2 Chronicles 14:5 - Exposition

The images ; Hebrew, חַמָּנֹים . The images spoken of here are, of coarse, not the same with those (noted upon already) of 2 Chronicles 14:3 . The present khammanim are mentioned seven times beside, viz. Le 26:30; 2 Chronicles 34:4 , 2 Chronicles 34:7 ; Isaiah 17:8 ; Isaiah 27:9 ; Ezekiel 6:4 , Ezekiel 6:6 . Gesenius says Khamman is an epithet of Baal as bearing rule over the sun ( חַמָה , "heat," or "the sun"), in the oft-found compound expression, בַּעַל חַמָּן ; he thinks the plural ( חַמָּנִים ), invariably found in the Old Testament, is short for בְּעָלִים חַמָּנִים . He does not agree with the translation of Haenaker, "sun-image" by aid of the word פֶסֶל understood, images said to have been of a pyramid form, and placed in the most sacred positions of Baal-temples. This, however, is the rendering adopted by not a few modern commentators (so 2 Chronicles 34:4 ). Gesenius would render "the Sun-Bard," or "the Sun-Lord," i.e. statues of the sun, representing a deity to whom (see ' Phoen. Inseript.') votive stones,were inscribed. In his 'Thesaurus' Gesenius instances the Phoenician inscriptions, as showing that our chemmanim denoted statues of both Baal, the sun-god, and Astarte, the moon-goddess.