2 Chronicles 4:17 - Exposition

In the plain … in the clay ; i.e. in the Ciccar (or round, equivalent to the New Testament "region round about ") of Jordan, a distinctive designation of the Jordan valley. The region here intended lies east of the river, in what became the division of Gad. Succoth lay a little to the north of the river Jabbok, which flows almost east to west into the Jordan. Zeredathah; i.q. Zarthan of 1 Kings 7:46 ; and this latter is in the Hebrew also the same in characters and all with the Zaretan of Joshua 3:16 . Very possibly the place is the same as Zererath ( 7:22 ). The exact sites of these places are not known, though the range within which they all lay is clear. The clay ground ; that is," the clay of the ground "(Hebrew). The radical idea of the word here translated "clay" is "thickness," which should not be rendered, as in margin, "thicknesses." The word ( עָב ) occurs in all thirty.five times, and is rendered a large proportion of these times "clouds" or "thick clouds" ( e.g. Exodus 19:9 ), clouds being presumably thicknesses in air; but if the subject-matter in question be in wood, or growing timber, or the ground, the word is rendered conformably "thick planks" ( 1 Kings 7:6 ; Ezekiel 41:25 , Ezekiel 41:26 ), or "thickets" ( Jeremiah 4:29 ), or "clay" (as here), to distinguish from other lighter or more friable soil.