The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 351

Vers. 1, 2.-The accession of Hezekiah. I. Hrs PERSON. 1. His name. Hezekiah, "The might of Jehovah;" Hizkiyah (2 Kings xv iii. 1); Hiskiyahu (ver. 1; Isa. xxxvi. 1; xxxvii. I. 3); with which last corresponds Hazakijau, or Hazakiau, of the Assyrian inscriptions. 2. His parenf,age. His father Ahaz (eh. xxviii, 27), to whom while yet a lad he must have beeu born (see homily on eh. xxviii. 1-27) ; his mother Ahijah, "Father of Jehovah "-in shortened form, Abi (2 Kings xviii. 2), the daughter of Zecbariab, "a citizen of Jerillalem" (Josephus), perhaps the son of Jeberechiah, a cont.emporary of Ahaz (Isa. viii. 2)," not improbably the favourite prophet of Uzziah" (Stanley). II. HIS REIGN. 1. Its commencement. (1) When he was twenty-five yeam old; therefore when, having fully attained to manhood, he was old enough to have learnt something of the ruinous results of his father's career, and of the utter folly as well as wickedness of idolatry. (2) "In the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, King of Israel " (2 Kings xviii 1), six years before the carrying away of Israel captive by Shalmaneser, the King of Assyria (2 Kings xviii.10), (3) When Judah as a kingdom liad been reduced to a low ebb by the Syro-Ephrai.mitish war, with the invasions of the Edomites and Philistines, not to speak of the impoverishment of the royal exchequer by the tributes paid to Tiglath-Pileser (cb. xxviii. 5, 6, 8, 17, 21). "Take out of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin one hundred and twenty thousand whom Pekah, the King of Israel, slew in one day; take out two hundred thousand that were carried away captive to Samaria" (these, ho~ever, returned); "take out thos~ that were trans- JlDrted into the bondage of the Edom1tes, and those that were subdued m the south parts by the Philistines; alas! what a handful was lert to the King of Judah, scarce worth the I!.arue uf a dominion!" (Bishop Hall). 2. Its close. After twenty-nine years-upwards uf a quarter of a century; a long time for a thoughtful sovereign to bear the rcspoWli• cu. xx1x. 1-36.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 355