The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 358

pedition, in the reign of Sargon over Assyria, in middle life to feel, with St. P11ul, th11t and in the first reign of Merodach-Bafodan "it is better for him to depart and to be over Babylon. It belongs, at any rate, to with Christ." The Hebrew of Hezekia.h's the middle p,ut of Hezokia.h's reign, while time had far more reason to regard death hie trea.sures were into.et (vers. 13-17), and as an evil. His hopes of a life beyonu the had not been carried off to Nineveh. Was grave were feeble-his conceptiuns of the Hezekiah eiok unto death ; stricken, i.e., by life, if life there were, faint and unattractive. a mala.dy whioh, in the ordinary course of Bheol, like Hades, was a vague, awful, nature, would have been fatal. And t!J.e terrible thing. If we consider Hezekiah'" Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz oame to words, " 'fhe grave cannot praise thee, him. The designation of Isaiah as " the death cannot celebrate thee : they that go prophet," and" the son of Amoz," as if pre- down into the pit cannot hope for thy trnth. viously unknown to the reo.der, indicates The living, the liviug-, he shall praise thee" the original independency of the narrative, (Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19), we may understand which the writer of Kings probably obtained how the Hebrew shrank from the fearful from a separate source. And ea.id unto him, change. And in Hezekiah's case there was Thus ee.ith the Lord, Set thine house in 11 yet further reason for grief. Hezekiah order ; for thou aha.It die, and not live. The had 11s yet no male uffapring (Josephus, eto.tement WI\S a warning, not a prophecy. 'Ant. Jud.,' x. 2. § I). Manasseh was as It is parallel to that of Jonah to the yet unborn (comp. ver. 6 with eh. xxi. I). Ninevites, " Yet forty do.ye, and Nineveh If he died now, his house would be cut off, shall be O\'erthrown." he would be without posterity-a sore grief Ver. 2.-Then he turned hie face to the to every Hebrew. Ewald's references to wall-i.e. away from those who were standing Isa._ xxxviii_ 19 and xxxix. 7, a.a indicative beside hie bed, and might have distracted of Hezekiah having sons 11t the time, are hie attention, to pray with more concentra- absolutely without valne. tion and earnestness-and prayed unto the Ver- 4.-And it ea.me to pass, afore Isaiah Lord, saying (comp. eh. xix. 15). It was was gone out into the middle couit. 'fhe n11tural to Hezekiah, in every kind of afflic- narrative in Isaiah (xxxviii. 4) does nol tion and distress, to take his trouble direct cont11in this touch, which is very graphic, to God. and indicuti ve of the eye-witness. " The Ver. 3.-I beaeeoh thee, 0 Lord, remember midd!G court" is probably tl.ie second or now how I have we.lked before thee in truth intermediate court of the royal p11lace. and with a perfeot heart. There is no fao.iah hlld not gone further than this, when Pharisaical self-righteousness here. Heze- he wo.s arrested in his course by a Diviuo kiah is conscious that he has honestly oommunicution. That the word of the Lord endeavoured to serve God, and to do his came to him, saying. How the word of the will-that, whatever may have been his Lord came to the prophets is an inscrutable shortcomings, his heart has been right mystery. Sometimes, no doubt, it came in towards God. He ventures, therefore, on visio11, which to a certain extent we can • something like expostulation. Why is he understand. But how, when the prophet to be cut off in the midst of his C1ays, at the was secularly engaged, as in this instance, age of thirty.nine, when suoh a wicked wo.lking acroBB II court, he knew that the king as Uzziah ho.s lived to be sixty-eight thought which 0CCU1Tcd to him was o. Divine (eh. xv. 2), and Rehoboam to be fifty-eight message, it is almost impossible to conceive. (1 Kings xiv. 21)? It is to be remembered Still, we cannot doubt that if God deter- that, under the old covenant, length of days mines to communicate his will to mo.n, he was expreePly promised to the righteous must be able, with the message, to impa.rt (Prov. iii. 2; ix. 11; x. 27, etc.), and that 11n absolute certainty of its source, an a shortened life waij the proclo.imed penalty o..sured conviction that it is his wore), which of wicked-doing (Job xv. 32, 33; xxii. 16; precludes all question, hesitation, or dubiety. Ps- Iv. 23 ; Prov, x. 27). llezelciuh'~ self- Is11iah, in the middle of his walk, finds his assertion is thus o. sort of luying hold of steps a1Tcsted,a.newinjunotion laid upon him, God's promises. And have done that which with a necessity of immediatoly obeying it. is good in thy sight ; comp. eh. xviii. 3-6: Ver. 5.-Turn again-or, turn back- 11nd note th11 eimila.r pleo.dings of Do.vtd, " retraoe thy sttlps, and enter once more " With my wllol.e lteart have I sought thee" into the bedchamber of the king "-and (Ps. cxix. 10); "I ho.ve remembered thy tell Hezekiah the oe.;;,tain of my people. Name, 0 Lord, and ho.ve kept thy La·w. 'fhis An unusual title for the Jewish monarch, I had because I kept thy commundmcnts" but 0110 applied in 1 Sam. ix. 16 ond x_ 1 to (Ps. oxix. 55, 56), and the like. And Heze- Saul, o.ml in 1 Sam. xiii. H and 2 Sam. kiah wept sore. Humun nature shrinks v. 2 to Dllvid. The proper meaning of ,,,! from death instinctively, o.ncl it requires o. is "leuder "-" one who goes in front." 't't1r3 vivid imagino.tiou for ev,m the Christillll Thus ae.ith the Lord, the God of De.Yid thy  406 THE SECOND BOOK OF TBE KINGS. [cu. xx. 1-21.