Verse 21
Are they not written in - the chronicles - There are no chronicles extant, in which there is any thing farther relative to this king.
Verse 25
Smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh - Who Argob and Arieh were we know not; some make them men, some make them statues. Pekah had fifty Gileadites in the conspiracy with him.
Verse 29
Came Tiglath-pileser - He is supposed to have been the successor of Sardanapalus: Dean Prideaux makes him the same with Arbaces, called by Aelian Thilgamus, and by Usher Ninus junior; who, together with Belesis, headed the conspiracy against Sardanapalus, and fixed his seat at Nineveh, the ancient residence of the Assyrian kings; as did Belesis, who is called, in [Isa 39:1], Baladan, fix his at Babylon.
Took Ijon - These places belonged to Israel; and were taken by Ben-hadad, king of Syria, when he was in league with Asa, king of Judah. See [1Kgs 15:20]. They were regained by Jeroboam the second; and now they are taken from Israel once more by Tiglath-pileser. From [1Chr 5:26], we learn that Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, carried away into captivity the two tribes of Reuben, and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; all that belonged to Israel, on the other side of Jordan. These were never restored to Israel.
Verse 30
Hoshea the son of Elah - in the twentieth year of Jotham - There are many difficulties in the chronology of this place. To reconcile the whole, Calmet says: "Hoshea conspired against Pekah, the twentieth year of the reign of this prince, which was the eighteenth after the beginning of the reign of Jotham, king of Judah. Two years after this, that is, the fourth year of Ahaz, and the twentieth of Jotham, Hoshea made himself master of a part of the kingdom, according to [2Kgs 15:30]. Finally, the twelfth year of Ahaz, Hoshea had peaceable possession of the whole kingdom, according to [2Kgs 17:1]."
Verse 36
Now the rest of the acts of Jotham - These acts are distinctly stated in [2Chr 27:1-9]. He built the high gate of the house of the Lord, and he built much on the wall of Ophel. He built cities in the mountains of Judah; and in the forests he built castles and towers. He overthrew the Ammonites; and obliged them to give him one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley, for three consecutive years. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years. These are the particulars which we learn from the place in Chronicles quoted above; few of which are mentioned in this place. As to the higher gate of the house of the Lord, commentators are not well agreed: some think it was a gate which he then made, and which did not exist before, and is the same that is called the new gate, [Jer 26:10], which is very likely.
Verse 37
In those days the Lord began to send - It was about this time that the Assyrian wars, so ruinous to the Jews, began; but it was in the following reigns that they arrived at their highest pitch of disaster to those unfaithful and unfortunate people. However much we may blame the Jews for their disobedience and obstinacy, yet we cannot help feeling for them under their severe afflictions. Grievously they have sinned, and grievously have they suffered for it. And if they be still objects of God's judgments, there is revelation to believe that they will yet be objects of God's goodness. Many think the signs of the times are favorable to this ingathering; but there is no evidence among the people themselves that the day of their redemption is at hand. They do not humble themselves; they do not seek the Lord.
Introduction
Ahaz begins to reign, acts wickedly, and restores idolatry in Judea, [2Kgs 16:1-4]. Rezin, king of Syria, besieges Jerusalem, but cannot take it; he takes Elath, and drives the Jews thence, [2Kgs 16:5], [2Kgs 16:6]. Ahaz hires Tiglath-pileser against the king of Syria and the king of Israel, and gives him the silver and gold that were found in the treasures of the house of the Lord, [2Kgs 16:7], [2Kgs 16:8]. Tiglath-pileser takes Damascus and slays Rezin, [2Kgs 16:9]. Ahaz goes to meet him at Damascus: sees an altar there, a pattern of which he sends to Urijah, the priest; and orders him to make one like it, which he does, [2Kgs 16:10-15]. He makes several alterations in the temple; dies; and Hezekiah his son reigns in his stead, [2Kgs 16:16-20].
Verse 2
Twenty years old was Ahaz - Here is another considerable difficulty in the chronology. Ahaz was but twenty years old when he began to reign, and he died after he had reigned sixteen years; consequently his whole age amounted only to thirty-six years. But Hezekiah his son was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and if this were so, then Ahaz must have been the father of Hezekiah when he was but eleven years of age! Some think that the twenty years mentioned here respect the beginning of the reign of Jotham, father of Ahaz; so that the passage should be thus translated: Ahaz was twenty years of age when his father began to reign; and consequently he was fifty-two years old when he died, seeing Jotham reigned sixteen years: and therefore Hezekiah was born when his father was twenty-seven years of age. This however is a violent solution, and worthy of little credit. It is better to return to the text as it stands, and allow that Ahaz might be only eleven or twelve years old when he had Hezekiah: this is not at all impossible; as we know that the youth of both sexes in the eastern countries are marriageable at ten or twelve years of age, and are frequently betrothed when they are but nine. I know a woman, an East Indian, who had the second of her two first children when she was only fourteen years of age, and must have had the first when between eleven and twelve. I hold it therefore quite a possible case that Ahaz might have had a son born to him when he was but eleven or twelve years old.
Verse 3
Made his son to pass through the fire - On this passage I beg leave to refer the reader to my notes on [Lev 18:21]; [Lev 20:2], [Lev 20:14], where the subject is considered at large.
Verse 5
But could not overcome him - It is likely that this was the time when Isaiah was sent to console Ahaz; (see [Isa 7:1]); and predicted the death both of Rezin and Pekah, his enemies.
Verse 6
Recovered Elath to Syria - See the note on [2Kgs 14:22].
Verse 7
I am thy servant and thy son - I will obey thee in all, and become tributary to thee; only help me against Syria and Israel.
Verse 9
The king of Assyria hearkened unto him - It is said, [2Chr 28:20], that Tilgath-pilneser distressed him, but strengthened him not.
Though he came against the Syrians, and took Damascus, and slew Rezin, yet he did not help Ahaz against the Philistines, nor did he lend him any forces to assist against Israel; and he distressed him by taking the royal treasures, and the treasures of the temple, and did him little service for so great a sacrifice. He helped him a little, but distressed him on the whole.
It appears that, about this time, Pekah king of Israel nearly ruined Judea: it is said, [2Chr 28:6], that he slew one hundred thousand valiant men in one day; and that he carried away captive to Samaria two hundred thousand women and children, and much spoil; but, at the instance of the prophet Oded, these were all sent back, fed and clothed, [2Chr 28:8-16].
Verse 10
Ahaz went to Damascus - He had received so much help on the defeat of Rezin, that he went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, and render him thanks.
Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar - This was some idolatrous altar, the shape and workmanship of which pleased Ahaz so well 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 [2Chr 28:21-25] : "For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus; - and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me. And he made high places to burn incense to other gods in every city of Judah."
Verse 14
Put it on the north side - 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 honor and worship the gods of Syria, and not the God of heaven. All the alterations specified here were in contempt of the true God. Thus he provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers, [2Chr 28:25].
Verse 18
And the covert for the Sabbath - There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert, or, as it is in the Hebrew, the מוסך musach, of the Sabbath. As the word, and others derived from the same root, signify covering or booths, it is very likely that this means either a sort of canopy which was erected on the Sabbath days for the accommodation of the people who came to worship, and which Ahaz took away to discourage them from that worship; or a canopy under which the king and his family reposed themselves, and which he transported to some other place to accommodate the king of Assyria when he visited him. Jarchi supposes that it was a sort of covert way that the kings of Judah had to the temple, and Ahaz had it removed lest the king of Assyria, going by that way, and seeing the sacred vessels, should covet them. If that way had been open, he might have gone by it into the temple, and have seen the sacred vessels, and so have asked them from a man who was in no condition to refuse them, however unwilling he might be to give them up. The removing of this, whatever it was, whether throne or canopy, or covered way, cut off the communication between the king's house and the temple; and the king of Assyria would not attempt to go into that sacred place by that other passage to which the priests alone had access.
Verse 20
Was buried with his fathers in the city of David - But it is expressly declared, [2Chr 28:27], that he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings of Israel; and this was undoubtedly intended as a mark of degradation.
His reign was disastrous and impious; and it was disastrous because it was impious. He had been a scourge, not a blessing, to his people. He had not only made illegal alterations in the temple, and in the mode of worship prescribed by the true God, but he had polluted all the cities of Judah with idolatry, and brought ruin upon the nation. On the whole, a worse king than himself had not as yet sat on the Jewish throne; and yet he had many advantages: he had for counsellor one of the greatest men ever produced in the Jewish nation, Isaiah the prophet; and God condescended to interpose especially for him when grievously straitened by the kings of Israel and Syria, both of whom were cut off according to the prediction of this prophet. But he would not lay it to heart, and therefore the wrath of God fell heavily upon him, and upon the stiff-necked and rebellious people whom he governed. He had sufficient warning and was without excuse. He would sin, and therefore he must suffer.
Introduction
Hoshea's wicked reign, [2Kgs 17:1], [2Kgs 17:2]. Shalmaneser comes up against him, makes him tributary, and then casts him into prison, [2Kgs 17:3], [2Kgs 17:4]. He besieges Samaria three years; and at last takes it, and carries Israel captive into Assyria, and places them in different cities of the Assyrians and Medes, [2Kgs 17:5], [2Kgs 17:6]. The reason why Israel was thus afflicted; their idolatry, obstinacy, divination, etc., [2Kgs 17:7-18]. Judah copies the misconduct of Israel, [2Kgs 17:19]. The Lord rejects all the seed of Israel, [2Kgs 17:20-23]. The king of Assyria brings different nations and places them in Samaria, and the cities from which the Israelites had been led away into captivity, [2Kgs 17:24]. Many of these strange people are destroyed by lions, [2Kgs 17:25]. The king of Assyria sends back some of the Israelitish priests to teach these nations the worship of Jehovah; which worship they incorporate with their own idolatry, [2Kgs 17:26-33]. The state of the Israelites, and strange nations in the land of Israel, [2Kgs 17:34-41].
Verse 3
Shalmaneser - This was the son and successor of Tiglath-pileser. He is called Shalman by Hosea, [Hos 10:14], and Enemessar, in the book of Tobit, 1:2.
Gave him presents - Became tributary to him.