2. Probably not by Athaliah but another wife. The place in which the concealed him was not a room in which perfons flept, but one in which beds or carpets were kept; and there being probably a large store of thefe for the accommodation of the priests and Levites who attended at the temple, there might be room es nough to conceal any perfon in it.

6. This was the East, and the principal gate of the temple, called alfo the gate of the foundation (2 Ch. xxiii, 5) being built upon the foundation, or those immenfely large ftones which fupported this part of the temple from the bottom of the valley, which feparated the city from the mount of Olives. The gate behind the guard was the South gate, which looked towards the palace, through which the kings came to the temple, and therefore a guard was placed near it,

7. The priests and Levites were divided by David into twenty four courfes, to attend the fervice of the temple in their turns, each miniftering a week from fabbath to fabbath.

9. Both those who had ferved the preceding week, and those who had come to attend the week following, were then prefent; the former it is thought not being difmiffed till the bufinefs of the fabbath was over.

10. It is the custom in the Eaft to count money into a bag, and then to feal it up, by which means it passes for its value a long time, without opening and counting again.

11. That is, from the South to the North, where he had been concealed.

VOL. II.

12. The testimony was perhaps the book of the law, by which he fwore to be governed. But fome suppose that the word fignifies fome regal ornament.

The manner in which females in the Eaft express. their joy is not by clapping the hands together, as with us, but by applying one of their hands to their mouth. Pitts defcribing the reception of pilgrims from Mecca fays, "the women got upon the tops of the houses to view "the parade, where they kept ftriking their four fin"gers on their lips foftly as fast as they could, making a "joyful noife all the time." Thus in Pfalm XLvii, as well as in this place, the translation fhould be clap the hand, not hands.

14. He flood by the pillar at the Eaft gate of the inner court, where it is fuppofed from Ezek. xLvi, 1-2, that the king entered on the fabbath day; whereas on other days he entered by the South gate.

16. There was another gate called the horse gate, in the wall of the city, Jer. xxxi, 39. This was for the king's horses to go out at from the ftables at Millo, and is therefore called (2 Ch. xxxiii, 15) the horse gate towards the king's house.

17. He firft made both the king and the people engage to adhere to the true religion, after which they took the ufual oaths to difcharge their refpective duties as fovereign and fubjects.

Ch. XII. 3. Thefe were not removed till the reign of Hezekiah.

4. Befides the half hekel that was paid for the main. terance of the national worship, there were vows and

free

free will offerings; and now whatever accrued from them was applied to this use.

7 He put the work into other hands, these perfons having been negligent.

9. In Ch. xxiv, 8, they had, at the king's command, made a cheft, and placed it without the gate of the temple, where all the people had free access to it; whereas the cheft here mentioned was in a place where the people did not come; fo that the priests received the money from them, and probably had embezzled a part of it.

13. Thofe veffels might be wanting; but the money that was collected at this time was appropriated to the repairs of the house.

17. Gath had been taken from the Philistines by David, I Ch. xviii, 1. 2; 2 Sam viii, 2. This inva fion of the country was after the king fell into idolatry, as appears from the book of Chronicles, where there is an account of another invasion by the Syrians. At this time Hazael came in perfor, and the king purchased a peace. But Hazael afterwards fent an army, which deftroyed many of the people, and carried much poil to Damafcus, 2 Ch. xxiv, 23-25.

21. Jofephus fuppofes thefe perfons to have been the friends of Jehoiada, who thus revenged themselves on the king for the murder of Zachariah the fon of Jehoida, as it is faid 2 Ch xxiv, 25.

Ch. XIII. 1. Joafh began to reign in the feventh year of Jehu, Ch, xii, 2, and he reigned only twenty eight years; from which, if feven be deducted, there will remain only twenty one years, not twenty

eight. But if the difficulty by not folved by reckoning. part of a year for a whole year, it may by fuppofing an interregnum between the death of Jehu and the acceffion of Jehoahaz.

3. This faviour was probably the fon of Jeheaḥaz, who repelled the invafion of the Syrians.

6. If the grove facred to Baal remained in Samaria, the worship of Baal did not wholly cease in the reign of Jehu. It might be the worship of Astarte, which, however, was as great an enormity as the worship of Baal.

7. That is, the whole of his army, except this fmall number, was cut off.

10. Joafh probably reigned together with his father three years, as this fuppofition will remove the difficulty occafioned by the two dates of his reign.

14. If this was in the tenth year of Joafh, as the Jews fay, Elifha prophecied fixty five years. The king used the words of Elifha on the afcent of Elijah, fignifying that after that event, he had been the great advocate with God for the nation.

17. The Syrians had taken Gath, and Aphec might be not far from it.

19. By thefe figns, accompanied with the explanation of them, the king was affured that he would repel the invasion of the Syrians; but that he should defeat them only three times.

21. The fepulchre was probably dug in a rock, so that by removing the ftone from the mouth they could put another body into it. By the revival of this dead man, God did honour to the deceafed prophet; and

from

21

from this it would also be evident that the miracles wrought by him when he was alive were not effected by any power of which he was poffeffed, fuch as the heathens afcribed to charms, but by the power of God only,

Ch. XIV. 1. This was the thirty eighth year of his father Joafh, three years before his death; having, perhaps in consequence of the murder of Zachariah, been deemed unfit to reign.

2. Joash king of Ifrael reigned fixteen years, Ch xiii, 10. fo that Amaziah reigned fourteen years, while he lived, and fifteen after he was dead, which make twenty nine. See v. 17.

3. Both of them, in the latter part of their reigns, fell into idolatry.

7. This is the fame with Petra, the metropolis of Arabia Petræa. The word Jocktheel fignifics obedience to God; a name given him perhaps in confequence of his having obeyed God, in difmiffing the Ifraelites whom he had hired to affift him in his wars, 2 Ch. XXV, 6.

8. He was offended on account of the injury the Ifraelites had done him when their affiflance was refufed, 2 Ch. XXV, 13.

9 He fhewed his contempt of him by comparing him to a thistle, and himself to a cedar; but the meaning of the thistle propofing a marriage with the cedar I do not fee. What the king of Judah propofed was not an alliance, but hoftility.

20. This was a punishment of Amaziah for wor