- 107-
** The critics who suppose a mutual dependence of the two narratives are somewhat
evenly divided as to the priority of the one or the other. It will be understood that all here
rests chiefly on conjectural grounds.
*** This view, which seems to us most accordant with facts, and simplest, has been
adopted by many of the ablest writers of both schools of criticism.
It is another question whether this original account "in the Book of the Kings of Judah
and Israel" was not written by the prophet Isaiah himself, as seems indicated in 2
Chronicles 32:32.* In any case, the narrative in the Book of Chronicles, which, in
accordance with its general spirit, so largely dwells on the Temple reformation of
Hezekiah, seems an abbreviated summary of the two other accounts, although containing
some notable peculiarities of its own.**
- Presumably these "prophetic annals" were the same as those referred to in 2 Kings
20:20.
** With these it is obviously impossible to deal in a book like the present. The reader
must be asked to believe that what is passed over does not involve any critical difficulty
requiring special discussion.
The Biblical narrative opens with a brief reference to the first part of the campaign, when
Sennacherib detached a corps which laid waste Judah and took the principal towns along
the route* (2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 36:1). In 2 Chronicles 32:1-8, the various preparations
are also noticed** which Hezekiah had made, with advice of "his princes and mighty
men," when he felt certain of the danger threatening Jerusalem.
- The expression, 2 Chronicles 32:1, "And purposed [lit., 'spake'] to win [or 'break up']
them for himself," may refer to the detaching of the conquered towns from Judah, and
their annexation to his Phoenician and Philistine vassals, of which the Assyrian
monuments make mention.
** Not necessarily all at one time, but all before the Assyrian advance from Lachish.
First among them was the cutting off of the water-supply for a besieging army. To the
west of Jerusalem runs from north to south the valley of Gihon. The rain-water and that
coming from the hills around was stored in two pools, the upper (Isaiah 22:11 - the
modern Birket Mamilla), and the lower (Isaiah 22:9 -the modern Pool of the Patriarch*),
which were connected by an open conduit.
- But, according to some, the modern Birket-es-Sultan.
(^)