2 Kings 20:1

HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY, 2 Kings 20:1-7.

1. In… days About the time of the first Assyrian invasion, for Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years in all, and lived fifteen after this sickness, so that, according to biblical data, his sickness must have occurred in the fourteenth year of his reign. Compare 2 Kings 20:6 with 2 Kings 18:2; 2 Kings 18:13, and note on 2 Kings 20:12.

Sick unto death Sick with a disease intrinsically fatal, unless miracle intervened.

Set thine house in order Settle up all thy worldly affairs, make the final arrangement and disposition of thy household matters. Compare 2 Samuel 17:23. Some explain it, Make thy last will, and give orders respecting thy successor. This, however, would only be a part of the household affairs of a dying king. In homiletics these words are often explained as a charge to prepare spiritually for death and the judgment beyond.

Thou shalt die, and not live Literally, Dying art thou, and thou wilt not live. These words are not an irreversible decree that he should die from that sickness, but an announcement, which, like Jonah’s proclamation to the Ninevites, (Jonah 3:4; Jonah 3:10,) was revoked and changed by reason of the humiliation and prayers of the king. It was God’s decree, through ordinary natural law, reversible only by special interposition.