Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 King 16:1 - 16:9

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 King 16:1 - 16:9


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Ahaz Calls upon Assyria for Help

v. 1. In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the second-last king of Israel, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.

v. 2. Twenty years old was Ahaz 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;
he forsook the traditional piety of the kings of Judah.

v. 3. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel,
following their idolatrous customs, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, in a form of the terrible human sacrifices in use among the Moabites and the Assyrians, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, Deu_12:31.

v. 4. And he sacrificed and burned incense,
with all the rites observed in true worship, in the high places and on the hills, where there was no house of the Lord, but only idolatrous altars, and under every green tree.

v. 5. Then Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel,
who had formed an alliance at the time of Jotham, 2Ki_15:37, came up to Jerusalem to war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him; they were unable to take the city, which had been strongly fortified by Uzziah and Jotham. Thus a prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, Isa_7:1-9. But while the allies did not accomplish their purpose of taking Jerusalem and embodying Judah in their mighty confederacy, they had success elsewhere.

v. 6. At that time Rezin, king of Syria, recovered Elath,
the important harbor and commercial city at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath, thus cutting off one of the chief sources of prosperity of Judah. And the Syrians came to Elath, settling there a commercial colony, and dwelt there unto this day, until the time this account was written.

v. 7. So Ahaz,
in his great extremity, sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son, thereby offering to become a tributary vassal; 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. It seems, then, that Ahaz placed no faith in the promises of Isaiah.

v. 8. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house,
all that had accumulated since Jehoash of Israel had plundered these treasures, 2Ki_14:13, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria, thus buying his assistance and entering into a federation against which Isaiah had warned.

v. 9. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, the capital of Syria, and took it, and carried the people of It captive to Kir,
leading them into exile to the modern Georgia, south of the Caspian Sea, and slew Rezin. Thus the word of the prophet, Amo_1:3-5, was fulfilled. Subsequent events show that this move did Ahaz no good, for the Assyrian ruler did not regard or treat him as a friend and equal, but as a vassal. He who places his trust in men has, at best, a poor prop for his weakness.