Deuteronomy xvi. 21)
is got over by charging the singular into the plural; he took
away _the Asherahs_ (xxx). 1 ), which occurred here and there
throughout Judah, of course at heathen altars.
In the cases of Joash and Josiah the free flight of the
Chronicler's law-crazed fancy is hampered by the copy to which
he is tied, and which gives not the results merely, but the
details of the proceedings themselves (2Chronicles xxii., xxiii.;
2Kings xi., xii.). It is precisely such histories as these,
almost the only circumstantially told ones relating to Judah
in the Book of Kings, which though in their nature most akin
to our author's preference for cultus, bring him into the greatest
embarrassment, by introducing details which to his notions are
wholly against the Law, and yet must not be represented otherwise
than in the most favourable light.
It cannot be doubted that the sections about Joash in 2Kings
(xi. 1-xii. 17 [16]), having their scene end subject laid in the
temple, are at bottom identical with 2Chronicles xxii. 10-xxiv.
14. In the case of 2Kings xi., to begin with, the beginning and
the close, vers.
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