2 Kings 16 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

2 Kings 16

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering,¹ according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin.

10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. 12 And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar and went up on it 13 and burned his burnt offering and his grain offering and poured his drink offering and threw the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 And the bronze altar that was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. 15 And King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, “On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offering. And throw on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Uriah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.

17 And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea² from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. 18 And the covered way for the Sabbath that had been built inside the house and the outer entrance for the king he caused to go around the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Footnotes

[1] 16:3 Or made his son pass through the fire
[2] 16:17 Compare 1 Kings 7:23

Commentary

v1-4: Ahaz promoted sin, following the example of the kings of Israel. Worse, we read, he "even sacrificed his son in the fire," following the evil practices of the Canaanite nations. His idolatrous practices were witnessed everywhere.

v5-6: Syria and Israel continued to attack Judah, see 15.37. They could not overcome Jerusalem (Is 7.1). Their plan was to set a king over Judah (see Is 7.6). This plan would not happen, for God spoke against it (Is 7.7).

God promised that "Ephraim will be broken" (Is 7.8); God gave a maximum of 65 years, and a command to "stand firm in your faith;" but Israel was captured by Assyria less than 20 years later. (Ahaz ruled for 11 years, when Hoshea became king of Israel, and he reigned for 9 years.)

v7-9: Ahaz also paid money to Tiglath-Pileser, relying on human wisdom. His scheme worked, in that Assyria defeated Aram. But this does not prove that what Ahaz did was right. Tiglath-Pileser killed Rezin king of Aram, but deported the people of Damascus to Kir, a practice he continued later, see 17.6, and 17.24 were he brought other peoples to live in Samaria.

v10-14: Ahaz met Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus, the capital city of Aram. They made an alliance.

Upon seeing the altar at Damascus, Ahaz had a copy made for the temple, to displace the old one. He began to copy aspects of false religion, and reject the revealed religion from God.

v15-16: Ahaz knew about the various offerings, but he was wrong to change the worship of God. Uriah the priest was party to this 'sacrilege'; he could and should have resisted these changes. The bronze altar, which had been in front of the temple (v14) was moved, and used for "seeking guidance." This is some sort of talisman, hoping to gain God's blessings, although rejecting other aspects of true worship. We cannot 'pick and choose' the commands of God.

v17-18: On account of the king of Assyria, Ahaz changed many things pertaining to the worship of God. How many wrong things do we do because we fear man more than we love God?

v19-20: Ahaz was followed by Hezekiah, and the spiritual condition of Judah swung again, as it would later, with Manasseh and Josiah.