2 Chronicles 21:12 - Exposition

A writing . The Hebrew is מִכְתָּב , noun, from verb כָתַב . This noun does not occur very frequently, but is found in the following passages, viz.: Exodus 32:16 ; Exodus 39:30 ; Deuteronomy 10:4 ; 2 Chronicles 35:4 ; 2 Chronicles 36:22 ; Ezra 1:1 ; Isaiah 38:8 . A note in Grove's interesting article, "Elijah", says that the word is almost identical with the Arabic word of the present day, while the ordinary Hebrew word for a "letter" is סֵפֶד oftener rendered "book." There came . That this is the precise language used rather helps the persuasion that it was the well-known Prophet Elijah of Israel, who, not resident in Judah, and perhaps very near the end of his life, and in sight of his translation, was taught and directed divinely to send this message of rebuke and terror for Jehoram. Elijah the prophet. Some hold that it certainly was not the well-known prophet of the northern kingdom who is hero intended. "Time, place, and circumstance," says Professor Dr. James G. Murphy, of Belfast, difference him "from the Tishbite." And he confidently considers him (with Cajetan) another Elijah ( Ezra 10:21 ), or Eliah ( 1 Chronicles 8:27 ; Ezra 10:26 ; for the form rendered so), or Eliyahu, in which form the Hebrew name appears ( אֵלִיָּה . or אֵלִיָּהיּ , being the forms of the name found), on the grounds that the Tishbite was translated in the time of Jehoram's father Jehoshaphat ( 2 Kings 3:11 ); that his sphere was in the northern kingdom, and himself more of one who wrought mighty works and spoke otherwise than as a prophet; and that the designation "the prophet" need by no means denote him exclusively. He adds that a "writing" from a prophet is nothing strange, which may be easily conceded but poorly instanced by 1 Chronicles 28:19 ; better by Jeremiah 36:1 , Jeremiah 36:2 , Jeremiah 36:6 . On the other hand, Grove (in article above quoted) and others find no invincible difficulty in accepting this Elijah for the famous prophet. His mention here is, of course, exceedingly interesting. as the only mention of him in Chronicles—a fact which very remarkably falls in with the abstinence as well as the fulness of the compiler of Chronicles. Josephus pronounces that the letter was sent during Elijah's life ('Ant.,' 9.5. § 2), surmises to the contrary having been made. While Elijah's translation seems to have taken place before Jehoshaphat's death, from what we read of Elisha ( 2 Kings 3:11 ), we may well account that Elisha had begun his ministry before his master's translation. Not only the ether passages that confirm, but in especial the passage ( 2 Kings 1:17 ) which tells of Jehoram's being, before his father's death, on the throne of Judah at the time of Elijah's interview with Ahaziah (a passage that occurs immediately preceding the account of Eiijah's last acts), might have led us to suppose that Elijah's letter was before Jehoshaphat's death, during the joint reign, but for the mention of the slaying of his sons. Bertheau, in our text in his 'Chronik,' points out the resemblance which the "writing" shows to the matter of the speeches of Elijah, while in certain respects of style, and the very insulated sort of introduction it has here, it greatly differs from the narrative in which it is now set. Although the calculation may seem rather a fine one, the circumstances described accurately point to the "writing" of Elijah reaching Jehoram before the chronologically misplaced translation of Elijah as given in 2 Kings 2:1-11 . This question may be instanced as one of the interesting moot points by no means compassed with insuperable difficulty, but challenging careful study and patient comparison of chronological and historical passages.