2 Koningen 16:3

3 Want hij wandelde in den weg der koningen van Israel; ja, hij deed ook zijn zoon door het vuur gaan, naar de gruwelen der heidenen, die de HEERE voor de kinderen Israels verdreven had.

2 Koningen 16:3 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 16:3

But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel.
&c.] Worshipping the calves as they did; which, as it was contrary to the religious sentiments in which he was educated, so against his political interest, which was the only, or at least the principal thing, which swayed with the kings of Israel to continue that idolatry:

yea, and made his son to pass through the fire;
between two fires to Molech, by way of lustration; which might be true of Hezekiah his son, and others of his sons, for he had more he burnt with fire, as appears from ( 2 Chronicles 28:3 ) , both ways were used in that sort of idolatry, (See Gill on Leviticus 18:21),

according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out
from before the children of Israel;
the old Canaanites; so the Carthaginians, a colony of the Phoenicians, used in time of calamity to offer human sacrifices, and even their children, to appease their deities ^F12. Theodoret says, he had seen in some cities, in his time, piles kindled once a year, over which not only boys, but men, would leap, and infants were carried by their mothers through the flames; which seemed to be an expiation or purgation, and which he takes to be the same with the sin of Ahaz.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Justin. e Trogo, Hist. l. 18. c. 6. Curt. Hist. l. 4. c. 3. Pescennius Festus apud Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21.

2 Koningen 16:3 In-Context

1 In het zeventiende jaar van Pekah, den zoon van Remalia, werd Achaz koning, de zoon van Jotham, den koning van Juda.

2 Twintig jaren was Achaz oud, toen hij koning werd, en hij regeerde zestien jaren te Jeruzalem; en hij deed niet dat recht was in de ogen des HEEREN zijns Gods, als zijn vader David.

3 Want hij wandelde in den weg der koningen van Israel; ja, hij deed ook zijn zoon door het vuur gaan, naar de gruwelen der heidenen, die de HEERE voor de kinderen Israels verdreven had.

4 Hij offerde ook en rookte op de hoogten en op de heuvelen, ook onder alle groen geboomte.

5 Toen toog Rezin, de koning van Syrie, op, met Pekah, den zoon van Remalia, den koning van Israel, naar Jeruzalem ten strijde; en zij belegerden Achaz, maar zij vermochten niet met strijden.