A. C. 886.

885.

18 ¶And after all this the LORD smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease.

19 And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.

20 Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and deHeh, with parted without being desired. Howbeit they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

out desire.

*

2 KINGS VIII. VER. 23, 24.

23 And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

e

24 And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and + Ahaziah his + Called Aza. son reigned in his stead.

e 2 Chron. xxii. 1.

riah.

f2 Sam. vii. 13.

+ Heb. candle, or, lamp.

And so fulfilled.

887.

2 KINGS VIII. VER. 17-23.

17 Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

19 Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, fas he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.

20 ¶ In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.

21 So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents.

22 § Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.

CHAPTER V.

PART II.

Events in the Kingdom of Israel, contemporary with the Reign
of Jehoram, King of Judah.

Continuation of the Reign of Jehoram, King of Israel.
Siege of Samaria-The Famine and sudden Deliverance.

2 KINGS VI. VER. 24, TO THE END.

24 And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, be- A.C. 887. hold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

27 And he said, * If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

Or, Let not save thee.

the LORD

28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said aDeut. xxviii. unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat + Heb. other. him and she hath hid her son..

30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer

2 KINGS VII.

1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

53.

which belong

leaning upon

2 Then ta lord on whose hand the king leaned answered ‡ Heb, a lord the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would ed to the king make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, his hand. Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

:

3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die ?

VOL. II.

4 If we say, we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

6 For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

8 And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, * some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's houshold.

10 So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they

were.

11 And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within.

12 ¶ And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city.

13 And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are +Heb. in it. left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed :) and let us send and see.

14 They took therefore two chariot horses: and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

15 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all A.C. 887. the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

16 And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

17 And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him?

18 And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

19 And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

20 And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

2 KINGS VIII; VER. 1-7.

b

1 Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine houshold, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.

2 And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her houshold, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

3 And it came to pass at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.

4 And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.

5 And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

6 And when the king asked the woman, she told him.

885.

b ch. iv. 35.

A.C.885. So the king appointed unto her a certain * officer, saying, Restore all that was her's, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

* Or, eunuch.

a 2 Kings viii. 24. ch. xxi. 17.

b ch. xxi. 6.

CHAPTER VI.

PART I.

Reign of Ahaziah, King of Judah, 1 year-from 885 to 884.

25

2 KINGS VIII. VER. 25.

In the twelfth year 15 of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

2 CHRONICLES XXII. VER. 1-8.

1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made a Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

2 Forty and two years old 16 was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

b

3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab : for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.

4 Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.

15 In 2 Kings viii, 25. we read that, in the "twelfth year" of Joram, Ahaziah began to reign; and in 2 Kings ix. 29. that it was in the "eleventh year.” The commencement of Ahaziah's reign is computed in the first passage from the year when Joram assumed the reins of government, in the last year of his father's life; in the second passage it is dated from his father's death.—Vide Lightfoot's Prolegomena to the Harmony of the Evangelists; Works, vol. i. p. 388.

16 In 2 Chronicles xxii. 2. we read, Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign; and in 2 Kings viii. 26. we read, he was twenty-two years old at that time. This difficulty is solved, by reading with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, 66 twenty-two" instead of "forty-two" in the first passage; or by supposing with Lightfoot, that the author of the book of Chronicles computed from the accession of the house of Omri, his mother's name being Athaliah the daughter of Omri. The original properly signifies, "Ahaziah was the son of the two and forty years," namely, of the house of Omri. A similar mode of reckoning occurs in 2 Kings xxiv. 8. compared with 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 9.-Vide Lightfoot in loc.; Hales's Anal. vol. ii. p. 428.