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spoken of in ver. 5 only referred in a more general sense to the losses inflicted on Judah
by Rezin.* As it is not likely that an army of Judah could have been opposed to Rezin,
while another was dispatched against Pekah, we adopt the latter view.
- For a similar use of the expression comp. 1 Samuel 6:19; 2 Samuel 24:17; and other
passages.
While Rezin thus ravaged the south, Pekah attacked Israel from the north. In a pitched
battle, no fewer than 120,000 Judaeans fell in one day.*
- Although this number seems somewhat large, and, indeed, like that of the 200,000
captives taken to Samaria (2 Chronicles 28:8), is evidently "a round number," yet we
must bear in mind the size of the Judaean army (300,000 under Amaziah, 2 Chronicles
25:5; 307,500 under Uzziah, 26:13); further. the bitter feeling prevailing in Israel (2
Chronicles 28:9); and lastly, that, as Canon Rawlinson reminds us (Speaker's Comment,
ad. loc.), as large, and even larger, losses are recorded in profane history (thus the
Armenians lost at Tigranocerta 150,000 out of 260,000).
Among the slain were Maaseiah, a royal prince, Azrikam, "prince of the palace" -
probably its chief official, or major-domo -and Elkanah, "the second to the king"
probably the chief of the royal council (comp. Esther 10:3). It is not easy to arrange the
succession of events. But we conjecture that after the losses inflicted by Rezin in the
south, and the bloody victory gained by Pekah in the north, the two armies marched upon
Jerusalem, (2 Kings 16:5), with the object of deposing Ahaz. But from the strength of its
late fortifications the undertaking failed of success. It was when Ahaz was thus pressed to
the uttermost, and the Edomites and Philistines had actively joined the hostile alliance ( 2
Chronicles 28:17, 18), that two events of the gravest political and theocratic importance
occurred. The first of these was the resolve of the king to appeal to Assyria for help, with
abject submission to its ruler. The second was the appearance, the message, and the
warnings of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7; 8). As we understand it, their inability to take
Jerusalem, and the knowledge that Ahaz had resolved to appeal to Tiglath-pileser,
induced the kings of Syria and Israel to return to their capitals. Rezin carried probably at
that time his captives to Damascus; while the Israelitish army laid the country waste, and
took not only much spoil, but no less than 200,000 captives, mostly women and children
("sons and daughters") - as the sacred text significantly marks, to show the unprecedented
enormity of the crime' "of their brethren" (2 Chronicles 28:8). Their ultimate fate will be
told in the sequel.
We pass now to the second event referred to. While the fate of Judah was trembling in the
balance, the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to go with his son, Shear Yashub* to
meet the king "at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, at the highway of the fuller's
field" (Isaiah 7:3).
(^)