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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 Chronicles 28:16 - 28:27
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Ahaz, Distressed by Assyria, Continues in his Wickedness
v. 16. At that time, when Judah had just suffered this severe defeat, besides losing the harbor of Eloth, on the Red Sea, to the Syrians, did King Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him, since Assyria was a mighty empire and was gaining in strength.
v. 17. For again the Edomites, freed from the sovereignty of Judah by the campaign of Rezin of Syria, had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives. These raids were made along the southern and southeastern border.
v. 18. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, the lowlands toward the Mediterranean, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof, all cities along the Philistine border in the west and southwest; and they dwelt there.
v. 19. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz, king of Israel, given this title because he was guilty of all the idolatry of the kings of Israel; for he, Ahaz, made Judah naked, he had behaved in a dissolute manner in the nation and with its people, and transgressed sore against the Lord.
v. 20. And Tilgathpilneser, king of Assyria, welcoming the opportunity to interfere in the affairs of the nations to the south, came unto him and distressed him, added to his burdens by oppressing him all the more, but strengthened him not.
v. 21. For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the house of the king and of the princes, plundering the treasures of the kingdom in his vain attempts to find relief, and gave it unto the king of Assyria; but he helped him not.
v. 22. And in the time of his distress, when he should have repented and turned to the Lord for help, did he trespass yet more against the Lord. This is that King Ahaz, an example of foolish perverseness for all times.
v. 23. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus which smote him; and he said, arguing foolishly in his blindness and attempting to excuse his further progress in wickedness, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will l sacrifice to them that they may help me, the very argument used in our days by such as sell their souls for the sake of outward success. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.
v. 24. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, probably also to be used for tribute-money, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, thus suspending the worship both in the Holy Place and in the Most Holy Place; and he made him altars, devoted to idolatry, in every corner of Jerusalem, including the brazen altar erected by the priest Uriah after the pattern furnished him by the king, 2Ki_16:10-16.
v. 25. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, thus making idolatry of the grossest kind the official religion of the kingdom, and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers.
v. 26. Now, the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
v. 27. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, for the sake of his office, not of his person; but they brought him not into the sepulchers of the kings of Israel, they did not disgrace the tombs of the good kings of the line of David by placing his corpse by their side; and Hezekiah, his son, reigned in his stead. A terrible fate awaits him who refuses to be halted in his career of enmity toward God and dies in the hardness of his heart.