Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Chronicles 11:5
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Rehoboam's measures for the fortifying of his kingdom. - To defend his kingdom against hostile attacks, Rehoboam built cities for defence in Judah. The sing. למצור is used, because the building of cities served for the defence of the kingdom. Judah is the name of the kingdom, for the fifteen fenced cities enumerated in the following verses were situated in the tribal domains of both Benjamin and Judah. Ch2 11:6 In Judah lay Bethlehem, a small city mentioned as early as in Jacob's time ( Gen 35:19), two hours south of Jerusalem, the birthplace of David and of Christ ( Mic 5:1; Mat 2:5, Mat 2:11), now Beit-Lahm; see on Jos 15:59. Etam is not the place bearing the same name which is spoken of in Ch1 4:32 and Jdg 15:8, and mentioned in the Talmud as the place where, near Solomon's Pools, the aqueduct which supplied Jerusalem with water commenced (cf. Robins. Pal. sub voce; Tobler, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii. S. 84ff., 855ff.); (Note: For further information as to the commencement of this aqueduct, see the masterly dissertation of Dr. Herm. Zschokke, "Die versiegelte Quelle Salomo's," in the Tbingen Theol. Quartalschr. 1867, H. 3, S. 426ff.) nor is it to be looked for, as Robins. loc. cit., and New Bibl. Researches, maintains, in the present village Urts (Arts), for it has been identified by Tobl., dritte Wand. S. 89, with Ain Attn, a valley south-west from Arts. Not only does the name Attn correspond more than Arts with Etam, but from it the water is conducted to Jerusalem, while according to Tobler's thorough conviction it could not have been brought from Arts. Tekoa, now Tekua, on the summit of a hill covered with ancient ruins, two hours south of Bethlehem; see on Jos 15:59. Ch2 11:7 Beth-zur was situated where the ruin Beth-Sur now stands, midway between Urts and Hebron; see on Jos 15:58. Shoko, the present Shuweike in Wady Sumt, 3 1/2 hours south-west from Jerusalem; see on Jos 15:35. Adullam, in Jos 15:35 included among the cities of the hill country, reckoned part of the lowland (Shephelah), i.e., the slope of the hills, has not yet been discovered. Tobler, dritte Wand. S. 151, conjectures that it is identical with the present Dula, about eight miles to the east of Beit-Jibrin; but this can hardly be correct (see against it, Arnold in Herzog's Realenc. xiv. S. 723. It is much more probable that its site was that of the present Deir Dubban, two hours to the north of Beit-Jibrin; see on Jos 12:15. Ch2 11:8 Gath, a royal city of the Philistines, which was first made subject to the Israelites by David ( Ch1 18:1), and was under Solomon the seat of its own king, who was subject to the Israelite king ( Kg1 2:39), has not yet been certainly discovered; see on Jos 13:3. (Note: C. Schick, Reise in das Philisterland (in "Ausland" 1867, Nr. 7, S. 162), identifies Gath with the present Tel Safieh, "an isolated conical hill in the plain, like a sentinel of a watchtower or fortress, and on that account there was so much struggling for its possession." On the other hand, Konr. Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palstina, Zrich 1865, thinks, S. 133, that he has found the true situation of Gath in the Wady el Gat, northward of the ruins of Askalon.) Mareshah, the city Marissa, on the road from Hebron to the land of the Philistines, was at a later time very important, and is not represented by the ruin Marash, twenty-four minutes to the south of Beit-Jibrin (Eleutheropolis); see on Jos 15:44, and Tobl. dritte Wand. S. 129, 142f. Ziph is probably the Ziph mentione…
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