- 55-
as the place which the narrative occupies in the sacred text, lead us to infer that this was
the first military undertaking of Uzziah, And, in view of his ultimate purpose as regarded
Israel, the king would naturally begin with what was not only certain of success, but
would also secure his rear in any future expedition. Nor was this all. A wide-reaching
plan of national restoration would embrace the revival of commerce. And what
prominence the new Tarshish mercantile marine held in public thought, and how it
affected life in Judah in the days of Jotham, the successor of Uzziah, appears from the
allusion in Isaiah 2:16.
As regards the religious condition of the country it is significant that, as the reign of
former kings, so the present was characterized by a combination of doing "the right in the
sight of Jehovah," with a continuance of "the high places," and their sacrifices and
worship. It seems to indicate that this strange mixture in religion marked the highest point
attained by the people. But even this qualified adherence to the worship of the Lord was
only temporary, as the text explains: "in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the
fear of God"* (2 Chronicles 26:5). This prepares us alike for the later history of the king,
and for what we shall learn of the condition of the people.
- For the present Masoretic text: (...) (in the A.V. "understanding in the visions") we have
evidently to read (the second word) (...) , "in the fear" - as many Codd., the LXX., Syr.
Targ., the Jewish, and mostly all Christian interpreters. The first word should then be
rendered either "understanding" in the fear of God (so the LXX.) or "instructing" in it.
We prefer the latter interpretation (with the Syr. Targ., Rabbis, and many interpreters).
The expression occurs in the same sense in Nehemiah 8:9. This Zechariah is not
otherwise known. Needless to say that he was not the "prophet" of that name; nor even he
that is mentioned in Isaiah 8:2, who lived a generation later.
But the first or religious period of the reign of Uzziah was one of continuous and
progressive prosperity. Although it is not possible to determine the precise chronological
succession of events, it seems likely that the expedition against the Philistines soon
followed that to the Red Sea. The object of it was finally to break up the great anti-
Judaean confederacy which, in the days of King Jehoram, had wrought such havoc in
Judah, after the successful revolt of Edom (2 Chronicles 21:8-10).*
- See Vol. 6.
The defeat of Edom must have rendered this expedition also one of comparative ease.
One by one the great Philistine cities fell; Gath, which, in the reign of Joash, had been
wrested by Hazael of Syria, and made the starting-point of his incursion into Judah (2
Kings 12:17); Jabneh (Joshua 15:11), afterwards Jamnia, and about nine miles to the
northeast of it, and three miles from the sea, Ashdod. It was probably owing to the
importance of this strong town, which commanded the road from Egypt, that the sacred
text specially mentions this district as one in which the king "built cities" (2 Chronicles
(^)