2 Chronicles 29:8

_WHEREFORE THE WRATH OF THE LORD WAS UPON JUDAH AND JERUSALEM, AND HE HATH DELIVERED THEM TO TROUBLE, TO ASTONISHMENT, AND TO HISSING, AS YE SEE WITH YOUR EYES._ Wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem. This pious king had the discernment to ascribe all the national calamities that had befallen the kingdom to the true cause-namely, apostasy from God. The country had been laid waste by successive wars of invasion, and its resources drained-many families mourned members of their household still suffering the miseries of foreign captivity-all their former prosperity and glory had fled-and to what was this painful and humiliating state of affairs to be traced, but the manifest judgment of God upon the kingdom for its sins?...

1-19 When Hezekiah came to the crown, he applied at once to work reform. Those who begin with God, begin at the right end of their work, and it will prosper accordingly. Those that turn their backs upon God's ordinances, may truly be said to forsake God himself. There are still such neglects, if the word be not duly read and opened, for that was signified by the lighting the lamps, and also if prayers and praise be not offered up, for that was signified by the burning incense. Neglect of God's worship was the cause of the calamities they had lain under. The Lord alone can prepare the heart of man for vital godliness: when much good is done in a little time, the glory must be ascribed to him; and all who love him or the souls of men, will rejoice therein. Let those that do good work, learn to do it well....

Verse 2 Chronicles 29:8. _HE HATH DELIVERED THEM TO TROUBLE, TO ASTONISHMENT_] He probably refers here chiefly to that dreadful defeat by the Israelites in which _a hundred and twenty thousand_ were slain, and _two hundred thousand_ taken prisoners; see the preceding chapter, 2 Chronicles 28:6; 2 Chronicles 28:8....

HE HATH DELIVERED THEM TO ... HISSING - See 1 Kings 9:8 note. It was an expression which Hezekiah might naturally use, for it had occurred in a prophecy of Micah Micah 6:16, his contemporary and monitor Jeremiah 26:18, which was probably uttered toward the close of the reign of Ahaz. In Jeremiah the phrase becomes common (marginal references)....

EXPOSITION The important reign of Hezekiah extends over this and the following three chapters, counting in all ninety-seven verses. The parallel, for the contents of the first three of these chapters, with their sixty-four verses, is limited to the small number of _six_ verses (2 Kings 18:1), which in its turn is very much fuller (2 Kings 18:7.) in the subject of our 2 Chronicles 32:1. The reason of this so various disposition of matter is by no means wrapt in mystery, our writer's main object being clearly best subserved in exhibiting the moral and religious aspects of the inner history of Judah, as distinguished from its foreign politics—so, for brevity's sake, to denominate them. T

WHEREFORE THE WRATH OF THE LORD WAS UPON. JUDAH AND JERUSALEM,.... As appeared, by suffering the Syrians, and Israelites, and Edomites, and Philistines, to come upon them, and distress them, as the history of the preceding chapter shows: AND HE HATH DELIVERED THEM TO TROUBLE, TO ASTONISHMENT, AND TO HISSING, AS YE SEE WITH YOUR EYES; such desolation and destruction were made among them, as not only threw them into a stupor, that they knew not what to do, but were amazing to all their neighbours, and caused them to hiss at them, which they could not but be sensible of....

6. REFORMATION UNDER HEZEKIAH CHAPTER 29 Hezekiah and the Beginning of the Revival _ 1. The record of his reign (2 Chronicles 29:1)_ 2. The purification of the temple (2 Chronicles 29:3) 3. The restored worship (2 Chronicles 29:20) 4. The great offerings (2 Chronicles 29:31) Compare Chapter s 29-32 with 2 Kings 18-20 and the annotations given there. The reformation which took place under the reign of the godly son of ungodly Ahaz was a thorough and remarkable one. He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all his father David had don

WAS. came. TROUBLE. commotion. AS. according as....

_to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing_ R.V. TO BE TOSSED TO AND FRO, TO BE AN ASTONISHMENT, AND AN HISSING. _to trouble_ Better as R.V. mg., TO BE A TERROR (or "cause of trembling"). The judgement on Israel fills the surrounding nations with trembling for themselves. The rendering of R.V. text "tossed to and fro" is inferior because the Heb. word describes "trembling" and not "motion from place to place....

14. THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH (29-32) TEXT 2 Chronicles 29:1. Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah 2. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, and repaired them. 4. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east, 5. and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. 6. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that