against Assyria was rebuked, and he learned in the school of affliction and humiliation to turn

from all such help to God, and then obtained mercy; and how from the first Isaiah stood forth

faithful in his warnings, and calm and unshaken in his confidence, the true prophet and

representative of the LOAD. And yet beyond these lessons, which are to all times, comes to the

Church and to every member of it the conviction that He who supernaturally, although by what we

call natural means, once swept away the host of Egypt and again laid dead the proud warriors of

Assyria, also watches with ever mindful care over the meanest of His creatures, so that not a

sparrow can fall to the ground without His knowledge, nor yet any harm befall His people, nor

earthly might overthrow His cause. For He of old is the living and the true God.

But as regarded Sennacherib himself, the Divine judgment seemed to slumber a long time.* Yet,

after many years' reign, it overtook him.

* 2 Kings 19:37 must not be understood as chronologically following immediately upon ver. 36. It

is merely the Scriptural conclusion of this whole narrative. In truth, ver. 37 (see next note)

contains a brief summary of events, separated by some period of time. But it is the sublime

characteristic of the prophetic view-point of sacred history to pass over intervening events as of no

importance, and to connect the fulfillment with the prediction as in unbroken succession.

"As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, . ..[his sons] Adrammelech and Sharezer

smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son

reigned in his stead."*

* "Nisroch" - evidently an A ssyrian god - has not yet been identified. Probably it depends upon

some corruption of the name, which is differently written in the LXX. and by Josephus. On

Adrammelech (here the name of a person), see our remarks on 2 Kings 17:31. Sharezer is

apparently a defective form, the full name having been Nirgal-sar-usur -- "Nergal protect the

king." Strangely, Abydenus (Euseb. Armen. Chron, ed. Mai, p. 25) has preserved to us the first

part of the name, Nergilus, and the Bible its second part. According to the account just referred to,

Sennacherib was killed by his son Adramelus, and succeeded for a short time by Nergilus (comp.

Schrader, u.s., p. 330, and note), who was overcome and slain by Esarhaddon, who ascended the

throne. The latter is confirmed by the Assyrian inscriptions. Professor Sayce (Fresh Light from the

A. Mon.., p. 127) attributes the murder of Sennacherib to jealousy of Esarhaddon on the part of the

two elder brothers, for which he finds a motive in the will of Sennacherib, which bestowed great

treasures on Esarhaddon. "The land of Ararat" was south of the mountains of that name, and forms

part of Armenia. There was at that time war between Assyria and Armenia.

CHAPTER 13 - HEZEKIAH, (THIRTEENTH) KING OF JUDAH

Date of Hezekiah's Sickness - Announcement of his Death -- The Prayer of Hezekiah - The Divine

Answer - Meaning and Lessons of it. - The Embassy of Merodach-baladan and its Object -

Reception of the Envoys by Hezekiah - The Prophet and the King - Prophecy of Babylon. (2

KINGS 20; ISAIAH. 38; 39)

THE narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and of the embassy of Merodach-baladan, which in an

abbreviated form is also given in the Book of Isaiah* (38:1-8, 21, 22; 39) must, on literary

grounds** and from its position in this history, be regarded as an appendix similar to that added

to the account of David's reign in the closing chapters of the Second Book of Samuel.***