2 Chronicles 16:11

CONCLUSION OF THE REIGN (2Ch_16:11-14).

Comp. 1Ki_15:23-24.

(11) The acts of Asa.—Or, history.

The book of the kings of Judah and Israel.—See Introduction, and 1Ki_15:23. The mention in that verse of his “might” or “prowess,” and of “the cities that he built,” confirms the account in 2 Chronicles 14 concerning his defensive measures and the invasion of Zerah.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch 16:11 And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they [are] written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

Ver. 11. First and last.] He did his best at first: but the end of a thing should be better than the beginning.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ch_16:11-12

And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the books of the kings.

Asa; or failure at the last

Asas case is a Scriptural declaration, that one who has begun well, who has even done much for God, may fall miserably, may fail at last. What were the causes of his fall?

I. He was tried by great success. Nothing is more liable than success to produce self-confidence, and neglect of Him who bestoweth on the wise their wisdom and on the strong their strength. Unless s man watches himself very narrowly, pride will insinuate itself even into the midst of his thanksgivings; complacent thoughts of his own foresight underlie his recognition of Gods providence; confessions of his own good desert qualify his confessions of sin.

II. He was placed in the perilous position of having to guide and instruct others. This is a great snare to any one. The mother who teaches her child to pray; the father who watches over his sons moral progress; the master who is a strict censor of the behaviour of his servants; the Scripture-reader, the district visitor, the nurse of the sick, the almoner of the poor; yea, even the minister of God who has professionally to bring before his people the means of grace and hope of glory; these persons are all in danger of neglecting themselves--of placing themselves, as it were, ab extra, to the duties which they have to inculcate. They are tempted to forget themselves, to abate their self-discipline, and when the novelty of their employment has passed away, to fall back on other things; it may be, to end with languor, disgust, or carelessness, if not with utter faithlessness and sin. (D. Hessey.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The end of Asa's reign; cf. Kg1 15:23-24. - On Ch2 16:11, cf. the Introduction.

Ch2 16:12-13

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet, and that in a high degree. The words חיו עד־למעלה are a circumstantial clause: to a high degree was his sickness. "And also in his sickness (as in the war against Baasha) he sought not Jahve, but turned to the physicians." דּרשׁ is primarily construed with the accus., as usually in connection with יהוה or אלהים, to seek God, to come before Him with prayer and supplication; then with בּ, as usually of an oracle, or seeking help of idols (cf. Sa1 28:7; Kg2 1:2.; Ch1 10:14), and so here of superstitious trust in the physicians. Consequently it is not the mere inquiring of the physicians which is here censured, but only the godless manner in which Asa trusted in the physicians.

Ch2 16:14

The Chronicle gives a more exact account of Asa's burial than Kg1 15:24. He was buried in the city of David; not in the general tomb of the kings, however, but in a tomb which he had caused to be prepared for himself in that place. And they laid him upon the bed, which had been filled with spices (בּשׂמים, see Exo 30:23), and those of various kinds, mixed for an anointing mixture, prepared. זנים from זן, kind, species; וּזנים, et varia quidem. מרקּח in Piel only here, properly spiced, from רקח, to spice, usually to compound an unguent of various spices. מרקחת, the compounding of ointment; so also Ch1 9:30, where it is usually translated by unguent. מעשׂה, work, manufacture, is a shortened terminus technicus for רוקח מעשׂה, manufacture of the ointment-compounder (cf. Exo 30:25, Exo 30:35), and the conjecture that רוקח has been dropped out of the text by mistake is unnecessary. "And they kindled for him a great, very great burning," cf. Ch2 21:19 and Jer 34:5, whence we gather that the kindling of a burning, i.e., the burning of odorous spices, was customary at the burials of kings. Here it is only remarked that at Asa's funeral an extraordinary quantity of spices was burnt. A burning of the corpse, or of the bed or clothes of the dead, is not to be thought of here: the Israelites were in the habit of burying their dead, not of burning them. That occurred only in extraordinary circumstances-as, for example, in the case of the bodies of Saul and his sons; see on Sa1 31:12. The kindling and burning of spices at the solemn funerals of persons of princely rank, on the other hand, occurred also among other nations, e.g., among the Romans; cf. Plinii hist. nat. xii. 18, and M. Geier, de luctu Hebr. c. 6.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

11–14 (= 1Ki_15:23-24). The Epilogue of Asa’s Reign

11. of Judah and Israel] In 1 Kin. the appeal is to “the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the forty first year of his reign. See Kg1 15:10.

2 Chronicles 16:14

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This verse, with the following three, is represented by the very summarized but sufficiently significant parallel of 1Ki_15:23, 1Ki_15:24. Note that the reference work cited in this verse as the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, is in the paralled cited as "the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah." Of course, the latter citation was much the earlier in point of time.

Vers. 11-14.

The career of Asa.

I HIS LIFE.

1. The length of his reign. Forty-one years. His father, whose heart was not perfect" towards God, (1Ki_15:3) reigned only three years. (2Ch_13:3) The Old Testament promised long life as a reward to piety. (Psa_34:12-14) But, even without a special promise, a religious life is calculated to prolong days. "Fear God, and keep his commandments," is the first rule of health.

1. The incidents of his reign.

1. The reformation of religion. (2Ch_14:3)

2. The building of fortresses. (2Ch_14:6)

3. The preparation of an army. (2Ch_14:8)

4. The defeat of Zerah the Ethiopian. (2Ch_14:9)

5. The formation of a grand national covenant. (2Ch_15:8)

6. The making of a league with Benhadad. (2Ch_16:1)

7. The oppression of his people. (2Ch_16:10)

8. The character of his reign.

(1) Peaceful. It began with ten years of quiet; (2Ch_14:1) and, with the two exceptions above specified, it had no more hostile invasions to repel.

(2) Prosperous. Since the days of Solomon the kingdom had not attained to such a pinnacle of excellence of material strength and religious consolidation as it did under the son of Abijah.

II HIS DEATH.

1. The date of it. In the forty-first year of his reign; most likely he was over sixty at the time of his decease.

2. The cause of it. Twofold.

(1) Disease, Two years before his end he became diseased exceedingly in his feet; probably with gout (Clarke, Jamiesen). Whatever its nature, it was fatal. Disease a sure precursor of death, of which every ailment should be a monitor.

(2) Unbelief. Had he consulted Jehovah about his malady (the Chronicler suggests), he might have been cured; but, as in repelling Baasha"s attack he relied more on Benhadad than on Jehovah, so in his illness he repaired to the physicians instead of to Jehovah. To infer from this that Asa sinned in consulting a doctor, and that Christians should abstain from calling in medical advisers when out of health, is unreasonable. Asa"s error lay, not in consulting the physicians, but in reposing trust in them to the exclusion of the Lord; and, as Paul took Luke the physician with him on his missionary journeys (Col_4:14; 2Ti_4:11) it may be argued that he at least did not regard it as inconsistent with religious principle to either give or accept medical advice. Still, what the doctors could not do for Asa, Jehovah could have done had he been consulted (Exo_15:26; Psa_103:3) so that unbelief was a real cause of Asa"s death. Perhaps it is the cause of many deaths still. Without hinting that many practitioners are no better than those of whom the Gospels tell (Mar_5:26; Luk_8:43) it is still true that physicians cannot cure without the Divine blessing; and, doubtless, in cases that is withheld, because it is not asked either by the physician or his patient.

III HIS BURIAL.

1. The place of his sepulture. The city of David, where his fathers slept, (1Ki_15:24) yet not in the general tomb of the kings, but in his own sepulchres;" in a tomb he had specially caused to be excavated for himself (ver. 14). Joseph of Arimathaea hewed out a tomb for himself. (Luk_23:53) The first thing a Pharaoh of Egypt did on ascending the throne was to construct for himself and descendants a royal mausoleum (Harkness, "Egyptian Life and History." p. 57).

2. The manner of his entombment.

(1) His corpse was embalmed. The bed on which it was laid was filled with sweet odours and spices of divers kinds, prepared by the apothecaries" art. Strictly speaking, this was only an imitation of the Egyptian practice (Keil, Archaologie," Riehm, art. "Begrianis"). Compare the embalmments of Jacob (Gen_50:2) and of Jesus. (Joh_19:39, Joh_19:40)

(2) A very great burning was made for him. This burning was not of the body (A. Clarke), which, among the Hebrews, was commonly interred the burning of the bodies of Saul and his sons (1Sa_31:12) being exceptional but of the prepared spices. Other nations practised similar rites at the funerals of kings. Jehoram (2Ch_21:19) and Jehoiakim, (Jer_22:18) on account of their wickedness, were denied such honours; Zedekiah was promised them, (Jer_34:5) perhaps, on account of his misfortunes.

IV HIS CHARACTER.

1. A good man. His heart was perfect (2Ch_15:7; 1Ki_15:14) if his life was not. (2Ch_16:10) The general tenor of his conduct was upright, though he erred somewhat towards the close of his career. "It was thought a high eulogy on Jehoshaphat his son that he walked in all the way of his father" (Rawlinson); while the honours paid Asa on dying showed that his countrymen esteemed him to have been an honourable prince. His "faults and follies" may suggest that no man is perfect, and that "in many things we all offend.

2. An ardent reformer. He removed the altars and.the high places of the strange gods or foreign divinities, (2Ch_14:3) though he left standing those belonging to Jehovah (2Ch_15:17; 1Ki_15:14) He "commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers", (2Ch_14:4) and bound mere by a solemn league and covenant so to do, (2Ch_15:14) though he himself, in old age, declined a little from his early faith. (2Ch_16:2, 2Ch_16:12)

3. A valiant soldier. That with his piety he combined courage, his encounter with Zerah the Ethiopian evinced. If he was genuinely good, he was also conspicuously great. W.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

from first to last

This is an idiom. AT: "from the first thing that he did to the last thing that he did" or "everything he did" (See: Idiom)

the book of the kings of Judah and Israel

This is a book that no longer exists.

the thirty-ninth year

"year 39" (See: Numbers)

Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Asa had a disease in his feet" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

works

written

king

Judah

Israel

Yahweh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.