Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 20:1
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Ch. 2Ki 20:1-11. Sickness of king Hezekiah. His life is prolonged in answer to his prayer. The sign given by God that this should be so (2Ch 32:24; Isa 38:1-22)
1. In those days was Hezekiah sick ] Scripture writers are not precise in specifying times, and ‘in those days’ may mean no more than ‘about that time’ either before or after the defeat of the Assyrians. But there are one or two marks which may help us to come to a conclusion. In verse 6 the promise is made ‘I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria’. But these words seem to relate rather to a further continued preservation than to the overthrow which drove Sennacherib away. Though the Assyrians were gone, it was not unlikely that they would return. It is to deliverance from all such future attacks that God’s promise is best referred. For the visit of the ambassadors of the king of Babylon was ‘at that time’ (verse 12), clearly when Hezekiah had recovered, and when time enough had elapsed for the news about the sickness and the recovery to have reached Babylon. But the embassy was not merely for the purposes of congratulation, but to secure Hezekiah’s alliance with Babylon against Assyria. The time would seem to the Babylonians most opportune for shaking off the Assyrian yoke, and the help of that power in attacking which the Assyrians had suffered so much loss, would appear the very best help that could be sought. Hence Berodach-baladan availed himself of the excuse of congratulating Hezekiah on his recovery to send an embassy to sound the king of Judah on the subject of an alliance. Hezekiah’s answer was given by the exhibition of his supplies and stores of armour. Connecting the events together thus, we come to the conclusion that Hezekiah’s sickness occurred soon after the Assyrian overthrow, and that thus the notes of time which fix (2Ki 18:13) Sennacherib’s invasion in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, and promise the king fifteen years more of life are substantially exact, and fill up together the twenty-nine years assigned to Hezekiah’s reign in 2Ki 18:2.
And the prophet Isaiah [R.V. Isaiah the prophet ] the son of Amoz ] The change of order conforms to Isa 38:1.
Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live ] One can hardly read these words without the conviction that the conduct of Hezekiah, after his deliverance from the Assyrian siege, had not been such as to find favour with God. A message of this kind would not be sent from God without good cause. Either there had been a lack of thankfulness, or the king was too much elated with the glory of so miraculous a deliverance. That Hezekiah could think of his own greatness and forget to point to God as its author is seen as we read of the display he made before the Babylonian embassy, which is recorded in this chapter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In those days – Hezekiah seems to have died 697 B.C.; and his illness must belong to 713 or 714 B.C. (compare 2Ki 20:6), a date which falls early in the reign of Sargon. The true chronological place of this narrative is therefore prior to all the other facts related of Hezekiah except his religious reforms.
The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz – This full description of Isaiah (compare 2Ki 19:2), by the addition of his fathers name and of his office, marks the original independence of this narrative. The writer of Kings may have found it altogether separate from the other records of Hezekiah, and added it in the state in which he found it.
This history (compare Jon 3:4-10) shows that the prophetic denunciations were often not absolute predictions of what was certainly about to happen, but designed primarily to prove, or to lead to repentance, those against whom they were uttered, and only obtaining accomplishment if this primary design failed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 20:1-19
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.
The blessing of sickness
A Christian man of intense business enterprise and activity was laid aside by sickness. He who never would intermit his labours was compelled to a dead halt. His restless limbs were stretched motionless on the bed. He was so weak that he could scarcely lift his hand. Speaking to a friend of the contrast between his condition now and when he had been driving his immense business he said, Now I am growing. I have been running my soul thin by my activity. Now I am growing in the knowledge of myself and of some things which most intimately concern me. Blessed, then, is sickness, or sorrow, or any experience that compels us to stop, that takes the work out of our hands for a little season, that empties our hearts of their thousand cares, and turns them toward God to be taught of Him. Death:–The account leads us to consider death in three aspects.
I. As consciously approaching. Mark here three things–
1. When he became conscious of its approach.
2. How he become conscious of its approach. It needs no Isaiah, or any other prophet, to deliver this message to man. It comes to him from all history, from every graveyard, from every funeral procession, as well as from the inexorable law of decay working ever in his constitution.
(1) Men have much to do in this life. The house is out of order.
(2) Unless the work is done here it will not be done yonder.
3. How he felt in the consciousness of its approach.
(1) He seems to have been overwhelmingly distressed. He wept sore.
(2) He cried earnestly to heaven. In his prayer we note the cry of nature. All men, even those who are atheistic in theory, are urged by the law of their spiritual nature to cry to heaven in great and conscious danger. In his prayer, we also note the breath of self-righteousness.
II. As temporarily arrested. Five things are to be observed here–
1. The primary Author of its arrest.
2. The secondary means of its arrest.
3. The extraordinary sign of its arrest.
4. The exact extension of its arrest.
5. The mental inefficiency of its arrest.
What spiritual good did these additional fifteen years accomplish for the king? They might have done much, they ought to have done much.
III. As ultimately triumphant. And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. The end of the fifteen years came, and he meets with the common destiny of all. The unconquered conqueror is not to be defrauded of his prey, however long delayed. (David Thomas, D. D.)
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Hezekiahs prayer answered
The prayer of Hezekiah thus signally answered gives us instruction upon several points, of which this is–
1. To love life is a duty. Of course, Hezekiahs anxiety to live does not prove this. Good men are not so good that we can be sure of the rectitude of all their desires. They may be over-anxious to live, as they may be too ready to die. Luther and Whitefield erred upon the side of over-willingness to die. But the fact that God respected Hezekiahs wish to live proves that his wish was dutiful and right. His love of life was not weakness; it was not self-will; it was not the mere wish for a longer experience of accustomed pleasure. Had it been any of these, his prayer would have been unheard. He sought for life because life was worth living; he had a motive for life. It was for him a great opportunity. Nothing in the New Testament reverses or modifies the teaching of the Old Testament, that long life is a blessing, a gift of God, a mark of Divine favour. It is said of the godly man: Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation. When queenly Wisdom stretches forth her hands to give rewards to her loving and loyal subjects, Length of days is in her right hand, as her most excellent gift. There is in the Bible no pessimistic philosophy of life. It is true that the Bible dwells much upon the shortness of life. Death is a fact which it will not let us forget. But Scriptural reflections upon the littleness of life and the nearness of its end are not intended to lessen our love of life, or to make us look upon it as unimportant. Their purpose is to counteract such views. They teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Long life is not too long for the full accomplishment of lifes great end. There is nothing in the approach of age which ought to lessen the love of life, if lifes powers remain. The good workman glances now and then at the sun sinking in the west as day declines, only that he may set a higher value upon the remaining minutes, because they are few. He wishes for a full day, and the lengthening shadows set him the more zealously about remaining tasks. The biographers of Lyman Beecher have said of him: He was so hungry to do the work of Him that sent him that he really seemed sometimes to have little appetite for heaven. Thus, after he was seventy years old, one of his children congratulated him that his labours were nearly over, and that he would soon be at rest. To his sons surprise the old man replied quickly, I dont thank my children for sending me to heaven till God does. In the lecture-room of Plymouth Church, when very near the end of his life, he said, If God should tell me that I might choose . . . that is, if God said it was His will that I should choose, whether to die and go to heaven, or to begin my life over again, I would enlist again in a minute. We are not called upon to love life less because power fails, and we must lay aside accustomed tasks. Let us not measure life by the strength with which we pursue an earthly career. The refining of character may go on better when lifes active powers decline. As we ponder the prayer of Hezekiah, a second thought arises:
II. Submission to the will of God in regard to the term of life is a moderate wish to live as long as we can. It is easy to mistake the true nature of resignation, and to give it a meaning which it should not have. Submission to Gods will is not the suspension of personal will-power. It is not the absence of choice or preference. Holiness is not passivity. Richard Baxter once wrote:–
Lord it belongs not to my care
Whether I live or die.
Perhaps an utterance which is poetic, or at least metrical, ought not to be judged by prosaic rules; but as an unguarded statement its sentiment is false. It ought to have been a part of his care to live long and well. In so doing he would have been submissive to the will of God. There are means to be used to keep life and health. We ought to use them not unconcernedly, but with a strong wish to live. This is resignation to Gods will. In desiring life, and loving many days that he might see good, Hezekiah did not feel that he was disobedient or un-submissive.
III. Hezekiahs plea that he had lived a good life was an argument that prevailed with God. It is worthy of remark that the prayers recorded in the Old Testament are full of argument. Men approach God with reasons. They tell Him why He should grant their requests. Evidently they think Divine wisdom easy to be entreated. They recount mercies past as a reason for expecting renewed favours. They speak of His goodness. Of their great needs they make a plea. By the littleness and brevity of life they lay claim to mercy. So Hezekiah did not hesitate to find in his past life reasons for its continuance. Evidently he did not think that goodness makes the term of life shorter, or more uncertain. Whom the gods love die young, is not a Christian proverb, but its sentiment is to be found in many sayings current among us. Now there are saintly souls living upon the earth of whom the world is not worthy. But so much the greater the worlds need of their saintly lives. And God has great consideration for the worlds need. The answer to Hezekiahs prayer suggests a fourth consideration:
IV. The good physician has no controversy with the earthly physician in the wise use of means. Isaiah practised the art of healing. He followed the best medical knowledge of his time. He caused the attendants to take a lump of figs and place it upon the sore, and Hezekiah recovered. He applied a well-known and useful remedy. No doubt there are persons who would be better satisfied with the record of this case of healing if the lump of figs had been left out. They fear that every case of healing claimed by science must be surrendered by religion, and that, when other means are efficacious, prayer is obviously of no avail. They make haste to conclude that, if the lump of figs healed Hezekiah, then God did not. The inspired record is not solicitous about entrenching religion against the attacks of science. If religion should say that prayer worked the healing, and that means were of no use: and if science should say that the lump of figs wrought the cure, and that prayer was of no avail–both would be right in what they asserted, and no less would both be wrong in what they refused to admit. Had Isaiah known that the remedy would have cured without prayer, his delay in using it would have been inexcusable. Had he known that prayer would have been as efficacious without the remedy, he had no sufficient reason for making use of the lump of figs at last. The healing was wrought by the Lord of Life; and not less by Him that He chose to work through the ordinary appointed means.
V. The best results of Hezekiahs prayer are unrecorded. We find a hint of them in the broken sentences of Isaiahs page. What shall I say: He hath both spoken unto me and Himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. The Lord was ready to save me; therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. He walked before the Lord in solemn gladness. In those remaining years God was nearer to him than before. He knew the tenderness of God, who had heard his prayers and had seen his tears. He knew the grace of God, for by His favour he walked in newness of life. He knew the power of God, whose high prerogative it was to turn backward or forward at His will the dial of his life. How great, the power of prayer, which still appeals to the heart of God and persuades Him to make known His way upon earth, His saving health among all nations. And how infinite the grace of God, who in time past for this chosen servant turned backward for an hour the shadow of the sun, but who, in these last days, has set for ever in the spiritual heavens, above the horizon and within the field of vision for those who look in faith, the blessed sign of the Son of Man. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Attachment to life
The young man, till thirty, never feels practically that he is mortal. He knows it, indeed, and, if need were, he could preach a homily on the fragility of life; but he brings it not home to himself, any more than in a hot June we can appropriate to our imagination the freezing days of December. But now, shall I confess a truth? I feel these audits but too powerfully; I begin to count the probabilities of my duration, and to grudge at the expenditure of moments and shortest periods like misers farthings. In proportion as the years both lessen and shorten I set more count upon their periods, and would fain lay my ineffectual finger upon the spoke of the great wheel. I am not content to pass away like a weavers shuttle. Those metaphors solace me not, nor sweeten the unpalatable draught of mortality. I care not to be carried with the tide that smoothly bears human life to eternity, and rebel at the inevitable course of destiny. I am in love with this green earth, the face of town and country, the unspeakable rural solitudes, and the sweet security of streets. I would set up my tabernacle here; I am content to stand still at the age to which I am arrived, to be no younger, no richer, no handsomer. I do not want to be weaned by age, or drop, like mellow fruit, as they say, into the grave! Any alteration on this earth of mine, in diet or in lodging, puzzles and discomposes me. My household goods plant a terribly fixed foot, and are not rooted up without blood. They do not willingly seek Lavinian shores. A new state of being staggers me; sun and sky, and breezes and solitary walks, and summer holidays, and the greenness of fields, and the juices of meats and fishes, and society, and the cheerful glass, and candlelight, and firelight conversations, and jests and irony–do not these things go out with life? Can a ghost laugh, or shake his gaunt sides when you are pleasant with him? (Charles Lamb.)
Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
A house and a soul compared: or the Christians preparation for death
Hezekiah was in the meridian of life, and probably as yet had made no arrangement in regard to the succession to the throne. This message was to this effect–Give charge concerning thine house. If you have any direction to give in regard to the succession to the crown, or in regard to domestic and private arrangements, let it be done soon I shall, however, take this message in the secondary or more Important sense, and then, I need not remind you, that by the expression thine house we are to understand his inner man–the state of his soul before God. I think that this object is most likely to be attained by drawing the analogy.
I. I would observe that it is necessary for the preservation of a house, that it be built upon a good foundation, and not upon a sandy soil; so is it equally necessary that the foundation upon which the believer places the eternal interest of his soul be built upon the best of all foundations, even Jesus Christ; for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Consider what it is to build upon Him. To have our foundation on Jesus Christ is not to hope that we may attain heaven and happiness by a partial conformity with the will of the Saviour, whilst we are at the same time devoting ourselves to the pleasures of the world; it is to feel that we are vile, worthless, and polluted creatures of the earth, whose very best action in itself has the nature of sin; it is to be so assured that our works can have no part in obtaining salvation as to strip us of all self-confidence and conceit, and lead us to place our whole dependence on the finished work, and the all-sufficient righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. But I observe, that after a house is erected, however well and costly it may be built, it requires to be kept in good order, and in constant repair. So it is with the soul, wonderful in its origin, for it was made by God; and majestic even in its ruins, through the fall of man.: redeemed not with corruptible things, such as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the adorable Saviour.
III. I observe, that light is essential to a house. The clearer the glass of which the windows are composed, and the less obstruction there is, the sooner will be discovered the slightest particle of dust, and every flaw in the dwelling. So it is with the soul; the clearer the light of the Holy Spirit shines into the conscience the more accurately will sin be detected; that which was thought a trifling and innocent thing before, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit will appear in its true light, as defiled and destructive.
IV. No habitation would be complete unless supplied with water; to cleanse and purify it, as also to refresh its inhabitants, and to administer to their comforts. And how can the soul thirsting after the water of life be satisfied without a fresh and daily supply from the Fountain of living waters, even that water which Christ has given him–a well springing up unto everlasting life.
V. I would observe that much of the comfort of a household depends on everything being regulated by judicious and careful management. So it is with the soul. Let everything be done decently and in order, is the apostles injunction; and of how much more importance is it, that the spiritual exercises of the child of God should be under the control of a wise and well directed judgment.
VI. I would observe that in the ancient mansions of the great, the hall was appropriated to the armoury, which was kept clean, bright, and ready for the masters use. This reminds us of the Christians armour: his weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; not weak, but mighty through God to the pulling down the strongholds of Satan; nevertheless, they must not only be keep bright, but constantly worn. VII. I would remark that in a house there is a necessity for fire. In the same manner in the soul there ought to be a flame of holy love, a zeal for Gods truth. (J. R. Starey.)
Set thy house in order-A New Years sermon
There are two points which it is here proper to consider.
1. What views and feelings naturally possess a man who is conscious that his end is near. If his mind has an ordinary share of sensibility, he will dismiss his worldly cares and turn his thoughts to the contemplation of eternity. He is no longer interested in a world he is so soon to leave. The calculations and pursuits of men, their joys, their griefs, their disappointments, their success, their hurry, their hopes, their fears, an appear as idle as the sports of children. The world is lighter to him than a feather. Neither losses nor disappointments nor prosperity has power to affect him. You see him not pressing from business, to business in a rage to be rich. You see him not stretching after preferment. His pride is reduced. You see him no longer assuming haughty airs, no longer fretted at every supposed neglect. Meekness and gentleness mark his deportment. No longer can unbelief or the world hide a prospect of death or seduce his thoughts from God. He looks death in the face. He turns his anxious eye to explore eternal objects. He raises an earnest look to heaven. He ardently betakes himself to prayer and to reading his Bible. All his anxiety is to prepare for his approaching fate. You all perceive that these are rational exercises for a dying man; why then not for you? It is to dying men that I am speaking. I can say to you all, As the Lord liveth, and as your soul liveth, there is but a step between you and death.
II. Let us consider what measures a man will naturally take to set his house in order, who, with proper views, is conscious that his end is near.
1. It would be natural for him, as an honest man, to wish to settle all his accounts. This might be necessary to secure his creditors and to prevent insolvency.
2. A dying man, in setting his house in order, would be desirous to dispatch all important, unfinished business, which could not be accomplished by others after his death. So do you.
3. It is common for dying Christians to call their families around them and impart to them their final counsel. Thus do ye.
4. It is customary for men, when setting their house in order, to make their wills. I have no advice to give as to the dispositon of your worldly estate. But I solemnly charge you to bequeath to God your immortal souls with all their faculties, and your bodies, to sleep in His arms, in expectation of a joyful resurrection.
5. It is not uncommon for people, when they view their end approaching, to prepare their shroud, and make every provision for their funeral obsequies, that nothing may be left to be done in the distress and confusion of the mournful day. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.)
The house in order
I would like to know that your Christian work is in order, that you would leave things so that others could carry them on. Have I ever told you about the obituary notice–though it was only a sort of passing paragraph in the newspaper–of a fisherman on the New Zealand coast? They told of how his body had been found in the bush; how his boat, drawn up to the shore, was near to him. This significant sentence followed, His nets were set. I remember the thrill that went through me when I read it first. His nets were set. He had gone out to his daily duty, put his nets in order–not left them in a tangled heap on the shore, needing washing or mending or both. They were set, and his successor had but to draw them in presently and secure the spoil of the sea. Are your nets set? If you were to pass away during this week, would it be your fault that the work could not be continued? Do your duty to the last. Do it thoroughly, do it patiently, do it perfectly, that it may be said of you, as of Whitefield, Wesley, MCheyne, and a thousand others, that you virtually died in harness.
All that remains for me
Is but to love and sing,
And wait until the angels come
To bear me to their King.
I want your house to be in order, your business to be in order, your church and Christian work to be in order, and I want most of all for all my hearers that their hearts shall be in order. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XX
Hezekiah’s sickness, and the message of the prophet to him, to
prepare for death, 1.
His distress and prayer to God, 2, 3.
The Lord hears, and promises to add fifteen years to his life,
and Isaiah prescribes a means of cure, 4-7.
Hezekiah seeks a sign; and to assure him of the truth of God’s
promise, the shadow on the dial of Ahaz goes back ten degrees,
8-11.
The King of Babylon sends a friendly message to Hezekiah, to
congratulate him on his recovery; and to these messengers he
ostentatiously shows all his treasures, 12, 13.
Isaiah reproves him, and foretells that the Babylonians will
come and take away all those treasures, and take the people
into captivity; and degrade the royal family of Judah, 14-18.
Hezekiah bows to the Divine judgment, 19.
His acts and death, 20, 21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX
Verse 1. Set thine house in order] It appears from the text that he was smitten with such a disorder as must terminate in death, without the miraculous interposition of God: and he is now commanded to set his house in order, or to give charge concerning his house; to dispose of his affairs, or in other words, to make his will; because his death was at hand. “This sickness,” says Jarchi, “took place three days before the defeat of Sennacherib.” That it must have been before this defeat, is evident. Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years, 2Kg 18:2. He had reigned fourteen years when the war with Sennacherib began, 2Kg 18:13, and he reigned fifteen years after this sickness, 2Kg 20:6; therefore 14+15=29, the term of his reign. Nothing can be clearer than this, that Hezekiah had reigned fourteen years before this time; and that he did live the fifteen years here promised. That Hezekiah’s sickness happened before the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, is asserted by the text itself: see 2Kg 20:6.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In those days, i.e. in that year of the Assyrian invasion, as is manifest from hence, that that was in Hezekiahs fourteenth year, 2Ki 18:13, and God now added fifteen years more to him, 2Ki 20:6; and yet Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years in all, 2Ki 18:2. And this happened either, first, After the destruction of Sennacheribs army. Or, secondly, Before it, as may be thought from 2Ki 20:6, where he speaks of his deliverance from the king of Assyria as a future thing. It is true, that when Hezekiah received that insolent message from the Assyrian, he was in health, and went into the temple to pray, 2Ki 19:14; but there might be time more than enough for this sickness and recovery between that threatening and this destruction of the Assyrian. Set thine house in order; take care to make thy will, and to settle the affair of thy family and kingdom; which he the rather presseth upon him, because the state of his kingdom required it; for it is plain that Hezekiah had not as yet any son, Manasseh his heir and successor not being born till three years after this time, by comparing this 2Ki 20:6, with 2Ki 21:1. For thou shalt die, and not live; according to the course of nature, and of thy disease, which is mortal in its kind, and will be so in effect, if God doth not miraculously prevent it. Such threatenings, though absolutely expressed, have ofttimes secret conditions, which God reserves in his own breast: see Jon 3:4.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. In those days was HezekiahsickAs his reign lasted twenty-nine years (2Ki18:2), and his kingdom was invaded in the fourteenth (2Ki18:13), it is evident that this sudden and severe illness musthave occurred in the very year of the Syrian invasion. Between thethreatened attack and the actual appearance of the enemy, thisincident in Hezekiah’s history must have taken place. But accordingto the usage of the sacred historian, the story of Sennacherib iscompleted before entering on what was personal to the king of Judah(see also Isa37:36-38:1).
Set thine house inorderIsaiah, being of the blood royal, might have access tothe king’s private house. But since the prophet was commissioned tomake this announcement, the message must be considered as referringto matters of higher importance than the settlement of the king’sdomestic and private affairs. It must have related chiefly to thestate of his kingdom, he having not as yet any son (compare 2Ki 20:6;2Ki 21:1).
for thou shall die, and notliveThe disease was of a malignant character and would bemortal in its effects, unless the healing power of God shouldmiraculously interpose.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ver. 1-3. In these days was Hezekiah sick unto death,…. Of this sickness of Hezekiah, the message of the prophet Isaiah to him, and his prayer upon it,
[See comments on Isa 38:1],
[See comments on Isa 38:2],
[See comments on Isa 38:3].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery. – Compare the parallel account in Isa 38 with Hezekiah’s psalm of thanksgiving for his recovery (Isa 38:9-20 of Isaiah).
2Ki 20:1-2 “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.” By the expression “in those days” the illness of Hezekiah is merely assigned in a general manner to the same time as the events previously described. That it did not occur after the departure of the Assyrians, but at the commencement of the invasion of Sennacherib, i.e., in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, is evident from 2Ki 20:6, namely, both from the fact that in answer to his prayer fifteen years more of life were promised him, and that he nevertheless reigned only twenty-nine years (2Ki 18:2), and also from the fact that God promised to deliver him out of the hand of the Assyrians and to defend Jerusalem. The widespread notion that his sickness was an attack of plague, and was connected with the pestilence which had broken out in the Assyrian camp, is thereby deprived of its chief support, apart from the fact that the epithet ( (2Ki 20:7), which is applied to the sickness, does not indicate pestilence. Isaiah then called upon him to set his house in order. : set thy house in order, lit., command or order with regard to thy house, not declare thy (last) will to thy family (Ges., Knob.), for is construed with the accus. pers. in the sense of commanding anything, whereas here is synonymous with (2Sa 17:23). “For thou wilt die and not live;” i.e., thy sickness is to death, namely, without the miraculous help of God. Sickness to death in the very prime of life (Hezekiah was then in the fortieth year of his age) appeared to the godly men of the Old Testament a sign of divine displeasure. Hezekiah was therefore greatly agitated by this announcement, and sought for consolation and help in prayer. He turned his face to the wall, sc. of the room, not of the temple (Chald.), i.e., away from those who were standing round, to be able to pray more collectedly.
2Ki 20:3 In his prayer he appealed to his walking before the Lord in truth and with a thoroughly devoted heart, and to his acting in a manner that was well-pleasing to God, in perfect accordance with the legal standpoint of the Old Testament, which demanded of the godly righteousness of life according to the law. This did not imply by any means a self-righteous trust in his own virtue; for walking before God with a thoroughly devoted heart was impossible without faith. “And Hezekiah wept violently,” not merely at the fact that he was to die without having an heir to the throne, since Manasseh was not born till three years afterwards (Joseph., Ephr. Syr., etc.), but also because he was to die in the very midst of his life, since God had promised long life to the righteous.
2Ki 20:4-6 This prayer of the godly king was answered immediately. Isaiah had not gone out of the midst of the city, when the word of the Lord came to him to return to the king, and tell him that the Lord would cure him in three days and add fifteen years to his life, and that He would also deliver him from the power of the Assyrians and defend Jerusalem. , the middle city, i.e., the central portion of the city, namely, the Zion city, in which the royal citadel stood. The Keri , the central court, not of the temple, but of the royal citadel, which is adopted in all the ancient versions, is nothing more than an interpretation of the as denoting the royal castle, after the analogy of 2Ki 10:25. The distinct assurance added to the promise “I will heal thee,” viz., “on the third day thou wilt go into the house of the Lord,” was intended as a pledge to the king of the promised cure. The announcement that God would add fifteen years to his life is not put into the prophet’s mouth ex eventu (Knobel and others); for the opinion that distinct statements as to time are at variance with the nature of prophecy is merely based upon an a priori denial of the supernatural character of prophecy. The words, “and I will deliver thee out of the hand of the Assyrians,” imply most distinctly that the Assyrian had only occupied the land and threatened Jerusalem, and had not yet withdrawn. The explanation given by Vitringa and others, that the words contain simply a promise of deliverance out of the hand of the oppressor for the next fifteen years, puts a meaning into them which they do not contain, as is clearly shown by Isa 37:20, where this thought is expressed in a totally different manner. : as in 2Ki 19:34, where the prophet repeated this divine promise in consequence of the attempt of Sennacherib to get Jerusalem into his power.
2Ki 20:7-8 Isaiah ordered a lump of figs to be laid upon the boil, and Hezekiah recovered ( : he revived again). It is of course assumed as self-evident, that Isaiah returned to the king in consequence of a divine revelation, and communicated to him the word of the Lord which he had received.
(Note: The account is still more abridged in the text of Isaiah. In 2Ki 20:4 the precise time of the prayer is omitted; in 2Ki 20:5 the words, “ behold, I will cure thee, on the third day thou shalt go into the house of the Lord; ” and in 2Ki 20:6 the words, “ for mine own sake and my servant David ‘ s sake. ” The four 2Ki 20:8-11, which treat of the miraculous signs, are also very much contracted in Isaiah (Isa 38:7 and Isa 38:8); and 2Ki 20:7 and 2Ki 20:8 of our text are only given at the close of Hezekiah ‘ s psalm of praise in that of Isaiah (Isa 38:21 and Isa 38:22).)
is a mass consisting of compressed figs, which the ancients were in the habit of applying, according to many testimonies (see Celsii Hierob. ii. p. 373), in the case of plague-boils and abscesses of other kinds, because the fig (Dioscor.) and ulcera aperit (Plin.), and which is still used for softening ulcers. , an abscess, is never used in connection with plague or plague-boils, but only to denote the abscesses caused by leprosy (Job 2:7-8), and other abscesses of an inflammatory kind (Exo 9:9.). In the case of Hezekiah it is probably a carbuncle that is intended.
After the allusion to the cure and recovery of Hezekiah, we have an account in 2Ki 20:8. of the sign by which Isaiah confirmed the promise given to the king of the prolongation of his life. In the order of time the contents of 2Ki 20:7 follow 2Ki 20:11, since the prophet in all probability first of all disclosed the divine promise to the king, and then gave him the sign, and after that appointed the remedy and had it applied. At the same time, it is also quite possible that he first of all directed the lump of figs to be laid upon the boil, and then made known to him the divine promise, and guaranteed it by the sign. In this case merely anticipates the order of events. The sign which Isaiah gave to the king, at his request, consisted in the miraculous movement of the shadow backward upon the sundial of Ahaz.
2Ki 20:9-10 : “the shadow is gone ten degrees, if it should go back ten degrees?” The rendering, visne umbram solarii decem gradibus progredi an … regredi, which Maurer still gives after the Vulgate, vis an ut ascendat … an ut revertatur, cannot be grammatically reconciled with the perfect , and is merely a conjecture founded upon the answer of Hezekiah.
(Note: Hitzig and Knobel would therefore read , though without furnishing any proofs that the inf. abs. is used for the future in the first clause of a double question, especially if the interrog. is wanting, and there is no special emphasis upon the verbal idea.)
According to this answer, “it is easy for the shadow to decline (i.e., to go farther down) ten degrees; no (sc., that shall not be a sign to me), but if the shadow turn ten degrees backwards,” Isaiah seems to have given the king a choice as to the sign, namely, whether the shadow should go ten degrees forward or backward. But this does not necessarily follow from the words quoted. Hezekiah may have understood the prophet’s words hypothetically: “has the shadow gone (advanced) ten degrees, whether it should,” etc.; and may have replied, the advance of the shadow would not be a sure sign to him, but only its going back.
2Ki 20:11 Isaiah then prayed to the Lord, and the Lord “turned back the shadow (caused it to go back) upon the sun-dial, where it had gone down, on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.” cannot be understood, as it has been by the lxx, Joseph., Syr., as referring to a flight of steps at the palace of Ahaz, which was so arranged that the shadow of an object standing near indicated the hours, but is no doubt a gnomon, a sun-dial which Ahaz may have received from Babylonia, where sun-dials were discovered (Herod. ii. 109). Nothing further can be inferred from the words with regard to its construction, since the ancients had different kinds of sun-dials (cf. Martini Abhandlung von den Sonnenuhren der Alten, Lpz. 1777). The word steps in the literal sense, is transferred to the scala, which the shadow had to traverse both up and down upon the disk of the sun-dial, and is used both to denote the separate degrees of this scala, and also for the sum-total of these scala, i.e., for the sun-dial itself, without there being any necessity to assume that it was an obelisk-like pillar erected upon an elevated place with steps running round it (Knobel), or a long portable scale of twice ten steps with a gnomon (Gumpach, Alttestl. Studien, pp. 181ff.). All that follows from the descent of the shadow is that the dial of the gnomon was placed in a vertical direction; and the fact that the shadow went ten degrees down or backward, simply presupposes that the gnomon had at least twenty degrees, and therefore that the degrees indicated smaller portions of time than hours. If, then, it is stated in 2Ki 20:8 of Isaiah that the sun went back ten degrees, whereas the going back of the shadow had been previously mentioned in agreement with our text, it is self-evident that the sun stands for the shining of the sun which was visible upon the dial-plate, and which made the shadow recede. We are not, of course, to suppose that the sun in the sky and the shadow on the sun-dial went back at the same time, as Knobel assumes. So far as the miracle is concerned, the words of the text do not require that we should assume that the sun receded, or the rotation of the earth was reversed, as Eph. Syr. and others supposed, but simply affirm that there was a miraculous movement backward of the shadow upon the dial, which might be accounted for from a miraculous refraction of the rays of the sun, effected by God at the prophet’s prayer, of which slight analoga are met with in the ordinary course of nature.
(Note: As, for example, the phenomenon quoted by several commentators, which was observed at Metz in Lothringen in the year 1703 by the prior of the convent there, P. Romuald, and other persons, viz., that the shadow of a sun-dial went back an hour and a half. – The natural explanation of the miracle which is given by Thenius, who attributes it to an eclipse of the sun, needs no refutation. – For the different opinions of the earlier theologians, see Carpzov, Apparat. crit. p. 351ff.)
This miraculous sign was selected as a significant one in itself, to confirm the promise of a fresh extension of life which had been given to Hezekiah by the grace of God in opposition to the natural course of things. The retrograde movement of the shadow upon the sun-dial indicated that Hezekiah’s life, which had already arrived at its close by natural means, was to be put back by a miracle of divine omnipotence, so that it might continue for another series of years.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery. | B. C. 713. |
1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 7 And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? 9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
The historian, having shown us blaspheming Sennacherib destroyed in the midst of the prospects of life, here shows us praying Hezekiah delivered in the midst of the prospects of death–the days of the former shortened, of the latter prolonged.
I. Here is Hezekiah’s sickness. In those days, that is, in the same year in which the king of Assyria besieged Jerusalem; for he reigning reigned? in all twenty-nine years, and surviving this fifteen years, this must be in his fourteenth year, and so was that, ch. xviii. 13. Some think it was at the time that the Assyrian army was besieging the city or preparing for it, because God promises (v. 6): I will defend the city, which promise was afterwards repeated, when the danger came to be most imminent, ch. xix. 34. Others think it was soon after the defeat of Sennacherib; and then it shows us the uncertainty of all our comforts in this world. Hezekiah, in the midst of his triumphs in the favour of God, and over the forces of his enemies, is seized with sickness, and under the arrest of death. We must therefore always rejoice with trembling. It should seem he was sick of the plague, for we read of the boil or plague-sore, v. 7. The same disease which was killing to the Assyrians was trying to him; God took it from him, and put it upon his enemies. Neither greatness nor goodness can exempt us from sickness, from sore and mortal sicknesses. Hezekiah, lately favoured of heaven above most men, yet is sick unto death–in the midst of his days (under forty) and yet sick and dying; and perhaps he was the more apprehensive of its being fatal to him because his father died when he was about his age, two or three years younger. “In the midst of life we are in death.”
II. Warning brought him to prepare for death. It is brought by Isaiah, who had been twice, as stated in the former chapter, a messenger of good tidings to him. We cannot expect to receive from God’s prophets any other than what they have received from the Lord, and we must welcome that, be it pleasing or unpleasing. The prophet tells him, 1. That his disease is mortal, and, if he be not recovered by a miracle of mercy, will certainly be fatal: Thou shalt die, and not live. 2. That therefore he must, with all speed, get ready for death: Set thy house in order. This we should feel highly concerned to do when we are in health, but are most loudly called to do when we come to be sick. Set the heart in order by renewed acts of repentance, and faith, and resignation to God, with cheerful farewells to this world and welcomes to another; and, if not done before (which is the best and wisest course), set the house in order, make thy will, settle thy estate, put thy affairs in the best posture thou canst, for the ease of those that shall come after thee. Isaiah speaks not to Hezekiah of his kingdom, only of his house. David, being a prophet, had authority to appoint who should reign after him, but other kings did not pretend to bequeath their crowns as part of their goods and chattels.
III. His prayer hereupon: He prayed unto the Lord, v. 2. Is any sick? Let him be prayed for, let him be prayed with, and let him pray. Hezekiah had found, as recorded in the foregoing chapter, that it was not in vain to wait upon God, but that the prayers of faith bring in answers of peace; therefore will he call upon God as long as he lives. Happy experiences of the prevalency of prayer are engagements and encouragements to continue instant in prayer. He had now received the sentence of death within himself, and, if it was reversible, it must be reversed by prayer. When God purposes mercy he will, for this, be enquired of, Ezek. xxxvi. 37. We have not if we ask not, or ask amiss. If the sentence was irreversible, yet prayer is one of the best preparations for death, because by it we fetch in strength and grace from God to enable us to finish well. Observe,
1. The circumstances of this prayer. (1.) He turned his face to the wall, probably as he lay in his bed. This he did perhaps for privacy; he could not retire to his closet as he used to do, but he retired as well as he could, turned from the company that were about him, to converse with God. When we cannot be so private as we would be in our devotions, nor perform them with the usual outward expressions of reverence and solemnity, yet we must not therefore omit them, but compose ourselves to them as well as we can. Or, as some think, he turned his face towards the temple, to show how willingly he would have gone up thither, to pray this prayer (as he did, 2Ki 19:1; 2Ki 19:14), if he had been able, and remembering what encouragements were given to all the prayers that should be made in or towards that house. Christ is our temple; to him we must have an eye in all our prayers, for no man, no service, comes to the Father but by him. (2.) He wept sorely. Some gather from this that he was unwilling to die. It is in the nature of man to have some dread of the separation of soul and body, and it was not strange if the Old-Testament saints, to whom another world was but darkly revealed, were not so willing to leave this as Paul and other New-Testament saints were. There was also something peculiar in Hezekiah’s case: he was now in the midst of his usefulness, had begun a good work of reformation, which he feared would, through the corruption of the people, fall to the ground, if he should die. If this was before the defeat of the Assyrian army, as some think, he might therefore be loth to die, because his kingdom was in imminent danger of being ruined. However, it does not appear that he had now any son: Manasseh, that succeeded him, was not born till three years after; and, if he should die childless, both the peace of his kingdom and the promise to David would be in danger. But perhaps these were only tears of importunity, and expressions of a lively affection in prayer. Jacob wept and made supplication; and our blessed Saviour, though most willing to die, yet offered up strong cries, with tears, to him whom he knew to be able to save him, Heb. v. 7. Let Hezekiah’s prayer interpret his tears, and in that we find nothing that intimates him to have been under any of that fear of death which has either bondage or torment.
2. The prayer itself: “Remember now, O Lord! how I have walked before thee in truth; and either spare me to live, that I may continue thus to walk, if, if my work be done, receive me to that glory which thou hast prepared for those that have thus walked.” Observe here, (1.) The description of Hezekiah’s piety. He had had his conversation in the world with right intentions (“I have walked before thee, as under thy eye and with an eye ever towards thee”), from a right principle (“in truth, and with an upright heart“), and by a right rule–“I have done that which is good in thy sight.” (2.) The comfort he now had in reflecting upon it; it made his sick-bed easy. Note, The testimony of conscience for us that we have walked with God in our integrity will be much our support and rejoicing when we come to look death in the face, 2 Cor. i. 12. (3.) The humble mention he makes of it to God. Lord, remember it now; not as if God needed to be put in mind of any thing by us (he is greater than our hearts, and knows all things), or as if the reward were of debt, and might be demanded as due (it is Christ’s righteousness only that is the purchase of mercy and grace); but our own sincerity may be pleaded as the condition of the covenant which God has wrought in us: “It is the work of thy own hands. Lord, own it.” Hezekiah does not pray, “Lord, spare me,” or, “Lord, take me; God’s will be done;” but, Lord, remember me; whether I live or die, let me be thine.
IV. The answer which God immediately gave to this prayer of Hezekiah. The prophet had got but to the middle court when he was sent back with another message to Hezekiah (2Ki 20:4; 2Ki 20:5), to tell him that he should recover; not that there is with God yea and nay, or that he ever says and unsays; but upon Hezekiah’s prayer, which he foresaw and which his Spirit inclined him to, God did that for him which otherwise he would not have done. God here calls Hezekiah the captain of his people, to intimate that he would reprieve him for his people’s sake, because, in this time of war, they could ill spare such a captain: he calls himself the God of David, to intimate that he would reprieve him out of a regard to the covenant made with David and the promise that he would always ordain a lamp for him. In this answer, 1. God honours his prayers by the notice he takes of them and the reference he has to them in this message: I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears. Prayers that have much life and affection in them are in a special manner pleasing to God. 2. God exceeds his prayers; he only begged that God would remember his integrity, but God here promises (1.) To restore him from his illness: I will heal thee. Diseases are his servants; as they go where he sends them, so they come when he remands them. Mat 8:8; Mat 8:9. I am the Lord that healeth thee, Exod. xv. 26. (2.) To restore him to such a degree of health that on the third day he should go up to the house of the Lord, to return thanks. God knew Hezekiah’s heart, how dearly he loved the habitation of God’s house and the place where his honour dwelt, and that as soon as he was well he would go to attend on public ordinances; thitherward he turned his face when he was sick, and thitherward he would turn his feet when he was recovered; and therefore, because nothing would please him better, he promises him this, Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee. The man whom Christ healed was soon after found in the temple, John v. 14. (3.) To add fifteen years to his life. This would not bring him to be an old man; it would reach but to fifty-four or fifty-five; yet that was longer than he had lately expected to live. His lease was renewed, which he thought was expiring. We have not the instance of any other that was told before-hand just how long he should live; that good man no doubt made a good use of it; but God has wisely kept us at uncertainties, that we may be always ready. (4.) To deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria, v. 6. This was the thing which Hezekiah’s heart was upon a much as his own recovery, and therefore the promise of this is here repeated. If this was after the raising of the siege, yet there was cause to fear Sennacherib’s rallying again. “No,” says God, “I will defend this city.“
V. The means which were to be used for his recovery, v. 7. Isaiah was his physician. He ordered an outward application, a very cheap and common thing: “Lay a lump of figs to the boil, to ripen it and bring it to a head, that the matter of the disease may be discharged that way.” This might contribute something to the cure, and yet, considering to what a height the disease had come, and how suddenly it was checked, the cure was no less than miraculous. Note, 1. It is our duty, when we are sick, to make use of such means as are proper to help nature, else we do not trust God, but tempt him. 2. Plain and ordinary medicines must not be despised, for many such God has graciously made serviceable to man, in consideration of the poor. 3. What God appoints he will bless and make effectual.
VI. The sign which was given for the encouragement of his faith. 1. He begged it, not in any distrust of the power or promise of God, or as if he staggered at that, but because he looked upon the things promised to be very great things and worthy to be so confirmed, and because it had been usual with God thus to glorify himself and favour his people; and he remembered how much God was displeased with his father for refusing to ask a sign, Isa. vii. 10-12. Observe, Hezekiah asked What is the sign, not that I shall go up to the thrones of judgment or up to the gate, but up to the house of the Lord? He desired to recover that he might glorify God in the gates of the daughter of Zion. It is not worth while to live for any other purpose than to serve God. 2. It was put to his choice whether the sun should go back or go forward; for it was equal to Omnipotence, and it would be the more likely to confirm his faith if he chose that which he thought the more difficult of the two. Perhaps to this that of this prophet may refer (Isa. xlv. 11), Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me. It is supposed that the degrees were half hours, and that it was just noon when the proposal was made, and the question is, “Shall the sun go back to its place at seven in the morning or forward to its place at five in the evening?” 3. He humbly desired the sun might go back ten degrees, because, though either would be a great miracle, yet, it being the natural course of the sun to go forward, its going back would seem more strange, and would be more significant of Hezekiah’s returning to the days of his youth (Job xxxiii. 25) and the lengthening out of the day of his life. It was accordingly done, upon the prayer of Isaiah (v. 11): He cried unto the Lord by special warrant and direction, and God brought the sun back ten degrees, which appeared to Hezekiah (for the sign was intended for him) by the going back of the shadow upon the dial of Ahaz, which, it is likely, he could see through his chamber-window; and the same was observed upon all other dials, even in Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. Whether this retrograde motion of the sun was gradual or per saltum–suddenly–whether it went back at the same pace that it used to go forward, which would make the day ten hours longer than usual–or whether it darted back on a sudden, and, after continuing a little while, was restored again to its usual place, so that no change was made in the state of the heavenly bodies (as the learned bishop Patrick thinks)–we are not told; but this work of wonder shows the power of God in heaven as well as on earth, the great notice he takes of prayer, and the great favour he bears to his chosen. The most plausible idolatry of the heathen was theirs that worshipped the sun; yet that was hereby convicted of the most egregious folly and absurdity, for by this it appeared that their god was under the check of the God of Israel. Dr. Lightfoot suggests that the fifteen songs of degrees (Ps. cxx., c.) might perhaps be so called because selected by Hezekiah to be sung to his stringed instruments (Isa. xxxviii. 20) in remembrance of the degrees on the dial which the sun went back and the fifteen years added to his life and he observes how much of these psalms is applicable to Jerusalem’s distress and deliverance and Hezekiah’s sickness and recovery.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Second Kings – Chapter 20 AND Second Chronicles – Chapter 32
Hezekiah’s Illness – 2Ki 20:1-11
The chronology of this event of Hezekiah’s illness is of significance to the understanding of the behavior of Hezekiah during the invasion of Sennacherib, as was suggested in foregoing comments. The only actual reference to the time is simply the words, “In those days.” But it is not difficult to determine when “those days” were. In 2Ki 18:13 it is learned that Sennacherib came into Judah in Hezekiah’s fourteenth year. 2Ki 18:2 states that Hezekiah reigned a total of twenty-nine years. Inasmuch then as fifteen years were added to Hezekiah’s life (see 2Ki 20:6) it is easily deduced that his illness was in his fourteenth year, the year of Sennacherib’s invasion.
It is, then, also likely that the sickness of Hezekiah occurred between the time of Sennacherib’s initial invasion, when Hezekiah attempted to pay him off and get him to leave (2Ki 18:13-16), and his second threat, when Hezekiah defied him (2Ch 32:1-8). Doubtless Hezekiah chafed under a sore conscience because he had abused the temple and exercised no faith in the Lord by his initial action. It may be he felt that his illness and impending death was God’s judgment for his lapse in regard to the tribute to Sennacherib. Therefore when he was miraculously restored to health he zealously led his people to place their hope and faith in the Lord to deliver them from the Assyrians.
The message of Isaiah from the Lord to Hezekiah was very blunt, “Set your house in order, for you are about to die.” Hezekiah was only thirty-nine years of age, his people needed leadership against a terrible foe already in the land, and the king would like to make amends for his weakness of faith in the first instance of his dealing with Sennacherib. So he prayed to live, turning his face to the wall and weeping bitterly. It would be bad to die with an error against the Lord uncorrected. He asked the Lord to take into account his former righteous walk, in the days of the revival and reformation. He had trusted in the Lord and had a perfect heart toward Him. The Lord had commended his acts as good in His sight.
The text of Hezekiah’s prayer on this occasion is related by Isaiah in his prophecy (Isa 38:9-20). In these verses, written by the king after his recovery, he reveals his thoughts in his supplication from his bed. One can see the bitterness of a soul when facing death, having failed the Lord. It should remind one of the importance to always seek to do aright in the Christian walk (Eph 5:8-10). Hezekiah rejoiced in the Lord’s restoration and determined to use his prolonged life to serve the Lord in a better way.
Isaiah had only gone as far as the middle of the palace court when the Lord turned him back to the king’s bedchamber. He was to inform him that the Lord had heard his prayer, had seen his tears of repentance, and would therefore extend his life for fifteen more years. So complete would be his recovery that, whereas death had been imminent, and his life should have ended by the third day, he would instead be strong enough to rise on the third day and go to the temple to worship the Lord and fulfill the vows he made on his “deathbed”.
The Lord would use these added years of Hezekiah to deliver the city of Jerusalem and the land of Judah from the Assyrians, for He would defend it for His own sake and for that of David, with whom he had made covenant. These words of Isaiah, from the Lord to Hezekiah, further provide a forceful argument that this sickness of the king occurred before the destruction of Sennacherib, although it is recounted in the Scriptures afterward. Had the city already been delivered these words would have been meaningless.
The Lord often uses means to heal the sick, and He did so in this case. (Cf. Mr 8:22-26). Hezekiah’s malady was a boil, probably what is known as a carbuncle, a cluster of risings, filled with corruption, very painful and feverish, and capable of so poisoning the body as to bring on death. A cake of figs was to be laid on the boil to draw out the corruption and precipitate healing, though of course there could have been no healing apart from the Lord’s intervention. The boil had progressed to the point there was no physical hope for the king’s recovery.
Perhaps Hezekiah remembered that Isaiah had offered his father, Ahaz, a sign as the assurance of God’s word (Isa 7:10-16). So he asked for a sign, though his father had refused a sign. (He got the sign of the virgin born Savior anyway.) Isaiah gave Hezekiah choice of a sign, that the shadow on the sundial go down ten degrees (about twenty minutes) or go back a like number. Hezekiah thought, inasmuch as the shadow is going forward all the time anyway, the greater miracle would be its turning backward. So Isaiah called on the Lord, who made the shadow go back on the dial. Scholars say it was not an ordinary sundial as known today, but a stairway so constructed as to show the hour by the shadow falling across it from the sun’s rays.
2Ki 20:12-19
Babylonian Embassy Commentary on 2Ki 20:12-19 AND 2Ch 32:23-31
The summary account of Chronicles again presents the overall aspect of events in the career of King Hezekiah. His illness is presented casually to show the reason for the bringing of presents to him and gifts to the Lord’s house. It is also tied to the infraction with reference to the Babylonian embassy, as indeed it should be, but the primary motive seems to show the far-reaching effects on Judah. This would be of special importance to those who were living on the other side of the effects from Hezekiah, after they had occurred, and were recording them from that vantage point.
It is in the Kings account that the details of the Babylonian visit are given. The king of Babylon sent his servants with congratulatory letters to Hezekiah when he learned of his miraculous recovery and his resistance to the Assyrian king. No doubt the Babylonian king wanted the allied support of Hezekiah against their common enemy, the Assyrians. Hezekiah was flattered by these things and treated his visitors to a tour of all his treasures. They were admitted to his storehouses of gold, silver, precious stones. They were shown the precious ointment and spices, probably that used in the temple service and reserved for sacred purposes. He also showed them his house of armor. In fact, it is stated, there was nothing in all his house or dominion they were not shown.
When the visitors were departed the Lord sent Isaiah to the king with some very pertinent questions and a message of rebuke. The first were, “What did they say?” and “Where are they from” Hezekiah was frank to answer that they were from a far away country, implying that they could pose no threat to Judah. He admitted when asked, “What have they seen in your house?” that he had showed them everything.
This last question, “What have they seen in your house?” is a good one for all Christians to consider. Every day someone sees your house, or you. What do they see in you? Do you demonstrate the Lord’s blessings by your life? Or does pride fill one so full he does not respond as he should, and falls into the error of Hezekiah? It is a sobering thought (Tit 2:7).
What could this embassy have seen which they obviously did not see? They did not see the humility of the Lord in Hezekiah, though he had been so blessed of Him.
They did not see the beauty of the temple for its spiritual significance, but only its material richness. They were not introduced to Isaiah, God’s spokesman and preacher, who could have told them the way to salvation.
Is this not the way it is so much of the time in the lives of nominal Christians today? The Chronicles in reference to this says, “But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up.”
The Lord had a prophetic message for Hezekiah showing the effects of his pride and vanity. days would come when the Babylonians would return.
They would take away to Babylon everything Hezekiah had shown them. Nothing would be left. Of Hezekiah’s own sons, or descendants, they would take and make eunuchs to serve them in their country. This happened about a hundred fifty years later, in the fourth generation from Hezekiah.
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, pillaged the palace and temple, took the young princes (for example, Daniel and the three Hebrew children) and made them eunuchs to serve him in his government. This will be revealed in the closing chapters of Second Kings and Second Chronicles, and in the Book of Daniel.
Hezekiah again showed his David-like character by humbling himself and admitting the righteousness of God. He was thankful that the nation would remain faithful enough in his days that these predictions would only occur in a future time of apostasy. The Chronicles account tells of Hezekiah’s material accomplishments, in riches, possessions, and the welfare of the city of Jerusalem. It explains that the Lord left Hezekiah in the hands of the Babylonian embassy that he might be tried to show him the fickleness of his heart. In other words, God did not interfere with Hezekiah’s exercise of his own will in the matter. Men always fall into error when God is left out of their plans (1Co 9:27).
2Ki 20:20-21
Death of Hezekiah, Commentary on 2Ki 20:20-21 AND 2Ch 32:32-33
The Kings account comes to a more abrupt conclusion of Hezekiah’s life than does that of Chronicles. Mention is made again of the pool he built in Jerusalem to contain water brought into the city from the spring of Gihon. The conduit still runs under the wall of the old city and still brings water to the ancient pool. Neither of the accounts give any details of Hezekiah’s last fifteen years, which the Lord granted him when he prayed for his life. Some of the things studied above in the Chronicles summary were descriptive of his prosperity and fame which came to him after the destruction of Sennacherib.
The Chronicles passage speaks of “the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness.” Reference is made to the writings of Isaiah the son of Amoz and the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. These would seem to refer to the inspired prophecy of Isaiah and the canonical books known today as First and Second Kings. The prophecies and historical data of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, belong to the late reign of Uzziah’s grandfather, the reign of Ahaz his father, and to his own reign. The student can learn much from a study of these chapters in connection with the reign of Hezekiah. With reference to the Books of King it is well to remember that they were written long before the Chronicles and must have been well known to the Levitical compilers of the Chronicles.
Lessons to emphasize include 1) Believers suffer remorse of conscience for acts of faithlessness on their part (Heb 10:26-27); 2) all healing is divine, but God expects believers to use the means at hand to accomplish it as well; 3) there is enough of self in most people that they succumb to the flattery of the world, if they ignore the Lord’s will; 4) generations to follow may suffer as a result of mistakes of careless service of the Lord; 5) pertinent parallels from other of the Scriptures should always be considered in one’s study of the Bible.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
HEZEKIAHS SICKNESS AND RECOVERY
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
2Ki. 20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sickThe Assyrian invasion occurred in the fourteenth year of his reign (2Ki. 18:13), and now fifteen more years are to be added (2Ki. 20:6), making twenty-nine years, the total length of his reign (2Ki. 18:2); therefore this sickness must have occurred the very year of the invasionin those daysat which time he was thirty-nine years of age. Set thine house in orderNot his domestic affairs, but those of his kingdom, for being without a child, his successor should be selected.
2Ki. 20:3. Hezekiah wept soreSo painful is it to quit life in the very prime of years; but the distress was to him greater because of the fierce menaces of the foe at the gates of his kingdom; and his plans for the religious reformation of the nation were yet incomplete.
2Ki. 20:4. Before Isaiah was gone out into the middle courti.e., of the royal castle, not of the temple.
2Ki. 20:6. Add to thy days fifteen yearsWhy fifteen? He was now in the fifteenth year of his reign; God would add an equal period to that he had already enjoyed. He thus stood midway between the beginning and end of his reign.
2Ki. 20:7. Take a lump of figsThe remedy does not determine the precise character of the ailment, for Orientalists apply a poultice of figs to plague boils, and inflammatory ulcers, and carbuncles. But it was so located as certain to prove fatal but for miraculous intervention.
2Ki. 20:10. Let the shadow return backward ten degreesThis miracle has created antagonistic criticism. Either Isaiah, knowing that there would be a partial eclipse of the sun at that time, shrewdly used his knowledge; or else the story of the shadows being deflected is a myth! But the result was possible without any violent derangement of naturea phenomenon of refraction in the rays of light (Keil) would effect the sign required. Yet. accepting the miracle in its most supernatural form, the phenomenon was so local and temporary as to carry with it no disturbance of universal nature.
2Ki. 20:11. The dial of Ahaz may be interpreted steps, for means an ascent, or that which ascends. It can therefore be imagined that some contrivance had been arranged so that the shadow fell on a succession of steps, or slopes, each so measured as to mark the hour of the day. It was of such dimensions, and so conspicuous an object in the court, that Isaiah could point to it, and Hezekiah see it from his sick chamber.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki. 20:1-11
LIFE PROLONGED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER
THE anxiety of the people was now transferred from the nation, so miraculously delivered, to the monarch. Hezekiah was smitten with a fatal sicknessperhaps he had been suffering for some time, and the mental anguish through which he had lately passed would tend to exacerbate the disease. He is startled to be informed that his recovery is hopeless. With cries and tears he pleads for life. He is heard, and fifteen more years are added to his career. A miracle is wrought in confirmation of the Divine promise of recovery. How highly favoured is this man for whom Jehovah so freely exercises his miraculous power Observe
I. That the sudden approach of death fills the stoutest heart with alarm and sorrow. Death is a painful shock at any time; but, while cherishing the hope of recovery, to be abruptly assured that death is inevitable and at hand, strikes terror into the bravest heart. Hezekiah was utterly prostrate. With that plaintive tenderness of character which he seems to have inherited from his great ancestor, he could not bear to part with life. He turned his face away from the light of day to the blank wall of his chamber. He broke into a passionate burst of tears. The darkness of the grave was before him, with nothing to cheer him. His tent was struck, his thread of life severed. The cry of a dying lion, the plaintive murmur of a wounded dove, were the only sounds that could be heard from the sick chamber. There seemed no hope of recovery (Stanleys Paraphrase of Isaiah 38)
Sooner or later all things pass away
And are no more. The beggar and the king
With equal steps tread forward to their end.
Southerne.
II. That there are circumstances in which prayer for continued life is justifiable. Hezekiah was in the prime of life, and with, to all natural appearances, years of useful labour before him. He had succeeded to the throne in a time of national decay, and his spirited reforms had done much to restore the national prestige. He had been rescued from great troubles, and was now in a position to look forward hopefully to a period of rest, peace, and prosperity. He was eager to do more than ever he had done for his beloved country. When, therefore, he is brought unexpectedly face to face with death, we cannot wonder that he should ask for life. Life is sweet; with all its burdens and cares, it has its enjoyments. It is a positive luxury to live. And when the powers of life are sacredly devoted to promoting the good of others, we cannot but yearn for the opportunity which continued life affords. But when wrongs have to be righted and faults rectified, how necessary and precious does life then become. Zimmerman remarks, There appears to exist a greater desire to live long than to live well. Measure by mans desires, he cannot live long enough; measure by his good deeds, and he has not lived long enough; measure by his evil deeds, and he has lived too long.
III. That life and death are absolutely in the Divine disposal.
1. The best natural remedies are futile without the Divine blessing. The poultice of figs would have had no efficacy if the Lord of life had refused to interfere. Hezekiah knew this well, and he appeals immediately and directly, not to the physician, but to God. In His hands are the issues of life, and on Him they depend for their continuous outflow. Every one, says a certain writer, is willing to allow that he received his life originally from the Almighty, and that the Almighty takes it away from him when He pleases. Few, however, are willing to regard themselves as existing only by virtue of His constant influx, the only way in which it can be true that in Him we live and move and have our being. It is our duty to do all in our power to prolong life; but our best efforts must ever be in subordination to the will of God.
2. The Lord condescends to confirm the faith of His servants by the exercise of miraculous power. The transition to life was to Hezekiah as sudden and unexpected as the prospect of death. To possess what a few moments before he despaired about, seemed incredible: it was too good to be true. His faith staggered, and he asked for a sign. The shadow of the dial, visible from the window of the kings palace, was put back ten degrees, probably by refractionnone the less a Divine actand Hezekiah could no longer doubt. He recovered at once, and in three days passed up the steps in royal procession to the Temple to offer thanks and praise to the Lord and Giver of Life. How slow we are to believe, and how painstaking and patient is our gracious Father in encouraging us to trust Him!
LESSONS:
1. A time of sickness is a time for special prayer.
2. God has a profound interest in the sufferings and sorrows of His people.
3. Restored health should be used in increased devotion to the service of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki. 20:1 and 2Ki. 20:5. Thou shalt die, and not live. I will heal thee. The two messages.
1. How different their importthe one announcing death, the other promising life.
2. How different their effectsthe one creating sorrow, the other joy.
3. Both emanating from the same authority.
4. Both demanding undoubted faith.
2Ki. 20:1. As it is wise, in time of health and strength, to set ones house in order in a worldly sensei.e., to make ones will and arrange ones affairsso is it still more wise to set ones house in order in a spiritual sense, and not to put off making ones peace with God until one stands on the brink of the grave.Lange.
2Ki. 20:3. Conspicuous piety.
1. Gives no immunity from sickness or death.
2. Is often severely tested.
3. Should guard against self-righteous boasting.
4. Leads the troubled soul to God.
The course of Hezekiahs thoughts was evidently directed to the promise made to David and his successors on the throne (1Ki. 8:25). He had kept the conditions as faithfully as human infirmity admitted, and as he had been all along free from any of those great crimes by which, through the judgment of God, human life was often suddenly cut short, his great grief might arise partly from the love of life and the promise of long life and temporal prosperity made to the pious and godly, which would not be fulfilled to him if he were cut off in the midst of his days; partly from the obscurity of the Mosaic dispensation, where life and immortality had not been fully brought to light; and partly from his plans for the reformation of his kingdom being frustrated by his death, and from his having as yet, which was most probably the case, no son whom he could leave heir to his work and his throne. He pleaded the fulfilment of the promise. Jamieson.
Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as a hawk to the partridge; or as a serpents skin, though but stuffed with straw. But why should a saint be fond of life or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his Fathers horse to carry him to his Fathers house, or as Josephs chariot rattling with its wheels to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?Trapp.
2Ki. 20:6. A fixed time to live.
1. A doubtful advantage, apt to keep the shadow of the grave ever in view.
3. Should be a constant reminder of the circumstances under which the period was fixed.
4. Is best spent in earnest, religious work.
2Ki. 20:9. Human life a dial.
1. On which time flings its shadow.
2. It has its morning.
3. Noon.
4. Evening.
5. A Divine hand regulates the time-shadow.
2Ki. 20:11. Time and how to measure it. The dial was made to measure time. Every line has a meaning; minutes and hours are numbered, and all scientifically combined, so as to tell the time of day. The Bible is Gods dial, by which we have to measure life. Every page has a meaninga purposeand its lines of doctrine radiate from Christ as the centre through the whole circumference and circumflex of every-day life. To the uninitiated eye the lines on the dial have no meaning; to the mind of the unenlightened and unbelieving the Bible has no spiritual value, for the natural man knoweth not the things that are spiritual, because they are spiritually discerned. But the dial may help us to understand this word, and serve as a foil to throw up in relief, doctrine, precept, promise, prospect. I. The dial must be so placed as to receive the rays of the sun. Every line will then come into use. The indicator concentrates the light; the angle of incidence falls within the shadow, marking off the numbers as the earth travels round the sun, and tells the time. The Bible is a system of revealed truth. Outspread before us in type and form, it invites attention. But without the light of the Sun of Righteousness it will only be as a sealed book. The Holy Spirit must shine on its pages before we can read it so as to measure life. Christ crucified, Christ our righteousness, and Christ our life, are set forth in the Bible so as to make us wise unto salvation. God in Providence, and grace in the heart, are also in this Book. The hairs of your head are all numbered, said Jesus. A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His Fathers knowledge and permission, and all the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. But the Bible is our guide. We must place it in the sunlight of His Spirit, and not let it lie on the shelf until you may write Death, Judgment, Eternity, on the dust of its boards. II. The dial of Ahaz was a public instrument intended for all the people of Jerusalem. Like some of the dials in Egypt at the present day, it was the only means whereby the common people could regulate their daily duty. All would not see it at once, but those who consulted it could tell others the hour by number and by voice. In that land of sunny skies the dial was of daily value and of daily use. The Bible is for all. There was a period in the history of England when it was a rare and costly book, and a time when the Kings Book and Bishops Book, as it was called, were used and set up on the churches, but not allowed to the laity and the common people. It was even chained up to the desk in the crypt of St. Pauls. But after the Reformation, and the right of private judgment was affirmed, it became public property, and is now the cheapest book in the land. An Eastern princess once sent an ambassador to the English Court, to ask of our Queen what was the secret of Englands greatness. There is a picture representing a scene in which Queen Victoria is seen standing by the side of the late Prince Consort, and surrounded by ministers of State, presenting the Ambassador with an elegantly bound Bible, saying, Tell your royal mistress that this is the secret of Englands greatness. Let us cling to this Bible as our birthright. Take what you can get from the pulpit, but let those who cannot or will not come to hear, have the Book and its story taken to them. There must be some knowledge before there can be any faith. The Book is for all; see then that, like the Bereans, you search the Scriptures, for because of this they were more noble than the Christians of Thessalonica, who took for granted that which they ought to have proved.
III. Clouds would sometimes obscure the sun. and then the dial of Ahaz was in shadow. Time could not then be measured, but past experience on judging of light would keep faith steady, and work would still be done. In this cloudy land of ours the dial is often in the shade, but the sun is always in its place, and his light is precious. Clouds sometimes come between the mind and Gods Book. But the Sun of Righteousness never sets; and there is a silver lining in the darkest cloud of the Christians experience. Some time since Mr. Glaisher went up in his balloon to measure the atmosphere and analyze it; and just as he was looking down and admiring the glorious landscape outspread below, a cloud overshadowed him, and all was dark as night. But rising higher and higher, the huge machine got into sunshine again, and looking up, the big sun himself was seen pouring down his golden rays, making the dark cloud white and wavy, like a sea of fleecy down. He was in a new world. So with the believer. In the darkest hour he may be rising higher and higher, until the cloud is pierced, and in the smile of his Fathers love he enjoys his life again. Clouds, too, will come when we seek to solve by reason doubts and difficulties that can only be solved by faith. But the sailor is not to throw his lead line overboard because it will not fathom the depths of the Indian Ocean, nor his chart because he sees no lines of latitude and longitude on the sea. If the line is long enough to enable him to take such soundings as will show where there is danger, and the chart such as may be relied upon by experience, he needs no more to ensure safe navigation. Just so with the Christian mariner. He has faculties, but they are limitedthey cannot fathom the mind of God, but they are sufficient to discover danger, while the Bible is a chart by which he can safely work his course, and in due time reach the desired haven.
IV. The sun went backward, and not forward on the dial of Ahaz, as a sign to King Hezekiah that he would get well again. This was simply a miracle. With God all things are possible, and there we must leave it. In the moral world the law of progress appears to be sometimes in abeyance, and the dial plate indicates a down-going sun. But although at present there are signs which indicate a return to the days of darkness, let us not be alarmed for God hath said, At evening time it will be light. Standing on the sea shore, you have seen the back-going wave running out and tearing away the landmarks of its former progress; but look again, it is getting strength as it rises, and, gathering itself like a giant, comes roaring forward to make a higher margin than it left before. So will it be with our tide of Christian progress. It is, perhaps, in the back-going wave at present, but when the Church, like Hezekiah, rises from the bed of sickness, or it may be indifference, the Sun of Righteousness will again appearthe tide of progress will flow onwards, and the world shall yet be brought to the rule of Christ.C. W. P.
O God, thou wilt rather alter the course of heaven and earth, than the faith of thy children shall sink for want of support.Bp. Hall.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. HEZEKIAHS PERSONAL CRISIS 20:119
The chronological placement of the episode related in chapter 20 is problematic. That the events of this chapter are earlier than the crushing defeat of Sennacheribs army is suggested by 2Ki. 20:6. Since fifteen years were added to the life of Hezekiah and since that king died in 686 B.C., his miraculous healing must have taken place in 701 B.C. the very year of the Assyrian invasion. Another chronological clue is found in the fact that in this chapter Hezekiah still is in possession of his treasure (2Ki. 20:13-17), i.e., these treasures had not yet been carried off to Nineveh. The chapter relates (1) Hezekiahs serious illness and miraculous recovery (2Ki. 20:1-11); and (2) his foolish mistake and subsequent rebuke (2Ki. 20:12-19).
A. HEZEKIAHS SERIOUS SICKNESS AND MIRACULOUS RECOVERY 20:111
TRANSLATION
(1) In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. (2) And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, (3) I beseech You, O LORD, Remember, I pray You, how I have walked before You in truth and in perfect heart, and have done that which is good In Your eyes. And Hezekiah wept with great weeping. (4) And it came to pass before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, (S) Turn back and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says the LORD the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your weeping. Behold I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD. (6) And I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city; and I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David. (7) And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs; and they took it, and put it upon the boil, and he recovered. (8) And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What is a sign that the LORD will heal me and that I may go up on the third day to the house of the LORD? (9) And Isaiah said, This is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD has done the thing which He has spoken: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or backward ten steps? (10) And Hezekiah said, It is a light thing for the shadow to move ten steps forward; no, but let the shadow go backward ten steps. (11) And Isaiah the prophet called unto the LORD, and the shadow went backward ten steps by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.
COMMENTS
In those crucial days just prior to the Assyrian invasion, Hezekiah was smitten with a malady which in the ordinary course of nature would have proved to be fatal. To the royal chambers, Isaiah the prophet was dispatched with a message of warning: Set your house in order,[623] for you shall die and not live! (2Ki. 20:1). In the face of this shocking announcement the king turned on his bed away from his numerous attendants and faced the wall so that he might pray to his God with more concentration and earnestness. Hezekiah was a great man of prayer, and in this crisis it was perfectly natural for him to cast his burden upon the Lord (2Ki. 20:2).
[623] Gray (OTL, p. 697) renders: Give last injunctions to your family.
The kings prayer is a model for those who are afflicted with serious illness. He first of all called upon the Lord to remember how he had tried his very best to walk throughout life so as to meet the approval of the Lord. This is not presumptuous self-righteousness. Hezekiah knew that he had honestly endeavored to serve God and do His will. Whatever had been his shortcomings, his heart had always been right towards God. Under the old covenant, length of days was promised to the righteous (Pro. 3:2; Pro. 9:11; Pro. 10:27). Hezekiah could not comprehend why he should be cut off in middle agehe would have been thirty-ninewhen kings far less righteous had lived two and more decades longer.[624] The kings opening statement is thus a form of expostulation and laying hold on divine promises.
[624] Uzziah lived to be sixty-eight, Rehoboam to be fifty-eight.
The earnestness of the king was manifested in the tears which accompanied his prayer. Besides the natural fear of deathdeath for the Old Testament saint being a somewhat shadowy and uncertain existencethere were other good reasons for Hezekiahs earnest petition. For one thing, it would appear from 2Ki. 21:1 that at this point in his life Hezekiah had no male offspring to succeed him on the throne. This of course would be of grave concern to any citizen of the Old Testament world and particularly to the king. Furthermore, Hezekiah knew that his early reformation efforts would most surely bring upon Judah the wrath of the mighty Sennacherib. He wished to live to see his country through this crisis (2Ki. 20:3).
Before Isaiah had reached the second of the three courtyards which surrounded the royal palace, he was arrested by the reception of a new divine communication (2Ki. 20:4). The prophet was ordered to retrace his steps, enter the kings bedchamber, and reverse the thrust of the oracle he had delivered only moments before. Hezekiah is here called by the somewhat unusual title nagid, a title which means leader, one who goes in front.[625] The Lord here refers to Himself as God of David your father. These two titles, the one given to Hezekiah and the one assumed by God, suggest that Hezekiah was spared from his ailment because he was the leader of Gods people and because he was Davids son, both biologically and spiritually.
[625] Saul was called nagid (1Sa. 9:16; 1Sa. 10:1) as was David also (1Sa. 13:14; 2Sa. 5:2-16
Hezekiahs fervent prayer was effectual; God heard it and was mindful to grant the petition of His servant. God promised the king complete healing. Within three days Hezekiah would be able to be up and about and able to worship the Lord in the appointed place (2Ki. 20:5). But God did more than the king had asked or even dreamed. He had asked for nothing more than immediate escape from death. God granted him fifteen additional years of life which, in effect, would more than double the length of his reign. Furthermore, God promised to deliver Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the hand of the king of Assyria. The inclusion of this promise in the divine answer suggests that part of the motivation for Hezekiahs prayer petition was concern over the forthcoming and inescapable reprisals of the Assyrian king. For the sake of His reputation both in Judah and among the heathen, and for the sake of His commitment to David, Almighty God pledged Himself to be Jerusalems defender (2Ki. 20:6).
Isaiah directed those present in the room to place a lump of figs on the malignant boil. Figs were used as a remedy for such boils.[626] However, neither Isaiah nor those present thought that the figs alone could effect the cure. The prophetic order seems to have been more in the nature of a symbolic act such as prophets were wont to perform. The figs symbolized that from that moment forward God would gradually heal the king of his terminal malady. The servants complied with Isaiahs instructions, and the king recovered by degrees after the manner of natural remedies. It was three days before he was well enough to leave his quarters and offer thanks in the Temple for his miraculous recovery (2Ki. 20:7).
[626] So attested by Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXII, 7 and also in the Ras Shamra texts. See Gray, OTL,p.698.
Even the prophets symbolic act did not fully set the mind of Hezekiah at ease with regard to his healing. Under the old covenant God frequently offered miraculous signs to substantiate promises which He made to people in desperate straits. It was well known that Isaiah had instructed Ahaz to ask for a sign to substantiate the promise that God would deliver Jerusalem from the Syro-Ephraimitic armies which invaded the land about 735 B.C. Hezekiah therefore assumed that such a sign would be granted to him and simply asked his prophetic friend what the sign was to be. Three days would be a long weary wait and the king craved some more immediate evidence that his prayer had been favorably answered. Neither God nor the prophet was angry with this request (2Ki. 20:8). It would be faithless now for Christians to demand signs; but in an age of miracles, when there were prophets upon the earth empowered to give signs, faithful men might request them without incurring Gods displeasure.
Isaiah indicated that God would use the sundial of Ahaz, perhaps clearly visible from the window of Hezekiahs bedchamber, to give his faithful king a sign. The king could pick his sign: Shall the shadow go forward or backward ten steps? (2Ki. 20:9). Hezekiah viewed it as a comparatively easy matter for the shadow which was already descending the steps to accelerate its pace and rapidly descend ten steps. For this reason the king requested that the shadow change its direction and ascend the steps. Hezekiahs request was natural, if not strictly logical (2Ki. 20:10). Isaiah then cried out fervently in intercessory prayer to the Lord, and God brought the shadow ten steps backward. This miracle would not necessarily involve the temporary reversal in the rotation of the earth. It is clear from 2Ch. 32:31 that the miracle was local, done in the land of Judah and hence not visible elsewhere. Probably a very abnormal refraction of the rays of the sun caused the retreat of the shadow on the sundial (2Ki. 20:11).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) In those daysi.e., in the time of the Assyrian invasion. The illness may have been caused, or at least aggravated, by the intense anxiety which this grave peril created. Hezekiah reigned 29 years (2Ki. 18:2), and the invasion began in his 14th year (2Ki. 18:13). In 2Ki. 20:6 he is promised 15 years of life, and deliverance from the king of Assyria. That Hezekiah recovered before the catastrophe recorded at the end of the last chapter, is evident from the fact that no allusion to the destruction of his enemies is contained in his hymn of thanksgiving (Isa. 38:10-20).
Set thine house in order.The margin is right (Comp. 2Sa. 17:23.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY, 2Ki 20:1-7.
1. In days About the time of the first Assyrian invasion, for Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years in all, and lived fifteen after this sickness, so that, according to biblical data, his sickness must have occurred in the fourteenth year of his reign. Compare 2Ki 20:6 with 2Ki 18:2; 2Ki 18:13, and note on 2Ki 20:12.
Sick unto death Sick with a disease intrinsically fatal, unless miracle intervened.
Set thine house in order Settle up all thy worldly affairs, make the final arrangement and disposition of thy household matters. Compare 2Sa 17:23. Some explain it, Make thy last will, and give orders respecting thy successor. This, however, would only be a part of the household affairs of a dying king. In homiletics these words are often explained as a charge to prepare spiritually for death and the judgment beyond.
Thou shalt die, and not live Literally, Dying art thou, and thou wilt not live. These words are not an irreversible decree that he should die from that sickness, but an announcement, which, like Jonah’s proclamation to the Ninevites, (Jon 3:4; Jon 3:10,) was revoked and changed by reason of the humiliation and prayers of the king. It was God’s decree, through ordinary natural law, reversible only by special interposition.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hezekiah Becomes Mortally Ill But Is Healed By Isaiah In Answer To Prayer ( 2Ki 20:1-7 ).
Hezekiah’s illness is now mentioned, not because it was important in itself, but because in different ways it revealed the power of YHWH. It would appear that he was mortally ill, but that on his crying to YHWH he was given a further fifteen years of life, and also promised that YHWH would deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians. The connection of the two indicates that both had been in his prayers. We must therefore see this incident as preceding the previous ones, but taking place whilst the Assyrians were threatening, at a time therefore when humanly speaking Hezekiah was vital to the security of Judah.
Analysis.
In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says YHWH, Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live” (2Ki 20:1).
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to YHWH, saying, “Remember now, O YHWH, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your sight” (2Ki 20:2-3 a).
And Hezekiah wept sorely (2Ki 20:3 b).
And it came about, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle part of the city, that the word of YHWH came to him, saying, “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people” (2Ki 20:4-5 a).
“Thus says YHWH, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you, on the third day you will go up to the house of YHWH” (2Ki 20:5 b).
“And I will add to your days fifteen years, and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake” (2Ki 20:6).
And Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered (2Ki 20:7).
Note that in ‘a’ Hezekiah was ‘sick unto death’ and in the parallel he recovered. In ‘b’ he pointed out how faithfully he had walked before YHWH and in the parallel he was to receive fifteen further years of life, and the deliverance of Jerusalem from the hand of the king of Assyria. In ‘c’ he wept sorely, and in the parallel God had seen his tears and would heal him. Centrally in ‘d’ we have YHWH’s ‘change of heart’ and a reminder that Hezekiah was the prince and war-leader of His people.
2Ki 20:1
‘In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says YHWH, Set your house in order: for you will die, and not live.” ’
‘In those days.’ An indeterminate phrase, the plural of ‘in that day’ Here it simply loosely connects what is to happen with the days of which the source is speaking.
Hezekiah is declared to be very ill, indeed dying. He has a mortal illness. He was ‘sick unto death.’ And the prophet comes to him with confirmation from YHWH. ‘Thus says YHWH — you will die.’ He must prepare for death and do all that is necessary for a king to do to ensure that affairs of state are passed to his successor smoothly. God is concerned for the future of his people.
But with Assyria threatening there was no successor yet old enough to take the throne It is understandable therefore why Hezekiah would be so distressed. Looking from the divine point of view we might suggest that God had brought this on Hezekiah in order to make him consider what the situation was and prepare him for it. For this verse with its subsequent narrative is quite remarkable. It demonstrates that even ‘the word of YHWH’ can be reversed by repentance. Here indeed is a prophetic word which will be so altered. What seems to be a situation which cannot be altered, is thus altered through prayer. The same was in fact always true of God’s judgments (compare Jonah and Nineveh, and Ahab and Israel – 1Ki 21:27-29).
2Ki 20:2-3
‘Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to YHWH, saying, “Remember now, O YHWH, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your sight.”
Outwardly Hezekiah’s concern would appear to be for the situation he found himself in personally. There is nothing sacrificially noble about his prayer. It is presented as outwardly purely selfish and with limited perspective, as 2Ki 20:19 also reveals him to be. He was a good king, a godly king, and but with a limited and selfish perspective. His concern was not stated to be the future of the kingdom as a whole or for the eternal purposes of God, but for his own survival, and his nation’s survival while he was king. How many there are of God’s people who are like this. When it comes down to it they are the godly selfish, (what a contradiction in terms, and yet how true of so many) and that is why they will achieve little. Outwardly it would appear that Hezekiah was successful, but he failed deeply in the purposes of God because his own ambitions took precedence. That is why he presided over an almost catastrophe.
Nevertheless here part of his problem was probably also that he saw his premature death as indicating that God saw him as sinful. Thus he was not only crying out for life, but was crying out for forgiveness and understanding. One reason why he wanted to live was because in his eyes it would prove that he had become right with God. So his personal concern is to some extent understandable.
‘Turned his face to the wall.’ He could not get to the privacy of the Temple so this was second best. He wanted to be alone with God.
There is no doubt that he summed up his life to God a little idealistically, and yet it was basically true. He had sought truth, he had sought to do what was right, he had sought to please God, he had lived a relatively godly life. But we are intended also to see that his life was flawed, as we will learn later on in the chapter. For he was unable to get away from his own selfish ambitions and desire for political glory.
Yet having said all that we may well see hidden under his tears a concern for his people. While it was not prominent in the way his thoughts were expressed, he would know that in losing him his people were losing one who could strongly affect their future, for he had no adult sons. It may well be therefore that we are to see this thought as included in his prayer. And it may possibly be that God recognised his concern, which might be why the next verses speak of deliverance from Sennacherib’s hands.
2Ki 20:3
‘And Hezekiah wept sorely.’
‘And Hezekiah wept sorely.’ He did not want to die. He was fighting for life.
Given all this we can sum up Hezekiah’s prayer as indicating,
1) That he was horrified at the thought of premature death.
2) That this was at least partly because he saw it as indicating that God saw him as having sinned grievously so that he was being punished for it, and was thus unforgiven.
3) That underneath, unstated but known by God, was his concern for his people in the trying days that lay ahead of them, and in the face of the threat of invasion.
Yet we cannot hide from the fact that he did not articulate all these thoughts in his prayers. His prime concern is presented as being for his own deliverance. It was God Whose major concern was for His people.
2Ki 20:4
‘And it came about, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle part of the city, that the word of YHWH came to him, saying,’
Meanwhile Isaiah had gone away, his unpleasant task, as he thought, accomplished, but even as he reached the middle part of the city the word of YHWH came to him with a new message. We have here a clear indication that Isaiah did not go into trances or get worked up when he received ‘the word of YHWH’.
2Ki 20:5-6
“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says YHWH, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you, on the third day you will go up to the house of YHWH. And I will add to your days fifteen years, and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”
Here we have a remarkable example of how ‘prayer changes things’. Hezekiah knew that his behaviour in the religious and political field had angered the king of Assyria. He had purified the temple, removing the Assyrian gods; he had refused to pay tribute; he had had discussions with his neighbours (2Ki 18:7). He could hardly doubt that this had been noted and that the detail was known to Sennacherib’s spies. Thus he could have had little doubt that he would at some stage be called to account. This must surely have been part of the reason for his distress, that he was dying when his country needed him.
That explains why God sends to him and promises him, not only an extension of life, and that he will be fit enough to go up to the house of YHWH for his intercessory ministry, but also deliverance for him and Jerusalem out of Sennacherib’s hand. He promises that He will heal him so that he can go up to the house of YHWH (having been made ritually clean as well as physically whole), and that he will give him a further fifteen years, and will successfully defend Jerusalem. This met his major concerns. But it is also clearly implied that it would not be because of his own worthiness but because of God’s promises to David, for it was from ‘the God of your father David’.
The figure of ‘fifteen years’ is probably significant. Five is the number of covenant, and threefold five is covenant completeness. Thus it implies that God is acting within the covenant and for covenant reasons. Hezekiah will be living on borrowed time so that he can further the application of that covenant. (Fifteen and other multiples of five were a regular measurement in the Tabernacle. Compare also the twofold ‘five words’ of the commandments, and the five books of the Law and of the Psalms, all measures of the covenant).
By these promises God was revealed as the giver of life and as the Great Defender of His people, and Hezekiah as the great beneficiary. Surely now he would be dedicated to YHWH with all his heart and lean wholly on Him. And in order to seek to ensure this, God in His graciousness would go even further. He would add to this an even greater wonder. But as events would prove Hezekiah was still full of political ambition, an ambition that would contribute to the downfall of Judah.
2Ki 20:7
‘And Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.’
Isaiah then made a request for a cake of figs, and when Hezekiah’s servants laid it on him, he recovered. The boil and the seriousness of the illness possibly indicate some kind of plague illness. The method of using a poultice to draw the boil was clearly known, and is attested by Pliny. And it equally clearly worked. If it was a miracle no emphasis is laid on the fact that it was so. The emphasis is rather on the fact that it was God’s doing. Once the boil was drawn healing could go on apace. But Hezekiah certainly saw it as a miracle of forgiveness and healing. A similar kind of plaster (of dried raisins) for use on horses is witnessed to in a Ugaritic text.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Reign of Hezekiah King of Judah c. 716-687 BC ( 2Ki 18:1 to 2Ki 20:21 ). Co-regency from c 729 BC.
There now begins the reign of one of the two great kings after David of whom it could be said ‘after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.’ The other will be Josiah (compare 2Ki 23:25). In both cases the words are hyperbole and not intended to be applied literally (otherwise David would have been seen as excelled). But they adequately make clear the excellence of the two kings, Hezekiah because he excelled in faith, and Josiah because he excelled in obedience to the Law. And this was so even though in the end both failed because of their alliances with others.
The story of Hezekiah is portrayed as of one who was victorious on every hand, and who eventually stood up against the great king of Assyria, emerging weakened and battered, but triumphant. In some ways it can be seen as similar to the story of David against Goliath. Both dealt with those who ‘defied the living God’ (2Ki 19:6), and both emphasised the weak facing the strong and overcoming them in the power of YHWH. Indeed that is one of the themes of these chapters, the effective power of YHWH, for great emphasis is laid on the impossibility of anyone successfully defying the king of Assyria, apart, of course, from YHWH. It is made clear that all the great cities of the ancient world and their gods failed to successfully defy him, and that all the gods of those nations were ineffective against him. Who then could stand before him? And the answer given is ‘YHWH’. All the gods of the nations he had swept aside, but in YHWH he was to come across the One who would humiliate him utterly.
Once again we note that the prophetic author is not interested in history for its own sake, but for what it reveals about YHWH. We are told very little about the early years of Hezekiah’s reign, or about his closing years. All the years of waiting for the right moment, and the manoeuvrings and conspiracies involving surrounding nations, are ignored. Having given us a brief summary of his reign the author’s concentration is on the face to face contest between the ‘great king’ of earth and the great King of Heaven, and it is that that is described in detail. It will then be followed by a description of how (1). YHWH was able to extend Hezekiah’s life, and in the process gave him a hugely significant sign of His power, and (2). the way in which Hezekiah finally failed YHWH by entering into negotiations with Babylon, something which spelled doom for the future, both events taking place before the deliverance of Jerusalem. But the Babylonian incident explains why Hezekiah could never really be the awaited ‘chosen King’. For in the end Hezekiah was more interested in impressing men than God. That was why he could never be the Messiah promised by Isa 7:14; Isa 9:5-6; Isa 11:1-4.
Hezekiah’s reign as described by the author can be divided up as follows:
Overall Analysis.
a
b Summary of Hezekiah’s successful reign because he did what was right in the eyes of YHWH (2Ki 18:4-8).
c A reminder of what happened to Hoshea and Samaria which highlights both Jerusalem’s own subsequent escape, and Hezekiah’s successful contrasting reign (2Ki 18:9-12).
d The treaty made and broken, and the invasion of the King of Assyria (2Ki 18:13-17).
e The messengers of the King of Assyria call on the people of Jerusalem to surrender and in the process demean Hezekiah (2Ki 18:18 to 2Ki 19:1).
f The intercession of Hezekiah and the assurance of Isaiah (2Ki 19:2-8).
g The second call to surrender, in view of the approaching Egyptian army, which is much more polite to Hezekiah (2Ki 19:9-14).
f The further intercession of Hezekiah (2Ki 19:15-19).
e The reply of YHWH, the God of Israel, to the great king of Assyria (2Ki 19:20-28).
d YHWH’s Assurance to Judah that the remnant will escape (2Ki 19:29-31).
c The humbling and death of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:32-37).
b The sickness and healing of Hezekiah after a great sign is given, after which Hezekiah foolishly exposes his wealth and armaments to the king of Babylon and is warned of what the consequences will be (2Ki 20:1-19).
a The conclusion to his reign (2Ki 20:20-21).
Note that in ‘a’ we have the introduction to the reign of Hezekiah, and in the parallel the close of his reign. In ‘b’ we have outlined the successes of his reign, and in the parallel the reason why he failed to achieve his potential. In ‘c’ Assyria humble Israel, and in the parallel YHWH humbles Assyria. In ‘d’ a treaty is made and broken and Judah is hemmed in, and in the parallel YHWH’s covenant stands firm and the remnant will be restored. In ‘e’ the King of Assyria calls on Jerusalem to surrender ad informs them of what he will do, and in the parallel YHWH gives His reply to the great king of Assyria. In ‘f’ Hezekiah intercedes before YHWH and in the parallel he does so a second time. Central in ‘g’ is the final call to Hezekiah to yield.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Ki 20:1-11 Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery 2Ki 20:1-11 records the story of King Hezekiah’s illness and recovery.
2Ki 20:2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
2Ki 20:2
2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
2Ki 20:5
2Ki 20:6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
2Ki 20:6
1Ki 3:14, “And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days .”
2Ki 20:10-11 Comments – The Moving of the Sundial – Moving the shadow of the sundial back ten degrees and extending the day was symbolic of God extending Hezekiah’s life fifteen years.
2Ki 20:12-19 Hezekiah Receives a Babylonian Delegate from King Berodachbaladan In 2Ki 20:12-19 Hezekiah receives a visiting delegate sent by Berodachbaladan, king of Babylon. What may have been perceived as an innocent gesture by King Hezekiah in showing this delegate the royal treasures results in a divine prophecy of the loss of these treasures. Hezekiah showed them his most valuable possessions of which he took great pride. However, God knows the heart of man. He knows how vulnerable man is to pride, which leads to exaltation of oneself over God.
Israel’s divine blessings and prosperity were to serve as a testimony to other nations that the God of Israel is the true and living God. King Solomon hosted the Queen of Sheba, who also looked at the wealth of this nation; but at her visit to Israel King Solomon placed much emphasis upon the wisdom of God as she beheld the prosperity that resulted from such wisdom (1Ki 10:1-13).
1Ki 10:1-3, “And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.”
2Ki 20:18 And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
2Ki 20:18
2Ki 20:19 Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?
2Ki 20:19
2Ki 20:20 And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 20:20
Isa 22:11, “Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Hezekiah’s Sickness
v. 1. In those days, v. 2. Then he turned his face to the wall, v. 3. I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee, in his entire life and actions, in truth and with a perfect heart, v. 4. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, v. 5. Turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, v. 6. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, v. 7. And Isaiah, v. 8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? v. 9. And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He hath spoken shall the shadow, v. 10. And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, v. 11. And Isaiah, the prophet, cried unto the Lord; and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
2Ki 20:1-21
ILLNESS OF HEZEKIAH AND EMBASSY OF MERODACH–BALADAN. HEZEKIAH‘S DEATH. The writer proceeds to relate an illness and a recovery of Hezekiah, which happened about the middle of his reign, probably in B.C. 713, and which was accompanied by strange, if not miraculous, circumstances (2Ki 20:1-11). Hezekiah’s recovery was followed by an embassy of congratulation from Merodach-Baladan, King of Babylon, which led Hezekiah into an act of folly, and brought upon him the rebuke of Isaiah (verses 12-19). The narrative terminates with a notice of some of Hezekiah’s great works, and of his decease (verses 20, 21).
2Ki 20:1-11
The illness and recovery of Hezekiah.
2Ki 20:1
In those days. This is a very vague note of time, and cannot be regarded as determining the position of the events here related with respect to the preceding narrative. 2Ki 20:6, however, shows that a time anterior to Sennacherib’s discomfiture is intended; and the same verse also fixes the date to Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, which was B.C. 713. If the date in 2Ki 18:13 be regarded as genuine, we must consider that the illness happened in the year of Sennacherib’s first expedition against Palestine; but if we regard that date as interpolated, and accept the Assyrian inscriptions as our chronological authorities, we must place the events of the present chapter twelve years earlier than that expedition, in the reign of Sargon over Assyria, and in the first reign of Merodach-Baladan over Babylon. It belongs, at any rate, to the middle part of Hezekiah’s reign, while his treasures were intact (2Ki 18:13-17), and had not been carried off to Nineveh. Was Hezekiah sick unto death; stricken, i.e; by a malady which, in the ordinary course of nature, would have been fatal. And the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him. The designation of Isaiah as “the prophet,” and” the son of Amoz,” as if previously unknown to the reader, indicates the original independency of the narrative, which the writer of Kings probably obtained from a separate source. And said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. The statement was a warning, not a prophecy. It is parallel to that of Jonah to the Ninevites, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
2Ki 20:2
Then he turned his face to the walli.e; away from those who were standing beside his bed, and might have distracted his attention, to pray with more concentration and earnestnessand prayed unto the Lord, saying. It was natural to Hezekiah, in every kind of affliction and distress, to take his trouble direct to God.
2Ki 20:3
I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart. There is no Pharisaical self-righteousness here. Hezekiah is conscious that he has honestly endeavored to serve God, and to do his willthat, whatever may have been his shortcomings, his heart has been right towards God. He ventures, therefore, on something like expostulation. Why is he to be cut off in the midst of his days, at the age of thirty-nine, when such a wicked king as Uzziah has lived to be sixty-eight (2Ki 15:2), and Rehoboam to be fifty-eight (1Ki 14:21)? It is to be remembered that, under the old covenant, length of days was expressly promised to the righteous (Pro 3:2; Pro 9:11; Pro 10:27, etc.), and that a shortened life was the proclaimed penalty of wicked-doing (Job 15:32, Job 15:33; Job 22:16; Psa 55:23; Pro 10:27). Hezekiah’s self-assertion is thus a sort of laying hold of God’s promises. And have done that which is flood in thy sight; comp. 2Ki 18:3-6; and note the similar pleadings of David, “With my whole heart have I sought thee” (Psa 119:10); “I have remembered thy Name, O Lord, and have kept thy Law. This I had because I kept thy commandments” (Psa 119:55, Psa 119:56), and the like. And Hezekiah wept sore. Human nature shrinks from death instinctively, and it requires a very vivid imagination for even the Christian in middle life to feel with St. Paul, that “it is better for him to depart and to be with Christ.” The Hebrew of Hezekiah’s time had far mere reason to regard death as an evil. His hopes of a life beyond the grave were feeblehis conceptions of the life, if life there were, faint and unattractive. Sheol, like Hades, was a vague, awful, terrible thing. If we consider Hezekiah’s words, “The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee” (Isa 38:18, Isa 38:19), we may understand how the Hebrew shrank from the fearful change. And in Hezekiah’s case there was a yet further reason for grief Hezekiah had as yet no male offspring (Josephus, ‘Ant. Jud.,’10.2. 1). Manasseh was as yet unborn (comp. verse 6 with 2Ki 21:1). If he died now, his house would be cut off, he would be without posteritya sore grief to every Hebrew. Ewald’s references to Isa 38:19 and Isa 39:7, as indicative of Hezekiah having sons at the time, are absolutely without value.
2Ki 20:4
And it same to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court. The narrative in Isa 38:4 does not contain this touch, which is very graphic, and indicative of the eye-witness. “The middle court” is probably the second or intermediate court of the royal palace. Isaiah had not gone further than this, when he was arrested in his course by a Divine communication. That the word of the Lord came to him, saying. How the word of the Lord came to the prophets is an inscrutable mystery. Sometimes, no doubt, it came in vision, which to a certain extent we can understand. But how, when the prophet was secularly engaged, as in this instance, walking across a court, he knew that the thought which occurred to him was a Divine message, it is almost impossible to conceive. Still, we cannot doubt that if God determines to communicate his will to man, he must be able, with the message, to impart an absolute certainty of its source, an assured conviction that it is his word, which precludes all question, hesitation, or dubiety. Isaiah, in the middle of his walk, finds his steps arrested, anew injunction laid upon him, with a necessity of immediately obeying it.
2Ki 20:5
Turn againor, turn back“retrace thy steps, and enter once more into the bedchamber of the king”and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people. An unusual title for the Jewish monarch, but one applied in 1Sa 9:16 and 1Sa 10:1 to Saul, and in 1Sa 13:14 and 2Sa 5:2 to David. The proper meaning of is “leader””one who goes in front.” Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy fatherHezekiah obtains mercy, both as David’s son and as David’s imitator (see 2Ki 18:3)I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears (comp. Exo 2:24; Exo 3:7; Psa 56:8). There is not a cry, not a groan, not a tear, not a sigh of his faithful ones, to which the heart of God is not open, which does not touch him, move him, draw forth his sympathy. If he does not always grant our prayers, it is because we “ask amiss”without faith, or without fervor, or things not good for us. Hezekiah’s earnest, faithful, and not unwise prayer was, as such prayers always are, effectual. Behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord; i.e. thou shalt be so completely recovered as to be able to quit thy palace and pay thy vows in the courts of the Lord’s house. God knows that to do this will be Hezekiah’s first wish, as soon as his sickness is past (comp. Isa 38:20).
2Ki 20:6
And I win add unto thy days fifteen years. God “does exceeding abundantly more than we either ask or think” (Eph 3:20). Hezekiah had asked for nothing more than immediate escape from death. God grants him fifteen additional years of life, i.e. more than doubles the length of his reign. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria. If Hezekiah’s illness took place in B.C. 713, and Jerusalem was then in danger of being attacked by the Assyrians, the king who threatened the attack must have been Sargon. Sargon made an expedition into Palestine in B.C. 720, another in B.C. 713, and a third in B.C. 711. In none of them does he seem to have invaded Judaea; but in the third he counts the Jews among his enemies. Hezekiah, who had revolted from him (2Ki 18:7), may well have felt alarm both in B.C. 713 and 711. And I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. The promise given in B.C. 713 in respect of Sargon was repeated in B.C. 699 (?) with respect to Sennacherib in almost the same words.
2Ki 20:7
And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. Figs were the usual remedy for boils. Dioscorides says of the fig, ; Pliny, “Ulcera aperit;” while Jerome, in his-commentary on Isaiah, has the following: “Juxta artem medicorum omnis sanies siccioribus ficis atque contusis in cutis superficiem provocatur.” The remedy is said to be still in use among Easterns. It can scarcely be supposed to have cured a malignant bell by its intrinsic force; hut under the Divine blessing it was made effectual, and the cure followed. And they took and laid it on the boil. The royal attendants obtained a lump of figs, and applied it to the inflamed boil or carbuncle, as Isaiah had suggested. It is impossible to say what exactly was the nature of the “boil,” since diseases change their characters, and every age has its own special disorders; but modem medical science knows of more than one kind of pustular swelling, which, as soon as it is detected, is regarded as fatal. And he recovered. Not suddenly, but by degrees; after the manner of natural remedies. It was three days before he was well enough to quit the palace, and offer thanks in the temple for his miraculous cure (see verse 5).
2Ki 20:8
And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me? Having regard to the weakness of human faith, God, under the old covenant, often gave, or offered, near “signs” of promised blessings that were more remote, in order to sustain and encourage the doubtful and the wavering (comp. Exo 3:12; 2Ki 19:29; Isa 7:11, Isa 7:14, etc.). Hezekiah assumes that a near “sign” will now he granted to him, and simply asks what the sign is to be. And that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? Three days would be a long and weary time to wait. It was not unnatural that Hezekiah should crave some more immediate assurance that his prayer was indeed heard. Neither God nor the prophet was angry at his request.
2Ki 20:9
And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken. Hezekiah is no more reproved for asking for a sign than was Gideon (Jdg 6:37, Jdg 6:39). Ahaz, his father, had been reproved for not asking (Isa 7:13). It would be faithless now for Christians to demand signs; but in an age of miracles, when there were prophets upon the earth empowered to give signs, faithful men might request them without incurring God’s displeasure. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees? The Hebrew text will scarcely bear this translation, which, however, seems to be required by Hezekiah’s answer. Perhaps for we should read . Or go back ten degrees? literally, in both clauses, ten steps. There are abundant reasons for believing that the early dials consisted of a gnomon set up on the top of a flight of steps, and that time was measured by the number of steps on which the shadow of the gnomon fell.
2Ki 20:10
And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. Hezekiah views it as a comparatively easy thing for the shadow, which is already descending the steps, to accelerate its pace and rapidly descend fifteen degrees instead of slowly traversing them; and therefore accepts Isaiah’s other offer. Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. Let it, i.e; change its direction, and having descended a certain distance, suddenly return and ascend again. This will be no “light thing,” but a great marvel, which will thoroughly convince him. The thought was natural, though perhaps not strictly logical.
2Ki 20:11
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord. Though the sign had been promised, Isaiah regarded his own intercessional prayer as not out of place, and “cried unto the Lord,” i.e. prayed with energy, that the king’s wish might be accomplished. So, though we have God’s promise to care for us, and keep us from want (Mat 6:25-30), yet we must daily beseech him to “give us this day our daily bread.” And he brought the shadow ten degrees backward. How this was done, we are not told, and can therefore only conjecture. The earlier commentators imagined that the revolution of the earth upon its axis was actually reversed for a time; but this idea is now generally rejected. It is clear from 2Ch 32:31 that the phenomenon, whatever may have been its cause, was local, “done in the land” of Judah, and not visible elsewhere. Some moderns have suggested an earthquake affecting the gnomon; some a trick on the part of Isaiah; ethers, and the generality, a very abnormal refraction of the sun’s rays. An observed instance of something similar, which took place at Metz, in Lotheringia, in the year 1703, is on record. Two scientists, Professor Seyffarth and Mr. J. W. Bosanquet, think that the phenomenon was due to an eclipse, in which the upper limb of the sun was obscured temporarily. In such a case a slight recession of the shadow would certainly take place; but it would scarcely be such as to attract attention from any one but a scientific observer. On the whole, the most probable cause would seem to be refraction, which is accepted by Keil, Bahr, and Kay. By which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz; literally, on the steps of Ahaz. Sundials were invented by the Babylonians (Herod; 2:109), and were no doubt in use at Babylon long before the time of Hezekiah. They were of various kinds, and in some of them the gnomon was made to cast its shadow upon steps. There are still two dials in Indiaone at Benares, known as the Manmandir, and the other at Delhiwhere this is the case.
2Ki 20:12-19
The embassy of Merodach-Baladan. Soon after his recovery, Hezekiah received an embassy from a new quarter. Hitherto Babylon and Judaea had been isolated from one another, and had perhaps scarcely known of each other’s existence. Assyria had stood between them, and Babylonia had been for the most part an Assyrian dependency. But recently Babylonia had asserted herself. In B.C. 722, on the death of Shalmaneser, a native Chaldean named Meredach-Baladan had made himself king of the country, and maintained his independence against all the efforts of Sargon to reduce him. His position, however, was precarious, and it was probably in the hope of concluding an alliance with Hezekiah also an enemy of Sargon’s (see the comment on 2Ki 20:6)that he sent his embassy. He had two excuses for it. A neighboring king might well congratulate his brother monarch on his recovery; and a Chaldean prince might well inquire into an astronomical marvel (2Ch 33:1-25 :31). The date of the embassy appears to have been B.C. 712, the year following on Hezekiah’s illness.
2Ki 20:12
At that time Berodach-Baladan. Isaiah gives the name more correctly as “Merodach-Baladan” (Isa 39:1). The native form is Marduk-pal-iddin, i.e. “Merodach a son has given.” This king makes his first appearance in an inscription of Tiglath-pileser’s, where he is one of many chieftains among whom Babylonia is divided. Subsequently he is mentioned as revolting from Sargon in the latter’s first year, B.C. 722, and holding the throne of Babylon for twelve years, when Sargon conquered him, deposed him, and took the kingdom. This twelve-years’ reign is acknowledged by Ptolemy in his Canon, but the name of the king is given as Mardoc-Empadus. On the death of Sargon, in B.C. 705, Merodach-Baladan again revolted, and reigned for six months, when he was driven out of the country by Sennacherib, B.C. 704. He continued, however, to give trouble even after this; and his sons and grandsons were pretenders to the Babylonian throne in the reigns of Esar-haddon and his successor, Asshur-bani-pal. The son of Baladan. In the Assyrian inscriptions Merodach-Baladan is always called “the son of Yakin”. Yakin, however, may have been his grandfather, as Nimshi was the grandfather of Jehu, and Baladan (Bel-dash?) his father. King of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah. Thus opening diplomatic communication. It has been almost universally felt that the object of the embassy must have been to conclude, or at any rate to pave the way for, an alliance. So Josephus (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 10.2. 2), Ewald, Von Gerlach, Thenius, Keil, Bahr, and others. Assyria menaced both countries, and the common danger produced naturally a mutual attraction. But it was prudent to disguise this motive. For he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. Assyria could not take umbrage at an embassy of congratulation, nor at one for scientific purposes (2Ch 33:1-25 :31). So these two objects were paraded.
2Ki 20:13
And Hezekiah hearkened unto them. Hezekiah was dazzled by the prospect that opened upon him. It was a grand thing that his fame should have reached so far as Babylon, a still grander thing to be offered such an alliance. It must be remembered that he and his counselors were inclined from the first to meet Assyrian menace by calling in foreign aid (2Ki 18:21-24; Isa 20:6; Isa 30:2-7; Isa 36:6). He had not yet accepted the view of Isaiah, that human aid was vain, and that the only reasonable ground of hope or confidence was, in Jehovah. And showed them all the house of his precious things; i.e. his treasury. Hezekiah did not do this in mere ostentation, though he may have had a certain pride in exhibiting his wealth. His main wish, no doubt, was to make known his resources, and show that he was a valuable ally. So Oroetes acted towards Polycrates (Herod; 3:123), and Hannibal towards the Gortynians (Com. Nep; ‘Vit. Hannib.,’ 9). It is to be borne in mind that Hezekiah’s treasures were, in B.C. 712, still intact, and included all that ample store which he sacrificed to save Jerusalem at the time of the first expedition of Sennacherib. The silver, and the gold, and the spices. Compare the description of the wealth of Solomon (1Ki 10:25). “Spices” always form an important portion of the treasure of Oriental kings (comp. Herod; 2. 97, sub fin.). And the precious ointment; rather, the precious oil, not . It is thought (Keil, Bahr) that the valuable balsam oil, which was obtained from the royal gardens, is intended. And all the house of his armor; or, of his vessels; but arms and armor are probably intended. It would be almost as important to show that he had abundant arms in store, as that he had abundant riches. And all that was found in his treasuresa clause implying that there was much more which had not been specified, as precious stones, ivory, ebony, and the likethere was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not. This is a manifest hyperbole; but it can scarcely mean less than that he gave orders for them to be shown the collections of arms and stores which existed in his other strongholds besides Jerusalem. Hezekiah, no doubt, had many “store cities,” as Solomon (2Ch 8:6) and Rehoboam (2Ch 11:5-12) had.
2Ki 20:14
Then came Isaiah the prophet unto King Hezekiah; and said unto him. When a prophet came, unsummoned, into king’s presence, it was usually to rebuke him. What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? Isaiah does not ask because he does not know, but to obtain a confession, on which he may base the message that he has to deliver. And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. Note first, that Hezekiah does not give any answer to the prophet’s first question, “What said these men?” being unwilling probably to make known the overtures that he had received from them, since he knows that Isaiah is opposed to any reliance on an “arm of flesh:” and secondly, that he answers the second question, not with shame, but with complacency, “They are come to me from a very far country, whither my fame has reachedeven from Babylon are they come, ‘the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency’ (Isa 13:19).” Self-satisfaction shows itself in the answer. He thinks it redounds to his honor that he has been sought out from so great a distance, and by so great a city.
2Ki 20:15
And he said, What have they seen in thine house? i.e. What hast thou shewed them? Hast thou treated them like ordinary ambassadors, or hast thou gone out of thy way to court an alliance with their master? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. The reply is open and straightforward. Hezekiah is not ashamed of what he has done, or at any rate, will not, to escape blame, take refuge in lies or concealment. He readily acknowledges that he has shown the ambassadors everything.
2Ki 20:16
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. This is a phrase of warning very common in the mouth of the prophets, when they are about to deliver a rebuke or solemn condemnation.
2Ki 20:17
Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon. These treasures of thy royal house, whereof thou art so proud, and which thou hast of thine own accord made known to the Babylonians, to obtain their alliance, will in fact excite their cupidity, and the time will come when they, or what remains of them and represents them, will be carried off as plunder to Babylon by a conquering monarch, who will strip thy palace of its valuables, and drag thy descendants into captivity, and degrade them to the condition of slaves or servants, and make them discharge menial offices about his court. The revelation was now, it would seem, for the first time made that Babylon, and not Assyria, was the true enemy which Judaea had to fear, the destined foe who would accomplish all the threats of the prophets from Moses downwards, who would destroy the holy city and the glorious temple of Solomon, and carry away the ark of the covenant, and tear the people from their homes, and bring the kingdom of David to an end, and give Jerusalem over as a prey to desolation for seventy years. Henceforth it was Babylon and not Assyria which was feared, Babylon and not Assyria whereto the prophetic gaze of Isaiah himself was directed, and which became in his later prophecies the main object of his denunciations. Considering the circumstances of the time, the prophecy is a most extraordinary one. Babylonia was at the time merely one of several kingdoms bordering on Assyria which the Assyrians threatened with destruction. From the time of Tiglath-pileser she had been continually diminishing, while Assyria had been continually increasing, in power. Tiglath-pileser had overrun the country and established himself as king there. Shalmaneser’s authority had been uncontested. If just at present a native prince held the throne, it was by a very uncertain tenure, and a few years later Assyria regained complete mastery. No human foresight could possibly have anticipated such a complete reversal of the relative positions of the two countries as was involved in Isaiah’s prophecya reversal which was only accomplished by the appearance on the scene of a new power, Media, which hitherto had been regarded as of the very slightest account. Nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.
2Ki 20:18
And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget. Under “sons” are included by the Hebrew idiom all descendants, however remote. The princes carried off from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar were Hezekiah’s descendants, either in the fourth or the fifth generation. Shall they take away. Among the descendants of Hezekiah taken to Baby]on by Nebuchadnezzar were Jehoiachin (2Ki 24:15), Zedekiah (2Ki 25:7), Daniel (Dan 1:3), and others. And they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. Keil and Bahr translate in this place by “chamberlains” or “footmen;” but there is no reason why the word should not have its ordinary sense of “eunuchs”.
2Ki 20:19
Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. Hezekiah accepts the rebuke, thereby acknowledging himself to have been in the wrong, and submits without remonstrance to his punishment. “Good is the word of the Lord”who “in his wrath has thought upon mercy.” The king feels that God might, in justice, have visited him, in his own person, with some immediate affliction or calamity. It is a relief to hear that the blow will not fall during his lifetime. There may be a tinge of selfishness in his acquiescence, but it is not very pronounced, and does not call for any severe animadversion. The Old Testament saints were not faultless, and are not set before us as perfect patterns. There is one only “Ensample” given us whose steps we are to follow in all things. And he saidapparently after a pause, per-Imps turning to his courtiers, whose looks may have expressed astonishment at the words which he had just spokenIs it not good, if peace and truth be in my days? i.e. Am I not right to acquiesce in the sentence and pronounce it “good,” if it promises me “peace and truth,” or “tranquility and steadfastness”? Ought I not to accept with thankfulness the immediate boon, instead of troubling myself about a remote future? The sentiment is not far removed from that of the well-known lines
“I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.”
2Ki 20:20, 2Ki 20:21
The great works of Hezekiah, and his decease. Hezekiah was known, not only as a pious king, and the king in whose reign the pride of the Assyrians was dashed to the ground, but also as one who, by works of great importance, conferred permanent benefit on Jerusalem (see 2Ch 32:3-5 and 2Ch 32:30; Ecclesiasticus 48:17). The writer feels that he cannot conclude his notice of Hezekiah’s reign without some mention of these works. He enters, however, into no description, but, having referred the reader for details to the “book of the chronicles,” notes in the briefest possible way the decease of Hezekiah, and the accession of his son and successor.
2Ki 20:20
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might. Hezekiah’s “might” was chiefly shown in the earlier portion of his reign, when he “smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof” (2Ki 18:8). Against Assyria he was unsuccessful, and must have succumbed, but for the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib’s host. And how he made a pool; rather, the pool, or the reservoir. The writer of Kings either knows of one pool only in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, or regards one as so superior that it deserves to be called , “the pool.” Recent discoveries make it highly probable that the “pool” intended is that of Siloam, or, if not the present Siloam reservoir, a larger one, a little below it, now known as Birket el Hamra. That there was at least one other pool in Hezekiah’s time is evident from Isa 22:9, Isa 22:11. And a conduit; rather, the conduit. If “the pool” is Siloam, “the conduit” must almost certainly be that which was excavated under Ophel for the purpose of conveying the water from the Well of the Virgin in the Kedron valley to the Siloam reservoir on the western side of the spur. This conduit, which is curiously twisted, has a length of 1708 feet, with a height varying from two feet to four or five, and a width of about two feet. The roof is flat, the sides perpendicular, and the floor hollowed into a groove for the more rapid passage of the water. About nineteen feet from the southern extremity, where the channel opens upon the Siloam pool, a niche has been cut in the right-hand wall in the shape of a square tablet, and smoothed to receive an inscription of six lines, the greater part of which has been recovered. The letters are of the old Hebrew or Phoenician type, and by their forms indicate a date “between the eighth and the sixth centuries” (Sayce). The inscription, so far as it is legible, appears to have run as follows: “Behold the tunnel! Now, this is the history of the tunnel. As the excavators were lifting up the pick, each towards the other, and while there were yet three cubits to be broken through the voice of the one called to his neighbor, for there was an excess (?) of the rock on the right. Then they rose up they struck on the west of the excavators; the excavators struck, each to meet the other, pick to pick. And the waters flowed from their outlet to the pool for a distance of a thousand cubits; and three-fourths (?) of a cubit was the height of the rock over the head of the excavation here.” We learn from it that the workmen began at either end, and tunnelled through the rock until they met in the middlea result which their previous divergences from the straight line force us to attribute more to good fortune than to engineering science. And brought water into the city. The Well of the Virgin was without, the Pool of Siloam within, the citythe wall of the town being carried across the Tyropoeon valley from the extreme point of Ophel to the opposite hilt (see Neh 3:15). Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Hezekiah’s fame rested very much upon these works, as we see by what is said of him by the son of Sirach (see the comment on verses 20, 21).
2Ki 20:21
And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. The writer of Chronicles adds, “And they buried him in the chiefest,” or rather, in the topmost, “of the sepulchers of the sons of David” (2Ch 32:33). The catacomb of David being now full, Hezekiah and his descendants (2Ki 21:18, 2Ki 21:26; 2Ki 23:30) had to he buried elsewhere. The tomb of Hezekiah was either over the catacomb of David, or on the ascent which led to it. And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. (See 2 Chronicles, 50. s.c; and Josephus, ‘Ant. Jud.,’ 10.3. 1.)
HOMILETICS
2Ki 20:1-3
Aspects of death.
We may look on death from three points of viewthat of the natural man, unenlightened by Divine revelation; that of the Israelite under the Law; and that of the Christian. The contemplation will be wholesome, for we are all too apt to turn our thoughts away from any consideration of the grim enemy, who will certainly have to be met and encountered one day.
I. DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE NATURAL MAN. By nature man has an absolute horror of death. Self-preservation is the first law of his being. He will suffer anything, he will do anything, to avoid death. Death is in his eyes a fierce monster, cruel, relentless, detestable. To live may be hard, grievous, wretched, scarcely tolerable; but to die is wholly intolerable. It is to exchange the bright pure light of day for absolute darkness, or at best for a dim, dull, murky region in which souls wander without aim or hope. It is to be cut off from all that is known, customary, intelligible, and to be thrown into a world unknown, unfamiliar, full of terrors. It is to lose all energy, all vigor, all robustness, all sense of power. In the “happy hunting-fields,” the shade of the living man may still pursue the unsubstantial forms of elk, or deer, or antelope; but the sport is a poor and colorless replica of that pursued on earth, and is anticipated with but little satisfaction. Better, in the eyes of the natural man, to live on earth, even as slave or hireling, the hardest of all possible earthly lives, than to hold the kingship of the world below and rule over the entire realm of shadows. In the vigor of his youth and early manhood the natural man forgets death, views it as so distant that the fear of it scarcely affects him sensibly; but let the shadow be suddenly cast across his path, and he starts from it with a cry of terror. He can, indeed, meet it without blenching in the battle-field, when his blood is hot, and to the last he does not know whether he will slay his foe, or his foe him; but if he has to die, he accepts his death as a miserable necessity. It is hateful to him to die; it is still more hateful to be cut off in his prime, while he is still strong, vigorous, lusty. It is not till old age comes on, and his arm grows weak, and his eye dim, that he can look on death without loathing. Then, perhaps, he may accept the necessity without protest, feeling that actual death can be little worse than the death-in-life whereto he has come.
II. DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE ISRAELITE. The Israelite had not very much advantage over the natural man in respect of the contemplation of death. But little was revealed to him concerning the life beyond the grave. He knew, indeed, that his life did not end everything, that he would certainly go down to Sheol when he died, and there have a continued existence; but Sheol presented itself to him in as dismal colors as Hades did to the Greek. “The living, the living shall praise thee; Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee,” cried Hezekiah from his bed of sickness (Isa 38:18, Isa 38:19). Thus the Israelite too shrank from death, not merely instinctively, but as a sad and poor condition compared with life. And untimely death was even more hateful to him than to the natural man, since under the Mosaic dispensation it was declared to be a mark of the displeasure of God. “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened” said Solomon (Pro 10:27). “Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,” sang David (Psa 55:23). Long life was a gift repeatedly promised to the righteous (Pro 3:2, Pro 3:16; Pro 9:10, Pro 9:11; Psa 91:16, etc.); and when a man found himself struck down by a dangerous disease in his middle age, it seemed to him, and to those about him, that he must have sinned grievously, and so brought down upon himself God’s anger. Still more bitter was the feeling of one who was cut off in mid life, if he was childless. Then the man’s name was “clean put out;” his memorial perished with him; he had no more part or lot in Israel, no more inheritance among his brethren. Thus death remained a terror and a calamity, even to the most religious Jew, until, about the time of Daniel, the doctrine of the resurrection began to be preached (Dan 12:1-3), and the life beyond the grave to take a more cheerful aspect.
III. DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN. The whole relation of death to life and of life to death became changed by the revelation made to man in Christ. Then for the first time were “life and immortality” fully “brought to light.” Then first it appeared that earth was a mere sojourning-place for those who were here as “strangers and pilgrims” upon it, having “no continuing city.” Then first were the joys of heaven painted in glowing hues, and men told that eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had it entered into the heart of man [to conceive], the things which God had prepared for those that love him” (1Co 2:9). No sensuous Paradise of earthly joys was depicted, no “Castle of Indolence,” no mere haven of rest, but man’s true home, the place and state for which he was created, where is his citizenship, where he will be reunited to those whom in life he loved, where his nature will be perfected, and where, above all, he will “be with Christ” (Php 1:23), will “see God” (1Jn 3:2), and “know even as he is known ‘ (1Co 13:12). The prospect of death thus, to the true Christian, lost all its terrors. “I am in a strait betwixt two,” says St. Paul, “having a desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is far better“ (Php 1:23); and again, “I am willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2Co 5:8). Natural shrinking there may be, for “the flesh is weak;” but thousands have triumphed over it, have sought martyrdom, have gone gladly to their deaths, and preferred to die. Even when there is no such exaltation of feeling, death is contemplated with calmness, as a passage to a better worlda world where there is no sorrow nor sighing (Isa 35:10), where there is no sin, “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest” (Job 3:17). Untimely death from natural disease or accident is to the Christian no sign of God’s displeasure, but rather an indication of the contrary. God takes to himself those whom he recognizes as fit to die, of whom it may be said that . He takes them in love, not in wrath, to join the company of “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb 12:23), to be among his “jewels” (Isa 61:10; Mal 3:17).
2Ki 20:12-18
The sunshine of prosperity a greater danger than the storms of adversity.
When Sennacherib threatens, when his messengers blaspheme, when the huge battalions of the most powerful kingdom in the world have entered his territory and are about to march upon his capital, the Jewish monarch remains firm; his faith is unshaken; he casts his care upon God, looks to him and him only; believes in him, trusts in him, regards prayer as the only door of safety. Similarly, when disease prostrates him, when a painful and dangerous malady confines him to his bed, and the prophet, instead of bringing him words of comfort, is commissioned to bid him “set his house in order; for he shall die, and not live” (2Ki 20:1), his faith fails not, in God is still his refuge, to God alone he betakes himself, and prays and weeps sore (2Ki 20:2, 2Ki 20:3). The blasts of calamity cannot tear away from him the cloak of faith; he clutches it the tighter the more the storm rages; nothing will induce him to let it go. But the danger past, health restored, the admiration of foreign kings attracted, his car besieged by congratulations and flatteries, his court visited by envoys from “a far country,” and at once his grasp relaxes, the thought of God fades from his heart, his faith slips from him, and he is a mere worldling, bent on winning to himself a seat alliance, and obtaining the aid of an “arm of flesh ‘ against his enemies. And so it is and will ever be with most of us. We can bear the world’s frowns, the buffets of fortune, the cruelty of oppressors, the open attacks of rivals and enemies; we can resist them, defy them, and still maintain our integrity; but let the world smile, let fortune favor us, let riches increase, let friends spring up on all sides, and how few of us can stand the sunshine! How few of us can remain as close to God as we were before! How few of us but drop the habits of prayer, of communing with God, of constant reliance upon him, which were familiar to us in the darker time, and substitute a mere occasional and perfunctory acknowledgment of his goodness! Alas, how few! Oh! may our cry, the cry of our heart, ever be, “In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth good Lord, deliver us!”
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN
2Ki 20:1-11
Hezekiah’s sickness.
Every changing scene of life is depicted for us in the Bible. Whatever our circumstances may be, we can get some guidance, help, or comfort from that treasure-house of wisdom and experience. We have here
I. A SOLEMN MESSAGE. “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”
1. It was a solemn message for Hezekiah. His kingdom seemed now to be securely established. God had helped him against the Philistines, and had overthrown them. He was doubtless looking forward to many years of rest and quietness, when he might enjoy for himself the benefits of peace, and develop the resources of the nation, so long desolated by invading armies. How startling, then, the announcement of his approaching death!
2. It is a solemn message for every one. It is a solemn thing for a human soul to pass from time into eternity, to enter into the immediate presence of the Eternal, to stand before God.
3. It is a message which may be truly spoken to every one. “Thou shalt die, and not live,” There is an hour of death in store for every one of us. Somewhere in the unknown future there waits for us
“The shadow feared of man.”
We know not what a day may bring forth. “In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
4. The certainty of death suggests the necessity for immediate preparation. “Set thine house in order.” Can you say that you are prepared to meet your God? Is your heart right with God? Have you set your house in order? The time for preparation is “now.” Scripture is very clear on that point. It is nowhere said, “See that you make ready when death comes.” It is nowhere said,” Look forward to being prepared for death” No; that would only be deceiving us, because death might come before we were prepared, though we might intend to be prepared, if we knew that death was near. No; but it is said, “Be ready.” It is said, “Prepare to meet thy God.” “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”
II. A SORROWFUL KING. “Hezekiah wept sore.”
1. He was not sorrowful because of a guilty conscience. He had endeavored to serve God faithfully. No doubt he had made mistakes. But his heart was right with God. “I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” It is well to have a good conscience when the hour of death draws nigh. It is well when we can say with St. Paul, “Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men.” Such a man is always “ready to depart.”
2. He was sorrowful only because of the shortening of his life. How little we know what is best for us! It was after this that Hezekiah was led astray, as we shall see, by the pride of his heart. Though God lengthened Hezekiah’s life in answer to his piteous request, perhaps it would have been better for him if he had been content to go when God first sent for him. There is often a great mystery to us when good men seem prematurely taken away. But God knows the reason why, and he doeth all things well. Let us leave the time of our own departure, and the departure of our friends, contentedly in God’s hands.
III. A SPARED LIFE. The life was spared in answer to prayer; and yet this ease gives no encouragement to what is commonly known as “healing by faith.” Isaiah directed the attendants to take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster on the boil, and Hezekiah recovered (verse 7; Isa 38:21). We believe in the power of faith and prayer to heal the sick, and yet we believe in using the means. We use food to preserve and sustain our life from day to day. There is no lack of faith in that. And it shows no lack of faith if we use means to restore our life, asking all the time that God’s blessing may accompany the means we use. How many of our lives has God spared? How many of us has he brought back again from the gates of death? Let the goodness of God lead us to repentance. Let the lives that he has spared be dedicated to himC.H.I.
2Ki 20:12-21
Hezekiah and the ambassadors.
Friendly greetings are always welcome. They are especially so after a time of sickness. Hezekiah’s illness, no doubt, called forth many expressions of sympathy, and, among the rest, a message and present from Merodach-Baladan King of Babylon. The ambassadors who bore the message and the present were very courteously received by Hezekiah. Unfortunately, he allowed himself to be unduly elated by the honor done to him by the heathen king. He showed the messengers all the house of his precious things, and all his treasures of gold and silver and armor; “there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.” We see here
I. FOOLISH PRIDE. Hezekiah’s prosperity for once led him astray.
1. He gave not glory to God. It was God who had prospered him, and crowned all his labors with success. But there is no word of this to the ambassadors. He takes all the honor and glory to himself. He might have, perhaps, excused himself, as many do, by saying that there is no use in obtruding our religion upon strangers. But why should he have been ashamed to acknowledge God’s bountiful hand, if he was not ashamed to take his bounties? Why should any of us be ashamed to confess Christ? To be ashamed of Christ is not only weak and cowardly; it is unreasonable.
2. We see also how foolish Hezekiah’s pride was, when we remember his recent sickness. It was not so long since Hezekiah, now so vain and boastful, turned his face to the wall, and wept sore. The memory of that should have humbled him. Not only so, but when he was recovered of his sickness, he made special promises of praise to God and humility of spirit. “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day.” Where was Hezekiah’s praise of God’s goodness when these Babylonish ambassadors came to him? “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (Isa 38:15). Where now is Hezekiah’s humility? On the contrary, as it is said in 2Ch 32:25, “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up.”
3. We see here how watchful we need to be over our own hearts. We read in 2Ch 32:31, “Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” We cannot tell how we may act until the temptation comes. Such a crisis as this may come to each of us. Let us watch and pray, that we enter not into temptation. “Above all treasure guard thy heart, for out of it are the fountains of life.”
II. A FAITHFUL PROPHET. Isaiah did not delay in the path of duty. Hezekiah had humbled himself and his nation, and he had dishonored God, before these heathen ambassadors. Isaiah at once proceeds to the king’s presence, and rebukes him for his folly and pride. Not only so, hut he foretells that Babylon, whose avarice had thus been aroused, would one day take advantage of this act of weakness, and take possession of the treasures of Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s answer was wise and humble. He was a God-fearing, if mistaken, man. “Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.” So let us receive God’s judgments, in humility, submission, and patience, and not in rebellion and defiance. What a blessing to a king to have a faithful and wise counselor! What a blessing to a nation and to a Church to have faithful ministers! They who fear God need not fear the face of man.C.H.I
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
2Ki 20:1-21
Death.
“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,” etc. A thoughtful man might raise many questions on this chapterindeed, on all the chapters in this book. He might askWho was the writer of this chapter, ay, and of the entire Books of Kings? A question this which has not been settled, and, perhaps, never will be. He might ask on what authority certain men, called prophets, such as Isaiah, speak as from heaven, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Priests and leaders of all sects profess to speak in the name of the Lord, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Such questions might open up discussions of critical and speculative interest, but would be of no practical benefit whatever. Anyhow, I forego them. My purpose all along has been to turn whatever I find in this or any other book of the Old Testament to some practical use. Some years before the overwhelming destruction of Sennacherib and his army, as recorded in the preceding chapter, Hezekiah was seized with some severe disease which threatened the extinction of his life: death was before him. The account leads us to consider death in three aspects: as
(1) consciously approaching; as
(2) temporarily arrested; and as
(3) ultimately triumphant.
I. As CONSCIOUSLY APPROACHING. “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” Mark here three things.
1. When he became conscious of its approach. “In those days.” “By this expression,” says Dr. Keil, “the illness of Hezekiah is merely assigned in a general manner to the same time as the events previously described. That it did not occur after the departure of the Assyrians is evident from the sixth verse, both from the fact that, in answer to his prayer, fifteen years more of life were promised him, and that he, nevertheless, reigned only twenty-nine years (2Ki 18:2); and also from the fact that God promised to deliver him out of the hand of the Assyrians, and to defend Jerusalem.”
2. How he became conscious of its approach. “Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.” It needs no Isaiah, or any other prophet, to deliver this message to man. It comes to him from all history, from every graveyard, from every funeral procession, as well as from the inexorable law of decay working ever in his constitution. Yes; and not merely the announcement, but the duty: “Set thine house in order.”
(1) Men have much to do in this life. The “house” is out of order.
(2) Unless the work is done here, it will not be done yonder. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,” etc.
3. How he felt in the consciousness of its approach. “Then he turned his face to the wall.”
(1) He seems to have been overwhelmingly distressed. “He wept sore.” He turned away from the world, with all its multiplex concerns, from all his regal pomp, and peered into the invisible and the infinite.
(2) He cried earnestly to heaven. “He prayed unto the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” In his prayer we note the cry of nature. All men, even those who are atheistic in theory, are urged by the law of their spiritual nature to cry to heaven in great and conscious danger. In his prayer we also note something of self-righteousness. “Remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” Though he had been free from most sins, and had displayed some virtues, he had not done this. Perhaps no man that ever appeared on this earth, save the “Son of man,” could say, “I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart,” Moral self-deception is one of the most prevalent sins of the human heart. Like the Pharisee in the temple, we exult in virtues we have not. Now, death is approaching all men, whether we are conscious of the fact or not. The decree has gone forth, “Thou shalt die, and not live.” Death is ever coming with stealthy steps, yet with resistless force. He is coming always, whether we are at home or abroad, on ocean or on land, in society or in solitude; asleep or awake, he, the king of terrors, is coming.
II. AS TEMPORARILY ARRESTED. Five things are to be observed here.
1. The primary Author of its arrest. “And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” How came Isaiah into possession of this knowledge, this “word of the Lord,” concerning Hezekiah’s restoration? Was it by a dream, or through some other supernatural communication? On this point I confess my utter ignorance. The grand practical idea is that God can arrest death, and he only. Our times are in his hands. His constant visitation preserveth us. He is the absolute Master of death. At his bidding the most fragile creature may live forever, the most robust expire.
2. The secondary means of its arrest. “Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.” It would seem that the ancients, in the case of boils, abscesses, and such like, frequently applied figs to the affected parts, and no doubt there was remedial virtue in the figs. For aught we know, there may be an antidote sleeping in plants and minerals for all our physical complaints. The man who lives by the medical art is untrue to his mission, and unfaithful to his patient, unless he, with an independent mind and a devoted heart, searches Nature for those remedial elements with which she is charged.
3. The extraodinary sign of its arrest. “And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.” Perhaps it was natural for a man, who when he felt himself on the brink of eternity was told he would recover, to desire some assurance of the fact so unexpected and yet so acceptable. Hezekiah desired a sign, and he had it. But what was the sign? We are told that the shadow on the dial-plate “returned ten degrees backwards.” How was this? Did the sun recede, or, in other words, was the rotation of the earth reversed? I know not; neither does it matter. It is sufficient to know that, whether it was an illusion, or a natural eclipse of the sun, which some astronomers say did actually take place at this time, or a physical miracle, it seems to have satisfied the king. it seems to be a law of mind, that phenomena which it earnestly expects often occur. “Be it to thee according to thy faith.”
4. The exact extension of its arrest. “I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” The addition of fifteen years to man’s brief existence in this life is a considerable item, and the more so when that fifteen years is added at a period when the man has fully reached middle life, and passed through the chief training experiences. He who can add fifteen years to a man’s life can add eternity. “Our times are in his hands.”
5. The mental inefficiency of its arrest. What spiritual good did these additional fifteen years accomplish for the king? They might have done much; they ought to have done much. But did they make him a morally better man, or an intellectually wiser man? Not the former, I trow, for mark his vanity. The letters which the King of Babylon, Mero-dach-Baladan, dispatched to him, together with a present, so excited his egotism that he “hearkened [or, as Isaiah puts it, ‘was glad’] unto them,” that is, the Babylonian deputies; and “showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not.” At this time he had enormous possessions. We find from 2Ch 32:23 that presents were brought to Hezekiah from various quarters. “He had,” says the Chronicler, “exceeding much riches and honor: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels; storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks” (2Ch 32:27, 2Ch 32:28). All this, with an elated vanity, he exposed to the Babylonian magnates. Vanity, for many reasons, is one of the worst of all the bad elements of depravity; it is a species ‘of moral evil, hideous to all beholders, and damnable to its possessor. Did these fifteen years added to his life make Hezekiah an intellectually wiser man? No; his judgment was not improved. In sooth, he seems to have lost that penetration, that insight into things and men, which he had previously possessed. Bow blind was he not to see that, by exposing his treasures, he was exciting the avarice of the Babylonians, tempting them to make an invasion of his country! This Isaiah told him: “Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.” Affliction does not always improve men, either morally or intellectually. Ah me! how many have I known who, when they have “turned their face to the wall,” writhing in agony, with grim death before them, have solemnly vowed improvement should they ever recover? They have recovered, and become worse in every respect than before. What boots a term of fifteen years, or even a thousand years, added to our existence, if our souls are not improved thereby?
III. As ULTIMATELY TRIUMPHANT. “And Hezekiah slept with his fathers.” The end of the fifteen years came, and he meets with the common destiny of all. The unconquered conqueror is not to be defrauded of his prey, however long delayed. Since death cannot be escaped by any, whether young or old, it has been asked, is there any advantage in longevity? Rather, would it not be better to die in the first dawn of infancy, than in any subsequent period? “Whom the gods love die young,” was said of yore. We may go a step further, and say, “Why live at all?”D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
2Ki 20:1-11
Hezekiah’s sickness.
In order of time, this recovery of King Hezekiah from sickness stands before the destruction of Sennacherib, though in order of narration it comes after it. So with the Babylonian embassy (see on 2Ki 18:1-13).
I. WARNING OF DEATH.
1. Unexplained sickness. “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.” His disease was some ulcerous growth, called in the narrative “a boil.” We have been accustomed in this history to see troubles of body, and calamities in the state, connected with sin, as part of its temporal punishment. But there is no reason to believe that Hezekiah was guilty of any special transgression which led to his being visited with this sickness. His own conscience was clear, and there is no indication of blame in the narrative. Affliction is sent for other reasons than the punishment of sin, and we grievously err, and do great injustice to the sufferers, if we insist on always interpreting it in this light. Job’s friends committed this error (Job 42:7, Job 42:8; cf. Luk 13:1-5; Joh 9:1-3). In Hezekiah’s case affliction was no doubt sent as a purificatory and strengthening discipline, intended to try his faith, and lead him to new experience of the grace of God.
2. The announcement of death. It was while Hezekiah’s mind was troubled about his sickness that the Prophet Isaiah came to him, and brought the message, “Thus saith the Lord thou shalt die, and not live.” In its natural course the sickness would have had a fatal issue. The fact of our mortality is one we should often have before us. Every ache, pain, and trouble of body, reminds us that we are here but for a timethat this is not our rest. They are prophetic of the end. A time, however, comes when the near approach of the end is unmistakable, if not to the individual himself, yet to others. If a man is dying, it is the truest kindness to let him know it. Isaiah might have withheld this information from Hezekiah on the ground that it would agitate him, might hasten his death, could do no good, etc.,the usual pleas for keeping back from a patient the news of his hopeless condition. We have only to put the matter to ourselves: would we like to be within a few weeks or days of our death, and not be made aware of the fact? Would we in such circumstances like to be buoyed up by false hopes? Then why buoy up others? By acquainting a patient with his real state, we give him opportunity for setting his house in order; for prayer to God that might, as in Hezekiah’s case, lead to his recovery; in any case, for suitably preparing his mind in view of departure.
3. The duty of preparation. “Set thine house in order” said Isaiah; “for thou shalt die.” It is a duty incumbent on us, even in health, to have our worldly affairs so arranged that, if we should be unexpectedly removed, they would be found in order. The neglect of this simple dutythe putting it off under the idea that there is still plenty of timeleads in numberless cases to confusion, heartburning, strife, and loss. If the putting the house in order has not been attended to, the approach of death is a solemn call to do it. In any case, there wilt be final arrangements, last words, loving directions which belong peculiarly to the dying hour. If it is important to set our worldly affairs in order in view of death, how much more to have every spiritual preparation made!
II. PRAYER FOR LIFE.
1. Hezekiah‘s distress. The announcement that he was soon to die filled Hezekiah with deep grief. He turned his face to the wall, prayed earnestly to God, and wept sore. The grounds of his distress may be inferred from the hymn composed by him after his recovery (Isa 38:9-20).
(1) The natural love of life. This is implanted in every one. It has its root in a true instinct, for death in the case of the human being is unnatural. It was not a part of the primal order. Man as made by God was destined for immortality, not immortality of the soul only, but immortality of the whole person. Death is the violent wrenching asunder of two parts of his personality which were meant to be inseparable. It is the fruit of sin, and abnormal (Rom 5:12).
(2) The want of a clear hope of immortality. The experience of the Old Testament saints teaches us to distinguish between a mere idea of future existence, and such a hope of immortality as is now possessed by Christians. The Hebrew believed in the after-existence of the soul. But this of itself brought no comfort to them. Sheol was uniformly pictured as a region of gloom, silence, and inaction. Its shadowy life was no compensation for the loss of the rich, substantial joys of earthly existence. In hours of depression this was the view of Sheol that prevailed. Only in moments of strong faith did the believer rise to the confidence that God would be with him even in Sheol, and would deliver his soul out of these gloomy abodes. The Hebrew hope of immortality was really a hope of resurrection (Psa 16:10; Psa 49:14, Psa 49:15). It is Jesus Christ who, in the full sense of the words, has brought life and immortality to light (2Ti 1:10).
(3) The thought that death would cut him off from the comforts of God’s presence, and the privilege of waiting on God and serving him. This is implied in his view of Sheol, and is expressed in his song (Isa 38:11). It was, therefore, no unmanly fear of death which Hezekiah showed, but one resting on good and substantial reasons.
2. Hezekiah‘s prayer. Cut off from earthly help, Hezekiah betook himself in earnest prayer to God. The fact that he did pray, and that his prayer was answered, is an encouragement to us to pray for recovery from sickness. The New Testament also holds out this encouragement (Jas 5:13-16). In his pleadings with God, Hezekiah adopted a tone which may seem to us to savor too much of self-righteousness. “I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart,” etc. It was not, however, in a spirit of self-righteousness that he urged this plea. He was conscious of many sins (cf. Isa 38:17). His meaning was that he had endeavored to serve God faithfully, and with an undivided heart, and had the claim which God’s own promises gave him of life and blessing to those who acted thus. A good conscience is a great encouragement in prayer to God, though, with the deeper views of sin which the gospel gives, there is rightly a greater shrinking from pleading anything that might seem like one’s own merit (see Perowne’s ‘Introduction to the Book of Psalms,’ 2Ki 3:1-27. sect. 3, “Assertions of innocence in the Psalms”).
III. RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS.
1. The promptitude of God‘s answer. Scarcely had the prayer left Hezekiah’s lips than the answer was communicated to Isaiah. The prophet had not yet left the palace, but was still within its precincts, “in the middle court,” when word came to him to return to Hezekiah, and assure him of recovery. God in this ease, as always, was “waiting to be gracious” (Isa 30:18). The answer was given
(1) out of regard to Hezekiah himself, “Tell Hezekiah the captain of my people;”
(2) in answer to his supplication, “I have heard thy prayer;”
(3) for the sake of David, “The Lord, the God of David thy father” (and cf. verse 6). This recovery was one of “the sure mercies of David’ (Isa 55:3). For similar examples of prompt answer to prayer, see on 2Ki 19:20.
2. The promise of lengthened life. The message which Isaiah was to carry to Hezekiah contained three parts:
(1) a promise that he would be healed, and able to go up to the house of the Lord on the third day. “A striking instance of the conditionalness of prophecy” (Cheyne). Hezekiah’s first use of his recovered health is assumed to be a visit to God’s house.
(2) A promise of fifteen years more added to his life. God thus exceeds his servants’ askings. The king sought only healing; God assures him of a prolonged term of life (cf. Eph 3:20).
(3) A promise that the city would be defended against the Assyrians. This was another word to Hezekiah through which God caused him to hope (Psa 119:49). Yet he nearly forfeited it by his subsequent worldly policy (see previous chapters).
3. The king‘s recovery. Isaiah’s word was fulfilled, and the king recovered. Whether “the lump of figs” was a simple remedy or a mere sign need not be discussed. In our case the duty of using means in connection with prayer is plain.
IV. THE SIGN OF THE SUN–DIAL.
1. The request for a sign. When Isaiah communicated his message to Hezekiah, the king said, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me,” etc.? One wonders that to so good a man the prophet’s word should not have been sufficient, and that he should have asked for this additional confirmation. But
(1) It was an age of signs (Isa 7:10-12; Isa 8:18; 2Ki 19:29).
(2) The thing promised was very wonderful and hard to believe, especially after the announcement, “Thou shalt die, and not live,” made a few minutes before. There is no doubt a greater blessing on those that have not seen, and yet have believed (Joh 20:29); but weak faith too has its rights, and God shows his condescension in stooping to give it the needed supports.
2. The sign given. Isaiah had offered Ahaz a sign, either “in the depth, or in the height above” (Isa 7:11). Hezekiah had now proposed to him a sign in the height. The shadow on the steps of Ahaz’s sun-dial would be made either to go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees, according as Hezekiah should desire. As the more wonderful phenomenon of the two, Hezekiah asked that it might go back ten degrees, and at Isaiah’s prayer it was done. We inquire in vain as to how the wonder was produced. The fact that it seems to have been a local sign, though widely noised abroad, suggests a miracle connected with the laws of refraction.J.O.
2Ki 20:12-19
The Babylonian embassy.
Berodach-Baladan, or as he is more correctly termed in Isaiah, Merodach-Baladan (Isa 39:1), at this time held possession of the throne of Babylon, and was everywhere casting about for alliances to strengthen him against Assyria. We have here the account of his embassy to Hezekiah.
I. RECEPTION OF THE BABYLONIAN MESSENGERS.
1. Hezekiah‘s visitors. In the streets of Jerusalem were seen strange men, in princely robes, with servants bearing costly presents. They were the envoys of the King of Babylon, ostensibly come to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery from sickness, and to inquire into the wonder that had been done in the land (2Ch 32:31). This, however, was, it is probable, only a pretext to cover their real object, which was to establish an offensive and defensive alliance with Hezekiah against Assyria Professions of friendship veiled the designs of a merely selfish policy. Does not much of what is called diplomacy consist of deceit, insincere profession, intrigue, subtle designs, covered by fair appearances?
2. Hezekiah‘s vanity. Hezekiah seems to have been completely imposed on by the fair words of his visitors. He felt flattered at being singled out for notice by this king of “a far country; and spared no pains to impress the ambassadors with ideas of his own greatness. He showed them all his treasures, all the resources of his kingdom, his silver, his gold, his precious things, everything he had. This love of display, this vain desire to stand well in the estimation of a foreign potentate, this boasting of mere worldly wealth as the distinction of his kingdom, shows a weakness we should not have expected in this good king. No man is perfect. The best character has its side of weakness, and men are singularly apt to be led astray when skilful appeals are made to their vanity.
3. Hezekiah‘s sin. It was not a mere weakness of human nature that Hezekiah was guilty of when he “hearkened” unto the ambassadors, and showed them all his precious things. It was not for a mere yielding to vanity that Isaiah afterwards so severely rebuked him. His offence was of a graver kind. The ambassadors had come with proposals for an alliance, and in hearkening to them on this subject Hezekiah had really been unfaithful to his position as a theocratic king. He was departing from the example set him by David. As king of the holy nation, it was his duty to keep himself free from entangling worldly alliances, to make God his boast, to rely on him for defense and help, and to resist solicitations to worldly pride and vanity. From this ideal he had fallen. Flattered by the attention of his visitors, deceived by their specious proposals, and led away with the idea of figuring as an important political personage, he consented, or was disposed to consent, to the alliance sought. In displaying his treasures, he was practically placing them before God, as the glory and defense of his kingdom. In reciprocating the friendship of the foreigners, accepting their gifts, and encouraging their advances, he was taking a first step in that direction of forming worldly alliances, which afterwards brought such trouble on the state. It was this policy, indeed, which ultimately led to the Captivity, as already a similar policy had wrought the ruin of Israel. The lessons for the Christian are obvious. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (Jas 4:4). It is his duty to avoid worldly display, to guard against being ruled by worldly motives and ambitious, and to avoid ensnaring worldly alliances. He who gives way to these things is laying the foundations of his own spiritual overthrow.
II. PREDICTION OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.
1. The prophet confronts the king. In the theocracy the prophet stood beside the king, to be his friend, guide, and counselor if he did right, and his accusing conscience if he did wrong. Thus Nathan confronted David (2Sa 12:1-14), Elijah confronted Ahab (1Ki 18:17; 1Ki 21:17-24), Zechariah confronted Joash (2Ch 24:20). Here Isaiah confronts Hezekiah, and calls him to account for his transgression. The king did not seem aware of his wrong-doing, for he answered the prophet’s questions with the utmost frankness.
(1) The questions Isaiah asked were searching ones. He made Hezekiah tell out of his own mouth who the men were that had come to him, whence they came, and how he had received them. The object of these interrogations was to make Hezekiah aware of his sin. Many a thing is done, of which we do not at first perceive the criminality, but the sin of which is obvious enough when we have had the deed set objectively before us.
(2) Hezekiah’s answers revealed the folly he had committed. In the very stating of what he had done, Hezekiah must have perceived the magnitude of his error. It is God’s design in his questioning of us to bring us to conviction. He would have us judge ourselves. It does not follow, that because we are unconscious of sin, therefore we have no sin. The object of Divine discipline is to make us conscious. Every sinner will at the last be convicted out of his own mouth.
2. The prophet predicts the Captivity. If doubt remained in Hezekiah’s mind as to his wrong-doing, it was speedily dispelled by Isaiah’s stern answer to him. The prophet, without further parley, announced God’s punishment for the sin committed. The penalty answered, as so many of God’s penalties do, to the nature of the transgression. The messengers had come from Babylon; into Babylon should Hezekiah’s sons (descendants) be carried away. He had displayed his treasures; these treasures would be carried to Babylon. He desired union with Babylon; he should have it in a way he did not look for. A prophecy of this nature implied a collapse of the kingdom of Judah as complete as that which had overtaken Israel. Such a collapse was, of course, the product of many causes, most of them already in operation. But not the least potent was the species of worldly policy of which Hezekiah’s action was a typical example. As an outstanding and contributory cause, God fixes on it as the point of connection for the prophecy. We must take our share of the responsibility of every event which our actions have contributed to produce.
3. The king‘s reply. Hezekiah was no doubt shocked and startled by Isaiah’s message. The only ray of consolation he derived was in the thought that the predicted evil was not to fall in his days, but in that of his descendants. His language on this point, “Is it not good, if peace and truth shall be in my days?” may seem selfish and even cynical. It is doubtful, however, if there is much room for blame. Hezekiah gathered that a period of respite was granted, and that the fulfillment of the threatening was somewhat remote. He rightly took this as an act of mercy to himself. There are probably few who would not feel relieved to know that, though calamities were to fall upon their land in future days, there would be peace and truth in their own lifetime. With lapse of time, too, opportunity was given for repentance; and who knew but that the sentence of doom might be reversed?J.O.
2Ki 20:20, 2Ki 20:21
sum up briefly the good deeds of Hezekiah for the city, and narrate his end (see 2Ch 32:1-5).J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
B.Hezekiahs Illness and Recovery; his Reception of the Babylonian Embassy, and his End
2Ki 20:1-21. (Isaiah 38)
1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, 3I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth [fidelity] and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,1 that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain [prince] of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go unto the house of the Lord. 6And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend [protect] this city for my own sake, and for my servant Davids sake. 7And Isaiah said, Take [Bring] a lump of figs. And they took [brought] and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be [is] the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? 9And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? [the shadow is gone forward ten degrees,if it go back ten degrees?] 10And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in [on] the dial [stairs] of Ahaz.
12At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been 13[was] sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them [rejoiced because of them],2 and shewed them all the house of his precious things [treasury], the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour [armory], and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
14Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. 15And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. 16And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. 17Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried unto Babylon: 18nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And [some] of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 19Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days? [And he said: Verily; may there only be peace and security in my days.]
20And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Ki 20:1. In those days. By these words Hezekiahs illness is referred to the time of the last-mentioned events, but only as a general designation of the time of its occurrence (Keil). It fell, like those events, in the middle of his reign. The expositors are not agreed, however, whether it took place before or after Sennacheribs retreat. The majority of the modern scholars adopt the opinion that it was before that event, founding their opinion on 2Ki 20:6. There he is promised fifteen years more of life, and Sennacheribs retreat is spoken of as something which has not yet come to pass. Now, as Hezekiah, according to 2Ki 18:2, reigned twenty-nine years, and Sennacherib invaded Judah in his fourteenth year (2Ki 18:13), this illness must have befallen him, it is argued, in his fourteenth year, either at the beginning of Sennacheribs invasion (Keil), or while the Assyrians were still besieging Jerusalem (Thenius). It is further alleged in support of this view that Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian embassy, which came to congratulate him, treasures of gold and silver (2Ki 20:13), but that he had given up everything of this kind which he had (2Ki 18:15) to Sennacherib, so that his illness and recovery must have taken place before the retreat of the Assyrians (Delitsch and Hahn). These may appear to be very forcible arguments, but there are opposing considerations of the highest importance. In the first place, both narratives put the story of Hezekiahs illness after the account of the Assyrian invasion, and as Calmet observes: Neque ego libenter desero seriem et ordinem rerum in libris sacris deductam, nisi valida id argumenta suadeant. It has indeed been urged that the historian placed the story of Sennacheribs retreat (2Ki 19:35 sq.) first, because he desired to finish up the story of the Assyrian invasion, so as not to be obliged to return to it (Knobel). But the Chronicler makes this hypothesis, which is in itself improbable, entirely inadmissible, for he says that Hezekiah was highly honored by all nations on account of this deliverance, and that many sent presents to him, and then he proceeds to give the story of his illness (2Ch 32:22-31). Josephus also asserts very positively that Hezekiah and all the people offered thank-offerings to God, and showed great religious zeal, but that then ( ) he was afflicted by a severe illness. Secondly, the Babylonian embassy cannot be assigned to the period before the retreat of Sennacherib, nor to any time during the Assyrian invasion, for the king of Babylon, who was a vassal of the king of Assyria, would not have dared to congratulate Hezekiah at that time when he was in revolt against the suzerain of both, and he would have had no grounds for seeking an alliance with Hezekiah when he was in distress and peril. Thirdly, Hezekiahs hymn of thanksgiving (Isa 38:10) begins with the words: I said (that is, I thought) in the cutting off (interruption, period of tranquillity) of my days, &c.; i.e., when a period of rest had come in my life, a pause in the midst of the ceaseless toil and care and danger of life (Drechsler); when I believed that I was relieved from all danger by Sennacheribs retreat, and that I could live on in peace and security, then came a new trouble and danger, and it seemed that I must go down to the grave. Against all these important considerations, which are taken from history, it cannot be argued that the former story [of the peril of Jerusalem] is placed first because it is most important (Von Gerlach), for what would become of the art of writing history, if historians should narrate later events before they did earlier ones, because the former were more important? As for 2Ki 20:6, the number fifteen cannot be arithmetically accurate, for if it were so, then not only Sennacheribs invasion and Hezekiahs illness, but also the journey of the army of at least 185,000 men through the desert el Tih to Egypt, the siege of Pelusium, the return to Judah, the siege and conquest of the fenced cities, the devastation of the country, and finally, the destruction of Sennacheribs army and his retreat, and even the embassy from Babylon, must all have taken place in one year,Hezekiahs fourteenth, and this appears impossible, considering that they had no railways. Isaiahs words in 2Ki 20:5-6 are not an historical allusion, but a prophetic oracle. In the prophetic style numbers have not always their strict, arithmetical value, but are clothed with a significance of another character. The number 15, in this case, is not, indeed, as Knobel thinks, contributed by the redactor, exeventu, and put in the mouth of the prophet, who could not know how many years longer Hezekiah was to live, but still we ask why should he have just fifteen years longer, and not one more or one less? Fifteen is not what is commonly called a round number. It will not do to answer this by the anticipatory statement (2Ki 18:2) that Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years. Not because he was to reign twenty-nine years in all were fifteen years more assigned to him, but because he was spared for fifteen years more his whole reign amounted to twenty-nine years. When he was taken ill he had finished his fourteenth year and begun his fifteenth. He was then thirty-nine years old, in the prime of life. Suddenly he stood on the brink of the grave, and it was all the more painful to him to quit life at this moment, because he had just been delivered from his most powerful enemy, and had hopes of being able to reign now in peace and quiet. It was regarded as a very great misfortune to be called away in the prime of life, hence his earnest prayer (2Ki 20:3), which had no other sense than this: O my God! take me not away in the midst of my days (Psa 102:24; cf. Psa 55:23). The prophet promises him the fulfilment of this prayer, and that he shall reign as much longer as he had already reigned. The words which follow: I will deliver thee out of the hand of the king of Assyria, then refer to the remainder of his reign. In the new lease of life which was to be given him, he should fear nothing from the great and mighty enemy; he should reign in peace. This promise was of the greatest importance, for, although Sennacherib had fled in disgrace, yet he was still very powerful and very dangerous, and his wrath against Judah was fiercer than ever (Tobias 2Ki 1:18). He might collect his forces and make another expedition against Judah. In fact, he did immediately collect an army and march against Babylon which had revolted. Thus the words are understood by Vitringa, Clericus, Gesenius, Rosenmller, and Drechsler, and the latter adds the pertinent remark that, if 2Ki 20:6 had been spoken before the events narrated in chaps. 18 and 19 took place, then 2Ki 19:34 would be only a repetition of the promise in that verse.
2Ki 20:1. Thus saith the Lord: Set thine house in order; literally: Give commands in regard to thine house, i.e., take the necessary measures for the management of thine affairs (cf. 2Sa 17:23, where stands for ). It does not mean make known thy (last) will (Knobel, Gesenius), nor, give commands in regard to the succession to the throne(Hess).To the wall (2Ki 20:2), not in dissatisfaction as Ahab did, 1Ki 21:4 (Hitzig), but away from those who were present, in order that he might pray more freely and collectedly.O Lord! remember now (2Ki 20:3). To fall a victim of disease in the midst of his days seemed to the king, in view of proverbs like Pro 10:27 : The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened, to be a proof of having displeased God, that is, to be a punishment. He therefore prays God to remember also the good which he has striven to do, and takes refuge in the promises which God had given in the Old Testament that good works should be rewarded by length of days (Starke). For the rest, his words are not to be taken as referring in a general way to moral purity, but, as the expressions with a perfect heart, and good in thy sight show, as referring especially to his zeal for the pure worship of Jehovah, and his earnestness against every form of idolatry. (On see notes on 1Ki 11:4; 1Ki 11:6.)And Hezekiah wept sore. Josephus declares that, in addition to the disease, there was now great , because he was to die childless and leave the kingdom without an heir, and that, in this difficulty, he prayed to God with tears, that He would allow him to live a little longer until he had become a father. The Church fathers and many other ancient expositors adopt this conception of the circumstances, and point, in its support, to the fact that the son and successor of Hezekiah, Manasseh, was only twelve years old when his father died (2Ki 21:1), that is, he was born three years after this illness. Ewald calls this a fiction and appeals to Isa 38:19; Isa 39:7. It certainly is hardly credible that Hezekiah was childless at the age of thirty-nine; it is not necessary to assume that Manasseh was the oldest son (see note on 1Ki 1:5); and it is possible that the older sons had died before Hezekiah did. The only reason for his tears is the one which he gives in his hymn of thanksgiving, Isa 38:10 sq.
2Ki 20:4. Afore Isaiah had gone out into the middle city. The middle city is the central part of the city, i.e., of Mt. Zion where the royal castle was situated. The keri (the middle court [E. V.], not of the temple but of the castle), is presented by all the ancient versions, but it is only an interpretation of as referring to the castle after the analogy of 2Ki 10:25 (Keil). does not mean the inner city, in contrast with the houses which lay outside of the wall of Mt. Zion (Knobel), but only, the middle one.The words in 2Ki 20:5 from behold to house of the Lord are wanting in Isa 38:5, but are brought in in Isa 38:22. At this point it is quite evident that the account in Isaiah is very much abbreviated. The words on the third day (2Ki 20:5) need not be taken literally, but they certainly do not mean within a few weeks (Hitzig). The phrase, prince of my people, which is added, indicates the ground for assisting him.On 2Ki 20:6 see notes on 2Ki 20:1. The closing words: For mine own sake, &c., are wanting in Isaiah because they already occur in 2Ki 19:34 (Isa 37:35). They have here the same force as there. They are not, therefore, to be understood as containing any special reference to the circumstance that Hezekiah had no son, but that, nevertheless, the house of David should not become extinct, as the old expositors understood. , 2Ki 20:7, means properly a pressed mass of figs. without means a cake of figs (1Sa 25:18; 1Sa 30:12). This was laid upon , strictly, the inflammation, hence, the fester, or boil (Job 2:1; Exo 9:9). It is ordinarily understood to refer to a plague-sore, and it is inferred that Hezekiah was afflicted with the plague which had carried off the Assyrian army (Knobel), the contagion of which had been transmitted to the king (Winer and others); but this is utterly false. For, in the first place, never occurs in reference to a plague, and then again, only one sore is here spoken of, whereas the plague produced several on different parts of the body. Moreover a plague or pestilence never occurs in isolated cases, but as an epidemic. There is not the slightest hint that any such disease raged in Jerusalem either before, or during, or after the Assyrian invasion. Still further, figs are not applied as a specific remedy for plague-sores. In pestilence no medicines are administered except at the commencement of the disease, something to produce perspiration (Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 233). Figs were the usual remedy for boils. Dioscorides says of them: ; Pliny: Ulcera aperit; and Jerome remarks on Isaiah 38 : Juxta artem medicorum omnis sanies siccioribus ficis atque contusis in cutis superficiem provocatur (cf. Celsius, Hierobot. II. p. 373). We cannot define more nearly what sort of a boil it was. Ewald thinks it was a fever-boil; according to Thenius a single carbuncle formed under the back of the head, but this is a pure guess. [The ground for Thenius idea, which goes as far as is possible towards defining more nearly the character of the disease, is, that there was a single sore, and that it was about to prove fatal. A carbuncle, particularly in such a place, would answer this description.W. G. S.]
2Ki 20:8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What is the sign, &c? In his deep anxiety the sick man desires an external sign to strengthen his faith in the prophets words. Such signs usually attended a prophets promises (Isa 7:11; Isa 7:14; 2Ki 19:29). This demand of the king is not at all astonishing in view of the words addressed to Ahaz in Isa 7:11 : Ask a sign, &c. There also the prophet allowed the king to choose what the sign should be. 2Ki 20:9-11 are condensed in Isaiah into one verse. In 2Ki 20:9 Drechsler rejects the ordinary translation [that of the E. V.] which makes of the last part an alternative question. He asserts that that translation is simply impossible. He translates: The shadow shall advance ten degrees, or shall it recede ten degrees? taking as a command. The prophet determines, in the first place, that it shall advance, then he interrupts himself, corrects himself, and leaves the king to determine which it shall do. But it is only in disjunctive questions that means or, and the prophet does not correct himself in such a solemn expression. Keil also, in his new commentary, translates: The shadow has advanced ten degreesif it should recede ten degrees? He takes the second clause hypothetically: Whether it may indeed, &c., which is not only forced but also unclear. Hezekiahs answer presupposes a disjunctive question. As in Isa 7:11, the prophet asks the king whether he will ask a sign in the depth or in the height, so here he asks Hezekiah whether the sign of the shadow shall be that it shall go forward or backward. It cannot be objected that is wanting: with , for this is often the case, and the question is designated only by the tone of the voice (Gen 27:24; 2Sa 18:29. Gesen. Gramm. 153. 1). [The argument for reading 2Ki 20:9 as a disjunctive question resolves itself into an inference from Hezekiahs answer. Regarding simply the grammar of 2Ki 20:9 there are two obstacles to this rendering; first, the omission of , which is never omitted in a disjunctive question, and secondly, the perfect tense . Keils translation is therefore better. The shadow has advanced ten degreesif it should recede ten degrees? would that be a satisfactory sign? It is true that the answer of Hezekiah does not seem to fit well to this question. The only other and more satisfactory solution of the difficulty is that which involves an alteration of the text. Knobel and Hitzig read . It seems necessary to supply also as having fallen out before . The reading would then be: What sign shall there be? The shadows advancing? or shall the shadow recede? Keils objection (Comm. s. 344 note 2), that the inf. abs. would, in that case, be used for the future, would not apply. The inf. abs. must be understood in its most ordinary use to express directly and simply the verbal idea.See Gramm. and also Exeg. notes on , 2Ki 19:29.W. G. S.].The words and refer to the instrument which we call a sundial, and which the ancients called a shadow-measurer (Plin. 36:15), because the hour of the day was estimated by the length of the shadow. It is evident from this that these instruments were not arranged by them as they are by us (see Martini, Von den Sonnenuhren der Alten, Leipzig, 1777, s. 35). The served to indicate the time. It is generally supposed that they were the degrees or lines (Vulg. line) of the scale on the indicator of the sun-dial. But means a going up, an ascent, or that which ascends, hence a step (1Ki 10:19; 2Ki 9:13), never a grade, a degree, or a line (see Knobel on Isa 38:8). The Sept. always render it by . The shadow-measurer must, therefore, have had steps like a pair of stairs. As it is called in 2Ki 20:10 : the steps of Ahaz; it has often been supposed that it consisted of the stairs to the royal palace. Stairs, however, as distinguished from steps, were called (Eze 40:26), and why should the stairs of the royal palace, which had long been in their place, be called the stairs of Ahaz? It is evident that the shadow-measurer was an instrument by itself and not a part of the royal palace. It was an arrangement contrived especially to measure the length of the shadow as a means of learning the hour (Thenius). It is not possible now to say how it was contrived. Among the numerous guesses which have been made as to the mode of its construction (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 498 sq.) the simplest and most natural seems to us to be that it was a column with circular steps surrounding it. This column cast the shadow of its top at noon upon its uppermost, and morning and evening upon the lowest step, and thus designated the hour of the day (Knobel). The prophets question gives rise to the supposition that there were twenty of these steps, so that the shadow could go forward or backward ten degrees. If the sign was given an hour before sunset then the shadow, returning ten degrees of a half-hour each, came back to the point at which it stood at noon (Delitsch). It is impossible to draw any inference from this as to the division of hours among the Jews, for it is probable that they did not have any such division before the captivity (Winer, I. c. II. s. 560). The fact that the sun-dial was named after Ahaz is doubtless due to its having been first set up by him in the court of the palace. According to Herodotus (2:109) it was a Babylonian invention, and as the Babylonians were then in continual intercourse with the Assyrians, Ahaz may have become acquainted with it through the latter, just as he borrowed from them the plan of the new altar (2Ki 16:10). [To them (the Assyrians) also is to be attributed the institution of the week of seven days, dedicated to the seven planetary bodies worshipped by them as divine beings, and the order assigned by them to the days has not been changed from time immemorial. Having invented the gnomon, they were the first to divide the day into twenty-four hours, the hours into sixty minutes, and the minutes into sixty seconds (Lenormant I. 449). They had a sexagesimal system of notation (Chevallier, ibid.).]
2Ki 20:10. And Hezekiah answered: It is a light thing. Clericus thinks that Hezekiah answered the prophets question non satis prudenter, for that it would be as difficult for the shadow to advance as to recede. But Starke observes correctly: As the shadow, in the ordinary course of things, always advances and never recedes, the king chooses that which appears to be the more difficult in order that the proof may be the clearer. Full of his ardent wish that the shadow of death (Mat 4:16) may not extend any further, but may become shorter, he naturally chooses the latter movement for the shadow on the dial. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, &c., 2Ki 20:11. Thenius arbitrarily asserts that these words do not belong to history, but express the mode of conception prevalent at the time the history was written [in other words, that Isaiah did not, as an actual matter of history, at this point in his conversation with the king, cry to the Lord, but that the historians idea of what a prophet would do under such circumstances was, that he would at this point cry to God, and that he accordingly inserted here a mention of Isaiahs having done so]. The prophets were accustomed, before giving a sign to confirm their utterances, to call upon God, because they knew, and every one else was to be taught, that the sign did not come from them but from God (1Ki 17:20; 1Ki 18:36; 2Ki 4:33; 2Ki 6:17; cf. Joh 11:41). As in 2Ki 20:9 so also here in 2Ki 20:11, a movement forwards and backwards is ascribed, not to the sun but to the shadow. In this sign, all turned upon the shadow, not upon the sun. Thenius thinks that must be supplied as a subject to , because it is a feminine form, while is masculine, but, in view of the variableness of the Hebrew genders, we cannot draw an inference from this feminine form which shall contradict the clear sense of the words (see Drechsler on Isa 38:8). The account in Isaiah has instead of this verse: Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down; but here also must be understood as the subject of the first , and, in the case of the second , we must understand that the reference is not to any movement of the sun, but to a movement of the shadow caused by the sun. Drechsler correctly observes on the words: And the sun turned backward: that is to say, of course, that the sunshine moved backwards on the indicator [better, the steps] on which it fell. (Cf. also Delitsch on Isa 38:8.) The account in Kings is more detailed and more accurate than that in Isaiah, for the latter omits 2Ki 20:10-11, and mentions briefly, in 2 Kings 20:21, 22, after the thanksgiving of Hezekiah (Isa 38:9-20), that which is here given in 2Ki 20:7-8, as if the figs had not been applied until after the of Hezekiah.
[The story of the incident is complete without 2Ki 20:7-11. Hezekiahs recovery is mentioned in 2Ki 20:7, and it is a surprise to read in 2Ki 20:8 a request from him to be assured by a sign that he shall be healed. This lack of unity in the story seems to point to the fact that two independent traditions in regard to Hezekiahs illness are here combined. Unfortunately the account in Isaiah is also somewhat disjointed. Isa 38:21-22 brings in the account of the kings recovery as a sort of supplement, or after thought. He there asks for a sign that he shall go to the temple on the third day, not, that he shall recover.See further the bracketed addition to Histor. 4.W. G. S.]
2Ki 20:12. At that time Berodach-baladan, &c. This took place certainly not very soon after what is narrated above, for, at that time, news travelled slowly, and journeys took time (Thenius), but it certainly was not as late as 703 [See Supplem. Note after the Exeg. section on chaps. 18 and 19, and the similar Note after the present Exeg. section], as Knobel thinks, that is ten years after, for the ostensible object of the embassy was to congratulate the king on his recovery. stands for Isa 39:1. It is not an error, but simply an interchange of the labials, as in and . Merodach is really the name of the Babylonian Mars (Jer 50:2). [See Exeg. notes on Jer 16:3; Jer 17:16. Merodach belonged to the third rank of gods in the Babylonian Pantheon. This rank consisted of five gods representing the five planets. Merodach was equivalent to Jupiter, and was identified with the planet which we call by that name. He was one of the chief gods at Babylon and had two shrines (one mystic) in the great pyramid there. Nebuchadnezzar speaks of having adorned this pyramid and these shrines. Merodach was a secondary form or emanation of Bel (Baal). He was called the ancient one of the gods, the supreme judge, the master of the horoscope; he was represented as a man erect and walking, and with a naked sword in his hand. (Lenormant, I. 454 sq.)] It was the custom of the Babylonians and Assyrians to give their kings the names of divinities. Baladan is, according to the Aramaic, equivalent to . On the question whether this king was the in the Canon Ptol., who reigned twelve years, or the Merodach-baladan in the Chron. Armen. of Eusebius (Berosus), who only reigned six months, see Niebuhr, Gesch. Assyr. s. 40 and 75 sq., and Delitsch on Isa 38:1. [See Supplem. Note at the end of this section.]According to 2Ch 32:31, the object of the embassy was, not only to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery, but also to get information about the miracle, that is about the sign of the prophet. Evidently this was only the ostensible object; consequently Josephus does not mention it at all (Ant. x. 2, 2), but only gives the true one: . The kings of Babylon, who at that time were under the Assyrian supremacy, sought to free themselves from it. The present time, when Sennacherib had suffered a severe calamity, seemed to them to be the best opportunity. The object of the embassy was to form an alliance with a king who had successfully resisted the Assyrian power (Von Gerlach). Hence it follows that Hezekiahs illness fell in the time after and not before the Assyrian invasion. His recovery gave the king of Babylon the pretext he desired for sending an embassy. He did not care much to offer an empty congratulation. His object was, to find out the strength of the kingdom of Judah (Ewald). The ambassadors succeeded in inducing Hezekiah himself to give them full information in regard to this.
2Ki 20:13. And Hezekiah rejoiced on account of them, certainly not merely on account of their civility in coming to see him, and congratulate him, but also on account of the real object of their visit, which he easily perceived, even if they did not expressly make it known to him. An alliance with the Babylonians, whose power was then on the increase, seemed to him to be very advantageous to his kingdom, and to assure him against further danger from the Assyrians. He therefore showed them his treasury, his armory, &c, in order to show them that his means were not so entirely exhausted as might be expected after the Assyrian invasion. Drechsler justly remarks upon the enumeration of the different objects which follows, that it lay in the interest of the narrator to enumerate as many as possible of these objects, in order to show that Hezekiah exerted himself to bring out and show everything which could set off his military strength and resources. First the treasury is mentioned, in which silver and gold were stored. is not to be connected with (Gen 37:25; Gen 43:11) i.e., spice, especially the gum of the tragacanth which grows in Syria (why should the spice-house be mentioned first of all, before the silver and gold?). The word comes rather from the unused root , equivalent to : conceal, cover, preserve (see Frst, s. v.), so that it means treasure-house, or store-house. The assumption that it was first used for storing spices, but then for storing gold and silver (Gesenius), is at least unnecessary. [The etymology suggested by Frst and adopted by Bhr is very uncertain and improbable. It does not appear that has the sense attributed to it. Gesenius explanation is the best, and is the one almost universally adopted. = spice. The spice-house is the one used for storing spiceswhich were always reckoned as precious articles. The name then passed over to a store-house, or treasury, for precious articles of all sorts.W. G. S.]. , perfume, the general expression for all objects which have a pleasant smell, which were used either for incense or for ointment, and which were highly esteemed. At courts it was considered highly important to have a good stock of these (Winer II. s. 495 sq.). The rabbis, whom Movers and Keil follow, say that is not fine olive-oil, but balsam-oil manufactured from the products of the royal gardens. The armory which here stands in contrast with the treasury is without doubt the house of the forest of Lebanon (see notes on 1Ki 7:2). In all his dominion, i.e., throughout the extent of his authority; not only in the royal castle, but throughout his kingdom (Drechsler). It has been asked whence all these treasures came, since Hezekiah had to give up all his gold and silver to Sennacherib, and even to take off the gold coverings to the doorposts of the temple, which he had himself given in order to satisfy Sennacherib (2Ki 18:14-16). The answer is not difficult. Sennacherib had only demanded gold and silver, not perfume, nor oil, nor even arms, and with these last Hezekiah had abundantly supplied himself at the approach of the Assyrians (2Ch 32:5). The armory was therefore full, and the spices all remained. As for the silver and gold, it is evident from 2Ki 20:17 (and that which thy fathers have laid up in store) that Hezekiah had not given up all, but still retained some of the ancient articles which had been handed down. He preferred to take the temple adornments which he himself had given, rather than to give up these articles which perhaps were hidden away in subterranean places of security. The Chronicler also relates (II. Chron 32:23), in a credible manner, that, after the retreat of the Assyrians, many kings sent presents to Hezekiah (Thenius). Finally, a great deal of booty may have been obtained from the camp of the Assyrians after their sudden flight, as Vitringa, Ewald, and Drechsler suggest [See Supplem. Note after Exeg. on chaps, 18 and 19. The tribute given by Hezekiah is there mentioned in detail, from the inscriptions.]
2Ki 20:14. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah. Isaiah perceived the real object of the Babylonian embassy. He saw that the object was not merely to congratulate the king on his recovery and to satisfy their curiosity, but that they also desired to draw Hezekiah into an alliance, and he saw that the king was disposed to enter into one. He therefore felt himself impelled to go to the king and to call him to account. This he does by a question which, however, involves a strong affirmation: I know what has been done, but why hast thou done it? He desired a confession from the mouth of the king himself. As he had zealously protested before against any alliance with Egypt and Assyria, so he now warned the king against Babylon, and showed him what was to be apprehended from that quarter. Hezekiahs unembarrassed reply (2Ki 20:15) shows that he supposed that he was doing right. Hear, the prophet rejoins, Jehovahs word (2Ki 20:16); thou hopest for help and deliverance from Babylon, but this very Babylon shall bring to thy kingdom and people ruin and destruction. These, to whom thou hast shown all that thou hast, will take away all this and more besides; they will take away even thy children and make them servants at their court. 2Ki 20:18. That shall issue out of thee, that thou shalt begetnot his own sons, strictly speaking, but his descendants, a sense in which is so often used. Although really means cunuchs, and although the proper sting of the assertion in this verse is not to be unnecessarily blunted (Drechsler), nevertheless we must not insist upon the literal force of the word, as Gesenius does, but understand by it footmen, or court attendants (1Sa 8:15), as we see from the example of Daniel (Dan 1:8), who was not a eunuch. There was humiliation enough in this prospect.
2Ki 20:19. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah. He subjects himself in humility, and in submission to the will of God, and to the prophets words, as Eli did, 1Sa 3:18, cf. the same expression 1Ki 2:38; 1Ki 2:42. cannot here mean kind (Umbreit), for the words in 2Ki 20:17-18 were not kind; nevertheless they were good in the fullest sense of the word, inasmuch as they were the words of God.They were such that there was no fault to be found with them (Lange). Clericus remarks on the word; Bonum vocatur id, in quo acquiescere par est, quipped ab eo profectum, qui nihil facit, quod non tantum justissimum, sed quod summa bonitate non sit temperatum, etiam cum pnas sumit. The second shows that after the first part of the answer there was a pause, and that the following words were not addressed directly to Isaiah, although they were spoken before he went away; not, as Knobel thinks, after he was gone. is strictly nonne? The interrogative force is often lost, and it does not differ from or . See 1Sa 20:37; 2Sa 15:35; Job 22:12 (Gesenius). is a particle of wishing (Psa 81:8; Psa 139:18). Calmet renders the sense thus: Justa sunt omnia, qucunque Deus sancivit, sed utinam corceat ultionis su cursum, quamdiu vivo. This seems simpler and more natural than Keils translation: Is it not so, i.e., is it not pure goodness if peace and security are to last through my days (as long as I live)? Instead of we find in Isa 39:8, , which is by no means to be preferred, for the translation: For there will be peace does not join on well to what precedes. According to Knobel simply introduces the direct discourse. It is an error to translate, as is often done: Very well! so long as there may only be peace and security in my time, and to take the words as an expression of naive (Gesenius), or easy (Knobel), or genuine oriental (Hitzig) egotism, as if, as some of the rabbis indeed understand it (see Jerome on Isaiah 39.), he did not trouble himself about his people. On the contrary, it is out of love for them that he does not wish to survive or see their destruction. His words are an expression of pain (Josephus: ), and not of easy selfishness. Drechsler and Keil understand to refer to the faithfulness of God, who keeps the covenant of grace which He has made with the humble, and Hitzig understands it of the faithfulness of men, who keep the peace and observe treaties. But, as there is no reference here to peace with God (see 2Ki 20:17-18), so it cannot refer to His faithfulness, much less to that of the Babylonians, who, as yet, had made no treaty. is rather a synonym of , and signifies permanence, security. It cannot be understood otherwise in Jer 33:6, where it stands in the same connection (cf. Jer 14:13). Vitringa: status rerum stabilis.
2Ki 20:20. And the rest of the acts, &c. In the notice of the close of Hezekiahs reign, 2Ki 20:20-21, we find inserted in the ordinary formula especial mention of his (see Exeg. on 1Ki 15:23), and also of the aqueduct which he built, and which was of permanent utility to the city. The panegyric of Hezekiah in Sir 48:17, makes especial mention of the same. The reference is, of course, to the aqueduct which Hezekiah caused to be built at the approach of the Assyrians, and not to the one which is mentioned 2Ki 18:17 and Isa 7:3. According to 2Ch 32:3 sq. all the fountains outside of the city walls, also Gihon and its pools, were covered over, in order, in case of siege, to deprive the besiegers of the use of the water. Then the water was all collected and led under-ground into the city, where it flowed into the pool called after Hezekiah, now more generally known as the Birket el Hamman. (See Thenius, in the appendix to his Commentar, s. 18. Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 568. Keil on 2Ki 18:17.)According to 2Ch 32:33, Hezekiah was buried on the hill-slope [E. V. is incorrect] of the graves of the sons [descendants] of David, i.e., he was not buried in the royal sepulchres. The additional remark: And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death, shows that he was not buried elsewhere than in the royal sepulchres through lack of respect, but probably through lack of room, or because he himself had chosen this place.
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[Supplementary Note incorporating those results of Assyrian and Babylonian investigations which bear on the elucidation of chap. 20. As we saw in the Note at the end of the Exeg. section on chaps. 18 and 19, Rawlinson thinks that Sennacherib made two expeditions into Judah (or, at least, sent a second), in the year 700 or 698. Lenormant supposes that all the events mentioned occurred in one campaign, in 701699. Hezekiahs sickness was of such a character (2Ki 20:7) as to suggest a plague, the result of the Assyrian occupation. It occurred in 699 or 698. He, however, recovered. There can be no question that Hezekiah was in imminent danger of this kind at one time in his life, soon after the Assyrian invasion. As we shall see, below, the statement that his life was prolonged for fifteen years thereafter presents great difficulty. Rawlinson, although he puts Sennacheribs invasion in 700698, puts Hezekiahs illness, and the visit of the Babylonians, in 713, on account of the biblical data. We must, however, accept the results of the investigations, and put the visit of the Babylonian ambassadors in 6987. The sickness of the king was not an event of such a character as to be recorded in the history, if it were not for Isaiahs connection with it. On this account it was included at a later time, and, if it contains chronological statements which conflict with those which we find elsewhere, it is rather they than the others which must be disregarded. It is noticeable that the sickness is said to have occurred just in the middle of the kings reign, and, if the date were not well-known, and an arbitrary date had to be fixed upon by tradition, this is the one of all others which would be most likely to be chosen. Let us therefore disregard this statement rather than others, and put the kings illness in 6987.
The world is always ready to worship success, without stopping to analyze it, and see on what it rests. Little Judah alone of the nations of Western Asia had escaped the Assyrians. It had not done so by virtue of its own strength, but by virtue of what must have appeared to the neighboring nations to be an accident. Nevertheless we find that an embassy came immediately afterwards, from Babylon, to form an alliance.
There was a king on the throne of Chaldea in 709 who is called Merodach Baladan, (Marduk-baliddin) in the inscription called the Acts of Sargon. Lenormant identifies him with the Kinzirus of Ptolemys canon; but that king reigned earlier, and the identification with Mardocempalus (721709), which Rawlinson adopts, seems better. In 709 Sargon totally defeated this king at Dur-Yakin, a town on the Euphrates below Babylon. Babylon became subject to Assyria. (It had been free since 760. Supp. Note. on chap. 15). The defeated king either escaped in disguise or was taken prisoner; the inscription says one thing in one place and another in another. When we next meet with the same name, it is, therefore, doubtful whether it is the same person or his son. Merodach Baladan at any rate proved himself a patriotic Babylonian, and a determined foe of the Assyrians. Immediately after Sargons assassination, in 704, Babylon revolted under Agises, but Merodach Baladan killed him, and himself took command (Lenormant). Sennacherib mentions, in his inscription, that his first campaign was against Merodach Baladan, and the armies of Elam, which were allied with him. He defeated and plundered them, spoiled Chaldea, and put a vassal king over it (703). While Sennacherib was engaged in Syria, Philistia, and Judah (see Supp. Notes on chaps. 16, 17, 18 and 19) Merodach Baladan escaped from prison, raised another revolt, and expelled the vassal king. Sennacherib, after his disaster in Judah, turned once more against Chaldea. It was now that Merodach Baladan sent to Hezekiah to try to form an alliance. Hezekiah was flattered by this and made a show of his treasures. He probably did not want the Babylonians to think that, after all, he was not an ally worth having. The result proved the justice of the prophets warning. Merodach Baladan was again defeated. He died in exile soon after, and Chaldea was once more subjugated. Sennacherib set his son Asshur-nadin on the throne.
Some years of peace followed, during which Sennacherib was rebuilding Nineveh, which he did with great magnificence. But in 693, on the death of Asshur-nadin, Babylon once more revolted. For the next ten years Sennacherib was occupied in suppressing a series of fierce but unsuccessful revolts in Babylon, and in prosecuting wars in Elam and Susiana to punish the allies of the rebels. In 682 he made his son Esarhaddon viceroy of Babylon, having chastised the city with such severity as to leave it half-ruined. He was assassinated in 680 (Lenormant).
To return to Hezekiah. If he lived fifteen years after his illness, he died in 685, and reigned forty-two (not twenty-nine) years. Lenormant adopts this opinion, and adjusts other data to it thus: Manasseh was born in 797. He was recognized as king from his birth. The twenty-nine years of Hezekiah are reckoned to this time, and the fifty-five of Manasseh from it. Hezekiah died in 685, when Manasseh was twelve years old. Aside from the violence of this theory, it encounters numerous specific objections, and cannot be adopted. It is more reasonable to hold fast the twenty-nine years for Hezekiahs reign, and sacrifice the fifteen years stated as his new lease of life. See the first paragraph above. Hezekiah died in 6987, and Manasseh was twelve years old at that time.See Note 30 on the Chronolog. Table at the end of the volume.W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The story of the illness of Hezekiah withdraws our attention from the external history of the kingdom, which is narrated in the foregoing chapters, and reveals to us the soul of the king. It leads us out of the city into the royal palace (Umbreit). The announcement of his approaching death shocked him deeply; he turned away from those who surrounded him, and wept sore, as if death were the end of all. What has become of his firm faith? Where is the fearless confidence with which a pious man faces death? Does this not seem like unmanly weakness, and like anything but submission to the will of God? But there are two things to be considered in explanation. Hezekiah had passed his whole life up to this point in anxiety and trouble; he had only just escaped a danger which threatened his kingdom and his life; he was now, for the first time, in a position to look forward with courage and hope to a period of peace, rest, and prosperity, and to the opportunity of doing more for his country than he had hitherto been able to do. At this time, now, in the very prime of life, he was suddenly called to die and to give up all. He had succeeded to the throne in a time of deep decay, and had sought in every way to restore prosperity and strength, and now, when he was in a position to labor for this end with some success, he must leave all. Nothing could be more natural than that he, a man of warm and earnest feelings, from whom no stoical apathy was to be expected, should be terrified and shocked when he heard the prophets words: Thou shalt die! He does not murmur or complain, still less does he, like Ahaziah (2Ki 1:4-9), burst out in anger against the messenger of death. Neither does he simply resign himself; he bows humbly and pours out his grief in prayer to Him in whom he believed. Therefore his prayer finds an answer, which it never would have done if it had been made in womanish weakness or in that love of life which is displeasing to God. The fulfilment of his prayer is a proof that it was offered in a right spirit. The prayer came from a faithful, noble, and pious heart, as we see from his hymn of thanksgiving, Isa 38:9-20. He had in mind the words, Psa 145:18-19. In the second place it is to be remembered that Hezekiah belonged to the pious men of the Old Testament, who had not that hope and confidence which belongs to those who know Him who has conquered death; that he had never heard the words: Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Co 15:57). The promises in the Old Testament economy all refer to this life and to the bliss of communion with the living God. Death had not yet lost its sting. Hence the terror with which even the pious men of the Old Testament looked forward to it, while the pious men of the New Covenant look up in full confidence to Him who has robbed death of its power, and in Whom all promises are yea and amen.
2. Hezekiahs prayer has been interpreted as self praise, on account of the appeal which it contains to his righteous life (Thenius), and the ridiculous assertion has been made that the Church, at least the Protestant Church, must, according to its standards, class him among the self-righteous (Menzel). It is entirely left out of view, in this judgment, that Hezekiah stood in the economy of the Old Testament, that is, in the economy of legal righteousness; that the entire revelation of the Old Testament is concentrated in the Law of Moses, as that of the New Testament is concentrated in the Gospel; and that to walk according to this Law is not to be virtuous, morally pure, and free from sin, but to serve. Jehovah as the only God, to fear Him, to trust Him, and to love Him with all the heart (Deu 6:1-5). Hezekiah did not know any more about the modern doctrine that a man should practise virtue simply for the sake of virtue, than he did about the evangelical doctrine that faith alone, without works, ensures salvation. He considered that death, which was announced to him, was a penalty inflicted by God, and he did not know how he had incurred it, since he had always endeavored to serve God to the best of his knowledge and conscience, and never had departed from Him. He comes before the judge of life and death and begs Him not to remember his sins alone, but also to remember that he has feared and worshipped Him. He could say all this without Pharisaical self-praise (Luk 18:9-12), just as well as St. Paul could say, without self-righteousness: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith (2Ti 4:7). The whole thanksgiving hymn, Isaiah 38, breathes humility before the Almighty and Holy One; there is not a hint of self-praise or of holiness by works in it. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back (Isa 38:17). His greatest cause for grief was that he must go thither where he could no longer praise the Lord. Would that all who consider themselves virtuous and holy would show themselves as humble and penitent in the face of death as Hezekiah did.
[It cannot be denied that there is a great deal of special pleading in this criticism of Hezekiahs words. We have to be on our guard against setting out with a determination to see nothing but good in certain of these characters, and nothing but evil in certain others, and against warping facts to suit this foregone judgment, most of all, if good or evil are to be measured by modern standards. When Hezekiah says that he has walked before God with a perfect heart, and in fidelity, he refers to the requirements of the Mosaic Law, but when he says: I have done good in thy sight, he means moral goodrighteousness. He claims, in perfect honesty and simplicity, that lie has done what is right. The answer to those who accuse him of self-praise is not to be found in twisting the words. Two things may be urged in answer, both of which are true as general principles, and are not suggested by the desire of establishing the saintliness of Hezekiahs character. The first is that, if he had really done what was right as far as he knew, and if his theology taught him that this calamity was a punishment which indicated that he had been doing wrong, then he had a full right to appeal to his conduct against this theological inference (cf. the argument of Eliphaz, Job 4:5, particularly 2Ki 4:7, and Jobs answer, in which he justifies himself. See 2Ki 13:15; 2Ki 13:23). Secondly: the naive expression of Hezekiah, who thinks that he has done right and says so, is not to be judged by the modern mock-humility which often thinks that it has done right, and says that it has not; which assents to the doctrine that all have sinned, as a general theological proposition, while the individual who repeats it does not see, in his heart, that he has sinned after all. The Jewish theology taught that temporal calamities were judgments of God inflicted in punishment for sin. Hence it was inferred that a man who suffered misfortune must have sinned (Isa 53:4). Hezekiah had attempted to do right to the best of his ability. His conscience told him that he had been faithful to this effort, and in all truth and simplicity he expressed this conviction. It is evident that it is impertinent to judge any such nave and truthful expression by our conventional modern standards of how much a man may be allowed to express of the sincere convictions of his heart, when they bear upon his own merits or abilities.W. G. S.]
3. The prophet Isaiah here meets us once more in all the glory of the prophetical dignity (Umbreit). His conduct is based upon the premise of his prophetical character, without which it would be obscure and enigmatical. What he does and says, he does and says not in his own power, but as one who stands before Jehovah (1Ki 17:1), and who is set over nations and kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant (Jer 1:10). Mighty in word and deed, without fear of men or anxiety to please them, he threatens, and warns, and exhorts, and helps. He undertakes without hesitation the duty, heavy for him no doubt, of going into the palace to announce to his sovereign the terrible command: Set thine house in order. Then he retires, leaving the king to the effects of this command, but soon returns and declares to the crushed monarch, who is absorbed in anxious prayer, the fulfilment of that prayer, the promise of complete and speedy recovery, nay even of a reign prolonged for as many years more as it had already lasted, and the protection of God throughout this time. What would become of the prophet if he did all this in obedience to his mere human judgment? According to the ordinary custom of the prophets (see 1 Kings 17. Hist. 6; Pt. II. pp. 17, 47, 58) he combines with the promise of recovery the use of an external means of healing. The cluster of figs here had just the same function as the means used by our Lord (Joh 9:6; Joh 9:14). It was not the cluster of figs which helped the man at the point of death, but the Almighty Lord of life and death. The ordinary means of healing was here a sign und pledge of the promised cure. As the Berleburger Bibel says: Since this means could not have the power of curing in itself, it was used as a sign of the divine superhuman power. Isaiah did not employ the ordinary, natural means until he was sure of the divine help. It was just because this means of cure was the ordinary natural one, that Hezekiah wanted a sign that Jehovah would heal him (2Ki 20:8), and did not have complete confidence in this remedy. It is, therefore, utterly erroneous to ascribe Hezekiahs cure to the cluster of figs, to talk about Isaiahs knowledge of medicine, and to draw the inference that the prophets were accustomed to act as physicians (Knobel, Der Prophet. der Hebr. I. s. 55. Winer, R.-W.-B II. s. 280). If the prophet had, as a physician, been sure of the efficacy of this remedy, he would have behaved in the most reprehensible manner in not applying it at once, and in beginning by announcing certain death.
4. The sign, which was granted to Hezekiah at his request, has intimate analogy with the prophetic declaration which it was intended to confirm. There could hardly be a more significant sign than one presented on the shadow-measurer, that is, the time-measurer, which was arranged in the court of the palace before the kings windows (Thenius). Every human life is like a daysit has its morning, its noon, and its evening, (Ecc 11:6; Ecc 12:1-2; Job 11:17; Mat 20:3, sq.). The advance of the shadow shows the approach of evening (Jer 6:4; Job 7:1-2), which will be followed by darkness and night. Hezekiahs life-day was on the decline; the night of death was approaching; then it was promised him this day should stand once more at its noon, that the shadow of death should recede, and that the evening should once more become mid-day. The sign is not therefore a mere pledge of the fulfilment of the promise in 2Ki 20:5-6, in which there is no analogy to be traced with the fact of the prolongation of his life (Thenius). On the contrary, its significance is so apparent that it is difficult not to see it at once. This is not a mere trick of art or power, in place of which any other one might just as well have been chosen, any more than any of the other prophetic signs.As for the physical features of the sign, many, starting from the supposition that a violation of the order of the solar system (Menzel), a miracle which involved the revolution of the earth on its axis in a direction contrary to its regular one, is here recorded, have been shocked and repelled, and have either sought to explain it naturally, or have characterized it as a myth. The old naturalistic explanations by a second-sun, a vapor cloud, or an earthquake (see Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 499), may all be passed over as antiquated. We need only take notice here of the two most recent attempts. According to Gumpach (Alttestam. Studien, I. s. 195 sq.), Isaiah turned about the foot of the index, which before was towards the East, so that the shadow, instead of running down, as before, would descend [ascend?]. In that case, however, the sign would be nothing but a very simple trick (Oehler), and the greatest prophet of the Old Testament would be nothing but a common juggler. This trivial hypothesis falls to the ground with the erroneous, at least unproven assumption, that the shadow-measurer had a gnomon with a foot-piece. According to Thenius, we have to understand that there was a partial eclipse of the sun, unnoticed by most men. Such an one occurred, according to Prof. Seyffarths communication to Thenius, oh the 26th of Sept., 713, b.c., which date is in perfect consistency with all the other chronological statements of the Book of Kings. He adds that during such an eclipse a slight advance and recession of the shadow takes place. Isaiah made use of his astronomical knowledge to give the king, in his despair, a sign which should re-arouse his courage. This explanation, which no one else has yet adopted,[Stanley (II. 537) says it is the only thing which could illustrate the cause of the phenomenon. He adds that he is informed that the variation would be almost imperceptible except to a scientific observer.]rests upon the very doubtful assumption [?] that there was a partial eclipse of the sun in the year 713, and upon the still more doubtful assumption that Isaiah had great astronomical knowledge, and knew how to make shrewd use of it upon occasion. It is, therefore, a most unfortunate attempt. Let us have done with attempts to explain facts and events, which the historian distinctly declares to be miracles, by naturalistic hypotheses. Modern criticism does not indeed any longer deny that a miracle is here recorded, but disposes of it as a myth, and asserts either that a natural event was at a later time exaggerated and embellished with miraculous details, or that this story grew up through tradition out of the simple promise of the prophet, that, as the sun, after going down, returns and repeats its course, so Hezekiahs life should, though it had reached its limit, take a new start, and go on for a time longer (Knobel, Hitzig). Ewalds notion amounts to the same thing. He says: It must not be overlooked that this story was not written down, in its present form, until twenty years or more after the event, and after the death of Hezekiah and of Isaiah. Isaiahs good influence in this incident, even on the domestic life of the good prince, stands firm as an historical fact, and his words of trust and consolation no doubt miraculously (!) encouraged the king. In this way, it is true, we glide most easily over all difficulties. But it is a purely self-willed assumption, which has no foundation save dislike for everything miraculous, that this story was not recorded in its present form until twenty years after the event, and that it is a product of tradition. The two records of it are, in the main points, identical. Both are taken, as was shown above, from an older authority, with which we are not acquainted, and of which we cannot assert that it was first written years after the death of Hezekiah and Isaiah, at a time when tradition had already converted the history of this incident into a myth. The Chronicler also, although his record is very brief, speaks of a (2Ch 32:24). Critical science first exaggerates the miracle, and makes of it an event which would produce a cataclysm on earth, in order to have so much more ground for declaring it a myth. But there is no hint of any such event in the text. The miracle was not visible everywhere, but only in Jerusalem, and since it is a case of a sign which was to serve as a pledge, and did not need to be supernatural, it was accomplished by a phenomenon of refraction in the rays of light (Keil), for it is sufficient that the shadow, which in the afternoon was below, by a sudden refraction should be bent upwards (Delitsch). There are certain weak analogies in the natural course of nature, as, for instance, the phenomenon cited by many expositors, which occurred in the year 1703, at Metz, in Lothringia, and which was observed by the prior of the Monastery there, P. Romuald, and many others, that the shadow on a sun-dial receded an hour and a half (Keil).
[Bosanquet, in an Essay published in the Jour. of the Royal Asiatic Soc., Vol. XV., offers a solution of this phenomenon from the features of an eclipse. This eclipse took place in the year 689, on the 11th of January. He founds upon this an argument that that must have been the year of Hezekiahs sickness, but this argument has not been considered conclusive as against other data. We mention it here only as a proffered explanation of the manner in which such a phenomenon might have been perceived, without involving a reversed motion of the earth. For a few days before and after the winter solstice, the suns altitude at noon at Jerusalem is about 34. If the steps of Ahaz were a flight of steps in the palace court mounting from north to south, at an angle of about 34, then the sun would throw a shadow down them at noon which would just tip the top step. The upper limb of the sun would alone rise above the object (a roof, for instance) which threw the shadow. If the upper limb were eclipsed, the moon, in passing over the suns disk, would cut off the sunlight, and the shadow would once more descend the stairs. As the moon passed away the sunlight would once more pass below it and above the roof, and once more light the whole stair. The same explanation would apply to the dial if it were a small stair-like instrument, used for measuring time. An eclipse, to accomplish what is here supposed, must be nearly total, must be on the upper limb of the sun, must occur within twenty days of the winter solstice, and at noon of the day. Any contribution, in the way of explanation, ought to be carefully considered, but there are grave objections to this one. (a) The date of the eclipse, which is found to satisfy the conditions tolerably well, is irreconcilable with other data. (b) The phenomenon would be very slight, and only noticeable to careful observation, or under the most marvellous concatenation of circumstances. (c) It can hardly be believed, after reading the text, that the king had seen the shadow abnormally recede, and that the miracle consisted in its returning to its regular and proper place and motion.W. G. S.]
5. The narrative of the embassy of the king of Babylon to Hezekiah hinges upon the prophecy of Isaiah, in which, for the first time, the downfall of the kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian captivity are foretold. This incident, like the two previous ones, is recorded in the book of Isaiah on account of his prophecies, which form the kernel of each. Hezekiahs behavior, it is true, occasioned the prophecy, but the prophecy is the main thing, and it throws the proper light upon his conduct. Drechsler: Evidently the arrival of these ambassadors flattered Hezekiahs vanity so much that he forgot the rules of ordinary prudence. Umbreit: Hardly has the king escaped death and won a new lease of life, and found the treasure in heaven, before his heart is once more set upon the treasure of earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. Instead of making known to the ambassadors the glory of God, he shows them, boastfully, the perishable riches of his palace. Hezekiah, according to the prevailing opinion of the commentators, shows his treasures out of boastfulness and love of display, and hence the bold moral preacher (Kster), the prophet, pronounced to him the fitting rebuke, and announced the coming punishment. But this conception is certainly erroneous. There is no sign of love of display or of vanity in anything which is recorded of Hezekiah. Drechsler himself exclaims: What a contrast to the tone of Isaiah 38! This very contrast is an argument against the above conception of the disposition in which Hezekiah acted. A proud and vain man would have answered the prophet, when he called him to account, in a very different manner, and would not have expressed himself so openly and unembarrassedly as Hezekiah does in 2Ki 20:15. His further reply in 2Ki 20:18 bears witness to anything but a haughty and vain character. But even supposing that he had been influenced by vanity on this occasion, this momentaneous weakness would be terribly punished by the threat of the loss of his kingdom. This threatened punishment would be out of all proportion to the fault, and would be tyrannical and oppressive. Thenius justly says: Hezekiahs conduct towards the ambassadors did not proceed from vanity or love of display (Knobel). He accepted with joy the offered alliance of the Babylonians in the hope of avenging (?) himself, and he showed them the extent of his resources in order to convince them that he would be no contemptible ally (Clericus). In this, however, he had, on the one hand, departed from complete trust in God alone; and, on the other hand, he had lost sight of the ordinary dictates of prudence to an extent which must ultimately be ruinous to Judah and Jerusalem. The prophets rebuke was meant to make him see this, and that must also be the sense of the Chroniclers brief notice (2Ch 32:25), that Hezekiah trusted too much to his own power. The occasion of the prophets rebuke, and the thing which called for punishment, was not the personal vanity of Hezekiah, but the fact that he, who had experienced such signal instances of Jehovahs power and willingness to save, and who had been so often warned against all complications with heathen nations, should enter with joy into an alliance with Babylon. This was a sin which was not to be expected in him, a sin against the theocratic and soteriological destiny of Israel.
6. The prophet Isaiah appears here also in all his prophetical majesty, although seen from a different side from before. There he appeared as a consoler, here as a messenger of the divine judgment. The latter, as well as the former, character belongs to the prophetical calling. The message announces the destruction, in the first place, of Hezekiah and his family, but then, by implication, that of the entire nation. Not that the exile was inflicted as a punishment for this fault of Hezekiah. (Delitsch), but because the whole nation had incurred, though in a far higher degree, the same guilt as Hezekiah against the theocratic relationship to God, and was about to incur it still further, so that the measure would become full, and then the punishment threatened in the Law (Lev 26:33; Deu 4:27; Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64) must fall. The Babylonian Captivity, observes Starke on Isa 39:6, would have taken place, even if Hezekiah had never committed this sin, but it would not have been foretold at this time, if this incident of the ambassadors had not occurred. It was meant, at the same time, to be a humiliation of Hezekiah on account of his fault. He received the prophets announcement as such a humiliation, and hence he was spared the trial of himself experiencing the exile.
On account of the definiteness of the prediction, modern critical scholars have asserted that it is an oraculum post eventum, which originated with the historian (Knobel), or, at least, that the actual fulfilment determined the light in which the prediction is set before us (Ewald). [What he means is, that this historian, who had lived through, and been an eye-witness of, the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, lends sharpness of outline and accuracy of detail to the picture, when he tells us how Isaiah had once foretold all this.] This, however, takes away the point from the whole story. It is true that political sagacity might foresee the unfortunate consequences of Hezekiahs thoughtless conduct, but without prophetical inspiration it was impossible to foresee that Babylon, which was just struggling for independence, would supplant Assyria as the great world-monarchy, and that Babylon, and not Assyria, which was then threatening rebellious Judah, would really inflict the extremest woes upon her (Delitsch). The definite reference to Babel, which is the thing that offends critical science, forms the point of prophecy. It was occasioned by the embassy from Babylon, and it is intended to signify to Hezekiah: This very Babylon, from which thou hopest to obtain help and support, will ruin thy nation and people. Isaiah does not appear here as a sagacious statesman any more than he appeared in the former incident as a skilful physician, or a learned astronomer. His words have not the form of wise advice, but of a divine sentence of condemnation. Their form, therefore, would be inexcusable, if the prophet was only expressing his personal misgivings and his human anticipations. Why shall he be made out to be everything possible, physician, astronomer, statesman, only not that which he claimed to be, and which he was, viz., a prophet, who spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost (2Pe 1:21)?
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki 20:1-11. Hezekiahs Illness unto Death and his Recovery from the same.Wrt. Summ.: God sends illness upon the good, not in punishment for sins past, but as a trial of their faith and patience (Rom 5:3) or for His own glory (Joh 9:3; Joh 11:4). By observing this we may the better possess our souls in patience (Luk 21:19).Cramer: Bodily illnesses are the forerunners of death, and Gods means for fostering the health of the soul.Starke: God lays upon his children first one evil and then another. Hezekiah is first delivered from Sennacherib and the hands of man, and then he falls into the hands of God, who had before delivered him.
2Ki 20:1. Hall: Teachers and preachers must not conceal disagreeable truths from men, but make them known, whether they will be pleasant or not.Starke: We see, from the example of Isaiah, what is the duty of physicians and preachers towards the sick, viz., not to encourage them by false hopes of recovery, but at the right time to point out to them the duty of setting their house in order, and preparing themselves for death.The Same: The rich and great should also be warned to prepare for death.It is a great mercy of God to allow us to foresee our approaching end (Deu 32:48 sq.).Every illness, even though it does not seem likely to be fatal, is a warning to prepare for death, a memento mori, which can harm no one, whereas it is very harmful if all thoughts of death and eternity are held far away. He who, in his days of health, thinks upon death, and faithfully believes in Him who has overcome death, is not terrified when he is commanded to set his house in order.Kyburz: Set thy house in order, O man! If thou hast no house, thou hast at least a soul. Prepare it as best thou mayst for death, for thou knowest not whether to-day or to-morrow thou wilt be called upon to quit this tabernacle. It is vain, however, to attempt to fit a soul for death by a sacrament, if it has not during its time of health and labor sanctified itself by holy deeds and by communion with God. How peacefully one may die, in spite of shrinking nature, if one can only say to God, as Hezekiah did: Thou knowest that I have walked faithfully before Thee.As it is wise, in time of health and strength, to set ones house in order in a worldly sense, that is, to make ones will and arrange ones affairs, so is it still more wise to set ones house in order in a spiritual sense, and not to put off making ones peace with God until one stands on the brink of the grave.
2Ki 20:2-3. Hezekiahs Behavior at the Announcement of his Approaching Death. (a) He turned his face to the wall, that is, he turned away from all things earthly and temporal, to collect his thoughts. (b) He prayed to the Lord, that is, he sought refuge in Him alone. That is what we also should do in every illness.Starke: It promotes devotion to make ones prayers in secret and alone.The Same: Children of God should not murmur when they are scourged of God, but kiss the rod (Mic 7:9; 1Sa 3:18).Fear of Death, its Cause, and how it may he overcome.The wish of a dying man to live longer is not wicked, if it comes from the sentiment: si diutius vivam, Deo vivam, and has not its origin in the desire to enjoy the world and life a little longer. Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, but he admits that longer life enables one to bear more fruit (Php 1:21-22). Let me live that I may serve thee; let me die that I may possess thee. Hezekiahs prayer in view of death did not come from a proud and self-righteous heart, but from a humble and penitent one. He based his prayer upon the promise which God had given to the faithful under the old covenant: Do this and thou shalt live (Luk 10:28; Lev 18:5; Pro 10:27). Therefore he was heard by God, Who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. So should we also, in the face of death, not console ourselves with our own righteousness and virtue, but build our hopes upon the promises which He has given us in the New Testament, and upon Him through whom our sins are forgiven. He that believeth in Him, though he were dead yet shall he live (Rom 10:4; Joh 11:25 sq.).
2Ki 20:4-6. The prayer of the righteous is very effectual when it is earnest (Jam 5:16; Psa 145:18; Sir. 35:21; Isa 65:24; Isa 30:19).The word of consolation to all who cry to the Lord with tears in sorrow and distress: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.How consoling to think that the length or the shortness of our days is in Gods hand (Sir 11:14). From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us.Cramer: The Lord always gives more than we pray for; the king prays for life, and He gives him long life (Psa 21:5). Moreover, He promises him protection against Assyria, for He can do far more (Eph 3:20).Thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord. This was not a command, but a fulfilment of a wish and prayer, and it shows that Hezekiah loved the place where Gods honor dwelt (Psa 26:8; Psa 27:4).The first steps after recovery should be to the house of God, to thank Him for restored health (Psa 66:12-14).
2Ki 20:7. The fact that God connected the healing of the king with the use of a certain remedy shows that we should not despise the means of healing, which are His gift, but should join the use of them with our prayers to Him (Sir 38:1-4).The Lord is the true physician, for it is He who either gives or denies efficacy to human remedies. One is relieved by the slightest remedy; for another the best and strongest is of no avail.
2Ki 20:8. Cramer: God treats us like a good physician, not only as regards our bodies, but also as regards our souls. As the physician puts a staff in the hands of a yet feeble convalescent, so God grants to Hezekiah a sign as a staff for his faith (Isa 42:3). So nowadays God grants the sacraments as means of strengthening our faith.In the Old Covenant God gave many signs, in the New Covenant only oneChrist, the Sign of all signs. Therefore we should ask no other. When the Pharisees demanded a sign, Our Lord said: O wicked and adulterous generation, &c. (Mat 12:38 sq.). The sign for all time is that He was dead and liveth again to all eternity, and holds the keys of death and hell. All signs, as well as all promises, are in Him yea and amen.
2Ki 20:9-11. God alone controls the index on the dial of life; to turn it forwards or backwards is the prerogative of His might and grace. Therefore, submit to His will, and say: It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good (1Sa 3:18).
2Ki 20:12-19. The Embassy of the King of Babylon to Isaiah. (a) Hezekiahs conduct towards it; (b) what Isaiah declared to him on account of his reception of it (see Histor. 6).Starke: The most grievous calamities are not as ruinous as the flatteries of the children of the world.Kyburz: In the storm Hezekiah was preserved; in the sunshine he was lost.J. Lange: It may well come to pass that a man who has bravely withstood a great trial falls under a slight one. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. The world nowadays often behaves as the king of Babylon did, for he did not care so much to make known by his embassy and gifts his sincere respect for Hezekiah, as he did to secure his alliance for his own advantage, and so secure his own ends (cf. Sir 6:6-9).
2Ki 20:13. Pfaff. Bibel: We should not be too friendly with the enemies of the Lord, especially when they may misuse our friendship to our disadvantage. Friendship with the world is enmity to God; he who wishes to be a friend to the world becomes an enemy to God (Jam 4:4).The desire of making a display, and of infusing a high opinion of ones self into others, is often found even in those who are true Christians, and who have borne hard tests with success. Thus vanity clings to us and is the first thing and the last which we have to conquer in following Our Lord. Therefore watch and pray. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. The Saviour said: He that will follow me, &c. (Luk 14:33).Kyburz: We still show our spiritual treasures to the friends from Babylon, especially when we admire our own gifts, and like to have others admire them. As soon as strangers arrive we hasten to show our gifts, and powers, and accomplishments, in order to win respect. This is just the way to lose all those things. If one collects treasures let him store them up in heaven, where no spies will come to see them.
2Ki 20:14. It is a proof that He who watches over our souls is a good shepherd that he sees when we are about to depart from Him, or to transgress, and sends one of His faithful servants, or some faithful friend, to warn us, and to say: Hear the word of the Lord! Is such a friend always welcome to thee?
2Ki 20:15. He who denies his fault will never succeed in concealing it; he who confesses it will find pity (Pro 28:13; cf. 1 Chron. 30:17).
2Ki 20:17-19. Roos: Worldly people, with whom a child of God thoughtlessly mingles, do him great harm. Happy is he who is set right again after every transgression by a word from God, as Hezekiah was! It is the just sentence of God that the staff in which we trusted becomes a rod for our punishment.
2Ki 20:19. From the example of Hezekiah we learn, when the word of God rebukes our vanity and love of display, our vacillation and our want of faith, to bow in submission and to say: Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken; when we have shown true penitence, then we may also pray: Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris!
Footnotes:
[1]2Ki 20:4.[On the keri see Exeg. The E. V. follows it as do Thenius and Ewald. The chetib reads the middle city. It Is adopted by Keil, Bunsen, and Bhr.W. G. S.]
[2]2Ki 20:13. That is not the original reading, but , which we find in Isa 39:2, is evident from which follows. The latter reading is also supported by all the ancient versions.Bhr.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter prosecutes the history of Hezekiah. He is visited by sickness; he seeks to God in his affliction: receives a gracious answer in the lengthening of his life. His prayer: the Lord’s answer. His death; and successor in the kingdom.
2Ki 20:1
It appears by the calculation of Hezekiah’s life, that this sickness followed soon after his deliverance from Sennacherib. So quick is the transition from joy to sorrow in this world. The chambers of both are very near each other. Observe how gracious the Lord is in sending him notice of his approaching end. It was an earnest prayer of David that he might be taught to number his days, and to know their length. Psa 39:4 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 20
1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order [Heb., give charge concerning thine house]: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2. Then he turned his face to the wall [And he turned his face round ( 1Ki 21:4 ). He did so to avoid being disturbed in his prayer], and prayed unto the Lord, saying [Heb., with a great weeping],
3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked [Hezekiah deprecates an untimely death the punishment of the wicked ( Pro 10:27 ) on account of his zeal for Jehovah and against the idols] before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
5. Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.
6. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years [with this very definite prediction, comp. Isa 7:8 , Isa 23:15 ; Jer 25:11 , Jer 25:22 ]; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
7. And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs [figs pressed into a cake ( 1Sa 25:18 )]. And they took and laid it on the boil [the word “boil” denotes leprous and similar ulcers (Exo 9:9 ; Job 2:7 ), not plague], and he recovered [Heb., lived].
8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?
9. And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?
10. And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down [spread] ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
11. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial [Heb., degrees] of Ahaz.
12. At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment [the fine oil; perfumed oil used for anointing], and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures [see 2Ch 32:27-28 , storehouses beyond the precincts of the palace]: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
14. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.
15. And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
16. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord.
17. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.
18. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
19. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord [pious acquiescence in the will of God (comp. Eli’s “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” Comp, a similar expression in 1Ki 2:38 )], which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth [peace and permanence (or, security and stability: Jer 33:6 )] be in my days?
20. And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21. And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.
Hezekiah
So far in our Bible studies we have had many weary wanderings amongst bad men. The fear was that to some extent familiarity with them might blunt our own moral sensibility. Man after man has passed before us out of whose very countenance the image of God had faded. How pleasant it is then, how spiritually exhilarating, to come upon a case in which we read
“And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did” ( 2Ki 18:3 )!
After a long journey underground we seem to have come suddenly upon a sweet garden, and the sight of it is as heaven. The charm is always in the contrast. If things are not quite so good as we supposed them to be, they are all the better by reason of circumstances through which we have passed, which have made us ill at ease, and have impoverished or disheartened us; then very little of the other kind goes a long way. A man comes up out of the underground railway and says when he emerges into the light, How fresh the air is here! What a healthy locality! How well to live in this neighbourhood! Why does he speak so kindly of his surroundings? Not because of those surroundings intrinsically, but because of the contrast which they present to the circumstances through which he has just passed. Hezekiah was no perfect man. We shall see how noble he was, and how rich in many high qualities, yet how now and again we see the crutch of the cripple under the purple of the king. It is well for us that he was occasionally and temporarily weak, or he would have been like a star we cannot touch, and at which we cannot light our own torch. No. Even Hezekiah was a man like ourselves in many particulars, and therefore what was good and sound in him is all the more attractive and is all the more possible to us. Who can mistake an honest man? If all men were upright, where would be the peculiarity of any one individual man’s integrity? But, given a corrupt state of society, when the honest man appears, we say, The wind has changed: it blows balmily, healthfully; it comes from a fine origin and brings with it many a blessing. Who can mistake the atmosphere of the sea? How it blows away all the city dulness! How it quickens the blood! How it throws off increasing years, and makes the voyager feel almost young again! It is so with honesty, nobleness, charity, goodness of character, when the surrounding air is charged with some kind of poison or pestilence. So it is that we come upon Hezekiah. Perhaps it is well for him that we approach his case after such an experience. He thus gets advantages which otherwise might not have been accorded to him: he looks the higher for the dwarfs that are round about him, the whiter because of the black population amidst which he stands, at once a contrast and a rebuke. But from Hezekiah’s point of view the case was different. Behind him were traditions of the corruptest sort. He was as a speckled bird in the line of his own family. It is hard to be good amidst so much that is really bad. Any attempts at goodness are accounted examples of affectation, conceit, vanity, pharisaism; and under such circumstances sometimes a man’s foes may be the people of his own household: they wish he was more pliable, less Sabbatarian, less devoted to his Bible, less constant in his attendance at church; he might go once a day, and give himself one end of the rope not tethered to the altar; but he will not. Has that man an easy time of it? No hard word may be spoken to him, certainly no bitter word, and yet all the while he may be made to feel that perhaps after all he may be affecting somewhat of piety and pureness, and those who are looking on may be better critics of him than he is of himself. At all events, there come to him periods of trial, and sometimes he says within himself, Shall I today be as constant as I have been, or may I not break away now? Have I not built up a character, and may I not retire upon my moral competence, and live henceforth the life of a latitudinarian? After a long spell of many years, surely I might intermit a little. Who shall say that the temptation is not subtle and strong? Some men have to force their way to church through innumerable and unnameable difficulties. This ought to be reckoned. Some credit must be due to men who are thus constant to their sense of public duty and religious obligation. Men are not always at church with the entire consent of those who are round about them. What, then, must be done? One of two things: either yield to the temptation, or resist it. You cannot trifle with it: you cannot now compromise, and then recur to firmness, and again connive, and again balance and consider, and hesitate. Virtue is not an intermittent grace. We must stand, or we must fall.
Hezekiah had a wicked father. How will that wickedness come out in the son? Not perhaps as wickedness, but as infirmity, weakness, want of constancy in some directions, though there may be no want of firmness in others. Can a man wholly escape the bad blood of his father? We must not forget that Hezekiah’s mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. How she came to marry a wicked husband must remain a mystery. But the mother will come up in the son. She was the daughter of Zachariah, and Zachariah was a prophet, or seer a man with double sight one of those strange men who can see beyond the merely visible, the palpable, and read things that lie behind. He came up again in his daughter, and the mother came up again in the son, and so there was a mysterious play of inheritance, transfer, transition, reappearance, somewhat of resurrection, a great tragic mystery of transformation and representation. We speak about a man as if he were self-contained, just standing upon so much ground, without relation behind or before, on the right hand or on the left: whereas, no man is thus insularly placed, no man is an absolute solitary. Every man has in him the blood of the past, and the life of the future. Can a son of a good mother be altogether bad? Surely not! You must have mistaken the case if you thought so. Your very thinking so may constitute an element of hopefulness in your case. Take comfort from that suggestion. So long as you can think of yourself seriously, and of the past, and of your advantages and compare what you are with what you might have been, there is hope of you. But can there be in all history such an irony as this, that a man should have had a praying mother and be himself a prayerless man? No, it cannot be! Somewhere, at some time, and in some way, the better nature will assert itself, and out of a good seed surely there will come a good harvest. But the lesson does not lie upon one side only: here is encouragement to praying fathers and to praying mothers. Zachariah, read on; read between the lines of things; interpret events symbolically; read the apocalyptic sense of what is happening; and out of all this mental elevation and spiritual conduct there will come results in your daughter or your son. Abi, pray on; be just to your father’s memory; say He was a holy man, I must prove it by being a holy woman; he cannot live upon a written character, he must live in my life: I will prove that such a child must have had a good father. So the vital lessons fall, on the right hand, on the left, and round about us: shame be to us if, amid this shower of monition and encouragement and stimulus, we be deaf and dumb and blind, unfeeling, unresponsive.
Hezekiah will now go to work and prove himself to be an energetic reformer:
“He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan” ( 2Ki 18:4 ).
He must have been a strong man. He had no colleague, no ally; no one to say to him, Be brave, be true. He went straight against the hardest wall that ever was built by the stubbornness and perversity of man. It is not easy to begin life by a destructive process of reformation. Who would not rather plant a tree than throw down a wall? Who would not rather plant flowers, and enjoy their beauty and fragrance, than give himself the severe toil, the incessant trouble, of destroying corrupt and evil institutions? Whoever attempts this kind of destructive work, or even a constructive work which involves preliminary destructiveness, will have a hard time of it: criticism will be very sharp, selfishness will be developed in an extraordinary degree. If a man be more than politician if he be a real born statesman, looking at whole empires at once and not at mere parishes, and if in his thought and purpose he should base his whole policy upon fundamental right, he will not have an easy life of it even in a Christian country. In proportion as he bases his whole policy on righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, he will be pelted with hard names and struck at with unfriendly hands. This holds good in all departments of life, in all great reformations, in all assaults made upon ignorance, selfishness, tyranny, and wrong of every name. The children of Israel always seemed to live a foolish life. They were the veriest children, so at least we would say but for fear of branding sweet children with an evil stigma. They were infantile, weak, treacherous to themselves, uncertain at every point, and so, having kept the brasen serpent, they burned incense to it. They liked a visible god. When the calf appealed to their religious feelings they danced around it as if at last they had found a deity: but who can worship a spirit, invisible, impalpable, far away, near at hand, without a name, without a shape which we can verify and say, It comes to thus much, and this is the weight, and this is the value of it? It requires a mind of some mental strength to stand up, take hold of the brasen serpent, and call it “Nehushtan” a contemptuous term, meaning a piece of brass dead brass useless, worthless brass, a relic, but not a God. Let us give credit to the men who have been bold, religiously intrepid in the midst of circumstances of a most discouraging and overbearing kind. They are the men to whom we owe our present privileges. We have the Bible in our mother-tongue because they were valiant. Not a church would have been built today in which men could assemble with a sense of freedom sweet, joyous liberty but for the Hezekiahs and others who went forth, and, at great cost and great peril, destroyed things evil and black, by the power of God’s almightiness, overthrew them, and set up a better kingdom.
What was the root of Hezekiah’s character? At present we have seen phenomena of a gracious kind; we like what we have heard of this man; but what about his root?
“He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor any that were before him. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses” ( 2Ki 18:5-6 ).
At length a man arose who said, I will do God’s will, God helping me: I will not only read the commandments, I will incarnate them; I will not speak religious words only, but live a religious life. How tender and yet how emphatic are the words, he “trusted,” he “clave,” he “kept.” “He trusted,” that is to say, he had no other trust. His religion was not a convenience, one thing amongst many things, an occasional exercise in piety: but a perpetual confidence, the one trust, the all-centralising, and all-ruling fact. Then “he clave,” he kept close to; he would not allow anything to come between his hand and the God he seized; the hand could do nothing else except cleave to God, and what was possible through that cleaving, and much is possible of a beneficent and helpful kind. “He kept the commandments,” counted them one by one; examined himself in them; took himself daily to task about the whole ten. We live an off-hand life. Religion is now as easy as a wave of the hand, a salutation across a thoroughfare; it is something that can be taken up, and laid down, and forgotten, and resumed. What wonder if the Rab-shakehs of the age come and taunt us, and mock our piety, and blow back our prayers before they get to the skies? We want more trust, more cleaving piety, more keeping of the commandments, living in them, and having no other life that is not consonant with them.
Now came, as we have often seen, the inevitable temptation. We pass instantly to the visit of Rab-shakeh. This Rab-shakeh was an eloquent man. He had the gift of mockery; he could gibe well. He was not without a certain logical qualification. He made a long offensive speech to the people under Hezekiah’s rule; and he thought he had them at both ends of the argument. Having mocked their piety, laughed it down, challenged it, spat upon it, he said, Perhaps you will say, “We trust in the Lord our God,” but you forget, said Rab-shakeh, that this very man Hezekiah has thrown down his altars, has taken away his groves, has rooted up the house of your God by the very foundations. Rab-shakeh did not understand the destructive reformation wrought out by Hezekiah. He heard of the groves being cut down and the holy places being removed, and he said, This is so much to our advantage: the king of Assyria shall hear of this, and we shall make good commerce of it. He did not distinguish between idolatry and piety, between a reform essential to health and a mere accident in history. What was good in Hezekiah seemed to be wickedness to Rab-shakeh. Oh, how Rab-shakeh assaulted the people, trampled upon them, leaped, as it were, over their bodies, and mocked their refuges and their trust, and thrust his fist in the face of Egypt and said, Come away from Hezekiah: trust him not; he is blind, he is incapable; leave him, and I will tell you what Assyria will do for you: I will “come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us” ( 2Ki 18:32 ). It is but an empty saying, Come, and I will give you a great Canaan! Sometimes it does seem as if the enemy had the best of it. Everything lies so handily to him. He says, I will get you through this difficulty: I know a lie that would deceive a king; I can instruct you in a policy that would blind a judge; I could get the money for you; you need have no difficulty about that; why, I say in confidence, I can let you have it now! What can the preacher do in the presence of such a Rab-shakeh? Or he may not offer temptation in that direction, but in another, and say, All these arguments I could answer if I cared to do so. Who wrote the Bible? Who has seen the original manuscripts? Who has ever seen God? It is utterly impossible to know the infinite, come, and I will make you rich at once in real solid practical things: I can give you work instantly, and wages immediately the work is begun; I can give you something in advance; leave the preacher, the altar, the Bible, the church, and come and work in the open streets, and be doing something that you can handle, and about which there is no manner of doubt. People begin then to wonder. They should adopt the policy which was imposed upon the children of Hezekiah, “But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not” ( 2Ki 18:36 ). Nothing is to be got out of wordy controversy. Live the Christian life; grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. While the controversialist is contemning you, taunting you, and smiting you, show him that you are growing broader, more massive in character, more tender in disposition, more benevolent in every aspiration and desire and purpose, and thus by well-doing “Put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” Defend your Christianity by the eloquence of your life.
The servants of Hezekiah said to him, What Rab-shakeh has said may come to pass. Let us go to Isaiah and tell him all. Hezekiah himself thought that perhaps there might be something in it after all. There he and his servants fell into a state of spiritual incertitude. “So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.” They came to the right man. Standing up like a king, he said:
“Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land” ( 2Ki 19:6-7 ).
He would make no violent attack upon the men; he would summon no legion of angels to overwhelm this great Oriental potentate; he would simply “send a blast,” he would change the wind, he would scatter something upon it and bid it blow across the brain of the king of Assyria, and the king would not know his right hand from his left, nor the morning from the night; he would be calling everybody by the wrong name, and asking for things he did not wish to possess, and generally be thrown into a state of unbalanced, wandering mind. I will send a whisper to him; he shall simply go to the ear of the king of Assyria and say something, and the king will take fright, and fly away in a panic. O Hezekiah, continue thy prayer, repeat thy morning sacrifice and thine evening oblation; and as for the king of Assyria, I will send a blast, and a rumour; I will answer Rab-shakeh. Let the contempt of the enemy be answered by the contempt of heaven.
Rab-shakeh having found that the king of Assyria was warring against Libnah, returned, and when he heard that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was come up to war, he once more addressed Hezekiah in terms of exultation and contempt. He was pretendedly anxious that Hezekiah should not be deceived by the Lord his God, and then he taunts him with many a history in which Assyria had been conqueror over opposing nations. He completes his taunt by asking, “Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?” (xix. 13). This message came to Hezekiah in the form of a letter, or letters, and Hezekiah instantly “went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.” There is no need to regard this as in any sense involving a heathenish custom: the meaning simply is that Hezekiah consulted the Lord upon the whole matter, and declined to take anything into his own counsel or power. He acknowledges the dignity of God by the expression “O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims,” and then he points to the letter which more immediately concerned himself, thus showing his consciousness that the majesty of the Lord did not separate him from taking an interest in earthly things. We are not to stop at the point of majesty, but are to reason that because God is so majestic and august he will pay attention to the prayers and desires of the beings whom he has created in his own image and likeness. The divine majesty is not a rebuke to human approach but an encouragement to human prayer. When Hezekiah says, “Thou art the God,” the emphasis is to be laid upon the word “thou,” Thou art the true God, and thou alone. When he desires God to bow down his ear, and hear, the reference is not so much to listen to Hezekiah’s prayer as to the words of Sennacherib. The meaning of the whole petition may be Interpose immediately and energetically between me and mine enemy: let thine ears hear, let thine eyes see, and let thine arm be extended. Hezekiah acknowledges that the kings of Assyria had destroyed the nations and their lands, and had cast the gods of the nations into the fire. By so much he gives the Assyrians credit for having spoken the truth, and for having thus founded their project against Israel upon the success which they had already attained. Hezekiah acknowledges, indeed, that the gods of the nations were no gods; at the same time he feels that to the mind of the Assyrians they may have been as real deities, and their overthrow may have encouraged the Assyrians to believe that Jehovah was like unto them. Thus the prayer of Hezekiah was argued and ordered in logical and historical form, and was intended to excite, as it were, the very jealousy of the Lord God of Israel.
We now turn to the reply which was made to Hezekiah through the lips of Isaiah the son of Amoz. The reply was manifestly given in a contemptuous tone,
“The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee” ( 2Ki 19:21 ).
The twenty-second verse puts into an interrogative form a reproach against the ignorance of the king:
“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high?” ( 2Ki 19:22 ).
The meaning evidently is that the king did not know the real nature of the God of Israel and Judah, and that he was making an infinite mistake in confounding that nature with what he had already seen of the idols of the nations. Humiliation is promised to the king of Assyria: a hook is to be thrust into his nose, a bridle is to be put upon his lips, and he is to be turned back by the way which he came. Whilst the king of Assyria is humiliated, the remnant that escaped of the house of Judah is promised again to take root downward, and bear fruit upward; literally, shall add root to root, shall take firmer root than ever, as a tree often does after a storm; the ravaged land was to be newly stocked by the remnant that was to be saved out of Jerusalem. All these statements are supported by the declaration “The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.” Thus the promise is not made in any human name or guaranteed by the conquests of human history; it is immediately connected with the very purpose and power of the Most High. Nor is this the only instance in which divine strength is promised on behalf of Judah and Israel: in verse thirty-four we read, “For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” We must always be careful to notice that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and that no occasion is ever given for man to glory in man, but that everywhere from the beginning of religious history, as given in the Bible, it is God who is King, and Ruler, and Protector, and to him all the glory of deliverance and conquest undividedly belongs.
And “that night” that night! “The angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses” ( 2Ki 19:35 ). Again and again we say, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Let Rab-shakeh talk, let him deliver his burning messages, and when he has ceased his mockery it is not necessary for us to answer: God will defend his own cause. There is one Defender of the Faith. His name? Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. There is one Head of the Church. His name? King of kings, Lord of lords. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
Here we stand. We think all history is upon the Christian side. But let us never forget that the finest argument in favour of Christianity is a Christian life.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVII
THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH
2Ki 18:7-20:21
In the preceding chapter we have briefly considered the first six years of the reign of Hezekiah noting particularly the great religious reformation wrought by him.
Now we are going to consider the reign of Hezekiah after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed. The first thing for us to do is to get clearly before our minds the prevalent political relations of the time. Syria which had been a powerful factor, has gone out of sight, and Assyria with its capital at Nineveh was now the great northern power. We have seen that Assyrian power destroy the Northern Kingdom and in the days of Ahaz we have seen an alliance between Assyria and Ahaz. Ahaz appealed to the Assyrian king to help him against Israel and Syria. Now when the Assyrian king, for his own purpose, entered into this alliance and destroyed both Syria and Israel, he naturally wanted Judah also, and we have seen that Ahaz became tributary to the Assyrian king. Ahaz king of Judah was the father of Hezekiah who inherited from this wicked father this subordination to the Assyrian king paying tribute to him. Now, on the south, Egypt, which had varied fortunes from be-fore the days of Abraham, was once more a great world power; so we see the little kingdom of Judah, with Hezekiah at the head of it, as a grain of corn between an upper and a nether millstone. Judah lies right in the path between Egypt and Assyria. The Assyrian king wanted Judah, not only to guarantee the safety of his possessions in the Northern Kingdom, but also as a base from which to strike his rival, the kingdom of Egypt, and the king of Egypt wanted Judah as a base for striking the king of Assyria. That is the political relation, except that Just now was rising at Babylon a power that would absorb Assyria. It had not come largely to the front yet, but it was coming fast, and when it did come to the front as the world power there was no Assyria, and the two powers then were Egypt and Babylon, and Egypt and Babylon bad Judah in between them. Now that is a glance at the chief political relations.
Subordinate political relations are these: Philistia, of course, never altogether conquered, was there as a thorn in the side of Judah. Edom, or Esau, to the south, was also a thorn in the side of Judah. And various governments of Arabia the Ishmaelitish descendants were ready at any time to strike a blow at Judah. In the same way Moab and Ammon descendants of Lot to the east of the Dead Sea, were ready to strike at Judah. Then there was Tyre and Phoenicia, another great world power, which had been for a long time, ever since the days of Hiram and even before Hiram’s time, and the later history of Judah will have much to do with Phoenicia and not on the friendly terms that it had with Phoenicia in the days of David and Solomon.
Now the next thing to look at is the religious status at the time Hezekiah came to the throne. From the beginning the religious status in the Northern Kingdom was bad, and going all the time from bad to worse until purely on religious grounds, turning away from Jehovah, that nation was wiped out, but before it was wiped out, through the marriage of the daughter of Jezebel the queen of the Israelitish kingdom to the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah through that marriage various religious evils came into the Southern Kingdom. Now when Ahaz, a descendant of that unrighteous marriage, came to the throne, he, on becoming tributary to the king of Assyria, became tributary in religion as well as in territory and in political suzerainty. He adopted the gods of the people. We have then this picture: All of the high places where stone pillars and wooden images called “Asherim” were worshiped that had never been abated by the kings of Judah before Hezekiah’s time. The worship of Jehovah had ceased in its songs, particularly the Davidic psalter. The door of the Temple was closed. The altar of sacrifice was removed, and the altar of a heathen god was put in its place. All of the regular servants that conducted the religious worship were either degraded from office or persuaded or compelled to become the officiating ministers at the altars of the false religion. Not merely was this so, but Ahaz had erected in the valley of Hinnom an image of Molech, the Ammonite god, and a hideous fellow he was. It was a hollow iron image with a furnace under the bottom of it and with iron arms extended, and when that furnace heated this image red hot they would worship their god by laying naked babies in the arms of that image, and to drown their cries they would beat drums and make all kinds of noise. Ahaz burned one or two of his babies that way.
Now from this valley of Hinnom we get the New Testament idea of the eternal hell, Gehenna. On account of the desecration through the worship of Molech in that valley a later curse made it the ground in which the refuse from the city was dumped and burned, and as the refuse never ceased accumulating, the decaying meats, the rotting bones, the off-scourings, fire had to be kept burning all the time, and wherever there are rotting meats there will be worms; so it became an eternal fire, and an undying worm in that valley which suggested or foreshadowed the description of the real, final hell, Gehenna, in which soul and body are destroyed, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
Not only was this true, but they had adopted methods of ascertaining the future, sorcery, witchcraft, and in order to get a clear view of either the political or religious situation of the time we must study the contemporary prophets. I give here a passage on that idea of the religious condition from Isa 8 . He is prophesying concerning this very period: “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living, should any seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” The old Mosaic law had taken cognizance of the disposition of the people to make inquisition concerning the future from the alleged spirits of the dead. Just as in modern times people through rappings and mediums and trances try to find out the state of their own departed and their own prospects in the future world. It is an awful offense against God.
In addition to this is another innovation, and I am not right sure that I or anybody else fully understands the significance of it. Ahaz had constructed on the Temple steps that led up to the platform on which a shadow would fall from the sun, a dial, and it has been conjectured by many intelligent commentators that, through that shadow and that dial, he worshiped the signs of the Zodiac. The dial was put there by Ahaz. We find that Dr. Thirtle of England, in a new book entitled, Old Testament Problems , attributes an entire section of the Psalms to an incident in Hezekiah’s life connected with this dial of Ahaz.
Just now we want to understand, not only the religious forms of worship, but also the moral condition of the people, and here again we get our best information from the prophets. Passages in Hosea give the immoralities of the contemporary Northern Kingdom, but having also some references to Judah, and likewise in Joel and in Amos, and considerable in Micah. Micah comes in largely in the history of Hezekiah and from his prophecy and Isaiah we find out the fearful religious and moral decadence of the people. But turning aside from other prophets, let us, as an example, consider the picture given of the times by Isaiah. In the first five chapters of Isaiah we have a summary of that condition, religious and moral, during all the period from Uzziah to Hezekiah. That is a part of the book that used this language: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. I have smitten them until the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, and from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.” Then he gives a description of the leading women of the country. We know that from the women in high society we may get an idea of the depravity of the times. A picture of the ladies of any period is always very helpful to an understanding of that period. Here it is: “The daughters of Zion are haughty, and they walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet.” We have read about the old woman That has rings on her fingers, And bells on her toes, So that she makes music Wherever she goes. These women of Judah had tinkling anklets so that every step was a jingle like a cowboy’s inch-in-diameter spurs with the tags hanging to them. Isaiah goes on: “Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the cauls, and the crescents; the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers; the head-tires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume boxes, and the amulets; the rings and the nose-jewels; the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels; the hand-mirrors, and the fine linens, and the turbans, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty.” Now wherever that is the case among the ladies of the upper class that land is sick. We may get a view of the men from the prophetic woes denounced by Isaiah. I read these woes to U. S. Senator Coke of Waco (found in Isa 5 ). He asked me to copy for him the one relating to monopoly on land as containing a suggestion that he had never had from any other direction before and that he wanted to use.
Now that picture of woes gives us a conception of the moral condition of the time when Hezekiah began to reign. Idols on every hill, the Temple of God closed, no inquirers at the oracle of God, but looking out for witches and spirit rappers, mediums, and appealing to the dead. That was the awful state of affairs. Now when Hezekiah, the son of the wicked king came, he was more commended of God than any other king in the dynasty of David until Jesus came. It is expressly said that there was none like him before and none like him after, and that he sought the Lord with his whole heart, and when it came to political relations his policy was not diplomacy but obedience to Jehovah. Once or twice in his life he was led to turn somewhat from that but came back quickly to his old original policy, and the best diplomacy in the world is to be true to God and the principles of righteousness. Bismarck startled all the diplomats of Europe by simply telling the truth and announcing in plain language the policy of Germany. None of them believed it. They said, “Of course, he is telling a lie. All diplomats lie,” and he couldn’t possibly have startled them more than by using absolute candor.
Hezekiah was not only a righteous king, but he was a great poet. Isaiah preserves one of his grand poems at full length, found in Isa 38 . Not only was he a literary genius but he revived literature. In his day there was a constellation of literary geniuses. He revived all of the great psalter of David, and particularly did he exercise himself to put in order the canon of the Scripture up to his time. A sample is found in Pro 25 ; here we have this statement: “These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah copied out.” Now from Pro 25 on, all the books of Proverbs was compiled in the days of Hezekiah, and we find in another reference that which we have briefly considered in a preceding chapter, that in the same way he revised the psalms of the first two books of the psalter. The psalms of David are divided into five books. The first two books of the psalms were used as songs in the Temple in the days of Hezekiah, and the book entitled Problems of the Old Testament , by Dr. Thirtle of England, brings out more light on the days of Hezekiah and his reign than all the commentaries ever written by other men put together. It is an essential contribution to biblical literature. It explains as no other book explains, what are called the songs of degrees in the psalter. But I would have the reader take with more than a grain of salt what Dr. Thirtle’s book says of the Cyrus references in the prophecy of Isaiah.
Now taking up our lesson proper, the chief events of the reign of Hezekiah, let us study them seriatim.
In 2Ki 18:7 it says that he rebelled against the king of Assyria. Ahaz, in order to strengthen and protect himself against the coalition of Pekah king of Israel and Rezin king of Damascus, had appealed to Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria for protection. In order to secure that protection from the Assyrian king, Ahaz had to pay a large tribute annually, so that when Hezekiah came to the throne, there was no question but that he had also to pay annual tribute to the king of Assyria to preserve the integrity of his realm. Then he waged a successful war against the Philistines, the old enemies of Israel. They had been gaining in strength for some time. The kingdom of Israel had been somewhat weakened and now Hezekiah attacked them and completely defeated them. Why he did this we are not sure. Probably he did it in order to bring them to unite with him and the other kingdoms in throwing off the yoke of Assyria. It is certain from secular history that Hezekiah seized one of the kings of Philistia and shut him up in prison at Jerusalem because he was friendly to the king of Assyria. We find this in Sennacherib’s own account of his relationship with the Philistines. But Hezekiah could not withstand Sennacherib’s first invasion, and therefore he became tributary to Assyria, taking the treasures of the Temple, and cutting off the gold from the doors and pillars of the Temple, he gave them to the king of Assyria.
Now we come to consider the crisis in the life of Hezekiah; his sickness, recovery, and songs, 2Ki 20:1-11 . We don’t know Just when this occurred, but probably somewhere about 711 or 710 B.C. He had been reigning about fourteen years. “Sick unto death,” it says. And from what we see later in , 2Ki 20:7 , there was a boil upon him. Bennett, in his book on the diseases of the Bible, says that it was a carbuncle. Some have maintained that it was a cancer. Thirtle believed that it was a form of leprosy. The same Hebrew word is used to describe it as is used to describe the boils on the people of Egypt. There are certain kinds of boils that appear with leprosy. So we are not sure just what the trouble was, but it was something serious. The word comes to Hezekiah, “Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die and not live.” Hezekiah felt the effect of these words. It was a staggering blow. It meant that he would be cut off in the middle of his days; it meant that there would be no heir left to the throne of David; it meant that the splendid religious reformation would die out and be lost; it meant that in this critical period of Israel’s life the throne would be vacant, and then what would become of the kingdom? Is it any wonder that he turned his face toward the wall and prayed? Now, what is his argument? It is this: that since he had been righteous, since he had obeyed Jehovah, since he had been true, he therefore ought to live to a ripe old age. Hezekiah thought that he was entitled to a long life, and he was in terrible gloom and despair. He presents that argument in his prayer: “Remember now, O Lord I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” The Lord heard that prayer, and as Isaiah was departing and in the midst of the city, the Lord said unto him, “Isaiah, turn again, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” That was such a gracious promise to Hezekiah, he could hardly believe it. “In three days you will go up to the house of Jehovah.” Hezekiah says, “What sign will there be to assure me?” So Isaiah makes the statement that the sign shall be that the shadow of the dial of Ahaz will go forward ten or backward ten steps or degrees. And Hezekiah replies, “It is nothing for it to go forward ten steps, it will naturally go that way as the sun goes down.” “All right,” says Isaiah, “the shadow of the steps shall go backward ten degrees.” No doubt Hezekiah could see this dial from the window of his palace. Ahaz set this sundial near his palace and evidently some sort of a pillar was arranged, so that the shadow would be cast on so many steps. We do not know how many there were, but there were more than twenty, and as the sun rose it would cast its shadow upon those steps and mark periods of time. As the sun set in the evening the shadow would be cast in a different way, and each step would mark a period of time.
Now if the shadow on those steps was sent backward, that would be a sign sufficient. How could it be possible for the shadow to be thrown backward, as if the sun were rising instead of setting? It can be explained by the laws of refraction, but it was a miracle just the same. Hezekiah saw it and doubtless he was in the Temple worshiping Jehovah in three days. Now let us consider the visitors or the ambassadors from Babylon. The record says, “At that time Merodachbaladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.” The real object was to see the condition of his kingdom, to find out Hezekiah’s strength, to find out what treasures he had, and if possible to secure his co-operation in a league against Assyria, for Babylon at this time was nearly independent of Assyria, and was seeking to throw off her yoke entirely. There is no question but what that was the real object. We arc told that Hezekiah showed them all his treasures, and they were well pleased. Isaiah didn’t like it and he said, “You are very courteous to them because they have come so far. They didn’t come from such a great distance; you may make a league now but before very long the king of Babylon shall come and take your descendants, and all your treasures and people, your children, and shall carry them away.” This was, of course, fulfilled literally within almost a hundred years.
Hezekiah accumulates great wealth and engages in many building enterprises: “Hezekiah had exceeding riches and honor.” He built him treasuries for all his riches, storehouses for the increase of corn and wine, etc., stalls for beasts and flocks, provided him cities and had possession of flocks and beasts in abundance, strengthened and improved the water works around about Jerusalem making more direct the connection between the waters of Sihon and the city of David. All this indicates that Hezekiah was something like Solomon in his prosperity, wealth and enterprises, as well as in name, fame and honor.
Now we come to the revolt against Assyria and the invasion of Judah by the Assyrian king. As we have already noted, “He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.” Somewhere about this time Hezekiah made up his mind no longer to pay tribute but to throw off the yoke of Assyria, and of course that means that the king of Assyria would at once take steps to bring him back into subjection. It means also that other nations besides Hezekiah’s would throw off the yoke, and Assyria makes a swift march to Palestine along the coast down to Philistia, and there gains a great victory over the Philistines. We see that from his situation there in Philistia he sent an army and captured all the cities and villages of Judah except Jerusalem, and in Sennacherib’s own record we have this statement: “But Hezekiah of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke forty-six of his fenced cities and fortresses, and small towns in their vicinity without number, by breaking them out with battering rams, and the bows of . . . and the strokes of axes and hammers, I besieged and took 200,150 persons, small and great, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, large cattle, small cattle, without number, I brought forth from the midst of them, and counted as spoil. As for Hezekiah himself, like a bird in a cage, in Jerusalem, his royal city, I shut him up. I threw up forts against him, and whoever would come out of the gates of the city I turned back. As for Hezekiah himself the fear of the glory of my sovereignty overwhelmed him; and the Arabs and his other allies, whom he had brought to strengthen Jerusalem, the city of his royal residence, deserted him. Thirty talents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver, . . . great stores of lapis-lazuli,. couches of ivory, arm-chairs of ivory [covered] with elephant’s hide, ivory tusks, ussu wood, and the like, an immense treasure, and his daughters, his palace women, men singers, women singers, to Nineveh, my royal city, I made him bring, and for the delivery of the tribute, and rendering homage, he sent his ambassador.”
Allowing for the boastfulness of the Assyrian, there is still a great difference between the account of Sennacherib and the sacred writer. In some respects however, they supplement each other.
The Bible account says, “And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.” The difference in the quantity of silver may be accounted for by a difference in the size of the talent. The sacred writer omits the other items including the deportation of over 200,000 inhabitants. He merely says that he came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. Thus we find fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah in an earlier chapter. Assyria is God’s hired razor that will shave all the cities of Judah except Jerusalem, and will overwhelm it and overflow it right up to the neck, leaving Jerusalem alone (Isa 7:20 ; Isa 8:7-8 ).
Hezekiah takes great precautions against the onslaught of the Assyrian. When he saw that Sennacherib had come he at once began to strengthen Jerusalem; to see that the water supply was made good. He cut off all the outward sources of water and brought them within the walls of the city, reorganized the army, stirred up his people and made them ready for the attack of the Assyrians. That was a terrible time. The Assyrians were near and what did that mean? The Assyrian with his invincible host! The people would be in a panic all around the country, the strangers and stragglers would come into the city, soldiers would come from there and the couriers would come from the Philistine Plain, and the whole people was in a state of turmoil and anguish.
Very soon word comes that they are coming up the defiles, and quickly the large army of Assyria appears before the walls of Jerusalem, and the choice valleys around are filled with foreign soldiers. Sennacherib sends three of his officers, one of whom was a great diplomat. Hezekiah is within his palace) Isaiah within his home, the army is before the city walls, and three messengers of Hezekiah are at the wall to hear the chief of the officers sent by Sennacherib Rabshakeh. He is an Assyrian, he has been trained in her schools, he knows three languages, he is a master in the art of diplomacy, and here is a great opportunity for him to try his skill; he stands before the walls and makes his speech. Hezekiah’s men give him no answer. They have Isaiah’s words that Jerusalem should be saved. He had prophesied two or three times that the Assyrian would be destroyed, before he could make his onslaught on Jerusalem.
The officers of Jerusalem said to Rabshakeh, “Don’t talk to us in the Jews’ language; talk to us in the Syrian language,” but Rabshakeh pays no attention to this; he cries out to the shrinking people in the Hebrew language, showing that he is a skilled diplomat and master of several languages. He says to them, “Hearken not to Hezekiah; for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and of honey.” That is a fine stroke of diplomatic reasoning to induce them to surrender. It would have its effect on the multitude. The ambassadors on the walls went back weeping and told Hezekiah. Hezekiah rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went to the house of Jehovah. Then he sent for the prophet. What does he say? “This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” Faith has come to its trying moment and it seems as if it were going to fail. How many a man’s faith has sustained him till the crisis comes and then fails him. Isaiah has been prophesying for years that the Assyrian shall be destroyed. He says, “It is all right. I will put a spirit in him [Sennacherib], and he will hear a rumor and will leave Jerusalem and go out to his own land,” He will hear something about the condition of his empire somewhere else and he will start for home. That has been done more than once. Charlemagne once left his campaign in Spain and hurried home because of a rumor that he had heard. Napoleon did this three times ostensibly because of a rumor. He pretended to have retreated from Moscow because he had heard a rumor from Paris.
Sennacherib finds that his schemes fail and that Hezekiah will not surrender. He learns also that Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, is coming up against him, and he sends a letter to Hezekiah, “Now there is no use in your trusting in Jehovah. You had better surrender and save your people.” Hezekiah takes the letter into the house of God and lays it upon the altar before the Lord. He prays to God, he has faith, he has been buoyed up by Isaiah, that masterful spirit. It is a critical period. Isaiah now speaks one of his fearful prophecies against him: “Woe unto thee that spoilest, and thou was not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they deal not treacherously with thee: when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.” A critical moment in the life of Hezekiah is on, one of the turning points in the history is before us. Isaiah is still prophesying that Israel will be saved and Assyria shall be destroyed. What is the result? Sennacherib with his large army retreats from Jerusalem, is marching toward Egypt to meet Tirhakah who is advancing against him with a large army. He advances toward that awful stretch of country near Pelusium, a place of disease and death, where whole armies have been destroyed by pestilences or overwhelmed in the sands of the desert. The account says an angel of the Lord in one night blew a blast of death over his army, and in the morning 185,000 lay dead, and the rest hurried with Sennacherib at their head, back to Assyria. This is one of the great events of history, and one of the victories of faith. Psalms 46-48 were probably written in commemoration of this event: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Beautiful and precious psalms are they. Israel is saved, the Assyrian army is destroyed, one of the turning points in the history of God’s people, and in the history of the world has been passed, and all because of one man’s faith) one man who believed in God and was steadfast in his faith.
QUESTIONS
1. What were Judah’s chief political relations at the fall of the Northern Kingdom?
2. What subordinate political relations?
3. What was religious status in the time of Hezekiah?
4. What New Testament reference to this time? Explain fully.
5. What was their method of ascertaining the future and what prophetic proof?
6. What says the author here about the dial of Ahaz?
7. Where do we find a summary of the condition, religious and moral, from Uzziah to Hezekiah and what conditions therein described?
8. What was Hezekiah’s policy? Illustrate.
9. What literary accomplishments of Hezekiah?
10. What book on this section commended?
11. What were Hezekiah’s first successes in war?
12. What was his disease, how cured and was it a “faith cure'”?
13. What is the meaning of “Set thy house in order”?
14. Is it right to crave to live?
15. Is it right to ask a token of God and what difference between faith and assurance?
16. What scheme of BerodachBeladan and what condition that made the success of the scheme possible?
17. What was Isaiah’s rebuke to Hezekiah and what was his prophecy concerning Judah?
18. What were precautions of Hezekiah against Sennacherib’s second invasion?
19. What were Hezekiah’s building enterprises?
20. What was Rabshakeh’s message and what the reply?
21. What was Rabshakeh’s further insolence and what despair of Hezekiah’s ministers?
22. What did Hezekiah do and what result?
23. What was Sennacherib’s next step and Hezekiah’s response?
24. What was God’s answer to Hezekiah and the fulfilment?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ki 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Ver. 1. In those days. ] In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, as appeareth by comparing 2Ki 20:6 , and 2Ki 18:13 ; then, when Hannibal ad portas, the Assyrian was in the land. Crosses commonly come thick and many together, Jam 1:2 and all for the best. Rom 8:28
Was Hezekiah sick unto death.
For thou shalt die, and not live.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
those days. About the time of the second invasion (2Ki 18:13), but before the deliverance of 2Ki 19:35.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Set thine house in order = Give charge concerning thine house. See the Structure of Isa 36:39.
die, and not live. Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6), a double emphasis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 20
Now in those days Hezekiah was very sick ( 2Ki 20:1 ).
Actually he was dying.
And Isaiah came to him, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Set your house in order; for you’re going to die, and not live ( 2Ki 20:1 ).
The word of the Lord from Isaiah to Hezekiah. Set your house in order, you’re going to die and not live.
And so Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and he prayed unto the LORD, and he said, I beseech you, O LORD, remember now how I have walked with you in truth, with a perfect heart, and I have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah just really wept before God. So it came to pass, when Isaiah was leaving, as he was going through the middle of the court, the LORD said, Go back and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will heal you: on the third day you will go up unto the house of the LORD ( 2Ki 20:2-5 ).
I’ve heard your prayer, see your tears. Okay, you’ll be healed. In three days you’ll be going up to the house of the Lord.
And I will add to your life fifteen years; and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. And Isaiah said, [Now take a make a poultice from figs.] And lay it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What will be the sign that I’m going to be healed? And Isaiah said, Well, you want the sun to go back ten degrees on the sundial, or you want it to go ahead ten degrees? ( 2Ki 20:6-9 )
Imagine asking for a sign for something and God working a sign with the sundial, either moving the sun backward or forward ten degrees for you. What would you like? He said, “Well, if it goes forward ten degrees, that wouldn’t be too much.” You’d think the earth is just tilting that much faster. “Let it go back ten degrees.” And so the sun went back ten degrees on the sundial.
You say, “Impossible.” Yes, if you’ve got a puny little God of your own creation. But if you can believe the first verse of Genesis, why would you have any problem with that? “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” ( Gen 1:1 ). That’s how big our God is that we serve. It is important that we remember that especially when we pray over our little problems. “O Lord, thou art God, thou hast created the heaven, and the earth, all that in them is” ( Act 4:24 ). That’s the way the apostles began their prayer, and it’s a good way to begin prayer. Just sort of reminding you who you’re talking to.
Now there were emissaries that came from Babylon, when they heard that Hezekiah was recovered from his sickness, and they came in to Hezekiah and they said, “Oh, we’re so glad that you’re well.” And Hezekiah said, “Oh, let me show you around.” And he took them into the treasury. He showed them all the treasures, all of the gold and silver that was in the house of the Lord. All the treasures of the land. And so Isaiah came to Hezekiah and said, “Who were those fellows? Where they come from?” And he said, “Oh, they came from a long way out. They came from Babylon.” “What they want?” “Oh, they wanted to tell me they were glad I was…” “What did you show them?” “Oh, I showed them the treasures.” “What? How much?” “Oh, I showed them everything.” He said, “Ah, that’s foolish because all of those treasures that you showed to them will be carried away captive to Babylon.”
Hezekiah said, “Well, that’s good.” He said, “What do you mean that’s good?” He said, “Well, you said it won’t happen in my days.”
So the rest ( 2Ki 20:20 )
Strange way to look at it, isn’t it? The rest of the acts of Hezekiah are recorded in Second Chronicles and in Isaiah. An awful lot about Hezekiah in Isaiah. How he made this tunnel from the spring of Gihon to the pool of Siloam in order that they might have a fresh water supply when they were anticipating the attack from the Assyrians. And this conduit that he built, the tunnel…and I hiked through that tunnel on a few occasions, and you feel like you’re hiking in history as you are walking through the water as the spring of Gihon flows through that and on out to the pool of Siloam. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
2Ki 20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
That is to say, in the common course of providence, without a miracle, Hezekiah must have died. God did by no means change when afterwards he permitted him to live. This time he spoke after the order of nature; the next time he spoke according to the extraordinary work of his marvelous power.
2Ki 20:2. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
What did he do that for? Well, as he could not rise from his bed through weakness he gets the greatest privacy he can, and the God who accepted Carmel as Elijahs prayer-shrine, would accept Hezekiahs prayer when he turned his face to the wall.
2Ki 20:3. I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
I do not think this was intended to be a self-righteous prayer, though it reads like one, or else the Lord would not have heard it. He meant to say, Lord, thou hast been good enough to make me what I am, be pleased to spare me. In fact, the probability is that at this time Sennacherib had not been routed, and Hezekiah could not bear to die whilst the nation was in danger. Certainly there was no son born to Hezekiah at this time, for Manasseh was only twelve years old when he began to reign at his fathers death, and Hezekiah thought it would be a sad thing to leave a troubled kingdom without a prince to be his successor. It may be, too, that seeing he had just commenced the reformation, and the casting down of the false gods, he trembled for the cause of God, and could not bear to be so soon taken away. Hezekiah wept sore. Ah! these are the things that prevail with God, these tears of his people.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, .
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
2Ki 20:4-7. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying. Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant Davids sake. And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
This, of course, was not a sufficient means to cure the boil, but God made the means efficacious. Why were the means used? Why, to teach us that we are to expect Gods blessing, not in neglecting means, but in using them. See how simple was the remedy just a thick poultice of figs laid on the wound! Perhaps the physicians had tried expensive medicines without avail. What a mercy it is for us that the good medicine of the gospel is as cheap as it is good, that it is to be had for nothing. While some ransack the world for expensive ceremonies and for gaudy shows, we have Christ, like the lump of figs, ready to heal the wound and make us strong again. Again I say Hezekiah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed earnestly that his life might be spared, and God delivered him from the jaws of death. Let us, therefore, not be afraid to pray.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
2Ki 20:1
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In this chapter we have the account of the last days of Hezekiah. From a severe sickness he was delivered in answer to prayer and by the intervention of the prophet. He again manifested weakness during the Babylonians visit, by showing them all the treasures of his house. For this he was rebuked by Isaiah, who prophesied that the things they had seen the visitors would ultimately bear away.
At the close of the chapter we have a brief incidental glimpse of the home administration of the king, but we are referred to the Book of Chronicles for particulars. This reign is in very many respects most remarkable, coming as it did in the midst of days so full of darkness, and so terribly characterized by corruption. Everything seemed to be against Hezekiah, and yet perhaps in his loyalty we may see the protesting reaction of the son from a father which does sometimes manifest itself in the life of a man brought under such influence as that of Isaiah.
At least, the story reveals how much one man, seriously loyal to truth, may accomplish in the midst of the most adverse and difficult circumstances.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Shadow Turned Back on Lifes Dial
2Ki 20:1-11
What a contrast between Hezekiah and the Apostle Paul! To the great Christian hero, death seemed infinitely desirable. He was ready to be offered; it would be gain to depart and be with Christ. But Hezekiah, who had walked before God in truth and with a perfect heart, turned his face to the wall and wept sore as the shadow of death fell upon him. Could anything prove more conclusively how much we owe to the Lord Jesus, who abolished death for those who trust Him?
Who does not know what it is to turn the face to the wall in unutterable anguish? There are moments when we are face to face with a blank wall, and only God can open a door in it. But He did for Hezekiah and He will for you. Only have faith and reckon on Gods faithfulness. Has the shadow gone down on your dial? Has the day of your earnest zeal for God begun to wane? Have the bright promises of the morning become overcast? Then turn to God with true repentance! Let Him see thy tears of heart-sorrow, and He will restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten. It shall be with thee as in the past. The shadow shall return on the dial and the days of thy youth shall be renewed. There is a sense in which our sun never goes down, but leads our days forward, when the Lord becomes our Everlasting Light.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
3. Hezekiahs Illness, Recovery, Failure, and Death
CHAPTER 20
1. Hezekiahs illness and recovery (2Ki 20:1-11; 2Ch 32:24)
2. Hezekiahs failure (2Ki 20:12-19; 2Ch 32:25-31)
3. The death of Hezekiah (2Ki 20:20-21; 2Ch 32:32-33)
Hezekiahs sickness must have occurred about the second invasion of the Assyrian. Then the prophet Isaiah delivered to him the message of approaching death. Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live. The message made a deep impression on the sick king. He turned his face to the wall; he prayed and wept sore. Though he was a pious man he was greatly agitated and deeply moved when he heard the announcement of his coming departure. The meager knowledge Gods saints had in Old Testament times on the things beyond the grave, as well as the conception that an untimely death denoted divine disfavor produced no doubt much of this grief. How differently saints in New Testament times can face death! Life and immortality is now brought to life by the gospel, and we know that absent from the body means to be present with the Lord, and to depart and be with Christ is far better.
Hezekiahs prayer was at once heard and answered. It is one of the most striking answers to prayer. Isaiah had not gone very far, he had just reached the middle of the court, when he was commanded to turn back and bring to Hezekiah the answer. Seven things are contained in this new message to the weeping king. I have heard thy prayer; I have seen thy tears; I will heal thee; Thou shalt go up to the house of the LORD; I will add unto thy days fifteen years; I will deliver thee; I will defend the city. And Isaiah was also commanded to use means. Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered. If this simple remedy had been neglected, if there had been disobedience, the recovery would not have taken place. The third day is mentioned on which he should go up to the house of the LORD. For Israel there is also in store the third day, when they will be raised up nationally and worship the LORD (Hos 6:2). Then there was the sign of the shadow turning backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz. Hezekiahs experience is a great encouragement for Gods people to pray.
It is interesting to learn that Ahaz had–probably on his visit to Damascus (2Ki 16:10)–seen and brought to Jerusalem some of the scientific appliances of the great empire of the East. It is impossible to determine whether this mode of measuring the progress of time (not strictly hours) was by a sun-dial, the invention of which Herodotus ascribed to the Babylonians. According to Ideler it was a gnomon, or index, surrounded by concentric circles, by which the time of the day was marked by the lengthening shadow. But the term steps seems rather to indicate an obelisk surrounded by steps, the shadow on which marked the hours, so that the shadow falling in the morning westwards first on the lowest step, gradually ascended to the plane on the top, and after midday again descended the steps eastwards. As the text seems to imply that there were twenty such steps, they must have marked the quarters of an hour, and in that case the event has happened about half-past two oclock p.m. (Bible History)
And the promise the LORD had given, I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for my servant Davids sake, was wonderfully fulfilled in the complete destruction of Sennacheribs army. The last we hear of this great king is the failure when he was lifted up with pride and did not give the glory to God. Merodach-baladan, (Berodach is the error of some scribe. See Isa 39:1.), King of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah when he heard of his sickness and his miraculous recovery. This is the first time we hear of a king of Babylon. The ambassadors came possibly to form with Hezekiah a league against Assyria. Hezekiah was favorably impressed, he hearkened unto them, and then he made a display of all his possessions. He had hearkened unto them and pleased with the attention shown to him and the presents the king of Babylon had sent to him, he became lifted up in his heart, he boasted of his wealth and his possessions. Then Isaiah had another message for him. The Babylonian captivity is announced; remarkable in itself. How verses 17 and 18 were fulfilled is well known.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am 3291, bc 713
was Hezekiah: 2Ch 32:24-26, Isa 38:1-20, Joh 11:1-5, Phi 2:27, Phi 2:30
the prophet: 2Ki 19:2, 2Ki 19:20
Set thine house in order: Heb. Give charge concerning thine house, 2Sa 17:23, Isa 38:1, *marg.
thou shalt die: Jer 18:7-10, Jon 3:4-10
Reciprocal: Deu 18:22 – if the thing 2Ki 13:14 – fallen sick 1Ch 17:3 – word
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death That is, in the same year in which the king of Assyria invaded Judea; for Hezekiah reigned in all twenty-nine years, and surviving this sickness fifteen years, it must have happened in his fourteenth year, which was the year in which Sennacherib invaded him. It appears, however, from 2Ki 20:6, in which God promises to deliver him and Jerusalem out of the hand of the king of Assyria, that it took place before that deliverance; but the sacred historian thought proper to place it after that event, that he might not interrupt the story of Sennacherib. Thus saith the Lord, Set thy house in order, &c. Make thy will, and settle the affairs of thy family and kingdom. This he the rather presses upon him, because the state of his kingdom peculiarly required it, for it is plain Hezekiah had not, as yet, any son; Manasseh, his heir and successor, not being born till three years after this time; compare 2Ki 20:6 with 2Ki 21:1. Thou shalt die, and not live Thy disease is mortal in its kind, and will be so in effect, if God do not by a miracle prevent it. Such threatenings, though expressed absolutely, have often secret conditions.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 20:1. In those days; the year after Hezekiahs deliverance from the Assyrians, and the fifteenth of his reign.
2Ki 20:11. He brought the shadow ten degrees backward. Signs of the truth of prophecy were given to Gideon in regard to his fleece, and to the Israelites when Jeroboams altar was rent, &c. To ask this sign, that the sun should retrograde was a hard thing, whether by refraction or otherwise, if we may accommodate the miracle to the weak faith of astronomers. When Herodotus travelled in Egypt, the priests showed him a record of a long day. See Joshua 10. The Chinese also have a record of a very long day, as quoted by Stackhouse, Joshua 10. This dial seems to have occupied a very conspicuous situation.
REFLECTIONS.
It is an ancient opinion, that king Hezekiah was too much elated with his deliverance from the Assyrians: therefore the Lord saw good to afflict him.
In a few months the new king of Babylon sent to congratulate him on his recovery; and Hezekiah, if we may connect the royal error with the nations sin, with too much ostentation showed the ambassadors his palace, his arsenals, and his treasures. Here again the Lord humbled him by a declaration, that eventually all these treasures should go to Babylon; and what was supremely mortifying, that princes of Davids house should be eunuchs to the king of Babylon. Thus the wheels of life revolve, and instruct us ever to abide at the Lords feet; yea, to fly into the arms of Christ, who cries, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. See Isaiah 39. 40.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 20:1-11. Sickness of Hezekiah.This is related in the parallel passage, Isaiah 38, in a much abbreviated form, save that it adds the prayer of Hezekiah after his recovery. Isaiah 38 omits 2Ki 20:4 (Isaiah being recalled afore he was gone out of the middle court (mg.) of the palace, 2Ki 20:5 b (promising that Hezekiah shall go up to the Temple on the third day), 2Ki 20:8 (Hezekiahs request for a sign), 2Ki 20:9-11 a (the alternative sign, Hezekiahs choice, and Isaiahs crying to Yahweh).
11. the dial of Ahaz: Heb. the steps (mg.). Probably the shadow on certain steps indicated the hours of the day. Sundials were used in Babylonia, and Ahaz seems (2Ki 16:10-16) to have been interested in what he saw when away from Jerusalem, and anxious to introduce curious and artistic novelties (see also 2Ki 23:12). [Hezekiah regards the going forward of the shadow as a trifle since it simply accelerated the motion in the direction in which it was already travelling; for it to go backward was hard, because it reversed the natural, inevitable direction.A. S. P.]
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
FIFTEEN YEARS ADDED TO HEZEKIAH’S LIFE
(vv.1-11)
“In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death” (v.1). This took place about the time that Assyria captured the fortified cities of Judah (ch.18:13), for Hezekiah had reigned 14 years at that time. Since he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem altogether, then the 15 added years began at the time of the invasion of the king of Assyria. God is wise in the way He has these things reported. If He had intertwined the history of Hezekiah’s sickness with the attack of the king of Assyria, we likely would not give due regard to each of these occasions. Being reported separately, there are no complications to detract our attention from either.
When Hezekiah became sick, Isaiah was sent by the Lord to tell him, “Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.” (v.1). This was a shock to the godly king and he wept bitterly, crying to God from his bed to tell Him to remember Hezekiah’s walk of faith and devotion to God (vv.2-3). Hezekiah did not want to die and he felt he deserved to live longer. But did he think that God had forgotten his devotion to Him? Did God not know everything concerning the entire situation? If he had died then, he would have been with the Lord and would have been relieved of the many distressing exercises of heart that tried his faith severely. Indeed, if he had died when the Lord told him to, he would have been the only king of Israel or Judah having a really bright end. Even Jotham, his grandfather, who was generally faithful to God, failed in his allowing the high places of worship to continue (ch.15:34-35). Hezekiah removed all these high places (ch.18:4), as did Josiah later (ch.23:13), for Manasseh had rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed (ch.21:3).
As Isaiah was leaving after delivering his message, the word of the Lord came to him, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord” (vv.4-5). More than this, God would add 15 years to his life. He would deliver him and Jerusalem from the hand of the king of Assyria. This itself shows that this sickness of Hezekiah took place before Jerusalem was delivered from Assyria’s attack. The Lord would defend the city, not even for Hezekiah’s sake, but for His own sake and for the sake of David His servant (v.6).
The Lord, however, did not heal Hezekiah apart from a natural remedy. Isaiah ordered that a lump of figs should be placed on Hezekiah’s boil, and he recovered (v.7). God had made the figs and He knew they would be effective in this case. If one would demand that God should heal him, yet refuse a natural remedy, this would not be faith healing, for faith gives God credit for supplying whatever means of healing He sees fit.
God showed compassion to His servant Hezekiah by granting him healing, with the promise of 15 added years. But we have serious lessons to learn from this history. Was the word of the Lord not enough for Hezekiah to rely upon? No! He asked Isaiah to give him a sign to confirm God’s promise that he would go up to the house of the Lord the third day (v.8). Are we also like Hezekiah and the nobleman of Joh 4:46-53, to whom the Lord said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe”? (v.48). Yet nevertheless the Lord would grant Hezekiah his desire for a sign.
Isaiah gave Hezekiah a choice: would the shadow go forward ten degrees or backward ten degrees? Actually either way this would be an amazing miracle, but Hezekiah thought it an easy thing for the shadow to go forward since it would do so in time anyway, but not 10 degrees at once. So Hezekiah asked that the shadow go backwards. Isaiah prayed to the Lord for this and the shadow went backward 10 degrees, as the sundial bore witness.
We are reminded in this of Joshua’s long day, when the sun stood still “for about a whole day” (Jos 10:12-13). It is reported that scientists have calculated that a whole day is missing in the world’s history, and that after Joshua’s time there was a discrepancy of ten degrees less than one day, but after the time of the kings of Israel this became exactly one day. Wonderful are the ways of God!
However, this sign had a deeper significance than appears on the surface. God was virtually stopping time to have Hezekiah live 15 years longer. Would we want time reversed in our lives? If God gave us time to live some years over again, would we do better than before? Hezekiah found through experience that things don’t work that way. For in his added 15 years he spoiled the devotedness of his testimony for God, as we see soon after.
Babylon is then introduced into the history. At that time Babylon was part of the Assyrian Empire, but later took control of Assyria so as to become a greater power than Assyria had been. But at this time the king of Babylon was very friendly toward Hezekiah, and sent messengers with letters and a present to Hezekiah because he heard Hezekiah had been sick.
Hezekiah, apparently flattered by the attention, showed no caution in responding to the messengers. He showed them the house of his treasures, his silver and gold, spices and precious ointments and all his armoury, as well as everything else that evidenced his wealth. Why did he do this? Apparently in order to impress them with how much he had. They must have stayed some days at Jerusalem to see all that he had to show them.
2Ch 32:25 comments on this occasion, “Hezekiah did not repay according to the favour, shown him, for his heart was lifted up, therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. Thus pride in his wealth caused him to make this fateful blunder.
Isaiah came and asked Hezekiah what the messengers had said and where they came from. He answered that they came from a far country, Babylon. It may be the king of Babylon was already contemplating rebellion against Assyria and was looking for other nations who might help to further his cause. But Hezekiah, godly man as he was, forgot to inquire of God as to these men. He was not swayed by the lion-like rage of Assyria, but was deceived by the serpent character of Babylon, its friendly, flattering appeal. How we need to be on our guard in both cases, and take every matter to the Lord.
Isaiah then inquired as to what these messengers had seen in Hezekiah’s house, and the answer was that they had seen everything (v.15). Did Hezekiah think it was commendable that he had showed his treasures to men of whom he had no previous knowledge? If so, Isaiah’s message for him from he Lord would be a shock, “the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says the Lord” (v.17). Besides this, some of Hezekiah’s sons would become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Thus Judah would be humiliated and Hezekiah’s sons would be humiliated.
Hezekiah’s response to this message at least indicated that he was submissive to God’s word, for he said that word was good. But he added “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?” Is this not too limited a viewpoint? Did he have no real concern for the days of his successors in Judah? In the New Testament both Paul and Peter were deeply concerned about the conditions in the Church of God after their departure (2Ti 4:5-6 : 2Pe 1:13-15). Should we not also be concerned about those who follow after us? We wonder therefore if Hezekiah was not sufficiently impressed with the seriousness of his failure. Yet 2Ch 32:26 tells us that Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, so that the captivity of Judah did not take place in his days.
Verse 20 speaks of other acts of Hezekiah being recorded in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah, specially of his bringing water into the city by means of a tunnel (or aqueduct). This emphasises the positive character of goodness on Hezekiah’s part. The supply of water reminds us of the great spiritual necessity of the ministry of the Word of God. If our reputation includes such positive good done for the people of God, this is worthwhile. But little is said to Hezekiah’s credit in the last 15 years of his reign. We may well wonder if he afterwards felt it might have been better for him to die when God first told him to. At his death his son Manasseh took the throne.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
6. Hezekiah’s illness and recovery 20:1-11
"In those days" (2Ki 20:1) refers to the year Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem (701 B.C.) since Hezekiah died 15 years later in 686 B.C. His response to his illness was proper. He sought help from Yahweh primarily (2Ki 20:2). God had promised long life to the godly under the Mosaic Covenant, and that promise was the basis of Hezekiah’s appeal and God’s answer. Fig poultices were a common treatment in the ancient world as a remedy for boils. [Note: Cf. Keil, pp. 462-63; Wiseman, p. 287.] Hezekiah’s physicians apparently did not prescribe this treatment.
"Despite his recovery, Hezekiah asks for a sign that he will in fact go back to the temple in three days. Rather than an indication of unbelief, his request should be viewed against the background of Ahaz’s refusal of a sign in Isa 7:12. Isaiah gladly offers Hezekiah a choice of signs . . ." [Note: House, p. 373.]
God’s sign guaranteed what He had promised. This was evidently a local miracle as were some others involving sunlight (cf. Exo 10:21-23; Jos 10:12-13). [Note: See John Davis and John Whitcomb, A History of Israel, p. 464.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
HEZEKIAHS SICKNESS, AND THE EMBASSY FROM BABYLON
2Ki 20:1-19
“Thou hast loved me out of the pit of nothingness,”
– Isa 38:17 (A.V, margin)
“See the shadow of the dial In the lot of every one Marks the passing of the trial, Proves the presence of the Sun.”
– E.B. BROWNING
IN the chaos of uncertainties which surrounds the chronology of King Hezekiahs reign, it is impossible to fix a precise date to the sickness which almost brought him to the grave. It has, however, been conjectured by some Assyriologists that the story of this episode has been displaced, because it seemed to break the continuity of the narrative of the Assyrian invasion; and that, though it is placed in the Book of Kings after the deliverance from Sennacherib, it really followed the earlier incursion of Sargon. This is rendered more probable by Isaiahs promise, {2Ki 20:6} “I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria,” and by the fact that Hezekiah still possessed such numerous and splendid treasures to display to the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan. This could hardly have been the case after he had been forced to pay a fine to the King of Assyria of all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the kings house, to cut off the gold from the doors and pillars of the Temple, and even to send as captives to Nineveh some of his wives, and of the eunuchs of his palace. The date “in those days” {2Ki 20:1} is vague and elastic, and may apply to any time before or after the great invasion.
He was sick unto death. The only indication which we have of the nature of his illness is that it took the form of a carbuncle or imposthume, which could be locally treated, but which, in days of very imperfect therapeutic knowledge, might easily end in death, especially if it were on the back of the neck. The conjecture of Witsius and others that it was a form of the plague which they suppose to have caused the disaster to the Assyrian army has nothing whatever to recommend it.
Seeing the fatal character of his illness, Isaiah came to the king with the dark message, “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.”
The message is interesting as furnishing yet another proof that even the most positive announcements of the prophets were, and were always meant to be, to some extent hypothetical and dependent on unexpressed conditions. This was the case with the famous prophecy of Micah that Zion should be ploughed down into a heap of ruins. It was never fulfilled; yet the prophet lost none of his authority, for it was well understood that the doom which would otherwise have been carried out had been averted by timely penitence.
But the message of Isaiah fell with terrible anguish on the heart of the suffering king. He had hoped for a better fate. He had begun a great religious reformation. He had uplifted his people, at least in part, out of the moral slough into which they had fallen in the days of his predecessor. He had inspired into his threatened capital something of his own faith and courage. Surely he, if any man, might claim the old promises which Jehovah in His loving-kindness and truth had sworn to his father David and his father Abraham, that he being delivered out of the hand of his enemies should serve God without fear, walking in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of his life. He was but a young man still-perhaps not yet thirty years old; further, not only would he leave behind him an unfinished work, but he was childless, and therefore it seemed as if with him would end the direct line of the house of David, heir to so many precious promises. He has left us-it is preserved in the Book of Isaiah-the poem which he wrote on his recovery, but which enshrines the emotion of his agonizing anticipations:-{Isa 38:10-20}
“I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah, in the land of the living,
I shall behold no man more, when I am among them that cease to be.
Mine habitation is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherds tent.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he will cut me from the thrum.
Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter;
I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be Thou my surety.”
We must remember, as we contemplate his utter prostration of soul, that he was not blessed, as we are, with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. All was dim and dark to him in the shadowy world of eidola beyond the grave, and many a century was to elapse before Christ brought life and immortality to light. To enter Sheol meant to Hezekiah to pass beyond the cheerful sunshine of earth and the felt presence of God. No more worship, no more gladness there!
“For Sheol cannot praise Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee;
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.”
On every ground, therefore, the feelings of Hezekiah, had he not been a worshipper of God, might have been like those of Mycerinus, and, like that legendary Egyptian king, he might have cursed God before he died.
“My father loved injustice, and lived long;
I loved the good he scorned and hated wrong-
The gods declare my recompense today.
I looked for life more lasting, rule more high;
And when six years are measured, lo, I die!
Yet surely, O my people, did I ween,
Mans justice from the all-just gods was given,
A light that from some upper point did beam,
Some better archetype whose seat was heaven:
A light that, shining from the blest abodes
Did shadow somewhat of the life of gods.”
The indignation of Mycerinus often finds an echo on Pagan tombstones, as in the famous epitaph on the grave of the girl Procope:-
“I, Procope, lift up my hands against the gods,
Who took me hence undeserving,
Aged nineteen years.”
It was far otherwise with Hezekiah. There was anguish in his heart, but no rebellion or defiance. He wept sore; he turned his face to the wall and wept; but as he wept he also prayed, and said, –
“O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.”
Isaiah, after delivering his dark message, and doubtless adding to it such words of human consolation as were possible-if under such circumstances any were possible-had left the kings chamber. On every ground his feelings must have been almost as overwhelmed with sorrow as those of the king. Hezekiah was personally his friend, and the hope of his nation. Doubtless the prophets prayers rose as fervently and as effectually as those of Luther, which snatched his friend Melanchthon back from the very gates of death. By the time that he had reached the middle of the court, he felt borne in upon him, by that Divine intuition which constituted his prophetic call, the certainty that God would withdraw the immediate doom which he had been commissioned to announce. It has been conjectured by some that the conviction was deepened in his mind by observing on the steps of Ahaz one of those remarkable but rare effects of refraction-or, as some have conjectured, of a solar eclipse, involving an obscuration of the upper limb of the sun-which had seemed to take the advancing shadow ten steps backwards; and that this was to him a sign from heaven of the promise of God and the prolongation of the kings life. Awestruck and glad, he hastened back into the presence of the dying king with the life-giving message that God had heard his prayer, and seen his tears, and would add fifteen years to his life, and would defend him, and deliver him and Jerusalem out of the hand of the King of Assyria. And this should be the sign to him from Jehovah.-Jehovah would bring again the shadow ten steps up the stairs of Ahaz. To this sign-if it was visible from the chamber window-he called the attention of the astonished king.
We here naturally follow the narrative of Isaiah himself, as more authoritative than that of the historian of the Kings as to details in which they differ. Not only is it quite in accordance with all that we know of history that slight variations should occur in the traditions of long-past times, but the text of the Book of Kings suggests some difficulty. There we read that Hezekiah asked Isaiah what should be the sign of the promise-not mentioned in Isaiah-that he should go up to the House of the Lord the third day. Isaiah then asked him whether the sign should be that the shadow should advance ten steps, or recede ten steps. But there is no interrogation in the Hebrew, which rather means, “The shadow hath advanced ten steps in it; shall recede ten steps?” or if we insert the interrogation in the first clause, “Hath the shadow advanced ten steps?” The kings natural answer to so strange an alternative would be that for the shadow to advance ten steps was nothing; whereas its retrogression would be a sign indeed. Then Isaiah cried unto Jehovah, and the shadow went backward. In the obvious divergence of details we naturally follow Isaiah himself; and if it be a true and understood rule of all theology, “Miracula non sunt multiplicanda procter necessitatem, ” the miracle in this case-in the opportuneness of its occurrence, and the issues which it inspired-was none the less a miracle because it was carried out in direct accordance with Gods unseen, perpetual, miraculous Providence, which none but unbelievers will nickname Chance. That we are here dealing with a historic incident is certain; and they who see and acknowledge God in all history find no difficulty at all in seeing His dealings with men in striking interpositions. But these, by the analogy of His whole Divine economy, would naturally be carried out in accordance with natural laws.
The words rendered “the sun-dial of Ahaz” mean no more than “the steps [maaloth] of Ahaz.” Ahaz evidently was a king of aesthetic tastes, who was fond of introducing foreign novelties and curiosities into Jerusalem. Steps, with a staff on the top of them as a gnomon, to serve as sun-dials had been invented at Babylon, and Ahaz may probably have become acquainted with their form and use when he paid his visit to Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. No one could blame him-it was indeed a meritorious act – to introduce to his people so useful an invention. The word “hour” first occurs in Dan 3:6, and it was doubtless from Babylon that the Hebrews borrowed the division of days into hours. This is the earliest instance in the Bible of the mention of any instrument to measure time. That the recession of the shadow could be caused by refraction is certain, for it has been observed in modern days. Thus, as is mentioned by Rosenmller, on March 27th, 1703, Pere Romauld, prior of the monastery at Metz, noticed that the shadow on his dial deviated an hour and a half, owing to refraction in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Or again, according to Mr. Bosanquet, the same effect might have been produced by the darkening shadow of an eclipse. But while he appealed to Divine indications the great prophet did not neglect natural remedies. He ordered that a cake of figs should be laid on the imposthume. It was a recognized and an efficient remedy, still recommended, centuries later, by Dioscorides, by Pliny, and by St. Jerome. By Gods blessing on mans therapeutic care, the king was speedily rescued from the gates of death. Constantly in Scripture what we call the miraculous and what we call the providential are mingled together. To those who regard the providential as a constant miracle, the question of the miraculous becomes subordinate.
With intense joy and gratitude the king hailed the respite which God had granted him. In fifteen years much might be done, much might be hoped for. All this he acknowledged with deep feeling in the song which he wrote on his recovery.
“I shall go as in solemn procession {Psa 42:4} all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
O Lord, by these things men live,
And wholly therein is the life of my spirit.”
“Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness;
But Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of nothingness:
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.
The Lord is ready to save me;
Therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments
All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.” {Isa 38:10-20}
“The wonder done in the land” was, according to the Chronicler, one of the grounds for the embassy which, after his recovery, Hezekiah received from Merodach-Baladan, the patriot prince of Babylon. The other ostensible object of the embassy was to send letters and a present in congratulation for the kings restoration to health. But the real object lay deeper, out of sight. It was to secure a southern alliance for Babylon against the incessant tyranny of Nineveh.
Merodach-Baladan is mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon. He is described as “Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, King of Sumir and Accad, king of the four countries, and conqueror of all his enemies.” There had been long struggles, lasting indeed for centuries, between the city on the Euphrates and the city on the Tigris. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, had been victorious. Babylon-on the monuments Kur-Dunyash-had its original Accadian name of Ca-dinirra, which, like its Semitic equivalent Bab-el, means “Gate of God.” Kalah (Larissa and Birs Nimroud) had been built by Shal-maneser I before B.C. 1300. His son conquered Babylon, but not permanently; for in some later raid the Babylonians got possession of his signet-ring, with its proud inscription, “Conqueror of Kur-Dunyash,” and it was not recovered by the Assyrians till six centuries later, when it fell into the hands of Sennacherib. About 1150 Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon thrice invaded Assyria, but there was again peace and alliance in 1100. Merodach-Baladan I reigned before 900. The king who now sought the friendship of Hezekiah was the second of the name. He seized or recovered the throne of Babylon in 721, after the death of Shalmaneser, perhaps because Sargon was a usurper of dubious descent. He helped the Elamites against Assyria. Sargon was compelled to retreat to Assyria, but returned in 712, and drove Merodach-Baladan to flight. He was captured and taken to Assyria. But on the murder of Sargon in 705, he again managed to seize the throne of Babylon, killed the viceroy who had been set up, and became king for six months. After this, Sennacherib invaded his country, defeated him, and drove him once more to flight. He was perhaps killed by his successor.
Whether his overtures to Hezekiah took place before his defeat by Sargon, or after his escape, is uncertain. In either case he doubtless sent a splendid embassy, for Babylon was far-famed for its golden magnificence as “the glory of kingdoms” and “the beauty of the Chaldees excellency.” {Isa 14:4; Isa 13:19} At that time the Jews knew but little of the far-off city which was destined to be so closely interwoven with their future fortunes, as it was mingled with their oldest and dimmest traditions. {Gen 10:10-11; Gen 11:1-9} Apart from the magnificence of the presents brought to him, it was not unnatural that Hezekiah should regard this embassy with intense satisfaction. It was flattering to the power of his little kingdom that its alliance should be sought by the far-off and powerful capital on the great river; it was still more encouraging to know that the frightful Nineveh had a strong enemy not far from her own frontier. Merodach-Baladans ambassadors would be sure to inform Hezekiah that their lord had flung off the authority of Sargon, had kept him at bay for many years, and was still the undisputed king of the dominions snatched from the common enemy. It might have seemed reasonable that Hezekiah, for his part, should desire to leave the most favorable impression of his wealth and power on the mind of his distant and magnificent ally. He “hearkened unto” the ambassadors, or, more properly, “he was glad of them” (R.V), and “showed them all the house of his spicery and other treasures, his precious unguents, his armory his bullion, plate, and the whole resources of his kingdom.” The Chronicler regards this as ingratitude to God. He says that “Hezekiah rendered not again according unto the benefits done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.” It is a severe judgment of later times, and the historian of the Kings pronounces no such censure. Nevertheless, he records the stern sentence pronounced by Isaiah. The prophet had seen through the secret diplomacy of the Babylonian ambassadors, and knew that the real object of their mission was to induce his king to revolt against Assyria in reliance on an arm of flesh. He came to ask Hezekiah whose these men were, whence they came, and what they had said. The king told him who they were, and how he had received them; but he did not think it wise to reveal their secret proposals. If Isaiah had so vehemently reproved all negotiations with Egypt, there was little probability that he would sanction the overtures of Babylon. He saw in Hezekiahs conduct a vein of ostentatious elation, a swerving from theocratic faith; and with remarkable prophetic insight convinced the king of the error and impolicy of his proceedings, by announcing that the final and, in fact, irrevocable captivity of Judah would ultimately come, not from Nineveh, the fierce enemy, whose cloud of war was lurid on the horizon, but from Babylon, the apparently weaker friend, who was now making overtures of amity. With what heartrending grief must the king have heard the doom that the display of his treasures would prove to be in the future an incentive to the cupidity of the kings of Babylon, and that they would sweep away all those precious things to the banks of the Euphrates with such final overthrow that even the descendants of David should be sunk to the infinite degradation of being eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. {See Dan 1:6} The doom seems to have been fulfilled in part in the reign of Hezekiahs son, and more fearfully in the days of his great-grandchildren. {2Ch 33:11}
The kings pride was humbled to the dust. In the spirit of Job-“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” {Job 1:21}-he resigned himself without a murmur to the will of Heaven, and exclaimed that all which God did must be well done. At least God granted him a respite. Peace and truth would be in his own days; for that let him be thankful. They were words of humble resignation, uttered by one who had learnt to believe that whatever God decreed was just and right.
It would be unjust to measure the feelings of those far centuries by those of our own day, and there was none of the gross selfishness in the words of Hezekiah which led Nero to quote the line-
“When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire”; or which led Louis XIV to say-
“Apres moi le deluge.”
We may perhaps trace in his exclamation something of the fatalism which gives a touch of apathy to the submissiveness of the Oriental. Some, too, have imagined that his distress was tinged by a gleam of happiness at the implicit promise that he should have a son. His wifes name was Hephzibah (“My delight is in her”), and within two years she brought forth the firstborn son, whose career, indeed, was dark and evil, but who became in due time an ancestor of the promised Messiah. The name “Manasseh” given him by his parents recalled the child born to Joseph in the land of his exile who had caused him to forget his sorrows. Hezekiah had the spirit which says, –
“That which Thou blessest is most good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right which seems most wrong,
So it be Thy sweet will.”