@Isa 37:1-38. CONTINUATION OF THE NARRATIVE IN THE THIRTY-SIXTH CHAPTER.
1. sackcloth--(See on Isa 20:2).
house of the Lord--the sure resort of God's people in distress
(@Ps 73:16,17 77:13).
2. unto Isaiah--implying the importance of the prophet's position at the time; the chief officers of the court are deputed to wait on him (compare @2Ki 22:12-14).
3. rebuke--that is, the Lord's rebuke for His people's sins
(@Ps 149:7 Ho 5:9).
blasphemy--blasphemous railing of Rab-shakeh.
the children, &c.--a proverbial expression for, We are in the most
extreme danger and have no power to avert it (compare @Ho 13:13).
4. hear--take cognizance of (@2Sa 16:12).
reprove--will punish him for the words, &c. (@Ps 50:21).
remnant--the two tribes of the kingdom of Judah, Israel being already
captive. Isaiah is entreated to act as intercessor with God.
6. servants--literally, "youths," mere lads, implying disparagement,
not an embassy of venerable elders. The Hebrew is different from
that for "servants" in @Isa 37:5.
blasphemed me--(@Isa 36:20).
7. blast--rather, "I will put a spirit (@Isa 28:6 1Ki 22:23)
into him," that is, so influence his judgment that when he hears the
report (@Isa 37:9, concerning Tirhakah), he shall return
[GESENIUS];
the "report" also of the destruction of his army at Jerusalem, reaching
Sennacherib, while he was in the southwest of Palestine on the borders
of Egypt, led him to retreat.
by the sword--(@Isa 37:38).
8. returned--to the camp of his master.
Libnah--meaning "whiteness," the Blanche-garde of the Crusaders
[STANLEY].
EUSEBIUS and
JEROME place it more south, in the district of
Eleutheropolis, ten miles northwest of Lachish, which Sennacherib had
captured (see on Isa 36:2). Libnah was in Judea and given to
the priests (@1Ch 6:54,57).
9. Tirhakah--(See on Isa 17:12;
Isa 18:6). Egypt was in part governed by three successive
Ethiopian monarchs, for forty or fifty years: Sabacho, Sevechus, and
Tirhakah. Sevechus retired from Lower Egypt owing to the resistance of
the priests, whereupon Sethos, a prince-priest, obtained supreme power
with Tanis (Zoan in Scripture), or Memphis, as his capital. The
Ethiopians retained Upper Egypt under Tirhakah, with Thebes as the
capital. Tirhakah's fame as a conqueror rivalled that of Sesostris; he,
and one at least, st of the Pharaohs of Lower Egypt, were Hezekiah's
allies against Assyria. The tidings of his approach made Sennacherib the
more anxious to get possession of Jerusalem before his arrival.
sent--@2Ki 19:9 more fully expresses Sennacherib's eagerness by
adding "again."
10. He tries to influence Hezekiah himself, as Rab-shakeh had
addressed the people.
God . . . deceive--(Compare @Nu 23:19).
11. all lands--(@Isa 14:17). He does not dare to enumerate Egypt in the list.
12. Gozan--in Mesopotamia, on the Chabour (@2Ki 17:6 18:11). Gozan
is the name of the district, Chabour of the river.
Haran--more to the west. Abraham removed to it from Ur (@Ge 11:31);
the Carroe of the Romans.
Rezeph--farther west, in Syria.
Eden--There is an ancient village, Adna, north of Baghdad. Some
think Eden to be the name of a region (of Mesopotamia or its vicinity)
in which was Paradise; Paradise was not Eden itself (@Ge 2:8). "A
garden in Eden."
Telassar--now Tel-afer, west of Mosul
[LAYARD]. Tel means a "hill"
in Arabic and Assyrian names.
13. Hena . . . Ivah--in Babylonia. From Ava colonists had been brought to Samaria (@2Ki 17:24).
14. spread--unrolled the scroll of writing. God "knows our necessities before we ask Him," but He delights in our unfolding them to Him with filial confidence (@2Ch 20:3,11-13).
16. dwellest--the Shekinah, or fiery symbol of God's presence,
dwelling in the, temple with His people, is from shachan, "to
dwell" (@Ex 25:22 Ps 80:1 99:1).
cherubim--derived by transposition from either a Hebrew root,
rachab, to "ride"; or rather, barach, to "bless." They were
formed out of the same mass of pure gold as the mercy seat itself
(@Ex 25:19, Margin). The phrase, "dwellest between the cherubim,"
arose from their position at each end of the mercy seat, while the
Shekinah, and the awful name, JEHOVAH,
in written letters, were in the
intervening space. They are so inseparably associated with the
manifestation of God's glory, that whether the Lord is at rest or in
motion, they always are mentioned with Him (@Nu 7:89 Ps 18:10). (1)
They are first mentioned (@Ge 3:24) "on the edge of"
(as "on the east" may be translated) Eden; the Hebrew for "placed" is properly
to "place in a tabernacle," which implies that this was a local
tabernacle in which the symbols of God's presence were manifested
suitably to the altered circumstances in which man, after the fall, came
before God. It was here that Cain and Abel, and the patriarchs down to
the flood, presented their offerings: and it is called "the presence of
the Lord" (@Ge 4:16). When those symbols were removed at the close
of that early patriarchal dispensation, small models of them were made
for domestic use, called, in Chaldee, "seraphim" or "teraphim." (2)
The cherubim, in the Mosaic tabernacle and Solomon's temple, were the
same in form as those at the outskirts of Eden: compound figures,
combining the distinguishing properties of several creatures: the ox,
chief among the tame and useful animals; the lion among the wild ones;
the eagle among birds; and man, the head of all (the original headship
of man over the animal kingdom, about to be restored in Jesus Christ,
@Ps 8:4-8, is also implied in this combination). They are, throughout
Scripture, represented as distinct from God; they could not be
likenesses of Him which He forbade in any shape. (3) They are introduced
in the third or gospel dispensation (@Re 4:6) as
"living creatures" (not so well translated "beasts" in
English Version), not angels, but beings closely connected with the
redeemed Church. So also in @Eze 1:5-25 10:1-22. Thus, throughout
the three dispensations, they seem to be symbols of those who in every
age should officially study and proclaim the manifold wisdom of God.
thou alone--literally, "Thou art He who alone art God of all the
kingdoms"; whereas Sennacherib had classed Jehovah with the heathen
gods, he asserts the nothingness of the latter and the sole lordship of
the former.
17. ear . . . eyes--singular, plural. When we wish to hear a thing we lend one ear; when we wish to see a thing we open both eyes.
18. have laid waste--conceding the truth of the Assyrian's allegation (@Isa 36:18-20), but adding the reason, "For they were no gods."
19. cast . . . gods into . . . fire--The policy of the Assyrians in order to alienate the conquered peoples from their own countries was, both to deport them elsewhere, and to destroy the tutelary idols of their nation, the strongest tie which bound them to their native land. The Roman policy was just the reverse.
20. The strongest argument to plead before God in prayer, the honor of God (@Ex 32:12-14 Ps 83:18 Da 9:18,19).
21. Whereas thou hast prayed to me--that is, hast not relied on thy own strength but on Me (compare @2Ki 19:20). "That which thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib, I have heard" (@Ps 65:2).
22. Transition to poetry: in parallelism.
virgin . . . daughter--honorable terms. "Virgin" implies that the city
is, as yet, inviolate. "Daughter" is an abstract collective feminine personification of the population, the child of the place denoted
(see on Isa 23:10;
Isa 1:8). Zion and her inhabitants.
shaken . . . head--in scorn (@Ps 22:7 109:25 Mt 27:39). With us to
shake the head is a sign of denial or displeasure; but gestures have
different meanings in different countries
(@Isa 58:9 Eze 25:6 Zep 2:15).
23. Whom--not an idol.
24. said--virtually. Hast thou within thyself?
height--imagery from the Assyrian felling of trees in Lebanon
(@Isa 14:8 33:9); figuratively for, "I have carried my victorious
army through the regions most difficult of access, to the most remote
lands."
sides--rather, "recesses" [G. V. SMITH].
fir trees--not cypresses, as some translate; pine foliage and cedars
are still found on the northwest side of Lebanon
[STANLEY].
height of . . . border--In @2Ki 19:23, "the lodgings of his
borders." Perhaps on the ascent to the top there was a place of repose
or caravansary, which bounded the usual attempts of persons to ascend
[BARNES]. Here, simply, "its extreme height."
forest of . . . Carmel--rather, "its thickest forest." "Carmel"
expresses thick luxuriance
(see on Isa 10:18;
Isa 29:17).
25. digged, and drunk water--In @2Ki 19:24, it is
"strange waters." I have marched into foreign lands where I had to
dig wells for the supply of my armies; even the natural destitution of
water there did not impede my march.
rivers of . . . besieged places--rather, "the streams (artificial
canals from the Nile) of Egypt." "With the sole of my foot," expresses
that as soon as his vast armies marched into a region, the streams
were drunk up by them; or rather, that the rivers proved no
obstruction to the onward march of his armies. So @Isa 19:4-6,
referring to Egypt, "the river--brooks of defense--shall be
dried up." HORSLEY,
translates the Hebrew for "besieged places,"
"rocks."
26. Reply of God to Sennacherib.
long ago--join, rather, with "I have done it." Thou dost boast that
it is all by thy counsel and might: but it is
I who, long ago, have ordered it so (@Isa 22:11); thou wert but
the instrument in My hands (@Isa 10:5,15). This was the reason why
"the inhabitants were of small power before thee" (@Isa 37:27),
namely, that I ordered it so; yet thou art in My hands, and I know thy
ways (@Isa 37:28), and I will check thee (@Isa 37:29). Connect
also, "I from ancient times have arranged ('formed') it." However,
English Version is supported by @Isa 33:13 45:6,21 48:5.
27. Therefore--not because of thy power, but because I made them
unable to withstand thee.
grass--which easily withers (@Isa 40:6 Ps 37:2).
on . . . housetops--which having little earth to nourish it fades
soonest (@Ps 129:6-8).
corn blasted before it be grown up--SMITH
translates, "The cornfield
(frail and tender), before the corn is grown."
28. abode--rather, "sitting down" (@Ps 139:2). The expressions here describe a man's whole course of life (@De 6:7 28:6 1Ki 3:7 Ps 121:8). There is also a special reference to Sennacherib's first being at home, then going forth against Judah and Egypt, and raging against Jehovah (@Isa 37:4).
29. tumult--insolence.
hook in . . . nose--Like a wild beast led by a ring through the nose,
he shall be forced back to his own country (compare
@Job 41:1,2 Eze 19:4 29:4 38:4). In a bas-relief of Khorsabad,
captives are led before the king by a cord attached to a hook, or ring,
passing through the under lip or the upper lip, and nose.
30. Addressed to Hezekiah.
sign--a token which, when fulfilled, would assure him of the truth
of the whole prophecy as to the enemy's overthrow. The two years, in
which they were sustained by the spontaneous growth of the earth, were
the two in which Judea had been already ravaged by Sennacherib
(@Isa 32:10). Thus translate: "Ye did eat (the first year) such
as groweth of itself, and in the second year that . . . but
in this third year sow ye," &c., for in this year the land shall
be delivered from the foe. The fact that Sennacherib moved his camp
away immediately after shows that the first two years refer to the
past, not to the future [ROSENMULLER].
Others, referring the first two
years to the future, get over the difficulty of Sennacherib's
speedy departure, by supposing that year to have been the
sabbatical year, and the second year the jubilee; no indication of this
appears in the context.
31. remnant--Judah remained after the ten tribes were carried away; also those of Judah who should survive Sennacherib's invasion are meant.
33. with shields--He did come near it, but was not allowed to conduct
a proper siege.
bank--a mound to defend the assailants in attacking the walls.
34. (See @Isa 37:29,37 Isa 29:5-8).
35. I will defend--Notwithstanding Hezekiah's measures of defense
(@2Ch 32:3-5), Jehovah was its true defender.
mine own sake--since Jehovah's name was blasphemed by Sennacherib
(@Isa 37:23).
David's sake--on account of His promise to David (@Ps 132:17,18),
and to Messiah, the heir of David's throne (@Isa 9:7 11:1).
36. Some attribute the destruction to the agency of the plague
(see on Isa 33:24), which may have caused Hezekiah's sickness,
narrated immediately after; but @Isa 33:1,4, proves that the Jews
spoiled the corpses, which they would not have dared to do, had there
been on them infection of a plague. The secondary agency seems, from
@Isa 29:6 30:30, to have been a storm of hail, thunder, and
lightning (compare @Ex 9:22-25). The simoon belongs rather to
Africa and Arabia than Palestine, and ordinarily could not produce such
a destructive effect. Some few of the army, as @2Ch 32:21 seems to
imply, survived and accompanied Sennacherib home.
HERODOTUS (2.141)
gives an account confirming Scripture in so far as the sudden
discomfiture of the Assyrian army is concerned. The Egyptian priests
told him that Sennacherib was forced to retreat from Pelusium owing to a
multitude of field mice, sent by one of their gods, having gnawed the
Assyrians' bow-strings and shield-straps. Compare the language
(@Isa 37:33), "He shall not shoot an arrow there, nor come before
it with shields," which the Egyptians corrupted into their version of
the story. Sennacherib was as the time with a part of his army, not at
Jerusalem, but on the Egyptian frontier, southwest of Palestine. The
sudden destruction of the host near Jerusalem, a considerable part of
his whole army, as well as the advance of the Ethiopian Tirhakah,
induced him to retreat, which the Egyptians accounted for in a way
honoring to their own gods. The mouse was the Egyptian emblem of
destruction. The Greek Apollo was called Sminthian, from a
Cretan word for "a mouse," as a tutelary god of agriculture, he was
represented with one foot upon a mouse, since field mice hurt corn. The
Assyrian inscriptions, of course, suppress their own defeat, but
nowhere boast of having taken Jerusalem; and the only reason to be
given for Sennacherib not having, amidst his many subsequent
expeditions recorded in the monuments, returned to Judah, is the
terrible calamity he had sustained there, which convinced him that
Hezekiah was under the divine protection.
RAWLINSON says, In
Sennacherib's account of his wars with Hezekiah, inscribed with
cuneiform characters in the hall of the palace of Koyunjik, built by
him (a hundred forty feet long by a hundred twenty broad), wherein even
the Jewish physiognomy of the captives is portrayed, there occurs a
remarkable passage; after his mentioning his taking two hundred
thousand captive Jews, he adds, "Then I prayed unto God"; the only
instance of an inscription wherein the name of
GOD occurs without a
heathen adjunct. The forty-sixth Psalm probably commemorates Judah's
deliverance. It occurred in one "night," according to @2Ki 19:35,
with which Isaiah's words, "when they arose early in the morning,"
&c., are in undesigned coincidence.
they . . . they--"the Jews . . . the Assyrians."
37. dwelt at Nineveh--for about twenty years after his disaster, according to the inscriptions. The word, "dwelt," is consistent with any indefinite length of time. "Nineveh," so called from Ninus, that is, Nimrod, its founder; his name means "exceedingly impious rebel"; he subverted the existing patriarchal order of society, by setting up a system of chieftainship, founded on conquest; the hunting field was his training school for war; he was of the race of Ham, and transgressed the limits marked by God (@Ge 10:8-11,25), encroaching on Shem's portion; he abandoned Babel for a time, after the miraculous confusion of tongues and went and founded Nineveh; he was, after death, worshipped as Orion, the constellation (see on Job 9:9; Job 38:31).
38. Nisroch--Nisr, in Semitic, means "eagle;" the
termination och, means "great." The eagle-headed human figure in
Assyrian sculptures is no doubt Nisroch, the same as Asshur, the chief
Assyrian god; the corresponding goddess was Asheera, or Astarte; this
means a "grove," or sacred tree, often found as the symbol of the
heavenly hosts (Saba) in the sculptures, as Asshur the Eponymus hero of Assyria (@Ge 10:11) answered to the sun or Baal, Belus, the
title of office, "Lord." This explains "image of the grove"
(@2Ki 21:7). The eagle was worshipper by the ancient Persians and
Arabs.
Esar-haddon--In @Ezr 4:2 he is mentioned as having brought
colonists into Samaria. He is also thought to have been the king who
carried Manasseh captive to Babylon (@2Ch 33:11). He built the palace
on the mound Nebbiyunus, and that called the southwest palace of
Nimroud. The latter was destroyed by fire, but his name and wars are
recorded on the great bulls taken from the building. He obtained his
building materials from the northwest palaces of the ancient dynasty,
ending in Pul.