HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 177
20.25 The magnitude of the victory is reflected in the overwhelming amount of booty taken.
20.26 The Hebrew for blessed has the same consonants as Beracah. This verse is an etymological etiology.
20.30 Jehoshaphat is rewarded with rest.
20.31–34 Cf. 1 Kings 22.41–45.
20.33 The Chronicler repeats the notice from 1 Kings 22.43 that the high places are not removed, but he omits a sentence from 1 Kings that says the people keep worshiping at those high places. In 17.6 the Chronicler states that Jehoshaphat has in fact removed the high places.
20.34 The source reference from 1 Kings is ascribed the prophetic authority of Jehu son of Hanani.
20.35–37 Cf. 1 Kings 22.48–49. According to 1 Kings, Jehoshaphat makes ships to go to Ophir, but they never sail since they are destroyed at Eziongeber. When King Ahaziah subsequently requests Jehoshaphat to allow the servants of the Northern Kingdom to go with him, Jehoshaphat refuses. In Chronicles, Jehoshaphat first makes a pact with the wicked Ahaziah, with the result that they join in building ships at Ezion-geber. The prophet Eliezer then intervenes and condemns Jehoshaphat for this alliance. As a result the Lord destroys the ships.
2 CHRONICLES 21
Jehoram’s Reign
1Jehoshaphat slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David; his son Jehoram succeeded him. 2He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of King Jehoshaphat of Judah.a 3Their father gave them many gifts, of silver, gold, and valuable possessions, together with fortified cities in Judah; but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn. 4When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he put all his brothers to the sword, and also some of the officials of Israel. 5Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done; for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. 7Yet the LORD would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his descendants forever.
Revolt of Edom
8In his days Edom revolted against the rule of Judah and set up a king of their own. 9Then Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and all his chariots. He set out by night and attacked the Edomites, who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders. 10So Edom has been in revolt against the rule of Judah to this day. At that time Libnah also revolted against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD, the God of his ancestors.
Elijah’s Letter
11Moreover he made high places in the hill country of Judah, and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness, and made Judah go astray. 12A letter came to him from the prophet Elijah, saying: “Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or in the ways of King Asa of Judah, 13but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into unfaithfulness, as the house of Ahab led Israel into unfaithfulness, and because you also have killed your brothers, members of your father’s house, who were better than yourself, 14see, the LORD will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions, 15and you yourself will have a severe sickness with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out, day after day, because of the disease.”
16The LORD aroused against Jehoram the anger of the Philistines and of the Arabs who are near the Ethiopians.b 17They came up against Judah, invaded it, and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king’s house, along with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son.
Disease and Death of Jehoram
18After all this the LORD struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. 19In course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor, like the fires made for his ancestors. 20He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed with no one’s regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
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a Gk Syr: Heb Israel
b Or Nubians; Heb Cushites
21.1–7 Cf. 1 Kings 22.50; 2 Kings 8.16–19.
21.2–4 These verses, which are not in Kings, indicate that the new king has six brothers. All the sons receive rich gifts from Jehoshaphat, but Jehoram, as the firstborn, becomes king after his father. By assigning them fortified cities the king scatters them throughout his realm.
21.2 Judah. The Hebrew reads Israel. The latter, as the more difficult reading, is preferred.
21.4 Solomon too eliminated rivals at the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 2). In view of the confusion in v. 2, Israel here may refer to the Southern Kingdom.
21.6 Jehoram’s conduct is like that of the kings of the Northern Kingdom, particularly the dynasty of Ahab. Both Kings and Chronicles note that the reason for this misbehavior was that the daughter of Ahab was his wife. Later, she will be identified as Athaliah.
21.7 Two things keep Jehoram and the dynasty from destruction in spite of the negative qualities of the king: the covenant the Lord made with David and the lamp (better “dominion”) the Lord promised him forever. The term covenant is added by Chronicles, and the house of David replaces “Judah” from 2 Kings 8.19.
21.8–10 Cf. 2 Kings 8.20–22.
21.8 Edom ’s successful revolt continues with only momentary exceptions until the end of the Southern Kingdom. David had conquered Edom, but it had rebelled already under Solomon (1 Kings 11.14–22). Perhaps Asa or Jehoshaphat regained control, but under Jehoram the breach becomes decisive.
21.10 Libnah, a city on the western, or Philistine, border of Judah. Since Edom was south to southeast from Judah, Jehoram is faced with conflict on two fronts. This revolt is God’s retribution for the king’s unfaithfulness.
21.11–20 The lengthy Elijah narrative from 1 Kings 17–19; 2 Kings 1–2 is omitted in Chronicles.
21.11 Jehoram restores the high places that Asa and Jehoshaphat had torn down.
21.12–15 Chronicles supplies a letter from the Northern prophet Elijah, Ahab’s constant critic, in which Jehoram, Ahab’s son-in-law and king in Jerusalem, is charged with following the kings of the North (v. 11) and with killing his own brothers (v. 4). Elijah announces a plague for the people and a dreadful illness for the king himself. Illness also brings immediate retribution for Asa (16.12–14) and Uzziah (26.16–21).
21.16–17 God’s agents of retribution are the Philistines and the Arabs, who deprive the king of wives and children, the normal signs of blessing.
21.18–19 The identity of the disease cannot be determined; colitis and dysentery have been suggested. At the end of two years, better “two days” (before his death). Came out, perhaps prolapsed. In contrast with Asa (16.14), there are no great ceremonial fires at his funeral. Jehoram is the first Davidic king whom the Chronicler judges in a totally negative way.
21.20 Cf. 2 Kings 8.23–24. Chronicles repeats chronological data from v. 5, but omits the source reference listed in 2 Kings 8.23. Not in the tombs of the kings. According to 2 Kings 8.24, Jehoram is buried in the tombs of his ancestors. Cf. 2 Chr. 24.25; 26.23.
2 CHRONICLES 22
Ahaziah’s Reign
1The inhabitants of Jerusalem made his youngest son Ahaziah king as his successor; for the troops who came with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram reigned as king of Judah. 2Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri. 3He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly. 4He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, a
s the house of Ahab had done; for after the death of his father they were his counselors, to his ruin. 5He even followed their advice, and went with Jehoram son of King Ahab of Israel to make war against King Hazael of Aram at Ramoth-gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram, 6and he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that he had received at Ramah, when he fought King Hazael of Aram. And Ahaziah son of King Jehoram of Judah went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
7But it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram. For when he came there he went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. 8When Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he met the officials of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers, who attended Ahaziah, and he killed them. 9He searched for Ahaziah, who was captured while hiding in Samaria and was brought to Jehu, and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” And the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom.
Athaliah Seizes the Throne
10Now when Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she set about to destroy all the royal family of the house of Judah. 11But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s children who were about to be killed; she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus Jehoshabeath, daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada—because she was a sister of Ahaziah—hid him from Athaliah, so that she did not kill him; 12he remained with them six years, hidden in the house of God, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
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22.1–9 Cf. 2 Kings 8.24b–10.14. Chronicles abbreviates the account from Kings and focuses on the Southern Kingdom.
22.1 Jehoram, who has killed all his brothers, loses his own sons to foreign troops because of divine retribution (cf. 21.16–17). Ahaziah cannot be forty-two years old, since his father is said to have died at forty (21.20). 2 Kings 8.26 sets his age at twenty-two. Granddaughter, in the Hebrew “daughter” (cf. 21.6).
22.3–4 Athaliah and other members of the Northern royal family mislead Ahaziah (cf. 21.6).
22.5 Ahab’s son Jehoram (the brother of Athaliah) is wounded at Ramoth-gilead, a city of the tribe of Gad, on the border between Aram (Syria) and the Northern Kingdom, Israel. Hazael had murdered Ben-hadad and then succeeded him (2 Kings 8.15).
22.6 Jezreel, summer palace of the kings of Israel.
22.7a The first half of v. 7, not taken from 2 Kings, articulates the Chronicler’s doctrine of retribution. The Chronicler criticizes each of the Judean kings contemporary with Ahab and his successors for making alliances with their Northern counterparts.
22.7b After a bloody coup, Jehu son of Nimshi rules Israel for twenty-eight years. The Chronicler omits the introduction to his reign from 2 Kings 9.1–20. Anointed. See 2 Kings 9.6, where a prophet sent by Elisha anoints Jehu.
22.8 According to 2 Kings 10.12–14, the princes of Judah are killed after the death of King Ahaziah.
22.9 In 2 Kings 9.27–28 Ahaziah is wounded near Ibleam, dies after fleeing to Megiddo, and is buried in Jerusalem. Ahaziah’s burial away from Jerusalem here may express the Chronicler’s negative evaluation of him. He is the grandson…kingdom is not in 2 Kings. Because Ahaziah is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, it is not appropriate to leave him unburied.
22.10–12 Cf. 2 Kings 11.1–3. Athaliah ’s seizure of power here differs little from the account in 2 Kings. Note that Jehoshabeath (in Kings “Jehosheba”) is the wife of the priest Jehoiada, who plays a prominent role in the revolution against Athaliah (v. 11). Jehoshabeath is the half sister of Ahaziah. Neither Kings nor Chronicles regards Athaliah as legitimate, so both omit the standard royal introductory and concluding notices.
2 CHRONICLES 23
1But in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage, and entered into a compact with the commanders of the hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri. 2They went around through Judah and gathered the Levites from all the towns of Judah, and the heads of families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiadaa said to them, “Here is the king’s son! Let him reign, as the LORD promised concerning the sons of David. 4This is what you are to do: one-third of you, priests and Levites, who come on duty on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers, 5one-third shall be at the king’s house, and one-third at the Gate of the Foundation; and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD. 6Do not let anyone enter the house of the LORD except the priests and ministering Levites; they may enter, for they are holy, but all the otherb people shall observe the instructions of the LORD. 7The Levites shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the house shall be killed. Stay with the king in his comings and goings.”
Joash Crowned King
8The Levites and all Judah did according to all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; each brought his men, who were to come on duty on the sabbath, with those who were to go off duty on the sabbath; for the priest Jehoiada did not dismiss the divisions. 9The priest Jehoiada delivered to the captains the spears and the large and small shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of God; 10and he set all the people as a guard for the king, everyone with weapon in hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house. 11Then he brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant;c they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they shouted, “Long live the king!”
Athaliah Murdered
12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went into the house of the LORD to the people; 13and when she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration. Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” 14Then the priest Jehoiada brought out the captains who were set over the army, saying to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; anyone who follows her is to be put to the sword.” For the priest said, “Do not put her to death in the house of the LORD.” 15So they laid hands on her; she went into the entrance of the Horse Gate of the king’s house, and there they put her to death.
16Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the LORD’s people. 17Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. 18Jehoiada assigned the care of the house of the LORD to the levitical priests whom David had organized to be in charge of the house of the LORD, to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David. 19He stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean. 20And he took the captains, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the upper gate to the king’s house. They set the king on the royal throne. 21So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed with the sword.
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a Heb He
b Heb lacks other
c Or treaty, or testimony; Heb eduth
23.1–7 Cf. 2 Kings 11.4–8.
23.1 Compact, in the Hebrew “covenant.” Cf. vv. 3, 16. Chronicles adds the names of the commanders of the hundreds to materials inherited from 2 Kings.
23.2 Chronicles gives a role in the revolution to the Levites and the family heads of Israel in
stead of restricting the revolutionaries, with 2 Kings, to the captains of the hundreds, the Carites, and the royal household. The clergy may have been unhappy with Athaliah’s fostering of Baalism (v. 17). The participation of the family heads of Israel indicates that all Israel backs the revolution.
23.3 The whole assembly makes a covenant according to Chronicles; in 2 Kings the covenant was only with the military commanders. King, an addition, referring to Joash. Jehoiada, according to Chronicles, based the installation of Joash on the promise to David.
23.4–5 It is difficult to identify precisely which people are stationed where. Staging the revolution at the change of shifts is a brilliant strategy.
23.5 Gate of the Foundation. 2 Kings 11.6 reads “gate Sur.”
23.6 The addition of the first half of this verse by the Chronicler makes it clear that laypeople do not intrude on forbidden areas of the temple.
23.7 Levites. The identity of the king’s guards is not given in 2 Kings.
23.8–11 Cf. 2 Kings 11.9–12.
23.8 The Levites and all Judah. 2 Kings 11.9 reads “The captains.” Jehoiada did not dismiss the divisions. Thus they stayed in the temple area to help with the revolution.
23.10 All the people. 2 Kings 11.11 reads “the guards.”
23.12–21 Cf. 2 Kings 11.13–20.
23.12 And praising the king, an addition in Chronicles.
23.13 And the singers…celebration, an addition in Chronicles, underlining the writer’s interest in music.
23.14 Jehoiada’s own son will later die in the temple (24.21).
23.15 Horse Gate. Ironically, Athaliah’s mother, Jezebel, was trampled by horses (2 Kings 9.33).
23.16 Jehoiada, the people, and the king are the covenant partners; in 2 Kings 11.17 the covenant partners are the Lord, the king, and the people.