2 Kings 16:18

Contextual Overview

¹⁷Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water carts and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took the basin from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. ¹⁷ King Achaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁷ And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon the pavement of stones. ¹⁷ And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the basin from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pedestal. ¹⁷ Then King Ahaz took off the side panels from the bases and removed the washing bowls from the top of the bases. He also took the large bowl, which was called the Sea, off the bronze bulls that held it up, and he put it on a stone base. ¹⁷ King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took "The Sea" down from the bronze bulls that supported it and put it on the pavement. ¹⁷Then King Ahaz cut away the frames of the basin stands [in the temple], and removed the basin from [each of] them; and he took down the [large] Sea from the bronze oxen which were under it, and put it on a plastered stone floor. ¹⁷ Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the wash basin from them; he also took down the Sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁷ And King Ahaz brake the borders of the bases, and tooke the caldrons from off them, and tooke downe the sea from the brasen oxen that were vnder it, and put it vpon a pauement of stones.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the covert: There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert; but it is probable that it was either, as Locke supposes, a sort of shelter or canopy erected for the people on the sabbath when the crowd was too great for the porch to contain them; or, as Dr. Geddes supposes, a seat, covered with a canopy, placed on an elevation, for the king and his court, when they attended public worship. 2 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 10:5, Ezekiel 46:2

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 16:8 - the silver 2 Chronicles 9:4 - ascent 2 Chronicles 28:24 - cut in pieces 2 Chronicles 29:7 - General Jeremiah 38:14 - third

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house,.... Used on the sabbath day, either for the people to sit under to hear the law explained by the priests; or for the course of the priests to be in, that went out that day, to give way to the course that entered, which yet did not depart from the temple till evening; or rather for the king himself to sit under, while attending the temple service of that day, and might be the cover of the scaffold, 2 Chronicles 6:13 and be very rich cloth of gold; and therefore he took it away for the king of Assyria, or to signify that he should not frequent the place any more: and hence it follows,

and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord; the way which led from the king's palace to it, he turned it a round about way, that it might not be discerned there was a way from the one to the other: and this he did

for the king of Assyria; to gratify him, that he might from hence conclude that he had wholly relinquished the worship of God in the temple, and should cleave to the gods of Damascus and Syria; or for fear of him, that he might not see the way into the temple, and take away the vessels; or find him, should he be obliged to hide himself there, when in danger by him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The covert ... in the house - A canopied seat in the temple for the king and his family when they attended public worship on the sabbath. It stood no doubt in the inner court of the temple.

The king’s entry without - This would seem to have been a private passage by which the king crossed the outer court to the east gate of the inner court when he visited the temple Ezekiel 46:1-2.

Turned he from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria - This passage is very obscure. Some translate - “altered he in the house of the Lord, because of the kine of Assyria,” supposing the “covert” and the “passage” to have been of rich materials, and Ahaz to have taken them to eke out his “presents to the king of Assyria.” Others render, “removed he into the house of the Lord from fear of the king of Assyria.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 16:18. And the covert for the Sabbath — There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert, or, as it is in the Hebrew, the מוסך musach, of the Sabbath. As the word, and others derived from the same root, signify covering or booths, it is very likely that this means either a sort of canopy which was erected on the Sabbath days for the accommodation of the people who came to worship, and which Ahaz took away to discourage them from that worship; or a canopy under which the king and his family reposed themselves, and which he transported to some other place to accommodate the king of Assyria when he visited him. Jarchi supposes that it was a sort of covert way that the kings of Judah had to the temple, and Ahaz had it removed lest the king of Assyria, going by that way, and seeing the sacred vessels, should covet them. If that way had been open, he might have gone by it into the temple, and have seen the sacred vessels, and so have asked them from a man who was in no condition to refuse them, however unwilling he might be to give them up. The removing of this, whatever it was, whether throne or canopy, or covered way, cut off the communication between the king's house and the temple; and the king of Assyria would not attempt to go into that sacred place by that other passage to which the priests alone had access.