Exposition of the Whole Bible

and Levites providing out of their own- fabhance for the people and their brethren.

‘y. 23. But in the 18th year of hing ‘Jofiah, wherein this paffover was holden to the Lord in Ferufalem.| ‘This fhews that Fofah muft begin the reformat ion very early that year, fince he did all that is before recorded in this and the preceding chapter by the 14th of Ni/en, the day on which the paffover was kept, which month anfwers to part of our March and part of April, fee ch. xxii. 3. and was the fame veer. the repairs of the temple were finifhed. ' y. 24. Moreover, the BF te with familiar /pirits, and the wizards, &c.] Who were not to be fuffered among the I/raelites, Deut. xviil. 11. and the images; or Teraphim: and the idols, and all the abominations; which were worfhipped by the hea-

_ thens, and introduced amgne the ews, and forbidden by the word of God: that were /pied in the land of Fudab, and in Ferufalem, did Fofiah put away; for which, it feems, diligent fearch was’

made, and wherever they were difcovered were removed: that he might perform the words of the law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah the prieft found in the houfe of the Lord; both with refpect to witchcraft and idolatry; fee Lev. xx. 27. Exod. xx. 4, 5. and xxiii. 24.

¥. 25. And like unto him was there no king before him, &c.]° The fame is faid of Hezekiah, ch. xviii. 5. Hezekiab might excel him in fome things, as Fofiab might excel Hezekiah in others: that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all bis foul, and with all bis might; with fuch fincerity, heartinefs, zeal, and conftancy: according to all the law of Mofes; having refpect to every commandment, efpecially relative to worfhip, with the greateft precifion and exactnefs: neither after him arofe there any like him for all to the captivity were wicked princes,

¥. 26. Notwithftanding, the Lord turned not from the frercenefs of bis great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled againft Fudab, &c.) Notwithftanding the great reformation wrought’ among them; for though Fofiah was a fincere reformer, and did what he did heartily, as to the Lord, according to his will, and for his glory; yet the people were not fincere in their compliance, they turned to the Lord not with their whole heart, but feignedly, Fer. iii. 10. becaufe of all the provocations that Mayaffeb had provoked him withal, by fhedding innocent blood, and committing idolatry, which the people confented to and approved of, ‘and even now privately committed idolatry, as the prophecies of Feremiabh and Zephaniah fhew; and it may eafily. be concluded, that their hearts were after their idols, by their openly returning ‘to them i in the days of the fons of Fofiab.

y¥. 27. And the Lord faid, I wil] remove Fudab re out of my fight, as I have removed Ifrael.| are his all-feeing eye, but from being the objeC’of his fpecial care and protection; the meaning ee called after. his na e, ne wit - nema, was to be, and had been called upon.

¥..28. Now the ref of the alls of Fofab, anda that he did, &c.\». For. abolifhing, idolacr reftoring the true worfhip of God: are 4 written in the book of the chronicles of the. kings of > Fudah? and alfo of Jfrael, in which an account was kept of the tran{factions of. their reigh s many other of the a¢ts of ¥o/ab are recorded in the canonical book of sells, 2 Chron. XXXiV, XXXVex y¥. 29. In bis days Pharaoh-nechob king of Egypt, &c.] “Who is called in the Targuim:Pharaob the lame, becaufe he was: lame in his feet, perhaps gouty; Herodotus * alfo calls him ‘Necos the fon of Pfammiticus; now it was in the laft days of Fofab this king reigned in Egypt, or however that the following event was: that he went up. ogainft the king of Apr ria_to the river Euphrates, to Carches mifo, a city fituated upon it; fee 2 Chron. xxxv, 26. Fer. xlvi. 2. the king he went againft, was the king of Babylon, who had conquered the Afyrian monarchy, and therefore called.king of it; fome take him to be Nadopolafar, according to Marfham’, he ‘was Chyniladanus: and king Sofi ab went againft him to ftop him, that he might not pafs through’ his country, and attack the king of Babylon, whi ally, perhaps, Yofiah was; or however, thoug himfelf obliged to him by the privileges, power, and authority he allowed him to exercife in the - land of J/rael: and he flew him at Megiddo, when be bad feen him; as foon as they came. face to face, and engaged in battle, fee ch. xiv. 8. 14. that is Pharaob flew Fofiab at the firft onfet. Megiddp was a city in the tribe of Manaffeb, Fofh. xvii. 14, Herodotus * calls it Magdolus, which feems to bea city on the borders of Egypt, the fame with Adgdol, Fer. xliv. 1. where he fays Nechob conquered the Syrians; in Fofepbus* it is called Mendes very wrongly. ‘7ofiab feems to have engaged in this action without confulting the Lord and his pro- PaaS y. 30. And bis fervants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, &c.| They took him out of the chariot in which he was wounded, and put him into another, where he died of his wounds by the way; being mortally wounded, he is faid,to be - dead, or a dead man, fee 2 Chron. xxxv. 34. and brought him to. Ferufalem; which, according to Bunting >, was 44 miles from Megiddo: aud buried him in bis own fepulchre; which cither he had provided for himfelf in his lifetime, or which in common, belonged to the kings of Fudab, fee 2 Chrou, XXXV. 24. “and the people “of the land took Fehoakaz the fon of Fofiab, and ancinted him, and made bim king in bis father’s fiead: though he was not the eldeft fon, Feboiakim, who was afterwards placed i in his room, being two years older, as appéars fro ¥. 31. 36.- -and this is the reaion, as the Jewy commentators in general agree, that = was anointed; which they fay was never done to the fon of a king, unlefs there was a competitor, or fome ob-;

is, that he would fuffer them to be carried out of jection to, or difpute about, the facceffion, asin their land into captivity, as J/rael was; this he had faid in his heart, was determined upon; the decree was gone forth, and it was irrevocable: capo Hs city Ferufalem, which I have chofen; for the place of his worfhip, the people having forfaken his worfhip there, and followed after idols: and the houfe of which I faid, My name foall be there; the ea Hamutal, the daughter of Joram of Li the cafe of Solomon and Riera!

¥. 31. Feboabaz was 23 years old when ted on and will| to reign, &c.]. Who feems to be the fame Shallum, Fer. XXil. 11. and he reigned thr 4 king of Egypt, as after-related: and bis mother fe.

'y. 32. And be did that which was evil in the Sight of the Lord, &c,| Committed idolatry: according to all that bis fathers done, his grandfather and great grandfather, Amon and Manafeb; fo foon after Fefiah’s death was the revolt ‘to idolatryor ar

¥. 33. And Pharaoh-nechob put him in bands at Riblab in the land of Hamath, &c.] Places in Syria; Hamath was formerly a kingdom in Syria, and Riblab is faid by Ferom* to be Antioch of Syria, near to which was the fountain of Daphne; and in the Targums, of Fonathan and Ferufalem on Numb. xxxiv. 11. Daphbneis put for Riblah, and Fofepbus * fays, Antioch was by Daphne of Syria; and in 2 Maccab. iv. 33. Daphne is faid to be by Antioch, with which place Pompey was greatly delighted, becaufe of the pleafantnefs of it, and the abundance of waters about it*; hither, it is probable, eboahaz went with an army to avenge his father’s death on the king of Egypt, or to affitt the king of Badylon, or both; and here Pharaoh met, with him, and took him, and bound him’; he feems to be of a martial fpirit, from Ezek. xix. 3. that he might not reign in Ferufalem; whither afterwards the king of Egypt came, and took it; and fo Herodotus ‘ fays, that after he had conquered, the Syrians at Migdol, he took Cadytis, a great city of Syria, which feems to be 7erufalem, the holy city: and put the land to a tribute of 100 talents of filver, and a talent of gold; the Jand of Fudab; and 100 talents, according to Bunting *, amounted to 37,500 pounds of our money; and a talent of gold, according to Brerewood *, was 4500 pounds; bur bifhop Cumberland * makes it 5067 pounds 3 fhillings and 10 pence; a talent of gold could not be fo large in Homer’s time, fince he fpeaks of feven of them given’at once in a way of hofpitality * =~ ys SEES chapter relates the rebellion of Feboia- %and rebelled againft bim;

kim again{t the king of Babylon,. which prepared the way for the ruin of the kingdom of Fudab, according to the decree of God, and alfo the death of feboiakim, and the conqueft the king of

of ‘Frofiah king in the room of Fofiab his father, &c.

Not in the room of Feboahax for he did not allow him to bea king, and to have any lawful right to the throne; but depofing him, fet up his elder brother: and turned his name to Feboiakim; thew his fubjection to him, and that he held his govéfnment by him: and took Feboabaz away; with him, from Ferujalem, when he departed thence: and he came to Egypt, and died there; and never returned ‘to Ferufalem, according to the prophecy of Feremiah, Fer. sxtiriis,

¥. 35. And Feboiakimgave the filver and gold to Pharaoh, &c.] The i00 talents of filver and the talent of gold, which he impofed as a tribute. upon the land; dut be. taxed the land, togive the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh; he did not take it out of his own treafures, nor the treafures of the houfe of the Lord} which perhaps might be exhaufted, but levied it of the people of the land: he exalied the filver and the gold of. the people of the land; required them to pay it in: of every one according to bis taxation, to give it unto Pbaraobnechob; every one was taxed according to his abilities, in proportion to what he was worth, or to the eftate he was poffefled of.

¥. 36. Fehoiakim was 25 years old when be began to reign, &c.|] And therefore mutt be. two years older than his brother Feboabaz, who was depofed: and he reigned 11 years in ‘ferufalem; and therefore mult die at the age of 36: and bis mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumab; which Fo/ephus '. calls Abuma but he fpeaks of a village in Galilee called Ruma™; but whether the fame with this is not certain.

¥. 37. And he did that which was evil in the fight of the Lord, according to all that bis fathers had done.} Amon and Manaffeh, {ee y. 32.

+ being encouraged. by the, king of Egypt, who promifed to affift’ him againft the king of Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar is the Nabocolafjer in Ptolemy's canon; and Berofus ” teftifies, that 70 years before the Perfian monatchy he made,

Babylon made of part of the land of the king of war againit the Phenicians and Fews, and it is from

Egypt, ¥. 1—7. and the fhort and wicked reign of Feboiachin his fon, when he and the royal family, with great numbers of the inhabitants of the land, were carried captive to Babylon, y. 8 —16. and his uncle was made king in his room, ¥. 17—20.

y¥.1. In bis days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, &c.} Againtt Ferufalem; this was in the latter end of the third, or the beginning of the ‘fourth of Fehoiakim’s reign, and the firft of Nebuchadnezzar, ‘fer. xxv. ™% and xlvi. 2. when Feboiakim was taken, but reftored upon promife of fubjeétion and obedience, and hottages given, at which time Daniel and his ree were Carried captive, with fome of the veffels of the temple; fee the notes on Daa. i. 1, 2. and Feboiakim became bis fervant three years; which were the 5th, “6th and 7th ‘years of his reign: shen be turned this time the 70 years captivity is to be dated.

¥. 2. And the Lord fent againft bim, &c.)_ By Nebuchadnezzar, againft whom he rebelled: bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon; who were all fubject to the king of Eadylon, or were voluntary troops in his fervice, and bore an hatred to the Fewss according to. Hupolemus °, this army confifted of Medes and Babylonians, and foot, andy'120,000 horfe: and fent them againft, Judah to deftroy it; this was not until the nat! of Feboiakim, Nebuchadnezzar being diverted the fiege of Zyre, or other important bufinels, from chaftizing the king of Judeh until this timg’: @ecording to the word of the Lord, which he jpake by bis fervants the prophets; Ifaiah, Jeremiah, Zepbaniah, and Huldab the prophetefs. y "

yy. 3. Surely at ibe ee of the Lord. come this ate Judah, to remove them out of bis

“* | God thty fhould be. carried c Poel. and. therefore ef but ve. 3 2 he -ftirred up the fpirit of Neduchadnexzar, and 2, Chron. Xxxvi. 9. the rye 4 gave him orders = a@ainit ic: for the fins of of 8 18, fince re and Syriac ver-_

Mana according ftill continued among the ews, and committed by them, though repented of by Manaffeb, and he returned from them.

¥. 4. And alfo for the innocent blood that he shed, Sor be filled Ferufalem with innocent blood, &c. See ch, xxi. 16, which cruel Milage of the prophets, and fervants of the Lord, was. ftill. continued;

. fee Fer. xxvi. 21—24. which the Lord would not, pardon; she pardoned the fins of Manafeb, who repented, but not the fins of thofe perfons who.imitated him, but repented not; or though he perfonally pardoned the fins of Manaffeh, fo that he was faved everlaftingly, yet the temporal punifhmient of the nation for thofe fins, in which they were involved with him, was not avdveedi y. 5. Now the reft of the ais of Feboiakim, &c. } In 2 Chron. xxxvi.*8. it is added, bis abominations, and that which was found in him; which befides his rebellion againft the king of Babylon, and his fhedding innocent blood, is interpreted of marks made in his body for fuperititious and idolatrous purpofes; fo big

¥. 6. So Feboiakim flept with bis fathers, &c. | He died as they did, -but was not buried with them, and indeed had no burial at all, according to the prophecy of Feremiah, Fer. xxii..18, 19. for falling into the hands of the king of Babylon, he was bound in chains, in order to be carried to Babylon, but died as foon as he came out of Ferufalem, at the gates of which he was caft, and had no burial, 2 Chron. xxxvi, 6. At this time alfo fome of the veflels of the temple were carried away, and put in the idol’s temple at Babylon, 2 Chron. XXKVI. 7. Fer. xxvii. 16. and Ewpolemus? fays, that whatever gold, filver and brafs were in the temple, were carried away: and Feboiachin his fon reigned in bis fread; called fometimes Fechoniah, and by contempt Coniah, Fer. XXil. 24, 28.

y. 7. And the king of Egypt came. not any more.

out of his land, &c.| To receive the tribute he impofed on the land of udah, or to help the kings thereof, Feboiakim and Feboiachin; not tll the times of Zedekiah, and then was obliged to retire; without giving any affiftance, er. xxxvii. 7. the reafon follaws, for the king of Babylon had taken from the river f Egypt unto the river Lupbrates, all that pertained athe king of Egypt; all that lay between the river Nile, or the Rhinocolyra, and the river Euphrates, {o that he could not ftir out of his do-

‘minions, which lay beyond. ¥. 8. Febsiachin was 18 years old when be began, reign, &c.] In 2 Chron. xxxvi.. g. he is. faid \ to be but eight years old; which may be reconciled t

: obferving, that he might be made and declared king by his father, in the firft year of his pe '8Rs who reigned 11 years, fo that he was eight eatS old when he began to reign with him, and vb 3 he began to reign alone’. Dr, Lightfoot* gives aitother folution of this difficulty, that properly a ing he was 18 years old when he began to ip. 9 in an improper fenfe, the fon of eight} a years, 0 the Sth year, as the Hebrew phrafe is;

a the lot of the 8th year-of the captivityvof Wg which was in the latter end of _ Me

It was the fure and certain decree-of oO 2 all that ke did; which were the mighty men of v rahi stink de