Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea.] Reckoning as 2 Kings 17:1. [See Trapp on “2Ki 17:1”]
Ver. 2. Twenty and five years old was he, &c.] And therefore born in the eleventh year of his father Ahaz—who was twenty years old when he began, and reigned sixteen years. (2 Kings 16:2) A thing not impossible: Rehoboam was begotten by Solomon about the same age, as some do gather from 1 Kings 14:21. His mother’s name also was Abi.] A woman famous in those times, saith Vatablus, for her goodness. Her son Hezekiah was no sooner in the throne but he began to reform, so well she had principled him. The daughter of Zachariah.] The king of Israel mentioned in 2 Kings 14:29, say some; or more probably, of that Zachariah, the seer. (2 Chronicles 26:5)
Ver. 3. And he did that which was right.] See 1 Kings 14:8.
Ver. 4. He removed the high places.] He neglected no time, but in the very first month of the first year of his reign he did great matters; (2 Chronicles 29:3) yea, the same day that he began to reign he spake to his Levites to purge the temple, which also they did. The brazen serpent that Moses had made.] Not for an object of worship, but for a means of cure, though some write that it is deadly for them that are stung with a serpent to look upon brass. God worketh oft by contraries, to show his power. This brazen serpent good Hezekiah brake in pieces when abused to idolatry, multis Iudaeorum frementibus et reclamantibus, to the great discontent of those idolaters, no doubt, and not without some danger to those that did it. We read in the life of our king Edward VI, that as one Mr Body, a commissioner was pulling down images in Cornwall, he was suddenly stabbed into the body by a priest with a knife. Theodosius, the emperor, was so offended with the Antiochians, only for throwing down the brazen portraiture of his beloved wife Placilla, that he disprivileged the city, and intended to have burnt it. How hugely displeased, we may welt think, were the superstitious Jews, when they saw their gods thus dealt with! The children of Israel did burn incense unto it.] Such was the venom of the Israelitish idolatry, that the brazen serpent stung worse than the fiery. And he called it Nehushtan.] Aenulum, so Pagnine rendereth it; aeniculum, so Marinus—a poor paltry piece of brass, Haec dictio non minorein contemptum prae se fert quam Nescio quid, aut pulvisculum saith another learned man; a name of scorn and contempt, to shame such as had so doted upon it. Anastasius Nicaenus out of Eusebius addeth further, that Hezekiah abolished certain books written by Solomon concerning the nature of plants, and all kinds of creatures, and concerning the cure of all kinds of diseases, because thought these the people sought medicines for their various maladies, and not of God. But of this there is nothing recorded in Scripture, neither is it very likely: Abusus non tolleret usum. Jerome, De Trad. Hebr. Sir John Heywood. Thesaurus lingua sancta per diminutionem aut contemptum.
Ver. 5. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel] His confidence was the cause of his courage—faith feareth no colours; his motto might have been that of the Roman emperor, Ut fiat iustitia ruat caelum; Heaven and earth will be blended together ere I will be wanting to the work of reformation. He had not his name for nought, but fully answered it; as also did Probus the emperor. Hezekiah signifieth, The Lord is my strength, quasi hoc eius fuerit lemma et symbolum. Such another zealous reformer was good Josiah, who trusted in God, and took away the horses of the sun, with other mawmets and monuments of idolatry, never standing to cast perils. And such also was our English Josiah, king Edward VI: witness his peremptory denial to grant the Lady Mary the free exercise of the mass—though boldly demanded by the emperor’s ambassador; his slighting of the emperor’s proud threats thereupon; and his stout answer to the rebels of Devonshire, which ran thus: Assure you most surely, that we of no earthly thing under heaven make such reputation as of this one, to have our law (for the putting down of Popery) obeyed, and this cause of God, which we have taken in hand, to be thoroughly maintained: from the which we will never remove one hair breadth, or give place to any creature living, much less to any subject: wherein we will spend our own royal person, our crown, treasure, realm, and all our state; whereof we assure you of our high honour. And of the like temper was his sweet sister—Temperance, as he used to call her, -Fortitude, he might as well, -Queen Elizabeth: witness her reformations at home; her protecting the Netherlands against the Spaniard; her help extended to Henry King of Navarre, to Geneva, and other Protestant churches, &c. So that after him was none like him,] sc., Everything considered. Os. Nemo, id est, fore nemo: He outdid others in piety, as far as Omri and his son Ahab did in iniquity. (1 Kings 16:25,30) Fortitudo mea Dominus. -Pagnin. Sir John Heywood’s Life of Edward VI. Act. and Mon., 1189.