Annotations upon the remaining historicall part of the Old Testament. The second part. to wit, the books of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, and the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther : wherein first, all such passages in the text are explained as were thought likely to be questioned by any reader of ordinary capacity : secondly, in many clauses those things are discovered which are needfull and usefull to be known ... and thirdly, many places that might at first seem to contradict one another are reconciled ... / by Arthur Jackson.

CHAP. XVI.

Vers. 1. IN the seventeenth yeare of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah, Ahaz the sonne of Jotham, &c.] The seventeenth yeare of Pekah was the sixteenth yeare of Jotham, chap. 15.32. at which time Jotham did either resigne the kingdome to his sonne Ahaz; or at least he left the government to him, but yet the lived at least foure years after. See chap. 15.30.

Vers. 2. Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reigne, and he reigned sixteen years, &c.] If Ahaz was twenty years old when he began his reigne, when he died, sixteen years after, he was but thirty six years old, and then was Hezekiah his sonne twenty five years old, chap. 18.2. Twenty and five years old was Hezekiah when he began to reigne, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: where∣by it may seem that Hezekiah was born to Ahaz, when he was yet but ten or eleven years old; which (say some Expositours) we need not wonder at, considering the singular blessing that nation had for generation: but because it is very unlikely that the Jews had children so young, therefore other Expositours do answer this objecti∣on two other wayes; to wit, first, that Ahaz was twenty years old when he (that is, Jotham his father) of whom he had spoken in the former verse, began to reigne, to wit, after the death of his father Uzziah: or secondly, (and I think thus it is better an∣swered) that Ahaz began to reigne when he was first designed king in the life of Jo∣tham his father, and then he was but twenty years old; and the like must then be said of Jotham too, chap. 15.30. but when after his fathers death he began to reigne as absolute king himself (from which these sixteen years must be reckoned) he might be twenty five or twenty six years old, or perhaps more.

Vers. 3. But he walked in the wayes of the kings of Israel.] That is, he wor∣shipped idols as they also did; for so it is expressed, 2. Chron. 28.3. He burnt incense in the valley of the sonne of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen.

Yea, & made his sonne to passe through the fire, &c.] Concerning this abominable idolatry of making their children to passe through the fire, see what is noted, Levit. 18.21. But the Ahaz did indeed burn his sonnes, at least some one of his sonnes, as by way of sacrificing them to his idol-gods, is evident 2. Chron. 28.3. where also the place is named where he offered this inhumane oblation, to wit▪ the valley of the sonne of Hinnom, a valley not farre from Jerusalem: Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the sonne of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire. This high place was called Tophet, and was it seems especially used for this execrable idolatry, Jer. 7.31. They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the sonne of Hinnom, to burn their sonnes and their daughters in the fire: and by Josi∣ah it was defiled, chap. 23.10. He defiled Tophet which is in the valley of the chil∣dren

of Hinnom, that no man might make his sonne or his daughter to passe through the fire to Molech.

Vers. 5. Then Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah sonne of Remaliah king of Is∣rael, came up to Jerusalem to warre.] No sooner was Ahaz settled in the throne of Judah, but both Rezin king of Syria, and Pekah king of Israel began streight to invade Judah; for Pekah reigned in all but twenty years, chap. 15.27. and Ahaz began not his reigne till the seventeenth yeare of Pekah, vers. 1. In the seventeenth yeare of Pekah the sonne of Remaliah, Ahaz the sonne of Jotham king of Judah began to reigne; and as Ahaz exceeded all the kings before him in wickednesse, so the judgements that God brought upon his kingdome, were most terrible. First, they each invaded the land severally, as is related in the Chronicles, and both of them prevailed against Ahaz, and exceedingly weakened and spoiled his countrey: for Re∣zin carried away many of the people captives to Damascus, and Pekah slew in one day one hundred and twenty thousand of them, (amongst whom was Maaseiah the kings sonne (he sacrificed one sonne to his idol-gods, and now another was slain by the sword of his enemies) and Azrikam the governour of his house, and Elkanah the second person to the king: who were slain by Zichri a mighty man of Ephraim, and carried away also two hundred thousand prisoners, women and chil∣dren; though indeed by the counsel of the prophet Oded, they were returned and delivered back again, 2. Chron. 28.5—15. but this invasion here spoken of was after them; when not content with what spoil they had made in Judah, they re∣solved to joyn their forces together, and to go up and besiege Jerusalem, and to de∣pose Ahaz, and make the sonne of Tabeal king of Judah, Isa. 7.5, 6. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the sonne of Remaliah have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach in it for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the sonne of Tabeal: for this is that confederacie of Rezin and Pekah, whereof the prophet speaks in that chapter: when as is there related, the king and people▪ being grievously affrighted at the tidings of it, Isaiah was sent to comfort Ahaz, and to assure him that they should not prevail against him; to which end, when he had given him liberty to ask what signe he would, and Ahaz refused to ask a signe, he had for a signe given him a most glorious promise of Christ: vers. 14. The Lord himself shall give you a signe: Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne, and shall call his name Emmanuel, Isai∣ah 7.1 — 16.

And they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.] And so these two kings that assured themselves of such successe, because in their former invasions they had so spoiled and weakened the land of Judah; proved in the conclusion, but as two tails of smoaking firebrands, as the prophet called them, Isa. 7.4. that is, their great attempts vanished into smoak, though they thought to have devoured, and burnt up all before them.

Vers. 6. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria▪ &c.] That is, being forced to leave the siege of Jerusalem, he went (perhaps with their joynt forces) to Elath, which Azariah or Uzziah the grandfather of Ahaz, had taken from the Syrians, chap. 14.22. and took it, and restored it to Syria.

Vers. 7. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I

am thy servant, and thy sonne, &c.] That is, he yeilded to be his vassall, and tribu∣tary, upon condition he would come to help him; and hence it is said, chap. 18.7. that Hezekiah rebelled against the king of Assyria, just the same time when Rezin and Pekah vexed Judah on the north: the Edomites and Philistines laying hold on this advantage, entred upon them from the south, slew many people, carried away ma∣ny prisoners; yea the Philistines took six cities which had formerly belonged to Ju∣dah: whereupon Ahaz seeing himself environed on all sides, he sent for aid unto the Assyrian king, 2 Chron. 28.16, 17, 18. At the same time did king Ahaz send unto the king of Assyria to help him. For again the Edomites had come and and smitten Judah, and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low countrey, and of the south of Judah: when he craved this aid, it is not certain; but certain it is, first, that he sinned in craving the Assyri∣ans help, because the prophet Isaiah had assured him, that these two king should not be able to hurt him: secondly, that Rezin and Pekah were gone from Jeru∣salem, before the Assyrian came against them: (for else Rezin would not have gone with his army to Elath to recover that, as vers. 6. it is said he did) and thirdly, when the Assyrian did come, he distressed Ahaz, but he helped him not.

Vers. 9. The king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, &c.] Though Rezin and Pekah were gone from the siege of Jerusalem, before the Assy∣rians came to help Ahaz; yet when he came he invaded the land of Israel, where what havock he made, we heard before chap. 15.29. In the dayes of Pekah king of Israel, came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maa∣chah, and Janoah, and Ked••sh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria: and then at the same time, as is here said, he went against Damascus, and slew Rezin, and carried the people ca∣ptives to Kir, of which Amos had long before prophecied in the dayes of Uzziah, Amos 1.3, 4, 5. Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Damascus and for foure, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devoure the palaces of Ben-hadad, I will break also the barre of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden, and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the Lord: and after Isaiah foretold the same, Isaiah 8.3, 4.

Vers. 10. And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria.] To wit, to congratulate his successe in taking Damascus, doubtlesse he was highly pleased with seeing his enemies that had lately besieged him in Jerusalem, brought on a sudden so low; Rezin being slain, and his kingdome quite lost, and the king of Israel extremely weakened, and brought into contempt amongst his sub∣jects, by the carrying away of five tribes of Israel captives into Assyria: and it is very likely, that he triumphed in the successe of his own counsels, in sending for the king of Assyria, contrary to what the prophet Isaiah had advised, Isaiah 7.4. little thinking that within a few years that very nation, in whose victories he now triumphed, should utterly ruine the kingdome of Judah, as they had done other kingdomes; of which it seems, the prophet Isaiah gave Ahaz warning, Isaiah 7.17.

The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon thy fathers house, dayes that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

And saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, &c.] What moved him to this is expressed in the Chroni∣cles, 2. Chron. 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 ruine of him, and of all Israel: and because he did this also at a time when God had so heavily af∣flicted him, his sinne was the more grievous; as it is there noted, vers. 22. And in the time of his distresse, did he trespasse yet more against the Lord.

Vers. 11. And Urijah the priest built an Altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, &c.] Though hitherto this Urijah had maintained the true worship of God in the Temple, and was not long before this chosen by the prophet Isaiah as a witnesse of his prophesie, which he fastned upon the doores of the Temple, Isaiah 8.1, 2. yet now he turned Apostate and yeilded presently to fur∣ther this wicked command of Ahaz.

Vers. 12: And the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.] To wit, to the gods of Assyria, 2. Chron. 28.23. He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria, &c.

Vers. 14. And he brought also the brasen altar which was before the Lord, from the forefront of the house, &c.] That is, having set up his new altar in the forefront of the Temple, where the brazen altar which Solomon had made stood; be∣cause he would not have the brazen altar stand above his, he removed that from the place where it stood betwixt his altar and the Temple, and set it in on the north side, as it were in a corner out of the way.

Vers. 15. And king Ahaz commanded Ʋrijah the priest, saying, Ʋpon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, &c.] That is, upon his new altar, which it seems was greater then Solomons altar; or else more highly esteemed by him, and therefore so called: yet that it was not of brasse, we may probably conceive, be∣cause in the foregoing verse, Solomons altar is distinguished from this new altar, by the name of the brasen altar.

And the brazen altar shall be for me to enquire by.] As if he should have said, meddle not with that but leave that to me, when I shall think fit I will make use of it, and otherwise there shall be no use made of it.

Vers. 18. And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the kings entry without, turned he, &c.] It is hard to say what this covert of the sabbath was; some think it was a place provided for the Levites, that kept the watch before the doores of the Temple, into which they entred every sabbath day in their courses: but the most probable opinion seems to be, that it was either some place provided for the priests, when they taught the people on the sabbath dayes; or ra∣ther some costly covered seat, wherein the kings of Judah used to heare the priests expounding the law on the sabbath day: whatever it was, both that, and the kings entry without, that is, the entry whereby the kings used to passe from their palace to the Temple, Ahaz turned them from the house of the Lord; that is, he took them

from the Temple, and that for the king of Assyria; that is, either he brake them down, and sold the materials which were happely costly, to make up the money he gave to the king of Assyria; or else he diverted them to some other use, that the heathen king seeing him so estranged from the religion of his fathers, might be the faster friend to him: it is also added in the Chronicles, that he shut up the doores of the house of the Lord, and made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem, &c. 2. Chron. 28.24, 25.

Vers. 20. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the citie of David.] But not in the sepulchre of the kings, 2. Chron. 28.27. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the citie, even in Jerusalem, but they brought him not into the sepulchre of the kings of Israel. He began his reigne in the end of the seventeenth yeare of Pekah king of Israel, and reigned sixteen years vers. 1, 2. the first three years therefore of his reigne, were the eighteenth, nine∣teenth, and twentieth of Pekah; the other thirteen years of his reigne, Hoshea was partly striving to settle himself in the kingdome of Israel, and partly settled in the kingdome. See the note, chap. 17.1.