Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Isaiah Capitolo 39

Isaiah 39:1. Merodach-baladan— Merodach was the name of an idol worshipped by the Babylonians, and Bel another; add these two idols, with the addition of אדן Adan or Adon, which signifies Lord, gave name to this king. Baladan is generally supposed to be the same person who is called Belesis or Belesus, and Nabonassarus; from whom the famous computation of time, called AEra Nabonassari, took its name. He is called, 2 Kings 20:12, Berodach-Baladan. One reason for his sending this embassy, as appears from 2 Chronicles 32:31, was, to satisfy himself with regard to the miracle of the shadow's going backward on the king's recovery; for the Babylonians were, from all antiquity, famous for their astronomical knowledge.

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Isaiah 39:2. And Hezekiah was glad, &c.— This action of Hezekiah favoured of great weakness, as nothing more strongly excites the enmity of neighbouring states, than such an unseasonable display of riches: it favours of ostentation and vanity, both of them vices very unsuitable to that temper of mind, which his late cure, and the miracle that he had seen, should have wrought in him; and perhaps it favours something of impiety, since Hezekiah seems to have displayed his treasures as his own acquisitions, without ascribing the possession of them to the goodness and power of God. See Vitringa.

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Isaiah 39:6. Behold, the days come— Whoever considers the state of things at this time, the small power the Assyrian had, and that their king was tributary to the king of Babylon, must acknowledge that this was a striking instance of the divine omniscience; and, when he finds that this prediction was verified, at the distance of 150 years after it was pronounced, he cannot desire a stronger instance of the divine authority and prophetical spirit wherewith Isaiah was endowed. See 2 Kings 24:13.

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Isaiah 39:7. They shall be eunuchs, &c. The Hebrew word סריסים sarisim, rendered eunuchs, signifies great officers employed about the person of the sovereign; and, as eunuchs were generally invested with these offices, the word eunuch, and a great officer, became frequently synonymous terms in the East, though they convey perfectly different ideas in our language. See Parkhurst on the word סדס and Daniel 1:3; Daniel 1:21.

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