2 Kings

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Then Moab.] Who, being subdued by David, had hitherto served Israel, and paid the yearly tribute of a hundred thousand rams, and a hundred thousand lambs, with their wool. {#2Ki 3:4,5}

Rebelled against Israel.] Which was no small judgment upon wicked Ahaziah, whose reign was both short and troublous. So was our Queen Mary’s; -her conceptions failing, extreme dearths raging, harm done by thunder from heaven, and by fire in the royal navy, King Philip keeping from court, as not affecting her, the loss of Calais, as here of Moab, &c.

Ver. 2. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice.] So the Suffragan of Dover broke his neck, falling down a pair of stairs in Cardinal Peele’s lodgings at Greenwich, presently after he had received the cardinal’s blessing. {a} The fall of Blackfriars slew about a hundred massmongers, bruised and lamed many more. By such mischances, besides diseases, men may be taken as a bird with a bolt, while he gazeth at the bow; which made Augustine say, that he would not for the gain of a million of worlds be an atheist for one half-hour, lest in that time death should seize him.

And was sick.] And so disabled to attempt anything against Moab.

Inquire of Baalzebub.] Which signifieth a fly lord. The Greeks called him Myiodes and Jupiter απομυιος, as driving away the flies that annoyed them {b} The Gentiles worshipped many strange gods, as Febris, Cloacina, Pavor and Pallor, &c. {c} These were devils, saith St Paul; and Beelzebub is called "the prince of devils." At Ekron he was chiefly worshipped; hence Acheron is taken for hell.

“ Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.’’—Virg.

Whether I shall recover.] Answers to such questions these idolaters had sometimes from Aesculapius and other like devils, that they might be further deceived, as Martyr observeth.

{a} Act. and Mon., 1902.

{b} Pausan., lib. v. Plin., lib. xxix. cap. 6.

{c} Aug., De Civ. Dei.

Ver. 3. Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, ] God scorneth that it should be thought that he had "said unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain": that is enough for dumb idols. {#Isa 45:16-19}

That ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?] To their own Baal they sent not, belike, either because he had lately deceived his father Ahab to the loss of his life, or because men are apt to admire foreign things.

Ver. 4. Thou shalt surely die.] Tempore non tuo {#Ec 7:17} then, when it were better for thee to do anything else than to die.

And Elijah departed.] Vanished, say some; and that so amazed the messengers that they presently returned. But whether he vanished or departed, they had their errand.

Ver. 5. Why are ye now turned back?] Re infecta, as he thought; but they returned unto him with heavy tidings, as #1Ki 14:6. "An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him." {#Pr 17:11}

Ver. 6. There came a man up to meet us.] Samaria stood on a hill. They were not gone far out of town, it seemeth, ere the prophet met them.

Ver. 7. What manner of man was he?] What was his stature, habit, and shape?

Ver. 8. He was a hairy man.] Hispidus et hirsutus. Either because Elijah had much hair on his head and face, or because, as a prophet, he wore a rough garment, {#Zec 13:4} as a pattern of repentance.

And girt with a girdle of leather.] So was John Baptist, that second Elijah. That this girdle here mentioned was made of the pelt of that ram which Abraham offered up instead of his son Isaac, is a Jewish fable, scarce worth relating.

Ver. 9. Then the king sent.] Stirred up thereto, likely, by his wicked mother Jezebel, who was his counsellor.

A captain of fifty with his fifty.] To fetch him by force.

Behold, he sat on the top of a hill.] Quia sibi timebat, saith Vatablus. "Elias was a man subject to like passion as we are." {#Jas 5:17}

Thou man of God.] This he seemeth to say as in a jeer; or, if otherwise, it is no better than a kind confession with a false heart, with bloody hands. The world is full of these windy courtesies, real cruelties.

Ver. 10. Then let fire come down from heaven.] This he spake by a motion of God’s Spirit, in zeal of a just punishment to be inflicted on so proud and profane a person. Sed O quam hoc non est omnium! See #Lu 9:54.

And there came down fire from heaven.] Mr Fox in his "Martyrology" telleth us that as Robert Balding and James Clark were going to carry William Seaman, martyr, -in Queen Mary’s days, -to their master, Sir John Tyrrell, in the night, there fell, it is credibly reported, a light between them out of the element, and parted them. This Balding, albeit he was then in his best age, after that time never enjoyed a good day, but pined away even to death. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1846.

Ver. 11. And he answered, and said.] This fellow was more impudent and obstinate than the former; he is therefore worthily made an example, seeing he would not take example.

Come down quickly.] Or I will bring thee down. Satis hoc fuit pro imperio.

Ver. 12. And Elijah answered.] See on #2Ki 1:10.

Ver. 13. And he sent again a captain.] Another pentacontarch; but of a better make than the former. Some think it was good Obadiah, whom be knew to be gracious with the prophet, and could prevail with him to come to the king.

Ver. 14. Therefore let my life be precious in thy sight.] Say we the same to Almighty God, when we see so many fall on every hand of us, devoured by death.

Ver. 15. Be not afraid of him.] See #2Ki 1:9. Cur timeat hominem homo in sinu Dei positus?

Ver. 16. Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers.] This if he had not done, but sought to God, though he were mortally bruised, yet he might have, through mercy, recovered, as Hezekiah did.

Ver. 17. So he died.] Some wicked men live long, that they may aggravate their judgment: others die sooner, that they may hasten it.

In the second year of Jehoram.] See on #1Ki 22:50.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. When the Lord would raise up Elijah into heaven.] Into the third heaven, not into the sky only—as some have conceited—till our Saviour’s ascension.

That Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.] Which is commonly held to have been a school or college of prophets—as was also Bethel—of whom be was the father or chief instructor. For a meet farewell to the earth, Elijah will go visit these places before his departure: these were in his way. Of any part of the earth, these were nearest unto heaven.

Ver. 2. And Elijah said unto Elisha.] Individuo suo Achati, who was and would be his constant companion.

Tarry here, I pray thee.] This he might speak, as desirous either to conceal his rapture to heaven, or rather to kindle in Elisha a more earnest affection to go along with him, that he might be a witness thereof, for the good of the Church in all ages.

I will not leave thee.] Hence some gather that God had revealed the matter to Elisha; and suggested to him not to leave Elijah.

Ver. 3. From thy head, ] i.e., To heaven, or from sitting any longer over thy head, as a doctor over his disciples. See #Ac 22:3. For among the Jews, the Rabbi sat on high, and was called Joshebh, or the sitter; the scholar sat at his feet, or lay along in the dust, called therefore Mithabbek, in token of humility.

Hold ye your peace.] Hinder me not by your discourses from my diligent attendance, lest he be taken away on the sudden, and I not see him.

Ver. 4. For the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.] Where was another college of prophets, whom he would likewise visit ere he left the earth, that he might pray with them, and advise them—see the like, #2Pe 1:14—and haply leave with them that letter to Jehoram, king of Judah, which, some years after, was to be delivered, {#2Ch 21:12} prophesying and foretelling his sins and punishments.

Ver. 5. And the sons of the prophets.] See ver. 3.

Ver. 6. Tarry, I pray thee, here.] This is a third motion, for trial haply of his love and constancy. See the like, #Joh 21:17.

Ver. 7. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets.] These were all of one college, and these were strong men, {#2Ki 2:16} able and active. In our days, the Jesuits—those locusts, #Re 9:3 -have maintained two hundred thousand scholars, besides the monks and friars of other orders, enough to make up a very formidable army, and such as may serve Antichrist for a sufficient reserve, cum res redierit ad Triarios, when he shall be worst put to it. Oxford is said to have had sometime thirty thousand students in it at once.

And stood to view afar off.] Out of curiosity likely, but not without a special providence of God, that there might be so many witnesses of Elijah’s assumption to heaven.

Ver. 8. And smote the waters, and they were divided.] Elijah was a great wonder worker: and this is reckoned by some, his seventh, by others his eleventh miracle.

Ver. 9. Ask what I shall do for thee before.] Not after I am gone, but before I go up. We have a communion with the saints departed, not a commerce.

Let a double portion, ] i.e., Two parts of three, saith Vatablus: the portion of the firstborn, say others, which was double to his brethren; so would Elijah have a larger measure of the gifts of the Spirit, than any ordinary prophets inasmuch as he was to succeed his master. {#1Ki 19:16} Some read it thus, Let the double portion of thy spirit be upon me: and then he wisheth no more than to be like his master Elijah. Thus Irenaeus proved very like Polycarp, John the Evangelist’s disciple. Thus Paraeus succeeding his master Ursinus in the College of Wisdom at Heidelberg, expressed him to the life: whence Paulus Melissus, the poet,

“ Sacra docente Pareo,

Vividus Ursini spiritus ora movet.”

Ver. 10. If thou see me when I am taken from thee.] Vehemence is the way to speed both in earth and in heaven. If but the eyelids of Elisha fall, if his thoughts slacken, his hopes are dashed. {a} There must be fixedness and vigilancy in those that desire double graces.

{a} Bp. Hall’s Contemp.

Ver. 11. As they still went on and talked.] Lo, Elijah was going and talking when the chariot of heaven came to fetch him. Surely, saith my reverend author, had not that conference been needful and divine, it had given way to meditation: and Elijah had been taken up rather from his knees than from his feet. {a} There can be no better posture or state for the messenger of our dissolution to find us in, than in a diligent prosecution of our calling; our busy attendance whereupon is no less pleasing to God, than an immediate devotion.

A chariot of fire, and horses of fire.] Angels in this form. {#Ps 104:4} Seraphims fetch up this seraphical doctor. He was zealous for the Lord of hosts: and they were all alight, on fire, as it were, with ardent affection toward him; so there was a suitableness. This candidate, therefore, of immortality—as the ancients call him and Enoch—went up by a whirlwind into heaven: he went most willingly with them. And Chrysostom hath a conceit, that Satan, the prince of the air, was very much amazed when he saw Elias thus convoyed through his country. But what a fool had he made of that woman of a sect and her companions at Newbury, A.D, 1647, whom he had persuaded that such a night she should be taken up into heaven: before which time many of them assembled together, took their solemn leaves of her with tears, and the time being come, out they go to see her ascension; but at length were fain to return to their homes, as wise as they came, having made themselves a ridiculous spectacle unto many. {b}

{a} Idem ib.

{b} Mr Clark’s Mirror, 2d edit., p. 230.

Ver. 12. And Elisha saw it.] See on #2Ki 2:10.

The horsemen of Israel.] As thou hast been the Lord’s faithful warrior for the safety of his Church, so now thou art carried into his kingdom of glory, as it were upon a triumphal chariot and horses. {a}

{a} Diod.

Ver. 13. The mantle of Elisah that fell from him.] This, Elijah let go—the rest of his clothes likely were consumed— ut mundi vestimenta in mundo dimittens, saith Jerome, as showing that in heaven there was no need of clothes. This mantle Elisha gladly took up, not only as a good amends for his own clothes which he had rent in two pieces, {#2Ki 2:12} but also as a memorial of his master, and a token that God had designed him his successor, and would clothe him with his spirit, as appeared by the ensuing experiment, Elisha’s first miracle.

Ver. 14. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?] These are words of invocation and faith, rather than of doubt and of diffidence. Some render it, Where is the Lord God of Elijah, even He? and make Aph-hu—even He—to be one of God’s attributes. See Weemse’s "Exposition of the Moral Law," p. 162, and A Lapide, in loco.

Ver. 15. Which were to view at Jericho, ] i.e., At a convenient distance betwixt Jericho and Jordan.

Bowed themselves to the ground before him.] As acknowledging him now to be their chief instructor.

Ver. 16. And they said unto him, Behold now, &c.] They would do nothing without Elisha’s consent, whom now they looked upon as their new master. The Popish padres require blind obedience of their novices; telling them that if an angel or the blessed Virgin were talking with them, and their superior meanwhile call them off, they must presently obey. To argue or debate in their case, they say, were presumption: to require a reason, proud curiosity: to detract or disobey, breach of vow equal to sacrilege. This is the doctrine of Ignatius. But Elisha gave his pupils more liberty: as to propound and press their motion till he was ashamed. {#2Ki 2:17}

Ver. 17. He said, Send.] Since you have such a mind to it; though you are sure to lose your labour,

But found him not.] Tired with three days’ search, they turn back as wise as they went. Some men are best satisfied when they have wearied themselves in their own ways. Nothing will teach them wit but disappointments.

Ver. 18. Did not I say unto you, Go not?] The uncounsellable are commonly unhappy in their attempts.

Ver. 19. Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city, &c.] Say we so of such places, though never so pleasant, as have not the word and sacraments—those waters of life—purely and powerfully administered in them: and seek remedy.

But the water is naught, and the ground barren.] Heb., Making to miscarry. The cause whereof was not either that ancient malediction of Joshua, or the neighbourhood of that noisome lake of Sodom, but the recent sins of the inhabitants, -see #Ps 107:34, -and particularly Hiel’s presumption in rebuilding it. {#1Ki 16:34}

Ver. 20. And he said, Bring me, &c.] Jericho is now become a receptacle of prophets; it is reason that any place should fare the better for the presence of such.

A new cruse, ] Whereby it might appear that the miracle was not wrought by virtue of anything that had been in it before.

And put salt therein.] Salt was more likely to make the waters brackish, than to sweeten them. Salsum in amarum was a strange way to heal. God oft worketh by contraries, that his power may the more appear.

Ver. 21. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there.] Not into the channel, but into the spring. So must we, if we would be healed, cast the salt of mortification into our hearts, those fountains of speeches and actions. The Paracelsian holdeth that there is salt in every body. Sure enough there ought to be godly sorrow in every soul.

I have healed these waters.] If God casteth into our hearts but one cruseful of the salt of his Spirit, we are whole: no thought can pass between the receipt and the remedy.

Ver. 22. So the waters were healed.] By Elisha; who was willing to gratify his hosts of Jericho, to remunerate their courtesy, and to convert them "from dumb idols to the living and true God."

Ver. 23. And he went from thence unto Bethel.] Which was now a place of strange composition; for there was at once the golden calf of Jeroboam, and the school of God. Physicians are of most use where diseases abound.

There came forth little children.] Nuzzled up by their wicked parents in idolatry and contempt of a faithful ministry.

Go up, thou bald head.] Or, Ascend, as they say—-but who can think it?—thy master Elijah did. Thus these mistaught brats, and, because they had nothing worse to upbraid him with, they twit him with his baldness: loading that head with scorn which God had crowned with honour.

Ver. 24. And cursed them.] By his spirit of prayer and prophecy: not out of private revenge.

And there came forth two she bears.] So Dr Whittington returning from martyring a good woman at Chipping Sadbury, was gored by a bull. {a} Dr Story, who vaunted that he had burnt so many earwigs—heretics he meant, -was hanged at Tyburn for treason. Hemingius telleth of a lewd fellow in Denmark, who showing great contempt against a preacher, as he passed out of the Church was brained with a tile. Luther {b} telleth of such another, who going into the fields to look to his sheep, after he had railed most bitterly against a godly minister, was found dead: his body being burnt as black as a coal. "Be not ye mockers, lest your bands be increased."

{a} Mr Clark’s Martyrol., fol. 58.

{b} Luth., in Coll.

Ver. 25. To mount Carmel.] He can never be a profitable seer, that is either always or never alone. Carmel shall fit Elisha for Samaria; contemplation for action. {a}

{a} Bp. Hall.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat.] But in the second year of Jehoram, {#2Ki 1:17} whom his father Jehoshaphat had made viceroy; but misliking his son’s evil practices, as it is probable, he resumed the sceptre.

Ver. 2. But not like his father, and like his mother.] Not all out so bad; and yet not very much better than they. Optimi putantur si vel leviter mali sint, saith a Popish writer concerning the Popes of Rome, vel minus boni quam caeteri mortales esse solent. They are held very good popes if they be not grossly evil; or if somewhat less good than other men use to be. Think the same of the kings of Israel.

For he put away the image of Baal.] This was somewhat toward a reformation, and he was drawn to it by good Jehoshaphat’s persuasion likely, who hoping to work further with him, was content to be his confederate, as it followeth.

Ver. 3. Nevertheless he cleaved.] This partiality in reformation marreth all. God liketh not that men should plough here, and make a balk there: this is putid hypocrisy.

Ver. 4. And Mesha king of Moab.] Mesha signifieth Salvation, a fit name for a king. But this man might as ill deserve it, as did Antiochus, surnamed Soter, that is, a saviour: not for any great good he did, but because he did not much harm.

With the wool.] It was grown to a proverb among our forefathers, Curia Romana non petit ovem sine lana. {a}

{a} Rain., De Idol. Rom., p. 272.

Ver. 5. When Ahab was dead.] Elephanti mortuo vel mus insultat. But besides the death of Ahab, Ahaziah his son and successor was weak; and hence this revolt of Moab from him.

Ver. 6. The same time.] That is, So soon as by the death of his brother he came to the kingdom.

Ver. 7. And he said, I will go up.] See on #2Ki 3:2. The Moabites had lately, with other nations, invaded Judah, {#2Ch 20:1} and therefore it may be Jehoshaphat hearkened the rather to Jehoram’s motion.

Ver. 8. The way through the wilderness of Edom.] Imprudens erat hoc responsum et concilium. Jehoshaphat spoke this impoliticly; and no wonder, since he consulted not time enough with God, by his prophets. Jehoshaphat is usually an Epimetheus, a postmaster, an after wit.

Ver. 9. Of seven days’ journey.] This was a long while for such an army to be without water; and should have been sooner seen to. Prevision is the best means of prevention. This was a check to Jehoshaphat’s rashness.

Ver. 10. Alas! that the Lord hath called.] Vox est admirantis et desperantis, saith Vatablus. He seeketh to lay the blame upon the Lord: though it were himself especially that brought the army into that distress. "The wickedness of a man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord." {#Pr 19:3}

Ver. 11. Is there not here a prophet of the Lord?] Jehoram in this distress doth only quarrel and complain; but good Jehoshaphat bethinketh himself, though late first, of a prophet. Had this been done time enough, these straits had been avoided; but Nunquam sero, si serio.

Who poured water.] Was his household servant.

Ver. 12. So the king of Israel.] By Jehoshaphat’s persuasion likely, and the present necessity. Either zeal or need will make a prophet honoured. These three kings sent not for Elisha, but went unto him.

Ver. 13. What have I to do with thee? &c.] See how infinitely the Lord scorneth the addresses and services of ungodly persons. {#Eze 20:3}

Ver. 14. As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand.] As his servant; and therefore may not fear the face of any mortal wight, be he never so great a king or kaiser.

Surely, were it not that I regard the presence.] So saith the Lord to the world of wicked ones, concerning his saints and servants mixed among them. The scaffold standeth but only for the building’s sake; the hedge for the grain’s sake: when the building is finished, the scaffold is taken down; when the grain is ripe, the hedge is burned; so here.

Ver. 15. But now bring me a minstrel, ] Heb., One that striketh with his hand upon a musical instrument. A Levite, likely, he meant, that played and sung some psalm of David. Such a one the prophet here calleth for, to dispel his grief, say some Hebrew doctors, for the loss of Elijah; from whose translation, till the then present occasion, the spirit of prophecy, say the same authors, rested not upon him. To compose his spirits, say some, much moved with indignation at Jehoram; for which purpose also the Pythagoreans, every night when they went to bed, played on an instrument. {a} And Plato in his laws attributeth the same virtue to music. But besides this, the prophet’s mind might hereby be raised up to an expectation of God communicating himself. The way to be filled with the Spirit is to edify ourselves by psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Hence we sing before sermon, &c.

{a} Quintilian, lib. ix. cap. 4.

Ver. 16. Make this valley full of ditches, ] Heb., Ditches, ditches, sc., to receive the water which shall fall by a miracle. Thus God for the most part, saith Mr Diodate here, first prepareth the vessels which are to receive his grace, which is never limited nor hindered but only by man’s incapacity.

Ver. 17. Ye shall not see wind nor rain.] God can relieve his people in the fail of means. {#Hab 3:17}

Ver. 18. And this is but a light thing.] A great thing it was in itself considered—else Lysimachus would never have parted with his kingdom for a cup of water, to save his life; but behold a greater, and admire the goodness of God to an undeserving people.

Ver. 19. And ye shall smite every fenced city.] Omnia anathemati devovebitis. Spoiling Moab shall be utterly spoiled. {#Isa 33:1}

And mar every good piece of land, ] Heb., Grieve or afflict; Nam lapides sunt quaedam pestes agrorum.

Ver. 20. In the morning, when the meat offering was offered.] Which was the hour of public prayer. {#Ac 3:1} The devotions of all true Jews—all the world over—were in that hour combined. How seasonably doth the wisdom of God pick out that instant wherein he might at once answer both Elisha’s prophecy and his people’s prayers!

That, behold, there came water.] Adductae ab angelis, saith A Lapide, brought thither by the angels.

And the country was filled.] Not the ditches only.

Ver. 21. They gathered all that were able to put on armour.] In Scotland, they have an ancient custom, in cases of importance, to command the fire cross to be carried; that is, two firebrands set in fashion of a cross, and pitched upon the point of a spear, and proclamation is thereupon made that all men over sixteen years of age, and under sixty, shall come into the field against the common enemy. {a}

{a} Life of King Edward VI, by Sir J. Heywood,

Ver. 22. And the Moabites saw the water…as red as blood.] So they seemed to be, by reason of the sunbeams, which met with the vapours that arose out of the waters, and could not dispel them.

Ver. 23. This is blood.] For water they were confident there could be none.

They have smitten one another.] Here they mused as themselves had used; {#2Ch 20:23} for why might not others fall out, and fall foul on one another, as they had done?

Ver. 24. And when they came to the camp of Israel.] Ordinibas non servatis et acie non instructa, disranked and disordered. Their misconceit undid them, as it still doth many.

Ver. 25. Only in Kirhareseth.] The strongest city in Moab. See #Isa 16:11.

Left they the stones thereof, ] i.e., The stone walls, which, being very strong, and, in addition, well manned and defended by the king of Moab, who was fled there with his forces, were not rased and harassed as the rest.

Ver. 26. To break through even unto the king of Edom.] Either because that quarter was weakest, or because his rage was most against the Edomites for helping the Israelites against him.

Ver. 27. Then he took his eldest son.] The king of Edom’s eldest son, say some, whom he had taken in the late sally, and now spitefully sacrificed. See on #Am 2:1. The king of Moab’s own son and heir, say others, whom he took and sacrificed to his god Chemos, or the sun, that with so precious a sacrifice he might prevail with him for help in this extremity. The like was usually done by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, as Diodorus and Q. Curtius report, by an apish and hellish imitation, say some, of Abraham’s offering up his son Isaac. R. Solomon, and cut of him Lyra, tell us that the king of Moab asked his priests how the Iraelites came to be so gracious with God, and so victorious. They answered, that Abraham their father, in obedience unto him, sacrificed his only son, and that Mosha thereupon took and sacrificed this his son upon the wall. And the like is reported of Sennacherib, as I have elsewhere noted.

And there was great indignation, ] i.e., Great discontent in the other two confederate kings against the king of Israel for his obstinate spleen, the cause of such an abomination.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. Now there cried a certain woman.] Here we have miraculorum congeriem. In this fourth chapter four signal miracles are set forth done by Elisha, worthily called Thaumaturgus, or, the wonder worker.

Unto Elisha.] Who had so lately relieved the three kings in their necessity, and therefore she believed that he both could and would help her, a distressed prophet’s widow.

Thy servant my husband is dead.] And died in debt; which he needed not to have done, if he would have complied with Jezebel, and fed on her trough, as others did; but he chose rather to keep faith and a good conscience, as Luther did, who refused a cardinalship when it was offered him; and when he lay a-dying, made his will for his wife and children on this manner, Domine Deus, gratias ago tibi quid volueris me esse pauperem super terrain et mendicum, &c. Lord God, I thank thee for my present poverty, and now, I pray thee, take care of my poor wife and children, to whom I cannot bequeath house, lands, possessions, moneys. But I humbly beseech thee to feed them, breed them, teach them, keep them, as thou hitherto hast done me, O Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows.

Thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord.] The Rabbis and some others have thought that this was good Obadiah’s widow, and that he, by feeding the Lord’s prophets in those perilous times, had spent his estate, and died indebted to the king, to whose father he had been steward. But this is not very likely.

Ver. 2. What shall I do for thee?] Pay thy debts for thee I cannot; but if any way else I may bestead thee, I shall do it.

What hast thou in the house?] viz., Toward the payment of thy debts, which thou oughtest to endeavour to thine utmost.

Thy handmaid hath not anything.] Of any value. Hereby it appeareth that she was left very poor, yet speaketh she very respectfully of her late husband all along.

Ver. 3. Even empty vessels.] They must be empty hearts, saith Bernard; empty of self, and all ungodly lusts, which God will fill with the oil of grace: Intus existens prohibet alienum, else that precious liquor would be spilt upon the ground.

Borrow not a few.] Ne paucifices. Let not men be constrained in their own heart; there is enough in God.

Ver. 4. Thou shalt shut the door upon thee.] It was time to shut the door, saith a reverend man, when many greater vessels must be supplied from one little one. But why must the door be shut? (1.) That she might be the more free to pray; {#Mt 6:6} (2.) That she might manifest her own faith, and not be hindered by the unbelief of others; {see #Mr 6:5,6} (3.) That it might not be thought that the oil was by anybody secretly conveyed into the house to them.

Ver. 5. And shut the door, &c.] This her prompt and present obedience was a noble fruit of her heroical faith. She doth not reason, as Naaman did, but run; she doth not dispute, but despatch the prophet’s commands. God loveth Curristas non Quaeristas, saith Luther.

And she poured out.] And the more she poured out, the more she might; the angels making new supplies of oil continually, saith A Lapide.

Ver. 6. There is not a vessel more.] The cruse never ceased running, till there was no room; so elsewhere God never ceased abating, till Abraham stopped begging.

Ver. 7. And live thou and thy children of the rest.] This was more than she desired of the prophet. God is oft better to his people than their prayers, than their hopes. Men must likewise see to it, that their ministers’ widows and children have a comfortable subsistence.

Ver. 8. That Elisha passed to Shunem.] Abishag’s country. {#1Ki 1:3} See #Jos 19:18. And the Rabbins say that this good Shunammite was Abishag’s sister’s daughter.

Where was a great woman.] Great in wealth, and great also in virtue, as the Chaldee understandeth it. {a}

{a} Cavens sibi a peccato. -Chald. Paraph.

Ver. 9. Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man.] Holiness will as little be hid as light, fire, musk, &c. A holy man is like a crystai glass with a clear lamp in the midst of it.

Which passeth by us continually.] Shunem was not far from mount Carmel; and this prophet went still about doing good.

Ver. 10. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall.] Where he may be privately, and without disturbance. She knew the tumult of a large family, unfit for the quiet meditations of a prophet; retiredness is most meet for the thoughts of a seer.

Ver. 11. And he turned into the chamber, and lay there.] To the great benefit, no doubt, of the whole family, who received many divine instructions from him, and were much helped on by his prayers and holy practices.

Ver. 12. Call this Shunammite.] Gehazi it seemeth was sent to call her, but withal to acquaint her with the business, -viz., that if she had any suit to the king or his general, &c., -and to bring back her answer; whereupon consulting with Gehazi what was to be done for her, and understanding by him that she had no child, Elisha bade Gehazi call her, as #2Ki 4:15.

Ver. 13. Behold thou hast been careful for us.] A gracious man is a grateful man, and studieth retribution.

I dwell among mine own people.] Privately and peaceably, having no business at court; not affecting great friendships, nor groaning under great oppressions. All this was well, if it might have held. The old Greeks gave this grave counsel, saith Suidas,

“αλευ απο μειζονος ανδρος.’’—Suidas.

i.e., Keep aloof from great ones. And the Latin poets say well,

“ Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici,

Expertus metuet… -Horat.

“ Vive tibi, quantumque potes, praelustria vita.’’—Ovid.

But what hold is there of these earthly things? saith another; how long is the Shunammite thus blessed with peace? Stay but a while, you shall see her come on her knees to the king of Israel, pitifully complaining that she was stripped of house and land: and how Gehazi is fain to do that good office for her, which was not accepted from his master. {a} Those that stand fastest upon earth, have but slippery footing. No man can say that he shall not need friends.

{a} Bp. Hall.

Ver. 14. What then is to be done for her?] So great a prophet disdaineth not to consult and advise with his servant; and all his care is how to express his thankfulness to his hostess.

Ver. 15. Call her.] See on #2Ki 4:12.

She stood in the door.] By a commendable modesty. So #Ge 18:10.

Ver. 16. About this season, ] i.e., About this time twelve months from now.

Thou shalt embrace a son.] God dealeth with his servants, as the prophet here did with this Shunammite, when he bade her ask what she needed, and tell him what he should do for her, and she found not anything to request at his hands; he sends for her, and makes her a free promise of that which she most wanted and desired—a son. So, oft God is pleased to give his servants what they forget or presume not to ask.

Ver. 17. And the woman conceived.] The like whereunto fell out in the last age: for Dr Sandys departing the land for fear of Queen Mary, and taking leave of his hostess, who was childless, and had been married eight years, he gave her a fine handkerchief and an old royal of gold in it, thanking her much, and said, Be of good comfort; ere that one whole year be past, God shall give you a child, a boy. And it came to pass that day twelve months lacking one day, God gave her a fair son. {a}

{a} Act. and Mon., 1894.

Ver. 18. Went out to his father to the reapers.] This Shunammite, though rich, yet had himself the oversight of his harvest labourers: so had Boaz. {#Ru 2:4 3:2-7} This was good husbandry.

Ver. 19. And he said to his father, My head, my head.] The sunbeams in that hot season of harvest had beaten hard upon his head, and made him sick. The Latins call a sick man Aegrum, from the pitiful moan he maketh, crying, Ai, Ai .{ a} But what an undivine inference was that of the Bishop of Hereford in his sermon at Oxford upon this text, in the reign of Edward II—pursued at that time by his queen and son—that an aching and sick head of a kingdom was of necessity to be taken off, and no otherwise cured! {b}

Till noon, and then died.] The child was well, sick, and dead, and all in the space of four or five hours. A sore trial; and a fair warning to all parents not to love their little ones too much, lest God soon take away the earthly idol.

{a} ai, ai, vox dolentis.

{b} Dan., Hist., 216.

Ver. 21. And laid him on the bed of the man of God.] She had heard, belike, how Elijah had restored to life a widow’s dead child. {#1Ki 17:21} This therefore that she here did was an act of her faith, whereby also she "received her dead raised to life again." {#Heb 11:35} Faith is the best lever at a dead lift.

Ver. 22. Send me, I pray thee.] As a pious and a prudent matron, though she might do much with her husband, whose heart safely trusted in her, yet she would do nothing of moment without his consent.

Ver. 23. Wherefore wilt thou go to him today?] Her husband knew nothing then of the child’s death.

It is neither new moon, nor sabbath.] On which days good people in those evil times were wont to repair to God’s holy prophets to hear the word and receive instruction.

And she said, It shall be well.] Heb., Peace. Tostatus rendereth it Vale, farewell. The Vulgate, not well, Vadam, I will go; this had been too peremptory and unseemly.

Ver. 24. Drive, and go forward.] Put on as fast as thou canst. Dolor addidit alas; grief rideth without reins, where there is but any hope of help.

Ver. 25. Behold, yonder is that Shunammite.] That good Shunammite, which "showeth out of a good conversation her works with meekness of wisdom." Sir Thomas Moore was out when he said, Men commit faults often, women only twice, that they neither speak well nor do well.

Ver. 26. And she answered, It is well.] It is, or would be. Well it is howsoever for the present, and it will be better hereafter.

Ver. 27. She caught him by the feet.] Which she held fast, to show the instance of her request, and the strength of her confidence, together with her firm resolution, not to leave him till she had that she came for, as #2Ki 4:30.

Ver. 28. Did I desire a son of my lord?] Was I too desirous, or unduly importunate? for if so, the loss of the child had been just upon me. Strong affections will be strong afflictions.

Did I not say, Do not deceive me?] Nay, did not you say, Do not lie to me? And was that a fit word to a man of God? was there not something of unbelief in it?

Ver. 29. If thou meet any man, salute him not.] Stand not tattling, much less cracking, that thou shalt with that staff of mine raise a dead child. Some Rabbis think Gehazi did so; {a} and thence that means proved ineffectual. But it seemeth rather to be the mother’s unbelief that made it so.

{a} Ridebat Gehazi dicendo obviis, Credisne baculum istum vitam restituere? -R. Eliezer, cap. 33.

Ver. 30. And he arose, and followed her.] As our Saviour also, upon a like occasion, arose and followed Jairus, {#Mt 9:18,19} not taking offence at his weak faith, nor turning him off, as presuming to prescribe.

Ver. 31. But there was neither voice nor hearing.] God withholding his power and help till the prophet himself came and renewed the dead. Hereby was allegorically signified, saith one, that the law was used before the coming of Christ to revive the dead in sin. But this being done in vain, Christ afterwards came with his Spirit, and gave life unto them that believe.

Ver. 32. And laid upon his bed.] See on ver. 21.

Ver. 33. And prayed unto the Lord.] This staff of his—whatever became of the other—was long enough, he knew, to reach up to heaven, to knock at those gates, yea, to wrench them open.

Ver. 34. And put his mouth upon his mouth.] The Septuagint adds, And breathed upon him. See on #1Ki 17:21. Christ risen again thus applied to the dead soul, quickeneth it.

Ver. 35. Then he returned, and walked, &c.] He found the mercy coming, and he sets to work with more vehemency and intention of desire, such as made him thus various in his actions, postures, and gestures. This is usual with those that are very earnest in their prayers. Hannah writhed her lips; Solomon spread his arms; the publican beat his breast; Christ cast himself grovelling on the ground; Elijah put his face betwixt his knees, &c.

And the child sneezed seven times.] Thereby venting and expelling those humours that oppressed his brains, and stopping the passages of the vital spirits, had suffocated him. His grief lay in his head, {#2Ki 4:19} overheated by the sun. {a}

And the child opened his eyes.] Thus the work is done by degrees and with difficulty, mystically showing how hard it is to raise one dead in sins and trespasses, and to bring the work to any good effect. To comfort a wounded conscience is as great work, saith Luther, as to raise one from the dead.

{a} Aestus et aestas et Graecorum εοχαρα fit ab Hebraea Esch, Ignis.—Becman.

Ver. 36. Take up thy son.] Now two sons in one, and never so dear to thee, I daresay, as now. God knows how to commend his favours to us, and to make them double welcome.

Ver. 37. And took up her son, and went out.] Singing as she went, "This my son was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." {#Lu 15:24}

Ver. 38. See the pottage.] The propbets were poor, and glad of pottage. Nescio quomodo bonae mentis sorer est paupertas. {a} The saints are kept at hard commons, but have their keeping of free cost. The wicked have larger provisions, but pay sweetly.

{a} Petron.

Ver. 39. Of wild gourds his lapful] This is taken to be coloquintida, which is very bitter, saith Valesius, {a} so that physicians call it Fel terrae, the gall of the earth.

{a} De Sac. Plalos., cap. 36.

Ver. 40. Death in the pot.] For this drug is not only bitter, but poisonous and pernicious, causing cruel torments.

Ver. 41. Then bring meal.] Which yet could not have made the pottage wholesome and savoury, but by a miracle.

Ver. 42. And brought the man of God.] The prophets, in the fail of priests, who were now not to be found in Israel, taught the people, and took up their dues from such pious persons as brought them in out of conscience.

Twenty loaves of barley.] Little ones, likely.

Ver. 43. And his servitor.] Gehazi, who was no stranger to his master’s miracles, but continued a Pettifidian, or small faith.

Ver. 44. And they did eat, and left.] It grew in their hands, as #Mt 14:20 Joh 6:12,13.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Because by him the Lord had given deliverance.] At that time, probably, when Ahab and Jehoshaphat came against Ramothgilead, {#1Ki 22:29} Naaman was commander-in-chief of the Syrian’s army; and the Rabbis tell us that it was he who shot the arrow wherewith Ahab was slain. Hence he is said to have saved Syria, like as afterwards Marius saved Italy, Flaminius Greece, Fabius Rome, Hunniades Hungary, &c.

But he was a leper.] Not from his birth, nor yet to his death. Hence a learned writer of ours fitly compareth the whole Church of Christ in all her ages to this Naaman the Syrian. He was first pure and sound, and did many honourable acts, and thereby represented the primitive Church, pure and clean, without spot or disease appearing; howbeit, there might be some secret seeds of diseases unperceived, which in continuance of time grew to a visible leprosy. In his middle time he became leprous, diseased, and deformed, foully infected in himself, and infecting others; and thereby represented the latter Church of Rome. Afterwards, by the prophet’s direction, he was washed and cleansed from his leprosy, and his flesh restored to become pure and perfect, like the flesh of a young child; and thereby represented our Reformed Churches. {a} And as Naaman in all these three estates was the same person, and not a new, diverse, or several man; so our Church is not a new Church, but the old Church reformed from errors and corruptions, and restored to her ancient purity and soundness.

{a} Cade, Of the Church.

Ver. 2. A little maid; and she waited on Naaman’ s wife.] The captivity of this poor Hebrew girl is a means to make Naaman, the greatest lord of Syria, a subject to God. {a} It is good to acquaint our children with the works of God, with the praises of his prophets. Little do we know how they may improve the knowledge, and whither they may carry it; perhaps the remotest nations may light their candle at their coal. Nicephorus tells {b} of a Christian maid carried captive into Spain, that by her piety and prayers she gained many there to Christ. Paul showeth that the very report of his bonds did a great deal of good in Caesar’s house. Mr Fox writeth {c} that by reading of Chaucer some were brought to the knowledge of the truth, &c.

{a} Bp. Hall.

{b} Nicep., lib. viii. cap. 34.

{c} Fol. 767.

Ver. 3. For he would recover him of his leprosy.] Few in Israel believed thus much. {#Lu 4:27} This poor girl was confident that the prophet, famous in her country for so many miracles, both could and would cure her master, if duly sought unto; and her words found credit, to the great honour of the true God.

Ver. 4. And one went and told his lord.] Told the king of Syria, who thereupon sent to the king of Israel, out of his love to Naaman, whom he slighted not, though a leper; nor the wench’s words, though a captive.

Ver. 5. And took with him ten talents of silver, &c.] Very great sums he took—ten or eleven thousand pounds sterling, -partly for expenses in so long a journey, but principally for presents to the king and courtiers; but especially to the prophet, for he thought that, as among the heathen,

“Ανευθε χαλκου φοιβος ου μαντευεται.”

Gifts make room for a man, and bringeth him before great ones. {#Pr 18:16} Their priests also were δωροφαγοι, and "with shame loved, Give ye." {#Ho 4:18} Now he knew not but Elisha might be of the same strain.

Ver. 6. That thou mayest recover him of his leprosy, ] sc., By commending him to thy prophet, so famous for his miracles; and by commanding him to cure him.

Ver. 7. He rent his clothes.] As apprehending it to be blasphemy, and deeply detesting such an impiety. Meanwhile he never thought of Elisha, who was better known and more regarded abroad than at home.

See how he seeketh a quarrel.] This troubled Jehoram more than the blasphemy, whatever he pretended. This Benhadad who wrote the letter, was he who slew Ahab at Ramothgilead, {#1Ki 22:35,37} who besieging Samaria, brought it to that extreme famine, {#2Ki 6:24,25} and afterwards at Ramothgilead wounded this Jehoram. {#2Ki 8:28,29}

Ver. 8. Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes?] Knowest thou not that God doth both kill and make alive at the prayer of the faithful? Hoc peto et volo, et fiat voluntas mea, said Luther, praying for Miconius, a godly minister far gone in a deep consumption; and he recovered.

And he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.] Though thou and thy courtiers will take little knowledge of me: nor so much as consult with me in this great affair.

Ver. 9. And stood at the door.] Where the prophet held him; not out of pride, -as that Pope did the emperor whom he made to wait three days at his gate in the depth of winter ere he would admit him, -but humility rather: that God might have the whole glory of all the cure. Hereby also Naaman’s pride was pulled down, and he the better prepared for such a miraculous mercy.

Ver. 10. Go and wash in Jordan seven times.] This was the prophet’s oracle, which he construeth for a contempt, and thereupon blustereth. {#2Ki 5:11,12} The simplicity of Christ is still much mistaken by the mad world, ever besides itself in point of salvation.

Ver. 11. Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me.] Here we have a lively picture of pure, or rather impure, nature, a true pattern of her disposition; how she is altogether led by sense and reason, sticks to her own principles, misconstrues God’s intentions, overweens her own, &c.

Ver. 12. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus] Benjamin in his "Itinerary" saith, there is not so fruitful and sweet a city in all the world as Damascus, by reason of these two rivers Abana and Pharpar, called by historiographers Adonis and Orontes, falling from mount Hermon. For which cause also, saith another writer, the impostor Mohammed would never enter in this city, fearing—as himself used to say—lest, being ravished with the ineffable pleasures of the place, he should forget the business whereabout he was sent, and make this town his paradise.

Better than all the waters of Israel?] Why, yes, they may so seem, so long as you look upon them with Syrian eyes. Thus carnal people despise the "foolishness of preaching," the simplicity of sacraments, the seeming inefficacy of censures, &c.

Ver. 13. And his servants came near, &c.] These were faithful servants indeed; not such Aiones and Negones as great men are now-a-days set up with, that—right or wrong—will say as they say, soothing them up in their sinful practices. It is a great happiness for a man to be attended with wise and faithful followers. Many a one hath had better counsel from his heels than from his elbows.

Ver. 14. Then went he down, &c.] He was not so morose or self-willed, though now in a great pelt, but that he would hearken to reason, though it came from servants.

According to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh, &c.] Long enough might Naaman have washed there in vain, if Elisha had not sent him, and said to him, Go, wash in Jordan seven times, &c. It is the word, the ordinance of the Almighty, which putteth efficacy into those means which by themselves are both impotent and improbable. What can water in baptism do of itself to the washing away of sin? Some tell us that by that water Constantine the Great was cured of a leprosy; but that was not, saith mine author, by the efficacy of the water, nor yet by the efficacy of baptism precisely and properly—since it was instituted for another purpose, -but because the baptismal water was to him divinae voluntatis et propheticae iussionis instrumentum, as Ambrose hath it of Jordan’s water to Naaman, a means to convey good to him both for body and soul.

Ver. 15. And he returned to the man of God.] Like the tenth leper. {#Lu 17:15} Many men are, that they may receive benefits, importunate; till they have received them, unquiet; when they have received them, unthankful. Naaman was none such.

Behold, now I know.] Hereby it appeareth that Naaman was cured on both sides, and became a pledge of the Gentiles’ conversion. {#Lu 4:27}

Ver. 16. Before whom I stand.] As his menial servant, being θεοφορος, i.e., carrying God in him, as Isidor Pelusiot was called, full of God. Particeps Dei est vir sapiens, saith a philosopher, a wise man is a partaker of God, and therefore holds everything else worthless: as Abraham, when once assured that God, "the possessor of heaven and earth," was his "shield and exceeding great reward," would not take of the king of Sodom anything, to a shoelatchet. {#Ge 14:23 15:1}

I will receive none.] Lest I should seem covetous, or to be thy beneficiary, or pensioner engaged. This made also Abraham so resolute. {#Ge 14:22,23} Epaminondas, the famous Theban, though very poor, would by no means accept of a great mass of money sent him by the king of Persia; et ut mea fert sententia, magnificentior fuit is qui non aurum accepit, quam qui donavit, { a} saith Aelian, and it was very bravely done of him. It was God’s glory that the prophet in this refusal aimed at, and Naaman’s soul’s good: that he might give all the honour of his cure to God alone; and learn to set light by earthly property, and pomp of the world.

{a} Var., Hist., lib. v.

Ver. 17. Two mules’ burden of earth.] Not to put under his feet when he stood in the house of Rimmon, as some have fondly conceited, but for an altar whereon to offer sacrifice, as himself showeth, and therewithal his zeal without knowledge, which is ordinary in new converts. As nature, so grace riseth by many degrees to perfection. Naaman’s leprosy was cured at once: not so his corruption.

Ver. 18. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant.] He held it a sin then, and would have a dispensation for it, as it may seem. Young carpenters make many chips; so do young converts many faults, which God imputeth not. Let none by Naaman’s example plead an upright soul in a prostrate body, pretend Nathanael in the skin of a Nicodemus. The words may be taken of the time past, and so some read, The Lord be merciful unto me, for I have gone into the house of Rimmon. So the word is used in #Ps 51:1,52:1,54:1.

Ver. 19. Go in peace.] A friendly dismission, or as some will have it, a dilatory answer—q.d., Go thy way, trouble not thyself with points of this nature, the resolution whereof thou, being a babe as yet, art uncapable of. Content thyself with the benefit which thou hast already received. I hope the Lord will so direct thee that thou shalt not offend him in any such way. Valentinian would not attend upon Julian the emperor into the idol temple, and smote the priest that sprinkled him with holy water. So the Duke of Saxony and the other Protestant princes are much commended for this, that at the Imperial Diet, about religion, they went only to the church door with Charles V, Emperor, going to mass, but would not enter in with him.

Ver. 20. But Gehazi…said, Behold, my master, &c.] Ubi observa λογισμον hominis avarissimi. Covetousness is a complexive evil, the root of all evil, saith St Paul. David maketh it a violation of all the commandments. {#Ps 119:36} See how fast this covetous captive in the text breaketh them: (1.) He accuseth his holy master of prodigality, "Behold, my master hath spared"; (2.) He speaks contemptuously of so noble a convert, calling him "Naaman this Syrian," this ethnic, this enemy; (3.) He sweareth a great oath, and therewith bindeth his wicked purpose; (4.) He telleth various loud lies—1. to Naaman, 2. to Elisha; (5.) He playeth the thief, hiding the money, and interverting it to his own use. Take heed, therefore, and beware of covetousness:

“Η φιλοχρημοσυνη μητηρ κακοτητος απασης.”

There is a mint of mischief in a worldly heart.

Ver. 2l. So Gehazi followed.] Being acted and agitated by the devil of discontent, Judas-like.

Ver. 22. My master hath sent me.] This was all false and forged. Little conscience is made of lying by covetous cormorants, so they may get by it.

Ver. 23. Be content, take two talents.] Which amount to seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling. God saith as much in effect to his suitors, pressing and heaping mercies upon them. {#Joh 16:24}

Ver. 24: He took them from their hand.] A cunning thief; but his cunning deceived him, as familiars do witches, at the last, when they are in hold.

And they departed.] Quietly and quickly: sed Nemesis in tergo. Conscience and vengeance stuck to him.

Ver. 25. Thy servant went no whither.] Another flat lie; sic mendaciuui mendacio assuit; but with ill success. Our false hearts will answer us in like sort, when they have been ranging and roving in hell’s ways.

Ver. 26. Went not mine heart with thee?] Was not all the transaction revealed as really and clearly unto me, as if I had been there bodily present?

Is it a time to receive money?] Giving is kind, and taking is courteous: and both may at some times and in some cases be done without sin. There is much use of godly discretion, doubtless, in directing us when to open, when to shut our hands.

And oliveyards and vineyards?] The purchase of all which Gehazi was now busily meditating with his two talents.

Ver. 27. The leprosy therefore of Naaman.] As thou hast his money, so take his leprosy, a filthy disease for thy filthy lucre; a sad bequeath to thy children whom thou thoughtest to have raised for ever. Gain got by a lie will burn our fingers, burn in our purses, rot our estates, root out our posterity: it is like a bundle of plague clothes, &c.

A leper as white as snow.] How much better to Gehazi had been a light purse and a homely coat, with a sound body and a clear soul! Peter Martyr compareth the Pope to Gehazi.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. The place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.] Our college is so crowded, that unless some course be taken, some of us shall be necessitated to lie out of doors; as bees hang out of the hive’s mouth on heaps, through lack of room within. This access to the number of the young prophets was in the days of idolatrous Jehoram. Plures efficimur quoties metimur, { a} said the old Christians. The Church, like the palm tree, the more it is pressed with weight, the more it fructifieth: like the camomile plant, it flourisheth when most trodden: like the lily, it groweth by its own tears, as Pliny hath it. Fish thrive better in cold and salt waters, than in warm and fresh: the ground is most fruitful that is most harrowed: the walnut tree beareth best when most beaten, &c. Elisha’s fame might draw more resort to him, and, as the Hebrews say, Gehazi’s removal, who grumbled that the young prophets should partake of the provision brought in by good people to his master Elisha, in those hard times.

{a} Tertullian.

Ver. 2. Let us make us a place.] Though they were not worth their axes, yet they would be building: and here it is evident, saith an expositor, {a} that they affected neither pomp nor state, but were contented with a very homely dwelling, since themselves were to be the builders of it.

{a} Mr Jackson.

Ver. 3. Be content, I pray thee, to go with thy servants.] God had a special hand in this motion, that by Elisha the following miracle might be wrought, for the comfort and confirmation of those novices of the prophets.

And he answered, I will go.] "The wisdom which is from above is easy to be entreated." {#Jas 3:17}

Ver. 4. They cut down wood.] Wherewith they set up such huts or cabins as they could: being of his mind who said, I find no content but in a book and a nook. {a}

{a} Tho. de Ken.

Ver. 5. Alas, master! for it was borrowed.] So is all the Church’s beauty. {#Eze 16:14} So is all the good we enjoy; for, "what hast thou that thou hast not received?" And therefore that face must needs be hatched with impudence that returneth not the entire honour of all to God alone.

Ver. 6. And cut down a stick.] Which, cast in by the prophet, became as a lodestone to draw the iron to it; and, as the Hebrews say, {a} a helve or handle for the hatchet into the eye whereof it fell right, and so both, by a double miracle, came up together. Demersam fluvio relevavit virga securim, saith Tertullian.

And the iron did swim.] God can as easily make our hard and heavy hearts, sunk down into the world’s mud, to float upon the streams of life, and to see the face of heaven again.

{a} R. Solomon.

Ver. 7. And he put out his hand, and took it.] As it came swimming toward him, for the greater evidence of the miracle.

Ver. 8. Then the king of Syria warred.] He delighted in it, as Pyrrhus, king of the Epirotes, is said to have done. Naaman, who should have dissuaded him from so doing, was now, belike, either dead, or else out of favour, because he had changed his religion into that of the Israelites.

Shall be my camp.] Or, The place where I will lay an ambush, viz., to surprise the king of Israel, as he rode a-hunting, saith Josephus.

Ver. 9. For thither the Syrians are come down.] To do mischief; where the holy penman maketh use of a Syrian word to set forth the Syrian doings. It signifieth demissi, prostrati, absconditi; there they lie couchant.

Ver. 10. And saved himself there.] It was the king himself whom they aimed at, as #1Ki 22:31; -and as that officer of the cuirassiers, {a} who, pistoling the late victorious king of Sweden, said, This is the right bird.

{a} A horse soldier wearing a cuirass. The proper name of a certain type of heavy cavalry in European armies.

Ver. 11. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled.] Heb., Was tempested, or tossed with passions, as chaff is with whirlwinds, or the sea with counterblasts.

Ver. 12. And one of his servants said.] This was Naaman, saith Abulensis; but that is not likely. Rather it was some one that had been with Naaman, or on some other occasion, in Israel.

The words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.] State secrets, Areana imperil, should not be blabbed or blazed abroad. The Romans for this, built a temple to Consus, the god of their counsels, sub tecto in Circo, in an open place, but under much covert; to show that counsels must be kept secret. {a} Metellus Macedonicus was wont to say, that if he thought his shirt were privy to his designs, he would tear it off and cast it away. And Peter, king of Arragon, answered in like manner Pope Martin IV, who sent to him to ask what he meant by the navy he was then rigging forth. Benhadad suspected his counsellors of treachery; but Elisha it was who disclosed his designs and frustrated them, by his prophetical spirit.

{a} Servius.

Ver. 13. That I may send and fetch him.] This, none but a madman would have attempted. Anger is a short madness: whensoever it anteverteth reason, it is sinful.

Ver. 14. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots.] To wage war with God himself, whose power he must needs behold in this his prophet; and yet fears not, giant-like, to oppose it. See the like done by Ahaziah, {#2Ki 1:1-17} and know, that as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so there are many Benhadads and Ahaziahs in the best by nature. We are all Theomachi, fighters against God.

Ver. 15. Alas, my master! how shall we do?] Vox desperantis. Flesh and blood in an exigent gives up all for lost. Infidelity limiteth God’s boundless power and bottomless mercy: this is a kind of taking away of the Almighty. Hope above hope. Qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil.

Ver. 16. Fear not: for they that be with us, &c.] How many do ye reckon me for? said Antigonus to his soldiers, fearing the numbers of their enemies. God is for us, and so are all his hosts, his upper and nether forces, as the Rabbis style the creatures in heaven and earth.

Ver. 17. Horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.] These were angels. {#Ps 34:7 68:17 91:11} It is a good note that one here maketh: Both those chariots that came to fetch Elijah, and those that came to defend Elisha, were fiery. God is no less lovely to his own in the midst of his judgments, than he is terrible to his enemies in the demonstration of his mercies.

Ver. 18. And he smote them with blindness.] Scotomate, non αορασια sed ακρισια not with bodily blindness, but a dizziness and defect in their judgments, or a dazzling and deluding their senses, that seeing they saw, and yet perceived not. The like befell those sodomites in #Ge 19:11 God who made the senses, can either hold or delude them, at his pleasure.

Ver. 19. This is not the way, neither is this the city.] Here the prophet doth not equivocate; much less doth he tell an officious lie, as Tostatus holdeth he did; but useth a mere ambiguity of speech, This is not the city, sc., of Samaria, where Elisha dwelleth, but of Dothan, whence he is now come out; This is not the way, sc., to find Elisha, for he was now going to Samaria. By an answer not much unlike, Athanasius was, once at least, delivered from those cut-throats that pursued him.

Ver. 20. They were in the midst of Samaria.] Where they were "almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly," as he saith in #Pr 5:14. See #Ec 9:12.

Ver. 21. My father, shall I smite them?] He calleth the prophet, "My father," either in a compliment, as #Jer 3:4, or else in a sudden pang, which was soon over. See #2Ki 6:31.

Ver. 22. Thou shalt not smite them.] Though Elisha well knew that they came down to Dothan with bloody purposes toward him. This was "not to be overcome of evil," as the next was to "overcome evil with good."

Set bread and water before them.] Oh, noble revenge I Thus, thus should a prophet punish his persecutors: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him," &c. {#Ro 12:20 Pr 25:21} {See Trapp on "Ro 12:20"} {See Trapp on "Pr 25:21"}

And go to their master.] Praising their cheer, and convincing him of thy beneficence, a shame to his malevolence. We should confute the world’s miscarriages by our contrary practices.

Ver. 23. So the bands of Syria came no more.] Those bands did not—though others did; -so much they were wrought upon by this miracle and the prophet’s courtesy. The king of Israel also hath done that by his feast, which he could not so easily have done by his sword. He is eased at least of his bands of brigands. In doing good to our enemies, we do most to ourselves.

Ver. 24. And went up, and besieged Samaria.] Which city now smarted for Ahab’s foolish pity. {#1Ki 20:34}

Ver. 25. And there was a great famine in Samaria.] Like as there was afterwards at Potidea in the Peloponesian war; at Utica, besieged by Hamilcar, the father of Hannibal; at Saguntum, also; yea, at Rome, when this voice was heard in the market, Pone precium humanae carni. {a} The miserable straits the Jews were put to at the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus, who hath not read of? That I speak not of Scodra, Munster, Sancerre, Haarlem, besieged by the Duke de Alva, &c. This of Samaria was just upon them, saith Pellican, for their contempt of the heavenly manna, that precious food of the soul.

An ass’s head sold for fourscore pieces of silver, ] i.e., For four or five pounds: some say, ten. When Hannibal besieged Casiline, one mouse was sold for two hundred pence. {b} Puddings made of dogs’ guts were dear bought at the siege of Scodra. {c}

The fourth part of a cab.] A pint of doves’ dung. See #2Ki 18:27. The hunger-bit wolf eateth dirt.

{a} Thucyd. Polyb. Sub Honor. Imp.

{b} Val. Max., lib. vii. cap. 6.

{c} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 26. Passing by.] To see all things well carried.

Ver. 27. If the Lord do not help thee.] Or—by way of angry imprecation—Let not the Lord save thee; that is, God confound thee; {a} Dii te perdant, Dii tibi male faxint, said the heathens in like case. {b}

{a} Dispereas.

{b} Vatab.

Ver. 28. Give thy son, that we may eat him.] The like fell out among the Turks and Tartars in Hungary; {a} the Germans in Transylvania, 1604; the Tunetans in Africa; and the English here in Edward II’s time, A.D. 1316: so terrible was the famine, that horses, dogs, yea, men and children, were stolen for food; and the thieves newly brought into the jails were torn in pieces, and eaten presently, half-alive, by such as had been longer there. {b}

{a} Turk. Hist., 1060.

{b} Purch., Pilgrim., 289. Speed, 674.

Ver. 29. So we boiled my son, and did eat him.] Male suada fames, made her require of her child that life, which not long before she had given it; laying him not in her bosom, but in her bowels. This was forethreatened. {#Le 26:29}

Ver. 30. He rent his clothes.] He said nothing to the case propounded, because it was horrid and hard to be judged. But this cruel mother should have died for a murderess.

Ver. 31. If the head of Elisha.] Who had only threatened these evils, not caused them, and perhaps refused to pray for a removal. The false prophets also might now stir up the king to slay the Lord’s prophet.

Ver. 32. The king sent a man.] An executioner.

See ye how this son of a murderer.] To wit, Of Ahab, that slaughter man of God’s servants; and Joram doth patrissare, take after him notably. See #Mt 23:35.

Is not the sound, &c.] The king repenting, came with a countermand.

Ver. 33. Behold, this evil is of the Lord.] He hath brought us to the lowest ebb, and done us as much mischief as is possible; an impious and blasphemous charge of injustice and hard dealing.

What should I wait for the Lord?] q.d., Wait as wait will: I will yield up all, and make for myself as good terms as I can. See #Pr 19:3.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Tomorrow about this time.] Man’s perverseness stoppeth not the current of God’s infinite goodness. "What should I wait for the Lord any longer?" said wicked Joram. "Tomorrow shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel," &c., saith the Lord, as if he would condescend, where he might judge; and would please them who deserved nothing but punishment.

Shall a measure of fine flour.] Not meal, but flour, and fine flour too, a peck and a pottle of it sold for a shekel; that is, for half-a-crown at most—some say, for half the money; where an ass’s head and a cab of dove’s-dung had been at such unreasonable rates. This was a wonderful change on such a sudden. What cannot the Lord do! In the last year, save one, of Queen Mary, wheat was sold here in England for four marks the quarter; malt for two pounds four shillings the quarter; peas at two pounds six shillings eight pence. Whereas after the next harvest, wheat was sold for five shillings the quarter; malt at four shillings eight pence; and in some places a bushel of rye was exchanged for a pound of candies, which came to fourpence. {a} In the year 1555, when, by reason of unseasonable weather, there was a great dearth in this land, there sprang up upon the rocks without tillage or sowing, in the county of Essex, betwixt Orford and Adleborough, such a crop of peas, that in August there were gathered above a hundred quarters; and in blossoming there remained as many more, where never grass grew, nor earth was ever seen, but hard solid rock for three yards deep under their roots. {b}

{a} Mr Clark’s Martyrol.

{b} Speed in Suffolk.

Ver. 2. Behold, if the Lord would make windows.] If he should rain down corn, as once he did manna. Thus he questioned not only the prophet’s truth, but also God’s power, like as those of old did, who said, "Can God prepare a table for us in the wilderness?" &c.

Ver. 3. And there were four leprous men.] These were Gehazi and his three sons, say the Rabbis; but who told them so? God maketh use many times of mean and abject instruments to effect great matters.

Ver. 4. Let us fall unto the host of the Syrians.] This they ought not to have done—because hereby occasion might be given to those idolaters to insult and blaspheme the true God, as not able to provide for his servants, -but to have died rather in the place.

If they kill us.] Extreme famine had made them desperate: as it had those in this nation, about the year 700, who joined hand in hand, forty or fifty in a company, throwing themselves headlong into the sea. {a}

“ Hic rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?”

{a} Godw., Catal., 465.

Ver. 5. And they rose up in the twilight.] In the evening twilight, {#2Ki 7:9,12} the Syrians being fled but a little before. {#2Ki 7:7}

Ver. 6. To hear a noise of chariots.] Some think this noise was not in the air, but in their ears only, because none else heard it. But God can easily hold men’s senses, as hath been showed. {#2Ki 6:18 Ac 9:18} And it is likely that the angels made a hurrying noise in the air over their heads, which struck them into a great fear, and set them going in such posthaste, that they left their horses behind them. See a like miracle, #2Sa 5:24, and observe how

“ Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus.”

So the Roman historian reporteth, that by the noise of a great laughter, Hannibal’s great army lying at the gates of Rome was suddenly frightened and made to run away; whereupon a temple Deo Ridiculo, to the laughing god, was consecrated in via Appia, in the highway to the city.

Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us.] A mere fancy of their own: whereby the Lord would, as it were, in a way of scorn and derision, put them into this disorder, running without any real cause, like so many madmen. God could have taken another course with them, as to have slain them by his angels, consumed them with fire from heaven, &c. About the year of grace 394, Theodosius had a great victory over the Persians and Saracens, whilst the Lord smote them with a panic terror, so that they ran headlong into the river Euphrates, and there perished in the waters above a hundred thousand of them, saith mine author. {a}

{a} Alsted., Chronol., p. 300.

Ver. 7. Wherefore they arose and fled.] Upon the forementioned imagination of theirs, which themselves, likely, made public, so that other nations took notice of it.

Ver. 8. And carried thence also, and went and hid it.] Covetousness is unsatisfiable in hiding and hoarding; it is, as one saith, a dry drunkenness, never saying, Satis est. it is enough.

Ver. 9. Then they said.] At length they bethink themselves of better; yet more for fear of danger, than care of community.

This day is a day of good tidings, &c.] We are worthy to be shut out of the city gates as lepers, if the respects to the public good do not oversway us in all our desires and demeanours.

Ver. 10. And, behold, there was no man there.] God had made an utter riddance of them for the good of his people; neither had they any mind to return to their tents again, God continuing the sound which at first he had sent amongst them. So the Germans were frightened and sent home with a flea in their ear in bello Hussitico, in the war they made upon God’s people in Bohemia.

Ver. 11. And they told it to the king’s house.] It was fit that the king and his counsellors should be acquainted with the first, that they might the better order things for the public good.

Ver. 12. I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us.] This he saith, being nimium et intempestive meticulosus, more fearful than was fit; but he either believed not, or else had "forgotten the consolation" παρακλησεως, as the apostle saith the Hebrews had, {#Heb 4:6} the promise made him by the prophet. {#2Ki 7:1}

They know that we be hungry, &c.] By such a stratagem as this here mentioned, Tomyris, the Scythian queen, circumvented and destroyed Cyrus and his Persians. {a} So when the Christians besieged Ptolemais, and were themselves at the same time besieged by Saladine, they were so hard bestead for victuals, that they were forced to beg and buy it of their enemies. This when Saladine perceived, he pretended to go his way, leaving his camp full fraught with plenty of all things: and when the hunger starved Christians fell upon the spoil in a confused way, he turning short again, slew a great sort of them. {b}

{a} Justin., lib. i.

{b} Funcc., Chron.

Ver. 13. Five of the horses.] These five were either all or the most that remained alive, and haply uneaten.

Behold, they are all, ] q.d., We need not scruple the doing of it; for, alas! all, both horses and men, are in a perishing condition.

Ver. 14. Two chariot horses.] With their riders.

Ver. 15. Full of garments and vessels.] Impedimenta domestica vel bellica, whatsoever might encumber or dog them in their flight. Oh that in the race of religion we could cast away every weight! {#Heb 12:1}

Ver. 16. So a measure.] See on #2Ki 7:1.

Ver. 17. And the king appointed.] Not without a divine overruling providence, for a just punishment of this profane prince’s unbelief.

And the people trode upon him in the gate.] Whether he had been an oppressor of the people, and was therefore justly trodden to death by them, is uncertain: but that he had shamefully trodden underfoot the honour of God’s power, is upon record, {#2Ki 7:2} wherefore he was worthily trampled on by the hungry people, who would not be kept in by his authority. The belly hath no ears, we say; and hunger breaketh through stone walls. Such a like death Constantinus Paleologus, the last Greek emperor, suffered in the gate of Constantinople, when the Turkish army pressed into that city and took it, A.D. 1453.

Ver. 18. Two measures of barley.] See on #2Ki 7:1, and observe the infallibility of God’s both promises and menaces.

Ver. 19. See on #2Ki 7:2.

Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes.] The like misery shall befall reprobates at the last day; {#Lu 13:28} they shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and themselves thrust out.

Ver. 20. For the people trode upon him.] See #2Ki 7:17.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. Then spake Elisha.] Or, Elisha had spoken to the woman, so Junius rendereth it, sc., about the time of his raising her son to life: then he foretold her, by way of gratitude, this sore famine, the same, some think, with that spoken of by Joel, {#Joe 1} which soon after began, and lasted seven years, which was an ordinary time for great famines, as #Ge 41:27 2Sa 24:13 2Ki 4:38.

Thou and thy household.] Her husband is not mentioned; either because he was now dead, or else so decayed through old age, that he left the ordering of all to his wife, whom he knew to be pious and prudent.

For the Lord hath called for a famine.] Invitavit: A metaphor, saith Vatablus, from such as invite others to a feast, Famines and the like public calamities are God’s guests, and come at his call.

Seven years.] Because the former famine of three years and a half did no good, now it is doubled.

Ver. 2. And sojourned in the land of the Philistines.] Their fields flourish, while the soil of Israel yieldeth nothing but weeds and barrenness. Not that Israel was more sinful, but that the sin of Israel was more intolerable, saith a great divine. No pestilence is so contagious as that which hath taken the purest air.

Ver. 3. To cry unto the king for her house and for her land.] Which in her so long absence was seized on, either by the king’s officers, or by some of her kindred.

Ver. 4. And the king talked with Gehazi.] Though a leper, as he might: the leper was only to dwell alone without the camp. {#Le 13:46} Besides, Gehazi might by this time be upon his true repentance, which some think may be evinced and gathered from this text, and perhaps his leprosy had cleansed him, his white forehead made him a white soul, cleansed from his leprosy.

Ver. 5. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king.] This telling the king the praises of his severe master so truly, is some argument that he had now repented of that dearly bought lie he once told to Elisha. God maketh our very sins subservient to our salvation; and the horrible sting of Satan to be like a pearl pin to pin upon us the long white robe of Christ, and to dress us with the garment of gladness, as one speaketh.

Ver. 6. Restore all that was hers.] Now the Shunammite thinks her table and stool, her bed and her candlestick, well bestowed. He is a niggard to himself that scants his beneficence to a prophet, whose very "cold water" shall not go unrewarded.

Ver. 7. Benhadad the king of Syria was sick.] Ex terrore et moerore: he was so vexed at the late shameful flight of his host from the siege of Samaria, occasioned by a causeless fear, that it made him sick, saith Josephus. Philip of Spain bore his great loss in 1588 much better.

Ver. 8. Take a present.] For so he thought to purchase the prophet’s favour, as they were wont to do their soothsayers’ and sorcerers’.

Shall I recover of this disease?] Shall I have thy prayers that I may? He could tell what this prophet had once done for Naaman, {#2Ki 5:14} and therefore thus seeks to him.

Ver. 9. Forty camels’ burden] A very great present, and far beyond that of Naaman. {#2Ki 5:5} What will not princes part with for their life and health? Why should I die, being so rich? said Cardinal Beauford, Chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry VI; if the whole realm would save my life, I am able either by policy to get it, or by riches to buy it. Fie! quoth he, will not death be hired? will money do nothing? {a}

{a} Fox, Martyr., 925.

Ver. 10. Thou mayest certainly recover:] Responsum ειρωνικον, saith one: Vult Propheta impium illum vana spe deludi, saith another; that is, the prophet mocketh this wicked king, and deludeth him with vain hopes of health again. But Tremellius rendereth it, Non omnino revalesces, Thou shait in no wise recover: so that Hazael manifestly lied, saith Lyra, in returning his answer. Others make this the sense, Thy disease is not deadly; howbeit thou shalt die at this bout by another mean. {#2Ki 8:15}

Ver. 11. And he settled his countenance steadfastly.] Heb., And set it. He settled his countenance and looked wistly with a comely gravity; Elisha did so upon Hazael.

Until he was ashamed.] Till Hazael blushed to see the prophet look so earnestly upon him.

Ver. 12. Because I know the evil, &c.] This pained the prophet at the very heart, and drew tears from him. "Weep with those that weep," saith the apostle. Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, saith Cyprian, moerores et funeris pondera luctuosa participo, &c. Ambrose wished to God that all the Church’s adversaries would turn upon himself, and satisfy their thirst with his blood.

Ver. 13. But what, is thy servant a dog?] Curst and cruel, so as to tear men’s entrails, and to devour them. Hazael could not imagine himself so bad as he proved to be. Little did Bonner think when he was Cromwell’s favourite, and preferred by him, that he should ever have been so bloody a butcher, the common cut-throat, and general slaughter-slave to all the bishops of England, as a certain unknown good woman called him in her letter to him. When he was newly made Bishop of London, he thus spake to Grafton the stationer: Before God, the greatest fault that I ever found in Stokesly, my predecessor, was for vexing and troubling poor men—as Lobley, the bookbinder, and others—for having the Scriptures in English; and, God willing, he did not so much hinder it, but I will as much further it, &c. {a}

That thou shalt be king over Syria.] And shalt exercise thy power to the vexation and vastation of my people. Honours change men’s manners; but seldom for the better.

{a} Act. and Mon., 1087.

Ver. 14. He told me thou shouldst surely recover.] He relateth the prophet’s words with the same honesty, saith Junius, as he afterwards strangled his master, aud stopped his breath.

Ver. 15. He took a thick cloth.] A blanket, saith the Vulgate; a haircloth, saith Pagnine; a coarse canvas, saith the Chaldee; and that empoisoned, haply, saith Serrarius, as was Hercules’s shirt, sent him by Deianira; or as was the garment put on by Otho III, emperor; by Ladislaus, king of Hungary, and by Solyman the Grand Signior. Princes usually find treason in trust, and are killed by their nearest friends; as Augustus was by his wife Livia, Claudius by Agrippina, &c.

And dipped it in water.] Under a pretence of cooling and curing him, laborabat enim febre ardentissima, for he was sick of a burning fever, saith Vatablus. This he did per imprudentiam, say some; ex industria, say others; on set purpose to put an end to his life, without any mark or sign of violence offered unto him.

So that he died.] To be sure that he should not surely recover, as #2Ki 8:14. Buchanan telleth of Natholicus, the thirty-first king of the Scots, that having usurped the crown, he sent a trusty friend to a famous witch, to know what success he should have in his kingdom, and how long he should live. The witch answered, that he should shortly be murdered, not by an enemy, but by his friend. The messenger instantly inquired, By what friend? By thyself, said the witch. The messenger at first abhorred the thought of any such villainy; but afterwards, conceiving that it was not safe to reveal the witch’s answer, and yet that it could not be concealed, he resolved rather to kill the king to the content of many, than to hazard the loss of his own head. Thereupon, at his return, being in secret with the king, to declare to him the witch’s answer, he suddenly slew him.

Ver. 16. Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.] Whilst his father was yet living, for preventing of mischief after his death, which yet could not be.

Ver. 17. And he reigned eight years.] Six years he reigned with his father, and eight years after him. See Ussher’s Annals of the World.

Ver. 18. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife.] That wicked woman Athaliah, who drew him to her father’s courses.

Ver. 19. To give him alway a light.] i.e., A successor, till Shiloh should come. {#Lu 1:31} For although the Maccabees, who were of another tribe, bore sway for a season; yet at the same time, as Calvin well observeth, sat the Synedrium, who were of David’s posterity, exercised chief authority, and lasted till Christ’s nativity in great power.

Ver. 20. In his days Edom revolted.] And so fulfilled old Isaac’s prophecy, {#Ge 27:40} for the punishment of this idolatrous tyrant, who had lately imbrued his hands in the blood of his six brethren, with others their partisans, and set up high places in the mountains of Judah, &c. {#2Ch 21:2,10,11}

Ver. 21. So Joram went over to Zair.] That is, To Idumea, then a flourishing country; now it liveth by fame only, being wholly swallowed up, as very many other countries are, in the greatness of the Turkish empire.

Ver. 22. Then Libna revolted at the same time.] So that Joram taken off thereby, could not prosecute his victory over the Edmonites. Libna was a city of Judah, and given to the priests. {#Jos 21:13 1Ch 6:57} These not enduring the late innovations in religion, and other abominations committed by Joram, cast off their obedience, "because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers." {#2Ch 21:10}

Ver. 23. Are they not written?] See #1Ki 11:41.

Ver. 24. And was buried with his fathers.] Buried as they had been, yet not in the sepulchres of the kings, but in some other common burying place, without the ordinary funeral solemnities. {#2Ch 21:20}

Ver. 25. In the twelfth year.] In the end of the eleventh, {#2Ki 9:29} and beginning of the twelfth.

Ver. 26. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah.] Two and forty, saith another prophet, {#2Ch 22:2} though the Septuagint there also have two and twenty: so have the Syriac and Arabic versions. Here, therefore, some say, but erroneously, that the text in the Chronicles hath been erroneously copied out, and ought to be corrected by this in the Kings. Others answer better, that those forty-two years are to be understood of the continuance of Omri’s pedigree, from whom Ahaziah descended by his mother Athaliah, as we here have it in this verse. Vide Sharpii Symphoniam, page 203.

Ver. 27. For he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.] His father was so, and himself might be so too by his mother Athaliah’s persuasion. Thus idolatry came to be so deeply rooted and riveted in that family, that it could not be rooted out but by rooting up the corrupted stock, as one hath it.

Ver. 28. And the Syrians wounded Joram.] See on #2Ki 5:7.

Ver. 29. To be healed in Jezreel.] Which is said to be twenty-four miles from Ramothgilead, and was looked upon as a place of more security.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. And Elisha the prophet.] Now the time was come for the utter extirpation of Ahab’s house by Jehu, God’s executioner. When wickedness is ripe in the field, God will not let it shed to grow again, but cutteth it up by a just and seasonable vengeance.

Called one of the children of the prophets.] The Hebrews say this was Jonah, whom they make to be the widow of Zarephath’s son, the same that was raised from the dead; {a} but that is uncertain. Elisha went not himself haply, because aged, and for privacy’s sake.

{a} Sedar Olam.

Ver. 2. Make him arise up.] Stay not till he ariseth from the council board, but let him know that thou hast a message to him from the Lord, and take him aside for the purpose. God’s mind must be delivered boldly, but yet wisely and warily.

Ver. 3. Then open the door and flee, and tarry not.] No, not so long as to hear what Jehu himself will say to thee, saith Vatablus.

Ver. 4. So the young man, even the young man went, ] q.d., Young though he were, yet he did his business exactly and boldly, disposing of a kingdom according to that, "I have set thee over kingdoms and nations, to plant and to root up." {#Jer 1:10}

Ver. 5. To thee, O captain.] Jehu was captain general of all Jehoram’s forces, and so had the fairer opportunity of taking the kingdom.

Ver. 6. And he arose.] This, saith one, {a} showeth some piety toward God to have been in him, although it was soon overthrown by his vainglory.

{a} Dr Maier.

Ver. 7. And thou shalt smite.] See on #2Ki 9:1.

Ver. 8. And him that is shut up and left in Israel, ] i.e., Not only him who is laid hold on by thee, but him also that shall escape thee, or be let go by thee.

Ver. 9. Like the house of Jeroboam.] Hereby was hinted to Jehu what himself was to expect if found faulty.

Ver. 10. In the portion of Jezreel.] In some place about the city.

Ver. 11. Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?] So God’s prophets were ever counted and called by the mad world, always besides itself in point of salvation. See #Jer 29:26 Ho 9:7 Ac 26:24 2Co 5:13. These profane ruffians could not name such a one without a flout, because the prophets declaimed against their wickedness, and condemned the world’s vanities, which they so much esteemed. But though their tongues thus spake after the wicked guise of it, miscalling the prophet’s innocency, yet their desire to know what he said and did, did abundantly show what credit they gave him secretly; and after, they make him king whom that mad fellow had anointed, to the hazard of their own lives. God giveth a secret authority to his despised servants, so as they which hate their persons yet reverence their truth; even very scorners cannot but believe them.

Ye know the man, and his communication, ] viz., That he is, as you say, a kind of a madman, and that what he saith is not much to be heeded. Or, That he is a prophet, and comes with a message from the Lord.

Ver. 12. And they said, It is false.] It is no ordinary errand that he cometh on to thee; and this they might gather by the prophet’s calling Jehu into an inner chamber, and perhaps by Jehu’s troubled thoughts appearing in his countenance.

Ver. 13. Then they hasted.] See on #2Ki 9:11.

And took every man his garment, and put it under him.] That is, under Jehu, in token of subjection, and for a ceremony of honour which they used to their new kings, as #Mt 21:7,8. The Romans had a like custom, as Plutarch writeth; and the Grecians, as Athenaeus.

On the top of the stairs.] i.e., In suggesto regio, { a} in some high place, which they made use of for a throne.

{a} Jun.

Ver. 14. Now Joram had kept Ramothgilead.] Which he had newly won from the Syrians in this expedition, but had somewhat to do to hold it.

Ver. 15. Of the wounds which the Syrians had given him.] Kings in those days ventured their own persons very far in battles. Joram’s both wounds and absence from his army made much for Jehu’s purpose.

Ver. 16. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down.] But to an ill bargain, as we say; to be "taken in an evil net," as Solomon hath it. As he had joined with Joram in sin, so he was to be joined with him in destruction, and all this by the will and appointment of God, as it is in #2Ch 22:7, at a time of great joy and jollity for the recovery of Ramothgilead, and for the entertainment of the king of Judah, and forty princes of his blood, who were expected at court. {#2Ki 10:13} Wicked men are taken at the worst.

Ver. 17. Is it peace?] This was ever the great question; #2Ki 9:11, Is all well? Heb., Is it peace? This their guiltiness asketh. All would be well but for their sins. They fear not these; they fear all others, as Cain did, who to them, like comets, are seldom seen without the portendment of a mischief.

Ver. 18. Is it peace?] See #2Ki 9:17.

Ver. 19. What hast thou to do with peace?] Heb., What is it to thee and peace? Trouble not thyself and me with such inquiries; I myself will answer Joram.

Ver. 20. For he driveth furiously.] Heb., In madness:

“ Sic Caesar in omnia praeceps,

Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum,

Fertur atrox.’’—Lucan.

The Chaldee here paraphraseth, quoniam lente incedit; and Josephus hath it, he marcheth slowly with a well-ordered troop: but the Hebrew word is the same with that in #2Ki 9:11, rightly rendered mad fellow, and here madly, headlongly, as if he would kill his horses with fast riding.

Ver. 21. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah.] These never dreamed of an enemy, though the messengers were detained, but thought, likely, that Jehu came with good news from the army, whereof himself would be the first messenger. Sic Deus quem destruit dementat, God infatuateth those whom he meaneth to destroy.

Ver. 22. So long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel.] That notorious idolatress and adulteress, who might truly say with that notable strumpet, Quartilla in Petronius, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse.

Ver. 23. And fled.] But divine vengeance, which the Greeks call Αδραστεια, because there is no fleeing from it, had him in chase, and there was no escaping.

Ver. 24. And the arrow went out at his heart.] Jehu was an excellent marksman; but it was God that guided his hand, strengthened his arm, {#Eze 30:24} and ordered his arrow. {#Jer 50:9}

Ver. 25. Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain.] Heb., Triarium suum, his third captain, or captain of a third part of his forces.

The Lord laid this burden.] {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"}

Ver. 26. Surely I have seen yesterday.] It was but yesterday. Murder ever bleedeth fresh in the eye of God. To him many years, yea, that eternity that is past, is but yesterday.

And the blood of his sons.] Put to death, it seemeth by this text, together with their father, that Ahab might come clear to the vineyard; unless, by the loss of their blood, we shall understand the loss of their means; for a poor man’s livelihood is his life; he is in his stock like a snail in his shell. Crush that, and you kill him quite.

And I will requite thee in this plat.] See on #1Ki 21:19.

Now therefore take and cast him.] Jehoram’s blood manureth that plot that was wrung from Naboth, and Jezebel shall add to this compost. Oh, garden of herbs dearly bought, royally dunged!

Ver. 27. Smite him also in the chariot.] For he was of Ahab’s house, too, by marriage, and so within Jehu’s commission. So dangerous a thing it is to he imped in a wicked family.

Ver. 28. And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem.] This Jehu permitted them to do for good Jehoshaphat’s sake. {#2Ch 22:9}

Ver. 29. And in the eleventh year.] See #2Ki 8:25.

Ver. 30. And she painted her face.] Heb., She put her eyes in painting, {a} דיפ, φυκος, fucus. This she did ad conciliandum regiam maiestatem, to show herself to Jehu in majesty and royal brightness; for she was extremely proud and arrogant to her very last, and now she would show what a brave spirit she had in this her desperate condition: {b} and that if she must die, she would die in her gaiety. Peter Martyr here compareth the Pope of Rome to Jezebel in sundry particulars. And besides Pope Joan, an arrant whore, Pope Sylvester and others of them, great magicians; we read of Pope Paulus Venetus, that, Jezebel-like, he painted himself, desired to seem a woman, and was called the goddess Cybele. It was, therefore, a witty answer of a certain painter, who, when he was asked by a cardinal why he coloured the visages of Peter and Paul so red, tartly he replied, I paint them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors. {c}

{a} Inunge oculos tuos non stibio diabolico, sed collyrio Christi. -Cypr.

{b} Ad animositatem ostentandam. -A Lap.

{c} Plut., in Vit. Adrian.

Ver. 31. She said, Had Zimri peace?] Or, O Zimri—so she calleth Jehu, his master’s murderer, -shall it be peace? thinkest thou to carry it away clear thus? She thought, haply, that being a woman she might say anything, Hecuba-like; and that Jehu would not meddle with her: but he had a particular charge about her, {#2Ki 9:7,10} and his case was not Zimri’s, who came quickly to an ill end indeed; as did also Phocas, who had stewed his master Mauricius in his own broth, and was himself killed piecemeal.

Ver. 32. There looked out to him two or three eunuchs.] Those rats of the court, as a certain emperor called them: these were active in their lady’s death, all hope of further advantage by her being taken away.

Ver. 33. And some of her blood.] Her brains, that devised mischief against the servants of God, are strewed upon the walls: and she that insulted upon the prophets, is trampled upon by the horses’ heels.

Ver. 34. And bury her.] He had forgot, belike, at present, the prophecy of Elijah, that dogs should eat her flesh, which yet soon after he remembereth. {#2Ki 9:36}

For she is a king’s daughter.] Meaning Ethbaal king of Zidon, whom he was loath to incense.

Ver. 35. Than the skull, and the feet.] All her flesh was devoured by dogs. And the like befell those Donatists that cast the sacramental bread to dogs, as is before noted. Let all dogged persecutors look to it: Qualis vita, finis ita; those that fall foul upon the saints, shall come to an ill end, as were easy to exemplify.

Ver. 36. This is the word of the Lord.] See #2Ki 9:34.

Ver. 37. Shall be as dung.] Here seemeth to be an allusion to the etymology of her name. Jezebel is the same with E-zebel, that is, where is the dung? or, Je-zebel, that is, the island of dung, or, woe to the dung. {a} The devil is from the same root called in the gospel Beelzebul, the lord of dung, or, a dunghill deity. Iezebel, idem est quod vanitatis profluvium, saith Ambrose, vel vana et vacua redundantia, the superfluity of naughtiness.

So that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.] Katherine de Medici, queen mother of France, after she had for thirty years’ space wonderfully troubled that kingdom, died ingloriously, and as wishedly as she had lived wickedly and dissolutely,

“ Plenaque fraudis anus.”

{a} Pagnin.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. And Ahab had seventy sons.] By several wives. God had threatened to root out his house, yet he promised himself the establishment of his house; and thereupon so followed the work of generation that he left seventy sons behind him.

In Samaria.] The chief city, where they were for safety and for noble education.

Ver. 2. Now as soon as this letter cometh to you.] A concise and stately kind of writing, much like that of the king of Syria to the king of Israel. {#2Ki 5:6} So the Hebrews note of Esau, in his meeting with Jacob, {#Ge 33:4-15} that he uttereth his mind in few words, whenas Jacob is more full and fuse in his expressions. But ornamentum epistolae est ornamentis carere, saith a master of rhetoric, {a} Plainness is the greatest grace of an epistle.

{a} Politian.

Ver. 3. Look even out the best, &c.] All this Jehu speaketh ironice, or, at least, tentative: that he might feel their pulses and find how they stood affected.

Ver. 4. But they were exceedingly afraid.] Such was their pusillanimity and perfidy, that they yield upon a little entreaty, and betray their trust. But God had an overruling hand in it, for the rooting out of Ahab’s progeny.

Behold, two kings, &c.: how then shall we stand?] Say we the same of God’s irresistible power. Ten thousand kings cannot stand before him; and how should we?

Ver. 5. We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us, &c.] Surely it is meet to be said thus unto God, and to him alone. "Be not ye the servants of men" in St Paul’s sense. {#1Co 7:23}

Ver. 6. Then he wrote a letter the second time.] Not with black, but with blood; like that letter of Mithridates, king of Pontus, written to the ruin of fourscore thousand Romans trading in his dominions. But it was just in God, that as Ahab and Jezebel, by a letter sent to the elders of Jezreel, shed the blood of Naboth and his sons; so they should have the blood of all their sons shed by a letter sent from Jezreel to the elders of Samaria. God loveth to retaliate.

Take ye the heads of the men.] This was but policy to root out all Ahab’s seed, that there might be no avenger. The poet could say,

“Νηπιος ος κατερα κτεινας, παιδας υπολειπει.’’—Arist., Rhet., lib. i. cap. 15.

i.e., He is a fool who killeth the father, and yet suffereth his children to survive.

Ver. 7. And put their heads in baskets.] Apposite ad culpam Achab, saith A Lapide: this was suitable to Ahab’s sin. He had sent for baskets of grapes out of Naboth’s vineyard at Jezreel; and now the heads of his sons are brought thither in baskets. Oh, doleful burden!

Ver. 8. Lay ye them in two heaps.] {a} Here some hard hearted Hannibal would have cried out, O formosum spectaculum! Oh, brave sight! Or, O rem regiam! as another, when he had slain three hundred. I am ready to say as one did on a like occasion—

“ Tu quibus ista legas incertum est, Lector, ocellis:

Ipse quidem siccis scribere vix potui.”

{a} The world is like this heap of heads, that had never a heart amongst them.

Ver. 9. And said to all the people.] Who were got together to see this rueful spectacle; he therefore taketh that opportunity to make his apology; alleging for his defenee the prophecy of Elijah, which he had now fulfilled, and God’s decree, which he had executed. He justifieth also hereby those that had slain the seventy young princes at his command, upon the same account; and freeth the rest of the people from their fears, when he saith, Ye be righteous; that is, I pronounce you innocent; think not that I intend any harm to you, &c., for they, seeing his severity against Ahab’s family and familiars, might fear, as the Romans did concerning Sulla, that there would be των φονων ουτ αριθμος, ουθ ορος; no end or measure of his bloodshed. {a}

{a} Plutarch.

Ver. 10. Know now.] Non meo instinctu, sod Dei impulsu factum, that it is not my doings, but the Lord’s; neither is it to be accounted cruelty in me, but zeal and justice, since by my default (see that it do not by yours.)

There shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord…concerning the house of Ahab.] Think the same of any other of God’s threatenings, which shall surely have their accomplishment, {#Zep 3:5} neither is his forbearance any quittance.

Ver. 11. So Jehu slew all.] Neither was this cruelty, but zeal and justice; because according to God’s will, which is the rule of righteousness. There cannot be a better or more noble act, than to do justice upon obstinate malefactors. {a} It was therefore without good reason that the Roman laws forbade the common executioner, as accursed, to dwell within the city, or to draw breath therein. Doth not God truss up notoriously wicked men sometimes with his own bare hand? and are not his angels executioners of his judgments, as on the Sodomites, Sennacherib, &c.?

And his priests.] His household chaplains: and had not Baal’s priests now some cause to be afraid of Jehu?

Until he left none remaining.] This had been well done, but that he had ill aims; and so there was malum opus in bona materia. Works materially good, may never prove so formally and eventually.

{a} Cic., pro Rabir.

Ver. 12. And as he was at the shearing house.] Or, Slaughter house. Heb., Bethhekedi of the shepherds; locus ligaminis.

Ver. 13. And Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah.] That is, his nephews and near kindred: for his brethren were all carried away by the Arabians. {#2Ch 21:17}

Ver. 14. And slew them at the pit.] Because they also were of the house of Ahab, {#2Ch 22:8} and lest they should revenge the death of Ahaziah. See on #2Ki 10:6.

Neither left he any of them.] See on #2Ki 10:11.

Ver. 15. He lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab.] A Kenite of Jethro’s stock, {#1Ch 2:55} famous for his piety and holy life, and highly esteemed of the people. See #Jer 35:6. Josephus saith, that he was of Jehu’s old acquaintance. Whether he were or not, now he desires his approbation, and therefore takes him along.

Is thine heart right, as my heart is?] Here he prefers himself before Jonadab; whereas sincerity is better conceited of another, suspicious of itself. See #Joh 21:15.

And Jehonadab answered, It is.] Heb., It is and it is; i.e., Assuredly it is.

Ver. 16. Come with me, and see my zeal.] It is good policy to join friendship with the religious: as his counsel was to agree to Gregories Austin, if he were humble. {a} But why should Jehu so desire that his zeal {b} should be noted and noticed? Hypocrisy is very ostentatious. Drones make more noise than bees, though they make neither honey nor wax. It is reported of Mr John Fox, that as he was going along London streets, a woman of his acquaintance met with him; and as they discoursed together, she pulled out a Bible, telling him that she was going to hear a sermon; whereupon he said to her, If you will be advised by me, go home again. But, said she, when shall I then go? To whom he answered, When you tell no one of it.

{a} Act. and Mon., p. 107. Sic.(?) Gregory the First’s letter to Austin, Act. and Mon., 131.

{b} Sincere zeal desireth not to be seen of any save him who seeth in secret.

Ver. 17. He slew all that remained.] See on #2Ki 10:11.

Ver. 18. But Jehu shall serve him much.] This he spake, that he might the better get together all Baal’s priests and worshippers. When a man for a little space only seemeth to allow a fault, that shortly after he may the better manifest his dislike by effecting some good, this is not to do evil that good may come thereof; but to do good in a prudent manner. Thus Solomon seemed to intend the dividing of the child, for the finding out of the true mother. And thus Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, that he might discern which of his courtiers were true and hearty Christians, proclaimed, that such as would not sacrifice to the heathen idols should be turned out of their offices, and those that would do so, should still enjoy them. This he pretended, but did the clean contrary; and gave this for a reason, How can any be faithful to me that, for preferment’s sake, turn from the living God to worship dumb idols? {a}

{a} Euseb., De Vit. Const., lib. i. cap. 9, 10.

Ver. 19. All the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests.] Baal had his prophets, his priests, and his servants, as Jehovah had. His priests also had their vestments; {#2Ki 10:22} Faciunt et vespae favos: simiae imitantur homines.

Ver. 20. Proclaim a solemn assembly.] See on #2Ki 10:18.

Ver. 21. And all the worshippers of Baal came.] It was wonder they should; since they could not but have heard of the slaughter of Ahab’s priests in Jezreel; but they were infatuated, and so fitted for destruction. With like boldness the Egyptians rushed into the Red Sea. {#Ex 14:23}

And the house of Baal was full from one end to another.] Or, So full that they stood mouth to mouth; their mouths did even almost touch. {a} It was wont to be so in our holy meetings, till the devil divided us, and made so many separatists among us, who run into by-corners. {#Heb 10:25}

{a} Ab ore ad os, vel ab ora ad oram. -Vat.

Ver. 22. Bring forth vestments.] See on #2Ki 10:19.

Ver. 23. And Jehonabad the son of Rechab.] His presence might well have made the Baalites suspect a plot; for they knew him an utter enemy to their idolatry, and saw him now in great favour with Jehu; but they were besotted, as was before noted, and went on without fear or wit, as an ox to the slaughter, and as a fool to the stocks.

Search and look that there be here with you none.] This search also might well have made them suspect somewhat, were it not that in all those idolatrous services, the first care was to avoid the profane. Procul hinc, procul este profani, said the crier.

Ver. 24. To offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.] They would needs symbolise with the true servants of God in an apish imitation of all. See on ver. #2Ki 10:19,22.

Ver. 25. Go in, and slay them.] This was lawful and warrantable; for idolaters were to die by the law. But the poor Protestants in France have been oft served in like sort by the Guises and other bloody persecutors, against all right and reason.

And went to the city of the house of Baal.] That is, To a certain city near to Samaria, where Baal had a choice temple, saith Vatablus.

Ver. 26. And they brought forth the images, and burned them.] So they did here in King Edward VI’s reign; and the same day Musselburgh field in Scotland was won by the English.

Ver. 27. And brake down the house of Baal.] So Theodosius pulled down the idol temples, which Constantine had shut only, but Julian opened them again; and our Henry VIII demolished the abbeys and monasteries, using these words, Corvorum nidi sunt penitus disturbandi, ne iterum ad cohabitandum convolent: Those crows’ nests are to be utterly destroyed, that they be no more frequented and re-inhabited.

And made it a draught house.] Or, Jakes or out house. Here the Masorites put a more cleanly word in their Keri in the margin; as if they would prompt to the Holy Ghost a more mannerly speech. {a} {Hebrew Text Note} So they do in #De 28:30 Jer 3:2. Less marvel, then, if they deal so with the words of Rabshakeh, #Isa 36:12.

{a} Dr Rich.

Ver. 28. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.] This was well, but not all; his golden calves made an end of him, though he made an end of Baal’s worship. Many will follow God in such duties as will suit with them and their designs, but no further. The rusty hand of a dial, at some time of the day, seemeth to go right.

Ver. 29. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam…Jehu departed not.] Because if he had, it might have cost him his kingdom, to the settling whereof he had a hawk’s eye in all his reformations. Principes regionem potius quam religionem quaerunt, saith Chemnitius. It is said {a} that Selymus, the great Turk, and Hismael, the Persian, did, under the colour and zeal of their religion, as they would have it, both pretend just causes of war; although their evil dissembled ambitious desires plainly declared unto the world, that they both shot at one and the same mark: namely, by confirming their power and strength, to extend the bounds of their great empires.

{a} Turk. Hist., fol. 515.

Ver. 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, ] sc., By some prophet, but by whom, it skilleth not.

Because thou hast done well.] Well in its kind, for the matter not amiss; but for the motive, manner, and end, no whit well. To speak properly, Bonum non fit nisi ex integra causa, malum ex quolibet defectu.

The children of the fourth generation.] This was a favour not vouchsafed to any other king of Israel, since the division of the kingdom. God will not be indebted to any man; nor shall those that do or suffer aught for him, complain of a hard bargain.

Ver. 31. With all his heart.] He had a dispensatory conscience, a rotten heart, and that was his ruin. A man may recover of a fever, and die of a dropsy; so he that leaveth some gross sin, yet huggeth a less, is an undone person.

For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam.] No, though the Lord had made him such large promises, as #2Ki 10:30, compare #2Co 7:1. Nevertheless he may as well deserve—as did Galba, and our Richard III—to be reckoned in the rank of bad men, but good princes.

Ver. 32. The Lord began to cut Israel short.] By turning in the Syrians upon them, to waste their country.

And Hazael smote them.] Exercising those inhuman cruelties upon them foretold by Elisha, {#2Ki 8:12} and that in Jehu’s lifetime, res Israelis fuerunt accisae, notwithstanding all his might. {#2Ki 10:34} For his calf worship, his puissance was turned into pusillanimity, and his glory into shame. The like befell Henry IV of France, after that he turned Papist.

Ver. 33. All the land of Gilead.] A rich and fruitful country: not Ramothgilead only, lately recovered by Joram; but all that region beyond Jordan, held by the Syrians for about sixty years after. {#2Ki 14:25}

Ver. 34. Are they not written?] See on #1Ki 14:10.

Ver. 35. And Jehoahaz his son reigned.] By right of succession, as did after him Joash, Jeroboam, and Zachariah, by God’s appointment. Zuinghus held that all kingdoms now-a-days were elective, none properly successive and hereditary; wherein we deny not that he erred in facto, ut loquuntur, saith learned Rivet.

Ver. 36. Was twenty and eight years.] This was a longer time than any of his predecessors had reigned; his successors of his family reigned seventy-six years, which yet God calleth a little while, {#Ho 1:4} and threateneth to break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel, {#Ho 1:5} or, from {a} the valley of Jezreel; that is, for the slaughter of Ahab’s house there made by Jehu, as Junius readeth and senseth it.

{a} Propter vallem Iezrehelis

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. And when Athaliah.] Ahab’s daughter by Jezebel: Gotholiah, the Septuagint and Sulpitius call her; a most wicked woman, another Medea, by whom the devil sought utterly to root out that race whereof Christ was to be born. Josephus saith that out of envy—which Augustine {a} calleth vitium diabolicum, a devilish vice—she sought to destroy the house of David, as Jehu had destroyed her father Ahab’s house. Others, that she thus strengthened herself, that she might be revenged upon Jehu. Most likely, she was carried on to this tragic fact by ambition—which ever rideth without reins—and zeal for Baalism, which—to her grief—she saw was now rooted out by Jehu in the kingdom of Israel. Such another imperious whorish woman—as the Scripture speaketh {#Eze 16:30} -was Semiramis, queen of Assyria; {b} Tullia, the wife of Tarquinius Superbus; {c} Irene, empress of Constantinople, and mother of Constantinus Copronymus—whose eyes she put out to make him incapable of the empire, that she might reign alone; Drahomira, queen of Bohemia; and Brumchildis, queen of France, {d} who is said to have been the death of ten princes of the blood, and was herself afterwards put to a cruel death by king Cletharius. But the likest in cruelty to Athaliah was Laodice, the wife of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia; who, her husband being dead, seized upon the government, raged cruelly against all sorts both of the nobility and commons, whom she caused to be murdered; yea, against her own family, poisoning six of her own sons, that so she might keep the kingdom more securely: only one little one escaped her fury, whom the people at last advanced to the crown, and slew her. {e}

Destroyed all.] Conatu scilicet, non effectu: she endeavoured it, but God remembered his promise to David, to leave him a lamp in Jerusalem, {#1Ki 15:4} and to this promise Joash owed his life and kingdom.

{a} In Ps. cxxxix.

{b} Herodot.

{c} L. Flor.

{d} AEn. Sylv.

{e} Baron., A.D. 614.—Lips.

Ver. 2. And stole him from among the king’s sons.] Out of the nursery; but how he should escape Athaliah’s bloody hands, is hard to say; whether by bribing the assassins, or substituting another child, &c. The nurse of Mauricius, the emperor’s child, offered her own to be slain by that bloody Phocas, to preserve her foster child’s life, the son of the emperor.

So that he was not slain.] No more was Theodosius, though in great danger of death by the superstition of Valens, his predecessor; who, being told by the soothsayers that one should succeed him in the empire, whose name began with those four letters, θ, ε, ο, δ, killed many that were called Theodori, Theodoti, Theoduli, &c., and among the rest, Theodosiolus, the father of Theodosius, whom God nevertheless preserved to the empire from the bloody hands of that wretched Arian.

Ver. 3. And he was with her hid, &c., ] i.e., With his aunt Jehosheba, {#2Ki 11:2} a king’s daughter, and yet a priest’s wife. Athaliah either believed that Joash was slain with the rest of his brethren, or else she held it no policy to hold that he was alive, lest the people should hanker and hearken after him.

Ver. 4. And the seventh year.] When now the young prince was full seven years old, {#2Ki 11:21} and able to say—as Grave Maurice did to the States when they doubted to choose him their general, because young— Tandem fit sureulus arbor, a twig in time comes to be a tall tree, might he have but princely education and dignity.

Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds.] Five of them only at first, {#2Ch 23:1,2} and then many other Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel (ibid.), to whom he communicated the matter, and by whom he wrought upon the rest to join, and yield their best assistance.

Ver. 5. And he commanded them.] For he was protector of the young king, and προβολον της αληθειας—as Theodoret styleth Athanasius—the Bulwark of Truth.

That enter in on the Sabbath.] So that the deposing Of Athaliah and her idolatry, the setting up of Joash, and with him, of true religion, was a Sabbath day’s work, and well it might be: Jehoiada—for the purpose—taking in the new company of Levites that came in their course, and not dismissing the old till this great work was over.

Of the king’s house.] Which was very near the temple; however it was with Athaliah, and the recently revolted princes of Judah, according to the common word, The nearer to the church, the farther from God.

Ver. 6. At the gate of Sur.] So called, saith Martyr, from declining or departing; because the door keepers made the unclean decline from it.

Ver. 7. Shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord.] To keep the place from pollution, and the young king from danger.

Ver. 8. Let him be slain.] Military discipline was in this case most necessary to be observed; neither would bloodshed have been any profanation of the temple.

Ver. 9. That Jehoiada the priest.] The high priest, saith Vatablus; though some others hold him to have been only a priest and a prime man.

Ver. 10. King David’s spears and shields.] Kept in the temple for trophies and tokens of thanksgiving: such as were Goliath’s sword, {#1Sa 21:9} and the Syrians’ shields. {#2Sa 8:7,11}

Ver. 11. From the right corner of the temple, ] i.e., From north to south.

Ver. 12. And gate him the testimony.] That is, The Book of Deuteronomy, according to #De 17:18,19, or some other book wherein the law was registered, {#2Ch 23:11} called the Testimony, because it testifieth of God’s will and men’s duty, and is the best rule of ruledom; far beyond Lipsius’s "Beehive," or Machiavel’s "Spider Web." Queen Elizabeth, at her coronation, took the Bible—presented to herewith both her hands, and, kissing it, laid it to her breast, saying, that the same had ever been her chiefest delight, and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her government. {a}

{a} Speed’s Chron.

Ver. 13. And when Athaliah heard.] See on #2Ki 11:1.

She came to the people.] Without any mistrust or fear; but not without a special providence, that the warders might have her in their power.

Ver. 14. And cried, Treason, treason!] Though herself were a usurper and a traitor, yet she thus crieth out; so do some sectaries, "Persecution, persecution," with as good pretence.

Ver. 15. And him that followeth her, ] sc., To defend her and adhere to her; which none did, for they were all weary of her tyrannical government, and glad to be rid of her.

Ver. 16. The way by the which the horses came.] So that she was trampled, haply, by the horses, as her mother had been; howsoever, she was slain among the stables and dunghills of the king’s house. Josephus saith that she was carried down to the town ditch, and there despatched.

Ver. 17. And Jehoiada made a covenant.] Both sacred and civil: and they set forthwith upon the work of reformation, which prospered in their hands: for they pulled down Baal’s temples, and slew Mattan the priest before his altars. {#2Ki 11:18}

Ver. 18. And brake it down.] As Israel had done before them.

And the priest.] Jehoiada. See on #2Ki 11:9.

Over the house of the Lord.] Which the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah, perhaps her bastards, had broken up, and bestowed all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord upon Balaam. {#2Ch 24:7} So that there was but need of officers, or offices, to set things in order again.

Ver. 19. And came by the way of the gate of the guard.] Called the high gate, {#2Ch 23:20} by reason of the fairness and height of it; and the new gate. {#Jer 36:10}

Ver. 20. And they slew Athaliah with the sword] This being done by the consent of the whole people, or of the greater part, Deo fiebat auspice, saith Zuinglius, had God’s approbation; seeing she was both a usurper and a tyrant.

Beside the king’s house.] Congrue ibi caeditur ubl peccarat; she suffereth where she had most sinned.

Ver. 21. Seven years old.] So that he was anniculus, about one year old when he was sought for to the slaughter. Athaliah might well have written as Mary Queen of Scots did in a window at Fotheringay castle,

“From the top of all my trust,

Mishap hath laid me in the dust.”

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. Forty years reigned he in Jerusalem.] A great part of these years, Jehoiada lived with him; and so long, did he not "eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?" as #Jer 22:15.

Ver. 2. All his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.] As when Jehoiada died, Jehoash revolted from the Lord. Nero, while he would be instructed by Seneca and Burrhus, was of so good a carriage that Trajan was wont to say, None ever came near him; but this lasted for five years only. In Apostatis—

“ Principium fervet, medium tepet, exitus alger.”

Ver. 3. But the high places.] Tyrannus ille trium literarum, mos; Custom had so prevailed, that Jehoiada durst not advise the king to cross the people in this superstition, lest it should cause a tumult; lest they should more regard commotioners than commissioners, and be more guided by rage, than by right; violence and obstinacy, like two untamed horses, drawing their desires in a blindfold career, as it fell out here in England when King Edward VI began to reform.

Ver. 4. And Jehoash said to the priests.] His first care was the repair of the temple, where he had been so long hid and preserved to the crown.

All the money of the dedicated things.] Heb., Money of holinesses; contrary whereunto is the mammon of iniquity. {#Lu 16:11}

The money of every one that passeth the account.] The half shekel, {#Ex 30:12,13, &c.} paid by all above twenty, as a perpetual poll money, to the use of the tabernacle and temple, called the collection of Moses. {#2Ch 24:6} The Pope had here his Peter’s pence—and Polydor Virgil was his collector—so long as it held.

The money that every man is set at.] See #Le 27:2, &c. Redemption money.

And all the money that cometh into any man’s heart.] Freewill offerings; for God straineth upon no man. See #Ex 35:5, &c. Hereunto the priests were in all places to exhort those that they knew. {#2Ch 24:5}

Ver. 5. And let them repair the breaches of the house.] Labes domus, rupturas, fissuras, scissuras, such as the temple had contracted, either by antiquity, for it had stood one hundred and fifty-five years, or by the iniquity of the times. See #2Ch 24:7.

Ver. 6. The priests had not repaired.] Perhaps because themselves should have no benefit thereby; they should have but their labour for their pains; receiving the money with one hand and paying it out with another. We love to see somewhat coming toward us of our labour; which else hath little life in it.

Ver. 7. Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada.] It was wonder that he should need quickening; but he was grown very old, and his work was done in a manner. Howbeit Josephus saith that he excited Joash, and would be called for among the rest, whom haply he could not so well prevail with.

Why repair ye not the breaches of the house?] A temporary, then, we see may be the fore-horse in the team, the εργοδιωκτης, the ringleader of good exercises, and stir others up thereto, as Jehoash here did his best officers, and yet perish.

Ver. 8. And the priests consented.] See on #2Ki 12:6.

Ver. 9. But Jehoiada the priest took a chest.] This he did by the king’s appointment, {#2Ch 24:8} and it took good effect. {#2Ki 12:9,10}

Ver. 10. When they saw.] They stood at the door, and might easily see what any one put in. Lycurgus, the Lacedemonian lawgiver—who is thonght to have flourished about these times—enjoined his countrymen not to exceed in their offerings, lest they should grow weary of well doing; for, said he, God respecteth more the internal devotion than the external oblation.

Ver. 11. That did the work.] Though with other men’s hands.

Ver. 12. For the house to repair it.] See on #2Ki 12:5.

Ver. 13. Howbeit there were not made, ] viz., Till the fabric was finished; but afterwards they were. {#2Ch 24:14} So earnestly they repaired, -Baruch-like. {#Ne 3:20}

Ver. 14. But they gave that to the workmen.] Who both bought the materials, and wrought them: providing both for their credit and their work, that it might go on end, as they say, and have nothing to hinder it.

Ver. 15. For they dealt faithfully.] This was much to their commendation. See on #Ne 7:2.

Ver. 16. The trespass money.] Which was for omissions.

And sin money.] Which was for commissions, saith Tostatus. Or for wrongs done the Lord in his holy things, either ignorantly or wittingly, as others will have it.

Ver. 17. Then Hazael king of Syria went up.] "Then," when Jehoiada was dead, and Jehoash revolted. {#2Ch 24:23}

And Hazael set his face.] He resolved that he would take Jerusalem likewise, and doubted not but he should. So when the Turks had taken Adrianople, they soon after took Constantinople, the seat of the eastern emperor.

Ver. 18. He went away.] But the next year he returned again, spoiled Jerusalem, killed many, wounded Jehoash, after that he had put to death Zechariah the son of Jehoiada for his plain dealing. {#2Ch 24:17, &c.}

Ver. 19. Are they not written, &c.?] And therehence extracted, many of them by Ezra. {#2Ch 24:27, &c.}

Ver. 20. And slew Joash.] After that the Syrian rovers had first wounded him, and, perhaps by torturing him, left him under sore diseases, {#2Ch 24:23-25} according to what holy Zechariah at his death had prayed and prophesied, The Lord look upon it (i.e., my death), and require it.

Ver. 21. For Jozachar the son of Shimeath.] An Ammonitess.

And Jehozabad the son of Shomer.] A Moabitess. {#2Ch 24:26} These were his bondwomen likely, and their sons his slaves.

And they buried him with his fathers.] But not among the kings, {#2Ch 24:25} probably because his body was so putrefied with his wounds and other maladies.

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. In the three and twentieth year of Joash.] In the tenth year of his reign, the city of Carthage was built by Queen Dido, as Josephus reporteth out of the annals of the Tyrians. {a} This discrediteth Virgil’s poem of the hot affection between Dido and Aeneas, dead above two hundred years before.

{a} Lib. i. contra Appion.

Ver. 2. And he did that which was evil.] The throne of Judah had some interchanges of good princes; Israel none at all.

Ver. 3. And the anger of the Lord.] God is said to be angry at evildoers, because, as angry men use to do, he threateneth and smiteth them.

Ver. 4. And Jehoahaz besought the Lord.] Affliction exciteth devotion, as blowing doth the fire; whereas rarae fumant felicibus arae. Jehoahaz was now brought very low by the Syrians, {#2Ki 13:7} else God had not been thought on or sought unto.

Ver. 5. And the Lord gave Israel a saviour.] An angel, say some; the prophet Elisha, say others; or rather king Jehoash, {#2Ki 13:25} encouraged by Elisha, with promise of a threefold victory over the Syrians.

Ver. 6. Nevertheless they departed not.] Though first plagued, and then saved, yet they remained irreclaimable.

And there remained the grove.] Ahab’s grove. {#1Ki 16:33} Ballism, therefore, was not utterly abolished by Jehu.

Ver. 7. Had made them like the dust by threshing.] Grain may be broken and scattered by overmuch threshing; so was Israel by the Syrian oppression.

Ver. 8. And his might.] He did what he could, {a} but to no purpose, because God was against him.

{a} Defendit se quoad potuit. -A Lapide.

Ver. 9. And Jehoahaz slept.] See #1Ki 16:28.

Ver. 10. Began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign.] Two years before his father’s death. See #2Ki 13:1.

Ver. 11. And he did that which was evil.] See #2Ki 13:2.

Ver. 12. And the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 16:27.

Ver. 13. So Joash slept.] See #1Ki 16:28.

Ver. 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick.] Being, as it is thought, above a hundred years old. That is a pious note that a reverend writer {a} maketh here: Happy is he that, after due preparation, is passed through the gates of death ere he be aware. Happy is he that, by the holy use of long sickness, is taught to see the gates of death afar off, and addresseth for a resolute passage. The one dieth like Elijah, the other like Elisha—both blessedly.

And said, O my father.] This same Elisha had said to Elijah when he was taken up, and heareth now as much ascribed to himself, as a remuneration of that his piety to his master.

The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.] i.e., Qui oratione plus potes quam omnes milites armis suis; { b} O thou who canst do more by thy prayers than all the soldiers can with their weapons of war. Elisha’s piety and his prayers were the strength of the state, as this wicked king could now acknowledge with tears, though before he had slighted him.

“ Virtutem incolumen odimus,

Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi.’’—Horat.

Stapleton saith that he calleth Elisha "the horsemen" of Israel, because by his holy life and doctrine he led all Israel; and "the chariot," because by his virtue and prayers he preserved the people ne propter peceata Deus illos perderet, that God destroyed them not for their sins. {c} The death of such is very ominous, a forerunner of great calamities. {#Isa 57:1}

{a} Bp. Hall.

{b} Vatab.

{c} Promp. Mor., Dom. v., post Epiph., Vex. 8.

Ver. 15. And Elisha said, Take bow and arrows.] Chria quadam tanquam signo externo victoriam praedicit: The prophet, moved by the king’s tears and profession, foretelleth victory by this outward sign:

Ver. 16. And Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands.] To show that "the arms of his hands should be made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob," as #Ge 49:24.

Ver. 17. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot.] The old Romans were wont to denounce war against their enemies by shooting an arrow or dart into their country, {a} Alexander the Great did the like when he first set foot in Persia, as Justin reporteth. {b}

Till they have consumed them.] Usque ad consumere, vel usque ad consummare.

{a} Serv. in Virg.

{b} Hist., lib. ii.

Ver. 18. And he took them.] He is very morigerous to the prophet, as expecting good from him; only he stayed striking before he should, and that was to his loss. He should have continued smiting till the prophet had said, Enough.

Ver. 19. Thou shalt smite Israel but thrice.] And this for a punishment of the king’s slackness and slothfulness in pursuing the execution of God’s vengeance on the enemies, which the prophet might foresee.

Ver. 20. And Elisha died.] Accisis corporeis viribus gloriosam exhalavit animam. Elisha was one of those few that lived and died with honour.

And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land.] Here that of Hosea, #Ho 13:1, was fulfilled: "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling, and he exalted himself in Israel: but when he offended in Baal, he died." Before, none durst budge against the name of Ephraim; but after Baal, every paltry adversary trampled upon him as a dead man. Howbeit, for their comfort and confirmation, here is a dead man raised by touching the dead body of Elisha, who had so lately promised them good success against the Syrian: "Thy dead men shall live: together with my dead body shall they arise: awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust." {#Isa 26:19} The Hebrews {a} tell us that Amoz, the father of Isaiah the prophet, and brother of king Ahaziah, was present at Elisha’s death, and that the man raised by the touch of his body suddenly fell down dead again. But it is more likely, say expositors, that he lived and went to the king with his bearers as witnesses of this very great miracle, that he might be the better encouraged to go against the Syrians, as soon after he did.

{a} Sedar Olam.

Ver. 21. He revived, and stood upon his feet.] By as true—though spiritual—a miracle it is that new life is put into a dead soul, "dead in trespasses and sins," by the touch of God’s prophets, applying thereunto the death and resurrection of the Son of God, who restored life to his own dead body, and thereby not only declared himself with power to be God blessed for ever, {#Ro 1:4} but also that he quickeneth all true believers, who are united unto him by the ligament of a lively faith, as it were by a corporeal contract.

Ver. 22. All the days of Jehoahaz.] For about fifty years in all had this tyrant oppressed them. But God had promised them a saviour, viz., Joash, {#2Ki 13:5} and this much about the time that Jehoahaz had besought the Lord, who was easily entreated to pity the low condition of his people. {#2Ki 13:4}

Ver. 23. Because of his covenant.] Whereby God had made himself a voluntary debtor to his people. Who might now well say, Non sum dignus, Domine, sed sum indigus, I am no way worthy of thy help, but I am in extreme need of it. And again, Ego admisi unde tu damnare potes me, sed non amisisti unde tu salvare potes me, { a} My destruction is of myself, but of thee is my help.

{a} August.

Ver. 24. So Hazael king of Syria died.] And Israel had thereupon not halcyon days only, but three signal victories.

Ver. 25. Three times did Joash beat him.] And this he had by way of recompense for his so kindly visiting Elisha in his sickness; to stir men up to kindness and respect to God’s ministers, as Wolphius here well observeth.

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. In the second year, &c., ] viz., When he reigned alone, after his father’s death.

Reigned Amaziah.] A notorious hypocrite, and one that filled up the measure of his fathers. {#Mt 23:32} Yet Salianus and some others say that he died a penitent and a reformed man.

Ver. 2. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan.] The mothers of the kings of Judah are expressed by name; not so of Israel. See on #1Ki 15:10.

Ver. 3. Yet not like David his father.] Who did all the wills of God {#Ac 13:22} with a perfect heart. {#1Sa 13:14} Not so Amaziah, who had a good name, but answered it not; as the Emperor Probus did, witness Flav. Vopiscus.

Ver. 4. Howbeit the high places were not taken away.] So that he did not that which was right, &c. {#2Ki 14:3} -that which was, for the substance of it, approved of God—but with an exception: and was accepted accordingly. See #1Ki 15:14.

Ver. 5. As soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand] He politically dissembled his displeasure till he found his time. Qui nescit dissimulate, nescit regnare, saith Louis XI of France to his son. It is a weakness in a prince always to carry his love and hatred in his forehead.

Ver. 6. But the children of the murderers he slew not.] Which yet carnal policy would have prompted him to do. See on #2Ki 10:6.

Nor the children be put to death, &c.] This was a law for man to follow; but God, the supreme Lord of life and death, is above law. {#Jer 3:1}

Ver. 7. In the valley of Salt.] Near to the Lake Asphaltites, which yielded much salt. {a} See #2Sa 8:13.

Ten thousand.] Besides ten thousand more whom he cast down from a rock; {#2Ch 25:11,12} not to make himself and the soldiers sport with, as the cruel Spaniards have dealt by the poor Indians, -but because they still stood out, as it is likely.

And took Selah.] Or, Petra, {see #Isa 16:1} the chief city of Arabia Petraea, called afterwards Philadelphia by Ptolemy Philadelph, who repaired it. {b} Amaziah calleth it Jockteel, i.e., obedience to God, or the congregation of God, as Pagnine expoundeth it.

{a} Justin.

{b} Jun. Lap.

Ver. 8. Then Amaziah sent.] Being puffed up with his recent victory over the Edomites, he had a proud conceit that he should prosper in whatsoever he undertook; albeit he had now forsaken the Lord, and served the gods of those Edomites, whom he had erst subdued. By a like folly, the old Romans, after that they had subdued any nation, were wont to set up their gods to themselves, to win their favour.

Come, let us look one another in the face, ] i.e., Let us fight it out in the open field. He had been wronged in his absence by those one hundred thousand mercenaries of Israel, whom he had dismissed at the command of the prophet, {#2Ch 25:10,13} who had told him that God was not with the Israelites. He was apt enough also to believe that his own forces were invincible, and that victory was now pinned to his sleeve; but he was soon confuted.

Ver. 9. The thistle that was in Lebanon.] Not the shrub, but the thistle, which is prickly indeed, and can say Nemo me impune lacessit, but a low, vile, weak weed, and not to be named in the same day with the cedar, that tallest and firmest of trees. Thus Joash setteth Amaziah at nought, and looketh upon him as a petty king in comparison of himself.

Give thy daughter to my son, ] q.d., I would scorn to have any affinity with thee, though we were never so good friends.

And there passed by a wild beast.] Whereby he meaneth his own forces. Bellum quasi belluinum: soldiers are brutish and barbarous, skilful to destroy; and the time of war is fitly called "a time of trouble, and of treading down." {#Isa 22:5}

Ver. 10. And thine heart hath lifted thee up.] Here vice correcteth sin, as we say. Calcat Amaziae fastum, at maiori cum fastu: for by this scornful answer it appeareth that Jehoash was every whit as proud and bold as Amaziah.

Ver. 11. But Amaziah would not hear.] See the reason in #2Ch 25:20. He was ripe for ruin, and therefore, like a sea monster, with a deaf ear, he slighteth good counsel. "A deceived heart had now turned him aside, that he could not deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" {#Isa 44:20}

Ver. 12. And Judah was put to the worse; and they fled.] Josephus saith that before the fight they began to flee away; and so the king was taken by the enemy, who threatened presently to put him to a cruel death, unless he would cause the citizens of Jerusalem to open their gates and leave all to his mercy. Others think that he battered down the wall four hundred cubits, and took the city by force.

Ver. 13. And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah.] Whom he used nothing so courteously as Alexander, Prince of the Bulgarians, did Andronicus II, Emperor of Constantinople, who had sent him a challenge, as here Amaziah did Jehoash. But when Alexander had beaten him out of the field, he nevertheless offered him a peace, and suffered him to return home with his shattered army, advising him to be better advised for the future, and to consider that in each year there are four different seasons; and that in a short moment there may be great changes in human affairs. {a}

{a} Val. Max., Christ, 59.

Ver. 14. And he took all the gold and silver, &c.] He took not the crown, as he might have done, as fearing he could hardly hold it, but, by reaching after it, might hazard all; for he well knew how fast affected the people generally were to the house of David.

Ver. 15. And his might.] Showed against the Syrians chiefly.

Ver. 16. And Jehoash slept.] He died the same year wherein he had vanquished Amaziah, as may easily be gathered; so little enjoyment had he of his victory.

Ver. 17. Lived…fifteen years.] But it was a kind of a lifeless life. Mortis habet vices quae trahitur vita gemitibus. He lay all the while under the hatred and contempt of his subjects; being forced also by conspirators to flee to Lachish, and there to live as an exile, till they thought good to take away his life. Our Edward II, called Carnatron, his case was not unlike. Edvardum occidere nolite timere bonum est.

Ver. 18. And the rest, &c.] See #1Ki 14:10,29.

Ver. 19. Now they made a conspiracy.] The people generally did, because he had, by challenging Jehoash, subjected them to so much misery, and did, after that overthrow, spend his time idly and basely, serving false gods, &c. That he repented, is very uncertain, and upon weak grounds concluded.

Ver. 20. And they brought him on horses.] In a chariot drawn with horses. He had brought the idols of Edom to Jerusalem on horses, say the Rabbis, and is therefore so brought himself, and not on men’s shoulders.

Ver. 21. And all the people of Judah took Azariah.] Called also Uzziah. {#2Ch 26:1} Itaque hic duo nomina habuit confinia, Consilium Domini et Auxilium Dei, saith Vatablus: His two names were suitable, God’s counsel, and God’s help.

Ver. 22. He built Elath.] A place of great importance, as being a port town, say some, near the Red Sea.

Ver. 23. And reigned forty and one years.] This Jeroboam II was a long lived and a victorious prince: so was our Edward III.

Ver. 24. He departed not.] See #1Ki 16:19. For this cause Amos prophesied against him, and was banished from Bethel. {#Am 7:10-12}

Ver. 25. To the sea of the plain.] Called the salt sea. {#De 3:17}

Jonah, the son of Amittai.] See on #Jon 1:1.

Ver. 26. For the Lord saw, &c., ] sc., In the days of Jehoahaz, when, likely, Jonah was sent with the above said prophecy.

Ver. 27. And the Lord said not.] Yet afterwards he both said it, {#Ho 1:6,9} and did it. {#2Ki 17:18}

Ver. 28. And Hamath.] Which lay near to Damascus, and fared the worse for its neighbourhood. {#Zec 9:2}

Ver. 29. And Jeroboam slept.] {#Am 7:11} "Jeroboam shall die by the sword": but who said so? Not Amos, but Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, who belied him to Jeroboam.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. Began Azariah…to reign, ] i.e., To reign alone, after the death of his father, with whom he had reigned twelve or thirteen years before: or else there must be granted an interregnum, a vacancy in the royal seat of Judah, for so many years.

Ver. 2. And he reigned two and fifty years.] He reigned still, though a leper for his curiosity and insolency; the disease of his forehead did not remove his crown. So, if we be once a royal generation, our leprosies may deform us, they shall not dethrone us.

Ver. 3. According to all that his father Amaziah had done.] This is no great commendation: for neither of them did so well at last as at first, but apostatised.

Ver. 4. The high places were not removed.] No, not in his best times. This, if it did not loose, yet it lessened his crown of glory.

Ver. 5. And the Lord smote the king.] For his arrogancy and impudency in invading the priest’s office; God spat in his face, that he might be ashamed and humbled, and that others might be warned.

And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, &c.] He did not thrust out his father: but ruled all as his substitute. This was some comfort to the diseased king.

Ver. 6. Now the rest of the acts of Azariah.] Called also Uzziah.

Are they not written?] Written they were also by the prophet Isaiah. {#2Ch 26:22} Of the earthquake in this king’s days, see #Am 1:1 Zec 14:5.

Ver. 7. So Azariah slept, &c.] When this king died, the Philistines rejoiced, because "the rod of him that smote them was broken." But "out of the serpent’s root came forth a cockatrice"—Hezekiah—"and his fruit was a fiery, flying serpent" (#Isa 14:29, with #2Ch 26:6,7). He stung them worse than his grandfather had done.

And they buried him, &c.] In some by-corner of the king’s burial place, "for they said, He is a leper." {#2Ch 26:23}

Ver. 8. Six months.] So soon God despatched him out of the way, and with him the whole house of Jehu, for their great wickedness.

Ver. 9. As his father had done.] He filled up their measure, {#Mt 23:32} and was therefore soon cut off. The bottle of wickedness, when once filled with those bitter waters, will sink to the bottom.

Ver. 10. And slew him, and reigned in his stead.] After whose death followed these direful calamities foretold by the prophet Amos. {#2Ki 7:9} Never did the kingdom of Israel so flourish as under this king’s father—viz., Jeroboam II. The greatest prosperity is oft followed by the greatest misery. Periculosa est, secundum Hippocratem, summe bona corporis valetudo.

Ver. 11. And the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 14:19.

Ver. 12. And so it came to pass.] God keepeth promise with his foes: shall he fail his friends?

Ver. 13. And he reigned a full month.] Heb., A month of days: that is, a month to a day.

Ver. 14. For Menahem the son of Gadi.] Who was general of Zachariah’s army, saith Josephus: {a} as Omri was of drunken Elah’s. This Menahem is by Sulpitius Severus called Manes: as was also the first founder of the Manichees, those ancient heretics. The name signifieth Paracletum, a comforter: but they proved nothing less.

And slew him.] This was interitus tyranno dignus.

{a} Hist., lib. i.

Ver. 15. And the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 14:19.

Ver. 16. He smote it, and all the women he ripped up.] Opening their wombs crudelitate immani et barbara, because their husbands opened not the gates of their city unto him. {a} This abhorred cruelty Josephus mentioneth not; as being ashamed that other nations should be acquainted with it. The like was done, {#Ho 13:16 Am 1:13} and at the Sicilian vespers, by those pseudo-Catholics.

{a} Here Manes showed himself to be Epimanes.

Ver. 17. In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah.] In this one year there were four kings in Israel, one after another: and those direful threatenings of #Am 7:9 began to be fulfilled.

Ver. 18. And he did that which was evil.] See #1Ki 15:26.

Ver. 19. And Pul the king of Assyria.] By other writers he is called Belosus, and Phul-Belosus: who, together with Arbaces, the Mede, besieged Sardanapalus, the last monarch of Assyria, who desperately burnt himself in his own palace, and left his empire to this Pul, the first Babylonian monarch, and Arbaces, who made himself king of Medes and Persians. Some hold that this Pul was that king of Nineveh which repented at the preaching of the prophet Jonah: and that here also the men of Nineveh rose in judgment against that nation, God stirring up a penitent Ethnic to take vengeance on impenitent Israel.

To confirm the kingdom.] Which this usurper held not without opposition.

Ver. 20. And Menahem exacted.] Heb., Caused to come forth, sc., by his exactors, who received from his rich subjects no less sums of curses than of coin.

Ver. 21. And the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 14:19.

Ver. 22. And Pekahiah his son.] Eusebius {a} calleth him Phaceas.

{a} In Chronico.

Ver. 23. Reigned two years.] Not ten years, as Drusius affirmeth. {a}

{a} Regnavit annos decem.

Ver. 24. And he did that, &c.] See #1Ki 14:22.

Ver. 25. But Pekah the son, &c.] Phace, quidam eiusdem nominis, saith Sulpitius: but that is not so; Pekahiah and Pekah are names like, but not the same.

With Argob and Arieh.] These, saith Josephus, were slain, together with their king, at a feast.

Ver. 26. And the rest, &c.] See #1Ki 14:19.

Ver. 27. And he reigned twenty years.] Not without many troubles, and at last a violent death. {#2Ki 15:30}

Ver. 28. And he did, &c.] See #1Ki 14:22.

Ver. 29. Came Tiglathpileser.] Which name of his signifieth, say some, the removing of captives: {a} others making him to be son to Pul, {#2Ki 15:19} say that he was therefore called Tiglathpulassir. Why he came now against Israel, see #Isa 7:1 2Ki 16:7.

And carried them captive.] Whither they were carried, see #1Ch 5:5,6. Neither ever returned they: see #Isa 9:1.

{a} Captivitas. Mirabiles legationes. -Pagnin.

Ver. 30. In the twentieth year of Jotham, ] i.e., In the fourth year of Ahaz, to whom Jotham had resigned his kingdom, reserving to himself the title only.

Ver. 31. And the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 14:19.

Ver. 32. Began Jotham, ] viz., After his father Uzziah’s death. About this time, the prophet Isaiah saw that glorious vision. {#Isa 6:1} In the fourteenth jubilee.

Ver. 33. The daughter of Zadok.] Who probably was a priest, and father-in-law to this king.

Ver. 34. And he did that which was right.] Both for matter, manner, motive, and end; a good prince he was.

Ver. 35. He built the higher gate.] Then, when the people doted upon high places; though he disliked their practice.

Ver. 36. Now the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 14:29.

Ver. 37. In those days.] But not till good Jotham was laid up in peace.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Ahaz the son of Jotham.] Under this most wicked prince prophesied Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and Nahum, but with little good success, so incorrigibly flagitious were now all sorts grown.

Ver. 2. When he began to reign, ] i.e., Himself alone after his father’s death; in whose lifetime he had been designed to the kingdom, and then he was but twenty years old. Or, When he, that is, Jotham, began to reign. See the like, #2Ch 36:9.

And reigned sixteen years.] But had an ill life of it all the while, by reason of oppressions and miseries.

Ver. 3. But he walked in the way, &c.] He "did wickedly as he could," as if he had been "delivered to do all these abominations," as #Jer 7:10.

According to the abominations of the heathen.] Who offered their own flesh and blood in an idol’s fire. How gladly then should we offer to God our souls and bodies, which we may enjoy so much the more when they are his!

Ver. 4. And he sacrificed, &c.] He "did evil with both hands earnestly," {#Mic 7:3} as if afraid to be outdone by any other; he took long strides toward hell, which was but a little afore him, and did even gape for him.

Ver. 5. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah, &c.] After a former invasion of the land, and great spoil made, {#2Ch 28:5} these two confederate kings came up to Jerusalem, the chief city, which they had already devoured in their hopes, resolving to set up the son of Tabeal, some great man of Syria, for king. {#Isa 7:5,6}

And besieged Ahaz.] Who, with his people, was grievously frightened till confirmed by a sign, though most unworthy of such a favour. {#Isa 7:1,16}

But could not overcome him.] For they proved like two tails of smoking firebrands. {#Isa 7:4} They came into the country like thunder and lightning: but went out like a snuff.

Ver. 6. At that time.] When he came against Jerusalem.

Recovered Elath.] Josephus calleth it Aria by the Red Sea.

Ver. 7. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser.] God had offered him a sign for his better assurance, saying, Ask it either in the depth or height above. {#Isa 7:11,12} Here was a fair offer to a foul sinner; that where sin abounded, grace might superabound. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I try the Lord, q.d., I will ask no asks, I will try no signs; I know a trick worth two of that; let God keep his signs to himself: I crave no such courtesy at his hands, I can otherwise relieve myself by sending to the Assyrian.

Ver. 8. And sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.] Who being ambitious of a universal monarchy, was glad of the opportunity, when he saw the gold especially.

Ver. 9. And carried the people of it captive to Kir.] According to #Am 1:5. This Kir some will have to be that Cyrene mentioned in #Ac 2:10; others, Syromedia, which was so called from these Syrians translated thither, and Kir, that is a wall, because walled about, as it were, by the mountain Zagrus.

And slew Rezin.] And so the event of this war proved answerable to the king of Assyria’s ambition, to the king of Syria’s wickedness, and to the king of Judah’s desires; who yet enjoyed it not long; for he was afterwards distressed by the same king of Assyria who now relieved him. {#2Ch 28:20} So little is there got at length by such carnal combinations. It is better to trust in the Lord, &c. And here was an end of the kingdom of Damascus, as also of Hamath, {#Am 6:2} of Arpad, {#Jer 49:23 Isa 10:9 36:19 37:12,13} and other places not a few; all which were swallowed up in the greatness of the Assyrian empire, as itself is now—together with the most glorious empire of the Greeks, the renowned kingdoms of Macedonia, Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Judea, &c.—swallowed up in the greatness of the Turkish empire. As for this kingdom of Damascus, it had continued for ten generations, as Nicolaus Damascenus in Josephus {a} affirmeth; and as it began in Rezon, {#1Ki 11:23,24} so in Rezin it ended. The like is observed of the Greek empire: which as it began in Constantine the Great, so it determined in Constantine Paleologus.

{a} Lib. vii., Antiq., cap. 6.

Ver. 10. To meet Tiglathpileser.] As well to congratulate his victory, as further to ingratiate; but God crossed his expectation, {#2Ch 28:18,20,21,23} because he trusted in the arm of flesh, and hoped for help from the Syrian gods, who yet could not help their own proper servant, whom he worshipped to curry favour, likely, with Tiglathpileser.

And king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest.] Who was a fit handle for such a hatchet. He had been a maintainer of God’s true worship in the temple, and by the prophet Isaiah counted and called a faithful witness; {#Isa 8:1,2} but now he becometh an apostate, as Damascen turned Mohammedan, after that he had written against that execrable impiety, and Ahaz knew him, belike, to be but a temporiser.

Ver. 11. And Urijah the priest built an altar.] So in the year of grace 610, Pope Boniface IV, after that he had by the Emperor’s appointment placed in the Pantheon at Rome the Virgin Mary, instead of Cybele the mother of the gods, he further ordained the feast of All Saints.

Ver. 12. And the king approached to the altar.] Urijah suffering him so to do; whereas that zealous priest Azariah would not endure his grandfather Uzziah, a far better man, to offer sacrifice. {#2Ch 26:17,18}

Ver. 13. And he burnt his burnt offering.] Uzziah for so doing was smitten with leprosy; but Ahaz of a far worse disease, an incurable hardness of heart. So was Gardiner, Bonner, Pool, Stokesley, &c.

Ver. 14. And put it on the north side.] As it were, in a corner out of the way. {a}

{a} Quasi vicarium et precarium in angulo collocavit. -Vatab.

Ver. 15. Upon the great altar, ] i.e., The new Damascen altar, quantitate vel dignitate maiore.

And sprinkle upon it.] A type of the application of Christ’s blood; {#Heb 9:13,14} the abuse therefore was the greater.

And the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by.] Or, To see to: q.d., I will do with it as I see good. And Lyra saith that Ahaz afterwards made that famous dial of it. {#2Ki 20:11} See to the contrary, #2Ch 29:18,19.

Ver. 16. Thus did Urijah the priest.] A fawning parasite to that wicked king; and one of those qui sacerdotium in aucupium vertunt, principum mensas et cellaria obsident, et qui quaestus causa ad dominorum suorum fistulas saltant, accinentes illud, Mihi placet quicquid regi placet, { a} who will please the prince howsoever.

{a} Bucholc.

Ver. 17. And king Ahaz cut off the borders.] He took away both the ornaments and instruments of the true religion.

Ver. 18. And the covert for the Sabbath.] {a} Where the priests, who had served all the week before, reposed themselves on the Sabbath; and next day went home. This place was covered over to keep them from wind and weather. {#2Ch 28:24}

For the king of Assyria.] Either to make money for him, or to flatter with him, that he might appear profane enough, and alien from God’s true service; or for fear of his force, lest by that entry he should break into the palace.

{a} Musach quoque sabbati. -Vulg.

Ver. 19. Now the rest of the acts, &c.] See #1Ki 14:29.

Ver. 20. And Hezekiah his son.] A most pious prince, who standeth between his father Ahaz and his son Manasseh, as a rose betwixt two thistles, &c.

Chapter 17

Ver. 1. Began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign.] Heb., He reigned, sc., as an absolute king, and no longer a vassal or tributary to the king of Assyria as before. {a}

Over Israel nine years, ] viz., Four in the days of Ahaz, and five of Hezekiah.

{a} Vatab.

Ver. 2. But not as the kings of Israel that were before him.] For he suffered his subjects to go up to the passover celebrated by Hezekiah when he invited them, {#2Ch 30:11} and to worship the Lord as they thought meet. Sulpitius Severus therefore is out when he saith of Hoshea, Hic ultra omnes superiores reges impius, &c.; this king being wicked above all that went before him, procured to himself punishment from God, and to his nation perpetual captivity. For he was better than his predecessors, as here appeareth; and the iniquity of the people was now full. It is not the last sand that exhausteth the hour glass, nor the last stroke of the axe that felleth the tree; so here.

Ver. 3. Against him came up Shalmaneser.] Son to Tiglathpileser, and father to Sennacherib; not the same with Sennacherib, as Eusebius maketh him. Under this Shalmaneser Tobias was carried captive, and he seemeth to be the same with that Shalman {#Ho 10:14} who "spoiled Betharbel"—famous afterwards for the overthrow of Darius there—"in the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children."

Ver. 4. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, ] sc., With So, king of Egypt, to whom he had sent ambassadors, and afterwards denied to pay his yearly tribute, as #2Ki 17:3.

For he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt.] Jerome calleth him Sua; he seemeth to be the same with Sabicon the Ethiopian, {a} who had taken Bocchoris in battle, and reigned in Egypt eight years in his stead. Whence Chrysostom {b} saith that Hoshea was confederate with the Ethiopians; and Sulpitius {c} saith that he sent for help to the king of the Ethiopians, who then ruled over Egypt.

{a} African.

{b} In Johan., homil, xxx.

{c} Hist. Sac., lib. i.

Ver. 5. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land.] Like an overflowing flood; having first seized upon the country of the Moabites, that he might leave nothing behind him that might be to his prejudice, Ar and Kirharaseth being destroyed, as had been foretold three years before. See #Isa 16:1-14 cum notis Tremellii.

Ver. 6. And carried Israel away into Assyria.] Whither Tiglathpileser had before carried five of the tribes. {#1Ch 5:26} And this was the end of the Israelitish kingdom, after it had stood two hundred and fifty-four years; the time being now come of which the prophet Isaiah had spoken, saying, Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be wasted, so that he shall not be a people. This time began, say the Hebrews, in the twenty-fifth year of Uzziah, when their carrying away captive was first threatened by Amos.

And placed them in Halah and in Habor.] Which are in Media and Persia, saith Josephus; among the Colchians and Iberians, saith Scaliger; the Tartarians, saith Genebrard, where certain places are known still by the names of Dan, Nephthalim, and Zebulon, &c. The name also of Tartars, alias Tatari or Totari, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew word Tothar, which signifieth a residue or remnant. Iudicium sit penes lectorem.

Ver. 7. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned.] Their iniquity was their ruin. Out of Hosea and Amos their sins may be gathered; and especially their abominable idolatry, contempt of God’s prophets, and abuse of his benefits. Of the ruin of the Greek empire, the historian assigneth these for the chief causes:—first the innovation and change of their ancient religion, by Michael Paleologus, whereof ensued a world of woes: then covetousness, coloured with the name of good husbandry, the utter destruction of the chief strength of the empire. Next unto that, envy, the ruin of the great; false suspect, the looser of friends; ambition, honour’s overthrow; distrust, the great mind’s torment; and foreign aid, the empire’s unfaithful porter, opening the gate even to the enemy himself; whereunto foul discord joined, what wanted that the barbarous enemy could desire, for the helping of them in the supplanting of so great an empire! {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 178.

Ver. 8. And of the kings of Israel.] They made them kings, and those kings made statutes of their own devising, without God’s approbation, {#Mic 6:16} and the people loved to have it so.

Ver. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly.] Heb., They hid, or covered, or cloaked over what they did, {see #Eze 8:12} but all in vain; for God is all eye, and to him dark things appear, dumb things answer, silence itself maketh confession, as an ancient speaketh.

From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city, ] i.e., From one corner of the country to another: a proverbial speech.

Ver. 10. In every high hill.] Where they "poured forth their whoredoms," {#Eze 16:20-26} and "this had been their custom from their youth." {#Eze 23:8}

Ver. 11. To provoke the Lord to anger.] As if they had done all this expressly and on purpose.

Ver. 12. Whereof the Lord had said, Ye shall not.] But they did it the rather; taking occasion by the law, that their sin might appear to be exceeding sinful. {#Ro 7:13} Such is the canker of our vile natures, that the more God forbids a thing, the more we bid for it. Nitimur in vetitum semper petimusque negata.

Ver. 13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel.] He left not himself without witness; but them utterly without excuse.

Turn you from your evil ways.] This was the voice of all the prophets; as of Christ and his apostles, Repent, amend your lives, which is the same.

Ver. 14. But hardened their necks.] Adding to their sinews of iron (natural impudency), brows of brass, notorious impudency in sin. {#Isa 48:8}

Ver. 15. And they rejected his statutes.] With extreme contempt; Non unius tantum sed omnium quae caelestis sapientiae sunt, as one here glosseth.

And went after the heathen that were round about them.] A Lapide here complaineth, but without cause, that in like sort the neighbour kingdoms of Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, England, Scotland, &c., were infected with the Lutheran heresy—so he blasphemously calleth the truth according to godliness—from Saxony, by the means of heretical merchants especially.

Ver. 16. And they left all the commandments of God.] So they will soon do, who take liberty to leave any; for the whole law is but one copulative, as the schools speak.

All the host of heaven.] So the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars are called, for their (1.) number; (2.) order; (3.) obedience.

Ver. 17. And they caused their sons.] See on #2Ki 16:3.

And used divination.] Dealt with the devil.

Ver. 18. Removed them out of his sight.] That since they would not live by his laws, they should not live in his land, quippe qui moribus suis quam legibus uti mallent. {a}

{a} Val. Max.

Ver. 19. Also Judah.] Being the worse for Israel’s ill neighbourhood, {#Ho 4:14} and therefore the worse, because she should have been better by such a warning. {#Jer 3:8}

Ver. 20. And the Lord rejected.] Making them to become Loammi, and Loruhamah, according to #Ho 1:6,9.

And delivered them into the hand of spoilers.] So that when to leave their dear country, they cried out to the mountains to cover them, and to the hills to fall upon them, according to #Ho 10:8.

Ver. 21. For he rent Israel.] Or, Israel rent itself; and became miserable by their own election.

And Jeroboam drove Israel.] By fraud and by force. So seducers are said to "thrust men out of the way." {#De 13:5}

Ver. 22. Walked in the sins of Jeroboam.] And nothing would cure them of this leprosy, but captivity.

They departed not from them.] Nothing is more pertinacious than a strong corruption.

Ver. 23. Until the Lord removed.] See on #2Ki 17:18.

Unto this day.] Wrath is come upon them to the utmost, if not to the very end, as the Greek hath it. {#1Th 2:16}

Ver. 24. And the king of Assyria.] First Shalmaneser, as here, and then his grandson Esarhaddon. {#Ezr 4:2} These colonies were afterwards called Samaritans. {#Mt 10:5 Lu 9:52 Joh 4:4}

Ver. 25. That they feared not the Lord.] As he expected they should some way own him in a land which he was pleased to own. To do wickedly in a land of uprightness is a foul business. {#Isa 26:10}

Ver. 26. Know not the manner of the god of the land.] They foolishly thought that each land had its proper god, whenas both they and their posterity worshipped they knew not what; {#Joh 4:22} worshipped devils. {#Re 9:20}

Ver. 27. Carry thither one of the priests.] One of Jeroboam’s priests, for want of a better. Docendi munus suscipit quisquis ad sacerdotium accedit. An unteaching priest is a monster. {#2Ch 15:3}

Ver. 28. And taught them how they should fear the Lord.] Timore cultus, non culpae; fear him at least as the idolatrous Israelites did Servile fear materially is not evil, but formally and eventually, because joined with a hatred of him we fear, saith Ribera.

Ver. 29. Made gods of their own.] Goodly gods, that were made of men. Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. God made man after his own image, and men, to be even with him, will needs make gods after their image. See #Ro 1:23 2Co 8:5.

Every nation in the cities.] So each city had its own god, and lest they should miss of the right, they closed their petitions with that general Diique deaeque omnes; or, as Medics doth in the tragedy, O Deus quisquis es, vel in caelo vel in terra; O God, whoever thou art in heaven or earth. {a} But God requireth that we be at a better certainty. {#Heb 11:6 Mt 16:15}

{a} Servius in Georgic, lib. i.

Ver. 30. Succothbenoth.] This idol was made in the form of a hen hurking her chickens. Most of these names of heathenish deities are Syriac and Chaldee. Nergol significth a woodcock, or a rooster (roostcock); Asima, a goat or wolf; Nibhaz, a dog; Tartak, an ass. Adrammelech and Anammelech were idols made in the shape of a horse and a mule. See here #Ro 1:23 verified, and bless God who hath taught us better. Gildas saith that our forefathers were gross idolaters, and that their gods were portenta diabolica, poene numero Aegyptiaca vincentia, devilish fray-bugs (bogies), as many in number almost as those of Egypt.

Ver. 31. Made Nibhaz and Tartak.] A dog and an ass, as #2Ki 17:30. So the Africans worshipped a dog; the Persians, a cock; the Mendesians, a goat, &c. The people of the East Indies, in the isle Ceylon, having an ape’s tooth got from them which they had consecrated, offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it.

Ver. 32. So they feared the Lord.] They did, and they did not; {#2Ki 17:34} they feared him for his lions, as the old Romans served their Veioves, that they might not hurt them, and their gods Rubigus, Orbona, Febris, &c., for the same reason. {a} So the poor Indians do at this day worship the devil, that he may not whip them.

{a} Rosin., Ant., ii. 21.

Ver. 33. They feared the Lord.] Religione mixta et interimistica. See #2Ki 17:32.

And served their own gods.] So Redwald, the first king of the East Saxons that was baptized, had in the same church one altar for Christian religion, and another for sacrifice to devils. {a} The Papists do no less. {#Re 9:20} Neither doth their distinction of Latria and Dulia excuse them.

{a} Camden.

Ver. 34. They fear not the Lord.] Rightly they feared him not, because neither truly nor totally: their religion was a galimaufrey, a mixture of true and false, which is as good as none; for God will not part stakes with the devil at any hand. Such a religion is a mere irreligion, because contrary, (1.) To God’s law, which rejecteth heathen rites; {#2Ki 17:34,36,37,39,40} (2.) To God’s covenant, which heathens have nothing to do with. {#2Ki 17:33,38} The mongrel religion of the Samaritans was afterwards refined by Manasseh, a Jewish priest, that in Alexander’s time made a defection to them, and brought many Jews with him.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea.] Reckoning as #2Ki 17:1. {See Trapp on "2Ki 17:1"}

Ver. 2. Twenty and five years old was he, &c.] And therefore born in the eleventh year of his father Ahaz—who was twenty years old when he began, and reigned sixteen years. {#2Ki 16:2} A thing not impossible: Rehoboam was begotten by Solomon about the same age, as some do gather from #1Ki 14:21.

His mother’s name also was Abi.] A woman famous in those times, saith Vatablus, for her goodness. Her son Hezekiah was no sooner in the throne but he began to reform, so well she had principled him.

The daughter of Zachariah.] The king of Israel mentioned in #2Ki 14:29, say some; or more probably, of that Zachariah, the seer. {#2Ch 26:5}

Ver. 3. And he did that which was right.] See #1Ki 14:8.

Ver. 4. He removed the high places.] He neglected no time, but in the very first month of the first year of his reign he did great matters; {#2Ch 29:3} yea, the same day that he began to reign he spake to his Levites to purge the temple, which also they did. {a}

The brazen serpent that Moses had made.] Not for an object of worship, but for a means of cure, though some write that it is deadly for them that are stung with a serpent to look upon brass. God worketh oft by contraries, to show his power. This brazen serpent good Hezekiah brake in pieces when abused to idolatry, multis Iudaeorum frementibus et reclamantibus, to the great discontent of those idolaters, no doubt, and not without some danger to those that did it. We read in the life of our king Edward VI, {b} that as one Mr Body, a commissioner was pulling down images in Cornwall, he was suddenly stabbed into the body by a priest with a knife. Theodosius, the emperor, was so offended with the Antiochians, only for throwing down the brazen portraiture of his beloved wife Placilla, that he disprivileged the city, and intended to have burnt it. How hugely displeased, we may welt think, were the superstitious Jews, when they saw their gods thus dealt with!

The children of Israel did burn incense unto it.] Such was the venom of the Israelitish idolatry, that the brazen serpent stung worse than the fiery.

And he called it Nehushtan.] Aenulum, so Pagnine rendereth it; aeniculum, so Marinus—a poor paltry piece of brass, Haec dictio non minorein contemptum prae se fert quam Nescio quid, aut pulvisculum saith another learned man; a name of scorn and contempt, to shame such as had so doted upon it. {c} Anastasius Nicaenus out of Eusebius addeth further, that Hezekiah abolished certain books written by Solomon concerning the nature of plants, and all kinds of creatures, and concerning the cure of all kinds of diseases, because thought these the people sought medicines for their various maladies, and not of God. But of this there is nothing recorded in Scripture, neither is it very likely: Abusus non tolleret usum.

{a} Jerome, De Trad. Hebr.

{b} Sir John Heywood.

{c} Thesaurus lingua sancta per diminutionem aut contemptum.

Ver. 5. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel] His confidence was the cause of his courage—faith feareth no colours; his motto might have been that of the Roman emperor, Ut fiat iustitia ruat caelum; Heaven and earth will be blended together ere I will be wanting to the work of reformation. He had not his name for nought, but fully answered it; as also did Probus the emperor. Hezekiah signifieth, The Lord is my strength, {a} quasi hoc eius fuerit lemma et symbolum. Such another zealous reformer was good Josiah, who trusted in God, and took away the horses of the sun, with other mawmets and monuments of idolatry, never standing to cast perils. And such also was our English Josiah, king Edward VI: {b} witness his peremptory denial to grant the Lady Mary the free exercise of the mass—though boldly demanded by the emperor’s ambassador; his slighting of the emperor’s proud threats thereupon; and his stout answer to the rebels of Devonshire, which ran thus: Assure you most surely, that we of no earthly thing under heaven make such reputation as of this one, to have our law (for the putting down of Popery) obeyed, and this cause of God, which we have taken in hand, to be thoroughly maintained: from the which we will never remove one hair breadth, or give place to any creature living, much less to any subject: wherein we will spend our own royal person, our crown, treasure, realm, and all our state; whereof we assure you of our high honour. {c} And of the like temper was his sweet sister—Temperance, as he used to call her, -Fortitude, he might as well, -Queen Elizabeth: witness her reformations at home; her protecting the Netherlands against the Spaniard; her help extended to Henry King of Navarre, to Geneva, and other Protestant churches, &c.

So that after him was none like him, ] sc., Everything considered. Os. Nemo, id est, fore nemo: He outdid others in piety, as far as Omri and his son Ahab did in iniquity. {#1Ki 16:25,30}

{a} Fortitudo mea Dominus. -Pagnin.

{b} Sir John Heywood’s Life of Edward VI.

{c} Act. and Mon., 1189.

Ver. 6. For he clave to the Lord.] Indivulse: and this he knew to be his duty, from #De 4:4 10:20 Jos 23:8, sc., to embrace the Lord with faith and love: to adhere unto him as his head and husband, with all his heart and soul. He "departed not from following him," as it is here expounded, "but kept his commandments," the best proof of his love.

Ver. 7. And the Lord was with him.] The Lord is with all those that are with him. {#2Ch 15:3 Ezr 8:22}

And he prospered.] Or, He dealt prudently.

And he rebelled against the king of Assyria.] That is, He cast off his yoke, and refused to stand to his father’s wicked covenant. This the Assyrian counted and called rebellion.

Ver. 8. He smote the Philistines.] A warlike people, and therefore his glory was the greater: as Plutarch praiseth the Romans above Alexander, because he subdued Asiatics that were pusillanimous and effeminate; but these, the Germans, Spaniards, Britons, hardy and headstrong nations.

From the tower of the watchmen.] See #2Ki 17:9.

Ver. 9. In the fourth year, &c.] See on #2Ki 18:1.

That Shalmaneser, &c.] At which time Hezekiah sat in safety, and might keep a passover for his preservation. To teach us thus much it is, saith Pellican, that Israel’s ruin is here repeated.

Ver. 10. And at the end of three years.] See #2Ki 17:6.

Ver. 11. And the king of Assyria, &c.] See #2Ki 17:6.

Ver. 12. Because they obeyed not.] See #2Ki 17:7-17.

Ver. 13. Now in the fourteenth year, &c.] Not long after Hezekiah’s great sickness and signal recovery: whereupon he received that gracious promise, {#2Ki 20:6} "And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria," &c.

Did Sennacherib.] The son of Salmaneser, called by Herodotus king of the Assyrians and Arabians.

Come up against all the fenced cities.] After that he had invaded Egypt, and made foul work there: "leading away prisoners, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt." {#Isa 20:4}

And took them.] This great war with Hezekiah is set forth—as one well observeth—in manner of a comedy, having (1.) Its προθεσις in this and the three next following verses; (2.) Its επιτασις, containing four different acts, in this and the next chapter; (3.) Its καταστροφη: {#2Ki 19} where we have, 1: Solamen, comfort promised; 2. Levamen, help vouchsafed.

Ver. 14. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent.] This showed his weakness and pusillanimity. Had he still kept up his trust in God, this had never been done; but the best have their frailties, and the strongest faith may sometimes seem to fail; adeo nihil est in nobis magnum, quod non potest minui.

Return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear.] Hezekiah held it good policy to make his enemy a golden bridge to go over: so to be rid of him.

Ver. 15. And Hezekiah gave him.] See on #2Ki 18:14.

Ver. 16. At that time did Hezekiah cut off.] If Ahaz, that church robber, had done this, it would better have become him. Hezekiah for doing it lost his cost. {#2Ki 18:16}

Ver. 17. And the king of Assyria sent Tartan.] Notwithstanding that great present, worth two hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds: all of which this Cerberus swallowed, and yet was not satisfied; but demanded also the city to be delivered to him.

And Rabsaris and Rabshakeh.] Some think that these were names of office: for Rabsaris signifieth chief of the eunuchs, and Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers. That is an odd conceit of the Jewish doctors, that Rabshakeh was son to the prophet Isaiah, who fell from the true religion, and ran away to the Assyrians, by whom he was therefore now employed. {a}

By the conduit of the upper pool.] Whereof see also #Isa 7:3; as of the lower pool, #Isa 22:9.

{a} Jerome, De Tradit. Hebr.

Ver. 18. Eliakim…which was over the household.] In the place of false Shebna, who had been controller in Ahaz’s days, but was now made secretary, a place of honour, but less power, and not of so great pains; fitter therefore for a man now grown old. {#Isa 36:3} See Jun. on #Isa 22:15.

Ver. 19. Thus saith the great king.] An expression that savoureth of intolerable pride, and, as some think, uttered in way of deriding the prophets of Israel, who usually prefaced, Thus saith the Lord God. Hezekiah might well have replied, as afterward Agesilaus, king of Sparta, did upon a like occasion, Nemo me maior nisi qui iustior: or, as Seneca, Anime magno nihil magnum. But empty spirits affect swelling titles: the Grand Signor, for instance, and great John O’Neal.

Ver. 20. Thou sayest (but they are but vain words).] Heb., Words of the lips, i.e., frothy and fruitless, forasmuch as thou hast neither counsel nor strength for the war, but dost only word it, as Philip afterwards said the Athenians did. Some read the text not in a parenthesis, and thus paraphrase it: What can Hezekiah say to embolden him? What? I say, saith Hezekiah, I have words of my lips, that is, Prayer, prayer! Saith Rabshakeh: These are empty words, an airy nothing: for counsel and strength are for the war; but of these Hezekiah makes no reckoning, as thinking to do all by prayer, which I hold no better than prittle prattle.

Ver. 21. Now thou trustest upon the staff, &c.] This Hezekiah did not, that we read of: but Rabshakeh thought he would, as Hoshea had done before.

Ver. 22. But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God.] Thus he thinks to beat them off all their holds, that he may bring them to the bent of his bow. Satan doth the like: "whom resist steadfast in the faith."

Is not that he whose high places, &c.?] This Rabshakeh took for sacrilege and impiety: as Papists still do our Reformation, and rejection of their needless ceremonies and endless superstitions. Some infer from this text that Rabshakeh was no Jew; the Rabbis make him to be a renegade Jew, because he spake Hebrew.

Ver. 23. Give pledges.] Pignora certa. Tremellius rendereth it, Misce bellum, fight with my master, the king of Assyria, if thou darest. Lacessentis atque insultantis, verba.

If thou be able on thy part.] A bitter scoff, whereby he mocketh at Hezekiah’s boldness, being no better able.

Ver. 24. And put thy trust in Egypt.] See on #2Ki 18:21.

Ver. 25. Am I now come up without the Lord?] Without his secret impulse, as #2Sa 16:10. The villainous gunpowder plotters pretended that God set them to work to punish this sinful nation. So the Jesuits tell the people that the devil stirred up Luther: and that God sent forth them to oppose him.

Ver. 26. Speak, I pray thee, … in the Syrian language.] This was no wise motion: but they were frightened; and some think it was wicked Shebna rather than good Eliakim that made it, purposely to provoke Rabshakeh to rail the more, and to lay open that whereby the people might be moved to yield up the city.

Ver. 27. Hath he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall?] The soldiers and common sort, of whom your master and you take little care what extremities they undergo, as they are shortly sure to do by a long siege.

Ver. 28. Hear the word of the great king.] See on #2Ki 18:19.

Ver. 29. Let not Hezekiah deceive you.] He warneth them to beware of Hezekiah as an impostor, and to make sure work for themselves, by yielding up all to Sennacherib, and accepting of him for their liege lord.

Ver. 30. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord.] Of whom these pagans had the like base and bald conceits as they had of the dunghill deities of other countries. "But our God is in heaven," saith the psalmist; "he doeth whatsoever he willeth in heaven and in earth": and "those that trust in him shall never be confounded." "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men" or means.

Ver. 31. Make an agreement, &c.] Heb., Make with me a blessing. The Chaldee hath it, Pacem recipite, Accept of peace upon my terms.

Ver. 32. To a land like your own land.] Which was a land that God himself had "espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands." {#Eze 20:6} Sumen totius orbis, in quo saxa durissima mel et oleum sudabant {#De 32:13 Ex 3:17} This Rabshakeh here acknowledgeth, and is therein more ingenuous than Strabo the geographer ( strabus et pravus nimium), who traduceth Judea for dry and barren, nec satis dignam de qua magnopere pugnetur, not worth striving for. {a}

And hearken not unto Hezekiah.] This is a string that he much harpeth upon. It is our faith that Satan chiefly striketh at; {#Lu 22:32} hold fast this shield. {#Eph 6:16}

{a} Tacitus uber solum Iudaeis attribuit.

Ver. 33. Hath any of the gods of the nations.] These were no gods, and Hezekiah might better say than that heathen once did, Contemno minutulos istos deos, modo, Iovem (Iehovam) mihi propitium habeam; Let the Lord arise, and his enemies shall be scattered.

Ver. 34. Where are the gods?] Os ferreum! This is a most insolent insultation, and might well become an Aiax flagellifer, who knew no god but his own weapons.

Have they delivered?] i.e., Have the gods of Samaria?

Ver. 35. Who are they among all the gods?] See #2Ki 18:30.

Ver. 36. But the people held their peace.] They punished him with silence, as Isaac did Ishmael. Sile, et funestam dedisti plagam, saith Chrysostom. Silence is the best answer to words of scorn and petulancy, saith learned Hooker. Convitia spreta exolescunt, saith Tacitus. It is best to stop an open mouth with saying nothing, saith Basil. {a} "But I as a deaf man heard not: yea, I was as one dumb, in whose mouth there is no reproof." {#Ps 38:14} Princes use to punish the indecencies of ambassadors by denying them audience. Rabshakeh could not be more spited than with no answer. This sulphurous flask therefore dieth in his own smoke, only leaving a hateful stench behind it.

{a} Σιωπη τον ονειδον πνιγειν δει.—Bas., ep. 72.

Ver. 37. With their clothes rent.] To show how deeply they were affected with and offended at Rabshakeh’s blasphemies. Should not we be as much at the Ranters? See #Mt 26:65.

Chapter 19

Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it.] And a great deal more, against the Lord and himself, than is recorded in the former chapter. See #2Ch 32:16. It is easy to wag a wicked tongue; these dead dogs will be barking and blaspheming without measure, till God please to gag them. Hezekiah hasteth hereupon to God’s house, there to say, as Abisha once did to David, Why should these dead dogs curse my Lord the King of glory? As for Rabshakeh, he seems to say unto him, Sirrah, we will complain of you to one that shall shortly take you to task.

Ver. 2. And he sent Eliakim.] This good Josiah did not, when Pharaohnechoh came up against him—though he had at hand the famous prophets Jeremiah and Zephaniah, besides a whole college of seers—and hence he fell, and with him the whole state of Israel.

Ver. 3. For the children are come to the birth.] We are greatly pained and perplexed, our hearts do even ache and quake within us, at the hearing of these horrid blasphemies; but we want strength to punish them: we humbly put them into God’s holy hands, and beseech him to take an order with them, for which end thy prayers are requested. Or, We are now in extreme danger, and do therefore earnestly implore Heaven’s help at a dead lift.

Ver. 4. It may be.] We nothing doubt of it, but are well assured he will, for he is a jealous God, and thou canst do much with him. Be pleased to improve thine interest for us in this exigence.

Wherefore lift up thy prayer.] Pray to thine utmost; strive and strain, tug hard, and bestir thee all that may be. Prayer is a laborious exercise: and as a man that would be good at lifting must set his sides and shoulders to work, he must also often use himself to lifting; so here. This gets a dexterity, a handiness to the work.

Ver. 5. So the servants of Hezekiah came.] They came, and did their master’s message. Acta legatorum laconice uno verbo (venerunt) proponuntur.

Ver. 6. With which the servants.] Heb., The lads, younkers, or striplings: so they are called by way of contempt.

Have blasphemed me.] By railing upon thee, which is blasphemy in the second table; besides the deep dishonour they have done me, by matching me with their base born idols. {#2Ki 18:35}

Ver. 7. Behold, I will send a blast upon him.] A spirit, some render it. God "maketh his angels spirits." An evil messenger was sent against him, a spirit of trouble, a panic terror; a dreadful sound was in his ears, when his army was slaughtered by an angel.

He shall hear a rumour.] Rumours are not always to be credited, nor always to be condemned. What this rumour was, see #2Ki 19:9.

Ver. 8. So Rabshakeh returned.] But left his army, likely, still before Jerusalem.

That he was departed from Lachish.] Which he had taken; or, as some think, out of hope of taking it.

Ver. 9. Of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia.] A potent prince. See #2Ch 14:9. Strabo {a} called him Tearkon the Ethiopian; and further relateth out of Megasthenes, an old historian, that he passed into Europe, and advanced as far as to Hercules’s pillars.

King of Ethiopia.] Not of that Ethiopia, saith Drusius, which is above Egypt, and now the kingdom of the Abyssines, but of that which is part of Arabia, and is called Chusaea. The word here rendered Ethiopia is Cush.

Behold, he is come out to fight against thee.] Regnum Assyriorum invadit, saith Sulpitius, he invaded Assyria. Not so, saith Drusius, but he went to fight against Sennacherib, in favour of the Jews, while he lay before Libnah; or at least against Rabshakeh, who besieged Jerusalem.

He sent messengers.] And withal he gave them letters {#2Ki 19:14} to the same effect with his message; so eager was he upon Jerusalem, which yet he should never lick his lips with.

{a} Lib. i. cap. 15.

Ver. 10. Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee.] Sennacherib and Rabshakeh are both in a song. Reckon these two, saith an author, among the first and chiefest kill-Christs, because ever an honest mind is more afflicted with words than blows. {#Ps 12:3}

Ver. 11. Behold, thau hast heard.] See #2Ki 18:33-35.

To all lands, by destroying them utterly.] Not all, nor utterly neither; but the tongue, that little member, boasteth great things. {#Jas 3:5} He talketh here like some Pyrgopolynices or Therapontigonoplatagidorias in Plautus. {a}

{a} In Curcul.

Ver. 12. Have the gods of the nations, &c.] See on #2Ki 19:10.

Which my fathers have destroyed.] God was not in all this man’s thoughts. Hic Deus nihil fecit; but he should have known that he and his fathers or predecessors, those scourges of mankind, were but as rods in God’s hand, which, when worn to the stump, he cast into the fire.

Ver. 13. Where is the king of Hamath, &c.?] See #2Ki 18:33. Only there it is gods of those places, and here kings. The heathens commonly called their gods kings—as Φοιβε αναξ, βασιλευς ανδρων τε θεων τε, &c.—and they reckoned, that whatsoever their gods could do, their kings should be sure of. We have not so served the gods, said that Roman emperor, that they should serve us no better than to give the enemy the better of us. {a}

{a} Non sic deos coluimus, &c. -Antonin. Phil.

Ver. 14. And read it.] Heb., Them: and spread it. That which had the blasphemies in it: or, if it was all but one letter, he spread that part of it that was most reproachful to the just and jealous God.

Ver. 15. And Hezekiah prayed.] He made intercession to God against Sennacherib, as once Elias did against Israel, {#Ro 11:2} the Christian Church against Julian the apostate, and against Arius the heretic; whose death was precationis opus, non morbi, saith Socrates Scholasticus; {a} the effect of prayers, not of any disease.

Thou art the God.] "Thou," here, is emphatical and exclusive.

{a} Lib. i. cap. 15.

Ver. 16. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open thine eyes, &c.] This is to pray with utmost intention of spirit, and extension of speech; this is prayer with a force, such as prevaileth much with God. {#Jas 5:16} See the like in Daniel. {#Da 9:18,19}

Ver. 17. Of a truth, Lord.] See how this good king filleth his mouth with arguments, and learn to do the like when we come before the Lord in prayer.

Ver. 18. Wood and stone.] Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. What strange stupidity, therefore, was it to set up such! See #Isa 44:16,17.

Ver. 19. Save us out of his hand.] Hezekiah had a promise before; but he knew that he was to put it in suit, as here he doth very notably.

May know that thou art the Lord God.] It is the ingenuity of saints in all their desired and expected mercies, to study God’s ends more than their own. This is to come before God with a true heart. {#Heb 10:22}

Ver. 20. Then Isaiah the son of Amos.] God suffered him not to stay for an answer, but prevented his sending again to the prophet, by causing the prophet to send to him. So the angel Gabriel came with weariness of flight to praying Daniel. {#Da 9:23}

Which thou hast prayed unto me against Sen.] See #2Ki 19:15.

Ver. 21. The virgin, the daughter of Zion.] A weak virgin she may seem; but she hath a strong champion who will maintain her cause and quarrel, and hence it is that she thus outfaceth so formidable an enemy.

Ver. 22. Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high?] God is "jealous for Jerusalem with a great jealousy." {#Zec 1:14} He soon took notice of Cain’s frowns; {#Ge 4:6} Laban’s lowerings; {#Ge 31:2} Rabshakeh’s outcries here; those miscreants lolling out the tongue; {#Isa 57:3,4} their wagging the head at Christ on the cross. {#Mt 27:39}

Ver. 23. And hast said.] Not in so many words that we anywhere read of; but it is said, in #2Ch 32:16, that his messengers spake more than is expressed. Or, Thou hast said, that is, thou hast thought all this, and I will therefore justly punish thee and thine army wherein thou gloriest, and wherewith thou intendest to destroy Jerusalem and my temple there. Polybius, a heathen historian, could say that Antiochus came to an ill end, only for purposing to spoil the temple of Apollo at Delphos.

With the multitude of my chariots I am come up, &c.] We may say of this proud and arrogant speech, as the historian doth in a like case, No man could deliver so bad matter in better words and more quaint phrases.

Ver. 24. I have digged and drunk strange waters, ]{ a} i.e., Newly found waters, though thou hast endeavoured to stop from me and mine army the waters of the fountains. {#2Ch 32:3,4}

And with the sole of my feet.] Thrasonica hyperbole; he proudly boasteth of his numerous army, and that with the trampling of his horse and horsemen he could dry up the pools about Jerusalem.

{a} Nihil est mihi impossibile. -Vat.

Ver. 25. Hast thou not heard?] Here God himself taketh Sennacherib in hand, and schooleth him concerning the divine providence and decree whereby he was now sent against a "hypocritical nation, a people of God’s wrath, to take the spoil," &c. "Howbeit he meant not so, neither did his heart think so; but it was in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." {#Isa 10:6,7}

That thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities.] This is all done by my determinate counsel, ordering the world’s disorders to mine own glory, and the good of my people. Tamerlane was wont to say, Ira De; ego sum, et orbis vastitas. Attilas called himself Metum mundi et flagellum Dei. Sennacherib was God’s scourge, and the sword in his hand. {#Isa 10:5}

Ver. 26. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power.] Heb., Short of hand; helpless and shiftless, because I gave them up into thy power. It is God that strengtheneth or weakeneth the arms of either party in battle. {#Eze 30:24}

Ver. 27. But I know thine abode, &c.] Figurative terms taken from huntsmen, saith Diodate; the meaning is, I know all thy designs, and do overrule them.

Ver. 28. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult.] Such as was also that of the proud Spaniard in 1588, when, as learned Beza sang,

“ Straverat innumeris Iberus classibus aequor, &c.”

The seas were turreted with such a navy of ships, as her swelling waves could hardly be seen for their multitude, or heard for their tumult: the flags, streamers, and ensigns were so spread in the wind, that they seemed to darken even the sun, &c. These were all soon sunk and sent packing; which made the Zetlanders stamp a new coin, having on the one side the arms of their country with this inscription, Glory be to God alone; and on the other side the Spanish fleet with this motto, Venit, Vidit, Fugit, It came, it saw, it fled. The Hollanders also stamped new moneys with the Spanish fleet, having this word, Impius fugit nemine sequente, The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth him. Of the English there were not a hundred lacking, and but one small ship lost. Their impress was, the navy confounded, and in honour of the queen inscribed, Dux femina facti. {a}

Is come up into mine ears.] So were the Spanish brags of an invincible armada, and their confident triumph before the victory, vainly and falsely printed by Don Bernardin Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in France in that time. {b}

Therefore I will put my hook into thy nose, &c.] I will tame thee, and take thee a link lower, as they say, leading thee by the nose to the slaughter house, as they do the wild ox and other fierce creatures.

And my bridle in thy lips.] As men deal by sturdy steeds.

And I will turn thee back by the way, &c.] So in 1588 God did not those Spaniards the honour to return the same way; who, coming by southeast, a way they knew, went back by south-west, a way they sought; chased by our ships past the fifth degree of northern latitude, then and there to be pursued after by hunger and cold; and to fall into the hands of the wild Irish, and others more savage and barbarous than they.

{a} Speed. Carleton.

{b} Camden’s Elisab.

Ver. 29. Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves.] Saphiach, hoc est, sponte nature; and in the second year, Sachish, i.e., sponte renatum, that which springeth of the same, haply increasing the more, because it had been so beaten down the year before by the Assyrian army. God’s plenty in the land, notwithstanding the sabbatical year, the fifteenth jubilee, say some, and the enemy’s abode and waste there made, should be a sign for confirmation of the truth of God’s promise.

Ver. 30. And the remnant that is escaped, ] sc., From the sword of the Assyrian, which had devoured much flesh, and drunk much blood amongst them.

Ver. 31. And out of Jerusalem shall go forth.] Those that are now cooped and pent up in the besieged city, shall freely and fearlessly walk whither they please.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.] Nimius amor, the very much love, the free grace of our good God shall effect it, and not their own merits, as Lyra well noteth. {a}

{a} O nimium dilecte Deo. -Vat.

Ver. 32. He shall not come into this city.] Because dear to God, who had appointed salvation for walls and bulwarks. {#Isa 26:1} Semblably, of all that huge fleet three years a-rigging and furnishing, not one Spaniard set foot on English ground, but under the notion of a prisoner. See on #2Ki 19:28.

Nor shoot an arrow there, &c.] See #Ps 48:12. {See Trapp on "Ps 48:12"}

Ver. 33. By the way that he came, &c.] See on #2Ki 19:28.

Ver. 34. For I will defend this city.] I will cover it as with a shield, -so the word signifieth see #2Ki 19:32, -I will fence and protect it. The like God hath done for Geneva, a small city besieged with enemies, and barred out from aid of friends. It had long since been undone, saith one, but because it had so many enemies to undo it; rather because it had so gracious and powerful a God to defend this city, to save it.

For mine own sake.] That my power and care of my people may appear to all.

And for my servant David’s sake.] To whom I passed my word, and wilt keep it. Here A Lapide hath a good note out of Glycas, and commendeth it; Optime Glycas, Haec verba, inquit, ita divinitus prolata sunt, &c. {a} These words are thus uttered by God, lest Hezekiah should think that his prayer was heard for his own righteousness’ sake.

{a} innal., par. 2, citat, in Glossa.

Ver. 35. That night.] When the Assyrians were fitting themselves to assault Jerusalem, when in their conceits and hopes they had already devoured it, and were even fetching their blow at all the Jews at once, as if they had all had but one neck to cut off.

That the angel of the Lord.] One of God’s mighties. {#Isa 10:34}

Went out, and smote.] By a plague, as #2Sa 24:16; the Hebrews say, by a fire burning in their breasts and stifling them; and that Sennacherib himself hardly escaped, having his head and beard singed, according to #Isa 33:11,12. Sure it is that his leaders and chief captains were cut off, {#2Ch 32:21} and Rabshakeh, likely, among, if not above the rest, for his abominable blasphemies against the God of Israel.

A hundred fourscore and five thousand.] By a like dreadful hand of God, fifty-two thousand men of Heraclius the Greek Emperor’s army were found dead in one night, without any apparent executioner, after that he had turned Monothelite, and incestuously married Martius, his own brother’s daughter, making a law that others might do the like, Anno Christi 610. Herodotus in his second book relates of Sennacherib’s defeat and death, something like this here related: but, either through ignorance of the full truth, or else by the instigation of the devil, to elude and impair the credit of the holy Scriptures, he applieth that to Sethon king of Egypt and priest of Vulcan, which properly belongeth to Hezekiah king of Judah, servant and favourite of the true God. Diabolus operum Dei Mimus est, et Momus.

And when they arose, &c.] Such as escaped and survived. The Vulgate hath it, When he (Sennacherib) arose in the morning, he saw. It is said of Heraclius, that upon that sad sight of his soldiers, so slain as above, he presently fell sick and died: though others write that his incest was punished with a strange priapism, which, together with a dropsy, ended his days

Ver. 36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed.] Being glad he had escaped with the skin of his teeth, with the safeguard of his life. But his preservation was but a reservation only; and the rather, because he ascribed it to Nisroch his tutelar god, worshipping him still, notwithstanding his army’s overthrow.

And dwelt at Nineveh.] Where he had not lived fifty-five days before he was butchered, saith Tobit; {#/APC Tob 1:21} who also telleth us, {#/APC Tob 1:18} that at his return he in a rage slew many of the Israelites in Nineveh. The like whereunto we read of Selymus II, that in revenge of his loss at the battle of Lepanto, he would have put to death all the Christians in his dominions, and did many.

Ver. 37. In the house of Nisroch his god.] Jupiter Belus haply, whom Sennacherib worshipped under this name, which signifieth Tender to those that flee and escape out of battle.

That Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him.] Upon what discontent, is uncertain. Some say, because he preferred their younger brother Esarhaddon to the kingdom; others, because he vowed to sacrifice these his two sons, in imitation of Abraham’s sacrificing his Isaac, and purchasing thereby God’s favour and protection to his progeny, &c. {a}

{a} Castalio.

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. In those days.] In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, as appeareth by comparing #2Ki 20:6, and #2Ki 18:13; then, when Hannibal ad portas, the Assyrian was in the land. Crosses commonly come thick and many together, {#Jas 1:2} and all for the best. {#Ro 8:28}

Was Hezekiah sick unto death.] Sick of the plague, as it is thought, and may be probably gathered from #2Ki 20:7, and had the tokens likely; so that in human apprehension he was a dead man, neither could he recover but by a miracle. A good man may have the plague, and die of it too—as did Oecolampadius, Franeiscus Junius, Chimedontius, Mr Stafford, Mr Greenham, Mr John Blackwell (my most loving friend), and Mr Jeremy Burroughs, if I mistake not—notwithstanding that patent for preservation, #Ps 91:1. All such promises being conditional, as was also this following sentence; and so Hezekiah understood it; else he would not have prayed, as he did, that it might not be accomplished.

For thou shalt die, and not live.] That is, In the order of second causes to their effects, thy disease is deadly, for it hath seized upon the vitals: dispositio corporis tui ad mortem ordinatur. When the prophets foretold things ut futura in seipsis, then they always happened: but when they foretold them only as in their causes, they might happen or not, as #1Ki 21:20 Jon 3:4, and here. That is an uncharitable gloss that some Rabbis set upon these words, Thou shalt die here, and not live in the world to come. But they have an edge against him, yet without all cause, as intent only to his own preservation for his time in peace, {#2Ki 20:19} and therefore say they, the prophet Isaiah out of a dislike of that his answer, turneth to the people, {#Isa 40:1,39:8} saying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," &c.

Ver. 2. Then he turned his face to the wall.] Not so much out of fear of death, -though nature at death will have a bout with the best; and to die actively is not every man’s happiness; quis enim vult mori? prorsus nemo, saith one; death in itself is nature’s slaughter-man, hell’s harbinger, &c., -{a} nor at all because he was uncertain whither he should go when he died, as Jerome would have it: but Isaiah’s message of death was so harsh and heavy to him, because he had then died without issue, as appeareth in that Manasseh was but twelve years old at his father’s death.

{a} φοβερωτατον ο θανατος, περας γαρ.—Arist., Ethic., lib. iii. cap. 6.

Ver. 3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now.] Obsecro Domine, memento quaeso. Words full of incitation. The first word Ana—affectum significat et impetum -is very affectionate and forcible.

How I have walked before thee.] Indesinenter ambulavi, I have constantly walked before thee, and not by fits, or for a few turns. One interpreter noteth that the word here used signifieth, I have made myself to walk; implying his own dulness, sluggishness, averseness to that duty.

In truth, and with a perfect heart, ] i.e., In sincerity and integrity. Uprightness hath boldness; Subeo bona (per gratiam Dei) conscientia tribunal Christi, said dying Oeeolampadius, I go before Christ’s tribunal with a good conscience. This is my comfort, said Mr Deering, that I have faithfully served my Lord God, and with an upright conscience. I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, said another saint. Let him fear death who is passing from this death to the second death. {a}

And have done that which is good.] For matter, manner, and motive. I have known, said a worthy doctor, {b} now with God, some godly men, whose comfort upon their deathbeds hath been, not from the inward acts of their mind—which apart considered, might be subject to misapprehensions, —- but from the course of obedience in their lives issuing therehence.

And Hezekiah wept sore.] Heb., With a great weeping. See on #2Ki 20:2. Now if the message of death made this good man weep sore, and the approach of it was mar mar, bitter bitterness, {#Isa 38:17} what marvel if such a one as Saul swoon quite away at it, and fall to the earth in his full length, as in #1Sa 28:20? Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as the hawk to the partridge; or as a serpent’s skin, though but stuffed with straw. To the wicked, death is a trap door to hell: they may say of it, as once Elisha did, {#2Ki 6:32} Behold, the murderer is at hand; and is not the sound of his master’s feet—the devil—behind him? hence their loath to depart, &c. But why should a saint be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his father’s horse, to carry him to his father’s house, or as Joseph’s chariot rattling with its wheels, to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?

{a} Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit. -Cyprian.

{b} Church’s Carriage, by Dr Preston.

Ver. 4. Before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court.] So the Chetib. Or, Into the middle of the city; so the Cheri, or margin, hath it. It is probable that the king’s court was like a city. The Turk’s seraglio or palace is in circuit more than two miles. Before Isaiah was gone out into the court within the porch, {#1Ki 7:8} he was sent again with this countermand. Oh, the power of prayer!

“ Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus.”

Ver. 5. The captain of my people, ] Antecessor. See on #1Sa 9:16.

The God of David.] To whom I promised a continued succession on the throne of Judah; and will therefore lengthen thy life, and give thee a son.

To the house of the Lord.] Hezekiah’s both duty and disposition, as a right son of David, whose song was, "I shall yet praise him in his holy temple, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

Ver. 6. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years.] Thus God’s grant to Hezekiah’s prayer was not more speedy than bountiful. We are wont to reckon seven years for the life of a man, and now, behold, more than two lives hath God added to the age of Hezekiah. This also he did for him, notwithstanding those flaws in his prayer, those distrustful I said’s, {#Isa 38:10,11, &c.} and albeit he foresaw that Hezekiah would "not render again according to the benefit done unto him." {#2Ch 32:25}

And I will deliver thee and this city.] Thus God is better to his people than their prayers; he doth for them "exceeding abundantly above all that they ask or think." {#Eph 3:20} Piscator here hence concludeth that Hezekiah began to be sick presently after the promise made of sending away the Assyrian out of the land. {#2Ki 19:32}

And for my servant David’s sake, ] i.e., For my promise’s sake made to David. See on #2Ki 20:5.

Ver. 7. Take a lump of figs.] This poultice was fit enough for the carbuncle, but yet could never have cured him so soon without a miracle. See on #2Ki 20:1.

And he recovered.] Non ex facultate ficuum, sed ex Dei verbo, saith Junius: By a supernatural virtue added to the figs, which else could not have wrought the cure.

Ver. 8. And Hezekiah said.] Dixerat autem, He had said; sc., before the plaster was laid upon the boil.

What shall be the sign? &c.] That he should have a sign, he doubted, as his father Ahaz had, though unworthy. {#Isa 7:10-14} See on #Jud 6:17,37.

And that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day.] He maketh the utmost of the promise, as had done before him Jacob, {#Ge 32:9:11} and David. {#1Ch 17:23-26} This is to suck and be satisfied. {#Isa 66:11}

Ver. 9. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees?] This was in God Almighty stupenda dignatio, a wonderful condescension, thus to gratify a mortal man—stooping so low to his meanness. If Hezekiah were—-as the Rabbis say he was—studious of the mathematics, how suitable was this sign! These degrees were half-hours, or quarters, or haply less. The shadow was that of the style of a sundial. Neither did the shadow only go backward, but the sun itself ran retrograde, {#Isa 38:8} whereof the Rabbis give this foolish reason, that when wicked Ahaz was buried, the sun hastened faster than ordinary to his setting, that there might be no time for funeral rites, to recompense which loss of time then, the day was thus prolonged now. Those ancients do better, who, allegorising the text, tell us that sick Hezekiah signifieth all mankind as sick of sin; but this is an infallible sign of the saint’s recovery, that the sun hath gone ten degrees back in the dial. The Sun of righteousness Jesus Christ, hath for our sakes made himself lower by many degrees in the earth. "My Father is greater than I": there he is gone back ten degrees below his Father. "Thou hast made him lower than the angels": there he is gone back ten degrees below the angels. "I am a worm, and no man": there he has gone back ten degrees below men. "A live dog is better than a dead lion": there he has gone back ten degrees below worms: for he was not counted so good as a live worm, but was buried in the earth, as a dead lion, to be meat for the worms, if it had been possible for "his holy One to see corruption."

Ver. 10. It is a light thing, ] viz., In comparison of the sun’s retrogradation, wherein both the substance of the thing and the manner were wholly miraculous, whether it were done in an instant, or in the set course of time, or its ordinary continual motion. See on #2Ki 20:9.

Ver. 11. And he brought the shadow.] Together with the body of the sun. This was the prodigy that the Babylonish ambassadors had observed and came to inquire of. {#2Ch 32:31} The sun—which was their god—had honoured Hezekiah; therefore they were sent to honour him too with a visit and a present. And should not we therefore honour the saints whom Christ hath so honoured? {a} See on #2Ki 20:9.

Ten degrees backward.] Ten degrees, that is, five hours, as the most hold; so that that day was seventeen hours long, not twenty-two, as Junius will have it.

In the dial of Ahaz.] A famous dial, haply mural, and visible to Hezekiah out of his bedchamber.

{a} Abulens.

Ver. 12. At that time Berodach-baladan.] {a} Baladan signifieth a lordless or masterless man, saith Pagnine. This Berodach—or Merodach {#Isa 39:1} -Baladan is thought to be the first Babylonian monarch, after that he had first rebelled against Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and then afterwards slain him. Hence we read no more in Scripture of the kings of Assyria, but of Babylon.

Sent letters with a present.] A rich and royal one, no doubt, according to the state of him who sent it, but whether comparable to that of King Ferdinand, sent to Solyman the Turk, I cannot tell—viz., a wonderful globe of silver of most rare and curious device, daily expressing the hourly passing of the time and the motions of the planets, the change and full of the moon, &c., ever moving by certain wheels and weights curiously conveyed within the same, and exactly keeping due time and motion. {b} Such a present would have been most welcome to good Hezekiah, especially if he were a mathematician, as the Rabbis make him, telling us that he restored the year by the intercalation of a day every third year, in the month Adar, which answereth to our February.

{a} Baladan, sine domino.

{b} Turk. Hist., 713.

Ver. 13. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them.] Ad quos intentus, Ezechiah? He was taken and tickled with their company and courtship, gratifying them in that they came about, and proud of the honour they had done him. {#2Ch 32:25,31} As there be white teeth in the blackest blackamoor, so there is a black bill in the whitest swan—a rotten kernel or two in the fairest pomegranate, &c.

And showed them the house of his precious things.] Superbe simul et stulte. This was proudly and foolishly done; for now gold thirsty Babylon knew where to have her draught, where to fetch a fat and fit booty. By the imperial law {a} of the Romans, the exporting of wine, oil, and other delicious liquors was flatly forbidden, and this reason given, Ne Barbare gustu illecti promptius invaderent fines Romanorum, Lest the barbarians tasting thereof, should be the rather drawn thereby to invade the Roman empire, as the Gauls did when once they had tasted of the grapes that grew in Italy. {b} Of the Chinese it is reported that they suffer not any foreigner to come into the heart of their kingdom, but only to trade with them on the seacoasts. It was doubtless impoliticly done at best by Hezekiah, to show these strangers his wealth and treasure: yea, it was sinfully done of him—had his storehouse been as rich as the earth—to be lifted up with those heavy metals. {c}

The silver and the gold.] Which he had partly by the spoil of Sennacherib’s camp, and partly by the many gifts brought by all nations unto him, as the world’s wonder for the sun’s going backward for his sake.

And the spices.] Galen {d} writeth that in his time cinnamon was very rare and hard to be found, except in the storehouses of great princes.

{a} Leg. l.

{b} Plutarch, in Camillo.

{c} Boter., in Catalog. Imper.

{d} Lib. i. Antidot.

Ver. 14. What said these men? &c.] Very wisely doth the prophet fetch about the business, that he may prick the bladder, and let out the pride, that now lay festering in Hezekiah’s heart.

Even from Babylon.] Which is said to be six hundred and eighty miles from Jerusalem.

Ver. 15. All the things, &c.] See on #2Ki 20:13.

Ver. 16. Hear the word of the Lord.] Divine truths must be spoken, however they be taken.

Ver. 17. That all that is in thine house.] So that thou hast made a fair hand of all, forfeited all by thine ostentation, ambition, and creature confidence.

Ver. 18. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee.] A heavy judgment on so good a man, on so light an offence, as some would think. But these spiritual lusts, as pride, carnal confidence, self-flattery, presumption, &c., in the saints, are great provocations, as lying more up in the heart of the country. Let us be wise by others’ woes; setting a memorandum on God’s punishments, and marking his spits with our stars.

Ver. 19. Good is the word of the Lord, &c., ] i.e., It is just and equal; and blessed be God that it is no worse. Quintilian saith of Vespasian, that he was patientissimus veri, one that could endure to be freely and faithfully dealt with. Theodosius honoured Ambrose, and our Henry VIII father Latimer, the more for their plain dealing. So did David the prophet Nathan, and Hezekiah the prophet Isaiah, not raging at his so sharp a message, but patiently receiving it; judging himself, and justifying God. Good men are neither waspish nor sullen, when they are either chid or beaten by "the father of their spirits"; but patiently hold their backs to the stripes of a displeased mercy.

And he said, Is it not good? &c.] Is it not a mercy that I may escape that which my posterity shall suffer? He thankfully acknowledgeth a mixture, and that the judgment now denounced was not "an evil, an only evil," as #Eze 7:5.

Ver. 20. How he made a pool and a conduit.] Of these, see #2Ki 18:17 Ne 3:15 2Ch 32:4,30.

Ver. 21. And Hezekiah slept, &c.] He was most honourably buried, {#2Ch 32:33} placed above all the house of David, as he exceeded them all in virtue.

And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.] A degenerate plant of so noble a vine. Heroum filii noxae. Sic Caligula fuit optimi viri Germanici filius; sic Antonini, Commodus ille bipedum nequissimus.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. Manasseh was twelve years old.] He was born three years after his father’s great recovery, {#2Ki 20:6} and about twenty-four years after the ruin of the kingdom of Israel, {#2Ki 18:2,10} till at length Ephraim was utterly broken from being a people; {#Isa 7:8 Ezr 4:2,10} much about the time that Manasseh was taken among the thorns, and carried captive to Babylon. {#2Ch 33:11}

And reigned.] Hence some conclude that he was not long a prisoner, because no reckoning is made of his captivity, but he is said nevertheless to have reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

Fifty and five years.] This is the longest reign we read of in the holy history. Length of days is no true rule of God’s favour.

And his mother’s name was Hephzibah.] {a} Who was daughter to the prophet Isaiah, say the Hebrews; but that is uncertain. She was a good woman, likely, because Hezekiah’s wife: and therefore Manasseh’s sin was the greater, because he came of so godly parents.

{a} See #Isa 62:4.

Ver. 2. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.] Drawn thereunto, likely, by his young courtiers and evil counsellors: as young lapwings are apt to be snatched up by every buzzard. Little did good Hezekiah—when he was so loath to die because he had no son to succeed him—think, what a son he should leave behind him. The Rabbis fable, that Isaiah, coming on a time to visit Hezekiah, told him that his son Manasseh there present should prove a great persecutor of the prophets, and of himself in particular: and that hereupon Hezekiah would have slain Manasseh, but that the prophet held and hindered him.

Ver. 3. He built up again the high places, &c.] Which he, perhaps, was persuaded to believe to be the old religion, and therefore by all means to be restored. The Papist’s plea: τα γαρ καινα κενα..

And he reared up altars for Baal.] Like his grandfather Ahaz, {#2Ch 28:2} into whom Manasseh degenerateth; as if there had been no intervention of a Hezekiah. So we have seen the kernel of a well-fruited plant degenerate into that crab or willow which gave the original to his stock.

And made a grove.] Ahab-like, from whom, by wicked Athaliah, he was lineally descended. Sic partus sequitur ventrem.

And worshipped all the host of heaven.] Forgetting what had been done for his father by that host, when the sun, for his sake, went ten degrees backward: and so making good the import of his name Manasseh, which signifieth Forgetfulness.

Ver. 4. And he built altars in the house of the Lord.] Ahaz-like. {#2Ki 16:18} See on #2Ki 21:3.

Ver. 5. In the two courts of the house of the Lord.] Both in the priests’ court, and in the people’s also, poured he forth his whoredoms: as being acted and agitated by a spirit of fornication, an impetus to idolatry. He was worse than his contemporary Numa, king of Romans, who filled the people’s heads with all sorts of superstitions, and so increased the number of the gods, that he left no room for himself to be placed amongst them, as Augustine saith wittily. {a}

{a} De Civ. Dei, lib. xviii, cap. 24.

Ver. 6. And he made his son to pass through the fire.] Yea, more than one of his children. {#2Ch 21:6} See #2Ki 16:3.

And observed times.] Vacabat arti ariolandi et auguriis, he was both a soothsayer and a sorcerer. By the position of stars and flying of birds, he took upon him to divine and to foretell future contingents. {a}

And dealt with familiar spirits.] He ordained that there should always be somebody possessed with such a kind of spirit as should give answers instead of an oracle.

To provoke him to anger.] Deliberately, as it were, and on set purpose, to vex the Lord.

{a} Diod.

Ver. 7. And he set a graven image of the grove, &c:] An image with a carved grove about it, {#2Ki 23:6} that not God in the temple, but the devil in the grove, might there be worshipped.

Ver. 8. According to all that I have commanded them, ] viz., In the moral law: of which God might say, as once Joseph did to his brethren in another case, "Behold, your eyes see that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you," {#Ge 45:12} and as Paul to Philemon, {#Phm 1:19} "I," the Lord, "have written it with mine own hand."

And according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded.] The ceremonial and judicial laws.

Ver. 9. But they hearkened not.] Nothing is more stupid than idolaters; they have ears but hear not, &c.

To do more evil than did the nations.] Whom they out-sinned: and were therefore worse than heathens, because they should have been better.

Ver. 10. And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets.] Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Micah, &c, one or other of whom Manasseh martyred every day, saith Josephus. {a} Isaiah he sawed asunder with a wooden saw, &c.

{a} Lib. x. cap. 4.

Ver. 11. Above all that the Amorites did.] Noluit solita peccare, et puduit eum non esse impudentem. {a} Such a profligate wicked person was Julian the apostate called by some Idolian: and Pope John XII, of whom Luitprand writeth that he ordained ministers in a stable, drank a health to the devil, called to Jove, Venus, and other heathen deities for help at his dice playing, died in his harlot’s embracings, being struck to death by the devil, &c. {b}

{a} Senec.

{b} Basil., lib. vi cap. 7.

Ver. 12. Therefore thus saith the Lord.] God loveth to signify beforehand, saith the historian, and he therefore threateneth that he may not punish, saith a father.

Both his ears shall tingle.] He shall fall into a swoon through horror and dolor. See #1Sa 3:11.

Ver. 13. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line.] A metaphor from carpenters, who with line and plummet do use to measure and mark out the wood that they intend to hew off or plane. See #Isa 34:11.

I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish.] Gabatam, a porridge dish, Simili ab arte magirica. Well might God say, "I have also spoken by the prophets, I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets." {#Ho 12:10}

Wiping it, and turning it upside down.] So I "overturn, overturn, overturn" this whole state. {#Eze 21:27}

Ver. 14. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance.] Which is now unto me "as a speckled bird: the birds round about are against her," &c. {#Jer 12:9}

And deliver them into the hand of their enemies.] When God once forsaketh a people, all evils come rushing in upon them, as by a sluice. Saul’s doleful complaint was, "God hath forsaken me, and the Philistines are upon me." {#1Sa 28:15} See #Ho 9:12. {See Trapp on "Ho 9:12"}

Ver. 15. Since the day that their fathers, &c.] This hath been their custom from their youth. See it all along {#Eze 20}

Ver. 16. Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much.] This tiger laid hold with his teeth on all the excellent spirits of his time, as one {a} well saith of Tiberius Stimulatus est ab insurgente diabolo, saith an ancient, He was spurred on by that old man-slayer the devil, to murder the prophets and other godly people that disliked his sinful courses. Epiphanius saith that the prophet Isaiah suffered death under him; and the Rabbis tell us why: sc., because (1.) He said he had seen the Lord upon his throne; {#Isa 6:1} and, (2.) Because he called the great ones of Judah princes of Sodom and rulers of Gomorrah. {#Isa 1:10} {b} More likely it was for his bold inveighing against the sins of both the king and people, calling them {as #Isa 57:3} witches’ children, and a bastardly brood; as "Esaias was very bold," saith St Paul. {#Ro 10:20}

Till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.] A metaphor from vessels brim full: or from a flood that overfloweth all. And now "how was the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment," sc., in good Hezekiah’s days "righteonsness lodged in it, but now murderers," Manasseh and his bloody assassins. {#Isa 1:21}

Besides his sin.] His idolatry, whereto he first persuaded the people, and afterwards compelled them: so did Julian.

{a} Author imperfecti operis Hom. i. in Mat.

{b} Jerome, in Isa. i.

Ver. 17. And his sin that he sinned.] Those prodigies of sins afore mentioned, and hardly to be matched in any man, unless it were Nero, that bloody monster: after all which, Manasseh is a convert. Affliction tamed this wild ass, and stopped him in his career; yea, brought him home to God. The viper, when he is lashed, casteth up his poison; the traitor, when he is racked, telleth the truth, which else he had never uttered, &c.

Ver. 18. And was buried in the garden of his own house.] By his own appointment likely, in his last will and testament, {a} as holding himself unworthy, for his former abominations, to be buried in the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. This holy "indignation" and "revenge" is that poor piece of satisfaction which we can give to divine justice. The old interpreter {b} rendereth απολογιαν, {#2Co 7:11} satisfaction. It may be he meant, saith Mr Bradford, martyr, a new life, to make amends thereby to the congregation offended.

In the garden of Uzzah.] That had formerly belonged to Uzzah, or that was planted in the place where Uzzah was smitten for touching the ark. {#2Sa 6:7} Some think that Uzzah is here put for Uzziah, that leprous king, who was here buried, {#2Ch 26:23} and Manasseh would be buried with him.

{a} Ex testamento ut credibile est, &c. -Jun.

{b} Serm. of Rep., p. 14.

Ver. 19. And he reigned two years in Jerusalem.] He was soon cut off for his great wickedness. Some grievous sinners God soon punisheth, lest his providence—but not all, lest his patience and promise of judgment—should be called into question. {a} Glycas saith that Amon hardened himself in sin by his father’s example, who took his swing in sin, and yet at length repented. So, thought he, will I do; wherefore he was soon sent out of the world for his presumption, dying in his sins, as #2Ch 33:23.

{a} August.

Ver. 20. As his father Manasseh did.] He imitated him in his sins, but not in his repentance. I have sinned with Peter, but not repented with Peter, said Stephen Gardiner, dying in despair. Amon humbled not himself as his father did, but increased the guilt. {#2Ch 33:23} The Hebrews say that unto all other his sins he added this, that he burnt the books of the law.

Ver. 21. And served the idols.] It was a fault in Manasseh that he had not burnt them.

Ver. 22. And he forsook the Lord.] Though he had been better taught by his father, who had repented, likely, before Amon was born.

Ver. 23. And the servants of Amon conspired.] Probably these had corrupted him as another Joash. {#2Ki 12:20,21}

Ver. 24. Made Josiah…king.] This was a blessed change; Josiah came as a fresh spring after a sharp winter.

Ver. 26. And he was buried.] But not lamented, as his son Josiah afterwards was by all the people.

Chapter 22

Ver. 1. Josiah was eight years old.] Josiah he was called by God two or three hundred years before he was born. {#1Ki 13:2} His name signifieth, The salvation of God: and he answered his name better than did Probus the emperor; of whom, notwithstanding, the historian saith, {a} that if Honest had not been his name, yet it might well have been his surname. Some say, but not so well, that he was called Josiah, q., Jah-scai, that is, the gift of God, or, q., Jah-esch, that is, the fire of God, sc., for his zeal, which is called the flame of God. {#So 8:6}

And his mother’s name was Jedidah, ] i.e., The Lord’s darling, as his grandmother’s name was Hephzibah; {#2Ki 21:1} a couple of good women likely, doing the same for Josiah as afterward Eunice and Lois did for young Timothy.

{a} Fla. Vopis.

Ver. 2. And he did that which was right.] Helped on, no doubt, by the holy prophets of his time, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Huldah, &c.; as was our English Josiah, Edward VI, by Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Sir John Cheek, his tutor, and Dr Cox, his almoner. {a}

{a} An official distributor of the alms of another; the name of a functionary in a religious house, in the household of a bishop, prince, or other person of rank. Sometimes applied to the chaplain of a hospital, or other institution.

Ver. 3. In the eighteenth year of king Josiah.] That is, In the eighteenth year of his reign; after that, with a great deal of zeal, he had purged the land and the house. {#2Ch 34:8} In which time also it seemeth that a collection was made for the repairing of the temple, which now this pious king taketh order to have done, and herein he proceedeth oequabiliter, iuste, prudenter. {a} And from this famous eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, both those thirty years, {#Eze 1:1} and those forty days or years of the sin of Judah, {#Eze 6:6} seem to take their rise and reckoning.

{a} Ussher., Annal. Vet. Testam., p. 115.

Ver. 4. Go up to Helkiah the high priest.] Who perhaps was father to Jeremiah the prophet. {#Jer 1:1}

That he may sum the silver.] That is, Count it; or as some will, Stamp it, and put it into current money.

Ver. 5. Into the hands of the doers of the work.] So both the overseers and the workmen are called.

To repair the breaches.] Ad instauranda sarta tecta templi. {a}

{a} Tigurin.

Ver. 6. To buy timber and hewn stone.] For the very stone walls also temporis iniuria et hominum incuria were much decayed.

Ver. 7. Howbeit there was no reckoning.] Or, Let there be no reckoning made with them of the money: for they will deal faithfully. See #Ne 7:2. {See Trapp on "Ne 7:2"}

Ver. 8. I have found the book of the law.] Authenticum Mosis autographum; Deuteronomy; or perhaps the whole law in Moses’s own handwriting: and by him caused to be put by the side of the ark, as a κειμηλιον. {#De 31:26} This was not venerandae rubiginis, as some books are, sed summae authoritatis monumentum. The Turks themselves do so reverence Moses, that if they find but a paper wherein any part of the pentateuch is written, they presently take it up, and kiss it. This precious piece might in the confusions of Manasseh and Amon be hidden or mislaid; and now it is brought to the king as a rare jewel, and a good reward of his zeal in repairing the temple. R. Solomon saith that wicked Manasseh sought to abolish the law, as point-blank against his idolatry and cruelty. Therefore some good priests had hid this original copy, which now came to light and sight. For it is not credible that this good king had never read the law till now. But that he had not so thoroughly read and considered the comminations of the law as now he did, is evident. But what a shame is it, that Bibles, now so common, are so little set by amongst us: when our devout forefathers would have purchased some few chapters at a great rate! It is a sad complaint that Moulin maketh {a} of the French Protestants: whilst they burnt us, saith he, for reading the Scriptures, we burnt with zeal to be reading them. Now with our liberty is bred also negligence and disesteem of God’s word.

{a} Moul. Thea., p. 278.

Ver. 9. Thy servants have gathered.] Heb., Melted. {a} Hence Vatablus inferreth, that much of the silver gathered was yet uncoined. See #2Ki 22:4.

{a} Conflaverunt.

Ver. 10. And Shaphan read it before the king.] Who well showed how he was affected toward it, and wrought upon by it, (1.) Lectione libri; ( 2.) Laceratione vestium; ( 3.) Legatione ad Prophetissam.

Ver. 11. When the king had heard the words.] Which the wicked account to be but wind, {#Jer 5:13} and spoken in terrorem only; though God threaten to make them fire, {#Jer 5:14} and as he gave his law in fire, so in fire to require it.

Ver. 12. And Achbor the son of Michaiah.] Called Abdon the son of Micah, {#2Ch 34:20} by a different pronunciation.

Ver. 13. For great is the wrath of the Lord.] A good heart trembleth at God’s judgments whilst they yet hang in the threatenings; {#Isa 66:2} when carnal people put off all with a "God forbid," {#Lu 20:16} and bless themselves, though God curse them. {#De 29:19,20}

Ver. 14. Went unto Huldah the prophetess.] Souls have no sexes. They who vilify the female sex, especially with reference to religion, as some Papists have done, {a} may here observe in point of holy prophecy, that male and female are all one in God as in Christ. {#Ga 3:28}

The wife of Shallum.] Who was, say the Rabbis, Jeremiah’s great-uncle, and much honoured in such a wife.

Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college.] Heb., In the second, in parte secunda ab eo, se., rege, in some part of the king’s palace; and therefore sent to her, as nigh at hand, and of known abilities. The Chaldee hath it, In the house of learning. The Septuagint, In Mishneh, as if it were the name of a certain street in Jerusalem. Others, in repetitionum loco, in the school or college where the law was repeated. The Hebrews call Deuteronomy, Mishneh Torah, the repetition of the law.

{a} Faemellae in Vet. Testamento non habuerunt spem salutis. -Collatores Bavar. Ap. Polyc. Lyser.

Ver. 15. Tell the man.] Kings had need to be told that they are but men. Remember that thou art but a man, said the boy to king Philip: and Agnosco me esse mortalem, I acknowledge myself a mortal, said Charles V, emperor. Huldah here speaketh from God, with whom there is no respect of persons.

Ver. 16. Behold, I will bring evil upon this place.] God is absolute in threatening, because resolute in punishing.

Ver. 17. Because they have forsaken me.] The reformation they make being but feigned and forced: as appeared by their revolt to idolatry and blood-guiltiness, presently after good Josiah’s death. {#2Ki 24:3}

Ver. 18. But to the king of Judah.] Here she giveth him his just title, whom before she had called "man." {#2Ki 22:15} Piety is no enemy to civility.

Ver. 19. Because thine heart was tender.] How happy a thing is it, saith a reverend man, to be a reed unto God’s judgments, rather than an oak! The meek and gentle reed stoops, and therefore stands. The oak stands stiffly out against the strongest gust, and therefore is turned up by the roots.

Ver. 20. And thou shalt be gathered unto thy grave in peace.] And yet he died in battle; but (1.) He died before the general deluge of desolation on the land: and so the next words expound these: "And thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place." So he died "in peace," comparatively with a worse state of life; {#Isa 57:1} or, (2.) He was gathered to the spirits of his fathers who enjoyed peace; or, (3.) He died in God’s favour, though by the hand of an enemy. His weeping and humiliation had altered the very nature of trouble, and made war to be peace to him. Hereupon one crieth out, Oh, the safe condition of God’s children, whom very pain easeth, whom death reviveth, whom dissolution uniteth, whom, lastly, their sin and temptation glorifieth!

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. And the king sent.] This he did, that he might the better insure the promise made to himself; and avert, if possible, the judgments threatened against the people by Huldah the prophetess.

Ver. 2. And the king went up…and all the men of Judah.] Solemnly to renew their covenant with God; a course ever found to be of singular avail in case of any common calamity felt or feared.

Ver. 3. And the king stood by a pillar.] See #2Ki 11:14.

To walk after the Lord.] To be in communion with him, and in conformity unto him. This is elsewhere called walking with God, and walking before God.

And all the people stood to the covenant.] They pretended and professed so to do; but the most of them dissembled and dealt deceitfully, not turning to God with their whole hearts, as good Jeremiah complaineth, {#Jer 3} and therefore calleth upon them {#Jer 4:3,14} to "break up their fallow ground, to circumcise themselves unto the Lord, and to wash their hearts from wickedness, that they might be saved."

Ver. 4. And the priests of the second order.] Ithamar’s race.

And carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.] Called also Bethaven, because there had stood one of Jeroboam’s golden calves: hither therefore this good king sent the ashes of those burnt idols and their trinkets to disgrace it, and that such wicked dust might not remain in Judah, that holy land, saith Cajetan.

Ver. 5. And he put down the idolatrous priests.] Heb., Chemarims, Baal’s chimney-chaplains, {see #Zep 1:14, with the note there} black sooty fellows, like those greasy mass priests, or abbey lubbers, amongst the Papists.

And to the planets.] Or, Influences: a radice Nazal fluxit.

Ver. 6. And he brought out the grove.] See on #2Ki 21:7.

Upon the graves of the children of the people.] The vulgar sort, the rascality, who are usually most irrational, and so most idolatrous. "Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief," said Aaron of those that said unto him, "Make us gods," &c. {#Ex 32:22,23}

Ver. 7. The houses of the sodomites.] Abominable brothel houses.

Where the women wove hangings.] Heb., Houses, aedicula, sacella textilia, as #Ac 19:24. There were at Ephesus that made templa portabilia, small portable temples, resembling that greater temple.

Ver. 8. The high places of the gates.] Where, in imitation of the heathens, they had set their tutelar and guardian gods, and had their fans profana.

Of Joshua the governor of the city.] A great man, but none of the best. He had a good name; but Josiah might have said to him, as Alexander did to a soldier of his own name, but a coward, Either change thy name, or put on more courage; so, more piety.

Ver. 9. But they did eat of the unleavened bread.] Care was taken for their maintenance: (1.) As Levites; (2.) As penitents; though, for service at the altar, they were laid aside. Penitency and punishment are words of one derivation, and are near of kin.

Ver. 10. And he defiled Tophet.] A pleasant valley near to Jerusalem, but, for the abominable abuse of it, taken afterwards for hell, {#Isa 30:33 Mt 5:22} a place of torments, without end, and past imagination.

Ver. 11. And he took away the horses.] Not statues of horses and chariots dedicated to the sun, as some interpret it; sed equos veros et vivos, living and light horses dedicated to the sun, after the Persian mode, ωσπερ το ταχιστον τω ταχοτατω θεω, as the swiftest creature to the swiftest god. {a} These Josiah caused to be killed. Macrobius telleth us that the Syrians called God Adad (Achad, he should have said); that is, One, quia unus est sol—sic dictus quasi Solus—aeque ac Deus in mundo: because, as there is but one sun in the world, so but one God. But how many gods they worshipped, see learned Mr Selden, De diis Syris.

Nathanmelech the chamberlain.] Qui fuit imberbis, qualis est sol, saith Villapandus; {b} a beardless officer for a beardless god. The Persians called the sun Mithras and Apollo. This Nathanmelech, though a courtier, thought it an honour to be groom of the sun’s stable.

And burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.] Chrysostom saith that Peter, for his zeal, was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble. Josiah was surely so. Angelomus saith, that herein he represented Christ, who, by the fire of the last day, shall destroy all impiety, and not suffer any defiled one to enter into his kingdom.

{a} Pausan. Herodot. Xenoph.

{b} Lib iii. cap. 32, in Ezech., cap. 40, p. 221.

Ver. 12. And the altars that were on the top.] See #Jer 19:13 Zep 1:5. Ahaz was ειδωλομανης.

And the altars which Manasseh had made.] These, after his repentance, he cast out of the city, {#2Ch 33:15} but not so thoroughly abolished; hence they became snares to his successors.

And brake them down from thence.] Or, Ran from thence; quam citissime potuit discedens illinc, { a} he got out of those loathsome places as soon as he could.

Into the brook Kidron, ] i.e., The town ditch.

{a} Vatab.

Ver. 13. And the high places that were before Jerusalem.] There they had boldly set up their abominable idols in mount Olivet, even in the sight of the Lord; so that he never looked out of the sanctuary but he saw that vile hill, which, therefore, he here calleth not Har Hammisha, { a} the mount of annointing, but Har Hammaschith, { b} the mount of corruption. Est tacita paranomasia; item allusio, item detorsio.

Of the mount of corruption.] So called, because the people had there corrupted themselves, as #De 32:5; and yet afterwards it became our Saviour’s oratory, or usual place of prayer, This showeth, that places which have been abused to idolatry, may yet afterwards be used for God’s service. As for that which we read, #De 12:2,3, "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places," &c., divines answer, that that was a temporary ordinance, and a part of Moses’s polity, now abrogated.

Which Solomon had builded.] But, after his repentance, had demolished, likely; though, by the idolatrous princes that came after him, they were rebuilded, and called still by his name.

{a} Of Mashach.

{b} Of Shacah.

Ver. 14. And he brake in pieces the images.] He made no spare of any of those idols and monuments of idolatry, though there wanted not some about him, doubtless, that could have wished it otherwise, and moved him to spare those goodly horses and chariots of the sun, &c. But he was resolved to make a hand with them all. We may give peace to buy truth, but we may not give truth to buy peace.

Ver. 15. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel.] It is probable that the king of Babylon, when he sent home Manasseh, gave him also dominion of the greatest part of the country of Samaria, indenting with him to defend the same against the Egyptian. Howsoever, good Josiah faileth not to root out idolatry in all those parts also, {#2Ki 23:19} it being an abandoned country, which, in a manner, had no lord at all.

Ver. 16. He sent and took the bones.] That had been foreseen and foretold three hundred years at least before. {#1Ki 13:2} Intervention ofttimes breaks no square in the divine decrees. Our blind eyes see nothing but that which toucheth their lids: the quick sight of God’s prescience sees that as present which is a world afar off.

Ver. 17. What title is that that I see?] This was not the name Jehovah, or the sign of the cross, as some have doted; but either some pillar, orelse gravestone, with a superscription showing who lay there buried: such as was that on Scaliger’s tomb, Scaligeri quod reliquum est, &c.

And the men of the citytold him.] Historiae fidae monitrices: monumenta quasi mentem monentia. But the greatest wonder is, saith one, that these Bethelites, so well knowing what they here do relate to Josiah, were not moved to relinquish their idolatrous worship. But most probably they believed not till they saw it fulfilled.

Ver. 19. And did to them according.] See on #2Ki 23:15.

Ver. 20. And burnt men’s bones.] Hence Papists would prove the lawfulness of unburying dead heretics, as they call us, and burning their bones; as they dealt here by Grosthead, bishop of Lincoln, Paulus Phagius, Bucer’s wife, &c. But Josiah’s act is justified by the prophecy, whereby he was appointed so to do; and the Lord would have it so done, to show the abomination wherein he had idolaters, and for a demonstration of their damnation in hell.

Ver. 21. Keep the passover.] #2Ch 35:1. If the passover had been neglected, the law, the sacrifices had been in vain. No true Israelite might want whether this monument of their deliverance past, or this type of the Messiah to come. Rather than fail, Josiah’s bounty shall supply to Judah lambs for their paschal devotion. No alms is so acceptable as that whereby the soul is furthered. {a}

{a} Dr Hall.

Ver. 22. Surely there was not holden such a passover, ] viz., For concourse of people, and solemnity of the service. Tremellius rendereth it thus: Although there was not holden such a passover as this, viz., with such preparation, devotion, and reformation of religion; yet, {#2Ki 23:26} "God turned not away from his wrath," &c., as being implacably bent and unchangeably resolved upon their utter ruin.

Ver. 23. But in the eighteenth year, ] viz., Of his reign, but in the twenty-sixth of his age.

Ver. 24. Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, ] q.d., Josiah did all that might be done to prevent that utter devastation of his country foretold by the prophets; but the decree was even "ready to bring forth," and there was no reversing or impeding it. {#Zep 2:2} See #2Ki 21:10-15.

And the images.] Heb., Teraphim; these were properly their household gods, saith Vatablus.

That were spied in the land of Judah and Jerusalem.] Here he narrowly spied out everything that was amiss, to reform it, as being his own proper dominion, and his chief charge. Latini videndum dicunt,

“ Aedibus in propriis quae recta aut prava gerantur.”

Ver. 25. And like unto him was there no king, &c.] He was a matchless man, a peerless prince, the world’s paragon,

“ Hic regum decus et iuvenum flos, spesque bonorum.

Deliciae saecli et gloria gentis erat.”

As Cardan singeth of our Edward VI, a second Josiah, as all good men acknowledged. See #2Ki 18:5.

And with all his might.] Heb., With his utmost vehemency, strength, and diligence; he did all that he could do.

Ver. 26. Notwithstanding the Lord, &c.] See on #2Ki 23:22.

Because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.] His sin was pardoned upon his repentance, but his reproach was not altogether wiped away, as #Pr 6:33. The stain of it was like iron mould, which nothing can fetch out. His posterity also, yea, and the generality of the people, persisting in Manasseh’s sins, were justly punishable for the same. The Corinthians were accessory to the sin of the incestuous person, because they bewailed it not; {#1Co 5:2} and shall not we of this age smart for those bloody Marian days, if we lament not, and so disclaim them?

Ver. 27. I will remove Judah also out of my sight.] Who was now grown worse than Israel, {#Jer 3:11} and was therefore worse, because she should have been better warned by the others’ harms.

Ver. 28. Now the rest of the acts, &c.] See #1Ki 15:23.

Ver. 29. In his days Pharaohnechoh, ] i.e., Claudus Pharaoh, the club-foot, so called for distinction. Tamerlane was likewise lame of one foot.

Went up against the king of Assyria.] Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, who had subdued the Assyrians, and gloried in that noble title, king of Assyria. See #2Ki 20:12.

To the river Euphrates, ] i.e., To the city Carchemish bordering thereupon.

And king Josiah went against him.] This was rashly done. The soldier’s motto is, Nec temere nec timide. Josiah fearing more to be counted timorous than temerarious, rushed upon his own death; not so much as advising with that famous prophet Jeremiah, or Zephaniah, or Urijah, the prophets then living; besides a whole college of seers. Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts. Perhaps he feared lest the Egyptian, aliud agens, should seize upon his country; or lest it lying between these two mighty monarchs, should be made the field or seat of their war, and so should be ground to powder, as grain between two millstones. In this respect Abulenais excuseth Josiah from all blame; but that cannot be. See #2Ch 35:22. God had a holy hand in it, howsoever, for the just punishment of that sinful nation, way being now made by the death of this good prince for God’s judgments to rush in upon them with full force.

And he slew him.] That is, He, by his archers, gave him his deathly wound at Megiddo, forty-four miles from Jerusalem, whither he was by his servants bright, but died by the way, and was greatly lamented. {#2Ch 35:24 Zec 12:11} So was that thrice noble king of Sweden slain in Germany, yet not without the victory; which made one say,

“Upon this place the great Gustavus died,

Whilst Victory lay bleeding by his side.”

When he had seen him, ] i.e., At the first encounter, as #2Ki 14:8, priusquam inter se acies concurrerent, saith Sulpitius; before the battle began. Whilst he was setting the battle in array, riding from one wing to another, and giving instructions, saith Josephus, an Egyptian archer slew him, and together with him all the felicity of that state, which was thenceforth known, as Thebes was after the death of Epaminondas, by their calamities only.

Ver. 30. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead.] Mortuum, i.e., Moribundum, a dying man. See on #2Ki 23:29.

And the people of the land took Jehoahaz.] Lest Pharaoh at his return finding no king, should seize upon the kingdom; but this greatly provoked the conqueror, to whom they should rather have sought for peace and liberty to make them a new king.

Ver. 31. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old.] He was younger than his brother Jehoiakim, {#2Ki 23:36} got the kingdom from him by a popular faction, likely, and it proved accordingly. Some think him to have been called Shallum at first, {#Jer 22:11} and that the people changed his name Melioris ominis causa; because Shallum king of Israel had reigned but one month only ere he was slain by Menahem. {#2Ki 15:13}

Ver. 32. And he did evil.] See #Eze 19:2-9.

Ver. 33. That he might not reign.] He deposed him; to show that he had now the disposal of the kingdom. Or, Because he reigned, sc., without his good leave and liking.

Ver. 34. Made Eliakim.] That is, God shall arise: so his good father Josiah named him, but he proved a degenerate plant; his father trembled and humbled himself at the hearing of the law, but he cut in pieces the prophecy of Jeremiah, and sought for him and Baruch to the shambles; but the Lord hid them.

And turned his name.] Memoriae causa, saith one interpreter; to show his sovereignty, saith another. {a}

And died there.] According to the prophecy of Jeremiah, {#Jer 22:11,12} who taxeth him there for covetousneas, ambition, and other vices, hastening the consummation or consumption of all, according to the signification of his other name, Shallum.

{a} Ut Iehovae victoriam acceptam se referre testaretur, &c. -Ussher.

Ver. 35. He exacted.] Though he received, likely, from his subjects no less sums of curses than of coin.

Ver. 36. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old.] See on #2Ki 23:31.

Ver. 37. And he did that which was evil.] To all his former evils he added this, that he slew Urijah the prophet. {#Jer 26:20,23}

Chapter 24

Ver. 1. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.] Son of Nabopolassar who founded the Babylonian monarchy.

Came up, ] sc., After that he had beaten the king of Egypt’s forces at Charchemish. {#Jer 46:2}

Then he turned and rebelled against him.] Defectione tam turpi quam exitiosa. The king of Egypt by fair promises prevailed with him to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, as also by threats, that otherwise he would restore Jehoahaz now prisoner in Egypt; which yet Jeremiah assured him should never be. {#Jer 22:11,12}

Ver. 2. And the Lord sent against him bands.] Latrunculos the Vulgate renders it. Soldiers that fight in an evil cause are no better than robbers and spoilers. Josephus saith that Nebuchadnezzar, bringing from that siege of Tyre {#Eze 26:7} some part of his army, entered therewith Jerusalem, slew Jehoiakim, and cast him out unburied, according to #Jer 22:18,19, carrying away three thousand and three and twenty Jews. {#Jer 52:28} And here began the seventy years’ captivity: now was Daniel and his companions brought to Babylon, {#Da 1:3-7} according to #Isa 39:7.

Ver. 3. Surely at the commandment of the Lord.] Heb., At the mouth, i.e., Ex praestituto. God’s holy hand is in all the miseries that befall his people. {#Am 3:6}

For the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did.] Or, For the like sins to those which Manasseh had done, as Tremellius rendereth it, Traiectio, as in #Ge 5:29 Jud 18:31.

Ver. 4. And also for the innocent blood.] Of this crying sin Jehoahaz also and Jehoiakim were deeply guilty. {#Jer 22:17 Eze 19}

Ver. 5. Now the rest of the acts.] See #1Ki 15:23.

Ver. 6. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers.] Respectu habito ad communem naturae legem; Jehoiakim died, being slain in Jerusalem, and as "an ass cast forth beyond the gates"; {#Jer 22:18,19} or else, going captive to Babylon, he died by the way, ingloria vita recessit, without burial or mourning. {#2Ch 36:6} He is also cut out of the roll of the kings of Judah. {#Mt 1:11}

Ver. 7. For the king of Babylon had taken.] About this time died Nabopolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar: whereupon he, committing the care of his captives to his friends in the army, hastened to Babylon, where, taking upon him the empire, he distributed the captives by colonies into fit places in the country of Babylon, as saith Berosus. {a}

{a} Rer. Chald., lib. xxx.

Ver. 8. Jehoiakin was eighteen years old, ] sc., When he began to reign alone. See #2Ch 36:9. Mutavit Iudaea dominos, non miserias. This king is also called Jechonias, {#Mt 1:11} and Coniah—that is, prepared, sc., for destruction; {#Jer 22:24} the name of God—whom he had forsaken—being defalked. {a}

{a} Withdrawn; i.e., Je (Jehovah) left out of his name Jeconiah.

Ver. 9. And he did.] See #1Ki 11:16.

Ver. 10. At that time.] About the spring. {#2Ch 36:10} Much about the same time was Cyrus born for a scourge to Babylon, {a} but for a relief to God’s poor prisoners of hope there; according as Isaiah had foretold, {#Isa 47:1,2 13:16} and the psalmist. {#Ps 137:8,9} See #Isa 44:28 45:1-4.

{a} Cic. de Divin. ex Dionys.

Ver. 11. And his servants did besiege it.] Till their king came himself in person, and entered the city, as Sulpitius hath it: but whereas he addeth, that at this time, urbem murosque ac templum solo stravit, this is utterly false; for Jehoiachin, by yielding up the city, as Jeremiah had advised him, preserved it; wherein he did the part of a good king, saith Josephus.

Ver. 12. And the king of Babylon took him.] Suscepit eum; gratiose scilicet; he gave him quarter for his life, and in the end, for a reward of his obedience and piety towards his country, he was much advanced by Evilmerodaeh, Nebuchadnezsar’s successor. {#2Ki 25:27}

Ver. 13. All the treasures.] That is, All that he met with, or thought meet. See #2Ki 25:13-15.

And cut in pieces all.] Yet not all neither. See #Ezr 1:7.

Ver. 14. And he carried away all Jerusalem, ] i.e., The greater and better part of the people: among the rest, Mordecai the Benjamite the son of Jair, {#Es 2:5,6} and Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, {#Eze 1:2,3} who therefore calls it his "captivity" or deportation. {#Eze 40:1}

And all the craftsmen and smiths.] The like craft useth the devil, when he endeavoureth to take out of the way such as are zealous and active, valiant for God’s truth, and violent for his kingdom. {a}

{a} A Lapide.

Ver. 15. These carried he into captivity into Babylon.] Where it fared better with them than with those that were left behind. {#Jer 24:4,5, &c.} To these the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter, if Apocryphal Baruch may be believed. {#/APC Bar 6:1}

Ver. 16. Craftsmen, &c.] Eighteen thousand in all; this was the second captivity.

Ver. 17. And the king of Babylon had made Mattaniah.] His name signifieth God’s gift, the same as Nathanael, Theodore, Diodate. Good Josiah gave all his children good names but they proved all stark naught.

Ver. 18. And he reigned eleven years.] But had small joy of his kingdom; so had King John of England.

Ver. 19. And he did that which was evil.] Breaking covenant both with God, {#Jer 34:17} and with men. {#Eze 17:18,19}

Ver. 20. For through the anger of the Lord.] Who hardened Zedekiah’s heart, that he "humbled not himself before Jeremiah," &c. {#2Ch 36:12}

Chapter 25

Ver. 1. In the tenth month, the tenth day of the month.] This was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon. {#Eze 24:1} And although this day of the tenth month was by the law appointed for a day of expiation or atonement, {#Le 16:29-31} yet now "an end was come, the end was come, it watched against them, behold, it was come, an evil, an only evil was come, was come," as Ezekiel hath it. {#Eze 7:5,6} This the poor captives afterward bewailed in their anniversary fast on this day kept. {#Zec 8:19}

And they built forts against it round about.] Of the greatness of this army environing so great a city, see #Jer 34:1.

Ver. 2. Unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.] Which was a full year and half; yet so as that the siege was raised for a time by the coming of Pharaohhophra, that broken reed, as Ezekiel styleth him, whereunto there was no trusting; and so it proved: for he came into the field like thunder and lightning, but went out like a snuff. {#Jer 37:5,11}

Ver. 3. The famine prevailed in the city.] Insomuch as that the fathers did eat their sons, and the sons their fathers. {#Eze 5:10 La 4:10} The pestilence also prevailed at the same time. {#Jer 21:6,7 24:10}

Ver. 4. And the city was broken up] {a} By the besiegers, who had seized upon the middle gate. {#Jer 39:3} Cajetan holdeth that it was broken up by the citizens, that by the breach they might escape. Hunger, we say, breaketh through stone walls.

And all the men of war…fled.] This word "fled" is not in the text, but supplied from #Jer 39:4 ut intelligamus fugam fuisse praecipitem, saith Vatablus, to set forth the hastiness and headlongness of their flight: but in fleeing from death they fled to it.

By night.] All this was foretold. {#Eze 12:12}

By the way towards the plain.] By a way underground, {b} say the Hebrews, into which the secret gate led them: by a deep valley between mountains, saith Josephus.

Now the Chaldees.] See on #2Ki 25:1.

{a} Crebris ictibus arietum. -Vat.

{b} φευδοθυρον.

Ver. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued.] Insequuti sunt regem, et assecuti sunt eum.

And all his army was scattered from him.] To shift for their lives, as man is a life-loving creature.

Ver. 6. To Riblah.] A city of Syria, which was afterwards called Apamia; as the Jerusalem Paraphrast on #Nu 34:11 showeth.

And they gave judgment upon him.] They, by public sentence, pronounced him perfidious, and perjured—see #Eze 17:18, -and dealt with him accordingly. Rabbi Solomon undertaketh to tell us how they rated him, and in what terms.

Ver. 7. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah.] Who were, likely, taken with him, and consenting to his rebellion. {a}

Before his eyes.] To his greater grief. The like befell Mauricius, the emperor, a better man.

And put out the eyes of Zedekiah.] The eyes of whose mind had been put out long before; else he might have foreseen and prevented this evil—as prevision is the best means of prevention, -had he taken warning by what was foretold. {#Jer 32:4 34:3 Eze 12:13} The Dutchmen have a proverb, When God intends to destroy a man, he first puts out his eyes. This punishment of putting out the eyes of an enemy, was practised by the Philistines upon Samson; by Irene, the empress, upon her son Constantinus Copronymus; by our Henry I upon his brother Robert, duke of Normandy; by Amidas, king of Tunis, upon his own father Muleasses; by Amurath VI, king of Turks, upon his wife’s brethren, the two young Servian princes, Gregory and Stephen, whose eyes he cruelly burnt out with a bason made red hot; {b} a common unmerciful practice among the Turks.

{a} Josephus

{b} Turk. Hist., 262.

Ver. 8. And in the fifth month.] In memory whereof the poor captives in Babylon kept a yearly fast. {#Zec 7:3}

And on the seventh day of the month.] Jeremiah hath it, on the tenth day, {#Jer 52:12 39:8} on the Sabbath day; till when, this profane person haply did, on purpose, defer the burning of the city and temple. Lydiat thinketh that he set fire to them on the seventh day, and burned them down on the tenth.

Nebuzaradan captain of the guard.] Praefectus laniorum; master of the butchers or slaughtermen; so his swordmen seem to be called for their bloody cruelty.

Ver. 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord.] Which had now stood about four hundred and fifty years. With this house were burnt, say some ancients, all the copies of the holy Scriptures; but that is not likely.

Ver. 10. And all the army of the Chaldees.] Hic lege, et luge. Those of the captivity bewailed the destruction of Jerusalem by an annual fast. {#Zec 7:5 Ps 137} The Jews at this day, when they build a house, leave one part of it unfinished, in remembrance that Jerusalem and the temple lie desolate. At least they leave about a yard square of the house unplastered, on which they write in great letters, Si oblitus fuero, Ierusalem, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning"; or else these words, Zecher lechorban, The memory of the desolation. {a}

{a} Leo Modena.

Ver. 11. Now the rest of the people.] Who were eight hundred and thirty-two persons. {#Jer 40:1 52:29}

Ver. 12. Left of the poor of the land.] Who would be rather a burden than a benefit to the Chaldees; fruges consmere nati; but in Jewry might do some service. De populo tenuissimos, quibus nihil erat quicquam, reliquit. And yet of these poor ones also; about four or five years after this, were carried away seven hundred and forty-five persons; that so the land might enjoy her Sabbath. {#2Ch 36:20,21 Jer 52:30} And here ended those before prophesied three hundred and ninety years of Israel’s iniquity; and those forty years of Judah’s. {#Eze 4:5,6}

Ver. 13. And the pillars of brass.] The ornaments of the temple and instruments of God’s service were all carried away, as had been foretold. {#Jer 27:21,22} But it befell Jeremiah, as the poets feign of Cassandra, that he spake truth, but could not be believed.

And carried the brass.] It being very fine brass. {#1Ki 7:15}

Ver. 14. Took they away.] Unbroken, as being small, portable, and useful.

Ver. 15. And such things as were of gold, in gold.] These Chaldees were not of the mind of those Medes, "who regarded not gold, and as for silver, they delighted not in it." {#Isa 13:17} But it proved more fatal and pernicious to them, than that gold of Tholouse once did to the Roman plunderers.

Ver. 16. Was without weight, ] i.e., Without certain or known weight. Which to prove, it is added,

Ver. 17. The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits.] The height evinceth the weight; immensum erat pondus; such as was that of the Turks’ great ordinance used against the Rhodes, drawn by thirty-eight yoke of oxen, and fitly called the basilisk. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 18. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, &c.] These likely were fired out of those secret corners of the temple where they lay hid. Our chroniclers {a} tell us that William the Conqueror, firing the city Mentz or Mayence in France, consumed a fair church there, in the walls whereof was enclosed an anchoret—-Stow saith two—who might, but would not escape, holding it a breach of his religious vow to forsake his cell in that distress. Other histories tell us, that at the last destruction of Jerusalem, certain Jews who had taken sanctuary in the temple, came forth when it was on fire, and besought the Emperor Titus to give them quarter for their lives: but he refused so to do; giving this for a reason, which indeed was no reason, Ye deserve not to live, who will not die with the downfall of your temple.

And Zephaniah the second priest.] The high priest’s great deputy or suffragan; who, upon any extraordinary occasion or occurrent restraining or disabling the high priest, was to supply his place.

{a} Speed, 447.

Ver. 19. That was set over the men of war.] Lieutenant-general, likely, to General Sophar. {#Jer 25}

And five men of them.] Jeremiah saith seven men; two of them, perhaps, were less considerable, or taken at another time.

Ver. 20. And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard.] Praefectus rerum capitalium, say the Tigurines. See #2Ki 25:8.

Ver. 22. Over them he made Gedaliah ruler.] A pious, prudent, and meek-spirited man, {a} cut down by envy, that sharp-ranged malignity, which none can stand before. {#Pr 27:4}

{a} Josephus saith he was ετιεικης και δικαιος, a moderate and just man.

Ver. 23. And when all the captains of the army.] Palantes per agros, qui dispersi fuerant; those, likely, that were scattered from Zedekiah. {#2Ki 25:5}

Ver. 24. Dwell in the land, and serve.] The Arabians have a good proverb, Os quod in sorte tua cediderit, rodas, Be content with your condition; and if you cannot bring your estate to your mind, bring your mind to your estate.

Ver. 25. Of the seed royal.] He therefore disdained that Gedaliah, a meaner man, was made governor. Self-love and envy teach men to turn the glass to see themselves bigger and others lesser than they are.

And smote Gedaliah.] Treacherously at a feast. {#Jer 41:2}

And slew him.] Hereof Gedaliah had warning, but would not take it. {#Jer 40:13,14} The like is reported of Julius Caesar, of the duke of Guise in France, and others.

And the Jews and the Chaldees, &c.] All these he massacred; being thereunto incited by Baalis king of the Ammonites, with whom this bloody villain had kept himself out of the storm during the siege of Jerusalem. {#Jer 40:14}

Ver. 26. And came to Egypt.] Their rendezvous was at Bethlehem; where when the prophet Jeremiah had forbidden them from God to go to Egypt upon pain of utter destruction, they nevertheless would needlessly go, and did: taking along with them also Jeremiah and Baruch. {#Jer 43:4}

“ Ah quoties docta plus valet arte malum!”

Jeremiah, though their prisoner, ceased not to reprove them in Egypt for their obstinacy and idolatry, and to foretell their destruction: for the which his ungrateful countrymen stoned him to death, as other histories report. Hoc fuit διδακτρον, saith one. This was the reward that that faithful servant of God received for his one and forty years’ pains taken amongst them.

Ver. 27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year.] This was a long while to be held prisoner; but yet he had his life preserved—now, "a living dog is better than a dead lion"—and his eyes—-which benefit Zedekiah was deprived of; and at length this high preferment: so little is there lost by doing or suffering aught for God’s sake; whose retributions are more than bountiful. Those "good figs" that were carried captive with him, had their share also, no doubt, in his comforts, though nothing be said of it.

On the seven and twentieth day of the month.] On the five and twentieth day he was released, {#Jer 52:31} and on the seven and twentieth advanced.

That Evilmerodach king of Babylon.] Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor. The Rabbis tell us that, his father returning to his right mind, after that he had for seven years’ space been turned a-grazing among the beasts of the field, cast Evilmerodach into the same prison with Jehoiachin, who told him his case, and thereby found this favour with him. They tell us further, that this Evilmerodach, in way of revenge, drew his father’s dead body out of the grave, cut it in pieces, burned it to ashes, parted the ashes, put them in several purses, bound them to four eagles necks, and caused them to fly to the four quarters of the world. See for this, #Isa 14:19,20. Others tell us, that his courtiers called him Evilmerodach, that is, Foolmerodach, because he was so kind to Jehoiachin and his people. So they afterwards called Constantine the Great Pupillus, for his courtesy and bounty to the Christians.

Ver. 28. And he spake kindly to him.] Heb., Good things with him: he both spake and did for him such good things as he little expected; but far better digested than Arthur L. Lisle did King Henry VIII’s courtesy; by whom having been cast into the Tower for suspicion of treason, he was afterwards not only acquitted, but comforted with such good words, besides a rich ring sent unto him off his own finger, that at the hearing thereof, a sudden joy overcharged his heart: and was so immoderately received, that the same night it made an end of his life. {a}

{a} Speed, 896.

Ver. 29. And changed his prison garments.] The like whereto befell Joseph, whose fetters one hour changed into a chain of gold, his rags into robes, his stocks into a chariot, his jail into a palace. So God turned again the captivity of Job, as the streams in the south. So Queen Elizabeth, after long restraint, was exalted from misery to majesty, from a prisoner to a princess, &c.

“ Accidit in puncto quod non speratur in anno.”

Ver. 30. And his allowance was a continual allowance.] So is or might be every true believers’ portion: who should therefore "eat his bread with joy, and drink his wine with cheerfulness all the days of his life," which are not to be numbered by the hours, but measured by spiritual mirth; as moneys are not by tale, but by value.

All the days of his life.] Evilmerodach reigned little more than two years; being treacherously slain by Neriglissorus, his own sister’s husband; as Berosus, {a} cited by Josephus, {b} writeth: and some hold it probable from this text, that Jechoniah also died about the same time, being seven and fifty years of age.

{a} Rer. Chaldaic., lib. xxx.

{b} Lib. i., cont. Apion.

Soli Deo Gloria

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25