2 Chronicles 24:27 - Exposition

His sons . We only know of one, Amaziah, his successor. The burdens laid upon him. Some explain this expression of the tribute and bribe Joash had to pay Hazael; others of prophetic "burdens" uttered against him; and others (much favoured by the position of the clause just before the repairing of the house , etc.) of the task which he had so voluntarily undertaken, the money-raising and all ( Ezekiel 24:25 ; comp. our Ezekiel 24:6 , Ezekiel 24:9 , Ezekiel 24:11 ). The repairing; Hebrew, וִיסוֹר . Render, with the Revised Version, the rebuilding. The story of the book of the kings . The Revised Version renders the Hebrew text ( מִדְּרַשׁ סֵפֶר ) "the commentary of the book of the kings," probably to be followed by the words, "of Judah; " the parallel has "the book of the Chronicles [ סִפֶד דִּבְרֵי הַיָמִים ] of the kings of Judah". The word rendered "story" or "commentary" in our text is employed only once beside ( 2 Chronicles 13:22 ). Its verbal root, however, is found about a hundred and sixty-two times, invariably in the sense of inquiring, and almost invariably rendered in the Authorized Version by the word "inquire," or "seek;" so that perhaps the word "study" or "pursuit" might, idioms being allowed for, be the nearer rendering. It is rabbinic literature mostly that has determined the preference for the word "commentary."