2 Chronicles 28:23

_FOR HE SACRIFICED UNTO THE GODS OF DAMASCUS, WHICH SMOTE HIM: AND HE SAID, BECAUSE THE GODS OF THE KINGS OF SYRIA HELP THEM, THEREFORE WILL I SACRIFICE TO THEM, THAT THEY MAY HELP ME. BUT THEY WERE THE RUIN OF HIM, AND OF ALL ISRAEL._ For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus. His superstitious mind led him to believe that he would, by doing them homage, obtain some share of the favours they had bestowed on the Syrians....

Verse 2 Chronicles 28:23. _HE SACRIFICED UNTO THE GODS OF DAMASCUS, WHICH SMOTE_ _HIM_] "This passage," says _Mr. Hallet_, "greatly surprised me; for the sacred historian himself is here represented as saying, _The_ _gods of Damascus had smitten_ Ahaz. But it is impossible to suppose that an _inspired_ author could say this; for the Scripture everywhere represents the heathen _idols_ as _nothing_ and _vanity_, and as incapable of _doing either good_ or _hurt_. All difficulty is avoided if we follow the _old Hebrew copies_, from which the _Greek_ _translation_ was made, Και ειπεν ὁ βασιλεις Αχαζ, εκζητησω τους Θεους Δαμασκου τους τυπτοντας με, _And King Ahaz_ SAID, I WILL SEEK TO THE GODS OF DAMASCUS WHICH HAVE SMITTEN ME; and then it follows, both in Hebrew and Greek, He said moreover, B...

His adoption of the Syrian gods, Hadad, Rimmon, and others, as objects of worship, no doubt preceded the destruction of Damascus by the Assyrians 2 Kings 16:9. ISRAEL - i. e. “Judah;” so in 2 Chronicles 28:27. Compare 2 Chronicles 28:19....

EXPOSITION This chapter is paralleled by 2 Kings 16:1. There is a great deal gained in this case by addition on the two accounts, however. Our chapter contains the wickedness by idolatry of Ahaz, the severe punishment thereof by the King of Syria, the Syrian captivity of Judah, and the release of the latter so unexpectedly (2 Chronicles 28:1); other punishments by war of Ahaz, his hardened heart, greater sins, and end (2 Chronicles 28:16-14). The united unsuccessful 'attacks of Syria and Israel, under Rezin and Pekah respectively, on Jerusalem, and attempt at the siege of Ahaz there; the Syrian recovery of Elath, and expulsion of the Jews thence, and the Assyrian taking of Da

FOR HE SACRIFICED UNTO THE GODS OF DAMASCUS, WHICH SMOTE HIM,.... As he foolishly imagined, that they might do him no more hurt; as it is said of the Indians, that they worship the devil, that he may not hurt them; but that a king of Judah should do this is monstrous stupidity; rather therefore the meaning may be, that he worshipped the gods of those that smote him, those of the men or soldiers of Damascus m see 2 Chronicles 28:5 for the Spirit of God would never ascribe the smiting of him to idols, though he himself might; AND HE SAID, BECAUSE THE GODS OF THE KINGS OF SYRIA HELP THEM; which looks as if this was before Damascus was taken by the king of Assyria, and when Rezin king of Syria prevailed over Ahaz: THEREFORE WILL I SACRIFICE TO THEM, THAT THEY MAY HELP ME; against the Edomites and Philistines; wherefore rather to this, his idolatry

2 Chronicles 28:1. _Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem:_ So that he died before he reached the prime of life; he was cut off by God in the very midst of his sin. 2 Chronicles 28:1. _But he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father: for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel,_ They had set up the worship of God under emblems, there were the calves of Bethel, the representation of strength: it was the worship of God by imagery, and Ahaz imitated it, and went even further in sin, 2 Chronicles 28:2. _And made also molten images for Baalim._

CHAPTER 28 THE REIGN OF AHAZ _ 1. The record of his reign (2 Chronicles 28:1)_ 2. The punishment of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:5) 3. The message of Oded and its results (2 Chronicles 28:9) 4. Further punishments of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:16) 5. Death of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:26) On Ahaz his wicked reign and apostasy, as well as the war with Syria and the invasion of Judah by Israel, see our annotations on...

THE REIGN OF AHAZ. See notes on 2 Kings 16, but the Chronicler's account of this reign is largely independent of 2 K.; he makes the Syro-Ephraimite War two separate campaigns, Ahaz being in turn defeated by the Syrians and then by the northern Israelites. This cannot be regarded as historical in face of 2 Kings 16; the Chronicler has probably reconstructed the history with a view to bringing into greater relief the punishment of Ahaz on account of his faithlessness to Yahweh. In a number of other ways this section differs from the account in 2 Kings 16. 2 Chronicles 28:27. they brought him not. : but see 2 Kings 16:20....

WHICH SMOTE HIM: i.e. which [as he believed] smote him. HELP THEM. So he falsely reasoned. THE RUIN OF HIM. As the idolatry of the Edomites ruined Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:14; 2 Chronicles 25:15)....

_the gods of Damascus_ In 2 Kin. the statement is that Ahaz made a copy of an altar which he saw at Damascus and sacrificed upon it. The altar at Damascus was probably the one used by Tiglath-pileser and therefore an Assyrian rather than a Damascene altar. The use of such an altar was an act of apostasy from Jehovah for a foreign altar implied a foreign god; cp. 2 Kings 5:17. _the gods of the kings of Syria help them_ At this time the Syrians of Damascus had been conquered by the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 16:9), so that the statement needs to be corrected by reading "kings of _Assyria_(Asshur)" for "kings of _Syria_(Aram)." The confusion is due to some writer or scribe, who lived at a time when one Empire extended from Babylon to the Mediterranean and included both Syria and