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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Chronicles 26:1 - 26:1
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The statements as to Uzziah's attainment of dominion, the building of the seaport town Elath on the Red Sea, the length and character of his reign (2Ch 26:1-4), agree entirely with 2Ki 14:21-22, and 2Ki 15:2-3; see the commentary on these passages. Uzziah (עֻזִּיָּהוּ) is called in 1Ch 3:12 and in 2 Kings (generally) Azariah (עֲזַרְיָה); cf. on the use of the two names, the commentary on 2Ki 14:21. - In 2Ch 26:5, instead of the standing formula, “only the high places were not removed,” etc.) Kings), Uzziah's attitude towards the Lord is more exactly defined thus: “He was seeking God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God; and in the days when he sought Jahve, God gave him success.” In לִדְרֹשׁ וַיְהִי the infinitive with לְ is subordinated to הָיָה, to express the duration of his seeking, for which the participle is elsewhere used. Nothing further is known of the Zechariah here mentioned: the commentators hold him to have been an important prophet; for had he been a priest, or the high priest, probably הַכֹּהֵן would have been used. The reading הָאֱלֹהִים בִּרְאֹות (Keth.) is surprising. ה הַמֵּבִין ב can only denote, who had insight into (or understanding for the) seeing of God; cf. Dan 1:17. But Kimchi's idea, which other old commentators share, that this is a periphrasis to denote the prophetic endowment or activity of the man, is opposed by this, that “the seeing of God” which was granted to the elders of Israel at the making of the covenant, Exo 24:10, cannot be regarded as a thing within the sphere of human action or practice, while the prophetic beholding in vision is essentially different from the seeing of God, and is, moreover, never so called. בראות would therefore seem to be an orthographical error for בְיִרְאַת, some MSS having ביראות or ביראת (cf. de Rossi, variae lectt.); and the lxx, Syr., Targ., Arab., Raschi, Kimchi, and others giving the reading בְּיִרְאַת ה הַמֵּבִין, who was a teacher (instructor) in the fear of God, in favour of which also Vitringa, proll. in Jes. p. 4, has decided.