Kings II 23:11

11 And after him Samaia the son of Asa the Arachite: and the Philistines were gathered to Theria; and there was there a portion of ground full of lentiles; and the people fled before the Philistines.

Kings II 23:11 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 23:11

And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had
given to the sun
Consecrated to it; these were not images of horses, as some have thought, but real living ones; and the kings that gave them for the service of the sun, and for sacrifice to it, very probably were Manasseh and Amon: that horses were sacred to the sun with many Heathen nations, as the Massagetae, a people in Scythia, and the Persians, and Babylonians, and Ethiopians, is affirmed by various writers ^F3: and from them the Jews received this notion. According to the Jewish commentators, these were horses provided for the worshippers of the sun to ride upon, and meet the sun in the morning at its rising, and pay their homage to it; but certain it is that the Heathen nations before mentioned slew the horses, and sacrificed them as burnt offerings to the sun, as is asserted by Herodotus ^F4, Xenophon ^F5, Strabo ^F6, Pausanias ^F7, Philostratus ^F8, and other writers ^F9; and so the Indians of India

---

FOOTNOTES:

F11 sacrificed them to Apollo, the same with the sun; these being the swiftest of creatures, they offered them to the swiftest of their gods, as Herodotus and Heliodorus observe, in the places before referred to. The stables in which these horses were kept were

at the entering of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of
Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs;
so that they reached from the temple to the suburbs of Jerusalem, to that part of them where this officer had a chamber, or lodgings, being in some place of power and authority there; though, according to L'Empereur ^F12, it is the same with Parbar, ( 1 Chronicles 26:18 ) and should not be rendered "suburbs", it being between the compass or wall of the temple, and the court:

and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire;
these were either chariots, in which the king and his nobles rode, when they went to meet and worship the rising sun; or rather such as were sacred to the sun, as well as the horses, or Josiah would not have burnt them; they seem to be such in which the images of the sun were carried. Herodotus ^F13 makes mention as of sacred horses, so of a sacred chariot. Xenophon ^F14 speaks of the chariot of the sun as being of a white colour, and drawn in procession at the worship of the sun; as does also Pausanias ^F15 of a chariot, in which were the sun, Jupiter, and Juno, and near them other deities; which notion of sacred chariots the Heathens might take from the chariot of the cherubim Jehovah sat and rode in, ( 1 Chronicles 28:18 ) .

F3 Justin e Trogo, l. 1. c. 10. Curt. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. Ovid. Fast. l. 1. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 26. Heliodor. Ethiop. l. 10. c. 6. 28.
F4 Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 216.
F5 Cyropaed. l. 8. c. 23, 24.
F6 Geograph. l. 11. p. 353.
F7 Laconica, sive, l. 3. p. 201.
F8 Vit. Apollon. l. 1. c. 20.
F9 Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21.
F11 Laon. Chalcondyl. de Rebus Turc. l. 3. p. 108.
F12 Not. in Misn. Middot, c. 2. sect. 3. No. 3. So Boehart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 10. col. 177.
F13 Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 55.
F14 Ut supra, (Cyropaed. l. 8.) c. 23.
F15 Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p, 307.

Kings II 23:11 In-Context

9 And after him Eleanan the son of his uncle, son of Dudi who was among the three mighty men with David; and when he defied the Philistines they were gathered there to war, and the men of Israel went up.

10 He arose an smote the Philistines, until his hand was weary, and his hand clave to the sword: and the Lord wrought a great salvation in that day, and the people rested behind him only to strip .

11 And after him Samaia the son of Asa the Arachite: and the Philistines were gathered to Theria; and there was there a portion of ground full of lentiles; and the people fled before the Philistines.

12 And he stood firm in the midst of the portion, and rescued it, and smote the Philistines; and the Lord wrought a great deliverance.

13 And three out of the thirty went down, and came to Cason to David, to the cave of Odollam; and an army of the Philistines, and they encamped in the valley of Raphain.