1. Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he 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. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, he departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; whithersoever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

son of Jehallelel : and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah : 13 and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel : and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and 14 Mattaniah : and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei : and of the sons of Jeduthun, 15 Shemaiah and Uzziel. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the LORD, to cleanse 16 the house of the LORD. And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanliness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to 17 the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD ; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days : and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an 18 end. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the 19 table of shewbread, with all the vessels thereof. Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified ; and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD. 20 Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up 21 to the house of the LORD. And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he-goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the 22 LORD. So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar : and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood upon the altar : they killed also 23 the lambs, and sprinkled the blood upon the altar. And they brought near the he-goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation ; and they laid their hands upon 24 them : and the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood upon the altar, to make atonement for all Israel : for the king commanded that the burnt offering and 25 the sin offering should be made for all Israel. And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet : for the commandment was of the LORD 26 by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with 27 the trumpets. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also, and the trumpets, together 28 with the instruments of David king of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpets sounded ; all this continued until the burnt offering was 29 finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present 30 with him bowed themselves and worshipped. Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. 31 Then Hezekiah answered and said, Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD. And the congregation brought in sacrifices and thank offerings ; and as many as were of a willing 32 heart brought burnt offerings. And the number of the burnt offerings, which the congrega- tion brought, was therefore and ten bullocks, an hundred rams, and two hundred lambs : 33 all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. And the consecrated things were six hun- 34 dred oxen and three thousand sheep. But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings : wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves : for the Levites were more up- 35 right in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. And also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for every burnt 36 offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that which God had prepared for the people : for the thing was done suddenly.

30 : 1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover 2 unto the LORD, the God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all 3 the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient num- 4 ber, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing was 5 right in the eyes of the king and of all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem : for they had not kept 6 it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that are escaped of you out of the hand 7 of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, 8 as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were ; but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve the LORD 9 your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that led them cap- tive, and shall come again into this land : for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful,

10 and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they 11 laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and 12 of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. Also in Judah was the hand of 13 God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the 14 word of the LORD. And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of 15 unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. And they arose and 16 took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, 17 and cast them into the brook Kidron. Then they killed the passover on the fourteenth day 18 of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified them- 19 selves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD. And they stood in their 20 place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled 21 the blood, which they received of the hand of the Levites. For there were many in the con- 22 gregation that had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of killing 23 the passovers for every one that was not clean, to sanctify them unto the LORD. For a 24 multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had 25 not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it is written. For 26 Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one that setterth his 27 heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to 28 the purification of the sanctuary. And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the 29 people. And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleav- 30 end bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD 31 day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD. And Hezekiah spake comfort- 32 ably unto all the Levites that were well skilled in the service of the LORD. So they did eat 33 throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making 34 confession to the LORD, the God of their fathers. And the whole congregation took counsel 35 to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness. For Hezekiah 36 king of Judah did give to the congregation for offerings a thousand bullocks and seven 37 thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten 38 thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. And all the congre- 39 gation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of 40 Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, re- 41 joked. So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David 42 king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests the Levites arose and 43 blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habita- 44 tion, even unto heaven.

31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities 45 of Judah, and brake in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and brake down the 46 high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, 47 until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his 48 possession, into their own cities. And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and 49 the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the priests and the 50 Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to 51 praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD. He appointed also the king’s portion of his 52 substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and 53 the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is 54 written in the law of the LORD. Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusa- 55 lem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the 56 law of the LORD. And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave 57 in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the 58 field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And the children of Israel 59 and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and 60 sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, 61 and laid them by heaps. In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, 62 and finished them in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the princes came and 63 saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel. Then Hezekiah questioned 64 with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest, of the 65 house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since the people began to bring the oblations into 66 the house of the LORD, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for the LORD 67 hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store. Then Hezekiah com- 68 manded to prepare chambers in the house of the LORD; and they prepared them. And they 69 brought in the oblations and the tithe and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them 70 Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second. And Jehiel, and 71 Azariah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, 72 and Mahath, and Beniah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his 74 brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. 75 And Kote the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter at the east gate, was over the freewill 76 offerings of God, to distribute the oblations of the LORD, and the most holy things. And 77 under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in 78 the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brethren by courses, as well to the 79 great as to the small: beside them that were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three 80 years old and upward, even every one that entered into the house of the LORD, as the duty

17 of every day required, for their service in their charges according to their courses; and them that were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers’ houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses; and them that were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their set office they sanctified themselves in holiness: also for the sons of Aaron the priests, which were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every several city, there were men that were expressed by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all that were reckoned by genealogy among the Levites. And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

(For Dates, see Section 3, page 51.)

Hezekiah’s Accession Year. The first of his twenty-nine years: (1) 2 K. 16: 2, 20; 17: 1; 18: 1, 2, sixteenth of Ahaz, following the third of Hoshea; (2) 1 Chron. 5: 26; 2 K. 15: 29; 17: 3; 2 Chron. 30: 6-9, relations of Israel to Assyria, at the time; (3) 2 K. 16: 8, 10; 18: 7, relations of Judah to Assyria; (4) 2 Chron. 28: 18, to Philistia; (5) 2 Chron. 28: 19; 29: 8, 9, condition of Judah (captivity, not exile).

His First Year (not counted as in 2 K., but beginning the new year after his accession—the fifth of Hoshea). (1) 2 K. 18: 3-6, etc., religious policy of Hezekiah; (2) 17: 2, religious policy of Hoshea; (3) 2 K. 16: 10, 14-18; 2 Chron. 28: 21, 24; 29: 3, 5, 7, 16, 19, condition of the temple; (4) 2 Chron. 29: 3-36, cleansing of the temple; (5) 2 Chron. 30, the great passover, the second month; (6) 31: 1, breaking down the altars of false worship in Ephraim, Manasseh, etc.; (7) 2 Chron. 31, provisions for the service at Jerusalem; 31: 7, third to seventh month.

Hezekiah’s Prosperity. (1) Rebellion against Assyria, 18: 7; (2) smiting of Philistines, 18: 8; (3) his riches and power, 2 Chron. 31: 20, 21; 32: 27-29; 2 K. 20: 13; (4) connected with the rebellion of Hezekiah, Hoshea’s refusal of tribute, and sending messengers to So, 2 K. 17: 4; (5) connected with this, the breaking of the rod that smote “Philistia, all of it,” Isa. 14: 28, 29.

Up to Hezekiah’s Fourth Year, 2 K. 17: 4; the king of Assyria imprisons Hoshea for refusing tribute, etc.

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Years of Hezekiah. 2 K. 17: 18: 9-12, the siege and overthrow of Samaria.

Hezekiah’s Illness, 2 K. 20: 1-11; Isa. 38. (1) 2 K. 18: 13, 2; 20: 6, the date of it; (2) 2 K. 20: 1-7, the prayer and healing; (3) 20: 6, the promise of deliverance from Assyria; (4) 2 K. 20: 8-11, the shadow on the dial; (5) Isa. 38: 9-20, Hezekiah’s “writing.”

Hezekiah and Merodach-baladan, 2 K. 20: 12-19; Isa. 39.

Sennacherib’s Great Invasion. (1) 2 Chron. 32: 1, 2, his coming; (2) 2 Chron. 32: 3, 4, 30; 2 K. 20: 20, Hezekiah’s waterworks; (3) 2 Chron. 32: 5-8, his other arrangements for defence; (4) 2 Chron. 32: 9-15; 2 K. 18: 17-35; Isa. 36: 2-20, Sennacherib’s message from Lachish; (5) 2 K. 18: 36-19: 7, resulting acts of the officers, the king, and Isaiah, noting especially the form of the promise (verse 7); (6) 19: 8, 9, Tirhakah; (7) 2 Chron. 32: 16, 17, 13, 14; 2 K. 19: 9-13, Sennacherib’s written messages; (8) 2 Chron. 32: 20, 19; 2 K. 19: 14-34, the prayer over these messages, and its answer; (9) 19: 35-37; 2 Chron. 32: 21, Jehovah’s vengeance on Sennacherib.

Death of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 32: 32, 33; 2 K. 20: 20, 21.

The biblical literature connected with this reign is not limited to the accounts contained in the historical books, but includes also many of the prophecies of Isaiah, Micah, and Nahum, some Psalms, and the last chapters of Proverbs. The known Assyrian literature for this period is even more voluminous than the biblical; and, at some points, quite as full in its details of Palestinian history. In a very large number of instances the two literatures mention or allude to the same persons, events, or customs. W. J. B.

2. Chron. 29.** The history of Hezekiah’s reign, which is here commenced, and carried through four chapters, stands in marked contrast with the corresponding portion of Kings (2 K. 18-20). While the writer of Kings fixes his eye mainly on civil affairs—on the two invasions of Sennacherib and on the embassy of Merodach-baladan, which he relates at length, passing lightly and hastily over Hezekiah’s religious reformation (chap 18: 4-7), the author of Chronicles sets himself to give a full account of this latter, which he does in three chapters (29-31), compressing into the compass of one (chap. 32) the whole that he has to say of the civil history of the reign. Thus chaps. 29-31 of 2 Chron. contain matter which is almost wholly new; while chap. 32 is little more than a brief summary of what the writer of Kings has related fully in the three chapters which he has devoted to this reign. B. C.

29:1, 2. Duration and character of Hezekiah’s reign. It began when he was five and twenty years old, and continued twenty-nine years. It would seem that a good mother had counteracted the evil influence of a bad father, in the formation of the character of Hezekiah. Her name is given, and her parentage. Zechariah, her father or grandfather, may have been the “faithful witness” of Isaiah (13:2). In his character, Hezekiah stands with David and Josiah. These were counted the perfect kings, and furnished the standard models by which other kings were estimated. He did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah. He blended a thorough affection with a thorough devotion to Jehovah, and to the interests of His worship and His authority over the people. And this fidelity to Jehovah in His worship and authority furnishes the great test by which the character of the kings, both of Israel and Judah, is estimated. Here we find a supreme principle, applicable to all judgments of human character. Every one stands or falls by this test. Every one who rightly worships and truly obeys God possesses a character that is acceptable in His sight. B.

Hezekiah, the thirteenth king of Judah, succeeded his father Ahaz in the third year of Hoshea, the nineteenth and last king of Israel. In the very first year, perhaps, of his reign, he began the reformation of religion by reopening and repairing the doors of the Temple, which had been closed by Ahaz. His character is marked by the commendation which has not been repeated since Jehoshaphat, “He did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.” P. S.

Of all the monarchs who ruled over the kingdom of Judah after its separation from Israel, Hezekiah is the most remarkable, and the interest which attaches to the history of the separate kingdom culminates in him. He was a statesman, a warrior, a poet, an antiquarian, an engineer, and the leader of a most important religious movement. Judea in his clay seemed to be at the point of dissolution; it was to him that she owed a recovery, which gave her a fresh lease of life, and enabled her to outlive her sister kingdom by nearly a century and a half. Hezekiah’s political position when he ascended the throne was that of a tributary to Assyria.

His father’s voluntary compact with Tiglath-pileser (2 K. 16:7) involved his own subjection; and nothing could set him free from this obligation, or restore his country to independence, but an open and avowed revolt. To this height of audacity he does not seem to have lifted himself at once. It rather appears that he paid his tribute, as it became due, regularly, both to Shalmaneser and to Sargon, deferring his open rebellion to the time of Sennacherib, Sargon’s son and successor. Meanwhile, all the energies of his powerful and active mind were devoted to the internal condition of his country, and especially to the removal of those impious innovations which his father, Ahaz, had introduced into the arrangements of the Temple, and into the religious ceremonial generally, to the rooting out of idolatry, and to the re-establishment of the religion of Jehovah in its pristine purity and splendor. G. R.

2. K. 18:6. He clave to the Lord.** Other good kings had fallen away in their later years. Hezekiah remained firm to the last. The phrase “cleaving to God” is frequent in Deuteronomy, rare elsewhere.

7. The Lord was with him.** This had been said of no king since David (2 Sam. 5:10), not even of Solomon, of whom we are only told that the “wisdom of God was in him” (1 K. 3:28). The phrase is very emphatic. B. C. —Hezekiah trusted in the Lord; he clave to the Lord; he departed not from following Him; he kept His commandments as given to Moses. Trust, fidelity, obedience, and perseverance—in all these were his distinctive characteristics. Some kings had trusted, but not with so entire a heart; some had been obedient, but not so fully; some had been faithful for a time, but had failed to persevere. Hezekiah had the better record. God puts special honor on whole-hearted service. We are to see, however, that, exceptional as his goodness was, Hezekiah was not perfect. He had his sins, his failures too. The intention of the text is not to represent him as sinless, but only as pre-eminently great and good. J. O.

2. Chron. 29:3-5.** His first good work, the reopening and cleansing of the Temple, and the re-establishment of the priesthood and their ministry in it. This was commenced at the very outset of his reign. His first thought was of the worship of God, and his first purpose and effort was the restoration of that worship. The closed doors of the Sacred Porch were opened and repaired. The priests and Levites to whom was committed the care and the service of the Temple were gathered together from the various portions of the land. First, Hezekiah bade them “sanctify” themselves, and then to cleanse the house of the Lord. We may remind our readers that the priests were descendants of the family of Aaron, and were among the Levites, or descendants of Levi. The priests were charged with the religious ministries of the Temple: the offering of sacrifices, and the burning of incense. The Levites aided the priests in their preparatory work. They also formed the great choir of singers, and fulfilled the functions of gatekeepers and guards of the Temple. Like the priests, they were a carefully educated class, and aided in the instruction of the people. The sanctification referred to here included a ceremonial washing with water, as well as a cleansing with sacrificial blood. It was applied to the vessels, the floor, and the walls of the building, after the accumulations of dust, and possibly of remaining idolatrous objects, had been removed. B.

We can never begin good things too early, and when we come into new positions, it is easier to take the right standing at first than to shift to it afterward. Hezekiah might have been excused if he had thought that the wretched state of political affairs left by Ahaz needed his first attention. Edomites on the east, Philistines on the west and south, Syrians and Assyrians on the north, compassed him about like bees, and worldly prudence would have said, “Look after these enemies to-day, and the Temple to-morrow.” He was wiser than that, knowing that these were effects of the religious corruption, and so he went at that first. A. M.

6-9. The exceeding guilt of their fathers, and how God had punished it. It was Ahaz and the people of the preceding reign whom Hezekiah charged with this impious trespass against God. The particulars of his charge are instructive. They had done evil in God’s sight by wilfully forsaking Him, and insultingly turning the back upon Him. They had barred up the doors of His sanctuary, after extinguishing its lights. And above all, they had despised the sacrifice and the incense, the double offering which symbolized the atonement for sin, and the intercession for the sinner. In a word they had closed the Temple doors, they had banished the Temple servitors, they had deliberately rejected the divinely appointed means of approach to Jehovah, and virtually outlawed God from His own house and His own supreme right over them. To this apostasy from God as its sufficient cause, Hezekiah ascribed all the sufferings of the people and the calamities that had befallen the kingdom. Invasions of other nations, resulting in the draining of resources, the laying waste of cities, the destruction of life, the breaking up of families, and the immense numbers taken captive—all these humiliating and calamitous consequences they had witnessed. And the king declares that these events were the manifest tokens of the wrath of God upon Judah and Jerusalem. In these He has only fulfilled the threatening side of His ancient covenant with His people.

10, 11. Hezekiah’s purposed Covenant with God, and his charge to the ministers of the Temple. He would restore prosperity by renewing the fulfilment of the conditions of God’s mercy contained in His covenant. He declares this his purpose to the priests and Levites, in order that they might unite with him in its execution. This declaration was the more needful to the priests and the people because it involved an utter reversal of his father’s policy. It indicated a new and lofty aim as characterizing the reign that was now commenced. There was courage as well as faith in God evinced by Hezekiah in this announcement and its subsequent execution. A point of practical suggestion is here presented. In the beginning of every great life-change, and frequently in the progress of the ordinary spiritual life, courage as well as faith is essential in the taking and the keeping of a stand for God and truth. The king’s address indicates his kingly spirit. Though but a young man he addresses these older and more experienced men as children. He charges them in a tone of authority and tenderness to make faithful efforts to fulfil the ministry now assigned them. And he reminds them of their own special appointment of God to stand in His presence, and to serve Him by the offering of sacrifice, incense and praise. Let them unite with him in the great preparatory work by which Jehovah should be brought back to His Temple and prosperity restored to His people. . . . A practical suggestion. Since all believers are priests under the Christian system, all are needed in the ministry of truth among men, in order to the bringing of God’s presence and His blessing upon men. B.

Hezekiah was in earnest, and his resolve was none the less right because it was moved by a desire to turn away the fierce anger of the Lord. Dread of sin’s consequences and a desire to escape these is no unworthy motive, however some superfine moralists nowadays may call it so. It is becoming unfashionable to preach “the terror of the Lord.” The more is the pity, and the less is the likelihood of persuading men. But, however excited, the firm determination (which does not wait for others to concur) that “as for me, I will serve the Lord,” is the grand thing for us all to imitate. A. M.

17. The work of purification began on the first day of the first month, immediately after Hezekiah called the priests and Levites together and addressed them (verses 3-11). It commenced with the repair of the doors (verse 3), with the self-purification of the collected priests and Levites (verse 15), and probably with the cleansing of the courts. This occupied eight days. By the close of the eighth day they had reached the porch of the Temple. It took them then eight days to cleanse the Temple itself, and, consequently, the whole work was not finished till the sixteenth day.

24. To make an atonement for all Israel.** The words “all Israel”—twice repeated in this verse—appear to be emphatic. Hezekiah aimed at reuniting once more the whole people of Israel, if not into a single state, yet, at any rate, into a single religious communion. The northern kingdom was in a condition approaching to anarchy. Since the downfall of the house of Jehu a succession of usurpers had borne rule for short terms. Four Assyrian invasions had swept over the country within the space of thirty-five years. The Syrian kingdom, hitherto a barrier against the Assyrian power, had been absorbed, and Samaria had been laid completely open to the assaults of her great adversary. The end was evidently approaching. Hoshea, the king contemporary with Hezekiah (2 K. 18:1), ruled, not as an independent monarch, but as an Assyrian feudatory (ibid. 17:3). Under these circumstances Hezekiah designed to invite the revolted tribes to return, if not to their old temporal, at least to their old spiritual allegiance. (See chap. 30:5-10.) In order, therefore, to prepare the way for this return, he included “all Israel” in the expiatory sacrifice, by which he prefaced his restoration of the old worship.

27. Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering.** All had hitherto been preparatory. Now Hezekiah gave orders that “the burnt offering”—i.e., the daily morning sacrifice—should be offered upon the brazen altar in front of the porch, thus restoring and reinstituting the regular Temple service. A burst of music gave notice to the people of the moment when the old worship recommenced. B. C.

When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also. The lesson is clear. We all want happiness—that our joy may be full. But we cannot have it by aiming at it directly. Begin to sacrifice, to give to God what you really value; say, “I will not offer unto the Lord my God that which doth cost me nothing.” Give your money, interest, time, effort. Copy the example of Him who “went about doing good,” and “pleased not Himself.” Try to make lives brighter, homes happier, business more pure. Take up the cross. Then this bit of Old World history shall record your experience: “When the burnt offering began, then the song of the Lord began also”—a song which grew louder and mightier as the sacrifice went on, and never ended until the sacrifice itself came to an end. J. Ogle.—The words, however strangely they sound at first, are literally true as the history of many a man’s life. From the moment that it began to live for other people, the nature which had no song in it before became jubilant with music. The soul that trifles and toys with self-sacrifice never can get its true joy and power. Only the soul that, with an overwhelming impulse and a perfect trust, gives itself up forever to the life of other men, finds the delight and peace which such complete self-surrender has to give. There is another reason why it would seem to be absolutely necessary that man should have the power of finding pleasure in his self-sacrifices, in the actual fulfilment of his completed tasks, the actual doing of the necessary duties of his life, and that is found in the fact that joy or delight in what we are doing is not a mere luxury; it is a means, a help, for the more perfect doing of our work. Joy in one’s work is the consummate tool without which the work may be done indeed, but without which the work will always be done slowly, clumsily, and without its finest perfectness. The man who really lives in the world of Christ’s redemption claims his self-sacrifices. He goes up to his martyrdom with a song. To live in this world and do nothing for one’s own spiritual self, or for fellow-man, or for God is a terrible thing. There is no happy life except in self-consecration. Phillips Brooks.

2. Chron., Chap. 30.** The central fact of this portion of Hezekiah’s history is the celebration of the first Passover; and the most touching portion of the history we find in the letters of the king, sent throughout all Israel as well as Judah, inviting the return of all the people of God remaining in the entire land to the service of Jehovah. B.

30:1. Hezekiah sent to all Israel

and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh. The “Ephraim and Manasseh” of the second clause must be taken as equivalent to the “all Israel” of the first; since it is evident that the letters were sent to the remoter tribes as well as to the nearer ones. (See verses 10 and 11.)

2. In the second month.** The law allowed individuals to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, instead of the fourteenth day of the first, in case of absence on a journey or temporary defilement (Num. 9:10, 11). Hezekiah and his counsellors considered that this permission might, under the circumstances, be extended to the whole people. It had been found impossible to complete the cleansing of the Temple till the fourteenth day of the first month was past (chap. 29:17); and even then the purification of the priests was far from complete (ibid., 34); moreover, if the Passover had been held at once, few, comparatively speaking, would have been gathered to it. It was, therefore, determined to defer it to the 14th of the second month, which allowed time for the priests generally to purify themselves, and for proclamation of the festival to be made throughout all Israel. B. C.

5. Proclamation throughout all Israel.** We may reasonably suppose that this took place with the consent of Hoshea, king of Israel; for he has the best character given of him of all the kings of Israel; and, though “he did evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 K. 17:2), yet it is added in the next words, “but not as the kings of Israel that were before him;” which probably implies that he did not prevent his subjects from attending their Divine worship at Jerusalem, as other kings had done. Wells.

8. Yield yourselves unto the Lord.** Before you can come into communion with Him you must come into covenant with Him." Give the hand to the Lord; so the word is—i.e., “Consent to take Him for your God:” a bargain is confirmed by giving the hand: “Strike this bargain. Join yourselves to Him in an everlasting covenant. Subscribe with the hand to be His. Give Him your hand in token of giving Him your heart; devote yourselves to His service, to work for Him. Yield to Him—i.e., “Come to His terms; come under His government; stand it not out any longer against Him. Yield to Him, to be absolutely and universally at His command, at His disposal; to be and do and have and suffer whatever He pleases. In order to this, be not stiff necked

as your fathers were; let not your wicked wills rise up in rebellion against the will of God. Say not that you will do what you please, but resolve to do what He pleases.” H.

10-13. The response made to this appeal was not very hearty nor very general; but still the appeal succeeded to a certain extent. As Hezekiah’s messengers “passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun,” they were for the most part treated with derision—the people “laughed them to scorn, and mocked them” (verse 10); but, nevertheless, there were “divers of Asher and of Manasseh and of Zebulun” (verse 11), and likewise of “Ephraim and Issachar” (verse 18)—amounting altogether to “a great multitude” (ibid.), who “humbled themselves,” and accepted the royal invitation, and “came to Jerusalem” (verse 11). In Judah all were of “one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes,” and there “assembled much people to keep the feast . . . a very great congregation” (verses 12, 13). G. R.

15. The symbolic character of the Passover revealed the heart of God in all the riches of its love. It proclaimed, in the most graphic way, the great fundamental truth, that, boundless as God’s willingness is to save sinners, yet salvation can only rest upon the firm foundation of perfect righteousness. There can be no manifestation of love at the cost of justice and holiness. The Passover was a sacrifice. God expressly called it by that name (Ex. 12:27). It was a bloody sacrifice, in which the blood occupied not a secondary, but the very first place; it was the conditio sine qua non of the redemption. Whatever may have been the spiritual privileges which Israel possessed as God’s chosen people, none of these could have saved them from the sword of the angel of death. It is difficult to conceive how the truth that without sacrificial blood there is no salvation could have been proclaimed more emphatically. This was the manifestation of the great truth of God’s eternal and unchangeable justice. But, at the same time, there was as emphatic a manifestation of God’s eternal and unchangeable love to His people. It was not their blood which God desired to see. He provided another blood to be shed in the place of theirs. This fact could not fail to set the spiritually minded a-thinking seriously over grave questions. That the blood of lambs could not save indeed must have been perceived by such men as David and Isaiah. They must have been looking out for a Lamb which God Himself was to provide. At length this Lamb appeared in the flesh. And with a shout of joyful surprise John cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.” J. de Liefde.

17. There were many in the congregation that were not sanctified.** Who these were is explained in the next verse. The greater number of the Israelites who had come to keep the feast were involved in some ceremonial or moral defilement, from which there was no time for them to purify themselves. As the Passover was being held in the second month, and there could consequently be no “little Passover” for these (see Num. 9:6-12), Hezekiah decided that they should be admitted to the feast, notwithstanding their legal uncleanness (see verse 19). But, on account of this uncleanness, they were not to slay their own lambs, but to delegate the office to the Levites. B. C.

18. Hezekiah’s prayer to God for the forgiveness of this irregularity. It was his zeal that had called them together in such haste, and he would not that any should fare the worse for being straitened of time in their preparation; he therefore thought himself concerned to be an intercessor for those that ate the passover otherwise than it was written, that there might not be wrath upon them from the Lord. His prayer was short but to the purpose. The good Lord pardon every one in the congregation that has fixed, engaged or prepared his heart to those services, though the ceremonial preparation be wanting. The great thing required in our attendance upon God in solemn ordinances, is, that we prepare our hearts to seek Him; that we be sincere and upright in all we do, that the inward man be engaged and employed in it, and that we make heart work of it; it is all nothing without this. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part. H.

If we were to analyze the influences that blended in this great religious movement, we might say—the ritual services of sacrifices, altars, Temple, were present in their full strength; perhaps the stronger for having been long remitted. Coupled with those were the outpouring of song; the teaching of the good knowledge of the Lord; the social power of an immense congregation; the services protracted till the hearts of the people were profoundly impressed; and not least, the immediate historic antecedents—that fearful scourging of war and captivity which had sent death into so many households, and borne away so many loved ones into a captivity from which nothing but national repentance could move the

Almighty to restore them. Nor let us forget the influence of the noble king, leading on with his whole heart; consecrating treasure without stint, and promptly foremost in every point where his hand could touch the springs of a great movement. All in all it was a scene of moral sublimity rarely equalled.

31. When this great Passover scene was finished, the people were in heart prepared for one more service imperatively demanded—viz., the destruction of idol-images, altars and groves throughout all the cities and high places of both Judah and Israel. That they should go forth en masse throughout Judah on this mission was to be expected. Such a reformation would have been wretchedly superficial and shallow without it. But that they should have gone forth over all the kingdom of Hoshea as if there were no such king there; that they should go where they would with no apparent resistance—this is truly a wonderful proof of the zealous enthusiasm and of the moral power of this great reformation. Recalling to mind the fact that this great revival and this breaking down of idols in the northern kingdom preceded the invasion under Shalmaneser by only three years, and the total destruction of Samaria and the entire northern kingdom by not more than six years, we shall see reason to regard this as not only God’s last call of mercy to thousands in the northern kingdom, but as His grand providential agency for sifting out His own chosen ones; gathering in all whom the most efficient agency could avail to save before the final storm should sweep the nation forever into ruin. H. C.

2. K. 18:4. The brazen serpent that Moses had made.** On the making of this serpent, see Num. 21:9. Its history from the time when it was set up to the date of Hezekiah’s reformation is a blank. Some suppose that it had always been preserved in the tabernacle, and had been brought by Solomon from Gibeon and placed in the Temple. The present passage favors this supposition; for it implies a long-continued worship of the serpent by the Israelites generally, and not a mere recent worship of it by the Jews. The children of Israel did burn incense to it. We need not suppose that this idolatry, though ancient and long continued, was more than occasional. The remembrance of the old cures wrought might induce those bitten by venomous reptiles to seek help in this quarter. A leaning to ophiolatry, such as is found widely spread through the East, may have led others to turn their devotion hitherward. B. C.

This serpent, which was appointed for cure to Israel, at last stings them to death by idolatrous abuse. What poison there is in idolatry, that makes even antidotes deadly! As Moses therefore raised the serpent, so Hezekiah pulled it down: God commanded the raising of it, God approved the demolishing of it. Superstitious use can mar the very institutions of God; how much more the most wise and well-grounded devices of men! Bp. H.—That image of brass, instead of rendering an important spiritual service, became the occasion of idolatrous homage. Instead of leading the thoughts of men’s minds to God, it drew them from Him; and instead of reverencing Him, they worshipped it. So the brave and wise king, daring all reproach and rejecting all half measures, brake it up before the eyes of the people, and, in the act of destruction, called it “Nehushtan”—i.e., a bit of brass. This he did that he might impress on their minds, by word as well as deed, that this image, which they had turned into an idol, was nothing but a piece of workmanship, made of man’s hands, and to be unmade of him at his will. The principle which lies at the root of this somewhat daring and very decisive act, is this—that no good thing, however good it be, must be allowed to come between our souls and God, to rob Him of His service; that, if anything does so come, a strong hand must be used, if need be, a destructive one—to take it away; or, to put the truth in a more positive form, that whatever means we use for worship or instruction must not be turned into an end, but must be resolutely and determinedly employed as a means to bring the mind into the presence of God’s truth and the heart into communion with Himself. W. Clarkson.

To the description of the reformation inaugurated by the piety of Hezekiah, it seems desirable to add some further particulars, either illustrative of the text or derived from other notices in Holy Scripture. As regards the trustworthiness of the account of the sacrificial worship in the restored Temple—that it was not of later invention, and designed to bear out the priestly institutions first enforced in the time of Ezra—we have to point to the important fact that the number of sacrifices and sin offerings in the time of Hezekiah notably differs from that at the dedication of the Temple in the time of Ezra (cf. 2 Chron. 29: 21, 32 with Ezra 6: 17). This, considering especially the symbolism of numbers, shows that the one account could not have been framed upon the other. It follows that the Mosaic institutions must have existed in and before the time of Hezekiah, and could not, as a certain school of critics contends, have originated with the priesthood at a much later period. Indeed, as we follow the present line of argument by a comparison of the services in the time of Hezekiah with the Mosaic institutions to which they bear reference, the conviction grows upon us not only of the existence of the latter, but of their general acknowledgment, since, keeping in view the circumstances of the previous reign, it is impossible to suppose that all this could have been “invented” in the first year of Hezekiah’s reign. And as connected with this we mark that not only were the liturgical services conformed to a previous model—the Davidic—but that the hymns chanted were in “the words of David and of Asaph the seer” (2 Chron. 29: 30). This seems not only to imply the existence at the time of Davidic and Asaphite Psalms—the absence of any mention of other Psalm collections here deserving special notice—but even to indicate some orderly collection of these Psalms in books. In short, it casts light on the beginning of the present arrangement of the Psalter in five books. It may well have been that, subject to later revision, the former collection of Psalms consisting, roughly speaking, of the two first books of Psalms (now Ps. 1-41; 42-72), was now enriched by the addition of a further collection—roughly speaking, the present third Book of Psalms (Ps. 73-89), which in its present form begins with an Asaphite Psalm (Ps. 73), and has in succession eleven Psalms of the same authorship (Ps. 73-83). But whatever our view, or more accurately our conjectures, on this subject, there cannot at least be doubt that Hezekiah actively busied himself, under competent guidance, with the collection and arrangement of the existing sacred literature of Israel. This is expressly mentioned as regards a part of “the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah collected.” A. E.

The narrative before us illustrates the fact that when God converts men from amid surroundings of great depravity, He often has some great and signal service for them to do for Him. Such was the case with King Hezekiah. God summoned him to the reformation of a kingdom. He trained him for it by permitting him to see the guilt and the ruin of his father’s reign. When the critical time came, He lifted him out of the slough of iniquity, and made him one of the signal examples of a godly prince, whose name should give lustre to the Jewish throne forever after.

The work of King Hezekiah illustrates the moral power of one man in effecting a great work to which God has called him. From the narrative in the lesson it appears that the reformation of the kingdom was at first the idea of Hezekiah alone. “It is in my heart,” he says, “to make a covenant with the Lord.” The movement grew up silently in his own heart. God and he planned it alone. Probably he had been brooding over it and praying over it for years. Men do not spring into such honor at a bound. At last he was the soul of the reform. The idea was his; the measures were his; the execution was his. So it often is in other great works of God. Some one man heads it; puts his soul into it; gives his life to it; rouses other men, and energizes them in it. There is almost no limit to the power of a live man called of God to a great life’s work. Other men fall back to the right and to the left, and let such a man go up the highway of the King, while they fall in at the rear and acknowledge His lead. Phelps.

REIGN OF HEZEKIAH (Continued).

HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY. HIS PSALM OF GRATITUDE. EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN. HEZEKIAH’S SIN AND ISAIAH’S PREDICTION OF PUNISHMENT.

2. K. 18:13. “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah.” This note of time, which places the invasion of Sennacherib eight years only after the capture of Samaria, is hopelessly at variance with the Assyrian dates for the two events, the first of which falls into the first of Sargon, and the second into the fourth of Sennacherib, twenty-one years later. We have therefore to choose between an entire rejection of the Assyrian chronological data, preserved to our times in the original contemporary documents, and confirmed in numerous minute points by the Canon of Ptolemy, and an emendation of the present passage. The knot may be cut by a substitution of “seven and twentieth” for “fourteenth” in the present passage. B. C.—The evidence in support of this solution is clearly given in the following historical detail by Canon Rawlinson. B.

13-16. The Assyrian annals place the accession of Sennacherib in the seventeenth year after the capture of Samaria by Sargon, which was the twenty-third year of Hezekiah. He was the eldest son of Sargon, and succeeded his father, without interregnum or difficulty, in the summer of B.C. 705. He calls himself “the great king, the powerful king, the king of the Assyrians, of the nations, of the four regions, the diligent ruler, the favorite of the great gods, the observer of sworn faith, the guardian of law, the establisher of monuments, the noble hero, the strong warrior, the first of kings, the punisher of unbelievers, the destroyer of wicked men.” He was mighty both in war and peace. No more energetic soldier ever commanded an army eager for battle; no more vigorous administrator ever commanded the resources of a vast empire. Sennacherib, on mounting the throne, found the condition of affairs in Babylonia more critical, and more requiring his immediate presence, than those of any other portion of his dominions. Merodach-Baladan, who had been driven from Babylon by Sargon, had returned thither as soon as Sargon was dead, and had succeeded in establishing himself as king for a second time. Sennacherib was engaged for some years in recovering Babylonia to the Assyrian Empire, and it was not till his fourth year, B.C. 701, that he was able to turn his attention to the western provinces, and set himself to the task of placing matters there on a satisfactory footing. He found that on all sides intrigues were afoot to organize a powerful combination against Assyrian influence in southwestern Asia. Phoenicia under Eluleus, king of Sidon, Judea under Hezekiah, Philistia under Zidqa, king of Ascalon, and Egypt under Tirhakah, who held his court at Meroe, were banded together, and bent on checking Assyrian progress by all the means in their power. But in most of the States there appear to have been divided counsels, two parties, one for submission, the other for resistance; one leaning on Egypt, the other anxious to make the best terms possible with Assyria. Unwisdom and unreality, as was natural, showed themselves. No general union of the confederates took place. Sennacherib was allowed to fall upon his adversaries separately, and crush them one by one. In the spring of n.c. 701 he marched his troops into Syria, and directing his attack upon Phoenicia first of all, proceeded to take “Great Sidon, the lesser Sidon, Sarepta, Hosah, Ecdippa, Accho,” and other towns, forcing Elulæus to flee before him, and establishing in his place another king. Thence he marched southward, along the coast, to Ascalon, taking Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak, and Azor upon his way, and compelled Ascalon to submit, and receive another monarch instead of Zidqa. Tirhakah had by this time sent an army to assist his confederates. This force Sennacherib fell in with at Eltekon, and completely defeated, or (as he says) “accomplished its overthrow.” He next reduced Ekron; and having thus carried all before him, and left Hezekiah without an ally, he, last of all, turned upon Judea. With an army of, probably, at least two hundred thousand men, he swept over the land, especially on the west and on the south, ravaging the territory, besieging and taking the fortified places, and gathering spoil and captives at every step. His own account of his invasion is the following: “Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms and by the might of my power I took forty-six of his strong-fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, with the marching of a host and surrounding of a multitude, with attack of ranks, and force of battering-rams, and mining and missiles, I besieged and captured a countless number. From these places I took and carried off 200,150 persons, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mules, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. Then upon this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem, with thirty talents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty. All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the city of my dominion,

Hezekiah having sent them by way of tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power.” The author of Kings compresses this history into verses 13-16. G. R.

The entire passage in Chron. 32:1-8 is almost wholly supplementary, being concerned with the preparations made by Hezekiah for resistance, whereas in 2 Kings we are informed only of what he did when, after a time, he determined to make his submission.

2. Chron. 32:3-8.** Hezekiah had taken all the measures for his defence that circumstances permitted. He had “stopped the waters of the fountains which were without the city,” concealing the sources and conducting the precious fluid to the reservoirs and conduits beneath the Holy City (Isa. 22:9, 11), thus at once improving his own supplies and straitening the enemy. He had “strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers,” using as material the houses in the vicinity; and he had built “another wall without, and repaired Milo, and made darts and shields in abundance.” He had also done his best to raise the spirits of the besieged by addressing them with words of encouragement.

8. With us is the Lord our God.** The faith which these words express would, one might have thought, not have wavered. But—alas! for human infirmity—we learn, both from Kings (2 K. 18:14) and from the inscriptions of Sennacherib, that within a little while this noble confidence died away, and was succeeded by despair and submission. Like Rehoboam, like Joash, Hezekiah was content to purchase his safety. The narrative of Kings tells us at what price (2 K. 18:15, 16). Hezekiah stripped the temple and emptied his treasures to obtain what proved a mere temporary relief. B. C.

One of the most striking illustrations of Scripture, which the profane records of the world furnish, is that supplied by the earlier portion of the annals of Sennacherib in its bearing upon 2 K. 18:13-16; 2 Chron. 32:1-8; and Isa. 36:1. The agreement of these two narratives cannot but be admitted to be most striking. In both we have the same pair of adversaries, Tsin-akh-irib (Sankherib), king of Asshur, and Khizkiyahu, king of Judah; in both the Assyrian is the assailant; in both the first brunt of his attack falls upon the strong fenced cities of Judah, which are successively taken and plundered; in both he then proceeds against Jerusalem, where Hezekiah is for a time shut up, while the siege is pressed; in both after awhile submission is made, an embassy is sent, tribute is agreed on, and consists of a certain definite amount of each of the precious metals, gold and silver; in both the amount of the gold is identical. G. R.

2. Kings 18 : 17-37 ; 19 : 1-37. } Text almost Isaiah 36 : 2-22 ; 37 : 1-38. } identical. 2 Chronicles 32 : 9-23.

The narrative includes the embassy of Rabshakeh and its effect in the message of Hezekiah to Isaiah, with Isaiah’s brief response of encouragement; the letter of Sennacherib, with the prayer of Hezekiah and the response of Jehovah conveyed through Isaiah, announcing His purposed defence of Jerusalem; and the destruction of the Assyrian host and final departure and subsequent murder of Sennacherib. B.

The impious, proud demand of Sennacherib for the surrender of Jerusalem. The Assyrian king while besieging the town of Lachish, distant forty miles southwest, sent three messengers, with a considerable force, to Jerusalem. In 2 K. 18 : 17, these persons are referred to under their official names: Tartan, or Commander; Rabsaris, the Court Chamberlain; and Rabshakeh, Chief Cup-bearer—the chief civil and military officers of the empire. Their mission was not a military one, but was designed to summon the king and the people to a complete surrender. The Assyrian officers were not admitted into the city, nor did the king himself go out to meet them. Instead of this he sent three of his chief officers, who, standing on the wall, received the message of the Assyrians. “The chief cup-bearer was the spokesman. He spoke in Hebrew. The Jewish chiefs entreated him to speak in his own Aramaic; but his purpose was directly to address the spectators as they sat on the houses along the city wall, and his speech breathes the spirit which pervades all the representations of Assyrian power” (Stanley). Egypt was the great enemy of Assyria, and had been for centuries. Assyria was the “north” kingdom, and Egypt the “south” of Daniel’s prophecy. Judah was in alliance with Egypt. The first appeal of Rabshakeh referred to this alliance. His scornful question, “Whereon do ye trust?” had reference to the impotence of the Egyptian king to resist the inroad of Sennacherib. This might be well enough. But the messenger undertook to counteract the persuasions of Hezekiah, wherein the king had sought to lead his people to trust alone in God. The messenger aimed to stir afresh their prejudices against the king, who had destroyed the high places and altars where the people had been accustomed to worship. Not only did he strive to undermine the faith of the people in their king, and in Jehovah, but he impiously exalted the idol gods above Jehovah; nay, further, he expressly boasted that the power of Jehovah was not adequate to deliver them from the hand of Sennacherib. He placed this boast upon the ground that the gods of other nations had not been able to deliver them from the Assyrian power. Thus he compared Jehovah with other gods, and assumed that the gods of Assyria were mightier than Jehovah. The three messengers also sought to terrify the people on the wall, so that they might open the gates of the city to the Assyrian forces. B.

Rarely, perhaps, was there an occasion on which faith in the unseen was put to severer test than in the conference between the leaders of the Assyrian army and the representatives of King Hezekiah. What gave special point to the message which the Rabshakeh addressed to the king of Judah was the deep sense of past inconsistency; that, as regarded the matter in hand, it had not always been with Judah as at present, and that in measure their present evil was the outcome of their wrong-doing. But there comes to us also for all time this precious lesson: that even where we have been utterly mistaken, if only we turn in repentance to our God, we may look for His help and deliverance in the new and better course on which we are entering, however we may have to suffer for past sin. For God remaineth faithful, however we may have erred and strayed from His ways. It was only too true, as the Rabshakeh said, that in rebelling against Assyria Hezekiah’s confidence had been in Egypt; too true also, as even the experience of the past might have taught him, that this was to trust in “the staff of a bruised reed” (cf. Isa. 30 : 1-7). But in the second point which the Rabshakeh urged lay the weakness of his cause and the strength of Hezekiah’s position. Addressing himself to Hezekiah’s adherents, he argued from the heathen point of view that since Hezekiah had abolished all the altars on the heights, and confined public religious worship to that in the Temple, he had not only forfeited any claim upon Jehovah, whom he regarded as the Jewish national Deity, but provoked Him to judgment. Accordingly, as, on the one hand, he had taunted Hezekiah with want of all means for resisting the power of his master, so, on the other hand, he now boldly claimed for the inroad of Assyria and its success not only the approbation of, but even a mandate from Jehovah. Alike politically and in its religious misrepresentations, the speech was well calculated to appeal to such a populace as that of Jerusalem. Hence the representatives of Hezekiah requested the Rabshakeh to communicate with them, not in “Jewish” (i.e., in Hebrew), as he had done, but in “Aramean,” which, although the commercial language of Syria and Palestine, would not be understood by the common people. The suggestion was haughtily rejected, and the Assyrian openly avowed that his object was not to negotiate with the king nor his representatives, but to produce a reaction among the besieged, whom he represented as reduced to the utmost straits. To them he now directly appealed. They were not to allow themselves to be deceived. Hezekiah would not be able to deliver them—viz., by the aid of Egypt—nor yet was this other pretension well founded, that Jehovah would deliver them. Rather was it their wisdom to ignore the king and make a treaty of submission to Assyria, in virtue of which, instead of their present misery, they might continue to enjoy undisturbed possession of their land till they could be transported into districts equally fertile with their own. It was an argument calculated, indeed, to influence heathens, to whom the question was as to the comparative power of gods, to be decided by outward results. But the very essence of Hebrew conviction lay in this: that there was none other God than Jehovah. It is this which constitutes the victory over that which is seen, but on which the men of the world ever deceive themselves in their ignorance of the power of a faith which is based on personal experience. And thus what in their view would seem the strongest argument in their appeal to “common sense” is in reality its refutation. It was in this spirit that the people on the wall of Jerusalem obeyed the injunction of Hezekiah, and answered not a word to the Assyrian. A. E.

2. K. 18:18. Eliakim was a man of high character. God terms him, by the mouth of Isaiah, “His servant” (ibid., verse 20). He was to be “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah” (ibid., verse 21); and “a glorious throne to his father’s house” (ibid., verse 23). His deportment in the scene now described well befits his reputation.

21. The “tall reed of the Nile bulrush” fitly symbolized the land where it grew. Apparently strong and firm, it was quite unworthy of trust. Let a man lean upon it, and the rotten support instantly gave way, wounding the hand that stayed itself so insecurely. So it was with Egypt throughout the whole period of Jewish history. Hoshea leaned upon Sabaco, and in consequence lost his kingdom (2 K. 17:4-6), without receiving the slightest help. Hezekiah obtained no real relief from Tirhakah. Nor did Apries strike a blow for Zedekiah. The true policy of Egypt would have been to support with all her power the gallant struggles of the little Syrian States. Her actual practice was to pretend friendship, to hold out hopes of support, and then to fail in time of need.

27. “Hath not my master sent me,” Rabshakeh says, “to these men, whom I see stationed on the wall to defend the place and bear the last extremities of a prolonged siege—these men on whom its worst evils will fall, and who have therefore the greatest interest in avoiding it by a timely surrender?” He expresses the evils by a strong, coarse phrase, suited to the rude soldiery, and well calculated to rouse their feelings. The author of Chronicles (verse 11) has softened down the words to “dying by famine and thirst.”

33. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land? This boast is natural. The Assyrians had had an uninterrupted career of success, and might well believe that their gods were more powerful than those of the nations with whom they had warred. Nor was there anything in the history of the Jews, so far as they knew it, to induce them to separate this people in their minds from others. They had utterly overrun and destroyed the kindred tribes of Galilee, Gilead, and Samaria. They had for years exercised lordship over Judea; and, on the recent occasion of a rebellion, they had easily enforced submission, and the very king who now defied them had purchased his safety by the payment of a heavy fine. It is not surprising that they did not understand that their successes hitherto had been allowed by the very God, Jehovah, against whom they were now boasting themselves. (Cf. Isa. 10:5-19.) B. C.

The populace were neither terrified by the threats nor seduced by the promises of Rabshakeh, but silently held to their allegiance to Hezekiah. And the king, when he heard from Eliakim what had transpired without, went submissively into the Lord’s house. From thence he sent a message to Isaiah entreating the prophet’s intercession in behalf of the people in their great peril. The instant response of Isaiah conveyed the Divine assurance that Jehovah Himself would interpose for the complete deliverance of king and people by enforcing the return of Sennacherib to his own land. The “rumor that he should heal” was realized in the statement of chap. 19:9. B.

19:2. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. Isaiah is here for the first time introduced into the history. His own writings show us how active a part he had taken in it for many years previously. This was the fourth reign since he began his prophesyings, and during two reigns at least—those of Ahaz and Hezekiah—he had been a familiar counsellor of the monarch. But the necessary brevity of the narrative in Kings has prevented his appearing before. G. R.—That next after God, the king thought of Isaiah and turned to him for sympathy, counsel and prayer, puts the mutual relations of the king and the prophet in a very interesting light. Plainly the prophet enjoyed the full confidence of the king, and was held in the highest esteem before all the people. They knew and honored him as the messenger of God to the throne and to the nation. There can be no doubt that Isaiah had borne a leading part in the great reformation upon which Hezekiah entered when he came to the throne. Hence naturally all eyes were turned to him in this emergency, in which the question came so suddenly to a practical issue whether the God they had sought to serve would indeed protect them and pluck their city and kingdom from the open jaws of ruin. H. C.

There was a strong party in favor of an alliance with Egypt, the help of which they seem to have sought only to be repulsed with contempt. Isaiah vehemently denounces this party, and lays down the law—“Their strength is to sit still;” “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength”—in a series of his most magnificent prophecies, describing the destruction of the Assyrian by supernatural means when he should encamp against Ariel (Lion of God), the city of David, the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom, and the privileges of his people. These chapters (29-35) stand in the Book of Isaiah immediately before the history of Sennacherib’s invasion, for which they were evidently designed to prepare the minds of king and people. The king proved worthy of such a prophet. Though he may have tampered with Egypt—a point on which we have no certain knowledge—and though he was driven to one act of disgraceful submission, his faith revived in the supreme crisis. Encouraged by Isaiah, he committed his own and his people’s safety to Jehovah, who wrought for them a deliverance as signal as the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. P. S.