2 Chronicles 32:4 Komentář

This chapter continues and concludes the history of the reign of Hezekiah. I. The descent which Sennacherib made upon him, and the care he took to fortify himself, his city, and the minds of his people, against that enemy (Ch2 32:1-8). II. The insolent blasphemous letters and messages which Sennacherib sent him (Ch2 32:9-19). III. The real answer God gave to Sennacherib's blasphemies, and to Hezekiah's prayers, in the total rout of the Assyrian army, to the shame of Sennacherib and the honour of Hezekiah (Ch2 32:20-23). IV. Hezekiah's sickness and his recovery from that, his sin and his recovery from that, with the honours that attended him living and dead (Ch2 32:24-33).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 32 This chapter relates Sennacherib's invasion of the land of Judah, the preparations Hezekiah made to resist him, and the encouragement he gave his people to trust in the Lord, Ch2 32:1 the messages and letters Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah and his subjects, full of arrogance and blasphemy, to solicit them to deliver up Jerusalem to him, Ch2 32:9 the destruction of his army by an angel, and the deliverance of the Jews at the prayers of Hezekiah and Isaiah, Ch2 32:20 the sin Hezekiah fell into after this, and his recovery from a fit of illness; but, upon his humiliation for it, wrath was averted, Ch2 32:24 and the chapter is concluded with an account of his honours, riches, and exploits, and of his death and burial, Ch2 32:27.

Also he strengthened himself,.... In the Lord his God, and fortified his city, and put it in the best manner of defence he could: and built up all the wall that was broken; which was broken from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate by Joash king of Israel; and though it might have been repaired by Uzziah, it might again be broken down in the times of Ahaz, by Pekah, king of Israel, or some other enemy, see Ch2 25:3. and raised it up to the towers; from the corner tower to the tower of the gate of Ephraim, which, as before observed, had been broken down: and another wall without; a second wall, either all around the city, or at such a part of it which was weakest; Josephus (z) says the city of Jerusalem had three walls about it: and repaired Millo in the city of David; a wall on the north side of the city: and made darts and shields in abundance; darts to cast from the walls of the city, to annoy the enemy with, and shields to defend them from those of the enemy. (z) De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 4. sect. 3.

Sennacherib invades Judea, Ch2 32:1. Hezekiah takes proper measures for the defense of his kingdom, Ch2 32:2-6. His exhortation, Ch2 32:7, Ch2 32:8. Sennacherib sends a blasphemous message to Hezekiah, and to the people, Ch2 32:9-15. His servants rail against God; and he and they blaspheme most grievously, Ch2 32:16-19. Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah cry to God; he answers, and the Assyrians are destroyed, and Sennacherib is slain by his own sons, Ch2 32:20, Ch2 32:21. The Lord is magnified, Ch2 32:22, Ch2 32:23. Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, Ch2 32:24. His ingratitude, Ch2 32:25. His humiliation, Ch2 32:26. His riches, Ch2 32:27-30. His error relative to the Babylonish ambassadors, Ch2 32:31. His acts and death, Ch2 32:32, Ch2 32:33.

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.

SENNACHERIB INVADES JUDAH. (2Ch. 32:1-20) After these things, and the establishment thereof--that is, the restoration of the temple-worship. The precise date is given, Kg2 18:13. Determined to recover the independence of his country, Hezekiah had decided to refuse to pay the tribute which his father had bound himself to pay to Assyria. Sennacherib . . . entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities--The whole land was ravaged; the strong fortresses of Ashdod (Isa 20:1) and Lachish had fallen; the siege of Libnah had commenced, when the king of Judah, doubting his ability to resist, sent to acknowledge his fault, and offer terms of submission by paying the tribute. The commencement of this Assyrian war was disastrous to Hezekiah (Kg2 18:13). But the misfortunes of the early period of the war are here passed over, as the historian hastens to relate the remarkable deliverance which God wrought for His kingdom of Judah.

So there was gathered much people . . . who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land--"Where these various fountains were, we have now no positive means of ascertaining; though En-rogel, and the spring now called the Virgin's Fount, may well be numbered among them. JOSEPHUS mentions the existence of various fountains without the city, but does not mention any of them in this connection but Siloam. 'The brook,' however, is located with sufficient precision to enable us to trace it very definitely. We are told that it 'ran through the midst of the land.' Now a stream running through either the Kedron or Hinnom Valley, could, in no proper sense, be said to run through the midst of the land, but one flowing through the true Gihon valley, and separating Akra and Zion from Bezetha, Moriah, and Ophel, as a stream once, doubtless, did, could, with peculiar propriety, be said to run through the midst of the land on which the [Holy] City was built. And that this is the correct meaning of the phrase is not only apparent from the force of circumstances, but is positively so declared in the Septuagint, where, moreover, it is called a 'river,' which, at least, implies a much larger stream than the Kedron, and comports well with the marginal reading, where it is said to overflow through the midst of the land. Previous to the interference of man, there was, no doubt, a very copious stream that gushed forth in the upper portion of that shallow, basin-like concavity north of Damascus Gate, which is unquestionably the upper extremity of the Gihon valley, and pursuing its meandering course through this valley, entered the Tyropœon at its great southern curve, down which it flowed into the valley of the Kedron" [BARCLAY, City of the Great King].

The reign of Manasseh; cf. 2 Kings 21:1-18. - The characteristics of this king's reign, and of the idolatry which he again introduced, and increased in a measure surpassing all his predecessors (Ch2 33:1-9), agrees almost verbally with Kg2 21:1-9. Here and there an expression is rhetorically generalized and intensified, e.g., by the plurals לבּעלים and אשׁרות (Ch2 33:3) instead of the sing. לבּעל and אשׁרה (Kings), and בּנין (Ch2 33:6) instead of בּנו (see on Ch2 28:3); by the addition of וכשּׁף to ונחשׁ עונן, and of the name the Vale of Hinnom, Ch2 33:6 (see on Jos 15:18, גּי for גּיא); by heaping up words for the law and its commandments (Ch2 33:8); and other small deviations, of which הסּמל פּסל (Ch2 33:7) instead of האשׁרה פּסל (Kings) is the most important. The word סמל, sculpture or statue, is derived from Deu 4:16, but has perhaps been taken by the author of the Chronicle from Eze 8:3, where סמל probably denotes the statue of Asherah. The form עילום for עולם (Ch2 33:7) is not elsewhere met with.