Zitat Kommentar zu Könige II 20:6

In those days Hezekiah was sick unto death: I should think that this was after the preceding story. And don't be surprised when it says, "I will deliver you out of the hand of the King of Assyria," (2 Kings 20:6) because it is possible that Esarhaddon threatening Jerusalem.

One must not understand the verse we quoted from Proverbs as meaning that the wicked will absolutely always live short lives, and that the righteous will always live to a ripe old age. After all, we witness every day that certain wicked people live extraordinarily long lives, whereas very saintly people sometimes die very young. One of the best examples was king Chizkiyah who was about to die at the age of 39 and even after G’d had listened to his plea and added 15 years to his life he still died at a much younger age than the average (compare Kings II 20,6). Just as G’d does not lengthen the life span of every righteous person, He does not cut short the life span of every wicked person. Perhaps we may conclude from the death at a relatively young age of a person who appears to have been a great צדיק, that he was not totally righteous, and that if a wicked person lived for many long years that he was not totally wicked but had merits which enabled him to enjoy extra years. The fact is that the addition of extra years or the cutting short of one’s life span is in the category of a נס נסתר, a “hidden miracle.” It proves G’d’s intervention in nature without giving us details as to what precisely caused the intervention and to what degree G’d intervened.
In fact it is axiomatic to remember that a person is not a true believer, i.e. does not really have a share in Moses’ Torah unless he is absolutely convinced of the fact that G’d performs such hidden miracles all the time, that there is no accident and no coincidence in the universe. G’d is aware of all that occurs and has had a hand in it (See Nachmanides at the end of Parshat Bo.) The second part of this absolute faith that is required of each Jew is that he must be convinced that every one of his good deeds will qualify for reward and every one of his sins will be subject to punishment. The whole matter of blessings and curses which was already spelled out in Deut. 27,15-26 and some of which has been debated in Niddah 31, i.e. that the person who is subject to a miracle being performed for him is unaware of that at the time, is the reason our sages said in Baba Metzia 42 that when one enters one’s grain storage chamber in order to measure the size of one’s crop, one should pronounce a benediction asking G’d to bless one’s store. If one first measured the size of the stored grain and pronounced this benediction only subsequent to having measured it, such a prayer is considered as using the name of G’d in vain as G’d had already decreed either blessing or curse on that grain. We have a principle that blessings are not bestowed on matters which have been measured, weighed, or counted. Only matters which have escaped our eye and its ability to measure it are subject to blessings. This is another way of saying that the principle we have called נס נסתר, the “hidden miracle,” is constantly at work. If such blessings could be applied to matters we have weighed or measured such a miracle would no longer be “hidden.” This was one of the major reasons the Torah forbade head-counts of people to ensure they would not be exposed to the “evil eye,” As long as the blessings apply to people in a manner which cannot be checked, the עין הרע, the evil eye, the negative influence brought to bear, does not have a precise target on which to focus. The evil eye can influence only matters which have been measured, weighed or counted. Having appreciated this you will understand why the count of the males over 20 years of age which is the subject of the early part of our Parshah had to be conducted by means of a coin, i.e. the half-shekel.

Ralbag, though, believes that Chizkiayhu’s recovery from severe illness occurs after the great smite of the Assyrian army. Although Melachim II 20:6 supports Rashi, as noted by Abarbanel, Ralbag interprets it in a different manner. Melachim II 20:6 records the divine promise to Chizkiyahu HaMelech to extend his life by fifteen years in tandem with the divine promise to save Yerushalayim from the Assyrian emperor. Ralbag, though, suggests that Sancheirev’s successor Aisar Chadon also set his eye on Yerushalayim, and the promise to rescue Yerushalayim does not refer to Sancheirev’s siege described in Melachim II 19.²⁹⁰Da’at Mikra does not adopt this approach presumably because Assyrian records do not support this documentation, as there is no evidence that Aisar Chadon sought to attack Yerushalayim. We may respond on behalf of Ralbag that Chizkiyahu HaMelech might still fear a forthcoming Assyrian attack, and Hashem, therefore, seeks to calm Chizkiyahu with His promise. Ralbag, in any event, seems to shy away from Rashi’s magnification and conflation of the two miracles due to his preference to restrain a miracle’s scope.