2 Chronicles 28:1-27
1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnta his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
4 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus.b And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiantc men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
7 And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was nextd to the king.
8 And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
9 But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
10 And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
11 Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,
13 And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.
14 So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.
15 And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
16 At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.
17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.e
18 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
20 And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.
22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.
23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus,f 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 ruin of him, and of all Israel.
24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
25 And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.
26 Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
2 Chronicles: God desires loyal people
The *Kingdom called Judah
2 Chronicles Chapter s 10 to 36
Ian Mackervoy
Chapter 28
Ahaz – 2 Chronicles 28:1-27
v1 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He ruled for 16 years in Jerusalem. Unlike his *ancestor David, he did not do what was right in the opinion of the *LORD. v2 But he did as the kings of *Israel did. He made metal images for the *worship of false gods, the Baals. v3 He burned *incense in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. He burned his children in the fire. He did these same evil things as the people in the country before *Israel had done. The *LORD had forced those people to go out of the country. v4 Ahaz gave *sacrifices and he burned *incense at the high places for *worship. Also, he gave *sacrifices and he burned *incense on the hills and under every green tree.
v5 So, the *LORD his God handed Ahaz over to the king of Aram. The people from Aram defeated Ahaz. And they took many people from Judah as prisoners to Damascus. Also, the *LORD handed Ahaz over to the king of *Israel, who killed many people. v6 The army of Pekah, son of Remaliah killed 120 000 brave soldiers from Judah in one day. Pekah defeated them because they had *turned from the *LORD, the God of their *ancestors. v7 Zichri, a soldier from Ephraim, killed the king’s son Maaseiah. Also, he killed Azrikam, the officer in control of the palace. And he killed Elkanah, who was second in command to the king. v8 The *Israelite army took away as prisoners 200 000 of their own relatives. They took women, sons and daughters. With these prisoners, they took many valuable things from Judah and they took them back to Samaria.
v9 But Oded, a *prophet of the *LORD was there. He met the *Israelite army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, ‘The *LORD, the God of your *ancestors, handed Judah over to you. He did this because he was angry with those people. But with cruel anger, you have killed them. And your fierce anger has reached up to heaven. v10 Now you intend to make the people in Judah and in Jerusalem your male and female slaves. But you also are guilty of *sins against the *LORD your God. v11 Now listen to me. Send your prisoners back. They are your own relatives. Because you have *captured them, the *LORD is very angry with you.’
v12 Then some of the leaders in Ephraim met the *Israelite soldiers as the soldiers were coming home from war. These leaders were
• Azariah, son of Johanan,
• Berechiah, son of Meshillemoth,
• Jehizkiah, son of Shallum,
• and Amasa, son of Hadlai.
v13 They said, ‘You must not bring those prisoners here. If you do, we will be guilty of *sin against the *LORD. You will add to all our *sins. Already we are so guilty that the *LORD is angry with *Israel.’
v14 So, the soldiers left the prisoners and the valuable things there with the leaders and the people. v15 The men, whose names are above, took the prisoners. And from the valuable things, they gave clothes to those who were naked. They gave to the prisoners clothes, shoes, food, drink and medicine. They put the weak prisoners on *donkeys. Then they took all the prisoners to their own people at Jericho, the city of *palms. Then the *Israelites returned to Samaria.
v16 At that time, King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria for help. v17 The people from Edom had come again. They had attacked Judah. And they had taken away prisoners. v18 Also, the *Philistines had attacked the towns in the western hills and in southern Judah. They *captured several towns and they lived in them. The towns that they *captured were
• Beth-Shemesh,
• Aijalon,
• Gederoth,
• Soco,
• Timnah,
• Gimzo
• and the villages round them.
v19 The *LORD was against Judah because of Ahaz, their king. Ahaz let his people do what was wrong. He *sinned badly and he was not loyal to the *LORD. v20 Tilgath-Pilneser, king of Assyria came to Ahaz. But he caused trouble and he did not help Ahaz. v21 Ahaz took some of the things from the *LORD’s *temple. He took some things from the royal palace and from the princes. He gave all these things to the king of Assyria. But that did not help Ahaz.
v22 In this time of trouble, Ahaz was even less loyal to the *LORD. v23 He gave *sacrifices to the gods of the people in Damascus. The people from Damascus had defeated him. So, he thought, ‘Their gods have helped them. And if I *sacrifice to those gods then they may help me.’ But this caused *disaster for him and for all *Israel.
v24 Ahaz gathered the things from God’s *temple and he broke them into pieces. Then he closed the doors of the *LORD’s *temple. He made *altars and he put them on every street corner in Jerusalem. v25 In every town in Judah, he made places to burn *incense to other gods. This made the *LORD, the God of his *ancestors very angry.
v26 A record shows all that Ahaz did from the start to the end of his rule. This record is in the book of the kings of *Israel and Judah. v27 Ahaz died and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem. But they did not bury him in the graves of the kings of *Israel. And his son Hezekiah replaced him as king.
Verses 1-4 Ahaz ruled from about 731 *BC. It seems that he ruled with his father Jotham for three or four years. Jotham died in about 735 *BC. Ahaz ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years and he died in about 715 *BC. He was 20 years old when he became king (2 Chronicles 28:1; 2 Chronicles 28:2 Kings 16:2). When he died in about 715 *BC, his son Hezekiah was 25 years old (29:1). So then, Ahaz would have been about 11 or 12 years old when Hezekiah was born. There are two possible explanations for this problem. Ahaz may have ruled with his father for a few years. So then, the age of 20 would be when he started to rule with Jotham. When he became king at the death of Jotham, then he would be older than 20 years. The other explanation may be that there was an error in later copies of the text. Some old copies say, ‘Ahaz was 25 years old when he became king.’
Ahaz was one of the weakest and the most wicked of all the 20 rulers of Judah. He did not serve the *LORD as his *ancestor David had done. He *turned away from the *LORD. And he served the *Baals as the kings of *Israel did. The Baals were the false of gods of the nations round *Israel.
Ahaz made images of the gods out of metal. He and the people *worshipped these images of the gods. He burned *incense to the god Molech in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. Molech was the god of the people in Ammon. Ahaz *sacrificed his sons by fire to Molech. The *LORD had said, ‘Those who do this must die.’ (See Leviticus 20:1-5.) We do not know how many sons he had. But he did not *sacrifice Hezekiah, who ruled after him. This and other evil things were what the Canaanites had done. The Canaanites lived in the country before the *LORD gave it to *Israel.
The Valley of Ben-Hinnom was to the south of Jerusalem. It became the place of the most evil deeds in Judah (here and in 33:6). King Josiah made it the place to burn rubbish so that people could not *sacrifice their children to Molech. In Jesus’ time, they always burned the rubbish there. It became a place of continuous fire. And they called it Gehenna. It became a word picture of hell. Hell is the place where the fire never goes out (Mark 9:43).
Also, Ahaz burned *incense and he gave *sacrifices to the gods on the high places for *worship. And he did these things on the hills and under the trees.
Verses 5-8 Rezin was the king of Aram. He attacked Judah and he defeated Ahaz. The *LORD did not help or defend Ahaz. Rezin took many prisoners to his capital city, Damascus. Also, Pekah, the king of *Israel came against Judah. He killed many people and soldiers in Judah. The *LORD allowed him to do that because of the *sin of Judah’s people. In a later battle, Rezin and Pekah came to Jerusalem. They wanted a man called Tabeel to replace Ahaz as king of Judah (Isaiah 7:6). But Ahaz was too strong so they could not *capture the city. Rezin *captured the town called Eloth from Judah (2 Kings 16:5-6).
Maaseiah, the king’s son was probably not a son of Ahaz. The sons of Ahaz were probably too young to be in the battles. Maaseiah may have been a younger son of King Jotham.
The army of *Israel took a large number of people away as prisoners. They even took women and children. *Israel and Judah both came from the 12 *tribes of *Israel. So, the families of Judah and *Israel were relatives.
Verses 9-15 The *prophet Oded went out to meet the army of *Israel. We do not know anything else about this *prophet. He told them that God had used them to punish Judah. He did it because he was angry with Judah. But the army of *Israel did more than God wanted them to do. They were too cruel and their anger was too fierce. And they had taken away men, women and children from Judah to make them slaves.
From the days of Rehoboam, the 10 *tribes of *Israel had *turned from the *LORD. They were more guilty of this than the two *tribes of Judah. And in this action, they had *sinned against the *LORD.
Oded told them to send the prisoners back. Because they had *captured these people, the *LORD was angry with them.
Then some of the leaders of Ephraim went to meet the soldiers. The names of four of them are in the text. Ephraim here means the 10 *tribes of *Israel. They told the soldiers that they could not bring the prisoners into Samaria. To do so would add to the *sins of *Israel. The *LORD was already angry with them. So, the soldiers left the prisoners and the valuable things with the leaders.
The leaders looked after the prisoners. They used the valuable things to provide what these people needed. They gave clothes, food, drink and medicine to them. And they took the prisoners back to their own people. They took them to Jericho. Jericho was a city on the border between *Israel and Judah.
Verses 16-20 Ahaz and Judah were in serious trouble. The armies of *Israel and Aram attacked them from the north. The people from Edom attacked and they defeated Judah from the south and east. The people from Edom took away many prisoners. The *Philistines attacked Judah from the west. The *Philistines *captured several towns and villages from Judah. The *LORD was against Ahaz and Judah because they were not loyal to him.
Ahaz took valuable things from the *temple, from the palace and from the princes. He sent these as gifts to Tilgath-Pilneser III. He asked Tilgath-Pilneser to come and to help him against Aram and *Israel. Ahaz did not *repent and *turn to the *LORD for help. He should have *turned to the *LORD and not to another nation (Isaiah 7:11-12). God has the power to help those who put their trust in him. The *LORD was against him because he led the people to *worship false gods.
Tilgath-Pilneser ruled as king of Assyria from 745 *BC to 727 *BC. While he was king, Assyria became the strongest nation in the Middle East. In 732 *BC, Tilgath-Pilneser attacked and he defeated Aram. He killed King Rezin and he *captured Damascus city. But that was no real help to Judah. Aram had been as a defence between Assyria and *Israel. Now Assyria could fight against *Israel and Judah more easily. The *LORD would soon bring Assyria’s soldiers to fight against *Israel. Also, they would fight against Judah (Isaiah 7:17).
Then Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tilgath-Pilneser. While he was there, he saw an *altar to the gods of Damascus. He drew a picture of that *altar. Then he sent the picture to Urijah the priest in Jerusalem. Urijah built an *altar exactly like the one in Damascus. He put it in place ready for when Ahaz came home from Damascus (2 Kings 16:10-11).
Verses 22-25 The army of Damascus had beaten the army of Judah in battle. Ahaz thought that their gods had helped them. With the new *altar, he *sacrificed to their gods. The army from Assyria defeated the army of Damascus. People at that time believed that the army with the stronger gods would win a war. So, the gods of Assyria became the main gods of Damascus. So, when Ahaz *worshipped the gods of Damascus this probably included the gods of Assyria.
Ahaz went from bad to worse in his relations with the *LORD God. He took many things from the *LORD’s *temple and he broke them up. He stopped the *temple *worship and he closed the doors to the *temple. He built *altars to other gods all round Jerusalem. And he made high places to *worship other gods in every town in Judah.
The *LORD God of his *ancestors was very angry. The *worship of false gods is what ruined both *Israel and Judah.
Verses 26-27 Ahaz died in 715 *BC. In that same year, Tilgath-Pilneser attacked the *Philistines (Isaiah 14:28-29). When Ahaz died, Hezekiah became king of Judah. They buried Ahaz in Jerusalem but not in the graves of the kings.
Hezekiah – 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33
kingdom ~ the place or territory where a king rules; or, the people that a king rules over.ancestors ~ people in history that your family has come from.
LORD ~ ‘LORD’ is the special name that God gave to himself. It means that God has always been.
lord ~ someone with authority such as the king.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
incense ~ something that gives a sweet smell when it burns. The priests burned it when they praised God in the temple.
temple ~ a special building for the worship of God or of other gods. The Jews had one in Jerusalem for the worship of the real God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
Jews ~ another name for the *Israelites.
sacrifice ~ something that people give to God. If it was an animal, the priests would burn all or part of it on an altar. That was to say thank you to God, or to ask him to forgive. God made Jesus to be a sacrifice because of our sins. To sacrifice is to give a sacrifice.
altar ~ the special table that someone made out of stone or wood or metal; on it they burnt animals or they offered other gifts to God or to false gods.
sin ~ sin is the wrong things that we do. To sin is to do wrong, bad or evil deeds and not to obey God. Those who sin are sinners.
turn ~ to decide to support someone. Or, to decide to oppose someone. If a person ‘turns away from God’, that person decides not to be loyal to God. If a person ‘turns to God’, that person decides to be loyal to God.
prophet ~ person who speaks on behalf of God. He or she can sometimes say what will happen in the future. Some prophets worshipped false gods. So, not all prophets spoke words from God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
sin ~ sin is the wrong things that we do. To sin is to do wrong, bad or evil deeds and not to obey God. Those who sin are sinners.
capture ~ to fight for something and to make it yours as a result; or, to make somebody a prisoner.
donkey ~ an animal with long ears that carries people or goods.
palm ~ a tree.
Philistines ~ people who lived to the south and west of Judah. They were a nation that fought with the *Israelites.
temple ~ a special building for the worship of God or of other gods. The Jews had one in Jerusalem for the worship of the real God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
Jews ~ another name for the *Israelites.
disaster ~ when something very bad happens.
altar ~ the special table that someone made out of stone or wood or metal; on it they burnt animals or they offered other gifts to God or to false gods.
BC ~ years before Christ was born.
tribe ~ the *Israelites were divided into the 12 families of the sons of Jacob. These families are the 12 tribes of *Israel.
repent ~ to change the mind; to turn away from sin and to turn to God.
sin ~ sin is the wrong things that we do. To sin is to do wrong, bad or evil deeds and not to obey God. Those who sin are sinners.
turn ~ to decide to support someone. Or, to decide to oppose someone. If a person ‘turns away from God’, that person decides not to be loyal to God. If a person ‘turns to God’, that person decides to be loyal to God.