Exposition of the Whole Bible

foould the kings of Afpria come and find much water? by which means they would be able to carry on the fiege to a great length, when otherwife they would be obliged to raife it quickly: mention is made of kings of Affria, though there was but one, with whom there might be petty

-|kings, or tributary ones; and befides, as he boaft-

¥. 5. Aifo he firengthened bim/elf, &c.] Lord his God, and fortified his city, an the beft manner of defence he could: all the wall that was broken; which was ®roken from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate by Joafo king of Srael; and though it might have been repaired by Uzziab, it might again be broken down in the times of Akaz by Pekab king of I/rael, or-fome other enemy, fee ch. xxv. 23. and xxvi. g. and xxvill. 6,7. and raifed it up to the towers § from the corner-tower, to the tower of the gate of. Ephraim, which, as before obferved, had been broken down: and another wall without; a fecond wall, either all around the city, or at fuch a part of it which was weakett; Fo/ephus * fays the city of Ferufalem had three walls about it: and repaired Miilo in the city of David; a wallon the north fide of the city: and made darts and fhields in abundance; darts to caft from the walls of. the city, to annoy the enemy with, and fhields to defend them from thofe of the enemy.

¥.6. And he fet captains of war over the people, &c.|. » To teach them the exercifes ‘of war, to lead them on againft. the-enemy, to direct them where to ftand, and what to do in defence of the city: and gathered them together to him in the Street of the gate of the city; the ftreet which led to the gate; and was large and commodious to affemble'the people in: and /pake comfortably to them; to animate and encourage them to hold out the fiege, arid do all they ‘could to repel the enemy: Jaying; as

¥.7. Be firong and couragious, 8c.) Be of good heart and fpirit, and quit yourfelves like men: de not afraid, nor difmayed for the king of Affyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, which was very large; for: no lefg than 185,000 were flain of them by an angel in one night, 2 Kings xix. 35. for there be more with us than with him; though not in number, yet in power and might; and if angels are meant, they are more in number; but it feems by what follows, that Hezekiab had only the Lord his God in his thoughts and view..

¥. 8. With him is an arm of fleh, &c.J Only weak, frail, mortal men, not at all to be feared; nothing in comparifon of the Lord: but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to Sight our battles; who is the Lord God Almighty, who has the hott of heaven at his command, and with whom all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing; the Targum is, ‘* the Word of the Lord our God is for us to help us, and fight our battles:” and the people refied themfelves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Fudab;-not upon his bare word, but on what was contained in them, on the ftrength and power of

In the. d put it in and built up ne p ¢ ot! ee oe 88. IH. CHRONICLES. Ch.xxxit. ¥.9g—26. the Lord God he affured them was on their fide;; they believed what he faid to be true, and trufted in the Lord that he would fave them.

¥. 10. Thus faith Sennacherib king of Affyria, Whereon do ye truft? &c.] On what power in| J heaven or on earth? that ye abide in the fiege in Ferufalew;, hold out againit the fiege of it, and don’t countries, called Samiel,, or the poifon-wind, by which multitudes are fometimes deftreyed at once; lof which Yhevenct and other travellers make mention, fee the note on Fob xxvii. 21. andon Pf. xci. 6. but be it as it may, it was fent of God, was under his direction, and by his power and providence did the execution according to his prediction: which cut off all the mighty men of valour, andthe « leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Affyria; | the generals and officers of his army, with the common foldiers, to the number of 185,000, J/, Xxxvii. 36. among thefe, no doubt, were the three generals fent with railing letters to Hezekiab, particularly Radfhakeh, fee the note on J/, xxxvii. 36. fo be returned with foame of face to bis own land; Affyria, particularly to Niniveb, the metropolis of it, xxxvii. 37. and when he was come into the boufe of bis God; the temple of his idol, whofe name was Ni/roch: they that came forth of bis own bowels, y¥. 9. After this did Sennacherib king of Alpria fend bis fervants to Ferufalem, &c.) Who are mentioned by name, 2. Kings xviii. 17. this was after. Hezekiah had given him a large quantity of filver and gold to depart, and he did depart from him, 2 Kiags xviii. 14, 15, 16. but be himfelf laid fiege againft Lachifo, and all bis power with him; -one of the cities of Judah, fee Jf. xxxvi. 2. from hence she difpatched them unto Hezekiah king of Fudah, and unto all fudab that were at Ferufalem; who had retired thither for fafety, upon the invafion of their country by the king of Afpria.

deliver it up. ew bim there with the fword; his fons Adramelech y. 11. Doth not Hezekiah perfuade you to give over yourfelves to die by famine, and by thirft, &c.J fugeefting that would be their cafe if they did not furrender: faying, The Lord our God fhall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Affria? feethe note on Jf, xxxvi. 15. from the band of cll other;

y. 12. Hath not the fame Hezekiah taken away his high places, &c.]» For the fenfe of this and the three following verfes, fee the notes on Jf xxxvi. and Sharezer, If xXxvii. 38.

| y.22. Thus the Lord faved Hezekiah and the inbabitants of Ferufalem from the band of Seunacherib the king of Affyria, &c.], As moft clearly appear-.ed; for no ftroke was ftruck but by him: and the 4rabic verfion adds, ** who were round about them;” who by this defeat were deterred from attacking them: amd guided ‘bem on every fide; and guarded them all around,

17. 18, 19, 20. as a fhepherd leads his flock, where they may be

¥. 16. And bis fervants fpake yet more againft the _ Lord God, and againft his fervant Hezekiah.| Than what is here recorded, as may be'read in 2 Kings xviii. and xix. J/- xxxvi.

y. 17. He wrote alfo letters to rail on the Lord God of Ifrael, &c.] See 2 Kings xix.q—14. Jf. xxxvii. fecure from all dangers. ia ed y. 23. And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Ferufalem, &c.] Even out of neighbouring nations, things whiclr they devoted to the fervice of God in the temple, being convinced that this wonderful deliverance was wrought by the Lord God

9—14., of J/rael, and by him only: and prefents to Hexe- y. 18. Then they cried with a loud voice in the Fews fpeech, unto the people of Ferufalem that were on the wall, &c.| The meflengers of Sennacherib, particularly Rabjbekah the chief fpeaker; though they were defired to {peak in the Syrian language, If, xxxvi. 11, 13. but this they did ¢o affright them, and to trouble them, that they might take the city; to throw them into terror and confufion, that they might prevail upon them to deliver up the city to kiab king of Fudab; being defirous of living in friendfhip with him, who appeared to be the favourite vf the God of heaven: fo that be was magnifed in the fight of all nations from thenceforth; from the time of the deftruction of the Afprian army in fuch a wonderful manner, he was highly efteemed, and his name and fame fpread abroad among all the neighbouring nations round about him, a them. ¥. 244 In thofe days Hezekiah was fick, &c.| y. 19. 4nd they fpake againft the God of Ferufalem, &c ] The only living and true God, whom the inhabitants of Ferufalem profefled to be their God, and who was worfhipped by them in the temple there: as againft the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the bands of man; they made no difference between the one and the other,. but fpoke as freely and as contemptibly of the one as of the other, fee // xxxvi. 19, 20. and XXXViil. 10-13.: | favour, the miracle wrought

¥.20. And for this caufe Hezekiah the king, and the prophet I/aiah the fon of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.| To God in heaven; of the prayer of Hezekiah on this account, fee J/ xxxvii. 15—20. and the notes there; and though we read not of the prayer of J/aiah, no doubt he made one, as! Hezekiab defired, and fince he received a meffage from the Lord, which he fent to Hezekiah, J/. Of which ficknefs, and of his prayer, and of the fign given him, fee // xxxviii. and the notes there.

y..25. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, 8&c.] Both in the deliverance of him and his people from the king of. Afjria, and the recovery of him from his ficknefs: for bis heart was lifted up; with pride, becaufe of the wonderful defeat of the Arian army in his at his. recovery from illnefs, the riches and honour conferred upon him, the prefents brought him from his neighbours, and efpecially the embaffy of the king of Babylon to: him: fherefore there was wrath upon him, an upon fudab and Ferufalem, who, in ag Te 6 ad fell into the fame fin of pride, with many others and therefore both he and they were threa with fome tokens of the divine difpleafure. = y. 21. And the Lord fent an angel, &c.] The Targum is, “ the Word of the Lord fent Gabriel”) Fofepbus * takes this angel, or meflenger fent of God, to be the peftilence; and others fuppofe it to be a hot peftilential wind, common in the eaftern felf for the pride of bis beart, both he and the 1, bitants of Ferufalem, &c.| In what manner is ni faid; perhaps by putting on ee a fafting and prayer, and making confeffion of fin, and declaring repentance for it; /o that the

Nir Ch. xxxi.¥.27—33. I. CH of the Lord came not upon thém in the days of Hezekich; but in the days of his fon’s fons, J/ xxxix. s 8.

’ y. 27. And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches, 8c.] Increafed by the fpoil of the Afjrian camp, and the prefents fent him after that by neighbouring nations, ¥. 21. 23. and honour; both from his fubjects, and the nations around him: and he made bimfelf treafuries for filver, and for gold, and for precious fiones, and for pices, and for foields, and for all manner of pleafant jewels 5 which were houfes both for rich and curious things, and for armour, he fhewed to the ambaffadors of Babylon, If xxxix. 2. fee the nore there. |

¥. 28. Store-houfes alfo. for the increafe of corn, and wine, and oil, &c.| The produce of his fields, vineyards, and olive-yards, fuch as David had, with perfons over them, fee 1 Chron. xxvii. 25—28. and jralls for all manuer of beafts, as oxen, iorfes, camels, and affes, fee ch, ix. 25. and cotes for flocks, folds for fheep.

¥. 29. Moreover, he provided him cities, &c.] Where he had the above ftorehoufes and ftalls, and convenient dwellings for thofe that looked after them,. and were over his cattle, fmall and great, as follows;. the Vulgate Latin verfion reads fix cities in fome copies’: aud poffefions of flocks and herds in. abundance; in which the riches of men, and even of kings lay in thofe times: for God bad given bim fubjtance very much, for all was owing to his difpofing providence, let it come which way it might.

¥. 30. This fame Hezekiah alfo ftopped the upper qwater-courfe of Gibon, &c.) Which Procopius Gazeus fays was the fame with Siloam, and which it feems had two ftreams, and this was the upper one; Mr. Maundrel fays *, the pool of Gibon “ lies about two furlongs without Bethlebem-gate wettward; it isa ftately pool, 106 paces long, and 67 broad, and lined with wall and plafter, and was, when we were there, well ftored with water:” and brought it ftrait down to the weft fide of the city of David; through canals under the plain of the city of David; as the Targum, by a fubterraneous paffage; and Siloam, as Dr. Lightfoot * obferves from Fofephus, was behind the weft wall, not.far from the corner that pointed toward the fouth-weft: and Hezekiah profpered in all bis works, natural, civil, and religious, fee ch. XXXi. 21.

¥. 31. Howbeit, in the bufinefs of the embaffa- i fie 1S chapter gives an account of the reign of. Manaffeb, of his idolatries and impieties, y. 1—10. of his captivity, humiliation, repentance, and réformation, ¥. 11—17 of his laft end, death,

dors of the princes of Babylon, who fent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, &c.

Not to fee the two tables of ftone which were in the ark, with the other two that were broken becaufe of the fin of the calf, as the Targum; nor to afk about the deftruction of the Affrian army, and the manner of it, as Grot#izs; but to be informed of the miracle of the fun’s going back ten degrees, when Hezekiah was recovered from his ficknefs; the Chaldeans being a people much given to aftrology, and curious in their obfervations of that kind: God.

left him to try kim; by thewing him all his treafures: that be might know all that was in bis beart; not that Ged might know, who knows all things, unlefs fpoken of him after the manner of men; but rather that Hezekiah might know the pride lurking in his heart, and other fins which efcaped his notice, Fer. xvii. g. or that it might be known by others; that the children of men might know it, as Kimchi; and take warning by it, and obferve the frailty and infirmity of the beft of men.

¥. 32. Now the reft of the alts of Hezekiah, and his goodnefs, &c.} His acts of piety and liberality: bebold, they are written in the vifion of Ifaiah ibe prophet, the fon of Amoz; inthe prophecy of J/atab, ch. xxxvi. 37,°38. 39. whofe book is called the vifion of J/aiah, ch. i./1. and in the book of the kings of Fudab and Tfrael, in the 2 Kings xviii. xix. XX. ¥. 33. And Hezekiah flept with bis fathers, &c.] Died as they did: and they buried him in the chiefeft of the fepulchres of the fons of David; in the more honourable. and principal of them; there are ftill to be feen, on the north of Feru/alem, fome grotto’s, called the fepulchres of the kings, though it is cer~ tain none of the kings of J/raed or Fudab were buried there; unlefs it may be thought, as Mr. Maun drel* conjectures, that Hezekiah was here interred, and that thefe are the fepulchres of the fons of David here mentioned; however, he obferves, whoever was buried here, ‘this is certain, that the place itfelf difcovers fo great an expence both of labour and treafure, that we may well fuppofe it to be the work of kings: and all Fudabh and the inhabitants of Ferufalem did him honour at his death; by attending his funeral in great numbers, by burning fpices for him, and by mourning for him many days: and Manaffeh bis. fon reigned in bis ftead, of whom a further account is given in the next chapter.

bis people, &c.] By, his fervants'the prophets, fee 2 Kings xxi. 1o—15. where what was faid to them is recorded: but they would not hearken, to what was faid, to reproofs, admonitions, -and exhortations and burial, ¥. 18,19, 20. and of the wicked reign to repent and reform.

ot Amon his ton, and of his death by his fervants, ¥. 21—25.;

¥. 1. Manaffeh was twelve years old, &c ] From hence to the end of y. 9. the fame things are recorded, almoft word for word, as in 2 Kings xxi. a—g. fee the notes there.

y. 10. And the Lord fpake to Manaffeb, and to y¥. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the boft of the king of Afyria, &c.] Who was Efarbaddon, the fon and fucceffor of Sennacherib this, according to the Fewi/h chronology ‘, was in the twenty-fecond year of Manaffeh’s reign: which took Manaffeb among the thorns; ina thicket of briars and thorns, where, upon his defeat, he had hid himfelf; a fit emblem of the af-. ¢. fictions

fliStions and troubles his fins brought him into: and bound him with fetters, hands and feet; with chains of brafs, as the Targum, fuch as Zedekiab was bound with, 2 Kings xxv. 7. not chains of |.&c. gold, with which Mark Aateny bound a king. of Armenia, for the fake of honour *: and carried him to Babylon, for now the king of Afyria was become mater of that city, and added it to his monarchy, and made it the feat of ‘his refidence; at leaft fometimes that and fometimes Niniyeb, Mferodach baladan being dead, or conquered; though, _ according to Suidas * “ it was he that took Manaffeb; and by an 4raé writer *, he.is faid to be carried to to fhew the Gaceriee ‘of. his repentance for hi latry, and his abhorrence of it. ° diy -y¥. 16. And be repaired the altar of the Lo © Which was fallen to ruin, being negleéted and difufed in his times of idolatry: or, accore to the Keri, or marginal reading, and fo the Tare ' gum, he built it; which perhaps he had before led down and deftroyed: and facrificed thereon _ offerings and thank- offerings; to the Lord, bringing him out of captivity, and ao to his kingdom; and efpecially for conv from his idolatries, giving him repentance for them, and forgivenefs of Sana k and commanded Judah 10

Niniveb, Serve the Lord God of Irael, and him only; ano- I y. 12. And when he was in affittion, &c.J In prifon, however in fetters; according to the Targum, the Chaldeans made an inftrument of brafs, with holes in it, and put him in it, and fire about it, fomething ‘like the. brazen bull of Perillus; and the above Arabian writer * calls it a tower Of - brafs: he befought the Lord his God; by-~ prayer and fupplication: and humbled himfelf greatly before the Lord God of bis fathers; confeffing his fins, exther inftance of the truth of his repentance, iano deavouring to reform thofe whom he had mifled, and. reftore the pure worlhip of God among banies d and bring them back to that.

y.17. Neverthele/s, the people did facrifice fill in she high places, &c.] - Not in thofe that were built for idols, at leaft did not facrifice to them 3 for it follows: yet unto the Lord their God only; the Yargum'is, ‘to the name of the Word of the Lord peng great forrow and repentance for them, their God.”

+.13. And prayed unto him, &c.| To, have}.y. 18. a on him, and forgive him his fins: and be was entreated of bim, and beard bis fupplication.; and granted his requeft, fhewed favour to him, and forgave him his fins: and brought him again to Yerufalem into bis kingdom; fo wrought upon the heart of the king of Afyria, \as to give him his liberty, and reftore kim fo his dominions 5; it is very probable his captivity was. not long;.for, being foon brought by his affliction to a pr and confeffion of his fins, by the over-ruling providence of God, he-was quickly releafed: shen Manaffeh knew ihat the Lord be was God; and not the idols he had ferved; that he was a holy God, and hated fin, and a jutt God in affi@ing him for it, and] gracious and merciful in forgiving his fins, and bringing him out of his troubles.; of the kings. of I y¥. 14. Now after this, be built a wall without the city of David, &c.} Which perhaps had been. broken down by the Afprian army, when it came and. took him; Viringa’ thinks this.is the wall of the pool of Siloab,, Neb. iii. 15. which feems to be the firft and oldeft wall as Yofephus™s for that turning to the north bent towards the pool of Siloam; an be FSP writer * calls it the fouthern wall: weft fide of Gibon, on the welt fide of the city towards Gibon; for that was to the weft of it, ch. Xxxil. 10. i” the valley,.even to the entring in at ibe jijfb-gate; through which the fifh were brought from Now the reft of the atts of Manaffeb, &e] Good and bad, what were done by him bath before and after his converfion: and his prayer unto his God; which it feems was taken and recorded, but now age for as for that which is among the apocryphal writings, there is no reafon to believe it to, be,his, though it is thought to be fo by many *: and the words of the feers; or the prophets, a8 the- Targum; and the prophets in his days, rece the Jewifo chronology *.. were Foel, Nabum, and Ha-_ dakkuk: that fpake to him in the name of the Lord God of Ifrael,; words of admonition and reproof ‘ before his humiliation, and words of comfort, advice, and inftruction after it; the Targum is, * that. pake to him in the name of the Word of the Lord God of Irael:” bebold, they are written in the book rael, not in the canonical book fo called, where none of the above things, namely, his prayer, and the fpéeches of the prophets, to be found, at leaft not all; but in the annals id the kings of J/raé/, now loft.

_¥. 19. His prayer alfo, &c.] | Was not only re— corded in the above annals, but in the writings of another perfon after-mentioned: amd how God was oz the intreated of bim, heard his prayer, and fhewed him. favour both in a temporal and fpiricual way 3; for though the jews will not allow that. he was faved, or had a part in the world to come, eternal life 4, yet there appears no juft reafon why it fhould be fo

‘Joppa, and where, according to the Targum, they thought: avd all bis fin, and bis trefpafs; his im- — were fold: and compaffed, about Opbel; ‘the eaftern part of mount Zion; tome fay it was the holy of pieties, idolatries, and murders: and the ae: wherein he built high places; fee y. 3. and fet groves; flatues in groves: and graven images height, built the wall very high there: and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah, this he did to put his kingdom in a pofture of defence, fhould it be attacked by the Afyrian army again.

y. 15. And he took away the firange gods, and the idol out of the houfe of the Lord, &c.} Which he had-fet there, ¥. 7. and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the boufe of the Lord, andin Ferufalem; {ee Ys dn § and caft them out of the) city; perhaps into the brook Kidrom; all this he did fore be was humbled; fee. 7.22. bebold, they writien among the Jayings of the feers; or of the name of a prophet who wrote the hiftor owntimes; fo the Zargum and Vulgate fion;; and, according to the 7 Getaif) there was a prophet of this name in | Amon the fon of Manaffeh. 4 y.20, So Manajfeb flept wilth hi:

they buried bim in his own boufe, the waters of his houfe, 2 Ki gs

_* hot place but time, and that thefe were images in times paft; in the preceding age, as the Jigurine

note there; to which may be added, that the Hews * in after-times buried in a garden; though it was the cuftom of the antients, both Greeks ‘and Romans“, to bury the dead in their own houfes;

HIS chapter begins with the good reign of Fofiab, the reformation he made in the land, purging it from idolatry, ¥. 1—7. ‘relates the orders he gave to repair the houfe of the Lord, which was accordingly done, ¥. 8—13. when the book of the Jaw was found and brought to him, which greatly affected him, ¥. 12 — 19. upon which he

‘ deputed fome perfons to enquire of the Lord, who did of Huldah the prophetefs, to whom the gave an anfwer, which they returned to the king, y. 20—28) and the chapter i concluded with an account of reading the book in the ears of all the people, and of the king, and then making a covenant with the Lord to ferve him, y¥. 27—33.

¥.1,2. Fofiah was eight years old when be began to reign, &e.) Of thele two verfes, fee the notes on 2 Kings xxii. 152 ¥.3. For in the eighth year of bis reign, while be was yet young, &c.] Being in the 16th year of his age; though. Kimchi thinks, it was the very year he began to reign, which was the eighth of his age; and Yarchi obferves, it may be interpreted, though he was young, be began to feek after ‘the God of David bis father; to pray unto him, to feek after the knowledge of him, and the true manner of worfhipping him, what were his will, commands, and ordinances; the Targum is, “* to feek inftruction or doétrine of the Lord God of David his father,” to be taught his ways, fuch as David his great anceftor walked in, and whom he chofe to follow: and in the 12th year he began to purge Fudab and Ferufalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, which were made in the times of Maenaffeh; and though removed by him when humbled, were reftored in the reign of Amon. - Now Jofiah purged the land from thefe, by putting them down, and deftroying them; and this he did when he was 20 years of age, having now more authority, being out of his minority, and from under guardians, and one year before Feremiab began. to prophefy, Fer. i. 2. M4. And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his prefence, &c.] He not only ordered them to be broke down, but he went in perfon, and faw it done; thefe were the altars Manafféh had reared up to the idols; and though upon his humiliation he caft them out, they were rebuilt by Amon his fon, fee ch. Xxxiii. 3,15, 22. and the images that were above them he cut down; fun-images, as the word fignifies; thele Chamanim might be reprefentatives of Cham or Ham, the fon of Noah, the fame with _ Jupiter Ammon; and there was another heathen deity Amanus, Strabo ™ {peaks of, fuppofed to be the fun, fee the note on Lev. xxvi. 30. thefe, as Farchi fays, were in the form of the fun, and were fet above the altars, over-againft the fun, to whom worfhip was paid; though fome think this refpects the molten images to be broken in groves, and thereby diftinguifhed from thofe made of wood, and were carved, and from thofe that were of molten metal, and were placed elfewhere: and made dujt of them, of them that had facrificed unto them, fee 2 Kings ° XXili. 6.

hence fprung the worthip of the Lares and Penates, the houfhold gods: