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(^158) * As Canon Rawlinson reminds us, in the Speaker's Commentary, by Herodotus and Polybius. Even Deuteronomy
20:19, 20 seems to imply this was the common mode of warfare.
(^159) Isaiah 15 and 16, should be studied in connection with the history of Moab.
(^160) Canon Tristram, u.s. p. 67. But in our description use has also been made of the account of Badeker-Socin in
Riehm's Hand-worterb.
(^161) Comp. Tristram, u.s.
(^162) And the latter part of the second narrative, 2 Kings 4:32-37.
(^163) The Athenian and Roman law equally sanctioned servitude for debt, - in fact, this seems to have been the universal
practice in the ancient world, and the law of Moses only softened it by special injunctions and provisions, and modified
it by the law of the Jubilee.
(^164) Not "a pot of oil." The expression occurs only in this passage. It unquestionably means oil for anointing, which, it is
well known, is in universal use in the East. But it must be left undetermined whether, as the LXX. and the Vulgate
imply, there was only left sufficient for anointing once, and whether the answer indicates that this had formerly
furnished the means of livelihood to the family. The latter view seems suggested by verse 7.
(^165) Here also there are peculiar expressions, confirming the view that the whole section is derived from some special
work on the subject.
(^166) We think of it in connection with such battles as those of Gideon, of Saul at Gilboa, and generally with those fought
on or by the plain of Esdraelon, as well as with the near palace of Jezreel.
(^167) Shunem and Shulem evidently represent the same name, and the Shulamite (Shulamith) of Canticles is rendered in
the LXX Sunamitis (with an n).
(^168) There could have been no occasion for his resorting to Jezreel.
(^169) It matters little whether we regard the expression "great" as referring to wealth, or, which from the after history
seems more likely, to standing and family (comp. 1 Samuel 25:2; 2 Samuel 19:32). The further question, why the
mistress, not the master, of the house is named, may be answered by the suggestion that the property had originally
been hers, or else that her piety made her take the lead in all good works, to which her husband was more the
consenting than the proposing party.
(^170) "A table" was not ordinarily placed in a mere sleeping-room, while the expression "chair," not "stool," as in the
A.V., indicates a seat of honor. Comp. here 1 Kings 10:19; 1 Samuel 1:9, 4:13; Psalm 122:5; Nehemiah 3:7. The
conceit of the Rabbis that the Shunammite was a sister of Abishag (1 Kings 1) needs not refutation. If the latter had
lived, she would at that time have probably been about 140 years old.
(^171) The word means unrest and trouble, rather than care.
(^172) Probably "Valley of Vision." The name is perhaps derived from his birth -place, which may have been so called from
the sojourn there, or near it, of a prophet.
(^173) From ver. 13, we infer that the subject in the last sentence of ver. 12 is Gehazi, not Elisha.
(^174) Our Rabbis have it that of three treasures God reserves to Himself the key: of rain, of children, and of raising the
dead.
(^175) Comp. Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ, pp. 103,
(^176) So also in Isaiah 9:6. For an enumeration of the passages in which the different designations are used, see Sketches
of Jewish Social Life.
(^)