The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 339

they hope to propitiate in o. manner hardly less foolish than that of .A.ho.z, by sacri- ficing o.t their unhallowed shrines. (3) The specific mode in which he served the Syrinn gods is not stated, as the divinities themselves are not named, and indeed in Scripture never nra (Judg. x. 6). The incident of the altar seen by Ahaz at Damascus, nnd reproduced in Jernso.lem (2 Kings xvi. 10-16), is not rererred to by the Chronicler. The nlto.r incident occurred when .A.haz wo.~ attending 'l'iglath-Pileser's durbar at Damascus; " the sacrifices" were performed while Ahaz was fighting with the Syrians. (4) 'rhe result of his appeal to the gods of Syria was ruin to himself and to all Israel. So all that forsake God shall be ashamed (Jer. xvii. 13), while "their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after other gods n (Pa. xvi. 4), and "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies" (Jonah ii. 8); for" idolaten shall have their part in the lake," etc. (Rev. xxi. 8). 6. He shut up the doors of the house of the Lord. (Ver. 24.) It was high time. The man who could displace the brazen altar made by Solomon after patterns furnished by Jehovah (Exod. xxv. 40; xxvi. 30; xxvii. 1; 1 Chron. xxviii. 19), to make room for a new shrine, no matter of what costly material, copied from a heathen temple at Damascus, and fashioned by a servile priest in Jeru- salem; the monster who could erect an image of Moloch in his capital and sacrifice to it his own child; the devotee who was so mad upon foreign gods, that the very sight of a heathen temple, altar, or idol ea.used him to fall a-worshipping ;-had obviously no excuse for longer affecting to be a worshipper of Jehovah. .Accordingly, he smashed up the vessels and closed the doors of the temple. There should be no more wor- shipping of Jehovah, if he could help it. It was horrible sacrilege, bot it was at least honest. 7. He did his utmost to provoke Jehovah to anger. Building altars in every corner of Jerusalem, till, like At.hens in the days of Paul, it was wholly given to idolatry, literally stuffed full of idols (Acts xvii. 16), and erecting besides in every city of Judah high places to bum incense unto other gods (vers. 24, 25); he did his best to pour contempt upon the God of his fathers; in his outrageous, fanatical, and sense- less idolatry eclipsing all his predecessors, leaving behind him in the race to perdition experts in heathen worship like Rehoboam and Jehoram in Judah, like Jeroboam and Ahab in Israel. It was no wonder that Jehovah at length bestirred himself to take vengeance on this nonpareil idolater. III. AN UNSUCCESSFUL wARRIOR. For the wickedness of himself and people, he and they were "brought low," diminished in numbers, weakened in power, humbled in spirit, by Jehovah, who raised up against them three foreign foes. 1. The Syrians and Israelites. (Vers. 6-7.) (1) The leaders of the allied forces were-of the Syrians, Rezin, or Rezon-in the inscriptions, Razinu, King of Syria, whose capital was Damascus; of the Israelites, Pekah, the son of Remaliah-in the inscriptions, Pakaha, a usurper; whose metropolis was Samaria (' Records,' etc., v. 4S-52). (2) The time selected for their assault upon Judah was the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, although for some years previous to Jotha.m's death similar attacks had not been wanting (2 Kiogs xv. 37). (3) The object contemplated by the expedition was to overturn the Davidic dynasty, and place upon the throne of Judah "a vassal king, whose father's narue, Tabeel, shows that he must have been a Syrian" (Sayce); the Hauran inscriptions exhibiting several names, like Tab'el, compounded with el, and the Syrian Tab'- rimmon forming an exact parallel (Delitzsch, on Isa. vii. 6). It is supposed that a party in Jerusalem favoured the contemplated revolution (Isa. viii. 6). (4) The plzn of campaign appears to have been that Rezin should invade Judah from the south, capturing Eloth on the Red Sea, which Uzziah had restored to Judah (eh. uvi. 2), that Pekah should send a force directly from the north across the borders of the southern kingdom, and that both armies should meet iu front of Jerusalem, to reduce it, if possible, by a siege, (5) 'l'he result of the invasion, so far as .A.haz and his people were concerned, was diso.strous in the extreme. The capital, as Isaiah had pre- dicted, was not ta.ken. It may be questioned if the programme was carried out to the extent of besiegina the city, 'l'here is ground for thiuking this was prevented by the appearo.nce upon the scene of Tiglath-Pileser II. of Assyria (ver. 16; 2 Kings xvi. 7). But (a) Rezin of Damascus, besides recovering Eloth (2 Kings xvi. 6), defeated Ahaz in a pitched bo.ttle, and carried awo.y II multitude of his subjects captive to Damascus. (b) Pekah also routed him with great slaughter in one day's fight, slaying a hundred and twenty thousand of his veteran troops, In po.rticular, Zichri, o.n Ephraimite hero,  342 rHE SECOND BOOK OF TlIE CB:RONICLES. ten. nvm. 1-27.