2 Chronicles 15:8 - Exposition

These words and the prophecy. In addition to what is said under 2 Chronicles 15:1 on the question of the occurrence here of the name Oded, where we should have looked for the name Azariah, it may be noted that it is open to possibility that "these words" certainly referring to the language of Azariah, the "prophecy" may have in view some quotation more or less well known from Oded, satisfied by the latter part of verse 2 or By verse 7. This is not very likely; still, the conjunction "and" would thereby better account for itself. Nevertheless, it would still remain that the word "prophecy" is not in construct but absolute state, and we cannot count the difficulty removed, comparatively unimportant as it may be . He took courage, and put away , etc. These words may express either Asa's accomplishing of the reforms spoken of in the former chapter (verses 3-5), or quite as probably his perseverance and renewed diligence and vigour in the same; the language, "he took courage," favours this latter view. The cities which he had taken from , etc. Some say that the reference here and in 2 Chronicles 17:2 also must be understood to be to Abijah ' s victory and spoils ( 2 Chronicles 13:19 ), and that these two places must accordingly be in slight error. If this passage had stood alone, this view might have been more easy to accept, but the words in 2 Chronicles 17:2 explicitly state that Asa had taken such cities, and the mere fact that the history does not record when, nor even show any very convenient gap into which Asa's taking of such cities after conflict with Israel might well fit in, can scarcely be allowed to override the direct assertion of 2 Chronicles 17:2 . At the same time, the work that would devolve on Asa in holding the cities his father Abijah had first taken, may easily account for all, and have been accounted Asa's taking, in the sense of taking to them, or retaking them. Renewed the altar . The altar, the place of which was before the porch , was the altar of burnt offering. The Hebrew for "renewed" is חִדֵּשׁ . The Vulgate translates insufficiently dedicavit. Bertheau thinks the renewal designs simply the purification of it from idolatrous defilements, although he admits that this is to assume that it had been defiled by idolatrous priests. Keil says the altar might well need genuine repair after the lapse of sixty years from the building of the temple. Of the nine occurrences of the word. five are metaphorical(as e.g. Psalms 51:10 ), but of the remaining four distinctly literal uses, including the present, three must mean just strictly "repair" ( 2 Chronicles 24:4 , 2 Chronicles 24:12 ; Isaiah 61:4 ), and the probability may therefore be that such is the meaning now. Many, however, prefer the other view. The work of Ass, as described in 2 Chronicles 14:3-5 , was one of taking away, breaking down, and cutting down; but this item shows it now, in his fifteenth year, become also one of renewing. and repairing. The porch of (so 2 Chronicles 29:17 ; 1 Kings 7:6 , 1 Kings 7:7 , 1 Kings 7:12 ; Ezekiel 40:7 ); איּלָם , though in construct state, the kametz impure.