2 Chronicles 32:20
In response, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out to heaven in prayer,
Sermons
Fire UpwardsMiss Trotter.2 Chronicles 32:20
True PrayerAlex. Maclaren, D.D.2 Chronicles 32:20
Sennacherib and Hezekiah: Abasement and ExaltationW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 32:9-23
The Invasion of Sennacherib: 2. the Great DeliveranceT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 32:16-23














I. SENNACHERIB AND HIS GENERALS. Their renewed efforts to take the city.

1. The letter of Sennacherib to Hezekiah. (Ver. 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 interval had capitulated. Learning that the King of Egypt was on the way north to give him battle, he sent back Rabshakeh, accompanied, by special messengers, bearing a letter to Hezekiah to expedite the taking of the city. The letter when received was read by Hezekiah with indignation and alarm. It contained a repetition with emphasis of what had been uttered by Rabshakeh in the hearing of the king's envoys and of the inhabitants of the city. Of course, the mere reassertion of Rabshakeh's boastings, though in the form of a letter from Sennacherib himself. did not make them the less false, insolent, or blasphemous.

2. The railings of Sennacherib's generals. As before by Rabshakeh, so a second time by the generals and perhaps also the messengers (ver. 18). To the people on the town wall in their own tongue were addressed words meant to terrify and persuade to capitulation - loud, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous reproaches against Jehovah. putting him on a level with idols, the works of men's hands, and declaring him to be as powerless as these (ver. 19), little dreaming they were so soon and so completely to be undeceived (ver. 21). So men often hug to their bosoms the false ideas they have formed of the Christian's God, without thinking that in a moment, by being admitted through death's portal into his presence, they may be proved to have been deceived.

II. HEZEKIAH AND HIS PROPHET. Their supplications to the God of heaven (ver. 20).

1. The prayer of Hezekiah. Recorded in 2 Kings 19:14-19 and Isaiah 37:15-19.

(1) Where offered. "In the house of the Lord." Having read the Assyrian's letter, Hezekiah repaired to the temple and spread it before the Lord; in which act lay a double propriety - Jehovah having invited his people to call upon him in the day of trouble (Psalm 1:15), and promised to deliver them (Psalm 91:15); and Jehovah being the One most insulted by Sennacherib's reproaches.

(2) To whom addressed. To Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, whose presence was with his people, who alone governed the nations, and was supreme Creator of heaven and earth (cf. Jehoshaphat's prayer, 2 Chronicles 20:6-12).

(3) In what terms couched. Earnest, reverential, direct, and hopeful. Requesting a favourable audience for his intercession, he first called God to see and hear the reproaches of Sennacherib, next acknowledged the truth of Sennacherib's language concerning the gods of the nations he destroyed, and finally besought God to show that he alone was God, by saving them out of the King of Assyria's hand.

(4) With what result followed. It was answered by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, who, speaking in God's name, assured him that "Sennacherib should not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it, but should return by the way that he came, and should not come into the city" (2 Kings 19:32, 33; Isaiah 37:33, 34).

2. The prayer of Isaiah. Though not recorded by the writer of 2 Kings that Isaiah prayed along with or in addition to Hezekiah, the fact mentioned that, on Rabshakeh's first approach, Hezekiah requested Isaiah to "lift up his prayer" on their behalf (2 Kings 19:4), renders it probable that on this occasion also he joined the king in crying unto Heaven.

III. JEHOVAH AND HIS ANGEL. Their interposition on behalf of Judah and Jerusalem (vers. 21, 22).

1. The destruction of Sennacherib's army.

(1) Where? "In the camp of the King of Assyria;" most probably in that of the tartan lying before Jerusalem (Delitzsch), though it may have been in that of Sennacherib's army. According to Herodotus (2. 141), the disaster occurred at Pelusium, whither Sennacherib, "King of the Arabians and Assyrians," had marched with a great host on his way to Egypt. If so (Ewald, Cheyne, and others), then Sennacherib must have broken up his camp at Libnah, and moved south to intercept Tirhakah (cf. Driver, 'Isaiah: his Life and Times,' pp. 81, 82).

(2) When? "That night" (2 Kings 19:35); but Whether the night after Hezekiah's prayer (Rawlinson, Bahr)is uncertain. Hardly, if Pelusium was the scene of the overthrow; possibly, if the Assyrian camp still remained at Libnah (Keil). That the night was that in which Sennacherib, in the following year, sat down to besiege Jerusalem with his own army (Keil, Delitzsch) does not seem likely.

(3) How? By an angel - the angel of the Lord (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36). Whether the blow was supernatural or natural cannot be determined from the language of Scripture. The destruction of the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12:29) and the diminution of David's army (2 Samuel 24:15, 16) were both accomplished by the angel of the Lord; yet the former only appear to have been suddenly smitten, while the latter were cut off by pestilence. Herodotus's notion, that the bow-strings, and shield-straps of Sennacherib's soldiers were gnawed through during the night by innumerable field-mice, favours the pestilence-theory - among the Egyptians the mouse having been the hieroglyph of devastation by pestilence (J. D. Michaelis).

(4) To what extent? To the cutting off of "all the mighty men of valour," with "the leaders and the captains"? (ver. 21); in all, 185,000 (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:86).

(5) With what effect? The return of Sennacherib to Assyria with shame of face, because of having failed to effect the object of his expedition. Whether the fleeing Assyrians were pursued by the liberated Judahites (Ewald) is not stated by the Chronicler, and is only a doubtful inference from Psalm 46:7, 8; Psalm 76:3,

5. That the Assyrian monuments have preserved no record of Sennacherib's humiliation is not surprising. The Egyptian monuments of the nineteenth dynasty contain no memorial of Menephtah's overthrow in the Red Sea. Nations, like individuals, do not publish their misfortunes) least of all perpetuate the remembrance of their defeats.

2. The assassination of Sennacherib himself. The usual end of kings in Assyria (Sargon, and probably Shalmaneser II. and Assurnirari), no less than in Israel and Judah. "Within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps death his court," etc. ('Richard II.,' act 3. sc. 2).

(1) Where Sennacherib was murdered. "In his own land," in "the house of his god" (ver. 21); i.e. in Nineveh, in the house of Nisroch his god (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 36:37) - a divinity not yet identified in the Assyrian pantheon.

(2) When? Not immediately on returning to Nineveh, since, according to the inscriptions, he lived twenty years after the Egyptian and Jewish expedition, and undertook five more campaigns in other parts of his empire.

(3) By whom? "They that came forth of his own bowels" - "Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons" (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 36:38); the former in Assyrian Adar-malik, "Adar is prince," also the name of an Assyrian god (2 Kings 17:31); and the latter in Assyrian Sar-usur, a shortened form of an Assyrian word, of which the first part was probably Assur, Bil, or Nergal, meaning "Assur (Bel or Nergal) protect the king" (Schrader, p. 329). Nergal-sarezer occurs as a proper name in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39:3, 13). This may have been the full designation of Sennacherib's son (Alexander on 'Isaiah,' 2:74; Cheyne, 'The Prophecies of Isaiah,' 1:225).

IV. THE PEOPLES AND THEIR PRESENTS. The effect produced by this deliverance on surrounding nations.

1. Gifts unto Jehovah. Brought not by Judahites alone, but by the inhabitants of nations who had been delivered from the Assyrians' yoke, and were designed as a grateful recognition of Jehovah's hand in effecting their emancipation. No benefactor more deserving of man's thanks than God (Psalm 139:17, 18); no duty more frequently urged upon men than gratitude to the Supreme Giver (Psalm 50:14; Psalm 100:4; Psalm 107:1; Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18); yet no bestower of good receives less thanks than he.

2. Precious things to Hezekiah. As the Philistines and Arabians had brought presents to Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:10), so now the inhabitants of heathen countries, among whom may have been the Babylonians - though ver. 31; 2 Kings 20:12; and Isaiah 39:1 refer not to this (see below) - sent gifts to Hezekiah in recognition of his greatness, as attested by the Divine deliverance wrought on his behalf. Learn:

1. The heinousness of scoffing at religion.

2. The impotence of human rage against God (Psalm 2:1-5).

3. The superiority of the true God over all divinities worshipped by the heathen (Psalm 115:3, 4).

4. The efficacy of prayer (James 5:16).

5. The advantage of social supplication (Matthew 18:19).

6. The command of God over the resources of nature (Numbers 11:23).

7. The ability of God to save his people out of any sort of peril (1 Corinthians 10:13).

8. The sad fate of the ungodly (Psalm 75:8, 10).

9. The indebtedness of the world to the Church's God. - W.

Prayed and cried to heaven.
True prayer is not pestering the Throne with passionate entreaties that a certain method of deliverance which seems best to us, should be forthwith effected; but is a calm utterance of need, and a patient, submissive expectance of fitting help, of which we dare not define the manner or the time. They are wisest, most trustful and reverent, who do not seek to impose their notions or wills on the clearer wisdom and deeper love to which they betake themselves, but are satisfied with leaving all to His arbitrament. True prayer is the bending of our own wills to the Divine, not the urging of ours on it. When Hezekiah received the insolent letter from the invader, he took it and "spread it before the Lord," asking God to read it, leaving all else to Him to determine: as if he had said, "Behold, Lord, this boastful page. I bring it to Thee, and now it is Thine affair more than mine." The burden which we roll on God lies lightly on our own shoulders; and if we do roll it thither, we need not trouble ourselves with the question of how He will deal with it.

(Alex. Maclaren, D.D.)

A story of the wars of the first Napoleon has often come back to me. He was trying in a winter campaign to cut off the march of the enemy across a frozen lake. The gunners were told to fire on the ice and break it, but the cannon balls glanced harmlessly along the surface. With one of the sudden flashes of genius he gave the word, "Fire upwards!" and the balls crashed down full weight, shattering the whole sheet into fragments, and the day was won. You can fire upwards in this battle even if you are shut out from fighting it face to face. You can do your share within the four walls of your room.

(Miss Trotter.)

People
Amoz, David, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Manasseh, Sennacherib
Places
Assyria, Babylon, Gihon, Jerusalem, Lachish, Millo
Topics
Amoz, Cause, Cried, Cry, Crying, Heaven, Heavens, Hezekiah, Hezeki'ah, Isaiah, Prayed, Prayer, Prayeth, Prophet
Outline
1. Sennacherib invading Judah, Hezekiah fortifies himself, and encourages his people
9. Hezekiah and Isaiah pray against the blasphemies of Sennarchib
21. An angel destroys the host of the Assyrians
24. Hezekiah praying in his sickness, God gives him a sign of recovery
25. His proud heart is humbled by God
27. His wealth and works
31. His error in the ambassage of Babylon
32. He dying, Manasseh succeeds him

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 32:20

     5292   defence, divine
     7773   prophets, role
     8031   trust, importance

2 Chronicles 32:1-22

     5305   empires

2 Chronicles 32:13-22

     5937   rivalry

Library
A Strange Reward for Faithfulness
After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came.'--2 CHRON. XXXII. 1. The Revised Version gives a much more accurate and significant rendering of a part of these words. It reads: 'After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came.' What are 'these things' and 'this faithfulness'? The former are the whole of the events connected with the religious reformation in Judah, which King Hezekiah inaugurated and carried through so brilliantly
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo.
Mount Sion did not thrust itself so far eastward as mount Acra: and hence it is, that mount Moriah is said, by Josephus, to be "situate over-against Acra," rather than over-against the Upper City: for, describing Acra thus, which we produced before, "There is another hill, called Acra, which bears the Lower City upon it, steep on both sides": in the next words he subjoins this, "Over-against this was a third hill," speaking of Moriah. The same author thus describes the burning of the Lower City:
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Power of Assyria at Its Zenith; Esarhaddon and Assur-Bani-Pal
The Medes and Cimmerians: Lydia--The conquest of Egypt, of Arabia, and of Elam. As we have already seen, Sennacherib reigned for eight years after his triumph; eight years of tranquillity at home, and of peace with all his neighbours abroad. If we examine the contemporary monuments or the documents of a later period, and attempt to glean from them some details concerning the close of his career, we find that there is a complete absence of any record of national movement on the part of either Elam,
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

Temporal Advantages.
"We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."--1 Tim. vi. 7, 8. Every age has its own special sins and temptations. Impatience with their lot, murmuring, grudging, unthankfulness, discontent, are sins common to men at all times, but I suppose one of those sins which belongs to our age more than to another, is desire of a greater portion of worldly goods than God has given us,--ambition and covetousness
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Gihon, the Same with the Fountain of Siloam.
I. In 1 Kings 1:33,38, that which is, in the Hebrew, "Bring ye Solomon to Gihon: and they brought him to Gihon"; is rendered by the Chaldee, "Bring ye him to Siloam: and they brought him to Siloam." Where Kimchi thus; "Gihon is Siloam, and it is called by a double name. And David commanded, that they should anoint Solomon at Gihon for a good omen, to wit, that, as the waters of the fountain are everlasting, so might his kingdom be." So also the Jerusalem writers; "They do not anoint the king, but
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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