Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/356

292 because he ordered his ways before the his God. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and

7—9 (= 2 Kin. xv. 36—38).&emsp;

7. all his wars] Only a war with Ammon is mentioned above, but according to 2 Kin. xv. 37 the Syro-Ephraimite war also began in Jotham's reign. The notices in Kin. and Chron. may be regarded as supplementary. Ammon was a natural ally of the Syrians, and perhaps the wording of ver. 5 (end) hints that after the third year Ammon was able to refuse to pay tribute. The information of Chron. is therefore plausible; but it is curious that Chron. preserves the one incident and Kings the other. The point is highly significant. Not only does it illustrate very forcibly the comparative independence of the Chronicler's narrative, which is so marked a feature in these later reigns; but also it adds to the evidence in favour of the view that the Chronicler had traditions before him other than those of Kings. Clearly he had no motive for suppressing the statement of Kin. and inventing instead a war with Ammon. We must suppose that he followed some authority independent of Kin.

the book of the kings, etc.] Cp. xxv. 26, and see Introduction, § 5.

XXVIII. 1—4 (= 2 Kin. xvi. 1—4).&emsp;

The reign of Ahaz is a specially interesting section of Chron., showing in a remarkable degree the freedom with which the older accounts in 2 Kin. xvi. and Is. vii. 1 ff. have been handled. A tale of a prophet is introduced (vv. 9—15). Otherwise only one new point is added—viz. an Edomite and a Philistine invasion (vv. 16—18); but all the incidents of the older tradition are altered and given new settings in such a way as may best serve what is plainly the Chronicler's main object, namely by heightening the disasters to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin. For details of the changes, see the notes on vv. 5—7, 16—21, 23, 24.

1. Ahaz] The full form of the name is Jehoahaz, the "Ja-u-ḥa-zi" of an inscription of Tiglath-pileser IV.

twenty years old] As he died sixteen years later leaving a son of twenty-five (Hezekiah, xxix. 1), Ahaz would have been only ten years old when Hezekiah was born. The numeral here or in xxix. 1 must