16:18 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.
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.
