Exposition of the Whole Bible

m HIS chapter relates that king Hezekiah, on a report made to him of Radj/hakeb’s. {peech, fent a meflage to the prophet J/aiab to pray for him, who returned him a comfortable and encouraging an{fwer, ¥. 1—7. and that upon Radjbakeb’s return to the king of Afyria, he fent to Hezekiah a terrifying letter, ¥. 8—13. which Hezekiah pread before the Lord, and prayed unto him to fave him clothes, and covered himfelf with fackcloth; rent his clothes becaufe of the blafphemy in the fpeech; and he put on fackcloth, in token of mourning, for the calamities he feared were coming on him and his people: and be went into the bouje of the Lord; the temple, to pray unto him. The meffage he fent to J/aiah, with his anfwer, and the threatening letter of the king ef Afjria, Hezekiab’s and his people out of the hands of the king of prayer upon it, and the encouraging anfwer he had

Afpria, ¥.14—19. to which he had a gracious anfwer fent him by the prophet J/aiah,.promifing him deliverance from the Afyrian army, ¥. 20—34. which accordingly was deftroyed by an angel in one night, and Sennacherib fleeing to Nineveb, was flain by his two fons, y. 35—37.

y.1. And it came to pafs doben king Hezekiab heard it, &c.] The report of Rab/bakeb’s {peech, recorded in the preceding chapter, shat he rent his from the Lord, with the account of the deftruction of the Afyrian army, and the death of Sennacherib, are the fame verbatim as in If, xxxvii. throughout.; and therefore the reader is referred thither for the expofition of them; only would add what Rauawolff ‘ obferves, that ftill to this day (1575) there are two great holes to be feen, wherein they flung the dead bodies (of the Affyrian army), one whereof is hard by the road towards Bethlehem, the other towards the right-hand againft old Bethel,.

| be this chapter is an account of Hezekiah’s ficknefs, and of the means of his recovery,-and of the fign given of it, ¥.1—T1. of the king of Babylon’s congratulatory letter. to him upon it, when he fhewed to the meffengers that brought it his treafures, in the pride and vanity of his heart, yr. 12,13. for which he was reproved by the prophet J/aiab, and was humbled, and fubmitted to the fentence pronounced on his houfe, ¥. 14—19. and the chapter is concluded with his reign and death, ¥. 20, 21.

¥.152,3. In thefe days was Hezekiah fick unto death, &c.| Of this ficknefs of Hezekiah, the meflage of the prophet J/aiab to him, and his prayer upon it, fee the notes on J/. xxxviii. 1, a; 2, y.4. And it came to pafs afore Taiah was gone out into the middle court, &c.|. Of the king’s palace, «which is called: the other court within the

¥. 5. Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, &c.) The king of them, as the Targum: thus faith the Lord Ged of David thy father, 1 have heard thy prayer, I have feen thy tears; fee inftantly, miraculoufly; and none but God could heal him, -his difeafe being in its kind mortal, and he had been told from the Lord, that he fhould die: on the third day thou fhalt go up unto the houfe of the Lord, the temple, to give thanks for his recovery; and this he fhould do on the third day from thence; fo foon fhould he be well, which would fhew the cure to be miraculous. ¥.6., And I will add unto thy days 15 years, &c.J] See the“note on J/. xxxviii. 5. and J will deliver -thee, and this city, out of the band of the — king of Alpria; by which it appears that this ficknefs and recovery were before the deftruction of the Afyrian army: and I will defend this city for mine own fake, and for my fervant David's porch, 1 Kings vii. 8. fo it is according to the fake; for the fake of his honour and glory in the marginal reading, which we follow; but the textual reading is, the middle city; Ferufalem was divided into three parts, and this was the middle part J/aiah was entring into:.but before he did, fo it was, that the word of the Lord came to him, faying; as follows.

temple, and the fervice of it, that wee lem, and for the fake of his promife to his feed, ra y¥. 7. And Iaiah faid, Take a lump of figs, 8c.) Not moift figs, but a cake of dried figs, as the word ufed fignifies, and fo the lefs likely to 2 ae any

any effect in» curing thelboil:eand they*tock, and laid it onthe boil, and be recovered; of it, and laid ic on the ulcer, and it ‘was healed. Phyficians jobferve'*, that asi fa¢h like inflammations confift ina painfulextenfion of the fibres by the hindrance of the circulation‘of. the extreme little arteries, which may be mitigated, or diffipated, or ripened, by fuch things as are licnt.andloofening, fo confequently by figs and in a ume: of peftilence, figs beaten together’ with butcer and treacle have been applied to plague-boils with great fuccefs;, yet thefe:

of dry figs, and the: boilnot only malignant, ‘but deadly, and the cure fo: fuddenly performed,’ thew that this,was done not insa natural, /butin a fupernatural way, though means: were dirééted. to” be beeh now at the fifth fall hour;

made'a platter back’ five ‘whole’ hours, then came forward five, then came forward two ‘degrees, or one hour, tothe fixth hour, which made fixteen; then it was fix” hours to fun-fet;’ fo ‘that day was prolonged't en. the blood, ‘thro’ ty-two hours: the Chinee relate, that in the ime of Kingcungus, the planet Mars, for fake of the’ emol- king; went back threé degrees,’ La y. 11. And Taiab the prophet cried unto the Lord,” &c.] Or prayed, “as the Targum; “and was very earneft in prayer, that what Hezekivh had defigs being only a cakel fred might be granted: “aad be brought the fhadow /e# degrees backward, by which it had gone down in se dial of Abaz, Ben Gerfom underftands it not of the fun itfelf, but of the thadow of it only; fee the note On J xxxviii. 8.;

[ete 133 | MS P25 dt that time Berodach-baladan, &c. W.\8:, And Hezekiah faid unto Tfaiaby 8c.) had faid “, before thé plafter of figs'wastdirected to, or, however, laid on, and as foom ashe (wasitold he fhould beshealed: What: thall be ‘the Yign that the Lord will beal me, and that I foall go.up boufe of the Lord: the third:day?. nov that hé difbeheved the promife of God, or doubted*of ‘a cure, but this he requelted for the confirmation of his faith; which good men fometimes ‘afked,: when they doubted not, asGideon; sand Abazy Hexekiah’s father, was bidto afk,a fign for the ‘like’purpofe, and it was refented in’ him that ‘he’ did not; fee

Or He *i8* called’ Merodach-baladan, If, xxxix. ‘1. {0 herein the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic verGons; fee the note there; and by Metafthenes * his father is called “Merodach,« and he Ben Merodach, who into the reigned twenty-one years,’ and his father fifty-two from Hehoe to the end of ¥. rg. the fame account lis eiven'in the fame words 25 in if! xxxix. throughs out, except in ¥.-13.° where it is, bearkened unto sbem, “and there, glad of them; heard*the Vetter the ambaftador there.

Judg. Nii 7-36. [evitoves raj.) oi h. he exerted “in his wars ¥.Q. And Vaiah foid, This fign foalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that hath fpoken, &ec.] Cures him» of\ his ditorder, that he fhould be able to go to the temple on the third day: foall the foadow’go’ forward ten: degrees, or go back ten degrees? that “is, the fhadow of fun on a dial-plate;:it was left to his option to chufe which, he» would, «as the confirming fign of and in the reformation of relike gion,and abolition of idolatry: cud how he made a fol pool, ad a conduit, and brought water into the city; at the'fame'time that he Cut it off from the enemy. without, fee 2 Chroni xxxii. 3, 4. 30: are they not thel written dy the book ofthe’ chronicles of the kings of ¥udah 2? a book often’referred to in this hiftory, bué fince loft; many of his acts are recorded in the his recovery., canonical book of Chronicles, 2 Chron. xxix. xxx. ¥. 10. And Hezekiah anfwered, It is a light thing

X¥Xi. XxXXiLS > for the foadow to go down ten degrees, &c.} That is, it was comparatively fo, otherwife to go down 9 years And Hezekiah Sept with bis fathers, &c.] Died'as they did no ‘mention is here made of th e ten degrees at once would be extraordinary and miraculous 5. but’. that was.more) agreeable to the nature and courfe of it to go forward, and fo the miracle: would be lefs apparent: may, but let the joadow retura backward ten degrees which was directly contrary to its natural order and courfe, whereby the miracle would appear more clear and] manifett: thefe degreessare:

the fun fhines not twenty: full hours on’ any dial, place of ‘his burial, but there is in 2 Chron, XXXil. 33, ‘where‘he is faid to be buried in the principal part of the fepulchres of the fons of David, and to have honour done him at his death by the inhabitants of Fudeb and Ferufalem, by the vat concourfe of people attending his interment, and by burning pices for him, and: making a public mourning on by fome faid *'to bel his account a certain ftated time: end Manaffeh bis fince itis obferved Jon reigned in bis fiead; of whofe wicked reign an account is’given in the next chapter. hk.

half hours, and not full. ones}:

unlefs under the pole; the fun is fuppofed to have -.

¥. 17, 18. and of his.fon and fucceflor Amon, the evils committed by him, y..19—22. and of..

» ¥. 1. Manaffeh was twelve years old when be began'to reign, &c.] So that he was born three years after Hezekiah’s ‘recovery from his ficknefs, and in the 17th year of his reign: and reigned 55 years in and) Ferufalem; among which muft be reckoned the time of his captivity in Babylon; his reign was the the confpiracy againft his life, which fucceeded, and Fofiah his fon reigned in his ftead, y. 2326, longeft of any of the kings of Fudab: and bis mother’s name was Hephzi-bab, the name the church goes by, and fignifies ‘‘ my delight or pleafure is, in her,” Jf Ixii. 4. no doubt. fhe was a good woman, or Hezekiah would not have made choice of her for a wife; it is a tradition of the Fews*, that fhe was the daughter of J/aiah, whofe name, they fay, is not mentioned, becaufe fo wicked a king was unworthy of fuch a grandfather.

y. 2. And he did that which was evil’ in the fight of the Lord, &c.] Was guilty of idolatry: after she abomination of the heathen, whom the Lord caft out before the children of I/rael; the old Canaanites; he committed idolatry in imitation of them, and as the Phenicians now did,

¥. 3. For be built up again the high places which Hezekiah bis father had defiroyed, &c.| The temples and altars upon them, fee ch. xviii. 4. and be yeared up altars for Baal; in the high places he rebuilt: and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Irael;

which was either an idol itfelf, or a fhade of trees where idols were placed; or rather Aherah, rendered 2 grove, is the fame with Afarte, the goddefs of the Zidonians, the figure of which he made and worfhipped; for groves were not fo foon and eafily planted, raifed, and made; fo the fame in 1 Kings xvi. 33. and worfbipped all the hoft of heaven, and ferved them; the fun, moon, and ftars,

¥. 4. And he built altars in the boufe of the Lord, &c.] In the holy place, as diftin¢ét from the courts in the next verfe; and thefe were facred to the idols of the Gentiles: of which the Lord faid, In Ferufalem will I put my name; in the temple there, devoted to his fervice, called. by his name, and where his name was called upon, fee Deut. xii. 5. and xvi. 6. and to erect altars to idols here muft be very abominable to him.

y 5. And he ouilt altars for all the boft of heaven, &c, the AS of the Lord; in the court of the priefts; and in the court of the people; and all this muft be fuppofed to be done, not as foon as he began to reign, but when he was grown up to man’s eftate, and had children, as the next verfe fhews; unlefs it can be thought that thofe nobles in Fudab, who liked not the reformation made by Hezekiah, took the advantage of his youth, and advifed him to thefe idolatries.

y. 6. And he made his fon pafs through the fire, &c.] To Molech, after the manner of the old Canaanites and Pbhenicians; his fon Amon, that fucceeded him, and other children, as appears from 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6. where mention is made of the place where it was done, the valley of the fon of Hinnom: and obferved times; lucky or unlucky, which was judged of by omens, and by the pofition of the ftars: and ufed enchantments, and dealt with familiar f{pirits and wizards; to get knowledge of things ‘to come; all which are forbid and condemned by the law of Mofes; fee Deut. xviii. 10, 11, 12. be wrought much wickednefs in the fight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger; inall thofe evils before-mentioned, which were very abominable in the fight of God.

_ ¥.7. And he fet a graven image of the grove that be bad made in the boufe, &c.] Which was either an image that had been placed in a grove planted

Sun, moon, and ftars: in the two courts of