that by the “substance which was found in the king's house” we are to understand the treasures of the royal palace, is certainly incorrect. רכוּשׁ denotes property of any sort; and what the property of the king or of the king's house might include, we may gather from the catalogue of the אוצרות of David, in the country, in the cities, villages, and castles, 1Ch 27:25., where they consist in vineyards, forests, and herds of cattle, and together with the המּלך אוצרות formed the property (הרכוּשׁ) of King David. All this property the conquering Philistines and Arabians who had pressed into Judah might carry away without having captured Jerusalem. But המּלך בּית denotes here, not the royal palace, but the king's family; for המּלך לבית הנּמצא does not denote what was found in the palace, but what of the possessions of the king's house they found. נמצא with ל is not synonymous with בּ נמצא, but denotes to be attained, possessed by; cf. Jos 17:16 and Deu 21:17. Had Jerusalem been plundered, the treasures of the palace and of the temple would also have been mentioned: 2Ch 25:24; 2Ch 12:9; 2Ki 14:13. and 1Ki 14:26; cf. Kuhlmey, alttestl. Studien in der Luther. Ztschr. 1844, iii. S. 82ff. Nor does the carrying away of the wives and children of King Joram presuppose the capture of Jerusalem, as we learn from the more exact account of the matter in 2Ch 22:1.
Verse 18
The second punishment fell upon the body and life of the king. The Lord smote him in his bowels to (with) disease, for which there was no healing. מרפּא לאין is in apposition to לחלי, literally, “to not being healing.”
Verse 19
And it came to pass in days after days (i.e., when a number of days had passed), and that at the time (וּכעת( emit eh) of the expiration of the end in two days, then his bowels went out during his sickness, and he died in sore pains (תּחלאים, phenomena of disease, i.e., pains). The words שׁנים לימים הקּץ צאת וּכעת are generally translated as if שׁנים לימים were a mere periphrasis of the stat. constr. Vatabl. and Cler., for example, translate: et secundum tempus egrediendi finis annorum duorum, i.e., postquam advenit finis a. d., or cum exacti essent duo anni; similarly Berth.: “at the time of the approach of the end of two times.” But against this we have not only the circumstance that no satisfactory reason for the use of this periphrasis for the genitive can be perceived, and that no analogies can be found for the expression שׁנים לימים הקּץ, the end of two years, instead of שׁנים היּמים קץ; but also the more decisive linguistic reason that הקּץ צאת cannot denote the approach of the
