2 Kings 20:3

2Ki 20:3 I beseech thee, 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. And Hezekiah wept sore.

Ver. 3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now.] Obsecro Domine, memento quaeso. Words full of incitation. The first word Ana - affectum significat et impetum - is very affectionate and forcible.

How I have walked before thee.] Indesinenter ambulavi, I have constantly walked before thee, and not by fits, or for a few turns. One interpreter noteth that the word here used signifieth, I have made myself to walk; implying his own dulness, sluggishness, averseness to that duty.

In truth, and with a perfect heart,] i.e., In sincerity and integrity. Uprightness hath boldness; Subeo bona (per gratiam Dei) conscientia tribunal Christi, said dying Oeeolampadius, I go before Christ’s tribunal with a good conscience. This is my comfort, said Mr Deering, that I have faithfully served my Lord God, and with an upright conscience. I am neither ashamed to live, nor afraid to die, said another saint. Let him fear death who is passing from this death to the second death. {a}

And have done that which is good.] For matter, manner, and motive. I have known, said a worthy doctor, {b} now with God, some godly men, whose comfort upon their deathbeds hath been, not from the inward acts of their mind - which apart considered, might be subject to misapprehensions, - but from the course of obedience in their lives issuing from there.

And Hezekiah wept sore.] Heb., With a great weeping. See on 2Ki 20:2. Now if the message of death made this good man weep sore, and the approach of it was mar mar, bitter bitterness, {Isa 38:17} what marvel if such a one as Saul swoon quite away at it, and fall to the earth in his full length, as in 1Sa 28:20? Death is dreadful in his best looks, as is the lion, though his teeth and claws be beaten out; or as the hawk to the partridge; or as a serpent’s skin, though but stuffed with straw. To the wicked, death is a trap door to hell: they may say of it, as once Elisha did, {2Ki 6:32} Behold, the murderer is at hand; and is not the sound of his master’s feet - the devil - behind him? hence their loath to depart, &c. But why should a saint be fond of life, or afraid of death, since to him it is but as his father’s horse, to carry him to his father’s house, or as Joseph’s chariot rattling with its wheels, to carry old Jacob to his son Joseph, so him to Christ?

{a} Mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit. - Cyprian.

{b} Church’s Carriage, by Dr Preston.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 20:3. Remember how I have walked before thee in truth — Sincerely, with an honest mind. I am not conscious to myself of any exorbitances, for which thou art wont to shorten men’s days. And Hezekiah wept sore — “Under the law, long life and uninterrupted health were promised as the rewards of obedience, and premature death was denounced as a punishment; see Exo 20:12; Deu 5:33; and Deu 30:16. When we reflect on this, we need not be surprised at the sorrow which this good king expressed at his approaching dissolution. He looked upon it as a punishment, and consequently as a mark of the divine displeasure. Other reasons too might strongly operate upon a good mind. The suddenness of this terrible and unexpected denunciation; the unsettled state both of his public and domestic affairs; and the natural dread of death inherent in the human mind, which might in this case possibly be augmented from a sense of his own defects, and from a thorough persuasion that God was displeased at him, by cutting him off in such a manner, in the very flower of his age, and when his kingdom and family particularly required his best assistance. However, be the reasons what they might, it behooves us certainly to judge with great candour of a prince, whose character is so good as that of Hezekiah: and, perhaps, blessed as we are, with a clearer knowledge of a future state than Hezekiah enjoyed, there are but few who can look upon death, awful as it is even to the best, without some degree of very serious concern.” — Dodd.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Meaning, without all hypocrisy.

Not so much for his own death, as for fear that idolatry should be restored, which he had destroyed, and so God’s Name be dishonored.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

remember now how I have walked before thee, &c.--The course of Hezekiah's thoughts was evidently directed to the promise made to David and his successors on the throne (Kg1 8:25). He had kept the conditions as faithfully as human infirmity admitted; and as he had been all along free from any of those great crimes by which, through the judgment of God, human life was often suddenly cut short, his great grief might arise partly from the love of life, partly from the obscurity of the Mosaic dispensation, where life and immortality had not been fully brought to light, and partly from his plans for the reformation of his kingdom being frustrated by his death. He pleaded the fulfilment of the promise.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. I beseech thee, O Lord] Hezekiah knew that, although the words of Isaiah were delivered to him in an absolute form, yet they were to be conditionally understood, else he could not have prayed to God to reverse a purpose which he knew to be irrevocable. Even this passage is a key to many prophecies and Divine declarations: see chap. 18 of Jeremiah.

Hezekiah pleads his uprightness and holy conduct in his own behalf. Was it impious to do so? No; but it certainly did not savour much either of humility or of a due sense of his own weakness. If he had a perfect heart, who made it such?-God. If he did good in God's sights who enabled him to do so?-God. Could he therefore plead in his behalf dispositions and actions which he could neither have felt nor practiced but by the power of the grace of God? I trow not. But the times of this ignorance God winked at. The Gospel teaches us a different lesson.

Wept sore.] How clouded must his prospects of another world have been! But it is said that, as he saw the nation in danger from the Assyrian army, which was then invading it, and threatened to destroy the religion of the true God, he was greatly affected at the news of his death, as he wished to live to see the enemies of God overthrown. And therefore God promises that he will deliver the city out of the hands of the king of Assyria, at the same time that he promises him a respite of fifteen years, 2Kg 20:6. His lamentation on this occasion may be seen in Isaiah, Isa 38:9-22.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(3) Remember now how I have walked . . .—Hezekiah deprecates an untimely death—the punishment of the wicked (Pro_10:27)—on account of his zeal for Jehovah and against the idols. As Thenius remarks, there is nothing surprising in his apparent self-praise if we remember such passages as Psa_18:20; Psa_7:8; Neh_13:14. Josephus sets down the poignancy of his sorrow to childlessness, and makes him pray to be spared until he get a son; but this is merely an instance of that “midrashitic” enlargement of the narrative which we find elsewhere in that historian.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now] R.V. Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee. The R.V. adopts the order of the words in Isaiah.

It was only at a moment of great elation and prosperity that Hezekiah forgat God. The testimony which he himself bears to his own character appears to be generally true. He must have lived as a God-fearing son under an idolatrous father. When he came to the throne, while he had the work of purifying God’s worship in hand, and the Philistines were not driven out of Judah, he did all things well. But after some prosperous years he had himself to own to Sennacherib ‘I have offended’. During the war with Assyria he set a noble example. When the pressure was removed he gave way for a short time to pride and a boastful spirit. Moreover his care for his son’s training, if we may judge by Manasseh’s life when he became king, can hardly have been so zealous as we might expect from a father whose youth had been passed amid the difficulties of an idolatrous court. Altogether Hezekiah is one of those characters which shine brightest in adversity.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Remember now - The old covenant promised temporal prosperity, including length of days, to the righteous. Hezekiah, conscious of his faithfulness and integrity 2Ki 18:3-6, ventures to expostulate (compare also 2Ki 21:1 note). According to the highest standard of morality revealed up to this time, there was nothing unseemly in the self vindication of the monarch, which has many parallels in the Psalms of David (Psa 7:3-10; Psa 18:19-26; Psa 26:1-8, etc.).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Before thee. The saints of the old law frequently mention their good works, (Psalm vii. 9., &c., and 2 Esdras xiii. 14.) which is less common in those of the new. When God rewards our good works, he only crowns his own gifts. (Calmet) --- Ezechias had sincerely desired to please God, though he might have given way to some imperfections, ver. 1. (Haydock) --- Weeping; because he thought that the Messias would not be one of his posterity, as he had yet no children, chap. xxi. 1. (St. Jerome) --- The saints of the Old Testament could only be received into Abraham’s bosom. We may be with Christ immediately after death; so that it is far less terrible, Philippians i. 23. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

In truth, i.e. sincerely, with an honest mind, as the following words explain it. I have in some measure (human frailty excepted) kept the condition which thou didst require, 1Ki 8:25, and therefore do humbly beg of thee that the promise made to David and to his posterity upon that condition may not fail in my person, for as yet thou hast not given me a son. See Poole "2Ki 20:1". I am not conscious to myself of any gross exorbitances in the course of my life, for which thou usest to shorten men’s days, and cut off my life in thy displeasure, which by this sharp message thou threatenest to do.

Hezekiah wept sore; partly for that horror of death which is and was common to men, especially in the times of the Old Testament, when the grace of God in Christ was not so fully manifested as now it is; and principally for the distracted and miserable condition in which the church and state were then likely to be left, through the uncertainty of the succession to the crown, and the great proneness of the people to backslide to their false worship and evil practices; which he easily perceived, and which he knew would bring far worse calamities upon them if he were removed, as afterwards it came to pass.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. I have walked before thee in truth — He appeals to his piety and zeal for Jehovah, as evinced by his destruction of idolatry and trust in God, which were matters of record. Compare 2Ki_18:3-7. This language of the king is not to be regarded as self-praise. “Hezekiah stood in the economy of the Old Testament, that is, in the economy of legal righteousness; the entire revelation of the Old Testament is concentrated in the Law of Moses, as that of the New Testament is concentrated in the Gospel; so that to walk according to this law is not to be morally pure and free from sin, but to serve Jehovah as the only God, to fear him, to trust him, and to love him with all the heart. Hezekiah could say all this without pharisaical self-praise, just as well as Paul could say, without self-righteousness, ‘I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith.’” — Bahr.

Wept sore — Wept greatly, or violently. Josephus says, he was afflicted because he had no heir to succeed him in the kingdom. Such a fact may have increased his grief, for it appears from 2Ki_20:6, compared with 2Ki_21:1, that his son and successor, Manasseh, was born three years after this; but his chief agony seems to have been that he was about to be cut off in the midst of life, and such a calamity was looked upon as a stroke of Divine anger, and evidence of great wickedness. See Job_15:32; Job_22:16; Psa_55:23; Pro_10:27; Ecc_7:17. It is easy to see, then, why Hezekiah appeals so earnestly to his righteous acts. It is not in self-praise, but in self-vindication.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart. There is no Pharisaical self-righteousness here. Hezekiah is conscious that he has honestly endeavored to serve God, and to do his will that, whatever may have been his shortcomings, his heart has been right towards God. He ventures, therefore, on something like expostulation. Why is he to be cut off in the midst of his days, at the age of thirty-nine, when such a wicked king as Uzziah has lived to be sixty-eight, (2Ki_15:2) and Rehoboam to be fifty-eight? (1Ki_14:21) It is to be remembered that, under the old covenant, length of days was expressly promised to the righteous, (Pro_3:2 Pro_9:11 Pro_10:27, etc.) and that a shortened life was the proclaimed penalty of wicked-doing (Job_15:32, 33 22:16; Pro_10:27) Hezekiah"s self-assertion is thus a sort of laying hold of God"s promises. And have done that which is flood in thy sight; comp. 2Ki_18:3-6; and note the similar pleadings of David, With my whole heart have I sought thee"; (Psa_119:10) "I have remembered thy Name, O Lord, and have kept thy Law. This I had because I kept thy commandments", (Psa_119:55, Psa_119:56) and the like. And Hezekiah wept sore. Human nature shrinks from death instinctively, and it requires a very vivid imagination for even the Christian in middle life to feel with St. Paul, that "it is better for him to depart and to be with Christ." The Hebrew of Hezekiah"s time had far mere reason to regard death as an evil. His hopes of a life beyond the grave were feeble his conceptions of the life, if life there were, faint and unattractive. Sheol, like Hades, was a vague, awful, terrible thing. If we consider Hezekiah"s words, "The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee", (Isa_38:18, Isa_38:19) we may understand how the Hebrew shrank from the fearful change. And in Hezekiah"s case there was a yet further reason for grief Hezekiah had as yet no male offspring (Josephus, "Ant. Jud:," 10:2. Manasseh was as yet unborn. (comp. ver. 6 with 2Ki_21:1) If he died now, his house would be cut off, he would be without posterity a sore grief to every Hebrew. Ewald"s references to Isa_38:19 and Isa_39:7, as indicative of Hezekiah having sons at the time, are absolutely without value.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In truth - Sincerely with an honest mind. I am not conscious to myself of any gross exorbitances, for which thou usest to shorten mens days. Wept - For that horror of death which is and was common to men, especially, in the times of the Old Testament, when the grace of God in Christ was not so fully manifested, as now it is: and, for the distracted condition in which the church and state were then likely to be left, through the uncertainty of the succession to the crown.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.