implies that he dwelt there for some con• meleoh and Bharezer his sons. Adram• siderable time a.fter hie return, as he melech is called "Adrammeles" by Aby- appears to h11ve done by his annals. The denus, "Ardnmnzanes" by Polyhistor. Eponym Canon makes his last yenr B.o. Neither form resembles any known As- 682. syrian name, but Adrammelech has a good Ver. 87.-And it oame to pa11-seventeen Semitic derivation (see the comment on or eighteen years afterwards; not "fifty- eh. xviii. 31 ). "Sharezer" is probably e. five days" after, as the author of Tobit shortened form of N ergal-ehar-ozer ( comp. (i. 21) saya-aa he was worshipping in "Shalman," Hos. x. 14), which wae a name the houe of NiBrooh his god. The word in uso at the time (' Eponym Canon,' "Nisroch" offers considerable difficulty. p. 68). Abydenus seems to have called It has been connected with neBher (1:;,'-i), him Nergilus. Smote him with the sword. "eagle," and explained as II reference to So Josephus (' Ant. Juel.,' x. 1. § 5) and the eagle-headed genius sometimes seen in Mos. Chor. (' Hist. Armen.,' i. 22). A the Assyrian sculptures (' Ancient Mon- mutilated inscription of Esarhaddon's seems archies,' vol. ii. p. 265). But tbere is no to have described his war with his brothers evidence that the genii were ever wor- (' Records of the Past,' vol. iii. p. 103) at the shipped in Assyria, much less that they commencement of his reign, but the earlier had temples of their own, nor is any name part is wanting. And they escaped into the resembling "Nisroch" attached to any of land of Arme::ria; literally, of Ararat. The them. The word itself is somewhat doubt- Hebrew "Ararat" is the Assyrian "Ur- ful, o.nd different manuscripts of the Sep- arde. "-the ordinary name for the country tuagint, here and in Isa. xxxvii. 88, have about Lakes Van and Ummiyeh. The the variants of Nasarach, Esorach, Me,e- name" Armenia" is not found earlier thau rach, and Asarach, while Josephua has the inscriptions of Darius Hystaspis. And Araslcas. Asaro.eh might conceivably be Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. a strengthened form of Asshur; but the Esarhe.ddon (the Sarchedon of Tobit i. 21, substitution of samech for shin is against and the A.sshur-akh-iddin of the .Assyrian this explanation. Still, Asshur was cer- inscriptions) succeeded bis father in B.O. tainly Sennacherib's favourite god, the 681, ancl was engaged for some time in a deity whom he principally worshipped. war with his brothers on the Upper Josephus regards the name as belonging, Euphrates, after which he me.de himself not to the god, but to the temple ( ev -r,j master of Nineveh. He reigned from B.c. l6lq, va.rji 'Apd.rr,q, AE-yoµ,vq,), which is 681 to B.O. 66!l, when he was succeeded by perhaps the true solution of the difficulty. his son, A.sshur-bani-pal. .Assyria reached Translate--" as he was worshipping his the acme of her prosperity in hi~ time. god in the house Nisroch." That Adram-
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-35.-The wisd()'TTI, of trust in God, and the foolishness of trust in self. The contrast between the devout, God-fearing, God-trusting Hezekiah, and the proud, self- trusting, self-asserting Sennacherib is one of the most striking and instructive in Scripture. The two are set one over against the other in the most graphic way. I. THE PICTURE OF HEZEKIAH shows him: 1. Jealous of God's honour. Senna- cherib's words against God strike him with horror, appear to him such shocking blasphemy, that he rends his clothes and covers himself with sackcloth (ver. 1), as if he would wipe out the insult offered to God by one of his creatures' arrogancy, by causing to be presented befo,·e him the profoundest self-abasement and self-humiliation oo the part of another. 2. Sensible of his own weakness. 'l'he day is "a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of contumely." Israel is despised, insulted, disgraced, and yet can do nothing. The time of her ut.most trial has come, and she has " no strength" to carry her through the crisis. 3. Trustful in God's power to save. If God will, Hezekiah does not doubt he can "repr_ove" Sennacherib's words-disperse them, scatter them, show them to be vain words, words of nought. 4. Reliant on the power of prayer. "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left." Prayer is the only key that can unlock a door of escape. He himself resorts to prayer (ver. 15), and he exhorts Isaiah to do the same. If he himself is sinful, Isaiah is a righteous man, God's prophet, and" the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (Jas. v. 16). II. THE PI0TURE OF SENNAOHERID shows him: 1. A hater and re-viler of Goel, 392 THE SECOND BOOK OF 'l'HE KINGS. [on. XIX, 1-37.