II Chronicles 32:3

The reign of Manasseh; cf. 2 Kings 21:1-18. - The characteristics of this king's reign, and of the idolatry which he again introduced, and increased in a measure surpassing all his predecessors (Ch2 33:1-9), agrees almost verbally with Kg2 21:1-9. Here and there an expression is rhetorically generalized and intensified, e.g., by the plurals לבּעלים and אשׁרות (Ch2 33:3) instead of the sing. לבּעל and אשׁרה (Kings), and בּנין (Ch2 33:6) instead of בּנו (see on Ch2 28:3); by the addition of וכשּׁף to ונחשׁ עונן, and of the name the Vale of Hinnom, Ch2 33:6 (see on Jos 15:18, גּי for גּיא); by heaping up words for the law and its commandments (Ch2 33:8); and other small deviations, of which הסּמל פּסל (Ch2 33:7) instead of האשׁרה פּסל (Kings) is the most important. The word סמל, sculpture or statue, is derived from Deu 4:16, but has perhaps been taken by the author of the Chronicle from Eze 8:3, where סמל probably denotes the statue of Asherah. The form עילום for עולם (Ch2 33:7) is not elsewhere met with.

This chapter continues and concludes the history of the reign of Hezekiah. I. The descent which Sennacherib made upon him, and the care he took to fortify himself, his city, and the minds of his people, against that enemy (Ch2 32:1-8). II. The insolent blasphemous letters and messages which Sennacherib sent him (Ch2 32:9-19). III. The real answer God gave to Sennacherib's blasphemies, and to Hezekiah's prayers, in the total rout of the Assyrian army, to the shame of Sennacherib and the honour of Hezekiah (Ch2 32:20-23). IV. Hezekiah's sickness and his recovery from that, his sin and his recovery from that, with the honours that attended him living and dead (Ch2 32:24-33).

32:3-5 Sennacherib’s attack did not come as a surprise; Hezekiah provoked it by breaking a treaty (2 Kgs 18:7, 20). Because water was critical to both attacker and defender in siege warfare, Hezekiah made sure that Sennacherib’s army would not have access to the city’s water supply. In one of the most famous engineering feats of ancient times, Hezekiah’s tunnel connected the fresh waters of the Gihon Spring to the pool of Siloam, making water accessible from within the city walls. This famous tunnel is almost one-third of a mile long (approximately 580 yards [530 meters]) and about six feet [2 meters] high. The famous Hezekiah inscription, discovered in the tunnel in 1880, describes how the excavators met to join the two ends. Although much of the tunnel consisted of natural underground aqueducts, it was a tremendous strategy for protecting the citizens of the city.