2 Chronicles 28: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Ahaz becomes king of Judah at twenty and does not follow the LORD. He worships other gods, burns his own children in the fire, and is defeated by Aram and by Israel, who take huge numbers of captives and plunder. A prophet named Oded and four Ephraimite leaders stop Israel from enslaving the captives, and the captives are fed, clothed, and sent home to Jericho. Ahaz then asks Assyria for help, is afflicted rather than helped, sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, shuts the doors of the temple, and dies without being buried in the tombs of the kings.

Claim by Claim

1. 28:1
   • Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign.
   • Ahaz reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
   • Ahaz did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD.
   • David his father did what was right in the sight of the LORD, unlike Ahaz.
2. 28:2
   • Ahaz walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.
   • Ahaz made cast metal images for the Baals.
3. 28:3
   • Ahaz burned offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom.
   • Ahaz burned his sons in the fire.
   • Ahaz did this in accordance with the abominations of the nations.
   • The LORD had driven those nations out before the children of Israel.
4. 28:4
   • Ahaz sacrificed and burned offerings at the high places.
   • Ahaz sacrificed and burned offerings on the hills.
   • Ahaz sacrificed and burned offerings under every green tree.
5. 28:5
   • The LORD his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram.
   • The Arameans struck Ahaz.
   • The Arameans took a great number of captives from Ahaz's people.
   • The Arameans brought the captives to Damascus.
   • Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel.
   • The king of Israel struck Ahaz with a great slaughter.
6. 28:6
   • Pekah was the son of Remaliah.
   • Pekah killed one hundred twenty thousand men in Judah in one day.
   • All those killed were valiant men.
   • They were killed because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
7. 28:7
   • Zichri was a mighty man of Ephraim.
   • Zichri killed Maaseiah the king's son.
   • Zichri killed Azrikam the governor of the house.
   • Zichri killed Elkanah, who was second to the king.
8. 28:8
   • The children of Israel took two hundred thousand of their kinsmen captive.
   • The captives were women, sons, and daughters.
   • The children of Israel also plundered much spoil from them.
   • They brought the spoil to Samaria.
9. 28:9
   • A prophet of the LORD was there.
   • The prophet's name was Oded.
   • Oded went out before the army that was coming to Samaria.
   • Oded said to them that the LORD, the God of their fathers, was angry with Judah.
   • Oded said that because of that anger the LORD had delivered Judah into their hand.
   • Oded said that they had killed them in a rage that reached up to heaven.
10. 28:10
    • Oded said they intended to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for themselves.
    • Oded asked whether they themselves were not also guilty of offenses against the LORD their God.
11. 28:11
    • Oded told them to listen to him.
    • Oded told them to return the captives they had taken from their kinsmen.
    • Oded said the fierce anger of the LORD was upon them.
12. 28:12
    • Certain men from among the heads of the children of Ephraim stood up against those who came from the war.
    • Azariah the son of Johanan was one of them.
    • Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth was one of them.
    • Jehizkiah the son of Shallum was one of them.
    • Amasa the son of Hadlai was one of them.
13. 28:13
    • They said the captives must not be brought there.
    • They said the returning men intended to bring guilt from the LORD upon them.
    • They said the returning men intended to add to their sins and their guilt.
    • They said their guilt was already great.
    • They said fierce anger was upon Israel.
14. 28:14
    • The armed men left the captives before the officials and all the assembly.
    • The armed men left the spoil before the officials and all the assembly.
15. 28:15
    • The men designated by name rose up.
    • They took charge of the captives.
    • They clothed all the naked among the captives from the spoil.
    • They put clothes on them.
    • They gave them sandals.
    • They gave them food.
    • They gave them drink.
    • They anointed them.
    • They carried all the feeble among them on donkeys.
    • They brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their kinsmen.
    • Then they returned to Samaria.
16. 28:16
    • At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.
17. 28:17
    • The Edomites had come again.
    • The Edomites had struck Judah.
    • The Edomites had carried away captives.
18. 28:18
    • The Philistines had raided the cities of the lowland and of the Negev of Judah.
    • The Philistines captured Beth-shemesh.
    • The Philistines captured Aijalon.
    • The Philistines captured Gederoth.
    • The Philistines captured Soco and its villages.
    • The Philistines captured Timnah and its villages.
    • The Philistines captured Gimzo and its villages.
    • The Philistines settled there.
19. 28:19
    • The LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel.
    • Ahaz had let Judah run loose without restraint.
    • Ahaz had been utterly unfaithful to the LORD.
20. 28:20
    • Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came to Ahaz.
    • Tilgath-pilneser distressed Ahaz.
    • Tilgath-pilneser did not strengthen Ahaz.
21. 28:21
    • Ahaz took a portion from the house of the LORD.
    • Ahaz took a portion from the house of the king.
    • Ahaz took a portion from the officials.
    • Ahaz gave it to the king of Assyria.
    • It did not help Ahaz.
22. 28:22
    • In the time of his distress Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the LORD.
    • This was king Ahaz.
23. 28:23
    • Ahaz sacrificed to the gods of Damascus.
    • The gods of Damascus were those who had struck him.
    • Ahaz said the gods of the kings of Aram helped them.
    • Ahaz said he would sacrifice to those gods so that they would help him.
    • Those gods were the ruin of Ahaz.
    • Those gods were the ruin of all Israel.
24. 28:24
    • Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God.
    • Ahaz cut the vessels of the house of God in pieces.
    • Ahaz shut the doors of the house of the LORD.
    • Ahaz made himself altars in every corner in Jerusalem.
25. 28:25
    • In every city of Judah Ahaz made high places to burn offerings to other gods.
    • Ahaz provoked to anger the LORD, the God of his fathers.
26. 28:26
    • The rest of the acts of Ahaz and all his ways, first and last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27. 28:27
    • Ahaz slept with his fathers.
    • They buried him in the city, in Jerusalem.
    • They did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel.
    • Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

28:1

After Solomon's death the kingdom split in two: Judah in the south, ruled from Jerusalem by David's descendants, and Israel (also called Ephraim) in the north, ruled from Samaria. Ahaz was king of Judah, roughly 735–715 BC. "His ancestor David" is not his literal father, David lived about 300 years earlier, and the phrase marks Ahaz as part of David's royal line.

28:2

Baal ("lord, master") was the storm and fertility god of Israel's Canaanite neighbors. The plural "the Baals" refers to the many local versions of him worshiped at particular towns and shrines. "Metal statues" translates a word for images cast from molten metal, as opposed to carved ones.

28:3

The Valley of Ben-hinnom ("the valley of the son of Hinnom") is the ravine running along the south and west sides of Jerusalem, just outside the city walls; its later Greek name, Gehenna, came to be used as a name for hell. Burning children in the fire refers to child sacrifice, a practice associated with the god Molech and forbidden in Israelite law.

28:4

"Worship sites on the hilltops" translates "high places", open-air shrines, usually on a hill or ridge, with an altar, upright stone pillars and often a sacred tree or wooden pole. "Under every green tree" was a stock phrase for such shrines: large evergreen trees marked sacred spots.

28:5

Aram is Syria; its capital, Damascus, lay northeast of Israel. Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel had formed an alliance and were attacking Judah to force it to join their revolt against Assyria, the war modern historians call the Syro-Ephraimite war (about 735–732 BC), also described in 2 Kings 16 and Isaiah 7.

28:6

Pekah was king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Figures like 120,000 are startlingly large; the Hebrew word rendered "thousand" can also mean a military unit or clan contingent, so the real scale of the losses is uncertain.

28:7

Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and its name is often used for that kingdom as a whole. "The official in charge of the palace" was the chief steward of the royal household, one of the highest posts in the government; "second in rank to the king" marks Elkanah as the next man after the king himself.

28:8

Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom. "Their own relatives" is literal: north and south were one people divided into two states, which is what makes the raid shocking to the prophet in the next verse.

28:9

A prophet was someone who spoke in God's name, often to confront a king or an army rather than to predict the future. "A rage that reacheth up unto heaven" is an idiom for violence so extreme that it demands a response from God, the same way Genesis says the blood of a murdered man cries out from the ground.

28:10

Israelite law barred permanently enslaving fellow Israelites: a Hebrew who fell into debt-slavery was to be released after six years, and in the year of jubilee families returned to their land. Turning captured kinsfolk into slaves crossed that line.

28:12

Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, so its name is often used as a shorthand for the whole northern kingdom, the way "England" sometimes stands loosely for Britain.

28:14

The King James "congregation" does not mean a religious gathering in the modern sense. It is the assembled body of citizens, the community meeting as a decision-making group.

28:15

Anointing here is medical, not ceremonial: olive oil was the standard dressing for wounds. Jericho, an oasis town in the Jordan valley famous for its date palms, lay near the frontier between the two kingdoms, so returning the captives there put them back within reach of their own people.

28:16

The Hebrew says "kings" of Assyria though only one king, Tiglath-pileser, is meant in verse 20; the plural may be a formal or honorific usage. Assyria was the dominant empire of the age, based in what is now northern Iraq. Sending for help meant offering to become a tribute-paying vassal.

28:17

Edom lay southeast of Judah, beyond the Dead Sea. Edomites were reckoned descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, and so were counted as kin to Israel, but the two peoples were long-standing enemies.

28:18

The Philistines occupied the coastal plain southwest of Judah. "The foothills" is the Shephelah, the belt of low hills between that plain and the Judean highlands; "the dry southern part" is the Negev. The towns listed guarded the western approaches to Jerusalem, so their loss left Judah exposed.

28:19

Ahaz ruled Judah, not the northern kingdom; Chronicles sometimes uses "Israel" for the whole people of God regardless of the political split. "Let the people run wild" translates a Hebrew verb meaning to loosen or uncover, the image is of removing restraint, leaving Judah exposed and undisciplined.

28:20

Tiglath-pileser III (reigned about 745–727 BC) rebuilt Assyria into the great power of the Near East. He did break the Aram–Israel alliance, but he absorbed Judah as a tribute-paying vassal in the process, which is the "trouble" meant here.

28:21

This was tribute, the payment a lesser king made to buy an emperor's protection and stay in his favor. Stripping the temple and palace treasuries was the usual way of raising such a sum.

28:22

"This is that king Ahaz" is the writer stepping out of the narrative for a moment to point at him, a note of open contempt of the kind Chronicles almost never uses.

28:23

In the thinking of the ancient Near East, a battle tested the strength of the gods as much as of the armies, so a defeated king might conclude that the winners' gods were the more effective ones and take up their worship.

28:24

The "objects" are the bronze and gold furnishings and implements used in the sacrifices, basins, shovels, lampstands and the like. Shutting the temple doors ended the daily worship there altogether.

28:26

This was a royal chronicle kept as an official record, now lost. It is not the books of 1 and 2 Kings in the Bible, though those books cite similar sources.

28:27

Kings of Judah were normally buried in the royal tombs in the City of David. Excluding a king from them was a public verdict on his reign, and the burial notice is the standard way this book closes an account of a king's life.