2 Kings 16:18

And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) The covert for the sabbath.—A very obscure expression. The best interpretation is “the covered hall (or stand) set apart for the use of the king and his attendants when he visited the Temple on holy days” (reading, with the Hebrew margin, mûsak, which is attested by the Vulg., musach, and the Syriac “house of the sabbath”). The thing is not mentioned anywhere else.

In the house—i.e., in the sacred precincts, probably in the inner forecourt.

The king’s entry without.—The outer entry of the king, i.e., the gate by which the king entered the inner court (Ezekiel 46:1-2).

Turned he from the house of the Lord.—Or, he altered in the house of the Lord, i.e., stripped them of their ornamental work.

For.—Or, from fear of . . .—But comp. Genesis 6:13, “through them.” Ahaz durst not appear before Tiglath without a present. It is possible also that he anticipated a visit from the great king.

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 16:18. The covert for the sabbath, turned he from the house of the Lord — There is a great variety of opinions concerning this מוסךְ השׂבת, musach hahsabbath, or covert of, or for the sabbath, here spoken of, and why it is so called. Mr. Locke says, It was something made for the purpose of covering the people from the injuries of the weather on the sabbath days, when more were wont to assemble at the temple than the porch could contain: and Houbigant supposes it was something of the same kind. It is, indeed, generally understood to have been some building, either where the priests, after their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came, which they did upon the sabbath day; or in which the guard of the temple kept their station; or some canopy, or other covered place, under which the king used to sit to hear God’s word, and see the sacrifices, which might be called the covert of the sabbath, because the chief times in which the king used it for those ends was the weekly sabbath, and other solemn days of feasting or fasting, (which all come under the name of sabbaths, in the Old Testament,) upon which the king used more solemnly to present himself before the Lord than at other times. “And the reason,” says Dr. Dodd, “why the king ordered this to be taken away was, because he intended to trouble himself no more with coming to the temple, and by this action to express his hatred and contempt of the sabbath, as his removing the bases, the laver, and the brazen sea, was probably with a design to deface the service of God in the temple, and thence to bring it into public disesteem.” The king’s entry without — The passage by which he used to go from his palace to the temple, and which had been made for the convenience of the royal family; turned he — Another way, and for other uses, from the house of the Lord — To show that he did not intend to frequent the house of the Lord any longer. For the king of Assyria — To oblige him, who probably had returned his visit, and found fault with this entry, as inconvenient, and a disparagement to his palace. Thus, to ingratiate himself with this heathen king, he expresses his public contempt and rejection of that religion which had been the only partition wall between the kings of Judah and other kings.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:17-20 Ahaz put contempt upon the sabbath, and thus opened a wide inlet to all manner of sin. This he did for the king of Assyria. When those who have had a ready passage to the house of the Lord, turn it another way to please their neighbours, they are going down-hill apace to ruin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The covert ... in the house - A canopied seat in the temple for the king and his family when they attended public worship on the sabbath. It stood no doubt in the inner court of the temple.

The king's entry without - This would seem to have been a private passage by which the king crossed the outer court to the east gate of the inner court when he visited the temple Ezekiel 46:1-2.

Turned he from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria - This passage is very obscure. Some translate - "altered he in the house of the Lord, because of the kine of Assyria," supposing the "covert" and the "passage" to have been of rich materials, and Ahaz to have taken them to eke out his "presents to the king of Assyria." Others render, "removed he into the house of the Lord from fear of the king of Assyria."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. the covert for the Sabbath—the portico through which the priests entered the temple on the Sabbath.

the king's entry without—a private external entrance for the king into the temple. The change made by Ahaz consisted in removing both of these into the temple from fear of the king of Assyria, that, in case of a siege, he might secure the entrance of the temple from him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The covert for the sabbath; the form and use whereof is now unknown. It is generally understood of some building or covert; either that where the priests, after their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came and relieved them, which was done upon the sabbath day; see 2 Kings 11:5,7; or that in which the guard or watchmen of the temple kept their station; or that under which the king used to sit to hear God’s word, and see the sacrifices; which is called the covert of the sabbath, because the chief times in which the king used it for those ends was the weekly sabbath, and other solemn days of feasting, or fasting, (which all come under the name of sabbaths in the Old Testament,) upon which the king used more certainly and solemnly to present himself before the Lord than at other times.

The king’s entry without; by which the king used to go from his palace to the temple: See Poole "1 Kings 10:5,12".

For the king of Assyria, i.e. that he might ingratiate himself with the king of Assyria, by his public contempt and rejection of that religion which had been the only partition-wall between the kings of Judah and other kings; and which possibly the present king of Assyria did vehemently dislike and hate, and therefore required these things from Ahaz.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house,.... Used on the sabbath day, either for the people to sit under to hear the law explained by the priests; or for the course of the priests to be in, that went out that day, to give way to the course that entered, which yet did not depart from the temple till evening; or rather for the king himself to sit under, while attending the temple service of that day, and might be the cover of the scaffold, 2 Chronicles 6:13 and be very rich cloth of gold; and therefore he took it away for the king of Assyria, or to signify that he should not frequent the place any more: and hence it follows:

and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord; the way which led from the king's palace to it, he turned it a round about way, that it might not be discerned there was a way from the one to the other: and this he did

for the king of Assyria; to gratify him, that he might from hence conclude that he had wholly relinquished the worship of God in the temple, and should cleave to the gods of Damascus and Syria; or for fear of him, that he might not see the way into the temple, and take away the vessels; or find him, should he be obliged to hide himself there, when in danger by him.

Geneva Study Bible

And the {l} covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD {m} for the king of Assyria.

(l) Or tent, in which they lay on the sabbath, who had served their week in the temple and so departed home.

(m) Either to flatter the king of Assyria, when he should thus see him change the ordinance of God or else that the temple might be a refuge for him if the king should suddenly assault his house.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. And the covert [R.V. the covered way] for the sabbath] The noun, which occurs nowhere else, signifies some colonnade along which the king could pass when on the sabbath he went to the temple. It is not mentioned in the description of the temple building, and must have been added afterwards, and most likely was richly adorned.

that they had built in the house] i.e. in the temple court, not in the interior of the temple-building.

and the king’s entry without] This is perhaps the ‘ascent’ mentioned 2 Chronicles 9:4 and which called forth the great admiration of the queen of Sheba. We may be sure it was made as beautiful as Solomon’s workmen and wealth could make it. This was outside the temple precincts but perhaps was closely joined to the covered way before mentioned so that the whole of the king’s progress might be made in private.

turned he from [R.V. unto] the house of the Lord] There is considerable difficulty in this clause. One thing however is clear, that ‘from’ cannot be correct. The accusative is the case of direction, and there is no preposition expressed in the original. Hence ‘unto’ must be the sense. The A.V. seems to have intended to describe the removal or alteration of these two passages so as to separate them from the temple, the R.V., which gives in the margin ‘round’, appears to imply that both the erections, the one from the palace to the temple area, the other within the court, were brought into closer proximity to the temple-building. But the verb rendered ‘turned’ signifies ‘changed’ also, and it seems not unlikely that it refers to an alteration made in these colonnades similar to that which had been made with the bases and the brasen sea. From them all the decorative portion had been taken away lest it should excite the cupidity of the Assyrian. And in the richly decorated ascent and covered way a like dismantling took place and for a like reason. If this be the sense, then ‘unto the house of the Lord’ must be taken as an adverbial clause explaining that the removal of ornaments and gold took place throughout the whole length, even up to the very temple building.

for [R.V. because of] the king of Assyria] The preposition=literally ‘from the face of’ is a form constantly employed after verbs of fleeing (Genesis 16:8), of seeking help (Isaiah 19:20) and so of fearing, humbling oneself, trembling, &c. This is its sense here. Ahaz did what he did, because he was fearful that otherwise the Assyrian king would seize on all that was choicest. The tribute already claimed had doubtless been large, and the subject monarch though glad of his deliverance from Rezin and Pekah, felt that the drain on his resources ought to be allowed to extend no farther, if he could prevent it. We need not suppose that Tiglath-pileser was about to come in person to visit Jerusalem. His emissaries were sure to be there, and the report of existing treasure was sure to give rise to enlarged demands.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house. The "covert for the sabbath" was probably (as Keil notes) "a covered place or stand in the court of the temple, to be used by the king whenever he visited the temple with his retinue on the sabbath, or on feast-days." It may have been elaborately ornamented. And the king's entry without. This may have been "the ascent into the house of the Lord," which Solomon constructed for his own use (1 Kings 10:5), and which was among those marvels of art that made the spirit of the Queen of Sheba faint within her. Turned he from the house of the Lord for the King of Assyria. It is not clear what meaning our translators intended to express, and it is still less clear what was the sense intended by the original writer. Ahaz did something to the royal stand inside the temple, and to the;' ascent" which led to it, and what he did was done, not "for the King of Assyria," but "for fear of the King of Assyria;" but what exactly his action was, we cannot say. No satisfactory meaning has been assigned to הֵסֵב בֵית יְהוָה by any commentator. 2 Kings 16:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"The covered Sabbath-stand, which they had built in the house (temple), and the outer entrance of the king he turned (i.e., removed) into the house of Jehovah before the king of Assyria." השּׁבּת מיסך (Keri מוּסך, from סכך, to cover) is no doubt a covered place, stand or hall in the court of the temple, to be used by the king whenever he visited the temple with his retinue on the Sabbath or on feast-days; and "the outer entrance of the king" is probably the special ascent into the temple for the king mentioned in 1 Kings 10:5. In what the removal of it consisted it is impossible to determine, from the want of information as to its original character. According to Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 621) and Thenius, יהוה בּית הסב means, "he altered (these places), i.e., he robbed them of their ornaments, in the house of Jehovah." This is quite arbitrary. For even if יהוה בּית could mean "in the house of Jehovah" in this connection, הסב does not mean to disfigure, and still less "to deprive of ornaments." In 2 Kings 23:34 and 2 Kings 24:17 it signifies to alter the name, not to disfigure it. Again, אשּׁוּר מלך מפּני, "for fear of the king of Assyria," cannot mean, in this connection, "to make presents to the king of Assyria." And with this explanation, which is grammatically impossible, the inference drawn from it, namely, that Ahaz sent the ornaments of the king's stand and king's ascent to the king of Assyria along with the vessels mentioned in 2 Kings 16:17, also falls to the ground. If the alterations which Ahaz made in the stands and the brazen sea had any close connection with his relation to Tiglath-pileser, which cannot be proved, Ahaz must have been impelled by fear to make them, not that he might send them as presents to him, but that he might hide them from him if he came to Jerusalem, to which 2 Chronicles 28:20-21 seems to refer. It is also perfectly conceivable, as Zllich (Die Cherubimwagen, p. 56) conjectures, that Ahaz merely broke off the panels from the stands and removed the oxen from the brazen sea, that he might use these artistic works to decorate some other place, possibly his palace. - Whether these artistic works were restored or not at the time of Hezekiah's reformation or in that of Josiah, we have no accounts to show. All that can be gathered from 2 Kings 25:13-14; Jeremiah 52:17, and Jeremiah 27:19, is, that the stands and the brazen sea were still in existence in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and that on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans they were broken in pieces and carried away to Babylonia as brass. The brazen oxen are also specially mentioned in Jeremiah 52:20, which is not the case in the parallel passage 2 Kings 25:13; though this does not warrant the conclusion that they were no longer in existence at that time.