2 Kings 18

2 Kings 18:1

jyi OW it came to pass, in the third year of IIoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the, son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. The third, year of those nine which are mentioned before, xvii. 1. (See there.)

2 Kings 18:2

Twenty and five years old was he ivhen he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem: his mother’s name also was Abi, daughter of Zachariah. Unto this it is objected, that Ahaz lived but thirty and six years; (xvi. 2.) and therefore, according to this account, begat Hezekiah when he was but eleven years old, which seems incredible. To which Capellus in his Chronologia answers, that he reigned two or three years with his father; which is not likely, for the text saith he was twenty: five years old when he began to reign, after his father’s death, which is beforementioned. And the solution of the Jews, mentioned by St. Jerome, is not much better, who say, he did not begin to reign presently after his father’s death, but there was an interregnum for some years; because of a sedition that was in Jerusalem. But as there is no proof of this, so it is improbable that Hezekiah, who was a grown man, and beloved of the people, should not presently succeed his father. Calvisius’s account is still worse, who will have Hezekiah to have been only the adopted son of Ahaz: which spoils the descent of our SaviouT from David, as Bochartus observes: who therefore plainly admits that he did beget Hezekiah, when he was eleven or twelve years old. For so it may be understood, that he was but just entered upon the twenty-fifth year of his age, when he began his reign; and so but twenty-four complete. Therefore his father begat him about the twelfth year of his age. For if, from thirty-sixyears, four-and-twenty be taken, there remain twelve. And if we suppose, as we. may very well, that Ahaz was near one-and-twenty years old when he began to reign, and near seventeen years older before he died (for the Scriptures, no more than other writers, do not take notice whether the year be perfect or imperfect), then he might be near fourteen years old when he begat Hezekiah. But take it according to the first account, that he was but eleven or twelve years old, Bochartus hath given a vast number of instances of persons that procreated children at that age. For ripeness for procreation is not to be precisely determined, either by physicians, philosophers, or lawyers (who have been pleased to fix the time); but consideration is to be had of the climate wherein men live, of the temper and constitution of their bodies, of their diet, and many other things; as he observes in an epistle to Nicol. Carbonellus, in his additions to the last edition of his Phaleg. p. 920. Ver.. 3. And he did that ivhich was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did.] A character which is not given, I think, to any of the kings of Judah, since the reign of Asa, (1 Kings xv. 11.)

2 Kings 18:4

He removed the high places. Which none of his predecessors had the courage to attempt. But the carrying of the ten tribes captive, I suppose, mightily awakened both him and all the people, for the present (while it was fresh before their eyes), to observe the law of God very strictly. And brake the images, and cut down the groves.] Which his father Ahaz had multiplied, (xvi. 14. 2 Chron. xxviii; And brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.] Which had been piously preserved as a monument of God’s wonderful mercy to them in the wilderness; as Gideon intended his ephod should be of another deliver^ ance, (Judg. viii. 27.) But as they went a whoring after that, so they did after this, as the Jews phrase it in Avoda Zara: and therefore Hezekiah broke it in pieces; that is, as the Talmudists there explain it, ground it to powder, and then scattered it into the air, that nothing of it might Microsoft ® 3U2 A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. XVIII. remain to be worshipped as a relic by superstitious people. And yet there is a fable that some fragments of it did remain until Josiah’s time; and at this day, as Sigonius relates in his history of the kingdom of Italy, they shew this brazen serpent entire at the church of St. Ambrose, in Milan. But tho wiser Romanists are ashamed of it, and acknowledge it is not the serpent made by Moses (which being broken in pieces by Hezekiah, was never restored), but another made in imitation of it. (SeeBuxtorf. Histor. Serpentis^Enei, cap. G.) For unto this day the children of Israel had burnt incense to it.’] When this superstition began, we are not told; but nobody gives a better account of it than David Kimchi, whose words are these: — From the time that the kings of Israel did evil, and the children of Israel followed idolatry, until the reign of Hezekiah, they offered incense to it. For it being written in the law of Moses, whosoever looks upon it shall live, they fancied they might obtain blessings by its mediation, and therefore thought it worthy to be worshipped. It had been kept from Moses’s days in memory of a miracle, just as the pot of manna alsowas; and Asa and Jehoshaphatdid not extirpate it when they rooted out idolatry, because in their reign they did not observe that the people worshipped this serpent, or burnt incense to it, and therefore they left it as a memorial. But Hezekiah thought fit to take it quite away, when he abolished other idolatry, because in the time of his father they worshipped it as an idol. And though pious people among them accounted it only to be a memorial of a wonderful work, yet he judged it better to abolish it, though the memory of the miracle were lost together with it, than suffer it to remain, and leave the Israelites in danger to commit idolatry hereafter with it. Andhe called it Nehushtan.] Some think Hezekiah called it by this name; others, that the Israelites called it so; the words signifying indifferently it was called Nehushtan, viz. by way of contempt and scorn. For the letter nun at the end of a word, the Jews say, is added by way of diminution/ And nechosheth signifying brass, this is as much as to say, this serpent was mere brass or copper, and had no power in it, no profit, no ability to help, no divinity; and therefore not to be worshipped with Divine honour. Thus Kimchi: It being called by this name signified as much as if Hezekiah had said, u How could it come into any man’s heart to think that this serpent could do any thing, which is mere brass?" Or, as Ralbag expounds it, " This serpent hath no more virtue in it than the common brass in their houses." For he takes an, in the end of the word, to be the same with am, ipsorum. But there is a great and good man of our own, who, having endeavoured to shew that the destruction of the old serpent the devil was fore-shadowed by the lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, concludes that Hezekiah was moved with the greater indignation against the worship of it, because in truth it never was a type of our Saviour and Redeemer, but a figure of his grand enemy. This made him express such detestation of it, as is imported, he thinks, in the word Nehushtan. The signification of which is not to be found in our lexicons: for though nechosheth signify no more than brass, yet Nehushtan imports no less than our English words, foul fiend, the old dragon, or Satan. (See Dr. Jackson, Humiliation of the Son of God, chap. 31. parag.G.)

2 Kings 18:5

He triisted in the Lord God of Israel. And not in the help of foreign forces, as his father Ahaz did; (xvi. •7.) nay, which that good king Asa called in to his assistance, (I Kings xv. 18, 19.) ■ • - So that after him was none like him among all the kings ofJudah, nor any that tvere before him.] Since the time that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were divided. • Ver. G. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.] He continued to observe God’s laws through the whole course of his reign, to the conclusion of it; and did not like some of his predecessors, who began well, but fell off in the end of their days, as Joash and Amaziah did, (xii. 2. xiv. 3. 2 Chron. xxiv. 2. 19. xxv. 14.)

2 Kings 18:7

And the I^ord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him riot. His prosperous success in all his enterprises, which was a visible token of God’s presence with him, emboldened him to throw off the yoke of the king, of Assyria, to which Ahaz had basely submitted; (xvi. 7.) which was not properly rebellion in Hezekiah, for Ahaz could not subject his kingdom to tho Assyrian monarch, but only for his own time: his son was not bound to be his slave. Therefore the meaning is, he owned not the authority of the Assyrian king over him, but looked upon himself as a free sovereign in his own kingdom, independent upon him. In this, perhaps, he was a little too forward, being very much lifted up by his victories; but it is plain he was not able to maintain himself free from all subjection to the king of Assyria, (ver. 14.)

2 Kings 18:8

He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. We had this phrase before, xvii. 19. (See there.) And these words seem to signify that he smote them all the country over, and recovered from them more than his father had lost, (2 Chron. xxviii.’ 18.) According to the prophecy of Isaiah, xiv. 18. where he bids the Philistines not to rejoice, because the rod that smote them was broken; (that is, Uzziah’was dead, who had sorely afflicted them/ 2 Chron. xxvi: G, 7.) for out of his root should come another, that would more grievously gall them, which was Hezekiah.

2 Kings 18:9

And it came to pass, in the fourth year of king Hezekiah (which teas the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel), that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.] AVe had an account of the taking of Samaria beforehand therefore the mentioning of it here again may seem needless. But, as now the year of Hezckiah’s reign is set down wherein it was taken, so Abarbinel thinks the intention of the Divine writer was to connect these two histories together; the taking of Samaria, and the ascent of Sennacherib against Jerusalem; who, eight years after the destruction of the former, with great pride and confidence imagined he should do as much by the latter..

2 Kings 18:10

And at the end.of three years they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah (that is the ninth year of Hoshea), Samaria was taken.

2 Kings 18:11

And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel into Assyria, and put them in Ilalah and in Ilabor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. As was before related, (chap. xvii. G.) but could not be too often re- CHAP. XVIII.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. peated, to make posterity dread the judgments of God, that were fallen upon them for their sins; as it follows again in the next words.

2 Kings 18:12

Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that 3Ioses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them. See xvii. 34, 35.

2 Kings 18:13

Now, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria. He was the son of Shalmaneser, and succeeded him in his kingdom after his death; as we read in the book of Tobit, i. 15. Come up against all the fenced cities offudah, and took them.] That is, took a great many of them, (2 Chron. xxxii. 1.)

2 Kings 18:14

And Hezekiah king ofJudah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish. This* shews he had not taken all the fenced cities, for Lachish was a city of Judah, (Josh. xv. 39.) which is mentioned before in this book, (xiv. 19.) and was not yet taken, though siege was laid to it. Which, when he had taken, he intended to go up against Jerusalem; (2 Chron. xxxii. 2.) which moved Hezekiah to divert him from his purpose, by begging his pardon, as it here follows, for what he had done in shaking off his yoke. Saying, I have offended.] In denying to be subject to him, which no doubt was the reason of this invasion. Return from me: that which thou puttest upon me I will bear.] Though he had made great provision against him, as we read 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4, &c. yet he durst not venture to abide a siege; but chose rather to divert him, by submitting to such conditions as he would impose upon him. -. And the king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold.] This was a great burden, though it was not a yearly tribute, but only a present payment; which his weakness forced him to submit unto.

2 Kings 18:15

And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord. Which in public necessities they thought it was lawful to make use of, for their preservation. Yet the Talmudists reckon this one of the three ill things that Hezekiah did, in cutting off the golden plates, mentioned in the next verse. (See Selden, de Synedr. lib. ii. cap. 1. n. 4.) • »/ And in the treasures of the king’s house.] Which had been so exhausted before, that ho was forced to raise the money by other means, as it follows, ver. 16. Ver. 1G. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.] It is very probable, that when Ahaz defaced the temple, and shut up the doors of it, (xvi. 17. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 2. 4.) he cut off this gold; which Hezekiah took care to repair; but was now constrained to cut it off himself. Upon which words Procopius Gazseus seems to me to have very well observed; that Hezekiah, finding he had not sufficient treasure of his own, to answer the imposition laid upon him, was driven by necessity to make use of things sacred, lest the enemy should burn the city and the temple. But what was thus employed, pious kings were wont to restore, as soon as they were able, out of the spoils of war, when it was ended.

2 Kings 18:17

And the king of Assyria sent Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rab-shakeh, from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem: and they went tip and came to Jerusalem. Some of the Jews think that Sennacherib, having received the tribute from Hezekiah, went to his own land; but because Hezekiah did not continue to send it every year, after some time returned to Judea again, and besieged Jerusalem. But there is not a word of this, either in this book, or the Chronicles, or in the prophet Isaiah: therefore it is* more probable, that, having received the money he demanded, he made his expedition into Egypt, of which Herodotus and others, and some think Isaiah also, speak, as Sir’John Marsham observes, (Isa. x. 26. 28.) But as he was the first king of Assyria that invaded Egypt, so he went no further than to the entrance of it, to Pelusium, which he could not take, and so at his return broke his faith with Hezekiah; and notwithstanding his present, wherewith he pretended to be satisfied, laid siege to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the tipper pool, which is in the highway of the fullers field.] They took up their head-quarters, as we now speak, by the conduit or canal, into which water was derived from the upper fish-pond or pool; which was in the highway to the field, where the fullers, after they had washed their clothes in that pool, were wont to spread them.. i

2 Kings 18:18

And when they had’ called to the king.* They were so bold as to demand audience of the king himself, that they might treat with him in person fora surrender. There came out to them Eliakim the son ofHilkidh, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.] Though he would not vouchsafe to go himself, yet he sent his major-domo, as they now speak, and his secretary, or a principal doctor of the law, and the master of the requests. For since the king of Assyria sent three messengers, he thought fit to send as many. Isaiah, indeed, mentions only Rab-shakeh, as sent by the king of Assyria: which Seder Olam Rabba thinks is meant of the first legation; but in the second, when he besieged Libnah, (xix. 8.) he joined Tartan and Rabsaris with him. It is very uncertain what officer Shebna was; for he is said Isa. xxii. 15. to be over the house, and the LXX. sometimesrhake him treasurer, sometimes scribe, and Mr. Selden thinks he might he prefect us pratorio. (Lib.’ de Succe’s. in Poiitif. p. 142.)

2 Kings 18:19

And Rab-shakeh said unto them. He was the chief speaker, being an eloquent man; and, as the Hebrew doctors will have it (whom Procopius follows), an apostate Jew. Which is not altogether improbable; both because he could speak readily in the Hebrew tongue, and when he blasphemed the Divine Majesty, the kingand his nobles rent their clothes; which was not usual, unless he that uttered such blasphemous words was an Israelite. Some think his name imports that he was the principal cupbearer to the king of Assyria. Speak ye now to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria.] He assumed to himself the style of the great king, because of his great conquests and large dominions. What confidence is this ivherein thou trustest?] As much as to say, it was the greatest folly to think any body could defend him from so great a king.

2 Kings 18:20

TTiou sayest (but they are but vain tvords), I have counsel and strength for the war. In reason, he thought Hezckiah should not stand out against his master, unless he had all things necessary for his defence: but he did delude his people, if he told them, that he wanted neither skill to manage war, nor power to execute good counsels. Now, on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?] He derides him, as full of vain hopes; and upbraids him with his rebellion. Of which he was thought formerly to be guilty, but could not now be justly accused of it, when he had submitted to him with such a great present. These arc therefore words of the highest pride and insolence. Vcr. 21. Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon- Egypt.’] He thought it probable he would seek for succour from Egypt, being a neighbouring country; which would be ready to assist him, that they might be revenged of the king’ of Assyria for his late invasion. But he represents Egypt as very weak, and utterly unable to help him; being sorely crushed, though not destroyed, by Sennacherib. On which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh Icing of Egypt unto all that trust on him.’] He represents the power of Egypt to be as brittle as the cane or reeds that grow on the banks of the Nile (to which he seems to allude), on which if a man leaned, they brake, and the splinters run into his hand. Such is Pharaoh, saith he, a man gets no help, but mischief, by relying upon him.; as he doth who takes one of those canes for his staff to support him. *

2 Kings 18:22

But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he whose high places and altars Hezekiah hath taken away; and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?] This weak arguing proceeded from his ignorance of that God and his law, in whom Hezekiah trusted. Which made him call those crimes, which were his greatest virtues; in prohibiting their offering sacrifice in any other place but that which God appointed.

2 Kings 18:23

Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. He seems to challenge him to come out, and fight with his master: and, if he could give security to make that use of them, he would furnish him with two thousand horses, provided he was able to find so many men to sit upon them. Which arc words of the highest contempt, and undervaluing of his power. Or, the meaning may be, he would lay a wager with him, he could not find men to sit upon so many horses; for few were good horsemen in Judea, where horses were scarce.

2 Kings 18:24

How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain’ of the least of my master’s servants. Much less stand before his whole army.‘And put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?] With which Egypt abounded above most other countries; who sometimes furnished the Israelites with horses, but none like Egypt. For which reason Moses forbids them to multiply horses, lest it should cause them to return tp Egypt; (Dcut. xvii. 10.) and the prophet reproves them severely for going to Egypt for help, and staying upon horses, 8cc. (Isa. xxxi. 1. 3.) Vcr. 25. Am I note come upt ithoutthe Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.] If he had not been a Jew, yet he had learned the name of their God; and pretended his master was come up against Jerusalem, by a commission from him. Which were, vain words; (as he calls Hezekiah’s, ver. 20.) for there were none of his prophets among the Assyrians. But, perhaps, he concluded from what the Assyrian king had done to Samaria, God intended he should do so to Jerusalem. Ver. 2G. Tlien said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, andJoah, unto Rab-shakeh, saying, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language (for we understand it); and speak not ivith us in the Jews* language, in the ears of the people that are on the ivall.] I suppose Eliakim perceived the people to be frighted with his big words, and therefore entreated him, in the name of the other commissioners sent to treat with him, to speak no longer in the Jews’ language, but in his own: for he was not sent to treat with the people, but with them who understood the Syrian tongue very well,

2 Kings 18:27

But Rab-shakeh said tmto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these tvords? hath he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall, that they may eat their oiun dung, and drink their own piss with you?] To make them, know that he will reduce them to the greatest extremity, if they do not submit unto him? for it is an hy-, perbolical speech, importing such straits as were never known..

2 Kings 18:28

And Rab-shakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews language, and spake, saying, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.* * He seems to have raised both himself and his voice higher, that he might be better heard by. all.

2 Kings 18:29

Tims saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand. He repeats, with the greatest assurance, the power of his king, and the weakness of Hezekiah: representing from thence how they were deluded with empty promises, if he persuaded them he should be able to preserve them.

2 Kings 18:30

Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. This was the highest presumption to persuade them not to place their, hope in God, as if his master was stronger than he.

2 Kings 18:31

Hearken not to Hezekiah: but make an agreement with me by apresent, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his oivn vine, and every one of his fig-tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern.] Having represented to them the miseries unto which a siege would reduce them, he invites them to a surrender upon advantageous conditions.

2 Kings 18:32

Until I come and take you away to a land like your oivn land\ a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil-olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not to Hezekiah, whenhe pcrsuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver 7/5.] If they would seektho favour of the king of Assyria, by making him a present, and deliveriag themselves up to his mercy, he promises they should be transported to a better country than that to which the Israelites were carried: and, in the meantime, every one enjoy his own possessions. But he was afraid, Heze- CHAP. XIX,] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. kiah’s avowed confidence in God would prevail with them, to trust to him for deliverance, which makes him so often, desire them not to depend upon that.

2 Kings 18:33

Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?. He argues very popularly and strongly, if his supposition had been true, That the God of Israel, the God of the whole earth (yea, of heaven and earth), was like those of all other nations, w T ho presided only over one’eountry or city.

2 Kings 18:34

Where are the gods ofHamath and ofArpad?. Those were citien or countries, which the king of Assyria had conquered. Where are the gods of Sepharvaim.] Mentioned before^ xvii. 31. Hena, and Ivah?] Some think these were the gods of Sepharvaim; which is confuted by the place beforenamed. They were rather cities, whose gods could not protect them. Have they delivered Samaria out of my Jiand?] That is, have the gods of Samaria been able to do more than the rest?

2 Kings 18:35

Who are they among’ all the gods of the conntries that liave delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?. He desires an instance of one god, that had been able to save his country when his master invaded it: and therefore it was best for them to yield their city up to him, since God himself could not preserve it, unless he could do more than any other had done, w r hich he concluded was unlikely. It must be acknowledged that Rab-shakeh was an excellent orator, as well as a soldier, not inferior in eloquence to Julius Caesar. Ver. 3G. But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.] This was a very wise order, because he might have made some advantage by a sudden answer; and it was no less pious: for Hezekiah believed God would answer for himself, not in words, but in such deeds as w r ould demonstrate he was above all gods:

2 Kings 18:37

Tlien came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Jodh the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.] It was the custom of the Jews to rend their clothes, when they heard a man blaspheme God’s name: and if wc will believe them, when the witnesses of a blasphemy did but repeat the words before the judges, they rent their clothes. Accordingly Hezekiah, when his commissioners gave an account of Rab-shakeh’s words to him, he did so, (xix. 1.) But they have determined, that they were not bound to rend their clothes, unless he was an Israelite that blasphemed. Therefore they have resolved, as I said before, that Rabshakeh was anapostate Israelite. And this custom was common to all nations (as appears from Homer, Herodotus, and Virgil), who expressed great grief in this manner.