I. SENNACHERIB AND HIS GENERALS. Their renewed efforts to take the city.

1. The letter of Sennacherib to Hezekiah. (Ver. 17.) The tartan with his assistants having failed to either storm Jerusalem or intimidate its inhabitants, returned, or more probably despatched, Rabshakeh to his master for further instructions. Sennacherib was now at Libnah, a few miles nearer Jerusalem than Lachish, which in the interval had capitulated. Learning that the King of Egypt was on the way north to give him battle, he sent back Rabshakeh, accompanied, by special messengers, bearing a letter to Hezekiah to expedite the taking of the city. The letter when received was read by Hezekiah with indignation and alarm. It contained a repetition with emphasis of what had been uttered by Rabshakeh in the hearing of the king's envoys and of the inhabitants of the city. Of course, the mere reassertion of Rabshakeh's boastings, though in the form of a letter from Sennacherib himself. did not make them the less false, insolent, or blasphemous.

2. The railings of Sennacherib's generals. As before by Rabshakeh, so a second time by the generals and perhaps also the messengers (ver. 18). To the people on the town wall in their own tongue were addressed words meant to terrify and persuade to capitulation - loud, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous reproaches against Jehovah. putting him on a level with idols, the works of men's hands, and declaring him to be as powerless as these (ver. 19), little dreaming they were so soon and so completely to be undeceived (ver. 21). So men often hug to their bosoms the false ideas they have formed of the Christian's God, without thinking that in a moment, by being admitted through death's portal into his presence, they may be proved to have been deceived.

II. HEZEKIAH AND HIS PROPHET. Their supplications to the God of heaven (ver. 20).

1. The prayer of Hezekiah. Recorded in 2 Kings 19:14-19 and Isaiah 37:15-19.

(1) Where offered. "In the house of the Lord." Having read the Assyrian's letter, Hezekiah repaired to the temple and spread it before the Lord; in which act lay a double propriety - Jehovah having invited his people to call upon him in the day of trouble (Psalm 1:15), and promised to deliver them (Psalm 91:15); and Jehovah being the One most insulted by Sennacherib's reproaches.

(2) To whom addressed. To Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, whose presence was with his people, who alone governed the nations, and was supreme Creator of heaven and earth (cf. Jehoshaphat's prayer, 2 Chronicles 20:6-12).

(3) In what terms couched. Earnest, reverential, direct, and hopeful. Requesting a favourable audience for his intercession, he first called God to see and hear the reproaches of Sennacherib, next acknowledged the truth of Sennacherib's language concerning the gods of the nations he destroyed, and finally besought God to show that he alone was God, by saving them out of the King of Assyria's hand.

(4) With what result followed. It was answered by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, who, speaking in God's name, assured him that "Sennacherib should not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it, but should return by the way that he came, and should not come into the city" (2 Kings 19:32, 33; Isaiah 37:33, 34).

2. The prayer of Isaiah. Though not recorded by the writer of 2 Kings that Isaiah prayed along with or in addition to Hezekiah, the fact mentioned that, on Rabshakeh's first approach, Hezekiah requested Isaiah to "lift up his prayer" on their behalf (2 Kings 19:4), renders it probable that on this occasion also he joined the king in crying unto Heaven.

III. JEHOVAH AND HIS ANGEL. Their interposition on behalf of Judah and Jerusalem (vers. 21, 22).

1. The destruction of Sennacherib's army.

(1) Where? "In the camp of the King of Assyria;" most probably in that of the tartan lying before Jerusalem (Delitzsch), though it may have been in that of Sennacherib's army. According to Herodotus (2. 141), the disaster occurred at Pelusium, whither Sennacherib, "King of the Arabians and Assyrians," had marched with a great host on his way to Egypt. If so (Ewald, Cheyne, and others), then Sennacherib must have broken up his camp at Libnah, and moved south to intercept Tirhakah (cf. Driver, 'Isaiah: his Life and Times,' pp. 81, 82).

(2) When? "That night" (2 Kings 19:35); but Whether the night after Hezekiah's prayer (Rawlinson, Bahr)is uncertain. Hardly, if Pelusium was the scene of the overthrow; possibly, if the Assyrian camp still remained at Libnah (Keil). That the night was that in which Sennacherib, in the following year, sat down to besiege Jerusalem with his own army (Keil, Delitzsch) does not seem likely.

(3) How? By an angel - the angel of the Lord (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36). Whether the blow was supernatural or natural cannot be determined from the language of Scripture. The destruction of the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12:29) and the diminution of David's army (2 Samuel 24:15, 16) were both accomplished by the angel of the Lord; yet the former only appear to have been suddenly smitten, while the latter were cut off by pestilence. Herodotus's notion, that the bow-strings, and shield-straps of Sennacherib's soldiers were gnawed through during the night by innumerable field-mice, favours the pestilence-theory - among the Egyptians the mouse having been the hieroglyph of devastation by pestilence (J. D. Michaelis).

(4) To what extent? To the cutting off of "all the mighty men of valour," with "the leaders and the captains"? (ver. 21); in all, 185,000 (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:86).

(5) With what effect? The return of Sennacherib to Assyria with shame of face, because of having failed to effect the object of his expedition. Whether the fleeing Assyrians were pursued by the liberated Judahites (Ewald) is not stated by the Chronicler, and is only a doubtful inference from Psalm 46:7, 8; Psalm 76:3,

5. That the Assyrian monuments have preserved no record of Sennacherib's humiliation is not surprising. The Egyptian monuments of the nineteenth dynasty contain no memorial of Menephtah's overthrow in the Red Sea. Nations, like individuals, do not publish their misfortunes) least of all perpetuate the remembrance of their defeats.

2. The assassination of Sennacherib himself. The usual end of kings in Assyria (Sargon, and probably Shalmaneser II. and Assurnirari), no less than in Israel and Judah. "Within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps death his court," etc. ('Richard II.,' act 3. sc. 2).

(1) Where Sennacherib was murdered. "In his own land," in "the house of his god" (ver. 21); i.e. in Nineveh, in the house of Nisroch his god (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 36:37) - a divinity not yet identified in the Assyrian pantheon.

(2) When? Not immediately on returning to Nineveh, since, according to the inscriptions, he lived twenty years after the Egyptian and Jewish expedition, and undertook five more campaigns in other parts of his empire.

(3) By whom? "They that came forth of his own bowels" - "Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons" (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 36:38); the former in Assyrian Adar-malik, "Adar is prince," also the name of an Assyrian god (2 Kings 17:31); and the latter in Assyrian Sar-usur, a shortened form of an Assyrian word, of which the first part was probably Assur, Bil, or Nergal, meaning "Assur (Bel or Nergal) protect the king" (Schrader, p. 329). Nergal-sarezer occurs as a proper name in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39:3, 13). This may have been the full designation of Sennacherib's son (Alexander on 'Isaiah,' 2:74; Cheyne, 'The Prophecies of Isaiah,' 1:225).

IV. THE PEOPLES AND THEIR PRESENTS. The effect produced by this deliverance on surrounding nations.

1. Gifts unto Jehovah. Brought not by Judahites alone, but by the inhabitants of nations who had been delivered from the Assyrians' yoke, and were designed as a grateful recognition of Jehovah's hand in effecting their emancipation. No benefactor more deserving of man's thanks than God (Psalm 139:17, 18); no duty more frequently urged upon men than gratitude to the Supreme Giver (Psalm 50:14; Psalm 100:4; Psalm 107:1; Ephesians 5:20; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18); yet no bestower of good receives less thanks than he.

2. Precious things to Hezekiah. As the Philistines and Arabians had brought presents to Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:10), so now the inhabitants of heathen countries, among whom may have been the Babylonians - though ver. 31; 2 Kings 20:12; and Isaiah 39:1 refer not to this (see below) - sent gifts to Hezekiah in recognition of his greatness, as attested by the Divine deliverance wrought on his behalf. Learn:

1. The heinousness of scoffing at religion.

2. The impotence of human rage against God (Psalm 2:1-5).

3. The superiority of the true God over all divinities worshipped by the heathen (Psalm 115:3, 4).

4. The efficacy of prayer (James 5:16).

5. The advantage of social supplication (Matthew 18:19).

6. The command of God over the resources of nature (Numbers 11:23).

7. The ability of God to save his people out of any sort of peril (1 Corinthians 10:13).

8. The sad fate of the ungodly (Psalm 75:8, 10).

9. The indebtedness of the world to the Church's God. - W.

1. It was expensive. He set about reforming the national religion. The spirit of such a life should be, must be, respected in every one of us if the religion we possess is to be worth anything. The young man whose mind is that of Jesus Christ has learned to live, not for himself, but for others. Harlan Page was a house joiner at Coventry, in America. His social position gave him but little influence, but what he had he gave to God. He was the living missionary wherever he went. See how God's grace brought him out of self. He wrote: "When I first obtained a hope I felt that I must labour for souls. I prayed, year after year, that God would make me the means of saving souls." Is your position that of a clerk? Imitate David Nasmith, who without talent or money sanctified the desk by working for Christ and perishing souls. He was the founder of City Missions, and the home heathen owe more to the Glasgow clerk than to any man who ever lived. Is your position that of a military officer? Imitate Hadley Vicars. The soldier of the Queen became the soldier of Christ. He had hard work to stand his ground at mess, but he did stand it; and one of the soldiers said, "Since Mr. Vicars became so good he has steadied about four hundred men in the regiment." Is your position that of a merchant? Imitate George Moore, who rose to his partnership by sterling integrity, high principle, and hard work. He had no idea of growing rich and forgetting those by whose labours he accumulated his wealth. Every clerk and servant in his employment knew, in a very tangible way, that a good year's business had been done. In a word, young men, whatever you may be, peer or peasant, professional man or tradesman, merchant or mechanic — come out in God's strength as a religious man, and live for others. Let your sympathies embrace suffering bodies and perishing souls. Never mind being poor. Much of God's work in this world has been done by men of little education, slender means, and few advantages. Do your duty for Christ and your influence will reach further than you think. "Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah."

2. It was sound. He "wrought that which was good and right, and truth before the Lord his God.." A young man's religion, to be worth anything, must be sound. If he is to do anything which is "good and right and truth," he must —

(1)Be able to give some account of the hope which is in him; he must get out of the company of those who "understand neither what they say, nor what they affirm."

(2)Base his religion on a personal study of the Bible.

(3)Support his religion by the plain lessons of history; the religious history of our own country.

(4)Continually submit to the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

(5)Above all, his religion must be centred in a personal Saviour.

3. It was whole-hearted.

II. HEZEKIAH'S REWARD. "And prospered."

1. His reward was of God.

2. He had his reward in his country. What a benefactor he must have appeared in the eyes of his subjects.

3. He had his reward in himself.

(John Burbidge.)