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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 King 12:19 - 12:19
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Conspiracy against Joash. - Not long after the departure of the Syrians, who had left Joash, according to 2Ch 24:25, with many wounds, his servants formed a conspiracy against him and slew him upon his bed in the house Millo, which goeth down to Silla. This description of the locality is perfectly obscure for us. The conjecture that בֵּית־מִלֹּא was the house in the castle of Millo which is so frequently mentioned (see at 1Ki 9:15 and 2Sa 5:9), is precluded by the fact that this castle is always called הַמִּלֹּא (with the article). סִלָּא is regarded by many as an abbreviation of מְסִלָּה, “which goes down by the road;” and Thenius supposes that the reference is to the road which ran diagonally through the city from the Joppa gate to the Haram-area, corresponding to the present David's road. Others regard סִלָּא as the proper name of a place in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is impossible to get any certain meaning out of it, unless we alter the text according to arbitrary assumptions, as Thenius has done. The conspirators were Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, according to 2Ki 12:21; but according to the Chronicles (v. 26), they were Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. The identity of the first names is perfectly obvious. זָבָד is a copyist's error for זָכָר, and this is the contracted form of יֹוזָכָר. The difference in the second: son of Shomer according to our text, and son of the Shimrith according to the Chronicles, has probably also arisen from a slip of the pen, since שׁמר might easily be occasioned by the dropping out of the ת from the defectively written שׁמרת, although it is also possible that Shomer may be the name of the grandfather. Joash was buried with his father sin the city of David; but according to v. 25 of the Chronicles he was not buried in the graves of the kings. The two statements are not irreconcilable; and there may be good historical ground for the account in the Chronicles, as Bertheau acknowledges with perfect justice, in spite of the suspicion which has been cast upon it by Thenius.