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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
32:1 Sennacherib king of Assyria came. The invasion of Judah by the Assyrians began in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign (II Kings 18:13). Eight years earlier (II Kings 18:10,11), Israel had fallen to the Assyrians and had been carried captive into Assyria. Although it is not mentioned specifically, this invasion no doubt caused many refugees from the northern kingdom to flee south into Judah, a factor which would have contributed still further to the permanent representation of all twelve tribes of Israel in the land of Judah. Because of Hezekiah’s revival, however, the wicked Assyrian hordes would not be allowed by God to conquer Judah as they had Israel.
32:2 when Hezekiah saw. Until this time, the Assyrians had been so occupied with conquering Israel and other nations in the region that Hezekiah had been able more or less to ignore them. His father Ahaz had tried unsuccessfully to bribe Tiglath-Pileser into an alliance, paying much tribute in the process (II Chronicles 28:21), but Hezekiah had “rebelled against the king of Assyria (II Kings 18:7). In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year, however, the Assyrians were ready to attack Jerusalem and Judah (II Kings 18:13). As his father had done, Hezekiah attempted now to pay belated tribute to Sennacherib, but this was not what the Assyrian wanted (II Kings 18:14-16). Probably the latter was expecting eventually to invade Egypt and would need to control Judah to do so.
32:5 another wall without. Remains of Hezekiah’s outer wall have been excavated in recent times, thus confirming still further the historicity of the Biblical records.
32:7 more with us. Hezekiah had perhaps heard or read about Elisha’s host and the miraculous deliverance of Samaria (II Kings 6:16-23; 7:6-7).
32:19 gods of the people. This equating of “the God of Jerusalem,” who is the true God of creation, with “the gods of the people of the earth,” who are evil spirits and whose images are mere constructs of men’s hands or men’s philosophical speculations, is actually blasphemy, and such action cannot go unpunished forever. It is forbidden in the very first of God’s ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-5).
32:22 saved Hezekiah. The famous “Sennacherib Prism” contains the boast of Sennacherib that he had conquered forty-six cities of Judah. However, he only could claim that he had “besieged” Hezekiah like a “caged bird” in Jerusalem.