Isaiah 36:1-22 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Isaiah 36-39. This section has been extracted from 2 Kings 18:13 to 2 Kings 20:19, and the Song of Hezekiah has been added. For an exposition see the notes on 2 K.; here we have simply to deal with the Song of Hezekiah.

Isaiah 38:10-20. Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Imminent Death. This is now generally regarded as a post-exilic psalm. Its absence in the parallel narratine in Kings is significant. Apparently it was inserted here by an editor who thought it suitable to Hezekiah's circumstances. If, as seems likely, it has been influenced by the Book of Job, it must be post-exilic. The title cannot, any more than the Psalm titles, weigh against internal evidence.

Hezekiah's writing after his recovery from sickness. I thought that when I had reached the zenith of my life I should be banished to Sheol, where I should have fellowship with Yahweh no longer, nor yet with my fellow-men. My habitation (mg.) is torn from the soil. I have rolled up my life as a weaver rolls up his web when it is finished; He will cut me off from the thrum (mg.), day and night Thou deliverest me to my pain. I cried out until morning, my bones broken with torment. I twittered like a swallow, moaned like a dove; my failing eyes looked up with appeal to Yahweh, that He would be my surety. What shall I say to Him? It is He who has done it. I toss all the time I am sleeping, because of the bitterness of my soul. Lord, for this my heart waits on Thee. Quicken me and restore me to health. Affliction was bitter, but it has been for my peace. Thou hast kept back my soul from the pit, and utterly forgotten all my sins. For in Sheol there can be no praise of Yahweh. Those who descend to the pit cannot hope for His faithfulness. Only the living can praise God. the father can declare to his children Yahweh's faithfulness. Here the song closes. Isaiah 38:20 seems to be an addition fitting it for use in the Temple.

Isaiah 38:10. noontide: lit. stillness. The metaphor is of the sun having risen to its height and pausing before it descends.

Isaiah 38:12. loom: better thrum (mg.), i.e. the threads that fasten the web to the loom. From day... of me: better day and night thou didst deliver me up.

Isaiah 38:13. quieted myself: better cried.

Isaiah 38:14 c. He is like a debtor who is being taken to prison; he appeals to Yahweh, to the creditor Himself, to become his surety (Job 17:3).

Isaiah 38:15. Very difficult. Duhm's restoration, adopted above, gives the probable sense.

Isaiah 38:16. Duhm's emendations of the obscure text are adopted above

Isaiah 38:18 f. Observe the characteristic Hebrew conception of Sheol.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 36:1

Isaiah 36:1-22

1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.

2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.

3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe,a and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder.

4 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

5 I say, 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?

6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

8 Now therefore give pledges,b I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

9 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

10 And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto 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.

12 But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

14 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.

15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Makec 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;

17 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

20 Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

21 But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

22 Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.