Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · 2 Chronicles Глава 20

By אהרי־כן , postea , the war which follows is made to fall in the latter part of Jehoshaphat's reign, but certainly not in the last year in which he reigned alone, two years before his death, but only somewhat later than the events in 2 Chron 18 and 2 Chronicles 19:1-11, which occurred six or seven years before his death. Along with the Moabites and Ammonites there marched against Jehoshaphat also מהעמּונים . This statement is obscure. Since מן has unquestionably a partitive or local signification, we might take the word to signify, enemies who dwelt aside from the Ammonites ( מן as in 1 Samuel 20:22, 1 Samuel 20:37), which might possibly be the designation of tribes in the Syro-Arabic desert bordering upon the country of the Ammonites on the north and east; and מארם in 2 Chronicles 20:2 would seem to favour this idea. But 2 Chronicles 20:10 and 2 Chronicles 20:22. are scarcely reconcilable with this interpretation, since there, besides or along with the sons of Ammon and Moab, inhabitants of Mount Seir are named as enemies who had invaded Judah. Now the Edomites dwelt on Mount Seir; but had the Edomites only been allies of the Ammonites and Moabites, we should expect simply אדם בּני or אדומים , or שׂעיר בּני (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:11, 2 Chronicles 25:14). Nor can it be denied that the interpretation which makes מהעמּונים to denote peoples dwelling beyond the Ammonites is somewhat artificial and far-fetched. Under these circumstances, the alteration proposed by Hiller in Onomast. p. 285 commends itself, viz., the change of מהעמונים into מהמּעוּנים , Maunites or Maonites, - a tribe whose headquarters were the city Maan in the neighbourhood of Petra, to the east of the Wady Musa; see on 1 Chronicles 4:41. Maan lay upon Mount Seir, i.e., in the mountainous district to the west of the Arabah, which stretches upwards from the head of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, now called Jebâl (Gebalene) in its northern part, and es-Sherah in the south. The Maunites were consequently inhabitants of Mount Seir, and are here mentioned instead of the Edomites, as being a people dwelling on the southern side of the mountain, and probably of non-Edomitic origin, in order to express the idea that not merely the Edomites took part in the campaign of the Ammonites and Moabites, but also tribes from all parts of Mount Seir. In 2 Chronicles 26:7 the מעוּנים are mentioned along with Arabs and Philistines as enemies of Israel, who had been conquered by Uzziah. These circumstances favour the proposed alteration; while, on the contrary, the fact that the lxx have here ἐκ τῶν Μιναίων for מהעמּונים proves little, since these translators have rendered העמּונים in 2 Chronicles 26:8 also by οἱ Μιναῖοι , there erroneously making the Ammonites Minaiites.

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Then they came and announced to Jehoshaphat, sc. messengers or fugitives; the subject is indefinite, and is to be supplied from the context. “Against thee there cometh a great multitude from beyond the (Dead) sea.” מארם also has no suitable sense here, since in the whole narrative nothing is said of enemies coming out of Syria; we should read מאדם with Calmet and others. As the enemy made their attack from the south end of the Dead Sea, the messengers announce that they were come from Edom. “Behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar,” i.e., Engedi, the present Ain Jidy, midway along the west coast of the Dead Sea (see on Joshua 15:62 and Genesis 14:7), about fifteen hours from Jerusalem.

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When the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem had assembled themselves in the house of God, Jehoshaphat came forth before the new court and made supplication in fervent prayer to the Lord. The new court is the outer or great court of the temple, which Solomon had built (2 Chronicles 4:9). It is here called the new court, probably because it had been restored or extended under Jehoshaphat or Asa. This court was the place where the congregation assembled before God in the sanctuary. Jehoshaphat placed himself before it, i.e., at the entrance into the court of the priests, so that the congregation stood opposite to him.

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Thus all Judah, with their king, stood praying before the Lord. They had, moreover, brought with them their little ones, their wives, and their sons, to pray for deliverance for them from the enemy; cf. Judith 4:9.

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Now, when Judah came to the height in the wilderness ( מצפּה , specula , watch-tower, here a height in the wilderness of Tekoa, whence one might look out over the wilderness Jeruel, 2 Chronicles 20:16), and turned, or was about to turn, against the multitude of the enemy ( ההמון referring back to 2 Chronicles 20:12), behold, they saw “corpses lying upon the earth, and none had escaped,” i.e., they saw corpses in such multitude lying there, that to all appearance none had escaped.

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So Jehoshaphat, with his people, came (as Jahaziel had announced, not to fight, but only to make booty) and found among them ( בּהם , among or by the fallen) in abundance both wealth and corpses and precious vessels. The mention of פּגרים as part of the booty, between רכוּשׁ and the precious vessels, is somewhat surprising. Some Codd. (4 Kennic. and 3 de Rossi) and various ancient editions (Complut., the Brixenian used by Luther, the Bomberg. of date 1518 and 21, and the Münster) have, instead of it, בּנדים ; but it is very questionable if the lxx and Vulg. have it (cf. de Rossi Variae Lectt. ad h. l.). בּגדים , garments, along with רכוּשׁ , moveable property (cattle, tents, etc.), seems to suit better, and is therefore held by Dathe and Berth. to be the correct and original reading. Yet the proofs of this are not decisive, for פגרים is much better attested, and we need not necessarily take רכוּשׁ to mean living and dead cattle; but just as רכוּשׁ denotes property of any kind, which, among nomadic tribes, consists principally in cattle, we may also take פּגרים in the signification of slain men and beasts - the clothes of the men and the accoutrements and ornaments of the beasts (cf. Judges 8:26) being a by no means worthless booty. Garments as such are not elsewhere met with in enumerations of things taken as booty, in Judges 8:26 only the purple robes of the Midianite princes being spoken of; and to the remark that the before-mentioned פּגרים has given rise to the changing of בּגדים into פּגרים , we may oppose the equally well-supported conjecture, that the apparently unsuitable meaning of the word פגרים may have given rise to the alteration of it into בּגדים . חמדות כּלי are probably in the main gold and silver ornaments, such as are enumerated in Judges 8:25. And they spoiled for themselves משּׂא לאין , “there was not carrying,” i.e., in such abundance that it could not be carried away, removed, and plundered in three days, because the booty was so great. The unusually large quantity of booty is accounted for by the fact that these peoples had gone forth with all their property to drive the Israelites out of their inheritance, and to take possession of their land for themselves; so that this invasion of Judah was a kind of migration of the peoples, such as those which, at a later time, have been repeated on a gigantic scale, and have poured forth from Central Asia over the whole of Europe. In this, the purpose of the hostile hordes, we must seek the reason for their destruction by a miracle wrought of God. Because they intended to drive the people of Israel out of the land given them by God, and to destroy them, the Lord was compelled to come to the help of His people, and to destroy their enemies.

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