d 11 Behold thou hast but he immediately went up to the temple, preheard what the kings sented himself, and then spread the letter before the of Assyria have done Lord, v. 14. Not as if God needed to have letto all lands, by destroy acknowledged God in all his ways, desired not ters showed Him, but hereby he signified that he ing them utterly: and to aggravate the injuries his enemies did him, or shalt thou be delivered? to make them appear worse than they were, but 12 Have the gods of desired they might be set in a true light; and that the nations delivered he referred himself to God, and his righteous them which my fathers judgment, on the whole matter. Hereby likewise have destroyed; as Go- he would affect himself in the prayer he came to the temple to make; and we have need of all poszan, and Haran, and sible helps to quicken us in that duty. In his Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? 14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messen gers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, "O LORD God of Israel, which "dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, 'which hath sent him to reproach the living God. prayer, 1. He adores the God whom Sennacherib had 2. He appeals to God concerning the insolence I. Confusion and shame to Sennacherib and his forces. Not that this message was sent him, but what is here said to him he was inade to know witness; and perhaps his own heart was made to by the event; Providence spake it to him with a whisper it; for God has more ways than one of speaking to sinners in his wrath, so as to ver them in his sore displeasure. Sennacherib is here represented, 1. As the scorn of Jerusalem, v. 21. He thought himself the terror of the daughter of Zion, that chaste and beautiful virgin, and that by his threats he could force her to submit to him; But, being a virgin in her Father's house, and muder his protection, she defies thee, despises thee, laughs thee to scorn. By this word God intended to silence the fears of Hezekiah and his people. 2. As an enemy to God; and that was enough Lord, he has reproached Thee,' v. 16. He to make him miserable. Hezekiah pleaded this; has,' saith God, and I take it as against Myself,' v. 22. Whom hast thou reproached? The Holy One of Israel! 3. As a proud, vain-glorious fool, that spake great swelling words of vanity, and boasted of a false gift; by his boasts, as well as by his threats, reproaching the Lord, 23, 24. This was not in the letter he wrote, but God lets Hezekiah know that He not only saw what was written there, but heard what he said elsewhere, probably in his speeches to his councils or armies. Note, God notices the boasts of proud men, and will call them to an account, that he may look upon them, and self in the defeat of Sennacherib, and the deliver- glory of doing these great things, whereas they 4. He prays that God would now glorify Him-abase them, Job 40: 11. He took to himself the ance of Jerusalem, v. 19. If we be conquered, were all the Lord's doing, v. 25, 26. 3. He owns Sennacherib's triumphs over the gods of the heathen, but distinguishes between them and the God of Israel, v. 17, 18. Ps. 115: 3, 4. Sennache hand as other lands are, they will say that Thou art | rib, in his letter, had appealed to what Hezekiah V. 20-31. We have here the gracious, copious answer God gave Hezekiah. The message He sent him by the sume hand, v. 6, 7. one would think, had been sufficient; but, that he might have strong consolation, he is encouraged by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie. In general, God assures him his prayer was heard, n. 20. Note, The case of those is miserable, that have the prayers of God's people against them. If the oppressed cry to God against 17 'Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and the lands, the oppressor, He will hear, Ex. 22: 23. God 18 And have cast hears and answers; hears with the saving strength their gods into the fire: of his right hand. This message speaks two for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. 19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that things: thou art the LORD God, 20 T Then Isaiah the c 17,18. 17:5, &c. 18:33,34. 2 Chr. d 17:6. 1 Chr. 5:26. e Gen. 11:31. 29:4. Acts 7:4. Charran. there, while besieging Pelusium, an important fortress in that country, 4. As under the check and rebuke of that God whom he blasphemed. All his motions were, (1.) Under the divine cognizance, v. 27. God was as a constant spy on him 2 Chr. 16: 9. (2.) Under the divine control, v. 28. Note, It is a great comfort to all the church's friends, that God has a hook in the nose, and a bridle in the jaws, of all her enemies; can make even their wrath to serve and praise Him, and then restrain the remainder of it; Here shall its proud waves be staid. II. Salvation and joy to Hezekiah and his peo f Gen. 2:8. Is. 37:12. Telassar. Ez. g 18:34. Num. 13:21. 34:8. Is. 11:11. k 1 K. 8:29-30. Ezra 9:5. Pa. 74:10, 1 2 Sam. 7:18, &c. 2 Chr. 14:11. 20:6. m Gen. 32:28. 33:20. 1 K. 8:23. 1 Chr. n Ex. 25:22. 1 Sam. 4:4. Ps. 80:1. o 5:15. 1 K. 18:39. Is. 43:10. 44:6,8. p Gen. 1:1. DiGA 84. 1's. 79:12. 1s. 37:4,17. Heb. 11:26. t Job 9:2. Is. 5:9. Jer. 26:15. Dan. 2: 47. Matt. 14:33. Luke 22:59. Acts 4:27. 1 Cor. 14:25. u 16.9. 17:624. 1 Chr. 5:26. Is. 7:17, v 2 Sam. 5:21. Is. 46:1,2. * Ps. 115:4-8. Is. 37:18,19. 44:9-20. y Ex. 9:15, 16. Josh. 7:9. 1 Sam. 17: 45-47. 1 K. 8:43. 19:36,37. Ps. 67: 1,2. 83:18. Dan. 4:34-37. z 2 Sam. 15:31. 17:25. "Tearka the Ethiopian' of Strabo.] Hierog Tehrak, [Tarak Champ.] (cut.) He reigned from 714 to 690.' Ethiopia and Egypt were now under the same government of the 25th dynasty (Ethiopian) of Egypt.' Wilkinson. Note 6:3. ED. Now, &c. (19) It would have been comparatively a small matter for Hezekiah and his people to perish; but it would be an evil of infinite magnitude, for all the nations to conclude, that JEHOVAH was no more powerful than their worthless idols: and it would be unspeakably honorable to the name of God, to show the difference between the Creator of the world, and these his puny rivals; and to prove, that He only was the [353] ple. This shall be a sign to them of God's favor.. cedar-trees thereof, and 24 I have digged and 25 Hast thou not heard long ago how 'I have done it, and of ancient times that I have 2. The country was laid waste, families broken up and scattered, and all in confusion; how should it be otherwise, when overrun by such an army? As to this, it is promised that the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah, i. e. of the country people, shall yet again be planted in their own habitations, on their own estates, v. 30. See how their prosperity is described; it is taking root downward, and bearing fruit upward, being well fixed, and well provided for, themselves, and then doing good to others. Such is the prosperity of the soul; it is taking root downward by faith in Christ, and then being fruitful in fruits of right eousness. f Ex. 9:17. Prov. 30:13. 1s. 10:15. R: 13 14. Er. 28:2-9. Dan. 5:20-23. 2 Cor. 10:5. 2 Thes. 2:4. 3. The city was shut up, none went out or came in; but now the remnant in Jerusalem and Zion shall go forth freely, and there shall be none to formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. 26 Therefore their a 20:5. 2 Chr. 32:20,21. Job 22:27. P.. bls. 23:12. 37:22. 47:1. Jer. 14:17, 18: d Job 16:4. Pa. 22:7,8. Is. 37:22. Lam. e 18:28-35. Ex. 5:2. Ps. 73:9. 74:22, PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. V. 1-22. In times of great distress and prevailing impiety, strong expressions of poignant sorrow and deep humiliation are peculiarly seasonable: for the LORD calls to weeping, and mourn ing, and girding with sackcloth,' and the contrary spirit and conduct are irrational, offensive, and tokens of a profane, sensual, and selfish heart. (Is. 22:8-14.)-They, who best know the efficacy of fervent, believing prayer, will most desire the supplications of others for them; and especially of those, who have long been eminent for piety and simplicity, and zealous for the glory of God. Alas! few kings are very earnest to form alliances with the faithful and devoted ministers of religion, against their hostile invaders; yet they are of more real utility, than increasing numbers of brave and disciplined troops: and whenever princes, prophets, and people unite in prayer, in real dependence on God, and LORD almighty, able to save and to destroy. Sennacherib's blasphemous challenge gave a fair opportunity of publicly demonstrating this most important truth: and a plea grounded so directly on the honor of God could not but prevail. (Ea. 32:11-14. 1 Sam. 17:45-47. Is. 37:20. Matt. 6:9, 10, 13.) Verse 21. SCOTT. The virgin, &c.] (M. R. c.) Perhaps the term, virgin, might refer to the state of Jerusalem, as free from idolatry, and reserved for the Lord alone; (2 Cor. 11:1-6, v. 2.) or as having never been exposed to the ravages of an enraged victor. (Notes, Is. 23:12. 47:1-3.) The city of David, or Zion, seems never to have been taken by any assailant, from the time when David got possession of it, till the Babylonish captivity.-The former part of this message is addressed, not to Hezekiah, but to Sennacherib, as if present; first by the daughter of Zion, and then by the Lord Himself. ID. The Daughter.] The people." Cities are often called mothers, and the inhabitants daughters. See 2 Sam. 20:19. Num. 21:25. Josh. 17:16. Judg. 1:27, &e.' POOLE. Verse 23. The Assyrian monarch is here introduced as glorying in what he had done, and would do. Some suppose he meant, that he had marched his army through the defiles, or over the craggy summits, of mount Lebanon: but others think that by these expressions, the temple on mount Zion is intended; and that he gloried, as already indisputably master of the whole land; and as if he had marched his army, and driven his chariots, into the mountain of the Lord's house, and dispossessed Him of his habitation. The temple may be called Lebanon, either because difficult of access, or because it was built with cedars of Lebanon: the removal of all obstructions, by slaying the bravest of Hezekiah's captains, may be denoted, by cutting down the cedars and choice fir-trees: and, the lodgings of his borders, and the forest of his Carmel,' may mean the strong-holds on the borders of the land; and the fruitful fields, which would come into the possession of the conqueror. For Carmel being situated in a very fruitful part of the land, every fruitful spot seems to have been called by that name. (M.Notes, Is. 10:12-15.) SCOTT. Cut down the tall ce far-trees of Lebanon.] Of these noble trees, with forests of which Lebanon was covered, the most recent travellers find but some half dozen remaining, of very great size--and about 389 [Fisk] in all the grove, (which is about three fourths of a mile in circumference,) on the sides of Mt. Lebanon, above Byblos and Tripoli, E. g Y. 71:22. Is. 5:24. 30.11,12,15. Jer 51:5. • Feb. the hand of h 18:17. 2 Chr. 32:17. i 18:23,33,34. Ps. 20:7. Is. 10:7-11, 14. 37:24,25. Ez. 31:3,&c. 1 Heb. tallness of the cedar-trees there 1 of. 3r, the forest, and his fruitful feld. Is. 10:18. k Ex. 15:9. 2 Sam. 17:13. 1 K. 20:10. Dan. 4:30. § Or, fenced, Or, Hast Vou not heard how I have made it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Should I now bring i to be lid waste, and fenced citer to be ruinous heaps? 1 P. 33:11. 76:10. Is. 10:5,6,15. 37: n. Num. 14:9. P. 48:4-7. 127:1. Jer. a disposition to give Him the praise; a prosperous event may be confidently expected, notwithstanding their own weakness, and the rebukes and insults of haughty enemies.-The more we are humbly conscious, that we cannot help ourselves, but must be miserable and perish without God's aid; the more simple will be our dependence on Him, and the more fervent our applications to Him, whether in temporal or spiritual exigences.-The Lord finds wicked men other employment, when He would give his servants a respite from conflict and persecution. Absurd as it appears, worldly men do really think, that those who trust in God will be deceived; and they presume on success, while they despise Him, and set Him at defiance! Impunity and prosperity inspire confidence and arrogance. We can easily say, 'If God be for us, who can be against us? They are remarkably thick and tall, some among them are from S5 to 40 ft. in girth. At 10 or 12 ft. from the ground,-it shoots out branches, (horizontally, and the delicate foliage, much resembling the larch or hackmetack, is so arranged upon the branches as to form vast horizontal sheets of verdure, of a foot and less in thickness, and scores of square feet in extent,] the branches are large and distant; its leaves are ever-green, and something like those of rosemary; the fruit [small cones like those of the pine, in miniature] hangs underneath; Cedar wood is reputed incorruptible; it is beautiful, solid, free from knots, and inclining to a red brown color." Fisk and King (the missionaries) say, 'the largest of those remaining in 1833, is upwards of 40 ft. in circumfer ence. The handsomest and tallest are those of 2 or 3 ft. in diameter, the body straight, the branches almost horizontal, forming a beautiful cone, and casting a goodly shade. We measured 12 by the shade, and found each about 90 ft. some are a little higher. There is a regular gradation in size, from the largest down to the merest sapling.' See Rob. Calm. Verse 24. ED. Hezekiah had before taken measures to prevent the Assyrians from finding water near Jerusalem. (2 Chr. 32:3, 4.) But this haughty conqueror boasted, that wherever his armies marched to besiege cities, that by digging deep wells he found water where none had ever been found before, so that he and his army had drunk strange watersThe cities of Egypt, where Sennacherib had been very successful, were chiefly defended by rivers or deep moats. SCOTT. Of besieged places.] Heb. mtsor. Bochart transl. of Egypt. Harmer paraphrases thus, I have digged channels and drunk, and caused my army to drink out of new made rivers, into which I have conducted the waters that used to flow elsewhere; and have laid these old chan nels dry with the sole of my foot; i. e. with as much ease as a gar dener digs channels in his garden, and, directing the waters of a ci tern into a new rill, stops up with his foot [note, Deut. 11:10] that in which it ran before-an evident allusion to the eastern mode of watering gardens.' HARMER. Verse 26. house, in the morning, laid in a stock of earth, which was carried up As the grass upon the house tops.] Jowett says, 'the master of the and spread evenly on the flat top of the house. The whole roof is thus formed of mere earth, [&c.] laid on [wattles over rafters?], and rolled flat, and on it is always a large roller for hardening and flattening. On this roof, cf course, grass and weeds grow freely.' Бо dismayed and confound- me. r 28 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back "by the way by which thou camest. 29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year, sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. 30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take downward, and bear fruit upward. root 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the hinder them, or make them afraid, v. 31. This 4. The Assyrians were advancing toward Jeru- 5. The honor and truth of God are engaged for the doing of all this, v. 31. God's reasons of mercy are fetched from within Himself; I will do it for my servant David's sake; (v. 34.) not for his merit, but the promise, and the covenant, those sure mercies of David.' Thus all the deliverances of the church are wrought for the sake of Christ, the Son of David. ing ngel, to do it. It was not by the sword of a arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses, scarcely a living man among them. Some think Ps. 76 was penned on this occasion, where we read that the stout-hearted were spoiled, and slept their sleep, their last, their long sleep, v. 5. II. The king of Assyria was hereby put into the utmost confusion; he departed, and went, and returned. The manner of the expression intimates, the great disorder and distraction of mind he was in; (r. 36.) and it was not long before God cut him off too, by the hands of two of his own sons, v. 37. 1. They kill their own father, and in the act of his devotion; monstrous villany! But God was righteous in it. Justly are the sons suffered to V. 35-37. I. The army of Assyria was en- rebel against their father, when he rebels against tirely routed, the very night after the sending of God. They whose children are undutiful, ought this message, v. 35. Hezekiah had not force suffi- to consider, whether they have not been so to cient to attack them, nor would God do it by the their Father in heaven. The God of Israel had sword or bow; but He sent his angel, a destroy-done enough to convince him He was the only true 33 By the way that 34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for PRACTICAL but in the crisis of danger, when the eye of sense perceives no way of escape, without removing mountains, and effecting apparent impossibilities, faith is constrained to maintain a severe conflict against unbelief, even in the experience of the most established believers. But prayer is the never-failing resource of the tempted Christian; whether he be called to struggle with outward difficulties, or to engage in the more distressing warfare with his inward enemies. No weapon that is formed against the church can Verso 28. Verse 29. u 33,36,37. x 21.31-34. 20:8,9. Ex. 5:12. Is. 7: y Lev. 25:4,5,20-22. Is. 37:30. 1 Heb. the escaping of the house of a Ps. 80:9. Is. 27.6. 37:31,32. b Jer. 44:14. Rom. 9:27. 11:5. cls. 9:7. 59:17. 63:15. Ez. 5:13. 20: d 1. 8:7-10. 10:24,25,28-32. 87:33 e 2 Sam. 20:15. Ez. 21:22. Luke 19: 43,44. f Pe. 45:5,6. 48:2-8. Is. 31:5. 33:6. g Deut. 32:27. Is. 43:25. 48:9,11. Ez. 36:22. Eph. 1:6,14. h1 K. 11:12,13. 15:4. Is. 9:7. 23:5,6. 33:21,26. Jer. 1 Ex. 12:29. Dan. 5:30. 1 Thes. 5:2,3. k Ex. 12:29,30. 2 Sam. 24:16. 1 Chr. 1 I. 10:16-19,33. OBSERVATIONS. Hook. Still in the E. a person says of his deliverer from prison, **or danger, "Ah! the good man took me out by his tote," i. e. hook. A culprit says of the officers who cannot catch him, "Their hooks are become straight." The man who cannot drag another from his Roberts. secrecy, says, "My hook is not sufficient for that fellow." It is curious that the word tote (hook) is still in use in the United States, especially at the S. in the sense of to lug, drag, &c. Roberts aays also of the phrase of small power,' v. 26. (Heb. 'short of hand,') Of feeble people it is still said in the E. "they have short hands." Some commentators refer the phrase 'hook in thy nose,' to the method ED. of leading bulls, &c. by a ring in the nose, The Lord here addresses Hezekiah.-The devastations of the Assyrians had, probably, prevented the land from being sown that year; and the next is supposed to have been the sabbatical year; though this is the only intimation, in all the history of Israel, that any regard was paid to that institution: (2 Chr. 36: 21.) but the Lord here engaged, that the spontaneous produce of the land, from the corn shaken out, in gathering the preceding harvest, should be sufficient for the support of the people, during those two years, and till a supply was obtained in the ordinary way. (Lev. 25:20-22.) As the performance of this promise was evidently subsequent to the destruction of Sennacherib's army, It was a sign to Hezekiah's faith, that the present deliverance would be an earnest of the Lord's persevering care of the kingdom of Judah; and of the accomplishment of that part of the promise, which related to events still more remote. (Ex. 3:12.) SCOTT. Verses 32, 33. It is certain from these vs. that Sennacherib never approached near enough to Jerusalem, to lay siege against it, or even to make preparations for a siege: and there is no proof that Rabshakeh or Rabsaris had proceeded to besiege the city; though they had come with an SCOTT. army and menaced it. (8, 27, 28. 18:17. 18. 33:20-22.) (32.) Shield.] Perhaps alluding to those shields, or protections, in the form of a hollow cone with a broad base, about 5 ft. high, under which two persons stood, and moved in rank to the wall, while others mounted on its top, armed with swords or spears, and covered by ED. shields to attack the besieged. These curious testudines are seen in the Ramesseion, at Thebes. Verse 35. This angel was commissioned by divine authority, and armed with adequate power; and it is not requisite for us to determine in what manner he effected this tremendous slaughter. (Ps. 76: Is. 10:16-19, 28-34. 29:5-8. 31:8, 9. 33:23, 24.)-Herodotus reports from the Egyptians, that their king, being also a priest, by his prayers to his god, brought this destruction on the Assyrians, as they lay before Pelusium: a great army of rats coming in the night, and gnawing all their bow-strings in pieces, so that they could not fight. So studious were they to pervert the truth, and corrupt the sacred story!' Patrick. ID. The angel of the Lord.] 'In Scripture, any angel which Jehovah employs is called his angel. Boothr. (But see note, John 5:4.] Who, or what was this angel? Probably Tirhakah, who came unexpectedly on Sennacherib, and slaughtered his army. Jewish writers. A dreadful thunder-storm. Vitringa. A pestilential disease. Josephus. The plague caught in Egypt, where Sennacherib had been. Boothr. The [355] Simoom, a suffocating wind, Taylor, Dr. A. Clarke. The blast of the |