same time to punish defection from Jahve on the part of any one, without respect to age or sex, with death, according to the command in Deu 17:2-6. ליהוה דרשׁ לא, not to worship Jahve, is substantially the same as to serve other gods, Deu 17:3. This they swore aloud and solemnly, בּתרוּעה, with joyful shouting and the sound of trumpets and horns.
Verses 15-18
This return to the Lord brought joy to all Judah, i.e., to the whole kingdom, because they had sworn with all their heart, and sought the Lord בכל־רצונם, with perfect willingness and alacrity. Therefore Jahve was found of them, and gave them rest round about. - In 2Ch 15:16-18, in conclusion, everything which still remained to be said of Asa's efforts to promote the Jahve-worship is gathered up. Even the queen-mother Maachah was deposed by him from the dignity of ruler because she had made herself an image of Asherah; yet he did not succeed in wholly removing the altars on the high places from the land, etc. These statements are also to be found in 1Ki 15:13-16, and are commented upon at that place. Only in the Chronicle we have אסא אם instead of אמּו (Kings), because there Maachah had just been named (2Ch 15:10); and to the statement as to the abolition of idolatry, ירק, crushed, is added, and in 2Ch 15:17 מיּשׂראל; while, on the other hand, after שׁלם, יהוה עם is omitted, as not being necessary to the expression of the meaning.
Verse 19
2Ch 15:19 2Ch 15:19 is different from 1Ki 15:16. In the latter passage it is said: war was between Asa and Baasha the king of Israel כּל־ימיהם, i.e., so long as both reigned contemporaneously; while in the Chronicle it is said: war was not until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign. This discrepancy is partly got rid of by taking מלחמה in the book of Kings to denote the latent hostility or inimical attitude of the two kingdoms towards each other, and in the Chronicle to denote a war openly declared. The date, until the thirty-fifth year, causes a greater difficulty; but this has been explained in 2Ch 16:1 by the supposition that in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign war broke out between Asa and Baasha, when the meaning of our 16th verse would be: It did not come to war with Baasha until the thirty-sixth year of Asa's rule. For further remarks on this, see on 2Ch 16:1.
Chap. 16
Verses 1-5
2Ch 16:1-5War with Baasha, and the weakness of Asa's faith. The end of his reign. - 2Ch 16:1-6. Baasha's invasion of Judah, and Asa's prayer for help to the king of Syria. The statement, “In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha the king of Israel came up against Judah,” is inaccurate, or rather cannot possibly
