Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/386

321 an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. Thus the saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side. And many brought gifts unto the to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth. In those days Hezekiah was sick even unto death: and he prayed unto the ; and he spake unto him, and

21. all the mighty men] In number 185,000 according to 2 Kin. xix. 35 and Is. xxxvii. 36. The agency was probably the plague, which is pictured as a destroying angel in 2 Sam. xxiv. 16.

And when he was come] The murder of Sennacherib did not occur till some 20 years after his Judean expedition (circ. 701 ), i.e. not till 681

they that came forth] The Chronicler no doubt follows Is. xxxvii. 38, "Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him"; but the accuracy of the present text of this passage of Isaiah is doubtful, for in the parallel passage (2 Kin. xix. 37, Kethīb) the words his sons are missing. The only notice of Sennacherib's death known to us at present from the inscriptions reads "Sennacherib king of Assyria was slain by his son (sing.) in a revolt." No name is given to this son. (Driver in Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, p. 109.)

22. guided them on every side] Read, as the LXX., gave them rest on every side; cp. xx. 30.

23. brought gifts] Cp. Ps. lxviii. 29; Is. xviii. 7; Hag. ii. 7, 8.

24—33 (cp. 2 Kin. xx.; Is. xxxviii., xxxix.).&emsp;

24. Remark that this single verse epitomises 2 Kin. xx. 1—11.

In those days] The phrase is taken over from 2 Kin. xx. 1, and it cannot be determined what date is intended, though we may conclude from 2 Kin. xx. 6 that it was a time at which the Assyrian danger was not yet past, and that it was about the fourteenth year of Hezekiah (cp. Barnes on 2 Kin. xx. 1).

he spake] The Heb. word means, in certain connections, "to promise," and the idea of "promise" is present here, the sense being "God made