2 Kings 20

Chap. XX. Ver. 1-21. Hezekiah’s sickness and miraculous recovery.—It appears this sickness preceded the events just related; at least, it is evident (from ver. 6.) that it occurred during the time (Scott says “the first time”) that Sennacherib threatened the invasion of Judea. In the first verse, the prophet is sent to Hezekiah with this message, ‘Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.” He is hereinformed that his disorder was fatal in its nature, and is admonished to prepare to die. This involves him in deep distress: he turns to the wall, and sorely weeps and prays for respite. Probably there was a window in that wall that looked “towards God’s holy temple;” and he might recollect the petition of king Solomon.

((1 Kings 8:29).) “‘Hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.” But ae is king Hezekiah thus alarmed at the thoughts of death? Did he not know that he was mortal? Did he not know that there is a world beyond the grave? Assuredly he must have often read and sung the Psalms of holy David; ‘My heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope;” ‘I shall behold thy face in righteousness:” “Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory: and many like passages. There are, however, various considerations that may make a good man desirous to live, such as the state of his pa aiea [parents?]; the circumstances of the times, and the prospects of farther usefulness: all these might have their weight with this pious king.

It cannot be denied, likewise, that, under the old dispensation, the prospects of a future life were much less clear and encouraging than under the brighter revelation of the gospel. When, therefore, under this dispensation, we see so many good Christians anxious for continuance of life, we need not wonder at this instance of it in a pious Jew. But what is Hezekiah’s plea? ‘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.” On this, Bishop Hall thus descants — Couldst thou fear, O Hezekiah, that God had forgotten thine integrity? The grace that was in thee was his own work; could he in thee neglect himself?

Or dost thou, therefore, doubt of his remembrance of thy faithfulness, because he summons thee to receive the crown of thy faithfulness, glory and immortality? Wherein canst thou be remembered, if this be to forget thee? What challenge is this? is God a debtor to thy perfection? Hath thine holy carriage merited any thing from that infinite justice? Far, far, were these presumptuous conceits!… This perfection of thine was no other than an honest soundness of heart and life, which thou knowest God hath promised to reward. It was the mercy of the covenant thou pleadest, not the merit of thine obedience.” King Hezekiah’s petitions were, however, heard and granted. Fifteen years were added to his life, and a miracle wrought to assure him of the fact.

The shadow returned ten degrees backward on the dial of Ahaz. Objections have been made to this and other miracles of the Old Testament, as disturbing the motions of the heavenly bodies; but without the least foundation. In this book of Kings, we have (in the original) no mention of either sun or dial, but of “degrees,” or steps only; and the miracle, without in any degree affecting the sun itself, consisted only in the retrogression of the shadow upon certain “degrees,” or steps, so constructed, as by the shadow caused by the sun’s progress, to ascertain the time of the day, in the manner of a sun-dial. Whether this effect was produced by the intervention of a cloud, or any other supernatural means, Hezekiah was satisfied of the divine interference, without any disturbance of the course of nature.

Miracles, however, do not always produce that salutary effect upon the human mind which we might expect. At the moment, indeed, he wrote a penitential hymn, which we shall find in the prophecy of Isaiah, Chap. xxxviii. 9—20.) But after a while, it is said, “‘Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him: for his heart was lifted up;’ which seems indeed to have been his besetting sin: “therefore wrath came upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.” ((2 Chronicles 32:25).) The circumstance alluded to is, that when ambassadors were sent from Babylon to congratulate him on his recovery, and to inquire into the nature of the miracle we have just mentioned, he received them with too much complacency; and instead of glorifying God before them for his mercy, he listened to, and was pleased with their flatteries: he made an ostentatious display of his treasures, the natural effect of which was, (and he ought to have foreseen this,) to excite their cupidity; and therefore as is here threatened, in the reign of Jehoiachin, those boasted treasures were carried captive into Babylon.

Howbeit, in this instance, the Lord left him to himself “to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” ((2 Chronicles 32:31).) ‘And this trial seems to have humbled him more than all the preceding ones; for he said to Isaiah, ‘‘Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken: and is it not (good) if peace and truth be in my days?”

Notes on the verses

-Chap. XX. Ver. 4. The middle court.—This is the reading of the Masoretic Keri, and the ancient versions; but “middle of the city,” is the reading of the Hebrew text, and most of the MSS., as noted in the margin of our Ver. 5. I will heal thee.—This does not prove any change in the divine mind, any more than when, after sentence is pronounced, a reprieve is granted. Hezekiah’s prayer shows that he did not consider the sentence irreversible. Ver. 7. Take a lump of figs, &c.—(Shechin, from the Arabic sachana, to be hot, signifies an inflammatory tumour, or burning boil: and some think that Hezekiah’s ag Ay a pleurisy; others that it was the plague; and others, the elephantiasis, a species of leprosy, as one of the Hexapla versions renders in (Job 2)

7. A poultice of figs might be very proper to maturate a boil, or dismiss any obstinate inflammatory swelling, and the name of such an application is expressly mentioned by Pliny, but we cannot discuss its propriety in this case, unless we were certain of the nature of the malady. It was, however, the natural means which God chose to bless for his recovery; and without this interposition, he must have died. Bagster. —Ver. 11. In the dial.—This is a very curious and complicated subject. Sundials, such as we use, at this time were certainly not invented. For dial, our margin reads “degrees,” or steps: and Dr. Clarke has given a curious diagram of steps, of a peculiar construction, with a perpendicular gnomon, by the shadow of which the progress of the day might be accurately ascertained.

The late Taylor has also pursued the subject with great ingenuity in his ‘Fragments to Calmet,” No. 2. He (with many others) attributes the effect to an extraordinary refraction of the solar rays, by means of “a layer of condensed air: and names an extraordinary fact in support of this opinion. Ver. 12. Berodach.—(Isaiah 39:1). he is called “Merodach.” So here the Versions, Talmuds, and several MSS. Ver. 13. House of his armour.—The word evidently includes vessels, weapons, instruments, and perhaps all sorts of curiosities,