Page:A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and Jonah.djvu/43

of the Levites (v.⁹) were taken from 2⁴⁰,^[1] the author overlooking the fact that, on his own interpretation, it was not the persons bearing these names, but their sons, who were contemporaries of Zerubbabel. The functions of the Levites are the same here as in other passages in which the Chronicler deals with affairs of the temple. Cf. 2 Ch. 24^{5. 11} 34^{9. 12}. It is characteristic, too, for him to introduce music "after the order of David," whenever there is an opportunity. Cf. 1 Ch. 15^{16 ff.} 2 Ch. 5^{11 ff.}.^[2] His idea seems to have been to make this occasion correspond in its significance to that when the ark was brought from Kirjathjearim to Jerusalem by David. Cf. 1 Ch. 16. Finally, the Chronicler describes the effect produced upon "the old men who had seen the first house" when the foundation of the new one was put into place: the cries of joy and sorrow mingled in a great and indistinguishable "noise." This is a clearly an enlargement upon Hg. 2³. The whole account, then, is simply the product of an attempt to bring the facts with reference to the restoration of the temple into harmony with an unfulfilled prediction on the subject, and has no historic value.

The prolepsis just noted made it necessary for the Chronicler to explain why the completion of the temple was so long delayed. He had no data for the purpose, but, fortunately, the history of the restoration of the wall of Jerusalem suggested a means by which he could fill the embarrassing interim. Cf. Ne. 3^{33 ff.}/4^{1 ff.} 4^{1 ff./7 ff.} 6^{1 ff.}. It was the "adversaries" of his people, he says (Ezr. 4^{4 f.}), who hindered the work begun the year after their return, just as they afterward did that of Nehemiah. Cf. Ne. 4^5/11. He does not at first divulge who these "adversaries" are, but finally he identifies them with the descendants of the heathen with whom the king of Assyria, here Esarhaddon, colonised northern Palestine after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel. Cf. 2 K. 17^{24 ff.}. It was they who "frightened" the Jews "from

1. For Judah read Hoduyah. The fourth name, Henedad, seems to be a later addition suggested by Ne. 10^10/9.
2. In 2 Ch. 34¹², where, according to the Massoretic text, the repairs on the temple would seem to have been made to the sound of trumpets and cymbals, the latter half of the verse has probably been added by a thoughtless scribe. Cf. Nowack, who thinks the latter half of v.¹³ also is ungenuine.