Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 32
1. After this and such a truth, Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians came, and entering into Juda, besieged the fenced cities, thinking to take them. 2. And when Ezechias saw this, that Sennacherib was come, and that the whole force of the war was turned against Jerusalem, 3. he took counsel with the princes and the most valiant men, to stop up the heads of the fountains that were without the city: and all agreeing to this, 4. he gathered together a very great multitude, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran in the midst of the land, saying: Lest the kings of the Assyrians should come, and find abundance of waters. 5. He built also with great diligence all the wall that had been broken down, and built towers upon it, and another wall without: and he repaired Mello in the city of David, and made armour of all kinds, and shields, 6. and he appointed captains of the soldiers in the army: and he called them all together in the street of the gate of the city, and spoke to their heart, saying: 7. Behave like men, and take courage: fear not, nor be dismayed at the king of the Assyrians, and all the multitude that is with him: for there are many more with us than with him. 8. For with him is an arm of flesh: with us the Lord our God, who is our helper, and fighteth for us. And the people were encouraged with the words of Ezechias king of Juda. 9. After these things Sennacherib king of the Assyrians sent his servants to Jerusalem (for he himself with all his army besieged Lachis) to Ezechias king of Juda, and to all the people that were in the city, saying: 10. Thus saith Sennacherib king of the Assyrians: In whom do you trust, that you sit besieged in Jerusalem? 11. Doth not Ezechias deceive you, to deliver you up to die by famine and thirst, affirming that the Lord your God will deliver you out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians? 12. Is not this that Ezechias that destroyed his high places and altars, and commanded Juda and Jerusalem, saying: You shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it? 13. Do you not know what I have done, and my fathers, to all the peoples of the lands? Have the gods of the nations and of all the lands been able to deliver their country out of my hand? 14. Who is there among all the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God also can deliver you out of this hand? 15. Let not Ezechias therefore deceive you, nor deceive you with a vain persuasion, neither do you believe him. For if no god of all the nations and kingdoms could deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers, consequently neither will your God be able to deliver you out of my hand. 16. And his servants spoke many other things against the Lord God, and against his servant Ezechias. 17. He wrote also letters full of blasphemy against the Lord the God of Israel, and spoke against him: As the gods of the other nations could not deliver their people out of my hand, so neither can the God of Ezechias deliver his people out of this hand. 18. Moreover he cried out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language against the people that sat on the walls of Jerusalem, to frighten them, and take the city. 19. And he spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the works of men’s hands. 20. Then king Ezechias, and the prophet Isaias the son of Amos, prayed against this blasphemy, and cried up to heaven. 21. And the Lord sent an Angel, who slew every valiant man and warrior, and the captain of the army of the king of the Assyrians: and he returned with disgrace into his own country. And when he was come into the house of his god, his sons that came out of his bowels slew him with the sword. 22. And the Lord saved Ezechias and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of the Assyrians, and from the hand of all, and gave them rest round about. 23. And many brought victims and sacrifices to the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Ezechias king of Juda: who was exalted after this in the sight of all nations. 24. In those days Ezechias was sick unto death, and he prayed to the Lord: and he heard him, and gave him a sign. 25. But he did not render again according to the benefits which he had received, for his heart was lifted up: and wrath was upon him, and upon Juda and Jerusalem. 26. And he was humbled afterwards because his heart had been lifted up, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and therefore the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Ezechias. 27. And Ezechias was exceeding rich and glorious, and he gathered to himself great treasures of silver, and gold, and precious stones, of spices, and of armour of all kinds, and of vessels of great price. 28. Storehouses also of corn, wine, and oil, and stalls for all kinds of beasts, and folds for the flocks, 29. and he built cities for himself: for he had innumerable flocks of sheep and herds, because the Lord had given him exceeding much substance. 30. This is that Ezechias who stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and turned them away underground to the west of the city of David: in all his works he did prosperously what he would. 31. Yet in the embassy of the princes of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened upon the earth, God left him, that he might be tried, and all that was in his heart might be made known. 32. Now the rest of the acts of Ezechias, and of his mercies, are written in the vision of Isaias the son of Amos the prophet, and in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel. 33. And Ezechias slept with his fathers, and they buried him over the sepulchres of the sons of David: and all Juda and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem celebrated his funeral: and Manasses his son reigned in his stead.
I explained this chapter on Isaias, chapters XXXVI, XXXVII, and XXXVIII.
Verse 1. After this and such a truth Sennacherib came,—as if to say: After these things truly done by Ezechias, and truly related by me, God, wishing to prove, exercise, and perfect the piety, virtue, and confidence which Ezechias had in God, permitted Sennacherib to come and invade Judea.
Verse 4. The brook (the fountain Gihon, as is clear from verse 30), that ran in the midst of the land,—namely that which adjoined Jerusalem; as if to say: Ezechias stopped the waters, and especially the fountain Gihon in part, so as to consume the camp of Sennacherib with thirst; in part by digging through the rock he turned them into the wells of the city, that the besieged Jews might have water for drink and the other uses. See what I said on Ecclesiasticus XLVII, 19.
Verse 21. The Lord sent an Angel.
Herodotus in Euterpe perverted this history, saying that Sennacherib invaded Egypt, but was put to flight by the priest of Vulcan through mice sent in, which gnawed the bows and arms of the Assyrians; for he substitutes Egypt for Judea, a priest for Ezechias, Vulcan for God, mice for the Angel. Moreover Sennacherib himself, in so great a slaughter of his men, almost alone, “was therefore preserved,” says St. Jerome on chapter XXX of Isaias, “that he might know the power of God and stop the mouths of blasphemers, and become a witness of that majesty which a little before he had despised. Pharao also is preserved in the ten plagues of Egypt, that he might perish last: which this man also suffered.” It was fitting that the man be punished by the very grave loss of a vast and most flourishing army and of the greatest riches; which loss he would not have felt, if he had perished in a moment with his men. It was fitting that he undergo incredible disgrace among his own, by whose fault or inexperience so great a slaughter had struck a most powerful kingdom. It was fitting, finally, that he suffer a far more bitter death, and by every means exercised on a man of his kind: for with many blows of swords, as appears, he was to be stabbed, and by his sons, and in a place consecrated to his deity. So Salianus. There is no doubt that in this slaughter Rabsaces was slain by the Angel, and more tormented, as one blaspheming against God and cursing Ezechias: moreover by the rich spoils of so many slain Assyrians Ezechias and the Jews were enriched.
His sons (Adramelech and Sarasar) slew him with the sword.—The reason is given by R. Solomon, and from him Lyranus: that Sennacherib, to appease the gods the authors of so great a slaughter, wished to sacrifice to them these two sons; but they, scenting it out, forestalled their father and killed him. Moreover Sennacherib, having received the defeat in Judea, fled and returned to his Ninive; where he raged against the Jews, and killed many; so that Tobias, burying them, stripped of all his goods, escaped death by flight, after which flight, in 48 days, Sennacherib was slain by his sons: all which is related in Tobias, chapter I, verse 21 and following. The same reason of R. Solomon St. Jerome gives in the Traditions. And the same from the Hebrew text of Tobias, chapter I, Serarius relates, and Genebrard in the Chronology.
Another reason Lyranus and Abulensis bring in 4 Kings chapter XV, question XXXI, namely that Sennacherib was slain by his two elder sons, because the father, passing them over, wished Assarhaddon, the younger in age, to be successor to the kingdom. The cause of this choice the Scholastic History refers to the love with which Sennacherib was attached to the mother of Assarhaddon. This is thought to have been the cause why long before Roboam preferred Abia the son of Maacha to his other sons, as is clear from 2 Paralipomenon XI, 22. A truer and surer reason is that which Theodoret brings in 4 Kings, saying: “Because he had been stirred up with rage against God who had made him, he was slain by those who had been begotten of him.”
in the dial of Achaz, of which I treated at length on Isaias, chapter XXXVII.