DAILY DEVOTION FOR TODAY, Friday March 28, 2014 2 Kings 20:1 ¶ In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Adam Clarkes Commentary: CHAPTER XX Hezekiahs sickness, and the message of the prophet to him, to prepare for death, 1. His distress and prayer to God, 2, 3. The Lord hears, and promises to add fifteen years to his life, and Isaiah prescribes a means of cure, 4-7. Hezekiah seeks a sign; and to assure him of the truth of Gods promise, the shadow on the dial of Ahaz goes back ten degrees, 8-11. The King of Babylon sends a friendly message to Hezekiah, to congratulate him on his recovery; and to these messengers he ostentatiously shows all his treasures, 12, 13. Isaiah reproves him, and foretells that the Babylonians will come and take away all those treasures, and take the people into captivity; and degrade the royal family of Judah, 14-18. Hezekiah bows to the Divine judgment, 19. His acts and death, 20, 21. NOTES ON CHAP. XX Verse 1. Set thine house in order] It appears from the text that he was smitten with such a disorder as must terminate in death, without the miraculous interposition of God: and he is now commanded to set his house in order, or to give charge concerning his house; to dispose of his affairs, or in other words, to make his will; because his death was at hand. This sickness, says Jarchi, took place three days before the defeat of Sennacherib. That it must have been before this defeat, is evident. Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years, 2Ki 18:2. He had reigned fourteen years when the war with Sennacherib began, 2Ki 18:13, and he reigned fifteen years after this sickness, 2Ki 20:6; therefore 14+15=29, the term of his reign. Nothing can be clearer than this, that Hezekiah had reigned fourteen years before this time; and that he did live the fifteen years here promised. That Hezekiahs sickness happened before the destruction of Sennacheribs army, is asserted by the text itself: see 2Ki 20:6. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now 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. Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 3. I beseech thee, O Lord] Hezekiah knew that, although the words of Isaiah were delivered to him in an absolute form, yet they were to be conditionally understood, else he could not have prayed to God to reverse a purpose which he knew to be irrevocable. Even this passage is a key to many prophecies and Divine declarations: see chap. 18 of Jeremiah. Hezekiah pleads his uprightness and holy conduct in his own behalf. Was it impious to do so? No; but it certainly did not savour much either of humility or of a due sense of his own weakness. If he had a perfect heart, who made it such?-God. If he did good in Gods sights who enabled him to do so?-God. Could he therefore plead in his behalf dispositions and actions which he could neither have felt nor practiced but by the power of the grace of God? I trow not. But the times of this ignorance God winked at. The Gospel teaches us a different lesson. Wept sore.] How clouded must his prospects of another world have been! But it is said that, as he saw the nation in danger from the Assyrian army, which was then invading it, and threatened to destroy the religion of the true God, he was greatly affected at the news of his death, as he wished to live to see the enemies of God overthrown. And therefore God promises that he will deliver the city out of the hands of the king of Assyria, at the same time that he promises him a respite of fifteen years, 2Ki 20:6. His lamentation on this occasion may be seen in Isaiah, Isa 38:9-22. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 4. Into the middle court] ruh hatstser, the court. This is the reading of the Masoretic Keri: ryeh haair, of the city, is the reading of the text, and of most MSS.; but the versions follow the Keri. 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant Davids sake. Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 6. I will add unto thy days fifteen years] This is the first and only man who was ever informed of the term of his life. And was this a privilege! Surely no. If Hezekiah was attached to life, as he appears to have been, how must his mind be affected to mark the sinking years! He knew he was to die at the end of fifteen years; and how must he feel at the end of every year, when he saw that so much was cut off from life? He must necessarily feel a thousand deaths in fearing one. I believe there would be nothing wanting to complete the misery of men, except the place of torment, were they informed of the precise time in which their lives must terminate. God, in his abundant mercy, has hidden this from their eyes. 7 And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 7. Take a lump of figs-and laid it on the boil] We cannot exactly say in what Hezekiahs malady consisted. Nyxv shechin signifies any inflammatory tumour, boil, abscess, &c. The versions translate it sore, wound, and such like. Some think it was a pleurisy; others, that it was the plague; others, the elephantiasis; and others, that it was a quinsey. A poultice of figs might be very proper to maturate a boil, or to discuss any obstinate inflammatory swelling. This Pliny remarks, Omnibus quae maturanda ant discutienda sunt imponuntur. But we cannot pronounce on the propriety of the application, unless we were certain of the nature of the malady. This, however was the natural means which God chose to bless to the recovery of Hezekiahs health; and without this interposition he must have died. 8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day? Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 8. What shall be the sign] He wished to be fully convinced that his cure was to be entirely supernatural; and, in order to this, he seeks one miracle to prove the truth of the other, that nothing might remain equivocal. 9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 2Ki 20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. Adam Clarkes Commentary: Verse 11. He brought the shadow ten degrees backward] We cannot suppose that these ten degrees meant ten hours; there were ten divisions of time on this dial: and perhaps it would not be right to suppose that the sun went ten degrees back in the heavens, or that the earth turned back upon its axis from east to west, in a contrary direction to its natural course. But the miracle might be effected by means of refraction, for a ray of light we know can be varied or refracted from a right line by passing through a dense medium; and we know also, by means of the refracting power of the atmosphere, the sun, when near rising and setting, seems to be higher above the horizon than he really is, and, by horizontal refraction, we find that the sun appears above the horizon when he is actually below it, and literally out of sight: therefore, by using dense clouds or vapours, the rays of light in that place might be refracted from their direct course ten, or any other number of degrees; so that the miracle might have been wrought by occasioning this extraordinary refraction, rather than by disturbing the course of the earth, or any other of the celestial bodies. The dial of Ahaz.] See ACC for 2Ki 9:13, and the observations and diagram at the end of this chapter. See ACC for 2Ki 20:20.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 10:54:21 +0000
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