Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/361

Rh congregation. And the men which have been expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto their brethren: then they returned to Samaria. At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of

15. have been expressed] The phrase is characteristic of the Chronicler; cp. xxxi. 19; 1 Chr. xii. 31, xvi. 41; Ezra viii. 20.

took the captives] Render, took hold of the captives; i.e. succoured them; LXX. , cp. Heb. ii. 16 = "he taketh hold of."

to eat and to drink] Cp. 2 Kin. vi. 23.

anointed them] Part of the host's duty; cp. Luke vii. 44—46.

to Jericho] Jericho perhaps belonged to the Northern Kingdom; cp. 1 Kin. xvi. 34; 2 Kin. ii. 4. A road led to it from Mount Ephraim past 'Ain ed-Duk. G. A. Smith, ''Hist. Geography'', pp. 266 ff.

the city of palm trees] Cp. Deut. xxxiv. 3. The phrase is an alternative name of Jericho; cp. Judg. i. 16, iii. 13. Date palms were common in Jericho down to the seventh century of the Christian era. Bädeker, Pal.$5$, pp. 128 f.

16—21 (= 2 Kin. xvi. 7—9).&emsp;

There is an important variation here between Chron. and Kings. According to Chron. (ver. 21) Ahaz gained nothing by his tribute to the king of Assyria; according to Kings the Assyrian accepted the offering and marched against Syria, capturing Damascus and slaying Rezin. Further in Chron. it is said that the help of Assyria was invoked, not against the kings of Syria and Israel as in 2 Kin., but against Edomites and Philistines. Some alteration was required in consequence of the insertion in Chron. of the midrashic narrative of vv. 8—15, according to which Ahaz was delivered from his disaster at the hands of Israel not by the king of Assyria (so Kings) but simply through the awakening of Israel's conscience and the consequent release of the captives and the spoil. If therefore the Chronicler was to introduce the story of Ahaz' appeal to Assyria, he could only do so by supplying new enemies for Ahaz to combat. These, however, were appropriately found in the Philistines and Edomites, regarding whom the Chronicler seems to have had various traditions (see notes on xxi. 8, 16, xxvi. 6).

16. the kings] LXX. "king" (sing.). This monarch was Tiglath-pileser IV; cp. 1 Kin. xvi. 7.