2 Kings 19

2 Kings 19:1

JjLND it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes. See the last verse of the foregoing chapter. And covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.] He fasted and mourned, and went into the temple to pray. Sometimes they put on sackcloth next to their skin, instead of a shirt: but here it seems to signify only, that he was clothed in this,vile habit, in token of his great trouble and sorrow.

2 Kings 19:2

And he sent Eliakim, tvhich was over the house hold, and Shebna the scribe.* See xviii. 18. And the elders of the priests.] The principal persons among the priests. Covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.] In the same mournful habit to beg his prayers to God for them.

2 Kings 19:3

And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiaji, Tins day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy. They represent to him the great straits in which they were,- and the reproaches cast upon them: and (which was worst of all) the blasphemy they had heard against God. For the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.] And the present danger wherein they were of perishing, unless speedily -relieved: like that of a woman, whose child being fallen down, after many throes, to the place of birth, she was so spent that she had no strength left to bring it forth. Or, asTrocopius Gazaetis expounds it, “We. are in pain to hear such blasphemous words, and have no power to punish those wicked wretches as they deserve.” \

2 Kings 19:4

It may be the Lord thy God tvill hear the words of Rab-shakeh. So as to take notice of them, and punish him. Whom the king of Assyria hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard.] Reprove him for the words (as the Targum expounds it), the which he had spoken against God. But Lud. de Dieu, following R. Solomon Jarchi, thinks that the word * we translate reprove, signifies to prove, and, by arguments* to demonstrate. And so refers it to Rab-shakeh in this manner: " It may be the Lord will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria hath sent to reproach the, living God: and that openly with a bold face, fearing no. thing, because all things succeed according to their hearts’ desire." And he saith, he shall wonder if this sense displease any body. Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.] That Judah might not* be carried captive, as Israel had been.

2 Kings 19:5

So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And delivered the foregoing message to him. Ver. G. And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

2 Kings 19:7

Behold, I will send a blast on him. A pestilential blast, which destroyed his army in one night: (ver. 35.) others translate it a spirit; which is the same. For God sent an angel, who smote them with that pestilence. • And he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land.] The report, perhaps, was renewed after that stroke, that Tirhakah (of whom he had heard before, ver. 9.) was coming against him; which made him haste aw r ay, with the small remains of his army, to his own country. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.] Which was fulfilled, ver. 37. A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. XIX.

2 Kings 19:8

So Rab-shakeh returned. Not with the host that he brought with him, (xviii. 17.) but he himself returned to give his master an account of what he had done; and left Jtabsaris to cany on the siege, and straiten the city, till he could come with the whole army against it. And found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he teas departed from Lachish.] Being unable, I suppose, to make himself master of it.

2 Kings 19:9

And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight against thee. Whether he fought with Tirhakahor not, and what the success was, doth not appear. But it is to be noted, that there were two countries called Cush (which we translate Ethiopia); one in Africa beyond Egypt, the other in Arabia, which is the Ethiopia here meant. For the king of the other was far off, and must have marched through Egypt before he could come to fight with Sennacherib. But this was near, and was able to raise a powerful army, as appears by the Yast forces which Zerah brought against Asa, (2 Chron. xiv. 9.) And thus 2 Chron. xxi. 1G. as Bochartus observes, must necessarily be understood, where the Arabians, whom God stirred up against Jehoram, arc said to be near to the Ethiopians, which cannot be true of those beyond Egypt. (See his Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 2.), He sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying.] Among which Rab-shakeh was the chief.

2 Kings 19:10

Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king ofJudah, saying.yJThey could not come to the speech of him; but sent him a letter containing the words following, (ver. 14.) » Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.] He had heard, I suppose, that Hezekiah declared he trusted in the Lord, and had assurance from him, that he the king of Assyria should not prevail against him..

2 Kings 19:11

Behold, thou hast heard tvhat the king of Assyria hath done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. This letter is of the same import with the former message, presuming the God of Israel was like the gods of other countries, and had no more power than they to preserve his worshippers. And shalt thou be delivered?] Such questions imply a strong denial; and therefore it is as much as to say, Thou shalt be delivered no more than they were.

2 Kings 19:12

Have a the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed. He argues from the long successes his ancestors bad enjoyed: none of the gods, whose countries they had destroyed, making opposition to them for some ages. As Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Edm which were in Thelasar?] These were places well known in those days; there was a Gozan and Hara in Media, as Bochartus observes, lib. iii. Phaleg. cap. 14. Where Rezeph was is uncertain; but Ptolemy mentions such a city in Syria, where St. Jerome places Thelasar: and there were more cities than one in those countries called Adana, which is the same with Eden.

2 Kings 19:13

Where is the king ofHamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena f and Jvah?. Places beibrementioned, xviii. 34. Nothing can be further observed of this, but that the fury of Rabshakeh increased: so that what he had uttered in words, he now more deliberately set down in writing: affirming boldly, that their God was a deceiver, if he promised them deliverance.

2 Kings 19:14

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. He could approach no nearer than to the outward court of the temple: where, at the entrance of the priests’ court, he looked towards the sanctuary, God’s dwelling-place, and laid this letter before him.

2 Kings 19:15

And Hezekiah prayed before 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.] Here he directly thwarts the blasphemous opinion of the Assyrians beforementioned, (xvii. 27. xviii. 35.) that the God of Israel was but the particular Lord of that country; not the universal Sovereign, which Hezekiah acknowledged him to be, because the Creator of the whole world.

2 Kings 19:16

Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear; open, Lord, thine eyes, and see; and hear the tvords of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. That is, sent Rab-shakeh. He speaks in such language as men use, when they earnestly beseech others not to neglect their supplication;,but vouchsafe to attend, and to give a gracious answer to them.

2 Kings 19:17

Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. Do not boast of more than they have done.

2 Kings 19:18

And have cast their gods into. the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men s hands, wood and stone; therefore have they destroyed them.* They had prevailed, hc’acknowledges, over their gods, as well as over men; but it was because they were not so good as men, being mere wood and stone.

2 Kings 19:19

Nmv therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hands, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. He beseeches him to distinguish himself upon those idols; by giving them such a deliverance as might demonstrate to all the world that he was the living God (as he is often called), superior to all others^who were not able to save their worshippers.

2 Kings 19:20

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Ix>rd God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. He knew by the spirit of prophecy, that Hezekiah had represented his case to God in the temple; who bade Isaiah assure him his petition was granted.

2 Kings 19:21

This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter ofZion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.] These words comprehend the whole city. For by the daughter ofZion 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 part of the city; and all that was not comprehended under the name ofZion. They shaked their heads’ at him; which is the same with despising, and laughing him to scoru. For shaking the head is the posture of those that mock at others, (Psal. xxii. 7. Matt, xxriu 39.) He calls Zion a virgin, because this CHAP. XIX.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. fortress, since David conquered it, had remained inviolable, and had never been taken by any enemy. Joash, indeed, kin" of Israel, took Jerusalem, arid brake down the wall of it; (xiv. 13, 14.) but I think the fort of Zion had never been taken.

2 Kings 19:22

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice. So Rabshakeh did, xviii. 28. And lifted up thine eyes on high?] As those do who have haughty thoughts of themselves; and overlook others with contempt and Scorn, (Prov; xxi. 4.) * Even against the Holy One of Israeli God is called the Holy One, with respect to his peerless perfections; and the’Holy One of Israel, as having a peculiar respect to them above all people, who therefore should be defended by his almighty power.

2 Kings 19:23

By thy messengers 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 sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedars thereof and the choice fir-trees thereof; and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.] 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? when I have gone, even with my chariots in great number, to the top of high* mountains; to Lebanon itself, through the most difficult passages, which I have opened and planed for thcin? Who shall hinder me from cutting down its tallest cedars and fir-trees (perhaps he means their princes and great men), and, when I have done, from marching and taking up my quarters in the extremest borders of the land, climbing up to the top of Carmel (which was towards the Mediterranean Sea), or entering into all the fruitful places of the country, by making an entire conquest of it? For so Carmel often signifies, not a mountain, but a fruitful field, in the language of this prophet, Isa. x. 18. xvi. 10.

2 Kings 19:24

I have digged and drunk strange waters. He bTagsthat he had marched with his vast army through strange countries, and in the driest places, where it was thought his army would die with thirst; but he digged till he found water. And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.] This is commonly thought to signify, that he had gone dry-shod with his whole army over great rivers, whose streams he turned another way; and so had taken the strongest fortresses, surrounded with deep waters and great ramparts. But Bochartus hath made a plainer paraphrase upon these words, which he thus translates: J have dried up the rivers of Egypt. As much as to say, " I will enter as easily into Egypt, in which you confide, as if,’ when I come thither, all the rivers wherewith it is environed, should be dried up." (See his Hierozoicon, par. ii. lib. v. cap. 15.) For the Hebrew word masor (which we translate every where besieged places, or defences, or fortresses) should rather be taken for the singular of Mesoraim, which by contraction is called Mitzraim, that is, Egypt. And if this be allowed, the sense then here is, as I said before, / have dried up all the rivers of Egypt: which was the highest yaunt he could make of his power, &nd numerous forces. Thus Isa. xix. G. The brooks ofde~ fences shall be dried up, is interpreted by Kimchi, The vol. n. rivers of Egypt shall be emptied and dried up. And more plainly, Micah vii.l2,-wherc/ro/rc the fortress to the river is so obscure, that* it is not to be understood; but from Egypt to Euphrates is such clear sense, that one cannot but think it should be so translated; for those were the bounds of the land of Canaan.

2 Kings 19:25

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it?. These are the words of. God, in answer to those empty boasts: — But what is this, to what I have done? Hast thou not heard how I brought my people dry-shod through the Red Sea? How in ancient times, I say, long before thou or thy ancestors wero born, Idid this by my own strength alone, without the help of nature or art? For so the word jatzar, which wo translate formed, *is;uscd Gen. ii. 8. and other places. Noio have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.] And it is I that have now brought thee to do all these things of which thou braggedst.- Thou eouldestnot have done one of them without my leave, who therefore permitted it, that I might punish those cities by thy hand, which I had devoted to destruction. (See Isa. x. 5, 6. 13 — 15.)

2 Kings 19:26

TJieref ore were their inhabitants of small power; they were dismayed and confounded; they were asjhe grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.] This was the reason, that the people of those cities whejeof thou spakest (ver. 12, 13.) were so very feeble, and unable to oppose thee; because I delivered them into thy hand.

2 Kings 19:27

But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. As much as to say, There are none of thy motions hidden from me. For before thou earnest from thy own country, I knew with what design thou marehedst out, and what thou ha&t done since wheresoever thou hast entered; and understand with what rage and fury thou art come up to destroy my dwelling-place.

2 Kings 19:28

Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into my ears. I have heard the noise thou makest with thy furious threatcnings, and with thy great array which hath entered Judea. TJierefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way that thou earnest.] He compares his absolute power over him to that of a fisherman, who, let a fish tumble ever so much in the water, hath it fast by a hook he hath fixed in his nose; or to a man upon a horse or a mule, whom he can turn which way ho pleases, when he hath a curb in their mouths. Even so, saith God, will I do withthee: draw thee back, press thou ever so much to compass thy designs, into thy own country, without any success.

2 Kings 19:29

And this shall be a sign unto thee^. This is spoken to Hezekiah.’ 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 sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof] This was not a sign of the truth of his prophecy, because it was to come after that was fulfilled; but a token of God’s extraordinary favour and love to them, when Sennacherib was gone; and they were in fear of another enemy, viz. a grievous famine. For though he had trodden 3X A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. xix. down or eaten up all the corn with his army, yet they should find sufficient left to maintain them this year, which was the fourteenth of Hezekiah. And though the next was the sabbatical year, in which they were to let the land rest, and neither sow nor reap, yet he promises enough should grow up of itself to sustain them, without any culture, out of the corn scattered in the former year. And then, in the sixteenth year, God assures them of liberty to till their land as they were wont, and that they should sow and reap as in a time of peace, >vhen no enciny appeared, nor there was any fear of any. But until the corn sprung jup and was ripe that year, they lived upon what gre>v of itself iu the sabbatical year, without tillage. Which demonstrates the wonderful providence of God pver this people, in taking care they should want nothing in those years, without any care of their own, if they believed in his word. See Lev. xxv. where the precept about this sabbatical year is delivered; and was observed by this people, from the first conquest and division of the land of Canaan, jbrty-seven years after the coming out of Egypt. (See Dr. Alix, Reflections on the Old Testament, par. ii. chap. 1.) Yer. 30. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Jndah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.] He pursues the metaphor from corn that is sown in the ground; signifying, that they should have firm possession of their own country; and therein increase, and multiply, and flourish exceedingly,

2 Kings 19:31

For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion.~\ For they who were now shut up in Jerusalem should be at liberty: and they who escaped the enemy’s fury in the country, and fled thither for refuge, should go out of Mount Zion to their own possessions. The zeal of the Lord of hosts sliall do this,’] His great love to his own honour, and to his people, shall do these wonders; to vindicate his glory from that contempt which was cast upon it by Sennacherib. yer. 32. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it.] He promises the king of Assyria should be so far from possessing himself of the city at this time, that he should not assault it, by shooting so much as an arrow in it: no, nor appear with his army against it, op raise bulwarks to besiege it. Or, as the Hebrews undcrstand it, they should not cast a stone out of their engines against it. Rabsaris, I observed vcr. 8. continued the siege; but whatsoever he did before, after this message of Isaiah he made no attempt upon them. Vcr. 33. By the way that he came, by t the sameivayhe shall return, and sliall not come into this city, ^aith the Lord?] He confirms what he said before, (ver. 28.)

2 Kings 19:34

For I xvill defend this city to save it~\ To preserve it from destruction. For my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. “Upon which account he had formerly spared them, when they deserved to be punished, (1 Kings xi. 12, 13.) Ver; 35. And it came to pass that night] The Jews iu the Gcmara Sanhedrin, (cap. 11. n, 20.), say, that in the very night after they set down before Jerusalem, and were so weary that they made no attempt upon the city, this which follows fell out. t Others think it was the same.night Jhat Hezekiah received Sennacherib’s railing letter; which is more probable than the opinion of our Dr. Jackson, who will haye it that it was the sajne night, about two years after. (See upon the Attributes, sect. 3. chap. 2G.) However it was, the blow was the more remarkable, because it was given in that very night, wherein he had lifted up himself against the God of heaven; as Bclshazzar afterward did, and had his fatal stroke given him in like manner. (See Dan. v, 30.) That the angel of the Lprd went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand men: and when they arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.] By a pestilential disease, as Josephu^ calls it, Xot/iiKov v6<rov, such a vast number were suddenly cut off. It is a question, whether this destruction was made in the army that besieged Xabnah, or in that host which Rab-shakeh brought up against Jerusalem, Josephus thinks the latter; for it is probable Rab-shakeh was come with his whole host against Jerusalem, which before was straitened by Rabsaris; and Kara rfiv irpdjrtjv rrjc 7roAtop- Klag vvtcra, the first night after they had begirt the city (as the Jews say, I observed, in Sanhedrin), the angel of the Lord made this great slaughter among them: lib. x. Antiq. cap. 2. where a little before, in the end of the first chapter, he takes notice of a horrible lie which Herodotus reports from the Egyptians: who say their king, being also a priest, by his prayers to his god, brought this destruction upon the Assyrians, as they lay before Pelusium: a great army of rats coming in the night, and gnawing all their bow* strings in pieces, so that they could not fight. So studious they were to pervert the truth, and corrupt the sacred story.

2 Kings 19:36

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. Being afraid that Tirhakah should come and destroy the remainders of his broken army, (vcr. 9.)

2 Kings 19:37

And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god. The LXX. hero call this god Nesorach; and upon Isaiah, where this story is again told, Asaracb. Bnt what any of these names signify, Mr. Sclden acknowledges he cannot tell, having in all his reading never met with any thing that might explain it. But Kirchcr adventures to say it was the image of & ship, re* presenting the ark of Noah: the relics of which, Josephus tells us, some reported were, in his time, in the neighbouring mountains of Armenia. And a later wTitcr, Beyerus (in his additions to Selden, de Diis Syris), thinks it signifies as much as the bird of Noah, that is, a dove, which was worshipped by the Assyrians: or, as others conjecture (for they can do no more), this word is derived from nes, which in Chaldec signifies a province, and rac, which signifies a king; that |s, Jupiter the king, and conservator of that province. That Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote hem with the sword.] Which they might the more easily do, when he suspected no danger. The reason of it, was, because (in his danger, we may suppose) he had vowed that he would offer.them up unto his god: therefore they sacrificed him, to prevent being sacrificed themselves. One of them seems to have been called after tho name of a god worshipped in those countries, (xv. 11. 31.) And they escaped into the land of Armenia.] Which was not far off; and where there were mountains of very difficult ascent,ajid inhabited by a warlike people. CHAP. XX.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. And Esar-kaddon his son reigned in his stead.] Who was the king that sent a colony to people the country of Samaria, (as I observed before from Ezra iv- 2.) and the rather, because he feared Hczekiah might have taken possession of it, after such a defeat as his father Sennacherib had received. His name is curtailed several ways: for in the book ofTobithe is called Sar-chedon, (i. 21.) the first syllable of his name being cut off; and the LXX. cut off the next, calling him Aser-dan; and Isaiah cuts off both, calling hii& Sargon, (xx. 1.)