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Selected Verse: 2 Chronicles 16:14 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
2Ch 16:14 |
King James |
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
they buried him in his own sepulchres--The tombs in the neighborhood of Jerusalem were excavated in the side of a rock. One cave contained several tombs or sepulchres.
laid him in the bed . . . filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices--It is evident that a sumptuous public funeral was given him as a tribute of respect and gratitude for his pious character and patriotic government. But whether "the bed" means a state couch on which he lay exposed to public view, the odoriferous perfumes being designed to neutralize the offensive smell of the corpse, or whether it refers to an embalmment, in which aromatic spices were always used in great profusion, it is impossible to say.
they made a very great burning for him--according to some, for consuming the spices. According to others, it was a magnificent pile for the cremation of the corpse--a usage which was at that time, and long after, prevalent among the Hebrews, and the omission of which in the case of royal personages was reckoned a great indignity (Ch2 21:19; Sa1 31:12; Jer 34:5; Amo 6:10). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The explanation of the plural - "sepulchres" - will be seen in Kg1 13:30 note.
The burning of spices in honor of a king at his funeral was customary (compare the marginal references). |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Burning - Of precious spices; thereby testifying their respect to him notwithstanding his miscarriages. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
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 honor 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, etc.
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, etc.); 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. |
10 And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.
5 But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.
12 All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.
19 And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.
30 And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!