Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 32
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Chronicles 32
Charles Ellicott Commentary
2 Chronicles 32
"After these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself." — 2 Chronicles 32:1 (ASV)
After these things, and their establishment. —Rather, After these matters, and this faithfulness (2 Chronicles 31:20). For the date, see Note on 2 Kings 18:13.
Sennacherib. —So the Vulgate. The Septuagint gives Σενναχηριμ or είμ; Herodotus, Σαναχάριβος; Josephus, Σενναχήριβος. The Hebrew is S an c hçrib. The real name as given by the Assyrian monuments is Sin-ahi-iriba, or erba (“Sin,” i.e., the moon-god, “multiplied brothers”).
And thought to win them for himself. —Literally, and said to himself that he would break them open (2 Chronicles 21:17), or and commanded to break them open for himself.
Kings states that he fulfilled his purpose; he came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. Sennacherib himself boasts as follows: “And Hazakiyahu of the country of the Jews who had not submitted to my yoke, forty-six strong cities of his, fortresses, and the small cities of their neighbourhood, which were without number ... I approached, I took.” The chronicler’s object is to relate the mighty deliverance of Hezekiah.
Hence he omits such details as would weaken the impression he desires to produce. For the same reason nothing is said here of Hezekiah’s submission and payment of tribute (2 Kings 18:14–16); and perhaps for the further reason (as suggested by Keil) that “these negotiations had no influence on the subsequent course and issue of the war,” but not because (as Thenius alleges) the chronicler was unwilling to mention Hezekiah’s (forced) sacrilege. They are omitted also in Isaiah, where the account is in other respects abridged as compared with Kings.
"After these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city; and they helped him. So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water? And he took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised [it] up to the towers, and the other wall without, and strengthened Millo [in] the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying, Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Jehovah our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide the siege in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah persuade you, to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God will deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and upon it shall ye burn incense? Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any wise able to deliver their land out of my hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you after this manner, neither believe ye him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand? And his servants spake yet more against Jehovah God, and against his servant Hezekiah. He wrote also letters, to rail on Jehovah, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of my hand. And they cried with a loud voice in the Jews` language unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city. And they spake of the God of Jerusalem, as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men`s hands. And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven. And Jehovah sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, 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 from his own bowels slew him there with the sword. Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all [others], and guided them on every side. And many brought gifts unto Jehovah to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth." — 2 Chronicles 32:1-23 (ASV)
Invasion and Divine overthrow of Sennacherib. (Compare to 2 Kings 18:13–19:37.) The Assyrian monarch’s own record of the campaign may be read on his great hexagonal prism of terra-cotta, preserved in the British Museum, containing an inscription in 487 lines of cuneiform writing, which is lithographed in the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, III. 38, 39, and printed in G. Smith’s History of Sennacherib.
"And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem," — 2 Chronicles 32:2 (ASV)
And that he was purposed to fight. —Literally, and his face was for the war. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 20:3; Luke 9:53.)
To stop. — To close in with masonry, so as to conceal. (But compare to 2 Kings 3:19; 2 Kings 3:25.) Septuagint, ἐμφράξαι τά ὕδατα.
They did help him. —By gathering much people together (2 Chronicles 32:4).
"And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city; and they helped him. So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water? And he took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised [it] up to the towers, and the other wall without, and strengthened Millo [in] the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying, Be strong and of good courage, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Jehovah our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah." — 2 Chronicles 32:2-8 (ASV)
PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE (2 Chronicles 32:2–8).
This section is peculiar to the Chronicles. Its contents are “perfectly credible” (Thenius), and are borne out by Isaiah 22:8-11, and 2 Kings 20:20, and by the inscription of Sennacherib.
"So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?" — 2 Chronicles 32:4 (ASV)
The fountains. — Ma‘yânôth. 2 Chronicles 32:3 has “springs” (‘ayânôth).
The brook. — Nàchal. “The wâdy.” The Gihon is meant, a watercourse in the Valley of Hinnom, supplied with water by the springs which Hezekiah closed in and diverted. See Note on 2 Chronicles 32:30, and 2 Kings 20:20. Compare to Sirach 48:17, “Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought into their midst the Gog” (Septuagint, Vatican manuscript), or, “into its midst water” (Septuagint, Alexandrian manuscript).
That ran. — That was flowing over (Isaiah 30:28; Isaiah 8:8). The overflow of the springs formed the stream.
The kings of Assyria. — A vague rhetorical plural, as in 2 Chronicles 28:16.
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