2 Chronicles 28 Bible study: Send back the captives

Ahaz stands between two kings of whom 2 Chronicles says the opposite. Of his father Jotham: "He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done" (27:2). Of his son Hezekiah: "He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done" (29:2). Of Ahaz: "He didn’t do that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, like David his father" (28:1) (tap right). He "walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molten images for the Baals" (28:2). Then comes the verse the introduction to 2 Chronicles names: "he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel" (28:3). 2 Kings, telling the same reign, has "and even made his son to pass through the fire" (2 Kings 16:3). The chapter gives no more detail than its one verse, and these notes don't either. The law had said, "There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" (Deuteronomy 18:10). And "He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree" (28:4).

2 Chronicles 28:10→leads toMatthew 7:3-5

Oded told the army bringing Judah's captives to Samaria, "Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Aren’t there even with you trespasses of your own against the LORD your God?" (28:10). Jesus taught, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3), and "First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye" (Matthew 7:5). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 28, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: seeing your own wrong while you deal with a brother's. Some hear in Oded's question what Jesus teaches, and see it taken to heart when the heads of Ephraim say, "our guilt is great" (28:13), and the captives are sent home (28:15). Others read Matthew 7:3-5 within Jesus' teaching that begins, "Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged" (Matthew 7:1), and 28:10 as a prophet's word to one army about its captives (28:9-11), and don't look from one to the other.

עָזַרazarsay a-ZAR

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "help, succour". Strong's: "to surround, i.e. protect or aid". "At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him" (28:16). Then of the gods of Syria: "Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me" (28:23), where helped and help are both this verb. Between them, of the portion Ahaz gave the king of Assyria, "it didn’t help him" (28:21): there the word is 'ezrah, a noun Strong's traces back to this verb. 2 Chronicles has used azar of God before: Asa prayed, "LORD, there is no one besides you to help" (14:11), and a man of God told Amaziah, "God has power to help, and to overthrow" (25:8). Ahaz's son will say of the king of Assyria, "An arm of flesh is with him, but the LORD our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles" (32:8).