16Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear Yahweh’s word.17‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh.18‘They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will father; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”
19Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?”
17 ‘Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh.
18 ‘They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will father; and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?”
KJVKing James Version
16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.
17 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.
18 And 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.
19 Then 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?
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah: 'Hear the word of the LORD.
17 Behold, the days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
18 And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be officers in the palace of the king of Babylon.'
19 Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: 'Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken.' He said moreover: 'Is it not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?'
2 Kings 24:13(v17)He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of…
2 Chronicles 33:11(v18)Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and…
2 Chronicles 36:10(v17)At the return of the year, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the valuable vessels of Yahweh’s house, and made…
1 Samuel 3:18(v19)Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him. He said, “It is Yahweh. Let him do what seems good to him.”
2 Kings 24:12(v18)and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers;…
Show all 26 cross-references
Jeremiah 27:21-22(v17)yes, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in Yahweh’s house, and in the house of the king of…
Jeremiah 52:17-19(v17)The Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house in…
2 Kings 25:13-15(v17)The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of bronze that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house, and…
Daniel 1:3(v18)The king spoke to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in some of the children of Israel, even of the royal offspring…
Leviticus 10:3(v19)Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the…
Leviticus 26:19(v17)I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze.
1 Kings 22:19(v16)Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right…
2 Kings 7:1(v16)Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of…
2 Kings 25:6(v18)Then they captured the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they passed judgment on him.
2 Chronicles 36:18(v17)All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes,…
Esther 9:30(v19)He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
Job 1:21(v19)He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s…
Psalms 39:9(v19)I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
Isaiah 1:10(v16)Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Jeremiah 33:6(v19)‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
Lamentations 3:22(v19)It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
Lamentations 3:39(v19)Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Amos 7:16(v16)Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’
Zechariah 8:19(v19)Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and…
Luke 2:10(v19)The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
Luke 2:14(v19)“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v19He acknowledgeth Isaiah to be the true Prophet of…
He acknowledgeth Isaiah to be the true Prophet of God, and therefore humbleth himself to his word.
Seeing that God hath showeth me this favor to grant me quietness during my life: for he was afraid lest the enemies should have had occasion to rejoice, if the Church had decayed in his time, because he had restored religion.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv16–192Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the…
2Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.
Ver. 16. Hear the word of the Lord.] Divine truths must be spoken, however they be taken.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv17–19This judgment is denounced against him for his pride,…
This judgment is denounced against him for his pride, which God exceedingly abhors; and for his ingratitude, whereby he took that honour to himself which he should have given entirely to God, and abused God’s gifts and favours to the gratification of his own lusts; of both which see 2Ch 32:25,26; and for his carnal confidence in that league which he had now made with the king of Babylon, by which, it is probable, he thought his mountain to be so strong, that it could not be removed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv17–19Behold - This judgment is denounced against him for…
Behold - This judgment is denounced against him for his pride; for his ingratitude, whereby he took that honour to himself which he should have given entirely to God; and for his carnal confidence in that league which he had now made with the king of Babylon, by which, it is probable, he thought his mountain to be so strong, that it could not be removed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv17–19Verse 17. Behold, the days come] This was fulfilled…
Verse 17. Behold, the days come] This was fulfilled in the days of the latter Jewish kings, when the Babylonians had led the people away into captivity, and stripped the land, the temple, &c., of all their riches. See Da 1:1-3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv16–192Ki 20:16. Isaiah said, Hear the word of the…
2Ki 20:16. Isaiah said, Hear the word of the Lord — Hear what his judgment is of this, and how wide his thoughts are from thy thoughts! Thou wast transported when the messengers of the king of Babylon arrived; to thy eye it appeared the most favourable conjuncture that could have happened to thee; thou madest a parade of all thy riches, and of thy armoury, to induce them to enter into an alliance with thee against the king of Assyria. Thou thoughtest if thou couldest secure their friendship and alliance, thou wouldest be safe; even safer than in putting thy trust in the Lord God of Israel. But hear the word of the Lord; see the foolishness of thy thoughts: This very nation, in whom thou thinkest to find security, is the nation that shall take away all these treasures, and carry away thy sons into captivity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv18–19This prophecy had two fulfillments, each complementary to the…
This prophecy had two fulfillments, each complementary to the other. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s actual son, was “carried to Babylon” 2Ch 33:11, but did not become a eunuch in the palace. Daniel and others, not his actual sons, but of the royal seed Dan 1:3, and therefore Hezekiah’s descendants, are thought by some to have literally fulfilled the latter part of the prophecy, being eunuchs in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv17–19Babylon, under the last kings of Juda. It cannot…
Babylon, under the last kings of Juda. It cannot be explained of Sennacherib, chap. xviii. 15.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn v19Good is the word of the Lord which thou…
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken--indicating a humble and pious resignation to the divine will. The concluding part of his reply was uttered after a pause and was probably an ejaculation to himself, expressing his thankfulness, that, though great afflictions should befall his descendants, the execution of the divine judgment was to be suspended during his own lifetime.
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv17–1917. Shall be carried unto Babylon — This seems…
17. Shall be carried unto Babylon — This seems to have been the first explicit prophecy of this great woe of Judah, though Micah’s (iv, 10) prediction of the same event must have been nearly contemporary. The prophecy is especially remarkable, since Babylon was at this time an inferior power, little more than a dependency of Assyria, whose leading men had risen in rebellion; and there was far more probability that Judah would be carried into exile either by the king of Assyria or by the king of Egypt, which two at the time seemed to divide the empire of the world between them.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv17–1917. nothing shall be left] Though some few Jews…
17. nothing shall be left] Though some few Jews remained behind among the ruins of the desolated city, nothing worth taking as booty was left behind. For a description of the overthrow and the plunder, see below 2Ki_25:9-17.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv17–19(17) Behold, the days come . . .—Comp. 2Ch_32:25-26;…
(17) Behold, the days come . . .—Comp. 2Ch_32:25-26; 2Ch_32:31. It is there said that Divine wrath fell upon Hezekiah, because his heart was lifted up; and that the Babylonian embassy was an occasion in which God made proof of his inward tendencies. Self-confidence and vanity would be awakened in Hezekiah’s heart as he displayed all his resources to the envoys, and heard their politic, and perhaps hyperbolical, expressions of wonder and delight, and himself, it may be, realised for the first time the full extent of his prosperity. But it was not only the king’s vanity which displeased a prophet who had always consistently denounced foreign alliances as betokening deviation from absolute trust in Jehovah; and a more terrible irony than that which animates the oracle before us can hardly be conceived. Thy friends, he cries, will prove robbers, thine allies will become thy conquerors. That Isaiah should have foreseen that Assyria, then in the heyday of its power, would one day be dethroned from the sovereignty of the world by that very Babylon which, at the time he spoke, was menaced with ruin by the Assyrian arms, can only be accepted as true by those who accept the reality of supernatural prediction. Thenius remarks: “An Isaiah might well perceive i what fate threatened the little kingdom of Judah, in case of a revolution of affairs brought about by the Babylonians.” But the tone of the prophecy is not hypothetical, but entirely positive. Besides, Isaiah evidently did not suppose that Merodach-baladan’s revolt would succeed. (Comp. Isa_14:29, seq., 21:9.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv16–19And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of…
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. This is a phrase of warning very common in the mouth of the prophets, when they are about to deliver a rebuke or solemn condemnation (1Ki_22:19; 2Ch_18:18; Isa_1:10 Isa_28:14; Jer_7:2 Jer_9:20 Jer_10:1 Jer_19:3, etc.; Eze_15:3-5 Eze_34:9; Amo_3:1, etc.)
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v19Good is the word of the Lord which thou…
2Ki_20:19-20
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.
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The peace
The text is susceptible of two propositions. First, that peace is a blessing only on a basis of truth. He said, Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? Secondly, that the godliest celebration of peace is to resume the social and religious benefactions interrupted by war. Hezekiahs might was diverted to the construction of the pool and the conduit of water for the relief of his people.
I. That peace without truth is not the peace of God is capable of abundant evidence and illustration. As in a religious sense there may be a cry of Peace, peace, where there is no peace, except the unnatural stillness of a moral stupefaction, a stifling of the voice of conscience, and a compromise of principle with the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, and under whose influence, when the strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace, such as it is--but it is at the best only the torpor of sordid subjection to spiritual bondage, the tranquillity of a dungeon, or the quiescence of a corpse, dead in its trespasses and sins--so in the political moralities of nations there may be a peace that has no truth in it, neither in the reality of its foundation, the assurance of its continuance, nor the uprightness of its conditions. That is a peace at the expense of truth which is not true to the eternal and inalienable principles of international rights--which is bought by the ignoble subsidy of subjection to wrong and injustice, or which consents to spare itself the possible cost and sacrifice of a generous intervention on behalf of the weak against the strong--which ignores the great plea of national brotherhoods, and asks with the first fratricide, Am I my brothers keeper? and which entails upon itself the malediction written against those who were not grieved with the afflictions of Joseph. That is a peace without truth which looks every man to his own things, and not every man to the things of others also; and if this maxim be a canon binding on any one man in reference to any other man, it is equally binding on any one nation in reference to any other nation.
II. Our second deduction from the text is, that the godliest celebration of peace is to resume the social and religious benefactions interrupted by the war. Hezekiah so improved even a period of respite. He made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city. If God condescended to put twice on record the mere municipal zeal of this pious prince; if, the pool, the conduit and the water are counted worthy of a place in the compendious annals of Inspiration, we may be sure the activities of Christian benevolence in the same direction will meet with His gracious approval. It is a miserable mistake to suppose, that Christianity has nothing to do with the common tenements, the daily vulgar wants and homespun miseries of our fellow-men. It stirs our sympathy to listen to the recital of the far-off dark places of the earth and their habitations of cruelty; but it is not so easy to extort a sigh over the dark back lanes and more noisome and cruel abodes in the next street behind us. There are no Hezekiahs pools, except in fever-brewing abominations of the cesspool, nor other conduit except the constant exhalations of disease and death from the sluggish gutter, nor better homes than the vile hovels where in guilt and penury alike seek a covert to sin, and suffer and die. If the bitter mass of gratuitous suffering and mortality arising from a defective commissariat in the Crimea should drag into reluctant notice the amount of misery dally endured from a similar neglect of sanitary provisions in the crowded courts and alleys of the metropolis, the poor battalions will not have perished in vain. They will have incidentally achieved an involuntary victory on behalf of their fellow-citizens, attended perhaps with more comfort than glory, but none the less precious for the public welfare. Oh! there is more hope of the Gospel gaining audience of the wild Indian in the cheerful freedom of his native forests, than of its penetrating the gross darkness of the denizens alongside the Thames, or the purlieus of the city. If we would speak with any hope of evangelising effect of the pool of Siloam, and of the Fountain of living waters, we must first tread in Hezekiahs footsteps, provide the pool and the conduit of sanitary necessities, the possibilities of popular decency and comfort, the practicableness of a family hearth and home, the humble means of health and cleanliness, of light and air and water, freely as God bestows them, and fully as a seasonable adoption of remedial agents would supply them. Such a celebration of the peace abroad would afford the happiest prospect of more peace at home, and co-operate with city missionaries and ministers of religion with the most hopeful pledges of success, in their more directly spiritual efforts for the evangelisation of our fellow-citizens. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
Submission
Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him: therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet was sent to say to him, Behold the days come that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons which shall issue from thee--shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. This was the humiliating and distressing message to which the penitent king made the reply in our text, Good is the word of the Lord which thou bass spoken. Shall I call your attention to the holiness and happiness of such a temper, and to the universal obligation on mankind to offer this homage to their God and King? In doing this I will,
I. Explain precisely what the temper is. It is a temper of universal and absolute submission to the will of God. There is a forced submission--a yielding because we cannot help it; but this is not the thing required. There is an acquiescence in the will of God when that will sends prosperity; but this is only a consenting that another should make us happy. The only true submission is that hearty acquiescence in the will of God which arises from supreme love to him. The reason why the wicked do not submit, is that they love themselves and their own enjoyments most. While such a temper continues, they must of course value their own gratification more than the Divine pleasure, and approve of the will of God only so far as that will is tributary to them. This selfishness is the root and core of all rebellion. When our own wishes and interests are less dear to us than that universal interest which is wrapt up in the Divine will, what can tempt us to unsubmission? what is there for us to oppose to that will? what interest have we to maintain against the wishes of God? But so certain as we love another interest better than that which the Divine will protects, we shall set up that interest against God, and resist whenever he lays his finger upon it. True submission then is the necessary effect of supreme love to God, and can arise from no other principle. This submission is to be distinguished from that morbid inactivity and aversion to care which, retiring from exertion, leaves God to be the only agent in the universe--which puts off burdens upon Him just as the indolent shift them off upon each other--which, instead of exerting a dependent agency with an eye fixed upon an overruling providence, leaves God to perform both His part and ours. That may be called submission to a providential dispensation, which really is indolence shrinking from an effort to change the posture of affairs. It is an essential part of Gods plan, and for His glory, that creatures should obtain good by their own activity; otherwise there would be no use for their immortal powers. This activity He has therefore enjoined. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, is the Christians motto.
II. I am to dwell a little on the holiness and happiness of such a temper, and the universal obligation on mankind to exercise it. To love the righteous will of God, in which are balanced all the interests of the universe--which is perfectly wise and benevolent and right--to love that will better than our own interests, and to subject our interests and wishes to that; must be holy if any thing is holy--must be pure and sublime benevolence. How generous and noble is the temper. How infinitely superior to the littleness and meanness of a selfish spirit. And it is precisely what God commands. If then holiness consists in obeying God, it consists in rendering him that supreme love which will produce the submission in question. What can be holiness, what can be goodness, if it is not subjection to the will of eternal wisdom and benevolence? This submission to the will of God, so far as it operates, necessarily excludes all evil passions and conduct. For instance, it excludes all discontent. For one who knows that the providence of God is universal, and extends to the most minute events, and who is willing that the will of the Lord in all things should be done, and delights in that will more than in anything which that will can take away; what ground can there be for discontentment? If events are crossing to his feelings, still His supreme desire is gratified, for the will of the Lord is done; and though He may suffer he would by no means change a single circumstance about which the Divine will has been clearly expressed. But when the pleasure of God is known, a particle of discontentment evinces a want of submission. With proper resignation, we shall feel, under any cross event, that we have nothing to do, in mind or body, but to use the means which God has appointed to remove or support the evil. In looking forward into the wide expanse of futurity, or in contemplating the issue of any particular event, the Christian knows that nothing can happen but what the will of God appoints. While that will engages his supreme regard, how can he be anxious? It follows of course that submission will exclude every complaining word, every, angry, or bitter word, every impatient word. Submission will cure every inordinate desire after wealth, honour, pleasure, friends, ease, or whatever else we regard. An inordinate desire is an unsubmissive desire. Submission is an effectual cure of all envious feelings towards our neighbour. It follows of course that submission will exclude every falsehood, and I may add, every transgression. The temptation to transgress is a desire for some object which we cannot obtain without going counter to a Divine precept. Where the object is placed in this predicament by the providence of God, it is plain that submission to providence take away all motives to transgress. I add finally, that submission, so far as it extends, must quench every evil passion, and thus extinguish the inward fire from which all outward eruptions proceed. If it suppresses every inordinate desire, every feeling of discontent, all distrust of God, every motion of impatience. Thus the holiness of this temper appears. And its happiness is no less evident. Submission to God, as we have seen, excludes all those uncomfortable passions which make the wicked like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. It clears away everything that can agitate or corrode the mind. And as its very life-blood consists in supreme delight in the will of God, it has always the happiness of knowing that its dearest object is safe--that the ground of its highest exultation and joy is secure--that the will of infinite wisdom and benevolence will in all things be done. And in respect to the universal obligation, who can doubt that this is precisely the temper in which all moral agents ought to unite? The very definition of moral agents is, that they are under obligation to feel and do right and to avoid wrong. But in the temper under consideration, all the right feelings in the universe are involved, and by it all the wrong feelings in the universe are excluded. If you revolt from these conclusions, you must go back to the full admission that all men are under indispensable obligations to yield unlimited submission to God. Is he not our rightful King, and are we not His subjects? Is not His will perfect? Has not the Creator and Proprietor of all things a right to govern His own world according to His own pleasure? This is the religion Of the Old Testament and the New. Under the severest trials this resignation has all along been exemplified in the history of the Church. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord, said Job when all his children and possessions were destroyed. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? was his language when covered with one tormenting ulcer from head to foot. In more general and common matters, the same acknowledgment of God and the same resignation to His will have all along been exemplified. A general acquiescence and joy in His government have always distinguished His true servants. All down the ages they have sung, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. (E. D. Griffith, D. D.)
Resignation in affliction
The Fram, which went in search of the North Pole, escaped many of the perils that injured other expeditionary vessels, because her commander built her wide at the decks and narrowing her down to the keel, so that she did not withstand the ice, but yielded to its pressure. The cruel masses could not get a grip of the wisely constructed craft. The pressure, so far from crushing her, lifted her clean out of the ice, and she rode triumphantly on the floes. How many of our life troubles which if faced resentfully, sullenly, proudly, threaten to grind us to powder; but meet them meekly, resignedly, recognising in them Gods wiser will for us than we for ourselves, and they will in the end lift us upward and bear us onward towards the eternal Light. (H. O. Mackey.)
Unshaken faith
The Rev. Dr. Campbell Morgan tells the following pathetic story concerning Commander Booth-Tucker, who lost his wife in a railway accident last autumn. A few weeks ago, he, says, in a city of Nebraska, I was holding meetings. There came to that city my dear friend Commander Booth-Tucker. It was the city of Omaha. I shall never forget my talk with him there. I said to him, Commander, the passing of your beloved wife was one of the things that I freely confess I cannot understand. He looked at me across the breakfast table, his eyes wet with tears, and yet his face radiant with that light which never shone on sea or land, and he said to me, Dear man, do you not know that the Cross can only be preached by tragedy? Then he told me this incident: When I and my wife were last in Chicago I was trying to lead a sceptic to Christ in a meeting. At last the sceptic said, with a cold glittering eye and a sarcastic voice, It is all very well. You mean well; but I lost my faith in God when my wife was taken out of my home. It is all very well; but if that beautiful woman at your side lay dead and cold by you, how would you believe in God? Within one month she had been taken through the awful tragedy of a railway accident, and the Commander went back to Chicago, and, in the hearing of a vast multitude, said, Here, in the midst of the crowd, standing by the side of my dead wife as I take her to burial, I want to say that I still believe in Him, and love Him, and know Him. (C. L. MCleery.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v18they shall
they shall
Fulfilled. Dan 1:3.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv16, 19So Isaiah said to Hezekiah
So Isaiah said to Hezekiah
Why Isaiah spoke can be stated clearly. AT: "So, because Isaiah knew Hezekiah had been foolish to show the men all his valuable things, Isaiah said to him" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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the word of Yahweh
"the message of Yahweh"
Look, the days are about to come when
"Listen to me, someday there will come a time when"; "Look" is used to draw attention to what Isaiah is about to tell Hezekiah.
the days
"Days" is synecdoche to refer to an undefined span of time. (See: Synecdoche)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv17–1820:17 everything . . . will be carried off…
20:17 everything . . . will be carried off to Babylon: The Lord’s message through Isaiah predicted the taking of the palace . . . treasures in Jerusalem to Babylon, an event that took place in 597–586 BC (24:10-17; 25:1-21).
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v19 He acknowledgeth Isaiah to be the true Prophet of…
He acknowledgeth Isaiah to be the true Prophet of God, and therefore humbleth himself to his word.
Seeing that God hath showeth me this favor to grant me quietness during my life: for he was afraid lest the enemies should have had occasion to rejoice, if the Church had decayed in his time, because he had restored religion.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–19 2Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the…
2Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.
Ver. 16. Hear the word of the Lord.] Divine truths must be spoken, however they be taken.
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 vv17–19 This judgment is denounced against him for his pride,…
This judgment is denounced against him for his pride, which God exceedingly abhors; and for his ingratitude, whereby he took that honour to himself which he should have given entirely to God, and abused God’s gifts and favours to the gratification of his own lusts; of both which see 2Ch 32:25,26; and for his carnal confidence in that league which he had now made with the king of Babylon, by which, it is probable, he thought his mountain to be so strong, that it could not be removed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv17–19 Behold - This judgment is denounced against him for…
Behold - This judgment is denounced against him for his pride; for his ingratitude, whereby he took that honour to himself which he should have given entirely to God; and for his carnal confidence in that league which he had now made with the king of Babylon, by which, it is probable, he thought his mountain to be so strong, that it could not be removed.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv17–19 Verse 17. Behold, the days come] This was fulfilled…
Verse 17. Behold, the days come] This was fulfilled in the days of the latter Jewish kings, when the Babylonians had led the people away into captivity, and stripped the land, the temple, &c., of all their riches. See Da 1:1-3.
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 vv16–19 2Ki 20:16. Isaiah said, Hear the word of the…
2Ki 20:16. Isaiah said, Hear the word of the Lord — Hear what his judgment is of this, and how wide his thoughts are from thy thoughts! Thou wast transported when the messengers of the king of Babylon arrived; to thy eye it appeared the most favourable conjuncture that could have happened to thee; thou madest a parade of all thy riches, and of thy armoury, to induce them to enter into an alliance with thee against the king of Assyria. Thou thoughtest if thou couldest secure their friendship and alliance, thou wouldest be safe; even safer than in putting thy trust in the Lord God of Israel. But hear the word of the Lord; see the foolishness of thy thoughts: This very nation, in whom thou thinkest to find security, is the nation that shall take away all these treasures, and carry away thy sons into captivity.
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 vv18–19 This prophecy had two fulfillments, each complementary to the…
This prophecy had two fulfillments, each complementary to the other. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s actual son, was “carried to Babylon” 2Ch 33:11, but did not become a eunuch in the palace. Daniel and others, not his actual sons, but of the royal seed Dan 1:3, and therefore Hezekiah’s descendants, are thought by some to have literally fulfilled the latter part of the prophecy, being eunuchs in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.
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 vv17–19 Babylon, under the last kings of Juda. It cannot…
Babylon, under the last kings of Juda. It cannot be explained of Sennacherib, chap. xviii. 15.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v19 Good is the word of the Lord which thou…
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken--indicating a humble and pious resignation to the divine will. The concluding part of his reply was uttered after a pause and was probably an ejaculation to himself, expressing his thankfulness, that, though great afflictions should befall his descendants, the execution of the divine judgment was to be suspended during his own lifetime.
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 vv17–19 17. Shall be carried unto Babylon — This seems…
17. Shall be carried unto Babylon — This seems to have been the first explicit prophecy of this great woe of Judah, though Micah’s (iv, 10) prediction of the same event must have been nearly contemporary. The prophecy is especially remarkable, since Babylon was at this time an inferior power, little more than a dependency of Assyria, whose leading men had risen in rebellion; and there was far more probability that Judah would be carried into exile either by the king of Assyria or by the king of Egypt, which two at the time seemed to divide the empire of the world between them.
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 vv17–19 17. nothing shall be left] Though some few Jews…
17. nothing shall be left] Though some few Jews remained behind among the ruins of the desolated city, nothing worth taking as booty was left behind. For a description of the overthrow and the plunder, see below 2Ki_25:9-17.
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 vv17–19 (17) Behold, the days come . . .—Comp. 2Ch_32:25-26;…
(17) Behold, the days come . . .—Comp. 2Ch_32:25-26; 2Ch_32:31. It is there said that Divine wrath fell upon Hezekiah, because his heart was lifted up; and that the Babylonian embassy was an occasion in which God made proof of his inward tendencies. Self-confidence and vanity would be awakened in Hezekiah’s heart as he displayed all his resources to the envoys, and heard their politic, and perhaps hyperbolical, expressions of wonder and delight, and himself, it may be, realised for the first time the full extent of his prosperity. But it was not only the king’s vanity which displeased a prophet who had always consistently denounced foreign alliances as betokening deviation from absolute trust in Jehovah; and a more terrible irony than that which animates the oracle before us can hardly be conceived. Thy friends, he cries, will prove robbers, thine allies will become thy conquerors. That Isaiah should have foreseen that Assyria, then in the heyday of its power, would one day be dethroned from the sovereignty of the world by that very Babylon which, at the time he spoke, was menaced with ruin by the Assyrian arms, can only be accepted as true by those who accept the reality of supernatural prediction. Thenius remarks: “An Isaiah might well perceive i what fate threatened the little kingdom of Judah, in case of a revolution of affairs brought about by the Babylonians.” But the tone of the prophecy is not hypothetical, but entirely positive. Besides, Isaiah evidently did not suppose that Merodach-baladan’s revolt would succeed. (Comp. Isa_14:29, seq., 21:9.)
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 vv16–19 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of…
And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. This is a phrase of warning very common in the mouth of the prophets, when they are about to deliver a rebuke or solemn condemnation (1Ki_22:19; 2Ch_18:18; Isa_1:10 Isa_28:14; Jer_7:2 Jer_9:20 Jer_10:1 Jer_19:3, etc.; Eze_15:3-5 Eze_34:9; Amo_3:1, etc.)
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 v19 Good is the word of the Lord which thou…
2Ki_20:19-20
Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.
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The peace
The text is susceptible of two propositions. First, that peace is a blessing only on a basis of truth. He said, Is it not good if peace and truth be in my days? Secondly, that the godliest celebration of peace is to resume the social and religious benefactions interrupted by war. Hezekiahs might was diverted to the construction of the pool and the conduit of water for the relief of his people.
I. That peace without truth is not the peace of God is capable of abundant evidence and illustration. As in a religious sense there may be a cry of Peace, peace, where there is no peace, except the unnatural stillness of a moral stupefaction, a stifling of the voice of conscience, and a compromise of principle with the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, and under whose influence, when the strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace, such as it is--but it is at the best only the torpor of sordid subjection to spiritual bondage, the tranquillity of a dungeon, or the quiescence of a corpse, dead in its trespasses and sins--so in the political moralities of nations there may be a peace that has no truth in it, neither in the reality of its foundation, the assurance of its continuance, nor the uprightness of its conditions. That is a peace at the expense of truth which is not true to the eternal and inalienable principles of international rights--which is bought by the ignoble subsidy of subjection to wrong and injustice, or which consents to spare itself the possible cost and sacrifice of a generous intervention on behalf of the weak against the strong--which ignores the great plea of national brotherhoods, and asks with the first fratricide, Am I my brothers keeper? and which entails upon itself the malediction written against those who were not grieved with the afflictions of Joseph. That is a peace without truth which looks every man to his own things, and not every man to the things of others also; and if this maxim be a canon binding on any one man in reference to any other man, it is equally binding on any one nation in reference to any other nation.
II. Our second deduction from the text is, that the godliest celebration of peace is to resume the social and religious benefactions interrupted by the war. Hezekiah so improved even a period of respite. He made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city. If God condescended to put twice on record the mere municipal zeal of this pious prince; if, the pool, the conduit and the water are counted worthy of a place in the compendious annals of Inspiration, we may be sure the activities of Christian benevolence in the same direction will meet with His gracious approval. It is a miserable mistake to suppose, that Christianity has nothing to do with the common tenements, the daily vulgar wants and homespun miseries of our fellow-men. It stirs our sympathy to listen to the recital of the far-off dark places of the earth and their habitations of cruelty; but it is not so easy to extort a sigh over the dark back lanes and more noisome and cruel abodes in the next street behind us. There are no Hezekiahs pools, except in fever-brewing abominations of the cesspool, nor other conduit except the constant exhalations of disease and death from the sluggish gutter, nor better homes than the vile hovels where in guilt and penury alike seek a covert to sin, and suffer and die. If the bitter mass of gratuitous suffering and mortality arising from a defective commissariat in the Crimea should drag into reluctant notice the amount of misery dally endured from a similar neglect of sanitary provisions in the crowded courts and alleys of the metropolis, the poor battalions will not have perished in vain. They will have incidentally achieved an involuntary victory on behalf of their fellow-citizens, attended perhaps with more comfort than glory, but none the less precious for the public welfare. Oh! there is more hope of the Gospel gaining audience of the wild Indian in the cheerful freedom of his native forests, than of its penetrating the gross darkness of the denizens alongside the Thames, or the purlieus of the city. If we would speak with any hope of evangelising effect of the pool of Siloam, and of the Fountain of living waters, we must first tread in Hezekiahs footsteps, provide the pool and the conduit of sanitary necessities, the possibilities of popular decency and comfort, the practicableness of a family hearth and home, the humble means of health and cleanliness, of light and air and water, freely as God bestows them, and fully as a seasonable adoption of remedial agents would supply them. Such a celebration of the peace abroad would afford the happiest prospect of more peace at home, and co-operate with city missionaries and ministers of religion with the most hopeful pledges of success, in their more directly spiritual efforts for the evangelisation of our fellow-citizens. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
Submission
Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him: therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. The prophet was sent to say to him, Behold the days come that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons which shall issue from thee--shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. This was the humiliating and distressing message to which the penitent king made the reply in our text, Good is the word of the Lord which thou bass spoken. Shall I call your attention to the holiness and happiness of such a temper, and to the universal obligation on mankind to offer this homage to their God and King? In doing this I will,
I. Explain precisely what the temper is. It is a temper of universal and absolute submission to the will of God. There is a forced submission--a yielding because we cannot help it; but this is not the thing required. There is an acquiescence in the will of God when that will sends prosperity; but this is only a consenting that another should make us happy. The only true submission is that hearty acquiescence in the will of God which arises from supreme love to him. The reason why the wicked do not submit, is that they love themselves and their own enjoyments most. While such a temper continues, they must of course value their own gratification more than the Divine pleasure, and approve of the will of God only so far as that will is tributary to them. This selfishness is the root and core of all rebellion. When our own wishes and interests are less dear to us than that universal interest which is wrapt up in the Divine will, what can tempt us to unsubmission? what is there for us to oppose to that will? what interest have we to maintain against the wishes of God? But so certain as we love another interest better than that which the Divine will protects, we shall set up that interest against God, and resist whenever he lays his finger upon it. True submission then is the necessary effect of supreme love to God, and can arise from no other principle. This submission is to be distinguished from that morbid inactivity and aversion to care which, retiring from exertion, leaves God to be the only agent in the universe--which puts off burdens upon Him just as the indolent shift them off upon each other--which, instead of exerting a dependent agency with an eye fixed upon an overruling providence, leaves God to perform both His part and ours. That may be called submission to a providential dispensation, which really is indolence shrinking from an effort to change the posture of affairs. It is an essential part of Gods plan, and for His glory, that creatures should obtain good by their own activity; otherwise there would be no use for their immortal powers. This activity He has therefore enjoined. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, is the Christians motto.
II. I am to dwell a little on the holiness and happiness of such a temper, and the universal obligation on mankind to exercise it. To love the righteous will of God, in which are balanced all the interests of the universe--which is perfectly wise and benevolent and right--to love that will better than our own interests, and to subject our interests and wishes to that; must be holy if any thing is holy--must be pure and sublime benevolence. How generous and noble is the temper. How infinitely superior to the littleness and meanness of a selfish spirit. And it is precisely what God commands. If then holiness consists in obeying God, it consists in rendering him that supreme love which will produce the submission in question. What can be holiness, what can be goodness, if it is not subjection to the will of eternal wisdom and benevolence? This submission to the will of God, so far as it operates, necessarily excludes all evil passions and conduct. For instance, it excludes all discontent. For one who knows that the providence of God is universal, and extends to the most minute events, and who is willing that the will of the Lord in all things should be done, and delights in that will more than in anything which that will can take away; what ground can there be for discontentment? If events are crossing to his feelings, still His supreme desire is gratified, for the will of the Lord is done; and though He may suffer he would by no means change a single circumstance about which the Divine will has been clearly expressed. But when the pleasure of God is known, a particle of discontentment evinces a want of submission. With proper resignation, we shall feel, under any cross event, that we have nothing to do, in mind or body, but to use the means which God has appointed to remove or support the evil. In looking forward into the wide expanse of futurity, or in contemplating the issue of any particular event, the Christian knows that nothing can happen but what the will of God appoints. While that will engages his supreme regard, how can he be anxious? It follows of course that submission will exclude every complaining word, every, angry, or bitter word, every impatient word. Submission will cure every inordinate desire after wealth, honour, pleasure, friends, ease, or whatever else we regard. An inordinate desire is an unsubmissive desire. Submission is an effectual cure of all envious feelings towards our neighbour. It follows of course that submission will exclude every falsehood, and I may add, every transgression. The temptation to transgress is a desire for some object which we cannot obtain without going counter to a Divine precept. Where the object is placed in this predicament by the providence of God, it is plain that submission to providence take away all motives to transgress. I add finally, that submission, so far as it extends, must quench every evil passion, and thus extinguish the inward fire from which all outward eruptions proceed. If it suppresses every inordinate desire, every feeling of discontent, all distrust of God, every motion of impatience. Thus the holiness of this temper appears. And its happiness is no less evident. Submission to God, as we have seen, excludes all those uncomfortable passions which make the wicked like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. It clears away everything that can agitate or corrode the mind. And as its very life-blood consists in supreme delight in the will of God, it has always the happiness of knowing that its dearest object is safe--that the ground of its highest exultation and joy is secure--that the will of infinite wisdom and benevolence will in all things be done. And in respect to the universal obligation, who can doubt that this is precisely the temper in which all moral agents ought to unite? The very definition of moral agents is, that they are under obligation to feel and do right and to avoid wrong. But in the temper under consideration, all the right feelings in the universe are involved, and by it all the wrong feelings in the universe are excluded. If you revolt from these conclusions, you must go back to the full admission that all men are under indispensable obligations to yield unlimited submission to God. Is he not our rightful King, and are we not His subjects? Is not His will perfect? Has not the Creator and Proprietor of all things a right to govern His own world according to His own pleasure? This is the religion Of the Old Testament and the New. Under the severest trials this resignation has all along been exemplified in the history of the Church. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord, said Job when all his children and possessions were destroyed. Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil? was his language when covered with one tormenting ulcer from head to foot. In more general and common matters, the same acknowledgment of God and the same resignation to His will have all along been exemplified. A general acquiescence and joy in His government have always distinguished His true servants. All down the ages they have sung, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. (E. D. Griffith, D. D.)
Resignation in affliction
The Fram, which went in search of the North Pole, escaped many of the perils that injured other expeditionary vessels, because her commander built her wide at the decks and narrowing her down to the keel, so that she did not withstand the ice, but yielded to its pressure. The cruel masses could not get a grip of the wisely constructed craft. The pressure, so far from crushing her, lifted her clean out of the ice, and she rode triumphantly on the floes. How many of our life troubles which if faced resentfully, sullenly, proudly, threaten to grind us to powder; but meet them meekly, resignedly, recognising in them Gods wiser will for us than we for ourselves, and they will in the end lift us upward and bear us onward towards the eternal Light. (H. O. Mackey.)
Unshaken faith
The Rev. Dr. Campbell Morgan tells the following pathetic story concerning Commander Booth-Tucker, who lost his wife in a railway accident last autumn. A few weeks ago, he, says, in a city of Nebraska, I was holding meetings. There came to that city my dear friend Commander Booth-Tucker. It was the city of Omaha. I shall never forget my talk with him there. I said to him, Commander, the passing of your beloved wife was one of the things that I freely confess I cannot understand. He looked at me across the breakfast table, his eyes wet with tears, and yet his face radiant with that light which never shone on sea or land, and he said to me, Dear man, do you not know that the Cross can only be preached by tragedy? Then he told me this incident: When I and my wife were last in Chicago I was trying to lead a sceptic to Christ in a meeting. At last the sceptic said, with a cold glittering eye and a sarcastic voice, It is all very well. You mean well; but I lost my faith in God when my wife was taken out of my home. It is all very well; but if that beautiful woman at your side lay dead and cold by you, how would you believe in God? Within one month she had been taken through the awful tragedy of a railway accident, and the Commander went back to Chicago, and, in the hearing of a vast multitude, said, Here, in the midst of the crowd, standing by the side of my dead wife as I take her to burial, I want to say that I still believe in Him, and love Him, and know Him. (C. L. MCleery.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v18 they shall
they shall
Fulfilled. Dan 1:3.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 19 So Isaiah said to Hezekiah
So Isaiah said to Hezekiah
Why Isaiah spoke can be stated clearly. AT: "So, because Isaiah knew Hezekiah had been foolish to show the men all his valuable things, Isaiah said to him" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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the word of Yahweh
"the message of Yahweh"
Look, the days are about to come when
"Listen to me, someday there will come a time when"; "Look" is used to draw attention to what Isaiah is about to tell Hezekiah.
the days
"Days" is synecdoche to refer to an undefined span of time. (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
son
eunuch
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 vv17–18 20:17 everything . . . will be carried off…
20:17 everything . . . will be carried off to Babylon: The Lord’s message through Isaiah predicted the taking of the palace . . . treasures in Jerusalem to Babylon, an event that took place in 597–586 BC (24:10-17; 25:1-21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.