2 Chronicles 16:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER 16 Asa maketh a league with the Syrians against the king of Israel, 2 Chronicles 16:1-6; for which the prophet reproving him, he putteth him into prison, 2 Chronicles 16:7-10. He is sick, and seeketh to the physicians, and not to God: his death and burial, 2 Chronicles 16:11-14. Of the reign of Asa; or, of the kingdom of Asa, i.e. of the kingdom of Judah, which was now Asa's kingdom; or from the time of the division of the two kingdoms. Rehoboam reigned seventeen years, 2 Chronicles 12:13; Abijah three years, 2 Chronicles 13:2; Asa had now reigned fifteen years, 2 Chronicles 15:10; all which, put together, make up the thirty-five years mentioned 2 Chronicles 15:19. And in the next year Baasha wars against him; and the ground of war was the defection of many of his subjects to Asa, 2 Chronicles 15:9, whom Asa endeavours to engage, together with his own subjects, by an oath and a covenant, to be true and faithful to God, and consequently to himself; which was done in his fifteenth year, 2 Chronicles 15:9,10; and therefore in his sixteenth year, called here the thirty-sixth year of his kingdom, he commenceth an open war against him. If it be objected, That the reign or kingdom of Asa is otherwise understood of the time of Asa's personal reign, (as I may call it,)2 Chronicles 15:10; the answer is obvious, That there are many instances in Scripture (some of which have been formerly given, and others will be given in their proper places) where the same word or phrase is taken differently, and that in the very same chapter and history. And particularly this variety is elsewhere used, both by sacred and profane writers, in the computation of the years of princes, which are sometimes reckoned from the beginning of their reign, and sometimes from other remarkable times and occurrences. Titus Nebuchadnezzar's years are sometimes computed from the beginning of his reign, as 2 Kings 25:8 Jeremiah 52:12,29,30, and sometimes from his complete conquest of Syria and Egypt, &c., as that passage, Daniel 2:1, In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, is by the general stream of interpreters understood. Thus Ahaziah's years, which doubtless were usually computed from the time of his birth, are computed from another head, 2 Chronicles 22:2, See Poole on "2 Chronicles 22:2". And the like differences are observed in computing the years of some of the Syrian monarchs and Roman emperors; and particularly of Augustus, the years of whose reign are variously accounted by the Roman historians; sometimes from his first consulship, sometimes from the time of the triumvirate, and sometimes from that famous victory at Actium, where he utterly overthrew his competitor, and made himself sole and unquestionable emperor. And therefore it is not strange if it be so here. And that it must necessarily be thus understood, appears from hence, that it cannot be the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa in his own person, because Baasha began to reign in Asa's third year, 1 Kings 15:28, and reigned only twenty-four years, and consequently died in Asa's twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year, as it is said he did, 1 Kings 15:8. That he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah; that he might keep his subjects from revolting to Asa, as he perceived they began to do, 2 Chronicles 15:9, and keep Asa's subjects from coming into his dominions to seduce his people from their obedience to him.