2 Chronicles 28:16-19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Did Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him That is, the king, namely, Tiglath-pileser, (2 Kings 16:7,) the plural number being put for the singular, either because he was a great king, a king of kings, or because Ahaz sent to divers of his princes also, who may be called kings in a more general signification of the word. Ahaz found his own kingdom weakened and made naked, and he could not put any confidence in God, and therefore was at a vast expense to procure an interest in the king of Assyria, 2 Chronicles 28:18-19. The cities of the low country That part of Judah which was toward the sea, and toward the Philistines' land. For the Lord brought Judah low As high as they were before in wealth and power. They that will not humble themselves under the word of God will be humbled by his judgments. For he made Judah naked Taking away their ornament, and their defence and strength, namely, their treasures, which Ahaz sent to the Assyrian to no purpose; their frontier towns, and other strong holds, which by his folly and wickedness were lost; their religion, and the divine protection, which was their great and only security, which by his sins he forfeited. And transgressed sore against the Lord The Targum renders it, The house of Judah ceased from the worship of God, which Ahaz in a manner wholly abolished, and thereby transgressed more grievously than any or all of his predecessors.