The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 360

nlruady descending the etepe, to o.ccelero.te Vere. 12-19.-Tke embassy of -3ferodach- its paoe and ro.pidly descend fifteen degrees Baladan. Soon after his recovery, Heze- insteo.d of slowly tro.versing them ; and kiah received an embassy from a new therefore acoepts Isaiah's other offer. No.y, but let the aho.dow return bo.okwo.rd ten de- quarter. Hitherto Babylon and Judaia had grees. Let it, i.e., change its direction, and been isolated from one another, o.nd had having descended a ce,tBin disto.nce, sud- perhaps scarcely known of each other's denly return and o.scend ago.in. This will existence. Assyria. had stood between be no "light thing," but e. great marvel, them, and Babylonia. had been for the most which will thoroughly convince him. The thought was nature.I, though perhaps not part an Assyrian dependency. But recently 1trictly logical. Babylonia. had asserted herself. In B.c. 722, Ver. 11.-Alld Isaiah the prophet oried on the death of Shalmaneser, a. native unto the Lord. Though the sign had been Chaldea.n named Merodach-Baladan had promised, Isaio.h regarded his own inter- made himself king of the country, and cessional prayer as not out of place, and maintained his independence against all "cried unto the Lord," i.e. prayed with energy, that the king's wish might be ac- the efforts of Sargon to reduce him. His complished. So, though we have God's position, however, was precarious, and it promise to care for ns, and keep us from was probably in the hope of concluding a.n want (Matt. vi. 25-30), yet we must daily alliance with Hezekiah-also an enemy of beseech him to "give us this day our daily Sargon's (see the comment on ver. 6)-that bread." And he brought the shadow ten degrees baokward. How this was done, we he sent his embassy. He had two excuses are not told, and can therefore only conjec- for it. A neighbolll'ing king might well ture. The earlier commentators imagined congratulate his brother monarch on hi3 that the revolution of the ea.rth upon its recovery; and a Chaldean prince might axis was actually reversed for a time; but well inquire into an astronomical marvel this idea is now geuero.lly rejected. It is clear from 2 Chron. xxxii. 31 that the (2 Chron. xxxiii. 31). The date of the em- phenomenon, whatever may have been its bassy appears to have been B.c. 712, the cause, was local, " done in the land " of year following on Hezek:iah's illness. Judah, and not visible elsewhere. Some modems have suggested an earthquake Ver.12.-At that time Berodach-Baladan. affecting the gnomon ; some a trick on the Is11iah gives the name more correctly as po.rt of Isaiah; others, and the generality, "Merodach-Bala.dan" (Isa. xxru. 1). The a very abnormal refraction of the sun's rays. no.tive form is Marduk-pal-iddin, i.e. "l\Iero- An observed instance of something similar, dach a son has given." This king rno.kes which took place at Metz, in Lotheringia, in his first appearance in on inscription of the year 1703, is on record. Two scientists, Tiglath-pileser's, where he is one of many Professor Seyffarth and Mr. J. W. Bosan- chieftains among whom Babylonia fa di- quet, think that the phenomenon was due to vided. Subsequently he hi mentioned as an eclipse, in which the upper limb of the revolting from Sargon in the latter•~ first sun was obsclll'ed temporarily. In such a year, B.C. 722 (' Records of the Past,' vol, case a slight recession of the shadow would vii. p. 29), ond holding the throne of Boby- certainly take place; but it would scarcely lon for twelve years (ibid., p. 41 ), when Sar- be such as to attract attention from any one gon conquered him, deposed him, and took but a scientifio observer (Stanley, 'Lectures the kingdom (ibid., p. 4S). This twelve- on the Jewish Chlll'ch,' vol. ii. p. 537). On ycars' reign is acknowledged by Ptolemy the whole, the most probable cause would in his Canon, but the name of the king is seem to be refraction, which is accepted by given o.s l\fardoc-Empadus. On the deatl1 Keil, Bii.hr, and Kay. By which it had gone of Sargon, in B.C. 705, I\Icrodo.ch-Baladan down in the dial of Ahaz; litemlly, on the ago.in revolted, and reigned for six months, steps of Ahaz. Sun-dials were invented by when he was driven out of the country by the Babylonians (Herod., ii. 109), and were Sennacherib, B.O. 70!. He continued, how- no doubt in use at Babylon long before the ever, to give trouble even o.fter this (' Re- time of Hezekiah. They were of various cords of the Past,' vol. vii. JJ. 63); ond his kinds, and in some of them the gnomon was sons and grandsons were pretenders to the made to cast its sh11dow upon steps. Then, Babylonian throno in the reigns of Es11r- are still two dials in lndi11-ono at Beno.res, haddon and his successor, Atisl1ur-b::mi-p11l known as the MO.nm11ndir, o.nd the other o.t (see 'Ancient Monarchies,' vol. ii. pp. ·Hl9 Delhi-where this is the case (see Mr. and 490). The son of Bo.lad.an. lu the A1- Boso.nquet's paper, BI.ready quoted, plute syrio.n inscriptions Mero<lach-llaladan is opp. p. 35). BI.ways called "the sou of YC\kin" (' R~  TRE SECOND BOOK OF 'l'ilE KINGS. [ell. XX. 1-21.