2 Chronicles 26:15 - Exposition

Engines ; Hebrew, חִשְּׁבֹנוֹת ; used only here and Ecclesiastes 7:29 (where it is rendered "inventions"), but the related word חֶשְׁבּוֹן is found three times: Ecclesiastes 7:25 (the "reason"), 27 (the "account"); Ecclesiastes 9:10 ("device"); while the verb root חָשַׁב , to "devise," occurs about a hundred and thirty times, as in next sub-clause מַחֲשֶׁבֶת חוֹשֵׁב . A strict rendering of the clause would make it read, "He made inventions, the inventing of an inventive man;" and the force of the words might be to appraise very highly the virtue of the invention or machine, while to himself may have been due the credit thereof. The balista which discharged stones is depicted on Assyrian sculptures; not so the machine for discharging darts and arrows, the catapult . Although, as just suggested, it were conceivable that to Uzziah himself was due in part the invention or the great improving of the machines in question, yet the verse may be regarded as simply saying that the introduction of them into Jerusalem was his work. He was marvellously helped (see Ecclesiastes 9:7 ).