2 Kings 16

2 Kings 16:17-20

We have here, 1. Abas’s idolatry, ver. 1—4. 2. His hiring the king of Affyria to invade Syria and Israel, ver. 5—9. 3. His causing an altar to be built after the pattern of an heathen are he found at Damascus, ver. 10—16. 4. His embracing the furniture of the temple, ver. 17, 18. 5. His death, ver. 19, 20.

240. a Chom vers. 1.

241. IN the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, ‘Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 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 fight of the LORD his God, like David his father. 3. 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. 4. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and ‘under every green tree.

242. 1—4. Ahaz, the son of Jesus Jotham, degenerated greatly from the steps of his holy ancestors. The idolatry of Israel pleased him better than the pure worship of Judah; and Molech is preferred to the glorious Jehovah. He sacrificed on the high places, which his fathers, though they left them, had never died; and, as if unfaithful with lesser abominations, made his own sons pass between, or through, the fires of lutheration, or perhaps burnt them in it, to the honour of his barred idols. Note, (1.) They who provoke God to give them up, lose even natural affection, and turn monsters inflicted of man. (2.) The desperate wickedness of the heart of man, when left to itself, who can know?

243. Lev. viii. 2. Chut. vii. 1.

244. ¶ Then Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to war: and they befieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 6. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and davit their unto thir day. 7. So

Ahaz sent meffengers to ‘Tiglath-pilefer king of Affyria, 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 the up against me. 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, and sent it for a present to the king of Affyria. 9. And the king of Affyria hearkned unto him: for the king of Affyria went up against Damascus, and ’took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and flew Rezin.

9. 5—9. The sin of Ahaz soon brought him into deep distress, Ila. vii. 2. His country was ravaged, Elath left, and his capital defieged by the confederate forces of Syria and Israel. Yet, far from having recourse to God, or depending on his promises, Ila. vii. 4—16. he rather truffled on an arm of flesh; and, no engage the king of Affyria to make a direction in his favour, robbed the house of God of the dedicate treasures, unprevented his own, and predefined himself the wallal of an idolatrous Affyrian, rather than be the servant of the King of kings, who was so much better able to deliver him. The project succeeded: the king of Syria was then, his capital taken, and his people led captive to Kir, as foretold, Abas. 5. Note, (1.) God is the hell resource a sinner will fly to. (2.) They who cast off God’s government, make themselves quickly the worst of fours. (3.) When men by their wickedness involve themselves in trouble, they will fearless flock at fraud or injustice, to extricate them from it.

10. ¶ And king Ahaz went to Damascus, to meet the Tiglath-pilefer king of Affyria, and saw an 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. 11. And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: ’to Urijah the priest made it, against king Ahaz came from Damascus. 12. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. 13. And he burnt his burnt-offering, and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings upon the altar. 14. And he brought also the brazen altar which was before the LORD, from the fore-front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar. 15. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the king’s burnt-facrifice, and his meat-offering 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: and the brains altar shall be for me to enquire by. 16. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

11. 10—16. He who had enslaved his body to Affyria’s king now enslaves his soul to Affyria’s idols.

12. On a visit to the king of Affyria, to congratulate him on his success, and to say him the homage he had promised, he saw at Damascus, which probably he joined with him in his idol sacrifices, an altar that much pleased him for its beauty; and instantly he resolves to copy it, sends the model to Urijah the priest, and bids him prepare just such another against his return.

13. Urijah, a true court-priest, to gratify his master, confesses to prostitute his office; and Ahaz, at his return, is vastly pleased with the altar, offers on it his burnt-offerings; and though the priest had some shame left, and set it behind the brazen altar, the king will have the old altar thrown by, and will consider what to do with it, which his own is advanced into its place; and Urijah, who is too complaisant to offend a king, badly complies. Note, (1.) Of all characters, a five-phant priest is the most detestable. (2.) Court air is dangerous to breathe it: they who set their hearts on rising, rather than offend their great patrons, will worship at their altars, and comply with their evil ways.

14. ¶ And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the trees, and removed the laver from off them, and took down the ice from off the brazen oaths that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones. 18. And the convert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turned fire from the house of the

LORD.

DORD, for the king of Affyria. 19. ¶ 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? 20. 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.

To cast contempt on the temple and its service, he continues to deduce and remove the divinely-appointed vessels. The borders of the ten bafes, curiously adorned, he cut off, and took off the layers from them: The bodies its alibi he removed from the oxen, either to render them contemptible, or to convert some of the brals to other uses. The event for its fabault, a rich canopy probably, under which the king lay on the fabbush, when he went up to the house of God, he removed; and, to gratify the king of Affyria, turned the noble secret Solomon laid made, another way, as relinquishing the worship of the temple. But in the midst of his days God, in mercy to his people, flopped his career of wickedness, and at thirty-five years of age he died, and left his crown to his most worthy successor and son Hezekiah. Now, God’s grace is fostering. Whilst the ungodly father is left to perish in his wickedness, his son, though brought up under his ill example, is snatched as a brand from the burning.