1After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah; he encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to break through for himself. 2And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, 3he took counsel with his rulers and mighty men to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him. 4So, many people gathered together who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? 5And he strengthened himself, built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside; he also restored the Millo in the City of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. 6And he assigned commanders of war over the people, gathered them together to him in the open place of the city gate, and spoke to their heart, saying, 7Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. 8With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Jehovah our God, to help us and to fight our battles. And the people were bolstered by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (but he and all the forces with him laid siege against Lachish), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, 10Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria: In what are you trusting, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem? 11Is not Hezekiah enticing you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria? 12Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall bow down before one altar and burn incense on it? 13Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands in any way able to deliver their lands out of my hand? 14Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed was able to deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? 15Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you nor entice you like this, and do not believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand. 16Furthermore, his servants spoke against Jehovah God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17He had also written letters to reproach Jehovah the God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand. 18Then they called out with a loud voice in the Jewish language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and terrify them, that they might capture the city. 19And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the peoples of the lands; the work of men's hands. 20Now because of this King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried out to the heavens. 21And Jehovah sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, rulers, and commanders in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned shamefaced to his own land. And when he went into the house of his god, he fell by the sword of some of the offspring of his own body. 22Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side. 23And many brought gifts unto Jehovah at Jerusalem, and choice things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations thereafter. 24In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death, and he prayed to Jehovah; and He spoke to him and gave him a sign. 25But Hezekiah did not return according to the favor shown him, for his heart had become haughty; therefore wrath was over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. 26Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the haughtiness of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. 27Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of desirable objects; 28storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of livestock, and folds for flocks. 29Moreover he provided cities for himself, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much property. 30This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his pursuits. 31However, regarding the ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone, to test him, to know all his heart. 32Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33So Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 SENNACHERIB INVADES JUDAH. (2Ch. 32:1-20)
After these things, and the establishment thereof--that is, the restoration of the temple-worship. The precise date is given,
2Kgs 18:13. Determined to recover the independence of his country, Hezekiah had decided to refuse to pay the tribute which his father had bound himself to pay to Assyria.
Sennacherib . . . entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities--The whole land was ravaged; the strong fortresses of Ashdod (
Isa 20:1) and Lachish had fallen; the siege of Libnah had commenced, when the king of Judah, doubting his ability to resist, sent to acknowledge his fault, and offer terms of submission by paying the tribute. The commencement of this Assyrian war was disastrous to Hezekiah (
2Kgs 18:13). But the misfortunes of the early period of the war are here passed over, as the historian hastens to relate the remarkable deliverance which God wrought for His kingdom of Judah.
2 when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib . . . was purposed to fight against Jerusalem--An account of the means taken to fortify Jerusalem against the threatened siege is given only in this passage. The polluting or filling up of wells, and the altering of the course of rivers, is an old practice that still obtains in the wars of the East. Hezekiah's plan was to cover the fountain heads, so that they might not be discovered by the enemy, and to carry the water by subterranean channels or pipes into the city--a plan which, while it would secure a constant supply to the inhabitants, would distress the besiegers, as the country all around Jerusalem was very destitute of water.
4 So there was gathered much people . . . who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land--"Where these various fountains were, we have now no positive means of ascertaining; though En-rogel, and the spring now called the Virgin's Fount, may well be numbered among them. JOSEPHUS mentions the existence of various fountains without the city, but does not mention any of them in this connection but Siloam. 'The brook,' however, is located with sufficient precision to enable us to trace it very definitely. We are told that it 'ran through the midst of the land.' Now a stream running through either the Kedron or Hinnom Valley, could, in no proper sense, be said to run through the midst of the land, but one flowing through the true Gihon valley, and separating Akra and Zion from Bezetha, Moriah, and Ophel, as a stream once, doubtless, did, could, with peculiar propriety, be said to run through the midst of the land on which the [Holy] City was built. And that this is the correct meaning of the phrase is not only apparent from the force of circumstances, but is positively so declared in the Septuagint, where, moreover, it is called a 'river,' which, at least, implies a much larger stream than the Kedron, and comports well with the marginal reading, where it is said to overflow through the midst of the land. Previous to the interference of man, there was, no doubt, a very copious stream that gushed forth in the upper portion of that shallow, basin-like concavity north of Damascus Gate, which is unquestionably the upper extremity of the Gihon valley, and pursuing its meandering course through this valley, entered the Tyropśon at its great southern curve, down which it flowed into the valley of the Kedron" [BARCLAY, City of the Great King].
5 he strengthened himself--He made a careful inspection of the city defenses for the purpose of repairing breaches in the wall here, renewing the masonry there, raising projecting machines to the towers, and especially fortifying the lower portion of Zion, that is, Millo, "(in) the original city of David." "In" is a supplement of our translators, and the text reads better without it, for it was not the whole city that was repaired, but only the lower portion of Zion, or the original "city of David."
6 he . . . gathered them together . . . in the street--that is, the large open space at the gate of Eastern cities. Having equipped his soldiers with a full suit of military accoutrements, he addressed them in an animated strain, dwelling on the motives they had to inspire courage and confidence of success, especially on their consciousness of the favor and helping power of God.
9 (See on 2Ki. 18:17-35; also 2Ki. 19:8-34).
18 they cried with a loud voice . . . unto the people of Jerusalem . . . on the wall--It appears that the wall on the west side of the city reached as far to the side of the uppermost pool of Gihon at that time as it does now, if not farther; and the wall was so close to that pool that those sent to negotiate with the Assyrian general answered him in their own tongue (see on
2Kgs 18:27).
21 AN ANGEL DESTROYS THE ASSYRIANS. (
2Chr 32:21-23)
an angel . . . cut off all the mighty men--(See on
2Kgs 19:35-37).
24 HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY. (
2Chr 32:24-26)
In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death--(See on
2Kgs 20:1-11).
27 HIS RICHES AND WORKS. (
2Chr 32:27-33)
he had exceeding much riches and honour--(compare
2Kgs 20:13;
Isa 39:2). A great portion of his personal wealth, like that of David and Uzziah, consisted in immense possessions of agricultural and pastoral produce. Besides, he had accumulated large treasures in gold, silver, and precious things, which he had taken as spoils from the Philistines, and which he had received as presents from neighboring states, among which he was held in great honor as a king under the special protection of Heaven. Much of his great wealth he expended in improving his capital, erecting forts, and promoting the internal benefit of his kingdom.
30 stopped the . . . watercourse of Gihon, and brought it . . . to the west side of the city, &c.--(Compare
2Kgs 20:20). Particular notice is here taken of the aqueduct, as among the greatest of Hezekiah's works. "In exploring the subterranean channel conveying the water from Virgin's Fount to Siloam, I discovered a similar channel entering from the north, a few yards from its commencement; and on tracing it up near the Mugrabin gate, where it became so choked with rubbish that it could be traversed no farther, I there found it turn to the west in the direction of the south end of the cleft, or saddle, of Zion, and if this channel was not constructed for the purpose of conveying the waters of Hezekiah's aqueduct, I am unable to suggest any purpose to which it could have been applied. Perhaps the reason why it was not brought down on the Zion side, was that Zion was already well-watered in its lower portion by the Great Pool, 'the lower pool of Gihon.' And accordingly WILLIAMS [Holy City] renders this passage, 'He stopped the upper outflow of the waters of Gihon, and led them down westward to the city'" [BARCLAY, City of the Great King]. The construction of this aqueduct required not only masonic but engineering skill; for the passage was bored through a continuous mass of rock. Hezekiah's pool or reservoir made to receive the water within the northwest part of the city still remains. It is an oblong quadrangular tank, two hundred forty feet in length, from one hundred forty-four to one hundred fifty in breadth, but, from recent excavations, appears to have extended somewhat farther towards the north.
31 in the business of the ambassadors who sent . . . to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, &c.--They brought a present (
2Chr 32:23; see on
2Kgs 20:12-13), and a letter of congratulation on his recovery, in which particular enquiries were made about the miracle of the sun's retrocession--a natural phenomenon that could not fail to excite great interest and curiosity at Babylon, where astronomy was so much studied. At the same time, there is reason to believe that they proposed a defensive league against the Assyrians.
God left him, to try him, &c.--Hezekiah's offense was not so much in the display of his military stores and treasures, as in not giving to God the glory both of the miracle and of his recovery, and thus leading those heathen ambassadors to know Him.
