Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.

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 2Ch 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 (Gen 16:8), of seeking help (Isa 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.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 kings 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 Eze 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.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. And the covert for the Sabbath] There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert, or, as it is in the Hebrew, the musach, of the Sabbath. As the word, and others derived from the same root, signify covering or booths, it is very likely that this means either a sort of canopy which was erected on the Sabbath days for the accommodation of the people who came to worship, and which Ahaz took away to discourage them from that worship; or a canopy under which the king and his family reposed themselves, and which he transported to some other place to accommodate the king of Assyria when he visited him. Jarchi supposes that it was a sort of covert way that the kings of Judah had to the temple, and Ahaz had it removed lest the king of Assyria, going by that way, and seeing the sacred vessels, should covet them. If that way had been open, he might have gone by it into the temple, and have seen the sacred vessels, and so have asked them from a man who was in no condition to refuse them, however unwilling he might be to give them up. The removing of this, whatever it was, whether throne or canopy, or covered way, cut off the communication between the king’s house and the temple; and the king of Assyria would not attempt to go into that sacred place by that other passage to which the priests alone had access.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

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 2Ki 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 Gods 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 kings entry without; by which the king used to go from his palace to the temple: See Poole “1Ki 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.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

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

the king’s entry withoutaprivate external entrance for the king into the temple. The changemade by Ahaz consisted in removing both of these into the temple fromfear of the king of Assyria, that, in case of a siege, he mightsecure the entrance of the temple from him.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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, 2Ch 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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(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, msak, which is attested by the Vulg., musach, and the Syriac house of the sabbath). The thing is not mentioned anywhere else.

In the housei.e., in the sacred precincts, probably in the inner forecourt.

The kings entry without.The outer entry of the king, i.e., the gate by which the king entered the inner court (Eze. 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. Gen. 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.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

18. The covert for the sabbath Keil renders, the covered sabbath-stand, and explains it with probable correctness as some “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.” Such a covert would naturally be furnished and ornamented with many precious things, and would be an evidence of wealth.

That they had built A kind of impersonal expression, equivalent to which had been built. The king’s entry without Probably the magnificent ascent from the palace to the temple, which, in the days of Solomon, had so overwhelmed the queen of Sheba. 1Ki 10:5.

Turned he from the house of the Lord That is, he turned them aside from the purposes for which they were built; he changed them, perhaps to other uses. He changed them, as he did the bases, and the laver, and the brazen oxen, by removing them from sight, or else taking away all their costly adornings.

For the king of Assyria Rather, from the king of Assyria, or from fear of the king, as Bahr explains, referring for this use of the word to Gen 7:7; Jdg 9:21; Isa 20:6, and other passages. Some understand that Ahaz removed all these sacred things from the temple for the purpose of presenting them to the king of Assyria; but 2Ki 25:16, and Jer 52:20, show that some of them were in Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian conquest. Ahaz removed them, not as a present for the king of Assyria, but to hide them from the king. He desired to hide from the covetous Assyrian monarch these evidences of wealth, and so removed them from their sacred places. Some are of opinion that under the reformation of Hezekiah or of Josiah they were restored to their places again.

This effort of King Ahaz to conceal his treasures from Tiglath-pileser only confirms the statement made, 2Ch 28:20, that his alliance with the Assyrian king “strengthened him not” was no permanent assistance, but rather a curse, for it “distressed him,” and left him a dishonoured vassal of a great heathen power.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Ki 16:18. And the covert for the sabbath Something, perhaps, which was made for this purpose, that, on the sabbath days, there coming a great throng, the porch not being able to contain them, they might be kept under this covering from the injuries of the weather. Houbigant supposes that it was something of this kind. The prophet Ezekiel tells us expressly, that the gate of the inner court which looked towards the east was opened only on the sabbath, and on the day of the new moon; and that on these days the king was to enter the temple at this gate, and to continue at the entrance of the priests’ court (where was the brazen scaffold which Solomon erected, 2Ch 6:13 a place for the king to pay his devotions on) until his sacrifices were offered: and if so, the word musak, which we translate covert, might be a kind of canopy, or other covered place under which the king sat when he came to the service of the temple on the sabbath, or other great solemnities, and which was therefore called the covert of the sabbath: and the reason 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 brasen sea, 2Ki 16:17 was palpably with a design to deface the service of God in the temple, and thence to bring it into public disesteem. But, in the midst of his days, God, in mercy to his people, stopped his career of wickedness, and at thirty-six years of age he died, and left his crown to his most worthy successor and son Hezekiah.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Ki 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.

Ver. 18. And the covert for the Sabbath. ] a Where the priests, who had served all the week before, reposed themselves on the Sabbath; and next day went home. This place was covered over to keep them from wind and weather. 2Ch 28:24

For the king of Assyria. ] Either to make money for him, or to flatter with him, that he might appear profane enough, and alien from God’s true service; or for fear of his force, lest by that entry he should break into the palace.

a Musach quoque sabbati. – Vulg.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)