2 Chronicles 27

The commentary treats this chapter together with chapter 26; the text below is that joint comment.

Notes on the verses

(2 Chronicles 26)This chapter corresponds with (2 Kings 14:1-3), and xv. 1—7, * and all the important facts here mentioned are there introduced; only it must be remarked, that king Uzziah is there called Azariah. In the visions of God.—Twelve MSS. and the ancient versions, “In fear of God."—De Rossi. ‘So forty MSS.”—Kennicott. We suppose the Zechariah here mentioned to have been the priest martyred in the latter days of king Joash. See ch. xxiv. 20. Ver. 10. Built towers in the desert.—These were for the purpose of watching and guarding their cattle—Orient. Lit. No. 635.—And in Carmel.—A He] were “two districts so called in Judea, and both fertile in vines."—Olimet. Ver. 15, Shoot arrows.—[These engines, it is probable, bore some resemblance to the balist and catapulte of the Romans, which were employed for throwing stones and arrows, and were in reality the mortars and carcasses of antiquity.]

With respect to the towers which Uzziah built in the wilderness, (ver. 10.) Harmer appears to have given a truer view of the subject than commentators in general have done, who suppose that they were conveniences made only for sheltering the shepherds from bad weather, or to defend them from incursions of enemies; for they might rather be designed to keep the nations that pastured there in awe, and also to induce them quietly to pay the tribute to which the 8th verse seems to refer.—William of Tyre describes a country not far from the Euphrates as inhabited by Syrian and Armenian Christians, who fed great flocks and herds there, but were kept in subjection to the Turks, in consequence of their living among them in strong places.

J—- (2 Chronicles 27)_ This very short chapter nearly corresponds with the last seven verses of (2 Kings 15)with some additional circumstances. Ver. 5. The king of the Ammonites.—{We find here, that he brought the Ammonites under a heavy tribute for three years; but whether this was the effect of his prevailing against them is not so evident. Some think that they paid this tribute for three years, and then revolted; that, in consequence, he attacked them, and their utter subjection was the result.) —Bageten