The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 311

be nny doubt of this eynchronism, which is in from Jerusalem, first into the cities of Juda!; olose nocordnnce with the dntes in vers. 9 10 11nd Benjamin, and then into several of the of this chnpter, nud agrees well with the c~ties of Israel, and "brake the images in Assyrian inscriptions. Hezeki11h's ncceesion pieces, and cut clown tlie groves, and threw mny be plnced nlmost certainly in u.o. 727. down. the high places and the altars, . . . Ver. 2.-Twenty and live yenrs old was he and _utterly destroyed them all" (see 2 Chron. when. he began. to reign. ( on the difficulties xxx1. 1). And brake the images, and cut connected with this slntement, and the best ~own. the groves; literally, the gTove, accor<l- mode of meeting them, see the comment npon. mg to the present text; but, as all the oh. xvi. 1); an.d he reigned twenty an.d n.in.e versions have the plnral, Thenius thinks years in. .Jerusalem. So Josephus (' Ant. n-;i~!I, should be changed int.o o•,~N. Keil Jud.,' x. 3. § I), and the nuthor of Chro- and Bahr, on the contrary, would r~tain the nicles (2 Chron.. nix. 1). lie reigned fom- singular, but understand it " collectively." teen years before hie eevere illneee, and That idolatry was practised at some of the fifteen. afterwards. His mother's name also high places seems clear from this place, aij wns .A.bi. .A.bi, "my father," is scarcely a well as from I Kings xiv. 23. And brake possible name. We must, therefore, correct in. pieces the brazen. serpent that Moses had Kings by Chronicles, and regard her true me.de (see Nnmb. x:.xi. 9). Difficulties nre no.me as Abijah, which means "Jehovah raised with respect to this st\tement. 8Dme is my father" (compare "Abiel "). The e.rgne that the serpent, having served il8 daughter of Zaohariah, Perhaps the Zecha- purpose, would have been left hangin~ at riah of Isa. viii. 2. the place where it was set up in. the wilder- Ver. 3.-A.n.d he did that which was right ness ; others, that Moses would have de- In. the sight of the Lord, according to all stroyed it, lest the Israelites should make it that David his father did. Such unqualified an idol; others, a.gain, that it was not likely praise is only assigned to two other kings of to have lasted seven. hundred years from th" Judah-Asa (1 Kings xv.11) and Josiah (eh. Exodus, even. if it was brought into Pales- x.xii. 2), It is curious that all three were tine and taken care of. It is supposed, there- the eons of wicked fathers. Hezekiah was fore, that an. imitation of the original serpent probably, at an. early age, brought under had been. made by the Jews in. the reign the influence of Isaiah, who wns on familiar of Ahaz, had been. called "the serpent of terms with his father Ahaz (Isa. vii. 3-16), Moses," and was now destroyed. But them and would be likely to do all that lay in his is no sufficient reason. for any of these sup- power to tum Hezekiah from his father's positions. Considering what the serpent evil ways, and to foster all the germs of good typified (John iii. 14), it is not smprising in his character. that Moses should have been. instructed to Ver. 4.-He removed the high places. preserve it with the furniture of the taber- This Wll.s a comparatively late step in Heze- nacle, or tbnt, when once attached to that kie.h's religious reformation. He began as structure, it should have been preserved as we learn from Chronicles (:J Chron. ~ - 3, a religious relic for seven hundred yea.re. 17), "in the first year of his reign, the first Many Egyptian figmes in. bronze now exi8t month, e.n.d the first day,'' by reopening the which a.re from three thousand to four temple, which Ahe.z hnd shut up, removing thousand years old. The statement of the from it all the "filthiness" which Ahe.z bad writer of Kings, that Hezekiah did now allowed to accumulate (2 Chron. xxix. 5) destroy '' the serpent that Mosea had. made " gathering together the priests and Levite~ is ?f more wei~ht than. a_ thousand spec~- and e~horting them (2 Chron. xxix. 4-11), lat10ns ooncern.rng what 11! likely, or not restorrng and renewrng the vessels which likely, to have hl\ppened. For 11llto thoae Ahe.z had out in pfec~s (2 Chron. xxix. 19), days the children. of Israel did bum in.oen.se and then re-estnbhsh1ng the temple-worship to it. Not, certo.inly, "from MOi!ell' time to with 1111 due solemnity (2 Chron. :nix. 20- Hezekinh'.s," but from ~ date left vagne and 85). He next resolved on holding e. grnn.d undetermmed to the tun.e when. Hezekiah Pe.ssover-feetive.1, in the second month, ns it took his religious reformation. in. ho.nd. had not been possible to keep it in the first Hezekiah found the practioe continuing· (2 Chron. xxx. 2, 8), and invited thereto not the writer is n.ot oon.oemed to say-perhe.p~ only his own subjeots, but the Ismelit~s of does not know-when. it began. He im- the neighbouring kingdom who were not plies, however, the.t it was of long standing. yet carried off, but were still under the rule Serpent-worship was widely spread in. the of Hoshea (2 Chron. x.xx. 10, 11, 18). It East, and there wo.s more excuse for direct- was not until this festivnl was over that the ing religious regurd toward this eerpen t than. removal of the high places wns tl\ken iu toward any other. A.n.d he oalled it Nehush- hand. Theu, in. a fit of zeal, which no te.n; rathtir, and it was called Nehushta11. doubt the king encome.ged, a multitude of N"1P' is I\ singull\r with indefinite subject those who had kept the feust went forth (" one oo.lled "), equi vo.len.t to "they cnlled,"  858 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [oH. xvm.1~7.