1 Kings 7:46
earth foundries <0127 04568> [the clay ground. Heb. the thickness of the ground. Succoth.]
Zarethan <06891> [Zarthan.]
Zarthan is supposed to have been situated in the tribe of Manasseh, west of Jordan, near Jezreel and Bethshan or Scythopolis, and not far from the Jordan. Succoth we know was situated east of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and according to Jerome, in the district of Scythopolis: hence the "plain of Jordan," where Hiram cast the brazen vessels, must be the plain in which that river runs, Zarthan and Succoth being probably nearly opposite each other; but whether the precise spot of his operations was on this side or the other side, is uncertain. In this place he found that particular clay that was proper for his purpose; and it being a considerable distance from Jerusalem, that city would not be annoyed by the smoke and noxious vapours necessarily occasioned by the process.
[Zartanah.]
[Zaretan.]
[Zeredathah.]
1 Kings 15:6
war <04421> [there was war.]
Instead of Rehoboam fourteen MSS., the Arabic, and some copies of the Targum, read Abijam. The Syriac has "Abia, the son of Rehoboam;" and the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate has Abia. This is doubtless the true reading, as otherwise it would be an unnecessary repetition of ch. 14:30, and a repetition which interrupts the history of Abijah: (see 2 Ch 13:3, etc.)
1 Kings 15:16
1 Kings 15:32
war <04421> [A.M. 3051-3074. B.C. 953-930. there was war.]
That is, there was a constant spirit of hostility kept up between the two kingdoms, and no doubt frequent skirmishing between the bordering parties; but there was no open war till Baasha king of Israel began to build Ramah, which was, according to 2 Ch 15:19; 16:1, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa; but according to ch. 16:8, 9, his son was killed by Zimri in the twenty-sixth year of Asa, and consequently he could not make war upon him in the thirty-sixth year of his reign. Chronologers endeavour to reconcile this, by saying that the years should be reckoned, not from the beginning of Asa's reign, but from the separation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. We must either adopt this mode of solution, or admit that there is a mistake in some of the numbers, probably in the parallel places in Chronicles, but which we have no direct means of correcting.
1 Kings 22:1
[A.M. 3104-3107. B.C. 900-897.]
