- 149-
(^27) So literally.
(^28) The expressions in 1 Kings 19:15-17 must, of course, not be pressed in a literal sense. As a matter of fact, only Jehu
was anointed, and that neither by Elijah nor by Elisha. Similarly the expression about Elisha slaying those who had
escaped the sword of Jehu must be taken in its obvious figurative meaning. But in the sight of God these three were
from that moment "anointed to their work" (comp. 2 Kings 8:13, leaving out the words in italics, and 2 Kings 9:3).
(^29) It is strange that commentators should so generally have failed to see this.
(^30) The term 7000 must not be pressed literally, as if it were the exact number of the faithful. Seven is the well-known
sacred and covenant-number.
(^31) To kiss the idol - its feet, beard, etc. - was the common practice in heathen worship.
(^32) Matthew Henry quaintly remarks, "to take leave, not to ask eave of them."
(^33) However reasonable and evident these details, we could carcely conceive them possible in a narrative that was not
ased upon historical facts. Their invention would be almost nconceivable. Hence all these details furnish evidence of
the eality of these events and of the truth of the Scriptural arrative.
(^34) It is probably in this that the difference lies between the case of Elisha and that in which our LORD returned so
different an answer to a request, which to a superficial reader might seem substantially the same as that of the son of
Shaphat (comp. Luke 9:59-62).
(^35) Although this special Psalm (136) may not be David's, we must remember that a considerable portion of the Psalter
must have been in existence, and, at least in part, known to Ahab.
(^36) Ben-hadad, "the Son of the Sun." Hadad was the official title of the kings of Syria. On the monarchs of that name,
see Vol. 5.
(^37) Compare Vol. 5.
(^38) Josephus erroneously represents them as from "beyond the Euphrates." But from Assyrian inscriptions we know that
at that period the country between the Euphrates and the northern border of Jordan, was parcelled out among a number
of states, such as those of the Hittites, the Hamathites, and others (comp. Schrader, d. Keilinschriften u. d. A. Test., 2nd
ed., pp. 200-204). This affords undesigned, but most important, confirmation of the Biblical narrative. So does the
mention of "the chariots." (ver. 1) which, according to the Assyrian inscriptions, formed a very important part of the
Syrian forces (Comp. Schrader, u.s.).
(^39) This seems implied in the term "booths" (sukkoth), ver. 12 - not "pavilions," as in the Authorized Version.
(^40) The former seems implied by the presence in Samaria of "all the elders of the land," (ver. 7); the latter by the demand
of Ben-hadad in ver. 6.
(^41) The words of Ben-hadad (ver. 10) are generally regarded as meaning that "the dust of Samaria," about to be reduced
to ashes and ruins, would not "suffice for the hollow hands" of all the people that were in his following. But it may
have been only a general boast as against the popular assembly in Samaria that had ratified the resistance to him, that if
all Samaria were reduced to dust there were more people in his following than could fill their hands with it.
(^42) The former seems the more likely meaning of verse 12.
(^43) According to the Rabbis, Micaiah, the son of Imlah (22. 8; see Rashi and Kimchi ad loc.) But this seems a mere
guess.
(^44) According to the Rabbis, Micaiah, the son of Imlah (22. 8; see Rashi and Kimchi ad loc.) But this seems a mere
guess.
(^)