Chapter XXVIII
Ver. 1-21. Ahaz, Reigning Wickedly, is Afflicted BY THE Syrians. 1-4. Ahaz was twenty years old—
(see on 2 Kings 16. 1-4). Tliis prince, discarding the principles and example of liis excellent father, early betrayed a strong bias to idolatry. Ho ruled with au arbitrary and absolut(! authority, and not us a theoi'ratlc sovereign : lie
tills danger, other enemies Infested Ills dominions both on the south and the west. 17. again the Kdomltea had come and smitten .ludah—This invasion must have been after Ufzlii (at the beginning of llie late Sy roIsrael-
. not only forsook the temple of (lod, but embraced first the symbolic worship establislied in th(! sister Iciiigdoiu, and afterwards the gross idolatry pi ad iscd hy the t'unaaii-
itlsli war), had rcli'ascd that |ieo|ile fniiii the .yoke of.liiilali
(ch. 15. 11 ; cf. 2 Kings 1(1. (>). IS. CJederoth— ( )n the riilllstlne frontier (Joshua 15.11). Shoeho—or .Socnh (Joshua
ites. 5, G. the Lord . , . dellvvre^l liinii Into the hand of the king of Syria . . . he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel-Tlicso verses, without alliKling to the Ibnnutlon of a confederacy between the S.yriun and Israelltish kings to invade the kingdom of Judah, or relating the commenceineiit of tlie war in the close of .lotham's reign (2 Kings 15.37), give the lssu(^ only of some battles that wen; fought in the early part of the campaign, delivereti him . . . smote hint . . . he was also delivered— t. e., his army, for Alia/ wan not per280
15. ;i5), now SliuwelUeh, a town in the Valley of .Judah (see on 1 Saiiiiiel 17. 1). tiimso—Now .Tlniza, a little east of liUdd (Lyddal [ItoniNSON.) AU these disasters, by which the "Lord brought Judah low," was becniise of Ahnjs, king of Israel (.ludalil, see ch. 21. 2; '24. hi; '2S. 27, who made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord. ^O. I'llgatli-pllneser . . .distressed hint, but stre.ngthened htm no! i.<:. Not wit hstumll iig t lie temporary re-
lief which 'I'ilgath-pllnescr aH'oidud hlui liy the conqtie«l
Ilezekiah's Good Reign, 2 CHRONICLES XXIX, XXX. The House of God Clocmsed,
of Damascus and the slaughter of Rezin (2 Kings 16. 9),
the temple, the priest brought all the sweepings out to the porch, where they were received by the Levites, and thrown into the brook Kedron. This took eight days more; and, at the end of this period they repaired to the palace, and announced that not only had tlie whole of the sacred edifice, witliin and without, undergone a thorough purification, but all the vessels which the late king had taken away and applied to a common use in his palace, had been restored, "and sanctified." 30. Tlien Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city—His anxiety to enter upon the expiatory service with all possible despatch, now that the temple had been properly prepared for it, prevented his summoning the whole representatives of Israel. The requisite number of victims having been provided, and the oflicers of the temple having sanctified themselves according to the directions of the law, the priests were appointed to offer sacrifices of atonement successively for " the kingdom,"
little advantage resulted from it, for Tilgath-pilneser spent the winter in voluptuous revelry at Damascus; and the connection formed with the Assyrian king was eventually a source of new and greater calamities and humiliation to the kingdom of Judah (u. 2, 3).
22-27. His Idolatky in His Distress. 33. In the time of Ills distress did he trespa^ yet more against tite Iiord—This Infatuated king surrendered himself to the Influence of Idolatry, and exerted his royal authority to extend it, with the intensity of a passion—with the ignorance and servile fear of a heathen {v. 23) and a ruthless defiance of God (see on 2 Kings 16. 10-20).