(8) TheLevites and all Judah.--2 Kings 11:9 reads, "the captains of the hundreds." The rest of the verse is the same in both narratives so far as the words "go out on the Sabbath."
For Jehoiada thepriest dismissed not the courses.--The companies of priests and Levites, whose weekly duties had been fulfilled, and who under ordinary circumstances would have been formally "dismissed" by the high priest, were detained at the present emergency as auxiliaries to their brethren who were "coming in."
Instead of this clause Kings has: "And they came to Jehoiada the priest," i.e., the captains of the hundreds came, to him; a remark which quite naturally preludes the statement of the next verse both there and here.
Verse 8. - All Judah; i.e. all those of Judah's provincial cities who had been honoured with summons to join in this great and solemn enterprise. Dismissed not the courses; i.e. the provincial Levites cooperated with the regulars of Jerusalem.
23:12-20 A warning from God was sent to Jehoram. The Spirit of prophecy might direct Elijah to prepare this writing in the foresight of Jehoram's crimes. He is plainly told that his sin should certainly ruin him. But no marvel that sinners are not frightened from sin, and to repentance, by the threatenings of misery in another world, when the certainty of misery in this world, the sinking of their estates, and the ruin of their health, will not restrain them from vicious courses. See Jehoram here stripped of all his comforts. Thus God plainly showed that the controversy was with him, and his house. He had slain all his brethren to strengthen himself; now, all his sons are slain but one. David's house must not be wholly destroyed, like those of Israel's kings, because a blessing was in it; that of the Messiah. Good men may be afflicted with diseases; but to them they are fatherly chastisements, and by the support of Divine consolations the soul may dwell at ease, even when the body lies in pain. To be sick and poor, sick and solitary, but especially to be sick and in sin, sick and under the curse of God, sick and without grace to bear it, is a most deplorable case. Wickedness and profaneness make men despicable, even in the eyes of those who have but little religion.
For Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses.--The companies of priests and Levites, whose weekly duties had been fulfilled, and who under ordinary circumstances would have been formally "dismissed" by the high priest, were detained at the present emergency as auxiliaries to their brethren who were "coming in."
Instead of this clause Kings has: "And they came to Jehoiada the priest," i.e., the captains of the hundreds came, to him; a remark which quite naturally preludes the statement of the next verse both there and here.