2 Kings 16

2. Twenty. In the parallel passage, 2 Chron. xxviii. 1, the Vatican manuscript of the Septuagint, with the Syriac and Arabic, read twenty-five, which is more probable.

3 to pass through the fire. Some suppose this phrase to indicate not a sacrificial act, but a ceremony of purification: but from xvii. 31; Psa. evi. 38; Jer. vii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 20; xxiii. 37, it appears that children were actually sacrificed, being sometimes first slain, and then burned: see note on Lev. xx. 2. Ahaz not only followed the worst kings of the house of Omri in worshipping Baal (2 Chron. xxviii. 2), but he practised the cruel rites of Moloch.

4 he sacrificed, etc. The first five chapters of Isaiah throw much light upon the state of the people at this period.

5. Then Rezin, etc. Further particulars of this invasion are given in 2 Chron. xxviii. 6-15.

6 recovered Elath. Elath on the Red Sea.

Jews. This is the first instance in which we find the name Jews; literally Judæans, i.e., men of Judah.

the Syrians. Better read “Edomites.” The two words differ in Hebrew only by the similar letters, 7 and 7. There is no evidence that the Syrians had ever owned Elath.

7. I am thy servant. That is, “I will be tributary to thee, and place myself under thy protection,” preferring to apply to any one rather than to God. But his sin brought its own punishment; for, while he purchased a temporary deliverance from the Syrians, he only changed his oppressor.

9. Kir. See Amos i. 5; ix. 7. “Kir” has not been absolutely identified. There is no mention of it in the cuneiform inscriptions. Professor Max Müller thinks it may have been east of the Lower and Middle Tigris (Hastings’ Diet, of the Bible).

11 built an altar. It is not said that this new altar was used for idolatrous purposes. It appears at first to have been employed for the offerings prescribed by the law; but it was an unauthorised innovation in the worship of Jehovah. From 2 Chron. xxviii. 23, however, we learn that Ahaz actually “sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus”; proceeding to suspend the Temple worship, and multiplying altars, both in Jerusalem and throughout Judah.

16. Thus did Urijah. Obeying the king rather than God. A contrast with the noble conduct of his predecessor, Azariah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 17, 18.

18 covert. “The covered way for the Sabbath” (R.V.).

from. Rather, “unto” the house of the Lord, as R.V. The approaches to the Temple were “turned,” or perhaps “changed,” “because of the king of Assyria.”

20 in the city of David. According to 2 Chron. xxviii. 27, not in the royal tombs.