2 Kings 19

2 Kings 19:1-7

1. Hezekiah, in great distress, defies the prayers of the prophet Ipsiah, ver. 1—5. and reserves from him an answer of peace, ver. 2, 7. 2. Sennacherib feeds a throaning letter to Hezekiah, ver. 8—13. 3. Hezekiah recommends his only to God, ver. 14—19. 4. God, by Ipsiah, inflows him of deliverance, ver. 20—34. 5. The army of the Afyrions is cut off by an angel, and Sennacherib himself saith by his excursion, ver. 35—37.

2. AND it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with backcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 2. And he sent Eliakim, which uses over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with backcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3. And they said unto him, Thus faith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4. It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Affyria his matter hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. 5. So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6. And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye lay to your matter, Thus faith the LORD, Be our afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Affyria have blasphemed me. 7. Behold, I will send a thief upon 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.

In deep distress, the afflicted Hezekiah rends his clothes, and puts on the mournful backcloth. Human help is vain; God alone can fucour him. Therefore,

1. He addresses himself to God, and goes up to the temple, there to seek counsel and comfort. Nate, Whilst we have an almighty God to fly to, we need not, in the midst of trouble, despair.

2. He feeds to beg Isaiah’s prayers for him. Eliakim and Shebna could best inform him of Rab-shakeh’s insistence and blasphemy. Now was the critical moment. In this deplorable situation, if God did not help instantly, they must perish, having no strength and power to help themselves, v. 9. Therefore he interests the prophet to lift up the prayer of faith and importunity, that the aim of God may be stretched out to rebuke the blasphemy he hath heard, and save the remnant which is left. Nate, (1.) Whilst we are crying to God in trouble, we should desire to interest the prayers of the murders and people of God in our behalf. (2.) They who apply to the great Prophet to be their advocates, have not only an it may be to support their hopes, but an it shall be, to give them assurance of relief.

3. Isaiah’s answer is comfortable and encouraging. Terrible as the present danger appeared, Hezekiah need not fear it: God, who had heard the blasphemy, undertakes to blash their

projects, and, with confusion destroying the hosts of Affyria, to send their king home covered with dishonour, there to fall more ingloriously by the sword of domestic enemies. Nate, (1.) None ever trusted in God, and were confounded. (2.) They who lift up their tongues against God, bring down his swift vengeance upon their own heads.

8. So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Affyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachith. 9. And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, 10. Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Affyria. 11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Affyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall thou be delivered? 12. Have the Gods of the nations delivered them? which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Kezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelster? 13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? 14. And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwelleth secures the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. 16. LORD, ‘how down thine car, and hear: were, LORD, thine eyes, and he: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. 17. Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Affyria have destroyed the nations, and their lands. 18. And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, word and thone: therefore they have destroyed them. 19. Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth: may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

2 Kings 19:8-19

When Hezekiah’s silence gave no hopes of a surrender, Rab-shakeh returned to give the king an account of the conference, who had left Lachith; either it was too strong, or he might have taken it, and now was befieging Libnah. There intelligence being received, that Tirhakah was coming to Hezekiah’s relief, he makes one effort more to terrify him to a surrender.

1. He feeds a threatening letter to him, mocking his vain confidence in God; magnifying and boasting of his conquests over other nations and their gods; and therefore intimating the vanity of Hezekiah’s resistance. Nate, (1.) Wicked men, in the distresses of God’s people, say, Where is now their God? But, though for a time he may permit their proud boasting, he will not finally fail those that trust him. (2.) Vain mind-trumpet their own praises, but God quickly covers them with shame.

2. Hezekiah received and read the letter; and, as the contents struck more at God’s glory, than even his crowns and dignity, he went up to the temple, and solemnly spread it before him, as leaving the master in his hands, and fervently in prayer imploring present help. The God of Israel, whom Sennacherib despied as a local deity, he adored as the Universal Sovereign; interests his attention to the dishonour and on his great name; acknowledges the Afyrian conquests, but over gods the work of men’s hands, that could neither help themselves, nor their worshippers; and therefore prays that Sennacherib might be made to know the difference between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations; and that all the world might see, in the greatness of the salvation wrought for them, the glory of the God they worshipped. Nate, We may confidently expect to be heard, when the great object of our requests is the manifestation of God’s glory.

3. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus faith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Affyria, I have heard. 21. This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him, The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn, the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22. Whom hath thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hath thou exalted

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the voice, and lift up thine eyes on high? even against the holy One of Israel. 23. By thy ineffengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the fides of Lebanon, and will cut down the 7th all cedar-trees thereof, and the choice for trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the foref 8 of his Carmel. 24. I have digged and drunk strange warers, and wish the fole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of befuged places. 25. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waft fenced cities into ruinous heaps. 26. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded, they were as the grafs of the field, and as the green herb, as the grafs on the house-tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. 27. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 28. Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into nine ears, therefore I will put my book in thy note, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camels. 29. And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same, and in the third year low ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. 30. And the ye remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah, shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31. For our of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of both shall do this. 32. Therefore thus faith the LORD concerning the king of Affyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, faith the LORD. 34. For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

o. 20-34. Whilst Hezekiah was speaking to God in the temple, he was returning an answer to him of peace, by his prophet Isaiah. So speedy are often God’s answers to the prayer of faith.

1. He assures him of the vanity of Sennacherib’s hoall, and the confusion which should cover him. Jerusalem, which God as a chaffa virgin had espoused, he would as a faithful husband protect from every violence. She therefore mocked at these insistent threatening, and despised his attempts: these reproaches God with jealousy heard, and would avenge. The conquests he boasted as gotten by his own arm, God had given him as the rod of his anger against these nations; and since the ex-brother itself against the healer, Isa. 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100

2. He comforts Hezekiah and the people with further promises of the Divine favour, 1. The plenty which they should enjoy. Though the Affyrians had wafted the country, and the next year was a sabbatical year, yet God would take care they should have enough spontaneously produced, to feed them till the harvest of the following year. Nor, if we have toufed God with our fouls, let us never disfruft his care for our bodies. 2. Prophecies and peace should be in their borders. The remnant which is escaped, should increase in their families, and be affluent in their circumstances, and no siege prevent the quiet purifour of their several occupations. Nor, They enjoy a glorious liberty, who have God for their protection; and rooted in faith, and fruitful in holiness, are blatt with a portion among that remnant, which is chosen according to the election of grace. 3. There should not be the least hostile attack made against them. God will infirmly defeat the projected siege; and for David’s sake, and for his own glory, defend them as with a shield. Nor, (1.) They are safe whom God protects. (2.) Though we are unworthy, yet for his own glory, and to fulfil his promises made to our David, God will save us.

3. ¶ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and fmote in the camp of the Affyrians, an hundred fourfores and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 36. So Sennacherib king of Affyria depurred, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37. And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nifroch his god, that Adram-elech and Sharreer his foes fmote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia; and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his head.

o. 35-37. The promise is scarce sooner made, than fulfilled.

1. The army of Affyria is destroyed. A mighty angel, sent from God, in our night flow 185,000 men; so that in the morning they beheld those dead corpses, who the preceding evening looked so formidable. Nor, (1.) When our last hour of trial is ended in death, then shall we see all our spiritual enemies thus slain before us. (2.) If one angel could work such a great deliverance, why should the heirs of salvation fear, when legions minister to them continually?

2. The affrighted king lives to see the ruin, and by an ignominious flight, rests on save himself; but vain is the thought of escaping, when God marks the sinner as the but of his anger. Instead of being overcome with the knife of the power of Israel’s God, and repenting of his blasphemies, he still cleaves to Nifroch his god. Perhaps he was now thanking him for his deliverance, or imploring his help on some new attempt he had meditated; but the arm of death feizes him in the idol temple. He is murdered by two of his foes, who escape from justice, and Esar-haddon, another of them, reigned in his head. Nor, (1.) When parents are rebels against God, let them not marvel if their children rebel against them. (2.) They who after warning perish in their wickedness, justly suffer the reward of their deeds.