2 Kings 16

IN the seventeenth year of Pekah Of which see on ch. 15. 30. the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign Of the difficulty hence arising, see the Notes on chap. 18. 2. to which it more properly belongs., 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.

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire Either 1. by way of lustration, to pass hastily thorow it, so as to be scorched, and, as it were, baptized with it: Or, 2. by way of oblation, so as to be utterly consumed, and offered for a burnt-offering, which was the practise of Heathens, and of some Israelites, in imitation of them; of which, see 2 Kings 21. 6. Psal. 10.... 36. Ier. 7. 31. which seems best to agree with 2 Chron. 28. 3. where it is said, he burnt his children, i. e. some of them: first one, as is here noted, and afterwards others of them, as is there observed. Of these practises, see more on Lev. 18. 21. and Deut. 18. 10., according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.

And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green After the manner of the; on. 2... Hos. 4. 13..

¶ Then Rezi...... ing of and Remal... ah king of Israel, up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged, but could... ot overcome Because God of his own m..., their, as he promised to do, and the hopes and design of their enemies: of,. 7..

At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath i. e. Took it from the Iews, who had no... long since taken it, chap. 14. 22. It lay in the land of Edom, upon the Red S... a, very conveniently for navigation: of which see on, 1 Kings 9. 2.... to Syria, and drave the... ews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt the... e unto this day.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saving, I am thy servant, and thy son I my self to thee, as thy Vassal, to serve and obey, and pay thee Tribute, upon condition thou doest assist me... ainst my enemies.: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel For though they were now gone from... erusalem, yet he justly concluded they would return again, and from time to time mo... est and vex him., which rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was sound in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the kings house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus The Metropolis of the Syrians, and the head of that Kingdom, Isa. 7. 8., and took it, and carried the people of it captive As was prophesied, Amos 1. 5. to Kir Not Kir of Moab, Isa. 15. 1. but a part of Media, which then was subject to the King of Assyria., and slew Rezin.

¶ And king Ahaz went to Damascus, to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria To congratulate his Victory, and acknowledg his favour and help, and to beg the continuance of it., and saw an altar Of an excellent structure, upon which the Syrians used to offer to their Idols; see 2 Chron. 28. 23. 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.

And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus So he complied with the King's command against his own, and against the express command of that great God, to whom the King, and he both, were sub... ect.; so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus He made haste, and delayed not to do it, to please the King, and advance himself..

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon To wit, a Sacrifice, and that not unto God, but unto the Syrian Idols, as appears from 2 Chron. 28. 23, 24. to whom that altar was appropriated. Whether he offered this by himself, or by a Priest, is not certain..

And he burnt his burnt-offering, and his meat-offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings For the Heathens; and Ahaz, in imitation of them, offered the same sorts of Offerings to their false gods, which the Israelites did to the true, the Devil being noted to be Gods Ape in his Worship. upon the altar.

And he brought also the brazen altar Of Burnt-Offerings, made by Solomon, and placed there by God's appointment. which was before the LORD i. e. From before the Lord's House; See on Lev. 1. 3., from the fore-front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD Or rather, from between his Altar, &c. or, that Altar, &c. His new Altar was at first set below the brazen Altar, and at a further distance from the Temple. This he took for a disparagement to his Altar; and therefore most impiously and audaciously takes that away, and puts his in its place., and put it on the north side of the altar Or, of that Altar; or of his Altar; as before. So he put God's Altar out of its p... ce and use..

And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar i. e. This new Altar; which was greater than Solomon's, either in quantity, or in his estimation. burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the kings burnt-sacrifice, and his meatoffering, 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 Whatsoever is offered to the true God, either in my name (for possibly he did not yet utterly forsake God, but worshipped Idols with him), or on the behalf of the people, shall be offered upon this new Altar: Which he seems to prescribe, not only to gratifie his own humour, but also in design to discourage, and by degrees to extinguish the worship of the true God: for he concluded, that the Worshippers of God would never be willing to offer their Sacrifices upon his Altar.: and the brazen altar shall be for me to enquire by That shall be reserved for my proper use, to enquire by; i. e. at which I may seek God, or his favour, or enquire of his will, to wit, by Sacrifices joyned with prayer, when I shall see fit. He says only to seek, or to enquire; not seek the Lord, or, to enquire of the Lord, as the Phrase is more largely expressed elsewhere; but he would not vouchsafe to mention the name of the Lord, whom he had so grosly forsaken and despised..

Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded Having once began to debauch his conscience, he could not now make an honourable retreat; and therefore proceeds to execute all the King's Commands..

¶ And king Ahaz cut 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 Which he did, either to express his contempt of them, or to render them inconvenient for the uses to which they had been designed; or to dispose of them, or of the Brass of them, in some other place and way, as best suited with his fancy; or for the King of Assyria, as it follows in the next Verse..

And the covert for the sabbath The form and use whereof is now unknown. It is generally understood of some Building, or Covert, either that where the Priests after their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came, and relieved them; which was done upon the Sabbath day, see 2 Kings 11. 5, 7. or that in which the Guard, or Watchmen of the Temple, kept their station; or that under which the King used to sit to hear God's Word, and see the Sacrifices; which is called, the covert of the Sabbath, because the chief times in which the King used it for those ends, was the Weekly Sabbath, and other solemn days of Feasting, or Fasting (which all come under the name of Sabbaths in the Old Testament), upon which the King used more certainly, and solemnly, to present himself before the Lord, than at other times. that they had built in the house, and the kings entry without By which the King used to go from his Palace to the Temple; see on, 1 Kings 10. 5, 12., turned he from the house of the LORD, for the king of Assyria i. e. That he might ingratiate himself with the King of Assyria, by his publick contempt and rejection of that Religion which had been the only Partition-Wall between the Kings of Iudah, and other Kings; and which possibly the present King of Assyria, did vehemently dislike and hate; and therefore required these things from Ahaz..

¶ Now 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?

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.