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Jehovah, his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.*

Hezekiah being afflicted with a sore diseaset which threatened death, the prophet Isaiah came to him, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah, saying, I beseech thee, O Jehovah, 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. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of Jehovah came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith Jehovah, 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 Jehovah. 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 David's sake. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Jehovah will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of Jehovah the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of Jehovah, that Jehovah will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 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. And Isaiah, the

* 2 Chron. xxxi. 2—21.

In placing the sickness of Hezekiah, and the embassy from Babylon, prior to the invasion of Sennacherib, I follow Prideaux, A. Clarke, Whiston, and, I believe, almost all the chronologers.

prophet, cried unto Jehovah: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.* And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.†

Upon this occasion Isaiah has recorded the following writing or reflections of Hezekiah upon his recovery: I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see Jehovah, even Jehovah, in the land of the living. I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Jehovah, I am oppressed: undertake for me. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years, in the bitterness of my soul. O Jehovah, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou

A. Clarke supposes this miracle was produced by the power of refraction; and at the end of 2 Kings, xx. subjoins a luminous dissertation upon the subject, and gives the form of such a dial as he supposes would produce the effect related. But Dr. Wall on this passage, and on Isaiah, xxxviii. 8, contends that the word dial is not in the text, but should be rendered stairs. See also Burder, O. C. 431. Whiston, ii. 50.

2 Kings, xx. 1-11. 2 Chron. xxxii. 24. Isaiah, xxxviii. 1-8,

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behind thy back. For the grave cannot cannot celebrate thee: they that go down not hope for thy truth. The living, the all praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the haxhall make known thy truth. Jehovah was ready to therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed ents all the days of our life, in the house of Jehovah.* Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit A unto him; for his heart was lifted up therefore there Wwrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.† For Borodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, having heard of his sickness, and of the great miracle‡ which

Isaiah, xxxviii. 9-20.

+ 2 Chron. xxxii. 25.

Isaiah calls the Babylonish monarch Merodach-baladan, xxxix. 1. See Patrick's Note on 2 Kings, xx. 11. This miracle had evidently been noticed in Chaldea, so famous for astronomical observations, and which was manifestly the cause of the embassy; the object of which was " to enquire of the wonder which was done in the land." 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. And it had also been observed in Egypt, another cradle of the sciences of the universe. "They said indeed that, in those days, the sun had four times altered his regular course, having been twice observed to rise where he now sets, and to go down twice where he now rises; yet without producing any visible change, either by sea or land, by diseases or mortality." Herod. Euterpe. "The king of Babylon, on finding Hezekiah so highly honoured by the sun, thought it incumbent upon him to send ambassadors, with letters and a present, to such a favourite of the god of the Babylonians. Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and sought craftily to avail himself of this false notion of the king of Babylon; and by not affronting their god, he hoped to gain a safe protection against the king of Assyria. Isaiah was ordered to acquaint him, that as he preferred an arm of flesh to his Almighty Deliverer, he should experience the sad effect of his folly in not honouring God, and all that he had so vainly shewed should be carried to Babylon. Hezekiah ought to have testified to the ambassadors, that Jehovah, the God of Israel, had

had been performed, sent letters and a present to him, and to enquire of the wonder which had been done in the land.*

The great searcher of hearts discovering what was probably wholly unknown to all human observers, and perhaps even to this good-prince himself, left him to himself to try him, in order that he might know all that was in his heart.† Hezekiah, therefore, hearkened unto the Babylonish ambassadors, and shewed them all the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah, the prophet, unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon. And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have

stopped the sun in its progress. He had here a fair opportunity of shewing them and their king the vanity of their idolatry in worshipping the sun, evidently under the direction of a superior being. He ought also to have given God all the glory in this matter, and have rested on him and him alone, for safety, who had just then given him such a striking proof of his power and favour. Worldly wisdom is arrant folly; and when set in opposition to the will of God, will be sure to disappoint us. Even the noblest instance of wisdom and love God ever showed, in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ, if not accepted, with humility and simplicity, in God's own way by faith, will not have its blessed effect. Wordly wisdom ensnared Hezekiah; and carnal wisdom, ever attended with loftiness of heart, is daily destroying its thousands." BOGATZKY. July xx. Morning.

* 2 Chron. xxxii. 81. 2 Kings, xx. 12. Isaiah, xxxix. 1.

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not showed them. And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of Jehovah; Behold the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon; nothing shall be left saith Jehovah.* And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be ennuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of Jehovah which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if and truth be in my days?† Hezekiah, however, having peace humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.‡

It came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, that Sennacherib,§ king of Assyria, came and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced 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 did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying; Why should the kings of Assyria and find much water? Also he strengthened himself, come, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo, in the city of David; and made darts and shields in abundance.

• This was an exact prophecy of the Babylonish captivity, and which was as exactly fufilled near a hundred years after, in the reign of Zedekiah. 2 Kings, xxv. 2 Chron. xxxvi. Dan. i. 2. + 2 Kings, xx. 13-19. Isaiah, xxxix. 2-8.

2 Chron. xxxii. 26.

Or Sargon. Isaiah, xx. 1.

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