The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 338

hear. "Bow down thine eo.r" is a Hebrew indicated by a line, the face coloured red, or idiom for "give eo.r," "attend "(see Pe. xxxi. white, or gilt. It was only later that ivory 2; lxxi. 2; lxxxvi. l; Prov. xxii.17, etc.). It and golrl plates were commonly la.id over is bnsed upon the fa.et that, when men wish the wood, vested and decked out with orna- to catch exactly what o.nother so.ye to them, ments" (Dollinger,' Jew and Gentile,' vol. i. they bond themselves towards him, and p. 240). Stone idols were at first aha pc leas bring one ear a.a near to him as they can. n:iosses, then pillars or cones, finally imita- Open, Lord, thine eyes, and see. Take cog- tions of the human form, varying from nizo.nce both with eye and ear ; i.e. take the rudest representations to the priceless full cognizance-let nothing escape thee. statues of Phidias. In Assyrian times, neither And hear the words of Bennaoherib, whioh the wooden nor the stone idols were possessed hath sent him to reproaoh the living God ; of any artistic beauty. Therefore they have rather, which he has sent to reproach. The destroyed them. "Gods" of this kind could suffix translated "him" in our version not help themselves, much leBB save their really means "it "-i.e. the speech or letter devotees or the cities supposed to be under of Sennacherib, which Hezekiah has "spread their protection. It was not to be wondered before the Lord." at that the Assyrians bad triumphed over Ver. 17.-Of a truth, Lord, the kings of such gods. Assyria-i.e. Sennacherib, and his prede- Ver. 19.-Now therefore, 0 Lord our God. cessors-the long line of monarchs who Hezekiah draws the strongest possible con- have sat on tho Assyrian throne for many trast between Jehovah and the idols. Sen- past ages-h11ve destroyed the nations and nacherib had placed them upon a par (eh. their lands; rather, have laid waste, as in xviii. 33-35 ; xix. 10-13). Hezekiah the parallel passage of Isaiah (xxxvii. 18). insists that the idols a.re "no gods,'' are "Destroyed" is too strong a word. Hezeldah "nothing "-at any rate are mere blocks of fully admits the boast of the Assyrian wood and stone, shaped by human hands. monarch, that he and his predecessors have But Jehovah is "the God of all the kingdoms had a wonderful career of success ( comp. Isa. of the earth" (ver. 15), the Maker of heaven x. 5-14); but he refuses to regard this pa.et and earth (ver. 15), the one and only God success as ensuring success in the future. (ver. 19)-answering to his name, self-exist- All is in the band of God, and will be ing, all-sufficient, the grounuwork of all determined as God pleases. It is not an iron other existence. And he is "our God" -the necessity that rules the world, but a personal special God of Israel, bound by covenant to will, and this will may be affected by prayer, protect them against all enemies. I beseech to which (vcr. 19) he therefore has recourse. thee, save thou us out of his hand; i.e. "do Ver. 18.-And have oast their gods into that which this proud blasphemer thinks the :fire. The images worshipped by the that thou canst not do" (eh. xviii. 35); show various nations a.re regarded as "their gods," him that thou art far mightier than he which they were, at any rate in the minda supposes, wholly unlike those "no-gods," of the common people. The ordinary practice over whom he has hitherto triumphed-a of the Assyrians was to carry off the images "very present Help in trouble "-potent to ta.ken from a conquered people, and to set save. That all the kingdoms of the earth them up in their own country as trophies of may know that thou art the Lord God. The victory (see Isa.. xlvi 1, 2, where a similar glory of God is the end of creation; and prnctioe is ascribed by anticipation to the God's true BRints always bear the fact in Persians). But there a.re places in the mind, and desire nothing so mnch as thot inscriptions where the gods a.re said to ha. ve his glory should be shown forth everywhere been " destroyed" or "burnt." It is reason- and always. Moses, in his prayers for able to suppose that the images destroyed rebellious Israel in the wilderness, constantly were those of wood, stone, and bronze, which urges upon God that it will not be for his had little or no intrinsic value, while the glory to destroy or desert them (Exod. xxxii. gold and silver idols were carried off to 12; Numb. xiv. 13-16; Dent. ix. 26-29). the land of the conqueror. No doubt idols David, in his groat strait, asks the destruc- of the former fo.r outnumbered those of the tion of his enemies, "that men may know latter kind, and, at ea.eh sack of a city the thu.t thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, nrt "gods " which it contained were mostly the Most High over all the earth " ( Ps. burnt. For they were no gods, but the lxxxiii. 18); and again (Ps. lix. 13), " Con- work of men's hands, wood and stone ( comp. sume them in wrath, consurue them, thu.t Isa. xiii. 17; xliv. 9-20; xlvi. 6, 7). they may not be; ond let them know that Wooden images (the Greek {&ava) were God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the prcbobly the earliest that were made, and, earth." Hezekiah prays for e. signal ven- on account of theil' antiquity, were often geance on Sonnacherib, not for his owu s11ke. especially reverenQlld. Thoy were "carved, not even for his people's sake, so urnch as but rude, with undivided feet, and eyes for the vindication of God's honour among H, KINGS. 2 C  386 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [en. XIX, 1-37.