among his countrymen the Gileadites - those brave highlanders on the other side of Jordan who

were famed as warriors (comp. Judges 11:1; 1 Chronicles 26:31). Thus the LXX. - perhaps after

an old tradition - render, instead of "the Gileadites" of the Hebrew text, the 400, which reminds us

of David's famous 600 (2 Samuel 15:18). This bodyguard we suppose to have been under the

command of three captains, one of whom was Pekah, the leader of the rebellion. The other two:

"Argob," so named fro m the trans-Jordanic district of Bashan (Deuteronomy 3:4), and "Arieh,"

"the lion" (comp. 1 Chronicles 12:8), fell, probably in defending the king. As we read it, Pekah,

with fifty of the Gilead guard, pursued the king into the castle, or fortified part of his palace at

Samaria, and there slew him and his adherents. The crime vividly illustrates the condition of

public feeling and morals as described by the prophet Hosea (4:1, 2). The murderer of his master

was not only allowed to seize the crown, but retained it during a period of thirty years.*

* The Biblical text has 20, k , which seems to be a transcriber's error for l , 30. The latter number

seems required by a comparison of 2 Kings 15 32 + 33 + xvii. 1. The only alternative seems to

interpose an interregnum of ten years between Pekah and Hoshea, of which, however, the Biblical

text does not give any indication.

This revolution had taken place in the last (the fifty-second) year of Uzziah. He was succeeded in

Judah by his son Jotham, in the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah. Jotham was twenty-

five years old when he ascended the throne, and his reign is said to have extended over sixteen

years. But whether this period is to be reckoned from his co-regency (2 Kings 15:5; 2 Chronicles

26:21), or f rom his sole rule, it is impossible to determine. And in this may lie one of the reasons

of the difficulties of this chronology.*

* Riehm, in the elaborate Art. Zeitrechnung (in his Hand-W.) maintains that the sixteen years of

Jotham's reign consisted of twelve years of co-regency with Uzziah, and only four years of sole

rule. If there had been four years of sole rule a confusion of this number with the sixteen years of

his reign may have led a transcriber to the erroneous notice about the "twentieth year of Jotham"

(2 Kings 15:30).

The reign of Jotham was prosperous, and only clouded towards its close. Both religiously and

politically it was strictly a continuation of that of Uzziah, whose co-regent, or at least

administrator, Jotham had been. According to the fuller account in the Book of Chronicles (2

Chronicles 27.), Jotham maintained in his official capacity the worship of Jehovah in His Temple,

wisely abstaining, however, from imitating his father's attempted intrusion into the functions of the

pries thood. Among the people the former corrupt forms of religion were still continued, and had to

be tolerated. Naturally this corruption would increase in the course of time. Among the

undertakings of the former reign, the fortifications of Jerusalem, the inward defense of the

country, and its trans -Jordanic enlargement, were carried forward. As regards the first of these, the

wall which defended Ophel, the southern declivity of the Temple -mount, was further built.*

* Comp. 2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 3:26, 27; Jos. Jew. War. 6, 1, 3. From Ophel the "water-

gate" opened into Gihon and the Valley of the Kidron. Comp. here the prophecy Isaiah 32:14,

where for "the forts" (in the A.V.) translate "Ophel."

At the same time the sacred house itself was beautified b y the rebuilding of the "higher" [or upper]

gate on the north side of the Temple, where the terrace runs from which it derived its name. The

"higher gate" opened from the "upper" [or inner] court - that of the priests - into the lower, which

was that of the people (2 Kings 21:5; 23:12; 2 Chronicles 33:5). Each of these two courts was

bounded by a wall. Probably the general ingress into the Temple was by the outer northern gate.*

Thence the worshippers would pass through the lower, outer, or people's court t o the second

wall** that bounded the inner, upper, or priest's court, which extended around the Temple house.

* There were four gates opening from the outer, or bounding, wall of the Temple: north, south,

east, and west, (comp. the watchposts of the Levites, 1 Chronicles 26:14-18. But Bishop Haneberg