2 Kings 20:3

Ver. 3 [See comments on 2 Kings 20:1]

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.

In truth, i.e. sincerely, with an honest mind, as the following words explain it. I have in some measure (human frailty excepted) kept the condition which thou didst require, , and therefore do humbly beg of thee that the promise made to David and to his posterity upon that condition may not fail in my person, for as yet thou hast not given me a son. See Poole "". I am not conscious to myself of any gross exorbitances in the course of my life, for which thou usest to shorten men’ s days, and cut off my life in thy displeasure, which by this sharp message thou threatenest to do. Hezekiah wept sore; partly for that horror of death which is and was common to men, especially in the times of the Old Testament, when the grace of God in Christ was not so fully manifested as now it is; and principally for the distracted and miserable condition in which the church and state were then likely to be left, through the uncertainty of the succession to the crown, and the great proneness of the people to backslide to their false worship and evil practices; which he easily perceived, and which he knew would bring far worse calamities upon them if he were removed, as afterwards it came to pass.

2 Kings 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.Ver. 3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now.] Obsecro Domine, memento quaeso. Words full of incitation. The first word Ana - affectum significat et impetum - is very affectionate and forcible. How I have walked before thee.] Indesinenter ambulavi, I have constantly walked before thee, and not by fits, or for a few turns. One interpreter noteth that the word here used signifieth, I have made myself to walk; implying his own dulness, sluggishness, averseness to that duty. In truth, and with a perfect heart,] i.e., In sincerity and integrity. Uprightness hath boldness; Subeo bona (per gratiam Dei) conscientia tribunal Christi, said dying Oeeolampadius, I go before Christ’ s tribunal with a good conscience. This is my comfort, said Mr Deering, that I have faithfully served my Lord God, and with an upright conscience. I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, said another saint. Let him fear death who is passing from this death to the second death. And have done that which is good.] For matter, manner, and motive. I have known, said a worthy doctor, now with God, some godly men, whose comfort upon their deathbeds hath been, not from the inward acts of their mind - which apart considered, might be subject to misapprehensions, - but from the course of obedience in their lives issuing from there. And Hezekiah wept sore.] Heb., With a great weeping. See on 2 Kings 20:2. Now if the message of death made this good man weep sore, and the approach of it was mar mar, bitter bitterness, what marvel if such a one as Saul swoon quite away at it, and fall to the earth in his full length, as in 1 Samuel 28:20? Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as the hawk to the partridge; or as a serpent’ s skin, though but stuffed with straw. To the wicked, death is a trap door to hell: they may say of it, as once Elisha did, Behold, the murderer is at hand; and is not the sound of his master’ s feet - the devil - behind him? hence their loath to depart, &c. But why should a saint be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his father’ s horse, to carry him to his father’ s house, or as Joseph’ s chariot rattling with its wheels, to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ? Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit. - Cyprian. Church’ s Carriage, by Dr Preston.

(3) Remember now how I have walked . . .—Hezekiah deprecates an untimely death—the punishment of the wicked (Proverbs 10:27)—on account of his zeal for Jehovah and against the idols. As Thenius remarks, there is nothing surprising in his apparent self-praise if we remember such passages as Psalms 18:20; Psalms 7:8; Nehemiah 13:14. Josephus sets down the poignancy of his sorrow to childlessness, and makes him pray to be spared until he get a son; but this is merely an instance of that “midrashitic” enlargement of the narrative which we find elsewhere in that historian.

Verse 3. I beseech thee, O Lord] Hezekiah knew that, although the words of Isaiah were delivered to him in an absolute form, yet they were to be conditionally understood, else he could not have prayed to God to reverse a purpose which he knew to be irrevocable. Even this passage is a key to many prophecies and Divine declarations: see chap. 18 of Jeremiah. Hezekiah pleads his uprightness and holy conduct in his own behalf. Was it impious to do so? No; but it certainly did not savour much either of humility or of a due sense of his own weakness. If he had a perfect heart, who made it such?-God. If he did good in God's sights who enabled him to do so?-God. Could he therefore plead in his behalf dispositions and actions which he could neither have felt nor practiced but by the power of the grace of God? I trow not. But the times of this ignorance God winked at. The Gospel teaches us a different lesson. Wept sore.] How clouded must his prospects of another world have been! But it is said that, as he saw the nation in danger from the Assyrian army, which was then invading it, and threatened to destroy the religion of the true God, he was greatly affected at the news of his death, as he wished to live to see the enemies of God overthrown. And therefore God promises that he will deliver the city out of the hands of the king of Assyria, at the same time that he promises him a respite of fifteen years, 2Kg 20:6. His lamentation on this occasion may be seen in Isaiah, Isaiah 38:9-22.

3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now] R.V. Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee. The R.V. adopts the order of the words in Isaiah. It was only at a moment of great elation and prosperity that Hezekiah forgat God. The testimony which he himself bears to his own character appears to be generally true. He must have lived as a God-fearing son under an idolatrous father. When he came to the throne, while he had the work of purifying God’s worship in hand, and the Philistines were not driven out of Judah, he did all things well. But after some prosperous years he had himself to own to Sennacherib ‘I have offended’. During the war with Assyria he set a noble example. When the pressure was removed he gave way for a short time to pride and a boastful spirit. Moreover his care for his son’s training, if we may judge by Manasseh’s life when he became king, can hardly have been so zealous as we might expect from a father whose youth had been passed amid the difficulties of an idolatrous court. Altogether Hezekiah is one of those characters which shine brightest in adversity.

Remember now - The old covenant promised temporal prosperity, including length of days, to the righteous.

3. I have walked before thee in truth — He appeals to his piety and zeal for Jehovah, as evinced by his destruction of idolatry and trust in God, which were matters of record. Compare 2 Kings 18:3-7.