Then Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle; and they besieged Ahaz, but were unable to conquer him.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there to this day.
While Syria and Israel pressed Jerusalem, Judah lost a small port far to the south — and never got it back. Commentators read that loss as the cost of a king who would not trust God.
Elath was no minor village. Its story runs from Israel's wilderness years to the days of Rome.
A seaport town at the far north of the Gulf of Akaba branch of the Red Sea. It is first mentioned during the wanderings of the Israelites. Later it belonged to Solomon's kingdom. Nearby, at Ezion-geber, he kept a fleet of ships. Afterwards we read that Azariah built it and restored it to Judah. Later still Rezin conquered it, and the Syrians held it, until it became a border town of Rome.
An earlier king, Azariah, won Elath back for Judah. Under Ahaz, Judah lost it again.
His son Azariah succeeded him. He recovered Elath for Judah and restored it. This city, and all the territory of Edom it belonged to, had once been under David's rule and part of Solomon's kingdom. After Azariah, it did not remain in the hands of Judah for long. Sixty-eight years later, Rezin the king of Syria recovered it.
The previous verse says the allied kings could not overcome Ahaz. This verse shows what they did manage to take, and one writer explains how both can stand together.
These statements do not clash with 2 Kings 16:5, which says these allied kings "could not overcome him." They could not get into the city or reach the king himself, though they entered the land. When it says "God delivered him" and "they smote him," it means his people and his kingdom. Elath was also lost to Judah at this time.
Commentators differ over who settled in the city afterwards. The dictionary above has the Syrians holding it. Another writer names the Edomites, as the verse above does.
However, Rezin captured Elath, a city of Judah, and drove the people of Judah out of the city, allowing the Edomites to take possession of it.
Losing Elath did not send Ahaz to God. It sent him looking for a stronger ally.
This spurred Ahaz to appeal, not to God, but to the king of Assyria, Tiglath Pileser, telling him that he, Ahaz, was his servant and asking his help against Syria and Israel. How foolish a move this was for a king of Judah! It cost him something, too. He stole from the Lord the silver and gold in the house of the Lord. He also took silver and gold from the treasuries of the king's house. He used it all to pay the king of Assyria for his protection.
God had already offered Ahaz a different way out. He sent the prophet Isaiah to him in the middle of this crisis, and Isaiah came with a word of grace.
The Lord sends Isaiah to meet the king. His son Shear-jashub comes with him. The name means "the remnant shall return." He speaks in grace to this wicked king... How touching is the patient grace God shows toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to the man who had everything to fear.
This verse also carries a quiet milestone in the Bible's vocabulary. Where the ESV reads "the men of Judah," older translations read "the Jews" — the first time that name appears in the Bible.
A man of Judah. The term does not occur until after the division of the kingdom. 2 Kings 16:6; 2 Kings 25:25. It applies to anyone belonging to the two tribes. It may also have been used of any of the ten tribes who stayed in the land at the captivity, or who returned there. The Old Testament uses the name most often in Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Jeremiah.
- Inherited — Elath was a Red Sea port. It served Solomon's fleet, and Azariah won it back for Judah.
- Forfeited — Sixty-eight years after Azariah restored it, Rezin took it back. What one king regained, another lost.
- Exposed — Jerusalem's walls held, but the kingdom bled. The allied kings never reached Ahaz himself; they struck his land and his people.
- Refused — God met the crisis with Isaiah, a promise that a remnant would return, and the words "Fear not." Ahaz answered by buying Assyria with temple silver.
- Renamed — In this decline the name "Jews" enters the Bible for the first time. It was born after the kingdom split, and it marked what was left.
And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me.
Syria and Israel are attacking Judah, so King Ahaz begs Assyria's king Tiglath-pileser for help instead of turning to God. Commentators see here the moment David's line swapped trust in God for a foreign alliance, and they ask what that cost.
Behind this message lies a choice between two protectors.
Ahaz prefers to trust the king of Assyria against Pekah and Rezin rather than to trust the Lord and obey Him. This explains his answer to Isaiah.
One writer draws out the principle. The enemy Ahaz feared had no power; the ally he chose became the real danger.
What the Christian needs is to be sure of his relationship with God. Then there is nothing to fear. The people do not have to dread the strength of the enemy. What weakens them is their own iniquity. The danger that threatens comes to nothing. But if we look for any support at all in something of this world, God abandons us. He leaves us to face the consequences of the support we chose. So Pekah and Rezin had no strength against Judah, because God would not hand Jerusalem over to these allied kings. But Ahaz, fearful and unbelieving, rests on Assyria — and it is the Assyrian that Judah must be saved from. Meanwhile God reveals the true Deliverer, the real support: Immanuel.
The wording of the message matters as much as its purpose. A king of Judah puts himself below a pagan king and begs him for rescue.
How shameful is his fawning appeal to the king of Assyria: "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria." And that greedy king, for the silver and gold sent him, went to Damascus and killed Rezin, its king.
Another writer weighs those words against Ahaz's family line.
What a solemn departure from the Lord, and from dependence on Him, for a son of king David.
God had already sent a prophet to Ahaz with the rescue he was now begging Assyria to supply.
How touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to the man who, for his part, had everything to fear... The Spirit of God, through the prophet, says to Ahaz: "Ask for yourself a sign from the LORD your God." Ahaz answered, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." He covered his unbelief and his disobedience with a show of reverence.
Another writer names that polite refusal for what it is.
How often the hypocrisy of unbelief tries in this way to hide its contempt of Jehovah! Its presumption despises the word of His grace, yet it puts on the dress of superior reverence and humility... Ahaz shrank from God even in His goodness. Flesh never trusts God.
Ahaz's appeal to Assyria came with a price tag.
How foolish a move was this for a king of Judah! It cost him something too. He stole from the Lord the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord. He also took silver and gold from the treasuries of the king's house. He used it to pay the king of Assyria for his protection.
The rescuer Ahaz hired became the affliction Isaiah had foretold. Hardship did not soften him.
The king of Assyria came, but instead of really helping him, afflicted him. He took the treasure Ahaz stripped for him from the house of the Lord. He took more from his own house and from the houses of the princes. It was just as the prophet Isaiah had warned him: "The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria." He trusted in man. He made flesh his strength, and his heart departed from the Lord... "And in the time of his distress he trespassed yet more against the LORD." How different was his great ancestor David! "In my distress I called upon the LORD."
Beyond politics, the link he forged reshaped Judah's worship.
The voluntary action of Ahaz put him and Judah in touch with the king of Assyria. It put them into slavery to Assyria. And it brought them into idolatry, because Ahaz went to meet the king of Assyria at Damascus and built an idolatrous altar copying the one he saw there.
- Fear — Ahaz's real weakness was not Syria and Israel. It was his own unbelief. God told him to be quiet and let Him act, and he refused.
- Words — calling himself the servant and son of a pagan king was a shameful fall for a son of David.
- Price — Ahaz bought the help with silver and gold stolen from the house of the Lord. He robbed the God who had offered to save him.
- Result — the hired rescuer afflicted him instead of helping him, and drew Judah into slavery and a copied Damascus altar.
- Alternative — the true support was Immanuel, the real Deliverer God revealed while Ahaz leaned on Assyria.
And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it [as] a present to the king of Assyria.
Jerusalem was under siege from two kings, and God had just sent Isaiah to tell Ahaz not to be afraid. Instead, Ahaz emptied the treasuries — even the Lord's own house — to buy Assyria's protection. Commentators read this verse as the moment Judah's king traded dependence on God for a paid alliance.
The silver and gold Ahaz sent was not his to give. One commentator counts the price of the appeal item by item:
This spurred Ahaz to appeal to the king of Assyria, Tiglath Pileser, and not to God. He told him that he (Ahaz) was his servant, and asked his help against Syria and Israel. How foolish a move was this on the part of a king of Judah! It cost him something too. He stole from the Lord the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord. He also took silver and gold from the treasuries of the king's house, to pay the king of Assyria for his protection.
Ahaz had another option. Before he sent the gift, God spoke to him in the gentlest terms and invited him to name a sign:
How touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Be careful, be quiet" — let Me act. He says "do not fear" to him who on his part had everything to fear... The Spirit of God, through the prophet, says to Ahaz: "Ask a sign of the LORD your God." Ahaz answered, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." He coloured his unbelief and his disobedience with an appearance of piety. To put the Lord to the test was to distrust Him. But Ahaz did much more than distrust Him: he did not believe the word of the Lord.
The gift to Assyria was the choice Ahaz had already made in his heart. Rossier puts the two options side by side: "Ahaz prefers to trust in the king of Assyria against Pekah and Rezin rather than to trust in the Lord and obey Him."
Ahaz held the throne promised to David's line. Listen to how he speaks to a foreign king:
Uzziah was king of Judah when Tiglath-pileser carried captive the first of Israel's cities. It was to this same king of Assyria that Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah, sent messengers: "I am your servant and your son: come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel..." What a solemn departure from the Lord, and from dependence on Him, for a son of king David.
At first the payment seemed to work. But Judah had now sought the same alliance Israel had sought, and Rossier marks what followed: "What the Lord had pronounced against Israel, which had sought the support of Assyria, He now pronounces against Judah, who sought this same alliance." In the end the hired king turned on the man who paid him:
The king of Assyria came, but instead of helping him he "distressed him." He took the treasure Ahaz "stripped" for him from the house of the Lord, and from his own house, and the houses of the princes. It was just as the prophet Isaiah had forewarned him: "The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria." He trusted in man and leaned on human strength. His heart turned away from the Lord, and so he brought on himself and his kingdom the curse and barrenness that follow. "In the time of his distress he grew yet more faithless to the LORD." How different was his great ancestor David! "In my distress," he says, "I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help."
Ahaz would not ask for a sign, so God named one Himself — and it reached far past the crisis of the moment:
Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, King of Israel, came against Jerusalem and besieged Ahaz. He appealed to Tiglath-pileser to save him out of their hands, instead of crying to the LORD for the deliverance He had promised to His people... When wicked Ahaz refused, the prophet gave that great sign, which would take place over seven hundred years later: the virgin would conceive and bring forth a son, even Immanuel. The house of David might suffer punishment and discipline, but there could be no full end of the royal family. The promised One had to come from David.
- Offer. God met Ahaz first, telling him to be quiet and not fear, and inviting him to ask for any sign he liked.
- Refusal. Ahaz declined the sign with a show of reverence. It was unbelief dressed as piety; he did not believe God's word.
- Payment. Instead of crying to God, he robbed the Lord's house and his own treasuries to hire Assyria. He called himself that king's servant and son.
- Reversal. The king he paid took the treasure and distressed him instead of helping him. Trusting man brought the curse Isaiah had already announced.
- Promise. Yet David's line could not fail. God gave the sign Ahaz refused to ask for — Immanuel, born of a virgin centuries later.
And the king of Assyria hearkened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried it captive to Kir, and put Rezin to death.
King Ahaz of Judah was afraid of two enemy kings, so he paid Assyria to come and save him. This verse is Assyria's answer — and it shows what that help cost a king of David's line.
The whole episode turns on where Ahaz looked when he was frightened. Isaiah had already come to him with God's promise of deliverance, and he had refused a sign. Instead he called himself the servant and son of a pagan king.
Ahaz prefers to trust the king of Assyria against Pekah and Rezin rather than to trust the Lord and obey Him… The Lord had already pronounced judgment on Israel for seeking Assyria's support. He now pronounces the same on Judah, which sought that same alliance.
The rescue was bought, and the money came from a place that was not Ahaz's to spend.
This spurred Ahaz to appeal, not to God, but to the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser. He told him that he (Ahaz) was his servant, and asked his help against Syria and Israel. What a foolish move this was for a king of Judah! It cost him something too. He stole from the Lord the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord. He also took silver and gold from the treasuries of the king's house. All of it went to pay the king of Assyria for his protection.
Damascus did not fall only because Ahaz paid for it. Its fall had been predicted long before, and the captives were sent back to the place their people came from.
Damascus was broken and the predicted judgment came. The King of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, carried it out. He drove the Syrians back to Kir, the place they had come from.
So God used Ahaz's faithless bargain to carry out a sentence He had already passed on Syria.
Read on its own, the verse looks like a policy that worked.
The first result of this trust in Assyria seemed to be favourable for Judah… The prophecy pronounced long before by Amos is now fulfilled.
The word "seemed" carries the weight. The protector Ahaz hired became the power that bled him.
The king of Assyria came, but he did not really help him. Instead he "distressed him." He took the treasure Ahaz "stripped" for him from the house of the Lord, from his own house, and from the houses of the princes. It was just as the prophet Isaiah had forewarned him: "The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria." He trusted in man and leaned on human strength. His heart turned away from the Lord, and he brought on himself and his kingdom the curse and barrenness that follow.
The verse ends with Damascus captured — and the next thing we read is that Ahaz went there to meet his new master. The visit produced more than a thank-you.
Ahaz is not at the end of his transgressions. Isaiah's prophecy had no effect on his conscience. He went to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, whom he congratulated for his help and his success. He had seen Rezin's altar to false gods. He sends its pattern to Jerusalem and has it set up in the court of the temple. He finds a high priest to carry out this act of sacrilege.
The help he leaned on shaped the worship he came home to.
Commentators say the same mistake still repeats, long after Ahaz.
It is only the old leaning on Egypt that we see so often in Israel. In the end they found Egypt a broken reed… And yet how often we still look for help like this! We ask for or accept help that cuts us off from the help of God. All such things are only a denial of Him, who is the one security His people need.
- Asked — Isaiah's word from God made no difference to Ahaz. He asked a foreign king to save him instead of trusting the Lord.
- Paid — the help was not free. He stripped the silver and gold of the Lord's house and his own treasury to buy protection.
- Answered — Assyria listened. Damascus fell, its people went to Kir, and Rezin died — just as Amos had said long before.
- Distressed — the first result looked good. Then the hired protector turned on him, just as Isaiah had warned.
- Corrupted — the alliance put a pagan altar in the temple court. Help sought outside God reshapes the worship of the one who sought it.