clearly appeared, that Hezekiah had not learned the lessons which his late danger and God-granted

recovery were intended to teach; nor did he learn them otherwise than in the school of extreme

anguish, after all his worldly policy had ended in defeat, his land been desolated, and the

victorious host of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. And this seems to be the meaning of the

reference in 2 Chronicles 32:25, 26, to the ungratefulness and the pride of the king after his

miraculous recovery, as well as of this other notice (ver. 31), that in the matter of the ambassadors,

God had left Hezekiah to himself, to try him, and "know all that was in his heart."*

* Josephus also takes the same view of the object of the Babylonian mission (Ant. x. 2, 2).

But with God there was not any changeableness. As afterwards Isaiah denounced the alliance with

Egypt, so now he spoke the Divine judgment on the hoped -for treaty with Babylon. So far from

help being derived from such alliance, Israel's future doom and misery would come from Babylon,

and the folly of Hezekiah would alike appear and be punished in the exile and servitude of his

descendants. Thus in the sequence of God this sowing of disobedience should be followed by a

harvest of judgment. Yet for the present would there be "peace and continuance" - till the measure

of iniquity was filled. And Hezekiah acquiesced in the sentence, owning its justice and grateful for

its delay. Yet here also we perceive shortcoming. Hezekiah did not reach up to the high level of

his father David in circumstances somewhat similar (2 Samuel 24:17), nor was his even the

humble absolute submission of Eli of old (1 Samuel 3:18).*

* Comp. Cheyne, u.s. I., p. 231.

But as throughout this history Isaiah appeared as the true prophet of God by the cons istency of his

utterance of the Divine Will against all heathen alliances, by his resistance to all worldly policy,

however specious, and even by his bearing on the twofold occasion which forms the subject of the

present narrative, so did he now rise to the full height of his office. Never before had there been so

unmistakable a prediction of the future as when Isaiah in the full height of Assyria's power

announced that the world -empire of the future would not belong to it, but to vanquished

Babylonia, and that Judah's judgment would not come from their present dreaded enemies, but

from those who now had sought their alliance.*

* We mark that Isaiah 39 is followed by 40-47 The significance of the conjunction of these

prophecies requires not to be pointed o ut. The one is the Divine counterpart of the other.

CHAPTER 14 - MANASSEH (FOURTEENTH), AMON (FIFTEENTH), KINGS OF JUDAH.

Popular Mourning for Hezekiah - Accession of Manasseh -Temptations and Character of the King

- Idolatry and Cruelty of his Reign - Moral State of the People - Prophetic Announcement of

Judgmen - Supplementary Narrative in the Book of Chronicles -Its Reliableness Confirmed by the

Assyrian Inscriptions - The Captivity of Manasseh in Babylon - His Repentance and Prayer -His

Restoration to Jerusalem - Superficial Character of his Reformation - His Death - Reign of Amon.

(2 KINGS 21; 2 CHRONICLES 33)

WITH the death of Hezekiah, another and a strange chapter in Jewish history opens. When they

buried him "in the ascent of the sepulchers of the sons of David,"* not only the inhabitants of

Jerusalem - for the defense, adornment, and convenience of which he had done so much - but all

Judah united to do him honor.