Charles Spurgeon Commentary 2 Kings 20:3

"Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore." — 2 Kings 20:3 (ASV)

I do not think this was intended to be a self-righteous prayer, though it reads like one, or else the Lord would not have heard it.

He meant to say, "Lord, you have been good enough to make me what I am; be pleased to spare me."

In fact, the probability is that at this time Sennacherib had not been routed, and Hezekiah could not bear to die while the nation was in danger. Certainly, there was no son born to Hezekiah at this time, for Manasseh was only twelve years old when he began to reign at his father's death, and Hezekiah thought it would be a sad thing to leave a troubled kingdom without a prince to be his successor. It may be, too, that seeing he had just commenced the reformation and the casting down of the false gods, he trembled for the cause of God and could not bear to be so soon taken away.

"Hezekiah wept sore." Ah! These are the things that prevail with God, these tears of his people.

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near."