Millo] compare 1 Chronicles xi. 8, note.
weapons and shields] Properly, darts and shields. These were meant, not for such trained soldiers as Hezekiah could collect, but for the levy en masse with which the king proposed to man the walls. A dart to throw and a shield to protect the thrower as he threw were all that the citizen-soldier needed. The Hebrew word (shelaḥ) means “dart, missile”; the more general rendering “weapons” obscures the precise nature of Hezekiah’s preparations.
⁶And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying, ⁷Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there is a greater[¹] with us than with him:
[¹] Or, there be more.
6. in the broad place at the gate] Compare xxix. 4; Nehemiah viii. 16. There is nothing here to show which of the two broad places mentioned in Nehemiah is meant, or whether some third place is intended.
⁸with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
8. an arm of flesh] Compare Jeremiah xvii. 5. Contrast the frequent phrase “a mighty hand and a stretched out arm” (of Jehovah). An “arm” is an ally or helper.
with us is the Lord] Compare xv. 2, xx. 17; Isaiah viii. 10.
9–19 (compare 2 Kings xviii. 17–35).
Sennacherib’s Threatening Messages.
In this section Chronicles briefly and freely summarises 2 Kings.