2 Kings 19

— spread it before the Lord.] Spread it before the sanctuary, where the symbol of God’s presence resided. Bp. Patrick. Hezekiah had before received an assurance of protection against Sennacherib; yet here we find he does not slight these repeated threatenings, upon a presumption of his interest with God; but, with a becoming modesty, and a humble fear, he lays the affair again before God, and betakes himself to prayer. This teaches us in every emergency, however promising be our prospect of success, not to be too secure, or too presuming; much less to trust to any former acts of piety or devotion; but still to commit all to God by humble prayer. Wogan.

— the forest of his Carmel.] The wood or forest, which is “in the midst of Carmel,” Micah vii. 14, and which is there spoken of as containing the choicest pastures of Carmel. In the margin Carmel is translated “fruitful field,” because, as Carmel was a place noted for great fertility, the word is sometimes taken to signify generally “a fruitful field.” Lowth.

Ver. 1. In those days was Hezekiah sick] Though this sickness of Hezekiah is thus placed after the defeat and death of Sennacherib, yet it plainly happened before that time; for the promise is made at ver. 6, that Jerusalem should be delivered out of the hands of the king of Assyria. It probably happened, indeed, in the very same year; and the sacred writer deferred the account of it in order that he might give the history of Sennacherib in one continued view. Calmet.

2 Kings 19:2

2. — turned his face to the wall.] The beds of the Hebrews were placed with their sides against the wall

of the chamber; which illustrates this expression of Hezekiah’s turning his face to the wall to pray. Fleury.

2 Kings 19:3

3. — And Hezekiah wept sore.] Hezekiah might be sufficiently excused for his excessive grief on this occasion, from considering how natural to man is the love of life, and how deeply implanted in our frame and constitution is the fear of death. But we should further reflect, that the denunciation against him, “thou shalt die,” was not absolute and irreversible; it implied a tacit condition that, provided he duly humbled himself and repented, the time of his death would be deferred. Stackhouse.

The best of men cannot strip himself of some flesh; and, while nature has an undeniable share in him, he cannot but retain some sense of the sweetness of life, of the horrors of dissolution. Both these were in Hezekiah, but neither of them could transport him to such excess of grief: they were higher feelings which swayed so holy a prince; a tender care of the glory of God, a strong pity for the church of God. Bp. Hall.

2 Kings 19:4

4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear &c.] As if they had said, We have no confidence in ourselves: our arms or our walls are too weak to secure us, and our fears are increased by the consciousness of our guilt; but, though our strength be small, and our sins cry aloud for vengeance, why should the honour of God be vilified and blasphemed? If, therefore, not for our sakes, yet for His own, it may be the Lord will avenge the insolent and profane message of the Assyrian king, which God hath surely heard, but which we tremble to repeat. Wogan.

— lift up thy prayer for the remnant] That Judah might not be carried into captivity, as Israel had been.

4. — into the middle court.] Either the middle court of the king’s house, or the middle of the city, as in the margin: it is not material which sense is taken. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 19:6

6. — Be not afraid &c.] How ready is the Lord to

him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

2 Kings 19:7

7. Behold, I will send a blast] A pestilential blast, which destroyed his army in one night, ver. 35. “And he shall hear a rumour.” Perhaps, after that stroke, the report was renewed, that Tirhakah (who is mentioned at ver. 9) was coming against him; which made him hasten away with the small remains of his army to his own country. Bp. Patrick. “He shall hear a rumour.” A panick fear shall fall upon him, and he shall be alarmed with an uncertain report that some enemy designs to fall upon him, having heard that his army is weakened with so great a loss as that of 185,000 men. Lowth.

8. — And they took and laid it on the boil.] Whatever may have been Hezekiah’s disorder, and whatever the quality of the medicine applied, it is plain there was special Divine interposition in the whole affair, both from the speediness of the cure, and the nature of the sign which God gave Hezekiah, in order to convince him of it. Stackhouse.

— and he recovered.] In the speedy healing of Hezekiah, and the miracles wrought by God in his behalf, we see the efficacy of the prayers of good men, to procure the mercies of God and revoke His threatenings. We likewise see how God keeps in His own hand the lives of all men, and prolongs or shortens them as He pleases. Ostervald.

2 Kings 19:9

9. — king of Ethiopia.] Rather, king of the Cushites, in Arabia. Stackhouse. See the notes on Numbers xii. 1.

2 Kings 19:14

14. — and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, &c.] Nothing composes the mind under all its trials like that great expedient of opening our grief to Him, who is able to help us, and hath promised never to leave or forsake us. Great, and instructive in the

Before CHRIST about 710. 710. Hezekiah’s prayer. Isaiah’s prophecy. Before CHRIST 710.

the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

2 Kings 19:15

15. — thou art the god — of all the kingdoms of the earth.] He here directly opposes the blasphemous opinion of the Assyrians before mentioned, (ch. xvii. 27; xviii. 35,) that the God of Israel was only the particular Lord of that country, not the Creator and Sovereign of the whole world. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 19:20

20. — That which thou hast prayed — I have heard.] If God before was ready to give the messengers of Hezekiah, ver. 6, an immediate answer by His Prophet, here He shews still greater forwardness to hear and relieve His faithful servant. The king is now favoured with an answer to his prayer; he sends not to the Prophet, but the Prophet sends to him. How great is the effect of pious and repeated prayer! how sweet the influence of Divine mercy! God verifies His attributes

by relieving His people that pray to Him; and by a speedy return to their prayers, not only confirms their faith, but improves it into a full assurance of His favour and goodness. Wogan.

2 Kings 19:21

21. — The virgin the daughter of Zion &c.] By “the daughter of Zion” he means the people that inhabited the upper part of the city where the king’s palace stood; and by “the daughter of Jerusalem,” the people of the lower city, and all that were not comprehended under the name of Zion. He calls the daughter of Zion “a virgin,” because this fortress, since the conquest of it by David, had remained inviolable, and had not been taken by any enemy. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 19:23

23. — With the multitude of my chariots &c.] This is an admirable description of the boastings of a king, puffed up with great success, and is as much as if he had said, “What place is there into which I cannot make my way; since I have gone, even in my chariots, to the tops of high mountains? Who shall hinder me from cutting down the tallest cedars and firs of Lebanon, marching to the extreme borders of the land, and climbing up to the top of Carmel, (or entering into all the fruitful places of the country,) by making an entire conquest of it?” for Carmel often signifies not the mountain of that name, but a fruitful field, in the language of this Prophet; see Isai. x. 18; xvi. 10. Bp. Patrick. Cities in the prophetic writings are sometimes metaphorically represented by woods or forests, and the several ranks of inhabitants by the taller and lesser trees which grow there; see Isai. xxvii. 19; x. 34. And this sense perhaps best agrees with the scope of this passage, which is, to set forth the proud brags of the Assyrian in a figure of pompous rhetorick, and to represent him as threatening to take mount Zion and the capital city Jerusalem, and destroy their principal inhabitants. Lowth.

— I will enter into the lodgings of his borders.] At Isai. xxxvii. 24, the words are, “I will enter into the height of his border;” I will take possession of the

2 Kings 19:24

24. I have digged &c.] He boasts that he had marched through deserts, where it was expected that his army would perish with thirst, and yet even there he had digged and found water; implying, that he had overcome difficulties seemingly insuperable, and never failed in executing any design he had undertaken. Lowth.

— with the sole of my feet have I dried up &c.] Meaning, that he had gone dry shod with his whole army over great rivers, whose streams he had turned, and so had taken the strongest fortresses. Bp. Patrick.

He seems to boast, that he could as easily turn the waters of great rivers, and cause their channels to become dry, as a gardener stops water from flowing any longer in by the sole of his foot. Thus the whole verse may be an allusion to the method of watering by rills, customary in the East. “I have digged and drunk, and caused my army to drink, out of new made rivers, into which I have conducted the waters that used to flow elsewhere, and have laid those old channels dry with the sole of my foot, with as much ease as a gardener digs channels in his garden, and, directing the waters of a cistern into a new channel, stops up with his foot that in which it before ran.” In confirmation of this, it is related by Thevenot, that this method of watering by rills is still in use in those countries from which Sennacherib came, continued down no doubt from ancient times, as it is in Egypt. Harmer. See the note on Deut. xi. 10. “Strange waters” are those brought from distant parts by pipes or conduits, or by canals dug for the purpose. Sennacherib is represented as boasting of his power, “I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places,” or rather “of embankment:” the meaning of which I conceive to be, “I have caused waters to be brought from afar in canals, which I have digged for the supply of my army, which was so numerous as to dry up in its passage even such large rivers, as required a dyke or

embankment to guard against their inundations.” Dr. Blayney.

2 Kings 19:25

25. Hast thou not heard &c.] These are the words of God, in answer to the boasts of the proud Assyrian, in which He puts him in mind that all his successes ought to be ascribed to God, that His providence overruled these events, and brought them to pass in their appointed time, and made him the instrument of vengeance upon such cities as deserved utter destruction, and weakened the inhabitants so that they were unable to defend themselves. Lowth.

2 Kings 19:27

27. — I know thy abode, &c.] God informs him that none of his designs were hid from His all-seeing eyes; that He perfectly knew how much ill will he bore against His city and sanctuary; and as the successes he had obtained were owing to Him, so He could put a stop to them when He pleased. The phrase of going out and coming in, is frequently used in Scripture for leading out armies to war, and bringing them home again. Lowth.

2 Kings 19:28

28. — therefore I will put my hook &c.] I have thus as much in My power as the fisherman can manage the fish, when he has put a hook into his jaws, (see Job xli. 2,) and as the rider can curb the horse and turn him as he pleases, when the bit is in his mouth. Lowth.

2 Kings 19:29

29. And this shall be a sign unto thee.] The Prophet proceeds to assure the king, that, although the Assyrian army had greatly wasted his country and destroyed the fruits of it; and though the ensuing year was the sabbatical year, in which they were neither to sow nor reap, but to live on the natural produce of the ground; yet they should have so good a self-sown crop, as to supply them till they should sow and reap again with peace and plenty. Pyle. How abundant is God’s mercy to them that fear Him! Here he not only fights for His ancient people, and destroys their enemies, but confirms His promise of mercy by another extraordinary mercy: not only saves them from the misery of death, or captivity, but also from famine and want; restoring the harvest, which the Assyrian invasion had intercepted, and giving them two years’ crop for the loss of one; as a sign and a pledge of His future protection and favour. Wogan.

2 Kings 19:30

30. — shall yet again take root downward, &c.] Signifying, that the house of Judah should have firm possession of their own country, and therein increase and multiply and flourish exceedingly. Bp. Patrick.

and the good of Zion. An angel slayeth the Assyrians. Before CHRIST 710. cape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

2 Kings 19:31

31. — the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.] His regard for His own honour, and His great love to His people, shall do these wonders; to vindicate His glory from that contempt which was cast upon it by Sennacherib. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 19:32

32. — thus saith the Lord —, He shall not come &c.] Impotent men, what are we in the hands of the Almighty? We purpose, He overrules; we talk of great matters, and think we can perform wonders; He blasts our projects, and they vanish with ourselves. Bp. Hall.

2 Kings 19:35

35. — the angel of the Lord went out, and smote] How speedy an execution was this, and how miraculous! No human arm shall have the glory of this victory. It was God that was defiled by this presumptuous Assyrian, it is God that shall right His own wrongs. Bp. Hall. Since it is no where expressed in Scripture in what manner this Assyrian army was destroyed, some have thought it was done by a plague, others by thunder and lightning, others by fire from heaven, others by a scorching wind, others by encountering each other in the obscurity of the night; but, by whatsoever means the defeat was effected, we have the authority of Scripture for saying, that it was done by the agency of a destroying angel. Calmet. The destruction of the army was probably effected by bringing on them the hot wind which is frequent in those parts, and which often, when it falls on a multitude, destroys vast numbers in a moment, as frequently occurs to those great caravans of Mahometans who go on annual pilgrimages to Mecca. The words of Isaiah, ver. 7, which threatened Sennacherib with a blast, to be sent upon his army by God, seems to denote that this was the method of their destruction. Dean Prideaux. The instrument of vengeance was probably the blast, or hot pestilential south wind, blowing from the deserts of Libya, called the Samum, or Simoom, which is thus described by Mr. Bruce: “This hot wind is called by the Arabs, Samum or Simoom. It is generally preceded by an extreme redness in the air, and usually blows from the S. E. or from the S. a little to the east. It appeared in the form of a haze, in colour like the purple part of a rainbow, but not so compressed, or thick: it was a kind of blush upon the air. The guide warned the company upon its approach to fall upon their faces, with their mouths close to the ground, and to hold their breath as long as they could, to avoid inhaling the outward air. It moved very rapidly, about twenty yards in breadth, and about twelve feet high from the ground; so that, says Bruce, I had scarcely time to turn about, and fall upon the earth with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all fell upon our faces, until the Simoom passed on with a jewish ruffling wind. When the meteor or purple haze had passed, it was succeeded by a light air, which still blew so hot as to threaten suffocation, which sometimes lasted three hours, and left the company totally enervated and exhausted, labouring under asthmatick sensations, weakness of stomach, and violent headaches, from imbibing the poisonous vapour.” It is remarkable that the blast which destroyed the Assyrians happened at night; whereas the Simoom usually blows in the daytime, and mostly about noon, being raised by the intense heat of the sun. Dr. Hales. — and when they arose &c.] That is, when they who survived this dreadful slaughter arose “in the morning,” for all were not slain, a small number were reserved to be the witnesses of a judgment so terrible, of a power so invincible, a power so superior to Sennacherib, who had blasphemed the true God; a power so mighty to save the good Hesekiah, who had trusted in Him. The prodigious number of the slain were so many monuments of mercy to His people, of justice to His enemies, of His eternal power and Godhead to both. The few that remained were not only eye witnesses of this great victory of the true God, and the triumph of His people, but were sent back into their own land, to proclaim and preach it there. Wogan.

2 Kings 19:37

37. — smote him with the sword:] It appears from Tobit i. 18, that Sennacherib, inflamed with rage for his loss and disappointment, grew cruel and tyrannical after his return, especially towards the Israelites, many of whom he caused every day to be slain, and cast into the streets; and that it was his intolerable cruelty which at last made his own family conspire against him. They were his two eldest sons who slew him, and fled in consequence into Armenia; so that Esarhaddon, his third son, reigned in his stead. Dean Prideaux. Such was the tragical end of a king who had prospered to his own ruin; so intoxicated with his own success, and that of his ancestors, as to fancy that all the powers of heaven and earth were chained to his chariot wheels. Let every proud insolent blaspheming wretch, who has used his mouth to pour out horrid blasphemies against Heaven, look upon Sennacherib, and learn to humble himself with the lowliest penitence and meekness before that omnipotent Being, who is thus able to abuse the loftiest of the sons of men that shall presume to exalt and magnify themselves against Him. God has declared in a most emphatical manner, that, of all sorts of sinners, He beholds the proud with peculiar indignation and aversion. And such proud men are Hezekiah hath his life lengthened. The sun goeth backward for a sign. Before CHRIST 713. # CHAP. XX.