---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse 2 Chronicles 16:1. The six and thirtieth year — After the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; according to Usher. This opinion is followed"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16"
---

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:1](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/1). ***The six and thirtieth year*** — After the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; according to *Usher*. This opinion is followed in our *margin*; [1 Kings 15:16](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/16), where this subject is farther considered.
Concerning Baasha's building of Ramah, [1 Kings 15:17](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/17).

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:3](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/3). ***There is a league*** — Let there be a treaty, offensive and defensive, between me and thee: see on [1 Kings 15:22](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/22).

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:6](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/6). ***Took all Judah*** — See on [1 Kings 15:22](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/22).

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:7](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/7). ***Escaped out of thine hand.*** — It is difficult to know what is here intended. Perhaps the Divine providence had intended to give Asa a grand victory over the *Syrians*, who had always been the inveterate enemies of the Jews; but by this unnecessary and very improper alliance between Asa and Ben-hadad, this purpose of the Divine providence was prevented, and thus *the Syrians escaped* *out of his hands*.

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:9](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/9). ***Therefore - thou shalt have wars.*** — And so he had with Israel during the rest of his reign, [1 Kings 15:32](../../../kjv/1-kings/15/32).

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:10](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/10). ***Asa was wroth with the seer*** — Instead of humbling himself, and deprecating the displeasure of the Lord, he persecuted his messenger: and having thus laid his impious hands upon the prophet, he appears to have got his heart hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and then he began to *oppress the* *people*, either by unjust imprisonments, or excessive taxations.

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:12](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/12). ***Diseased in his feet*** — He had a strong and long fit of the *gout*; this is most likely.
***He sought not to the Lord*** — "He did not seek discipline from the face of the Lord, but from the physicians." - *Targum*.
Are we not taught by this to make prayer and supplication to the Lord in our afflictions, with the expectation that *he* will heal us when he finds us duly humbled, i.e., when the *end* is answered for which he sends the affliction?

Verse [2 Chronicles 16:14](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/16/14). ***And laid him in the bed*** — It is very likely that the body of Asa was *burnt*; that the *bed* spoken of here was a *funeral* *pyre*, on which much *spices* and *odoriferous woods* had been placed; and then they set fire to the whole and consumed the body with the aromatics. Some think the body was not burned, but the *aromatics* only, in honour of the king.
How the ancients treated the bodies of the illustrious dead we learn from *Virgil*, in the funeral rites paid to *Misenus*.
Nec minus interea *Misenum* in littore Teucri
Flebant, et cineri ingrato suprema ferebant.
Principio pinguem taedis et robore secto
Ingentem struxere pyram: cui frondibus atris
Intexunt latera, et ferales ante cupressas
Constituunt, decorantque super fulgentibus armis, c.
AEN. vi. 214.

"Meanwhile the Trojan troops, with weeping eyes,
To dead *Misenus* pay their obsequies.
First from the ground a *lofty pile* they rear
Of *pitch trees, oaks*, and *pines*, and *unctuous fir*.
The fabric's front with *cypress twigs* they strew,
And stick the sides with boughs of *baleful yew*.
The topmost part his *glittering arms* adorn:
*Warm waters*, then, in brazen caldrons borne
Are *poured to wash his body joint* by *joint*,
And *fragrant oils* the stiffen'd limbs anoint.
With *groans* and *cries Misenus* they deplore:
Then on a *bier*, with *purple* cover'd o'er,
The breathless body thus bewail'd they lay,
And *fire* the *pile* (their faces turn'd away.)
Such reverend rites their fathers used to pay.
Pure *oil* and *incense* on the *fire* they throw,
And *fat* of *victims* which their friends bestow.
These gifts the greedy flames to dust devour,
Then on the living coals *red wine* they *pour*.
And last the *relics* by themselves dispose,
Which in a *brazen urn* the priests enclose.
Old Corineus compass'd thrice the crew,
And dipp'd an *olive branch* in holy dew
Which *thrice he sprinkled* round, and thrice aloud
*Invoked the dead*, and then dismiss'd the crowd."
DRYDEN.

All these rites are of *Asiatic* extraction. *Virgil* borrows almost every circumstance from *Homer*; (see *Iliad*, xxiii., ver. 164, c.) and we well know that Homer ever describes Asiatic manners. Sometimes, especially in war, several captives were sacrificed to the manes of the departed hero. So, in the place above, the *mean-souled, ferocious demon*, ACHILLES, is represented sacrificing *twelve Trojan captives* to the ghost of his friend Patroclus. *Urns containing the ashes and half-calcined bones* of the dead occur frequently in *barrows* or *tumuli* in this country; most of them, no doubt, the work of the *Romans*. But all ancient nations, in funeral matters, have nearly the same rites.

```json
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/images/missing.jpg","width":640,"height":370,"caption":"Clarke's Commentary -  2 Chronicles 16"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16","name":"Clarke's Commentary -  2 Chronicles 16","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16#primaryimage"},"datePublished":null,"dateModified":null,"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Verse 2 Chronicles 16:1. The six and thirtieth year — After the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; according to Usher. This opinion is followed","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries","name":"Commentaries"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary","name":"Clarke's Commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles","name":"2 Chronicles"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/2-chronicles/16","name":"16"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]}
```