the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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2 Chronicles 16:14
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedContextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
his own sepulchres: 2 Chronicles 35:24, Isaiah 22:16, John 19:41, John 19:42
made: Heb. digged
sweet odours: Genesis 50:2, Mark 16:1, John 19:39, John 19:40
the apothecaries' art: Exodus 30:25-37, Ecclesiastes 10:1
a very great: 2 Chronicles 21:19, Jeremiah 34:5
Reciprocal: Genesis 50:5 - I have 1 Samuel 31:12 - burnt them there 2 Samuel 2:32 - buried 1 Kings 15:24 - was buried 2 Chronicles 32:33 - did him Nehemiah 3:16 - the sepulchres Isaiah 57:2 - rest Matthew 1:7 - Asa Matthew 26:12 - General Luke 23:56 - prepared
Cross-References
Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.
And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.
Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh). They defeated all the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.
Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.
And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which [is] Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.
They returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon-tamar.
Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
And thei turneden ayen, and camen til to the welle Mesphath; thilke is Cades. And thei `han smyte al the cuntre of men of Amalec, and Amorrei, that dwellide in Asason Thamar.
and they turn back and come in unto En-Mishpat, which [is] Kadesh, and smite the whole field of the Amalekite, and also the Amorite who is dwelling in Hazezon-Tamar.
Then they turned back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And they buried him in his own sepulchres which he had made for himself in the city of David,.... Where was the burying place of the kings of Judah; here Asa had ordered a vault to be made for himself and his family, and therefore called sepulchres, because of the several cells therein to put separate bodies in:
and laid him in the bed; not only laid him out, as we express it, but laid him on a bed of state, where he lay in great pomp; or the funeral bed, which, with other nations r, used to be strowed with sweet smelling flowers and herbs, as follows:
which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries art; or rather confectioner or druggist; for it is a question whether there were then any such we call apothecaries; this bed was strowed with spices, myrrh, aloes, cassia, cinnamon, c. and which perhaps might be made up into a liquid, which was sprinkled over the bed and shroud in which he lay:
and they made a very great burning for him not that they made a great fire, and burned his body; for burning was not used with the Jews; but they burnt spices and other things in great quantity, in honour of him:
:-, and this custom continued to the times of Herod, at whose funeral there were five hundred of his domestics and freed men bearing spices s.
r Herodian. Hist. l. 4. c. 3. Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman. l. 1. c. 11. & Alstorph. de Lect. Vet. c. 19. p. 151, 152. s Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 33. sect. 9.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The explanation of the plural - “sepulchres” - will be seen in 1 Kings 13:30 note.
The burning of spices in honor of a king at his funeral was customary (compare the marginal references).
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:14. And laid him in the bed — It is very likely that the body of Asa was burnt; that the bed spoken of here was a funeral pyre, on which much spices and odoriferous woods had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics. Some think the body was not burned, but the aromatics only, in honour of the king.
How the ancients treated the bodies of the illustrious dead we learn from Virgil, in the funeral rites paid to Misenus.
Nec minus interea Misenum in littore Teucri
Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.
Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto
Ingentem struxere pyram: cui frondibus atris
Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressas
Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis, c.
AEN. vi. 214.
"Meanwhile the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,
To dead Misenus pay their obsequies.
First from the ground a lofty pile they rear
Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir.
The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew,
And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.
The topmost part his glittering arms adorn:
Warm waters, then, in brazen caldrons borne
Are poured to wash his body joint by joint,
And fragrant oils the stiffen'd limbs anoint.
With groans and cries Misenus they deplore:
Then on a bier, with purple cover'd o'er,
The breathless body thus bewail'd they lay,
And fire the pile (their faces turn'd away.)
Such reverend rites their fathers used to pay.
Pure oil and incense on the fire they throw,
And fat of victims which their friends bestow.
These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour,
Then on the living coals red wine they pour.
And last the relics by themselves dispose,
Which in a brazen urn the priests enclose.
Old Corineus compass'd thrice the crew,
And dipp'd an olive branch in holy dew
Which thrice he sprinkled round, and thrice aloud
Invoked the dead, and then dismiss'd the crowd."
DRYDEN.
All these rites are of Asiatic extraction. Virgil borrows almost every circumstance from Homer; (see Iliad, xxiii., ver. 164, c.) and we well know that Homer ever describes Asiatic manners. Sometimes, especially in war, several captives were sacrificed to the manes of the departed hero. So, in the place above, the mean-souled, ferocious demon, ACHILLES, is represented sacrificing twelve Trojan captives to the ghost of his friend Patroclus. Urns containing the ashes and half-calcined bones of the dead occur frequently in barrows or tumuli in this country; most of them, no doubt, the work of the Romans. But all ancient nations, in funeral matters, have nearly the same rites.