2 Kings 15

5 a several house. It probably means “detached.” The Jewish writers conclude that this was outside the city, according to the law. The cause of this infliction is stated in 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-20. Jotham his son seems to have occupied the palace, and to have acted as regent from the commencement of his father’s leprosy to his death.

10 before the people. “At Ibleam” (Sept.). 14 Menahem. Josephus says that Menahem was commander-in-chief: Antiq. ix. 11, 1. He seems to have been a vigorous general, who, after gaining the throne, made a successful raid upon Syria, as far as Tiphsah, or Thapsacus, on the Euphrates (see 1 Kings iv. 24). But this brought upon him the Assyrians, who had for some time been pushing their conquests westward.

19. Pul. Pul, or Pulu, was a military adventurer of low origin, who seized the throne of Assyria 745 n.c., and assumed the name of Tiglath-pileser III. (see Sayce’s Assyria: its Princes, Priests, and People, pp. 43, 44). His reign, however, was one of great progress. He inaugurated many reforms in administration and in the army. For his new name see ch. xvi. 10. A corrupt form of the name, “Tilgath-pilneser,” appears in 1 Chron. v. 26 and 2 Chron. xxviii. 20.

25. Argob and Arieh. These seem to have been two of the king’s officers who were killed with him by the conspirators.

29 carried them captive to Assyria. According to the policy pursued by the Eastern conquerors, the flower of the newly-conquered nation was sent beyond the Euphrates, to people the thinly-inhabited parts of the Assyrian empire; and when this process was completed, new settlers were brought from the East to occupy the land (xvii. 24). The facts mentioned in ver. 29, and in xvii. 6, 24.

agree remarkably with the cuneiform inscriptions discovered at Nineveh, which contain accounts of the campaigns of the Assyrian kings; describing them always as first invoking their gods, then defeating the enemy, subjugating the country, carrying off the inhabitants with their most valuable effects to Assyria, replacing them with colonists drawn from their immediate subjects, and appointing their own officers to take charge of the colonists and to govern the country. This was the first captivity, or exile of Israel, which included the tribes east of Jordan and the northern part of Canaan; but it was not sufficient to humble the “pride and stoutness” of the inhabitants of Samaria: see Isa. ix. 9. The Assyrian inscriptions fix the date of this captivity at 734 B.C.

32. Jotham. In his reign MICAH and ISAIAH exercised their prophetic ministry, which continued through the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah. The first five chapters of Isaiah seem to belong to the reign of Uziah: see notes, Isa. i. 1; vi. 1.

35 built. He repaired it, for it existed long before.

37. Rezin . . . Pekah. Their confederacy against Judah forms the subject of Isa. vii.