Ant. Chris. or 929. A. M. 3001, way or other by mistake fell a slaying and destroying one another; so that Jehoshaphat &c. or 4482. and his people had nothing else to do but to carry off the arms and spoils of the dead, 1003, &c. wherein they employed themselves for three whole days; and on the fourth, meeting in a valley, (which, from this event, was called afterwards the Valley of Blessing), they gave solemn thanks to God for this deliverance; and not long after, Jehoshaphat, with his victorious troops entering Jerusalem in triumph, was received with the joyful acclamations of his people, and struck such terror into all neighbouring nations, that for the remainder of his reign he met with no molestation. A. M. 3001, &c. or 4507. or 904. One loss however he had towards the conclusion of his reign † in joining with Ahaziah, king of Israel, to equip out a fleet in the port of Ezion-Geber, in order to go to Tarshish; for the whole fleet was dashed in pieces upon a ridge of rocks that lay in the mouth of the harbour, before they ever got to sea. But as Jehoshaphat was afterwards convinced that this was a judgment of God upon him for entering into partnership with an impious prince (as Ahaziah certainly was), the next fleet he set out was from his other port of Elah, wherein he suffered Ahaziah to have no concern, and therefore came off with better success. The truth is, Jehoshaphat was a religious and good prince, a zealous and great reformer, and yet the people still retained a kindness for the high places. He lived sixty, and reigned twenty-five years; was buried in the city of David, and succeeded by his son Jehoram. Jehoshaphat had six other sons; but, to give no umbrage for suspicion, he had in Ant. Chris. his lifetime removed them from all public business, made them governors of fenced ci1003, &c. ties, and given them separate fortunes of their own. But notwithstanding all this precaution, as soon as Jehoram was settled on the throne, he murdered all his brothers, and several chief men in Israel, who (as he suspected) either adhered to their party, or were likely to revenge their deaths. During these cruel proceedings in the very beginning of his reign, he had a † letter sent him from Elijah, wherein he upbraided him with the murder of his brothers, and his departure from the religion of his ancestors; and wherein t3 he threatened him + This certainly was a great weakness in him to make friendship with the son, when he had been so sharply reproved for joining with his father Ahab, especially since the son was as great an idolater as the father; but into this he was betrayed by the affinity that was between them; and though he did not join with him in war, but only in trade, yet God was nevertheless displeased with him; which shews how dangerous a thing it is to have too near a familiarity of commerce with idolaters, or any other very wicked men. Patrick's Commentary. + Now since it is plain, from 2 Kings ii. 11, &c. that Elijah was taken up into heaven in the time of Jehoshaphat, the question is, How could Elijah send his son a letter? For resolution to this, Josephus and others imagine that this writing was indited in heaven, where Elijah now is, and sent to Jehoram by the ministry of angels. But there is no reason to suppose that so singular a miracle was wrought in favour of an idolatrous prince, who had Moses and the prophets, which (in our Saviour's opinion) were sufficient to instruct him in all points necessary to salvation, and needed not any additional writing to be sent him from the other world. Others therefore are of opinion, that this letter was written before Elijah's ascension into heaven; that foreseeing, by the spirit of prophecy, the great wickedness Jehoram would fall into, he dictated the contents hereof to one of the prophets, charging him to put them down in writing, to send them in a letter to Jehoram when he grew as impious as is here related, and to let him know withal, that Elijah commanded this writing to be delivered to him, upon presumption that it would affect him the more, as it came from a person that was translated into heaven. But this notion has no better foundation than the other: For prophets were sent to those who lived in their own age, to declare unto them the will of God, not to write letters, fit to be delivered only when they had departed out of this life. God never left himself without a witness; and at this time more especially there were prophets in abundance: And therefore others have supposed, that there has been a mistake in the transcriber, and the name of Elijah put for that of Elisha; or that the Elijah, by whom this letter was sent, was not the prophet who was taken up into heaven, but another of that name, who lived in the subsequent age, and was contemporary with Jehoram. Which of these conjectures (for conjectures they are all) seems most feasible, we are at liberty to choose, since any of them is sufficient to solve the above-mentioned difficulty. Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentaries. +3 There was no calamity that could be thought of (as several have observed) which did not befal this wicked prince. His kingdom was destroyed and depopulated by the fiercest nations; his treasures ran of 2 Chron. with a sore disease in his bowels, and his wives, his children, and people, with judge- From 1 Kings ments of several kinds which God would send upon them. Nor was it long before these viii, to the end threats began to operate. The Edomites, who had all along been subject to the house, of David, rebelled; and having expelled his deputy, made themselves a king of their own, and were never again subject to the Jewish yoke. Libnah, a city in his own dominions, shook off its allegiance, and refused to acknowledge him any longer for its sovereign The Philistines and Arabians made inroads upon his territories, ravaged the country, plundered his palace, and carried away his very wives and children, so that they left none, except Jehoahaz the youngest; and (to complete his misery) after God had afflicted him with a cruel dysentery, which for two years grievously tormented him, and brought him at last to his grave, he died, without being so much as lamented by his subjects; and, after a life of forty, and a reign of eight years, being buried indeed in the city of David (but not in any of the royal sepulchres), was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz. But to return to the history of king Ahaziah. Ahaziah, as we said, succeeded his father Ahab in the kingdom of Israel, in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat's reign, and was not a whit behind him in all manner of wickedness. But as his reign was but short (in the whole not above the space of two years), so was it inglorious, and full of trouble. For in the first year of his reign, the Moabites, who had always been obedient to the kings of Israel from the first separation of the two kingdoms, took now an opportunity to revolt, nor had he power to reduce them to their subjection: For in the second year of his reign he received such a hurt by a fall from the terrace of his house, as reduced him to a very bad state of health. In this condition, he sent to Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, to know if he should reco sacked; his wives carried into captivity; his children slain; himself afflicted with a sore disease for two years; and when he was dead, denied the honour of a royal sepulchre, such as his father had. All which calamites were threatened in this writing sent him in the name of Elijah, that he might not think that they came by chance, but by the special direction of Al mighty God as a punishment for his impiety. Patrick's Comment. on 2 Chron. xxi. 14. + In the Eastern countries the roofs of the houses were flat and surrounded with a battlement to prevent falling from them, because it was a customary thing for people to walk upon them in order to take the air. Now in this battlement we may suppose that there were some wooden lattices for people to look through, of equal height with the parapet-wall, and that Ahaziah, negligently leaning on it, (as it was rotten and infirm) it broke down and let him fall into the court or garden belonging to his house. Or there is another way whereby he might fall. In these flat roofs there was generally an opening, which served instead of a sky-light to the house below; and this opening might be done over with lattice-work, which the king, as he was carelessly walking, might chance to step upon and slip through. Nor is there any absurdity in supposing such lattice work in a king's palace, when the world was not arrived to that height of art and curiosity that we find it in now. Pool's Annotations, and Calmet's Dissert. sur les Edifices des anciens Hebreus. * The word signifies the god of flies; but how this idol came to obtain that name, it is not so easy a matter to discover. Several are of opinion that this god was called Baal-semin, the Lord of heaven, but that the Jews, by way of contempt, gave it the name of Baal-zebub, or the lord of a fly, a god that was nothing worth, or (as others say) whose temple was filled with flies; whereas the temple of Jerusalem (notwithstanding all the sacrifices that were there daily offered) never once had a fly in it, as their doctors relate. The Sacred Writings indeed, when they speak of the gods of the heathens, very frequently call them in general, idols, vanity, abominations, &c. but they never change their proper names into such as are of an opprobrious import; neither can we think it likely that the king of Israel would have called the god of Ekron, for whom he had so high veneration, as to consult him in his sickness, by any appellation of contempt. Whoever considers what troublesome and destructive creatures (especially in some hot countries) flies are known to be; in what vast swarms they sometimes settle, and not only devour all the fruits of the earth, but in many places occasion a noisome pestilence; may reasonably suppose, that the heathens had a proper deity, to whom they made their addresses, either for the prevention, or removal of this sore plague. [In particular, the fly, called Zebub, and in modern Arabic, Zimb, is an insect so very destruc tive as to render it far from surprising that the ancient Polytheists, who had gods presiding over every department of nature, should worship, as a very powerful deity, Baalzebub, or the Lord of flies. The Zebub or Zimb is never seen, says Mr Bruce, but where the earth is fat and loamy; and though very little larger than a bee," whenever it makes its appearance in swarms (as it always does), and even as soon as its buzzing is heard, all the cattle forsake their food, and run wildly about, till they die, worn out with fatigue, Ant.Chris. or 904. A. M. 3001, ver†; but, by God's appointment, the prophet Elijah was sent to meet his messengers, &c. or 4507. and 2 to turn them back with this answer, "That the king should certainly die." The 1003, &c. messengers, coming back much sooner than was expected, acquainted the king with the reason of it; and he, * by their description, understanding that it was Elijah who sent him this message, immediately dispatched a captain with fifty soldiers to apprehend him; but upon their approach, and insolently commanding him to appear before the king, the prophet commanded fire to come down from heaven and destroy them. The like he did to another captain and his company; but when the third came in a more submissive manner, and begged his life and the lives of his soldiers, † Elijah went with fright, and hunger." Even the elephant flies before it, or rolls himself in the mire to protect his skin from its attack. "The very sound of the Zimb, before it is seen, occasions, says the same author, more trepidation both in the human and brute creation, than would whole herds of these monstrous animals collected together, though their number was in a tenfold proportion greater than it really is;" and the only remedy that remains for the shepherd on the appearance of this destructive insect, is to hasten with his cattle as quickly as he can to the nearest sandy desart, whither the Zimb never pursues them. If we may be lieve Sandys, these flies abound in the country that was anciently called Ekron.] And accordingly we are told by Pliny (lib. xxix. c. 6.), that when there was a plague in Africa, occasioned by vast quantities of flies, after that the people had sacrificed to the god Achore, (he should have said, the god of Ekron, for there is a plain affinity between their names) the flies all died, and the distemper was extinguished. Now it was a known maxim of the heathen theology, that as all plagues were inflicted by some evil dæmon or other, so all evil dæmons were under the restraint of some superior one, who is their prince and ruler. As therefore Pluto was known to be the god of hell, and to have all the mischievous band of spirits under his control, to him the heathens used to pray, and offer sacrifices, that he might not suffer any of his inferior agents to inflict this heavy judgment upon them. They worshipped him, I say, not to engage him to do them any good, but to prevail with him to do them no harm; and accordingly we may observe, that every thing in their service was dark and gloomy. Their offerings were in the night. Tum regi Stygio nocturnas inchoat aras. Their victims were black, Virg. Æn. vi. Huc casta Sybilla Nigrantum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet. Ibid. En. vi. And the blood let out into a deep ditch. Cultros in guttera velleris atri Conjicit, et patulas perfundit sanguine fossas. Ovid. Met. lib. vii. Such good reason have we to think, that the Baalzebub, in Scripture called the "prince of the devils," was the very same with the Pluto whom the Heathens made the god of hell, and worshipped in this manner. Patrick's and Le Clerc's ommentaries, Jurieu Hist. des Dogmes et Cultes. Part. iv. c. 3, &c. Bruce's Travels, and Harmer's Observations. + Ekron was a city and government of the Philistines, which fell by lot to the tribe of Judah, in the first division made by Joshua, Josh. xv. 45. but was afterwards given up to the tribe of Dan, Josh. xix, 43. though it does not appear from history that the Jews ever had a peaceable possession of it. It was situated near the Mediterranean Sea, between Ashdod and Jamnia, in a moist and hot soil, and was there. fore very much infested with flies. Calmet's Dictionary, and Patrick's Commentary. + It may seem somewhat strange, that Ahaziah's messengers should stop their journey to Ekron at Elijah's command; but he was a man of such a venerable presence, and spake to them with such authority in the name of the Lord, that they were overawed thereby to obey him rather than the king. Patrick's Commentary. The description which the messengers give of Elijah is," That he was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins," 2 Kings i. 8. where his being an hairy man, may either denote his wearing long the hair of his head and beard, as the ancient Greek philosophers were wont to do, and as Lucan describes Cato. Intensos rigidam in frontem descendere canos Passus erat, mœstamque genis increscere barbam: Or it may denote his habit, which was made of skins, rough, and with their hair on; as the ancient heroes were clothed in the skins of lions, tigers, and bears; as the evangelist represents the baptist in a "raiment of camel's hair," Matth. iii. 4. as the apostle describes the prophets, "wandering about in sheep-skins and goat-skins," Heb. xi. 37. and as Statius dresses up old Tiresias, -longævi vatis opacos Tiresiæ vultus, vocemque et vellera nota Induitur.. Theb. lib. ii. This is a great instance of the prophet's faith and obedience to God, in whom he trusted, that he would deliver him from the wrath of the king and the malice of Jezebel. He had ordered, not long before, all the prophets of Baal to be slain; had sent a very unwelcome message to the king; and now made a very terrible execution upon two of his captains and their companies; so that he had all the reason in the world to apprehend the utmost expressions of the king's displeasure: And yet, when God commands him, he makes no manner of hesitation, but goes boldly to him, and confirms with his own mouth the ungrateful truth which he had declared to his mes sengers. Patrick's Commentary. him to the king, and told him from his own mouth what he had before told the mes- From 1 Kings sengers; which accordingly came to pass, for he died a short time after, and having no viii. to the end son of his own, was, || in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Ju-. dah, succeeded by his brother Jehoram. About the beginning of the † reign of Jehoram, king of Judah, Elijah the prophet was translated into heaven. God, very likely, had given him some intimation of the time when this miraculous event should happen; and therefore, before his departure, he visited the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel and Jericho, and took his leave of them with such solemnity, that they began to suspect that this was the last visit he intended to make them; and accordingly +2 apprised Elisha of it, who thereupon determined not to leave his master as long as he continued upon earth. With this resolution he set forward with Elijah, who was now shaping his course towards his native country of Gilead, from whence he was to be translated; and as they were to pass over the Jordan, Elijah †3 with his mantle struck the waters, which instantly divided into two parts, so that they went over on dry ground. When they had passed the river in the sight of fifty of the t4 sons of the prophets, || How could Jehoram, the brother of Ahaziah, begin his reign in Israel in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, when we read soon after, that he began to reign over Israel in the eighteenth of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, 2 Kings iii. 1.; and in another place, that Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, began to reign over Judah in the fifth year of Jehoram king of Israel? 2 Kings viii. 16. Now, it is but supposing that Jehoshaphat declared his son Jehoram king, while himself was alive, and reigned in conjunction with him for the space of seven years, and all the difficulty is removed: For then Jehoram the son of Ahab might begin his reign in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, viz. in the second year that he reigned with his father, who was then alive; and Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat may be said to have begun his reign in the fifth of Jehoram the son of Ahab, meaning the time when, after his father's death, he began to reign alone. That the kings of Judah and Israel (as well as other oriental princes) were accustomed to appoint their successors, and, even during their lifetime to give them some share in the administration, is plain from several instances: And that Jehoshaphat found it expedient to settle his son in the kingdom with himself, seems to be intimated in 2 Chron. xxi. 3. where it is said, that "he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was his firstborn, and gave gifts to the rest of his sons," who being many, might perhaps be forming parties, and entering into cabals about the succession to the king dom; and therefore, to put an end to all such contests, Jehoshaphat declared Jehoram king while himself was on the throne, because he was his first-born. Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. + The expression in the text is-" Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?" 2 Kings ii. 3. Where the sons of the prophets allude to their manner of sitting in their school. For the scholars used to sit below their masters feet, and the masters above over their heads, when they taught them: And therefore the sense of the words is, that God would deprive Elisha of his master Elijah's instructions, viz. by a sudden death. For it does not appear that they had any notion of his translation; so far from this, that they desired leave to send out some to seek for him, "if peradventure the Spirit of the Lord had taken him up and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley," 2 Kings ii. 16. Patrick's Commentary. +3 In these two books of Kings, there is mention made five times of this mantle; and in every place it is called Adareth, which denotes a royal as well as a prophetical robe. The Septuagint always translate it by the word us, which properly signifies the prophetical manile, made of lamb-skins, being a kind of upper garment thrown over the shoulders, and, as some think, reaching down to the heels; though others take it for no more than a leathern jacket to keep out rain. Ad subitas nusquam scortea desit aquas. Mart. lib. 14. + By "the sons of the prophets," we are to understand the scholars of the prophets," such as they educated and trained up in religion and virtue, upon whom God by degrees bestowed the spirit of prophecy, and whom the superior prophets employed in the same capacity, as the apostles did the evangelists, viz. to publish their prophecies and instructions to the people, in the places where they themselves could not go. Nor is it any small testimony of God's love to an apostate people, that in these corrupt times, and in that very place where the golden calves were worshipped, he still continued the schools of the prophets, in order to recover them from idolatry. Nay, what is very remarkable, there were prophets of greater excellency for their miracles in Israel than were in Judah, because they needed them more, both to turn 2 R To prevent confusion, the reader is desired to take notice, that in the course of this history there is mention made of two Jehorams who reigned much a. bout the same time; one, the second son of Ahab, who succeeded his brother Ahaziah, and was king of Israel; and the other, who was son and heir of Jehoshaphat, and reigned in Judah; both very wicked princes, and therefore the greater care should be taken that their actions be not blended together. VOL. II. of 2 Chron. A. M. 3001, and as they drew near to the place of Elijah's ascension, Elisha requested of him, that &c. or 4507. the same gift of prophecy which God had been pleased to bestow on him, might be t 1003, &c. communicated to him in a larger measure than to the other prophets; which the other Ant. Christ. or 904. did not positively promise, but told him, however, that if he happened to see him when he came to be translated, this would be a good sign, that God would not refuse him his request: And while they were thus going on, and talking, there appeared, as it were, a bright chariot, and horses, running towards them on the ground, and, coming between them, parted them. * For Elijah mounted the chariot, and in a great gust of wind, directed by angels, was transported into heaven; while Elisha, who was left behind, +2 cried to him, as he saw him mount, and expressed his sorrow when he was gone: But taking up the mantle which had dropt from him in his ascent, with it he divided the waters, as Elijah had done, and repassed the Jordan. Hereby the prophets of Jericho, and the places adjacent, were convinced that the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha. And accordingly, when they met him, they recognised him for his successor, and paid him the same respect. Believing, however, that the Spirit of God might possibly have *2 transported Elijah into some distant or desert their hard hearts from the worship of idols, and to What this chariot was, and to what place it broughtest kings to destruction, and honourable men to their bed:-Who wast taken up in a whirlind of fire, and in a chariot of fiery horses; who wast ordained for reproofs in their times, to pacify the wrath of the Lord's judgment before it brake forth into fury, to turn the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob." In which last sentence our author alludes to that passage in Malachi, chap. iv. 5, 6. "Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." + The words of Elisha upon this occasion are, "My father, my father, (so they called their masters and instructors) the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." The expression alludes to the form of the chariot and horses that he had just then beheld, and seems to imply, "That Elijah, by his example, and counsel, and prayers, and power with God, did more for the defence and preservation of Israel, than all their chariots and horses, and other warlike provisions:" unless we may suppose, that this was an abrupt speech which Elisha, in the consternation he was in, left unfinished, and so the Sacred History has recorded it. taries. Pool's Annotations and Le Clerc's Commen **The Spirit of the Lord (whereby we may understand either the power of God, or some one of his angels), frequently used to carry the prophets through the air, and with vast celerity remove them to distant places; and therefore Obadiah speaks of it as a common thing: "And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord will carry thee where I know not, so that when the king cannot find thee he will slay me," 1 Kings xviii. 12. And accordingly, in the New Testament, we are told of Philip, that "when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught him away, that the eunuch saw him no more, and Philip was found at Azotus," Acts viii. 39, 40. Le Clerc's Commentary. |