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2Ki_20:13 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, and [all] the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
Ver. 13. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them.] Ad quos intentus, Ezechiah? He was taken and tickled with their company and courtship, gratifying them in that they came about, and proud of the honour they had done him. {2Ch_32:25; 2Ch_32:31} As there be white teeth in the blackest blackamoor, so there is a black bill in the whitest swan - a rotten kernel or two in the fairest pomegranate, &c.
And showed them the house of his precious things.] Superbe simul et stulte. This was proudly and foolishly done; for now gold thirsty Babylon knew where to have her draught, where to fetch a fat and fit booty. By the imperial law {a} of the Romans, the exporting of wine, oil, and other delicious liquors was flatly forbidden, and this reason given, Ne Barbare gustu illecti promptius invaderent fines Romanorum, Lest the barbarians tasting thereof, should be the rather drawn thereby to invade the Roman empire, as the Gauls did when once they had tasted of the grapes that grew in Italy. {b} Of the Chinese it is reported that they suffer not any foreigner to come into the heart of their kingdom, but only to trade with them on the seacoasts. It was doubtless impoliticly done at best by Hezekiah, to show these strangers his wealth and treasure: yea, it was sinfully done of him - had his storehouse been as rich as the earth - to be lifted up with those heavy metals. {c}
The silver and the gold.] Which he had partly by the spoil of Sennacherib’s camp, and partly by the many gifts brought by all nations unto him, as the world’s wonder for the sun’s going backward for his sake.
And the spices.] Galen {d} writeth that in his time cinnamon was very rare and hard to be found, except in the storehouses of great princes.
{a} Leg. l.
{b} Plutarch, in Camillo.
{c} Boter., in Catalog. Imper.
{d} Lib. i. Antidot.