Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Chronicles 28:16
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
The further chastisements inflicted upon King Ahaz and the kingdom of Judah. - Ch2 28:16. At this time, when the kings Rezin and Pekah had so smitten Ahaz, the latter sent to the king of Assyria praying him for help. The time when Ahaz sought the help of the king of Assyria is neither exactly stated in Kg2 16:7-9, nor can we conclude, as Bertheau thinks we can, from Isa. 7. that it happened soon after the invasion of Judah by the allied kings. The plural אשּׁוּר מלכי is rhetorical, like the plur. בּנין, Ch2 28:3. For, that Ahaz applied only to one king, in the opinion of the chronicler also, we learn from Ch2 28:20, Ch2 28:21. By the plural the thought is expressed that Ahaz, instead of seeking the help of Jahve his God, which the prophet had promised him ( Isa 7:4.), turned to the kings of the world-power, so hostile to the kingdom of God, from whom he naturally could obtain no real help. Even here the thought which is expressed only in Ch2 28:20, Ch2 28:21, is present to the mind of the author of the Chronicle. For before he narrates the issue of the help thus sought from the Assyrian world-power in Ch2 28:17-19, he ranges all the other afflictions which Judah suffered by its enemies, viz., the devastating inroads of the Edomites and Philistines, in a series of circumstantial clauses, as they preceded in time the oppression of Tiglath-pileser. Ch2 28:17 Ch2 28:17 is to be translated, "And besides, the Edomites had come, and had inflicted a defeat upon Judah, and carried away captives." עוד, yet besides, praeterea, as in Gen 43:6; Isa 1:5. The Edomites had been made subject to the kingdom of Judah only by Amaziah and Uzziah ( Ch2 25:11., Ch2 26:2); but freed by Rezin from this (cf. Kg2 16:6), they immediately seized the opportunity to make an inroad upon Judah, and take vengeance on the inhabitants. Ch2 28:18 And the Philistines whom Uzziah had subdued ( Ch2 26:6) made use of the pressure of the Syrians and Ephraimites upon Judah, not only to shake off the yoke imposed upon them, but also to fall plundering upon the cities of the lowland and the south of Judah, and to extend their territory by the capture of several cities of Judah. They took Beth-shemesh, the present Ain Shems; and Ajalon, the present village Jlo (see on Ch1 6:44 and Ch1 6:54); Gederoth in the lowland ( Jos 15:41), not yet discovered, for there are not sufficient grounds for identifying it with Gedera ( Jos 15:36), which v. de Velde has pointed out south-eastward from Jabneh (see on Ch1 12:4); Shocho, the present Shuweike, which Rehoboam had fortified ( Ch2 11:7); Timnah, on the frontier of the tribal domain of Judah, the present Tibneh, three-quarters of an hour to the west of Ain Shems (see on Jos 15:10); and Gimzo, now Jims, a large village about two miles south-east of Lydda (Lud) on the way to Jerusalem (Rob. sub voce). The three last-named cities, with their daughters, i.e., the small villages dependent upon them. Ch2 28:19-21 Judah suffered this defeat, because God humbled them on account of Ahaz. Ahaz is called king of Israel, not because he walked in the ways of the kings of the kingdom of the ten tribes ( Ch2 28:2), but ironically, because his government was the bitterest satire upon the name of the king of Israel, i.e., of the people of God (Casp.); so that Israel here, and in Ch2 28:27, as in Ch2 21:2; Ch2 12:6, is used with reference to the pregnant signification of the word. הפריע כּי, for (Ahaz) had acted wantonly in Judah; not: made Judah wanton, fo…
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