Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 16

THE REIGN OF AHAZ.
(Compare to 2 Chronicles 28:0)

Twenty years old. —The number should probably be twenty -and- five, according to the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic of 2 Chronicles 28:1. Otherwise, Ahaz was begotten when his father was ten (or, eleven) years old—a thing perhaps not impossible in the East, where both sexes reach maturity earlier than among Western peoples.

But he walked in the way. —See Notes on 2 Chronicles 28:2.

Made his son to pass through the fire. —The chronicler rightly explains this as a sacrifice by fire. That such an appalling rite is really intended may be seen by reference to 2 Kings 17:31; Jeremiah 19:5; Ezekiel 16:20; Ezekiel 23:37; and Jeremiah 32:35. The expression, “To make-to pass through the fire to Moloch” (Leviticus 18:21), may have originated, as Movers suggests, in the idea that the burning was a kind of passage to union with the deity, after the dross of the flesh had been purged away; or it may be a mere euphemism.

Ahaz appears to have been the first Israelite king who offered such a sacrifice. He, no doubt, regarded it as a last desperate resource against the oppression of his northern enemies. It is absurd to suppose that the king intended it in love to his child, as Thenius suggests . Such dreadful sacrifices were only made in cases of dire extremity (Compare to 2 Kings 3:27).

The heathen. —More particularly the Ammonites, who made such sacrifices to Molech or Milcom.

In the high places. —These are evidently distinguished from “the hills,” as two different prepositions are used in the Hebrew, just as in English. A bâmâh, or “high-place,” was a local sanctuary, and it appears that a sacred pillar or altar might be called a bâmâh. Mesha king of Moab speaks of his pillar as “this bâmath” (See Note on 2 Kings 1:1.)

Under every green tree. —Compare 1 Kings 14:23; Hosea 14:8. Thenius says not so much a green as a thick-foliaged and shadow-yielding tree. They burn incense ... under oaks, and poplars, and teil trees, because the shadow thereof is good (Hosea 4:13).

THE SYRO-EPHRAIMITIC WAR, AND THE INTERVENTION OF TIGLATH PILESER. (Compare Isaiah 7:1 to Isaiah 9:7, “an epitome of the discourses delivered by the prophet at this great national crisis.”—Cheyne.)

Then Rezin king of Syria ... to war.—This verse agrees almost word for word with Isaiah 7:1. The time is soon after the accession of Ahaz. “Jotham, the last of a series of strong and generally successful princes, had died at a critical moment, when Pekah and Rezin were maturing their plans against his kingdom. The opposing parties in northern Israel suspended their feuds to make common cause against Judah (Isaiah 9:21), and the proud inhabitants of Samaria hoped by this policy to more than restore the prestige forfeited in previous years of calamity (Isaiah 9:9–10). At the same time the Syrians began to operate in the eastern dependencies of Judah, their aim being to possess themselves of the harbour of Elath on the Red Sea, while the Philistines attacked the Judeans in the rear, and ravaged the fertile lowlands (Isaiah 9:12, 2 Kings 16:6).

“A heavy and sudden disaster had already fallen on the Judean arms, a defeat in which ‘head and tail, palm-branch and rush’ had been mown down in indiscriminate slaughter (Isaiah 9:14). Ahaz was no fit leader in so critical a time; his character was petulant and childish, his policy was dictated in the harem (Isaiah 3:12). Nor was the internal order of the state calculated to inspire confidence. Wealth, indeed, had greatly accumulated in the preceding time of prosperity, but its distribution had been such that it weakened rather than added strength to the nation.

“The rich nobles were steeped in sensual luxury, the court was full of gallantry, feminine extravagance and vanity gave the tone to aristocratic society (Isaiah 5:11; Isaiah 3:16; Isaiah 4:4), which, like the noblesse of France on the eve of the Revolution, was absorbed in gaiety and pleasure, while the masses were ground down by oppression, and the cry of their distress filled the land (Isaiah 3:15; Isaiah 5:7).”—Prof. Robertson Smith.

They besieged Ahaz.—The allies wanted to compel Judah to join them in their attempt to throw off the burdensome yoke of Assyria, imposed in 738 B.C. (2 Kings 15:19); and thought the best way to secure this was to dethrone the dynasty of David, and set up a creature of their own—“the son of Tabeal” (Isaiah 7:6).

Could not overcome him.—Literally, they were not able to war, as in Isaiah 7:2. The allies could not storm the city, which had been strongly fortified by Uzziah and Jotham (2 Chronicles 26:9; 2 Chronicles 27:3).

At that time. —Bähr regards this verse as a parenthesis, so that 2 Kings 16:7 is the strict continuation of 2 Kings 16:5, and “At that time” simply assigns this war as the epoch when Judah lost its only harbour and chief emporium—a grave blow to the national prosperity. It is perhaps impossible to weave the various data of Isaiah, Kings, and Chronicles into a single narrative that is free from all objection.

But it seems probable that, after the successes recorded in 2 Chronicles 28:5 and following, the confederates advanced upon Jerusalem, and that Ahaz dispatched his envoys to Tiglath Pileser. The allies soon despaired of a siege, and Pekah began ravaging the country, while Rezin pushed on to Elath, determined not to return home without having achieved some permanent success. The approach of Tiglath Pileser compelled the two kings to give up their enterprise and hasten to defend their own frontiers.

Recovered Elath to Syria ... the Syrians. —The words for Syria and Edom, Syrians and Edomites, are very much alike in Hebrew writing, and the Hebrew margin, many manuscripts, the Septuagint, and Vulgate read Edomites for Syrians here. If this is correct, we must also restore Edom for Syria, as many critics propose. The meaning then becomes this: Rezin emancipated the Edomites from the yoke of Judah imposed on them by Uzziah (2 Kings 14:22) in order to win their active cooperation against Judah. Bähr, however, prefers the readings of the ordinary text and supposes that Rezin simply expelled the Jews from Elath and established there a commercial colony of Syrians.