only remarks, in 2Ch 32:16, “And yet more spake his (Sennacherib's) servants against God Jahve, and against His servant Hezekiah;” and then, in 2Ch 32:17, that Sennacherib also wrote a letter of similar purport, and (2Ch 32:18) that his servants called with a loud voice in the Jews' speech to the people of Jerusalem upon the wall, to throw them into fear and terrify them, that they might take the city. What they called to the people is not stated, but by the infinit. וּלבהלם ליראם it is hinted, and thence we may gather that it was to the same effect as the blasphemous speeches above quoted (יראם, inf. Pi., as in Neh 6:19). - On comparing 2 Kings 18 and 19, it is clear that Sennacherib only sent the letter to Hezekiah after his general Rabshakeh had informed him of the fruitlessness of his efforts to induce the people of Jerusalem to submit by speeches, and the news of the advance of the Cushite king Tirhakah had arrived; while the calling aloud in the Jews' language to the people standing on the wall, on the part of his generals, took place in the first negotiation with the ambassadors of Hezekiah. The author of the Chronicle has arranged his narrative rhetorically, so as to make the various events form a climax: first, the speeches of the servants of Sennacherib; then the king's letter to Hezekiah to induce him and his counsellors to submit; and finally, the attempt to terrify the people in language intelligible to them. The conclusion is the statement, 2Ch 32:19 : “They spake of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of the hands of man;” cf. 2Ki 19:18.
Verse 20
2Ch 32:20Prayer of King Hezekiah and of the prophet Isaiah for the help of the Lord. - 2Ch 32:20. The main contents of Hezekiah's prayer are communicated in 2Ki 19:14-19 and Isa 37:15-19. There it is not expressly said that Isaiah also prayed, but it may be inferred from the statement in 2Ki 19:2. and Isa 37:2. that Hezekiah sent a deputation to the prophet with the request that he would pray for the people. In answer Isaiah promised the ambassadors deliverance, as the word of the Lord. זאת על, on account of this, i.e., on account of the contempt shown for the God of Israel, which was emphatically dwelt upon both in the prayer of Hezekiah (2Ki 19:16) and in the word of Isaiah, v. 22ff.
Verse 21
The deliverance: cf. 2Ki 19:35.; Isa 37:36. The number of Assyrians smitten by the angel of the Lord is not stated, as it was not of importance, the main fact being that the
