Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Chronicles 28:3

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 2 Chronicles 28:3. Burnt his children in the fire — There is a most remarkable addition here in the Chaldee which I shall give at length: "Ahaz burnt his children in the fire; but the WORD of the Lord snatched Hezekiah from among them; for it was manifest before the Lord that the three righteous men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were to proceed from him; who should deliver up their bodies that they might be cast into a burning fiery furnace, on account of the great and glorious NAME, (יהוה) and from which they should escape. First, Abram escaped from the furnace of fire among the Chaldeans, into which he had been cast by Nimrod, because he would not worship their idols. Secondly, Tamar escaped burning in the house of judgment of Judah, who had said, Bring her out, that she may be burnt. Thirdly, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz escaped from the burning, when Ahaz his father cast him into the valley of the son of Hinnom, on the altars of Tophet. Fourthly, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, escaped from the burning fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Fifthly, Joshua, the son of Josedek the high priest, escaped, when the impious Nebuchadnezzar had cast him into a burning fiery furnace, with Achaab the son of Kolia, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, the false prophet. They were consumed by fire; but Joshua the son of Josedek escaped because of his righteousness."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Prosperity followed by disaster (25:1-28:27)

Succeeding kings of Israel are passed over in silence (2 Kings 13:1-25). Judah was to have nothing to do with the northern kingdom, not even to the hiring of Israelite soldiers. Amaziah took the advice, and was rewarded with victory in a battle against Edom. But the victory, instead of increasing his dependence on God, gave him a feeling of independence. He turned from God and worshipped idols. The ungodly northern kingdom then became God’s instrument to punish the rebellious southern kingdom (25:1-28; see notes on 2 Kings 14:1-22).

Under the rule of Jeroboam II in the north (2 Kings 14:23-29) and Uzziah (or Azariah) in the south, both kingdoms enjoyed remarkable growth and prosperity. Unfortunately, this made Uzziah proud, and he arrogantly took to himself the rights of a priest. The writer points out that although the priesthood and the kingship were both appointed by God, they were separate and independent systems. One could not take over the functions of the other (26:1-23; see notes on 2 Kings 15:1-7).

Jotham followed the good policies of his father, while being careful not to repeat his father’s errors. In the Chronicler’s view, Jotham’s fear of God was the source of his strength and success (27:1-9; see notes on 2 Kings 15:32-38).

The great prosperity throughout both kingdoms was followed by unbelievable chaos. In the north the kingdom of Israel almost collapsed (2 Kings 15:8-31), and in the south the disastrous reign of Ahaz almost brought destruction to Judah (28:1-27; see notes on 2 Kings 16:1-20). Within a short time the northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria and its people carried away captive. This was the end of the northern kingdom (2 Kings 17:1-41).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE WICKED REIGN OF AHAZ BRINGS AWFUL PUNISHMENT UPON JUDAH
XI. AHAZ (735-715 B.C.)
A SUMMARY OF THE WICKEDNESS OF AHAZ

"Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, like David his father; but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree."

Pages 197-207 in my commentary on 2 Kings are devoted to a discussion of the reign of Ahaz; and the only section of this chapter which is not mentioned there is found in 2 Chronicles 27:8-9. These verses provide a remarakbly interesting insight into the problems of those times.

It will suffice here to note that Ahaz was by far the most wicked of the kings of Judah up to this point in their history. He even sacrificed his son to Molech, closed the temple, and worshipped pagan gods.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Compare the 2 Kings 16:3 note.

Smith's Bible Commentary

By Chuck Smith

Shall we turn now to II Chronicles, chapter 28.

We are now moving into the final stages of the deterioration of this nation prior to its destruction. Ahaz is now the king.

He is twenty years old when he began to reign ( 2 Chronicles 28:1 ),

And he is an extremely wicked person. And it is really during his reign that the kingdom sinks to a lower level spiritually than it ever has. And this begins the final downward trend. There are few respites. Hezekiah, his son, was a very good king. Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, was a wicked king. And then the son of Manasseh, Josiah, was again a very good king. But each time you get to the wicked kings it seems like their wickedness is just a little deeper or greater than the previous ones.

Now among the things that Ahaz did was to

walk in the ways of the kings of Israel [in the north] ( 2 Chronicles 28:2 ),

Establishing the worship of Baal, and in establishing the worship of Baal, caused his children to pass through the fire.

Now some people wonder why God ordered the extermination of the Canaanites when the children of Israel came into the land. And it seems a very cruel thing for God to order them to wipe out all of the inhabitants of that land as they moved in. And it has created great problems for some people. How could a God of love order the extermination of a whole race of people? But if you will get into the practices of their worship and you begin to study their whole cultural system, you will see why God ordered their extermination. Because they had come to a place of such depravity, even in their concepts and worship of God, that they would in time destroy themselves.

One of the practices in the worship of Baal was to cause your children to pass through the fire. They would heat the little iron or stone images of Baal until they were glowing hot, and then the little images of Baal have always arms that are straight out from the body with the fingers turned up, and that was so that they could hold the infants. And these little images when they would turn molten red, they would place then their little babies in the molten red arms of the image of Baal and sacrifice their babies unto Baal. And so this king Ahaz was actually guilty of causing his own children to pass through the fire. And he got into all of the pagan practices in their religious system, forsaking the worship of the true and the living God and following after the worship that was common in the nations that God ordered exterminated. God ordered to get rid of them completely because of their disobedience to God and their failure to utterly exterminate these nations. Gradually the practice of these nations became sort of inculcated into the life of the people of God and they polluted the people of God, and ultimately caused the fall of God's people.

So God was only seeking to protect them from this poison, this venom, in order that they might continue in the land and continue to serve the Lord. And it was their failure of obeying God that led to their ultimate downfall as they began to pick up the practices of the people round about.

Now as we are in this particular period in history, as we are dealing now with Ahaz and then subsequently Hezekiah, this is about the time, Hezekiah's reign, Ahaz only reigned for sixteen years. Hezekiah was the time when Isaiah was the prophet of God. And you can go into the book of Isaiah and you can read how he speaks against those who had followed after the astrology and the stargazers and the monthly prognosticators and so forth, and he speaks of the things that they became involved with in false worship. As we move on after Hezekiah in the period of Manasseh, it was Manasseh, actually, who ordered Isaiah the prophet sawed in two. He didn't want to hear any more of God's word.

But God raised up another prophet during the time of Josiah, the prophet Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is the prophet who, talking to the people at this period of history, he said, "Has there ever been such a thing before that a people will turn from their God which are no gods?" In other words, those people that worshipped false gods won't turn away from their god. They'll continue to worship false gods generation after generation after generation. Of course, the reason is is that in the worship of false gods there is an appeal to the flesh. Thus, there is no spiritual struggle.

To worship the true and the living God does create a conflict within. The moment I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, begin to serve the Lord, there is a conflict, an internal conflict that is set up within me, the flesh warring against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary. The battle begins. But in worshipping the false gods, they are extremely appealing to the flesh, and thus, there is no conflict set up. And thus, people who worship false gods will continue in the worship of false gods from generation to generation. And so Jeremiah points it out. He said, "Have you ever seen such a thing? People will turn from their God, which really aren't gods. They're not even true gods but people won't turn. They're very loyal to them." And yet, God said, "You have turned away from Me. You have left Me, the fountain of living waters."

Living waters is a running stream. "You have left Me, the fountain of living waters, and you have hewn out for yourself, carved out for yourselves cisterns," which are great caves that they carve out in the limestone over there in Israel in order that they might be water reservoirs. But they collect the water in the winter rains and then hold them through the summer season. But you know what water does that's collected in a cistern like that. It soon begins to get stagnant. The little wiggle tails and all in it. So cisterns can only really hold stagnant water at the best. "But here you've forsaken Me," God said, "the fountain of living water and you've cut out for yourselves cisterns. You've followed now religious systems that really... " But He said, concerning their cisterns, "They can't hold water."

Every once in a while they carve out a cistern and there would be a fracture in the rocks. So you set the whole thing up and you pray for the rain and you got the thing all designed, you got all your little dikes built, and you direct all of the rain to the hole that you put in the top of the cistern. And you watch the water running in down your dikes and in, and you hear it splashing. You say, "All right, now this is great." And so you go out the next morning to draw a bucket of water out and there's no water in it. Suddenly you discovered after three years of picking away at this rock in carving out your cistern, there's a fracture in it somewhere and it won't hold water. And so you use it for a tomb.

Interestingly enough, there is a tomb on the Mount of Olives just below the Intercontinental Hotel that was originally a cistern, cut out for a cistern. Didn't hold water so they used it for a tomb. So God's complaint against the people. "You've turned from Me." Ahaz turned from God. Followed the practices.

Now you see, in following these practices and getting into these horrible, abominable practices, it was for these things that God brought His judgment upon these nations. And now His own people are following these same things. The reason why God ordered them exterminated is so that they would not infect His people with these practices. But their disobedience led to their infection, which led ultimately to their destruction. And so Ahaz, an extremely wicked king, and because of his wickedness there was a rapid deterioration of the strength of the kingdom.

Verse 2 Chronicles 28:5 :

So the LORD delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and he was brought with them to Damascus. And he was delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter ( 2 Chronicles 28:5 ).

That is the northern kingdom. And 120,000 of his men were killed in one day of battle.

they were all very valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And then the children of Israel carried away two hundred thousand of their brothers, and their children, and women, as captives ( 2 Chronicles 28:6 , 2 Chronicles 28:8 ).

But when they brought these captives unto Israel, some of the old men of Israel said, "Hey, that you can't do. They are actually our brothers still and you can't bring those of Judah as slaves." They were going to make slaves out of them and some of the older men in the northern kingdom of Israel spoke out against this. And so they brought the people back again from that particular captivity.

Now in verse 2 Chronicles 28:16 :

The king sent to the... [Ahaz took money and sent to the] king of Assyria to come and help him ( 2 Chronicles 28:16 ).

Because the Philistines have moved against him and took several of the cities. The Edomites moved against him and took several of the cities of the southern portion. The Philistines were taking the cities of the western portion. The Israelites were taking the cities from the northern portion. He was getting wiped out on every side. And so he sent for the king of Assyria to come and help him. And rather than helping him, he also just took his money and did nothing to help him in his distress.

Verse 2 Chronicles 28:19 :

For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz the king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD. And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, and would not help him. And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore I'll sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and all Israel ( 2 Chronicles 28:19-20 , 2 Chronicles 28:22-23 ).

And so the reason for, of course, his problems--his forsaking of God clearly declared, and in his distress, rather than turning to God he just went deeper into the abomination. Beginning to worship the gods of the Syrians saying, "Well, because the Syrians wiped us out, their gods must be stronger than our God." And began to worship them and he and his practices became the ruin of the people. The worship of these false gods.

Now Ahaz died and his son Hezekiah began to reign in his stead ( 2 Chronicles 28:27 ).

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

L. Ahaz ch. 28

With the reign of Ahaz the Chronicler introduced a new interest, namely, the prospect of captivity for Judah, which he again called "Israel"-the true Israel-twice in this chapter (2 Chronicles 28:19; 2 Chronicles 28:23).

Why did Israel go into captivity? Why did the perfectly obedient Davidic King not appear? Ahaz’s behavior helps explain the reason. The writer selected three major events from Ahaz’s reign: the king’s idolatry (2 Chronicles 28:2-15), his appeal for help to Assyria (2 Chronicles 28:16-21), and his sacrifices to foreign gods (2 Chronicles 28:22-25).

Ahaz’s heart was far from God. He was more like Saul in this respect than like David. Even though he failed to obey God, like the other kings, there is no mention of his ever repenting when God chastened him. Instead he hardened his heart even more (2 Chronicles 28:22; cf. the pharaoh of the Exodus). The reason for Israel’s exile was the hardness of heart that Ahaz exemplified. At this time in her history, the nation needed a faithful Son of David more than ever. A prophet who spoke in Ahaz’s reign promised that He would appear (Isaiah 7:1 to Isaiah 12:6).

In Ahaz’s day the army of Israel threatened to capture the people of Judah and lead them into slavery (2 Chronicles 28:8; 2 Chronicles 28:10). While God prevented this (2 Chronicles 28:9-15), the threat of captivity by another foreign foe became a more realistic possibility. The Edomites even captured some Judahites and took them to Edom (2 Chronicles 28:17). The Philistines took some of Judah’s glory (i.e., towns) captive during the Philistine conquest (2 Chronicles 28:18), and Ahaz gave more of it away to Tiglath-Pileser III (treasure, 2 Chronicles 28:21). Ahaz’s personal disregard for Yahweh mirrored his disrespect for the temple.

"Under Ahaz, Judah appeared to have reached its nadir. But for the Chronicler there was always hope of tragedy and despair being turned to rejoicing through repentance. Such a return would occur preeminently under Hezekiah, the king most like David (cf. 2 Chronicles 29:2; 2 Chronicles 29:25-30)." [Note: Thompson, p. 340.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

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Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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 burnt 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. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

      Never surely had a man greater opportunity of doing well than Ahaz had, finding things in a good posture, the kingdom rich and strong and religion established; and yet here we have him in these few verses, 1. Wretchedly corrupted and debauched. He had had a good education given him and a good example set him: but parents cannot give grace to their children. All the instructions he had were lost upon him: He did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord (2 Chronicles 28:1; 2 Chronicles 28:1), nay, he did a great deal that was wrong, a wrong to God, to his own soul, and to his people; he walked in the way of the revolted Israelites and the devoted Canaanites, made molten images and worshipped them, contrary to the second commandment; nay, he made them for Baalim, contrary to the first commandment. He forsook the temple of the Lord and sacrificed and burnt incense on the hills, as if they would place him nearer heaven, and under every green tree, as if they would signify the protection and influence of heaven by their shade and dropping. To complete his wickedness, as one perfectly divested of all natural affection as well as religion and perfectly devoted to the service and interest of the great enemy of mankind, he burnt his children in the fire to Moloch (2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 28:3), not thinking it enough to dedicate them to that infernal fiend by causing them to pass through the fire. See what an absolute sway the prince of the power of the air bears among the children of disobedience. 2. Wretchedly spoiled and made a prey of. When he forsook God, and at a vast expense put himself under the protection of false gods, God, who of right was his God, delivered him into the hands of his enemies, 2 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 28:5. (1.) The Syrians insulted him and triumphed over him, beat him in the field and carried away a great many of his people into captivity. (2.) The king of Israel, though an idolater too, was made a scourge to him, and smote him with a great slaughter. The people suffered by these judgments: their blood was shed, their country wasted, their families ruined; for when they had a good king, though they did corruptly (2 Chronicles 27:2; 2 Chronicles 27:2), yet then his goodness sheltered them; but now that they had a bad one all the defence had departed from them and an inundation of judgments broke in upon them. Those that knew not their happiness in the foregoing reign were taught to value it by the miseries of this reign.