The big picture
Ahaz, the new king of Judah, rules in Jerusalem, its capital, but turns from God. He makes images for other gods and burns his children in fire. Syria and Israel, neighbouring kingdoms, defeat his people. Oded, a prophet who speaks for God, challenges Israel for treating fellow Israelites as captives. Some leaders listen and return them with care. Ahaz seeks aid from Assyria, a stronger kingdom, but receives no rescue. His distress drives him further into the worship that is ruining Judah.
In this chapter
- False Worship Brings Defeat and Captivity 2 Chronicles 28:1-8
Ahaz makes images for Baalim and offers worship at many sites.
- Oded Warns the Victorious Army 2 Chronicles 28:9-11
Oded meets the army returning to Samaria and speaks in God's name.
- The Captives Receive Care and Return 2 Chronicles 28:12-15
Four leaders stand against the returning troops.
- Assyria Takes Gifts Without Giving Help 2 Chronicles 28:16-21
Ahaz asks Assyria for help as more enemies attack Judah.
- Distress Drives Ahaz Further from God 2 Chronicles 28:22-27
Ahaz responds to distress by committing more wrong.
Central truth
Ahaz's unfaithfulness brings Judah low, while leaders in Israel heed a warning and show care to the captives they had taken.
Scripture beside the summary
2 Chronicles · King James Version · 272 Chronicles 28:1-8
False Worship Brings Defeat and Captivity
Ahaz makes images for Baalim and offers worship at many sites. He also burns his children in fire, copying acts God condemns. God gives him over to Syrian and Israelite attacks. Huge numbers die, including royal officials and the king's son. Israel takes two hundred thousand women and children captive, along with much spoil, to Samaria. The defeat is explained through Judah's abandonment of God. The scale of suffering reaches far past Ahaz himself into households whose members are killed or carried away.
In everyday life
A relief worker records families arriving after a ruler's harmful choices have brought disaster. The adults carry few possessions, and children wait for news of missing relatives. She lists people by name rather than calling the whole loss a change of government. Ahaz's acts include child sacrifice, and Judah's defeat is presented as God's judgement.
Notice
2 Chronicles 28:8 The captives include women, sons and daughters taken by their own kin. The number makes clear how deeply the defeat reaches into ordinary households.
2 Chronicles 28:1-8
King James Version1Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
3Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
4He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
5Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
6For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
7And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king’s son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king.
8And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
2 Chronicles 28:9-11
Oded Warns the Victorious Army
Oded meets the army returning to Samaria and speaks in God's name. God allowed Judah's defeat because of its sin, he says, but Israel has killed with outrageous rage. Now the victors plan to enslave the survivors. Oded asks whether they too have sins before God. He commands them to return their captive relatives because God's anger rests on them. Being used to punish another people does not make their own cruelty right. The winners must answer for what they have chosen to do.
In everyday life
A trauma counsellor stands beside volunteers as news arrives that a long-feared threat has ended. She stops talk of revenge against people linked to those responsible. Relief does not erase their own duty to protect the vulnerable. Oded addresses an army already guilty of mass killing and warns that enslaving captives will deepen God's anger.
Notice
2 Chronicles 28:10 Oded asks the victors about their own sins before God. The question refuses to let Judah's guilt become an excuse for Israel's cruelty.
2 Chronicles 28:9-11
King James Version9But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
10And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
11Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
2 Chronicles 28:12-15
The Captives Receive Care and Return
Four leaders stand against the returning troops. They warn that bringing captives into the city would add to Israel's already serious guilt. The soldiers leave the prisoners and spoil before the leaders and assembly. Named men then clothe those who lack clothing, give them shoes, food and drink, and tend them with oil. Those too weak to walk ride on donkeys. They bring them to their kin at Jericho, then return home. The warning leads to practical care as well as release.
In everyday life
A shelter coordinator refuses to let volunteers hold displaced families' belongings as payment for transport. She arranges shoes, meals and rides for those unable to walk. The families leave with their possessions instead of another debt. These captives are released by a victorious army responding to a prophet's warning about guilt before God.
Notice
2 Chronicles 28:15 The weak receive transport as well as food and clothing. Returning the captives means meeting needs caused by their ordeal, not merely opening a gate.
2 Chronicles 28:12-15
King James Version12Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,
13And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.
14So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.
15And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
2 Chronicles 28:16-21
Assyria Takes Gifts Without Giving Help
Ahaz asks Assyria for help as more enemies attack Judah. Edom takes captives, and the Philistines occupy towns and their villages. The account says God has brought Judah low because Ahaz led it into great wrong. Tilgath-pilneser of Assyria comes, but increases his distress instead of strengthening him. Ahaz takes wealth from the temple, palace and officials to pay him. The gift does not secure help. The king loses resources while depending on a foreign power that does not deliver the safety he seeks.
In everyday life
A shopkeeper pays a larger rival to protect her deliveries during a dispute. The rival takes the fee but adds new demands while her stock keeps disappearing. Money removed from the shop's reserve brings no security. Ahaz also strips sacred and royal resources, while the account traces Judah's weakness to wrongdoing before God.
Notice
2 Chronicles 28:21 Wealth comes from three sources, including God's house, yet the payment brings no help. The costly appeal leaves the original danger unresolved.
2 Chronicles 28:16-21
King James Version16At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.
17For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
18The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
19For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
20And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
21For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.
2 Chronicles 28:22-27
Distress Drives Ahaz Further from God
Ahaz responds to distress by committing more wrong. He sacrifices to the gods of Damascus because he thinks they helped the Syrians defeat him. Instead, these gods bring ruin to him and Israel. He breaks temple vessels, closes its doors, and builds altars throughout Jerusalem and Judah for other gods. After his death, he is buried in the city but not in the royal tombs. His son Hezekiah succeeds him. The reign ends with worship broken and the king denied part of the usual burial honour.
In everyday life
A struggling gambler sells household tools to copy the habits of people who appear to win. Each loss persuades him to invest more in the same false hope. The room empties while he calls the next wager his rescue. Ahaz's worsening choices concern rival gods and the closing of the temple to God's worship.
Notice
2 Chronicles 28:23 Ahaz treats the Syrians' victory as evidence that their gods will help him. The account answers that belief by naming those gods as his ruin.
2 Chronicles 28:22-27
King James Version22And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.
23For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.
24And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
25And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.
26Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
2 Chronicles 28:1 begins with “Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD…”
Where the chapter turns
2 Chronicles 28:12 forms a natural hinge: “Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and…”
The final note
2 Chronicles 28:27 leaves the reader with “And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, Israel, Judah, king, Ahaz, captives help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- behold
- look, or pay close attention
- unto
- to
- hath
- has
- wherefore
- for that reason
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
