Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 28:16–end
Here is, I. The great distress which the kingdom of Ahaz was reduced to for his sin. In general, 1. The Lord brought Judah low, Ch2 28:19. They had lately been very high in wealth and power; but God found means to bring them down, and make them as despicable as they had been formidable. Those that will not humble themselves under the word of God will justly be humbled by his judgments. Iniquity brings men low, Psa 106:43. 2. Ahaz made Judah naked. As his sin debased them, so it exposed them. It made them naked to their shame; for it exposed them to contempt, as a man unclothed. It made them naked to their danger; for it exposed them to assaults, as a man unarmed, Exo 32:25. Sin strips men. I…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 28:17
again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah--This invasion must have been after Rezin (at the beginning of the recent Syro-Israelitish war), had released that people from the yoke of Judah (Ch2 15:11; compare Kg2 16:6).
Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 28:16
The kings of Assyria to help him - Instead of מלכי malchey; Kings; the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, one MS., and the parallel place, Kg2 16:7, have מלך melek, King, in the singular number. This king was Tiglath-pileser, as we learn from the second book of Kings.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 28:17
For again the Edomites had come,.... As in the days of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:10,
and smitten Judah, and carried away captives; taking the advantage of the weak and low condition Ahaz was in, and which was the reason of his sending to the king of Assyria.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Chronicles 28:16-21
The liberation of the prisoners. - In Samaria there was a prophet of the Lord (i.e., not of the Jahve there worshipped in the calf images, but of the true God, like Hosea, who also at that time laboured in the kingdom of the ten tribes), Oded by name. He went forth to meet the army returning with the prisoners and the booty, as Azariha-ben-Oded (Ch2 15:2) once went to meet Asa; pointed out to the warriors the cruelty of their treatment of their brethren, and the guilt, calling to Heaven for vengeance, which they thereby incurred; and exhorted them to turn away the anger of God which was upon them, by sending back the prisoners. To soften the hearts of the rude warriors, and to gain them for…