The covert ... in the house - A canopied seat in the temple for the king and his family when they attended public worship on the sabbath. It stood no doubt in the inner court of the temple.

The king's entry without - This would seem to have been a private passage by which the king crossed the outer court to the east gate of the inner court when he visited the temple Ezekiel 46:1-2.

Turned he from the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria - This passage is very obscure. Some translate - "altered he in the house of the Lord, because of the kine of Assyria," supposing the "covert" and the "passage" to have been of rich materials, and Ahaz to have taken them to eke out his "presents to the king of Assyria." Others render, "removed he into the house of the Lord from fear of the king of Assyria."

And the covert for the Sabbath - There are a great number of conjectures concerning this covert, or, as it is in the Hebrew, the מוסך musach, of the Sabbath. As the word, and others derived from the same root, signify covering or booths, it is very likely that this means either a sort of canopy which was erected on the Sabbath days for the accommodation of the people who came to worship, and which Ahaz took away to discourage them from that worship; or a canopy under which the king and his family reposed themselves, and which he transported to some other place to accommodate the king of Assyria when he visited him. Jarchi supposes that it was a sort of covert way that the kings of Judah had to the temple, and Ahaz had it removed lest the king of Assyria, going by that way, and seeing the sacred vessels, should covet them. If that way had been open, he might have gone by it into the temple, and have seen the sacred vessels, and so have asked them from a man who was in no condition to refuse them, however unwilling he might be to give them up. The removing of this, whatever it was, whether throne or canopy, or covered way, cut off the communication between the king's house and the temple; and the king of Assyria would not attempt to go into that sacred place by that other passage to which the priests alone had access.

And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house,.... Used on the sabbath day, either for the people to sit under to hear the law explained by the priests; or for the course of the priests to be in, that went out that day, to give way to the course that entered, which yet did not depart from the temple till evening; or rather for the king himself to sit under, while attending the temple service of that day, and might be the cover of the scaffold, 2 Chronicles 6:13 and be very rich cloth of gold; and therefore he took it away for the king of Assyria, or to signify that he should not frequent the place any more: and hence it follows:

and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord; the way which led from the king's palace to it, he turned it a round about way, that it might not be discerned there was a way from the one to the other: and this he did

for the king of Assyria; to gratify him, that he might from hence conclude that he had wholly relinquished the worship of God in the temple, and should cleave to the gods of Damascus and Syria; or for fear of him, that he might not see the way into the temple, and take away the vessels; or find him, should he be obliged to hide himself there, when in danger by him.

"The covered Sabbath-stand, which they had built in the house (temple), and the outer entrance of the king he turned (i.e., removed) into the house of Jehovah before the king of Assyria." השּׁבּת מיסך (Keri מוּסך, from סכך, to cover) is no doubt a covered place, stand or hall in the court of the temple, to be used by the king whenever he visited the temple with his retinue on the Sabbath or on feast-days; and "the outer entrance of the king" is probably the special ascent into the temple for the king mentioned in 1 Kings 10:5. In what the removal of it consisted it is impossible to determine, from the want of information as to its original character. According to Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 621) and Thenius, יהוה בּית הסב means, "he altered (these places), i.e., he robbed them of their ornaments, in the house of Jehovah." This is quite arbitrary. For even if יהוה בּית could mean "in the house of Jehovah" in this connection, הסב does not mean to disfigure, and still less "to deprive of ornaments." In 2 Kings 23:34 and 2 Kings 24:17 it signifies to alter the name, not to disfigure it. Again, אשּׁוּר מלך מפּני, "for fear of the king of Assyria," cannot mean, in this connection, "to make presents to the king of Assyria." And with this explanation, which is grammatically impossible, the inference drawn from it, namely, that Ahaz sent the ornaments of the king's stand and king's ascent to the king of Assyria along with the vessels mentioned in 2 Kings 16:17, also falls to the ground. If the alterations which Ahaz made in the stands and the brazen sea had any close connection with his relation to Tiglath-pileser, which cannot be proved, Ahaz must have been impelled by fear to make them, not that he might send them as presents to him, but that he might hide them from him if he came to Jerusalem, to which 2 Chronicles 28:20-21 seems to refer. It is also perfectly conceivable, as Zllich (Die Cherubimwagen, p. 56) conjectures, that Ahaz merely broke off the panels from the stands and removed the oxen from the brazen sea, that he might use these artistic works to decorate some other place, possibly his palace. - Whether these artistic works were restored or not at the time of Hezekiah's reformation or in that of Josiah, we have no accounts to show. All that can be gathered from 2 Kings 25:13-14; Jeremiah 52:17, and Jeremiah 27:19, is, that the stands and the brazen sea were still in existence in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and that on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans they were broken in pieces and carried away to Babylonia as brass. The brazen oxen are also specially mentioned in Jeremiah 52:20, which is not the case in the parallel passage 2 Kings 25:13; though this does not warrant the conclusion that they were no longer in existence at that time.

And the {l} covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD {m} for the king of Assyria.

(l) Or tent, in which they lay on the sabbath, who had served their week in the temple and so departed home.

(m) Either to flatter the king of Assyria, when he should thus see him change the ordinance of God or else that the temple might be a refuge for him if the king should suddenly assault his house.

16:18 The covert - The form and use whereof is now unknown. It is generally understood of some building, either that where the priests after their weekly course was ended, abode until the next course came; which was done upon the sabbath - day: or that in which the guard of the temple kept their station; or that under which the king used to sit to hear God's word, and see the sacrifices; which is called, the covert of the sabbath, because the chief times in which the king used it for those ends, was the weekly sabbath, and other solemn days of feasting, or fasting (which all come under the name of sabbaths in the Old Testament) upon which the king used more solemnly, to present himself before the Lord, than at other times. The entry - By which the king used to go from his palace to the temple.

18. the covert for the Sabbath-the portico through which the priests entered the temple on the Sabbath.

the king's entry without-a private external entrance for the king into the temple. The change made by Ahaz consisted in removing both of these into the temple from fear of the king of Assyria, that, in case of a siege, he might secure the entrance of the temple from him.

16:17-20 Ahaz put contempt upon the sabbath, and thus opened a wide inlet to all manner of sin. This he did for the king of Assyria. When those who have had a ready passage to the house of the Lord, turn it another way to please their neighbours, they are going down-hill apace to ruin.