2 Chronicles · chapter 28 of 36
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2 Chronicles 28 tells the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah, who imitates the kings of Israel, sacrifices to the Baals and burns his sons. The Lord gives him over to Syria and Israel, and Edom and the Philistines attack. After a great slaughter and the capture of two hundred thousand people of Judah, the prophet Oded intervenes and the captives are returned with clothing and care. Ahaz asks Assyria for help and persists in idolatry.
After the faithful reign of Jotham, Ahaz is the king who strays furthest from the Lord. The Chronicler shows him as the low point of Judah's monarchy and does not hide the gravity of his sin: idolatry, child sacrifice, closing the temple. But in the midst of the darkness, the story includes a surprising gesture of mercy from the north toward the south.
Ahaz is twenty years old when he begins to reign and reigns sixteen years in Jerusalem. He does not do right, as David did. He walks in the ways of the kings of Israel, makes cast images for the Baals, burns incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burns his sons in fire, following the abominations of the nations. He also sacrifices at the high places and under every green tree.
So the Lord gives him into the hand of the king of Syria, who takes many captives to Damascus, and of the king of Israel. Pekah son of Remaliah kills a hundred and twenty thousand valiant men of Judah in one day, because they forsook the Lord. Zichri, a warrior of Ephraim, kills the king's son and two high officials. The Israelites capture two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters, and take much plunder to Samaria.
There the prophet Oded goes out to meet the army. He tells them God gave Judah into their hand in his anger, but they have killed with a rage that reaches heaven, and they may not now enslave the people of Judah and Jerusalem, for they too are guilty before the Lord. He orders them to send the captives back. Some chiefs of Ephraim back his words, and the warriors leave the captives and the plunder. The men named clothe the naked, give them sandals, food and drink, anoint them, put the weak on donkeys and bring them to Jericho, to their brothers.
Ahaz asks Assyria for help, while Edomites and Philistines attack cities of Judah. Tiglath-pileser comes, but oppresses him instead of strengthening him. In his distress Ahaz grows more unfaithful: he sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, cuts up the utensils of the house of God, shuts its doors and sets up altars at every corner of Jerusalem. He is buried in the city, not in the tombs of the kings. His son Hezekiah reigns in his place.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Ahaz burns incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burns his sons in fire, imitating the nations God had driven out. It is one of the gravest accusations against a king of Judah.
Oded reproaches the victors from Israel for killing with a rage that reached heaven. Even when God used Israel to judge Judah, excessive cruelty does not go unaccounted for.
The men named clothe the captives, feed them, tend their wounds and bring them back to their brothers at Jericho. It is a notable gesture of compassion between estranged brothers, and recalls Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan, which also includes a journey toward Jericho.
In the time of his distress Ahaz grows more unfaithful. Instead of returning to the Lord, he seeks more gods. It is the portrait of a heart that, the more it suffers, the further it turns away.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He was twenty and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. — 2 Chronicles 28:1
Answer: He burned incense and burned his sons in fire, following the abominations of the nations. — 2 Chronicles 28:3
Answer: A hundred and twenty thousand valiant men. — 2 Chronicles 28:6
Answer: Two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters, with much plunder, to Samaria. — 2 Chronicles 28:8
Answer: The prophet Oded. — 2 Chronicles 28:9
Answer: They clothed them, gave them sandals, food and drink, anointed them, put the weak on donkeys and brought them to Jericho. — 2 Chronicles 28:15
Chapter 28 shows the consequences of a heart that turns from God, but it also surprises us with an unexpected act of compassion. Oded and the chiefs of Ephraim oppose injustice even though their own countrymen were the victors. In a class or group you can ask when we have had to raise our voice against something our own group was doing, and what it cost us.
The gesture of caring for the captive also challenges us: clothe, feed, heal, accompany. Concrete mercy is a form of obedience. And Ahaz's story warns us against seeking help anywhere but in God when distress comes: the further the heart drifts, the harder it is to return.
2 Chronicles 28 ends with the temple shut and altars to other gods throughout Jerusalem. It is the lowest point of Judah's story in this book. But the next king, Hezekiah, will open the doors of the house of the Lord again, as we will see in chapter 29.
Because the people and their king had forsaken the Lord. In the Chronicler's view, Judah's military defeats are God's discipline for unfaithfulness, though the enemies were also responsible for their cruelty, as Oded says.
It refers to the child sacrifice of certain pagan cults, which the law of Moses expressly forbade. The Valley of the Son of Hinnom became from then on a symbol of judgment.
The text says the king of Assyria came against him and oppressed him instead of strengthening him, though Ahaz gave him treasures from the temple and the palace. Trusting a foreign power instead of the Lord did not give him the security he sought.