1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the
son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz
was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in
Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as
his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel.
He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of
the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he
sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under
every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah,
king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but
could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath
for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to
Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to
Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come
up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the
king of Israel, who are attacking me.” 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold
that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s
house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria
listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it,
carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin. - 2 Kings 16: 1-9
Few
and evil were the days of Ahaz. Those whose hearts condemn them, will go any
where in a day of distress, rather than to God. The sin was its own punishment.
It is common for those who bring themselves into straits by one sin, to try to
help themselves out by another.
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Taken from Matthew Henry’s Commentary
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