2nd Kings Chapter 19

From The Open Bible Project

19:1 It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.

19:2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

• (a) To hear some new prophecy and to have comfort from him.

19:3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.

• (b) The dangers are so great, that we can neither avenge this blasphemy, or help ourselves any more than a woman in labour.

19:4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

• (c) Meaning, for Jerusalem which only remained of all the cities of Judah.

19:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

19:6 Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall tell your master, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

19:7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"

• (d) The Lord can with one blast blow away all the strength of man, and turn it into dust.

19:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

19:9 When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "Behold, he has come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,

• (e) That is, Sennacherib.
• (f) For the kings of Ethiopia and Egypt joined together against the king of Assyria because of his oppression of other countries.

19:10 'Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, "Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

• (g) The closer the wicked are to their destruction, the more they blaspheme.

19:11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?

19:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?

19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?"'"

19:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread it before Yahweh.

• (h) Before the Ark of the covenant.

19:15 Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

• (i) He shows what the true refuge and help is in all dangers, that is, to flee to the Lord by earnest prayer.

19:16 Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent to defy the living God.

• (k) Show by effect that you will not allow your Name to be blasphemed.
• (l) By this title he discerns God from all idols and false gods.

19:17 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,

19:18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.

19:19 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Yahweh, are God alone."

• (m) He shows the reason the faithful desire God to deliver them: that is, that he may be glorified by their deliverance.

19:20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.

19:21 This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: "The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

• (n) Because as yet Jerusalem had not been taken by the enemy therefore he calls her virgin.

19:22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

• (o) God counts that as an injury done to him, and will avenge what is done to any of his saints.

19:23 By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said, 'With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field.

• (p) Meaning Jerusalem, which Isaiah calls the height of his borders, that is, of Judah, (Isaiah 37:24).

19:24 I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.'

19:25 Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now have I brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

• (q) He declares that as he is the author and beginning of his Church, he will never allow it to be completely destroyed, as other cities and kingdoms.

19:26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it has grown up.

• (r) Thus he describes the wicked, who flourish for a time, and later fade and decay like flowers.

19:27 But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.

19:28 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came."

• (s) I will bridle your rage, and turn you to and fro as it pleases me.

19:29 "'This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit.

• (t) God not only promised him the victory, but gives him a sign to confirm his faith.

19:30 The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

• (u) The Lord will multiply in great number that small remnant of Judah that escaped.

19:31 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of Yahweh will perform this.'

• (x) The love, that God has for his Church will overcome the counsels and enterprises of men.

19:32 "Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, 'He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

19:33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city,' says Yahweh.

19:34 'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"

19:35 It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.

19:37 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

• (y) This was the just judgment of God for his blasphemy, that he would be slain before the idol that he preferred to the living God, and by those who should by nature have needed his defence.