CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:17: “he died according to the Word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken” = “During his father’s reign, Ahaziah had witnessed the wondrous works of the Most High.  He had seen the terrible evidences that God had given apostate Israel of the way in which He regards those who set aside the binding claims of His Law.  Ahaziah had acted as if these awful realities were but idle tales.  Instead of humbling his heart before the Lord, he had followed after Baal, and at last he had ventured upon this, his most daring act of impiety.  Rebellious, and unwilling to repent, Ahaziah died, ‘according to the Word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken.’ ” PK:209.2.

 

SDA’s, Here is the original:  “During his father’s reign, Ahaziah had witnessed the wondrous works of the Most High.  He had seen the terrible evidences that God had given apostate Israel of the way in which He regards those who set aside the binding claims of His Law.  All this Ahaziah knew, yet he acted as if these awful realities, even the fearful end of his own father, were but idle tales.  Instead of humbling his heart before the Lord, he followed after Baal, until he ventured upon this his most daring act of impiety.” RH, January 15, 1914, paragraph 6.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:9:  “double portion” = See my Bible Study:  “ELIJAH.”  Basically, Elijah performed nine (9) miracles during his service for the Lord; while Elisha performed nineteen (19).

 

2:19-22:  “the water is naught” = “[231] Many are the spiritual lessons to be gathered from the story of the healing of the waters.  The new cruse, the salt, the spring, -- all are highly symbolic.  In casting salt into the bitter spring, Elisha taught the same spiritual lesson imparted centuries later by the Saviour to His disciples when He declared ‘Ye are the salt of the earth’ (Mat. 5:13).  The salt mingling with the polluted spring purified its waters, and brought life and blessing where before had been blighting and death.  When God compares His children to salt, He would teach them that His purpose in making them the subjects of His grace is that they may become agents in saving others.  The object of God in choosing a people before all the world was not only that He might adopt them as His sons and daughters, but that through them the world might receive the grace that bringeth salvation. . . [232]

 

“Salt must be mingled with the substance to which it is added; it must penetrate, infuse it, that it may be preserved.  So it is through personal contact and association that men are reached by the saving power of the Gospel. . . [233]

 

“The heart that receives the Word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure.  It is like that mountain stream, fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy-laden.  It is like a river constantly flowing, and as it advances, becoming deeper and wider, until its life-giving waters are spread over all the earth.”  PK:231-233.

 

2:23-24:  “little children” = “They mocked God, and met their punishment there.  They had learned it of their parents.  And those who have scoffed and mocked at the idea of the saints’ going up, will be visited with the plagues of God, and will realize that it is not a small thing to trifle with Him.”  1SG:154.

 

“. . . wicked youth, who had learned from their parents to despise the man of God,” EW:247-248.

 

“mocked him” = “Had Elisha allowed the mockery to pass unnoticed, he would have continued to be ridiculed and reviled by the rabble, and his mission to instruct and save in a time of grave national peril might have been defeated. . . Even kindness should have its limits.  Authority must be maintained by a firm severity, or it will be received by many with mockery and contempt.  The so-called tenderness, the coaxing and indulgence, used toward youth, by parents and guardians, is one of the worst evils which can come upon them.  In every family, firmness, decision, positive requirements, are essential.”  PK:236.

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

 

3:4:  “Mesha” = Mesha, king of Moab, is proved as an historical figure upon the finding of the famous “Mesha Stele.”  See my Bible Study:  “ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS THAT SUPPORT THE BIBLE.”  However, the Bible records how Israel, via king Omri conquered Moab, while the “Mesha Stele,” a 3-foot-high black basalt stone that displays about 34 lines of writing, recounts how the Moabite king Mesha liberated Moab from the Israelites.  The “Mesha Stele” is now a featured display in the Louvre, France.

 

3:27:  “offered him for a burnt offering. . . and they departed from him” = According to Amos 2:1, which references this hideous act, according to historians Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley, in their book, “The Sacred Bridge,” subtitled, “Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World,” the ones who “departed from him [Mesha the Moabite],” were the Edomites; because of Mesha’s act.

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

 

5:2:  “a little maid” = “[244] Ben-hadad, king of Syria, had defeated the armies of Israel in the battle which resulted in the death of Ahab.  Since that time the Syrians had maintained against Israel a constant border warfare, and in one of their raids they had carried away a little maid who, in the land of her captivity, ‘waited on Naaman’s wife.’  A slave, far from her home, this little maid was nevertheless one of God’s witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the purpose for which God had chosen Israel as His people.  As she ministered in that heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and, remembering the wonderful miracles of [245]

 

“healing wrought through Elisha, she said to her mistress, ‘Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.’  She knew that the power of Heaven was with Elisha, and she believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.

 

“The conduct of the captive maid, the way that she bore herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of early home training.  There is no higher trust than that committed to fathers and mothers in the care and training of their children.  Parents have to do with the very foundations of habit and character.  By their example and teaching the future of their children is largely decided.

 

“Happy are the parents whose lives are a true reflection of the Divine, so that the Promises and Commands of God awaken in the child gratitude and reverence; the parents whose tenderness and justice and long-suffering interpret to the child the Love and justice and long-suffering of God, and who by teaching the child to love and trust and obey them, are teaching him to love and trust and obey his Father in Heaven.  Parents who impart to the child such a gift have endowed him with a treasure more precious than the wealth of all the ages, a treasure as enduring as eternity.

 

“We know not in what line our children may be called to serve.  They may spend their lives within the circle of the home; they may engage in life’s common vocations, or go as teachers of the Gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world.  They are to obtain an education that will help them to stand by the side of Christ in unselfish service. [246]

 

“The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they taught her of God, did not know the destiny that would be hers.  But they were faithful to their trust; and in the home of the captain of the Syrian host, their child bore witness to the God Whom she had learned to honor.”  PK:244-246; CC:227; ML:222; RC:337.

 

5:10:  “seven times” = See Leviticus 14:7.

 

5:12:  “Abana and Pharpar” = “The rivers he mentioned and desired were beautified by surrounding trees and groves, and idols were placed in these groves.  Many flocked to these rivers to worship their idol gods; therefore it would have cost him no humility.  But it was following the specified directions of the prophet which would humble his proud and lofty spirit.  Willing obedience would bring the desired result.”  2T:310.

 

5:15:  “take a blessing of thy servant” = “It was not for him to take payment for a blessing that God had in mercy bestowed.”  PK:250.

 

5:19:  “Go in peace” = Meaning, “Go in peace of mind; be assured that God has pardoned this and all other transgressions.”  Naaman is not the one committing the sin, but will need to learn how and when to ask the king to be excused in the future from participating in this exercise of worshiping false gods.

 

5:20:  “Gehazi” = Was Gehazi only to wear these expensive cloths away from Elisha (verse 22)?  Is there any place we can hide from God’s view?  Was Gehazi only to spend the money on things he could hide from Elisha (verse 22)?  Will a man rob God in tithes and offerings and be not guilty?

 

“Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, had had opportunity during the years to develop the spirit of self-denial characterizing his master’s lifework.  It had been his privilege to become a noble standard-bearer in the army of the Lord.  The best gifts of Heaven had long been within his reach; yet, turning from these, he had coveted instead the base alloy of worldly wealth.  And now the hidden longings of his avaricious spirit led him to yield to an overmastering temptation.”  PK:250.

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

 

 

6:23:  “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel” = According to the next verse (24), “Syria gathered all his host.”  Apparently, there was only a small reprieve.  However, it may also be observed that in the preceding verses that Syria had only sent small “bands” to attack the Israelites.  But now, “Benhadad king of Syria,” Second Kings 6:24, has had enough and sends his full army.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

 

7:8:  “one tent. . . hid it. . . another tent. . . hid it” = Surely there was much substance for it took four men to empty one tent.

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

 

 

8:26:  “Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign” = Second Chronicles 21:20 & 22:2 states that he was 42.  However, it should state that he was 22, as this verse states correctly, meaning that the Second Chronicles 21:20 & 22:2 statements are an error of translation.  The reason that 22 years old is correct is plain to see when we consider that Jehoram, his father, began to reign when he was thirty-two years old, and reigned eight years, and so died, being forty years old (see 2Ki. 8:17), bringing us to the conclusion that his very own son (42 years old) could not have been older than his father (40 years old) when he began to reign (22 not 42).

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

 

 

9:2:  “Jehu” = Here is my First Kings 16:1 Note:  “Jehu” = That Jehu is an historical figure is confirmed via “The Marble Slab Inscription From Ashur,” which contains the annals of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III.  Upon this “slab” is the mention of Jehu paying tribute to king Shalmaneser III.  King Jehu’s name is also engraved upon the “Kurba’il Statue of Shalmaneser III,” in which he records his victory over Hazael, the Aramean king of Damascus, as well as mentioning king Jehu paying tribute to him.

 

Upon these inscriptions is mentioned that Jehu began to pay tribute to Shalmaneser III during his 18th year of reign.  That would coincide with approximately B.C. 841, which is the same year Jehu became king of Israel.

 

Also, in Second Kings 9:20 we learn that Jehu, as a commander in the armies of king Ahab, was a masterful chariot driver.  And upon the “Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III,” are depictions of Shalmaneser III’s chariots which fought in the battle of Qarqar, which most likely Jehu was also a part of and had the same style of chariots, because Jehu, being a vassal of the Assyrian king, helped him in battle against Hazael (see 2Ki. 10:32).

 

9:14-27:  “Jehu - Joram - Hazael - Ahaziah” = According to the Biblical record, “Jehu” is the one who kills Joram and Ahaziah.  While, according to the artifact, “The Tel Dan Stele,” the erector of it, “Hazael king of Syria,” claims he killed them.  In fact, Hazael had wounded Joram and Jehu finished him off.  In ancient times, when a kings enemy was killed many times they would claim to take credit for it.

 

9:31:  “Had Zimri peace, who slew his master” = Two literal translations can be derived from the original Hebrew.  One is:  “Is it peace, Zimri, killer of his master?”  Zimri was the exterminator of the house of Baasha (see 1Ki. 16:8-18).  However, his reign only lasted seven days; perishing by his own suicidal hands.  And to him there was never any peace.  Thus, in this first expression, it is surmised that Jezebel is referring to Zimri’s ill-fated attempt to have a peaceful reign by eliminating the line of the rightful heirs to the throne, and Jehu should expect nothing better.  In our second literal translation, Jezebel is construed as if to be tauntingly saying, “Peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?”  This view would line up more with the wicked character of Jezebel, just like when she taunted Elijah (see 1Ki. 19:1-3) and he went running for his life.

 

 

CHAPTER TEN

 

 

10:16:  “Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord” = “There was much of the Jehu spirit manifested:  ‘Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.’  In place of this self-confident assurance,” 2T:147.

 

10:30:  “hast done unto the house of Ahab” = “It was because of His compassion for those whose moral power was weak, that He raised up Jehu to slay wicked Jezebel and all the house of Ahab. . . God in His wisdom foresaw that if temptation were removed, some would forsake heathenism, and turn their faces Heavenward; and this is why He permitted calamity after calamity to befall them.”  PK:254.

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

 

11:12:  “gave him the testimony” = Joash appears to be the only king who performed this particular ceremony required to be done by Israel’s kings as described in Deuteronomy 17:18-20.

 

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

12:4:  “dedicated things” = This was money from persons who had made vows to the Lord, or who had dedicated certain animals or objects to Him.  It was a variable sum dependent on age, sex, and property (see Lev. 27:1-8).

 

“every one that passeth the account. . . that every man is set at” = This was half a shekel, whether rich or poor.  It was the set figure and atonement money for every male, assessed “from twenty years old and above,” and served as the support system for the “service of the tabernacle of the congregation,” Exodus 30:13-16 (see also 2Ch. 24:5).

 

“any man’s heart” = Would, of course, be a freewill offering.  This would include any strangers who were visiting Jerusalem.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

 

13:19:  “Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times” = “The lesson is for all in positions of trust.  When God opens the way for the accomplishment of a certain work, and gives assurance of success, the chosen instrumentality must do all in his power to bring about the promised result.  In proportion to the enthusiasm and perseverance with which the work is carried forward, will be the success given.  God can work miracles for His people only as they act their part with untiring energy.  He calls for men of devotion to His work, men of moral courage, with ardent love for souls, and with a zeal that never flags.”  PK:263.

 

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 

 

14:25:  “from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain” = Here we are told that the large extension of territory that was afforded to Jeroboam II (B.C. 786-746) was foretold by the prophet Jonah, whose prophetic ministry was somewhere in about the B.C. 790’s.  We marvel and make much mention over the fact that Isaiah names Cyrus as a ruler of the then non-existent Persian Empire, even before he is born (Isa. 44:28-45:1), yet here we see that Jonah has done nearly the same.  Adad-Nirari III was the ruler of Nineveh from B.C. 810-782.  And history records a great repentance of this city in B.C. 790, which has helped us to establish the time frame of Jonah’s ministry.

 

 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

 

15:19:  “Pul” = Tilgath-pilneser III.  Pul was his Babylonian name.

 

15:29:  “carried them captive” = “Not all who were carried captive were impenitent.  Among them were some who had remained true to God, and others who had humbled themselves before Him.  Through these, ‘the sons of the Living God’ (Hosea 1:10), He would bring multitudes in the Assyrian realm to a knowledge of the attributes of His character and the beneficence of His Law.”  PK:292.

 

15:34-35:  “he did that which was right” = “The judgment that befell Uzziah [see 2Ch. 26:16-20] seemed to have a restraining influence on his son. . . Had Jothan inaugurated a thorough reformation, and torn down these favorite meeting places, encouraging the people to engage unitedly in the temple services, he might have done much to strengthen faith in the true God.”  RH, March 4, 1915; PK:305.

 

 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 

 

16:20:  “Hezekiah” = Written in the “B.CH.E.” eighth-century Aramaic, the cuneiform inscription known as “Sennacherib’s Prism,” Sennacherib claims to have shut up “Hezekiah. . . like a bird in a cage,” establishing historically Hezekiah as a real person.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

 

17:6:  “carried Israel away” = “Many of the exiles suffered persecution.  Not a few lost their lives because of their refusal to disregard the Sabbath and to observe the heathen festivals.”  DA:28.

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

 

 

18:9-12:  “came up against Samaria, and besieged it” = See Isaiah 10:5.

 

“The Destruction that came upon the northern kingdom was directly from God Himself.  The Assyrians were merely the instruments that He used to carry out His purpose.”  RH, February 12, 1914.

 

18:13:  “Hezekiah did Sennacherib” = Critics of the Bible were once again silenced by their claims of “Hezekiah” and “Sennacherib” not being real historical figures, when in 1830, Robert Taylor (1790-1852) discovered “The Taylor Prism” at Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

 

18:18:  “Hilkiah” = Here is my Jeremiah 36:10 Note:  “Gemariah the son of Shaphan” = These two are established as historical figures on a lump of clay, called a “Bulla.”  It was used to seal official documents.  Their names appear in the “Bulla of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan.”  This “Bulla” was discovered in excavations in the oldest part of Jerusalem, the City of David.  Other officials, Hilkiah, Azariah, Jehucal and Gedaliah ben Pashur are also named; discovered in 1982, 2005, and 2008.

 

 

CHAPTER NINETEEN

 

 

19:9:  “Tirhakah” = Tirhakah is established as an historical figure on a statuette of a little-known Egyptian falcon-god Hemen (which supposedly provided Egypt with a bountiful flood during a time of drought).  On the statue is the inscription of Taharqa, the Nubian pharaoh of Egypt’s 25th Dynasty, who has been identified with the Ethiopian king Tirhakah, who fought against the Assyrian King Sennacherib during the reign of Hezekiah.  On it Taharqa is figured as offering two round vases of wine to the falcon-god.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 

 

21:13:  “a man” = The phrase “a man” is supplied and not in the original text.  The Hebrew word for “wipe” and “wipeth” is “machah,” and literally means in context that God will “wipe out,” or better, “obliterate” Jerusalem because of “her” sins.  Thus, if we are going to supply words correctly, it should read, “and I will wipe out Jerusalem as she wipes a dish.”

 

Second Kings 21:16 & 24:4:  “shed innocent blood” = “One of the first to fall was Isaiah.”  RH, July 8, 1915; PK:382.

 

“The trying experiences through which Judah had safely passed during Hezekiah’s reign, had developed in the hearts of many a sturdiness of character that now served as a bulwark against the prevailing iniquity.  Their testimony in behalf of truth and righteousness aroused the anger of Manasseh and his associates in authority, who endeavored to establish themselves in evil doing by silencing every voice of disapproval.”  RH, July 8, 1915.

 

“Isaiah. . . was sawn asunder, because he faithfully reproved the sins of the Jewish nation.”  ST, Feb. 17, 1898; 4BC:1137.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

 

 

Second Kings 22:8; Second Chronicles 34:12:  “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the Lord” = “. . . the Book of the Law [was] found in the side of the Ark in the House of God.”  2BC:1038.

 

22:13:  “inquire of the Lord” = “The gravity of the situation, and the respect in which he held the prophetess, led him to choose as his messengers to her, the first men of the kingdom.”  RH, July 22, 1915; DG:44; PK:398; YRP:268.

 

22:16:  “all the Words of the Book” = Most Bible commentators agree that this is the Book of Deuteronomy.  What is interesting here is that Josiah asks if the writings in this Book are the inspired Word of God.  Thus, when Huldah confirms that here, She becomes the first prophet to “canonize” any Book of the Scriptures.

 

“So long had their senses been deadened by wrongdoing, that if judgment should not come upon them, they would soon return to the same sinful course.”  RH, July 29, 1915; DG:44-45; PK:399.

 

22:19:  “I also have heard thee” = “The king must leave with God the events of the future; he could not alter the eternal decrees of Jehovah.  But in announcing the retributive judgments of Heaven, the Lord had not withdrawn opportunity for repentance and reformation; and Josiah, discerning in this a willingness on the part of God to temper His judgments with mercy, determined to do all in his power to bring about decided reforms.”  RH, July 29, 1915; GCB, April 1, 1903; PK:400.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

 

Second Kings 23:1-3; Second Chronicles 34:29-32:  “gathered unto him all the elders” = Josiah “saw that they were indulging appetite to a fearful extent, and perverting their senses by the use of wine.  Men in sacred offices were frequently incapacitated for the duties of their positions, because of their indulgence in wine.  Appetite and passion were fast gaining the ascendancy over the reason and judgment of the people, till they could not discern that the retribution of God would follow upon their corrupt course.”  2BC:1038.

 

23:2:  “he read” = “The royal reader was deeply affected, and he delivered his message with the pathos of a broken heart.  His hearers were profoundly moved.  The intensity of feeling revealed in the countenance of the king, the solemnity of the message itself, the warning of judgments impending, -- all these had their effect.”  RH, July 29, 1915; PK:400.

 

23:3:  “And all the people stood to the Covenant” = “The response was more hearty than the king had dared hope for.”  RH, July 29, 1915; PK:400.

 

23:19:  “houses also of the high places” = “. . . on the southern slopes of Olivet, opposite the beautiful temple of Jehovah on Mt. Moriah, were the shrines and images that had been placed there by Solomon to please his idolatrous wives.  See 1 Kings 11:6-8.  For upward of three centuries the great, misshapen images had stood on the ‘Mount of Offense,’ mute witness to the apostasy of Israel’s wisest king.  These, too, were removed and destroyed by Josiah.”  RH, July 29, 1915; PK:401.

 

Second Kings 23:29; Second Chronicles 35:20-22:  “he slew him at Megiddo” = “. . . he died in battle.  Why? -- Because he did not heed the warnings given. . . Because Josiah died in battle, who will charge God with denying His Word that Josiah should go to his grave in peace?  The Lord did not give orders for Josiah to make war on the king of Egypt.  When the Lord gave the king of Egypt orders that the time had come to serve Him by warfare, and the ambassadors told Josiah not to make war on Necho, no doubt Josiah congratulated himself that no Word from the Lord had come directly to him.  To turn back with his army would have been humiliating, so he went on.  And because of this, he was killed in battle, a battle that he should not have had anything to do with.  The man who had been so greatly honored by the Lord, did not honor the Word of God.  The Lord had spoken in his favor, predicted good things for him; and Josiah became self-confident, and failed to heed the warning.  He went against the Word of God, choosing to follow his own way, and God could not shield him from the consequences of his act.”  2BC:1039.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

 

 

24:4:  “innocent blood” = See my Second Kings 21:16 Note.

 

24:8:  “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign” = In Second Chronicles 36:9 it states that Jehoiachin began to reign when he was 8.  It is not unreasonable to believe that Jehoiachin’s father Eliakim (a.k.a. Jehoiakim) had his son riegn with him in joint rulership at the age of eight, as the Second Chronicles account may be referring to.  That this practice was done, see Tibni / Omri.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

 

 

25:2:  “eleventh year of king Zedekiah” = According to Second Kings 25:2, in the 11th year of king Zedekiah, Jerusalem was besieged.  The prophet Jeremiah lived through 4 main kings.  King Josiah, about B.C. 640-609; King Jehoiakim, about B.C. 609-598; King Jehoiachin, about B.C. 598-597; and King Zedekiah, about B.C. 597-586.  The B.C. 586 date fits perfectly for the destruction of the first Temple.  Also, the 11th year of King Zedekiah is based upon Jewish records, historical records, and archeological evidence and “The Canon of Ptolemy,” as being B.C. 586.

 

Second Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:7; 52:11 = “carried him to Babylon” = It is from Jeremiah 52:11 only that we learn that Zedekiah went to prison and most likely died there.

 

25:22:  “Gedaliah” = See my Second Kings 18:18 Note.