_HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS, AND THE EMBASSY FROM
BABYLON_
2 KINGS xx. 1-19
"Thou hast loved me out of the pit of nothingness."--ISA. xxxviii.
17 (A.V., margin).
"See the shadow of the dial
In the lot of every one
Marks the passing of the trial,
Proves the presence of the Sun."
E. B. BROWNING.
In the chaos of uncertainties which surrounds the chronology of King
Hezekiah's reign, it is impossible to fix a precise date to the
sickness which almost brought him to the grave. It has, however, been
conjectured by some Assyriologists that the story of this episode has
been displaced, because it seemed to break the continuity of the
narrative of the Assyrian invasion; and that, though it is placed in
the Book of Kings after the deliverance from Sennacherib, it really
followed the earlier incursion of Sargon. This is rendered more
probable by Isaiah's promise (2 Kings xx. 6), "I will deliver thee and
this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria," and by the fact
that Hezekiah still possessed such numerous and splendid treasures to
display to the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan. This could hardly have
been the case after he had been forced to pay a fine to the King of
Assyria of all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and
in the treasures of the king's house, to cut off the gold from the
doors and pillars of the Temple, and even to send as captives to
Nineveh some of his wives, and of the eunuchs of his palace.[512] The
date "in those days" (2 Kings xx. 1) is vague and elastic, and may
apply to any time before or after the great invasion.
He was sick unto death. The only indication which we have of the
nature of his illness is that it took the form of a carbuncle or
imposthume,[513] which could be locally treated, but which, in days of
very imperfect therapeutic knowledge, might easily end in death,
especially if it were on the back of the neck. The conjecture of
Witsius and others that it was a form of the plague which they suppose
to have caused the disaster to the Assyrian army has nothing whatever
to recommend it.
Seeing the fatal character of his illness, Isaiah came to the king
with the dark message, "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die,
and not live."
The message is interesting as furnishing yet another proof that even
the most positive announcements of the prophets were, and were always
meant to be, to some extent hypothetical and dependent on unexpressed
conditions. This was the case with the famous prophecy of Micah that
Zion should be ploughed down into a heap of ruins. It was never
fulfilled; yet the prophet lost none of his authority, for it was well
understood that the doom which would otherwise have been carried out
had been averted by timely penitence.
But the message of Isaiah fell with terrible anguish on the heart of
the suffering king. He had hoped for a better fate. He had begun a
great religious reformation. He had uplifted his people, at least in
part, out of the moral slough into which they had fallen in the days
of his predecessor. He had inspired into his threatened capital
something of his own faith and courage. Surely he, if any man, might
claim the old promises which Jehovah in His loving-kindness and truth
had sworn to his father David and his father Abraham, that he being
delivered out of the hand of his enemies should serve God without
fear, walking in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of
his life. He was but a young man still--perhaps not yet thirty years
old; further, not only would he leave behind him an unfinished work,
but he was childless,[514] and therefore it seemed as if with him
would end the direct line of the house of David, heir to so many
precious promises. He has left us--it is preserved in the Book of
Isaiah--the poem which he wrote on his recovery, but which enshrines
the emotion of his agonising anticipations[515]:--
"I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of
Sheol.
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah, in the land of the living,
I shall behold no man more, when I am among them that cease to be.
Mine habitation is removed, and is carried away from me like a
shepherd's tent.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he will cut me from the
thrum.
* * * * *
Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter;
I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward.
O Lord, I am oppressed; be Thou my surety."
We must remember, as we contemplate his utter prostration of soul,
that he was not blessed, as we are, with the sure and certain hope of
the resurrection to eternal life. All was dim and dark, to him in the
shadowy world of _eidola_ beyond the grave, and many a century was to
elapse before Christ brought life and immortality to light. To enter
Sheol meant to Hezekiah to pass beyond the cheerful sunshine of earth
and the felt presence of God. No more worship, no more gladness there!
"For Sheol cannot praise Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee;
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth."
On every ground, therefore, the feelings of Hezekiah, had he not been a
worshipper of God, might have been like those of Mycerinus, and, like
that legendary Egyptian king, he might have cursed God before he died.
"My father loved injustice, and lived long;
I loved the good he scorned and hated wrong--
The gods declare my recompense to-day.
I looked for life more lasting, rule more high;
And when six years are measured, lo, I die!
Yet surely, O my people, did I ween
Man's justice from the all-just gods was given,
A light that from some upper point did beam,
Some better archetype whose seat was heaven:
A light that, shining from the blest abodes,
Did shadow somewhat of the life of gods."
The indignation of Mycerinus often finds an echo on Pagan tombstones,
as in the famous epitaph on the grave of the girl Procope:--
"I, Procope, lift up my hands against the gods,
Who took me hence undeserving,
Aged nineteen years."
It was far otherwise with Hezekiah. There was anguish in his heart,
but no rebellion or defiance. He wept sore; he turned his face to the
wall and wept;[516] but as he wept he also prayed, and said,--
"O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with
a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight."
Isaiah, after delivering his dark message, and doubtless adding to it
such words of human consolation as were possible--if under such
circumstances any were possible--had left the king's chamber. On every
ground his feelings must have been almost as overwhelmed with sorrow as
those of the king. Hezekiah was personally his friend, and the hope of
his nation. Doubtless the prophet's prayers rose as fervently and as
effectually as those of Luther, which snatched his friend Melanchthon
back from the very gates of death. By the time that he had reached the
middle of the court,[517] he felt borne in upon him, by that Divine
intuition which constituted his prophetic call, the certainty that God
would withdraw the immediate doom which he had been commissioned to
announce. It has been conjectured by some that the conviction was
deepened in his mind by observing on the steps of Ahaz one of those
remarkable but rare effects of refraction--or, as some have conjectured,
of a solar eclipse, involving an obscuration of the upper limb of the
sun--which had seemed to take the advancing shadow ten steps backwards;
and that this was to him a sign from heaven of the promise of God and
the prolongation of the king's life. Awestruck and glad, he hastened
back into the presence of the dying king with the life-giving message
that God had heard his prayer, and seen his tears, and would add fifteen
years to his life, and would defend him, and deliver him and Jerusalem
out of the hand of the King of Assyria. And this should be the sign to
him from Jehovah--Jehovah would bring again the shadow ten steps up the
stairs of Ahaz. To this sign--if it was visible from the
chamber-window--he called the attention of the astonished king.[518]
We here naturally follow the narrative of Isaiah himself, as more
authoritative than that of the historian of the Kings as to details in
which they differ.[519] Not only is it quite in accordance with all
that we know of history that slight variations should occur in the
traditions of long-past times, but the text of the Book of Kings
suggests some difficulty. There we read that Hezekiah asked Isaiah
what should be the sign of the promise--not mentioned in Isaiah--that
he should go up to the House of the Lord the third day. Isaiah then
asked him whether the sign should be that the shadow should advance
ten steps, or recede ten steps. But there is no interrogation in the
Hebrew, which rather means, "The shadow hath advanced ten steps ... if
it shall recede ten steps?" or if we insert the interrogation in the
first clause, "Hath the shadow advanced ten steps?"[520] The king's
natural answer to so strange an alternative would be that for the
shadow to advance ten steps was nothing; whereas its retrogression
would be a sign indeed. Then Isaiah cried unto Jehovah, and the shadow
went backward. In the obvious divergence of details we naturally
follow Isaiah himself; and if it be a true and understood rule of all
theology, "_Miracula non sunt multiplicanda præter necessitatem_," the
miracle in this case--in the opportuneness of its occurrence, and the
issues which it inspired--was none the less a miracle because it was
carried out in direct accordance with God's unseen, perpetual,
miraculous Providence, which none but unbelievers will nickname
Chance. That we are here dealing with an historic incident is certain;
and they who see and acknowledge God in all history find no difficulty
at all in seeing His dealings with men in striking interpositions. But
these, by the analogy of His whole Divine economy, would naturally be
out in accordance with natural laws.
The words rendered "the sun-dial of Ahaz" mean no more than "the steps
[_ma'aloth_] of Ahaz." Ahaz evidently was a king of æsthetic tastes,
who was fond of introducing foreign novelties and curiosities into
Jerusalem.[521] Steps, with a staff on the top of them as a gnomon, to
serve as sun-dials had been invented at Babylon, and Ahaz may probably
have become acquainted with their form and use when he paid his visit to
Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus. No one could blame him--it was indeed a
meritorious act--to introduce to his people so useful an invention. The
word "hour" first occurs in Dan. iii. 6, and it was doubtless from
Babylon that the Hebrews borrowed the division of days into hours. This
is the earliest instance in the Bible of the mention of any instrument
to measure time. That the recession of the shadow could be caused by
refraction is certain, for it has been observed in modern days. Thus, as
is mentioned by Rosenmüller, on March 27th, 1703, Père Romauld, prior of
the monastery at Metz, noticed that the shadow on his dial deviated an
hour and a half, owing to refraction in the higher regions of the
atmosphere.[522] Or again, according to Mr. Bosanquet, the same effect
might have been produced by the darkening shadow of an eclipse. But
while he appealed to Divine indications the great prophet did not
neglect natural remedies. He ordered that a cake of figs should be laid
on the imposthume. It was a recognised and an efficient remedy, still
recommended, centuries later, by Dioscorides, by Pliny, and by St.
Jerome. By God's blessing on man's therapeutic care, the king was
speedily rescued from the gates of death. Constantly in Scripture what
we call the miraculous and what we call the providential are mingled
together. To those who regard the providential as a constant miracle,
the question of the miraculous becomes subordinate.[523]
With intense joy and gratitude the king hailed the respite which God
had granted him. In fifteen years much might be done, much might be
hoped for. All this he acknowledged with deep feeling in the song
which he wrote on his recovery.
"I shall go as in solemn procession[524] all my years because of the
bitterness of my soul.
O Lord, by these things men live,
And wholly therein is the life of my spirit.
Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness;
But Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of nothingness:
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.
* * * * *
The Lord is ready to save me;
Therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments
All the days of our life in the house of the Lord."[525]
"The wonder done in the land" was, according to the Chronicler, one of
the grounds for the embassy which, after his recovery, Hezekiah
received from Merodach-Baladan, the patriot prince of Babylon. The
other ostensible object of the embassy was to send letters and a
present in congratulation for the king's restoration to health. But
the real object lay deeper, out of sight. It was to secure a southern
alliance for Babylon against the incessant tyranny of Nineveh.
Merodach-Baladan is mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon.[526] He
is described as "Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, King of Sumîr and
Accad, king of the four countries, and conqueror of all his enemies."
There had been long struggles, lasting indeed for centuries, between
the city on the Euphrates and the city on the Tigris. Sometimes one,
sometimes the other, had been victorious. Babylon--on the monuments
Kur-Dunyash--had its original Accadian name of Ca-dinirra, which, like
its Semitic equivalent Bal-el, means "Gate of God." Kalah (Larissa and
Birs Nimroud) had been built by Shalmaneser I. before B.C. 1300. His
son conquered Babylon, but not permanently; for in some later raid the
Babylonians got possession of his signet-ring, with its proud
inscription, "Conqueror of Kur-Dunyash," and it was not recovered by
the Assyrians till six centuries later, when it fell into the hands of
Sennacherib. About 1150 Nebuchadrezzar I. of Babylon thrice invaded
Assyria, but there was again peace and alliance in 1100.
Merodach-Baladan I. reigned before 900. The king who now sought the
friendship of Hezekiah was the second of the name. He seized or
recovered the throne of Babylon in 721, after the death of
Shalmaneser, perhaps because Sargon was a usurper of dubious descent.
He helped the Elamites against Assyria. Sargon was compelled to
retreat to Assyria, but returned in 712, and drove Merodach-Baladan to
flight. He was captured and taken to Assyria. But on the murder of
Sargon in 705, he again managed to seize the throne of Babylon, killed
the viceroy who had been set up, and became king for six months. After
this, Sennacherib invaded his country, defeated him, and drove him
once more to flight. He was perhaps killed by his successor.
Whether his overtures to Hezekiah took place before his defeat by
Sargon, or after his escape, is uncertain. In either case he doubtless
sent a splendid embassy, for Babylon was far-famed for its golden
magnificence as "the glory of kingdoms" and "the beauty of the
Chaldees' excellency."[527] At that time the Jews knew but little of
the far-off city which was destined to be so closely interwoven with
their future fortunes, as it was mingled with their oldest and dimmest
traditions.[528] Apart from the magnificence of the presents brought
to him, it was not unnatural that Hezekiah should regard this embassy
with intense satisfaction. It was flattering to the power of his
little kingdom that its alliance should be sought by the far-off and
powerful capital on the great river;[529] it was still more
encouraging to know that the frightful Nineveh had a strong enemy not
far from her own frontier. Merodach-Baladan's ambassadors would be
sure to inform Hezekiah that their lord had flung off the authority of
Sargon, had kept him at bay for many years, and was still the
undisputed king of the dominions snatched from the common enemy. It
might have seemed reasonable that Hezekiah, for his part, should
desire to leave the most favourable impression of his wealth and power
on the mind of his distant and magnificent ally. He "hearkened unto"
the ambassadors, or, more properly, "he was glad of them" (R.V.),[530]
and "showed them all the house of his spicery and other treasures, his
precious unguents, his armoury, his bullion, plate, and the whole
resources of his kingdom." The Chronicler regards this as ingratitude
to God. He says that "Hezekiah rendered not again according unto the
benefits done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there
was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem." It is a severe
judgment of later times, and the historian of the Kings pronounces no
such censure. Nevertheless, he records the stern sentence pronounced
by Isaiah. The prophet had seen through the secret diplomacy of the
Babylonian ambassadors, and knew that the real object of their mission
was to induce his king to revolt against Assyria in reliance on an arm
of flesh. He came to ask Hezekiah whose these men were, whence they
came, and what they had said. The king told him who they were, and how
he had received them; but he did not think it wise to reveal their
secret proposals. If Isaiah had so vehemently reproved all
negotiations with Egypt, there was little probability that he would
sanction the overtures of Babylon. He saw in Hezekiah's conduct a vein
of ostentatious elation, a swerving from theocratic faith; and with
remarkable prophetic insight convinced the king of the error and
impolicy of his proceedings, by announcing that the final and, in
fact, irrevocable captivity of Judah would ultimately come, not from
Nineveh, the fierce enemy, whose cloud of war was lurid on the
horizon, but from Babylon, the apparently weaker friend, who was now
making overtures of amity. With what heartrending grief must the king
have heard the doom that the display of his treasures would prove to
be in the future an incentive to the cupidity of the kings of Babylon,
and that they would sweep away all those precious things to the banks
of the Euphrates with such final overthrow that even the descendants
of David should be sunk to the infinite degradation of being eunuchs
in the palace of the King of Babylon.[531] The doom seems to have been
fulfilled in part in the reign of Hezekiah's son, and more fearfully
in the days of his great-grandchildren.[532]
The king's pride was humbled to the dust. In the spirit of Job--"The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord"[533]--he resigned himself without a murmur to the will of
Heaven, and exclaimed that all which God did must be well done. At
least God granted him a respite. Peace and truth would be in his own
days; for that let him be thankful. They were words of humble
resignation, uttered by one who had learnt to believe that whatever
God decreed was just and right.
It would be unjust to measure the feelings of those far centuries by
those of our own day, and there was none of the gross selfishness in
the words of Hezekiah which led Nero to quote the line--
"When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire";
or which led Louis XIV. to say--
"Après moi le déluge."
We may perhaps trace in his exclamation something of the fatalism
which gives a touch of apathy to the submissiveness of the Oriental.
Some, too, have imagined that his distress was tinged by a gleam of
happiness at the implicit promise that he should have a son. His
wife's name was Hephzibah ("My delight is in her"), and within two
years she brought forth the firstborn son, whose career, indeed, was
dark and evil, but who became in due time an ancestor of the promised
Messiah. The name "Manasseh" given him by his parents recalled the
child born to Joseph in the land of his exile who had caused him to
forget his sorrows.[534] Hezekiah had the spirit which says,--
"That which Thou blessest is most good,
And unblest good is ill;
And all is right which seems most wrong,
So it be Thy sweet will."
FOOTNOTES:
[512] One of the first to point out the _necessary_ rearrangement of
the events of Hezekiah's reign was Dr. Hincks, in his paper on "A
Rectification of Chronology which the newly discovered Apis-stêlês
render necessary" (_Journ. of Sacred Lit._, October 1858). See my
article on Hezekiah, Smith, _Dict. of the Bible_, 2nd ed., ii. 1251.
[513] Heb., _sh'chîn_; LXX., ἕλκος; Vulg., _ulcus_.
[514] The Rabbis even make his sickness the punishment for his having
neglected to secure an heir. He pleads that he foresaw the wickedness
of his son. Isaiah tells him not to try to forestall God (_Berachoth_,
f. 10, 1).
[515] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.
[516] Comp. 1 Kings xxi. 4 (Ahab).
[517] 2 Kings xx. 4. The _Q'rî_ or "read" text is, as here rendered,
_chatsee_ (comp. 1 Kings vii. 8), and is followed by the LXX. ( ἐν τῇ
αὐλῇ τῇ μέσῃ), by the Vulgate (_mediam partem atrii_), and by the A.V.
The R.V., which adopts the Kethîb or written text, _ha'îr_, renders it
"the middle part of the city." If this be the true reading, it would
mean that Isaiah had gone some distance from the palace, and was now
perhaps in the Valley between the Upper and the Lower City. But it
seems not improbable that (1) "the steps of Ahaz" would be in the
royal court, and (2) the answer of God, like the mercy of Christ to
the suffering, may have come promptly as an echo to the appealing cry.
[518] The LXX. calls "the stairs" ἀναβαθμοὺς τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου,
and so, too, Josephus (_Antt._, X. ii. 1). The Targum calls them "an
hour-stone." Symmachus has, στρέψω τὴν σκίαν τῶν γραμμῶν ἥ κατέβη ἐν
ὡρολογίῳ Ἀχάζ.
[519] It should, however, be observed that on the question of priority
critics are divided. Grotius, Vitringa, Paulus, Drechsler, etc.,
thought that the account in the Book of Isaiah is the original; De
Wette, Maurer, Koster, Winer, Driver, etc., regard that account as a
later abbreviation, perhaps from a common source.
[520] See Professor Lumby, _ad loc._
[521] There is an exactly similar sun-dial not far from Delhi.
[522] _Journ. of Asiatic Soc._, xv. 286-293.
[523] Figs have a recognised use for imposthumes. See Dioscorides and
Pliny quoted in Celsius, _Hierobot._, ii. 373. In the passage of
_Berachoth_ quoted above, Hezekiah in his sickness asks Isaiah to give
him his daughter in marriage, that he may have an heir. Isaiah replies
that the decree of his death is irrevocable. The king bids Isaiah
depart, and says (quoting Job xiii. 15) that a man must not despair,
even if a sword is laid on his neck.
[524] Comp. Psalm xlii. 4.
[525] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.
[526] The Babylonian form of his name is Marduk-habal-iddi-na--_i.e._,
"Merodach gave a son." He is the Mardokempados of the _Ptolemaic
Canon_, and the second fragment of his reign (six months) is mentioned
by Polyhistor (_ap._ Euseb.). Josephus calls him Baladan (_Antt._, X.
ii. 2). He was originally the prince of the Chaldæan _Bit Yakîm_.
Sargon calls him "Merodach-Baladan, the foe, the perverse, who,
contrary to the will of the great gods, ruled as king at Babylon." He
displaced him for a time by "Belibus, the son of a wise man, whom one
had reared like a little dog" (as we might say "like a tame cat") "in
my palace" (Schrader, ii. 32). In the Assyrian records he is often
called (by mistake?) "the son of Yakim." For the adventures of the
Babylonian hero, see Schrader, _K. A. T._, 213 ff., 224 ff., 227, and
in Riehm, _Handwörterbuch_, ii. 982.
[527] Isa. xiv. 4, xiii. 19.
[528] Gen. x. 10, 11, xi. 1-9.
[529] Jos., _Antt._, X. ii. 2: Σύμμαχόν τε αὐτὸν εἶναι παρεκάλει καὶ
φίλον.
[530] 2 Kings xx. 13. LXX., ἐχάρη.
[531] See Dan. i. 6.
[532] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.
[533] Job i. 21.
[534] Manasseh seems to mean "one who forgets." See Gen. xli. 51. It
was the name of the husband of Judith (Judith viii. 2), and is found
in Ezra x. 30, 33.