At that time did Hezekiah strip the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Read Chapter 18
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
On them. All must go to meet the exigencies of the state. (Grotius, Jur. ii. 5.)
The doors of temples and palaces were frequently adorned with the most precious metals, as Homer describes the palace of Alcinous; (Odyssey; H) and Tavernier (vii. 12.) speaks of some mosques in Persia, the doors of which are covered with plates of silver. See Josephus, Jewish Wars vi. 6.
Of Hezekiah it is written, “And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues in pieces, and burned the groves and broke the brazen serpent that Moses had made.” And again, “He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. He stuck to the Lord, and departed not from him and kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses, and the Lord was with him, and in all things to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely.” And, when Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, had taken all the cities of Judah, “Hezekiah sent messengers to him, to Lachish, saying, ‘I have sinned, depart from me, and all that you shall command of me, I will give.’ And the king of the Assyrians put a tax on Hezekiah, king of Judah, of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the ...