86 K I N K I N
The episode of Elijah and Ahaziah, 2 Kings i., is certainly by a different hand, as is seen even from the new feature of revelation through an angel; and the ascension of Elijah, 2 Kings ii., is related as the introduction to the prophetic work of Elisha.
The narratives about Elisha are not all by one hand;
for example, iv. 1-7 is separated from the immediately
subsequent history by a sharply marked grammatical
peculiarity (the suffix (
Hebrew characters)); moreover, the order is not
chronological, for vi. 24 cannot be the sequel to vi. 23;
and in general those narratives in which the prophet
appears as on friendly terms with the king, and possessed
of influence at court (e.g., iv. 13, vi. 9, vi. 21 compared
with xiii. 14), plainly belong to the time of Jehu's dynasty,
though they are related before the fall of the house of
Omri. In this disorder we can distinguish portions of an
historical narrative which speaks of Elisha in connexion
with events of public interest, without making him the
central figure, and a series of anecdotes of properly
biographical character. The historical narrative embraced
2 Kings iii., vi. 24-vii 20, ix. 1-x. 28, in fact, the whole
account of the reign of Joram and the revolution under
Jehu; and, as 2 Kings iii. has much affinity to the history
of Ahab and Jehoshaphat in 1 Kings xxii., we may add
the earlier history of the Syrian wars (1 Kings xx., xxii.)
to the series. The evidence of style is hardly sufficient to
assign all these chapters to a single hand (for example,
(Hebrew characters) is a single chariot in the history of Jehu, but in 1
Kings xx. a collective, the single chariot being (Hebrew characters));
but they are all full of fresh detail and vivid description,
and their sympathy with the prophets of the opposition, Micaiah and Elisha, and with the king of Judah, who takes the prophets part, does not exclude a genuine interest in Ahab and Joram, who are painted in very human colours, and excite our pity and respect. To the historian these chapters are the most valuable part of the northern history; and the most surprising details have received striking verification from modern research. The stone of Mesha supplies details to 2 Kings iii. 5; the method of obtaining water suggested by Elisha (iii. 16, 17) is that which still gives its name to W. el-Hasá, at the southern end of the Dead Sea (see Wetzstein in Delitzsch, Gen., 4th ed., p. 567); and the sudden retreat of the Syrians in 2 Kings x. is very intelligible when we know that they were already at that time pressed by the Assyrians (see on all these points Wellhausen, op. cit.).
In the more biographical narratives about Elisha we may distinguish one circle connected with Gilgal, Jericho, and the Jordan valley to which Abel-meholah belongs (iv. 1-7?, 38-44; ch. v. ?; vi. 1-7). Here Elisha appears as the head of the prophetic guilds, having his fixed residence at Gilgal. Another circle, which presupposes the accession of the house of Jehu, places him at Dothan or Carmel, and represents him as a personage of almost superhuman dignity. Here there is an obvious parallelism with the history of Elijah, especially with his ascension (compare 2 Kings vi. 17 with ii. 11; xiii. 14 with ii. 12); and it is to this group of narratives that the ascension of Elijah forms the introduction.[1]
Of the Judæan narratives there is none to rival the northern histories in picturesque and popular power. The history of Joash, 2 Kings xi., xii., of Ahaz's innovations, xvi. 10 sq.) and of Josiah's reformation, xxii. 3-xxiii. 27, have their common centre in the temple on Zion, and may with great, probability be referred to a single source. The details suggest that this source was based on official documents. Besides these we have a full history of Hezekiah and Sennacherib and of Hezekiah's sickness, xviii. 13-xx. 19, repeated in a somewhat varying text in Isa. xxxvi.-xxxix. (compare ISRAEL, vol. xiii. p. 413 sq.). The history of Amaziah and Joash in 2 Kings xiv., with the characteristic parable from vegetable life, may possibly be of northern origin.
When we survey these narratives as a whole we receive an increased impression of the merely mechanical character of the redaction by which they are united. Though editors have added something of their own in almost every chapter, generally from the standpoint of religious pragmatism, there is not the least attempt to work the materials into a history in our sense of the word; and in particular the northern and southern histories are practically independent, being merely pieced together in a sort of mosaic in consonance with the chronological system, which we have seen to be really later than the main redaction. It is very possible that the order of the pieces was considerably readjusted by the author of the chronology; of this indeed the LXX. still shows traces. But with all its imperfections, as judged from a modern standpoint, the redaction has the great merit of preserving the older narratives in their original colour, and bringing us much nearer to the actual life of the old kingdom than any history written throughout from the standpoint of the exile could possibly have done.
Literature. – Since Ewald's History, vols. i. and iii., and Kuenen's Onderzock, the most thorough and original investigation of the structure of the book is that in Wellhausen's edition of Bleek's Einleitung (1878), with which the corresponding section of his Geschichte (1878) should be compared. There are modern commentaries by Thenius (Leipsic, 1849, 2d ed. 1873) and Keil (2d ed. 1876, English translation, 1872); by Bähr in Lange's Bibelwerk (1868, English translation, 1877); by Rawlinson in the Speaker's Commentary; and in Reuss's Bible. The Assyrian material, which is of the highest value, but requires to be still further sifted, is collected in Schrader's Keilinschriften und altes Tsstament (Giessen, 1872), Smith's Assyrian Eponym Canon, and other works. Translations of the chief inscriptions are given in Records of the Past, London, v.y. (W. R. S.)
KING'S COUNTY, an inland county in the province
of Leinster, Ireland, is situated between 52 50 and 53
25 N. lat., and between 6 59 and 8 1 W. long., and is
bounded on the N. by Meath and Westmeath, on the W.
by Roscommon, Galway, and Tipperary, on the S. by
Tipperary and Queen's county, and on the E. by Kildare.
It is oblong in shape, but of very irregular outline. Its
greatest breadth from north to south is 39 miles, and its
greatest length from east to west 45 miles. The area is
493,019 acres, or about 770 square miles.
Geology. – The greater part of the county is occupied by the limestone strata of the central plain. In the south-east the Slieve Bloom mountains, composed of clay-slate surrounded by sandstone, form the boundary between King's county and Queen's county, and run into the former county from south-west to north-east for a distance of about 20 miles, consisting of a mass of lofty and precipitous crags through which there are two narrow passes, the Black Gap and the Gap of Glandine. In the north-east Croghan Hill, a beautiful green eminence consisting of trap conglomerate, rises to the height of over 700 feet. The remainder of the county is flat, but a range of low limestone hills crosses its north-eastern division to the north of the Barrow. In the centre of the county from east to west a large portion is occupied by the Bog of Allen. Along the Slieve Bloom mountains iron is found in small
1 The Gilgal of Elisha is near the Jordan – comp. vi. 1 with iv. 38, (Hebrew characters) – and cannot be other than the great sanctuary 2 miles from Jericho, the local holiness of which is still attested in the Onomastica. It is true that in 2 Kings ii. 1 Bethel seems to lie between Gilgal and Jericho; but ver. 25 shows that Gilgal was not originally represented as Elisha's residence in this narrative, which belongs to the Carmel-Dothan series. Hence Robinson's Gilgal (Jiljilia) seems not to be Biblical.
- ↑ 1
past and there was no answer to the prophets of Baal, Elijah intervened. Thus we get time for the events which as the text stands could not have all happened the same evening. In 2 Kings iii. 20 for (Hebrew characters) read (Hebrew characters).
