2 Kings 16

1. In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Twenty years old was right in the eyes of the LORD, like David his father: but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king’s son, and Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage which hath reached up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not even with you trespasses of your own against the LORD your God? Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you. Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war, and said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for ye purpose that which will bring upon us a trespass against the LORD, to add unto our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the armed was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not that which was right in the eyes 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, 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 tree. Then 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. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there, unto this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-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. 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, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar 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 did Urijah the priest make it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king drew near unto the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. And the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meal offering, and the king’s burnt offering, and his meal offering, with the men left the captives and the spoil before 15 the princes and all the congregation. And the men which have been expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.

16. At that time did king Ahaz send unto the 17 kings of Assyria to help him. For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, 18 and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with the towns thereof, and Tim- nah with the towns thereof, Gimzo also and the towns thereof: and they dwelt there. 19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had dealt

20 wantonly in Judah, and trespassed sore against the LORD. And Tilgath-pilneser king of 21 Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not. 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, 22 and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but it helped him not. And in the time of his distress 23 did he trespass yet more against the LORD, this same king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin 24 of him, and of all Israel. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD; 25 and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD, the 26 God of his fathers. Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are 27 written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

AHAZ, who succeeded his father, Jotham, upon the throne of Judah at the age of twenty, had neither courage, nor patriotism, nor energy, nor prudence, nor piety, nor even a decent re- gard for the traditions of his house and nation. He found the nation far advanced in corrup- tion—the nobles, and even the members of his own family, attached generally to the hea- thenizing party—his kingdom menaced by a combination of two powerful states, which threatened its destruction, or at least his own deposition (Isa. 7:6)—and his only hope of efficient support the interposition and protec- tion of some powerful heathen sovereign. His two deadly enemies, Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria, who had commenced the war in the lifetime of his father (2 K. 15:37), came up to- gether against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: but the brasen altar shall be 16 for me to inquire by. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz com- 17 manded. And king Ahaz cut off the bor- ders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and 18 put it upon a pavement of stone. And the covered way for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turfied he unto the house of the 19 LORD, because of the king of Assyria. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the 20 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.

(2 K. 16:5; Isa. 7:1). A horrible fear fell upon both king and people—“the heart of Ahaz was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind” (Isa. 7:2). Nevertheless, encouraged by Isaiah, who scoffed at his assailants and bid him feel no dread of such mere “tails of smoking fire- brands” (ibid., verse 4), Ahaz resisted, and after a while forced his antagonists to raise the siege, and attempt the subjugation of Judea by a different method. Rezin drew off his troops, and proceeding southward fell upon the south- ern Judean territory, overran the whole of it, and pushed his conquests to the shore of the Red Sea, where he “drave the Jews from Elath” (2 K. 16:6), and restored to the Idume- ans the city and adjacent territory. Pekah also gave up the siege, and set to work to ravage the territory, where he slew, we are told (2 Chron. 28:6), a hundred and twenty thousand men, and took two hundred thousand women and children prisoners (verses 7, 8). In this deep affliction of the Jewish nation her old foes, moreover, rose up against her. The Edomites on the southeast and the Philistines on the southwest poured in their troops upon the devoted land, and added to its calamities. Edom was content, apparently, with a single desolating raid, in which numerous captives were carried off (verse 17); but the Philistines were bolder in their aggression and more bitter in their hostility. They “invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and took Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gede-roth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof; and they dwelt there” (verse 18). Judah was indeed “brought low, and made naked.” Her “country was desolate, her cities burned with fire: her land, strangers devoured it in her presence; it was desolate, as overthrown by strangers” (Isa. 1:7). The territory that remained to her was truly but “a very small remnant” (ibid., verse 9), and even this was threatened. Pekah and Rezin might be expected at any moment to resume their attacks. It is not surprising that under these circumstances Ahaz thought himself entitled to call in foreign aid, and judged that the power from which he was most likely to obtain effectual aid was Assyria. This great empire had reached well-nigh the zenith of her power; and just at this time it was her special desire to extend her influence toward the southwest, and round off her dominion in that quarter, by absorbing into it the Palestinian region. Ahaz, therefore, having collected all the treasure on which he could lay his hand, sent a humble embassy with the rich gift to the court of Tiglath-pileser (2 K. 16:7; 2 Chron. 28:16). Tiglath-pileser responded at once to this appeal by a sudden march against Damascus and subsequent capture of the city. Rezin lost his life and Damascus its separate existence. Then the conqueror advanced against Samaria, and finding a party friendly to him within the walls, who undertook to remove Pekah, negotiated with them, and appointed their chief, Hoshea, to be tributary king of Israel. Ahaz was thus effectually relieved from the enemies whose attack he had feared; but to obtain this relief he had been forced to sacrifice the independence of his country. As Ewald says—“The price paid for the Assyrian aid was much more than the treasures of the Temple and of his palace; it was the independence and honor of the realm itself.” Ahaz became, by his compact with Tiglath-pileser, a mere subject—almost a mere nominal—king; his position was no better than that of Hoshea. Subjection to Assyria involved not only the continual payment of tribute year by year and the occasional sending to the monarch of rich presents besides, but appearance before him to do him homage whenever he was in the neighborhood. Ahaz, we are told, humbly paid his court to Tiglath-pileser at Damascus, before that monarch returned to Ninevah. This is probably the occasion of which Tiglath-pileser has left an account, when he says that tribute was brought him by twenty-two kings, among whom we find those of Ammon, Moab, Edom, Askelon, Gaza, and also “Jehoahaz of Judah.” True religion was almost wholly extinguished under this wicked king. In vain did Isaiah warn him, rebuke him, offer him signs, threaten him, urge him to rely on Jehovah (Isa. 7:4-17; 8:1-4); he doggedly pursued his own course, sought help in every quarter but the right one, put his trust in arms of flesh, or in the gods of the nations—Assyrian, Syrian (2 Chron. 28:23), Phoenician (ibid., verse 2), Ammonite (2 K. 16:3)—cared not how he degraded his country or disgraced his noble lineage, persisted in evil, ever trespassed more and more (2 Chron. 28:22), till, at the age of thirty-six (2 K. 16:2), when he was in the very prime of life, God cut him off, called him to his account, and so stopped the further degradation of His people. Ahaz seems to have died in the same year with his patron, Tiglath-pileser, n.c. 727. He was buried, like his fathers, in the city of David (ibid., verse 20); but, according to the writer of Chronicles (2 Chron. 28:27), “not in the sepulchres of the kings.” G. R.

He made himself notorious for his wickedness, surpassing in crime and downright depravity all the kings of Judah; he was surpassed in sin by few if any of the most wicked kings of Israel. H. C.—From the very first he gave himself to idolatry of all kinds. He even consecrated his children by baptism of fire to Nolech, the hideous god of Moab. In the valley of Hinnom, in a spot known by the name of Tophet, the brazen statue of Molech was erected, with the furnace within, into which the children were thrown. To this dreadful form of human sacrifice, Ahaz gave the highest sanction by the devotion of one or more of his sons. He removed the great brazen altar of burnt offerings from the court of the Temple, and set it up elsewhere, as an adjunct of a heathen altar. He despoiled the Temple of some of its finest ornaments. He took its treasures and cut in pieces and melted all its vessels of precious metal; and finally closed its doors and caused its worship to cease. Todd.—The moral darkness became thicker than ever during the sixteen years of his reign. Open apostasy was now the order of the day. Images of Baal, altars and high places consecrated to idolatry did not suffice King Ahaz: he crowned his abominable practices by burning his children in the valley of Hinnom. The visitation of Divine wrath upon guilt so flagrant was swift and terrible. Against the remonstrances of Isaiah, he applied for help to the king of Assyria; and in answer to his request, Tiglath-pileser attacked and destroyed Damascus. King Ahaz went to that ancient capital to meet him; but when the king of Assyria came to him “he distressed him, and helped him not.” The influence of this king seems to have been most pernicious. Calamity only served to blind his eyes and harden his heart. The thickening afflictions of the sister kingdom had no effect on him; and had his reign not been cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-six, a similar catastrophe could hardly have been averted from Judah. W. G. B.

2. K. 16:1.** As throughout this history, it is emphatically indicated that just as former successes had come from the help of the Lord, so now the real cause of Judah’s reverses lay in their apostasy from God. From the first, and throughout, Ahaz “did not the right in the sight of the Lord.” Nor should we omit to mark how the sacred text when describing each successive reign in Judah brings its religious character in comparison with that of David, which should have been the type for that of all his successors, even as Jeroboam’s became that for the kings of Israel. A. E.

2. Ahaz did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord.** Ahaz’s apostasy seems to have commenced with the very first year of his reign. He was the worst of all the kings of Judah. We need not suppose that all the idolatrous practices enumerated in verses 3 and 4 preceded the invasion of his territory by Rezin and Pekah (verse 5); but it is plain from 2 Chron., verse 5, that some were anterior to it.

3. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel.** The meaning is not that he set up calves, which we can scarcely suppose him to have done; but, as the writer of Chronicles explains, “he made molten images for Baalim.” He imitated—i.e., the worst of the

Israelite kings—Ahab and Ahaziah—by a reintroduction of the Baal-worship, which had been rooted out of Israel by Jehu, and of Judah by Jehoiada. B. C.—He began with the high places; thence he descends to the calves of Dan and Bethel; from thence he falls to a Syrian altar—to the Syrian god; then, from a partnership, he falls to an utter exclusion of the true God, and blocking up His Temple; and then to the sacrifice of his own son; and at last, as if hell were broken loose upon God’s inheritance, every several city, every high place of Judah hath a new god. Bp. H.

In the opening chapters of Isaiah we have an account of the condition of the kingdom of Judah at the time that Ahaz succeeded to the throne. The prosperity which the country had enjoyed under Uzziah had been continued and increased under the righteous reign of his son Jotham. And now the grandson, Ahaz, a young man of twenty, finds the country abounding in wealth, full of silver and gold. Isaiah says there was no end of their treasure; their land also was full of horses, neither was there any end of their chariots. Their commerce, too, was in a thriving condition. But before Ahaz died, all this was changed. Enemy after enemy invaded his country. The land became desolate. The king was reduced to great extremities to obtain money. Instead of the sunshine of prosperity, there was on every side the dark shadow of desolation and decay. We have the explanation of it all in the third and fourth verses. Ahaz began badly, and every fresh movement in his life was a step from bad to worse. His history is a further illustration of how one sin leads to another. It was a continuously downward path. C. H. I.

The fact which seems to be certain is, that Ahaz adopted the Moloch worship of the Ammonites and Moabites, and sacrificed at least one son, probably his first-born, according to the horried rites of those nations. A king of Moab had once done the same when he found himself in a sore strait (2 K. 3:27). Another had expressed his willingness so to appease his god (Mic. 6:7). Hitherto, apparently, the Jews had been guiltless of the abomination. They had been warned against it by Moses (Lev. 18:21; De. 18:10). Now, however, as the time of more searching trial approached, as dangers thickened, and the national existence was seen to be in peril, the awful rite seems to have exercised a fatal fascination upon them. Unnoticed among the national sins by the earlier prophets, it comes in Jeremiah and Ezekiel to be one of the offences most frequently protested against. Another king besides Ahaz sacrifices the heir-apparent to the throne (2 K. 21 : 6). The people follow the example with fatal eagerness, and the Hinnom valley swims with the blood of human victims. The cruel custom is practised in both kingdoms (2 K. 17 : 17).

5. Then Rezin and Pekah came up.** Rezin and Pekah had begun their attacks upon Judea in the reign of Jotham. The earlier scenes of the war, omitted by the writer of Kings, are given at some length in Chronicles (28 : 5-15). The confederates, it appears, acted separately. Rezin in one quarter, Pekah in another, invaded the kingdom. A great battle was fought with each. In both engagements the Jews were defeated, and lost numerous prisoners. In the battle with Pekah the slain numbered (if the text be correct) one hundred and twenty thousand. The country was then ravaged by Pekah, and women and children to the number of two hundred thousand were carried off. These, however, were, by the advice of the prophet Oded, restored. Siege was then laid to Jerusalem by the allies in common, as related in the present passage (cf. Isa. 7 : 1) ; but the siege was unsuccessful, the defences raised by Uzziah (2 Chron. 26 : 9) and Jotham (ibid., 27 : 3) proving too strong for the besiegers, who, probably at the close of the military season, retired. B. C.

It was the purpose of Pekah and Rezin to depose the house of David and place on the throne of Judah a person of low origin (Isa. 7 : 6). Not only would their plan not “come to pass” (Isa. 7 : 7), but looking beyond the unbelief and the provocations of an Ahaz (Isa. 7 : 13), the Divine promise would stand fast. “The house of David” could not fail. For beyond the present was the final goal of promised salvation in Immanuel the Virgin-born (verse 14). And this was God’s answer to the challenge of Rezin and of the son of Remaliah—His “sign” as against their plans : a majestic declaration also of His object in maintaining “the house of David,” even when represented by an Ahaz. And when the hour of judgment came, it would be not by placing a Syrian king on the throne of David, but by carrying prince and people into a banishment which would open a new—the last—period of Israel’s God-destined history. A. E.—Their attack upon Jerusalem itself was unsuccessful, chiefly in consequence of the spirit infused into the people by Isaiah. To this epoch belongs the celebrated prophecy in which the birth of the child Immanuel, whose very name expressed the devout confidence, “God is with us,” was a sign of the speedy overthrow of both the hostile kings by Assyria. A second sign was given by the birth of a child who received the significant name of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, “Make speed to the spoil ! hasten to the prey !” And in that exalted style of pregnant meaning, which has given Isaiah the name of “the evangelic prophet,” these passing wars are dignified by the most glowing prophecies of the Messiah’s kingdom. P. S.

While the fate of Judah was trembling in the balance, the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to go with his son, Shear Yashub, to meet the king “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, at the highway of the fuller’s field” (Isa. 7 : 3). From the manner in which the locality is mentioned, we infer that the king was wont to pass that way, possibly on an inspection of the northwestern fortifications. The prophet’s commission to Ahaz was threefold. He was to admonish him to courage (Isa. 7 : 4), and to announce that, so far from the purpose of the allies succeeding, Ephraim itself should, within a given time, cease to be “a people.” Lastly, he was to give “a sign” of what had been said, especially of the continuance of the house of David. This was, in contrast to the king’s unbelief, to point from the present to the future, and to indicate the ultimate object in view—the birth of the Virgin’s Son, whose name, Immanuel, symbolized all of present promise and future salvation connected with the house of David. The result was what might have been expected from the character of Ahaz. As with ill-disguised irony he rejected the “sign,” implying that his trust was in the help of Assyria, not in the promise of God, so he persevered in his course, despite the prophet’s warning. Yet it scarcely required a prophet’s vision to foretell the issue, although only a prophet could so authoritatively, and in such terms, have announced it (Isa. 7 : 17-8). A. E.

2. Chron. 28 : 17, 18.** The retreat of Pekah and Rezin gave Ahaz no permanent relief. In the words of Isaiah, God had raised up against him the Syrians in front (the East), and the Philistines behind (the West). They overran the whole maritime plain (Shefelah) and the highlands that border it, taking Bethshemesh, Ajalon, and other cities. The Edomites, set free by the Syrians, invaded Judah and carried off many captives, while the Syrians and Israelites threatened to return. Ahaz now applied for help to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, against Syria and Israel. P. S.

2. K. 16 : 9.** Rezin was slain and Damascus destroyed. Damascus now disappears from the Old Testament history; but by the fourth century B.C. it had been rebuilt, and has maintained its prosperity down to the present day. It is situated in a fertile plain watered by the river Barada, which is probably the Abana of Scripture, to the east of the great mountain chain of the Anti-Libanus, on the edge of the desert. Travellers describe it as “embosomed in a wide forest of fruit trees, intersected and surrounded by sparkling streams, in the midst of an earthly paradise.” This natural beauty and fertility, combined with its importance as a centre of trade, have secured the permanence of its prosperity for nearly four thousand years. A. F. K.

With the capture of Damascus, the Damasco-Syrian empire, which had hitherto been a scourge for the punishment of Israel, came to an end. Henceforth it was only a province of Assyria. It is in the light of all these events that we have to read such prophecies as those in Isa. 7 and the first part of chapter 8. The majestic Divine calm of these utterances, their lofty defiance of man’s seeming power, their grand certitude, and the withering irony with which what seemed the irresistible might of these two “smoking firebrands” is treated—all find their illustration in the history of this war. Such prophecies warrant us in climbing the heights of faith, from which Isaiah bids us look, to where, in the dim distance, the morning glow of the new Messianic day is seen to fill the sky with glory. But in Damascus the conquered did Tiglath-pileser gather, as for an Eastern durbar, the vanquished and subject princes. Thither also did King Ahaz go “to meet” the king of Assyria; and thence, as the outcome of what he had learned from prophecy and seen as its fulfilment in history, did this king of Judah send the pattern of the heathen altar to Jerusalem (2 K. 16: 10, 11). A. E.

10-18. The altar at Damascus** (verse 10). He sent its pattern to Jerusalem, where Urijah the high priest prepared an altar of the same form against the king’s return from Damascus, when, with a profanity on which Athaliah even had not ventured, Ahaz put it in the place of the brazen altar, and commanded Urijah to offer on it all the burnt offerings and other sacrifices. Superstition led him, however, to preserve the brazen altar for oracular uses, and he placed it on the north of his great altar. The great brass sea of Solomon was dismounted from its supporting oxen, and the lavers from their bases, which were sent to the king of Assyria, together with the coverings which had been built for the king’s entry to the house and for the shelter of the worshippers on the Sabbath. The golden vessels of the house of God were cut in pieces and sent with the rest, and the sanctuary itself was shut up; while idol altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem, and high places in every city of Judah. It was not for want of provocation to Jehovah that Judah did not at once share the captivity of Israel; but for the sake of “the sure mercies of David” another respite was given, and a new era of godliness throws its light over the reign of Hezekiah, amid all the pressure of invasion and the threats of approaching captivity. P. S.

By the side of the notice, that Ahaz “broke up the vessels of the house of God,” we find it stated that he “shut up the doors of the house of Jehovah.” This implies that the services within the Holy Place were now wholly discontinued. Thus the worship would be confined to the sacrificial services at the new altar; while the transference into the Temple porch of the king’s stand and of the entry to it would not only bring them close to the new altar, but also assign to them a more prominent and elevated position than that previously occupied. After this we do not wonder to read that Ahaz “made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem,” nor yet that “in every several city of Judah he made high places [bamoth] to burn incense unto other gods.” What influence all this must have had on a people already given to idolatry will readily be perceived. Indeed, Holy Scripture only gives us a general indication of the baneful changes made in the public religious institutions of the country. To close the doors of the Holy and Most Holy Places was to abolish what set forth Israel’s fellowship with their Lord, His gracious acceptance of them, and His communication of pardon, light, and life. The temple of Ahaz was no longer that of Jehovah, and the attempt to attach the old services to the new altar would only aggravate the sin, while it exhibited the folly of the king. Even more strange seems the mixture of heathen rites which it was sought to introduce by the side of the perverted Temple ritual. It consisted of the worship of the Syrian deities, of Baalim, of Ashtoreth, of the host of heaven, and of Molech—in short, it combined Syrian, Phœnician, and Assyrian idolatry. Yet in all this Ahaz found a servile instrument in the high-priest Urijah (2 K. 16: 11-16). Assuredly the prophet’s description of Israel’s “watchmen” as “ignorant,” “dumb dogs . . . loving to slumber,” “greedy dogs,” “insatiable shepherds,” only bent on gain and steeped in vice, was true to the letter (Isa. 56: 10-12). And with this corresponds the same prophet’s account of the moral and religious condition of the people (Isa. 2: 6-9; 5: 7-23). In view of this, King Ahaz can only be regarded as the outcome of his time and the representative of his people. Accordingly the judgments announced in these prophecies of Isaiah read only as the logical sequence of the state of matters. The account of these judgments comes to us equally from the Books of Kings and Chronicles, which here supplement one another, and especially from the prophecies of Isaiah, which in chapter 7 give the most vivid description of the condition of things. A. E.

19. Reason of the calamities brought upon Judah.** The record is ever the same. It is the Lord that brings Judah low. It is the sin of Ahaz, the king, that brings upon the nation the judgment of Jehovah. The one great truth standing out upon every page of this inspired history, is this, that the nation is dealt with according to its treatment of Him. Neglect of His worship and commandments is invariably attended with sore calamities upon the king and people.

20,21. The result of the appeal of Ahaz to the king of Assyria.** Beside the offer to make his kingdom tributary to the king of Assyria, Ahaz sent that monarch large amounts from the stores of the Temple and the national treasury. Tiglath-pileser came with a large army, conquered Syria (one of the foes of Judah), overcame Pekah, the king of Israel, and depopulated the eastern tribes of Israel. He also conquered the Philistines and took their capital. Although Ahaz was thus relieved from the oppression of these hostile kingdoms, the record declares that the king of Assyria neither strengthened nor helped him, but made his condition the more trying. “His interposition did not replace Ahaz in an independent or safe position; it merely substituted an actual for a threatened subjection. It straitened Ahaz’s resources by depriving him of all his accumulated treasure, and left him subject to a heavy annual impost.” Thus by his rejection of God, and his defiant impiety, the great dominion inherited by Ahaz from Uzziah and Jotham was broken up, large numbers of the people of Judah were enslaved, the treasures of the Temple and the capital were wasted, and Ahaz himself made a subject of the king of Assyria. B.

23. They were the ruin of him and of all Israel.** He was not content with the paganism which he found already in the kingdom. He imported new shapes of idol worship. For when “King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus, King Ahaz sent to Urijah, the priest, the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.” . . . Thus “he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus which smote him.” “They were the ruin of him,” says the historian, “and of all Israel.” Meanwhile, the true God and His Temple and worship he treated with scorn. Hallam.

26,27. The burial of Ahaz.** Though his remains were brought into the city, they were not buried in the sepulchres of the kings. This was an expression of judgment upon the character of the dead king. His great and manifold iniquities prevented his interment in the royal burial-place. B.—His subjects complain that he died so late; and, as repenting that he ever was, deny him a room in the sepulchres of kings; as if they said, “The common earth of Jerusalem is too good for him that degenerated from his progenitors, marred his kingdom, depraved his people, forsook his God.” Bp. H.

In the foolish persistence of Ahaz in extreme impiety, we learn that true relief from trouble or distress is found nowhere but in God; and only from disobedience to God come trouble and suffering that can find no alleviation. And we have in this king an illustration and emphatic confirmation of the utterance of Solomon, The way of the transgressor is hard. B.—This the legitimate ending of a long career of alternate chastisement and sin without repentance. A Cornish proverb says, “He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock.” This is the rock on which haughty and defiant guilt is wrecked. It is simply left to itself, to become what it has chosen to be—such a demon of iniquity as to be abhorred of God and man. God save us from ourselves! We carry within us the elements of hell if we but choose to make them such. Ahaz, Judas, Nero, Borgia, Alva—all were once prattling infants in happy mothers’ arms. The first babe of our race—a marvel of joy to the first mother—was the first murderer. Who shall dare to encounter the possibilities of human guilt without the grace of God?

King Ahaz is one of the stupendous monuments of guilt in Israelitish history. He is one of the few men in any history of whom not one good thing is recorded. His career was one uniform and unmitigated stream of iniquity from beginning to end. Not one virtue or virtuous act is thought worthy of mention in his whole life. So black and disgraceful was his reign, that when he died, the indignant and revolted conscience of the nation refused him burial in the royal sepulchre. His career illustrates that law of character by which the wickedness of a man is proportioned to the amount of holy influence which he has conquered. We find a reason for his extreme depravity in the extreme facilities which he had for being a saint. He was the son of a godly father. His youth was passed under the restraints of holy example. He was one in a royal line which had been distinguished for examples of illustrious piety. He knew that he alone, of all the monarchs of the world, held his crown and kingdom by Divine right as king of God’s chosen people. He knew that a splendid history lay behind him, and that a more splendid future was before him. In the line of regal descent, in which he was a connecting link, One was to appear in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed. That ancient promise of God to Abraham spanned like a rainbow the royal family of Judah. Mysterious as its meaning was, it must have been a power of moral restraint and moral stimulus to a man called of God to sit on the throne of Judah. Such a combination of holy influence this Judean king broke through; and therefore he became the man he was.

The career of this apostate prince illustrates also the faithfulness of God in chastising wicked men for their good. “The Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz.” From the beginning to the end of his reign, he experienced the truth that the way of transgressors is hard. In war he was whipped all around. In alliances he was cheated and checkmated. His people were made captives by thousands. Nothing went well with him. His public life was one long career of defying God, yet of God’s persistent efforts to save him by chastising him. This is repeated over and over again in the experience of wicked men. Such men often think it a great mystery that they suffer so much. They do not understand why it is that misfortune pursues them so. “Just my luck,” says one, when ill-success attends his business. Yet often the secret reason is that God is trying to save the man. He is contending with God in one way, and God is contending with him in another. There is no luck about it. It is God’s faithfulness to the soul. The sufferings of this world are not in the strict sense retributive. They are disciplinary. The world of retribution lies farther on. In love God holds the rod over many a bad man. He strikes him here, and He strikes him there. God’s flail threshes him like wheat. He surrounds him with trouble. He heaps up misfortunes. This is His way of striving to save men from eternal death. Sometimes He pursues it to the very last, till the grave closes over the incorrigible sinner, and he passes on to a world where the retributive decisions of eternity displace the benign discipline of time.

The life of this depraved prince illustrates further the extreme which sin reaches when men fight successfully against God’s chastisements. “In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord.” This is the fearful phenomenon sometimes witnessed in the developments of sin in this world. Some men are not subdued by suffering. They refuse to bow to chastisement. The more they suffer, the more they sin. Trouble angers them against God.

The reign of this wicked monarch illustrates the disappointments which wicked men experience in their hopes of happiness in sin. The historian relates of him: “He said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him.” True to the life, every word of it! In no more truthful figure can we express the experience of many young men who enter on a career of worldliness. They see other men living for this world alone, as it seems to a looker-on, on the top of the wave of human felicity. A rich man seems to them a supremely happy man. A successful statesman appears to have all that an aspiring man can ask for. A man who has gained the summit of social rank and splendor becomes, to many who are below him, the model of earthly bliss. Any man at the top of the ladder seems very high up to a man at the bottom. So a young man is apt to look on the world to which he proposes to devote his being. “The world makes these men happy,” he says; “and I will try it, that it may make me happy too.” This is the secret experience, probably, of all who give themselves deliberately to a life of irreligion. They are allured by the glamour of irreligious prosperity. But when they try the experiment for themselves, “it is the ruin of them.” The fruit turns to ashes. No such young man ever finds the world to be what it looked to be when he surveyed it from afar. It is a beautiful mirage. The testimony of experience is proverbial, that the richest men are not the happiest men. The most successful ambitious men are not the happiest men. The seekers of pleasure who find the most are not the happiest men. One word expresses the issue of all such experiments—disappointment. This world is full of soured and disappointed men. The more irreligious men are, the more profoundly they experience this inward consciousness of failure in their life’s plans. They have “hewed out to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

In one of Hawthorne’s thrillingly fearful fictions, he represents a wretched man going about with a serpent in his bosom. Every now and then he clutches at his breast with his fingers, crying, “It gnaws me; it gnaws me!” As he walks the streets among his kind, he thinks he finds that every man he meets is cursed with the same snaky guest in his bosom. Each man at intervals seems to thrust his hand up to throttle the reptile. All alike are doomed to the hideous companionship. “It gnaws me; it gnaws me!” is the universal confession. The whole world seems to his crazed fancy to be at the mercy of vipers, each man warming and cherishing his own. Such a world is any world of beings given over to seeking happiness in itself. Such is this world, except as its fearful consciousness is relieved by the grace of God. Such is self in any man or woman, when turned away from God and turned inward. Phelps.

REIGN OF HEZEKIAH, TWENTY-NINE YEARS (Begun).

From 3d of Hoshea, of Israel.