2 Chronicles 28
28
Ahaz’s Reign
1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem.#map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. He did not do what pleased the Lord, in contrast to his ancestor David.#tn Heb “and he did not do what was proper in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father.” 2 He followed in the footsteps of#tn Heb “he walked in the ways of.” the kings of Israel; he also made images of the Baals. 3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire,#sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice (NEB “burnt his sons in the fire”; NASB “burned his sons in the fire”; NIV “sacrificed his sons in the fire”; NRSV “made his sons pass through fire”). For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67. a horrible sin practiced by the nations#tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.” whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
5 The Lord his God handed him over to the king of Syria. The Syrians#tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Syrians) has been specified in the translation for clarity. defeated him and deported many captives to Damascus.#tn Heb “and took captive from him a great captivity and brought [them] to Damascus.” He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who thoroughly defeated him.#tn Heb “who struck him down with a great striking.” 6 In one day King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel killed 120,000 warriors in Judah, because they had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors.#tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 25). 7 Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam, the supervisor of the palace, and Elkanah, the king’s second-in-command. 8 The Israelites seized from their brothers 200,000 wives, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a huge amount of plunder and took it#tn Heb “the loot.” The pronoun (“it”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy. back to Samaria.#map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.
9 Oded, a prophet of the Lord, was there. He went to meet the army as they arrived in Samaria and said to them: “Look, because the Lord God of your ancestors was angry with Judah he handed them over to you. You have killed them so mercilessly that God has taken notice.#tn Heb “and you killed them with anger [that] reaches as far as heaven.” 10 And now you are planning#tn Heb “saying.” to enslave#tn Heb “to enslave as male servants and female servants.” the people#tn Heb “sons.” of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God? 11 Now listen to me! Send back those you have seized from your brothers, for the Lord is very angry at you!”#tn Heb “for the rage of the anger of the Lord is upon you.” 12 So some of#tn Heb “men from.” the Ephraimite family leaders, Azariah son of Jehochanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jechizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai confronted#tn Heb “arose against.” those returning from the battle. 13 They said to them, “Don’t bring those captives here! Are you planning on making us even more sinful and guilty before the Lord?#tn Heb “for to the guilt of the Lord upon us you are saying to add to our sins and our guilty deeds.” Our guilt is already great and the Lord is very angry at Israel.”#tn Heb “for great is [the] guilt to us and rage of anger is upon Israel.” 14 So the soldiers released the captives and the plunder before the officials and the entire assembly. 15 Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked.#tn Heb “and the men who were designated by names arose and took the captives and all their naked ones they clothed from the loot.” So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin.#tn Heb “and poured oil on them.” They put the ones who couldn’t walk on donkeys.#tn Heb “and they led them on donkeys, with respect to everyone stumbling.” They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho,#map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1. the city of the date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.
16 At that time King Ahaz asked the king#tc Most Hebrew mss read the plural, “kings,” but one Hebrew ms, the LXX and Vulgate read the singular “king.” Note the singular in v. 20. of Assyria for help. 17 The Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried off captives. 18 The Philistines had raided the cities of Judah in the lowlands#tn Heb “Shephelah.” and the Negev. They captured and settled in Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its surrounding villages, Timnah and its surrounding villages, and Gimzo and its surrounding villages. 19 The Lord humiliated#tn Or “subdued.” Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel,#sn That is, “of Judah.” Frequently in 2 Chronicles “Israel” is substituted for “Judah.” for he encouraged Judah to sin and was very#tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form to emphasize the degree of Ahaz’s unfaithfulness. unfaithful to the Lord. 20 King Tiglath-pileser#tn Heb “Tilgath-pilneser,” a variant spelling of Tiglath-pileser. of Assyria came, but he gave him more trouble than support.#tn Heb “and he caused him distress and did not strengthen him.” 21 Ahaz gathered riches#tn Heb “divided up,” but some read חִלֵּץ (khillets, “despoiled”). from the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and the officials and gave them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help.
22 During his time of trouble King Ahaz was even more unfaithful to the Lord. 23 He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus whom he thought had defeated him.#tn Heb “the gods of Damascus, the ones who had defeated him.” The words “he thought” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The perspective is that of Ahaz, not the narrator! Another option is that “the kings” has been accidentally omitted after “gods of.” See v. 23b. He reasoned,#tn Heb “said.” “Since the gods of the kings of Damascus helped them, I will sacrifice to them so they will help me.” But they caused him and all Israel to stumble. 24 Ahaz gathered the items in God’s temple and removed them. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and erected altars on every street corner in Jerusalem. 25 In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors.
26 The rest of the events of Ahaz’s reign, including his accomplishments from start to finish, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Judah and Israel.#tn Heb “As for the rest of his events, and all his ways, the former and the latter, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.” 27 Ahaz passed away#tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.” and was buried in the City of David;#sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7. they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah replaced him as king.
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1996 - 2007 by Biblical Studies Press, LLC
2 Chronicles 28
28
King Ahaz
1-4Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t live right in the eyes of God; he wasn’t at all like his ancestor David. Instead he followed in the track of Israel in the north, even casting metal figurines for worshiping the pagan Baal gods. He participated in the outlawed burning of incense in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and—incredibly!—indulged in the outrageous practice of “passing his sons through the fire,” a truly abominable thing he picked up from the pagans God had earlier thrown out of the country. He also joined in the activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all over the place.
5-8 God, fed up, handed him over to the king of Aram, who beat him badly and took many prisoners to Damascus. God also let the king of Israel loose on him and that resulted in a terrible slaughter: Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 in one day, all of them first-class soldiers, and all because they had deserted God, the God of their ancestors. Furthermore, Zicri, an Ephraimite hero, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam the palace steward, and Elkanah, second in command to the king. And that wasn’t the end of it—the Israelites captured 200,000 men, women, and children, besides huge cartloads of plunder that they took to Samaria.
9-11 God’s prophet Oded was in the neighborhood. He met the army when it entered Samaria and said, “Stop right where you are and listen! God, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah and used you to punish them; but you took things into your own hands and used your anger, uncalled for and irrational, to turn your brothers and sisters from Judah and Jerusalem into slaves. Don’t you see that this is a terrible sin against your God? Careful now; do exactly what I say—return these captives, every last one of them. If you don’t, you’ll find out how real anger, God’s anger, works.”
12-13Some of their Ephraimite leaders—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—stood up against the returning army and said, “Don’t bring the captives here! We’ve already sinned against God; and now you are about to compound our sin and guilt. We’re guilty enough as it is, enough to set off an explosion of divine anger.”
14-15So the soldiers turned over both the captives and the plunder to the leaders and the people. Personally designated men gathered the captives together, dressed the ones who were naked using clothing from the stores of plunder, put shoes on their feet, gave them all a square meal, provided first aid to the injured, put the weak ones on donkeys, and then escorted them to Jericho, the City of Palms, restoring them to their families. Then they went back to Samaria.
16-21At about that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria asking for personal help. The Edomites had come back and given Judah a bad beating, taking off a bunch of captives. Adding insult to injury the Philistines raided the cities in the foothills to the west and the southern desert and captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, along with Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo, with their surrounding villages, and moved in, making themselves at home. Arrogant King Ahaz, acting as if he could do without God’s help, had unleashed an epidemic of depravity. Judah, brought to its knees by God, was now reduced to begging for a handout. But the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, wouldn’t help—he came instead and humiliated Ahaz even more by attacking and bullying him. Desperate, Ahaz ransacked The Temple of God, the royal palace, and every other place he could think of, scraping together everything he could, and gave it to the king of Assyria—and got nothing in return, not a bit of help.
22-25But King Ahaz didn’t learn his lesson—at the very time that everyone was turning against him, he continued to be against God! He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. He had just been defeated by Damascus; he thought, “If I worship the gods who helped Damascus, those gods just might help me, too.” But things only went from bad to worse: first Ahaz in ruins and then the country. He cleaned out The Temple of God of everything useful and valuable, boarded up the doors of The Temple, and then went out and set up pagan shrines for his own use all over Jerusalem. And not only in Jerusalem, but all over Judah—neighborhood shrines for worshiping any and every god on sale. And was God ever angry!
26-27The rest of Ahaz’s infamous life, all that he did from start to finish, is written in the Royal Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. When Ahaz died, they buried him in Jerusalem, but he was not honored with a burial in the cemetery of the kings. His son Hezekiah was the next king.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.