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e king of Assyria did carry away (2) Israel to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in e cities of the Medes: 12. Because they eyed not the voice of the LORD their od, but transgressed his covenant, and that Moses the servant of the LORD mmanded, and would not hear them, nor them. 13. Now in the fourteenth (o) year king Hezekiah, did Sennacherib king of syria come up against all the fenced cities Judah, and took them. 14. And Heiah king of Judah sent to the king of syria to Lachish, saying, "I have ofended, return from me: that which hou puttest on me, I will bear." And king of Assyria appointed unto Hezeaking of Judah, three hundred (p) tats of silver, and thirty talents (q) of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver t was found in the house of the LORD, ! in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the from the doors of the temple of the RD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah g of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to king of Assyria. 17. And the king of syria sent (r) Tartan and Rabsaris and b-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah th

a great host against Jerusalem: And y went up and came to Jerusalem: And en they were come up, they came and od by the conduit of the upper pool, ich is in the highway of the fuller's ld. 18. And when they had called to king, there came out to them Eliakim son of Hilkiah, which was over the usehold, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder. 19. And ab-shakeh said unto them, "Speak ye now to Hezekiah, "Thus saith the great

(n) v. 11. 66 Carry away Israel." Before hrist 721. This terminated the kingdom of rael; and from this captivity the people never turned. After this period, the kingdom of adah (including the tribes of Judah and Benmin, and probably some families of the other ribes) was the only remaining kingdom; and he people belonging to it were called Jews.

() v. 13. "Fourteenth year." Before Christ 113.

(p) v. 14. Rather more than £100,000.

"Three hundred talents of silver."

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"king, the king of Assyria, "What con"fidence is this wherein thou trustest? "20. Thou sayest, (but they are but vain "words,) I have counsel and strength for "the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, "that thou rebellest against me? 21. Now "behold, thou trustest upon the staff of "this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on " which if a man lean, it will go into his "hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king "of Egypt unto all that trust on him. "22. But if ye say unto me, "We trust "in the LORD our God: is not that he, "whose high places, and whose altars "Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said "to Judah and Jerusalem, "Ye shall "worship before this altar in Jerusalem ?" 23. Now therefore, I pray thee, give "pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, " and I will deliver thee two thousand "horses, if thou (s) be able on thy part to "set riders upon them. 24. How then wilt "thou turn away the face of one (t) captain "of the least of my master's servants, and "put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and " for horsemen ? 25. Am I now come up without the LORD against this place "to destroy it? The LORD said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it." 26. Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rab-shakeh, "Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in "the Syrian language, (for we under"stand it) and talk not with us in the "Jews language, in the ears of the people "that are on the wall." 27. But Rabshakeh said unto them, "Hath my master "sent me to thy master, and to thee to "speak these words! hath he not sent me "to the men which sit on the wall, that "they may eat their own dung, and drink

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(q) v. 14. "Thirty talents of gold." Something more than £160,000.

(r) v. 17. "Sent Tartan." In about three years after Hezekiah's submission.

(s) v. 23. "If thou be able." An insinuation of the weakness to which Judah was reduced.

(t) v. 24." One captain." Such is your condition, that you cannot stand even against a single captain of Sennacherib's forces.

"their own piss with you?" 28. Then Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews language, and spake, saying, "Hear the word of the great king, "the king of Assyria. 29. Thus saith the "king, "Let not Hezekiah deceive you, "for he shall not be able to deliver you "out of his hand: 30. Neither let Heze"kiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us, and "this city shall not be delivered into "the hand of the king of Assyria."

31. Hearken not unto Hezekiah: for "thus saith the king of Assyria, "Make

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an agreement with me by a present and 66 come out to me, and then eat ye every "man of his own vine, and every one of "his fig-tree, and drink ye every one "the waters of his cistern: 32. Until I "come and take you away, to a land like << your own land, a land of corn and wine, "a land of bread and vineyards, a land of "oil-olive, and of honey, that ye may live "and not die: and hearken not unto "Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, "saying, "The LORD will deliver us." 66 33. Hath any of the of the gods of the

"nations delivered at all his land out "of the hand of the king of Assyria. "34. Where are the gods of (u) Hamath, "and (x) of Arpad? where are the gods " of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have "they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?

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35. Who are they among all the gods "of the countries, that have delivered "their country out of mine hand, that the "LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of "mine hand?" 36. But the people held

(u) v. .34. "The gods of the nations." It was a persuasion amongst the heathens, that there were many gods, and that different gods presided over different nations.

(x) v. 34. "Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, "Henah, and Ivah." Places Sennacherib had subdued.

(y) v.1. Almost verbatim with Is. xxxvii. post. Before Christ 710.

(x) v. I. "It," i. e. "the account he re"ceived of Rabshakeh's message in the pre"ceding chapter."

(a) v. 3. "The children, &c." Probably a v.3. proverb, for great weakness in as feeble a state as that of a woman who has accomplished

their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, "Answer him not." 37. Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.

CHAP. XIX.

AND (y) it (3) came to pass, whenkir

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Hezekiah heard it, that he rent clothes, and covered himself with sa cloth, and went into the house of LORD. 2. And he sent Eliakim, whi was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, cover! with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz. 3. And they said unto him, "Thus saith Hezekiah, "This day in 1 "day of trouble, and of rebuke, and bi"phemy: for the children (a) are com "to the birth, and there is not strength "bring forth. 4. It may be the Lo "thy God will hear all the words of Rab "shakeh, whom the king of Assyras "master hath sent to reproach the "God; and will reprove the words which "the LORD thy God hath heard: where "fore lift up thy prayer for the remnant "that are left." 5. So the servants c king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6. And Isaiah said unto them, "Thus shall

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say to your master, Thus saith "LORD, "Be not afraid of the words! "which thou hast heard, with which "servants of the king of Assyria have "blasphemed me. 7. Behold, I will send

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│a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." 8. So ab-shakeh returned, and found the king f Assyria warring against Libnah; for he ad heard that he was departed from achish. 9. And when he heard say of irhakah king of Ethiopia (c), " Behold, he is come out to fight against thee:" he nt messengers again unto Hezekiah, sayg, 10. "Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, "Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, "Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria, 11. "Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? 12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar? 13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah ?" 14. And Hezekiah eceived the letter of the hand of the essengers, and read it: and Hezekiah ent up into the house of the LORD, and pread it before the LORD. 15. And to Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and id, "O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. 16. LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God, 17. Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations, and

(c) v. 9. "Ethiopia," or " Cush," in Arabia, 1 Shuckf. 167. Hamm. on 87th Ps. p. 247. I Wall. 261.

(d) v. 25. What is represented as Sennacherib's insult ends at, "I have formed it ;" and then follows God's answer, "Now have I". (i. e. God) "brought it to pass, &c." Thou hast been nothing but an instrument of mine to accomplish my purposes. In Is. x. 5. God calls

"their lands. 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. Now therefore, O LORD

66 our God, I beseech thee, save thou us "out of his hand, that all the kingdoms "of the earth may know that thou art the "LORD God, even thou only." 20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus saith the LORD God of "Israel, That which thou hast prayed to "me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, "I have heard. 21. This is the word that "the LORD hath spoken concerning him, "The virgin, the daughter of Zion hath "despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn, "the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken "her head at thee. 22. Whom hast thou "reproached and blasphemed? and against "whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and "lifted up thine eyes on high? even against "the holy One of Israel. 23. By thy "messengers thou hast reproached the "Lord, and hast said, "With the mul❝titude of my chariots I am come up to "the height of the mountains, to the sides "of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall "cedar-trees thereof, and the choice fir"trees thereof; and I will enter into the "lodgings of his borders, and into the "forest of his Carmel. 24. I have digged, " and drunk strange waters, and with the "sole of my feet have I dried up all the "rivers of besieged places, 25. Hast "thou not heard long ago, how I have "done it, and of ancient times, that I "have formed it (d)? Now have I brought "it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay "waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. "26. Therefore (e) their inhabitants were "of small power, they were dismayed "and confounded, they were as the grass "of the field, and as the green herb, as the

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ແ grass on the house-tops, and as corn "blasted before it be grown up. 27. But "I know thy abode (e), and thy going

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out, and thy coming in, and thy rage "against me (f). 28. Because thy rage "against me, and thy tumult is come up "into mine ears, therefore I will put my "hook (g) in thy nose, and my bridle in "thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the "way by which thou camest." 29. "And "this shall be a sign unto thee (b), Ye shall "eat (i) this year such things as grow of "themselves, and in the second year that "which springeth of the same, and in the "third year sow ye, and reap, and plant "vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. 66 30. And the remnant that is escaped "of the house of Judah, shall yet again. "take root downward, and bear fruit up"ward. 31. For out of Jerusalem shall 66 go forth a remnant, and they (k) that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the "LORD of hosts shall do this. 32. There"fore thus saith the LORD concerning the "king of Assyria, "He shall not come "into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, "nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 33. By the way that " he came, by the same shall he return,

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(h)· v. 29. Thee," i. e. Hezekiah.

(i) v. 29. "Shall eat, &c." i. e. (perhaps) ye shall find what groweth of itself sufficient "for your sustenance both this year and the next, and in the thirdy ear ye shall have full oppor. "tunity to sow, reap, &c." The second year was the sabbatical, or seventh year, which, according to Lev. xxv. 4. was to be "a Sabbath of "rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord;" and the injunction for that year was, "thou

shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy "vineyard."

(k) v. 32. "They that escape," i. e. "some "that shall escape;" the same as a remnant." (?) v. 35. "When they arose," i. e. "at the "timeofrising." This signal deliverance is made the subject of many thanksgivings in the Psalms. (m) v. i. "The King," i. e. "Josiah," son

❝ and shall not come into this city, saith "the LORD. 34. For I will defend this "city to save it, for mine own sake, and "for my servant David's sake." 35. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, an hundred fourscore and five thousand and when they arose (1) early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 36. So Sennache rib king of Assyria departed, and went, and returned, and dwelt at Ninevd 37. And it came to pass as he was we shipping in the house of Nisroch his go that Adrammelech, and Sharezer his sc smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia; an Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

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of Amon, grandson of Manasseh, and gra grandson of Hezekiah.

(n) v. I. "Sent." B. C. 624.

(o) v. 2. "The book of the covenant." it without question, the five books of Moxs They had probably been disregarded during the idolatrous reigns of Manasseh and Amon Manasseh reigned 55 Years, and he did th which was evil in the sight of the Lord, afte the abominations of the heathen, and seduczú the people to do more evil than did the heathe and Amon reigned two years, and walked in the ways of Manasseh. Amongst other minations, Manasseh built up again the b places for idolatrous worship, and reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove (for idolatrous worship) and set up a graven image of the grove in the house of the Lord, and buil altars in the house of the Lord, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and built altars for al the host of heaven, in the two courts of the house of the Lord. See 2 Kings xxi. 3 to 9 The making a grove near the altar of the Lo was expressly forbidden. Deuter. xvi, 21.5 so was worshipping any of the host of heave Deuter. xvii. 2 to 7.

ovenant which was found in the house of ne LORD. 3. And the king stood by illar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to eep his commandments, and his testihonies, and his statutes, with all their eart, and all their soul, to perform the ords of this covenant, that were written this book and all the people stood to the ɔvenant. 4. And the king commanded lilkiah the high priest, and the priests of e second order, and the keepers of the oor, to bring forth out of the temple of le LORD, all the vessels that were made or Baal, and for the grove, and for all the ost of heaven; and he burnt them without erusalem in the fields of Kidron, and cared the ashes of them unto Beth-el. And he put down the idolatrous priests, hom the kings of Judah had ordained to irn incense in the high places in the ties of Judah, and in the places round Dout Jerusalem, them also that burnt innse unto Baal, to the sun, and to the oon, and to the planets, and to all the host heaven. 6. And he brought out the rove (p) from the house of the LORD, ithout Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, nd burnt it at the brook Kidron, and ampt it small to powder, and cast the wder thereof upon the graves of the ildren of the people. 7. And he brake own the houses of the sodomites that were the house of the LORD, where the woen wove hangings for the grove. 8. And e brought all the priests out of the cities Judah, and defiled the high places, where he priests had burnt incense, from Geba to eer-sheba, and brake down the high-places f the gates that were in the entering in of he gate of Joshua the governor of the city,

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which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. 10. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 11. And he took away the horses (q) that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire. 12. And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption (r) which Solomon (s) the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcolm the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 14. And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15. Moreover, the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin (t), had made, both that altar, and the high place he brake down, and burnt the high place, and stampt it small to powder, and burnt the grove. 16. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there

he was old, they turned his heart after other gods, for whom he built high places near Jerusalem and for this sin God divided his kingdom in his son's time, and gave the ten tribes to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 1 Kings xi. 1. 4. 11. Such revolutions may the sins of the great produce!

(t) v. 15. "Made Israel to sin," by setting up two golden calves, as objects of worship, in Dan and Bethel, to prevent the ten tribes from going up to Jerusalem to worship. See 2 Kings xii. 26 to 33. and ante, 2 Kings xiii, 1. note.

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