[9] מִז־הַנָּהָר (compare עֲבַר־נַהֲרָה). _Lit._, "_Beyond_ the river," _i.e._, from the Persian standpoint. It becomes a fixed geographical phrase. Traces of the editor's hand occur in 1 Kings xiii. 32 ("the cities of Samaria"); 2 Kings xiii. 23 ("as yet"). [10] Comp. 2 Kings viii. 25 with ix. 29. [11] See 2 Kings xv. 30 and 33, viii. 25 and ix. 29. [12] As, perhaps, the clause "In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah" in 1 Kings xvi. 23; and the much more serious "in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt," which are omitted by Origen (_comm. in Johannem_, ii. 20), and create many difficulties. The only narratives which critics have suggested as possible interpolations, from the occurrence of unusual grammatical forms, are 2 Kings viii. 1-6 and iv. 1-37 (in the story of Elisha); but these forms are perhaps northern provincialisms. [13] _Speaker's Commentary_, ii. 475. Instances will be found in 1 Kings xiv. 21, xvi. 23, 29; 2 Kings iii. 1, xiii. 10, xv. 1, 30, 33, xiv. 23, xvi. 2, xvii. 1, xviii. 2. [14] Stade, p. 79; Kalisch, _Exodus_, p. 495. [15] See Keil, pp. 9, 10. [16] R. F. Horton, _Inspiration_, p. 843. [17] He was not the author of the Book of Samuel, for the standpoint and style are quite different. In the First and Second Books of Samuel the high places are never condemned, as they are incessantly in Kings (1 Kings iii. 2, xiii. 32, xiv. 23, xv. 14, xxii. 43, etc.). [18] Baba Bathra, 15 a. [19] _Seder Olam Rabba_, 20. [20] Even then he would have been ninety years old. [21] There are, however, some _differences_ between 2 Kings xxv. and Jer. lii. (see Keil, p. 12), though the manner is the same, Carpzov, _Introd._, i. 262-64 (Hävernick, _Einleit._, ii. 171). Jer. li. (verse 64) ends with "Thus far are the words of Jeremiah," excluding him from the authorship of chap. lii. (Driver, _Introd._, p. 109). The last chapter of Jeremiah was perhaps added to his volume by a later editor. [22] "The Old Testament does not furnish a history of Israel, though it supplies the materials from which such a history can be constructed. For example, the narrative of Kings gives but the merest outline of the events that preceded the fall of Samaria. To understand the inner history of the time we must fill up this outline with the aid of the prophets Amos and Hoshea."--ROBERTSON SMITH'S _Preface_ to translation of Wellhausen, p. vii.