Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 32:4
So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
4. who stopt ] R.V. and they stopped.
the brook that ran ] R.V. the brook that flowed. The Heb. verb means “flow with strong stream” (as a flood). We naturally look for such a brook either east of Jerusalem in the valley of Kidron or south in the valley of the son of Hinnom, but no perennial stream runs in either valley now. Possibly the waters which fed such a brook in the Chronicler’s day now lose themselves (owing to physical changes in the configuration of the country) in the soil.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The brook intended is probably not the Kidron, but the natural water-course of the Gihon, which ran down the Tyropoeon valley (compare the 1Ki 1:3 note).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ch 32:4
Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
Stopping the fountains
Nothing was more thought of in ancient times in order to add to the greatness of a city than an abundant water supply. It was one of the greatest glories of old Rome that it had never-failing aqueducts, and the same thing was true of Jerusalem in still earlier times. In all the hard sieges the city endured there never was any failure of the water supply. The Jews had chiefly to thank Hezekiah for this. He was both most brave and wise–this old-time Judean king. He turned his attention first of all to the water supply of the country north of Jerusalem, by the route along which the invading hosts must come. There was the upper watercourse of Gihon, not far from the holy city. The springs were abundant there and their fresh waters united to form a brook which ran strongly down the valley. Hezekiahs engineers saw what was to be done, at once to cripple the enemy and greatly to benefit the Jews. The springs should be drawn from their natural outlet to pour their waters into a capacious subterranean aqueduct built strongly and leading the current into vast reservoirs in Jerusalem cut in the rock far below the foundations of the temple, between the walls of Jerusalem proper and the city of David. So it is said by the inspired chronicler that Hezekiah stopped the fountains, that is, he covered them up after diverting the water, so that the Assyrians might not find them, and he brought the stream by aqueduct straight down to the west side of the city of David. For why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?
I. We are justified in thinking of ourselves in our character as the servants of God in the Christian life, as typified by the people of God in olden time, the jews; and the king of assyria for us is the evil one himself with all his hateful hosts. He has ever desired to avail himself of the springs of our human life, to sustain and aid him in his assaults upon our souls. The springs of human life are many and various.
1. There are our intellectual faculties, the mind with all its marvellous power of imagination and memory, the intelligence which reasons out things, and by sheer force of resistless logic discerns the true from the false.
2. There is the will, that strange forceful energy which drives our powers and faculties in this way or in that, compelling them to work its bidding, a will so often, alas! set against the Divine will and purpose which called us into being.
3. There are our affections, the emotional side of our nature, working sometimes quite independently of reason, persuading us to this or that course of action because the present inclination outweighs every other consideration.
II. These springs of our human life are full of vigour and send forth a full stream of effective energy. It is no wonder that the enemy of souls desires to appropriate them to his own purpose.
1. He would use the mind to set reason against faith, to be wise in its own conceits, to refuse to accept anything that is not made plain to it.
2. He would use our wills to perform his own purposes against the Most High. He says to us, You are free agents, to do as you please. You shall not surely die if you eat of the forbidden fruit.
3. Once more there is the emotional side of our nature, our affections. We feel that these have relation especially to the pleasures of life, the happiness of love and of sell-indulgence in natural desires of many sorts. The devil would use these for his own purposes, as of old the kings of Assyria would eagerly have used the springs of Gihon. Cunningly does he urge it on the human soul, Why has God given you passions and natural desires of all sorts if you are not meant to gratify them?
III. Now that wise king Hezekiah in the olden time, when he perceived that the abundant springs of Gihon were likely to help his enemy to the grievous discomfiture of the people of God, set to work at once to cover the springs, having diverted the channel that the water might flow by subterranean conduits into the holy city. The first great thought he had was to hinder the Assyrian from availing himself of those precious springs. And that may well read to us a lesson of the exceeding profitableness of covering our minds and wills and affections from the evil one.
1. Our intellectual powers should be covered that the enemy of souls may not use them to our discomfiture.
2. The will is likewise one of those springs of life which Satan especially seeks to find and to avail himself of. We cover it from him by subjecting ourselves to a higher will through the principle of obedience.
3. Then there are those choice springs of life which we call the affections. We must set restraint upon our natural desires in all sorts of ways, by remembering that our nature has been perverted by original sin; its lusts and appetites are in rebellion against their lawful master the will, and they are sure to lead us into mischief unless strongly repressed by loyalty to the teachings of God.
IV. Hezekiah was not content to stop the fountains of Gihon that his enemy might not find abundant water in that dry and dusty country; with a master stroke of policy he built a great subterranean conduit, and carried all the fresh sweet water from its source in the valley to enormous rock-hewn reservoirs which he constructed in jerusalem. One who did not know what the king had done might come to that place where once the waters of Gihon had flowed so freely, and lament the dry wady and filled-up wells. And so the world often looks upon the lives of earnest Christians, thinking how much they are losing through their scruples; the intellectual powers restrained within the dull limits of orthodoxy, the will subjected to what seems like a servile obedience to old-time traditions, the affections not allowed any strong vigorous license to brighten the sadness of this present world. It is only those who do not comprehend the real truth who can talk so however.
1. The mental powers which here would not be prostituted to taking interest in those subjects of human research which blasphemed Gods truth, and ridiculed the faith of the ages; subjects which under the specious disguise of realism delved unblushingly into vice and shameful immoralities, and declared it was the part of true wisdom to know the evil as well as the good–these shall find splendid exercise and joyous development ever more and more in the eternal truths of the universe, in the mysteries of the Divine Being, in the secrets of Divine love which are inexhaustible, and which overflow with supremest delights.
2. The will which here refused to assert its independence of the known laws of the Creator, shall in the holy city find full range for all its craving after freedom.
3. The affections which here resisted the drawings of sensuality and of worldliness, being willing to surrender the loves of this present world for the love of God, shall in the city which is on high find the rapture of heart joy, the bliss of satisfied affection surging back upon the soul from the very being of God Himself. (Arthur Ritchie.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Stopped all the fountains] This was prudently done, for without water how could an immense army subsist in an arid country? No doubt the Assyrian army suffered much through this, as a Christian army did eighteen hundred years after this. When the crusaders came, in A.D. 1099, to besiege Jerusalem, the people of the city stopped up the wells, so that the Christian army was reduced to the greatest necessities and distress.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Which was a scarce commodity in this country, and the want of it might much annoy the Assyrian army.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. So there was gathered much people. . . who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran throughthe midst of the land“Where these various fountains were,we have now no positive means of ascertaining; though En-rogel, andthe spring now called the Virgin’s Fount, may well be numbered amongthem. JOSEPHUS mentionsthe existence of various fountains without the city, but does notmention any of them in this connection but Siloam. ‘The brook,’however, is located with sufficient precision to enable us to traceit very definitely. We are told that it ‘ran through the midst of theland.’ Now a stream running through either the Kedron or HinnomValley, could, in no proper sense, be said to run through themidst of the land, but one flowing through the true Gihon valley,and separating Akra and Zion from Bezetha, Moriah, and Ophel, as astream once, doubtless, did, could, with peculiar propriety, be saidto run through the midst of the land on which the [Holy] City wasbuilt. And that this is the correct meaning of the phrase is not onlyapparent from the force of circumstances, but is positively sodeclared in the Septuagint, where, moreover, it is called a ‘river,’which, at least, implies a much larger stream than the Kedron, andcomports well with the marginal reading, where it is said to overflowthrough the midst of the land. Previous to the interference of man,there was, no doubt, a very copious stream that gushed forth in theupper portion of that shallow, basin-like concavity north of DamascusGate, which is unquestionably the upper extremity of the Gihonvalley, and pursuing its meandering course through this valley,entered the Tyropoeligon at its great southern curve, down which itflowed into the valley of the Kedron” [BARCLAY,City of the Great King].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So there was gathered much people together,…. At the instance of Hezekiah, his nobles and officers:
who stopped all the fountains; perhaps by laying planks over them, and earth upon them, so that it could not be discerned there were any fountains there:
and the brook that ran through the midst of the land; which, according to Kimchi, was Gihon, 2Ch 32:30, which was near Jerusalem; the stream of this very probably they turned into channels under ground, whereby it was brought into the city into reservoirs there provided, that that might have a supply during the siege, while the enemy was distressed for want of it:
saying, why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? by which means they would be able to carry on the siege to a great length, when otherwise they would be obliged to raise it quickly: mention is made of kings of Assyria, though there was but one, with whom there might be petty kings, or tributary ones; and, besides, as he boasted, his princes were altogether kings, Isa 10:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) The fountains.Maynth. 2Ch. 32:3 has springs (aynth).
The brook.Nchal. The wdy. The Gihon is meant, a watercourse in the Valley of Hinnom, supplied with water by the springs which Hezekiah closed in and diverted. See Note on 2Ch. 32:30, and 2Ki. 20:20; comp. Sir. 48:17, Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought into their midst the Gog (LXX., Vat.), or, into its midst water (LXX., Alex.).
That ran.That was flowing over (Isa. 30:28; Isa. 8:8). The overflow of the springs formed the stream.
The kings of Assyria.A vague rhetorical plural, as in 2Ch. 28:16.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. The brook that ran through the midst of the land is probably the Gihon, and the work wrought on it identical with what is more fully described in 2Ch 32:30. See also 2Ki 20:20, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 32:4. The brook that ran through the midst of the land As a plentiful fountain was very necessary, in that country, at the places, where they were wont to rendezvous; so the want of water must have been very terrible in any after-encampments, while they pursued the war, and especially when they had to stay any time in such a place. The thought, therefore, of Hezekiah, here proposed to his princes, of stopping all the fountains, and the brook which ran through the midst of the land, was at this critical juncture very natural. But it may be thought to be a proof of the great simplicity of antiquity to entertain such a design, and the more so if he was able to effect it. How could fountains and a brook be so stopped, as totally to be concealed? How easy was it for so mighty an army as the Assyrian to sink a multitude of wells? But, odd as this contrivance may seem, it was actually made use of at the same place many centuries after the time of Hezekiah, and greatly perplexed an European army, and that too assembled from various warlike countries. Previous to the siege of Jerusalem by the Croises in 1099, its inhabitants, having had advice of their coming, stopped up the mouths of their fountains and cisterns for five or six miles round the city, that, oppressed with thirst, they might be obliged to desist from their design of besieging it. This management, we are told, occasioned infinite trouble afterwards to the Christian army, the inhabitants in the meantime not only having plenty of rain water, but enjoying the benefit also of the springs without the town, their waters being conveyed by aqueducts into two very large basons within it. These precautions, indeed, did not hinder the Croises from succeeding at last; but then their army was distressed with thirst in the most terrible manner; though it had the assistance of some of the Christian inhabitants of Beth-lehem and Tekoa, who, being in the army, conducted the people to fountains four or five miles distant; for the nearer neighbourhood of Jerusalem was a very dry and unwatered soil, having scarcely any brooks, fountains, or pits of fresh water; and all those they filled up with dust, and by other means, as much as they could, and either broke down the cisterns of rain water, or hid them. All this shews the impracticability of an army’s supplying itself with water by sinking of wells, springs being rare there, and the soil, on the contrary, extremely dry. It shews also, how easily such wells as have a supply of water may be concealed, which are what the term here mangianoth rendered fountains frequently means, and what Hezekiah must mean, since there was no fountain to form any brook in the near neighbourhood of Jerusalem, except that of Siloam, which, I presume, is the brook that Jeremiah speaks of, and which, in the time of the Croisades, was not, it should seem, attempted to be stopped up. What the cause of that was, we are not told; but it seems that the waters of some springs without the city were conveyed into Jerusalem at that time; and that Solomon, in his reign, had attempted to do the like, as to part of the water of the springs of Beth-lehem, and effected it. See Maundrell’s Travels, p. 89. It was no wonder, then, that Hezekiah should think of introducing the waters of Siloam in like manner into the city, in order at once to deprive the besiegers of its waters, and to benefit the inhabitants of Jerusalem by them. Probably it was done in the same manner that Solomon brought the waters of Beth-lehem thither; namely, by collecting the water of the spring or springs into a subterraneous reservoir, and from thence, by a concealed aqueduct, conveying them into Jerusalem; with this difference, that Solomon took only part of the Beth-lehem water, leaving the rest to flow into those celebrated pools which remain to this day; whereas Hezekiah turned all the water of Siloam into the city, absolutely stopping up the outlet into the pool, and filling it up with earth, that no trace of it might be seen by the Assyrians: which seems, indeed, to be the meaning of the sacred writer in the 30th verse, where the original may as well be rendered, Hezekiah stopped the upper going-out of the waters of Gihon, and directed them underneath to the west of the city of David; and so Pagninus and Arius Montanus understand the passage. He stopped up the outlet of the waters of Gihon into the open air, by which they were wont to pass into the pool of Siloam, and became a brook; and by some subterraneous contrivance directed the waters to the west side of Jerusalem. See Observations, p. 337.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ch 32:4 So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
Ver. 4. And the brook. ] Called Gihon. 2Ch 32:30 This was one of those rivers the waters whereof made glad the city of God. See 1Ki 1:33 .
Come and find much water.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the brook = the overflow: i.e. Gihon, which frequently did so.
kings = the [great] king. Plural of majesty.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
who stopped: This was prudently done; for, without water, how could an immense army subsist in ar arid country? No doubt the Assyrian army suffered much through this; as a Christian army did, through the same cause, 1,800 years afterwards.
the brook: 2Ch 32:30, 2Ch 30:14
ran through the midst of: Heb. overflowed
kings: The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic read king, in the singular number. 2Ch 32:1, 2Ki 18:9, 2Ki 18:13, 2Ki 19:17, Isa 10:8
find: 1Ki 3:9, 1Ki 3:16, 1Ki 3:17, 1Ki 19:21
Reciprocal: 2Ki 3:25 – stopped 2Ki 20:20 – he made a pool Nah 3:14 – Draw