CONTENTS This chapter contains the account of Hezekiah, and his good reign. His destruction of idolatry. A further account of the captivity of the people of Israel. The chapter, after this, returns to the relation of the history of Hezekiah. Jerusalem is besieged by Sennacherib.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Reader should carefully keep in view, in order to have a clear apprehension of those historical parts of the Bible, that the history of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, is so incorporated in one and the same chapter, that, unless properly attended to, an ordinary Reader will find himself freq... [ Continue Reading ]
This is a kind of parenthesis to what went before, and what follows: for it repeats what the former chapter related, the capture of Samaria; and is no further connected with the history of Judah, than as it shows, from the success the king of Assyria had obtained over Israel, it opened, as he though... [ Continue Reading ]
This Sennacherib must have been the successor to Shalmaneser. And perhaps his victory over Samaria prompted him to suppose, that he should be conqueror of Jerusalem. And though it is said the Lord prospered Hezekiah whithersoever he went, yet we find the Lord was pleased; in the opening of this sieg... [ Continue Reading ]
Hezekiah is soon taught what a base wretch he had to do with, who not only took Hezekiah's gold, and then turned against him, with more force, in the perfidy of his heart, but even charged Hezekiah with robbery, for taking the gold to give him from the house of the Lord. The Reader will do no violen... [ Continue Reading ]
The modest request of Hezekiah's servants to speak in the Syrian language, meeting with such contempt, may serve to teach us how confident of success the blasphemer was. And it only serves to heighten the triumph of Hezekiah the more. It is hardly possible to determine whether this second speech of... [ Continue Reading ]
How delightful it is to do as the servants of Hezekiah did upon various trials; keep silence. In your patience (saith our dear Lord) possess ye your souls. The rented garment and the sprinkled ashes, were tokens of real sorrow. In the gospel it is the broken and the contrite heart, sprinkled with th... [ Continue Reading ]
REFLECTIONS THERE are many improving observations which arise out of this chapter. In the first place, I would call upon the Reader to remark with me, that though Hezekiah is said to have been the best of all the kings of Judah, yet Hezekiah was not without his afflictions. We see in the very midst... [ Continue Reading ]