[162] The expression is remarkable, as showing how completely the prerogative of the Chosen People was supposed to rest with the Ten Tribes, as the most important representatives of the seed of Abraham.
[163] "Him that is shut up, and him that is left at large in Israel" (2 Kings ix. 8; 1 Kings xiv. 10, xvi. 3, 4).
[164] The A.V. has, less accurately, "in the portion of Jezreel." See 1 Kings xxi. 23. Heb., חֵלֶק. The חֵיל of an Eastern town is the ditch and empty space—a sort of external pomœrium around it. It is the place of offal, and the haunt of vultures and pariah dogs.
[165] 1 Sam. xvi. 4: "Comest thou peaceably?"
[166] 2 Kings ix. 11, הַמְּשֻׁנָּצ LXX., ὁ ἑπίληπτος. Comp. ver. 20, "he driveth furiously" (בְשִׁנָּצון).
[167] Ver. 12, a lie! (שֶׁקֶר).
[168] What is meant by the gerem of the staircase is uncertain. The word means "a bone" (Aquila, ὀστῶδες), and is, in this connection, an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. The Targum explains it as the top vane of a stair-dial. The margin of the R.V. renders it "on the bare steps." The Vulgate renders it in similitudinem tribunalis, as though gerem meant tselem. The LXX. conceal their perplexity by simply translating the word ἐπὶ τὸ γαρέμ. Grotius and Clericus, in fastigio graduum. Symmachus, ἐπὶ μίαν τῶν ἀναβαθμίδων.
[169] 2 Kings ix. 14: "So Jehu conspired against Joram." The same word is used in 2 Chron. xxiv. 25, 26.
[170] 2 Kings ix. 15, R.V.: "If this be your mind."
[171] So far as we know, he never returned to Ramoth-Gilead, of which indeed we hear no more.