Hexateuch

“ The Pentateuch, together with Joshua, Judges and Ruth, with which it is usually united in Greek MSS., makes up the Octateuch; the Pentateuch and Joshua together have recently been named the Hexateuch. On the critical questions arising from the Pentateuch or Hexateuch, see Bible and the articles on the several books. ”

“ The continuance of the Baal-worship, and that on the high places in Jerusalem and Judah, until the sixth or seventh year of Hezekiah's reign, will not much astonish us, if we consider that even before Ahaz the most pious kings had not succeeded in quite suppressing worship on the high places on the part of the people. The reopening of the temple, and of the Jahve-worship in it, Hezekiah might undertake and carry out in the beginning of his reign, because he had all those of the people who were well inclined upon his side. ”

“ This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God. 17 Then arose certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? ”

“ And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?
20 And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
21 And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. ”

“ The retrograde movement of the shadow upon the sun-dial indicated that Hezekiah’s life, which had already arrived at its close by natural means, was to be put back by a miracle of divine omnipotence, so that it might continue for another series of years.
Verses 12-19Verses 12-19 2Ki 20:12-19The Babylonian embassy, and Hezekiah’s imprudence (cf. Isa 39:1-8) . - 2Ki 20:12. “At that time Berodach Baladan, king of Babel, sent a letter and a present to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick.” ”

“ In his great distress Hezekiah went up to the Temple, and told God all his trouble. And he said, "Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and earth." He said he knew the gods of those nations could not save them, for they were no gods, only wood and stone; but he trusted that God would save him and his people, though they were far too weak to defend themselves against this terrible king and his people. ”

“ Surely shall this be a disgrace dread and dire, if no man of the Danaans shall now go to meet Hector. Nay, may ye one and all turn to earth and water, ye that sit there each man with no heart in him, utterly inglorious. Against this man will I myself arm me; but from on high are the issues of victory holden of the immortal gods."
[103] So spake he, and did on his fair armour. And now Menelaus, would the end of life have appeared for thee at the hands of Hector, seeing he was mightier far, had not the kings of the Achaeans sprung up and laid hold of thee. ”

“ To enter Sheol meant to Hezekiah to pass beyond the cheerful sunshine of earth and the felt presence of God. No more worship, no more gladness there!
"For Sheol cannot praise Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee;
They that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth."
On every ground, therefore, the feelings of Hezekiah, had he not been a worshipper of God, might have been like those of Mycerinus, and, like that legendary Egyptian king, he might have cursed God before he died. ”

“ Hezekiah, the pious son of the godless Ahaz, recognised that it was to be the business of his reign to bring the kingdom out of the utterly ruinous condition into which Ahaz had brought it by his idolatry and his heathen policy, and to elevate the state again, both in respect to religion and morals, and also in political affairs. He consequently endeavoured, in the first place, to do away with the idolatry, and to restore the Jahve-worship according to the law, and then to throw off the yoke of subjection to the Assyrian. ”

“ In the meantime Sennacherib had pressed forward to Lachish, i.e., Um Lakis, in the plain of Judah, on the south-west of Jerusalem, seven hours to the west of Eleutheropolis on the road to Egypt (see at Jos 10:3) ; so that Hezekiah, having doubts as to the possibility of a successful resistance, sent ambassadors to negotiate with him, and promised to pay him as much tribute as he might demand if he would withdraw. The confession “I have sinned” is not to be pressed, inasmuch as it was forced from Hezekiah by the pressure of distress. ”

“ That the best way to baffle the malicious designs of our enemies against us is to be driven by them to God and to our duty and so to fetch meat out of the eater. Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the traveller's coat from him, makes him wrap it the closer about him. The more Rabshakeh reproaches God the more Hezekiah studies to honour him, by rending his clothes for the dishonour done to him and attending in his sanctuary to know his mind. ”

“ Length and character of Hezekiah’s reign. [43] 2Ki 18:1, 2Ki 18:2. In the third year of Hoshea of Israel, Hezekiah became king over Judah, when he was twenty-five years old. According to 2Ki 18:9, 2Ki 18:10, the fourth and sixth years of Hezekiah corresponded to the seventh and ninth of Hoshea; consequently his first year apparently ran parallel to the fourth of Hoshea, so that Josephus (Ant. ix. 13, 1) represents him as having ascended the throne in the fourth year of Hoshea’s reign. But there is no necessity for this alteration. ”

“ Here he was walking up the slim wooden stairs that led to the gallows platform and here he was standing under the looped rope that dangled at his ear and beside another man who continued to moan, "My Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me. Forgive us all." But we did not look at this one. The platform was now crowded with men, but we did not look at them. They came forward with long black straps and proceeded to bind the man who was moaning. Then a priest came forward and stood beside the man who was moaning and rested an ivory crucifix upon his lips and opened a book under his rolling eyes. ”

“ Therefore, when Hezekiah did not get married and have children, because he knew through divine inspiration that the children that would come from him were not righteous. The prophet told him in the Name of G-D that 'you will die in this world and you will not live in the world to come. ”

“ In consequence of this want of harmony amongst the highest authorities of the country, Hezekiah's government appears full of contrasts—high-mindedness and meanness, moral improvement and degradation, pure faith in God and dependence on foreign aid; the king an ideal of justice, and his capital full of murderers. Not even in effecting the banishment of idolatry was Hezekiah successful. The nobles retained their silver and golden idols, and worshipped the handiwork of man; in their gardens remained the statues of Astarte under the thickly-laden terebinth trees, planted for idolatrous purposes. ”

“ I reasoned that if Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying maple bough did not tempt me. I hurried back across the roof to secure the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood.
I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden. ”

“ Verses 36-37Verses 36-37
The people were quite silent at this address (“the people,” העם, to whom Rabshakeh had wished to address himself) ; for Hezekiah had forbidden them to make any answer, not only to prevent Rabshakeh from saying anything further, but that the ambassadors of Sennacherib might be left in complete uncertainty as to the impression made by their words. The deputies of Hezekiah returned to the king with their clothes rent as a sign of grief at the words of the Assyrian, by which not only Hezekiah, but still more Jehovah, had been blasphemed, and reported what they had heard. ”

“ The date 728 for Hezekiah’s accession rests upon the assumption that of the two inconsistent dates in 2 Kings xviii. 10, 13, the one in ver. 10 (which places the fall of Samaria in Hezekiah’s 6th year) is correct; but some scholars (as Wellhausen, Kamphausen, and Stade) suppose that the date in ver. 10 (which places Sennacherib’s invasion in Hezekiah’s 14th year) is correct, and assign accordingly Hezekiah’s accession to 715. This removes, or at least mitigates, the difficulty referred to, and leaves more room for the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz ”

“ After a pause the voice again echoed from the skull: “His fate is inevitable if he executes what he has planned,” came from the horrible cavity in a whisper so distinct that even Bononius could no longer doubt. “In resignation lies the sole salvation of his life. This, Hecate, who removes all that her breath has touched, announces to him.”
With these words a terrible peal of thunder resounded through the hall. The skull in the niche began to stir, and—incredible marvel—grow smaller, like a cloud in the evening sky which gradually melts into nothing. ”

“ HEZEKIAH.
Luxurious living is not healthy. The second generation of kings and queens and of lords and princes is apt to be brainless and invalid.
The second crop of grass is almost always short.
Royal blood is generally scrofulous. You will not be surprised, then, to hear that King Hezekiah had disorders [208] which broke out in a carbuncle, virulent and deathful. The Lord told him he must die.
But Hezekiah did not want to die. He turned his face to the wall, so that his prayer would not be interrupted, and cried to God for his life. ”

“ The historical character of the elaborate accounts given in the Chronicles of Hezekiah’s reform of worship and his celebration of the passover, which Thenius follows De Wette and Gramberg in throwing doubt upon, has been most successfully defended by Bertheau as well as others. ”

“ The genus Hexalonche is the most simple form of all Cubosphærida, and may be regarded as the common ancestral form of this family. It can be derived phylogenetically from Cenosphæra, by development of six radial spines on the surface of the simple spherical lattice-shell. These six simple spines are of equal size and opposite in pairs in the three dimensive axes, corresponding to the three equal axes of a cubic crystal. ”

“ He was a man with gaunt features and the face of an unbarbered Cesar, lined like the wing of a bat. He had a lean and muscular neck and he walked high-shouldered like an Egyptian. To the drooping lines of his mouth and chin clung a dark, curling covering of hair like the beard on the paintings of the adolescent Christ. He walked with his jaw thrust forward, lean and hollow jaws like the jaws of a starving monk. His eyes, round and black, nestled deep in his head, black and burning like the eyes of a voodoo priest.
We watched this man and moved about on our benches. ”

“ God had Himself made it known to Hezekiah, by a sign, that his father was to have no consideration paid him. On the day of the dead king's funeral daylight lasted but two hours, and his body had to be interred when the earth was enveloped in darkness. (49)
Throughout his reign, Hezekiah devoted himself mainly to the task of dispelling the ignorance of the Torah which his father had caused. While Ahaz had forbidden the study of the law, Hezekiah's orders read: "Who does not occupy himself with the Torah, renders himself subject to the death penalty." ”

“ The use of ו consec. to connect the account of the celebration of the passover with the preceding, without the slightest hint that the celebration took place in another (later) year, is fully accounted for by the fact that in no case is the year in which any event of Hezekiah's twenty-nine years' reign occurred stated in the Chronicle. In 2Ch 32:1, Sennacherib's invasion of Judah is introduced only by the indefinite formula, “and after these events,” though it happened in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah ”

“ It is true that in southern lands this is neither impossible nor unknown, [33] but in the case of the kings of Judah it would be without analogy. The reading found in the lxx, Syr., and Arab. at 2Ch 28:1, and also in certain codd., viz., five and twenty instead of twenty, may therefore be a preferable one. According to this, Hezekiah, like Ahaz, was born in his father’s sixteenth year.
Verses 3-4Verses 3-4 2Ki 16:3-4 “Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel,” to which there is added by way of explanation in 2Ch 28:2, “and also made molten images to the Baals.” ”

“ And Hector he saw lying on the plain, while about him sat his comrades, and he was gasping with painful breath, distraught in mind, and vomiting blood; for not the weakest of the Achaeans was it that had smitten him. At sight of him the father of men and gods had pity, and with a dread glance from beneath his brows he spake to Hera, saying: "Hera, that art hard to deal with, it is the craft of thine evil wiles that hath stayed goodly Hector from the fight, and hath driven the host in rout. ”