Synopsis of the Chapter
Hezekiah reigns, overthrows the idols, rebels against king Sennacherib, who in verse 17 sends Rabshakeh. The latter blasphemes God, insults Hezekiah, and persuades the Jews to surrender to Sennacherib.
Verse 2: He Was Twenty-Five Years Old When He Began to Reign ¶
2. HE WAS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OLD WHEN HE BEGAN TO REIGN. You will say: From the preceding chapter it is clear that Ahaz lived only thirty-six years; therefore Ahaz begot Hezekiah at the age of eleven: for when he himself died at the age of thirty-six, Hezekiah succeeding him was twenty-five years old; take 25 from 36, and eleven years remain. Cajetan, Sanchez, and St. Jerome admit this consequence, in epistle 132 to Vitalis, where he proves with many examples that this can happen. Abulensis however thinks Ahaz was fourteen years old when he begot Hezekiah; because, he says, his incomplete years are not mentioned in Scripture. For Ahaz, says Abulensis, when he began to reign, was twenty years old, that is, of completed years, plus one incomplete year which Scripture does not count. Again he reigned sixteen years, namely completed, plus an incomplete seventeenth: therefore he died at the age of thirty-eight. Hezekiah also was only twenty-four completed years old when he began to reign; but had begun his twenty-fifth year.
Verse 4: He Broke in Pieces the Bronze Serpent ¶
4. AND HE BROKE IN PIECES THE BRONZE SERPENT THAT MOSES HAD MADE (to heal those who had been bitten by serpents, Numbers 21:8); FOR UNTIL THAT TIME THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL BURNED INCENSE TO IT as to a beneficent divinity, since it had cured their fathers of serpent bites. Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, a contemporary of St. Ambrose, adds in his book On Heresies, chapter 21, that Hezekiah ordered to be effaced and scraped away with iron, and utterly destroyed, the impressions or certain INSCRIPTIONS which the Jewish people made on a great stone, like an obelisk, which was erected in the temple in place of a column: from which they would take various formulas like certain letters, and placing them on a metal plate would carry them around their necks, by which they practiced certain incantations and sorceries, and honored these like protective amulets, carrying them on their chests -- things which the Lord had repeatedly forbidden in the law, since this was the impiety of pagan blindness.
AND HE CALLED ITS NAME NEHUSHTAN, that is, a little bronze thing, namely cast from a small, worthless, and tinkling piece of bronze. For "Nehushtan" is a diminutive name, which Hezekiah uses to express contempt for the idol, as if to say: What do you think, O Jews -- that a small piece of cheap, dirty bronze has divinity? You are wrong; there is no divine power in it, nothing great, for it is nothing other than a small portion of base, dark bronze. Anastasius of Nicaea adds from Eusebius: "The books of Solomon," he says, "which had been written about Proverbs and odes, in which the nature of plants and every kind of animal was treated, and the cure of all diseases, Hezekiah removed from circulation; because the people were drawing remedies for diseases from them, and thought nothing of seeking cures from God."
Verse 5: He Trusted in the Lord God of Israel ¶
5. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, and therefore it is said in verse 7: "Hence the Lord was with him, and in all things to which he set his hand, he acted wisely." Hence he was fittingly called "Hezekiah" in Hebrew, Chizkiyahu, that is, "my strength is the Lord," says Pagninus, as if this were his motto and emblem.
THERE WAS NONE LIKE HIM, that is, like Hezekiah, in this respect, namely that he removed the high places and broke in pieces the bronze serpent, which all other kings before him had permitted. For otherwise David seems to have been more devout and holier than Hezekiah: for David was a man after God's own heart, to whom therefore God made the promise about Christ to be born from him; and so David was established by God as an example for all kings to be born from him to imitate. So Abulensis. Or it is certainly a hyperbole, as if to say: Hezekiah was so pious and zealous in defending the worship of God that he scarcely seems to have had an equal or similar. The same is said of Abraham, Sirach 44:20: "There was none found like him in glory, who kept the law of the Most High." See what was said there.
Verse 7: He Rebelled Against the King of the Assyrians ¶
7. HE ALSO REBELLED AGAINST THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS, to whom his father Ahaz had subjected himself and paid tribute, which Hezekiah refused, considering it unworthy for a faithful king of Judah to serve an infidel king, and trusting in God that He would free him from this servitude, as indeed He did, through a miraculous victory.
Verse 8: From the Watchtower to the Fortified City ¶
8. FROM THE WATCHTOWER -- a rural one, as I said in chapter 17, verse 9.
Verse 11: He Placed Them in Halah and in Habor ¶
11. AND HE PLACED THEM IN HALAH AND IN HABOR, THE RIVERS OF GOZAN, IN THE CITIES OF THE MEDES. For "rivers," Serarius and others think it should read "river." Hence Vatablus translates: by the river Gozan, and so our translator renders it in chapter 17:6. For in Hebrew it is nehar, that is, river, in the singular; or certainly the rivers are called cities adjacent to rivers by metonymy, for men dwell in cities, not in rivers -- unless among the Chinese, where there are so many people that the land cannot hold them: therefore many are forced to dwell on bridges and boats of the rivers, as our Nicolas Trigault attests in his history of China.
Verse 13: Sennacherib Came Up Against Judah ¶
13. In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah SENNACHERIB came up, who had succeeded to the kingdom of the Assyrians after Shalmaneser his father had died. He came up against Judah because Hezekiah had rebelled and refused tribute, verse 7. This happened by God's providence, who, notwithstanding the piety of Hezekiah, wished to punish the tribe of Judah for the idolatry and crimes it had committed.
Verse 17: The King of the Assyrians Sent Rabshakeh ¶
17. AND THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS SENT. Note here the treachery of Sennacherib who, having received from Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold, nevertheless sent an army against him, which was therefore struck down by an Angel, and while he invaded another's territory, he lost his own at home.
WHICH IS ON THE ROAD OF THE FULLER'S FIELD. The field was so called because in it the fullers washed cloths with the water of the pool.
Verse 25: The Lord Said to Me: Go Up to This Land ¶
25. THE LORD SAID TO ME: GO UP TO THIS LAND AND DESTROY IT. Rabshakeh lies that he invades the Jews by God's command, in order to terrify them and compel them to surrender. So Abulensis.
The rest of this chapter is transcribed from Isaiah chapter 36, where I explained it: for Isaiah was the intermediary between God and Hezekiah, and predicted and promised him victory against Sennacherib.
Verse 36: They Had Received the Command Not to Answer Him ¶
36. THEY HAD RECEIVED THE COMMAND OF THE KING (Hezekiah) NOT TO ANSWER HIM. Why? St. Cyril of Alexandria responds first, on the cited chapter of Isaiah: "Because," he says, "to unskilled words and barbaric pride and a tongue insolent against God, one ought rather to weep than to protest." Procopius responds secondly, on the cited passage of Kings: "The pious king," he says, "did not allow any answer to be given to these blasphemies, lest he provoke greater ones." Abulensis responds thirdly, in his Question 44 on the same passage: "Because," he says, "it pertained to the honor of the king that affairs be conducted prudently, orderly, and with deliberation; but if anyone of the people could answer Rabshakeh however he wished, it would be a great disorder, and Rabshakeh could ridicule the disorder that Hezekiah had among his subjects and in his affairs."