The Expositor's Bible: The Books of ChroniclesBennett, W. H. (William Henry)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Books of Chronicles
Bennett, W. H. (William Henry)
Bible. Chronicles -- Commentaries
In the doxology God is addressed as “Jehovah, the God of Israel, our
Father,” and similarly in ver. 18 as “Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Israel.” For the chronicler the accession of David is the
starting-point of Israelite history and religion, but here, as in the
genealogies, he links his narrative to that of the Pentateuch, and reminds
his readers that the crowning dispensation of the worship of Jehovah in
the Temple rested on the earlier revelations to Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel.
We are at once struck by the divergence from the usual formula: “Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.” Moreover, when God is referred to as the God of the
Patriarch personally, the usual phrase is “the God of Jacob.” The formula,
“God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,” occurs again in Chronicles in the
account of Hezekiah’s reformation; it only occurs elsewhere in the history
of Elijah in the book of Kings.(328) The chronicler avoids the use of the
name “Jacob,” and for the most part calls the Patriarch “Israel.” “Jacob”
only occurs in two poetic quotations, where its omission was almost
impossible, because in each case “Israel” is used in the parallel
clause.(329) This choice of names is an application of the same principle
that led to the omission of the discreditable incidents in the history of
David and Solomon. Jacob was the supplanter. The name suggested the
unbrotherly craft of the Patriarch. It was not desirable that the Jews
should be encouraged to think of Jehovah as the God of a grasping and
deceitful man. Jehovah was the God of the Patriarch’s nobler nature and
higher life, the God of Israel, who strove with God and prevailed.
In the doxology that follows the resources of language are almost
exhausted in the attempt to set forth adequately “the greatness, and the
power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, ... the riches and
honour, ... the power and might,” of Jehovah. These verses read like an
expansion of the simple Christian doxology, “Thine is the kingdom, the
power, and the glory,” but in all probability the latter is an
abbreviation from our text. In both there is the same recognition of the
ruling omnipotence of God; but the chronicler, having in mind the glory
and power of David and his magnificent offerings for the building of the
Temple, is specially careful to intimate that Jehovah is the source of all
worldly greatness: “Both riches and honour come of Thee, ... and in Thy
hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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