(18) The covert for the sabbath.--A very obscure expression. The best interpretation is "the covered hall (or stand) set apart for the use of the king and his attendants when he visited the Temple on holy days" (reading, with the Hebrew margin, m-sak, which is attested by the Vulg., musach, and the Syriac "house of the sabbath"). The thing is not mentioned anywhere else.

In the house--i.e., in the sacred precincts, probably in the inner forecourt.

The king's entry without.--The outer entry of the king, i.e., the gate by which the king entered the inner court (Ezekiel 46:1-2).

Turned he from the house of the Lord.--Or, he altered in the house of the Lord, i.e., stripped them of their ornamental work.

For.--Or, from fear of . . .--But comp. Genesis 6:13, "through them." Ahaz durst not appear before Tiglath without a present. It is possible also that he anticipated a visit from the great king.

Verse 18. - And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house. The "covert for the sabbath" was probably (as Keil notes) "a covered place or stand 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." It may have been elaborately ornamented. And the king's entry without. This may have been "the ascent into the house of the Lord," which Solomon constructed for his own use (1 Kings 10:5), and which was among those marvels of art that made the spirit of the Queen of Sheba faint within her. Turned he from the house of the Lord for the King of Assyria. It is not clear what meaning our translators intended to express, and it is still less clear what was the sense intended by the original writer. Ahaz did something to the royal stand inside the temple, and to the;' ascent" which led to it, and what he did was done, not "for the King of Assyria," but "for fear of the King of Assyria;" but what exactly his action was, we cannot say. No satisfactory meaning has been assigned to הֵסֵב בֵית יְהוָה by any commentator.

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.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.