Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/327

Rh all the substance that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. And after all this the smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. And it came to pass, in process of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years: and he departed without being desired; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his

in the king's house] It is most unlikely that the invaders (if the raid be historical) actually entered Jerusalem, and almost certain that the Chronicler did not mean to imply that they did. Probably therefore we should translate, as the mg., belonging to the king's house. Part of the royal possessions and the royal household might well have been in the camp; see below, the note on xxii. 1.

Jehoahaz] In xxii. 1 he is called Ahaziah, which is only another form of the name, the prefix Jeho- of the one, and the ending -iah of the other being each the representative of the Divine name Jehovah. The name in either form means "Jehovah hath taken" (or "grasped"). Parallel instances are the names Jehoshaphat and Shephatiah (ver. 2) and Jehonathan and Nethaniah in xvii. 8.

18—20 (cp. 2 Kin. viii. 24).&emsp;

19. by reason of his sickness] LXX. , i.e. in the course of his sickness.

no burning] Cp. xvi. 14 (note).

20. he departed without being desired] lit. without desire: i.e. he lived so that none desired him, or he lived as no one desired. Cp. LXX.,, lit. "he walked without praise."

but not in the sepulchres of the kings] According to Kings he "was buried with his fathers." Cp. xxiv. 25, xxviii. 27.

XXII. 1—4 (= 2 Kin. viii. 25—27).&emsp;

1. the inhabitants of Jerusalem, etc.] In consequence of the great disaster to the royal house, the people play a more prominent part than usual in deciding the succession to the throne; cp. 2 Kin. xxiii. 30.