1. Ahaz] The full form of the name is Jehoahaz, the “Ja-u-ḥa-zi” of an inscription of Tiglath-pileser IV.
twenty years old] As he died sixteen years later leaving a son of twenty-five (Hezekiah, xxix. 1), Ahaz would have been only ten years old when Hezekiah was born. The numeral here or in xxix. 1 must therefore be incorrect. The Peshitṭa in this verse reads “twenty-five years old,” which is more suitable and may be right, but the coincidence would be strange if three kings in succession ascended the throne at twenty-five years of age (compare xxvii. 1 and xxix. 1).
he did not that which was right] It is not said of Ahaz as of Manasseh, the worst of all the Judean kings, that “he did that which was evil” (xxxiii. 2).
³Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
3. the valley of the son of Hinnom] The name in Hebrew Gē-ben-hinnōm or Gē-hinnōm is more familiar in the Greek form Gehenna (Matthew v. 22, Revised Version margin). The valley was south and south-west of Jerusalem. The evil reputation of the place perhaps was due originally to some connection with the worship of Molech (Jeremiah vii. 31, 32). Later it appears that the refuse of Jerusalem and the corpses of criminals were deposited in this valley, and as the verse Isaiah lxvi. 24 “they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ...” was associated with this valley, the name Gehenna was eventually used to signify the place of eternal punishment (compare Mark ix. 43).
burnt his children in the fire] There is no doubt that actual sacrifice of the child’s life by fire is implied in this formula and in parallel phrases such as “made his son to pass through the fire” (2 Kings xvi. 3). Unfortunately the gruesome evidence regarding child-sacrifice among the ancients—Greeks and Romans as well as Semites—is far too strong to allow the theory that always or even generally branding or some symbolical dedication by fire was employed (see Barnes on 1 Kings xi. 5). It seems that the horrible custom, which was common with the early Canaanites and Phoenicians, was very rare among the early Israelites and the kindred people of Moab (see Judges xi. 31 and 39; 2 Kings iii. 27), and was called forth only by the pressure of extreme need. Evidently in the break-up of the national faith which attended the imminent downfall of the State of Judah the evil authority of Ahaz and Manasseh made the practice common (see xxxiii. 6; 2 Kings xxi. 6; Micah vi. 7; Jeremiah vii. 31; Psalms cvi. 37 f.). Genesis xxii. 1–18 may be regarded as a magnificent repudiation of the rite in the worship of Jehovah, and the practice is expressly forbidden in the Law, Leviticus xviii. 21; Deuteronomy xviii. 10.
his children] In Kings, “his son” (singular), a better reading. It is possible that the sacrifice was intended to avert the danger threatened by the Syro-Ephraimite alliance.
⁴And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
4. under every green tree] The Hebrew word here used for “green” (ra‘anān) means rather “flourishing,” the reference being not so much to colour as to condition and size. Large fine trees (which are rarer in the East than in the West) are important landmarks; compare 1 Chronicles x. 12; Genesis xii. 6, xxxv. 4. In different ways such trees acquired a sacred or semi-sacred character (Genesis xviii. 1, xxi. 33; Judges vi. 11); in some cases because they were associated with theophanies, in others perhaps because the flourishing state of the tree was regarded as the sign of the presence of some local deity. “No one can imagine how many voices a tree has who has not come up to it from the silence of the great desert,” G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 88; compare the same writer’s Early Poetry of Israel, pp. 32, 33.
5–7 (compare 2 Kings xvi. 5–9; Isaiah vii. 1–9).
The Syro-Ephraimite War.