Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Sennacherib invades Judea; Hezekiah with Isaiah invokes God; He sends an Angel who strikes down 185,000 Assyrians. Therefore Sennacherib flees and is killed by his sons. Then Hezekiah, becoming proud (v. 24), is struck with illness, but is healed by Isaiah; and after many prosperous deeds he dies and leaves as successor his impious son Manasseh.
Vulgate Text: 2 Paralipomenon 32:1-33
1. After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came and entered Judah and besieged the fortified cities, wishing to capture them. 2. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that the whole force of the war was being turned against Jerusalem, 3. he took counsel with his princes and the bravest men to stop up the springs of water that were outside the city; and this being the decision of all, 4. he gathered a great multitude, and they stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the midst of the land, saying: Let not the kings of the Assyrians come and find abundance of water. 5. He also built up with great industry all the wall that had been broken down, and raised towers above it, and built another wall on the outside; and he repaired the Millo in the City of David, and made weapons and shields of every kind, 6. and he appointed captains of soldiers in the army. And he gathered them all together in the square by the gate of the city, and spoke to their hearts, saying: 7. Act manfully and be strengthened; do not fear, nor be afraid of the king of the Assyrians and all the multitude that is with him; for there are many more with us than with him. 8. For with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, who is our helper and fights for us. And the people were strengthened by these words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9. After these things were done, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians sent his servants to Jerusalem (for he himself with his whole army was besieging Lachish) to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people who were in the city, saying: 10. Thus says Sennacherib king of the Assyrians: In what do you trust, that you sit besieged in Jerusalem? 11. Does not Hezekiah deceive you, to deliver you to death by famine and thirst, affirming that the Lord your God will deliver you from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? 12. Is not this the same Hezekiah who destroyed his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying: You shall worship before one altar, and upon it you shall burn incense? 13. Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the earth? Were the gods of the nations of all lands able to deliver their country from my hand? Who among all the gods of the nations that my fathers have destroyed was able to deliver his people from my hand, so that your God should also be able to deliver you from this hand? 15. Let not therefore Hezekiah deceive you, nor let him delude you with a vain persuasion, nor believe him. For if no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand and from the hand of my fathers, consequently neither will your God be able to deliver you from my hand. 16. And his servants spoke yet more against the Lord God and against Hezekiah His servant. 17. He also wrote letters full of blasphemy against the Lord God of Israel, and he spoke against Him: Just as the gods of the other nations were not able to deliver their people from my hand, so neither will the God of Hezekiah be able to deliver his people from this hand. 18. Moreover, he cried out with a loud voice in the Jewish language against the people who were sitting on the walls of Jerusalem, to terrify them and to capture the city. 19. And he spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the works of men's hands. 20. Therefore King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos prayed against this blasphemy, and they cried out to heaven. 21. And the Lord sent an Angel, who struck down every strong and mighty man, and the commanders of the army of the king of the Assyrians; and he returned with ignominy to his own land. And when he had entered the house of his god, the sons who had come forth from his own body killed him with the sword. 22. And the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, and from the hand of all, and He gave them rest on every side. 23. Many also brought sacrifices and offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem, and gifts to Hezekiah king of Judah; and he was exalted after this in the sight of all nations. 24. In those days Hezekiah fell sick unto death, and he prayed to the Lord; and He heard him and gave him a sign. 25. But he did not repay according to the benefits he had received, because his heart was lifted up; and wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. 26. And he humbled himself afterward, because his heart had been lifted up, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and therefore the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. 27. And Hezekiah was very rich and renowned, and he gathered for himself very great treasures of silver, and gold, and precious stones, spices, and weapons of every kind, and vessels of great price. 28. And storehouses for grain, wine, and oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds, 29. and he built cities for himself; for he had innumerable flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, because the Lord had given him exceedingly great substance. 30. This is the same Hezekiah who stopped up the upper spring of the waters of Gihon and diverted them beneath to the west of the City of David; in all his works he prospered in what he wished. 31. Nevertheless, in the embassy of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the portent that had happened upon the earth, God left him to be tested, so that all things that were in his heart might be made known. 32. Now the rest of the words of Hezekiah and his merciful deeds are written in the vision of Isaiah the son of Amos the prophet, and in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 33. And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him above the sepulchres of the sons of David; and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem celebrated his funeral. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
I explained this chapter at Isaiah chapters 36, 37, and 38.
Verse 1: After These Things and This Faithfulness
1. AFTER THESE THINGS AND THIS FAITHFULNESS, SENNACHERIB CAME — that is to say, after these things truly accomplished by Hezekiah, and truly narrated by me, God, wishing to test, exercise, and perfect the piety, virtue, and confidence of Hezekiah that he had in God, permitted Sennacherib to come and invade Judea.
Verse 4: The Stream
4. THE STREAM (the spring of Gihon, as is clear from verse 30) THAT FLOWED THROUGH THE MIDST OF THE LAND — namely, the land that lay adjacent to Jerusalem. That is to say, Hezekiah partly stopped up the waters, especially the spring of Gihon, so that the camp of Sennacherib would be exhausted by thirst; and partly he diverted them by digging through the rock into the cisterns of the city, so that the besieged Jews would have water for drinking and other uses. See the commentary on Sirach 48:19.
Verse 21: The Lord Sent an Angel
21. THE LORD SENT AN ANGEL. — This history was corrupted by Herodotus in his Euterpe, who says that Sennacherib invaded Egypt, but was put to flight by a priest of Vulcan through the introduction of mice, which gnawed through the bows and arms of the Assyrians. For he substitutes Egypt for Judea, a priest for Hezekiah, Vulcan for God, and mice for the Angel. Moreover, Sennacherib himself was almost the only one preserved in such a great slaughter of his men, and therefore he was spared, says St. Jerome in his commentary on chapter 30 of Isaiah, so that he might know the power of God and his blaspheming mouths be stopped, and he might become a witness of that majesty which he had shortly before despised. Pharaoh also was preserved through the ten plagues of Egypt, so that he might be the last to perish — which this man also suffered." It was fitting that the man be punished by the most grievous loss of a very great and flourishing army, and of the greatest riches — a loss he would not have felt if he had perished in an instant with his own men. It was fitting that he undergo incredible disgrace among his own people, through whose fault or incompetence such a slaughter had struck the most powerful kingdom. It was fitting, finally, that he be consumed by a far more bitter death, to be inflicted in every way: for he was to be pierced, as it appears, by many sword blows, and by his own sons, and in a place consecrated to a divinity. So Salianus. There is no doubt that in this disaster the Rabshakeh was struck down and more severely tormented by the Angel, since he was a blasphemer against God and a reviler of Hezekiah. Moreover, Hezekiah and the Jews were enriched by the rich spoils of so many slain Assyrians.
HIS SONS (Adrammelech and Sharezer) KILLED HIM WITH THE SWORD. — Rabbi Solomon, and from him Lyranus, gives the reason that Sennacherib, wishing to appease the gods who had caused such a great slaughter, intended to sacrifice these two sons to them; but they, getting wind of it, forestalled their father and killed him. Moreover, Sennacherib, having received the blow in Judea, fled and returned to his Nineveh, where he raged against the Jews and killed many — so much so that Tobias, who was burying them, was stripped of all his goods and escaped death by fleeing, from which flight forty-three days later Sennacherib was killed by his sons. All these things are narrated in Tobit, chapter 1, verse 21 and following. St. Jerome passes on the same cause from Rabbi Solomon in the Traditions. And Serarius and Genebrardus in his Chronology report the same from the Hebrew text of Tobit, chapter 1.
Lyranus and Abulensis in 4 Kings chapter 15, question 31, bring another reason, namely that Sennacherib was killed by his two older sons because their father, passing them over, wished Esarhaddon, the younger, to be the successor to the kingdom. The Scholastic History attributes the reason for this choice to the love that Sennacherib had for the mother of Esarhaddon. This is thought to have been the same reason why Rehoboam long before preferred Abijah the son of Maacah over his other sons, as is clear from 2 Paralipomenon 11:21.
The truer and more certain reason is the one given by Theodoret in his commentary on 4 Kings, who says: "Because he had been driven by rage against God, who had made him, he was killed by those who had been begotten from him."
Verse 31: About the Portent
31. ABOUT THE PORTENT — of the retrograde movement of the sun and the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz, about which I treated at length in Isaiah chapter 38.