Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they A.C. 739. may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all

Israel.

2 KINGS XVI. VER. 10-19.

10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.

11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus : so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.

12 And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

13 And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of *his peace offerings, upon the altar.

14 And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.

15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.

16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

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 a pavement of stones.

18 And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.

2 CHRONICLES XXVIII. VER. 24, 25.

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.

* Heb. which

were his.

*

A.C. 739. 25 And in every several city of Judah he made high *Or, to offer, places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.

HOSEA V 33.

1 God's judgments against the priests, the people, and the princes of Israel, for their manifold sins, 15 until they repent.

1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, Or and, &c. + though I have been a rebuker of them all.

Heb. a cor

rection.

Heb. They will not give. || Or, Their doings will not

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

4 § They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, suffer them. and they have not known the LORD.

5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them,

7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin. 9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

10 ¶ The princes of Judah were like them that remove

33 The predictions contained in the fifth and sixth chapters of Hosea, according to Lightfoot, were uttered after Ahaz had applied to the Assyrians for help. In chap. v. 13. both Israel and Judah are reproved for this reliance on Tiglathpileser, for which they are threatened with punishment. Ephraim is more particularly mentioned in this passage, although Judah was guilty of the same sin; because Ephraim was the first offender. (2 Kings xv. 19.) These chapters are supposed principally to refer to the ten tribes: yet as Judah is so closely connected with them in the prophecy, I have inserted these chapters in the reign of Ahaz, in preference to that of Pekah; as, after the revolt of Israel under Jeroboam, the kingdom of Judah became the chief object of attention.

the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them A.C.739. like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as * rottenness.

*Or, a worm.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent † to tor, to the king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your or, to the king

wound.

14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

king of Jareb:

that should

plead.

be guilty.

15 ¶ I will go and return to my place, till they acknow- Heb. till they ledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

HOSEA VI.

1 An exhortation to repentance. 4 A complaint of their untowardness and

iniquity.

1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind

us up.

2After two days will he revive us: in the third day he 01 Cor. xv. 4. will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

4 ¶O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your § goodness is as a morn-Or, merey, ing cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

or, kindness.

5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth : || and thy judgments || Or, that thy are as the light that goeth forth.

judgments might be, &c.

6 For I desired P mercy, and not sacrifice; and the know- p1 ledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: * there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is

+ polluted with blood.

Sam. xv.

22. Eccles.v. 1.
Matt. ix. 13.
& xii. 7.

Or, like

Adam.

+ Or, cunning for blood.

9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they Heb. with commit lewdness.

10 I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled,

one shoulder, or, to Shechem. § Or, enor、

mity

A.C. 739.

726.

11 Also, O Judah, he hath sent an harvest for theé, when I returned the captivity of my people.

SECTION VI.

Death of Ahaz, and Prediction of the Power of Hezekiah.

2 CHRONICLES XXVIII. VER. 26, 27.

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.

ISAIAH XIV. VER. 28, TO THE END.

28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden 34. 29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's *Or, adder. root shall come forth a* cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved for there shall come from the north a smoke,

+ Or, he shall and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

not be alone.

+ Or, assem

blies.

32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the Ps. lxxxvii. nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor Or, betake of his people shall § trust in it.

5. & cii. 16.

themselves.

2 CHRONICLES xxviii. ver. 1-4.

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:

34 Verse 28. "In the year that king Ahaz died "-The Philistim were reduced and kept under by Uzziah. He destroyed the fortifications of their principal towns, and raised fortifications of his own in their territory; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. In the two succeeding reigns they raised their heads again, and in the reign of Ahaz they got possession of many cities in the south of Judah; 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. But they were again reduced by Hezekiah, and recovered themselves no more. Upon the death of Ahaz, the Prophet denounces their impending fate. He bids them no longer rejoice for their successes in the late reign, the reverse of their fortune being now at hand.-Bishop Horsley on Isaiah-Bishop Lowth-Prideaux.

2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten A. C. 726. images for Baalim.

3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt *Or, offered sacrifice. his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

19

2 KINGS XVI. VER. 19, 20.

Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

20 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

CHAPTER XII.

PART II.

Events in the Kingdom of Israel contemporary with the Reign
of Ahaz King of Judah.
Reigns of Pekah and Hoshea.

2 KINGS XV. VER. 30, 31.

30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jothan the son of Uzziah 35.

31 And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of chronicles of the kings of Israel.

2 KINGS XVII. VER. 1, 2.

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

Jotham is here said to have reigned twenty years, whereas it has been before asserted that he reigned only sixteen. 2 Kings xv. 33. He must, therefore, have reigned four years with his father, according to the usual custom among the kings of Israel, of associating the son with the father in the government, more effectually to secure the succession. An interregnum appears to have followed the murder of Pekah by Hoshea; as the latter is said, in the first of these passages, to have begun his reign upon Pekah's death, and in the other, not to have reigned till nine years after: by which it may be inferred that he had not secured the kingdom to himself till that interval had elapsed, in consequence of the tumults and disorders which prevailed after the death of Pekah.

739.

730.