2 Kings 19:25

This verse and the three following contain Jehovah's response to Sennacherib. The boaster is told that in all he has done he has been but God's instrument, and that the events in which he has played that part had been ordained by the divine counsels long before.

Hast thou not heard long agohow I have done it The R.V. puts -long ago" at the end of this clause. The fame of God's protection and leading of Israel might be expected to have penetrated to other nations. From their history the heathen might have learnt that the people of the world are under the rule of the Lord, and that their destinies are ordered by Him.

And of ancient times that I have formed it R.V. and formed it of ancient times. The LXX. represents the two first clauses of this verse merely by ἔπλασα αὐτήν, συνήγαγον αὐτήν.

Now have I brought it to pass It was ordained long ago, and now I have permitted it to become a fact. With the whole of these four verses may be compared the Lord's address to the Assyrian (Isaiah 10:9-19). There that nation is described as the -rod of God's anger". It is God that sends him and gives him his charge to take spoil and prey. But hereafter the Lord will punish him also, and the glory of his high looks. For another rendering of this sentence see margin of A.V.