Chapter 18 of Sefer Melachim B opens a new page. After a long line of wicked kings, and after the exile of the Ten Tribes that we saw in the previous chapter, we finally reach a righteous king: Chizkiyahu son of Achaz. The chapter opens with the praises of Chizkiyahu, with the acts of repair that he performed and with the level of his trust in Hashem, and it continues with the ascent of Sancheriv king of Ashur against Yehudah and with the venomous words of Ravshakeh beneath the walls of Yerushalayim.
וַיְהִי בִּשְׁנַת שָׁלֹשׁ לְהוֹשֵׁעַ בֶּן־אֵלָה מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל, מָלַךְ חִזְקִיָּה בֶן־אָחָז מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה. בֶּן־עֶשְׂרִים וְחָמֵשׁ שָׁנָה הָיָה בְמָלְכוֹ וְעֶשְׂרִים וָתֵשַׁע שָׁנָה מָלַךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם, וְשֵׁם אִמּוֹ אֲבִי בַּת־זְכַרְיָה. - And it was in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Yisrael, that Chizkiyahu son of Achaz king of Yehudah began to reign. He was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty nine years in Yerushalayim, and his mother's name was Avi daughter of Zecharyah.
וַיַּעַשׂ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה דָּוִד אָבִיו. - And he did what was right in the eyes of Hashem, according to all that David his father had done.
"David his father" refers to his great grandfather. And the Ralbag says here a remarkable thing: in this Chizkiyahu even surpassed David, for Chizkiyahu did not sin at all and always did what was right in the eyes of Hashem, whereas David sinned in the matter of Uriyah. In other words, in a certain sense he did what was right in the eyes of Hashem even more than David. We will see this idea again later in the chapter.
הוּא הֵסִיר אֶת־הַבָּמוֹת וְשִׁבַּר אֶת־הַמַּצֵּבֹת וְכָרַת אֶת־הָאֲשֵׁרָה, וְכִתַּת נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה מֹשֶׁה, כִּי עַד־הַיָּמִים הָהֵמָּה הָיוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מְקַטְּרִים לוֹ, וַיִּקְרָא־לוֹ נְחֻשְׁתָּן. - He removed the bamot and shattered the matzevot and cut down the asherah, and he crushed the copper serpent that Moshe had made, for until those days the Children of Yisrael had been burning incense to it, and he called it Nechushtan.
"He removed the bamot" - throughout the way we saw that the previous kings were not able to remove the bamot, and the text keeps repeating: "and the people were still slaughtering and burning incense on the bamot." And we explained the reason: the service on the bamot was to Hashem, and therefore it was difficult to prevent the people from doing it. In the past the bamot had been permitted, and only once the Beit HaMikdash was built were they forbidden, and therefore many of the people continued to bring their vows and their freewill offerings and to offer on a bamah. The kings did not succeed in uprooting this, even though it involves a severe transgression punishable by karet. "And he cut down the asherah" - the asherah, as we said, is a tree that they would plant beside the altar for the purpose of idol worship.
What is meant by "and he crushed the copper serpent"? That he ground it up and scattered it to the wind. The Radak brings two views on this: some say that it was forbidden to derive benefit from it, and therefore he crushed it. And some say that it was not forbidden to derive benefit from it, for Moshe Rabbeinu made it from his own money, as it says "make yourself a fiery serpent," and a person cannot forbid something that is not his. I cannot forbid something that is yours.
And here Chazal ask: why in truth did the righteous kings who preceded him not crush it? Where was Asa, where was Yoshiyahu? There were righteous kings before him, so why did they not take that copper serpent that Moshe made, that serpent of "make yourself a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that anyone who is bitten and looks at it shall live"? If the people were indeed straying after it and making it into idol worship, why did they not remove it earlier?
One answer, quite simply: in the past they did not stray after it, and only now did they begin to stray after it. As long as they did not stray after it there was no need to crush it, and on the contrary, it served as a strengthening of faith: this is the serpent about which it is written in the Torah, this is the serpent through which the miracle was performed, a serpent that brought salvation in its time. It was a sign and a wonder, and therefore there was reason to leave it in place.
The Alter of Novardok was a man of immense trust in Hashem. Once he was in a cabin in the forest where he would seclude himself and study, and suddenly his candle ran out. He urgently needed a candle. He said: Master of the Universe, I need a candle. He went outside, and behold, he saw a man passing through the middle of the forest with a candle in his hand. He said to him: Can you give me the candle? He said to him: Yes. He gave him the candle, and he went back in and continued learning. The next day he arrived at the yeshiva, showed his students what remained of the candle and told them the story, and from then on that candle rested between his chair and the Aron Kodesh. Here you have the copper serpent: a sign, a mark and a wonder of the miracle that Hashem performed. See what trust is: a person needs a candle, and Hashem provides him with a candle. He needs money, let him trust in Hashem and Hashem will provide for him.
Afterward a great fire broke out in Novardok, the entire town burned down, and the candle burned as well. Many were greatly distressed over that candle, which had been a mark and a wonder of trust in Hashem. The Alter of Novardok said to them: Apparently they want from Heaven that we should have trust even without seeing a candle. Do we really need to see a candle in order to trust? After all, I trusted in Hashem even before I saw the candle. A person must have trust that is tangible even without seeing a candle. We have reached a level where we no longer need a candle in order to trust in Hashem.
So too here: at first the copper serpent served to strengthen trust in Hashem. Here is the sign, this is the serpent that our fathers gazed upon and were healed. But at a certain point Chizkiyahu understood that the harm outweighed the benefit. If people err after it, if they bow to it and make it into a god, there is no longer any point in preserving the memory of the miracle when it has become corrupted. And as we recall, the nations would worship all sorts of animals, as we saw at the end of the previous chapter (Dagon and all kinds of animal forms), and so a serpent too was in their eyes a symbol of idolatry. So this is one answer: the earlier kings did not eradicate it because in their time it had not yet been made into idolatry.
And Chazal say: "His fathers left him room to distinguish himself." His fathers left him a place in which to distinguish himself, meaning that he too should merit to perform a rectification. As it were, from Heaven they left him a place so that he too would merit to do something for the good.
What is the meaning of "and he called it Nechushtan"? It was a term of contempt: what is there to worship, it is only copper. The letter nun at the end of a word usually serves to diminish: "ishon" (the little man in the black of the eye); "Shimshon" (a little sun); "Shabbaton" (a little Shabbat); "Aminon", as Avshalom called Amnon when he killed him for having lain with Tamar, saying to her "Is Aminon your brother?" Here too Chizkiyahu says: it is Nechushtan, merely a serpent of copper, what is there to worship and bow down to in such a thing.
The Malbim explains the matter in a different way. There is a dispute whether a person has the power to forbid something that belongs to another. If I take your car and bow down to it and make it into idolatry, could it be imagined that from now on it would be forbidden to you to derive benefit from it? After all, it is not mine, and from where would I have the power to forbid something that is not mine. But if I take a vessel of yours and actually use it as a fire pan for idolatry, so that I performed a real act with it and used it as a service vessel for idolatry, in this there is a dispute in the Gemara whether even then we say that a person cannot forbid something that is not his, or not.
The Malbim says: since there is a dispute in this, one can say that this itself is what the earlier ones disputed with Chizkiyahu. The earlier ones held that a person cannot forbid something that is not his even if he performed an act with it, and therefore they did not crush the copper serpent. And Chizkiyahu held that one can indeed forbid it when an act was performed with it, and therefore he came and crushed it. According to this, "Nechushtan" means: their copper. As it were, Chizkiyahu says: through the act that they performed with it, the thing is considered theirs, for the act as it were acquires it, and a person can forbid what is his. It is no longer the copper of Moshe but "their copper," and so they had the power to forbid it.
בַּיהוָה אֱלֹהֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּטָח, וְאַחֲרָיו לֹא־הָיָה כָמֹהוּ בְּכֹל מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וַאֲשֶׁר הָיוּ לְפָנָיו. - In Hashem, the God of Israel, he trusted, and after him there was none like him among all the kings of Yehudah, nor among those who were before him.
"In Hashem, the God of Israel, he trusted": he had absolute trust in Hashem, and we will see this further on. "And after him there was none like him... nor among those who were before him": not before him and not after him. But how is this possible, were there not David and Shlomo? The Radak explains that the verse is not speaking of the first kings of Yehudah, David and Shlomo, who are a category unto themselves, but rather of the kings of Yehudah who came after them: Asa, Yehoshafat, Yoash, Uziyahu at his beginning, Yotam: it is about them that it speaks. And according to the Ralbag, as we saw, he indeed had a virtue greater than David, for in David there was an element of sin, while in Chizkiyahu there was no sin at all.
The Malbim, as is his way, first raises a question and then offers an original explanation. Here it says that there was none like him even among the kings who came after him, while about Yoshiyahu it says that there was none like him before him. This seems to be a contradiction: you say that Chizkiyahu was more righteous than all the kings who came after him, Yoshiyahu included, and about Yoshiyahu you say that he was more righteous than all those before him, Chizkiyahu included. How do we reconcile the verses?
The Malbim resolves this by explaining that we are dealing with two different levels. "There was none like him" regarding Chizkiyahu relies on the beginning of the verse - "he trusted in Hashem, the God of Israel": in the level of trust there was none like him, neither before him nor after him. And Yoshiyahu's greatness was in the level of repentance, and in the level of repentance there was no one like him before him. Both statements are true: Chizkiyahu was the greatest of them all in the level of trust, and Yoshiyahu in the level of repentance, and thus there is no contradiction at all, for each one is speaking about a different matter.
וַיִּדְבַּק בַּיהוָה, לֹא־סָר מֵאַחֲרָיו, וַיִּשְׁמֹר מִצְוֹתָיו אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה. - He clung to Hashem, he did not turn away from following Him, and he kept His commandments that Hashem had commanded Moshe.
"He clung to Hashem" - that he did not turn away from the ways of Hashem, and in every single deed he acted according to the Torah.
וְהָיָה יְהוָה עִמּוֹ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר־יֵצֵא יַשְׂכִּיל, וַיִּמְרֹד בְּמֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר וְלֹא עֲבָדוֹ. - And Hashem was with him; in everything he went out to do he prospered, and he rebelled against the king of Ashur and did not serve him.
Everything he did was "maskil," meaning successful. We saw that his father Achaz served the king of Ashur, but Chizkiyahu, who had absolute trust in Hashem, goes and rebels against the king of Ashur out of confidence that Hashem would save him.
הוּא־הִכָּה אֶת־פְּלִשְׁתִּים עַד־עַזָּה וְאֶת־גְּבוּלֶיהָ, מִמִּגְדַּל נוֹצְרִים עַד־עִיר מִבְצָר. - He struck the Philistines as far as Azza and its borders, from the watchtower to the fortified city.
He struck the Philistines as far as Azza, for Azza is the place of the Philistines. "From the watchtower to the fortified city" - the "watchtower" is the weakest of shelters, of the booths that vineyard keepers would build to guard them, and this is the weakest structure; "to the fortified city" - the strongest and most fortified city. That is to say, nothing stood in his way.
וַיְהִי בַּשָּׁנָה הָרְבִיעִית לַמֶּלֶךְ חִזְקִיָּהוּ, הִיא הַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִית לְהוֹשֵׁעַ בֶּן־אֵלָה מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל, עָלָה שַׁלְמַנְאֶסֶר מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר עַל־שֹׁמְרוֹן וַיָּצַר עָלֶיהָ. - And it was in the fourth year of King Chizkiyahu, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Ashur came up against Shomron and laid siege to it.
We already learned these matters above, and now the verse merely connects them to the era of Chizkiyahu: in the fourth year of Chizkiyahu, which is the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, Shalmaneser king of Ashur came up and laid siege to Shomron.
וַיִּלְכְּדֻהָ מִקְצֵה שָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים, בִּשְׁנַת־שֵׁשׁ לְחִזְקִיָּה הִיא שְׁנַת־תֵּשַׁע לְהוֹשֵׁעַ מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל נִלְכְּדָה שֹׁמְרוֹן. - And they captured it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Chizkiyah, which is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Shomron was captured.
There seems to be a difficulty in the calculation here: if the siege began in the fourth year of Chizkiyahu, then three years later is the seventh year, so how does the text say the sixth year? And if it began in the seventh year of Hoshea, three years later is the tenth year, so how is the ninth year mentioned? The answer to questions of this sort is always that the years were partial: part of the first year, one full year, and part of the following year, and sometimes the text calls all of this "three years." Perhaps seven or eight months at one end, a full year, and another eight months at the other end, and the text calls this three years. But if you wish to count precisely you would arrive at two years and something more, and therefore when the text comes to be exact it says that it was the ninth year of Hoshea son of Elah.
וַיֶּגֶל מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל אַשּׁוּרָה, וַיַּנְחֵם בַּחְלַח וּבְחָבוֹר נְהַר גּוֹזָן וְעָרֵי מָדָי. עַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא־שָׁמְעוּ בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם, וַיַּעַבְרוּ אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה מֹשֶׁה עֶבֶד יְהוָה, וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ וְלֹא עָשׂוּ. - And the king of Ashur exiled Israel to Ashur, and settled them in Chalach and in Chavor by the river Gozan and in the cities of Madai. Because they did not listen to the voice of Hashem their God, and transgressed His covenant, all that Moshe the servant of Hashem had commanded, and they did not listen and did not do.
He exiles them to Ashur and settles them in Chalach and in Chavor, which sits by the river Gozan, and in the cities of Madai. The reason for this is spelled out in the text: because they did not listen to the voice of Hashem their God and transgressed His covenant.
וּבְאַרְבַּע עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה לַמֶּלֶךְ חִזְקִיָּה עָלָה סַנְחֵרִיב מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר עַל כָּל־עָרֵי יְהוּדָה הַבְּצֻרוֹת וַיִּתְפְּשֵׂם. - And in the fourteenth year of King Chizkiyahu, Sancheriv king of Ashur came up against all the fortified cities of Yehudah and captured them.
Sancheriv king of Ashur developed an appetite after he saw how Shalmaneser had succeeded in his campaign against Israel, and now he marches against Yehudah. We recall from verse 7: "and he rebelled against the king of Ashur and did not serve him." The king of Ashur cannot sit silent when a kingdom rebels against him, and in particular Sancheriv, who was a great and lofty king, who confounded all the nations and exiled them all. He cannot allow it to be said that a nation rebelled against him, and what kind of nation at that: all of Yerushalayim is smaller than the Old City that lies within the walls that exist today. And so he marches against all the fortified cities of Yehudah and captures them. Beside Yerushalayim there was settlement in the other fortified cities as well, but the kingdom was in Yerushalayim, there where the City of David was.
The verses that we will read from here onward also appear in Sefer Yeshayahu, chapters 36 to 39, and the Malbim here does not explain them but explains them there. We will study them here and bring the Malbim's explanation from there upon the verses before us.
וַיִּשְׁלַח חִזְקִיָּה מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה אֶל־מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר לָכִישָׁה לֵאמֹר: חָטָאתִי, שׁוּב מֵעָלַי, אֵת אֲשֶׁר־תִּתֵּן עָלַי אֶשָּׂא. וַיָּשֶׂם מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר עַל־חִזְקִיָּה מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת כִּכַּר־כֶּסֶף וּשְׁלֹשִׁים כִּכַּר זָהָב. - And Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah sent to the king of Ashur at Lachish, saying: I have sinned, turn back from me, whatever you impose upon me I will bear. And the king of Ashur imposed upon Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
Chizkiyahu says to him: I have sinned in rebelling against you, and I am ready to accept upon myself the fine and punishment that you will impose upon me. And then a fine of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold was imposed upon him.
וַיִּתֵּן חִזְקִיָּה אֶת־כָּל־הַכֶּסֶף הַנִּמְצָא בֵית־יְהוָה וּבְאֹצְרוֹת בֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ. בָּעֵת הַהִיא קִצַּץ חִזְקִיָּה אֶת־דַּלְתוֹת הֵיכַל יְהוָה וְאֶת־הָאֹמְנוֹת אֲשֶׁר צִפָּה חִזְקִיָּה מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה, וַיִּתְּנֵם לְמֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר. - And Chizkiyahu gave all the silver that was found in the House of Hashem and in the treasuries of the king's house. At that time Chizkiyahu cut off the doors of the Sanctuary of Hashem and the doorposts that Chizkiyahu king of Yehudah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Ashur.
At that time he cuts off the doors of the Sanctuary of Hashem, and also the "omnot," which refers to the threshold, the doorsill of the House, which were overlaid with gold, and from them he strips and cuts off the gold and gives it to the king of Ashur. There is a matter of pikuach nefesh here, and in a case of pikuach nefesh it is better to strip the gold from the Beit HaMikdash and give it, rather than that a single hair fall from the head of any person of Israel.
וַיִּשְׁלַח מֶלֶךְ־אַשּׁוּר אֶת־תַּרְתָּן וְאֶת־רַב־סָרִיס וְאֶת־רַבְשָׁקֵה מִן־לָכִישׁ אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ חִזְקִיָּהוּ בְּחֵיל כָּבֵד יְרוּשָׁלָיִם, וַיַּעֲלוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, וַיַּעֲלוּ וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ בִּתְעָלַת הַבְּרֵכָה הָעֶלְיוֹנָה אֲשֶׁר בִּמְסִלַּת שְׂדֵה כֹבֵס. - And the king of Ashur sent Tartan and Rav-Saris and Rav-Shakeh from Lachish to King Chizkiyahu with a heavy army to Yerushalayim, and they went up and came to Yerushalayim, and they went up and came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool which is on the highway of the washer's field.
The king of Ashur acted deceitfully: he imposed a fine and a punishment on Chizkiyahu, as if he would be satisfied with that, and once he had received the money he came up against him with his entire army in order to exact payment from him for his rebellion. If so, what was the money that Chizkiyahu gave? A first course, one that only whetted the appetite. Now came the second course: to exile all of Yisrael for having rebelled against him.
In one place in Yeshayahu it is brought that Rav-Shakeh alone came up, and in another place it is written that Rav-Shakeh and Tartan and Rav-Saris all came. The Radak resolves this: at first only Rav-Shakeh arrived, and afterward Tartan and Rav-Saris came as well. Concerning Rav-Shakeh there is a statement of Chazal that he was an apostate. From where did they learn this? Because he spoke the Judean tongue and was fluent in the holy language, and from this they reached the conclusion that he was a Jew who had abandoned his faith. But the Radak says that this alone is no proof, for many gentiles knew how to speak the Judean tongue; even so, it is possible that they had a tradition, and if it is a tradition, we accept it, for if Chazal received this that he was an apostate Israelite, apparently it was known to them thus from earlier generations.
And where do they stand? "By the conduit of the upper pool which is on the highway of the washer's field." The Malbim says that this was not without reason, for Chizkiyahu had stopped up the springs, and this is one of the things that Chizkiyahu did for which the sages praised him: he stopped up the Gichon river, and he stopped up the springs, and among them he also struck this pool. And what was his purpose? That the besiegers who would come to lay siege to Yerushalayim would find no spring and would have no water to drink, and consequently would not be able to prolong the siege for a long time. Therefore, when Rav-Shakeh and Tartan and Rav-Saris arrive, they stand specifically by the upper pool, as if to say: this is what the war is about. We have a reason to fight, for you stopped up the springs, and there was in this an additional act of rebellion against the king of Ashur, to prevent him from arriving, and by this you violated the covenant with him, and we have grounds to exact payment from you.
וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ, וַיֵּצֵא אֲלֵהֶם אֶלְיָקִים בֶּן־חִלְקִיָּהוּ אֲשֶׁר עַל־הַבָּיִת, וְשֶׁבְנָה הַסֹּפֵר, וְיוֹאָח בֶּן־אָסָף הַמַּזְכִּיר. - And they called to the king, and there went out to them Elyakim son of Chilkiyahu who was over the house, and Shevna the scribe, and Yoach son of Asaf the recorder.
They cry out from outside the wall that they wish to speak with the king, and three men go out to them: Elyakim son of Chilkiyahu "who was over the house," who was appointed over the king's house; Shevna the scribe, that is, the king's secretary, who writes up his affairs; and Yoach son of Asaf the recorder, who would inform the king of everything that needed to come before him.
Concerning Shevna the scribe, Chazal say that although he was one of Chizkiyahu's men, he was a kind of fifth column. There are opinions on this: some say there were two men named Shevna, and some say it was the same Shevna, and that Shevna the scribe who goes out here is himself the one who was the fifth column. What did he do? He wrote a letter, wrapped it around an arrow, and wrote on it: "Shevna and his faction have made peace, Chizkiyahu and his faction have not made peace." He shot the arrow out beyond the wall, and the arrow reached the hands of Sancheriv's men. He was a traitor.
When the time came and he had to go out to them and join them, he understood that they were the victors and that it was pointless to struggle against them, and he and his faction went to join Sancheriv king of Ashur outside the wall. And when he went out, Chazal say, Gavriel came and closed the gates of the city before his faction, and that entire group that had gathered with him was stopped. Shevna arrives alone, and Rav-Shakeh asks him: who are you and why have you come? He said to him: I am Shevna, I am the one who sent to you. They said to him: yes, but from the letter we understood that there is a faction with you, so how is it that you present yourself before us alone, a faction of one? He said to them: what can I do, my faction turned back, they got cold feet. They said to him: is that so? If so, you are merely mocking us. They took him and pierced his heels, tied them to the tails of the horses, and dragged him over the thorns and the briers, as befits traitors.
In this chapter we finally reached a righteous king. Chizkiyahu removed the high places that his predecessors had not managed to remove, shattered the pillars, cut down the ashera, and crushed the copper serpent, for as long as it was a sign and a wonder of the miracle there was benefit in it, and once it became a stumbling block toward idolatry Chizkiyahu came and eradicated it, and his forefathers had left him a place in which to distinguish himself. His special quality was the level of trust: "In Hashem the God of Yisrael he trusted," in which there was none like him, neither before him nor after him, while corresponding to him Yoshiyahu stood at the level of repentance. Out of that trust he rebelled against the king of Ashur, and from here matters unfold to Sancheriv's rise against the fortified cities of Yehudah, to the silver and gold that Chizkiyahu stripped from the Heichal because of the saving of life, and finally to the deceit of the king of Ashur who sent his ministers to blaspheme beneath the walls of Yerushalayim, specifically at the upper pool that Chizkiyahu had stopped up, and in the midst of this the treachery of Shevna the scribe was also exposed, along with his horrifying end.