REIGN OF ASA (2 Chronicles 14-16.)
(a) EFFORTS TO ROOT OUT ILLEGITIMATE WORSHIPS, AND TO STRENGTHEN THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL DEFENCES (2 Chronicles 14:2-7; comp. 1 Kings 15:9-15).
(2) That which was good and right. — Literally, The good and the right, an expression defined in 2 Chronicles 14:3-4. It is used of Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 31:20. See 1 Kings 15:11, “And Asa did the right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father.”
For (and) ... the altars of the strange gods. — Literally, altars of the alien. Vulg., “altaria peregrini cultus.” Comp. the expression, gods of the alien (Gen. xxxv, 2, 4). (Comp. 1 Kings 15:12 b, and he took away all the idols that his fathers had made; a summary statement, which is here expanded into details.) But both here and in 2 Chronicles 12:1-2, the chronicler has omitted to mention the qedçshîm (Authorised Version, “Sodomites”) (1 Kings 15:12 a)
And the high places. — i.e., those dedicated to foreign religions. It is clear from 2 Chronicles 15:17, as well as 1 Kings 15:14, that high places dedicated to the worship of Jehovah were not done away with by Asa.
Brake down the images. — Brake in pieces (or shattered) the pillars. They were dedicated to Baal, and symbolised the solar rays, being, no doubt, a species of obelisk. (See Genesis 28:18; Exodus 34:13; Judges 3:7.)
The “high places, images, and groves” of this verse are all mentioned in 1 Kings 14:23.