A. M. 3001. A. C. 1003; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4654. A. C. 757. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. viceroy to his father, he had the whole administration in his hands for some years before. He was a prince a famous for all excellent qualities and virtues; a man exemplary for his reverence to God, his justice to men, and his care for the commonwealth. He made it his business to set and keep things in order; to rectify whatever he found amiss; and in matters of religion would have made a thorough reformation, but that his people were extremely wicked, and obstructed his designs. He took care, notwithstanding, to repair the temple; to rebuild the high gate which led from his palace; and, to secure himself against hostile invasions, raised several structures, both in the mountains and forests, for the service and strength of the kingdom. he sent the prophet Isaiah to encourage him in the defence of the city, and, to assure him that they should not succeed in their attempt, he gave him two signs, the one to be accomplished speedily, and the other at some distance of time. The former was, 2 that the son which the prophet then had by his wife, should not be of age to discern between good and evil, before both these kings should be cut off from the land. The other was, that a virgin should conceive and bear a son, who should be called Emanuel, so that he might rest himself satisfied; because the destruction of the house of David could in no case happen until the Messiah should be born, in this miraculous manner, of a virgin descended from that family: and accordingly the two kings, finding themselves not able to carry the town so soon as they expected, raised the siege and returned home. This deliverance, however, made no other impression upon Ahaz, than that, instead of being reformed, he grew more wicked and obdurate in his sins. For he not only set up the worship of the golden calves, for which he had not the same politic reason that the kings of Israel had, but made molten images likewise for all the inferior gods of the heathens. To these he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Nay, and to add to all his other impieties, made his sons' pass through the fire to Moloch,' in the valley of the sons of Hinnom; for which provo The Moabites, however, though they had been formerly conquered by David, and made tributary to the crown of Judah, were now become so powerful, that they invaded Jotham; but he, with a good body of men, soon drove them out of his country, and imposed on them a tribute of 100 talents of silver, 10,000 measures of wheat, and as many of barley, to be paid him yearly. For three years they continued to pay it; but when Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Israel, entered into a confederacy against Judah, they took this opportunity of revolting; and Jotham indeed had his hands too full ever to attempt to reduce them. He, however, died in peace, before the preparations for war that were making against him took effect; and being buried in the royal sepulchre of his ancestors, left his son Ahaz, who was then about c In the primary but lower sense of this prophecy, the sign twenty years of age, but much degenerated from his fa- was given to assure Ahaz that the land of Judea would be speedither's piety, under a fearful apprehension of the ap-ly delivered from the kings of Samaria and Damascus, by whom proaching war. The design of the two confederate kings, upon the taking of Jerusalem, was to have extirpated the whole house of David, and set up a new king over Judah, the son of Tabeal; but as God's design was only to punish Ahaz, and not to cut off the whole family of David his servant, 1 Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, b. ix. c. 11. death. This solution is the more probable, as we find from the case of Jehoshaphat and his son (2 Kings viii. 16.), that in those days such a practice was not uncommon.-Dick on the Inspiration of the Scriptures, p. 299. The application of the rule above stated will also remove the apparent contradiction between 2 Kings xxiv. 8, and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, Jehoiachim being eight years old when he was associated with his father, and eighteen years old when he began to reign alone. The application of this rule will reconcile many other seeming contradictions in the books of Kings and Chronicles.-Horne's Introduction. -ED. a Solomon Jarchi here observes, that all the kings of Judah had some crime or other laid to their charge, except this Jotham: that David himself sinned grievously in the matter of Uriah; that Solomon by his wives was drawn into idolatry; that Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord, and Abijah walked in his steps: that Asa sent the treasures of the temple to the king of Syria, and put the prophet in the stocks: that Jehoshaphat entered into society with the idolatrous; and so he goes on with all the rest: but in Jotham, says he, there is no fault found, which, in an age of general corruption, is pretty wonderful, unless we may suppose, that the people's sacrificing and burning incense still on high places, (2 Kings xv. 35.) which he by his authority might have removed, be imputable to him as a fault.-Patrick's Commentary. * Is. viii. 4. 3 Ibid. vii. 14. e it was invaded. But the introduction of the prophecy the singular stress laid upon it, and the exact sense of the terms in which it is expressed, made it in a high degree probable that it had another and more important purpose; and the event has clearly proved that the sign given, had secondarily and mystically much more momentous than that of Ahaz from his then present a respect to the miraculous birth of Christ, and to a deliverance distressful situation.-Horne's Introduction.—ED. d 2 Chron, xxviii, 23. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him.' However stupid it was to imagine that they had any power over him, who could not defend themselves from Tiglatli-Pileser, yet, being of opinion that they were gods, he endeavoured by sacrifices to appease them, that they might do him no farther hurt. Thus the ancient Romans, by sacrifices, intreated the gods of their enemies to come over to them, and to be their friends.-See Jackson's Original of Unbelief, c. 17.-ED. e Interpreters are agreed that this passing through the fire' was performed either by causing the child to pass between two fires made near one another, by way of its consecration to the service of Moloch, or by putting it in the body of the idol made of brass, and heated extremely hot, so that it was immediately burned to death. But then, to abate the horror of the crime, some are of opinion that Ahaz made his sons pass through the fire in the former sense only, and that because we find Hezekiah survive and succeed him in the throne, and another of his sons, namely, Maaseiah, slain by Zichri, at his taking of Jerusalem; but this does not hinder Ahaz from having other sons, not mentioned in the history, whom he might make sacrifices to Moloch. The Scripture says expressly, that he made his sons to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel,' (2 Kings xvi. 3.) Now it is incontestably true that the ancient inhabitants of the land of Israel did frequently imitate the heathens in these barbarities: They offered their sons and their daughters unto devils, b Who this person was, it is nowhere said in Scripture; but and defiled the land with innocent blood, which they offered unto he seems to have been some potent and factious Jew, who having the idols of Canaan,' (Ps. cvi. 36. See Ezek. xvi. 20, 21, and revolted from his master the king of Judah, excited and stirred xxiii, 37-39.) And therefore it is reasonable to think that he up this war against him, out of an ambitious aim of plucking him did the same, and that this is recorded against him as an aggravadown from his throne, and reigning in his stead. — Prideaux'stion of his other crimes.-Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. Connection, anno 747. f Hinnom, in all probability, was some eminent person in A. M. 301. A. C. 1003; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M 4670. A. C. 741. I KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. cations the Lord brought upon him the same confederate | sury of the temple, and as large promises to become army the year following. This, dividing itself into three his vassal and tributary for ever, if he would but send bodies, the first under Rezin king of Syria, the second forces to his assistance against his enemies. under Pekah king of Israel, and the third under Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, invaded his kingdom in three different parts at the same time. The king of Assyria readily laid hold on this invitation; and, marching with a great army against Rezin king of Syria, he slew him in battle, besieged and took Rezin took Elah, out of which he drove the Jews, his capital of Damascus ; and, having reduced the whole and settled the Edomites in it; and having loaded his country under his dominion, transplanted the people to army with spoils, and taken a vast number of captives, | Kir, a place in the Upper Media, and so put an end to returned to Damascus. Pekah, with his army, marched the kingdom of Syria in Damascus, after it had condirectly against Ahaz, and gave him a terrible overthrow, tinued for nine or ten generations. wherein he destroyed no less than 120,000 of his men: and Zichri, taking advantage of this victory, marched to Jerusalem; and having taken the royal city, slew Maaseiah the king's son, and all the great men of the kingdom whom he found there. After this, both these armies of Israel, in their return, carried with them vast spoils, and above 200,000 captives, whom they intended to have sold for slaves but as they approached Samaria, the prophet Oded, with the principal inhabitants of the city, came out to meet them, and, after proper remonstrances of their cruelty to their brethren, prevailed with them not only to release the prisoners, but to let them likewise be clothed and relieved out of the spoils they had taken, and so sent back to their own houses. The kingdom of Judah was no sooner delivered from these enemies, but it was invaded by others, who treated it with the same cruelty; for the Edomites to the south, and the Philistines to the west, seized on those parts which lay contiguous to them, and, by ravages and inroads, did all the mischief they could to the rest. Being reduced to this low condition, and seeing no other remedy left to his affairs, Ahaz sent an embassy to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, with a large present of all the gold and silver that he could find in the trea ancient times, to whom this valley belonged, and to whose posterity it descended, and is therefore sometimes called the valley of the children of Hinnom.' It was a famous plot of ground on the east side of Jerusalem, and so delightfully shaded, that it invited the people to make it a place of idolatrous worship, whereby it became infamous, and was at last turned into a public dunghill, or receptacle, where all the filth and excrements of the city were brought and burned; for which purpose there was a perpetual fire kept, which made it a kind of image or representation of hell.-Patrick's Commentary on Josh. xv. 8. The place now shown as the valley of Hinnom is a deep ravine, closed on the right by the steep declivity of mount Zion, and on the left by a line of cliffs, more or less elevated. From some points in these cliff's tradition relates that the apostate betrayer of our Lord sought his desperate end: and the position of the trees, which in various parts overhang the brow of the cliff, accord with the manner of his death. -Jowett's Christian Researches.-ED. a Elah, or Elam, as we took notice before, was a famous port on the Red Sea, which David in his conquest of the kingdom of Edom took, and there established a great trade to divers parts of the world. In the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, the Edomites recovered their liberty, and became sole masters of this city, until the time that Uzziah recovered it to the dominion of Judah, (2 Kings xiv. 22.) but, in the reign of Ahaz, the Syrians retook it, and restored it to the Edomites: and why they chose to do this, rather than keep so advantageous a place in their own possession, we may learn from what we read of the Edomites, (2 Chron. xxviii. 17.) namely, that they invaded Judah, as auxiliaries to the king of Syria, much about the time that he was engaged in war with that kingdom; and therefore it is no wonder that he should give up a place which lay at too great a distance for him to keep, to the Edomites, whose originally it was, and who made perhaps the restitution of it one article of their confederacy with him-Patrick's and Le Clerc's Commentaries. | After this he marched against Pekah, seized all that 'belonged to Israel beyond Jordan; and, having plundered the land of Galilee, proceeded towards Jerusalem with an intent to squeeze more money out of Ahaz, which when he had done, by making him cut the vessels of the temple to pieces, and melt them down to satisfy his avarice, he marched back to Damascus, and there wintered, without doing him any further service. These indignities, which another man might have resented, b In the time of Abraham, Damascus was in being; and some of the ancients inform us that this patriarch reigned there immediately after Damascus, its founder. This much is certain, that one whom he had made free, and appointed steward in his house, was of Damascus, (Gen, xv. 2.) at the time that he pursued Chedorlaomer, and the five confederated kings, as far as Hobah, which lies northward of Damascus, (Gen. xiv. 15.) The Scripture says nothing more of this city until the time of David, when Hadad, who, according to Josephus, (Jewish Antiq, b. vii. mascus, sending troops to the assistance of Hadadezer king of c. 6.) was the first who took upon him the title of king of DaZabah, was himself defeated by David, and his country subdued. Towards the end of Solomon's reign, Rezin recovered the kingdom of Damascus, and shook off the Jewish yoke, (1 Kings xi, the help of Benhadad king of Damascus, against Baa-ha king of 23, &c.) Some time after this, Asa king of Judah, implored Israel, (1 Kings xv. 18.) And from his time the kings of Damascus were generally called Benhadad, till, in this last controversy with them, Ahaz called in the assistance of the king of Assyria, who killed their king, and carried his subjects into captivity, according to the predictions of Isaiah vii. 9, and Amos vii.-Cal met's Dict. under the word. [The present city of Damascus is of a long straight figure, extending about two miles, and lying nearly in the direction of north-east and south-west. It is surrounded with gardens, stretching no less, according to common estimation, than thirty miles around; which gives it the appearance of a city in the midst of a vast wood. The gardens are thickly planted with fruit trees of all kinds, that are kept fresh and verdant by the waters of the Banady. Numerous turrets and gilded steeples, glittering in the blazing sunbeam among the green boughs, diversify and heighten the beauty of the prospect. On the north side of this vast wood, is a place called Solkas, crowded with beautiful summer-houses and gardens. This delightful scene, and even the city itself, may be considered as the creation of the Banady, which supplies both the gardens and the city, diffusing beauty and fertility wherever it flows.]— Parton's Illustrations-ED. c In 2 Chron. xxviii. 20 we read, that Tiglath-Pileser came unto Alaz, and distressed, but strengthened him not.' And yet. in 2 Kings xvi. 9, it is said, that he did help him; and bew then can he be said to have distressed him? Very well; for us he came to his assistance against the king of Syria, so he took Damascus, carried the people captive, and delivered Ahaz fre the power of the Syrians; but this did Ahaz little good, for be helped him not to recover the cities which the Philistines bad taken from him. He lent him no forces, nor enabled him to recruit his own; on the contrary, he rather weakened him by exhausting his treasures, and destroying Samaria, which opened a way for the invasion of his country with more facility, as it happened in the next reign. For it is no uncommon thing, even in later ages, to hear of kingdoms that have called in the help of some foreign prince against their enemies, overrun and quered by those who came to their assistance.-Patrick's Com mentary. A. M. 3246. A. C. 758; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4670. A. C. 741. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. Ahaz, in his circumstances, thought proper to overlook; and not only so, but when he heard that Tiglath-Pileser was returned to Damascus, he went thither to pay him homage and obeisance, as his vassal and tributary. While he continued at Damascus, he happened to see an idolatrous altar, of so curious a make and figure in his opinion, that he ordered a model of it to be taken, and sent to Urijah, the high priest at Jerusalem, a with injunctions to have another made as like it as possible; and when he returned, he removed the altar of the Lord out of its place in the temple, and ordered this new one to be set up in its stead, and that sacrifices for the future should be offered on it alone. ing that they had helped their respective people; whereas his God, forsooth, had forsaken him, and therefore deserved no farther homage. But in the height of all his impiety and profaneness, he was cut off by a sudden stroke, in the very prime of his age, after he had lived six and thirty, and reigned sixteen years; and, being buried in the city of David, though not in the royal sepulchres, d for that honour he was denied because of his iniquities, he was succeeded by his son Hezekiah, who was a worthy and religious prince. The truth is, the more his misfortunes came upon him, the greater his contempt of Almighty God grew: insomuch that, having defaced several of the most stately vessels of the temple, he caused it at last to be wholly shut up; and, suppressing all divine worship throughout the kingdom, in the room thereof he set up the worship of the gods of the Syrians, and of other nations, alleg a It must not be denied, indeed, but that the high priest carried his complaisance much too far, in obeying the king's injunction, which he ought, with all his power and interest, to have opposed. God prescribed to Moses in what form, and with what materials, he was to make the altar, (Exod. xxvii. 1, &c.) The altar which Solomon made, was indeed four times as large, (2 Chron. iv. 1.) but then God had given such solemn testimony of his approbation of it, that there was no touching it without impiety; for the high priest could not but know that this innovation of the king's did not proceed from any principle of religion, but from a design to degrade the altar of the Lord, as well as the other sacred vessels of the temple. But what shall we say for this? There will, in all ages, be some men found, who will be ready to execute the most impious commands that can possibly come from the throne.-Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. e In the five and twentieth year of his age Hezekiah d 2 Chron. xxviii. 27. The Israelites were accustomed to honour in a peculiar manner the memory of those kings who had reigned over them uprightly. On the contrary, some marks of posthumous disgrace followed those monarchs who left the world under the disapprobation of their people. The proper place of interment was in Jerusalem. There, in some appointed receptacle, the remains of their princes were deposited: and, from the circumstance of this being the cemetery for successive rulers, it was said, when one died and was so buried, that he was gathered to his fathers. Several instances occur in the history of the kings of Israel, wherein, on certain accounts, they were not thus interred with their predecessors, but in some other place in Jerusalem. So it was with Ahaz, who, though brought into the city, was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. In some other cases, perhaps to mark out a greater degree of censure, they were taken to a small distance from Jerusalem. It is said that Uzziah was buried with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, he is a leper.' (2 Chron. xxvi. 23.) It was doubtless with a design to make a suitable impression on the minds of their kings while living, that such distinctions were made after their decease. They might thus restrain them from evil or excite them to good, according as they were fearful of being execrated, or desirous of being honoured, when they were dead. The Egyptians had a custom in some measure similar to this: it was, however, general as to all persons, though it received very particular attention, as far as it concerned their kings. It is thus described in FrankThe words in the text, according to our translation, are, lin's History of Ancient and Modern Egypt, (vol. i. p. 374.) Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver "As soon as a man was dead, he was brought to his trial. The from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen public accuser was heard. If he proved the deceased had led a that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones, and bad life, his memory was condemned, and he was deprived of the covert for the sabbath, that they had built in the house, and the honours of sepulture. Thus, that sage people were affected the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord, with laws which extended even beyond the grave, and every for the king of Assyria.' (2 Kings xvi. 17, 18.) His removing one, struck with the disgrace inflicted on the dead person, was the bases, the laver, and the brazen sea, was palpably with a de- afraid to reflect dishonour on his own memory, and that of his sign to deface the service of God in the temple, and thence to family. But what was singular, the sovereign himself was not bring it to public contempt; but then commentators are much at exempt from this public inquest upon his death. The public a loss to know what we are to understand by the covert for peace was interested in the lives of their sovereigns in their adthe sabbath within, and the king's entry without the temple.' ministration, and as death terminated all their actions, it was Now the prophet Ezekiel tells us expressly, that the gate of the then deemed for the public welfare that they should suffer an inner court which looked towards the east, was opened only on impartial scrutiny by a public trial, as well as the most common the sabbath, and on the day of the new moon;' and that in these subject. Even some of them were not ranked among the hondays the king was to enter into the temple at this gate, and oured dead; and consequently were deprived of public burial. continue at the entrance of the priests' court, where was the The Israelites would not suffer the bodies of some of their flagibrazen scaffold which Solomon erected, (2 Chron. vi. 13.) a tious princes to be carried into the sepulchres appropriated to place for the king to pay his devotions on, until his sacrifices their virtuous sovereigns. The custom was singular: the effect were offered; and if so, the musack, which we translate cover, must have been powerful and influential. The most haughty might be a kind of canopy, or other covered place, under which despot saw, by the solemn investigation of human conduct, that the king sat when he came to the service of the temple on the at death he also would be doomed to infamy and execution." sabbath, or other great solemnities, which was therefore called What degree of conformity there was between the practice of the covert of the sabbath; and the reason why the king ordered the Israelites and the Egyptians, and with whom the custom first this to be taken away was because he intended to trouble him- originated, may be difficult to ascertain and decide, but the conself no more with coming to the temple, and by this action to duct of the latter appears to be founded on the same principle as express his hatred likewise, and contempt of the sabbath. that of the former, and as it is more circumstantially detailed, Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries, and Spencer on the Laws atiords us an agreeable explanation of a rite but slightly menof the Hebrews, b. i. c. 1. tioned in the Scriptures.-ED. - c This was a monstrous stupidity, to think that these gods had any power over him, who could not defend themselves from the arms of Tiglath-Pileser! Thinking, however, that they had distressed him, he sacrificed to them, in order to appease their wrath, that they might do him no farther hurt; in the same manner as the ancient Romans were wont to bribe the gods of their enemies with larger sacrifices than ordinary, in hopes of bringing them over to their party, and making them their friends.-Patrick's Commentary. e Of Ahaz it is recorded that he was but twenty years old when he began to reign,' and that he reigned sixteen before he died; so that in the whole he lived six and thirty years, (2 Kings xvi. 2.) Now his son Hezekiah is said to have been five and twenty years old when he began to reign,' (2 Kings xviii. 2.) and consequently his father must have begot him when he was eleven years old, which seems a little incredible: and, to solve this difficulty, commentators have taken several ways. Some have imagined that Hezekiah was not the real, but adopted son only A. M. 3246. A. C. 758; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4670. A. C. 741. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. began to reign; and, after he had got the full possession of the kingdom, (for, during his father's illness, he acted only as viceroy under him,) he began in good earnest to set about a thorough reformation of religion. To this purpose he caused the doors of the temple, which his father had ordered to be shut up, to be opened; his father's new altar to be removed; the altar of the Lord to of Ahaz, and might therefore succeed his foster-father at this or any other age; but this hypothesis, as Bochart observes, spoils the descent of our Saviour from David. Others suppose that there was an interregnum for some years, occasioned by a sedition that happened in Jerusalem: but there is no foundation for this hypothesis in history; on the contrary it is much more likely that, as Hezekiah was a man grown, and greatly beloved by the people, he should immediately succeed upon his father's demise. Others imagine that, in detestation of Ahaz's wickedness, his reign is omitted in this account, and that therefore the passage should be thus rendered: Ahaz was twenty years old when his father began to reign.' But this is reversing the order of words in the text, and turning them into a sense that is far from being natural. Others, not satisfied with any of these solutions, will needs have it that there is an error crept into the text itself by the negligence of some transcriber, who, instead of twenty, made Hezekiah five and twenty years old when his reign commenced, merely by mistaking the numerical letters: but it is not so well, even in numerical matters, which are most liable to variation, to find any fault with the text except where there is no other tolerable solution, which is not the case here. In these days, and long before, it was no unusual thing, upon several considerations, for kings to take the son who was to succeed them into partnership with them before they died. Now Ahaz, by his mismanagement, had brought himself into so many intangle ments (2 Chron, xxviii. 16, &c. and xxix. 7, &c.) as to want an assistaut in the government, and accordingly, it appears that he admitted his son in that capacity. For, whereas it is said of Hezekiah that he began to reign in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, (2 Kings xviii. 1.) and of Hoshea that he began to reign in the fourteenth year of Ahaz, (2 Kings xvii. 1.) it is evident that Hezekiah began to reign in the fourteenth year of Ahaz his father, and so reigned two or three years before his father's death. So that at the first date of his reign, which was in conjunction with his father, he might be but two or three and twenty, and his father, consequently, when he begot him, two or three years older than the common computation. But there is another way of solving this difficulty. It is a common thing, both in sacred and profane authors, in the computation of time, to take no notice whether the year they mention be perfect or imperfect, whether finished or but newly begun. Upon this account Ahaz might be near one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and near seventeen years older when he died: and, on the other hand, Hezekiah when he began to reign, might be but just entering into his five and twentieth year, and by this means Ahaz might be near fourteen years old when he begat Hezekiah, which is no extraordinary thing at all. Nay, even upon the lowest supposition, that he was but eleven or twelve years old, yet instances are innumerable, such as Bochart and others have given, of persons that have procreated children at that age: for it is not so much the number of years, as the nature of the climate, the constitution of the body, the stature of the person, the quality of the diet, &c., that ought to be considered in this affair.-Bochart's Phaleg. p. 920; Millar's History of the Church, p. 201; Bedford's Scripture Chronology, Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries. [According to Dr Boothroyd, Ahaz was twenty-five years of age when he began to reign, and if this emendation be correct, the difficulty in question vanishes; for Ahaz would then have been only sixteen years of age when he begat Hezekiah.-See Boothroyd on 2 Kings be restored to its place again; and whatever other pollu tions it had contracted during his father's administration, he ordered them all to be purged and done away. Then calling the priests and Levites together, he required them to sanctify themselves according to the directions of the law; and, after that, the former he appointed to offer sacrifices, in order to atone for the king's, their own, and the people's sins; and the latter, with The words in the text are,- For a sin-offering for the kingdom,' that is, for the king's sins and those of his predecessors; for the sanctuary,' for the priests' sins, and the profanations of the temple; and for Judah,' that is, for all the people who had followed the bad examples of their impious kings. Now, the offering which the law prescribed for the transgression of the people, was a young bullock; and for the offences of the prince, was a goat, (Lev. iv. 23, &c.) but good Hezekiah, we find, was willing to do more than the law commanded. He was sensible that both prince and people had been guilty, not only of sins of ignorance, for which these sacrifices were instituted, but of wilful and presumptuous crimes of gross idolatry, a profanation of the temple, and an utter extinction of the worship of God; and therefore he appointed seven bullocks for a burnt-offering, and as many goats for a sin-offering, upon presumption that these numerous sacrifices were, if not necessary, at least highly fit and becoming, upon the account of the great and long neglect of divine service, and the multitude and long continuance of their other offences against God, for which they were now to beg for giveness.-Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. c Moses, in the service of the tabernacle, did not appoint the use of many musical instruments; only he caused some trumpets to be made, which, upon solemn occasions, were to be sounded at the time when the burnt-offering and peace-offering were upen the altar, (Num. x. 10.) But David, by the advice of the prophets Gad and Nathan, introduced several kinds of music into the service of the temple, as a thing highly conducive to inspire people with respect, with joy, and with affection for the solemnities and assemblies of religion, (1 Chron. xxiii. 5, and xxv. 1.) and it is farther observable, that the institution of music, in religious assemblies, is not a matter of human invention, but what was ordained by God, and has the sanction and authority of his prophets to confirm it; for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets,' (2 Chron. xxix. 25.) [The musical instruments of the Hebrews are, perhaps, what has been hitherto least understood of anything in Scripture. Calmet considers them under three classes; 1st, stringed instruments; 2nd, hand in struments, or divers kinds of flutes; 3d, different kinds of drums. (1) Of stringed instruments, are the nabel, and the psaltery, a psanneterin. (Dan .iii. 5.) These three names apparently sig nify nearly, or altogether, the same thing. They considerably resembled the harp; the ancient cythæra or the ashur, or the tenstringed instrument; both were nearly of the figure A: but the nablum or psaltery, was hollow toward the top, and played on toward the bottom, whereas the cythæra or ten-stringed instrument was played on the upper part, and was hollow below; both were touched by a small bow or fret, or by the fingers. The kinnor, et ancient lyre, had sometimes six, sometimes nine strings, strung from top to bottom, and sounded by means of a hollow belly, over which they passed; they were touched by a small bow, or fret, or by the finger. The ancient symphony was nearly the same as our vial. The sambuc was a stringed instrument, which was nearly the same, it is thought, as the modern psaltery. (2.) We discover in Scripture various sorts of trumpets and flutes, of which it is difficult to ascertain the forms. The most remarkable of this kind is the ancient organ, in Hebrew huggab, the ancient pipe f Pan, now common among us. (3.) Drums were of many kinds; the Hebrew tupt, whence comes tympanum, is taken for all kinds of drums or timbrels. The zabzelim is commonly translated by the LXX and the Vulgate, cymbala; instruments of brass of very clattering sound, made in the form of a cap or hat, and struck one against the other, while held one in each hand. Later interpreters by zabzelim, understand the sistrum; an instrument anciently very common in Egypt. It was nearly of an oval figure, and crossed by brass wires, which jingled upon being shaken, while their ends were secured from falling out of the frame, by their heads being larger than the orifice which contain ed the wire. The Hebrews mention an instrument called sa A. M. 3246. A C. 758, OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 4686. A. C. 725. 1 KINGS viii. TO THE END OF 2 CHRON. musical instruments, to sing praises to God in the words | Manasseh, and Zebuluu, should laugh at Hezekiah's of David, a aud of Asaph the seer. Having thus restored the service of the temple, he proposed with himself to revive the passover, which, by reason of the division of the kingdom, and the frequent commotions that had happened thereupon, had not been regularly observed for a long while. To this purpose, he advised with the princes, and chief men of the kingdom; and because it was thought, that neither the temple, the priests, nor the people, could be sufficiently sanctified, against the usual time of observing it, which was in the first month of the year, it was resolved, that it should be celebrated in the second: and accordingly a proclamation was issued out, requiring not only the people of Judah, but all other Israelites of whatever tribe they were, to come to this solemnity. It could hardly be expected but that, after so long a disuse of this holy festival, an attempt to revive it should meet with some scorn and opposition; and therefore we need not wonder that many of the tribes of Ephraim, leshim, which the LXX translate cymbala; but Jerome sistra. It is found only in 1 Sam. xviii, 6. The term shaleshim suggests that it was of three sides, (triangular) and it might be that ancient triangular instrument, which carried on each side several rings, that were jingled by a stick, and gave a sharp rattling sound. The original also mentions mezzilothaim, which were of brass, and of a sharp sound. This word is usually translated cymbala; some however render it tintinnabula, little bells, which is countenanced by Zechariah xiv. 20, which says, the time shall come when on the bracelets of the horses shall be written Holiness to the Lord!' We know that bells were anciently worn by horses trained for war to accustom them to noise.-Calmet abridged.-ED. a David was both a great poet and master of music, and might therefore modulate and compose his own hymns; but whether the music of them might not be altered and improved in after ages, because the words only are here taken notice of, is a matter of some uncertainty. The Asaph here mentioned was the person who lived in David's days, so famous for his skill in music, and the several devout pieces, which he composed, are those which we meet with in the collection of the Psalms; but others will needs have it, but for what reason I cannot tell, that the author of the Psalms ascribed to Asaph, was another person who lived in after times, though perhaps of the same family, as well as name, with this famous Asaph who lived in David's.-Patrick's Commentary. messengers, when they invited them to this feast. Great multitudes, however, even from those parts, came to Jerusalem upon this occasion; and the concourse indeed was so numerous, that this might be justly reckoned one of the greatest passovers that had been solemnized from the days of king Solomon. The time which the law directs for the continuance of this feast, is seven days; but forasmuch as it had been long neglected, they now doubled the time, and kept it for fourteen, with great joy and gladness of heart: and as soon as the solemnity was ended, those that belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, d went and brake the images in pieces, cut down the groves, threw down the high places, and altars belonging to strange gods, and absolutely destroyed all the monuments of idolatry which were any where to be found, either in Jerusalem, Judea, or any of the coasts belonging to them; as those of the other tribes, in their return home, did the same in all the rest of Israel; so that idolatry was quite abolished, and the true worship of God again universally restored. Nay there was one thing, namely, the brazen serpent, e which might have been of innocent use, and served in d This, as the text tells us, was done not only in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but in those of Ephraim also and Manasseh, (2 Chron. xxxi. 1.) which though they were part of Hoshea's dominion, yet Hezekiah might direct this abolition of idolatry in them, in virtue of a law which bound Israel, as well as Judah, and required the extirpation of these things in the whole land of Canaan; by the special impulse and direction of God's Spirit, which puts men upon heroic actions, though not to be drawn into imitation; or out of a firm persuasion that his neighbour Hoshea, who had permitted his subjects to repair to the passover, would approve and consent to what he did in this respect.-Poole's Annotations. e The reason which the Scripture assigns for Hezekiah's destroying this brazen serpent is, because unto this day the children of Israel had burnt incense to it,' (2 Kings xviii. 4.) We are not however to suppose, that, all along from the days of Moses, this brazen serpent was made an object of religious worship: this is what neither David nor Solomon, in the beginning of his reign, would have allowed of; nor can we think, but that either Asa or Jehoshaphat, when they rooted out idolatry, would have made an end of this, had they perceived that the people, at that time, either paid worship or burnt incense to it. The commencement The direction which the law gives, is,-That the passover of this superstition therefore must be of a later date, and since should be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, the time that Ahab's family, by being allied to the crown of which the Jews call Nisan; but because it was found impossible Judah by marriage, introduced all kinds of idolatry. Now, one to get all things in readiness against that time, it was judged more false inducement to the worship of this image might be a mistake advisable to adjourn it to the fourteenth of the next month, of the words of Moses. For whereas it is said, that whosoever which the Jews call Jair, rather than stay to the next year; and looketh upon it shall live,' (Num. xxi. 1.) some might thence for this they had some encouragement; because the law allows, fancy, that, by its mediation, they might obtain a blessing, and so that, in case any man shall be unclean, by reason of a dead make it the object of their superstition at first. However, we body, or be on a journey afar off, he may eat the passover on may imagine that their burning incense, or any other perfumes the fourteenth day of the second month,' (Num. ix. 10, 11.) and before it, was designed only in honour to the true God, by whose what was an indulgence to particular persons, they thought might direction Moses made it; but then, in process of their superstiwell be allowed to the whole congregation of Israel.-Patrick'stion, they either worshipped the God of Israel under that image, Commentary. e Hezekiah, it is certain, had no right to invite Hoshea's subjects to repair to Jerusalem to the celebration of his passover; yet for the doing of this, we may well presume, that he had encouragement from Hoshea himself, who, as to the matter of religion, as we said before, has a better character in Scripture than any of his predecessors from the division of the two kingdoms. But the truth of the matter was, that both the golden calves, which had made this political separation, were now taken away, that of Dan by Tiglath-Pileser, and the other of Bethel, by his son Salmaneser; and therefore the apostate Jews, being thus deprived of their idols, began to return to the Lord, and to go up to Jerusalem to worship, for some time before Hezekiah made them this invitation to his passover.-Prideaux's Connection, nuo 729. or what is worse, substituted a heathen God in his room, and worshipped the brazen serpent as his image; which they might more easily be induced to do, because the practice of some neighbouring nations was to worship their gods under the form of a serpent. Upon this account Hezekiah wisely chose rather to lose this memorial of God's wonderful mercy to his people in the wilderness, than to suffer.it any longer to be abused to idolatry, and therefore 'he brake it in pieces,' that is, as the Talmudists explain it, he ground it to powder, and then scattered it in the air, that there might not be the least remains of it. And yet, notwithstanding all the care which he took to destroy it, Sigonius in his history of Italy, tells us, that in the church of St Ambrose, in Milan, they show a brazen serpent entire, which they pretend to be the very same which Moses erected in the wilderness; though it must be owned, that among their learned men, there |