2 Chronicles 26:10 - Exposition

Towers in the desert ; Hebrew, בַּמִּזְבָּר ; the rendering should be the usual one of "wilderness." This was the cattle-pasture west and south-west of the Dead Sea. The towers were needed for forts of observation against marauding and cattle-robbing incursions, as well as for shelter in some attacks. Many wells ; Hebrew, בּרֹוֹת . These were not springs, but rather, as in the margin, tanks and cisterns. Carmel . It is not probable that this is the proper name. The translation of Carmel is "fertile field." As a proper name it occurs about twenty times, from Joshua 12:22 ; Joshua 15:55 ; Joshua 19:26 ; on to Amos 1:2 ; Amos 9:3 ; and perhaps Micah 7:14 ; and as not a proper name it occurs about twenty times also; the "fruitful field," e.g; of Isaiah 29:17 and Isaiah 32:15 shows in the Hebrew text הַכַּרְמֶל . The aspect of this verse is very picturesque, and the picturesqueness very pleasant, with its low country and pasturing cattle, its plains and their herds, its hills and their vines, all quickened into life by the mention of towers and wells, husbandmen and vine-dressers , and finished off by the home-touch that this king's partiality looked to agricultural and pastoral pursuits.