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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Ch_32:1
The establishment thereof; translate, and this (his) truth. The word is the same with the third of the trio (see above), as given in 2Ch_32:20 of the foregoing chapter. The evident meaning intended to be conveyed is, "After these things and this truth," i.e. truthfulness of conduct on the part of Hezekiah, the strict rendering being, "After the things and the truth this." Sennacherib … came … entered into Judah … encamped against the fenced cities … thought to win. This verse and these items of it may without any inconvenient strain be made conterminous with just one verse in Kings, the thirteenth of 2Ki_18:1-37. The king personally seems to have devoted himself especially to the siege of Lachish, an Amoritish city indeed originally, and a place of great strength of petition, but conquered by Judah (Jos_10:26, Jos_10:31-35; 2Ch_11:9; 2Ch_25:27; and infra here and in parallel). This invasion of Sennacherib (Herod; 2.141), son of Sargon, may be with moderate certainty affixed to the date B.C. 701. Thought to win. A weak rendering for the preferable purposed or boasted to break them (Gen_7:11).
2Ch_32:2
When Hezekiah saw … and that he purposed … Jerusalem. Whether the three verses of ill omen already alluded to (2Ki_18:14-16) may be road precedent to this verse, and purport that the bribes had been paid, and yet had failed of their object, so that Hezekiah was now compelled to brace himself to the occasion, and "took counsel," etc. (next verse); or whether this verse dates (as some think)the quailing heart of Hezekiah, and an offer or part payment of treasure by Hezekiah to Sennacherib, which only increased his insolence, as immediately now related, is uncertain, perhaps. In the face of the emphatic language of the three verses of the parallel, and in consideration of the possible motives as suggested above for our compiler omitting the matter altogether, we incline to the former opinion. That would have the effect of making this verse say that when Hezekiah had his eyes opened to the failure of his bribe—a waste payment, for that Sennacherib still "purposed to fight against Jerusalem"—he finally proceeded to take the right steps. However, the witness and indications of Isa_22:13-19; Isa_29:2-4, may go some way to shield Hezekiah from the entire blame. The silence of our compiler on the whole matter is the one residuum of fact, and unfortunate in its suggestion.
2Ch_32:3
To stop the waters of the fountains … without the city. These fountains or springs were probably those represented by En Rogel, on the Ophel spur or very large mound, or fortified hill (mistranslated possibly from that circumstance "tower," in 2Ki_5:24; Isa_32:14), on the southeast of the temple. The object of Hezekiah is obvious enough. The word ( ñÈúÇÌí ) for "stopping" occurs in all thirteen times—twice in piel in Genesis, once in niph. in Nehemiah, and ten times in kal in Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Psalms. It is for all material purposes very uniformly rendered in all these places by the word "stop" eight times, and otherwise "shut" or "closed," or to carry a derived meaning, "hidden" or "secret." If the word "shut" or "shut off" were employed, it would fit every occasion. So we are not told here how he stopped the fountain or fountains, but that he shut the waters off from one direction and guided them into another, vie. by a conduit running westward from the springs and the Gihon (i.e. the brook) flowing naturally down the Tyropoean valley to a pool prepared for it in the city. This pool was very probably none other than the pool of Siloam.
2Ch_32:4
The brook that ran through the midst of the land. Compare the Septuagint, which has it, "through the midst of the city;" and compare foregoing verse and note; and see again above reference to Courier's 'Handbook' at length.
2Ch_32:5
He strengthened himself; i.e; as in our several previous instances of the occurrence of the phrase (1Ch_11:10; 2Ch_12:1; 2Ch_25:11; 2Ch_26:8), he took all possible means to make himself and people and city strong to withstand the invader. All the wall that was broken (see Isa_22:9). Although we read that the devastation wrought by Joash (2Ch_25:23) was very largely repaired by Uzziah (2Ch_26:9) and by Jotham (2Ch_27:3), it is not explicitly said that the broken four hundred cubits of wall, from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, were made absolutely good again, although in the matter of towers and fortifications much was evidently done. Note also the word "all" here, side by side with the "much" of 2Ch_27:3. And raised (it) up to the towers. Discard this Authorized Version rendering. The meaning cannot be certainly pronounced upon, hut perhaps it may be intended to say that he heightened the towers. The objection is that the same verb is wanted for the next clause, and that its rendering would need to be there slightly reduced again to a mere statement of raising from the ground (i.e. building) another wall without. Repaired Millo (see note, 1Ch_11:8).
2Ch_32:6
The street of the gate; translate, the wide area at the gate, etc.; what gate is not specified, but presumably either "the gate of Ephraim," which would be the one opposed to the camp of the besiegers, or possibly "the comer gate".
2Ch_32:7
Several of the descriptive dramatic touches of Isa_22:4-14 are forcible and apt commentary to this verse.
2Ch_32:8
(See 2Ki_6:16; Jer_17:5.) The admirable language of Hezekiah here quickens our desire to feel sure that this was after (and after genuine repentance for) his faithlessness (2Ki_18:14-16).
2Ch_32:9
The passage beginning with this verse and ending with 2Ch_32:21 represents the much fuller parallel (2Ki 18:17-19:37), fifty-eight verses in all This much greater fulness is owing to the greater length at which the language of defiance on the part of Sennacherib and his appointed officers is narrated, and the matter of his subsequent letter; also the prayer of Hezekiah; and his application to Isaiah, with the reply of the latter to it. On the other side, there is very little additional in our narrative, a few words heightening the effect in our verses 18, 20, 21, constituting the whole of such additional matter. The vague mark of time, after this, with which our present verse opens, merely says that in due course of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, and attack of the fenced cities (verse 1), he proceeds to send his servants and his insolent defiances to the metropolis, Jerusalem itself. The three words in italics, "himself laid "siege," should evidently give place to the single word "remained" or "was;" i.e. he and all his host with him remained at, or opposite to, Lachish, while his servants went to defy Jerusalem in his name.
2Ch_32:10
In the siege. This Authorized Version rendering is manifestly incorrect, though, if we simply omit the article, and tender in siege, we shall probably have Sennacherib's exact idea. He spoke not of the literal technical thing siege, but of the distress and confinement that the apprehension of the siege did not fail to bring. This so to say moral tone to the rendering of the word ( áÀÌîÈöåÉø ) is much to be preferred to that of the margin, "in the fortress or stronghold."
2Ch_32:11
The policy of Sennacherib, in the direct attempt to undermine Hezekiah by appealing straight to his people, instead of to himself or his ministers of state, is yet more pronounced in expression, as seen in 2Ki_18:26, 2Ki_18:27.
2Ch_32:12
This misrepresenting of Hezekiah's pious actions is thought by some to have been innocent ignorance on the part of Sennacherib. Yet it is scarcely credible.
2Ch_32:13
Some of these deeds of Sennacherib and his fathers, i.e. predecessors in the kingdom of Assyria, are mentioned in detail in 2Ki_17:1-41, passim.
2Ch_32:15
The urgency of Sennacherib's appeal to the people was of course his way of trying to save work of actual siege, fighting, etc; to himself and his army. The how much less of the message of Sennacherib probably meant that his estimate of the your God i.e. the God of Israel, was measured partly by the comparative smallness and unwarlike character of the nation of Judah, when set side by side with the great heathen nations, and partly by the spiritual and invisible character and being of God, little intelligible to such a one as Sennacherib.
2Ch_32:16
And his servants spoke yet more. A glimpse of the fact that the compiler of our book very designedly excerpted only what he thought needful from very much more abundant resources.
2Ch_32:17
Letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel (so 2Ki_19:8-14). The rumour of the approach of "Tirhakah King of Ethiopia" (2Ch_32:9) quickened Sennacherib's anxiety to make short work with the conflict at Jerusalem, by intimidating the people to an early collapse of their resistance,.
2Ch_32:18
In the Jews' speech (see again 2Ki_18:26, 2Ki_18:27). The last three clauses of this verse are additional matter to that contained in the parallel.
2Ch_32:19
As against the gods of the people of the earth, the work of the hands of men. Our compiler, at all events, signalizes the difference, which Sennacherib worse than minimizes, between the God of Israel and the so-called gods of the surrounding heathen nations.
2Ch_32:20
For the prayer of Hezekiah, see 2Ki_19:14-19; and for the place of the prayer or prayers of Isaiah, and the indications of their having been offered, see alike 2Ch_19:4-7, and the verses of the grand passage, verses 20-34.
2Ch_32:21
The exact matter corresponding with this one verse is embraced by verses 35-37 in the parallel (2Ki_19:1-37.). It gives the number of slain as a hundred and eighty-five thousand. It does not speak of the heavy proportion of leaders and captains lost. It leads us to suppose that for all survivers it was a surprise in the morning—that silent vision of the dead in such vast array. Stating, on the other hand, in mere historic dry detail, the return of Sennacherib to his own land, his dwelling at Nineveh, and assassination, in the house of Nisroch "his god," at the hands of his own two sons, mentioned by name Adrammelech and Sharezer, who had to fly for it to Armenia (Ararat), it does not show the obviously designed moral touch of our compiler, so he returned with shame of face to his own land, nor the similarly complexioned description of the time, place, and agents of his assassination. Lastly, it gives Esarhaddon as the name of his successor on the throne.
2Ch_32:22
This verse, with the notification of Hezekiah's great deliverance from the hand of the King of Assyria, summarizes also his various other deliverances, with tacit reference to such suggestion of other conflicts as we have in 2Ki_18:7, 2Ki_18:8. Guided them on every side. The Septuagint reads, gave them rest. This suits the connection as regards meaning best, and also as regards the immediately following adverb, "on every side." It has also in our present book the correspondences of 2Ki_14:6; 2Ki_15:15; and especially 2Ch_20:30, with the Hebrew words of which, an easily supposed rectification brings it into exact agreement.
2Ch_32:23
Presents to Hezekiah. The "precious things" ( îÄâÀãÈÌðåÉú ) of 2Ch_21:3.
2Ch_32:24
The extreme brevity again of our compiler, in the account of Hezekiah's illness, and his passing so lightly over whatever in it cast shades upon his character and career, cannot escape our notice. Much fuller is the narrative of 2Ki_20:1-21. Gave him a sign (see 2Ki_20:8-11, and our verse 31, middle clause. See also at length of the sickness of Hezekiah, Isa_38:1-22.).
2Ch_32:25
The parallel, 2Ki_20:12-19 and Isa_39:1-8; fully explain the circumstances here referred to, and we may conclude that Hezekiah's sin consisted in the spirit in which he acted, displaying his treasures, so that it was in the fullest sense a sin of" the heart."
2Ch_32:26
Hezekiah humbled himself. Possibly the language of the nineteenth verse in the parallel is the one surviving historic trace of this. The language found in Jer_26:19 may be also a note of the same, though its dependence (see Jer_26:17, Jer_26:18) on Mic_3:12 seems to make it less likely.
2Ch_32:27
If Hezekiah not only began to negotiate, but actually paid the precious metals, etc; with which he offered to buy off the invasion of Sennacherib (2Ki_18:14-16), he may have become considerably recouped by the presents and gifts subsequently, liberally it would appear, brought to him (see our 2Ch_32:23), and it is possible that this may give us some further clue to where it was that his heart strayed, while displaying his wealth and treasures to the messengers of Berodach-Baladan King of Babylon.
2Ch_32:28
Cotes for flocks should be tendered, conversely, flocks to the stalls, i.e. stalls full of flocks.
2Ch_32:30
Stopped the upper watercourse, etc. (see our 2Ch_32:3, 2Ch_32:4). What Hezekiah "stopped" was the spring, or more strictly access to it, and guided its prized waters down, probably by an underground channel, to Siloam, or else to the pool in the city which he had constructed and enclosed by that "another wall without" (2Ch_32:5), west of the "city of David."
2Ch_32:31
Howbeit; literally, and thus. The italic type dispensed with, the verse may be rendered, And thus with or among the ambassadors of the princes … God left him to, etc. The princes. This plural may be the pluralis excellentiae, and designate the king himself, who doubtless issued the official command to the messengers to visit Hezekiah with gifts, etc; but not necessarily so. The word may betray the inquiries and curiosity of the princes of Babylon, under the king, the expression of which led to the embassy, so to call it.
2Ch_32:32
In the vision of Isaiah (so Isa_1:1).
2Ch_32:33
In the chiefest of the sepulchres; literally, in the ascent of the sepulchres; i.e. in new burial-places, either on the ascent to the old ones, probably now full, or else above, them.
I. THAT THE ULTIMATE GREATEST MATERIAL OF STRENGTH IS TRUST IN THE UNSEEN. Such trust is not only a last resource, an ungrateful last resort; it is the matter of strength, its material. "This is the victory that [even] overcometh the world … faith." This dictum of the apostle, who loved love so well, and was something less known for faith, may be held to carry the whole question. What a fine field of survey, what a wide horizon opens before us, when once we begin to try to count the achievements of faith! This faith in the Unseen, and in the UNSEEN ONE, is no mere matter of high contemplation; it works with trust.
1. The trust, that characterizes an honest consciousness of duty done to the best and utmost of human ability, becomes at once a strong incentive of faith.
2. So also that trust which comes of a clear discernment of the incompetency of self when alone and unaided.
3. The very craving of trust helps the grand quality of faith. And, on the other hand, the reacting of the intelligent conviction of the existence and presence and favour of the great Master of all circumstance and all events is the very suggestion and nourishing of trust. These also have a very spreading nature (2Ch_32:8). There are very many who learn trust and faith at second hand, if it may be so expressed, who have not force enough apparently in and of themselves, and without the inducement and encouragement of many examples, or, perhaps otherwise, of some very leading and remarkable example. And then, at the crisis—some crisis of great extremity—the sudden cry of prayer makes the whole scene burst into life; faith and trust are exchanged for fruition (2Ch_32:20, 2Ch_32:21). It was so now with Hezekiah and his people; it was often so in the history of other kings and people; and it is often so—how much oftener might it be?—in our individual life.
II. THAT THE EXTREMITY OF WEAKNESS IS DEFIANT TRUST IN SELF. Self-trust is, indeed, except under certain circumstances, nothing short of utter weakness; but the daring, defiant form of it presented by the narrative before us exceedingly, and actively aggravates the mischief, E.g.:
1. The defiance that comes of overweening conceit of self is certain to underrate the strength of others (2Ch_32:9-19).
2. The defiance that comes of an overbearing temper is certain to betray the owner of it into what must involve such moral fault as adds weakness to weakness. For instance, it does not fall short of mocking fellow-men, nor hesitate at all to do so!
3. The defiance that comes of impious disbelief of the one God, and infatuated reliance on no other but the god self, is merely another way of saying that the man guilty of it is already shut up within the smallest circle of resource. And with all this corresponds, again, the howl of the servants and soldiers of Sennacherib (2Ch_32:18) against the besieged "people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them," in some mocking imitation of their venerated language; in place of the "prayer and cry to heaven" of Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet (verse 20). That howl came of sense alone, and appealed to sense alone. So rude an attempt at intimidation of an enemy a very poor substitute for "prayer" to God for strength to prevail, and "cry" for his protecting and delivering mercy!
2Ch_32:24-26, 2Ch_32:31
I. THE SEED OF OCCASION. There are seeds—many, indeed—of occasion, besides those which, perhaps, we think more justly called seeds, viz. those of cause. They are to be thought on and feared, for they are the lighter and less visible; more approaching to a certain omnipresence, and wafted hither and thither on the gentlest of breezes, as well as the stiffest, they alight so softly, at most unsuspected times, and on spots most unsuspected. These occasion-seeds are, doubtless, often part of the very scheme and works of Providence. Designed to good, they are, like many of the completer manifestations of Providence, warped and wrested to evil. The exact origin of the severe "sickness unto death" of Hezekiah is nowhere told us. It looks uncommonly like an earlier "thorn in the flesh." The thorn in the flesh, out of which St. Paul made for himself such good history, turns to all the reverse with Hezekiah! His "thorn in the flesh" was sent because the all-seeing Eye saw this—that there was already sign of Hezekiah being exalted above measure (verse 25) through the long run of mercy and prosperity vouchsafed to him, even though vouchsafed in harmony with his own "goodness." Yet mercy strews "his path and his bed." Promise of recovery, sign and marvel—sign of recovery, and recovery itself—are all in early sequel. Mercies of kindness still follow and pursue him (Isa_39:1)—letters, presents, congratulations, flattering inquiries of the wonderful sign granted to Hezekiah, in a double sense, of Heaven itself—and the issue already declares itself! The net is not "spread in vain in the sight of this bird"! Sickness, warning, special kindness, special suggestions of dependence, and therefore of the appropriate humility; of dependence most graciously remembered of Heaven, and therefore of gratitude, that should have been responsive;—"all this array one cunning bosom-sin blows quite away." The occasion of sin came through, the very warning against sin, and shows how sin will carve its own occasion right through all occasion!
II. THE SIN ITSELF NOW IS QUESTION. The careful study of this for our own warning is the more desirable, inasmuch as it is the one only recorded defection of Hezekiah. It comes on the page of his history unexpectedly, and must be supposed to come out of one of those most sunken and aside depths that give facility for sin to harbour, and for Satan to work his devices in the more difficult cases for him. The lesson is that with Satan, the expert in the offensive, it needs ever that with much prayer we strive to be experts in the defensive. The pomp of display and the vanity of ostentation by which and into which Hezekiah was now entrapped, were probably attended by aggravating circumstances, which, though not stated, may be surmised with no little probability; but, at any rate, they were penetrated by this aggravation—that they came from one who knew better, and had so well known and done better, that they could only be viewed as some very retrograde condition of heart, and, unless sternly checked, liable to lead to worse developments in practice. Civil words to Babylon, and civil deeds to the ambassadors of her king, happened to be just the wrong thing, and not the right A vain-glorious display of the treasures, that already excite the cupidity of plunder—temptations to our tempter and would-be betrayer and destroyer—was a grand mistake indeed. So are civil words to our souls' tempters, and civil deeds to our great enemy Satan! If Hezekiah had known that "these men," and "the country whence they came" (2Ki_20:14), were going to be the capturers and the enforced home respectively of God's people, whom he had been set jealously to guard and watch over as the under-shepherd; if he had known that all his "precious things, silver and gold, spices and ointment, armour and all treasures," were to be the sacrilegious plunder of Babylon and the King of Babylon;—would he then have done as he did? These things, it may truly be said, he did not know now. But what did he know? And did he not know such things as these—that pride and vanity, vain-glory and ostentation, were not for him, who was the dependent servant of God, and the trustee of treasures, sacred treasures, also, that belonged to him to whom the earth and the fulness thereof and all its precious things, but especially Israel, belonged? How often do we excuse ourselves, both for mere faults and also for sins, on the plea that we did not know certain exact facts, forgetful of these two things—first, that we nevertheless did know, and do know, certain great general principles and rules which, had we observed them, would have covered and governed all individual cases; and, secondly, that though we may often say, "We did not know," there remains to be answered the question whether our ignorance was not nevertheless of our own making, or at least within the reach of our own removing!
III. THE ATTITUDE OF HEZEKIAH TO HIS FAITHFUL PROPHET, It certainly would appear (2Ki_20:14, 2Ki_20:15; Isa_39:3, Isa_39:4) that he was conscious of wrong in the presence of Isaiah, that he feared his interrogatories, that he equivocated in his reply, or, at any rate, concealed, or tried to conceal, some part of what had transpired in his interview with the ambassadors of Babylon, laying emphasis enough on the rest. So far as the narrative goes, he does not directly reply to what "these men' said. He was probably flattered by "great Babylon" coming at all, by the congratulations brought, by the inquiry respecting "the wonder that was done in the land," and—infatuation though it were, if so—by the presumable overtures on the part of the King of great Babylon to enter into some alliance with him. This all was emphasized greatly by the fact that the present visit was the first converse of the two kingdoms. Israel had heard of Babylon, of her "wealth," her "glory," her "beauty," and of her "sins" (Isa_13:1-22; Isa_14:1-32; Isa_21:1-17.) also, but up to this time had held no sort of communion with her. In an evil hour the "uplifted" (verse 25) heart of Hezekiah answered to all the blandishments of the occasion, and the new and grand acquaintance which he has made is prophetically and positively set before him by Isaiah in a light which quickly disenchants him, as the conqueror and taker-captive of Israel, and the very master of his sons and humbled posterity. An hour ago it was his ambition to show all his "wealth" and all his "dominion," and watch whether they vied with those of the great master of the "ambassadors." A moment's vision of the truth dashes all else to the ground; and Hezekiah becomes either the genuine resigned penitent—God having "tried him," left him "to himself, that he might learn all that was in his heart" (verse 31)—or the alike obsequious and selfish receiver of the tidings of doom for his people, delayed till after his own death. If this latter be the position, the even grateful resignation to the Divine will, uttered by Hezekiah's lip, contrasts ill with the nobility we would wish to put to the credit of such a king, and the king of such a people.
I. THAT TROUBLE MAY FOLLOW FAITHFULNESS AS IT DOES FOLLOW SIN. We never read of Israel's serious departure from their loyalty to Jehovah without reading of appropriate penalty coming in due course. Suffering always waits on sin—suffering in some form. But sometimes, as here, trouble comes to the right-hearted; to the nation which has Hezekiah for its king, and Isaiah for its prophet; to the man who is zealous in the cause of his Divine Lord. "Many are the afflictions [even] of the righteous, and sometimes great as well as many. They have a work to do within and beyond, the value of which will immeasurably outweigh the "grievousness of the present" (Heb_12:11).
II. THAT IT SHOULD BE MET WITH COURAGE, ENERGY, INTELLIGENCE, AND PIETY. These qualities Hezekiah was now showing. He had given way to trepidation, and he had resorted to means which were unworthy of his position and his piety (see 2Ki_18:9-16). But now he was in a nobler mood. His courage rose to the occasion (verse 7); his energy was manifested in the effective measures (verses 4, 5) he took to distress and to disappoint the enemy; his intelligence was shown in his taking counsel with the strongest and wisest of his people, in the rapidity of the measures he adopted and in their sagacity, and also in his effort to inspire the people with confidence and security; his piety shone forth in his address to the people, calling on them to remember that they had not an "arm of flesh," but "the Lord their God," to lean upon. Let us meet any form of trouble—disappointment, loss, bereavement, sickness, or any affliction whatsoever—in this spirit and with these qualities, and it will not master us; we shall prevail over it. It will not leave desolation and ruin in its track; it will rather leave benefit and blessing behind it.
III. THAT WHEN WE ARE ATTACKED OUR AIM SHOULD BE TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY'S INTENTION. This is not altogether the truism it may seem. Too often men think that their duty and their wisdom under attack is to reply to the enemy in the same form in which he is assailing them. But that may be most unwise. Just as Hezekiah considered what Sennacherib was aiming at, and took prompt and able measures to defeat that purpose; so we should always consider, not the kind of warfare, but the "real objective," the ultimate purpose of our enemy, and should set to work to prevent its realization. He may only be wanting to provoke and disturb us, and we shall absolutely defeat his purpose by not allowing ourselves to be provoked or disturbed; he may be desirous of inducing us to take some compromising step, and we shall gain the victory by refusing to be drawn in that direction; he may want to bring himself into notoriety, and we shall defeat him by quietly letting him alone, etc. Consider his aim, and move so as to thwart that.
IV. THAT RECTITUDE IS THE STRENGTH OF ANY CAUSE OR KINGDOM. Sennacherib's multitude of soldiery was nothing whatever when he deliberately and ostentatiously arrayed them against the living God. Hezekiah's army was indifferent in size and (probably) in military equipment and training, but what mattered that so long as they had righteousness in their ranks and God for their Leader? We are not, indeed, to despise the means which we employ, but it is so much that we may say that it is everything to know and feel that our cause is just, that we ourselves are upright in our heart and character, and that, with perfect purity and simplicity of spirit, we can ask God's blessing on our efforts.—C.
2Ch_32:8
I. THE FOLLY OF RESTING ON THE USE OF FORMULAE. There are some sacred forms or phrases, theological or scriptural, which have been much urged upon men, as if they had some very special potency in them; as if we could be perfectly at rest, in regard to human souls, if they did but pronounce those particular phrases with their lips. Such superstition as this is pitiable and perilous. It is utterly without warrant, and it is likely to withdraw the soul from that true trust in which life is to be found. To believe in Jesus Christ can never be resolved into the use of any form of words, how~ ever excellent or scriptural such form may be.
II. THE CONFIDENCE WHICH IS FATAL, viz. to rest upon the words of those who are unworthy of our trust. How many of the children of men have lost everything that is most precious because they have made this fatal mistake! Of those whose words should never be built upon are:
1. The ignorant, whose range of knowledge is very small, and who have not had the opportunity of learning the ascertainable truth and wisdom of God.
2. The prejudiced and obdurate, who will not learn, and therefore do not know and cannot counsel.
3. The superficial, who are contented with a knowledge which does not reach "the deep heart of truth."
4. The false, who only say what they think is palatable and profitable.
5. The fickle, who have one doctrine to-day, but may have a different one to-morrow.
III. THE TRUST WHICH IS SOUND AND WISE. There are words on which we may build. When God speaks to us we know that we may rest on his Word absolutely; we know that we should heed his warnings, and that we may build on his promises. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," etc. But how shall we know when Christ is speaking to us? Many speak in his name who do not speak on his authority.
1. We should pay regard to the words of those who profess to speak for him, and whose character for purity and unselfishness sustains their claim (Mat_7:15-20).
2. We should heed the words of those of his disciples who urge that which meets our spiritual necessities and accords with the deepest convictions of our nature.
3. We should consult the Master's own recorded words, always remembering that they are to be interpreted in the spirit, and not in the letter. If we do this we shall not only be "resting on words," we shall be building on the rock, for we shall be abiding in the truth; we shall be grounded on the very wisdom of God itself, or on the Wisdom of God himself (1Co_1:24, 1Co_1:30).—C.
2Ch_32:9-23
I. THE HISTORY OF THE HAUGHTY.
1. Appearances are all on its side. It has apparently overwhelming numbers, superior military training and equipments, the prestige of previous success and acknowledged worldly power.
2. It is honeycombed with spiritual evil. It is
(1) lamentably ignorant of the truth which it distorts (2Ch_32:12);
(2) scornful (2Ch_32:11), indulging in a contemptuous spirit and correspondingly contemptuous language;
(3) pride, and its accompanying vain-gloriousness (2Ch_32:13-15);
(4) impiety, speaking of the living God as if he were to be classed with the gods of the heathen (2Ch_32:13, 2Ch_32:15). All these evil tempers and baneful utterances are serious sins, either against self or against others, or directly against God.
3. It draws down upon itself the decisive displeasure of the Divine Ruler. For the vauntful Sennacherib, who made so sure of an easy victory and an added honour, there was reserved, in the righteous providence of God, a calamitous disaster (2Ch_32:21; and see 2Ki_19:15) and bitter shame. "So he returned with shame of face to his own land" (2Ch_32:21). Thus he that exalted himself was abased; and thus the haughty may expect to be brought low, for there are two powers working against them.
(1) The moral condition of haughty-heartedness is one that conducts almost certainly to negligence, to imprudence, to some fatal error of either action or inaction.
(2) God's high displeasure is kindled against them. Again and again has he "revealed his wrath" against this evil and baneful passion. To fall under its power is penalty indeed, but it leads on and down to other sorrows.
II. THE HISTORY OF THE HUMBLE. Humility, in the person of the godly Hezekiah, presents an opposite picture to that of his formidable and defiant enemy.
1. It is apparently in great peril. The outward and visible forces—those of this world—are decidedly against it. If the race were always to the swift and the battle to the strong, there would be no chance for humility. It would never clasp the goal, nor win the victory.
2. Its character is one of beauty and of piety. There is no little moral comeliness in humility; it is "fair to see;" it attracts the gaze of the purest eyes above and below. Moreover, its spirit is reverent; it knows its own helplessness, and it looks upward for the aid it needs; it "cries to Heaven" (2Ch_32:20); it leans on God.
3. Its end is not only deliverance, but honour. The Lord saved Hezekiah from the hand of Sennacherib (2Ch_32:22); and to the King of Judah were brought valuable gifts, and "he was magnified in the sight of all nations" (2Ch_32:23). Concerning humility now, as it may appear in all men's hearts, we may say that
(1) it is a fair and beautiful grace in itself, most worth possessing for its own sake, really enriching its subject;
(2) it brings with it the favour of God our Father (Isa_57:15; Mat_5:3; Mat_18:4; Mat_23:11; 1Pe_5:5, 1Pe_5:6);
(3) it will be honoured in due time. Not only is it the case that humility introduces us into the kingdom of Christ, but it is also true that it leads us on to an advanced position in that kingdom. "The lowly heart that leans on thee" is not only "happy everywhere," but it is spiritually prosperous everywhere; it is certain to receive proofs of Divine regard, probably in human estimation (as with Hezekiah); but, if not thus, in some other way of gracious and gladdening enlargement.—C.
2Ch_32:24-26, 2Ch_32:31
I. THE INCALCULABLE ELEMENT IN OUR TRIALS. This is large.
1. We cannot guess when they will come. What little reason had Hezekiah to anticipate that "sickness unto death"! It sprang upon him unawares. So does our affliction. We are reckoning on prosperity, health, friendship; and, behold! immediately in front of us is trouble, sickness, loneliness. A few hours may make all the difference to us in the colour and complexion of our life.
2. We cannot calculate how far they will go. We expect the little ailment to pass away in a day or two, and it becomes a very grave and threatening illness; we think we are stricken with a mortal blow, and we find that we have nothing that need seriously disturb us. And so with other troubles beside bodily disorder. We cannot measure their magnitude or their gravity.
3. We cannot understand why they have come, or what they mean. Is it that we have sinned? or that others have erred, and we are "carrying their infirmity "? Is it a mark of Divine displeasure? or is it a sign of our Father's interest in us and care for our deeper and truer well-being?
4. We cannot enter, except in a very slight degree, into the seriousness of others' sorrow. A very special gift of the grace and power of sympathy will enable some men (and women) to understand and feel much with others; but those who have ordinary human faculties very imperfectly understand what other souls are suffering, how much other hearts are bleeding.
II. OUR REFUGE IN GOD. Hezekiah "prayed unto the Lord." We know, from the account in 2Ki_20:1-21; how the afflicted man "poured out his heart" unto God. and how earnestly he besought the Divine compassion. In the clay of our trouble—especially in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow"—there is nothing we can do that approaches the wisdom or that supplies half the relief of seeking and finding a refuge in God. Even if we do not expectantly ask for deliverance from our adversity, we appeal (and never vainly) for Divine sympathy and succour in it. This, we are sure, can never be denied us. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Psa_103:13). We have in Jesus Christ the "High Priest … touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb_4:15). Our affliction tries us; it proves, not only to God, but to ourselves and to others, what is the spirit we are of; whether ours is, or is not, the spirit of filial trustfulness, of quiet acquiescence, of genuine piety, of openness of heart to learn, and of readiness of will to do, his holy will. But there is another trial, which perhaps strikes deeper and proves us more thoroughly.
III. THE TRIAL OF RESTORATION. Hezekiah bore well the trial of sickness; it drew, or drove, him to the Rock of his salvation. He did not stand well the trial which came with his restoration. Then came congratulatory embassage, and then the uplifted heart showed itself, and the unbecoming ostentation came forth; and with it came the displeasure of the Lord. The king "rendered not again according to the benefit done;" he did not respond to God's especial grace (verse 24) with corresponding gratitude, losing sight of self and keeping God's pitiful and powerful intervention in view. His heart was unchastened and "lifted up." How do we bear ourselves when the cloud has departed and the sun shines again? What is our spiritual attitude when we are strong again, or rich again, or again surrounded with friends? That is the trial-hour. Then God proves us; then we show to him and to our neighbours what mind we are of—whether our affliction has permanently purified, or only temporarily touched us. Let those who have been cast clown to the ground in any kind of affliction, and who have been raised up again by the good hand of their God upon them, ask themselves the main question—Have they proved themselves to be docile children of their heavenly Father, apt disciples of the Lord of their life? Have they learned humility, self-distrust, unworldliness, consecration? Or are they lapsing into that which is selfish, earthly, proud? God has been proving them; let them examine their own hearts. "Let every man prove his own" heart. If he can, let him "have rejoicing in himself,' in his spiritual integrity; if he cannot, let him consider well and act wisely before God, "lest a worse thing happen unto him."—C.
2Ch_32:27-30, 2Ch_32:32, 2Ch_32:33
2. Or as to the excellency of his estate (see text, 2Ch_32:27-29). He had all that his heart could wish, so far as temporal possessions were concerned.
3. Or as to the regard in which he was held by his subjects. They evidently "delighted to honour" him, as they showed by their action when he died (2Ch_32:33). When the restraints of a great man's presence are taken away, we see what his fellows really think, and how they feel about him. But was he a happy man, an enviable man, one with whose condition—"state for state with all attendants"—we should like to exchange our own? That may well be doubted. Consider—
I. THE DEEPENING SHADOW THAT LAY ALONG HIS PATH, He knew that, from the time of his sickness, he had fifteen years to live (2Ki_20:6). Now, with such a sensitive and thoughtful spirit as his was (Isa_38:2, Isa_38:3), we may be sure that he counted the years as they went by, and that he realized with painful force the diminution of those that remained to him. How much more happy are we who are in ignorance of the number of the years before us! To know positively that only so many more remain must cast an ever-darkening shadow on the path of life.
II. THE LACK OF THE LIGHT BEYOND THE SHADOW. Hezekiah does not seem to have cherished any hope, to have entertained any expectation that could be truly called a hope, concerning the future (see Isa_38:9-20). And to be drawing nearer and nearer, day by day, by a distinctly measurable distance, the hour when the light of life would go out into the thick darkness,—what a saddened life must that have been to a thoughtful and imaginative spirit!
III. THE FEAR HE MUST HAVE FELT CONCERNING HIS COUNTRY'S FUTURE, Manasseh, his son, may have been too young to have given any very decided intimation of his probable future. But, looking behind him, remembering the imperfections or the reactions and apostasies of Solomon, of Jehoram, of Ahaz, he must have been seriously concerned lest his son should undo what he himself had so laboriously done. What security was there that the evil and idolatrous practices he had so fearlessly and so faithfully suppressed would not be revived? that the religion of Jehovah he had so carefully re-established would not be set aside, and thus his life-labour lost? Such reflections—especially if he had any insight into, and therefore any foresight of, Manasseh's character and course—must have tinged his thought with a melancholy hue. Yet was there one compensating and reassuring thought, which may have balanced all others, and have brightened his latter days. That was—
IV. THE REVIEW OF HIS OWN LIFE, and of the work he had wrought since he had occupied the throne. It was not the recollection of his prosperities (verse 30) which would gladden his heart in the after-years; they become of continually smaller consequence as we leave them behind us. It was the remembrance of his kindnesses and of his faithfulness as the chief servant of Jehovah, that would give gladness to his heart, as they gave lustre to his reign. Let us remember that physical enjoyments, mental excitements, earthly honours, human congratulations or landations,—all these melt away into nothingness as time comes between them and our spirit. Soon the one vital and only serious question will be—What have we done of all that God gave us to do? what have we achieved with the faculties and the facilities he placed in our charge? Prosperities and enjoyments do for the passing hour, but kindnesses and fidelities attend us to the dying pillow, and they cross the last stream and await us as we land on the other side.—C.
1. Indefinitely. "After these things, and this faithfulness" (2Ch_32:1); i.e. after the great Passover, which terminated in the destruction of the symbols of idolatry throughout the land, with the restoration of the true worship of Jehovah in Connection with the reopened and purified temple (2Ch_30:1-27; 2Ch_31:1-21.), and after the singular display of zeal and piety on the part of Hezekiah in furthering that good work. How long after not stated; the juxtaposition of the Passover and the invasion favours the idea that the former fell not in Hezekiah's first year, but after his sixth (see homily on 2Ch_30:2), since the latter cannot be placed earlier than eight years after the fall of Samaria, B.C. 720.
2. Definitely. "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah" (2Ki_18:13; Isa_36:1). If this date be correct, the invasion referred to cannot have been that of Sennacherib, eighteen or nineteen years after the capture of the northern capital, or in Hezekiah's twenty-fourth year, but must have been an expedition of Sargon, who, ten years earlier, marched against "the people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab," who had formed an alliance with the King of Egypt—a monarch who could not save them; and in particular besieged and took Ashdod. The expedition against Ashdod (Isa_20:1) was conducted by Sargon's tartan, or commander-in-chief, "while Sargon himself overran ' the wide-spreading land of Judah,' and captured its capital, Jerusalem." The invasion of Jerusalem is referred to in Isa_10:1-34; as Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Damascus, and Samaria, were conquests, not of Sennacherib, but of Sargon; and beyond question this must be the invasion to which 2 Kings (2Ki_18:13) and Isaiah (Isa_36:1) allude, if the date given by them be correct. If, however, Sennacherib's invasion is meant, an error must have crept into the text with reference to the date, and "twenty-fourth" will require to be substituted for the "fourteenth." Kleinert, Sayce, and Professor Cheyne ('The Prophecies of Isaiah,' 1:201-210) adopt the former view, that in 2 Kings (2Ki_18:13), 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 37:1), and Isaiah (Isa_37:1) "Sargon" should be read for "Sennacherib"—an opinion with which G. Smith. appears to coincide; but Schrader, , Robertson Smith, Rawlinson, and Canon Driver regard this view as insufficiently established, and believe the invasion alluded to in all these passages to be that of Sennacherib.
II. THE INVADER.
1. Sargon (to adopt the alternative view above referred to). On the monuments, Sarru-kinu, "Strong is the king," or Sar-ukin, "He [God] appointed the king." One of Shalmaneser's generals, probably his tartan, or commander-in-chief, who, on Shalmaneser's death during the siege of Samaria, seized the crown and assumed the name Sargon, "in memory of the famous Babylonian monarch who had reigned so many centuries before" (Sayce). Whether, like Tiglath-Pileser II; he had sprung from the ranks (Sayce), or was of kingly descent, probably proceeding from a collateral branch of the royal family (Schrader), cannot be decided; but he was one of the most brilliant potentates that ever sat on the Assyrian throne. A rough and energetic soldier, he conquered in succession Samaria, Egypt, Ashdod, (Jerusalem?), and Babylon, and destroyed the independence of the Hittites at Car-chemish. The town of Khorsabad, Dur-Surrukin, the city of Sargon, opposite Mosul, and ten miles from Nineveh, "in the country which borders the mountains," was founded by him ('Records,' etc; 11:33).
2. Sennacherib. On the monuments, Sin-ahi-irib, or Sin-ahi-ir-ba, "(The god) Sin multiplies the brothers,"—Sargon's son, who, after his father's assassination, ascended the throne of Assyria on the 12th of Ab, B.C. 705. "Brought up in the purple, he displayed none of the rugged virtues of his father. He was weak, boastful, and cruel, and preserved his empire only by the help of the veterans and generals whom Sargon had trained". This, of course, was not the opinion of Sennacherib, who, in an inscription on one of the gigantic bulls guarding the entrance to his palace, speaks of himself as "Sennacherib, great prince, powerful prince, prince of legions, king of the land of Assyria, king of the four regions, worshipped of the great gods, valiant, the manly, the brave, chief of the kings of disobedient people, subverter of evil designs" ('Records,' etc; 7:59). Oriental sovereigns generally had not studied Pro_27:2, and had no notion of underrating their own virtues, or modestly concealing their own merit.
III. THE OBJECT.
1. Proximate. To besiege and capture or break down the fenced cities of Judah (Pro_27:1). According to 2 Kings (2Ki_18:13) and Isaiah (Isa_36:1), Sennacherib (or Sargon) was in this successful (cf. Isa_10:5-10). This, according to the monuments, Sargon did while his tartan was besieging Ashdod, B.C. 711 (Sayce), or in connection with his earlier expedition against Hanno of Gaza and Seveh the Sultan of Egypt in b.c. 720 (Sehrader); and Sennacherib in B.C. 701 by besieging, capturing, and plundering forty-six of Hezekiah's cities, "strong fortresses and cities without number" ('Records,' etc; 7.62).
2. Ultimate. To capture Jerusalem, which also, according to the monuments, was taken by Sargon, but not by Sennacherib. The assertion of the Chronicler with reference to the Assyrian king, that "his face was to fight against Jerusalem," was applicable to both sovereigns, though only of Sargon was it true that Jerusalem was taken. Sennacherib besieged Hezekiah, shutting him up "like a caged bird in the midst of the city of his royalty" ('Records,' etc; 7:62); but Jehovah "put a hook into his nose, and a bridle into his lips," and sent him back the way by which he came, without permitting him to enter the city (Isa_37:29-37). If Isa_10:1-34. refers to Sargon's invasion (Sayce), it would seem as if the capital had been taken (see Isa_10:6, Isa_10:12, Isa_10:22, Isa_10:24, Isa_10:34).
IV. THE RESISTANCE. Hezekiah adopted measures to meet the attack of Sargon, or of Sennacherib, on his capital.
1. A council of war called. Attended by his princes and mighty men, i.e. his statesmen and the generals of his army (Isa_10:3), who advised that steps should be taken to protect the metropolis, and lent him their aid for that purpose (Isa_10:3). Probably they also recommended Hezekiah, besides looking for help to Egypt, to join the league Merodach-Baladan of Babylonia was forming against Sargon; or, if the later date be adopted, to seek the aid of Tirhakah against Sennacherib.
2. The water supplies outside the city stopped.
(1) The reason—that the Assyrian kings should not find much water (Isa_10:4). Without water it would be impossible to conduct a protracted siege.
(2) The mode—by covering up the fountains outside Jerusalem, and leading their waters by subterranean channels into the city (Isa_10:3; cf 2Ki_20:20). "The brook that flowed through the midst of the land, i.e. the Gihon which flowed through the valley of that name on the west side of Jerusalem, connecting the upper pool of Gihon (Isa_22:11; Isa_36:2), the present-day Birket Mamilla, with the under or lower pool (Isa_22:9), the modern Birket-es-Sultan, was likewise dried up by the waters of the two springs being drained off by a conduit, and led into a great cistern within the city walls, called Hezekiah's pool, close by the gate of Gennath" (Weser, in Riehm, art. "Gihon"); or, should the Gihon be sought in the spring Ain Sitti Marjam, outside the east wall, then the reservoir into which the waters were conducted will have been one of the four smaller pools in the neighbourhood of the pool of Siloam, if not that of Siloam itself. Warren locates the Gihon spring in the Tyropoean valley, and says it has not yet been discovered. That similar stratagems were adopted when Sargon's tartan was at Ashdod, and Sargon himself was expected at Jerusalem, may be inferred from the fact that Sargon says of the Ashdodites, "Their cities they prepared to make war … against capture they fortified its (capital)… around it a ditch they excavated. Twenty cubits (thirty-four feet) in its depth they made it, and they brought the waters of the springs in front of the city". That corresponding measures were resorted to in the time of Sennacherib, Isaiah (Isa_22:9-11) shows.
(3) The urgency. So great and obvious that the inhabitants generally assisted in the work (verse 4).
3. The city fortifications increased.
(1) Hezekiah built up all the wall that was broken down, i.e. wherever he found a breach he repaired, or a weak part he strengthened it. The prudence of this was apparent. The strength of a wall or fortress is not more than that of its weakest part, as the strength of a chain is that of its feeblest link.
(2) He raised the existing wall to the height of the towers on it, or increased the height of the towers, or ascended the towers upon the walls to make a survey of the situation, and direct the labours of his masons and engineers.
(3) Outside of the existing wall he erected another, which enclosed the lower city, Acra.
(4) He repaired the castle-fortress Millo, in the city of David, which had been built by Solomon (1Ki_9:24).
(5) He provided weapons and shields in abundance, as had been done by his grandfather Uzziah (2Ch_26:14), whom in military genius he considerably resembled. An inscription of Sennacherib mentions that Hezekiah "had given commandment to renew the bulwarks of the great gate of his city", and that "workmen, soldiers, and builders for the fortification of Jerusalem his royal city he had collected within it" ('Records,' etc; 1.41).
4. The city population armed. All the able-bodied men of the metropolis were enlisted, divided into companies, placed under regular military commanders, and drilled, just as is done by modem peoples when expecting an invasion.