And it is evident, both from sacred and profane histories, that the idol gods, being consulted by the heathens, did sometimes through God’s permission and just judgment give them answers, though they were generally observed, even by the heathens themselves to be dark and doubtful. But the words may be, and are by some, rendered, through the battlements (or through the lattice in the battlements) of the roof of the house where being first walking, after the manner, and then standing and looking through, and leaning upon this lattice, which was grown infirm, it broke, and he fell into the court or garden belonging to the house.īaal-zebub properly, the god of flies an idol so called, because it was falsely supposed to deliver those people from flies, which were both vexatious and hurtful to them as Jupiter and Hercules were called by a like name among the Grecians for thee same reason. Matthew Poole's Commentary In his upper chamber in which the lattice might be left to convey light into the lower room which if it now seem to be absurd in a king’s palace, we must not think it was so then, when the world was not arrived to that height of curiosity and art in which now it is. The flies there swarmed, in fact so innumerably, that I could hardly get any food without these troublesome insects getting into it". "After visiting Ekron, 'the god of flies' is a name that gives me no surprise. A temple to that idol was erected at Ekron, which was resorted to far and wide, though it afterwards led to the destruction of the place (Zec 9:5 Am 1:8 Zep 2:4). Inquire of Baalzebub-Anxious to learn whether he should recover from the effects of this severe fall, he sent to consult Baalzebub, that is, the god of flies, who was considered the patron deity of medicine. This latter supposition is most probably the true one, as Ahaziah did not fall either into the street or the court, but "in his upper chamber." Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber-This lattice was either a part of the wooden parapet, or fence, which surrounds the flat roofs of houses, and over which the king was carelessly leaning when it gave way or it might be an opening like a skylight in the roof itself, done over with lattice-work, which, being slender or rotten, the king stepped on and slipped through. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary2Ki 1:2-8. Of the five Philistine cities it lay farthest north, and so nearest to Samaria.ĭisease.- Sickness, viz., that occasioned by his fall. The later Jewish spelling ( Βεελζεβοὺλ) probably contains an allusive reference to the Talmudic woras zébel (“dung”), zibbûl (“dunging”).Įkron.- Akir ( Joshua 13:3). But when we remember that “myiomancy,” or divination by watching the movements of flies, is an ancient Babylonian practice, we can hardly doubt that this is the true significance of the title “Baal-zebub.” In the Assyrian deluge tablet the gods are said to have gathered over Izdubar’s sacrifice “like flies” ( kîma zumbie). 26, 4), and it is no doubt true that flies are an extraordinary pest in the East. “Lord of Flies” is generally compared with the Greek Ζϵὺς ὰπομυῖος, or μυίαγρος, the “fly-averting Zeus” of the Eleans (Paus., viii. (S Ephrem.)īaal-zebub.-Here only in the Old Testament. The Rabbis explain it here as a sort of skylight to the chamber beneath the upper chamber, or a spiral stairway both improbable. The word sĕbākhāh means “net” in Job 18:8, and decorative “network” in metal in 1Kings 7:18 2Chronicles 4:12. 2Kings 9:30 Psalm 14:2.) He perhaps fell into a gallery underneath, as the palace would be several storeys high, and he was not killed by his fall. The word rendered “through” ( bĕ‘ad) implies that Ahaziah was leaning out over the window-sill. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) Through a lattice.-Rather, the lattice, i.e., the latticed window of the chamber on the palace roof, looking into the court below.
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