Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places ,.... For the sense of this and the three following verses, see the notes on Isaiah 36:17 ; see Gill on Isaiah 36:18 , Isaiah 36:19 , Isaiah 36:20 read more
And his servants spake yet more against the Lord God, and against his servant Hezekiah. Than what is here recorded, as may be read in 2 Kings 18:1 , and Isaiah 36:1 . read more
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, of it on the one hand, and the larger or lesser bulk of it on the other. Trustfulness is a sure turning-point—a determining feature in the original shaping and in the growing formation of any character. The direction in which that trustfulness goes... read more
The invasion of Sennacherib: 1. A summons to surrender. I. SENNACHERIB 'S ENCAMPMENT AT LACHISH . Fifteen or eighteen hours west-south-west of Jerusalem, in the low country of Judah, on the confines of Philistia, fourteen miles north-east of Gaza, Lachish (see on 2 Chronicles 11:9 ; 2 Chronicles 25:27 )—on the monuments Lakis— according to a slab in the British Museum, was a walled town with towers and battlements, whose power of resistance was so great as to demand a... read more
Sennacherib and Hezekiah: abasement and exaltation. We have here brought out in very vivid contrast— I. THE HISTORY OF THE HAUGHTY . 1 . Appearances are all on its side. It has apparently overwhelming numbers, superior military training and equipments, the prestige of previous success and acknowledged worldly power. 2 . It is honeycombed with spiritual evil. It is (3) pride, and its accompanying vain-gloriousness ( 2 Chronicles 32:13-15 ); 3 . It draws... read more
The urgency of Sennacherib's appeal to the people was of course his way of trying to save work of actual siege, fighting, etc; to himself and his army. The how much less of the message of Sennacherib probably meant that his estimate of the your God i.e. the God of Israel, was measured partly by the comparative smallness and unwarlike character of the nation of Judah, when set side by side with the great heathen nations, and partly by the spiritual and invisible character and being of... read more
And his servants spoke yet more. A glimpse of the fact that the compiler of our book very designedly excerpted only what he thought needful from very much more abundant resources. read more
The invasion of Sennacherib: 2. The great deliverance. I. SENNACHERIB AND HIS GENERALS . Their renewed efforts to take the city. 1 . The letter of Sennacherib to Hezekiah. ( 2 Chronicles 32:17 .) The tartan with his assistants having failed to either storm Jerusalem or intimidate its inhabitants, returned, or more probably despatched, Rabshakeh to his master for further instructions. Sennacherib was now at Libnah, a few miles nearer Jerusalem than Lachish, which in the... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Chronicles 32:9-23
This story of the rage and blasphemy of Sennacherib, Hezekiah's prayer, and the deliverance of Jerusalem by the destruction of the Assyrian army, we had more at large in the book of Kings, 2 Kgs. 18:1-19:37 It is contracted here, yet large enough to show these three things:? I. The impiety and malice of the church's enemies. Sennacherib has his hands full in besieging Lachish (2 Chron. 32:9), but hears that Hezekiah is fortifying Jerusalem and encouraging his people to stand it out; and... read more