Now it came to pass (a) in the (b) fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, [that] Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. (a) This history is rehearsed because it is as a seal and confirmation of the doctrine before, both for the threatenings and prom... [ Continue Reading ]
Then came forth to him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was (c) over the house, and Shebna (d) the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder. (c) For he was now restored to his office, as Isaiah had prophesied in (Isaiah 22:20). (d) This declares that there were few godly to be found in the king's ho... [ Continue Reading ]
And (e) Rabshakeh said to them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence [is] this in which thou trustest? (e) Sennacherib's chief captain.... [ Continue Reading ]
I say, (f) [sayest thou], (but [they are but] vain words) [I have] counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? (f) He speaks this in the person of Hezekiah, falsely charging him that he put his trust in his wit and eloquence, while his only confidence... [ Continue Reading ]
Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man lean, it will enter his hand, and pierce it: so [is] (g) Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. (g) Satan laboured to pull the godly king from one vain confidence to another: that is, from trust in the Egyptian... [ Continue Reading ]
How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the (h) least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? (h) He reproaches Hezekiah's small power, which is not able to resist one of Sennacherib's least captains.... [ Continue Reading ]
And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said to me, (i) Go up against this land, and destroy it. (i) Thus the wicked to deceive us, will pretend the Name of the Lord: but we must try the spirits, whether they are of God or not.... [ Continue Reading ]
Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah to Rabshakeh, (k) Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand [it]: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that [are] on the wall. (k) They were afraid, lest by his words, he should have stirred up... [ Continue Reading ]
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make (l) [an agreement] with me [by] a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern; (l) The Hebrew word signifies blessing, by which th... [ Continue Reading ]
Where [are] the gods of (m) Hamath and Arphad? where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? (m) That is, of Antioch in Syria, of which these two other cities also were: by which we see how every town had its peculiar idol, and how the wicked make God an idol b... [ Continue Reading ]
But they (n) held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not. (n) Not that they did not show by evident signs that they detested his blasphemy: or they had now rent their clothes, but they knew it was in vain to use long reasoning with this infi... [ Continue Reading ]