(23) All his might.--This phrase, not used of Rehoboam or Abijah, is significant, indicating the increased power of Judah under Asa. The cities which he built. --Fortification of cities (see 2Chronicles 11:5-10; 2Chronicles 14:6) was naturally the traditional policy of the kingdom of Judah--small in extent, menaced by more powerful neighbours, but having an exceedingly strong country and central position.Diseased in his feet. --In the Chronicles it is added significantly, "in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians" (2Chronicles 16:7-12); and from the same records it appears that in his last days Asa ventured to defy the prophetic authority by the imprisonment of Hanani the seer. Prosperity, it is implied, had somewhat deteriorated his character, though he still continued faithful to the worship of God. Certainly, Jehoshaphat on his accession still found much to do for the religious condition of his people.Verse 23. - And the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might [see 2 Chronicles 14, 15.], and all that he did, and the cities which he built [during the peace in the earlier part of his reign (2 Chronicles 14:5, 6)], are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless [Heb. only. There was one exception to his otherwise happy and prosperous reign] in the time of his old age [see notes on 1 Kings 1:1; 11:4. "Old age" means here, as them, the end of life. Asa cannot well have been more than fifty. It was in the 39th year of his reign (2 Chronicles 16:12) that this disease attacked him] he was diseased in his feet. [It is generally supposed that this disease was the gout. In the Chronicles (l.c.) he is reproached for seeking "not to the Lord but to the physicians." We must remember what the art of medicine at that day was like (see Kitto, "Daily Bib. Illus.," 4:195 sqq.), and that the Jews regarded sickness and healing as alike the immediate acts of God. 15:9-24 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. That is right indeed which is so in God's eyes. Asa's times were times of reformation. He removed that which was evil; there reformation begins, and a great deal he found to do. When Asa found idolatry in the court, he rooted it out thence. Reformation must begin at home. Asa honours and respects his mother; he loves her well, but he loves God better. Those that have power are happy when thus they have hearts to use it well. We must not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only cast away the idols of our iniquity, but dedicate ourselves and our all to God's honour and glory. Asa was cordially devoted to the service of God, his sins not arising from presumption. But his league with Benhadad arose from unbelief. Even true believers find it hard, in times of urgent danger, to trust in the Lord with all their heart. Unbelief makes way for carnal policy, and thus for one sin after another. Unbelief has often led Christians to call in the help of the Lord's enemies in their contests with their brethren; and some who once shone brightly, have thus been covered with a dark cloud towards the end of their days.The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?.... Some of which are to be met with in the canonical book of that name, 2 Chronicles 14:1, and others in the annals of the kings, out of which the Scripture account was taken:nevertheless, in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet; seized with the gout, as the Jews say (a), and which was two years before his death, see 2 Chronicles 16:12. (a) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 48. 2. So Clemens of Alexandria, Stromat. l. 1. p. 326. |
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