[696] 2 Kings xxii. 14. Heb., _mishneh_, lit. "second"; A.V., "the college"; R.V., "the second quarter." Perhaps it means "the lower city" (Neh. xi. 9; Zeph. i. 10). It puzzled the LXX.: ἐν τῇ μασενᾷ. Vulg., _in secunda_. Jerome says, "_Haud dubium quin urbis partem significet quæ interiori muro vallabatur_." Comp. Zeph. i. 10, "an howling from the _second_" (_i.e._, quarter of the city); Neh. xi. 9, where, for "_second over the city_" (A. and R.V.), read "over the second part of the city." [697] Another reading is "in Jerusalem," which gets over an historic difficulty. [698] Comp. 2 Kings xi. 14; LXX., ἐπὶ τοῦ στύλου; Heb., _al-ha-ammud_; Vulg., _super gradum_. [699] 2 Kings xxiii. 4; for "in the fields of Kedron" one version has ἐν τῷ ἐμπυρισμῷ τοῦ χειμάῤῥου, "in the burning-place of the wady,"--perhaps reading _bemisrephoth_ for _bishedamoth_, and alluding to lime-kilns in the wady. It is surprising that they should carry the ashes "to Bethel." Thenius suggests the reading בֵּית־אַל, "place of execution" (lit., "house of nothingness"). [700] Hos. x. 5; Zeph. i. 4 (the only other places where the word occurs). The _delevit_ of the Vulgate (2 Kings xxiii. 5) only means that he put them down, and the κατέκαυσε of the LXX. should be κατέπαυσε. [701] Comp. Jer. ii. 23, where the LXX. has ἐν τῷ πολυανδρίῳ. In 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4, perhaps the true reading is, not _Benî-ha-'âm_, but _Benî-hinnom_--which would mean that he scattered the dust in the gehenna of Jerusalem. Comp. 1 Kings xv. 13. [702] For these Galli, see Seneca, _De Vit. Beat._, 27; Pliny, _H. N._, xi. 49. [703] Heb., _bathîm_, lit. "tents" or "houses"; Vulg., _quasi domunculas_. [704] In 2 Kings xxiii. 8, Geiger would read "the high places of the _satyrs_" (שׂצירים). [705] Usually derived (as by Selden and Milton) from _toph_, "drum," but perhaps from _tuph_ (to _spit_ in sign of abhorrence). [706] _Parvar_--perhaps "open portico." Renan connects the word with the Greek περίβολος. On horses dedicated to the sun, see Xen. _Cyrop._, viii. 3, 5, 12; _Anab._, iv. 5. [707] See Zeph. i. 5; Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29. [708] 2 Kings xxiii. 13: "The Mount of Corruption"; Vulg., _Mons offensionis_; LXX., τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ Μοσθάθ. Some conjecture that _Maschith_ may be a derisive change for some word which meant "anointing" (from being the _Oil_ Mountain, _Har ham-mischchah_). [709] In burning the bones of the dead, he violated all Jewish feeling. Amos (ii. 1) had severely rebuked this form of revenge and insult even in the case of the heathen King of Moab. Bones defiled the touch (Num. xix. 16; Herod., iv. 73). Josiah's question at Bethel was, "What _pillar_ is that?" (_tsiyun_). LXX., σκόπελον. Comp. Gen. xxxv. 20. [710] 1 Kings xiii. 29-31. [711] 2 Chron. xxxv. 1-19.