Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 16:6
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.
6. Rezin recovered Elath to Syria ] Elath was a place of much importance to the Jews. It was situate at the top of the gulf of Akabah ( sinus laniticus), and was part of the land of Edom. But when the Edomites were in subjection to Judah, the port was to all intents and purposes a harbour of Judah. Now the Jews were driven from it, and the Syrians came and occupied it, having overrun Edom in their progress towards Elath.
the Syrians came to Elath ] The LXX. says the ‘Idumans’, i.e. the Edomites came to Elath, and this is supported by the marginal reading ( Keri) of the Hebrew Bible. But it is a reading which cannot be accepted. The Edomites were at Elath already. It was part of their own land. Therefore they could not be said to come to it. There is very little difference in Hebrew between ‘Idumans’ i.e. Edomites, and Aramans, i.e. Syrians. The latter is , the former , a difference only in one letter and that of the slightest kind. Hence the confusion.
and dwelt there unto this day ] On this expression as a mark of faithful reproduction by the compiler of what he found in the document he was using, see note on chap. 2Ki 2:22.
The Chronicler, before mentioning the appeal of Ahaz to Tiglath-Pileser, which is here related in the next verse, gives an account how the two hundred thousand captives taken by the Israelites (see above on verse 5) were brought to Samaria, and how Oded, a prophet of the Lord, forbad in God’s name that the children of Judah and Jerusalem should be kept by Israel for bondmen and bondwomen. Some also among the chief men of Israel declared that the captives should not be brought into Samaria. They were in consequence set free, and, after being fed and clothed, were conducted homeward as far as Jericho. The Chronicler also records the names of the men who thus withstood the bringing in of the Jewish prisoners as if he were taking them from some contemporary record.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Either during the siege, or on breaking up from before Jeruasalem, Rezin made an expedition to the lied Sea coast, and became master of the city which had belonged to Judaea about 70 years (marginal reference). Most moderns render this verse, Rezin recovered (or restored) Elath to Edom … and the Edomites came to Elath. On the resemblance of the words Aram and Edom in the original, see 2Sa 8:12 note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Recovered Elath to Syria] 2Kg 14:22.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Recovered Elath, i.e. took it from the Jews, who had not long since taken it, 2Ki 14:22. It lay in the land of Edom, upon the Red Sea, very conveniently for navigation; of which See Poole “1Ki 9:26“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Rezin . . . recovered ElathwhichAzariah had got into his possession (2Ki14:22).
the Syrians came to Elath,and dwelt there unto this dayThe Septuagint version has”the Edomites,” which the most judicious commentators andtravellers [ROBINSON]prefer.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria,…. A port on the Red sea, that formerly belonged to Edom, taken from them by David, retaken by them when they revolted in Joram’s time, and perhaps taken by Amaziah again, since his son Azariah rebuilt it, and restored it to Judah, 2Ki 14:22 and it seems by this that it had been in the hands of the Syrians, who now recovered it; unless instead of Aram, rendered Syrians, we could substitute Edom, which Le Clerc has ventured to do without any authority:
and drave the Jews from Elath; who were in possession of it. This is the first time that the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah are called Jews, from the name of their original patriarch, and principal tribe; though some think m they had this name from the time this tribe went up first against the Canaanites, Jud 1:1, however, it is a mistake of R. Elias Levita n, that it is never found in the Bible they were called Jews, but from the time the ten tribes were carried captive, and not before; and a greater mistake still it is of Tacitus o, that they were called Jews or Judaeans, as if they were Idaeans from Mount Ida in Crete, from whence he supposes they came:
and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day; the marginal reading is Edomites; and so read the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; and Kimchi observes that it is written “Aramim”, Syrians, because the king of Syria took it, and by his means the Edomites returned to it, but is read “Edomim”, Edomites, because it belonged to the children of Edom; and it is certain the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, 2Ch 28:17.
m Polydor. Virgil. de Invent. l. 4. c. 1. n Tishbi, p. 143. So David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 83. 4. o Hist. l. 5. sect. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) At that time.Bhr regards this verse as a parenthesis, so that 2Ki. 16:7 is the strict continuation of 2Ki. 16:5, and At that time simply assigns this war as the epoch when Judah lost its only harbour and chief emporiuma grave blow to the national prosperity. It is perhaps impossible to weave the various data of Isaiah, Kings, and Chronicles into a single narrative which shall be free from all objection. But it seems probable that, after the successes recorded in 2Ch. 28:5, seq., the confederates advanced upon Jerusalem, and that Ahaz despatched his envoys to Tiglath Pileser. The allies soon despaired of a siege, and Pekah fell to ravaging the country, while Rezin pushed on to Elath, determined not to return home without having achieved some permanent success. The approach of Tiglath Pileser compelled the two kings to give up their enterprise, and hasten to defend their own frontiers.
Recovered Elath to Syria . . . the Syrians.The words for Syria and Edom, Syrians and Edomties, are very much alike in Hebrew writing, and the Hebrew margin, many MSS., the LXX. and Vulg. read Edomites for Syrians here. If this be correct, we must also restore Edom for Syria, as many critics propose. The meaning then becomes this: Rezin emancipated the Edomites from the yoke of Judah imposed on them by Uzziah (2Ki. 14:22) in order to win their active co-operation against Judah. Bhr, however, prefers the readings of the ordinary text, and supposes that Rezin simply expelled the Jews from Elath, and established there a commercial colony of Syrians.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. At that time During the course of this Syro-Israelitish war.
Rezin recovered Elath to Syria Rezin appears throughout all this war against Judah as more powerful than his Israelitish ally. Elath, on the Red Sea, had been taken from the Edomites and attached to the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Uzziah. See on 2Ki 14:22. The word recovered [ ] does not necessarily imply that Elath had formerly belonged to Syria, but here it simply means that it now changed hands, turned from one possessor to another.
The Syrians came to Elath The Hebrew is without the article, Syrians came that is, a colony of Syrians. Rezin, having captured this ancient commercial town, at once settled a Syrian colony there, probably for purposes of commerce, and to open for himself a new source of revenue, and though Syria was soon afterwards conquered, and Rezin slain, this colony dwelt there unto this day, that is, at the time when our author wrote. For it is by no means improbable that a Syrian colony remained at Elath long after the home Government had been annihilated. The Keri, Septuagint, Vulgate, and many interpreters, read Edomites instead of Syrians, but that reading would seem to be unsuitable, for it would be strange to say that Edomites dwelt there unto this day, when the Edomites had always dwelt in that vicinity. Besides the losses which Ahaz sustained from the combined armies of Rezin and Pekah, Chronicles informs us that the Edomites and Philistines also invaded Judah on the south and west, occupied many cities, and carried off captives. 2Ch 28:17-18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 16:6. Recovered Elath to Syria Elath, or Elam, was a famous port on the Red Sea, which David in his conquest of the kingdom took, and there established a great trade to divers parts of the world.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 16:6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.
Ver. 6. At that time. ] When he came against Jerusalem.
Recovered Elath.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Syria. Probably Edom (for Aram). See note below.
Elath. It had belonged to Edom (2Ki 14:22).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
recovered: 2Ki 14:22, Deu 2:8
Elath: Heb. Eloth, 1Ki 9:26, 2Ch 26:2
Reciprocal: 2Ch 8:17 – Eloth 2Ch 28:5 – delivered him Isa 9:12 – Syrians
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered {d} Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.
(d) Which Azariah had taken from the Syrians and fortified, 2Ki 14:22.