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For it seems of quite secondary importance whether Elijah himself wrote this letter,
with direction to have it delivered at the proper time to the husband of Athaliah, or
else commissioned one of his disciples to write it in his name, when the
circumstances of the case indicated it. And as regards this latter view, we remember
that the direction to Elijah to anoint Hazael king of Syria, was executed six or seven
years after the death of Ahab, that to anoint Jehu fourteen years after Ahab: in both
cases, therefore, many years after the commission had been given (1 Kings 19:15,
16); in both cases also, not by Elijah himself, nor yet with precisely literal fulfillment
of the commission given.
The "writing from Elijah" announced, for the public and personal sins of Jehoram,
public and personal judgments. But even before that warning came from the dead
prophet, with all the solemnity of a message straight from heaven, the judgment upon
Judah had begun. Indeed, as the sacred writer remarks,^253 it would have extended to
the destruction of the whole family of Jehoram – and with it of the commonwealth of
Israel -but for the gracious promise to David of the continuance of his house till his
rule should merge in that of "David's greater Son"^254 (2 Samuel 7:12, 13; 1 Kings
11:36).
Still most serious calamities befell the country, both in the east and in the west. In the
south-east, Edom had for one
hundred and fifty years been subject to Judah. It now rebelled. Josephus reports that
the governor, whom Jehoshaphat had appointed, was murdered; while, from the
prophecies of Joel (3:19), we infer that the rebellion was attended by a massacre of
the Judaean settlers in Edom. From the account of the expedition against Edom -
given with only slight variations in the Books of Kings and Chronicles - we learn that
Jehoram started from Jerusalem with the host, and notably war-chariots;^255 that he
was surrounded by the Edomites, but that he and the captains of his chariots -
representing the standing army - fought their way through the Edomites, while the
people – that is, the probably undisciplined multitude that had followed Jehoram, fled
to their homes.
Thus ended the brief campaign, with the permanent loss of Edom, which, except
temporarily and for a short period (comp. 2 Kings 14:7, 22), did not again become
subject to Judaea, till its subdual under the Maccabean prince Hyrcan, about a
century before Christ. It afterwards returned to Palestine the terrible gift of a Herod.
Nor was Edom the only loss which the southern kingdom sustained. In the west, not
far from the borders of Philistia, Libnah,^256 the ancient Canaanitish royal, and
afterwards a priest city, revolted (comp. Joshua 15:42; 12:15; 21:13).
(^)