9. high places--dedicated to idols.
of Isaac--They boasted of their following the example of their
forefather Isaac, in erecting high places at Beer-sheba
(Am 5:5;
compare
Ge 26:23, 24; 46:1);
but he and Abraham erected them before the temple was appointed at
Jerusalem--and to God; whereas they did so, after the temple had been
fixed as the only place for sacrifices--and to idols. In the
Hebrew here "Isaac" is written with s, instead of the
usual ts; both forms mean "laughter"; the change of spelling
perhaps expresses that their "high places of Isaac" may be well so
called, but not as they meant by the name; for they are only fit to be
laughed at in scorn. Probably, however, the mention of "Isaac"
and "Israel" simply expresses that these names, which their degenerate
posterity boasted in as if ensuring their safety, will not save them
and their idolatrous "sanctuaries" on which they depended from ruin
(compare
Am 8:14).
house of Jeroboam with . . . sword--fulfilled in the
extinction of Zachariah, son of Jeroboam II, the last of the
descendants of Jeroboam I, who had originated the idolatry of the
calves
(2Ki 15:8-10).
JFB.
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