hymn of praise, Isaiah 38:9-20, is not inserted in 2 Kings, where, indeed, such a hymn would seem

out of place.

** This appears from the whole cast of the narrative - even from the general and indeterminate

note of time in the opening words: "In those days."

*** Comp. Vol. 5 of this Bible -History.

Whether or not it was taken from a special and distinct record, or else inserted in this place in

order not to break the continuity of a narrative which had a spiritual meaning and object of its

own, it is certain that the events which it records could not have been posterior to the final

departure of Sennacherib from the soil of Palestine.*

* It is true that Josephus places it after that event (Ant. 10. 2, 1), but his testimony is here

manifestly not of any authority.

After that there could not have been occasion for such anxiety in reference to the king of Assyria

as to be met by the Divine promise in 2 Kings 20:6; nor could Hezekiah have shown such

treasures to the ambassadors of Merodach-baladan, since he had previously stripped h imself of

them to Sennacherib* (2 Kings 18:14- 16), nor yet from what we know of the history of

Merodach-baladan could he then have sent such an embassy with the manifest purpose of an

alliance against Assyria, nor, finally, would Hezekiah then have encouraged such overtures.

* This, however, does not seem a very strong argument in view of the recuperative power apparent

on previous occasions.

In these circumstances it is a question of historical interest, rather than of practical importance,*

whether the sickness of Hezekiah or rather the embassy of Merodach-baladan had been during the

reign of Sargon or in that of Sennacherib, whether they had preceded the campaign of the former

in Palestine, or that of the latter.**

* Viewed from the prophetic stand-point. For this is not an ordinary history, and the connection

which determines the form of the narrative is not that of succession in the order of time, but of

spiritual cause and effect - the inward, not the outward, nexus of events.

** English critic s (Rawlinson, Sayce, Cheyne) place it in the time of Sargon; the most competent

German authorities(Schrader, Friedrich Delitzsch) in that of Sennacherib.

The text itself seems to point to the period immediately before the invasion of Sennacherib, since

in the time of Sargon Jerusalem was not in such danger as is indicated in the reassuring promise

given concerning it (ver. 6). But this is not all. On any theory, the numeral "fifteen" years in the

promised addition to the spared life of Hezekiah (ver. 6), must have crept into the text by some

Admittedly, it would not synchronize with the period of Sennacherib's campaign; while on the

other and it is certain that Sargon came into hostile contact with Hezekiah in the second year of his

reign* (that after the taking of Samaria), that is, in the sixth or seventh, scarcely in the eighth,

year of Hezekiah's reign (2 Kings 18:10).

* See the Article Sargon in Riehm II. p. 1374.

But fifteen years added to this would give at most twenty-two or twenty-three for the reign of

Hezekiah, whereas we know that it lasted twenty-nine years (2 Kings 18:2) If, therefore, it is

impossible to date the illness of Hezekiah and the embassy in the time of Sargon, we have to

assign these events to the period immediately preceding the campaign of Sennacherib in Palestine.