host of heaven, i.e., to all the stars (2Ki 23:5); by which we are no doubt to understand that the sun, moon, planets and other stars, were worshipped in conjunction with the zodiac, and with this were connected astrology, augury, and the casting of nativities, as in the case of the later so-called Chaldaeans.[1]
This star-worship is more minutely described in 2Ki 21:4, 2Ki 21:5. The two verses are closely connected. The מזבּחות וּבנה of 2Ki 21:4 is resumed in מזב ויּבן in 2Ki 21:5, and the יי בּבית of 2Ki 21:4 is more minutely defined in the יי בּית חצרות בּשׁתּי of. 2Ki 21:5. “In the two courts:” not merely in the outer court, but even in the court of the priests, which was set apart for the worship of Jehovah.
Verse 6
He also offered his son in sacrifice to Moloch, like Ahaz (2Ki 16:3), in the valley of Benhinnom (Chr. cf. 2Ki 23:10), and practised soothsaying and witchcraft of every kind. On ונחשׁ עונן see Deu 18:10 and Lev 19:26, אוב עשׂה, he made, i.e., appointed, put into office, a “necromancer and wise people” (cf. Lev 19:31 and Deu 18:11).
Verse 7
Yea, he even placed the image of Asherah in the temple, i.e., in the Holy Place. In the description of his idolatry, which advances gradatim, this is introduced as the very worst crime. According to the express declaration of the Lord to David (2Sa 7:13) and Solomon (1Ki 9:3 compared with 2Ki 8:16), the temple was to serve as the dwelling-place of His name.
Verse 8
The word of the Lord, “I will no more make the foot of Israel to move out of the land which I gave to their fathers,” refers to the promise in 2Sa 7:10 : “I will appoint my people a place, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and be stirred up no more,” which had been fulfilled by the building of the temple as the seat of the name of the Lord, in the manner indicated in pp. 85ff. The lasting fulfilment of this promise, however, was made to rest upon the condition of Israel’s faithful adherence to the commandments of God (cf. 1Ki 9:6.).
Verse 9
This condition was not observed
- ↑ Movers (Phöniz. i. p. 65) correctly observes, that “in all the books of the Old Testament which are written before the Assyrian period there is no trace of any (?) star-worship; not that the Phoenician (Canaanitish) gods had not also a sidereal significance, but because this element was only a subordinate one, and the expressions, sun, moon, and stars, and all the host of heaven, which are not met with before, become for the first time common now,” - although his proofs of the difference between the Assyrian star-worship and the Phoenician and Babylonian image-worship stand greatly in need of critical sifting.
