign.
E.M. Zerr:
2Ch 27:1. The 16 years of the reign will not include those of his service before the death of his father, but the period of his own right as king.
2Ch 27:2. In the sight of the Lord is a significant expression. Many things are right or approved in the sight of men that are wrong before the Lord. In fact it is usually that way. (Luk 16:15.) Howbeit is the same as “except.” The language of the verse might seem as if his not entering into the temple was an exception to his following in the righteous footsteps of his father. We know that it was right for him not to enter the temple as his father did. The exception is not made to the statement pertaining to the righteous conduct of Uzziah. The writer made a general reference to the life of the former king and said that his son followed in his steps. Then, realizing that part of the life of Uzziah was not right and should not have been imitated, he added the exception noted. And while the life of Jotham generally was good, he was somewhat short of his duty in not curbing the corruptions of the people.
2Ch 27:3. When historians are writing up the good deeds of kings or other prominent men, they generally point out the things that indicate their interest in the public good. Hence we are told that Jotham built (repaired) the high gate which means the upper or most important one. It was so considered because it was “the king’s gate eastward.” (1Ch 9:18.) Ophel was a prominent elevation in the vicinity of Jerusalem and there was a wall or tower there; Jotham repaired that place.
2Ch 27:4. Always it should be remembered that when a man is said to have “built” something, it does not necessarily mean that he constructed it for the first time; it often denotes that he rebuilt or repaired it. Castles and towers were institutions for defense and other military purposes. Jotham was concerned about the security of the nation, and took all these steps with that in view.
2Ch 27:5. Jotham was so victorious in his wars with the Ammonites that he forced them to pay him tribute for three years.
2Ch 27:6. The success of Jotham is explained by the fact of his regard for the Lord. Prepared his ways means he established his conduct in the light of what the Lord would consider right.
2Ch 27:7. This verse refers to some “outside” writings covering the same subject matter that has been considered here. See the comments at 1Ki 14:19.
2Ch 27:8. This is a repetition of 2Ch 27:1.
2Ch 27:9. Slept with his fathers calls for the comments at 1Ki 2:10. Jotham was buried in the city of David, otherwise called Mount Zion, a main spot in Jerusalem.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham. We have very few details of his reign. In all probability the sixteen years referred to by the chronicler cover a period in which he was exercising authority while his father, Uzziah, was still alive though excluded from the kingly office on account of his leprosy. Jotham continued the work of his father in strengthening the kingdom internally by building, and he was successful in a campaign against the Ammonites.
While there was no definite national reform during his reign, he seems to have gone quietly forward along true lines, and his strength is attributed to the fact that he ordered his ways before Jehovah his God. Perhaps three things helped this man. First, he reigned during the early period in which Isaiah was exercising his prophetic ministry. Second, his mother was almost certainly the daughter of Zadok, the priest. Third, he profited by his father’s example–both good and bad, following the good and shunning the evil. All good influences are to be valued, but the ultimate note is always personal. “He ordered his ways.” If a man will do this, then he will ever profit by all the influences brought to bear on him, distinguishing between good and evil, and choosing according to the will of God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Ordering His Way before God
2Ch 27:1-9
This story of Jotham is memorable if only for one sentence; that he became mighty because he ordered his way before the Lord his God. We should order our lives, as we order our prayers. First things must come first. We should always consider, in anticipating any course of action, how best to promote Gods glory and the interests of His Kingdom. As far as lies in our power, we should adopt and follow some plan or program, such as He will reveal to us. An ordered life is a mighty life. The people that make themselves felt in the world are those who can say with Paul, This one thing I do. They are invulnerable and invincible. Repressed in one place, they break out in another; cast down, they are not destroyed; perplexed, they are not in despair. An ordered and mighty life draws its supplies from God. However well-laid our plans, or single our purpose, nothing avails apart from God. It is by Him that we become strong; and His power, allied with us and working through us, make us more than conquerors.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
2Ch 27:6
This text takes us behind the scenes, and admits us into those privacies of the king’s mind and habit where the real clues of every one’s character are to be found. We arrive at the secret of all strength, “preparation” and that preparation made “before the Lord his God.”
I. God Himself is a God of preparations. All that God does He does measuredly and deliberately, and, as it seems to us, often slowly. There are intervals of hush before the bringing in of His great designs, and most frequently some heralding note to announce their approach.
II. The life of Christ is a remarkable series of preparations. There were those strange thirty years-ten-elevenths even of such a life as that-passed in the quietness and seclusion of preparation for three years’ work; and all that time, we have reason to believe, Christ grew.
III. Preparing times are never lost times. They suit the majesty of all that is true. We all have had to regret precipitancy, but very few of us in the retrospect of life will say that we ever acted too deliberately.
IV. Preparation “before God” lies in that general recognition of God which gives to whatever we are going to do a religious character, and invests it with religious influences. “Before the Lord.” Sovereignty. Here is the acknowledgment of God’s supreme power, and authority, and right, and lordship. “His God.” There is the loving appropriation, the sense of interest and sonship. The consciousness of sympathy, and help, and affection is in the acknowledgment, for if He is mine, I am His.
V. When a man prepares his ways before the Lord his God, the consequence is sure: he will grow mighty. He will do what he does strongly. And both his work and his own soul are sure to grow. This is just what we all want; we ought never to rest till we reach it-to be mighty in prayer, mighty in influence, mighty in good works, mighty in grace.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 13.
References: 2Ch 28:9.-R. Glover, Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 563. 2Ch 28:10.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 294. 2Ch 28:23.-Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 106.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 27 The Reign of Jotham
1. The reign of Jotham (2Ch 27:1-6)
2. The death of Jotham (2Ch 27:7-9)
The record of the reign of Jotham is brief in both 2 Kings and in Chronicles. He did also what was right in the sight of the LORD. The statement howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD means that he did not act as Uzziah, his father did, when he intruded into the functions of the priesthood. However, in spite of the good example of the king, the people continued in their departure from Jehovah. And the people did yet corruptly. All the evils of a false worship continued and were not stopped. The state of the people is pictured by Isaiah in chapters 1-5 and also in the book of the prophet Micah. These portions of the Word of God are needed to get a better understanding of the conditions which prevailed during the reign of Jotham. Jotham was a godly man and in his reign of sixteen years did much good. All his wars were successful. He became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God. And this statement is the key of all his success and prosperity. He lived and walked in the presence of the Lord. He was guided, strengthened and kept by Him. And this is what all Gods people need. It is still the way, the only way to blessing and success, to prepare our ways before the Lord. Jotham is one of the few Bible-characters of whom nothing evil is recorded. Yet the people over which he ruled continued in corruption and apostasy from God.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am 3246-3262, bc 753-742
twenty and five: 2Ki 15:32, 2Ki 15:33-38, 1Ch 3:12, Isa 1:1, Hos 1:1, Mic 1:1, Mat 1:9, Joatham
Reciprocal: 1Ch 5:17 – Jotham
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A.M. 3246. B.C. 758.
Jotham reigns well and prospers, 2Ch 27:1-6. The conclusion of his reign, 2Ch 27:7-9.
2Ch 27:2. He did that which was right, &c. He did according to all his father Uzziah did, except in his miscarriages. We must not imitate those we have the greatest esteem for, any further than they do well; and their failings must be warnings to us, to walk more circumspectly.
2Ch 27:3. He built the high gate, &c. Otherwise called the new gate. He repaired it, for it was built before, 2Ch 11:5. On the wall of Ophel he built much Ophel was a tower upon or near the wall of Jerusalem, which probably he fortified, as his father had other towers.
2Ch 27:5-6. He fought also with the Ammonites Who, it seems, endeavoured to shake off the yoke, which from Davids time had been put upon them. So Jotham became mighty In wealth, and power, and influence upon the neighbouring nations, who courted his friendship, and feared his displeasure; because he prepared his ways, &c. Or, directed his ways, his counsels, and actions, by the rule of Gods law. The more steadfast we are in religion, the more mighty we are both for the resistance of that which is evil, and for the performance of that which is good.
2Ch 27:9. And Jotham slept with his fathers He died in the midst of his days, being only forty-one years of age, finishing his course too soon, as we may be ready to say, considering his great usefulness, but finishing it with honour, and having the happiness of not outliving his reputation, as his last three mentioned predecessors outlived theirs. And Ahaz his son reigned in his stead Whose character, in all respects, was the reverse of his. When that wealth and powers, says Henry, which wise men have done good with, devolves upon fools, that will do hurt with it, it is lamentable, and shall be for a lamentation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 27:3. On the wall of Ophel he built much. Villapandus, in his plan of Jerusalem, places Ophel on the east of the city, and near the temple. Its tower was said to touch the clouds. The Nethinims, the Gibeonites had houses under this wall.
REFLECTIONS.
The good, though afflicted Uzziah, was singularly happy in having Jotham, a good son, who filled the throne of his father, and walked in all his fathers ways. And what greater joy can a parent ask? This is a happy fruit of a religious education, and more so of a religious connection in marriage, his mother being the daughter of Zadok the highpriest; that is, a daughter descended of his house. It is often better to marry a good mans daughter than a kings daughter, for virtue has an interest which cannot be attained by blood.
Jothams reign was not long, but it was happy, and served to illustrate the covenant faithfulness of God. He prospered in all he did, and no enemy was allowed to hurt him. He not only retained the glory of his fathers power, but added Ammon to his surrounding tributary states. He fortified his country, adorned it with works, and died in peace.
The corruption and ruin of nations have their seat in the hearts and habits of the people. Though Uzziah and Jotham had reigned piously for sixty eight years; yet the people still did corruptly. The germ of idolatry, ever lurking in their hearts, was ready to make a rapid shoot on the least favourable occasion, and to bring the wrath of God on the nation. Here is the cause of Israels ruin; and here is instruction for the christian church. Believer, beware of lurking idols, beware of indolent habits. They may do for thy soul the same awful things they once did for the Lords covenant nation. Israel was not worthy of so good a king, and the Lord removed him from the evils suspended over the heads of so guilty a nation.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 27:1-9. The Reign of Jotham.See notes on 2Ki 15:33-36, from which this section is taken, with the exception of 2Ch 27:4-6, which is probably derived from some other source.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
THE REIGN OF JOTHAM
(vv.1-9)
Jotham’s reign was comparatively short, just 16 years, and he died at 41years. He did what was right as his father had done, though he did not follow his father’s bad example of entering the temple of the Lord. Yet in spite of his reign being better than most of the kings, the people still acted corruptly. This evil included their sacrificing in high places (2Ki 15:35). Thus, though Jotham was personally faithful to the Lord, he did not have the spiritual energy to banish the false worship from Judah. But his good work of building the upper gate of the temple and on the wall of Ophel, and his building cities in the mountains and fortresses and towers in the forests, is commendable (vv.3-4).
Jotham also by warfare brought the Ammonites into subjection, so that they paid him tribute of 100 talents of silver, 10,000 cors; of wheat and 10,000 of barley for three years in succession (v.5). The Ammonites picture the doctrine of demons, which, though not destroyed, were allowed no liberty during Jotham’s reign. Thus we are told, “Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God” (v.6). His short reign of 16 years, he died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Ahaz became king.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
K. Jotham ch. 27
Jotham was also a good king. He built up the temple and so contributed to the greater glory of Yahweh (2Ch 27:3). Consequently his neighbors to the east submitted to him and paid him tribute (2Ch 27:5). The Chronicler clearly stated the reason Jotham became strong: "he ordered his ways [i.e., conducted himself] before the LORD his God" (2Ch 27:6).
However, Jotham appears to have failed to lead his people in righteousness (2Ch 27:2). There was no reformation of abuses or revival during his reign, as far as we know.
Evidently the reference to Jotham not entering the temple (2Ch 27:2) means that he did not inappropriately violate the holy place as his father had done (2Ch 26:16).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3
UZZIAH, JOTHAM, AND AHAZ
2Ch 26:1-23; 2Ch 27:1-9; 2Ch 28:1-27
AFTER the assassination of Amaziah, all the people of Judah took his son Uzziah, a lad of sixteen, called in the book of Kings Azariah, and made him king. The chronicler borrows from the older narrative the statement that “Uzziah did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.” In the light of the sins attributed both to Amaziah and Uzziah in Chronicles, this is a somewhat doubtful compliment. Sarcasm, however, is not one of the chroniclers failings; he simply allows the older history to speak for itself, and leaves the reader to combine its judgment with the statement of later tradition as best he can. But yet we might modify this verse, and read that Uzziah did good and evil, prospered and fell into misfortune, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, or an even closer parallel might be drawn between what Uzziah did and suffered and the chequered character and fortunes of Joash.
Though much older than the latter, at his accession Uzziah was young enough to be very much under the control of ministers and advisers; and as Joash was trained in loyalty to Jehovah by the high-priest Jehoiada, so Uzziah “set himself to seek God during the life-time” of a certain prophet, who, like the son of Jehoiada, was named Zechariah, “who had understanding or gave instruction in the fear of Jehovah,” i.e., a man versed in sacred learning, rich in spiritual experience, and able to communicate his knowledge, such a one as Ezra the scribe in later days.
Under the guidance of this otherwise unknown prophet, the young king was led to conform his private life and public administration to the will of God. In “seeking God,” Uzziah would be careful to maintain and attend the Temple services, to honor the priests of Jehovah and make due provision for their wants; and “as long as he sought Jehovah God gave him prosperity.”
Uzziah received all the rewards usually bestowed, upon pious kings: he was victorious in war and exacted tribute from neighboring states; he built fortresses, and had abundance of cattle and slaves, a large and well-equipped army, and well-supplied arsenals. Like other powerful kings of Judah, he asserted his supremacy over the tribes along the southern frontier of his kingdom. God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabians of Gur-baal, and the Meunim. He destroyed the fortifications of Gath, Jabne, and Ashdod, and built forts of his own in the country of the Philistines. Nothing is known about Gur-baal; but the Arabian allies of the Philistines would be, like Jehorams enemies “the Arabians who dwelt near the Ethiopians,” nomads of the deserts south of Judah. These Philistines and Arabians had brought tribute to Jehoshaphat without waiting to be subdued by his armies; so now the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name spread abroad “even to the entering in of Egypt,” possibly a hundred or even a hundred and fifty miles from Jerusalem. It is evident that the chroniclers ideas of international politics were of very modest dimensions.
Moreover, Uzziah added to the fortifications of Jerusalem; and because he loved husbandry and had cattle, and husbandmen, and vine-dressers in the open country and outlying districts of Judah, he built towers for their protection. His army was of about the same strength as that of Amaziah, three hundred thousand men, so that in this, as in his character and exploits, he did according to all that his father had done, except that he was content with his own Jewish warriors and did not waste his talents in purchasing worse than useless reinforcements from Israel. Uzziahs army was well disciplined, carefully organized, and constantly employed; they were men of mighty power, and went out to war by bands, to collect the kings tribute and enlarge his dominions and revenue by new conquests. The war material in his arsenals is described at greater length than that of any previous king: shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slings. The great advance of military science in Uzziahs reign was marked by the invention of engines of war for the defense of Jerusalem; some, like the Roman catapulta, were for arrows, and others, like the ballista, to hurl huge stones. Though the Assyrian sculptures show us that battering-rams were freely employed by them against the walls of Jewish cities, {Cf. Eze 26:9} and the ballista is said by Pliny to have been invented in Syria, no other Hebrew king is credited with the possession of this primitive artillery. The chronicler or his authority seems profoundly impressed by the great skill displayed in this invention; in describing it, he uses the root hashabh, to devise, three times in three consecutive words. The engines were “hishshe-bhonoth mahashebheth hoshebh”-“engines engineered by the ingenious.” Jehovah not only provided Uzziah with ample military resources of every kind, but also blessed the means which He Himself had furnished; Uzziah “was marvelously helped, till he was strong, and his name spread far abroad.” The neighboring states heard with admiration of his military resources.
The student of Chronicles will by this time be prepared for the invariable sequel to God-given prosperity. Like David, Rehoboam, Asa, and Amaziah, when Uzziah “was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.” The most powerful of the kings of Judah died a leper. An attack of leprosy admitted of only one explanation: it was a plague inflicted by Jehovah Himself as the punishment of sin; and so the book of Kings tells us that “Jehovah smote the king,” but says nothing about the sin thus punished. The chronicler was able to supply the omission: Uzziah had dared to go into the Temple and with irregular zeal to burn incense on the altar of incense. In so doing, he was violating the Law, which made the priestly office and all priestly functions the exclusive prerogative of the house of Aaron and denounced the penalty of death against any one who usurped priestly functions. {Num 18:7; Exo 30:7} But Uzziah was not allowed to carry out his unholy design; the high-priest Azariah went in after him with eighty stalwart colleagues, rebuked his presumption, and bade him leave the sanctuary. Uzziah was no more tractable to the admonitions of the priest than Asa and Amaziah had been to those of the prophets. The kings of Judah were accustomed, even in Chronicles, to exercise an unchallenged control over the Temple and to regard the high-priests very much in the light of private chaplains. Uzziah was wroth: he was at the zenith of his power and glory; his heart was lifted up. Who were these priests, that they should stand between him and Jehovah and dare to publicly check and rebuke him in his own temple? Henry IIs feelings towards Becket must have been mild compared to those of Uzziah towards Azariah, who, if the king could have had his way, would doubtless have shared the fate of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada. But a direct intervention of Jehovah protected the priests, and preserved Uzziah from further sacrilege. While his features were convulsed with anger, leprosy brake forth in his forehead. The contest between king and priest was at once ended; the priests thrust him out, and he himself hasted to go, recognizing that Jehovah had smitten him. Henceforth he lived apart, cut off from fellowship alike with man and God, and his son Jotham governed in his stead. The book of Kings simply makes the general statement that Uzziah was buried with his fathers in the city of David; but the chronicler is anxious that his readers should not suppose that the tombs of the sacred house of David were polluted by the presence of a leprous corpse: the explains that the leper was buried, not in the royal sepulcher, but in the field attached to it.
The moral of this incident is obvious. In attempting to understand its significance, we need not trouble ourselves about the relative authority of kings and priests; the principle vindicated by the punishment of Uzziah was the simple duty of obedience to an express command of Jehovah. However trivial the burning of incense may be in itself, it formed part of an elaborate and complicated system of ritual. To interfere with the Divine ordinances in one detail would mar the significance and impressiveness of the whole Temple service. One arbitrary innovation would be a precedent for others, and would constitute a serious danger for a system whose value lay in continuous uniformity. Moreover, Uzziah was stubborn in disobedience. His attempt to burn incense might have been sufficiently punished by the public and humiliating reproof of the high-priest. His leprosy came upon him because, when thwarted in an unholy purpose, he gave way to ungoverned passion.
In its consequences we see a practical application of the lessons of the incident. How often is the sinner only provoked to greater wickedness by the obstacles which Divine grace opposes to his wrong-doing! How few men will tolerate the suggestion that their intentions are cruel, selfish, or dishonorable! Remonstrance is an insult, an offence against their personal dignity; they feel that their self-respect demands that they should persevere in their purpose, and that they should resent and punish any one who has tried to thwart them. Uzziahs wrath was perfectly natural; few men have been so uniformly patient of reproof as not sometimes to have turned in anger upon those who warned them against sin. The most dramatic feature of this episode, the sudden frost of leprosy in the kings forehead, is not without its spiritual antitype. Mens anger at well-merited reproof has often blighted their lives once for all with ineradicable moral leprosy. In the madness of passion they have broken bonds which have hitherto restrained them and committed themselves beyond recall to evil pursuits and fatal friendships. Let us take the most lenient view of Uzziahs conduct, and suppose that he believed himself entitled to offer incense; he could not doubt that the priests were equally confident that Jehovah had enjoined the duty on them, and them alone. Such a question was not to be decided by violence, in the heat of personal bitterness. Azariah himself had been unwisely zealous in bringing in his eighty priests; Jehovah showed him that they were quite unnecessary, because at the last Uzziah “himself hasted to go out.” When personal passion and jealousy are eliminated from Christian polemics, the Church will be able to write the epitaph of the odium theologicum.
Uzziah was succeeded by Jotham, who had already governed for some time as regent. In recording the favorable judgment of the book of Kings, “He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that his father Uzziah had done,” the chronicler is careful to add, “Howbeit he entered not into the temple of Jehovah”; the exclusive privilege of the house of Aaron had been established once for all. The story of Jothams reign comes like a quiet and pleasant oasis in the chroniclers dreary narrative of wicked rulers, interspersed with pious kings whose piety failed them in their latter days. Jotham shares with Solomon the distinguished honor of being a king of whom no evil is recorded either in Kings or Chronicles, and who died in prosperity, at peace with Jehovah. At the same time it is probable that Jotham owes the blameless character he bears in Chronicles to the fact that the earlier narrative does not mention any misfortunes of his, especially any misfortune towards the close of his life. Otherwise the theological school from whom the chronicler derived, his later traditions would have been anxious to discover or deduce some sin to account for such misfortune. At the end of the short notice of his reign, between two parts of the usual closing formula, an editor of the book of Kings has inserted the statement that “in those days Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah.” This verse the chronicler has omitted; neither the date nor the nature of this trouble was clear enough to cast any slur upon the character of Jotham.
Jotham, again, had the rewards of a pious king: he added a gate to the Temple, and strengthened the wall of Ophel, and built cities and castles in Judah; he made successful war upon Ammon, and received from them an immense tribute-a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and as much barley-for three successive years. What happened afterwards we are not told. It has been suggested that the amounts mentioned were paid in three yearly installments, or that the three years were at the end of the reign, and the tribute came to an end when Jotham died or when the troubles with Pekah and Rezin began.
We have had repeated occasion to notice that in his accounts of the good kings the chronicler almost always omits the qualifying clause to the effect that they did not take away the high places. He does so here but, contrary to his usual practice, he inserts a qualifying clause of his own: “The people did yet corruptly.” He probably had in view the unmitigated wickedness of the following reign, and was glad to retain the evidence that Ahaz found encouragement and support in his idolatry; he is careful however, to state the fact so that no shadow of blame falls upon Jotham.
The life of Ahaz has been dealt with elsewhere. Here we need merely repeat that for the sixteen years of his reign Judah was to all appearance utterly given over to every form of idolatry, and was oppressed and brought low by Israel, Syria, and Assyria.