2 Kings 19

2Ki 19:1-5.

HEZEKIAH IN

DEEP

AFFLICTION.

1-3. when king Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes--The rending

of his clothes was a mode of expressing horror at the daring

blasphemy--the assumption of sackcloth a sign of his mental

distress--his entrance into the temple to pray the refuge of a pious

man in affliction--and the forwarding an account of the Assyrian's

speech to Isaiah was to obtain the prophet's counsel and comfort. The

expression in which the message was conveyed described, by a strong

figure, the desperate condition of the kingdom, together with their own

inability to help themselves; and it intimated also a hope, that the

blasphemous defiance of Jehovah's power by the impious Assyrian might

lead to some direct interposition for the vindication of His honor and

supremacy to all heathen gods.

4. the living God--"The living God" is a most significant expression

taken in connection with the senseless deities that Rab-shakeh boasted

were unable to resist his master's victorious arms.

2Ki 19:6, 7.

COMFORTED BY

ISAIAH.

6. Isaiah said . . . Be not afraid--The prophet's answer was most

cheering, as it held out the prospect of a speedy deliverance from the

invader. The blast, the rumor, the fall by the sword, contained a brief

prediction that was soon fulfilled in all the three

particulars--namely, the alarm that hastened his retreat, the

destruction that overtook his army, and the violent death that suddenly

ended his career.

2Ki 19:8-13.

SENNACHERIB

SENDS A

BLASPHEMOUS

LETTER TO

HEZEKIAH.

8. So Rab-shakeh . . . found the king of Assyria warring against

Libnah--Whether Lachish had fallen or not, is not said. But

Sennacherib had transferred his battering-rams against the apparently

neighboring fortress of Libnah

(Jos 10:29;

compare

Jos 10:31; 15:42),

where the chief-cup-bearer reported the execution of his mission.

9-13. when he heard say of Tirhakah . . ., Behold, he is come out to

fight against thee, &c.--This was the "rumor" to which Isaiah

referred

[2Ki 19:7].

Tirhakah reigned in Upper Egypt, while So (or Sabaco) ruled in Lower

Egypt. He was a powerful monarch, another Sesostris, and both he and

Sabaco have left many monuments of their greatness. The name and figure

of Tirhakah receiving war captives, are still seen in the Egyptian

temple of Medinet Abou. This was the expected succor which was sneered

at by Rab-shakeh as "a bruised reed"

(2Ki 18:21).

Rage against Hezekiah for allying himself with Egypt, or the hope of

being better able to meet this attack from the south, induced him,

after hearing the rumor of Tirhakah's advance, to send a menacing

letter to Hezekiah, in order that he might force the king of Judah to

an immediate surrender of his capital. This letter, couched in the same

vaunting and imperious style as the speech of Rab-shakeh, exceeded it

in blasphemy, and contained a larger enumeration of conquered places,

with the view of terrifying Hezekiah and showing him the utter

hopelessness of all attempts at resistance.

2Ki 19:14-34.

HEZEKIAH'S

PRAYER.

14-19. Hezekiah received the letter . . . and went up into the house

of the Lord--Hezekiah, after reading it, hastened into the temple,

spread it in the childlike confidence of faith before the Lord, as

containing taunts deeply affecting the divine honor, and implored

deliverance from this proud defier of God and man. The devout spirit of

this prayer, the recognition of the Divine Being in the plenitude of

His majesty--so strikingly contrasted with the fancy of the Assyrians

as to His merely local power; his acknowledgment of the conquests

obtained over other lands; and of the destruction of their wooden idols

which, according to the Assyrian practice, were committed to the

flames--because their tutelary deities were no gods; and the object for

which he supplicated the divine interposition--that all the

kingdoms of the earth might know that the Lord was the only God--this

was an attitude worthy to be assumed by a pious theocratic king of the

chosen people.

20. Then Isaiah . . . sent--A revelation having been made to Isaiah,

the prophet announced to the king that his prayer was heard. The

prophetic message consisted of three different portions:--First, Sennacherib is apostrophized

(2Ki 19:21-28)

in a highly poetical strain, admirably descriptive of the turgid

vanity, haughty pretensions, and presumptuous impiety of the Assyrian

despot. Secondly, Hezekiah is addressed

(2Ki 19:29-31),

and a sign is given him of the promised deliverance--namely, that for

two years the presence of the enemy would interrupt the peaceful

pursuits of husbandry, but in the third year the people would be in

circumstances to till their fields and vineyards and reap the fruits as

formerly. Thirdly, the issue of Sennacherib's invasion is

announced

(2Ki 19:32-34).

33. shall not come into this city--nor approach near enough to shoot

an arrow, not even from the most powerful engine which throws missiles

to the greatest distance, nor shall he occupy any part of the ground

before the city by a fence, a mantelet, or covering for men employed in

a siege, nor cast (raise) a bank (mound) of earth, overtopping the city

walls, whence he may see and command the interior of the city. None of

these, which were the principal modes of attack followed in ancient

military art, should Sennacherib be permitted to adopt. Though the army

under Rab-shakeh marched towards Jerusalem and encamped at a little

distance with a view to blockade it, they delayed laying siege to it,

probably waiting till the king, having taken Lachish and Libnah, should

bring up his detachment, that with all the combined forces of Assyria

they might invest the capital. So determined was this invader to

conquer Judah and the neighboring countries

(Isa 10:7),

that nothing but a divine interposition could have saved Jerusalem. It

might be supposed that the powerful monarch who overran Palestine and

carried away the tribes of Israel, would leave memorials of his deeds

on sculptured slabs, or votive bulls. A long and minute account of this

expedition is contained in the Annals of Sennacherib, a translation of

which has recently been made into English, and, in his remarks upon it,

COLONEL RAWLINSON says the

Assyrian version confirms the most important features of the Scripture

account. The Jewish and Assyrian narratives of the campaign are,

indeed, on the whole, strikingly illustrative of each other

[Outlines of Assyrian History].

2Ki 19:35, 36.

AN

ANGEL

DESTROYS THE

ASSYRIANS.

35. in the morning . . . they were all dead corpses--It was the

miraculous interposition of the Almighty that defended Jerusalem. As to

the secondary agent employed in the destruction of the Assyrian army,

it is most probable that it was effected by a hot south wind, the

simoon, such as to this day often envelops and destroys whole caravans.

This conjecture is supported by

2Ki 19:7

and Jer 51:1.

The destruction was during the night; the officers and soldiers, being

in full security, were negligent; their discipline was relaxed; the

camp guards were not alert, or perhaps they themselves were the first

taken off, and those who slept, not wrapped up, imbibed the

poison plentifully. If this had been an evening of dissolute mirth (no

uncommon thing in a camp), their joy (perhaps for a victory), or "the

first night of their attacking the city," says JOSEPHUS, became, by its effects, one means of their

destruction [CALMET, Fragments].

36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria . . . went and returned--the same

way as he came

(2Ki 19:33).

The route is described

(Isa 10:28-32).

The early chariot track near Beyrout is on the rocky edge of Lebanon,

which is skirted by the ancient Lycus (Nahr-el Kelb). On the

perpendicular face of the limestone rock, at different heights, are

seen slabs with Assyrian inscriptions, which having been deciphered,

are found to contain the name of Sennacherib. Thus, by the preservation

of these tablets, the wrath of the Assyrian invaders is made to praise

the Lord.

dwelt at Nineveh--This statement implies a considerable period of

time, and his Annals carry on his history at least five years after his

disastrous campaign at Jerusalem. No record of his catastrophe can be

found, as the Assyrian practice was to record victories alone. The

sculptures give only the sunny side of the picture.

2Ki 19:37.

SENNACHERIB

SLAIN.

37. as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch--Assarae, or Asshur,

the head of the Assyrian Pantheon, represented not as a vulture-headed

figure (that is now ascertained to be a priest), but as a winged figure

in a circle, which was the guardian deity of Assyria. The king is

represented on the monuments standing or kneeling beneath this figure,

his hand raised in sign of prayer or adoration.

his sons smote him with the sword--Sennacherib's temper, exasperated

probably by his reverses, displayed itself in the most savage cruelty

and intolerable tyranny over his subjects and slaves, till at length he

was assassinated by his two sons, whom, it is said, he intended to

sacrifice to pacify the gods and dispose them to grant him a return of

prosperity. The parricides taking flight into Armenia, a third son,

Esar-haddon, ascended the throne.