View 2nd Kings 16 in the note window.
The idolatry of Ahaz, ver. 1 - 4.
He hires the king of Assyria to invade Syria and Israel,
ver. 5 - 9.
He erects a new altar in the temple, ver. 10 - 16.
Spoils the temple, ver. 17 - 18.
Dies, ver. 19, 20.
3: Pass - By way of oblation, so as to be consumed for a
burnt - offering, which was the practice of Heathens, and of
some Israelites, in imitation of them.
5: Could not overcome - Because God of his own mere grace, undertook
his protection, and disappointed the hopes of his enemies.
7: Sent messengers, &c. - But was it because there was no God in
Israel, that he sent to the Assyrian for help? The sin itself was
its own punishment; for tho' it served his present turn, yet he made but
an ill bargain, seeing he not only impoverished himself, but enslaved both
himself and his people.
12: Offered - A sacrifice, and that not to God, but to the
Syrian idols, to whom that altar was appropriated.
13: Peace - offerings - For the Heathens; and Ahaz, in
imitation of them, offered the same sorts of offerings to their
false gods, which the Israelites did to the true.
14: Brazen attar - Of burnt - offerings, made by Solomon, and
placed there by God's appointment. From between, &c. - His new altar
was at first set below the brazen altar, and at a farther distance from
the temple. This he took for a disparagement to his altar; and therefore
impiously takes that away, and puts his in its place. And put, &c. - So
he put God's altar out of its place and use! A bolder stroke than the
very worst of kings had hitherto given to religion.
15: Great altar - This new altar; which was greater than
Solomon's. Sacrifice - Whatsoever is offered to the true God, either
in my name (for possibly he did not yet utterly forsake God, but worshipped
idols with him) or on the behalf of the people, shall be offered on this new
altar. Enquire by - That shall be reserved for my proper use, to
enquire by; at which I may seek God, or enquire of his will, by
sacrifices joined with prayer, when I shall see fit. Having thrust it out
from the use for which it was instituted, which was to sanctify the gifts
offered upon it, he pretends to advance it above its institution, which it
is common for superstitious people to do. But to overdo is to underdo.
Our wisdom is, to do just what God has commanded.
18: The covert - The form and use whereof is now unknown. It is
generally understood of some building, either that where the priests after
their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came; which was
done upon the sabbath - day: or that in which the guard of the temple kept
their station; or that under which the king used to sit to hear God's word,
and see the sacrifices; which is called, the covert of the sabbath,
because the chief times in which the king used it for those ends, was the
weekly sabbath, and other solemn days of feasting, or fasting (which all
come under the name of sabbaths in the Old Testament) upon which the
king used more solemnly, to present himself before the Lord, than at other
times. The entry - By which the king used to go from his palace to the
temple.
