| Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 15:1-19 The people make a solemn covenant with God. - The work of complete reformation appeared so difficult, that Asa had not courage to attempt it, till assured of Divine assistance and acceptance. He and his people offered sacrifices to God; thanksgiving for the favours they had received, and supplication for further favours. Prayers and praises are now our spiritual sacrifices. The people, of their own will, covenanted to seek the Lord, each for himself, with earnestness. What is religion but seeking God, inquiring after him, applying to him upon all occasions? We make nothing of our religion, if we do not make heart-work of it; God will have all the heart, or none. Our devotedness to God our Saviour, should be avowed and shown in the most solemn and public manner. What is done in hypocrisy is a mere drudgery.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - The Spirit of God came. For "came," read the literal Hebrew "was," as also in our 2 Chronicles 20:14, where instead of "God" (אְלֶהִים), we find "the Lord" (יְהוָה). In our 2 Chronicles 24:20, we have again "God," with the verb "clothed" (לָבְשָׁה). The grand original of the expression is, of course, found in Genesis 1:2, where the name is "God." Compare Pharaoh's question in Genesis 41:38; Exodus 31:3; Exodus 35:31; Numbers 24:2; Judges 3:1; Judges 6:34 (the verb "clothed" is used in this last); five other times in Judges we have the Spirit of the Lord; in Samuel six times, and "the Spirit of God" another six times; in Kings, three times "the Spirit of the Lord." These passages exhibit incontestably the function, and the manifold function, of the Spirit! Azariah the son of Oded. The Vulgate and Alexandrian Septuagint read here simply Oded; and Movers (p. 261) has suggested that "Oded the son of Azariah" is the correct reading for what now stands in the text; these are contrivances to meet the difficulty which the eighth verse occasions, and they are not so simple certainly as the proposal of Keil and Bertheau (following the Arabic Version) to omit altogether from ver. 8 the repetition of the name of the prophet, under the plea that the words, "of Oded the prophet," may so conceivably be owing to a copyist's meddlesome marginal reminiscence of ver. 1. It would have been, perhaps, a yet simpler method of overcoming the difficulty to account that the words, "Azariah the son of," had through a copy error slipped out of the text, except that the previous word, "the prophecy," is not in the construct state, and this favours Keil and Bertheau's suggestion (see our 2 Chronicles 9:29), or rather the suggestion of the Arabic Version, which before them omits the words, "of Oded the prophet." The Vatican Septuagint has the readings in beth verses as Englished in the Authorized Version. Some think Oded may be one with Iddo of 2 Chronicles 9:29; 2 Chronicles 12:15; 2 Chronicles 13:22; pointing out that the Hebrew characters would permit it, if we suppose a vau added to the name Oded. This conjectural attempt to give this Prophet Azariah for son to Iddo seems to gain no great point. Of this Azariah nothing else is known; he is described as "son of Oded" probably to distinguish him from Azariah the high priest, son of Johanan (see Dr. Smith's 'Bible Dictionary,' 1:142, second column, 3). (For the rest on this subject, see note on ver. 8.)
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded,.... The same with Iddo, as Hillerus (h) thinks; and some suppose this to be the name of the son as well as the father, but called Azariah, to distinguish him from him, see 2 Chronicles 15:8 on whom came, as the Targum, the spirit of prophecy, instructing him what to say to Asa; and the Jews say (i) he is the same with Iddo, and he the same that was sent to Jeroboam, to reprove him for the altar he built. (h) Onomastic, Sacr. p. 458. (i) In Hieron. Trad. Heb. in Paralipom. fol. 84. L. & 85. A.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible CommentaryCHAPTER 15 2Ch 15:1-15. Judah Makes a Solemn Covenant with God. 1. Azariah the son of Oded—This prophet, who is mentioned nowhere else, appears at this stage of the sacred story in the discharge of an interesting mission. He went to meet Asa, as he was returning from his victorious pursuit of the Ethiopians, and the congratulatory address here recorded was publicly made to the king in presence of his army.
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