2 Chronicles 16:14

14 They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier ¹that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art, ²and they made a very great fire in his honor.

2 Chronicles 16:14 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 16:14

And they buried him in his own sepulchres which he had made
for himself in the city of David
Where was the burying place of the kings of Judah; here Asa had ordered a vault to be made for himself and his family, and therefore called sepulchres, because of the several cells therein to put separate bodies in:

and laid him in the bed;
not only laid him out, as we express it, but laid him on a bed of state, where he lay in great pomp; or the funeral bed, which, with other nations ^F18, used to be strowed with sweet smelling flowers and herbs, as follows:

which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices prepared
by the apothecaries art;
or rather confectioner or druggist; for it is a question whether there were then any such we call apothecaries; this bed was strowed with spices, myrrh, aloes, cassia, cinnamon and which perhaps might be made up into a liquid, which was sprinkled over the bed and shroud in which he lay:

and they made a very great burning for him;
not that they made a great fire, and burned his body; for burning was not used with the Jews; but they burnt spices and other things in great quantity, in honour of him: (See Gill on Jeremiah 34:5), and this custom continued to the times of Herod, at whose funeral there were five hundred of his domestics and freed men bearing spices ^F19.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Herodian. Hist. l. 4. c. 3. Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman. l. 1. c. 11. & Alstorph. de Lect. Vet. c. 19. p. 151, 152.
F19 Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 33. sect. 9.

2 Chronicles 16:14 In-Context

12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.

13 And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

14 They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art, and they made a very great fire in his honor.

Cross References

• 1. [Genesis 50:2; Mark 16:1; John 19:39, 40]
• 2. [2 Chronicles 21:19; Jeremiah 34:5]