Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/293

Rh when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of the, that was before the porch of the. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out

8. and the prophecy of Oded the prophet] Some words have fallen out of the text. Read, even the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded prophesied.

the abominations] Cp. 1 Kin. xiv. 23, 24, xv. 12, 13.

the cities which he had taken) A loose reference to those said to have been captured by Abijah (xiii. 19). There is no record of any taken by Asa himself.

the hill country of Ephraim] The term describes the hilly country between the plain of Esdraelon and the territory of Benjamin.

that was before the porch] Cp. vii. 7, viii. 12.

9. them that sojourned with them] Cp. x. 17, xi. 16, 17, xvi. 1.

out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon] In view of the evidence of Kings and the special character of Chronicles this statement cannot be regarded as having historical value for the time of Asa. Taking it in connection with similar notices in 1 Chr. ix. 3 (Ephraim and Manasseh), xii. 8, 19 (Gad and Manasseh), 2 Chr. xxx. 1, 10, 11, 18, xxxiv. 9 (Ephraim and Manasseh; also Zebulun, Issachar, and perhaps Asher) we may infer that these references have significance for the time of the Chronicler (or his source) and were inserted either (a) to gratify the wishes of certain orthodox families in Jerusalem who counted themselves descendants of North Israelite families, especially of Ephraim and Manasseh, and were eager to think that their ancestors had associated themselves with the fortunes of the true Israel at an early date after the separation of the kingdoms or at least in pre-exilic days. Or (b)—an interesting suggestion first advanced by Stade and recently developed by Hölscher (Palästina in der persischen und hellenistischen Zeit, 1903, pp. 30—37)—we may suppose that the reference is not to families resident in Jerusalem but to persons living in the territories once occupied by Ephraim, Manasseh, etc., and loyal to the faith of the orthodox community in Jerusalem. The former view seems favoured by 1 Chr. ix. 3, the latter by 2 Chr. xxx. 25 (despite the last words); and on general grounds the latter view seems preferable to the present writer. If so, we have in Chron. the first traces of the extension of Judaism northwards from Judea into Samaria and Galilee. Hölscher thinks that the evidence of Chron. can be supported from the late chapters Zech. ix.—xiv., and from passages in Judith.

Simeon] The territory of this tribe lay in the South (1 Chr. iv. 28—