Note 471 — Chapter XXIV

1 Kings viii. 64; 2 Chron. iv. 1. In this and similar instances commentators, biassed by a priori considerations, have imagined that Ahaz did not in person offer sacrifices. But this is what the text says, and it was the custom of kings to regard themselves as invested with Divine attributes. Ahaz may have had this lesson impressed on his mind by his visit to Tiglath-Pileser. See Grätz, Gesch. der Juden., ii. 150. Layard, Nin. and Bab., 472 ff., gives us pictures of Assyrian kings ministering at their altars, which are of various shapes.