In those days Hezekiah was sick and dying. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order; for you will die, and not live.’ ”
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of the city, Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to Yahweh’s house. I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.” ’ ”
Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 7 That his mind might not be troubled.
That his mind might not be troubled.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 2Ki 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto…
2Ki 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
Ver. 1. In those days.] In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, as appeareth by comparing 2Ki 20:6, and 2Ki 18:13; then, when Hannibal ad portas, the Assyrian was in the land. Crosses commonly come thick and many together, {Jas 1:2} and all for the best. {Rom 8:28}
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Was Hezekiah sick unto death.] Sick of the plague, as it is thought, and may be probably gathered from 2Ki 20:7, and had the tokens likely; so that in human apprehension he was a dead man, neither could he recover but by a miracle. A good man may have the plague, and die of it too - as did Oecolampadius, Franeiscus Junius, Chimedontius, Mr Stafford, Mr Greenham, Mr John Blackwell (my most loving friend), and Mr Jeremy Burroughs, if I mistake not - notwithstanding that patent for preservation, Psa 91:1. All such promises being conditional, as was also this following sentence; and so Hezekiah understood it; else he would not have prayed, as he did, that it might not be accomplished.
For thou shalt die, and not live.] That is, In the order of second causes to their effects, thy disease is deadly, for it hath seized upon the vitals: dispositio corporis tui ad mortem ordinatur. When the prophets foretold things ut futura in seipsis, then they always happened: but when they foretold them only as in their causes, they might happen or not, as 1Ki 21:20 Jon 3:4, and here. That is an uncharitable gloss that some Rabbis set upon these words, Thou shalt die here, and not live in the world to come. But they have an edge against him, yet without all cause, as intent only to his own preservation for his time in peace, {2Ki 20:19} and therefore say they, the prophet Isaiah out of a dislike of that his answer, turneth to the people, {Isa 40:1; Isa 39:8} saying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people," &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–7 In those days, i.e. in that year of the…
In those days, i.e. in that year of the Assyrian invasion, as is manifest from hence, that that was in Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, 2Ki 18:13, and God now added fifteen years more to him, 2Ki 20:6; and yet Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years in all, 2Ki 18:2. And this happened either, first, After the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. Or, secondly, Before it, as may be thought from 2Ki 20:6, where he speaks of his deliverance from the king of Assyria as a future thing. It is true, that when Hezekiah received that insolent message from the Assyrian, he was in health, and went into the temple to pray, 2Ki 19:14; but there might be time more than enough for this sickness and recovery between that threatening and this destruction of the Assyrian. Set thine house in order; take care to make thy will, and to settle the affair of thy family and kingdom; which he the rather presseth upon him, because the state of his kingdom required it; for it is plain that Hezekiah had not as yet any son, Manasseh his heir and successor not being born till three years after this time, by comparing this 2Ki 20:6, with 2Ki 21:1. For thou shalt die, and not live; according to the course of nature, and of thy disease, which is mortal in its kind, and will be so in effect, if God doth not miraculously prevent it. Such threatenings, though absolutely expressed, have ofttimes secret conditions, which God reserves in his own breast: see Jon 3:4.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The historian, having shown us blaspheming Sennacherib destroyed in…
The historian, having shown us blaspheming Sennacherib destroyed in the midst of the prospects of life, here shows us praying Hezekiah delivered in the midst of the prospects of death - the days of the former shortened, of the latter prolonged.
I. Here is Hezekiah's sickness. In those days, that is, in the same year in which the king of Assyria besieged Jerusalem; for he reigning reigned? in all twenty-nine years, and surviving this fifteen years, this must be in his fourteenth year, and so was that, Kg2 18:13. Some think it was at the time that the Assyrian army was besieging the city or preparing for it, because God promises (Kg2 20:6): I will defend the city, which promise was afterwards repeated, when the danger came to be most imminent, Kg2 19:34. Others think it was soon after the defeat of Sennacherib; and then it shows us the uncertainty of all our comforts in this world. Hezekiah, in the midst of his triumphs in the favour of God, and over the forces of his enemies, is seized with sickness, and under the arrest of death. We must therefore always rejoice with trembling. It should seem he was sick of the plague, for we read of the boil or plague-sore, Kg2 20:7. The same disease which was killing to the Assyrians was trying to him; God took it from him, and put it upon his enemies. Neither greatness nor goodness can exempt us from sickness, from sore and mortal sicknesses. Hezekiah, lately favoured of heaven above most men, yet is sick unto death - in the midst of his days (under forty) and yet sick and dying; and perhaps he was the more apprehensive of its being fatal to him because his father died when he was about his age, two or three years younger. "In the midst of life we are in death."
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II. Warning brought him to prepare for death. It is brought by Isaiah, who had been twice, as stated in the former chapter, a messenger of good tidings to him. We cannot expect to receive from God's prophets any other than what they have received from the Lord, and we must welcome that, be it pleasing or unpleasing. The prophet tells him, 1. That his disease is mortal, and, if he be not recovered by a miracle of mercy, will certainly be fatal: Thou shalt die, and not live. 2. That therefore he must, with all speed, get ready for death: Set thy house in order. This we should feel highly concerned to do when we are in health, but are most loudly called to do when we come to be sick. Set the heart in order by renewed acts of repentance, and faith, and resignation to God, with cheerful farewells to this world and welcomes to another; and, if not done before (which is the best and wisest course), set the house in order, make thy will, settle thy estate, put thy affairs in the best posture thou canst, for the ease of those that shall come after thee. Isaiah speaks not to Hezekiah of his kingdom, only of his house. David, being a prophet, had authority to appoint who should reign after him, but other kings did not pretend to bequeath their crowns as part of their goods and chattels.
III. His prayer hereupon: He prayed unto the Lord, Kg2 20:2. Is any sick? Let him be prayed for, let him be prayed with, and let him pray. Hezekiah had found, as recorded in the foregoing chapter, that it was not in vain to wait upon God, but that the prayers of faith bring in answers of peace; therefore will he call upon God as long as he lives. Happy experiences of the prevalency of prayer are engagements and encouragements to continue instant in prayer. He had now received the sentence of death within himself, and, if it was reversible, it must be reversed by prayer. When God purposes mercy he will, for this, be enquired of, Eze 36:37. We have not if we ask not, or ask amiss. If the sentence was irreversible, yet prayer is one of the best preparations for death, because by it we fetch in strength and grace from God to enable us to finish well. Observe,
1. The circumstances of this prayer. (1.) He turned his face to the wall, probably as he lay in his bed. This he did perhaps for privacy; he could not retire to his closet as he used to do, but he retired as well as he could, turned from the company that were about him, to converse with God. When we cannot be so private as we would be in our devotions, nor perform them with the usual outward expressions of reverence and solemnity, yet we must not therefore omit them, but compose ourselves to them as well as we can. Or, as some think, he turned his face towards the temple, to show how willingly he would have gone up thither, to pray this prayer (as he did, Kg2 19:1, Kg2 19:14), if he had been able, and remembering what encouragements were given to all the prayers that should be made in or towards that house. Christ is our temple; to him we must have an eye in all our prayers, for no man, no service, comes to the Father but by him. (2.) He wept sorely. Some gather from this that he was unwilling to die. It is in the nature of man to have some dread of the separation of soul and body, and it was not strange if the Old Testament saints, to whom another world was but darkly revealed, were not so willing to leave this as Paul and other New Testament saints were. There was also something peculiar in Hezekiah's case: he was now in the midst of his usefulness, had begun a good work of reformation, which he feared would, through the corruption of the people, fall to the ground, if he should die. If this was before the defeat of the Assyrian army, as some think, he might therefore be loth to die, because his kingdom was in imminent danger of being ruined. However, it does not appear that he had now any son: Manasseh, that succeeded him, was not born till three years after; and, if he should die childless, both the peace of his kingdom and the promise to David would be in danger. But perhaps these were only tears of importunity, and expressions of a lively affection in prayer. Jacob wept and made supplication; and our blessed Saviour, though most willing to die, yet offered up strong cries, with tears, to him whom he knew to be able to save him, Heb 5:7. Let Hezekiah's prayer interpret his tears, and in that we find nothing that intimates him to have been under any of that fear of death which has either bondage or torment.
2. The prayer itself: "Remember now, O Lord! how I have walked before thee in truth; and either spare me to live, that I may continue thus to walk, if, if my work be done, receive me to that glory which thou hast prepared for those that have thus walked." Observe here, (1.) The description of Hezekiah's piety. He had had his conversation in the world with right intentions ("I have walked before thee, as under thy eye and with an eye ever towards thee"), from a right principle ("in truth, and with an upright heart"), and by a right rule - "I have done that which is good in thy sight." (2.) The comfort he now had in reflecting upon it; it made his sick-bed easy. Note, The testimony of conscience for us that we have walked with God in our integrity will be much our support and rejoicing when we come to look death in the face, Co2 1:12. (3.) The humble mention he makes of it to God. Lord, remember it now; not as if God needed to be put in mind of any thing by us (he is greater than our hearts, and knows all things), or as if the reward were of debt, and might be demanded as due (it is Christ's righteousness only that is the purchase of mercy and grace); but our own sincerity may be pleaded as the condition of the covenant which God has wrought in us: "It is the work of thy own hands. Lord, own it." Hezekiah does not pray, "Lord, spare me," or, "Lord, take me; God's will be done;" but, Lord, remember me; whether I live or die, let me be thine.
IV. The answer which God immediately gave to this prayer of Hezekiah. The prophet had got but to the middle court when he was sent back with another message to Hezekiah (Kg2 20:4, Kg2 20:5), to tell him that he should recover; not that there is with God yea and nay, or that he ever says and unsays; but upon Hezekiah's prayer, which he foresaw and which his Spirit inclined him to, God did that for him which otherwise he would not have done. God here calls Hezekiah the captain of his people, to intimate that he would reprieve him for his people's sake, because, in this time of war, they could ill spare such a captain: he calls himself the God of David, to intimate that he would reprieve him out of a regard to the covenant made with David and the promise that he would always ordain a lamp for him. In this answer, 1. God honours his prayers by the notice he takes of them and the reference he has to them in this message: I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears. Prayers that have much life and affection in them are in a special manner pleasing to God. 2. God exceeds his prayers; he only begged that God would remember his integrity, but God here promises (1.) To restore him from his illness: I will heal thee. Diseases are his servants; as they go where he sends them, so they come when he remands them. Mat 8:8, Mat 8:9. I am the Lord that healeth thee, Exo 15:26. (2.) To restore him to such a degree of health that on the third day he should go up to the house of the Lord, to return thanks. God knew Hezekiah's heart, how dearly he loved the habitation of God's house and the place where his honour dwelt, and that as soon as he was well he would go to attend on public ordinances; thitherward he turned his face when he was sick, and thitherward he would turn his feet when he was recovered; and therefore, because nothing would please him better, he promises him this, Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee. The man whom Christ healed was soon after found in the temple, Joh 5:14. (3.) To add fifteen years to his life. This would not bring him to be an old man; it would reach but to fifty-four or fifty-five; yet that was longer than he had lately expected to live. His lease was renewed, which he thought was expiring. We have not the instance of any other that was told before-hand just how long he should live; that good man no doubt made a good use of it; but God has wisely kept us at uncertainties, that we may be always ready. (4.) To deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria, Kg2 20:6. This was the thing which Hezekiah's heart was upon a much as his own recovery, and therefore the promise of this is here repeated. If this was after the raising of the siege, yet there was cause to fear Sennacherib's rallying again. "No," says God, "I will defend this city."
V. The means which were to be used for his recovery, Kg2 20:7. Isaiah was his physician. He ordered an outward application, a very cheap and common thing: "Lay a lump of figs to the boil, to ripen it and bring it to a head, that the matter of the disease may be discharged that way." This might contribute something to the cure, and yet, considering to what a height the disease had come, and how suddenly it was checked, the cure was no less than miraculous. Note, 1. It is our duty, when we are sick, to make use of such means as are proper to help nature, else we do not trust God, but tempt him. 2. Plain and ordinary medicines must not be despised, for many such God has graciously made serviceable to man, in consideration of the poor. 3. What God appoints he will bless and make effectual.
VI. The sign which was given for the encouragement of his faith. 1. He begged it, not in any distrust of the power or promise of God, or as if he staggered at that, but because he looked upon the things promised to be very great things and worthy to be so confirmed, and because it had been usual with God thus to glorify himself and favour his people; and he remembered how much Gos was displeased with his father for refusing to ask a sign, Isa 7:10-12. Observe, Hezekiah asked What is the sign, not that I shall go up to the thrones of judgment or up to the gate, but up to the house of the Lord? He desired to recover that he might glorify God in the gates of the daughter of Zion. It is not worth while to live for any other purpose than to serve God. 2. It was put to his choice whether the sun should go back or go forward; for it was equal to Omnipotence, and it would be the more likely to confirm his faith if he chose that which he thought the more difficult of the two. Perhaps to this that of this prophet may refer (Isa 45:11), Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me. It is supposed that the degrees were half hours, and that it was just noon when the proposal was made, and the question is, "Shall the sun go back to its place at seven in the morning or forward to its place at five in the evening?" 3. He humbly desired the sun might go back ten degrees, because, though either would be a great miracle, yet, it being the natural course of the sun to go forward, its going back would seem more strange, and would be more significant of Hezekiah's returning to the days of his youth (Job 33:25) and the lengthening out of the day of his life. It was accordingly done, upon the prayer of Isaiah (Kg2 20:11): He cried unto the Lord by special warrant and direction, and God brought the sun back ten degrees, which appeared to Hezekiah (for the sign was intended for him) by the going back of the shadow upon the dial of Ahaz, which, it is likely, he could see through his chamber-window; and the same was observed upon all other dials, even in Babylon, Ch2 32:31. Whether this retrograde motion of the sun was gradual or per saltum - suddenly - whether it went back at the same pace that it used to go forward, which would make the day ten hours longer than usual - or whether it darted back on a sudden, and, after continuing a little while, was restored again to its usual place, so that no change was made in the state of the heavenly bodies (as the learned bishop Patrick thinks) - we are not told; but this work of wonder shows the power of God in heaven as well as on earth, the great notice he takes of prayer, and the great favour he bears to his chosen. The most plausible idolatry of the heathen was theirs that worshipped the sun; yet that was hereby convicted of the most egregious folly and absurdity, for by this it appeared that their god was under the check of the God of Israel. Dr. Lightfoot suggests that the fifteen songs of degrees (Psa 120:1-7, etc.) might perhaps be so called because selected by Hezekiah to be sung to his stringed instruments (Isa 38:20) in remembrance of the degrees on the dial which the sun went back and the fifteen years added to his life; and he observes how much of these psalms is applicable to Jerusalem's distress and deliverance and Hezekiah's sickness and recovery.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7 In these days was Hezekiah sick unto death,.... Of…
In these days was Hezekiah sick unto death,.... Of this sickness of Hezekiah, the message of the prophet Isaiah to him, and his prayer upon it; see Gill on Isa 38:1; see Gill on Isa 38:2; see Gill on Isa 38:3.
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2 Kings 20:4
kg2 20:4
kg2 20:4
kg2 20:4And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,.... Of the king's palace, which is called the other court within the porch, Kg1 7:8 so it is according to the marginal reading, which we follow; but the textual reading is, "the middle city"; Jerusalem was divided into three parts, and this was the middle part Isaiah was entering into: but before he did, so it was:
that the word of the Lord came to him, saying; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–6 Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, ver. 1-7. The sign given…
Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, ver. 1-7. The sign given him, ver. 8-11. He shews the Babylonians all his treasures, ver. 12-13. The Babylonish captivity foretold, ver. 14-19. He dies, ver. 20, 21
Those days - In the year of the Assyrian invasion. Set, &c. - Make thy will, and settle the affairs of thy family and kingdom. Not live - Such threatenings, though absolutely expressed, have often secret conditions.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7 Hezekiah's sickness, and the message of the prophet to…
CHAPTER XX
Hezekiah's sickness, and the message of the prophet to him, to
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prepare for death, 1.
His distress and prayer to God, 2, 3.
The Lord hears, and promises to add fifteen years to his life,
and Isaiah prescribes a means of cure, 4-7.
Hezekiah seeks a sign; and to assure him of the truth of God's
promise, the shadow on the dial of Ahaz goes back ten degrees,
8-11.
The King of Babylon sends a friendly message to Hezekiah, to
congratulate him on his recovery; and to these messengers he
ostentatiously shows all his treasures, 12, 13.
Isaiah reproves him, and foretells that the Babylonians will
come and take away all those treasures, and take the people
into captivity; and degrade the royal family of Judah, 14-18.
Hezekiah bows to the Divine judgment, 19.
His acts and death, 20, 21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XX
Verse 1. Set thine house in order] It appears from the text that he was smitten with such a disorder as must terminate in death, without the miraculous interposition of God: and he is now commanded to set his house in order, or to give charge concerning his house; to dispose of his affairs, or in other words, to make his will; because his death was at hand. "This sickness," says Jarchi, "took place three days before the defeat of Sennacherib." That it must have been before this defeat, is evident. Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years, 2Kg 18:2. He had reigned fourteen years when the war with Sennacherib began, 2Kg 18:13, and he reigned fifteen years after this sickness, 2Kg 20:6; therefore 14+15=29, the term of his reign. Nothing can be clearer than this, that Hezekiah had reigned fourteen years before this time; and that he did live the fifteen years here promised. That Hezekiah's sickness happened before the destruction of Sennacherib's army, is asserted by the text itself: see 2Kg 20:6.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 2Ki 20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto…
2Ki 20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death — That is, in the same year in which the king of Assyria invaded Judea; for Hezekiah reigned in all twenty-nine years, and surviving this sickness fifteen years, it must have happened in his fourteenth year, which was the year in which Sennacherib invaded him. It appears, however, from 2Ki 20:6, in which God promises to deliver him and Jerusalem out of the hand of the king of Assyria, that it took place before that deliverance; but the sacred historian thought proper to place it after that event, that he might not interrupt the story of Sennacherib. Thus saith the Lord, Set thy house in order, &c. — Make thy will, and settle the affairs of thy family and kingdom. This he the rather presses upon him, because the state of his kingdom peculiarly required it, for it is plain Hezekiah had not, as yet, any son; Manasseh, his heir and successor, not being born till three years after this time; compare 2Ki 20:6 with 2Ki 21:1. Thou shalt die, and not live — Thy disease is mortal in its kind, and will be so in effect, if God do not by a miracle prevent it. Such threatenings, though expressed absolutely, have often secret conditions.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–7 In those days - Hezekiah seems to have died…
In those days - Hezekiah seems to have died 697 B.C.; and his illness must belong to 713 or 714 B.C. (compare 2Ki 20:6), a date which falls early in the reign of Sargon. The true chronological place of this narrative is therefore prior to all the other facts related of Hezekiah except his religious reforms.
The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz - This full description of Isaiah (compare 2Ki 19:2), by the addition of his father’s name and of his office, marks the original independence of this narrative. The writer of Kings may have found it altogether separate from the other records of Hezekiah, and added it in the state in which he found it.
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This history (compare Jon 3:4-10) shows that the prophetic denunciations were often not absolute predictions of what was certainly about to happen, but designed primarily to prove, or to lead to repentance, those against whom they were uttered, and only obtaining accomplishment if this primary design failed.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Days, before the destruction of Sennacherib’s army; (ver. 6.;…
Days, before the destruction of Sennacherib’s army; (ver. 6.; Menochius) though some suppose that Ezechias was afflicted with sickness, because he had not shewn sufficient gratitude for his deliverance, 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. 24. (Eusebius and St. Jerome, in Isaias xxxix. (Calmet) --- But it might be sent only to purify him the more, &c. (Menochius) --- He fell ill the same year that the Assyrian invaded his dominions, ver. 6., and chap. xviii. 13. The nature of his disorder in not fully known. (It was probably an abscess, (Calmet) brought on by a fever; or an ulcer, for which the things which promote suppuration, are always proper. Thus God teaches us to make use of natural remedies, yet so as to place our whole confidence in him. (Haydock) --- Others think it was a pleurisy, (John xxi. Thesaur. 26.) or a quinsey, (Barthol.) or the pestilence, &c. (Calmet) --- Unto death, of an illness, which would naturally have proved mortal; as that of Benadad was the reverse, chap. viii. 10. --- Not live, very shortly; though he does not express the time. We should always bear in mind this awful warning. (Haydock) --- The prediction was conditional, like that of Jonas; (iii. 4.; Calmet) otherwise it would have been sinful to strive to render it ineffectual. (Estius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 B.—Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery; his Reception of the Babylonian…
B.—Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery; his Reception of the Babylonian Embassy, and his End
2Ki_20:1-21. (Isaiah 38)
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1In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, 3I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth [fidelity] and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court,1 that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain [prince] of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go unto the house of the Lord. 6And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend [protect] this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 7And Isaiah said, Take [Bring] a lump of figs. And they took [brought] and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be [is] the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? 9And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? [the shadow is gone forward ten degrees,—if it go back ten degrees?] 10And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in [on] the dial [stairs] of Ahaz.
12At that time Berodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been 13[was] sick. And Hezekiah hearkened unto them [rejoiced because of them],2 and shewed them all the house of his precious things [treasury], the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour [armory], and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
14Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. 15And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. 16And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. 17Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried unto Babylon: 18nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And [some] of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 19Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days? [And he said: Verily; may there only be peace and security in my days.]
20And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
2Ki_20:1. In those days. By these words Hezekiah’s illness is referred to the time of the last-mentioned events, but only as a general designation of the time of its occurrence (Keil). It fell, like those events, in the middle of his reign. The expositors are not agreed, however, whether it took place before or after Sennacherib’s retreat. The majority of the modern scholars adopt the opinion that it was before that event, founding their opinion on 2Ki_20:6. There he is promised fifteen years more of life, and Sennacherib’s retreat is spoken of as something which has not yet come to pass. Now, as Hezekiah, according to 2Ki_18:2, reigned twenty-nine years, and Sennacherib invaded Judah in his fourteenth year (2Ki_18:13), this illness must have befallen him, it is argued, in his fourteenth year, either “at the beginning of Sennacherib’s invasion” (Keil), or “while the Assyrians were still besieging Jerusalem” (Thenius). It is further alleged in support of this view that Hezekiah showed to the Babylonian embassy, which came to congratulate him, treasures of gold and silver (2Ki_20:13), but that he had given up everything of this kind which he had (2Ki_18:15) to Sennacherib, so that his illness and recovery must have taken place before the retreat of the Assyrians (Delitsch and Hahn). These may appear to be very forcible arguments, but there are opposing considerations of the highest importance. In the first place, both narratives put the story of Hezekiah’s illness after the account of the Assyrian invasion, and as Calmet observes: Neque ego libenter desero seriem et ordinem rerum in libris sacris deductam, nisi valida id argumenta suadeant. It has indeed been urged that the historian placed the story of Sennacherib’s retreat (2Ki_19:35 sq.) first, because “he desired to finish up the story of the Assyrian invasion, so as not to be obliged to return to it” (Knobel). But the Chronicler makes this hypothesis, which is in itself improbable, entirely inadmissible, for he says that Hezekiah was highly honored by all nations on account of this deliverance, and that many sent presents to him, and then he proceeds to give the story of his illness (2Ch_32:22-31). Josephus also asserts very positively that Hezekiah and all the people offered thank-offerings to God, and showed great religious zeal, but that then (μετ’ οὐ πολύ) he was afflicted by a severe illness. Secondly, the Babylonian embassy cannot be assigned to the period before the retreat of Sennacherib, nor to any time during the Assyrian invasion, for the king of Babylon, who was a vassal of the king of Assyria, would not have dared to congratulate Hezekiah at that time when he was in revolt against the suzerain of both, and he would have had no grounds for seeking an alliance with Hezekiah when he was in distress and peril. Thirdly, Hezekiah’s hymn of thanksgiving (Isa_38:10) begins with the words: “I said (that is, I thought) in the cutting off (interruption, period of tranquillity) of my days,” &c.; i.e., “when a period of rest had come in my life, a pause in the midst of the ceaseless toil and care and danger of life” (Drechsler); when I believed that I was relieved from all danger by Sennacherib’s retreat, and that I could live on in peace and security, then came a new trouble and danger, and it seemed that I must go down to the grave. Against all these important considerations, which are taken from history, it cannot be argued that “the former story [of the peril of Jerusalem] is placed first because it is most important” (Von Gerlach), for what would become of the art of writing history, if historians should narrate later events before they did earlier ones, because the former were more important? As for 2Ki_20:6, the number “fifteen” cannot be arithmetically accurate, for if it were so, then not only Sennacherib’s invasion and Hezekiah’s illness, but also the journey of the army of at least 185,000 men through the desert el Tih to Egypt, the siege of Pelusium, the return to Judah, the siege and conquest of the “fenced cities,” the devastation of the country, and finally, the destruction of Sennacherib’s army and his retreat, and even the embassy from Babylon, must all have taken place in one year,—Hezekiah’s fourteenth, and this appears impossible, considering that they had no railways. Isaiah’s words in 2Ki_20:5-6 are not an historical allusion, but a prophetic oracle. In the prophetic style numbers have not always their strict, arithmetical value, but are clothed with a significance of another character. The number 15, in this case, is not, indeed, as Knobel thinks, “contributed by the redactor, exeventu, and put in the mouth of the prophet, who could not know how many years longer Hezekiah was to live,” but still we ask why should he have just fifteen years longer, and not one more or one less? Fifteen is not what is commonly called a round number. It will not do to answer this by the anticipatory statement (2Ki_18:2) that Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years. Not because he was to reign twenty-nine years in all were fifteen years more assigned to him, but because he was spared for fifteen years more his whole reign amounted to twenty-nine years. When he was taken ill he had finished his fourteenth year and begun his fifteenth. He was then thirty-nine years old, in the prime of life. Suddenly he stood on the brink of the grave, and it was all the more painful to him to quit life at this moment, because he had just been delivered from his most powerful enemy, and had hopes of being able to reign now in peace and quiet. It was regarded as a very great misfortune to be called away in the prime of life, hence his earnest prayer (2Ki_20:3), which had no other sense than this: “O my God! take me not away in the midst of my days” (Psa_102:24; cf. Psa_55:23). The prophet promises him the fulfilment of this prayer, and that he shall reign as much longer as he had already reigned. The words which follow: I will deliver thee out of the hand of the king of Assyria, then refer to the remainder of his reign. In the new lease of life which was to be given him, he should fear nothing from the great and mighty enemy; he should reign in peace. This promise was of the greatest importance, for, although Sennacherib had fled in disgrace, yet he was still very powerful and very dangerous, and his wrath against Judah was fiercer than ever (Tobias 2Ki_1:18). He might collect his forces and make another expedition against Judah. In fact, he did immediately collect an army and march against Babylon which had revolted. Thus the words are understood by Vitringa, Clericus, Gesenius, Rosenmüller, and Drechsler, and the latter adds the pertinent remark that, if 2Ki_20:6 had been spoken before the events narrated in chaps. 18 and 19 took place, then 2Ki_19:34 would be only a repetition of the promise in that verse.
2Ki_20:1. Thus saith the Lord: Set thine house in order; literally: Give commands in regard to thine house, i.e., take the necessary measures for the management of thine affairs (cf. 2Sa_17:23, where אֶל stands for לְ). It does not mean “make known thy (last) will” (Knobel, Gesenius), nor, “give commands in regard to the succession to the throne”(Hess).—To the wall (2Ki_20:2), not in dissatisfaction as Ahab did, 1Ki_21:4 (Hitzig), but away from those who were present, in order that he might pray more freely and collectedly.—O Lord! remember now (2Ki_20:3). To fall a victim of disease in the midst of his days seemed to the king, in view of proverbs like Pro_10:27 : “The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened,” to be a proof of having displeased God, that is, to be a punishment. He therefore prays God to remember also the good which he has striven to do, and “takes refuge in the promises which God had given in the Old Testament that good works should be rewarded by length of days” (Starke). For the rest, his words are not to be taken as referring in a general way to moral purity, but, as the expressions “with a perfect heart,” and “good in thy sight” show, as referring especially to his zeal for the pure worship of Jehovah, and his earnestness against every form of idolatry. (On שָׁלֵם see notes on 1Ki_11:4; 1Ki_11:6.)—And Hezekiah wept sore. Josephus declares that, in addition to the disease, there was now great ἀθυμία, because he was to die childless and leave the kingdom without an heir, and that, in this difficulty, he prayed to God with tears, that He would allow him to live a little longer until he had become a father. The Church fathers and many other ancient expositors adopt this conception of the circumstances, and point, in its support, to the fact that the son and successor of Hezekiah, Manasseh, was only twelve years old when his father died (2Ki_21:1), that is, he was born three years after this illness. Ewald calls this a “fiction” and appeals to Isa_38:19; Isa_39:7. It certainly is hardly credible that Hezekiah was childless at the age of thirty-nine; it is not necessary to assume that Manasseh was the oldest son (see note on 1Ki_1:5); and it is possible that the older sons had died before Hezekiah did. The only reason for his tears is the one which he gives in his hymn of thanksgiving, Isa_38:10 sq.
2Ki_20:4. Afore Isaiah had gone out into the middle city. The middle city is “the central part of the city, i.e., of Mt. Zion where the royal castle was situated.” The keri חָצֵר (“the middle court” [E. V.], not of the temple but of the castle), is presented by all the ancient versions, but it is only an interpretation of עִיר as referring to the castle after the analogy of 2Ki_10:25 (Keil). תִּיכֹנָה does not mean the “inner” city, in contrast with the houses which lay outside of the wall of Mt. Zion (Knobel), but only, the middle one.—The words in 2Ki_20:5 from “behold” to “house of the Lord” are wanting in Isa_38:5, but are brought in in Isa_38:22. At this point it is quite evident that the account in Isaiah is very much abbreviated. The words on the third day (2Ki_20:5) need not be taken literally, but they certainly do not mean “within a few weeks” (Hitzig). The phrase, prince of my people, which is added, indicates the ground for assisting him.—On 2Ki_20:6 see notes on 2Ki_20:1. The closing words: For mine own sake, &c., are wanting in Isaiah because they already occur in 2Ki_19:34 (Isa_37:35). They have here the same force as there. They are not, therefore, to be understood as containing any special reference to the circumstance that Hezekiah had no son, but that, nevertheless, the house of David should not become extinct, as the old expositors understood.—דְּבֶלֶת תְּאֵנִים, 2Ki_20:7, means properly a pressed mass of figs. דְּבֶלֶת without תְּאֵנִים means a cake of figs (1Sa_25:18; 1Sa_30:12). This was laid upon הַשְּׁחִין, strictly, the inflammation, hence, the fester, or boil (Job_2:1; Exo_9:9). It is ordinarily understood to refer to a plague-sore, and it is inferred that Hezekiah was afflicted with “the plague which had carried off the Assyrian army” (Knobel), “the contagion of which had been transmitted to the king” (Winer and others); but this is utterly false. For, in the first place, שְׁחִין never occurs in reference to a plague, and then again, only one sore is here spoken of, whereas the plague produced several on different parts of the body. Moreover a plague or pestilence never occurs in isolated cases, but as an epidemic. There is not the slightest hint that any such disease raged in Jerusalem either before, or during, or after the Assyrian invasion. Still further, figs are not applied as a specific remedy for plague-sores. In pestilence “no medicines are administered except at the commencement of the disease, something to produce perspiration” (Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 233). Figs were the usual remedy for boils. Dioscorides says of them: διαφορεῖ σκληρίας; Pliny: Ulcera aperit; and Jerome remarks on Isaiah 38 : Juxta artem medicorum omnis sanies siccioribus ficis atque contusis in cutis superficiem provocatur (cf. Celsius, Hierobot. II. p. 373). We cannot define more nearly what sort of a boil it was. Ewald thinks it was “a fever-boil;” according to Thenius “a single carbuncle formed under the back of the head,” but this is a pure guess. [The ground for Thenius’ idea, which goes as far as is possible towards defining more nearly the character of the disease, is, that there was a single sore, and that it was about to prove fatal. A carbuncle, particularly in such a place, would answer this description.—W. G. S.]
2Ki_20:8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What is the sign, &c? In his deep anxiety the sick man desires an external sign to strengthen his faith in the prophet’s words. Such signs usually attended a prophet’s promises (Isa_7:11; Isa_7:14; 2Ki_19:29). This demand of the king is not at all astonishing in view of the words addressed to Ahaz in Isa_7:11 : “Ask a sign,” &c. There also the prophet allowed the king to choose what the sign should be. 2Ki_20:9-11 are condensed in Isaiah into one verse. In 2Ki_20:9 Drechsler rejects the ordinary translation [that of the E. V.] which makes of the last part an alternative question. He asserts that that translation is “simply impossible.” He translates: “The shadow shall advance ten degrees, or shall it recede ten degrees?” taking הלך as a command. “The prophet determines, in the first place, that it shall advance, then he interrupts himself, corrects himself, and leaves the king to determine which it shall do.” But it is only in disjunctive questions that אִם means or, and the prophet does not “correct himself” in such a solemn expression. Keil also, in his new commentary, translates: “The shadow has advanced ten degrees—if it should recede ten degrees? “He takes the second clause hypothetically: “Whether it may indeed,” &c., which is not only forced but also unclear. Hezekiah’s answer presupposes a disjunctive question. As in Isa_7:11, the prophet asks the king whether he will ask a sign in the depth or in the height, so here he asks Hezekiah whether the sign of the shadow shall be that it shall go forward or backward. It cannot be objected that הֲ is wanting: with הָלַךְ, for this is often the case, and the question is designated only by the tone of the voice (Gen_27:24; 2Sa_18:29. Gesen. Gramm. § 153. 1). [The argument for reading 2Ki_20:9 as a disjunctive question resolves itself into an inference from Hezekiah’s answer. Regarding simply the grammar of 2Ki_20:9 there are two obstacles to this rendering; first, the omission of הֲ, which is never omitted in a disjunctive question, and secondly, the perfect tense הָלַךְ. Keil’s translation is therefore better. “The shadow has advanced ten degrees—if it should recede ten degrees? “would that be a satisfactory sign? It is true that the answer of Hezekiah does not seem to fit well to this question. The only other and more satisfactory solution of the difficulty is that which involves an alteration of the text. Knobel and Hitzig read הָלִיךְ. It seems necessary to supply also הֲ as having fallen out before הָלַךְ. The reading would then be: What sign shall there be? The shadow’s advancing? or shall the shadow recede? Keil’s objection (Comm. s. 344 note 2), that the inf. abs. would, in that case, be used for the future, would not apply. The inf. abs. must be understood in its most ordinary use to express directly and simply the verbal idea.—See Gramm. and also Exeg. notes on אָכֹל, 2Ki_19:29.—W. G. S.].—The words צֵל and מַעֲלוֹת refer to the instrument which we call a sundial, and which the ancients called a shadow-measurer (Plin. 36:15), because the hour of the day was estimated by the length of the shadow. It is evident from this that these instruments were not arranged by them as they are by us (see Martini, Von den Sonnenuhren der Alten, Leipzig, 1777, s. 35). The מַעֲלוֹת served to indicate the time. It is generally supposed that they were the degrees or lines (Vulg. lineœ) of the scale on the indicator of the sun-dial. But מַעֲלָה means a going up, an ascent, or that which ascends, hence a step (1Ki_10:19; 2Ki_9:13), never a grade, a degree, or a line (see Knobel on Isa_38:8). The Sept. always render it by ἀναβαθμοί. The shadow-measurer must, therefore, have had steps like a pair of stairs. As it is called in 2Ki_20:10 : “the steps of Ahaz;” it has often been supposed that it consisted of the stairs to the royal palace. Stairs, however, as distinguished from steps, were called עוֹלָה (Eze_40:26), and why should the stairs of the royal palace, which had long been in their place, be called the stairs of Ahaz? It is evident that the shadow-measurer was an instrument by itself and not a part of the royal palace. It was “an arrangement contrived especially to measure the length of the shadow as a means of learning the hour” (Thenius). It is not possible now to say how it was contrived. Among the numerous guesses which have been made as to the mode of its construction (Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 498 sq.) the simplest and most natural seems to us to be that it was a column with circular steps surrounding it. “This column cast the shadow of its top at noon upon its uppermost, and morning and evening upon the lowest step, and thus designated the hour of the day” (Knobel). The prophet’s question gives rise to the supposition that there were twenty of these steps, so that the shadow could go forward or backward ten degrees. “If the sign was given an hour before sunset then the shadow, returning ten degrees of a half-hour each, came back to the point at which it stood at noon” (Delitsch). It is impossible to draw any inference from this as to the division of hours among the Jews, for it is probable that they did not have any such division before the captivity (Winer, I. c. II. s. 560). The fact that the sun-dial was named after Ahaz is doubtless due to its having been first set up by him in the court of the palace. According to Herodotus (2:109) it was a Babylonian invention, and as the Babylonians were then in continual intercourse with the Assyrians, Ahaz may have become acquainted with it through the latter, just as he borrowed from them the plan of the new altar (2Ki_16:10). [“To them (the Assyrians) also is to be attributed the institution of the week of seven days, dedicated to the seven planetary bodies worshipped by them as divine beings, and the order assigned by them to the days has not been changed from time immemorial. Having invented the gnomon, they were the first to divide the day into twenty-four hours, the hours into sixty minutes, and the minutes into sixty seconds” (Lenormant I. 449). They had a sexagesimal system of notation (Chevallier, ibid.).]
2Ki_20:10. And Hezekiah answered: It is a light thing. Clericus thinks that Hezekiah answered the prophet’s question non satis prudenter, for that it would be as difficult for the shadow to advance as to recede. But Starke observes correctly: “As the shadow, in the ordinary course of things, always advances and never recedes, the king chooses that which appears to be the more difficult in order that the proof may be the clearer.” Full of his ardent wish that the shadow of death (Mat_4:16) may not extend any further, but may become shorter, he naturally chooses the latter movement for the shadow on the dial. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, &c., 2Ki_20:11. Thenius arbitrarily asserts that “these words do not belong to history, but express the mode of conception prevalent at the time the history was written” [in other words, that Isaiah did not, as an actual matter of history, at this point in his conversation with the king, “cry to the Lord,” but that the historian’s idea of what a prophet would do under such circumstances was, that he would at this point cry to God, and that he accordingly inserted here a mention of Isaiah’s having done so]. The prophets were accustomed, before giving a sign to confirm their utterances, to call upon God, because they knew, and every one else was to be taught, that the sign did not come from them but from God (1Ki_17:20; 1Ki_18:36; 2Ki_4:33; 2Ki_6:17; cf. Joh_11:41). As in 2Ki_20:9 so also here in 2Ki_20:11, a movement forwards and backwards is ascribed, not to the sun but to the shadow. In this sign, all turned upon the shadow, not upon the sun. Thenius thinks that הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ must be supplied as a subject to יָרְדָה, because it is a feminine form, while צֵל is masculine, but, in view of the variableness of the Hebrew genders, we cannot draw an inference from this feminine form which shall contradict the clear sense of the words (see Drechsler on Isa_38:8). The account in Isaiah has instead of this verse: “Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down;” but here also צֵל must be understood as the subject of the first יָרְדָה, and, in the case of the second יָרְדָה, we must understand that the reference is not to any movement of the sun, but to a movement of the shadow caused by the sun. Drechsler correctly observes on the words: “And the sun turned backward:” “that is to say, of course, that the sunshine moved backwards on the indicator [better, the steps] on which it fell.” (Cf. also Delitsch on Isa_38:8.) The account in Kings is more detailed and more accurate than that in Isaiah, for the latter omits 2Ki_20:10-11, and mentions briefly, in 2 Kings 20:21, 22, after the thanksgiving of Hezekiah (Isa_38:9-20), that which is here given in 2Ki_20:7-8, as if the figs had not been applied until after the מִכְתָּב of Hezekiah.
[The story of the incident is complete without 2Ki_20:7-11. Hezekiah’s recovery is mentioned in 2Ki_20:7, and it is a surprise to read in 2Ki_20:8 a request from him to be assured by a sign that he shall be healed. This lack of unity in the story seems to point to the fact that two independent traditions in regard to Hezekiah’s illness are here combined. Unfortunately the account in Isaiah is also somewhat disjointed. Isa_38:21-22 brings in the account of the king’s recovery as a sort of supplement, or after thought. He there asks for a sign that he shall go to the temple on the third day, not, that he shall recover.—See further the bracketed addition to Histor. § 4.—W. G. S.]
2Ki_20:12. At that time Berodach-baladan, &c. This took place “certainly not very soon after what is narrated above, for, at that time, news travelled slowly, and journeys took time” (Thenius), but it certainly was not as late as 703 [See Supplem. Note after the Exeg. section on chaps. 18 and 19, and the similar Note after the present Exeg. section], as Knobel thinks, that is ten years after, for the ostensible object of the embassy was to congratulate the king on his recovery. בְּרֹאדַךְ stands for מְרֹאדַךְ Isa_39:1. It is not an error, but simply an interchange of the labials, as in בָּרִיא and מָרִיא. Merodach is really the name of the Babylonian Mars (Jer_50:2). [See Exeg. notes on Jer_16:3; Jer_17:16. —Merodach belonged to the third rank of gods in the Babylonian Pantheon. This rank consisted of five gods representing the five planets. Merodach was equivalent to Jupiter, and was identified with the planet which we call by that name. He was one of the chief gods at Babylon and had two shrines (one mystic) in the great pyramid there. Nebuchadnezzar speaks of having adorned this pyramid and these shrines. Merodach was a secondary form or emanation of Bel (Baal). “He was called ‘the ancient one of the gods, the supreme judge, the master of the horoscope;’ he was represented as a man erect and walking, and with a naked sword in his hand.” (Lenormant, I. 454 sq.)] It was the custom of the Babylonians and Assyrians to give their kings the names of divinities. Baladan is, according to the Aramaic, equivalent to בַּעַל אָדוֹן. On the question whether this king was the Μαρδοκέμπαδος in the Canon Ptol., who reigned twelve years, or the Merodach-baladan in the Chron. Armen. of Eusebius (Berosus), who only reigned six months, see Niebuhr, Gesch. Assyr. s. 40 and 75 sq., and Delitsch on Isa_38:1. [See Supplem. Note at the end of this section.]—According to 2Ch_32:31, the object of the embassy was, not only to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery, but also to get information about the miracle, that is about the “sign” of the prophet. Evidently this was only the ostensible object; consequently Josephus does not mention it at all (Ant. x. 2, 2), but only gives the true one: σύμμαχόν τε αὐτὸν εἶναι παρεκάλει καὶ φίλον. The kings of Babylon, who at that time were under the Assyrian supremacy, sought to free themselves from it. The present time, when Sennacherib had suffered a severe calamity, seemed to them to be the best opportunity. “The object of the embassy was to form an alliance with a king who had successfully resisted the Assyrian power” (Von Gerlach). Hence it follows that Hezekiah’s illness fell in the time after and not before the Assyrian invasion. His recovery gave the king of Babylon the pretext he desired for sending an embassy. He did not care much to offer an empty congratulation. His object was, to “find out the strength of the kingdom of Judah” (Ewald). The ambassadors succeeded in inducing Hezekiah himself to give them full information in regard to this.
2Ki_20:13. And Hezekiah rejoiced on account of them, certainly not merely on account of their civility in coming to see him, and congratulate him, but also on account of the real object of their visit, which he easily perceived, even if they did not expressly make it known to him. An alliance with the Babylonians, whose power was then on the increase, seemed to him to be very advantageous to his kingdom, and to assure him against further danger from the Assyrians. He therefore showed them his treasury, his armory, &c, in order to show them that his means were not so entirely exhausted as might be expected after the Assyrian invasion. Drechsler justly remarks upon the enumeration of the different objects which follows, that “it lay in the interest of the narrator to enumerate as many as possible of these objects, in order to show that Hezekiah exerted himself to bring out and show everything which could set off his military strength and resources.” First the treasury is mentioned, in which silver and gold were stored. נְכֹת is not to be connected with נְכֹאת (Gen_37:25; Gen_43:11) i.e., spice, especially the gum of the tragacanth which grows in Syria (why should the “spice-house” be mentioned first of all, before the silver and gold?). The word comes rather from the unused root כּוּת, equivalent to כּוּם: conceal, cover, preserve (see Fürst, s. v.), so that it means “treasure-house,” or “store-house.” The assumption that it was first used for storing spices, but then for storing gold and silver (Gesenius), is at least unnecessary. [The etymology suggested by Fürst and adopted by Bähr is very uncertain and improbable. It does not appear that כּוּם has the sense attributed to it. Gesenius’ explanation is the best, and is the one almost universally adopted. נְכֹאת = נְכֹת spice. The spice-house is the one used for storing spices—which were always reckoned as precious articles. The name then passed over to a store-house, or treasury, for precious articles of all sorts.—W. G. S.]. בְּשָׂמִים, perfume, the general expression for all objects which have a pleasant smell, which were used either for incense or for ointment, and which were highly esteemed. “At courts it was considered highly important to have a good stock of these” (Winer II. s. 495 sq.). The rabbis, whom Movers and Keil follow, say that שֶׁמֶן הַטּוֹב is not fine olive-oil, but balsam-oil manufactured from the products of the royal gardens. The armory which here stands in contrast with the treasury is without doubt the house of the forest of Lebanon (see notes on 1Ki_7:2). In all his dominion, i.e., “throughout the extent of his authority; not only in the royal castle, but throughout his kingdom” (Drechsler). It has been asked whence all these treasures came, since Hezekiah had to give up all his gold and silver to Sennacherib, and even to take off the gold coverings to the doorposts of the temple, which he had himself given in order to satisfy Sennacherib (2Ki_18:14-16). The answer is not difficult. Sennacherib had only demanded gold and silver, not perfume, nor oil, nor even arms, and with these last Hezekiah had abundantly supplied himself at the approach of the Assyrians (2Ch_32:5). The armory was therefore full, and the spices all remained. As for the silver and gold, it is evident from 2Ki_20:17 (“and that which thy fathers have laid up in store”) that Hezekiah had not given up all, but still retained some of the ancient articles which had been handed down. He preferred to take the temple adornments which he himself had given, rather than to give up these articles which perhaps were hidden away in subterranean places of security. “The Chronicler also relates (II. Chron 32:23), in a credible manner, that, after the retreat of the Assyrians, many kings sent presents to Hezekiah” (Thenius). Finally, a great deal of booty may have been obtained from the camp of the Assyrians after their sudden flight, as Vitringa, Ewald, and Drechsler suggest [See Supplem. Note after Exeg. on chaps, 18 and 19. The tribute given by Hezekiah is there mentioned in detail, from the inscriptions.]
2Ki_20:14. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah. Isaiah perceived the real object of the Babylonian embassy. He saw that the object was not merely to congratulate the king on his recovery and to satisfy their curiosity, but that they also desired to draw Hezekiah into an alliance, and he saw that the king was disposed to enter into one. He therefore felt himself impelled to go to the king and to call him to account. This he does by a question which, however, involves a strong affirmation: I know what has been done, but why hast thou done it? He desired a confession from the mouth of the king himself. As he had zealously protested before against any alliance with Egypt and Assyria, so he now warned the king against Babylon, and showed him what was to be apprehended from that quarter. Hezekiah’s unembarrassed reply (2Ki_20:15) shows that he supposed that he was doing right. “Hear,” the prophet rejoins, “Jehovah’s word” (2Ki_20:16); thou hopest for help and deliverance from Babylon, but this very Babylon shall bring to thy kingdom and people ruin and destruction. These, to whom thou hast shown all that thou hast, will take away all this and more besides; they will take away even thy children and make them servants at their court. 2Ki_20:18. That shall issue out of thee, that thou shalt beget—not his own sons, strictly speaking, but his descendants, a sense in which בֵּן is so often used. Although סָרִיסִים really means cunuchs, and although “the proper sting of the assertion in this verse is not to be unnecessarily blunted” (Drechsler), nevertheless we must not insist upon the literal force of the word, as Gesenius does, but understand by it footmen, or court attendants (1Sa_8:15), as we see from the example of Daniel (Dan_1:8), who was not a eunuch. There was humiliation enough in this prospect.
2Ki_20:19. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah.— He subjects himself in humility, and in submission to the will of God, and to the prophet’s words, as Eli did, 1Sa_3:18, cf. the same expression 1Ki_2:38; 1Ki_2:42. טוֹב cannot here mean kind (Umbreit), for the words in 2Ki_20:17-18 were not “kind;” nevertheless they were good in the fullest sense of the word, inasmuch as they were the words of God.—“They were such that there was no fault to be found with them” (Lange). Clericus remarks on the word; Bonum vocatur id, in quo acquiescere par est, quipped ab eo profectum, qui nihil facit, quod non tantum justissimum, sed quod summa bonitate non sit temperatum, etiam cum pœnas sumit. The second וַיֹּאמֶר shows that after the first part of the answer there was a pause, and that the following words were not addressed directly to Isaiah, although they were spoken before he went away; not, as Knobel thinks, after he was gone. הֲלֹא is strictly nonne? “The interrogative force is often lost, and it does not differ from הֵן or הִנֵּה. See 1Sa_20:37; 2Sa_15:35; Job_22:12” (Gesenius). אִם is a particle of wishing (Psa_81:8; Psa_139:18). Calmet renders the sense thus: Justa sunt omnia, quœcunque Deus sancivit, sed utinam coërceat ultionis suæ cursum, quamdiu vivo. This seems simpler and more natural than Keil’s translation: “Is it not so, i.e., is it not pure goodness if peace and security are to last through my days (as long as I live)?” Instead of הֲלֹא אִם we find in Isa_39:8, כִּי, which is by no means to be preferred, for the translation: “For there will be peace” does not join on well to what precedes. According to Knobel כִּי simply introduces the direct discourse. It is an error to translate, as is often done: “Very well! so long as there may only be peace and security in my time,” and to take the words as an expression of “naive” (Gesenius), or “easy” (Knobel), or “genuine oriental” (Hitzig) egotism, as if, as some of the rabbis indeed understand it (see Jerome on Isaiah 39.), he did not trouble himself about his people. On the contrary, it is out of love for them that he does not wish to survive or see their destruction. His words are an expression of pain (Josephus: λυπηθείς), and not of easy selfishness. Drechsler and Keil understand אֶמֶת to refer to the “faithfulness of God, who keeps the covenant of grace which He has made with the humble,” and Hitzig understands it of the faithfulness of men, “who keep the peace and observe treaties.” But, as there is no reference here to peace with God (see 2Ki_20:17-18), so it cannot refer to His faithfulness, much less to that of the Babylonians, who, as yet, had made no treaty. אֶמֶת is rather a synonym of שָׁלוֹם, and signifies permanence, security. It cannot be understood otherwise in Jer_33:6, where it stands in the same connection (cf. Jer_14:13). Vitringa: status rerum stabilis.
2Ki_20:20. And the rest of the acts, &c. In the notice of the close of Hezekiah’s reign, 2Ki_20:20-21, we find inserted in the ordinary formula especial mention of his גְּבוּרָה (see Exeg. on 1Ki_15:23), and also of the aqueduct which he built, and which was of permanent utility to the city. The panegyric of Hezekiah in Sir_48:17, makes especial mention of the same. The reference is, of course, to the aqueduct which Hezekiah caused to be built at the approach of the Assyrians, and not to the one which is mentioned 2Ki_18:17 and Isa_7:3. According to 2Ch_32:3 sq. all the fountains outside of the city walls, also Gihon and its pools, were covered over, in order, in case of siege, to deprive the besiegers of the use of the water. Then the water was all collected and led under-ground into the city, where it flowed into the pool called after Hezekiah, now more generally known as the Birket el Hamman. (See Thenius, in the appendix to his Commentar, s. 18. Winer, R.-W.-B. II. s. 568. Keil on 2Ki_18:17.)—According to 2Ch_32:33, Hezekiah was buried “on the hill-slope [E. V. is incorrect] of the graves of the sons [descendants] of David,” i.e., he was not buried in the royal sepulchres. The additional remark: “And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death,” shows that he was not buried elsewhere than in the royal sepulchres through lack of respect, but probably through lack of room, or because he himself had chosen this place.
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[Supplementary Note incorporating those results of Assyrian and Babylonian investigations which bear on the elucidation of chap. 20. As we saw in the Note at the end of the Exeg. section on chaps. 18 and 19, Rawlinson thinks that Sennacherib made two expeditions into Judah (or, at least, sent a second), in the year 700 or 698. Lenormant supposes that all the events mentioned occurred in one campaign, in 701–699. Hezekiah’s sickness was of such a character (2Ki_20:7) as to suggest a plague, the result of the Assyrian occupation. It occurred in 699 or 698. He, however, recovered. There can be no question that Hezekiah was in imminent danger of this kind at one time in his life, soon after the Assyrian invasion. As we shall see, below, the statement that his life was prolonged for fifteen years thereafter presents great difficulty. Rawlinson, although he puts Sennacherib’s invasion in 700–698, puts Hezekiah’s illness, and the visit of the Babylonians, in 713, on account of the biblical data. We must, however, accept the results of the investigations, and put the visit of the Babylonian ambassadors in 698–7. The sickness of the king was not an event of such a character as to be recorded in the history, if it were not for Isaiah’s connection with it. On this account it was included at a later time, and, if it contains chronological statements which conflict with those which we find elsewhere, it is rather they than the others which must be disregarded. It is noticeable that the sickness is said to have occurred just in the middle of the king’s reign, and, if the date were not well-known, and an arbitrary date had to be fixed upon by tradition, this is the one of all others which would be most likely to be chosen. Let us therefore disregard this statement rather than others, and put the king’s illness in 698–7.
The world is always ready to worship success, without stopping to analyze it, and see on what it rests. Little Judah alone of the nations of Western Asia had escaped the Assyrians. It had not done so by virtue of its own strength, but by virtue of what must have appeared to the neighboring nations to be an accident. Nevertheless we find that an embassy came immediately afterwards, from Babylon, to form an alliance.
There was a king on the throne of Chaldea in 709 who is called Merodach Baladan, (Marduk-baliddin) in the inscription called the “Acts of Sargon.” Lenormant identifies him with the Kinzirus of Ptolemy’s canon; but that king reigned earlier, and the identification with Mardocempalus (721–709), which Rawlinson adopts, seems better. In 709 Sargon totally defeated this king at Dur-Yakin, a town on the Euphrates below Babylon. Babylon became subject to Assyria. (It had been free since 760. Supp. Note. on chap. 15). The defeated king either escaped in disguise or was taken prisoner; the inscription says one thing in one place and another in another. When we next meet with the same name, it is, therefore, doubtful whether it is the same person or his son. Merodach Baladan at any rate proved himself a patriotic Babylonian, and a determined foe of the Assyrians. Immediately after Sargon’s assassination, in 704, Babylon revolted under Agises, but Merodach Baladan killed him, and himself took command (Lenormant). Sennacherib mentions, in his inscription, that his first campaign was against Merodach Baladan, and the armies of Elam, which were allied with him. He defeated and plundered them, spoiled Chaldea, and put a vassal king over it (703). While Sennacherib was engaged in Syria, Philistia, and Judah (see Supp. Notes on chaps. 16, 17, 18 and 19) Merodach Baladan escaped from prison, raised another revolt, and expelled the vassal king. Sennacherib, after his disaster in Judah, turned once more against Chaldea. It was now that Merodach Baladan sent to Hezekiah to try to form an alliance. Hezekiah was flattered by this and made a show of his treasures. He probably did not want the Babylonians to think that, after all, he was not an ally worth having. The result proved the justice of the prophet’s warning. Merodach Baladan was again defeated. He died in exile soon after, and Chaldea was once more subjugated. Sennacherib set his son Asshur-nadin on the throne.
Some years of peace followed, during which Sennacherib was rebuilding Nineveh, which he did with great magnificence. But in 693, on the death of Asshur-nadin, Babylon once more revolted. For the next ten years Sennacherib was occupied in suppressing a series of fierce but unsuccessful revolts in Babylon, and in prosecuting wars in Elam and Susiana to punish the allies of the rebels. In 682 he made his son Esarhaddon viceroy of Babylon, having chastised the city with such severity as to leave it half-ruined. He was assassinated in 680 (Lenormant).
To return to Hezekiah. If he lived fifteen years after his illness, he died in 685, and reigned forty-two (not twenty-nine) years. Lenormant adopts this opinion, and adjusts other data to it thus: Manasseh was born in 797. He was recognized as king from his birth. The twenty-nine years of Hezekiah are reckoned to this time, and the fifty-five of Manasseh from it. Hezekiah died in 685, when Manasseh was twelve years old. Aside from the violence of this theory, it encounters numerous specific objections, and cannot be adopted. It is more reasonable to hold fast the twenty-nine years for Hezekiah’s reign, and sacrifice the fifteen years stated as his new lease of life. See the first paragraph above. Hezekiah died in 698–7, and Manasseh was twelve years old at that time.—See Note 30 on the Chronolog. Table at the end of the volume.—W. G. S.]
HISTORICAL AND ETHICAL
1. The story of the illness of Hezekiah “withdraws our attention from the external history of the kingdom, which is narrated in the foregoing chapters, and reveals to us the soul of the king. It leads us out of the city into the royal palace” (Umbreit). The announcement of his approaching death shocked him deeply; he turned away from those who surrounded him, and “wept sore,” as if death were the end of all. What has become of his firm faith? Where is the fearless confidence with which a pious man faces death? Does this not seem like unmanly weakness, and like anything but submission to the will of God? But there are two things to be considered in explanation. Hezekiah had passed his whole life up to this point in anxiety and trouble; he had only just escaped a danger which threatened his kingdom and his life; he was now, for the first time, in a position to look forward with courage and hope to a period of peace, rest, and prosperity, and to the opportunity of doing more for his country than he had hitherto been able to do. At this time, now, in the very prime of life, he was suddenly called to die and to give up all. He had succeeded to the throne in a time of deep decay, and had sought in every way to restore prosperity and strength, and now, when he was in a position to labor for this end with some success, he must leave all. Nothing could be more natural than that he, a man of warm and earnest feelings, from whom no stoical apathy was to be expected, should be terrified and shocked when he heard the prophet’s words: Thou shalt die! He does not murmur or complain, still less does he, like Ahaziah (2Ki_1:4-9), burst out in anger against the messenger of death. Neither does he simply resign himself; he bows humbly and pours out his grief in prayer to Him in whom he believed. Therefore his prayer finds an answer, which it never would have done if it had been made in womanish weakness or in that love of life which is displeasing to God. The fulfilment of his prayer is a proof that it was offered in a right spirit. The prayer came from a faithful, noble, and pious heart, as we see from his hymn of thanksgiving, Isa_38:9-20. He had in mind the words, Psa_145:18-19. In the second place it is to be remembered that Hezekiah belonged to the pious men of the Old Testament, who had not that hope and confidence which belongs to those who know Him who has conquered death; that he had never heard the words: “Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co_15:57). The promises in the Old Testament economy all refer to this life and to the bliss of communion with the living God. Death had not yet lost its sting. Hence the terror with which even the pious men of the Old Testament looked forward to it, while the pious men of the New Covenant look up in full confidence to Him who has robbed death of its power, and in Whom all promises are yea and amen.
2. Hezekiah’s prayer has been interpreted as “self praise,” on account of the appeal which it contains to his righteous life (Thenius), and the ridiculous assertion has been made that “the Church, at least the Protestant Church, must, according to its standards, class him among the self-righteous” (Menzel). It is entirely left out of view, in this judgment, that Hezekiah stood in the economy of the Old Testament, that is, in the economy of legal righteousness; that the entire revelation of the Old Testament is concentrated in the Law of Moses, as that of the New Testament is concentrated in the Gospel; and that to walk according to this Law is not to be virtuous, morally pure, and free from sin, but to serve. Jehovah as the only God, to fear Him, to trust Him, and to love Him with all the heart (Deu_6:1-5). Hezekiah did not know any more about the modern doctrine that a man should practise virtue simply for the sake of virtue, than he did about the evangelical doctrine that faith alone, without works, ensures salvation. He considered that death, which was announced to him, was a penalty inflicted by God, and he did not know how he had incurred it, since he had always endeavored to serve God to the best of his knowledge and conscience, and never had departed from Him. He comes before the judge of life and death and begs Him not to remember his sins alone, but also to remember that he has feared and worshipped Him. He could say all this without Pharisaical “self-praise” (Luk_18:9-12), just as well as St. Paul could say, without self-righteousness: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2Ti_4:7). The whole thanksgiving hymn, Isaiah 38, breathes humility before the Almighty and Holy One; there is not a hint of self-praise or of holiness by works in it. “Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isa_38:17). His greatest cause for grief was that he must go thither where he could no longer praise the Lord. Would that all who consider themselves virtuous and holy would show themselves as humble and penitent in the face of death as Hezekiah did.
[It cannot be denied that there is a great deal of special pleading in this criticism of Hezekiah’s words. We have to be on our guard against setting out with a determination to see nothing but good in certain of these characters, and nothing but evil in certain others, and against warping facts to suit this foregone judgment, most of all, if “good” or “evil” are to be measured by modern standards. When Hezekiah says that he has walked before God with a perfect heart, and in fidelity, he refers to the requirements of the Mosaic Law, but when he says: “I have done good in thy sight,” he means moral good—righteousness. He claims, in perfect honesty and simplicity, that lie has done what is right. The answer to those who accuse him of self-praise is not to be found in twisting the words. Two things may be urged in answer, both of which are true as general principles, and are not suggested by the desire of establishing the saintliness of Hezekiah’s character. The first is that, if he had really done what was right as far as he knew, and if his theology taught him that this calamity was a punishment which indicated that he had been doing wrong, then he had a full right to appeal to his conduct against this theological inference (cf. the argument of Eliphaz, Job_4:5, particularly 2Ki_4:7, and Job’s answer, in which he justifies himself. See 2Ki_13:15; 2Ki_13:23). Secondly: the naive expression of Hezekiah, who thinks that he has done right and says so, is not to be judged by the modern mock-humility which often thinks that it has done right, and says that it has not; which assents to the doctrine that all have sinned, as a general theological proposition, while the individual who repeats it does not see, in his heart, that he has sinned after all. The Jewish theology taught that temporal calamities were judgments of God inflicted in punishment for sin. Hence it was inferred that a man who suffered misfortune must have sinned (Isa_53:4). Hezekiah had attempted to do right to the best of his ability. His conscience told him that he had been faithful to this effort, and in all truth and simplicity he expressed this conviction. It is evident that it is impertinent to judge any such naïve and truthful expression by our conventional modern standards of how much a man may be allowed to express of the sincere convictions of his heart, when they bear upon his own merits or abilities.—W. G. S.]
3. The prophet Isaiah here “meets us once more in all the glory of the prophetical dignity” (Umbreit). His conduct is based upon the premise of his prophetical character, without which it would be obscure and enigmatical. What he does and says, he does and says not in his own power, but as one who “stands before Jehovah” (1Ki_17:1), and who is set “over nations and kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant” (Jer_1:10). Mighty in word and deed, without fear of men or anxiety to please them, he threatens, and warns, and exhorts, and helps. He undertakes without hesitation the duty, heavy for him no doubt, of going into the palace to announce to his sovereign the terrible command: “Set thine house in order.” Then he retires, leaving the king to the effects of this command, but soon returns and declares to the crushed monarch, who is absorbed in anxious prayer, the fulfilment of that prayer, the promise of complete and speedy recovery, nay even of a reign prolonged for as many years more as it had already lasted, and the protection of God throughout this time. What would become of the prophet if he did all this in obedience to his mere human judgment? According to the ordinary custom of the prophets (see 1 Kings 17. Hist. § 6; Pt. II. pp. 17, 47, 58) he combines with the promise of recovery the use of an external means of healing. The cluster of figs here had just the same function as the means used by our Lord (Joh_9:6; Joh_9:14). It was not the cluster of figs which helped the man at the point of death, but the Almighty Lord of life and death. The ordinary means of healing was here a sign und pledge of the promised cure. As the Berleburger Bibel says: “Since this means could not have the power of curing in itself, it was used as a sign of the divine superhuman power.” Isaiah did not employ the ordinary, natural means until he was sure of the divine help. It was just because this means of cure was the ordinary natural one, that Hezekiah wanted a “sign” that Jehovah would heal him (2Ki_20:8), and did not have complete confidence in this remedy. It is, therefore, utterly erroneous to ascribe Hezekiah’s cure to the cluster of figs, to talk about Isaiah’s knowledge of medicine, and to draw the inference that the prophets were accustomed to act as “physicians” (Knobel, Der Prophet. der Hebr. I. s. 55. Winer, R.-W.-B II. s. 280). If the prophet had, as a physician, been sure of the efficacy of this remedy, he would have behaved in the most reprehensible manner in not applying it at once, and in beginning by announcing certain death.
4. The sign, which was granted to Hezekiah at his request, has intimate analogy with the prophetic declaration which it was intended to confirm. There could hardly be a more significant sign than one presented on the shadow-measurer, that is, the time-measurer, which was “arranged in the court of the palace before the king’s windows” (Thenius). Every human life is like a days—it has its morning, its noon, and its evening, (Ecc_11:6; Ecc_12:1-2; Job_11:17; Mat_20:3, sq.). The advance of the shadow shows the approach of evening (Jer_6:4; Job_7:1-2), which will be followed by darkness and night. Hezekiah’s life-day was on the decline; the night of death was approaching; then it was promised him this day should stand once more at its noon, that the shadow of death should recede, and that the evening should once more become mid-day. The sign is not therefore “a mere pledge of the fulfilment of the promise in 2Ki_20:5-6,” in which “there is no analogy to be traced with the fact of the prolongation of his life” (Thenius). On the contrary, its significance is so apparent that it is difficult not to see it at once. This is not a mere trick of art or power, in place of which any other one might just as well have been chosen, any more than any of the other prophetic signs.—As for the physical features of the sign, many, starting from the supposition that a “violation of the order of the solar system” (Menzel), a miracle which involved the revolution of the earth on its axis in a direction contrary to its regular one, is here recorded, have been shocked and repelled, and have either sought to explain it naturally, or have characterized it as a myth. The old naturalistic explanations by a second-sun, a vapor cloud, or an earthquake (see Winer, R.-W.-B. I. s. 499), may all be passed over as antiquated. We need only take notice here of the two most recent attempts. According to Gumpach (Alttestam. Studien, I. s. 195 sq.), Isaiah turned about the foot of the index, which before was towards the East, so that the shadow, instead of running down, as before, would descend [ascend?]. In that case, however, the sign would be nothing but “a very simple trick” (Oehler), and the greatest prophet of the Old Testament would be nothing but a common juggler. This trivial hypothesis falls to the ground with the erroneous, at least unproven assumption, that the shadow-measurer had a gnomon with a foot-piece. According to Thenius, we have to understand that there was “a partial eclipse of the sun, unnoticed by most men.” Such an one occurred, according to Prof. Seyffarth’s communication to Thenius, oh the 26th of Sept., 713, b.c., “which date is in perfect consistency with all the other chronological statements of the Book of Kings.” He adds that during such an eclipse “a slight advance and recession of the shadow takes place.” “Isaiah made use of his astronomical knowledge to give the king, in his despair, a sign which should re-arouse his courage.” This explanation, which no one else has yet adopted,—[Stanley (II. 537) says it is the only thing which could “illustrate” the cause of the phenomenon. He adds that he is informed that the variation would be almost imperceptible except to a scientific observer.]—rests upon the very doubtful assumption [?] that there was a partial eclipse of the sun in the year 713, and upon the still more doubtful assumption that Isaiah had great astronomical knowledge, and knew how to make shrewd use of it upon occasion. It is, therefore, a most unfortunate attempt. Let us have done with attempts to explain facts and events, which the historian distinctly declares to be miracles, by naturalistic hypotheses. Modern criticism does not indeed any longer deny that a miracle is here recorded, but disposes of it as a myth, and asserts either that a natural event was at a later time exaggerated and embellished with miraculous details, or that this story grew up through tradition out of the simple promise of the prophet, that, as the sun, after going down, returns and repeats its course, so Hezekiah’s life should, though it had reached its limit, take a new start, and go on for a time longer (Knobel, Hitzig). Ewald’s notion amounts to the same thing. He says: “It must not be overlooked that this story was not written down, in its present form, until twenty years or more after the event, and after the death of Hezekiah and of Isaiah. Isaiah’s good influence in this incident, even on the domestic life of the good prince, stands firm as an historical fact, and his words of trust and consolation no doubt miraculously (!) encouraged the king.” In this way, it is true, we glide most easily over all difficulties. But it is a purely self-willed assumption, which has no foundation save dislike for everything miraculous, that this story was not recorded in its present form until twenty years after the event, and that it is a product of tradition. The two records of it are, in the main points, identical. Both are taken, as was shown above, from an older authority, with which we are not acquainted, and of which we cannot assert that it was first written years after the death of Hezekiah and Isaiah, at a time when tradition had already converted the history of this incident into a myth. The Chronicler also, although his record is very brief, speaks of a מוֹפֵת (2Ch_32:24). Critical science first exaggerates the miracle, and makes of it an event which would produce a cataclysm on earth, in order to have so much more ground for declaring it a myth. But there is no hint of any such event in the text. The miracle “was not visible everywhere, but only in Jerusalem,” and “since it is a case of a sign which was to serve as a pledge, and did not need to be supernatural, it was accomplished by a phenomenon of refraction in the rays of light” (Keil), “for it is sufficient that the shadow, which in the afternoon was below, by a sudden refraction should be bent upwards” (Delitsch). There are “certain weak analogies in the natural course of nature, as, for instance, the phenomenon cited by many expositors, which occurred in the year 1703, at Metz, in Lothringia, and which was observed by the prior of the Monastery there, P. Romuald, and many others, that the shadow on a sun-dial receded an hour and a half” (Keil).
[Bosanquet, in an Essay published in the Jour. of the Royal Asiatic Soc., Vol. XV., offers a solution of this phenomenon from the features of an eclipse. This eclipse took place in the year 689, on the 11th of January. He founds upon this an argument that that must have been the year of Hezekiah’s sickness, but this argument has not been considered conclusive as against other data. We mention it here only as a proffered explanation of the manner in which such a phenomenon might have been perceived, without involving a reversed motion of the earth. For a few days before and after the winter solstice, the sun’s altitude at noon at Jerusalem is about 34°. If the “steps of Ahaz” were a flight of steps in the palace court mounting from north to south, at an angle of about 34°, then the sun would throw a shadow down them at noon which would just tip the top step. The upper limb of the sun would alone rise above the object (a roof, for instance) which threw the shadow. If the upper limb were eclipsed, the moon, in passing over the sun’s disk, would cut off the sunlight, and the shadow would once more descend the stairs. As the moon passed away the sunlight would once more pass below it and above the roof, and once more light the whole stair. The same explanation would apply to the dial if it were a small stair-like instrument, used for measuring time. An eclipse, to accomplish what is here supposed, must be nearly total, must be on the upper limb of the sun, must occur within twenty days of the winter solstice, and at noon of the day. Any contribution, in the way of explanation, ought to be carefully considered, but there are grave objections to this one. (a) The date of the eclipse, which is found to satisfy the conditions tolerably well, is irreconcilable with other data. (b) The phenomenon would be very slight, and only noticeable to careful observation, or under the most marvellous concatenation of circumstances. (c) It can hardly be believed, after reading the text, that the king had seen the shadow abnormally recede, and that the “miracle” consisted in its returning to its regular and proper place and motion.—W. G. S.]
5. The narrative of the embassy of the king of Babylon to Hezekiah hinges upon the prophecy of Isaiah, in which, for the first time, the downfall of the kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian captivity are foretold. This incident, like the two previous ones, is recorded in the book of Isaiah on account of his prophecies, which form the kernel of each. Hezekiah’s behavior, it is true, occasioned the prophecy, but the prophecy is the main thing, and it throws the proper light upon his conduct. Drechsler: “Evidently the arrival of these ambassadors flattered Hezekiah’s vanity so much that he forgot the rules of ordinary prudence.” Umbreit: “Hardly has the king escaped death and won a new lease of life, and found the treasure in heaven, before his heart is once more set upon the treasure of earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. Instead of making known to the ambassadors the glory of God, he shows them, boastfully, the perishable riches of his palace.” Hezekiah, according to the prevailing opinion of the commentators, shows his treasures out of boastfulness and love of display, and hence the “bold moral preacher” (Köster), the prophet, pronounced to him the fitting rebuke, and announced the coming punishment. But this conception is certainly erroneous. There is no sign of love of display or of vanity in anything which is recorded of Hezekiah. Drechsler himself exclaims: “What a contrast to the tone of Isaiah 38!” This very contrast is an argument against the above conception of the disposition in which Hezekiah acted. A proud and vain man would have answered the prophet, when he called him to account, in a very different manner, and would not have expressed himself so openly and unembarrassedly as Hezekiah does in 2Ki_20:15. His further reply in 2Ki_20:18 bears witness to anything but a haughty and vain character. But even supposing that he had been influenced by vanity on this occasion, this momentaneous weakness would be terribly punished by the threat of the loss of his kingdom. This threatened punishment would be out of all proportion to the fault, and would be tyrannical and oppressive. Thenius justly says: “Hezekiah’s conduct towards the ambassadors did not proceed from vanity or love of display (Knobel).… He accepted with joy the offered alliance of the Babylonians in the hope of avenging (?) himself, and he showed them the extent of his resources in order to convince them that he would be no contemptible ally (Clericus).” In this, however, he had, on the one hand, departed from complete trust in God alone; and, on the other hand, he had lost sight of the ordinary dictates of prudence to an extent which must ultimately be ruinous to Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet’s rebuke was meant to make him see this, and that must also be the sense of the Chronicler’s brief notice (2Ch_32:25), that Hezekiah “trusted too much to his own power.” The occasion of the prophet’s rebuke, and the thing which called for punishment, was not the personal vanity of Hezekiah, but the fact that he, who had experienced such signal instances of Jehovah’s power and willingness to save, and who had been so often warned against all complications with heathen nations, should enter with joy into an alliance with Babylon. This was a sin which was not to be expected in him, a sin against the theocratic and soteriological destiny of Israel.
6. The prophet Isaiah appears here also in all his prophetical majesty, although seen from a different side from before. There he appeared as a consoler, here as a messenger of the divine judgment. The latter, as well as the former, character belongs to the prophetical calling. The message announces the destruction, in the first place, of Hezekiah and his family, but then, by implication, that of the entire nation. “Not that the exile was inflicted as a punishment for this fault of Hezekiah.” (Delitsch), but because the whole nation had incurred, though in a far higher degree, the same guilt as Hezekiah against the theocratic relationship to God, and was about to incur it still further, so that the measure would become full, and then the punishment threatened in the Law (Lev_26:33; Deu_4:27; Deu_28:36; Deu_28:64) must fall. “The Babylonian Captivity,” observes Starke on Isa_39:6, “would have taken place, even if Hezekiah had never committed this sin, but it would not have been foretold at this time, if this incident of the ambassadors had not occurred. It was meant, at the same time, to be a humiliation of Hezekiah on account of his fault.” He received the prophet’s announcement as such a humiliation, and hence he was spared the trial of himself experiencing the exile.
On account of the definiteness of the prediction, modern critical scholars have asserted that it is an oraculum post eventum, which originated with the historian (Knobel), or, at least, that the actual fulfilment determined “the light in which the prediction is set before us” (Ewald). [What he means is, that this historian, who had lived through, and been an eye-witness of, the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, lends sharpness of outline and accuracy of detail to the picture, when he tells us how Isaiah had once foretold all this.] This, however, takes away the point from the whole story. It is true that “political sagacity might foresee the unfortunate consequences of Hezekiah’s thoughtless conduct, but without prophetical inspiration it was impossible to foresee that Babylon, which was just struggling for independence, would supplant Assyria as the great world-monarchy, and that Babylon, and not Assyria, which was then threatening rebellious Judah, would really inflict the extremest woes upon her” (Delitsch). The definite reference to Babel, which is the thing that offends critical science, forms the point of prophecy. It was occasioned by the embassy from Babylon, and it is intended to signify to Hezekiah: This very Babylon, from which thou hopest to obtain help and support, will ruin thy nation and people. Isaiah does not appear here as a sagacious statesman any more than he appeared in the former incident as a skilful physician, or a learned astronomer. His words have not the form of wise advice, but of a divine sentence of condemnation. Their form, therefore, would be inexcusable, if the prophet was only expressing his personal misgivings and his human anticipations. Why shall he be made out to be everything possible, physician, astronomer, statesman, only not that which he claimed to be, and which he was, viz., a prophet, who spake as he was “inspired by the Holy Ghost” (2Pe_1:21)?
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Ki_20:1-11. Hezekiah’s Illness “unto Death” and his Recovery from the same.—Würt. Summ.: God sends illness upon the good, not in punishment for sins past, but as a trial of their faith and patience (Rom_5:3) … or for His own glory (Joh_9:3; Joh_11:4). By observing this we may the better possess our souls in patience (Luk_21:19).—Cramer: Bodily illnesses are the forerunners of death, and God’s means for fostering the health of the soul.—Starke: God lays upon his children first one evil and then another. Hezekiah is first delivered from Sennacherib and the hands of man, and then he falls into the hands of God, who had before delivered him.
2Ki_20:1. Hall: Teachers and preachers must not conceal disagreeable truths from men, but make them known, whether they will be pleasant or not.—Starke: We see, from the example of Isaiah, what is the duty of physicians and preachers towards the sick, viz., not to encourage them by false hopes of recovery, but at the right time to point out to them the duty of setting their house in order, and preparing themselves for death.—The Same: The rich and great should also be warned to prepare for death.—It is a great mercy of God to allow us to foresee our approaching end (Deu_32:48 sq.).—Every illness, even though it does not seem likely to be fatal, is a warning to prepare for death, a memento mori, which can harm no one, whereas it is very harmful if all thoughts of death and eternity are held far away. He who, in his days of health, thinks upon death, and faithfully believes in Him who has overcome death, is not terrified when he is commanded to set his house in order.—Kyburz: Set thy house in order, O man! If thou hast no house, thou hast at least a soul. Prepare it as best thou mayst for death, for thou knowest not whether to-day or to-morrow thou wilt be called upon to quit this tabernacle. It is vain, however, to attempt to fit a soul for death by a sacrament, if it has not during its time of health and labor sanctified itself by holy deeds and by communion with God. How peacefully one may die, in spite of shrinking nature, if one can only say to God, as Hezekiah did: Thou knowest that I have walked faithfully before Thee.—As it is wise, in time of health and strength, to set one’s house in order in a worldly sense, that is, to make one’s will and arrange one’s affairs, so is it still more wise to set one’s house in order in a spiritual sense, and not to put off making one’s peace with God until one stands on the brink of the grave.
2Ki_20:2-3. Hezekiah’s Behavior at the Announcement of his Approaching Death. (a) He turned his face to the wall, that is, he turned away from all things earthly and temporal, to collect his thoughts. (b) He prayed to the Lord, that is, he sought refuge in Him alone. That is what we also should do in every illness.—Starke: It promotes devotion to make one’s prayers in secret and alone.—The Same: Children of God should not murmur when they are scourged of God, but kiss the rod (Mic_7:9; 1Sa_3:18).—Fear of Death, its Cause, and how it may he overcome.—The wish of a dying man to live longer is not wicked, if it comes from the sentiment: si diutius vivam, Deo vivam, and has not its origin in the desire to enjoy the world and life a little longer. Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, but he admits that longer life enables one to bear more fruit (Php_1:21-22). “Let me live that I may serve thee; let me die that I may possess thee.” Hezekiah’s prayer in view of death did not come from a proud and self-righteous heart, but from a humble and penitent one. He based his prayer upon the promise which God had given to the faithful under the old covenant: Do this and thou shalt live (Luk_10:28; Lev_18:5; Pro_10:27). Therefore he was heard by God, Who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. So should we also, in the face of death, not console ourselves with our own righteousness and virtue, but build our hopes upon the promises which He has given us in the New Testament, and upon Him through whom our sins are forgiven. He that believeth in Him, though he were dead yet shall he live (Rom_10:4; Joh_11:25 sq.).
2Ki_20:4-6. The prayer of the righteous is very effectual when it is earnest (Jam_5:16; Psa_145:18; Sir. 35:21; Isa_65:24; Isa_30:19).—The word of consolation to all who cry to the Lord with tears in sorrow and distress: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears.”—How consoling to think that the length or the shortness of our days is in God’s hand (Sir_11:14). “From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us.”—Cramer: The Lord always gives more than we pray for; the king prays for life, and He gives him long life (Psa_21:5). Moreover, He promises him protection against Assyria, for He can do far more (Eph_3:20).—”Thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord.” This was not a command, but a fulfilment of a wish and prayer, and it shows that Hezekiah loved the place where God’s honor dwelt (Psa_26:8; Psa_27:4).—The first steps after recovery should be to the house of God, to thank Him for restored health (Psa_66:12-14).
2Ki_20:7. The fact that God connected the healing of the king with the use of a certain remedy shows that we should not despise the means of healing, which are His gift, but should join the use of them with our prayers to Him (Sir_38:1-4).—The Lord is the true physician, for it is He who either gives or denies efficacy to human remedies. One is relieved by the slightest remedy; for another the best and strongest is of no avail.
2Ki_20:8. Cramer: God treats us like a good physician, not only as regards our bodies, but also as regards our souls. As the physician puts a staff in the hands of a yet feeble convalescent, so God grants to Hezekiah a “sign” as a staff for his faith (Isa_42:3). So nowadays God grants the sacraments as means of strengthening our faith.—In the Old Covenant God gave many signs, in the New Covenant only one—Christ, the Sign of all signs. Therefore we should ask no other. When the Pharisees demanded a sign, Our Lord said: “O wicked and adulterous generation,” &c. (Mat_12:38 sq.). The sign for all time is that He was dead and liveth again to all eternity, and holds the keys of death and hell. All signs, as well as all promises, are in Him yea and amen.
2Ki_20:9-11. God alone controls the index on the dial of life; to turn it forwards or backwards is the prerogative of His might and grace. Therefore, submit to His will, and say: “It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good” (1Sa_3:18).
2Ki_20:12-19. The Embassy of the King of Babylon to Isaiah. (a) Hezekiah’s conduct towards it; (b) what Isaiah declared to him on account of his reception of it (see Histor. § 6).—Starke: The most grievous calamities are not as ruinous as the flatteries of the children of the world.—Kyburz: In the storm Hezekiah was preserved; in the sunshine he was lost.—J. Lange: It may well come to pass that a man who has bravely withstood a great trial falls under a slight one. Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. The world nowadays often behaves as the king of Babylon did, for he did not care so much to make known by his embassy and gifts his sincere respect for Hezekiah, as he did to secure his alliance for his own advantage, and so secure his own ends (cf. Sir_6:6-9).
2Ki_20:13. Pfaff. Bibel: We should not be too friendly with the enemies of the Lord, especially when they may misuse our friendship to our disadvantage. Friendship with the world is enmity to God; he who wishes to be a friend to the world becomes an enemy to God (Jam_4:4).—The desire of making a display, and of infusing a high opinion of one’s self into others, is often found even in those who are true Christians, and who have borne hard tests with success. Thus vanity clings to us and is the first thing and the last which we have to conquer in following Our Lord. Therefore watch and pray. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. The Saviour said: “He that will follow me,” &c. (Luk_14:33).—Kyburz: We still show our spiritual treasures to the friends from Babylon, especially when we admire our own gifts, and like to have others admire them. As soon as strangers arrive we hasten to show our gifts, and powers, and accomplishments, in order to win respect. This is just the way to lose all those things. If one collects treasures let him store them up in heaven, where no spies will come to see them.
2Ki_20:14. It is a proof that He who watches over our souls is a good shepherd that he sees when we are about to depart from Him, or to transgress, and sends one of His faithful servants, or some faithful friend, to warn us, and to say: “Hear the word of the Lord!” Is such a friend always welcome to thee?
2Ki_20:15. He who denies his fault will never succeed in concealing it; he who confesses it will find pity (Pro_28:13; cf. 1 Chron. 30:17).
2Ki_20:17-19. Roos: Worldly people, with whom a child of God thoughtlessly mingles, do him great harm. Happy is he who is set right again after every transgression by a word from God, as Hezekiah was! It is the just sentence of God that the staff in which we trusted becomes a rod for our punishment.
2Ki_20:19. From the example of Hezekiah we learn, when the word of God rebukes our vanity and love of display, our vacillation and our want of faith, to bow in submission and to say: “Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken;” when we have shown true penitence, then we may also pray: Da pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris!
Footnotes:
[1]2Ki_20:4.—[On the keri see Exeg. The E. V. follows it as do Thenius and Ewald. The chetib reads “the middle city.” It Is adopted by Keil, Bunsen, and Bähr.—W. G. S.]
[2]2Ki_20:13. That וַיִּשְׁמַע is not the original reading, but וַיִּשְׁמַח, which we find in Isa_39:2, is evident from עליהם which follows. The latter reading is also supported by all the ancient versions.—Bähr.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–5 he turned his face to the wall--not like Ahab…
he turned his face to the wall--not like Ahab (Kg1 21:4), in fretful discontent, but in order to secure a better opportunity for prayer.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–7 HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY, 2Ki_20:1-7.
HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY, 2Ki_20:1-7.
1. In… days — About the time of the first Assyrian invasion, for Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years in all, and lived fifteen after this sickness, so that, according to biblical data, his sickness must have occurred in the fourteenth year of his reign. Compare 2Ki_20:6 with 2Ki_18:2; 2Ki_18:13, and note on 2Ki_20:12.
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Sick unto death — Sick with a disease intrinsically fatal, unless miracle intervened.
Set thine house in order — Settle up all thy worldly affairs, make the final arrangement and disposition of thy household matters. Compare 2Sa_17:23. Some explain it, Make thy last will, and give orders respecting thy successor. This, however, would only be a part of the household affairs of a dying king. In homiletics these words are often explained as a charge to prepare spiritually for death and the judgment beyond.
Thou shalt die, and not live — Literally, Dying art thou, and thou wilt not live. These words are not an irreversible decree that he should die from that sickness, but an announcement, which, like Jonah’s proclamation to the Ninevites, (Jon_3:4; Jon_3:10,) was revoked and changed by reason of the humiliation and prayers of the king. It was God’s decree, through ordinary natural law, reversible only by special interposition.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Ch. 2Ki_20:1-11. Sickness of king Hezekiah. His life is…
Ch. 2Ki_20:1-11. Sickness of king Hezekiah. His life is prolonged in answer to his prayer. The sign given by God that this should be so (2Ch_32:24; Isa_38:1-22)
1. In those days was Hezekiah sick] Scripture writers are not precise in specifying times, and ‘in those days’ may mean no more than ‘about that time’ either before or after the defeat of the Assyrians. But there are one or two marks which may help us to come to a conclusion. In verse 6 the promise is made ‘I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria’. But these words seem to relate rather to a further continued preservation than to the overthrow which drove Sennacherib away. Though the Assyrians were gone, it was not unlikely that they would return. It is to deliverance from all such future attacks that God’s promise is best referred. For the visit of the ambassadors of the king of Babylon was ‘at that time’ (verse 12), clearly when Hezekiah had recovered, and when time enough had elapsed for the news about the sickness and the recovery to have reached Babylon. But the embassy was not merely for the purposes of congratulation, but to secure Hezekiah’s alliance with Babylon against Assyria. The time would seem to the Babylonians most opportune for shaking off the Assyrian yoke, and the help of that power in attacking which the Assyrians had suffered so much loss, would appear the very best help that could be sought. Hence Berodach-baladan availed himself of the excuse of congratulating Hezekiah on his recovery to send an embassy to sound the king of Judah on the subject of an alliance. Hezekiah’s answer was given by the exhibition of his supplies and stores of armour. Connecting the events together thus, we come to the conclusion that Hezekiah’s sickness occurred soon after the Assyrian overthrow, and that thus the notes of time which fix (2Ki_18:13) Sennacherib’s invasion in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, and promise the king fifteen years more of life are substantially exact, and fill up together the twenty-nine years assigned to Hezekiah’s reign in 2Ki_18:2.
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And the prophet Isaiah [R.V. Isaiah the prophet] the son of Amoz] The change of order conforms to Isa_38:1.
Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live] One can hardly read these words without the conviction that the conduct of Hezekiah, after his deliverance from the Assyrian siege, had not been such as to find favour with God. A message of this kind would not be sent from God without good cause. Either there had been a lack of thankfulness, or the king was too much elated with the glory of so miraculous a deliverance. That Hezekiah could think of his own greatness and forget to point to God as its author is seen as we read of the display he made before the Babylonian embassy, which is recorded in this chapter.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 (1) In those days—i.e., in the time of the…
(1) In those days—i.e., in the time of the Assyrian invasion. The illness may have been caused, or at least aggravated, by the intense anxiety which this grave peril created. Hezekiah reigned 29 years (2Ki_18:2), and the invasion began in his 14th year (2Ki_18:13). In 2Ki_20:6 he is promised 15 years of life, and deliverance from the king of Assyria. That Hezekiah recovered before the catastrophe recorded at the end of the last chapter, is evident from the fact that no allusion to the destruction of his enemies is contained in his hymn of thanksgiving (Isa_38:10-20).
Set thine house in order.—The margin is right (Comp. 2Sa_17:23.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Vers. 1-21. ILLNESS OF HEZEKIAH AND EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN.…
Vers. 1-21. ILLNESS OF HEZEKIAH AND EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN. HEZEKIAH"S DEATH. The writer proceeds to relate an illness and a recovery of Hezekiah, which happened about the middle of his reign, probably in B.C. 713, and which was accompanied by strange, if not miraculous, circumstances (vers. 1-11). Hezekiah"s recovery was followed by an embassy of congratulation from Merodach-Baladan, King of Babylon, which led Hezekiah into an act of folly, and brought upon him the rebuke of Isaiah (vers. 12-19). The narrative terminates with a notice of some of Hezekiah"s great works, and of his decease (vers. 20, 21).
Vers. 1-11. The illness and recovery of Hezekiah.
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In those days. This is a very vague note of time, and cannot be regarded as determining the position of the events here related with respect to the preceding narrative. Ver. 6, however, shows that a time anterior to Sennacherib"s discomfiture is intended; and the same verse also fixes the date to Hezekiah"s fourteenth year, which was B.C. 713. If the date in 2Ki_18:13 be regarded as genuine, we must consider that the illness happened in the year of Sennacherib"s first expedition against Palestine; but if we regard that date as interpolated, and accept the Assyrian inscriptions as our chronological authorities, we must place the events of the present chapter twelve years earlier than that expedition, in the reign of Sargon over Assyria, and in the first reign of Merodach-Baladan over Babylon. It belongs, at any rate, to the middle part of Hezekiah"s reign, while his treasures were intact (vers. 13-17), and had not been carried off to Nineveh. Was Hezekiah sick unto death; stricken, i.e. , by a malady which, in the ordinary course of nature, would have been fatal. And the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him. The designation of Isaiah as "the prophet," and" the son of Amoz," as if previously unknown to the reader, indicates the original independency of the narrative, which the writer of Kings probably obtained from a separate source. And said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. The statement was a warning, not a prophecy. It is parallel to that of Jonah to the Ninevites, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Vers. 1-3. Aspects of death.
We may look on death from three points of view that of the natural man, unenlightened by Divine revelation; that of the Israelite under the Law; and that of the Christian. The contemplation will be wholesome, for we are all too apt to turn our thoughts away from any consideration of the grim enemy, who will certainly have to be met and encountered one day.
I DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE NATURAL MAN. By nature man has an absolute horror of death. Self-preservation is the first law of his being. He will suffer anything, he will do anything, to avoid death. Death is in his eyes a fierce monster, cruel, relentless, detestable. To live may be hard, grievous, wretched, scarcely tolerable; but to die is wholly intolerable. It is to exchange the bright pure light of day for absolute darkness, or at best for a dim, dull, murky region in which souls wander without aim or hope. It is to be cut off from all that is known, customary, intelligible, and to be thrown into a world unknown, unfamiliar, full of terrors. It is to lose all energy, all vigor, all robustness, all sense of power. In the "happy hunting-fields," the shade of the living man may still pursue the unsubstantial forms of elk, or deer, or antelope; but the sport is a poor and colorless replica of that pursued on earth, and is anticipated with but little satisfaction. Better, in the eyes of the natural man, to live on earth, even as slave or hireling, the hardest of all possible earthly lives, than to hold the kingship of the world below and rule over the entire realm of shadows (Hem., "Od.," 489-491). In the vigor of his youth and early manhood the natural man forgets death, views it as so distant that the fear of it scarcely affects him sensibly; but let the shadow be suddenly cast across his path, and he starts from it with a cry of terror. He can, indeed, meet it without blenching in the battle-field, when his blood is hot, and to the last he does not know whether he will slay his foe, or his foe him; but if he has to die, he accepts his death as a miserable necessity. It is hateful to him to die; it is still more hateful to be cut off in his prime, while he is still strong, vigorous, lusty. It is not till old age comes on, and his arm grows weak, and his eye dim, that he can look on death without loathing. Then, perhaps, he may accept the necessity without protest, feeling that actual death can be little worse than the death-in-life whereto he has come.
II DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE ISRAELITE. The Israelite had not very much advantage over the natural man in respect of the contemplation of death. But little was revealed to him concerning the life beyond the grave. He knew, indeed, that his life did not end everything, that he would certainly go down to Sheol when he died, and there have a continued existence; but Sheol presented itself to him in as dismal colors as Hades did to the Greek. "The living, the living shall praise thee; Sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee," cried Hezekiah from his bed of sickness. (Isa_38:18, Isa_38:19) Thus the Israelite too shrank from death, not merely instinctively, but as a sad and poor condition compared with life. And untimely death was even more hateful to him than to the natural man, since under the Mosaic dispensation it was declared to be a mark of the displeasure of God. "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened" said Solomon. (Pro_10:27) "Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days," sang David. (Psa_55:23) Long life was a gift repeatedly promised to the righteous (Pro_3:2, 16 9:10, 11; Psa_91:16, etc.) and when a man found himself struck down by a dangerous disease in his middle age, it seemed to him, and to those about him, that he must have sinned grievously, and so brought down upon himself God"s anger. Still more bitter was the feeling of one who was cut off in mid life, if he was childless. Then the man"s name was "clean put out;" his memorial perished with him; he had no more part or lot in Israel, no more inheritance among his brethren. Thus death remained a terror and a calamity, even to the most religious Jew, until, about the time of Daniel, the doctrine of the resurrection began to be preached, (Dan_12:1-3) and the life beyond the grave to take a more cheerful aspect.
III DEATH FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN. The whole relation of death to life and of life to death became changed by the revelation made to man in Christ. Then for the first time were "life and immortality" fully "brought to light." Then first it appeared that earth was a mere sojourning-place for those who were here as "strangers and pilgrims" upon it, having "no continuing city." Then first were the joys of heaven painted in glowing hues, and men told that eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God had prepared for those that love him". (1Co_2:9) No sensuous Paradise of earthly joys was depicted, no "Castle of Indolence," no mere haven of rest, but man"s true home, the place and state for which he was created, where is his citizenship, where he will be reunited to those whom in life he loved, where his nature will be perfected, and where, above all, he will "be with Christ", (Php_1:23) will "see God", (1Jn_3:2) and "know even as he is known". (1Co_13:12) The prospect of death thus, to the true Christian, lost all its terrors. "I am in a strait betwixt two," says St. Paul, "having a desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is far better"; (Php_1:23) and again, "I am willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord". (2Co_5:8) Natural shrinking there may be, for "the flesh is weak;" but thousands have triumphed over it, have sought martyrdom, have gone gladly to their deaths, and preferred to die. Even when there is no such exaltation of feeling, death is contemplated with calmness, as a passage to a better world a world where there is no sorrow nor sighing, (Isa_35:10) where there is no sin, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest". (Job_3:17) Untimely death from natural disease or accident is to the Christian no sign of God"s displeasure, but rather an indication of the contrary. God takes to himself those whom he recognizes as fit to die, of whom it may be said that teleiwqentev ejn ojligw ejplhrwsan cronouv makrouv. He takes them in love, not in wrath, to join the company of "the spirits of just men made perfect", (Heb_12:23) to be among his "jewels" (Isa_61:10; Mal_3:17)
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN. Vers. 1-11. Hezekiah"s sickness.
Every changing scene of life is depicted for us in the Bible. Whatever our circumstances may be, we can get some guidance, help, or comfort from that treasure-house of wisdom and experience. We have here
I A SOLEMN MESSAGE. "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
1. It was a solemn message for Hezekiah. His kingdom seemed now to be securely established. God had helped him against the Philistines, and had overthrown them. He was doubtless looking forward to many years of rest and quietness, when he might enjoy for himself the benefits of peace, and develop the resources of the nation, so long desolated by invading armies. How startling, then, the announcement of his approaching death!
2. It is a solemn message for every one. It is a solemn thing for a human soul to pass from time into eternity, to enter into the immediate presence of the Eternal, to stand before God.
3. It is a message which may be truly spoken to every one. "Thou shalt die, and not live," There is an hour of death in store for every one of us. Somewhere in the unknown future there waits for us
The shadow feared of man.
We know not what a day may bring forth. "In such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
4. The certainty of death suggests the necessity for immediate preparation. "Set thine house in order." Can you say that you are prepared to meet your God? Is your heart right with God? Have you set your house in order? The time for preparation is "now." Scripture is very clear on that point. It is nowhere said, "See that you make ready when death comes." It is nowhere said," Look forward to being prepared for death" No; that would only be deceiving us, because death might come before we were prepared, though we might intend to be prepared, if we knew that death was near. No; but it is said, "Be ready." It is said, "Prepare to meet thy God." "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.
II A SORROWFUL KING. "Hezekiah wept sore.
1. He was not sorrowful because of a guilty conscience. He had endeavored to serve God faithfully. No doubt he had made mistakes. But his heart was right with God. "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." It is well to have a good conscience when the hour of death draws nigh. It is well when we can say with St. Paul, "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men." Such a man is always "ready to depart.
2. He was sorrowful only because of the shortening of his life. How little we know what is best for us! It was after this that Hezekiah was led astray, as we shall see, by the pride of his heart. Though God lengthened Hezekiah"s life in answer to his piteous request, perhaps it would have been better for him if he had been content to go when God first sent for him. There is often a great mystery to us when good men seem prematurely taken away. But God knows the reason why, and he doeth all things well. Let us leave the time of our own departure, and the departure of our friends, contentedly in God"s hands.
III A SPARED LIFE. The life was spared in answer to prayer; and yet this ease gives no encouragement to what is commonly known as "healing by faith." Isaiah directed the attendants to take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster on the boil, and Hezekiah recovered; (ver. 7 Isa_38:21) Webelieve in the power of faith and prayer to heal the sick, and yet we believe in using the means. We use food to preserve and sustain our life from day to day. There is no lack of faith in that. And it shows no lack of faith if we use means to restore our life, asking all the time that God"s blessing may accompany the means we use. How many of our lives has God spared? How many of us has he brought back again from the gates of death? Let the goodness of God lead us to repentance. Let the lives that he has spared be dedicated to him C.H.I.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-21. Death.
those days was Hezekiah sick unto death," etc. A thoughtful man might raise many questions on this chapter indeed, on all the chapters in this book. He might ask Who was the writer of this chapter, ay, and of the entire Books of Kings? A question this which has not been settled, and, perhaps, never will be. He might ask on what authority certain men, called prophets, such as Isaiah, speak as from heaven, and say, "Thus saith the Lord." Priests and leaders of all sects profess to speak in the name of the Lord, and say, "Thus saith the Lord." Such questions might open up discussions of critical and speculative interest, but would be of no practical benefit whatever. Anyhow, I forego them. My purpose all along has been to turn whatever I find in this or any other book of the Old Testament to some practical use. Some years before the overwhelming destruction of Sennacherib and his army, as recorded in the preceding chapter, Hezekiah was seized with some severe disease which threatened the extinction of his life: death was before him. The account leads us to consider death in three aspects: as
(1) consciously approaching; as
(2) temporarily arrested; and as
(3) ultimately triumphant.
I As CONSCIOUSLY APPROACHING. "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." Mark here three things.
1. When he became conscious of its approach. "In those days." "By this expression," says Dr. Keil, "the illness of Hezekiah is merely assigned in a general manner to the same time as the events previously described. That it did not occur after the departure of the Assyrians... is evident from the sixth verse, both from the fact that, in answer to his prayer, fifteen years more of life were promised him, and that he, nevertheless, reigned only twenty-nine years; (2Ki_18:2) and also from the fact that God promised to deliver him out of the hand of the Assyrians, and to defend Jerusalem.
2. How he became conscious of its approach. "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." It needs no Isaiah, or any other prophet, to deliver this message to man. It comes to him from all history, from every graveyard, from every funeral procession, as well as from the inexorable law of decay working ever in his constitution. Yes; and not merely the announcement, but the duty: "Set thine house in order.
(1) Men have much to do in this life. The "house" is out of order.
(2) Unless the work is done here, it will not be done yonder. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," etc.
3. How he felt in the consciousness of its approach. "Then he turned his face to the wall.
(1) He seems to have been overwhelmingly distressed. "He wept sore." He turned away from the world, with all its multiplex concerns, from all his regal pomp, and peered into the invisible and the infinite.
(2) He cried earnestly to heaven. "He prayed unto the Lord, saying, 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." In his prayer we note the cry of nature. All men, even those who are atheistic in theory, are urged by the law of their spiritual nature to cry to heaven in great and conscious danger. In his prayer we also note something of self-righteousness. "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." Though he had been free from most sins, and had displayed some virtues, he had not done this. Perhaps no man that ever appeared on this earth, save the "Son of man," could say, "I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart," Moral self-deception is one of the most prevalent sins of the human heart. Like the Pharisee in the temple, we exult in virtues we have not. Now, death is approaching all men, whether we are conscious of the fact or not. The decree has gone forth, "Thou shalt die, and not live." Death is ever coming with stealthy steps, yet with resistless force. He is coming always, whether we are at home or abroad, on ocean or on land, in society or in solitude; asleep or awake, he, the king of terrors, is coming.
II AS TEMPORARILY ARRESTED. Five things are to be observed here.
1. The primary Author of its arrest. "And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee." How came Isaiah into possession of this knowledge, this "word of the Lord," concerning Hezekiah"s restoration? Was it by a dream, or through some other supernatural communication? On this point I confess my utter ignorance. The grand practical idea is that God can arrest death, and he only. Our times are in his hands. His constant visitation preserveth us. He is the absolute Master of death. At his bidding the most fragile creature may live forever, the most robust expire.
2. The secondary means of its arrest. "Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered." It would seem that the ancients, in the case of boils, abscesses, and such like, frequently applied figs to the affected parts, and no doubt there was remedial virtue in the figs. For aught we know, there may be an antidote sleeping in plants and minerals for all our physical complaints. The man who lives by the medical art is untrue to his mission, and unfaithful to his patient, unless he, with an independent mind and a devoted heart, searches Nature for those remedial elements with which she is charged.
3. The extraodinary sign of its arrest. "And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." Perhaps it was natural for a man, who when he felt himself on the brink of eternity was told he would recover, to desire some assurance of the fact so unexpected and yet so acceptable. Hezekiah desired a sign, and he had it. But what was the sign? We are told that the shadow on the dial-plate "returned ten degrees backwards." How was this? Did the sun recede, or, in other words, was the rotation of the earth reversed? I know not; neither does it matter. It is sufficient to know that, whether it was an illusion, or a natural eclipse of the sun, which some astronomers say did actually take place at this time (B.C. 689), or a physical miracle, it seems to have satisfied the king. itseems to be a law of mind, that phenomena which it earnestly expects often occur. "Be it to thee according to thy faith.
4. The exact extension of its arrest. "I will add unto thy days fifteen years." The addition of fifteen years to man"s brief existence in this life is a considerable item, and the more so when that fifteen years is added at a period when the man has fully reached middle life, and passed through the chief training experiences. He who can add fifteen years to a man"s life can add eternity. "Our times are in his hands.
5. The mental inefficiency of its arrest. What spiritual good did these additional fifteen years accomplish for the king? They might have done much; they ought to have done much. But did they make him a morally better man, or an intellectually wiser man? Not the former, I trow, for mark his vanity. The letters which the King of Babylon, Mero-dach-Baladan, dispatched to him, together with a present, so excited his egotism that he "hearkened or, as Isaiah puts it, "was glad" unto them," that is, the Babylonian deputies; and "showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not." At this time he had enormous possessions. We find from 2Ch_32:23 that presents were brought to Hezekiah from various quarters. "He had," says the Chronicler, "exceeding much riches and honor: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels; storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks". (2Ch_32:27, 2Ch_32:28) All this, with an elated vanity, he exposed to the Babylonian magnates. Vanity, for many reasons, is one of the worst of all the bad elements of depravity; it is a species "of moral evil, hideous to all beholders, and damnable to its possessor. Did these fifteen years added to his life make Hezekiah an intellectually wiser man? No; his judgment was not improved. In sooth, he seems to have lost that penetration, that insight into things and men, which he had previously possessed. Bow blind was he not to see that, by exposing his treasures, he was exciting the avarice of the Babylonians, tempting them to make an invasion of his country! This Isaiah told him: "Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord." Affliction does not always improve men, either morally or intellectually. Ah me! how many have I known who, when they have "turned their face to the wall," writhing in agony, with grim death before them, have solemnly vowed improvement should they ever recover? They have recovered, and become worse in every respect than before. What boots a term of fifteen years, or even a thousand years, added to our existence, if our souls are not improved thereby?
III As ULTIMATELY TRIUMPHANT. "And Hezekiah slept with his fathers." The end of the fifteen years came, and he meets with the common destiny of all. The unconquered conqueror is not to be defrauded of his prey, however long delayed. Since death cannot be escaped by any, whether young or old, it has been asked, is there any advantage in longevity? Rather, would it not be better to die in the first dawn of infancy, than in any subsequent period? "Whom the gods love die young," was said of yore. We may go a step further, and say, "Why live at all? D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Vers. 1-11. Hezekiah"s sickness.
In order of time, this recovery of King Hezekiah from sickness stands before the destruction of Sennacherib, though in order of narration it comes after it. So with the Babylonian embassy. (see on 2Ki_18:1-13)
I WARNING OF DEATH.
1. Unexplained sickness. "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death." His disease was some ulcerous growth, called in the narrative "a boil." We have been accustomed in this history to see troubles of body, and calamities in the state, connected with sin, as part of its temporal punishment. But there is no reason to believe that Hezekiah was guilty of any special transgression which led to his being visited with this sickness. His own conscience was clear, and there is no indication of blame in the narrative. Affliction is sent for other reasons than the punishment of sin, and we grievously err, and do great injustice to the sufferers, if we insist on always interpreting it in this light. Job"s friends committed this error (Job_42:7, Job_42:8; cf. Luk_13:1-5; Joh_9:1-3) In Hezekiah"s case affliction was no doubt sent as a purificatory and strengthening discipline, intended to try his faith, and lead him to new experience of the grace of God.
1. The announcement of death. It was while Hezekiah"s mind was troubled about his sickness that the Prophet Isaiah came to him, and brought the message, "Thus saith the Lord... thou shalt die, and not live." In its natural course the sickness would have had a fatal issue. The fact of our mortality is one we should often have before us. Every ache, pain, and trouble of body, reminds us that we are here but for a time that this is not our rest. They are prophetic of the end. A time, however, comes when the near approach of the end is unmistakable, if not to the individual himself, yet to others. If a man is dying, it is the truest kindness to let him know it. Isaiah might have withheld this information from Hezekiah on the ground that it would agitate him, might hasten his death, could do no good, etc., the usual pleas for keeping back from a patient the news of his hopeless condition. We have only to put the matter to ourselves: would we like to be within a few weeks or days of our death, and not be made aware of the fact? Would we in such circumstances like to be buoyed up by false hopes? Then why buoy up others? By acquainting a patient with his real state, we give him opportunity for setting his house in order; for prayer to God that might, as in Hezekiah"s case, lead to his recovery; in any case, for suitably preparing his mind in view of departure.
2. The duty of preparation. "Set thine house in order" said Isaiah; "for thou shalt die." It is a duty incumbent on us, even in health, to have our worldly affairs so arranged that, if we should be unexpectedly removed, they would be found in order. The neglect of this simple duty the putting it off under the idea that there is still plenty of time leads in numberless cases to confusion, heartburning, strife, and loss. If the putting the house in order has not been attended to, the approach of death is a solemn call to do it. In any case, there wilt be final arrangements, last words, loving directions which belong peculiarly to the dying hour. If it is important to set our worldly affairs in order in view of death, how much more to have every spiritual preparation made!
II PRAYER FOR LIFE.
1. Hezekiah"s distress. The announcement that he was soon to die filled Hezekiah with deep grief. He turned his face to the wall, prayed earnestly to God, and wept sore. The grounds of his distress may be inferred from the hymn composed by him after his recovery. (Isa_38:9-20)
(1) The natural love of life. This is implanted in every one. It has its root in a true instinct, for death in the case of the human being is unnatural. It was not a part of the primal order. Man as made by God was destined for immortality, not immortality of the soul only, but immortality of the whole person. Death is the violent wrenching asunder of two parts of his personality which were meant to be inseparable. It is the fruit of sin, and abnormal. (Rom_5:12)
(2) The want of a clear hope of immortality. The experience of the Old Testament saints teaches us to distinguish between a mere idea of future existence, and such a hope of immortality as is now possessed by Christians. The Hebrew believed in the after-existence of the soul. But this of itself brought no comfort to them. Sheol was uniformly pictured as a region of gloom, silence, and inaction. Its shadowy life was no compensation for the loss of the rich, substantial joys of earthly existence. In hours of depression this was the view of Sheol that prevailed. Only in moments of strong faith did the believer rise to the confidence that God would be with him even in Sheol, and would deliver his soul out of these gloomy abodes. The Hebrew hope of immortality was really a hope of resurrection. (Psa_16:10 Psa_49:14, Psa_49:15) It is Jesus Christ who, in the full sense of the words, has brought life and immortality to light. (2Ti_1:10)
(3) The thought that death would cut him off from the comforts of God"s presence, and the privilege of waiting on God and serving him. This is implied in his view of Sheol, and is expressed in his song. (Isa_38:11) It was, therefore, no unmanly fear of death which Hezekiah showed, but one resting on good and substantial reasons.
2. Hezekiahs prayer. Cut off from earthly help, Hezekiah betook himself in earnest prayer to God. The fact that he did pray, and that his prayer was answered, is an encouragement to us to pray for recovery from sickness. The New Testament also holds out this encouragement. (Jam_5:13-16) In his pleadings with God, Hezekiah adopted a tone which may seem to us to savor too much of self-righteousness. "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart," etc. It was not, however, in a spirit of self-righteousness that he urged this plea. He was conscious of many sins (cf. Isa_38:17) His meaning was that he had endeavored to serve God faithfully, and with an undivided heart, and had the claim which God"s own promises gave him of life and blessing to those who acted thus. A good conscience is a great encouragement in prayer to God, though, with the deeper views of sin which the gospel gives, there is rightly a greater shrinking from pleading anything that might seem like one"s own merit (see Perowne"s "Introduction to the Book of Psalms," 2Ki 3. sect. 3, "Assertions of innocence in the Psalms").
III RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS.
1. The promptitude of Gods answer. Scarcely had the prayer left Hezekiah"s lips than the answer was communicated to Isaiah. The prophet had not yet left the palace, but was still within its precincts, "in the middle court," when word came to him to return to Hezekiah, and assure him of recovery. God in this ease, as always, was "waiting to be gracious". (Isa_30:18) The answer was given
(1) out of regard to Hezekiah himself, "Tell Hezekiah the captain of my people;
(2) in answer to his supplication, "I have heard thy prayer;
(3) for the sake of David, "The Lord, the God of David thy father" (and cf. ver. 6). This recovery was one of "the sure mercies of David". (Isa_55:3) For similar examples of prompt answer to prayer, see on 2Ki_19:20.
2. The promise of lengthened life. The message which Isaiah was to carry to Hezekiah contained three parts:
(1) a promise that he would be healed, and able to go up to the house of the Lord on the third day. "A striking instance of the conditionalness of prophecy" (Cheyne). Hezekiah"s first use of his recovered health is assumed to be a visit to God"s house.
(2) A promise of fifteen years more added to his life. God thus exceeds his servants" askings. The king sought only healing; God assures him of a prolonged term of life (cf. Eph_3:20)
(3) A promise that the city would be defended against the Assyrians. This was another word to Hezekiah through which God caused him to hope. (Psa_119:49) Yet he nearly forfeited it by his subsequent worldly policy (see previous chapters).
3. The kings recovery. Isaiah"s word was fulfilled, and the king recovered. Whether "the lump of figs" was a simple remedy or a mere sign need not be discussed. In our case the duty of using means in connection with prayer is plain.
IV THE SIGN OF THE SUN-DIAL.
1. The request for a sign. When Isaiah communicated his message to Hezekiah, the king said, "What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me," etc.? One wonders that to so good a man the prophet"s word should not have been sufficient, and that he should have asked for this additional confirmation. But
(1) It was an age of signs (Isa_7:10-12 Isa_8:18; 2Ki_19:29)
(2) The thing promised was very wonderful and hard to believe, especially after the announcement, "Thou shalt die, and not live," made a few minutes before. There is no doubt a greater blessing on those that have not seen, and yet have believed; (Joh_20:29) but weak faith too has its rights, and God shows his condescension in stooping to give it the needed supports.
2. The sign given. Isaiah had offered Ahaz a sign, either "in the depth, or in the height above". (Isa_7:11) Hezekiah had now proposed to him a sign in the height. The shadow on the steps of Ahaz"s sun-dial would be made either to go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees, according as Hezekiah should desire. As the more wonderful phenomenon of the two, Hezekiah asked that it might go back ten degrees, and at Isaiah"s prayer it was done. We inquire in vain as to how the wonder was produced. The fact that it seems to have been a local sign, though widely noised abroad, suggests a miracle connected with the laws of refraction. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.
2Ki_20:1-19
In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death.
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The blessing of sickness
A Christian man of intense business enterprise and activity was laid aside by sickness. He who never would intermit his labours was compelled to a dead halt. His restless limbs were stretched motionless on the bed. He was so weak that he could scarcely lift his hand. Speaking to a friend of the contrast between his condition now and when he had been driving his immense business he said, Now I am growing. I have been running my soul thin by my activity. Now I am growing in the knowledge of myself and of some things which most intimately concern me. Blessed, then, is sickness, or sorrow, or any experience that compels us to stop, that takes the work out of our hands for a little season, that empties our hearts of their thousand cares, and turns them toward God to be taught of Him. Death:--The account leads us to consider death in three aspects.
I. As consciously approaching. Mark here three things--
1. When he became conscious of its approach.
2. How he become conscious of its approach. It needs no Isaiah, or any other prophet, to deliver this message to man. It comes to him from all history, from every graveyard, from every funeral procession, as well as from the inexorable law of decay working ever in his constitution.
(1) Men have much to do in this life. The house is out of order.
(2) Unless the work is done here it will not be done yonder.
3. How he felt in the consciousness of its approach.
(1) He seems to have been overwhelmingly distressed. He wept sore.
(2) He cried earnestly to heaven. In his prayer we note the cry of nature. All men, even those who are atheistic in theory, are urged by the law of their spiritual nature to cry to heaven in great and conscious danger. In his prayer, we also note the breath of self-righteousness.
II. As temporarily arrested. Five things are to be observed here--
1. The primary Author of its arrest.
2. The secondary means of its arrest.
3. The extraordinary sign of its arrest.
4. The exact extension of its arrest.
5. The mental inefficiency of its arrest.
What spiritual good did these additional fifteen years accomplish for the king? They might have done much, they ought to have done much.
III. As ultimately triumphant. And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. The end of the fifteen years came, and he meets with the common destiny of all. The unconquered conqueror is not to be defrauded of his prey, however long delayed. (David Thomas, D. D.)
.
Hezekiahs prayer answered
The prayer of Hezekiah thus signally answered gives us instruction upon several points, of which this is--
1. To love life is a duty. Of course, Hezekiahs anxiety to live does not prove this. Good men are not so good that we can be sure of the rectitude of all their desires. They may be over-anxious to live, as they may be too ready to die. Luther and Whitefield erred upon the side of over-willingness to die. But the fact that God respected Hezekiahs wish to live proves that his wish was dutiful and right. His love of life was not weakness; it was not self-will; it was not the mere wish for a longer experience of accustomed pleasure. Had it been any of these, his prayer would have been unheard. He sought for life because life was worth living; he had a motive for life. It was for him a great opportunity. Nothing in the New Testament reverses or modifies the teaching of the Old Testament, that long life is a blessing, a gift of God, a mark of Divine favour. It is said of the godly man: Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation. When queenly Wisdom stretches forth her hands to give rewards to her loving and loyal subjects, Length of days is in her right hand, as her most excellent gift. There is in the Bible no pessimistic philosophy of life. It is true that the Bible dwells much upon the shortness of life. Death is a fact which it will not let us forget. But Scriptural reflections upon the littleness of life and the nearness of its end are not intended to lessen our love of life, or to make us look upon it as unimportant. Their purpose is to counteract such views. They teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Long life is not too long for the full accomplishment of lifes great end. There is nothing in the approach of age which ought to lessen the love of life, if lifes powers remain. The good workman glances now and then at the sun sinking in the west as day declines, only that he may set a higher value upon the remaining minutes, because they are few. He wishes for a full day, and the lengthening shadows set him the more zealously about remaining tasks. The biographers of Lyman Beecher have said of him: He was so hungry to do the work of Him that sent him that he really seemed sometimes to have little appetite for heaven. Thus, after he was seventy years old, one of his children congratulated him that his labours were nearly over, and that he would soon be at rest. To his sons surprise the old man replied quickly, I dont thank my children for sending me to heaven till God does. In the lecture-room of Plymouth Church, when very near the end of his life, he said, If God should tell me that I might choose . . . that is, if God said it was His will that I should choose, whether to die and go to heaven, or to begin my life over again, I would enlist again in a minute. We are not called upon to love life less because power fails, and we must lay aside accustomed tasks. Let us not measure life by the strength with which we pursue an earthly career. The refining of character may go on better when lifes active powers decline. As we ponder the prayer of Hezekiah, a second thought arises:
II. Submission to the will of God in regard to the term of life is a moderate wish to live as long as we can. It is easy to mistake the true nature of resignation, and to give it a meaning which it should not have. Submission to Gods will is not the suspension of personal will-power. It is not the absence of choice or preference. Holiness is not passivity. Richard Baxter once wrote:--
Lord it belongs not to my care
Whether I live or die.
Perhaps an utterance which is poetic, or at least metrical, ought not to be judged by prosaic rules; but as an unguarded statement its sentiment is false. It ought to have been a part of his care to live long and well. In so doing he would have been submissive to the will of God. There are means to be used to keep life and health. We ought to use them not unconcernedly, but with a strong wish to live. This is resignation to Gods will. In desiring life, and loving many days that he might see good, Hezekiah did not feel that he was disobedient or un-submissive.
III. Hezekiahs plea that he had lived a good life was an argument that prevailed with God. It is worthy of remark that the prayers recorded in the Old Testament are full of argument. Men approach God with reasons. They tell Him why He should grant their requests. Evidently they think Divine wisdom easy to be entreated. They recount mercies past as a reason for expecting renewed favours. They speak of His goodness. Of their great needs they make a plea. By the littleness and brevity of life they lay claim to mercy. So Hezekiah did not hesitate to find in his past life reasons for its continuance. Evidently he did not think that goodness makes the term of life shorter, or more uncertain. Whom the gods love die young, is not a Christian proverb, but its sentiment is to be found in many sayings current among us. Now there are saintly souls living upon the earth of whom the world is not worthy. But so much the greater the worlds need of their saintly lives. And God has great consideration for the worlds need. The answer to Hezekiahs prayer suggests a fourth consideration:
IV. The good physician has no controversy with the earthly physician in the wise use of means. Isaiah practised the art of healing. He followed the best medical knowledge of his time. He caused the attendants to take a lump of figs and place it upon the sore, and Hezekiah recovered. He applied a well-known and useful remedy. No doubt there are persons who would be better satisfied with the record of this case of healing if the lump of figs had been left out. They fear that every case of healing claimed by science must be surrendered by religion, and that, when other means are efficacious, prayer is obviously of no avail. They make haste to conclude that, if the lump of figs healed Hezekiah, then God did not. The inspired record is not solicitous about entrenching religion against the attacks of science. If religion should say that prayer worked the healing, and that means were of no use: and if science should say that the lump of figs wrought the cure, and that prayer was of no avail--both would be right in what they asserted, and no less would both be wrong in what they refused to admit. Had Isaiah known that the remedy would have cured without prayer, his delay in using it would have been inexcusable. Had he known that prayer would have been as efficacious without the remedy, he had no sufficient reason for making use of the lump of figs at last. The healing was wrought by the Lord of Life; and not less by Him that He chose to work through the ordinary appointed means.
V. The best results of Hezekiahs prayer are unrecorded. We find a hint of them in the broken sentences of Isaiahs page. What shall I say: He hath both spoken unto me and Himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. The Lord was ready to save me; therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. He walked before the Lord in solemn gladness. In those remaining years God was nearer to him than before. He knew the tenderness of God, who had heard his prayers and had seen his tears. He knew the grace of God, for by His favour he walked in newness of life. He knew the power of God, whose high prerogative it was to turn backward or forward at His will the dial of his life. How great, the power of prayer, which still appeals to the heart of God and persuades Him to make known His way upon earth, His saving health among all nations. And how infinite the grace of God, who in time past for this chosen servant turned backward for an hour the shadow of the sun, but who, in these last days, has set for ever in the spiritual heavens, above the horizon and within the field of vision for those who look in faith, the blessed sign of the Son of Man. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Attachment to life
The young man, till thirty, never feels practically that he is mortal. He knows it, indeed, and, if need were, he could preach a homily on the fragility of life; but he brings it not home to himself, any more than in a hot June we can appropriate to our imagination the freezing days of December. But now, shall I confess a truth? I feel these audits but too powerfully; I begin to count the probabilities of my duration, and to grudge at the expenditure of moments and shortest periods like misers farthings. In proportion as the years both lessen and shorten I set more count upon their periods, and would fain lay my ineffectual finger upon the spoke of the great wheel. I am not content to pass away like a weavers shuttle. Those metaphors solace me not, nor sweeten the unpalatable draught of mortality. I care not to be carried with the tide that smoothly bears human life to eternity, and rebel at the inevitable course of destiny. I am in love with this green earth, the face of town and country, the unspeakable rural solitudes, and the sweet security of streets. I would set up my tabernacle here; I am content to stand still at the age to which I am arrived, to be no younger, no richer, no handsomer. I do not want to be weaned by age, or drop, like mellow fruit, as they say, into the grave! Any alteration on this earth of mine, in diet or in lodging, puzzles and discomposes me. My household goods plant a terribly fixed foot, and are not rooted up without blood. They do not willingly seek Lavinian shores. A new state of being staggers me; sun and sky, and breezes and solitary walks, and summer holidays, and the greenness of fields, and the juices of meats and fishes, and society, and the cheerful glass, and candlelight, and firelight conversations, and jests and irony--do not these things go out with life? Can a ghost laugh, or shake his gaunt sides when you are pleasant with him? (Charles Lamb.)
Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
A house and a soul compared: or the Christians preparation for death
Hezekiah was in the meridian of life, and probably as yet had made no arrangement in regard to the succession to the throne. This message was to this effect--Give charge concerning thine house. If you have any direction to give in regard to the succession to the crown, or in regard to domestic and private arrangements, let it be done soon I shall, however, take this message in the secondary or more Important sense, and then, I need not remind you, that by the expression thine house we are to understand his inner man--the state of his soul before God. I think that this object is most likely to be attained by drawing the analogy.
I. I would observe that it is necessary for the preservation of a house, that it be built upon a good foundation, and not upon a sandy soil; so is it equally necessary that the foundation upon which the believer places the eternal interest of his soul be built upon the best of all foundations, even Jesus Christ; for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Consider what it is to build upon Him. To have our foundation on Jesus Christ is not to hope that we may attain heaven and happiness by a partial conformity with the will of the Saviour, whilst we are at the same time devoting ourselves to the pleasures of the world; it is to feel that we are vile, worthless, and polluted creatures of the earth, whose very best action in itself has the nature of sin; it is to be so assured that our works can have no part in obtaining salvation as to strip us of all self-confidence and conceit, and lead us to place our whole dependence on the finished work, and the all-sufficient righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. But I observe, that after a house is erected, however well and costly it may be built, it requires to be kept in good order, and in constant repair. So it is with the soul, wonderful in its origin, for it was made by God; and majestic even in its ruins, through the fall of man.: redeemed not with corruptible things, such as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the adorable Saviour.
III. I observe, that light is essential to a house. The clearer the glass of which the windows are composed, and the less obstruction there is, the sooner will be discovered the slightest particle of dust, and every flaw in the dwelling. So it is with the soul; the clearer the light of the Holy Spirit shines into the conscience the more accurately will sin be detected; that which was thought a trifling and innocent thing before, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit will appear in its true light, as defiled and destructive.
IV. No habitation would be complete unless supplied with water; to cleanse and purify it, as also to refresh its inhabitants, and to administer to their comforts. And how can the soul thirsting after the water of life be satisfied without a fresh and daily supply from the Fountain of living waters, even that water which Christ has given him--a well springing up unto everlasting life.
V. I would observe that much of the comfort of a household depends on everything being regulated by judicious and careful management. So it is with the soul. Let everything be done decently and in order, is the apostles injunction; and of how much more importance is it, that the spiritual exercises of the child of God should be under the control of a wise and well directed judgment.
VI. I would observe that in the ancient mansions of the great, the hall was appropriated to the armoury, which was kept clean, bright, and ready for the masters use. This reminds us of the Christians armour: his weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; not weak, but mighty through God to the pulling down the strongholds of Satan; nevertheless, they must not only be keep bright, but constantly worn. VII. I would remark that in a house there is a necessity for fire. In the same manner in the soul there ought to be a flame of holy love, a zeal for Gods truth. (J. R. Starey.)
Set thy house in order-A New Years sermon
There are two points which it is here proper to consider.
1. What views and feelings naturally possess a man who is conscious that his end is near. If his mind has an ordinary share of sensibility, he will dismiss his worldly cares and turn his thoughts to the contemplation of eternity. He is no longer interested in a world he is so soon to leave. The calculations and pursuits of men, their joys, their griefs, their disappointments, their success, their hurry, their hopes, their fears, an appear as idle as the sports of children. The world is lighter to him than a feather. Neither losses nor disappointments nor prosperity has power to affect him. You see him not pressing from business, to business in a rage to be rich. You see him not stretching after preferment. His pride is reduced. You see him no longer assuming haughty airs, no longer fretted at every supposed neglect. Meekness and gentleness mark his deportment. No longer can unbelief or the world hide a prospect of death or seduce his thoughts from God. He looks death in the face. He turns his anxious eye to explore eternal objects. He raises an earnest look to heaven. He ardently betakes himself to prayer and to reading his Bible. All his anxiety is to prepare for his approaching fate. You all perceive that these are rational exercises for a dying man; why then not for you? It is to dying men that I am speaking. I can say to you all, As the Lord liveth, and as your soul liveth, there is but a step between you and death.
II. Let us consider what measures a man will naturally take to set his house in order, who, with proper views, is conscious that his end is near.
1. It would be natural for him, as an honest man, to wish to settle all his accounts. This might be necessary to secure his creditors and to prevent insolvency.
2. A dying man, in setting his house in order, would be desirous to dispatch all important, unfinished business, which could not be accomplished by others after his death. So do you.
3. It is common for dying Christians to call their families around them and impart to them their final counsel. Thus do ye.
4. It is customary for men, when setting their house in order, to make their wills. I have no advice to give as to the dispositon of your worldly estate. But I solemnly charge you to bequeath to God your immortal souls with all their faculties, and your bodies, to sleep in His arms, in expectation of a joyful resurrection.
5. It is not uncommon for people, when they view their end approaching, to prepare their shroud, and make every provision for their funeral obsequies, that nothing may be left to be done in the distress and confusion of the mournful day. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.)
The house in order
I would like to know that your Christian work is in order, that you would leave things so that others could carry them on. Have I ever told you about the obituary notice--though it was only a sort of passing paragraph in the newspaper--of a fisherman on the New Zealand coast? They told of how his body had been found in the bush; how his boat, drawn up to the shore, was near to him. This significant sentence followed, His nets were set. I remember the thrill that went through me when I read it first. His nets were set. He had gone out to his daily duty, put his nets in order--not left them in a tangled heap on the shore, needing washing or mending or both. They were set, and his successor had but to draw them in presently and secure the spoil of the sea. Are your nets set? If you were to pass away during this week, would it be your fault that the work could not be continued? Do your duty to the last. Do it thoroughly, do it patiently, do it perfectly, that it may be said of you, as of Whitefield, Wesley, MCheyne, and a thousand others, that you virtually died in harness.
All that remains for me
Is but to love and sing,
And wait until the angels come
To bear me to their King.
I want your house to be in order, your business to be in order, your church and Christian work to be in order, and I want most of all for all my hearers that their hearts shall be in order. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 "Thou hast loved me out of the pit of…
HEZEKIAHS SICKNESS, AND THE EMBASSY FROM BABYLON
2Ki_20:1-19
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"Thou hast loved me out of the pit of nothingness,"
- Isa_38:17 (A.V, margin)
"See the shadow of the dial In the lot of every one Marks the passing of the trial, Proves the presence of the Sun."
- E.B. BROWNING
IN the chaos of uncertainties which surrounds the chronology of King Hezekiahs reign, it is impossible to fix a precise date to the sickness which almost brought him to the grave. It has, however, been conjectured by some Assyriologists that the story of this episode has been displaced, because it seemed to break the continuity of the narrative of the Assyrian invasion; and that, though it is placed in the Book of Kings after the deliverance from Sennacherib, it really followed the earlier incursion of Sargon. This is rendered more probable by Isaiahs promise, {2Ki_20:6} "I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria," and by the fact that Hezekiah still possessed such numerous and splendid treasures to display to the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan. This could hardly have been the case after he had been forced to pay a fine to the King of Assyria of all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the kings house, to cut off the gold from the doors and pillars of the Temple, and even to send as captives to Nineveh some of his wives, and of the eunuchs of his palace. The date "in those ddays" {2Ki_20:1} is vague and elastic, and may apply to any time before or after the great invasion.
He was sick unto death. The only indication which we have of the nature of his illness is that it took the form of a carbuncle or imposthume, which could be locally treated, but which, in days of very imperfect therapeutic knowledge, might easily end in death, especially if it were on the back of the neck. The conjecture of Witsius and others that it was a form of the plague which they suppose to have caused the disaster to the Assyrian army has nothing whatever to recommend it.
Seeing the fatal character of his illness, Isaiah came to the king with the dark message, "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live."
The message is interesting as furnishing yet another proof that even the most positive announcements of the prophets were, and were always meant to be, to some extent hypothetical and dependent on unexpressed conditions. This was the case with the famous prophecy of Micah that Zion should be ploughed down into a heap of ruins. It was never fulfilled; yet the prophet lost none of his authority, for it was well understood that the doom which would otherwise have been carried out had been averted by timely penitence.
But the message of Isaiah fell with terrible anguish on the heart of the suffering king. He had hoped for a better fate. He had begun a great religious reformation. He had uplifted his people, at least in part, out of the moral slough into which they had fallen in the days of his predecessor. He had inspired into his threatened capital something of his own faith and courage. Surely he, if any man, might claim the old promises which Jehovah in His loving-kindness and truth had sworn to his father David and his father Abraham, that he being delivered out of the hand of his enemies should serve God without fear, walking in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of his life. He was but a young man still-perhaps not yet thirty years old; further, not only would he leave behind him an unfinished work, but he was childless, and therefore it seemed as if with him would end the direct line of the house of David, heir to so many precious promises. He has left us-it is preserved in the Book of Isaiah-the poem which he wrote on his recovery, but which enshrines the emotion of his agonizing anticipations:-{Isa_38:10-20}
"I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah, in the land of the living,
I shall behold no man more, when I am among them that cease to be.
Mine habitation is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherds tent.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he will cut me from the thrum.
Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter;
I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be Thou my surety."
We must remember, as we contemplate his utter prostration of soul, that he was not blessed, as we are, with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. All was dim and dark to him in the shadowy world of eidola beyond the grave, and many a century was to elapse before Christ brought life and immortality to light. To enter Sheol meant to Hezekiah to pass beyond the cheerful sunshine of earth and the felt presence of God. No more worship, no more gladness there!
"For Sheol cannot praise Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee;
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth."
On every ground, therefore, the feelings of Hezekiah, had he not been a worshipper of God, might have been like those of Mycerinus, and, like that legendary Egyptian king, he might have cursed God before he died.
"My father loved injustice, and lived long;
I loved the good he scorned and hated wrong-
The gods declare my recompense today.
I looked for life more lasting, rule more high;
And when six years are measured, lo, I die!
Yet surely, O my people, did I ween,
Mans justice from the all-just gods was given,
A light that from some upper point did beam,
Some better archetype whose seat was heaven:
A light that, shining from the blest abodes
Did shadow somewhat of the life of gods."
The indignation of Mycerinus often finds an echo on Pagan tombstones, as in the famous epitaph on the grave of the girl Procope:-
"I, Procope, lift up my hands against the gods,
Who took me hence undeserving,
Aged nineteen years."
It was far otherwise with Hezekiah. There was anguish in his heart, but no rebellion or defiance. He wept sore; he turned his face to the wall and wept; but as he wept he also prayed, and said, -
"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."
Isaiah, after delivering his dark message, and doubtless adding to it such words of human consolation as were possible-if under such circumstances any were possible-had left the kings chamber. On every ground his feelings must have been almost as overwhelmed with sorrow as those of the king. Hezekiah was personally his friend, and the hope of his nation. Doubtless the prophets prayers rose as fervently and as effectually as those of Luther, which snatched his friend Melanchthon back from the very gates of death. By the time that he had reached the middle of the court, he felt borne in upon him, by that Divine intuition which constituted his prophetic call, the certainty that God would withdraw the immediate doom which he had been commissioned to announce. It has been conjectured by some that the conviction was deepened in his mind by observing on the steps of Ahaz one of those remarkable but rare effects of refraction-or, as some have conjectured, of a solar eclipse, involving an obscuration of the upper limb of the sun-which had seemed to take the advancing shadow ten steps backwards; and that this was to him a sign from heaven of the promise of God and the prolongation of the kings life. Awestruck and glad, he hastened back into the presence of the dying king with the life-giving message that God had heard his prayer, and seen his tears, and would add fifteen years to his life, and would defend him, and deliver him and Jerusalem out of the hand of the King of Assyria. And this should be the sign to him from Jehovah.-Jehovah would bring again the shadow ten steps up the stairs of Ahaz. To this sign-if it was visible from the chamber window-he called the attention of the astonished king.
We here naturally follow the narrative of Isaiah himself, as more authoritative than that of the historian of the Kings as to details in which they differ. Not only is it quite in accordance with all that we know of history that slight variations should occur in the traditions of long-past times, but the text of the Book of Kings suggests some difficulty. There we read that Hezekiah asked Isaiah what should be the sign of the promise-not mentioned in Isaiah-that he should go up to the House of the Lord the third day. Isaiah then asked him whether the sign should be that the shadow should advance ten steps, or recede ten steps. But there is no interrogation in the Hebrew, which rather means, "The shadow hath advanced ten steps in it; shall recede ten steps?" or if we insert the interrogation in the first clause, "Hath the shadow advanced ten steps?" The kings natural answer to so strange an alternative would be that for the shadow to advance ten steps was nothing; whereas its retrogression would be a sign indeed. Then Isaiah cried unto Jehovah, and the shadow went backward. In the obvious divergence of details we naturally follow Isaiah himself; and if it be a true and understood rule of all theology, "Miracula non sunt multiplicanda procter necessitatem, " the miracle in this case-in the opportuneness of its occurrence, and the issues which it inspired-was none the less a miracle because it was carried out in direct accordance with Gods unseen, perpetual, miraculous Providence, which none but unbelievers will nickname Chance. That we are here dealing with a historic incident is certain; and they who see and acknowledge God in all history find no difficulty at all in seeing His dealings with men in striking interpositions. But these, by the analogy of His whole Divine economy, would naturally be carried out in accordance with natural laws.
The words rendered "the sun-dial of Ahaz" mean no more than "the steps [maaloth] of Ahaz." Ahaz evidently was a king of aesthetic tastes, who was fond of introducing foreign novelties and curiosities into Jerusalem. Steps, with a staff on the top of them as a gnomon, to serve as sun-dials had been invented at Babylon, and Ahaz may probably have become acquainted with their form and use when he paid his visit to Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. No one could blame him-it was indeed a meritorious act - to introduce to his people so useful an invention. The word "hour" first occurs in Dan_3:6, and it was doubtless from Babylon that the Hebrews borrowed the division of days into hours. This is the earliest instance in the Bible of the mention of any instrument to measure time. That the recession of the shadow could be caused by refraction is certain, for it has been observed in modern days. Thus, as is mentioned by Rosenmüller, on March 27th, 1703, Pere Romauld, prior of the monastery at Metz, noticed that the shadow on his dial deviated an hour and a half, owing to refraction in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Or again, according to Mr. Bosanquet, the same effect might have been produced by the darkening shadow of an eclipse. But while he appealed to Divine indications the great prophet did not neglect natural remedies. He ordered that a cake of figs should be laid on the imposthume. It was a recognized and an efficient remedy, still recommended, centuries later, by Dioscorides, by Pliny, and by St. Jerome. By Gods blessing on mans therapeutic care, the king was speedily rescued from the gates of death. Constantly in Scripture what we call the miraculous and what we call the providential are mingled together. To those who regard the providential as a constant miracle, the question of the miraculous becomes subordinate.
With intense joy and gratitude the king hailed the respite which God had granted him. In fifteen years much might be done, much might be hoped for. All this he acknowledged with deep feeling in the song which he wrote on his recovery.
"I shall go as in solemn procession {Psa_42:4} all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
O Lord, by these things men live,
And wholly therein is the life of my spirit."
"Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness;
But Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of nothingness:
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.
The Lord is ready to save me;
Therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments
All the days of our life in the house of the Lord." {Isa_38:10-20}
"The wonder done in the land" was, according to the Chronicler, one of the grounds for the embassy which, after his recovery, Hezekiah received from Merodach-Baladan, the patriot prince of Babylon. The other ostensible object of the embassy was to send letters and a present in congratulation for the kings restoration to health. But the real object lay deeper, out of sight. It was to secure a southern alliance for Babylon against the incessant tyranny of Nineveh.
Merodach-Baladan is mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon. He is described as "Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, King of Sumir and Accad, king of the four countries, and conqueror of all his enemies." There had been long struggles, lasting indeed for centuries, between the city on the Euphrates and the city on the Tigris. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, had been victorious. Babylon-on the monuments Kur-Dunyash-had its original Accadian name of Ca-dinirra, which, like its Semitic equivalent Bab-el, means "Gate of God." Kalah (Larissa and Birs Nimroud) had been built by Shal-maneser I before B.C. 1300. His son conquered Babylon, but not permanently; for in some later raid the Babylonians got possession of his signet-ring, with its proud inscription, "Conqueror of Kur-Dunyash," and it was not recovered by the Assyrians till six centuries later, when it fell into the hands of Sennacherib. About 1150 Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon thrice invaded Assyria, but there was again peace and alliance in 1100. Merodach-Baladan I reigned before 900. The king who now sought the friendship of Hezekiah was the second of the name. He seized or recovered the throne of Babylon in 721, after the death of Shalmaneser, perhaps because Sargon was a usurper of dubious descent. He helped the Elamites against Assyria. Sargon was compelled to retreat to Assyria, but returned in 712, and drove Merodach-Baladan to flight. He was captured and taken to Assyria. But on the murder of Sargon in 705, he again managed to seize the throne of Babylon, killed the viceroy who had been set up, and became king for six months. After this, Sennacherib invaded his country, defeated him, and drove him once more to flight. He was perhaps killed by his successor.
Whether his overtures to Hezekiah took place before his defeat by Sargon, or after his escape, is uncertain. In either case he doubtless sent a splendid embassy, for Babylon was far-famed for its golden magnificence as "the glory of kingdoms" and "the beauty of the Chaldees excellency." {Isa_14:4; Isa_13:19} At that time the Jews knew but little of the far-off city which was destined to be so closely interwoven with their future fortunes, as it was mingled with their oldest and dimmest traditions. {Gen_10:10-11; Gen_11:1-9} Apart from the magnificence of the presents brought to him, it was not unnatural that Hezekiah should regard this embassy with intense satisfaction. It was flattering to the power of his little kingdom that its alliance should be sought by the far-off and powerful capital on the great river; it was still more encouraging to know that the frightful Nineveh had a strong enemy not far from her own frontier. Merodach-Baladans ambassadors would be sure to inform Hezekiah that their lord had flung off the authority of Sargon, had kept him at bay for many years, and was still the undisputed king of the dominions snatched from the common enemy. It might have seemed reasonable that Hezekiah, for his part, should desire to leave the most favorable impression of his wealth and power on the mind of his distant and magnificent ally. He "hearkened unto" the ambassadors, or, more properly, "he was glad of them" (R.V), and "showed them all the house of his spicery and other treasures, his precious unguents, his armory his bullion, plate, and the whole resources of his kingdom." The Chronicler regards this as ingratitude to God. He says that "Hezekiah rendered not again according unto the benefits done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem." It is a severe judgment of later times, and the historian of the Kings pronounces no such censure. Nevertheless, he records the stern sentence pronounced by Isaiah. The prophet had seen through the secret diplomacy of the Babylonian ambassadors, and knew that the real object of their mission was to induce his king to revolt against Assyria in reliance on an arm of flesh. He came to ask Hezekiah whose these men were, whence they came, and what they had said. The king told him who they were, and how he had received them; but he did not think it wise to reveal their secret proposals. If Isaiah had so vehemently reproved all negotiations with Egypt, there was little probability that he would sanction the overtures of Babylon. He saw in Hezekiahs conduct a vein of ostentatious elation, a swerving from theocratic faith; and with remarkable prophetic insight convinced the king of the error and impolicy of his proceedings, by announcing that the final and, in fact, irrevocable captivity of Judah would ultimately come, not from Nineveh, the fierce enemy, whose cloud of war was lurid on the horizon, but from Babylon, the apparently weaker friend, who was now making overtures of amity. With what heartrending grief must the king have heard the doom that the display of his treasures would prove to be in the future an incentive to the cupidity of the kings of Babylon, and that they would sweep away all those precious things to the banks of the Euphrates with such final overthrow that even the descendants of David should be sunk to the infinite degradation of being eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. {See Dan_1:6} The doom seems to have been fulfilled in part in the reign of Hezekiahs son, and more fearfully in the days of his great-grandchildren. {2Ch_33:11}
The kings pride was humbled to the dust. In the spirit of Job-"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" {Job_1:21}-he resigned himself without a murmur to the will of Heaven, and exclaimed that all which God did must be well done. At least God granted him a respite. Peace and truth would be in his own days; for that let him be thankful. They were words of humble resignation, uttered by one who had learnt to believe that whatever God decreed was just and right.
It would be unjust to measure the feelings of those far centuries by those of our own day, and there was none of the gross selfishness in the words of Hezekiah which led Nero to quote the line-
"When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire"; or which led Louis XIV to say-
"Apres moi le deluge."
We may perhaps trace in his exclamation something of the fatalism which gives a touch of apathy to the submissiveness of the Oriental. Some, too, have imagined that his distress was tinged by a gleam of happiness at the implicit promise that he should have a son. His wifes name was Hephzibah ("My delight is in her"), and within two years she brought forth the firstborn son, whose career, indeed, was dark and evil, but who became in due time an ancestor of the promised Messiah. The name "Manasseh" given him by his parents recalled the child born to Joseph in the land of his exile who had caused him to forget his sorrows. Hezekiah had the spirit which says, -
"That which Thou blessest is most good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right which seems most wrong,
So it be Thy sweet will."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 2Ki_20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick—The Assyrian invasion…
HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
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2Ki_20:1. In those days was Hezekiah sick—The Assyrian invasion occurred in the fourteenth year of his reign (2Ki_18:13), and now fifteen more years are to be added (2Ki_20:6), making twenty-nine years, the total length of his reign (2Ki_18:2); therefore this sickness must have occurred the very year of the invasion—“in those days”—at which time he was thirty-nine years of age. Set thine house in order—Not his domestic affairs, but those of his kingdom, for being without a child, his successor should be selected.
2Ki_20:3. Hezekiah wept sore—So painful is it to quit life in the very prime of years; but the distress was to him greater because of the fierce menaces of the foe at the gates of his kingdom; and his plans for the religious reformation of the nation were yet incomplete.
2Ki_20:4. Before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court—i.e., of the royal castle, not of the temple.
2Ki_20:6. Add to thy days fifteen years—Why fifteen? He was now in the fifteenth year of his reign; God would add an equal period to that he had already enjoyed. He thus stood midway between the beginning and end of his reign.
2Ki_20:7. Take a lump of figs—The remedy does not determine the precise character of the ailment, for Orientalists apply a poultice of figs to plague boils, and inflammatory ulcers, and carbuncles. But it was so located as certain to prove fatal but for miraculous intervention.
2Ki_20:10. Let the shadow return backward ten degrees—This miracle has created antagonistic criticism. Either Isaiah, knowing that there would be a partial eclipse of the sun at that time, shrewdly used his knowledge; or else the story of the shadows being deflected is a myth! But the result was possible without any violent derangement of nature—“a phenomenon of refraction in the rays of light” (Keil) would effect the sign required. Yet. accepting the miracle in its most supernatural form, the phenomenon was so local and temporary as to carry with it no disturbance of universal nature.
2Ki_20:11. The dial of Ahaz—מַעֲלוֹת may be interpreted steps, for מַעֲלָה means an ascent, or that which ascends. It can therefore be imagined that some contrivance had been arranged so that the shadow fell on a succession of steps, or slopes, each so measured as to mark the hour of the day. It was of such dimensions, and so conspicuous an object in the court, that Isaiah could point to it, and Hezekiah see it from his sick chamber.
HOMILETICS OF 2Ki_20:1-11
LIFE PROLONGED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER
THE anxiety of the people was now transferred from the nation, so miraculously delivered, to the monarch. Hezekiah was smitten with a fatal sickness—perhaps he had been suffering for some time, and the mental anguish through which he had lately passed would tend to exacerbate the disease. He is startled to be informed that his recovery is hopeless. With cries and tears he pleads for life. He is heard, and fifteen more years are added to his career. A miracle is wrought in confirmation of the Divine promise of recovery. How highly favoured is this man for whom Jehovah so freely exercises his miraculous power Observe—
I. That the sudden approach of death fills the stoutest heart with alarm and sorrow. Death is a painful shock at any time; but, while cherishing the hope of recovery, to be abruptly assured that death is inevitable and at hand, strikes terror into the bravest heart. Hezekiah was utterly prostrate. “With that plaintive tenderness of character which he seems to have inherited from his great ancestor, he could not bear to part with life. He turned his face away from the light of day to the blank wall of his chamber. He broke into a passionate burst of tears. The darkness of the grave was before him, with nothing to cheer him. His tent was struck, his thread of life severed. The cry of a dying lion, the plaintive murmur of a wounded dove, were the only sounds that could be heard from the sick chamber. There seemed no hope of recovery” (Stanley’s Paraphrase of Isaiah 38)
Sooner or later all things pass away
And are no more. The beggar and the king
With equal steps tread forward to their end.
Southerne.
II. That there are circumstances in which prayer for continued life is justifiable. Hezekiah was in the prime of life, and with, to all natural appearances, years of useful labour before him. He had succeeded to the throne in a time of national decay, and his spirited reforms had done much to restore the national prestige. He had been rescued from great troubles, and was now in a position to look forward hopefully to a period of rest, peace, and prosperity. He was eager to do more than ever he had done for his beloved country. When, therefore, he is brought unexpectedly face to face with death, we cannot wonder that he should ask for life. Life is sweet; with all its burdens and cares, it has its enjoyments. It is a positive luxury to live. And when the powers of life are sacredly devoted to promoting the good of others, we cannot but yearn for the opportunity which continued life affords. But when wrongs have to be righted and faults rectified, how necessary and precious does life then become. Zimmerman remarks, “There appears to exist a greater desire to live long than to live well. Measure by man’s desires, he cannot live long enough; measure by his good deeds, and he has not lived long enough; measure by his evil deeds, and he has lived too long.”
III. That life and death are absolutely in the Divine disposal.
1. The best natural remedies are futile without the Divine blessing. The poultice of figs would have had no efficacy if the Lord of life had refused to interfere. Hezekiah knew this well, and he appeals immediately and directly, not to the physician, but to God. In His hands are the issues of life, and on Him they depend for their continuous outflow. “Every one,” says a certain writer, “is willing to allow that he received his life originally from the Almighty, and that the Almighty takes it away from him when He pleases. Few, however, are willing to regard themselves as existing only by virtue of His constant influx, the only way in which it can be true that in Him we live and move and have our being.” It is our duty to do all in our power to prolong life; but our best efforts must ever be in subordination to the will of God.
2. The Lord condescends to confirm the faith of His servants by the exercise of miraculous power. The transition to life was to Hezekiah as sudden and unexpected as the prospect of death. To possess what a few moments before he despaired about, seemed incredible: it was too good to be true. His faith staggered, and he asked for a sign. The shadow of the dial, visible from the window of the king’s palace, was put back ten degrees, probably by refraction—none the less a Divine act—and Hezekiah could no longer doubt. He recovered at once, and in three days passed up the steps in royal procession to the Temple to offer thanks and praise to the Lord and Giver of Life. How slow we are to believe, and how painstaking and patient is our gracious Father in encouraging us to trust Him!
LESSONS:—
1. A time of sickness is a time for special prayer.
2. God has a profound interest in the sufferings and sorrows of His people.
3. Restored health should be used in increased devotion to the service of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ki_20:1 and 2Ki_20:5. “Thou shalt die, and not live.” “I will heal thee.” The two messages.
1. How different their import—the one announcing death, the other promising life.
2. How different their effects—the one creating sorrow, the other joy.
3. Both emanating from the same authority.
4. Both demanding undoubted faith.
2Ki_20:1. As it is wise, in time of health and strength, to set one’s house in order in a worldly sense—i.e., to make one’s will and arrange one’s affairs—so is it still more wise to set one’s house in order in a spiritual sense, and not to put off making one’s peace with God until one stands on the brink of the grave.—Lange.
2Ki_20:3. Conspicuous piety.
1. Gives no immunity from sickness or death.
2. Is often severely tested.
3. Should guard against self-righteous boasting.
4. Leads the troubled soul to God.
—The course of Hezekiah’s thoughts was evidently directed to the promise made to David and his successors on the throne (1Ki_8:25). He had kept the conditions as faithfully as human infirmity admitted, and as he had been all along free from any of those great crimes by which, through the judgment of God, human life was often suddenly cut short, his great grief might arise partly from the love of life and the promise of long life and temporal prosperity made to the pious and godly, which would not be fulfilled to him if he were cut off in the midst of his days; partly from the obscurity of the Mosaic dispensation, where life and immortality had not been fully brought to light; and partly from his plans for the reformation of his kingdom being frustrated by his death, and from his having as yet, which was most probably the case, no son whom he could leave heir to his work and his throne. He pleaded the fulfilment of the promise. Jamieson.
—Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as a hawk to the partridge; or as a serpent’s skin, though but stuffed with straw. But why should a saint be fond of life or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his Father’s horse to carry him to his Father’s house, or as Joseph’s chariot rattling with its wheels to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?—Trapp.
2Ki_20:6. A fixed time to live.
1. A doubtful advantage, apt to keep the shadow of the grave ever in view.
3. Should be a constant reminder of the circumstances under which the period was fixed.
4. Is best spent in earnest, religious work.
2Ki_20:9. Human life a dial.
1. On which time flings its shadow.
2. It has its morning.
3. Noon.
4. Evening.
5. A Divine hand regulates the time-shadow.
2Ki_20:11. Time and how to measure it. The dial was made to measure time. Every line has a meaning; minutes and hours are numbered, and all scientifically combined, so as to tell the time of day. The Bible is God’s dial, by which we have to measure life. Every page has a meaning—a purpose—and its lines of doctrine radiate from Christ as the centre through the whole circumference and circumflex of every-day life. To the uninitiated eye the lines on the dial have no meaning; to the mind of the unenlightened and unbelieving the Bible has no spiritual value, for “the natural man knoweth not the things that are spiritual, because they are spiritually discerned.” But the dial may help us to understand this word, and serve as a foil to throw up in relief, doctrine, precept, promise, prospect. I. The dial must be so placed as to receive the rays of the sun. Every line will then come into use. The indicator concentrates the light; the angle of incidence falls within the shadow, marking off the numbers as the earth travels round the sun, and tells the time. The Bible is a system of revealed truth. Outspread before us in type and form, it invites attention. But without the light of the Sun of Righteousness it will only be as a sealed book. The Holy Spirit must shine on its pages before we can read it so as to measure life. Christ crucified, Christ our righteousness, and Christ our life, are set forth in the Bible so as to “make us wise unto salvation.” God in Providence, and grace in the heart, are also in this Book. “The hairs of your head are all numbered,” said Jesus. A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His Father’s knowledge and permission, and all the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. But the Bible is our guide. We must place it in the sunlight of His Spirit, and not let it lie on the shelf until you may write “Death,” “Judgment,” “Eternity,” on the dust of its boards. II. The dial of Ahaz was a public instrument intended for all the people of Jerusalem. Like some of the dials in Egypt at the present day, it was the only means whereby the common people could regulate their daily duty. All would not see it at once, but those who consulted it could tell others the hour by number and by voice. In that land of sunny skies the dial was of daily value and of daily use. The Bible is for all. There was a period in the history of England when it was a rare and costly book, and a time when the “King’s Book” and “Bishop’s Book,” as it was called, were used and set up on the churches, but not allowed to the laity and the common people. It was even chained up to the desk in the crypt of St. Paul’s. But after the Reformation, and the right of private judgment was affirmed, it became public property, and is now the cheapest book in the land. An Eastern princess once sent an ambassador to the English Court, to ask of our Queen what was the secret of England’s greatness. There is a picture representing a scene in which Queen Victoria is seen standing by the side of the late Prince Consort, and surrounded by ministers of State, presenting the Ambassador with an elegantly bound Bible, saying, Tell your royal mistress that this is the secret of England’s greatness. Let us cling to this Bible as our birthright. Take what you can get from the pulpit, but let those who cannot or will not come to hear, have the “Book and its story” taken to them. There must be some knowledge before there can be any faith. The Book is for all; see then that, like the Bereans, you “search the Scriptures,” for because of this they were more noble than the Christians of Thessalonica, who took for granted that which they ought to have proved.
III. Clouds would sometimes obscure the sun. and then the dial of Ahaz was in shadow. Time could not then be measured, but past experience on judging of light would keep faith steady, and work would still be done. In this cloudy land of ours the dial is often in the shade, but the sun is always in its place, and his light is precious. Clouds sometimes come between the mind and God’s Book. But the Sun of Righteousness never sets; and there is a silver lining in the darkest cloud of the Christian’s experience. Some time since Mr. Glaisher went up in his balloon to measure the atmosphere and analyze it; and just as he was looking down and admiring the glorious landscape outspread below, a cloud overshadowed him, and all was dark as night. But rising higher and higher, the huge machine got into sunshine again, and looking up, the big sun himself was seen pouring down his golden rays, making the dark cloud white and wavy, like a sea of fleecy down. He was in a new world. So with the believer. In the darkest hour he may be rising higher and higher, until the cloud is pierced, and in the smile of his Father’s love he enjoys his life again. Clouds, too, will come when we seek to solve by reason doubts and difficulties that can only be solved by faith. But the sailor is not to throw his lead line overboard because it will not fathom the depths of the Indian Ocean, nor his chart because he sees no lines of latitude and longitude on the sea. If the line is long enough to enable him to take such soundings as will show where there is danger, and the chart such as may be relied upon by experience, he needs no more to ensure safe navigation. Just so with the Christian mariner. He has faculties, but they are limited—they cannot fathom the mind of God, but they are sufficient to discover danger, while the Bible is a chart by which he can safely work his course, and in due time reach the desired haven.
IV. The sun went backward, and not forward on the dial of Ahaz, as a sign to King Hezekiah that he would get well again. This was simply a miracle. With God all things are possible, and there we must leave it. In the moral world the law of progress appears to be sometimes in abeyance, and the dial plate indicates a down-going sun. But although at present there are signs which indicate a return to the days of darkness, let us not be alarmed for God hath said, “At evening time it will be light.” Standing on the sea shore, you have seen the back-going wave running out and tearing away the landmarks of its former progress; but look again, it is getting strength as it rises, and, gathering itself like a giant, comes roaring forward to make a higher margin than it left before. So will it be with our tide of Christian progress. It is, perhaps, in the back-going wave at present, but when the Church, like Hezekiah, rises from the bed of sickness, or it may be indifference, the Sun of Righteousness will again appear—the tide of progress will flow onwards, and the world shall yet be brought to the rule of Christ.—C. W. P.
—O God, thou wilt rather alter the course of heaven and earth, than the faith of thy children shall sink for want of support.—Bp. Hall.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery
Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery
1. In those days] The incidents related in this chapter probably took place before Sennacherib's invasion, for (a) the deliverance from the Assyrians is still future (2Ki_20:6); (b) Hezekiah is in possession of great treasures (2Ki_20:13), which could scarcely have been the case after the surrender described in 2Ki_18:14-15; (c) Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon, was driven from his throne before Sennacherib attacked Judah. Chronologically, therefore, this chapter should precede 2Ki_18:7; Thou shalt die] Prophetic predictions were generally conditional and not absolute; a threatened judgment might be averted by repentance and a promised blessing forfeited by misconduct: see Jer_18:7-10; Jer_26:18, Jer_26:19.
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3. How I have walked, etc.] In the absence of any complete belief in a future life, this world was held to be the only sphere within which God's moral governance of mankind displayed itself, length of days being regarded as the reward of righteousness, and a short life being thought to imply great guilt. Hence Hezekiah, with the prospect of an untimely death before him, appealed to God to bear witness to his uprightness. A perfect heart] i.e. a heart not divided between devotion to the Lord and devotion to other gods: cp. 1Ki_8:61 and contrast 1Ki_11:4.
4. The middle court] RV 'the middle part of the city.'
7. A lump of figs] A plaster of figs is known from other sources to have been used as a remedy for boils, but since Hezekiah was 'sick unto death' (v. l), his cure is doubtless regarded as miraculous.
8. What shall be the sign, etc.] 2Ki_20:8-11 ought to precede the statement of the king's recovery in 2Ki_20:7.
9. Shall the shadow, etc.] better, as in RM, 'the shadow is gone forward ten steps, shall it go back ten steps?'
11. The dial of Ahaz] Probably a platform surrounded by steps and surmounted by a pillar, the shadow of which fell upon a smaller or larger number of the steps according as the sun mounted or declined in the sky. It has been conjectured that a slight alteration of the length of the sun's shadow might be produced by a partial eclipse; if so, the sign consisted in the event taking place in agreement with the prophet's prediction.
12. Berodach-baladan] Isa_39:1 has the more correct form 'Merodach-baladan.' This prince was a Chaldean who twice made himself master of Babylon and was twice expelled from it by the Assyrians. In 2Ch_32:31 the motive of his embassy is said to have been a wish to enquire into the unusual occurrence described in 2Ch_32:11 but it is probable that he likewise sought to obtain Hezekiah's aid against the Assyrians.
13. The house of his armour] Probably the house of the forest of Lebanon; cp. 1Ki_10:17; Isa_22:3.
14. Then came Isaiah] Isaiah opposed all political entanglements as involving reliance upon material resources instead of confidence in the Lord. Hezekiah had still to learn how powerless was his own strength or that of foreign allies to save him in the hour of his need.
17. Into Babylon] The prophet probably regarded Babylon as a province of Assyria, not as an independent power; and it was to Babylon that an Assyrian king carried Manasseh the son of Hezekiah (according to 2Ch_33:11).
19. Good is the word] Hezekiah showed the same submissiveness as Eli had manifested on a similar occasion (1Sa_3:18).
20. The rest of the acts] Among other acts related in 2 Chronicles 29-31 are the purification of the Temple (desecrated by Ahaz), the celebration of a solemn passover, and the arrangement of the priestly courses. A pool, and a conduit] The 'pool' is probably the pool of Siloam, which was fed by a conduit from the spring of Gihon: cp. 2Ch_32:30. The 'conduit' was perhaps at first a surface aqueduct, which Hezekiah replaced by a tunnel to secure the supply of water from being interrupted. Such a tunnel has been found, and an inscription describing its construction.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 3. Hezekiah’s Illness, Recovery, Failure, and Death
3. Hezekiah’s Illness, Recovery, Failure, and Death
CHAPTER 20
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1. Hezekiah’s illness and recovery (2Ki 20:1-11; 2Ch 32:24)
2. Hezekiah’s failure (2Ki 20:12-19; 2Ch 32:25-31)
3. The death of Hezekiah (2Ki 20:20-21; 2Ch 32:32-33)
Hezekiah’s sickness must have occurred about the second invasion of the Assyrian. Then the prophet Isaiah delivered to him the message of approaching death. “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live.” The message made a deep impression on the sick king. He turned his face to the wall; he prayed and wept sore. Though he was a pious man he was greatly agitated and deeply moved when he heard the announcement of his coming departure. The meager knowledge God’s saints had in Old Testament times on the things beyond the grave, as well as the conception that an untimely death denoted divine disfavor produced no doubt much of this grief. How differently saints in New Testament times can face death! Life and immortality is now brought to life by the gospel, and we know that absent from the body means to be present with the Lord, and to depart and be with Christ is “far better.”
Hezekiah’s prayer was at once heard and answered. It is one of the most striking answers to prayer. Isaiah had not gone very far, he had just reached the middle of the court, when he was commanded to turn back and bring to Hezekiah the answer. Seven things are contained in this new message to the weeping king. “I have heard thy prayer”; “I have seen thy tears”; “I will heal thee”; “Thou shalt go up to the house of the LORD”; “I will add unto thy days fifteen years”; “I will deliver thee”; “I will defend the city.” And Isaiah was also commanded to use means. “Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil and he recovered.” If this simple remedy had been neglected, if there had been disobedience, the recovery would not have taken place. The third day is mentioned on which he should go up to the house of the LORD. For Israel there is also in store the third day, when they will be raised up nationally and worship the LORD (Hos 6:2). Then there was the sign of the shadow turning backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz. Hezekiah’s experience is a great encouragement for God’s people to pray.
“It is interesting to learn that Ahaz had--probably on his visit to Damascus (2Ki 16:10)--seen and brought to Jerusalem some of the scientific appliances of the great empire of the East. It is impossible to determine whether this mode of measuring the progress of time (not strictly hours) was by a sun-dial, the invention of which Herodotus ascribed to the Babylonians. According to Ideler it was a gnomon, or index, surrounded by concentric circles, by which the time of the day was marked by the lengthening shadow. But the term “steps” seems rather to indicate an obelisk surrounded by steps, the shadow on which marked the hours, so that the shadow falling in the morning westwards first on the lowest step, gradually ascended to the plane on the top, and after midday again descended the steps eastwards. As the text seems to imply that there were twenty such “steps,” they must have marked the quarters of an hour, and in that case the event has happened about half-past two o’clock p.m.” (Bible History)
And the promise the LORD had given, “I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake,” was wonderfully fulfilled in the complete destruction of Sennacherib’s army. The last we hear of this great king is the failure when he was lifted up with pride and did not give the glory to God. Merodach-baladan, (Berodach is the error of some scribe. See Isa 39:1.), King of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah when he heard of his sickness and his miraculous recovery. This is the first time we hear of a king of Babylon. The ambassadors came possibly to form with Hezekiah a league against Assyria. Hezekiah was favorably impressed, “he hearkened unto them,” and then he made a display of all his possessions. He had hearkened unto them and pleased with the attention shown to him and the presents the king of Babylon had sent to him, he became lifted up in his heart, he boasted of his wealth and his possessions. Then Isaiah had another message for him. The Babylonian captivity is announced; remarkable in itself. How verses 17 and 18 were fulfilled is well known.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Hezekiah’s Sickness
Hezekiah’s Sickness
v. 1. In those days, some time during the latter part of his reign, after he had ruled fourteen years, was Hezekiah sick unto death. He was then thirty-nine years old and in the prime of his life. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, literally, "Command regarding thy house"; he was to take the steps ordinarily taken by a person expecting to die with reference to the disposal of his property and the management of his affairs; for thou shalt die, and not live, his illness was mortal unless some supernatural agency intervened.
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v. 2. Then he turned his face to the wall, in order to commune with the Lord without interference and disturbance, and prayed unto the Lord, saying,
v. 3. I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee, in his entire life and actions, in truth and with a perfect heart, his worship of Jehovah had been without hypocrisy, and he had earnestly opposed every form of idolatry, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. To die in the prime of life was to the believing Jews an indication of God’s special displeasure. Cf Pro 10:27. And Hezekiah wept sore, deeply moved by this apparent sign of God’s displeasure.
v. 4. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, he had not yet left the middle city, Mount Zion, where the royal palace was situated, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
v. 5. Turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of My people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, to whom Hezekiah had clung with such firmness all his life, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, both of which pleaded for an extension of life. Behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord, his health and strength being miraculously restored to him as in the case of the New Testament healings.
v. 6. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, who had started on his expedition against Jerusalem in this year, 2Ki 18:13; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake and for My servant David’s sake, 2Ki 19:34.
v. 7. And Isaiah, having returned to the palace according to the command of the Lord, said, Take a lump, a pressed mass, of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, the inflammation, ulcer, or carbuncle, which caused all the trouble; and he recovered, he revived immediately, the Lord gave him life and health.
v. 8. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? This question was probably asked before Isaiah called for the pressed figs, when he had announced to the king that lie would recover. Hezekiah was so anxious that he wanted an external sign to strengthen his faith in the prophet’s words.
v. 9. And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He hath spoken shall the shadow, namely, on the shadow-measurer, or sun-dial, where the length of the shadow was a means of telling the time, go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees?
v. 10. And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, if it would merely advance ten steps, this would not seem so very extraordinary; nay, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees, returning through the space which it had already traversed. If we suppose the sun-dial to have consisted of a column surrounded with circular steps, the shadow at noon striking the highest step in the center, and in the morning and evening the lowest step on either side, we have some idea of how it worked.
v. 11. And Isaiah, the prophet, cried unto the Lord; and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. The miracle consisted either in a supernatural breaking of the light rays that struck the dial, or, more probably, in the fact that the sun actually returned degrees, as Isaiah has it, (Isa 38:8). Our God is the almighty Lord of the universe, having not only the laws of nature, but also the power over life and death, in His hand. And no matter what God does, it serves, in the final analysis, for the welfare of His children.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6 Set your house in order
Set your house in order
"House" is metonymy for what was under Hezekiah's control. AT: "Give final instructions to your household and government" (See: Metonymy)
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call to mind
This is a common way of speaking, an idiom, urging Yahweh to remember. AT: "remember" (See: Idiom)
walked
This is an idiom. AT: "lived my life" (See: Idiom)
good in your sight
Here sight represents judgment or evaluation. AT: "in your judgment" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Hezekiah
Isaiah
Amoz
prophet
Yahweh
house
die
life
pray
call
mind
faithful
walk
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 5, 6 20:1-19 About that time: This general time reference indicates…
20:1-19 About that time: This general time reference indicates that the order of events is thematic rather than chronological. The episode concerning Merodach-baladan (20:12-19), whom Sennacherib had driven from Babylon before 701 BC, happened earlier than the events of chs 18–19 but after Hezekiah’s illness (20:12).
20:1 Since Isaiah was already active in Hezekiah’s reign before Sennacherib moved to take Jerusalem, he was readily available to the king during that emergency (19:2). • Set your affairs in order: Hezekiah’s illness was terminal.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.