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Ahaz causes an altar

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A. M. 3264. the LORD, and in the treasures of the king approached to the altar, and A. M. 3264.
king's house, and sent it for a pre-offered thereon.
sent to the king of Assyria.

9 And the king of Assyria hearkened

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unto him for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and i took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. 10 And King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.

11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against King Ahaz came from Damascus.

12 And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the iForetold, Amos i. 5.- - 2 Chron. xxvi. 16, 19.

Heb. Dammesek.

unto Ahaz, and, for his own ends, made a descent on Damascus, and took it, thereby giving a powerful diversion to the king of Syria, and obliging him to forego his design against Jerusalem; yet Ahaz made but an ill bargain, seeing he not only robbed the temple, and expended his own treasures, but enslaved both himself and his people to the king of Assyria.

Verse 9. And carried the people of it captive to Kir-Not Kir of Moab, (Isa. xv. 1,) but a part of Media, which was then subject to the king of Assyria. It is remarkable, that this taking of Damascus, and carrying the inhabitants of it captive to this place, nay, and the slaying of Rezin the king, was expressly foretold by Amos some time before it happened. See the margin.

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Verses 10. And King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser-To congratulate his victory, acknowledge his favour and help, and to beg the continuance of it. And saw an altar that was at Damascus-Of an excellent structure, as he supposed, upon which the Syrians used to offer to their idols, 1 Chron. xxviii. 23. Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar-That a pattern of it might be taken immediately. He could not stay till he should return to Jerusalem himself, but sent it before him, in all haste, with orders to Urijah, to get one made exactly according to this model, and have it ready against he came home. The pattern God showed to Moses in the mount, or to David by the Spirit, was not comparable to this pattern sent from

Damascus!

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13 And he burnt his burnt-offering and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings upon the altar.

14 And he brought also the brazen altar, which was before the LORD, from the fore-front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.

15 And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meatoffering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the *Heb. which were his.- 12 Chron. iv. 1.- m Exod. xxix.

39, 41.

came from Damascus--He made haste and delayed not to do it, to please the king, and advance himself. The king approached to the altar, and offered thereon-Namely, a sacrifice, and that not unto God, but unto the Syrian idols, (2 Chron. xxviii. 23, 24,) to whom that altar was appropriated. A wonderful blindness, to worship those gods, and expect help from them, who could not preserve their own country from ruin! Whether Ahaz offered this sacrifice himself, or by a priest, is not certain.

Verses 13, 14. And he burned his burnt-offering, &c.-For the heathen, and Ahaz, in imitation of them, offered the same sorts of offerings to their false gods which the Israelites did to the true. He brought also the brazen altar-Namely, the altar of burnt-offerings made by Solomon, and placed there by God's appointment; from before the Lord-That is, from before the Lord's house, Lev. i. 3. From between the altar, &c.—Urijah had placed Ahaz's altar behind that of the Lord, namely, between it and the east gate of the court of the priests: but when Ahaz came, taking this for a disparagement to his altar, he impiously and audaciously removed the altar of the Lord to the north side of the court, and set his own in the place of it. A bolder stroke this, than the very worst of the kings had hitherto given to religion.

Verse 15. Ahaz commanded, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, &c.—He made a solemn injunction, that all the public sacrifices, of what sort soever they were, whether made by himself or by the people, should be constantly offered upon his altar, which he calls the great altar, because it was much larger, it is probable, than the altar of God. The command, probably, referred principally, if not only, to sacrifices to be offered to the true God, whose service, it seems, he had not

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16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all house of the LORD for the king of Assyria. that King Ahaz commanded.

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yet utterly forsaken, but occasionally worshipped idols with him. The brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by That shall be reserved for my proper use, at which I may seek God, or inquire his will, by sacrifices joined with prayer, when I shall see fit. He says only, p, lebakker, to seek, or to inquire; not to seek the Lord, or to inquire of the Lord, as the phrase is more largely expressed elsewhere: for, says Poole, "he would not vouchsafe to mention the name of the Lord, whom he had so grossly forsaken and despised." Thus, having thrust out the altar of God from the use for which it was instituted, which was to sanctify the gifts offered upon it, he pretends to advance it above its institution, a practice common with superstitious people. overdo is to underdo. The altar was never designed for an oracle, but Ahaz will have it for that use. Some, indeed, put a different sense on Ahaz's words, and understand him to mean, "As for the brazen altar, I will consider what to do with it, and will give orders accordingly."

But to

Verse 16. Thus did Urijah the priest, &c.Having once begun to defile his conscience, he could not now make an honourable retreat, and therefore proceeds to execute all the king's commands.

Verse 17. Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen, &c. -Probably that he might dispose of them, or of the brass of them, in some other way; perhaps that he might turn them into money, either by casting them into such pieces as were current, or by selling them as they were.

Verse 18. The covert for the sabbath, turned he from the house of the Lord-There is a great variety of opinions concerning this navn, musach hahsabbath, or covert of, or for the sabbath, here spoken of, and why it is so called. Mr. Locke says, It was something made for the purpose of covering the people from the injuries of the weather on the sabbath days, when more were wont to assemble at the temple than the porch could contain: and Houbigant supposes it was something of the same kind. 188

19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which 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 stead.

P1 Kings vii. 23, 25.- -4 2 Chron. xxviii. 27.

It is, indeed, generally understood to have been some building, either where the priests, after their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came, which they did upon the sabbath day; or in which the guard of the temple kept their station; or some canopy, or other covered place, under which the king used to sit to hear God's word, and see the sacrifices, which might be called the covert of the || sabbath, because the chief times in which the king used it for those ends was the weekly sabbath, and other solemn days of feasting or fasting, (which all come under the name of sabbaths, in the Old Testament,) upon which the king used more solemnly to present himself before the Lord than at other times. "And the reason," says Dr. Dodd, "why the king ordered this to be taken away was, because he intended to trouble himself no more with coming to the temple, and by this action to express his hatred and contempt of the sabbath, as his removing the bases, the laver, and the brazen sea, was probably with a design to deface the service of God in the temple, and thence to bring it into public disesteem." The king's entry without-The passage by which he used to go from his palace to the temple, and which had been made for the convenience of the royal family; turned he-Another way, and for other uses, from the house of the Lord-To show that he did not intend to frequent the house of the Lord any longer. For the king of Assyria-To oblige him, who probably had returned his visit, and found fault with this entry, as inconvenient, and a disparagement to his palace. Thus, to ingratiate himself with this heathen king, he expresses his public contempt and rejection of that religion which had been the only partition wall between the kings of Judah and other kings.

Verse 20. And Ahaz slept with his fathersResigning his life in the midst of his days, at thirtysix years of age, and leaving his kingdom to a better man, Hezekiah his son, who proved as much a friend to the temple as Ahaz had been an enemy to it.

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The reign of Hoshea, whom the

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVII.

king of Assyria imprisons.

The reign of Hoshea, 1, 2. The king of Assyria imprisons him, and carries Israel captive, 3-6. The cause of this captivity, 7-23. The strange nations transplanted into Canaan are plagued with lions, 24-26. An Israelitish priest is sent to them, 27, 28. The mongrel religion which followed, 29-41.

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years.

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A. M. 3279. IN the twelfth year of Ahaz king of || of Assyria; and Hoshea became his A. M. 3279. Judah began Hoshea the son of servant, and gave him 2 presents. Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine 4 And the king of Assyria found B. C. 725. conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of As3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king syria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

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After an interregnum, Chap. xv. 30.- b Chap. xviii. 9.

NOTES ON CHAPTER XVII.

Verse 1. In the twelfth year of Ahaz, began Hoshea to reign-He usurped the kingdom in Ahaz's fourth year; but either was not owned as king by the generality of the people, or was not accepted and established in his kingdom till Ahaz's twelfth year. Nine years-After his confirmation and peaceable possession of his kingdom; for in all he reigned seventeen or eighteen years; twelve with Ahaz, who reigned sixteen years, and six with Hezekiah.

1 Heb. rendered, 2 Sam. viii. 2. -2 Or, tribute.

had done, nor hinder their reforming. He gave them leave to abandon their idols and their sins, and to return to the worship of the true God, and obedience to his laws: but they persisted in their idolatries and other vices, which laid the blame of their sin and ruin wholly upon themselves.

Verse 3. Against him came up Shalmaneser— The son or successor of Tiglath-pileser. The ancient Hebrew writers made him the same with Sennacherib, who, eight years after this time, invaded the kingdom of Judah; it being very frequent, in Verse 2. But not as the kings of Israel that were the eastern parts, for one man to be called by sevebefore him-For he neither worshipped Baal, as ral names. Josephus affirms, that he met with his many of his predecessors had done, nor compelled name in the annals of the Tyrians, which were exthe people to worship the calves, one of which, that tant in his days. He came against him, either beof Dan, being destroyed or carried away before this cause he denied the tribute which he had promised time, as the Hebrew writers affirm. And whereas to pay, or that he might make him tributary. And the kings of Israel had hitherto maintained guards Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents upon the frontiers, to hinder their subjects from go--Swore fealty to him, and engaged to pay him triing to Jerusalem to worship, Hoshea took away those bute. Thus the destruction came gradually, and guards, and gave free liberty to all, to go and pay they were, for some time, made tributaries, before their adoration where the law had directed; and, they were made captives to the king of Assyria. therefore, when Hezekiah had invited all Israel to And if the lesser judgment had prevailed to humble come to his passover, this prince permitted all that and reform them, the greater would have been prewould to go: and when, upon their return from that vented. festival, they destroyed all the monuments of idol- Verse 4. The king of Assyria found conspiracy atry that were found in the kingdom of Samaria, in Hoshea-If the king and people of Israel had instead of forbidding them, in all probability he gave applied themselves to God, made their peace with his consent to it; because, without some tacit en- him, and addressed their prayers to him, they might, couragement, at least, they durst not have ventured and no doubt would have recovered their liberty, to do it.-Prideaux. And yet God, whose judgments ease, and honour; but they withheld their tribute, are a great deep, brought destruction on the king- and trusted to the king of Egypt to assist them in dom of Israel in the reign of this king. The fact their revolt, which, if it had been attended with sucwas, that the Israelites had now completely filled up cess, would only have been to change their oppresthe measure of their iniquities, and God, by bringing sors: but Egypt became to them the staff of a broken ruin upon them at this time, when their king was reed. This provoked the king of Assyria to proceed less guilty than his predecessors, designed to show against them with the more severity. For he, Hopunishing, not only the sins of that ge- shea, sent messengers to So, king of Egypt-By neration, but of the foregoing ages, and reckoning some heathen writers called Sua, or Sabacus, that, with them for the iniquities of their fathers. Add by his assistance, he might shake off the yoke of the to this, that if Hoshea was not so bad as the gene-king of Assyria, who now was, and for many years rally of their former kings, yet the people were had been, the rival of the king of Egypt, 2 Kings quite as wicked as those that went before them; and xviii. 21; Jer. xxxvii. 5. "This So," says Mr. Locke, aggravation of their wickedness, and brought ruin on them the sooner, that their king did not set them so bad an example as the former kings

that he was

It was an

seems to be Sabacon, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, of whom Herodotus relates, that, being warned in a dream, he departed of his own accord from Egypt,

Captivity of Israel

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II. KINGS.

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by Shalmaneser. 5 Then the king of Assyria || under the hand of Pharaoh king of A. M. 3283. came up throughout all the land, and Egypt, and had feared other gods. went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and f carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

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7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from

Chap. xviii. 9.- d Chap. xviii. 10; Hos. xiii. 16, foretold. e Lev, xxvi. 32, 33; Deut. xxviii. 36, 64; xxix. 27.

after he had reigned there fifteen years. It was in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign that he invaded Egypt, and having taken Boccharis the king thereof prisoner, with great cruelty he burned him alive, and then seized on his kingdom."-Dodd.

Verses 5, 6. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land-And made himself master of it, treating the Israelites as traitors rather than as fair enemies, and punishing them with the sword of justice. And went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years-During which time it held out, but doubtless endured a great deal of misery, though this be not particularly recorded. At length the royal city was taken, and the king made a prisoner, shut up, and bound. This was in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, at which time Israel was carried away captive into Assyria—There, we have reason to think, after some time, they were so mingled with the nations, that they were lost, and the name of Israel was no more in remembrance. They that forgot God were themselves forgotten, and they that studied to be like the nations were buried among them; and they that would not serve God in their own land, were made to serve their enemies in a strange land. Thus ended Israel as a nation, and the prophecy of Hoshea was fulfilled: they became Loammi, not a people, and Lo-ruhamah, unpitied. Now Canaan spewed them out. When we read of their entry into Canaan under Hoshea the son of Nun, who would have thought that such would be their exit under Hoshea the son of Elah? Thus Rome's glory in Augustus sunk many ages after in Augustulus; yet we find St. James writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, (James i. 1,) and Paul speaks of the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, Acts xxvi. 7: so that, though we never read of the return of those that were carried captive, nor have any ground to believe that they still remain a distinct body in some remote corner of the world, yet a remnant of them did escape, and will remain, till all Israel be saved.

Verse 7. For so it was, &c.-Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes is but briefly related in the preceding verses, it is largely com-mented upon by the historian in those that follow; and the reasons of it assigned, which are not taken from the second causes, the weakness of Israel and

8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, h from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

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their impolitic management; the strength and growing greatness of the Assyrian monarchy: these things are overlooked, and only the first cause is mentioned. It was the Lord that removed Israel out of his sight: whoever were the instruments, he was the author of this calamity. The destruction was from the Almighty, and the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isa. x. 5. It was the Lord that rejected the seed of Israel, otherwise their enemies could not have seized upon them. Who gave Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord? Isa, xlii. 24. We lose the benefit of national judgments if we do not mark the hand of God in them, and the fulfilling of the Scriptures. It must be well observed, however, that their way and their doing procured all this to themselves, and it was their own wickedness that did correct them. This the sacred historian shows here at large, that it might appear God did them no wrong, and that others might hear and fear. The children of Israel had sinned against the Lord, and had feared other gods-This they had done a long time: for, from the beginning of Jeroboam's setting up the golden calves, to the carrying of Israel away captive, were two hundred and sixty-three years, to say nothing of their former various and multiplied idolatries.

Verses 8, 9. And walked in the statutes of the heathen-According to their laws and customs in the worship of their Baals, and other of their sins. And of the kings of Israel, which statutes they had made-Had ordained concerning the worship of the calves, and against their going up to Jerusalem to worship. And the children of Israel did secretly, &c.-This belongs, either, 1st, To their gross idolatries, and other abominable practices, which they were ashamed to own before others; or, 2d, To the worship of the calves, and so the words are otherwise rendered, They covered things that were not right toward the Lord: they covered their idolatrous worship of the calves with fair pretences of necessity, the two kingdoms being now divided, and at enmity; and of their honest intention of serving the true God, and retaining the substance of the Jewish religion. From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city-In all parts and places, both in cities and in the country; yea, in the most uninhabited parts, where few or none dwelt besides the watch

The reason why Israel was

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A. M. 3283. 10 And they set them up 3 images || 14 Notwithstanding, they would not A. M. 3283. and groves in every high hill, and hear, but hardened their necks, like under every green tree: to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.

11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, "Ye shall not do this thing.

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13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments, and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

il Kings xiv. 23; Isa. lvii. 5.- Heb. statues.

* Exod. v. 13; Deut. xvi. 21; Mic. v. 14.-Deut. xii. 2; Chap. 14-Exod. xx. 3; Lev. xxvi. 1; Deut. v. 7.- -Deut. iv. 19-Heb. by the hand of all. 1 Sam. ix. 9.-P Jer. 11; xxv. 5; xxxv. 15.

men, who were left there in towers, to preserve the cattle and fruits of the earth, or to give notice of the approach of enemies.

Verse 11. They burned incense, as did the heathen-Namely, in high places; and that not only to the Lord, which, though an irregularity, was practised and tolerated sometimes, even in the kingdom of Judah, but also to the idols of the heathen. Whom the Lord carried away before them-For the same sins; by whose example they ought to have taken warning. To provoke the Lord to anger-That is, in despite and contempt of God, and his authority and command, as the next verse shows.

Verse 13. Yet the Lord testified against IsraelAgainst their false worship, and all their impieties. By all the prophets, and by all the seers-To whom he declared his mind by extraordinary revelations and visions, and by whom he published it, bearing Witness from heaven to their doctrine, by eminent and glorious miracles. Abarbinel, in his commentary on these books, hath noticed one or more prophets in every king's reign, both in Israel and Judah, from the time of Saul to Zedekiah, in whose time Jerusalem was laid desolate. The ten tribes had lately had among them two most singularly eminent for their zeal, courage, fidelity, and the wonders which they wrought, in the name of God, in confirmation of their divine mission and doctrine, namely, Elijah and Elisha: the latter of whom had been instrumental in rescuing them from their enemies sundry times, when all human means had failed, and their case appeared perfectly hopeless, and who had been mercifully continued to them, a faithful witness for God, and a burning and shining light, for about sixty years. And in the days of this very king, when Israel was carried away captive, they had Hoshea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. And in the

15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should " not do like them.

16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

9 Deut. xxxi. 27; Prov. xxix. 1.- Deuteronomy xxix. 25. Deut. xxxii. 21; 1 Kings xvi. 13; 1 Cor. viii. 4.- Psa. cxv. 8; Rom. i. 21.- u Deut. xii. 30.- Exod. xxxii. 8; 1 Kings xii. 28. 1 Kings xiv. 15, 23; xv. 13; xvi. 33.—1 Kings xvi. 31; xxii. 53; Chap. xi. 18.

days of the last king of Judah, when that tribe was carried captive, they had Jeremiah and Ezekiel. All these had made it their care to show both the kings and people their sins, and warn them of the fatal consequences of them; and to exhort, beseech, and urge them to turn from them, to the worship and service of the living and true God.

Verse 14. Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their necks-Refused to submit their necks to the yoke of God's precepts: a metaphor taken from stubborn oxen that will not bow to the yoke. Like to the neck of their fathers-In the wilderness; that did not believe in the Lord their God-This was the original and primary cause of all their sins and sufferings, their unbelief; this formerly prevented their fathers from entering Canaan, and now turned them out of it: they did not truly believe in God's power, and love, and faithfulness; did not receive his truths, though attested by signs and wonders innumerable; did not credit his threatenings, nor rely on his promises. The testimony of the prophets, therefore, was without effect, with respect to the nation in general, and their endeavours to reclaim them were exerted in vain. And God was compelled, humanly speaking, in vindication of his own infinite perfections, the injured rights of his moral government, and the cause of truth and righteousness, to execute the frequently-denounced vengeance, and send wrath upon them to the utter

most,

Verses 15-17. They followed vanity-Idols; so called, because of their unprofitableness, impotency, and nothingness, and to show the folly and madness of idolaters. And became vain-By the long worship of idols they were made like them, vain, sottish, and senseless creatures. And they left all the commandments of the Lord-They grew worse and

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