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CHAPTER XXXII

Sennacherib invades Judea, 1. Hezekiah takes proper measures for the defense of his kingdom, 2-6. His exhortation, 7, 8. Sennacherib sends a blasphemous message to Hezekiah, and to the people, 9-15. His servants rail against God; and he and they blaspheme most grievously, 16-19. Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah cry to God; he answers, and the Assyrians are destroyed, and Sennacherib is slain by his own sons, 20, 21. The Lord is magnified, 22, 23. Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, 24. His ingratitude, 25. His humiliation, 26. His riches, 27-30. His error relative to the Babylonish ambassadors, 31. His acts and death, 32, 33.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXII

Verse 1. "After these things" - God did not permit this pious prince to be disturbed till he had completed the reformation which he had begun.

Verse 2. "When Hezekiah saw" - This was in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah; and at first the Jewish king bought him off at the great price of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold; and even emptied his own treasures, and spoiled the house of the Lord, to gratify the oppressive avarice of the Assyrian king. See the whole account, 2 Kings xviii. 13, &c.

Verse 4. "Stopped all the fountains" - This was prudently done, for without water how could an immense army subsist in an arid country? No doubt the Assyrian army suffered much through this, as a Christian army did eighteen hundred years after this. When the crusaders came, in A.D. 1099, to besiege Jerusalem, the people of the city stopped up the wells, so that the Christian army was reduced to the greatest necessities and distress.

Verse 5. "Raised it up to the towers" - He built the wall up to the height of the towers, or, having built the wall, he raised towers on it.

Verse 6. "Set captains of war over the people-in the street of the gate of the city" - That is, the open places at the gate of the city, whither the people came for judgment, &c.

Verse 7. "There be more with us than with him" - We have more power than they have. (These words he quotes from the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 16.) This was soon proved to be true by the slaughter made by the angel of the Lord in the Assyrian camp.

Verse 9. "After this did Sennacherib" - Having received the silver and gold mentioned above, he withdrew his army, but shortly after he sent Rab-shakeh with a blasphemous message. This is the fact mentioned here.

Verse 10. "Thus saith Sennacherib" - See all these circumstances largely explained 2 Kings xviii. 17-36.

Verse 17. "Wrote also letters" - See 2 Kings xix. 9, 14.

Verse 21. "The Lord sent an angel" - See 2 Kings xix. 36, and the note there.

House of his god] Nisroch.

"They that came forth of his own bowels" - His sons Adrammelech and Sharezer.

Verse 23. "Many brought gifts unto the Lord" - They plainly saw that Jehovah was the protector of the land.

"And presents to Hezekiah" - They saw that God was his friend, and would undertake for him; and they did not wish to have such a man for their enemy.

Verse 24. "Hezekiah was sick" - See 2 Kings xx. 1, &c., and the notes there.

Verse 25. "Hezekiah rendered not again" - He got into a vain confidence, took pleasure in his riches, and vainly showed them to the messengers of the king of Babylon. See on 2 Kings xx. 12, &c.

Verse 26. "Humbled himself" - Awoke from his sleep, was sorry for his sin, deprecated the wrath of God, and the Divine displeasure was turned away from him.

Verse 27. "Pleasant jewels" - hdmj ylk keley chemdah, desirable vessels or utensils.

Verse 30. "The upper watercourse" - He made canals to bring the waters of Gihon from the west side of Jerusalem to the west side of the city of David.

Verse 31. "Of the ambassadors" - See 2 Kings xx. 13, and the observations at the end of that chapter.

Verse 32. "The vision of Isaiah" - See this prophet, chap. 36 to 39.

Verse 33. "Chiefest of the sepulchres" - This respect they paid to him who, since David, had been the best of all their kings.

I shall subjoin a few things from the Targum on this chapter.

Ver. 1. "After these things which Hezekiah did, and their establishment, the Lord appointed by his WORD to bring Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and his army, into the land of Israel, that he might destroy the Assyrians in the land of the house of Judah, and smite their troops on the mountains of Jerusalem, and deliver all their spoils into the hands of Hezekiah and his people: wherefore Sennacherib came with immense armies, which could not be numbered; and having pitched his camps in the land of the tribe of Judah, besieged their fortified cities with his armies, hoping to overthrow them." Ver. 8. Hezekiah said-"His help is the strength of the flesh; but our auxiliary is the WORD of the Lord." Ver. 16. "His (Sennacherib's) servants spoke blasphemy against the WORD of the Lord God." Ver. 18. In the Jews' speech-"In the language of the holy house." Ver. 21. "And the WORD of the Lord sent Michael, and the angel Gabriel, and destroyed them on the night of the passover with a destructive fire; and burnt up their breath within their bodies, and consumed every soldier, captain, and prince, in the army of the king of Assyria; and he returned with shame of face into his own land." The destruction of God's enemies, and the support and salvation of the faithful, is in every instance in this Targum attributed to the WORD of the Lord, personally understood. See the note on chap. xxxiv. 27.

Ver. 24. "In those days was Hezekiah sick near to death; but he prayed before the Lord who spoke to him by his WORD to preserve him and to add to his life fifteen years." Ver. 31. "The king of Babylon sent, that they might inquire concerning the miracle that had been done in the land; that they might see the two tables of stone which were in the ark of the covenant of the Lord which Moses had placed there with the two tables which he had broken on account of the sin of the calf which they made in Horeb. The WORD of the Lord permitted him to show them these; neither did he suffer for it; that he might try him, and see what was in his heart." THUS God speaks after the manner of men: he either brings, or permits them to be brought, into such circumstances as shall cause them to show their prevailing propensities; and then warns them against the evils to which they are inclined, after having shown them that they are capable of those evils. To know ourselves, and our own character, is of the utmost importance to our religious growth and perfection. He who does not know where his weakness lies, is not likely to know where his strength lies.