Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 18:1-8
We have here a general account of the reign of Hezekiah. It appears, by comparing his age with his father's, that he was born when his father was about eleven or twelve years old, divine Providence so ordering that he might be of full age, and fit for business, when the measure of his father's iniquity should be full. Here is,
I. His great piety, which was the more wonderful because his father was very wicked and vile, one of the worst of the kings, yet he was one of the best, which may intimate to us that what good there is in any is not of nature, but of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, which, contrary to nature, grafts into the good olive that which was wild by nature (Rom 11:24), and…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 18:5
He trusted in the Lord God of Israel--without invoking the aid or purchasing the succor of foreign auxiliaries like Asa (Kg1 15:18-19) and Ahaz (Kg2 16:17; Isa. 7:1-25).
so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah--Of course David and Solomon are excepted, they having had the sovereignty of the whole country. In the petty kingdom of Judah, Josiah alone had a similar testimony borne to him (Kg2 23:25). But even he was surpassed by Hezekiah, who set about a national reformation at the beginning of his reign, which Josiah did not. The pious character and the excellent course of Hezekiah was prompted, among other secondary influences, by a sense of the calamities his fathe…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 2 Kings 18:5
He trusted in the Lord - See the character of this good king:
1. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel;
2. He clave to the Lord;
3. He was steady in his religion; he departed not from following the Lord;
4. He kept God's commandments. And what were the consequences?
1. The Lord was with him;
2. He prospered whithersoever he went.
John Gill on 2 Kings 18:6
For he clave to the Lord,.... To his worship and service; to the fear of the Lord, as the Targum:
and departed not from following him; from his worship, as the same paraphrase:
but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses; both moral, ceremonial, and judicial.