2 Chronicles 32:5

Also he strengthened himself R.V. And he took courage. Cp. 2 Chronicles 1:1 (note).

broken R.V. broken down; cp. 2 Chronicles 25:23 (note).

raisedit up to the towers Render, repaired the towers, lit. "brought up [healing, restoration] upon the towers; cp. 2 Chronicles 24:13 (Heb.); Nehemiah 4:1 (Heb.). The ellipse is harsh, but not too harsh for the Chronicler. Vulg. reads, "built towers upon it."

another wall R.V. the other wall. In Isaiah 22:9-11 the preparations to meet the Assyrian attack are described by the prophet who speaks of a "ditch" (R.V. "reservoir") made at this time between "the two walls." In Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894 1897, Dr Bliss describes a buttressed wall (pp. 96 ff.) built without lime (see his frontispiece for an illustration of it) and enclosing the pool of Siloam on the S.E, which, he says, "may date back as far as Hezekiah" (pp. 325 f.). Dr Bliss also, following up a clue given by earlier explorers found a second wall (running at an angle to the first) enclosing the pool on the west. This second wall was probably due to Herod, but Dr Bliss suggests that the line it follows may have been defended by a wall as early as Hezekiah's day (p. 326). Thus it is not hard to infer the general course of Hezekiah's two walls.

Millo Cp. 1 Chronicles 11:8, note.

darts and shields These were meant, not for such trained soldiers as Hezekiah could collect, but for the levy en massewith which the king proposed to man the walls. A dart to throw and a shield to protect the thrower as he threw were all that the citizen-soldier needed. The Heb. word (shelaḥ) means "dart, missile"; the more general rendering of the R.V. "weapons" obscures the meaning of Hezekiah's preparations.