2 Chronicles 16:14 Kommentar

This chapter concludes the history of the reign of Asa, but does not furnish so pleasing an account of his latter end as we had of his beginning. I. Here is a foolish treaty with Benhadad king of Syria (Ch2 16:1-6). II. The reproof which God sent him for it by a prophet (Ch2 16:7-9). III. Asa's displeasure against the prophet for his faithfulness (Ch2 16:10). IV. The sickness, death, and burial of Asa (Ch2 16:11-14).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 16 Baasha coming up against Judah, and building Ramah, Asa made a league with the king of Syria, and hired him to make a diversion in his favour, and cause Baasha to leave off building, which succeeded, Ch2 16:1, for which he was reproved by a prophet of the Lord, with whom he was so angry for it as to put him in prison, and oppress others, Ch2 16:7, and the chapter is closed with an account of his disease and conduct under it, and of his death and burial, Ch2 16:11.

Baasha, king of Israel, begins to build Ramah, to prevent his subjects from having any intercourse with the Jews, Ch2 16:1. Asa hires Ben-hadad, king of Syria, against him; and obliges him to leave off building Ramah, Ch2 16:2-5. Asa and his men carry the stones and timbers of Ramah away, and build therewith Geba and Mizpah, Ch2 16:6. Asa is reproved by Hanani, the seer, for his union with the king of Syria: he is offended with the seer, and puts him in prison, Ch2 16:7-10. Of his acts, Ch2 16:11. He is diseased in his feet, and seeks to physicians and not to God, and dies, Ch2 16:12, Ch2 16:13. His sumptuous funeral, Ch2 16:14.

And laid him in the bed - It is very likely that the body of Asa was burnt; that the bed spoken of here was a funeral pyre, on which much spices and odoriferous woods had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics. Some think the body was not burned, but the aromatics only, in honor of the king. How the ancients treated the bodies of the illustrious dead we learn from Virgil, in the funeral rites paid to Misenus. Nec minus interea Misenum in littore Teucri Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant. Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto Ingentem struxere pyram: cui frondibus atris Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressas Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis, etc. Aen. vi. 214. "Meanwhile the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes, To dead Misenus pay their obsequies. First from the ground a lofty pile they rear Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir. The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew, And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew. The topmost part his glittering arms adorn: Warm waters, then, in brazen caldrons borne Are poured to wash his body joint by joint, And fragrant oils the stiffen'd limbs anoint. With groans and cries Misenus they deplore: Then on a bier, with purple cover'd o'er, The breathless body thus bewail'd they lay, And fire the pile (their faces turn'd away). Such reverend rites their fathers used to pay. Pure oil and incense on the fire they throw, And fat of victims which their friends bestow. These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour, Then on the living coals red wine they pour. And last the relics by themselves dispose, Which in a brazen urn the priests enclose. Old Corineus compass'd thrice the crew, And dipp'd an olive branch in holy dew; Which thrice he sprinkled round, and thrice aloud Invoked the dead, and then dismiss'd the crowd." Dryden. All these rites are of Asiatic extraction. Virgil borrows almost every circumstance from Homer; (see Iliad, xxiii., ver. 164, etc.); and we well know that Homer ever describes Asiatic manners. Sometimes, especially in war, several captives were sacrificed to the manes of the departed hero. So, in the place above, the mean-souled, ferocious demon, Achilles, is represented sacrificing twelve Trojan captives to the ghost of his friend Patroclus. Urns containing the ashes and half-calcined bones of the dead occur frequently in barrows or tumuli in this country; most of them, no doubt, the work of the Romans. But all ancient nations, in funeral matters, have nearly the same rites.

ASA, BY A LEAGUE WITH THE SYRIANS, DIVERTS BAASHA FROM BUILDING RAMAH. (Ch2 16:1-14) In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha . . . came up against Judah--Baasha had died several years before this date (Kg1 15:33), and the best biblical critics are agreed in considering this date to be calculated from the separation of the kingdoms, and coincident with the sixteenth year of Asa's reign. This mode of reckoning was, in all likelihood, generally followed in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, the public annals of the time (Ch2 16:11), the source from which the inspired historian drew his account. Baasha . . . built Ramah--that is, fortified it. The blessing of God which manifestly rested at this time on the kingdom of Judah, the signal victory of Asa, the freedom and purity of religious worship, and the fame of the late national covenant, were regarded with great interest throughout Israel, and attracted a constantly increasing number of emigrants to Judah. Baasha, alarmed at this movement, determined to stem the tide; and as the high road to and from Jerusalem passed by Ramah, he made that frontier town, about six miles north of Asa's capital, a military station, where the vigilance of his sentinels would effectually prevent all passage across the boundary of the kingdom (see on Kg1 15:16-22; also Jer 41:9).

they buried him in his own sepulchres--The tombs in the neighborhood of Jerusalem were excavated in the side of a rock. One cave contained several tombs or sepulchres. laid him in the bed . . . filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices--It is evident that a sumptuous public funeral was given him as a tribute of respect and gratitude for his pious character and patriotic government. But whether "the bed" means a state couch on which he lay exposed to public view, the odoriferous perfumes being designed to neutralize the offensive smell of the corpse, or whether it refers to an embalmment, in which aromatic spices were always used in great profusion, it is impossible to say. they made a very great burning for him--according to some, for consuming the spices. According to others, it was a magnificent pile for the cremation of the corpse--a usage which was at that time, and long after, prevalent among the Hebrews, and the omission of which in the case of royal personages was reckoned a great indignity (Ch2 21:19; Sa1 31:12; Jer 34:5; Amo 6:10). Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 17