Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/315

Rh not thou God in heaven? and art not thou ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? and in thine hand is power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee. Didst not thou, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If evil come upon us, the sword, judgement, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house, and before thee, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, and thou wilt hear and save. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they

does here, should describe it as new: that adjective can be applicable only to a secondary, outer, court. We must therefore suppose that he here uses the word ḥāṣēr for the court he elsewhere designates by the special term 'azārāh. The correct interpretation then is that Jehoshaphat stood before the new, the outer court, i.e. he stood at the inner side of the outer court with his back towards the inner court and looking out towards the containing wall and the entrances where the people were grouped. Both interpretations come to much the same thing, but the point of language deserves attention.

6. art not thou God] Cp. Josh. ii. 11.

ruler over all the kingdoms] Cp. Ps. xxii. 28.

is power] Cp. xiv. 11 (Asa's prayer).

7. drive out] Cp. Deut. ix. 5.

thy friend] Cp. Is. xli. 8.

9. the sword, judgement] Render with mg. the sword of judgement (cp. Ezek. xiv. 17).

10. mount Seir] Here, and in ver. 23 in the enumeration of the allied peoples, "Mount Seir" which was situated in the Edomite territory takes the place of the "Meunim" of ver. 1. It is clear, however, that the same contingent is meant, and no difficulty arises if Meunim denotes people from the Edomite district near the town Ma'īn: see note on ver. 1. Even if the south Arabian Minaeans were meant, it might be said that the two peoples were cognate and that Minaean invaders in passing through Mount Seir would probably bring along with them Edomite kinsmen. The region loosely denoted by Mount Seir was practically synonymous with Edom, extending from the south of the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akaba.

whom thou wouldest not, etc.] Cp. Deut. ii. 4, 5, 9, 19; see also Num. xx. 14—21.