Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_201.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-09 | 6KB | 120 lines

leads to Zion the church below, but to the Zion
above, to the heavenly glory; and all the redeemed,
all that walk in this way, shall come thither; atdeath
their souls return to God that gave them, and are in
immediate happiness with Christ; and in the resur-
rection shall return from their dusty beds, and shall
appear before God in Zion above; and with songs to
Father, Son, and Spirit, for what each have done for
them, in election, redemption, .and conversion; and
for persevering grace, and for being safely brought
over Jordan's river, and from the grave; see 1 Cor. x, v.
54--57. they shall then enter into joy, which will
never end; there will be nothing to interrupt it to all
eternity; it will be everlasting joy indeed; and this
will be upon their heads, visible and manifest, and be
upon them as a crown of life, righteousness, and
glory, that shall never fade away; they shall then
obtain joy and gladness, in all the fulness thereof, their
joy in the .Lord will be complete; which these several
words and phrases used are expressive of; and then
there will be no more sorrow and sighing; for there
will be no more sin and unbelief, or any other cor-
ruption of nature; no more darkness and desertion;
no more of any of Satan's temptations; no more
distresses, inward or outward; and so no more
sighing within, nor sorrowing without; all tears
will be wiped array. The Jews{b} apply this passage
to the world to come.

C H A P. XXXVI.

IN this chapter we have an account of the king
Assyria's invasion of Judea, and of the railing speech
of Rabshakeh his general, to discourage the ministers
and subjects of the king of Judah. The time and
success of the invasion are observed in ver. 1. the
messenger the former king sent to the latter, and
from whence, and with whom, he conferred, ver. 2, 3.
the speech of the messenger, which consists of two
~arts; the first part is directed to the ministers of
ezekiah, shewing the vain cor. fidence of their prince
in his counsels and strength ibr war, in the king of
Egypt, and in his chariots and horsemen, and even in
the Lord himself, pretending that he came by his
orders to destroy the land, yer. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
The Other part is directed to the common people on
the wall, he refusing to speak in the Syrian language,
as desired, ver. 11, 12. dissuading them from heark-
ening to Hezekiah to their own deception; persuading
them to come into an agreement with him for their
own safety and good; Observing to them that none of
the gods of the nations could deliver them out of his
master's hands, and therefore it was in vain for them to
expect deliverance from the Lord their God, ver. 13,
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. to which neither ministers
nor people returned any answer; but the former went
with their clothes rent to Hezekiah, and reported what
had been said, ver. 91,
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of
King Hezekiah, &c.] The following piece of history is
inserted from the books of Kings and Chronicles, as an
illustration of. some preceding prophecies, and as a
confirmation of them; see 2 Kings xviii. 13. 2 Chron.
xxxii. 1. that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up
against all the alefenced cities of Judah; who in Tobit
i. 18. is said to be the son of Salmaneser, as he cer-
tainly was his successor, who in-the sixth year of He-
zekiab, eight years before this, took Samaria, and
carried the ten tribes captive, 2 Kings xviii. 10, 11.
he is called Sennacherib by Herodotus {e}, who says he
was king of the Arabians, and the Assyrians; who yet
is blamed by Josephus{d}, for not calling him the king
of the Assyrians only of the  Arabians, whereas he
styles him both; and the same Josephus observes,.
that BeroSus, a Chaldean writer, makes mention of'
this Sennacherib as king of Assyria; the same came
up in a military way against the fortitled cities of
Judah, which were the frontier towns, and barriers of
their country: and took them; that is, some of them,
not all of them; see ch. xxxvii. 8. he thought indeed
to have 'took them to himself, this was his intent,
2 Chron. xxxii. 1. but was prevailed upon to desist,
by a payment of 300 talents of silver, and 30 talents of
gold to him, by the king of Judah, 2 Kings xviii. 14,
15, 16.
Ver. e. And the Icing of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from
Lachish to Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great
army, &c.] Notwithstanding he had taken Hezekiah's
money to withdraw his army out of his country, yet
sends it out to Iris very capital; along with this Rab-
shakeh he sent two other generals, Tartan and Rabsaris,
c2. Kings xviii. 17. though they are not mentioned,
only Rabshakeh, because he was; the principal person,
however the chief speaker. Lacbish was a city in the
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 39.'which Sennacherib was
now besieging, 2 Chron. xxxii. 9. This message was
sent,. Bishop Usher says, three years after the former
expedition: and he stood by the conduit of the uppes,
pool, in the highway of the fullers' field; where they
spread their clothes, as the Targum, having washed
them in the pool, of which see oh. vii. 3. Ben Melech
thus describes the pool, conduit, and highway: the
pool is a ditch, built with stone and lime, where rain-
water was collected, or where they drew water from
the fountain, and the waters were gathered into this
pool; and there was in this pool a hole, which. they
stopped, until the time they pleased to fetch ware,
out of the pool: and the conduit was a ditch near to
the pool, and they brought water out of the pool into
the conduit, when they chose to drink, or wash. gar-
ments: the highway was a way paved with stones, so
that they could walk upon it in rainy days; and here
they stood and washed their garments in the waters of
the conduit, and in the field they spread them to the
sun. This, pool lay without the city, yet just by the

{b} T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 110.2.
{c} In Euterpe cap. 141.
{d} Antiqu. Jud. lib. 10. cap. 1. sect. 4.