2 Kings 20:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

2 KINGS CHAPTER 20 Hezekiah receiving a message of death, by prayer hath his life lengthened; for a sign the sun goeth backward, 2 Kings 20:1-11. The king of Babylon's ambassadors come to Hezekiah with letters and a present; he showeth them all his treasures, 2 Kings 20:12-15; whereupon Isaiah foretelleth him the Babylonish captivity: he dieth; and Manasseh is king, 2 Kings 20:16-21. In those days, i.e. in that year of the Assyrian invasion, as is manifest from hence, that that was in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, 2 Kings 18:13, and God now added fifteen years more to him, 2 Kings 20:6; and yet Hezekiah reigned only twenty-nine years in all, 2 Kings 18:2. And this happened either, first, After the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Or, secondly, Before it, as may be thought from 2 Kings 20:6, where he speaks of his deliverance from the king of Assyria as a future thing. It is true, that when Hezekiah received that insolent message from the Assyrian, he was in health, and went into the temple to pray, 2 Kings 19:14; but there might be time more than enough for this sickness and recovery between that threatening and this destruction of the Assyrian. Set thine house in order; take care to make thy will, and to settle the affair of thy family and kingdom; which he the rather presseth upon him, because the state of his kingdom required it; for it is plain that Hezekiah had not as yet any son, Manasseh his heir and successor not being born till three years after this time, by comparing this 2 Kings 20:6, with 2 Kings 21:1. For thou shalt die, and not live; according to the course of nature, and of thy disease, which is mortal in its kind, and will be so in effect, if God doth not miraculously prevent it. Such threatenings, though absolutely expressed, have ofttimes secret conditions, which God reserves in his own breast: see Jonah 3:4.