2 Kronik 28:7 Komentarz

This chapter is the history of the reign of Ahaz the son of Jotham; a bad reign it was, and which helped to augment the fierce anger of the Lord. We have here, I. His great wickedness (Ch2 28:1-4). II. The trouble he brought himself into by it (Ch2 28:5-8). III. The reproof which God sent by a prophet to the army of Israel for trampling upon their brethren of Judah, and the obedient ear they gave to that reproof (Ch2 28:9-15). IV. The many calamities that followed to Ahaz and his people (Ch2 28:16-21). V. The continuance of his idolatry notwithstanding (Ch2 28:22-25), and so his story ends (Ch2 28:26, Ch2 28:27).

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign,.... These verses are much the same with Kg2 16:2, only in Ch2 28:2 it is said, he made also molten images for Baalim; the several Baals or idols of the nations round about, as well as served Jeroboam's calves; see Jdg 2:11, and he is said in Ch2 28:3, to burn incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom; to Molech, the god of the Ammonites, who was worshipped there. See Gill on Kg2 16:2, Kg2 16:3, Kg2 16:4.

And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son,.... Who therefore must have escaped being burnt in the valley of Hinnom, or only was caused to pass through the fire there, Ch2 28:3, and Azrikam the governor of the house; steward or treasurer in the king's house, in the same office as Sheban was, Isa 22:15. and Elkanah that was next to the king: prime minister of state.

Ahaz succeeds his father Jotham, and reigns wickedly for sixteen years, Ch2 28:1. He restores idolatry in its grossest forms, Ch2 28:2-4; and is delivered Into the hands of the kings of Israel and Syria, Ch2 28:5. Pekah slays one hundred and twenty thousand Jews in one day, and carries away captive two hundred thousand of the people, whom, at the instance of Oded the prophet, they restore to liberty, and send home, clothed and fed, Ch2 28:6-15. Ahaz sends to the king of Assyria for help against the Edomites, Philistines, etc., from whom he receives no effectual succor, Ch2 28:16-21. He sins yet more, spoils and shuts up the temple of God, and propagates idolatry throughout the land, Ch2 28:22-25. A reference to has acts, his death, and burial, Ch2 28:26, Ch2 28:27.

AHAZ, REIGNING WICKEDLY, IS AFFLICTED BY THE SYRIANS. (2Ch. 28:1-21) Ahaz was twenty years old--(See on Kg2 16:1-4). This prince, discarding the principles and example of his excellent father, early betrayed a strong bias to idolatry. He ruled with an arbitrary and absolute authority, and not as a theocratic sovereign: he not only forsook the temple of God, but embraced first the symbolic worship established in the sister kingdom, and afterwards the gross idolatry practised by the Canaanites.

Maaseiah the king's son--the sons of Ahaz being too young to take part in a battle, this individual must have been a younger son of the late King Jotham; Azrikam the governor of the house--that is, "the palace"; and Elkanah that was next to the king--that is, the vizier or prime minister (Gen 41:40; Est 10:3). These were all cut down on the field by Zichri, an Israelitish warrior, or as some think, ordered to be put to death after the battle. A vast number of captives also fell into the power of the conquerors; and an equal division of war prisoners being made between the allies, they were sent off under a military escort to the respective capitals of Syria and Israel [Ch2 28:8].

In this battle, Zichri, an Ephraimite hero, slew three men who were closely connected with the king: Maaseiah, the king's son, i.e., not a son of Ahaz, for in the first years of his reign, in which this war arose, he cannot have had an adult son capable of bearing arms, but a royal prince, a cousin or uncle of Ahaz, as in Ch2 18:25; Ch2 22:11, etc. (cf. Caspari, loc. cit. S. 45ff.); Azrikam, a prince of the house, probably not of the house of God (Ch2 31:13; Ch2 9:11), but a high official in the royal palace; and Elkanah, the second from the king, i.e., his first minister; cf. Est 10:3; Sa1 23:17.