The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 16
Chapter XVI · Vol. II, p. 790
1 Ahaz's wicked reign. 5 Ahaz, assailed by Rezin and Pekah, hireth Tiglath-pileser against them. 10 Ahaz, sending a pattern of an altar from Damascus to Urijah, diverteth the brazen altar to his own devotion. 17 He spoileth the temple of its ornaments. 19 Hezekiah succeedeth him.
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
2 Twentya years old was Ahaz1 when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.
a 2 Ch.28.1-4. 1 Ki.11.4-8; 15.3; 12.28-33; 13.33; 16.25-33. Le.18.21. De.12.2. Ps.106.37.
1 See note on ch.18.2.—C.
3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire,2 according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.
2 Imitating the horrible sacrifices of Canaan, De. 12. 31, in which he actually burned his children, 2 Ch. 28. 3; though this was expressly enumerated as one of the sins on account of which God cast out the Canaanites.—C.
4 And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.3
3 Not every green tree throughout the land, but every green tree where he paused to worship—most probably the sylvan deities of heathenism, to whom trees were dedicated.—C.
5 Thenb Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
b Is.7.1-9,14; 6.9,10; 9.6,7. 2 Ch.28.5-15. ch.15.37. 1 Ki.11.36.
6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elathc to Syria, and drave the Jews4 from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.5
c ch.14.22. De.2.8. 1 Ki.9.26. 2 Ch.26.2.
4 The first time they are so named—it signifies the Judeans, of which it is an abbreviation. They were now so called to distinguish the people of Judea from the ten tribes of Israel who had revolted with Jeroboam.—C.
5 A large number of ancient manuscripts, with the Septuagint and Vulgate versions, read Edomites instead of Syrians or Aramaeans. The difference between the two words in the original is very slight. I prefer the reading Edomites. P.——Instead of 'Syrians,' in the second clause of this verse, the marginal Masoretic reading has 'Edomites,' which is also found in many MSS., and in the Sept. and Vulg. That this is the correct reading can scarcely be doubted, and in that case we must follow Le Clerc and Houbigant in reading in the first clause 'to Edom,' instead of 'to Syria.' Though there is no critical evidence for this, historical fact seems to require it, for Elath had never belonged to Syria.—I.
7 So Ahaz sent messengers to dTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
d ch.15.29. 1 Ch.5.26. 2 Ch.28.16,20. Is.7.17,18. Je.17.5.
8 And eAhaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.6
e 1 Ki.15.18-20. ch.12.17,18. 2 Ch.28.21.
6 B.C. 740.
9 And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria fwent up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to gKir,7 and slew Rezin.
10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus hto meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and isaw an altar8 that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
A.M. 3264. B.C. 740.
h 2 Ch.28.20. Je.17.5.
i Ge.3.6. Jos.7.21. Ec.2.14; 11.9.
8 This was some idolatrous altar, the shape and workmanship of which pleased Ahaz so much that he determined to have one like it at Jerusalem. For this he had no divine authority; and the compliance of Urijah was both mean and sinful. That Ahaz did this for an idolatrous purpose is evident from 2 Ch.28.21-25.—I.
11 And kUrijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz9 came from Damascus.
12 And when the king was come from Damascus, lthe king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.
l 2 Ch.28.23; 26.16-19. 2 Ti.3.13.
13 And mhe burnt his burnt-offering and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his1 peace-offerings, upon the altar.
m Le.i.-iii.
1 Heb. which were his.
14 And he brought also nthe brazen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north2 side of the altar.3
n 2 Ch.4.1. Ex.40.6,29.
2 He seems to have intended to conform every thing in the Lord's house as much as possible to the idolatrous temples which he saw at Damascus, and to model the divine worship in the same way; in a word, to honour and worship the gods of Syria, and not the God of heaven and earth.—I.
3 Which Urijah had made.
15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the ogreat altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the king's burnt-sacrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brazen altar shall be for me to pinquire by.4
o Newly-made, Ex.29.39,40. Eze.43.8. Ps.106.39.
p Is.2.6. Ho.4.12, a means of divination.
4 For myself to worship at. C.——'And the brazen altar (i.e. the original altar of the temple) shall be for me to consider about;' i.e. the king had not yet resolved what was to be done with it. He reserved that for future consideration. The original conveys no idea of worship or offering at it on the part of the king.—P.
17 And king Ahaz rcut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones:
18 And the covert5 for the sabbath6 that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.7
5 Probably a shade where the royal family attended at public worship in the court of the temple.
6 It would appear to have been a royal seat, covered with a canopy, in which the king and his family sat on the Sabbath. During most part of the worship of the Sabbath the Jews still sit, in emblem of rest—a practice most probably derived from the earliest times.—C.
7 Ahaz had little cause to congratulate himself on his policy, the result of which, in reference to Judah, was similar to the result of the protection afforded to the Britons by the Saxons. 'Instead of two petty princes whom he had before for his neighbours, and with either of whom he was able to cope; he had now for his neighbour this mighty king' (Prideaux).—I.
19 Nows the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
s ch.15.6,7,36,38; 20.21,22; 21.17,18,25; 23.28; 24.5.
20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Notes
Reflections.—What monsters of children have some of the best of saints! Grace must be infused by God, not conveyed by parents. Who can know the desperate wickedness of the human heart if left to itself? It can extinguish natural affections and turn men into monsters: it can make them rush headlong into the very sins which ruined their neighbours before their eyes. In the day of distress sinners are bent upon turning themselves every way for relief, but from God alone can they have it. They will stick at nothing slavish, dishonest, or shameful, to obtain that from men which they might have from him in the most honourable manner. Yea, they will choose those very idols for saviours whose insufficiency to save has been manifested as with a sunbeam. What a plague to princes are those ministers who flatter them in their impiety, and readily comply therewith! And the most abandoned profligates are often very fond of that devotion which themselves have devised.