2 Chronicles 16:12

And Asa in the thirty ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet,.... This was about two years before his death, and his disease is generally thought to be the gout in his feet, and a just

And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. Diseased in his feet - probably the gout.

He did not humble himself before God, nor earnestly desire his help, but put all his confidence in the skill and faithfulness of his physicians, of whom, it seems, he had great experience.

2 Chronicles 16:12 And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease [was] exceeding [great]: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.Ver. 12. Was diseased in his feet.] Laborabat podagrd, saith Vatablus; he was troubled with the gout, with a swelling in his feet, say the Rabbins. As he had laid the good prophet by the heels in prison, so doth God lay him by the heels in his bed; to him therefore he should have sought for release; since natural means in this case could do him little good. “ Una eademque manus, &c. ” Until his disease was exceeding great.] Heb., Till it ascended upwards; till the humour and grief was gotten into his head, and so became more grievous and dangerous. Let no man look that God should lay down the bucklers first: he will have the better of us. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord.] Which yet he had covenanted to do. That he repented of this and the rest of his misdoings ere he died, we doubt not. See 2 Chronicles 15:17; 2 Chronicles 20:32. Maximianus the persecutor, in a grievous fit of sickness, was convinced that God was angry with him for his cruelty to the Christians; whereupon he reversed his own edicts, and begged their prayers. But to the physicians.] Thus he fell into his former sin of creature confidence. See 2 Chronicles 16:2; 2 Chronicles 16:7. It is hard to say how oft a saint may fall into the same sin. A doctor is God’ s ordinance, and must be made use of in due time and manner. The Jews are to blame who detest all physicians: they have a proverb in their Talmud, Optimus inter medicos ad gehennam, The best physician will to hell. Farewell doctor, said old Chaucer; physicians have undone me, said Adrian the emperor; so might the Hemorrhoise have said, had she not touched at length the hem of Christ’ s garment. But Luke was "the beloved physician": and our Saviour saith, "The whole need not the physician, but the sick." Asa sinned not in using the physicians, but in trusting to them, as if they by their skill, without the divine influence, could have kept off death: whereas death suddenly snatcheth away physicians oft together with their patients; as it were in scorn and contempt of medicines. He did not ορθοποδειν, and was therefore podagrinus. Euseb.

(12) Diseased in his feet.—1 Kings 15:23, “only in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.” The nature of the disease is not specified here or in Kings. Until his disease was exceeding great.—Unto excess was his disease: ‘ad lĕ ?mà’lah, a clause added by the chronicler (see on 1 Chronicles 22:5). Yet.—And also in his disease, as well as in his war with Baasha. He sought not to the Lord.—Omit to.But to the physicians.—The preposition is expressed here (comp. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14; 2 Kings 1:2). Asa, like Ahaziah, neglected to consult Jehovah through his priests, and preferred to trust in the “Healers” of his day, whose art of healing probably consisted in the use of magical appliances, such as amulets, charms, and exorcisms, as we may infer from the analogous practices of Babylon and Assyria. It is not to be supposed that Israel was more enlightened in such matters than the nations to which it owed so large a share of its civilisation, or, indeed, than Christian England of the seventeenth century.

Verse 12. Diseased in his feet] He had a strong and long fit of the gout; this is most likely. He sought not to the Lord] "He did not seek discipline from the face of the Lord, but from the physicians." - Targum. Are we not taught by this to make prayer and supplication to the Lord in our afflictions, with the expectation that he will heal us when he finds us duly humbled, i.e., when the end is answered for which he sends the affliction?

12. until his disease was exceeding great] R.V. his disease was exceeding great. he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians] Physicians (Heb. rôph’îm) are condemned by implication here, no doubt as using incantations and adjurations. Contrast Ecclus. (Ben Sira) Sir 38:9-15, especially Sir 38:15 (Heb. text). He that sinneth against his Maker, will behave himself proudly against a physician.

Yet in his disease he sought not ... - Rather, “and also in his disease he sought not.” Not only in his war with Baasha, but also when attacked by illness, Asa placed undue reliance upon the aid of man.

12. Diseased in his feet — Perhaps the gout. See note on 1 Kings 15:23. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord — in his disease, as in war with Baasha, he sought other counsellors than the prophets of Jehovah.