He walked in the first ways. — The former or earlier ways of David, as contrasted with his later conduct — a tacit allusion to the adultery with Bathsheba and other sins of David committed in his later years (2 Samuel 11-24). A few MSS. and the LXX. omit David.
And sought not unto Baalim. — And sought not the Baals (dârash lĕ, a late construction). The Baals were different local aspects of the sun-god. Here the term no doubt includes the illegal worship of Jehovah under the form of a bullock, as instituted by Jeroboam, and practised in the northern kingdom (“the doing of Israel” 2 Chronicles 17:4). Syriac, “and prayed not to images.”