2nd Chronicles Chapter 28 verse 5 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - The King of Syria. The name of this king (Rezin) does not appear in this chapter, but it does in the parallel, vers. 5,6, 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 ver. 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, 8, 9.). Brought them to Damascus. The mode of the first introduction of the name of Ahaz in connection with Damascus in the parallel (ver. 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, ver. 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 ver. 5 and all of ver. 6 find their real place before (say) the word "Damascus;" and secondly, that they are strictly and conterminously paralleled by the former part of ver. 5 parallel.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersTHE WAR WITH REZIN OF SYRIA AND PEKAH OF ISRAEL; OR, THE SYRO-EPHRAITE CAMPAIGN (2Chronicles 28:5-9). (Comp. 2Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1.)(5) Wherefore (and) the Lord his God delivered him.--These opening words help us to understand the ground of the variations of the present account from that of 2 Kings 16. The chronicler purposes, not so much to describe a campaign, as to select those events of it which most conspicuously illustrate God's chastisements of the apostate Ahaz. Accordingly, throughout the description, the historical is subordinated to the didactic motive. (Comp. the account of the Syrian invasion, 2Chronicles 24:23-24.) Not history for its own sake, but history teaching by example, is what the writer desires to present. At the same time, the events here recorded are above critical suspicion. Thenius characterises the whole section (2Chronicles 28:5-15) as "thoroughly historical." . . .