(in the British Museum) which contains the first expeditions of Sennacherib against Babylon and Media, and upon the inscriptions at Khorsabad spelt either Merodak-pal-dsana (according to Brandis, Ueber der Gewinn, pp. 44 and 53) or Marduk bal iddin (according to Oppert).[1]
Instead of שׁמע כּי we have ויּשׁמע in Isaiah, which is not so clear, though it is probably more original; whereas the clause in Isaiah, ויּחזק חלה כּי, “that he had been sick and had become strengthened, i.e., well again,” is simply an elucidation of the הזקיּהוּ חלה כּי of our text, in which the recovery is implied in the pluperfect “had been sick.”
Verse 13
In 2Ki 20:13 ויּשׁמע is apparently a copyist’s error for ויּשׂמח of Isaiah, which many of the codd. and ancient versions have even in our text. At the same time, the construction of שׁמע with על is also found in 2Ki 22:13. - עליהם, concerning them, i.e., the ambassadors who had brought the letter and the present. In his delight at the honour paid to him by this embassy, Hezekiah showed the ambassadors all his treasure-house, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the costly oil, and all his arsenal, etc. The literal meaning of נכת בּית is probably spice-house (Aquila, Symm., Vulg.), נכת being a contraction of נכאת in Gen 37:25, whereas the derivation suggested from the Arabic kayyata, farsit, implevit locum, is much more wide of the mark. The house received its name from the spices for the storing of which it was really intended, although it was also used for the storing of silver and gold. הטּוב שׁמן is not fine olive oil, but, according to the Rabbins and Movers (Phöniz. iii. p. 227), the valuable balsam oil which was obtained in the royal gardens; for olive oil, which was obtained in all Judaea, was not stored in the treasure-chambers along with gold, silver, and perfumes, but in special storehouses (1Ch 27:28). בּכל־ממשׁלתּו, in all his dominion, i.e., in all the district which he was able to govern or control. - The existence of such treasures, of which, according to 2Ki 20:17, the ancestors of Hezekiah had collected a very large store, at so short a period after the departure of the Assyrians, is not at variance with 2Ki 18:15-16, according
- ↑ Compare M. v. Niebuhr, Gesch. Ass. p. 40; and with regard to the chronological differences, on account of which many have called in question the identity of Merodach Baladan either with the Marudach-Baladan of Berosus or with the Mardokempad of the Can. Ptol., see the discussion of this point at pp. 75ff.
