CHAPTER XVI _Baasha, king of Israel, begins to build Ramah, to prevent his_ _subjects from having any intercourse with the Jews_, 1. _Asa hires Ben-hadad, king of Syria, against him; and obliges_ _him to leave off building Ramah_, 2-5. _Asa and his men carry the stones and timbers of Ramah away... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:3. _THERE IS A LEAGUE_] Let there be a treaty, offensive and defensive, between me and thee: see on 1 Kings 15:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:6. _TOOK ALL JUDAH_] See on 1 Kings 15:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:7. _ESCAPED OUT OF THINE HAND._] It is difficult to know what is here intended. Perhaps the Divine providence had intended to give Asa a grand victory over the _Syrians_, who had always been the inveterate enemies of the Jews; but by this unnecessary and very improper alliance... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:9. _THEREFORE - THOU SHALT HAVE WARS._] And so he had with Israel during the rest of his reign, 1 Kings 15:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:10. _ASA WAS WROTH WITH THE SEER_] Instead of humbling himself, and deprecating the displeasure of the Lord, he persecuted his messenger: and having thus laid his impious hands upon the prophet, he appears to have got his heart hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:12. _DISEASED IN HIS FEET_] He had a strong and long fit of the _gout_; this is most likely. _HE SOUGHT NOT TO THE LORD_] "He did not seek discipline from the face of the Lord, but from the physicians." - _Targum_. Are we not taught by this to make prayer and supplication to... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Chronicles 16:14. _AND LAID HIM IN THE BED_] It is very likely that the body of Asa was _burnt_; that the _bed_ spoken of here was a _funeral_ _pyre_, on which much _spices_ and _odoriferous woods_ had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics.... [ Continue Reading ]