Ver. 21.-The exMt matter corresponding spirit in which he acted, displaying Wa wilh this one verse is embraced bv yers. trea.s\ll":ls, so that it was in the fullest sense 3fi-37 in the psrallel (2 Kings xix.). It a sin of " the heart." gfres the number of slain as a hundred and Ver. 26.-Hezekiah humbled himself. Pos• eighty-five thousand. It does not speak of sibly the language of the nineteenth verse the heR,·y proportion ofleaders and captains in the parallel is the one survivin"' historic lost. It leads us to suppose that for all sur- trace of this. The language fom~d in Jer. ,-i vors it wse a surprise in the morning- xxvi. 19 may be also a note of the same, that silent vision of the dead in such vast though its dependence (see vers. l 7, 18) ou srray. Stating, on the other hand, in mere Micah iii. 12 seems to make it less likely. historic dry detail. the return of Sennacherib Ver. 27.-If Hezekiah not only begun to to his own land, his dwelling at Nineveh, negotiate, but actually pa.id the precious and assassination, in the house of Nisroch metals, etc., with which he offered to buy off '' his god." at the hands of his own two sons, the invasion of Seuuacherib (2 Kings xviii. mentioned by name Adrammelech and 14-16), he may have become considerably Sharezer, who had to fly for it to Armenia recouped by the presents and gifts subse- (Ararat), it does not show the obnously quently, liberally it would appear, brought designed moral touch of our compiler, So he to him (see oar ver. 23), o.nd it is possible returned with shame of faoe to his own land, that this may give us some further eluo to nor the similarly complexioned dcecription where it was that his heart strayed, while of the time, place, and agents of bis assassi- displaying bis woe.Ith o.nd treasures to the nation. Lastly, it gives Esarbaddon as the messengers of Berodach-Ba.ladu.n King of name of his successor on the throne. Da.bylon. Ver. 22.-This verse. with the notification Ver. 28.-Cotes for tlooks should be ren- of Hezekiah's great deliverance from the dered, conversely, flocks to the stalls, i.e. stalls hand of the King of Assyria, summarizes full of flocks. also his various other deliverances, with tacit Ver. 30.-Stopped the upper watercourse, reference to such suggestion of other con• etc. (see oar vers. 3, 4). What Hezekiah :fiicts as we have in 2 Kings xviii. 7, 8. "stopped" was the spring, or more strictly Guided them on every side. The Septuagint access to it, and guided its prized waters reads, ga1Je them rest. This suits the con- down, probably by an underground channel, nection as regards meaning best, and also as to Siloam, or else to the pool in the city regards the immediately following adverb, which he had constructed and enclosed by •· on every side." It has also in our present that "another wall without" (ver. 5), west book the correspondences of eh. xiv. 6; xv. of the " city of David." 15; and especially eh. XI. 30, with the Ver. 31.-Howbeit; literally, and thu,. Hebrew words of which, an easily supposed The italic type dispensed with, the verse rectification brings it into exact agreement. may be rendered, And thus with or among the ambassadors of the princes ... God left Ver. 23.-Presents to Hezekiah. The him to, etc. The princes. This plural may be "precious things" (nil'J?:)) of eh. xxi 3. the pluralis excellentilll, and designate the Yer. 24.-The extreme brevity again of king himself, who doubtless issued the official our compiler, in the account of Hezekiah's command to the messengers to visit Heze- illness, and his passing so lightly over kiah with gifts, etc., but not necessarily so. whatever in it cast shades upon his cl.mracter The word may betray the inquiries and and career, cannot escape our notice. Much curiosity of the princes of Babylon, under faller is the narrative of 2 Kings XL 1-21. the king, the expression of which led to the Gave him a sign (see 2 Kings XI. 8-11, embassy, so to call it. and oar ver. 31, middle clause. See also at Ver. 32.-In the vision of Isaiah (so length of the sickness of Hezekiah, Isa. Isa. i. 1). mviii.). Ver. 33.-In the ohiefest of the sepulchres; Ver.25.-The parallel, 2Kings XL 12-19 literally, in the ascent of the sepulchTe8; i.e. and Isa. nxiz:., fully explain the circum- in new burial-places, either on the ascent 1tances here referred to, and we may con- to the old ones, probably now full, or elee clude that Hezekiah'& sin consisted in the ahov~ them.
HOMILE'l'ICS. Vere. 1-23.-The weakness that bodes strength; the defiant strength that bodes" shame efface." One of the most fruitful sources of strength in the individual character is according to the trustfulness that may be in it-the absence, or all but entire absence, cf it on the one band, and the larger or lesser bulk of it on the other. Trustfulness c, a sure turning-point-a determining feature in the original shaping and in the grow• orr. xxxu. 1-33.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 385