.,moe, but to give directions in matters which great ·1aver, and the twelve oxen which belonged, not to the regale, but to the ponti- supported it, comp. I Kings vii. 2il--26, and ficale. Urijah ought to have refused obe- Jer. Iii. 20.) The "sea" was probably re- dience. Upon the grea.t a.lta.r. Carla.inly moved from off the be.eke of the oxen, in not so cu.llcd becu.uee of its size (Keil), for order that they might be made use of, as it was probo.bly much emu.Iler than the old ornaments, elsewhere. And put it upon a alta.r, but because of its position (see the pavement of atones; rather, upon a pedestal comment on ver. 14). Bum the morning of stone (hl {3d.uw l\18{v71v, LXX.). burnt offering, and the evening meat offering Ver. 18.-And the covert for the eabbu.th -i.e. offer the daily ea.criflce both morning that they he.d built in the house. The and evening-and the king's burnt sacrifice, '' covert for the su.bba.th" was probably (a.a and his meat o1l'ering-i.e. the customary Keil notes) "a covered place or stand in the royal sacrifices (see 1 Kings viii. 62)-with court of the temple, to be used by the king the burnt offering of all the people of the whenever he visited the temple with his land, and their meat offering, and their retinue on the eabbath, or on feast-days." drink offerings-i.e. all the private offeriDgs It may have been elaborately ornamented. of the people for themselves-and sprinkle And the king's entry without. This may upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, have been "the ascent into the house of the and all the blood of the saoriflce ( comp. Lord," which Solomon constructed for his Exod. xxh:. 16, 20; Lev. i. 5, 11 ; iii. 2, 8, own use (1 Kings L 5), and which wu.s 13; vii. 2: xvii. 6; Numb. xviii. 17, etc.) among those marvels of art that made the and the bre.zen a.ltar sha.ll be for me to in- spirit of the Queen of Sheba fu.int within her. quire by ; rather, and as for the brazen altar, Turned he from the house of the Lord for it will be for me to inquire concerning it; the King of Assyria. It is not clear what i.e. I shall hereafter determine what use, if meaning our translators in tended to express, any, it shall be put to. As, by the king's and it is still less clear what was the sense directions, all the regular and all the intended by the original writer. Ahaz did occasional eo.crifices were to be offered upon something to the royal stand inside the his new altar, the other would pro.ctioo.lly temple, and to the "ascent" which led to it, be superfluous. It would have been only and what he did was done, not "for the logical to remove it, or break it up; but th .., King of ABsyriu.,'' but "for fear of the King the king was probably afraid of doing. He of Assyria;" but what exactly his action therefore so.id that he would to.ke time to wo.s, we cannot say. No su.tisfactory mean- consider what he should do. ing has been assigned to nin; n•~ :l,i?::! by Ver. 16.-Thus did Urija.h the priest, ao- any commentator. oording to all that King Ahaz commanded. An emphatio condemnation of the high Vere. 19, 20.-The death of Ahaz. The priest, whose subservienoy evidently pro- writer terminates his account of the reign vokes the writer's indignation. of Ahaz with his usual formulm, which in Ver. 17.-And King Ahe.z out off the this instance are wholly colourless. Ahu.z'e borders of the bases. By " the bases " are acts were written in the book of the chronicles probu.bly meant the stands of the ten brazen lavers, which Hiram the Tyrian artificer of the kings; he died, and was buried with made for Solomon, and which Solomon his fu.thers; Hezekiah, his son, reigned in placed outside the temple, five on either his stead. Thie is u.11 that he thinks it side of the entrance (l Kings vii. 39). The needful to say. "borders of the bases" seem to have con- sisted of ornu.mento.l panels, on which were Ver. 19.-Now the rest of the acts ot ca.rved, in relief, figures of lions, oxen, and Ahe.z which he did, are they not written in cherubim ( I Kings vii. 29), The object of the book of the chronicles of the kings ef Ahaz in these mutilo.tions may have been Judah 1 The writer of Chronicles adds some merely destruotive, as we find Egyptian important facts not found in the narrative kings, after a change of religion, mutilo.ting of Kings. Among them are the following: the tablets, and era.sing the inscriptions put (I) The <'.omplete defeat of Ahaz by Peka.h, up in honour of those gods who had ceased who "smote him with a gret1t slaughter" to be in favour with them. Or, possibly, he (2 Chron. xxviii. 5), killing B hundred mBy, o.s Keil supposes, have wished to ond twenty thousand of his soldiers, and transfer the ornamental cu.r_vings to some carrying oft' two hundred thousand ou.ptives, other edifice, e.g. an idolatrous temple or B men, women, u.nd children (2 Chron. xxviii. palace. And removed the lu.ver from off 8) ; these captives were, ho1,ever, after- them-removed, i.e., from ea.oh base "the wards restored (ver. 15). (2) His defeat by ln.ver" whioh stood upon it-and took down the Syri1ms (ver. 5). This is, perhaps, im- the sea from otr the bra.zen oxen that wcro plied in oh. xvi. 6; but it is not expressly under it. (On Sokmon's ' molten sea," or stl\ted. (3) l:lis defeat by the E,lomitea, 318 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [CH, XVI, 1-20,
who invnded hie land, and made a large in every several ·city (2 Chron. xniii. 25). number of prisoners (2 Chron. xxviii. 17). The religious condition of J udooa can s~arooly (4) The oonquest in hie reign of a ooneider- have been worse in the worst time of Ma- able portion of Southern J udl08. by the nasseh or Amon. Philistines (ver. 18). (5) The fact that Ver. 20.-AndAhu ■lept with hie fathers, Ahaz at one time in hie life adopted the and was buried with hie fathers in the oity Syrian worship, and "sacrificed to the gods of David. This must be taken in the eam9 of DamMcue which smote him" (ver. 23). sense, and with the ea.me limitations, o.e the (6) The fact that in his latter· years ho same phrase in eh. xii. 21. 'fhe writer of ehut up the temple (vor. 24), closing the Chronicles (2 Chron. xxviii. 27) says, "And doors of the porch (2 Chron. xxix. 7), ex- Ahaz slept with hie fathers, o.nd they buried tinguishing the lamps (2 Chron. xxix. 7), him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they and putting an end to the burning of incense brought him not into th6 sepulclwes of the and the ofToring of sacrifice. (7) The fact kings." Like Uzziah, he wo.e not thought that, not content with the previously exist- worthy of sepulture in the royal catacomb ing high places, he set up a number of new (see the oomment on oh. xii, 21), ones, so that there should be a "high ple.oe"