The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 54

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XXXI.X.. nia.n kings, as to one who reigned obont n.o. This chapter ie parnllel with 2 Kings xx. 1325, to a second who is ploced about n.o. 900, ond to a third who woe contemporory 12--19, and scarcely differs from it ot all with the Aeeytie.n kings Sargon and Sen- Ver. l has the additional words. •• and was nacherib. It ie this last of whom we have recovered ; " ver. 2, th" ph.raae, " we.e glad of a notice in the present paseoge. He o.ppeora them," for "hearkened unto them;" ver. 5, first in the Aesyriau inscriptions os a petty "Lord of hosts," for "Lord" simply; and prince, ruling a email tre.ct upon the eeo.- coe.et, about the mouths of the Tigris ond ver. 8 makes Hezckie.h's le.et utterance an Euphrates. Tiglath-Pileeer takes tribute observation instead of a question. Other- from him about B.O. 744. lu B.O. 721 we wise the two occounte are almost word for find him e.dvonced ·to a more prominent word the same. Both relote the novel and position. 'foking advantage of tbe troubles important fa.et of ambaese.dora beiug sent to of the time, he shakes off the Assyrian yoke, and makes himself King of Babylon, wbero Hezekiah by the King of Babylon, shortly he has a reign of twelve year~-from B.o. after his illneea, and tell of the reception 721 to 11.0. 709. This reiga is recognized which he gave them, of the message which by Sargon in hia inscriptions (' Records of Jsoiah wa.s commissioned to deliver to him the Past,' vol ix. p. 14), and by the Greek from God in consequence, and of Hezekiah's chron oluuiat, Ptolemy, in his ' Canon.' In B.C. 709 Sargon lee.de an expedition ogainet ecquieacence in the terms of the measage him, and drives him out of Babylonia into when it was conveyed to him. The lsa.iaaic the coast-tract, Che.Idea, where he besieges authorship of the chapter is much disputed, him in his ancestral town Bit-Ye.kin, takes but solely from reluctance to admit that a the city, and makes him prisoner (ibid., p. prophet could predict the subjugation of 15). On the death of Sargon, in n.o. 705, Merode.ch-He.le.dan escapee from confinement, Jndreo by Babylon more than a century and hastens once more to Babylon, where he before the event. is acknowledged e.e king, and hoe a second Ver. 1.-At that time (comp- 2 Chron. reign, which lasts six months (Alex. Polyhiet. :uriL 31, where it appears that a part of the ap. Euseb., 'Chron. Can.,' i. v. § I). He is bnsinese of the ombassadore was to inquire then driven from the country by Sennacherib, concerning the e.stronoruical warvel whieil anti, after vorious vicissitudes, obliged to had recently occurred in the land). The become a refugee in Elam (G. Smith, • Hist. emLassy probably followed the illnP.es of of Dabylonia,' pp. 125-128). The no.me of Hezekiah within ll year. Merodaoh-:Bala- Mcrouach-Bole.de.11 is composed of the three dan. TLie is a more correct form than the elements, Merodach (equivo.lent to ".lllor- "Berodach-Hale.de.n" of 2 Kings :n:. 12. duk "), the god, bal or pal, "son,'' and iddina, The name is oue common to &evere.l Be.by lo- "has given," and thus signifies "Merode.ob OH, xxxIX.1-8,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 67