2 Chronicles 28:5 - Exposition

The King of Syria . The name of this king (Rezin) does not appear in this chapter, but it does in the parallel, 2 Chronicles 28:5 , 2 Chronicles 28:6 , 2 Chronicles 28:9 . They smote him . A previous unsuccessful attempt of Rezin and Pekah is apparently passed over in our chapter ( 2 Kings 16:5 ), while the contents of our present yeas must be understood to have its place just before the last clause of 2 Chronicles 28:5 in the parallel, and to be significantly confirmed by the contents of its following verse. They smote … carried away … brought . These plurals strongly indicate the dialocation of sentences in compiled matter. They probably came from original sources, where the conjoined names of Rezin and Pekah had been the antecedents (see on this history, Isaiah 7:1-25 ; Isaiah 8:1-22 ; Isaiah 9:1-21 .). Brought them to Damascus . The mode of the first introduction of the name of Ahaz in connection with Damascus in the parallel ( 2 Chronicles 28:10 ) is a suggestive illustration of how these parallel but very various narratives proffer to piece themselves, and in a wonderful manner clear their, whole subject of any possible taint of the "cunningly devised fable." A great multitude of Judah's people had been carried captives and "brought to Damascus." When the King of Assyria (parallel, 2 Chronicles 28:9 ) came to the help of Ahaz, he struck a fierce and evidently decisive blow against Damascus and Rezin, and to Damascus," to meat" Assyria's king, Tiglath-Pileser, the very next verso tells us, Ahaz. went—little doubt to pay his bills, over which a decent veil of silence is thrown. He was also delivered into the hand , etc. The form of this sentence, with its "also," and with its evidently tacked-on appearance, coupled with the conjunction "for" with which the following verso is dragged in, seems to give great probability to the idea, first, that the latter half of 2 Chronicles 28:5 and all of 2 Chronicles 28:6 find their real place before (say) the word "Damascus;" and secondly, that they are strictly and conterminously paralleled by the former part of 2 Chronicles 28:5 parallel.