The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

by John MacArthur

  16:3 walked in the way of the kings of Israel. This does not necessarily mean that Ahaz participated in the calf worship introduced by Jeroboam I at Bethel and Dan, but that he increasingly brought pagan, idolatrous practices into the worship of the Lord in Jerusalem. These are specified in vv. 10–16 and parallel those of Jeroboam I in the northern kingdom. This included idols to Baal (2 Chr. 28:2). made his son pass through the fire. As a part of the ritual worship of Molech, the god of the Moabites, children were sacrificed by fire (cf. 3:27). This horrific practice was continually condemned in the OT (Lev. 18:21; 20:2–5; Deut. 18:10; Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35). the abominations of the nations. See note on Deut. 18:9–12.

  16:4 the high places. Ahaz was the first king in the line of David since Solomon who was said to have personally worshiped at the high places. While all the other kings of Judah had tolerated the high places, Ahaz actively participated in the immoral Canaanite practices that were performed at the “high places” on hilltops under large trees (cf. Hos. 4:13).

  2 Kin. 16:4

  Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s Time

  16:5 Rezin…Pekah. The kings of Syria and Israel wanted to overthrow Ahaz in order to force Judah into their anti-Assyrian coalition. The two kings with their armies besieged Jerusalem, seeking to replace Ahaz with their own king (cf. Is. 7:1–6). The Lord delivered Judah and Ahaz from this threat because of His promise to David (cf. Is. 7:7–16).

  16:6 Elath. The Syrians did displace Judah from Elath (see note on 14:22). Later this important port town on the Gulf of Aqabah was captured by the Edomites.

  16:7 Tiglath-Pileser. See notes on 15:19, 29. your servant and your son. Ahaz willingly became a vassal of the Assyrian king in exchange for his military intervention. This was a pledge that Judah would serve Assyria from this point on. In support of his pledge, Ahaz sent Tiglath-Pileser III silver and gold from the temple and from the palace treasuries (v. 8). Evidently the prosperous reigns of Azariah and Jotham had replenished the treasures plundered by Jehoash of Israel 50 years earlier during Amaziah’s reign (14:14).

  16:9 the king of Assyria heeded him. According to Assyrian records, in 733 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III’s army marched against Damascus, the Syrian capital, laid siege for two years, and captured it. The victorious Assyrian king executed Rezin and deported his subjects to Kir, whose location is unknown.

  16:10 the altar. When Ahaz traveled to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser III, he saw a large altar (v. 15) which was most likely Assyrian. Ahaz sent a sketch of this altar to Urijah the High-Priest in Jerusalem and Urijah built an altar just like it. The serious iniquity in this was meddling with and changing, according to personal taste, the furnishings of the temple, the design for which had been given by God (Ex. 25:40; 26:30; 27:1–8; 1 Chr. 28:19). This was like building an idol in the temple, done to please the pagan Assyrian king, whom Ahaz served instead of God.

  16:12, 13 offerings. As did Solomon and Jeroboam before him (1 Kin. 8:63; 12:32), Ahaz dedicated the new altar by offering sacrifices.

  16:14–16 bronze altar. Feeling confident about his alterations in the temple, Ahaz moved the old bronze altar dedicated by Solomon (1 Kin. 8:22, 54, 64), which stood in front of the temple between the new altar and the temple itself (v. 14). Ahaz had the bronze altar moved to a spot N of the new altar, thereby relegating it to a place of secondary importance. All offerings from then on were to be given on the altar dedicated by Ahaz, while Ahaz reserved the bronze altar for his personal use in seeking guidance (v. 15). The term “inquire” probably referred here to pagan divination through religious rituals. Deut. 18:9–14 expressly forbade such divination in Israel.

  16:17, 18 Ahaz made further changes in the temple at Jerusalem. First, he removed the side panels and basins from the portable stands (cf. 1 Kin. 7:27–29, 38, 39). Second, he removed the large ornate reservoir called “the Sea” from atop the 12 bronze bulls to a new stone base (cf. 1 Kin. 7:23–26). Third, he removed the “Sabbath pavilion,” probably some sort of canopy used by the king on the Sabbath. Fourth, he removed “the king’s outer entrance,” probably a special entrance to the temple used by the king on Sabbaths and feast days (cf. 1 Kin. 10:5).

  16:18 on account of the king of Assyria. Both items mentioned here were moved into the temple in hope that if the king of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem, Ahaz could secure the entrance of the temple from him.

  16:20 Hezekiah. For his reign, see 18:1—20:21.

  2 Kings 17

  17:1 twelfth year. 732 B.C. This date for the accession of Hoshea as king of Israel is well established according to biblical and extra-biblical data (see note on 15:27). Therefore, Ahaz of Judah must have become co-regent with his father Jotham, who was himself co-regent with his father, Azariah, at that time (see notes on 15:30, 33), in 744 B.C. (see note on 16:2). nine years. 732–722 B.C. according to the accession-year system. Hoshea was imprisoned (v. 4) during the siege of Samaria by Assyria in 724–722 B.C. (v. 5).

  17:2 he did evil. Though Hoshea was characterized as a wicked king, it is not stated that he promoted the religious practices of Jeroboam I. In this way, he was some improvement on the kings of Israel who had gone before him. However, this slight improvement did not offset the centuries of sin by Israel’s kings nor divert her inevitable doom.

  17:3 Shalmaneser. Shalmaneser V succeeded his father Tiglath-Pileser III as king of Assyria and reigned from 727–722 B.C. During the siege of Samaria, when the Assyrians began the destruction and captivity of the northern kingdom, Shalmaneser V died and was succeeded by Sargon II (see Is. 20:1), who completed the siege, captured the city, destroyed the nation of Israel, and exiled the inhabitants (v. 6). Sargon II reigned as king from 722–705 B.C. See note on Hosea 10:14.

  17:4 So, king of Egypt. Instead of paying his yearly tribute owed as a vassal of Assyria, Hoshea tried to make a treaty with Osorkon IV (ca. 727–716 B.C.), king of Egypt. This was foolish because Assyria was powerful. It was also against God’s will, which forbade such alliances with pagan rulers (cf. Deut. 7:2). This rebellion led to Israel’s destruction (vv. 5, 6).

  17:5 Samaria…besieged. In 724 B.C., Shalmaneser V invaded Israel and quickly conquered the land and captured Hoshea. However, the capital city of Samaria resisted the Assyrian invaders until 722 B.C. Like all major cities, Samaria had an internal water supply and plenty of stored food that allowed her to endure the siege for 3 years.

  17:6 king of Assyria. Sargon II (see note on 17:3). carried Israel away. The capture of Samaria marked the end of the northern kingdom. According to Assyrian records, the Assyrians deported 27,290 inhabitants of Israel to distant locations. The relocation of populations was characteristic of Assyrian policy during that era. The Israelites were resettled in the upper Tigris-Euphrates Valley and never returned to the Promised Land. “Halah” was a city NE of Nineveh. The “Habor” River was a northern tributary of the Euphrates. The “cities of the Medes” were NE of Nineveh. Samaria was resettled with foreigners (v. 24). God did what He said He would do in Deut. 28. The Jews were carried as far E as Susa, where the book of Esther later took place.

  2 Kin. 17:6

  The Babylonian Empire

  17:7–23 In these verses, the writer departs from quoting his written sources and gives his own explanation for the captivity of Israel. Judah is included, though her captivity did not occur until 605/604–586 B.C. at the hands of the Babylonians. Her sins were the same. Here is a very full and impressive vindication of God’s action in punishing His privileged but rebellious and apostate people. In v. 7, he begins by stating that the Israelites had sinned against the Lord who had redeemed them from Egypt. Gross perversion of the worship of God and national propensity to idolatry finally exhausted divine patience. The idolatry of Israel is described in vv. 7–12. In response to Israel’s actions, the Lord sent His prophets to Israel and Judah with a message of repentance (v. 13). However, the people failed to respond to the prophets’ messages, because, like their fathers, they did not have faith in the Lord (v. 14). Their lack of
faith resulted in disobedience to the Lord’s commands and the further pursuit of idolatry (vv. 15–17). The idolatry of Israel (and Judah) brought forth the anger of the Lord, which resulted in exile (v. 18). The “great sin” of both Israel and Judah was their continual following of the sinful pattern of Jeroboam I, departing from the Lord and practicing idolatry, thus bringing down the judgment of captivity predicted by the prophets (vv. 19–23).

  17:7 feared other gods. The primary cause of Israel’s exile was the worship of other gods. The fear of the Lord led to listening to His Word and obeying His ordinances and statutes (Deut. 4:10; 5:29; 6:24), but the fear of the gods of Canaan led Israel to obey the laws of the Canaanite gods (v. 8). The result of this obedience to false gods is recorded in vv. 9–12, 16, 17.

  17:8 walked in the statutes of the nations. This was expressly forbidden in Lev. 18:3; 20:23.

  17:9 built…high places. In addition to their private sins (“secret”), judgment came for public wickedness and idolatry. These were not the high places utilized by Israel for worshiping God before the building of the temple (see note on 1 Kin. 3:2). In direct disobedience to Deut. 12:1–4, the Israelites built new raised altars in the Canaanite pattern after the temple was constructed. These high places were in all the habitations of Israel, from small fortified structures to large garrison cities, i.e., from the smallest to largest towns. The “high place” altars were on wooded hills with images representing the false gods (v. 10; cf. Deut. 16:21, 22).

  17:13 Turn from your evil ways. The prophets continually called the people to repentance (cf. Jer. 7:3, 5; 18:11; Ezek. 33:11).

  17:14 stiffened their necks. A stubborn refusal to respond (see note on Deut. 9:6; cf. Ex. 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Acts 7:51).

  17:16 a molded image and two calves. The text should be translated “molded images even two calves.” Worship of them was instituted by Jeroboam (see 1 Kin. 12:25–33). wooden image. Built by Rehoboam (see 1 Kin. 14:15, 23). the host of heaven. In the ancient Near East, the sun, moon, and stars were deified and worshiped. This astral worship entered Israel and Judah (21:5; 23:4, 5; Ezek. 8:15, 16; Amos 5:26). The worship of the heavenly bodies was prohibited by the Mosaic law (Deut. 4:19; 17:3).

  17:17 pass through the fire. See notes on 3:27; 16:3. witchcraft and soothsaying. See note on Deut. 18:9–12. Isaiah prophesied of the devastation these practices would produce (8:19–22).

  17:19 Judah followed Israel into sin and judgment.

  17:21 He tore Israel. See notes on 1 Kin. 11:11–13, 29–39.

  17:22 the sins of Jeroboam. See notes on 1 Kin. 12:25–32. The sins of that king put in motion an unbroken pattern of idolatrous iniquity. See note on 13:2.

  17:23 as it is to this day. The exiles of Israel never returned en masse as did Judah (see note on 1 Chr. 9:1).

  17:24 Samaria. After its conquest by the Assyrians, the central hill and coastal plain region of the former northern kingdom of Israel became an Assyrian province, all of which was called “Samaria” after the ancient capital city (cf. vv. 28, 29). The Assyrian king, Sargon II, settled alien people, who came from widely scattered areas also conquered by Assyria, into the abandoned Israelite towns. Babylon and Cuthah were located in southern Mesopotamia. Hamath was a town on the Orontes River in Syria. The exact location of Ava and Sepharvaim are unknown. These people, who intermarried with the Jews who escaped exile, became the Samaritans—a mixed Jew and Gentile people, later hated by NT Jews (cf. Matt. 10:5; John 4:9; see notes on Luke 10:29–36).

  17:25 lions among them. Lions were employed occasionally as instruments of punishment by God (cf. 1 Kin. 13:24; 20:36).

  17:26 the rituals of the God. The newcomers interpreted the lions as a punishment from the God of Israel, whom they viewed as a deity who needed to be placated. Since they did not know how to appease Him, they appealed for help to Sargon II.

  17:27, 28 one of the priests. In response, the Assyrian king ordered an Israelite priest back to Samaria from exile to teach the people what the God of the land required in worship.

  17:29–32 Though they had been taught the proper way to worship God, these people all placed God alongside their other gods in an eclectic kind of worship that was blasphemy to the one true and living God.

  17:30 Succoth Benoth. Lit. “tents of the daughters,” probably indicating some deity worshiped by sexual orgies. Nergal. Perhaps the Assyrian god of war. Ashima. An idol in the form of a bald he-goat.

  17:31 Nibhaz. A dog-like idol. Tartak. Either a donkey or a celestial body, Saturn. Adrammelech. Perhaps the same as Molech, worshiped in the form of the sun, a mule or a peacock. Anammelech. A rabbit or a goat idol.

  17:33 served their own gods. The religion of the Samaritans was syncretistic; it combined elements of the worship of the Lord with the worship practices of the gods which the Assyrian settlers had brought with them (see note on v. 24).

  17:34–41 Having shown how the Samaritan people and their religion came into being (vv. 24–33), the writer of Kings shows how the syncretistic worship of the Samaritans continued for generations, even to his own day (cf. v. 41; during the Babylonian exile). The religion of the Samaritans was, at its foundation, no different from Jeroboam I’s deviant religion.

  2 Kings 18

  18:1—25:21 With the fall of Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel came to an end (17:5, 6; 18:9–12). This last major division of the books of Kings narrates the events in the surviving southern kingdom of Judah from 722 B.C. to its captivity and destruction in 586 B.C. These chapters are dominated by the accounts of two good kings, Hezekiah (18:1–20:21) and Josiah (22:1–23:30). However, the reforms of these two godly kings did not reverse the effects of the two worst kings of Judah, Ahaz (16:1–20) and Manasseh (21:1–18). The result of Judah’s apostasy was exile, just like it was for Israel (23:31–25:21). The books of Kings begin with the building of the temple (1 Kin. 5:1–6:38) and end with its destruction (25:8, 9, 13–17), chronicling the sad journey from the establishment of true worship to the destruction of apostasy.

  18:1 third year. Ca. 729 B.C. Hoshea began to reign in 732 B.C. (see notes on 15:27; 17:1). Hezekiah was co-regent with Ahaz to 715 B.C. (see note on 16:2). See notes on 2 Chr. 29:1—32:32. With this verse, the writer returned from his digression summarizing the causes of captivity to the historical record of the kings of the southern kingdom, Judah.

  18:2 twenty-nine years. 715–686 B.C. He reigned by himself for 20 years (715–695 B.C.), and with his son, Manasseh, for 9 years (695–686 B.C.). The 29 years given here indicate only those years after his co-regency with Ahaz was over, when he was the actual sovereign. During Hezekiah’s reign, the prophets Isaiah (19:2; Is. 1:1; 37:21) and Micah (Mic. 1:1) continued to minister in Judah.

  18:4 removed the high places. Hezekiah was the first king of Judah to totally eradicate the high places, i.e., the worship centers built contrary to the Mosaic law (cf. Deut. 12:2–7, 13, 14). sacred pillars…wooden image. Hezekiah destroyed the idols used in the worship of Baal and Asherah. the bronze serpent. Hezekiah broke the Nehushtan into pieces, i.e., the bronze snake made by Moses in the wilderness (see notes on Num. 21:4–9), because Judah had come to worship it as an idol, perhaps influenced by Canaanite religion, which regarded snakes as fertility symbols.

  18:5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel. The most noble quality of Hezekiah (in dramatic contrast to his father, Ahaz) was that he relied on the Lord as his exclusive hope in every situation. What distinguished him from all other kings of Judah (after the division of the kingdom) was his firm trust in the Lord during a severe national crisis (18:17—19:34). Despite troublesome events, Hezekiah clung tightly to the Lord, faithfully following Him and obeying His commands (v. 6). As a result, the Lord was with him and gave him success (v. 7).

  18:7 He rebelled against…Assyria. Before he became king, his father had submitted to Assyria. Courageously, Hezekiah broke that control by Assyria and asserted independence (cf. Deut. 7:2).

  18:8 Gaza. The southernmost city of the Philistines, locat
ed about 55 mi. SW of Jerusalem. Since Assyria had controlled Philistia, Hezekiah’s invasion defied Assyrian rule and brought the threat of retaliation.

  18:9–12 These verses flash back to the time just before Israel’s destruction and captivity to give a summary of the fall of Samaria (more fully narrated in 17:5–23) as a graphic reminder of the Assyrian power and the threat they still were to Judah. This review sets the scene for the siege of Jerusalem with its reminder of Israel’s apostasy against which Hezekiah’s faith in the Lord was a bright contrast.

  18:13—20:19 This narrative, with a few omissions and additions, is found in Is. 36:1–39:8. See Isaiah notes for amplification.

  18:13 fourteenth year. 701 B.C. Hezekiah began his sole rule in 715 B.C. (see notes on 18:1, 2). This date for the siege of Jerusalem is confirmed in Assyrian sources. Sennacherib. He succeeded Sargon II as king of Assyria in 705 B.C. and ruled until 681 B.C. Hezekiah had rebelled against him (v. 7) , probably by withholding tribute when he invaded Philistia. fortified cities. See note on Is. 36:1.

  18:14–16 Hezekiah sought to rectify the situation with Sennacherib by admitting his error in rebelling and paying the tribute the Assyrian king demanded. Sennacherib asked for about 11 tons of silver and one ton of gold. To pay, Hezekiah emptied the temple and palace treasuries and stripped the layers of gold off the doors and doorposts of the temple.

  18:17–24 The tribute did not satisfy Sennacherib, who sent messengers to demand Hezekiah’s complete surrender.

  18:17 Tartan. General of the Assyrian army (cf. Is. 20:1). Rabsaris. A high official in the palace. Rabshakeh. The word is not a proper noun, but means “commander.” He was the spokesman for Sennacherib, who represented the king against Jerusalem on this occasion. Lachish. See note on 14:19. Sennacherib’s conquest of this city was in its closing phase when he sent the messengers. great army. This was a token force of the main army (19:35) with which Sennacherib hoped to bluff Judah into submitting. aqueduct from the upper pool. Isaiah had met Ahaz at the same spot to try, unsuccessfully, to dissuade him from trusting in foreign powers (Is 7:3). It was probably located on the higher ground NW of Jerusalem on the main N-S highway between Judah and Samaria. Fuller’s. The word means “launderer” and indicates the field where such activity was done, being near the water supply.