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good example of their excellent sovereign, and a regular attendance on public worship, had produced such happy effects on their minds, that they readily obeyed the command which Hezekiah had previously given, and listened to the vain boastings of Rab-shakeh with silent indignation. A great resemblance may be observed between the threats of the Assyrians, and those of the haughty power which is at this time the rod of God's anger, the staff of his indignation.'

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HEZEKIAH'S HUMILIATION HIS PRAYER.

From 2 Kings, Chap. xviii, xix.

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THEN Game Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the boushold, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their cloaths rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.

And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his cloaths and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of t of the LORD.

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And he sent Eliakim, which was over the houshold, and Shebna the scribe, and and the e elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

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And they said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy.

It may be the LORD thy GOD will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living GoD: and will reprove the words which the LORD thy GOD hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.

So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah..
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your

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master,

master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

So Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

And when he heard say of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy Goo in whom thou, trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of dotter de to no ads midail

Assyria.

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sera padidint Behold, thou hast heard What the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Thelazar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Henal, letter of the hand of the and Ivah ?>»> And Hezekia s received

messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD GOD of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the GoD, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

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LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib; who hath sent him to reproach the living Gop.

Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed

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the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore have they destroyed them.

Now therefore, O LORD our GOD, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD GOD, even thou only.

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ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

The behaviour of Hezekiah, when he received the insulting message of the Assyrian king, was perfectly suited. to the occasion, and expressive of the sorrow he felt at the indignity offered to the LORD GOD.

The answer which Isaiah returned in the name of the LORD, must have afforded great consolation to the good king Hezekiah; and his prediction, that Sennacherib. should hear a rumour, and return to his own land, was soon verified; for the Assyrian monarch was informed, that the king of Ethiopia intended to make war against him, on which he departed from Lachish to defend his own country, instead of going to the siege of Jerusalem, and when Rab-shakeh came to inform him of his lateproceedings, he found Sennacherib fully engaged in another war; however he wrote a haughty letter to Hezekiah, in which he repeated the message which Rabshakeh had before delivered. Hezekiah justly considered. this as a presumptuous defiance of the ALMIGHTY GOD, and prayed the LORD to take the cause into his own hands, and maintain the honour of his holy name, not doubting but that he could deliver him and his peoplefrom the power of the Assyrian king..

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SECTION CII.

GOD'S MESSAGE TO HEZEKIAH.

From 2 Kings, Chap. xix.

THEN Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD GOD of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him: The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn, the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of ~Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar-trees thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.

I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

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Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

Therefore the inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corm blasted before it be grown up..

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But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit up

ward.

For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion; the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this..

Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lond.

For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

The prayer which Hezekiah had offered up, was so perfectly agreeable to the Divine will, and so suitable to his own character, as captain of the LORD's inheritance, that the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to comfort him immediately, with an assurance of the LORD's approbation and protection.

How awful was the message sent to the king of As

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