2 Kings 20:3

_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._ Remember ... how I have walked ... The course of Hezekiah's thoughts was evidently directed to the promise made to David and his successors on the throne (1 Kings 8:25). He had kept the conditions as faithfully as human infirmity admitted; and as he had been all along free from any of those great crimes by which through the judgment of God, human life was often suddenly cut short, his great grief might arise partly from the love of life, and the promise of long life and temporal prosperity made to the pious and godly, which would not be fulfilled to him if be were cut off in the midst of his days; partly from the obscurity of the Mosaic dispensation, where life and immortality had not been fully brough

1-11 Hezekiah was sick unto death, in the same year in which the king of Assyria besieged Jerusalem. A warning to prepare for death was brought to Hezekiah by Isaiah. Prayer is one of the best preparations for death, because by it we fetch in strength and grace from God, to enable us to finish well. He wept sorely: some gather from hence that he was unwilling to die; it is in the nature of man to dread the separation of soul and body. There was also something peculiar in Hezekiah's case; he was now in the midst of his usefulness. Let Hezekiah's prayer, see 2 Kings 20:38. interpret his tears; in that is nothing which is like his having been under that fear of death, which has bondage or torment. Hezekiah's piety made his sick-bed easy. "O Lord, remember now;" he does not speak as if God needed to be put in mind of any thing by us; nor, as if the reward might be demanded as due; it is Chr...

Verse 2 Kings 20:3. _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 18. 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 God's sights who enabled him to do so?-God. Could he therefore plead in his behalf dispositions and actions which he

REMEMBER NOW - The old covenant promised temporal prosperity, including length of days, to the righteous. Hezekiah, conscious of his faithfulness and integrity 2 Kings 18:3, ventures to expostulate (compare also 2 Kings 21:1 note). According to the highest standard of morality revealed up to this time, there was nothing unseemly in the self vindication of the monarch, which has many parallels in the Psalms of David (Psalms 7:3; Psalms 18:19; Psalms 26:1, etc.)....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 20:1 ILLNESS OF HEZEKIAH AND EMBASSY OF MERODACH-BALADAN. HEZEKIAH'S DEATH. The writer proceeds to relate an illness and a recovery of Hezekiah, which happened about the middle of his reign, probably in B.C. 713, and which was accompanied by strange, if not miraculous, circumstances (2 Kings 20:1). Hezekiah's recovery was followed by an embassy of congratulation from Merodach-Baladan, King of Babylon, which led Hezekiah into an act of folly, and brought upon him the rebuke of Isaiah (verses 12-19). The narrative terminates with a notice of some of Hezekiah's great works, and of h

Ver. 3 2 Kings 20:1...

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._ That is to say, in the common course of providence, without a miracle, Hezekiah must have died. God did by no means change when afterwards he permitted him to live. This time he spoke after the order of nature; the next time he spoke according to the extraordinary work of his marvelous power. 2 Kings 20:2. _Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,_ What did he do that for? Well, as he could not rise from his bed through weakness he gets the greatest privacy he can, and the God who accepted Carmel as Elijah's prayer-shrine, would

3. HEZEKIAH'S ILLNESS, RECOVERY, FAILURE, AND DEATH CHAPTER 20 _ 1. Hezekiah's illness and recovery (2 Kings 20:1; 2 Chronicles 32:24)_ 2. Hezekiah's failure (2 Kings 20:12; 2 Chronicles 32:25) 3. The death of Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:32) Hezekiah's sickness must have occurred about the second invasion of the Assyrian. Then the prophet Isaiah delivered to him the m

SICKNESS OF HEZEKIAH. This is related in the parallel passage, Isaiah 38, in a much abbreviated form, save that it adds the prayer of Hezekiah after his recovery. Isaiah 38 omits 2 Kings 20:4 (Isaiah being recalled afore he was gone out of the middle court (_mg._) of the palace, 2 Kings 20:5_ b_ (promising that Hezekiah shall go up to the Temple on the third day), 2 Kings 20:8 (Hezekiah's request for a sign), 2 Kings 20:9_ a_ (the alternative sign, Hezekiah's choice, and Isaiah's crying to Yahweh). 11. THE DIAL OF AHAZ: Heb. the steps (_mg.)._ Probably the shadow on certain steps indicated the hours of the

WALKED. walked to and fro: i.e. habitually walked. A PERFECT. whole, or undivided. WEPT SORE. Hebrew "wept with. great weeping". wept bitterly. Figure of speech _Polyptoton._ App-6. See note on Genesis 26:28....