[408] Hos. xi. 9.
[409] See my Minor Prophets, 6-97.
[410] Not as in A.V., "Habor, by the river of Gozan."
[411] 2 Kings xvii. 6. The LXX. has "rivers" and "mountains": ἐν Ἀλαὲ καὶ ἐν Ἀβὼρ ποταμοῖς Γωζὰν καὶ ὅρη Μήδων. The river is not Ezekiel's Chebar. These deportations en masse of a whole population, with their women and children, their waggons and flocks, are depicted on Sargon's series of tablets in his splendid palace at Khorsabad.
[412] Ezra iv. 10. "The great and noble Asnapper" of the passage is either some Assyrian general, or a confusion of the name Assurbanipal.
[413] 2 Kings xvii. 9. Heb., "covered"; A.V. and R.V., "did secretly," rather "perfidiously"; LXX., ἠμφιέσαντο λόγους ἀδίκους κατὰ κύριον; Vulg., Et offenderunt verbis non rectis dominum suum.
[414] Star-worship is not mentioned in the Book of the Covenant (Exod. xx.-xxiii.) or the oldest sections of the Mosaic Law. It is first forbidden in Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3, when contact with Syrians and Assyrians made it known (comp. Job xxxi. 26-28; Jer. viii. 2, xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5). The language of 2 Kings vii.-xxiii. frequently reflects the prohibitions of Deuteronomy (see Deut. xii. 2, 30, 31, iv. 19, v. 7, 8, xvi. 21, xviii. 10, xxxi. 16, etc.)
[415] In 2 Kings xvii. 11, for "they did wicked things," the LXX. has κοινωνοὺς (i.e., qedeshîm) ἐχάραξαν καὶ ἑταιρίδας (qedeshôth); i.e., they had depraved hieroduli of both sexes. Comp. Hos. iv. 14; Gen. xxxviii. 21 (where the allusion is to one of the votaries of Asherah).
[416] Bishop Lightfoot, Sermons, p. 267.
[417] "La quale Religione se ne Principi della Republica Christiana si fusse mantenuta, secondo che dal dottore d'essa ne fu ordinato, sarebbero gli State e le Republiche Christiane più unite e più felici assai ch' elle non sono" (Discorsi, i. 12).