Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/364

300 the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the ; and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the, the God of his fathers. Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

and put the metal to other uses; cp. 2 Kin. xxiv. 13. According to 2 Kin. xvi. 17 Ahaz merely "cut off the borders ('panels' R.V. mg.) of the bases and removed the laver from off them, and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stone." In Chron. something more than this is intended, for "the vessels" would naturally mean such vessels as are mentioned in 2 Kin. xxiv. 13.

shut up the doors] The Chronicler possibly derives his statement from the difficult passage 2 Kin. xvi. 18 (vide A.V. and R.V.). That passage, however, speaks merely of an alteration carried out by Ahaz on one of the entrances to the Temple, but says nothing of a complete closing of the Temple; indeed it may be gathered from 2 Kin. xvi. 14—16 that the Temple was not closed and that the daily service went on, with the great change that the king's new altar was used instead of the brasen altar. The Chronicler, unwilling to suppose so horrible a desecration of the Temple as the performance of Ahaz' idolatries within its precincts would involve, placed these rites outside the area of the Temple and expressly asserts that the Temple was closed.

25. in every several city] Cp. Jer. ii. 28.

26, 27 (= 2 Kin. xvi. 19, 20).&emsp;

27. they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel] An alteration of 2 Kin. which says that Ahaz "was buried with his fathers." Cp. xxi. 20, xxiv. 25, xxvi. 23.

XXIX. 1, 2 (= 2 Kin. xviii. 1—3).&emsp;

The reign of Hezekiah is related in chs. xxix.—xxxii. Of this section chs. xxix., xxx., and xxxi. furnish new material with the exception of only three verses, xxix. 1, 2; xxx. 1. This new material describes first, the reopening and cleansing of the Temple and the restoration of worship therein (xxix.); secondly, a solemn and magnificent celebration of the Passover (xxx.); and thirdly, a crusade against idolatrous shrines