After these faithful deeds. After Hezekiah and the Judeans performed all these faithful deeds and returned to the worship of the true God, Sennacherib invaded them. For even though Hezekiah’s heart was sincere, there were improper things going on in Judah, where not everyone was wholeheartedly committed to the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah indicates in his many admonitions to them.

And resolved to take them over. And so [Sennacherib] did, as it says in Kings: “and he seized them” (2 Kgs 18:13). Similar cases include: “to lie with Jacob’s daughter” (Gen 34:7), “to kill him treacherously” (Exod 21:14), and those like them.

And the wadi that flowed through the land. This is Gihon. It had been full and flowing at that point, and [the Judeans] stopped it up.

Great quantities of shelaḥ. [This is just like] ḥerev: it is a collective term for all armaments. The same applies for: “each man with his shelaḥ” (2 Chr 23:10).

Thereafter, vayyinnassei (=he boasted) before all the nations. This would normally be vayyitnassei. It is similar in meaning to mitnassei lemor (=went about boasting; 1 Kgs 1:5): [Hezekiah] boasted over all the greatness and honor he had attained. It is with reference to this that the text says, “for he grew arrogant” (v. 25).

And uravot (ארות). [This means] troughs: the Targum renders “the trough of its master” (Isa 1:3) orya (אוריא) de-marohi.

The same is true for: “and ‘adarim for the averot (אורות)”—this is a metathesized form of ארות. The meaning of ‘adarim is ma‘arakhot (=orderly storage places); compare “‘oderei marakhah (=men who manned the battle lines) with whole heart” (1 Chr 12:39).

The upper one. It seems that Wadi Gihon had two courses, and that it was the top one that [Hezekiah] stopped up. I am surprised that our Sages, of blessed memory (b. Berakhot 10b), say that when he stopped up the flow of Gihon, the [religious authorities] did not accede to this. For the text says above, “he consulted with his officers (sarav) and warriors about stopping up the flow of the springs” (v. 3), and sarav include the scholars of Israel; for it says “sarei (=chiefs of) thousands” when referring to the scholars of the judiciary (Exod 18:21–22)! In fact, I found in an aggadic source (Avot de-Rabbi Natan [Schechter] A:2) that when he stopped up the flow of Gihon, his will corresponded to that of God.

And he directed it (vayyasherem [וַיַּישְּׁרֵם]) underneath, toward the west (ma‘ravah). In principle this should have been וַיְיַשְּׁרֵם, but when the yod that constitutes the first root-letter quiesced, its vowel shifted to the preformative yod. Ma‘ravah is stressed on the penultimate syllable and has an added [directional] hei. So this means: He directed it underground through openings and led it westward toward the City of David.

In the matter of meliṣei sarei (=the officers and chiefs of) Babylon. These are two consecutive [synonymous] nouns in the construct state. The same is true for: “naharei naḥalei (=rivers and brooks of) honey and cream” (Job 20:17), and for: “mivḥar ve-tov (=the choicest and best) of Lebanon” (Ezek 31:16). Meliṣei is in the sense of meliṣah.

To know kol bi-levavo. [This means]: kol asher bi-levavo (=all that was in his heart). [Hezekiah] was thrilled when [the Babylonian officers] came, and he showed them his entire treasurehouse (2 Kgs 20:13). All this was for his own honor: he boasted in this respect, and God considered that he had sinned. “To know” means: so that people should know.

In the ma‘aleh of the tombs of the descendants of David. [This means]: in the maqom ha-me‘uleh (=choicest place) among them; that is, with the best of them. Similarly, our Sages, of blessed memory (b. Bava Kamma 16b), say: “With the choicest members of the family. Who are they? David and Solomon.”