| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| |
|
| 1 And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah. |
King Hezektah – God himself was King of Israel, Hezekiah his representative upon the throne. R1358:4 Isaiah 37:7
A blast – Some have supposed that it was a simoon, or sandstorm, not uncommon in the vicinity of the Arabian desert. Jewish tradition ascribes the destruction to a pestilence. R2382:2
|
| 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. |
|
| 3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. |
|
| 4 It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left. |
|
| |
|
| 5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. |
|
| 6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. |
|
| 7 Behold, I will put a spirit into him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. |
|
| |
|
| 8 And Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. |
|
| 9 And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, |
|
| 10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Let not thy God, upon whom thou reliest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. |
|
| 11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? |
|
| 12 Have the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed delivered them, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar? |
|
| 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? |
|
| |
|
| 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. |
Hezekiah – We may admire his sterling character; he was a great reformer in his day. R1358:6
|
| 15 And Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying, |
Hezekiah prayed – Because fear prevailed in Jerusalem. R4833:1
For deliverance, but this was not a precedent for other nations to follow. R1358:5
|
| 16 Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, who sittest between the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heavens and the earth. |
God of Israel – Israel was under a special covenant with God; and Hezekiah was their sovereign and arbiter of their destiny. R4832:3
Between the cherubims – Between love and power, above a foundation of justice. T124
Always connected with the immediate presence or throne of God. R529:6*
|
| 17 Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open, Jehovah, thine eyes, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to reproach the living God. |
Incline thine ear – The king and people sought the Lord in prayer. R4833:1
Sennacherib – Loudly proclaimed his victories, warning the people not to trust in their God. R4833:1
Violated his compact not to attack Jerusalem. R4832:6
|
| 18 Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands, and their countries, |
Assyria – Threatened to become the first universal empire. R4832:3
Laid waste – Whole country filled with fear as nearly forty cities of Judah fell. R4832:6
|
| 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; and they have destroyed them. |
Gods into the fire – The gods of other peoples all failed before Sennacherib. R4833:1
|
| 20 And now, Jehovah our God, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah, thou only. |
Our God, save us – Fear prevailed in Jerusalem. R4833:1
Israel was God's peculiar people, under his special protection and care. R1358:3
|
| |
|
| 21 And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, |
Isaiah – Hezekiah's faithful friend and advisor, and supposed tutor in earlier years. R2381:3
|
| 22 this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him: The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee. |
This is the word – Evidently intended to be the answer which Hezekiah should send to Sennacherib through Rabshekah. R2381:5
|
| 23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy One of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high. |
|
| 24 By thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the recesses of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I will enter into its furthest height, into the forest of its fruitful field. |
|
| 25 I have digged and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor. |
|
| |
|
| 26 Hast thou not heard that long ago I did it, and that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. |
|
| 27 And their inhabitants were powerless, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were as the grass of the field and the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up. |
|
| 28 But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me. |
|
| 29 Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest. |
Hook...bridle – Figurative, representing the manner in which bullocks and horses are controlled--thus would the Lord control the Assyrian army. R2381:5
|
| |
|
| 30 And this shall be the sign unto thee: there shall be eaten this year such as groweth of itself; and in the second year that which springeth of the same; but in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof. |
This shall be a sign – That the retreat of Sennacherib's army was not just temporary, and that he would not come upon them again. R2382:4
|
| 31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; |
|
| 32 for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that escape: the zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this. |
|
| |
|
| 33 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. |
Thus saith the LORD – Israel's history shows how God actually did deal with them. R1358:6
He shall not come – God honored Hezekiah's prayer for deliverance. R1358:6
"The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them." (Psa. 34:17) R1358:6
|
| 34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah. |
|
| 35 And I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. |
I will defend – As long as they were obedient they had prosperity and no evil could befall them. R1358:4
The lesson for us is to note divine power which overrules, orders and directs that all things work together for good. R4833:4
|
| |
|
| 36 And an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies. |
Angel of the LORD – Jehovah fought Israel's battles anciently without being seen. R286:3
Wind, fire or lightning may be the Lord's messengers or angels. R4833:2, R2382:2
Smote – The messenger of death may have been a malignant form of fever. R4833:2
Egyptian history records the departure of Sennacherib's army, ascribing its retreat to an invasion of field mice, gnawing the quivers, bowstrings and thongs--but perhaps figurative of the pestilence, represented in Egypt by the mouse. R2382:2
Assyrians – It was not the Lord's will that Assyria should become the first universal empire. R4833:4
|
| 37 And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and abode at Nineveh. |
|
| 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. |
|