2 Kings 16:4

4 ¹And he sacrificed and made offerings ²on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

2 Kings 16:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 16:4

And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on
the hills
Which none of the kings of Judah before him ever did; for though they connived at this practice in the people, they never encouraged it by their own example; and very probably he offered sacrifices there to idols, see ( 2 Chronicles 28:25 ) whereas the people sacrificed to the true God, though at a wrong place:

and under every green tree;
and which is never said of the people, and seems to confirm it, that Ahaz sacrificed to other gods, since the Heathens used to place idols under green trees, and worship them, whom the Jews imitated, ( Jeremiah 2:2 ) ( 3:6 ) .

2 Kings 16:4 In-Context

2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done,

3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering,according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.

6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day.

Cross References

• 1. [2 Kings 14:4]
• 2. Deuteronomy 12:2; 1 Kings 14:23