The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 338

time's distinctions between man and man (Josh. xxxiii. 14; Job iii. 19; Eccles. viii. 8) n;vertheless effec~ually disting~ishes between the righteous and tho wicked (Prov: xiv. 32; Luke xvi. 22; Rev. xiv. 13). II. AN APOSTATE KING. Immediately he reached the crown, Ahaz discovered what mn_n~er of spiri_t h~, was of. With a perfect pass}on for idolatry-"_ a mania for foreign rehg10us pmct1ces (Stanley)-he soon outstripped his people, 1f not the heathen themselves, in his misdevotion, becoming their Coryphreus in superstitious rites show- ing himself to be the idolater par excellence in Judah, and by his re<ral example ieading his subjects down into unknown depths of infamy (ver. 19). 1. H; renounced the true religion of Jehovah. Not merely as it bad been practised by David (ver. 1), Asa (eh. xv. 17), and Jehoshaphat (eh. xvii. 3), but as it had been observed by his imme- diate predecessors, Jotham, Uzziab, and Amazia.h. If not discontinued at once as to outward form, it was kept up for a season merely as a form; it was from the first abandoned in heart. He be)!an his reign by practising the arts of a hypocrite. 2. He adopted the false worship of Baal, which had lon11: held sway in the northern kingdom (ver. 2). Whether he introduced the calf-wors]?.ip of Jeroboam (Keil), or restricted himself to the manufacture of images of Baal (Bahr), in either case he followed in the way of the Israelitish kings (1 Kings xii. 28 ; xvi. 32 ; 2 Kings iii. 2). "It is hard not to be infected by a contagious neighbourhood : whoever read that the kingdom of Israel was seasoned with the vicinity of the true religion of Judah?" (Bishop Hall). 3. He utilized all the idol-sanctuaries already existing in the land. " He sacrificed and burnt incense in the hi!!;h places, and on the hills, and under every green tree" (ver. 4). In so doing he copied bad masters, reproducing the state of matters which had existed in Judah under Rehoboam (1 Kings xiv. 23), and at the moment flourished in Samaria nnder Hoshea (2 Kings xvii. 10)-a state of matters which from the first had prevailed among the heathen inhabitants of the land (Deut. xii. 2), but which they had been commanded ruthlessly to destroy. On the nature of this worship consult the Exposit.ion. 4. He introduced the worship of Moloch, "the savage god of the Ammon- ites" (Stanley), a~ Solomon had done before him (1 Kings xi. 7), in open defiance of Divine Law (Lev. xviii. 21; Deut. xviii. 10), setting up an image of that idol-a human figure with a bull's head and outstretched arms-in the valley of Hinnom, a "narrow waterless ravine bounding the site of Jerusalem, and commencing on the west as a shallow dell " (Conder, 'Handbook to the Bible,' p. 330), and even sacrificing to it one (2 Kings xvi 3) or more (eh. xxviii. 3) of his own sons, as Manasseh after- wards did ( eh. mi.ii. 6). "The image of metal was made hot by a fire kindled within it, and the children, laid in its arms, rolled from thence into the fiery lap below. Voluntary offering on the part of the parents was essential to the success of the sacri- fice. Even the firstborn, nay, the only child of the family, was given up. The parents stopped the cries of their children by fondling and kissing them, for the victim ought not to weep, and the sound of complaint was drowned in the din of flutes and kettle- drums" (Dr. Dollinger,' Heidenthum und Judenthum,' quoted by Rawlinson,' Story of Phamicia,' pp. 112-114). That the children were not merely passed through the fire as an act of purgation, but actually burned, seems indisputable; it is not certain that the children were thrown alive into the idol's glowing arms, the opinion that they were first slain (Keil, Bahr, Schurer) appearing tc be warranted by certain passages in Scripture (Ezek. xvi. 20, 21; xxiii. 39; Isa. lvii. 5; Jer. vii. 31; xiL 5; cf. 2 Kings iii. 27). 5. He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus. (1) He did this when the Syrians were inflicting on him military reverses, i.e. in the time of his distress (Keil), not after it (Bertheau). Strange that just then, when men most need the help of God, in the hour of affliction and season of calamity, they usually manifest a tendency to run from him, looking for assistance from every quarter but the right one (Jer. iii. 23)- exemplified in A.haziah (2 Kings i. 2, 3). (2) The reason of his doing this was that he imaofoed 0 his ill success upon the field of battle had been due, not at all to the hand of God who thereby punished his wickedness, but to the as11istance derived by tho Syrians from their divinities (ver. 23), and conceived that, by paying them respect in ~acrificing to them, he would win their favour to himself instead of them (eh. xxv. 14). Wicked men seldom ascribe their misfortunes or adversities to the right cause, their own ill deserts and God's hand in punishing the same, but mostly attribute them to the "iCientific idols," called " chance," " circumstances," " ill luck," etc., whioh deities  dH. xxvm.1-27.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 841