3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.
And I gave the Levites orders to make themselves clean and come and keep the doors and make the Sabbath holy. Keep this in mind to my credit, O my God, and have mercy on me, for great is your mercy.
And for the wood offering, at fixed times, and for the first fruits. Keep me in mind, O my God, for good.
Keep in mind, O my God, for my good, all I have done for this people.
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done. He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass snake which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his order, because in those days the children of Israel had offerings burned before it, and he gave it the name Nehushtan. He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.
Then his servants said to him, Why have you been acting in this way? you were weeping and going without food while the child was still living; but when the child was dead, you got up and had a meal. And he said, While the child was still living I went without food and gave myself up to weeping: for I said, Who is able to say that the Lord will not have mercy on me and give the child life?
<ZAIN> Keep in mind your word to your servant, for on it has my hope been fixed.
The Lord is near all those who give honour to his name; even to all who give honour to him with true hearts.
I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause.
And you will take your oath, By the living Lord, in good faith and wisdom and righteousness; and the nations will make use of you as a blessing, and in you will they take a pride.
They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong.
For our glory is in this, in the knowledge which we have that our way of life in the world, and most of all in relation to you, has been holy and true in the eyes of God; not in the wisdom of the flesh, but in the grace of God.
Who in the days of his flesh, having sent up prayers and requests with strong crying and weeping to him who was able to give him salvation from death, had his prayer answered because of his fear of God.
This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him.
And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen again, for God took him.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,
So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me, If your children give attention to their ways, living uprightly before me with all their heart and their soul, you will never be without a man to be king in Israel.
For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been.
The high places, however, were not taken away: but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.
And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters:
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. He was without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil.
The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops flowing from my eyes.
Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Kings 20
Commentary on 2 Kings 20 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 20
In this chapter we have,
2Ki 20:1-11
The historian, having shown us blaspheming Sennacherib destroyed in the midst of the prospects of life, here shows us praying Hezekiah delivered in the midst of the prospects of death-the days of the former shortened, of the latter prolonged.
2Ki 20:12-21
Here is,
Lastly, Here is the conclusion of Hezekiah's life and story, v. 20, 21. In 2 Chr. ch. 29-32 much more is recorded of Hezekiah's work of reformation than in this book of Kings; and it seems that in the civil chronicles, not now extant, there were many things recorded of his might and the good offices he did for Jerusalem, particularly his bringing water by pipes into the city. To have water in plenty, without striving for it and without being terrified with the noise of archers in the drawing of it, to have it at hand and convenient for us, is to be reckoned a great mercy; for the want of water would be a great calamity. But here this historian leaves him asleep with his fathers, and a son in his throne that proved very untoward; for parents cannot give grace to their children. Wicked Ahaz was the son of a godly father and the father of a godly son; holy Hezekiah was the son of a wicked father and the father of a wicked son. When the land was not reformed, as it should have been, by a good reign, it was plagued and ripened for ruin by a bad one; yet then tried again with a good one, that it might appear how loth God was to cut off his people.