2 Chronicles 32:1-23

2 Chronicles 32:1–23✞: Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem

Passage

This chapter continues to cover the reign of Hezekiah, echoing passages in 2 Kings 18:37–19:37. (I blogged about these in the following posts: Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem, Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold, Hezekiah’s Prayer, and Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall.) In this case, the passage in Chronicles feels like a summarized version of the text in Kings, though I guess it’s not that much shorter; just one section heading as opposed to multiple in Kings.

Aside from the message from Sennacherib (ruler of the Assyrians) to the people of Judah, which takes up a big section in the middle of the passage from verses 10–15✞, this passage focuses on two things:

1. Practical: Hezekiah prepares for the potential arrival of the Assyrians, especially in verses 1–5, and
2. Spiritual: Hezekiah stresses to the people that, yes, the Assyrians are powerful (they’ve already conquered Israel), but the people of Judah have God on their side, and who can possibly compete with the might of God? Not even the Assyrians!

That being said, though, God does allow Sennacherib quite a lot of victories: not only has Assyria conquered Israel, but they’ve also laid siege to a number of fortified cities, coming right up to the capital, Jerusalem. So the faith of Hezekiah, his officials, and all the people of Judah, come in the middle of a real threat. Regardless, the passage ends on a high note:

²⁰ King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. ²¹ And the LORD sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword.

²² So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side. ²³ Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah. From then on he was highly regarded by all the nations.

verses 20–23✞

Thoughts

One thing the author(s) of Chronicles mention that the author(s) of Kings didn’t is in verse 23✞, after God has defeated the Assyrians: “Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah. From then on he was highly regarded by all the nations.” Not only is this not mentioned in the passage in Kings, but, to my eye, it’s also ambiguous: who was highly regarded by all the nations? Hezekiah or God? We might see some fallout from this in the next passage, where Hezekiah suffers from pride. (Spoiler alert.)

Other than that, I don’t think I have anything to say that I didn’t say when blogging through Kings, in the links above.