II Kings 16:3

Made his son to pass through the fire - On this passage I beg leave to refer the reader to my notes on Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2, Lev 20:14, where the subject is considered at large.

walked in the way of the kings of Israel--This is descriptive of the early part of his reign, when, like the kings of Israel, he patronized the symbolic worship of God by images but he gradually went farther into gross idolatry (Ch2 28:2). made his son to pass through the fire-- (Kg2 23:10). The hands of the idol Moloch being red hot, the children were passed through between them, which was considered a form of lustration. There is reason to believe that, in certain circumstances, the children were burnt to death (Psa 106:37). This was strongly prohibited in the law (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2-5; Deu 18:10), although there is no evidence that it was practised in Israel till the time of Ahaz.

And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills,.... Which none of the kings of Judah before him ever did; for though they connived at this practice in the people, they never encouraged it by their own example; and very probably he offered sacrifices there to idols, see Ch2 28:25 whereas the people sacrificed to the true God, though at a wrong place: and under every green tree; and which is never said of the people, and seems to confirm it, that Ahaz sacrificed to other gods, since the Heathens used to place idols under green trees, and worship them, whom the Jews imitated, Jer 2:2.

Reign of King Ahaz of Judah - 2 Kings 16 With the reign of Ahaz a most eventful change took place in the development of the kingdom of Judah. Under the vigorous reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, by whom the earthly prosperity of the kingdom had been studiously advanced, there had been, as we may see from the prophecies of Isaiah, chs. 2-6, which date from this time, a prevalence of luxury and self-security, of unrighteousness and forgetfulness of God, among the upper classes, in consequence of the increase of their wealth. Under Ahaz these sins grew into open apostasy from the Lord; for this weak and unprincipled ruler trod in the steps of the kings of Israel, and introduced image-worship and idolatrous practices of every kind, and at length went so far in his ungodliness as to shut up the doors of the porch of the temple and suspend the temple-worship prescribed by the law altogether. The punishment followed this apostasy without delay. The allied Syrians and Israelites completely defeated the Judaeans, slew more than a hundred thousand men and led away a much larger number of prisoners, and then advanced to Jerusalem to put an end to the kingdom of Judah by the conquest of the capital. In this distress, instead of seeking help from the Lord, who promised him deliverance through the prophet Isaiah, Ahaz sought help from Tiglat-pileser the king of Assyria, who came and delivered him from the oppression of Rezin and Pekah by the conquest of Damascus, Galilee, and the Israelitish land to the east of the Jordan, but who then oppressed him himself, so that Ahaz was obliged to purchase the friendship of this conqueror by sending him all the treasures of the temple and palace. - In the chapter before us we have first of all the general characteristics of the idolatry of Ahaz (Kg2…

This chapter is wholly taken up with the reign of Ahaz; and we have quite enough of it, unless it were better. He had a good father, and a better son, and yet was himself one of the worst of the kings of Judah. I. He was a notorious idolater (Kg2 16:1-4). II. With the treasures of the temple, as well as his own, he hired the king of Assyria to invade Syria and Israel (Kg2 16:5-9). III. He took pattern from an idol's altar which he saw at Damascus for a new altar in God's temple (Kg2 16:10-16). IV. He abused and embezzled the furniture of the temple (Kg2 16:17, Kg2 16:18). And so his story ends (Kg2 16:19, Kg2 16:20).