The kings of Assyria to help him - Instead of מלכי malchey; Kings; the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, one MS., and the parallel place, 2-Kings 16:7, have מלך melek, King, in the singular number. This king was Tiglath-pileser, as we learn from the second book of Kings.

At that time did king Ahaz send unto the (m) kings of Assyria to help him.
(m) To Tiglath Pileser and those kings who were under his dominion, (2-Kings 16:7).

At that time did King Ahaz send to the kings of Assyria to help him. To Tiglathpileser, and his son, see 2-Kings 16:7, and the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read in the singular, and so the Targum.

At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria--"kings," the plural for the singular, which is found in many ancient versions. "At that time," refers to the period of Ahaz' great distress, when, after a succession of defeats, he retreated within the walls of Jerusalem. Either in the same or a subsequent campaign, the Syrian and Israelitish allies marched there to besiege him (see on 2-Kings 16:7). Though delivered from this danger, other enemies infested his dominions both on the south and the west.

The further chastisements inflicted upon King Ahaz and the kingdom of Judah. - 2-Chronicles 28:16. At this time, when the kings Rezin and Pekah had so smitten Ahaz, the latter sent to the king of Assyria praying him for help. The time when Ahaz sought the help of the king of Assyria is neither exactly stated in 2-Kings 16:7-9, nor can we conclude, as Bertheau thinks we can, from Isaiah. 7. that it happened soon after the invasion of Judah by the allied kings. The plural אשּׁוּר מלכי is rhetorical, like the plur. בּנין, 2-Chronicles 28:3. For, that Ahaz applied only to one king, in the opinion of the chronicler also, we learn from 2-Chronicles 28:20, 2-Chronicles 28:21. By the plural the thought is expressed that Ahaz, instead of seeking the help of Jahve his God, which the prophet had promised him (Isaiah 7:4.), turned to the kings of the world-power, so hostile to the kingdom of God, from whom he naturally could obtain no real help. Even here the thought which is expressed only in 2-Chronicles 28:20, 2-Chronicles 28:21, is present to the mind of the author of the Chronicle. For before he narrates the issue of the help thus sought from the Assyrian world-power in 2-Chronicles 28:17-19, he ranges all the other afflictions which Judah suffered by its enemies, viz., the devastating inroads of the Edomites and Philistines, in a series of circumstantial clauses, as they preceded in time the oppression of Tiglath-pileser.

Kings - Princes, who may be called kings in a more general signification of the word.