2 Chronicles 24:17 - Exposition

The princes . These turned aside from the better part they had performed ( 2 Chronicles 23:13 , 2 Chronicles 23:20 ). Made obeisance ; Hebrew, יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ . This is the word that is used of the sheaves of the brethren of Joseph bowing down, according to his dream, to his sheaf; it is also the repeatedly used word of the worship paid to Jehovah the true God, and to idols and false gods. The word occurs nearly two hundred times. The obeisance of these princes, therefore, on this occasion lacked nothing of the most pronounced character, and the worst species of flattery gained its disastrous ends. Joash must have been now about thirty-six years of age; he was seven years old when he began to reign, he had reigned twenty-three years before the restoring of the temple ( 2 Kings 12:6 ), and a few years had elapsed since. The words of the princes, to which Joash hearkened , are not supplied by the parallel, which indeed at once proceeds to speak of the threatening attitude of the Syrian king Hazael, and of how Joash bought him off. Our next verse, however, shows to what end those words tended.