Exposition of the Whole Bible

dwelt there unto this day, the marginal reading, is form and matter of the altar of God, with every thing appertaining to it, which he, being high-pri could not be ignorant of, Exod. xxvii. 1. &c. but he was a time-ferver, and fought to curry favour with his prince: /o Urijab the prie/t made it againfe king. Abaz came from Damajcus; both king and. prieft were in hafte to have this altar made. Abaz could not {tay till he came home, but fent directions about it from Dama/cusy and the prieft was, fo expeditious in obferving his commands, that he got it done before he came thence to Jerufa-, lem.

¥.12. And when the king was come from Damafcus, the king faw the altar, &e.| Looked at ‘it, and liked it, being exactly according to the pattern he had fent: and the king approached the altar, and offered thereon, either by a prieft, or it may be in his own perfon, having no regard ta the laws and appointments of God, and efpecially as his facrifices were not offered to him, but to: the gods of Damafcus and Syria, 2Chron. xxviii.

*. 23. And he burnt bis burnt-offering, and bis ineat-offering, 8cc.|_ Which went together according to the law of God, and was imitated by the heathens: and poured bis drink-offering; 4 libation of wine, as probably it was, like what they ufed according to the Levitical law: the fprinkling of the blood of his peace-offerings upon the altar; as ufed according to the fame law; for all forts of facrifices were offered by idolaters, as by the people of God, in imitation of them.

y.14. And be brought alfo the brazen altar which

Afyria went up againft Damafeus, and took it; the metropolis of the kingdom of Syria, and fo made a powerful diverfion in favour of the king of udch: and carried the people of it captive to Kir; not Cyrene, as the Vulgate Latin verfion, a country belonging to Zgypt, which the king of Af/yria had no over; buta place in upper Media, as Fofepbus ® retates, which belonged to the Afyrian king; fee Jf xxii. 6. compared with xxi. 2. of this captivity Amos ~ had prophefied fome time before, Amos i. 5. and flew Rezin; the king of Syria, which alfo was forewas before the Lord, &c.] That which Solomon made, 2 Chron. iv. 1. which ftood in the court by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, Lev. i. 5. from the fore front of ibe boufe,. the frontifpiece of the temple, which was at the eaftpower jern gate ot it: from between the altar and the boufe of the Lord; tor it feems Urijah had placed the new altar behind the old one, more out of fight; the brazen altar ftanding between that and the eaftern gate, or entrance into the temple; wherefore he removed the brazen altar, and put his new one in the room told in the fame prophecy.

y.10. And king Abaz went to Damafcus to meet Tiglath-pilefer king of Affyria, &c.] When he heard he was come thither, and had taken it, to congratulate him on the victory, and to give him thanks for his affiftance; which place from Feru a- of it: and put it; that is, the brazen altar of So- \lomon, on the north-fide of the altar, of the new altar, at the right-hand as they went into the temple; where it was as in a corner, in greater obfcu~ rity, and the new altar more in view as they came into the temple.

lem was 160 miles, according to Bunting’: and faw an altar that was at Damafeus; where, in all y.15. And king Abaz commanded Urijah the prieft, feying, &c.] Who was not to be commanded by probability, he attended at the facrifice on it along with the king of Affria: and king Abaz fent te

Urijah the prieft the fajbion of the altar, and the great altar; meaning the new one, which either pattern of it, according to all the workmanjbip thereof; not only the fize and form of it, but all the decorations and figures on it, with which it was wrought. This Uriab was very probably the highprieft, for it can fcarcely be thought that Abad would write to any other, or that any other prieft would or could have complied with his requelt; and he feems to be the fame J/aiah took to be a witnefs in a certain affair, though he now degenerated from the charaéter he gives of him, J/. viii. 2.

y¥. 11. And Urijah the prief built an altar accoraing to all that king Abaz had fent from Damajfcus, &c.] Exactly according to the fize, form, figure, and carved work of it, though exprefsly contrary to the command of God; which fixed both the the king in matters of worfhip, but to attend ta the laws and inftitutions of God: f/aying, upon the was of a larger fize than the altar of God, or was: creater in the efteem of dbaz: burn the morni burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering; the daily facrifice, morning and evening; aad the king’s ' burnt-facrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burntoffering of all the people of the land, and their meatoffering, and their drink-offerings; {uch as were offered up at any time on the account of the rulers, of the land in particular, or of the whole congregation of Jrael, fee Lev. iv. and {prinkle. all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the.

of the facrifice; as it ufed to be a; a altar of the Lord: and the brazen altar me to enguire by; to fearch, enquire and ¢ what was to be done with it; for altars were never

Ch. xviiv. 630. I KINGS. 769 enquired by as oracles; the meaning is, that it was never to be made ufe of but by him, and when he pleafed. ». |not depart from the temple

¥.16. Thus did Urijah the prief, according to all that king Abaz commanded.} Not only concerning the ftructure of the altar, but the facrifices to be offered on it; like king, like prieft, both apoftates the priefts to be in, that went out that day, to, give way to the courfe that entered, which yah Gid till evening 5 or rather.

for the king himfelf to fit under, whilft attend - ing the temple-fervice of that day, and might be the cover of the fcaffold, 2 Chron. vi, “13. and be very rich cloth of golds; and’ therefore he.

and idolaters. <a took it-away for the king of Afpria, orto fignify

¥. 17. And king Abaz cut off the borders of the bafes, and removed the laver from off them, &c.] In the temple there were ten lavers tor the priefts to wafh in, which are here meant, the fingular being put for the plural; and thefe had bafes of brafs, on which they were fet; and about thefe bafes were borders, which had on them figures. of various creatures, lions, oxen and cherubim; and| thefe Abaz cut off, either to deface them, in tempt of them, or to convert the brafs to other ufes, as he might alfo the bafes themfelves, fince he removed the lavers from off of them, fee 1 Kings Vii. 27—30. and took down the fea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, the molten fea Solemon made, which he fet upon’ 12 oxen made of brafs; this 44ez took down from thence, either to abate its magnificence, and render it defpicable, er for the fake of. the.brafs, of which the oxen were made, fee 1 Kings vii. 23— 26:

upon a pavement of fiones;,not upon the floor of the temple, for-that°was of wood, fir or cedar, but on rows of ftones, placed inftead of bafes for that he fhould not frequent the place any more: and hence it follows, and the king’s entry without, ¢urned he from the boufe of the Lord; the way which. led from the king’s palace to it, he turned it a. round-about way, that it might not be difcerned there was a way from the one to the other: and this he did for the king of Afpria, to gratify him, that he might from hence conclude, that he had ‘con-) wholly relinquifhed the worfhip of God in the temple, and fhould cleave to the gods of Dama/cus and Syria; or for fear of him, that he might not fee the way into the temple, and take away the veflels; or find him, fhould he be obliged to hide himfelf there, when in danger by. him.

. ¥. 19. Now the reft of the adfs of Abaz which be did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Fudak?| Some others are written in the canonical book of Chronicles, 2 Chron. and put it)xxviii. and were, it is highly probable, in the annals of the kings of ‘udeh, now lott. | y. 20. And Abax flept with his fathers, and was buried with bis fathers in the city of David, &c.}:

it to ftand upon. But not in the fepulchres of the kings of I/rael, y¥. 18. And the covert for the fabbath that they had built in the boufe, &c.J. Ufed on the fabbathday, either for the people to fit uncer to hear the law explained by the priefts;

as David.and Solomon,’ he being fuch a wicked prince, 2 Chron. xxviii. 27. and Hezekiah his fon reigned in his ftead, of whom much is faid in the or for the courfe of! following part of this hiltory.

Clo AP. ONT.; 6 aed chapter relates the captivity of the ten tribes’ of J/rael, and how it came about, y. 1—6. the caufe of it, ‘their idolatry, which they perfifted in, notwithftanding: the remonftrances made againit it, ¥.7-— 23. in whofe ftead were placed people: from different parts, who exercifed a mixt religion, partly heathenifh, and partly J/ taclitifh, W224. ~. as all of them had, for they reign before the 12th of 4baxs and the feafe be, thatin the 12th of 4baz he had reigned nine years 5 but it is faid he degan to reign then., y. 2. And he did that which was evil in the fight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Ifrael that were before 4im.] He did not worfhip Baal, as fome of them had done; and he could not worthip the calves, were carried away by

: » |the Afprians in the former captivities, as the Jews * > ¥.1. In the 12th year of Abaz king ef Fudab, began Hofhea the fon of Elab to reign in Samaria over Ifrael nine years.| In this account there is fome difficulty, fince it was in the 20th of Fotham, fay; and who alfo obferve‘, that he removed the garrifons fet on the borders of the land to watch the J/raelites, that they might not go up to Ferufalem and this being done on the 15th of 4, that that is, the fourth of 4baz, that* Hofhea confpired againft Pekab king of IJ/rael, and flew him, when it might be reafonably thought he began his reign: now either there was an interregnum until the 12th of Abaz, or Hofbea however was not generally received and acknowledged as king tll then, as day was afterwards obferved as a feftiyal on that account; and they further remark", that the captivity of the ten tribes was in the reign of this king, who was better than the reft, to thew that it was not barely the fins of the kings.on whom the Ifraelites would caft the blame,. that they were car- others think; he being a tributary to the king of ried captives, but their own, according to Hof.

Affria, anda kind of vice-roy, is not faid to reign until he rebelled againft him; after which he reigned nine years, four in the times of baz, and five in the reign of Hezekiah, ch. xviii. g, 10. in this way the author of the Yew chronology goes", in which he is followed by other Fewi/S writers; and this bids as fair as any to remove the difficulty, unlefs thefe nine years refer to the time of his paege ee ¥. 3. Againft bim came up Shalmanefer king of Afpria, 8c.) Which: fome take to be the fame with Tiglath-pilefer, fee 1 Chron. v.26. but he rather feems to be his fon; his name was to be found, as Yofephus™ relates, in the archives of the Tyrians, againft whom he had. an expedition; his. name is Salmanaffar in Metafihenes*, who fays he ~* ” reigned t 'T. Bab. Gittin, fol. $8.° Kimchi in loc. % Seder * De Judicio temp. fol. 221. 2.

Rie reigned 17 years: and gave him prefents; to depart from him; he became tributary to him, and agreed to pay him a yearly tax.. 4 y. 4. And the king of Affyria found confpiracy in Hofbea, &c.} That he was forming a fcheme to rebel againft. him, and caft off his yoke; of this he had intelligence by fpies he fent, and placed to obferve him very probably: for be bad sent meffengers to So king of Egypt, to treat with him, and enter into alliance with him, to help him againft, and free him from, the king of Afpria. This king of Egypt is fuppofed to be Sadacon the

Ethiopian, who reigned in Egypt ninety years; of whom Heredotus ’ and Diodorus Siculus* make mention; by Zheodoret he is called Adramelech the Etbiopian, who dwelt in Egypt: and brought: no prefents to the king of Affyria, as he had done year by year; did not pay him his yearly tribute: therefore the king of Affyria fout kim up, and bound him in prifon; that is, after he took Samaria, the fiege of which is next related; unlefs it can be thought that he met with him fome where out of the capital, and feized him, and made him his prifoner, and after that befieged his city; which is not fo

likely. ¥. 5. Then the king of Affyria came up throughout

all the land, &c.|) Of Jfrael, there being’ none to oppofe his march; Ho/bea not daring to come out, and meet him and fight him: and went up to Samaria, and befieged it three years, fo long the city held out againft him, fee ch. xviii. 9, 10. ¥. 6. In the ninth year of Hofbea, the king of Af-

Syria took Samaria, &c.] Which was the laft year of his reign, and to be reckoned either from the time of his reigning in full power and authority, or from his firft cafting off the Afyrian yoke; fee the note on ¥. 1. and carried I/rael away. into Affyria; not only the inhabitants of Samaria, but all the ten tribes inhabiting the feveral parts of the and

placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river

kingdom, for which Yofephus is exprefs*:

of Gozan; fome of them he placed here, which were in Afyria. Halah is the Calachena of Ptolemy at the north of Afyria, and Habor is the mount

Chobaras of the fame; from which mountain as you go to the Ca/pian fea, about midway, is the city Gauzania, the fame with Gozan, which might give name to this river’. The Jews fay‘, this is the river Sambation, which runs fo. fwiftly, that there is no paffling except on the fabbath-day, and which then the Yews cannot pafs becaufe of the prophanation of the fabbath; and is the'reafon they give, why the ro tribes are there detain- _ eds and Manaffeh ben Ifrael* fancies Habor to be Tabor, a province in Tartary, where fome Fews are: and in the cities of the Medes, others of them he placed there, under his jurifdiction, the fame with Hera, 1 Chron. v. 26. which with the Greeks is called Aria; and Herodotus fays*, thele Medes formerly were called by all Ariz. It appears from hence, that the kingdom of Media was now fubject to the king of Afpria: fome‘ take Halach to be Colchi, and Habor to be Iberia, and Hara to be Armenia, and Gauzani to be Media, which all bounded the north of Afpria.

¥. 7. For fo it was, that the children of Ijrael had