the Lord ... was wroth ... and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven] Compare Zechariah i. 15, “I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.”
heaven] There is a tendency in some later books of the Bible to write “heaven” for “God”; compare xxxii. 20, “prayed and cried to heaven,” also Daniel iv. 23; and similarly in the New Testament, Luke xv. 18, 21; John iii. 27: for further references see Grimm and Thayer, Lexicon of the N.T., s.v. οὐρανός ad fin. From a like feeling of reverence the Chronicler is sparing in his use of the name “Jehovah”; compare xvii. 4.
¹⁰And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses[¹] of your own against the Lord your God? ¹¹Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you. ¹²Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war, ¹³and said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for ye purpose that which will bring upon us a trespass[²] against the Lord, to add unto our sins and to our trespass[²]: for our trespass[²] is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. ¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.
[¹] Hebrew guiltinesses.
[²] Or, guilt.
10. keep under] In Nehemiah v. 5, the same Hebrew word is translated, “bring into bondage”; compare Ryle’s note on Hebrew slavery in loco. One Hebrew might hold another Hebrew as a slave for a limited period, but in the present passage the case is of one part of the people taking advantage of the fortune of war to reduce to slavery thousands of their fellow-countrymen.
¹⁵And the men which have been expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
15. have been expressed] The phrase is characteristic of the Chronicler; compare xxxi. 19; 1 Chronicles xii. 31, xvi. 41; Ezra viii. 20.
took the captives] Render, took hold of the captives; i.e. succoured them; LXX. ἀντελάβοντο, compare Hebrew ii. 16 ἐπιλαμβάνεται = “he taketh hold of.”
to eat and to drink] Compare 2 Kings vi. 23.