Isaiah 37

See the Argument of the former chapter.

Isaiah 37:3

X HE children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. A proverbial expression denoting present death, or the extremity of danger. (See Hos. xiii. 13.).

Isaiah 37:7

I will send a blast upon him. The blasting of God’s displeasure. (See ver. 35.). And he shall hear a rumour.] A panic fear shall fall upon him, and he shall be alarmed with an uncertain report, that some enemy designs to fall upon him, having heard that his army is weakened with so great a loss, as that of one hundred and eighty-five thousand men.

Isaiah 37:9

And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia. The word is dish in the Hebrew, which very often signifies Arabia, in which sense most commentators understand it here, though our translators always render it Ethiopia; and it may here be probably understood of Ethiopia properly, so called. (See the note-on xviii. 1.) i

Isaiah 37:12

The children of Eden. The country of Eden Ayhere Paradise was situate was in Mesopotamia, as learned men are generally agreed; and one good proof of that opinion is taken from this text, and from Ezek. xxvii. 23. in both which places it is joined with Haran, a noted city in Mesopotamia, called Charran by the Septuagint, and Charrce in Latin; a placo famous in Roman authors for the defeat of Crassus and his army..

Isaiah 37:13

Where w the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim?. We find this expressed, with some little variation, xxxvi.19. Wliere are the gods of Hamath and Ay-pad; where are the gods of Sepharvaim? From whence Dr. Spencer ingeniously conjectures, that the word Melech, king, was the, name of an idol, called elsewhere Moloch, and worshipped by these people, (lib. ii. de Legib. Hebraeor. cap. 10. sect. 1.).

Isaiah 37:16

O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the chembims. Who hast declared thyself in a peculiar manner the God of Israel, by choosing this temple for the place of thy residence, where thou vouchsafest thy appearance from between the cherubims, and givest favourable answers to us, when we hninbly beg thy assistance. (See Numb. vii. 89.) The two titles, the Lordof hosts, and he that dwells upon, or inhabits the cherubims, as some render the phrase, are usually joined together: (see 1 Sam. i v. 2. 2 Sam. vi. 2.) because God’s silting upon the cherubims in the temple, did signify his being attended with the host of heaven, as always in a readiness to obey his commands. (See 1 Kings xxii. 9.) Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.] Hezxkiah here asserts God’s sovereignty, in opposition to the blasphemies of Rab-shakeh and his master, who esteemed the God of Israel but as Lord, or tutelary genin$ of the particular country of Judea, and thereby levelled him with the pretended gods of other nations. (See ver. 10—12. of this chapter, and xxxvi. 19, 20. Compare likewise 1 Kings xx. 28.)

Isaiah 37:22

The virgin, the daughter ofZion. See note on xxiii. 12. -

Isaiah 37:24

By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut, down the tall cedars thereof. Cities, in the prophetical writings, arcsometimcsmetaphorically represented by woods or forests, and the several ranks of inhabitants by the taller and lesser trees which grow there. (See xxxii. 19. x. 34.) And this sense agrees best with the scope of this place; which is to set forth the proud brags of the Assyrian, in the figure of a pompous rhetoric, and to rcprer sent him as threatening to take Mount Zion, and the. capital city of Jerusalem, and destroy their principal inhabitants. And I will enter into the height of his border.] I will take possession of the principal parts of his dominions: such were Lebanon and Carmel esteemed. (Seexxxiii. 9. xxxv. 2. Jer. xxii. 6.) ^. And the forest of his CarmeL] i. e. Tliewood, or forest (for the word is the same, in both texts), which is. in the midst of Carmel, Micah yii. 14. and is spoken of there as the choicest pastures of Carmel, and is probably the same place which is called the forest of the vintage, Zech. xi. 2. for some part of Carmel was planted with vineyards. (See Isa. xxxiii. 9.) The margin reads, The forest and his fruitful field: for. the forest and Carmel are spoken of as two distinct sorts of grounds. (See x. 18. xxix. 17.) Carmel being a place noted for great fertility (see the last note); the word is sometimes taken appellatively for a fruitful field: and is so translated in those texts.

Isaiah 37:25

1 have digged^ and dnink water. Or, as the text in 2 Kings xix. 24. Teads, I have digged and drunk strange waters; i. e. I have marched through deserts where it was expected my army should perish for thirst, and yet even there have I digged and found water. He brags that he had overcome difficulties seemingly insuperable, and never failed in executing any design he had undertaken. With the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.] I have made rivers fordable by turning their streams another way. Bochart thinks, that by the Hebrew matsor, besieged places, is to be understood Egypt. (See the note on xix. 5.) Sennacherib conquered Egypt before he besieged Jerusalem. (See xx. 5, 6. and the note on xix. 17.)

Isaiah 37:26

Hast thou not heard long ago^ how that I have done it? &c. These are the words of God in answer to the boasts of the proud Assyrian; wherein he puts him in mind, that all his successes ought to be ascribed to God: that it was his providence predetermined these events, and brought, them to pass in their appointed time, and made him the instrument of the. Divine vengeance upon such cities as deserved utter destruction, and weakened the hands of their inhabitants, so that they were not able to defend themselves..

Isaiah 37:28

But I know thy abode, and thy going out, ami coming in, and thy rage against me. God lets him know, that none of his designs were hid from his all-seeing eye, and that he perfectly knew how much ill-will he bore in mind against his city and sanctuary; and as the successes he had already gained were owing to him, so he could put a stop to them whenever he pleased. The phrase ongoing out and coming in is used for leading out armies to war,. and bringing them home again. (See Numb, xxvii. 21. Deut. xxxi. 2. Josh. xiv. 11.)

Isaiah 37:29

Therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and