7 So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up arms against me.
In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria.
And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have.
So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, Let me now keep my life. And he said, Is he still living? he is my brother. Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his words; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he said, Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him get up into his carriage.
And the God of Israel put an impulse into the heart of Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who took them away as prisoners, all the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.
At that time King Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria.
Put not your faith in rulers, or in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Man's breath goes out, he is turned back again to dust; in that day all his purposes come to an end. Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart is turned away from the Lord.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 16
Commentary on 2 Kings 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
This chapter is wholly taken up with the reign of Ahaz; and we have quite enough of it, unless it were better. He had a good father, and a better son, and yet was himself one of the worst of the kings of Judah.
2Ki 16:1-4
We have here a general character of the reign of Ahaz. Few and evil were his days-few, for he died at thirty-six-evil, for we are here told,
2Ki 16:5-9
Here is,
2Ki 16:10-16
Though Ahaz had himself sacrificed in high places, on hills, and under every green tree (v. 4), yet God's altar had hitherto continued in its place and in use, and the king's burnt-offering and his meat-offering (v. 15) had been offered upon it by the priests that attended it; but here we have it taken away by wicked Ahaz, and another altar, an idolatrous one, put in the room of it-a bolder stroke than the worst of the kings had yet given to religion. We have here,
2Ki 16:17-20
Here is,