2 Chronicles 16:12

Diseased in his feet. — 1 Kings 15:23, “only in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.” The nature of the disease is not specified here or in Kings.

Until his disease was exceeding great. — Unto excess was his disease: ‘ad lĕmà’lah, a clause added by the chronicler (see on 1 Chronicles 22:5).

Yet. — And also in his disease, as well as in his war with Baasha.

He sought not to the Lord. — Omit to.

But to the physicians. — The preposition is expressed here (comp. 1 Chronicles 10:13; 2 Kings 1:2). Asa, like Ahaziah, neglected to consult Jehovah through his priests, and preferred to trust in the “Healers” of his day, whose art of healing probably consisted in the use of magical appliances, such as amulets, charms, and exorcisms, as we may infer from the analogous practices of Babylon and Assyria. It is not to be supposed that Israel was more enlightened in such matters than the nations to which it owed so large a share of its civilisation, or, indeed, than Christian England of the seventeenth century.