Now the king sat in the winter-house The princes and great men had distinct houses, or apartments, fitted for the several seasons of the year, Amos 3:15. In the ninth month Which answers to the latter end of our November and part of December. And there was a fire on the hearth burning before him Hebrew, יאת האח לפניו מבערת, et focus coram ipso ardebat, Buxtorff: literally, And a hearth, or, fire-pan was burning before him. Thus the LXX., και εσγαρα πυρος κατα
προσωπον αυτου : and a pan of fire before him. To the same purpose the Vulgate, et posita erat arula coram eo plena prunis, There was set before him a little altar, or fire-pan, full of burning coals. The reason of this phraseology we have in the account which Lightfoot gives us from Maimonides, namely, that chimneys were not admitted at Jerusalem by reason of the smoke. And Mr. Harmer tells us, (chap. 3. obs. 24,) that Sir John Chardin, in his MS. notes, supposes that the fire which was burning before Jehoiakim was a pan of coals; and cites a passage from him, which says, in French, “This was just as persons of quality warm themselves in winter in Persia, and particularly in Media, and wherever there is no want of wood. The manner in which they sit will not allow them to be near a chimney: in these places, therefore, of the East, they have great brasiers of lighted coals.” Harmer likewise informs us, that “the fires used at Aleppo, in the lodging rooms, are of charcoal in pans; and that pans of coals are the fires which are often made use of in winter in Egypt.” It may be observed further here, that this description of Jehoiakim sitting in his winter-house, in the ninth month, with a pan of fire before him, answers to Dr. Russel's account, who says, that the most delicate in those countries make no fires till the end of November. How long they continue the use of them he does not say: but we learn from other sources, that in Judea they are continued far into the spring: see John 18:18.