2 Kings 18:6

For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) For he clave.—And he held fast. Hezekiah’s pious feeling.

But kept.—And he kept. Hezekiah’s practice. The context shows that the “commandments” specially in the writer’s mind were those against polytheism.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-8 Hezekiah was a true son of David. Some others did that which was right, but not like David. Let us not suppose that when times and men are bad, they must needs grow worse and worse; that does not follow: after many bad kings, God raised one up like David himself. The brazen serpent had been carefully preserved, as a memorial of God's goodness to their fathers in the wilderness; but it was idle and wicked to burn incense to it. All helps to devotion, not warranted by the word of God, interrupt the exercise of faith; they always lead to superstition and other dangerous evils. Human nature perverts every thing of this kind. True faith needs not such aids; the word of God, daily thought upon and prayed over, is all the outward help we need.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Other good kings, as Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Joash, and Amaziah, had fallen away in their later years. Hezekiah remained firm to the last. The phrase "cleaving to God" is frequent in Deuteronomy, but rare elsewhere.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5, 6. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel—without invoking the aid or purchasing the succor of foreign auxiliaries like Asa (1Ki 15:18, 19) and Ahaz (2Ki 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 (2Ki 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 father's wicked career had brought on the country, as well as by the counsels of Isaiah.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Departed not from following him, in the general course of his life and especially in the matters of God’s worship.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. and departed not] R.V. he departed not. Thus italics are avoided, and the emphasis of the verse seems to be strengthened.

which the Lord commanded Moses] Another indication that the compiler of Kings, or it may be the earlier authority from which he drew, accepted the Law as given by God to Moses. See also below in verse 12.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - For he clave to the Lord - rather, and he clave to the Lord; i.e. he persevered through the whole of his life; he did not fall into sins at the last, like Asa and Azariah (see 2 Chronicles 16:7-12; 2 Chronicles 26.' 16-21) - and departed not from following him. The writer probably considers "the princes of Judah" answerable for the embassy to Egypt mentioned in Isaiah 30:4, and excuses Hezekiah's ostentatious display of his treasures to the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan (2 Kings 20:13) as a weakness, not an actual breach of obedience. But kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 2 Kings 18:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

בּיי ידבּק: he adhered faithfully to Jehovah (דּבק as in 1 Kings 11:2), and departed not from Him, i.e., he never gave himself up to idolatry.