Synopsis of the Chapter
Because of the idols and crimes of Ahaz, God delivers Judah to be plundered: 1st, by the Syrians; 2nd, by the Israelites, who slaughtered 120,000 warriors from Judah, but released the captives at the admonition of a prophet; 3rd, by the Edomites; 4th, by the Philistines. The pious son Hezekiah succeeds the impious Ahaz.
Verse 5: The King of Syria ¶
5. THE KING OF SYRIA. — This was Rezin, who was raised up by God as king to be the scourge of the kingdom of Judah and to punish its idols and crimes.
Verse 15: They Clothed and Fed the Captives ¶
15. WHEN THEY HAD CLOTHED THEM AND SHOD THEM AND FED THEM. — See here the remarkable humanity and mercy of the Israelites toward the Jewish captives, though their enemies, set forth as an example for all Christian princes and commanders to imitate. For in turn they will draw God's mercy upon themselves, if they are merciful to enemies they have captured; indeed, "clemency can do more than violence," as Antigonus king of Macedon said, according to Plutarch in the Apophthegms, so much so that Darius wished for the clemency of Alexander the Great, and that Alexander, though his enemy, might succeed him in his kingdom. So merciful to their enemies were Julius Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Titus, and Aurelian.
Verse 23: He Sacrificed to the Gods of Damascus ¶
23. HE SACRIFICED VICTIMS TO THE GODS OF DAMASCUS, HIS CONQUERORS, AND SAID: THE GODS OF THE KINGS OF SYRIA HELP THEM; I WILL APPEASE THEM WITH SACRIFICES, AND THEY WILL HELP ME — WHEREAS ON THE CONTRARY THEY WERE THE RUIN OF HIM AND OF ALL ISRAEL. — For these gods were demons, who strive only to harm Israel, that is, the faithful people. Similar was the folly of the pagan Romans, who invoked the gods of their enemies, so that, called forth from the hostile land, they might migrate to Rome and give the Romans victory over their enemies, as St. Augustine relates in book 4 of The City of God.
Verse 24: He Shut the Doors of the Temple ¶
24. HE SHUT THE DOORS OF THE TEMPLE — so that no one could worship God in it or sacrifice to Him; but all were forced to go to the shrines of idols and of their gods, to invoke them. This was a remarkable act of malice and wickedness of Ahaz, which no one else is recorded to have committed.