Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 16:14
And they buried him in his own sepulchers, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds [of spices] prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.
14. in his own sepulchres ] In 1 Kin. with his fathers.
which he had made for himself ] R.V. which he had hewn out for himself. This clause is absent from 1 Kin.
divers kinds of spices] Mar 16:1; Joh 12:3; Joh 12:7; Joh 19:39-40.
a very great burning ] Cp. 2Ch 21:19. What is here meant is not cremation of the body, but only a burning of spices; Jer 34:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The explanation of the plural – sepulchres – will be seen in 1Ki 13:30 note.
The burning of spices in honor of a king at his funeral was customary (compare the marginal references).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. And laid him in the bed] It is very likely that the body of Asa was burnt; that the bed spoken of here was a funeral pyre, on which much spices and odoriferous woods had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics. Some think the body was not burned, but the aromatics only, in honour of the king.
How the ancients treated the bodies of the illustrious dead we learn from Virgil, in the funeral rites paid to Misenus.
Nec minus interea Misenum in littore Teucri
Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.
Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto
Ingentem struxere pyram: cui frondibus atris
Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressas
Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis, c.
AEN. vi. 214.
“Meanwhile the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,
To dead Misenus pay their obsequies.
First from the ground a lofty pile they rear
Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir.
The fabric’s front with cypress twigs they strew,
And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.
The topmost part his glittering arms adorn:
Warm waters, then, in brazen caldrons borne
Are poured to wash his body joint by joint,
And fragrant oils the stiffen’d limbs anoint.
With groans and cries Misenus they deplore:
Then on a bier, with purple cover’d o’er,
The breathless body thus bewail’d they lay,
And fire the pile (their faces turn’d away.)
Such reverend rites their fathers used to pay.
Pure oil and incense on the fire they throw,
And fat of victims which their friends bestow.
These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour,
Then on the living coals red wine they pour.
And last the relics by themselves dispose,
Which in a brazen urn the priests enclose.
Old Corineus compass’d thrice the crew,
And dipp’d an olive branch in holy dew
Which thrice he sprinkled round, and thrice aloud
Invoked the dead, and then dismiss’d the crowd.”
DRYDEN.
All these rites are of Asiatic extraction. Virgil borrows almost every circumstance from Homer; (see Iliad, xxiii., ver. 164, c.) and we well know that Homer ever describes Asiatic manners. Sometimes, especially in war, several captives were sacrificed to the manes of the departed hero. So, in the place above, the mean-souled, ferocious demon, ACHILLES, is represented sacrificing twelve Trojan captives to the ghost of his friend Patroclus. Urns containing the ashes and half-calcined bones of the dead occur frequently in barrows or tumuli in this country; most of them, no doubt, the work of the Romans. But all ancient nations, in funeral matters, have nearly the same rites.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours, as the manner of those nations was. See Gen 50:2; 2Ch 21:19.
They made a very great burning, to wit, of precious spices; thereby testifying their thankfulness for many benefits which they enjoyed under his government, and their respect to him notwithstanding his miscarriages.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. they buried him in his ownsepulchresThe tombs in the neighborhood of Jerusalem wereexcavated in the side of a rock. One cave contained several tombs orsepulchres.
laid him in the bed . . .filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spicesIt isevident that a sumptuous public funeral was given him as a tribute ofrespect and gratitude for his pious character and patrioticgovernment. But whether “the bed” means a state couch onwhich he lay exposed to public view, the odoriferous perfumes beingdesigned to neutralize the offensive smell of the corpse, or whetherit refers to an embalmment, in which aromatic spices were always usedin great profusion, it is impossible to say.
they made a very greatburning for himaccording to some, for consuming the spices.According to others, it was a magnificent pile for the cremation ofthe corpsea usage which was at that time, and long after,prevalent among the Hebrews, and the omission of which in the case ofroyal personages was reckoned a great indignity (2Ch 21:19;1Sa 31:12; Jer 34:5;Amo 6:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they buried him in his own sepulchres which he had made for himself in the city of David,…. Where was the burying place of the kings of Judah; here Asa had ordered a vault to be made for himself and his family, and therefore called sepulchres, because of the several cells therein to put separate bodies in:
and laid him in the bed; not only laid him out, as we express it, but laid him on a bed of state, where he lay in great pomp; or the funeral bed, which, with other nations r, used to be strowed with sweet smelling flowers and herbs, as follows:
which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries art; or rather confectioner or druggist; for it is a question whether there were then any such we call apothecaries; this bed was strowed with spices, myrrh, aloes, cassia, cinnamon, c. and which perhaps might be made up into a liquid, which was sprinkled over the bed and shroud in which he lay:
and they made a very great burning for him not that they made a great fire, and burned his body; for burning was not used with the Jews; but they burnt spices and other things in great quantity, in honour of him:
[See comments on Jer 34:5], and this custom continued to the times of Herod, at whose funeral there were five hundred of his domestics and freed men bearing spices s.
r Herodian. Hist. l. 4. c. 3. Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman. l. 1. c. 11. & Alstorph. de Lect. Vet. c. 19. p. 151, 152. s Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 33. sect. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) And they buried him.The particulars of this verse are also added by the chronicler.
In his own sepulchres.Not therefore in the ordinary tombs of the Kings. The plural sepulchres indicates a family tomb containing many cells.
Which he had made.Digged, or hewn out of the rock. (Comp. Job. 3:14; Isa. 22:16.) Like the Pharaohs, Asa, who was a great and powerful sovereign, prepared his own last resting-place.
Which was filled.Literally, which one had filled.
Sweet odours.Bsamm, spices (2Ch. 9:1; 2Ch. 9:9). Kinds. Heb., znim, an Aramaic word common in the Targums, but in Old Testament Hebrew only found here and in Psa. 144:13.
Prepared by the apothecaries art.Literally, Compounded in a compound of work (art). The participle mruqqah only occurs here. The word rendered compound means an ointment or compost of various spices (1Ch. 9:30). The full phrase compound of the work of the compounder occurs Exo. 30:25; Exo. 30:35.
And they made.Literally, And they burned.
Very.Ad limed. Only here, a later equivalent of ad mcud (Gen. 27:33). The burning of aromatic woods and spices was usual at the obsequies of kings (see 2Ch. 21:19; Jer. 34:5, and Note on 1Ch. 10:12). Asas distinction as a wealthy and powerful monarch, and the high esteem with which his subjects regarded him, are indicated by the extraordinary amount of spices burnt in his honour. There is no ground for supposing that the chronicler blames the exaggerated splendour and lavish excess with which this custom was observed at the burial of Asa, as if it were the burial of an Egyptian Pharaoh (Zckler). His account of the splendour of Solomon proves that he delighted to dwell on the glory of the ancient kings of his people.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Buried him in his own sepulchres He for some reason had had private tombs excavated in Jerusalem for himself and family, so that, apparently by his own desire, he was not buried in the tombs of the kings of Judah.
Laid him in the bed The niche or grave-chamber of the tomb which had been prepared for the king.
Sweet odours and divers kinds of spices The use of large quantities of perfumes and spices, especially at the burial of distinguished persons, was common among the ancient Israelites, as well as among other nations. Eighty pounds of spices are said to have been used at the funeral of Rabbi Gamaliel. At the funeral of Herod the Great five hundred servants attended as spice bearers. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus gave a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes for the burial of Jesus. See Joh 19:39, note.
A very great burning Not the burning of the dead body, for that practice was very rare in Israel, but a burning of fragrant spices, which was customary at the funerals of kings. Asa’s funeral was distinguished by the unusually large quantity of spices burned on the occasion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
IT is impossible to close our view of the life of Asa without having the mind exercised with solemn thoughts concerning an history so very mysterious and extraordinary. The Holy Ghost hath twice caused it to be recorded in his history, that though the high places were not removed; nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days. Though his latter end therefore differed so materially from the beginning, yet are we led to hope that a work of grace had passed upon his soul; and though for his rebellion and departure, like a stubborn child, under correction, he was put to bed in the dark; yet a child still, and mercifully considered so by his gracious God and Father in Christ.
But Reader! leaving the history of Asa, let you and I endeavour to make the suitable and becoming improvements from it, which a case so solemn and striking is highly calculated to propose. When we see as in his instance, and in the instance of others, such as the apostle Paul speaks of, in whose hearts a work of grace hath been manifested, that they still carry about with them a body of sin, oh! let it serve to teach us with what wariness and caution believers in Jesus should have their conversation in the world. If Paul himself groaned in consequence of this, and years after his regeneration declared that he was carnal, sold under sin; that the good he would he did not; but that the evil which he would not that he did. Oh! think, my brother, what a mass of sin this unrenewed part of our nature the body is, and with what holy jealousy should we watch over it, lest it drag clown the soul! How oft doth Satan, joining with the remaining corrupt lusts of our nature, intice us from Jesus; and in what numberless instances do we find our hearts wandering from all that is truly precious, from Jesus, from our happiness, from his word, from his people!
Oh! thou Holy One of Israel! the Lord our righteousness! how endeared art thou to my soul in this among a thousand other views in which I see and feel my daily need of thee. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? None but Jesus can accomplish this mighty work, for all the angels of heaven are incompetent to such a service. And blessed, forever blessed be thy dear name, thou art truly called Jesus, because thou wilt save thy people from their sins. Thou hast redeemed them by thy blood from all the powers of hell and darkness; and thou hast, and wilt save them from themselves and their own corrupt nature. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, (saith God by his servant the prophet) or shall the lawful captive be delivered. And Reader! recollect every sinner is a lawful captive, who by sin hath given himself to the service of Satan. But thus, saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty, shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with them that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isa 49:24-25 . Oh! precious, precious promise of a covenant God in Christ, made to the person of our dear Immanuel; and in him confirmed sure to all his seed.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 16:14 And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds [of spices] prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.
Ver. 14. And they buried him in his own sepulchre. ]. Heb., Sepulchres; haply because large and capacious.
Which he had made.
And laid him in the bed which was filled.
With sweet odours.
And they made a very great burning for him.
a Dr Hakew., Apolog.
b Virg.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sepulchres = a great sepulchre. Plural of majesty.
made for himself. Not infrequently done. Compare Mat 27:60. Joh 19:38-42.
sweet odours and divers kinds. Figure of speech Hendiadys (App-6), emphasizing the many kinds of odours. Omit “of spices”.
very great burning: i.e. of the odours previously mentioned, but not of incense, or of the sin offering. Compare 2Ch 21:19. Heb, saraph. App-43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
his own sepulchres: 2Ch 35:24, Isa 22:16, Joh 19:41, Joh 19:42
made: Heb. digged
sweet odours: Gen 50:2, Mar 16:1, Joh 19:39, Joh 19:40
the apothecaries’ art: Exo 30:25-37, Ecc 10:1
a very great: 2Ch 21:19, Jer 34:5
Reciprocal: Gen 50:5 – I have 1Sa 31:12 – burnt them there 2Sa 2:32 – buried 1Ki 15:24 – was buried 2Ch 32:33 – did him Neh 3:16 – the sepulchres Isa 57:2 – rest Mat 1:7 – Asa Mat 26:12 – General Luk 23:56 – prepared
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ch 16:14. They buried him in his sepulchre which he had made for himself As one mindful of his grave. And laid him in the bed with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices After the manner of those nations, Gen 50:2; 2Ch 21:19. And made a very great burning Of precious spices; thereby testifying their respect to him, notwithstanding his miscarriages. The eminent piety and usefulness of good men ought to be remembered to their praise, though they have had their blemishes. Let their faults be buried in their graves, while their services are remembered over their graves.