Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_214.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-09 | 7KB | 128 lines

lifted up with the deliverance, or be more thankful for
it: and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto
him: not of his own a.ccord to visit him, but was sent
by the Lord with a message to' him: and said unto him,
thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order; or, give
orders to thine house{c}: to the men of thine house, as the
Targum; his domestics, his counseliors and courtiers,
what they should do after his death; how his personal
estate should be disposed of; how the throne should
be filled up; who should succeed him, since he had
no son: the family and secular affairs of men should
be put in order, and direction given for the manage-
ment of them, and their substance and estates should
be disposed of by will before their death; and much
more a concern should be shewn for the setting in order
their spiritual affairs, or that they may be habitually
ready for death and eternity ;for thou shall die, and not
live: or not recover of thy sickness, as the Targum
adds: for thou art a dead man, as it may be rendered,
in all human appearance; the disease being deadly,
and of which he could not recover by the help of any
medicine; nothing but almighty power could save
him; and this is said, to observe to him his danger, to
give him the sentence of death in himself, and to set
him a praying, as it did.
Ver. 2. Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall,
&c.] Not figuratively to the wall of his heart, as
Jerom; but literally, either to the wall of his bed-
chamber where he lay sick, that his tears might not be
seen, and his prayers interrupted, and that he might
deliver them with more privacy, freedom, and fervency;
or else to the wall of the temple, as the Targum,
towards which good men used to look when they
prayed, 1 Kings viii. 38. Dan. vi 10, which was a type
of Christ, to whom we should have respect in all our
petitions, as being the only Mediator between God and
man: and prayed unto the Lord; as follows:
Ver. 3. And said, remember now, 0 Lord, I beseech
thee, &c.] He puts the Lord in mind of his good walk
and works, which are never forgotten by him, though
they may seem to be: and this he the rather did, be-
cause it might bethought that he had been guilty of
some very enormous crime, which he was not conscious
to himself he had; it being unusual to cut men off in
the prime of their days, but in such a case: how I have
walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart; or
rather, that I hctvc walked before thee, as Noldius, since
the manner of walking is declared in express terms; so
the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and others;
that the course of his life in the sight of God, having
the fear of him upon his heart, and before his eyes,
was according to the truth of his word, institutions,
and appointments; that he walked in all the command-
meats and ordinances of the Lord, and in the sincerity,
integrity, and uprightness of his soul; and however
imperfect his services were, as no man so walks as to
be free from sin, yet he was sincere and without dis-
simulation in the performance of them; his intentions
were upright, his views were purely to the glory. of
God: and have done that which is good in thy sight;
agreeably both to the moral and ceremonial law,. in his
own private and personal capacity as a man, in the
administration of justice in his government as a king;
and particularly in reforming the nation; in destroying
idols, and idol-worship; in breaking in pieces the
brazen serpent, when used to 'idolatrous purposes; and
in setting up the pure worship of God, and his ordi-
nances; and which he does not plead as meritorious,
but mentions as welbpleasing to God, which he gra-
ciously accepts of, and encourages with promises of
reward: and Hezekiah wept sore; not only because
of his death, the news of which might be shocking to
nature; but- because of the distressed condition the
nation would be in, having now the Assyrian army in
it, or at least not wholly free from fears, by reason of
that monarch; and besides, had no son to succeed him
in the throne, and so difficulties and troubles might
arise within themselves about a successor; and it may
be, what troubled him most of all was, that dying
without issue, the Messiah could not spring from his
seed.
Ver. 4. Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah,
&c.] Before he had got out into the middle court,
2 Kings xx. 4: saying, as follows:
Ver. 5. Go and say to Hezekiah, &c.] Turn again,
and tell him, 2 Kings xx. 5: thus saith the Lord the
God of David thyfather; this is said, to show that he
remembered the covenant he made with David his
father, concerning the kingdom, and the succession of
his children in it; and that he had a regard to him,
as walking in his steps: I have heard thy.prayer; and
therefore was not surely a foolish one, as Luther
somewhere calls it, since it was heard and answered so
quickly: I have seen thy tears; which he shed in prayer,
and so studiously concealed from others, when he
turned his face to the wall: behold, I will add unto thy
dayS fifteen years; that is, to the days he had lived
already, and beyond which it was not probable, ac-
cording to the nature of his disease, he Could live; and
besides, he had the'sentence of death pronounced on
him, and had it within himself, nor did he pray for his
life;so that these fifteen years were over and above
_what he could or did expect to live; and because it
was unusual in such a case, and after such a declaration
made, that a man should live, and especially so long a
time after, it is ushered in with a behold, as a note of
admiration; it being a thing unheard of, and unpre-
cedented, and entirely the Lord's doing, and which,
no doubt, was marvelIons in the eyes of the king.
Vet. 6. And I will deliver thee and this city out of the
hand of the king of Assyria, &c.] So that it seems that
Hezekiah's sickness was whilst the king of Assyria was
near the city of Jerusalem, and about to besiege it, and
before the destruction of the Assyrian army; unless
this is said to secure Hezekiah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem from all fears of a return of that king, to
give them fresh trouble: and I will defend this city;
from the present siege laid to it, ruin threatened it, or
from any attack upon it, by the Assyrian monarch.
Ver. 7. And this shall be a s,gn unto thee from the
Lord, &c.] And which it seems Hezekiah asked, and
it was put to himwhich he would choose, whether the
shadow on the sun-dial should go forward or backward
ten degrees, and he chose the latter, 2 Kings xx. 8--11.

{c} \^Ktybl wu\^ praecipe domui tuae, Musculus, Vatablus, Pagniaus,
Montanus.