2 Kings 1:1

Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Which had been in subjection to them from the times of David, 2 Samuel 8:2 refusing to pay a tribute as they had done; taking advantage of

Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Then Moab rebelled. Subdued by David (2 Samuel 8:2), they had, in the partition of Israel and Judah, fallen to the share of the former kingdom.

2 KINGS CHAPTER 1 Moab rebelleth against Israel, 2 Kings 1:1. Ahaziah being sick sendeth to Baal-zebub; Elijah foretelleth his death, 2 Kings 1:2-4. Ahaziah hearing it, sendeth twice captains of fifty, to bring Elijah to him; upon whom he bringeth fire from heaven, 2 Kings 1:5-12. The third captain entreateth Elijah; who, encouraged by an angel, goeth and telleth the king of his death, 2 Kings 1:13-16. Jehoram succeedeth him, 2 Kings 1:17,18. Moab; which had been subdued by David, 2 Samuel 8:2, as Edom was; and upon the division of this kingdom into two Moab was adjoined to that of Israel, and Edom to that of Judah, each to that kingdom upon which it bordered. And when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were weak and forsaken by God, they took that opportunity to revolt from them; Moab here, and Edom a little after it.

2 Kings 1:1 Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.Ver. 1. Then Moab.] Who, being subdued by David, had hitherto served Israel, and paid the yearly tribute of a hundred thousand rams, and a hundred thousand lambs, with their wool. Rebelled against Israel.] Which was no small judgment upon wicked Ahaziah, whose reign was both short and troublous. So was our Queen Mary’ s; - her conceptions failing, extreme dearths raging, harm done by thunder from heaven, and by fire in the royal navy, King Philip keeping from court, as not affecting her, the loss of Calais, as here of Moab, &c.

1. THE REIGN OF AHAZIAH . EPISODE ELIJAH.(1) Then.—And. Moab rebelled against Israel.—David reduced Moab to vassalage (2 Samuel 8:2; comp. 2 Kings 23:20). After that event, Scripture is silent as to the fortunes of Moab. It probably took occasion of the troubles which ensued upon the death of Solomon, to throw off the yoke of Israel. The famous Moabite stone suplements the sacred history by recording the war of liberation which Mesha, king of Moab, successfully waged against the successors of Ahab. The inscription opens thus: “I am Mesha, son of Chemosh-gad, king of Moab the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. And I made this bamah (“high place,” “pillar”) for Chemosh in Korha, a bamah of salvation, for he saved me from all the assailants, and let me see my desire upon mine enemies . . . Omri, king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. And his son (i.e., Ahab) succeeded him, and he, toe, said, ‘I will oppress Moab.’ In mỵ ? days he said (it), but I saw my desire upon him and his house, and Israel perished utterly for ever. And Omri occupied the land of Medeba, and dwelt therein, and (they oppressed Moab he and) his son forty years. And Chemosh looked (?) on it (i.e., Moab) in my days.” From this unique and unhappily much injured record it appears that Omri had reduced Moab again to subjection, and that Ahab, who, like his father, was a strong sovereign, had maintained his hold upon the country. The death of Ahab and the sickness of Ahaziah would be Moab’s opportunity. The revolt of Moab is mentioned here parenthetically. The subject is continued in 2 Kings 3:4-27. (See the Notes there.) (2–16) A new and (according to Ewald and Thenius) later fragment of the history of Elijah.

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS, OTHERWISE CALLED THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE KINGS -Year from the Creation, according to the English Bible, 3108. -Year before the birth of Christ, 892. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity 896. -Year since the Deluge, according to Archbishop Usher and the English Bible, 1452. -Year of the Cali Yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 2206. Chronologers vary very considerably in their calculations of the time which elapsed between the flood and the birth of Abraham, the difference of the two extremes amounting to nine hundred years! Archbishop Usher's computation is from the common Hebrew text, with the single exception of fixing the birth of Abraham in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the life of his father, instead of the seventieth, in order to reconcile 2 Kings 11:26; 2 Kings 11:32, with Acts 7:4. But these passages are better reconciled, in the opinion of Dr. Kennicott, by stating (with the Samaritan Pentateuch) the whole life of Terah to have been one hundred and forty-five years, instead of two hundred and five, as in our common Bibles. -Year from the destruction of Troy, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 289. -Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 115. -Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 79. -Year before the era of Iphitus, who re-established the Olympic Games, three hundred and thirty-eight years after their institution by Hercules, or about eight hundred and eighty-four years before the commencement of the Christian era, 12. -Year before the conquest of Coroebus at Elis, usually styled the first Olympiad, (being the 28th Olympiad after their re-establishment by Iphitus,) 120. -Year before the Varronian or generally received era of the building of Rome, 143. -Year before the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 144. -Year before the building of Rome, according to Polybius, the historian, 145. -Year before the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, who lived about two hundred and twenty-five years before the Christian era, 149. -Year before the commencement of the Nabonassarean era, 149. The years of this epoch contained uniformly 365 days, so that 1461 Nabonassarean were equal to 1460 Julian years. This era commenced on the fourth of the calends of March, (Feb. 26,) B.C. 747; which was the year in which Romulus laid the foundation of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor. -Year of the Julian Period, 3818. -Year of the Dionysian Period, 94. -Cycle of the Sun, 10. -Cycle of the Moon, 18. -Year of Megacles, the sixth perpetual archon of the Athenians, 26. -Ocrazeres, the immediate predecessor of Sardanapalus, was king over the Assyrians about this time, according to Strauchius: but when this king reigned is very uncertain, Scaliger fixing the fall of Sardanapalus, which ended the Assyrian empire, in the year of the Julian Period, 3841; Langius, in 3852 of the same epocha; and Eusebius, in the year before Christ, 820. -Year of Agrippa Silvius, the eleventh king of the Latins, 20.

BOOK OF THE KINGS,commonly called, THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE KINGSCh. 2 Kings 1:1-18. Sickness of Ahaziah, King of Israel. His messengers sent to enquire of Baalzebub are destroyed by Elijah. Ahaziah dying is succeeded by his brother Jehoram (Not in Chronicles) 1. Then [R.V. And] Moab rebelled against Israel] The conjunction is the simple copulative. The less severance that is made between the portion of Ahaziah’s history in 1 Kings and that which is given in this chapter the better. The so-called two books of Kings are but one, and the division has been made quite arbitrarily and in the middle of a reign. We have no record in Scripture how Moab came to be subject to Israel; but the inscription on the Moabite stone shews us that Israel and Moab were in conflict in the days of Omri, Ahab’s father. Of their previous subjugation by David we read 2 Samuel 8:2, after which we have no mention of them till this passage. It is by no means improbable that on the secession of the ten tribes, the Moabites became subjects of Israel, as the tribes on the east of Jordan all appertained to the northern kingdom. The death of Ahab, and the national prostration of the Israelites after their defeat at Ramoth Gilead would be counted a good opportunity for the Moabites to strike a blow for their freedom. The heavy burden laid upon them is seen from 2 Kings 3:4 where their tribute is specified as ‘an hundred thousand lambs and an hundred thousand rams with their wool’. Cf. also Isaiah 16:1. We know from the history of the settlement of the Israelites (Numbers 32:1-4) how well suited for cattle rearing were some parts of the Transjordanic country. From the nature of the Moabite tribute it is very likely that their whole wealth was in their flocks and herds. after the death of Ahab] Ahab’s death was quite unexpected, and perhaps no long time elapsed between that event and Ahaziah’s fall. Affairs were sure to be out of joint, and would invite subjects who felt their yoke heavy to try and cast it off.

The Moabites, who had once lorded over Israel Judges 3:12-14, were reduced to subjection by David, and treated with extreme severity (marginal reference).

AHAZIAH’S AND REPROOF BY ELIJAH, 2 Kings 1:1-8. 1. Moab rebelled — The Moabites had been subjected to Israel in the time of David, (2 Samuel 8:2,) and until the death of Ahab were a tributary nation. 2 Kings 3:4.