The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings

729

Antt., X. v. 1.

730

Herod., ii. 158. His father Psamatik had left him an adequate army of natives and mercenaries.

731

Herodotus says of his ships: Ἁι μὲν ἐπὶ τῇ βορηίῃ θαλάσσῃ ἐποιήθησαν.

732

Judg. iv. 23; 1 Sam. xxix. 1-11; 1 Kings xx. 26; 2 Kings xxiii. 29; 2 Chron. xxxv. 22; Rev. xvi. 16 (Armageddon). Herodotus confuses it with Migdol (Μάγδολον).

733

1 Macc. xii. 49; Jos., Antt., XIII. vi. 2.

734

2 Chron. xxxv. 20-22.

735

According to 1 Esdras i. 25-32, "for upon Euphrates is my war."

736

Klostermann, in 2 Chron. xxxv. 21, reads bachalôm, "in a dream," instead of "to make haste."

737

Gen. xli. 1; Herod., ii. 188; Records of the Past, ix. 52.

738

2 Kings xviii. 25.

739

Antt., X. v. 1: Τῆς πεπρωμένης οἶμαι εἰς τοῦτ' αὐτόν παρορμησάσης.

740

Deut. xxviii. 1-8.

741

Psalm xx. 6, xviii. 29-50.

742

Lev. xxvi. 36.

743

2 Chron. xxxv. 22: "hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God."

744

"When he had seen him." Comp. 2 Kings xiv. 8.

745

1 Esdras i. 25; and LXX., "firmly resolved," "strengthened himself," as in 2 Chron. xxv. 11.

746

Jos., Antt., X. v. 1; and 2 Chron. xxxv. 23; 1 Esdras i. 30.

747

The fortunes of the Jews again prevailed in this plain in the days of Holofernes (Judith vii. 3); but they were defeated there by Placidus (Jos., B. J., IV. i. 8).

748

Zech. xii. 11-13 (comp. Jer. xxii. 10, 18). No such place as Hadadrimmon is known, though there is a Rummâne not far from Megiddo. Jerome (Comm. in Zach.) identifies it with a place which he calls Maximianopolis. Wellhausen (Skizzen, 192) thinks that the mourning is compared to some wail over the god Hadadrimmon, like the wailing for Tammuz. Jonathan and Jarchi say that Hadadrimmon was the son of Tabrimmon, who opposed Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead.

749

2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25. Jeremiah's elegy has probably perished. It would have been most interesting had it been preserved. Lam. iv. is too vague to have been this lost poem.

750

Jer. iv. 10.

751

Jer. xx. 7, 8.

752

Chron. iii. 15.

753

He is named "fourth," but he was older than his brothers Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (2 Kings xxiii. 31, xxiv. 18). The genealogy is as follows: —

754

An allusion to the Syrian mode of hunting the lion by driving it with cries into a concealed pit (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, 118; Cheyne, 140).

755

Ezek. xix. 1-4.

756

The name Shallum means "recompense." It may have been regarded as ill-omened, since the King of Israel who bore this rare name had only reigned a month.

757

The Talmud says that kings were only anointed in special cases (Keritoth, f. 5, 2; Grätz, ii. 328).

758

Jos., Antt., X. v. 2: Ἀσεβὴς καὶ μιαρὸς τὸν τρόπον.

759

Herod., ii. 159.

760

Mr. G. Smith identifies Carchemish with Jerablûs.

761

Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 127.

762

Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 20, 21. The old Hittite capital of Riblah was a convenient halting-place on the road between Babylon and Jerusalem. It was on the northernmost boundary of Palestine towards Damascus (Amos vi. 14).

763

Jer. xxii. 10-12.

764

2 Chron. xxxvi. 3; 1 Esdras i. 36. The smallness of the tribute proves the impoverishment of the land. Sennacherib demanded from Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty of gold; and Menahem paid one thousand talents of silver to Tiglath-Pileser.

765

Not Jehoiakim, but Jehoiachin, as the sequel shows.

766

Ezek. xix. 5-9. The allusions to Jehoiakim by Jeremiah are numerous, and all unfavourable (xxii. 13-19, xxvi. 20-23, xxxvi. 20-31, etc.)

767

Josephus (Antt., X. v. 2) is very severe on this king. He says that "he was unjust in disposition, an evil-doer, neither pious towards God nor just towards men."

768

Perhaps an allusion to a sort of fortified palace on Ophel.

769

Hab. ii. 9-11.

770

The text is perhaps corrupt. Two MSS. of the LXX. read "because thou viest with Ahab," and the Vatican MSS. has "with Ahaz." Cheyne adopts the former reading.

771

Jer. xxii. 13-17.

772

Jer. xxiii. 1.

773

Jer. xxii. 23.

774

Jer. xii. 5.

775

Jer. xxvi. 20-23. So far as I am aware, Bunsen stands alone in identifying Urijah with the "Zechariah" who wrote Zech. xii. – xiv. Others refer Zech. xii. 10 to the murder of Urijah.

776

Jer. xxvi. 18.

777

Isa. xiv., passim.

778

Nabu-pal-ussur, "Nebo protect the son."

779

Nabu-kudur-ussur, "Nebo protect the crown" (Schrader, ii. 48), or "the youth" (Oppert). The portrait of Nebuchadrezzar – this is the proper spelling, as generally in Jeremiah – is preserved for us on a black cameo which he presented to the god Merodach. It is now in the Berlin Museum, and shows strong but not cruel or ignoble characteristics. It is copied in Riehm's Handwörterbuch, ii. 1067. The Jews, as they were fond of doing to their enemies, made insulting puns on his name. Thus in the Vayyikra Rabba (Wünsche, Bibl. Rabb.) the Three Children are represented as saying to him, "You are Neboo-cad-netser: bark [nabach] like a dog; swell like a water-jar [kad], and chirp like a cricket [tsertser]," – in allusion to his madness.

780

Jer. xlvi. 5 (vi. 25).

781

Jos., Antt., X. xi.; Berosus, p. 11. The Chronicler and Josephus show some confusion, caused by the similarity of the names Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin.

782

Dan. i. 6.

783

We might infer from Ezek. xvii. 12 that Nebuchadrezzar actually took Jehoiakim with him to Babylon.

784

Ezek. xvii. 15.

785

Jer. xxxvi. 29, xxv. 9, xxvi. 6.

786

2 Kings xxiv. 2-4.

787

Grätz thinks that Jeremiah's roll was substantially Jer. xxv.

788

Jos., Antt., IX. ix. 1.

789

Jer. li. 59. Ewald, Hitzig, and others take the title to mean "quartermaster" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 8).

790

Jer. xlv. 1-5.

791

Zeph. i. 8; 1 Kings xxii. 26; Jer. xxxvi. 26, A.V., "The son of Hammelech." Comp. xxxviii. 6. Hammelech may be a proper name, or a prince of the blood-royal may be intended.

792

"The 'Book,' now as afterwards, was to be the death-blow of the old regal, aristocratic, sacerdotal exclusiveness. The 'Scribe,' now first rising into importance in the person of Baruch to supply the defects of the living Prophet, was, as the printing-press in later ages, handing on the words of truth, which else might have irretrievably perished" (Stanley).

793

Cheyne, Jeremiah, p. 149; Jer. xiv. 1-xv. 9.

794

Nebuchadrezzar occupies a larger space in the Bible than any heathen king, being spoken of in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

795

For further details of Jehoiakim see 1 Esdras i. 38: "He bound Joakim and the nobles; but Zaraces his brother he apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt." The allusion is entirely obscure, and probably arises from some corruption of the text. The literal rendering is: "And Joakim bound the nobles; but Zaraces his brother he apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt." Zaraces might be a corruption for Zedekiah, who was Jehoiakim's half-brother. Some think that Zaraces is a corruption for Urijah, and "his brother" a clerical error.

796

Jer. xxxvi. 30, xxii. 19.

797

LXX., καὶ ἐκοιμήθη Ἰωακεὶμ ἐν Γανοζὰν μετὰ τῶν πατέρων ἑαυτοῦ.

798

2 Chron. xxxvi. 8.

799

Sanhedrin, f. 104, 2. For another allusion see id. 49, 1; Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, p. 232.

800

Jer. xxvi. 22.

801

2 Chron. xxxvi. 9.

802

Jer. xx. 2. There seem to have been special "stocks" and "collars" in the Temple, reserved, by order of the priest Jehoiada, for those whom the priests regarded as unruly prophets (Jer. xxix. 26).

803

Jer. xxii. 24-30. The captivity of the queen-mother struck men's imaginations (Jer. xxix. 2).

804

Middoth, ii. 6, quoted by Cheyne, p. 163; Jos., B. J., VI. ii. 1. Comp. Ezek. i. 2.

805

Ezek. xix. 6-9. The special allusions are no longer certain.

806

2 Kings xx. 17. The expression "he cut to pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon had made" is hardly consistent with Ezra i. 7-11, unless we understand the word in a loose sense.

807

He says that he nobly gave himself up to save the city (Antt., X. vii. 1). His captivity was made an era from which to date Ezek. i. 2, viii. 1, xxiv. 1, xxvi. 1, etc. Comp. Susannah 1-4.

808

Jer. xxii. 30, 'arîrî. His "son" Assir (1 Chron. iii. 17) may have been made an eunuch (Isa. xxxix. 7).

809

Luke iii. 27, 31; Matt. i. 12.

810

Baruch i. 3, 4.

811

The favourable notice of Nebuchadrezzar in Taanith (quoted above) is not found in Berachoth, f. 57, 2, where he is called "the wicked." There are many wild legends about him. In Nedarim (f. 65, 2), R. Yitzchak says: "May melted gold be poured into the mouth of the wicked Nebuchadrezzar! Had not an angel struck him on the mouth, he would have outshone all David's songs and praises." With reference to Isa. xxii. 1, 2, the Rabbis say that Jeconiah went to the Temple roof, and flung up the keys into the air, when Nebuchadrezzar required them: "a hand took them, and they were seen no more" (Shekalim, vi. 5). In Nedarim (f. 65, 2) we are told that Zedekiah's rebellion consisted in divulging, contrary to his oath, that he had seen Nebuchadrezzar eating a live hare (Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud).

812

Comp. Jer. xxiii. 6: Jehovah-Tsidkenu.

813

Ezek. xvii. 12-14.

814

Ezek. xvii. 1-6.

815

Jer. xxxiv. 8-11.

816

Jer. xxxiv. 19. Comp. Gen. xv. 17.

817

This is strikingly shown by his piteous remark to them in Jer. xxxviii. 5.

818

He first sent two of Jeremiah's friends, Elasah and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan.

819

Some critics have doubted the authenticity of Jer. li., lii.

820

2 Chron. xxxvi. 14-21; Stanley, ii. 528; Milman, i. 394.

821

Shaphan's other sons, Gemariah, Ahikam, Elasah, and his grandson Gedaliah, were friends of Jeremiah.

822

Ezek. viii. 17. The allusion seems to be to a custom like that of the Parsees, who hold a branch of tamarisk or pomegranate twigs (called barsom) before their mouths when they adore the sacred fire. Strabo, xv. 732; Spiegel, Zendavesta, ii., p. lxviii; Eran. Alterthumsk., iii. 571 (Orelli, ad loc.). Lightfoot explains it, "add fuel to their wrath."

823

Ezek. xvi. 15-34.

824

Jer. vii. 4, 21-28, viii. 8, xxiii. 31-33, xxxi. 33, 34.

825

Jer. iii. 15, 16.

826

Jer. xxvii. 3.

827

Herod., ii. 161.

828

Psammis, the son of Necho, only reigned six years; Hophrah (b. c. 594) was his son.

829

The LXX. calls him "the false prophet."

830

Jer. xxvii. 1-8, 12-18. On vv. 16-22 see the LXX.

831

Here (Jer. xxviii. 11, and in xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 5) the name is written "Nebuchadnezzar"; everywhere else in Jeremiah it is "Nebuchadrezzar."

832

Part of his dispute with Jeremiah turned on the recovery or non-recovery of the Temple vessels. Zedekiah is said to have given a set of silver vessels to replace the old ones (Baruch i. 8).

833

Jer. xxix. 21-23.

834

Jer. xxiii. 9-32.

835

Jer. xxviii. 13-16, xxiii. 28.

836

Jer. xxiii. 29.

837

Ezek. xiii. 1-23.

838

Ezek. xvii. 25.

839

Josephus rightly attributes the unfortunate career of Zedekiah to the weakness with which he listened to evil counsellors, and to the insolent multitude.

840

2 Chron. xxxvi. 13; Jer. lii. 3.

841

Ezek. xvii. 15, 16, 18, 19.

842

Ezek. xvii. 7-10.

843

Jer. xlvi. 17.

844

Another form of belomancy is still commonly practised among the Arabs. Three arrows are placed in a vessel: on one of them is written, "My God permits me"; on another, "My God forbids me"; the third is blank. They are then shaken, and the decision is guided by the one which falls out first. Comp. Homer, Iliad, iii. 316; Speaker's Commentary, ad loc.

845

Ezek. xxi. 28-32.

846

An allusion to the restoration of Jeconiah or his descendants, and to the far-off Messiah, meek and lowly.

847

Ezek. iv. 1-3.

848

Jer. xxxvii. 3.

849

Ezek. vii. 16.

850

Jer. xxi. 1-10, xxxvii. 1-17. Josephus says that Pharaoh was defeated (Antt., X. vii. 3). Jeremiah merely says that he and his army returned to their own land.

851

Homer, Iliad, i. 106-109.

852

But it must not be forgotten that Jer. xxxi. 1-34 is so hopeful that it has been called "the Gospel before Christ."

853

Jer. vi. 14, viii. 11; Ezek. xiii. 10.

854

W. R. Smith, "Prophets" (Enc. Brit.).

855

Jer. xxxvii, 11-15.

856

Jer xxxviii. 5. The Jewish aristocracy consisted, says Grätz, of three classes: the benî hammelech, or "king's sons" —i. e., princes of the blood-royal; the roshî aboth, "heads of the fathers," or zekenîm, "elders"; and the abhodî hammelech, "king's servants," or "courtiers" (ii. 446).

857

Lam. v. 4.

858

Jer. xxxvii. 21, xxxviii. 9, lii. 6.

859

Lam. iv. 7, 8.

860

Lam. iv. 10, ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Baruch ii. 3.

861

Lam. iv. 5. See Stanley, Lectures, ii. 470.

862

Ezek. xi. 22.

863

This may possibly be alluded to in Psalm lxix. 2.

864

Jer. xxxviii. 10, A.V., "thirty."

865

Van Oort, iv. 52.

866

Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2; 2 Chron. xxxii. 5, xxxiii. 14. First and last, the siege seems to have lasted one year, five months, and twenty-seven days.

867

Zech. viii. 19.

868

The inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar which have been as yet deciphered speak of his sumptuous buildings and of his worship of the gods rather than of his conquests. See Records of the Past, vii. 69-78.

869

Robinson, Bibl. Res., ii. 536. Some suppose that "the king's garden" was near the mouth of the Tyropœon Valley.

870

Ezek. xii. 12. Perhaps the gate alluded to is the fountain gate of Neh. iii. 15. Ezekiel seems to speak of "digging through the wall." Robinson says that a trace of the outermost wall still exists in the rude pathway which crosses the mouth of the Tyropœon on a mound hard by the old mulberry tree which marks the traditional site of Isaiah's martyrdom.

871

Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2.

872

Traces of his presence are found in inscriptions in the Wady of the Dog near Beyrout, and in Wady Brissa. See Sayce, Proceedings of the Bibl. Arch. Soc., November 1881.

873

2 Kings xxv. 7. See Layard, Nineveh, ii. 376.

874

The blinding was sometimes done by passing a red-hot rod of silver or brass over the open eyes; sometimes by plucking out the eyes (Jer. lii. 11, Vulg. oculos eruit; 2 Kings xxv. 7, effodit). See a hideous illustration of a yet more brutal process in Botta (Monum. de Ninève, Pl. cxviii.), where Sargon with his own hand is thrusting a lance into the eyes of a captive prince, whose head is kept steady by a bridle fastened to a hook through his lips. See also Judg. xvi. 21; Xen., Anab., i. 9, § 13; Procopius, Bel. Pers., i. 1; Ammianus, xxvii. 12; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, i. 307.

875

Jos., Antt., X. viii. 2, 3.

876

Nebur-zir-iddina, "Nebo bestowed seed." Jer. xxxix. 9, 13, is in some way corrupt. Ezekiel (ix. 2), however, and Josephus (Antt., X. viii. 2) mention six officers. Nebuzaradan was "chief of the executioners" (Gen. xxxvii. 36; 1 Kings ii. 25, 35, 46).

877

Psalm lxxix. 2, 3.

878

2 Chron. xxxvi. 17; Lam. ii. 21, v. 11, 12.

879

To the reminiscences of these scenes are partly due the Talmudic legend about the blood of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, bubbling up to demand vengeance. Nebudchadrezzar slew a holocaust of human victims to appease the shade of the wrathful prophet, until the king himself was terrified, and asked if he wished his whole people to be slaughtered. Then the blood ceased to bubble.

880

See Rawlinson, Kings of Israel and Judah, p. 236.

881

Lam. iv. 22.

882

Psalm lxxix, 1.

883

Obad. 14-16; Psalm cxxxvii. 7; 1 Esdras iv. 45.

884

Comp. Esther i. 14.

885

On these personages see 1 Chron. vi. 13, 14; 2 Kings xxii. 4; Ezra vii. 1; Jer. xxi. 1, xxxvii. 3, etc.

886

Nebuchadrezzar had no doubt needed them for his great buildings at Babylon, and their deportation would render more difficult any attempt to refortify Jerusalem.

887

Jer. xli. 8, xl. 12.

888

Jer. lii. 28-30. In his seventh year, 3,023; in his eighteenth, 832 in his thirty-third, 745 = 4,600.

889

Ramah was but five miles from Jerusalem, and at first Jeremiah may not have been identified (Jer. xl. 1-6).

890

The present, if accepted, could only be regarded, under the circumstances, as part of the necessity of life. It does not fall under the head of the presents often offered to prophets (1 Sam. ix. 7; 2 Kings iv. 42; Mic. iii. 5, 11; Amos vii. 12).

891

Jer. xi. 19-21, xii. 6.

892

Stanley, Lectures, ii. 515.

893

So Grätz and Cheyne.

894

Jer. xxxi. 15-17.

895

Jer. xxvi. 24.

896

Jer. xl. 12.

897

Some identify it with Shaphat, a mile from Jerusalem.

898

They are called sarî ("princes").

899

There is no Elishama in the royal genealogy, except a son of David. Ishmael may have been the son or grandson of some Ammonite princess. An Elishama was scribe of Jehoiakim (Jer. xxxvi. 12).

900

The Hebrew text calls these ten ruffians rabbî hammelech, "chief officers of the king" of Ammon.

901

Josephus records or conjectures that the governor was overpowered by wine, and had sunk into slumber (Antt., X. ix. 2).

902

In Jer. xli. 9, for "because of Gedaliah," the better reading is "was a great pit" (LXX., φρέαρ μέγα).

903

Ishmael – a marvel of craft and villainy – put into practice the same stratagem which on a larger scale was employed by Mohammed Ali in his massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo in 1806 (Grove, s. v. Bibl. Dict.). For "the midst of the city" (Jer. xli. 7), we ought to read "courtyard," as in Josephus.

904

Comp. Jehu's treatment of the family of Ahaziah (2 Kings x. 14).

905

The dark deed is still commemorated by a Jewish fast, as in the days of Zechariah (Zech. vii. 3-5, viii. 19).

906

Isa. xix. 18-22.

907

Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1; Ezek. xxx. 18; Jer. xliii. 7, xlvi. 14; Herod., ii. 30.

908

Fl. Petrie, Memoir on Tanis (Egypt. Explor. Fund, 4th memoir), 1888.

909

Jer. xliii. 13, Beth-shemesh. Only one pillar of the Temple of the Sun is now standing. It is said to be four thousand years old. It is certain that Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and defeated Amasis, the son of Hophrah, b. c. 565, reducing Egypt to "the basest of kingdoms" (Ezek. xxix. 14, 15). Three of Nebuchadrezzar's terra-cotta cylinders have been found at Tahpanhes.

910

How far the prophecy was fulfilled we do not know. Assyrian and Egyptian fragments of record show that in the thirty-seventh year of his reign Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and advanced to Syene (Ezek. xxix. 10).

911

2 Macc. ii. 1-8; comp. xv. 13-16. The tradition is singular when we recall the small store which Jeremiah set by the Ark (Jer. iii. 16).

912

Evil-Merodach (Avil-Marduk, "Man of Merodach") only reigned two years, and was then murdered by his brother-in-law Neriglissar (Berosus ap. Jos.: comp. Ap., i. 20). The Rabbis have a story – perhaps founded on that of Gaius and Agrippa I. – that Evil-Merodach had been imprisoned by his father for wishing his death, and in prison formed a friendship for Jehoiachin.

913