2 Kings 22:19

2Ki 22:19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard [thee], saith the LORD.

Ver. 19. Because thine heart was tender.] How happy a thing is it, saith a reverend man, to be a reed unto God’s judgments, rather than an oak! The meek and gentle reed stoops, and therefore stands. The oak stands stiffly out against the strongest gust, and therefore is turned up by the roots.

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_22:19

Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord.

The tender heart

I. The circumstances in which such a character may be placed and tried.

1. It may often have to contend with great difficulties. Observe the illustration of this in the history before us.

2. It may sometimes be surrounded by external difficulties.

3. A tender heart may sometimes misunderstand, and therefore misinterpret, the follies and frailties of other Christians. There must be the knowledge of evil as well as of good in the Christian as in the common life. Stumbling-blocks will be found, though deeply to be deplored, in every section of the Christian Church.

II. Some of the indications of a tender heart. All life reveals itself. The tiniest herb or flower that drinks the morning dew reveals itself. Life cannot be hid, and that because it is life. Not always in the same manner, but always in some manner; for as external life is full of variety, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth on the wall, so inward religious life has its manifold phases, full of variety, full of beauty, and all significant of their Divine origin. Let us notice some--

1. There will be thoughtful interest in religious truth. We cannot conceive of the commencement, much less of the continuation, of a religious life in connection with thoughtlessness.

2. There will be practical co-operation in works of religious activity. Religious life has ever holy work to do, as holy words to say. The commencement of this new life starts with the question, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

3. There will be devout interest in religious assemblies. The object of Christian assemblies is one--the worship of God and the edification of the Church. In proportion as our heart is penetrated with the ideas proper to, and regulated by the principles of, the Christian life, there will not only be the desire but the determination to avail ourselves of seasons of religious worship for purposes of spiritual improvement.

4. There will be also personal determination to secure religious progress. First the blade, but afterwards, if the blade is healthy, there will be the ear: lovely is the blade in all its tenderness and vigour, so in its season is the maturing ear, that gives promise of the fully ripened and perfectly developed corn in the ear.

III. The blessedness of having a tender heart. Because,

1. It is the disposition produced by the influences of Gods Spirit. It is God who worketh in us both to will and to do. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above

2. Because it will prevent great irregularity if not sinfulness of life. Religion subtracts nothing from the real enjoyment of life. The happiest transaction of life is the hour of consecration to God.

3. Because a tender heart is the sure sign of a regenerate one. And whom He did, etc. (Rom_8:29.) (W. G. Barrett.)

Humility the grace of graces

I was always exceedingly pleased with that saying of Chrysostom, says Calvin, The foundation of our philosophy is humility. And yet more pleased with that of Augustine. As, says he, the rhetorican being asked was what the first thing in the rules of eloquence, he answered, Pronunciation. What was the second, Pronunciation. What was the third, still he answered, Pronunciation So if you ask me concerning the graces of the Christian character, I would answer, firstly, secondly, and thirdly, and for ever, humility. And thus it is that God sets open His school for teaching us humility every day. Humility is the grace of graces for us sinners to learn. There is nothing again like it, and we must have a continual training and exercise in it. You learn to pronounce by your clients complaining that they cannot hear you, and that they must carry their cases to another advocate unless you learn to speak better. And, as you must either please your patrons or die of starvation, you put pebbles in your month and you go out to recite by yourself by the riverside till your rhetoric is fit for a Greek judge and jury to sit and hear. And so with humility, which is harder to learn than the best Greek accent. You must go to all the schools, and put yourself under all the disciplines that the great experts practise, if you would put on this humility. And the schools of God to which He puts His great saints are such as these. You will be set second to other men every day. Other men will be put over your head everyday. Rude men will ride roughshod over your head every day. God will set His rudest men, of whom He has whole armies, upon you every day to judge you, and to find fault with you, and to correct you, and to blame you, and to take their business away from you to a better--to a better than you can ever be with all the pebbles that ever river rolled. Ay, He will take you in hand Himself, and He will set you and will keep you in a low place. (Alex. Whyte, D. D.)

Humbleness the work of true Christian

John Newton wrote a book about grace in the blade, and grace in the ear, and grace in the full corn in the ear. A very talkative body said to him, I have been reading your valuable book, Mr. Newton; it is a splendid work; and when I came to that part, the full corn in the ear I thought how wonderfully you had described me. Oh, replied Mr. Newton, but you could not have read the book rightly, for it is one of the marks of the full corn in the ear, that it hangs its head very low. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 22:19. Because thy heart was tender — Here are four tokens of true repentance and conversion to God in Josiah: 1st, Tenderness, or softness of heart, in opposition to that hardness which arises from unbelief of God’s declarations and threatenings: he trembled at God’s word: he was grieved for the dishonour done to God by the sins of the people: and he was afraid of the judgments of God, which he saw coming on Jerusalem. This is tenderness of heart; and proceeded in Josiah from his faith in God’s word. 2d, Great humility: he abased himself before the divine majesty, conscious of his own sinfulness and guilt before God, and unworthiness of the goodness God had shown him. These two qualities were internal. The two others were outward tokens of this inward sense of things; namely, rending his clothes, and weeping before God, for his own and the public offences, followed by all possible endeavours to effect a reformation in the people.

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

Meaning, that he did repent, as they that do not repent, are said to harden their heart, Ps. 95:8.

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

Verse 19. Because thine heart was tender] Because thou hast feared the Lord, and trembled at his word and hast wept before me, l have heard thee, so far that these evils shall not come upon the land in thy lifetime.

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

(19) Tender.—See 1Ch_29:1; 1Ch_13:7; Deu_20:8.

Hast humbled thyself.—Comp. the behaviour of Ahab (1Ki_21:27 seq.).

Become a desolation and a curse.—See Jer_44:22. “A curse” is not so much an instance of causa pro effectu (Thenius), as a specification of the type such as would be made in blessing and cursing. (Comp. Jer_29:22; Gen_48:20; Rth_4:11-12.)

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

19. thine heart was tender] The adjective is often used of those that are fainthearted and feeble. Here it has a good sense and means ‘easily touched’, ‘susceptible’.

and thou hast humbled [R.V. didst humble] thyself] For grace shewn to such humiliation even in a worse case cf. 1Ki_21:29.

I also have heard thee] The sentence implies ‘Because thou didst hear me’.

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.

Because thine heart was tender,.... Soft like wax, and susceptible of impressions; or was "moved", or "trembled", as the Targum; for God has respect to such as are of contrite hearts, and tremble at his word, Isa 66:2,

and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord; external humiliation, such as in Ahab, was regarded by the Lord, much more internal and cordial humiliation is regarded by him, see Kg1 21:29,

when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse; as in Lev 26:1.

and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; as expressive of the inward contrition, sorrow, and grief of his heart:

I also have heard thee, saith the Lord: his cries and prayers.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

See the marginal references.

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

19. Thine heart was tender — Yielding and impressible.

A desolation and a curse — These words indicate that Leviticus 26 (compare especially Lev_22:31-32) had also been read before the king.

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

Because thine heart was tender or, faint, timid. (comp. Deu_20:3; Isa_7:4) and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord. Rending the garments (ver. 11) was an outward act of humiliation. Josiah had accompanied it by inward repentance and self-abasement. He had even been moved to tears (see the last clause but one of this verse). When thou heartiest what I spake against this place. The book was, therefore, a record of what God had really spoken, not a fraud imposed on the king by the high priest, or on the high priest (Ewald, "History of Israel," vol. 4. p.235) by an unknown Egyptian exile. And against the inhabitants thereof; that they should become a desolation and a curse. This is not a direct quotation from the Law, but a summary, in pregnant language, of the general effect of such passages as Lev_26:31-35 and Deu_28:15-20. The language is like that of Jer_26:6 Jer_41:18 Jer_44:22. And hast rent thy clothes (see ver. 11), and wept before me. This had not been previously stated, but might have been gathered from Josiah"s evident sincerity, and from the ordinary habits of Orientals. (comp. 2Ki_8:11 2Ki_13:14 2Ki_20:3) I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. The general sense of vers. 18, 19, is, as Bahr notes, "Because thou hast heard me and taken heed to my threats, I also have heard thee, and will delay their fulfillment."

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

Tender - He trembled at God's word. He was grieved for the dishonour done to God by the sins of his people. He was afraid of the judgments of God, which he saw coming on Jerusalem. This is tenderness of heart.

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